 Showers continued throughout the week in
the Bahia cocoa zone, alleviating the drought since early
January and improving prospects for the coming temporao,
although normal humidity levels have not been restored,
Comissaria Smith said in its weekly review.
    The dry period means the temporao will be late this year.
    Arrivals for the week ended February 22 were 155,221 bags
of 60 kilos making a cumulative total for the season of 5.93
mln against 5.81 at the same stage last year. Again it seems
that cocoa delivered earlier on consignment was included in the
arrivals figures.
    Comissaria Smith said there is still some doubt as to how
much old crop cocoa is still available as harvesting has
practically come to an end. With total Bahia crop estimates
around 6.4 mln bags and sales standing at almost 6.2 mln there
are a few hundred thousand bags still in the hands of farmers,
middlemen, exporters and processors.
    There are doubts as to how much of this cocoa would be fit
for export as shippers are now experiencing dificulties in
obtaining +Bahia superior+ certificates.
    In view of the lower quality over recent weeks farmers have
sold a good part of their cocoa held on consignment.
    Comissaria Smith said spot bean prices rose to 340 to 350
cruzados per arroba of 15 kilos.
    Bean shippers were reluctant to offer nearby shipment and
only limited sales were booked for March shipment at 1,750 to
1,780 dlrs per tonne to ports to be named.
    New crop sales were also light and all to open ports with
June/July going at 1,850 and 1,880 dlrs and at 35 and 45 dlrs
under New York july, Aug/Sept at 1,870, 1,875 and 1,880 dlrs
per tonne FOB.
    Routine sales of butter were made. March/April sold at
4,340, 4,345 and 4,350 dlrs.
    April/May butter went at 2.27 times New York May, June/July
at 4,400 and 4,415 dlrs, Aug/Sept at 4,351 to 4,450 dlrs and at
2.27 and 2.28 times New York Sept and Oct/Dec at 4,480 dlrs and
2.27 times New York Dec, Comissaria Smith said.
    Destinations were the U.S., Covertible currency areas,
Uruguay and open ports.
    Cake sales were registered at 785 to 995 dlrs for
March/April, 785 dlrs for May, 753 dlrs for Aug and 0.39 times
New York Dec for Oct/Dec.
    Buyers were the U.S., Argentina, Uruguay and convertible
currency areas.
    Liquor sales were limited with March/April selling at 2,325
and 2,380 dlrs, June/July at 2,375 dlrs and at 1.25 times New
York July, Aug/Sept at 2,400 dlrs and at 1.25 times New York
Sept and Oct/Dec at 1.25 times New York Dec, Comissaria Smith
said.
    Total Bahia sales are currently estimated at 6.13 mln bags
against the 1986/87 crop and 1.06 mln bags against the 1987/88
crop.
    Final figures for the period to February 28 are expected to
be published by the Brazilian Cocoa Trade Commission after
carnival which ends midday on February 27.
 Reuter

 Standard Oil Co and BP North America
Inc said they plan to form a venture to manage the money market
borrowing and investment activities of both companies.
    BP North America is a subsidiary of British Petroleum Co
Plc <BP>, which also owns a 55 pct interest in Standard Oil.
    The venture will be called BP/Standard Financial Trading
and will be operated by Standard Oil under the oversight of a
joint management committee.

 Reuter

Texas Commerce Bancshares Inc's Texas
Commerce Bank-Houston said it filed an application with the
Comptroller of the Currency in an effort to create the largest
banking network in Harris County.
    The bank said the network would link 31 banks having
13.5 billion dlrs in assets and 7.5 billion dlrs in deposits.
       
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp is not under
pressure to act quickly on its proposed equity offering and
would do well to delay it because of the stock's recent poor
performance, banking analysts said.
    Some analysts said they have recommended BankAmerica delay
its up to one-billion-dlr equity offering, which has yet to be
approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    BankAmerica stock fell this week, along with other banking
issues, on the news that Brazil has suspended interest payments
on a large portion of its foreign debt.
    The stock traded around 12, down 1/8, this afternoon,
after falling to 11-1/2 earlier this week on the news.
    Banking analysts said that with the immediate threat of the
First Interstate Bancorp <I> takeover bid gone, BankAmerica is
under no pressure to sell the securities into a market that
will be nervous on bank stocks in the near term.
    BankAmerica filed the offer on January 26. It was seen as
one of the major factors leading the First Interstate
withdrawing its takeover bid on February 9.
    A BankAmerica spokesman said SEC approval is taking longer
than expected and market conditions must now be re-evaluated.
    "The circumstances at the time will determine what we do,"
said Arthur Miller, BankAmerica's Vice President for Financial
Communications, when asked if BankAmerica would proceed with
the offer immediately after it receives SEC approval.
    "I'd put it off as long as they conceivably could," said
Lawrence Cohn, analyst with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and
Smith.
    Cohn said the longer BankAmerica waits, the longer they
have to show the market an improved financial outlook.
    Although BankAmerica has yet to specify the types of
equities it would offer, most analysts believed a convertible
preferred stock would encompass at least part of it.
    Such an offering at a depressed stock price would mean a
lower conversion price and more dilution to BankAmerica stock
holders, noted Daniel Williams, analyst with Sutro Group.
    Several analysts said that while they believe the Brazilian
debt problem will continue to hang over the banking industry
through the quarter, the initial shock reaction is likely to
ease over the coming weeks.
    Nevertheless, BankAmerica, which holds about 2.70 billion
dlrs in Brazilian loans, stands to lose 15-20 mln dlrs if the
interest rate is reduced on the debt, and as much as 200 mln
dlrs if Brazil pays no interest for a year, said Joseph
Arsenio, analyst with Birr, Wilson and Co.
    He noted, however, that any potential losses would not show
up in the current quarter.
    With other major banks standing to lose even more than
BankAmerica if Brazil fails to service its debt, the analysts
said they expect the debt will be restructured, similar to way
Mexico's debt was, minimizing losses to the creditor banks.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department
reported the farmer-owned reserve national five-day average
price through February 25 as follows (Dlrs/Bu-Sorghum Cwt) -
         Natl   Loan           Release   Call
         Avge   Rate-X  Level    Price  Price
 Wheat   2.55   2.40       IV     4.65     --
                            V     4.65     --
                           VI     4.45     --
 Corn    1.35   1.92       IV     3.15   3.15
                            V     3.25     --
 X - 1986 Rates.

          Natl   Loan          Release   Call
          Avge   Rate-X  Level   Price  Price
 Oats     1.24   0.99        V    1.65    -- 
 Barley   n.a.   1.56       IV    2.55   2.55
                             V    2.65    -- 
 Sorghum  2.34   3.25-Y     IV    5.36   5.36
                             V    5.54    -- 
    Reserves I, II and III have matured. Level IV reflects
grain entered after Oct 6, 1981 for feedgrain and after July
23, 1981 for wheat. Level V wheat/barley after 5/14/82,
corn/sorghum after 7/1/82. Level VI covers wheat entered after
January 19, 1984.  X-1986 rates. Y-dlrs per CWT (100 lbs).
n.a.-not available.
 Reuter

Argentine grain board figures show
crop registrations of grains, oilseeds and their products to
February 11, in thousands of tonnes, showing those for futurE
shipments month, 1986/87 total and 1985/86 total to February
12, 1986, in brackets:
    Bread wheat prev 1,655.8, Feb 872.0, March 164.6, total
2,692.4 (4,161.0).
    Maize Mar 48.0, total 48.0 (nil).
    Sorghum nil (nil)
    Oilseed export registrations were:
    Sunflowerseed total 15.0 (7.9)
    Soybean May 20.0, total 20.0 (nil)
    The board also detailed export registrations for
subproducts, as follows,
    SUBPRODUCTS
    Wheat prev 39.9, Feb 48.7, March 13.2, Apr 10.0, total
111.8 (82.7) .
    Linseed prev 34.8, Feb 32.9, Mar 6.8, Apr 6.3, total 80.8
(87.4).
    Soybean prev 100.9, Feb 45.1, MAr nil, Apr nil, May 20.0,
total 166.1 (218.5).
    Sunflowerseed prev 48.6, Feb 61.5, Mar 25.1, Apr 14.5,
total 149.8 (145.3).
    Vegetable oil registrations were :         
    Sunoil prev 37.4, Feb 107.3, Mar 24.5, Apr 3.2, May nil,
Jun 10.0, total 182.4 (117.6).                  
    Linoil prev 15.9, Feb 23.6, Mar 20.4, Apr 2.0, total 61.8,
(76.1).                         
    Soybean oil prev 3.7, Feb 21.1, Mar nil, Apr 2.0, May 9.0,
Jun 13.0, Jul 7.0, total 55.8 (33.7).        REUTER

Red Lion Inns Limited Partnership
said it filed a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission covering a proposed offering of 4,790,000
units of limited partnership interests.
    The company said it expects the offering to be priced at 20
dlrs per unit.
    It said proceeds from the offering, along with a 102.5 mln
dlr mortgage loan, will be used to finance its planned
acquisition of 10 Red Lion hotels.
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service Inc said it
lowered the debt and preferred stock ratings of USX Corp and
its units. About seven billion dlrs of securities is affected.
    Moody's said Marathon Oil Co's recent establishment of up
to one billion dlrs in production payment facilities on its
prolific Yates Field has significant negative implications for
USX's unsecured creditors.
    The company appears to have positioned its steel segment
for a return to profit by late 1987, Moody's added.
    Ratings lowered include those on USX's senior debt to BA-1
from BAA-3.
 Reuter

Champion Products Inc said its
board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split of its
common shares for shareholders of record as of April 1, 1987.
    The company also said its board voted to recommend to
shareholders at the annual meeting April 23 an increase in the
authorized capital stock from five mln to 25 mln shares.
 Reuter

Computer Terminal Systems Inc said
it has completed the sale of 200,000 shares of its common
stock, and warrants to acquire an additional one mln shares, to
<Sedio N.V.> of Lugano, Switzerland for 50,000 dlrs.
    The company said the warrants are exercisable for five
years at a purchase price of .125 dlrs per share.
    Computer Terminal said Sedio also has the right to buy
additional shares and increase its total holdings up to 40 pct
of the Computer Terminal's outstanding common stock under
certain circumstances involving change of control at the
company.
    The company said if the conditions occur the warrants would
be exercisable at a price equal to 75 pct of its common stock's
market price at the time, not to exceed 1.50 dlrs per share.
    Computer Terminal also said it sold the technolgy rights to
its Dot Matrix impact technology, including any future
improvements, to <Woodco Inc> of Houston, Tex. for 200,000
dlrs. But, it said it would continue to be the exclusive
worldwide licensee of the technology for Woodco.
    The company said the moves were part of its reorganization
plan and would help pay current operation costs and ensure
product delivery.
    Computer Terminal makes computer generated labels, forms,
tags and ticket printers and terminals.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 807,000 vs 2,858,000
    Assets 510.2 mln vs 479.7 mln
    Deposits 472.3 mln vs 440.3 mln
    Loans 299.2 mln vs 327.2 mln
    Note: 4th qtr not available. Year includes 1985
extraordinary gain from tax carry forward of 132,000 dlrs, or
five cts per shr.
 Reuter

Ohio Mattress Co said its first
quarter, ending February 28, profits may be below the 2.4 mln
dlrs, or 15 cts a share, earned in the first quarter of fiscal
1986.
    The company said any decline would be due to expenses
related to the acquisitions in the middle of the current
quarter of seven licensees of Sealy Inc, as well as 82 pct of
the outstanding capital stock of Sealy.
    Because of these acquisitions, it said, first quarter sales
will be substantially higher than last year's 67.1 mln dlrs.
    Noting that it typically reports first quarter results in
late march, said the report is likely to be issued in early
April this year.
    It said the delay is due to administrative considerations,
including conducting appraisals, in connection with the
acquisitions.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss two cts vs profit seven cts
    Oper shr profit 442,000 vs profit 2,986,000
    Revs 291.8 mln vs 151.1 mln
    Avg shrs 51.7 mln vs 43.4 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr profit nil vs profit 12 cts
    Oper net profit 3,376,000 vs profit 5,086,000
    Revs 569.3 mln vs 298.5 mln
    Avg shrs 51.6 mln vs 41.1 mln
    NOTE: Per shr calculated after payment of preferred
dividends.
    Results exclude credits of 2,227,000 or four cts and
4,841,000 or nine cts for 1986 qtr and six mths vs 2,285,000 or
six cts and 4,104,000 or 11 cts for prior periods from
operating loss carryforwards.
 Reuter

Shr one dlr vs 73 cts
    Net 12.6 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Revs 337.3 mln vs 315.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.07 dlrs vs 3.08 dlrs
    Net 66 mln vs 66.2 mln
    Revs 1.59 billion vs 997.1 mln
 Reuter

National Intergroup Inc said it plans
to file a registration statement with the securities and
exchange commission for an offering of cumulative convertible
preferred partnership units in Permian Partners L.P.
    The Permian Partners L.P. was recently formed by National
Intergroup to continue to business of Permian Corp, acquired by
the company in 1985.
    The company said Permian will continue to manage the
business as a general partner, retaining a 35 pct stake in the
partnership in the form of common and general partnership
units.
    It did not say how many units would be offered or what the
price would be.
 Reuter

National Health Enhancement
Systems Inc said it is offering a new health evaluation system
to its line of fitness assessment programs.
    The company said the program, called The Health Test, will
be available in 60 days.
    Customers who use the program will receive a
computer-generated report and recommendations for implementing
a program to improve their physical condition.
 Reuter

Dean Foods Co expects earnings for the
fourth quarter ending May 30 to exceed those of the same
year-ago period, Chairman Kenneth Douglas told analysts.
    In the fiscal 1986 fourth quarter the food processor
reported earnings of 40 cts a share.
    Douglas also said the year's sales should exceed 1.4
billion dlrs, up from 1.27 billion dlrs the prior year.
    He repeated an earlier projection that third-quarter
earnings "will probably be off slightly" from last year's 40
cts a share, falling in the range of 34 cts to 36 cts a share.
    Douglas said it was too early to project whether the
anticipated fourth quarter performance would be "enough for us
to exceed the prior year's overall earnings" of 1.53 dlrs a
share.
    In 1988, Douglas said Dean should experience "a 20 pct
improvement in our bottom line from effects of the tax reform
act alone."
    President Howard Dean said in fiscal 1988 the company will
derive  benefits of various dairy and frozen vegetable
acquisitions from Ryan Milk to the Larsen Co.
    Dean also said the company will benefit from its
acquisition in late December of Elgin Blenders Inc, West
Chicago.
    He said the company is a major shareholder of E.B.I. Foods
Ltd, a United Kingdom blender, and has licensing arrangements
in Australia, Canada, Brazil and Japan.
    "It provides ann entry to McDonalds Corp <MCD> we've been
after for years," Douglas told analysts.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corporation, CCC,
has accepted an export bonus offer to cover the sale of 37,000
long tons of wheat flour to North Yemen, the U.S. Agriculture
Department said.
    The wheat four is for shipment March-May and the bonus
awarded was 119.05 dlrs per tonnes and will be paid in the form
of commodities from the CCC inventory.
    The bonus was awarded to the Pillsbury Company.
    The wheat flour purchases complete the Export Enhancement
Program initiative announced in April, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Legislation to require disclosure of
credit card fees and interest rates before the cards are issued
have been introduced in the Senate and House.
    Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn, a co-sponsor of the bill, said
many banks and financial institutions do not disclose all the
information about terms of their cards in promotional material
sent to prospective customers.
    "By requiring card issuers to disclose the terms and
conditions of their cards at the time of solicitation, the
legislation is intended to arm consumers with enough
information to shop around for the best deal," Dodd said in a
statement.
 Reuter

Hughes/Conserdyne Corp, a
unit of <Hughes Capital Corp> said it made Bear Stearns and Co
Inc <BSC> its exclusive investment banker to develop and market
financing for the design and installation of its micro-utility
systems for municipalities.
    The company said these systems are self-contained
electrical generating facilities using alternate power sources,
such as photovoltaic cells, to replace public utility power
sources.
 Reuter

Magma Copper Co, a subsidiary of Newmont
Mining Corp, said it is cutting its copper cathode price by
0.75 cent to 66 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Brown-Forman Inc said its board
has approved a three-for-two stock split and a 35 pct increase
in the company cash dividend.
    The company cited its improved earnings outlook and
continued strong cash flow as reasons for raising the dividend.
    Brown-Forman said the split of its Class A and Class B
common shares would be effective March 13.
    The company said directors declared a quarterly cash
dividend on each new share of both classes of 28 cts, payable
April one to holders of record March 20. Prior to the split,
the company had paid 31 cts quarterly.
    Brown-Forman today reported a 37 pct increase in third 
quarter profits to 21.6 mln dlrs, or 1.00 dlr a share, on a
seven pct increase in sales to a record 337 mln dlrs.
    Brown-Forman said nine month profits declined a bit to 66.0
mln dlrs, or 3.07 dlrs a share, from 66.2 mln dlrs, or 3.08
dlrs a share, a year earlier due to a second quarter charge of
37 cts a share for restructuring its beverage operations.
    The company said lower corporate tax rates and the
restructuring "are expected to substantially improve
Brown-Forman's earnings and cash flow in fiscal 1988."
 Reuter

Shr profit 15 cts vs profit four cts
    Annual div 72 cts vs 72 cts prior yr
    Net profit 72,000 vs profit 16,000
    Revs 7,075,000 vs 2,330,000
    12 mths
    Shr profit 42 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 203,000 vs loss 55,000
    Revs 16.1 mln vs 3,971,000
    NOTE: annual dividend payable April 10, 1987, to
stockholders of record on March 27, 1987.
 Reuter

Shearson Lehman Brothers, a unit of
American Express Co <AXP>, said Robert Stearns has joined the
company as managing director of its merger and acquisition
department.
    Shearson said Stearns formerly was part of Merrill Lynch
Pierce, Fenner and Smith Inc's <MER> merger and acquisitions
 Reuter

Venezuela and its bank advisory
committee have agreed in principle on revisions to the terms of
a 21 billion dlr debt-rescheduling package signed last
February, bankers said.
    They declined to disclose details because two or three
representatives on the panel have still to obtain the approval
of their senior management for the new terms.
    The committee was meeting in New York this afternoon and
could put its final stamp of approval of the deal later today,
the bankers said.
    "A number of details have still to be finalized, but the
broad details of the new amortization schedules and interest
rates are in place," one senior banker said.
    The interest rate on the rescheduling was originally set at
1-1/8 pct over Eurodollar rates, but Venezuela requested easier
terms because of a 40 pct drop in oil income last year.
    It also asked for a reduction in the repayments it was due
to make in 1987, 1988 and 1989 - after an earlier request that
it make no amortizations at all in those years was rebuffed -
and sought a commitment from the banks to finance new
investment in Venezuela.
    The breakthrough in the Venezuelan talks, which have been
going on intermittently for several months, follows the
announcement earlier today of a 10.6 billion dlr debt
rescheduling pact between Chile and its bank advisory panel.
    And last night Citibank said Mexico's financing package,
including a 7.7 billion dlr loan, will be signed on March 20.
    While the sudden progress is to some extent coincidental,
bankers acknowledge a desire to chalk up some quick successes
after the shock of Brazil's unilateral interest suspension last
Friday. By striking swift deals, banks hope to reduce the
incentive for other debtors to emulate Brazil.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 1,545,160 vs 2,188,933
    Revs 25.2 mln vs 19.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.53 dlrs vs 1.21 dlrs
    Net 6,635,318 vs 5,050,044
    Revs 92.2 mln vs 77.4 mln
    NOTE: Results include adjustment of 848,600 dlrs or 20 cts
shr for 1986 year and both 1985 periods from improvement in
results of its universal life business than first estimated.
 Reuter

The Tower Commission report, which
says President Reagan was ignorant about much of the Iran arms
deal, just about ends his prospects of regaining political
dominance in Washington, political analysts said.
    "This is certification of incompetence," private political
analyst Stephen Hess told Reuters in commenting on the Tower
report made public today.
    "It's as if he went before a professional licensing board
and was denied credentials."
    In one of the most direct criticisms, board chairman John
Tower, a longtime Reagan supporter and former Republican
senator from Texas, told a press conference, "The president
clearly did not understand the nature of this operation."
    The report, which lent credence to widespread opinion in
Washington that Reagan is not in full command of the
government, was particularly damaging because it was prepared
by a board of the Republican president's own choosing.
    The three-member panel made up of Tower, former National
Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and former Secretary of State
Edmund Muskie, does not carry the partisan taint of criticism
from a Congress controlled by the Democratic party.
    "We're falling by our own hand," said one Republican
political strategist. "What can we say except 'we're sorry, we
won't do it again'?"
    The strategist, who works for one of his party's top 1988
presidential contenders and asked not to be identified, said
the report was like "an anvil falling on us."
    Hess, with the Brookings Institution public policy study
group, said the report is the final blow to Reagan's hopes of
regaining the upper hand he once had in dealings with Congress,
the press and the Washington bureaucracy.
    The report may also undermine the standing of Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George
Shultz, who the report suggests were more interested in keeping
their own skirts clean than supporting the president.
    "They protected the record as to their own positions on this
issue. They were not energetic in attempting to protect the
president from the consequences," it said.
    White House chief of staff Donald Regan and former Central
Intelligence Agency Director William Casey also received strong
criticism, but the blows were expected in their cases.
    Regan, expected to resign or be fired shortly, was savaged
for allegedly failing both to help Reagan conduct the Iran
initiative and to avoid "chaos" in the disclosure process.
    Casey, who underwent surgery for removal of a cancerous
brain tumor in December, had already resigned for health
reasons last month.
    "This is a story about people who came up somewhat short of
being heroes," Tower told reporters.
    While Reagan retains considerable constitutional powers,
including command of the armed forces and the right to veto
legislation, analysts say it will be difficult for him to
retake control of the country's policy agenda -- particularly
with Congress controlled by the Democrats.
    The crucial remaining question, they said, is whether the
man in the street will forsake Reagan over the affair.
    Although his job approval rating has fallen as much as
twenty percentage points in some opinion polls since the arms
deal with Iran became public last November, his personal
popularity is still relatively high.
    A Los Angeles Times poll released earlier this week showed
that just 37 pct of those surveyed thought Reagan was in
control of the government, but 55 pct still thought he was
doing a good job as president.
    American Enterprise Institute analyst William Schneider, a
Democrat, says Reagan's loss of support among Washington power
brokers could be offset by continued backing of the public.
    "In the past, he has been able to go around the power elite
by appealing directly to the public," Schneider said.
    Reagan will again plead his case that way in a televised
address next week.
    But one top Republican strategist warned against expecting
a dramatic turnaround.
    "The White House has to avoid building expectations that
cannot be met," said the strategist, who requested anonymity.
"They have to recognize there is no quick fix."
    Analysts also point out that Reagan's personal popularity
has not always translated into public backing for his policies.
    They note he was dramatically rebuffed in last November's
elections when voters rejected his appeals and restored control
of the Senate to the Democrats.
 Reuter

Sales of previously owned homes
dropped 14.5 pct in January to a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 3.47 mln units, the National Association of Realtors
(NAR) said.
    But the December rate of 4.06 mln units had been the
highest since the record 4.15 mln unit sales rate set in
November 1978, the group said.
    "The drop in January is not surprising considering that a
significant portion of December's near-record pace was made up
of sellers seeking to get favorable capital gains treatment
under the old tax laws," said the NAR's John Tuccillo.
 Reuter

ASSETS OF MONEY MARKET MUTUAL FUNDS ROSE 720.4 MLN DLRS IN LATEST WEEK

U.S. TAX WRITERS SEEK ESTATE TAX CURBS, RAISING 6.7 BILLION DLRS THRU 1991

Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Cal.) and
Daniel Evans (R-Wash.) said they introduced export licensing
reform legislation that could save U.S. companies hundreds of
thousands of dollars annually.
    "Our emphasis is two-fold: Decontrol and de-license items
where such actions will not endanger our national security, and
eliminate the Department of Defense's de facto veto authority
over the licensing process," Cranston said.
    "Our reforms should reduce licensing requirements by 65  to
70 pct," he told reporters. "I am convinced that a more
rational...licensing process will boost exports."
    U.S. export controls are intended to deny Eastern bloc
countries access to technology that could further their
military capabilities.
    "By refocusing our control resources on higher levels of
technology, technology that is truly critical, we will do a
better job of preventing diversion of critical technology to
our adversaries while promoting more exports," Cranston said.
    "We cannot expect to continue to play a leading role in new
technology development in the future if we unduly restrict the
activities of U.S. firms in the world market-place," Evans told
reporters.
 Reuter

Excelan Inc said it is making an
initial public offering of 2,129,300 shares of common stock at
12 dlrs per share.
    Excelan said 1.6 mln of the shares are being sold by the
company and 529,300 shares are being sold by stockholders.
    Excelan designs and manufactures computer-related products.
 Reuter

CCX Network Inc said it was offering
220,838 shares of stock at 15.75 dlrs a share though
underwriters Stephens Inc and Cazenove Inc.
    The company said it was selling the stock on behalf of some
shareholders, including those who recently received shares
in the company in exchange for their businesses.
    The company said  it was receiving no proceeds from the
offering.
 Reuter

First Union Corp said it has filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering
of 100 mln dlrs of fixed rate subordinated notes due 1997.
    The notes will be sold nationwide through underwriters
managed by Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
 Reuter

Qtly div eights cts vs 7.5 cts prior
    Pay March 31
    Record March 13
 Reuter

Shr loss 22 cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net loss 3,035,000 vs loss 2,516,000
    Revs 20.9 mln vs 19.6 mln
    Qtly div three cts vs three cts prior
    Year
    Shr profit two cts vs profit 34 cts
    Net profit 215,000 vs profit 4,647,000
    Revs 93.4 mln vs 98.7 mln
    NOTE: Dividend payable April one to shareholders of record
March 17.
 Reuter

Shr 45 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 1.1 mln vs 829,000
    Sales 7.9 mln vs 9.4 mln
    Avg shrs 2,332,397 vs 1,428,000
    Year
    Shr 1.22 dlrs vs 1.06 dlrs
    Net 2.9 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Sales 25.7 mln vs 22.2 mln
 Reuter

The Du Pont Co said it has
devloped a new generation of high-strength aramid fibers which
is stiffer and less absorbant than previous generations.
    Du Pont said the new product, Kevlar 149, is up to 40 pct
stiffer than first generation aramids, and absorbs less than
half the moister of other similar aramid fibers.
    Kevlar was invented by Du Pont in the late 1960s and is
five times stronger than steel and 10 times stronger than
aluminum on an equal wieght basis, and is used to replace
metals in a variety of products, according to the company.
 Reuter

Standard Trustco said it expects earnings
in 1987 to increase at least 15 to 20 pct from the 9,140,000
dlrs, or 2.52 dlrs per share, recorded in 1986.
    "Stable interest rates and a growing economy are expected to
provide favorable conditions for further growth in 1987,"
president Brian O'Malley told shareholders at the annual
meeting.
    Standard Trustco previously reported assets of 1.28 billion
dlrs in 1986, up from 1.10 billion dlrs in 1985. Return on
common shareholders' equity was 18.6 pct last year, up from 15
pct in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr loss 51 cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 7,041,000 vs loss 467,000
    Rev 138.9 mln vs 131.4 mln
    12 months
    Shr loss 64 cts vs profit 46 cts
    Net loss 8,843,000 vs profit 6,306,0000
    Rev 558.9 mln vs 556.7 mln
    NOTE: Net loss for 4th qtr 1986 includes charge for
restructuring of 2.6 mln dlrs after tax, or 19 cts a share.
    1986 net loss includes after tax special charge of 2.7 mln
dlrs, or 20 cts a share.
   
 Reuter

International Coffee Organization, ICO,
producing countries will present a proposal for reintroducing
export quotas for 12 months from April 1 with a firm
undertaking to try to negotiate up to September 30 any future
quota distribution on a new basis, ICO delegates said.
    Distribution from April 1 would be on an unchanged basis as
in an earlier producer proposal, which includes shortfall
redistributions totalling 1.22 mln bags, they said.
    Resumption of an ICO contact group meeting with consumers,
scheduled for this evening, has been postponed until tomorrow,
delegates said.
 Reuter

Secretary of State George
Shultz acknowledged failings in the Iran arms affair but
declared he would not resign.
    His role in the scandal that has scarred the Reagan
administration attracted harsh criticism from the Tower
commission in its report on the affair published today.
    Shultz, travelling to China for a week-long visit, refused
to comment directly on the report, published after he had left
Washington. But he repeated -- as he has done since the crisis
broke last November -- that he was not going to resign.
    "You can wipe that off your slate," he said.
 Reuter

McLean Industries Inc's United
States Lines Inc subsidiary said it has agreed in principle to
transfer its South American service by arranging for the
transfer of certain charters and assets to <Crowley Mariotime
Corp>'s American Transport Lines Inc subsidiary.
    U.S. Lines said negotiations on the contract are expected
to be completed within the next week. Terms and conditions of
the contract would be subject to approval of various regulatory
bodies, including the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
 Reuter

ChemLawn Corp <CHEM> could attract a
higher bid than the 27 dlrs per share offered by Waste
Management Inc <WNX>, Wall Street arbitrageurs said.
    Shares of ChemLawn shot up 11-5/8 to 29-3/8 in
over-the-counter- trading with 3.8 mln of the company's 10.1
mln shares changing hands by late afternoon.
    "This company could go for 10 times cash flow or 30 dlrs,
maybe 32 dollars depending on whether there is a competing
bidder," an arbitrageur said. Waste Management's tender offer,
announced before the opening today, expires March 25.
    "This is totally by surprise," said Debra Strohmaier, a
ChemLawn spokeswoman. The company's board held a regularly
scheduled meeting today and was discussing the Waste Management
announcement. She said a statement was expected but it was not
certain when it would be ready. 
    She was unable to say if there had been any prior contact
between Waste Management and ChemLawn officials.
    "I think they will resist it," said Elliott Schlang,
analyst at Prescott, Ball and Turben Inc. "Any company that
doesn't like a surprise attack would."
    Arbitrageurs pointed out it is difficult to resist tender
offers for any and all shares for cash. Schlang said ChemLawn
could try to find a white knight if does not want to be
acquired by Waste Management.
    Analyst Rosemarie Morbelli of Ingalls and Snyder said
ServiceMaster Companies L.P. <SVM> or Rollins Inc <ROL> were
examples of companies that could be interested.
    ChemLawn, with about two mln customers, is the largest U.S.
company involved in application of fertilizers, pesticides and
herbicides on lawns. Waste Management is involved in removal of
wastes.
    Schlang said ChemLawn's customer base could be valuable to
another company that wants to capitalize on a strong
residential and commercial distribution system.
    Both Schlang and Morbelli noted that high growth rates had
catapulted ChemLawn's share price into the mid-30's in 1983 but
the stock languished as the rate of growth slowed.
    Schlang said the company's profits are concentrated in the
fourth quarter. In 1986 ChemLawn earned 1.19 dlrs per share for
the full year, and 2.58 dlrs in the fourth quarter.
    Morbelli noted ChemLawn competes with thousands of
individual entrepreuers who offer lawn and garden care sevice.
 Reuter

Sugar imports subject to the U.S.
sugar import quota during the week ended January 9, the initial
week of the 1987 sugar quota year, totaled 5,988 short tons
versus 46,254 tons the previous week, the Agriculture
    The sugar import quota for the 1987 quota year
(January-December) has been set at 1,001,430 short tons
compared with 1,850,000 tons in the 1986 quota year, which was
extended three months to December 31.
    The department said the Customs Service has reported that
weekly and cumulative imports are reported on an actual weight
basis and when final polarizations are received, cumulative
import data are adjusted accordingly.
 Reuter

inflation
plan, initially hailed at home and abroad as the saviour of the
economy, is limping towards its first anniversary amid soaring
prices, widespread shortages and a foreign payments crisis.
    Announced last February 28 the plan froze prices, fixed the
value of the new Cruzado currency and ended widespread
indexation of the economy in a bid to halt the country's 250
pct inflation rate.
    But within a year the plan has all but collapsed.
    "The situation now is worse than it was. Although there was
inflation, at least the economy worked," a leading bank
economist said.
    The crumbling of the plan has been accompanied by a
dramatic reversal in the foreign trade account. In 1984 and
1985 Brazil's annual trade surpluses had been sufficient to
cover the 12 billion dlrs needed to service its 109 billion dlr
foreign debt.
    For the first nine months of 1986 all seemed to be on
target for a repeat, with monthly surpluses averaging one
billion dlrs. But as exports were diverted and imports
increased to avoid further domestic shortages the trade surplus
plunged to 211 mln dlrs in October and since then has averaged
under 150 mln.
 Reuter

New Zealand's official foreign
reserves fell to 7.15 billion N.Z. Dlrs in January from 7.20
billion dlrs in December and compared with 3.03 billion a year
ago period, the Reserve Bank said in its weekly statistical
bulletin.
 Reuter

The Panama Canal Commission, a U.S.
government agency, said in its daily operations report that
there was a backlog of 39 ships waiting to enter the canal
early today. Over the next two days it expects --              
             2/26  2/27
                       Due: 27    35
      Scheduled to Transit: 35    41
           End-Day Backlog: 31    25
    Average waiting time tomorrow --
         Super Tankers  Regular Vessels
 North End:  13 hrs      15 hrs
 South End:   4 hrs      26 hrs
 Reuter

<America First Federally Guaranteed
Mortgage Fund Two> said it is making a special distribution of
71.6 cts per exchangeable unit, which includes 67.62 cts from
return on capital and 3.98 cts from income gains.
 Reuter

A group of Republican governors and
members of Congress said they intended to explore expanding the
conservation reserve program by up to 20 mln acres.
    Under current law, between 40 and 45 mln acres of erodible
land must be enrolled in the program by the end of fiscal 1990.
    The Republican Task Force on Farm and Rural America, headed
by Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (Kan.), said they would
consider drafting legislation to increase the reserve by
between 15 and 20 mln acres.
    Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told Reuters he would offer
a bill to expand the reserve to 67 mln acres.
 Reuter

Arvin Industries Inc said L.K.
Evans has been elected president, succeeding James Baker who
remains chairman.  Evans had been executive vice president.
 Reuter

Qtly div 35 cts vs 35 cts prior
    Payable March 31
    Record March nine

 Reuter

A surprise 7.5 pct drop in U.S. January
durable goods orders points to a slowdown in capital spending
that could presage lackluster real growth in the U.S. economy
in the first quarter of 1987, economists said.
    With total orders, excluding the volatile defense sector,
falling a record 9.9 pct, economists agreed that the report
painted a bleak picture for the U.S. economy.
    But they stressed that the 1987 tax reform laws may be a
primary factor behind the drop in orders for business capital
investment.
    "It's a rather gloomy outlook for the economy, said David
Wyss of Data Resources Inc. "I'm particularly impressed by the
19.7 pct drop in non-defense capital goods orders because it
may be a sign that businesses are reacting more adversely to
tax reform than we thought."
    The Commerce Department pointed out that a record 14.8 pct
decline in new orders for machinery was led by declines in
office and computing equipment orders.
    Economists said the drop in computer orders may have been a
response to the lengthening of depreciation schedules and the
end of the investment tax credit under the new tax laws.
    "It's more expensive to invest than it used to be, so
people just aren't doing it as much," Wyss said.
     Increases in durable goods orders at year's end reinforced
the view that businesses anticipated the changing tax laws,
economists said.
    November durable goods orders rose 5.1 pct and December's
increased 1.5 pct, revised upwards from a previously reported
0.9 pct.
    But most acknowledged that the huge January drop was caused
by more than tax reform.
    "The wash-out that took place in January was far greater
than the actual gains that took place in November and
December," said Bill Sullivan of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. "The
economy has a weakening bent to it early in the year."
    "The report definitely points to very sluggish capital
spending over the next couple of quarters," said Donald Maude
of Midland Montagu Capital Markets Inc.
    Maude pointed to a continuing decline in order backlogs as
evidence that the outlook for new orders is not improving. In
November, order backlogs rose 0.6 pct, but in December they
fell 0.6 pct and in January 0.7 pct, he said.
    "It suggests orders in the pipeline are depleting, which
may quickly translate to a drop in production," Midland
Montagu's Maude said.
    Wyss cautioned that too much should not be made of
January's report, given that other reports have reflected
strength.
    But he acknowledged that the decline occurred despite a 51
pct rise in defense orders, compared with a 57.7 pct decline in
December.
    He also noted that there was a 6.9 pct drop in January
shipments, compared with a 5.4 pct rise in December.
    "Given these numbers, there's no reason for the Fed to
tighten," Data Resources' Wyss said.
    "But there's no reason to ease unless we see more numbers
like this. The Fed will wait and see," he added.
    Sullivan predicted the Fed will ease by Easter. "People
aren't talking recession or Fed easing now, but the Fed will
have to ease to ensure global growth."
 Reuter

AM International Inc, reporting an
operating loss for the January 31 second quarter, said
prospects for the balance of the fiscal year remain good.
    It said orders at its Harris Graphics subsidiary, acquired
in June 1986, "continue to run at a strong pace." For the six
months, orders rose 35 pct over the corresponding prior-year
period, or on an annualized basis are running at about 630 mln
dlrs.
    The backlog at Harris is up 30 pct from the beginning of
the fiscal year, AM said.
    AM International said its old division are expected to
benefit from recent new product introductions and the decline
in the value of the dollar.
    "Research, development and engineering expenditures in
fiscal 1987 will be in the 45-50 mln dlr range, and the company
said it has allocated another 30-40 mln dlrs for capital
expenditures.
    Earlier AM reported a fourth quarter operating loss of two
cts a share compared to profits of seven cts a share a year
ago. Revenues rose to 291.8 mln dlrs from 151.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)
announced 1.5 mln dlrs in credit guarantees previously
earmarked to cover sales of dry edible beans to Honduras have
been switched to cover sales of white corn, the U.S.
Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the action reduces coverage for sales
of dry edible beans to 500,000 dlrs and creates the new line of
1.5 mln dlrs for sales of white corn.
    All sales under the credit guarantee line must be
registered  and shipped by September 30, 1987, it said.
 Reuter

Assets of money market mutual funds
increased 720.4 mln dlrs in the week ended yesterday to 236.90
billion dlrs, the Investment Company Institute said.
    Assets of 91 institutional funds rose 356 mln dlrs to 66.19
billion dlrs, 198 general purpose funds rose 212.5 mln dlrs to
62.94 billion dlrs and 92 broker-dealer funds rose 151.9 mln
dlrs to 107.77 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Gulf barge freight rates firmed again on
the outlook for steady vessel loadings at the Gulf, increasing
the demand for barges to supply those ships, dealers said.
    No barges traded today on the St Louis Merchants' Exchange
call session, versus 29 yesterday.
    Quotes included -
 - Delivery this week on the Illinois River (Joliet) 135 pct of
tariff bid/140 offered, with next week same river (ex Chicago)
quoted the same - both up 2-1/2 percentage points.
 - Next week Mississippi River (St Louis) 120 pct bid/127-1/2
offered - up five points.
 - Next week Ohio River (Owensboro/south) 125 pct bid/132-1/2
offered - up 7-1/2 points.
 - On station Illinois River (south Chicago) 135 pct bid/140
offered - no comparison.
 - March Illinois (ex Chicago) 132-1/2 pct bid/140 offered - up
2-1/2 points.
 - March Ohio River bid at yesterday's traded level of 125 pct,
offered at 132-1/2.
 - March lower Mississippi River (Memphis/Cairo) 112-1/2 pct
bid/120 offered - no comparison.
 - May Illinois River (ex Chicago) 100 pct bid/107-1/2 offered
- no comparison.
 - Sept/Nov Lower Mississippi River (Memphis/Cairo) 137-1/2 pct
bid/145 offered, with Sept/Dec same section 125 pct bid/135
 Reuter

Argentina could suspend payments on
its foreign debt if creditor banks reject a 2.15 billion dlr
loan request to meet 1987 growth targets, ruling Radical Party
Deputy Raul Baglini told a local radio station.
    "Argentina does not discard the use of (a moratorium) if the
negotiations do not produce a result that guarantees the growth
of the country," he added.
    Baglini, an observer at Argentina's negotiations in New
York with the steering committee for its 320 creditors banks,
told the Radio del Plata in a telephone interview that the
banks were divided on the loan request.
    Baglini said that as a result, today's scheduled second day
of talks had been postponed.
    He said Argentina was prepared to follow the example of
Brazil, which last week declared a moratorium on interest
payments of a large portion of its 108 billion dlr foreign
debt.
    Argentina's prime objective in renegotiating the debt was
to maintain growth, which has been targeted at four pct in
1987, Baglini said.
    "Debtor nations should not have to take from their own
pockets, that is their commercial balance, to meet interest
payments," he added.
 Reuter

The chairmen and senior Republican
members of the House and Senate tax writing committees proposed
legislation to curb estate tax deduction on sales of stock to
an employee stock ownership plan.
    The proposal would raise federal revenues of 6.7 billion
dlrs over the fiscal year period 1987 to 1991.
    If adopted by Congress it would effect all transactions
after Sept 26, 1987.
    The plan was proposed by House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill), Rep John Duncan (R-Tenn),
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex) and Sen
Bob Packwood (R-Ore).
    In a statement Rostenkowski said the estate tax deduction
enacted last year as part of the tax reform bill was too broad
and would have cost the governmet seven billion dlrs over four
years. The narrower deduction would cost the government less
than 300 mln dlrs for the same years.
    He said it was designed to avoid sham transactions which
allowed estates to avoid taxes by transferring stock to ESOPs.
    Senate Finance Committee chairman Lloyd Bentsen said in a
statement, "The Tax Reform Act contains a provision that allows
many wealthy individuals to avoid the federal estate tax
entirely when they die."
    He added, "The provision was intended to encourage estates
to sell stock to employee stock ownership plans as a way of
promoting worker ownership; however, the provision was not
meant to be broad enough to reduce federal revenues as much as
is currently estimated."
    He added, "The bill I have introduced today calls for the
modification of the provision in accordance with its intended
purpose."
 Reuter

Treasury balances at the Federal
Reserve rose on Feb 25 to 4.151 billion dlrs from 2.727 billion
dlrs the previous business day, the Treasury said in its latest
budget statement.
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 25.137
billion dlrs from 25.780 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 29.289
billion dlrs on Feb 25 compared with 28.507 billion dlrs on Feb
24.
 Reuter

Canadian Finance Minister Michael Wilson
said he will use temporary authority under the Financial
Administration act to borrow an additional 600 mln dlrs in next
Thursday's treasury bill auction.
    In a statement, Wilson said the action would permit the
government to proceed with its debt program during a period
when there was not sufficient borrowing authority, which is
granted by Parliament, to cover the government's needs.
    Ottawa announced previously it was seeking Parliamentary
approval for the additional authority to cover the financing of
an increase in the government's foreign reserves.
 Reuter

Gulf Applied Technologies Inc said it
sold its pipeline and terminal operations units for 12.2 mln
dlrs and will record a gain of 2.9 mln dlrs in the first
quarter.
    It added that any federal taxes owed on the transaction
will be offset by operating loss carryovers.
 Reuter

Shr 80 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 55,513,000 vs 48,741,000
    Revs 290.9 mln vs 264.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.09 dlrs vs 2.72 dlrs
    Net 213,470,000 vs 184,649,000
    Revs 1.12 billion vs 992.9 mln
    Avg shrs 69,127,000 vs 68,004,000
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 13,555,000 vs 14,635,000
    Revs 104,606,000 vs 110,311,000
    Avg shrs 47.2 mln vs 47.1 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 4.10 dlrs vs 3.66 dlrs
    Net 226,653,000 vs 186,790,000
    Revs 1.4 billion vs 1.3 billion
    Avg shr 47.1 mln vs 47.1 mln
   
    NOTE: latest 12 mths net includes gain 46 cts per share for
sale of Virginia service territory to Dominion Resources Inc
<D>.
 Reuter

Springboard Software INc said it
signed a contract under which International Technology
Development Corp will provide software designers, programmers,
project supervisors and technical support personnel to
Springboard.
    International Technology, based in San Francisco and
Shanghai, China, employs Chinese computer specialists.
 Reuter

CoFAB Inc said it acquired <Gulfex Inc>,
a Houston-based fabricator of custom high-pressure process
vessels for the energy and petrochemical industries.
    CoFAB said its group of companies manufacture specialized
cooling and lubricating systems for the oil and gas,
petrochemical, utility, pulp and paper and marine industries.
 Reuter

Reporting members of the National
Soybean Processors Association (NSPA) crushed 21,782,929
bushels of soybeans in the week ended Feb 25 compared with
22,345,718 bushels in the previous week and 16,568,000 in the
year-ago week, the association said.
    It said total crushing capacity for members was 25,873,904
bushels vs 25,873,904 last week and 25,459,238 bushels last
year.
    NSPA also said U.S. soybean meal exports in the week were
117,866 tonnes vs 121,168 tonnes a week ago and compared with
84,250 tonnes in the year-ago week.
    NSPA said the figures include only NSPA member firms.
 Reuter

The underwriters said the initial
offering of 833,334 Schult Homes Corp units is being made at
five dlrs per unit.
    The underwriters, managed by Janney Montgomey Scott Inc and
Woolcott and Co Inc, said each unit consits of one common share
and one warrant to purchase one-half a common share at 5.50
dlrs per share until September one 1989 and thereafter at 6.50
dlrs per share until March 1991. The underwriters were granted
an over-allotment option of 125,000 units.
    They said the company will use its proceeds to pay a
portion of its subordinated note payable to Inland Steel Urban
Development Corp issued in connection with the acquisition of
Schult from Inland. Based in Elkhart, Ind., Schult is the
country's oldest manufactured home producer.
 Reuter

Qtly div eights cts vs eight cts prior
    Pay April one
 Reuter

Burlington Menswear of New York City,
a division of Burlington Industries Inc, has received a 30.5
mln dlr defense contract for 3.69 mln yards of tropical cloth,
the Defense Logistics Agency said.
 reuter

Rockwell International Corp has
received a 28.3 mln dlr contract for work on the B-1B bomber in
the current fiscal year, the Air Force said.
 reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 5.92 dlrs
    Net 1,142,000 vs 16.0 mln
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 24.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 90 cts vs 6.20 dlrs
    Net 3,320,000 vs 16.9 mln
    Revs 45.00 mln vs 26.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr amounts include acquisition of
98.8 pct of common of Atico, formerly Peninsula Federal Savings
and Loan Association, on January 24, 1986.
    1985 4th qtr and yr net include net gain of 15.9 mln dlrs
or 5.86 dlrs per share on exchange of common of Pan America
Banks Inc for common of NCNB Corp purusant to a merger of the
companies.
 Reuter

International Coffee Organization (ICO)
exporters will modify their new proposal on quota resumption
before presenting it to importers tomorrow, ICO delegates said.
    The change, which will be discussed tonight informally
among producers, follows talks after the formal producer
session with the eight-member producer splinter group and will
affect the proposed quota distribution for 12 months from April
one, they said.
    The proposed share-out would still include shortfall
declarations, they said.
 Reuter

U.S. COMMERCIAL PAPER FALLS 375 MLN DLRS IN FEB 18 WEEK, FED SAYS

NEW YORK BANK DISCOUNT WINDOW BORROWINGS 64 MLN DLRS IN FEB 25 WEEK

Quebecor Inc, one of Canada's largest
publishing and printing companies, is likely to launch a new
daily newspaper in Montreal, probably this fall, president
Pierre Peladeau told Reuters in an interview.
    The company, which last week won a bid to buy the Quebec
government's 55 pct interest in pulp and paper company <Donohue
Inc>, will also likely go ahead with plans to build a new paper
mill in Matane, Quebec, Peladeau said.
    "I would say we will move (ahead with the daily).... This
is not definite but i think we will," he said, adding that he
plans to announce a decision early next week.
    Quebecor, which had revenues of 446 mln Canadian dlrs last
year and profit of 16.2 mln dlrs, already publishes three daily
newspapers, including the tabloid Le Journal de Montreal, the
second-largest circulation paper in Canada.
    A new daily would give Montreal its second English-
language paper and its sixth daily newspaper, making the city
the most crowded metropolitan newspaper market in North
America, analysts have said.
    Peladeau said market studies have indicated a new English
language tabloid would have circulation of 50,000 within six
months. He said he is waiting to determine whether the new
venture would have the support of major advertisers.
    Peladeau, who together with family members owns about 55
pct of Quebecor, said he has recieved offers from the heads of
two major Canadian companies who are interested in the project
but has not decided whether he would take partners in the
newspaper venture.
    He said he would consider launching the newspaper with one
of the companies as a prelude to other joint ventures.
    "It would be the possibility of doing something else in the
short term," Peladeau said.
    Peladeau said the joint acquisition of Donohue with Robert
Maxwell's British Printing and Communications Corp plc <BPCL.L>
does not mean Quebecor will have to hold off on other projects.
    Peladeau and Maxwell's companies teamed up to buy the stake
in Donohue, which resulted in Quebecor buying 51 pct of the
govvernment's stake for about 165 mln Canadian dlrs and British
printing acquiring the other 49 pct.
    "In 1976 or 77 there was a tremendous shortage of
newsprint. There were days when we didn't have enough paper to
print the paper," Peladeau said. "When I lived that, I said to
myself...next time we'll be ready."
    Peladeau said most of Donohue's current total newsprint
capacity however, is already committed to other buyers.
    Quebecor uses about 100,000 metric tons of newsprint a year
and Maxwell's company, which publishes Britain's Daily Mirror
newspaper, uses about 200,000 tonnes.
    Peladeau said even with a new 170 mln dlr paper machine, 49
pct owned by the New York Times, (NYT.A), adding to Donohue's
540,000 metric tonne capacity this fall, the companies will
have to install another paper machine at Amos, Quebec, or build
another mill to meet their demands .
    He said a new mill, which would produce either newsprint or
other types of paper, would cost 400-500 mln dlrs and could be
on stream in two years. He said a mill in Matane, a depressed
area with high unemployment, would be heavily subsidized by the
government.
    Peladeau said he is interested in further joint ventures
with Maxwell's company, either in the newspaper market in
France or in the U.S., where the company owns two large
printing plants and is looking to expand its newspaper empire.
    He said Maxwell's sons, who are French citizens, would
provide an entree into the French market, where foreigners are
prevented from buying newspapers. Peladeau said he would
consider either buying into or starting daily newspapers in
France or the U.S.
    Quebecor is also in the process of expanding its chain of
about 40 weekly newspapers, with the possible acquisition of
two groups of weekly newspapers in the U.S., and is negotiating
the acquisition of two weekly newspaper chains in Canada,
Peladeau said.
    He said the company may consider starting daily newspapers
in two small Quebec cities and buying radio stations in the
province.
    Peladeau said Quebecor may also consider trading in its
listing on the American stock exchange for a New York Stock
Exchange listing.
 Reuter

Commercial and industrial loans on the
books of the 10 major New York banks, excluding acceptances,
fell 195 mln dlrs to 65.06 billion in the week ended February
18, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
    Including acceptances, loans declined 114 mln dlrs to 65.89
billion.
    Commercial paper outstanding nationally dropped 375 mln
dlrs to 336.63 billion.
    National business loan data are scheduled to be released on
Friday.
 Reuter

The eight major New York City banks had
64 mln dlrs in average borrowings from the Federal Reserve in
the week to Wednesday February 25, a Fed spokesman said.
    The week marked the second half of the two-week bank
statement period that ended on Wednesday. The banks had no
borrowings in the prior week.
    Commenting on the latest week, a Fed spokesman said that
all of the borrowing occurred yesterday and was done by fewer
than half of the banks.
    National data on discount window borrowings are due to be
released at 1630 EST (2130 GMT).

 Reuter

Shr primary 95.30 pesos vs 29.71 pesos
    Shr diluted 61.11 pesos vs 18.49 pesos
    Qtly div 1.25 pesos vs 1.25 pesos
    Net 1.9 billion vs 779 mln
    Revs 6.1 billion vs 4.7 billion
    NOTE: Full name Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.
    Figures quoted in Philippine Pesos.
    Dividend payable April 15 to holders or record March 13.
Exchange rate on day of dividend declaration was 20.792 pesos
per dollar.
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs N.A.
    Payable April two
    Record March 20
    NOTE:1986 dividend includes special two cts per share for
the period beginning with the fund's commencement of operations
on Novebmer three through December 31, 1986.
 Reuter

The Columbia Gas Systems Inc said
it will redeem 4.7 mln dlrs principal amount of its 9-1/8 pct
debentures, series due May 1, 1996, and five mln dlrs
principal amount of its 10-1/4 pct debentures, series due May
1, 1999.
    The company said it is redeeming the debentures to meet
mandatory sinking fund requirements.
    In addition, Columbia said it will call for the optional
sinking fund redemption on May 1, 1987, the 4.7 mln dlrs
principal amount of the 9-1/8 debentures and 7.5 mln dlrs of
the 10-1/4 pct debentures.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 25 cts prior
    Pay April 30
    Record April 16
 Reuter

Qtly div two cts vs 1.7 cts
    Pay March 26
    Record March 12
 Reuter

Annual div Class A 14 cts vs 12 cts prior
    Annual div Class B 12.1 cts vs 10.4 cts prior
    Payable April one
    NOTE: full name is BDM International Inc.
 Reuter

Sorg Inc said a group composed of
one-third of the stockholders in Sorg agreed not to sell their
holdings without the consent of the entire group.
    Sorg said the group also agreed to vote as a body on any
proposed merger or election of directors.
    The company further said it retained the First Boston Corp
to act as its financial advisor.
    The company was not immediately available to provide
further details on the group or its aims.
 Reuter

Qtly div three cts vs three cts prior
    Pay March 13
    Record February 27
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Inc said it has
developed the first 32-bit computer chip designed specifically
for artificial intelligence applications.
    The company said the new microprocessor, measuring
one-centimeter square and containing 553,687 transistors, is
the densest chip ever made.
    The chip was designed, Texas Instruments said, for use with
the Lisp langugage, which is used widely by software
programmers in the artificial intelligence field.
    The company added that it is working on a production
version of the chip.
 Reuter

Consolidated Natural Gas
System's Consolidated Gas Transmission Corp said it is in
compliance with all federal regulations regarding the disposal
of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
    The company said it successfully cleaned up the only
earthen pit at which PCBs were reported to be above
Environmental Protection Agency standards.
   
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 MONEY SUPPLY RISES 2.1 BILLION DLRS IN FEB 16 WEEK, FED SAYS

Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 44,092,000 vs 35,145,000
    Revs 1.94 billion vs 1.34 billion
    Note: 1986 results include extraordinary gain of 1,035,000
dlrs or six cts a share from secondary share offering of Canron
unit.
 Reuter

U.S. BANK DISCOUNT BORROWINGS AVERAGE 310 MLN DLRS IN FEB 25 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK NET FREE RESERVES 644 MLN DLRS IN TWO WEEKS TO FEB 25, FED SAYS

A group of affiliated New York
investment firms said they lowered their stake in Cyclops Corp
to 260,500 shares, or 6.4 pct of the total outstanding common
stock, from 370,500 shares, or 9.2 pct.
    In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
the group, led by Mutual Shares Corp, said it sold 110,000
Cyclops common shares on Feb 17 and 19 for 10.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service (ASCS) has established these unit values
for commodities offered from government stocks through
redemption of Commodity Credit Corporation commodity
certificates, effective through the next business day.
    Price per bushel is in U.S. dollars. Sorghum is priced per
CWT, corn yellow grade only.
     WHEAT     HRW   HRS    SRW   SWW   DURUM
 Chicago       --    3.04   2.98  --    --
 Ill. Track    --    --     3.16  --    --
 Toledo        --    3.04   2.98  2.90  --
 Memphis       --    --     3.05  --    --
 Peoria        --    --     3.11  --    --
 Denver        2.62  2.63  --    --    --
 Evansville    --    --    2.99  --    --
 Cincinnati    --    --    2.96  --    --
 Minneapolis   2.65  2.71  --    --    3.70
 Baltimore/
 Norf./Phil.   --    --    3.06  2.98  --
 Kansas City   2.87  --    3.17  --    --
 St. Louis     3.03  --    3.03  --    --
 Amarillo/
 Lubbock       2.64  --    --    --    --
               HRW   HRS   SRW   SWW   DURUM
 Lou. Gulf     --    --    3.16  --    --
 Portland/
 Seattle       3.07  3.08  --    3.10  3.70
 Stockton      2.78  --    --    --    --
 L.A.          3.23  --    --    --    4.05
 Duluth        2.65  2.71  --    --    3.70
 Tex. Gulf     3.10  --    3.16  --    --

             CORN  BRLY  OATS  RYE   SOYB  SORG
 Chicago     1.47  --    --    --    4.81  2.49
 Ill. Track  1.49  2.04  --    --    4.85  2.52
 Toledo      1.41  2.04  1.50  --    4.78  2.39
 Memphis     1.59  1.95  1.71  --    4.90  2.86
 Peoria      1.51  ---   --    --    4.80  2.60
 Denver      1.56  1.56  --    --    --    2.54
 Evnsvlle    1.54  2.04  1.50  2.17  4.90  2.61
 Cinci       1.52  2.04  1.50  2.17  4.85  2.58
 Mpls        1.34  1.75  1.50  1.85  4.68  --
 Balt/Nor/
 Phil        1.70  1.80  --    --    4.98  3.12
 KC          1.49  1.56  1.64  --    4.76  2.58
 St Lo       1.54  --    1.66  --    4.90  2.91
 Amarlo/
 Lubbck      1.84  1.40  --    --    4.75  2.92
 Lou Gulf    1.73  --    --    --    5.05  3.12
 Port/
 Seattle     1.87  2.10  1.68  --    --    --
 Stockton    2.18  2.23  2.10  --    --    4.00
 LA          2.54  2.50  --    --    --    4.38
 Duluth      1.34  1.75  1.50  1.85  4.68  --
 Tex Gulf    1.73  1.48  1.73  --    5.05  3.12
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 363,000 vs loss 197,000
    Revs 3,761,000 vs 2,666,000
    Year
    Shr profit one cent vs loss 37 cts
    Net profit 129,000 vs loss 1,715,000
    Revs 11.4 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Avg shrs 10,694,081 vs 4,673,253
 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE WEEKLY REPORT 1 - FEB 26
    Two weeks ended Feb 25      daily avgs-mlns
 Net free reserves.............644 vs.....1,337
 Bank borrowings...............680 vs.......425
 Including seasonal loans.......81 vs........56
 Including extended loans......299 vs.......265
 Excess reserves.............1,025 vs.....1,497
 Required reserves (adj)....55,250 vs....55,366
 Required reserves............N.A. vs......N.A.
 Total reserves...............N.A. vs......N.A.
 Non-borrowed reserves........N.A. vs......N.A.
 Monetary base................N.A. vs......N.A.
                         
     Two weeks ended Feb 25                   
 Total vault cash.............N.A. vs......N.A.
 Inc cash equal to req res....N.A. vs......N.A.
     One week ended Feb 25      Daily avgs-Mlns
 Bank borrowings...............614 down.....131
 Including seasonal loans.......88 up........14
 Including extended loans......304 up........10
 Float.........................511 down.....320
 Balances/adjustments........2,101 down......67
 Currency..................206,490 down.....519
 Treasury deposits...........4,208 down......63

 Reuter

New Zealand's trading bank seasonally
adjusted deposit growth rose 2.6 pct in January compared with a
rise of 9.4 pct in December, the Reserve Bank said.
    Year-on-year total deposits rose 30.6 pct compared with a
26.3 pct increase in the December year and 34.5 pct rise a year
ago period, it said in its weekly statistical release.
    Total deposits rose to 17.18 billion N.Z. Dlrs in January
compared with 16.74 billion in December and 13.16 billion in
January 1986.
 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE MONEY SUPPLY REPORT - FEB 26
    One Week Ended Feb 16
 M-1.........................736.7 up.......2.1
 Previous week revised to....734.6 From...734.2
 Avge  4 Weeks (Vs Week Ago).735.0 Vs.....733.5
 Avge 13 Weeks (Vs week Ago).731.8 Vs.....729.8
 Monthly aggregates (Adjusted avgs in billions)
 M-1 (Jan vs Dec)............737.6 Vs.....730.5
 M-2 (Jan vs Dec)..........2,820.1 Vs...2,798.4
 M-3 (Jan vs Dec)..........3,513.6 Vs...3,488.1
 L...(Dec vs Nov)..........4,141.5 Vs...4,110.5
 Domestic Debt(Dec vs Nov).7,604.4 Vs...7,519.8

 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE WEEKLY REPORT 3 - FEB 26
    One week ended Feb 25       daily avgs-mlns
 Govts bought outright....193,374 down....1,342
 Govts repurchases............nil unch.........
 Agencies bought outright...7,719 unch.........
 Agencies repurchases.........nil unch.........
 Acceptances repurchases......nil unch.........
 Matched sales..............4,920 vs......3,788
 Including sales with cust..4,369 vs......3,788
 Other Fed assets..........16,806 down....1,161
 Other Fed liabilities......6,421 up........178
 Other deposits with Fed......399 up.........26

 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE WEEKLY REPORT 4 - FEB 26
    One week ended Feb 25       Daily avgs-Mlns
 Foreign deposits.............219 down.......29
 Gold stock................11,059 unch.........
 Custody holdings.........168,348 down......366
 Federal funds rate avg......5.95 vs.......6.21
    Factors on Wednesday, Feb 25
 Bank borrowings............1,239 vs........446
 Including extended credits....92 vs........298
 Matched sales..............8,250 vs......2,998
 Including sales w/cust.....4,392 vs......2,998
 Float........................935 vs......2,125
                                               
 Reuter

announced the prevailing world market price, adjusted to U.S.
quality and location, for Strict Low Middling, 1-1/16 inch
upland cotton at 52.69 cts per lb, to be in effect through
midnight March 5.
    The adjusted world price is at average U.S. producing
locations (near Lubbock, Texas) and will be further adjusted
for other qualities and locations. The price will be used in
determining First Handler Cotton Certificate payment rates.
    Based on data for the week ended February 26, the adjusted
world price for upland cotton is determined as follows, in cts
per lb --
 Northern European Price               66.32
      Adjustments --
 Average U.S. spot mkt location 10.42 
 SLM 1-1/16 inch cotton          1.80 
 Average U.S. location           0.53
 Sum of adjustments              12.75
 Adjusted world price            53.57
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department said
cumulative sugar imports from individual countries during the
1987 quota year, which began January 1, 1987 and ends December
31, 1987 were as follows, with quota allocations for the quota
year in short tons, raw value --
            CUMULATIVE     QUOTA 1987
              IMPORTS     ALLOCATIONS
 ARGENTINA        nil          39,130
 AUSTRALIA        nil          75,530
 BARBADOS         nil           7,500
 BELIZE           nil          10,010
 BOLIVIA          nil           7,500
 BRAZIL           nil         131,950
 CANADA           nil          18,876
                           QUOTA 1987
 COLOMBIA         103          21,840
 CONGO            nil           7,599
 COSTA RICA       nil          17,583
 IVORY COAST      nil           7,500
 DOM REP        5,848         160,160
 ECUADOR          nil          10,010
 EL SALVADOR      nil          26,019.8
 FIJI             nil          25,190
 GABON            nil           7,500
                           QUOTA 1987
 GUATEMALA        nil          43,680
 GUYANA           nil          10,920
 HAITI            nil           7,500
 HONDURAS         nil          15,917.2
 INDIA            nil           7,500
 JAMAICA          nil          10,010
 MADAGASCAR       nil           7,500
 MALAWI           nil           9,,100
                           QUOTA 1987
               IMPORTS    ALLOCATIONS
 MAURITIUS         nil         10,920
 MEXICO             37          7,500
 MOZAMBIQUE        nil         11,830
 PANAMA            nil         26,390
 PAPUA NEW GUINEA  nil          7,500
 PARAGUAY          nil          7,500
 PERU              nil         37,310
 PHILIPPINES       nil        143,780
 ST.CHRISTOPHER-
 NEVIS             nil          7,500
                          QUOTA 1987
                IMPORTS  ALLOCATIONS
 SWAZILAND          nil         14,560
 TAIWAN             nil         10,920
 THAILAND           nil         12,740
 TRINIDAD-TOBAGO    nil          7,500
 URUGUAY            nil          7,500
 ZIMBABWE           nil         10,920

 Reuter

There were seven grain ships loading and
six ships were waiting to load at Portland, according to the
Portland Merchants Exchange.
 Reuter

Iran announced tonight that its major
offensive against Iraq in the Gulf war had ended after dealing
savage blows against the Baghdad government.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA, in a report received in
London, said the operation code-named Karbala-5 launched into
Iraq on January 9 was now over.
    It quoted a joint statewment by the Iranian Army and
Revolutionary Guards Corps as saying that their forces had
"dealt one of the severest blows on the Iraqi war machine in the
history of the Iraq-imposed war."
    The statement by the Iranian High Command appeared to
herald the close of an assault on the port city of Basra in
southern Iraq.
    "The operation was launched at a time when the Baghdad
government was spreading extensive propaganda on the resistance
power of its army...," said the statement quoted by IRNA.
    It claimed massive victories in the seven-week offensive
and called on supporters of Baghdad to "come to their senses" and
discontinue support for what it called the tottering regime in
Iraq.
    Iran said its forces had "liberated" 155 square kilometers of
enemy-occupied territory during the 1987 offensive and taken
over islands, townships, rivers and part of a road leading into
Basra.
    The Iranian forces "are in full control of these areas," the
statement said.
    It said 81 Iraqi brigades and battalions were totally
destroyed, along with 700 tanks and 1,500 other vehicles. The
victory list also included 80 warplanes downed, 250 anti-
aircraft guns and 400 pieces of military hardware destroyed and
the seizure of 220 tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
 Reuter

    Record March 15
 Reuter

U.S. bank discount window borrowings
less extended credits averaged 310 mln dlrs in the week to
Wednesday February 25, the Federal Reserve said.
    The Fed said that overall borrowings in the week fell 131
mln dlrs to 614 mln dlrs, with extended credits up 10 mln dlrs
at 304 mln dlrs. The week was the second half of a two-week
statement period. Net borrowings in the prior week averaged 451
mln dlrs.
    Commenting on the two-week statement period ended February
25, the Fed said that banks had average net free reserves of
644 mln dlrs a day, down from 1.34 billion two weeks earlier.
    A Federal Reserve spokesman told a press briefing that
there were no large single day net misses in the Fed's reserve
projections in the week to Wednesday.
    He said that natural float had been "acting a bit
strangely" for this time of year, noting that there had been
poor weather during the latest week.
    The spokesman said that natural float ranged from under 500
mln dlrs on Friday, for which he could give no reason, to
nearly one billion dlrs on both Thursday and Wednesday.
    The Fed spokeman could give no reason for Thursday's high
float, but he said that about 750 mln dlrs of Wednesday's
float figure was due to holdover and transportation float at
two widely separated Fed districts.
    For the week as a whole, he said that float related as of
adjustments were "small," adding that they fell to a negative
750 mln dlrs on Tuesday due to a number of corrections for
unrelated cash letter errors in six districts around the
country.
    The spokesman said that on both Tuesday and Wednesday, two
different clearing banks had system problems and the securities
and Federal funds wires had to be held open until about 2000 or
2100 EST on both days.
    However, he said that both problems were cleared up during
both afternoons and there was no evidence of any reserve
impact.
    During the week ended Wednesday, 45 pct of net discount
window borrowings were made by the smallest banks, with 30 pct
by the 14 large money center banks and 25 pct by large regional
institutions.
    On Wednesday, 55 pct of the borrowing was accounted for by
the money center banks, with 30 pct by the large regionals and
15 pct by the smallest banks.
    The Fed spokesman said the banking system had excess
reserves on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday and a deficit on
Friday and Wedndsday. That produced a small daily average
deficit for the week as a whole.
    For the two-week period, he said there were relatively high
excess reserves on a daily avearge, almost all of which were at
the smallest banks.
 Reuter

American Express Co remained silent on
market rumors it would spinoff all or part of its Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc, but some analysts said the company may be
considering such a move because it is unhappy with the market
value of its stock.
    American Express stock got a lift from the rumor, as the
market calculated a partially public Shearson may command a
good market value, thereby boosting the total value of American
Express. The rumor also was accompanied by talk the financial
services firm would split its stock and boost its dividend.
    American Express closed on the New York Stock Exchange at
72-5/8, up 4-1/8 on heavy volume.
    American Express would not comment on the rumors or its
stock activity.
    Analysts said comments by the company at an analysts'
meeting Tuesday helped fuel the rumors as did an announcement
yesterday of management changes.
    At the meeting, company officials said American Express
stock is undervalued and does not fully reflect the performance
of Shearson, according to analysts.
    Yesterday, Shearson said it was elevating its chief
operating officer, Jeffery Lane, to the added position of
president, which had been vacant. It also created four new
positions for chairmen of its operating divisions.
    Analysts speculated a partial spinoff would make most
sense, contrary to one variation on market rumors of a total
spinoff.
    Some analysts, however, disagreed that any spinoff of
Shearson would be good since it is a strong profit center for
American Express, contributing about 20 pct of earnings last
year.
    "I think it is highly unlikely that American Express is
going to sell shearson," said Perrin Long of Lipper Analytical.
He questioned what would be a better investment than "a very
profitable securities firm."
    Several analysts said American Express is not in need of
cash, which might be the only reason to sell a part of a strong
asset.
    But others believe the company could very well of
considered the option of spinning out part of Shearson, and one
rumor suggests selling about 20 pct of it in the market.
    Larry Eckenfelder of Prudential-Bache Securities said he
believes American Express could have considered a partial
spinoff in the past.
    "Shearson being as profitable as it is would have fetched a
big premium in the market place. Shearson's book value is in
the 1.4 mln dlr range. Shearson in the market place would
probably be worth three to 3.5 bilion dlrs in terms of market
capitalization," said Eckenfelder.
    Some analysts said American Express could use capital since
it plans to expand globally.
    "They have enormous internal growth plans that takes
capital. You want your stock to reflect realistic valuations to
enhance your ability to make all kinds of endeavors down the
road," said E.F. Hutton Group analyst Michael Lewis.
    "They've outlined the fact that they're investing heavily
in the future, which goes heavily into the international
arena," said Lewis. "...That does not preclude acquisitions and
divestitures along the way," he said.
    Lewis said if American Express reduced its exposure to the
brokerage business by selling part of shearson, its stock might
better reflect other assets, such as the travel related
services business.
    "It could find its true water mark with a lesser exposure
to brokerage. The value of the other components could command a
higher multiple because they constitute a higher percentage of
the total operating earnings of the company," he said.
     Lewis said Shearson contributed 316 mln in after-tax
operating earnings, up from about 200 mln dlrs in 1985.
   
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply rose 2.1 billion
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 736.7 billion dlrs in the
February 16 week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 734.6 billion
dlrs from 734.2 billion dlrs, while the four-week moving
average of M-1 rose to 735.0 billion dlrs from 733.5 billion.
    Economists polled by Reuters said that M-1 should be
anywhere from down four billion dlrs to up 2.3 billion dlrs.
The average forecast called for a 300 mln dlr M-1 rise.
 Reuter

General Binding Corp said it reached
a marketing agreement with Varitronic Systems Inc, a
manufacturer and marketer of electronic lettering systems.
    Under terms of the agreement, General Binding will carry
Varitronics' Merlin Express Presentation Lettering System, a
portable, battery-operated lettering system which produces type
on adhesive-backed tape.
 Reuter

Liberty All-Star Equity Fund said
it declared an initial dividend of five cts per share, payable
April two to shareholders of record March 20.
    It said the dividend includes a quarterly dividend of three
cts a share and a special payout of two cts a share, which
covers the period from November three, 1986, when the fund
began operations, to December 31, 1986.
    The fund said its quarterly dividend rate may fluctuate in
the future.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Co's Entertainment Business
Sector Inc unit said it formed a joint venture with an
affiliate of World Film Services to acquire, produce and
distribute television programming around the world.
    World Film Services was formed by chairman John Heyman in
1963 to produce films.
   
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said its Ford Motor
Credit Co on April One will redeem 4.0 mln dlrs of its 8.70 pct
debentures due April 1, 1999.
    It said the debentures are redeemable at a price of 100 pct
of the principal. Because April 1, 1987 is an interest payment
date on the debentures, no accrued interest will be payable on
the redemption date as part of the redemption proceeds.
    Debentures will be selected for redemption on a pro rata
basis, Ford said.

 Reuter

Sterling Software Inc said it received
consent of a majority of the holders of its eight pct
convertible sernior subordinated debentures required to
purchase shares of its common.
    The company said it may now buy its stock at its discretion
depending on market conditions.
 Reuter

Schult Homes Corp announced an initial
public offering of 833,334 units at five dlrs per unit, said
Janney Montgomery Scott Inc and Woolcott and Co, managing
underwriters of the offering.
    They said each unit consists of one common share and one
warrant to buy one-half share of common.
    The warrant will entitle holders to buy one-half common
share at 5.50 dlrs per full share from March one, 1988, to
September one, 1989, and thereafter at 6.50 dlrs per full share
until March 1991, they said.
 Reuter

Fluor Corp said its Fluor Daniel
unit received a contract from Union Carbide Corp <UK> covering
design, procurement and construction of a 108 megawatt combined
cycle cogeneration facility in Seadrift, Texas.
    The value of the contract was not disclosed.
 Reuter

Suffield Financial Corp said  
Jon Googel and Benjamin Sisti of Colonial Realty, West
Hartford, Conn., purchased 175,900 shares of its stock for
3,416,624.
    The company said the purchase equals 5.2 pct of its
outstanding shares.
 Reuter

<High Point Financial Corp>
Exchange Commission covering six mln dlrs principal amount of
redeemable subordinated debentures due March one and
cancellable mandatory stock purchase contracts requiring the
purchase of 6.66 mln dlrs in common no later than March one.
    It said the offering will be underwritten by Ryan, Beck and
Co, West Orange, N.J.
 Reuter

High feed prices will cause the
Chinese to reduce hog herd growth and pork production this
year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    In its World Production and Trade Report, the department
said hog numbers at the start of 1987 were estimated at 331.6
mln head, up slightly from 1986, and 10 mln head above earlier
projections for 1987.
    Pork production in 1986 was up 4.2 pct to 17.25 mln tonnes,
slightly below earlier estimates, it said.
    For 1987, production is projected to fall to 17.05 mln
tonnes.
    Feed prices at the end of January were reported 35 to 40
pct above year-ago levels, the department said.
 Reuter

Landmark Bancshares Corp said it
expects its stock to begin trading on March 26 on the New York
Stock Exchange.
    The company, whose stock has traded on the American Stock
Exchange since November 1984, said it will retain its symbol,
LBC, when trading begins on the Big Board.
 Reuter

(Ivaco Inc) said price pressure on steel
products, particularly in the U.S., and the recent increase in
the value of the Canadian dollar is expected to result in
"minimal" first quarter earnings.
    It said subsequent quarters should show substantial
improvement from first quarter levels but 1987 earnings will
not reach 1986 levels as long as those conditions continue.
     Ivaco earlier reported 1986 profit rose to 44.1 mln dlrs,
after a one mln dlr extraordinary gain, from 35.1 mln dlrs the
previous year. It said demand for the company's products are
continuing at high levels and sales are expected to show
further growth. Revenues last year rose to 1.94 billion dlrs
from 1.34 billion dlrs in 1985.       
 Reuter

U.S. grain carloadings totaled 26,108
cars in the week ended February 21, down 2.2 pct from the
previous week but 22.8 pct above the corresponding week a year
ago, the Association of American Railroads reported.
    Grain mill product loadings in the week totalled 11,382
cars, down 1.8 pct from the previous week but 7.6 pct above the
same week a year earlier, the association said.
 Reuter

Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd, a
Hong Kong investment firm, said it raised its stake in Wrather
Corp to 816,000 shares, or 11.3 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 453,300 shares, or 6.3 pct.
Industrial Equity, which is principally owned by Brierley
Investments Ltd, a publicly held New Zealand company, said it
bought 362,700 Wrather common shares between Feb 13 and 24 for
6.6 mln dlrs.
    When it first disclosed its stake in Wrather earlier this
month, it said it bought the stock for investment purposes.
 Reuter

Shr loss 6.48 DLS VS PROFIT 23 CTS
    Net loss 110.6 mln vs profit 4.1 mln
    Revs 74.0 mln vs 152.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 6.52 dlrs vs profit 3.87 dlrs
    net loss 111.2 mln vs profit 64.2 mln
    Revs 501.0 mln vs 776.0 mln
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Corp said that
effective today it had cut its contract prices for crude oil by
1.50 dlrs a barrel.
    The reduction brings its posted price for West Texas
Intermediate to 16.00 dlrs a barrel, the copany said.
    "The price reduction today was made in the light of falling
oil product prices and a weak crude oil market," a company
spokeswoman said.
    Diamond is the latest in a line of U.S. oil companies that
have cut its contract, or posted, prices over the last two days
citing weak oil markets.
 Reuter

Liebert Corp said its shareholders
approved the merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emerson
Electric Co <EMR>.
    Under the terms of the merger, each Liebert shareholder
will receive .3322 shares of Emerson stock for each Liebert
share.
 Reuter

Coleco Industries Inc said
it expects to return to profitability in 1987.
    Earlier, Coleco reported a net loss of 111.2 mln dlrs for
the year ended December 31 compared to a profit of 64.2 mln
dlrs in the year earlier.
    In a prepared statement, the company said the dramatic
swing in operating results was due primarily to the steep
decline in sales of Cabbage Patch Kids products from 600 mln
dlrs to 230 mln dlrs.
    Coleco said it changed from a single product company to a
more diversified organization through four major acquisitions
last year.
    Products from the new acquisitions and other new product
introductions are expected to enable it to return to
profitability, it said.
    At the annual Toy Fair earlier this month, vice president
Morton Handel said analysts' 1987 projected earnings of 90 cts
a share on sales of 600 mln dlrs are reasonable.
   
 Reuter

Olin Corp said its board will
elect in April John Johnstone Jr as its chief executive
officer.
    The company said he will succeed John M Henske, who is also
chairman. It said Johnstone, 54, is now president and chief
operating officer.
    Henske, 53, has served as CEO since 1978 and chairman since
1980. He will continue as chairman until his retirement in June
1988.
 Reuter

 Required reserves..........55,513 vs....56,208
 Total reserves.............56,538 vs....57,705
 Non-borrowed reserves......55,859 vs....57,281
 Monetary base.............244,199 vs...244,925
                         
 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE WEEKLY REPORT 2 - FEB 26
     Two weeks ended Feb 25                    
 Total vault cash...........25,237 vs....27,327
 Inc cash equal to req res..22,834 vs....24,680

 Reuter

sold its subsidiaries engaged in pipeline and terminal
operations for 12.2 mln dlrs.
    The company said the sale is subject to certain post
closing adjustments, which it did not explain.
 Reuter

A group of affiliated Miami-based
investment firms led by Fundamental Management Corp said it
raised its stake in Robeson Industries Corp to 238,000 shares,
or 14.6 pct of the total, from 205,000 or 12.8 pct.
the group said it bought 32,800 Robeson common shares between
Jan 26 and Feb 9 for 175,691 dlrs.
    The group said it may buy more shares and plans to study
Robeson's operations. Afterwards it may recommend that
management make changes in its operations. Fundamental
Management Chairman Carl Singer was recently elected to the
Robeson board.
 Reuter

A study on grain certificates due out
shortly from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) could show
that certificates cost the government 10 to 15 pct more than
cash outlays, administration and industry sources said.
    Analysis that the GAO has obtained from the Agriculture
Department and the Office of Management and Budget suggests
that certificates cost more than cash payments, a GAO official
told Reuters.
    GAO is preparing the certificate study at the specific
request of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), former chairman of the
senate agriculture committee.
    The report, which will focus on the cost of certificates
compared to cash, is scheduled to be released in mid March.
    The cost of certificates, said the GAO source, depends on
the program's impact on the USDA loan program.
    If GAO determines that certificates encourage more loan
entries or cause more loan forfeitures, then the net cost of
the program would go up. However, if it is determined that
certificates have caused the government grain stockpile to
decrease, the cost effect of certificates would be less.
    GAO will not likely suggest whether the certificates
program should be slowed or expanded, the GAO official said.
    But a negative report on certificates "will fuel the fire
against certificates and weigh heavily on at least an increase
in the certificate program," an agricultural consultant said.
    The OMB is said to be against any expansion of the program,
while USDA remains firmly committed to it.
 Reuter

venezuela is seeking a 'constructive and
flexible' attitude from its creditor banks in current talks to
reschedule 21 billion dlrs in foreign debt, finance minister
manuel azpurua told a press conference.
    He declined to comment on meetings this week in new york
between public finances director jorge marcano and venezuela's
13-bank advisory committee except to say, "they are
progressing."
    Azpurua said venezuela has shown solidarity with brazil's
decision to suspend payments, but each country must negotiate
according to its own interest.
    Asked to comment on chile's agreement with its creditors
today, which includes an interest rate margin of one pct over
libor, azpurua said only, "that is good news."
    According to banking sources, the banks' latest offer to
venezuela is also a one pct margin as against the last
february's 1-1/8 pct rescheduling accord and the 7/8 pct
Venezuela wants.
    Azpurua said four basic elements are being negotiated with
the banks now: spread reduction, deferral of principal payments
due in 1987 and 1988, lenghtening the 12-1/2 year repayment
schedule, and debt capitalization schemes.
    Azpurua said the governent plans to pay 2.1 billion dlrs in
public and private debt principal this year. It was due to
amortize 1.05 billion dlrs under the rescheduling, and pay 420
mln dlrs in non-restructured principal, both public sector.
    He said venezuela's original proposal was to pay no
principal on restructured debt this year, but is now insisting
that if it makes payments they be compensated by new bank
loans.
    The banking sources said the committee has been prepared to
lower amortizations to around 400 mln dlrs this year, but that
no direct commitment was likely on new loans.
    "debtors and bank creditors have a joint responsibility and
there will be no lasting solution unless a positive flow of
financing is guaranteed," azpurua said.
    However, he appeared to discard earlier venezuelan
proposals for a direct link between oil income and debt
payments, "because circumstances change too quickly."
    At the same time, he said the government is presently
studying possible mechanisms for capitlizing public and private
sector foreign debt, based on experience in other countries.
The rules would be published by the finance ministry and the
central bank.
 Reuter

Shr profit 10 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 286,870 vs loss 156,124
    Revs 10.0 mln vs 7,577,207
    Year
    Shr profit five cts vs profit 42 cts
    Net profit 160,109 vs profit 906,034
    Revs 38.1 mln vs 31.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2.9 mln vs 2.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year includes 53 weeks.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 13 cts
    Pay April 15
    Record March 31
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.98 dlrs vs loss 5.24 dlrs
    Net loss 23.3 mln vs loss 44.8 mln
    Revs 13.6 mln vs 29.6 mln
    Note: 1986 net includes nine mln dlr extraordinary loss for
oil and gas writedowns and unrealized foreign exchange losses
vs yr-ago loss of 32.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Thomson McKinnon Mortgage Assets Corp, a
unit of Thomson McKinnon Inc, is offering 100 mln dlrs of
collateralized mortgage obligations in three tranches that
include floating rate and inverse floating rate CMOS.
    The floating rate class amounts to 60 mln dlrs. It has an
average life of 7.11 years and matures 2018. The CMOs have an
initial coupon of 7.0375 pct, which will be reset 60 basis
points above LIBOR, said sole manager Thomson McKinnon.
    The inverse floater totals 4.8 mln dlrs. It has an average
life of 13.49 years and matures 2018. These CMOs were given an
initial coupon of 11-1/2 pct and priced at 104.40.
    Subsequent rates on the inverse floater will equal 11-1/2
pct minus the product of three times (LIBOR minus 6-1/2 pct).
    A Thomson officer explained that the coupon of the inverse
floating rate tranche would increase if LIBOR declined. "The
yield floats opposite of LIBOR," he said.
    The fixed-rate tranche totals 35.2 mln dlrs. It has an
average life of 3.5 years and matures 2016. The CMOs were
assigned a 7.65 pct coupon and par pricing.
    The issue is rated AAA by Standard and Poor's and secured
by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, Freddie Mac, certificates.
 Reuter

Period ended December 31.
    Shr 25 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 801,000 vs 703,000
    Revs 6,318,000 vs 3,926,000
 Reuter

Qtly div ten cts vs ten cts
    Pay April 1
    Record March 9
 Reuter

OPEC may be forced to meet before a
scheduled June session to readdress its production cutting
agreement if the organization wants to halt the current slide
in oil prices, oil industry analysts said.
    "The movement to higher oil prices was never to be as easy
as OPEC thought. They may need an emergency meeting to sort out
the problems," said Daniel Yergin, director of Cambridge Energy
Research Associates, CERA.
    Analysts and oil industry sources said the problem OPEC
faces is excess oil supply in world oil markets.
    "OPEC's problem is not a price problem but a production
issue and must be addressed in that way," said Paul Mlotok, oil
analyst with Salomon Brothers Inc.
    He said the market's earlier optimism about OPEC and its
ability to keep production under control have given way to a
pessimistic outlook that the organization must address soon if
it wishes to regain the initiative in oil prices.
    But some other analysts were uncertain that even an
emergency meeting would address the problem of OPEC production
above the 15.8 mln bpd quota set last December.
    "OPEC has to learn that in a buyers market you cannot have
deemed quotas, fixed prices and set differentials," said the
regional manager for one of the major oil companies who spoke
on condition that he not be named. "The market is now trying to
teach them that lesson again," he added.
    David T. Mizrahi, editor of Mideast reports, expects OPEC
to meet before June, although not immediately. However, he is
not optimistic that OPEC can address its principal problems.
    "They will not meet now as they try to take advantage of the
winter demand to sell their oil, but in late March and April
when demand slackens," Mizrahi said.
    But Mizrahi said that OPEC is unlikely to do anything more
than reiterate its agreement to keep output at 15.8 mln bpd."
    Analysts said that the next two months will be critical for
OPEC's ability to hold together prices and output.
    "OPEC must hold to its pact for the next six to eight weeks
since buyers will come back into the market then," said Dillard
Spriggs of Petroleum Analysis Ltd in New York.
    But Bijan Moussavar-Rahmani of Harvard University's Energy
and Environment Policy Center said that the demand for OPEC oil
has been rising through the first quarter and this may have
prompted excesses in its production.
    "Demand for their (OPEC) oil is clearly above 15.8 mln bpd
and is probably closer to 17 mln bpd or higher now so what we
are seeing characterized as cheating is OPEC meeting this
demand through current production," he told Reuters in a
telephone interview.
 Reuter

Cenergy Corp reported fourth quarter net
income of 790,000 dlrs or seven cts per share on revenues of
7.7 mln dlrs.
    For the year it reported a net loss of 6.5 mln dlrs or 70
cts per share as a result of writedowns in the book value of
its oil and gas properties in the first two quarters. Revenues
were 37 mln dlrs.
    Following the company's fiscal year ended March 31, 1985,
it changed to a calender year end.
    For the nine months ended Dec 31, 1985, it reported a loss
of 63.4 mln dlrs or 6.54 dlrs per share on revenues of 47.6 mln
dlrs, which it said was a result of noncash writedowns of oil
and gas properties.
    For the year ended March 31, 1985, Cenergy reported net
income of 3,705,000 dlrs or 36 cts per share on revenues of 71
mln dlrs.
    The company said its reserves during the year fell to five
mln barrels from 6.4 mln barrels of oil and to 60.1 bilion
cubic feet of gas from 63.7 BCF. It said these reserves did not
disappear but are available to produce as prices recover.
 Reuter

Two-for-one stock split
    Pay May 12
    Note: split is subject to approval of shareholders at April
23 annual meeting.
    Company also said it will increase dividend on post-split
shares to six cts from five cts.
 Reuter

Torchmark Corp said its board
authorized the purchase from time to time of a significant
portion of its 7-3/4 pct convertible subordinated debentures.
As of February 25, it said there were outstanding 150 mln dlrs
of the principal amount of debenures.
    The company also said it plans to redeem the debentures on
June eight.
    It also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 25 cts per
share on its common payable May one to shareholders of record
April 10.
 Reuter

Painewebber Group Inc said it will
redeem all its outstanding 8-1/4 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due 2008.
    It said it will redeem all the debentures for 1,060.50 dlrs
plus accrued interest to the redemption date of March 30. The
notes can be converted into common stock at a price of 42.35
dlrs per share.
 Reuter

R.P. Scherer Inc said it registered
with the Securities and Exchange Commission a proposed public
offering of 1.2 mln shares of convertible exchangeable
preferred stock at 25 dlrs a share.
    In addition, the company said it is offering 200,000
preferred shares to Richard Manoogian, a Scherer director at 25
dlrs a share. Manoogian said he will buy the 200,000 shares.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt and
to fund research and development, it said.
    Underwriters are led by Goldman, Sachs and Co.
 Reuter

<Parlux Fragrances Inc> said it
completed the offering of 420,000 unis at 10 dlrs each through
underwriters R.C. Stamm and Co and Rosenkrantz Lyon and Ross
Inc.
    Each unit consists of two shares of common stock and one
redeemable warrant, which entitles the holder to buy an
additional common share for six dlrs between Feb 26, 1988 and
Feb 26, 1992.
    The company creates and markets fragrances and beauty
products, including the "Anne Klein" line, through department
and specialty stores.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs not available
    Net loss 562,231 vs profit 10,253
    Revs 8,871,874 vs 9,549,308
    Year
    Shr loss 60 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 5,058,145 vs loss 766,185
    Revs 34.3 mln vs 35.5 mln
   
 Reuter

    Pay April three
 Reuter

A senior official of Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc and his father told the Securities and Exchange
Commission they have acquired 258,591 shares of Epsilon Data
Management Inc, or 9.4 pct of the total outstanding.
    Kenneth Thomas, senior vice president-investments at
Drexel's Los Angeles office, and his father, retired university
professor C.A. Thomas, said they bought the stake for 2.1 mln
dlrs primarily for investment purposes.
    They said they may buy more stock or sell some or all of
their stake, depending on market conditions, but have no plans
to seek control of the company.
 Reuter

The following proposed securities
offerings were filed recently with the Securities and Exchange
Commission:
    Bio-Technology General Corp <BTGC> - Offering of 25 mln
dlrs of convertible senior subordinated notes due March 1997
through Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
 Reuter

Varian Associates Inc and
<Siemens A.G.> said they signed a letter of intent to form and
jointly operate a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
spectroscopy business in Fremont, Calif.
    The systems are smaller than magnetic resonance imaging
equipment currently used in clinical examinations, the
companies said.
    They also said the products resulting from the venture are
intended for use in small animal research, certain limited
medical research and materials testing.
 Reuter

Du Pont Co said the U.S.
District Court for Delaware ruled that Phillips Petroleum Co
had infringed on its patent covering certain melt-processable
ethylene copolymer resins and polyethylene pipe systems.
    It also said the court ruled that Phillips infringed on
various claims of its patent and enjoined Phillips from making,
selling, or using any products covered by the patents.
    It said the court ordrered an accounting to determine
damages due for past infringement by Phillips.
 Reuter

Nova, the Canadian company that
owns 56 pct of Husky Oil Ltd, said it received government
approval for a transaction under which <Union Faith Canada
Holding Ltd> would buy a 43 pct stake in Husky.
    Nova said the Minister of Regional and Industrial
Expansion, Michel Cote, ruled that Union Faith's purchase of
the Husky stake would not result in Husky ceding control to a
non-Canadian company. It said this ruling was a key condition
in completing the deal.
    Union Faith is equally owned by <Hutchison Whampoa Ltd> and
<Hong Kong Electric Holdings Ltd>.
    Under the agreement with Union Faith, Husky will become a
private company with Union Faith and Nova each holding 43 pct
of its stock.
    Nine pct of Husky would be owned by relatives of Li
Ka-Shing, chairman of Hutchison, and five pct by the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerice.
 Reuter

Presidential Airways Inc said its
joint marketing and services agreement with Texas Air Corp's
<TXN> Continental Airlines unit was approved by the U.S.
Department of Justice.
    According to the agreement, Presidential Airways will
operate scheduled service under the name "Continental Express."
The company, however, will remain independent.
   
 Reuter

The Army said it will renegotiate a
400 mln dlr contract with ITT Corp for jam-proof field radios
after recent tests indicated the radios will work properly.
    Full production of 44,600 of the Single Channel Ground and
Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) sets has been delayed since
the contract was let in 1983. The radios did not meet
specifications of operating for 1,250 hours before failing.
    The Army said recent tests have indicated better
reliability and that the contract will be renegotiated.
 REUTERS

Oper shr 27 cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 13.5 mln vs 14.6 mln
    Revs 104.6 mln vs 110.3 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr 4.10 dlrs vs 3.66 dlrs
    Oper net 205 mln vs 186.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 12 mths oper net excludes extraordinary gain of
21.7 mln dlrs or 46 cts per share from sale of Virginia service
territory to Virginia Power.
 Reuter

Torchmark Corp is raising 200 mln dlrs
through an offering of sinking fund debentures due 2017
yielding 8.65 pct, said lead manager First Boston Corp.
    The debentures have an 8-5/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.73 to yield 100 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
Treasury bonds of 2016.
    Non-refundable for 10 years, the issue is rated A-2 by
Moody's and AA by Standard and Poor's.
    A sinking fund starts in 1998 to retire 76 pct of the
debentures by maturity, giving them an estimated maximum life
of 22.4 years. Merrill Lynch co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Suffield Financial Corp said the
Federal Reserve Board approved its application to acquire
Coastal Bancorp <CSBK>, Portland, Me.
    Suffield said it still needs the approval of the
superintendent of Maine's banking department.
 Reuter

Qtly div four cts vs four cts
    Pay April 3
    Record March 23
 Reuter

Oper shr 2.16 dlrs vs 2.07 dlrs
    Oper net 8,037,000 vs 7,710,000
    Revs 136.4 mln vs 133.3 mln
    Note: 1986 net excludes extraordinary gain of 13 mln dlrs
or 3.50 dlrs shr from sale of <Camco Inc> shares vs yr-ago loss
of 4.3 mln dlrs or 1.14 dlrs shr.
 Reuter

Qtly div 51 cts vs 51 cts
    Pay April 9
    Record March 25
    (Santa Anita Realty Enterprises Inc)
 Reuter

Qtly div 40 cts vs 40 cts
    Record March 16
 Reuter

Oper shr five cts vs 36 cts
    Oper net 508,000 vs 3,450,000
    Revs 296.7 mln vs 298.0 mln
    Note: former name Marshall Drummond McCall Inc.
    Results include extraordinary gains of 952,000 dlrs or 11
cts per share in 1986 and 2,569,000 dlrs or 29 cts in 1985 from
income tax reduction.              
 Reuter

(Marshall Steel Ltd), formerly Marshall
Drummond McCall Inc, said it will report a 17 mln dlr net gain
before taxes this year from the sale of its Drummond McCall
division, which was sold effective January one.                
   
 Reuter

Oper shr 21 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 659,000 vs 523,000
    Revs 7,866,000 vs 5,503,000
    Avg shrs 3,141,217 vs 2,925,294
    12 mths
    Oper shr 70 cts vs 46 cts
    Oper net 2,075,000 vs 1,358,000
    Revs 25.9 mln vs 19.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,980,247 vs 2,925,294
    Note: Excludes tax gain of 295,000 dlrs for qtr and year.
 Reuter

BanPonce Corp said it privately placed
30 mln dlrs of its 8.25 pct senior notes due 1992 through
Lincoln National Investment Management Co, New York Life
Insurance Co and Dillon Read and Co Inc.
    It said proceeds will be used to increase working capital,
for general corporate purposes, and for possible future
    - Corrects dollar figure of notes placed in item appearing
Feb 25.
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY SAYS IT WILL PARTICIPATE WITH OTHERS IN 500 MLN DLR BRIDGE LOAN TO ARGENTINA

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
(FDIC) said three troubled banks in Texas and Louisiana were
merged with healthy financial institutions.
    The FDIC said it subsidized the merger of Central Bank and
Trust Co, Glenmora, La., with the healthy Peoples Bank and
Trust Co, Natchitoches, La., after state regulators notified it
that Central was in danger of failing.
    Central had assets of 28.3 mln dlrs.
    The FDIC said the deposits of the failed Farmers State
Bank, Hart, Tex., were assumed by Hale County State Bank,
Plainview, Tex.
    Farmers, with 9.6 mln dlrs in assets, was closed by Texas
bank regulators.
    The deposits of the failed First National Bank of Crosby,
Crosby, Tex., with total assets of 8.2 mln dlrs, were assumed
by Central Bancshares of the South Inc, Birmingham, Ala., after
First National was closed by federal bank regulators, the FDIC
said.
    The number of federally insured banks to fail so far this
year now totals 32, the FDIC said.
 Reuter

Olin Corp said John W. Johnstone
Jr, 54, president and chief operating officer, will succeed
John M. Henske as chief executive officer on April 30.
    Henske, 63, will continue as chairman until he retires in
June 1988, Olin said.
 Reuter

Daewoo Motor Corp, the Korea-based
joint venture between Daewoo Group and General Motors Corp
<GM>, said it will boost its 1987 imports of U.S. goods to 200
mln dlrs from 104 mln dlrs in 1986.
    The company said U.S. imports will account for about 35 pct
of its total planned imports of 565 mln dlrs in 1987. Last
year, U.S. goods accounted for about 19 pct of the company's
imports, up from 6.5 pct in 1985.
    The products slated for import include automobile and
machinery parts, catalytic converters, fuel injection systems
and electronic emission testing systems, it said.
 Reuter

Brazil's 14-bank advisory committee
expressed "grave concern" to chief debt negotiator Antonio
Padua de Seixas over the country's suspension of interest
payments, according to a telex from committee chairman Citibank
to creditor banks worldwide.
    Bankers said the diplomatic phrase belied the deep anger
and frustration on the committee over Brazil's unilateral move
last Friday and its subsequent freeze on some 15 billion dlrs
of short-term trade and interbank lines.
    Seixas, director of the Brazilian central bank's foreign
debt department, met the full panel on Tuesday and Wednesday.
    Seixas, who met again this morning with senior Citibank
executive William Rhodes and representatives from committee
vice-chairmen Morgan Guaranty Trust Co and Lloyds Bank Plc,
told the banks that the government was preparing a telex to
explain and clarify the freeze on short-term credits.
    The telex could be sent to creditors as early as today,
bankers said.
    Despite the rising tempers, bankers said there are no plans
for Brazilian finance minister Dilson Funaro to meet commercial
bankers during his trip to Washington on Friday and Saturday.
    Funaro will be explaining Brazil's actions to U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker, Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul
Volcker and International Monetary Fund managing director
Michel Camdessus before travelling to Europe at the weekend.
    Meanwhile, bankers were to hear in New York this afternoon
what impact Brazil's hard line would have on Argentina, with an
initial presentation from Argentine Treasury Secretary Mario
Brodersohn on his country's request for 2.15 billion dlrs in
new loans and a multi-year rescheduling agreement. Argentina
has threatened to emulate Brazil's payments moratorium if the
banks do not grant its request.
 Reuter

Liquefied natural gas imports from
Algeria are unlikely to happen in 1987 even though its
economically feasible, U.S. industry analysts sources said.
    Youcef Yousfi, director-general of Sonatrach, the Algerian
state petroleum agency, indicated in a television interview in
Algiers that such imports would be made this year.
    "Contract negotiations, filing with the U.S. government and
the time required to restart mothballed terminals will delay
the import until 1988/1989," Daniel Tulis, a natural gas
analyst with Shearson Lehman Bros. said.
    Sonatrach is currently negotiating with two of its former
customers, Panhandle Eastern <PEL> and Distrigas, a subsidiary
of Cabot Corp <CBT> to resume LNG export, company officials
told Reuters. A third, El Paso Gas, a subsidiary of Burlington
Northern <BNI>, has expressed no interest.
    Industry analysts said some imports of Algerian LNG were
feasible. "On a marginal cost basis, the companies that have
made capital investment to handle LNG import can operate
profitably even in the current price environment,"  Frank
Spadine, an energy economist with Bankers Trust, said.
   Analysts did not forsee a major impact from Algerian imports
on U.S. prices which are currently soft but expected to trend
higher by the end of 1987.
    A decline in gas drilling and the time lag to bring Gulf of
Mexico productions onstream will tighten gas supplies and firm
prices, Shearson's Tulis said.
   In this context, Algerian LNG import would be a source of
supplemental supply to U.S. domestic production, he added.
    Company sources currently in talks with Algeria agree,
saying that Algerian LNG would only serve to meet peak demand.
    Company sources also said that any negotiations with
Algeria would emphasize looser arrangements which would relate
volumes to market requirements and prices to U.S. spot market
values.
 Reuter

The chairman of the Senate Agriculture
subcommittee on credit said the panel will consider a farm
credit rescue package by Easter even if the system and its
regulator do not ask for help by then.
    "We're going to have a bill to markup, I guarantee you,
before the Easter recess," Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.) said.
    Senate Majority leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) wants
recommendations on farm credit presented by April 11, when
Congress is scheduled to break for Easter, Boren said.
    Boren urged the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the
system's regulator, to quickly make a formal request for aid.
    Under the 1985 Farm credit law passed by Congress, the FCA,
as regulator, is to certify when the system has exhausted all
its capital and needs federal government help.
    However, FCA chairman Frank Naylor said because much of the
system's remaining capital is tied-up in legal action,
he could not technically certify a rescue is needed this year
and perhaps not even in 1988. The other Republican member of
the three-man FCA board, Marvin Duncan, agreed.
    But Boren urged that even if FCA cannot technically certify
aid is needed, it should request help informally.
    "We all know we need a capital infusion," Boren said.
    Boren and the FCA officials spoke at a hearing on the
plight of the farm credit system. Also at the hearing, Brent
Beesely, chief executive of the Farm Credit Council
representing the system, said that at the end of 1986 the
system had only 1.5 billion dlrs in working capital remaining
after losses of 4.6 billion dlrs over the last two years.
    While he did not ask for government aid, Beesley indicated
the situation is serious in some of the 12 system districts.
    "A significant number of banks and associations in the most
economically depressed areas have and will continue to suffer
extraordinary losses," Beesley said.
    Jim Billington, Democratic member of the FCA board, said
the troubles of the system have encouraged the flight of some
one billion dlrs per month from the system as borrowers repay
loans.
    The system's total portfolio shrank to 54.6 billion dlrs by
the end of last year from 66.6 billion the previous year.
    FCA board members said both borrowers and holders of bonds
in the system need to be assured their money is safe. Naylor
suggested the need for a federal assurance to bondholders.
    "The bondholders have no worry at this time," Billington
said.
    Naylor said several proposals for revamping the farm credit
system are circulating. The proposals range from consolidation
of the system into a centralized national lender, to
de-centralizing into semi-independent institutions.
    But He and the system spokesman Beesley were cautious about
proposals for a secondary market on farm loans. Those
proposals would package farm loans for resale to investors.
    Naylor and Beesley said a secondary market set-up outside
the farm credit system would hurt the system. But Beesley said
a secondary market with the farm credit system as its agent
could be developed without Congressional legislation.
 Reuter

The Tower Commission's scathing   
comments on President Reagan's embattled chief of staff Donald
Regan could signal the death knell to his White House tenure,
but the impact of its strong criticism on two other top
officials was less clear.
    Regan has come in for tough criticism for his handling of
Reagan's worst political crisis since details of the covert
arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to Nicaraguan
rebels first emerged last November.
    But criticism of the roles of Secretary of State George
Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who said they
opposed the Iran arms initiative yet failed to end it, had been
muted until the release of the Tower Commission report.
    "Their obligation was to give the president their full
support and continued advice with respect to the program or, if
they could not in conscience do that, to so inform the
president," the report said after a three-month probe.
    "Instead, they simply distanced themselves from the program.
They protected the record as to their own positions on this
president from the consequences of his personal commitment to
freeing the hostages."
    The report saved some of its most scathing language for
Regan, a gruff former Wall Street executive and close personal
friend of Reagan whose autocratic rule in the White House
angered some top Reagan officials and, perhaps more
importantly, Reagan's wife Nancy.
    "More than almost any chief of staff of recent memory, he
asserted personal control over the White House staff and sought
to extend this control to the national security adviser," said
the report.
    Washington analysts said Regan's departure now appeared to
be only a matter of timing. Many expected the president to
announce it when he addresses the nation on the Tower
Commission's findings next week.
    With Regan's departure apparently imminent and Poindexter
and other key figures in the scandal already out of office, the
report's tough criticism of Shultz and Weinberger could turn
the spotlight on their future.
    Senate Republican leader Robert Dole, a key Reagan ally,
told reporters the report disclosed "colossal blunders" and said
people who had not served the president well should step aside,
but he did not specify who should go.
    "It would seem to me that if you don't protect the
president, you don't serve the president well, then you should
move on," the Kansas Republican, a likely presidential candidate
next year, said.
    One Republican strategist said he believed Regan would not
be the only White House official to leave in the near future.
   
 Reuter

Switzerland's economy, combining low
unemployment, financial stability and a large external payments
surplus, is in excellent condition and faces a satisfactory
future, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development, OECD, said.
    This reflected the success of stable and relatively tight
fiscal and monetary policies followed by the government, it
said.
    The OECD, in its annual report on Switzerland, picked out
some signs of a slowdown in activity and a slight pick-up in
inflation this year, but said these gave no cause for concern.
    The study forecast a decline in Gross Domestic Product
growth to 1.75 pct this year from an estimated two pct in 1986
and a small rise in consumer price inflation to 1.25 pct after
last year's sharp fall to 0.75 pct from 3.6 pct in 1985.
    But it said job creation should continue to absorb a modest
increase in the workforce, leaving the unemployment rate
unchanged at around one pct, the lowest in the 24-industrial
nation OECD area.
    Assuming an average exchange rate of 1.71 Swiss francs to
the dollar this year, against 1.69 in the second half of 1986,
the report forecast a 2.75 pct rise in exports and a 3.5 pct
rise in imports this year after rises of 3.25 pct and 6.5 pct
respectively in 1986.
    The faster growth of imports compared with exports this
year and last, reflecting buoyant private consumption, meant
that the contribution of the foreign payments balance to GDP
would shrink in both years.
    But "given Switzerland's large external surplus, there
should be no concern if domestic demand grows faster than
GDP...Which, if only in a small way, would contribute to
improving international balances," the OECD said.
    Real private consumption appeared to have been unusually
buoyant last year, with a 3.25 pct growth rate, after several
years of relative weakness, it noted.
    In 1987 private consumption was expected to slow somewhat
to a 2.25 pct growth rate, but should still outstrip overall
GDP, it added.
    The outlook for investment in plant and machinery remained
bright into 1987, and with capacity use at near record levels
last year there was scope for rationalisation and modernisation
in both the industry and service sectors, it said.
    As a consequence, growth in machinery and equipment
investment is likely to decelerate only slightly this year
after vigorous growth in 1986.
    But the report raised a questionmark over the prospects for
tourism and the banking industry, two major service sector
earners of foreign exchange.
    The long-term appreciation of the Swiss Franc, and the
accelerating deregulation of foreign banking markets, could
lead to a loss of international market share for both, it said.
    Particularly for the banks, "recent developments in
international financial markets give rise to the question
whether the Swiss financial system, which has shown substantial
flexibility in the past, is adapting itself at the speed
required ... To preserve its competitive position," it said.
 REUTER

The U.S. Agriculture Department is not
actively considering offering subsidized wheat to the Soviet
Union under the export enhancement program (EEP), senior USDA
officials said.
    However, grain trade analysts said the proposal has not
been ruled out and that an offer might be made, though not in
the very near future.
    "The grain companies are trying to get this fired up again,"
an aide to Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng said. "But there
just isn't much talk about it, informally or formally."
    Most analysts interviewed by Reuters were more confident
than USDA officials that bonus wheat would be offered to the
Soviets, even though U.S. officials did not make such an offer
when they held grain talks with Soviet counterparts earlier
this week.
    But administration and private sources agreed that if the
Reagan administration did decide to offer subsidized wheat to
Moscow, it could take several months.
    "I just don't see any proposal like that sailing through any
interagency process," the aide to Lyng said.
    "An export enhancement offer is not consummated overnight,"
said one former USDA official, who noted that the
administration took three months to decide in favor of selling
China wheat under the subsidy program.
    An official representing a large grain trade company said
deliberations within USDA might be nudged along by members of
Congress, a number of whom urged USDA this week to make a wheat
subsidy offer to the Soviets.
    But Lyng's aide said that during a day-long visit to
Capitol Hill yesterday, House members did not press the
secretary on the subsidy question a single time.
    The administration's interagency trade policy review group,
comprised of subcabinet-level officials, has not been asked to
clear a request to offer Moscow wheat under the EEP, officials
at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office said.
    In their talks this week, the two sides discussed the
administration's previous EEP offer but did not talk about any
new initiative. One USDA official who took part in the
consultations this week described them as an exchange of "calm,
basic, factual economics."
    Another USDA official said there was "not even an informal
suggestion or hint" that the Soviets would live up to their
pledge to buy four mln tonnes of wheat this year if they were
granted more favorable terms.
    USDA and private sources agreed that consideration of an
EEP initiative by interagency review groups likely would be
delayed because of disarray within the White House stemming
from the Iran arms affair.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury said it was willing
to participate with several other industrial countries in
providing a 500 mln-dlr short-term bridge loan to Argentina.
    The Treasury announcecement did not name the other
countries nor the amount of financing the United States was
willing to supply.
    Argentina announced a wage and price freeze on Wednesday
night and is negotiating with New York bankers for about 2.15
billion dlrs in new loans and other financing.
    "Our willingness to participate in this multilateral
short-term financing indicates our support for Argentina's
economic program to achieve sustainable growth and a viable
balance of payments position," the Treassury statement said.
    In announcing a four-month wage and price freeze, Argentine
officials said the country needed "a more serene climate" to
carry out structural changes in the economy.
    But Argentina did not suspend interest payments on its
foreign debts, as neighboring Brazil did last week.
    The Treasury said the U.S. share of bridge financing for
Argentina would come from its Exchange Stabilization Fund.
    The one-page statement noted the International Monetary
Fund expressed confidence in Argentina's economic policies and
prospects by approving a new stand-by financing arrangement for
it on February 18.
    "Argentina is expected to qualify for IMF
balance-of-payments financing which would enable Argentina to
repay a multilateral bridge loan and support the implementation
of its economic program," the statement said.
    The latest Argentine action marked the second time in less
than two years its government has used a wage and price freeze
to restrain inflation.
    The debt talks in New York are being headed by Argentine
Finance Minister Mario Brodersohn and are expected to last for
several days.
    Along with new financing, Argentina reportedly wants lower
interest rates on an existing total 53 billion dlrs in foreign
debt and elimination of foreign banks' control over how some of
the money is loaned in Argentina.
 Reuter

(E.H. Industries (Canada) Inc) said it
plans to bid its EH101 helicopter to replace Canada's fleet of
Sea King aircraft. It said it is joining with (Bell Textron of
Canada), Canadian Marconi Co (CMW), (IMP Group), and (Paramax
Electronics Inc) and is supported by (Augusta S.P.A.),
(Sikorsky Aircraft), and (Westland Group) in the bid.
    The Eh101, aimed at detecting and engaging submarines, was
designed for use by the British and Italian navies and is due
to enter service in 1992, E.H. said.           
 Reuter

Shr 75 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 1,699,124 vs 1,177,786
    Revs 45.6 mln vs 31.6 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.22 dlrs vs 2.20 dlrs
    Net 5,057,292 vs 4,961,085
    Revs 130.2 mln vs 126.7 mln
 Reuter

American Travellers Corp said its
American Travellers Life Insurance Co unit has expanded its
operations.
    The company said the unit has begun marketing in Maryland,
Idaho and the District of Columbia.
 Reuter

<Versatile Corp> said
it agreed in principle to sell its Alberta-based Versatile
Noble Cultivators Co division to Vicon Inc, of Ontario, for
undisclosed terms.
    The division manufactures tillage and spraying equipment.
 Reuter

(Groupe Videotron Ltd) said it agreed to
buy 50 pct of (Groupe Promexpo Inc), a company which
specializes in product exhibits, for three mln dlrs.           
  
 Reuter

Shr 81 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 5,011,000 vs 2,314,000
    Revs 57.3 mln vs 17.6 mln
    Note: results include extraordinary gains of 1,593,000 dlrs
or 26 cts a share in 1986 and 451,000 dlrs or 13 cts a share in
1985.
 Reuter

Rohr Industries Inc said it
has agreed on a three-year labor contract with the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workders,
ending a strike that began ten days ago.
    Under the pact, 4,600 union members at Rohr's Chula Vista
and Riverside plants will receive lump sum payments of ten pct,
six pct and six pct annually, with the first payment going out
in April.
    Rohr will also increase the pension benefit to 24 dlrs per
month for each eligible year of service.
 Reuter

TEXACO CANADA CUTS CRUDE PRICES 64 CANADIAN CTS/BBL, PAR GRADE TO 22.26 CANADIAN DLRS

has threatened to follow Brazil in declaring a payments
moratorium if the banks do not grant its request.
 Reuter

Texaco Canada said it lowered the
contract price it will pay for crude oil 64 Canadian cts a
barrel, effective today.
    The decrease brings the company's posted price for the
benchmark grade, Edmonton/Swann Hills Light Sweet, to 22.26
Canadian dlrs a bbl.
    Texaco Canada last changed its crude oil postings on Feb
19.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co's <DOW> Merrell Dow
Pharmaceuticals Inc unit said a jury found that Bendectin did
not cause the birth defects of a seven-year old boy whose
mother took the drug during pregnancy.
    The anti-nausea drug has been used to treat morning 
sickness and was discontinued in 1983 amid allegations that the
drug caused birth defects.
    Merrell said that to date there have been 12 other trials
involving the drug, 10 in the U.S. and two in West Germany.
    It said verdicts or judgements in favor of the company were
obtained in eight of the trials, one of which included about
1,150 plaintiffs.
    In two trials, Merrell said, verdicts were in favor of the
plaintiffs. In one, it said, the trial judge overruled the
jury's verdict and issued a judgement in favor of the company
and a three judge panel of the Court of Appeals overturned the
trial judge's ruling. Merrell is now awaiting a rehearing of
this case by the full Court of Appeals.
    Of the remaining two trials, one ended in a mistrial and in
the other the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
    At one point about 1700 lawsuits had been filed alleging
the drug caused birth defects, said a company spokesman. He
said about 300 lawsuits are pending.
    Bendectin was first introduced in the early 1950s, and the
Merrell spokesman said a valid application to make and market
the drug is with the Food and Drug Administration should the
company decide it wants to reintroduce it.

 Reuter

probably will not offer a two dlr per bushel bonus payment to
corn farmers for any erodible cropland they enrolled in the
conservation reserve program last year, an aide to USDA
Secretary Richard Lyng said.
    Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said yesterday that Lyng had
indicated he would consider giving those farmers the same two
dlr bonus offered corn farmers who are signing up for the 1987
program this month.
    But the aide to Lyng said it was doubtful that the
department would offer a retroactive bonus to farmers who
enrolled land in the 10-year conservation reserve last year.
    "How are you going to stop the tide," he said, referring to
demands that would follow from other commodity groups.
 Reuter

Marathon Petroleum Co said it reduced
the contract price it will pay for all grades of crude oil one
dlr a barrel, effective today.
    The decrease brings Marathon's posted price for both West
Texas Intermediate and West Texas Sour to 16.50 dlrs a bbl. The
South Louisiana Sweet grade of crude was reduced to 16.85 dlrs
a bbl.
    The company last changed its crude postings on Jan 12.
 Reuter

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) proposed to ease evacuation standards for nuclear plants,
which could lead the way to the licensing of controversial
plants in New York and New Hampshire.
    The NRC voted 4-1 to offer the rule for 60 days of public
comment before it reconsidered it and set emergency evacuation
standards of its own.
    Local authorites at the plants at Shoreham, Long Island,
N.Y., and Seabrook, N.H., had refused to take part in
evacuation planning, as required under existing NRC rules.
    They had claimed the region was too populated for any safe
evacuation plan, holding up the NRC's authority to issue full
power licenses of the two multi-billon dollar plants.
    A group of prominent politicians, led by New York Governor
Mario Cuomo, charged at a public meeting on the proposed plan
on Tuesday that NRC members were more interested in protecting
the utilties'investments than protecting public safety.
    An NRC spokesman said after the meeting that the agency had
not yet scheduled a meeting to vote on the proposed plan.
    In a statement today announcing its vote, the commission
said the proposed rule change would enable the NRC to act in
cases where local authorities refused to take part in emergency
evacuation planning.
 Reuter

Shr 2.31 dlrs vs 1.96 dlrs
    Net 119.0 mln vs 101.0 mln
    Revs 10.03 billion vs 8.88 billion
 Reuter

U.S. farmers who in the past have
grown oats for their own use but failed to certify to the
government that they had done so probably will be allowed to
continue planting that crop and be eligible for corn program
benefits, an aide to Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng said.
    Currently a farmer, to be eligible for corn program
benefits, must restrict his plantings of other program crops to
the acreage base for that crop.
    Several members of Congress from Iowa have complained that
farmers who inadvertantly failed to certify that they had grown
oats for their own use in the past now are being asked to halt
oats production or lose corn program benefits.
    USDA likely will allow historic oats farmers to plant oats
but not extend the exemption to all farmers, Lyng's aide said.
 Reuter

New Zealand's broadly defined,
seasonally adjusted M-3 money supply grew an estimated 3.6 pct
in December after rising a revised 2.4 pct in November and 4.04
pct in December last year, the Reserve Bank said in a
    It said unadjusted M-3 increased to an estimated 30.07
billion N.Z. Dlrs from a revised 28.30 billion in November and
25.53 billion in December 1985.
    Year-on-year M-3 rose 17.77 pct from a revised 15.34 pct in
November and 20.50 pct in December 1985.
    Narrowly defined year-on-year M-1 growth was 15.89 pct
against a revised 27.52 pct in November and 12.3 pct a year
earlier.
    M-1 grew to an estimated 5.03 billion dlrs against a
revised 4.77 billion in November and 4.34 billion in December
1985.
    Year-on-year private sector credit grew 30.68 pct in
December against a revised 22.30 pct in November and 23.2 pct
in December 1985. Private sector credit grew to 22.24 billion
dlrs from a revised 20.92 billion in November and 17.01 billion
in December 1985.
 Reuter

Circuit Systems Inc said it has
bought all of the stock of (Ionic Industries Inc) in exchange
for 3,677,272 shares of its common.
    Following the exchange there will be 4,969,643 shares of
Circuit Systems stock outstanding. Ionic holders will own about
74 pct of the outstanding stock of Circuit Systems, it said.
    Ionic, a maker of circuit boards, had revenues of 8.4 mln
dlrs and pretax profits of 232,000 dlrs in 1986, up from
revenues of 5.9 mln and pretax profits of 204,000 dlrs in 1985,
Circuit Systems said.
 Reuter

The sharp decline in soybean crush ratios
seen in the last few weeks, accelerating in recent days, has
pushed margins below the cost of production at most soybean
processing plants and prompted many to cut output of soybean
meal and oil.
    The weekly U.S. soybean crush rate was reported by the
National Soybean Processors Association this afternoon at 21.78
mln bushels, down from the 22 mln bushel plus rate seen over
the past two months when crush margins surged to the best
levels seen in over a year.
    Active soymeal export loadings at the Gulf had pushed
soybean futures and premiums higher, prompting a pick-up in the
weekly crush number.
    However, much of that export demand seems to have been met,
with most foreign meal users now waiting for the expected surge
in shipments of new crop South American soymeal over the next
few months.
    U.S. processors are now finding domestic livestock feed
demand is very light for this time of year due to the milder
than normal winter, so they steadily dropped offering prices in
an attempt to find buying interest, soyproduct dealers said.
    Soybean meal futures have also steadily declined in recent
weeks, setting a new contract low of 139.70 dlrs per ton in the
nearby March contract today.
    "Many speculators down here bought March soymeal and sold
May, looking for no deliveries (on first notice day tomorrow,
which would cause March to gain on deferreds)," one CBT crush
trader said.
    "But they've been bailing out this week because the March
has been acting like there will be a lot delivered, if not
tomorrow, then later in the month," he added.
    As a result of the weakness in soymeal, the March crush
ratio (The value of soyproducts less the cost of the soybeans)
fell from the mid 30s earlier this month to 22.6 cents per
bushel today, dropping over five cents in just the last two
days.
    The May crush ended today just over 17 cents, so no
processors will want to lock in a ratio at that unprofitable
level, the trader said. Hopefully, they will now start to cut
back production to get supplies in line with demand, he added.
    With futures down, processors are finding they must bid
premiums for cash soybeans, further reducing crush margins.
    A central Illinois processor is only making about 30 cents
for every bushel of soybeans crushed at current prices, down
sharply from levels just seen just a few weeks ago and below
the average cost of production, cash dealers said.
    Most soybean processing plants are still in operation, with
little talk of taking temporary down-time, so far. But
processors will start halting production in the next few weeks
it they continue to face unprofitable margins, they added.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 509,144 vs 277,834
    Revs 2,258,341 vs 1,328,634
    Avg shrs 2,177,553 vs 1,564,605
    Nine mths
    Shr 55 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 1,150,633 vs 649,914
    Revs 6,169,168 vs 3,178,115
 Reuter

Shr loss 32 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 1,566,000 vs loss 292,000
    Revs 39.4 mln vs 34.7 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 79 cts vs profit 74 cts
    Net profit 3,651,000 vs profit 3,020,000
    Revs 147.9 mln vs 114.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,639,000 vs 4,059,000
    Note: Per shr adjusted for 3-for-2 stock split July 1986
and 2-for-1 split May 1985.
 Reuter

Latest Federal Reserve data suggest that
the central bank voted to maintain the existing degree of
pressure on banking reserves at its regular policy-making
meeting two weeks ago, money market economists said.
    "The numbers were a little disappointing, but I think we
can take Mr Volcker at his word when he said that nothing had
changed," said Bob Bannon of Security Pacific National Bank.
    Fed Chairman Paul Volcker told a Congressional committee
last Thursday that the Fed's policy "has been unchanged up to
today."
    Although Volcker's statement last Thursday allayed most
fears that the Fed had marginally tightened its grip on
reserves to help an ailing dollar, many economists still wanted
confirmation of a steady policy in today's data, which covered
the two-week bank statement period ended yesterday.
    This need for additional reassurance was made all the more
acute by the Fed's decision yesterday to drain reserves from
the banking system by arranging overnight matched sale-purchase
agreements for the first time since April of last year,
economists added.
    Today's data showed that the draining action was for a
fairly large 3.9 billion dlrs, economists said.
    "The one thing that caught my eye were the relatively
sizeable matched sales on Wednesday," said Dana Johnson of
First National Bank of Chicago. "But there was a clearly
justified need for them. There was nothing ominous."
    "The Fed couldn't have waited until the start of the new
statement period today. If it had, it would have missed its
(reserve) projections," added Security Pacific's Bannon.
    A Fed spokesman told reporters that there were no large
single-day net miss in reserve projections in the latest week.
    Economists similarly shrugged off slightly higher-than-
expected adjusted bank borrowings from the Fed's discount
window, which averaged 310 mln dlrs a day in the latest week,
compared with many economists' forecasts of about 200 mln.
    For the two-week bank statement period as a whole, the
daily borrowing average more than doubled to 381 mln dlrs from
160 in the prior period.
    "There were wire problems at two large banks on Tuesday and
Wednesday, so I am not too bothered about the borrowings," said
Scott Winningham of J.S. Winningham and Co. The Wednesday
average rose to 946 mln dlrs from 148 mln a week earlier.
    Lending further support to the stable policy view was a
relatively steady federal funds rate of about six pct in the
latest week and persistently high levels of excess reserves in
the banking system, economists said.
    "For the time being, the Fed is following a neutral path,
with fed funds at about six to 6-1/8 pct," said Darwin Beck of
First Boston Corp. "I expect it to continue in that vein."
    "Excess reserves fell but they are still over a billion
dlrs," added First Chicago's Johnson. Banks' excess reserves
averaged 1.03 billion dlrs a day in the latest statement
period, down from 1.50 billion in the previous one.
    After the Fed declined to assign a 1987 target growth range
to the wayward M-1 money supply measure last week, little
attention was paid to a steeper-than-anticipated 2.1 billion
dlr jump in the week ended February 16.
    Looking ahead, economists said the Fed will have to tread a
fine line between the dollar's progress in the international
currency markets and the development of the domestic economy.
    "The market has perhaps exaggerated the dollar's effect on
Fed policy," said First Chicago's Johnson. "Of course, it will
take the dollar into account in future policy decisions but if
the economy is weak, it won't pull back from easing."
 Reuter

<Federal Industries Ltd> said
it launched a 40 mln Canadian dlr Eurobond issue for five
years, bearing a coupon of 9-1/4 pct.
    Issue price is 100-5/8. Lead manager is Union Bank of
Switzerland.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce short-term debt.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said it will
begin a review of regulation in the securities industry to
determine what changes may be needed to maintain the integrity
of the market and protect investors in coming years.
    The Exchange said the study is needed because of the rapid
changes taking place in the securities industry. Among the
factors it cited were the increase in trading volume, the
proliferation of new trading instruments and the rise of
computerized trading techniques.
    The Exchange did not mention, however, the insider trading
scandal that has caught several top Wall Street executives.
    The NYSE said its study will be chaired by Richard R.
Shinn, executive vice chairman of the Exchange and former
chairman and chief executive officer of <Metropolitan Life
Insurance Co.>
    Other members of the study committee include Charles F.
Barbar, former chairman of Arsarco Inc <AR>, Roger Birk,
chairman emeritus of Merrill Lynch and Co <MER> and Irwin
Guttag, chairman of the NYSE special surveillance committee.
    The committee's report should be completed by the end of
the year, the Exchange said.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp said Korean
Air signed formal orders for four MD-11 jets with options to
buy four more.
    The company said if the options are exercised, the purchase
will total about one billion dlrs.
    McDonnell Douglas said on December 30 that Korean Air was
among the initial 12 customers that placed orders and options
for 92 aircraft valued at about nine billion dlrs.
    Delivery of the first MD-11 is scheduled for the summer of
1990.
   
    Korean Airlines currently operates four McDonnell Douglas
DC-10 jets. In 1985, it ordered six MD-82s valued at about 150
mln dlrs. Four of these are in service and two will be
delivered this year.
 Reuter

An unmanned Delta rocket
carrying a 57 mln dlr hurricane-tracking satellite blasted off
here today in NASA's first successful launch of the year.
    The 116-foot (35.4-meter) Delta -- a reliable workhorse of
the U.S. rocket fleet -- lifted off at 1805 EST from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in a crucial test of the space
agency's ability to recover from the Challenger disaster and a
string of other failures.
    The launch came after two delays in two days. The first
postponement was caused by fuel leak and the second by
high-speed crosswinds that NASA officials say could have torn
the rocket apart during fiery ascent.
 Reuter

Japan has pledged to try to increase
its purchase of U.S. car parts and also to exchange data to
monitor the purchases, the Commerce Department said.
    U.S. negotiators opened talks last August with Japanese
officials to try to force open the Japanese market to
American-made parts in an effort to redress an estimated five
billion dlr deficit in car parts trade.
    Japan had agreed to try to increase purchases of U.S.-made
parts by Japanese car makers and to begin long term contracts
for parts purchases, a Commerce department official said.
    He added that the agreement also said Japan agreed to try
to devise a way to collect purchasing information in order to
monitor progress in stepping up Japanese orders.
    The Commerce Department said in a statement last year that
"statistics support the perception in the United States that
American auto parts suppliers are not welcome in the inner
circles of Japan's auto companies and their traditional
suppliers."
    It estimated that while Japan's car firms sold almost five
billion dlrs worth of parts in the United States in 1985, U.S.
firms sold only one per cent of Japan's 55 billion dlr market.
 reuter

France's right wing government is facing
growing pressure to modify its economic policies after revising
down its 1987 growth targets and revising up its inflation
forecasts for this year.
    Moving reluctantly into line with most private sector
forecasts the government yesterday raised its 1987 inflation
estimate a half percentage point to 2.5 per cent and cut its
economic growth estimate to between two and 2.8 per cent from a
2.8 per cent target written into the annual budget last
september.
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said the revised figures
would not push the government off its chosen mix of price
deregulation, budget-cutting rigour and pay restraint.
    But Trade Union leaders served immediate notice they would
push to protect the purchasing power of their members, raising
the spectre of a vicious spiral of wage and price rises.
    And bank economists contacted by Reuters said they believed
Prime Minister Jacques Chirac could be forced by slow growth
and rising unemployment to reflate the economy later this year,
perhaps in the autumn, to boost his prospects in Presidential
elections due by April 1988.
    "The outlook is more worrying than it was a few weeks ago,"
said Societe Generale economist Alain Marais. "We have the
impression it may be difficult to get even two per cent growth
this year."
    "The big question is whether the government's policy of wage
moderation will be maintained," he added.
    The government has set public sector wage rises at aboout
1.7 per cent this year, with a three per cent ceiling for rises
justified by increased productivity.
    But the head of the socialist CFDT union federation, Edmond
Maire, meeting with Chirac today, renewed union demands already
rejected by the government for indexation clauses to be built
into future pay contracts to safeguard workers against higher
prices.
    Calling the government's policies "unbalanced and unjust," he
also demanded investment incentives to boost employment. He
announced after his meeting that Chirac had told him the
government would spend two billion francs on a series of
measures to boost employment and training
    Andre Bergeron, a widely respected leader of the moderate
Force Ouvriere labour group, put similar demands to Chirac
earlier in the week while the Communist-led CGT, the largest of
France's unions, declared the defence of its members earnings
its top priority.
    But with unemployment nearing 11 per cent last month, and
still rising, government supporters and some economic analysts
said they were confident Chirac could resist union pay demands.
    "Salary indexation was ended by the previous Socialist
government and I dont think this administration is going to
reverse that," commented Michel Develle, economist at
recently-privatised Banque Paribas.
    Damaging transport and electricity strikes over Christmas
and the New Year, partly blamed by the government for higher
inflation, had undermined the unions power and popularity, he
said.
    Develle said Paribas expected inflation to rise even more
than the governments revised forecast, perhaps to 2.6 or 2.7
per cent this year against last years 2.1 per cent.
    "But that would still be an exceptional achievement
considering that for the first time since the Second World War
all french prices have been freed," he commented.
    Finance Ministry officials said that the governments
abolition of price and rent controls last year was responsible
for nearly a quarter of a 0.9 per cent surge in January living
costs.
    But they claimed it was a once-off phenomenon that should
have no knock-on impact on the rest of the year.
    Both Marais and Develle said they agreed with that, so long
as the government kept wages under control.
    Prices could rise 1.5 per cent in the first three months of
1987 and two per cent in the first half year, fractionally more
than forecast this week by the National Statistics Institute,
INSEE,  Marais said. But the second half year should be better,
he added.
    Ironically, one side effect of higher inflation could be to
help the government achieve its aim of cutting the state budget
deficit, several analysts said.
    So long as public sector wages are held down, higher Value
Added Tax receipts resulting from rising prices should offset a
loss in revenues that otherwise would result from slower than
expected growth, they said.
   
 Reuter

Oper shr profit six cts vs loss two cts
    Oper net profit 225,000 vs loss 91,000
    Revs 4,814,000 vs 3,339,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 12 cts vs loss two cts
    Oper net profit 415,000 vs loss 73,000
    Revs 16.4 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Note: data does not include from discontinued operations,
4th qtr 1986 gain of 632,000 dlrs, or 19 cts per shr; 4th qtr
1985 loss of 250,000 dlrs, or seven cts per shr; 1986 year loss
of 4,054,000 dlrs, or 1.17 dlrs per shr; and 1985 year loss of
606,000 dlrs, or 17 cts per shr.
 Reuter

Houston Oil Trust said that independent
petroleum engineers completed an annual study that estimates
the trust's future net revenues from total proved reserves at
88 mln dlrs and its discounted present value of the reserves at
64 mln dlrs.
    Based on the estimate, the trust said there may be no money
available for cash distributions to unitholders for the
remainder of the year.
    It said the estimates reflect a decrease of about 44 pct in
net reserve revenues and 39 pct in discounted present value
compared with the study made in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.07 dlrs vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 11,445,000 vs loss 501,000
    Revs 14.5 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.91 dlrs vs profit four cts
    Net loss 12,427,000 vs profit 211,000
    Revs 60.8 mln vs 51.5 mln
    Note: includes non-recurring charges of 12,131,000 dlrs in
the 4th qtr and 12,500,000 dlrs in the year for reserve for
underperforming restaurants.
 Reuter

Japan's unadjusted consumer price index
(base 1985) fell 0.4 pct to 99.7 in January from the previous
month, the government's Management and Coodination Agency said.
    The fall compares with a decline of 0.2 pct in December.
    The January index compared with a year earlier was down 1.1
pct, the first drop larger than 1.0 pct since it fell 1.3 pct
in September 1958.
    Food costs rose in January from December but prices fell
for clothing, footwear and utilities, causing the overall
decline for the month.
    Housing, medical and educations costs increased in January
compared with a year earlier but the cost of utilities,
gasoline and vegetables fell.
    The unadjusted consumer price index for the Tokyo area
(base 1985) was down 0.1 pct in mid-February from a month
earlier at 100.2, reflecting lower prices for food, clothing
and footwear. Compared with a year earlier, the index was down
0.7 pct due to lower vegetable, fuel oil and utility costs.
 REUTER

Avery said its board authorizerd
a two for one stock split, an increased in the quarterly
dividend and plans to offer four mln shares of common stock.
    The company said the stock split is effective March 16 with
a distribution of one additional share to each shareholder of
record March 9.
    It said the quarterly cash dividend of 10.5 cts per share
on the split shares, a 10.5 pct increase from the 19 cts per
share before the split.
    Avery said it will register with the Securities and
Exchange Commission shrortly to offer four mln additional
common shares. It will use the proceeds to repay debt, finance
recent acquisitions and for other corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Microsoft Corp said it obtained a
federal court order to seize a shipment of over 15,000
unauthorized copies of its MS-DOS operating system labeled
"Falcon MS-DOS".
    Federal marshals made the seizure in San Francisco on Feb
17.
    Microsoft said the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of California also granted it a temporary restraning
order against Wetex International, Quadrant Corp and other
persons, prohibiting copyright infringement by reproducing
Microsoft software.
 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE WEEKLY M-2 COMPONENTS - FEB 26
    Week Feb 16 vs Feb 9 (DAILY AVG BILLIONS)
          Seasonally Adjusted      Unadjusted
 Currency......186.9 vs 186.8....185.6 vs 185.7
 Demand Depos..300.3 vs 300.0....291.5 vs 295.6
 Other Check...242.9 vs 241.2....240.0 vs 242.7
 Savings.......164.3 vs 163.2....162.8 vs 161.9
 Small Time....362.2 vs 362.9....361.9 vs 362.7
 MMDAs...(Commercial Bank Only)..378.2 vs 379.1
 O/N Repos........................58.9 vs  59.0
 O/N Euros........................18.6 vs  19.2
 Reuter

The Finance Ministry has proposed
informally to its bond underwriting syndicate that the coupon
on the January 10-year government bond remain unchanged from
February at five pct, underwriting sources said.
    They said the ministry wants a 0.50 yen raise in issue
price from February to 99.50 to yield a record low 5.075 pct.
    The 5.151 pct February bond issue yield was itself a record
low. The proposed issue volume is 475 billion yen against the
600 billion in February.
    The underwriting syndicate is likely to accept the proposed
terms immediately, the sources said.
 REUTER

carrying a 57 mln dlr weather observation satellite blasted off
here today in the first U.S. Space launch of the year.
    The 116-foot rocket lifted off at 1805 local time (2305
GMT) and placed in orbit a 1,850 pound Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) to replace an
identical one that was destroyed last May when a Delta rocket
exploded after liftoff.
    Weather forecasters have had only a single satellite to
cover the entire U.S. Since another GOES failed in orbit in
August 1984.
    "We'll have both our weather eyes open again," said Thomas
Pyke, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, which owns and operates the satellite.
    The smooth launching came after two delays in as many days.
The first was caused by a fuel leak and the second by powerful
crosswinds.
    The Delta was the first of six rockets scheduled for launch
by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this year.
The launch marked the third straight success for the space
program which was battered by a series of failures in 1986,
including the loss of the Challenger shuttle.
 REUTER

Leaders of Italy's five coalition parties
have agreed to meet today to try to settle their differences
which are mainly between Prime Minister Bettino Craxi's
Socialist Party and the majority Christian Democrats.
    Sources close to Deputy Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani said
Craxi told him he would announce his resignation next week,
allowing negotiations on a new government leader.
    The conservative Christian Democrats demanded the meeting
after Craxi said a pact agreed during a government crisis last
August, under which he was to hand over the prime minister's
job next month, was unlikely to be fulfilled.
    Political sources said the Christian Democrats are likely
to leave the coalition, which also includes Republicans, Social
Democrats and Liberals, unless they get the prime minister's
job. They said Craxi's plans to resign show he has decided to
stick to the pact but talks on a leader, a government program
and sharing of ministries will not be easy.
    They said there is dissent among the partners and that
Forlani has been trying to mediate to avoid a crisis. They said
the five are likely to begin talks tomorrow on whether
formation of a new government is feasible or early elections
are inevitable. Elections are not due until 1988.
 REUTER

Monetary and credit growth rates in
New Zealand are not expected to continue at current levels
following the Reserve Bank's move to tighten liquidity late
last year, Reserve Bank Governor Spencer Russell said.
    The monetary and credit growth figures for the December
quarter were probably artifically inflated by unusually high
growth in inter-institutional lending activity on the short
term money market, Russell said in a statement.
    The bank moved to tighten liquidity when the initial signs
of the recent expansion became apparent in September and
October last year, Russell said.
    Broadly defined M-3 figures released today showed growth of
17.8 pct in the year ended December compared with 13.1 pct in
the year ended September.
    Annual growth of private sector credit in calendar 1986 was
30.7 pct compared with 16.5 pct in the September year.
    "Available evidence suggests that corporate customers,
including non-bank financial institutions, have been exploiting
differences between interest rates on overdrafts with trading
banks and rates in the call market," Russell said.
 REUTER

Average interest rates on yen certificates
of deposit, CD, fell to 4.27 pct in the week ended February 25
from 4.32 pct the previous week, the Bank of Japan said.
    New rates (previous in brackets), were -
    Average CD rates all banks 4.27 pct (4.32)
    Money Market Certificate, MMC, ceiling rates for the week
starting from March 2          3.52 pct (3.57)
    Average CD rates of city, trust and long-term banks
    Less than 60 days          4.33 pct (4.32)
    60-90 days                 4.13 pct (4.37)
    90-120 days             4.35 pct (4.30)
    120-150 days            4.38 pct (4.29)
    150-180 days            unquoted (unquoted)
    180-270 days            3.67 pct (unquoted)
    Over 270 days           4.01 pct (unquoted)
    Average yen bankers' acceptance rates of city, trust and
long-term banks
    30 to less than 60 days unquoted (4.13)
    60-90 days              unquoted (unquoted)
    90-120 days             unquoted (unquoted)
 REUTER

Britain's centrist Liberal-Social
Democratic Alliance won a surprise victory in a parliamentary
by-election in the London borough of Greenwich, a seat held by
the main opposition Labour party for the past 50 years.
    Rosie Barnes, a Social Democratic member of the Alliance,
won with 18,287 votes, or 53 pct, and a majority of 6,611 seats
over her nearest rival, Labour candidate Deirdre Wood.
    The Conservatives came third with 3,852 votes.
    The result is expected to play a key role in determining
when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, leader of the ruling
Conservatives, might call a general election.
 REUTER

Japanese life insurers, trust banks and
corporations, largely responsible for vitalising the U.S. Bond
market in recent years, are now eyeing stockmarkets in the
U.S., Britain, France and Hong Kong, fund managers said.
    After concentrating on U.S. Treasury bonds for years,
Japanese institutions now see a risk in relying too much on
similar types of investments, they said.
    Japan's net buying in overseas stockmarkets this year may
double or triple to 15-20 billion dlrs from seven billion in
1986, Shigeki Matsumoto of Nikko Securities Co Ltd, said.
    Matsumoto, who manages Nikko's investment research and
strategy, said there is evidence Japanese investors began
poking around in foreign stockmarkets around July last year,
but few made firm commitments until December when net purchases
suddenly grew to 1.5 billion dlrs from around 500 mln in each
of the previous five months.
    Net buying in 1985 totalled only 995 mln dlrs, he added.
    This sudden penchent for overseas stocks is likely to draw
the widest smiles from Wall Street because about 70 to 80 pct
of funds will be invested in the U.S. Markets, Matsumoto said.
    "The trend has been to head toward the U.S. Market, first
because of its size and next because it has been successful
over the last couple of years," said Eugene Atkinson, managing
director of Goldman Sachs International Corp.
    Wall Street's massive turnover offers good liquidity,
enabling institutions to easily move large volumes of money in
and out of shares with the minimum of risk, he added.
    However, few see holdings in U.S. Treasuries dwindling.
They will remain a Japanese mainstay, fund managers said.
    Institutions, particularly life insurance companies which
concentrate on income rather than capital gains to cover
payouts to policy holders, are unlikely to sell their U.S.
Treasuries, but will put in less money, said Shinichi Kobuse,
manager of Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd's international fixed
income activities.
    There has been some selling of U.S. Bonds by short-term
investors, but the selling is unlikely to amount to a
significant chunk of Japanese bond holdings because the
liquidity of the U.S. Bond market remains attractive, he added.
    Kobuse said investment managers are bullish on the U.S.
Equity markets despite predictions by economists the U.S.
Economy will remain sluggish over the next couple of months.
    Interest in Wall Street has been spurred by recent reports
of significant growth in earnings by major U.S. Corporations,
he added.
    Yutaka Hashimoto general manager of Nippon Life Insurance
Co told an economic conference that insurance companies, which
are responsible for 26 pct of Japanese funds in foreign
securities, hold a lopsided proportion of U.S. Treasuries and
intend to diversify into other instruments and currencies.
    Insurance companies have put the dominant portion of their
funds into the U.S., But will now invest in Britain, West
Germany, France and other countries, Hashimoto said.
    Lower interest rates worldwide make the returns on stocks
relatively high in comparison with bonds and in light of the
strength in the yen, the growth in stock values is expected to
offset currency risks, he added.
    One trust bank official said his bank aims for a 10 pct
annual return on overseas investments but the recent decline in
U.S. 30-year bond yields has caused a rethink in pension fund
investment stategies.
    The bank is looking more at U.S. Equities and European
bonds, he said.
    Japanese investments in British equities have already
turned active and the pace is likely to increase, said Andrew
Sheaf, general manager of international equity activities at
County Securities Japan.
    "Last week was the busiest week we had," he said.
    Investments are being spurred by the growth in profits of
British companies and the recent deregulation of government
controlled firms, fund managers said.
    Deregulation in France is also attracting Japanese
interest, but stock investments there will be inhibited by
worries about the French franc, they said.
    Investments in Hong Kong will be mostly short-term and
speculative due to uncertainty about the colony's long-term
political stability, they added.
    Japanese investors are cautious about West Germany,
particularly as German firms, like their Japanese counterparts,
are concerned about the recent dollar fall.
    Australia also poses some risks due to currency values,
they added.
 REUTER

The combined assets of Taiwan's offshore
banking units (obu) rose to 6.28 billion U.S. Dlrs at end-
January from 6.21 billion in December and 6.34 billion in
January 1986, the central bank said.
    A bank official told Reuters the increase came mainly from
increased local obu borrowings from their Asian counterparts.
    He said the assets, held by 15 foreign and local banks,
were mainly in U.S. Dollars with the remainder in certificates
of deposit and bonds. About 90 pct of the assets came from Asia
and the rest from North America and Europe, he added.
 REUTER

Japan is expected to cut the base lending
rate for state financial institutions to 5.5 pct from 6.2 as
part of the recent pact by major industrial nations in Paris,
Finance Ministry sources said.
    They said the cut is based on a revision of the Trust Fund
Bureau Law, which should be approved by parliament on March 3,
abolishing the 6.05 pct minimum interest rate on deposits with
the bureau.
    The bureau channels funds to government financial
institutions for public works and other official uses, they
said.
    The base lending rate for state bodies such as the Japan
Development Bank, People's Finance Corp and the finance
corporations of local public enterprises usually moves in
tandem with long-term prime rates, the sources said.
    However, it was impossible for them to follow the last cut,
to 5.8 pct from 6.2 pct on January 28, because the Trust Fund
Bureau rate was legally set at 6.05 pct.
    The ministry will abolish the minimum rate and introduce a
market-related one to resolve the problem and stimulate the
domestic economy, they said.
    On Tuesday, the ministry allowed long-term bankers to cut
their prime to a record low of 5.5 pct, effective February 28.
The move suggested it had reached agreement with depositors
using the bureau, the postal savings system of the Posts and
Telecommunications Ministry and the Japan welfare annuity of
the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the sources said.
    These ministries are trying to determine which market rates
should be considered when setting the bureau's deposit rate,
the ministry sources said.
    Coupon rates on new 10-year government bonds, minus 0.1
percentage points, is the likeliest choice, they added.
 REUTER

Japan's ruling and opposition parties
agreed to reopen talks on the budget for the fiscal year ending
March 31 1988 when the Lower House Budget Committee meets next
Tuesday, a parliamentary official said.
    He said officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
and the opposition parties agreed at a meeting of the
committee's board of directors.
    Strong opposition objection to government tax reform
proposals including a controversial sales tax has delayed
deliberation by the Lower House Budget Committee.
 REUTER

Domestic demand is now expected to make
no contribution to Australian economic growth in fiscal
1986/87, ending June 30, while net exports will account for all
of the overall increase, Treasurer Paul Keating said here.
    However, he did not say in his speech to the Economic
Planning Advisory Council (EPAC) if the forecast 2.25 pct rise
in gross domestic product (gdp) had been revised.
    But Keating said domestic demand could fall slightly this
financial year and net export growth will provide the total
source of gdp growth.
    The August budget had forecast domestic demand would
contribute 0.75 percentage points to non-farm gdp growth of 2.5
pct while net exports would account for 1.75 points.
    Keating said the overall impact of the changed economic
parameters is welcome as it appears to have contributed to a
slightly more rapid correction in the current account deficit
than first anticipated.
    "The government initially forecast a current account deficit
for 1986/87 of 14.75 billion -- our present expectation is that
the result will be somewhat lower, around 14 billion," he said.
    Partial indicators released since the last meeting of EPAC
in December indicate that the 1986/87 budget strategy is
broadly on track, Keating said.
    "They indicate that domestic demand has been a little more
sluggish than was expected at budget time," he said.
    "On the other hand, net exports seem to be expanding by more
than expected at budget time, and this is underpinning growth
in domestic production and employment."
    Keating said it now seems likely that the 1986/87 inflation
rate will exceed the budget forecast of eight pct.
    "Nevertheless, there is likely to be a marked slowing in
inflation over coming quarters as depreciation and budgetary
effects wane," he said.
    Keating said the government expects economic growth to pick
up moderately in 1987/88 due to a further significant rise in
net exports and a very moderate but positive contribution from
private domestic demand.
    He said domestic demand growth will be due to a
strengthening in real household disposable income.
    The moderate rise in economic growth next financial year
should be sufficient to sustain employment growth at a level
broadly equivalent to that of the current fiscal year.
    "The current account deficit will continue to show
improvement in 1987/88," Keating said.
    "As the impact of the exchange rate depreciations of recent
years recede further, and given continued effective wage
restraint, inflation should moderate markedly in 1987/88," he
said.
 REUTER

Thailand exported 84,960 tonnes of rice
in the week ended February 24, up from 80,498 the previous
week, the Commerce Ministry said.
    It said government and private exporters shipped 27,510 and
57,450 tonnes respectively.
    Private exporters concluded advance weekly sales for 79,448
tonnes against 79,014 the previous week.
    Thailand exported 689,038 tonnes of rice between the
beginning of January and February 24, up from 556,874 tonnes
during the same period last year. It has commitments to export
another 658,999 tonnes this year.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Grain Exchange said it will raise
the margin requirement on the spot and nearby month for U.S.
And Chinese soybeans and red beans, effective March 2.
    Spot April U.S. Soybean contracts will increase to 90,000
yen per 15 tonne lot from 70,000 now. Other months will stay
unchanged at 70,000, except the new distant February
requirement, which will be set at 70,000 from March 2.
    Chinese spot March will be set at 110,000 yen per 15 tonne
lot from 90,000. The exchange said it raised spot March
requirement to 130,000 yen on contracts outstanding at March
13. Chinese nearby April rises to 90,000 yen from 70,000.
    Other months will remain unchanged at 70,000 yen except new
distant August, which will be set at 70,000 from March 2.
    The new margin for red bean spot March rises to 150,000 yen
per 2.4 tonne lot from 120,000 and to 190,000 for outstanding
contracts as of March 13.
    The nearby April requirement for red beans will rise to
100,000 yen from 60,000, effective March 2.
    The margin money for other red bean months will remain
unchanged at 60,000 yen, except new distant August, for which
the requirement will also be set at 60,000 from March 2.
 REUTER

The Philippines will offer its commercial
bank creditors an innovative pricing plan that will make debt
payments through certificates of indebtedness as an alternative
to cash, the authoritative Business Day newspaper said.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin told reporters yesterday the
alternative proposal is designed to avoid an impasse when debt
rescheduling talks reopen in New York on Tuesday.
    He did not give details but said, "It is a very useful
alternative and in the end will permit the banks to say that
they achieved their pricing target and will likewise permit the
Philippines to say exactly the same thing."
    Quoting negotiation documents to be presented to the
country"s 12-bank advisory committee, Business Day said the debt
certificates will carry maturities of five or six years.
    It said the certificates will be classified as zero-coupon
bonds or promissory notes with no interest but priced at a
considerable discount from their redemption price.
    It said the debt bonds will entitle holder banks to a
guaranteed return on both interest and principal since no
payment of any kind is made until the bond matures.
    It said a bank can sell the bonds on the secondary bond
market for either dlrs or pesos depending on its requirement.
    The documents said peso proceeds can be invested in
selected industries under the Philippines" debt/equity program.
    Ongpin said Manila is sticking to its demand of a spread of
5/8 percentage points over London Interbank Offered Rates
(LIBOR) for restructuring 3.6 billion dlrs of debt repayments.
    "(The proposal) will give the banks a choice of 5/8ths or
the alternative," Ongpin said. "Our representatives have gone to
Washington to the (International Monetary) Fund, the (World)
Bank, the Fed (Federal Reserve Board) and the (U.S.) Treasury
to brief them in advance on this alternative and it has
generally been positively received."
    "We don"t believe that there is going to be a problem on the
accounting side," Ongpin said. "We have run this alternative
proposal to the accounting firms. Neither have the government
regulators indicated that there will be a problem."
 REUTER

A majority of Americans disapprove of
the way Ronald Reagan has handled the presidency and one-third
believe he should resign, a new poll said.
    The poll conducted by Newsweek magazine said 53 pct of the
respondents gave Reagan a negative performance rating, nearly
double his disapproval rating before the Iran/Contra scandal.
    The magazine said, however, that Reagan remained personally
popular. By better than a three-to-one ratio, a majority of
those polled said they liked Reagan on a personal level.
    And Newsweek said 52 per cent of those questioned believed
the administration"s accomplishments outweighed its failures.
 REUTER

Talks on the possibility of reintroducing
global coffee export quotas have been extended into today, with
sparks flying yesterday when a dissident group of exporters was
not included in a key negotiating forum.
    The special meeting of the International Coffee
Organization (ICO) council was called to find a way to stop a
prolonged slide in coffee prices.
    However, delegates said no solution to the question of how
to implement quotas was yet in sight.
    World coffee export quotas -- the major device used to
regulate coffee prices under the International Coffee Agreement
-- were suspended a year ago when prices soared in reaction to
a drought which cut Brazil"s output by nearly two thirds.
    Brazil is the world"s largest coffee producer and exporter.
    Producers and consumers now are facing off over the
question of how quotas should be calculated under any future
quota distribution scheme, delegates said.
    Tempers flared late Saturday when a minority group of eight
producing countries was not represented in a contact group of
five producer and five consumer delegates plus alternates which
was set up to facilitate debate.
    The big producers "want to have the ball only in their court
and it isn"t fair," minority producer spokesman Luis Escalante of
Costa Rica said.
    The majority producer group has proposed resuming quotas
April 1, using the previous ad hoc method of carving up quota
shares, with a promise to try to negotiate basic quotas before
September 30, delegates said.
    Their plan would perpetuate the status quo, allowing Brazil
to retain almost all of its current 30 pct share of the export
market, Colombia 17 pct, Ivory Coast seven pct and Indonesia
six pct, with the rest divided among smaller exporters.
    But consuming countries and the dissident producer group
have tabled separate proposals requiring quotas be determined
by availability, using a formula incorporating exportable
production and stocks statistics.
    Their proposals would give Brazil a smaller quota share and
Colombia and Indonesia a larger share, and bring a new quota
distribution scheme into effect now rather than later.
    Brazil has so far been unwilling to accept any proposal
that would reduce its quota share, delegates said.
    Delegates would not speculate on prospects for agreement on
a quota package. "Anything is possible at this phase," even
adjournment of the meeting until March or April, one said.
    If the ICO does agree on quotas, the price of coffee on the
supermarket shelf is not likely to change sinnificantly as a
result, industry sources said.
    Retail coffee prices over the past year have remained about
steady even though coffee market prices have tumbled, so an
upswing probably will not be passed onto the consumer either,
they said.
 REUTER

The Italian treasury said annual coupon
rates payable March 1988 on two issues of long-term treasury
certificates (CCTs) would be cut by about four percentage
points compared with rates this March.
    Coupon rates on 10-year certificates maturing March 1995
will fall to 9.80 pct from 13.65 pct and rates on 10-year
issues maturing in March 1996 would fall to 10.05 pct from
14.30 pct.
    The Treasury also cut by 0.60 point six-monthly coupons
payable this September on six issues maturing between September
1988 and September 1991.
    The issues carry terms of between five and seven years and
will have coupon rates of between 4.85 and 5.65 pct in
September compared with 5.45 and 6.25 pct this March.
 REUTER

Britain"s ruling Conservatives have
enlarged their lead over the opposition Labour Party, according
to results of two opinion polls released on Saturday.
    A Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) poll
conducted for The Sunday Times showed the Conservatives with a
six point lead, while a poll by Telephone Surveys Limited for
The Sunday Express found them to be four points ahead.
    The Sunday Express poll is the first conducted since the
Social Democratic Party scored an upset victory on Thursday in
a parliamentary by-election in the former Labour stronghold of
Greenwich, near London.
    The MORI poll, conducted in the six days leading up to the
by-election, showed the Conservatives with 41 pct of the vote,
Labour with 35 pct and the Alliance of Social Democrats and
Liberals with 21 pct.
    The Sunday Express said its poll, conducted on Friday,
found the Conservatives ahead with 35.6 pct of the vote, Labour
with 31.9 pct and the Alliance with 31.4 pct.
    A Harris poll published in The Observer newspaper last
Sunday gave the Conservatives only a two-point lead over
Labour. In that survey, the Conservatives had the support of 39
pct of the voters, Labour 37 pct and the Alliance 23 pct.
 REUTER

Indonesia"s agriculture sector will grow
by just 1.0 pct in calendar 1987, against an estimated 2.4 pct
in 1986 as the production of some commodities stagnates or
declines, the U.S. Embassy said in a report.
    Production of Indonesia"s staple food, rice, is forecast to
fall to around 26.3 mln tonnes from an embassy estimate of
26.58 mln tonnes in 1986, according to the annual report on
Indonesia"s agricultural performance.
    The government officially estimates 1986 rice production at
26.7 mln tonnes, with a forecast 27.3 mln tonnes output in
1987.
    The report says wheat imports are likely to fall to 1.5 mln
tonnes in calendar 1987 from 1.69 mln tonnes in 1986 because of
a drawdown on stocks.
    "Growth prospects for agriculture in 1987 do not look
promising as rice production is forecast to decline and the
production of sugarcane, rubber and copra show little or no
gain," the report says.
    "The modest overall increase which is expected will be due
to significant gains in production of corn soybeans, palm oil
and palm kernels."
    Constraints to significant overall increases in
agricultural output include a shortage of disease resistant
seeds, limited fertile land, insect pests and a reluctance by
farmers to shift from rice production to other crops, the
report underlines.
    The fall in rice production is caused by an outbreak of
pests known as "wereng" or brown plant hoppers in 1986 which
largely offset gains in yields.
    The outbreak has forced the government to ban the use of 57
insecticides on rice because it was believed the wereng are now
resistant to these varieties, and to use lower-yielding, more
resistant rice types.
    The government is depending on increased production of
export commodities such as coffee, tea, rubber, plywood and
palm oil to offset revenue losses brought on by falling crude
oil prices.
    Palm oil production is expected to increase by over 7.0 pct
in 1987 to 1.45 mln tonnes from 1.35 mln, with exports rising
to an estimated 720,000 tonnes from 695,000 tonnes in 1986, the
report says.
    But while production of soybeans in 1987/88 (Oct-Sept) will
rise to 1.075 mln tonnes from 980,000 in 1986/87, imports will
also rise to supply a new soybean crushing plant.
    The report says that imports of wheat, soybeans, soybean
meal and cotton are not likely to decline as a result of last
September"s 31 pct devaluation of the rupiah because of a rise
in domestic demand.
    The report said that Indonesia"s overall economic
performance in calendar 1986 was about zero or even a slight
negative growth rate, the lowest rate of growth since the
mid-1960s. It compares with 1.9 pct growth in 1985 and 6.7 pct
in 1984.
    The dramatic fall in oil prices last year was responsible
for the slump.
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Kuwait"s Oil Minister, in remarks
published today, said there were no plans for an emergency OPEC
meeting to review oil policies after recent weakness in world
    Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah was quoted by the local
daily al-Qabas as saying: "None of the OPEC members has asked
for such a meeting."
    He denied Kuwait was pumping above its quota of 948,000
barrels of crude daily (bpd) set under self-imposed production
limits of the 13-nation organisation.
    Traders and analysts in international oil markets estimate
OPEC is producing up to one mln bpd above a ceiling of 15.8 mln
bpd agreed in Geneva last December.
    They named Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, along with
the much smaller producer Ecuador, among those producing above
quota. Kuwait, they said, was pumping 1.2 mln bpd.
    "This rumour is baseless. It is based on reports which said
Kuwait has the ability to exceed its share. They suppose that
because Kuwait has the ability, it will do so," the minister
said.
    Sheikh Ali has said before that Kuwait had the ability to
produce up to 4.0 mln bpd.
    "If we can sell more than our quota at official prices,
while some countries are suffering difficulties marketing their
share, it means we in Kuwait are unusually clever," he said.
    He was referring apparently to the Gulf state of qatar,
which industry sources said was selling less than 180,000 bpd
of its 285,000 bpd quota, because buyers were resisting
official prices restored by OPEC last month pegged to a marker
of 18 dlrs per barrel.
    Prices in New York last week dropped to their lowest levels
this year and almost three dollars below a three-month high of
19 dollars a barrel.
    Sheikh Ali also delivered "a challenge to any international
oil company that declared Kuwait sold below official prices."
    Because it was charging its official price, of 16.67 dlrs a
barrel, it had lost custom, he said but did not elaborate.
    However, Kuwait had guaranteed markets for its oil because
of its local and international refining facilities and its own
distribution network abroad, he added.
    He reaffirmed that the planned meeting March 7 of OPEC"s
differentials committee has been postponed until the start of
April at the request of certain of the body"s members.
    Ecuador"s deputy energy minister Fernando Santos Alvite said
last Wednesday his debt-burdened country wanted OPEC to assign
a lower official price for its crude, and was to seek this at
talks this month of opec"s pricing committee.
    Referring to pressure by oil companies on OPEC members, in
apparent reference to difficulties faced by Qatar, he said: "We
expected such pressure. It will continue through March and
April." But he expected the situation would later improve.
 REUTER

Indonesia appears to be nearing a
political crossroads over measures to deregulate its protected
economy, the U.S. Embassy says in a new report.
    To counter falling oil revenues, the government has
launched a series of measures over the past nine months to
boost exports outside the oil sector and attract new
    Indonesia, the only Asian member of OPEC and a leading
primary commodity producer, has been severely hit by last year"s
fall in world oil prices, which forced it to devalue its
currency by 31 pct in September.
    But the U.S. Embassy report says President Suharto"s
government appears to be divided over what direction to lead
the economy.
    "(It) appears to be nearing a crossroads with regard to
deregulation, both as it pertains to investments and imports,"
the report says. It primarily assesses Indonesia"s agricultural
sector, but also reviews the country"s general economic
performance.
    It says that while many government officials and advisers
are recommending further relaxation, "there are equally strong
pressures being exerted to halt all such moves."
    "This group strongly favours an import substitution economy,"
the report says.
    Indonesia"s economic changes have been welcomed by the World
Bank and international bankers as steps in the right direction,
though they say crucial areas of the economy like plastics and
steel remain highly protected, and virtual monopolies.
    Three sets of measures have been announced since last May,
which broadened areas for foreign investment, reduced trade
restrictions and liberalised imports.
    The report says Indonesia"s economic growth in calendar 1986
was probably about zero, and the economy may even have
contracted a bit. "This is the lowest rate of growth since the
mid-1960s," the report notes.
    Indonesia, the largest country in South-East Asia with a
population of 168 million, is facing general elections in
April.
    But the report hold out little hope for swift improvement
in the economic outlook. "For 1987 early indications point to a
slightly positive growth rate not exceeding one pct. Economic
activity continues to suffer due to the sharp fall in export
earnings from the petroleum industry."
    "Growth in the non-oil sector is low because of weak
domestic demand coupled with excessive plant capacity, real
declines in construction and trade, and a reduced level of
growth in agriculture," the report states.
    Bankers say continuation of present economic reforms is
crucial for the government to get the international lending its
needs.
    A new World Bank loan of 300 mln dlrs last month in balance
of payments support was given partly to help the government
maintain the momentum of reform, the Bank said.
 REUTER

Opposition politicians, businessmen
and newspapers criticised India"s newly unveiled 1987/88 budget
and large projected deficit of around 57 billion rupees.
    They said the budget failed to provide incentives for
economic growth and merely tinkered with tax reform.
    But few politicians were prepared to criticise a sharp rise
in defence expenditure in the Hindu-majority nation where
playing on fear of aggression by Moslem Pakistan has proved a
vote winner. The Indian Express, the country"s biggest selling
paper, said: "The defence cow has never been holier."
    The Sunday Mail newspaper branded the budget "shamelessly
political." It said in a front page commentary the "budget is bad
for growth, bad for prices, bad for the stock market and
neutral in respect of everything else."
    Businessmen polled by Reuters said the budget had done
little for them.
    Gandhi announced small increases in poverty alleviation and
education outlays but he ordered a hold-down on current
expenditure in an attempt to rein in the budget deficit. He
told ministries to curb spending and promised a review of
money-losing public sector industries.
    Gandhi lowered import tariffs on some computer parts but
otherwise did little to extended the economic liberalisation
policy launched two years ago.
    Reaction in Bombay, India"s business capital, was generally
unfavourable.
    Businessmen and economists said the budget had no proposals
for closing the 1987/88 budget deficit. It also failed to boost
industrial investment and productivity needed to lift real
economic growth above the five pct a year envisaged by the
1985-90 development plan.
    Nalin Vissanji, President of the Indian Merchants Chambers
of Commerce said the budget gave no incentives to the capital
market and had not fulfilled a government pledge to remove
surtax on corporate income.
    Shares on The Bombay Stock Exchange, India"s biggest, fell
in a post-budget session yesterday but brokers welcomed Gandhi"s
proposal to set up a regulatory board for the securities
industry.
    The exchange was shaken last year by several scandals and
trading was suspended several times.
    Brokers said trading volume may increase with the change in
capital gains tax on stock sales.
    Stockholders can now sell shares after one year instead of
three years without incurring capital gains tax.
    Stock Exchange President Ramdas Dalal said yesterday the
fall in share prices after the budget came as profits were
taken and he expected to the market to firm in days to come.
 REUTER

China will receive loans totalling 390
mln dlrs from Japan and the World Bank for investment in new
highways and port facilities.
    The Japan Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund is to provide
260 mln dlrs towards China"s plans to improve its road network,
the official New China News Agency reported.
    A 130 mln dlr World Bank loan will be used to build 12 new
berths incorporating container handling systems at the
northeast China port of Tianjin, the agency said.
    It gave no details of the repayment terms of the loans.
 REUTER

country's 12-bank advisory committee, Business Day said the
debt certificates will carry maturities of five or six years.
selected industries under the Philippines' debt/equity program.
    "We don't believe that there is going to be a problem on the
 REUTER

China's wheat crop this year is seriously
threatened by plant pests and diseases, the New China News
Agency said.
    More than 5 mln hectares of wheat-producing land in North
China could be affected because relatively warm and dry weather
had allowed bacteria and insect eggs to survive the winter, the
agency added.
    China"s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and
Fisheries has called for measures including the timely supply
of pesticides to farmers to combat the threat, it said.
 REUTER

Saudi riyal interbank deposits were
steady at yesterday's higher levels in a quiet market.
    Traders said they were reluctant to take out new positions
amidst uncertainty over whether OPEC will succeed in halting
the current decline in oil prices.
    Oil industry sources said yesterday several Gulf Arab
producers had had difficulty selling oil at official OPEC
prices but Kuwait has said there are no plans for an emergency
meeting of the 13-member organisation.
    A traditional Sunday lull in trading due to the European
weekend also contributed to the lack of market activity.
    Spot-next and one-week rates were put at 6-1/4, 5-3/4 pct
after quotes ranging between seven, six yesterday.
    One, three, and six-month deposits were quoted unchanged at
6-5/8, 3/8, 7-1/8, 6-7/8 and 7-3/8, 1/8 pct respectively.
    The spot riyal was quietly firmer at 3.7495/98 to the
dollar after quotes of 3.7500/03 yesterday.
 REUTER

Iran said its forces had captured one of
Iraq's strongest fortifications east of Basra on the Gulf War
southern front in a major battle overnight.
    The Iranian National News Agency, received here, said
Iranian forces smashed four Iraqi brigades, killed or wounded
1,500 Iraqi soldiers and destroyed 45 enemy tanks and personnel
carriers.
    IRNA said the Iranian troops seized one of the strongest
Iraqi fortifications and breached Iraqi defence lines southwest
of Fish Lake, 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Iraq's second
largest city of Basra.
 REUTER

Bangladesh police mounted a cross-country
hunt for defaulters on bank loans, arresting four
industrialists and issuing arrest warrants against 50 others
for failure to repay overdue obligations. No names were given.
    Metropolitan police told reporters the four arrested, put
under six month pre-trial detention, owed nearly 50.7 mln taka
-- the equivalent of about 1.7 mln dlrs -- to Bangladesh Shilpa
(Industrial) Bank.
    President Hossain Mohammad Ershad has said non-payers are
crippling the industrial sector. But the Chamber of Commerce
and industry said the crackdown would scare away entrepreneurs.
 REUTER

Iraq said its troops repelled an
overnight attack by three divisions of Iranian Revolutionary
Guards near Basra in southern Iraq.
    A military communique said the Iranians in a "perfidious"
attack rushed forward positions last night and this morning.
    A military spokesman later said the Iraqi Third Army Corps,
whose troops fought off the Iranians, had a new commander,
revealing for the first time that the previous general had been
replaced. He said Lieutenant General Dhiya'uldin Jamal, former
commander of the Fifth Army Corps, also positioned in the Basra
area, had replaced Major General Tala' Khalil al-Douri.
 REUTER

The Gulf oil state of Qatar, recovering
slightly from last year's decline in world oil prices,
announced its first budget since early 1985 and projected a
deficit of 5.472 billion riyals.
    The deficit compared with a shortfall of 7.3 billion riyals
in the last published budget for 1985/86.
    In a statement outlining the budget for the fiscal year
1987/88 beginning today, Finance and Petroleum Minister Sheikh
Abdul-Aziz bin Khalifa al-Thani said the government expected to
spend 12.217 billion riyals in the period.
    Projected expenditure in the 1985/86 budget had been 15.6
billion riyals.
    Sheikh Abdul-Aziz said government revenue would be about
6.745 billion riyals, down by about 30 pct on the 1985/86
projected revenue of 9.7 billion.
    The government failed to publish a 1986/87 budget due to
uncertainty surrounding oil revenues.
    Sheikh Abdul-Aziz said that during that year the government
decided to limit recurrent expenditure each month to
one-twelfth of the previous fiscal year's allocations minus 15
pct.
    He urged heads of government departments and public
institutions to help the government rationalise expenditure. He
did not say how the 1987/88 budget shortfall would be covered.
    Sheikh Abdul-Aziz said plans to limit expenditure in
1986/87 had been taken in order to relieve the burden placed on
the country's foreign reserves.
    He added in 1987/88 some 2.766 billion riyals had been
allocated for major projects including housing and public
buildings, social services, health, education, transport and
communications, electricity and water, industry and
agriculture.
    No figure was revealed for expenditure on defence and
security. There was also no projection for oil revenue.
    Qatar, an OPEC member, has an output ceiling of 285,000
barrels per day.
    Sheikh Abdul-Aziz said: "Our expectations of positive signs
regarding (oil) price trends, foremost among them OPEC's
determination to shoulder its responsibilites and protect its
wealth, have helped us make reasonable estimates for the coming
year's revenue on the basis of our assigned quota."
 REUTER

Gulf money markets have grown reasonably
well during the past decade, but bond and stock markets remain
to a large extent fragmented and lag behind, <Gulf
International Bank BSC> (GIB) said.
    The bank's economist Henry Azzam said in a review of Gulf
capital markets that investors have to relinquish traditional
investment vehicles such as real estate, foreign currency bank
accounts and precious metals.
    "Greater financial sophistication is needed coupled with
more diversified capital market instruments and a change in the
disclosure requirements on company accounts," he said.
    The GIB study reviewed capital markets under three
categories -- money markets, stock and bond markets.
    Azzam said Gulf states had been making greater use of
short-term money market instruments and banks in the region had
floated various euronotes and underwriting facilities.
    "Nevertheless, bond and stock markets remain, to a large
extent, fragmented and lagging behind," he said.
    Most debt in the region is still raised by syndicated loans
and bank facilities and very few companies had made use of
stock or bond issues. Only Kuwait has an official stock
exchange, while other Gulf nations have yet to establish
exchanges.
    But with dwindling financial surpluses in the Gulf,
governments are actively pursuing ways to develop capital
markets and set up domestic stock exchanges, Azzam said.
    He said recession stemming from sliding oil prices had
"clearly had a negative impact on the development of capital
markets in the region."
    In addition, family firms are reluctant to go public,
financial awareness among investors is still lacking and
investment analysis and corporate reporting standards lack
depth. A sharp fall in share prices in the early 1980s prompted
investors to hold on to shares hoping for an eventual recovery.
    Azzam said the absence of proper commercial law in some
Gulf countries and authorities' apparent reluctance to adopt
financial innovations had also hampered capital markets.
    He called for clearly defined laws governing incorporation
of joint stock companies and the flotation of debt instruments.
    Azzam said capital market instruments should be made
available to all citizens and institutions of Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Some moves had been
taken in this direction, with Bahrain allowing GCC nationals to
own up to 25 pct of locally incorporated companies.
    Azzam said Gulf money markets had received greater depth
from the introduction of treasury bill offerings in Bahrain and
the expansion of securities repurchase regulations in Saudi
Arabia.
    But he added there is "no bond market to speak of" in Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Oman or the UAE, with the last Saudi riyal
denominated bond issued in 1978.
    While Bahrain plans an official stock exchange and trading
in Saudi Arabia has picked up, establishment of formal
exchanges in Qatar, Oman and the UAE does not appear imminent,
Azzam said.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Hisham Nazer
reiterated the kingdom's commitment to last December's OPEC
accord to boost world oil prices and stabilise the market, the
official Saudi Press Agency SPA said.
    Asked by the agency about the recent fall in free market
oil prices, Nazer said Saudi Arabia "is fully adhering by the
... Accord and it will never sell its oil at prices below the
pronounced prices under any circumstance."
    Nazer, quoted by SPA, said recent pressure on free market
prices "may be because of the end of the (northern hemisphere)
winter season and the glut in the market."
    Saudi Arabia was a main architect of the December accord,
under which OPEC agreed to lower its total output ceiling by
7.25 pct to 15.8 mln barrels per day (bpd) and return to fixed
prices of around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    The agreement followed a year of turmoil on oil markets,
which saw prices slump briefly to under 10 dlrs a barrel in
mid-1986 from about 30 dlrs in late 1985. Free market prices
are currently just over 16 dlrs.
    Nazer was quoted by the SPA as saying Saudi Arabia's
adherence to the accord was shown clearly in the oil market.
    He said contacts among members of OPEC showed they all
wanted to stick to the accord.
    In Jamaica, OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman, who is also
Nigerian Oil Minister, said the group planned to stick with the
pricing agreement.
    "We are aware of the negative forces trying to manipulate
the operations of the market, but we are satisfied that the
fundamentals exist for stable market conditions," he said.
    Kuwait's Oil Minister, Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah, said
in remarks published in the emirate's daily Al-Qabas there were
no plans for an emergency OPEC meeting to review prices.
OPEC is producing up to one mln bpd above the 15.8 mln ceiling.
quota. Sheikh Ali denied that Kuwait was over-producing.
 REUTER

The International Coffee Organization
(ICO ) council talks on reintroducing export quotas continued
with an extended session lasting late into Sunday night, but
delegates said prospects for an accord between producers and
consumers were diminishing by the minute.
    The special meeting, called to stop the prolonged slide in
coffee prices, was likely to adjourn sometime tonight without
agreement, delegates said.
    The council is expected to agree to reconvene either within
the next six weeks or in September, they said.
    The talks foundered on Sunday afternoon when it became
apparent consumers and producers could not compromise on the
formula for calculating any future quota system, delegates
said.
    Coffee export quotas were suspended a year ago when prices
soared in response to a drought which cut Brazil's crop by
nearly two-thirds. Brazil is the world's largest coffee
producer and exporter.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it cancelled
the regular weekly treasury bill tender scheduled for March 3.
    It said in a statement it forecasts a net cash withdrawal
from the system over the settlement week. Cash flows to the
government are expected to more than offset cash injections, it
added.
    The bank said it expects to conduct open market operations
during the week and after these, cash balances should fluctuate
around 30 mln N.Z. Dlrs.
 REUTER

Trading in the shares of three of the
Cheung Kong group of companies will be suspended for two days
at the request of the companies, the Stock Exchange of Hong
Kong said.
    The three are Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HK>,
Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd <HKEH.HK> and Hutchison Whampoa
Ltd <HWHH.HK>.
    They will announce their 1986 results later today, with
market speculation of a major reorganisation within the group.
Cheung Kong rose 75 cents to 45.25 dlrs on Friday, Hk Electric
60 to 16.00 and Hutchison 1.50 dlrs to 54.50.
 REUTER

The U.S. Economy continued to expand in
February but at a slower pace than in January, which saw a
spurt of activity, the National Association of Purchasing
Management (NAPM) said in a report.
    The Association's composite survey index dropped to 51.9
pct in February from 55.8 pct in January, the NAPM said. It was
the seventh consecutive month in which this leading indicator
was over 50 pct.
    A reading above 50 pct generally indicates that the economy
is in an expanding phase. One below 50 pct implies a declining
economy.
    The  NAPM report, based on a survey of purchasing managers
at 250 U.S. Industrial companies, also found that the growth
rate in new orders and production slowed in February.
    But production remained vigorous, with more than three
times as many members reporting it better rather than worse.
    Vendor deliveries improved slightly last month, but members
reported that steel supplies were tight as USX Corp gradually
resumed production.
    The same number of members reported inventories were higher
as reported them lower. The NAPM said that had not happened
since August 1984.
    For a sixth straight month, more purchasers reported paying
higher rather than lower prices, this time by a ratio of nine
to one.
    Robert Bretz, chairman of the NAPM's business survey
committee, said: "The economy continued to expand in February,
but at a more subdued rate than in January. The slowing of new
orders should not be significant enough to dampen prospects for
a respectable first quarter."
    The composite index is a seasonally adjusted figure, based
on five components of the NAPM business survey - new orders,
production, vendor deliveries, inventories and employment.
 REUTER

Canadian and Egyptian wheat negotiators
failed to conclude an agreement on Canadian wheat exports to
Egypt during talks last week, but the Canadian team will return
to Cairo for further negotiations, Canadian embassy officials
said.
    An embassy official declined to identify which issues
remained to be resolved and when the talks would resume.
    In a five-year protocol signed in 1985, Cairo agreed to
purchase 500,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat a year.
 REUTER

Indonesia's wheat imports are expected
to fall to 1.5 mln tonnes in calendar 1987 from 1.69 mln in
1986, the U.S. Embassy's annual agriculture report said.
    It said the drop was expected, because there will be a
drawdown on stocks built up near the end of 1986.
    It said wheat stocks at the end of 1986 were 390,000
tonnes, up from 223,000 at end-1985. It forecast end-1987
stocks at around 290,000 tonnes.
    The main suppliers in 1986 were Australia (44 pct), the
U.S. (29 pct), Canada (12 pct), Argentina (8 pct) and Saudi
Arabia (5 pct).
 REUTER

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz is
likely to visit Moscow soon for talks following new Soviet arms
control proposals, U.S. Officials said.
    The officials told Reuters no decision had been reached on
when the trip might take place, but it was likely to be within
a month.
    Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed on Saturday that
talks on medium range missiles be separated from other arms
issues.
    Schultz is currently visiting Peking.
 REUTER

Zambia will retain its foreign-exchange
auction system despite the suspension of weekly auctions since
January 24, President Kenneth Kaunda said.
    "We have not run away from the auction. It hasn't been
abolished at all," he told Reuters in an interview.
    He said the system would be reintroduced after current
talks with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
and, he hoped, would be backed by fresh foreign aid funds.
    Kaunda dismissed central bank statements the new auction
system would be used to allocate foreign exchange to private
bidders but not to fix the exchange rate.
    Kaunda said the auction system had faltered because of the
government's shortage of foreign exchange to meet demand.
    It was suspended when the kwacha's rapid devaluation and
strong fluctuations made economic planning almost impossible
for the government and the private sector, he said.
    Weekly foreign-exchange auctions began in October 1985. The
kwacha fell from 2.20 to the dollar to about 15 in 16 months.
In January 1987 the government was more than two months in
arrears in paying foreign currency to successful bidders, and
the auction was suspended and replaced with a fixed exchange
rate of nine kwacha to the dollar.
 REUTER

Poland's talks in Washington with the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the
country's 33.5 billion dlr foreign debt were concrete, open and
frank, a senior Polish banker was quoted as saying.
    Wladyslaw Baka, head of Poland's National Bank, told the
official news agency PAP yesterday the talks were a step
towards possible fresh credits or easier terms.
    "Much attention was given to the Polish delegation and the
talks at both institutions involved displayed a lot of
understanding for Poland's difficult economic position," PAP
quoted Baka as saying.
    Baka said he stressed Poland would meet its financial
obligations to the U.S., "but not in a short time, and not
without major changes in the Polish economy as well as a
cooperative stand on the part of its foreign economic partners."
    Since Poland rejoined the IMF last June, after a 36-year
absence, IMF and World Bank teams have visited Warsaw on
fact-finding missions on at least three occasions. A major
report is expected to be issued in Washington soon.
    Poland has said it will not be able to meet interest
repayments and debt principle falling due this year.
 REUTER

The volume of contracts traded on the
New Zealand Futures Exchange (NZFE) reached a record 25,559
contracts in February, the International Commodities Clearing
House (ICCH) said.
    The previous high was 22,583 contracts in December 1986.
    The ICCH said the value of the contracts traded in February
was 2.90 billion N.Z. Dlrs.
    The seven contracts currently traded on the NZFE are:
five-year government bonds, the share price index, 90-day bank
bills, 90-day prime commercial paper, the U.S. Dollar,
crossbred wool, and wheat.
 REUTER

Indonesia's raw sugar output is likely
to be 1.8 mln tonnes in calendar 1987, unchanged from 1986 and
below the government's 1987 forecast of 2.5 mln, the U.S.
Embassy said in its agricultural outlook for 1987.
    Indonesia bought 162,500 tonnes of raw sugar on world
markets in late 1986, the report said.
    The embassy estimated Indonesia's calendar 1986 raw sugar
production at 1.8 mln tonnes, against a government estimate of
1.99 mln.
    It said that Indonesia's move into sugar self-sufficiency
in 1984 may have been short-lived.
    The report said, "The government continues to promote
sugarcane production through its smallholder intensification
program and a relatively high guaranteed price to sugarcane
producers.
    "However, there are considerable indications that farmers
are reluctant to plant cane because its economic return is not
as good as that of other crops."
 REUTER

Toshin Steel Co Ltd <TOSS.T> and <Azuma
Steel Co Ltd>, affiliates of Nippon Kokan KK <NKKT.T>, are
considering a merger, company spokesmen said.
    Toshin Steel, owned 41.9 pct by Nippon Kokan, and Azuma
Steel, owned 41.3 pct by Nippon Kokan, are expected to decide
by the end of March, they said. Both firms have been struggling
with losses caused by the recession in the steel industry and
the yen's appreciation.
    Azuma Steel's current losses are estimated at 3.1 billion
yen in the year ending March 31 against a 6.99 billion loss a
year earlier, a spokesman said. The firm employs 1,100 workers
    Toshin Steel, with 1,700 workers, has given no forecast for
the year ending March 31.
    But industry sources said they expected the company to show
current losses of about five billion yen or more in 1986/87
compared with a 2.98 billion loss in 1985/86.
 REUTER

Representatives of nine African countries
will meet here on March 11 to discuss the African debt crisis,
the Chad political situation and other issues, Egypt's Minister
of State for Foreign Affairs, Boutros Boutros Ghali, said.
    He told reporters on his return from Ethiopia and Djibouti
that the meeting and venue had been agreed by the Organisation
of African Unity (OAU). He said Egypt, Zambia, Djibouti, Zaire,
Uganda, Sierra Leone, Congo, Algeria and Mali would be
represented. Foreign Ministry sources said Congo President
Denis Sassou-Nguesso would chair the meeting.
 REUTER

European Community (EC) agriculture
ministers meet later today to consider a package of deep cuts
in prices and subsidies after a week marked by strong protests
by European farmers, Community officials said.
    The common target for the farmers' wrath is the EC's
Brussels Commission, which for the fourth year running has
called for radical changes in the price support system.
    EC Agriculture Commissioner Frans Andriessen says huge food
surpluses, which have alienated international trade partners
and pushed the Community to the edge of bankruptcy, demand such
action.
    With Community warehouses stocked with some 16 mln tonnes
of unwanted cereals, over one mln tonnes of butter and huge
stocks of wine and olive oil, Andriessen says bluntly the days
of open-ended price guarantees must end.
    EC agriculture ministers try to fix the guaranteed prices
paid to Community farmers before an April 1 deadline for the
new marketing year, an increasingly difficult task as EC
members cut funds and demand greater budget discipline.
    Andriessen has proposed a freeze for most prices, coupled
with reductions in other support mechanisms, which could lead
to price cuts of as much as eight pct for some products.
    A producer's right to sell into EC warehouses at a fixed
guaranteed price when he finds no real market outlet is to be
scaled back so it applies only in exceptional cases.
    The latest proposals are designed to keep expenditure on
agriculture virtually stable. EC farm policies now swallow
two-thirds of an annual budget of about 36 billion European
currency units (Ecu) and are mainly responsible for an expected
shortfall this year of about five billion Ecus.
    The most contentious aspects of the package are a new oils
and fats tax and a change in the "green" exchange rate system,
which translates EC farm prices into national currencies.
    The tax, of up to 330 Ecus per tonne, would be levied on
imported and domestically produced oilseeds, but could trigger
a fresh trade dispute with the United States, which provides
the EC with the bulk of its soybeans.
    It would increase the cost of margarines and low-fat
products in an attempt to increase both olive oil and butter
consumption.
    West Germany has flatly rejected green rate changes, which
would cause a fall in prices for producers as countries with
weak and strong currencies were brought more into line.
 REUTER

<Qantas Airways Ltd> has placed a firm
order with Boeing Co <BA> for four 747-400 aircraft at a cost
of 250 mln Australian dlrs each, chairman Jim Leslie said.
    The first is due for delivery in April 1989 with the others
arriving in May, June and September of that year, he said in a
    The 400 series is the latest model of the Boeing 747
family, he said.
    The purchase will take government-owned Qantas's 747 fleet
to 28, he said.
    Leslie said Qantas is talking to three engine makers who
are all offering engines for the Boeing 747-400 and it will
announce a decision on engine purchases later this year.
    He said they are United Technologies Corp <UTX> unit <Pratt^M
and Whitney>, General Electric Co <GE> and Britain's <Rolls-Royce^M
 Ltd>.
    He said the 747-400, which incorporates new technology such
as extended wings with six-feet high winglets and enhanced
electronics, should have its first flight next February. The
400 series has a designed range of 12,500 kms, 2,140 kms
further than the current Qantas 747-300's, he said.
    The aircraft will be financed by foreign borrowings and
foreign exchange earnings, and Qantas believes they will pay
for themselves in four to five years, Leslie said.
    The 747-400 has a take-off weight of 870,000 pounds, up
from 833,000 for the 300 series, and offers an eight pct fuel
saving, he said.
    The higher range and payload means they will first be used
on the route to Britain and Europe via Asia.
    They will also be used on non-stop flights between Sydney
and Los Angeles.
 REUTER

Australian investment group <Industrial
Equity Ltd> (IEL) said it will raise 100 mln U.S. Dlrs by the
issue of medium term notes and commercial paper in the U.S.
Domestic market.
    IEL has mandated <Merrill Lynch Capital Markets> to arrange
a letter of credit (LOC) facility in support of the notes and
commercial paper, making this the first facility of its kind,
the company said in a statement.
    The notes will be issued by its <IEL Finance Ltd> unit.
    Merrill Lynch will be the note and paper dealer and
<Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd> will provide the LOC.
    The term of the LOC is five years with an evergreen feature
which provides for annual reinstatement of the five-year term
at the support banks' option, IEL said.
    The LOC will be underwritten by a group of banks which will
receive a facility fee of 20 basis points plus a utilisation
fee of 25 basis points, it added.
 REUTER

American Express Co <AXP>, rumoured to
be considering a spinoff of part of <Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc>, said it is studying ways to improve Shearson's access to
capital and help it meet stiffer international competition.
    In a joint statement, American Express and the brokerage
unit said the actions under consideration are an integral part
of American Express's worldwide financial services strategy.
The statement also said American Express and Shearson have been
having both internal and external discussions on the matter,
but no final decision has been reached.
    American Express said in its statement it would not comment
on the rumours circulating on Wall Street last week.
    Analysts said there was speculation that American Express
would sell a stake of Shearson to a Japanese firm and also that
20 pct of the profitable brokerage would be sold to the public.
Shearson contributed 316 mln dlrs of American Express's 1.25
billion dlrs net in 1986.
    American Express remained silent last Thursday and Friday
as rumours drove its stock up a total of 5.50 dlrs in two days.
It closed Friday at 74.
 REUTER

Indonesia is unlikely to import copra
from the Philippines in 1987 after importing 30,000 tonnes in
    The report said the 31 pct devaluation of the Indonesian
rupiah, an increase in import duties on copra and increases in
the price of Philippines copra have reduced the margin between
prices in the two countries.
    Indonesia's copra production is forecast at 1.32 mln tonnes
in calendar 1987, up from 1.30 mln tonnes in 1986.
 REUTER

Sri Lanka's Central Bank offered 250 mln
rupees worth of three-month treasury bills at its weekly tender
closing on March 6, a Bank spokesman said.
 REUTER

An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the
Richter scale caused widespread damage in northern New Zealand
and a civil defence emergency was declared in some areas,
officials and seismologists said.
    There were no immediate reports of casualties. The quake
jolted the Bay of Plenty and Waikato areas.
    The town of Whakatane was said by officials to be virtually
isolated.
    A civil defence emergency was declared in Whakatane which
has about 16,000 people. Officials said many roads and bridges
in the area had been damaged.
    No deaths were reported but one man was admitted to
hospital in serious condition after his car was buried in a mud
slip.
    Seismologists said Whakatane was hit by three earthquakes,
the strongest measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale. They were
followed by a series of aftershocks.
    The quakes were felt across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato
regions in the northeast of the North Island.
    Smaller tremors had been felt in the Bay of Plenty for more
than a week.
    Police said many districts lost power supplies and
telephone links.
    Energy Ministry officials ordered the release of water
behind the Matahina hydro-electric dam, 32 kilometres above
Whakatane on the Rangitaiki river. The quake cracked the
roadway and concrete abutment along the top of Matahina, the
largest earth dam in the North Island.
 REUTER

Philippine Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin
starts negotiations with the country's 12-bank advisory
committee in New York tomorrow, buoyed by an economy on the
mend and political stability one year after President Corazon
Aquino took power, central bank officials said.
    The country now has foreign debt totalling 27.8 billion
dlrs and faces debt repayments of 3.6 billion dlrs due between
January 1987 and December 1992. Manila also hopes to tack on
another 5.8 billion dlrs, rescheduled in a 1985 accord, to any
new agreement, the officials said.
    Chile's 15-1/2 year rescheduling accord at one percentage
point over London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) and
Venezuala's 21 billion dlr package at 7/8 point over LIBOR
portend well for the Philippines, despite Brazil's repayment
suspension last week, the officials said.
    Manila, which has not made any principal repayments since
1983, wants terms better than the 20-year repayments at 13/16
percentage point over LIBOR offered in October to Mexico in a
77 billion dlr rescue.
    Ongpin wants 5/8 point over the benchmark rate, which is
currently hovering around 6-1/2 pct.
    The banks are said to be firm on the 1-1/8 points offered
when the last round of negotiations collapsed on November 7.
    Ongpin said every 1/16 point over LIBOR meant an additional
5.1 mln dlrs in annual interest payments.
    One banker said banks were wary of repeating a Mexico-type
accord, which some 70 small creditor banks are still refusing
to endorse five months after it was signed.
    In Manila's case, about 40 pct of the 15 billion dlrs
outstanding to commercial banks is owed to the 12 large banks
on the advisory committee, while about 180 smaller banks have
average exposures of 20 mln dlrs each.
 REUTER

Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus in
the first 20 days of February jumped to 3.58 billion dlrs from
1.94 billion a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said.
    The February interim surplus was sharply up from a 965.04
mln dlr surplus in the same January period.
    FOB exports rose 14.6 pct from a year earlier in the first
20 days of February to 10.91 billion, while CIF imports fell
3.2 pct to 7.33 billion.
    The average dollar/yen rates were 152.32 for exports and
152.31 for imports against 196.61 for exports and 196.27 for
imports a year earlier.
 REUTER

Nippon Light Metal Co Ltd <NLGT.T>, which
has annual capacity of 63,000 tonnes, will continue primary
aluminium production at a rate of 35,000 tonnes owing to low
domestic and world prices and low water supplies at its
hydroelectric power plant, a company official said.
    Nippon, which has no plans to restore output to the 48,000
tonnes a year at which it was working until late 1986, will
become Japan's only smelter.
    <Ryoka Light Metal Industries Ltd> will stop smelting in
April owing to high power costs and low prices, and <Mitsui
Aluminium Co Ltd> has said it stopped smelting in February.
 REUTER

Saudi crude oil output last month fell
to an average of 3.5 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 3.8 mln bpd
in January, Gulf oil sources said.
    They said exports from the Ras Tanurah and Ju'aymah
terminals in the Gulf fell to an average 1.9 mln bpd last month
from 2.2 mln in January because of lower liftings by some
customers.
    But the drop was much smaller than expected after Gulf
exports rallied in the fourth week of February to 2.5 mln bpd
from 1.2 mln in the third week, the sources said.
    The production figures include neutral zone output but not
sales from floating storage, which are generally considered
part of a country's output for Opec purposes.
    Saudi Arabia has an Opec quota of 4.133 mln bpd under a
production restraint scheme approved by the 13-nation group
last December to back new official oil prices averaging 18 dlrs
a barrel.
    The sources said the two-fold jump in exports last week
appeared to be the result of buyers rushing to lift February
entitlements before the month-end.
    Last week's high export levels appeared to show continued
support for official Opec prices from Saudi Arabia's main crude
customers, the four ex-partners of Aramco, the sources said.
    The four -- Exxon Corp <XON>, Mobil Corp <MOB>, Texaco Inc
<TX> and Chevron Corp <CHV> -- signed a long-term agreement
last month to buy Saudi crude for 17.52 dlrs a barrel.
    However the sources said the real test of Saudi Arabia's
ability to sell crude at official prices in a weak market will
come this month, when demand for petroleum products
traditionally tapers off. Spot prices have fallen in recent
weeks to more than one dlr below Opec levels.
    Saudi Arabian oil minister Hisham Nazer yesterday
reiterated the kingdom's commitment to the December OPEC accord
and said it would never sell below official prices.
    The sources said total Saudi refinery throughput fell
slightly in February to an average 1.1 mln bpd from 1.2 mln in
January because of cuts at the Yanbu and Jubail export
refineries.
    They put crude oil exports through Yanbu at 100,000 bpd
last month, compared to zero in January, while throughput at
Bahrain's refinery and neutral zone production remained steady
at around 200,000 bpd each.
 REUTER

Indonesia's palm oil output is expected
to rise and exports to increase, the U.S. Embassy said in its
annual report on Indonesia's agriculture sector.
    The Indonesian government said crude palm oil (CPO) output
is expected to rise to 1.56 mln tonnes in 1987 and 2.11 mln in
1988, up from a projected 1.45 mln tonnes in 1986 and 1.26 mln
in 1985.
    The 1986 projection of 1.45 mln tonnes is up from a
provisional figure of 1.3 mln tonnes.
    A U.S. Embassy assessment puts 1987 output at 1.45 mln
tonnes, against 1.35 mln in 1986 and 1.208 mln in 1985.
    "More realistic estimates indicate that 1988 production will
be between 1.5 and 1.6 mln tonnes," the report said.
    The report said the abolition of the five pct CPO export
tax, the devaluation of the rupiah in September 1986 and higher
international palm oil prices should lead to a modest increase
in exports this year.
    Exports are forecast to rise to 720,000 tonnes against
695,000 tonnes in 1986, the report added.
 REUTER

Indonesia's exports of tea and cocoa
will continue to rise in calendar 1987 but coffee exports are
forecast to dip slightly in 1987/88 (April-March) as the
government tries to improve quality, the U.S. Embassy said.
    The embassy's annual report on Indonesian agriculture
forecast coffee output in 1986/87 would be 5.77 mln bags of 60
kilograms each. That is slightly less than the 5.8 mln bags
produced in 1985/86.
    In 1987/88 coffee production is forecast to rise again to
5.8 mln bags, but exports to dip to 4.8 mln from around 5.0 mln
in 1986/87. Exports in 1985/86 were 4.67 mln bags.
    The embassy report says coffee stocks will rise to 1.3 mln
tonnes in 1987/88 from 1.15 mln in 1986/87. It bases this on a
fall in exports as a result of the "probable" re-introduction of
quotas by the International Coffee Organisation.
    Cocoa production and exports are forecast to rise steadily
as the government develops cocoa plantations. Production of
cocoa in Indonesia increased to 32,378 tonnes in calendar 1985
from 10,284 tonnes in 1980. It is projected by the government
to rise to more than 50,000 tonnes by 1988.
    Production in 1986 is estimated by the embassy at 35,000
tonnes, as against 38,000 tonnes in 1987.
    The report forecasts cocoa exports to rise to 35,000 tonnes
this year, from 33,000 tonnes in 1986 and 31,000 in 1985.
    The Netherlands is at present the biggest importer of
Indonesian cocoa beans.
    The report forecasts that in calendar 1987, Indonesia's CTC
(crushed, torn and curled) tea exports will increase
significantly with the coming on stream of at least eight new
CTC processing plants.
    Indonesia plans to diversify its tea products by producing
more CTC tea, the main component of tea bags.
    Production of black and green teas is forecast in the
embassy report to rise to 125,000 tonnes in calendar 1987 from
123,000 tonnes in 1986.
    Exports of these teas are likely to rise to 95,000 tonnes
in 1987 from 85,000 in 1986 and around 90,000 in 1985.
    The embassy noted the ministry of trade tightened quality
controls on tea in October 1986 in an effort to become more
competititve in the world market.
 REUTER

The Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES)
plans to introduce electronic trading of shares listed on the
National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation
System (NASDAQ) in the U.S. And on London's Stock Exchange
Automated Quotation System, banking sources said.
    The SES is discussing the idea with the London and New York
authorities. Gordon Macklin, president of the National
Association of Securities Dealers in Washington, said he was
very optimistic about an early agreement, possibly by the end
of this month.
    Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) sources told Reuters
they supported the proposed linking of computer trading systems
on the three exchanges, and the banking sources said local
financial support for the plan existed.
    Macklin said if an agreement were reached it would move the
three exchanges towards 24-hour trading, with Singapore filling
a gap when no trading takes place.
    A small group of selected stocks would be used at the start
of three-centre trading to determine investor interest.
    The Singapore, London and New York authorities have agreed
in principle on how the three exchanges would trade and
transfer information among the different time zones, but some
details still have to be worked out, a senior Singapore bank
director said.
    Questions remain concerning investor willingness to deploy
sufficient capital in Singapore to ensure adequate market
liquidity and communication links to the other three centres.
    But if agreement is reached, Singapore will have a head
start over the other Asian financial centres in Hong Kong,
Toyko and Australia, he said.
    On February 18 the SES created the Stock Exchange of
Singapore Dealing and Automated Quotation System (SESDAQ),
modelled on NASDAQ.
    At present SESDAQ is trading the shares of only one
company, the government-owned Singapore National Printers Ltd
(SNP), but its turnover has been fairly active, and other small
firms have said they plan to seek listings soon.
    Market sources expect the next few companies listed will
also be government-owned entities, which would have no problem
meeting the listing conditions. Approval for a listing of
Trans-Island Bus Service Pte Ltd is expected soon, they said.
    SNP, previously wholly-owned by the government's Temasek
Holdings (Pte) Ltd, issued seven mln 50-cent shares at one dlr
each last month in a public offering oversubscribed 119 times.
    In SESDAQ trading, SNP shares have advanced from an initial
1.87 dlrs to a Friday close of 2.32 after a 2.80 high. So far
more than 900,000 shares have traded.
 REUTER

The total value of Indonesia's exports
fell in calendar 1986 to 15.995 billion dlrs from 18.762
billion in calendar 1985, according to the central bank's
latest report.
    The value of crude oil exports fell to 7.431 billion dlrs
in 1986 from 8.976 billion in 1985, while liquefied natural gas
exports dropped to 2.795 billion dlrs from 3.802 billion in
1985.
    The value of Indonesia's non-oil exports also fell in
calendar 1986, to 5.768 billion dlrs from 5.983 billion in
1985.
 REUTER

After an onslaught of new paper, fewer
mark eurobonds issues are expected this week, bankers said.
    Most managers said they were planning a low issue volume
for the Bundesbank's two-week bond calendar beginning today.
    "We want to have a week's pause," one manager said.
    Last week borrowings totalled 1.775 billion marks,
including a 300 mln mark private placement for Deutsche Bank.
Issues for all of February rose to nearly five billion marks,
from 3.6 billion in January.
    The heavy volume also meant most borrowers except the very
best addresses were having to accept higher coupons.
    "I think the D-mark market is still good, but only if you
can give a good coupon," another manager said.
    But even some government borrowers were not getting the
best reception for bonds which would have been taken up more
readily under other conditions.
    Of the three mark eurobonds launched on Tuesday alone,
bonds for Den Danske Bank and Iceland were trading outside fees
on Friday, although prices had recovered from initial lows.
    Den Danske's 5-3/4 1992 bond was quoted at midday on Friday
at 97.35/65 compared with its par price, and Iceland's 6-1/2
pct 1997 bond traded at 97.25/75 against a 100-1/4 issue price.
    A 300 mln mark 6-1/8 pct 1997 issue for Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone was also depressed, but traded Friday within fees
at 98.15, 98.50 from its par price.
    Some shorter maturities did better. In contrast to the
10-year NTT and Iceland issues, a five-year six pct bond for
Hoogovens, traded at 98.40/75 from its 99-1/2 price, thanks
mainly to its shorter maturity, dealers said.
    The large amount of paper brought to the market in the last
two months has also led many syndicate managers to complain
about the Bundesbank's present fixed calendar system, which
they say is too inflexible.
    Currently all mark denominated eurobonds have to be
registered with the Bundesbank in the week preceding the
two-week issue period. A bank may decline to issue a bond on
the requested day in the calendar, but then has to wait for the
next calendar period to schedule the bond again.
    Some managers said they would prefer to abolish the system.
    The Bundesbank shortened the reporting period to two weeks
from four weeks last July. But few expect the calendar to be
completely abolished. "I don't think the Bundesbank would give
that up," one banking analyst said.
    "I wouldn't have anything against getting rid of the system,"
the analyst said, adding banks were capable of regulating the
volume of new issues themselves.
    The Bundesbank plays a passive role in setting the calendar
without trying to regulate the issues, but it needs the
registration to gauge the volume of mark bonds going through
the euromarket, he said.
    For this reason, few managers here foresee the Bundesbank
sacrificing its present calendar system.
    Bond activity in West German bond trading and syndication
departments is also expected to be quieter than normal owing to
the carnival holiday.
    Carnival will close banks in Duesseldorf all day on Monday.
In Frankfurt, banks will close on Tuesday in the afternoon.
 REUTER

<Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp>
(NTT) expects its profits to fall to 328 billion yen in the
year ending March 31, 1988 from a projected 348 billion this
year, the company said.
    Total sales for the same period are expected to rise to
5,506 billion yen from a projected 5,328 billion this year, NTT
said in a business operations plan submitted to the Post and
Telecommunications Ministry.
    NTT said it plans to make capital investments of 1,770
billion yen in 1987/88, including 109 billion for research and
development, as against a total of 1,600 billion this year.
    An NTT spokesman said increased competition from new
entrants to the telecommunications field and the effect of a
sales tax scheduled to be introduced next January, were the
major factors behind the projected decrease in profits.
    The Japanese telecommunications industry was deregulated in
1985.
 REUTER

<Ecolab Co> of the United States signed
a contract with North China Industrial Co to set up the first
Sino-U.S. Joint venture in China to make rinsing agents, the
New China News Agency said.
     It said total investment in the new venture, <Ecolab
Chemical Industrial Co>, is 2.4 mln dlrs. It said the venture
will be based in Shanghai and produce agents for use in hotels
and industries.
    It gave no further details.
 REUTER

China has signed a 130 mln dlr loan
agreement with the World Bank to partly finance 12 new berths
with an annual capacity of 6.28 mln tonnes at the 20 mln tonne
a year capacity Tianjin port, the New China News Agency said.
    China will provide 370 mln yuan for the project and a
Chinese company won a bid against 12 other firms from seven
countries to do the foundation work, it said.
    It said 11 of the new berths will be able to handle ships
of more than 10,000 tonnes, three will handle containers and
the expansion will enable the port to handle coke, non-metal
mineral ores and mining equipment for the first time.
 REUTER

Thai Airways International plans to
expand its fleet to 58 from 30 aircraft by 1995, company
    Thamnoon Wanglee, vice-president for finance, told a
weekend marketing conference Thai would finance the expansion
by borrowing, but he did not give details.
    He said the airline planned to reduce its yen borrowing to
36.4 pct of overall debt by September 1992. It is currently
64.3 pct of overall debt.
    He said dollar borrowing should rise to 56.2 pct of overall
debt in the same period, compared to 15.7 pct now.
    Other company officials said the state-owned airline had no
plans to go private. They said the airline is studying a
government proposal for it to merge with Thai Airways Company,
the state-owned domestic carrier.
    A report presented to the conference showed the airline
expects passenger sales revenue to be 13 pct higher in 1987
than in 1986. This follows a 20 pct jump in passenger sales
revenue in the past four months.
    Executive vice president Chatrachai Bunya-ananta said the
current expansion of Bangkok airport would be completed this
year.
 REUTER

Japan February external reserves record 51.73 billion dlrs (January 51.46 billion)

Japan's external reserves rose to a record
51.73 billion dlrs at the end of February from the previous
record of 51.46 billion at end-January, the Finance Ministry
said.
    End-February reserves last year were 27.58 billion dlrs.
    In January, the nation's foreign reserves showed the
largest-ever monthly increase at 9.22 billion dlrs due to
massive Bank of Japan dollar buying intervention during the
month as the dollar fell briefly to an all-time low of 149.98
yen on January 19, foreign exchange dealers said.
 REUTER

Trading volume on the Singapore
International Monetary Exchange (Simex) hit a record 122,819
contracts in February, surpassing the previous record of
116,767 in September last year, the exchange said in a
    Volume in the Eurodollar contract hit a peak of 78,546
contracts against the previous record of 70,306, also set last
September.
    Open interest in the Nikkei Stock Average contract passed
2,000 contracts for the first time, to hit a record high 2,697
on February 26.
 REUTER

A senior Soviet official said a visit to
Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz for arms
discussions was under consideration.
    Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh told a news
conference such a visit would be part of continuing contacts
between the two powers "in the framework of security questions."
    Earlier, U.S. Officials with Shultz in Peking said he was
likely to go to Moscow soon following Kremlin leader Mikhail
Gorbachev's weekend proposal for a separate agreement on
withdrawing Soviet and American medium-range missiles from
Europe.

<Autorama Inc>, a distributor for Ford
Motor Co <F> in Japan, is considering importing cars made by
<Mazda Motor Manufacturing (USA) Corp>, (MMUC), a wholly owned
U.S. Subsidiary of Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T>, an Autorama
spokesman said.
    Mazda, owned 24 pct by Ford, is due to begin production of
the 2,000-cc-engine cars at the Michigan plant in September at
an annual rate of 240,000, of which between 60 and 70 pct will
go to Ford and the rest to Mazda's own U.S. Sales network.
 REUTER

Iraq has secured agreement to defer
outstanding payments on a 500 mln dlr syndicated euroloan
following five months of negotiations with creditor banks.
    Banking sources said the rescheduling is part of Iraq's
continuing effort to defer payments of foreign debt as its
economy comes under strain from the  Gulf War and soft world
    Iraq informed the 37 banks in the loan syndicate last
September it could not meet the remaining four principal
repayments totalling 285 mln dlrs, and missed the first of
these for 71.25 mln due on September 29.
    The 500 mln dlr credit, under the lead management of
Paris-based Union de Banques Arabes et Francaises (UBAF), has a
five-year maturity and a margin of one percentage point over
London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR).
    Banking sources said the agreement now worked out goes some
way to meeting creditor bank demands that at least part of the
first missing instalment of 71.25 mln dlrs be paid and not
deferred.
    One quarter or 17.8 mln dlrs will be paid on signature of
the accord, expected in late March, with the remainder in three
more instalments to be made every six months.
    The remaining three principal instalments - originally due
in March 1987, September 1987 and March 1988 - will each be
deferred for two years from the due date, banking sources said.
    The margin for the loan remains unchanged and no penalty
interest is being imposed, the sources added.
    Bank reaction to Iraq's rescheduling request has been one
of resignation, with many bankers seeing little alternative for
Baghdad's economic planners. Iraq is estimated to have foreign
debt of about 50 billion dlrs, although about half is thought
to be in the form of loans from its Gulf Arab allies,
particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
    The 500 mln dlr credit is in the name of the state-owned
Rafidain Bank. The only other major eurocredit, a 500 mln dlr
deal under the agency of Gulf International Bank, was signed in
October, 1985 and is still in a two year grace period.
    The bulk of Iraq's commercial debt - excluding loans by its
allies in the Gulf War - is in the form of trade financing.
    But Rafidain bank stopped paying debt due on letters of
credit last March and a series of negotiations with banks and
western government export credit agencies has been underway.
Some banks have agreed to a three-year deferrment of
obligations due on letters of credit.
 REUTER

The Central Bank issued 2.14 billion
Taiwan dlrs of certificates of deposit (CD), bringing the total
so far this year to 86.21 billion, a bank official told
Reuters.
    The new CD have maturities of six months and one and two
years and bear interest rates ranging from 3.9 pct to 5.15 pct.
    The issues are aimed at curbing the growth of M-1B money
supply, which is the result of large foreign exchange reserves,
the official said.
 REUTER

Talks on coffee export quotas at the
International Coffee Organization (ICO) special council session
will resume at noon gmt today, following a last minute decision
taken early this morning to extend the meeting 24 hours, ICO
    An 18 member contact group will meet at midday to examine
new ideas, and the full council is to convene at 1900gmt, they
said.
    The extension resulted from a last ditch effort by Colombia
to salvage the talks, which by late yesterday looked perilously
close to ending without agreement on quotas, delegates said.
 REUTER

Caisse d'Aide a l'Equipement des
Collectives Locales (CAECL) is issuing a 12 billion yen
eurobond due March 31, 1994 paying 5-1/8 pct and priced at 102
pct, lead manager Mitsubishi Trust International Ltd said.
    The non-callable bond is available in denominations of one
mln yen and will be listed in Luxembourg. The selling
concession is 1-1/4 pct while management and underwriting
combined pays 5/8 pct.
    The payment date is March 31.
 REUTER

China's state and collective firms do not
have enough cash to operate imported equipment, so banks will
issue more bonds to raise funds, a Chinese bank official was
quoted by the China Daily as saying.
    Xie was quoted as saying the present cash shortage means
some state firms do not run at full capacity and are
inefficient. The central government does not have enough money
to meet their needs.
    The paper said, "Reliable sources disclosed that the country
is running a budget deficit." It gave no figure.
    Xie said her bank sooner or later will have to punish the
many firms that have failed to repay loans made to them over
the past two years at high interest rates. The bank financed
the loans by issuing two billion yuan of bonds, but she gave no
other details.
 REUTER

India's sugar output to January 31 in
the 1986/87 season (October/September) rose to 3.66 mln tonnes
from 3.46 mln in the same 1985/86 period, the Indian Sugar
Mills Association said.
    Total offtake in the first four months of the current year
was 2.71 mln tonnes (including 241,000 tonnes imported) for
domestic use and 4,000 tonnes for export, against 2.81 mln
tonnes (including 993,000 imported) for domestic use and 3,000
tonnes for export in the corresponding period of 1985/86.
    Factory stocks at end-January were 3.05 mln tonnes (96,000
imported) against 3.13 mln (96,000 imported) a year earlier.
 REUTER

<International Leisure Group Plc> said
its <Air Europe> subsidiary was in advanced negotiations with
manufacturers and banks for the lease of 10 <Boeing Co> and 13
<Rolls-Royce Ltd> engines.
    The deal would be for the lease, with purchase options, of
five Boeing 757-200 planes and five 737-400s. The Rolls-Royce
RB211-535E4 engines would be fitted to the Boeing 757s.
    Delivery would be in 1988 and 1989.
 REUTER

Japanese securities houses will issue new
corporate bonds more quickly, accept issue requests throughout
the month instead of at month-end and introduce a competitive
underwriting method from April 1, to bring Japanese firms back
to the Tokyo bond market, securities managers said.
    Domestic issues have slowed to a trickle as more and more
companies turn to more flexible overseas markets for cash, but
the proposed moves are expected to pave the way for a review of
public bond issues, they said.
    "Relaxation of issue rules would be better applied not only
to straight corporate bonds, but also convertible bonds and
warrant bonds, to call back issuers effectively from overseas
markets," a Nikko Securities house bond manager said.
    Securities houses will launch an issue about 10 days after
a corporate declaration of intent instead of 25 days as now,
the securities managers said.
    Underwriters are expected to abolish the lump-sum issuance
system, in which all corporate bonds are issued at month-end,
and accept issue requests during the month, they said.
    Securities houses also plan to introduce free competition
among underwriters when negotiating with issuers over terms in
order to better reflect the market, securities managers said.
    Market participants expect the new issue methods to be
applied beginning in April, with the projected issue by <Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp>.
    The so-called proposal method abolishes the practice of
taking lead-managership and enables more market-oriented
decisions on terms, securities sources said.
    The four major Japanese securities houses now take turns
underwriting corporate bonds.
    Setting issue terms using financial criteria prepared by
securities houses and in reference to coupon rates on latest
public bonds is now almost automatic, they said.
    The new moves are based on wide-ranging proposals made in
late December by advisers to Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.
They were aimed at revitalising the domestic corporate bond
market, securities house managers said.
    The finance ministry, commissioned banks and securities
houses agreed in January to lower the eligibility ceiling for
companies wanting to issue non-collateral straight and
convertible bonds from March 1, securities managers said.
    The cut will more than double the number of corporations
able to make non-collateral issues from around 70 for straight
bonds and 180 for convertibles now, securities managers said.
    The Bond Market Committee of the Securities Exchange
Council also recommended introduction of a shelf registration
system, more use of corporate ratings systems and
simplification of disclosure rules to help speed up the issuing
process, securities sources said.
    It also called for a major review of the commissioned bank
system, which increases the cost of issuing domestic bonds, and
for deregulation of private placements, they said.
    Some of these proposals are likely to take some time to put
into effect, the sources said. A shelf registration system
would need a revision of Japanese commercial law, expected in
1988, the sources said.
 REUTER

The Dutch Central Bank said it has
accepted bids totalling 4.8 billion guilders at tender for new
seven-day special advances at 5.3 pct covering the period March
2 to 9 aimed at relieving money market tightness.
    Subscriptions to 300 mln guilders were met in full, amounts
above 300 mln at 50 pct.
    The new facility replaces old five-day advances worth 8.0
billion guilders at the same rate.
    Dealers expect this week's money market shortage to be
around 12 billion guilders.
 Reuter

Japanese importers bought some 95,000
tonnes of Chinese soybeans late last month for May to September
shipment, under the semi-annual trade accords, trade sources
said.
    The FOB premium rose to 13.50 dlrs per tonne, up 2.50 dlrs
from the premium for the November to April shipment, but down
from 13.80 for the last May to September shipment.
    Flat prices for Chinese beans are based on futures prices
in Chicago plus the FOB premium.
    Japanese purchases of Chinese soybeans, including spot
buying, may have totalled 240,000 to 250,000 tonnes of the 1986
crop for November to April 1987 shipment, down from some
300,000 tonnes the previous year, the sources said.
    Domestic demand for edible-use soybeans is expected to
remain stable at about 240,000 to 250,000 tonnes a year, the
sources said.
    In recent years Japanese importers have overbought Chinese
edible-use soybeans and sold the surplus to domestic crushers,
but low 1986 U.S. Crop prices have discouraged the purchase of
Chinese origin beans for crushing, they said.
 REUTER

SHV SAYS IT MAKING TENDER OFFER FOR UP TO 33 MLN SHARES IN IC GAS

Shr 3.25 H.K. Dlrs vs 1.40
    Final div 52 cents vs 38, making 75 cents vs 57
    Net 1.28 billion dlrs vs 551.7 mln
    Note - Earnings excluded extraordinary gains of 983.6 mln
dlrs vs 81.3 mln. Bonus issue one-for-four vs nil. Share split
four-for-one. Dividend payable June 3, books close May 11-21.
 REUTER

The start of trading on the new
Singapore Government Securities Market has been postponed until
late March or early April because legislative amendments still
need parliamentary approval, banking sources said.
    The new bill market, intended to establish a base for a
wider capital market and to encourage private bond issues in
Singapore, was supposed to be launched today.
    William K.K. Wong, managing director of Indosuez Asia
(Singapore) Ltd, said there is no real obstacle to prevent the
new market from taking off. Most dealers are optimistic it will
provide more liquidity for operators to trade, he said.
    Lawrence Yeo, director of Citicorp Investment Bank
(Singapore) Ltd, said the market's success depends on domestic
participation.
    The five primary dealers and the three registered dealers
will all be local companies.
    The primary dealers are <Commercial Discount Co Ltd>,
<National Discount Co Ltd>, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd
<OCBM.SI>, <Overseas Union Bank Ltd> and United Overseas Bank
Ltd <UOBM.SI>. They will underwrite the Monetary Authority of
Singapore (MAS) auctions, maintain market liquidity and channel
open-market operations, MAS said.
    <Citicorp Investment Bank (Singapore) Ltd>, <Indosuez Asia
(Singapore) Ltd> and <Credit Suisse First Boston Asia Ltd> will
be recognised as registered dealers. They will act as market
makers but will not bid directly at auctions.
    MAS plans to launch trading by issuing taxable instruments
grossing seven billion dlrs in the first year and a gross 38
billion dlrs of paper over the first five years.
    Non-competitive bids from primary dealers prepared to
accept average yield will be allocated first, to a maximum
500,000 dlrs for notes and bonds and to an unlimited amount for
treasury bills.
    The remaining amount will be awarded to competitive bidders
from the lowest yield upwards.
    In the secondary market, the standard lot traded between
dealers will be one mln dlrs worth of treasury bills and
500,000 dlrs worth of government notes and bonds.
 REUTER

Merrill Lynch and Co is issuing a 100
mln Ecu eurobond due March 30, 1990, paying 7-3/8 pct and
priced at 101 pct, lead manager Banque Paribas Capital Markets
said.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets is co-lead manager.
    The issue is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,00
Ecus and will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment date is
March 30, 1990.
    The selling concession is 1-3/8 pct while management and
underwriting combined pays 1/2 pct.
 REUTER

Sweden's Wallenberg group fought back
a bid by the London-based Swedish financier Erik Penser to
secure a large stake in Swedish Match <SMBS ST>, one of the
companies at the core of their business empire.
    A statement issued by the Wallenberg holding companies AB
Investor and Forvaltnings AB Providentia said they had taken
over an option held by Nobel Industrier Sweden AB to acquire 33
pct of the voting rights in Swedish Match.
    Thre Wallenbergs paid Nobel Industrier <NOBL ST>, in which
Penser group has a 72 pct stake, about 20 pct over the market
price for the Swedish Match option, the statement said.
    Swedish Match's B shares open to foreign buyers closed at
424 crowns on Friday. The A shares -- with increased voting
rights -- closed at 450 crowns for the restricted and 455 for
the free shares.
    The statement said the deal increased Investor's stake to
49.4 pct of the voting rights and 14.8 pct of the share capital
while Providentia is left holding 34.1 pct of the voting rights
and 14.5 pct of the share capital in Swedish Match.
    The Wallenbergs' stake in Swedish Match had previously
amounted to 52 pct of the voting rights in the company.
    The Swedish Match deal will cost the Wallenbergs about 400
mln crowns, share analysts said, making it one of the most
expensise moves the group has undertaken in the last four years
to defend its far-flung interests from outside predators.
    The Wallenbergs originally sold Nobel Industrier, an arms
and chemicals group, to Penser in 1984 to pay for buying Volvo
<VOLV ST> out of two other key group companies, Atlas Copco
<ASTS ST> and Stora Koppabergs <SKPS ST>.
    Since then, the Wallenbergs were ousted as the largest
shareholders in SKF (SKFR ST> by Skanska AB <SKBS ST> and
Frederik Lundberg wrested control of Incentive AB from them.
    Lundberg, a Zurich-based Swedish property tycoon, also
managed to acquire a 25 pct stake in another Wallenberg
company, the diary equipment firm Alfa -Laval AB <ALFS ST>.
    During 1986, the Wallenbergs have been concentrating on
building up their stake in Investor and Providentia to prevent
any raid on the heart of their business empire.
    But analysts say the Wallenbergs' position in the
electrical engineering firm ASEA AB <ASEA ST> is also too small
at 12.6 pct of the voting rights and there has been growing
speculation that the group will be forced to sell off fringe
interests to protect its core activities.
 REUTER

Soybean imports are forecast to rise to
425,000 tonnes in 1987/88 (October/September) from an estimated
300,000 in 1986/87 and 375,000 in 1985/86, the U.S. Embassy
said in its annual report on Indonesia's agriculture.
    It said Indonesia did not achieve its goal of
self-sufficiency in soybean output in calendar 1986 because it
did not meet a planned increase in area planted and because
yields have remained below target.
    Soybean meal imports are forecast to fall to around 190,000
tonnes in 1987/88 from 270,000 tonnes in 1986/87 and 295,000
tonnes in 1985/86.
    Domestic soybean production is forecast to rise steadily to
1.08 mln tonnes in 1987/88 from 980,000 in the current year and
890,000 in 1985/86, the report said.
    Imports are forecast to fall in the current year but to
rise in 1987/88 because of a new soybean crushing plant due to
come on stream in early 1988.
    China is the main supplier with a 79 pct share, while the
U.S. Provides the rest, it said.
    "This pattern will likely continue during 1986/87 since
domestic soyfood processors prefer Chinese beans and are
willing to pay a premium for them," it said.
    Area planted is expected to increase by 10 pct in both
1986/87 and 1987/88.
    "Yield increases continue to be hampered by an insufficient
supply of quality seeds, along with pest and disease problems,"
the report said.
 REUTER

<SHV (United Kingdom) Holding Co Ltd>
said it was making a tender offer for up to 33 mln ordinary
shares in Imperial Continental Gas Association.<ICGS.L>.
    It said in a statement the offer was on the basis of 700p
for each IC Gas ordinary and 252p for every one stg nominal of
IC Gas loan stock.
    SHV already holds 6.8 mln IC Gas ordinary stock units
representing around 4.9 pct of the current issued share
capital.
    Successful completion of the offer would increase SHV's
stake in IC Gas to 39.8 mln shares, representing around 27.9
pct of issued share capital, it said.
    The offer capitalises IC Gas at around one billion stg.
    It said it was tendering for both ordinary stock and loan
stock, which when fully converted, gave a total of 33 mln IC
Gas ordinary. It is making the tender offer through N.M.
Rothschilds.
    IC Gas said in a statement it noted the SHV tender offer
and the terms were being considered.
    It said a further statement would be made as soon as
possible.
 REUTER...

Nobel and Financiere Robur are issuing
French franc domestic bonds with share warrants, according to
announcements in the Official Bulletin (BALO).
    Nobel is issuing a 200 mln franc 10-year bond with a 5.5
pct coupon in 1,000 franc denominations, to which existing
shareholders will have subscription rights in the ratio of one
bond for every 120 shares held with a nominal 10 franc value.
    The bonds will each carry eight warrants, each giving the
right to subscribe to one 100-franc Nobel share at 140 francs
between June 1 1987 and May 31 1994. Payment date is April 28.
    In a second stage of the operation, the company will issue
3.63 mln new 100-franc nominal shares at a price of 120 francs,
in the ratio of three new shares for 20 existing 10-franc
nominal shares.
    This will take the company's capital to 677.6 mln francs
from the present 242 mln.
    In a separate operation, Financiere Robur is issuing a
147.73 mln French franc eight-year bond with a six pct coupon,
denominated in 1,100 franc units and priced at par.
    Payment date will be April 13 and existing shareholders
will have a preferential right to subscribe to the issue in the
ratio of one bond for every 10 shares held, between March 9 and
March 30 1987.
    Each bond will carry two warrants, each giving the right to
subscribe between January 1 1988 and March 31 1992 to one
Financiere Robur share at a price of 210 francs.
 REUTER

Japanese banks are expected to give
Nigerian debt negotiators a cool response when they arrive here
tomorrow for talks, banking sources said.
    "We're not very enthusiastic about Nigeria's debt
rescheduling," said a senior official at a leading Japanese
bank.
    A team of Nigerian officials will meet with Japanese
creditor banks here later this week to seek Japanese support
for a proposed refinancing of part of Nigeria's 19 billion dlr
foreign debt, bankers said.
    The senior bank official said a majority of Japanese bank
creditors are unwilling to provide any new credits to Nigeria
although about 80 pct have reluctantly agreed to accept
rescheduling of part of their existing loans.
    "The problem is Nigeria has so far neglected us Japanese
creditors and we have yet to receive a clear-cut picture of the
nation's debt situation," said another Japanese bank official.
    He said Japanese bankers were unaware of the exact extent
of Western commercial bank exposure to Nigeria and were
uncertain about the proposed refinancing package details.
    Some 21 Japanese banks have loans outstanding to Nigeria,
representing about four pct of the credit extended by Western
commercial institutions, banking sources said.
    They said Nigeria would probably request about 320 mln dlrs
in fresh private bank money and rescheduling of some 1.4 to 1.5
billion dlrs in existing loans due in 1986 and 1987. Japanese
banks want Nigeria to make clear its debt repayment scheme as
well as its economic reconstruction plans during the two-day
meeting here, the sources added.
    "Otherwise, our response will be very negative," the senior
official said.
    Banking sources said some 80 pct of international creditor
banks involved have responded positively to the Nigerian debt
proposal.
    Bank of Japan officials said they hope Japanese commercial
banks will help Nigeria overcome its debt problems.
    Barclays Bank plc <BCS.L> has the most exposure to
Nigeria's debt and is chairing a bank steering committee
looking at the problem, the banking sources said. BankAmerica
Corp <BAC.N> is coordinating private bank creditors in the Far
East and representing them on the committee, they added.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it forecast a
shortage of around 800 mln stg in the money market today.
    Among the main factors affecting liquidity, bills maturing
in official hands and the take-up of treasury bills will drain
some 1.61 billion stg.
    Partly offsetting this outflow, exchequer transactions and
a fall in note circulation will add around 425 mln stg and 360
mln stg respectively. In addition, bankers' balances above
target will add some 20 mln stg to the system today.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is likely
to leave office this summer amid opposition to his
controversial tax-reform package, political analysts said.
    They said Nakasone's reputation as a skilled politician has
suffered irreparable damage from his support of a five pct
sales tax planned for January 1988.
    "Nakasone is trying to carry out a drastic tax reform at the
end of his administration, which is not only impossible but
also is very irresponsible as a politican," Rei Shiratori,
professor of politics at Dokkyo University, told Reuters.
    "Nakasone will almost certainly step down as soon as
parliament approves the sales tax, probably in the summer,"
Shiratori said.
    Some ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members of
parliament have spoken against the tax, which Nakasone says is
needed to balance planned cuts in income and corporate taxes.
    Nakasone today called for disciplinary action against LDP
members who oppose the tax. "There are some who are objecting
because of their constituencies," he told a meeting of
government and party leaders. "If the party discipline is
broken, I would like to see punishment considered."
    "A proposed sales tax has become a political issue, partly
because Nakasone breached his election pledge against
introducing it," Shiratori said.
    "Moreover, the tax is being introduced when the public feels
uncertainty about the sluggish economy stemming from the yen's
appreciation and about the future when the Japanese society is
rapidly aging," he said.
    Political analysts said the controversial tax could affect
the more than 2,500 local elections scheduled for April,
involving governors, mayors, town and village heads and
assemblies at all levels.
    But the situation is complicated, since opposition parties
excluding the communists sometimes put up joint candidates with
the LDP, the political analysts added.
    Shiratori said, "In the worst case, implementation of the
sales tax, now scheduled for next January, may be put off for
some time before the government makes a final decision.
    "Another alternative is to modify the planned five pct to
perhaps three pct.
    "A third alternative for the government is to ram through
the bills only with the attendance of LDP MPs," he said.
    Seizaburo Sato, professor of politics at Tokyo University,
thought the last possibility most likely. "I think the LDP alone
will take a vote on the tax bills," he said.
    The LDP now holds 304 seats in the 512-seat Lower House and
143 in the 252-seat Upper House.
    To lure opposition parties back to parliament after the LDP
pushes through the tax bills, the Nakasone cabinet will have to
resign, Sato said.
    "Boycotting opposition members will be more willing to
return to parliament if a new cabinet has been formed," he said.
 REUTER

Thousands of black
mineworkers roared support for a union proposal to seize
control of South Africa's gold, uranium, platinum and coal
mines if the owners refuse to improve conditions for migrant
black workers.
    About 15,000 miners attended a rally here to endorse moves
proposed by last week's annual meeting of the 200,000 strong
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
    They also supported a proposal for a national strike at the
end of this month if the owners refused to begin negotiations.
    Migrant workers from surrounding countries make up more
than half of the labour force in the mines.
    It was not stated how the union would "seize control."
    The miners' leaders also demanded an end to the system of
single sex hostels for migrant workers, to be replaced by
housing schemes so that workers could live with their families.
    The crowd, one of the largest to attend a meeting since
South Africa declared a state of emergency last June, also
shouted approval of a proposal to work closely with
anti-apartheid movements such as the United Democratic Front
(UDF) which claims two mln members. They also shouted their
support for a demand that jailed black nationalist leader
Nelson Mandela be released.
 REUTER

Thailand's Commerce Ministry announced a
new tapioca export quota of 737,987 tonnes for the European
Community against 762,860 tonnes for the previous allocation.
    The ministry said the fresh allocation, for the February
27-July 7 shipment period, is the third under a maximum 5.5 mln
tonne overall quota that Thailand obtained from the EC for
calendar 1987.
    It said the quota allocation was based on a national
tapioca pellet stock of 4.34 mln tonnes surveyed last week, up
from 3.05 mln in mid-January.
 REUTER

Mine and industry officials from
most member states of the Association of Tin Producing
Countries (ATPC) say they have found ways to limit group
exports to 96,000 tonnes in the year started March 1, according
to views polled by Reuter correspondents.
    The plan to curb exports, agreed in January, is aimed at
cutting the world surplus to 50,000 tonnes from 70,000 now and
boosting prices to about 19 ringgit a kilo from just over 16.
    Members of the seven-member Kuala Lumpur-based ATPC account
for some 65 pct of the world's tin output.
    Under the ATPC plan, Malaysia has been allocated an export
quota of 28,526 tonnes, Indonesia 24,516, Thailand 19,000,
Bolivia 13,761, Zaire 1,736 and Nigeria 1,461.
    Australia has said it is not setting any export quota.
However, the tonnage allocated to it, 7,000 tonnes, is roughly
equal to its expected output this year.
    Comment from officials in Zaire was unavailable.
    Mine officials in Malaysia, the world's leading producer,
said only 188 mines will be allowed to operate to ensure that
output is limited to around 31,500 tonnes in the year started
March 1.
    Chief Inspector of Mines Redzuan Sumun told Reuters that
excess output of some 3,000 tonnes after exports of 28,500 in
the one-year quota period would be kept in the national stock.
    Mine owners in Malaysia have welcomed the ATPC export curb
and asked the government not to issue new mining licences. More
than 100 applications for licences are pending.
    Redzuan said the Mines Department would approve new mining
licences only if a six-month review of production trends showed
that local mines were not overproducing.
    ATPC chairman and Indonesia's Mining and Energy Minister
Subroto has pledged his country's support for the export curb.
    A spokesman for the state-owned tin mining company PT
Tambang Timah told Reuters it would be easy for Indonesia to
stick to an export quota of 24,516 tonnes because this was
close to exports in calendar 1986 of 24,636.
    In Bangkok, Thai Industry Minister Pramual Sabhavasu said
Thailand would keep to its 19,000 tonne quota and added this
would not cause the local industry hardship at current prices.
    To insure adherence, the industry ministry and sole tin
exporter Thailand Smelting and Refining Co would encourage
bigger stockpiles, and income tax exemptions would be
permitted, he said.
    The Thai Mineral Resources Department is expected to
disallow new tin mines opening this year to prevent excessive
production, industry sources said.
    But Mining Industry Council President Dam Teutong told
Reuters that if the tin price rose above 18 ringgit a kilo,
Thai miners would press for the opening of more new mines.
    Thailand exported 18,367 tonnes in 1986, up from 17,359 in
1985, Pramual said.
    Bolivia said it expects to export less tin this year than
its allocated 13,761 tonne quota.
    Mining Minister Jaimie Villalobos told Reuters in La Paz
that Bolivia expected to export about 9,000 tonnes of tin in
    He said this was due to the sacking after the tin crisis of
October 1985 of about 20,000 of the 28,000 workers at the state
mining company Comibol, which produces more than 80 pct of
Bolivia's total exports.
    He said there were risks in the ATPC plan to cut exports
but added he was confident the goals set by the plan would be
achieved. He did not elaborate.
    Mines, Power and Steel Minister Bunu Sheriff Musa said in
Lagos that Nigeria would have no difficulty keeping within its
ATPC quota of 1,461 tonnes because its metals output had
declined due to poor demand and high production costs.
    Industry sources told Reuters that Nigeria's output was
less than 1,000 tonnes last year.
    ATPC officials said they would monitor member countries'
export figures every three months using customs documents and
make projections from such data to see if quotas were likely to
be breached within the year-long quota period.
    The ATPC officials said members that appeared likely to
breach their quotas would be told to take remedial measures.
    They added that if member countries were unable to fulfil
their quotas their extra tonnage would be reallocated to other
members at the ATPC's discretion.
    The ATPC would have produced and exported an estimated
106,000 tonnes of tin in 1987 without the plan.
    Non-members Brazil and China have pledged to cooperate with
the ATPC and limit their exports to 21,000 and 7,000 tonnes
respectively during the quota period.
 REUTER

South Korea plans to take steps to keep
its 1987 current account surplus below five billion dlrs,
Economic Planning Board Minister Kim Mahn-je said.
    Kim told reporters the government would repay loans ahead
of schedule and encourage firms to increase imports and
investment abroad to prevent the current account surplus from
rising too quickly.
    Last year South Korea's current account surplus was 4.65
billion dlrs. It widened to 622 mln dlrs in January from 484
mln in December and compared with a deficit of 334 mln in
January 1986, Bank of Korea figures show.
 REUTER

and oil-bearing
raw materials, fats and oils rose to 2.16 mln tonnes on a
fat/oil basis in 1986 from 2.12 mln tonnes in 1985, the
Commodity Board for Margarine, Fats and Oils said.
    Exports of the same commodities fell to 1.35 mln tonnes
from 1.38 mln on a fat-oil basis.
    Fat- and oil-bearing raw materials imports rose to 760,000
from 709,200 tonnes on a fat/oil basis and to 3.47 mln tonnes
actual weight from 3.32 mln.
    Soyabeans were the main component, with imports rising to
2.82 mln tonnes actual weight from 2.75 mln. Sunflowerseed
imports fell to 308,200 from 342,900 tonnes while rapeseed
imports rose to 292,000 from 201,400 tonnes.
    Exports of fat- and oil-bearing raw materials rose to
28,700 tonnes from 19,800 on a fat/oil basis and to 137,200
from 89,900 tonnes actual weight.
    Soyabean exports rose to 119,400 tonnes actual weight from
73,200 tonnes.
    Imports of vegetable fats, including palm oil, rose to
445,400 tonnes from 362,500 and exports to 151,500 from
139,800.
    Vegetable oil imports fell to 227,500 tonnes in 1986 from
286,300 in 1985, and exports to 661,400 from 683,400 tonnes.
    Soyabean oil imports were 32,000 (48,200), sunflower oil
61,600 (92,800), rape oil 82,900 (94,900) and groundnut oil
9,300 (12,200). Exports of soybean oil were 325,900 (338,800),
sun oil 172,100 (189,800), rape oil 114,300 (103,400) and
groundnut oil 7,000 (10,400).
    Animal fat imports rose to 371,700 from 345,800 tonnes and
exports to 124,100 tonnes from 113,000. Fishoil imports fell to
190,600 from 265,600 and exports to 56,500 from 85,500 tonnes.
 reuter...

Gold output in the northeast China
province of Heilongjiang rose 22.7 pct in 1986 from 1985's
level, the New China News Agency said. It gave no figures.
    It said the province, China's second largest gold producer
after Shandong, plans to double gold output by 1990 from the
1986 level. China does not publish gold production figures.
    However, industry sources estimate output at about 65
tonnes a year, with exports put between 11 and 31 tonnes.
    China is selling more gold abroad to offset large trade
deficits in recent years, western diplomats said.
 REUTER

<Sale Tilney Plc> said it has purchased
80 pct of the ordinary share capital of <B and R International
Inc.>, a U.S. Insurance broker, for 5.6 mln dlrs.
    Sale is paying 3.6 mln dlrs in cash on completion, with the
balance plus interest to be paid in equal instalments over the
next six years.
    B and R posted pretax profit of 855,000 dlrs in the year to
Dec 31, 1986 when it had net tangible assets of 563,000 dlrs.
 REUTER

Disagreement over management of <San
Miguel Corp> (SMC) may follow the Philippine government's
appointment of a well-known banker to the SMC board, investment
analysts said.
    They told Reuters the presence of <United Coconut Planters
Bank> (UCPB) president Ramon Sy to the board of SMC may mean
changes in SMC management, which for decades was controlled by
the family of its president, Andres Soriano.
    Sy was appointed by a government commission that controls
51 pct of San Miguel's stock, after another nominee resigned.
    The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) holds
six seats on the 15-member SMC board, which represent 33.13 mln
sequestered shares.
    The stocks were seized on suspicion that they were owned by
Eduardo Cojuangco, then chairman of UCPB and San Miguel. He was
a close associate of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos, and he
left the country after Marcos's fall.
    Before the seizure, Soriano led a 3.3 billion peso bid for
the shares, paying UCPB a 500 mln peso deposit.
    The bid valued the shares at about 100 pesos. They traded
at 93 pesos today, down from 95.50 at Friday's close.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin told reporters on Saturday
that Sy would definitely sit on the SMC board despite the
objections of some directors associated with Soriano.
    "I don't think there is a conflict of interest as such," he
said.
    "I was potentially concerned with seeing a situation where
you have a contentious atmosphere on the board. But Sy has
assured (the government) that he does not intend to behave in a
contentious manner," Ongpin added.
    The Soriano group cited conflict of interest in opposing
Sy's directorship. Its lawyer said in a letter to the PCGG that
a pending suit seeking forfeiture of SMC's 500 mln peso deposit
and major undisclosed damages against the brewery represented a
clear conflict.
    UCPB, however, sought board representation before Sy's
appointment, petitioning the PCGG "so that the interests of the
owners of the 33 mln shares would be adequately protected."
    Investment analysts polled by Reuters said the UCPB had a
right to a slot on the SMC board as trustee for coconut farmers
who claim ownership of the disputed shares.
    The analysts said Sy, backed by the government, would
probably suggest replacements for PCGG nominees expected to
resign soon in keeping with a new law prohibiting government
officials from working for private companies. SMC's annual
election is scheduled for May.
    A UCPB spokesman declined to comment, saying it was up to
the PCGG to decide whom to appoint.
    One analyst said objections were understandable from the
family that founded the company 97 years ago.
    "It is a natural instinct of self-preservation for Soriano,"
he said.
    SMC posted a net income of 448.8 mln pesos in 1985 on net
sales of 10.99 billion pesos against 422.3 mln in 1984 on sales
of 10.36 billion.
 REUTER

The combined profits of Japan's major
corporations, excluding financial institutions, are forecast to
fall 19.2 pct in the 1986/87 year ending March 31, compared to
the 19.9 pct decline projected in late November, Wako Research
Institute of Economics said.
    The private research body also said in a statement that 437
of the 1,084 firms listed on the first section of the Tokyo
Stock Exchange foresee an 11.6 pct fall in sales in the year
against an 11.4 pct fall estimated last November.
    Current profits are projected to fall 4.4 pct in 1987/88 on
sales seen increasing by 4.2 pct, it said.
    Rationalisation measures taken by manufacturing industries
to cope with the yen's sharp rise are beginning to brighten
their business outlook, the institute said.
    It said lower interest rates, which are expected to reduce
corporate borrowing costs, are also behind the improved
performance outlook.
    Earnings performance in the non-manufacturing sector will
be supported by firm demand in the real estate and construction
businesses, it said.
    The forecast was based on average exchange rate estimates
of 160 yen to the dollar in 1986/87 and 155 yen in 1987/88.
 REUTER

Lebanese President Amin Gemayel has
agreed to three key points in a new Syrian-brokered plan aimed
at ending civil war in Lebanon, official sources said.
    They said the Maronite Christian leader has agreed to give
up Cabinet voting rights, to ensure that the Prime Minister is
elected by parliament and to the abolition in principle of
Lebanon's current power-sharing system.
    Gemayel had agreed to the proposals in two months of
indirect negotiations with Syrian leaders, the sources said.
REUTER

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's fiscal
1987/88 budget has sparked speculation that a large deficit
will push up India's moderate inflation rate and that the
country's stock markets will experience prolonged uncertainty,
economists, politicians and stockbrokers told Reuters.
    The projected deficit for fiscal 1987/88, ending March, is
56.88 billion rupees, down from an upwardly revised estimate of
a record 82.85 billion in fiscal 1986/87.
    The projected inflation rate for fiscal 1986/87, based on
wholesale prices, is 6.5 pct against 3.8 pct in 1985/86.
    Economists pointed out that the government itself had
expressed concern about inflation in its most recent 1986/87
economic survey report published last week.
    Presenting the budget to parliament on Saturday, Prime
Minister Gandhi said a cabinet committee would be appointed to
trim large non-development expenditures. The deficit for
1987/88 will not be allowed to exceed the budgeted figure, he
said.
    But few analysts have taken Gandhi's assurance seriously.
They say the deficit more than doubled in 1986/87 from an
initial estimate of 36.5 billion rupees.
    Lal Krishna Advani, president of the opposition Bharatiya
Janata party, said Gandhi's failure to mention specific
measures to cut non-development expenses will push up prices.
    Economists said increased liquidity in the economy, as
reflected by expansion of the M3 aggregate money supply, may
cause prices to rise. The survey report showed the M3 rose by
15.7 pct or 185.78 billion rupees in the first nine months of
1986/87 against 13.37 pct or 136.42 billion in the same 1985/86
period.
    Economists also said uncertain monsoon rain prospects,
after bad weather last year, may strain prices further.
    Economists said the deficit would also cause the government
to rely increasingly on internal borrowing. Market loans and
bonds were projected at 981.50 billion rupees for 1987/88, up
from the 1986/87 estimate of 852.13 billion.
    No reduction has been proposed in personal income taxes,
which will discourage savings, economists said.
    Avinash Purulkar, chief manager of the state-owned Union
Bank of India, said the annual inflation rate may double to
around 15 pct in 1987/88 as the government prints more currency
notes to cover the deficit.
    Brokers said stock market investors have started selling
long-term portfolios to take advantage of a proposal in the
budget that reduces the holding period required to claim
exemption from the capital gains tax to one year from three.
    Delhi stockbroker B. D. Aggarwal said, "There is uncertainty
in the market. There is going to be growing selling pressure."
    But Bombay broker Dinesh Walji said the present hectic
selling of shares will slow when more buyers appear on the
scene. "Just now there is acute nervousness in the market," he
said.
    Brokers said proposals to set up a mutual fund to help
small investors buy equity shares and relaxations in the
capital gains tax will inject further buoyancy into the market
on a long-term basis.
    New equity and debenture issues, both convertible and
non-convertible, rose to an officially estimated 50.70 billion
rupees in April/January 1986/87 from an estimated 36.95 billion
in all 1985/86 and 20 billion in all 1984/85.
 REUTER

The Indian State Trading Corporation
purchased 46,000 tonnes of vegetable oils at its import tender
on Friday, market sources said.
    The business was for April shipments and comprised 20,000
tonnes of European rapeseed oil at 318 dlrs, 20,000 tonnes of
soyoil, believed South American origin, at 314, and 6,000
tonnes of Malaysian rbd palm olein at 347 dlrs, all per tonne
cif.
    Palm oil sellers were disappointed at the light purchase of
rbd olein and early trading saw the market ease nearly 10 dlrs
under Malaysian refiner and dealer selling. April shipments
traded down to 326 dlrs per tonne, fob.
 REUTER

Beecham Group Plc <BHAM.L> said its
subsidiary <Beecham Pharmaceuticals> launched a new once-a-day,
prescription only medicine for the reduction of pain and
inflammation caused by rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. The
launch took place simultaneously in the U.K. And West Germany.
    The drug, which has the approved name Nabumetone, will be
introduced to doctors in the U.K. Under the brand name of
Relifex and will be known as Arthaxan in West Germany.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan decided at a policy
board meeting to promote further interest rate liberalisation
by lowering the minimum denomination of regulation-free large
deposits and by raising the interest rate ceiling on money
market certificates (MMCs), a central bank official said.
    The new guideline will go into effect on April 6, the bank
said.
    Under the guideline, the minimum denomination of
regulation-free large deposits will be lowered to 100 mln yen
from 300 mln.
    The interest rate ceiling of MMCs with maturities of
between one year and two years will be set at 0.5 percentage
point below the prevailing certificate of deposit rate, the
bank said.
    But the ceiling on MMCs with maturities of one year or less
will remain the same, or 0.75 percentage point below the CD
rates.
    The minimum denomination of MMCs will be lowered to 10 mln
yen from 30 mln.
    The bank also said time deposit rates will be lowered by
0.37 point, effective March 16, in line with the half-point cut
in the official discount rate on February 23.
    New interest rates on two-year and one-year deposits at
banks, for example, will be 3.64 pct and 3.39 pct per annum,
respectively.
    Demand deposit rates, however, will remain the same.
 REUTER

State-owned (Taiwan Power co) will boost
its domestic borrowings to further cut its foreign debt in line
with a government policy to trim the island's huge foreign
exchange reserves, a company official said.
    The company's foreign debt, mainly from the Japanese and
U.S. Banks, was cut nearly by half to 66.2 billion taiwan dlrs
equivalent in calendar 1986 from 124.6 billion in 1985, he
said.
    Its domestic borrowings however rose to 105.2 billion
taiwan dlrs from 80.6 billion in the same period, he added.
    Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves now stood at 50 billion
U.S. Dlrs, due to its 1986 record trade surplus of 15.6
billion.
 REUTER

The nine creditor banks of
international coffee trader <Teck Hock and Co Pte Ltd> met
today to discuss ways of letting it fulfil profitable contracts
which would help it balance earlier losses, a creditor bank
    No statement was made after the meeting and officials
declined to comment on any decisions made.
    An unidentified foreign commodities company is pursuing its
offer to buy the company and a subsidiary <Coffee Industries
Singapore>, banking sources said.
    The nine creditor banks have the buyer's detailed proposals
covering the injection of new capital and payment of some
outstanding debt to the creditor banks and are now discussing
individual bank counterproposals to increase debt repayments.
    Teck Hock owes over 100 mln Singapore dlrs and the nine
banks have been extending debt repayments since December 23.
    They are Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd <OCBM.S>, United
Overseas Bank Ltd <UOBM.S>, <Banque Paribas>, <Bangkok Bank
Ltd>, <Citibank NA>, <Standard Chartered Bank Ltd>, Algemene
Bank Nederland NV <ABNN.A>, Banque Nationale De Paris <BNPP.P>
and <Chase Manhattan Bank NA>.
 REUTER

Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> is issuing a 100 mln
stg convertible eurobond due February 20, 2002 paying an
indicated coupon of four to 4-1/4 pct and priced at par, lead
manager Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd said.
    The issue is callable after 90 days at 106 pct declining by
one pct per annum to par thereafter. It is not callable until
1992 unless the share price exceeds 130 pct of the conversion
price. Final terms will be set on, or before, March 9.
    The deal has an investor put option after five years, which
will be priced to give the investor an annual yield to the put
of 8-3/4 to nine pct.
    The selling concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct. The payment date is March 25 and
there will be a short first coupon period.
    The issue is available in denominations of 1,000 and 5,000
stg and will be listed in London.
 REUTER

The French state railway company, the Ste
Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francaise (SNCF), is issuing a
three billion French franc domestic bond in two tranches, the
bond issuing committee said.
    Details of the issue will be announced later and it will be
listed in the Official Bulletin (BALO) of March 9.
    The issue will be co-led by Banque Nationale de Paris,
Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole and the Societe
Marseillaise de Credit.
 REUTER

Dutch animal feed usage in the first
half of the current season from July through December 1986 fell
7.6 pct to 6.5 mln tonnes from 7.1 mln in the same period of
1985, figures in the latest newsletter from the co-operative
Cebeco-Handelsraad show.
    Tapioca usage fell 9.1 pct to 1.4 mln tonnes from 1.6 mln
in the first half of the 1985/86 season.
    Grain usage fell 6.1 pct to 1.1 mln tonnes from 1.2 mln,
while soymeal usage fell 10 pct to 967,000 tonnes from 1.1 mln.
    Cornglutenfeed usage fell 17.8 pct to 729,000 tonnes from
887,000, but cornfeedmeal usage nearly doubled to 399,000
tonnes from 201,000.
    Citruspulp usage dropped 62.8 pct to 149,000 tonnes from
400,000 tonnes, while rapeseed and meal usage rose 9.6 pct to
217,000 tonnes from 198,000 and sunmeal rose 25.6 pct to
216,000 tonnes from 172,000 tonnes.
    During the whole of the season from July 1985 to June 1986,
Dutch soymeal usage fell 12 pct to 1.9 mln tonnes from 2.1 mln
the previous season, while sunmeal usage rose 25 pct to 408,000
tonnes from 325,000.
    Rapeseed and meal usage during the season also rose 14 pct
to 409,000 tonnes from 360,000, but citruspulp fell 37 pct to
516,000 tonnes from 826,000.
    Meanwhile, the value of exports of agricultural products
from the Netherlands in calendar 1986 fell 5.4 pct to 48.7
billion guilders from 51.5 billion in calendar 1985, figures
from the Ministry of Agriculture show.
    During the same period imports of agricultural products
dropped 13.1 pct to 31.2 billion guilders from 35.8 billion.
 REUTER

Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRS.L> said it
would display an English language financial news service
provided by the Japanese Jiji Press from the second quarter of
1987.
    The service, which will be provided through the Reuter
Monitor and Composite Information Service (CIS), will offer
24-hour reports on Japanese economic and political developments
as well as specialised news on money markets and rates,
securities and technology.
    Another Jiji service, offering information on Japanese
equity, bond and money markets, is also available on CIS.
 REUTER

Fiat Finance and Trade Ltd is issuing a
100 mln dlr eurobond due April 2, 1991 at 7-1/4 pct and 101-1/8
pct, lead manager Morgan Stanley International said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Internazionale Fiat Holding SA
and is accompanied by a 200,000 currency warrant package.
    The bond is available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and
will be listed in Luxembourg. Payment date for bond and
warrants is April 2, 1987. The selling concession is 1-1/8 pct
while management and underwriting combined pays 1/2 pct.
    The warrants indicated at 45 dlrs entitle the holder to buy
a minimum of 500 dlrs at a rate of 1.79 marks per dlr.
    The warrants are exercisable from the April 2 payment date
until March 2, 1989. A minimum of 200 warrants must be
exercised. They will also be listed in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said the broad
measure of U.K. Money supply, Sterling M3, rose a seasonally
adjusted 1.1 pct in January after a 0.2 pct rise in December.
    The unadjusted year-on-year rise was 17.6 pct after 18.1
pct in the year to December.
    The narrow measure of money supply, M0, fell by a
seasonally adjusted 0.6 pct in January, and rose by a
non-adjusted 4.1 pct year-on-year, the Bank said.
    The figures confirm provisional data issued by the Bank two
weks ago.
    In December, M0 grew by a seasonally adjusted 1.4 pct and
by a non-seasonally adjusted 5.2 pct year-on-year.
    The Bank said sterling bank lending grew by a
non-seasonally adjusted 1.75 billion stg in January. This also
confirmed provisional figures issued in February.
    The measure of private sector liquidity, PSL2, fell 0.2 pct
in January, but after seasonal adjustment rose 0.6 pct, the
Bank said.
    The Bank said the public sector contribution to the growth
in Sterling M3 was contractionary by about 2.3 billion stg.
    Within this, the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR)
showed a repayment of 3.7 billion stg, while the non-bank
private sector's holdings of government debt fell by about 1.1
billion stg.
    There was a fall of 290 mln stg in notes and coin in
January, a fall of 1.5 billion stg in non-interest bearing
sight deposits, and a rise of 1.6 billion stg in interest
bearing sight deposits, the Bank said.
 REUTER

<Exco International Plc>, a subsidiary of
British and Commonwealth Shipping Co Plc <BCOM.L>, said it had
agreed in principle to buy an 80 pct stake in <RMJ Holdings
Corp> for about 79 mln dlrs.
    Exco Chairman Richard Lacy told Reuters the acquisition was
being made from Bank of New York Co Inc <BK.N>, which currently
holds a 50.1 pct, and from RMJ partners who hold the remainder.
    Bank of New York and the partners will retain about 10 pct
each and these stakes will be bought over the next six years.
    RMJ is the holding company of RMJ Securities, one of the
largest U.S. Government securities brokers.
    It is also involved in broking notes, obligations and other
instruments sponsored by U.S. Federal agencies.
    Lacy said Exco had been considering buying a U.S.
Government securities broker for the past four years and had
made an offer for RMJ when it was sold by Security Pacific Corp
<SPC.N> in 1985. RMJ was then valued at about 50 mln dlrs.
    B and C managing director Peter Goldie said RMJ would be
bought at about the same multiple as Exco, suggesting net
income of around 16 mln dlrs.
    The company's earnings had not been hit by the halving of
brokerage fees some 14 months ago as volumes had since doubled.
    Lacy said that RMJ employed some 300 people, with 200 in
the brokerage business and about 70 in its <SMS> unit, which
provided computer software for the financial services
community.
    RMJ Securities had offices in New York, where total market
turnover of U.S. Government securities was 110 billion dlrs a
day, and in London where it has 15 billion.
    It was also given permission last week to open an office in
Tokyo where total market turnover had lifted rapidly to about
five billion dlrs a day.
    The acquisition would contribute between five and 10 pct of
B and C's share earnings in 1987 on a proforma basis.
 REUTER

Pakistan will hold an import tender
tomorrow for 6,000 tonnes of refined bleached deodorised palm
oil for second half March shipments, traders said.
 REUTER

Hoechst AG <HFAG.F>, <Kerdix Inc.>,
Boulder, Colorado, and <Nakamichi Corp>, Tokyo, have agreed to
pool their research and development on magneto-optical memory
discs, Hoechst said in a statement.
    Research will be carried out at each company and Hoechst
will start to produce the discs by mid-1988 and distribute them
worldwide under the brand name Ozadisc.
    A Hoechst spokesman said an eventual joint venture was
likely but could give no details.
 REUTER

<Coloroll Group Plc> said it has entered
into a conditional agreement to acquire the business and assets
of <Wallco Inc> and related companies for 14.5 mln dlrs.
    Miami-based Wallco manufactures and distributes
wallcoverings and showed a pretax profit of 1.5 mln dlrs on
turnover of 37 mln in the year ending June 1986. The total U.S.
Market was estimated to be worth 840 mln dlrs in 1986, having
grown by 47 pct in the previous five years, Coloroll said.
    The combined sales and profit of the enlarged Coloroll U.S.
Business would be 67 mln and four mln dlrs respectively.
 REUTER

Hungary is to embark on a new series of
austerity measures to tackle a budget deficit which tripled
last year after quadrupling in 1985.
    The target deficit in the 1987 budget approved by
Parliament last December was 43.8 billion forints.
    But Zoltan Boesze, chief of the Finance Ministry's budget
financing division, told Reuters the government now saw this as
too high and had decided "quite severe" measures were needed.
    "All the organizations of economic management have been
charged with elaborating further (savings) measures," he said.
    Asked if these measures were being taken under pressure
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Boesze said: "The
Fund suggested it would be good to improve monetary results,
and of course the Fund would support these efforts."
    IMF teams spent several weeks in Budapest late last year.
    Boesze said preliminary figures showed that Hungary's state
budget deficit rose to a preliminary 47 billion forints last
year from 15.8 billion in 1985 and 3.7 billion in 1984.
    The economy overshot a target deficit of 23 billion forints
because of poor performance by state firms, which needed
subsidies and tax incentives to export and earn hard currency.
    The exact extent and nature of savings are still under
discussion but subsidies to state enterprises -- the largest
budget item -- must definitely fall, Boesze said.
    Subsidies to state firms, including grants to maintain low
consumer prices, exceeded the plan by nine billion to reach 164
billion forints in 1986, up from 152.9 billion in 1985.
Parliament approved 1987 subsidies of 170 billion forints.
    "I think that in 1987 it is quite impossible to keep up the
former situation and we will be obliged to reduce subsidies,"
Boesze said. "The central administration must be hard. ... If we
are not hard then we will not be successful."
    Boesze said the budget could also make savings from reserve
provisions of two billion forints for central expenditure and
800 mln forints for transfers to local authorities. "I believe
these reserves should not be used at all," he said.
    Wage growth last year outstripped that of gross domestic
product, which expanded one pct instead of a planned 2.5 pct.
    The authorities had already signalled a small fall in real
wages for 1987, but Boesze said firms will suffer severe tax
penalties if they award nominal rises of over one or two pct.
    This would mean a severe cut in living standards, as retail
price inflation is forecast at seven pct after 5.3 pct in 1986.
    A four-month basic wage freeze expires on April 1.
    About 40 pct of the 1986 subsidies to state enterprises and
33 pct in 1985 were made to maintain low consumer prices.
    Boesze said pure economic policy would dictate significant
cuts in price subsidies, but that social considerations made
this difficult.
    But he added: "I think ultimately we will be able to make
curtailments in subsidies in this area as well."
    He said Hungary plans to introduce price reform at the
beginning of 1988 at the same time as personal taxation and
value added tax. The IMF supports these aims.
    Hungary introduced a bankrupcty law last September in an
attempt to shake out surplus labour from inefficient firms.
    Between 100,000 and 150,000 workers are expected to be
unemployed at least temporarily by 1990. Labour discipline is
being tightened and firms may fire workers more easily.
    Boesze said the per capita employment tax paid to the state
by firms was being raised this year to encourage enterprises to
shed labour. He gave no exact figures.
    Istvan Nagy, a senior Finance Ministry official responsible
for drafting the bankrupcy law, told Reuters last year he hoped
the law would cut state subsidies to enterprises by 50 pct.
    After subsidies to state enterprises, the largest single
budget items are social insurance (153 billion forints approved
for 1987) and transfers to local councils (80 billion).
    Interest payments on international debt are set to rise to
more than 10 billion forints in 1987 from between six and seven
billion in 1986, Boesze said.
    Hungary's net hard currency debt leapt by 54 pct last year
to 7.7 billion dlrs, according to provisional figures, while
trade with Western countries plunged into a deficit of more
than 400 mln dlrs from a 1.2 billion dlr surplus just two years
earlier.
    Boesze said last year's budget deficit was financed 90 pct
by credits from the National Bank, mostly from abroad, and 10
pct by the issue of domestic state bonds.
    Deputy Prime Minister Frigyes Berecz told Hungarian
economists in a speech this month that the country's economy
was in a "very difficult" situation, but not in crisis.
    There would have to be a turnround with tangible results
this year, however, and borrowing must be used more
effectively.
    "Any rise in our present loans may prove to be dangerous,"
Berecz said.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it revised its
forecast of the shortage in the money market down to around 700
mln stg from its original estimate of 800 mln.
 REUTER

Alaska Housing Finance Corp, a local U.S.
Government agency, has become the first municipal entity to tap
the syndicated loan market, receiving a 150 mln dlr, seven-year
revolving loan, said Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as arranger.
    Merrill said the loan is a back-up to a proposed
euro-commercial paper program.
    The syndicated loan, which is unsecured, carries a
commitment fee of 0.10 pct per year. Advances will be priced at
31-1/4 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate
while notes, which need only be purchased by banks if third
party investors agree to buy them as well, will be priced at
offering.
    Alaska Housing Finance was established by the legislature
of the state of Alaska in 1971, and has so far acquired 6.1
billion dlrs of mortgages originated in Alaska.
 REUTER

Sweden's ruling Social Democratic
Party gave full power to the government to decree unilateral
trade sanctions against South Africa, Prime Minister Ingvar
Calrsson said.
    Carlsson told a news conference the party decided the fight
against apartheid took priority over Sweden's traditional
policy of only adopting sanctions with the backing of the U.N.
Security Council.
    The government will decide later what form the trade
boycott will take and when it will come into force.
 REUTER

Japanese consumers hesitated about buying
the controversial digital audio tape player (DAT) as it went on
sale in Tokyo today, but said the DAT player's near-perfect
sound will make it a success once it becomes cheaper.
    "The sound is great, but I'll wait until more machines hit
the market and prices fall to about 100,000 yen before buying
one," said Terumi Fujitsuka, 35, a steel firm employee.
    Aiwa, Sharp and Matsushita displayed their DAT players
today although delivery will take about two weeks, retailers
said. Aiwa's machine, the cheapest, is listed at 188,000 yen.
    Machines by Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba and others will appear
as early as the end of March, industry sources said.
    DAT players can play back and record with fidelity superior
to even a compact disc. They use a cassette half the size of
the standard audio cassette and unlike conventional analogue
machines, they can make copies an infinite number of times with
almost no loss of sound quality.
    This aroused fears in the music industry of widespread tape
piracy and loss of royalties. In negotiations that delayed the
DAT player's debut, the industry demanded anti-piracy circuitry
be built into the machines.
    Machines sold in Japan are fitted with a computer chip to
prevent copying through a digital signal. But copies can still
be made if the signal is routed through a regular amplifier.
"Nobody can tell the difference," one salesman said.
    DAT players have been kept off Western markets and some
countries are considering banning them or imposing heavy duties
unless tougher anti-piracy circuitry is added. But Japanese
hardware makers, hard pressed for profits in the era of the
high yen and growing competition, are eager to carve out a
profitable niche.
    Prices of DAT players will probably fall quickly, possibly
to around 70,000 yen by next year as other makers put their
products on the market, industry analysts said.
    They said by 1990, sales could reach six mln units per
year.
    Philips of the Netherlands has said it will launch its DAT
player on the world market later this year.
 REUTER

Italy's strong economic revival has led
some observers to talk of miracles and created euphoria in some
quarters about future growth prospects, but many Italian
experts warn that the current wave of optimism is excessive.
    "I think all this foreign interest in the so-called Italian
miracle is really exaggerated...Foreign observers always
oscillate in the case of Italy between complete pessimism and
unwarranted optimism," says Luigi Spaventa, one of Italy's
leading economists and a professor at Rome University.
    According to Spaventa, these violent swings of mood have
been occurring for the last 15 years, with Italy one minute
seen as the "bad boy of Europe" and unable to raise a dollar and
the next a worker of miracles and basking in admiration,
    "I think there's a lot of exaggeration...Once it used to be
the underground economy and all the correspondents of foreign
newspapers flocked to Italy to study this. That was another
story about nothing - like writing about a black cat in a dark
room."
    Spaventa, in tune with other economists and industrialists
here, stress Italy's recent achievements, particularly the
dramatic and solid recovery in the fortunes of industrial
enterprises, but warns that the economy is still vulnerable.
     Profits of private sector firms such as Fiat S.P.A.,
<FIAT.M> and <ING. C. Olivetti and C. S.P.A.> are booming, the
major state industries are back in the black after years of
losses, inflation has nosedived and the trade and balance of
payments deficits have been slashed. Expectations by some
experts that Italy is poised to replace Britain as the world's
fifth largest economy have also boosted optimism.
    Italy itself has made it clear it is not happy with what it
feels to be its second-rate status among the major
industrialised countries.
    Only this week, it angrily demanded clarification of this
status after being excluded from a meeting of finance ministers
from the Group of Five (G-5) - comprising the United States,
Japan, West Germany, France and Britain.
    Italy said its exclusion from the meeting violated an
agreement reached in Tokyo last year to let Italy and Canada
attend meetings held by the five whenever discussions concerned
managing the international monetary system.
    But Italy needs first to tackle some fundamental problems
still facing its economy, economists and industrialists say.
    "We must not forget that ours is still a vulnerable economy,"
warns Fiat managing director Cesare Romiti.
    He says that while Italy's recent achievements are indeed
cause for satisfaction and optimism, the focus now should be on
the problems still remaining rather than those already solved.
    The country's huge state sector deficit, high unemployment
and a heavy dependence on imported oil are among the most
worrying problems, experts say.
    The size of the state spending deficit -- estimated at
109,561 billion lire in 1986 and targetted at 100,000 billion
lire this year -- means there is a risk inflation could spiral
again, says Carlo Scognamiglio, head of the private Luiss
university in Rome.
    Inflation fell into single digits for the first time in a
decade in September 1984 and by January this year was running
at 4.5 pct, but it is still not low enough to guarantee
international competiveness, economists and industrialists say.
    And unemployment was running at 11.6 pct nationally last
October according to the latest official data.
    Recent official data showed that of a total 2.77 million
people seeking work in October 1986, almost 73 pct were aged
between 14 and 29. Unemployment in the south was running at
17.7 pct, more than double that in the industrial north.
    The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) recently forecast that Italian gross domestic product
(GDP) would rise rise three pct in 1987 after expanding 2.5 pct
in 1986. But it warned that growth was unlikely to be enough to
check rising unemployment.
    Another problem is Italy's reliance on imported raw
materials. The country imports around 80 pct of its fuel needs.
    This factor actually worked sharply in Italy's favour last
year, when lower energy costs helped slash the country's trade
deficit to 3,717 billion lire  by year end from 23,085 billion
lire in 1985.
    But economists say the improvement owes little to any
structural change in the Italian economy and that any reversal
of the trend in costs could have serious consequences.
    If Italy truly wants to be counted among the world's top
industrialised nations, it also needs to tighten up stockmarket
operating procedures and encourage firms to supply more quality
information about their activities, economists say.
    Italy has no controls on insider trading.
    The country also needs to shed its rigid capital movements
controls -- a European Community directive calls for these to
be dismantled by 1992 -- but this too will require a less
blinkered attitude and a change in traditional operating
procedures, economists say.
    "Even today, if I wanted to invest in the Tokyo bourse, I
doubt I'd find the expertise in a brokerage firm or in banks
which would allow me to do that," says Spaventa.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it had provided
the money market with 37 mln stg assistance in the morning
session. This compares with the Bank's downward revised
estimate of the shortfall in the system today of around 700 mln
stg.
    The central bank purchased bank bills outright comprising
four mln stg in band one at 10-7/8 pct and 33 mln stg in band
two at 10-13/16 pct.
 REUTER

Japan and the U.S. Kick off top-level
trade talks tomorrow amid signs officials from both sides are
growing increasingly irritated with each other.
    The talks, held annually at sub-cabinet level to review the
whole gamut of U.S./Japan economic relations, will pave the way
for American Secretary of State George Schultz's one day
stop-over here at end-week on his way home from China.
    Faced with growing Congressional protectionist pressure,
the U.S. Administration is pressing Japan for speedy action to
reduce its still huge trade surplus, U.S. Officials said.
    "We appreciate their frustration," a senior Japanese
government official said. "But we are also frustrated."
    The official said the 40 pct rise of the yen over the last
18 months has hit Japan hard, forcing exporters to slash
spending and lay off workers to make up for lost sales abroad.
That has not yet shown up in dollar-based statistics on trade,
but it will, he said.
    He said the U.S. Administration was ignoring the progress
that has been made and instead emphasizing the problems that
remain when it talks with Congress.
    "It would only take five minutes to list their
accomplishments," a senior U.S. Official replied.
    The talks begin tomorrow with high-level discussions on the
economic structures of both countries and how they affect the
bilateral trade imbalance, which last year amounted to 51.48
billion dlrs in Japan's favour.
    On the following two days, the topics will range from
multilateral trade talks under the auspices of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to such bilateral trade
problems as super computers.
    The structural talks are intended to be free-wheeling
discussions among senior officials. Tomorrow's topics include
savings and investment issues such as consumer credit and
housing, and the implications of government budget deficits.
    These talks come at a particularly delicate time for the
Japanese government, which is facing increasing domestic
pressure to abandon its tight-fisted fiscal policy and
stimulate the sagging economy by spending more.
    Some U.S. Officials complained Japan has no intention of
boosting domestic demand and imports, as Washington wants.
    Japanese officials in turn pointed the finger at the huge
U.S. Budget deficit as one of the main culprits for the trade
imbalance. That budget deficit has meant that the U.S. Is
buying more imports.
    Japan seems particularly peeved at being singled in a draft
trade bill before the Senate as a nation following adverserial
trade practices. "It condemns Japan without due process," one
Japanese official said.
    That reference spoils what is otherwise a well-thought-out
bill introduced by Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen, he said.
    Japan is also not totally happy with the administration's
trade bill, particularly its proposal to establish reciprocal
access to foreign markets as one criteria for retaliatory trade
action by the U.S., Officials said.
    Nevertheless, Japanese officials said they remain in a weak
bargaining position, especially with the threat of a trade bill
overhanging them.
    "We have no leverage," one official admitted.
    As a result, Tokyo is striving to meet U.S. Complaints
about its trade practices in a variety of fields, including
super computers.
    The U.S. Is pressing for greater access to the Japanese
super computer market.
    The Japanese government has sent a long questionnaire to
public institutions like universities which buy the
sophisticated machines in hopes of eventually setting up
informal bidding procedures easily understood by all potential
sellers, officials said.
 REUTER

India will hold a buying tender on
Wednesday, March 4, for two to three cargoes of white sugar for
March/April shipment, traders said.
 REUTER

    He said they are <Pratt and Whitney> and General Electric
Co <GE>, a unit of United Technologies Corp <UTX>, and
Britain's <Rolls-Royce Ltd>.
 REUTER

<Carlton Communications Plc> has started
the current financial year well, with accounts for the first
four months showing a healthy increase on the same period last
year, and Chairman M.P. Green told the annual meeting he looked
forward to 1987 with optimism.
    The issue of 4.6 mln shares in ADR form had now been
successfully completed, he added.
    Carlton intended to increase its presence in the U.S. Which
represented 50 pct of the world television market. Conditions
worldwide in the television industry continued to look buoyant,
the Chairman noted.
 REUTER

The European Community Commission said
it has opened an enquiry into allegations that the Soviet Union
is dumping mercury on the European market at below-cost prices.
    The Commission said its decision follows a complaint from
EC non-ferrous metals producers that the sales of Soviet
mercury were harming their business and threatening jobs in the
European industry.
    According to the complaint, Soviet mercury sales in the EC
had risen from zero in recent years to 100 tonnes between
August and October last year and threaten to capture 25 pct of
the EC market if they continue at the same pace.
    The industry said the mercury was being sold at more than
40 pct below prices charged by EC producers, forcing them to
cut their prices to levels that no longer covered costs. The
imports had caused producers heavy financial losses, it said.
    The Commission said the industry would probably be unable
to hold prices at current levels and that any increase would
result in loss of sales and jobs.
    The so-called anti-dumping procedure opened by the
Commission will allow all interested parties to state their
cases to the authority.
 REUTER

The Philippines will offer commercial
payments through certificates of indebtedness instead of cash,
the authoritative Business Day newspaper said.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin told reporters Saturday that
the alternative proposal is designed to avoid an impasse when
debt rescheduling talks reopen in New York on Tuesday.
    The peso proceeds can be invested in selected industries
under the Philippines' debt/equity program. Ongpin said Manila
is sticking to its demand of a spread of 5/8 percentage points
over London interbank offered Rates (LIBOR) for restructuring
3.6 billion dlrs of debt repayments.
the alternative," Ongpin said. "Our representatives have gone
to Washington to the (International Monetary) Fund, the (World)
    "We don't believe that there is going to be a problem on
the accounting side," Ongpin said. "We have run this
alternative proposal to the accounting firms. Neither have the
government regulators indicated that there will be a problem."
 Reuter

Argentina's chief debt negotiator
said he was confident of a prompt accord with international
creditor banks for rescheduling the country's foreign debt.
    "I'm quite optimistic about carrying out a serious and
quick negotiation," Treasury Secretary Mario Brodersohn said on
return from talks in New York with leading U.S. and world
financial officials.
    Argentina is currently negotiating terms with the steering
committee for its creditor banks that will allow it to meet
four pct economic growth targets in 1987. It has also asked for
a reduction in interest rates and fresh credit.
    Brodersohn said the growth targets were not negotiable, but
Argentina did not want to follow Brazil in suspending payments
on its foreign debt.
    He said Argentina was seeking 2.15 billion dlrs credit to
meet the targets, adding that the banks' attitude had improved
following Brazil's decision.
    The United States and a group of other industrial nations
on Thursday granted Argentina a 500 mln dlr bridge loan.
    Brodersohn held talks in New York with U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker, Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Michel Camdessus.
 Reuter

Deputy oil ministers from six Gulf
Arab states will meet in Bahrain today to discuss coordination
of crude oil marketing, the official Emirates news agency WAM
reported.
    WAM said the officials would be discussing implementation
of last Sunday's agreement in Doha by Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) oil ministers to help each other market their crude oil.
    Four of the GCC states - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Qatar - are members of the
Organiaation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some
face stiff buyer resistance to official OPEC prices.
 Reuter

A rift has occured among Philippine
officials over debt talks opening tomorrow in New York with
Economic Planning Secretary Solita Monsod accusing the chief
negotiator of softening his stand to gain a quick agreement.
    Monsod told Reuters Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin had
decided not to insist on Manila's creditor banks pledging to
fund half of a projected 1988/92 financing gap of seven billion
dlrs.
    "He (Ongpin) wants to finish the negotiations as fast as
possible. I'm saying that's very short-sighted," Monsod said.
    Monsod said any pricing agreement on rescheduling 3.6
billion dlrs of the Philippines' total foreign debt of 27.8
billion dlrs would ignore a looming 14 billion dlr net resource
transfer in the same period.
    Manila is seeking a spread of 5/8 percentage points over
the London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR).
    Monsod said,  "Right now we are saying to the banks, let's
share the financing burden."
    Ongpin said last month the country's consultative group of
multilateral and bilateral aid donors had endorsed a growth
facility to bridge the funding gap.
     He said the government and the consultative group would
meet annually to gauge financing needs for each year. The aid
donors and commercial bank creditors would then be asked to
finance any gap on a shared basis.
    He told reporters on Saturday it would be unwise to try to
pin the banks down on Monsod's proposed growth facility.
    Ongpin acknowledged there was a dispute over tactics.
"Secretary Monsod and I get along famously," he said. "She talks
and I listen but I don't necessarily agree."
    Monsod said a firm commitment from the banks on bridging
the financing gap would have aided the government's
pump-priming program and 1987/92 medium-term development plan.
    She said if private sector investment continued to be held
back by the fear of a balance of payments crisis and rising
interest rates, the country would fail to achieve its gross
national product (GNP) growth target of an average 6.5 pct over
the next six years.
    "If you don't get those seven billion dlrs there is no plan.
How can there be a program if there is no finance?" she said,
adding Ongpin's stand was not good for the economy.
    "It (Ongpin's stand) is going to make it much more difficult
for the economy to attain its growth targets," Monsod said.
    "Considering what the Philippine negotiating team is going
to press for there is absolutely no reason why they should not
be able to come back (from New York) in a day," she said.
    Monsod, the government's chief economic planner, stressed
Manila's policy was growth before debt.
    She said if the banks refused to lend the new money, the
Philippines should copy Brazil's action last week in freezing
all debt repayments.
    "If the banks do not cooperate by lending you back some of
the money that you are sending abroad, then of course you have
an option," Monsod said. "You just don't send it abroad. You do a
Brazil."
 REUTER

Japan appears resolved to encourage
domestic demand for its goods instead of relying on exports to
support its economy, Jean-Claude Paye, Director General of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
told a news conference.
    Paye has been in Japan exchanging views on problems
confronting the world economy and the role of the OECD.
    He met with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Foreign
Minister Tadashi Kuranari, Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi
Sumita and other high-ranking Japanese officials.
 Reuter

accord to boost world oil prices and stabilize the market, the
... accord and it will never sell its oil at prices below the
    Saudi Arabia was a main architect of December pact under
which OPEC agreed to cut its total oil output ceiling by 7.25
pct and return to fixed prices of around 18 dollars a barrel.
 Reuter

Kuwait's oil minister said in a newspaper
interview that there were no plans for an emergency OPEC
meeting after the recent weakness in world oil prices.
daily al-Qabas as saying that "none of the OPEC members has
asked for such a meeting."
    He also denied that Kuwait was pumping above its OPEC quota
of 948,000 barrels of crude daily (bpd).
    Crude oil prices fell sharply last week as international
oil traders and analysts estimated the 13-nation OPEC was
pumping up to one million bpd over its self-imposed limits.
 Reuter

Taiwan plans another round of deep tariff
cuts this year to help narrow its trade surplus with the U.S.,
A senior economic planner said.
    Wang Chao-Ming, vice-chairman of the council for economic
planning and development, told Reuters Taiwan would further
reduce import tariffs on 1,700 products sometime in the second
half of this year.
    Cuts of up to 50 pct on those items were made last year and
Wang said further cuts would go much deeper.
    "We have to speed up liberalisation and cut import tariffs
faster and more substantially," he said.
    The United States, Taiwan's main trading partner, has said
the island's import tariffs, still ranging from a high of
almost 60 pct, were unacceptable. It has criticised the cuts as
too selective.
     Taiwan's trade surplus with the United States hit 13.6
billion dlrs last year. The surplus has boosted foreign
exchange reserves to 50 billion dlrs, which Wang said made
Taiwan a target for U.S. Protectionism.
    Wang said the trade surplus and the reserves weakened
Taiwan's position in talks with Washington over export quotas,
particularly for shoes, textiles and machine tools which are
among the island's main export-earners.
    A special Taiwanese trade delegation leaves for Washington
tomorrow to try to renegotiate an agreement signed last year
limiting exports of Taiwan textiles.
    Under the accord, Taiwan's textile export growth was
limited to 0.5 pct each year until 1988. Taipei has said it is
losing markets to South Korea and Hong Kong which were given
more generous terms.
 REUTER...

French state-owned chemicals group
Rhone-Poulenc <RHON.PA> said it will increase its capital with
a 2.5 billion franc issue of preferential investment
certificates on March 9.
    Company chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou said 500 mln francs of
the issue will be placed in the U.S. Details of the issue will
be announced by Finance Minister Edouard Balladur on March 6.
    The group, due to be privatised at an unspecified date,
said in January it was planning a capital increase to pursue
its development strategy and make further acquisitions.
    Rhone-Poulenc shares were suspended from trading on the
Paris Bourse last Thursday ahead of the capital increase. The
group's capital currently stands at 4.03 billion francs.
    Fourtou, speaking at a news conference, did not give
details of acquisitions the company planned for 1987.
    He said acquisitions in 1987 would complement an industrial
investment program of around five billion francs, and research
spending of about 3.5 billion francs. Rhone-Poulenc spent 5.5
billion francs on acquisitions last year.
    "Chemistry is on the move and we face opportunities that
must be seized," Fourtou said.
 REUTER

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK>
expects satisfactory profits in 1987 and will pay a higher
dividend for the year, chairman Li Ka-shing said.
    He did not make any specific projections for the company's
earnings this year but he said the firm will pay a dividend of
not less than 32.5 cents per share after a proposed
four-for-one stock split and a one-for-four bonus issue.
    It paid total dividends of 1.30 dlrs per share last year,
equal to 26 cents per share, adjusting for the bonus and share
split.
    Hutchison, which has operations ranging from trading to
property and container terminals, earlier reported after-tax
profits of 1.62 billion dlrs against 1.19 billion dlrs in 1985.
    The 1986 total excluded extraordinary gains of 563 mln
dlrs, partly from the sale of some of its stake in the South
China Morning Post, the leading English language newspaper,
compared with 369 mln dlrs the previous year. It said it
expects another 277 mln dlr gain in 1987 from the sale of the
remaining shares.
    Li said Hong Kong's property market remains strong while
its economy is performing better than forecast with its largely
export-led growth.
    Gross domestic product grew by nearly nine pct last year
against an initial government projection of 4.5 pct.
    But he said Hong Kong's large trade deficit with the U.S.
May result in protectionist measures that will adversely affect
the British colony.
    He said all of the company's major operations showed
improved results in 1986.
    Hutchison said earlier it will sell its entire 23.5 pct
interest in Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd <HKEH.HK> to
<Cavendish International Holdings Ltd>, itself a spin-off from
Hongkong Electric.
    Under a reorganisation announced separately, Hongkong
Electric will spin off all its non-electricity related
activities into Cavendish, which will be listed on the local
stock exchange. Hongkong Electric shareholders will receive one
share in Cavendish for every Hongkong Electric share.
    Cavendish will buy the 348.2 mln Hongkong Electric shares
from Hutchison by issuing 975 mln new shares.
    The spin-off and the sale of Hongkong Electric shares will
give Hutchison a 53 pct stake in Cavendish.
    Li said the decision to spin-off Cavendish is to relieve
Hongkong Electric of public criticism of the power company for
making risky investments. But he denied there was pressure from
the government for the spin-off.
    He said Cavendish will have seven billion dlrs of assets
and will be almost debt free, with 340 mln dlrs of liabilites.
Its major assets are the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel, property
development, and interests in Husky Oil Ltd <HYO.TO> of Canada
and Pearson Plc <PSON.L> of Britain.
 REUTER

The French inflation rate is expected to
show a substantial improvement in February after January's very
high 0.9 pct monthly rate, Finance Minister Edouard Balladur
said.
    He told a French television interviewer that half of the
high January rise, which took year on year inflation that month
to three pct, was due to higher oil prices.
    "Now, taking account of this inflation index, our forecast
for price rises this year is two and a half pct," he said.
    Balladur said the upward revision of the inflation target,
which the government had initially set at two pct for this
year, should not affect wage expectations for this year.
    "There is no reason to envisage a change in our wage policy,"
he said, referring to the government's aim of holding public
sector wage increases to three pct this year.
    Price inflation last year fell to 2.1 pct from 4.7 pct in
1985.
 REUTER

The U.S. economy continued to expand in
February, but at a slower pace than in January which saw a
    The Association's composite survey index declined to 51.9
economy.
    The report, based on questions asked of purchasing managers
at 250 U.S. industrial companies, also found that the growth
    However, production remained vigorous as more than three
times as many members reported it better rather than worse.
reported that steel supplies were tight as U.S. Steel <X>
gradually resumed production.
    An equal number of members reported inventories were higher
and lower. The NAPM said that had not happened since August
1984.
    For a sixth month, more purchasers reported paying higher
rather than lower prices, this time by a ratio of nine to one.
committee and director of materials management at Pitney Bowes
Inc <PBI> said "the economy continued to expand in February,
 Reuter

Brazil would not have suspended
payments on debt owed to foreign banks if it had received more
and faster financing from official lending agencies, Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro said.
    He said he would not seek more money from the International
Monetary Fund to which Brazil paid 922 mln dlrs last year and
said Brazil's problems could not be solved by IMF intervention.
    "It's a question of why the official lending agencies don't
finance a little bit more quickly and easily," Funaro told
reporters at the Brazilian Embassy.
    Asked if Brazil would have continued making payments of
monthly interest to its foreign commercial bank lenders if
official lending agencies had provided more funds, he replied,
"Yes, because our country did not receive financing from these
agencies."
    Asked how long the payment suspension would last, Funaro
said "It all depends on what kind of financing we are going to
receive from the other side."
    Brazil, with foreign debt totaling 108 billion dlrs,
stunned the banking community last week by suspending payments
on some 68 billion dlrs owed to private banks.
    Funaro said Brazil had paid 44 billion dollars to the World
Bank and other lending agencies and commercial banks in the
past four years and got only 11 billion dlrs in loans.
    He said the net transfer was hurting the country's
continued growth and capacity to import goods.
    "Something is wrong with the system. Some mechanism has to
be found to finance a country like Brazil," Funaro said.
    He did not specify what steps he had in mind but said he
would like to see "automatic" official lending when needed so
that Brazil would not have to dip into its dwindling reserves,
now reported to be below four billion dlrs.
    Funaro said Brazil had the world's third-largest trade
surplus and estimated the 1987 surplus would be at least eight
billion dlrs.
    But he said that without increased and faster lending from
official institutions, the nation could not rely on its export
earnings to finance development and imports and also service
its debt.
    "We must find an equilibrium between foreign adjustment and
internal adjustment," Funaro said.
    He complained that official lending agencies had imposed
tight control on credit over the past four years, leaving
commercial bank refinancing as the only credit available.
    Funaro said U.S officials understand his position "but they
don't like it." Later he left Washington for a tour of Europe
and debt discussions with officials in Britain, West Germany,
France, Switzerland and Italy.
    Brazil's central cank President Francisco Gros said he sent
a telex to creditor banks Friday to clarify confusion over
Brazil's request that banks expedite procedures for renewal of
short-term interbank credit and trade credit lines.
   
 Reuter

American Motors Corp said that it broke
off talks aimed at extending the life of its only U.S. car
assembly plant after the union rejected its final proposal for
wage concessions.
    Negotiations, which continued past a midnight Friday
deadline, ended Saturday after United Auto Workers negotiators
voted to reject the unspecified concessions, an AMC spokesman
said by telephone from Milwaukee, site of the talks.
    Without a new agreement containing lower labor costs, AMC
said it would phase out vehicle production at the complex in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, by 1989.
 Reuter

Scientific Micro Systems Inc said it
has acquired Supermac Technology, a rapidly growing supplier of
enhancement products and disc drive subsystems for the Apple
personal computer market.
    Scientific Micro said it acquired all the common stock of
Supermac in exchange for 1.05 mln shares of its own common
stock. The stock closed at 5.50 dlrs bid on Friday.
    Supermac, a privately held firm based in Mountain View,
California, as is Scientific Micro, reported a net profit of
300,000 dlrs on revenue of 9.5 mln dlrs in fiscal 1986. It
expects its revenue to approximately double in 1987.

 Reuter

American Express Co, rumored to be
considering a spinoff of part of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc,
said it is studying a range of options for its brokerage unit
that could improve Shearon's access to capital and help it meet
broadening international competition.
    In a joint statement, American Express and Shearson said
the actions under consideration are an integral part of
American Express' worldwide financial services strategy and
that the two companies have been having both internal and
external discussions on the matters.
    American Express said no decision has been reached on the
strategic options and that it and Shearson could ultimately
decide to follow growth plans already in place.
    Last week, rumors circulated on Wall Street that the
financial services giant was considering a spinoff of part of
Shearson and there was speculation it may be considering
selling a stake to a Japanese firm. Analysts said the
speculation also focused on American Express selling 20 pct of
the profitable brokerage firm to the public.
    There was some speculation that American Express had also
considered a total spinoff of Shearson, but the plan was
considered highly unlikely, analysts said.
     American Express said in the statement on Sunday that it
will not comment on rumors and speculation and a spokesman
would not go beyond the statement. The company also remained
silent last Thursday and Friday, as rumors drove American
Express stock up a total of 5-1/2 dlrs in two days to bring it
to a Friday close at 74.
     It said it issued the statement on Sunday because a
similar statement was being circulated to employees.
    Analysts have been divided on whether it makes sense for
American Express to give up a stake in the wholly-owned
brokerage, which improved its after-tax earnings by about 50
pct in the last year.
    Some analysts said American Express may consider spinning
off part of Shearson because it is concerned that its stock
price does not fully reflect the value of the brokerage firm.
     Shearson contributed 316 mln dlrs of American Express'
1.25 billion dlr net in 1986.
    American Express' ambitious plans for international growth
may be also enhanced by the added cash that spinning out part
of Shearson would bring. Analysts speculated that all of
Shearson would have a market value of about 3.5 billion dlrs.
    To some however, the need for added capital is puzzling.
"(American) Express is in a position where they can raise
capital if they need to," said Larry Eckenfelder of
Prudential-Bache Securities.
    Analysts said rumors were fed by the reorganization of
Shearson management Wednesday. Chief operating officer Jeffrey
Lane got the added, previously vacant, post of president.
     The reorganization also created four new positions for
chairmen of Shearson's operating divisions, a move analysts
speculated would allow Shearson to be a stand alone company.
     Analysts, contacted on Sunday said the statement does
little to clarify last week's market speculation. It does
confirm, however, that the financial services firm, which
unsuccessfully attempted to expand Shearson with a major
acquisition last year, is looking beyond its own walls for
growth and positioning in the global market competition.
    Late last year, Shearson's takeover offer to the E.F.
Hutton Group Inc was rejected by Hutton, and analysts said
there had been speculation that Shearson also was rebuffed when
it approached another major Wall Street brokerage.        
 Reuter

Spanish farmers demanding a better deal
from the European Community blocked roads and staged protest
rallies this weekend before their leaders announced a truce to
negotiate with the government.
    Spain joined the community at the start of last year and
farmers say they have suffered competition from EC imports
without sufficient compensation.
    Leaders of three of the farmers' organisations announced at
a press conference in Madrid yesterday they were suspending
protests to allow time for negotiations with the government on
their grievances.
 Reuter

Switzerland recorded last year its first
overall surplus in government finances since 1974, ending with
a net gain worth 905 mln Swiss francs, the Finance Ministry
said.
    The surplus, including cash transactions and long-term
investments, contrasted with the 1985 shortfall of 1.06 billion
francs and the 297 mln franc deficit proposed in the 1986
budget.
    All categories of revenues were higher than forecast, and
expenditures were 433 mln francs under forecast.
    The Finance Ministry said expenditures totalled 23.18
billion francs against 22.88 billion in 1985 and the 23.61
billion proposed in the original 1986 budget.
    Tax receipts, at 25.11 billion, were well above the 1985
figure of 22.19 billion and the forecast for 1986 of 23.71
billion. This left a surplus on cash transactions totalling
1.94 billion francs against a forecast 102 mln and the 1985
deficit of 696 mln.
    Income and wealth taxes ended 749 mln francs above
forecast, 378 mln of which came from higher than expected
receipts on the stamp duty on financial market transactions.
    Taxes on comsumption brought in 638 mln francs more than
planned and other taxes 16 mln francs more, the ministry said.
    The ministry said the improvement in the overall account
reflected years of efforts by the government and parliament to
introduce saving and the acceptance by people of necessary tax
increases. But economic factors, including the low rate of
inflation, the weak dollar, falling interest rates and low oil
prices were also important factors.
    A spokesman for the ministry said the government had used
its improved cash position to retire about one billion francs
of government debt, which accounted for the difference between
the 1.94 billion surplus on cash transactions and the 905 mln
franc overall surplus.
 REUTER

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board
(FHLBB) announced savings and loan association failures in
Kansas and Colorado, raising the U.S. 1987 total to 10.
    The FHLBB said it closed the First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Beloit, Kansas, and transferred its desposits
and some other assets to Home Savings Association.
It said First Federal, with 82.9 mln dlrs in assets, was closed
because he was insolvent
    The FHLBB said that, due to insolvency, it put Key S and L
of Englewood, Colo, into receivorship and replaced it with a
new Key Savings and Loan Association with new management.
 Reuter

Ropak Corp said it received
and accepted about 456,968 common shares and 527,035 Series A
convertible preferred shares of Buckhorn Inc at four dlrs and
5.75 dlrs each respectively in response to its tender offer
that expired Friday, and it now owns 34.4 pct of Buckhorn
voting power.
    The company had owned 63,000 common and 25,100 preferred
shares before starting the hostile tender.  Ropak said it is
borrowing the funds needed to buy the Buckhorn shares from its
bank lender and will not need to use any funds that another
bank had committed to provide under a margin loan.
    Ropak said it waived minimum acceptance requirements to buy
the shares and intends to evaluate a number of possible ways of
completing an acquisition of Buckhorn.  It said it hopes that
Buckhorn's board will reevaluate its position and enter into
meaningful negotiations.
 Reuter

Apple Computer Inc today will
announce the addition of two new machines to its profitable
Macintosh line of personal computers, both aimed at the
business market.
    The Macintosh was first introduced in January 1984 and has
been upgraded several times since then. Both of the new
machines, the Macintosh SE and the Macintosh II, will be faster
and more versatile, but considerably more expensive than
earlier models.
    The Mac SE (SE stands for "system expansion"), which Apple
says will operate 15-20 pct faster than its current Mac Plus,
goes on sale today. It carries a suggested retail price ranging
from 2,899 to 3,699 dlrs depending on its features.
    The Mac II, designed to run about four times faster than
the Mac Plus, is to be ready for shipping in May and priced
between 4,798 and 6,998 dlrs.
    Mac Plus, which went on the market one year ago, sells for
about 2,200 dlrs.
    Both new computers are to be unveiled at the AppleWorld
Conference in Los Angeles.
    Company officials expressed high hopes for both computers
at a press briefing on Friday, especially the high-performance
Mac II which is designed to give Apple an entree to the
expanding market for science and engineering workstations.
    John Sculley, Apple chairman and chief executive officer,
declined to estimate anticipated sales, but he said the Mac SE
should contribute significantly to Apple's bottom line this
year. He said it would appeal to the mainstream of PC users.
    "I believe the Mac SE will be the product of choice for
most people," he said. "My sense is that it will be a real
power product for revenue."
    Bruce Lupatkin, senior technology analyst with Hambrecht &
Quist in San Francisco, said he had not seen the new computers
but expected the new products to do well.
    "Apple has recognized the need for a convergence of
computer functions into one general all-purpose workstation,"
he told Reuters. "The graphics interface on the Mac products is
significantly better than anything IBM has to date."
    International Business Machines is expected to announce
updated personal computers this spring.
    The Mac II uses the new Motorola 68020 microprocessor, an
"open architecture" that allows for the addition of numerous
peripheral devices, a built-in hard disk and one megabyte of
memory, expandable to eight megabytes. It can be equipped with
a 12-inch monochrome or a 13-inch color monitor.
    In a demonstration of its speed and power, company
executives said they thought the Mac II would push the
development of software for Apple computers in new directions
that could include sophisticated video editing, electronic mail
systems and sound reproduction suitable for studio use.
    The Mac II can be upgraded so that its monitor displays 256
colors or shades of gray.
    The Mac SE is built around the 68000 microprocessor and
will be shipped with one megabyte RAM, expandable to four
megabytes, and a nine-inch monochrome screen.
    Both new computers have two optional keyboards, a new
feature in the Apple line of products.          
 Reuter

The port of Philadelphia was closed
when a Cypriot oil tanker, Seapride II, ran aground after
hitting a 200-foot tower supporting power lines across the
river, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
    He said there was no oil spill but the ship is lodged on
rocks opposite the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in New
Jersey.
    He said the port would be closed until today when they
hoped to refloat the ship on the high tide.
    After delivering oil to a refinery in Paulsboro, New
Jersey, the ship apparently lost its steering and hit the power
transmission line carrying power from the nuclear plant to the
state of Delaware.
 Reuter

Penril Corp said it is seeking to
sell its Triplett Electrical Instrument Corp subsidiary in
Bluffton, Ohio, and Triplett's Alltest division in Hoffman
Estates, Ill., as part of a plan to concentrate on its three
profitable division and reduce its debt load.
    The company also said it is evaluating a plan to satisfy
its obligations under its 10-7/8 pct subordinated notes but
gave no details.  Interest on the notes is due today.
    Penril further said director Clifford L. Alexander Jr. has
resigned from the board.  It gave no reason.
    Penril said shareholders at the annual meeting approved the
limitation of directors' liability.   
 Reuter

LL and E Royalty Trust said Louisiana
Land and Exploration Co <LLX>, the working interest owner for
its oil and natural gas properties, is entitled to start
placing all or part of the revenues that would otherwise accrue
to the trust.
    LL and E said Louisiana Land has not yet escrowed any
amounts and will monitor the siutuation to determine the
necessity of doing so.  The trust said "If the working interest
owner does begin to escrow funds, the effect on the royalties
paid to the trust would be significant."  Royalties from the
properties are the trust's only source of income.
    The trust said independent petroleum engineers' preliminary
annual estimates of future net revenues and the discounted
present value of future net revenues from proved oil and
natural gas reserves attributable to properties in which the
trust has an interest are off 64 pct and 56 pct respectively
from those estimated in 1986 due to the drop in oil and natural
gas prices.
    It said, however, that oil and natural gas reserves have
actually increased in physical amount.  The cost estimates
reflect prices and costs only through September 30.
    The trust said using the September figures, the engineers
determined estimated future net revenues to the trust from
total proved reserves of about 57 mln dlrs.  Usingprices
received in January 1987, however, it said the estimate would
have been about 87 mln dlrs.  LL and E noted that there has
been some weakening in prices since January.
    The trust said the most significant portion of the drop in
estimated future revenues cale from the Jay Field in Alabama
and Florida, a fall to seven mln dlrs from 92 mln dlrs in 1986,
as prices recieved from Jay in September were near production
costs after expenses of nitrogen injection.
 Reuter

Dale Burdett Inc said it
faces damages claims totalling about 420,000 dlrs from the
former owners of Burdett Publications Inc.
    The company said on February 20, 1986, its predecessor
Nolex Development Inc acquired Burdett Publications Inc in an
exchange of 17 mln common shares for all Burdett Publications
shares, but the transaction was not qualified with the
California Department of Corporations.
    As a result, it said, the former Burdett Publications
owners have a claim for damages against Dale Burdett as
successor to Nolex for one yuear starting January 21, 1987,
with the damages measured by the difference in values of shares
exchanged plus interest from February 20, 1986.
 Reuter

New Jersey-based overnight messenger
Purolator Courier Corp said it has agreed to be acquired for
about 265 mln dlrs by a company formed by E.F. Hutton LBO Inc
and certain managers of Purolator's U.S. courier business.
    Analysts have said that Purolator has been for sale for
some time. Purolator announced earlier it was mulling a
takeover bid, but analysts wrongly predicted the offer was from
another courier company.
    Hutton LBO, a wholly owned subsidiary of E.F. Hutton Group
Inc, will be majority owner of the company.
    Hutton said the acquiring company, PC Acquisition Inc, is
paying 35 dlrs cash per share for 83 pct of Purolator's stock
in a tender offer to begin Thursday. The rest of the shares
will be purchased for securities and warrants to buy stock in a
subsidiary of PC Acquisition, containing Purolator's U.S.
courier operations.
    If all the shares of Purolator are tendered, shareholders
would receive for each share 29 dlrs cash, six dlrs in
debentures, and a warrant to buy shares in a subsidiary of PC
Acquisition containing the U.S. courier operations.
    Hutton said in the merger shareholders would get 46 mln
dlrs aggregate amount of guaranteed debentures due 2002 of PC
Acquisition and warrants to buy 15 pct of the common stock of
the PC courier subsidiary. Hutton said the company has valued
the warrants at two to three dlrs per share.
    Purolator's stock price closed at 35.125 dlrs on Friday.
While some analysts estimated the company was worth in the mid
30s, at least one said it would be worth 38 to 42 dlrs.
    This follows sales of two other Purolator units. It agreed
recently to sell its Canadian Courier unit to Onex Capital for
170 mln dlrs, and previously sold its auto filters business.
    Purolator retains its Stant division, which makes closure
caps for radiators and gas tanks. A Hutton spokesman said the
firm is reviewing its options on Stant.
    Purolator's courier business has been lagging that of its
U.S. rivals because of the high price it paid in the past
several years to add air delivery to its ground fleet.
    E.F. Hutton will provide 279 mln dlrs of its funds to
complete the transaction. This so-called "bridge" financing
will be replaced later with long-term debt most likely in the
form of bank loans, Hutton said. Hutton LBO is committed to
keeping the courier business, its president Warren Idsal said.
    "Purolator lost 120 mln dlrs over the last two years
largely due to U.S. courier operations, which we believe the
management is turning around. We belive it will be a very
serious competitor in the future," said Idsal.
    William Taggart, chief executive officer of U.S. Courier
division, will be chief executive officer of the new company.
    The tender offer will be conditioned on a minimum of two
thirds of the common stock being tendered and not withdrawn to
the expiration of the offer as well as certain other conditions.
    The offer will begin Thursday, subject to clearances from
the staff of the Interstate Commerce Commission and will expire
20 business days after commencement unless extended.
 Reuter

<Willemijn Holding BV> of Rotterdam
said it has licensed NCR Corp to produce and sell products and
services using token ring technology.
 Reuter

Pakistan cotton production during the
current crop season (Sept/March) reached 7.7 mln bales of 375
pounds each, up 500,000 from last season, Shafi Niaz, Chairman
of the Agricultural Prices Commission, said.
    Official sources said Pakistan was likely to use 3.4 mln
bales of cotton during the current financial year ending June
after 2.96 mln in 1985/86 and 2.70 mln in 1984/85.
    They said consumption would increase due to a rise in
demand for cotton yarn in domestic markets and abroad. Pakistan
produced 540 mln kilos of yarn in fiscal year 1985/86 and
exported 157 mln.
    The State-owned cotton export corporation was likely to
export 3.8 mln bales of cotton during the current fiscal year
compared with 3.86 mln last year, cotton traders said.
    The traders said there would be 1.3 mln bales of cotton
carryover this fiscal year compared with just over a mln bales
last year.
 Reuter

Imperial Chemical Industries PLC said
it is forming a new U.S. pharmaceuticals unit called ICI
Pharma.
    Combined sales of Imperial's existing Stuart
Pharmaceuticals unit and the new ICI Pharma are projected to be
1.1 billion dlrs in 1990, the company said.  Stuart had 1986
sales of 582 mln dlrs.
    Imperial said it plans to introduce several new drugs,
including diprivan, an anaesthetic, and zestril, a heart drug,
over the next three years. ICI Pharma and Stuart will operate
as separate units of ICI Pharmaceuticals Group, it said.
    Stuart Pharmaceuticals and ICI Pharma will have 1987 sales
of approximately 700 mln dlrs, about 450 mln dlrs from the new
ICI Pharma and 250 mln dlrs from Stuart, officials said.
    The combined sales force of about 900 sales people, split
about equally between the two units, will be slightly larger
than the existing sales force at Stuart.
    Regulatory approval for the annesthetic diprivan is
expected in late 1987, while zestril, a hypertension and heart
drug, should be approved in mid or late 1988, company officials
said.
    Approval for oth new drugs, including, statil, a treatment
for diabetic complications, is not expected until 1989 and
1990, the officials said.
 Reuter

Financial Corp of Santa
Barbara said it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase
Stanwell Financial, the lending operations unit of mortgage
banking company <Stanwell Mortgage>, for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

<Alcan Aluminiumwerke
GmbH>, a subsidiary of Alcan Aluminium Ltd <AL.N> of Canada,
said it plans to close its aluminium smelter in Ludwigshafen at
the end of June.
    A spokesman said Alcan was closing the smelter, with annual
capacity of 44,000 tonnes and 320 employees, because of high
electricity costs and the low world market price of aluminium.
    Alkan had said earlier this year it would close half the
plant's capacity but decided to shut down completely when talks
with potential cooperation partners failed, the spokesman said.
He declined to name the other companies involved in the talks.
 REUTER

Parent Company net profit 12.8 mln Swiss francs vs 7.5 mln.
    Orders received 2.21 billion francs vs 2.61 billion.
    Sales 2.25 billion francs vs 2.49 billion.
    Group sales 13.83 billion francs vs 13.88 billion.
    Group orders 11.03 billion francs vs 13.00 billion.
 REUTE

<Four Seasons Hotels> said it and <VMS
Realty Partners> of Chicago have agreed to purchase the Santa
Barbara Biltmore Hotel from Marriott Corp for an undisclosed
amount.
    It said the venture will rename the hotel the Four Seasons
Biltmore at Santa Barbara and invest over 13 mln dlrs in
improvements on the 228-room property.
 Reuter

DH Technology Inc said it has
repurchased 500,000 of its shares from cofounder Helmut Falk at
4.25 dlrs each and Falks has sold another 500,000 shares to
venture capital firm TA Associates at the same price.
    The company said Falk has resigned as chairman of DHL and
now owns 213,567 shares.  It said TA now owns 928,0000 shares.
    The company said Falk, who will remain on the board, has
agreed to sell no more than 75,000 of his remaining shares in
the next year without company consent.  It said president and
chief executive officer William H. Gibb has assumed the added
post of chairman.
 Reuter

BBC AG Brown Boveri und Cie
<BBCZ.Z> said it will omit dividend in 1986 for the second
consecutive year.
    It said it planned to invite shareholders and non-voting
stockholders to subscribe to a warrant bond issue of around 150
mln Swiss francs to be made after the June 2 annual meeting.
    The value of the stock subscription rights should
correspond roughly to the dividend of 30 francs per share paid
in 1984. The company also plans to issue participation
certificates with a par value of 70 mln Swiss francs, from
which existing shareholders are excluded.
 Reuter

The U.S. asset-backed debt securities
market, which grew explosively last year, is broadening and
investment bankers say 1987 could see a variety of issuers.
    "It is interesting to note that the first two asset-backed
deals of the year were done by commercial banks," said Anthony
Dub, who heads First Boston Corp's asset-backed group.
    BankAmerica Corp's <BAC> Bank of America unit last week
issued 400 mln dlrs of securities backed by credit card
receivables via sole manager First Boston. Dub said the
offering sold out quickly, mostly to institutional investors.
    The Bank of America offering followed a January 16 issue of
200 mln dlrs of similar debt by RepublicBank Corp's <RPT>
RepublicBank Delaware unit. Goldman, Sachs and Co ran the books
on that deal, with First Boston acting as co-manager.
    However, Dub said the Bank of America securities were more
closely related to the so-called "cars deals" that raced to
market last year than were the RepublicBank securities.
    "The RepublicBank issue was secured by credit card
receivables. In contrast, the Bank of America deal was the
first public offering of credit card receivables because we
used a grantor trust vehicle," he said.
    In a grantor trust, investors buy asset-backed certificates
that represent a specified percentage of an undivided interest
in the trust, analysts explained.
    The Bank of America certificates were issued by California
Credit Card Trust A, which the bank established for that single
purpose, investment bankers pointed out.
    The debt has an average life of 1.79 years and matures in
1992. First Boston gave the issue a 6.90 pct coupon and priced
it at 99.8125 to yield 6.95 pct, or 65 basis points over
comparable Treasury securities. Non-callable for life, the deal
was rated AAA by both Moody's and Standard and Poor's.
    Underwriters away from the syndicate said they believed the
Bank of America deal was priced too aggressively. "AAA-rated
auto paper was trading about 75 basis points over Treasuries
when First Boston priced the deal," one said.
    However, Dub said the offering sold out quickly anyway.
    The First Boston executive attributed this to the deal's
top-flight rating by both agencies, unlike many of last year's
cars deals, which were rated by S and P alone.
    "Investors receive interest only payments for the first 18
months and then interest and principal payments for the
remaining five to seven months," Dub detailed.
    Investment bankers pointed out that because the Bank of
America deal did not pay principal for a year and a half, the
issue had a longer average life than some of the cars deals
that were brought to market late last year.
    The collateral for the trust includes a pool of VISA credit
card receivables, backed by a letter of credit. Bank of America
has about four billion dlrs of credit card receivables, making
it one of the biggest in the U.S., analysts said.
    Last week's deal was Bank of America's second foray into
the young asset-backed securities market, analysts noted.
    In mid-December 1986 Bank of America sold, via California
Cars Grantor Trust 1986-A, 514 mln dlrs of certificates backed
by automobile receivables through Salomon Brothers Inc.
    Upcoming asset-backed issues include 200 mln dlrs of notes
backed by the car leases of Volvo 1986 Lease Finance Corp, a
unit of Volvo Finance North America Inc, via First Boston, and
450 mln dlrs of notes secured by sales contracts of Mack Trucks
Receivables Corp, a unit of Mack Trucks Inc <MACK>, via
Shearson Lehmand Brothers Inc.
    The asset backed market, which began in March 1985, totals
an estimated 11.9 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

ILC Technology Inc said
Raymond Montoya, vice president of finance, has been removed as
an officer and terminated as an employee of the company, and
ILC has filed a civil action against him to recover alleged
improprer disbursements of company funds.
    The company said Montoya has been arrested by police in
Hawthorne, Calif., and charged with grand theft and
embezzlement.
    It said the extent of the disbursements has not yet been
determined.  In independent auditor is helping assess the
alleged irregularities, the company said.
 Reuter

Apple Computer Inc said it has
introduced two new models of its Macintosh personal computer,
the Macintosh II and SE, offering users the ability to flexibly
configure systems to suit their needs or expand the systems as
their needs grow.
    Apple said the Macintosh II features high-performance, open
architecture designed for advanced applications.
    The Macintosh II, which is priced from 3,898 dlrs to 5,498
dlrs, also has six internal printed circuit card slots for
adding multiple functions, including an optional color display,
network connections and MS-DOS compatibility, the company said.
    Apple said the Macintosh SE, priced from 2,898 dlrs to
3,698 dlrs, has internal storage capacity and an additional
slot for added functions.
 Reuter

After a week that left his presidency
shaken and his popularity at a new low, Ronald Reagan and his
new chief of staff today begin trying to revive an
administration tattered by the Iran-contra arms scandal.
    Reagan and former Senate Republican leader Howard Baker,
whose appointment as White House chief of staff won bipartisan
praise, will begin mapping strategy to deal with scathing
criticism by a report on his failed bid to trade U.S. arms with
Iran for help in freeing Ameican hostages in Lebanon.
    Among the chores facing Reagan's new inner circle is
assessing the damage the 300-page Tower commission report has
done to the nomination of Robert Gates to succeed William Casey
as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
    White House officials are checking to see how much support
Gates, a 43-year old career spy agency bureaucrat, would have
if his nomination is submitted to the full Senate for a vote,
Senate Republican leader Robert Dole said.
    Appearing on the NBC News program, "Meet the Press," the
Kansas senator said the Gates nomination "could be in some
difficulty."
    Aides said that Gates' future would be given high priority
by Baker.
    Even though he was not deeply implicated in the arms sale
scandal, lawmakers said Senate confirmation of the Gates
nomination is not assured and, even if won, would come only
after months of congressional probes into the affair.
    "He has the smell of Iran on him," said former Nevada Sen.
and Reagan confidant Paul Laxalt. "He is a victim."
    Laxalt, appearing on the ABC News program, "This Week With
David Brinkley," bluntly admitted "the Gates nomination is in
trouble." Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn said
the odds are now slightly against confirmation of Gates.
    When asked on the syndicated television program, "John
McLaughlin: One on One," if he thought Gates would be confirmed,
the Georgia Democrat shot back: "I wouldn't bet any money on it.
    "I think this report hurts that," Nunn said. "It indicates
that the National Security Council had policy-type influence
over intelligence-type activities and we're going to go into
that with Mr. Gates.
    Only a day after it was issued last week, the Tower report
prompted the abrupt exit of Donald Regan as White House chief
of staff.
    Regan, the former Wall Street executive and Treasury
secretary who has been the president's top aide for the past
two years, was assigned the lion's share of the blame for the
botched handling of the Iran arms sale.
    The report blamed Regan for the "chaos that descended on the
White House" since it was first revealed last November that
profits from the Iran arms sales had been diverted to contra
rebels fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government.
    The two other victims of the scandal are former National
Security Adviser Vice Adm. John Poindexter who resigned and
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North who was fired after it was
disclosed last November 23 that profits from the Iran arms sale
were diverted to the contras. The two, pictured by the Tower
commission as the key operators of the Iran arms deal, have
refused to testify.
    Reagan, who freely admits disliking details, is portrayed
in the Tower report as a befuddled chief executive whose
inattention let his aides run away with his foreign policy.
    That perception has wrecked Reagan's popularity and
threatened to condemn him to lame duck status until he leaves
office in January 1989. A recent Newsweek magazine poll found
that just 40 pct of Americans approved of Reagan's leadership,
a record low, and a third believed he should consider
resignation.
    After meeting with aides over the weekend and poring over
the meaty report of the commission headed by former Texas Sen.
John Tower, Reagan is now preparing for a nationwide television
address this week to respond to the criticisms of his
presidency.
 Reuter

Investor David F. La Roche of North
Kingstown, R.I., said he is offering to purchase 170,000 common
shares of NECO Enterprises Inc at 26 dlrs each.
    He said the successful completion of the offer, plus shares
he already owns, would give him 50.5 pct of NECO's 962,016
common shares.
    La Roche said he may buy more, and possible all NECO
shares. He said the offer and withdrawal rights will expire at
1630 EST/2130 gmt, March 30, 1987.
 Reuter

Period ended December 31, 1986
    Oper shr loss 1.08 dlrs vs loss 84 cts
    Oper loss 7,700,000 vs loss 1,700,000
    Revs 11,800,000 vs 9,800,000
    Note: Current shr and net exclude extraordinary gain of
300,000 dlrs or five cts shr, versus extraordinary gain of
200,000 dlrs or four cts shr
 Reuter

<Senior Engineering Group Plc> said it
reached agreement with <Cronus Industries Inc> to acquire the
whole share capital of <South Western Engineering Co> for 12.5
mln dlrs cash. This sum is being financed by a term loan.
    South Western is one of the U.S.'s leading manufacturers of
heat transfer equipment, with a turnover of 54.86 mln dlrs and
pre-tax profits of 1.72 mln in 1986.
    Completion of the deal is conditional on approval under
U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino regulations which is expected within 30
days. Some 350,000 dlrs is payable immediately, 12 mln dlrs
payable on completion with the balance due by June 30, 1987.
 Reuter

Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HK>
is expecting strong results this year after reporting better
than expected profits in 1986, chairman Li Ka-shing said.
    He did not give a specific earnings projection but he told
reporters the firm will pay total dividends of not less than 19
cents a share this year after a one-for-four bonus issue and a
four-for-one stock split.
    The company earlier declared total dividends equal to 15
cents a share for 1986, adjusting for the stock split and bonus
issue.
    Cheung Kong's earnings rose to 1.28 billion H.K. Dlrs in
1986, well above market expectations of 920 mln to one billion
dlrs. They compared with profits of 551.7 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Cheung Kong also reported extraordinary gains of 983.6 mln
dlrs mainly from the firm's sale of the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel
to Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd <HKEH.HK> for one billion
dlrs. It had gains of 81.3 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Li attributed the surge in 1986 earnings to a buoyant local
property market and substantial increases in contributions from
associated companies.
    "Looking ahead, 1987 should be another year of stability for
the property market," Li said. "The growth in (Hong Kong's)
exports is expected to stimulate the demand for industrial
buildings."
    Cheung Kong is cash rich and is looking for new projects in
the British colony, Li said, noting the firm is interested in a
land reclamation project along the Hong Kong harbour and is
exchanging views with the government on a proposal to build a
second airport.
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp said its
MidCon Corp subsidiary will redeem on March 31 all 269,000 dlrs
of its outstanding 10-1/4 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due 2009 at 107.18 pct of par.
    It said interest payable March 31 will be paid in the usual
manner to holders of record on March 15.  The debentures
convert to common stock at 14.168319 dlrs per share, or 70.58
shares per 1,000 dlrs principal amount, through March 31.
Holders converting through March 17 will be entitled to receive
Occidental's regular quarterly dividend of 62-1/2 cts per share
on common stock that is payable April 15.
    The company said any holders surrendering debentures for
conversion after March 15, other than those surrendering for
conversion on March 31, will be required to pay to the
conversion agent an amount equal to the interest paytable on
the debentures on March 31.
 Reuter

Viacom International Inc said it
received revised merger offers from <National Amusements Inc>
and <MCV Holdings Inc>.
    The company said the special committee plans to meet later
today to review both offers.
    Viacom said National Amusements' Arsenal Holdings Inc
raised the value of its offer for the Viacom shares not held by
National Amusements in three areas. National Amusements holds
19.6 pct of Viacom's stock.
    The cash value of the offer was raised to 42.00 dlrs from
the 40.50 dlrs a Viacom share offered February 23 while the
value of the fraction of a share of exchangeable preferred
being offered was increased to 7.50 dlrs a share from six dlrs.
The interest rate to be used to increase the cash value of the
merger, if delayed beyond April 30, was raised to nine pct from
eight pct and 12 pct after May 31.
    A Viacom spokesman said the Arsenal Holdings's offer
continues to include a 20 pct interest in Arsenal for present
Viacom shareholders.
    Viacom said MCV Holdings, a group which includes the
company's senior management and the Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the United States, raised the value of its offer by
increasing the value of the preferred being offered to 8.50
dlrs from 8.00 dlrs a share and raising the ownership in the
new company to be held by present Viacom shareholders to 45 pct
from 25 pct. MCV called its previous offer, made February 26,
the "final" proposed revision of its agreement with Viacom.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said it will issue
200 mln Swiss franc-denominated bonds worth about 130 mln dlrs
U.S. at current exchange rates.
    The 12-year bonds will carry a coupon of 4-3/4 pct and will
be sold primarily to European investors for 100.25 pct of face
value, Dow said.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to refinance
existing debt, it said.
    Underwriters are led by Union Bank of Switzerland.  The
bonds will be listed on stock exchanges in Basle, Berne,
Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.
 Reuter

The French Cereals Intervention Board,
ONIC, left its estimate of French 1986/87 (July/June) soft
wheat deliveries unchanged from its last forecast at 21.98 mln
tonnes.
    This compared with deliveries of 24.38 mln tonnes in
1985/86 (August/July).
    Estimated 1986/87 maize deliveries were also left unchanged
from ONIC's previous forecast at the beginning of February at
9.91 mln tonnes against 10.77 mln the previous season.
    Barley deliveries were also unchanged at 6.62 mln tonnes
against 7.7 mln in 1985/86.
 Reuter

WASTE MANAGEMENT CORP VOTES TWO FOR ONE STOCK SPLIT AND BOOSTS QTLY DIVIDEND TO 18 CTS

The Writers Guild of America said its
members have struck the news staffs of CBS Inc <CBS> and
Capital Cities/ABC Inc <CCB> this morning after negotiations
for a new contract broke down.
    The guild said there had been extensions prior to the
strike deadline this morning, but said the strike was called
after the companies refused to negotiate.
    The guild said the companies failed to put a final offer on
the table, made no money offer at all, and did not deviate
substantially from their original proposals, which, the guild
said, would have gutted the union contract.
    The guild said the networks demanded the right to terminate
employees at will and lay them off without the  arbitration,
and the hiring of temporary employees to replace staffer
employees.
    The guild represents newswriters, editors, desk assistants,
researchers, production assistants, promotion writers and
graphic artists.
    The strike affects unions in New York, Chicago, Washington
and Los Angeles. Picketing will commence at corporate
headquarters in New York and other locations, the guild said.
 Reuter

PITTSTON AGREES TO ACQUIRE WTC INTERNATIONAL IN EXCHANGE OF STOCK

Shr 1.19 dlrs vs 1.46 dlrs
    Net 3,150,185 vs 2,665,284
    Revs 27.9 mln vs 24.1 mln
    Avg shrs 2,653,646 vs 1,826,858
    Year
    Shr 1.45 dlrs vs 1.37 dlrs
    Net 3,611,802 vs 2,502,443
    Sales 62.2 mln vs 52.8 mln
    Avg shrs 2,489,978 vs 1,826,858
 Reuter

DIAGNOSTIC/RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS INC MAKES 53 MLN DLR BID FOR ROSPATCH CORP

<Miller Tabak Hirsch and Co> said it
has received an accepted 3,424,729 common shares of Penn
Traffic Co in response to its 31.60 dlr per share tender offer
that expired Friday, and together with the 380,728 shares it
already owned, it now has about 91.8 pct of Penn Traffic.
    The company said Penn Traffic is expected to hold a special
shareholders' meeting later this month to approve a merger into
Miller Tabak at the tender price.
    It said two Miller Tabak representatives will be named to
the Penn Traffic board on March Four to serve as the only
directors with Penn Traffic president and chief executive
officer Guido Malacarne.
    The company said it received financing for the transaction
from First National Bank of Minneapolis and Salomon Inc <SB>.
 Reuter

Coffee quota talks at the International
Coffee Organization council meeting here continued this
afternoon, but producers and consumers still had not reached
common ground on the key issue of how to estimate export
quotas, delegates said.
    The 54 member contact group was examining a Colombian
proposal to resume quotas April 1 under the ad hoc system used
historically, with a pledge to meet again in September to
discuss how quotas would be worked out in the future, they
said.
    Delegates would not speculate on the prospects for
agreement at this time.
    "Anything could happen," one delegate said.
 Reuter

it introduced a commercial paper program with an authorization
of 440 mln dlrs through agents <Bank of Montreal>, <Dominion
Securities Inc> and Wood Gundy Inc.
    Net proceeds from the sale of notes will be used for
general corporate purposes and will replace existing
outstanding debt, the company said.
    It did not elaborate on financial terms of the issue.
 Reuter

Waste Management Corp said its
board voted a two-for-one stock split payable April 21, record
March 30.
    In other action, Waste Management directors approved an
increase in the quarterly dividend to 18 cts from 14 cts,
payable April three, record March 18.
 Reuter

Porex Technologies Corp said its
board declared an initial annual dividend of 10 cts per share,
its first payout, payable March 26 to holders of record March
12.
 Reuter

Davis Water and Waste
Industries Inc said its board declared a 33-1/3 pct stock
dividend, payable March 23 to holders of record March 12.
 Reuter

Medco Containment Services
Inc said its board declared an initial annual dividend of 10
cts per share, its first payout, payable March 19 to holders of
record March 12.
 Reuter

Pittston Co said it has
tentatively agreed to acquire WTC International N.V. in a
tax-free exchange of stock.
    Pittston said it agreed to exchange 0.523 common share for
each of the about 8,612,000 WTC common shares outstanding.
    Pittston said WTC's three principal shareholders, who own
62 pct of its stock, are parties to this agreement. They have
granted Pittston the right of first refusal to their shares.
    WTC has granted Pittston an option to buy WTC shares equal
to 18.5 poct of its outstanding stock. The agreement is subject
to approval of both boards and WTC shareholders.
    Pittston said described WTC as a fast growing air freight
forwarding company with operations throughout the world. Its
revenues totaled nearly 200 mln dlrs in the year ended November
30 and for the quarter ended on that date it earned 1.3 mln
dlrs on revenues of 55.8 mln dlrs.
    Pittston said its Burlington Air Express subsidiary
generates about two-thirds of its 450 mln dlrs in annual
revenes with its domestic air freight services.
 Reuter

<SDC Sydney
Development Corp>, earlier reporting an increased nine month
operating loss, said a cost control review now underway may
result in cost reduction and elimination of unprofitable and
non-strategic products and services.
    The company's operating loss for the nine months ended
December 31, 1986 increased to 7.7 mln dlrs from a loss of 1.7
mln dlrs in the prior year, it said earlier.
    Revenues increased by 20 pct to 11.8 mln dlrs from
year-earlier 9.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts
    Loss 739,146
    Revs 11,754,251
    Note: initial public listing December, 1986
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it had offered
borrowing facilities to those discount houses wishing to use
them at 1430 GMT.
    The Bank also said it provided the money market 456 mln stg
assistance in the afternoon session bringing its total help so
far today to 493 mln stg. This compares with its forecast of a
shortage in the system today of around 700 mln stg.
41 mln stg in band one at 10-7/8 pct 361 mln stg in band two at
10-13/16 pct and 54 mln stg in band three at 10-3/4 pct.
    Money market dealers said the Bank of England has recently
used the offer of borrowing facilities to signal that it does
not want to see an early reduction in U.K. Base lending rates.
    The Bank does this by lending to the discount houses at
rates of interest higher than its prevailing money market
dealing rates.
 REUTER

Electronic Mail Corp of
America said its efforts to secure additional financing for
expansion have fallen through.
    The company said that there are no immediate prospects for
financing through other sources, though efforts will continue.
The company said operations wil continue while further efforts
are made.
    Negotiations with an undisclosed company had been onging
for four months, the company said.
 Reuter

Bangladesh will receive a grant equivalent
to 47 mln U.S. Dlrs from the Netherlands during 1987 under an
agreement signed here Saturday, officials said.
    This raised the amount of Dutch grants to Bangladesh to 759
mln dlrs since 1972, used mainly for commodity imports and
implementing development projects, they said.
 Reuter

Caisse Centrale Desjardins du Quebec is
issuing a 10 billion yen step-up eurobond maturing on March 25,
1992 and priced at 101-3/4 pct, joint-bookrunner Warburg
Securities said.
    The issues pays a coupon of one pct in years one and two
and then pays a coupon of 7-7/8 pct in years three, four and
five. The selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while management and
underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct.
    The payment date is March 25 while the issue will be listed
in Luxembourg. The borrower is the wholesale financing arm of a
major group of credit unions in the Province of Quebec.
 REUTER

Dow Chemical Co has launched a 200 mln
Swiss franc, 12-year bond with a 4-3/4 pct coupon priced at
100-1/4 pct, lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland said.
    The issue carries a call option from 1993 at 102 pct,
declining thereafter by 1/2 percentage point per year.
    Subscriptions close March 18 and payment date is April 2.
 REUTER

Sight deposits by commercial banks at the
Swiss National Bank rose by 3.10 billion Swiss francs to 10.53
billion in the last 10 days of February, the National Bank
said.
    Foreign exchange reserves fell 3.06 billion francs to 30.64
billion.
    Sight deposits are an important measure of Swiss money
market liquidity.
    The decline in foreign exchange reserves reflected the
dismantling of swap arrangements, the National Bank said.
    Banknotes in circulation rose by 834 mln francs to 24.79
billion while other deposits on call - mainly government funds
- fell 1.60 billion francs to 1.04 billion.
 REUTER

USDA LIFTS CROSS-COMPLIANCE FOR 1987 CROP OATS
    REPEAT FROM LATE FRIDAY
    WASHINGTON, Feb 27 - The USDA said it is lifting the
limited cross-compliance requirement for 1987 crop oats.
    Deputy Secretary Peter Myers said the action was being
taken to help alleviate the short supply of oats.
    Under limited cross compliance, the plantings of other
program crops on the farm may not exceed the crop acreage bases
of those crops.
    The lifting of the cross-compliance on oats permits the
planting of oats in excess of the oat acreage base without
sacrificing eligibility for other crop program benefits.
    Myers said soybean plantings are expected to decrease as a
result of the action on oats, planting of which are expected to
increase by two to three mln acres.
 Reuter

CONSOLIDATED TVX SAYS IT WILL ISSUE SHARES TO BUY STAKES IN THREE BRAZIL MINING FIRMS

Brazil is not happy with the existing
structure of the 14-bank advisory committee which coordinates
its commercial bank debt, Finance Minister Dilson Funaro said.
    U.S. Banks have 50 pct representation on the committee
while holding only 35 pct of Brazil's debt to banks, he said,
adding "This is not fair with the European and Japanese banks."
The committee had played a useful role in 1982 and 1983,
however.
    Noting the often different reactions of U.S., Japanese and
European banks, Funaro told journalists that Brazil might adopt
an approach involving separate discussions with the regions.
    Since debtor nations' problems were normally treated on a
case-by-case basis, "Perhaps the same principle should apply to
creditors," central bank president Francisco Gros said.
    Brazil on February 20 suspended indefinitely interest
payments on 68 billion dlrs owed to commercial banks, followed
last week by a freeze on bank and trade credit lines deposited
by foreign banks and institutions, worth some 15 billion dlrs.
    Funaro and Gros spent two days at the end of last week in
Washington talking to government officials and international
agencies and will this week visit Britain, France, West
Germany, Switzerland and Italy for discussions with
governments.
    Funaro and Gros are today meeting British Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson, Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe and
Governor of the Bank of England Robin Leigh-Pemberton.
    Bankers have estimated that Brazil owes U.K. Banks around
8.5 billion dlrs in long and medium term loans, giving the U.K.
The third largest exposure after the U.S. And Japan.
    The crisis began when Brazil's trade surplus, its chief
means of servicing its foreign debt, started to decline sharply
and the problem was compounded by a renewed surge in the
country'sate of inflation.  Reserves were reported to have
dropped below four billion dlrs.
    Funaro envisaged that any eventual solution to problems
with Brazil's 108 billion dlr foreign debt would involve only
partial servicing of the debt.
    "What we propose is to arrive at a mechanism of refinance
for part of the service, because we cannot service all that," he
said. "I really think we have to change the old rules."
    Asked why Brazil was first approaching governments, rather
than the commercial banks themselves in its search for a
solution to the crisis, Funaro said "We must first talk to the
governments and then we can talk to the banks, because the
banks have some limits."
    "It is a political discussion from our point of view," he
said.
    Funaro said he hoped next week to travel to talk to
Japanese and Canadian government officials. He would then talk
to the commercial banks "If I've got some solution from the
governments. I can't take the burden only to the banks." He was
not sure how long it would take to reach a solution.
   In discussions with governments Brazil would review the
mechanisms whereby finance was made available to nations in
need. Finance from official lending agencies had been virtually
closed since 1982. "You must open these mechanisms," he said.
    He said that while the U.S. Officials had been disturbed by
Brazil's suspension of interest payments, they understood
Brazil had no other choice, as it had to protect its reserves.
    Also the financing mechanisms had to be discussed "because
we can't stay as we were the last few years."
    "I'm trying to put the problem on the table.... All of us
would like to have a kind of equilibrium." he said. Although
Brazil has rejected a substantive role for the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in managing its economy, Funaro paid a call
in Washington to IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and to
World Bank President Barber Conable.
    Funaro noted that inflation in February had started to
decline again and he expected Brazil to achieve a minimum eight
billion dlr trade surplus in 1987.
    Banking sources noted that Brazil's monthly surplus had
declined to some 150 mln dlrs in the final three months of last
year, against a monthly one billion in the first nine months.
    Brazil had the third largest trade surplus in the world,
Funaro said, although its share of international trade was only
one pct.  "The solution is linked with growth, not recession," he
said, noting an IMF program would involve promoting exports and
inducing an internal recession in order to service debt.
    Banking sources said Brazil's debts to foreign governments,
as opposed to commercial banks, now benefit from a sounder
structure following last month's rescheduling by the Paris Club
of creditor nations of 4.12 billion dlrs of official debt.
 REUTER

Oper shr 17 cts vs 25 cts
    Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts prior
    Oper net 1,522,000 vs 3,501,000
    Sales 98.0 mln vs 86.3 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes loss from discontinued
operations of 1,817,000 dlrs.
    Company said common shares outstanding down significantly
to 7,814,000, reflecting retirement of about 5,200,000 shares
since start of restructurining in August 1986.
    Dividend pay April 30, record April 16.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Oper shr 1.80 dlrs vs 1.46 dlrs
    Oper net 25.0 mln vs 20.2 mln
    Sales 1.09 billion vs 996.4 mln
    Avg shrs 13.9 mln vs 13.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 3.20 dlrs vs 2.57 dlrs
    Oper net 44.4 mln vs 35.4 mln
    Sales 3.87 billion vs 3.43 billion
    NOTES: Operating net excludes losses of 12.1 mln dlrs, or
87 cts a share, vs 321,000 dlrs, or two cts a share, in quarter
and 6.0 mln dlrs, or 43 cts a share, vs 5.1 mln dlrs, or 37 cts
a share, from discontinued operations. This includes provision
in latest quarter of 12.2 mln dlrs for closing of Almys
Department Store Co.
    Operating net in latest quarter and year includes 750,000
dlrs charge for restructuring announced in early January
 Reuter

Qtly div 35 cts vs 35 cts in prior qtr
    Record March 14
 Reuter

Diagnostic Retrieval Systems Inc
said it has made an offer to acquire, through a wholly owned
unit, all outstanding shares of Rospatch Corp's common stock
for 22 dlrs a share cash, or about 53 mln dlrs.
    DRS, a warfare systems producer, said it would make the
transaction through a cash tender offer for all, but not less
than 51 pct, of Rospatch's outstanding common stock followed by
a merger with Rospatch, a labels, high technology and wood
producer, at the same purchase price per share.
    DRS said the deal is subject to approval by the Rospatch
board, and the tender offer expires on March 6, 1986.
 Reuter

 Reuter

AAR Corp said that the
U.S. Air force exercised an option valued at about eight mln
dlrs with its Brooks and Perkins Cadillac manufacturing
subsidiary in Michigan, for cargo pallet maintenence and
overhaul.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Tanzania's ruling Chama cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) party has endorsed the government's economic
reform programme but said it did not think more changes, such
as a further devaluation of the shilling, would be needed.
    Tanzania has devalued the shilling more than 65 pct in less
than a year and has started to overhaul inefficient government
firms in line with a package agreed with the IMF.
    The CCM's national executive committee said it was
satisfied with government efforts to implement IMF conditions.
"Measures taken so far are satisfactory and there is no need to
take other ones -- the devaluation of the shilling included," it
said.
    The committee's statement was in response to a government
report on the IMF package submitted last Thursday.
 Reuter

A Taiwan mission will leave next week for
Washington to renegotiate an agreement severely limiting the
growth of the island's textile exports, a Board of Foreign
Trade official said.
    Under the agreement signed last July, Taiwan's textile
export growth was limited to 0.5 pct each year until 1988,
based on the value of 1985 exports.
    The official said the pact was unfair because the United
States had signed more favourable agreements with Hong Kong and
South Korea. They were each given about one pct growth until
1991.
    He said Taiwan now found it difficult to compete with its
two main rivals and the problem had been made worse because of
the surging value of the Taiwan dollar.
 Reuter

Productivity in the non-farm business
sector fell at a seasonally adjusted, revised annual rate of
2.2 pct in the fourth quarter last year, the Labor department
said.
    Previously, the department said productivity fell 1.7 pct
in the fourth quarter.
    The decline followed a 0.3 pct drop in the third quarter.
    For all of 1986, productivity increased 0.7 pct from 1985,
reflecting rises of 4.3 pct in the first quarter and 0.5 pct in
the second quarter.
    Non-farm productivity in 1985 increased 0.5 pct, the
department said.
    For the fourth quarter, output rose 1.9 pct while hours of
all persons increased 4.3 pct.
    Hourly compensation rose 2.7 pct but effectively was zero
when the increase in CPI-U is taken into account. Unit labor
costs rose 5.1 pct.
    The implicit price deflator for non-farm business fell 0.4
pct following a 3.6 pct increase in the third quarter.
    Manufacturng productivity declined 0.1 pct after a 3.6 pct
increase in the third quarter.
    Manufacturing output rose 3.3 pct in the fourth quarter and
as hours gained 3.4 pct and compensation per hour 2.1 pct, the
    Real compensation per hour in manufacturing fell 0.6 pct in
the fourth quarter when inflation was taken into account.
    Business productivity, including farms, fell 2.8 pct in the
fourth quarter after a 0.4 pct third-quarter decline but was
0.7 pct higher overall in 1986 than in 1985.
    Hourly compensation increased three pct overall in 1986 in
the non-farm business sector, the smal.0 pct.e since 1919.
    In 1985, hourly compensation rose 4.0 pct.
    The implicit price deflator for non-farm business rose 2.2
pct in 1986 after a 3.3 pct rise a year earlier and was the
smallest increase since 1965.
    Unit labor costs were up 2.3 pct in 1986 after rising 3.5
    Productivity in manufacturing rose 2.7 pct last year after
a 1985 rise of 4.4 pct, the department said.
 Reuter

U.S. construction spending rose 3.6
billion dlrs, or 1.0 pct, in January to a seasonally adjusted
rate of 378.5 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    Spending in December fell a revised 3.5 billion dlrs, or
0.9 pct, to 374.9 billion dlrs, the department said.
    Previously, it said spending fell 0.5 pct in December.
    The department said the value of all new construction in
1986 was 376.9 billion dlrs, or six pct more than the 355.6
billion dlrs of building put in place in 1985.
    The department said January construction spending was 5.1
billion dlrs, or 1.4 pct, above the January, 1986 total of
373.4 billion dlrs.
    Residential construction spending rose in January to an
annual rate of 180.7 billion dlrs from 178.6 billion dlrs in
December.
    Public construction outlays rose for a third successive
month to 75.2 billion dlrs in January from 71.2 billion dlrs in
December, and were 7.2 billion dlrs, or 10.6 pct, higher than
the January, 1986 estimate of 68.0 billion dlrs, the department
said.
    The department said a big increase in public spending
occurred on highway construction, where outlays rose in January
to 23.8 billion dlrs from 18.9 billion dlrs in December.
    In constant dlrs, January construction outlays rose 3.6
billion dlrs, or 1.1 pct from December levels, the department
said.
 Reuter

Whittaker Corp said it will have a
gain on the sale of discontinued businesses after any operating
losses from the businesses up until the dates of disposition,
but it will defer reporting the gain until its restructuring
program hsa been substantially completed.
    The company said in the first quarter ended January 31,m it
completed the divestiture of its health maintenance
organization operations to Travelers Corp <TIC> , sold its
Whittar Steel Strip operations to <DofascoxInc> and sold its
equity investment in Bertram-Trojan Inc to an affiliate of
<Investcorp>.
    The company said it has entered into definitive agreements
to sell Whittaker General Medical Corp, Bennes MArrel SA of
France and Juster Steel Corp as well.
    The company said to date it has received proceeds of about
90 mln dlrs from divestitures and has used the funds to reduce
debt incurred in the repurchase of its common shares.
    Whittaker today reported first quarter earnings from
continuing operations fell to 1,522,000 dlrs from 3,501,000
dlrs a year before. The year-earlier figure excluded a
1,817,000 dlr loss from discontinued operations.
 Reuter

The Japan Fund Inc said it has received
an unsolicited offer from <Sterling Grace Capital Management
LP>, acting together with certain other persons and entities,
to purchase all the assets of the fund at five pct below its
aggregate net asset value.
    The Japan Find said tne deal is subject to obtaining
satisfactory financing and a due diligence review.
    It added that the proposal has been referred to its Board
of Directors for consideration.
 Reuter

Stansbury Mining Corp said it has
arranged the financing it needs to bring its vermiculite mine
into operation later this year.
    The company said New York investment banking firm Matthews
and Wright has arranged 7,300,000 dlrs in tax-free industrial
revenue bonds and 4,700,000 dlrs in conventional bonds.
    It said it expects to produce saleable ore from the mine
before year-end.
    The company said it has also signed an agreement for Wright
Engineers Ltd of British Columbia to recoup the cost of its
services to Stansbury by converting warrants.
    The company said Wright Engineers would convert the
warrants to Stansbury common on a monthly basis at the monthly
market value as the 1,700,000 dlrs of engineering work is
completed.  It said it does not expect more than 400,000
warrants to be converted over the next 12 months.
 Reuter

Div 50 won vs 50 won
    Net profit 6.91 billion won vs 6.10 billion
    Sales 4,275.4 billion vs 3,801,7 billion
    Note - Company has set 1987 sales target of 4,800 billion
won.
 Reuter

    Net profit 35.4 billion won vs 34.2 billion
    Sales 4,214.9 billion won vs 3,779.2 bilion
    Note - company has set 1987 sales target of 5,200 billion.
 REUTER

CORNING TO OFFER 0.5165 SHARE FOR EACH HAZLETON SHARE UNDER EARLIER AGREEMENT

Bank of New York Co said it and the
management of RMJ Securities Corp have agreed to sell 80 pct of
their interests in RMJ Holding Corp to <British and
Commonwealth Holdings PLC> and Bank of New York expects to
realize a substantial gain on the transaction.
    RMJ Holding is the holding company for RMJ Securities, a
large broker of U.S. government securities and agency
obligations  Bank of New York owns a majority interest in RMJ
Holding and management of RMJ Securities the remainder.
    Bank of New York said the sale is expected to be completed
during the second quarter.
    It said it and RMJ Securities management will continue to
own 20 pct of RMJ Holding for now, but the agreement provides
for the sale of that remaining interest to British and
Commonwealth over the next six years.
 Reuter

Corning Glass Works said the
exchange ratio for its previously announced acquisition of
Hazleton Laboratories Corp has been established at 0.5165
Corning common share for each Hazleton common share.
    Corning said the prospectus regarding the merger is
expected to be mailed tomorrow to all Hazleton holders of
record February 18. Hazleton shareholders will vote on the
proposed merger at a special meeting on March 31.
 Reuter

World animal health experts called for a
campaign to eradicate the lethal cattle disease Rinderpest in
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, a statement from
a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meeting here said.
    Some 230 mln dlrs is needed over two years to vaccinate the
entire susceptible cattle population in Bangladesh and Pakistan
and high-risk areas of the other three countries. In India some
240 mln cattle are estimated to be at risk from the disease.
    The experts recommended the campaign be funded mostly by
the governments of the five nations, with help from the FAO.
Similar campaigns are needed in Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Iran.
 Reuter

Turkish retail prices rose 2.7 pct in
February after 2.9 pct in January and 1.7 pct in February 1986,
the State Statistics Institute said.
    Prices in the year to February rose 31.6 pct, compared with
30.3 pct in the year to January and 38.8 pct in the 12 months
to February 1986.
    The index (base 1978/79), covering 14 towns and five
regions, was 1,886.8 in February, 1,837.2 in January and
1,434.0 in February 1986.
 REUTER

Xerox Corp said it has added a
system that can handle more than 3,000 calls per hour and store
up to 526 hours of messages to its Voice Message Exchange
product line.
    Available with 12 to 64 ports, the new System V is designed
to serve 800 to 10,000 users, the company said. It is
compatible with the company's entire voice message exchange
line, it added.
    Xerox said the system may be rented annually, with an
option to purchase, starting at 4,700 dlrs per month, or
purchased for 123,000 dlrs.

 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it
completed the acquisition of the Golden Nugget Casino Hotel in
Atlantic City, New Jersey from Golden Nugget Inc.
    Bally also acquired from Golden Nugget various parcels of
real estate in Atlantic City, it noted.
    The transaction included 140 mln dlrs in cash and stock and
the assumption of a 299 mln dlrs mortgage.
 Reuter

<Consolidated TVX Mining Corp> said it
agreed to issue 7.8 mln treasury shares to acquire interests in
three gold mining companies in Brazil and an option to increase
the company's interest in a platinum property.
    The company said the transactions will bring immediate
production and earnings to Consolidated TVX, enhance its
precious metal potential and is expected to improve cash flow
and earnings on a per share basis. The company did not give
specific figures.
    Consolidated TVX said it will acquire 29 pct of CMP, a
public gold mining company in which TVX already holds a 15 pct
interest, making TVX the largest single shareholder.
    The company also agreed to acquire a 19 pct stake in Novo
Astro, a private company, and a 16 pct interest in Teles Pires
Mining, increasing the TVX's ownership to 51 pct.
    In addition, Consolidated TVX said it will acquire the
right to add a 10 pct interest to a platinum property in which
it already owns a 29.4 pct stake.
    CMP earned 11 mln Canadian dlrs in 1986 and expects to
produce 42,000 ounces of gold in 1987 at a cost of 160 U.S.
dlrs an ounce, Consolidated TVX said.
    Novo Astro operates Brazil's richest gold mine located in
Amapa State, with an average grade of 0.8 ounces of gold a ton
in a hardrock quartz vein, Consolidated TVX said. Mining of
eluvial surface material produced 25,000 ounces in 1986 and is
expected to produce 60,000 ounces in 1987.
    It also said Teles Pires Mining controls rights to a 350
kilometer section of the Teles Pires River, where one dredge is
expected to produce 10,000 ounces of gold in 1987.
 Reuter

Oper shr 17 cts vs 19 cts
    Oper net 636,000 vs 358,000
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 7,024,000
    Avg shrs 3,808,000 vs 1,924,000
    Year
    Oper shr 73 cts vs 65 cts
    Oper net 2,467,000 vs 1,199,000
    Revs 31.5 mln vs 22.9 mln
    Avg shrs 3,372,000 vs 1,785,000
    NOTE: Net excludes investment gains 20,000 dlrs vs 86,000
dlrs in quarter and 586,000 dlrs vs 195,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 year net excludes 304,000 dlr tax credit.
    Share adjusted for one-for-two reverse split in November
1985.
 Reuter

Canada's industrial product price index
rose 0.2 pct in January after falling 0.2 pct in each of the
two previous months, Statistics Canada said.
    The rise was led by price gains for papers, pharmaceuticals
and petroleum and coal products. Price declines were recorded
for meat products, lumber and motor vehicles.
    On a year over year basis, the federal agency said the
index fell 0.9 pct in January, the largest yearly decline on
record.
 Reuter

Oliver's Stores Inc said it has
decided to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the federal
bankruptcy laws and will file a petition by the end of this
week.
    The company said it has failed to reach agreement with
primary lenders Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC> and Midlantic
Corp <MIDL> on a debt restructuring.
    It said Manufacturers has declared the company in default
and demanded repayment of about six mln dlrs in debt.
 Reuter

Howen Owners Federal Savings and Loan
Association said its stockholders have approved an amendment to
its charter increasing the number of authorized common to 32
mln shares from eight mln and the number of authorized
preferred shares to eight mln from two mln.
 Reuter

Commerzbank Overseas Finance NV is
issuing a 50 mln stg eurobond due March 31, 1992 paying 9-5/8
pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, joint-lead manager Samuel
Montagu and Co Ltd said. Commerzbank AG is the other
joint-lead.
    The non-callable bond is available in denominations of
1,000 and 10,000 stg and will be listed in London. The selling
 REUTER

Nuclear Data Inc said its bank lenders
agreed to extend its secured loan agreement through June 30,
1987.
    The agreement, which covers about 9.5 mln dlrs in short
term debt, had been scheduled to expire February 28.
    Terms of the extension require Nuclear Data to obtain
replacement financing from outside sources before June 30, it
said.
    If the company is unable to or fails to achieve certain
projected operating results in the meantime, it will be
required to divest enough assets to retire its debt, it said.
    For the first nine months of its fiscal 1987 year ended
November 30, 1986, Nuclear Data reported a loss of almost nine
mln dlrs or 4.98 dlrs a share on revenues of 32.6 mln dlrs.
    Nuclear Data cited improvement in printed circuit board
sales and said it is confident it will obtain replacement
financing.
    In other action, Nuclear Data said it set up a 1.25 mln
dlrs reserve to cover the revaluation of certain domestic
medical inventory and the redirection of its U.S. medical sales
efforts.
    The reserve was taken to offset a decline in the U.S.
dollar against the Danish Kroner and other factors adversely
affecting sales of its Danish manufactured medical products in
the U.S. market, Nuclear Data said.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,232,000 vs 834,000
    Sales 24.1 mln vs 20.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,609,000 vs five mln
    Year
    Shr 97 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 4,985,000 vs 3,426,000
    Sales 92.4 mln vs 77.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,153,000 vs five mln
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said a judge on
the New Jersey Superior Court for Monmouth County granted its
Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc unit a motion for a directed
verdict in its favor in a case alleging its morning sickness
drug, Bendectin, caused a child's birth defects.
    Merrell Dow said after plaintiffs had completed their
presentation of evidence, Judge Marshall Selikoff granted the
company's motion and discharged the jury on grounds tha
plaintiffs did not present evidence showing the drug caused the
child' problems.
 Reuter

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson has told Brazil's Finance Minister Dilson Funaro that
negotiations on Brazil's debt to commercial banks are a matter
for the commercial banks themselves, a Treasury spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the Chancellor had emphasised in talks
this morning with Funaro the need for the Brazilian authorities
to be able to present a convincing economic program to the
country's creditors. He added an accord with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) could be a very helpful support.
    Brazil on February 20 suspended interest payments on 68
billion dlrs of its debts to commercial banks.
    Lawson's attitude was interpreted by banking sources as a
clear rebuff to Brazilian hopes of obtaining official
cooperation in resolving its external debt crisis.
    Funaro, accompanied by central bank president Francisco
Gros, is on the first leg of a tour of European capitals in an
attempt to explain to governments Brazil's indefinite
suspension of interest payments earlier this month.
    Brazil has in the past rejected a substantial role for the
IMF in managing its economy, arguing that an IMF austerity
program by promoting exports and dampening domestic consumption
would lead to recession and threaten democracy.
    Funaro and Gros last week visited Washington as part of
their trip to enlist support from governments for its attempts
to change the means by which developing countries finance
growth.
    Funaro said on Saturday in Washington that Brazil would not
have suspended payment on its debt if it had received more and
faster financing from international agencies.
    He said earlier today that Brazil was first approaching
governments before talking to the commercial banks themselves
about the interest payment moratorium "because the banks have
some limits.... It's a political discussion from our point of
view."
    Funaro said on Friday that his talks with U.S. Officials
had resulted in no new financial arrangement to help resolve
Brazil's debt crisis, describing the meeting as an initial
contact.
    He had earlier met Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker and U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker.
    The Treasury spokesman pointed out that today's talks had
been at Funaro's request.
    After travelling this week to France, Germany, Switzerland
and Italy, Funaro hopes to visit Canada and Japan next week
before starting negotiations with banks.
 REUTER

SHELL CANADA CUTS CRUDE OIL PRICES BY UP TO 1.27 CANADIAN DLRS/BBL EFFECTIVE MARCH ONE

The Bank of Enlgand said it was creating
and taking onto its own books a one stg tranche of the nine pct
Exchequer stock due 2002.
    The issue is part paid with 20 stg pct payable on issue and
the 76 stg pct balance due on April 27. First dealings will
take place this Wednesday, March 4.
    The initial reaction among dealers was to mark prices
around 1/8 point easier. The market had been untapped prior to
this announcement.
 REUTER

    Pay April six
 Reuter

The National Union of Mineworkers,
NUM, said it will demand a 55 pct annual wage increase in
upcoming negotiations with South Africa's mining companies.
    The union, representing some 360,000 black workers at about
118 mines, last year sought a 45 pct boost in salaries and
settled for 23.5 pct.
    NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa told a news
conference the miners were "very angry at low wages...And are
prepared to press their struggle for as long as it takes to get
their demands met."
    Salaries for black miners currently range from a low of 195
rand or 94 dlrs a month to 800 rand, or 384 dlrs, with an
average monthly wage of 345 rand or 165 dlrs, Ramaphosa said.
    He also said the union has asked the mining companies to
begin new contract talks on April one instead of the usual May
one starting time. The current one-year contract expires at the
end of June.
 REUTER

Prime Computer Inc said it has
introduced the Prime Medusa/pc software, a two dimensional
version of its Prime Medusa computer-aided-design software.
    Prime said Prime Medusa/pc is for use on an International
Business Machines Corp <IBM> PC/AT operating within a Prime 50
Series minicomputer environment.
    The company said the software is available immediately to
customers who have or are currently ordering a Prime Medusa
license on one of Prime's 50 series systems.
    Prime added the software costs 5,000 dlrs per license with
monthly maintenance of 65 dlrs.
    Prime said it also unveiled the Prime Medusa Revision 4.0
system with a new feature for developing applications that
alows users to associate non-graphic information with graphic
elements on a drawing sheet.
    The Prime Medusa Revision 4.0 is available immediately,
Prime said.
 Reuter

Qtly div from income 5.1 cts vs 3.035 dlrs in prior qtr
including capital gains of 2.978 dlrs
    Payable March 27
 Reuter

Federal Industries Ltd's
earlier announced commercial paper issue of up to 440 mln dlrs,
will be made only in Canada, a company spokesman said.
    The issue currently underway is expected to be completed
within the next few weeks.
    The final amount of the issue depends on market conditions,
but will likely be close to 400 mln dlrs, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 1,590,000 vs 1,140,000
    Revs 32.2 mln vs 23.0 mln
    YEAR
    Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 68 cts
    Net 5,300,000 vs 3,100,000
    Revs 110.0 mln vs 85.4 mln
 Reuter

American Nursery Products Inc
said it purchased Miami-based Heinl's Nursery Inc, for
    Heinl's Nursery has sales of about 4.5 mln dlrs and owns
100 acres, of which 75 are in shade houses and about 58,300
square feet cover greenhouses, shipping and office facilities.
 Reuter

Jutland Telephone Co plans to issue a 75
mln Swiss franc, 4-3/4 pct bond with a par price and a maximum
10-year maturity, lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland said.
    The bond may be retired between 1991 and 1996 if the
secondary price does not exceed par.
    It may be called starting in 1992 at 101, with declining
premiums thereafter, or for tax reasons beginning in 1988 at
102 with declining premiums thereafter.
 REUTER

Regency Cruises Inc said its board
elected William Schanz as its chairman and chief executive
officer. He replaces Anastasios Kyriakides, who resigned in
December.
    Schantz has served as president, treasurer, and a director
since its inception in 1984.
    The company also elected three directors. They are Paul
Hermann, John Clive Bayley and Costas Galetakis. The company
said they replace Paul Wells and Douglas MacGarvey, who also
resigned in December. One new director's post has been added,
Regency said.
 Reuter

Semi-annual div from income of 7.3 cts vs 1.0 cent in prior
period
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said it plans to introduce
truck lube centers at most of the 148 Unocal 76 Auto/TruckStops
along the nation's interstate highways.
    The company said the centers will be the first national
program to offer over-the-road trucks a convenient and complete
lube-and-oil-change service. The centers will offer a 20-point
lubrication and oil change at a suggested price of 99.95 dlrs
for most trucks.
    Unocal said the price will be the same or lower than
commercial grages and truckstops now charge in most areas.
 Reuter

Genzyme Corp said it and Howmedica, a
Rutherford, N.J.-based company owned by Pfizer Inc, have agreed
to an initial joint research and development program.
    The company said the venture will focus on using Genzyme's
proprietary technologies to procued hyaluronic acid-based
products for use in orthopedic surgery.
    Hyaluronic acid is a natural water retaining and
lubricating component in the body's soft tissue, and a key part
of certain body fluids.
 Reuter

<Multi-Step Products Inc>, earlier
reporting an initial six month loss, said it agreed to sell
wholly owned Multi-Step Manufacturing Inc for 100,000 dlrs
cash, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
    Multi-Step also said it will pay 900,000 dlrs to cancel
711,192 of its own shares, which will be acquired from Michael
Penhale and his benficiaries. Penhale will control and manage
Multi-Step Manufacturing, following the transactions.
    Multi-Step had a 739,146 dlr loss for the six months ended
December 31. The company received its initial public listing in
December.
    The company said its ladder-making unit has been losing
300,000 dlrs quarterly.
    The sale, expected to close in April, also calls for
retirement of the unit's 400,000 dlr bank debt, Multi-Step
said. The unit also has agreed to pay a debt of 400,000 dlrs to
Tarxien Company Ltd, which is 40 pct owned by Multi-Step.
    Multi-Step previously said it agreed to acquire the
remaining 60 pct of Tarxien it does not already own.
 Reuter

Esselte Business Systems Inc's
Esselte Meto division said it has acquired the Antonson America
Co, a subsidiary of <Antonson Machines AB>, of Sweden.
    Esselte said the Antonson unit, based in LaPorte, Indiana,
manufactures scales and label printers. The company said the
purchase is part of a plan to increase the range of retail
electronic scales being offered by Esselte in the U.S.
    It said the acquisition will enble Esselte to increase its
distribution base in its effort to grow in the U.S.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is expected to
enter the U.S. Government securities market to add temporary
reserves, economists said.
    They expect it to supply the reserves indirectly by
arranging a fairly large round, two billion dlrs or more, of
customer repurchase agreements. The Fed may add the reserves
directly instead via System repurchases.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.02 pct on Friday, opened at
6-1/8 pct and traded between there and 6-1/16 pct. Funds are
under upward pressure from settlement of recently sold two-year
notes and from a Treasury tax and loan call on banks.
 Reuter

Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRS.L> said it had
its first subscriber installation in China of its foreign
exchange dealing service.
    The subscriber is the banking department of the China
International Trust and Investment Corp's (CITIC) head office
in Beijing.
    The service is also due to be connected soon at the Bank of
China's new headquarters in Beijing, Reuters said.
 REUTER

Cambridge Medical Technology
corp said it has signed a letter of intent with Panbaxy
Laboratories to jointly make a new AIDS test.
    The company said it will have the exclusive right to market
the product worldwide.  The new test will be used to detect
specific viral antigens in serum and whole blood samples.
    It said it hopes to design a simplified test for home use.
 Reuter

<Four Seasons Hotels Inc> and VMS Realty
Partners said they agreed to acquire the Santa Barbara Biltmore
Hotel in California from Marriott Corp, for undisclosed terms.
    Closing was expected by March 31, they added.
    The companies said they would jointly own the hotel and
rename it the Four Seasons Biltmore at Santa Barbara. They said
they would spend more than 13 mln U.S. dlrs "to enhance the
Biltmore's position as one of the finest resort hotels in North
America." Chicago-based VMS Realty is a real estate and
development firm.
 Reuter

Quaker Oats Co said it filed a shelf
registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission
covering up to 250 mln dlrs in debt securities.
    The company said it may offer the securites in one or more
issues, from time to time, over the next two years.
    Proceeds will be used to repay short term debt issued in
connection with Quaker Oats' recent acquisitions and for other
corporate purposes, it said.
    Underwriters may include Salomon Brothers Inc and Goldman,
Sachs and Co.
 Reuter

Stone Container Corp said it is
splitting its common stock 2-for-1 and increasing its dividend
33-1/3 pct.
    The dividend of 20 cts a share, an increase of five cts
over the prior 15 cts a share on pre-split shares, is payable
June 12 to holders of record May 22.
    The stock split also is payable June 12 to holders of
record May 22.
 Reuter

Shares of Temple Inland Inc <TIN> and
International Paper Co <IP> rose sharply this morning following
a recommendation by Prudential Bache Securities, traders said.
    Temple Inland jumped 2-7/8 to 73 and International Paper 
1-1/4 to 91-1/4.
    Prudential Bache analyst Mark Rogers was not available for
comment. Traders said he raised his recommendation of Temple
Inland to a "buy" to support his earnings outlook of 5.85 dlrs
a share in 1987 and nine dlrs a share in 1988. The company
earned 3.30 dlrs a share in 1986.
    Traders also said that Rogers reiterated a recommendation
of International Paper, another forest products company that
scored large gains in January as the dollar floundered. Rogers
expects the company to earn 7.50 dlrs a share in 1987 and 10
dlrs a share in 1988. Last year the company earned 5.28 dlrs a
share.
 Reuter

Presidential Airways Inc said it will
serve 12 cities when it starts operating Continental Express
under a joint marketing agreement with Texas Air Corp's <TEX>
Continental Airlines on March 23.
    From its base at Dulles Airport in Washington, Presidential
will serve Albany, N.Y., Birmingham and Huntsville in Alabama,
Columbus, Ohio, Daytona Beach, Melbourne and Sarasota, all in
Florida, Indianapolis, New York's Kennedy Airport,
Philadelphia, Portland, Me., and Savannah, Ga.
    Under the agreement, Presidential will continue as a
separate company but its mileage plan and other services will
be combined with those of Continental Airlines.
 Reuter

Shr 81 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 3,660,273 vs 2,437,914
    Rev 28.5 mln vs 23.1 mln
    Six months
    Shr 29 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,325,755 vs 483,559
    Rev 31.7 mln vs 26.4 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 20 cts vs profit 96 cts
    Net loss 499,000 vs profit 2,369,000
    Revs 11.5 mln vs 10.3 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net includes gain on sale of property of
4,557,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The coupon on the 70 mln dlr equity
warrant eurobond for Best Denki Co Ltd has been set at three
pct compared with the indicated 3-1/8 pct, lead manager Nikko
Securities Co (Europe) Ltd said.
    The exercise price was set 1,640 yen per share,
representing a premium of 2-1/2 pct over today's closing price
of 1,600 yen. The foreign exchange rate was set at 154.40 yen
to the U.S. Dollar.
    The five-year deal is priced at par.
 REUTER

Talks due today between management and
unions to try to end the strike at Cargill U.K. Ltd's Seaforth
oilseed crushing plant have been rescheduled for Thursday, a
company spokesman said.
    Oilseed processing at the plant has been halted since
December 19 when mill workers walked out in protest at new
contract manning levels.
 Reuter

Lotus Development Corp said it
has unveiled a new software product, named Galaxy, to
complement the newly introduced Apple Computer Inc <AAPL>
Macintosh II and Macintosh SE.
    Lotus said Galaxy will be formally introduced over the
summer.
    Lotus said Galaxy will include Command language and
dynamically linked modules, unlike any other software product
currently available for the Macintosh product family, which
enables the user to execute a series of commands with a single
learned keystroke.
                
 Reuter

AMAX Incx said it has identified
additional gold and silver ore reserves at its AMAX Sleeper
Mine near Winnemucca, Nev..
    It said as a result of recent drilling, reserves at thhe
mine are now estimated at 2,470,000 short tons of ore grading
0.24 ounce of gold and 0.50 ounce of silver per ton that is
treatable by conventional milling techniques.
    AMAX said additional reserves amenable to heap leaching are
estimated at 38.3 mln tons averaging 0.025 ounce gold and 0.24
ounce silver per ton.  Further drilling is being conducted, it
said.
 Reuter

A study group said the United States
should increase its strategic petroleum reserve to one mln
barrels as one way to deal with the present and future impact
of low oil prices on the domestic oil industry.
    U.S. policy now is to raise the strategic reserve to 750
mln barrels, from its present 500 mln, to help protect the
economy from an overseas embargo or a sharp price rise.
    The Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, a private
group, also called for new research for oil exploration and
development techniques.
    It predicted prices would remain at about 15-18 dlrs a
barrel for several years and then rise to the mid 20s, with
imports at about 30 pct of U.S. consumption.
    It said instead that such moves as increasing oil reserves
and more exploration and development research would help to
guard against or mitigate the risks of increased imports.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 36 cts vs loss 1.48 dlrs
    Oper net profit 1,353,000 vs loss 5,551,000
    Revs 11.3 mln vs 8,142,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 31 cts vs loss 1.58 dlrs
    Oper net profit 1,165,000 vs loss 5,919,000
    Revs 38.0 mln vs 31.6 mln
    NOTE: Net includes pretax unusual gain 64,000 dlrs vs loss
4,744,000 dlrs in quarter and losses 3,0077,000 dlrs vs
4,744,000 dlrs in year.  1986 items include settlement of
patent suit and provision for investment writeoff and 1985 item
provision for loss on sale of scale business.
    1986 net both periods excludes 400,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co has increased its U.S.
production schedule for the second quarter by 52,000 cars and
32,000 trucks from previous plans, the trade paper Ward's
Automotive Reports said.
    The paper, which tracks industry production, said Ford
plans to build 485,000 cars in the April-June period, compared
with 497,000 a year ago.
    Ford's new production schedule represents a 12 pct increase
from previous production plans for cars and 10 pct for trucks,
Ward's said.
 Reuter

The Federal National Mortgage
Association said it arranged a swap of 250-350 mln dlrs in
stripped mortgage-backed securities with Shearson Lehman
Brothers Inc.
    The exact amount of the swap will be determined later, it
said. Fannie Mae said the swap includes 15-year mortgages for
Fannie Mae stripped mortgage-back securities that bear a nine
pct coupon.
    The stripped securities consist of two classes. One
receives all the principal payments from the underlying pool of
mortgages and the other receives all the interest.
 Reuter

MCI Communications Corp said it
has received a contract to provide telecommunications services
to J.C. Penney Co Inc to accomodate much of Penney's nationwide
vboice and information transfer requirements, via a privatge
satellite network.
    It said video teleconferencing will be provided at five
locations, data will be transmitted among seven locations and
voice service will be provided to 350 locations.  The company
said Penney's use of the services is expected top exceed four
mln call minutes per month of voice traffic.
    Value was not disclosed.
 Reuter

Shr 1.65 dlrs vs 1.50 dlrs
    Net 5,370,000 vs 4,901,000
    Rev 8.4 mln vs 7.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net gain from property investments 717,000 dlrs,
or 22 cts per share, vs 721,000 dlrs, or 22 cts per share.
 Reuter

Investor Sumner Redstone, who leads
one of the two groups vying for control of Viacom International
Inc, offered to sweeten his bid for the company by 1.50 dlrs a
share cash and 1.50 dlrs in securities.
Redstone, who controls Dedham, Mass.,-based National Amusements
Inc, a theater chain operator, offered to raise the cash
portion of its Viacom offer to 42 dlrs a share from 40.50 dlrs.
    Redstone also raised the face value of the preferred stock
he is offering to 7.50 dlrs from six dlrs.
    The Redstone offer, which is being made through Arsenal
Holdings Inc, a National Amusements subsidiary set up for that
purpose, which also give Viacom shareholders one-fifth of a
share of Arsenal common stock after the takeover.
    Viacom said earlier today it received revised takeover bids
from Redstone and MCV Holdings Inc, a group led by Viacom
management which is competing with Redstone for control of the
company and already has a formal merger agreement with Viacom.
    The company did not disclose the details of the revised
offers, but said a special committee of its board would review
them later today.
    The Redstone group, which has a 19.5 pct stake in Viacom,
and the management group, which has a 5.4 pct stake, have both
agreed not to buy more shares of the company until a merger is
completed, unless the purchases are part of a tender offer for
at least half of the outstanding stock.
    The two rivals also signed confidentiality agreements,
which give them access to Viacom's financial records provided
they keep the information secret.
    In his SEC filing, Redstone, who estimated his cost of
completing the takeover at 2.95 billion dlrs, said Bank of
America is confident it can raise 2.275 billion dlrs.
    Besides the financing it would raise through a bank
syndicate, Bank of America has also agreed to provide a
separate 25 mln dlr for the limited purpose of partial
financing and has committed to provide another 592 mln dlrs,
Redstone said.
    Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner and Smith Inc has increased
its underwriting commitment to 175 mln dlrs of subordinated
financing debt for the Viacom takeover, from the 150 mln dlrs
it agreed to underwrite earlier, Redstone said.
    Redstone said his group would contribute more than 475 mln
dlrs in equity toward the takeover.
    The Redstone equity contribution to the takeover would
consist of all of his group's 6,881,800 Viacom common shares
and at least 118 mln dlrs cash, he said.
    The new offer, the second sweetened deal Redstone has
proposed in his month-long bidding war with management, also
contains newly drawn up proposed merger documents, he said.
    Last week, the management group submitted what it called
its last offer for the company, valued at 3.1 mln dlrs and
consisting of 38.50 dlrs a share cash, preferred stock valued
at eight dlrs a share and equity in the new company. Redstone's
previous offer had been valued at 3.2 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Montedison Spa <MONI.MI> said it has
concluded its negotiations with Spanish pharmaceuticals company
<Antibioticos SA>.
    A company spokesman told Reuters "We have concluded the
talks and we are now awaiting authorization from Spanish
authorities." He declined to comment further.
    Earlier today the Italian company postponed a scheduled
press conference on its talks with Antibioticos. An Italian
press report today said Montedison has agreed to acquire
Antibioticos for 500 billion lire.
 REUTER

UtiliCorp United Inc said it
completed the acquisition of West Virginia Power from Dominion
Resources for about 21 mln dlrs.
    The sale was approved by the West Virginia Public Service
Commission in January and became effective March one. West
Virginia's management will continue to be responsible for
operating the utility, it said.
 Reuter

Armco Inc said its former European
Steel Mill Merchandising department has become a unit of the
parent's specialty steels division based in Butler.
    The unit, newly named Specialty Steels-Europe is based in
Cologne, West Germany. It will market and sell in Europe the
division's U.S.-made products and specialty products made in
Europe.
 Reuter

The Federal Aviation Administration
fined Delta Air Lines Inc 140,400 dlrs for alleged violations
of federal air safety rules, FAA officials said.
    The FAA had reviewed Delta safety and maintenance
operations early last year as part of a series of special
inspections of U.S. air carriers.
    The Delta fine is the smallest to come out of the special
inspections, the officials said.
    As a result of the inspections, Eastern Air Lines was fined
a record 9.5 mln dlrs, American Airlines was penalized 1.5 mln
dlrs and Pan American World Airways 1.95 million dlrs.
 Reuter

French operators last Friday requested
licences to export 10,500 tonnes of free market maize, 11,950
tonnes of free market barley and 13,000 of soft wheat flour to
non-EC countries, at prefixed daily (droit commun) rebates,
French trade sources said.
    The latest requests for the maize were for export to
Switzerland, Austria and Lichtenstein at a maximum daily rebate
prefixed last Friday at 141 Ecus a tonne against a previous 20
Ecu daily rebate.
    The special daily rebate for maize was set in the context
of a Commission commitment to grant this season rebates for the
export of 500,000 tonnes of French maize to non-EC countries,
in compensation for concessions to the U.S. in the recent
dispute over grain sales to Spain.
    If the latest French requests are accepted as expected,
this will bring the total of French maize exported in this
context to 25,500 tonnes.
    The Commission last Thursday granted weekly rebates for the
sale of 15,000 tonnes of free market maize to non-EC countries.
    Requests for barley were for export to Switzerland, Austria
and Lichtenstein, Ceuta and Melilla at an unchanged pre-fixed
restitution of 125 Ecus a tonne, while requests for soft wheat
flour were for export to various non-EC countries at an
unchanged 178 Ecus a tonne.
 Reuter

    The study cited two basic policy paths for the nation: to
protect the U.S. industry through an import fee or other such
device or to accept the full economic benefits of cheap oil.
    But the group did not strongly back either option, saying
there were benefits and drawbacks to both.
 Reuter

NCR Corp's Personal Computer
division said it signed an agreement to distrubute its personal
computer products to 544 <Computerland Corp> stores in the U.S.
    The company said the agreement covers its entire PC line,
which will be sold by Computerland franchises, Computerland
Stores Inc, and for major corporate bids, through the
Computerland National Accounts Program.
    Computerland said it is planning a direct mail campaign and
other publicity on its private satellite network to promote the
NCR line.
    The primary products to be sold by Computerland stores
include the PC8 AT-compatible unit, the PC6 dual-speed model
and the 2114/PC Retail Management System, according to NCR.
 Reuter

Union Carbide Corp is looking to
acquisitions and joint ventures to aid its chemicals and
plastics growth, according the H.W. Lichtenberger, president of
Chemicals and Plastics.
    Describing this as a major departure in the company's
approach to commercial development, he told the annual new
business forum of the Commercial Development Association "We
are looking to acquisitions and joint ventures when they look
like the fastest and most promising routes to the growth
markets we've identified."
    Not very long ago Union Carbide had the attitude "that if
we couldn't do it ourselves, it wasn't worth doing. Or, if it
was worth doing, we had to go it alone," Lichtenberger
explained.
    He said "there are times when exploiting a profitable
market is done best with a partner. Nor do we see any need to
plow resources into a technology we may not have if we can link
up profitably with someone who is already there."
    He said Carbide has extended its catalyst business that way
and is now extending its specialty chemicals business in the
same way.
 Reuter

Bank of America NT and SA's
<BAC.N> West German branch said it is negotiating the sale of
Bankhaus Centrale Credit AG, a small local West German bank it
acquired in 1965, and of its West German Visa credit card
operation.
    Michael Seibel, Bank of America vice-president and regional
manager, said the negotiations were proceeding well. He
declined to give further details.
    Bank of America's West German branch lost some 32 mln marks
in 1985. The result includes profit and loss transfers from
Bankhaus Centrale Credit and the Visa organisation. The sale of
the units is part of the bank's worldwide restructuring plan.
 REUTER

Semi div 13 cts vs 18 cts prior
    Record March Two
 Reuter

Columbia Gas System Inc said it
has formed Columbia Erie Pipeline Corp as a subsidiary to
participate with Coastal Corp's <CGP> ANR Pipeline Co in
construction and operation of the Erie Pipeline System.
    As previously announced, Columbia Gas and ANR Pipeline
signed a letter of intent to form a partnership to construct
and operate the Erie system, which will run from ANR's
facilities in Defiance County, Ohio, to Clinton, County, Pa.
    Columbia said specific terms of participation are to be
spelled out in a partnership agreement to be negotiated within
the next 60 days.
 Reuter

Mthly div 4.5 cts vs 4.5 cts prior
 Reuter

Mthly div 3.6 cts vs 3.6 cts prior
 Reuter

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, a
unit of R.J.R. Nabisco Inc <RJR>, said it has formed an
executive management committee to oversee the company's
worldwide tobacco operations.
    Reynolds Tobacco said the committee's members will be
senior managers of Reynolds Tobacco Co, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
USA, and R.J. Reynolds International Inc.
    R.J.R. Nabisco is reportedly attempting to form a master
limited partnership out of its tobacco unit, part of which will
be sold to the public.
 Reuter

PETRO-CANADA CUT CRUDE PRICES BY 1.43 CANADIAN DLRS/BBL EFFECTIVE MARCH ONE

Mthly div 7.7 cts vs 7.7 cts prior
 Reuter

Mthly div 7.3 cts vs 7.3 cts prior
 Reuter

Mthly div six cts vs six cts prior
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's GMAC Financial
Services said it plans to offer 25 billion dlrs in pre-approved
credit to more than two mln "preferred customers" in a
nationwide direct mail campaign.
    The GM unit said the program is the largest automotive
credit offer of its kind in history.
    GMAC Financial Services said the mailing will be completed
by early March. Selected current GMAC customers will receive
offers of pre-approved credit equal to the cash selling price
of the vehicles they are currently financing, rounded up to the
next 1,000 dlrs.
    Within this group, Buick owners will also receive a special
discount of 300 dlrs that would be provided by GM's Buick motor
division if they accept GMAC's offer to finance or lease a new
Buick.
 Reuter

The Canadian government is expected
to announce later this week its final ruling whether U.S. corn
exports to Canada have injured Ontario corn growers, U.S.
government and farm group representatives said.
    The deadline for a final determination is March 7.
    U.S. officials said they are encouraged by the outcome in a
similar case covering European pasta imports. In that case,
Canada decided pasta imports, which take about ten pct of the
Canadian market, did not injure domestic producers. U.S. corn
exports represent only about five pct of the Canadian market.
    Canada slapped a 1.05 dlrs per bushel duty on U.S. corn
imports in November 1986, but reduced the duty to 85 cts last
month because the Canadian government said U.S. subsidies to 
corn producers were less than Canada earlier estimated.
 Reuter

Qtly div six cts vs six cts prior
    Pay April 28
 Reuter

Dutch port and transport union, FNV,
agreed to an employers' request to reconvene abandoned peace
talks tonight to try to end strikes that have disrupted
Rotterdam's general cargo sector for the past six weeks, a
union spokesman said.
    Talks broke down Thursday when the union walked out after
employers tabled their final offer to end the strikes which
started January 19 in protest at planned redundancies of 800
from the sector's 4,000 workforce, starting with 350 this year.
    The employers' invitation to restart the talks comes on the
day a deadline set by Minister of Social Affairs Louw de Graaf
for a resolution of the dispute expires.
    De Graaf said if the dispute had not ended by today he
would withdraw the 10 mln guilder annual labour subsidy to the
sector.
    No comment was immediately available from the employers'
organization.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said Airgas
Inc declined to comment on its stock activity after a request
for an explanation by the exchange.
    The company's stock was up 1-1/8 points to 11 dlrs.
 Reuter

    Pay April One
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve entered the U.S.
Government securities market to arrange 1.5 billion dlrs of
customer repurchase agreements, a Fed spokesman said.
    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-3/16 pct when
the Fed began its temporary and indirect supply of reserves to
the banking system.
 Reuter

Sony (U.K.) Ltd said it would be doubling
capacity at its Bridgend, Wales, television and components
factory over the next three years in a 30 mln stg expansion.
    The expansion, backed by Welsh office grants, would make
Bridgend Sony's biggest tv manufacturing plant in Europe with
output of about 500,000 tv sets per year, a spokesman said.
    The move will add 300 jobs at Bridgend, bringing the total
workforce to 1,500 at the end of the three-year period.
    The expansion is part of a wider move by Sony Corp <SNE.T>
to locate more production capacity nearer its markets, a
 Reuter

 Reuter

European Community steelmakers
presented the Executive Commission with a controversial plan
for the future of the industry which diplomats say it may be
forced reluctantly to accept.
    Under the plan steel output would remain subject to
restrictive quotas and imports would be firmly controlled for
years to come while steel firms undertook a massive
slimming-down operation to adjust capacity to lower demand.
    Industry Commissioner Karl-Heinz Narjes has proposed the
ending of the quota system by December 1988.
    He has proposed a return to the free market, which under EC
law is supposed to exist except in times of "manifest crisis."
    But diplomats said some ministers who meet to discuss this
idea on March 19 will argue that steel firms are in crisis in
their countries, with orders falling as customers switch to
alternative products and accounts firmly in the red.
    Ministers from the EC's major steel producing countries are
likely to shy away from Narjes' proposals and could back the
industry's own plan instead, in the hope of minimising the
political impact of plant closures, they said.
    Industry sources said the plan presented to Narjes by the
EC steelmakers' lobby group Eurofer would retain the quota
production system at least until the end of 1990.
    Eurofer said in a statement consultants working for it
identified scope for closing plants on a "voluntary" basis to
reduce capacity by 15.26 mln tonnes a year.
    Cuts were still insufficient in one production area, that
of hot rolled coils, and further talks were needed.
    Eurofer added the industry would need the support of the
Commission and governments in carrying out a closure program,
particularly with social costs such as redundancy payments.
    The EC steel industry has already shed 240,000 jobs this
decade while reducing annual capacity by 31 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

The London Stock Exchange said its ruling
council has decided to close the trading floor for government
bonds (gilts) and equities in due course because most of the
business is now done between brokers' offices.
    A trading floor for traded options will be retained.
    Dwindling activity on the exchange floor reflects the
introduction of the new dealing system, known as SEAQ, which
was part of the Big Bang restructuring of the market last
October. Since then, brokers and market-makers have been
dealing on the basis of competing share quotes displayed on
screens.
 REUTER

Eagle Telephonics Inc said it
signed a two-year agreement under which Pacific Telesis Group's
<PAC> Pacific Bell unit will buy its Eagle line of electronic
key telephone systems for internal use.
    Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 531,896 vs 727,781
    Revs 16.0 mln 16.8 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 30 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 1,532,431 vs 2,000,732
    Revs 32.7 mln vs 34.5 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 14 cts vs 14 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr 67 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 5,220,000 vs 3,143,000
    Revs 236.1 mln vs 256.2 mln
    Avg shrs 7.8 mln vs 13.7 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr 85 cts vs 59 cs
    Net 8,919,000 vs 8,158,000
    Revs 483.8 mln vs 515.5 mln
    Avg shrs 10.4 mln vs 13.7 mln
    NOTE: Fiscal 1987 second quarter and first half earnings
include a gain of 3.4 mln dlrs and exclude preferred dividend
requirements of five mln dlrs in the quarter and 5.6 mln dlrs
in the first half.
    Fiscal 1986 net reduced by currency losses equal to six cts
a share in the second quarter and equal to nine cts in the six
months.
   
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 8-1/3 cts prior
    Pay April 21
    NOTE: Interchange Financial Services Corp.
 Reuter

Kapok Corp said it is in
techical default of its loans from Southeast Banking Corp <STB>
and Murray Steinfeld but is negotiating with the lenders.
    It said neither has declared the loans due.
    The company said it has agreed to sell the Peter Pan
Restaurant in Urbana, Md., for 1,100,000 dlrs, or one mln dlrs
after the payment of expenses.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,037,690 vs 1,270,460
    Sales 10.1 mln vs 9,215,836
    Six Mths
    Shr 25 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 2,319,376 vs 2,930,507
    Sales 21.2 mln vs 18.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net loss 353,000 vs loss 541,000
    Revs 2,668,000 vs 2,525,000
    Avg shrs 2,452,3000 vs 2,552,300
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs four cts
    Net 383,189 vs 241,857
    Revs 1,506,756 vs 793,459
    12 mths
    Shr 24 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 1,520,797 vs 929,017
    Revs 5,268,486 vs 2,617,995
 Reuter

Qtly div 11 cts vs 11 cts prior
    Pay April 17
 Reuter

Neutrogena Corp said it may purchase
up to 100,000 shares of its outstanding common stock from time
to time in the open market to reduce dilution from the future
issue of employee stock options.
    The company said it currently has 9.2 mln shares
outstanding.
    It said the shares that may be purchased and those
currently outstanding will be adjusted to reflect a
three-for-two stock split effective March two.
 
 Reuter

Oper Shr loss 40 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Oper net loss 2,136,000 vs loss 467,000
    Revs 21.9 mln vs 12.9 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 63 cts vs loss 30 cts
    Oper net loss 3,499,000 vs loss 1,756,000
    Revs 82.0 mln vs 54.5 mln
    NOTE: Excludes income from discontinued operations of
1,478,000 vs 952,000 for qtr, and 31.2 mln vs 6,500,000 for
year.
    Excludes extraordinary charge of 2,503,000 for current qtr,
and 4,744,000 for year.
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 413,021 vs loss 163,932
    Revs 600,971 vs 665,800
 Reuter

Directors of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange will meet Wednesday to consider a membership petition
asking the exchange to tighten rules covering trading
activities in the widely-popular Standard and Poor's 500 Stock
Index futures pit, an exchange executive said.
    The petition calls for elimination of dual trading, a legal
practice where traders execute customer orders as well as trade
for their own account.
    But exchange officials noted this practice also provides an
opportunity for a trader to engage in what is called
"front-running", where traders enter orders for their own account
before executing orders for their customers.
    Leo Melamed, CME special counsel, said directors will rule
on the petition on Wednesday, but added that a special S and P
Advisory Committee has been studying S and P 500 futures
trading conditions for the last six months and is expected to
submit a complete list of recommendations within 30 days.
    In addition to a recommendation on dual trading, Melamed
said the special committee will also make suggestions about a
possible automatic order entry and execution system for S and P
500 futures and futures-options and rule changes that would
alleviate congested conditions in the trading pit.
    Melamed said directors are likely to approve the
recommendations of the special committee because "most actions
of the board are in line with committee recommendations."
    CME senior vice president Gerald Beyer said if the board
accepts the member's petition this week, a rule change will be
submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for
approval.
    If the board does nothing, or rejects the petition request,
a rule change must then be submitted to the exchange membership
for a vote within 15 days, Beyer said.
    Melamed also added that if the petition must be ruled on
before the recommendations from the special committee are made
"it will confuse the issue."
    Not all traders agree on the need to eliminiate or restrict
dual trading.
    Although Jonathan Wolff, senior vice president at Donaldson
Lufkin and Jenrette, noted dual trading is evident on most
    "It's a question of the integrity of the person you do
business with," Wolff said.
    Futures traders who act as brokers, however, maintain that
trading for their own accounts is necessary in order to make up
for errors they inevitably make when filling customer orders in
chaotic futures trading pits.
    "To have an absolute ban on dual trading makes it difficult
for a broker to function because of his errors," said John
Michael, vice president at First Options of Chicago.
    "What it comes down to is the ethics of the people involved,"
he said.
    Furthermore, the competitive nature of futures brokerage
makes front-running risky to a broker's livelihood, he said.
    "If I ever discovered a broker doing it (front-running), or
even suspected him of doing it, I would cut him off," Michael
said.
    An average broker in the Treasury bond futures pit, for
instance, will fill orders for 5,000 to 10,000 contracts a day
at 1.25 dlrs per contract, floor sources said.  Even figuring
what is considered a typical 25 pct loss for errors such
brokerage can be lucrative.
    Front-running by brokers not only runs the market risk of
an adverse price move, but also the risk of losing the
brokerage business, Michael said.
 Reuter

Net income 154.7 mln pesos vs 127.5 mln
    Operating revenues 4.42 billion vs 3.3 billion
    Operating profit 621.2 mln vs 203.4 mln
    Earnings per share 4.80 vs 3.95
    NOTE: Company statement said gold operations contributed 74
pct of consolidated earnings.
 Reuter

Pogo Producing Co said it has
consolidated its onshore and offshore Gulf Coast divisions into
a Southern Division responsible for its onshore and offshore
oil and gas exploration and development activities in the Gulf
Coast and Gulf of Mexico areas.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp's Union Oil Co said it
lowered its posted prices for crude oil one to 1.50 dlrs a
barrel in the eastern region of the U.S., effective Feb 26.
    Union said a 1.50 dlrs cut brings its posted price for the
U.S. benchmark grade, West Texas Intermediate, to 16 dlrs.
Louisiana Sweet also was lowered 1.50 dlrs to 16.35 dlrs, the
company said.
    No changes were made in Union's posted prices for West
Coast grades of crude oil, the company said.
 Reuter

Panhandle Eastern Corp's Trunkline Gas
Co pipeline subsidiary said it is reducing the commodity
component of its wholesale natural gas rate four pct, effective
immediately.
    In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
Trunkline said, it is reducing its commodity rate -- the
portion of the total rate based on the price of gas -- to 2.58
dlrs per mln Btu from 2.69 dlrs per mln Btu.
    The company said the lower rate results from a reduction in
the average price the pipeline is paying for gas, adding this
reflects contract reformation agreemats with producers.
 Reuter

WEDGE Group Inc, a Houston investment
firm with a 5.5 pct stake in American Medical International
Inc, said it has had talks with Pesch and Co, which is seeking
control of the company.
WEDGE, which is owned by Issam Fares, a Lebanese citizen living
in Switzerland, also said it discussed the possibility of
joining with others in its own bid to seek control of AMI.
    WEDGE stressed that it has no current plans to seek control
of AMI, but refused to rule out a takeover try in the future.
    WEDGE said it has had discussions with AMI management,
Pesch, the closely held health care and investment concern
controlled by Chicago physician LeRoy Pesch, and other AMI
shareholders.
    It did not specify in its SEC filing which issues --
selling its AMI stake or joining with others in a takeover try
-- were discussed with which group. But it said the talks did
not produce any agreements or understandings.
    WEDGE said it believes that "some form of restructuring of
AMI and its business would be highly desirable and appropriate
at this time."
    WEDGE, which holds 4.8 mln shares of AMI common stock, said
it plans to hold further talks with company management, Pesch
and other shareholders.
    Pesch last week sweetened his bid for the company to 22
dlrs a share in cash and securties, or 1.91 billion dlrs based
on AMI's total outstanding, from an all-cash 20 dlr a share
bid, which the company rejected.
 Reuter

Qtly div four cts vs four cts prior
    Pay March 27
 Reuter

Banner Industries Inc said 19.8 mln of
the outstanding 20 mln shares in Rexnord Inc were tendered
pursuant to its 26.25 dlr a share offer that closed at midnight
EST Feb 27.
    Together with the five mln Rexnard shares it already owns,
the company said it now holds a 97 pct stake in the company.
    It said the completion of the deal is subject to approval
by Rexnard holders and to other closing conditions. It expects
the deal to close in about 60 days.
 Reuter

Qtly div 36 cts vs 36 cts prior
 Reuter

Mobil Corp's Mobil Chemical Co's
subsidiary, the world's largest producer of disposable plastic
products, said it will enter the food packaging market.
    Mobil said it will begin making clear container food
packaging for supermarkets and institutions in March and will
sharply raise production in the fall to an annual rate of more
than 20 mln pounds of finished products.
    It said industry demand for the products is projected to
rise 15 pct annually over the next five years, and it is
prepared to boost production substantially with future plant
additions.
    Mobil's Chemical's Plastic Packaging Division, which will
make and sell the new product line, operates nine plants in the
U.S. and one in Canada.
    It also said the clear containers, seen in packaging for
cookies, candy and bakery trays, grocery sald bar items, and
other items, will be made from oriented polystyrene at the
company's Canandiagua, N.Y., plant.
 Reuter

Bank of America NT and SA's <BAC.N>
West German branch said it is negotiating the sale of Bankhaus
Centrale Credit AG, a small local West German bank it acquired
in 1965, and of its West German Visa credit card operation.
-- corrects year of loss in third paragraph in item which
originally ran February 27.
 Reuter

OSR Corp said it has agreed
to acquire the properties and assets of Telcom International
Group for 10.5 mln common shares, which would give former
Telcom owners an 84 pct interest in the combined company.
    Telcom is an international film and television distributor.
 The assets being acquired consist mostly of distribution
rights to films valued at over one mln dlrs, the company said.
    OSR said as part of the acquisition agreement is is
required to sell its 80 pct interest in Standard Knickerbocker
Ltd, which makes jeans in Canada.
    OSR said it expects to net about 150,000 dlrs on the sale
of Standard Knickerbocker.
    The company said both transactions are subject to approval
by shareholders at a meeting to be held in April or May, it
said.
 Reuter

Mercury Entertainment Corp said it
expects improved results in 1987.
    The company today reported a loss for the year ended
November 30 of 413,021 dlrs on revenues of 600,971 dlrs,
compared with a loss of 163,932 dlrs on revenues of 665,800
dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Cronus Industries Inc said it agreed to
sell its heat transfer equipment business, Southwestern
Engineering Co, for a slight premium over book value, plus a
release of Cronus from liability on approximately three mln
dlrs of subsidiary indebtedness.
    The company said the sale to a subsidiary of Senior
Engineering Group PLC, a British company, will take place this
month.
 Reuter

Qtly div 65 cts vs 65 cts prior
    Pay May Seven
    Record April Seven
 Reuter

Jacobson Stores Inc said its
board voted a three-for-two stock split, payble March 30,
record March 13.
    In other action, Jacobson's directors approved an increase
in its quarterly dividend to 11 cts on a post split basis
payable April 14, record March 30.
    The new dividend rate represents a 32 pct increase over the
12-1/2 cts paid quarterly on a pre-split basis.
 Reuter

AW Computer Systems Inc said
it signed an 850,000 dlr agreement with TEC America Inc <TCK>
to develop and supply intelligent cash register controllers.
    Under terms of the agreement, AW Computer said it will
design and manufacture intelligent controllers for resale by
TEC worldwide.
    The company said the controller will allow TEC's new FT-70
point-of-sale terminal system to communicate with IBM PC/AT
personal computers and compatibles.
    The controller will be ready for shipment by October, the
 Reuter

Oper shr 18 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper net 1,048,000 vs 1,870,000
    Revs 72.2 mln vs 73.5 mln
    Avg shrs 5,910,000 vs 3,680,000
    Year
    Oper shr 82 cts vs 72 cts
    Oper net 4,307,000 vs 2,637,000
    Revs 295.3 mln vs 287.5 mln
    Avg shrs 5,235,000 vs 3,680,000
    NOTE: Results exclude one-time gains of 223,000 or four cts
and 564,000 or 11 cts for 1986 qtr and year vs gains of
6,359,000 or 1.73 dlrs and 7,318,000 or 1.99 dlrs for prior
periods.
   
 Reuter

Hoechst AG of West Germany said
it has completed the acquisition of Celanese Corp.
    Hoechst acquired a majority of Celanese shares in a recent
tender offer at 245 dlrs per common share.
 Reuter

Americus Trust for American Home
Products Shares said it extended its deadline for accepting
tendered shares until November 26, an extension of nine months.
    The trust, which will accept up to 7.5 mln shares of
American Home Products <AHP>, said it has already received
tenders for about four mln shares.
    The trust is managed by Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> and
was formed November 26, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 59 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 3,244,000 vs 2,584,000
    Revs 169.3 mln vs 156.0 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 1.78 dlrs vs 1.32 dlrs
    Net 9,733,000 vs 7,164,000
    Revs 585.6 mln vs 541.0
 Reuter

Benetton Group Spa <BTOM.MI> said
it reached agreement with textiles concern GFT-Gruppo
Finanziario Tessile Spa for a joint venture in the financial
services sector.
   A Benetton spokeswoman said details of the accord would be
outlined at a news conference on Thursday in Milan. The Italian
clothing group has targeted financial services as a sector in
which to expand its activities.
   In January, Benetton acquired a large minority stake in the
Italian unit of the U.K. Financial services group Prudential
Corp PLC [PRUL.L].
 Reuter

Talks at the extended special meeting of
the International Coffee Organization (ICO) on the
reintroduction of export quotas continued, but chances of
success were still almost impossible to gauge, delegates said.
    Producer delegates were meeting to examine a Colombian
proposal to resume historical quotas from April 1 to September,
with a promise to define specific new criteria by which a new
quota system would be calculated in September for the new crop
year, they said.
    Opinions among delegates over the potential for reaching a
quota agreement varied widely.
    Some consumers said the mood of the meeting seemed slightly
more optimistic. But Brazil's unwillingness to concede any of
its traditional 30.55 pct of its export market share looks
likely to preclude any accord, other delegates said.
    No fresh proposals other than the Colombian initiative had
been tabled formally today, delegates said.
    A full council meeting was set for 1900 hours for a
progress report, delegates said.
 Reuter

The staff of the federal Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to recommend that the
Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) be charged with
securities fraud in connection with its July 1983 default on
2.25 billion dlrs of bonds, a WPPSS official told Reuters.
    WPPSS attorney Ron English said the system was advised by
SEC staff attorneys that the five SEC commissioners would be
asked to charge WPPSS in connection with its official
statements about its plans to build its No. 3 and No. 4 nuclear
power plants in the Pacific Northwest at the time it was
selling the bonds.
    English, in a telephone interview, said the SEC staff
planned to allege that WPPSS had overstated the demand for
power in the region and had understated the cost of the plants,
which were to built with the bonds' proceeds.
    English denied the allegations. He said WPPSS had made no
public forecasts of power demand in connection with the bond
sale and had never understated the cost of the plants.
    "We at all times told the public everything we knew about
the costs," he said.
    English said WPPSS had no indication when the SEC might
meet on the staff's recommendations.
    The SEC, as a matter of policy, never comments on its
enforcement activities.
    The SEC's WPPSS investigation began in late 1983 and the
agency's slow pace on the probe has been publicly criticized on
several occasions since then by Rep. John Dingell, the Michigan
Democrat who chairs the House panel responsible for the SEC's
budget and operations.
    Of the five nuclear plants originally envisioned by WPPSS,
one has been completed, two remain under construction, and two
others--those for which the defaulted bonds were sold-- have
been terminated.
 Reuter

Delta Air Lines Inc said it began
service from Atlanta to Tokyo today.
    The carrier will fly single-plane through service departing
daily from Atlanta and Tokyo five days a week, it said.
 Reuter

Versatile Corp's shipbuilding subsidiary
has a letter of intent to build a 320 mln dlr polar icebreaker
for the Canadian coast guard, Transport Minister John Crosbie
said.
    In a Vancouver address, Crosbie said Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc was the low bidder to build the Arctic Class 8
icebreaker, but the company must meet certain financial and
engineering conditions before the contract is awarded.
    The government also announced it will provide up to 13 mln
dlrs in loan insurance to help Versatile prepare for the
construction of the vessel.
said before the contract can be awarded Versatile "will be
required to offer assurances that the shipyard is technically
and financially capable of performing the work."
    Crosibie said Versatile's bid was 100 mln dlrs lower than
competing bidders and will generate 1,000 person years of
direct employment.
    Work on the vessel, which Crosbie said would be the most
powerful icebreaker in the world, would begin next year and
completed in 1992.
    The government announced plans to build the icebreaker last
year following the controversial passage of the U.S. Coast
Guard's vessel, the Polar Sea, through the disputed Northwest
Passage. The U.S. government did not seek permission for the
journey, claiming the area was an international water way.
    The government said the icebreaker was needed to back up
the country's claim of sovereignty in the Arctic.
 Reuter

Chrysler Financial Corp, a unit of
Chrysler Corp, is raising 250 mln dlrs through an offering of
notes due 1992 with a 7-5/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said
lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    That is 93.5 basis points above the yield of comparable
Treasury securities. Non-callable for life, the issue is rated
Baa-1 by Moody's and BBB by Standard and Poor's. Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets co-managed the deal.
    On February 10, Chrysler Financial sold 200 mln dlrs of
same-rated seven-year notes priced to yield 8.13 pct, or 100
basis points over Treasuries.
 Reuter

Privately-held Pantry Inc, which
operates 477 convenience stores in five Southeastern states,
said it has engaged Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> to explore
a possbile sale of the company.
    It said it expects to start talks with prospective
acquirers shortly. The company said it has been approached by a
number of parties in recent months.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Dec 31
    Shr profit three cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 129,000 vs loss 85,000
    Revs 4,001,000 vs 4,347,000
    Avg shrs 3,994,347 vs 3,769,347
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 75 cts vs profit 39 cts
    Net loss 2,900,000 vs profit 1,753,000
    Revs 7,472,000 vs 15.3 mln
    Avg shrs 3,845,438 vs 4,470,275
    NOTE: net 1986 includes tax gain carryforward from
discontinued operations of Master's Merchandise Group in year
prior.
 Reuter

First Financial Management Corp said it
revised the agreement under which it provides data processing
services to First Union Corp of Georgia <FUNC>.
    The company said the revised agreement establishes specific
minimum payments to be made by First Union and shortens the
duration of the original pact by 16 months, with the new
agreement expiring on December 31, 1989.
    Under terms of the amended contract, First Financial said
it received 19.8 mln dlrs in cash and is guaranteed an
additional 50.3 mln dlrs in service revenues.
    The company said the agreement calls for minimum payments
of 16.5 mln dlrs for the balance of 1987, 18 mln dlrs in 1988
and 15.8 mln dlrs in 1989.
 Reuter

Renouf Corp of New Zealand said it
has decided to proceed with its offer for all outstanding units
of Benequity Holdings at 31 dlrs per unit.
    The company had been required to redice by March Two
whether to proceed with the offer or terminate it, based on its
ability to obtain financing and on its review of Benequity
operations.  The offer is to expire March 13.
 Reuter

Integrated Generics Inc said it
is in the midst of several developments which could be
favorable for the company but can make no further comments at
the present time.
    The company said it released this brief statement in
response to the American Stock Exchange's inquiry on the
activity of the company's common stock, which was up 5/8 to
five in midafternoon trading.
 Reuter

Cuba has told international sugar
operators who have bought its sugar for shipment in March that
these contracts will take second place to Cuba's direct
shipments to its export markets, dealers here said.
    Some traders who have received telexes from Cuba said the
language of the message was not totally clear and some believed
shipments would be honoured if the traders declare the Soviet
Union as the destination of their contracts.
    The telexes have fueled rising world prices in the last
week and reflect a poor Cuban crop, worry over Brazil's export
availability, and increasing Soviet demand, analysts said.
    Traders said signs of Cuba's shortage of immediately
available raw sugar to supply its traditional martkets was
probably the factor behind Syria calling a snap buying tender
last month.
    Normally Syria calls white sugar buying tenders for forward
delivery, and last month's spot requirement resulted in the
sale of several cargoes.
    Cuba in its telex told operators they would not receive
March shipments as Cuba has to meet its contracts to export
markets, traders said.
 Reuter

B.F. Goodrich Co said it will phase
out the production of aircraft tires, missile and marine
products and molded rubber products in Akron, Ohio, by the end
of 1987, laying off about 790 salaried, production, maintenance
and support services employees.
    The company said layoffs will start within the next few
weeks.
    Goodrich said it will continue to make chemicals and
adhesives in Akron, employing about 356.  Another 5000 salaried
employees in Akron work for Goodrich.
    The company said it has not been able to operate the
businesses being discontinued in Akron profitably enough to
justify the large investment that it has in them.
    Goodrich said it will continue to make aircraft tires at
Norwood, N.C., and sonar domes at Jacksonville, Fla., and will
relocate its molded rubber products business to a site not yet
chosen.  It said it will stop making insulators for missiles.
    Goodrich said it is prepared to discuss with officials of
the United Rubber Workers Union severance benefits for affected
employees and issues related to the continued operation in
Akron of the chemical and adhesives businesses and to the
phaseout of the Akron aircraft tire, missile and marine and
molded rubber products manufacturing.
    A company spokesman said it does not expect any adverse
impact on earnings from the move.
 Reuter

Shr 73 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 1,101,000 vs 901,000
    Sales 32.9 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Note: Results include operations of BMD of New England Inc,
acquired Sept. 1, 1986.
 Reuter

<Massachusetts Financial Services Co>
said it has set the final income and capital gain distributions
for <Trust for Thrift Institutions High Yield Series> of 1.069
dlrs and 7.645 dlrs, respectively, payable today.
 Reuter

U.S. tin disposals should have little
effect on an agreement reached last weekend by tin producing
countries to limit group exports to 96,000 tonnes in the year
started March 1, a government official said.
    The agreement by the seven-member Association of Tin
Producing Countries (ATPC) aimed to cut the world surplus and
boost prices. Following the accord, ATPC Chairman Subroto
appealed to the United States to restrict its tin releases from
its strategic stockpile.
    "We don't think that (the U.S. government) has a large
influence in the (tin) market at this stage of the game," said
Thomas O'Donnell, Director of International Commodities at the
State Department. Last year the United States released about
4,900 tonnes of tin to two ferroalloy firms.
 Reuter

Mthly div 7.1 cts vs 7.1 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Mthly div 6.6 cts vs 6.6 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin Minneosta Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Mthly div 6.9 cts vs 6.9 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin Michigan Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Mthly div 6.5 cts vs 6.8 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin Massachusetts Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS  SOYBEANS 20,349 WHEAT 14,070 CORN 21,989

Mthly div 6.5 cts vs 6.5 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin California Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Diagnostic Products Corp president and
chief executive officer Sigi Ziering said he expects to
maintain the same compound average annal net income growth in
1987 as the company has for the past five years.
    "We expect the same performance in net income over the next
five years as we have had in the past," Ziering said.
    Over the past five years Ziering said the company has had
average compound net income growth of 32 pct annually with a 27
pct per year growth in earnings per share. For 1986 the company
had net income of 6.3 mln dlrs, or 1.07 dlrs per share, vs 3.9
mln dlrs, or 73 cts per share in 1985.
    Diagnostic manufactures medical immunological diagnostic
test kits.
    Ziering said he expects the earnings growth to result from
positive effect of the weaker dollar on the company's exports
sales as well as accelerated market penetration. Ziering said
he expected the Food and Drug Administration to approve three
more of its drug abuse test kits by the end of the year, which,
depending on approval, should also help earnings growth.
    Ziering said as a result of the new tax laws he expected
the company's taxes to decrease by five pct to 31 pct of net
income in 1987.
   
 Reuter

Currency fluctuations may reassert their
influence on the bullion market in the near future, bullion
bankers Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd said in a market report.
    But the firm said silver may lag behind gold in any
reactions to movements on foreign exchanges.
    "OPEC's failure to address the recent decline in oil prices
remains a worrying factor however, and on balance it appears
that the market should be approached cautiously," Montagu said.
    The bank said the US economy has shown no noticeable
long-term improvement and that both Latin American debt and the
Iranian arms affair could undermine confidence in the dollar.
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 3,418,000 vs 3,129,000
    Revs 24.7 mln vs 26.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net profit 156,726 vs loss 776,000
    Revs 1,157,883 vs 890,138
 Reuter

    NOTE: Franklin Puerto Rico Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Mthly div 6.1 cts vs 6.1 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin Ohio Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

    NOTE: Franklin High-Yield Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Convergent Technologies Inc
said it has reached an agreement in principle to buy Oakleaf
Corp, which supplies finance, insurance and leasing computers
to auto dealers.
    The transaction will involve an exchange of Oakleaf stock
for cash and debt and is subject to a definitive agreement, the
companys said. No other terms were disclosed.
    Oakleaf had 1986 sales of about 26 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The New York Mercantile Exchange set
April one for the debut of a new procedure in the energy
complex that will increase the use of energy futures worldwide.
     On April one, NYMEX will allow oil traders that do not
hold a futures position to initiate, after the exchange closes,
a transaction that can subsequently be hedged in the futures
market, according to an exchange spokeswoman.
    "This will change the way oil is transacted in the real
world," said said Thomas McKiernan, McKiernan and Co chairman.
    Foreign traders will be able to hedge trades against NYMEX
prices before the exchange opens and negotiate prices at a
differential to NYMEX prices, McKiernan explained.
     The expanded program "will serve the industry because the
oil market does not close when NYMEX does," said Frank Capozza,
secretary of Century Resources Inc.
     The rule change, which has already taken effect for
platinum futures on NYMEX, is expected to increase the open
interest and liquidity in U.S. energy futures, according to
traders and analysts.
    Currently, at least one trader in this transaction, called
an exchange for physical or EFP, must hold a futures position
before entering into the transaction.
    Under the new arrangement, neither party has to hold a
futures position before entering into an EFP and one or both
parties can offset their cash transaction with a futures
contract the next day, according to exchange officials.
    When NYMEX announced its proposed rule change in December,
NYMEX President Rosemary McFadden, said, "Expansion of the EFP
provision will add to globalization of the energy markets by
providing for, in effect, 24-hour trading."
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the rule
change in February, according to a CFTC spokeswoman.
 Reuter

CCR Video Corp said it is now
current in its filing requirements with both the Securities and
Exchange Commission and NASDAQ, and meets the trading system's
net worth requirements.
    The company reported a first quarter, ended November 30,
profit of 156,726 dlrs compared to a year earlier loss of
776,000 dlrs.
    CCR also said its previously reported refinanceing in
December resulted in an extraordinary gain of 456,004 dlrs,
leaving the company with a net worth of 633,581 dlrs at the end
of December.
    At the end of November, a spokesman noted, CCR did not meet
NASDAQ's requirement of a net worth of 100,000 dlrs and has
been trading on an exception to those rules.
 Reuter

Rospatch Corp said it will
have a news release later in response to today's acquisition
bid by Diagnostic Retrieval Systems Inc for 22 dlrs a share.
    Rospatch earlier requested its stock be halted in over the
counter trading, last trade 24-1/8.
    Diagnostic said its bid was for a total 53 mln dlrs through
a cash tender offer for all, but not less than 51 pct of
Rosptach outstanding common.
    For its fourth-quarter ended December 31, 1986, Rospatch
reported net loss 2,649,000 or 1.10 dlrs a share compared a
loss of 627,500 or 35 cts profit for the 1985 period.
    In December the Brookehill Group in New York said it had
9.7 pct stake. J.A. Parini, Rospatch chief executive, responded
on January eight by saying the investment was a vote in
confidence in the company.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 12-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 cts
 Reuter

Argentine crude oil production was
down 10.8 pct in January 1987 to 12.32 mln barrels, from 13.81
mln barrels in January 1986, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales
said.
    January 1987 natural gas output totalled 1.15 billion cubic
metrers, 3.6 pct higher than 1.11 billion cubic metres produced
in January 1986, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales added.
 Reuter

ROSPATCH CORP REJECTS OFFER FROM DIAGNOSTIC RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS INC

U.S. drilling activity continued to slow
last week as the number of active rotary rigs fell by 38 to a
total of 801, against 1,248 working rigs one year ago, Hughes
Tool Co said.
    Most of the decrease came among rigs used for onshore
drilling, which dropped to a total of 707 from last week's 744.
A total of 77 rigs were active offshore and 17 in inland waters
during the week, Hughes Tool said.
    Among individual states, Texas lost 24 working rigs,
Michigan dropped by six, and California, New mexico and Kansas
were each down by one. Colorado reported a gain of eight rigs
and Louisiana was up by four.
    In Canada, the rig count was up 14 to 164, against 422 one
year ago.
 Reuter

Utilization of offshore mobile rigs in
the Gulf of Mexico declined by 0.7 pct during the past week, to
35.6 pct, reflecting a decrease of two working rigs, Offshore
Data Services said.
    The total number of working rigs fell to 83 for the week,
compared to 85 last week and 134 rigs one year ago.
    Offshore Data Services said the worldwide utilization rate
rose 0.1 pct to 54.2 pct with a total of 333 rigs without work.
The number of rigs contracted worldwide was 394.
    In the European-Mediterranean area, rig utilization also
rose by a full percentage point to 41.3 pct with 64 of 155 rigs
contracted.
 Reuter

North American Group Ltd's North
American Acquisition Corp said it has a definitive agreement to
buy 100 pct of Pioneer Business Group Inc of Atlanta.
    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Closing of the
acquisition is scheduled for April.
    North American Acquisition said the agreement is subject to
due diligence and a satisfactory review of Pioneer's operation.
Pioneer makes business forms.
 Reuter

A bidding war for Viacom International
Inc, one of the largest U.S. entertainment companies, pitted a
management group and other investors against National
Amusements Inc, a closely held theater operator.
    Both sides raised their bids over the weekend. A source
close to the management side insisted that timing was on his
side. He said if outside directors approve the management
proposal, a merger plan could be put to a vote of shareholders
with proxy material going out late this week. "It would take 20
days from the day we mail," said the source.
    The source predicted National Amusements, controlled by
investor Sumner Redstone, would need "half a year" to complete
a tender offer because of the regulatory approvals that must
accompany any change in control of Viacom's broadcast licenses
and cable television franchises.
    Redstone was not available for comment.
    Some of Wall Street's arbitrage players said it was a rare
situation that could only be enjoyed - a true bidding war. One
said Redstone could begin a tender offer whenever he wanted and
if enough people were convinced his proposal was superior to
the Viacom management plan, he would have a chance to win.
    The independent directors of Viacom were called into a
meeting today. Word on a decision was expected early tomorrow.
    Viacom shares climbed 2-1/2 to 50-3/8 by midafternoon. One
major Wall Street firm issued a sell recommendation. "We think
we're at the end now, in terms of bidding," said the firm's
arbitrageur, who spoke on condition he not be identified.
    Both Redstone's proposal and the management proposal would
create a restructured company heavily leveraged with debt. The
management plan would result in a balance sheet with about 2.5
billion dlrs in debt and nearly 500 mln dlrs in preferred
stock, convertible into 45 pct of the common stock.
    Redstone's newest proposal offers holders 42 dlrs in cash,
a fraction of a share of exchangeable preferred stock with a
value of 7.50 dlrs, and one-fifth of a share of common stock
stock of Arsenal Holdings, representing 20 pct of the equity
interest in the restructured Viacom. One arbitrageur calculated
the equity in the Redstone plan was worth 2.50 dlrs making the
total package worth 52 dlrs per share.
    Management offered 38.50 dlrs in cash, exchangeable
preferred stock worth 8.50 dlrs and a fractional share of
convertible preferred. The arbitrageur said the equity portion
was worth about 4.00 dlrs for a total of 51 dlrs.
    Redstone's newest plan raised the amount of interest he
would pay on the cash portion of his offer for every day beyond
April 30 that a merger with Arsenal is not consummated. The
plan calls for intest to be paid at an annual rate of nine pct
during May and 12 pct thereafter. Previously Redstone offered
eight pct interest.
    Other arbitrageurs said both Redstone and the management
group, led by president and chief executive Terrence Elkes,
were offering high prices. "Redstone really wants to own the
company," one said. Another said management seemed to have the
edge on the timing issue.
    Redstone's company owns 19.6 pct ov Viacom's 35 mln shares.
    A Wall Street analyst said it was hard to determine what
the equity in the newly leveraged company would be worth. He
noted as an example that new stock in FMC Corp <FMC>, which
adopted a highly leveraged structure last year, inititally
traded at 12.50 dlrs per share, dipped to nine dlrs, and is now
just over 30 dlrs.
    Last week, Viacom reported fourth quarter earnings fell two
two cts per share from 23 cts. The company said interest costs
from several acquisitions affected results.
    Shares of Warner Communications Inc <WCI> rose 7/8 to
31-1/8. Analysts noted Warner owns warrants to purchase 3.25
mln Viacom shares at 35 dlrs and another 1.25 mln shares at
37.50 dlrs.
    Chris Craft Industries <CCN>, which owns a stake in Warner,
rose 1-1/4 to 22-3/4.
    Viacom was created in 1970 and spun off from CBS Inc <CBS>.
The company has 940,000 cable television subscribers, operates
nine satellite television services and owns television and
radio stations. It is one of the largest distributors of films
and other programs for television.
 Reuter

Oper shr five cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 151,000 vs 867,000
    Revs 12.7 mln vs 14.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 87 cts vs 52 cts
    Oper net 2,650,000 vs 1,565,000
    Revs 54.7 mln vs 49.1 mln
    Note: oper data does not include 4th qtr 1986 extraordinary
credit of 14,000 dlrs or 4th qtr 1985 extraordinary loss of
139,000 dlrs, or five cts per shr. For year, does not include
extraordinary credit of 92,000 dlrs, or three cts per shr, in
1986 and 161,000 dlrs, or five cts per shr, in 1985.
 Reuter

Canada will offer a 1.2 billion dlr,
four-part bond issue tomorrow, which will be dated March 15 and
delivered March 16, the finance department said.
    The issue will consist of four maturities:
    - 8 pct bonds due July 1, 1990,
    - 8-1/4 pct bonds due March 1, 1994,
    - 8-1/4 pct bonds due March 1, 1997,
    - 8-1/2 pct bonds due June 1, 2011.
    The 2011 maturity will be issued to a maximum of 374 mln
dlrs. The Bank of Canada will buy 100 mln dlrs of the new
issue, including 10 mln dlrs of the 2011 maturity.
 Reuter

U.S. electronic companies'
sales last year totalled 226.5 billion dlrs, slightly below the
228.7 billion dlrs reported in 1985, the American Electronic
Association said.
    Despite the decline, the fourth-quarter total of 61.1
billion dlrs matched the industry record for the same period of
1984, the AEA said.
    AEA senior vice president Ralph Thomson said that, although
the 1986 sales trend was mostly positive with an upturn at the
end of the year, the industry is waiting early 1987 figures
before trying to forecast the future.
    "Many of our companies, including the semiconductor sector,
are still being impacted by the enormous and growing trade
deficit with Japan," he said.
    Fourth-quarter orders totalled 60 billion dlrs for a 3.1
pct increase over the same quarter of 1985. December sales were
22.2 billion dlrs, up 2.8 pct from the same month in 1985.
    The association represents more than 2,800 firms that
produce electronic goods and services.
 Reuter

Canada's decision to raise the issue
of a free trade pact with the U.S. was a sign of what many see
as a new spirit of Canadian self-confidence, a public policy
study group said 
    "It suggests the Canada of the immediate post-war period,
when it was a major player in the process of building a postwar
world," the Washington-based Atlantic Council said.
    U.S. and Canadian negotiators opened talks last summer
aimed at dismantling trade barriers between the two countries,
the world's biggest trading partners with crossborder shipments
of about 150 billion dlrs annually.
    The council's study said the trade talks, with a deadline
of October for an agreement, are the biggest issue in
U.S.-Canadian relations.
   The study said liberalized trade between the two countries
would improve the competitiveness of their economies in world
markets and lessen trade irritants which now mar their ties.
    The council said "in the past most Canadians have shied away
from the notion of a free-trade arrangement, fearing to be
overwhelmed economically and politically by a closer
association with a country 10 times their size in population."
    But at the same time, it added, Canadians realized their
domestic market was too small to permit the mass production and
sales needed to raise productivity to the level demanded by an
increasingly competitive world.
    The council said that in the talks, Canada is chiefly
interested in minimizing the imposing of U.S. duties against 
allegedly subsidized exports.
    A recent example was the 15 per cent duty the U.S. imposed
on Canadian lumber exports on grounds the shipments were being
subsidized.
    The council said the chief U.S. concerns included ending
curbs against U.S. banking, insurance, telecommunications, and
the so-called "cultural industries" - publishing, broadcasting
and films.
    It said other major U.S.-Canadian issues were defense
cooperation, "acid rain" and the U.S. rejection of a Canadian
assertion of sovereignty over waters of the Northwest Passage.
 Reuter

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, a
federal agency, said it took action to protect pensions of
employees and retirees of Kaiser Steel Corp, which filed for
bankruptcy reorganization last month.
    The agency said it entered into an agreement to terminate
the Kaiser plan, and was appointed its trustee.
    It said that Kaiser retirees will receive their March
pension checks without interruption and thereafter at levels
guaranteed by law.
 REUTER

Daiwa Securities Co Ltd said it will
provide Financial News Network <FNNI> with an exclusive daily
market update from Tokyo.
    The report can be seen on FNN's World Business Update, the
    Daiwa Securities said the new program describes major
business developments around the world, using videotaped news
and feature stories as well as market and commodities
information.
    Viewers will be able to get closing prices in Tokyo prior
to opening trading in New York due to the time difference.
 Reuter

UAL Inc's United Airlines was accused in
a congressional hearing today of locking blacks out of key
jobs, but the company said it had made tremendous progress in
minority hiring.
    The issue was aired during a hearing of a House Government
Operations subcommittee whose chairman, Rep. Cardiss Collins,
called the treatment of minorities by the country's largest
airline "pathetic."
    "It strikes me odd," said the Illinois Democrat, "that the
number of white women pilots is more than double that of black
pilots, and that white women are more fairly represented in
upper management."
    United has been under a court order since 1976 to increase
its minority employment.
    David Pringle, United's senior vice president for human
resources, said "We take a very aggressive approach to minority
hiring and have made tremendous progress ... we will continue
to pursue even wider goals."
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 21 cts
    Pay May 25
    Record May eight
 Reuter

Chemical Bank, the main subsidiary of
Chemical New York Corp, is closing its representative office in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a spokeswoman said in response to
an enquiry.
    She said the decision to close the office was made as a
result of changes in Chemical's regional customer base and to
improve efficiency by centralizing the bank's Gulf activities
in Bahrain.
    The Bahrain office will assume the local contact role for
all of Chemical's corporate and institutional customers now
served by the Dubai office, the spokeswoman added.
   
 Reuter

<Wavehill International Ventures Inc>
said it has agreed to acquire Personal Computer Rental Corp of
Coral Gables, Fla., in a transaction in which shareholders of
Personal Computer will receive shares respresenting about a 25
pct interest in the combined company.
    The company said it will have about two mln shares
outstanding on a fully-diluted basis after the transaction. It
said after the acquisition it will infuse Perconal computer
with cash for expansion.  It said Personal Computer now has 26
franchised locations and plans to add over 30 in 1987, seeking
eventually to expand into 420 markets in the U.S. and abroad.
 Reuter

Security Pacific Corp said it
completed its planned merger with Diablo Bank following the
approval of the comptroller of the currency.
    Security Pacific announced its intention to merge with
Diablo Bank, headquartered in Danville, Calif., in September
1986 as part of its plan to expand its retail network in
Northern California.
    Diablo has a bank offices in Danville, San Ramon and Alamo,
Calif., Security Pacific also said.
 Reuter

Pall Corp said sales in the second
quarter rose about 17 pct to 94 mln dlrs from 80 mln dlrs a
year ago, bringing sales for the six months to 174.6 mln dlrs,
up 16 pct from 150.3 mln dlrs.
    Orders in the quarter ended Jan 31 rose about 15 pct to
101.1 mln dlrs and 13 pct to 189.6 mln dlrs in the six months.
 Reuter

J.P. Industries Inc said it has
formed two operating groups to serve major markets in its
transportation components business -- an Engine Products Group
to serve original equipment manufacturers and an Automotive
Aftermarket Group to serve repair market customers.
    The company said senior vice president Gareth L. Reed has
been appointed president and general manager of the Engine
Products Group. Gerald W. McGrath was appointed vice president
and general manager of the Automotive Aftermarket Group. He was
formerly vice president of sales with the Engine Parts Division
of Clevite Industries Inc, recently acquired by J.P. Industries.
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs five cts
    Net 188,000 vs 130,000
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 10.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,029,930 vs 2,764,544
    12 mths
    Shr 81 cts vs 1.45 dlrs
    Net 2,463,000 vs 3,718,000
    Revs 52.4 mln vs 47.5 mln
    Avg shrs 3,029,930 vs 2,566,680
    NOTE: net for 1985 includes 500,000, or 20 cts per share,
for proceeds of a life insurance policy.
    includes tax benefit for prior qtr of approximately 150,000
of which 140,000 relates to a lower effective tax rate based on
operating results for the year as a whole.
 Reuter

Lodgistix Inc said its board
authorized a program for the company to purchase up to 100,000
of its shares from time to time.
    The company said the shares will be used for general
purposes, including incentive programs.
 Reuter

Imperial Chemical Industries PLC, the
largest chemical company in the United Kingdom, will expand its
specialty chemicals and drug businesses this year, and better
its 1986 results, said chairman-elect Denys Henderson.
    "We expect to shift our company toward higher value-added
businesses and continue to broaden our base," Henderson told
reporters at an informal meeting here.
    ICI today announced the formation of a new U.S.
drug company, ICI Pharma, which, with its Stuart
Pharmaceuticals unit, it said will double its current
pharmaceutical sales to 1.1 billion dlrs by 1990.
    Henderson said, "Our pharmaceutical business gets lost in
the way that Glaxo's (Glaxo Holdings PLC) does not."
    ICI's pharmaceutical division is the second largest drug
maker behind Glaxo in the U.K. Last year U.S. drug sales were
about 40 pct of its worldwide drug sales of 1.5 billion dlrs,
which in turn brought in 27 pct of its total profits.
    He estimated that by 1990, ICI's pharmaceutical division
would account for about 30 pct of total company profits.
    "The drug division far and away brings in the highest rate
of return," said A.W. Clements, finance director of ICI, who
was also at the meeting.
    Henderson said the new U.S. drug concern would basically
act as a second sales force to double the exposure of its drugs
to doctors. ICI will hire 145 new salespeople by October one.
    Henderson said the major new products in the company's
pipeline, expected to each bring in sales of over 200 mln dlrs
annually, were Statil, a treatment for diabetic complications,
Zoladex, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer, and Carwin,
a treatment for mild to moderate congestive heart failure.
    Henderson said U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval
to market Statil and Zoladex, both under joint licensing
agreements with Merck and Co Inc <MRK>, is not expected until
about 1989. ICI expects to file for permission to market Carwin
in the U.S. later this year.
    Henderson said the company's 1987 results would top 1986
income of 888 mln dlrs or 5.45 dlrs per ADR on sales of 15
billion dlrs, but he declined to specify by how much.
    Henderson said 1987's results would be boosted by Glidden
Paints, which ICI bought last November for 580 mln dlrs from a
unit of Hanson Industries Inc.
    Henderson also said that ICI has about nine billion dlrs
available for acquisitions. Last year the company made 40
acquisitions, the largest being Glidden. He said that more
acquisitions may be made this year but he ruled out an
acquisition of a pharmaceutical concern as "too expensive."
    Henderson said that in his new role of chairman, effective
April one when he takes over from Sir John Harvey-Jones who
will retire, the biggest challenge ahead lay in continuing the
earnings momentum ICI has established over the past few years
after restructuring and selling off unprofitable businesses.
   
 Reuter

Oper shr profit six cts vs loss 20 cts
    Oper net profit 734,000 vs loss 2,312,000
    Revs 16.8 mln vs 13.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 30 cts vs profit three cts
    Oper net profit 3,342,0000 vs profit 318,000
    Revs 67.5 mln vs 52.6 mln
    NOTE: Excludes loss of 41,000 dlrs or nil vs gain 7,000
dlrs or nil in qtr and gain 247,000 dlrs or two cts vs gain
88,000 dlrs or one ct in year from net operating loss
carryforwards.
 Reuter

Albertson's Inc said its board has
adopted a stockholder rights plan intended to protect them in
the event of any proposed takeover of the company.
    Under the plan, stockholders will receive a dividend
distribution of one right for each share of common stock held
on March 23.
    The rights are exercisable ten days after a person or group
acquires 20 pct or more of Alberston's common stock or
announces a tender offer for 30 pct or more of the stock.
    Each right will entitle the shareholder to buy one newly
issued share of Alberston's common stock for 150.00 dlrs.
 Reuter

Rospatch Corp said it
rejected a proposal by Diagnostic Retrieval Systems Inc to
acquire its stock at 22 dlrs a share.
    Rospatch's board believes that the long term interests of
its shareholders will be best served by continuing as an
independent public company at this time, the company said in
response to an unsolicited offer from Diagnostic Retrieval.
    Rospatch said Diagnostic's offer of February 27 is a
variation of a previous offer in January, the nature of which
was not disclosed.
    Rospatch said it advised Diagnostic Retrieval that "it
would be contrary to the best interests of the corporation
to engage in any discussions concerning a business combination
with Diagnostic Retrieval."
 Reuter

Shr profit six cts vs loss 4.51 dlrs
    Net profit 815,167 vs loss 12,955,562
    Revs 7,981,022 vs 2,954,488
    Year
    Shr profit 16 cts vs loss 7.22 dlrs
    Net profit 2,446,100 vs loss 19,175,931
    Revs 23.6 mln vs 14.6 mln
 Reuter

International Minerals and
Chemical Corp said it completed its acquisition of Johnson and
Johnson Co's Pitman-Moore unit, a producer of animal health
products.
    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. International
Minerals and Chemical said annual sales of the unit are about
45 mln dlrs.
    Pitman-Moore makes health products for pets and for farm
and feedstock animals.
 Reuter

JWT Group Inc has not been approached
by former Ted Bates Worldwide Chairman Robert Jacoby about the
possibility of a syndicate buying a 35 pct stake in JWT Group
on a friendly basis, a company spokesman said.
    He said JWT would have no comment on an Advertising Age
report that Jacoby is considering heading up a venture capital
syndicate to purchase a 35 pct stake in JWT group.
    Jacoby was not immediately available for comment on the
report. Ted Bates is now owned by <Saatchi and Saatchi>, the
world's largest advertising agency.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers said it is
willing to enter renewed negotiations to end the impasse
between American Motors Corp and two UAW locals in Wisconsin.
    American Motors earlier said it broke off talks with the
UAW on a new labor contract for its plant at Kenosha, Wis. The
company's move came after its latest contract offer was
rejected by union negotiators.
    UAW vice president Marc Stepp said he "strongly recommends"
new meetings be scheduled "at the earliest possible time."
Stepp heads the UAW's American Motors department.
 Reuter

Banc One Corp said the First
National Bank of Fenton has become Bank One, Fenton, bringing
the number of its affiliates to three in Michigan.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 1,343,000 vs loss 49,000
    Revs 6,778,000 vs 1,976,000
    Year
    Shr loss 67 cts vs loss ten cts
    Net loss 4,693,000 vs loss 672,000
    Revs 14.0 mln vs 7,034,000
    Note: 1986 loss included one-time loss of 3,624,000 dlrs on
write-off of certain silver, oil and gas interests.
 Reuter

Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro
flatly rejected a U.K. Suggestion that his country seek
International Monetary Fund help in order to facilitate debt
negotiations with commercial creditor banks.
    Talking to reporters, Funaro said this attitude would not
help resolve the crisis started when Brazil suspended
indefenitely interest payments on 68 billion dlrs in external
debt on February 20.
    Funaro was in Britain on the first leg of a tour of
European capitals to explain the motives of the Brazilian debt
moratorium and to seek support for intiatives to improve
capital flows between developed countries and third world
debtor nations.
   Talking before his departure for Paris, he said there could
be no question of Brazil adopting another IMF austerity plan
after a similar package four years ago "put Brazil in a very big
recession."
    "We had an IMF program - it simply meant export more and
import less. We are not going to go the IMF," he said.
    Funaro was reactnng to a British statement following his
talks with Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, saying the
U.K. Government had no part to play in what it viewed as a
problem between Brazil and its commercial creditor banks.
    Britain also believed an IMF program would help along
negotiations between Brazil and the commercial banks, the
statement, which banking sources interpreted as an outright
rebuttal of all Brazilian demands, said.
    "That was not my impression of the meeting," Funaro said; "But
if the (British) answer is more or less like this, then
that means nothing is helping to find a solution."
    Funaro stressed that his talks in Washington last week and
in Europe this week were aimed at gaining official support to
unblock lending from official credit agencies, rather than to
deal with Brazils ties with commercial banks.
    "Since 1982, all official agencies have been closed to my
country," he said.
    He said Lawson had made no commitments to support Brazil's
efforts. Lawson would officially state his position when the
two meet again next month for the IMF and World Bank spring
meetings in Washington, Funaro said.
    Stressing there was no binding time schedule for Brazil's
debt problem to be resolved, Funaro said Brazil had not come to
Europe with specific proposals to overcome the present crisis.
    "We didn't come here to make a cash-flow programme," he said,
"We will have meetings at the IMF next month - let's see what
happens."
    Neither did Brazil plan a major overhaul of current
domestic economic policies, which Funaro said would likely lead
to a five pct economic growth this year.
    "Over the past five years we paid back 45 billion dlrs and
received 11 billion ... This is a very big effort," he said.
"What we have to offer is our cooperation."
 Reuter

Foote Mineral Co said it signed a
letter of intent with Shieldalloy Corp, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of <Metallurg Inc>, for the sale of its Cambridge,
Ohio, business.
    The company said the sale, which will be explained in
greater detail after the definitive agreement has been signed,
is part of Foote's previously-announced plan to sell the entire
company.

 Reuter

All major grain producing countries
must do their part to help reduce global surpluses and the
recent Australian farm policy proposals are flawed, two U.S.
wheat organizations said.
    The recent Australian proposals were a good starting point
for discussions, "but we do not want the Australians to feel
they are alone in developing an agenda for discussions" on world
grain trade, the president of the National Association of Wheat
Growers, NAWG, and the chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates said
in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng and U.S.
Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter.
    Future discussions on international wheat trade should
include three topics -- a commitment to privatization of
government-run export trading entities, a commitment to public
disclosure of sales and other terms if government entities are
involved, and a recognition that supply reductions by the U.S.
have kept world prices higher than they otherwise would be, the
two organizations said 
    While the Australian proposals are welcome the two
organizations said they are not in total agreement with their
assessments.
    Australia's proposals, which aim to reduce U.S. target
prices and "quarantine" U.S. wheat stocks, would continue to
place the burden of supply adjustment and reform on U.S.
farmers, they said.
      Other countries, including Australia, have benefitted
from the higher world prices that have resulted from past U.S.
acreage and crop reduction programs, the organizations said.
    "We will not continue to hurt ourselves economically -- and
subsidize foreign wheat production -- by unilaterally stocking
grain and changing programs which protect our growers," Jim
Miller, president of NAWG said.
    "We sincerely hope for some type of agreement among the
world's major grain producing nations to reduce stocks and
restore profitability to agriculture," Miller said.
 Reuter

Gelco Corp said that,
excluding the effects of a restructuring plan, it expects
pre-tax operating earnings for the year to end July 31, 1987,
to be about the same as those of last year.
    For the year ended July 31, 1986, Gelco reported pre-tax
operating earnings of 14.8 mln dlrs, or 1.08 dlrs a share.
    However, final results will be affected by certain charges
including legal and investment advisors fees, preferred stock
dividends and other costs of restructuring, it said.
    Expenses associated with restructuring are expected to be
offset by "significant" gains from the sale of some of Gelco's
business units, it said.
    The final outcome for the fiscal year will be determined by
the timing and proceeds from the sale, it added.
 Reuter

Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
ordered an increase in cost-of-living allowances for many U.S.
military personnel abroad because of the decreased value of the
dollar against foreign currencies, the Pentagon said.
    The allowances are expected to rise between 10 and 20 per
cent in many areas beginning this month, the Pentagon said..
    Weinberger also is providing for some family members of
financially-pressed troops to fly home from West Germany,
Japan, Italy and Spain on military transports if they desire.
    He said in a statement to the military that the
cost-of-living increases "will help keep your overseas
purchasing power close to your stateside counterparts."
 REUTER

has closed the previously announced acquisition of West
Virginia Power from Dominion Resources Inc for about 21 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Daisy Systems Corp said it
has introduced a line of computer-aided engineering
workstations.
    The workstation family includes the Personal Logician 386,
the Logician 386 and the Personal Logicial 286.
    The Personal Logician 386 is a desktop, 32-bit IBM Personal
Computer AT-compatible workstation, base priced at 20,000 dlrs.
    The Logician 386 is a 32-bit accelerated graphics
workstation, priced at 50,000 dlrs.
    The Personal Logician 286 is based on the IBM PC AT and the
EGA graphics standard, base priced at 15,000 dlrs.
    Daisy said the products will be available in 90 days.
 Reuter

Western Tele-Communications Inc
said that through its subsidiary, Westlink Inc, it has joined
"Netlink USA", a general partnership consisting of Telluride
Cablevision Inc and McCaw Satellite Programming Investments
Inc.
    Western said it will act as a 40 pct investor, converting
its cable television signals to satellite distribution in
selected markets.
    The conversion is expected to improve reception of Denver
television signals delivered to cable operators and other
customers in underserved rural or remote areas of the U.S., the
 Reuter

Chicago physician LeRoy Pesch said he
has had discussions with several American Medical International
Inc shareholders and sees support for a restructuring of the
company.
    Pesch said he has discussed his sweetened, 1.91 billion dlr
takeover bid for American Medical with several large
shareholders, including the biggest investor, the Bass family
of Texas. However, the Bass family has not indicated support
one way or the other for his offer, he said.
    Pesch, in an interview with Reuters, said based on the
conversations he held with shareholders, he could not guage
whether he had majority support. He said, however, there is
support for his offer.
    Pesch would not identify shareholders with whom he held
discussions other than the Bass family and the Wedge Group Inc,
the only other holder of more than five pct of American Medical
stock.
    Earlier today, Wedge Group, which has a 5.5 pct stake, 
said it held discussions with Pesch, American Medical
management and other American Medical shareholders.
    Wedge, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, said it believes a restructuring of American
Medical and its business would be "highly desirable and
appropriate at this time."
    "That's the sort of position that I find a large segment of
shareholders of AMI really share," said Pesch.
    Pesch said he held discussions with Wedge about joining his
takeover effort, in which he is offering 17 dlrs cash, four
dlrs in preferred stock and one dlr in common stock for each
American Medical share. Wedge said it has no plans to join in
an effort to seek control of American Medical, but it would not
rule out a future takeover try.
    Pesch said he did not discuss a joint takeover proposal
with the Bass family.
    Some analysts saw the Wedge statement as a boost to Pesch's
takeover effort and a further sign that there could be some
shareholder dissatisfaction following American Medical's
previous rejection of a 20 dlr per share all cash offer from
Pesch.
    American Medical is expected to resist Pesch's latest bid.
Larry Feinberg, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc said a
management-led leveraged buyout cannot be ruled out.
    An American Medical spokesman said the company will comment
on the new Pesch offer by March 10.
    Analysts continue to view the Bass family as a factor in
the outcome of the bid for control of American Medical.
    The Bass family holds an 11. 6 pct stake in American
Medical, and the company has previously said the investors
support management's internal plan to improve the company's
performance. The Bass family would not comment on American
Medical or Pesch.
    Pesch, who led the leveraged buyout of Republic Health Corp
last year, continues to face a credibilty problem on Wall
Street because of the long time it took to finish the Republic
acquisition.
    Republic also has substantial debt, and has left wall
street questioning whether financing can be completed for the
much larger American Medical takeover proposal.
    Pesch's first offer for American Medical was made without
an investment banking firm, another cause for concern to Wall
Street. However, Pesch entered his second offer with
representation from Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette Securities
and Security Pacific Merchant Banking Group.
    "I don't have any doubt that the current transaction can be
worked out and completed, provided we get to the point where
Ami management will sit down and talk in a friendly
environment," Pesch said.
    Pesch would not elaborate on what type of financing
arrangements are being made. He did say if he succeeds in
acquiring American Medical he plans to keep much of American
Medical management in place.
    He said he plans to combine the company with Republic to
form an efficient network of hospitals.
    Analysts said they do not believe a much higher offer could
be made for American Medical.
    Byron Nimocks of E.F. Hutton Group said improved second
fiscal quarter earnings could make American Medical stock worth
about 20 dlrs per share.
    Nimocks estimates American Medical earnings for the second
quarter ended February 28 could be 35 cts, compared to a 95 ct
loss last year.
    Nimocks said Pesch's revised offer is not worth much more
than the 20 dlrs cash offered previously.
    But Feinberg said there is a better chance a transaction
could be completed because of the revised structure of the
offer. "I think it's much more doable," he said.
    Analysts have said American Medical has begun a turnaround
by replacing some members of management and reducing costs.
 Reuter

Marvin Warner and two fellow officers
of the former Home State Savings Bank were convicted on charges
connected with the collapse of Home State.
    Warner, the owner of Home State, was found guilty of six
counts of performing unauthoriazed acts -- investing some Home
State money without authorization from the board of directors
-- and three counts of securities violations in the 1985
collapse. He was acquitted on 76 counts of willful
misapplication.
    Burton Bongard, former Home State president, was convicted
of all 81 counts willful misapplication. David Schiebel, also a
former president, was convicted on three of four counts of
securities violations but was acquitted on 84 charges of
willful misapplication. -- corrects warner's conviction
    The irregularities in which the men were charged led to a
state-imposed moratorium on all state-insured savings and loan
companies in Ohio, which was lifted on an individual basis as
the firms were able to show proof of their solvency.
    Judge Richard Niehaus of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court
ordered Warner jailed in lieu of 3.5 mln dlrs bond. He set a
1.5 mln dlr bond for Bongard and 25,000 dlr bond for Schiebel
pending the appearance of the trio for sentencing March 30.
    Lawrence Kane, special prosecutor, said that Warner and
Bongard could receive a maximum of 15 years in prison. He said
that Schiebel could receive a maximum of 5 to 6 years on his
convictions.
    All three were accused in the draining of 144 mln dlrs of
Home State funds through investments with ESM Government
Securities Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which went bankrupt
and triggered the collapse of Home State.
    On March 5, 1985, Ohio Governor Richard Celeste closed all
of the state's privately-insured savings and loan companies and
they remained closed until they could obtain federal deposit
insurance or merge with other companies which had federal
deposit insurance.
 Reuter

<Video Shopping Mall Inc> said
it signed WJTC-TV, Pensacola, Fla, to carry its
self-improvement and specialized business opportunity programs.
    Video Shopping said the station, carried over UHF channel
44 in the Pensacola area, reaches about 120,000 households.
 Reuter

<National Early Warning Systems
Inc> said it has offered to purchase <Omega Ballistics Systems
Inc> for an undisclosed amount of cash, stock and notes.
    Valley Cottage, N.Y., based Omega is a developer and
designer of lightweight, custom-crafted ballistic, assault,
flame and fire resistant paroducts.
 Reuter

United Merchants and Manufactuerers Inc
said its board has authorized the repurchase of up to one mln
shares of the company's common stock.
    The company now has about 9.1 mln shares outstanding.
    It said the stock will be acquired from time to time on the
open market, depending on market conditions and other factors.
The number of shares purchased and the timing of the purchases
are also subject to restrictions under certain of the company's
debt instruments, it added.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp said it
agreed in principle to form a joint venture in factory
automation with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd of Japan.
    The company said the venture aims to combine Matsushita's
experience in high-volume electronics manufacturing and
Westinghouse's knowledge of computer integrated manufacturing.
    The venture will design, sell and service automated
manufacturing systems, and is expected to begin operations by
the summer, it added.
 Reuter

Efforts to break an impasse between
coffee exporting and importing countries over regulating the
world coffee market in the face of falling prices appear to
have failed, senior delegates said after a contact group
meeting. The full ICO council is due to meet this evening.
    President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute (IBC) Jorio
Dauster told Reuters after the contact group meeting there had
been no agreement on quotas as consumers had tried to dictate
market shares rather than negotiate them.
    Dauster said there are no plans yet to renew negotiations
at a later date.
 Reuter

EDO Corp said McDonnell Aircraf Co has
invoked its 1987 production option calling for ejection release
units for the F-15E aircraft.
    The company said the contract is not to exceed 10.1 mln
dlrs and will be handled by its government systems division in
College Point, N.Y.
    The company said the contract is a follow up to the full
scale development and 1986 contracts previously awarded to EDO.

 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,226,597 vs 1,327,016
    Revs 6,598,580 vs 5,921,828
 Reuter

Coastal Bancorp said the U.S.
Federal Reserve Board approved the acquisition of Coastal by
Suffield Financial Corp <SSBK>.
    The acquisition still requires approval from the Banking
Department in Maine, the company noted.
 Reuter

Qtr ended Dec 31
    Shr profit nil vs loss nil
    Net profit 858 vs loss 3,957
    Revs 7,372 vs 1,500
 Reuter

however.
country'rate of inflation.  Reserves were reported to have
 Reuter

CORRECTION - THREE CONVICTED IN HOME STATE TRIAL
    In the CINCINNATI item headlined, "THREE CONVICTED IN HOME
STATE FAILURE," please read in the second and subsequent
paragraphs... Warner, the owner of Home State, was found guilty
of six counts of willful misapplication of funds and three
counts of securities violations in the 1985 collapse. He was
acquitted on 76 counts sof willful misapplication.
of all 81 counts against him of willful misapplication.
    The third defendant, David Schiebel, also a former Home
State president, was found guilty on three of four counts of
willful misapplication.
    --corrects convictions

Vanguard Technologies International
Inc said it was awarded a 2.2 mln dlr contract from the Office
of the Secretary of Defense to provide facilities management
services.
    Under the one-year contract, which also has two one-year
optional performance periods, the company said it will provide
local area network operations, coordination of hardware
installation and maintenance, user support services and systems
and applications programming.
 Reuter

AMCA International Ltd said it finalized
agreement to sell certain assets and inventories of its
Dominion Bridge steel service center operations to <Federal
Industries Ltd>'s Russelsteel Inc unit. Terms were undisclosed.
    It said the sale involved assets and operations of the
general line of steel service centers in Toronto and Edmonton,
Alberta and steel from inventories of closed AMCA branches.
    The company said the sale was part of a previously
announced restructuring program to allow it to focus on certain
core businesses and generate cash to cut debt.
 Reuter

<Condor Computer Corp> said it
is offering a 3.5-inch floppy diskette version of its Condor 3
Database Management System.
    Th company said the new version contains all the features
of its 5.25-inch package, including report writer and
applications automation functions.
 Reuter

<Scott's Hospitality Inc> said it
acquired Capital Food Services Ltd, Ottawa's largest catering
and food service company, for undisclosed terms.
    Scott's said it would operate Capital Food as a separate
unit under Capital's current name and management.
 Reuter

International Monetary Fund (IMF) help in order to facilitate
debt negotiations with commercial creditor banks.
indefinitely interest payments on 68 billion dlrs in external
 Reuter

AC and R Advertising, a subsidiary of
Ted Bates Worldwide, a unit of one of the largest advertising
agencies in the U.S., Saatchi and Saatchi, said it will merge
with two other Bates units to form a new entity under Bates
called AC and R/DHB and Bess.
    The company said the other units are Diener/Hauser/Bates
(DHB) and Sawdon and Bess. AC and R chairman Stephen Rose said
the combined billings will be 311 mln dlrs, representing a
total of 157 clients.
 Reuter

Union National Corp said it
signed a definitive agreement under which its First National
Bank and Trust Co of Washington unit will merge with <Second
National Bank of Masontown>.
    Under a previously announced merger agreement, each share
of Second National's common stock will be converted into 25
shares of Union National common.
 Reuter

Several analysts said they do not
believe another suitor will top the 265 mln dlr bid for
Purolator Courier Corp by E.F. Hutton LBO Inc and a management
group from Purolator's courier division.
    There had been speculation another offer might be
forthcoming, but analysts mostly believe the 35 dlrs per share
price being paid by Hutton and the managers' PC Acquisition Inc
is fully valued.
    Analysts and some Wall Street sources said they doubted
another bidder would emerge since Purolator had been for sale
for sometime before a deal was struck with Hutton Friday.
    Purolator's stock slipped 3/8 today to close at 34-3/4. It
had been trading slightly higher than the 35 dlr offer on
Friday. At least one analyst Friday speculated the company
might fetch 38 to 42 dlrs per share.
    analysts and wall street sources doubted a competitive
offer would emerge since the company has been for sale for
sometime before the deal with Hutton was struck Friday.
    Hutton had been in talks with Purolator's adviser, Dillon,
Read and Co since late December, a Hutton spokesman said.
    Hutton is offering 35 dlrs cash per share for 83 pct of the
shares. If all shares are tendered, shareholders would receive
29 dlrs cash, six dlrs in debentures, and warrants for stock in
a subsidiary of PC Acquisition containing the Purolator U.S.
courier operation. Hutton values the warrants at two to three
    Wall Street sources also said today that a rival bidder
might be discouraged by a breakup fee Purolator would have to
pay if it ends its agreement with Hutton. The sources would not
reveal the amount of the fee, which will be noted in documents
on the transaction to be made public later this week.
 Reuter

A former stock broker and an investor
who pleaded guilty last June to insider trading as a
participant in the scheme that involved lawyer Michael David
were sentenced by the Manhattan federal court today.
    Morton Shapiro, who was employed as a broker at Moseley
Hallgarten Stabrook and Weeden Inc, drew a two month jail
sentence and a 25,000 dlr fine.
    Daniel J. Silverman, who pleaded guilty to securities
fraud, was sentenced to three years probation, a 25,000 dlr
fine, and ordered to provide 250 hours of community service.
    As a result of trading on information supplied by David,
while he was at the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and
Garrison, the defendants gained about 160,000 dlrs in their
insider trading scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Rudolph W.
Giuliani.
    The prosecutor also said Shapiro attempted to conceal his
unlawful trading by lying in testimony before the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
 Reuter

The Farmers Home Admininstration
(FmHA) is undertaking its annual mailing of notices to
delinquent farm borrowers, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    It said about 26,400 FmHA farm borrowers were delinquent on
December 31, 1986, and will be sent letters by early March.
They should get in touch with the FmHA county office as soon as
possible to make an appointment to discuss the account, it
said.
    The letter requests the borrower choose one or more
servicing options listed on an accompanying form and return the
form within 30 days, the department said.
 Reuter

Roger Andewelt, deputy assistant 
attorney general for litigation in the Justice Department's
antitrust division since last June, is being nominated by
President Reagan as a judge of the United States Claims Court,
the White House said.
    The nomination, which is subject to Senate approval, is for
a 15-year term. Andewelt, who has served in a number of
antitrust division posts since 1972, would succeed Thomas Lydon
at the Claims Court.
 Reuter

Pan Am Corp said February load factor
at Pan American World Airways rose two points to 51.9 pct from
49.9 pct a year ago.
    Traffic in February increased 11 pct to to 1.50 billion
revenue passenger miles from 1.35 billion and rose 7.8 pct in
the two months year to date to 3.31 billion from 3.07 billion.
    Available seat miles grew 6.7 pct in February to almost
2.90 billion from 2.72 billion and rose 4.8 pct to 6.11 billion
from 5.83 billion in the two months.
    Year-to-date load factor increased to 54.1 pct from 52.6
pct.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 557,000 vs 2,020,000
    Revs 8,872,000 vs 13,908,000
    Year
    Shr 60 cts vs 2.52 dlrs
    Net 2,198,000 vs 9,313,000
    Revs 36.9 mln vs 55.7 mln
 Reuter

Qtr ended Jan 31
    Shr 33 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 14.8 mln vs 11 mln
    Revs 108.6 mln vs 70.0 mln
    Avg shrs 45.2 mln vs 37.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 88 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 36.7 mln vs 28.7 mln
    Revs 260.4 mln vs 193.0 mln
    Avg shrs 41.9 mln vs 37.8 mln
    Note: Net for nine mths includes gains from dispositions of
1,783,000 dlrs or four cts a share vs 900,000 dlrs or two cts a
share.
    Avg shrs and shr data restated to reflect three-for-two
stock split in January.
 Reuter

Warner Communications Inc said its
board has approved a 10-year employment contract with Chairman
Steven J. Ross.
    The company said the contract was opposed by the six board
members who are nominees of Chris-Craft Inc <CCN>.
    It said the new contract calls for "new bonus awards to be
paid out over the period of the contract," based on the price
of the company's stock. Its statement provided no details.
    Warner said the contract, which has been under discussion
for a lengthy period, assures the stability and creative future
of the company.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 25 cts
    Pay April 24
 Reuter

Caremark Inc said it is
changing its fiscal year-end to a calendar year from the
previous fiscal year ending June 30.
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts
    Net 412,737
    Revs 605,321
    Year
    Shr 93 cts
    Net 1,577,892
    Revs 2,345,261
    NOTE: Full name CPL Real Estate Investment Trust.
    Company was formed Dec 30, 1985.
 Reuter

Star Technologies Inc said its
shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq national market system
tomorrow.
    The company, a manufacturer of very high-speed computers
for scientific applications, has annual revenues of about 40
mln dlrs.
    In the nine months ended Dec 31, the company earned 1.9 mln
dlrs against a loss of 16.5 mln dlrs in the year-ago period, as
sales rose to 32.6 mln dlrs from 9.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 85 cts vs loss 88 cts
    Net loss 2,410,000 vs loss 2,466,0000
    Revs 24.0 mln vs 23.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.18 dlrs vs loss 81 cts
    Net loss 3,338,000 vs loss 2,275,000
    Revs 101.4 mln vs 112.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net profit 155,383 vs loss 577,336
    Note: Net includes tax credit of 51,226 dlrs or one ct per
share.
 Reuter

Cybertek said it is forming a
General Products division which will be located in Dallas.
    The new division will market personal computer software
products targeted at the Fortune 500 companies, Cybertek said.
 Reuter

    Revs 28.5 mln vs 23.1 mln
    Six mths
    Revs 31.7 mln vs 26.4 mln
 Reuter

Holiday Corp said it would redeem on
March 11 all outstanding 9-1/2 pct first mortgage bonds due
1995 of its Holiday Inns Inc unit and all 9-1/2 pct first
mortgage bonds, Series A, due 1996 of its Harrah's subsidiary.
    The Holiday bonds will be bought back at 101.6 pct of the
bonds' principal amount plus accrued interest, or 1,038.69 dlrs
per 1,000 dlr face amount. Holiday will redeem the Harrah's
bonds at 104.5 pct of the principal amount plus accrued
interest, or 1,079.31 dlrs per 1,000 dlr face amount.
 Reuter

Anchor Glass Container Corp said it
has been cleared to apply for listing on the New York Stock
Exchange and expects to file its formal application for listing
later this month, with trading to begin during the week of
April 20.
    The company said the NYSE advised it management that the
company meets the criteria for listing following successful
completion of a preliminary eligibility review.
    Anchor also said its stock is being split two-for-one
effective March 24 to holders of record March three. After the
split, it said it will have 13.3 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Blockbuster Entertainment Corp's
Blockbuster Distribution Corp said it executed two additional
area licenses to own and operate Blockbuster Videos Rental
stores.
    It said these exclusive licenses were granted to <Videoco
Inc> for the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham and
Highpoint, N.C. metropolitan areas. It said the licenses
require a minimum of six Blockbuster superstores to be opened
within a 25 month period.
 Reuter

Ferro Corp said it has formed a
joint venture with Paris-based Alsthom Inudstrial Group to
export U.S. epxertise in specialty composite materials to the
European market.
    Ferro said although the airframe and aerospace industries
are the prime users of composite materials today, it plans to
develop applications for the ground transportation and
industrial markets in the near future.
    Ferro also announced it has agreed to purchase CompositAir,
a developer of composit materials applications, for an
undisclosed sum.
 Reuter

Computer Language Research Inc said its
CLR/Micro-Tax unit introduced a Micro-Tax W-4 Generator, a new
software package for accounts and corporate personnel
departments.
    The company said the package takes the user through each
question on the new W-4, gives explanatory instructions,
automatically calculates entries, checks tables and generates
the completed W-4.
 Reuter

WHITE HOUSE'S HOWARD BAKER SAYS REAGAN TO ADDRESS NATION WEDNESDAY AT 2100 EST

The New York Mercantile Exchange said
it will introduce exchanges for physicals (EFPS) to its energy
futures markets April one.
    An exchange spokeswoman said the change will allow oil
traders that do not hold a futures position to initiate, after
the exchange closes, a transaction that can subsequently be
hedged in the futures market.
    EFPs, already in effect for platinum futures on NYMEX, are
expected to increase the open interest and liquidity in U.S.
energy futures, according to traders and analysts.
 Reuter

Refined copper stocks held by U.S.
refineries fell to 109,200 short tons at the end of January
from 145,400 short tons at the end of December, the American
Bureau of Metal Statistics reported.
    Commodity Exchange (Comex) copper stocks climbed to 103,000
tons in January from 93,300 tons in December. Combined refinery
and Comex stocks eased to 212,200 tons in January
from 238,700 tons in December.
    U.S. refined production declined to 117,600 tons in January
from 137,400 tons in December. Crude output increased to 98,600
tons in January from 93,300 tons (revised lower) in December.
    Preliminary figures showed U.S. refined deliveries rose to
151,800 tons in January from 124,800 tons in December.
 Reuter

The White House announced it was
withdrawing the controversial nomination of Robert Gates as CIA
director at Gates's request and has not yet decided on a
replacement.
    Withdrawal of the Gates nomination was announced by new
White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, who said President
Reagan had several names under consideration to replace Gates
but had made no decision on that score.
    Baker said Gates had sent Reagan a letter today requesting
his name be withdrawn from nomination to succeed the ailing and
resigned William Casey and that Reagan had "accepted with great
regret."
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Corp said it set March
26 as the record date for stockholders entitled to vote at its
April 30 annual meeting.

 Reuter

<CCL Industries Inc>'s Continental Can
Canada Inc unit said it acquired the Wallaceburg, Ontario,
metal can making operations of Nestle Enterprises Ltd, wholly
owned by <Nestle SA>, of Switzerland. Terms were undisclosed.
    Continental Can said it would supply Nestle's equivalent
can requirements under a long-term agreement.
    Nestle said it decided to stop manufacturing cans "in order
to be in a better position to take full advantage of the
changes underway or on the horizon in food packaging
technology."
 Reuter

The American Pork Congress kicks off
tomorrow, March 3, in Indianapolis with 160 of the nations pork
producers from 44 member states determining industry positions
on a number of issues, according to the National Pork Producers
Council, NPPC.
    Delegates to the three day Congress will be considering 26
resolutions concerning various issues, including the future
direction of farm policy and the tax law as it applies to the
agriculture sector. The delegates will also debate whether to
endorse concepts of a national PRV (pseudorabies virus) control
and eradication program, the NPPC said.
    A large trade show, in conjunction with the congress, will
feature the latest in technology in all areas of the industry,
the NPPC added.
 Reuter

Burlington Northern Inc's El Paso
Natural Gas Co said it filed its regularly scheduled gas cost
adjustment that will leave its rates unchanged.
    But still pending is El Paso's proposal to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission to directly bill its wholesale
customers for deficiencies in natural gas liquid revenues.
    It said its filing called for a commodity rate of about
2.57 dlrs per dekatherm, but noted that the rate could drop to
1.84 dlrs if the Commission approves its proposal to bill
wholesale customers directly for the revenue deficiencies.
 Reuter

Refined copper stocks held by
refineries outside the U.S. increased to a preliminary 277,500
short tons at the end of December from a preliminary 270,000
short tons (revised higher) at the end of November, the
American Bureau of Metal Statistics said.
    London Metal Exchange stocks fell to 193,100 tons in
December from 194,400 tons in November. Combined refinery and
LME stocks rose to a preliminary 470,600 tons from 464,400 tons
(revised higher). January LME stocks were 193,400 tons.
    Preliminary figures showed refined production outside U.S.
lower at 377,300 tons in December versus 384,000 tons in
November. Crude output decreased to 421,500 tons from 427,000
tons (revised higher). Refined copper deliveries decreased to
359,800 tons from 375,400 tons (revised lower).
 Reuter

White House Chief of Staff Howard
Baker said President Reagan will address the nation in a
nationally televised speech Wednesday night at 2100 EST on the
Tower Commission Report on the arms to Iran scandal.
    Baker, in his first news conference as chief of staff, also
said that Robert Gates asked that his name be withdrawn from
nomination as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
    Gates said in a letter to the president that it became
apparent it would be a long and difficult process to win Senate
confirmation of the nomination.
 Reuter

The federal government's expenditures
will rise 3.8 pct in the fiscal year beginning April 1 to
110.14 billion dlrs from 107.01 billion dlrs in fiscal 1987,
the Treasury Board said.
    The board noted the growth in the main estimates is the
lowest since 1962, and below last year's 3.9 pct increase.
    After inclusion of two special accounts, an unemployment
insurance fund and a grain stabilization fund, total
expenditures amount to 122.55 billion dlrs, the same as the
estimate in the government's budget last month. The budget also
estimated a deficit of 29.3 billion dlrs for fiscal 1988.
 Reuter

Advance Circuits Inc said it
has signed a 9,500,000 dlrs borrowing agreement with Washington
Square Capital Inc.
    The new loan consists of a revolving credit facility of
seven mln dlrs based on accounts receivable and a term loan of
2,500,000. The interst rate on the loans is 2.75 pct over the
prime rate, with future rate reductions scheduled if certain
income levels are achieved.
    It said the entire loan is due March 1990, with monthly
payments of 29,800 due on the term loan.
    The money was used to completely repay its debt to First
National Bank of St. Paul. It would not say how much that was.
The bank took a discount on its gross amount and accepted
125,000 shares of Class C preferred stock which is convertible
into 375,000 shares of common.
 Reuter

Baker said President Reagan will meet the press "very soon."
    Baker told a brief news conference "I expect you'll see the
president very soon" when asked by reporters when Reagan
expected to resume his news conferences. Reagan has not met the
press since November 19.
    Baker said Reagan had intended to conduct today's news
conference and only the lack of a firm announcement of a
replacement for Robert Gates as CIA director prevented him.
    Reagan will address the nation wednesday night in response
to the Tower Commission's report on the Iran arms scandal.
 reuter

Texas Air Corp's Eastern Airlines said it
will offer low fare, night-time service from Chicago's O'Hare
International Airport to 18 U.S. cities.
    It had previously offered similar service out of Houston.
    The company said one-way fares range from 39 dlrs to St.
Louis to 89 dlrs to Los Angeles, San Francisco and other
cities. They are available at all times with no restrictions.
    Flights depart between 0100 and 0415 CST and arrive around
0600 local time. Normal baggage checking services are not
available because the flights carry air freight cargo so
passengers are limited to two pieces of carry-on baggage.
   
 Reuter

Tonka Corp said it agreed to
become the exclusive distributor of Tokyo-based Bandai Co Ltd
toy lines in Australia and New Zealand and also agreed to buy
the business of Bandai Australia.
    Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
    The Bandai agreement and other actions are expected to add
15 mln dlrs to Tonka's international sales in 1987.
International sales accounted for 11 pct of Tonka's 293.4 mln
dlrs of revenues in 1986.
 Reuter

Barnett Banks of Florida Inc
called for redemption of all outstanding shares of its Series E
4.25 dlrs cumulative convertible preferred stock.
    The company said the redemption date will be May 8, 1987.
    Under the terms of the redemption, shareholders may convert
or redeem their shares. The bank said shares may be converted
into 2.25 shares of Barnett common stock if surrenderred by
April 23. 
    Shares surrendered after will be redeemed for 51.50 dlrs
per share plus dividends accured through May 8, the bank said.
 Reuter

Heck's Inc said that its credit
agreement with a group of banks expired on February 28 and that
the banks are demanding payment on the loans.
    Heck's, which did not disclose the amount being sought by
the banks, said it is holding discussions with its lenders that
should be completed sometime this week.
    Heck's added, however, that it could not predict whether a
new credit agreement will be reached.
 Reuter

The Turner Corp's construction
company New York said its Orange County office has begun
building a 23 mln dlr addition to Kaiser Permanente Medical
Center.
    The five-story, 197,000 square foot adition will be used
primarily as an outpatient treatment clinic, it said.
    Developer for the project is Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in
Pasadena, Calif., the company said.
    The completion date is October 1988, according to the
company.
 Reuter

Grey Advertising Inc's GreyCom Inc
subsidiary said it established a new division GreyCom Corporate
and Financial.
 Reuter

<MFS Managed Muncipal Trust Bond>
said it declared a monthly payout income distribution of 5.7
cts a share compared with 5.6 cts for the previous month.
    It said the distribution is payable March 20 to
shareholders of record March two.
 Reuter

Commercial Credit Co is raising 150 mln
dlrs through an offering of notes due 1997 yielding 8.217 pct,
said lead manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    The notes have an 8-1/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.375 to yield 105 basis points more than comparable Treasury
securities.
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated Baa-2 by Moody's
and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's. First Boston Corp and
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co
has received a 57.3 mln dlr contract to develop laboratory
equipment for an Enhanced Modular Signal Processor, the Navy
said.
 reuter

American Motors Corp said it
is offering up to 700 dlrs on 1986 and 1987 Jeep Cherokee and
Wagoneer vehicles bought until March 31.
    Rebates are 700 dlrs for two-door vehicles and 500 dlrs on
four-door models.
    This is the first time cash rebates are available on these
two Jeeps, a spokesman said. Not included is the 1987 Jeep
Cherokee Limited.
    The expanded program is intended to keep AMC competitive in
the marketplace and enable it to maintain its sales momentum
with Jeep products, said William Enockson, group vice
president, North American sales and marketing.
    AMC continues to offer low-interest rate-loans on most new
1986 and 1987 Jeep Comanche models from 2.9 pct for 24 month
loans up to 9.9 pct on 60 month loans. These loans are
available until March 31.
    AMC has been offering up to 500 dlrs rebates on its 1986
Encore and Alliance cars and 1987 Alliance and GTA models, the
 Reuter

Advanced Systems Inc said it acquired
distribution rights to three interactive video courses
developed by NCR Corp <NCR>.
    The three courses, for data processing professionals and
bankers, are delivered through interactive video, which
combines video discs, personal computers and touch-screen
monitors.
 Reuter

U.S. brass mill copper stocks fell to
185,400 short tons (copper content) at the end of January from
191,200 short tons at the end of December, according to the
American Bureau of Metal Statistics.
    Consumption by brass mills increased to 60,700 short tons
in January from 48,900 short tons in December.
    Mills consumed 29,600 tons of refinery shapes in January
versus 24,000 tons in December. Scrap consumption increased to
31,100 tons in January from 24,900 tons in December.
    Total brass mill shipments increased to 69,600 tons in
January from 54,400 tons in December, while receipts rose to
63,800 tons from 47,100 tons.
 Reuter

MFS Municipal Income Trust said it
declared a monthly income distribution of 5.7 cts a share
compared with 5.5 cts a share paid in the previous month.
    It said the distribution is payable March 27 to
shareholders of record March 13.
 Reuter

Shr 1.35 dlrs vs two dlrs
    Net 6,195,000 vs 9,202,000
    Sales 157.5 mln vs 151.6 mln
    Year
    Shr 6.02 dlrs vs 6.78 dlrs
    Net 27,608,000 vs 31,117,000
    Sales 585.7 mln vs 541.3 mln
 Reuter

<Siemens AG's> U.S. subsidiary,
Siemens Public Switching Systems Inc said two existing plants
have been selected to allow immediate start up of manufacturing
on an interim basis of EWSD digital central office switching
systems in the U.S.
    The company said the two facilities, one in Cherry Hill,
N.J., the other in Hauppauge, N.Y., will be used while a
rigorous review process for selecting a facility devoted only
to EWSD manufacturing continues.
    Siemens Public is part of Siemens Communication Systems
Inc, also headquartered in Boca Raton.
 Reuter

Armtek Corp, previously the
Armstrong Rubber Co, said it agreed to sell its industrial tire
and assembly division to a Dyneer Corp <DYR> for an undisclosed
sum.
    It said the agreement covers the division's tire production
facility in Clinton, Tenn., and its plants serving original
equipment and replacement markets. Armstrong Tire Co, an Armtek
unit, will continue to sell replacement industrial tires, the
    Final closing is expected in the third fiscal quarter
ending June 30.

 Reuter

The Treasury Department said the
United States and the Virgin Islands have signed a tax treaty
to exchange tax information and provide mutual assistance in
tax matters.
    The agreement was needed to trigger provisions of the Tax
Reform Act of 1986 allowing the Virgin Islands to offer
investment incentives by reducing Virgin Islands taxes on
non-U.S. source income, the Treasury said.
    The treaty will be a model for similar agreements to be
negotiated with three other U.S. possessions -- American Samoa,
the Mariana Islands and Guam, the Treasury said.
    The new agreement, which expands and replaces a prior
agreement with the Virgin Islands, was signed on February 24,
the Treasury said.
 Reuter

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
posted record trading volume for the month of February when
6,556,464 futures and options contracts changed hands, up 15.2
pct from last February's volume of 5,693,243 contracts.
    Interest rate futures trading was the most active segment
at the exchange, with Eurodollar futures setting a monthly
record of 1,472,184 contracts, up 78.4 pct, from volume of
825,087 contracts in February last year and surpassing the
previous record of 1,288,729 contracts set in September, 1986.
    Options on Eurodollar futures also set a monthly record of
235,916 contracts, up 92.4 pct from 122,616 a year ago.
    Trading in currency futures and options at the CME fell 4.6
pct during February from a year ago, with 2,012,148 contracts
changing hands compared to 2,119,198 contracts in the same
period last year.
    Volume in most currency futures contracts fell in February,
while options on the currency futures rose 28.2 pct. Options on
mark futures set a monthly record at 273,749 contracts, up from
the previous record of 268,831 contracts in January.
    Agricultural futures volume rose 17.1 pct during the month,
with live hog futures volume leading the market segment, rising
27.7 pct to 138,543 contracts.
 Reuter

Over 30 software companies announced
programs to support Apple Computer Inc's new Macintosh II and
Macintosh SE computers.
    At a seminar where the products were introduced, software
makers such as Ashton-Tate <TATE>, Microsoft Corp <MSFT> and
Lotus Development Corp <LOTS> announced new or existing
products now accessible to the Macintosh computers.
    Lotus announced Lotus Galaxy, software that will deliver
six programmable business modules, which it said will be
formally introduced this summer.
    In addition, National Semiconductor <NSM> said it will
provide a series of products for the Macintosh computers,
including a 16-megabyte memory expansion module.
 Reuter

Appalachian Power Co, a unit of
American Electric Power Co, said it will redeem on May one an
additional 1.38 mln dlrs of its 12-7/8 pct first mortgage bonds
due 2013.
    That increases to 2.88 mln dlrs the amount of bonds the
utility will buy back. Appalachian Power said it will redeem
the bonds at par plus accrued interest.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it
affirmed the B-plus rating on AVX Corp's 28 mln dlrs of
subordinated debt.
    The company's implied senior debt rating is BB.
    S and P said AVX's purchase offer for CTS Corp <CTS> has
expired and the acquisition does not appear likely to occur.
AVX was listed on S and P's creditwatch with negative
implications on December 17, 1986, because of the proposed
 Reuter

The federal Food and Drug
Administration said it approved for U.S. marketing a drug that
reduces bleeding in hemophiliacs requiring dental work.
    The FDA said the drug, tranemaxic acid, would lessen and in
some cases eliminate altogether the need for blood transfusions
in hemophiliacs who must have teeth extracted.
    The drug will be made by Kabivitrum of Stockholm, Sweden
and distributed here under the trade name Cyklokapron by
Kabivitrum Inc of Alameda, Calif.
    Hemophilia is a hereditary diseease whose victims lack the
particular proteins that promote blood clotting.
 Reuter

Kidder, Peabody Mortgage Assets Trust
Five, a unit of Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc, is offering 500 mln
dlrs of collateralized mortgage obligations in seven classes,
including floating-rate and inverse-rate tranches.
    Sole manager Kidder Peabody said the first floating-rate
class has an initial rate of 6.755 pct that will be reset
quarterly at 40 basis points over three-month LIBOR, with an 11
pct cap.
    Totaling 53.3 mln dlrs, this floating-rate class contains a
so-called catchup provision that allows investors to recapture
possible lost interest, according to Kidder Peabody.
    For instance, if three-month LIBOR rises to 15 pct during
the life of the floating-rate tranche and falls back below the
11 pct cap, investors would be paid back, dollar for dollar,
the amount of interest they would have received if the CMOs did
not carry a maximum interest rate, a Kidder officer said.
    Kidder Peabody introduced this concept on February 12.
    The other floating-rate class totals 132.4 mln dlrs and has
an initial rate of 6.975 pct that will be reset quarterly at 60
basis points over three-month LIBOR, with a 13 pct cap. This
tranche does not have a catch-up provision, the Kidder officer
said.
    The inverse-rate tranche totals 71.3 mln dlrs and has an
initial rate of 10.903 pct. The rate will be reset quarterly
according to the formula of 22.44027 minus the product of
1.8097 times three-month LIBOR.
    Yields on the remaining fixed-rate CMOs, the balance of the
500 mln dlr issue, range from 7-1/4 to 9.27 pct, or 90 to 160
basis points over comparable Treasuries.
    The issue is rated a top-flight AAA by Standard and Poor's.

 Reuter

Qtly dividend 28 cts vs 28 cts
    Record April 10
 Reuter

The New York Mercantile Exchange expects
to submit a propane futures contract for federal regulatory
approval within a few days, according to an exchange
spokeswoman.
    As previously announced, the Board of Governors of the
exchange approved the contract last month. The exchange will
now submit the contract to the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission, according to the spokeswoman.
    Contract specifications will resemble those of heating oil
and gasoline futures. The contract size will be 1,000 barrels,
or 42,000 U.S. gallons.
    The minimum price fluctuation for the propane futures
contract will be  0.01 cent per gallon, or 4.20 dlrs a barrel,
according to the exchange.
    The maximum daily price limit will be two cts a gallon on
all contracts except spot. Trading will terminate on the last
business day of the month preceding the delivery month.
    The exchange said delivery will be F.O.B from the seller's
pipeline, storage, or fractionation facility in Mont Belvieu,
Texas, which has a direct pipeline access to the Texas Eastern
Transmission Pipeline (TET) in Mont Beliview.
    Delivery method will be by in-line or in-well transfer,
inter-facility transfer or pumpover, or book transfer and
cannot be done earlier than the tenth calendar day of the
delivery month, according to the exchange. Deliveries must be
completed no later than two business days prior to the end of
the delivery month.
    Buyers taking delivery of the propane must pay the seller
by certified check and the deadline for payment is 1200 EST
(noon) of the second business day following receipt of the
propane.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said its February
U.S. car production declined to 358,661 from 398,823 a year
ago.
    GM said its U.S. truck production declined to 128,099 from
135,434 a year ago.
    Year-to-date, GM said car output declined to 669,370 from
839,097 and truck production eased to 250,999 from 279,181.
 Reuter

U.S. trade representative Clayton
Yeutter today said that if the European Community's Council of
Ministers approves a tax on vegetable oils and fats, another
major transatlantic trade row will erupt over agriculture.
    In a statement issued by the trade representative's office
following a speech to the American Soybean Association's board
of directors, Yeutter said the proposed tax would have a severe
impact on American soybean farmers, who export some 2.4 billion
dlrs in soybeans and products annually to the EC.
    "This is an unacceptable situation for us and its
(vegetable oils tax) enactment would leave us no choice but to
vigorously protect our trade rights and defend our access to
the European market," Yeutter said.
    Yeutter said the proposed vegetable oils tax would violate
EC obligations under the GATT.
    He said the effect of the tax would be to double the price
of soyoil produced from imported soybeans, making margarine
made from soyoil more expensive than tallow-based margarine,
and closer in price to expensive European butter.
    "I am astonished that the EC commission would propose such
a provocative measure so soon after we successfully resolved
the agricultural dispute over the enlargement of the EC to
include Spain and Portugal," Yeutter said.
    "It serves no purpose to embark on another confrontational
course before the recent wounds have healed and as we are
beginning to make progress on the Uruaguay round (of global
trade talks)," he said.
 Reuter

Oil traders in New York said Exxon
Corp's Exxon U.S.A. unit reduced the price it charges contract
barge customers for heating oil in New York harbor 0.75 cent a
gallon, effective today.
    They said the reduction brings Exxon's contract barge price
to 43.25 cts. The price decrease follows sharp declines in
heating oil prices on spot and futures markets, traders said.
 Reuter

Greece, responding to a warning by Turkey
against conducting oil activities in the Aegean Sea, said today
it had the right to decide where and how to do research or
drilling work in the area.
    A government spokesman said the Greek position was made
clear to Turkey's ambassador Nazmi Akiman when he met Greek
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Yannis Kapsis last week.
    Acting Turkish Prime Minister Kaya Erdem said earlier today
Greek activities in the northern Aegean contravened the 1976
Berne Agreement which set the framework for talks on the Aegean
continental shelf disputed between Ankara and Athens.
    The Greek statement today said, "Greece is not prepared to
give up even a trace of its sovereignty rights to the seabed.
It has been stressed to...Mr Akiman that the decision where or
how to drill belongs exclusively to the Greek government."
    "The Greek government has repeatedly let the Turkish side
know that it considers the 1976 Berne protocol as inactive
through the fault of Turkey," it said.
    The Greek statement said Athens was ready to put the
continental shelf issue before international courts.
 Reuter

Leucadia National Corp said two of
its subsidiaries have acquired a 7.2 pct stake in Minstar Inc,
a corporation controlled by corporate raider Irwin Jacobs and
used by him in his forays to acquire stock in companies.
Leucadia said its LNC Investments Inc, a Newark, Del.,
investment firm, and Charter National Life Insurance Co, a St.
Louis joint stock life insurance company, bought their combined
1,261,000 Minstar common shares for investment purposes only.
    The Leucadia subsidiaries had held an 11.0 pct stake in
Minstar, but cut to 1.8 pct, or 313,200 shares, last July.
    Since July, Leucadia said its companies have bought 947,800
Minstar common shares for a total of 24.7 mln dlrs.
    Leucadia said it bought the Minstar stake to obtain an
equity position in the company and has no intention of seeking
control of it.
    Nearly half of Leucadia's common stock is owned by TLC
Associates, a Salt Lake City, Utah, general partnership, whose
partners include the chairman and president of Leucadia and
other investors.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss eight cts vs profit 20 cts
    Oper net loss 768,000 vs profit 1,962,000
    Revs 49.0 mln vs 43.6 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 1.41 dlrs vs profit 96 cts
    Oper net loss 13.6 mln vs profit 9,305,000
    Revs 175.3 mln vs 140.7 mln
    Note: Oper excludes loss from discontinued operations of
4,676,000 dlrs or 48 cts a share for year-ago qtr and 7,571,000
dlrs or 78 cts a share for year-ago 12 mths.
    Oper includes charge of 1.1 mln dlrs for cumulative effect
of repeal of the investment tax credit for qtr and writedown of
21.6 mln dlrs on gas and oil facilities for 12 mths.
    Year-ago shr data restated to reflect two pct stock
dividend of December 1986.
 Reuter

The Montreal Exchange said it named
Bruno Riverin, president of Quebec's Caisse centrale
Desjardins, as its new president and chief executive officer.
    Riverin replaces former exchange president Andre Saumier,
who resigned in January to set up a brokerage firm.
    Riverin's appointment is effective March 26, the exchange,
Canada's second largest, said.
    The Caisse central is the main investment arm of Quebec's
huge credit union movement.
 Reuter

Australia's broad money supply rose 10.3
pct in the year ended January, up from a revised 9.6 pct in
December, the Reserve Bank said.
    This compares with the previous January's 13.9 pct.
    In January broad money growth slowed to 0.7 pct from
December's 1.5 pct and compared with nil growth in January
1986.
    Within the broad money total, non-bank financial
intermediaries rose by 0.2 pct from a revised decline of 0.2 
in December and a previous January's 0.8 pct increase.
    In the January year, NBFI's borrowings rose by 9.5 pct from
a revised 10.1 in December and compared with a previous
January's 12.8.
    At the end of January, broad money stood at 175,866 mln
dlrs dlrs from December's 174,668 mln dlrs and a January 1986
level of 159,453 mln.
    In the same period, borrowings from the private sector by
the NBFIs rose to 70,389 mln dlrs from December's 70,237 mln
and the previous January's 64,299 mln.
 Reuter

Microbiological Research Corp
said it entered into a letter of intent for a proposed business
combination with privately owned <DataGene Scientific
Laboratories Inc>, and <Milex Corp> a newly formed company,
through a stock swap.
    It also said it received 100,000 dlrs from the sale of a
convertible note to Ventana Growth Fund as part of an overall
1,100,000 equity financing plan with Ventana. Under that plan,
a minimum of 400,000 dlrs and a maximum of one mln dlrs of
additional new capital is to be provided to fund the combined
operations of the three companies.
    Microbiological also said that if the maximum additional
capital is raised, it will own about 49 pct of 4,550,00 shares
of common outstanding in the new combined company, DataGene
holders will own 29 pct, and Ventana and others will own 13
pct.
    It said the remaining nine pct will be held by Milex
shareholder Norman Monson, who will become chief executive
officer of the combined companies.
 Reuter

<National Bank of Canada> said it is
issuing 25 mln dlrs worth of mortgage-backed securities
recognized by the federal government's Canada Mortgage and
Housing Corp.
    The bank said the issue is divided into two pools--one
bearing annual interest of 8-3/4 pct and the other 8-5/8 pct,
with interest calculated semi-annually and paid monthly.
    It said the securities are available in denominations of
5,000 dlrs for a term of slightly less than five years.
    Underwriters are (Levesque, Beaubien Inc), and (McLeod
Young Weir Ltd).
    National Bank said the issue is part of a program by Canada
Mortgage and Housing, introduced late last year, which provides
investors with high quality securities similar to government
bonds but with a higher rate of return.
 Reuter

A special meeting of the International
Coffee Organization (ICO) council failed to agree on how to set
coffee export quotas, ICO delegates said.
    Producers and consumers could not find common ground on the
issue of quota distribution in eight days of arduous, often
heated talks, delegates said.
    Export quotas -- the major device of the International
Coffee Agreement to stabilise prices -- were suspended a year
ago after coffee prices soared in reaction to a drought in
Brazil which cut its output by two thirds.
    Delegates and industry representatives predicted coffee
prices could plummet more than 100 stg a tonne to new four year
lows tomorrow in response to the results of the meeting.
 Reuter

French industry is failing to produce the
goods its markets need and its loss of competitiveness has left
the government little room for manoeuvre to reflate the
economy, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development said.
    With gross domestic product likely to grow only 2.1 pct
this year, the same rate as last year, unemployment could climb
to 11.5 pct of the workforce by mid-1988, from its present 10.9
pct, it said in an annual review of the French economy.
    The report said the French economy was "increasingly
ill-adapted to demand" selling goods at "uncompetitive relative
prices on both domestic and export markets."
    "France's poor export performance reflects a geographical
bias in favour of markets less dynamic than the average...
And...A substantial loss of market share...In the past 18
months," it said.
    Pointing to a likely widening of the French trade deficit
to around 2.9 billion dlrs this year from 2.4 billion in 1986,
it warned that a further depreciation of the dollar against the
franc could lead to "a (renewed) loss of competitiveness
relative not only to the United States but also to the newly
industrialised countries."
    This could result in further major losses of market share,
particularly in the non-OECD area, which accounts for almost a
quarter of French exports, it said.
    Until the competitive ability of industry improved, the
authorities would have "little scope for macroeconomic
manoeuvre, even if the unemployment situation or the need to
encourage a pickup in investment could require demand to grow
more briskly," it added.
    But rising unemployment could help to hold down wage
demands, contributing to a slowdown in inflation to around a
two pct annual rate this year and early next, the OECD said.
    Written mainly in December last year, the report took no
account of a rise in oil prices early in 1987, and a 0.9 pct
surge in January consumer prices, caused partly by the
government's deregulation of service sector tariffs.
    "We took a bet that the freeing of prices would not provoke
runaway rises, and it is not absolutely certain that bet has
been lost," one OECD official commented.
    OECD officials said the January data and a rise in oil
prices above the 15 dlrs a barrel average assumed in the
report, indicated an upward revision in the inflation forecast
to around 2.5 or three pct.
    The government last week revised its forecast up to between
2.4 and 2.5 pct from two pct, against last year's 2.1 pct.
    But the OECD backed the government's view that the
underlying trend for inflation remained downwards this year,
with a slowdown in domestic costs taking over from last year's
fall in oil and commodity prices as the chief cause of
disinflation.
    With French unit productivity costs now among the lowest in
the OECD area, the inflation differential between France and
its main trading rival, West Germany, could fall to just one
pct this year, it said.
    On the other hand, the report noted, consumer prices for
industrial goods and private services have been rising steeply
as companies built up their profits.
    "For the disinflationary process to continue , and price
competitiveness to become lastingly compatible with exchange
rate stability, it is essential that wage restraint continue,"
it said.
 REUTER

Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management
Inc, a New York investment firm and subsidiary of PaineWebber
Group Inc, said it raised its voting stake in Shaer Shoe Corp
to 76,000 shares, or 7.5 pct, from 52,100 shares, or 5.1 pct.
Mitchell Hutchins said it bought 11,900 shares between Jan 8
and Feb 24 at prices ranging from 12.125 to 12.75 dlrs a share
and obtained voting control over another 12,000 shares.
    The firm has said it bought the stake as an investment on
behalf of its clients, but said it has had discussions with
Shaer management. It did not disclose the topic of the talks.
 Reuter

Oracle Systems Corp said it
plans to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission
to offer two mln share of its common stock.
    If these shares, about 1.5 mln shares woll by sold by the
company and up to 500,000 shares by be sold by certain
    Oracle, which recently announced a two-for-one stock split,
said it will have about 28 mln shares outstanding after the
offering.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 3,454,000 vs 2,224,000
    Revs 33.2 mln vs 28.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 6,935,000 vs 3,877,000
    Revs 86.8 mln vs 70.9 mln
 Reuter

Cousins Home Furnishings Inc said it
obtained a 5.0-mln-dlr working capital line of credit from
Lloyds Bank PLC, through its Los Angeles branch.
    The credit is supported by a guarantee from the company's
Canadian affiliate, The Brick Warehouse Ltd, which will receive
200,000-dlrs worth of the company's stock.
    The line of credit, which expires in July, 1989, will be
used to pay off a 1,750,000-dlr working capital loan the
company owes Wells Farg Bank.
 Reuter

Shr profit 14 cts vs profit two cts
    Net profit 452,723 vs profit 50,581
    Revs 5,065,543 vs 2,898,363
    Year
    Shr profit 45 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net profit 1,276,472 vs loss 340,081
    Revs 16.0 mln vs 9,304,466
 Reuter

Rexnord Inc said it will redeem
all of its preferred stock purchase rights for 10 cts a right
effective today.
    Rexnord said the rights will be redeemed because it is
expected its shares will be tendered under a January 30
takeover offer from Banner Acquisition Corp. The rights trade
in tandem with Rexnord's common stock.
 Reuter

(Groupe Cantrex Inc) said it plans to
merge a new wholly-owned subsidiary a merger agreement with
(CAP Appliance Purchasers Inc), of Woodstock, Ontario, a group
of about 400 appliance and electronics retailers.
    It said CAP shareholders will receive 140,700 first
preferred Groupe Cantrex shares entitling the holders to
receive 6.05 dlrs per share or the equivilant in class A
subordinate voting Cantrex shares.
    The merger is effective April one and is subject to
shareholder approval.         
 Reuter

Two affiliated investment firms and
the investment funds they control said they raised their
combined stake in LDBrinkman Corp to 653,600 shares, or 10.9
pct of the total outstanding from 585,600 shares, or 9.7 pct.
Fidelity International Ltd, a Bermuda-based firm, said its
funds bought 68,000 LDBrinkman common shares between Jan 5 and
Feb 19 at prices ranging from 5.30 to 5.445 dlrs a share.
    Funds controlled by FMR Corp, a Boston-based investment
firm affiliated with Fidelity, hold 251,100 shares, bringing
the combined total to 653,600 shares, Fidelity said.
 Reuter

Hartford Insurance Group, a unit
of New York-based ITT Corp, said higher worldwide premiums help
boost net income for the 1986 fourth quarter to 88.6 mln dlrs,
from net income of 36.7 mln dlrs for the 1985 quarter.
   For the full year, Hartford said it earned 329 mln dlrs, up
from 151.4 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Hartford said results for the year were aided by a gain of
46.5 mln dlrs on the sale of its remaining 52 pct stake in
Abbey Life Group PLC. For 1985, the company posted a gain of
14.3 mln dlrs on the sale of 48 pct of Abbey Life.
    Hartford said total property-casualty and life-health
written premiums rose 25 pct in 1986, to eight billion dlrs,
from 6.4 billion dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

The federal Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) is looking for possible securities laws
violations in connection with an unsuccessful 1986 bid by
Hollywood producer Burt Sugarman to take over TRE Corp,
attorneys contacted by SEC investigators said.
    During the takeeover attempt, a unit of Sugarman's Giant
Group Ltd at one point held a 9.9 pct stake in TRE.
    It had help in that effort from Jefferies Group Inc, a Los
Angeles investment banking firm which sold it an option on a
portion of the shares Sugarman eventually acquired.
    In addition, a company controlled by Sugarman raised 35 mln
dlrs in a debt offering underwritten by Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc with help from Jefferies, and used a portion of the
proceeds to buy TRE stock.
    Finally, Reliance Group Holdings Inc acquired nearly six
pct of TRE, according to an SEEC filing.
    The attorneys, who asked not to be identified, said the SEC
was investigating whether Sugarman and other firms with TRE
holdings were working together without disclosing their
cooperation, as would be required by the federal securities
laws.
    One attorney said SEC probers also were examining whether
Sugarman and Drexel had made adequate disclosures of its
intended usage of the proceeds in the prospectus for the 35 mln
dlr bond offering.
    A TRE spokesman confirmed that TRE, since December a unit
of Aluminum Co of America, had been contacted by SEC
investigators and was cooperating with the probe.
    The spokesman added that TRE Chairman Leopold Wyler had
been interviewed by the SEC probers.
    A Jefferies spokesman said the SEC had asked for
information a few months ago as part of an informal probe.
    The spokesman said Jefferies had cooperated with the agency
and had heard nothing more since that time.
    "To the best of our knowledge, Jefferies is not the target
of a formal SEC investigation" in connection with the TRE bid,
he said.
    A Drexel spokesman acknowledged that his firm had
underwritten the debt offering for Sugarman but added:
    "We had nothing to do with TRE."
    As a matter of policy, the SEC routinely declines to
comment on its enforcement activities.
 Reuter

Last week's White House shake-up has
increased the odds that Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul
Volcker, a symbol of strength in a government reeling from the
arms-to-Iran scandal, will serve a third term, sources close to
the Fed say.
    But they said that no decision on the appointment, which
must be filled this August, has been taken by the White House
and Volcker too has not made up his mind.
    Former White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who
resigned last week when ex-senator Howard Baker was named as
his replacement, was implacably opposed to Volcker and tried
often to undermine him.
    It is an open secret in Washington that Regan tried to
ensure that Volcker, first appointed in 1979 by President
Carter, will not be offered a third term by President Reagan.
    Only Volcker's key allies in the Reagan administration,
Vice-President George Bush and Treasury Secretary James Baker,
kept Regan's recent maneuvering at bay, the sources said.
    Sources close to the administration say Regan leaked a
story, quickly shot down by others in the administration, that
Beryl Sprinkel, chairman of the council of economic advisers,
had been chosen to replace Volcker.
    But as the administration's credibility was increasingly
under fire, it became clear that Regan's power to bring about
such changes was on the wane.
    The sources said New White House Chief of Staff Howard
Baker has a very good relationship with his namesake at the
Treasury Department and is likely to respect his views on the
Fed chairmanship.
    As a moderate Republican, Baker is also unlikely to share
the right-wing's opposition to Volcker.
    "This new White House is going to need all the strength it
can get," said one source when asked about the possibility of
Volcker's reappointment.
    Paul Volcker is deeply respected in financial markets both
in the United States and around the world. At a time when the
stability of the dollar and the viability of major debtor
nations are in question, Volcker's departure would definitely
undermine U.S. leadership, foreign exchange analysts say.
    U.S. officials say Volcker works very closely with Treasury
Secretary Baker on issues like international debt and global
economic cooperation.
    The two men seem only to differ on how far to deregulate
the banking industry, but recent statements by Volcker, in
which he adopted a more liberal attitude on deregulation,
signalled the politically-independent central bank is coming
around at least partially to the Treasury position.
    And a recent statement by a Reagan administration official
that the two men saw "exactly eye-to-eye" on the dollar was seen
as an indication of Baker's support for the Fed chairman.
    Baker is understood to have played a key role in Volcker's
reappointment to the Fed in mid-1983.
    The sources said Baker respects Volcker and when appointed
Treasury Secretary in February 1985, he decided to ensure a
good working relationship, in part because he believed the two
key government economic institutions have to work closely.
    Regan, Treasury Secretary during President Reagan's first
term, was formerly head of Wall Street's largest brokerage firm
Merrill Lynch and came to Washington determined to be America's
pre-eminent economic spokesman.
    He developed a deep antipathy for Volcker, whose political
skills undermined that ambition, and who financial markets took
much more seriously.
    But the sources said Volcker would have to be invited to
stay. "Is the president going to ask him? he wouldn't stay
otherwise," said one. "He'd have to be asked," said Stephen
Axilrod, formerly staff director of monetary policy at the Fed
and now vice-chairman of Nikko Securities Co. International.
    Otherwise, the list of potential candidates is not
awe-inspiring. And if Volcker left this Augsut, he would leave
behind one of the most inexperienced Fed Boards in years.
    Many analysts believe this lack of collective experience --
the four sitting members were all appointed within the last
three years -- is dangerous, coming at a time when the global
economy is threatened by instability.
    An experienced successor, therefore, would seem a
necessity. One widely mentioned possibility is Secretary of
State George Shultz, whose experience as Treasury Secretary
under Preesident Nixon and background as a trained economist
would make him ideal.
    But Shultz too may have been damaged by the arms-to-Iran
scandal, while vice-chairman Manuel Johnson is regarded at 37
years old as too young for the job.
    Other potential candidates include economist Alan
Greenspan, frequently an informal presidential economic
adviser, New York Fed President E. Gerald Corrigan, Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp chairman William Seidman, and Sprinkel.
    Long a Regan protege, Sprinkel's chances may be damaged by
his patron's departure from the White House.
 Reuter

February volume at the Chicago Board of
Trade, CBT, declined 14 pct from the year-ago month to
8,191,266 contracts, the exchange said.
    A relatively steady interest rate climate reduced volume in
the most active contract, Treasury bond futures, by 17.5 pct
from a year ago to 4,307,645 contracts.
    However, trading in most agricultural futures contracts
increased last month, led by oats and corn futures.
    Oats volume tripled to 27,662 contracts, and corn volume
increased 35 pct to 580,204 contracts. Wheat and soybean oil
futures activity also rose from a year ago, while soybean and
soybean oil volume slipped, the exchange said.
    Major Market Index futures increased activity 37 pct during
the month with 194,697 contracts changing hands.
 Reuter

Grain trade representatives continued
to speculate that the Reagan administration will offer
subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union, while U.S. Agriculture
Department officials said there was no substance to the
reports.
    "It's pure fiction," said one senior official at USDA's
Foreign Agricultural Service, referring to the rumor that the
administration would make an export enhancement offer to Moscow
in the next two to three weeks.
    An aide to Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng who asked not
to be identified said there was nothing to substantiate the
speculation, which he said was started by "somebody fanning the
(wheat) market." Wheat futures strengthened today, partly on the
basis of the speculation.
    One lobbyist with close connections to the Reagan
administration said a Soviet trade team told private grain
trade officials in New York last week that Moscow would buy as
much as four mln tonnes of U.S. wheat, much of it before
mid-year, if it was "competitively priced."
    Alexander Ivlev, an official with Amtorg, a Soviet trading
organization, told Reuters he had no information to
substantiate the rumors of an imminent wheat subsidy offer, but
said that Moscow "would consider" buying U.S. wheat if it was
competitively priced.
    "We don't care if it is EEP, what we (the Soviets) are
looking for is competitive prices," Ivlev said. "If they (the
administration) are interested in selling it (wheat), they
should find ways to do it."
 Reuter

Canadian seafarers are almost certain
to go on strike this spring in a refusal to meet rollbacks in
wages and benefits asked for by their employers, Seafarers'
International Union official Roman Gralewicz said.
    "It's 99.9 percent--I guarantee you a strike," Gralewicz
said in an interview.
    The union represents about 2,300 workers on the Great Lakes
and Canada's East and West coasts. Contract talks broke off in
January and a conciliator has been appointed to try to help
settle the dispute. The current contract expires at the end of
March.
    The seafarers' employers are also asking for a reduction in
crew levels, a move which the union said would cost about 400
jobs.
 Reuter

Reuters Holdings PLC said its Reuters
Information Services Inc unit will join <Real Estate Financing
Partnership>, Philadelphia, to offer an electronic market
access system for commercial property financing.
    Reuters said the system, named Real Estate Select View
Program, or RSVP, will use its private communications network
to provide a confidential method for the purchasing, selling
and financing of commercial property.
    The system, set for testing in August in selected U.S.
cities, is expected to be operational 90 days after initial
testing, Reuters said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 22 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Oper net loss 1,626,000 vs pofit 702,000
    Revs 98.3 mln vs 105.1 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr profit 18 cts vs profit 82 cts
    Oper net profit 1,293,000 vs profit 5,940,000
    Revs 396.2 mln vs 396.7 mln
    Note: Oper net excludes loss from discontinued operations
of 2,112,000 dlrs or 39 cts a share for year-ago qtr and
2,036,000 dlrs or 1.10 dlrs a share for year-ago 12 mths.
 Reuter

Contracting for future construction
work declined by three pct in January to an annualized rate of
236.1 billion dlrs, a report on the industry said.
    The report by the F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill
Information Systems Co said a 10 pct reversal of nonbuilding
construction was largely responsible for the month's setback
from December's higher level.
    Residential building eased three pct in January, while
contracts for commercial, industrial and institutional
buildings rebounded slightly, according to the report.
    Nonbuilding construction, which soared to an annualized
rate of 47.8 billion dlrs in December when last year's only
major electric power plant was started, fell back 10 pct to
43.1 billion.
    Dodge said contracting for highway and bridge construction
advanced five pct in January. However, available funding for
1987 construction could dry up if Congress fails to act after
the Federal highway program runs out of carryover spending
authority.
    Nonresidential buildings edged up one pct in January to an
annualized rate of 77.6 billion. Contracting for institutional
structures, such as schools and health facilities, was the
reason for the gain, the report said.
    Residential building was valued at 115.4 billion dlrs in
January, a decrease of three pct from December's seasonally
adjusted rate, the report stated. However, demand will be
strong for single-family units supported by falling mortgage
rates, but multi-family buildings will not be in high demand as
a result of the tax reform, according to the report.
 Reuter

    Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Net 32.4 mln vs 33.5 mln
    Revs 629.0 mln vs 538.6 mln
    Avg shrs 32.1 mln vs 29.2 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.35 dlrs vs 2.29 dlrs
    Net 74.5 mln vs 66.9 mln
    Revs 1.85 billion vs 1.60 billion
    Avg shrs 31.7 mln vs 29.2 mln
    Note: Shr/avg shrs data show 2-for-1 split in Nov. 1985.
 Reuter

European Community (EC) farm ministers
were fighting hard early today to prevent a deal on cutting
overflowing milk production from turning sour before trying to
agree widescale reforms in other surplus sectors.
    Meanwhile, protests from angry European farmers over
successive attempts to scale down unwanted Community food
production appeared to be gathering strength.
    In the northeastern Spanish city of Saragossa thousands of
Spanish farmers battled with police during a march to demand a
better deal from Brussels.
    The farmers traded stones for tear gas and rubber pellets
and occupied local government buildings while in the southern
city of Malaga, citrus growers dumped more 20 tonnes of lemons
on the streets in protest at EC duties.
    Towards the end of last week, about 10,000 angry West
German farmers marched through the streets of Hanover burning
effigies of Agriculture Minister Ignaz Kiechle while in France
pig-farmers barricaded roads in protest at falling prices.
    Europe's 12 mln farmers are furious over plans by the
European Commission to cut subsidised prices and severely limit
farmers' automatic right to sell unwanted food into public
stores at high guaranteed EC prices.
    In the toughest-ever proposals for the annual price review,
at which EC ministers set the levels of subsidies, Agriculture
Commissioner Frans Andriessen has included measures that could
result in price cuts for some products of up to 11 pct.
    The plans form part of an on-going campaign to reform
surplus-creating farm policies that have become a political
embarrassment at home and commercial flash-point abroad and
threatened to leave the Community with no cash for other areas.
    Andriessen's latest package comes only months after a
decision to cut dairy production by 9.5 pct over two years and
to slash beef prices by around 10 pct.
    That decision, agreed in outline last December after
virtually nine days of non-stop negotiations, was hailed as the
most significant step yet in the reform offensive, but has
since run into difficulties over the fine print.
    West Germany and Ireland are objecting to the new rules
governing the sales of surplus butter into cold stores, but the
Commission is loathe to abandon its position as the accord has
been used as the inspiration for Andriessen's latest package.
    Ministers failed yesterday to overcome the problem, and
resumed negotiations in a bid to finalise the details before
starting the price review which is confidently predicted to
last many months.
    EC farm spending currently swallows two thirds of an
overall annual budget of around 40 billion dlrs and is almost
entirely blamed for a projected budget shortfall later this
year of some 5.7 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Calny Inc said it has filed a
multi-million-dlr suit against PepsiCo Inc and its La Petite
Boulangerie unit.
    Calny, which holds 15 La Petite Boulangerie franchises,
alleges it and PepsiCo breached their agreements with Calny by
failing to support the franchises in a number of ways.
    The company further alleges that PepsiCo and La Petite
Boulangerie had fiduciary responsibilities to Calny because of
the longstanding relationship between Calny and Taco Bell, also
a PepsiCo subsidiary. Calny operates 143 Taco Bell restaurants.
    Calny said Pepsico misrepresented the readiness of the La
Petite Boulangerie to expand outside San Francisco and
misrepresented costs involved in operating the restaurants.
 Reuter

Braniff Inc said its load factor, or
precentage of seats filled, was 50.5 pct in February, up
slightly from 50.2 pct for the same month last year.
    Braniff said traffic for the month rose 44 pct, to 210.5
mln revenue passenger miles, from 146.2 mln a year ago. A
revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile.
    The airline said capacity for February was up 43.3 pct, to
417.2 mln available seat miles, from 291.1 mln in 1986.
    Year to date, it said load factor was 50.5 pct vs 48.3 pct,
traffic was 436 mln revenue passenger miles vs 295.4 mln and
capacity was 863.3 mln available seat miles vs 611.4 mln.
 Reuter

Kentucky Central Life Insurance
Co said it declared a semi-annual dividend of 55 cts per share,
payable March 31 to shareholders or record March 19.
    The dividend is equal to the company's previous semi-annual
payout.
 Reuter

Qtly div 28 cts vs 28 cts prior
    Pay April 20
 Reuter

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment
rate rose to a record 3.0 pct in January, the worst since the
Government started compiling unemployment statistics under its
current system in 1953, up from the previous record 2.9 pct in
December, the government's Management and Coordination Agency
said.
    Unemployment was up from 2.8 pct a year earlier.
    Unadjusted January unemployment totalled 1.82 mln people,
up from 1.61 mln in December and 1.65 mln a year earlier.
    Male unemployment in January remained at 2.9 pct, equal to
the second-worst level set last December. Record male
unemployement of 3.1 pct was set in July 1986.
    Female unemployment in January remained at 3.0 pct, equal
to the record level marked in April, August, September and
December last year.
    January's record 3.0 pct unemployment rate mainly stemmed
from loss of jobs in manufacturing industries, particularly in
export-related firms, due to the yen's continuing appreciation
against the dollar, officials said.
    Employment in manufacturing industries fell 380,000 from a
year earlier to 14.30 mln including 1.83 mln employed in the
textile industry, down 190,000 from a year earlier, and 1.06
mln in transport industries such as carmakers and shipbuilders,
down 170,000.
 REUTER

Ford Europe's net earnings soared by 71
per cent last year to 559 mln dlrs, Kenneth Whipple, chairman
of Ford Europe, said.
    Whipple, here to attend the Geneva Auto Show which opens on
Thursday, said that the Ford Motor Co unit had sold a record
1.5 million vehicles in Europe in 1986.
    Net earnings were 326 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Sales in 1986 represented 11.8 per cent of the European
market share, Whipple said. Ford will invest 1.2 billion
dollars in Europe in 1987, and a total of seven billion over
the next seven years, he added.
 Reuter

President Reagan's nominee as
director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Robert
Gates, withdrew his name from consideration by the Senate in
the face of a long battle for confirmation.
    His withdrawal was announced at a White House news
conference by Reagan's new Chief-of-Staff, Howard Baker, who
said the President had accepted it with great regret.
    Gates, now deputy head of the CIA, had been questioned
about CIA involvement in the Iran-contra scandal and leading
senators had warned his nomination was in trouble. Baker said
Gates would remain as deputy director of the spy agency.
 REUTER

South Korea's index of leading indicators
fell 0.1 pct to 164.1 (base 1980) in December after a 0.1 pct
rise in November, representing a 16.1 pct year-on-year gain
from December 1985, Economic Planning Board provisional figures
show.
    The index is based on 10 indicators which include export
values, letters of credit received, warehouse stocks, M-1 and
M-3 money supply figures and the composite stock exchange
index.
 REUTER

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping told
visiting U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz China's recent
troubles were over.
    The two discussed Washington's scandal over U.S. Arms sales
to Iran and China's political situation after the fall of
Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang.
    Deng said: "I know the President has had some difficulties
but I think now it doesn't matter. When one is running a
government one has to deal with troubles."
    "As for the troubles we recently encountered, they are over,"
Deng added.
 REUTER

The yen should stabilize at around
152 to 153 to the U.S. Dollar for about a year, the Bank of
Tokyo's economic adviser Koei Narusawa said.
    "Both sides are showing clear interest to secure stability
of the currencies. The major target of the Japanese government
is to maintain the yen at above 150, at least for the rest of
the year," he told reporters during a brief visit to Malaysia.
    Narusawa said the U.S. Is unlikely to push the yen up
further because this might spark off inflation and depress the
U.S. Economy before the 1988 presidential election.
    The yen is trading at around 153.70 to the dollar.
 REUTER

Opec remains within its agreed output
ceiling of 15.8 mln barrels a day, and had expected current
fluctuations in the spot market of one or two dlrs, Indonesian
Energy Minister Subroto said.
    He told reporters after meeting with President Suharto that
present weakness in the spot oil market was the result of
warmer weather in the U.S. And Europe which reduced demand for
oil.
    Prices had also been forced down because refineries were
using up old stock, he said.
    He denied that Opec was exceeding its agreed production
ceiling. Asked what Opec's output level was now, he replied:
"Below 15.8 (mln barrels per day)." He did not elaborate.
    He said there appeared to have been some attempts to
manipulate the market, but if all Opec members stick by the
cartel's December pricing agreement it would get through
present price difficulties.
    He predicted that prices would recover again in the third
and fourth quarters of 1987.
    He also reiterated that there was no need for an emergency
Opec meeting.
    He said Opec had expected to see some fluctuations in the
spot price. "We hope the weak price will be overcome, and
predict the price will be better in the third and fourth
quarters."
    Refiners, he said, appeared to have used up old stock
deliberately to cause slack demand in the market and the price
to fall. But Opec would get through this period if members
stuck together.
 REUTER

The government's industry aid and
protection review body, the Industries Assistance Commission
(IAC), will hold a 12-month inquiry into the Australian wheat
industry, Primary Industry Minister John Kerin said.
    The IAC has been asked to report on the need for assistance
to the industry and the nature, duration and extent of any aid,
he said in a statement.
    He said the inquiry will be the first step in setting
marketing arrangements to apply after June 30, 1989, when the
underwriting and pricing provisions of the 1984 Wheat Marketing
Act expire.
    Kerin said the broad-ranging reference would allow a full
examination of all aspects of the wheat-marketing system.
    "The inquiry will be required to take into account changes
which have taken place in the industry as a result of the
agricultural policies of major wheat producing countries and
the industry's capacity to adjust to any recommended changes,"
he said.
    "The inquiry is at an important time for the wheat industry,
as the substantial fall in world prices is likely to trigger
underwriting support from the government for the first time," he
said.
    Kerin was referring to the government's underwriting of the
guaranteed minimum price paid to wheatgrowers by the Australian
Wheat Board near the start of the season.
    The IAC's report will be due at the same time as the
findings of the current Royal Commission into Grain Storage,
Handling and Transport, Kerin said.
    He said the timing of the IAC inquiry would allow its
findings and those of the Royal Commission to be considered in
later negotiations on wheat-marketing arrangements between the
federal and state governments and the industry.
 REUTER

The failure of the International Coffee
Organization (ICO) to reach agreement on coffee export quotas
could trigger a massive selloff in London coffee futures of at
least 100 stg per tonne today, coffee trade sources said.
    Prices could easily drop to as low as 1.00 dlr or even 80
cents a lb this year from around 1.25 dlrs now, they said.
    A special meeting between importing and exporting countries
ended in a deadlock late yesterday after eight days of talks
over how to set the quotas. No further meeting to discuss
quotas was set, delegates said.
    Quotas, the major device used to stabilize prices under the
International Coffee Agreement, were suspended a year ago after
prices soared following a damaging drought in Brazil.
    With no propects for quotas in sight, heavy producer
selling initially and a price war among commercial coffee
roasting companies will ensue, the trade sources predicted.
    Lower prices are sure to trickle down to the supermarket
shelf this spring, coffee dealers said.
    The U.S. And Brazil, the largest coffee importer and
exporter respectively, each laid the blame on the other for the
breakdown of the talks.
    Jon Rosenbaum, U.S. Assistant trade representative and
delegate to the talks, said in a statement after the council
adjourned, "A majority of producers, led by Brazil, were not
prepared to negotiate a new distribution based on objective
criteria.
    "We want to insure that countries receive export quotas
based on their ability to supply the market, instead of their
political influence in the ICO."
    Brazilian Coffee Institute (IBC) President Jorio Dauster
countered, "Negotiations failed because consumers tried to
dictate quotas, not negotiate them."
    Previously, quotas were determined by historical amounts
exported, which gave Brazil a 30 pct share of a global market
of about 58 mln 60-kilo bags. A majority of producers wanted
quotas to continue under this basic scheme.
    But most consumers and a maverick group of eight producers
proposed carving up the export market on the basis of
exportable production and stocks, which would reduce Brazil's
share to 28.8 pct.
    Consumer delegates said this method would reflect changes
in many countries' export capabilities and make coffee more
readily available to consumers when they need it.
    A last-minute attempt by Colombia, the second largest
exporter, to rescue the talks with a compromise interim
proposal could not bring the two sides together.
    Delegates speculated Brazil's financial problems,
illustrated by its recent suspension of interest payments on
bank debt, have increased political pressure on the country to
protect its coffee export earnings.
    Developing coffee-producing countries that depend heavily
on coffee earnings, particularly some African nations and
Colombia, are likely to be hurt the most by the ICO's failure
to agree quotas, analysts said.
    The expected drop in prices could result in losses of as
much as three billion dlrs in a year, producer delegates
forecast.
    The ICO executive board will meet March 31, but the full
council is not due to meet again until September, delegates
said.
 REUTER

early today abandoned talks aimed at saving an agreement on
cutting excessive milk production after making no progress in
over 12 hours of negotiations.
    The ministers will resume talks at 10.00 local time in a
bid to clear the way for a full-scale review of proposed
reforms for other surplus sectors.
    Diplomats said member states were unable to settle
differences over new rules limiting farmers' automatic right to
sell unwanted butter at high guaranteed prices into EC cold
stores. West Germany and Ireland are opposed to the steps.
 REUTER

President Reagan's approval rating fell
after the Tower Commission criticised his handling of the Iran
arms scandal, a New York Times/CBS poll indicates.
    The poll found 51 pct of those surveyed thought he was
lying when he said he did not remember if he had approved the
original arms sales to Iran and 35 pct thought he was telling
the truth.
    The poll found 42 pct of those surveyed approved Reagan's
handling of his job and 46 pct disapproved. The approval rating
was the lowest since January 1983, when 41 pct approved of the
way Reagan was doing his job.
 REUTER

Earthquakes and aftershocks are still
shaking areas of northern New Zealand following yesterday's
strong tremor which left 3,000 people homeless.
    Four earthquakes measuring up to 4.5 on the Richter scale
have hit the Bay of Plenty and Waikato region in the north-east
since midnight yesterday (1200 GMT).
    No casualties have been reported and no further major
damage, civil defence sources said. Twenty-five people were
treated for bone fractures after yesterday's shock.
    A government seismologist said from Rotorua in the North
Island some five tremors were being recorded every 10 minutes.
    Today's quakes were felt over an area of 100 square km, the
seismologist added.
    A state of civil defence emergency in the area was declared
yesterday and is still in force, with schools closed and access
to the worst-hit towns of Edgecumbe, Whakatane and the forestry
town of Kawerau severely restricted.
    Yesterday's quake measured 6.25 on the Richter scale.
    The seismologist said if the pattern of other large
earthquakes was followed the shocks would continue for one to
several weeks, declining in frequency and magnitude. But the
chance of a further large shock could not be ruled out.
    Civil defence officials said major roadslips and landslides
in the area are being cleared, with power and water restored to
most areas. Rail lines twisted by earth movements are being
repaired.
    Prime Minister David Lange visited the region today before
flying to Auckland to attend a South Pacific Forum conference
of foreign ministers.
    A small force of troops was moved into the area to assist
civil defence workers and volunteers. Civil defence sources
said people would shortly begin to return to their homes when
the buildings are declared safe.
 REUTER

New Zealand's current account deficit
for the quarter ended December 31, 1986 narrowed to 567 mln
dlrs from 738 mln, revised down from 742 mln, for the September
quarter and from 733 mln a year earlier, the statistics
    The deficit for the year ended December narrowed to 2.75
billion dlrs from 2.91 billion dlrs, revised down from 2.92
billion, for the year ended September. The deficit for calendar
1985 was 2.61 billion.
    The December quarter showed a 182 mln dlr surplus for
merchandise trade, unchanged from the September quarter surplus
which was revised down from 271 mln dlrs. The 1985 December
quarter showed a 13 mln dlr deficit.
    Imports for the December 1986 quarter were 2.655 billion
against 2.883 billion in the September quarter and 2.454 a year
earlier. Exports were 2.837 billion against 3.065 billion and
2.440 billion.
    Imports for the year ended December 1986 were 10.74 billion
dlrs compared with 11.14 billion in 1985. Exports were 11.20
billion against 11.36 billion.
    Government borrowing stood at 9.26 billion dlrs for
calendar 1986 against 3.15 billion for 1985. Borrowing in the
December quarter rose to 3.92 billion from 1.79 in the
September quarter and 611 mln a year earlier.
    Repayments stood at 5.5 billion for the year, up from 3.1
billion in 1985. Repayments in the December quarter accounted
for 1.4 billion dlrs against 260 mln in the September quarter
and 334 mln a year earlier.
    Official reserves totalled 7.205 billion dlrs at end
December compared with 4.723 billion at end September and 3.255
billion one year earlier.
 REUTER

<American Airlines Inc> is expected to
announce purchases from <Airbus Industrie>, Boeing Co <BA> and
General Electric Co <GE> amounting to 2.5 billion dlrs, the New
York Times said.
    The paper quoted unnamed industry sources as saying
American will buy 25 wide-bodied planes from Airbus, 15
wide-bodies from Boeing and 80 engines from GE. It said
American split the order between Airbus and Boeing to get
better prices and conditions.
    It said the 80 CF6-80C2 engines are worth more than five
mln dlrs each.
 REUTER

Equity investment company <Battery
Group Ltd> said it had agreed to buy <Occidental Life Insurance
Co of Australia Ltd> from TransAmerica Corp <TA> of the U.S.
For 105 mln Australian dlrs.
    The acquisition has been made possible by the efforts of
its major shareholder, <Pratt and Co Financial Services Pty
Ltd>, Battery Group said in a statement.
    The purchase will be partly funded by the issue of eight
mln shares at 4.50 dlrs each and four mln free options to the
Pratt Group, controlled by entrepreneur Dick Pratt, plus four
mln shares to professional investors at 4.50 each, it said.
    The balance will be funded by debt, Battery Group said.
    The acquisition is subject to the approval of its
    On completion of the share placements, Pratt Group will
effectively have 51 pct of Battery's enlarged capital, assuming
exercise of all options, it said. Battery now has 22 mln shares
on issue.
    Battery said Occidental Life is a major underwriter of
individual term life insurance and a recent but fast-growing
entrant in the individual account superannuation market.
    It has some 200 mln dlrs in funds under management.
 REUTER

Net 138.20 mln dlrs vs 87.80 mln.
    Shr 24.8 cents vs 17.8
    Final div to announced after July 1, vs final 10 cents
making 15.
    Sales revenue 4.81 billion vs 4.69 billion
    Investment income 116.93 mln vs 60.61 mln
    Shrs 494.35 mln vs 494.22 mln.
    NOTE - Net is after tax 171.03 mln dlrs vs 188.52 mln,
interest 337.39 mln vs 308.68 mln, depreciation 352.32 mln vs
333.05 mln but before net extraordinary loss 250.28 mln vs
profit 28.03 mln.
 REUTER

The Malaysian government said it
has re-imposed export duties on rubber at 3/8 cent per kilo
after the gazetted price moved above the threshold price of 210
cents per kilo.
    The gazetted price, effective March 1, rose to 213-1/2
cents per kilo from February's 207.
    The duty for research remains at 3.85 cents per kilo and
the replanting duty is also unchanged at 9.92 cents.
 REUTER

The government said it raised the
export duty on processed palm oil (PPO) to 64.06 ringgit per
tonne from 40.96 ringgit, effective from March 1.
    Export duty on crude palm oil (CPO) was unchanged at 16.06
ringgit per tonne.
    The gazetted price of PPO rose to 796.8604 ringgit per
tonne from 719.8286. That of CPO remained at 617.8238 ringgit.
    The export duty and gazetted price of palm kernel were left
unchanged at 191.15 and 955.75 ringgit per tonne respectively.
 REUTER

Net profit 57.1 mln dlrs vs loss 69.1 mln.
    Net is equity accounted
    Pre-equity accounted net 39.90 mln dlrs vs loss 49.11 mln
    Pre-equity shr profit 7.1 cents vs loss 8.7
    Final div to be announced after July 1 vs first and final
1.0 cent.
    Sales 1.88 billion vs 1.78 billion
    Other income 52.75 mln vs 15.22 mln
    Shrs 560.61 mln vs same.
    NOTE - Net is after tax paid 46.85 mln dlrs vs credit 5.02
mln, interest 127.68 mln vs 117.19 mln, depreciation 109.29 mln
vs 100.73 mln and minorities 1.50 mln vs loss 331,000.
    But net is before net extraordinary loss 140.5 mln vs nil.
Extraordinaries comprise exchange losses 102.9 mln, provision
for Goldendale smelter closure costs 27.3 mln and increase in
future tax provision 10.3 mln.
 REUTER

Japanese investor interest in British
gilt-edged securities is growing rapidly due to expectations
sterling will remain stable despite the drop in oil prices, and
on calculations gilt prices will firm, bond managers said.
    Japanese, British and U.S. Securities houses have been
expanding inventories of gilts to meet demand from investors
seeking capital gains, including city and trust banks, which
have been active on the U.S. Treasury market, they said.
    Dealing demand for gilts with coupons around 10 pct has
been getting stronger, the general manager of the local office
of a British securities firm said.
    On the other hand, major long-term investors such as
Japanese insurance companies are not very enthusiastic about
buying British securities ahead of the March 31 close of the
Japanese financial year, traders said.
    These investors, who must convert yen into sterling through
dollars for British securities purchases, appear to be buying
in London rather than in Tokyo, a bond manager for a British
securities house said.
    The sterling/yen rate was about 240.34/44 today, up from
234.50 at the start of the calendar year and a narrow range of
230 to 234 late last year.
    Many bond traders in Tokyo are doubtful that sterling will
further appreciate steeply. However, gilts may benefit from
further declines in U.K. Interest rates, they said.
    "The U.K. Government is in no hurry to issue more bonds,
suggesting further market improvement and continuing demand
from brokers here," said Laurie Milbank and Co assistant manager
Machiko Suzuki.
    She said she expected the yield on the actively traded
11-3/4 pct gilt due March 2007 to dip below 9.5 pct, against
9.581 pct at yesterday's close in London.
 REUTER

Japan's unemployment rate is expected to
continue to climb to about 3.5 pct within the next year from
January's three pct record, senior economists, including Susumu
Taketomi of Industrial Bank of Japan, said.
    December's 2.9 pct was the previous worst level since the
government's Management and Coordination Agency began compiling
statistics under its current system in 1953.
    "There is a general fear that we will become a country with
high unemployment," said Takashi Kiuchi, senior economist for
the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd.
    The government, which published the January unemployment
figures today, did not make any predictions.
    "At present we do not have a forecast for the unemployment
rate this year, but it is difficult to foresee the situation
improving," a Labour Ministry official said.
    Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said the government had
expected the increase and had set aside money to help 300,000
people find jobs in fiscal 1987 beginning in April.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone told a press conference
the record rate underlines the need to pass the 1987 budget
which has been held up by opposition to proposed tax reforms.
    The yen's surge has caused layoffs in the mainstay steel
and shipbuilding industries. Other export-dependent industries,
such as cars and textiles, have laid off part-time employees
and ceased hiring, economists said.
    Although the growing service industry sector has absorbed a
great number of workers the trend is starting to slow down,
said Koichi Tsukihara, Deputy General Manager of Sumitomo Bank
Ltd's economics department.
    However, other economists disagreed, saying the service
sector would be able to hire workers no longer needed by the
manufacturing sector over the next five years.
    The economists said the service sector should grow as the
government stimulates domestic demand under its program to
transform the economy away from exports.
    Although Japanese unemployment rates appear lower than
those of other industrialised nations, methods for calculating
statistics make them difficult to compare, economists warned.
    "The three pct figure  could translate into a relatively
high figure if European methods were used," one economist said.
More than half of January's 170,000 increase in jobless from a
year earlier were those aged between 15 and 24, Sumitomo's
Tsukihara said.
 REUTER

South Korea's customs-cleared trade
surplus narrowed to 110 mln dlrs in February from 525 mln in
January, provisional trade ministry figures show.
    In February 1986 there was a deficit of 264 mln dlrs.
    February exports rose to 2.87 billion dlrs, fob, from 2.83
billion in January and 2.30 billion in February 1986. CIF
imports were 2.76 billion against 2.31 billion in January and
2.57 billion in February last year.
 REUTER

Central bank governor Chang Chi-cheng
rejected a request by textile makers to halt the rise of the
Taiwan dollar against the U.S. Dollar to stop them losing
orders to South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, a spokesman for
the Taiwan Textile Federation said.
    He quoted Chang as telling representatives of 19 textile
associations last Saturday the government could not fix the
Taiwan dollar exchange rate at 35 to one U.S. Dollar due to
U.S. Pressure for an appreciation of the local currency.
    The Federation asked the government on February 19 to hold
the exchange rate at that level.
    The federation said in its request that many local textile
exporters were operating without profit and would go out of
business if the rate continued to fall.
    It said the Taiwan dollar has risen almost 14 pct against
the U.S. Dollar since September 1985 while the South Korean won
climbed only four pct. The Singapore and Hong Kong dollars
remained stable against the U.S. Unit in that period, it said.
    Many local bankers and economists predict Taiwan's dollar
will rise to between 32 and 33 per U.S. Dollar by year-end.
    Chang was quoted as saying this would depend on Taiwan's
ability to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. This year.
    The surplus widened to a record 13.6 billion U.S. Dlrs in
calendar 1986 from 10.2 billion in 1985, official figures show.
    Taiwan's textile exports fell by almost four pct in January
to 562 mln U.S. Dlrs from 583 mln in January 1986, the same
figures show.
    Textiles are Taiwan's second-largest export earner, after
electrical and electronic products.
    Textile exports surged to 7.8 billion U.S. Dlrs last year
from 6.2 billion in 1985. Exports to the U.S. Last year were
worth 2.8 billion U.S. Dlrs.
 REUTER

Egypt allowed five fugitive Libyan
soldiers who landed in a military plane in the far south of the
country last night to stay and flew them to Cairo, official
    It appeared the government had agreed to demands by the
five -- two officers and three privates -- for political asylum
but there was no immediate announcement.
    Official sources said Egyptian servicemen flew the Libyans
north from Abu Simbel in their C-130 transport plane. The
status of the sixth Libyan on board, the pilot, was not
immediately known.
 REUTER

The U.S. Wants Japan to eliminate import
controls on agricultural products within three years, visiting
U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Allen Wallis
told Eishiro Saito, Chairman of the Federation of Economic
Organisations (Keidanren), a spokesman for Keidanren said.
    The spokesman quoted Wallis as saying drastic measures
would be needed to stave off protectionist legislation by
Congress.
    Wallis, who is attending a sub-cabinet-level bilateral
trade meeting, made the remark yesterday in talks with Saito.
    Wallis was quoted as saying the Reagan Administration wants
Japanese cooperation so the White House can ensure any U.S.
Trade bill is a moderate one, rather than containing
retaliatory measures or antagonising any particular country.
    He was also quoted as saying the U.S. Would be pleased were
Japan to halve restrictions on agricultural imports within five
years if the country cannot cope with abolition within three,
the spokesman said.
    Japan currently restricts imports of 22 agricultural
products. A ban on rice imports triggered recent U.S.
Complaints about Japan's agricultural policy.
 REUTER

The Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) acted to tighten restrictions on microchip
exports to countries other than the U.S. To preserve a
U.S.-Japan pact on semiconductor trade, but major Japanese
chipmakers doubt its usefulness.
    A MITI spokesman said his ministry had asked chipmakers to
issue certificates to specified trading houses stating they are
authorised exporters.
    Trading houses applying for a MITI export licence will be
required to show such a certificate, but those without it will
not automatically be denied licences, he said.
    But some industry officials predicted any government
measures were likely to have limited effect as long as the
world semiconductor market remained weak.
    U.S. Government and industry officials have complained
repeatedly that Japanese chipmakers continue to sell at below
cost to third countries despite the July agreement.
    Japanese firms and officials in turn argue the flow of
cheap chips to third countries is due to grey-market sales by
third-party brokers, who seek to profit from the gap between
low prices in Japan and higher prices based on production costs
and set for Japanese makers under the agreement.
    The MITI spokesman said, "If the percentage of grey market
is increasing for one specific company, it suggests they are
distributing their products through their sales network knowing
they will be exported by some means. In that case we will ask
them what they are doing to reduce the figure."
    MITI earlier asked makers to cut output of certain chips by
10 pct in first-quarter 1987, spokesmen for the firms said.
    But they doubt the usefulness of the latest move. "As long
as there is a gap between prices set under the pact and market
prices, there will be people who want to exploit the gap to
make money," a Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T> spokesman said.
 REUTER

Finnish unemployment was 6.7 pct in
December last year compared with 6.8 pct in November and 6.1
pct in December 1985, the Central Statistical Office said.
    It said 173,000 people were unemployed in December 1986,
174,000 in November and 157,000 in December 1985.
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Thailand's improving economy will likely
cause foreign reserves to increase to at least five billion
dlrs by end-1987 from a record of nearly 4.2 billion at
end-February, private bankers said.
    Bank of Thailand statistics show foreign reserves rose to
3.95 billion at end-January from 3.03 billion a year earlier.
    Nimit Nonthapanthawat, chief economist at the <Bangkok Bank
Ltd>, said Thailand's strong export performance, its relatively
high interest rates, foreign participation in its stock market,
and growing foreign investment, especially from Japan,
contributed to the projected sharp rise.
    Thai exports rose 19.4 pct in 1986 and are expected to
expand another 15 pct this year, bankers said.
    A U.S. Embassy report said last month Thailand could
achieve five pct real gross domestic product growth in 1987, up
from a projection of 3.8 pct for 1986 and 3.7 pct in 1985.
    Nonthapanthawat said if economic growth continues at its
current pace and oil prices and major currencies remain stable
the five billion 1987 reserves target can easily be reached.
    Thailand calculates foreign reserves to include gold,
special drawing rights and convertible currencies. The target
is equivalent to five-and-a-half months' worth of imports.
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Sweden had a 1986 current balance of
payments surplus of 7.6 billion crowns compared with a deficit
of 10.1 billion the preceding year, according to preliminary
figures from the central bank.
    The December current account had a 100 mln crowns deficit
against a yearago 200 mln deficit.December trade balance was
2.3 billion surplus against yearago two billion.
    The trade balance showed a 1986 surplus of 33.2 billion
crowns compared with a 15.8 billion surplus in 1985, the bank
said .
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Singapore's Finance Minister Richard
Hu is expected to announce a neutral budget tomorrow with no
major tax changes for the 1987/88 year starting April 1,
bankers and economists told Reuters.
    They said with real growth at an estimated 1.9 pct in
calendar 1986, indicating signs of recovery from the 1.7 pct
shrinkage in 1985, the government was likely to hold its course
and wait for measures introduced in last year's budget to work.
    Last March Hu cut corporation tax to 33 pct from 40 pct,
and income tax was reduced by the same margin.
    Last year the government also reduced wage costs by
introducing a wage freeze and cutting employer contributions to
the mandatory state savings scheme, the Central Provident Fund
(CPF), to 15 pct of salaries from 25 pct.
    "I don't foresee any new or additional stimulus because the
economy is now improving," said Clemente Escano, vice president
of the Union Bank of Switzerland.
    The government's economic report for calendar 1986, issued
last week, said the CPF reduction and other cost-cutting
measures only started to bite in the third quarter of 1986.
    But the report said over half the economy -- especially the
commerce, financial, and business services sectors -- continued
to be depressed by weakness in the surrounding regional
economies and an excess of domestic property.
    The sources said the fragility of the economic recovery
suggested the government would not introduce much of its
planned consumption tax in the coming financial year.
    In last year's budget Hu said he planned to set up
collecting machinery for the tax. Economists said a campaign
against smoking this year might be the opportunity for him to
levy the tax on tobacco as a first step towards its wider use.
    The sources said the government does not look likely to
raise more revenue in this year's budget.
    Last year's budget projected a 3.22 billion dlr budget
deficit for fiscal 1986/87, but the economic report projected
an overall calendar 1986 surplus of three billion.
    Lower tax revenue was balanced by rising investment income
and stringent controls on government operating expenditure,
helped by the wage-freeze policy.
    Anthony K.P. Lee, vice-president and deputy general manager
of American Express Bank Ltd, said he expected nothing exciting
from this year's budget.
    Lee said, "It will probably be a non-event as most of the
tax benefits were given last year. The economy has already
started moving so it does not need government support."
    Last week's economic report attributed the one pct decline
in domestic demand last year mainly to a sharp decline in
private construction, so this sector hopes for some relief from
the budget, economists said.
    The economic report said the sector's activity declined by
25.3 pct in calendar 1986 after a 13.9 pct contraction in 1985.
A further decline is expected in 1987.
    But in last year's budget a 30 pct rebate on tax for
industrial and commercial properties was raised to 50 pct until
the end of 1988, so the most Hu is likely to do is add
incentives for creating property investment unit trusts.
    The only measures known to be in tomorrow's budget are
incentives to encourage population growth, including incentives
to families who have three children.
    Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has already announced
the government will try to encourage three-child families,
instead of the two-child families it encourages now.
 REUTER

Shr 27.5p vs 24.3p
    Div 3.95p vs 3.34p making 6.5p vs 5.5p
    Pre-tax profit 85.1 mln stg vs 72.3 mln
    Turnover 702.6 mln vs 646.7 mln
    Tax 18.4 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Finance charges 4.1 mln vs 5.4 mln
    Minority interest 0.1 mln vs 0.5 mln
    Extraordinary debit, being closure and restructuring costs
4.9 mln vs 3.7 mln
    Operating profit includes -
    Pharmaceutical 49.8 mln vs 39.0 mln
    Scientific equipment 23.2 mln vs 19.2 mln
    Horticulture 8.0 mln vs 8.7 mln
    Note - company said it plans one-for-one capitalisation
 REUTER

MAJOR SWISS BANKS RAISE CUSTOMER TIME DEPOSIT RATES 1/4 POINT TO THREE PCT - CREDIT SUISSE

CORRECTED - MAJOR SWISS BANKS RAISE CUSTOMER TIME DEPOSIT RATES 1/4 POINT TO 3-1/4 PCT - CREDIT SUISSE

Fisons Plc <FISN.L> said strong
international growth had been the main feature of the group's
1986 progress, with the pharmaceutical division reporting a 50
pct increase in U.S. Sales during the period.
    The rise was due to a sustained marketing programme, a
larger sales force and the introduction of an aerosol form of
its Intal anti-asthma drug, which pushed U.S. Sales up 70 pct.
    The company was commenting on 1986 results which saw
pre-tax profits rising to 85.1 mln stg from 72.3 mln in 1985.
The result was in line with market forecasts, but its shares
nevertheless eased in a falling market to 634p at 0857 GMT from
643p.
    Fisons said the potential for future growth of Intral, as
well as its Opticrom and Nasalcrom products, was clearly
indicated by a strong 1986 performance.
    The scientific equipment business had raised the proportion
of high technology products it manufactures and also raised its
ability to generate higher margins. The horticulture operations
had demonstrated outstanding marketing ability. Underlying cash
flow from all three operations had been positive despite a full
programme of capital investment.
    Action to protect the group against foreign currency
movements resulted in a small net gain to profits.
 REUTER

The Philippines must devalue the peso if
it wants its exports to remain competitive, Economic Planning
Secretary Solita Monsod told Reuters.
    "The peso/dollar rate has to be undercut to make our exports
more competitive," Monsod said an interview. "No question about
it. I'm saying you cannot argue with success. Taiwan, South
Korea, West Germany, Japan, all those miracle economies
deliberately undervalued their currencies."
    The peso has been free-floating since June 1984. It is
currently at about 20.50 to the U.S. Dollar.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin has said the government does
not intend to devalue the peso and wants it to be flexible and
able to continue to respond to market conditions.
    Monsod said Ongpin was looking at the exchange rate from
the point of view of finance. "If the dollar rate goes higher,
our debt service in terms of pesos gets higher, so the
financing is very difficult," she said. "But I am looking at it
in terms of the economy."
    She said she was not trying to oppose official policy.
    "I'm just saying, keep it competitive. I do not want it to
become uncompetitive because then we are dead."
    Monsod said, "The ideal movement in the peso/dollar rate is
a movement that will reflect differences in inflation (rates)
of the Philippines versus the other country. It's an arithmetic
thing."
    Official figures show Philippine inflation averaged 0.8 pct
in calendar 1986. Ongpin told reporters on Saturday it was
expected to touch five pct this year.
    He said the government and the International Monetary Fund
had set the peso/dollar 1987 target rate at 20.80.
    The peso lost 22.2 pct in value to slump to 18.002 to the
dollar when it was floated in 1984.
 REUTER

The U.K. Trade Department said it would
not refer Consolidated Goldfields Plc's <CGLD.L> purchase of
<American Aggregates Corp> to the Monopolies Commission.
    Cons Gold said last month that its <ARC America Corp> unit
had agreed to buy the Ohio-based company for 30.625 dlrs a
share cash, or 242 mln dlrs, in a deal recommended by the
Aggregates board.
 REUTER

NV Nederlandse Gasunie is issuing a 100
mln dlr eurobond due April 15, 1992 paying 7-1/4 pct and priced
at 101-1/8 pct, lead manager Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd said.
5,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The selling
concession is 1-1/4 pct, while management and underwriting
    The payment date is April 15.
 REUTER

Saab-Scania AB is issuing a 150 mln dlr
eurobond due April 2, 1992 paying 7-3/4 pct and priced at
101-3/4 pct, lead manager Morgan Guaranty Ltd said.
    The bond is available in denominations of 5,000 and 50,000
dlrs and will be listed in London. Payment date is April 2,
1992.
    Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession and 5/8 pct
management and underwriting combined, and listing will be in
London.
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Merrill Lynch Capital Markets said it
received a mandate from Industrial Equity Ltd (IEL) of
Australia to arrange a letter of credit facility in support of
100 mln dlrs of medium term notes and U.S. Commercial paper to
be sold in the U.S. Domestic market.
    Merrill, which will be the dealer for the medium term notes
and commercial paper, said this was the first facility of its
kind.  Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd has agreed to provide
the letter of credit.
    The letter of credit has a five year term, with an
evergreen feature allowing for extension at the support banks'
option.
    The notes and paper will be issued by IEL's Sydney-based
subsidiary, IEL Finance Ltd.
    The letter of credit will be underwritten by a group of
banks who will be paid a 20 basis point facility fee and a 25
basis point utilisation fee.
    IEL itself is 51 pct owned by Brierley Investments Ltd of
New Zealand, Merrill Lynch said.
 REUTER

Zaire agreed to limit its tin
exports to 1,736 tonnes for 12 months from March 1 in line with
an Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC) plan to curb
exports, the ATPC said.
    ATPC Executive Director Victor Siaahan told Reuters he
received a telex from Zaire indicating its willingess to take
part in the plan to limit total ATPC exports to 96,000 tonnes
for a year from March 1.
    Siaahan said Zaire is expected to produce 1,900 tonnes of
tin in calendar 1987, and that in 1986 its output and exports
were about 1,200 tonnes.
    The ATPC hopes to cut the 70,000-tonne world surplus by
20,000 tonnes and boost prices.
    All ATPC members except Zaire and Australia recently agreed
to adhere to the export quotas allocated them under the plan.
Australia said its quota of 7,000 tonnes was roughly equal to
its expected output this year.
    The ATPC consists of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand,
Bolivia, Australia, Nigeria and Zaire.
    China and Bolivia, important producers of tin, are not
members.
 REUTER

Japan's major commercial banks plan to set
up a joint company to which they will transfer assets acquired
by lending to developing countries to build up a reserve
against possible bad loans, a senior official of a major bank
    He said about 10 banks are likely to finish details of the
project in a few weeks. The intent is to avoid risk arising
from unrecoverable debt owed by Third World countries, he said.
 REUTER

The Federation of Bankers' Associations of
Japan released its proposal for early creation of a
comprehensive financial futures market in Tokyo.
    The market should include a comprehensive range of futures
and options trading so Tokyo can develop into a real global
money centre where a variety of risk-hedging instruments is
available, the proposal said.
    It should provide currency and interest rate futures, and
incorporate the existing yen bond futures and planned stock
index futures contracts.
    The proposal said transactions in all these contracts must
be conducted on the same market so participants can readily
engage in arbitrage between various financial instruments.
    To make this possible, the proposal calls for new
legislation which would administer all related futures and
options transactions under the same legal framework.
    Banking sources said they expect that initially the
currency futures would be dollar-yen and interest futures would
include Japanese domestic yen certificates of deposit,
three-month Eurodollar deposits and 20-year U.S. Treasury
bonds.
    Banking sources quoted federation chairman Yoshiro Araki as
saying he hoped the market would be created as soon as possible
because it would help promote the liberalisation of Japan's
financial markets.
    Araki said he had no intention of limiting prospective
market participants to banks but was willing to accept those
from wider business circles, the sources said.
    Japan's only current financial futures market, in yen
bonds, began on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1985.
    But the Osaka Stock Exchange plans to start futures trading
in a basket of leading stocks in April.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) and Euratom,
the European atomic energy agency, are expected to issue French
franc eurobonds this month, a Treasury spokesman said.
    Other eurofranc bonds this month are likely to include
issues by a bank and a company, both unidentified, but no other
details were available. The spokesman said the March calendar
would be flexible, to take account of market conditions.
 REUTER

Australian police said they charged a
former currency clerk of Westpac Banking Corp <WSTP.S> with
misappropriating 8,300 dlrs in July in an alleged
foreign-exchange fraud.
    A spokeswoman for the New South Wales Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) said the arrest was part of its investigation
stemming from complaints from Westpac and <Kleinwort Benson
Australia Ltd>.
    CAC and Westpac officials said they were working out how
much money was involved, but said press reports it was as much
as five mln dlrs were probably exaggerated.
    Police told reporters it was alleged the former clerk
quoted an incorrect dealing price relationship between the yen
and the Swiss franc.
    They said the CAC was investigating 14 other cases
involving 214,000 dlrs.
    A Kleinwort Benson spokesman declined to comment on the
case but the company said in a statement yesterday a small loss
incurred in 1986 in its foreign-exchange division was unrelated
to "certain alleged forex irregularities."
 REUTER

shortage of around 350 mln stg in the money market today.
some 525 mln stg while bankers' balnces below target will take
out around 175 mln stg.
    Partly offsetting these outflows, exchequer transactions
and a fall in note circulation will add some 300 mln stg and 40
mln stg to the system respectively.
 REUTER

Japan looks likely to allow U.S. Banks to
conduct securities business here, a move that will probably
cause the barriers separating Japanese commercial banks from
brokerage houses to break down, financial analysts said.
    But the timing of the approval remains uncertain, due to
conflicting domestic interests.
    J.P.Morgan and Co <JPM>, Bankers Trust New York Corp <BT>,
Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC> and Chemical Bank New York
Corp <CHL> are expected to win approval to conduct securities
business in Japan, U.S. Bank officials said.
    "There is no reason for extended delay of approval," one
official at a U.S. Bank said. The four U.S. Banks have been
seeking finance ministry approval for months.
    To date, Japan has allowed European banks to do securities
business here through 50-pct owned subsidiaries. As Japanese
banks can conduct securities business in European countries,
this was seen as a reciprocal move and did not pave the way for
Japanese banks to enter the domestic securities market.
    But if U.S. Banks win approval, Japanese banks will press
hard for similiar status, since they are not allowed to conduct
securities business in the U.S.
    Many U.S. Bank officials expect their applications to be
approved before June. But Japanese banking sources said the
decision will be delayed until next year. A spokesman for the
finance ministry declined comment.
    U.S. Bankers will meet with ministry officials for talks on
financial market deregulation sometime in the next few months.
Ministry sources said the talks are likely to be held in April
or June.
    At the last round of financial negotiations in September,
U.S. Officials said Japan's commitment to deregulation was
flagging.
    Analysts said the finance ministry has been seriously
considering the U.S. Request since the U.S. Federal Reserve
Bank of New York approved five new primary government
securities dealers, including two Japanese brokerages, last
December.
    They said the ministry will have to approve the U.S.
Request soon to head off criticism its markets are not as open
to foreigners as those of the U.S.
    Analysts said Japan has proceeded rapidly with financial
deregulation since 1984, but has not touched upon the clear
division between the securities and banking businesses.
    Japanese banks and securities houses have fought hard to
protect their interests, but analysts said the banks are
finding it increasingly difficult to earn money in traditional
fields.
    Officials of major Japanese banks said they will pay
special attention to the ministry's reaction to U.S. Bank
requests because approval would accelerate market
liberalization in Japan.
    The Japanese bankers hope approval will pave the way for
their own entry into the domestic securities market.
 REUTER

Saudi riyal interbank deposit rates
eased across the board in a dull market which was long in
day-to-day funds, dealers said.
    Today's quiet market continued a lull of several days in
which traders were said to be waiting on the sidelines ahead of
further clues to the direction of oil prices and the Saudi
economy.
    Dealers cited some borrowing interest in two, three, and
six-month deposits but said activity focused on short dates and
one-month deposits as banks tried to lend surplus funds.
    Spot-next was put at 5-3/4, 5-1/4 pct, down from six, 5-1/2
yesterday while one-week rates were steady at six, 5-1/2 pct.
    One-month deposits declined to 6-1/4, 1/8 pct from 6-1/2,
1/4 on Monday, while three months was barely changed at seven,
6-15/16 pct.
    The spot riyal was little changed at 3.7501/03 to the
dollar after quotes of 3.7498/7501 yesterday.
 REUTER

Early dollar straight eurobond trade was
quiet with currency sectors, particularly eurosterling,
continuing to perform strongly, closely reflecting current
trading patterns on the foreign exchanges, dealers said.
    Eurosterling bonds continued to rise steadily, bolstered by
the extremely ebullient tone of the U.K. Government bond market
on a combination of positive U.K. Economic fundamentals.
    The dollar was initially stabler but most dollar straight
bonds were static in dull trade. A handful of issues showed
signs of weakness but dealers said investors were awaiting
today's release of U.S. Leading indicators for January.
    The U.S. Data due out this afternoon is expected to be
weak, placing the U.S. Unit under renewed pressure and robbing
the market in dollar-denominated eurobonds of fresh trading
impetus, one dollar straight trader said.
    "It's going to be another tedious day and I can't see how
anybody is going to make any money," he said.
    Eurosterling issues continued to rally on the back of
general sterling euphoria -- with the U.K. Currency trading at
six month highs on interest rate optimism and the strength of
the domestic equity markets.
    Eurosterling bonds saw early gains of up to half a point.
    However, some eurosterling dealers noted the bonds could
soon fall back marginally if -- as expected -- professionals
stepped in to take profits at current healthy levels.
    Trade in mark-denominated bonds was expected to be subdued
today due to pre-Lenten carnival festivities in West Germany.
    There were signs of reawakened investor nerves affecting
trade in the floating rate note market which yesterday started
the week extremely quietly after a hectic sell-off last week.
    FRN dealers said paper of U.S. -- and also of Canadian --
banks was seeing some pressure as a result of recent press
reports focussing on their exposure to Latin American debt.
    "(Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson) Funaro's visit to
Europe has also brought the spotlight back onto the debt crisis
after things had more or less quietened down following the
first shock statements last week," one FRN specialist said.
    Despite the dearth of activity in the dollar straight
secondary market, two new dollar issues were the only early
features on the primary market.
    These were a five year 150 mln dlr deal launched by Morgan
Guaranty Ltd for Saab Scania at 7-3/4 pct priced at 101-3/4
pct.
    The other issue was a 100 mln dlr deal -- also due 1992 --
for NV Nederlandse Gasunie paying 7-1/4 pct and priced at
101-1/8 pct, with Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd as lead manager.
    Dealers predicted reasonable demand for both issues due
mainly to a lack of fresh, good name paper in the market.
 REUTER

The French Treasury will issue between
eight and 12 billion francs worth of tap stock depending on
market conditions at its monthly tender on Thursday, the Bank
of France said.
    The planned issue will be of two fixed-rate tranches, of
the 8.50 pct June 1997 and the 8.50 pct December 2012 stock,
and one tranche of the variable-rate January 1999 stock.
    The minimum amount of each tranche to be sold will be one
billion francs.
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Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos
(Pemex) signed for a 500 mln dlruntied loan from the
Export-Import Bank of Japan to finance its Pacific Petroleum
Project, Pemex Japan representative Tito Ayal said.
    No further details on the loan were immediately available.
    Ayala told an oil seminar the project, due for completion
in 1988, is aimed at improving distribution of oil products in
the domestic market, mainly along the Pacific coast.
    The project consists of a pipeline linking Nueva Teapa on
the Gulf of Mexico with Salina Cruz on the Pacific Coast, and
construction of the second phase of the Salina Cruz refinery.
    The project also includes construction of liquified
petroleum gas (LPG) storage tanks at Santa Cruz, additional
crude oil storage at both ends of the pipeline, an ammonia
complex at Lazaro Cardenas on the Pacific Coast and expansion
of the infrastructure of the port of Salina Cruz, Ayala said.
    Pemex will buy 80 mln dlrs worth of foreign equipment and
materials for the project, he said. The new pipeline will
enable Japan to load Mexico's Maya crude oil at Salina Cruz
rather than in the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex will also have some
LPG surplus available in Salina Cruz that may help Japan
diversify its supply sources of that product, he added.
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The Government broker's supplies of a 400
mln stg issue of two pct Treasury index-linked stock due 1992
were exhausted in early trading on the U.K. Government bond
market this morning, the Bank of England said.
    The Bank said that the issue was no longer operating as a
tap, having been supplied at a price of 94 stg pct this
morning.
    The issue was undersubscribed at a tender on February 18,
but the Government broker has supplied amounts of the stock on
a number of occasions since then. The relatively small quantity
remaining in the authorities' hands was quickly sold out on a
small upturn in demand early today.
 REUTER

Shr profit 15.9p vs 2.25p loss
    Div 3p making 4.5p vs nil
    Turnover 1.93 billion stg vs 1.99 billion
    Pretax profit 134.2 mln vs 11.4 mln loss
    Tax 47.2 mln vs nil
    Operating profit 163.0 mln vs 92.7 mln
    Interest less investment income 13.8 mln vs 37.2 mln
    Exceptional debit 15.0 mln vs 66.9 mln
    Minorities 0.3 mln vs 0.4 mln
    Extraordinary credit 16.4 mln vs 42.0 mln debit
    International computers 90.2 mln vs 61.7 mln
    Communications systems 56.1 mln vs 48.7 mln
    Components and distribution 20.0 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Defence 9.4 mln vs 13.1 mln
 REUTER

Comalco Ltd <CMAC.S> said its return
to profit reflected reduced costs, improved primary aluminium
prices and its withdrawal from a Japanese smelter venture.
    It said the earlier reported 57.1 mln dlr profit for the
year ended December 31 against a 69.13 mln dlr loss in 1985 was
also aided by lower interest rates on U.S. Dollar debt and
greater sales of bauxite and aluminium.
    Comalco said it expected to pay at least a four cents per
share final, dividend delayed until July 1 to take advantage of
proposed dividend imputation laws.
    This would make five cents for the year against a first and
final of one cent in 1985.
    Comalco said the aluminium industry continued to suffer
from low prices and excess capacity, though the weak Australian
dollar had helped earnings.
    Withdrawal from the <Showa Aluminium Industries KK> joint
venture had been recapitalised in expansion by the <New Zealand
Aluminium Smelters Ltd> project with Japan's <Sumitomo
Aluminium Smelting Co Ltd>, permitting repayments and increases
in liquid funds totalling 165 mln dlrs, it said.
    As previously reported Comalco's <Commonwealth Aluminium
Corp> unit has conditionally agreed to sell its smelter at
Goldendale, Washington, and port facilities at Portland, Oregon
to <Columbia Aluminium Corp>.
    Comalco said it had made a 27.3 mln dlr extraordinary
provision for Goldendale losses and closure costs but that if
the sales agreement were completed it would reduce the
provision made in the 1986 accounts.
    The other items in the total extraordinary loss of 140.5
mln dlrs were a 102.9 mln write-off of unrealised exchange
losses and 10.3 mln for an increase in future tax provision.
 REUTER

CRA Ltd <CRAA.S> said it expected to
pay a final 1986 dividend of not less than 10 cents a share
after July 1, making 13 cents forthe year against 15 in 1985.
    The mining and smelting group earlier reported 1986 net
earnings rose to 138.2 mln dlrs from 87.8 mln in 1985, against
analysts' forecasts yesterday of 125 mln to160 mln.
    CRA said it was deferring consideration of a dividend until
later this year to provide the benefit of dividend imputation
to its shareholders. After July 1, dividends will be tax-free
to shareholders provided they come out of earnings on which the
full 49 pct company tax rate has been pid.
    The company operates on a substituted tax year, not the
fiscal year ending June 30, and as a result has incurred tax at
the 49 pct rate on 1986 earnings, CRA said in a statement.
    Consequently, it has funds available for distribution with
dividend imputed but is waiting to see the imputation
legislation before determining the final payout, it said.
    Despite the higher net earnings, CRA said 1986 was a poor
year for the minerals industry, with the notable exception of
gold producers.
    Prices for major metals expressed in real U.S. Dollars
declined to the lowest levels in about 50 years, it said.
    Fluctuating exchange and interest rates added volatility
and uncertainty, while the revaluation of the yen is leading to
substantial restructuring of Japanese industry, CRA said.
    World demand for metals is growing slowly. Inventories have
steadily declined, with supply and demand in better balance,
but overcapacity continues, CRA said.
    Turning to contributions to its earnings, CRA said
Bougainville Copper Ltd <BUVA.S> contributed 31.3 mln dlrs
while its share of Comalco Ltd's <CMAC.S> net was 37.8 mln.
    Net earnings from iron-ore operations were 111.8 mln dlrs
against 149.2 mln in 1985, it said.
    Lead, zinc and silver mining and smelting operations
incurred a net loss of 66.8 mln dlrs against a 38.1 mln loss in
1985, CRA said.
    Coal activities resulted in a net profit of 36.7 mln dlrs
against 34.1 mln, while salt raised its contribution to 4.7 mln
from 2.8 mln.
    CRA's share of earnings from the Argyle diamond project
amounted to 12.0 mln dlrs against nine mln in 1985.
    CRA said the main item in its 250.28 mln dlr extraordinary
loss was a 172.9 mln writeoff of unrealised foreign exchange
losses on borrowings as required by a new accounting standard.
    Other extraordinary items were 63.3 mln dlrs provided for
closures and writedown of assets and a 14.1 mln increase in
future tax provisions, CRA said.
    Cash flow continued at a high level, being 950.6 mln dlrs
before capital expenditure against 1.02 billion in 1985. The
strong cash flow, coupled with the proceeds of the 1986 rights
issue and the use of existing cash balances, enabled group debt
to be reduced by nearly 500 mln dlrs.
    CRA said it held forward contracts at year-end to buy 985
mln U.S. Dlrs to hedge part of its foreign debt. This cost 47.0
mln dlrs after tax, included in the net interest cost.
 REUTER

Montedison Finance Overseas Ltd, a unit
of Montedison SpA, is issuing a 50 mln Australian dlr eurobond
due April 3, 1990 paying 15-1/2 pct and priced at 101-3/8 pct,
lead manager Orion Royal Bank Ltd said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by the parent. The
selling concession is one pct while management and underwriting
combined pays 1/2 pct.
    The issue will be listed in Luxembourg and is available in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 Australian dlrs. The payment
date is April 3.
 REUTER

Swiss capital exports rose to 4.64
billion francs in January after 2.54 billion in December and a
year earlier 3.64 billion, the Swiss National Bank said.
    New bond issues accounted for 4.12 billion of the total
after December's 2.15 billion, and credits 525.1 mln after
389.9 mln.
    In January 1985, before the National Bank ended the
distinction between notes and bonds, bond issues totalled 1.66
billion francs, notes 1.39 billion and credits 597.5 mln.
 REUTER

China called on the United States to
remove curbs on its exports, to give it favourable trading
status and ease restrictions on exports of high technology.
    But the U.S. Embassy replied that Chinese figures showing
13 years of trade deficits with the U.S. Out of the last 15 are
inaccurate and said Peking itself would have to persuade
Congress to change laws which limit its exports.
     The official International Business newspaper today
published China's demands in a  editorial to coincide with the
visit of U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.
     "It is extremely important that the U.S. Market reduce its
restrictions on Chinese imports, provide the needed facilities
for them and businessmen from both sides help to expand Chinese
exports," the editorial said.
     "The U.S. Should quickly discard its prejudice against
favourable tariff treatment for Chinese goods and admit China
into the Generalised System of Preference (GSP).
     "Despite easing of curbs on U.S. Technology exports in
recent years, control of them is still extremely strict and
influences normal trade between the two countries," it added
     The paper also printed an article by China's commercial
counsellor in its Washington embassy, Chen Shibiao, who said
that "all kinds of difficulties and restrictions" were preventing
bilateral trade fulfilling its full potential.
     He named them as U.S. Protectionist behaviour, curbs on
technology transfer and out-of-date trade legislation.
     The paper also printed a table showing that, since
bilateral trade began in 1972, China has had a deficit every
year except 1972 and 1977. It shows the 1986 and 1985 deficits
at 2.09 billion and 1.722 billion dlrs.
     A U.S. Embassy official said the U.S. Did not accept
Peking's trade figures at all, mainly because they exclude
goods shipped to Hong Kong and then trans-shipped to U.S. While
U.S. Figures are based on country of origin.
     He said that, if China wants to obtain GSP status, it will
have to lobby Congress itself to persaude it to amend several
laws which currently prevent Peking getting such status.
     The U.S. Trade Act of 1974 says that to qualify for GSP,
China must be a member of the General Agreement of Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), for which it applied in July 1986, and "not be
dominated or controlled by international Communism."
     The official said China was well aware of the laws, some
of which date to the anti-Communist early 1950's, but that
there is not sufficient political will in the U.S. To change
them.
     China has been the subject of about a dozen cases
involving anti-dumping in the U.S. Within the last two years,
which the U.S. Side won, he said.
     But, for the first time, China signed last week an
agreement which it itself initiated to voluntarily restrain
exports of at least two categories of steel goods, which may
lead the U.S. Side to withdraw the anti-dumping case, he added.
     Another diplomat said willingness to provide such
voluntary export restraints would be an important issue in
bilateral trade issues and in Peking's application to GATT.
     "China has the potential to disrupt world markets,
especially in textiles. Other GATT countries will be nervous
about China in this respect. But there is a precedent for other
centralled planned economies in GATT," the diplomat said.
     Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania are members of
GATT but none has China's massive market potential for imports
or its vast labour pool to produce cheap exports.
     In a speech today in the northeast city of Dalian, U.S.
Secretary of State George Shultz said his country welcomed
China's interest in participating in GATT.
     "The process of Chinese accession will not be accomplished
overnight -- the GATT rules were not designed for a large
economy of the Chinese type," Shultz said.
     "China can play an important role by actively joining GATT
discussions seeking to expand general trading opportunities and
enhance market access for exports worldwide. China can further
develop its foreign trade system so as to gain the maximum
benefit from its GATT participation," he said.
     The problems facing U.S.-China trade and GATT membership
are similar -- a pricing system which many foreign businessmen
regard as arbitrary and not related to actual costs, especially
for exports, and a de facto dual currency system.
     In a memorandum backing its application presented to GATT
last month, China said it was gradually reforming its economic
system and replacing mandatory instruction with "guidance
planning" and economic levers.
     The diplomat said that, to join GATT, China had much to
do.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank is unlikely to change
its credit policies at its central bank council meeting on
Thursday, as exchange rates and short-term interest rates have
stabilized over the past few weeks, money market dealers said.
    Attention in the money market is focused on tomorrow's
tender for a securities repurchase pact, from which funds will
be credited on Thursday, when an earlier pact expires, draining
16 billion marks from the system.
    The tender was announced last Friday, because carnival
festivities closed banks in Duesseldorf yesterday, and will
close banks here this afternoon.
    Because of the disruption to business from carnival,
minimum reserve figures for the start of the month are
unrealistic, making it difficult for banks to assess their
needs at the tender.
    Dealers said the Bundesbank would want to inject enough
liquidity in this week's pact to keep short-term rates down.
    But because of uncertainty about banks' current holdings,
the Bundesbank may well allocate less than 16 billion marks
this week, and top it up if necessary at next week's tender.
    "I would not be surprised if the Bundesbank cuts the amount
a little, to say 14 or 15 billion marks," one dealer said.
    "They would then stock it up at the next tender when the
need is clearer," he added.
    An earlier pact expires next week, draining 8.5 billion
marks from the system. Banks also face a heavy but temporary
drain this month from a major tax deadline for customers.
    Banks held 52.0 billion marks on February 27 at the
Bundesbank, averaging 51.0 billion over the whole month, just
clear of the 50.5 billion February reserve requirement.
    Call money traded today at 3.85/95 pct, up from 3.80/90
yesterday.
 REUTER

Chase Manhattan Asia Ltd of Hong Kong has
approached Taiwan banks to take part in a syndicated loan of
300 mln U.S. Dlrs to finance a liquefied natural gas (LNG)
project in Indonesia, local banking sources said.
    The project calls for construction of a 400 mln U.S. Dlr
facility which could produce two mln tonnes of LNG for supply
by Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp .
    This was the first time Taiwanese banks, including the Bank
of Taiwan and Bank of Communications, were invited to form a
syndicated loan, they added.
    Pertamina has initialled a 20-year contract with Chinese
Petroleum Corp <CPC> for the supply of 1.5 mln tonnes of LNG
for Taiwan starting October 1989, a CPC official said.
    CPC is building an LNG receiving terminal in southern
Taiwan city of Kaohsiung at a cost of 820 mln U.S. Dlrs. The
terminal will be completed in mid-1989.
    A Taiwanese banker said"It will be a good idea for our banks
to take part in the loan if we want to start in the
international lending market."
 REUTER

The Council of Europe is issuing a
125 mln luxembourg franc private placement bond carrying a
7-1/4 pct coupon and priced at par, lead manager Banque
Internationale a Luxembourg SA (BIL) said.
    The non-callable, bullet issue maturing in August 1992
follows an earlier private placement bond announced last month
for 250 mln francs but with the same conditions.
    The new issue is for payment on March 31 and coupon
payments annually on August 11, with the first coupon a long
coupon.
 REUTER

Italy's consumer price index rose 0.4 pct
in February compared with January after rising 0.6 pct in
January over December, the national statistics institute
(Istat) said.
    The year-on-year rise in February was 4.2 pct down from 4.5
pct in January and compared with 7.6 pct in February 1986.
    Istat said its consumer prices index for the families of
workers and employees (base 1985) was 109.1 in February against
108.7 in January and 104.7 in February 1986.
 REUTER

Mobil Corp <MOB.N> of the U.S. Plans to
open an office in Peking to develop oil exploration
opportunities in China, the China Daily said.
    It quoted Mobil president Richard Tucker, currently in
Peking, as saying he is optimistic about investment prospects
in China and that Peking will continue to encourage foreign
private businesses to invest here.
    It said Mobil bought 73 mln dlrs of crude oil and oil
products from China in 1986 and sold it lubricant and
fertiliser, but gave no more details.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) is issuing a
600 mln franc 8-3/4 pct bond due April 7, 1997, at 99-1/2 pct,
lead manager Banque Nationale de Paris said.
    Fees total two pct, with 1-3/8 pct for selling and 5/8 pct
for management and underwriting combined.
    Payment date is April 7, denominations are of 10,000 and
50,000 francs and listing is in Luxembourg and Paris.
 REUTER

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.A> said
it agreed to take a 15 pct stake in Air U.K. Ltd, a subsidiary
of British and Commonwealth Shipping Plc <BCOM.L>, in a
transaction worth around two mln stg.
   A KLM spokesman said KLM already cooperated closely with Air
UK, which runs 111 flights a week to Amsterdam's Schipol
airport from nine UK cities.
   British and Commonwealth Shipping said last week it held
preliminary talks about a KLM minority stake in Air U.K. But
gave no further details. KLM said it hoped the move would
attract more British feeder traffic to Amsterdam Airport.
 REUTER

The European <Airbus Industrie> consortium
has signed a one billion dlr contract to sell 10 A320
short-haul jets to <All Nippon Airways> of Japan, with an
option on the sale of a further 10 planes, an Airbus spokesman
said today.
    The 10 planes on firm order will be delivered between
September, 1990 and November, 1991, and will be powered either
by CFM-56-5S engines made by the Franco-U.S. <CFM
International> consortium, or V2500S engines built by the
<International Aero Engine> group.
    The spokesman declined to comment on a New York Times
report that Airbus is about to announce a sale to American
Airlines.
    But industry sources said American was about to announce
the purchase of 25 wide-bodied planes from Airbus, as well as
15 747s from Boeing Co <BAN>.
    Airbus has already signed large deals with Pan Am Corp
<PNN>, NWA Inc <NWA> and Eastern Airlines Inc <EALN>, as well
as a smaller contract with <Continental Airlines>.
    The A320 made its first flight on February 22 and is not
due to enter commercial service until March next year.
    The All Nippon purchase brings the total number of
commitments to the A320 to 439 from 16 airlines, comprising 275
firm orders and 164 options.
 REUTER

ZIMBABWE MAIZE HARVEST LOWER AFTER BUMPER CROPS HARARE, March 3
- Zimbabwe's maize crop in 1986/87 (April/ March) is likely to
be slightly over 1.6 mln tonnes, against 1.83 mln in 1985/86,
Grain Marketing Board figures show.
    Maize exports for 1986/87 to January 31, 1987 totalled
315,000 tonnes, with about a further 40,000 tonnes expected to
be exported in February and March, against 285,000 tonnes in
1985/86. Domestic usage is estimated at 650,000-900,000 tonnes,
depending on how other crops are affected by current poor
rains. Last year's consumption was around 700,000 tonnes.
    Zimbabwe has around two mln stonnes of surplus maize in
storage, accumulated after two years of bumper harvests.
 REUTER

The French domestic bond issuing committee
said it has approved three new issues totalling 1.8 billion
francs.
    Credit Lyonnais will lead manage a 1.2 billion franc issue
for the Caisse Centrale de Credit Cooperatif.  Banque Francaise
de l'Agriculture will lead, with Union de Garantie et de
Placement, a 300 mln franc issue for its own account.
    Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaires will lead a 300 mln
issue for the Groupement des Industries pour le Batiment et
Travaux Publics. No further details were immediately available.
 REUTER

Degussa AG <DGSG.F> is combining its
foreign and domestic pharmaceutical activities into the
Frankfurt-based <Asta Pharma AG>, so as to promote its business
in that sector, the company said.
    Group consolidated turnover in Degussa's pharmaceuticals
sector rose to 380 mln marks in 1985/86 to September 30 from
377 mln marks in the preceding year, the company said.
    Turnover from all pharmaceutical interests, including
minority holdings, was 700 mln marks in 1985/86, somewhat
higher than in the preceding year. The company did not disclose
exact 1984/85 results in that sector, a spokesman said.
 REUTER

Britain's gold and currency reserves
showed an underlying rise of 287 mln dlrs in February, after a
72 mln dlrs rise in January, the Treasury said.
    The underlying trend, which is a guide to Bank of England
operations to support the pound on foreign exchanges, is net of
borrowings and repayments.
    This was above market expectations for a 100 mln dlrs rise.
    The Treasury said the Bank of England used the opportunity
of strong demand to rebuild reserves after losses last autumn
and said the underlying rise was still relatively modest.
    Actual reserves rose by 305 mln dlrs in February to 22.26
billion dlrs, after rising 29 mln in January to 21.95 billion.
    Accruals of borrowings under the exchange cover scheme were
36 mln dlrs last month, after 163 mln in January, while
repayments were 16 mln dlrs after the previous 151 mln, a
Treasury spokesman said.
    Capital repayments totalled two mln dlrs. In January,
capital repayments totalled 14 mln dlrs, with a valuation
change that resulted in a fall of 41 mln dlrs due to the
quarterly rollover from the European Monetary Cooperation Fund
swap.
    The Treasury would not comment on the Bank of England's
market operations, but currency traders reported moderate Bank
of England intervention to curb upward pressure on the pound
today.
    A Treasury spokesman, commenting on the reserves figures,
said that the government does not want sterling either to rise
too far or to fall substantially from current levels.
    He noted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
stressed this after the recent Paris currencies meeting.
    REUTER

Comalco Ltd said its return to profit
reflected reduced costs, improved primary aluminium prices and
its withdrawal from a Japanese smelter venture.
share final dividend, delayed until July 1 to take advantage of
    Comalco said the aluminium industry continues to suffer
    Comalco's Commonwealth Aluminium Corp unit said earlier it
has conditionally agreed to sell its Goldendale smelter in
Washington, and port facilities at Portland, Oregon to Columbia
Aluminium Corp. Comalco said its extraordinary provision of
27.3 mln dlrs costs for Goldendale losses and closure may be
reduced if the sales agreement were completed.
 REUTER

Ultramar Plc <UMAR.L> said it had reached
agreement in principle to sell its wholly owned U.K. Marketing
companies to Kuwait Petroleum Corp for around 50 mln stg.
    Ultramar's marketing units include <Ultramar Golden Eagle
Ltd> which in 1985 made a profit of around 1.4 mln stg before
financing and group administration charges. A small loss was
recorded for the first nine months of 1986.
    The sale is due to take place on April 1 with the proceeds
intended to reduce group debt in the short term. But Ultramar
said the funds would ultimately be used for further development
of its core businesses in the U.K. And North America.
 REUTER

Hong Kong's broadly defined M3 money
supply rose 2.2 pct to 607.17 billion H.K. Dlrs in January,
after a 3.1 pct rise in December, for a year-on-year rise of
23.3 pct, the government said in a statement.
    Local currency M3 rose 3.6 pct to 280.36 billion dlrs from
December when it was up 3.4 pct from November, for a rise of
16.3 pct on the year.
    Total M2 rose 3.3 pct to 535.26 billion dlrs in January
from December when it rose 3.5 pct on the previous month. Local
M2 rose 4.7 pct to 249.03 billion dlrs in January from December
when it climbed 4.2 pct.
    Total M2 and local M2 rose 32.5 pct and 23.9 pct on the
year-ago month, respectively.
    Total M1 rose 12 pct to 62.84 billion dlrs in January after
a 5.0 pct rise the previous month. Local M1 rose 12.3 pct to
57.97 billion dlrs after a 6.2 pct rise. Total M1 and local M1
year-on-year growth was 32.5 and 32.6 pct, respectively.
    Total loans and advances rose 3.3 pct to 517.19 billion
dlrs from December when they rose 1.2 pct.
    Loans for financing Hong Kong's visible trade rose 3.4 pct
to 36.72 billion dlrs after a 1.8 pct rise in December.
 REUTER

<Underwoods Plc> said it had not been
possible to agree terms on a bid to be made by Woolworth
Holdings Plc <WLUK.L> during talks.
    The two companies had been holding exploratory discussions.
No spokesman for either company was immediately available to
say why terms could not be agreed, nor whether the possibility
of a bid was now being abandoned.
    Last week, Underwoods shares rose 49p to 237p ahead of any
announcement of the talks. The announcement today brought them
back down to 214p from last night's close at 241p. Woolworth
was unchanged at 758p.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it revised up
its forecast of the shortage in the money market today to
around 500 mln stg from its initial estimate of 350 mln.
 REUTER

Pakistan will retender for 6,000 tonnes
of refined bleached deodorised palm oil for second half March
shipment tomorrow, after failing to take up offers today, palm
oil traders said.
 REUTER

Mobil Oil Corp of U.S. Plans to open an
office in Peking to develop oil exploration opportunities in
China, the China Daily said.
     It quoted Mobil president Richard Tucker, currently in
     It said Mobil bought 73 mln dlrs of crude oil and oil
 Reuter

 Reuter

Unilever Plc and Nv combined 1986 pre-tax profit 1.14 billion stg vs 953 mln.

West German banks would like Brazil to work
more closely with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a
view to seeking a solution to the country's debt problems,
senior West German banking sources said.
    The sources, speaking ahead of a meeting later today
between Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro and his West
german counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg, also believed Brazil
should come up with a convincing economic recovery program.
    Their comments echoed those of British Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson, who met Funaro yesterday.
    Funaro is currently on a European trip seeking to involve
governments in negotiations with commercial banks on
rescheduling part of Brazil's foreign debt, which totals some
109 billion dlrs. But Lawson told Funaro Brazil had to solve
its problems with the banks rather than governments.
    Diplomatic sources in Bonn said Funaro would leave early
tomorrow morning for Zurich after meeting Stoltenberg this
evening.
    Funaro has rejected suggestions for negotiations with the
IMF and said there is no question of Brazil agreeing to an
austerity program with the Fund.
    However, the West German banking sources said institutions
here felt it was particularly important that Brazil presented a
credible recovery program and that there be a "rapprochement"
with the IMF.
    "Consultations are the least that can be expected," said one
banker.
    Funaro's trip follows the decision by Brazil 10 days ago to
suspend interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of commercial
debt. It has also frozen bank and credit lines deposited by
foreign banks and institutions worth about 15 billion dlrs.
    One senior banker closely involved in Brazilian debt
negotiation offered qualified support for a call from Funaro
for a change in the structure of the advisory committee of
banks which has coordinated Brazilian debt since 1982.
    Funaro said yesterday that U.S. Banks, holding 35 pct of
Brazilian debt, were over-represented on the 14-bank advisory
committee with 50 pct of the committee seats. He said Brazil
might adopt a different approach to its creditor banks,
involving separate discussions with the regions.
    Such a move would be in Brazil's interest, since European
banks have been more supportive than U.S. Banks of alternative
debt solutions, such as interest capitalisation.
    The senior banker was strongly opposed to a purely regional
approach, saying: "There must be one committee and one solution."
But he added: "There must be an understanding that special
requests from special regions be taken into account."
    German banks had objected to the fact that the idea of
interest capitalisation had been rejected in the committee. It
was imperative that alternative options be considered. "The menu
must become richer," the banker said.
    Banking sources said commercial banks would not be involved
in today's talks with Funaro. A spokesman for the Bundesbank in
Frankfurt said the central bank would also not be represented.
    West German banks have taken a more relaxed attitude to the
Brazilian suspension of interest payments than institutions in
the United States, because of their lower exposure.
    According to Bundesbank data from September last year, West
German bank exposure to Latin America of slightly under 16
billion marks represented less than five pct of all foreign
credit.
 REUTER

President Corazon Aquino announced
government plans to devote to land reform an estimated 24
billion pesos (about one billion U.S. Dlrs) raised from the
sale of failed businesses taken over by the government.
    Aquino said she was willing to have her family's sugar
estate broken up in compliance with Philippine land reform
programmes but hinted it would not be offered voluntarily.
    "Whatever laws will be enacted, I say that nobody is above
the law and that includes me. My brothers and sisters are
Filipino citizens ... We will abide by whatever laws are
enacted as far as sugar land is concerned," she told reporters.
    A committee was now formulating guidelines for the plan,
including the question of whether land operated by
multinational companies should also be covered, she added.
    Agrarian Reform Secretary Heherson Alvarez said recently
the government planned to distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land
to impoverished farmworkers under a revised land reform
programme.
    The plan, requiring about 1.7 billion dlrs, now also covers
sugar and coconut areas, apart from rice and corn lands, he
said. It was expected to benefit about three mln landless
peasants, he added.
    Land reform pressure groups have called on Aquino to break
up her family's 6,000-hectare sugar estate to demonstrate her
sincerity on the issue political analysts have called one of
the most pressing problems facing the Philippines.
    It was not known whether government would wait for the
Congress to convene by mid-year to formalise the programme or
have Aquino carry it out through an executive order.
    Under the plan, government will purchase land mainly from
landowners with holdings over seven hectares. It will include
vacant and untenanted farmland as well as 50,000 hectares
seized from former associates of deposed president Ferdinand
Marcos.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it provided 24
mln stg help to the money market in the morning session.
    This compares with the bank's upward revised shortage
forecast of around 500 mln stg.
two mln stg in band one at 10-7/8 pct and 22 mln stg in band
 REUTER

The coupon on the 300 mln dlr equity
warrant bond deal for Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd has been cut to
three pct from the 3-1/4 pct initially indicated, Nikko
Securities Co (Europe) Ltd said as lead manager of the deal.
    Exercise price for the warrants has been fixed at yen 2,817
representing a 2.53 pct premium over the latest Tokyo close
adjusted for a free share issue this month.
    Foreign exchange fix is yen 154.65/dlr and payment date on
the deal is March 20.
 REUTER

 Reuter

 Reuter

UNILEVER PLC AND NV 1986 4TH QTR TO DEC 31
    LONDON, March 3
    Unilever Plc share 49.57p vs 44.19p, making 177.55p vs
137.96p for full year.
    Unilever NV share 10.69 guilders vs 11.82 guilders, making
38.22 guilders vs 36.79 guilders.
    Unilever Plc final div 35.18p, making 50.17p vs 38.62p.
    Unilever NV final div 10.67 guilders, making 15.33 guilders
vs 14.82 guilders.
    Combined pre-tax profit 276 mln stg vs same, making 1.14
billion stg vs 953 mln.
    The two companies proposed a five for one share split.
    Combined fourth quarter pre-tax profit 1.10 billion
guilders vs 1.11 billion, making 3.69 billion guilders vs 3.81
billion.
    Operating profit 259 mln stg vs 265 mln, making 1.12
billion stg vs 949 mln.
    Tax 109 mln stg vs 105 mln, making 468 mln vs 394 mln. Tax
adjustments 19 mln stg credit vs nil, making 26 mln stg credit
vs three mln debit.
    Attributable profit 185 mln stg vs 165 mln, making 664 mln
vs 516 mln.
    Full year 1986 turnover 17.14 billion stg vs 16.69 billion.
 REUTER

Daimler-Benz AG [DAIG.F] said its car
production could fall by 150 cars a day in  the foreseeable
future  if works councils continue to refuse to approve the
firm's requests for employees to work overtime when necessary.
    A company spokesman said the works council at Daimler's
Unterturkheim plant, which makes axles and other components for
Daimler cars, has withheld approval for overtime since the
beginning of the month. The IG Metall metalworkers union in the
state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has called on works councils in the
state to reject overtime in a bid to get industry to employ
more workers.
    The Daimler spokesman said the lack of overtime work at the
Unterturkheim plant could eventually affect car output at other
plants but added he was unable to say when this might occur.
    A spokesman for Dr.-Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG [PSHG.F], which
is also located in Baden-Wuerttemberg, said he did not think
Porsche would suffer any loss of production because of a ban on
overtime by its own works councils.
    A strike by IG Metall in Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1984 closed
down the German car industry for about seven weeks as the union
sought to win a 35-hour working week for its members. It later
settled for a reduction in the working week to 38.5 hours.
    The spokesman said Daimler's total output of cars was
currently around 2,500 a day.
 REUTER

The price of Hongkong and Shanghai
Hotels Ltd <SHLH.HK>'s stock soared on speculation of a
takeover battle between major shareholders the Kadoorie family
and the Evergo Industrial Enterprise Ltd <EVGH.HK> group, stock
brokers said.
    They noted heavy buying in Hk Hotel shares after an
announcement by Evergo's <China Entertainment and Land
Investment Co Ltd> unit that it bought about 20 pct of Hk
Hotels from the firm's deputy chairman David Liang for 1.06
billion dlrs. The stock rose 12 H.K. Dlrs to 62 dlrs today.
    Thomas Lau, Evergo's executive director, declined comment
on whether the group is seeking a further stake in Hk Hotels.
But he told Reuters the group will hold the 20 pct stake bought
from Liang as long term investment.
    He said Evergo "was attracted by the underlying strength of
Hk Hotels."
    Analysts said Evergo may be looking for a possible
redevelopment of the Peninsula Hotel, one of Asia's best known
hotels, and another site on Hong Kong island. Both are owned by
Hk Hotels.
    <Lai Sun Garment Co ltd> yesterday said it acquired a 10
pct stake in Hk Hotels from Liang for 530 mln dlrs.
    Lau denied any link between China Entertainment and Lai Sun
on their acquisitions of the Hk Hotels stake.
    "It is purely coincidence," he said.
    But analysts were not so certain, saying that the Evergo
group, which has a reputation as a corporate raider, may team
up with Lai Sun Garment for a takeover.
    Lau also denied any contact with the Kadoorie family, which
analysts estimate has more than 20 pct of Hk Hotels. Michael
Kadoorie is chairman of Hk Hotels.
    Lau said two representatives of Evergo will be nominated to
the Hk Hotels board.
    A source close to the Kadoorie family said the family has
not considered any countermoves so far.
    Analysts said it would be difficult for Evergo and the
Kadoorie family to cooperate because of different management
styles.
    "Evergo may want to split up the hotel management and
property developments of Hk Hotels but that strategy may not
fit the conservative Kadoorie family," said an analyst who asked
not to be named.
    Another analyst noted the price of Hk Hotels had been
distorted by the takeover talks because its net asset value is
only worth about 50 dlrs a share. The offers by Evergo and Lai
Sun were for 53 dlrs a share, though that is well below the
current trading price.
    Trading was suspended today in shares of Lai Sun, Evergo,
China Entertainment and the group's associate <Chinese Estates
Ltd>.
    Chinese Estates lost 25 cents to 20.15 dlrs yesterday,
China Entertainment five to 8.60 dlrs and Evergo one to 74
cents. Lai Sun gained 50 cents to 70.50 dlrs.
 REUTER

Oerlikon-Buehrle Holding AG <OEBZ.Z> unit
<Contraves AG> unequivocally rejects charges by NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> subsidiary <Hollandse
Signaalapparaten BV> that it violated patent rights in a radar
system developed by the latter, a Contraves official said.
    Max Baumann, a member of the Contraves board, told Reuters
his company was awaiting judgement in the case before a Zurich
court "quite calmly," but he declined to discuss it in detail.
    Signaal claims Contraves included the Dutch firm's patented
X/KA double-frequency radar in an anti-aircraft system. Baumann
said he expected judgement to take several months at least.
 REUTER

Italian savings bank Cassa di Risparmio
di Roma is launching a 100 mln dlr euro-certificate of deposit
issuance program, Chase Investment Bank Ltd said as arranger.
    Chase will also be a dealer for the program, along with
Swiss Bank Corporation International Ltd. Chase Manhattan Bank
NA, London Branch, will be issuing and paying agent.
    The paper will be issued in denominations of 500,000 and
one mln dlrs.
 REUTER

<Bryson Oil and Gas Plc> said it paid a
cash consideration of around 5.4 mln dlrs for about 8.6 pct of
<Cenergy Corp>, a U.S. Oil and gas exploration and production
company.
    Bryson said its board has been considering a number of
possible investments to expand the company's interests and
believes the opportunity to acquire an investment in Cenergy
provides a suitable extension to its existing U.S. Interests.
    Cenergy reported a net loss of 7.27 mln dlrs in the nine
months to September 30, 1986 while total stockholders equity on
the same date was 40.72 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

General Motors Corp has changed its
method of disbursing merit raises for salaried employees and is
reducing the size of the merit raise pool to 3.5 pct of the
total amount available for salaries from 5.5 pct last year, a
    He said GM will no longer include merit raises in the
calculation of base pay but will make them simply lump-sum
payments.  As a result, the merit raises will not be included
in the calculation of pensions and other benefits.  The change
affects about 109,000 salaried workers in the U.S. and Canada.
                                       
    GM last year eliminated cost of living increases for
salaried workers, making pay increases based on merit alone. As
a result of the new action, GM has effectively frozen the base
pay rates of salaried employees.
    The spokesman said GM is making the change to remain
cost-competitive with other U.S. automakers.
    GM is currently in thje midst of a program to cut
employment of salaried workers by 25 pct.
 Reuter

Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc said it
has signed a letter of intent under which it would receive
financing from I.C.H. Corp.
    The company said under the proposed transaction I.C.H.
would loan it up to 100 mln dlrs, and the loan balance would be
convertible at any time by either party into Pre-Paid common
stock at 11 dlrs per share.  In addition, it said it would
grant I.C.H. a five-year option to purchase new shares at the
same price.  It said the option would enable I.C.H. to acquire
up to 500 pct plus one share of Pre-Paid common.
    Pre-Paid said until expiration of the option, and as long
as Pre-Paid maintained a mutually agreeable combined loss and
expense ratio, I.C.H. would, on Pre-Paid's request, exercise as
much of the option as may be necessary to meet Pre-Paid's
funding needs.
    The company said I.C.H. has requested the right to buy
90,909 Pre-Paid shares from Pre-Paid chairman Harland C.
Stoneciphjer for 11 dlrs each.  Stonecipher now owns or has the
right to acquire 1,965,269 Pre-Paid shares and will agree to
restrictions on the sale of his remaining shares, it said. The
company saiod Stonecipher will remain chairman.
    Pre-Paid said the transactions are subject to approval by
boards of both comnpanies and regulatory agencies.
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 10.6 mln vs 5,967,000
    Revs 62.9 mln vs 41.5 mln
    Avg shrs 200.7 mln vs 20.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.26 dlrs vs 85 cts
    Net 30.1 mln vs 16.6 mln
    Revs 210.8 mln vs 121.6 mln
    Avg shrs 23.9 mln vs 19.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for January 1987 two-for-one split.
 Reuter

Employers and the port union, FNV, are
to meet again this afternoon to attempt a settlement of the
six-week-old dispute in Rotterdam's general cargo sector, but
neither side is optimistic, spokesmen for both sides told
Reuters.
    Little progress was made in last night's three hours of
talks, with both sides largely reiterating their positions.
    "There is still a very large gap between the employers and
the FNV, and I can't say that we expect to reach any agreement.
But at least we are still talking," a union spokesman said.
    Employers organization chairman, Jacques Schoufour, accused
the FNV of intransigence in refusing to alter its stance at all
over the past two months.
    "The FNV is not serious about our discussions and I am
really not optimistic about it changing its point of view at
all."
    "If we find this afternoon that the FNV still refuses to
accept the necessary redundancies in the general cargo sector,
then we will break off the talks and the redundancies may begin
later this month," Schoufour said.
    The series of strikes, which employers say has cost them
more than seven mln guilders in lost import business in the
past six weeks, began on January 19 in protest at plans for 800
redundancies from the sector's 4,000 workforce starting with
350 this year.
    Late last month Social Affairs minister Louw de Graaf said
unless the dispute was settled by yesterday he would withdraw
the sector's 10 mln guilder annual labour subsidy.
    Both sides wrote to the minister yesterday setting out
their cases, but Schoufour said he did not expect to hear from
him before Wednesday at the earliest.
 Reuter

AMR Corp will hold a
press conference this morning in New York at 0900 EST, a
    He would not comment on the subject of the press
conference, or would he confirm published reports that AMR will
today announce a 2.5 billion dlr purchase of aircraft and
engines.
    According to a New York Times report, AMR is expected to
announce the purchase of 25 widebodied longrange A300's from
<Airbus Industrie> and 15 Boeing Co <BA> 767's and the choice
of General Electric Co <GE> to supply all 80 engines for the
craft.  The engine order alone, for 80 CF80C-2's, would be
worth about 500 mln dlrs.
    The Airbus plane order would be worth about 1.25 billion
dlrs and the Boeing order about 750 mln dlrs, according to the
report.
 Reuter

The Unilever Plc and NV <UN.A> group saw
improved performance in almost all sectors during 1986, the
Anglo-Dutch group said in its results statement.
    Very good progress was made last year, while the recent
acquisition of Chesebrough-Pond's Inc <CBM.N> was a significant
addition which will greatly benefit the group in the years to
come.
    Earlier, Unilever reported combined fourth quarter pre-tax
profit of 276 mln stg, level with the year earlier period,
making 1.14 billion stg compared with 953 mln for the 1986 full
year.
    Unilever said it plans to change its depreciation policy to
the more conventional practice of depreciating assets
individually rather than depreciating fixed assets at average
rates. The new method is expected to lead to a reduction in the
accumulated provision for depreciation and thereby increase the
net book value of tangible asssets by about 300 mln stg as at
January 1, 1987.
    Unilever Plc shares are up 25p since yesterday at 2,575p in
buoyant response to the results and share split proposal,
though 1986 profits were not ahead of market forecasts, dealers
added.
 REUTER

U.S. LEADING INDICATORS FELL 1.0 PCT IN JAN AFTER REVISED 2.3 PCT DEC RISE

The U.S. index of leading indicators
fell a seasonally adjusted 1.0 pct in January after a revised
2.3 pct December gain, the Commerce Department said.
    The department previously said the index rose 2.1 pct in
December.
    The decline in January was the biggest for any month since
July, 1984, when the index fell 1.7 pct.
    The January decrease left the index at 183.8 over its 1967
base of 100, and was led by a fall in contracts and orders for
plant and equipment.
    A total of six of 10 indicators available for January
contributed to the decline.
    Besides contracts and orders for plant and equipment, they
were building permits, manufacturers' new orders for consumer
goods, a change in sensitive materials prices, slower
deliveries from vendors and higher average weekly claims for
state unemployment insurance.
    Four of 10 indicators were positive, including stock
prices, new business formation, average work week and money
supply.
    The main factor for the December upward revision was new
business formation.
    There was no revision in the 0.9 pct increase in the
leading indicators index for November.
    The index of coincident indicators, which measures the
current economy, fell 0.1 pct in January after increases of 0.7
pct in December and 0.2 pct in November.
    The index of lagging indicators, which measures past
economic activity, rose 0.5 pct in January after a decrease of
0.5 pct in December and an increase of 0.2 pct in November.
 Reuter

held separate meetings with French Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur and Bank of France Governor Jacques de Larosiere on
the second stage of a European mission to explain his country's
latest debt crisis, French officials said.
    They declined to disclose details of the talks. Monetary
sources described them as a preliminary diplomatic effort to
see if France could help to negotiate financial concessions
sought by Brazil from Western banks, governments and official
lending agencies.
 REUTER

Jan 31 end
    Shr 1.40 dlrs vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 16.4 mln vs 12.9 mln
    Revs 196.2 mln vs 157.5 mln
 Reuter

This morning's sharp decline in coffee
prices, following the breakdown late last night of negotiations
in London to reintroduce International Coffee Organization,
ICO, quotas, will be short-lived, Dutch roasters said.
    "The fall is a technical and emotional reaction to the
failure to agree on reintroduction of ICO export quotas, but it
will not be long before reality reasserts itself and prices
rise again," a spokesman for one of the major Dutch roasters
said.
    "The fact is that while there are ample supplies of coffee
available at present, there is a shortage of quality," he said.
    "Average prices fell to around 110 cents a lb following the
news of the breakdown but we expect them to move back again to
around 120 cents within a few weeks," the roaster added.
    Dutch Coffee Roasters' Association secretary Jan de Vries
said although the roasters were disappointed at the failure of
consumer and producer ICO representatives to agree on quota
reintroduction, it was equally important that quotas be
reallocated on a more equitable basis.
    "There is no absolute need for quotas at this moment because
the market is well balanced and we must not lose this
opportunity to renegotiate the coffee agreement," he said.
    "There is still a lot of work to be done on a number of
clauses of the International Coffee Agreement and we would not
welcome quota reintroduction until we have a complete
renegotiation," de Vries added.
    With this in mind, and with Dutch roasters claiming to have
fairly good forward cover, the buying strategy for the
foreseeable future would probably be to buy coffee on a
hand-to-mouth basis and on a sliding scale when market prices
were below 120 cents a lb, roasters said.
 Reuter

Greenwood Resources Inc said it has sold
its 4,300,000 common share majority holding in <New London Oil
Ltd> of London to an affiliate of <Guinness Peat Group PLC> of
London and an affiliate of <Sidro SA> of Belgium for a total of
1,700,0000 dlrs in cash.
    The company said it will apply the proceeds of the sale to
support its line of credit and as part of a proposed debt
restructuring with Colorado National Bancshares <COLC> and
Greenwood shareholders.
    It said it will retain a seat on the New London board.
 Reuter

AMR Corp's American Airlines said it
will buy 40 long-range jet aircraft to support international
expansion, including routes in the Caribbean.
    Under one agreement, the airline said, it will acquire 15
Boeing Co <BA> 767-300 planes. Under a separate agreement,
American will acquire A-300-600 aircraft from <Airbus
Industrie>, a European consortium.
    The company's announcement included no value for the order.
    Published reports put the value of the aircraft order,
including engines, at 2.5 billion dlrs.
    A total of 98 General Electric Co <GE> CF6-80C2 engines is
involved in the orders, American Airlines said.
    The published reports valued the engines at five mln dlrs
each.
    The company said it will acquire the planes and engines
using rental leases that can be terminated on relatively short
notice.
    The arrangement allows the airline to acquire the planes
without adding to its debt, it explained.
    The Boeing 767s, to be delivered from February 1988 to
October 1988, will be used on routes between the U.S. and
Europe, American said.
    It said the Airbus A300s, scheduled for delivery from April
1988 through June 1989, will be assigned to the Caribbean,
where American has developed a major new hub at San Juan,
Puerto Rico.
 Reuter

<VDO Luftfahrtgeraete Werk Adolf
Schindling GmbH>, 75 pct owned by autoparts maker <VDO Adolf
Schindling AG>, said it set up a joint venture with Thomson-CSF
<TCSF.PA> of France to produce liquid crystal displays.
    It said in a statment that it held 20 pct of the new
company called Eurodisplay and Thomson-CSF the remaining 80
pct. Thomson owns the remaining 25 pct of VDO Luftfahrtgeraete.
    The two companies have also agreed to pool their research
on development, construction and assembly of the systems, for
use in vehicles and aircraft, with General Electric Company
<GEN> of the U.S.
 Reuter

H.J. Heinz <HNZ.N> chairman Tony O'Reilly
would be interested in buying Guinness PLC <GUIN.L>'s brewery
division if it were for sale, a spokesman said.
    The spokesman, reacting to Irish and British press reports,
said "He continues to be interested were the group to offer the
brewery side of Guinness for sale. But he has not put together
a consortium, nor has he been buying shares."
    He was quoted by the Irish magazine Business and Finance as
saying he would be interested if it came on the market and that
he had the support of two international banks if he decided
such a purchase might be worthwhile.
    In the magazine article, he suggested that if brewing
profits were calculated to be in the region of 80 mln punts,
the asking price would not be higher than 800 mln punts.
    "A multiple of ten times earnings would be the top whack for
the brewing division in the current Guinness situation," he
said.
    "This would mean an expensive exercise, right on the edge,
but not impossible," he added.
    The deal would mean buying the Dublin, London, Nigerian and
Malaysian breweries because "It could only be sold as an
integral unit if it was going to be sold at all," O'Reilly said.
 Reuter

Equatorial Communications
Co said it expects to report losses of about 57 mln dlrs for
the fourth quarter and 68 mln dlrs for the full year 1986 on
revenues of about 10 mln dlrs for the quarter and 52 mln dlrs
for the year.
    Equatorial said the losses will include a charge of about
45 mln dlrs from costs associated with the restructuring of its
business, including adjustments to reflect the market value of
transponders owned and leased by Equatorial and other reserves
for inventory, receivables and excess facilities.
    Equatorial said the fourth quarter operating results will
also include restructuring costs of about 5,500,000 dlrs, in
addition to the 45 mln dlr charge.
    Equitorial also said that as of March One it is operating
in technical default under its lease of transponders on the
Galaxy III satellite due to its inabiliuty to maintain
agreed-upon financial ratios.  It said it is in talks with the
lessors in an attempt to restructure lease obligations.
    Further, Equitorial said it is in default of two other
oblitations in connection with the purchase or lease of
transponders as a result of cross-default provisions.
    Equatorial said it has signed a memorandum of understanding
for Contel Corp <CTC> to purchase 10 mln dlrs of Equatorial
master earth stations, micro earth stations and associated
equipment and loan Equatorial six mln dlrs over a six-month
period for repayment starting in December 1988.
    The company said Conteol, under the agreement, would assume
a portion of Equatorial's rights and obligations under the
Galaxy III transponder lease with <Burnham Leasing> on the
occurrence of certain events.
    Equatorial said it would grant Contel an option to buy
about 3,600,000 common shares at 3.25 dlrs each.
    Equatorial said its understandings with Contel are subject
to Equatorial's ability to restructure a significant portion of
its obligations and to obtain concessions from lenders and
lessors, in particular under its Galaxy III transponder lease.
It said it hopes to finalize a Contel agreement by April 15.
    Equatorial in 1985 earned 1,807,000 dlrs after a 3,197,000
dlr gain from early debt retirement on revenues of 56.1 mln
dlrs. For the first nine months of 1986, the company lost
9,476,000 dlrs on revenues of 45.4 mln dlrs, compared with a
1,784,000 dlr profit after the early retirement gain on
revenues of 38.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Transamerica Corp said it will have
an after-tax gain of about 10 mln U.S. dlrs on the sale of its
Occidental Life Insurance Co of Australia Ltd affiliate to
<Pratt and Co Financial Services Pty Ltd> of Melbourne for 105
mln Australian dlrs.
    The sale was announced earlier today in Australia. Proceeds
will be used to enhance the growth of North American operations
of its Transamerica Occidental Life subsidiary, the company
said.
 Reuter

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC GETS ANOTHER NEW NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS BID

Shr 1.78 dlrs vs 1.64 dlrs
    Net 117 mln vs 106 mln
    Sales 2.02 billion vs 1.85 billion
    Avg shrs 65.6 mln vs 63.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.25 dlrs vs 2.75 dlrs
    Net 214 mln vs 177 mln
    Sales 6.50 billion vs 5.96 billion
    NOTE: Share data restated to reflect two for one stock
split in May 1986
 Reuter

General Motors Corp told employees it
was reducing the funds available for merit-raises for 109,000
salaried workers.
    GM, which has been taking wide-ranging steps to cut costs,
said in a letter it cut the amount available for raises to 3.5
pct of the payroll from 5.5 pct in 1986.
    The letter also said raises will be given in one annual
lump-sum payment from April rather than being folded into
salaries and thus increasing the base for benefit payments.
 Reuter

<BP Oil Ltd>, the U.K. Marketing and
refining arm of British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L>, raised its
pretax operating profit on a replacement cost basis to 182 mln
stg in calendar 1986, compared with 66 mln stg in 1985.
    Sales and operating revenue fell to 3.1 billion stg from
4.2 billion on a replacement cost basis. Historical cost
operating profit was 61 mln stg, up from 16 mln.
    BP Oil said 1985 profits had been depressed by exceptional
items. Its profit figures were stated before interest charges.
    Chief executive David Kendall said improved results
mirrored benefits of a restructuring program undertaken in
recent years.
    However, he warned future financial pressure on the
industry will be severe.
    "The U.K. Oil marketing and refining industry will need to
invest larger sums - probably around 500 mln stg a year - for a
good many years," he said in a statement.
 Reuter

The finance department announced the new
1.2 billion dlr, four-part bond issue, to be dated March 15 and
delivered March 16, will be priced as follows.
    - 8 pct bonds due July 1, 1990 at a price of 100.30 pct
todmpB]w about 7.89 pct to maturity
    - 8-1/4 pct bonds due March 1, 1994 at a price of 100.25
pct to yield about 8.20 pct to maturity.
    - 8-1/4 pct bonds due March 1, 1997 at a price of 99.50 pct
to yield about 8.32 pct to maturity.
    - 8-1/2 pct bonds due June 1, 2011 at a price of 98.625 pct
to yield about 8.63 pct to maturity.
    The 2011 maturity will be issued to a maximum of 375 mln
dlrs.
    The Bank of Canada will buy 100 mln dlrs of the new issue,
including a minimum of 10 mln dlrs of the 2011 maturity.
 Reuter

damage, civil defence sources said.
 Reuter

Congress.
 Reuter

New York
 Sarich Technologies Trust - New York
 Health Management Associates - New York

 Reuter

U.S. DIVIDEND MEETINGS - MARCH 3
 Mickelberry Corp
 Premier Industrial
 Reuter

Firstcorp Inc said it weill report
an after-tax gain of 1,827,000 dlrs or 56 cts per share primary
and 42 cts fully diluted from the proposed condemnation and
acquisition of a parking deck it operates by Wake County.
    The company said if it reinvested proceeds in a similar
property within 24 months, the gain on the sale would be
deferred for tax purposes.
 Reuter

Ashton-Tate said it intends to
file for an offering of about two mln shares within the next 30
days.
    It said proceeds would be used for working capital and
other general corporate purposes, including the possible
acquisition of other businesses or additional technology.
    Ashton-Tate now has about 23.6 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

KeyCorp said it has filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering of 75 mln
dlrs of subordinated capital notes due March 1, 1999.
    The company said it is anticipated the notes will be
offered this week through underwriters led by First Boston
Corp.
    Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes,
including the acquisition of <Seattle Trust and Savings Bank>,
which is scheduled for July one, KeyCorp said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 43 cts vs 21 cts
    Oper net 6,846,000 vs 3,386,000
    Revs 137.1 mln vs 107.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.36 dlrs vs 42 cts
    Oper net 21,764,000 vs 7,239,000
    Revs 516.4 mln vs 454.7 mln
    Note: 1986 qtr excludes extraordinary gain of 784,000 dlrs
or five cts share, versus extraordinary loss of 110,000 dlrs or
shr nil in 1985 qtr
    Note continued: 1986 year excludes extraordinary gain of
14,360,000 dlrs or 94 cts share, versus extraordinary gain of
2,883,000 dlrs or 19 cts share in prior year
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it had revised
its forecast of the shortage in the money market down to 450
mln stg before taking account of its morning operations. At
noon the bank had estimated the shortfall at 500 mln stg.
 REUTER

Viacom International Inc said <National
Amusements Inc> has again raised the value of its offer for
Viacom's publicly held stock.
    The company said the special committee of its board plans
to meet later today to consider this offer and the one
submitted March one by <MCV Holdings Inc>.
    A spokeswoman was unable to say if the committee met as
planned yesterday.
subsidiary has raised the amount of cash it is offering for
each Viacom share by 75 cts to 42.75 dlrs while the value of
the fraction of a share of exchangeable Arsenal Holdings
preferred to be included was raised 25 cts to 7.75 dlrs.
    National Amusements already owns 19.6 pct of Viacom's stock.
 Reuter

Sandoz AG said it planned a joint venture
to produce herbicides in the Soviet Union.
    The company said it had signed a letter of intent with the
Soviet Ministry of Fertiliser Production to form the first
foreign joint venture the ministry had undertaken since the
Soviet Union allowed Western firms to enter into joint ventures
two months ago.
    The ministry and Sandoz will each have a 50 pct stake, but
a company spokeswoman was unable to give details of the size of
investment or planned output.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net loss 166,000 vs profit 580,000
    Revs 3,772,000 vs 5,545,000
    Year
    Shr loss 13 cts vs profit 52 cts
    Net loss 391,000 vs profit 1,425,000
    Revs 15.4 mln vs 16.6 mln
    NOTE: 1985 year figures pro forma for purchase accounting
adjustments resulting from March 1985 reeacquisition of company
by its original shareholders before August 1985 initial public
offering. 
 Reuter

MidCon Corp, a subsidiary of
Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY>, said William C. Terpstra has
resigned as president and chief operating officer and his
reponsibilities will be assumed by MidCon chairman O.C. Davis.
    No reason was given.
 Reuter

Italy's state-owned <Banca Nazionale del
Lavoro - BNL> said it would issue 120 mln dlrs of five-year
convertible eurobonds, an operation to be lead-managed by
<Credit Suisse-First Boston Ltd>.
    BNL president Nerio Nesi told a news conference that the
issue, to be placed on the main international markets and
listed in Luxembourg, would be the first equity linked issue by
an Italian bank on the Euromarket.
    BNL officials said the issue is scheduled for mid-March and
additional financial details were not immediately available.
    They said the operation would be through the issue of
depositary receipts by BNL's London branch. They said the bonds
would carry warrants issued by its <Efibanca> subsidiary and
convertible into BNL saving shares within five years.
    The officials said a banking consortium led by Credit
Suisse-First Boston would at the same time arrange for the
private placing of an unspecified number of BNL savings shares
with foreign institutional investors.
    The operation was to further its aim of obtaining a listing
on foreign stock exchanges with a view to future capital
increases through ordinary share issues, they said.
 REUTER

General Electric Co said AMR
Corp's oprder of GE CFG-80C2 engines to power 25 new <Airbus
Industrie> A300-600R and 15 Boeing Co <BA> 767-300ER twinjets
is worth over 650 mln dlrs.
    The company said the order is the largest single one it has
ever received for commercial aircraft engines.
    AMR announced the order earlier today.
    GE said deliveries will start in early 1988.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.93 dlrs vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 53,412,000 vs profit 4,479,000
    Revs 24.8 mln vs 32.7 mln
    Note: 1986 shr and net include 51,187,000 dlr writedown on
U.S. operations, uneconomic coal operations and other mineral
properties
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it had provided the
money market with a further 437 mln stg assistance in the
afternoon session. This brings the Bank's total help so far
today to 461 mln stg and compares with its revised shortage
forecast of 450 mln stg.
    The central bank made purchases of bank bills outright
comprising 120 mln stg in band one at 10-7/8 pct and 315 mln
stg in band two at 10-13/16 pct.
    In addition, it also bought two mln stg of treasury bills
in band two at 10-13/16 pct.
 REUTER

Shr nil vs nil
    Net 130,998 vs 30,732
    Revs 1,568,941 vs 1,0053,234
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 1.80 dlrs vs loss 2.28 dlrs
    Oper net profit 2,048,0000 vs loss 1,318,000
    Revs 25.4 mln vs 12.3 mln
    Avg shrs 1,135,000 vs 576,000
    NOTE: Net excludes realized investment gains of 40,000 dlrs
vs 13,000 dlrs.
    1986 net excludes 729,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 31 cts vs loss 30 cts
    Oper net loss 5,429,000 vs loss 5,216,000
    Revs 257.5 mln vs 243.6 mln
    Avg shrs 17.5 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss eight cts vs profit 28 cts
    Oper net loss 1,324,000 vs profit 4,067,000
    Revs 989.5 mln vs 747.9 mln
    Avg shrs 17.6 mln vs 15.7 mln
   
    NOTE: 1986 operating net loss excludes income from
discontinued operations equal to 11 cts in the quarter and 66
cts in the year compared with 1.07 dlrs in the quarter and 1.23
dlrs in the respective periods of 1985.
    1986 operating net loss also excludes extraordinary charges
of 14 cts in the quarter and 54 cts in the year.
    1985 operating net profit excludes an extraordinary gain of
47 cts.
 Reuter

The coupon on Dai-Ichi Hotel Ltd's 50 mln
Swiss franc issue of five-year notes with equity warrants has
been cut to 1-5/8 pct from the indicated 1-7/8 pct, lead
manager Swiss Volksbank said.
    The warrants have an exercise price of 1,507 yen per share,
compared with the last traded price of 1,470 yen, it said.
    The notes are guarantees by Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan
Ltd. Payment is due on March 25.
 REUTER

Shr not given
    Loss 54.9 mln
    Revs 27.2 mln
    Note: Prior year results not given. 1986 results include
accounts of 89 pct owned <Precambrian Shield Resources Ltd>,
acquired November 5, 1986
 Reuter

Transform Logic Corp said it
has revised downward its previously reported fourth quarter and
year, ended October 31, results to reflect compensation expense
for employee stock options.
    The company said resolution of this disagreement with its
auditors came as a result of Securities and Exchange Commission
involvement. The company will amend its option-granting
procedure to conform to the SEC decision which will eliminate
future charges, it added.
    Transform said its fourth quarter profit was revised to
305,082 dlrs, or two cts a share, from the previously reported
580,955 dlrs, which left the company with a fiscal 1986 loss of
249,814 dlrs, or two cts a share, instead of the reported
26,195 dlrs profit.
 Reuter

American Stores Co said it
expects to report earnings per share of 3.70 to 3.85 dlrs per
share on sales of slightly over 14 billion dlrs for the year
ended January 31.
    The supermarket chain earned 4.11 dlrs per share on sales
of 13.89 billion dlrs last year.
    The company did not elaborate.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 161,000 vs loss 367,000
    Revs 24.3 mln vs 26.5 mln
 Reuter

Caribbean Select Inc said it has
elected to redeem on April 10 all its Class A warrants and all
Class B warrants at 0.01 ct each.
    At the same time, it said its board has decided to reduce
the exercise price of the Class B warrants to 3.50 dlrs per
common share from four dlrs to encourage the exercise of the
warrants.  Each Class B warrant allows the purchase of one
common share.
    It said each Class A warrant is still exercisable into one
common share at two dlrs each.
 Reuter

Unilever Plc <UN.A> and NV group reported
improvements in margins and underlying sales volume growth of
five pct in 1986 after stripping out the effects of falling
prices, disposals and currency movements, Unilever Plc chairman
Michael Angus said.
    He told reporters that volumes in North America increased
some 10.5 pct while European consumer goods rose about 2.5 pct
after being flat for some years.
    Much of the disposal strategy, aimed at concentrating
activities on core businesses, had now been completed, he
noted.
    But the process of acquisitions would go on, with strategic
acquisitions taking place "from time to time," he said.
    The company earlier reported a 20 pct rise in pre-tax
profits for 1986 to 1.14 billion stg from 953 mln previously.
In guilder terms, however, profits at the pre-tax level dropped
three pct to 3.69 billion from 3.81 billion.
    Angus said the recent purchase of Chesebrough-Pond's Inc
<CBM.N> for 72.50 dlrs a share was unlikely to bring any
earnings dilution.
    However, it would not add much to profits, with much of the
company's operating profits paying for the acquisition costs.
    Finance director Niall Fitzgerald added that while gearing
- debt to equity plus debt - rose to about 60 pct at end 1986
from 35 pct last year, this was expected to drop back to about
40 pct by end-1987.
    The same divergence was made in full year dividend, with
Unilever NV's rising 3.4 pct to 15.33 guilders and Unilever
Plc's increasing 29.9 pct to 50.17p, approximately in line with
the change in attributable profit.
    Angus said the prospectus for the sale of parts of
Chesebrough was due to be published shortly. However, he said
that there was no target date for completing the process.
    He also declined to say what sort of sum Unilever hoped to
realise from the operation, beyond noting that Chesebrough had
paid around 1.25 billion dlrs for Stauffer Chemical Co, which
operates outside Unilever's core activities.
    In the U.S., Organic growth from the Lipton Foods business,
considerable expansion in the household products business and
in margarine had been behind the overall sales increase.
    However, he noted that the U.S. Household products business
had turned in a planned loss, with fourth quarter performance
better than expected despite the anticipated heavy launch costs
of its Surf detergents.
 Reuter

Sara Lee Corp said it agreed to buy a 34
pct interest in Paris-based DIM S.A., a subsidiary of BIC S.A.,
at a cost of about 84 mln dlrs.
    DIM S.A., a hosiery manufacturer, had 1985 sales of about
260 mln dlrs.
    The investment includes the purchase of 360,537 newly
issued DIM shares valued at about 51 mln dlrs and a loan of
about 33 mln dlrs, it said. The loan is convertible into an
additional 229,463 DIM shares, it noted.
    The proposed agreement is subject to approval by the French
government, it said.
 Reuter

Holiday Corp's Holiday Inn Hotel
Group said it will add a record 17 hotels with 4,440 rooms to
its international division as part of its plan to double its
presence abroad by 1995.
    The company said its international division will reach
50,000 rooms by this spring, classifying it as the eighth
largest hotel chain in the world. Holiday said by the end of
the year, there will be approximately 220 Holiday Inn hotels in
54 countries.
    The company said it plans to expand from 28 to 55 hotels in
its Asia/Pacific region and to 192 in its Europe/Middle
East/Africa regionby 1995.
    For 1987, the hotel group will focus on expansion on
Western Europe and Asia, citing China as an untapped source for
the international lodging industry.
    Holiday also said it will concentrate on city center hotels
in key destination cities in Western Europe, catering primarily
to business travelers.
    Some of those cities where Holiday said it will open new
properties this year include Amsterdam, Lyon/Atlas and Lisbon.
 Reuter

    The official International Business newspaper today
    "It is extremely important that the U.S. Market reduce its
    "The U.S. Should quickly discard its prejudice against
    "Despite easing of curbs on U.S. Technology exports in
influences normal trade between the two countries," it added.
    The paper also printed an article by China's commercial
    He named them as U.S. Protectionist behaviour, curbs on
 Reuter

Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige
said after the release of a sharply lower January leading
indicator index that a pickup in exports is needed.
    "The best tonic for the economy now would be a pickup in net
exports," he said in a statement after the department reported
the index fell 1.0 pct in January from December, the sharpest
drop since a 1.7 pct fall in July, 1984.
    The main reasons for the January decline after a 2.3 pct
December rise were declines in building permits, new orders for
plant and equipment and for consumer and industrial goods.
 Reuter

<Precambrian Shield Resources
Ltd>, earlier reporting a large loss against year-ago profit,
said the 1986 loss was mainly due to a 51,187,000 dlr writedown
on its U.S. operations, uneconomic coal and other mineral
properties.
    Precambrian, which is 89 pct owned by <Mark Resources Inc>,
said it took the writedown in accordance with new Canadian
Insititute of Chartered Accountants guidelines for full cost
method accounting by oil and gas companies.
    Precambrian earlier reported a 1986 loss of 53.4 mln dlrs,
compared to profit of 4.5 mln dlrs in the prior year.
 Reuter

Aero Services Inc said its
common stock will continue to be included for quotation in the
National Association of Securities Dealers' NASDAQ system due
to an exception from filing requiements, which it failed to
meet as of January 15.
    The company said while it believes it can meet conditions
the NASD imposed for the exception, there can be no assurance
that it will do so.
 Reuter

The Kenyan economy is heading for
difficult times after a boom last year, and the country must
tighten its belt to prevent the balance of payments swinging
too far into deficit, President Daniel Arap Moi said.
    In a speech at the state opening of parliament, Moi said
high coffee prices and cheap oil in 1986 led to economic growth
of five pct, compared with 4.1 pct in 1985.
    The same factors produced a two billion shilling balance of
payments surplus and inflation fell to 5.6 pct from 10.7 pct in
1985, he added.
    "But both these factors are no longer in our favour ... As a
result, we cannot expect an increase in foreign exchange
reserves during the year," he said.
    The price of coffee, Kenya's main source of foreign
exchange, fell in London today to about 94 cents a pound from a
peak of 2.14 dlrs in January 1986.
    Crude oil, which early last year slipped below 10 dlrs a
barrel, has since crept back to over 18 dlrs.
    Moi said the price changes, coupled with a general decline
in the flow of capital from the rest of the world, made it more
difficult to finance the government's budget deficit.
    Kenya was already spending over 27 pct of its budget on
servicing its debts and last year it was a net exporter of
capital for the first time in its history, he added.
    "This is a clear indication that we are entering a difficult
phase as regards our external debts, and it is imperative that
we raise the rate of domestic savings and rely less on foreign
sources to finance our development," he said.
    "It will be necessary to maintain strict discipline on
expenditure ... And members of this house will have to take the
lead in encouraging wananchi (ordinary people) to be more
frugal in satisfying immediate needs," the president added.
 REUTER

Tri-Star Pictures Inc said it is
changing its fiscal year to year ending at the end of February
from a calendar year to reflect the traditional business cycles
of its two principal businesses, motion picture distribution
and motion picture exhibition.
    It said it expects to file a report for the two-month
fiscal "year" ended February 28, 1987 by May 28 and to report
earnings for the new first quarter in June.
 Reuter

Lifetime Corp said it will make an
announcement this morning between 1000 EST and 1030 EST.
    A company spokesman said the company preferred not to
comment until that time.
    The American Stock Exchange delayed trading in Lifetime
shares this morning for news pending.
 Reuter

acquired all issued shares of Capital Food Services Ltd, of
Ottawa. Terms were not disclosed.
    Scott's said Capital Food had 1986 sales of more than 20
mln dlrs and will continue to operate under its present name
with existing management.
    Capital Food provides food services to several Ottawa
institutions, the company said.
 Reuter

Zimbabwean coffee output will reach
13,000 tonnes this year, up on just over 11,000 tonnes produced
in 1986, the Commercial Coffee Growers Association said.
    Administrative Executive Robin Taylor told the domestic
news agency ZIANA that Zimbabwe earned the equivalent of 33 mln
U.S. Dlrs from coffee exports last year. He would not say how
much the country would earn in 1987.
    Taylor said the 173 commercial coffee growers under his
association had increased production from 5,632 tonnes in 1980
to more than 11,000 tonnes in l986.
 Reuter

Yankee Cos Inc said it has
acquired 3,916,000 dlrs of 7-1/2 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due May 15, 1998 of its YFC International Finance NV
affiliate for 501,807 common shares from an institutional
investor.
 Reuter

Video Display Corfp said it has reached
a tentiative agreement to sell its existing cable television
business for undisclosed terms and expects to report a gain on
the transaction.  The buyer was not named.
    The company said it will redeploy its service assets into
manufacturing and distribution.
    It said the operations being sold accounted for about five
pct of revenues for the year ended February 28 and lost money.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs three cts
    Net 98,20000 vs 91,898
    Revs 2,843,520 vs 2,372,457
    Year
    Shr 13 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 401,179 vs 681,374
    Revs 10.5 mln vs 9,699,535
 Reuter

<Beryllium International
Corp> said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Cominco
American Inc, a unit of Cominco Ltd <CLT>, to develop a
beryllium mine and processing plant on Beryllium
International's property in the Topaz Mountains southwest of
Salt Lake City.
    Beryllium said as a 49 pct owner of the venture iot would
be contributing the mine while Cominco, as operator and 51 pct
owner, would conduct drilling, metallurgical studies, process
testing and other preliminary work for a feasibility study.
    Beryllium said the cost of the preliminary work in 1987,
which will start immediately, should be about 250,000 dlrs to
300,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES FELL 6.8 PCT IN JAN AFTER REVISED 12.1 PCT DEC GAIN

Sales of new single-family homes in
the United States fell 6.8 pct in January from December to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 716,000 units, the Commerce
    The department revised downward December's sales to a 12.1
pct rise to 768,000 units from the previously reported 12.7 pct
increase.
    The January decline in sales was the largest since last
October when sales fell 9.3 pct.
    Before seasonal adjustment, the number of homes actually
sold in January was 53,000, up from 49,000 in December but down
from 59,000 in January, 1986.
    The January fall brought home sales to a level 1.6 pct
below January, 1986, when they were a seasonally adjusted
728,000 units.
    The average price was a record 127,100 dlrs, surpassing the
previous record 119,100 price set in December.
    The median price of a home in January reached 100,700 dlrs
-- the first time the price has exceeded 100,000 dlrs. That
compared with a median price of 94,600 dlrs in December and
94,000 dlrs in January a year ago.
    New homes available on the market in January totaled a
seasonally adjusted 362,000 units, unchanged from December and
equal to a 6.3 months' supply.
    The supply in December was 5.9 months.
 Reuter

Dimis Inc said it has extended
by five business days the expiration of its common stock
purchase warrants until March Nine.
    It said over one mln have already been exercised.  The
warrants became effective February 17.
    Holders exercising will receive a new warrant expiring
March 31 allowing the purchase of half a common share at one
dlr.
 Reuter

<American Barrick Resources Corp> said
wholly owned Barrick Resources (USA) Inc completed the
previously announced 50 mln U.S. dlr issue of two pct gold
indexed notes, which are guaranteed by American Barrick.
 Reuter

Community Bank System Inc said it
has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nichols
Community Bank for 2,800,000 dlrs in common stock.
    It said subject to approval by Nichols shareholders and
regulatory authorities, the transaction is expected to be
completed later this year.
 Reuter

Belgian unemployment, based on the
number of jobless drawing unemployment benefit, fell to 12.1
pct of the working population at the end of February from 12.6
pct at the end of January, the National Statistics Office said.
    The rate compares with 12.4 pct at the end of February
1986.
    The total number of jobless stood at 508,392, compared with
530,587 at the end of January and 521,219 at the end of
February 1986, the Statistics Office said.
 REUTER

Eastman Kodak Co said it is introducing
four information technology systems that will be led by today's
highest-capacity system for data storage and retrieval.
    The company said information management products will be
the focus of a multi-mln dlr business-to-business
communications campaign under the threme "The New Vision of
Kodak."
    Noting that it is well-known as a photographic company,
Kodak said its information technology sales exceeded four
billion dlrs in 1986. "If the Kodak divisions generating those
sales were independent, that company would rank among the top
100 of the Fortune 500," it pointed out.
    The objective of Kodak's "new vision" communications
campaign, it added, is to inform others of the company's
commitment to the business and industrial sector.
    Kodak said the campaign will focus in part on the
information management systems unveilded today --
    -- The Kodak optical disk system 6800 which can store more
than a terabyte of information (a tillion bytes).
    - The Kodak KIMS system 5000, a networked information
management system using optical disks or microfilm or both.
    -- The Kodak KIMS system 3000, an optical-disk-based system
that allows users to integrate optical disks into their current
information management systems.
    -- The Kodak KIMS system 4500, a microfilm-based,
computer-assisted system which can be a starter system.
    Kodak said the optical disy system 6800 is a
write-once/ready-many-times type its Mass Memory Division will
market on a limited basis later this year and in quantity in
1988.
    Each system 6800 automated disk library can accommodate up
to 150, 14-inch optical disks. Each disk provides 6.8 gigabytes
of randomly accessible on-line storage. Thus, Kodak pointed
out, 150 disks render the more-than-a-terabyte capacity.
    Kodak said it will begin deliveries of the KIMS system 5000
in mid-1987. The open-ended and media-independent system 
allows users to incorporate existing and emerging technologies,
including erasable optical disks, high-density magnetic media,
fiber optics and even artificial intelligence, is expected to
sell in the 700,000 dlr range.
    Initially this system will come in a 12-inch optical disk
version which provides data storage and retrieval through a
disk library with a capacity of up to 121 disks, each storing
2.6 gigabytes.
    Kodak said the KIMS system 3000 is the baseline member of
the family of KIMS systems. Using one or two 12-inch manually
loaded optical disk drives, it will sell for about 150,000 dlrs
with deliveries beginning in mid-year.
    The company said the system 3000 is fulling compatibal with
the more powerful KIMS system 5000.
    It said the KIMS system 4500 uses the same hardware and
software as the system 5000. It will be available in mid-1987
and sell in the 150,000 dlr range.
 Reuter

Bangor Hydro-Electric Cor said it
has filed with the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) for
a two-stage base rate reduction.
    Bangor Hydro said the first stage, which could take effect
on April 1 and would stay effective until the MPUC makes a
final decision on the filing, could cut revenues by 6.149 mln
dlrs, or 9.7 pct.
    The company said lower federal income taxes and lower
capital costs prompted the filing.
    The second stage, Bangor Hydro said, effective when the
MPUC makes a final decision, calls for an additional revenue
reduction of 712,000 dlrs, or 1.1 pct.
    Bangor Hydro said, if approved, the cuts would reduce
residential base rates by 8.5 pct, with 7.5 pct cut by April 1.
    The utility company also said it is seeking to increase its
fuel cost adjustment rate by April 1.
    Bangor said if the increase is approved it could offset
much of the base rate cut and may cause a net increase in some
customers' rates.
 Reuter

Browning-Ferris Industries Inc said the
Colorado Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency have awarded the company permits to build and
operate a hazardous waste disposal site near Last Chance, Colo.
    The company said construction will start this year and take
about 12 months, costing about 14 to 16 mln dlrs.  It said it
has already spent 10 mln dlrs on development costs.
    The site will not accept materials that react rapidly with
air or water, explosives, shock sensitive materials or
radioactive wastes, the company said.
 Reuter

Sales 3.65 billion crowns vs 3.40
billion.
     Profit  after financial items 821.2 mln crowns vs 740.2
mln.
    The 1986 results include a once-off writedown of 520 mln
crowns for intangible assets, mainly the know-how paid for in
the takeover of a number of high-tech companies by the group,
Pharmacia said.
    Earnings per share after real tax including the writedown:
1.94 crowns vs 12.05 crowns.
    Earnings per share after real tax (not including the
writedown): 12.38 crowns vs 12.05
    Earnings per American Depository Receipt (ADR) according to
U.S. Accounting principles after real tax including the
writedown): 1.96 crowns vs 9.49 crowns.
    Earnings per ADR according to U.S. Accounting principles
after real tax (without the writedown): 9.8 crowns vs 9.49.
    One ADR represents 0.75 pct of one B Free share in
Pharmacia.
    The board proposed a dividend of 1.55 crowns vs 1.25.
 REUTER

VWR Corp said it has formed a new
subsidiary, Momentun Textiles, to handle the distribution of
upholstery fabrics, leathers and naugahyde to contract and
consumer furniture manufacturers.
    It said its VWR Textiles and Supplies unit, which had
handled that business, will continue to distribute non-woven
textiles, construction fabrics and manufacturing supplies.
 Reuter

Saxon Oil Development Partners' Saxon Oil
Co said its chairman Bill Saxon and chief executive officer
Steven Saxon have resigned effective immediately.
    Saxon said Anthony Gumbiner, chairman and chief executive
officer of The Hallwood Group Inc, succeeds Bill Saxon as
chairman.
    Hallwood owns a substantial number of shares of preferred
stock in Saxon which, if converted into common stock, would
constitute approximately 37 pct of the company, according to a
source.
    Hallwood specializes in bailing out financially troubled
companies and restructuring their debt, according to the
source. In exchange sometimes, the group receives a small
portion of the company's common stock.
    At times, the group also receives a position in the
company, as was the case at Saxon, the source explained.
 Reuter

Pharmacia AB <PHAB ST> forecast
earnings after financial items of one billion crowns in 1987 vs
821.2 mln last year on condition that exchange rates remained
at their present parities.
    Sales would in such circumstances go up to six billion
crowns from 3.65 billion in 1986, it said.
    A weakening Dollar was mainly responsible for a five pct
negative impact on sales during 1986 which the company blamed
on currency movements.
    Last year's results were also badly hit by a once-off
writedown of 520 mln crowns for intangible assets.
    The company said mainly this represented the premium the
group had paid for the know-how of various high-tech firms it
had taken over.
    The accounts also showed a financial deficit of 1.87
billion crowns vs a deficit of 133 mln which was covered partly
by drawing down company liquidity to 738 mln vs one billion and
partly by increasing borrowing to 2.23 billion vs 621 mln.
    Pharmacia said the financial deficit was caused by it
having used more funds than generated by group operations,
mainly because of the 1.36 billion it paid in cash for shares
in LKB-Produkter AB and the assets of Intermedics-Intraocular
Inc.
 REUTER

Beryllium International
Corp said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Cominco
American Inc, a unit of Cominco Ltd, to develop a beryllium
mine and processing plant on Beryllium International's property
in the Topaz Mountains southwest of Salt Lake City.
    Beryllium said as a 49 pct owner of the venture it would be
contributing the mine while Cominco, as operator and 51 pct
testing, and other preliminary work for a feasibility study.
 Reuter

CANADA REAL 4TH QTR GDP ROSE 1.1 PCT, AFTER 3RD QTR 1.1 PCT RISE - OFFICIAL

CANADA 4TH QTR CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT 2.3 BILLION DLRS VS 3RD QTR 1.9 BILLION DEFICIT - OFFICIAL

United-Guardian Inc said it
signed a contract with <Federal Health Corp> covering the
exclusive marketing of Warexin, a disinfectant for kidney
dialysis machines, hospital equipment and instruments.
    Under the contract, United-Guardian said Federal will
continue to supply Hospal, a subsidiary of <Sandoz Ltd> and
<Rhone Poulenc S.A.> with all its Warexin requirements.
 Reuter

McLean Industries Inc said its
shipping subsidiary, United States Lines Inc, reached an
agreement in principle to transfer its South American service
to American Transport Lines Inc, a subsidiary of <Crowley
Maritime Corp>.
    Under the terms of the agreement, United States Lines will
lease five vessels to American Transport for 15 months with an
option to extend the period up to 10 years, the company said.
    In return, U.S. Lines will receive a fixed payment and a
percentage of revenues for at least three years and possibly as
long as American Transport utilizes its vessels and conducts
trade in South America, the company said.
    The companies will consummate the transactions as soon as
the required approvals are obtained, McLean said.
 Reuter

Senate Banking Committee Chairman
William Proxmire said modified legislation to help a federal
deposit insurance fund and prohibit new limited-service banks
and thrifts could be ready for a Senate vote in two to three
weeks.
    Proxmire said he agreed to demands from committee members
for a one-year moratorium on granting new business powers
sought by commercial banks to increase the bill's chances.
    In its new form, the bill would proscribe regulators from
granting new powers to banks, Proxmire told reporters after a
speech to the U.S. League of Savings Institutions.
    A vote on the bill by the committee is scheduled for
Thursday. If approved it will go to the full Senate.
    "I have spoken to the majority leader and he has agreed to
bring it up promptly on the Senate floor in two or three weeks,"
Proxmire told the thrift executives.
    The bill would recapitalize the Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp fund with 7.5 billion dlrs.
    It also would prohibit establishment of new nonbank banks
and nonthrift thrifts, so-called because they provide financial
services but do not meet the regulatory definition of both
making loans and receiving deposits.
 Reuter

U.S. factory usage of lard in the
production of both edible and inedible products during January
totaled 21.3 mln lbs, vs a revised 25.6 mln lbs in December,
according to Census Bureau figures.
    In the year-earlier period, usage, which includes
hydrogenated vegetable and animal fats and other oils in
process, amounted to 33.3 mln lbs.
    Usage in January comprised 15.7 mln lbs of edible products
and 5.6 mln lbs of inedible products.
    Total lard usage in the 1986/87 marketing season, which
began October 1, amounted to 104.3 mln lbs, vs 154.2 mln lbs in
the year-ago period.
 Reuter

The Amsterdam unit of French bank
Societe Generale said it is launching a 50-mln guilder, five
month certificate of deposit programme starting March 6 and
ending September 7.
    Denominations will be in one mln guilders. The price is to
be set on March 4, issue date is March 6 and redemption at par
is on September 7.
    Subscriptions are to be placed with Societe Generale,
Oolders en de Jong C.V or Haighton en Ruth B.V. A global note
for the issue will be deposited with the Dutch central bank.
 REUTER

Mony Funding Inc is issuing a 125 mln dlr
eurobond due April 7, 1997 paying 8-1/8 pct and priced at
101-1/2 pct, sole lead manager Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd
said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by Mutual Life
Insurance Co of the U.S. And is available in denominations of
concession is 1-3/8 pct while management and underwriting
    The payment date is April 7.
 REUTER

A total of 2,435 tonnes of British
intervention feed wheat were sold at today's tender for the
home market out of requests for 3,435 tonnes, the Home Grown
Cereals Authority, HGCA, said.
    Price details were not reported.
    No bids were submitted for intervention barley.
 Reuter

CANADA DECEMBER GDP UP 1.2 PCT AFTER NOVEMBER'S 0.2 PCT FALL - OFFICIAL

Shr 78 cts vs one dlr
    Net 1,413,000 vs 1,776,000
    Assets 705.3 mln vs 597.3 mln
    Deposits 495.6 mln vs 493.9 mln
    Loans 260.0 mln vs 379.7 mln
    Qtly div six cts vs six cts prior qtr
    Pay April 1 
    Record March 6
    NOTE: 1986 net includes charges from accounting changes,
from one-time expenses associated with a proxy contest and an
increase in loan reserves.
    First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Kalamazoo is
full name of company.
 Reuter

Boeing Co said its order for 15
extended-range 767-300's from AMR Corp <AMR> is worth over one
    The company said AMR is its first customer for the
767-300ER twinjet, a derivative of its 767-200 designed for
increased passenger and cargo capability on flights of up to
6,600 miles. It said the first delivery is scheduled for
February 1988 and the jet will seat 215 in tri-class
configuration.
    Boeing said it now has orders for 47 767-300's.
    In New York, <Airbus Industrie> said AMR is also the launch
customer for its A300-600R widebody.
    AMR today announced the order of 15 of the Boeing and 25 of
the Airbus twinjets.
    Airbus said in AMR's configuration, the A300-600R will seat
16 in first class and 251 in economy.  Deliveries will be made
bewtween April 1988 and June 1989.
    Airbus did not disclose the value of the order.
    Boeing said AMR will operate the 767's on North Atlantic
routes, while Airbus said AMR will operate the A300's on
Caribbean routes.
 Reuter

Inland Steel Industries Inc said it
registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a
proposed public offering of 1.5 mln shares of Series C
cumulative convertible exchangeable preferred shares, 50 dlrs a
share liquidation value.
    Goldman Sachs and Co and First Boston Corp are
underwriters. They have an option to buy 225,000 additional
shares to cover overallotments.
    Proceeds are for general corporate purposes, including to
fund a portion of the investment needed for a continuous cold
mill joint venture under discussion with Nippon Steel Corp.
 Reuter

Acustar Corp said it has
discovered significant unauthorized activity in its corporate
accounts but has not yet determined the full extent of the
problem.
    It said it has requested that all over-the-counter trading
in its stock be halted until it can make a further
announcement.  An investigation is underway, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 3,243,000 vs 1,656,000
    Revs 28.4 mln vs 21.5 mln
    NOTE: All amts reflect 3-for-2 stock split of company's
common in form of 50 pct stock dividend paid Feb 26, 1987.
 Reuter

Unicorp American Corp said it has
formed a joint venture with Sybedon Corp, a New York real
estate investment banking firm, to pursue real estate projects.
    It said a total of 20 mln dlrs is being committed to the
joint venture.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 25 cts prior qtr
    Pay 31 May
    Record 1 May
 Reuter

Qtrly div 28.5 cts vs 28.5 cts
 Reuter

The U.K. Exported 535,460 tonnes of wheat
and 336,750 tonnes of barley in January, the Home Grown Cereals
Authority (HGCA) said, quoting adjusted Customs and Excise
figures.
    Based on the previous January figures issued on February 9,
wheat exports increased by nearly 64,000 tonnes and barley by
about 7,000 tonnes.
    The new figures bring cumulative wheat exports for the
period July 1/February 13 to 2.99 mln tonnes, and barley to
2.96 mln compared with 1.25 and 1.89 mln tonnes respectively a
year ago.
    January wheat exports comprised 251,000 tonnes to European
Community destinations and 284,000 tonnes to third countries.
    The Soviet Union was prominent in third country
destinations, taking 167,700 tonnes while Poland was credited
with 54,500 and South Korea 50,000 tonnes. Italy was the
largest EC recipient with 75,000 tonnes followed by West
Germany with 55,200 and France 52,000 tonnes.
    Barley exports for January comprised 103,700 tonnes to the
EC and 233,000 to third countries. The Soviet Union was the
largest single importer with 133,265 tonnes followed by Saudi
Arabia with 53,800 tonnes.
 Reuter

Canada's real gross domestic product,
seasonally adjusted, rose 1.1 pct in the fourth quarter of
1986, the same as the growth as in the previous quarter,
Statistics Canada said.
    That left growth for the full year at 3.1 pct, which is
down from 1985's four pct increase.
    The rise was also slightly below the 3.3 pct growth rate
Finance Minister Michael Wilson predicted for 1986 in
February's budget. He also forecast GDP would rise 2.8 pct in
1987.
    Statistics Canada said final domestic demand rose 0.6 pct
in the final three months of the year after a 1.0 pct gain in
the third quarter.
    Business investment in plant and equipment rose 0.8 pct in
the fourth quarter, partly reversing the cumulative drop of 5.8
pct in the two previous quarters.
 Reuter

Winter wheat crops in the
western Soviet Union, Poland and eastern Czechoslovakia through
northern Romania may suffer some winterkill over the next two
nights, private forecaster Accu-Weather Inc said.
    Western USSR winter wheat areas have had only light and
spotty snow and winterkill is possible tonight and tomorrow
night as temperatures drop to minus 10 to 0 degrees F.
    Snow cover is scant in Poland, with only about 50 pct of
the winter wheat areas reporting one to two inches of snow as
of this morning.
    The remaining 50 pct of winter wheat crops do not have snow
cover, making winterkill possible on each of the next two
nights. Lowest temperatures will be minus 10 to 0 degrees F.
    Winter wheat areas from eastern Czechoslovakia through
northern Romania had light snow flurries yesterday and last
night, but amounts were an inch or less. With temperatures
expected to fall to near 0 degrees F over the next two nights,
some light winterkill is possible, Accu-Weather added.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 14 mln vs 10.6 mln
    Revs 163.8 mln vs 127.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 81 cts vs 59 cts
    Net 40.5 mln vs 28.7 mln
    Revs 521.2 mln vs 391.6 mln
 Reuter

Pansophic Systems Inc said it
will split its stock two-for-one effective April two to
    It also said it will pay a six cts per share dividend on
the pre-split shares, a regular quarterly dividend, on April
two to shareholders of record March 13.
 Reuter

Lac Minerals Ltd and <Cambior Inc> said
they completed a second hole at their jointly owned Doyon mine
in Quebec, which showed two significant gold intersections.
    One intersection graded 0.33 ounce gold a short ton over 44
feet at depth of 1,411 feet, while the other graded 0.22 ounce
gold a ton over 23 feet at 2,064 feet, the companies said. The
hole is 460 feet east of the previously reported first hole.
    They said they were now drilling another hole 460 feet to
the west of the first drill hole and expected to report results
in late March or early April.
 Reuter

AMR Corp chairman Robert Crandall,
denying industry speculation, said the company is not
interested in acquiring shuttle routes in the northeast region
of the U.S. from Pan Am Corp.
    But in remarks at a press conference announcing a major
aircraft order, he said AMR would be interested in certain
other Pan Am assets. But he noted that none had been made
available.
    Pan Am earlier today announced an order for 40 new aircraft
from Boeing Co <BA> and <Airbus Industrie>, a European
consortium, for an estimated 2.5 billion dlrs.
    AMR, the parent of American Airlines, has said it is not
interested in acquiring Pan Am as a whole and Crandall
reiterated that position today.
    "Assets are one thing, and companies are another," Crandall
said, referring to the possibility of acquiring assets from Pan
Am.
    He said Pan Am has not offered its transatlantic routes for
sale, adding that it would not make much sense for them to do
so.
 
 Reuter

Calmar Inc said KEBOO Ab of
Sweden, which now owns about 64 pct of Calmark, has approved
the acquisition of remaining Calmar shares at 25.375 dlrs in
cash at the request of the Calmar board.
    Calmar said a special meeting of its board will be held
March Nine to form a special committee of directors not
affiliated with KEBO to evaluate the transaction.
    KEBO is in turn 60 pct owned by <Investment AB Beijar> of
Sweden.
 Reuter

Fruit of the Loom Inc said an initial
public offering of 27 mln Class A common shares is underway at
nine dlrs per share through underwriters led by <Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc>, Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>, E.F. Hutton Group
Inc <EFH> and Sears, Roebuck and Co Inc's <S> Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc unit.
 Reuter

Italy's state-owned <Banca Nazionale Del
Lavoro-BNL> said it is negotiating to buy a West German bank as
part of its foreign expansion policy.
    BNL president Nerio Nesi told a news conference the Italian
bank was currently involved in talks but declined to name the
German institution.
    He said the takeover move could be seen as BNL's reply to
Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F>, which entered the Italian market in
December 1986, with the purchase of BankAmerica <BACN>
subsidiary <Banca D'America e D'Italia>.
    Nesi said BNL had also approved a 200 mln dlr credit line
to the Soviet Union aimed at enabling Soviet companies to pay
for Italian imports. He gave no further details.
    BNL officials said the group had also decided to increase
its activities in the Soviet Union by opening a representative
office in Moscow this month through its subsidiary <Sogecred>,
which specialises in Italian-Soviet trade.
 REUTER

Three black workers were killed and
seven injured in fighting at a South African zinc refinery last
night, Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd said.
    The company said two groups of workers began attacking each
other at about 1000 local time with machetes, knives and sticks
at a hostel at the Zincor plant, some 40 kms east of
Johannesburg.
    It said the fighting was "quelled" after 25 minutes by its
own security staff. Police were called but the fighting had
ended by the time they arrived.
    A company spokesman said he had no idea of the cause of the
fighting. An investigation was underway, he said.
 Reuter

arranging 1.5 to two billion dlrs of customer repurchase
agreements. The Fed may add the reserves directly instead via
System repurchases.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.18 pct yesterday, opened at
6-3/16 pct and stayed there in early trading. Analysts said the
rate is under upward pressure partly from settlement of 8.25
billion dlrs of five-year Treasury notes.
 Reuter

European Community industrial output
increased by an average of around two pct last year, compared
with 3.3 pct growth recorded in 1985 against a year earlier,
the EC statistics office Eurostat said.
    Growth was highest in Portugal at five pct, while in Greece
output contracted by 0.3 pct, Eurostat said in a statement.
    Eurostat noted output growth also fell in the U.S. And
Japan. U.S. Production increased 1.1 pct after 2.0 pct in 1985,
while in Japan output contracted by 0.5 pct after rising 4.5
pct a year earlier.
    Eurostat said EC industrial production in December rose 3.1
pct compared with 12 months earlier but added that after
adjustment for seasonal factors, output growth had been clearly
slowing down since the beginning of the summe
 REUTER

Shr profit five cts vs loss 2.11 dlrs
    Net profit 375,061 vs loss 10.4 mln
    Revs 39.9 mln vs 37.8 mln
    Avg shrs 6,536,008 vs 4,939,895
    12 mths
    Shr profit 47 cts vs loss 3.37 dlrs
    Net profit 2,837,288 vs loss 16.6 mln
    Revs 169.1 mln vs 149.4 mln
    Avg shrs 6,037,640 vs 4,937,378
    NOTE: primary earnings per share are based on the weighted
average number of common and dilutive common equivalent shares
outstanding during each period after accounting for preferred
stock dividends.
    The qtr and year 1985 includes a 6,000,000 provision for
restructuring costs related to the sale of its Energy business
and parts of its Bearing business.
    The qtr and year 1986 includes charges of 1,200,000 and
5,200,000, respectively, for restructuring costs and operating
losses which were charged against the previously provided
accruals for restructuring costs.
    The qtr and year 1986 includes deferred income taxes of
244,000 and 785,000, respectively.
    Year net 1986 includes operations of Friedrich Climate
Master Inc, which the company acquired in August 1985, for the
full period, while the comparable period for 1985 includes only
operations from August 16, 1985, to Dec 31, 1985.
    Third qtr 1986 Includes extraodinary tax gain of 270,000 
from early extinquishment of certain drafts payable.
 Reuter

U.S. Carmaker General Motors hopes to
sell between 7,000 and 8,000 vehicles in Europe this year, a
five-fold rise over the year before, James Fry, vice-president
of GM Overseas Distribution Corporation told a news briefing.
    "The low dollar makes our prices very attractive," he said at
a GM preview before the opening of the Geneva Motor Show.
    "We would like to sell between 7,000 and 8,000 units in
Europe for the year to August 1987," he told Reuters later.
Officials said GM sold 1,500 vehicles in the 1986 model year.
    Fry said that at an average price of 13,000 dlrs, his
projected sales figures would mean turnover of between 91 mln
and 104 mln dlrs in Europe.
    GM sales in Europe in the 1985 model year totalled 500
vehicles, due largely to uncompetitive prices because of the
then strong dollar, Fry said.
    All GM vehicles sold in Europe are manufactured in the
United States and Canada, he said, adding that most sales were
in Switzerland followed by Sweden and West Germany.
 Reuter

Lac Minerals Ltd and Cambior Inc said
    One intersection graded 0.33 ounce gold per short ton over
44 feet at depth of 1,411 feet, while the other graded 0.22
ounce gold per ton over 23 feet at 2,064 feet, the companies
said. The hole is 460 feet east of the previously reported
first hole.
    Another hole is being drilled 460 feet to the west of the
first drill hole and results are expected in late March or
early April.
 Reuter

Pizza Inn Inc said it will be making an
announcement sometime this morning.
    The company declined to discuss details of the
announcement.
    The American Stock Exchange delayed trading Pizza Inn
    Pizza Inn recently received a buyout proposal from Concept
Development Inc <CDII> for an exchange of stock and cash,
subject to Concept's ability to get the necessary financing.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 34 cts vs loss 53 cts
    Oper net profit 3,337,000 vs 4,881,000
    Revs 32.7 mln vs 49.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 20 cts vs loss 90 cts
    Oper net profit 2,374,000 vs loss 9,381,000
    Revs 126.9 mln vs 160.5 mln
    NOTES: Operating net excludes loss 6,050,000 dlrs, or 64
cts a share, vs loss 24,839,000 dlrs, or 2.61 dlrs a share, in
quarter and loss 6,050,000 dlrs, or 64 cts a share, vs profit
64,013,000 dlrs, or 6.27 dlrs a share, from discontinued
operations
    1986 loss from discontinued operations includes 6.0 mln
dlrs charge, equal to 64 cts a share, to provide for additional
liabilities resulting from the 1981 closure of lead, zinc and
silver mining, smelting and refining business
    1986 year operating net includes pre-tax gain of 5.3 mln
dlrs, equal to 56 cts a share, from pension plan termination
and gain of 5.2 mln dlrs, or 56 cts a share, from reduction in
deferred taxes
    Effective Jan 1, 1987, company changed oil and gas
accounting to successful efforts from full cost, increasing
1986 year net 9.2 mln dlrs, or 98 cts a share, and increasing
1985 loss 4.3 mln dlrs, or 43 cts a share. The cumulative
effect of the change was to decrease retained earnings at Dec
31, 1986, by 14.0 mln dlrs
 Reuter

The collapse of International Coffee
Organization, ICO, talks on export quotas yesterday removes the
immediate need to reinstate U.S. legislation allowing the
customs service to monitor coffee imports, analysts here said.
    The Reagan administration proposed in trade legislation
offered Congress last month that authority to monitor coffee
imports be resumed. That authority lapsed in September 1986. A
bill also was introduced by Rep. Frank Guarini (D-N.J.).
    However, the failure of the ICO talks in London to reach
agreement on export quotas means the U.S. legislation is not
immediately needed, one analyst said. Earlier supporters of the
coffee bill hoped it could be passed by Congress quickly.
    "You're going to have a hard time convincing Congress (now)
this is an urgent issue," the coffee analyst said.
 Reuter

Scotia Mortgage Corp is issuing a 100 mln
Canadian dlr eurobond due April 9, 1992 paying 8-3/4 pct and
priced at 100-3/4 pct, lead manager Wood Gundy Ltd said.
1,000 and 10,000 Canadian dlrs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. It is guaranteed by the Bank of Nova Scotia. The
selling concession is 1-1/4 pct, while management pays 1/4 pct
and underwriting pays 3/8 pct.
    The payment date is April 8 and there will be a long first
coupon period.
 REUTER

Shr 70 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 6,197,000 vs 4,880,000
    Revs 24.1 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.38 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 12.1 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Revs 52.5 mln vs 41.8 mln
 Reuter

Former Treasury official C. Fred
Bergsten said a new exchange rate system is needed to replace
the fixed and flexible exchange rate systems which he said had
not worked.
    "I prefer a move to 'target zones' in which the major
countries would determine ranges of 15-20 pct within which they
would pledge to hold their exchange rates by direct
intervention and, as necessary, by changes in monetary and
other policies," Bergsten, now the director of the Institute
for International Economics, said in a statement to a House
Banking subcommittee.
    "The substantial correction of the exchange rate that has
occurred since early 1985 is enormously welcome, and should
produce a sizeable reduction in the U.S. trade deficit this
year and next, but the imbalance will not fall much below 100
billion dlrs on present policies, so much more is needed," he
said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts prior
    Pay April 13
 Reuter

Ausimont Compo NV said it will
change its name to Ausimont NV on May Six, subject to
shareholder approval.
 Reuter

Syria has complained to the
United Nations that Israeli occupation authorities were
blocking the export of citrus fruit from the Gaza Strip to the
countries of the European Community, EC.
    In a letter to Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar,
published here today, Syrian U.N. charge d'affaires Abdul
Mou'men Al-Atassi said: "These measures threaten to create a
slump in citrus production, which constitutes the primary
source of income in the Gaza Strip....They are causing heavy
losses to farmers and all those working in the field of citrus
production and threaten to bring about economic disaster."
    The Syrian envoy said the Israel action was a violation of
the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. Charter and the "legitimacy of
the economic rights endorsed by the United Nations."
    The Gaza Strip, occupied by Egypt in the 1948 Arab-Israel
war, was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
 Reuter

There was no evidence of winterkill
in Yugoslavian winter wheat during field travel along a line
running northwest from Belgrade to near Maribor, the U.S.
Agriculture Department's counselor in Belgrade said in a field
report.
    The report, dated February 26, said there is evidence of
delayed germination in most areas due to late seeding last fall
because of dry conditions.
    However warm temperatures over the past three weeks have
promoted some early growth and will help the crop catch up on
last fall's late seeding, it said.
    Some Yugoslav agriculture officials are concerned about the
situation because warm temperatures have brought the grain out
of dormancy and taken away snow protection a little early, the
report said.
    Cold temperatures over the next month could cause damage
under these conditions, they said.
    The report said all wheat farmers contacted during the
field trip were optimistic about the crop and the way it
emerged from winter.
 Reuter

American Telephone and
Telegraph Co said small businesses can win up to a 10 pct
discount on telephone equipment under a new program.
    According to the America's Choice Bonus Program, customers
that rent certain phone systems can earn credits each time they
pay their monthly or fixed term lease bills.
    The credits can be used in the purchase of ATT products,
including communications systems and the System 25 PBX, a
telephone switch for voice and data communications. Customers
will receive a 50 dlrs initial credit, and additions to their
account equivalent to 10 pct of their rental payments.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 12.3 mln vs 9,382,000
    Sales 172.0 mln vs 146.00 mln
    Avg shrs 29.5 mln vs 24.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.63 dlrs vs 1.35 dlrs
    Net 45.7 mln vs 30.0 mln
    Sales 665.5 mln vs 446.2 mln
    Avg shrs 28.0 mln vs 22.3 mln
    NOTE: translated at 1,339 Italian lire to dollar.
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said it has
tentatively agreed to form a joint venture with privately-held
Novopharm Ltd of Canada whereby each will market the other's
drug in their home country.
    LyphoMed will sell Novopharm's oral pharmaceutical drugs in
the U.S. and Novopharm will sell Lyphomed's injectable
pharmaceutical drugs in Canada, it said.
    The joint venture gives LyphoMed entry into the hospital
and retail oral pharmaceutical market with Novopharm's product
line. Novopharm in turn will strengthen its position in the
Canadian hospital market using LyphoMed's injectable products.
    The first product to be marketed will be cephalexin
monohydrate, now marketed by Eli Lilly Co <LLY> as Keflex, a
product whose patent expires in April. Keflex is an antibiotic
with a current market in excess of 250 mln dlrs. It will be
made by Novopharm in Canada, sold to the new joint venture, and
distributed by LyphoMed in the U.S., it said.
 Reuter

Bell Petroleum Services Inc,
currently in Chapter 11, said Regal International Inc has
acquired an option to buy its secured notes held by its banks.
    Bell said Regal also expressed interest in discussing an
acquisition offer, but Bell's board rejected the offer, saying
it wanted to remain independent and proceed with its chapter 11
reorganization.
    The company said that its ability to reorganize will be
hampered because a major competitor now holds an option on its
notes.
 Reuter

Norton co said it has agreed to
sell its remaining South African business, Norton co Pty Ltd,
to <Global Mining and Industrial Corp> of South africa for
    The company said the unit accounts for less than two pct of
Norton revenues and is being sold because "Growing societal
pressures in the United States and the unsettled situation in
south Africa had required a disproportionate amount of
management tiome to oversee."
    Norton said the unit is profitable. 
    Norton said it will provide the South Afrcian unit with
future technical support, and products makde under that
agreement will continue to be marketed under the Norton
trademark.
 Reuter

Canada's current account deficit widened
to a seasonally adjusted 2.27 billion dlrs in the fourth
quarter from a deficit of 1.94 billion dlrs in the third,
    The shortfall for the full year rose to 8.81 billion dlrs
from 1985's 584 mln dlr deficit, the federal agency said.
    The agency said the rise in the merchandise surplus, to
2.77 billion dlrs from 2.20 billion dlrs in the third quarter,
was more than offset by high deficits in servicies and
investment. The total non-merchandise deficit grew to 5.04
billion dlrs from 4.14 billion dlrs.
    The current account deficit was 912 mln dlrs in the fourth
quarter of 1985.
    In the capital account, not seasonally adjusted, there was
a total net inflow of 4.76 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter,
up from a net inflow of 3.22 billion dlrs in the third quarter
quarter.
    The total net capital inflow rose to 13.74 billion dlrs in
1986 from 7.68 billion dlr in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.07 dlrs vs profit 36 cts
    Net loss 1,088,000 vs profit 187,000
    Year
    Shr loss 12.23 dlrs vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 645,000 vs profit 89,000
    NOTE: Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of the
Rockies.
    1986 net includes tax credits of 165,000 dlrs in quarter
and 189,000 dlrs in year.
    Net includes pretax loan loss provisions of 1,439,000 dlrs
vs 127,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,701,000 dlrs vs 222,000 dlrs
in year.
 Reuter

Canada's gross domestic product, by
industry, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.2 pct in December, the
largest monthly gain since April, 1986, Statistics Canada said.
    GDP, which fell 0.2 pct in November, was 2.1 pct above the
December, 1985 level, the federal agency said.
    Output of goods producing industries rose 1.6 pct in the
month, with virtually all the growth occurring in manufacturing
and mining. Services producing industries expanded 1.0 pct.
 Reuter

Advertising agents Saatchi and Saatchi Co
Plc <SACHY> said it was buying <Cleveland Consulting Associates
Inc> for an initial consideration of 2.0 mln dlrs.
    Additional payments may be made annually through the year
ending March 31, 1991 to bring the total consideration up to
9.5 pct of Cleveland's average post-tax profits in the last two
years of the period.
    The purchase of Cleveland is a further step in Saatchi and
Saatchi's fast growing consulting industry, the company said.
It said its consulting operations now provide a platform for
major future expansion.
    For the 12 months ended 31 March 1986, Cleveland had
479,000 dlrs in pretax profits and forecasts one mln for 1987.
    At the Saatchi and Saatchi annual meeting today, the
company reported a particularly strong start to the current
year, with profits sharply higher than the same period last
year.
    Saatchi and Saatchi shares rose one pence on the Cleveland
announcement to 885p after yesterday's 870p close.
 Reuter

Chesebrough-Pond's Inc, recently
acquired by a unit of Unilever N.V., said it is offering to
sell its Bass shoe division, as a result of an
ongoing evaluation of the long-term direction of its
businesses.
    The diversified maker of health and beauty aids, said it
acquired Falmouth, Maine-based G.H. Bass and Co in 1978, when
the company reported annual sales of 59 mln dlrs. Bass is known
for its high-quality casual shoes.
    Chesebrough said Bass's 1986 sales exceeded 170 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Continental Corp said the fresh start
provision of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 may add 1.30 to 1.60 to
1987 earnings per share.
    The insurance holding company had net earnings of 449.6 mln
dlrs, or, or 7.42 per share, in 1986.
    John Loynes, Continental chief financial officer, said the
fresh start provision allowed the company to discount opening
tax reserves to January 1, 1987, which released deferred taxes
into earnings.
    Loynes said the provision's potential benefit would decline
gradually over the next four years, during which time
Continental will pay 250 mln to 350 mln dlrs more in taxes.
    Loynes added, however, the higher taxes are not expecetd to
have a significant impact on earnings.
 Reuter

This week's Ontario government auction
of 50 mln dlrs worth of 91-day treasury bills yielded an
average of 7.28 pct, up slightly from 7.26 pct last week, a
treasury department spokesman said.
    Average price was 98.217.
 Reuter

Shr 8.17 dlrs vs 55 cts
    Net 67.7 mln vs 4.5 mln
    Revs 3.67 billion vs 3.54 billion
    Year
    Shr 12.19 dlrs vs 24.00 dlrs
    Net 101.1 mln vs 199.0 mln
    Revs 14.33 billion vs 13.35 billion
    Note: 90 pct owned by Ford Motor Co <F>
 Reuter

Belgian Foreign Trade Minister Herman
De Croo said he believed there would be a compromise within the
European Community, EC, on its proposed tax on vegetable fats
and oil, averting a pledged tough trade response by the United
States.
    De Croo, in Washington for talks with Administration
officials and Congressional leaders, said at a news conference
there is a battle within the community on the tax on fats and
oils used in the 12 EC countries.
    But he added, "I do not think it will be a big issue because
there will be a big debate inside Europe," adding "so there will
be a compromise."
    U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said yesterday
that if the community went ahead with the tax, the United
States would respond "vigorously" to protect its trade rights and
access to community markets.
    De Croo also said he thought the community would postpone
its April 28 deadline for imposing new slaughterhouse rules to
cover all meats brought into EC nations if some progress was
made toward resolving differences with the United States.
    U.S. officials say its rules now meet health standards and
the EC should require equivalent but not identical standards.
    He also told reporters he hoped the community could deal
with another controversial health proposal that would forbid
the feeding of hormones to cattle, which is also opposed by the
United States.
    De Croo gave no deals on how he though the issue might be
resolved. That rule is go into effect on January 1, 1988.
    He said U.S. cattlemen say there is no reason to change
slaughterhouse practices in April if the meat is to be banned a
few months later by the hormone rule.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 3,722,000 vs 3,103,000
    Sales 33.0 mln vs 31.8 mln
    Avg shrs 11.2 mln vs 11.1 mln
    1st half
    Shr 68 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 7,585,000 vs 6,346,000
    Sales 65.9 mln vs 61.3 mln
    Avg shrs 11.2 mln vs 11.0 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two October 1986 stock
split.
 Reuter

Loans and advances from the Dutch
central bank to the commercial banks were barely changed at
12.9 billion guilders in the week up to and including March 2,
the central bank weekly return showed.
    The Treasury's account with the bank dropped 1.3 billion
guilders. Dealers said a larger amount of funds in the form of
interest and repayments on state loans went out than came in
the form of tax payments to the state.
    Notes in circulation rose 360 mln to 27.7 billion as the
public withdrew cash to celebrate this week's Carnival festival
or take an end-of-winter holiday break, dealers said.
    Current money market rates are at 5-3/4 to 6-1/4 pct for
call money against 5-1/4 to 5-3/8 a week ago, and between
5-5/16 and 5-9/16 pct against 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 for one to 12
month periods, dealers said.
    The cause for the rise was a rather tight 4.8 billion
guilders of special advances set by the Bank yesterday compared
with 8.0 billion guilders for the previous set, dealers added.
    They expect the money market shortage to continue around 12
billion guilders this week.
    The weekly return showed total Dutch gold and currency
reserves rose 11.3 mln guilders to 56.0 billion guilders.
 REUTER

Nexxus Technologies Inc
said it has signed production contracts totaling about 10 mln
dlrs with three major U.S. gem wholesalers.
    The company said it expects to start operations on these
contracts in May, adding the work will continue through late
1989. Additional contracts with international gem wholesalers
are expected in the near future, it added without providing
details.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its U.S. car
production in February totalled 110,552 units compared with
123,092 a year ago.
    The company said its U.S. truck production in the month
totalled 21,177 compared with none a year ago.
    Year-to-date, Chrysler said its U.S. car output was 216,987
compared with 257,941 and truck production is 39,834 compared
with none a year ago. The figures exclude Canadian truck
production, much of which is earmarked for the U.S.
   
 Reuter

House Banking committee chairman
Fernand St Germain, D-R.I., called for caution in giving
savings associations forbearance in paying their debts as part
of a bill providing three billion dlrs in new capital for the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.
    "We cannot let forbearance stretch to protect the
mismanaged or terminal cases that would serve to further drain
the FSLIC fund," St Germain said at the start of a hearing on
FSLIC legislation. "Forbearance must be designed to help the
well managed institution temporarily on hard times. It must not
be forgiveness for the speculators, the high flyers and the
fast buck artists."
    The use of forbearance for well-managed institutions was
endorsed at the hearing by Texas Savings and Loan Commissioner
L.L. Bowman, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas and the Texas
Savings and Loan League.
 Reuter

A number of computer companies said they
formed Network Computing Forum, an industry group focusing on
ways to tie computers, workstations and networks together.
    The participants include Apollo Computer Inc <APCI>,
Alliant Computer Systems Corp <ALNT>, Apple Computer Inc
<AAPL>, Concurrent Computer Inc <CCUR>, and a number of other
    The Forum said its aim was to adopt protocols, services and
architectures that support integrated network computing. It
also hopes to promote industry standards. The first meeting of
the group is set for the Spring 1987.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 507,000 vs loss 1,823,000
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 204,000
 Reuter

An investor group led by Central
National-Gottesman Inc, a New York investment firm, and its
executive vice president, Edgar Wachenheim, said they cut their
stake in Material Sciences Corp to less than five pct.
the group said it sold 19,500 Material Sciences common shares
between Feb 11 and 19 at prices ranging from 24.00 to 27.648
dlrs a share, leaving it with 239,500 shares, or 4.7 pct.
    As long as the group's stake remains below five pct, it is
not required to disclose further dealings in Material Sciences
common stock.
 Reuter

Sapporo Breweries Ltd is launching a 100
mln Swiss franc, 4-5/8 pct, five-year guaranteed notes issue
priced at 100-1/4 pct, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Fuji Bank and payment date is
March 17.
 REUTER

Chrysler Corp said its February U.S. car
production was 110,552 compared with 123,092 a year ago.
    The number three automaker said U.S. truck production
totalled 21,177 compared with nine last year. The figures
exclude Canadian truck production, much of which is sold to
U.S. dealers.
    Year-to-date, Chrysler said car output declined to 216,987
from 257,941 and U.S. truck production totalled 39,834 compared
with none a year ago.
   
 Reuter

Periods ended Jan 31
    Shr 28 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 2,374,000 vs 2,987,000
    Sales 35.2 mln vs 34 mln
    Backlog 36.8 mln vs 33.9 mln
 Reuter

Tylan Corp aid it has retained
the investment banking firm Kahn and Harris to sell its furnace
    The company said it has already been contacted by several
potential buyers.
    In 1986, Tylan's furnace product shipments in the U.S.
represented 10.3 mln dlrs of the company's total net sales of
28.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr basic 88 cts vs 1.22 dlrs
    Shr diluted 83 cts vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 114,108,000 vs 140,389,000
    Avg shrs 107.5 mln vs 100.5 mln
    Loans 66.4 billion vs 65.9 billion
    Deposits 82.8 billion vs 84.4 billion
    Assets 98.7 billion vs 96.7 billion.
 Reuter

    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-1/4 pct when
 Reuter

Home Shopping Network Inc said
its board approved plans to offer a stock option plan for its
cable television operators.
    The company said it will offer the options in exchange for
a commitment to operate the company's programs to a set number
of subscribers for five years. The agreement also includes a
five year extension option.
    If the operator agrees to the plan, they will receive
options to buy 10 dlrs worth of common stock for each cable
subscriber committed, or 20 dlrs per subscriber, if they agree
to run both programs, the company explained.
    The company said the option will vest over a five year
period at the rate of 20 pct per year.
    The company, which offered a similar program last year,
said the current one is directed for those who did not sign up
last year, and for new carriers of the company's home shopping
video shows.
 Reuter

Boget Oil Co said it has purchased
interests in about 200 wells in Oklahoma and seven medium-depth
drilling rigs for 4.5 mln dlrs.
    The company said it will be able to incorporate the 150
operated wells within its field organization and intends to
dispose of the rigs by private sale or auction in the near
future.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.58 dlrs vs 77 cts
    Oper net 1,648,000 vs 817,000
    Sales 25.7 mln vs 20.5 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations gain 451,000
dlrs vs loss 4,310,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi said
his five party coalition government would resign.
    Craxi, Italy's prime minister for a postwar record of 3-1/2
years, told the Senate (upper house) he would hand his and the
government's resignation to President Francesco Cossiga
immediately after leaving the chamber.
    Craxi has been prime minister, at the head of two separate
but identical five-party coalitions, since August 1983.
 Reuter

Adobe Systems Inc said it
signed a contract with International Business Machines, giving
IBM licensing rights to its PostScript page description
language interpreter.
    Adobe said IBM plans to use PostScript as one of the
foundation elements of its preferred environments for IBM
electronic publishing products.
 Reuter

The upcoming five-month deficiency
payments to corn and sorghum farmers will be made half in cash
and half in generic commodity certificates, a senior
Agriculture Department official told Reuters.
    Around 300 mln dlrs of the in-kind certificates, or
"certs," will be mailed out to farmers around March 15 or 16,
Tom von Garlem, Assistant Deputy Administrator for USDA's state
and county operations, said.
    The decision to make the payments in a 50/50 cash/certs
ratio was made Monday, but payments to producers will be
delayed until mid-month due to a problem with USDA's computer
program, von Garlem said.
get 11.5 cts per bushel in this next payment -- 5.75 cts in
certs and around 5.5 cts cash (5.75 cts minus Gramm-Rudman).
    Farmers who did not receive advance deficiency payments at
signup will receive 63 cts per bushel. Slightly more than half
of this payment will be in cash, von Garlem said, but he said
this will not markedly upset the 50/50 ratio, since most
farmers got advance payments.
    "The final certificate payments will be very close to 300
mln dlrs," he said.
    When asked if the Office of Management and Budget had
resisted the cash/certs ratio, the USDA official said that "we
proposed 50/50 and OMB accepted it."
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co of Canada Ltd,
90 pct owned by Ford Motor Co <F>, said the earlier reported
decline in full year net profit was mainly due to changeoover
costs at its Essex, Ontario engine plant.
    Ford Canada also said sharply improved fourth quarter
results were due to improved cost recovery and lower product
program costs, partially offset by lower engine production.
    The company earlier said consolidated 1986 net income fell
to 101.9 mln dlrs from year-ago 199.0 mln dlrs. Fourth quarter
profit improved to 67.7 mln dlrs from 4.5 mln dlrs in the prior
year.
    Ford Canada said full-year earnings from its Canadian
operations declined 75.4 mln dlrs to 104.0, while fourth
quarter profit increased to 49.1 mln dlrs from 16.1 mln dlrs in
the prior year.
    Ford Canada reported a full year loss of 2.9 mln dlrs from
its overseas operations, compared to a 19.6 mln dlr profit in
1985. Fourth quarter earnings from overseas operations rose to
18.6 mln dlrs from a loss of 11.6 mln dlrs in the prior year.
    The company reported full-year domestic sales in Canada of
4.35 billion dlrs compared to 3.95 billion dlrs in 1985,
excluding export sales to its U.S. parent.
    Ford Canada said it had 1986 export sales to its parent
company of 7.97 billion dlrs, up from year-earlier 7.18 billion
dlrs.
    The company reported 1986 overseas sales fell 205.7 mln
dlrs to 2.01 billion dlrs from 2.21 billion dlrs in 1985.
    The company attributed the improvement in fourth quarter
results from overseas operations to manufacturing efficiencies,
cost reduction programs and improved cost recovery, which were
partially offset by lower industry volumes.
    Ford Canada's net loss for the year from overseas
operations resulted from lower industry volumes and increased
interest costs, the company said.
    Despite increased competition, Ford Canada's market share
of car sales rose to 17.2 pct from 17.0 pct in 1985, it said.
The company's share of industry truck sales rose to 29.7 pct in
1986 from year-earlier 29.2 pct.
    Ford Canada said sales were boosted by its Ford Tempo car
and Ford light truck, both manufactured in Oakville, which were
Canada's best selling car and truck nameplates in 1986.
 Reuter

Firestone Tire and Rubber Co has
notified the United Rubber Workers the company will close its
Des Moines, Iowa, Bloomington, Ill., and Oklahoma City tire
plants on or before September 15.
    A Firestone spokesman said the cost of the closings will be
covered by the 65 mln dlrs restructuring charge the company
took in the fourth quarter of 1986.
    The company said it was notified by the union March one
that the agreement reached with Local 998 at the Oklahoma City
tire plant had been rejected by union members at the other
plants. 
    Firestone said it has been discussing the possible sale of
its Des Moines and Bloomington plants with prospective buyers
for several months.
    Those discussions are continuing, the company said, adding
it could not predict their outcome. Firestone is willing to
work with any organization wishing to consider the purchase of
the three tire plants, it added.
    Last October, Firestone advised the union the tire plants
in Des Moines, Bloomington and Oklahoma City were being
designated as "distressed" under the terms of its master
agreement with the rubber workers.
    Firestone said it has twice reached agreement with the
leadership and members of the local in Oklahoma City on plans
to reduce operating costs through revisions in wages, benefits
and work rules.
    Union procedures, however, require approval by the
Firestone section of the union's International Policy
Committee, membrs of other locals covered by the master
contract and by the rubber workers' executive board.
    The company said the rejection of the Oklahoma City package
by union locals at Des Moines and other locations and the
limited sales and profit opportunities for agricultural and
off-the-road tires in North America led Firestone to conclude
the parties would be unable to reach agreements that would
permit the continued operation of the Des Moines and
Bloomington plants.
 Reuter

Shr 69 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 7,046,000 vs 6,492,000
    Sales 85.7 mln vs 79.6 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr 1.28 dlrs vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 13,098,000 vs 12,006,000
    Sales 166.3 mln vs 153.3 mln
    NOTE: Periods end January 31, 1987 and 1986, respectively.
 Reuter

Shr 57 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 1,002,000 vs 470,000
    Sales 15.9 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Note: 4th qtr data not available
 Reuter

The International Finance Corp is
privately placing a 50 mln dlr bond due April 7, 1997 carrying
a 7-5/8 pct coupon and priced at 99-3/4 pct, Bank of Tokyo
International Ltd said as sole lead manager for the issue.
    The bond is available in denominations of 25,000 dlrs and
will be listed in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

Oper shr one ct vs three cts
    Oper net 99,000 vs 327,000
    Revs 12.1 mln vs 8,800,000
    Avg shrs 15.5 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr six cts vs 11 cts
    Oper net 841,000 vs 956,000
    Revs 44.1 mln vs 34.4 mln
    Avg shrs 15.3 mln vs 8,519,677
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 299,000 dlrs vs 29,00000
dlrs in quarter and 809,000 dlrs vs 71,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Shr profit 27 cts vs profit 51 cts
    Net profit 6,600,000 vs profit 12,231,000
    Revs 211.7 mln vs 193.4 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 17 cts vs profit 1.27 dlrs
    Net loss 4,077,000 vs profit 30,142,000
    Revs 753.5 mln vs 673.4 mln
    NOTE: in qtr ended 1986 the company recognized expenses of
5,948,000 for restructing the combined operations of BBDO,
Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide in August 1986
before tax gains. These relate primarily to the conosolidation
and elimination of duplicate facilities and staff.
    for the year 1986, the provisions for mergers and
restructuring expenses brought non-recurring expenses to
40,292,000 before tax gains, of which 8,863,000 represented
merger costs and 31,429,000 related to restructuring of the
combine operations.

 Reuter

American Motors Corp said its February
U.S. car production declined to 2,978 units from 3,808 a year
ago.
    AMC said its U.S. jeep production rose to 18,651 from
16,673 last year.
    Year-to-date, AMC said its car output declined to 6,6069
from 6,631 and jeep production declined to 37,207 from 40,586
in the comparable 1986 period.
 Reuter

Venezuela will limit new loans to 50 pct
of the interest and principal it repays on its 31 billion dlr
foreign debt, President Jaime Lusinchi told political leaders.
    Speaking last night at a new session of congress, he said
last week's agreement to reschedule 21 billion dlrs in public
sector foreign debt at lower interest rates reflected
Venezuela's improved credit image.
    "Our priority is development, but I insist that there cannot
be development if we don't fulfil our obligations," he said.
    Venezuela agreed last Friday with its 13-bank advisory
committee to lower the interest margin to 7/8 pct over libor
from 1-1/8 and reduce amortisations in the next three years to
1.35 billion dlrs from 3.35 billion.
    "The important thing is that this rate of 7/8 pct is a
marker for new negotiations and will save us 50 mln dlrs this
year," Lusinchi said.
    He said the country had been loyal to the principles of the
Cartagena group of Latin American debtors but had "decided to
reach an agreement convinced that Venezuela is a specal case,
because of the vulnerability of its economy."
    Venezuela signed a 12-1/2 year rescheduling accord in
February, 1986, but immediately sought new terms because of
falling oil income, which dropped 40 pct last year.
    Finance Minister Manuel Azpurua told reporters he hopes to
sign the new rescheduling accord early in the second quarter,
but that in any case it would become effective from April 1.
    Azpurua said Venezuela's 450 or so creditor banks have been
contacted with details of the new agreement, and that Public
Finances Director Jorge Marcano may visit financial centres to
round up support.
    Azpurua said that among the details still to be finalised
were the exact timetable for reprogrammed payments and the
outlines of a government plan to allow public and private
sector debt capitalisation.
    He said banks had shown willingness to consider new loans
to Venezuela, a fundamental achievement in the new accord.
    "Substantial progress has been made in talks and we will now
have to define more precisely what projects can be financed
from foreign borrowing," he said, adding that loans for steel
and aluminium and iron ore sectors could be the first to
materialise.
 REUTER

Deutsche Bank Finance NV Curacao is
issuing a 75 mln stg eurobond due April 2, 1997 paying 9-7/8
pct and priced at 101-3/4 pct, joint-lead manager Kleinwort,
Benson Ltd said. Deutsche Bank Capital Markets is the other
joint-lead manager.
    The issue is guaranteed by Deutsche Bank AG and is callable
at 100-3/8 pct after seven years, declining by 1/8 point per
annum to par thereafter. The selling concession is 1-3/8 pct
while management and underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct. The
issue is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 stg and
will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment date is April 2.
 REUTER

Shareholders in Banque Bruxelles
Lambert <BBLB.B>, BBL, authorised the bank to increase capital
by five billion francs to 20 billion in the next five years, a
bank spokesman said.
    BBL, Belgium's second largest commercial bank, had failed
to win shareholder approval for the move last month because of
a lack of quorum. No quorum was required today.
    BBL has already raised over 5.5 billion francs in new
capital since April 1985. Board President Jacques Thierry
reiterated at the meeting that BBL had no plans to raise more
capital in the near future.
 REUTER

CORRECTION - ASHTON-TATE ITEM
    In Torrance, Calif., item ASHTON-TATE &lt;TATE&gt; 4TH QTR NET,
please read 1986 quarter average shares as 24.7 mln, not 200.7
mln.     
 Reuter

Anitec Image Technology Inc
Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of 60 mln dlrs in
convertible subordinated debentures.
    Anitec said the proceeds will be used for acquisitions,
joint ventures and other investments.
    Anitec said the offering is being underwritten by Smith
Barney, Harris Upham and Co, Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette
Securities, Salomon Inc <SB>, and Mabon Nugent and Co.
 Reuter

ago.
 Reuter

Savin Corp said it has reached
an agreement for Sun Chemical Corp to study the potential of
Savin infrared technology for possible use in classified U.S.
military applications.
    It said a royalty-bearing license could result.
 Reuter

Chile's consumer price index rose 1.7
pct in February to 562.01 (December, 1978 equals 100) after
increases of 2.0 pct in January and 0.9 pct in February 1986,
the government's National Statistics Institute said.
    Inflation as measured by the index rose to 17.5 pct over
the 12 months to the end of February, compared with 16.6 pct
last month and 24.5 pct to the end of February, 1986.
    In the first two months of the year, inflation was 3.8 pct,
against 3.6 pct in the same period of 1986.
 REUTER

Major copper producing and consuming
countries are considering a U.S. proposal to set up a study
group to review the world copper market, delegates said.
    The U.S. initiative was introduced last December at a
meeting held here under the auspices of the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
    The U.S., the world's largest copper consumer and second
biggest producer after Chile, has proposed setting up a body to
improve statistics and market transparency of the copper
economy, and provide a forum for discussion.
    The new body would not aim at negotiating measures to
stabilise depressed world prices.
    This week's meeting, which began yesterday, is due to end
Friday.
 Reuter

Cray Research Inc said it installed
a Cray X-MP/14 supercomputer valued at eight mln dlrs at
Grumman Corp's Grumman Aerospace Corp.
    Cray said the system, which includes a 550 solid state
storage device, was installed in the first quarter at Grumman's
scientific computer facility in Bethpage, N.Y.
    The system replaces a Cray-1M/2300 computer system
installed in 1983. It will be used for engineering and
scientific applications in the design of aircraft systems.
 Reuter

Reserve Oil and Minerals Corp
said its shareholders approved changing the name of the company
to Reserve Industries Corp.
    The company said it has contracted to purchase, process and
recycle various waste materials generated at the Ogden, Utah,
zirconium plant of Westinghouse Electric Corp's <WX> Western
Zieconium subsidiary.
 Reuter

Japan bought 5,000 tonnes of Canadian
rapeseed overnight at an undisclosed price for April shipment,
trade sources said.
 Reuter

<Royal Bank of Canada> said it
estimates 1987 loan losses at one billion dlrs, a 25 mln dlr
increase over last year.
    Royal Bank said it set its provisions "given the continued
debt-servicing problems ... in the North American energy
industry and the uncertain outlook for energy prices," and also
continued to add to its general provisions for loans to
troubled borrower countries.
    The bank's loan loss provision for the first quarter ended
January 31 rose to 223 mln dlrs from 187 mln dlrs in the
year-ago quarter.
    The bank said non-accrual loans, net of provisions for loan
losses, totalled 2.2 billion dlrs on January 31, up from 2.0
billion dlrs a year ago.
    In reporting lower first quarter earnings, chairman Allan
Taylor said problems with credit quality--particularly in loans
associated with the energy sector--continue to have a
substantial adverse effect on the bank's earnings.
    Taylor said profitability of the bank's international
operations remains weak, reflecting resource-related
difficulties of private and public sector borrowers and
unsatisfactory results from capital market activities.
    Taylor said it would be premature to speculate on the
outcome of debt resturcturing negotiations with Brazil or their
potential impact on the Royal Bank.
    The bank earlier reported first quarter profit fell to
114.1 mln dlrs from 140.4 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Pantera's Corp said it agreed in
principle to acquire Pizza Inn Inc in a cash and stock
transaction.
    Under terms of the proposed transaction, each Pizza Inn
share can be exchanged for either three dlrs in cash plus the
lesser of 1.4 shares of Pantera's common stock or 11.50 dlrs
market value of Pantera's stock, or four dlrs in cash plus a
unit consisting of one share of Pantera's stock and a
non-transferrable right to receive up to 0.55 share of
Pantera's stock under certain conditions, it said.
    Completion of the transaction is subject to arrangement of
financing, negotiation of a definitive agreement, and various
regulatory approvals, it said.
    Pantera's said Pizza Inn's largest shareholder, F.J.
Spillman, previously granted Pantera's an option to buy more
than one mln shares of Pizza Inn common stock owned by him.
    Pantera's also said it retained Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc
to act as its financial advisor in connection with the merger.
Pizza Inn has retained Dean Witter Reynolds Inc to act as its
financial advisor, Pantera's said.
    Yesterday, Pantera's stock closed at 9.50 dlrs on NASDAQ,
while Pizza Inn's stock was quoted at 12 dlrs when the Amex
halted trading pending the announcement of the proposed merger.
    From its Dallas headquarters, Pizza Inn said completion of
the transaction is subject to certain conditions including that
the price of Pantera's stock average not less than seven dlrs
during the 20 trading days before the merger.
    Under the agreement, Pizza Inn said it will still be
permitted to complete a leveraged buyout agreement with Pizza
Inn Acquiring Corp, which has been approved by its
shareholders, but is subject to otaining financing.
   
 More

The Swiss Federal Government's new series
of six-month money market certificates raised 177.5 mln Swiss
francs at an issue price of 98.401 pct to give an average
annual yield of 3.286 pct, the National Bank said.
    Payment date is March 5.
    The last series of six-month paper issued in January raised
159.6 mln francs at 98.392 pct to give an average yield of
3.251 pct.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Nigeria and Guinea agreed to set up a new
company with Liberia to carry out the 14-year-old
Mifergui-Nimba iron ore project, an official communique said.
    The communique was issued after two days of talks here
between Guinean natural resources minister Ousmane Sylla and
Nigerian minister of mines and power Bunu Sheriff Musa.
    Originally, Guinea held 50 pct in the project and Nigeria
16.2 pct with firms from several other countries also involved,
but the project ran into problems over funding and the slump in
world iron ore markets.
    Musa said Liberia was invited to join and its share will be
decided after a project feasibility study. This would be
completed in May after which finance will be sought. Officials
said the study will be undertaken with the help of the World
Bank, which is also expected to give financial support.
    Production, originally estimated at 15 mln tonnes a year,
will be 12 mln initially and is expected to begin in early
1990.
    On an agreement between the two countries to prospect for
uranium in Guinea, the communique said Musa and Sylla agreed
that because of poor market conditions, it would be extended to
cover exploration for gold, diamonds, cobalt, nickel and
silver.
 Reuter

    Shr loss nine cts vs profit 13 cts
    Net loss 231,256 vs profit 341,730
    Revs 2,793,677 vs 3,676,296
 Reuter

Canadian industrial production rose 2.53
pct in December after falling 0.51 pct in November, Statistics
Canada said.
    The federal agency said year-over-year production was off
0.65 pct in December, compared with a decline of 1.65 pct in
November.
 Reuter

Lifetime Corp said it agreed to buy
five mln shares, or 16 pct, of <Nippon Lace Co Ltd> for 3.28
dlrs a share, or 16.5 mln dlrs.
    It said it plans to enter the health care business in
Japan.
    In addition, it said <Koba Electronics Co Ltd>, an
affiliate of Lifetime, will buy four mln unissued shares, or a
12 pct stake, of Nippon for 20 mln dlrs or five dlrs a share.
    The company said Ohta Shoji, chief executive officer of
<Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co>, owns the majority of Koba
Electronics' shares. Toho Mutual Life is also the largest
shareholder in Nippon Lace, the company said.
    Lifetime also said the <Private Bank and Trust of Zurich>,
on behalf of Lifetime director and shareholder Terence Ramsden,
intends to subscribe for two mln shares of Nippon Lace at the
same price paid by Lifetime.
 Reuter

Oper shr 26 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 2,877,000 vs 1,363,000
    Revs 44.3 mln vs 40.8 mln
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 10.5 mln
    NOTE: prior qtr excludes loss 475,000, or five cts per
share, for discontinued operations for the sale of subsidiaries
Intermedics Intraocular Inc, Electronics Inc, and Intermedics
Infusaid Inc.
    Excludes 1987 qtr 1,694,000 operating loss carryforwards vs
78,000 qtr prior.
 Reuter

Modular Technology Inc said its board of
directors elected Frederick H. Goldberger, a business
consultant, to be president of the company.
    Modular Technology's former president, Harvey T. Lyon, was
named senior managing director and will continue on the board.
 Reuter

Canonie Environmental Services Corp
said it signed a contract to design and build a ground water
cleanup system for Purex Industries Inc to be installed at a
Mitchel Field Transit Authority site in Nassau County, N.Y.
    Canonie said the contract for work, which will complete a
project begun earlier at the site, is worth "several million
dlrs."
 Reuter

Victorian Public Authorities Finance
Agency is issuing a 100 mln Canadian dlr bond due April 15,
1992 paying 8-1/2 pct and priced at 100-5/8 pct, lead manager
Wood Gundy Ltd said.
1,000 and 10,000 Canadaian dlrs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. It is guaranteed by the State of Victoria.
    The selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while management and
pays 1/4 pct and underwriting 3/8 pct. The payment date is
April 15.
 REUTER

BENEFICIAL CORP TO SELL INSURANCE UNIT, REMOVING COMPANY FROM INSURANCE BUSINESS

FORD CANADA CUTS ANNUAL DIVIDEND BY SIX DLRS TO SIX DLRS CASH A SHARE

Electrospace Systems Inc said
it was ordered by the U.S. Army to immediately proceed with the
design and production of a computer-based control system for
the army's tactical voice and data communications network, in a
contract potentially worth 101 mln dlrs.
    It said the order followed a favorable ruling by the
General Accounting Office on two protests that earlier caused a
stop work order on the 26.8 mln dlr contract, awarded last
September. It said that order covers 59 mobile shelter-based
systems and 44 remote terminals, with options for 279 mobile
units and 178 remote units for a total of 101 mln dlrs.
    
 Reuter

Qtrly 25 cts vs 16 cts
    Pay March 30
    NOTE: Prior qtr is for two months operation, October and
November and represents a parital dividend.
 Reuter

Qtlry div 24.5 cts vs 24.5 cts
    Pay April 6
 Reuter

Datacopy Corp said it has
signed a joint marketing agreement for its Model 730 office
image scanner with Xerox Corp.
    Under the pact, Xerox sales force will reference-sell the
scanner as its choice for desktop publishing applications.
   Datacopy will supply Xerox with technical support and
respond to customer orders within 30 days of the purchase
order.
   
 Reuter

ARGOSystems Inc said it won a
15-mln-dlr contract with the U.S. Government to deliver 25
digital signal processing systems with spares over the next
three years.
    The company said it how has a record backlog of over 155
mln dlrs, up 30 pct from a year ago.
 Reuter

Knutson Mortgage Corp said it
expects strong earnings performance for its initial fiscal
second quarter earnings ending March 31 since going public in
September 1986.
    Albert Holderson, Knutson chairman, said he expects
earnings of about 40 cts per share for the quarter as a result
of a strong mortgage business during the quarter.
    Knutson earlier declared a quarterly dividend of 10 cts a
share, versus 10 cts a share prior, payable April 13 to
 Reuter

Denmark's net official reserves rose
to 36.34 billion crowns in February from 28.00 billion in
January, against a revised 45.85 billion in February 1986, the
central bank said in its monthly balance sheet report.
    Total net reserves, including reserves held by commercial
and major savings banks, rose to 38.26 billion crowns from
30.11 billion in January compared with a revised 35.99 billion
in February last year.
    The bank said provisional figures showed net registered
private and public capital imports of 10.3 billion crowns in
February.
 REUTER

A World Bank team led by senior
economist Katrine Saito arrived in Uganda for talks on an
economic recovery program projected to cost one billion dlrs
over three years.
    The four-member mission is expected to stay two to three
weeks. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is due here
over the same period, a World Bank offical said.
    The World Bank last year criticised Uganda's policies on
deficit financing and exchange and interest rates, issues
likely to dominate talks on the government's proposed recovery
program.
    Finance Minister Chrispus Kiyonga said last month that most
of the one billion dlrs would go towards rehabilitating
industries, repairing and maintaining roads and buying tractors
and other agricultural needs.
    He did not say where the money would come from, but
diplomats expect the government to ask the World Bank and other
foreign donors to provide most of the foreign exchange portion.
 REUTER

    Oper net 2,877,000 vs 1,838,000
    NOTE: Current 1st qtr oper net excludes operating loss
carryforward of 1,694,000 or 16 cts per share. 1986 1st qtr
oper net excludes loss carryforward of 78,000 dlrs or one ct
per share and loss from discontinued operations of 475,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs one ct
    Net 247,489 vs 27,301
    Sales 1,933,107 vs 796,613
    Six mths
    Shr 21 cts vs five cts
    Net 565,106 vs 121,997
    Sales 3,781,970 vs 1,778,110
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 2.3 mln vs 3.3 mln
    Revs 72.3 mln vs 59.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.48 dlrs vs 2.59 dlrs
    Net 7.6 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Revs 261.7 mln vs 224.7 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net includes extraordinary gain of 1.5 mln dlrs
or 35 cts per share in 4th qtr and 5.1 mln or 1.19 dlrs for the
year.
   
 Reuter

Walgreen Co said its sales in
February rose 18.8 pct over sales during the same month last
year.
    Walgreen said it sold 328.5 mln dlrs worth of goods in
February, up from 276.5 mln in February 1986.
    This year's February figures include sales from 65 Medi
Mart drugstores acquired last June by the company. At February
28, Walgreen operated 1,410 retail units in 30 states and
Puerto Rico compared to 1,263 last year.
    Calendar year-to-date sales were up 17.2 pct at 666.7 mln
compared to 569 mln last year.
 Reuter

    Net profit 6,600,000 vs profit 12.2 mln
    Qtly div 24.5 cts vs 24.5 cts
    Avg shrs 24.2 mln vs 23.8 mln
    Year
    Net loss 4,077,000 vs profit 30.1 mln
    Avg shrs 24.4 mln vs 23.7 mln
    NOTE: Qtly div payable April six to holders of record March
16.
    1986 4th qtr and year net includes a charge of 5.9 mln dlrs
and 31.4 mln dlrs, respectively, for corporate restructuring.

 Reuter

Annual div six dlrs vs 12 dlrs prior
    Pay March 19
    Note: 1986 payout includes two dlrs a share extra dividend
    1985 payout includes four dlrs a share extra dividend
 Reuter

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and
his five-party coalition government have resigned, officials
said.
    A statement from the Quirinal presidential palace said head
of state Francesco Cossiga had reserved his decision on whether
to accept the resignation, normal procedure when a government
stands down.
    The statement said Cossiga had asked Craxi, who has been
prime minister for a post-war record of three-and-a-half years,
to continue to handle current government business.
 REUTER

Total copper stocks held by U.S. rod
mills and refiners (including wirebars, cathodes, scrap, rod
and in-process material) dropped to 155,467,000 lbs at the end
of January from 203,513,000 lbs at the end of December, the
    Rod stocks held by refiners and rod mills decreased to
61,384,000 lbs in January from 69,986,000 lbs in December.
    Cathode inventories at rod mills fell to 86,456,000 lbs in
January from 124,409,000 lbs in December, while wirebar stocks
were lower at 3,508,000 lbs versus 4,913,000 lbs in December.
    December rod mill wirebar use nearly doubled to 3,148,000
lbs in January from 1,540,000 lbs in December. Cathode use by
mills and refiners increased to 255,266,000 lbs in January from
238,821,000 lbs in December.
 Reuter

One offer but no bid was posted for SRW
wheat on the call session at the St Louis Merchants Exchange
today. There were no bids or offers for milo.
    June 15-July 15 bill of lading for wheat was offered at 17
over July, no comparison, no bid.
 Reuter

lowered the ratings on Loral Corp's subordinated debt to BBB
from A-minus.
    The issue is removed from creditwatch where it was placed
with negative implications in January after Loral said it
planned to acquire Goodyear Aerospace Corp for 640 mln dlrs.
    S/P said the acquisition enhances Loral's competitive
position in the defense electronics industry by broadening its
technology and program base. But most measures of financial
risk deteriorate, it said.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it placed
the subordinated debt of Guarantee Savings and Loan
Association, the principle unit of Guarantee Financial Corp, on
creditwatch with positive implications.
    About 57 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S/P said the move follows Gurantee's definitive agreement
to be acquired by Glendale Federal Savings and Loan, the fifth
largest S and L in the U.S.
    The combination with Glendale should enhance the
creditworthiness of Guarantee's debt, S/P said.
    Gurantee's subordinated debt is currently rated B.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,553,000 vs 1,541,000
    Revs 73.1 mln vs 32.1 mln
    Avg shrs 15,474,000 vs 12,316,000
    Year
    Shr 47 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 7,241,000 vs 2,835,000
    Revs 216.2 mln vs 101.2 mln
    Avg shrs 15,492,000 vs 11,921,000
    Note: Net income includes extraordinary profit from
recognition of tax loss carryforward of 920,000 dlrs, or six
cts a share, in 1986 year, and of 785,000 dlrs, or seven cts a
share, in both 1985 periods.
 Reuter

General Automation Inc said it
has arranged a ten-mln-dlr leasing facility with Wells Fargo
and Co's <WFC> Wells Fargo Leasing Corp.
    The program is a one-year facility that will allow
financing for ZEBRA computers, other General Automation systems
and applications sofware, the company said.
 Reuter

The London Stock Exchange's traded
options market plans volume growth of at least 80 pct a year,
and will more than double the range of options available by the
end of 1988, options committee chairman Geoffrey Chamberlain
said.
    He told a news conference that more options contracts were
traded in 1986 than in the previous seven years of the market's
existence.
    Chamberlain said the daily average volume of contracts
traded in February this year almost tripled to 53,056 from
19,034 in the same month last year, and further rapid growth
was expected.
    "We're aiming for 100 stock option classes by the end of
1988," said Chamberlain. These would correspond to the eligible
constituents of the FT-SE 100 share index.
    Chamberlain added that two new equity options were to be
introduced this month. Options will be available in Sears Plc
<SEHL.L> from March 4, and in Plessey Co. Plc <PLYL.L> from
March 19.
    The London Stock Exchange is the largest outside the United
States for options trading. Forty-five equity options, two
currency options, two government bond (gilt) options and an
option on the FTSE-100 index are available at present.
    Chamberlain said the Stock Exchange aimed to consolidate
the London options market's leading position in Europe,
especially important with French and Swiss equity options
trading planned to start this year.
    "I'd go so far as to say the plans for growth are
conservative," one leading options analyst said, predicting
continuing volume growth of around 20 pct a month for at least
the next year.
    He said much of the recent growth in options had come from
inter-market-maker trading aimed at hedging book positions. But
now the retail options market was beginning to take off.
    The market trades from a corner of the now largely deserted
floor of the London Stock Exchange. The floor has been left
almost empty in the wake of the recent regulatory changes in
the equity and gilts (government bond) markets, which have
encouraged a move to electronic off-floor trading.
    Yesterday, the Stock Exchange decided to close the floor to
equities trading altogether, and said it expected to make a
final decision on the floor's future by the end of 1987.
    The floor space could be used for a purpose-built options
market, but Chamberlain said that it was unlikely that the
options market would need more than half of the available
space.
 REUTER

Shr profit 78 cts vs loss 1.05 dlrs
    Net profit 2,336,000 vs loss 3,002,000
    Revs 26.0 mln vs 26.7 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 1.59 dlrs vs loss 6.35 dlrs
    Net profit 4,688,000 vs loss 18.2 mln
    Revs 113.5 mln vs 112.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr includes loss carryfoward of
534,000 dlrs and 1,662,000 dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

Net loss 92,623 vs profit 11,209
    Sales 93,483 vs 189,388
    Note: per share data not available, as company went public
in January, 1987.
 Reuter

<Royal Bank of Canada>, in reporting a
19 pct drop in first quarter earnings, said it expects to
report improved results in future earnings periods.
    "Healthy consumer credit growth, record fee-based income,
highly profitable securities and foreign exchange trading, and
a solid capital position...combined with the restraint of
non-interest expenses, should lead to improved results in the
periods ahead," chairman Allan Taylor said in a statement.
    The bank earlier reported profit for the first quarter
ended January 31 fell to 114 mln dlrs from 140 mln dlrs a year
ago.
    Taylor said loans to the energy sector continue to
substantially hurt earnings while profitability of the bank's
international operations remains weak, reflecting
resource-related difficulties of private and public sector
borrowers and unsatisfactory results from capital market
activities.
    The bank said earnings from domestic operations rose to 103
mln dlrs in the first quarter from 98 mln dlrs a year ago while
earnings from international operations plunged to 11 mln dlrs
from 42 mln dlrs last year.
    Royal Bank said first quarter international net interest
income declined from last year, reflecting reduced revenues
from international investment banking as well as a significant
loss on disposal of its affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago.
    Other income rose to 251 mln dlrs from 220 mln dlrs last
year. The rise was due to higher commercial banking and retail
deposit service fees, and higher foreign exchange revenue but
lower securities commissions from international investment bank
operations partly offset the gains, Royal Bank said.
    The bank said a two billion dlr increase in total assets to
98.7 billion dlrs was due mainly to continued growth in
consumer lending, particularly residential mortgages.
 Reuter

The World Bank is launching a 300 mln
markka seven-year straight issue, due March 11, 1994 with a
coupon of 10 pct payable semi-annually and an issue price of
101-1/8, lead manager Postipankki said.
    It said fees totalled 1-3/4 pct, of which 1-3/8 pct for
selling and 3/8 pct for managment and underwriting combined
including a 1/8 pct praecipuum.
    Denominations are 10,000, 100,000 and one mln markka and
listing is in Helsinki, it said.
 REUTER

Sun Microsystems Inc said it has agreed
to cooperate with Philips Corporate Group Home Interactive
Systems, a Dutch electronics firm, to develop a multi-media
authoring computer system.
    The system will be based upon the integration of Sun
workstation and Compact Disc Interactive technologies, the
    The authoring systems are collections of hardware, system
utilities and software to enable Comact Disc Interactive
application developers to design, assemble and test
interactive, multi-media applications in entertainment,
education and information for consumer and institutions.
 Reuter

Steelhead Resources Ltd said it
has leased some feldspar deposits and will begin feldspar
mining operations near Wickenburg, Arizona.
    The company said the deposits contain in excess of 500,000
tons of feldspar.
 Reuter

De Croo said if Congress passed legislation curbing world
textile imports the only way the European Community (EC) could
react was to retaliate.
    De Croo said at a news conference "if you limit textile
imports, you will re-orient textiles to Europe."
    And that he said would trigger EC taxes on U.S. goods.
    Congress passed a textile bill two years ago, but it was
vetoed by President Reagan on grounds that curbing imports to
protect the domestic textile industry would trigger retaliation
U.S. trading partners.
    A similar bill has been introducted this year, in a
Congress with a bigger Democratic majority and with a President
weakened by the Iran scandal.
    De Croo, here for talks with Administration officials and
Congressmen, said if a textile bill passed, "the only way we
could react would be retaliation, and it would cause more
retaliation, which is not a good way to deal with problems."
    He said if a textile bill was enacted, "we will impose taxes
on a lot of American products."  He said "it would be stupid. We
have to avoid that."
    He said Congressmen seem upset mosty with Japan, because of
its massive trade suprlus with the United States, and not with
EC nations, but EC nations will be hurt by the diverted 
shipments of Asian textiles.
    De Croo also criticized the way U.S. officials try to solve
EC trade issues, saying "each time we come in contact, it a
conflict contact. The clouts are coming fom the West."
    He said it then is a crisis atmosphere with officials cross
the Atlantic and dramatized with headlines.
    "This is not the way to work in a serious way between two
big powers," De Croo said.
   
 reuter

Oper shr 25 cts vs 1.21 dlrs
    Oper net 1,366,000 vs 6,287,000
    Revs 251.3 mln vs 107.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.10 dlrs vs 1.06 dlrs
    Oper net 5,552,000 vs 4,982,000
    Revs 827.5 mln vs 434.4 mln
    NOTE: Oper net excludes results of Kay Jewelers Inc, a
former subsidiary. On Dec 31, 1986 company distributed
remaining 80.4 pct interest in subsidiary to Kay Corp holders.
    1985 amts restated in connection with company's
distribution of investment in Kay Jewelers Inc.
    1986 4th qtr and yr oper net excludes 8,308,000 dlrs or
1.52 dlrs per share, and 7,774,000 dlrs or 1.54 dlrs per share,
respectively, for equity in net income of spun-off unit. 1985
4th qtr and yr oper net excludes 6,806,000 dlrs or 1.28 dlrs
per share and 5,770,000 dlrs or 1.09 dlrs per share,
respectively, for equity in net earnings of spun-off unit.
    1985 oper net also excludes 2,778,000 or 52 cts per share
for adoption of new pension accounting rules and ine cts per
share for gain from assets sales.
 Reuter

ROSTENKOWSKI SAYS HE WILL OPPOSE PROTECTIONIST TRADE BILL IN U.S. HOUSE

Oper shr loss four cts vs loss 33 cts
    Oper net loss 154,000 vs loss 1,301,000
    Sales 30.0 mln vs 27.0 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 60 cts vs loss 16 cts
    Oper net profit 2,364,000 vs loss 608,000
    Sales 113.5 mln vs 132.8 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes extraordinary charges from provision for
roofing products warranties and costs from sale of
printing/laminate division of 320,000 dlrs vs 10.3 mln dlrs in
quarter and 4,3200,000 dlrs vs 12.7 mln dlrs in year.
    Net excludes tax credits of 62,000 dlrs vs 41,000 dlrs in
quarter and 127,000 dlrs vs 88,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Dan Rostenkowski said Congress must avoid a temptation
to pass a protectionist trade bill this year.
    In remarks prepared for delivery before the National Press
Club, Rostenkowski, D-Ill., predicted major trade legislation
will be sent to President Reagan by the end of this year.
    But he warned that his "conciliatory message" on the trade
bill did not mean he would oppose a proposal that would warn
other countries their access to the American market would be
curtailed unless they opened their markets to U.S. goods.
    "Complaints about (foreign trade) restraints are not a
smoke screen for protectionism, they a plea for fairness,"
Rostenkowski said.
    "It is only reasonable to ask the nations that have denied
us access to open up in return for continued freedom in the
American market," he added.
    However, he said there would likely be changes in the
market access proposal from the plan which cleared the House
last year. That plan would have set a specific time table for
foreign countries to ease import restraints or they would face
a 25 pct cut in exports to the United States.
 Reuter

General Motors hopes to sell between
7,000 and 8,000 North American-made vehicles in Europe this
year, a five-fold rise over the year before, James Fry, vice-
president of GM Overseas Distribution Corporation said.
    "The low dollar makes our prices very attractive," he told a
news briefing before the opening of the Geneva Motor Show.
Officials said GM sold 1,500 North American-made vehicles in
the 1986 model year.
 More

Imtec Inc said some
shareholders of Computer Identics Inc <CIDN> have proposed a
merger of the two companies.
    The company said the shareholders had previously expressed
dissatisfaction with Computer Identics' management and had
informed Computer Identics that the present board no longer had
the support of a majority of shares held.
    It said the shareholders had called for the resignation of
all but one of Computer Identics' directors and suggested that
a new board pursue merger talks with Imtec.  But Imtec said no
merger talks havew yet taken place.
 Reuter

Shr 1.62 dlrs vs 1.33 dlrs
    Net 10.3 mln vs 8,459,000
    Revs 127.5 mln vs 95.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.52 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 9,669,000 vs 7,481,000
    Revs 278.1 mln vs 232.00 mln
          
 Reuter

The prospects of the
International Coffee Organization (ICO) reaching an agreement
on coffee export quotas before September appear dim, Alberto
Hesse, former president of the European Coffee Federation,
said.
    "There is no real goodwill in certain delegations to go to
quotas," Hesse, who advises the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry
on coffee issues, told Reuters. He declined to name the
delegations.
over how to set quotas.
    The ICO executive board will meet from March 30 to April 1
but the full council is not due to meet again until September.
"I am not optimistic about an agreement soon," Hesse said.
 Reuter

Anacomp Inc, one of the most actively
traded NYSE issues, rose today as at least one analyst expected
earnings to be boosted by its planned acquisition of a
micrographics company.
    Anacomp rose 1/2 to 6-3/4 on volume of 950,000 shares after
trading as high as seven earlier.
    Howard Harlow, analyst at Whale Securities Corp, said
Anacomp's earnings for fiscal 1987 ending September 31 could be
doubled to 80 cts a share from the 40 cts a share he had
forecast before Anacomp agreed to buy DatagraphiX, a
micrographics firm, from General Dynamics Corp <GD>.
    "The company can earn 80 cts a share in fiscal 1987, maybe
as much as a dlr a share, because of DatagraphiX," Harlow said.
"Most of the benefit will be in the fourth qtr because it will
integrate the company in the second half."
    Anacomp's earnings will be less if it has problems
integrating DatagraphiX, Harlow said.
    A spokesman at Anacomp said the company expects to complete
its deal for DatagraphiX later this month. She would not say
how much it will pay for DatagraphiX, but noted that
DatagraphiX contributed 10 mln dlrs in earnings to General
Dynamics on revenues of 239 mln dlrs in 1986.
    Harlow said a fellow analyst at Whale Securities estimates
that Anacomp will pay between 100 mln dlrs to 150 mln dlrs for
DatagraphiX. "The estimates on the street narrow it down to
between 110 mln dlrs and 130 mln dlrs," Harlow added.
    Anacomp reported net of 2.8 mln dlrs or nine cts a share in
its first qtr ended December 31, up from 301,000 dlrs or one ct
a share.
    In Anacomp's fiscal 1986 it earned 4,073,000 dlrs or 13 cts
a share.
    Whale Securities recommends buying the stock, Harlow said.
 Reuter

five mln shares or 16 pct of <Nippon Lace Co Ltd> for 3.28 dlrs
a share, or 16.5 mln dlrs.
Japan.
affiliate of Nippon, will buy four mln unissued shares, or a 12
pct stake, of Lifetime for 20 mln dlrs or five dlrs a share. -
Corrects to show Nippon's affiliate Koba buying stake in
Lifetime.
   
 Reuter

Export Credits Guarantee Department has
named Malcolm Stephens, director of export finance at Barclay's
Bank Plc and a former career civil servant at ECGD for 17
years, to the post of executive director, a department
    Stephens replaces Jack Gill, who is retiring early aged 57.
    A drop in the ECGD's business volume and a rise in its debt
to the Exchequer have led to criticism in Parliament in recent
years.
    Stephens said the fall in business volume was a top
convern, adding that the department may have to compete more
aggressively with private insurance firms providing similar
services.
    The department's annual report for the year ended March 31,
1986, showed exports insured by the department fell to 15.7
billion stg from 17.4 billion the year before, while its debt
to the Exchequer almost doubled to 756 mln stg.
    Stephens said he had no specific list of changes. But among
his chief concerns was the weakened condition of lesser
developed countries and their ability to pay for their imports.
    The agency will have to review its policies on insuring
export credits to lesser credits on a country by country basis,
he said. "Large lump political risk insurance is the sort of
thing we want to take a look at."
    "You have to try to look forward to see if you are simply in
a peak and trough situation or it is a more long term thing,"
Stephens said, in response to a qustion about whether ECGD will
strike more countries from its list of political risk insurance
recipients.
    He noted that certain countries have already been removed
from the list.
 REUTER

Visible stocks of 17 oils and fats are
probably peaking now and are likely to fall sharply by October
1 this year, the Oil World newsletter said.
    Oil World forecast that stocks of oils and fats may be cut
to only 9.8 mln tonnes at the end of this season, compared with
10.6 mln a year earlier.
    Its survey covered  13 oils -- soy, cotton, groundnut, sun,
rape, sesame, corn, olive, coconut, palmkernel, palm, lin and
castor  -- and four animal oils and fats -- butter, fish oil,
lard and tallow/greases.
    Oil World's analysis predicted only a slight production
increase of 0.5 mln tonnes in the year to end-September 1987,
compared with increases of 3.6 mln and 4.0 mln tonnes in the
previous two seasons.
    It said world consumption was continuing to rise. Unusually
low prices prevailing since early 1986 had stimulated demand
for both food and non-food purposes, it said.
    World consumption  could increase by a record 2.8 mln
tonnes to 71.8 mln tonnes this season and would be even higher
if the Indian government did not artificially curb domestic
demand.
    Oil World said it did not expect the European Community
(EC) to introduce a vegetable oils tax, but if such a tax were
introduced it would have a negative impact on EC consumption.
 Reuter

Coffee producing countries must quickly
map out a fresh common strategy following the failure of the
International Coffee Organization, ICO, to reach agreement on
export quotas, Gilberto Arango, president of Colombia's private
coffee exporters' association, said.
    Arango told Reuters that the most intelligent thing now
would be to seek a unifying stand from producers, including
Brazil, in order to map out a strategy to defend prices.
    An ICO special meeting ended last night in London with
exporting and consuming nations failing to agree on a
resumption of export quotas, suspended one year ago after
prices soared following a prolonged drought in Brazil.
    Arango said there would be no imminent catastrophe but
predicted that over the short term prices would undoubtedly
plummet.
    However, he said the market should also take into account
evident factors such as Brazil's low stocks and the sale of the
near totality of the Central American crop.
    Trade sources said Colombia's coffee was today quoted at
1.14 dlrs a lb in New York, its second lowest price in the past
10 years.
    Cardenas said these countries apparently fail to understand
the true impact of such a failure for coffee producing nations
as well as for industrialized countries.
    It is difficult to believe that while efforts are made to
solve the problem of the developing world's external debt,
decisions are being taken which cut earnings used for repaying
those debts, he said.
    "In Colombia's case, we watch with consternation that,
while we try to effectively combat drug trafficking, countries
which support us in this fight seek to cut our jugular vein,"
Cardenas said.
 Reuter

Tender Loving Care Health Care
Services Inc said it and Staff Buildiers Inc have extended the
term of their merger agreement until May 31.
    Tender Loving Care also said <Norrell Corp> agreed not to
acquire any additional Staff Builders shares until September
30, adding Norrell was paid 750,000 dlrs for the standstill
arrangement. 
    Tender Loving Care said it agreed to buy the 610,000 Staff
Builders common held by Norrell, about 19.1 pct of those
outstanding, for 6,950,000 dlrs immediately prior to the
consummation of the merger.
    Tender Loving Care said the extended merger agreement
continues to provide for the exchange of 1.6 of its shares for
each Staff Builders share outstanding.
    As announced February 26, the Staff Builders shareholders
meeting to vote on the merger, originally convened and
adjourned December 23, will be reconvened on April 22.
    Tender Loving Care said its payment to Norrell will include
1,950,000 dlrs in cash and five mln dlrs of a new series of
eight pct Tender Loving Care convertible preferred.
    Tender Loving Care said it and Staff Builders have filed a
revised registration and proxy statement with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Upon clearance of the revised proxy
statement by the commission and its distribution to Staff
Builders' shareholders, that company's management will continue
to solicit proxies for approval of the merger.
    Tender Loving Care said it will have the power to vote
about 15.8 pct of Staff Builders' shares at the adjourned
meeting with a spokesman explaining that this represents the
proxies held by Norrell, which started buying the stock after
the record date for the meeting.
    In addition, Staff Builders officers and directors own
about 13.8 pct of its stock and have agreed to vote in favor of
the merger.
    Accordingly, the vote of an additional 37.1 pct of the
outstanding shares will be required to approve the merger,
Tender Loving Care said.
 Reuter

The 1987 outlook for U.S. auto sales is
clouded by a decidedly mixed sales forecast, and analysts who
follow the industry say it is also true for companies that sell
parts and equipment to the major car and truck manufacturers.
    But while there are only four major U.S.-based automakers
whose shares are traded on stock exchanges, there are thousands
of big and small suppliers who sell a flood of original and
replacement parts.
    Analysts who follow the parts industry say there are many
opportunities for investors brought on by the auto industry's
intensified competition and the large volume of production in
North America planned by Japanese automakers.
    But assessing the supplier arena is far more complicated
than for investors considering the stocks of the Detroit Big
Three - General Motors Corp <GM>, Ford Motor Co <F> and
Chrysler Corp <C>.
    Despite widespread predictions that U.S. vehicle sales will
decline about 10 pct from the record 1987 levels, Wall Street
financial experts are still generally bullish on Ford and
somewhat less so on Chrysler.
    And analysts remain largely neutral to bearish on GM, the
industry giant whose earnings have been dropping along with its
sales as it struggles to reorganize and shed its unprofitable
parts-making businesses.
 more

Soviet imports of soymeal may reach or
exceed one mln tonnes between January and September this year,
the Oil World newsletter said.
    Oil World said it was likely the Soviet Union would reduce
soybean imports and step up significantly its imports of meal.
    At least 500,000 tonnes of soymeal may be shipped from the
European Community and South America in the January/March
quarter, with additional large quantities likely to be imported
in the April and July quarters from Argentina and Brazil, it
said. No figures were given for imports in the corresponding
periods of 1986.
    The change made sense in view of the recent purchases of
probably 250,000 tonnes of West European and Polish rapeseed
and large scale butter imports that were expected from March
onward, it said.
    Oil World said substantial losses of Soviet winter grain
area due to recent severe frosts were probably behind the
recent pick-up in Soviet purchases of U.S. Corn.
    It noted that an additional one mln tonnes of U.S. Corn had
been bought recently by the Soviet Union.
 Reuter

Colombia is holding a snap selling tender
tonight for one cargo of world market raw sugar, traders said.
    The sugar is for March 15/April 15 shipment and bids are
being sought based on the New York May delivery futures
contract, they added.
 Reuter

Varian Associates Inc said it
is holding discussions with Philips Electronics regarding the
purchase of Philips' broadcast transmission unit in the United
Kingdom, Pye TVT Limited.
    Pye TVT designs and manufactures broadcast transmission
equimpment, specializing in television frequencies.
 Reuter

Jaguar PLC's Jaguar Cars Inc U.S.
subsidiary said February sales were 1,466, down from 1,673 a
year before.
    The company said it expects a resumption of U.S. sales
growth towards the latter half of 1987.
    Jaguar said year-to-date U.S. sales were 2,523, down from
2,684 a year before.
 Reuter

Fruit of the Loom Inc said it is
offering 60 mln dlrs of 6-3/4 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due March 2002 and 250 mln dlrs of 10-3/4 pct senior
subordinated notes due July 1995.
    Both issues are priced at par. The convertible debentures
may be exchanged for class A common stock at the holder's
option at 11.25 dlrs. Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc is lead
manager for both offerings.
    The convertible debentures are rated B-3 by Moody's
Investors Service Inc and CCC-plus by Standard and Poor's Corp.
The notes are rates B-2 by Moody's and CCC-plus by S/P.
 Reuter

Butler Manufacturing Co said it
agreed in principal to sell part of its controls division to
Enercon Data Corp of Minneapolis.
    Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
    The transaction, expected to be closed in March, involves
the controls division's energy management and power line
carrier product lines.
    Butler said costs associated with the sale were included in
its restructuring charge taken in last year's fourth quarter,
and will have no effect on its 1987 earnings.
 Reuter

Commonwealth Realty Trust said
it has transferred its ownership of six buildings at the Valley
Forge Executive Mall in Valley Forge, Pa., to an equally-owned
joint venture with Pennsylvania Public School Employees'
Retirement System as part of a refinancing.
    The trust said it received five mln dlrs for its half
interest in the buildings.
    It said it also received a 32 to 33 mln dlr eight-year
9.375 pct mortgage loan on the buildings, with the entire
principal payable at the end of the term.  After associated
costs, it said it realized net proceeds of about 20 mln dlrs in
cash on the transactions, 100 mln dlrs of which it will use to
repay debt under its credit lines.
 Reuter

Dynamics Research Corp said it
has received a two-year 9,995,000 dlr U.S. Navy contract to
supply a number of accelerometer test stations and spares for
Trident submarine guidance systems.
 Reuter

KMW Systems Corp said cofounder
Fred R. Klingensmith has resigned as a voting director and
become an advisory or non-voting director.
    The company said Klingensmith is founder and president and
KRL Systems Inc, which plans to develop customized systems
based in part on products bought from KMW.  It said he left the
board to avoid a conflict of interests but remains a major KMW
shareholder.
 Reuter

   Finance Minister Chrispus Kiyonga said last month that most
    He did not say where the money would come from. Diplomats
expect the government to ask the World Bank and other foreign
donors to provide most of the foreign exchange portion.
 Reuter

Periods ended December 31
    Shr loss 10 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 316,289 vs loss 189,140
    Revs 61,762 vs 8,934
 Reuter

Chairman Dan Rostenkowski said he would be reluctant to back
the tax increase if it did not have President Reagan's support.
    He told a National Press Club luncheon there would be a
number of tax proposals that could be debated if Reagan sought
a tax increase to help balance the budget.
    However, he said he would prefer to leave the tax rates
enacted in last year's tax reform bill unchanged.
    There have been calls in Congress to hold the rates at the
1987 level rather than allow them to fall next year.
    Reagan proposed 22 billion dlrs in revenue as part of his
1988 budget proposal, but it did not include general tax
increases.
    On trade issues, Rostenkowski said he did not expect the
major trade bill this year would single out any U.S. industry
for special protection.
    "To go after individual items in a trade bill is suicide,"
he said.
    This apparently ruled out congressional approval of another
textile trade bill to limit quotas on textile imports, as was
proposed again this year.
 Reuter

The deal AMR Corp cut to buy 40 new
planes is a plus for the company because it clearly puts the
financial burden on aircraft manufacturers Boeing Co <BA> and
<Airbus Industrie>, a European consortium, analysts said.
    "The terms put most of the risk on the shoulders of the
manufacturers," said analyst Kevin Murphy of Morgan Stanley and
Co. "They're called walkaway leases."
    AMR agreed to buy 15 planes from Boeing and 25 from Airbus
but said its American Airlines unit will lease the aircraft,
which essentially will be owned by the manufacturers.
    AMR declined to value the deal, which analysts estimated at
roughly 2.4 billion dlrs. American Airlines will use the
planes, scheduled for delivery in 1988 and 1989, to expand its
service in the Caribbean and to Europe.
    But AMR will not lay out cash deposits to pay for the
planes, nor will it take on new debt to finance the purchases.
The carrier has 20-year leases on the aircraft, with four-year
extension options, and may cancel the leases with 30 days
notice by paying a small penalty, according to AMR chairman
Robert Crandall.
    "We're getting the aircraft on very favorable terms,"
Crandall told a press briefing here. He called the deals "off
balance sheet" limited obligation leases, under which the
financing is provided by the manufacturers.
    A spokesman for Airbus confirmed those terms. "We will own
the aircraft and they will be leasing them from us," he said.
Airbus is providing American Airlines with 25 of its twin-jet,
long-range A300-600 planes.
    A spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplane Co, the unit of
Boeing that makes the long-range 767-300 planes that are part
of the deal, declined to comment on financing arrangements.
    Analysts said "walkaway lease" deals have been used before
by airlines buying aircraft, particularly new generations of
planes, but not to this extent.
    Julius Maldutis of Salomon Brothers Inc said the deal will
give AMR financial stability as it grows. "AMR is using the
manufacturers' balance sheets to finance these airplanes and
consequently, its debt to equity ratio will remain stable into
the early 1990s," he said.
    "The deal reflects a fundamental trend where airlines will
increasingly become operators of assets rather than owners" to
reduce their exposure to risk, he added.
 Reuter

Magellan Corp said it has entered into a
letter of intent to acquire Balzac Investments Inc in a
transaction that will result in former Balzac shareholders
owning about 83 pct of the combined company.
    The company said on completion of the merger, the combined
company wopuld be known as Power-Cell Inc and be engaged in the
development of Balzac technology related to its Quick Charge
product for charging auto batteries.
    The transaction is subject to approval by shareholders of
both companies.
 Reuter

Shr 68 cts vs 78 cts
    Net 2,432,179 vs 2,236,471
    Revs 50.8 mln vs 35.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,600,000 vs 2,850,000
    Year
    Shr 2.82 dlrs vs 3.35 dlrs
    Net 10.0 mln vs 9,554,658
    Revs 177.5 mln vs 138.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,567,123 vs 2,850,000
 Reuter

The International Monetary Fund  said
it approved 125.9 mln SDR's to assist development in Jamaica.
    Of this total, 85 mln SDR's can be drawn over the next 15
months under a standby arrangement in support of the
government's economic and financial program.
    Another 40.9 mln is available immediately under the
compensatory financing facility, the IMF's pool of funds to
assist countries hit by export shortfalls. The IMF said that
Jamaica had a shortfall in the year ended September 1986 due to
reduced sales of Bauxite, alummina and travel expenditures.
    After some deterioration, the situation and prospects for
Jamaica improved substantially in 1986 and early 1987, mainly
as a result of a decline in energy prices and interest rates,
and a strong recovery in the tourist sector, the IMF said.
    The program that the new funding supports is designed to
continue the adjustment and restructuring effort so as to
achieve sustained growth, a lower rate of inflation and a
balance of payments viability in the medium term.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it will cease
production at its Norwood, Ohio, car assembly plant effective
August 26 to reduce output of the sporty CHevrolet Camaro and
Pontiac Firebird models built there.
    "After careful review and analysis of our capacitry
requirements, it has become necessary for us to close Norwood
at the end of the 1987 model year," GM vice-president and group
executive Robert Schultz said.
    GM previously said it would close the plant in a capacity
reduction, but did not specify a precise date. The cars will
still be built at GM's Van Nuys, Calif., plant.
 Reuter

Fertility and Genetics Research Inc said
it will not establish further free-standing ovum transfer
centers and is exploring the establishment of general fertility
centers and alternative businesses.
    The company said this followed its evaluation of
unpublished technical information regarding some competing
technology which, if substantiated and replicated, could
adversely affect the company's operations.
    Fertility and Genetics said the non-surgical ovum transfer
procedure will continue to remain a viable option for infertile
couples to consider among the several alternative procedures
available in advanced reproductive medicine.
    "In particular, it is medically and psychologically
superior to surrogate motherhood, because the fertilized egg is
transferred prior to the gestation process, rather than after
maternal bonding with the child has taken place," the company
explained without further reference to the unpublished
technical information.
 Reuter

Executive Telecommunications Inc
said the recently announced joint board of directors meeting
with <First Equipment Leasing Co> to negotiate the details of
the First Equipment reverse takeover offer has been changed
from March 12 to March 16.
    XTEL said the move was made to accommodate several of the
directors with conflicting schedules.
    First Equipment recently offered to buy XTEL in a reverse
takeover deal in which the new company would retain the XTEL
name.
 Reuter

Qtly div 70 cts vs 70 cts prior
    Pay May One
    Record April Three
 Reuter

Perini Investment Properties
Inc said it has purchased three industrial/warehouse properties
in Boca Raton, Fla., and one in Pompano Beach, Fla., for an
undisclosed amount.
    The company said the purchases increase its
industrial/warehouse inventory by about 252,000 square feet.
 Reuter

FBI Director William Webster refused
all comment on whether he has been approached to head the
Central Intelligence Agency.
    After testifying before a Senate Judiciary Committee,
Webster answered repeatedly with "no comment" when asked by
reporters if he has been approached.
    Webster has been mentioned as a possible top choice to head
the spy agency following President Reagan's forced withdrawal
of the nomination of acting director Robert Gates, to succeed
ailing ex-CIA chief William Casey.
 Reuter

American Adventure Inc said a
U.S. Bankruptcy Court confirmed its reorganization plan.
    The plan calls for the sale of substantially all the assets
of the company to a new company that will retain the same name,
but be incorporated in Delaware.
    The comany said the transaction is expected to close later
this month.
    Shareholders will receive one share of stock in the new
company for every 10 shares they hold currently.
 Reuter

<American Aircraft Corp> said it
has acquired a 51 pct interest in privately-held <Hunter
Helicopter of Nevada, Inc>.
    The purchase was made for an undisclosed amount of American
Aircraft stock, the company said.
    It said the acquisition will increase shareholder equity in
American Aircraft to 45 cts per share from 18 cts per share.
    Hunter Helicopter builds two-passenger helicopters that
retail for about 50,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs eight cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

American Network Inc said it has
reduced its long distance telephone service rates by two to 15
pct.
    The reductions apply to the company's subsidiaries, STARNET
International Inc and American Telephone Exchange.
 Reuter

National Data Corp said it signed a
multi-year contract with US Sprint to provide the long distance
telephone company with around the clock operator services.
    National Data said it was the first step in establishing a
Center Services Divisioin.
    The company said it will provide 24-hour, 7-day-a week
services to the long distance network, and expects the
agreement to generate in excess of eight million dlrs in
revenue during the current fiscal year, which ends May 31,
1987.
    The new services will allow subscribers to make collect,
person-to-person and station-to-station calls, and to receive
call assistance services anywhere in the U.S., the company
said.
 Reuter

Hewlett Packard Co said it
unveiled the HP LaserJet Series II printer, the next generation
of its laser printer line.
    The company said the HP LaserJet II offers more
capabilities than earlier models, but at 2,495 dlrs, costs 500
dlrs less than previous machines. The LaserJet II prints eight
pages a minute and can be used for desktop publishing, word
processing, and spreadsheet and graphics printing.
    It also said it introduced a larger laser printer to
accommodate numerous workstations and a machine used to scan
documents.
    The company also said it introduced the HP LaserJet 2000,
its first printer designed to be used with personal computer
networks, departmental systems and minicomputers. It can print
20 pages a minute, and has an entry price of 19,995 dlrs.
    It also unveiled the SP ScanJet, a flatbed desktop device 
that scans printed images of text. The scanner works like a
photocopier storing the copied images on a hard disk, the
company said. It costs 1,495 dlrs.
    Hewlett Packard also said it brought out a new family of
plotter machines, the HP Draftmasters I and II. The new models
replace the HP 758X series of drafting-plotter line machines
used for computer aided design. The Draftmaster costs 9,900
dlrs, and the Draftsmaster II, 11,900 dlrs.
    A smaller plotter, called the DraftPro, was priced at 5,400
dlrs. It is designed for use with a personal computer.
 Reuter

International Technology Corp
said it has purchased <Western Emergency Services Inc> in a
pooling-of-interests transaction.
    International Technology, a hazardous materials management
company, said it purchased Western Emergency, an environmental
services firm, to offer a broader range of environmental
services to the Gulf Coast area.
 Reuter

Semi-annual 30 cts vs 25 cts prior
    Pay June 30
    Record June 15
 Reuter

Oper shr 25 cts vs 25 cts
    Oper net 6,322,000 vs 4,660,000
    Revs 189.1 mln vs 174.7 mln
    Avg shrs 23.5 mn vs 17.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.04 dlrs vs 14 cts
    Oper net 21,929,000 vs 3,629,000
    Revs 760.2 mln vs 674.8 mln
    Avg shrs 20.5 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Note: Qtr shr and net exclude tax gain of 4,573,000 dlrs or
17 cts share, versus gain of 17,259,000 dlrs or 1.02 dlrs share
    Year shr and net exclude tax gain of 15,992,000 dlrs or 78
cts share, versus gain of 18,042,000 dlrs or 1.06 dlrs share
 Reuter

Recent heavy rains have not affected the
Peru coffee crop and producers are looking forward to a record
harvest, the president of one of Peru's four coffee cooperative
groups said.
    Justo Marin Ludena, president of the Cafe Peru group of
cooperatives which accounts for about 20 pct of Peru's exports,
told Reuters a harvest of up to 1,800,000 quintales (46 kilos)
was expected this year. He said Peru exported 1,616,101
quintales in the year to September 1986.
    A spokesman for the Villa Rica cooperative said flood
waters last month had not reached coffee plantations, and the
crop was unaffected.
    Floods in early February caused extensive damage in Villa
Rica, whose coffee cooperative exported 59,960 quintales last
year, according to the state-controlled coffee organisation.
    Marin said the rains would only affect the coffee crop if
they continued through to next month, when harvesting starts.
    He said Peruvian producers were hoping for an increase this
year in the 1.3 pct export quota, about 913,000 quintales,
assigned to them by the International Coffee Organisation, ICO.
    He said Peru exported 1,381,009 quintales to ICO members
last year with a value of around 230 mln dlrs, and another
235,092 quintales, valued at around 35 mln dlrs, to non-ICO
members.
 Reuter

WHITE HOUSE SAYS REAGAN TO MAKE 1530 EST/2030 GMT ANNOUNCEMENT, TOPIC UNDISCLOSED

Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro,
on the third leg of a trip to explain his country's stance on
debt to European governments, met West German Finance Minister
Gerhard Stoltenberg for talks this evening and the two men were
continuing their discussions over dinner, Brazilian delegation
    They said the Funaro and Stoltenberg discussed Third World
debt in general and Brazil's debt position in particular but
    Funaro was scheduled to travel to Switzerland tomorrow,
 Reuter

The Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp is facing a deficit because of its potential
liability from insolvent savings associations, the General
Accounting Office told a House Banking hearing.
    "We have preliminarily determined that FSLIC needs to 
establish a contingent liability in the range of eight billion
dlrs to handle cases that will require action in the near
future," Frederick Wolf of the GAO said.
    "When that amount is deducted from FSLIC's reserves, FSLIC
would have a deficit of over three billion dlrs as of the end
of 1986. Clearly, FSLIC needs additional funds to resolve the
large backlog of insolvent and unprofiable savings associations
that continue to operate," Wolf said.
    He urged the committee to support the Treasury Department's
plan to raise 25 billion dlrs over five years to recapitalize
FSLIC.
    Wolf said as of Septmember, 1986, about 85 pct of FSLIC
insured savings associations were solvent, while 15 pct were
insolvent.
    He said 80 pct of savings associations were profitable,
earning a total of 6.9 billion dlrs during the first three
quarters of the year, while the other 20 pct of associations
lost a total of five billion dlrs in the same period.
    The GAO is the investigating agency of Congress.
    Roy Green, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of
Dallas, estimated his district would need five billion to eight
billion dlrs over the next five years to close 12 Texas savings
associations and 14 associations in nearby states which he said
are considered "hopelessly insolvent".
 Reuter

The White House said President Reagan
would make an announcement at 1530 EST/2030 gmt but the topic
was undisclosed.
    A spokesman said officials would brief reporters on details
of the announcement afterwards.
    Athough Reagan's topic was not disclosed, speculation
centered on the possible naming of a nominee to to head the CIA
or a response to the Soviet Union's offer to negotiate a
separate arms control agreement on medium range missiles in
Europe.
 Reuter

Oper shr 42 cts vs 41 cts
    Oper net 2,322,000 vs 1,785,000
    Sales 72.3 mln vs 59.8 mln
    Avg shrs 5,527,000 vs 4,355,000
    Year
    Oper shr 1.48 dlrs vs 1.40 dlrs
    Oper net 7,637,000 vs 5,973,000
    Sales 261.7 mln vs 224.7 mln
    Avg shrs 5,165,000 vs 4,277,000
    NOTE: 1985 operating net excludes gains of 1,523,000 dlrs,
or 35 cts a share, in quarter and 5,090,000 dlrs, or 1.19 dlrs
a share, in year from tax carryforwards
 Reuter

One of General Electric Co's biggest
businesses, aircraft engines, will ride a wave of increasing
profits into 1991 because of a new contract worth 650 mln dlrs,
Wall Street analysts said.
    Previously, it was expected the business would peak and
decline at some point in the next five years. The improved
outlook results from AMR Corp's <AMR> decision to order 40 new
planes powered by CF6-80C2 GE engines.
    "Creative financial footwork helped GE get the order," said
Nicholas Heymann, analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    AMR declined to go into detail on financing arrangements
for its order of 15 Boeing Co <BA> and 25 <Airbus Industrie>
twinjet long distance aircraft.
    But AMR said it was using "rent-a-plane leases" that allow
it to operate the aircraft without adding to its debt
structure. AMR also has the right to decline delivery of the
planes or return them on short notice. The arrangement protects
AMR in the case of an unexpected development such as a severe
downturn in the economy.
    From GE's point of view the package looks like a good deal
for several reasons, Heymann said.
    GE will be able to record revenue as a sale at the time of
delivery, Heymann noted.
    And if for some reason AMR decides not to take the planes
GE's financial arm, General Electric Financial Services Inc,
would have little trouble rounding up another airline that
wanted the fuel efficient planes. On the whole, the deal
appears to pose little risk for GE, Heymann said.
    GE's stock declined 1/4 to 103-1/2 on 625,000 shares by
midafternoon. H.P. Smith, analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham
and Co said for a 40 billion dlr (revenue) company "no one
order will have much of an effect on the stock."
    Russell Leavitt, analyst at Salomon Brothers Inc, said the
order "will help to maintain a good level of production and
profitability in the aircraft engine business" for GE.
    Heymann sees operating profits from GE's jet engine
business rising from 870 mln dlrs last year to 1.3 billion dlrs
by 1991.
    Revenue from jet engines was close to six billion dlrs last
year, with well over half of the business in the military
sector, according to analysts' estimates.
    The rosy outlook for GE's jet engine business coincides
with an upbeat performance in other segments.
    Heymann expects GE to earn 1.39 dlrs per share in the first
quarter of 1987. Saying many will be suprised by the results,
he believes GE has shown through its acquisition of RCA Corp
that it has a "unique ability" to buy a major business and
reshape it, pruning some parts and recombining parts with other
elements of its 14 business areas.
    Smith sees GE earning 1.35 dlrs per share in the current
quarter. He credits good results at RCA, in turn aided by the
NBC broadcasting operation, and lower interest rates.
    Leavitt sees 1.40 dlrs for the current quarter, in part
crediting "significant benefits from the RCA acquisition."
 Reuter

TREASURY'S MULFORD SEES MAJOR NEW LENDING FOR BRAZIL, OTHER DEBTORS, IN 1987

Eastman Kodak Co, best known for its
cameras and film products, took several steps today to boost
its image as a diversified information systems company.
    The Rochester, N.Y.-based company unwrapped a series of new
electronic data and image storage systems that can create vast
computerized libraries of documents and pictures.
    Analysts said Kodak made a good start in the emerging
market for such systems, sales of which are expected to reach
five billion dlrs by 1990. But they warned several years may
pass before the new systems contribute to its bottom line.
    Kodak also launched a 50 mln dlr advertising campaign to
promote its new image. "We want to be to the imaging market
what IBM is to the data processing market," said Edgar J.
Greco, vice president and general manager of Kodak's business
imaging systems division.
    While more than 45 pct of Kodak's 11.55 billion dlrs in
sales for 1986 came from photography products, Kodak said sales
of copiers, electronic storage systems and other business
products will exceed four billion dlrs this year.
    "We're launching a major attack on these new markets,"
Greco said.
    "Kodak perceives that these new businesses will be its
bread and butter," said Wertheim and Co analyst Michael Ellman.
    But Richard Schwarz, who follows Kodak for E.F. Hutton and
Co, said the company will find the profit margins much slimmer
on sophisticated imaging systems than on its consumer
photography products. "The critical problem will be turning a
profit," he said.
     Kodak also announced the first commerically available
14-inch optical disk. Kodak said the disk can store the
equivalent of the contents of 110 file cabinet drawers.
 Reuter

The International Monetary Fund,
IMF, said it approved 125.9 mln sdr's to assist development in
Jamaica.
    Over the next 15 months 85 mln sdr's can be drawn under a
standby arrangement in support of the government's economic and
financial program.
    Another 40.9 mln is available immediately following an
export shortfall for Jamaica in the year ended September 1986
due to reduced income from bauxite, alumina and tourism, the
IMF said.
 Reuter

French exporters estimated that around
600,000 tonnes of French soft wheat has been sold to China for
delivery in the 1986/87 (July/June) year.
    Around 300,000 tonnes were exported to China between July
1986 and February this year.
    Another 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes will be shipped during
this month and around the same amount in April, they said.
    France sold around 250,000 tonnes of soft wheat to China in
1985/86, according to customs figures.
    However, certain exporters fear China may renounce part of
its contract with France after being offered one mln tonnes of
U.S. soft wheat under the Export Enhancement Program in January
and making some purchases under the initiative.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.24 dlrs vs profit 19 cts
    Oper net loss 1,965,000 vs profit 646,000
    Revs 10.5 mln vs 11.6 mln
    Avg shrs 1,741,000 vs 3,581,000
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 1.55 dlrs vs profit 42 cts
    Oper net loss vs profit 2,051,000 vs 1,492,000
    Revs 42.9 mln vs 45.5 mln
    Avg shrs 1,816,000 vs 3,581,000
    NOTE: prior qtr excludes loss 229,000, or seven cts per
share, for discontinued operations.
    1986 qtr excludes 159,000 extraodinary loss.
    Excludes loss 293,000, or 16 cts per share, for 1986 and
gain 651,000, or 18 cts per share, for 1985 for discontinued
    Excludes loss 256,000 for 1986 net for extraordinary item.
 Reuter

Assistant Treasury Secretary David
Mulford said rapid progress was being made in talks with
commercial banks for loans to Argentina, the Philippines and
Brazil.
    "This should result in substantial new lending for the
major debtors in 1987," he said in prepared testimony for the
Subcommittee on International Development Institutions of the
U.S. House of Representatives.
    Until recently, commercial banks were slow to conclude new
financing packages pending completion of a Mexican package,
Mulford said.
    "We are concerned about the backlog of other financial
packages and would like to see these move ahead soon," he said,
"There is some evidence that this is already happening.
    Chile signed an agreement with banks last week, and there
was also an agreement with Venezuela on rescheduling principal
payments on previously renegotiated debt.
    "We look for rapid progress in commercial bank discussions
with Argentina, the Philippines, and ultimately Brazil," he
said.
 Reuter

Buckhorn Inc said itd nine
million dlr backlog for orders and a less expensive operating
environment should yield significant levels of operating
profits for 1987.
    Buckhorn, a manufacturer of reusable plastic shipping and
storage containers, recorded 2,051,000, or 1.55 dlrs per share,
operating net loss for 1986.
    Buckhorn said the year's results included a 4,250,000
non-recurring expense incurred to complete major restructuring
efforts and to defend against the hostile tender offer from
Ropak Corporation.
   
 Reuter

Mobil Corp filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission for a shelf offering of up to one
billion dlrs of debt securities on terms to be determined at
the time of the sale.
    Proceeds from the sale will be used for general corporate
purposes, the company said.
    Mobil did not name any underwriters for the offering.
 Reuter

<CIIT Inc> said it filed a final
prospectus for a 15 mln dlr rights offering to subscribe for
1.1 mln common shares at 13.85 dlrs each.
    Under the terms of the offering, each common share holder
will receive 1-1/2 rights for each common share held on March
13 and each right will entitle the holder to subscribe for one
common share at 13.85 dlrs each by April 13, the company said.
 Reuter

Alcan Aluminium Ltd said it joined with
Carrozzeria Bertone S.P.A. to exhibit Alcan's technology in
aluminum structured vehicles at Geneva's international auto
salon.
    Alcan said it and Bertone have built several Bertone X1/9
sports cars with structures of adhesively bonded sheet
aluminum. It said the bodies were made on presses used for
Bertone's steel-structured sports cars.
    Alcan said two of the cars are currently being tested in
Britain by the Motor Industry Research Association.
     Alcan said it has developed and tested the aluminum
structure technology so that it is suitable for modern auto
making methods and plants.
    Alcan said the technology, which reduces the weight of a
car's basic structure by up to 50 pct, can improve handling and
performance and reduce fuel consumption for any size car. It
said the structures also provide long life without the need for
rust protection.
    The structure provides the same stiffness and safety as
present materials, while continuously bonded seams allow a 65
pct reduction in spot welds, Alcan said.
 Reuter

Shr 2-1/5 cts vs nil
    Net 156,726 vs 11,989
    Sales 1,157,883 vs 890,138

 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs 16 cts
    Net 188,000 vs 354,000
    Revs 538,000 vs 594,000
    Year
    Shr 31 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 692,000 vs 617,000
    Revs 2,640,000 vs 906,000
    (Del E. Webb Investment Properties Inc)
 Reuter

AID Corp said its stockholders
will be asked to change the company's name to ALLIED Group Inc
to more closely reflect the corporate logo adopted last year.
    It said stockholders of record March 31 will be eligible to
vote at the meeting.
    The company said its board has approved an amendment to the
pooling agreement effective January one, whereby <AMCO
Insurance Co> will increase its participation by assuming 33
pct of ALLIED Group's combined written premiums. AMCO had
previously assumed 30 pct of the combined written premiums.
    With this amendment, AID said, its subsidiaries now assume
41 pct of the total combined written premiums.
 Reuter

downgraded to Baa-2 from A-3 the rating on Loral Corp's 7-1/4
pct convertible subordinated debentures of 2010 and on 10-3/4
pct subordinated sinking fund debentures due 1997.
    Moody's said it took the action, which affects
approximately 117 mln dlrs of debt, after examining Loral's
acquisition of Goodyear Aerospace Corp.
    It said the downgrade reflects the substantial increase in
the company's debt in order to finance the acquisition and the
risks of assimilating such a relatively large acquisition.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 104,000 TONNES OF  CORN SOLD TO UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS FOR 1986/87

The specialty retailing area continues
to pay off for F.W. Woolworth Co, once known only as a five and
dime store chain, which said its 1986 income rose 21 pct.
    It was the fourth consecutive year of profit increases for
the New York-based retailer which was founded over 100 years
ago.
    Woolworth's 1986 income rose to 214 mln dlrs or 3.25 dlrs
per share compared with 1985's profit of 177 mln or 2.75 dlrs
per share. Revenues for the year rose to 6.50 billion compared
with the prior year's 5.96 billion.
    For the fourth quarter, the company reported profits rose
10 pct to 117 mln dlrs or 1.78 dlrs per share compared with
1985 fourth quarter results of 106 mln or 1.64 dlrs per share.
Revenues rose to 2.02 billion from 1.85 billion dlrs.
    Roy Garofalo, Woolworth vice president, told Reuters that
income generated by the company's specialty store operations
accounted for 52 pct of the parent company's 1986 profits.
    He said the company now has 4,700 specialty stores
operating under 30 different names. Woolworth plans to open 650
more specialty stores in 1987. At this time last year, it
operated 4,100 specialty stores, Garofalo said.
    Garofalo said the largest specialty chain operated by
Woolworth is Kinney Shoe Stores, followed by the Richman
apparel unit. Among other units are Little Folk Shop, a chain
of discount children's apparel stores; The Rx Place, a discount
drug, health and beauty aid operation; and Face Fantasies,
which sells cosmetics. There are currently about 1,700
Woolworth general merchandise stores operating worldwide, of
which 1,200 are in the United States.
    Harold Sells, chairman and chief executive of Woolworth,
said in a statement, "These results are especially gratifying as
they are an improvement over last year's record earnings."
    Sells that it was the fourth successive year earnings in
each quarter improved over the corresponding year-earlier
period.
    Woolworth's variety store operations were hard hit in the
1970's and early 1980's by the quickly growing discount store
industry. In an attempt to compete in the 1970's, Woolworth
opened a discount general store chain, Woolco, and J. Brannam,
a discount apparel chain. Both were failures in the United
States, although Woolco still operates in Canada.
    In 1985, however, Woolworth changed its strategy and
announced that it would operate specialty stores. At that time,
the company said it would create 14 new groups of such stores.
Specialty stores generally have higher sales per square foot
than general merchandise stores.
   
 Reuter

Mulford said he prefers debt conversion plans to help heavily
indebted countries over quick-fix political plans to help ease
their debt burden.
    "In my view, debt conversions or swaps into either equity
or local debt claims provide a preferable route to 'debt
relief' for the debtor nations, particularly if combined with
measures to encourage new equity investment and the
repatriation of flight capital," he told the House Subcommittee
on International Development Institutions.
    Mulford criticized what he called large-scale solutions to
the debt problems effecting many developing countries, ranging
from debt forgiveness to creating new multilateral institutions
for lending.
    "While such approaches may have some political appeal, they
are impractical and ultimately counterproductive," he said.
    He said debt conversions, or swaps, are more effective
because they eliminate the interest service on converted debt,
create new jobs and open up investment opportunities that can
help indebted countries overcome their own problems.
 Reuter

Shr loss 72 cts vs loss 1.48 dlrs
    Net loss 4,466,006 vs loss 9,091,688
    Revs 608,181 vs 1,280,727
    Six Mths
    Shr loss 77 cts vs loss 1.51 dlrs
    Net loss 4,752,455 vs loss 9,265,457
    Revs 1,444,149 vs 2,791,188
   
 Reuter

Canadian economic growth is expected to
slow further in 1987, but an improved the trade picture should
keep the country from recession, economists said.
    "The economy is ready for about a 2.0 pct rate of growth
over the course of 1987," said Carl Beigie, Chief Economist at
Dominion Securities Pitfield Ltd.
    Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product,
grew 3.1 pct in 1986, the fourth year of continuous expansion,
but down from 1985's four pct.
    In the final quarter, GDP, in 1981 prices and at annualized
rates, rose a slight 0.2 pct after expanding 0.8 pct in the
third quarter.
    "Essentially it is a flat performance," said Warren Jestin,
deputy chief economist at the Bank of Nova Scotia.
    Economist Wendy Smith Cork of the brokerage Nesbitt Thomson
Bongard Inc said "it shows the economy is not moving along very
steadily, it's not a very promising number."
    "We weren't surprised, we expected to see one bad quarter
in Canada, but we don't think there will be a recession," she
added.
    The rise in GDP was below the 3.3 pct increase forecast by
Federal Finance Minister Michael Wilson in his budget last
month. He also projected the economy would expand  2.8 pct this
year.
    Many economists are less optimistic, predicting growth will
likely be in the 2.0 to 2.2 pct range.
    Statistics Canada also reported the country's trade
performance deteriorated sharply last year as the deficit in
the current account rose to a record 8.8 billion Canadian dlrs
from the previous year's shortfall of 584 mln dlrs.
    "The sharp increase in the deficit originated from
merchandise trade transactions where imports continued to
advance strongly whereas exports were virtually unchanged," the
federal agency said in a statement.
    The merchandise trade surplus was pared to 10.13 billion
dlrs in 1986 from 17.48 billion dlrs in 1985.
    But economist Cork said the expected upturn in the U.S.
economy will lead to increased demand for Canadian goods, and
help fuel the country's modest expansion. Nearly 80 pct of
Canada's exports are shipped to the U.S. each year.
 Reuter

private U.S. exporters reported sales of 104,000 tonnes of corn
to unknown destinations for shipment in the 1986/87 marketing
year.
    The marketing year for corn began September 1, it said.
 Reuter

PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS U.S. TO SUBMIT DRAFT TREATY ON INTERMEDIATE MISSILES REDUCTION

The Bank of England proposed that banks
in Britain for the first time will have to seek authorization
to be lead underwriters of new issues in the euromarkets.
    In addition, the Bank has proposed limits on the amount of
credit risk that firms can take on with each new issue they
lead manage.
    The proposed rules were outlined today in a consultative
paper on large credit exposures taken by recognized banks and
deposit takers and may be modified, the Bank said.
    The rules could affect billions of dollars of eurobond
securities issued each year. In 1986, about 183 billion dlrs of
new eurobonds were offered, according to figures compiled by
Euromoney magazine.
    Up until now, there have been no restrictions on lead
managing eurobond issues.
    However, eurobond market participants believe the Bank of
England is concerned about intense competition for market share
which may have caused some firms to expose themselves to
imprudent credit risk.
    Competition for market share has been a boon to issuers as
banks compete to offer the best terms. But the new rules
suggest that some constraints may be placed on competition as
regulators attempt to ensure that no bank takes on more risk
than it can handle. Banking sources said that while the Bank of
England is reluctant to inhibit competition, it is willing to
accept some constraints in order to ensure that underwriters
act prudently.
    "The Bank's assessment of the appropriateness of a bank's
lead underwriting activity will depend primarily upon the skill
and experience of the lead underwriter in the particular market
concerned...," the Bank's proposal said.
    Once a firm has received permission to act as lead
underwriter, the exposure will be valued at one-sixth of the
face amount of the securities. Nominal exposure exceeding 60
pct of capital must be reported to the Bank of England and it
must be notified in advance for exposure of over 150 pct of
capital.
    The exposure will be determined to exist for a maximum of
28 days following a binding commitment to underwrite. After
that, any remaining exposure from unsold securities will be
assessed at their full face value.
    The rules would not apply to syndicated loan facilities,
revolving credits or commercial paper, the Bank said.
    The Bank also amended other aspects of plans to strengthen
its supervisory powers over banks in the paper, which called
for comments from professionals by March 31 to allow their
possible inclusion in the Banking Bill in time for its planned
final discussion in Parliament, scheduled before summer.
    The new Banking Bill, updating the 1979 Banking Act, is the
third leg of the Conservative government's legislation for the
supervision of financial institutions.
    It is to feature alongside the Financial Services Act,
aimed to bolster investor protection, and the Building
Societies Act, which put these institutions on an equal footing
with banks.
    The proposed legislation would abolish distinctions between
recognised banks and licensed deposit-takers and tighten legal
controls, making it a criminal offence to mislead supervisors.
    Proposals to require banks to inform the Bank of England in
advance of planned exposures in excess of 25 pct of their
capital, and to have the Bank supervise exposures between 10
and 25 pct of capital, were not under debate, the paper showed.
    However, preliminary consultations with bank
representatives had shown some of the initial proposals to be
flawed, it said.
    Most proposed changes involved evaluating exposures on a
case-by-case basis rather than along general lines.
    Amendments involved the Bank's proposed treatment of
exposures by financial institutions acting as banker to other
units of their own group of companies, the paper showed.
    They also regarded the treatment of credit exposure to
local governments and other public sector entities, and of
exposures undertaken by banks that are subsidiaries of banks.
    Proposals on how to value securities given by a debtor as
collateral to a credit were slightly changed, the paper showed.
    Exposures taken on by banks acting as creditor within their
own group of companies would usually be looked into on a
case-by-case basis under new proposals, it said.
    The paper said exposures to state-owned industries and
other public sector authorities in the U.K. and abroad should
be given the more lenient treatment of credits to governments
provided a government gives unconditional repayment guarantees.
    It cautioned that exposures to U.K. local authorities and
those guaranteed by the British Export Credit Guarantee
Department would probably not qualify for such treatment.
    On credits granted by banks which are a subsidiary of
another bank, an earlier-proposed 100 pct of capital ceiling
could be exceeded in individual cases.
    But the parent bank would have to give a formal undertaking
to take over the exposure if problems were to occur, and state
in writing that the exposure was retained in the subsidiary's
balance sheet to meet precise group objectives, the paper said.
    On collateral security, it said this "should normally only
be taken into account when considering the acceptability of a
bank's exposure up to 25 pct of its capital base."
    "The presence of security taken on its own will be
considered by the Bank as an acceptable reason for an exposure
in excess of 25 pct, but only in the most exceptional
circumstances and even then to a very limited extent," it said.
 Reuter

has acquired a 51 pct interest in privately-owned <Hunter
Helicopter of Nevada Inc> for an undisclosed amount of stock.
    An American Aircraft official said the company has an
option to acquire the remaining 49 pct.
    Hunter Helicopter is in the business of building a two
passenger helicopter retailing for about 50,000 dlrs each which
is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. The
helicopters will be manufactured in American Aircraft's Uvalde,
Texas, plant, it added.
 Reuter

Qtly div 11 cts vs 11 cts in prior qtr
    Payable April 10
 Reuter

Premier Industrial Corp said it named
Robert Warren to the new post of vice chairman and William
Hamilton president, succeeding Warren.
    Morton Mandel continues as chairman and chief executive
officer and Warren continues as chief operating officer, the
    Hamilton, formerly senior vice president, will have the
company's three business segments -- maintenance products,
distribution of electronic components and manufacture of
fire-fighting accessories -- reporting to him.
    Additionally, Philip Sims and Bruce Johnson were named
executive vice presidents, responsible for finance and the
electronics group, respectively. Sims continues as treasurer
and chief financial officer, Premier said.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said it
sold an options principal membership for a record 305,000 dlrs, 56,000
dlrs more than the previous seat sold on January 19, 1987, and
35,000 dlrs above the previous record high in 1983.
    The Exchange said the current bid is 280,000 dlrs and the
current offer is 315,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

said it has purchased privately-held Western Emergency Service
Inc in a stock transaction.
    Western Emergency, an environmental services firm, has
annual sales of between one and two mln dlrs, compared to
International Technology's roughly 240-mln-dlr annual sales, a
spokesman for International Technology said.
 Reuter

AST Research Inc said it
nominated Richard Goeglein, president and chief operating
officer for Holiday Corp, and Phillip Matthews, chairman and
chief executive officer for Echelon Sports Corp, for election
to its board at the May 19 meeting.
    Two members of the board, Michael Child and Henry McCance,
will retired at the meeting, the company said.
    AST Research supplies high performance IBM compatible
personal computers and  workstations.
 Reuter

Norfolk Southern Corp said it
entered into a joint venture with Sovran Financial Corp <SOVN>
to build the Sovran III Building, which will be renamed Norfolk
Southern Tower.
    Norfolk Southern said it will locate its headquarters in
the tower and occupy the 17th through 21st floors. It did not
disclose the financial terms of the venture.
    The company said construction of the building adjacent to
the Royster Building in downtown Norfolk begain in October
1986. Another story has been added to the original plans,
making a 21-story tower.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 783,564 vs 806,278
    Year
    Shr 89 cts vs 86 cts
    Net 3,443,392 vs 3,242,588
    Note:Full company name is Continental General Insurance Co
    Net includes profit from sale of securities of 155,410
dlrs, or four cts a share, and 192,896 dlrs, or five cts a
share, respectively, in 1986 qtr and year, and of 12,879 dlrs,
or nil per share, in 1985 qtr. Net for 1985 year includes loss
from sale of securities of 315,763 dlrs, or eight cts a share.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.60 dlrs vs loss 45 cts
    Net loss 9,883,000 vs loss 2,744,000
    Revs 1,309,000 vs 3,289,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 2.29 dlrs vs loss 98 cts
    Net loss 14.1 mln vs loss 6,008,000
    Revs 4,577,000 vs 11.9 mln
    NOTE: Current periods include loss of 7.5 mln dlrs from
discontinued operations.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 21 cts vs loss 2.13 dlrs
    Oper net profit 456,000 vs loss 2,454,000
    Revs 16.3 mln vs 13.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.39 dlrs vs loss 2.41 dlrs
    Oper net profit 1,815,000 vs loss 2,779,000
    Revs 58.0 mln vs 43.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr oper net exclude realized
investment gains of 279,000 dlrs and 1,013,000 dlrs,
respectively, which includes provision for income taxes of
238,000 dlrs and 863,000 dlrs for the periods, respectively.
    1986 4th qtr and yr oper net exclude 606,000 dlrs or 38 cts
per share and 2,323,000 dlrs or 1.86 dlrs per share, for net
operating loss carryovers.
    1985 4th qtr and yr oper net exclude realized investment
gains of 439,000 dlrs and 666,000 dlrs respectively.
 Reuter

The Hitech Engineering Co and
<Qume Corp> said that Hitech has agreed to design and certify
certain Qume desktop laser printers for the industrial and
government TEMPEST market.
    The TEMPEST program is a set of standards for government
information processing equipment designed to minimize
electromagnetic eavesdropping.
    The companies said that the total TEMPEST market is
estimated to be around two billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Continental General Insurance Co
said its board of directors declared a 10 pct stock dividend on
common shares, payable April one to shareholders of record
March 16.
    The company yesterday paid a quarterly cash dividend of
2-1/2 cts a share, unchanged from the previous quarter, to
shareholders of record February 20.
 Reuter

    Nine mths
    Note: 1986 net losses inlcude 7,507,000-dlr charge from
discontinued operations of building management system sold to
Cetek System Inc on Jan 30, 1987.
 Reuter

American Adventure Inc said its
reorganization plan was approved by the United States
Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of the State of
Washington.
    The company said the plan calls for the sale of
substantially all of the assets of the company to a new
company, which will retain the name American Adventure Inc, and
be incorporated in Delaware.
    The transaction is scheduled for later this month when
shareholders of the old company will receive one share of stock
in the new company for every 10 shares they hold in the old
company, according to American Adventure.
 Reuter

President Reagan said the United
States would offer a draft treaty on medium-range missile
reductions at talks with the Soviet Union in Geneva tomorrow.
    Reagan also said in a brief televised appearance in the
White House briefing room that he was summoning Ambassador Max
Kampelman and the other top U.S. arms negotiators home for
consultations later this week. He said they will then return to
Geneva for detailed negotiations on the arms pact.
    Welcoming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's offer Saturday
to proceed with a treaty on Intermediate Range Nuclear forces
(INF) separate from strategic and space weapons, Reagan said:
"This removes a serious obstacle to progress towards INF
reductions."
    "To seize this new opportunity I have instructed our
negotiators to begin presentation of our draft INF treaty text
at Geneva tomoorrow," Reagan said.
    He said he wanted to stress that of the issues remaining to
be resolved in the negotiations on medium-range U.S. and Soviet
missiles, "none is more important than verification ... Any
agreement must be effectively verifiable."
    The United States has been working closely with allies and
friends in Europe and Asia to develop a proposed treaty on
reducing these weapons with an eye to their eventual
elimination, the president said.
     He said the treaty draft followed the formula he agreed
upon with Gorbachev at their summit meeting last October in
Reykjavik, Iceland, which was shelved when the Soviet leader
insisted on linking approval of such a pact to agreement on
long-range strategic missiles and anti-missile defense.
    "I remain firmly committed to these objectives," he said.
    He said Gorbachev's new offer Saturday ending the linkage
of the three areas of negotiations removed a major barrier to
agreement and was consistent with the Soviet position at the
earlier Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Geneva in November 1985.
 Reuter

Harris Associates L.P., a Chicago
investment advisory limited partnership, said it lowered its
stake in Bell Industries Inc to 1,015,800 shares, or 18.7 pct
of the total outstanding, from 1,083,800 shares, or 20.0 pct.
Harris said it sold 68,000 Bell common shares between Dec 18
and Feb 20 at prices ranging from 20.25 to 25.24 dlrs each.
    Harris said its dealings in Bell stock are on behalf of its
advisory clients.
 Reuter

The chairman of Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Co, a concern that survived a recent hostile takeover bid,
charged that "terrorists in three-piece suits" are undermining
the nation's industrial base.
In a speech to a meeting of south Florida business executives,
Goodyear Chairman Robert Mercer lashed out at corporate raiders
and takeover specialists, accusing them of causing serious harm
to the companies they target.
  "Their interest is not in preserving and strengthening
America's industrial and providing jobs," he said. "Their
product is simply deals, and that is not a product which a
country ... can base a future on."
    Last year, Mercer fought off a takeover attempt by British
industrialist Sir James Goldsmith.
    But Goodyear's independence was preserved at a high price,
Mercer said.
    The company bought back Goldsmith's stock for 620 mln dlrs,
giving him a 93 mln dlr profit. Goodyear also paid him 37 mln
dlrs for expenses and bought about 41 mln other shares for over
two billion dlrs.
    In an effort to trim its new debt, Goodyear closed down
three plants Mercer believes otherwise could have been saved,
sold its motor wheel and aerospace units and reduced its
payroll by 10 pct, he said.
    Mercer, who plans to testify tomorrow at a Senate hearing
on a proposed bill to control corporate raiders, said hostile
takeovers have also hurt workers.
 Reuter

    Net 459,131 vs 289,433
    Revs 1,808,832 vs 1,680,240
 Reuter

Carling O'Keefe Ltd said the board
decided to retain ownership of its Toronto Argonaut Football
Club, after considering offers to acquire the team.
    The company said it received a number of expressions of
interest in buying the club, of which two became formal offers
to purchase.
    Neither offer met the company's unspecified requirements
for selling the football club, Carling said.
    The Toronto Argonauts are a member of the Canadian Football
League.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corporation has
approved an additional 45.0 mln dlrs under its interemdiate
export credit guarantee program, GSM-103, for sales of U.S.
wheat to Morocco, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The action increases Morocco's cumulative fiscal year 1987
program for wheat under GSM-103 to 75.0 mln dlrs.
    The credit terms extended for exports under the program
must be in excess of three years but no more than seven years
to eligible for credit coverage. All sales under this line must
be registered and exported by September 30, 1987.
    The department also said the guarantee line for sales of
U.S. wheat under the Export Credit Guarantee Program, GSM-102,
has been decreased 45.0 mln dlrs to 60.0 mln.
 Reuter

Equitable Life Leasing Corp said it
named Lawrence Johnes president and chief operating officer,
effective April one.
    Johnes joined the company in November 1984 as executive
vice president and chief financial officer.
    Edward Horman will continue as chairman and chief executive
officer, the company said.
 Reuter

Royal Resources Inc said it is
calling a special shareholder meeting for April 21 seeking
approval of a name change and an increase in its authorized
    Stockholders will be asked to change the company's name to
Royal Gold Inc to better reflect the company's goal to become a
gold company.  Royal defines a gold company as one having more
than 100,000 ounces of gold production a year.
    In other action, shareholders will be asked to approve an
increase in authorized common stock to 20 mln from 15 mln
shares. The shares are expected to be used for future
acquisition of gold properties, it said.
    Previously, Royal said it agreed to sell its oil and gas
properties to Victoria Exploration N.L. of Perth, Australia for
3.65 mln dlrs.  The company's holders also will be asked to
approve the transaction.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 17 cts vs 17 cts prior
 Reuter

Soviet winter grains could be off to
a faulty start this spring after enduring an usually dry fall
and cold winter, weather and crop analysts said.
    Prospects for another near-record grain harvest in the
Soviet Union appear dim at this point, but it is premature to
forecast any major crop problems, analysts said.
    But the situation bears careful watching over the next six
weeks and will ultimately impact the Soviet grain supply and
future buying plans, analysts of the Soviet Union said.
    "From a weather standpoint, you can say with certainty that
the Soviets are not getting off to a good start and will have a
lower crop (than last year)," Gail Martell, chief meteorologist
for E.F. Hutton said.
    The next six weeks in the USSR's grain growing areas will
be the crucial period that will determine the final outcome of
the winter crops, Martell and other analysts said.
    "Where the crop is really made or broken is still ahead of
us," an Agriculture Department authority on the USSR said.
    The Soviet Union recently reported that nine mln hectares
of winter grain will have to be reseeded due to winterkill.
This would be equal to about 25 pct of the total winter crop
and would be the second highest winterkill in ten years, the
USDA analyst said.
    With a timely spring, Soviet farmers would probably be able
to reseed the damaged acreage with spring crops, but analysts
noted that spring crops normally yield lower than winter crops
-- sometimes as much as 30-35 pct lower.
    Normally winterkill is caused by inadequate snowcover
combined with cold temperatures. This winter, however,
snowcover in Soviet grain areas has generally been excellent,
so the bulk of winterkill, analysts speculate, likely has been
due to a very dry fall and subsequent poor crop germination.
    "Fall dryness may be a problem. There's a good correlation
between mediocre crops and fall dryness," Martell said.
    Precipitation last fall was as little as 25 pct of normal
in southern and northern Ukraine, and below normal over the
entire winter crop area, she said.
    Recent cold temperatures in grain areas in which the
snowcover has been gradually melting could also have caused 
problems of ice-crusting and winterkill, Jim Candor, senior
forecaster for Accu Weather, said.
    Livestock feed needs have probably increased because of the
fall and winter, analysts said. The dry fall damaged pastures,
the cold winter raised feed demands and a late spring would
require longer off-pasture feeding, they said.
    "The Soviets are not in a desperate situation ... they
don't have to buy (grains) now," a USDA official said.
    But if the Soviets are worried about their winter crops and
if they feel that last year's huge crop of 210 mln tonnes was a
one-time fluke brought on by perfect conditions, more Soviet
buying might occur to insure crop supplies, he said.
    Bad weather during the next six weeks could push the
Soviets back into the market, weather analysts said.
    "A lot of winterkill could occur during the next month and
a half," Martell said.
 Reuter

(Alcan Aluminium Ltd) is closing its
aluminum smelter in Ludwigshafen, West Germany this June due to
high operating costs, an Alcan spokesman said.
    The smelter, near Frankfurt, had annual capacity of about
44,000 metric tons but was operating at about half that in
January, spokesman Fernand Leclerc said.
    Leclerc said Alcan decided it would cost too much to
modernize the plant.
    He said there is a possibility the company will sell the
smelter, which currently employs 320 people, before its
scheduled closing.             
 Reuter

    Avg shrs 6,194,000 vs 6,155,461
    First half
    Avg shrs 6,174,731 vs 6,155,461
    NOTE: Losses include charges of 4.0 mln dlrs in both 1986
periods vs 14.4 mln dlrs in both 1985 periods for write-down of
oil and gas properties
 Reuter

Musto Explorations
Ltd said it negotiated the private placement of up to 300,000
shares at 1.65 dlrs each.
    It said the investors would receive non-transferable share
purchase warrants allowing them to acquire up to another
300,000 shares at 1.90 dlrs each over one year.
    The placement is subject to regulatory approval, it said.
 Reuter

Hanson Trust PLC said Kaiser Cement
shareholders today approved the previously announced merger
agreement making Kaiser Cement an indirect wholly owned unit of
Hanson Trust.
    Hanson said that promptly following the filing of the
certificate of merger Kaiser Cement common shares will be
delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
    Hanson also said, in accordance with the merger agreement
Kasier Cement also has redeemed all outstanding shares of its
1.375 dlr convertible preferance stocks and its outstanding 9
pct convertible debentures due 2005.
    The acquisitions total purchase price (including cost of
financing the above-mentioned redemptions) will be about 250
mln dlrs, Hanson said.
 Reuter

Applied Magnetics Corp said its
board named Ben Newitt to the new position of vice chairman and
as chief executive officer.
    Newitt, who had been president and chief executive officer,
is succeeded as president by William Anderson, who had been
executive vice president and chief operating officer.
 Reuter

Phone-A-Gram System Inc said it named
Eugene Mora its Chairman and chief executive officer.
    Mora succeed Fred Peterson, who resigned.
    Mora had been president of Victor Temporary Services. He
has been a member of Phone-A-Gram's board since 1986.
 Reuter

Crude oil prices rallied today, moving
over 17.00 dlrs a barrel because of Saudi Arabia's determined
effort to support prices, analysts said.
    "The Saudis and other OPEC nations are jawboning the market,
hoping to restore confidence and prices and to do this without
another meeting," said Sanford Margoshes, oil analyst with
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    "But OPEC is not out of the woods yet by a longshot due to
seasonal declines in demand and some cheating," he added.
    Oil industry analysts said Saudi Arabia has led the attempt
to get other OPEC members to resist pressures to discount from
the official prices agreed to last december.
    The analysts said that to get others to hold the line,
Saudi Arabia pushed hard at the meeting of deputy oil ministers
of the Gulf Cooperation Council last weekend and at the
Cooperation Council oil ministers' meeting the previous week.
    The Saudis have also offered to support members having
difficulty in selling their oil, analysts said.
    "They are trying to make sure that no one discounts, and to
prevent that, it appears that Saudi Arabia or some other OPEC
member will allocate some of their oil sales to help members
that lose sales," Margoshes said.
    He added that the allocations would probably be in the form
of loans to be repaid when these nations resume sales.
    Analysts said this would be useful in keeping in line
nations like Qatar, which has had trouble selling oil. But it
is also likely that such assistance would be provided to
Nigeria which is under pressure to extend discounts.
    Analysts said that Saudi Arabia, with assistance from OPEC
president Rilwanu Lukman, was trying to avoid an emergency OPEC
meeting for fear that it would give the appearance that the
December pact is falling apart.
    Daniel McKinley, oil analyst with Smith Barney, Upham
Harris and Co said, "both physical and futures markets have been
oversold and it only took a small spark to bring on a short
covering rally."
    He believes an Iranian trade mission to Tokyo, which
refused discounts to Japanese buyers, brought Japanese refiners
into the market to cover their short positions.
    Oil traders said one japanese refiner came into the market
to but 10 cargoes of May Dubai, which sent prices up on Mideast
sours, with Dubai trading up to 16.50 dlrs after trading
yeterray as low as 15.63 dlrs and then spilled over into the
North sea crude oil market.
    Traders said that there have been persistent rumors today
that Japanese buyers are looking to pick up cargoes of Brent
for Japan and European trade sources indidate rumors of vessels
being fixed to make such shipments.
    North sea brent today rose over 17.00 dlrs with trades
reported as high as 17.05 dlrs, up one dlr.
    OPEC members' denials that they are producing over their
quotas sparked moves to cover short postitions.
    Indonesian oil minister Subroto said today that OPEC
production was below the 15.8 mln bpd quota agreed to last
december but he gave no details on OPEC production against
claims it was more at least one mln bpd above that level.
    "The production probably is about their quota level and
largely because Saudi Arabia will not discount and canot sell
its oil as a result," Margoshes said.
    Analysts have mixed opinions about the extent of the
current rally. Some believe prices can continue to rise if
Saudi Arabia and OPEC hold steady in a refusal to discount.
    But others said that despite the rally today there were
still several fundamental factors, including demand, which
could cut the rally short.
    Marion Stewart, an indepedent petroleum economist, said
slow growth in the economies of the U.S. and OECD would keep
demand for oil slack and he now estimates that demand to rise
about 1.4 pct over 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. SELLING 13.2 BILLION DLRS OF 3 AND 6-MO BILLS MARCH 9 TO PAY DOWN 2.45 BILLION DLRS

Reserve rose on Feb 27 to 3.482 billion dlrs from 1.538 billion
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 21.334
billion dlrs from 25.164 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 24.816
billion dlrs on Feb 27 compared with 26.702 billion dlrs on Feb
26.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury said it will sell
13.2 billion dlrs of three and six-month bills at its regular
auction next week.
    The March 9 sale, to be evenly divided between the three
and six month issues, will result in a paydown of 2.45 billion
dlrs as maturing bills total 15.65 billion dlrs.
    The bills will be issued March 12.
 Reuter

Nynex Business Information
Systems Co said it won a contract valued at nine mln dlrs from
the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to provide an advanced
communications system for a facility in upstate New York.
    The company, a unit of Nynex Corp, said the contract was
for initial work on the project at the new Fort Drum Light
Infantry Post near Watertown, about 65 miles north of Syracuse.
 Reuter

Coffee prices may have to fall even lower
to bring exporting and importing countries once more round the
negotiating table to discuss export quotas, ICO delegates and
traders said.
    The failure last night of International Coffee
Organization, ICO, producing and consuming countries to agree
export quotas brought a sharp fall on international coffee
futures markets today with the London May price reaching a
4-1/2 year low at one stage of 1,270 stg per tonne before
ending the day at 1,314 stg, down 184 stg from the previous
close.
    The New York May price was down 15.59 at 108.00 cents a lb.
    Pressure will now build up on producers returning from the
ICO talks to sell coffee which had been held back in the hope
the negotiations would establish quotas which would put a floor
under prices, some senior traders said.
    The ICO 15 day average price stood at 114.66 cents a lb for
March 2. This compares with a target range of 120 to 140 cents
a lb under the system operating before quotas were suspended in
February last year following a sharp rise in international
prices caused by drought damage to the Brazilian crop.
    In a Reuter interview, Brazilian Coffee Institute, IBC,
President Jorio Dauster urged producers not to panic and said
they need to make hard commercial decisions. "If we have failed
at the ICO, at least we have tried," Dauster said, adding "now it
is time to go and sell coffee."
    But Brazil is keeping its marketing options open. It plans
to make an official estimate of the forthcoming crop next
month, Dauster said. It is too difficult to forecast now. Trade
sources have put the crop at over 26 mln bags compared with a
previous crop of 11.2 mln. Brazil is defining details of public
selling tenders for coffee bought on London's futures market
last year.
    A basic condition will be that it does not go back to the
market "in one go" but is sold over a minimum of six months.
    The breakdown of the ICO negotiations reflected a split
between producers and consumers on how to set the yardstick for
future quotas. Consumers said "objective criteria" like average
exports and stocks should determine producer quota shares,
Dauster said.
    All elements of this proposal were open to negotiation but
consumers insisted they did not want a return to the "ad hoc" way
of settling export quotas by virtual horse trading amongst
producers whilst consumers waited in the corridors of the ICO.
    Dauster said stocks and exports to ICO members and
non-members all need to be considered when setting quotas and
that Brazil would like to apply the coffee pact with a set
ratio of overall quota reflecting stock holdings.
    It is a "simplistic misconception that Brazil can dictate"
policy to other producers. While consumer countries are welcome
to participate they cannot dictate quotas which are very
difficult to allocate as different "objective criteria" achieve
different share-outs of quota, Dauster said.
    Other delegates said there was more open talking at the ICO
and at least differences were not hidden by a bad compromise.
    Consumer delegates said they had not been prepared to
accept the producers' offer to abandon quotas if it proves
impossible to find an acceptable basis for them.
    "We want the basis of quotas to reflect availability and to
encourage stock holding as an alternative to a buffer stock if
supplies are needed at a later stage," one delegate said.
    Some consumers claimed producer support for the consumer
argument was gaining momentum towards the end of the ICO
session but said it is uncertain whether this will now collapse
and how much producers will sink their differences should
prices fall further and remain depressed.
    The ICO executive board meets here March 30 to April 1 but
both producer and consumer delegates said they doubt if real
negotiations will begin then. The board is due to meet in
Indonesia in June with a full council scheduled for September.
    More cynical traders said the pressure of market forces and
politics in debt heavy Latin American producer countries could
bring ICO members back around the negotiating table sooner than
many imagine. In that case quotas could come into force during
the summer. But most delegates and traders said quotas before
October are unlikely, while Brazil's Dauster noted the ICO has
continued although there were no quotas from 1972 to 1980.
    A clear difference between the pressures already being felt
by importers and exporters was that consumers would have been
happy to agree on a formula for future quotas even if it could
not be imposed now. At least in that way they said they could
show a direct relationship between quotas and availability.
    In contrast producers wanted stop-gap quotas to plug the
seemingly bottomless market and were prepared to allow these to
lapse should lasting agreement not be found.
    "Producers were offering us jam tomorrow but after their
failure to discuss them last year promises were insufficient
and we wanted a cast iron commitment now," one consumer said.
 Reuter

Seaman Furniture Co Inc said
its board declared a two-for-one split of the company's
outstanding stock.
    It said holders of its common will receive one additional
share for each share held as of March 20. It said certificates
representing additional shares will be distributed as soon as
possible after April 10.
 Reuter

Oper shr eight cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 5,219,000 vs 4,377,000
    Revs 214.9 mln vs 182.5 mln
    NINE MTHS
    Oper shr 51 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper net 29.6 mln vs 27.9 mln
    Revs 634.5 mln vs 569.3 mln
    1986 net excludes extraordinary gain of 8,031,000 dlrs or
15 cts shr.
    1987 net reflects three-for-one stock split in 2nd qtr and
issue of 1.5 mln subordinate voting shares in 1st qtr.
 Reuter

Telxon Corp reported it expects
revenues for the quarter ending March 31 to be between 26 to 28
mln dlrs.
    The company said earnings per share for the period should
be between 23 cts to 26 cts.
    "The company is making an announcement at this time in
response to analysts fourth quarter revenues and earnings per
share estimates of 29 mln to 32 mln and 24 cts to 30 cts,
respecivtely," said Raymond Meyo, president and chief executive
officer.
    Telxon recorded revenues of 24.2 mln dlrs for the quarter
last year, and earnings per share of 22 cts, adjusted for a
three-for-two stock split in May 1986.
 Reuter

Royal Resources Corp said its board set
an April 21 a shareholders' meeting to vote on the sale of its
oil and gas properties for 3,650,000 dlrs, an increase in
authorized common to 20 mln shares from 15 mln and the change
of the company's name to Royal Gold Inc.
    The company has agreed to sell its oil and gas properties
to <Victoria Exploration N.L.> of Perth, Western Australia.
    Royal Resources also said the sale of its interest in two
gold properties -- the Colosseum Mine in San Bernardino County,
Calif., and the Camp Bird mine near Ouray, Colo. -- was closed
on February 27. The company said it received 4.4 mln dlrs and
cancellation of the remaining balance due on the acquisition of
the interest, adding this represents 2.5 mln dlrs more than it
paid for the interest.
 Reuter

    Note: 4th qtr figures not given.
   
 Reuter

Legislation to implement the first stage
of a promised sweeping new regulatory framework for the
Canadian banking system was presented in the House of Commons,
the finance department said.
    The department said the main measures in the bill include
the previously announced consolidation of federal supervisory
agencies into the new Office of the Superintendent of Financial
Institutions and a strengthening of the Canada Deposit
Insurance Act.
    The department said further legislation, first outlined in
the December policy statement will be introduced later this
year and will include broadening of the powers of financial
institutions and the new ownership policies.                
 Reuter

Telegraph Co said it will offer a special team of
representatives to help hearing-impaired persons use
telecommunications services.
    The team will work through the company's National Special
Needs Center, which offers various products that enable
hearing-, motion-, speech- and vision-impaired persons to use
telecommunications devices such as a keyboard to talk and paper
or video printouts to listen.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 369,000 vs 358,000
    Revs 7,076,000 vs 6,712,000
    Avg shrs 3,050,000 vs 1,850,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 53 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 1,523,000 vs 1,158,000
    Revs 22.6 mln vs 20.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,852,198 vs 1,850,000
 Reuter

Home Intensive Care Inc said it extended
until March 15 the period during which holders of its callable
cumulative convertible preferred stock may convert each of
their shares into 2.2 shares of the company's common stock.
    After that date, the preferred may be converted into two
shares of common, the company said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Reidel Environmental Technologies
Inc said its Reidel Envirnomental Services Inc unit won a
contract with the Environmental Protection Agency that could
total over 100 mln dlrs over the next four years.
    Under the agreement, which began March 1, Reidel will act
as the prime contractor for the cleanup and removal of
hazardous substances from contaminated sites in the EPA's Zone
IV, which encompasses 23 states west of the Mississippi.
 Reuter

PANCANADIAN TO SELL NORTH SEA PROPERTIES, UNIT TO WHITEHALL FOR CASH

U.S. power companies generated a net
50.08 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended Feb 28, up 2.4 pct from 48.91 billion a year earlier, the
Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said.
    In its weekly report on electric output, the electric
utility trade association said electric output in the week
ended Feb 21 was 51.10 billion kilowatt-hours.
    The EEI said power production in the 52 weeks ended Feb 28
was 2,554.41 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.2 pct from the
year-ago period.
    Electric output so far this year was 458.51 billion
kilowatt hours, up 2.2 pct from 448.79 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

    Shr 12 cts vs 19 cts
    Nine mths
 Reuter

Net loss 705,496 vs loss 182,766
    Sales 642,590 vs 1,126,315
 Reuter

Riedel Environment Technologies
Inc's subsidiary Riedel Environmental Services Inc <RES>
received a contract to clean up and remove hazardous substances
from contaminated sites in 23 states west of the Mississippi
River.
    The contract, which could total more than 100 mln dlrs over
the next four years, is with the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency, the company said.
    Among the states covered in the contract are Alaska and
Hawaii, as well as the Pacific Trust Territories, Riedel said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said Cannon
Group Inc declined to comment on the unusual activity in its
    Cannon's stock is up 1-3/8 points at 10-1/8.
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 4.4 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 30,000, CRUDE UP 700,000

Alcan Aluminium Ltd is closing its
44,000 tonnes but was operating at about half that in January,
spokesman Fernand Leclerc said.
scheduled closing.
 Reuter

The Writers Guild of America said it
agreed to meet with representatives of CBS Inc <CBS> and
Capital Cities/ABC Inc <CCB> at the offices of the Federal
Mediation Service at 1000 EST Thursday.
    "The guild is pleased that the networks have returned to
the table," a spokesman said. The talks would be the first
since the guild struck radio and television networks and some
local broadcast operations of the two companies at 0600 EDT
March two.
    A contract covering more than 500 writers, editors and
other personnel expired early March two.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Bottling Co
Consolidated said James Moore Jr. will assume the position of
president and chief executive office, replacing Marvin W.
Griffin Jr., who resigned effective today.
    The company said Moore previously served as president of
<Atlantic Soft Drink Co>.
 Reuter

<PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd>
said it agreed to sell its working interest in its North Sea
properties and its British unit, Canadian Pacific Oil and Gas
of Canada Ltd, to Whitehall Petroleum Ltd, a private British
company.
    PanCanadian, 87 pct-owned by Canadian Pacific Ltd <CP>,
said it would receive 1.7 mln British pounds cash (3.5 mln
Canadian dlrs) at closing, expected in two to three months.
    It said the deal is subject to approval by regulators and
its partners in the properties, which consist of exploration
wells. It will also retain a royalty interest in the
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc said it
plans to close three appliance manufacturing plants as part of
a restructuring.
    The company said it will close its Milwaukee plant by
October 1, idling 350 employees, and its Dayton, Tenn.,
facility, with about 300 employees, by March 1, 1988.
    In addition, a plant in Toronto will phase out production
of small electric appliances over the next eight month's,
affecting about 195 of the facility's 425 employees.
    Production of barbecue grills and lawn mowers is also under
review at the Toronto plant, operated by the company's Sunbeam
Corp (Canada) unit. The plant will continue selling appliances
in Canada.
    The company's Oster division makes blenders and other
appliances at the Milwaukee and Dayton plants. Oster
headquarters will stay in Milwaukee and manufacturing of
products will be consolidated at other facilities in
McMinnville and Cookville, both in Tennessee.
 Reuter

Congress passed and sent to President
Reagan a bill that sets energy efficiency standards for major
household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners,
washers and dryers and furnances.
    Final action came on a voice vote in the House. The Senate
had passed the bill, 89-6, on February 17.
    Reagan vetoed a similar bill last year after Congress had
adjourned, but has indicated he will sign this measure.
    The standards will take effect over the next six years and
appliance manufacturers will then have five years to redesign
their appliances to meet the standards.
 Reuter

Piedmont Aviation Inc's
Piedmont Airlines said its February load factor, or percentage
of seats filled, rose to 55.5 pct, from 52.6 pct for the same
month last year.
    The airline said revenue passenger miles for the month were
up 20.1 pct, to 780 mln, from 649.3 mln. A revenue passenger
mile is one paying passenger flown one mile.
    Piedmont said its capacity increased 13.8 pct, to 1.40
billion available seat miles, from 1.23 billion.
    Year to date, Piedmont said its load factor was 54.1 pct vs
51.6 pct last year.
    It said revenue passenger miles totaled 1.57 billion vs
1.34 billion and capacity was 2.90 billion available seat miles
vs 2.61 billion.
 Reuter

Telxon Corp said it expects
per-share earnings for its fourth quarter ending March 31 to be
about 23 cts to 26 cts on revenues of 26 mln dlrs to 28 mln
dlrs.
    For the year-ago quarter, the company earned 22 cts a
share, adjusted for a three-for-two stock split, on revenues of
24.2 mln dlrs.
    The company said it made the earnings estimate in response
to analysts' forecasts, which it said called for per-share
earnings of 24 cts to 30 cts and revenues of 29 mln dlrs to 32
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Reid-Ashman Inc said it has
decided to divest its test products division, located in Santa
Clara.
    The company said it will entertain offers through March 30.
It also said Steven Reid, a company founder and president of
the test division, has made an offer to purchase the unit.
    The company's test division accounted for about ten pct of
total revenues in the year ended Sept 30, 1986 and is currently
running a revenue rate of under two mln dlrs per year, it said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 87 cts vs 87 cts
    Pay Feb 17
    Record Jan 20
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs five cts
    Pay May 22
    Record May 8
 Reuter

Distillate fuel stocks held in
primary storage fell by 4.4 mln barrels in the week ended Feb
27 to 127.10 mln barrels from 131.50 mln the previous week, the
American Petroleum Institute (API) said.
    In its weekly statistical bulletin, the oil industry trade
group said gasoline stocks fell 30,000 barrels to 252.92 mln
barrels from a revised 252.95 mln, while crude oil stocks rose
700,000 barrels to 329.38 mln from a revised 328.68 mln.
    It said residual fuel stocks fell 380,000 barrels to 38.04
mln from 38.42 mln barrels.
    API said refinery runs in the week fell to 12.17 mln
barrels per day from a revised 12.42 mln and refinery use of
operating capacity was 78.1 pct, off from a revised 79.7 pct.
    Crude oil imports in the week fell to 3.98 mln bpd from a
revised 4.22 mln, API added.
 Reuter

    Net 199,037 vs 135,587
    Sales 1,594,895 vs 1,368,959
    Avg shrs 3.1 mln vs 2.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 25 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 695,398 vs 446,426
    Sales 5,785,365 vs 4,520,781
    Avg shrs 2.8 mln vs 2.4 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 12-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 cts
    Record Feb 27
 Reuter

Exports of American wine rose 14.9
per cent last year to a total of 7.2 million gallons, the Wine
Institute said.
    The San Francisco-based promotional group said 95 per cent
of the exported wine was from California and the top three
markets were Canada, Japan and Britain.
    Japan, which edged out Britain as the leading importer of
American wines in 1985, continued in second place.
    Canadian imports rose 3.2 per cent to 2.6 million gallons;
Japan, 9.9 per cent to 1.2 million gallons, and Britain, 20.2
per cent to 962,360 gallons.
    A spokesman for the institute said the declining value of
the dollar and strong promotional efforts on the part of the
California wine industry contributed significantly to the
increased shipments.
    The 1986 wine exports were valued at 34.7 mln dlrs, up from
27.6 mln dlrs the previous year.              
 Reuter

Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary
David Mulford said rapid progress was being made in talks with
Brazil.
 Reuter

Canada's 1.20 billion dlr bond offer was
virtually sold out as bond prices closed weaker in moderate
trading, dealers said.
    Sales of today's issue were slowed by the decline in
American credit markets and rising oil prices, which stirred
concerns about inflation, the traders said. The issue was
selling at or just below issue price.
    Overall prices fell as much as a point, with the benchmark
Canada 9-1/2 pct of 2001 at 106-3/8 5/8, the 8-1/4 pct of 1997
at 99 99-1/4 and the 8-1/2 pct of 2011 at 98-1/8 3/8.
 Reuter

the U.S. Agriculture Department's
National Agricultural Statistics Services (NASS) said it will
change its citrus estimate program for California and Arizona,
starting in 1988.
    NASS said it will discontinue California forecasts for
lemons during December, February, March, May and June and for
grapefruit and tangerines for those months plus November.
    Forecasts for lemons will be issued in October, November,
January, April and July and for grapefruit in October, January,
April, and July and for tangerines in October,  January and
April. There will be no change in the estimating program for
California oranges.
    Arizona forecasts will be dropped for lemons, oranges,
grapefruit and tangerines in November, December February,
March, May and June, with forecasts retained in October,
January, April and July, it said.
    There will be no changes in the estimating program for
citrus in Texas or Florida.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs six cts
    Net 3,500,000 vs 2,500,000
    Revs 294.0 mln vs 351.5 mln
    Note: 1986 year includes tax gain of 1,700,000 dlrs
 Reuter

Arvin Industries Inc said it will
offer 150 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    The company will offer 75 mln dlrs of 8-3/8 pct notes due
March 1, 1997 and 75 mln dlrs of 9-1/8 pct sinking fund
debentures due March 1, 2017, as part of an existing 200 mln
dlr shelf registration.
    The notes were priced at 99.63 pct to yield 8.43 pct. The
debentures were priced at 99.54 pct to yield 9.17 pct.
    Both issues will be offered through underwriting groups led
by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Salomon Brothers Inc. The
two issues are separate and independent.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said its directors
authorized the repurchase of up to 20 pct of its 1.66 dlr par
value common stock by the end of 1990.
    GM said the level of repurchases this year will not exceed
10 mln shares or about three pct of its outstanding stock.
    It said the stock repurchase, as market conditions permit,
will be funded from a portion of the cash flows generated by
reduced capital spending and anticipated performance
improvements.
    GM also said its board authorized the repurchase of as many
as five mln shares each of its class E and class H common, with
about half of the proposed repurchases completed by year end.
    GM also said it is considering offering an odd-lot
repurchase program for its class H stock by mid-year.
    GM said the class E and H repurchases would increase
participation in the net income of its Electronic Data Systems
Corp <GME> and Hughes Electronic Corp <GMH> subsidiaries by
holders of its 1.66 dlr par value common.
    GM also said it anticipates a decrease in automotive
capital spending, excluding EDS and Hughes Aircraft Co, to 7.9
billion dlrs in 1987 and 5.8 billion dlrs in 1989, from 10.6
billion dlrs in 1986.
    It also said improvements in operating performance are
expected to amount to 10 billion dlrs annually by 1990.
    "We have one overriding objective--to position GM so that
it is producing the best products available in an increasingly
competitive global marketplace," said Chairman Roger B. Smith.
    GM had 319.4 mln shares of its 1.66 dlr par value common
outstanding, 53.5 mln shares of class E and 66.6 mln shares of
class H outstanding at year end 1986.
    GM said that its par value holders currently participate in
the 56 pct of the earnings of EDS and 67 pct of Hughes'
earnings.
    GM also said it will continue to repurchase shares of all
three classes of its common in connection with ongoing
requirements of various benefit plans.
    That buyback, it said, will involve about nine mln shares
of 1.66 dlr par value common and 2.5 mln shares each of class E
and H common in 1987.
    GM said the repuchased shares of its par value common will
be held in its treasury indefinitely for possible future
business use.
   
 Reuter

Oppenheimer and Co, a New York
brokerage firm, said it raised its stake in Viacom
International Inc to the equivalent of 2,709,600 shares, or 7.7
pct of the total, from 2,232,400 shares, or 6.3 pct.
Oppenheimer said it bought a net 477,200 Viacom common shares
between Jan 19 and March 3 at prices ranging from 40.50 to an
average of 49.31 dlrs each. Part of its stake is in options.
    It said it bought the shares as part of its arbitrage and
investment business. Movie theater magnate Sumner Redstone and
a Viacom management group are in a bidding war for Viacom.
 Reuter

Shr loss 25 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 446,005 vs profit 185,325
    Sales 2.4 mln vs 2.5 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 16 cts vs profit 41 cts
    Net loss 282,305 vs profit 709,787
    Sales 10.1 mln vs nine mln
 Reuter

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee
may take up a bill tomorrow that would strengthen the
activities of U.S. agricultural trade teams in selected
developing countries, committee staff said.
    The measure, sponsored by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.) and Sen. John Melcher (D-Mont.), would establish trade
teams of between six and nine persons drawn from federal
agencies and private voluntary organizations, staff said.
    The trade missions would seek to generate interest in the
U.S. government's food donation and commercial programs --
PL480, Section 416, export credit and export enhancement -- and
upon return be required to advocate extension of concessional
or commercial benefits to interested countries.
    The trade teams would be made up of representatives of the
U.S. Agriculture Department, State Department, the Agency for
International Development and private voluntary organizations
such as U.S. Wheat Associates.
    The bill would require teams within six months to visit
seven countries: Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh, Senegal and Nigeria.
    Within one year after passage of the measure, another eight
countries would have to be visited: Peru, Kenya, the Dominican
Republic, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Venezuela, Tunisia and Morocco.
Other countries could be added to the list.
    Senate staff members said the bill, still in the drafting
stages, had broad support and was expected to be approved by
the committee tomorrow.
 Reuter

The U.S. is sticking for the moment
to its policy that Brazil, which two weeks ago suspended debt
payments to private banks, should deal with its creditors and
not with governments, U.S. officials said.
    "I don't see any desire here to scurry around and help
Brazil until we get a better sense of what they are trying to
do," a senior administration official stated.
    "Brazil has to do business through the banks at this point,"
said another official following an assessment of that country's
latest debt crisis.
    The official, who asked that his name not be used, said the
National Security Council, the Treasury and State departments
and other agencies held a meeting yesterday to discuss the
situation.
    In a related development, small regional banks that have
made loans to Brazil and other heavily-indebted Latin American
countries, will meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker
here tomorrow.
    Brazil, with about 108 billion dlrs in debt, shocked banks
late last month when it stopped interest payments on 68 billion
dlrs owed to them until it can work out its problems.
    Brazil's trade surplus, its main source of foreign exchange
has dwindled in recent months, making it difficult to service
its debt.
    The official said the interagency meeting was called to
discuss "the general debt situation and compare notes on
(Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson) Funaro."
    Funaro, who told reporters here that he wanted a political
discussion with industrialized nations on Brazil's debt
problems in an effort to obtain more and faster lending from
official sources, held discussions here on Friday with Volcker,
Treasury Secretary James Baker and other officials.
    Another senior administration official said he was
perplexed by Funaro's decision to discuss the latest crisis
with governments and not with creditor banks, at a time when
Brazil is in danger of losing short-term credit lines.
    "We are not clear at all on his tactics. To me it seems
bizarre, just bizarre," the official said.
    One official today described Funaro's argument as "nonsense,"
and said there had been a considerable flow of funds to Brazil,
for which that country was in arrears.
    Funaro has said Brazil acted to protect its reserves but
wanted to avoid a confrontation.
    The consensus among administration officials seems to be
that Brazil's latest debt crisis is the result of the domestic
economic problems.
    "Brazil is a special case, but there's no doubt they would
not be in the mess they're in if they had not screwed-up their
economic policy," a senior official added.
    Several of the regional banks that will meet with Volcker
tomorrow declined to comment because the talks will be held at
the Fed's suggestion.
    "Since they are the hosts, we feel it's up to them if they
want to say something," one regional bank official said.
    But other banking sources said that regional banks, many of
which are refusing to continue lending to Latin America, are
dissatisfied with decisions of major banks such as Citibank, in
the refinancing of foreign debts.
    The sources added that Volcker, for his part, is
dissatisfied with some major banks' refusal to make interest
rate concessions to Brazil and other Latin American debtors,
and would like to see smaller creditor banks take a more actve
role in the rescheduling process.
   
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it is
reviewing <MEPC Plc's> two A-rated eurobond issues totalling
125 mln stg for a possible downgrade.
    The review follows the agreement by the British-based
real-estate firm to acquire a controlling interest in Oldham
Estate Plc and its offer to buy the remaining equity.
    The maximum cost of the acquisition would be 620.9 mln stg.
The purchase owuld be financed largely by equity, but
uncertainties exist as to the amount of debt to be assumed by
MEPC and the quality of the properties in Oldham's portfolio, S
and P said.
 Reuter

Florida Public Utilities Co
said its board declared a three-for-two stock split on its
    It said holders of record April 15 will receive one
additional share May one for each two shares held.
    The company also said it raised the dividend on its common
stock by two cts to 33 cts a share on a pre-split basis.
    The dividend is payable April one to holders of record
March 18.
 Reuter

City Investing Co Liquidating Trust
said it declared a cash distribution of 25 cts a unit, payable
April 10 to unit-holders of record April one.
    The trust last paid a stock distribution of General
Development Corp <GDB> shares in July.
 Reuter

Total supply of frozen concentrated
orange juice (FCOJ) in 1986/87 is expected to be significantly
above year-earlier levels, even with carry-in stocks well below
the previous season, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    In a summary of its Fruit Situation Report, the Department
said Florida's imports of FCOJ, mostly from Brazil, have shown
sharp gains to date.
    The Department noted the price of FCOJ will probably be
affected by the final decision, scheduled for April 22, on
whether the U.S. considers Brazilian FCOJ exports to the U.S.
have caused injury.
    Continuing strong demand for fresh and processing fruit
coupled with seasonal declines in supplies mean that grower
prices will remain higher this spring than a year earlier.
    The department said stocks of fresh apples in cold storage
at the beginning of February were moderately larger than a year
earlier, but strong demand has kept apple prices firm.
    In view of the strong demand and seasonally reduced
supplies, apple prices are projected to stay firm.
    During the remainder of 1986/87, supplies of most processed
noncitrus fruit will be smaller than a year ago, it said.
    Movement of canned fruit has improved, and remaining
suppies for some canned fruit items are tight and as a
consequence prices have strengthened, the department said.
 Reuter

chairman Dan Rostenkowski would want White House support for
any tax increase, including a tax on securities transactions,
before considering the issue, a staff member said.
    In addition, congressional leaders have not agreed on
whether they will seek any tax increase this year, he said.
    Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat whose committee is in
charge of tax legislation, met this afternoon with House
Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat, to discuss a variety of
tax and budget issues, an aide said. He added that Wright did
not endorse the securities transfer tax but raised it yesterday
as a possible way to cut the federal deficit.
    The aide to Wright added that Wright asked the Ways and
Means Committee to look into the securities transfer tax.
However, he said Wright had not recommended it as he had
another tax proposal to hold income tax rates at the 1987 level
rather than allow the 1987 tax rate cut to take place.
    Wright brought up a 0.5 pct tax on all sales and purchases
of publicly traded securities as a way to raise about 17
billion dlrs a year, the aide said.
    The New York Stock Exchange said it had not seen the
proposal by the House Speaker but added that it is "strongly
opposed to any proposal to impose a transfer tax on securities
transactions."
    NYSE vice president Richard Torrenzano said in a statement,
"Such a tax would be paid by millions of investors nationwide
and would be counter-productive, making America's securities
industry vulnerable to foreign competition at a time
when financial markets are becoming increasingly
international."
 Reuter

Qtly div 14 cts vs 19 cts prior
    Note: Quarterly dividend for prior quarter included special
payout of five cts a share.
 Reuter

Oper shr 33 cts vs 33 cts
    Oper net 3,330,000 vs 2,969,000
    Revs 95.9 mln vs 92.0 mln
    Avg shrs 8,610,068 vs 7,603,219
    Note: 1986 net excludes extraordinary gain of 577,000 dlrs
or seven cts shr vs yr-ago gain of 71,000 dlrs or one ct shr.
 Reuter

A membership seat on the Chicago Board
Options Exchange (CBOE) sold for a record 342,000 dlrs Friday,
the exchange said today.
    The previous record price of 308,000 dlrs was set on
February 17.
    The current bid for a CBOE seat is 315,000 dlrs and the
offer is 345,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit 31 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net profit 1,044,424 vs loss 515,425
    Avg shrs 3,406,841 vs 2,544,531
    Year
    Shr profit 2.83 dlrs vs profit 42 cts
    Net profit 8,811,142 vs profit 1,058,503
    Avg shrs 3,111,464 vs 2,544,531
    Note: Full company name is United Fire and Casualty Co
    Net includes realized gains of 93,551 dlrs and 764,177
dlrs, respectively, in 1986 qtr and year, and of 92,075 dlrs
and 972,935 dlrs, respectively, in 1985 qtr and year.
    1985 results restated for three-for-two stock split. Net
income for 1985 has been restated due to a change in the method
used in computing deferred acquisition costs.
    1986 results include the effect of a stock offering
resulting in the issuance of an additional 862,500 shares of
 Reuter

Oper shr 30 cts vs 24 cts
    Oper net 38,686,000 vs 28,384,000
    Revs 42.3 mln vs 31.2 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.05 dlrs vs 94 cts
    Oper net 136,594,000 vs 110,831,000
    Revs 153.3 mln vs 125.1 mln
    Note: Fourth quarter results exclude extraordinary and
other items which raised final 1986 net to 62,485,000 dlrs or
49 cts a share and lowered final 1985 net to 18,941,000 dlrs or
16 cts a share in 1985.
    Full-year results exclude extraordinary and other items
which raised final 1986 net to 237,961,000 dlrs or 1.87 dlrs
per share and 1985 net to 152,049,000 or 1.29 dlrs per share.
    1985 results restated to reflect June, 1986 two-for-one
stock split.
 Reuter

Eligible producers of 1986 crop U.S.
corn and sorghum will receive an estimated 600 mln dlrs in
deficiency payments -- 50 pct in generic commodity certificates
and 50 pct in cash, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    It said corn producers will receive about 515 mln dlrs and
sorghum producers about 85 mln dlrs.
    Only the cash portion of the payments will be subject to
the 4.3 pct reduction in compliance with the Gramm-Rudman
budget deficit control act of 1985, it said.
    Corn and sorghum producers who requested advance deficiency
payments have already received about 2.8 billion dlrs and 225
mln dlrs, respectively, USDA said.
    The Department said deficiency payment rates of 51.5 cents
per bushel for corn and 49 cents per bushel for sorghum were
received by producers requesting advance payments.
    Deficiency payments are calculated as the difference
between an established target price and the higher of the basic
loan rate, or the national average price received by farmers
during the first five months of the marketing year --
September-January.
    National weighted average market prices for the first five
months of the season were 1.46 dlrs per bushel for corn and
1.33 dlrs per bushel for sorghum. Eligible corn producers will
be paid 63 cts per bushel, based on the difference between the
3.03 target price and the 2.40 dlr per bushel basic loan rate.
    Sorghum producers' deficiency payment rate will be 60 cents
per bushel, based on the difference between the 2.88 dlrs per
bushel target price and the 2.28 dlrs per bushel basic loan
rate.
    The deficiency payment rates for both commodities are the
maximum permitted by law, the department said.
    Eligible corn and sorghum producers will receive another
1986 crop deficiency payment in October if the national average
market prices received by farmers during the entire marketing
year for both commodities are below the basic loan rates, the
    The payments will be issued through local Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation Service offices, it said.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co chairman J. Hugh Liedtke
said the company has made several proposals to Texaco Inc <TX> 
to settle a 9.13 billion dlr judgment awarded to Pennzoil and
that a settlement was "in the best interests of both
companies."
    Liedtke, in a letter mailed today to Pennzoil shareholders,
said Texaco's management has incorrectly implied in recent
public statements that Pennzoil was not interested in settling
the case.
    "Pennzoil has made Texaco several proposals, both before
and after trial, to settle this dispute," Liedtke said in the
letter. "We do not know why Texaco's officials would now make
such clearly untrue statements."
    Last month, a Texas state appeals court upheld a jury
judgment that Texaco illegally interfered with Pennzoil's plan
to acquire Getty Oil in 1983. The appeals court reduced by two
billion dlrs the original 10.53 billion dlrs in damages awarded
to Pennzoil, but interest accruing on the award has pushed the
total amount back above 10 billion dlrs.
    Pennzoil said that Texaco had made four unsatisfactory
proposals to settle the billion-dollar lawsuit.
    "Other than to put on the record that it has made offers,
Texaco's proposals make no sense," Liedtke said in the letter.
"In fact, two of Texaco's offers were identical and were
proposals that Texaco knew in advance Pennzoil would not
accept."
    The letter did not disclose terms of settlement offers made
by either Pennzoil or Texaco.
    "If and when Texaco's management changes its position and
demonstrates a willingness to make a good faith attempt to
settle this matter, Pennzoil will make every effort to
cooperate," Liedtke said. "Such a solution, I believe, is
clearly in the interests of both companies, even if it not
attractive, as a personal matter, to Texaco's management and
directors."
    Liedtke said that cash flow from the Getty Oil assets and
profits from those assets that have since been sold
"approximately equaled" Texaco's purchase price of 10 billion
dlrs for Getty.             
 Reuter

proposes to rename the "USDA Good" grade of beef to "USDA Select."
    The department said the proposed change is in response to a
petition from Public Voice for Food and Health Policy and would
present a more positive image of this grade of beef and help
calorie-conscious consumers select leaner cuts of meat.
    Under current rules, the "good" grade of meat has less
marbling and fat than the "prime" or "choice" grades, it said.
    Standards for all of the grades would remain unchanged
under the proposal.
 Reuter

Jefferies and Co Inc said it is
making a market for General Motors Corp <GM> stock at 77-1/2 to
78.
    GM said earlier today its directors authorized the
repurchase of up to 20 pct of its common stock by the end of
1990 and that it would not repurchase more than ten mln shares
this year.
 Reuter

Morton Thiokol Inc said it has a
tentative agreement to sell its downtown headquarters to
Tishman Midwest Management Corp for undisclosed terms.
    Thomas Russell, company spokesman, said the proceeds,
representing a non-operating asset, will be reinvested into the
operating part of its business.
    The company will move 700 of its employees to a new
location at the new Northwestern Atrium late this summer. Some
450 employees will move from the headquarters at 110 N. Wacker
Drive and the other 250 will leave another downtown location.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.48 dlrs vs loss 36 cts
    Net loss 4,036,000 vs loss 983,000
    Sales 16.6 mln vs 17 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 1.88 dlrs vs profit 71 cts
    Net loss 5,113,000 vs profit 1,904,000
    Sales 85.4 mln vs 88.5 mln
    Note: Prior year net includes extraordinary loss of 298,000
dlrs in qtr and extraordinary profit of 718,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Hilton Hotels Corp said it received
approval from Federal court to sue the Internal Revenue Service
to determine if the IRS was correct in allowing the Conrad
Hilton Foundation to hold certain stocks.
    That ruling by the IRS allowed the Foundation, set up by
the late Conrad Hilton, to hold onto 27 pct of the Hilton Corp,
worth approximately 164 mln dlrs, according to Hilton
attorneys.
    Barron Hilton, Conrad's son, is making a bid to purchase
those 6,782,000 shares, the company said.
    However, in an effort to hold onto the stock, the
Foundation changed its tax status from a private foundation to
a public support organization, freeing it from the constraints
of the excess business holdings limitations imposed on private
foundations by the Tax Reform Act of 1969, according to the
Hilton Corp.
    That act said that a private foundation could not own more
than 20 pct of a corporation, lawyers explained. Anything over
that figure had to be sold.
    The lawyers explained that when Conrad Hilton died, the law
required that excess holdings by the Foundation above 20 pct of
the common stock should be sold. Under Conrad Hilton's will,
Barron had the option to buy the seven pct,  according to the
Hilton lawyers.
    Now Hilton lawyers contend that through a clause in the tax
law, Barron Hilton is entitled to buy the entire 27 pct block
of stock. The Hilton lawyers explained that Barron was
attempting to keep the large block from going public, leaving
the family in control of the corporation.
   
 Reuter

The Australian Government will likely
reimburse the Australian Wheat Board, AWB, about 132 mln (U.S.)
dlrs to pay wheat farmers for their 1986/87 crop, the U.S.
    In its report on Export Markets for U.S. Grains, the
department said the sharp fall in world wheat prices has
reduced the export sales revenue of the AWB to levels
insufficient to cover its breakeven export price estimated at
around 98 dlrs per tonne.
     For example the recent large sales of wheat to China (1.5
mln tonnes) and Egypt (2.0 mln tonnes) were well below the
breakeven export price, it said.
    Australian wheat farmers normally receive an advance
payment known as the Guaranteed Minimum Price, GMP, calculated
at 90 pct of the average of estimated returns in the current
year and the two lowest of the previous three years, the
    In addition, deductions for taxes, freight, handling and
storage are deducted from the GMP the farmer receives.
    But the department said the Australian Bureau of
Agricultural Economics, BAE, predicts wheat production will
drop sharply from 17.8 mln tonnes in 1986/87 to 13.5 mln in
1989/90.
    The decline will result from low world grain prices leading
to shifts to livestock and other crops which could benefit U.S.
wheat exports, the department said.
 Reuter

Qtly div seven cts vs six cts prior
    Record April three
 Reuter

Kaneb Energy Partners Ltd said it may be
forced to omit or lower future quarterly cash distributions
because of a contract dispute with two major customers and the
continued slump in oil and gas prices.
    The partnership said, however, that it will pay a regular
quarterly distribution of 60 cts a unit on April 15 to holders
of record March 31.
 Reuter

ITT Corp Chairman Rand Araskog told a
meeting of analysts that the company has been considering a
repurchase of some shares.
    "We are considering that as a very important way to
increase earnings per share," Araskog said and noted the aim
was not to boost ITT's stock short term in the market.
    ITT recently reported that its 1986 earnings from
operations rose to 3.45 dlrs per share from 1.80 dlrs per share
a year ago.
    Araskog said its preferred issues were among the shares
being studied for repurchase.
    "We look forward to a strong 1987 and a stronger 1988,"
Araskog told the analysts. "We have more confidence...than any
other time in our history - at least with me."
    Araskog took over as chairman of ITT in 1979 and since then
has sold many of the diversified businesses that were acquired
by former chairman Harold Geneen in the 1960s and 1970s.
   Last year, the company transferred its European
telecommunications businesses into a joint venture with Cie
Generale d'Electricite, called Alcatel N.V.
    ITT retained a 37 pct interest in the venture.
    Although the agreement was closed by the end of the year,
Araskog said the final transfers of stock of a number of small
companies was recently concluded.
    "We really wrapped everything up," he said adding that the
company had received an additional 113 mln dlrs from the stock
transfers.
    Araskog said the company received all the cash due from the
Alcatel venture except for 400 mln dlrs in intercompany
receiveables, which should be paid by the end of March.
    Araskog had told analysts last July that the company was
considering repurchasing some shares, but a spokesman noted
that ITT found it difficult to undertake the program because of
the sharp appreciation in its stock price.
   
    Breaking out operating earnings by divisions, ITT said
diversified services, which consists of insurance, financial
services, communications and hotels, saw the sharpest rise in
operating income, to 454 mln dlrs, from 297 mln dlrs a year
ago.
    Industrial and defense operating income declined 48 mln
dlrs, to 315 mln dlrs, while natural resources increased 10 mln
dlrs, to 73 mln dlrs, the company said.
   
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 43.0 mln vs 34.8 mln
    YEAR
    Shr 1.55 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 136.8 mln vs 112.9 mln
    Note: Holding company.
 Reuter

 Reuter

First Union Corp said it is
raising 100 mln dlrs through an offering of par-priced 8-1/8
pct subordinated notes due December 15, 1996.
    Managing underwriter for the issue is Shearson Lehman
    The bonds, which are non-callable, are rated A-2 by Moody's
Investors Service and A-minus by Standard and Poor's.
    They were priced to yield 94.5 basis points over Treasury
securities of comparable maturity.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 476,000 vs 929,000
    Revs 3,000,000 vs 3,600,000
 Reuter

Japanese traders have apparently
sharply reduced commitments to buy Chinese corn over the next
six months due to high prices, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
said traders indicated China may lack supplies or be unwilling
to sell at current low world prices.
    If the reports are confirmed, China's major export
destinations such as USSR, Japan, and South Korea, could
increase purchases of U.S. corn, it said.
    China is currently forecast to export 5.5 mln tonnes of
corn during 1986/87 (Oct-Sept), it said.
 Reuter

<Photon Technology International Inc>
said it entered an agreement in principle with <ML Technology
Ventures L.P.> to undertake a research and development project.
    ML Technology will pay Photon about 3.1 mln dlrs over a
three-year period to develop new photonic technologies with
applications in the medical field.
    Pursuant to the agreement, ML will acquire warrants
exercisable into 475,000 shares of Photon stock on February 10,
1988.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabia will succeed in pressuring
other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries to stay within their production quotas, said Morgan
Stanley Group managing director John Wellemeyer.
    Wellemeyer, speaking to reporters at an offshore oil
engineering conference, also said he expected OPEC nations to
attempt to hold prices under 20 dlrs a barrel for several years
to keep industrial demand for residual fuel oil strong.
    "Over the next few weeks I think you'll see a concerted
effort by the Saudis to get production down," Wellemeyer said.
    "The Saudis are committed to that price level (of 18 dlrs a
barrel) and are willing to make it happen again," he said.
    In recent weeks, oil prices fell to the 16 to 17 dlrs a
barrel level on market reports of some OPE members producing
above their quota, pushing total OPEC production to 15.8 mln
barrels per day. But prices rebounded today, with April U.S.
crude prices up about one dlr to over 17 dlrs a barrel on a
belief Saudi Arabia is attempting to curb OPEC output.
    Wellemeyer said that sharp declines in U.S. oil production
could push demand for OPEC oil above 20 mln barrels per day as
early as 1989 and up to 24 mln barrels per day by 1993.
    Although the projected increases in demand for OPEC oil
should strengthen world prices, Wellemeyer said he believed the
organization would hold its official price below 20 dlrs a
barrel for some time to prevent residual fuel users from
switching to natural gas supplies. The interfuel swing market
accounts for about eight mln barrels a day, or 18 pct of the
world demand for oil.
 Reuter

The European Community, EC, sold
75,000 tonnes of soft wheat at a subsidized price of between 85
and 89 dlrs per tonne FOB for March delivery in a continuing
bid to establish itself in the Brazilian wheat market, the U.S.
    The sale sharply undercut the U.S. offer of 112 dlrs per
tonne FOB for 33,000 tonnes of wheat, it said in its latest
report on Export Markets for U.S grains.
    EC sales to Brazil total about 225,000 tonnes during
1986/87 (July-June) in stark contrast to only 50,000 tonnes in
the 1985/86 season, it said.
    The increasing presence of EC wheat in Brazil comes at a
time when the Brazilian Wheat Board, BWB, expects the wheat
import market will expand to 3.4 mln tonnes from the current
forecast of 3.0 mln in the 1986/87 year.
    The BWB cites record consumption and an eventual decline in
domestic production, and says government plans to lower the
guaranteed price of wheat from 242 dlrs per tonne to 180 dlrs
will contribute to greater import demand, the USDA said.
    It said the BWB expects the U.S. to be major supplier of
the additional 400,000 tonnes, but commitments for purchase of
U.S. wheat through two-thirds of 1986/87 year total only
600,000 tonnes versus 700,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

British Aerospace inc said it would
hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce the sale of
18 to 20 jets to four airlines, two of them in the United
States.
    A company spokesman said the sales involved 12 BAE 146 jets
and six to eight Jetstream 31 commuter jets.
    He declined to name the four airlines which were buying the
jets.
 Reuter

<Mark Resources Inc> said it
agreed to sell 50.3 mln dlrs of securities to Canadian
investment dealers Nesbitt Thomson Deacon Inc, Gordon Capital
Corp and First Marathon Securities Ltd.
    Mark said the securities would consist of 2.3 mln series A
special warrants at 11 dlrs each, with each exchangeable for
one common share, and 25,000 series B special warrants at 1,000
dlrs each and each exchangeable for one 1,000 dlr seven pct
convertible subordinated debenture.
    Closing is expected March 17, it said.
 Reuter

Zenith Laboratories Inc said the
company will report a fourth quarter loss, and the amount will
be determined on completion of its year end audit. The company
did not elaborate further.
    For the third quarter ended Sept 30, 1986, Zenith reported
a loss of 3,451,000 dlrs or 16 cts per share, adjusted for a
May 1986 2-for-1 stock split.
    The company also said it received Food and Drug
Administration approval to market Cefadroxil, a generic version
of an antibiotic with domestic sales exceeding 50 mln dlrs in
1986.
    Zenith said it will not market the drug until "questions
relating to the applicability of certain patents have been
resolved."
 Reuter

said he felt a proposed takeover by Japan's <Fujitsu Ltd> of
U.S.-based Fairchild Semiconductor Corp, a subsidiary of
Schlumberger Ltd <SLB>, should be carefully reviewed.
    He told the Semiconductor Industry Association the deal
would soon be discussed by representatives of several different
government departments.
    The Reagan administration has previously expressed concern
that the proposed takeover would make Fujitsu a powerful part
of the U.S. market for so-called supercomputers at a time when
Japan has not bought any American-made supercomputers.
    In addition, U.S. defense officials have said they were
worried semiconductor technology could be transferred out of
the United States, eventually giving Japanese-made products an
edge in American high-technology markets for defense and other
goods.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker recently told a Senate
committee the proposed takeover would be reviewed by the 
cabinet-level Economic Policy Council.
 Reuter

Delegates to the American Pork Congress
will decide whether or not they want mandatory production
controls when they vote on the official pork producer policy
wednesday, the National Pork Producers Council said.
    The American Pork Congress, APC, delegates, listened to
both sides of the question when former Iowa Congressman Berkley
Bedell and Bill Lesher, USDA Assistant Secretary for Economics
for the years 1981 to 1985 debated at the convention in
Indianapolis.
 Reuter

Taiwan bought 25,000 tonnes U.S.
soybeans today at 203.40 dlrs a tonne, C and F, Gulf, for May
15-30 shipment, private export sources said.
 Reuter

Taiwan passed on its tender overnight
for 25,000 tonnes of U.S. corn and 49,000 tonnes U.S. sorghum,
private export sources said.
    Taiwan will retender for the corn, for May 15-30 shipment
if via the Gulf, or June 1-15 via Pacific northwest, on March
6, but has not rescheduled a tender for sorghum, they said.
 Reuter

Bangladesh passed on its weekend tender
for 100,000 tonnes of optional origin soft wheat, private
export sources said.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange (Amex),
which faces stiff competition from the New York Stock Exchange
and the over-the-counter market for listed companies, said it
is launching a 2 mln dlr advertising campaign.
    Amex will advertise on television for the first time, it
said. The campaign also includes print ads.
    "Our entry into television advertising reflects our optimism
for the future. We have proved ourselves a vigorous and
competitive marketplace and we are eager to communicate that
wherever and whenever we can," said Arthurt Levitt Jr., chairman
of the exchange, in a statement.
    The exchange said its advertising campaign, with the theme
"We Extend Your Reach,"  focuses on its role as a diversified
financial exchange trading both stocks and options.
    The television commercials will air on network, cable and
local television stations. The commercials will be broadcast
during March, May, September and November.
    The commercials, titled "The Options Pit," and "An Attractive
Investment," describe Amex's technology advances and
international ties. The print campaign consists of four ads
targeted to specific audiences: listed companies, individual
investors, institutional investors and brokers.
    The Amex currently has a two-way trading link with the
Toronto Exchange and has an agreement with the Europeaon
Options Exchange to trade XMI, the major market index of 20
blue-chip stocks, during European trading hours. The latter is
expected to begin by mid-1987.
   
 Reuter

The National Pork Board announced at the
American Pork Congress convention in Indianapolis that refunds
under the legislative checkoff program are running less than
expected.
    The Board oversees collection and distribution of funds
from the checkoff program that was mandated by the 1985 farm
bill. Virgil Rosendale, a pork producer from Illinois and
chairman of the National Pork Board, said over 2.2 mln dlrs was
collected in January and refunds are running almost nine pct,
considerably less than expected.
    "We believe that this indicates good producer support for
the new checkoff. We're getting good compliance from markets,
from packers and from dealers," Rosendale said.
 Reuter

Despite earlier optimistic
indications, the South African corn crop is at a critical stage
in its development and recent reports of heat stress could
reduce production and therefore exportable supplies, the U.S.
department said South Africa's corn exports in the 1986/87
(Oct-Sept) season are estimated at 2.5 mln tonnes, up 40 pct
from the previous year.
    The re-emergence of South Africa as a competitor follows a
period of severe droughts, which at one point required South
Africa to import 2.7 mln tones of U.S. corn in 1983/84, it
said.
    Since those imports in 1983/84, the U.S. has been facing
increased competition from South Africa in Taiwan and Japan.
    But if South Africa is perceived as lacking available
supplies, purchases of U.S. corn may be further stimulated, the
 Reuter

Arvin Industries Inc said it is raising
150 mln dlrs through an offering of 8-3/8 pct 10-year notes and
9-1/8 pct 30-year sinking fund debentures.
    Lead underwriter for the offerings, both of 75 mln dlrs, is
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    The notes were priced at 99.63 pct to yield 8.43 pct, and
the debentures were priced at 99.54 pct to yield 9.17 pct.
    The notes are redeemable at par at Arvin's option after
March 1, 1994. The debentures are redeemable at any time but
non-refundable before March 1, 1997. Both are rated BAA-2 by
Moody's Investors Service and BBB by Standard and Poor's.
 Reuter

Tenneco Inc said it will redeem on April
eight all 2,515,400 outstanding shares of its 11 dlr cumulative
preferred stock.
    The company said it would pay 102 dlrs a share for the
preferred stock, plus accrued and unpaid dividends of 24 cts a
share.
    Tenneco said it will pay the regular quarterly dividend on
the preferred on March 31 to shareholders of record February
27.
 Reuter

Borden Inc called for redemption on
March 23 of all its outstanding 8-1/2 pct sinking fund
debentures, due 2004.
    The company said the redemption price is at 104.55 pct of
face value plus 40.61 dlrs accrued interest from October 1,
1986 to the redemption date, making for a total of 1,086.11
dlrs for each 1,000 dlrs face value.
    The trustee is Bank of America National Trust and Savings
Association in San Francisco and the paying agent is Bankers
Trust Co, New York.
 Reuter

Pennwalt Corp said it offered one
mln shares of common stock at 63.25 dlrs a share.
    Pennwalt said it plans to use the net proceeds of the
public offering, which is managed by Goldman, Sachs and Co, to
buy all the outstanding shares of its Third Series cumulative
convertible preferred stock for about 140 mln dlrs.
    Goldman, Sachs was granted an over-allotment option of
150,000 shares, the company added.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs three cts
    Net 4,505,000 vs 4,493,000
    Revs 23.3 mln vs 21.4 mln
 Reuter

Chicago Board of trade grain traders and
analysts voiced a lot of interest in how farmers planned to
handle their upcoming spring plantings, prompting sales of new
crop months of corn and oats and purchases in new crop soybeans
in the futures markets.
    Professionals in the grains trade think that farmers will
be more willing to stick with corn acres than soybeans because
corn is protected by the acreage reduction program. That gives
deficiency payments to farmers if corn prices stay low.
    Farmers can place soybeans under the loan program if they
sign-up for reduced acreage, but they have no price guarantees.
    With the price outlook for both commodities so dismal,
traders believe farmers will want to stick with a sure thing
rather than gamble on soybeans, even though the new crop
soybean/corn ratio of 2.9/1 would make planting soybeans more
attractive under normal circumstances.
    An announcement late Friday that the USDA will lift the
limited cross-compliance requirement for the 1987 oats crop,
means farmers will be able plant an estimated two to three mln
more oat acres this year than last without being penalized,
    Here too, acres some farmers may have been thinking of
shifting to soybeans will now be planted with oats, due to the
more attractive deal from the government, they added.
    Cotton prices are almost twice what they were just six
months ago, which should prompt many farmers in the South to
put soybean land back into cotton.
    One of the reasons for the steady increase in soybean
production in recent years has been a general shift of acres in
traditional cotton producing regions of the South to soybeans,
which are easier to grow, one commercial trader said.
 Reuter

The Senate Agriculture Committee is
expected to take up a bill tomorrow that would exempt from
government conservation regulations those farmers who have
rotated alfalfa and other multiyear grasses and legumes with
row crops, committee staff said.
    Under current so-called "sodbuster" law, farmers who planted
alfalfa and other multiyear grasses and legumes on highly
erodible land in the years 1981 through 1985 lose federal farm
program benefits if they produce a row crop on that land in
later years.
    Sen. Edward Zorinsky (D-Neb.), sponsor of the measure, said
recently that those crop rotating practices resulted in less
erosion than the practices of many farmers who produced
strictly row crops.
 Reuter

The National Pork Board on Monday
allocated 2.4 mln dlrs in discretionary funds, collected from
the 100 pct national checkoff program, to three industry
organizations.
    The National Pork Producers Council, NPPC, will receive
almost 1.8 mln dlrs for use in the areas of food service,
consumer education and marketing. In addition the board
allocated 375,000 dlrs in use in "Pork - The Other White Meat"
campaign, according to a Pork Board spokesperson.
    The National Livestock and Meat Board will receive 644,000
dlrs to continue work in educating health care officials.
120,000 dlrs in matching funds will be provided to the meat
board for use in the development of a better market for
processed meats.
    The Meat Export Federation was awarded 50,000 dlrs to
increase the market for chilled and processed U.S. pork in
Japan and Singapore. Retail stores in these two countries will
be providing additional funding for the program.
    A total of 5,000 dlrs for work in encouraging McDonalds to
expand its McRib sandwich to Japan and Singapore was also
awarded to the Meat export Federation.
 Reuter

Wall Street analysts said a share
repurchase program announced by General Motors Corp is in part
an attempt to placate shareholders angry over the recent
repurchase of shares from Texan H. Ross Perot last year.
    "He (Perot) was obviously the big trigger" said analyst
Joseph Phillippi of E.F. Hutton Co. "There was a firestorm of
criticism from people on the institutional side."
    Wall Street analysts said the GM buyback will boost the
shares in the near term but some had reservations about the
long term effects of the plan.
    "They're trying to soothe irate shareholders irriated by
the buyout of Ross Perot," said analyst David Healy of Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Healy said General Motors chairman Roger Smith had been
hinting at a buyback program in meetings with institutional
investors. He said the plan, which could cost more than five
billion dlrs over four years, was similar in size to Ford Motor
Co's <F> repurchase program but smaller on a percentage basis
than that of Chrysler Corp <C>.
    Healy said General Motors will have to borrow money to buy
back stock on a large scale.
    The General Motors plan, announced after a board of
directors meeting in New York, calls for repurchase of up to 20
pct of the common stock by the end of 1990.
    The GM board also authorized repurchase of up to five mln
class E <GME> and class H <GMH> shares. GM shares closed at
75-5/8, up 7/8, in composite trading prior to the company's
announcement. However subsequently Jefferies and Co, which
trades NYSE-listed issues outside regular hours, said it was
making a market in the shares at 77-1/2 to 78.
    "The stock is obviously going to be strong tomorrow," said
Ronald Glantz, analyst at Montgomery Securities.
    "I don't know where the money (for the buyback) is coming
from unless they borrow," Glantz said. "Their credit rating is
going to fall." GM said it anticipates a decrease in automotive
capital spending.
    Glantz believes GM could be inviting a strike this fall by
going ahead with the buyback program at a time when it has
37,000 employees on indefinite layoff and 11 plants marked for
closing. After deciding against a profit sharing bonus for
workers and buying out Perot for 743 mln dlrs "this will be
seen as rubbing salt into the wound," Glantz said. "GM must be
challenging the union to make it the strike target."
    Glantz said he is not changing his buy recommendation on GM
and expects the shares to rise. But he said he did not think
the overall plan was "prudent."
    "Obviously we're going to get at least an opening gap in
the stock tomorrow," Hutton's Phillippi said.
    He says GM apparently believes as a result of a cost
reduction program plus the falloff in capital spending levels
"they can handle a stock buyback of this magnitude within the
confines of their cash flow." Phillippi, who has been telling
clients to hold GM shares mainly for income, said on balance
"we've got to feel they're doing something constructive."
 Reuter

GTX Corp said Nippon Steel Co of Japan,
in a move to diversify into high technology, invested eight mln
dlrs in GTX.
    Nippon's move was the result of current exchange rates and
the revaluation of the yen, which "have made the U.S.
electronics industry an attractive investment opportunity for
Japanese corporations," according to a GTX statement.
    GTX noted that Nippon is expecting sales of 27 billion dlrs
by 1995. Of that amount, six billion dlrs is targeted for
electronics. GTX, located in Phoenix, makes computerized
systems that read drawings and transfer them into data bases.
 Reuter

overnight Iranian attack east of the southern port city of
Basra, scene of several Iranian Gulf war thrusts in the past
two months.
    A high command communique said "the attackers were met by
heavy barrages of artillery, tank and mortar fire with the
support of helicopter gunship raids."
    Iran said it had made fresh gains in the attack southwest
of the man-made Fish lake, some 10 km (six miles) from Basra.
 Reuter

C.T.C. Dealer Holdings Ltd said it
extended its previously announced offer for 49 pct of <Canadian
Tire Corp Ltd> to midnight on March 26.
    CTC, a group of Canadian Tire dealers, which already owns
17 pct of Canadian Tire, is currently appealing in an Ontario
court against a previously announced Ontario Securities
Commission ruling blocking CTC's 272 mln dlr bid.
    The blocked bid did not include non-voting shareholders,
who hold 96 pct of Canadian Tire equity.
 Reuter

President Reagan nominated Federal
Bureau of Investigation Director William Webster to be director
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in succession to
ailing William Casey.
    The announcement came one day after Reagan withdrew the
nomination of Deputy CIA Dirctor Robert Gates, who faced
opposition in the Senate because of the CIA's role in the
Iran-contra scandal.
    "Bill Webster will bring a remarkable depth and breadth of
experience as well as a remarkable record of achievement to
this position," said Reagan in a statement read by White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.
 Reuter

Rockwell International Corp
continues to expect significant improvement in 1987 results,
despite the somewhate disappointing performance of one of its
business segments, President Donald Beall told Reuters.
    Rockwell reported net earnings in its first quarter ended
December 31 of 149.4 mln dlrs, or 1.05 dlrs per share, compared
to 125.8 mln dlrs, or 84 cts per share a year ago.
    Operating earnings, however, were off about four pct, and
analysts have attributed the decline to Rockwell's
Allen-Bradley unit, which has suffered from weakness in the
industrial automation market.
    "It is in a soft market now, but we are not concerned. It
is moving forward with market development and is enhancing
market share," Beall said of Allen-Bradley unit.
    Beall, who was in Los Angeles to address a Technology
management conference, said first quarter sales for the
Allen-Bradley unit were flat as compared to a year earlier. He
said the company does not break out operating earnings by unit
on a quarterly basis.
    Beall said the recent trend toward cost sharing in the
research and development phase of government contracts should
not have a major impact on Rockwell's near-term performance.
    He noted, however, the increasing focus on cost sharing
could limit technological innovation.
    "I worry that we are heading into a period of misuse of
contracting approaches too early in the development stages of
important military contracts," Beall said, adding, "long-term,
we have a very serious problem."
    In addition, Beall told the conference the greatest
competitive threat to defense contractors is in defense
electronics, due to the government's attempt to take advantage
of competitively priced products made outside the U.S.
 Reuter

Intermark Inc said it plans to
offer 40 mln dlrs in new debt to finance the repurchase of
high-interest notes and that it agreed to sell two units.
    The company said it filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 40 mln dlrs of
convertible suborindated debentures due 2007.
    It said proceeds from the offering, to be managed by Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc, will be used to redeem all 20 mln dlrs
face amount of its 11-7/8 pct senior subordinated debentures
and to buy back some of its 13.20 pct senior notes.
 More

President Reagan, seeking to salvage
his Central America policy from the Iran arms scandal, said a
major U.S. economic program for the region was working but
needed 500 mln dlrs more than originally planned.
    In a report to Congress, he called for immediate approval
of 300 mln dlrs in new 1987 economic aid for four Central
American democracies and eventual full-funding of a total
economic program costing 8.9 billion dlrs through 1992.
    The report, mandated by Congress, explains how the
administration intends to carry out the recommendations of the
Reagan-appointed Kissinger Commission, which in 1984 developed
a blueprint for U.S. policy in the region that was meant to
offset Reagan's military aid program for Nicaraguan rebels.
    The commission, headed by former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, had proposed a 8.4 billion dlr program through 1989.
    "The Soviet Union and its allies have provided the
Sandinista regime military hardware and sufficient economic aid
to keep Nicaragua's failed economy afloat," Reagan said.
    Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, who briefed
reporters, said the administration will not try to link
approval of military aid for the rebels, known as contras, with
the vastly more popular economic package for the region, as
some Republican leaders in Congress have suggested.
    He also expressed optimism that despite the Iran-contra
scandal, Congress would approve this year's final 40 mln dlr
allotment in military aid for the rebels, who are fighting
Managua's leftist Sandinista government.
    Abrams admitted the administration would have its toughest
fight in the Democratic-controlled House, but said he believed
a majority of the Senate -- led by Democrats for the first time
in six years -- would back the military request.
   
 Reuter

General Electric Co is raising 250 mln
dlrs via an offering of notes due 1992 with a seven pct coupon
and par pricing, said lead manager Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
    That is 30 basis points more than the yield of comparable
a top-flight AAA by Moody's and Standard and Poor's.
  
 Reuter

Memory Metals Inc said it
received a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration to research and develop joints and couplings
using special alloys.
    The company said the two-year contract, worth 500,000 dlrs,
calls for Memory to study the joints and couplings for advanced
composite materials, which are strong and light, but difficult
to join reliably.
    It said the alloys are trained to remember and take on a
predetermined shape and selected temperaturers.
 Reuter

Home and City Savings Bank said its
board has approved formation of a holding company called Home
and City Bancorp Inc, subject to approval by shareholders at a
special meeting expected to be held around June and to
regulatory approvals.
    The company said shareholders will be ased to exchange
their Home and City Savings sharesd for an equal number of
shares in the holding company.
 Reuter

Qtly div 1-1/2 cts vs 1-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

The International Swap Dealers
Association has developed the first standard form contract for
use by arrangers of currency and interest rate swap
transactions, said Thomas Jasper, the Association's
co-chairman.
    The contract, unveiled at a press conference , is expected
to make the 300 billion dlr a year swap market more efficient,
he said. "The contracts wil accelerate the process and reduce
the expense of swap documentation," Japsper said.
    Privately, eurobond traders estimate that about 80 pct of
all new issues eventually become part of either an interest
rate or currency swap.
    An interest rate swap occurs when two issuers, usually
acting through a bank middleman, agree to accept each other's
interest payments on debt securities. Usually, the issuer of a
floating rate debt security swaps into fixed-rate debt and vice
versa. But the obligation for repayment of the debt remains
with the original borrower.
    Bank regulators have become concerned about the use of
swaps because the middleman, usually a bank, takes on some
portion of the risk but is not required to show it on the
balance sheet as a liability and may not have sufficient
capital to cushion it.
    Kenneth McCormick, a co-chairman of the ISDA and president
of Kleinwort Benson Cross Financing Inc, said the Bank of
England and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board were expected later
today to announce joint proposals for setting minimum capital
standards for counterparties in swaps.
    The standards are part of the recently announced
convergence agreement between the two countries in which
regulators have attempted to set similar capital requirements
for institutions.
    McCormick told reporters the ISDA was concerned that a
"level playing field" be maintained in the swaps market.
    He said if U.K. And U.S. Banks were required to hold more
primary capital against swap transactions than is the current
practice, the additional costs would have to be passed on to
issuers.
    The issuers might then choose to do business with
lower-cost banks which are not subject to U.S. Or U.K. Banking
rules.
    He said the ISDA had been working on a code of conduct for
swap dealers as part of its self-regulatory effort.
    That code should be completed within the next few weeks, he
said.
 REUTER

Compugraphic Corp said it entered
into an exclusive distribution and technology exchange pact
with <Autographix Inc>.
    Compugraphic said the pact calls for it to distribute
Autographix products to corporate and government markets in
North America. It said Autographix will continue to sell its
products to the commerical slide production market.
    The technology exchange includes joint development projects
intergrating Compugraphic's type and text technology with
Autographix' presentation graphics workstations.

 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said its February
load factor rose to 62.2 pct from 56.9 pct a year ago.
    Revenue passenger miles grew 24.1 pct in February to 923.2
mln from 743.8 mln and 18.5 pct year to date to 1.80 billion
from 1.52 billion, the company said.
    Available seat miles rose 13.5 pct in February to 1.48
billion from 1.31 billion and 9.6 pct in the two months to 3.06
billion from 2.79 billion.
    The percentage of seats filled in the two months rose to
58.9 pct from 54.4 pct in the year-ago period, it said.
 Reuter

The Hokkaido Bank Ltd is issuing a 30 mln
dlr convertible eurobond due March 31, 2002 with an indicated
2-1/4 pct coupon and priced at par, lead manager Nomura
International Ltd said.
    Terms will be fixed on March 10, involving a premium of
about five pct above a six-day average. The conversion period
will run from April 20, 1987 to March 20, 2002.
    The bonds will be sold in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and
will be listed in Luxembourg. Total fees of 2-1/2 pct include
one pct for management and underwriting and 1-1/2 pct for
selling, including an 20 basis point praecipuum.
    Nomura said the bonds are callable from March 31, 1990 at
104, declining by 1/2 pct per annum.
    There will be no calls before March 31, 1992 unless the
share price reaches at least 150 pct of the conversion price.
 REUTER

Metropolitan Federal Savings
and Loan Association said it has signed a letter of intent to
acquire American Trust of Hendersonville, Tenn., for an
undisclosed amount of cash.
    American Trust had year-end assets of over 40 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Micom Systems Inc said it
has doubled the data transmission range and speed of its
Instalink460 voice/data multiplexor.
    The company said the unit now transmits data up to 23,000
feet at up to 19,200 bits per second and provides synchronous
or asynchronous transmission in a single unit.
    Prices for terminal units begin at 195 dlrs and central
units at 750 dlrs, it added.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said its
Pontiac Division has established an interest rate support
incentive program, effective immediately, as an alternative to
its current option bonus program.
    The company said qualified buyers of Pontiacs may now
select special finance rates of 3.9 pct on 24-month contracts,
7.9 pct on 36-month contracts, 8.9 pct on 48-mopnth contracts
or 9.9 pct on 60-month contracts.  The program is scheduled to
expire April 30.
    Under the option bonus program, which is also scheduled to
expire April 30, buyers receive cash bonuses on the purchase of
Pontiacs equipped with option group packages, with the amount
depending on the option level on each vehicle.
    The company said the special interst rate program applies
to ann new 1986 and 1987 Pontiacs sold from dealer stock and
delivered to customers during the program period.  A customer
may choose only one program, it said.
 Reuter

    Oper loss 5,900,000 vs profit 9,300,000
    Revs 105.3 mln vs 131.2 mln
    Year
    Shr not given
    Oper loss 21.7 mln vs profit 34.7 mln
    Revs 370.7 mln vs 515.1 mln
    Note: 67 pct owned by <British Columbia Resources
Investment Corp>
    Note continued: 1986 qtr excludes extraordinary loss of 3.6
mln dlrs versus loss of 294.0 mln dlrs in prior year
    1986 year excludes extraordinary loss of 79.1 mln dlrs
versus loss 221.5 mln dlrs in prior year
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said it has
agreed in principle to sell its industrial chemicals and
plastics business interests in South Africa and related assets
to a group of South African investors for undisclosed terms,
completing the sale of the company's South African assets
    Dow said it will continue to support its educational and
health programs for South African blacks.
 Reuter

Pitney Bowes Credit Corp, a unit of
Pitney Bowes Inc, is raising 100 mln dlrs through an offering
of notes due 1992 with a 7-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said
lead manager Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    That is 53 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Treasury securities.
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated A-1 by Moody's
and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's. First Boston Corp
co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

SysteMed Inc said it has sold
a Pharmacy Module to 998-bed Memorial Medical Center of Long
Beach, Calif.
    Pharmacy Module is a computerized drug information system.
 Reuter

Shr loss 6.97 dlrs vs profit 92 cts
    Net loss 240 mln vs profit 31.6 mln
    Revs 1.9 billion vs 2.5 billion
    NOTE: 1986 includes loss of 250 mln dlrs or 7.27 dlrs a
share from discontinued operations and writedowns of holdings
in Texasgulf Inc. 1985 restated.
 Reuter

Geonex Corp <GEOX> said
BellSouth Corp <BLS> unit Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph
Co's decision to postpone the start up of new conversion
assignments at Geonex's Chicago Aerial Survey unit could
negatively affect its fiscal 1987 revenues.
    The company said it had expected higher revenues from the
records conversion work, but it now foresees revenues from
Southern Bell work at about eight mln dlrs, the same level as
last fiscal year.
    Geonex said Southern Bell will let CAS continue work in
progress and it expects to perform mechanized posting and
records conversion for Southern Bell through 1989.
    But, it added that the Southern Bell decision has forced it
to pursue opportunities with other telephone companies and
municipalities to replace the Southern Bell work.
 Reuter

UK INTERVENTION BD SAYS EC SOLD 60,500 TONNES WHITE SUGAR AT REBATE 43.147 ECUS.

Shr loss 2.03 dlrs vs loss 85 cts
    Net loss 10,742,113 vs loss 3,700,712
    Revs 8,027,065 vs 8,689,008
    Avg shrs 5.3 mln vs 4.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.45 dlrs vs loss 1.73 dlrs
    Net loss 11,607,104 vs loss 7,442,825
    Revs 32.6 mln vs 33.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4.7 mln vs 4.3 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net loss includes a fourth quarter charge of
10.5 mln dlrs from writeoffs of certain assets.
    1985 net loss includes a charge of about 2.3 mln dlrs from
settlement of class action lawsuit.
 Reuter

European Community Farm Commissioner
Frans Andriessen welcomed the agreement on details of dairy
output cuts over two years and promised new measures to help
farmers hurt by the drive to reduce EC surpluses.
    "We are now in a favourable position to improve the
situation in the dairy sector," he told a news conference.
    The Commission will be able to proceed with a 3.2 billion
European Currency Unit plan to dispose of over a mln tonnes of
butter in EC stores, as the deal should prevent major new
stocks from accruing.
    A preliminary accord on the dairy package was reached in
December, but approval was held up by a row over Commission
proposals that it be given power to suspend sales of surplus
stocks into store.
    After 36 hours of negotiations, ministers agreed detailed
rules for such a suspension, allowing it only when new public
stocks of butter exceed 180,000 tonnes and when market prices
were sharply below those paid for sales into EC stores.
    Andriessen said the accord improves the atmosphere for what
he said are bound to be tough discussions on his proposals for
cuts in EC farm price cuts, notably in cereals, in the coming
season.
    The ministers also approved a three-year 350 mln Ecu
package of measures to help farmers in difficulty and pay
compensation to those who opt for less intensive production
methods. Andriessen said he regretted ministerial objections
had forced him to withdraw sections of this package, for which
he had originally earmarked 1.3 billion Ecus over five years.
    He said he would revise and resubmit plans to allow older
farmers to take early retirement, either taking their land out
of agricultural production or passing it to successors.
    The Commission is also working on proposals to enable the
EC and member states to provide direct income supports to
hard-pressed small farmers. Andriessen said he could not give
full details, but member state aid would be subject to "strict
criteria to avoid distortion of competition."
 Reuter

A total 60,500 tonnes of current series
white sugar received export rebates of a maximum 43.147
European Currency Units (Ecus) per 100 kilos at today's
European Community (EC) tender, the U.K. Intervention Board
said.
    Out of this, traders in the U.K. Received 43,500 tonnes, in
the Netherlands 12,000, in Denmark 4,000 and in West Germany
1,000 tonnes.
    Earlier today, London and Paris traders said they expected
the subsidy for the current season whites campaign for licences
to end-July to be between 43.00 and 43.45 Ecus per 100 kilos.
    They had also forecast today's total authorised sugar
tonnage export awards to be between 60,000 and 80,000 tonnes
versus 103,000 last week when the restitution was 43.699 Ecus.
 REUTER

Iran announced it had launched a new
offensive against Iraq in the north-west area of the Gulf war
front.
    Tehran radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, said the attack was launched last night in the Haj
Omran area of northern Iraq.
    It had already achieved "considerable victories," the radio
said.
 REUTER

Singapore Finance Minister Richard Hu
in his budge speech introduced a tax package he said aims at
consolidating economic recovery.
    He imposed higher taxes on tobacco and liquor but
introduced tax incentives to promote population growth and
offshore services. In order to further accelerate development
of the capital market and fund management activities, from the
year of assessment 1988 income earned by Asian Currency Units
and securities companies approved by the Monetary Authority of
Singapore will be taxed at a concessionary rate of 10 pct.
    He said interest paid by Simex members to non-residents in
respect of transactions in the deferred gold market will be
exempt from withholding tax. This will make Singapore a more
attractive place to carry out such transactions, he added.
 Reuter

The Italian treasury said it will issue
3,000 billion lire of a new type of indexed government paper,
discount certificates (CTS), on March 18.
    Treasury Minister Giovanni Goria said at a news conference
the new certificates will be heavily discounted and aimed at
small investors rather than institutions.
    The Treasury said in a statement the annual yield of the
seven-year certificates will be indexed to 50 pct of the annual
yield of 12-month treasury bills.
    Effective annual yield after tax for the first CTS issue
will be 9.66 pct. "The launch of the new certificate has to be
viewed in the framework of the management of the public debt as
a step towards the return of a larger volume of fixed-rate
issues," the Treasury said.
    The Treasury said future CTS issues likely would be
certificates longer than seven years. CTS automatically offers
a portfolio diversification between fixed-rate and
variable-rate investments.
 REUTER

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd said it had
developed an ultra thermal resistance rubber which can be used
at 250 centigrade continuously without losing its properties.
    Shin-Etsu put potential demand for the product at two
tonnes a month mainly for microwave ovens and as a sealant.
    But increasing use of the product in parts attached to car
engines will raise demand and the company will boost output to
10 tonnes by March 1988 from two now, he said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 76 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net loss 31.9 mln vs loss 3,288,000
    Revs 380.2 mln vs 311.5 mln
    Avg shrs 47.1 mln vs 41.2 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 56 cts vs profit 56 cts
    Net profit 43,925,000 vs profit 46,433,000
    Rev 1.74 billion vs 1.60 billion
    Avg shares 43,602,000 vs 41,014,000
    NOTE: Fourth quarter includes after tax loss from
discontinued Flexi-Van operations of 33.9 mln dlrs. Primary
earnings per share data calculated after deducting preferred
dividend requirements.
 Reuter

Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 838,069 vs loss 433,875
    Revs 1,080,068 vs 1,793,398
    Avg shrs 4,004,826 vs 3,172,537
    12 mths
    Shr loss 39 cts vs 11 cts
    Net loss 1,387,500 vs loss 334,463
    Revs 6,456,882 vs 5,605,680
    Avg shrs 3,542,217 vs 3,071,456
 Reuter

Jacobs Engineering group Inc
said its shareholders approved reincorporation of the company
in Delaware and certain indemnification agreements with
officers and directors of the company.
    Jacobs is incorporated in California.
 Reuter

Rhodes Inc said its February 1987 sales
were 16,775,000 dlrs, a 12.2 pct increase over Feb 1986 sales
of 14,954,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 22 cts vs loss 13 cts
    Oper net loss 1,712,916 vs loss 769,539
    Revs 2,292,972 vs 2,157,895
    Avg shrs 7,961,602 vs 6,200,293
    Year
    Oper shr loss 53 cts vs loss 45 cts
    Oper net loss 3,562,151 vs 2,543,366
    Revs 9,117,311 vs 8,251,136
    Avg shrs 7,169,871 vs 6,186,51
    NOTE: Current year net both periods excludes charge 430,649
dlrs from cumulative effect of accounting change for patents.
    1986 net both periods includes charge of about 458,000 dlrs
from severance obligations.
    1986 year net includes charge 156,000 dlrs from writeoff of
seed commitments.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters Morgan Stanley Group
Inc <MS> and Robertson, Colman and Stephens said an offering of
4,400,000 shares of Cypress Semiconductor Corp is underway at
11.75 dlrs per share.
    Underwriters have been granted an option to buy up to
660,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
    The company is selling 3,080,000 shares and shareholders
the rest.
 Reuter

Par Pharmaceutical Inc said
it has been cleared by New York Stock Exchange authorities to
apply for NYSE listing and expected to be listed by April or
May.
    The company's stock is now traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs 29 cts
    Net 92,641 vs 466,668
    Sales 4,448,011 vs 4,122,301
    Year
    Shr 34 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 553,310 vs 1,864,417
    Sales 16.3 mln vs 16.7 mln
 Reuter

Greece aims to reduce foreign borrowing
to 1.6 or 1.7 billion dlrs this year from 2.6 billion in 1986,
and will use some of the funds to make early debt servicing
payments, the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Dimitris
Halikias, said.
    He told reporters this year's borrowing forecast exceeded
immediate needs, but Greece wanted to take advantage of low
international interest rates in order to make servicing
payments at a lower cost.
    Greece's foreign debts totalled 16.8 billion dlrs at
end-1986, up from 15.2 billion at end-1985, Halikias said.
    He said the extra funds available to Greece this year will
go towards servicing debts falling due after 1990. He did not
give figures.
    He said Greece was able to cut borrowing because a two-year
austerity program it adopted in October, 1985 cut its current
account deficit to 1.75 billion dlrs last year from a record
3.3 billion in 1985.
    Halikias said he was "fairly optimistic" Greece would reach a
current account deficit target of 1.25 billion dlrs this year.
    He said domestic demand has fallen, reducing the need for
imports, while Greek exports are becoming more competitive.
    Economy Ministry figures show exports rose to 4.9 billion
dlrs in the first 11 months of 1986 from 4.1 billion in the
same. 1985 period, while imports dipped to 10.2 billio dlrs
from 11.4 billion.
 REUTER

is willing to resume negotiations with the United Auto Workers
as requested by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.
    Negotiations began on January 21 on a contract for American
Motors to build its new ZJ sports Jeep and to assemble Chrysler
Corp's <C> Omni and Horizon cars at its Wisconsin plant.
     The Chrysler cars are being phased out of production at
the company's Belvidere, Ill. plant to make room for another
car line to be built there.
    "While we are willing to follow the governor's lead in
making a final effort to reach an agreement, it must be
recognized that for the negotiations to be successful, the
local unions must honor their 1985 commitments," American
Motors president Joseph Cappy said.
 Reuter

<British Columbia
Resources Investment Corp>, earlier reporting higher full year
operating losses, said it reached agreement in principle with
five lenders providing for a 360 mln dlr credit facility over a
four year term.
    The company said the credit facility is extendable under
certain circumstances, with annual principal payments of five
mln dlrs. The agreement is subject to certain lender approvals
and completion of formal documentation.
    It earlier reported 1986 losses before extraordinary items
rose to 26.4 mln dlrs from year-ago 7.2 mln dlrs.
    B.C. Resources also said dividends on its series 2
preferred shares and exchangeable preferred shares will remain
suspended.
    However, payment will be made on account of the quarterly
dividend on the exchangeable preferred shares by the company's
trustee from a deposit account, B.C. Resources said.
    Sufficient funds should be available to pay full amount of
the March 31, 1987 dividend to exchangeable preferred
shareholders, with payment expected in early April to
shareholders of record March 31, the company said.
    If future dividends are not declared after the April
exchangeable preferred quarterly payout, future payment will
depend on the amount of dividends received from Westcoast
Transmission Co <WTC>, B.C. Resources said.
    The company said its increased fourth quarter and full year
operating losses primarily resulted from lower oil prices and a
four month labor shutdown at its Balmer coal mine in British
Columbia.
    B.C. Resources also recorded a 99.9 mln dlr extraordinary
loss, which included losses on disposition of North Sea oil and
gas interests by 67 pct owned <Westar Mining Ltd>.
    B.C. Resources' 1986 extraordinary charge also included a
writedown of its investment in Westar Petroleum. Gains on the
sales of Westar Timber's Skeena and Celgar pulp mills and
Terrace sawmill partially offset the extraordinary loss, the
    The company said the asset sales have eliminated B.C.
Resources' long term financing commitment in the North Sea and
exposure to the fluctuating pulp market.
    It also said it cut long term debt in 1986 to 900 mln dlrs
from 1.3 billion dlrs at year-end 1985, and management changes
and staff cuts have significantly reduced costs.
 Reuter

the money market with late assistance of around 85 mln stg.
    This brings the bank total help so far today to some 87 mln
stg and compares with its latest forecast of a 250 mln stg
shortage in the system today.
 REUTER

New orders for manufactured goods
fell 8.2 billion dlrs, or 4.0 pct, in January to a seasonally
adjusted 194.5 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    It was the largest one month decrease in orders since a 4.5
pct drop in May, 1980, the department said.
    Excluding defense orders, factory orders fell 5.2 pct in
January after a 4.8 pct December rise.
    The department revised December factory orders upward to an
increase of 1.6 pct from 1.2 pct.
    The new orders decline in January was concentrated in
durable goods, where orders fell 7.4 billion dlrs, or 6.7 pct,
to 103 billion dlrs. The department had estimated on February
26 that January durable goods orders fell 7.5 pct.
    Orders for non-durables in January fell 700 mln dlrs, or
0.8 pct, to 91.5 billion dlrs.
    These figures compared with a December increase in durables
orders of 1.5 pct and a 1.7 pct rise in non-durables.
    Defense orders rose 2.2 billion dlrs, or 49.7 pct, in
January after falling 57.7 pct in December, the department
said.
    Orders for non-defense capital goods fell 17 pct in January
after increasing by 5.7 pct in December.
    Within major industry categories, orders declines were
widespread, the department said.
    Electrical machinery orders fell 19.8 pct, or 3.6 billion
dlrs, after a 9.5 pct increase in December.
    Primary metals orders fell 17.7 pct, or 1.9 billion dlrs,
following a 12.1 pct increase in December.
    Orders for transportation equipment were down 4.5 pct in
January after falling 0.6 pct in December.
    Orders for non-electrical machinery were down 6.1 pct in
January after falling by 7.1 pct in December.
    Manufacturers' shipments fell 3.8 pct, or 7.8 billion dlrs,
to a total 196.7 billion dlrs. The department said it was the
largest one month fall in shipments since a 5.1 pct drop in
December, 1974.
    Unfilled orders fell 0.6 pct, or 2.2 billion dlrs, to a
total 363 billion dlrs.
    Factory inventories in January rose 0.5 pct, or 1.5 billion
dlrs, to 277.0 billion dlrs, only the second rise since July
and concentrated in finished goods.
 Reuter

Shr 72 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 4,791,000 vs 3,803,000
    Sales 83.0 mln vs 72.0 mln
    Avg shrs 6,668,309 vs 6,545,722
    1st half
    Shr 88 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 5,872,000 vs 4,614,000
    Sales 141.6 mln vs 121.8 mln
    Avg shrs 6,669,488 vs 6,525,051
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 3,358,000 vs 2,276,000
    Sales 43.3 mln vs 33.5 mln
    1st half
    Shr 60 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 6,654,000 vs 4,638,000
    Sales 86.6 mln vs 66.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split in May
1986.
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp said the size
of its underwritten offering of common stock was increased to
33 mln shares from the proposed 30 mln.
    The company said the offering is being made at 30.50 dlrs a
share. It was underwritten by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc,
Kidder Peabody and Co, and Salomon Inc.
    Occidental will use the proceeds to reduce its debt. The
company had 165 mln shares outstanding prior to the offering.
 Reuter

<Canadian Home Shopping Network Ltd>
said sales of 1,149,339 dlrs from the first six weeks of
operation by its cable television shop at home service were
above the company's expectations by a significant margin.
    The company said it signed up 14,619 members during the
period and the average purchase per member in February was
56.99 dlrs.
    Subscriber penetration rose to 1.7 mln households from 1.5
mln households, it said.
    The company began broadcasting its service to more than 100
cablesystems across Canada on January 15.
 Reuter

Tenneco Inc said it will redeem all of
its outstanding 11.00 dlr cumulative preference stock on April
eight at 102.24 dlrs a share including accrued dividends.
    It said 2,515,400 shares of the stock will be redeemed.
 Reuter

Williams Cos said a fourth quarter charge
of 250 mln dlrs from discontinued operations and writedowns
contributed to a 1986 net loss of 240 mln dlrs or 6.97 dlrs a
share against earnings of 31.6 mln dlrs or 92 cts in 1985.
    The loss in the quarter was 232.3 mln dlrs or 6.75 dlrs
against income of 10.7 mln dlrs or 31 cts a year ago. Revenues
in the quarter fell to 521.1 mln dlrs from 716.9 mln and in the
year fell to 1.9 billion dlrs from 2.5 billion in 1985.
    Williams also said the previously announced sale of its
Agrico Chemical Co unit to Freeport-Mcmoran Resource Partners
Ltd has cleared antitrust review and should close next week.
    The 1987 first quarter will include proceeds from the
Agrico sale, for 250 mln dlrs cash at closing plus deferred
payments, and proceeds of 320 mln dlrs from the sale of a stake
in Peabody Holding Co, completed in January.
    In the 1986 first quarter, Williams reported net of 14.2
mln dlrs or 41 cts a share on sales of 796.4 mln dlrs.
    Williams said the charges in the current year were related
to an ongoing restructuring. The company said the restructuring
moves had improved its balance sheet and improved the outlook
for future stability and growth in earnings.
    Operating profit at the company's Northwest Pipeline Corp
unit fell 4.5 pct to 150 mln dlrs from lower sales. The
Williams Natural Gas unit had operating profit of 50.5 mln dlrs
compared to 90.9 mln dlrs on lower sales volumes.
    Profit at Williams Gas Marketing rose to 26 mln dlrs from
about 22 mln and the William Pipe Line Co had operating profit
of 49.4 mln dlrs versus 63.6 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 1,300,000 vs 3,700,000
    Sales 189 mln vs 163 mln
 Reuter

Vneshtorgbank, the Soviet foreign trade
bank, is seeking a 200 mln dlr, eight-year multi-currency
syndicated loan, First Chicago Ltd said as arranger and sole
mandated bank.
    The loan will pay 1/8 point over London Interbank Offered
Rates (LIBOR) throughout the whole of its life. It will be
repayable in semi-annual instalments starting after six years.
    No further details were immediately available.
    First Chicago later said that lead managers participating
in the syndicated loan would receive a flat fee of 35 basis
points.
 REUTER

Shr profit 45 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 9.8 mln vs loss two mln
    Revs 1.15 billion vs 631.2 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 3.26 dlrs vs profit 3.18 dlrs
    Net profit 76.9 mln vs profit 73.1 mln
    Revs 3.59 billion vs 2.66 billion
 Reuter

Eastern Co said it purchased the
tooling, equipment and inventory used to produce the Corbin
Cabinet Lock product line from Emhart Corp for undisclosed
terms.
 Reuter

    Pay April 14
    Record March 17
 Reuter

Venezuela plans to have a public sector
foreign debt of 26.5 billion dlrs by early 1989 when the
present government of President Jaime Lusinchi ends its term,
public finances director Jorge Marcano said.
    He said the target, which compares with around 24.5 billion
dlrs now and 29 billion at end 1983, is considered a manageable
amount which will assist in development plans.
    The government last week reached agreement with its 13-bank
advisory committee to reprogramme its 12-1/2 year rescheduling
accord over 14 years with the interest margin lowered to 7/8
pct over London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) from 1-1/8 pct.
    In an interview with El Universal newspaper, Marcano said
he thought U.S. Government pressure on banks had more to do
with the unexpectedly speedy agreement than Brazil's decision
to suspend interest payments.
    "I think what speeded an agreement was the attitude of the
U.S. Government, which urged several major banks to soften
their position in various debt renegotiations. The Brazil
announcement came later," he said.
    Bankers noted Citibank had held up an agreement with Chile,
objecting to proposals for delayed interest payments. A pact
with Chile, with a one pct spread, came a day before
Venezuela's.
    Marcano said a telex sent to Venezuela's 450 creditors
seeks support for the government's foreign borrowing plans,
which are aimed at aluminium, steel and iron ore projects. "We
cannot rule out a trip to financial centres to explain the new
agreement and present the financing programmes we have," he
said, adding he hoped to restore credit ratings of the 1970s.
    Lusinchi said on Monday the government will limit foreign
borrowing, which would come from banks and multilateral
agencies, to 50 pct of interest and principal paid in the next
two years. According to the restructured accord, this would
work out at around 2.5 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

Pope and Talbot Inc is raising 40 mln
dlrs via an offering of convertible subordinated debentures due
2012 with a six pct coupon and par pricing, said sole manager
Bear, Stearns and Co.
    The debentures are convertible into the company's common
stock at 51.875 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25
pct over the stock price when terms on the debt were set.
    Non-callable for two years, the debentures are rated Ba-3
by Moody's and BB-minus by S and P. The issue was increased
from an initial offering of 35 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

DNC International Finance A/S is issuing
a 19 billion yen, zero coupon eurobond due March 17, 1992 and
priced at 80.9 pct, lead manager Daiwa Europe Ltd said.
    The bond is guaranteed by Den norske Creditbank and is
available in denominations of one mln yen. It will be listed in
Luxembourg. Payment date is March 17.
    Fees comprise one pct selling concession with 55 basis
points for management and underwriting combined.
 REUTER

Hamburgische Landesbank Girozentrale is
issuing a 50 mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 2, 1991
paying 15 pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Orion
Royal Bank Ltd said.
1,000 and 10,000 Australian dlrs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. The selling concession is 1-1/8 pct while
management and underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct.
    The payment date is April 2.
 REUTER

West German engineering union IG
Metall will hold nationwide warning strikes on March 9, to
press demands for a 35-hour week and a five pct wage increase,
a union spokeswoman said.
    Further details of the time and place of the strikes will
be given at a press conference on the same day, she added.
    In mid-February, IG Metall chairman Franz Steinkuehler
called for the strikes after 35 unsuccessful rounds of talks.
    IG Metall shut down the entire auto industry for seven
weeks in summer 1984 to press employers to cut the working week
to 35 hours from 40. A compromise of 38.5 hours was agreed.
 REUTER

Senate Banking Committee chairman
William Proxmire called for curbs of hostile corporate
takeovers and new restrictions on risk arbitrageurs.
    "At the very least, it is high time that we require all risk
arbitrageurs to register seperately and specifically  with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and that we consider
precluding brokerage firms and their employers from investing
in, or owning any securities issued by, third party risk
arbitrage operations," Proxmire said at the start of a hearing
on corporate takeovers.
    "A burning issue must be whether there ought to be a
complete seperation in the future of risk arbitrage and
investment banking," Proxmire said.
    He said he was concerned that hostile takeover attempts
were hurting the economy, a view shared by corporate executives
who tesitified at the hearing. "I believe that takeovers have
become so abusive and so tilted in favor of the financial
buccaneers that remedial action is required," USX Corp chairman
David Roderick said. "For Congress to allow the takeover game to
continue unchecked, would be economic suicide," Champion
International Corp chairman Andrew Sigler added.
 Reuter

Spain unveils a 105 billion peseta plan
this month aimed at boosting exports to reach European
Community levels, director-general of the INFE export
institute, Apolonio Ruiz Ligero, said.
    "The target is to raise exports to 20 pct of Gross Domestic
Product over the next four years compared to 15 pct now," he
said.
     "This is the minimum prevailing level in the EC and there
is no reason why we should lag behind countries like Italy,
which have a similar productive structure," he said.
    The plan calls for providing soft loans, tax cuts and other
fiscal benefits to exporters and raising Spain's presence in
international trade fairs.
    Consumer goods such as fashion and wine, as well as
traditional industrial exports will be promoted.
    Ruiz Ligero said INFE would double its annual budget to 20
billion pesetas to finance the four-year plan, while the
government's development aid fund (FAD) would provide a special
25 billion peseta grant.
    The plan calls for boosting exports by five to six pct in
real terms this year after a 7.4 pct decline last year.
    Ruiz Ligero attributed this drop to a lack of demand in
developing countries and a rally in domestic consumer demand,
which rose six pct last year after 1.9 pct in 1985.
    He added that 80 pct of Spain's exports went to
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries.
    The EC accounts for 60 pct of the market and exports to the
Community rose seven pct last year. The government plans to
concentrate efforts on Western Europe and the U.S.
    "The problem is convincing businessmen that exports are
vital to survival in the context of EC competition," he said.
    He said Spanish businessmen traditionally turned to the
domestic market to satisfy rises in consumer demand, while
turning their backs on foreign markets.
    "They have to realise their share of the home market is
going to shrink with growing deregulation," he said. "Foreign
companies are taking up positions in the domestic economy and
it is it vital to secure a market share abroad."
 REUTER

Morgan Keegan Inc said an
offering of one common of its common shares is underway at
15.25 dlrs per share through underwriters led by First Boston
Inc <FBC>, A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc <AGE> and its own Morgan
Keegan and Co Inc subsidiary.
150,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

French ski and tennis equipment maker
<Skis Rossignol> said its 97.7-pct owned subsidiary <Skis
Dynastar SA> agreed to buy Canadian ski stick and boot
manufacturer <CFAS> from <Warrington Inc>.
    A Rossignol spokesman declined to give financial details
but said turnover of CFAS was about 100 mln French francs,
doubling the Rossignol group's activities in the boot and stick
sectors.
 Reuter

Volkswagen U.S. Inc, a subsidiary of
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, said car sales for the February 21 to
28 period fell 42.5 pct to 1,572 from 2,734 cars in the same
    There were seven selling days in each period.
    For the month of February, Volkswagen said sales were off
35.2 pct to 3,808 from 5,873 cars in the same month last year.
    For the year-to-date, U.S. cars sales dropped 45.7 pct to
6,627 from 12,194 cars in the comparable period of 1986,
Volkswagen said.
 Reuter

The European Community is close to
bankruptcy, the EC's Executive Commission said in a report.
    In its bluntest ever warning about the state of EC
finances, it said "The Community is at present faced with a
budgetary situation which can only be characterised as being on
the brink of bankruptcy."
    The report, dated Saturday, is meant to set the scene for a
major change in the way the EC is financed, which foreign
ministers are due to start debating next month.
    The Commission blamed the EC's new cash crisis on the
"considerable reluctance" of governments to pay for decisions
they themselves have taken.
    "Budgetary practices have emerged which fictitiously
disguise the real impact of expenditure decisions," it said.
Adding that such practices were unacceptable.
    It put the EC's accumulated liabilities at the end of last
year at 12.2 billion European Currency Units and estimated
these would rise by a further five billion Ecus this year.
 REUTER

Qtly div 62 cts vs 58 cts in the prior quarter
    Payable April 30
 Reuter

Tandy Corp said February sales
and operating revenues were up 12 pct to 244.4 mln dlrs from
218.1 mln dlrs a year before.
    It said sales and revenues of U.S. retail operations were
up 15 pct to 210.7 mln dlrs from 183.6 mln dlrs a year before
and sales of U.S. retail stores in existence for more than one
year were up 13 pct.
 Reuter

Ohio Mattress Co said it filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission registration statements
covering a 75 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
debentures due 2012 and an offering of four mln shares of
    Proceeds will be used to reduce floating-rate bank debt
incurred in connection with the acquisition of 82 pct of Sealy
Inc through the purchase of seven Sealy licensees in December
1986 for 262 mln dlrs in cash, Ohio Mattress said.
    The company named Lazard Freres and Co as lead underwriter
of the offerings.
 Reuter

upgraded to Aaa from Aa-1 the insurance rating of General
Electric Mortgage Insurance Co of Ohio, a unit of General
Electric Co.
    Moody's said this reflected the strengthening of terms in a
revised net worth agreement between GEMICO and its immediate
parent, General Electric Credit Corp, whose long-term unsecured
debt is also a top-flight Aaa.
    However, the rating agency said the agreement does not
benefit other GEMICO affiliates in California, Florida and
North Carolina.
 Reuter

BRNF Liquidating Trust said
trustees declared a 13th liquidating dividend of 1.10 dlrs per
unit, payable April One to holders of record of its Series A, B
and C certificates on March 18.
    The trust had paid a 12th liquidating distribution on
January 15 amounting to 1.750 dlrs on Series A, 1.815 dlrs on
Series B and 1.765 dlrs on Series C certificates.
 Reuter

EA Engineering Science and
Technology Inc said it was awarded a four-year task order
contract by the U.S. Airfaorce to provide technical services
under its Installation Restoration Program.
    The company said the contract has a potential value of 9.5
mln dlrs. EA will assess the feasibility of cleaning up
hazardous waste sites at selected Air Force installations
across the country and design remedial strategies for each site.
 Reuter

National HealthCorp LP said
it has started adding 46 beds for its Greenwood Health Care
Center in Greenwood, S.C., and plans to add 10 beds to its
Springfield Health Care Center in Springfield, Tenn.
    The company said it has opened Colonial Hill Retirement
Apartments adjacent to its Colonial Hill Health Care Center in
Johnson City, Tenn., and has completely remodeled National
Health Care Center in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.
    It said it is acquiring the title to that center, which had
been owned by Lawrence County Lions Club and called Lions
Nursing Home.
    National said the projects will cost a total of about
3,500,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Digital Equipment said it is
taking several initiatives designed to make it easier and more
cost effecive for customers to purchase and use its products
and services.
    The company also said it is introducing three new mid-range
VAX systems.
    Digital stated the moves "further strengthened its
leadership position in the computer industry."
    The company said it also adjusted prices acrossall product
lines to more accurately reflect performance and customer value.
    Digital said the new products -- the VAX 8250, VAX 8350 and
VZX 8530 systems -- replace earlier models and provide up to 40
pct increased performance.
    It said the new "systems reflect Digital's ability to
sustain its present leadership in integrated, networked
systems."
    Effective today, the company said, it is adopting new
business practices to remain responsive to the needs of
customers and the rapidly changing marketplace, specifically
the trend towards distributed, networked operations.
    Digital said it is instituting a discount structure based
on total enterprise purchase of hardware and software.
Purchases for resale are included within this simplified
Discount structure.
    The company said it now has a one-year warranty on all
hardware, including VAX and PDP systems, all options and
peripherals. In addition, customers can select to extend their
hardware warranties up to three years at the time of purchase.
    Digital said its new software licensing policy simplifies
the transfer of software within a company and includes
rellicensing procedures for used equipment.
    Digital said it has instituted uniform quantity pricing on
all product list prices with increases to reflect full system
value on high functionality systems and software.
    Without providing any details, it also said the are price
reductions of up to 50 pct on selected memories and disks.
    "Based on the analysis of product mix, price adjustments
will generally result in minimal net impact in costs in a
typical user enterprise," it added.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 345,970 vs 257,252
    Revs 14.0 mln vs 13.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five pct stock dividend in
December 1986.
 Reuter

The Dow Chemical Co said its
Engineering Thermoplastics Department will increase the selling
prices of standard grades of MAGNUM ABS resins by three cts per
pound.
    It also announced an increase of five cts per pound for
performance grades of the resins.
    Both increases are effective April 1, 1987.

 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs eight cts
    Net 485,866 vs 316,193
    Revs 1,741,508 vs 1,440,154
    Year
    Shr 28 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1,108,314 vs 778,197
    Revs 5,073,178 vs 3,687,160
 Reuter

Northrop Corp said its
defense systems division based here, has been awarded
production and development contracts totaling 469.6 mln dlrs to
update the radar-jamming system on the U.S. Air Force's F-15
Eagle frontline tactical fighter.
    Work, under a 333 mln dlrs production contract for a major
system update of the AN/ALQ-135 internal countermeasure set, is
expected to be completed in April 1990, it said.
    A separate 136.6 mln dlrs contract for full scale
development, test equipment and program support for the
AN/ALQ-135 receivers is included in the contract award,
Northrop said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 20 cts prior
    Pay April 10
 Reuter

Buffton Corp said it completed
the purchase of B and D Industruments Inc for two mln dlrs cash
and 400,000 shares of common stock.
    It said B and D is a private company headquartered in
Kansas, and had sales of 4,700,000 dlrs in 1986.
    Buffton said the company designs and manufactures aviation
computer display systems and engine instrumentation.
 Reuter

und Westbank AG <VHBG.F> plans
to streamline its branch network to improve its distribution of
financial services, management board member Eberhard-Rainer
Luckey said.
    He told a news conference on 1986 results that branches in
Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein would be merged or closed, a
branch in Frankfurt opened and that the bank was considering
opening a branch in London.
    Luckey said the bank's total operating profits rose nearly
29 pct in 1986. Parent bank net profit rose to 47.7 mln from
42.2 mln and the dividend remained unchanged at 12 marks.
    The group balance sheet, including for the first time
VereinWest Overseas Finance (Jersey), rose 9.2 pct to 17.9
billion marks, Luckey said.
    The parent bank balance sheet rose 89 mln marks to 13.2
billion, while business volume was almost unchanged at 14.8
billion. Credit volume eased to 9.1 billion from 9.2 billion
while loans to companies rose seven pct.
    Foreign business and securities trading turnover also
increased. Higher earnings from trading on the bank's own
account contributed to record operating profits.
    Net interest income rose on firmer interest margins by 16.1
mln marks to 381.6 mln. Net commission income rose 6.6 mln to
156.7 mln, Luckey said.
    Foreign commercial business was influenced by a fall in
West German foreign trade but earnings were still satisfactory.
    The bank's exposure in Latin America was less than two pct
of its total foreign credit and in Africa less than one pct.
    The bank continued to sell some of its exposure in 1986,
and will also continue to stock up risk provisions, he said.
 REUTER

Secretary of Commerce Malcolm
Baldrige expressed concern about the continuing U.S. trade
deficits with South Korea and Taiwan and said that without an
adjustment in exchange rates there is little likelihood of
improvement.
    Speaking to the President's Export Council, an industry
advisory group, Baldrige said the trade deficit issue was under
discussion with those countries.
    "I feel that unless we see an exchange rate adjustment we
probably won't be able to see much of a change in the large
surplus that Taiwan in particular has with us," he said.
    In a wide-ranging discussion on U.S. trade matters,
Baldrige also repeated U.S. concern about an attempted takeover
by Japan's Fujitsu company of Fairchild Computer.
    He said that the Japanese were resisting allowing U.S.
companies into the giant computer business while at the same
time attempting to acquire control of a U.S. company that does
major computer business in the U.S. market.
    Lastly, Baldrige said that the United States was hopeful
that it could complete a free market agreement with Canada by
the autumn, but said major issues, including acid rain,
remained unresolved.
 Reuter

Allwaste Inc said it has agreed in
principle to acquire an air-moving and related industrial
services company it did not identify for up to 1,400,000 dlrs
in common stock.
 Reuter

Public Service Co of New
Mexico said it is evaluating placing its electric distribution
system in a limited partnership with assets of about 400 mln
dlrs.
    The utility said it advised a customer task force this is
one restructuring alternative being considered for the
company's electric business.
    The structure is being evaluated as part of the company's
overall initiative in response to several goals announced by
New Mexico Governor Garrey Carruthers, it explained.
    Public Service New Mexico said a central feature of its
reorganization concept would be to separate the company's
electric utility operation into independent generation and
distribution entities, creating the opportunity for a targeted
35 mln dlr a year rate decrease.
    Noting the use of the limited partnership structure by a
variety of businesses recently, the company said it believes
"the concept may well have an application in the utility
business and intend to investigate it fully."
    The generation company would provide projected power needs
of the distribution entity under a 30-year "power security
agreement" which would have a federally regulated rate
structure, the company said.
    Public Service New Mexico said the restructuring could
provide for its gas and water utilities and its non-utility
companies becoming subsidaries of the proposed holding company
approved by the company's shareholders in May 1986.
    This holding company would be the general partner of the
limited partnership, the company said.
    The company said its limited partnership concept was
presented to an ad hoc customer task force convened by Gov.
Carruthers to review the company's reorganization proposals.
    It said the reorganization and limited partnership are an
alternative structure that would  help reduce rates through a
lower overall cost of capital.
    Last month the governor said "I have outlined to PNM
critical goals which I have asked them to cooperate with may
administration in achieving" adding the goals include immediate
rate reduction, stabilization of future rates and stimulation
of business expansion.
    The company told the task force the new distribution
company, under the limited partnership alternative or
otherwise, would continue to be fully regulated by state
regulators.
    PNM's proposed generation company would continue to be
owned by common shareholders through the holding company. Its
rates would be set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
which regulates for wholesale electric power sales and
transmission services. The generation company would have no
retail customers.
    PNM said it expects to file a detailed restructuring plan
with state regulators in the near future, noting approval would
also be needed by FERC.
 Reuter

Castle and Cooke Inc said it would
take a fourth quarter after-tax loss of 33.9 mln dlrs from the
previously reported sale of its Flexi-Van container leasing
business to Itel Corp <ITEL> for about 215 mln dlrs.
    Earlier, the company reported a loss for the fourth quarter
ended January 3 of 31.9 mln dlrs, or 76 cts a share, compared
with a loss of 3.3 mln dlrs, or 21 cts per share, in 1985's
fourth quarter.
    For the year, however, the diversified holding company
reported a net profit of 43.9 mln dlrs, or 56 cts a share,
versus 46.4 mln dlrs, or 56 cts a share, in 1985.
    David Murdock, chairman and chief executive officer, said,
"Both our food business and our real estate operations
increased their earnings during the year (1986)."
    But, he added that Flexi-Van's 1986 results were hit by
depressed daily rental rates for leased equipment caused by
oversupplies.
    The company also reported that George Elkas, formerly
executive vice president,  has been named president and chief
operating officer of Flexi-Van Corp, while William Burns has
been named executive vice president of Flexi-Van.
 Reuter

arranging around 1.5 of customer repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.22 pct yesterday, opened at
six pct and remained there in early trading.
 Reuter

Xerox Corp said it is launching in May
a more powerful version of its Xerox Ventura Publisher desktop
computer software called Release 1.1. that offers 80 new
features.
    It said the new software, used for both long and short
documents in IBM PCs, includes conversion for Hewlett-Packard
Soft Fonts and more sophisticated graphics and page layout
applications.
 Reuter

<Omnibus Computer Graphics Inc> said it
is in default of certain credit provisions of its line of
credit with its Canadian banker, resulting from a working
capital beficit of eight mln dlrs.
    The company said it is currently negotiating additional
financing to alleviate the problem.
 Reuter

Convenient Food Mart Inc said it
has tentatively agreed to buy all the outstanding stock of
Plaid Pantries Inc and two associated businesses in Oregon and
Washington for undisclosed terms.
    Plaid Pantries owns and operates 161 convenience stores in
the Portland and Seattle areas. The other business are two
companies involved in the wholesale distribution of groceries
and health and beauty aids, it said.
    Closing is expected by May 15.

 Reuter

affirmed the BB-plus rating on AFG Industries Inc's 185 mln
dlrs of subordinated debt.
    S and P said it believed AFG would make acquisitions of
moderate size in the next few years. AFG's healthy cash flow
and pro forma cash balances of 169 mln dlrs at September 30,
1986, should be adequate to fund internal expansion and
moderate acquisitions.
    While AFG's participation in a 1.4 billion dlr bid for Lear
Siegler Inc was aggressive, AFG was mainly interested in Lear's
profitable auto glass operations, S and P noted.
 Reuter

<Hoechst Celanese Corp>,
recently formed from the merger of the Celanese Corp with
American Hoechst Corp, a unit of <Hoechst AG>, said Juergen
Dormann, former member of Hoechts AG's management board, has
been named chairman and chief executive officer of Hoechst
Celanese.
    The chemical company also said it named Dieter zur Loye,
formerly president of American Hoechst, vice chairman, while
Ernest Drew, former group vice president of Celanese, has been
named president and chief operating officer.
    Hoechst Celanese said Richard Clarke, also formerly a group
vice president of Celanese, has been appointed senior executive
vice president of the new company, and Harry Benz, former
executive vice president and chief financial officer of
American Hoechst, has been named executive vice president and
chief financial officer.
    The company also said the former Celanese Corp's fiber
operations will operate separately as Celanese Fibers Inc, a
wholly owned unit, pending divestment of certain polyester
textile fiber assets.
 Reuter

Data Architects Inc said it
received a contract from the <Bank of Tokyo> to expand the
installation of its bank electronic support systems at the
bank.
    It said the contract exceeds one mln dlrs.
 Reuter

General DataComm Industries
Inc said it has agreed to sell for 40 mln dlrs its Network
Services facility and its corporate facility and lease back the
facilities.
    It said it has an option to buy the buildings back at a
later date.  Proceeds from the financing will be used to reduce
debt, it said.
 Reuter

Marine Midland Banks Inc said it has
acquired the customer account base of New York discount
brokerage firm Ovest Financial Services Inc for undisclosed
terms to expand its discount brokerage operations in the
Northeastern U.S.
    It said it will combine Ovest's activities with those of
its Marine Midland Brokerage Service unit.
 Reuter

A one billion stg issue of nine pct
Exchequer stock due 2002 which became available for trading
only this morning was exhausted in mid-afternoon trading on the
U.K. Government bond market, dealers said.
    The Bank of England said the issue was no longer operating
as a tap. The issue was announced Monday at a price of 96 stg
pct and dealers said the Government broker's supplies were sold
out this afternoon at a partly-paid 20-20/32 stg pct. The bonds
started trading this morning at 20 stg pct.
    Dealers noted the market had seen vigorous demand
throughout the day, prompted mainly by sterling strength.
    Dealers said that demand had been seen for the tap from
both domestic and overseas sources, including from Japan and
the U.S.
    Although the issue had not been designated as free of tax
to residents abroad (FOTRA) widespread bullish sentiment for
the market in general had generated foreign buying.
    The stock had been regarded as slightly expensive when it
was announced and dealers said that even first thing this
morning it had seemed slightly dear in relation to comparable
existing stocks.
    However, sterling's continuing firm performance had
prompted interest in the tap right at the outset.
    The issue's value had been enhanced by its partly-paid
structure, which not only enabled investors to defer payment of
the major part of the price until April 27, but also conferred
a substantial gearing element.
    This meant, dealers explained, that investors who bought
the bonds benefitted fully from price gains registered by the
market in general, although only 20 stg pct of the total
purchase price was tied up initially.
 REUTER

U.S. TREASURY DEPUTY ASST SECRETARY BERGER SAYS FURTHER DOLLAR DROP COULD CAUSE INFLATION

West Germany and Tanzania have signed an
agreement on rescheduling 145 mln marks worth of commercial
credits, the Finance Ministry said.
    Tanzania will now have until April 1, 1997 to pay back the
credits, some of which had originally fallen due in 1979, a
ministry statement said.
    Interest on the credits will be paid at market rates.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Waxman Industries Inc said it filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration
statement covering a 25 mln dlr issue of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2007.
    Proceeds will be used to repay short-term indebtedness and
for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions,
Waxman said.
    The company named Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc as sole
underwriter of the offering.
 Reuter

The Dominican Republic sold
35,000 long tons of sugar for immediate delivery, with an
option for 25,000 tons more, to Czarnikow Rionda of New York,
the state sugar council announced.
    It was not immediately clear when the sale was made or at
what price. A council communique said "the sale was made at the
best prevailing conditions in the world sugar market."
 Reuter

The EC Executive Commission has backed
a plan to allow member countries to ban regular leaded gasoline
in a move designed to encourage use of unleaded fuel.
    It said in a statement it backed a proposal to allow EC
states to ban sales of regular grade gasoline containing lead
at six months notice. The proposal, which needs approval by EC
ministers, would not force any member state to impose the ban.
"It's an option, not an obligation," a spokesman said.
    But the Commission said imposing the ban would encourage
the use of unleaded fuel, as well as making it easier for gas
stations by cutting the number of types of gasoline they had to
stock.
 Reuter

SUN RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS ONE DLR ACROSS BOARD. WTI NOW 17.00 DLRS/BBL

<Strong Point Inc> said its
Pharmaceutical Technologies Inc subsidiary will market in
Europe its Immunol-RD nutritional product, designed to protect
individuals exposed to medium or minimal radiation dosage
levels.
    The company said it will market the product in Europe
because of the radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nucelar
power accident.
    The company asserted that the product can offset the
deleterious effects of radiation, which weakens the immune
system.
 Reuter

Michaels Stores Inc said February
sales rose 26.2 pct to 8,049,000 dlrs from 6,380,000 dlrs a
year before, with same-store sales up 10.6 pct.
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs nine cts
    Net 1,180,000 vs 640,000
    Revs 25.6 mln vs 20.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 26 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 2,103,000 vs 853,000
    Revs 44.8 mln vs 33.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 1,079,100 vs 3,535,205
    Revs 13.6 mln vs 16.2 mln
    Note: Current results for 16 months after change in fiscal
year end to December 31 from August 31
 Reuter

<Toronto Sun Publishing Corp> said it
planned a two-for-one split of its common shares, subject to
regulatory approval and approval by shareholders at the April
21 annual meeting.
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 316,000 vs 298,000
    Sales 4,857,000 vs 4,543,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.77 dlrs vs profit 15 cts
    Net loss 8,036,000 vs profit 576,000
    Sales 16.2 mln vs 17.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,539,437 vs 3,816,580
    1st half
    Shr loss 1.96 dlrs vs profit 26 cts
    Net loss 8,231,000 vs profit 996,000
    Sales 30.9 mln vs 32.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,205,707 vs 3,814,141
    NOTE: Current half net includes 68,000 dlr tax credit.
    Current year net both periods includes 6,700,000 dlr
writedown of inventory of clinical chemistry products.
 Reuter

Shr 65 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 184.3 mln vs 133.1 mln
    Sales 3.85 billion vs 2.77 billion
    Year
    Shr 1.59 dlrs vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 450.1 mln vs 327.5 mln
    Sales 11.91 billion vs 8.45 billion
 Reuter

Micropolis Corp said it filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement
debentures due 2012.
    Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and
possible acquisitions, Micropolis said.
    The company named Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc as lead
manager, and Robertson, Colman and Stephens as co-manager of
the offering.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs two cts
    Net 407,396 vs 376,243
    Revs 5,341,353 vs 4,292,819
 Reuter

Thomas Berger, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury, said that a further drop in the
exchange value of the dollar could cause prices to go up and
trigger inflation.
    He told a meeting of the President's Export Council that
the Japanese and the Germans have cut their profit margins to
reflect recent drops in the dollar, so prices have remained
much the same.
    But he added that if the dollar dropped further there could
be inflation in the United States.
    Berger also said that a further devalued dollar may cause
economic depressions in some U.S. trading partners, and that
would not be in America's interest because it would close those
markets to U.S. goods.
 Reuter

Independent Air Holdings Inc said it is
planning an exchange offer for its Class A warrants, which
expire April 11.
    The company said for 30 days after the effective date of
the registration statement covering the offer, it would
exchange 100 dlrs principal amount of 12 pct convertible
subordinated notes due 1991 plus 300 common shares for each 800
warrants plus 145 dlrs.
    It said interest on the notes would be payable annually in
cash or common stock at the company's option, and the principal
would also be payable in cash or stock at maturity.
    The company said if the note principal were paid in stock,
a noteholder would receive 625 common shares for each 100 dlrs
principal amount.  It said the notes would be convertible into
common stock at 16 cts per share after one year and redeemable
in whole or in part at the company's option after two years.
 Reuter

A leaf disease affecting seven pct of
Sri Lanka's rubber plantations may reduce output this year and
raise currently depressed prices, industry officials and
researchers told Reuters.
    About 2,900 hectares of rubber planted with the Rubber
Research Institute (RRI) clone 103 have been hit by the fungus
"corenes pora" which attacks the roots of the tree and kills the
leaves. The disease was first discovered about six months ago.
    Trade sources say prices might boom once again if the
crisis leads to output below the 1987 target of 143,000 tonnes.
Last year's output is estimated at between 133,000 and 135,000
tonnes.
    Researchers say the fungus could spread to other rubber
clones if no immediate action is taken.
    "The RRI is considering asking estates to remove the trees
seriously affected by the fungus because it was too late to use
chemicals to kill the disease," an Institute spokesman said.
    Senior industry and research officials met yesterday at
Padukka, east of here, to discuss ways of controlling the
fungus which is affecting estates mostly belonging to the State
Plantations Corp and Janatha Estates Development Board.
    The two state-owned groups account for 30 pct of rubber
land with the balance belonging to small private producers with
a total of 145,600 hectares.
    The RRIC 103 is a new clone propagated by the Research
Institute as high yielding and recommended two years ago for
planting. Only the two state groups seriously planted these
clones while smallholders preferred the low-yielding but older
PBX Malaysian clones.
    Officials at yesterday's crisis meeting said it was decided
to uproot only some of the affected trees while others would be
treated. They declined to comment on other decisions taken.
    Trade sources said supplies had improved in the past week
but prices had hit their lowest since last December. "If there
is a shortage of rubber, prices are bound to rise," a spokesman
for a company buying on behalf of the Soviet Union said.
    Rubber prices, particularly crepe, fell sharply by about
four rupees a kilo between December and March. The best crepe
one-X traded at 23.68 rupees a kilo, averaged 19.75 at this
week's auction. Sheet prices fell by a rupee in the same
period.
    Quantities offered at the auction also fell to an average
of 300 tonnes per auction last month from 800 tonnes in
December because of wintering in early February in producing
areas.
    Over 550 tonnes were offered at this Tuesday's auction with
the supply position showing improvements.
    Trade sources said the smaller availability of rubber last
month did not raise prices as on previous occasions.
    "Some factors, like less storage space from excess stocks,
meant we could not buy much at the auction until we disposed of
the rubber we already had," one buyer said.
    Other sources said there were few forward contracts and
speculative buying last month, while delays in steamer arrivals
aggravated the problem.
    European buyers delayed their purchases because of winter
closures of factories and also in the hope that prices would
ease further.
    They said another problem that could hit the industry is
the dry spell in producing areas. "If the inter-monsoonal rains
expected in late March/April are delayed, we would have further
shortages," one official said.
    "But this again could benefit prices," a buyer said.
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 4,775,000 vs 9,342,000
    Revs 105.5 mln vs 130.0 mln
 Reuter

The European Commission confirmed it
authorised the export of 60,500 tonnes of current series white
sugar at a maximum rebate of 43.147 European Currency Units
(ECUs) per 100 kilos.
 REUTER

CORRECTION - ROVER GROUP REPORTS SALES
    In a Miami item please read headline "&lt;ROVER GROUP&gt; REPORTS
SALES ON STERLINGS"... Please read in first paragraph ...
Austin Rover Cars of North America, a unit of Great Britain's
Rover Group PLC, reported ... corrects parent company name. In
third paragraph please correct spelling to Leyland.

The Geneva Motor Show, the first major
car show of the year, opens tomorrow with U.S. Car makers
hoping to make new inroads into European markets due to the
cheap dollar, automobile executives said.
    Ford Motor Co <F> and General Motors Corp <GM> sell cars in
Europe, where about 10.5 mln new cars a year are bought. GM
also makes a few thousand in North American plants for European
export.
     Now Chrysler Corp <C> is saying it will begin exporting
American-made vehicles before the end of this year to Europe, a
market it left in 1978 when it was near bankruptcy.
    Ford's European operations in Britain and West Germany
manufactured and sold about 1.5 million cars in Europe last
year -- the largest U.S. Manufacturer's share of the European
market.
    Opel/Vauxhall, with factories in West Germany, Spain and
Britain, accounted for most of GM's sales in Europe with about
1.3 million vehicles in 1986, officials said.
    James Fry of GM overseas distribution system said GM hoped
for a five-fold rise this year in sales of North American-made
vehicles in Europe, selling between 7,000 and 8,000 (North
American-made) units in Europe for the year to August 1987. "A
low dollar makes our prices very attractive," he told Reuters.
    Using an average price of 13,000 dlrs per car, his
projected sales figure would translate into between 91 million
and 104 mln dlrs in turnover, Fry added.
    That would be a jump from 1986 when GM sold 1,500
North-American made cars for revenue of 19 mln dlrs.
    Ford has 41 factories in West Europe, which manufacture all
of its cars sold on the continent.  But Walter Hayes, vice
president of Ford Europe, told Reuters he did not expect a
large rise in sales this year as a result of the weak dollar. 
"We have concluded that despite the dollar difference.... Europe
is inevitably a small volume market."
    Hayes said the cost of changing American cars to conform to
European environmental specifications cut into profit margins.
    But Robert Lutz, Chrysler executive vice-president, said
the weak dollar would now help Chrysler compete in Europe. 
"After a lapse of almost nine years, Chrysler is about to
re-enter the European market," he said.
    "We prefer to export to Europe rather than manufacture here
because it will allow us to take full competitive advantage of
the favorable exchange rates due to the declining value of the
dollar."
 Reuter

The Bundesbank is planning changes in
the system by which banks bid for funds in securities
repurchase pacts to improve the flexibility of its key open
market instrument, central bank officials said.
    Banking economists said the changes will shorten the tender
process to two days from three currently, enabling the
Bundesbank to offer repurchase pacts of shorter maturity if it
chooses, to steer money market liquidity more flexibly.
    The changes will probably come into force in April.
    Under the current system, banks must themselves specify at
the tender which securities they will sell to the Bundesbank
for subsequent repurchase, a time consuming business.
    Banks hold securities for this purpose in safe custody
accounts in the Landeszentralbank (LZB) regional central banks,
which are the local offices of the Bundesbank at state level.
    Some 50 billion marks of securities are held in such
accounts at the Hesse LZB, which covers the Frankfurt area.
    The change to come into force next month will allow the
Bundesbank access to these accounts to select the bonds itself,
in a process legally comparable to direct debiting.
    At present the Bundesbank generally announces a tender on
Monday, holds the tender late on Tuesday morning, announces the
result early Tuesday afternoon and allocates funds Wednesday.
    The Bundesbank generally sets repurchase pacts running 28
days. But sometimes public holidays result in longer pacts or
longer tender periods being necessary.
    For instance the Bundesbank announced a tender last Friday
to be held today (Wednesday) for crediting funds tomorrow
(Thursday). The advance announcement took into account the
carnival holiday in Duesseldorf on Monday and in Frankfurt
yesterday (Tuesday).
    Central bank officials and money market dealers said the
shortening of the tender process should be seen as purely
technical, with no direct implications for interest rates.
    "It is not a credit policy matter but a technical matter,"
said an official at the Hesse LZB.
    Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl said last December
that security repurchase pacts had proved a much greater
success since their introduction in their present form two
years ago, and praised their flexibility.
    The tender process changes will make the repurchase pact
instrument even more flexible, banking economists said.
    By speeding up the tender process, they will make it
possible for the Bundesbank to offer repurchase pacts for
periods of less than a month, something long sought by banks,
to respond to changing money market conditions.
    "With the help of this instrument liquidity steering will be
refined, but there won't be any effect on interest rates," said
Berliner Handels- und Frankfurter Bank economist Hermann
Remsperger.
    The Bundesbank would be able to react more quickly to money
market developments, but by steering liquidity, not interest
rates, he said.
 REUTER

Shr loss 13 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 1,804,062 vs profit 1,370,063
    Revs 33.5 mln vs 40.4 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 51 cts vs profit cts
    Net loss 7,030,235 vs profit 9,163,141
    Revs 149.4 mln vs 167.9 mln
    NOTE: income before taxes for the 12 mths ended Jan 1987
includes gains 895,000 for fire insurance settlement, and
unusual charges of 7,900,000 for provisions for estimated cost
of severance pay for terminated workers and a one-time
writedown of inventory and equipment.
 Reuter

National Semiconductor
Corp's National Advanced Systems unit said it is accelerating
the delivery schedule for the two most powerful models of its
AS/XL series mainframe processors because of growing customer
demand.
    The company said the AS/XL 90 and AS/XL 100, which had been
scheduled for general availability in the third quarter, will
now be available in the second quarter.
    National Advanced Systems also announced a new 7480
cartridge tape subsystem which uses 18 track compact tape
cartridges.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs 20 cts
    Qtly div two cts vs two cts prior
    Net 223,000 vs 1,418,000
    Sales 15.3 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 61 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 3,106,000 vs 5,940,000
    Sales 63.0 mln vs 59.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits of 63,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,365,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net both periods includes 500,000 dlr pretax inventory
writedown.
    Dividend pay March 27, record March 5.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said its sales of
U.S.-made cars in late February rose 29.3 pct over the same
    The automaker said it sold 51,411 domestic cars in the
February 21-28 period, up from 39,754 last year's period. There
were seven selling days in both periods.
    Ford's sales of U.S. cars for the month of February were up
6.9 pct to 157,031 from 146,898. Year-to-date, the company's
car sales dipped 10.5 pct to 265,301 compared to 296,298.
    Sales of Ford trucks in the late February period increased
48.3 pct to 39,080 from 26,358 vehicles sold in the same period
last year.
    For the month, Ford sold 111,853 trucks, up 16.5 pct on a
daily sales basis from last year, when the company sold 96,058
trucks in the period. Ford's year-to-date truck sales through
February, at 195,694 vehicles against last year's 194,715, were
0.5 pct ahead of the 1986 pace.
 Reuter

Qtly div 23 cts vs 21 cts prior
    Pay April 1
 Reuter

    Pay April 2
 Reuter

Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz
International SA is issuing a 300 mln Luxembourg franc private
placement bond with a 7-1/4 pct coupon at par, lead manager
Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat du Grand-Duche de Luxembourg said.
    The five-year, non-callable bullet bond is for payment on
March 24 and coupon payments are annually on March 25.
 REUTER

MIDLAND RIGHTS ISSUE STILL EXPECTED SAY ANALYSTS LONDON, March
4 - Midland Bank Plc's &lt;MDBL.L&gt; 1986 results suggest its shares
show further recovery potential, although a rights issue is
still expected in the next few months, banking analysts said.
    A rights issue of the order of 400 mln stg is seen, perhaps
in June if there is no U.K. General election, they added.
Midland Chairman Sir Donald Barron would not comment on the
rights question at a news conference.
    Earlier, Midland reported 1986 pre-tax profit of 434 mln
stg, up from 351 mln the previous year, in line with market
forecasts, dealers said. Midland shares were up 14p at 633p.
    Midland said its 1986 results included Crocker National
Corp for the first five months, prior to its sale last May. If
results were restated excluding distortions stemming from the
Crocker sale they would show a 1986 pre-tax profit of 432 mln
stg compared with 366 mln, it said.
    Barron said that after the sale of Crocker and
restructuring during the last two years the group had "put the
past firmly behind us in 1986" and was now "focusing our
considerable resources on the exciting opportunities ahead."
    Chief Executive Sir Kit McMahon said U.K. Operations were
the main source of profits, with 83 pct or 434 mln stg.
    Both net interest income and non-interest income were ahead
of 1985.
    A key component in domestic asset growth was a 96 pct rise
in Midland's mortgage portfolio to 2.7 billion stg, comfortably
exceeding a 2.5 billion target, McMahon said. Overall sterling
advances rose over 18 pct to 20.2 billion stg.
    Pre-tax profits in investment banking rose 27 pct to 65 mln
stg despite the heavy start-up and integration costs. However,
this included the group's full range of activities in this area
from its treasuries operations to its merchant bank to
securities and gilts trading activities.
    No breakdown of this figure was given although McMahon said
venture capital activites contributed 17 mln stg to profit. He
said the group's gilts trading was operating at a profit
although its securities activities were not, but would give no
further details.
    International banking profits rose 80 pct to 54 mln stg,
benefitting from past restructuring and good performances from
European subsidiaries.
    Crocker and the Bracton subsidiary created by Midland to
work out Crocker's problem loans made a loss of 44 mln stg in
1986 against a 35 mln loss in 1985.
    Bracton assets now stood at 300 mln dlrs and had been fully
provisioned, McMahon said.
    Charges for bad and doubtful debts declined to 357 mln stg
against 431 mln the previous year and the bank said that
excluding Crocker, it would have been 320 mln.
    McMahon noted that total cover for bad debts had increased
to three pct of lendings in 1986 from 2.6 pct in 1985. He said
no evidence of increasing consumer credit delinquency and fewer
U.K. Corporate defaults allowed for a lower domestic debt
charge in 1986.
    McMahon said Midland's exposure in South America remained
unchanged on 1985, with 1.4 billion stg outstanding to Brazil,
1.3 billion to Mexico and 600 mln to Argentina.
    Following the lead of the other four major U.K. Banks
Midland moved charges against lending to rescheduling countries
from general to specific provisions.
    This was the key factor behind a reduction in its tax rate
to just under 40 pct in 1986 from 59 pct in 1985, McMahon said.
    One major problem still to be faced by the bank was to
further reduce its cost/income ratio, which is still well above
its competitors at 72 pct, he added.
 REUTER

The cost of living in West Germany will
likely be about 0.5 pct higher on average in 1987 than in 1986,
when the cost of living actually fell by an average 0.2 pct in
the first recurrence of "negative inflation" since the 1950s, the
HWWA economic research institute said.
    The re-emergence of inflation will result mainly from the
fading of two factors which influenced the fall in the 1986
cost of living - the steep decline in both oil prices and the
value of the dollar, the institute said in a report.
    The institute said inflation will see a rising trend in the
course of 1987, but will average only 0.5 pct for the year as a
whole because year on year rates will remain negative in the
first part of 1987.
    Provisional inflation figures for February released last
week showed the cost of living last month was 0.5 pct lower
than in February 1986. In January prices had fallen 0.8 pct
against the same month a year earlier.
    The HWWA said its forecast assumed the dollar would remain
around 1.80 marks and oil prices would range between 15 and 17
dlrs per barrel.
 REUTER

Cereals Monetary Compensatory Amounts,
MCAs, will be unchanged for the week starting March 9, an EC
Commission spokesman said.
    They will be plus 2.4 points for the Netherlands and West
Germany, minus two for Denmark, minus eight for France, minus
nine for Ireland, minus 5.7 for Italy, minus 30.2 for Britain,
minus 44.1 for Greece and minus 10.5 for Spain.
 Reuter

Latin American debtor nations are
still willing to negotiate on their debts, World Bank director
for Latin America and the Caribbean Rainer Steckhan said.
    In an article published in today's Handelsblatt daily,
Steckhan said despite decisions by Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador
and Brazil to suspend some interest payments, these nations
were still willing to talk constructively about their debts.
    "These countries are still prepared to negotiate, and the
instruments of cooperation developed thus far provide the means
to deal with the crisis over time," Steckhan said.
    Several highly indebted nations have made great efforts to
meet their debt payments, especially Latin American countries,
Steckhan said.
    Chile achieved gross national product growth of five to six
pct last year and quadrupled its trade surplus from 1984,
despite lower prices of key commodity exports like copper.
    Mexico, hit by a catastrophic earthquake and declines in
world oil prices also boosted its non-oil exports by one third
in 1986, the highest growth rate in its post-war history.
    The World Bank's annual lending to Latin America rose to
4.8 billion dlrs last year from three billion in 1984, he said.
 REUTER

The Federal Reserve Board voted
unanimously to propose a formula for calculating the risk of
interest rate and currency swaps as part of its ongoing effort
to come up with a new capital standard for U.S. banks that
takes into account the riskiness of a bank's loans and other
assets.
    Fed officials said an identical proposal was being issues
today by the Bank of England.
    The Fed set a 60-day period for public comment on the plan.
    The proposal adopted today addresses only the credit risks
associated with interest rate swaps, forward foreign exchange
contracts and similar financial instruments.
    Previously, the Fed Jan. 8 proposed a series of guidelines
for calculating the risk of other off-balance-sheet activities
that banks would be required to take into account in
calculating the minimum financial cushion they would need to
maintain.
    Both guidelines set five broad categories of risk for loans
and other bank assets and assigned to each a level of risk that
would establish a bank's minimum capital needs.
    The additional guidelines proposed today would determine
the amount of capital support required for a bank's current
exposure for a given asset and the potential future exposure.
    The current exposure would be measured by the
mark-to-market value of the asset, which would reflect the
replacement cost.
    Potential future increases in the replacement cost would be
calculated using credit conversion factors based on statistical
analyses by the staffs of the Bank of England and U.S. banking
regulators. Future exposure would rise over the life of the
asset.
    The Fed staff said the risk gauge attempted to balance
conflicting needs for precision and simplicity.
    They ignore, for example, the relative volatility of the
particular currencies involved in exchange rate contracts.
    Board officials said the new gauge could increase the
capital required of the largest money center banks, which are
the principal participants in these types of activities.
    They cautioned the Fed board to take account of the
potential impact of the plan on the ability of U.S. banks to
compete in world financial markets.
    However, the staff concluded, "The credit risks inherent in
such contracts now constitute a significant element of the risk
profiles of some banking organizations."
    The Fed proposal would exempt all but the 20-25 largest
participants in this market, on grounds the benefits of
including the smaller banks would be outweighed by costs.
    Also excluded would be interest rate and foreign exchange
contracts traded on organized exchanges.
    Governor Martha Seger said she was concerned that Japan was
not involved in the U.K.-U.S. effort to draft new capital
rules.
 Reuter

Oper shr 10 cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 325,000 vs 228,000
    Sales 7,070,000 vs 6,483,000
    Avg shrs 3,313,000 vs three mln
    Year
    Oper shr 69 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper net 2,124,000 vs 1,536,000
    Sales 31.2 mln vs 22.7 mln
    Avg shrs 3,071,000 vs three mln
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods includes 72,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Qtly div 16 cts vs 16 cts prior
    Rcord March 20
 Reuter

Worldwide spot crude oil movements fell
to 30.07 mln long dwt in February from 37.25 mln tons in
January and 41.44 mln in December, London shipbroker Howard
Houlder said.
    The decline mainly reflected a sharp drop in movements out
of the Mideast Gulf, which totalled 7.4 mln tons last month
against 11.65 mln in January. These included shipments to
western options at 2.05 mln tons against 3.59 mln previously.
    Liftings from the Gulf to eastern options fell to 4.15 mln
tons from 5.94 mln and those from the Gulf to other areas
dropped to 1.2 mln tons from 2.13 mln, Howard Houlder said.
    U.K./Continent coastal movements declined sharply to 2.91
mln tons from 4.77 mln but those from the U.K./Continent to the
U.S. rose to 1.99 mln from 1.69 mln.
 Reuter

The 350 mln Ecu three-year package of
social and structural measures agreed early today by European
Community farm ministers features a plan to compensate farmers
for reducing output of certain surplus products, EC Commission
    The ministers agreed that under this "extensification"
scheme, farmers would qualify for compensation if they cut
output of specific products by at least 20 pct.
    The plan would initially apply to cereals, beef, veal and
wine, they added.
    Cereals farmers would have to achieve their output cuts by
reducing acreage, while cattle farmers would reduce their
number of head and vinegrowers would cut yield. In each case,
farmers would have to undertake not to step up their capacity
for output of other products which are in surplus in the EC.
    The sources said payment levels have not yet been fixed but
will be designed to compensate farmers for loss of profit on
the production they forego.
    The sources said the package also contains provisions for
payments to farmers who embark on a program aimed at protecting
or improving the environment.
    It would also mean compensatory allowances in less favoured
farming areas would be extended to crops. At present such
allowances are available only for livestock.
    The package would provide 20 mln Ecus for research into
alternative farming techniques, the sources added.
    At a news conference EC Farm Commissioner Frans Andriessen
said the Commission is also working on proposals to enable the
EC and member states to provide direct income supports for
relatively poor farmers.
    Andriessen did not give full details, but said member state
aid would be subject to "strict criteria to avoid distortion of
competition."
    EC payments would aim to help farmers to survive a
difficult period while the EC tackles the problems of surplus
production.
    The Commission withdrew from the package agreed last night
proposals to pay "early retirement" pensions to farmers aged 55
or over who gave up production. Those who took their land
completely out of farm production, rather than passing it on to
their heirs, would have received more generous payments.
    Andriessen said the Commission plans to present revised
proposals along these lines in an effort to get a scheme
agreed.
 Reuter

National Fuel Gas Co said it has
proposed a plan of reorganization for <Argo Petroleum Corp>.
    The proposal calls for National Fuel's Seneca Resources
Corp subsidiary to receive 75 pct of Argo's principal producing
and undeveloped oil and gas assets in return for refinancing
Argo's debt to Seneca.
    The plan calls for Seneca to made an additional 500,000 dlr
advance to Argo, National Fuel Gas said.
    National Fuel Gas said it reorganzation was proposed in a
term sheet signed by Seneca, Argo and representatives of Argo's
unsecured creditors committee. Seneca became Argo's principal
secured creditor in November when it purchased notes totaling
about 40 mln dlrs from Continental Illinois National Bank and
Trust Co for about 35 mln dlrs.
    National Fuel Gas said the additional advance to Argo would
allow it to capitalize, together with other assets, a new
company for its existing shareholders.
    National Fuel Gas said the plan calls for Argo's existing
secured debt to be refinanced in an 8,875,000 dlr refinancing
note and a 75 pct interest in Argo's principal oil and gas
    Seneca and Argo will enter into a venture to be 75 pct
owned by Seneca and 25 pct by Argo to develop their jointly
owned properties.
    In addition to restructuring and refinancing Argo's
existing debt, Seneca will provide Argo with a two mln dlr
revolving line of credit to finance its 25 pct share of the
venture's development costs, National Fuel Gas said.
    It said the proposed plan calls for Argo oil and gas assets
not subject to the venture to be transferred to a new
corporation. Existing Argo shareholders will receive all the
new company's common stock while its unsecured creditors will
receive 100 pct of the new capital stock of Argo in exchange
for their claims against the company.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Bank of England and the U.S. Federal
Reserve Board have agreed new proposals for joint standards to
measure the risk of an array of credit exposures that do not
show up in bank balance sheets, the Bank of England said.
    The plan, covering swaps, forward contracts and options
involving interest or exchange rates, complements proposals
agreed in January between the two central banks to make
commercial banks in the U.S. And Britain subject to similar
standards for measuring capital adequacy, the proposal said.
    It said no final decisions had been reached yet and banks
have until April 16 to comment on the trunk proposals.
    The Bank of England and Fed said they had faced a dilemma.
    "On the one hand (we) are determined to require adequate
capital support for potential future exposure -- on the other
hand (we) are concerned that overly stringent capital
requirements might unnecessarily affect the ability of U.S. And
U.K. Banking organisations to price...Contracts competitively."
     At the basis of the new proposals lies the concept of the
so-called credit equivalent amount - the current value of a
currency or interest rate contract and an estimate of its
potential change in value due to currency or interest rate
fluctuations until the contract matures.
    In treatment similar to that agreed in January for balance
sheet assets, the credit equivalent will be assigned one of
five risk weights between zero and 100 pct, depending on the
quality of the counterparty, the remaining maturity of the
contract and on collaterals or guarantees to the contract, the
plans showed.
    The proposal showed that collaterals and guarantees would
not be recognised in calculating credit equivalent amounts.
    They would, however, be reflected in the assignment of risk
weights. The only guarantees recognised are those given by U.S.
And U.K. Governments or, in the U.S., By domestic national
government agencies, the proposals showed.
    The paper said the proposed rules would not cover spot
foreign exchange contracts and securities traded in futures and
options exchanges.
    It said U.S. Regulatory authorities and the Bank of England
were keen to encourage banks to "net" contracts -- consolidate
multiple contracts with the same counterparty into one single
agreement to create one single payments stream.
    It recognised that "such arrangements may in certain
circumstances reduce credit risk and wish to encourage their
further development and implementation," and said some of the
current proposals may be changed to take this into account.
 Reuter

Outboard Marine Corp, whose stock is
trading higher, said there were no corporate developments to
account for the rise.
    Outboard Marine was up 2-1/2 to 34 with 48,000 shares
traded.
    A spokesman said the company wasn't planning any
announcements. Several analysts who follow the company also did
not know why Outboard was trading higher.
 Reuter

Piedmont Avaition Inc's board of
directors will conduct a special meeting beginning at 1400 est
today, a Piedmont spokesman said.
    The spokesman would not say what was on the agenda.
    In mid-February, Piedmont said its board would meet to
discuss all proposals to acquire the company. Its board also
withdrew a recommendation to accept a 65 dlrs a share cash
offer from Norfolk Southern Corp <NSC> in light of a competing
revised bid from U.S. Air Group Inc <U>. U.S. Air offer to buy
50 pct of the company's stock for 71 dlrs a share cash, and the
remaining for 73 dlrs a share of its stock.

 Reuter

First Union Real Estate Investments
said its board left the quarterly dividend unchanged at 37-1/2
cts per share, payable April 30, record March 31.
    The trust, which has raised its quarterly dividend
frequently in the past two years and in the first quarter in
both years, said the Tax Reform Act of 1986 has limited its
flexibility on dividends, and trustees will now consider the
appropriateness of any dividend increases only during the later
quarters of the year.

 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 1,456,000 vs 1,925,000
    Sales 258.7 mln vs 290.2 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 77 cts vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 5,384,000 vs 7,658,000
    Sales 804.3 mln vs 760.1 mln
 Reuter

Jamaica will draw down 40.9 mln Special
Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the International Monetary Fund
following IMF approval yesterday of a new credit program for
the island, the government announced.
    Financing from the compensatory facility is meant to offset
losses in export earnings and does not carry the same
conditions attached to other IMF loans.
    The government will also receive 85 mln SDRs under a new
stand-by agreement. The new credit agreement signed in January
was originally to last 15 months, but the government now says
it will go for one year beginning this month.
 REUTER

Periods end January 31, 1987 and 1986
    Shr 12 cts vs nine cts
    Net 507,000 vs 362,000
    Revs 5,010,000 vs 3,558,000
    NOTE: System Software Associates Inc is full name of
company.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 34 cts vs 27 cts prior

 Reuter

Qtly div 19 cts vs 19 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 3,541,000 vs 2,071,000
    Sales 29.9 mln vs 14.5 mln
    Avg shrs 11.6 mln vs 10.4 mln
    NOTE Fourteen vs 13-week periods.
 Reuter

Poland's winter wheat is likely to
survive recent frosts but the impact of the cold will not be
known until late April, the Polish meteorology institute said.
    Some varieties of winter wheat sown in Poland can survive
ground temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees C, Spokesman
Teresa Tomaszewska told Reuters.
    Even though an earlier thin protective layer of snow mainly
melted in February, air temperatures down to minus 30 C should
not be harmful, she said, but added that wheat can still be
damaged by cold spells in March and April, when young shoots
may be exposed to night frosts.
 Reuter

Brown-Forman Inc said at the
suggestion of the American Stock Exchange it has changed the
record date for the 28 ct per share quarterly dividend on its
Class A and Class B common stock that is payable April One to
March 20 from March 13, to coincide with the record date for a
three-for-two stock split declared February 26.
    It said the record date for the dividend on its four pct
cumulative preferred stock has also been changed to March 20
from March 13.
 Reuter

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co said its
1986 results include a tax refund of 75.7 mln dlrs from the
costs of restructuring the company in a successful defense
against a takeover attempt by James Goldsmith.
    Chairman Robert Mercer said, "Heavy restructuring costs
related to the takeover attempt combined with government tax
incentives for investments ... resulted in this federal tax
refund."
    The refund was included but not broken out in its initial
1986 results, a spokesman said. It reported 1986 net income of
124.1 mln dlrs against 412.4 mln dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

Geico Corp said it named two
board members, W. Reid Thompson, chairman and the chief
executive officer of Potomac Electric Power Company, and Norma
Brown, major general US Air Force retired.
   
 Reuter

The United States today handed Soviet
arms negotiators a draft treaty which would eliminate all
superpower medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe and slash
such weapons elsewhere to 100 warheads on each side.
    Maynard Glitman, who heads the American team discussing
medium-range nuclear forces, told reporters the document, "a
full treaty text," was now on the negotiating table.
    The proposal responds to a new Soviet offer to abolish
"Euromissiles" and cut sharply medium-range nuclear forces
elsewhere announced by Mikhail Gorbachev last Saturday.
    The developments have been described by many disarmament
experts as the first real opening for a superpower accord since
they resumed arms control talks in March 1985.
    Glitman presented the draft treaty during a one and a half
hour meeting at the American diplomatic mission with the Soviet
team on medium-range missiles headed by Lem Masterkov.
    He told reporters: "It is a complete document. It has to be
because we want precision. We don't want any ambiguities."
    The draft called for elimination - removal and destruction
- of all superpower medium-range missiles in Europe over five
years and reduction elsewhere during that period to 100 atomic
warheads on each side, Glitman added.
    In Europe, this includes 270 Soviet triple-warhead SS-20's
and 316 single-warhead U.S. Pershing-2 and cruise missiles.
 Reuter

The Great Northern Nekoosa Corp
said it will recommend to shareholders a two-for-one common
    The company said it will make the proposal to shareowners
at its annual mmeting May 6 in Dothan, Ala., near the company's
Great Southern Paper division operations.
    In conjunction with the stock split proposal, the
shareowners will be asked to approve an increase in the
authorized common stock from 60 mln to 150 mln shares, the
    The company said it will propose an increase in its
dividend rate if the split is approved effective with the June
payment.
    The company said the present rate on GNN common is 43 cts
per share. The company said it would recommend a quarterly rate
of 23 cts a share on the split stock. This would be equal to a
dividend of 46 cts a share on the present common, seven pct
higher than the current rate.
    The company said it had increased the dividend by 13 pct
last December. Great Northern Nekoosa's last common stock
split, a three-for-two, was in December 1983, it said.
    As of Dec 31, 1986, there were 26,661,770 shares of GNN
common stock outstanding, according to the company.
 Reuter

Consolidated Edison Co of New York Inc
has agreed to reduce its rates 3.1 pct next month and write-off
50 mln dlrs of deferred debits, New York Governor Mario M.
Cuomo said.
    He told a press conference the 132.5 mln dlr reduction in
annual rates, along with the removal of 50 mln dlrs in fuel
charges from base rates are part of an agreement which will
reduce the utility's base electric rates by about 500 mln dlrs
per year over the next three years and bar any rate increases
until at least April 1990.
    Governor Cuomo said the agreement with Con Ed, which must
be approved by the State Public Service Commission, was
negotiated by the State Consumer Protection Board, Public
Servcice commission Trial Staff, the State Attorney General,
the City of New York and several other parties.
    He said the agreement "will produce the first base eldctric
rate decrease for Con Edison in more than 20 years.
    As a result of an earlier stipulation, we have already had
a four year freeze on Con Edison's base electric rates since
March 1983," he added.
    Con Edison said the agreement reflects reduced federal
taxes and lower interest rates.
    The utility said another factor includes improved economic
conditions in the New York City area, which led to increased
sales.
    It pointed out "declining fuel costs have resulted in an
average 10 pct decrease in our customers' bills since 1984."
 Reuter

investment advisor, said it raised its stake in Builders
Transport Inc to the equivalent of 466,754 shares, or 9.1 pct
of the total outstanding, from 335,800 shares, or 6.7 pct.
Harris said it bought 36,700 Builders Transport common shares
on Feb 10 at 17 dlrs a share. It also said it bought debentures
on Feb 23 that could be converted into 94,254 shares.
    Harris said its dealings in Builders Transport were on
behalf of its advisory clients. It has also said it has no
intention of seeking control of the company.
 Reuter

PaineWebber Inc, The First Boston Corp
<FBC> and Salomon Inc <SB> said Paine Webber Group Inc has
made a public offering of four mln shares of 1.375 dlrs
convertible exchangeable preferred stock, with a liquidation
preferance of 25 dlrs per share.
    The firms, co-managers of the underwriting group, said
Paine Webber originally planned to offer 3.6 mln shares.
    They added the shares are covertible into Paine Webber
Group's common stock at a conversion price of 44.125 dlrs a
share.
    The underwriters also said the Paine Webber Group will use
the offering's proceeds to redeem about 60 mln dlrs of
debentures due 2008 and for general corporate purposes.
    They added that the preferred stock is redeemable, at the
company's option, at prices declining to 25 dlrs per share on
and after March 15, 1997.
    But, they said its is not redeemable before March 15, 1989,
unless Paine Webber Group's common stock price equal or
exceeding 140 pct of the conversion price at the time.
    The group added the preferred stock also can be exchanged
on any dividend payment date beginning June 15, 1989, for the
company's 5-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures due
June 15, 2017.
 Reuter

Failure of talks on re-establishing
International Coffee Organization, ICO, coffee quotas last week
may put political pressure on the United States, particularly
the State Department, to reassess its position, but the U.S. is
unlikely to back away from its basic demand quotas be set by
"objective criteria", U.S. officials said.
    Jon Rosenbaum, assistant U.S. trade representative and head
of Washington's delegation to the talks, told Reuters on his
return from London that the United States is willing to resume
the coffee negotiations as early as April if necessary.
    Rosenbaum said the United States will be "flexible" in
discussing the method of establishing objective criteria and
any transition to new quotas, but not on the basic aim of
establishing an objective method of setting quotas.
    At the ICO talks major consuming nations, led by the U.S.,
proposed that future coffee export quota shares be calculated
by a formula incorporating a producer's recent exportable
production and verified stocks, while large producers led by
Brazil proposed maintaining the traditional ad hoc division of
shares. The consumer position would have in effect reduced the
market share of Brazil, by far the world's largest producer.
    Rosenbaum said the administration would continue to support
legislation now before Congress which would allow the U.S.
customs service to monitor coffee imports, as a way to comply
with any future coffee quotas.
    He said the Reagan administration would be reviewing the
coffee policy situation following the collapse of the London
talks, but "nobody is proposing we change our position."
    However, other U.S. government officials involved in coffee
policy said they are bracing for a diplomatic and coffee market
offensive from producer countries, led by Brazil and Colombia,
to soften the consumer position.
    "Knowing that its next crop is fairly large, Brazil will
kind of want to test the resolve of other producers and
consumers," said one U.S. official.
    The U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said
Brazil and Colombia may flood the coffee market in the next few
months in an effort to drive down prices and pressure other
countries, particularly the splinter group of small producers
who differed with the major producers in London.
    This in turn could lead to urgent appeals from Latin
American countries, faced with mounting debt problems, to the
U.S. State department, and to the National Security Council in
the White House, for an easing of the U.S. position, U.S.
    The State department, a major player in setting U.S. coffee
policy, may then face conflicting pressures, particularly from
politically-sensitive U.S. allies in Central America, U.S.
    El Salvador and Guatemala both backed Brazil and Colombia
at the London talks in resisting pressures for quotas based on
objective criteria. But the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica
joined the splinter group, which said it would agree to
objective criteria.
    There is a strong feeling among some in the State
Department that the United States should continue to support
the splinter group of producers who have taken the
politically-risky step of opposing Brazil on the objective
criteria question, U.S. officials said.
    Within the consuming countries there also is expected to be
some pressure to reassess positions.
    In London, the U.S. was supported by the U.K., the
Netherlands, West Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand on
the issue of objective criteria, U.S. officials said.
    This bloc represented enough votes among consuming nations
to successfully prevent adoption of the producer proposals.
    However, U.S. sources said West Germany's support was at
times qualified and there is some concern that the European
Community could come under pressure to be more accommodative to
producers in future talks. France backed the Ivory Coast and
other African producers during the talks.
    A softening of the EC stance would make it more difficult,
although not impossible, for the U.S. to block producer plans.
    While political manuevering by small producers and
consuming countries will be important, U.S. officials said the
key to any future outcome will be Brazil's position.
    U.S. officials blamed Brazil's intransigence for the
failure of the talks and said a more flexible position from
Brasilia would be the most important step toward agreement.
 Reuter

International Business
Machines Corp said it demonstrated an experimental computer
chip called an opto-electronic receiver that transforms light
into electrical signals that translate into computer language.
    IBM said the chip is two times faster than any similar chip
reported and can read 40 encyclopedia volumes a second.
    The chip is made of gallium arsenide which moves electrical
signals faster than the silicon used in most computer circuits.
    IBM also said that since gallium arsenide is more efficient
in turning light signals into electrical signals, it seems to
be an ideal material for the light-based computer
communications expected to be widely used in the future.
    The chip's speed is also enhanced through the elimination
of wiring by placing the functionally dissimilar photodetector
and transistor circuitry close together.
    Bringing these elements closer together also isolates the
receiver from other electronic circuits and reduces noise and
distortion, it said.
 Reuter

Mark Hammer, a private investor from
Melville, N.Y., and members of his family told the Securities
and Exchange Commission they have acquired a total of 375,200
shares of Exovir Inc, or 12.9 pct of the total outstanding.
    Hammer said his group has been accumulating Exovir stock
since Oct 28, 1985 for investment purposes and may buy more
shares or sell all or part of his current stake.
    While he said he has no intention of seeking control of the
company, Hammer said that because of his "extensive business
experience" and his interest in Exovir stock, he may be
"invited" to become a member of the company's board.
 Reuter

Torrential rains throughout
Argentina's grain-producing areas virtually paralysed coarse
grain harvesting in the week to yesterday, trade sources said.
    Sunflower, maize and sorghum harvests were particularly
affected, they said. But the rains proved to be a great aid to
soybean crops as their harvesting will not begin until April or
May.
    The rains did no damage to maize, sunflower and sorghum
crops though fresh rains in similar volume could reduce yields
and cut the total volume of this year's harvest.
    Rainfall measured between 15 and 270 mm in Buenos Aires,
with the heaviest rains in the province's western sectors,
between 15 and 100 mm in Cordoba, 15 and 120 mm in La Pampa, 10
and 75 mm in Santa Fe, 10 and 60 mm in Entre Rios, five and 40
mm in Misiones, and five and 50 mm in San Luis.
    No rain was recorded in Corrientes, Chaco and Formosa.
    Growers did not revise their estimates for total volume of
the coarse grain harvest over last week's estimates.
    Maize harvesting continued moving forward in central Santa
Fe, though slowly. Growers had harvested seven to nine pct of
total planted area, compared to five to seven pct last week.
    Total maize area planted for the 1986/87 harvest was
estimated at between 3.58 and 3.78 mln hectares, or two to
seven pct less than the 3.85 mln hectares planted in the
1985/86 harvest.
    Maize production is expected to total between 10.4 and 11
mln tonnes, or a drop of 17.5 to 19.4 pct over the 12.4 to 12.6
mln tonnes harvested last year according to private estimates,
or 18.9 to 21.9 pct lower than last year's volume, according to
official figures.
    The sunflower harvest advanced to between seven and nine
pct of total planted area.
    Two to 2.2 mln hectares have been planted with sunflowers
for this harvest, down 29.9 to 36.3 pct from last year's figure
of 3.14 mln hectares.
    Sunflower production is expected to total between 2.4 mln
and 2.7 mln tonnes, which would mean a drop of between 34.1 and
41.5 pct against the record 4.1 mln tonnes harvested in the
    Grain sorghum harvesting inched forward to between two and
four pct of total planted area, which this harvest is 1.23 to
1.30 mln hectares or 10.3 to 15.2 pct less than the 1.45 mln
hectares planted in the 1985/86 harvest.
    Sorghum production is expected to total between 3.2 mln and
3.5 mln tonnes, or 16.7 to 22 pct less than the 4.1 to 4.2
million tonnes harvested in 1985/86.
    Soybean production, by contrast, is expected to hit a
record 8.0 to 8.4 mln tonnes, which would mean an increase of
11.1 to 15.1 pct over last year's record figure of 7.2 to 7.3
mln tonnes, according to private estimates. Official figures
put last year's soybean harvest at 7.1 mln tonnes.
    Soybean crops were reported to be in generally very good
condition, helped by abundant rains and high temperatures.
    Total soybean-planted area for the 1986/87 harvest is
expected to be a record 3.7 to 3.8 mln hectares, up 10.8 to
13.8 pct from last year's harvest figure of 3.34 mln hectares.
 Reuter

The Western Airlines unit of Delta
Air Lines Inc said its February load factor fell to 52.6 pct
from 57 pct a year earlier and its year-to-date load factor was
down to 52.2 pct from 54.8 pct during the same period last
year.
    February revenue passenger miles rose to 790 mln from 786
mln a year earlier and year-to-date revenue miles were up to
1.64 billion from 1.60 billion.
    Available seat miles for the month increased to 1.50
billion from 1.38 billion and for the first two months of the
year available miles were up to 3.14 billion from 2.92 billion,
Western Airlines said.
 Reuter

has signed a letter of intent to acquire substantially all of
the assets of Computer Access Corp for undisclosed terms.
    Computer Asscess makes BlueFish full-text search and
retrieval software for International Business Machines Corp
<IBM> and compatible personal computers.
    The company said the acquisition is subject to approval by
both boards.
 Reuter

Oper shr 78 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper net 7,030,000 vs 4,944,000
    Revs 126.6 mln vs 120.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.59 dlrs vs 89 cts
    Oper net 14.7 mln vs 9,864,000
    Revs 425.1 mln vs 416.9 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes realized gains on investment of 73,000
dlrs vs 4,224,000 dlrs in quarter and 6,253,000 vs 14.5 mln
dlrs in year.
    Net excludes discontinued Massachusetts Casualty operations
loss 5,180,000 dlrs vs gain 778,000 dlrs in quarter and gain
9,214,000 dlrs vs gain 3,504,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Qtly div 21 cts vs 16-1/4 cts prior
 Reuter

Cheyenne Resources Inc said it
has restructured its 499,750 debt to the First Interstate Bank
of Denver to 250,000.
    It said it gave the bank 500,000 shares of restricted
Cheyenne Resources common stock. It said it would pay the
balance on a monthly basis over 28 months.
    Cheyenne also reported it had settled out of court a
112,000 dlr judgment against it for 60,000 dlrs. It said the
judgment involved a land sale which Cheyenne refused payment on
after it learned it was not the land advertised in the sale.
 Reuter

The European Community Commission today
appointed its chief spokesman, Hugo Paemen, as its top official
in charge of multilateral trade negotiations, a Commission
    Paemen, a Belgian official who had previously been chief
aide to former External Affairs Commissioner Etienne Davignon,
has been in his post since January 1985.
    The spokesman said Paemen will continue as chief spokesman
until the retirement on May 1 of Paul Luyten, who is now in
charge of EC departments handling negotiations in the world
trade body GATT, the OECD and other forums.
 Reuter

Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., said he
intended to offer legislation that would allow 1987 producers
of wheat, feedgrains, cotton and rice to receive at least 92
pct of their deficiency payments, regardless of how much they
planted.
    Boschwitz told the Senate Agriculture Committee that
applying the so-called 0/92 provision to 1987 crops was
supported by the Reagan administration and would save
approximately 500 mln dlrs, including 266 mln dlrs in corn
payments, 90 mln dlrs in wheat and 30 mln dlrs in cotton.
    The Minnesota senator said he might offer the bill on the
Senate floor or in a conference committee with the House of
Representatives in the event a similar bill before the House
Agriculture Committee is approved by that body.
    Boschwitz told Reuters that neither he nor the U.S.
Agriculture Department had decided whether or how deficiency
payments should be guaranteed to farmers who might choose not
to plant under the decoupling scheme.
    If payments are not set in advance under decoupling, market
prices conceivably could rise, thereby leading to diminished
deficiency payments.
    Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
said he wanted to go to conference with the House as soon as
possible on the issue, but would have to study the matter
further before deciding how he would vote on it.
 Reuter

met his Swiss counterpart Otto Stich, Swiss Economics Minister
Jean-Pascal Delamuraz and National Bank President Pierre
Languetin on the fourth leg of a tour to discuss his country's
debt problems.
    Funaro told reporters his trip, which has already taken him
to London, Paris and Bonn, was aimed at explaining his
country's stance to governments. Talks with commercial banks
will take place at a later date.
    Funaro said a mechanism would have to be found to end
Brazil's debt crisis but it would not be easy.
    Brazil would not repeat the measures it took in response to
its debt crisis of 1982, which he said had provoked the biggest
recession in his country's history, he added.
    He said European and Japanese banks were showing a more
flexible attitude towards Brazil's problems than U.S. Banks and
it was difficult to discuss capitalisation with the latter.
    A Swiss official said the Brazilian delegation had made no
demands.
    Funaro, who travels to Italy this evening, said it was
unclear if he would go to Japan on Friday or return to Brazil
first.
 REUTER

The world trade body GATT has decided to
set up an arbitration panel to rule on objections by Canada and
the European Community to a customs user fee imposed by the
U.S. Government, a GATT spokesman said.
    Canada and the EC told a GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade) council meeting that the fee, which imposes a tax on
an ad valorem basis on imports as of December 1, 1986, is
illegal under GATT rules.
    U.S. Ambassador Michael Samuels said the fee, imposed by
the U.S. To help cover customs expenditure as part of the
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, does
not breach GATT rules and is similar to fees charged by many
other countries.
    Samuels suggested that a working party be set up to examine
the dispute, instead of a panel empowered to rule on it.
    In another development, Hong Kong, supported by a large
number of developing countries, attacked the "textile and
apparel trade act of 1987" introduced in the U.S. Congress last
February 19.
    Hong Kong representative Michael Cartland said the bill is
"blatantly protectionist." He added there is "almost nothing about
the bill which could be regarded as in any way consistent with
either the GATT or the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA)."
    If the bill were to be passed by Congress, Cartland said "it
would forestall any attempt to negotiate liberalisation of
world trade in textiles."
    GATT's council also decided to set up a working party to
study China's application for full GATT membership. The group
is due to report to the next GATT council meeting on April 15.
 Reuter

National Healthcare Inc said it has
received a waiver until May 26 of its technical defaults under
covenants of its bank credit agreement.
    The company said that under an amendment to the credit
agreement, its line of credit has been cut to 125 mln dlrs due
to reduced requirements for acquisition financing, interest on
all borrowings has been increased and National Healthcare has
agreed to provide additional collateral.
    It said the banks have advanced it another six mln dlrs for
working capital, bringing the total borrowed against the line
to about 120 mln dlrs.
    National Healthcare said that during the waiver period it
intends to seek more permanent modifications to covenants of
the bank credit agreement.
 Reuter

McDonald's Corp said it filed a
shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission
covering 300 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    McDonald's said it intends to issue the securities from
time to time, denominated in U.S. dollars, and/or other
currencies including European Currency Units.
    Proceeds may be used for debt refinancings, capital
expenditures and other general corporate purposes, the company
said.
 Reuter

The new European Community dairy
regime agreed last night is too complicated and may destabilise
prices, Abele Kuypers, secretary of the dairy section of the
Dutch farmers' organisation Landbouwschap said.
    He welcomed the decision to write off existing stocks of
butter and skimmed milk powder and agreed there should be some
reduction of pressure on stores but said the Landbouwschap was
unhappy at the mechanism for limiting sales to intervention
except when prices fall too far.
    But Harm Schelhaas, chairman of the Milk Commodity Board,
was less worried by the new dairy regime. Dutch milk output
will fall by up to six pct this year due to the new regime, but
cheese output should rise, he said.
 Reuter

India bought up to 10 cargoes of white
sugar at a buying tender today which originally called for just
two to three cargoes of March/April shipment, traders said.
    London trader E D and F Man said it sold two cargoes at 233
dlrs a tonne CIF for March/April shipment with an option to
sell an additional two cargoes at the same price.
    Traders said at least one other international trader made a
similar contract while a French house sold two cargoes at an
outright price of 233 dlrs CIF without the option. This brought
total Indian purchases to at least six cargoes with traders
having options to sell another four.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said sales of its
U.S.-built cars rose 11 pct in the February 20-28 period to
30,634 units compared to 27,526 in the period a year ago.
    There were seven selling days in both periods.
    For the month of February sales fell two pct to 78,508 cars
from 80,322 a year ago.
    Year-to-date sales were not immediately available.
 Reuter

The Department of Transportation said
it has tentatively awarded the Baltimore to London route to
Trans World Airlines Inc.
    The DOT issued a show cause order which give interested
parties seven days to question the decision.
    In addition, the White House must decide on the choice
under foreign policy and national security grounds.
    The DOT said the route became avaialable when it was
abandoned last September by World Airways Inc.
 REUTER

Hayes-Albion Corp said it has
delayed the special meeting at which shareholders will vote on
its merger into Harvard Industries Inc <HAVA> until March 24
from March 17 due to a delay in Securities and Exchange
Commission clearance of proxy materials.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss nine cts vs profit 12 cts
    Oper net loss 1,791,000 vs profit 2,336,000
    Sales 242.9 mln vs 225.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 15 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Oper net profit 2,925,000 vs loss 3,324,000
    Sales 1.01 billion vs 875.6 mln
    NOTE: Net includes discontinued operations gain 2,437,000
dlrs vs loss 190.0 mln dlrs in quarter and losses 75.6 mln dlrs
vs 227.7 mln dlrs in year.
    Net includes loss 294,000 dlrs vs nil in quarter and gain
224.8 mln dlrs vs loss 1,750,000 dlrs in year from settlement
of liabilities under plan of reorganization from Chapter 11
bankruptcy.
    1986 quarter net includes 2,300,000 dlr provision for loss
on future store closings offset by reduction in pension
liabilities.
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said it filed a
shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange commission
for debt securities totaling 900 mln dlrs.
    The company, which has 576,000 dlrs remaining from a shelf
registration of 450 mln dlrs last June, said the borrowing is
intended for general corporate purposes, including the
refinancing of existing indebtedness, additions to working
capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions.
    Kodak said there is no specific need at this time.
 Reuter

Centerior Energy Corp's Cleveland
Electric Illuminating Co subsidiary sdaid it will redeem on
April Three all 75 mln dlrs of its 16-5/8 pct first mortgage
bonds due 2012 at 1,120 dlrs per 1,000 dlrs principal amount
plus accrued interest of 14.78 dlrs.
    It said funds for the redemption came from the sale of 300
mln dlrs of 9-3/8 pct first mortgage bonds due 2017 in February.
 Reuter

that an administrative law judge had recommended that small
package service between the United States and Tokyo be granted
to Federal Express Corp <FDX>.
    A final decision by the department is expected within 90
days.
    In addition, the department said the law judge recommended
that backup service be granted to <Orion Air Inc>. The order,
if finally approved, would be for five years in the case of
Federal and one year in the case of Orion.
 Reuter

Comdata Network Inc said it is
in active talks with other parties on a possible acquisition or
recapitalization of Comdata in an effort to maximize
shareholder values.
    Comdata said <Rosewood Financial Inc> together with
<Cypress Partners LP> and <Driftwood Ltd> have acquired over
five pct of Comdata stock and Rosewood intends to acquire over
15 pct of Comdata.
    Comdata said it has not yet reached a definitive agreement
with <Mason Best Co> for the previously-announced
recapitalization and self-tender offer.
 Reuter

Northgate Exploration Ltd said year-end
1986 ore reserves at its two Chibougamau mines in Quebec fell
to 8,141,150 short tons grading 0.077 ounce gold a ton and 1.63
pct copper from year-earlier 8,462,000 tons grading 0.077 ounce
gold ton and 1.67 pct copper.
    The company said it launched a 700,000 dlr exploration
program at the mines to increase production and ensure the
operations' continued long life.
    Ore production totaled 650,653 tons last year, it said,
estimating year-end reserves contained about 627,000 ounces of
gold and 265 mln pounds of copper.
 Reuter

Shr loss 51 cts vs loss 44 cts
    Net loss 1.8 mln vs loss 1.5 mln
    Revs 3.1 vs 5.4 mln
    Nine months
    Shr loss 1.16 dlrs vs loss 1.33 dlrs
    Net loss 4.0 mln vs loss 4.6 mln
    Revs 9.9 mln vs 12.3 mln
 Reuter

Porsche Cars North America said it
sold 1,815 cars during February, down from 2,129 cars during
February of 1986.
    The company said sales since the beginning of the year
totaled 3,469, down from 3,862 a year earlier.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 613,986 vs 534,093
    Revs 9,494,570 vs 7,591,564
    Year
    Shr 41 cts vs 59 cts
    Net 2,151,130 vs 3,111,317
    Revs 35.9 mln vs 33.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gains from discontinued operations
equal to three cts compared with nine cts in 1985.
 Reuter

Turkey expects a 1986 balance of payments
deficit of 1.5 billion dlrs, well over target, but is taking
steps to improve its performance in this and other fields, Ali
Tigrel, director of economic planning at the State Planning
Organisation said.
    He told Reuters the shortfall was a direct consequence of
economic growth of nearly eight pct, up from 5.1 pct in 1985,
which he said resulted mostly from a surge in domestic demand.
    Tigrel acknowledged a need to cut inflation further after a
drop of more than 12 points to 24.6 pct in the Treasury
wholesale index last year.
    This year's target of 20 pct "might be attainable but the
economic management will have to be careful," he said.
    Tigrel, whose department produces the annual programme
which is central to the government's economic planning, said
Turkey's creditworthiness was at risk over the current account
shortfall, originally targeted at 695 mln dlrs.
    "We must alleviate the current account substantially to
sustain the creditworthiness that we have managed to secure
over the last five years," he added.
    His comment echoed last October's Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development report on Turkey, which said
Ankara's case for more medium-term financing on better terms
would look better if inflation were lower and the current
account deficit cut or turned into a surplus.
    "In 1987 we must reduce the rate of growth in public sector
investments, we must reduce the public sector deficit as a
percentage of GNP and we must achieve a very visible
improvement in the current account deficit," he said.
    Tigrel said a surge in public sector spending last year was
also to blame for the high deficits.
    Appropriations to government departments had been cut by
eight pct since the budget was passed in December and foreign
borrowing by municipalities had been restrained.
    "We are trying make sure that public bodies stick to the
investment programme and do not exceed their appropriations," he
said. It was hoped to bring the public sector borrowing
requirement down to five pct of GNP in 1987 from an estimated
5.6 pct in 1986.
    More modest GNP growth of five pct for 1987 was also
targeted, Tigrel said. Measures were being taken to encourage
exports, and production incentives were being considered.
    "We must try to make sure that more capacity is injected
into the Turkish economy in the coming years. The promotion
policy is geared to make sure that both foreign investment and
local private capital come more into play as far as
manufacturing capacity is concerned," Tigrel said.
    He said the process of structural adjustment of the Turkish
economy to free market policies, begun in 1980, was still under
way. Trade had been liberalised and a freer exchange rate
policy applied, but he acknowledged there was more to be done
in a country where the state still dominates industry and the
currency is only partially convertible.
 REUTER

United Auto Workers vice president Marc
Stepp said he will meet with reporters this afternoon on the
union's negotiations with American Motors Corp.
    A union spokesman was not immediately available to discuss
the content of the press conference, set to begin at 1530 EST.
    Both the union and American Motors this week have voiced
willingness to return to the negotiating table to try to hammer
out a contract for UAW workers at the automakers' Kenosha,
Wis., facility, after talks broke down last weekend.
     An American Motors spokesman said no time or place has yet
been set to resume the talks.
 Reuter

Drilling for oil in California is
likely to continue at last year's sharply reduced levels
despite recent gains in crude oil prices, industry analysts
said.
    Because much of the crude oil in California fields is
thick, heavy and expensive to extract, oil prices would have to
increase to near 1985's levels before any significant recovery
is seen in drilling, they said.
    "Companies will probably only drill their best prospects,"
said John Curti, an analyst with Birr Wilson Securities Inc.
    Few new wells now are being drilled.
    Only 33 rigs, about one-quarter of the total available,
were drilling for oil onshore in California last week, compared
to about 70 last year, said Bill Bolster of Munger Oil
Information Services, which tracks California drilling
activity.
    "It's in the dregs right now," said Bolster of the state's
drilling activity.
    Current prices are not enough to justify increased
drilling, said Ed Malmgreen of the California Independent
Producers Association.
    While an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pact
to curb production boosted oil prices early this year, prices
eventually fell.
    Prices for California's marker grade, Line 63 blend, have
slumped about 20 pct in the last month to 14 dlrs from a high
of about 17 dlrs.
    More than half of California's oil comes from stripper
wells, those producing less than 10 barrels a day, and that
much of that oil costs between 18 and 25 dlrs a barrel to
extract, Malmgreen said.
    "It's not unusual for a stripper well to cost 18 dlrs,"
Malmgreen said.
    Many stripper wells along the southern California coast
produce eight times as much water as crude oil, and inland
wells frequently require the use of steam injection to spur
extraction of the thick, heavy oil, he said.
    The outlook for future production in California is clouded
by a lack of exploratory drilling now, analysts said.
    In the heart of California's oil patch, Kern County, which
produces about two-thirds of the state's oil, exploratory
drilling has slowed to a crawl.
    Only 55 exploratory wells were drilled in Kern County in
1986, compared to 137 in 1985, according to David Mitchell of
the state energy commission. So far this year only five
exploratory wells have been drilled.
    "I don't think they'll even get to what they did last
year," Mitchell said.
    No pickup in exploratory drilling is likely for the rest of
the decade, Mitchell said.
    Along with the fall in drilling has come a decrease in the
number of producing wells and overall production.
    Between February and October of 1986, the number of
producing oil wells in California fell 14 pct to 43,521 from
more than 50,000, said Bill Guerard of the California Energy
Commission.
    In line with that decrease, California's crude oil output
fell about 10 pct last year due to low oil prices and is
expected to remain at that lower level, analysts said.
    Between February and October 1986, California's crude oil
production slipped from an all-time high of 1.185 mln barrels
per day to 1.066 mln bpd, Guerard said.
    Total estimated crude oil production in California for 1986
was 408 mln bbls, compared with 424 mln bbls in 1985 and 405
mln bbl in 1983, according to the California Department of
Conservation.
    "Production in 1987 will probably hold around 1986 levels,"
Guerard said.
 Reuter

President Reagan angrily denounced
press reports that his wife, Nancy, is running the government
as "despicable fiction."
    He said the reports had "touched a nerve."
    Reagan made the comments at a photo session with William
Webster, his nominee as head of the Central Intelligence
Agency.
    The president and Mrs Reagan celebrate their 35th wedding
anniversary today as Reagan prepares to make an address to the
nation on the Iran-contra scandal tonight.
    When a reporter asked about Mrs Reagan's role in
government, Reagan replied: "I think this is being bandied by
the press. That is fiction and I think it is despicable
fiction.  And a lot of people ought to be ashamed of
themselves."
    Pressed for further comment, Reagan said, "The idea that she
is involved in governmental decisions and so forth... and being
a kind of a dragon lady, there is nothing to that."
    Reagan flatly denied that that his wife had had a role in
the departure from the White House last Friday of Reagan's
chief of staff, Donald Regan, as has been widely reported.
    Regan's successor, former senator Howard Baker, was in the
room as Reagan made his comments.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said car sales for
February 21 through 28 were off 8.6 pct to 98,036 from 107,207
a year before.
    The company said truck sales for the period were up 10.9
pct to 42,593 from 38,402 a year before.
    It said for the full month, car sales were off 20.7 pct to
286,771 from 361,785 a year before, and truck sales were off
4.9 pct to 118,245 from 124,336.
    GM said year-to-date car sales were off 29.3 pct to 529,206
from 748,119 a year before and truck sales were off 13.3 pct to
207,241 from 238,955.
    GM said February sales showed improvement from the low
point reached in January and it expects the improvement to
continue in coming months.
    It said economic factors, including positive consumer
attitudes about buying new vehicles, remain favorable.
    GM noted that its divisions are offering a variety of car
and truck incentive programs this year.
 Reuter

Standard Oil Co said the Friendswood
Development Number One well in the Fostoria or Deep Wilcox
Field of Montgomery County, Texas, flowed 4,500,000 cubic feet
of natural gas per day from depths of 14,252 to 14,486 feet
through a 14/64 inch choke.
    It said it has contracted for Perry Gas Cos Inc to purchase
natural gas from the well, and Perry will build a four-inch
gathering pipeline to connect to Natural Gas Pipeline Co's
transmission line.
 Reuter

Webcor Electronics Inc said it
remains in technical and payment default under its revolving
credit agreement and in technical default under certain other
obligations to its lender.
    Although its lender has not enforced its right to demand
payment of the debt in full, it continues to reserve its right
to do so at any time, it said.
    Earlier, Webcor reported a third quarter net loss of 1.8
mln dlrs and nine months net loss of 4.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it will offer a
special finance rate support program on some Oldsmobile cars.
    General Motors said that, as an alternative to its ongoing
rate option sale program, buyers can opt for a special finance
rate. Buyers may select 3.9 pct financing on 24 month
contracts, a 7.9 pct interest rate on 36 month contracts, 8.9
pct on 48 month term loans, or 9.9 pct on 60 month loans.
    The new incentive program, which ends April 30, applies to
deliveries of eligible models from stock. Models covered by the
program include Calais, Cutless Ciera and Cutless Supreme,
Custom Cruiser, Delta 88 and Firenza.
 Reuter

First Savings Bank of
Florida said it expects a special shareholder meeting to be
held around May 21 to consider the proposed merger into
Gibraltar Financial Corp <GFC>.
    It said the annual meeting will be held April 30 to elect
two directors and ratify the appointment of auditors.
 Reuter

The government daily Izvestia said a
considerable amount of Soviet winter crops need to be reseeded
and the state 1987 grain harvest target of 232 mln tonnes will
not be easy to fulfil.
    Without giving figures, the newspaper said: "A considerable
part of the winter crops must be reseeded, but that creates
extra effort in the fields in spring."
    The Soviet Union has previously said nine mln hectares of
winter grain will have to be reseeded because of winterkill.
    A U.S. Department of Agriculture analyst in Washington has
said the figure of nine mln hectares would equal about 25 pct
of the total winter crop and would be the second highest
winterkill in 10 years.
    "The planned task of bringing in no less than 232 mln tonnes
of grain is not simple," Izvestia said.
    This week's sudden fall in temperatures has affected large
parts of the country and has caused fieldwork to stop in the
Ukraine, it said, adding that temperatures fell to as low as
minus 30 centigrade in Byelorussia.
 Reuter

<Morrison Petroleums Ltd> said
it will have a net gain after taxes of 1,580,000 dlrs or 29 cts
a share from the 2,750,000 dlr sale of 200 acres of real estate
in Oshawa, Ontario.
    Proceeds increased working capital to 12.0 mln dlrs and
were invested in short term deposits, the company said.
 Reuter

Central Bank director Daniel Marx
said Argentina's creditor banks were divided on the country's
request for rescheduling its foreign debt.
    "There are difficulties (among the banks) to reach an
agreement and find a unanimous decision," Marx told a local
radio station in a telephone interview from New York.
    Argentina's great efforts to comply with obligations on its
50 billion dlr foreign debt should be met by a reduction in
interest rates on the part of the creditor banks, he said.
    Marx is in New York with Argentina's debt negotiating team
holding talks with the creditor banks' steering committee.
    Marx said the talks should not drag on. "If Venezuela and
Mexico have concluded their negotiations, we want to end (ours)
in a reasonable manner and as soon as possible," he said.
    Economy ministry sources said the steering committee was
expected today to make a counter-proposal not unlike that made
by Treasury Secretary Mario Brodersohn at the start of the
talks between the two parties.
    Argentina is seeking a 2.15 billion dlr loan to meet four
pct growth targets in 1987. It also wants lower interest rates
on its foreign debt. The United States said last week it would
support a 500 mln dlr bridging loan for Argentina.
 REUTER

Safeway Stores Inc said it
agreed to sell the assets and operations of its Salt Lake City
Division to Borman's Inc under undisclosed terms.
    The division includes 60 operating supermarkets in five
states, most of which are in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, together
with distribution and manufacturing facilities, Safeway said.
    It said sales for the division for the year ended January
three were about 350 mln dlrs.
    Safeway also said the transaction is subject to Borman's
ability to obtain financing and to successfully negotiate new
labor agreements with the various unions involved.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co of Canada, 90
pct-owned by Ford Motor Co <F>, said February car sales fell
six pct to 13,734 units from year-earlier 14,589 units.
    Year-to-date car sales fell one pct to 25,534 units from
25,851 units the previous year, it said.
 Reuter

Fisher Foods Inc said
<American Financial Corp> has sold its 1,500,000 Fishers
shares, a 44 pct interest, to a group consisting of <American
Seaway Foods Inc>, <Rini Supermarkets Inc> and <Rego
Supermarkets Inc>.
    The company said in connection with the transaction, all
five American Financial representatives have resigned from its
board.
 Reuter

American Motors Corp said its
U.S. car sales for the February 21 to 28 period dropped 65 pct
to 926 cars from 2,672 cars in the same period a year ago.
    Domestic sales for the month were off 61 pct to 2,501 cars
from 6,472 cars in February last year, American Motors said.
    Year-to-date U.S. car sales declined 62 pct to 4,922 from
12,861 cars in the comparable period of 1986, the automaker
said.
    American Motors is controlled by Renault of France.
 Reuter

Home Intensive Care Inc
said it extended by 11 days the period of time during which its
callable March cumulative convertible preferred stock may be
converted at the current conversion ratio of 2.2 shares of
common stock for every preferred share.
    The conversion ratio is now in effect until the close of
business on March 16, after which the ratio drops to two shares
of common stock for every preferred share until March 5, 1988.
 Reuter

approved a measure that would exempt farmers who planted
alfalfa or other multiyear grasses and legumes between 1981 and
1985 from a federal conservation requirement.
    Sen. Edward Zorinsky, D-Neb., said his bill would restore
equity under federal sodbuster rules, which currently deny farm
program benefits to farmers who, between 1981 and 1985, planted
alfalfa and other multiyear grasses and legumes without
interrupting the plantings with a row crop.
    An official from a leading conservation group, who asked
not to be identified, said the panel's move was "an unfortunate
first action" because it could lead to the exemption of
potentially millions of acres from the sod buster regulations,
established under the 1985 farm bill.
 Reuter

AVX Corp said it has entered a
two mln dlr settlement with the U.S. government and the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pay for damage claims against
the company for contaminating the New Bedford, Mass., harbor
with polychloride biphenyls (PCBs).
    As part of the agreement, AVX said the government and
Massachusetts have agreed to release it from further
liabilities for polluting the harbor.
    AVX said it has fully provided for the settlement's cost in
its 1986 financial statements.
    AVX, a multilayer ceramic capacitor producer, said the
government had estimated damages to the harbor at about 50 mln
dlrs.
    But, it added, the government, the state and the
Environmental Protection Agency are still awaiting the
completion of studies to determine whether they will recommend
a cleanup and what it will cost.
    The studies will be completed next year, AVX added.
    AVX said it is one of five defendents involved in the
pollution litigation.
    AVX said it is also engaged in litigation with its insurers
to determine the applicability and the amount of coverage
available to indemnify the company for payment of the the two
mln dlr settlement or its share of the cleanup, if any.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 103,664 vs loss 326,675
    Revs 7.6 mln vs 6.9 mln
    Six months
    Shr loss two cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 78,246 vs loss 522,868
    Revs 14.7 mln vs 12.9 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes gain of 43,185 or one cts in 2nd qtr
and six months for discount on early long-term debt repayment.
 Reuter

Wall Street traders said the stock of
Outboard Marine Corp was rising on a rumor over a cable
television program that Outboard is a likely takeover target of
Sun Chemical Corp <SNL>.
    Outboard was up 3-1/8 to 34-5/8. On Tuesday it rose 1-3/8
to 31-1/2 Tuesday.
    A report on Cable News Network today said Sun Chemical has
4.9 pct of Outboard and is conducting a study on whether to go
for control of the whole company.
    An Outboard Marine spokesman would not comment on the
rumor.
    The cable program said a buyout of Outboard would be for up
to 40 dlrs a share, or for a total of 680 mln dlrs.
    A spokesman for Sun Chemical was not immediately available.
    Outboard Marine last June adopted a shareholder rights plan
that will be triggered when a person or group acquires
beneficial ownership of 20 pct or more of its common or begins
a tender offer that would result in 30 pct ownership.
    Wayne Jones, vice president at Outboard for strategic
planning, said management wants to stay independent. "We are
not trying to sell the company. We are proceeding with our
strategic plans," he said.
    That plan includes integrating five boat companies that
Outboard Marine has bought since the middle of December. Jones
said all five will cost between 100 mln dlrs to 120 mln dlrs.
    An analyst who wanted anonymity said 40 dlrs a share is a
"decent" price for outboard. "A bdding war to 50 or 60 dlrs a
share is stretching it. Maybe 45 dlrs a share tops," he said.
    Outboard, which has 17 mln shares outstanding, is in
registration for a two mln common share offering with Morgan
Stanley Inc. It makes sense, the analyst said, for Sun Chemical
to strike before the offering is underway.
 Reuter

Cadema Corp said it entered a
letter of intent with a national underwriting firm for an
offering of five mln dlrs worth of convertible preferred stock.
    Cadema said it will file a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission later this month for the
offering. Proceeds will be used to fund clinical trials for the
company's treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and metastatic
bone cancer.
    It also said it increased the size of its board to six from
five members.
 Reuter

Audiotronics Corp said it registered
with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer five mln
dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures due 2002.
    H.J. Meyers and Co Inc will manage the underwriting of the
offer.
    The company said proceeds will be used to repay bank debt
and for working capital.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Oper shr 36 cts vs 39 cts
    Oper net 1,391,000 vs 1,485,000
    Revs 61.6 mln vs 58.5 mln
    YEAR
    Oper shr 70 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Oper net 2,677,000 vs 4,410,000
    Revs 207.6 mln vs 200.2 mln
    Note: 1986 net excludes extraordinary loss of 297,000 dlrs
or eight cts shr vs yr-ago gain of 514,000 dlrs or 13 cts shr.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit four cts vs loss four cts
    Oper net profit 151,448 vs loss 170,709
    Sales 11.5 mln vs 9,581,406
    NOTE: Prior year net includes 123,650 dlr tax credit but
excludes 52,409 dlr gain on early debt retirement.
 Reuter

French soft wheat exports to other
European Community countries fell 18 pct to 4.13 mln tonnes in
the first seven months of the 1986/87 season to January
compared with 5.04 mln in the same 1985/86 period, the French
Cereals Intervention Office (ONIC) said.
    According to latest ONIC statistics, the main buyers were
Italy with 1.89 mln against 1.63 mln in the same 1985/86
period, West Germany 480,450 tonnes against 717,689, the
Netherlands 462,048 (532,299) and Belgium 417,887 tonnes
(919,337).
    British and Greek imports of French soft wheat during this
period were below year-ago levels. Between July 1 last year and
January 31, Britain bought 274,665 tonnes against 642,800
tonnes, ONIC figures showed.
    But Spanish purchases were up sharply at 258,507 tonnes
against 2,751 tonnes in the same 1985/86 period and Portugal
bought 37,599 tonnes compared with zero.
    ONIC said the drop in French exports to other Community
countries was due to British competition.
 Reuter

Shr 61 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 670,000 vs 194,000
    Revs 10.7 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Six months
    Shr 73 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 798,000 vs 377,000
    Revs 19.5 mln vs 19.8 mln
    NOTE:1987 net includes gain of 362,000 dlrs in 2nd qtr and
431,000 dlrs in six months from tax loss carryforward.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss five cts vs loss 24 cts
    Oper net loss 165,000 vs loss 802,000
    Revs 4,988,000 vs 3,101,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss 13 cts vs loss 1.33 dlrs
    Oper net loss 454,000 vs loss 4,407,000
    Revs 23.1 mln vs 8,937,000
    NOTE: Results restated for discontinued operations.
    1986 net both periods excludes 143,000 dlr tax credit.
    Net excludes gains from discontinued pipelines and
terminals operations of 216,000 dlrs vs 99,000 dlrs in quarter
and 527,000 dlrs vs 296,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 2,517,443 vs 3,633,217
    Revs 79.1 mln vs 76.3 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.57 dlrs vs 3.41 dlrs
    Net 11.7 mln vs 15.4 mln
    Revs 305.1 mln vs 314.3 mln
 Reuter

will report a gain of 2,900,000 dlrs or 89 cts per share on the
previously-announced sale of its pipelines and terminals
segment in first quarter results.
 Reuter

pct-owned by Ford Motor Co, said February car sales fell six
pct to 13,734 units from year-earlier 14,589 units.
 Reuter

HCC Industries said its board has
authorized the purchase from time to time of up to 150,000
    Currently, HCC has about 1,775,000 shares outstanding.
    The company said although the purchases will reduce working
capital, it believes its liquidity will not be impaired.
 Reuter

Qtly div 17 cts vs 17 cts prior
 Reuter

acquired all the outstanding stock of closely-held Analytichem
International Inc for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Analytichem, based in Harbor City, Calif., is a supplier of
bonded phase preparation products used to prepare chemical
samples for analysis, Varian said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.05 dlrs vs profit nine cts
    Oper net loss 30.5 mln vs profit 3,930,000
    Revs 23.9 mln vs 45.6 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 5.30 dlrs vs profit 34 cts
    Oper net loss 155.8 mln vs profit 16.0 mln
    Revs 113.7 mln vs 178.8 mln
9,127,000 dlrs vs 12.4 mln dlrs for qtr and 28.4 mln dlrs vs
960,000 dlrs for 12 mths.
    Note: Oper includes writedown of offshore drilling
equipment of 5,070,000 dlrs for qtr and 27.9 mln dlrs for 12
mths.
    Also includes writedowns of oil and gas assets and tubular
goods inventory of 82.2 mln dlrs and 4,246,000 dlrs,
respectively, for 12 mths.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 1.1 mln vs 1.7 mln
    Revs 11.7 mln vs 10.6 mln
    NOTE:Full name is Suspensions and Parts Industries Ltd.
 Reuter

The size of French 1986/87 carryover
barley stocks, estimated at 1.72 mln tonnes compared with
700,000 tonnes in 1985/86 is worrying, French Cereals
Intervention Office (ONIC) Director Bernard Vieux said.
    He told journalists these estimates were unchanged at the
end of February from the previous month while export forecasts
were lowered to 4.5 mln tonnes from 5.76 mln in 1985/86.
    Vieux called on the EC Commission to help by awarding a
larger volume of export certificates and said if no outlets are
opened for French barley a large amount could be put into
intervention.
    A small amount of French barley has already been put into
intervention, Vieux said without detailing the amount.
    The outlook for French maize is better with 1986/87 exports
to non-EC countries now put at 700,000 tonnes against 200,000
tonnes at the end of January and against 155,000 tonnes in
1985/86.
    The higher estimate is due to the EC Commission's decision
to hold special export tenders for French maize, he said.
 Reuter

    Pay April Two
    Record March 18
 Reuter

Hyundai Motor America said
February sales of its Excel subcompact car totaled 18,656.
    Hyundai began selling the car in the U.S. on February 20,
1986. Sales that month totaled 588.
    The company said sales in the first 12 months totaled
201,328.
 Reuter

Shr profit 12 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 182,173 vs loss 28,977
    Revs 4,483,047 vs 3,994,808
    1st half
    Shr profit 14 cts vs loss eight cts
    Net profit 221,376 vs loss 120,435
    Revs 8,270,947 vs 7,150,265
 Reuter

South Korea's record 7.1 billion dlrs
trade surplus with the U.S. is bound to diminish as the
country switches purchases from Japan in favor of U.S.
companies, Trade Minister Woong-Bae Rha said.
     He rejected suggestions the Korean Won is undervalued, and
denied any plans for a "drastic and sudden" revaluation.
    Rha is heading a trade mission to 37 U.S. cities. Last year
South Korea ran a 4.3 billion dlr trade surplus, including a
record 7.1 billion surplus with the U.S. and a 5.5 billion dlr
deficit with Japan.
    Rha told Reuters in an interview the current trade mission
is looking for 2.0 billion dlrs in purchases from U.S.
companies, about a quarter of which represents "transferred
purchases from Japanese sources."
    Rha said the items being sought by the current mission are
"mainly chemicals, machinery and parts."
    He said South Korea is the fourth largest importer of U.S.
agricultural products. The current mission is not involved in
that area but there are plans to buy "substantial amounts of
cotton" from the U.S.
    He noted his country "is clearly not as open as the American
market. Nor is it reasonable to expect that it should be,"
considering South Korea has a 40 billion dlr foreign debt and
spends six pct of its gross national product on defense.
 Reuter

CRI Insured Mortgage Investments
Inc said its advisor will recommend a special distribution of
50 cts per share due to the sale of a federally insured first
mortgage on Park Meadows I in Madison, Wis., for 4,267,871
dlrs.
    It said it received a 3,695,465 dlr return of capital and
572,406 dlrs in income on the sale, and the 50 ct distribution
would represent a 43.294 ct return of principal and a 6.706 ct
capital gain and would be payable June 30 to holders of record
May 31.
 Reuter

Unit loss one ct
    Net loss 186,000
    Revs 10.7 mln
    11 mths
    Unit loss 7.26 dlrs
    Net loss 121.4 mln
    Revs 46.9 mln
    Note: Partnership formed in February 1986.
    Net includes writedown of oil and gas assets of 124.8 mln
dlrs for 11 mths to comply with full-cost accounting methods.
 Reuter

Digicon Inc said it has completed the
previously-announced disposition of its computer systems
division to an investment group led by <Rotan Mosle Inc's>
Rotan Mosle Technology Partners Ltd affiliate.
 Reuter

Texas Eastern Corp said it has completed
the purchase of an idle petroleum products terminal near Norris
City, Ill., from <Growmark Inc> for undisclosed terms and will
reopen it in September after remodeling.
    The company said the terminal will handle leaded and
unleaded regular gasolines, number two fuel oil, ethanol and
natural gasoline.
 Reuter

<Sterling Investment Group>
said it successfully drilled and completed a significant
development well 65 miles southwest of Houston, Texas.
    The well has a choke of 11/64 of an inch and is 10,097 feet
deep.
    The well initially tested at a maximum daily flow rate of
two mln cubic feet of gas and 304 barrels of condensate.
    Participants in the new well, along with Sterling, are
Trafalgar House Ltd of the U.K. and <Texstar NOrth America Inc.>
 Reuter

Range Rover of North America Inc, a
subsidiary of the British Land Rover Group, said it would begin
selling the luxury utility vehicles in the United States March
16 at a suggested retail price of 30,825 dlrs.
    Range Rover executives told Reuters after a press
conference they expect to generate 80 mln dlrs in revenues this
year, but that the U.S. venture is not expected to become
profitable until 1989.
    The executives said they expect to sell 3,000 of the
vehicles this year from an initial network of 37 dealers, which
will be gradually expanded to 65 within a year.
    Range Rover's project, aimed at buyers with household
incomes above 100,000 dlrs annually, is the culmination of a
four-year effort by Land Rover Group to introduce the
British-build vehicle in the U.S. market.
    The executives said the only option to be offered with the
vehicles will be a leather upholstery package priced at 1,025
dlrs.
 Reuter

GE Information Services Co, a
unit of General Electric Co, said it is making avialable this
week an on-line stock market analysis database, called VESTOR,
on GEnie, the General Electric Network for Information
Exchange.
    GE said Investment Technologies Inc <IVES> developed the
database that evaluates more than 6,000 securities and advises
users on stock market decisions based on their portfolio needs
and criteria.
    GE said GEnie has about 45,000 on-line subscribers.
 Reuter

Blinder International
Enterprises Inc said its common stock will continue to be
quoted on the National Association of Securities Dealers'
NASDAQ system due to an exception pending the resolution of a
dispute between the NASD and Blinder on Blinder's
qualifications for continued NASDAQ quotation.
    The company said the NASD has alleged that Blinder no
longer meets listing criteria but Blinder said it feels it can
resolve the issues in dispute.  It said if it cannot resolve
the issues by April 27 or if it fails to meet conditions
imposed by the NASD, it will be delisted.
 Reuter

Computer Horizons Corp said it
purchased ComputerKnowledge Inc, a software training education
company headquartered in Dallas.
    Terms were not disclosed.
                
 Reuter

Policy Management Systems Corp
said it has acquired the majority of the assets and business of
Allied Research Inc of Salem, Ore., and Consolidated Insurance
Services Inc, of Springfield, Va., for undisclosed terms.
    It said the two companies, which had combined 1986 revenues
of about two mln dlrs, provide underwriting information
services to property and casualty insurers.
 Reuter

Unicorp Canada Corp told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it cut its stake in
Purolator Courier Corp to 286,500 shares, or 3.7 pct of the
total outstanding, from 962,400 shares, or 12.4 pct.
    Unicorp, a management and investment holding company
controlled by its chairman, George Mann, said it sold 675,900
Purolator common shares on March 2 and 3 at 34.782 and 34.750
dlrs a share.
    Purolator agreed this past weekend to be acquired by
managers of its U.S. courier business and E.F. Hutton LBO Inc
in a leveraged buyout valued at 265 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Telegraph Co said it is offering its USA Direct service in
Denmark.
    The service allows callers in Denmark to reach an ATT
operator in the United States by dialing a single telephone
number, 0430-0010, ATT said.
    USA Direct is now available in 26 countries, including the
United Kingdom, France and Australia, the company added.
 Reuter

Atlantic Research Corp said it
has received a U.S. Navy contract to test Navy ships and their
electronic systems installations to isolate and correct
deficiencies caused by electromagnetic interference.
    It said the first year of the contract is worth 1,500,000
dlrs and with two option years the total value is 4,800,000
dlrs.  Work will be performed at Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va.
 Reuter

upgraded the ratings on NRM Energy Co's senior cumulative
preferred depository units to B-3 from CAA.
    The rating agency also assigned a B-3 rating to the
partnership's proposed issue of cumulative convertible
acquisition preferred units Series A. Moody's actions affect
188 mln dlrs of securities.
    The rating agency said these moves reflect the potential
benefits to be derived from the exchange of NRM common and
preferred units for certain properties of Mesa Limited
Partnership which make Mesa NRM's biggest unitholder.
 Reuter

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc
said its February car sales totaled 36,811, down from 40,012
last February.
    The company said February truck sales totaled 20,437, down
from 28,519 a year earlier.
    Toyota said sales of its domestically produced Corolla
models totaled 2,098 units during the month.
   
 Reuter

Trans Lux Corp said it will  
repurchase up to 350,000 shares common and/or class B stock
over an indefinite period in the open market.
    It also declared a five pct stock dividend payable April
nine to holders of record march 20 and a regular quarterly
dividend of two cts per share, payable APril nine to holders of
record March 16.
 Reuter

<Nusource Investments Inc>, a
publicly held shell company, said it acquired American
Nutrition Works Inc through a transaction in which American
Nutrition shareholders received 28 mln shares of Nusource stock
in exchange for their shares.
    American Nutrition operates a chain of stores sellings
vitamins and health products.
    Nusource said shareholders elected a new board consisting
of Richard A. Trydahl, Samuel Mineo and Charles E. Flink and
voted to change the name of the company to ANW Inc.
 Reuter

The Canadian Wheat Board has advised
the federal government to sharply cut initial prices paid to
farmers for their wheat, oats, and barley in the crop year
beginning August 1, a board spokesman said.
    The spokesman declined to give the size of the recommended
price drops but said it would not be good news for western
Canadian grain growers.
    "They're all lower," he said. "This is really getting
pretty serious. We're talking nuts and bolts economic survival
and whether it's worthwhile for farmers to put in a crop."
    Farm leaders and economists have estimated the board will
recommend cuts of around 20 pct in the initial prices.
    Farmers receive the initial payment when the grain is
delivered to the elevators used by the wheat board.
    If the wheat board, which markets most of Canada's grain,
obtains higher than expected prices on world markets, the
farmers receive a final payment at the end of the crop year. If
prices are lower, the federal treasury makes up the difference.
    The final decision on the initial prices, usually made in
April, rests with Wheat Board Minister Charles Mayer and the
federal cabinet.
    Last year Mayer cut the initial prices between 19 and 27
pct but last fall the government announced a one billion
Canadian dlr aid program to compensate for the price cuts.
    But federal agricultural officials have already warned
farmers not to depend on additional government aid this year.
 Reuter

The ruling GATT Council deferred a
decision on whether to set up a dispute panel on the basis of a
European Community complaint against the U.S.- Japanese
agreement on exports of computer semiconductors.
    David Woods, spokesman of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT), told a news briefing that the main parties
would continue bilateral talks. This was in the hope of
resolving the row before the next Council meeting on April 15.
    The five-year accord signed in July 1986 aims to protect
the U.S. Market from dumping of low-price Japanese microchips,
officially known as semiconductors.
    The E.C. Complained the accord breached GATT trade rules by
allowing Tokyo to monitor prices, allowing it to set minimum
prices for Japanese chips sold in third countries.
    The 12-nation Community also charged the agreement gave
U.S. Producers preferential access to the Japanese market.
    Woods said many nations -- Hong Kong, Canada, Switzerland,
Singapore, Sweden, Malaysia and Nigeria -- had supported the EC
complaint during the heated Council debate.
    Japan's delegate, Minoru Endo, and U.S. Ambassador Michael
Samuels replied in the debate that the E.C. Charges were
unfounded, but they were willing to continue bilateral talks.
 Reuter

First Southern Federal Savings and
Loan Association said it has agreed in principle to acquire
Horizon Financial Corp and Horizon Funding corp from <Victor
Federal Savings and Loan Association> of Muskogee, Okla., for
    The company said the purchase is subject to approval of the
boards of First Southern and Victor and regulatory agencies.
    Horizon Financial services mortgage loans and Horizon
Funding is a wholesale loan purchasing operation. Horizon
services 3.2 billion dlrs in mortgage loans.
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 7,274,000 vs 4,447,000
    Rev 161.6 mln vs 77.6 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.51 dlrs vs 1.32 dlrs
    Net 15,401,000 vs 13,525,000
    Rev 454.0 mln vs 304.9 mln
   
 Reuter

<Chatsworth Enterprises
Inc>, a publicly held shell corporation, said it signed a
letter of intent to merger with <Lotoquik International Ltd>, a
Nassau, Bahamas-based maker of video lottery machines.
    Under terms of the merger agreement, Chatsworth said
Lotoquik shareholders would own a majority of the surviving
company.
 Reuter

<Asbestec Industries Inc> said
it signed a letter of intent to buy asbestos abatement
contractor <P.W. Stephens> for three mln dlrs in cash, stock
and notes.
    The transaction is expected to be completed early in the
third quarter of its fiscal year ending September 30, 1987.
    Asbestec also said it expects to sign March six a 900,000
dlr contract to remove asbestos from a major apartment complex
in Washington, D.C. The project is scheduled to begin on March
nine.
 Reuter

The ruling GATT Council set up a formal
dispute panel to examine a U.S. Complaint that a Canadian law
prohibiting export of unprocessed herring and salmon was
discriminatory.
    David Wood, official spokesman of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), told a news briefing the decision was
taken after bilateral consultations failed to resolve the row.
    U.S. Ambassador Michael Samuels charged during the Council
debate that Canada was trying to preserve domestic jobs by
insisting that herring and salmon be processed at home.
    Robert White, Canada's deputy chief of delegation, replied
the law was in line with GATT rules, and was for conservations
reasons. But he agreed to setting up the dispute panel.
 Reuter

colombia's cost of living index rose 2.03
pct in february after a 3.27 pct increase in january and a 3.15
pct rise in february 1986, the government statistics institute
said.
    The rise brought year-on-year inflation to 19.77 pct
compared with 23.72 pct at end-february 1986 and 21.66 pct for
the year ending january 1987.
    The government has predicted that inflation this year would
be lower than in 1986 when it reached 20.9 pct.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp staged an explosive
rally on Wall Street after a share buyback program announced
yesterday, but analysts said GM's future remains clouded by
stiff competition and erosion of market share.
    GM shares rose 3-1/2 to 79-1/8 in active trading. Analysts
agreed that investors liked the repurchase program but they 
differed sharply over the carmaker's long term prospects.
    "I'm very positive on GM," said Jack Kirnan of Kidder
Peabody and Co. "They're clearly committed to enhancing
shareholder value."
    However, some analysts worry about how GM will pay for the
buyback and whether new models will enable the carmaker to
recapture lost market share.
    After the market had closed yesterday, GM said it would buy
back 20 pct of its common stock by the end of 1990. The
announcement sent investors today scrambling for GM shares,
with more than 3.2 mln shares changing hands by mid-day.
    The buyback plan caused several analysts bullish on the
stock to reiterate buy recommendations this morning, and at
least one increased his earnings estimates for GM based on a
good performance expected from new car models.
    But David Healy of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc said the
repurchase program is not a positive.
    "The buyback doesn't really change the earnings outlook and
puts more stress on the balance sheet," he said, since GM will
have to borrow money to pay for the stock purchases. The stock
should settle back down to around 76, he added.
    Healy projects GM will earn five dlrs a share in 1987 and
5.50 dlrs in 1988, compared to 1986 earnings of 8.21 dlrs.
Healy's numbers are near the low end of Wall Street estimates,
which range from five dlrs to 7.80 dlrs in 1987 and from four
dlrs to 10.80 dlrs in 1988.
    Like other analysts, Healy sees GM's share of the domestic
car and truck market falling in 1987. "On balance, GM cars are
not selling as well as their competitors," he said.
    In late February, GM car sales fell 8.6 pct from the
year-ago period while competitors Ford Motor Co <F> and
Chrysler Corp <C> both posted increases. But GM said February
sales showed improvement over January, adding that it expects
improvement in coming months.
    Overall, GM's share of U.S. car and truck sales should fall
to around 38 or 39 pct in 1987 from 41 pct at the end of 1986,
analysts said. The numbers include imports.
    Kidder Peabody's Kirnan said cost reductions and product
improvements this year should lead to positive cash flow by the
fourth quarter, which will help GM finance the buyback.
    "GM (stock) has been a real laggard and now it's rolling up
its sleeves and getting serious. I think there's a major
earnings surprise in the winds," he said.
    Kirnan raised his earnings estimates slightly today, in
part in reaction to the announced buyback, and sees GM earning
5.65 dlrs this year and 9.75 dlrs in 1988. "The company is more
concerned than ever about improving their relative valuation
with respect to Ford and Chrysler," he said.
    Another positive for the stock is GM's dividend, currently
five dlrs a share annually, which gives it a higher yield than
its competitors, Kirnan said. And GM will raise the cash
dividend 25 to 50 cts a share next year, he predicted.
    But analyst Michael Lucky of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc
said U.S. car sales will weaken, and GM's new products, if
successful, will only slow but not halt the erosion of its
market share.
    "I believe their new cars will be successful, but that will
only curtail losses in market share," which will fall to around
35 pct by 1990, Lucky said.
    Philip Fricke of Goldman Sachs and Co falls in the middle
of the bulls and bears. While he is recommending GM stock, he
said results will not improve until 1988.
    "I'm not looking for improvement this year. This is a
transition year for GM," he said.
    Fricke, who estimates 1987 earnings at 7.80 dlrs and 1988
at 10.80 dlrs, said cost cutting and new car models will not
affect 1987 results. "But the key thing isn't so much what they
earn this year. It's the momentum beyond this year that's
important."
 Reuter

EMS Systems Ltd said it has
signed an agreement for <Teleco USA Inc> to sell EMS' Six-Party
Conference Bridge for telecommunications through the Teleco
network of 150 dealers nationwide.
 Reuter

Parsow Partnership Ltd, a Nevada
investment partnership, said it lowered its stake in ERC
International Inc to 343,500 shares or 8.3 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 386,300 shares, or 9.3 pct.
Parsow said it sold 42,800 ERC common shares between Jan 9 and
March 2 at prices ranging from 12.125 to 14.50 dlrs each.
    The partnership said its dealings in ERC stock are for
investment purposes and it has no intention of seeking control
 Reuter

Healthy growth in corporate profits and in
consumer spending, the two pillars on which Japan rests its
hopes of sustained economic growth, both look rotten at the
core, economists polled by Reuters said.
    Profits and domestic consumption are meant to replace
exports as the engine of growth. But close ties between
corporate performance and wages mean that the alternative
economic model promises little but slower growth, they said.
    Falling profits may lead to falling incomes, which in turn
will cut sales and further reduce profits.
    The Bank of Japan said in its latest outlook that improved
terms of trade linked to the strong yen would help domestic
demand grow steadily.
    However, this would happen only if household spending
increased in line with the value of real financial assets due
to stable prices, and/or if corporate investment recovered as
profits from domestic sales improved compared with those from
exports.
    "No clear sign of such developments has so far been
evidenced," the central bank said.
    Poor business prospects are the reason why economic growth
will be slow, even though Japan's terms of trade have improved
sharply due to the strong yen. Economist David Pike of Phillips
and Drew estimates that in 1986 unit cost prices fell 30 pct
while output prices fell only eight pct, giving a large price
margin advantage in the domestic market -- as long as companies
did not pass that advantage on to the consumer.
    Last year's gap of almost 10 percentage points between the
fall in the wholesale price index and the slight drop in
consumer prices shows that gains from the improved terms of
trade have been kept as profits by producers and distributors.
    The economists, however, believe this layer of fat will
protect companies for only a short while. As more firms seek
more profits at home instead of abroad, already fierce domestic
competition will increase, fueled by lower-priced imports.
Retail prices will fall. Profit margins will suffer.
    A December survey by top business organisation Keidanren
confirms this dim view is taken by the firms themselves.
    Of companies polled in the key manufacturing sector, almost
80 pct thought the high yen would create a drop in production
volume and 60 pct predicted a drop in corporate performance,
said Keidanren economist Kazuyuki Kinbara.
    Main counter-measures cited by the firms include cutting
unprofitable operations, reducing work to sub-contractors
(which employ significant numbers of workers), holding down
wages, and reducing bonuses. The government has said it fears
unemployment could soon double from three pct now.
    Unemployment and slow wage growth will obviously hurt
sales. But reduced bonuses, and worries about individual
financial security could be even more damaging.
    Twice a year, bonuses provide wage earners with what
amounts to an enforced lump sum in savings, encouraging them to
buy large consumer products and sparking a sales bonanza.
    To save funds, some big firms have begun a form of tied
bonus, forcing employees to spend it on the firm's own goods.
    Economists also predict Japanese will not save less than
the average 16 pct of salary they do now. On the contrary, a
poor outlook and lower disposable income could strengthen the
resolve to put money aside for old age and illness, education,
and housing -- the main drains on the working man's salary.
    The last government survey of public opinion said over 80
pct of citizens will continue to economise. Japan has a rapidly
ageing population and minimal social security and its workers
fear poverty in their old age.
    Faced with such a vicious circle, the government's
reflationary strategies are severely limited.
    The commitment by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and
Finance Ministry to cut the state debt has resulted in small
supplementary budgets and attempts to provide fiscal incentive
without reducing revenue. Independent economists have been less
than excited at the results.
    Provision for monetary stimulus is similarly limited.
    The 2.5 pct discount rate is so low it is politically
impossible to cut it further, with the basic bank savings rate
at only 0.25 pct, Bank of Tokyo economist Haruo Muto said.
    Almost 60 pct of Japanese still hold their savings in some
kind of deposit, official figures show.
    Moves to directly inject liquidity are unproductive while
firms are planning cuts in capital investment.
    The central bank is well aware that soaring stock and land
prices are the only current results of high liquidity.
    Fear of inflation also limits policy options. Political
analysts ascribe Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's 1986 big
election victory largely to a long period of almost zero price
inflation. And he found this year that attempts to impose a
sales tax to offset tax cuts arouses fierce voter opposition.
 REUTER

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh
is expected here on Friday for talks with his Algerian
counterpart Belkacem Nabi, the official Algerian news agency
APS said today.
    Aqazadeh, who will be accompanied by a large delegation,
will have talks on bilateral relations in the field of energy
and exchange views with Algerian officials on the current world
energy situation, it said.
 Reuter

Northern Telecom Ltd said it signed a
contract with the Peking Telecommunications Administration and
the Peking Foreign Trade Corp to supply an SL-1 automatic call
distributor system for Peking's central telephone office.
    Financial terms were undisclosed.
    It said Peking's telephone company would use the system to
receive and distribute incoming information requests more
effectively among operators.
    The company said it and Peking's telephone administration
were discussing cooperation on other telecommunications
systems.
 Reuter

Net 52.9 mln vs 21.9 mln
    NOTE: Company is mutual savings bank.
 Reuter

Oper shr 18 cts vs 28 cts
    Oper net 1,076,000 vs 1,441,000
    Sales 22.6 mln vs 21.2 mln
    Avg shrs 5,970,000 vs 5,080,000
    Year
    Oper shr 55 cts vs 49 cts
    Oper net 3,007,000 vs 2,521,000
    Sales 82.9 mln vs 73.7 mln
    Avg shrs 5,429,000 vs 4,484,000
    Note: Full company name is Bear Automotive Service
Equipment Co
    Oper shr excludes extraordinary profit from utilization of
tax loss carryforward of 231,000 dlrs, or four cts a share and
1.2 mln dlrs, or 22 cts a share, respectively, in 1986 qtr and
year, and of 441,000 dlrs, or nine cts a share and 1.1 mln
dlrs, or 23 cts a share, respectively, in 1985 qtr and year.
    1985 year oper net excludes loss from cumulative effect of
change in accounting principle of 67,000 dlrs, or one ct a
share.

 Reuter

Environmental Power Corp said its
subsidiary, Environmental Protection Resources Inc, of Houston,
has been hired to build a 20 mln dlr resource recovery plant
for Lubbock, Texas.
    Environmental said its subsidiary also will own and operate
the plant, which will convert solid waste into electricity.
    The plant is scheduled for operation by early 1989, the
 Reuter

Softech Inc said it was awarded a
1,035,767 mln dlr contract by the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical
Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force base.
    Under the seven-month contract, which carries four one-year
renewal options, Softech said it will continue to operate the
Defense Department's Ada Validation Facility and JOVIAL
Language Control Facility.
    Total value of the contract, if renewal options are
exercised, is 6,526,253 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

The U.K. Offshore oil industry has
suffered from last year's collapse in oil prices but should not
sustain any permament damage, Minister of State for Energy
Alick Buchanan-Smith said.
    The drilling, diving and supply vessels sectors had been
most affected, Buchanan Snith told the House of Commons energy
committee. He noted, however, that oil companies were still
spending six mln stg a day to maintain North Sea production.
    He added that a report by the manpower services committee
which said 14,000 jobs were lost in the industry in 1986 should
be seen in the context of a total workforce of 300,000.
    Prices of North Sea Brent-grade crude dipped to a low of
8.50
dlrs a barrel last July from a peak of over 30 dlrs the
previous November.
    They recovered to around 18 dlrs a barrel after last
December's OPEC meeting and Brent traded today around 17.15
dlrs.
    Buchanan-Smith said the U.K. Has no intention of adopting
OPEC style quotas, noting that Britian is an oil-consuming as
well as an oil-producing nation.
 Reuter

<Chase Manhattan Bank N.A.> is considering
expanding its operations in Italy, particularly in the consumer
banking sector, a Chase Manhattan official said.
    Robert D. Hunter, Chase Manhattan area executive for
Europe, Africa and the Middle East, said at a news conference
that plans to broaden the bank's activities on the Italian
market have not been finalised, however.
    Asked if Chase Manhattan would consider an acquisition in
Italy, Hunter said: "We will look at any opportunity, but the
prices of Italian banks have been quite high." Chase Manhattan
has branches in Milan and Rome.
 Reuter

International H.R.S. Industries Inc said
it would reduce its stake in Hal Roach Studios Inc to 22 pct
from 52 pct in return for 6.3 mln U.S. dlrs from Qintex Inc's
Qintex America (Media) Ltd unit.
    H.R.S. said that under the deal's first stage, closng March
22, it would sell Qintex 900,000 Hal Roach shares at seven U.S.
dlrs a share each for a total of 6.3 mln dlrs and Roach will
repay H.R.S. 3.3 mln U.S. dlrs of advances.
    Qintex will also complete the 16.8 mln U.S. dlr buy of 2.4
mln Roach treasury shares at seven dlrs each and provide Roach
with 50 mln U.S. dlrs of financing for expansion, H.R.S. said.
    H.R.S. said that the agreement also provided for a second
stage over one year in which it had a put option exercisable 
one year from closing to sell Qintex all or part of its two mln
Roach shares for 8.50 U.S. dlrs a share.
    It said Qintex had a 30-day call option, exerciseable nine
months from closing, to buy from H.R.S. all or part of one mln
Roach shares at the greater of 8.50 dlrs each or the average
Roach share price for three months before exercise date.
    Qintex will also acquire another 2.4 mln Roach treasury
shares at seven dlrs a share 12 months after closng for another
16.8 mln dlrs, H.R.S. said.
 Reuter

The National Labor Relations
Board said it issued an unfair Labor practice complaint against
First Union Management, a unit of First Union Real Estate
Investments <FUR>, for discouraging membership in a labor
    The NLRB said the complaint asserts First Union Management
hired a cleaning contractor, <Systems Management>, to clean the
300 Sixth Avenue Building in Pittsburgh on the condition that
Systems not deal with the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), Local 29.
    Jack Yoedt, executive director of SEIU, the janitors union,
said that damages could amount to more than 200,000 dlrs in
back pay for janitors and that other damages may be
forthcoming.
 Reuter

French oil group Total Cie Francaise des
Petroles <TPN.PA> is still expecting a 1.5 billion franc
consolidated net loss, including minority interests, for 1986,
after taking account of stock losses of 7.5 billion francs, the
company said in a communique after a board meeting here.
    In late January group president Francois-Xavier Ortoli told
journalists that the slump in oil prices and the weak dollar
had caused the stock depreciation, turning a consolidated net
profit, before losses on stocks, of six billion francs into a
consolidated net loss of 1.5 billion francs.
    Earlier today Armand Guilbaud, president of Total's
refining and distribution subsidiary Cie de
Raffinage-Distribution (CRD) Total France <RAFF.PA>, told
journalists that 1986 had marked a return to profit for the
subsidiary before stock depreciation.
    CRD made a net profit before stock depreciation and
currency factors of 1.95 billion francs last year after a 1.16
billion loss in 1985.
    But its net loss last year, taking account of that
depreciation as well as currency fluctuations, was 1.16 billion
francs after a 1.05 billion loss in 1985.
    In 1986 CRD's sales fell 5.7 pct to 19.7 mln tonnes from
20.9 mln "due to the growth in imports by independent
distributors following a relaxation of regulations," Guilbaud
said.
    The subsidiary is expecting to cut its workforce to 6,000
this year and 5,000 in 1988 from 6,800 last year, under a job
reduction scheme which will eventually save the group 600 mln
francs, he said.
    Concerning business in 1987, he said that "January was a
good month, but the situation deteriorated in February."
 Reuter

A consortium of electrics industry
firms to challenge Japan's presence in the global semiconductor
market was announced by the Semiconductor Industry Association.
    The initiative will be funded by U.S. manufacturers to
develop the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing
technologies, the association said at a news conference.
    Government participation and financial support will also be
sought for the consortium called SEMATECH, for "semiconductor
manufacturing technology." 
    "We can continue to sit back and watch the Japanese target
and assualt yet another critical U.S. industry. Or we can get
in gear and do what is necessary to repell this attack," said
Irwin Federman, chief executive officer of Monolithic Memories
Inc.
    He said the objective of SEMATECH, a non profit
corporation, was to maintain leadership in an industry that was
vital to the U.S. economy and national security.
    The plan was for SEMATECH to establish a facility at
various manufacturers and equipment suppliers to pioneer
advanced manufacturing techniques for semiconductors.
REUTER...

American Ventures Inc said it
and joint venture partner <Sagamore Corp> have executed an
engagement letter for <Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette
Securities Corp> to assist in arranging the financing for the
80 megawatt Mon Valley coal-fired fluidized bed cogeneration
project in Greene County, Pa.
    The company said the electric output from the
previously-announced project is expected to be sold to
Allegheny Power System Inc <AYP> under a 30-year contract now
being negotiated.  It said Donaldson would also provide aid for
two other cogeneration projects being developed.
 Reuter

The Bank of France said it will offer 7.5
billion francs' worth of negotiable Treasury bills at its next
public weekly tender on March 9.
    The total includes two billion francs of 13-week bills, 2.5
billion francs of two-year bills and three billion francs'
worth of five year bills.
    No maximum or minimum price has been set.
 Reuter

Nissan Motor Corp U.S.A. said
domestic car sales in the February 21 to 28 period rose to
3,501 from 2,578 cars at the same time last year.
    For the month of February, U.S. car sales increased to
7,200 from 6,843 cars in the comparable month a year ago,
Nissan Motor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nissan Motor Ltd
said .
    For the year-to-date, Nissan Motor domestic sales advanced
to 13,769 cars from 12,846 cars in 1986, the automaker said.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it has
upgraded approximately two billion dlrs of securities for the
Williams Cos. and its related entities.
    S and P said recent sales of non-regulated oil and gas,
coal, fertilizer, and telecommunications assets significantly
reduce business risk. With 900 mln dlrs of proceeds available
to reduce debt, the financial profile should also improve.
    Among issues upgraded were Williams' debentures, raised to
BB-plus from BB-minus and Williams Natural Gas Co's debentures
and preferred stock to BBB-minus from BB-plus. Northwest
Pipeline Corp issues also were upgraded.
 Reuter

General Motors of Canada Ltd,
wholly owned by General Motors Corp, said February car sales
fell 17.8 pct to 25,779 units from 31,361 units the previous
year.
    Year-to-date car sales fell 23.8 pct from last year, the
company said. It did not immediately disclose actual
year-to-date figures.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co analyst Richard
Vietor said he reiterated a buy recommendation on several drug
stocks today.
    The stocks were Bristol-Myers Co <BMY>, which rose 2-1/4 to
101, Schering-Plough Corp <SGP> 2-7/8 to 97 and Syntex Corp
<SYN> 1-3/8 to 82. Vietor described these stocks as a "middle
group" of performers.
    Vietor said the prices of these stocks, "look pretty cheap
relative to the leading performers in the drug group, such as
Upjohn Co <UPJ>, Merck and Co Inc <MRK>, and Squibb Corp
<SQB>."
    Vietor said he also mentioned Pfizer Inc <PFE> up two to
72-3/4 and Warner-Lambert Co <WLA> up 1-1/2 to 74-1/2 as being
in the middle group. But he did not recommend those stocks,
which he rates as neutral.
                                       
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 16 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Oper net loss 1,569,000 vs loss 990,000
    Sales 50.3 mln vs 50.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr loss nine cts vs loss two cts
    Oper net loss 849,000 vs loss 199,000
    Sales 159.9 mln vs 156.6 mln
    NOTE: Current nine mths net includes 1,036,000 dlr pretax
gain on sale of property.
    Prior year net both periods includes pretax gain 1,095,000
dlrs on pension plan termination.
    Current quarter net includes 580,000 dlr tax credit.
    Prior year net includes losses from discontinued operations
of 200,000 dlrs in quarter and 573,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    Results restated for discontinued operations.
 Reuter

MCA Inc said noted film
maker Steven Spielberg will serve as creative consultant for
Universal Studios Tour Florida.
    The tour is a joint venture between MCA and Cineplex Odeon
Corp that is scheduled to open in 1989.
    MCA is also planning a major expansion of its Universal
Studio Tours. The expansion includes four live-action shows
based films and TV series, including Spielberg's "E.T.".
    MCA's actions are seen as spurred by The Disney Co's <DIS>
Chairman Michal Eisner's intention to build a new attraction in
the Los Angeles area, possibly a studio tour.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

Resource Exploration Inc said it has
agreed to let <Langasco Energy Corp> drill 50 oil and
natural gas wells on its Clinton Sandstone formation within its
Tuscarawas and Harrison County, Ohio area of operation.
    Resource said it would receive a cash payment and an
overriding royalty interest on oil and gas production from
wells drilled on the property.
    Resource said gas produced from the property will be
transported through its existing pipeline. Also, Resource said
it will provide service work to complete the wells and it will
operate the wells after they are completed.
 Reuter

CME POSTPONES CONSIDERATION OF PETITION  TO BAN DUAL TRADING UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Texas Railroad Commissioner James
Nugent, saying that the ailing oilpatch cannot wait for
Congress to act, today urged Texas state lawmakers to adopt
incentives to find new oil reserves and to exempt severance
taxes on oil produced from stripper wells.
    Nugent said in a speech to the Texas house of
representatives that the state must take the initiative in
molding U.S. energy policy and finding new ways to assist
troubled oil producers.
    His proposal to revitalize Texas' oil industry would exempt
stripper wells that produce 10 barrels of oil or less each day
from the state's 4.6 pct severance tax. He said that the
majority of Texas' oil wells fall within the stripper well
category and a price swing of two to three dlrs a barrel can be
crucial in determining if the well remains in production.
    Nugent also called for state lawmakers to exempt new
wildcat wells from the state severance tax for up to five years
as a financial incentive to explore for new oil reserves.
    Secondary and tertiary oil production, expensive methods of
production that inject water or gas into the ground to recover
oil, should also be exempted from the severance tax, Nugent
said. His plan would exempt existing secondary and tertiary
wells that produce at a rate of less than three barrels a day
for three years, or until the price of oil reaches $25 a
barrel.
    "We've been sitting back and waiting on two federal
administrations to develop a coherent energy policy for the
nation to follow. I say we have waited long enough," Nugent
said. "In other words, let's tell Washington to either lead,
follow, or get out of the way."
    Nugent said that the financial losses to the state treasury
by exempting marginal oil production from state severance taxes
would be more than made up by stimulating new business for the
oil supply and service industry.
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts prior
 Reuter

Colombian finance minister Cesar Gaviria
blamed an inflexible U.S. position for the failure of last
week's International Coffee Organisation, ICO, talks on export
quotas.
    "We understand that the U.S. Position was more inflexible
than the one of Brazil, where current economic and political
factors make it difficult to adopt certain positions," Gaviria
told Reuters in an interview.
    The U.S. and Brazil have each laid the blame on the other
for the breakdown in the negotiations to re-introduce export
quotas after being extended through the weekend in London.
    Gaviria stressed that Colombia tried to ensure a successful
outcome of the London talks but he deplored that intransigent
attitudes, both from producing and consuming nations, made it
impossible.
    In a conversation later with local journalists, Gaviria
said the U.S. attitude would have serious economic and
political consequences, not necessarily for a country like
Colombia but certainly for other Latin American nations and for
some African countries.
    He told Reuters that Colombia, because of the relatively
high level of its coffee stocks, would probably suffer less.
    According to Gaviria, Colombia can hope to earn about 1,500
mln dlrs this calendar year from coffee exports, which
traditionally account for 55 pct of the country's total export
revenue.
    That estimate would represent a drop in revenues of 1,400
mln dlrs from 1986.
    Colombia, which held stockpiles of 10.5 mln bags at the
start of the current coffee year, exported a record 11.5 mln
bags in the 1985/86 coffee year ending last September 30.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12.5 cts vs 12.5 cts in prior qtr
    Payable March 13
 Reuter

Pacific Telesis Group chairman Donald
Guinn told a meeting of security analysts that the company sees
continued earnings growth in 1987 above the 1.08 billion dlrs,
or 5.02 dlrs per share, earned in 1986.
    Guinn also said that capital spending stood at about 1.8
billion dlrs in 1986, and the company expected the figure to
remain flat each year through 1989. He noted that all captial
spending will be internally financed.
    Guinn also told analysts that the company faced some
regulatory uncertainties in ongoing rate cases at its Pacific
Bell operating company.
    In rates hearings before, the California Public Utility
Commission, Guinn said the company faced a potential 76 mln dlr
revenue reduction, and due to ongoing discussions with the
commission, he said the figure might even be greater.
    The company also faces some opposition to a 225 mln dlr
rate hike requested for 1986. Guinn said the commission found
180 mln dlrs of the hike was based on questionable calculations
and assumptions, while 45 mln dlrs might represented unneeded
modernization costs.
    Guinn also said that the company is still studying whether
to join an international consortium that plans to lay a
transpacific telephone cable between the U.S. and Japan.
    "We have not agreed to anything," Guinn said, but added he
would soon recieve a feasibility study on the venture and the
company would make a decision soon on participating.
    Asked by an analyst about the recent recommendation by the
U.S. Department of Justice which would allow the Bell operating
companies to offer limited long distance services, Guinn said
the company would likely shy away from that type of expansion.
    "(Long distance services) is a very competitive business.
It's a commodity business and becoming more so," he said. "I'm
not so sure we would be interested in getting back into that
business."
    However, Guinn generally applauded the U.S.
recommendations, saying they would give more latitude for the
Bell operating companies to expand into non-regulated
businesses and provide more flexibility to form strategic
alliances with other companies.
    He added that while the company welcomes the expansion into
new areas, it is not currently involved in any acqusition
talks. "We do not have anything actively under consideration,"
he said.
   
 Reuter

TRANS WORLD AIRLINES MAKES 52 DLR/SHARE CASH MERGER PROPOSAL FOR USAIR

The Senate Banking Committee has
issued a revised draft bank regulation bill which would permit
so-called non-bank banks to continue all their activities in
progress as of March 5, 1987.
    The bill, which the committee is scheduled to consider
tomorrow, would prohibit non-bank banks from beginning any new
activities after March 5, increase the number of their
locations or cross-market products or services not permissible
for bank holding companies.
    The bill would also impose a one-year moratorium on bank
securities or insurance activities.
    The bill would establish a financing corporation to raise
7.5 billion dlrs for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corp and give federal regulators more power to arrange
out-of-state mergers for failed or failing banks with 500 mln
dlrs or more in assets.
    Committee chairman William Proxmire, D-Wis, had wanted to
ban all non-bank bank activities started after July 1, 1983,
but opposition from other committee members forced him to
revise the legislation.
    The House Banking committee is also considering bank
regulation legislation, but is waiting for the Senate to act.
   
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp's Continental
Airlines subsidiary said it will serve Las Vegas from several
Northeastern cities from its Newark hub starting March 15 with
MaxiSaver fares as low as 99 dlrs each way for off-peak and 119
dlrs for peak flights.
    It said a daily non-stop Newark-Las Vegas flight will carry
passengers from such cities as Boston, Buffalo, Hartford,
Norfolk, Portland, Providence, Rochester, Syracuse and
Washington. Unrestricted coach fares to Las Vegas will be as
low as 149 dlrs from Newark, 163 dlrs from Boston and 280 dlrs
from Rochester.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 1,279,000 vs 7,979,000
    Revs 16.4 mln vs 19.6 mln
    Year
    Shr 89 cts vs 2.43 dlrs
    Net 10.3 mln vs 29.8 mln
    Revs 56.2 mln vs 83.8 mln
    Avg shrs 12.1 mln vs 13.1 mlnm
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes gain 12.9 mln dlrs from sale
of eight real estate properties.
 Reuter

Kenya has signed an agreement with
British and German interests to establish a shipping line that
will handle 40 pct of the country's external trade, sources
close to the deal said.
    The state-owned Kenya Ports Authority, KPA, signed an
agreement with the Hamburg-based shipping line Unimar
Seetransport to establish the Kenya National Shipping line,
with an initial capital of 100 mln shillings, sources said. KPA
will hold 70 pct of the shares in the new company.
    The line will initially charter vessels to operate services
between Mombasa and the main ports of industrial Europe, but
may eventually build or buy its own ships. The sources said it
would aim to carry a large part of Kenya's coffee and tea
exports and oil and fertiliser imports.
 Reuter

U.S. and U.K. bank regulators are asking
banks to set aside more reserves than is necessary to cushion
them against the risks posed by the interest rate and currency
swap transactions they carry, swap dealers said.
    After viewing proposed guidelines released jointly today by
the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Board, dealers said
that in effect, regulators are asking them to set aside
reserves twice for the same risk.
    Market participants will have 60 days to respond to the
proposals.
    Adoption of stiffer capital requirements is especially
significant in the eurobond markets, which saw new issue volume
of about 183 billion dlrs in 1986 according to figures compiled
by Euromoney magazine. While no firm figures exist, dealers in
eurobonds estimate that 80 pct of all new issues are involved
in some swap arrangement. Separately, the ISDA estimates that
about 300 billion dlrs worth of swap transactions are
outstanding. Kenneth McCormick, co-chairman of the
International Swap Dealers Association (ISDA) and President of
Kleinwort Benson Cross Financing Inc, said that the Association
has no comment and will study the proposals.
    "What they are proposing is really double counting," Patrick
de Saint-Aignan, managing director of swaps for Morgan Stanley
and Co, said. Instead, he argues, banks should either be
required to hold a percentage of the face value -- say one pct
per year to maturity -- or to hold a percentage of the cost of
replacing the contract in the event of a counterparty default.
    "The potential risk factors are very large relative to what
we had expected," said a director at one U.K. merchant bank.
"What they are really doing is asking you to capitalize now --
to borrow money now -- to cushion you against risk you might
have 10 years from now," he added.(Adds title first paragraph).
    Dealers also said they believe that banks not covered by
the agreement, such as those based in Japan, will have a
competitive advantage because they will not have to pass the
costs on to customers.
    Indeed, regulators are apparently also concerned about the
exclusion of other countries from the new requirements. Federal
Reserve Board Governor Martha Seger, following approval of the
proposed guidelines by the Fed, said she is concerned that
Japan was not involved in the U.K.-U.S. effort to draft new
capital rules.
     Dealers said they were somewhat relieved to see that bank
regulators recognized the concept of netting, that is,
offsetting the amounts receiveable from and payable to a single
counterparty against each other.
    The paper said that regulatory authorities "recognize that
such arrangements (netting) may in certain circumstances reduce
credit risk." Furthermore, the paper said, if a netting
agreement could be reached that would withstand legal tests, it
might be willing to reduce capital requirements accordingly.
    But dealers said they fear regulators may insist on an
airtight netting agreement that is impossible to design.
     "One problem is that there has never been a major default
in the swaps market. So we don't know if any of the swap
arrangements will really stand up in court," said one bank
official.
 Reuter

Former White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said he and President Reagan misled the public
unintentionally on the Iran arms scandal because they
themselves were misled by others.
    In a televised interview, Speakes was contrasting the
defensive, much-criticized efforts Reagan made in early
attempts to cool the scandal with the dynamic speech he
expected when the president addressed the nation tonight.
    "When we went into those press conferences and that
nationwide address in November right after the (Iran) story
broke, the president did not have the proper information,"
Speakes said.
    "And that's why we were misled. And consequently, the
president and I misled the public, to a certain extent."
    "We were badly served by the people that were involved in
the Iranian crisis and running the show."
    Asked whom he meant, Speakes said former National Security
Adviser Robert McFarlane; McFarlane successor John Poindexter;
and then-National Security Council aide Oliver North.
    Speakes said those three had prepared a false chronology of
events "that misled us into thinking that we had all the facts
..."
    McFarlane has said that he, North and Poindexter had
doctored a White House chronology to obscure and minimize
Reagan's role in the arms sales. He said they did that as part
of an effort to prepare the president for a November 19 news
conference.
 Reuter

The Canadian government's reduced
borrowing needs enabled the Bank of Canada to make "aggressive
use" of short term debt instruments and pare the cost of
financing in 1986, the central bank said in its annual report.
    The report, authored by retired governor Gerald Bouey, also
noted advances to Canadian banks fell to under one billion dlrs
at the end of the year from more than four billion dlrs in
January, 1986, and that the country's economy performed
unevenly while inflation remained a major concern.
    Bouey said the bank was able to reduce the number of new
bond issues with maturities of 10 years of more, lessen the
reliance on Canada Savings Bonds while raising substantailly
more through short term treasury bill financings.
    "The aggressive use of the treasury bill program has meant
that the government is now able to maintain lower cash balances
and lower financing costs," said Bouey who was replaced by
deputy governor John Crow last month.
    The amount of treasury bills outstanding at year end was
69.7 billion dlrs, an increase of 10.3 billion dlrs over the
year and 20 billion dlrs since 1984.
    The reduction in borrrowing needs was brought about by an
eight billion dlr decline in the government's financing
requirements, a run down in Ottawa's cash balances, and
generation of 2.3 billion dlrs from foreign exchange
transactions.
    Also in pursuit of shorter term financing, the bank made
greater use of bond auctions to market new issues with two to
five year maturities, Bouey said.
    Bouey said payments to chartered banks, which are made to
banks that are facing liquidity problems, dropped to an average
of 832.3 mln dlrs at end of December from a peak of 5.2 billion
dlrs in March, 1986.
    The advances were made largely to four banks, Canadian
Commercial Bank, Northland Bank, Continental Bank of Canada and
the Bank of British Columbia. The first two banks have been
liquidated, which enabled partial repayment of advances, and
the remaining two banks were sold and the new owners repaid the
advances.
 Reuter

Shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.33 dlrs
    Semi-annual div six cts vs six cts prior payment
    Net 16.2 mln vs 14.8 mln
    Sales 1.09 billion vs 909.4 mln
    NOTE: Dividend is payable April one to holders of record
March nine
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it lowered
Robert Bruce Industries Inc's 15 mln dlrs of subordinated
debentures to CCC from B-minus because of a deterioration in
earnings and cash flow.
    Debt leverage has risen to 87 pct and the company has
suspended dividend payments to conserve cash, S and P noted.
 Reuter

Dynamics Corp of America said
it has reached an agreement with CTS Corp resolving all
differences between the two companies.
    It said as a result of the settlement, CTS's special board
committee has stopped soliciting orders to purchase some or all
of CTS.
    Dynamics, which now owns 27.5 pct of CTS' outstanding
stock, said it agreed to limit its shareholdings to not more
than 35 pct of the outstanding shares for a year following the
company's 1987 annual meeting.
    Dynamics said the CTS board will recommend CTS shareholders
vote at the 1987 annual meeting in favor of the company paying
Dynamics 2,178,000 dlrs as a reimbursement for its CTS releated
costs and granting Dynamics an option to buy enough CTS common
at 29.625 dlrs a share to give it ownership of 35 pct of the
    Dynamics said the price of stock under the option,
exercisable for one year, is based on the average closing price
for the stock for the five days ending March two.
    Dynamics said CTS Chairman George F. Sommer will assume the
additional title of President. Former President Robert D.
Hostetler is resigning as a director, as is Chief Financial
Officer Gary B. Erekson, Ted Ross and Donald J. Kacek.
    Dynamics said the CTS board will be reduced to seven
members for eight with the remaining four members of the
current board and three representatives of Dynamics as new
directors.
 Reuter

Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME,
directors have postponed action on a membership petition
calling for a ban on dual trading, CME Chairman Jack Sandner
    Consideration of the petition was scheduled for a regular
board meeting today, but directors first wanted the opinions of
a special committee that has been studying trading conditions
in the Standard and Poor's 500 futures pit for the last six
months.
    "We didn't want to preempt the committee," Sandner said.
    Instead, Sandner said the board will wait for the findings
of the special S and P committee, which is considering some
type of restriction on dual trading in S and P 500 futures.
    Dual trading is the legal practice in which an exchange
member can execute customer orders as well as trade for his own
account. Critics maintain the practice provides an opportunity
for traders to "front-run" or trade their own accounts at more
favorable prices before customer orders are executed. Sandner
said he expects the special committee to report its findings
late next week and the board to act when those findings are
presented.
    In response to reports that the CME board is opposed to a
ban on dual trading, Sandner pointed out that the board already
unanimously approved a partial ban on dual trading in S and P
500 futures at a prior meeting.
    The change was withheld, however, at the request of the
special committee after a study was released and the committee
felt the issue should be addressed more comprehensively,
Sandner said.
    Sandner said that he personally had no aversion to a ban on
dual trading and "the leadership (of the CME) is not opposed to
a ban on dual trading."
    Last week, CME special counsel Leo Melamed said the special
study committee is considering changes only for S and P 500
futures and options on futures.
    In addition to the dual trading issue, the committee is
also expected to make recommendations on the possibility for
electronic order entry and execution for S and P 500 futures
and rule changes to alleviate crowded conditions in the S and P
trading pit, Melamed said.
    Melamed said at the time that in matters where a special
committee is appointed, recommendations from the committee are
usually approved by the exchange board of directors.
 Reuter

Prospects for renewal of the
five-year U.S./USSR grains agreement are uncertain at this
point, a Soviet trade official told Reuters.
    The current trade imbalance between the United States and
the Soviet Union, high U.S. commodity prices, and increased
world grain production make a renewal of the supply agreement
next year less certain, Albert Melnikov, deputy trade
representative of the Soviet Union, said in an interview.
    The current agreement expires on Sept 30, 1988.
    Melnikov said that world grain markets are different than
when the first agreement was signed in 1975.
    Statements from both U.S. and Soviet officials have
indicate that a long term grains agreement might not be as
attractive for both sides as it once was.
    "We have had one agreement. We have had a second agreement,
but with the second agreement we've had difficulties with
prices," Melnikov said.
    "I cannot give you any forecasts in response to the future
about the agreement.... I do not want to speculate on what will
happen after Sept 30, 1988," he said.
    Melnikov noted that he has seen no indications from Soviet
government officials that they would be pushing for a renewal
of the agreement.
    "The situation is different in comparison to three, five or
ten years ago ... We can produce more," he said.
 Reuter

Danaher Corp said it expects higher
earnings in 1987 versus 1986.
    "We expect significant increases in earnings and revenues
in 1987," Steven Rales, Danaher chairman and chief executive
officer, said.
    Earlier, the company reported 1986 net earnings of 15.4 mln
dlrs, or 1.51 dlrs a share, versus 13.5 mln dlrs, or 1.32 dlrs
a share, in 1985.
    It also reported fourth quarter net of 7.3 mln dlrs, or 71
cts a share, up from 4.4 mln dlrs, or 43 cts a share, in the
previous year's fourth quarter.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp's Chrysler Motors Corp
said it will spend 367 mln dlrs at its Belvidere, Ill.,
assembly plant to modernize the facility.
    Chrysler said the plant, its sixth to undergo extensive
modernization, will be shut down for model changeover starting
March five.
    Some 2,800 workers of the plant's 3,300 hourly employees
will be temporarily laid off for 18 weeks from March five
through mid-July. The other 500 workers will remain at the
plant in maintenance, retooling and material handling jobs.
    Chrysler said the 367 mln dlr expenditure is part of a 720
mln dlr development program at Belvidere.
    The rest of the money will be spent developing Chrysler's
New York and Dodge Dynasty four-door sedans to be built at the
plant.
    Modernization of the 22-year-old facility is part of
Chrysler's five-year, 12.5 billion dlr company-wide program to
bring its manufacturing operations up to current standards.
    Chrysler said it will increase the number of robots at
Belvidere to 244 from 41. The robots will be used in welding,
material handling and sealing.
    Chrysler will also help retrain the plant's workforce. The
State of Illinois has committeed 10 mln dlrs in training funds
to the project.
    When the plant reopens in July, Chrysler workers will have
completed more than five mln classrom and on-the-job hours in
retraining, the company said.
    The July restart will be on a single-shift basis.
Second-shift production will start this fall.
 Reuter

    Year
    NOTE: Fourth qtr net includes extraordinary gain of 3.8 mln
dlrs, or 37 cts per share, versus 2.9 mln dlrs, or 28 cts a
share, in 1985's fourth qtr, and an extraordinary charge of
642,000 dlrs, or six cts a share. 1986 net includes
extraordinary gain of 7.4 mln dlrs, or 72 cts a share, versus
8.0 mln dlrs, or 78 cts a share, in 1985.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines said it has
proposed a cash merger of USAir Group with TWA in which the
holders of USAir common would receive 52 dlrs in cash in
exchange for their stock.
    TWA said the offer was made in a letter to Edmin Colodny,
chairman and president of USAir.
    TWA said, however, that if the negotiated deal is not
acceptable it may make an offer directly to USAir's
shareholders for up to 51 pct of USAir's outstanding stock, to
be purchased in a voting trust at a price lower than today's
offer.
    TWA said it is filing an application with the Department of
Transportation seeking approval of the merger as well as an
application for approval, on an expedited basis, of its
purchase of up to 51 pct of USAir common and the deposit of the
stock in a voting trust, pending DOT approval.
    TWA said that in respect to USAir's recent offer for
Piedmont Aviation <PIE> it believes that USAir's shareholders
would prefer a cash merger proposal for USAir over its proposed
acquisition of Piedmont.
    TWA said, however, it also would be interested in
discussing a three way deal among USAir, Piedmont and TWA.
    TWA said the merger is subject to the USAir board redeeming
the preferred stock purchase rights (the poison pill) issued to
shareholders last year and taking action so that the vote of a
majority of the outstanding common stock is required to approve
its proposed move.
    Additionally, TWA said it would need a satisfactory due
diligence review of USAir.
    TWA said it has not yet had an opportunity to obtain the
necessary financing for the deal, but added it is confident
that it will get it.
   
 Reuter

Chrysler Canada Ltd, wholly
owned by Chrysler Corp, said February car sales fell to 9,640
units from year-earlier 11,967 units.
    Chrysler Canada said year-to-date car sales fell to 18,094
units from 22,073 units in the same period last year.
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Incorp said its
executive vice president Grant Dove will take an early
retirement effective July.
    The company said Dove will become chairman and chief
executive officer of <Microelectronics and Computer Technology
Corp> of Austin. He will have worked 28 years with Texas
Instruments, the company said.
 Reuter

Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank AG <GZB>
said that it had increased its three-part bond issue to 1.8
billion schillings from the 1.5 billion orginally planned.
    GZB said in a statement that the amount being issued
between today and March 6 had been raised due to heavy demand.
    A 12-year tranche caries seven pct interest with an issue
price of 100.75 while an eight-year part, issued at 100.5,
carries a 6.75 pct. The third, 20-year tranche offers 6.5 pct
interest in the first year, but afterwards interest will be
fixed annually at the average of secondary market rates.
 Reuter

CTS Corp and Dynamics Corp of
America reached an agreement resolving all outstanding
differences between them, according to a joint statment.
    As a result of the settlement, a special committee of the
board of directors of CTS stopped soliciting offers to buy all
or part of the company, it said.
    CTS and DCA also agreed to dismiss all pending litigation
between the two companies except for one appeal pending before
the U.S. Supreme Court relating to the Indiana Control Share
Chapter, it said.
    Under the agreement, the CTS board will immediately be
reduced to seven from eight with four current directors and
three representatives of DCA being elected to the board, it
said. This board will be presented as the slate for CTS' 1987
annual shareholders meeting, it added.
    CTS' directors will recommend to shareholders that they
approve reimbursement to DCA of about 2.2 mln dlrs in expenses
relating to CTS, and grant DCA an option to buy up to 35 pct of
CTS' shares, it said.
    In addition, DCA said it agreed to limit its ownership in
CTS for the year following the 1987 annual meeting to not more
than 35 pct of the outstanding stock. DCA currently holds 27.5
pct of the outstanding shares of CTS.
    Both companies said they support the agreement and believe
it to be fair to both sides.
   
 Reuter

Measurex Corp said it
completed the sale of its Measurex (South Africa Pty)
subsidiary to a group of employees who manage the operation.
    Measurex, a maker of computer integrated manufacturing
systems, said the subsidiary represented less than one pct of
worldwide revenues and the sale will have no impact on this
year's earnings.
 Reuter

Jefferies and Co said it is making a
market in the stock of USAir Group Inc at 48-1/2 to 50.
    USAir received an offer from Trans world airlines to buy
the airline at 52 dlrs cash per share.
    USAir was halted on the New York Stock EXcahnge for
dissemination of the news. It was indicated at 47 to 54.
 Reuter

Federal Express Corp said it received a
recommendation from an administrative law judge that it be
awarded the exclusive air express route between the U.S. and
Japan.
    Federal Express said the recommendation now must be
approved by the Secretary of Transporation Elizabeth Dole and
President Reagan.
    Federal Express said it received late last year preliminary
approval by a panel over a consortium of United Parcel Service
and DHL, and other air express competitors.
 Reuter

Honda Motor Co Ltd of Japan's
American Honda Motor Co Inc unit said its February sales rose
to 56,704 from 48,443 a year ago.
    The sales figures include sales of 7,056 cars from its new
Acura division, which was not in place a year ago. Year to date
sales totaled 102,751 at the end of February, up from 98,724. 
This included sales of 12,723 from the Acura division.
    In the company's Honda division, sales of the Accord model
led the monthly and year-to-date totals, followed by Civic
sales, then Prelude sales. In the Acura division, Intera sales
outpaced Legend sales.
 Reuter

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS>, in
a move following similar steps recently by U.S. carrier TWA,
said it is cutting its fares on transatlantic flights from
April 1.
    From April 1, a return fare Amsterdam-New York will be cut
by eight per cent to 1,099 guilders for the low season until
mid-June, when seasonal increases will come into effect.
    KLM recently rejected invitations by TWA to coordinate
price cuts on the Amsterdam route and a spokesman said KLM had
only moved now to start up a nationwide promotional campaign in
the Netherlands to boost travel to the U.S.
 Reuter

Anheuser-Busch Cos' Metal Container
Corp said it plans to build a beverage can manufacturing plant
at Chester, N.Y.
    The facility is expected to become operational in late
1988.
    Metal Container operates six can and lid plants in the
U.S., and plans to build three more, including the Chester
facility. Facilities are under construction at Windsor, Colo.,
and Riverside, Calif.
    The Anheuser-Busch unit said it expects to produce six
billion cans and eight billion lids in 1987.
 Reuter

President Reagan, fighting to recover
politically from the Iran-contra scandal, plans to acknowledge
in a critical speech to the nation tonight he needs to change
his ways, administration officials said.
    "It will be a forward-looking speech in which he will say he
accepts the need for change," said an official who asked not to
be identified. "I think the president wants to give his side of
the story."
    The official said Reagan would tell the public what he is
doing to set things right in the wake of last week's scorching
Tower commission report on the origins of the scandal.
    It is not clear whether Reagan will heed the advice of many
of his political allies and acknowledge that his Iran policy
was wrong and he personally made some mistakes.
    Asked at his daily news briefing if the president would say
he erred, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told
reporters, "His views are intensely personal and I won't give
you any advance on what he intends to say in that area."
    He said the speech would be 12 or 13 minutes in length and
that Reagan would "look beyond the horizon to a revitalized
White House that will pursue an active foreign policy."
    "The president will discuss the Tower board report and its
recommendations. He'll focus on changes he's making in the
structure of the NSC (National Security Council) and his goals
for the next two years," the spokesman said.
    To date, Reagan has defended his decision to sell arms to
Iran and conceded only there were errors in implementation.
    Senate Republican leader Robert Dole said tonight's speech
might be Reagan's last chance to repair his presidency.
    "It's about the ninth inning ... he has to try and set us on
another course. It's hard to do that, he probably won't be able
to do it," Dole told reporters.
 Reuter

Trans-Lux Corp said its board
declared a five pct stock dividend payable April nine to
holders of record March 20.
    The company said directors also declared regular quarterly
dividends on presently outstanding shares of both classes of
common, payable April nine to holders of record March 16.
    It said an unchanged dividend of two cts will be paid on
the common and 1.8 cts on the Class B stock.
 Reuter

<Lacana Mining Corp> said Gil L.
Leathley was appointed president and chief executive, replacing
William Gross who retired.
    The company said Gross will continue as a director and
executive committee member.
 Reuter

Noland Co said effective April
23, when Lloyd U. Noland Jr. turns 70 and retires as previously
announced as chairman and president, Lloyd U. Noland
III will become chairman and chief executive officer and Carl
Watson president and chief operating officer.
    The company said Noland III, 43, is vice president, manager
of merchandising for plumbing and heating products. Watson, 64,
is executive vice president, marketing.
    It said Noland Jr. will also leave the board on April 23,
along with S.Q. Groover a retired Noland executive serving as a
consultant on real estate and facilities matters.

A 100 mln dlr offering of Xerox Credit
Corp 12-year notes was given an eight pct coupon and priced at
99.534 to yield 8.061 pct, Salomon Brothers Inc said as lead
manager.
    The securities of the Xerox Corp unit are not callable for
seven years. The yield reflected a premium of 91 basis points
over that of comparable U.S. Treasury issues.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the notes at A-2,
compared with A-plus from Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

Shr loss one cent
    11 mths
    Shr loss 7.26 dlrs
    NOTE: In February 1986, Kaneb Services Inc contributed all
of its domestic oil and gas operations to Kaneb Partners, which
was newly formed, and exchanged approximately 3,200,000
depositary units respresenting limited partnership interests in
KEP for approximately 6,400,000 million shares of the
outstanding common stock of Kaneb Servies Inc. Kaneb now owns
approximately 82 pct of KEP.
    During the 11 mths of operation, the partnership wrote down
the carrying value of its oil and gas properties by 124.8 mln
dlrs. The write downs reduced income by 7.46 dlrs per limited
partnership unit.
   
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss two cts
    net profit 157,500 vs loss 60,200
    Revs 1.1 mln vs 1.0 mln
    Shr profit five cts vs profit six cts
    Net profit 223,400 vs profit 260,800
    Revs 3.2 mln vs 3.1 mln
 Reuter

Green Mountain Power Corp
said it signed an agreement to provide <Bozrah Light and Power
Co>, a private utility based in Gilman, Conn., with all its
electric power requirements.
    Under the agreement, which runs through 1996, Green
Mountain said it will sell the utility roughly 30,000
megawatt-hours, generating about 1.5 mln dlrs in revenues.
 Reuter

Association said it wanted to clarify the status of yesterday's
offering of one billion dlrs of debentures, due March 10, 1992.
    It said the offering was a new issue and not a reopening as
stated yesterday. FNMA had said the offering was a reopening of
a 1972 20-year issue.
    The debtentures will settle on March 10, 1987.
 Reuter

<Venture Funding Corp> said
it has extended the exercise period on its outstanding class A
and B warrants until April 15, 1988.
    The original exercise date was April 15, 1987.
    The company also said it has executed a non-binding letter
of intent to acquire three affiliated California corporations
that own and operate Mexican food restaurants.
    It said it has placed "stop transfer" orders to prevent
exercise of the warrants until adequate information is made
available about the proposed business combination and the
businesses to be acquired.
   
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps lowered the ratings
assigned to Public Service Electric and Gas Company's fixed
income securities valued at a total of 3.44 billion dlrs.
    The company's 2.61 billion dlrs in first mortgage bonds
were downgraded to DP-4 (low AA) from DP-3 (middle AA). The
ratings on its debentures and preferred stock valued at 213 mln
and 619 mln dlrs, respectively, were lowered to DP-5 (high A)
from DP-4.
    Duff and Phelps said the utility's debt ratings were
lowered because of the recent negative rate order for its Hope
Creel nuclear plants.
    "This order included highly stringent performance standards
for the company's five nuclear plants," the ratings agency
said.
 Reuter

Advanced Genetic Sciences Inc said Debra
Coyman was named director of business development of the
company. The company said Coyman was previously director of
product development of Agrigenetics Research Corp in Boulder,
Colo.
 Reuter

(CORRECTION) - SHAW'S SUPERMARKETS EARNINGS
    In item headlined "SHAW'S SUPERMARKETS INC &lt;SHAW&gt; YEAR JAN
3" please read per share earnings 1.33 drs vs 1.23 dlrs,
correcting order of results.
 Reuter

Shr profit 13 cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 853,000 vs loss 22,000
    Sales 41.1 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Avg shrs 6,349,753 vs 4,403,852
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 57 cts vs profit 28 cts
    Net profit 2,869,000 vs profit 1,252,000
    Sales 119.0 mln vs 67.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,054,844 vs 4,403,852
 Reuter

Healthvest, a Maryland real estate
investment trust, said it began selling five mln shares of
common stock at 21 dlrs a share.
    The company said it is also selling 543,237 shares to
Healthcare International Inc <HII>, giving the company a 9.8
pct stake in Healthvest.
 Reuter

There has been no rise in the
price of Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice, FCOJ, a spokesman
for the Banco do Brasil's Foreign Trade Department, Cacex,
said.
    He was responding to rumours in the international market
that Brazil had raised its FCOJ prices in range of 1,075 to
1,150 dlrs per tonne.
 Reuter

Epitope Inc said it has
developed a Western Blot AIDS test and it will begin worldwide
marketing efforts immediately.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 12.5 cts vs 12.5 cts prior
    Pay April 1
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 4.91 dlrs
    Net 3.7 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.99 dlrs vs 3.35 dlrs
    Net 10.7 mln vs 18.0 mln
    NOTE:1986 year, 4th qtr include capital gains of 3.5 mln
dlrs and 1.1 mln dlrs, respectively and extraordinary gain of
3.4 mln dlrs and 1.2 mln dlrs respectively. 1985 year and 4th
qtr include capital gains of 24.0 mln dlrs and 23.3 mln dlrs
respectively and extraordinary gain of 3.9 mln dlrs.
        
 Reuter

Shr 1.52 dlrs vs 17 cts
    Net 1,306,000 vs 144,000
    Rev 758,000 vs 670,000
    Year
    Shr 2.68 dlrs vs 2.63 dlrs
    Net 2,313,000 vs 2,285,000
    Rev 2.8 mln vs 2.7 mln
    NOTE: Fourth qtr and 1986 had gains on real estate
investments of 933,000 dlrs, or 1.08 a share, and 970,000 dlrs,
or 1.12 a share, respectively.
    This compares with a loss of 137,000 dlrs, or 15 cts a
share, and again of 1.3 mln dlrs, or 1.45 a share, for the
fourth qtr and year respectively in 1985.
 Reuter

Irvine Sensors Corp said it
completed a public offering of 1.25 mln units, consisting of
two shares of common stock and one warrant to purchase an
additional share.
    The units were sold at a price of 1.60 dlrs each, Irvine
Sensors said, adding, the units will trade under the NASDAQ
symbol "IRSNU" and the new warrants under the symbol "IRSNW."
 Reuter

Qtrly div five cts vs five cts qtr
    Record  March 16
 Reuter

    Revs 41.1 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Revs 119.0 mln vs 67.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,054,844 vs 4,403,000
    Note: Company went public in October 1986.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs four cts prior qtr
    Pay May five
    Record April 15
 Reuter

The former chairman of Peoples National
Bank of Rockland County, N.Y., pleaded guilty to charges of
bribery and income tax evasion.
    Leonard Slutsky, 41, faces up to five years in prison on
each of two counts of bank bribery and tax evasion. He could
also be fined up to 745,000 dlrs.
    In his guilty plea before Judge Charles Brieant of the
White Plains, N.Y. branch of U.S. District Court, Slutsky
admitted accepting payments from a tax shelter promoter.
Peoples had lent money to investors in the tax shelter. The
bank was declared insolvent in September, 1984.
    Another former official of the bank, Samuel Yonnone, 37,
pled guilty today to conspiring to accept money from a broker
to make false entries in the bank's books. Yonnone, who was
senior vice president of the bank, faces five years in jail and
a 250,000 dlr fine.
    The 41-year-old Slutksy admitted accepting 165,000 dlrs in
bribes.

 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it had no comment
on an offer it received from Trans World Airlines to buy USAir
for 52 dlrs cash per share.
    USAir spokesman David Shipley also declined comment on
Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>. USAir has offered 71 dlrs cash per
share for half of Piedmont's stock, and 73 dlrs in its own
stock for the balance.
    Piedmont also received an offer from Norfolk Southern Corp
<NSC> of 65 dlrs cash per share. Piedmont's board was meeting
today, but the company declined to say what was on the agenda.
A spokesman said he could not comment on the twa action.
    A Norfolk Southern Corp <NSC> spokesman said the company
had no comment on TWA's offer for USAir or on its proposal to
negotiate a three-way merger between TWA, USAir and Piedmont.
    "We don't have all the details," a Norfolk Southern
spokesman said. The company's 65 dlr-a-share cash offer for
Piedmont stands, he said.
    In its offer, TWA said as an alternative to a merger with
USAir, it would be interested in discussing a three-way
combination among USAir, Piedmont and TWA. It said the
three-way merger would serve the best interests of the
shareholders of all three companies, employees and consumers.
 Reuter

Congressmen from beef producing
states and representatives of the U.S. livestock industry 
urged the Reagan administration to press Japan and South Korea
to open up their markets to imports of beef.
    Testifying at a House subcommittee hearing on livestock
issues, Rep. Hal Daub (R-Nebr.), said the administration should
push hard for greater beef imports by Japan and South Korea.
Daub was joined by several other lawmakers.
    U.S. assistant trade representative Suzanne Earley, replied
"we're not going to let Japan off the hook, or Korea." She
noted trade representative Clayton Yeutter met with a senior
Korean official last week on the beef issue, and that Yeutter
and Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng will visit Tokyo in
April for discussions on farm trade issues.
    Japan maintains a quota on beef imports, set at 58,400
tonnes high quality beef in fiscal 1987. South Korea has banned
beef imports but there are indications Seoul may bow to U.S.
pressure and allow some imports soon, industry officials said.
    In testimony today, Tom Cook, director of industry affairs
for the National Cattlemens Association said "the Congress,
administration and the industry must take a strong, tough and
united stand to impress the Japanese that we mean business and
that we expect them to open their markets."
 Reuter

South Africa's total gold and
foreign assets rose by 700 mln rand in February to 6.2 billion
rand after rising by almost one billion rand in January,
Reserve Bank Governor Gerhard de Kock said.
    De Kock, interviewed on state-run television, gave no
breakdown of the reserves.
    He also said that to curb inflation, salary increases would
have to be below the inflation rate. The state must set an
example by keeping wage increases below the inflation rate, he
said.
    Consumer prices rose by 16.1 pct in the year to January.
 Reuter

President Reagan formally accepted the
resignation of White House counsel Peter Wallison and named
Arthur Culvahouse, an associate of new White House chief Howard
Baker, to replace him.
    Wallison, who has handled White House legal affairs for the
past year, was closely identified with former chief of staff
Donald Regan and his departure had been expected.
    His resignation, which Reagan accepted "with deep regret," is
effective on March 20.
    Culvahouse, a 38-year old Tennessee native who currently
practices law in Washington, was Baker's legislative assistant
when the new chief of staff was Senate Republican leader.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group Inc said it named
Jerry Welsh to the newly-created post of senior executive vice
president for marketing and strategic development.
    The company said Welsh was previously executive vice
president of worldwide marketing and communications for
American Express'<AXP> Travel Related Services Co Inc.
 Reuter

The chairman of the U.S. House
subcommittee on dairy, livestock and poultry issues, Rep.
Charles Stenholm (D-Tex.), said it is likely the U.S. dairy
support price will be cut next year.
    "It looks like the price cut may take place," Stenholm said
at a hearing today on dairy issues.
    Under the 1985 farm bill, the Agriculture Secretary can
lower the U.S. milk price support to 10.60 dlrs per cwt from
the current 11.35 dlrs if government purchases of dairy
products are forecast to exceed five billion lbs in 1988.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department forecasts government
purchases of dairy products will total six to seven billion lbs
in fiscal 1987, but says the level of purchases beyond 1987
will depend on the production decisions of dairy farmers.
 Reuter

Whether the Soviet Union will fulfill
its buying obligations under the U.S./USSR grains agreement
depends entirely on the United States, a Soviet trade official
    "How can I tell that we are ready to fulfill the agreement
if the United States does not want to offer us grain at
competitive prices?" said Albert Melnikov, deputy trade
representative of the Soviet Union to the United States.
    "We are in the market for grains, but it is up to the
United States to be the seller ... to offer Soviets competitive
prices," he said in an interview.
    Melnikov said that the United States has not lived up the
agreement by failing to make available to Moscow U.S. grain at
prevailing market prices.
    "We are being accused of not implementing this agreement.
We do not consider we are at fault," Melnikov said.
    Article I in the agreement states that "purchases/sales of
commodities under this Agreement will be made at the market
price prevailing for these products at the time of
purchase/sale and in accordance with normal commercial terms."
    "The United States should supply to the Soviet Union
definite quantities of grain at competitive prices ... Is the
United States ready to supply this?" he said.
    The Soviet official said that near-term corn demand has
been met by the recent Soviet purchases of U.S. corn, which he
confirmed at 1.5 mln tonnes, but said that if U.S. corn prices
remain competitive, the Soviets will buy more if they need it.
    Wheat buying, however, is a different story, Melnikov said.
    "If the United States is interested in selling its wheat,
then they must offer competitive prices, and it's up to the
United States to decide how these competitive prices will be
offered," he said.
    Last year's U.S. offer of subsidized wheat to the Soviets
was rejected because of an insufficient subsidy, Melnikov said.
He said that at the time of the 13 dlr per tonne subsidy offer,
U.S. wheat prices were 26 dlrs over world levels.
 Reuter

Computer Identics Corp said its
board elected Frank Wezniak to the new position of chief
executive officer and as director and president, succeeding
David Collins.
    Collins, also founder of the company, said he resigned
because the company has progressed beyond the entrepreneurial
stage and requires the management experience that Weznkiak
possesses.
    Wezniak has been active in several early stage venture
capital investments and serves on a number of high tech
corporation boards.
    The board alkso accepted a plan to issue subordinated
demand notes for 600,000 dlrs to one mln dlrs to an investor
group including Wezniak.
    The board also voted to expand to seven the number of
directors and ofer a new board seat to a group of investors
represented by N.V. Bekaert S.A.
 Reuter

A three-part, 160 mln dlr offering of
Virginia Housing Development Authority collateralized mortgage
obligations was priced, First Boston Corp said as a manager.
    The package includes 84 mln dlrs of CMOs with an average
life of 1.1 years priced to yield 6.88 pct and 23.5 mln dlrs of
bonds with a 5.5 year average life and eight pct return.
    Rounding out the financing is a 52.5 mln dlr tranche of
floating rate CMOs. These offer a return at the three-month
Libor rate plus 45 basis points.
    Standard and Poor's rates all of the securities AAA.
 Reuter

TRC Cos Inc said its wholly
owned unit, Alliance Technologies Corp, received a 4.2 mln dlr
contract from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to
develop an inventory of pollutants contributing to acid
deposition nationwide.
    TRC said the program would be the basis for evaluating the
relationship between emission sources and their effects on the
environment.
 Reuter

Biospherics Inc said its common
stock quotations will appear in the NASDAQ stock table
published in more than 100 newspapers.
    The company said higher trading volume is expected from the
new listing.
    Previously, Biospherics was listed only in the regional
securities sections in the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun.
 Reuter

Qtly div 37.5 cts vs 37.5 cts prior
    Pay April eight
 Reuter

Shares of Johnson and Johnson rose
sharply today following a reiterated recommendation by Kidder
Peabody analyst Arnie Snider, traders said.
    Snider said the stock had also been placed on Kidder's
"selected stock list."
    The stock gained 3-1/2 points to 91.
    The reiterated recommendation focused on a strong growth
rate and the quality of the company's new products.
 Reuter

Sugar production in Peru for the
1986/87 season has been revised to 593,000 tonnes (raw value),
down 10 pct from the previous forecast and 21 pct below the
1985/86 harvest, the U.S. Agriculture Department said in its
World Production and Trade Report.
    It said while rains in the northern mountain region are
improving the supply of irrigation water, the major benefits
will not occur until the 1987/88 season.
 Reuter

Key tax and budget lawmakers
Wednesday expressed reservations about the suggested new
securities tax, which has has aroused concern on Wall Street
and put pressure on brokerage stocks.
    Grappling with the need to either raise taxes or cut
federal spending to meet the fiscal 1988 budget deficit target
of 108 billion dlrs, House Speaker Jim Wright suggested the tax
be studied as one way to raise more federal revenues.
    The Texas Democrat's idea as first presented to House Ways
and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski this week would
tax sales and purchases of securities. A tax of 0.25 to 0.5
percent would raise from 8.5 to 17 billion dlrs a year.
    Rostenkowski, the chief taxwriter, considers it too early
to back any tax increase idea but agreed to add the securities
transfer tax to a long list of tax alternatives under review by
congressional tax analysts, a spokesman said.
    The Illinois Democrat has repeatedly stressed this year he
is reluctant to back a tax increase so long as President Reagan
maintains his staunch opposition.
    "First we've got to decide whether to raise additional
revenues. Only then can we consider the specific options. At
this point nothing is on or off the table. It's just too early,"
Rostenkowski said in a statement.
    He made no commitment to Wright in a private meeting
Tuesday, and in fact was not asked for one, a House source
said. The idea was presented only as something that might or
might not be valuable, he said.
    House Budget Committee chairman William Gray agreed it was
another option to be looked at, if Congress decided it needed
to raise revenues to reduce the deficit, an aide said.
   The Pennsylvania Democrat does not intend to recommend
specific tax proposals, the aide said. The Budget Committee
will recommend a certain amount of revenue to be raised in
1988, but will leave to the taxwriting committee the decision
on how the taxes will be raised.
    The securities transfer tax would raise a hefty amount of
revenue to ease Congress's difficult task of trimming the
deficit by 61 billion dlrs this year to meet the target.
    But some in Congress feared that such a tax could drive
securities business offshore and hurt U.S. investment, and
there were uncertainties about the details of the tax.
    Democrats have not united behind any budget alternatives so
far this year. This week they are scheduled to discuss the
budget and possible spending cuts or tax increases but no
decisions are anticipated, congressional sources said.
    At the same time, without President Reagan's assent to a
general tax increase, they are left with piecemeal taxes that
are guaranteed to anger those who must pay.
    "We could just do all of them," one congressional source said
of the various tax ideas -- excise taxes, securities taxes, oil
import fee and others.
 Reuter

Itel Corp said it obtained commitments
from a syndicate of banks for a six-year secured loan of about
325 mln dlrs and had separately filed registration statements
for two public offerings for a total of 150 mln dlrs to fund
its December 1986 acquisition of <Anixter Bros Inc>.
    It said one of the offerings will be a new 75 mln dlrs
issue of convertible exchangeable series C preferred and the
other will be a 75 mln dlr issue of seven-year senior
subordinated notes. Both offerings will be through Merrill
Lynch Capital Markets.
    It said a portion of the proceeds from the offerings,
together with the proceeds form the new bank loan, wll be used
to repay the 395 mln dlr bridge loan Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER> provided for Itel to buy Anixter.
    Itel said the banks it obtained commitments from include
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co <MHC>, <Chemical Bank of New
<York>, and the <First National Bank of Chicago>.
 Reuter

The Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection and Insurance Co said it will purchase 600,000 of
its own common stock from Travelers Insurance Companies <TIC>.
    Hartford said it will buy the stock at 60 dlrs per share.
It also said the remaining 200,000 shares currently held by the
Travelers will be retained for investment purposes.
    The company said the purchase represents approximately six
pct of the 10.6 mln outstanding shares.
 Reuter

Great American First Savings Bank said
the bank recorded gains exceeding 80 mln dlrs on sales of loans
and mortgage securities valued at 1.1 billion dlrs.
    The San Diego-based bank said in a prepared release of its
report to analysts here that the gains included 6.6 mln dlrs in
arbitrage profits from the premium paid for the separation of
interest and principal components of new Federal National
Mortgage Association strip securities.
    The bank said it reported a profit of more than 20 mln dlrs
on the transaction, involving 390 mln dlrs of FNMA securities,
including the arbitrage gain.
    Great American recently announced plans to acquire <Capital
Savings Bank>, Olympia, Wash., and last year acquired <Home
Federal Savings and Loan Association>, Tucson, Ariz., and <Los
Angeles Federal Savings Bank>, which resulted in 66 new offices
and three billion dlrs in assets.
    The bank also said it plans to expand into other major
western banking markets and is considering an acquisition in
Colorado.
 Reuter

Tandy Brands Inc said it sold
its Grate Home and Fireplace division to an investor group that
includes some members of Grate's management for 1,600,000 dlrs
in cash and secured notes.
    The company said the sale will not materially offset the
9,848,000 dlr non-recurring charge it took against the sale of
the division.
 Reuter

    Intermark Inc <IMI> - Offering of 40 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2007 through Drexel
    Avery International Corp <AVY> - Offering of two mln shares
of common stock through Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc and Goldman,
    Philadelphia Electric Co <PE> - Shelf offering of up to 1.5
mln shares of common stock through Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Pennzoil Co <PZ> - Offering of 100 mln dlrs of debentures
due April 1, 2017 through Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and
Lazard Freres and Co.
 Reuter

The directors of the American Farm
Bureau, the nation's largest farm organization, voted Tuesday
to urge Congress to leave the 1985 farm bill in place without
alterations.
    "We are solidly opposed to opening up the 1985 farm bill,"
said Dean Kleckner, president. "The current farm bill has been
in place for just a little over a year and in our judgment
there is more to be gained at the present time from maintaining
the legislation.
    "Several independent studies ... indicate the 1985 farm
bill is better on balance than any of the alternatives being
advanced," Kleckner said.
    The Farm Bureau also urged Agriculture Secretary Richard
Lyng to adjust the loan rate for 1987 crop soybeans as much as
he deems possible under the farm bill to keep soybeans
competitive in the world market.
    A Farm Bureau proposal suggests that producers should be
eligible for supplemental payments in the form of PIK
certificates for the difference between 5.02 dlrs a bushel and
the new loan rate.
    The organization also urged Lyng to authorize deficiency
payments to farmers who were unable to plant 1987 winter wheat
because of adverse weather.
 Reuter

White House chief of staff Howard
Baker said he has no secret plan to raise taxes.
    Talking to reporters, he pointed out that, "Ronald Reagan
is president. I am chief of staff. His program is my program."
I have no tax plan at all."
    Baker's comments came in response to a question as to
whether he planned to support higher taxes to reduce the budget
deficit. President Reagan has said repeatedly that he opposes
higher taxes.

 Reuter

Browning-Ferris Industires Inc said its
board declared a two-for-one stock split payable April 24 to
holders of record March 31.
     
 Reuter

EG and G said its EG and G
Services unit was awarded a contract to provide facilities
operations, maintenance and related services for the U.S.
government's chemical decontamination training facility at Fort
McClellan, Ala.
 Reuter

A plan by U.S. semiconductor firms to
cooperate in a manufacturing facility to compete with firms in
Japan could conflict with anti-monopoly law, the plan's backers
said.
    The Semiconductor Industry Association announced at a news
conference a plan for a consortium to be known as SEMATECH to
build an advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant.
    Asked whether U.S. antitrust regulators might object,
Charles Sporck, president of National Semiconductor Corp, said,
"That is a possibility."
    Sporck said the Defense Department had a strong interest in
the project but he declined to estimate how much would be
sought from the government or how much funding SEMATECH would
require.
    Sporck said the group hopes to have an operational plan
ready by June 1.
    Then it will search for a site for the manufacturing
facility and an executive to head up the consortium.
    The consortium could be operating by the end of the year,
and the facility working in 18 months, he said.
    International Business Machines Corp hopes to participate
in the effort, Paul Low, an IBM executive, said.
    He said the project suppliers of raw materials and others
vital to the semiconductor industry, such as toolmakers, would
be invited to participate.
    Sporck said no decision was made on what product would be
produced, stressing that the emphasis was on developing
technology and sharing that with firms which belonged to
SEMATECH. Other aspects were still undecided, such as whether a
Japanese firm with a facility in the United States would be
allowed to participate, he said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 55 cts vs 55 cts prior
    Payable May one
 Reuter

Banner Industries Inc said it completed
the purchase of all Rexnord Inc <REX> common shares for its
26.25 dlrs per share cash tender offer that ended Feb
27, 1987.
    The purchase follows Banner receiving earlier today 310 mln
dlrs under a credit agreement with Citicorp Industries Credit
Inc and the Bank of Nova Scotia, and an additional 260 mln dlrs
from offerings made for Banner and its subsidiary through
Drexel Burnham and Lambert.
    As a result of the tender offer, Banner said it will own
approximately 96 pct of the outstanding shares of Rexnord. The
company said a merger of Rexnord and a subsidiary of Banner
will be completed before mid-May.
 Reuter

MURPHY RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTED PRICES ONE DLR/BBL. WTI TO 17.00 DLRS TODAY

The Commonwealth of Australia is
offering in the Yankee bond market 400 mln dlrs of bonds in two
tranches, said lead manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    A 250 mln dlr issue of bonds due 1997 was given a 7-5/8 pct
coupon and was priced at 99.25 to yield 7.73 pct, or 60.5 basis
points more than comparable Treasury securities.
    A companion 150 mln dlr offering of 30-year bonds was given
an 8-3/8 pct coupon and was priced at 99.875 to yield 8.386
pct, or 82.5 basis points over Treasuries.
    Both tranches are non-callable for life. Moody's rates the
bonds Aa-1 and S and P rates them AA-plus.
 Reuter

<Phoenix Steel Corp> said a group
of investors offered to buy its Clayton steel plate mill for
eight mln dlrs and the assumption of a bond obligation.
   Phoenix did not disclose the indentity of the investors.
    Phoenix was forced to close the Clayton mill last month.
    The company said the offer represents a major step in
restructuring the company.
 Reuter

North American Philips Corp is raising
100 mln dlrs via an offering of debentures due 2017 yielding
8.809 pct, said sole manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    The debentures have an 8-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at
99.375 to yield 125 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
    The issue is non-refundable for 10 years. A sinking fund
that starts in 1998 to retire five pct of the debentures
annually can be increased by 200 pct at the company's option.
Moody's rates the debentures A-2 and Standard and Poor's rates
them A-minus.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 229,000 vs 201,000
    revs 10.5 mln vs 9.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 21 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 283,000 vs 766,000
    Revs 40.4 mn vs 39.7 mln
    NOTE:1985 shares adjusted to reflect the distribution of
one share of Class B common stock for every two shares of
common stock held of record as of July 1, 1986.
 Reuter

Savin Corp said the first period
for the exercise of the special conversion right for its zero
coupon convertible senior notes due February one, 1996, has
expired.
    Savin said about 1,767,000 shares of its common stock will
be issued as a result of the conversion.
    The share certificates issued through the conversion will
be distributed to noteholders beginning March six, Savin added.
 Reuter

Meridian Diagnostics Inc said it
received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to
market a test to detect a disease which drains fluids from the
bodies of AIDS victims.
    The company said the test detects Cryptosporidium SP in
stool specimens. The disease can result in life threatening
loss of fluids, the company added.
 Reuter

postponed until March 10 its meeting scheduled for tomorrow to
act on a bank regulation bill.
    A committee aide said the postponement was requested by
Republican members who wanted more time to look over a revised 
draft version of the bill which was just introduced.
    That version of the bill would allow non-bank banks to
continue activities in operation as of March 5, but would
prohibit them from starting other financial services.
    The previous draft bill would have banned non-bank bank
activities started after July 1, 1983.
 Reuter

President Reagan will visit Rome and
West Berlin during a trip to Europe in June to attend the
Venice summit meeting of the major industrialized countries,
    The announcement said Reagan and Nancy Reagan would be in
Rome from June 3 to 6 as the guests of President Francesco
Cossiga and would have an audience with Pope John Paul II on
June 6. After the June 8-10 summit, Reagan will travel to West
Berlin on June 12 to participate in the city's 750th
anniversary and will meet West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in
Bonn before returning home the same day.
 Reuter

Sumner Redstone, president of National
Amusements, Inc, predicted he can win regulatory approvals to
wrap up the 3.4 billion dlr acquisition of Viacom International
Inc in 60 to 90 days.
    Redstone, 63, catapulted himself into the big leagues of
entertainment early today when a group of Viacom managers and
their financial backers decided not to top National's bid.
    "We've had counsel working for some time in every region
where Viacom has cable televison systems" Redstone told Reuters
in a telephone interview.
    Redstone also said "Viacom is committed to working very
closely with us to obtain approvals." Viacom has been seeking
approvals for transfer of its broadcast licenses and cable
systems since September when its management group first
advanced a buyout plan.
    But Redstone turned the situation into a spirited bidding
contest which was capped by the announcement this morning that
Viacom's independent directors on behalf of Viacom entered into
a defintive merger agreement with National.
    National is a family business which operates a chain of
movie theaters. It is dwarfed by Viacom.
    Redstone said he was weary after talks dragged on through
the night but also excited at the prospect of running a leading
electronic media company. He noted that the number of motion
picture admissions in the U.S. has shown no growth in 15 years.
    Of nine satellite television channels operated by Viacom,
four are motion-picture oriented pay channels. Redstone said
exclusive contracts with pay television networks are the
emerging trend. "Up until recently you could see any motion
picture on any pay channel," Redstone said.
    He noted Viacom has exclusive agreements with two studios
and plans to sign a deal with a third company next month.
    Redstone said the management group's investment bankers
will be paid what is due for termination of its merger
agreement. Such fees could total about 30 mln dlrs. "That will
be a company expense," Redstone said.
    He said BankAmerica <BAC> Corp has had numerous inquiries
from lenders who want to participate in a 2.25 billion dlr
financing for the deal. BankAmerica will provide 592 mln dlrs.
    After the merger, Viacom will be a subsidiary of National
but 17 pct of the company will be in public hands.
 Reuter

A senior British official said that
protectionist bills being considered by Congress could trigger
retaliation by the European Community (EEC) and threaten the
global trading system.
    Paul Channon, secretary for trade and industry, said if
Congress passed legislation to curb textile imports, which
would hit EC shipments as well as shipments from major Asian
textile producers, "the community would have to retaliate."
    His comments echoed those made yesterday by Belgian Trade
Minister Herman De Croo, who said if the bill passed, the
community would retaliate by imposing taxes on U.S. exports.
    Channon made his remarks at a news conference after two
days of talks with Reagan Administration officials and members
of Congress.
    De Croo was also in Washington for trade talks.
    Channon said there was a greater protectionism sentiment in
Congress since his visit here last year as Congress and the
Administration tried to find ways to reduce the U.S. trade
deficit, which last year hit a record 169.8 billion dlrs.
    Channon also called for greater EC-U.S. cooperation to
force Japan to open its markets to foreign goods.
    Channon said Japan's trade surplus is causing everyone
problems - its surplus with the United States last year was
51.5 billion dlrs and with EC nations, 16.7 billion dlrs.
    "The more united pressure there could be, the better," he
said.
    Channon also called for increased U.S.-EC cooperation to
avoid trade disputes.
    He said the two sides narrowly avoided a confrontation
earlier this year over lost grains sales when Spain and
Portugal joined the community and its liberal imports
regulations were tightened to conform to EC standards.
    "But if both sides drew back from the brink that time," he
said, ""it does not mean that they would do so on another
occasion."
    Channon added that "There is increasing reesentment in
Europe over the U.S. tactic of negotiating under the pressure
of unilaterally imposed deadlines."
    He said other potential conflicts are already in sight -
alleged European government subsidies of Airbus aircraft and
taxes on fats and oils - and "the commuity and the United States
must therefore learn to manage their relations better."
    He said another bill to let the United States retaliate
against a nation if that nation's market was not open to U.S.
goods would bypass the trade pact GATT (General Agreeeement on
Tariffs and Trade) as an arbiter of trade practices.
    He said foreign trade law should be judged by GATT and not
by the United States, adding "if the (trade) law is to be
interpreted by the United States and not by the GATT, what is
to happen to the rest of us?"
   
 reuter

<Omnibus Computer Graphics Inc>, which
earlier said it is in default of certain provisions of its line
of credit, said its Canadian banker has indicated a willingness
to work with the company and has not called Omnibus' loan.
    Omnibus earlier said negotiations are underway to provide
additional financing.
 Reuter

U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter said he hoped the U.S. dollar would continue to decline
in relation to the currencies of Taiwan and South Korea as a
way to improve the U.S. trade picture.
    Testifying before the House Appropriations subcommittee
which must approve his agency's 1988 budget, he said, "In my
judgment economic factors justify a continued decline."
    Asked by a committee member if he expected a further
decline, and how much, Yeutter said the Taiwan and South Korean
currencies should be adjusted to reflect "positive factors" in
their economies.
 Reuter

<Yugo America Inc>, a
unit of <Yugo NV>, said it sold 5,059 cars in February, the
first month in which sales topped 5,000.
    Yugo said the February's sales were 21.2 pct higher than
sales in January and 191.4 pct above the 1,736 cars sold in the
same month last year.
    Yugo said it has sold a total of 9,233 cars so far in 1987.
 Reuter

The Senate Agriculture Committee
approved a bill that would extend for one year the life of the
National Commission on Dairy Policy.
    The dairy commission, mandated by the 1985 farm bill, is
set to expire at the end of the month. The bill would extend
the date by which the commission must submit its report on
dairy policy to March 31, 1988.
    Congress charged the commission with examining the federal
price support program for milk and alternatives to the program.
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs five cts prior
 Reuter

China's 1986/87 sugar crop has been
revised to 5.26 mln tonnes (raw value), down four pct from the
previous forecast and five pct below the previous season, the
U.S. Agriculture Department said.
attributed the decline to relatively poor profitability of
sugar, causing harvested area of cane and beets to decline
seven pct from 1985/86.
    Beet sugar production for 1986/87 is now estimated at
837,000 tonnes, five pct less than earlier forecast and down
five pct from the previous season, while cane output is
projected at 4.423 mln tonnes, down four pct from previously
forecast and five pct below the previous season, it said.
 Reuter

General Host Corp said it will
report a loss from continuing operations and a sharp decline in
net income for the year ended January 25, 1987, due to
substantial operating losses in its Frank's Nursery and Crafts
unit. For the year ended January 25, 1986, General reported net
income of 29.7 mln dlrs.
    The company said it discovered problems in its unit's
computerized accounts payable system. It said results of its
other nursery and craft unit, Flower Time Inc, are not
affected. It said its accountants are investigating the
problem, which will delay release of its full-year results.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers and American
Motors Corp agreed to resume talks on a new labor contract for
the company's threatened Kenosha, Wisc. assembly plant despite
a breakdown in talks last weekend, UAW vice-president Marc
Stepp said.
    Stepp told reporters that issues which caused the talks to
break off are being discussed between the two sides and that a
main table bargaining session has been scheduled Friday in
Milwaukee.
    France's Regie Nationale des Usines Renault has a
controlling stake in American Motors.
    Stepp said the union intends "to exert full efforts" to
reach an agreement that would keep the plant in operation past
1989, when AMC has said production will end unless the UAW
grants concessions on labor costs.
    The UAW leader said the company and the union agreed in
principle in 1985 to pattern a future contract covering some
6,000 Kenosha workers after lower-cost UAW contracts covering
Mazda Motor Corp's new U.S. plant in Michigan and the New
United Motor plant in California operated by Toyota.
    Stepp said there is such deep hostility between the company
and union locals in Milwaukee and Kenosha that communication
between them is very difficult.
    But he said it is possible to reach agreement on a new
contract to save the jobs of UAW members at AMC's Wisconsin
operations despite the impasse.
    AMC has said it will resume talks, but only for 24 hours to
ascertain whether the union was willing to agree to the
concessions it wants.
    The Kenosha plant builds AMC's Renault cars and a line of
Chrysler Corp <C> vehicles under a contract assembly deal.
 Reuter

<Victory Markets Inc> said it
filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission relating to the proposed public offering of 60 mln
dlrs principal amounbt of subordinated debentures due 1999.
    Proceeds will be used to repay outstanding indebtedness of
the company and to repay a portion of outstanding loans.
    Victory Markets Inc owns and operates a chain of 88 retail
supermarkets and conducts a wholesale grocery business in
central and northern New York State.
 Reuter

Syntex Corp said its
diagnostics subsidiary has introduced a rapid, antibody-based
test to diagnose strep throat infections, called AccuPoint (T)
Group H Strep Test.
    A Syntex spokesman said the test has received Food and Drug
Administration approval and is now available nationwide for use
in hospitals, doctors offices and laboratories.
    The company said it is the first of ten diagnostic tests
being developed for Syntex by Murex Corp. Others include
detection of pregnancy, ovulation and sexually transmitted
diseases.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 22 cts vs 22 cts
 Reuter

Carolina Power and Light Co said
it will redeem on April 22 all two mln shares of its 2.675 dlr
preferred stock, series A.
    The company said it will pay 25.75 dlrs a share plus
accrued dividends of 15.6 cts.
    The redemption, Carolina Power said, will substantially
reduce its operating costs.
 Reuter

Central Bancshares of the South's
Central Bank of the South said it unveiled a realtime trading
floor providing the staff with instant access to U.S. financial
markets.
    The company said the system, the first in Alabama, is in
its investment banking division. The company said the staff
receives immediate notification of prices changes, market data
and a summary of securities or bonds in inventory.
    The trading floor consists of workstations intergrating
personal computer and mainframe capabilities, telephone and
intercom systems, and multiple information services.
    The trading room format was created by Rich Inc, a
subsidiary of Reuters Inc <REUT>.
 Reuter

Quantum Diagnostics Ltd said it
received notification from the U.S. patent office that a patent
would be issued on its analog image processor as of March
three.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 65 cts vs 65 cts
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd's plan to reschedule
debt of more than 6.1 billion Canadian dlrs will likely be
detailed to a group of 56 major creditors on Monday or Tuesday
next week, a company spokesman said.
    Circulation of the complex plan to reschedule the company's
debt was delayed to incorporate late changes resulting from
discussions with Dome's lenders, spokesman David Annesley told
Reuters in response to an inquiry.
    Annesley said Dome expects its debt will total between 6.3
billion and 6.5 billion dlrs by June 30, 1987, when it hopes to
implement the debt plan now under negotiation.
    Annesley said Dome Petroleum would issue a statement
outlining the company's debt rescheduling proposal following
release of the plan to lenders.
    Dome Petroleum previously said it hoped to submit the debt
plan by mid-February in order to win agreement in principle
from creditors prior to June 30.
    The group of major lenders have agreed to defer a
substantial amount of debt payments until June 30 under an
interim agreement that links payments to secured lenders with
cash flow generated by assets backing the loans.
    Annesley also said there was no change in the status of
legal actions initiated by six Swiss noteholders who are
seeking interest and principal payment on their unsecured debt.
    Together, the noteholders are owed about 520,000 Swiss
francs, and their legal action places a total of 300 mln Swiss
franc denominated debt in default.
    Annesley said the company's next scheduled appearance in a
Swiss court to defend against the actions is set for March 16.
    Dome Petroleum's 1986 fourth quarter and year earnings will
likely be reported at the end of March, he also said.
 Reuter

Georgia Gulf Corp said it filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for a secondary offering of
4.8 mln shares of common stock, which will be sold by General
Electric Co's <GE> General Electric Credit Corp unit and
Georgia-Pacific Corp <GP>.
    The company said four mln of the shares will be sold in the
United States and 800,000 shares will be offered abroad.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co is the sole manager of the
underwriting syndicate for the offering, it added.
 Reuter

State Commerce Secretary Claude
Pope said Japan's Okuma Machinery Works LTD will build a
multi-million dollar manufacturing machinery plant here.
    He said the plant will be the company's first in the U.S.
and will employ approximately 150 people.
    He said start-up date is set for late this year.
 Reuter

Confessed spy Jonathan Pollard was
sentenced today to life in prison for passing thousands of
pages of top-secret U.S. military documents to Israel.
    Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, was sentenced
for his role in what prosecutors described as one of the most
serious breaches of security in U.S. history.
    Pollard, a 32-year-old American Jew, claimed he was acting
out of concern for Israel's safety and the belief that U.S.
officials were withholding intelligence from Israel.
 Reuter

House Energy and Commerce committee
chairman John Dingell, D-Mich, said the Securities and Exchange
Commission should step up its enforcement of regulations which
require companies to disclose corporate fraud and waste.
    Dingell made the comment at the start of a hearing on
alleged overcharges by TRW Inc on its defense contracts.
    He said the SEC seemed to have stopped demanding such
disclosures, which are required by securities laws.
    "In the wake of the foreign bribery cases in the 1970s, the
SEC instituted a vigorous program of self-policing, using
external auditors, investigators, and counsel. It should do so
again," Dingell said.
 Reuter

markets.
subsidiary of Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRSY>.
 Reuter

Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical
Corp said it is increasing prices for a broad range of common
alloy coil, flat sheet and plate products.
    The company said prices to distributors and direct
customers on shipments of new orders placed March 4 and after
will be increased by four to eight cts per lb.
    Kaiser said the increases are due to increased demand and
the need to set prices relative to the cost of primary
aluminum.
 Reuter

Hunterdon Pharmaceuticals Inc
said it formed a joint venture with <Chesapeake Biological
Laboratories> and <E.B. Michaels Research Associates> to
develop C31G, a substance that may be useful in the treatment
or prevention of plaque.
    The substance, tested in pre-clinical trials at the
University of Pennsylvania, also has other uses as an
anti-fungal or anti-bacterial agent, the company said.
    It said Chesapeake Biological, a private company, owns 55
pct of the venture, E.B. Michaels 10 pct, while it holds the
remaining interest, and the patent for C31G.
 Reuter

U.S. purchases of Soviet products must
increase before the Soviet Union will buy more U.S. goods, a
Soviet trade official told Reuters.
    "American exports (to the Soviet Union) depend on Soviet
exports to the United States," said Albert Melknikov, deputy
trade representative of the Soviet Union to the United States.
    "One should not forget that it is impossible only to buy
from the United States. We must be able to sell our products to
the United States as well," he said in an interview.
    The Soviet trade deficit with the United States totalled
around two billion dlrs in 1985, Melnikov said.
 Reuter

New York investor Julian Robertson
and several investment partnerships he controls said they
raised their stake in Capital Wire and Cable Corp to 481,800
shares, or 12.2 pct of the total, from 430,200, or 10.9 pct.
    In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission
Robertson and his Tiger, Jaguar, Puma and Tiger Management Co
entities said they bought 51,600 Capital Wire common shares
between Feb 3 and 17 at 13.25 dlrs a share.
    Robertson said his group has spent a total of 5.9 mln dlrs
on its investment in the company so far.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc complicated
the bidding for Piedmont Aviation Inc by offering either to buy
Piedmont suitor USAir Group or, alternatively, to merge with
Piedmont and USAir.
    Piedmont's board was meeting today, and Wall Street
speculated the board was discussing opposing bids from Norfolk
Southern Corp and USAir. The TWA offer was announced shortly
after the Piedmont board meeting was scheduled to begin.
    TWA offered to buy USAir for 52 dlrs cash per share. It
also said it was the largest shareholder of USAir and
threatened to go directly to USAir shareholders with an offer
for 51 pct of the stock at a lower price.
    TWA also said it believed its offer was a better deal for
USAir shareholders than an acquisition of Piedmont, but it said
it alternatively would discuss a three-way combination of the
airlines.
    Market sources and analysts speculated that TWA chairman
Carl Icahn made the offer in order to put his own airline into
the takeover arena.
    "We're just wondering if he's not just trying to get TWA
into play. There's speculation on the street he just wants to
move onto somthing else," said one arbitrager. "We think TWA
might just be putting up a trial balloon."
    Analysts said the offer must be taken seriously by USAir,
but that the airline will probably reject it because the price
is relatively low compared to other airline deals.
    They also said Icahn must prove his offer credible by
revealing financing arrangements. "They need to show their
commitment and their ability to finance. I think it's a
credible offer," said Timothy Pettee, a Bear Stearns analyst.
    "I think it's certainly on the low end of relative values
of airline deals," said Pettee. Pettee estimated 58 dlrs would
be in a more reasonable range based on other airline mergers.
    USAir stock soared after TWA made public its offer. A
spokesman for USAir declined comment, and said USAir had not
changed its offer for Piedmont. USAir offered of buy 50 pct of
that airline's stock for 71 dlrs cash per share and the balance
for 73 dlrs per share in USAir stock.
    USAir closed up 5-3/8 at 49-1/8 on volume of 1.9 mln
shares.
    Piedmont, which slipped 1/2 to close at 69-5/8, also
remained silent on the TWA action. Piedmont has an outstanding
65 dlr cash per share offer from Norfolk Southern Corp.
    Norfolk Southern declined comment, but said it stuck with
its offer for Piedmont. Norfolk owns about 20 pct of Piedmont
and opened the bidding when it said it would propose a takeover
of Piedmont.
    Some analysts said Icahn may be trying to acquire USAir to
make his own airline a more attractive takeover target.
    "Icahn I think had wanted to sell his airline and there
were no takers. I think the strategy might have called for
making his investment more attractive. One way to accomplish
that specific objective is to go out and acquire other
airlines," said Andrew Kim of Eberstadt Fleming.
    "I don't know whose going to buy them, but at least this
way it becomes a much more viable package," said Kim.
    But Icahn's financing ability for such a transaction
remains in doubt, in part because of TWA's heavy debt load.
    Wall street sources said TWA has some cash with which to do
the offer.
    The sources said Icahn has not lined up outside financial
advisers and plans to make his own arrangements.
   Icahn earlier this year abandoned plans to buy USX Corp <X>
and still retains 11 pct of that company's stock.
    Some Wall street sources said the financier's USX plan was
impacted by the cloud hanging over his adviser, Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc, because of Wall Street's insider trading scandal.
    Industry sources also predicted USAir might reject the TWA
offer on price and financing concerns. "It's littered with
contingencies and it doesn't even have a financing
arrangement," said one executive at another major airline.
    But the executive conceded a merged TWA-USAir would be a
strong contender with USAir's east coast route system and
planned west coast presence from PSA. USAir could feed the
intenrational flights of TWA, which has a midwest presence in
its St. Louis hub. Adding Piedmont, dominant in the southeast,
to the mix would develop an even stronger force.
    The combined entity would also have TWA's pars reservation
system.
    Such a merger would be complex and analysts said it would
result in an airline iwth an 18 pct market share.
   
 Reuter

Shr loss 29 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 2.0 mln vs profit 568,000
    year
    Shr loss 1.37 dlrs vs profit 88 cts
    Net loss 9.3 mln vs profit 6.0 mln
 Reuter

The Reagan administration officially
submitted to Congress its proposals to cut back U.S. farmers'
income deficiency payments, decouple planting decisions from
income support levels and accelerate reductions in loan rates,
Senate staff said.
    The recommendations, first outlined last January in
President Reagan's fiscal 1988 budget blueprint, were
transmitted to both houses of Congress as legislative
    It was not clear which lawmakers might introduce the
measures.
    The most controversial proposal in the package would make
10 pct annual reductions in target prices for major
commodities. A number of legislators have predicted the target
price proposal will not move in Congress.
    The package also would offer the so-called 0/92 option to
producers of 1987-90 crops and raise the annual permissible
reduction in loan rates to 10 pct from 5 pct.
    Under 0/92, a producer is guaranteed at least 92 pct of his
deficiency payment regardless of how much he plants.
 Reuter

Yeutter said he plans a July trip to China to discuss trade
issues including China's admission to the General Agreements on
Tariffs and Trade.
    Yeutter told a congressional hearing it was possible China
could be a member of GATT before the end of the year.
    "They are making major moves to becoming a full scale member
of the world economy," he told the House Appropriations
subcommittee which oversees his agency's budget.
    Depending on how the negotiations go on the terms of
China's GATT membership, Yeutter said he could put the final
touches on the U.S. part of the agreement during his trip.    
The admission of China to GATT, which is the multinational
group of nations which negotiates international rules on trade,
would offer both potential export markets and potential
competition for U.S. industries, he said.
    "That has a lot of potential as well as risks for U.S.
business," Yeutter said.
    "I think China will develop into a fine market for us," he
added.
 Reuter

Pan Am Corp said its Pan American World
Airways unit will reduce management costs by 20 pct, or about
80 mln dlrs, through job cuts, salary freezes and other
measures.
    Pan Am also said it has asked its labor unions to help
lower costs by an additional 180 mln dlrs.
    The airline said it will eliminate 464 managment positions
and freeze all management salaries, a move that will save 30
mln dlrs a year.
    An additional 50 mln dlrs of expenses under management's
control will also be cut, it said without offering details.
    Pan Am said it is seeking a 20 pct pay cut from its unions.
    Pan Am vice chairman Martin R. Shugrue said in a statement,
"Management is leading the way, but with 40 pct of our
operating expenses represented by labor costs, we must have the
cooperation of our labor unions if we are to make additional
improvements to our 1987 operating plan."
    Shugrue asked Pan Am's unions to begin negotiations on the
pay cuts immediately.
 Reuter

The failure of talks to introduce
new coffee export quotas within the International Coffee
Agreement, ICA, was preferable to the alternative of Brazil
having a sharply reduced quota, as had been proposed, President
of the Rio de Janeiro Coffee Trade Association Carlos Calmon
said.
    He told Reuters proposals to reduce Brazil's quota to 25
pct of the world share from 30 pct at present were unacceptable
as the country has large stocks and a good harvest is expected.
    "Brazil has the capacity to export 20 mln bags this year,"
Calmon added.
    Calmon said, assuming a 58 mln bag global ICA quota,
Brazil's share under the proposals would have been 14.5 mln
bags, of which soluble would have accounted for 2.0 mln,
leaving just 12.5 mln bags of green coffee for export.
    "It's a pity the talks broke down, but for Brazil this was
better than such a quota reduction," he added.
    In 1985 Brazil exported 19.6 mln bags of soluble and green
coffee, including about two mln bags to non-members. A severe
drought and marketing problems cut exports last year to under
10 mln bags.
    Calmon estimated stocks as of January 1 at 18 mln bags, of
which 5.0 mln have already been sold for export. The harvest
this year should be around 30 mln bags, he added.
    The latest Brazilian Coffee Institute estimate for last
year's harvest is 11.2 mln bags, although many traders believe
it was higher than this.
 Reuter

Israel will tender overnight for
33,000 long tons of U.S. sorghum and/or 22,000 long tons of
U.S. corn for April shipment, private export sources said.
 Reuter

Hallmark Stores Inc is raising 137.13
mln dlrs through a three-tranche offering of secured bonds,
said lead underwriter Salomon Brothers Inc.
    A 31.63 mln dlr issue of bonds due 2001 was given an 8-1/4
pct coupon and priced at par to yield 112 basis points over
comparable Treasury securities and a 40 mln dlr offering of
bonds due 2006 was given an 8-3/4 pct coupon and par pricing to
yield 115 basis points over Treasuries.
    The final tranche totals 65.49 mln dlrs of bonds due 2011.
The securities were assigned an 8-7/8 pct coupon and par
pricing to yield 131 basis points over Treasuries.
    The entire Hallmark offering is non-refundable for 10
years. The three tranches have average lives of 12.1, 17.8 and
22.7 years respectively, Salomon Brothers said.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the securities Aa-3 and
Standard and Poor's Corp rates them AA.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration's
cabinet-level Economic Policy Council is scheduled to meet
Friday to discuss, among other issues, the status of
agricultural legislation, administration officials said.
    The officials said discussion of a U.S. Agriculture
Department wheat export subsidy to the Soviet Union was not on
the agenda. Matters not on the agenda, however, can be brought
before the council, the officials said.
    Grain trade officials have speculated that USDA would make
a wheat export enhancement offer to Moscow, but USDA officials
have said the matter is not under active consideration.
    USDA today transmitted to Congress a package of legislative
proposals, including bills that would cut target prices and
speed up loan rate reductions.
 Reuter

    Net 1,538,000 vs 8,614,000
    12 mths
    Note: 1986 net is before preferred dividend payments and
includes after-tax gain from sale of real estate properties of
12.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

the previously announced purchase of Rexnord Inc <REX>. It said
it owns 96 pct of Rexnord's outstanding following the purchase
of all Rexnord's common validly tendered pursuant to its 26.25
dlr per share cash tender offer ended February 27.
    Banner also said it received 310 mln dlrs pursuant to a
credit agreement with <Citicorp Industrial Credit Inc> and the
<Bank of Nova Scotia> and 260 mln dlrs from an offering made
    The merger of Rexnord with a subsidiary of Banner will be
copmleted before mid-May, the company said.
 Reuter

A meeting among government agencies
today reaffirmed the strong opposition of the United States to
a proposed new tax on vegetable oils and fats in the European
Community, U.S. trade officials said.
    Representatives of the major government agencies agreed at
a trade policy review group meeting, which includes officials
of the deputy secretary rank, to continue diplomatic pressure
on EC member states.
    "We (all agencies) are together on this," said one U.S.
trade official.
    One source said the U.S. would continue to make clear to
member states and to the EC commission that if Brussels
proceeds with the vegetable oils tax "there will be a great
cost."
    U.S. officials said no formal list of European products on
which the U.S. might retaliate, has yet been drawn up.
    "I don't think we're at that point yet," said one trade
official, adding that the EC has only begun deliberations on
its farm price package.
    Suzanne Early, assistant trade representative, told Reuters
the interagency meeting was to discuss U.S. strategy on the
vegetable oils issue. Asked about retaliation, she said
"sometimes its better not to be specific."
    U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter Monday warned
another major transatlantic trade row will develop if the EC
proceeds with the vegetable oils tax.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 4,500,000 vs 5,300,000
    Revs 156.7 mln vs 152.0 mln
    YEAR
    Shr 72 cts vs 1.11 dlrs
    Net 21.7 mln vs 33.0 mln
    Revs 695.4 mln vs 653.5 mln
    Note: Shr profit relates to class B non-voting shares.
 Reuter

The deposits of the failed First
State Bank of Rockford, Iowa, were assumed by First Security
Bank and Trust Co of Charles City, Iowa, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp (FDIC) said.
    The FDIC said it acted after First State, with 15.1 mln
dlrs in assets, was closed today by Iowa Banking Superintendent
William Bernau. It was the 34th U.S. bank to fail this year,
and the 12th agricultural bank.
    To facilitate the transaction, the FDIC said it would pay
the assuming bank 4.1 mln dlrs and retain assets of the failed
bank valued at 4.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

EIA SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 3.4 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 100,000, CRUDE UP 3.2 MLN

Chronar Corp said it received a
total of 20 mln dlrs through the completion of a private
placement of its stock, long-term debt and associated warrants
with the Sheet Metal Workers' National Pension Fund and an
affiliate of <Harbert Corp>.
    It also said the fund and Harbert Solar Inc, the affiliate,
now own about 16 pct of Chronar's common.
    Chronar also said it expects to report a loss for the year
of about 4.5 mln dlrs on sales of about 12 mln dlrs compared
with a loss of 513,153 dlrs on revenues of 10 mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs nine cts
    Net 2.1 mln vs 1.6 mln
    Revs 60.8 mln vs 32.9 mln
    Avg shrs 19.7 mln vs 17.2 mln
    Note: period ended January 31.
REUTER
 Reuter

Sales of new cars by the U.S. auto
industry rose 6.7 pct in late February from the weak levels of
a year ago, but industry giant General Motors Corp <GM> was an
exception with an eight pct drop.
    The figures represented a slight recovery for the industry
from weak mid-February sales, but the eight domestic-based car
manufacturers still saw sales fall 9.1 pct for the full month
from last year.
    GM, whose sales have been weakening for several months,
took only 48.1 pct of domestic car sales in the February 21-28
period compared with 55.7 pct a year ago, when sales for the
entire industry were depressed from the ending of major
marketing incentive campaigns.
    At the same time, rival Ford Motor Co <F> said its car
sales in the period rose 29.3 pct and Chrysler Corp <C> was up
11.3 pct.
    The industry leader's slide was even more marked for the
full month as GM took only 37 pct of all car sales in February,
including imports, compared with 43.5 pct a year ago.
    Industry analysts said the 198,818 domestic-make cars sold
in the seven selling days of late February represented a
seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 7.0 mln units while the
556,953 sold in the month were at a 7.4 mln annual rate.
    Last year, the industry sold a record 11.44 mln new cars,
including 8.2 mln domestic makes. But consumers have taken a
breather since then and car sales sales have been weaker in
1987 due to tax-induced heavy buying in December, a lack of
widespread sales incentives and intermitent bad weather,
    GM sales vice-president C.N. "Bud" Moore said in a
statement that his company's sales "began their recovery from
the low point reached in January, and we expect the improvement
to continue in coming months."
    Anne Knight, automotive analyst for Paine Webber and Co,
told Reuters that GM's sales were weak, but added: "I think
sales will get better in the spring."
    "GM may make more production cuts in view of the weak
sales, but this may be a strike year so they might try to build
inventories," she said.
    In a further effort to revive sales, GM said its
Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Buick divisions would offer many of
their new car lines through April 30 with discount loan
packages at rates ranging from 3.9 pct for 24-month contracts
to 9.9 pct for 60-month deals as an alternative to cash
rebates.
    Among the smaller U.S.-based manufacturers, Japanese-owned
American Honda <HMC> said its late February car sales rose 96.2
pct from last year while Japanese-owned Nissan <NSANY> was up
35.9 pct.
    German-owned Volkswagen of America fell 42.5 pct, American
Motors Corp <AMO> plunged 62.5 pct and Japan's Toyota <TOYOY>
sold 1,082 domestic makes compared with none a year ago before
it started domestic production.
    Detroit's late February truck sales were generally positive
with GM up 10.9 pct, Ford up 48 pct, Chrysler gaining 46 pct
and AMC's jeep sales off 4.0 pct.
    Imported cars sales, released monthly, were estimated at
219,300 in February, a 0.4 pct rise from last year and 28.3 pct
of the overall car market. That was lower than January's 31.4
pct share but above the 26.3 pct share a year ago.
 Reuter

PIEDMONT AVIATION RECESSES MEETING WITHOUT TAKING ACTION ON MERGER PROPOSALS

primary storage fell by 3.4 mln barrels in the week ended Feb
27 to 128.4 mln barrels, the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) said.
    In its weekly petroleum status report, the Department of
Energy agency said gasoline stocks were off 100,000 barrels in
the week to 251.5 mln barrels and refinery crude oil stocks
were up 3.2 mln barrels to 333.0 mln.
    The EIA said residual fuel stocks fell 2.2 mln barrels to
37.9 mln barrels and crude oil stocks in the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) were up 700,000 barrels to 516.5 mln.
    The total of all crude, refined product and SPR stocks were
unchanged at 1,575.1 mln barrels, it said.
 Reuter

Rep. Jack Kemp, a New York
Republican, urged President Reagan to oppose any legislation to
impose a tax on stock transactions.
    In a statement Kemp called the tax "a money grab to permit
Democrats to begin another government spending spree."
    "I call upon President Reagan to signal immediately that he
will veto any tax increase on stock transfers," Kemp said. He
added that the tax would punish the 50 million stockholders.
    House Speaker James Wright, a Texas Democrat, has asked
congressional tax analysts to look at a 0.25 to 0.5 pct tax on
stock trades along with other tax proposals to help reduce the
federal budget deficit.                
 Reuter

Bank of Canada Governor John Crow said he
expects the Canadian economy will grow moderately in the coming
year, despite the near flat growth in the final quarter of
1986.
    "We see moderate growth," Crow told a news conference
following presentation of the central bank's annual report in
the House of Commons today.
    He said there were positive signs of growth in the economy,
particularly the drawdown of business inventories in the fourth
quarter. Yesterday, Statistics Canada reported gross domestic
product expanded a slight 0.2 pct in the quarter.
    Crow reiterated the bank's previous statements that
inflation remains a major priority in setting monetary policy
and said only zero inflation would be acceptable. Canada's
inflation rate is currently hovering around the four pct mark.
    The governor said Canada's banking system remains sound
despite recent concern about exposure by the country's banks in
debt plagued countries such as Brazil.
    "It (the debt problem) is not a happy development but I
think it can be overplayed in terms of its impact," Crow told
 Reuter

Argentina's Idustry and Foreign
Trade Secretary announced the lifting until December 1989 of
import taxes on capital goods not produced in the country.
    Roberto Lavagna in a news conference also said Argentina
would create a special programme for promoting industry and was
studying a system of temporary, automatic and generalised
admission of goods from neighbouring Brazil.
    Lavagna said the measures were in line with an adjustment
in economic policy to stall a new upsurge in inflation. The
government last week froze prices and wages and devalued the
Austral six pct against the dollar.
 Reuter

Allis-Chalmers Corp said it asked
lenders and other groups to approve a restructuring plan that
would cause a dilution of the company's existing common stock.
    The company said it would sell all of its businesses other
than the American Air Filter business, make a public financing
of more than 100 mln dlrs and pay part of the currently
outstanding debt with the proceeds.
    Under the plan, which was presented to institutional
lenders, the company's unions and the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp, "substantial amounts" of institutional debt would be
converted to common stock of the restructured company.
    Allis-Chalmers said it will exchange existing preferred
stock for common. The exchange of the institutional debt and
preferred stock for common equity will cause a "resulting
dilution of the existing common stock," Allis-Chalmers said in
a statement.
    Under the plan, holders of existing common would hold about
15 pct of the restructured common stock. Holders of existing
preferred would hold about 35 pct of the new common.
    Allis-Chalmers said its only alternative to the plan is
bankruptcy. The restructuring must be approved by creditors,
common and preferred holders,and present and former employees.
    Allis-Chalmers said a bankruptcy filing "appears to
represent the company's only alternative if agreement upon the
terms of the plan cannot be reached."
    The spokesman said in response to an inquiry that he was
not aware of any extraordinary charge against earnings that
would result from the restructuring.
    "It is too early to talk about a charge" because the plan
must still be approved by the lenders and unions, he said.
    Also under the plan, payments to Allis-Chalmers' private
lenders would be deferred. Trade payables and obligations
incurred in the ordinary course of business will be met.
    Payment of health benefits for active and retired employees
would be made "at substantially reduced levels."
    Allis-Chalmers, once one of the leading farm equipment
companies, sold all of its farm equipment operations to Deutz
of West Germany for 107 mln dlrs, leaving the company with
businesses in lift trucks, air conditioning, fluids handling
and solid materials processing.
    Last year, Allis-Chalmers sold the lift truck business to
AC Material Handling Co of Columbus, Ohio.
    Under the restructuring plan, Allis-Chalmers will sell its
solid materials processing and fluids handling businesses.
Solid materials processing, which makes equipment to crush
stones for highway construction, accounted for 288 mln dlrs of
Allis-Chalmers's total 1985 revenues of 886 mln dlrs.
    The company will also sell its fluids handling operations,
which makes pumps and valves. That business accounted for 196
mln dlrs of the company's 1985 revenues.
    Allis-Chalmers in 1986 reported a net loss of 8.6 mln dlrs,
or 1.09 dlrs a share. In 1985, the company lost 168.4 mln dlrs,
or 12.27 dlrs a share.
    The company's last profit was in 1980, when it earned 52.4
mln dlrs on sales of 2.1 billion dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 11 cts vs loss 27 cts
    Oper net profit 662,625 vs loss 774,002
    Revs 43.9 mln vs 18.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 37 cts vs loss 37 cts
    Oper net profit 1,487,796 vs loss 1,119,626
    Revs 150.1 mln vs 51.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr oper net excludes 6,134 dlrs and
720,500 dlrs or 20 cts per share, respectively, for realized
investment gains.
    1986 qtr and yr oper net also excludes 102,300 dlrs and
257,300 dlrs, respectively, for tax loss carryforwards.
    1985 4th qtr and yr oper net excludes realized investment
gains of 449,920 dlrs or 15 cts per share and 897,949 dlrs or
30 cts per share, respectively.
    1985 4th qtr oper net also excludes a loss of 42,820 dlrs
for carryforward.
 Reuter

Piedmont Aviation Inc said
its board meeting recessed today without taking action on
proposals to combine Piedmont with other corporations.
    Piedmont has received opposing bids from Norfolk Southern
Corp and US Air Corp.
    Earlier today, Trans World Airlines Inc offered to either
buy Piedmont suitor US Air or, alternatively, to merge with
Piedmont and U.S. Air.
    IN a prepared statement, Piedmont said there would be no
further announcements concerning this situation today.
    The company declined to say when the board would meet
again.
   
 Reuter

Yeutter said he expects imports to fall soon but he was
concerned about the lack of improvement in U.S. exports given
the dollar's decline in the last 18 months.
    "I'm convinced we're about to see an improvement on the
import side. I'm more concerned about the export side," he told
a House Appropriations subcommittee.
    Part of the blame goes on other countries which have not
generated the economic growth to increase demand for U.S. goods
and part to some U.S. companies which are not generating
competitive exports, he said.
 Reuter

A former TRW Inc controller told a
Congressional hearing that the company had acted unethically in
its defense contracts with the government.
    "It is my contention that the company called TRW is not ever
vigilant and highly ethical as a defense contractor. TRW only
pretends to be an honest citizen when that scheme best fits
their financial interests," Larry Eagleye said in testimony at a
House Oversight subcommittee hearing.
    Eagleye was a controller at TRW's compressor components
division in Cleveland.
    Subcommittee chairman John Dingell, D-Mich, said he did not
understand why the Defense Department had taken no action
against TRW even though it admitted in the 1984 report that it
had substantially overcharged the government for military
aircraft parts.
    "In 1984, TRW officials admitted to the Defense Department
Inspector General that they had evidence of two sets of books
and other problems in one of the company's divisions in
Cleveland and that there had been substantial overcharging of
the federal government on various military aircraft parts,"
Dingell said.
    "For example, by falsifying its books and records, TRW
inflated the price of a military engine blade by two to three
times higher than the price of a virtually identical commercial
engine blade," Dingell said in a statement.
    Eagleye and two other former employees filed a suit against
TRW last year charging the company with overcharging the
government. The Justice Department later joined the suit.
    "While employed by TRW and while under investigation by TRW,
I disclosed to TRW's legal department and higher management,
many flagrant and obvious violations of law, company policy and
ethical conduct. None of this evidence was included in TRW's
(1984) report to the government," he said.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. Army has delayed plans to
buy a European anti-aircraft missile to help protect U.S.
ground forces from Soviet attack helicopters, Defense
Department officials said.
    The Army has been considering buying some British Rapier
missiles or French and German Roland missiles as a stop-gap
partial replacement this year for the flawed U.S. Sgt. York
Division Air Defense (DIVAD) gun which was canceled in 1985.
    Despite recent indications by the service that it intended
to buy the missiles soon, defense officials told Reuters a
final decision had been suspended because some Army officials
favored a more versatile gun-missile combination.
    The gun-missile combination would open the competition wide
to U.S. firms.
    "The missile option is on hold now and no decision has been
made," said one of the Pentagon official, who asked not to be
identified.
    "There is some sentiment to take things more slowly and see
if we can avoid a stop-gap system until we can come up with an
integrated system of our own," said another official.
    Army Lt. Col. Craig McNab said, however, that Ronald and
Rapier "are not out of the picture by a long shot."
    There has been strong sentiment in the Army to reject a
missile only and to opt for a more versatile combination gun
and missile system mounted on a tracked vehicle.
    Such a move would throw the competition wide open to U.S.
firms, including General Electric Co <GE>, Boeing Co <BA>, FMC
Corp <FMC> and Martin Marietta Corp <ML>.
    But some Pentagon officials have expressed fears that an
"off-the-shelf" gun-missile combination could not be fielded
quickly enough.
     Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger canceled the Sgt. York
gun, made by Ford Motor Co <F> Aerospace and Communications
Corp, after the Pentagon had already spent 1.8 billion dlrs on
the system and then decided it could not shoot down attack
helicopters at the proper range.
    The Army later expanded the division air defense concept,
announcing it would divide the system into five different
components for the 1990s at a cost of more than 10 billion
dlrs, including a missile and gun-system combination on a
tracked vehicle.
   
 Reuter

TRW Inc, responding to allegations by
an ex-employee that it was unethical in defense contract
dealings, said it had previously informed the government of the
billing problems.
    "We heard nothing of substance as far as allegations by
former employees that were not related to findings that we had
reported to the government of misdeeds at our compressor
components group," a TRW spokesman said.
     The spokesman said the company conducted an internal
investigation and presented the findings to the government
beginning in late 1984.
 Reuter

Record high borrowing of 376 billion dlrs
in 1986 on international capital markets was supported by a
large volume of debt refinancing and growing integration
between national and international markets, the OECD said.
(OECD) said in its latest Financial Market Trends report the 34
pct rise over 1985 volume was accompanied by major changes in
the relative importance of the instruments used in
international financing.
    Straight bond offerings, equity related securities and
euro-commercial paper programmes as a share in total financing
rose to their highest level this decade. The markets for
floating-rate notes and for note issuance facilities declined.
    The OECD said another striking feature of international
capital markets in 1986 was the unprecedented concentration of
lending to the OECD group of western industrialised countries,
which accounted for 90 pct of total borrowing.
    Factors behind the heightened pace of activity included a
notable decline in interest rates which boosted borrowing
through the flotation of fixed-interest securities.
    This in turn was stimulated by growing familiarity with new
techniques such as interest rate and currency swaps.
    Stockmarket buoyancy supported the expansion of
equity-related bond issues and favoured the expansion of a
rapidly expanding market for euro-equities.
    A slowdown in net demand for funds by sovereign borrowers
was more than offset by a large volume of refinancing
operations induced by improved market conditions and stronger
debt management policies. Growing integration with national
markets meant the arrival of a large number of new players on
international markets.
    It added the development of a smoothly-functioning market
for short-term euro-notes made committee and non-underwritten
issuance facilities an increasingly popular alternative to
traditional forms of bank lending.
    Turning to 1987, the OECD pointed to indications of a
possible slowdown of international markets' expansion and
possibly less easy borrowing terms in a number of market areas.
    It said many market participants saw little scope for a
further decline in long-term rates and anticipate a slowdown in
the pace of fixed-rate activity in the months ahead.
    It saw little reason for a turnaround in the decline in
demand of recent years, although it was likely more borrowers
would try to make use of cost-reducing opportunities provided
by the market for euro-commercial paper.
    "It remains to be seen however to what extent the ECP market
will be ready to absorb a significant volume of paper from
lower-rated borrowers," the report said, adding that any major
advance in the euro-note market's absorptive capacity would
require a significantly broader investor base.
 Reuter

Trading in energy futures on the New
York Mercantile Exchange will change dramatically over the next
five to 10 years as the market matures, according to outgoing
chairman Michel Marks.
    "Energy futures trading is going through a tremendous
period of transition that will last five to 10 years," Marks
said, adding that volume will soar, international participation
will increase, and activity of producing countries, major oil
companies, and speculators will grow.
    Marks steps down as chairman after an nine-year tenure when
board elections are held March 17. He will continue as chairman
of a long-range planning committee at NYMEX.
    "The priority of the next 10 years is operational
efficiency versus the last 10 years when it was new product
development," said Marks.
    Marks said it is imperative for NYMEX, which is running out
of trading space, to process greater volumes expeditiously in
order to handle the growth in volumes and new contracts that
are already planned.
    Marks said crude futures volume could more than double by
the end of the decade to 250,000 contracts daily and combined
products volume could soar to  100,000 contracts a day.
    Much of the increased activity will come from the
international sector, according to Marks. "That's a huge growth
area," he said, adding that it will run the gamut from foreign
producer countries to foreign independent operators.
     He said it would be difficult to develop a futures
contract based on an internationally traded crude although he
previously said the exchange is exploring that possibility.
    "Trying to develop a futures contract in any other crude
besides West Texas Intermediate will be a tough task" he said.
     Marks said it is more likely a futures contract based on
an international product rather than an international crude
will be developed since the products market is more diverse. He
said previously the exchange is studying the possibility of
developing a non-U.S. deliverable products contract.
    Other sources of growth for U.S. energy futures are the
major oil companies, which already trade on the NYMEX, and
institutional funds such as investment houses, pension funds,
and insurance companies, Marks said.
    "The commodities markets have become financial markets and
should pursue a partnership with financial intermediaries,"
Marks said.
    He said speculators will increase their share of the energy
futures markets in the coming years from the current  share of
about 30 pct. Hedgers, as a result, will lose some of their 70
pct share.
 Reuter

NBI inc said it has reduced prices
of on its 5000 series publishing workstations by 30 pct and has
introduced a new electronic publishing workstation, a
mini-computer and an image scanner at the Corporate Electronic
PUblishing Systems Show.
    All of NBI's 5000 Series are included in the new pricing
including the Integrated workstation formerly priced at 14,490
dlrs and the pro publisher formerly priced at 15,490 dlrs.
  
 Reuter

The Philippines and its bank advisory
committee completed a second day of talks on the country's
request to reschedule 9.4 billion dlrs of debts, bankers said.
    They declined to disclose details of the negotiations, but
said it would be unrealistic to expect an outcome until next
week at the earliest.
    Talks with Argentina over 2.15 billion dlrs of new loans
and a multi-year rescheduling also continued in New York, with
the Citibank-led advisory committee making a counter-proposal
to Argentina's original offer. Bankers remain hopeful that an
agreement can be reached by the middle of the month.
 Reuter

The House Ways and Means trade
subcommittee postponed until next week its opening session to
start drafting major changes to U.S. trade laws, a committee
aide said.
    The subcommittee had not yet completed the preparatory work
to start writing the legislation, the aide said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 20 cts vs profit 66 cts
    Oper net loss 1,995,000 vs profit 5,820,000
    Revs 65.2 mln vs 53.0 mln
    Avg shrs 9,891,000 vs 8,811,000
    Note: 1986 loss excludes extraordinary loss of 2,413,000
dlrs or 25 cts shr including corporate reorganization,
discontinuing of U.S. operations and inventory writedown of
U.S. subsidiaries vs yr-ago loss of 3,140,000 dlrs or 36 cts
shr.
 Reuter

Qtly div three cts vs three cts
 Reuter

Regal International Inc said it proposed
to submit a plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court under which it will acquire Bell Petroleum Services INc's
by paying out all of its creditors and issue one share for each
shares of Bell's stock.
    This proposal has been amended from a previously rejected
offer of .50 Regal share for each Bell share.
    Regal said its will pursue the acquisition without the
support of Bell's management.
    Bell Petroleum filed its Chapter 11 petition in November
1986 and has not, as yet, filed a plan of reorganization but
has only sought an order extending the exclusive order,
according to Regal.
    Bell Petroleum President Ed Runyan said the company is
evaluating Regal's latest offer and evaluating other
alternatives.
    Runyan said Bell is meeting tomorrow with another potential
suitor.
   
 Reuter

Southland Corp's Citgo Petrleum Corp
said it raised the contract price it will pay for all grades of
crude oil by one dlr a barrel, effective today.
    The increase brings Citgo's posted price for West Texas
Intermediate to 17.00 dlrs a bbl. West Texas Sour is also now
priced at 17.00 dlrs/bbl, and Light Louisiana South is posted
at 17.35 dlrs/bbl.
    On February 25 Citgo lowered its crude postings 50 cts to
1.50 dlrs per bbl, and cut WTI one dlr to 16.00.
    
 Reuter

Mazda Motor Corp of Japan reported
car sales in the U.S. during February of 10,049, down from
19,448 during February last year.
    The company said year to date car sales in the U.S. totaled
21,092, down from 38,441 a year earlier.
    Truck sales in the U.S. totaled 8,558 in February, down
from 9,693 a year earlier. Year to date U.S. truck sales
totaled 16,917, compared to 18,341 a year ago.
 Reuter

Shr profit ten cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 43,000 vs loss 26,000
    Year
    Shr profit 46 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net profit 193,294 vs profit 51,029
    Assets 44.4 mln vs 25.3 mln
    Deposits 40.0 mln vs 21.4 mln
    Loans 25.3 mln vs 15.2 mln
 Reuter

U.S. oil demand as measured by
products supplied rose 2.1 pct in the four weeks ended February
27 to 16.39 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 16.05 mln in the
same period a year ago, the Energy Information Administration
    In its weekly petroleum status report, the Energy
Department agency said distillate demand was down 2.1 pct in
the period to 3.37 mln bpd from 3.44 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.60 mln bpd, up 2.4 pct from 6.44
mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.47 mln bpd, up
1.9 pct from 1.44 mln, the EIA said.
    Domestic crude oil production was estimated at 8.38 mln
bpd, down 8.7 pct from 9.18 mln a year ago, and gross daily
crude imports (excluding those for the SPR) averaged 4.11 mln
bpd, up 36.9 pct from three mln, the EIA said.
    Refinery crude runs in the four weeks were 12.21 mln bpd,
up 2.2 pct from 12 mln a year earlier, it said.
    Year-to-date figures will not become available until March
26 when EIA's Petroleum Supply Monthly data for January 1987
becomes available, the agency said.
 Reuter

The Securities Industry Association
endorsed legislation expected to come before the Senate Banking
Committee tomorrow imposing a moratorium on new powers for
commercial banks.
    Robert Gerard, managing director of Morgan Stanley and Co,
told reporters his group, which mainly represents investment
banking firms, supported committee members who want the Federal
Reserve Board to postpone action on applications by three bank
holding companies seeking new powers.
    "The Fed ought to hold those applications in abeyance
pending congressional review," Gerard said.     
    The legislation before the committee would recapitalize a
federal desposit insurance fund for savings and loan
associations and prohibit new nonbank banks.
    Gerard said the securities association had no position on
nonbank banks.
    The association wants Congress to undertake a comprehensive
study before changing the Glass-Steagall Act, which separates
commercial and investment banking activities, Gerard said.
Until the study is completed, the Fed should not act on the
applications by Citicorp, J.P. Morgan and Co. and Bankers Trust
New York Corp to underwrite and deal in securities, he said.   
    The study was likely to show substantial benefits from
continuing the separation of commercial and investment banking,
he said.
    Gerard said the group believes a proposal by House Speaker
Jim Wright for a tax on securities was unjustified and would
hurt individual investors and beneficiaries of pension funds
that invest in securities.
    "It may reduce the volume of activity, but the tax is a tax
on the saver and investor," Gerard said.
    In addition, a U.S. tax would drive business from the
United States to other countries, he said.             
 Reuter

the sharp fall in international coffee
prices will not affect colombia's external credit situation,
finance minister cesar gaviria told reuters.
    "our foreign debt is high, but we can pay, and I hope the
foreign banking community will maintain its position toward us,"
he said.
    He said the current decline on world coffee markets was not
totally unexpected and would have no immediate bearing on
colombia's financial state, which he described as sound.
    Gaviria said the decline in coffee prices could mean a loss
of 1.5 billion dlrs in revenues for 1987.
    The conservative party and the country's largest trade
union called this week for the debt to be rescheduled following
the price drop.
    Colombia, the only major latin american country not to have
rescheduled its external public debt, has a total foreign debt
of 13.6 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Gulf States Utilities Co said it
asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to remove a
condition that it secure a line of credit before the emergency
rates can be put into effect in the Texas service area.
    The commission granted it a 39.9 mln dlrs interim rate
increase February five, contingent upon Gulf States obtaining a
250 mln dlr line of credit.
    A motion for rehearing will be considered at as commission
meeting on March 11, it said. Gulf States said it is concerned
the credit line requirement will give potential lenders an
advantage that would be damaging to the company.
   
 Reuter

The package of proposed farm policy
changes that the Reagan administration sent to Congress today
includes a provision that would eliminate minimum price support
levels for upland cotton, rice and soybeans.
    The package, obtained by Reuters, also includes a
provision, outlined in advance by USDA officials, that would
increase the annual permissible cut in the basic price support
levels for all major crops to 10 pct from five pct.
    Under current law, the basic support prices for upland
cotton, rice and soybeans between 1987 and 1990 cannot be cut
below 50 cents per lb, 6.50 dlrs per hundredweight and 4.50
dlrs per bushel, respectively.
    USDA's intention to propose scrapping price floors for
cotton, rice and soybeans had not been disclosed previously.
 Reuter

The ruling GATT Council today set up a
formal dispute panel to examine a U.S. complaint that a
Canadian law prohibiting export of unprocessed herring and
salmon was discriminatory.
 Reuter

Opportunities for medium-sized banks to
compete in the face of the increasing centralization of the
financial services industry may be dwindling, according to John
Rau, president of the Exchange National Bank of Chicago.
    "We're going to see a continued shaking-out of the banking
industry," Rau told Reuters after a speech to securities
analysts and investment advisors.
    Rau said Exchange National Bank has concentrated its
resources on financial services for medium-sized Chicago and
Midwest businesses, asset-based lending to middle-market
companies, and sales and trading of financial services.    
    "Most commercial banks depend on relatively low cost
consumer deposits for their income. We decided to move our
franchise into a less susceptible niche," Rau said.
    "Nichemanship is a very difficult thing, especially in
urban areas where inevitably banking franchises are mass-market
oriented," Rau said. "The odds are against other banks doing
what we have done."
    Exchange National Bank is the principal subsidiary of The
Exchange International Corp. With total assets of 1.9 billion
dlrs, it is Chicago's fifth largest bank. Net income totalled
10.2 mln dlrs or 1.10 dlrs a share in 1986, up from 7.7 mln
dlrs or one dlr a share in 1985.
 Reuter

WTC International N.V. said it
has sold its affiliates in South Africa to an independent
trust, created to continue the operations in that country.
    The purchase price was about 8.4 mln dlrs, represented by a
ten-year interest-bearing note, payable annually at 11 pct, to
be paid by the trust out of proceeds from the South African
operations, the company said.
    WTC said its board concluded in view of the social,
political and economic situatin in South Africa, it was best to
separate the company from its interests there.
 Reuter

about 1,000 bolivian central bank
employees, more than 80 per cent of the workforce, accepted
management terms to quit today, a union leader said.
    "none of the employees who have decided to resign from the
institution is prepared to work again in the bank, unless many
of the economic and social conditions improve," bank workers
leader mario galindas told reuters.
    The centre-right government of president victor paz
estenssoro had approved a restructuring plan which envisaged at
least 600 redundancies, about half the bank's workforce, in
line with its policy of streamlining the state sector.
    Galindas said the bank needed at least 800 employees to
keep up its present functions.
    The bank agreed to pay a 5,000 dollar bonus to every
employee who resigned, as well as the legal redundancy terms of
three months salary plus one for every year worked.
 Reuter

Surinam's military government opens a
four-day congress tomorrow to discuss the country's deepening
economic crisis, the official Surinam News Agency reported.
    Acting Prime Minister Jules Wijdenbosch will open the
meeting which is being attended by government officials,
political leaders and heads of labor unions.
    Surinam's economy has suffered a sharp downturn in recent
months as a result of guerrilla activities led by former
soldier Ronny Brunswijk, who is seeking to overthrow the
government of Commander Desi Bouterse.
    The guerrillas have forced the shutdown of most of
Surinam's vital bauxite and aluminum industry, creating a
foreign exchange crisis and food shortages.
 Reuter

Ivory Coast today predicted that the
present coffee price crash recorded after the collapse of the
recent International Coffee Organisation (ICO) meeting in
London would not last long.
    Commenting on Monday's failure by producer and consumer
nations to agree on new export quotas needed to tighten an
oversupplied coffee market, Ivorian Agriculture Minister Denis
Bra Kanon told reporters that traders would eventually be
obliged to restore their positions.
    "I am convinced the market is going to reverse by April," he
told a news conference here at his return from the failed
London talks.
    Robusta coffee beans for May delivery ended the day in
London down about 50 sterling at 1,265 sterling a tonne, the
lowest since 1982.
    Bra Kanon estimated at at least 535 billion CFA francs
(1.76 billion dlrs) the overall loss in revenues earned by
Ivory Coast from all its commodities exports this year if the
slide on the world markets continues.
    He disclosed that his country - the world's biggest cocoa
producer and the third largest for coffee -- would spearhead an
African initiative to reach a compromise formula by the end of
next month.
    Ivory Coast has been chosen by the Abidjan-based
Inter-African Coffee Organisation (IACO) to speak on behalf of
the continent's 25 producer nations at the London talks.
    "An initiative from IACO is likely very soon," he said
without elaborating.
    "Following the London collapse, we have immediately embarked
on a concertation course to avoid breaking an already fragile
market," he said.
    Questioned by journalists, the minister said President
Felix Houphouet-Boigny estimated for the moment that his
government would not be forced to reduce the price guaranteed
by the state to Ivorian coffee-growers for the current season.
    Last year, the West African nation announced that the
coffee producer price would stay at 200 CFA francs (65 cents)
per kilo.
    Bra Kanon said that his country would strive to diversify
its agricultural production to avoid beeing too dependent from
world market fluctuation.
    A communique read over the state-run television tonight
said that during today's weekly cabinet meeting, the veteran
Ivorian leader reaffirmed "his faith in Ivory Coast's bright
(economic) future" despite the commodities price slide.
    The Agriculture Minister also announced the government
decided to earmark a sum of 7.5 billion CFA francs (24.71 mln
dlrs) to support the country's small farmers.
    Financially-strapped Ivory Coast, long regarded as one of
Africa's showpiece economies, is going through difficult times
following the sharp slump in the world price of cocoa and
coffee.
    Ivory Coast's real gross domestic product is expected to
grow only one pct this year compared to five pct in 1986,
according to a recent Finance Ministry estimate.
 Reuter

narrowed to 180 mln N.Z. Dlrs in January from 203 mln, revised
from 207 mln, in December and 305 mln in January 1986, in a
smoothed measurement, the Statistics Department said.
    Unsmoothed figures show a deficit of 162 mln dlrs for
January against 107 mln, revised from 75 mln for December 1986
and 575 mln in January 1986.
    The smoothed series -- adjusted to iron out random
fluctuations -- shows a widening surplus on merchandise trade
to 46 mln from a surplus of 33 mln, revised from 43 mln dlrs in
December and a 71 mln deficit in the a year ago period.
    Exports were 905 mln dlrs against 929 mln, revised from 971
mln in December and 816 mln a year earlier, while imports fell
to 858 mln from 895 mln, revised from 928 mln in December and
888 mln in January 1986.
    Unadjusted merchandise figures show a surplus of 53 mln
dlrs vs 141 mln, revised from 203 mln surplus in December 1986
and a 323 mln deficit a year earlier.
    The deficit on invisibles on unsmoothed figures eased to
215 mln dlrs from 248 mln, revised from 277 mln in December and
252 mln in January 1986.
    The smoothed deficit on invisibles fell to 226 mln from 237
mln, revised from 250 mln in December and 234 mln in the year
ago period.
 REUTER

Buttes Gas and Oil Co said it
filed a plan of reorganization in a U.S. Bankruptcy court
handling its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
    The company said the plan wll provide for distribution of
cash, promissory notes and stock among 12 classes of creditors
and equity interests.
 Reuter

The rally Wednesday in U.S. interest
rate futures left the Treasury bond contract above the top of a
three month trading range which signals a bullish chart
breakout, financial analysts said.
    In addition, sluggish U.S. economic data and little sign
that the economy will pick up its pace in the near future may
be enough to send bond futures to all-time highs, the analysts
said.
    "The market is paying more attention to the weakened state
of the economy right now," said Refco analyst Mike Connery.
    Connery said the four pct drop in January U.S. factory
orders reinforced sentiment that first quarter economic growth
will be slow.
    Connery and other analysts noted that talk of a cut in the
Lombard rate after sluggish West German industrial production
figures also provided some support.
    "The domestic economies of the major trading partners of
the U.S. may deteriorate to such an extent that they will be
forced to ease," thus paving the way for a more accomodative
U.S. credit policy, added John Michael, analyst at First
Options of Chicago.
    Michael pointed out, however, that trimming the U.S. trade
deficit -- the ultimate aim of the recent meeting of major
industrial countries -- may not necessarily aid bond prices.
    "The surplus (for exporters to the U.S.) is bullish for
bonds because they (exporters) have a lot of dollars. Rather
than translate those into their own currencies and suffer
exchange rate risk, they buy dollar-denominated instruments,"
Michael said.
    Indeed, futures traders with cash bond connections said
some of the late strength in the bond market resulted from
buying by Japanese interests.
    But the analysts said the heavy buying in futures occurred
after the June bond broke above stiff resistance at 101-2/32.
    "The breakout is pretty important," said chartist Leslie
Keefe of Technical Data Corp of Boston. "Not only did bonds
close above recent highs but they were also above the sideways
pattern we've been in for the last three months."
    Also positive on a technical basis was the fact that the
June bond contract held chart support early near 100-4/32, and
that the rally occurred on heavy volume, Keefe said.
    Keefe said the next level of significant chart resistance
will be at 101-24/32 to 101-28/32. Furthermore, "we still have
the April (1986) highs to contend with," which in the nearby
contract is 105-15/32.
    Michael said the breakout projects gains to 103 in June
T-bonds and "there is an outside chance to reach 106."
    Keefe warned, however, that confirmation also is needed
from other technical indicators such as relative strength
indexes and short-term momentum indicators.
    "Without them, sustained strength is in question," Keefe
said.
 Reuter

New Zealand agreed with the Meat
Producers Board to write off 1.03 billion N.Z. Dlrs of debt
incurred on behalf of farmers under the Meat Price
Stabilisation Scheme, Finance Minister Roger Douglas said.
    Douglas and Agriculture Minister Colin Moyle said in a
joint statement the agreement concludes one of the major
refinancing arrangements announced in the July 1986 budget,
which removed subsidies from the farming sector.
    The write-off applies to debt occurring prior to October
1985, when stabilisation payments for sheepmeat ceased under an
industry restructuring which allowed private marketing.
 REUTER

PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS ARMS FOR HOSTAGES WAS MISTAKE, ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY

President Reagan, fighting to regain
public confidence in the wake of the Iran arms scandal,
admitted tonight that the clandestine operation wound up as an
arms-for-hostages deal and, "It was a mistake."
    "When it came to managing the NSC (National Security
Council) staff, let's face it, my style didn't match its
previous track record," Reagan said in a television address to
the American people.
    "I have already begun correcting this," he added in his
prepared remarks.
    Reagan's speech, widely regarded as critical to his hopes
of repairing his presidency, was his first detailed response to
last week's scorching Tower commission report on the secret
sale of arms to Iran and diversion of profits to U.S.-backed
contra rebels in Nicaragua.
    Reagan said he had been silent on the scandal while he
waited for the truth to come out and admitted, "I've paid a
price for my silence in terms of your trust and confidence."
    He said that a few months ago, he told the American people
he did not trade arms for hostages in the 18-month covert
    "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true,
but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not," Reagan said.
    "There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses. It was a
mistake," he said.
    Reagan again said that the original Iran initiative was to
develop relations with those who might assume leadership in a
post-Khomeini government.
    "It's clear from the Board's report however that I let my
personal concern for the hostages spill over into the
geo-political strategy of reaching out to Iran.
    "I asked so many questions about the hostages' welfare that
I didn't ask enough about the specifics of the total Iran plan,"
he said.
    The commission, headed by former Republican Sen. John
Tower, said Reagan's "intense compassion" for Americans being
held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon had resulted in an
unprofessional and unsatisfactory policy.
    It portrayed 76-year old Reagan as a man who did not know
or care much about the wide-ranging, probably illegal
activities of his National Security Council (NSC) staff, which
hatched the operation.
    Reagan said he endorsed all of the Tower commission's
recommendations about the running of the NSC, adding, "In fact,
I'm going beyond its recommendations, so as to put the house in
even better order."
    He noted that he had appointed former Senate Republican
leader Howard Baker as his new chief of staff and said he hoped
Baker would help him forge a new partnership with Congress,
"especially on foreign and national security policies."
    He said his new national security adviser, Frank Carlucci,
was rebuilding the national security staff "with proper
management discipline."
    Reagan said that almost half the NSC professional staff now
consisted of new people.
    He said that FBI Director William Webster, his new nominee
to head the CIA, "understands the meaning of 'rule of law'".
    Reagan also announced that Tower had agreed to serve as a
member of his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which acts
as a watchdog on the nation's covert activities.
    But he said that he had issued a directive barring the NSC
staff itself from undertaking covert operations -- "No ifs,
ands, or buts."
    Tonight's speech was a far cry from Reagan's initial strong
defense of his Iran policy.
    In a televised speech last November 13, Reagan called
charges that he ransomed hostages and undercut the U.S. war on
terrorism "utterly false."
    As recently as two months ago in his State of the Union
speech, Reagan said that "serious mistakes were made" but
defended the basic policy as one that had worthy goals.
    By contrast, tonight's speech had an apologetic tone that
was a marked departure from Reagan's usual upbeat, confident
demeanor.
    He said he took full responsibility for his own actions "and
for those of my administration."
    "As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my
knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities. As
disappointed as I may be in some who served me, I am still the
one who must answer to the American people for this behavior,"
Reagan said.
    Reagan said the message that the nation should move on had
come from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, from allies
around the world -- "and if we're reading the signals right,
even from the Soviets."
    His remark seemed to be a reference to a new Soviet
willingness to reach an agreement on eliminating medium-range
nuclear missiles in Europe.
 Reuter

President Reagan said improper
record keeping of meetings and decisions made on the Iran arms
initiative led to his failure to recollect whether he approved
arms shipments by Israel before or after the fact.
    In a televised address to the American people Reagan said
he is still upset that no-one kept proper records -- a
complaint made by the Tower commission.
    The arms shipment was made in August of 1985 by Israel.
    "I did approve it; I just can't specifically say when,"
    Reagan added: "Rest assured, there's plenty of
record-keeping now going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the
White House)."
    The timing of Reagan's approval of the Israeli shipment is
important because it could determine whether the sale violated
various laws, including the Arms Export Control Act.
 Reuter

Gold rose by about 50 U.S. Cents an
ounce, following a statement by President Ronald Reagan that
the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran "was a mistake," dealers
said.
    Bullion rose to 409.40/90 dlrs from an initial low of
408.90/409.40. This compares with the opening of 409.00/50 and
New York's close of 410.00/50.
    Dealers noted mild short-covering in the metal after some
initial selling by local investors. Trading was fairly quiet
this morning partly owed to the slow U.S. Dollar activities,
    However, Reagan's remarks had only a short-lived bullish
impact on the gold price, which is now stabilising at 409.10/60
dlrs, dealers said.
    On the local market, the metal traded in a narrow range of
3,800 and 3,805 H.K. Dlrs a tael against yesterday's 3,778
close.
 REUTER

The central bank has issued 7.08 billion
dlrs worth of certificates of deposit (CDs), bringing the value
of CD issues so far this year to 93.29 billion, a bank
spokesman told Reuters.
    The new CDs, with maturities of six months, one year and
two years, carry interest rates ranging from 3.9 to 5.15 pct.
    The issues are designed to help curb the growth of the M-1B
money supply which has expanded along with Taiwan's foreign
exchange reserves, the spokesman said. The reserves reached a
record high of more than 51 billion U.S. Dlrs Wednesday.
 REUTER

Iranian troops are fighting on two
widely separated fronts in a new offensive in the mountains of
Kurdistan in northern Iraq, Tehran's IRNA news agency said.
    Baghdad war communiques made no mention of fresh fighting
on northern or southern sectors, but a military spokesman
threatened a resumption of air raids on Iranian towns.
    IRNA, monitored by the BBC in London, said Iran had seized
several strategic heights in the northern assault, which
started on Tuesday. It said at least 2,000 Iraqi troops had
been killed, wounded or captured. The offensive is in the Haj
Omran area of Kurdistan, scene of fierce fighting in 1983.
    Tehran radio reported last night that Iranian forces were
in control of four mountain areas, bringing several Iraqi towns
with troop concentrations within artillery range.
    In the south, IRNA said, Iranian forces captured several
Iraqi defence posts east of Iraq's second city, Basra, in a
drive north along the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
    Today is the end of a two-week-long Iraqi moratorium on air
raids declared on condition that Iran stop attacking Iraqi
territory and shelling its towns.
    Iraq's war spokesman said Iran had kept up its attacks and
had made "boasts of illusory victories."
 REUTER

President Francesco Cossiga meets political
leaders to discuss how to form a new government following the
resignation of Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.
    Craxi's Socialist Party has said it will not serve under
Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, who has been prime minister
five times previously and whom the majority Christian
Democratic Party has said it wants to take on the job again.
    The Socialist Party, the second biggest in the outgoing
five-party coalition, said it would accept only Ciriaco De
Mita, Christian Democratic Party secretary, or the party's
president, Arnaldo Forlani, for the job of prime minister.
    Political sources said talks are likely to be difficult and
could take several days due to rivalry between the two leading
parties. In Craxi's 3-1/2 years as prime minister, the
Christian Democrats have become increasingly irritated at being
denied the prime minister's job. The sources said early general
elections are likely unless agreement can be reached.
    Cossiga is due to meet former presidents before holding
talks with party leaders, including the opposition Communists
and the junior coalition members -- Republicans, Liberals and
Social Democrats.  After the consultations, Cossiga will name a
prime minister-designate who will try to form a government.
 REUTER

Abnormally warm and dry weather over most
parts of China is seriously affecting crops, the New China News
    It said the drought has made rice planting difficult in
eight provinces, including Guangxi, Sichuan and Hunan. Plant
diseases and insect pests have increased in wheat-producing
areas, it said.
    The agency said some areas of Guangxi, Hubei, Shanxi and
other provinces have been suffering a drought for more than
seven months.
    The agency said the dry weather had reduced the amount of
water stored by more than 20 pct compared with last March,
lowered the water level of many rivers, reduced hydroelectric
power supplies and caused water shortages for industry and
consumers.
    The upper reaches of the Yangtze are at their lowest levels
in a century, causing many ships to run aground and making
harbour manoeuvres difficult, it said.
    The drought has also increased the number of forest fires.
More than 1,000 fires in southern China had destroyed 13,340
hectares of forest by mid-February, it said.
 REUTER

Taiwan's state-owned China Shipbuilding
Corp (CSBC) plans to seek joint production agreements with
Japan and further diversify into ship repairing to try to trim
its debts, chairman Louis Lo said.
    He told Reuters in an interview that CSBC's first joint
production venture, to build two hulls for <Onomichi Dockyard
Co Ltd>, was a success. Talks on similar projects have been
held with other Japanese firms, including Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries Co Ltd <MITH.T> and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy
Industries Co Ltd <JIMA.T>, he said.
    Lo said CSBC delivered the hulls of two 2,200-TEU (twenty
foot equivalent unit) container ships this year to Onomichi,
which would complete production.
    "We expect the successful cooperation between us and
Onomichi will pave the way for further cooperation with other
Japanese shipbuilders in the future," Lo said.
    He said Japanese firms would gain from the lower cost of
shipbuilding in Taiwan while CSBC would benefit from Japanese
technology and marketing. This would pose a challenge to
competitors in Europe and South Korea.
    Lo said CSBC has made losses of about 100 mln U.S. Dlrs
since beginning operations in 1975. Its total debt now stands
at about 500 mln dlrs, with annual interest payments of nearly
three mln dlrs.
    But he said the company, which is Taiwan's largest
shipbuilder, still has full government support and had begun
diversifying into ship repairing and manufacture of pipes and
other machinery.
    "We hope we can survive and prosper through diversification,"
he said.
    Lo said income from ship repairing almost doubled to 20 mln
U.S. Dlrs in the year ended June 1986 compared with the
previous financial year. He estimated income would rise to more
than 25 mln dlrs in 1986/87.
    CSBC has orders to build 10 ships totalling 460,000 dead
weight tons (dwt) this financial year, compared with 11 ships
of 462,000 dwt in 1985/86, he said.
    Lo said the prospects for shipbuilding were gloomy at least
until 1991 due to overtonnage, but the outlook for ship
repairing was bright.
 REUTER

<Hyundai Motor Co> exported 49,822 cars in
the first two months of 1987, up from 37,272 in the same period
of last year, mainly due to booming sales in the U.S. And
Canada, company officials said.
    They told reporters Hyundai Motor expects to export 450,000
cars in 1987, including 250,000 to the U.S., After a record
total last year of 300,200, in large part due to 168,900
initial U.S. Sales of the Pony Excel sub-compact.
    They said the company plans to lift annual output capacity
to 750,000 cars by end-year from 600,000 now. Net profit hit a
record 38.3 billion won in 1986 from 28.8 billion in 1985.
 REUTER

A group of creditor banks hopes to work
out a rescue package for Japan Line Ltd <JLIT.T>, one of the
world's largest tanker operators, by the end of Japan's
business year on March 31, a spokesman for the Industrial Bank
of Japan Ltd <IBJT.T> (IBJ) said.
    Japan Line's cumulative debt was 68.98 billion yen at the
end of September, which exceeded shareholders' equities and
reserves totalling 63.40 billion.
    In December, Japan Line asked banks to shelve repayment of
about 124 billion yen in outstanding loans and about 153
billion in loans to its subsidiaries.
    Japan Line said then that the yen's steep rise and the
world shipping recession had hit the company hard.
    The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said today that IBJ and
three other banks plan to abandon a total of 16 billion yen in
loans to Japan Line and a group of creditor banks plans to buy
seven billion yen of new Japan Line shares.
    The spokesman for IBJ, Japan Line's largest creditor, said
the package may write off part of the outstanding loans and
will be worked out before long.
    Commenting on the article, he said the details of the
package have not yet been settled.
 REUTER

Argentina will tell its creditors
it needs an extension of deadlines for payment of capital and
interest on its 50 billion dlr foreign debt, Industry and
Foreign Trade Secretary Roberto Lavagna told reporters.
    "We, the developing countries, are going to insist on the
application of contingency clauses, to extend deadlines for the
payment of capital as well as interest," he said.
    He said this could bring about what he called a possible
automatic capitalisation of those parts of debt interest that
could not be paid and even the elimination of a portion of the
debt.
 REUTER

Indonesia heads for general elections in
six weeks' time with its economy in the worst shape in 20
years, economists and officials said.
    The government expects no spillover of "people power" from
the neighbouring Philippines to unsettle the 20-year rule of
President Suharto, victory for whose ruling Golkar party in the
coming parliamentary elections is assured.
    However, Western diplomats said it is the country's
deteriorating economic position that is the main threat to its
stability.
    Last year's collapse in oil prices dealt a heavy blow to
Indonesia, halving its revenue from oil and gas exports to 6.5
billion dlrs last year from 12.4 billion in 1985. Oil and gas
account for 70 pct of export income.
    The result is that in the run-up to April 23 elections,
Suharto, far from wooing his 168 mln countrymen with pay
increases or tax cuts, is busy slashing budget spending.
    The government has also recently increased transport fares
and frozen the pay of the civil service and the army for the
second year running, despite inflation now estimated at 8.8
pct.
    The current account deficit rose to 4.09 billion dlrs in
1986 from 1.8 billion in 1985, while the debt service ratio
widened to 33.2 pct for 1987 from 25 pct in 1986.
    Foreign debt repayments of 4.6 billion dlrs account for
almost a third of the 1987/88 budget.
    A recent U.S. Embassy report on the economy said 1986 gross
domestic product growth was the lowest since the mid-1960s when
Suharto came to power. Western economists said GDP registered
nil growth or contracted last year after 1.9 pct growth in
1985, and predicted only a one pct rise this year.
    In its efforts to return to growth seen in the oil-boom
years of the 1970s when the economy grew an average seven pct,
the government is now relying more on foreign borrowings.
    Indonesia has asked foreign governments to finance its
share of new projects being built with overseas money, because
it cannot afford even to meet local costs.
    In the last three months Indonesia has taken out new loans
totalling 1.55 billion dlrs, on top of its external debt of 37
billion dlrs. Western bankers said more will be needed, and the
country now ranks sixth among Third World debtors.
    A 350 mln dlr commercial loan signed in Tokyo in December
was followed in the first week of February with a 300 mln dlr
loan from the World Bank to support the balance of payments.
    Last month, Japan's Export-Import Bank agreed a 900 mln dlr
loan to meet Indonesia's share of 21 World Bank projects which
would otherwise have been scrapped or postponed. More loans are
on the way, including two more from the World Bank worth a
total 300 mln dlrs for roads and irrigation.
    U.S. Ambassador Paul Wolfowitz said in a recent speech that
economic growth remains the key to preserving Indonesia's
fundamental stability.
    The largest Moslem nation in the world, Indonesia has so
far avoided some of the more extreme paths of other Moslem
countries. But the World Bank has warned that mounting
unemployment could start causing severe social strains unless
it is tackled.
    It said in its annual report on Indonesia last June that
unless economic growth is revived, unemployment could reach
what it termed "unacceptable levels."
    Unemployment was officially put at 4.8 pct at the end of
last year, but those considered underemployed number around 35
pct.
    What path to take appears to be a matter of some dispute
within Suharto's government, with his Western-trained
technocrats advocating more of the classic remedies supported
by the international financial community.
    But another group supports a protected economy, with more
import substitution, the U.S. Embassy report said.
    The government devalued the rupiah by 31 pct against the
dollar last September to help exports and curb imports, and is
currently working on a series of measures to further encourage
foreign investment and boost exports outside the oil sector.
    The direction Suharto takes could affect Indonesia's
ability to raise new loans in the future, Western bankers say.
    So far, despite three packages of economic measures over
the past nine months, he has not touched key monopolies that
are linked to businesses controlled either by his family or by
business associates, diplomats and bankers say.
    Diplomats and investors are now looking for action on
monopolies and the loss-making state sector as signs that
Suharto is serious about tackling the country's problems.
 REUTER

Australian wheat shipments rose to
1.33 mln tonnes in February from 1.01 mln in January, an
Australian Wheat Board official said.
    February's shipments were down on the 1.54 mln tonnes
shipped in February 1986.
    Cumulative shipments for the first five months of the
October/September wheat year were 6.12 mln tonnes, as against
6.54 mln a year earlier, the official said.
    The major destinations in February were: China (419,196
tonnes), Egypt (301,909), Iraq (142,055), Japan (110,261),
South Korea (100,847) and the Soviet Union (100,056 tonnes).
 REUTER

Republicans in Congress hailed
President Reagan's speech on the Iran arms scandal as candid
and constructive while Democrats, who control both houses, said
Reagan would now have to match his words with action.
    Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (Democrat) of West
Virginia said in a television interview he was heartened that
Reagan had acknowledged some of his mistakes. "But one speech is
not enough to rebuild trust."
    "President Reagan told the American people what they needed
to hear, that mistakes were made and he made them," Senate
Republican Leader Robert Dole of Kansas said.
    Reagan, responding to the Tower Commission report
criticising his role in the Iran arms scandal, said for the
first time the Iran arms policy, and not just its
implementation, was a mistake and accepted responsibility for
the diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan contra rebels.
    Senator Bill Bradley (Democrat) of New Jersey said the
administration would "remain under a cloud" until several key
figures in the scandal, including fired National Security
Council (NSC) aide Oliver North and his boss Adm. John
Poindexter, have told "the whole truth."
    Republicans and Democrats praised the appointment on Friday
of former Senate Republican leader Howard Baker to replace
Donald Regan as chief of staff, and the replacement of
Poindexter with Frank Carlucci to head the NSC.
    Assistant House Republican Leader Trent Lott of
Mississippi, said he believed Reagan took the right measure in
admitting mistakes without apologising for them.
    Some House Democrats, including Speaker James Wright of
Texas, said earlier they would delay their reaction until
tomorrow in order to study the speech overnight and assess its
impact.
 REUTER

OPEC countries are all sticking firmly to
official crude oil prices but the volatility of spot prices is
likely to continue into the third quarter, Indonesian Minister
of Mines and Energy Subroto told Reuters.
    Subroto, attending a Pacific Energy Cooperation conference,
blamed recent rapid spot price changes on unbalanced supply and
demand. "If we stick to the production limitation, the third
quarter will be in better balance."
    He said the market is in a period of transition while the
impact of OPEC's December agreement to cut output and fix
prices at an average 18 dlrs a barrel is worked through.
    Asked whether OPEC members of the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) had any concrete proposals to help Qatar sell its crude
oil in the face of strong resistance to its official prices,
Subroto said: "Apparently they have taken care of that."
    "They (the GCC) meet very often among themselves. I think
they'll help each other," he said.
    Subroto said that as he was not a member of OPEC's Price
Differentials Committee he did not know why the meeting had
been postponed from its scheduled April 2 date.
    "Maybe they find it is better not to have the meeting
because ... Everyone is sticking to official prices," he said.
 REUTER

Thai coffee exports rose to 22,068
tonnes in 1986 from 20,430 a year earlier, the Customs
 REUTER

The easing of rules governing overseas use
of the yen has caused an explosion of Euroyen bond activity but
has failed to turn the yen into a truly international currency,
bond managers and traders said.
    Although yen bonds now rank second only to dollar issues in
the Eurobond market, few foreigners are interested in keeping
the yen they borrow and no one wants the yen bonds but the
Japanese, they said. This lack of real yen demand through the
freer Euroyen market is undermining the 1984 U.S. And Japanese
accord to internationalise the yen, they said.
    The borrowers want to take advantage of low Japanese
interest rates but have no need for yen. They arrange primarily
with Japanese banks to exchange yen funds into other
currencies, mainly dollars, bond managers said. More than 85
pct of Euroyen bond issues are swap driven, they added.
    "The borrowers don't care which currency they use. They are
only after attractive money," one bond trader said.
    Issues doubled to more than 150 in 1986 from the previous
year, boosting Euroyen offerings to more than nine pct of the
total Eurobond market, Koichi Kimura, managing director of
Daiwa Securities Co Ltd, said recently.
    Traders said some of the activity stems from battles among
Japanese and foreign securities companies and banks for the
prestige of placing a larger share of issues. Many even resort
to "harakiri" swaps, those with unprofitable pricing.
    But the fever continues and the number of offerings could
double again in 1987, said Naoki Yokoyama, manager of Nikko
Securities Co Ltd's international capital markets operation.
    The Euroyen bonds, once issued, are mostly picked up by
Japanese trust banks, one trader said. After a 90 day waiting
period the bonds flow back to Japan where investor appetite is
strong, he added.
    Foreign investors are reluctant to invest in yen when more
attractive yields are offered on dollar and other currency
investments, traders said.
    "Even aggressive foreign investors have stopped investing
(in yen)," said Masaki Shimazu, manager of Daiwa's bond
    While few foreigners are interested in the secondary
market, Japanese commercial banks, regional banks, life
insurers and other financial institutions are eager to buy the
bonds and await their flow back to Japan since they offer
little currency risk, traders said.
    The Finance Ministry last April shortened the waiting
period before issues could flow back to Japan to 90 days from
180. A ministry official said it verified through sampling that
reflow was fairly small.
    "We believe the Euroyen bond should remain mainly in the
Euroyen market," he said.
    One trader said that although demand from Japanese
investors is heavy, it may prove to be only short-term. He said
many investors plan to sell their bonds if Japanese or U.S.
Interest rates decline further.
    To encourage further international use of the yen, the
ministry is considering allowing the issue of Euroyen
commercial paper, the official said, adding that it is studying
demand from potential borrowers.
    Securities company sources believe the ministry will permit
non-residents to issue Euroyen commercial paper within the next
few months. But they expect it to continue to ban domestic
participation in the market for some time to come. Japanese
banks object to the short-term paper market which they see
encroaching on their business territory.
    Traders said Euroyen commercial paper could spur more
demand overseas for the yen by allowing opportunities to shift
into shorter-term securities if need be.
    "Commercial paper might encourage fewer swaps," one bond
manager said. If more financial instruments were available,
there might be more trades in yen, he added.
    Euroyen bonds must now carry a five-year maturity, though
some recent issues which are callable in three years work as if
they had shorter maturities, traders said.
    The ministry is expected to allow four-year Euroyen bond
maturities within a few months.
    One yen bond manager said Japanese financial authorities
are giving up a lot of their control in liberalising the rules
governing international transactions of the yen. But freer use
of the yen could encourage more trade settlements in the
Japanese currency, he said. "If exporters or importers can raise
funds in yen, they will be more willing to agree to using the
Japanese yen as a settlement currency," he added.
    The Finance Ministry official said the government must
constantly consider ways to improve markets for the benefit of
borrowers and investors. "No major market can keep its status
without change," he said.
 REUTER

South Korea's M-2 money supply rose 0.39
pct to 33,992.0 billion won in February from 33,858.4 billion
in January, when it fell a revised 0.04 pct from December,
provisional Bank of Korea figures show.
    The February figure was up 18.89 pct from a year earlier.
    M-1 money supply rose 4.13 pct to 8,492.1 billion won in
February from January, when it fell 7.82 pct from December. The
February figure marked a year-on-year rise of 18.45 pct.
    The bank previously said M-2 fell 0.06 pct in January.
 REUTER

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves
fell to 8.43 billion rupees in February from 8.96 billion in
January, compared with 12.97 billion in February 1986, the
State Bank of Pakistan said.
    The bank gave no reason for the fall but local bankers said
big import bills had affected the reserves.
    The Federal Bureau of Statistics has not yet released last
month's import and export figures.
 REUTER

Austria has decided to redeem six years
early a 20 billion yen, 12-year, 8.5 pct samurai bond due on
August 18, 1993, Daiwa Securities Co Ltd said as lead manager.
    It will redeem 18.4 billion yen at 103.00 and the rest at
par this August 18 under an annual redemption obligation,
probably because of declining yen interest rates, Daiwa said.
 REUTER

Thailand's main paddy crop is expected
to fall to 15.4 mln tonnes in the 1986/87 (Nov/Oct) season from
a previous 15.68 mln estimate in November and an actual 17.35
mln a year ago, the Thai Rice Mills Association said.
    It said a joint field survey late last month by the
association, the Commerce Ministry and the Bank of Thailand
indicated that paddy output in Thailand's northeast region is
lower than expected because of a drought in several provinces.
    The association said rice growing areas in Nakhon
Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen and Mahasarakam were
especially affected by low rainfalls in the second half of
1986.
    It said last November that the drought reduced total
national areas sown with paddy to some 8.25 mln hectares this
year, down from 8.84 mln a year ago.
    The main crop represents about 85 pct of Thailand's paddy
output.
 REUTER

New Zealand clearing house <DataBank
Systems Ltd> said it will know tomorrow what services it will
be able to provide during a strike by bank officers against
trading banks and DataBank set for March 9 and 10.
    Trading banks polled by Reuters said their ability to offer
money market services during the strike depends on whether
Databank remains open, and whether the banks have enough staff
to process transactions.
    A spokesman for the New Zealand Foreign Exchange
Association said dealers would be able to trade during the
strike.
    But the spokesman added that from March 6 to 10 the value
date of currency transactions will be March 16.
    Trading bank spokesmen told Reuters they will try to honour
transactions in which an offshore party sought payment on March
9 or 10, but they could not guarantee settlement.
    The Futures Exchange said trading members and their clients
will be able to continue trading provided they have made
suitable financial arrangements.
    The trading banks affected are the <Bank of New Zealand>,
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd <ANZA.S>, Westpac
Banking Corp <WSTP.S> and <National Bank of New Zealand Ltd>.
 REUTER

Hoechst AG <HFAG.F> said its group
pre-tax profit in 1986 would be slightly lower than the 3.16
billion marks posted in 1985, while parent company pre-tax
profits rose slightly from the 1.62 billion in 1985.
    Group turnover fell slightly to 38 billion marks from 42.72
billion in 1985, and parent company turnover fell to around 14
billion marks from 15.35 billion, the company said in a
 REUTER

The Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd <BRKN.S>
(BHP) said it plans a renounceable one-for-three issue of
rights to float a new company, <BHP Gold Mines Ltd> (BHPGM),
which will hold most of BHP's gold interests.
    In a statement BHP said the 25-cent par rights would be
priced at 50 cents for 430 mln of the BHPGM shares on offer.
BHP will subscribe for the remaining 540 mln shares, or 56 pct
of issued capital, on the same terms.
    BHPGM will pay 440 mln dlrs for BHP's gold interests,
excluding its stake in Papua New Guinea's <Ok Tedi Mining Ltd>
and those interests held by BHP's <Utah International Inc>.
    The BHP statement said the issue will be made to
shareholders registered on March 27. It opens April 4 and
closes April 29, and is underwritten by <J.B. Were and Son>.
Rights will be traded on Australian stock exchanges from March
23 to April 22, and the new shares will be quoted from June 4.
    BHP said the new company will be one of Australia's larger
gold producers, with annual output exceeding 170,000 ounces. It
said there are plans to boost production to 300,000 ounces by
the early 1990s. BHPGM's portfolio will include several
Australian mines -- 30 pct of Telfer, 100 pct of Ora Banda and
Browns Creek and 20 pct of the new Boddington development.
    The statement said BHPGM would also hold BHP's 45 pct stake
in the Coronation Hill Property in the Northern Territory, and
its 55 pct stake in a new venture near Gympie, Queensland.
    BHPGM chairman-designate John Gough said it was a quality
gold stock.
    "The diversity and depth of BHP Gold's portfolio ... Give
the company a sound foundation in current gold production and
an exciting potential for growth," he said.
 REUTER

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp
<HKBH.HK> is likely to show a rise in profit of between 10 and
13 pct for 1986, reflecting stronger than expected loan growth,
share analysts polled by Reuters said.
    Their estimates of the bank's net earnings for last year
ranged from 2.99 to 3.1 billion H.K. Dlrs. Results will be
announced on Tuesday. The 1985 net profit was 2.72 billion.
    They forecast a final dividend of 29 cents for a total of
42 cents for the year against 38 cents in 1985, adjusted for a
one-for-five bonus issue.
    Analysts said they expected the bank to recommend a bonus
issue this year, probably one for three or one for five.
    The bank's 61.5 pct subsidiary Hang Seng Bank Ltd <HSGH.HK>
is to report its 1986 results on Friday.
    Analysts expect Hang Seng to announce net profit of more
than one billion dlrs for the first time, an increase of 10 to
12 pct.
    They expect Hang Seng to pay a final dividend of 1.37 dlrs
for a total of 1.75 dlrs for the year against 1.60 in 1985.
    Analysts said that while the use of undisclosed inner
reserves by banks here makes forecasting very imprecise,
Hongkong Bank benefited from the unexpected strength of the
Hong Kong economy in 1986, when gross domestic product grew by
nearly nine pct against an initial forecast of 4.5 pct.
    "They benefited considerably from the pickup in loan demand,
as their loan portfolio is well balanced," an analyst at Mansion
House Securities (F.E.) Ltd said.
    Government figures show that total loans and advances rose
by 13.8 pct in 1986, compared with a 4.5 pct increase in 1985.
    Loans to finance Hong Kong's visible trade, the mainstay of
the local economy, rose by 15.1 pct against a decline of five
    Low interest rates also helped the bank. Interest received
on loans was low, with the prime rate at 6.5 pct at end-1986,
but interest paid on savings was two pct. Hongkong Bank and
Hang Seng Bank control half of all deposits in the banking
system, giving them access to a large base of low-cost funds.
    The strength of the real-estate market was another major
income source for the bank group. Loans to finance property
development and instalment mortgages rose sharply.
    "The Hongkong Bank group is still the leader in mortgage
business despite tough competition from the Bank of China group
and other foreign banks," one analyst said.
    The high level of activity on the capital and equities
markets in 1986 contributed to a sharp improvement in Hongkong
Bank subsidiaries Wardley Ltd <WAIA.HK> and <James Capel and
Co>, analysts said. "Wardley had a tremendous year acting as
financial adviser and underwriter," an analyst said.
    Wardley was underwriter for last year's billion-dlr
flotation of <Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd>, of which Hongkong
Bank owned 30 pct at the time.
    The bank's stake has since been cut to 16.4 pct in return
for 1.57 billion dlrs. It also sold its entire 48.8 pct stake
in <South China Morning Post Ltd>, the larger of two
English-language daily newspapers here, for 1.18 billion dlrs.
    The proceeds will go to reserves for acquisitions and will
not show up in the profit and loss accounts, analysts said.
    Analysts said the bank had also been helped by a reduced
need to write off bad debts. "The need for provisions was much
lower than the year before," said Tony Measor of Hong Leong
Securities Co Ltd. "Last year's profits should have been 2.8 to
2.9 billion dlrs if not for the huge provisions."
    Former Hongkong Bank chairman Michael Sandberg said the
bank wrote off hundreds of millions of dollars against its
shipping exposure in 1985. Lesley Nickolds of County Securities
Asia Ltd said she saw no major shipping writeoffs in 1986. She
forecast profit of 2.99 billion dlrs.
    The bank's Latin American exposure, mainly through its
51-pct owned Marine Midland Banks Inc <MM>, appears to have
improved substantially, analysts said. Marine Midland's 1986
fourth-quarter loan-loss provisions fell to 44.1 mln U.S. Dlrs
from 89.2 mln a year before. Its 1986 net profit rose to 145
mln U.S. Dlrs from 125 mln in 1985.
 REUTER

The directors of Hughes Tool Co
<HT> said they would recommend to shareholders that they reject
a merger with Baker International Corp <BKO> today.
    Hughes vice-president Ike Kerridge said the recommendation
would be put to shareholders at a meeting scheduled for 10 A.M.
Local time (1600 GMT) to discuss the proposed merger.
    Kerridge said the board met yesterday to discuss the merger
but decided against it.
    The Hughes board objected to a U.S. Department of Justice
requirement that Baker sell off several specialised
subsidiaries in businesses related to oil-drilling.
    The Hughes board last week indicated that it might cancel
the merger because of the Department of Justice requirement.
    The board of directors of the California-based Baker had
approved the merger. On February 17 Baker said it had signed an
agreement to sell one of the subsidiaries.
    The companies had been given until April 22 to comply with
the Justice Department requirement, Kerridge said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell tomorrow 500
billion yen of financing bills it holds to help absorb a
projected money market surplus, money market traders said.
    Of the total, 300 billion yen will yield 3.9989 pct on the
sales from money houses to banks and securities houses in
27-day repurchase agreement, due April 2.
    The remaining 200 billion yen will yield 3.9994 pct in a
39-day repurchase pact maturing on April 14, they said.
    The repurchase agreement yields compare with the 4.0625 pct
one-month commercial bill discount rate today and the 4.50/43
pct rate on one-month certificates of deposit.
    Tomorrow's surplus in the money market is estimated at 420
billion yen, mainly due to payment of national annuities, money
traders said. The operation will put the outstanding bill
supply at about 1,300 yen.
 REUTER

McDonalds Corp is raising 75 mln
Australian dollars through a 14-5/8 pct bullet eurobond priced
at 101-1/4 and maturing November 5, 1991, lead manager
Bayerische Vereinsbank AG said.
    Investors will pay for the bond on May 5, 1987 and the bond
pays annual interest on November 5, beginning in 1988. There
will be a 1-3/8 point fee for selling and 5/8 for management
and underwriting combined. Listing is in Luxembourg.
    Denominations are 1,000 and 5,000 dlrs.
 REUTER

Gunze Sangyo Inc of Tokyo is launching a
25 mln Swiss franc convertible notes issue due May 31, 1992
with a coupon indication of 1-5/8 pct, lead manager Swiss
Volksbank said.
    Conditions will be set on March 11 and payment date is
March 30.
 REUTER

Group shr 18.34 yen vs 58.72
    Net 10.73 billion yen vs 37.06 billion
    Pretax 27.76 billion yen vs 84.78 billion
    Operating 30.06 billion yen vs 88.81 billion
    Sales 889.22 billion vs 955.78 billion
    Note - The company attributed the profit fall largely to
the yen's appreciation during the period. Domestic sales rose
0.4 pct to 274.17 billion yen from a year earlier while exports
declined 9.9 pct to 615.04 billion.
 REUTER

Oesterreichische Draukraftwerke AG of
Klagenfurt is launching a 100 mln Swiss franc 4-3/4 pct 10-year
bond priced at 100-1/4 pct, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The issue is guaranteed by the Austrian state.
Subscriptions close March 20.
 REUTER

The highly visible drama involving the
yen's sharp rise against the U.S. Dollar is obscuring the fact
that the Japanese currency has hardly budged against major
European currencies, thus creating a new set of exchange rate
distortions, Japanese and European research officials said.
    The officials, looking beneath the rhetoric of statements
by the Group of Five (G-5) industrial nations, told Reuters the
currency movements of the past two years are also creating a
fundamentally new world trade picture, which is throwing up new
trade tensions and imbalances.
    Trade figures show that the new currency alignments are
already changing the Japan-U.S. Trade axis into a Japan-
European Community (EC) axis, to the discomfort of Europe.
    In many ways, not least in terms of rare international
cooperation, the September, 1985 New York Plaza pact between
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, Britain and France to cut down
the value of the dollar was a historic one.
    But it is the underlying peaks and troughs of the major
currency movements which lay bare the real picture, in which
the Plaza pact appears as an event of prime importance, but not
necessarily central significance, the officials said.
    The officials said that when the Plaza agreement took
place, the dollar was already on its way down. The agreement
simply helped it on its way. Senior EC financial expert in
Tokyo Tomas de Hora has watched the movements closely.
    "You have to look at the dollar's peak compared with now,
and that was well before Plaza," he said.
    On February 25, 1985, the dollar peaked against the yen at
263.15 yen. On September 20, the Friday before Plaza, it was
242. Since then, despite massive Bank of Japan intervention and
periodic market frights about further G-5 concerted action, the
dollar trend has been down, down, down.
    Yet the ECU is now around 173.4 yen. The historical cross
rates for sterling and the mark tell much the same story. The
European currencies are moving back up against the yen.
    The close relationship between exchange rates and trade
flows makes it difficult to see which is driving which, but
undoubtedly the trade equation between the big three is
changing. In 1986, Japanese imports and exports with the EC
both grew by around 50 pct in dollar terms, five pct in yen.
This gave Japan a 16 billion dlr trade surplus.
    Last January, Japanese exports to the EC totalled half of
of sales to the U.S, against about a third in recent years.
    Trade with the U.S in 1986 rose 23 pct for exports and 12
pct for imports in dollar terms, but fell 13 pct for exports
and 21 pct for imports in yen terms.
    "The basic meaning for Europe is that Japanese firms have a
tremendous interest in exporting to Europe, where every unit
sold maximises profits in yen terms, which is what is important
to them. Suddenly, instead of the U.S., It is Europe that is
laying the golden egg," said de Hora.
    The EC is worried. EC business also had a remarkable year
in Japanese sales, but this can be explained partly due to its
start from a small base, compared with total Japan-U.S. Trade.
    The Japanese think EC firms are now more competitive than
U.S. Firms, a factor which is aggravating the exchange rate
imbalance, and which will cause problems.
    "This currency alignment between Japan and the EC is
reflecting the excellent performance of the EC countries. But
therefore, Japanese goods may keep their price competitive
edge," said Azusa Hayashi, Director of the First International
Economic Affairs Division of the Foreign Ministry. "If you want
my objective view, I don't expect a drastic improvement in our
trade imbalance. Last year, we asked for moderation in exports,
and this year we may have to do so again," he said.
 REUTER

Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and
Treasurer Paul Keating said the government's 1986/87 Budget
deficit could hit four billion dlrs against the official
forecast of 3.5 billion.
    Hawke told a Sydney radio station the deficit "may turn out
at four billion." He and Keating last week warned that the
budget deficit was running above target and vowed sharp
decisions on spending in a May 14 economic statement.
    A four billion dollar Budget deficit would be in line with
private economists' forecasts and compares with a 1985/86
shortfall of 5.73 billion dlrs.
    Hawke said the 1986/87 deficit would be equal to 1.5 pct of
forecast Gross Domestic Product against five pct when he took
office during the 1982/83 year.
    "In money terms (the deficit has been reduced) from the 9.6
billion dlrs that we inherited ... Down to about 3.6 billion,
it may turn out at four billion dlrs," Hawke said.
    In a separate interview Keating said: "The deficit for this
year, projected, was 3.5 billion .... It is in fact running ...
Over four billion and we will be trying to bring that in close
to target."
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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is
issuing a novel 100 mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 6,
1992 paying an initial coupon of 16 pct and priced at 101 pct,
lead manager Swiss Bank Corporation International said.
    The coupon will then be re-fixed annually at the one-year
Australian Treasury rate. There will also be an investor put
option annually at par. The selling concession is 3/4 pct while
management and underwriting combined pays 3/8 pct.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by Australia and will
be listed in Luxembourg. It is available in denominations of
1,000 and 10,000 Australian dlrs and the payment date is April
6.
 REUTER

Thailand exported 1,816 tonnes of tin
metal in January, up from 1,731 in December and 1,330 a year
ago, the Mineral Resources Department said.
    It said major buyers last month were Singapore, Japan,
Britain, the Netherlands, Malaysia and the U.S.
 REUTER

Caisse Centrale de Credit Cooperatif is
launching a privately-placed 1.2 billion franc bond issue in
three tranches of 400 mln francs and with maturities of seven,
eight, and ten years respectively, lead-managers Credit
Lyonnais and Banque Francaise de Credit Cooperatif said.
    Interest on the three variable-rate tranches issued at par
will be based on annualised money market rates (TAM) for the
February preceeding each payment. The settlement date is March
23 1987.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it had invited
an early round of bill offers from the discount houses. The
Bank forecast the shortage in the system today at around 1.15
some 732 mln stg and exchequer transactions some 245 mln. In
addition, bankers' balances below target and a rise in note
circulation will drain a further 135 mln stg and 30 mln stg
 REUTER

The Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union
(BLEU) moved into a narrow trade surplus of 4.7 billion francs
in 1986 after a 140.4 billion franc deficit in 1985, figures
given by a spokesman for the National Statistics Institute
show.
    He said imports fell last year to 3,061.8 billion francs
from 3,304.1 in 1985 while exports were also lower at 3,066.6
billion francs against 3,163.7 billion.
    In December, the BLEU had an 11.9 billion franc trade
surplus after a 10.9 billion franc surplus in November and a
2.3 billion franc surplus in December 1985.
 REUTER

The Bank of Spain said it raised the
reserve requirement for banks and savings banks to 19 pct of
deposits from 18 pct to drain excess liquidity which threatened
money supply and inflation targets.
    In a statement issued late last night, the central bank
said the measure would take effect from March 13.
    "In recent weeks, there has been excess liquidity in the
Spanish economy which, if not controlled, would threaten the
monetary and inflation targets set by the government," the
    Banking sources said the measure would drain about 200
billion pesetas from the system. The maximum reserve
requirement allowed by law is 20 pct.
    The move follows a half-point increase yesterday in the
Bank of Spain's key overnight call money rate, which now stands
at 13.5 pct. At today's auction, however, the bank left the
rate unchanged.
    Spain's principal measure of money supply, the broad-based
liquid assets in public hands (ALP), grew at annualised rate of
8.3 pct in January compared with 11.4 pct during the whole of
1986 and a target of eight pct for 1987.
    Banking sources said that although the January money supply
figures were good, compared with annualised rates of 13.9 pct
in December and 10.2 pct in January 1986, ALP growth appeared
to have accelerated in February, raising government concern.
    Regarding inflation, recent figures have suggested that
prices were under control.
    Secretary of State for Trade, Miguel Angel Fernandez
Ordonez, said this week that the annualised inflation rate for
February, not yet officially announced, fell to 5.5 pct from
six pct in January, compared with inflation of 8.3 pct during
1986 and a government target of five pct for this year.
 REUTER

The state-owned Minerals and Metals
Trading Corp will send a team to Japan next week to negotiate
an iron ore export contract for 1987/88 beginning April 1,
    Japan, the biggest buyer of Indian iron ore with imports of
around 23 mln tonnes a year, has asked India to reduce prices
from the current average of 18 dlrs a tonne, the sources said.
    "Japan has said it may be forced to reduce ore imports from
India next year if New Delhi fails to reduce the price," one
source said, but declined to give further details.
 REUTER

Japanese creditor banks are close to a
decision to jointly establish an offshore firm to which they
will transfer part of their title to possibly unrecoverable
debts owed by developing nations, international financial
sources told Reuters.
    Details of the deal are likely be decided next week and the
firm set up before the end of the month, they said.
    The scheme is intended to improve financial management at
the banks and reduce the risk of problems in the event of debts
turning bad, the sources said.
    Last week's announcement by Brazil that it would
indefinitely suspend interest payments on an estimated 68
billion dlrs owed to commercial banks prompted Japanese
creditors to finalise the project, the sources said.
    Major Japanese banks have been considering a plan to avoid
a debt crisis since the start of the year, they said.
    There are likely to be at least 10 participating banks, and
perhaps as many as 28, they said.
    About 30 Japanese commercial banks have outstanding loans
totalling over 10 billion dlrs to Brazil, accounting for about
15 pct of all commercial loans to that country.
    The most likely venue for the envisaged firm is the
Caribbean tax haven of the Cayman Islands, the sources said.
    The idea is to create a pool of funds in the firm with
participating creditor banks holding the firm's stock.
    The firm will then use the funds to buy from its
stock-holding banks title to repayments of specified foreign
loans which are potentially bad, the sources said.
    The stock-holding banks will draw up a list of such loans.
    Subject to the scheme would be loans extended to
debt-ridden countries such as Mexico and Argentina, they said.
    The financial sources said interest payments to the firm
would not be taxed because of its location. Japanese banks have
asked the finance ministry to increase tax breaks on loan loss
reserves, but the ministry has not yet complied.
    A senior ministry official welcomed the scheme and said it
may encourage new lending to developing countries.
    The ministry instructs banks to establish reserves for up
to five pct of their loans to 35 financially troubled
countries, but it only grants tax breaks on reserves accounting
for one pct of the loans.
 REUTER

Industry has not yet set a car export quota for <Daihatsu Motor
Co Ltd> which is scheduled to start exports to the U.S. Later
this year, a ministry official said.
    Several local newspapers said the ministry had set a quota
of about 10,000 cars.
    Daihatsu is owned 15.1 pct by Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T>.
    Quotas for nine car makers, including Daihatsu, are likely
to be set before the end of March, the official said.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said it will sell its
head office group of five buildings in central Sydney as part
of plans to decentralise.
    The 2,750 square metre site will be repurchased under
existing lease-back agreements and then sold by public tender,
it said in a statement.
    CSR's sugar and oil divisions have already moved to
Brisbane and the company said it plans further moves from
central Sydney to reduce its head office staff to about 100
from 550.
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Iran said its troops repulsed heavy Iraqi
counter-attacks and continued their advance through the rugged
mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan in overnight fighting on the
northern war front.
    Iran launched the new offensive, codenamed Karbala-7, on
Tuesday night among the snow-capped peaks of the Haj Omran
border area of northeast Iraq.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA, received in London, said the
troops "continued their successful advance ... With more thrusts
into enemy positions."
    It said "remnants of Iraqi Brigade 604 was shattered and 200
of its personnel killed or wounded." One battalion of the 25th
Division's Third Brigade thrown into counter-attacks today
suffered 70 pct losses, the agency added. Some 208 prisoners of
war had been taken from the front.
    IRNA said the Iranian forces backed by heavy artillery fire
were continuing to advance. No Iranian casualties were given.
    The area between Haj Omran and the Kurdish town of Rawandiz
some 65 km inside Iraq was the scene of heavy fighting in 1983.
Iran has backed dissident Kurds in the area in attacks on
government positions and installations in northern Iraq.
    IRNA said the Iranian forces captured large amounts of
munitions in the latest fighting.
    The Iraqis have made no comment so far on the Kurdistan
fighting, or on advances Tehran reported yesterday on the
southern war front east of the strategic Iraqi port of Basra.
    IRNA said today a group of its reporters visited
newly-captured areas on the southern front and found the
battlefield littered with the bodies of Iraqi soldiers and
burnt military equipment.
    They quoted an Iranian soldier, Hamid Dehqani, as saying
heavy rainfall during the past few days "had paralysed the Iraqi
enemy from embarking on any action" against the attacking
Iranians.
    IRNA referred to the "Fish Canal" -- the man-made Fish Lake
-- made by the Iraqis as a defensive barrier on the eastern
side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
    The agency yesterday said infantry and armour of the
Revolutionary Guards had captured strong defences west of the
canal in bitter fighting with Iraqi troops.
 REUTER

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves hit a
new high of more than 51 billion U.S. Dlrs on March 4, compared
with 50 billion in mid-February and 25.1 billion a year
earlier, the central bank said.
    Bank governor Chang Chi-Cheng told reporters the increase
came mainly from the bank's purchases of more than one billion
U.S. Dlrs on the local interbank market between February 18 and
March 4.
    He said the rise showed signs of slowing, however, because
Taiwan has liberalised import policy and expects its trade
surplus to decline over the next few months as a result.
    Chang declined to predict how high the reserves might rise,
but local economists have forecast they will hit 60 billion
U.S. Dlrs by the end of 1987.
    In January, Taiwan reduced import tariffs of up to 50 pct
on some 1,700 foreign products. It had been under growing U.S.
Pressure to cut its 1986 record 13.6 billion dlr trade surplus
with the U.S. Taiwan's 1985 surplus with the U.S. Was 10.2
billion, according to official statistics.
    Wang Chang-Ming, Vice Chairman of the Council for Economic
Planning and Development, told Reuters the government is
planning another round of deep tariff cuts in the second half
of this year.
    The reserves could support imports of more than two years
for Taiwan, compared with about three months for Japan and the
U.S.
 REUTER

Mitsui and Co Ltd said it plans to issue
300 mln Eurodollar warrant bonds in two tranches with payment
on March 30 through a syndicate led by Nomura International
Ltd.
    One tranche is of five-year, 150 mln dlr bonds while the
rest is of seven-year, 150 mln dlr bonds, but other issue terms
have not yet been decided.
 REUTER

A limited Belgian issue of silver Ecu
coins with a face value of five Ecus will go on sale from March
23 at a price of 500 Belgian francs each, a Finance Ministry
    Gold Ecu coins with a face value of 50 Ecus will be sold
from the same day. The spokesman told Reuters the price for
these would be fixed just before they go on sale but was likely
to be between 8,500 and 9,000 francs.
    At least two mln silver coins and several hundreds of
thousands of the gold coins will be minted, he said. They will
be sold both in Belgium and abroad.
    The coins will be the first ever denominated in the Ecu,
the "basket" comprised of the 12-nation European Community's
currencies except the Spanish peseta and the Portuguese escudo.
    The issue is being made to mark the 30th anniversary of the
EC's founding Treaty of Rome this month. Finance Minister Mark
Eyskens, who currently presides over the EC's council of
economic and finance ministers, has called the issue a
political act of symbolic value which aimed to make the
Community's goal of monetary integration more concrete.
    The coins will be legal tender in Belgium but most demand
is expected to come from coin collectors.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it provided just
17 mln stg assistance to the money market in response to an
early round of bill offers.
    Earlier, the Bank had estimated the shortage in the system
today at around 1.15 billion stg.
    The central bank purchased bills for resale to the market
on April 2 at an interest rate of 10-15/16 pct.
 REUTER

The Chinese state-owned Bank of
Communications Ltd Hong Kong branch is planning a 200 mln H.K.
Dlr certificate of deposit issue, banking sources said.
    They said the five year issue, which matures March 23,
1992, carries a 7.05 pct coupon payable quarterly. Management
fee is 10 basis points. Payment date is March 23.
    China Development Finance Co (H.K.) Ltd, a Bank of China
unit, is lead manager of the issue. A group is now being
formed.
 REUTER

The Rank Organisation Plc said it has
appointed County Natwest Capital Markets Ltd, Samuel Montagu
and Co Ltd and Swiss Bank Corporation International as dealers
in a 100 mln stg commercial paper program.
    The notes will be issued in any maturity of between seven
and 364 days and the funds will be used for the company's
general financing requirements.
    Arranger for the facility is County Natwest Capital Markets
Ltd while National Westminster Bank Plc will act as issuing and
paying agent, Rank added.
 REUTER

The French sugar market intervention
board, FIRS, raised its estimate of 1986/87 beet sugar
production in the 12-member European Community to 13.76 mln
tonnes white equivalent in its end-February report from 13.74
mln a month earlier.
    Its forecast for total EC sugar production, including cane
and molasses, rose to 14.10 mln tonnes from 14.09 mln.
Portugal, which joined the Community in January 1986, was
estimated at 12.75 mln tonnes white equivalent, unchanged from
the previous forecast and compared with 12.41 mln tonnes for
1985/86.
    Production for the current campaign in Spain was higher
than reported last month at 1.03 mln tonnes compared with
997,000 tonnes.
    Beet sugar production, expressed as white equivalent, was
estimated at 3.44 mln tonnes in France, 3.17 mln tonnes in West
Germany, 1.72 mln in Italy, 1.30 mln in Britain, 1.22 mln in
the Netherlands, 936,000 tonnes in Belgium/Luxembourg, 499,000
in Denmark, 287,000 in Greece, 183,000 in Ireland and 4,000 in
Portugal.
 REUTER

Sri Lanka's largest bank, the
government-owned Bank of Ceylon, plans to adopt a more
aggressive and selective interest rate policy to reduce excess
liquidity, estimated at some 500 mln rupees, and enlarge the
country's export manufacturing base, the bank's new chairman
Nimal Sandaratne told Reuters in an interview.
    The bank aims to reduce terms for prime customers and is
holding talks with the Export Development Board on details to
be announced later, he said.
    Sandaratne was head of research at the Central Bank of
Ceylon, the nation's central bank, until January.
    A Swiss-based non-governmental group, which Sandaratne
declined to identify, has agreed in principal to guarantee
export credits, he said, but refused to elaborate further.
    The bank may also consider more actively participating in
the foreign exchange markets in light of its substantial
non-resident foreign currency holdings of about 473 mln rupees,
or about 70 pct of the total market, he said.
    Sandaratne said the bank may sell 60 pct of its shares in
its wholly-owned subsidiary, Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka Ltd.
    The Asian Development Bank and a foreign bank operating
here have already expressed interests in acquiring a stake in
MBSL, Sandaratne said.
    He tentatively estimated the Bank of Ceylon's net profits
for calendar 1986 at 163 mln rupees up from 133 mln the
previous year. The increase was eroded by increased provisions
for bad debts, he said. About 50 mln was written off and 17 mln
allotted for general provisions, he added.
 REUTER

The Papua New Guinea Government
will establish a public corporation to invest in resources
projects, Minerals and Energy Minister John Kaputin said.
    "We intend to provide a means through which less privileged
individuals can become part owners and beneficiaries from the
development of mining and petroleum projects," he told
Parliament.
    Existing policy allowing the state up to 30 pct equity in
major mining projects and 22.5 pct in oil and gas projects
would be maintained, he said. The planned agency could take
over the state's equity in current developments.
    Kaputin said Papua New Guinea was experiencing a boom with
exploration companies spending about 60 mln kina annually on
about 150 mining and 23 petroleum projects.
    "The Government is determined to ensure that Papua New
Guinean ownership in minerals and petroleum projects increases
in an orderly way," he said.
    Kaputin did not say when the corporation would be
established or exactly what form it would take, but said the
government would study whether it should be directly involved
in exploration or development.
 REUTER

The Nigerian naira firmed 2.6 pct against
the dollar after 17 banks were disqualified from bidding at
today's weekly foreign exchange auction, the central bank said.
The naira finished at 3.8050 to the dollar, against 3.9050 last
week.
    Only 38.39 mln dlrs of the 50 mln dlrs on offer was sold,
with all 27 bidding banks successfully obtaining hard currency.
    The effective rate, including a central bank levy, for
transactions in the coming week, was 3.8241 against 3.9246 last
week.
    The failure to sell the whole allocation was due to the
central bank's unprecedented disqualification of 17 banks as
punishment for inadequate documentation in previous
    Banks are required to submit proof that their bids are
based on valid commercial transactions and the central bank has
complained in the past that many are failing to produce the
right paperwork within the specified time.
 REUTER

Canada Zero, a sole purpose company
incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is issuing a zero coupon
eurobond with a total redemption amount of 150 mln Canadian
dlrs, lead manager CIBC Ltd said.
    The issue matures on May 1, 2001 and is priced at 30 pct.
It is secured with Canadian government bonds. The selling
concession is 3/4 while management and underwriting each pay
1/4 pct. The payment date is April 30. Listing is in
Luxembourg.
    A CIBC spokesmn said the issue yields 49 basis points over
equivalent Canadian Treasury bonds. It is available in
denominations of 5,000 and 100,000 Canadian dlrs.
 REUTER

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic
Affairs Allen Wallis said he had urged Japan to do much more to
reduce its large trade surplus with the United States.
    "Our central message to Japan this week was that while we
have made progress in some areas, much needs to be done," he
told a press conference after three days of talks.
    "What we need is a resolution of trade issues, we need
visible efforts to restructure the economy to encourage more
imports and we need greater domestic-led growth."
    Forecasting sluggish economic growth in Japan this year,
Wallis urged Tokyo to stimulate domestic demand to help reduce
its trade surplus, which hit a record 83 billion dlrs in 1986.
    He named several areas of particular concern to Washington
-- computer microchips, supercomputers, Kansai airport,
agricultural products and car telephones.
    He warned that the U.S./Japan agreement governing trade in
semiconductors was in jeopardy. Despite the pact, Japanese
producers are still dumping microchips in foreign markets other
than the United States while U.S. Penetration of the Japanese
market has not increased, he said.
 REUTER

The joint committee of Taiwan's maize
importers has awarded contracts to two U.S. Companies to supply
two shipments of maize, totalling 60,000 tonnes, a committee
    Continental Grain Co of New York received the first 30,000
tonne cargo contract, priced at 93.86 U.S. Dlrs per tonne,
while Peavey Co of Minneapolis won the second shipment, also
30,000 tonnes, at 93.36 dlrs per tonne.
    Both shipments are c and f Taiwan and are set before March
16, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

President of the Japan Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (JCCI) Noboru Gotoh called on the Government to
issue additional construction bonds as an emergency measure to
stimulate domestic demand.
    Gotoh told a press conference that increased fiscal
spending is the only alternative to prop up the economy as
credit conditions are easy enough, a JCCI spokesman said.
    Japan faces serious unemployment unless more construction
bonds, to raise cash for public works, are issued but Japan
should continue to carry out fiscal reform programmes, Gotoh
said.
 REUTER

Japanese private plant and equipment
investment will grow 0.1 pct in fiscal 1987, starting April 1,
from 1986 due mainly to a continued slump in manufacturing
sector spending, the Japan Development Bank said.
    Capital spending by manufacturing industries, hit hard by
the rise of the yen, will fall 5.6 pct, a survey said.
    Planned investment by non-manufacturing firms will grow
four pct as industries like leasing and transport that have
benefitted from the yen's rise will remain robust, it said.
    The 0.1 pct overall increase compares to the 3.1 pct rise
the bank projected for the current fiscal year.
    In the manufacturing sector, iron and steel companies are
the most pessimistic, with an estimated 18.0 pct spending cut.
    Investment by precision machinery and textile firms will
decline by 18 pct and 11.2 pct respectively, the survey said.
    In the non-manufacturing sector, transport and leasing
service industries are expected to increase their spending by
15.7 pct and 10.6 pct, respectively.
    The bank's survey, conducted in early February, was based
on questionnaires from 1,738 corporations in all sectors having
a business relationship with the bank.
 REUTER

Economy and finance ministers of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will meet in Abu Dhabi on
March 17 and 18 to discuss their unified economic agreement,
    The semi-official United Arab Emirates' (UAE) daily
al-Ittihad said they would discuss two clauses, effective from
March 1, opening up wholesale trade and industrial loans in GCC
states to all GCC citizens.
    The six states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and the UAE - agreed in 1981 to integrate their economies and
eliminate barriers to the movement of people and goods.
 REUTER

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party
started moves to push through the delayed draft budget for
1987/88 through Parliament, deepening a clash with the
opposition which called the move rash and unforgivable.
    In the absence of the opposition, LDP members of parliament
decided at a meeting of the Lower House Steering Committee to
hold a public hearing on the draft budget on March 13 and 14,
parliamentary officials said.
    The step came after Parliament resumed deliberations last
Tuesday following a month-long opposition boycott over a
controversial government-proposed sales tax plan.
    Four opposition parties led by the Socialists have been
delaying budget deliberations in a bid to shelve the sales tax
on which the budget plan is based.
    A Socialist spokesman said the opposition would again
boycott parliament unless the LDP changed its mind.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who has vowed to push
through the tax reforms, told reporters: "Watching closely
negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, I would
like to avoid ... Passing (the budget) singlehandedly."
    The five pct tax, part of Nakasone's tax reform plan, is
planned to start next January to help offset cuts in individual
income and corporate tax.
    The opposition objected to fixing a date for the hearing
because the LDP could technically stop deliberations on the
budget and ram it through the budget committee and then a Lower
House plenary session, political analysts said.
    The four opposition parties called the LDP move "an
unforgivable, rash act" and said they would fight to scrap the
sales tax.
 REUTER

The Bank of France said it sold a total of
11.05 billion francs of Treasury tap stock in an issue of two
fixed-rate tranches and one variable rate tranche.
    It sold 8.25 billion francs of 8.50 pct June 1997 tap stock
at a top accepted price of 96.30 pct, giving an average yield
of 8.72 pct. Demand totalled 18.45 billion francs at prices
between 94.70 and 97.10 pct.
    The Bank also sold 1.8 billion francs worth of 8.50 pct
December 2012 tap stock at a top accepted price of 93.60 pct.
    Demand totalled 5.25 billion francs and the average yield
was 9.13 pct.
    In addition, it sold one billion francs worth of floating
rate 1999 tap stock at a top accepted price of 96.90 pct, on
total demand of five billion francs.
 REUTER

The outlook for the West
German economy is relatively bright, with gross national
product expected to expand by three pct this year, Kiel
University's Institute for World Economy said.
    The GNP forecast by the institute, one of five leading
economic research bodies in West Germany, is more optimistic
than that of the other institutes, some of which have recently
reduced their GNP forecasts to between two and 2.5 pct.
    In a report the Kiel institute said West Germany's export
outlook has not deteriorated fundamentally despite the mark's
strength against the dollar and other major currencies.
    "The danger that exports will slump in 1987 appears, all in
all, limited," the report said. "On the contrary, a slight rise
in exports can be expected."
    The institute said past experience has shown West German
exporters will move to counterbalance currency factors by
cutting costs, trying to penetrate new markets and adjusting
their product ranges.
    They will be aided in 1987 by an expected slight rise in
economic growth in industrial countries. At the same time, the
decline in exports to oil producing countries looks set to slow
this year.
    West German GNP growth in 1987 will be led by renewed
advances in domestic consumption and investment spending, both
of which will in turn be buoyed by an expansionary monetary
policy, the institute said.
    However, it said the labour market would see only a slight
improvement because companies will be reluctant to hire
additional workers due to higher labour costs caused partly by
agreed reductions in working hours.
    The institute cautioned that the expansionary stance of
monetary policy in West Germany was likely to bring a marked
acceleration of inflation.
    It also warned that what it called the worldwide
synchronization of monetary policy heightened the risk of a new
global recession. It said central banks in industrialized
countries, including the Bundesbank, had followed the Federal
Reserve Board's expansionary course.
    The institute said this in turn was bound to lead
eventually to a rise in worldwide inflation and a shift in U.S.
Policy towards a more restrictive policy. Other central banks
were likely to follow suit, causing a recession that could
aggravate the debt crisis of developing countries as well as
increase protectionism around the world.
    Although Germany cannot entirely shield itself from the
negative effects of the global synchronization of monetary
policy, it should do all it can to strengthen the forces of
growth at home.
    The institute said this could be done by ensuring that
fiscal policy fosters a willingness to work and invest. Taxes
should be cut by a greater amount than currently planned, and
wage increases in 1987 and 1988 should be markedly lower than
in 1986. It also said the Bundesbank should reduce inflationary
pressures by cutting the current rate of growth in money supply
to about four pct.
 REUTER

The nine creditor banks of the
Singapore coffee trader <Teck Hock and Co (Pte) Ltd> are
thinking of buying a controlling stake in the company
themselves, a creditor bank official said.
    Since last December the banks have been allowing the
company to postpone loan repayments while they try to find an
overseas commodity company to make an offer for the firm.
    At least one company has expressed interest and
negotiations are not yet over, banking sources said.
    However, the banks are now prepared to consider taking the
stake if they find an investor willing to inject six to seven
mln dlrs in the company but not take control, the banking
    Teck Hock's financial adviser, Singapore International
Merchant Bankers Ltd (SIMBL), will work on the new proposal
with the creditor banks, they said.
    Major holdings are likely to be held by the two largest
creditor banks, Standard Chartered Bank <STCH.L> and
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd <OCBM.SI>, they added.
    Teck Hock owes over 100 mln Singapore dlrs and the creditor
banks earlier this week agreed to let Teck Hock fufill
profitable contracts to help balance earlier losses.
    The nine banks are Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd, United
Overseas Bank Ltd <UOBM.SI>, <Banque Paribas>, <Bangkok Bank
Ltd,> <Citibank NA>, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, Algemene Bank
Nederland NV <ABNN.AS>, Banque Nationale De Paris <BNPP.PA> and
<Chase Manhattan Bank NA.>
 REUTER

U.K. 4TH QTR TRADE DEFICIT 2.6 BILLION STG, CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT 760 MLN - OFFICIAL

A strong earthquake measuring an estimated
8.0 on the open-ended Richter scale hit northern Chile around
0936, the Meteorological Agency here reported.
    The agency said the information had been received from
Honolulu.
 REUTER

Poland says U.S. Sanctions have cost its
economy 15 billion dlrs and has made clear it wants Washington
to take a lead in repairing the damage after lifting remaining
restrictions two weeks ago.
    Polish officials are unable to provide a precise breakdown
of the figure, saying it takes into account a number of
hypothetical losses. Some of them are "too sophisticated to
convert into financial terms," one banking source said.
    But Western economic experts say the effect of sanctions is
impossible to calculate.
    They say it is blurred by the poor performance of Poland's
economy, and dismiss the 15 billion dlr figure as illusory.
    "Sanctions have provided a very useful excuse for under-
achieving. They did have a bad effect, yes, but they only
contributed to largely internal, economic problems," one said.
    The U.S. Imposed the measures and withdrew Most Favoured
Nation (MFN) trading status from Poland in 1982 in retaliation
for suppression of the Solidarity free trade union under
martial law. The estimated cost to the Polish economy was
originally devised several years ago by the Institute of
National Economy, an offshoot of the central planning
commission.
    According to one Western envoy, an expert on Polish
economic affairs, it extrapolated 1979 information on growth
trends in trade with the United States, as well as increases in
credits from Western commercial and government lenders.
    But the calculations were based on a time when trade was
booming and credits still flowed freely, he said, dismissing
the estimate as "a theoretical projection based on a high point,
which has no real scientific evaluation."
    A foreign trade ministry official said Polish exports to
the U.S. In the late 1970s averaged around 400 mln dlrs
annually and had fallen by half since the sanctions were
imposed.
    Imports have suffered, slumping from around 800 mln dlrs to
200 mln, as credits ran out. Poland has a dwindling trade
surplus with the West. Last year it was one billion dlrs
against a targeted 1.6 billion, official figures show.
    Acknowledging that sanctions have lost Poland important
U.S. Markets -- including agricultural equipment, textiles,
chemicals and some foodstuffs -- Western economists say credits
dried up for economic not political reasons.  "Poland is
accusing the West of letting economic relations deteriorate for
political reasons," said one expert. "It's an illusion based on a
misunderstanding of Western economy."
    "There's a limit to how much you can go on giving someone
who has no hope of repaying it," another said, adding that
Poland had benefited from a global phenomenon of easy credits
in the 1970s which were no longer today's reality.
    Describing the 15 billion dlr assessment as "nebulous," one
diplomat said it also included losses of hypothetical orders
and setbacks to Polish research through the curbing of
scientific links and exchanges.  Western officials say the
lifting of sanctions and new MFN status will have little impact
on Poland, which has a hard currency debt of 33.5 billion dlrs
and lacks the means to modernise its industry.
    "MFN doesn't really mean anything, only that Poland will not
be treated worse than other countries. It will be difficult to
regain access to the U.S. Market because different forces are
in play now," said one Western envoy.
    He said Polish products were not competitive, and their
quality was too low. Trade wars and possible protectionist
measures amongst the U.S., Japan and Europe would also hamper
Poland's efforts to regain entry.
    Deputy foreign trade minister Janusz Kaczurba recognised
this fact recently.
    Kaczurba told the official PAP news agency recently, "Making
up our lost position will take a long time and be uncommonly
difficult, and in certain cases impossible... In a period of
two to three years it will be possible to increase the level of
exports by only about 100 mln dlrs."
    While Poland is unlikely to seek compensation, it says it
has a "moral right" to assistance from the U.S. Which it says
imposed the sanctions illegally. But a Western economist said
"The argument that U.S. Sanctions were a unilateral torpedoing
of the Polish economy won't cut any ice. The Americans will
just reply that the Poles acted immorally in crushing
Solidarity."
    Nevertheless, Polish National Bank head Wladyslaw Baka, in
talks in Washington last week with the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and World Bank, made it clear that Poland was
looking for a lead from the United States.
    He was quoted by PAP as saying that Poland would meet its
financial obligations to the United States, "but not in a short
time and not without a cooperative stand on the part of its
foreign economic partners."
    He stressed that the U.S. "had a particular opportunity to
play a part in the cooperative policy of Poland's partners
interested in the settlement of Polish debt."
    Putting it more sharply, one senior banking official blamed
Washington for obstructing talks with the World Bank, IMF and
Paris Club of Western creditor governments in recent years and
said it should now play a more positive role.
    "As a major superpower the United States can influence
international organisations," he said, citing recent meetings
aimed at stabilising currencies as an example of the extent to
which Western nations were prepared to cooperate.
 REUTER

Britain had a visible trade deficit of
2.6 billion stg in the fourth quarter of 1986 against a revised
deficit of 2.9 billion in the third quarter, official
statistics show.
    Seasonally-adjusted figures issued by the Central
Statistical Office (CSO) show the current account was in
deficit by 760 mln stg against an upwardly revised third
quarter shortfall of 930 mln.
    For 1986 as a whole, visible trade was in deficit by 8.3
billion stg, sharply up from 1985's 2.2. Billion shortfall and
a 4.4 billion deficit in 1984.
    Preliminary figures for invisible transactions in the
fourth quarter show a surplus 1.8 billion stg to give an
estimated surplus for 1986 of 7.2 billion. The fourth quarter
figure was in line with CSO projections released on Friday.
    The third quarter invisibles surplus was revised down to
1.9 billion stg from 2.25 billion.
    In 1985 the invisibles surplus was 5.1 billion stg.
    The reduced deficit on visible trade in the fourth quarter
was due to an increase in the surplus on oil of 200 mln stg and
a reduction in the non-oil trade deficit of 100 mln, the CSO
said.
    However, 1986's surplus on oil trade was 4.0 billion stg
lower than in 1985, while the deficit on non-oil trade
increased by 2.1 billion.
    The figures were broadly in line with market expectations.
    The CSO stressed that figures for invisible transactions,
particularly for the most recent quarters are liable to
substantial revisions as later information becomes available.
 REUTER

Belgian wholesale prices fell by 5.9
pct in January from a year earlier after a 5.7 pct year on year
fall in December, figures from the economics ministry show.
    A ministry spokesman said the wholesale price index, base
1953 and excluding value added tax, stood at 250.9 in January.
This compared with 251.9 in December, 265.5 in Janua~y, 1986
and 267.2 in December, 1985.
    In January 1986, wholesale prices were 3.9 pct lower than a
year earlier.
 REUTER

Talks set for today between management
and unions to try to solve the labour dispute at Cargill U.K.
Ltd's Seaforth oilseed crushing plant have been rescheduled for
Monday, a company spokesman said.
    Oilseed processing at the mill has been at a standstill
since December 19.
 REUTER

The Bank of France is likely to cut its
money market intervention rate by up to a quarter point at the
start of next week.  This follows a steady decline in the call
money rate over the past 10 days and signals from the Finance
Ministry that the time is ripe for a fall, dealers said.
    The call money rate peaked at just above nine pct ahead of
the meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Five
industrial countries and Canada on February 22, which restored
considerable stability to foreign exchanges after several weeks
of turbulence.
    The call money rate dropped to around 8-3/8 pct on February
23, the day after the Paris accord, and then edged steadily
down to eight pct on February 27 and 7-3/4 pct on March 3,
where it has now stabilised.
    Dealers said the Bank of France intervened to absorb
liquidity to hold the rate at 7-3/4 pct.
    While call money has dropped by well over a percentage
point, the Bank of France's money market intervention rate has
remained unchanged since January 2, when it was raised to eight
pct from 7-1/4 pct in a bid to stop a franc slide.
    The seven-day repurchase rate has also been unchanged at
8-3/4 since it was raised by a half-point on January 5.
    The Bank of France has begun using the seven-day repurchase
rate to set an upper indicator for money market rates, while
using the intervention rate to set the floor.
    Sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said
that he would be happy to see an interest rate cut, and dealers
said any fall in the intervention rate was most likely to come
when the Bank of France buys first category paper next Monday,
although an earlier cut could not be excluded.
   A cut in the seven-day repurchase rate could come as early
as tomorrow morning, banking sources said.
    They said recent high interest rates have encouraged an
acceleration in foreign funds returning to France, discouraging
the authorities from making a hasty rate cut. But they also
pointed out that money supply is broadly back on target, giving
scope for a small fall in rates.
    M-3 money supply, the government's key aggregate, finished
1986 within the government's three to five pct growth target,
rising 4.6 pct compared with seven pct in 1985.
 REUTER

The Hong Kong dollar fixed rate market
was shut down this afternoon after a 200 mln H.K. Dlr
certificate of deposit issue for the Chinese state-owned Bank
of Communications Ltd Hong Kong branch suddenly surfaced,
    Disgruntled dealers said the market was slowly on the road
to recovery after a bout of sell-off that began in early
February but it was still too fragile to absorb a new issue.
    Brokers said the new deal took them by surprise and all
major players stopped making markets in existing issues.
    The fixed rate market, which consists mainly of CDs tied to
swaps or asset repackaging, began to fall about a month ago due
to indigestion after 18 CD issues totalling 2.3 billion dlrs
flooded the market in January.
    Bankers said the shake-up was a result of participants
pushing the market up too fast in January amid intense
speculation that the Hong Kong dollar's 7.80 peg rate against
the U.S. Dollar would soon be changed.
    The speculation depressed local interest rates and
unleashed a flood of new issues.
    But the speculation faded in early February and interest
rates climbed as the government remained adamant in maintaining
the peg, thus triggering an adjustment on the fixed rate
capital market.
    By late February the market had recovered considerably but
Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York
launched their issues and pushed the market down again. Since
then there has been no new issues for nearly two weeks until
China Development Finance Co (H.K.) Ltd (CDFC), a unit of the
Bank of China, launched the five-year deal at 7.05 pct with
quarterly interest payment in mid-afternoon today.
    Brokers said the market was steady early this morning but
began to slip marginally by late morning as rumours of a new
issue circulated.
    When the deal was launched the major players quickly
suspended trading and refused to quote prices for their own
issues, brokers said. "We just don't know where the market is
going," said a European banker.
    They said the Bank of Communications issue traded at a low
of 99.70 but was later pushed up to 99.90/95, within the 10
basis point fee, adding that buying came mainly from sister
banks in the Bank of China group.
    An official with one of the Chinese banks said the deal was
launched at an effective yield of 7.26 pct, in line with the
market at that time.
    But a European banker said pricing was not an issue IN the
present market conditionS, "the timing was just not right."
    "If banks had more patience they wouldn't launch any issues
now, and then the market would be all right," another dealer
said.
    "But there is no reason to be overly pessimistic," he said.
"The effect of this issue on the market should not be as bad as
what happened after the DKB and Morgan deals."
    Despite the criticism bankers said CDFC still managed to
recruit more than 10 underwriters though the composition of the
group has not yet been finalised.
    "Any trader should recommend his bank against joining the
deal," said a dealer. "But there are other considerations such as
relationship." He admitted his bank has joined as co-manager.
    A banker said he saw no reason why the market makers
decided to shut down if they were willing to join the new
issue.
    "Perhaps they were jealous that for the first time a Chinese
entity has taken the sole lead position for a Chinese issue," he
said.
    Previously Chinese entities have always acted as co-lead
managers, whether for Chinese or foreign issues.
 REUTER

Traded volumes for U.K. Grain and potato
futures in February were down on the previous month while
pigmeat and pig cash settlement futures were higher, official
    Combined wheat and barley futures trade declined to 892,700
tonnes from 1.19 mln in January, and the value fell to 97 mln
stg from 129 mln, Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA)
    A total of 984,960 tonnes were registered for main crop
potato futures in February valued at 157 mln stg, versus
992,760 and 164 mln stg in January.
    Soymeal futures trade totalled 76,340 tonnes against 90,680
in January, and value declined to nine mln stg from 10 mln.
    Nine pigmeat contracts were traded in February, six more
than in the previous month, representing 450 carcases against
150, valued at 29,347 stg against 9,847 stg.
    Pig cash settlement futures saw 201 contracts traded,
against 19 in January, and the value rose to 659,864 stg from
119,610 stg.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank left credit policies
unchanged after today's regular meeting of its council, a
spokesman said in answer to enquiries.
    The West German discount rate remains at 3.0 pct, and the
Lombard emergency financing rate at 5.0 pct.
 REUTER

Turkey has announced a tender to import
100,000 tonnes of white crystal sugar with an advertisement in
local newspapers.
    Turkish Sugar Factories said in the advertisement there was
a 50 pct option to increase or decrease the amount and bids
should reach it before March 24.
    The semi-official Anatolian Agency recently quoted Turkish
Minister of Industry and Trade Cahit Aral as saying Turkey will
export 100,000 tonnes of sugar this year and import the same
amount.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it provided the
money market with a further 20 mln stg of assistance during the
morning. It again bought bills for resale to the market on
April 2 at a rate of 10-15/16 pct. Earlier this morning, it
bought 17 mln stg of bills at the same rate and for resale on
the same date.
    The Bank has thus given a total of 37 mln stg so far today,
which leaves the bulk of a 1.15 billion stg shortage still in
the system. Dealers noted that money market rates again eased
this morning and the Bank may have refused bill offers from the
discount houses at rates below its established dealing levels.
 REUTER

Matushita Electric Trading Co Ltd is
issuing a 100 mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due March 30,
1992 paying an indicated coupon of 2-3/4 pct and priced at par,
lead manager Nomura International Ltd said.
    Final terms on the non-callable bond will be fixed on March
12. The selling concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and
underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct. The payment date is March
30 while listing will be in Luxembourg.
    The issue is available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs. The
warrant exercise period is from April 15, 1987 until March 17,
1992.
 REUTER

General Motors Corp said it ordered
temporary layoffs of 5,500 hourly workers to cut production and
thereby reduce inventories of cars built at two plants later
    A spokesman said 2,000 workers would be laid off one week
beginning March 9 at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck luxury car plant.
    Another 3,500 will be laid off a week effective March 23 at
GM's Lansing, Mich, plant which builds the company's "N-body"
compact cars.
 Reuter

Ice conditions are unchanged at the
Soviet Baltic oil port of Ventspils, with continuous and
compacted drift ice 15 to 30 cms thick, the latest report of
the Finnish Board of Navigation said.
    Icebreaker assistance to reach Ventspils harbour is needed
for normal steel vessels without special reinforcement against
ice, the report said.
    It gave no details of ice conditions at the other major
Soviet Baltic export harbour of Klaipeda.
 Reuter

Hughes Tool Co said its board has
appointed a committee to search for a chief operating officer
in the event that it does not complete its merger with Baker
International Corp <BKO>.
    Last night, Hughes directors said it would terminate its
agreement to merge with Baker because Baker would only proceed
if Hughes signed a consent decree with the U.S. Justice
Department that the Hughes board had determined to be
unreasonable.
    The post of chief operating officer is now vacant at
Hughes.  Chairman W.A. Kistler Jr. is chief executive officer.
    Hughes said it proposed to Baker that the companies ask the
Justice Department to allow them to proceed with the merger on
condition that they find a buyer approved by the  Department
for the domestic oilfield tricine rock bit assets of Baker's
Reed subsidiary, its Singapore plant and Baker Lift's domestic
electrical submersible pump business by April 22, the last date
the merger of Baker and Hughes could occur under their
agreement.
    Hughes said its proposal would have been conditioned on it
not being required to license the purchaser with any Hughes
technology and on the imposition of no more adverse conditions.
    Hughes said "For reasons Hughes does not fully understand,
Baker declined to proceed in this fashion and insisted that it
would proceed only if Hughes signed the consent decree."
    The company said its board found the consent decree to be
unreasonable because some "unusual terms" in the decree posed a
substantial risk that control of the divestiture of Reed would
be passed to a trustee owing no duties to the shareholders of
the combined company, which would have been called Baker Hughes
Inc, and would include all of Reed's international assets and
its coring and diamond bit assets.
    Hughes said the board also found unacceptable the consent
decree condition that the merged company fund ongoing losses of
Reed and Reed capital expenditures for as long as it took to
sell Reed.
    The company said the board decision to adopt its own
divestiture plan and terminate the merger agreement if Baker
did not accept was unanimous.
 Reuter

The Swiss Finance Ministry is inviting
tenders for a new series of three-month money market
certificates to raise about 150 mln Swiss francs, the Swiss
National Bank said.
    Bids would be due on March 10 and payment on March 12.
    The last issue of three-month paper conducted on February
12 yielded 2.969 pct.
 REUTER

Egypt's Central Bank today set the dollar
rate for commercial banks for March 6 at 1.373/87 dollars,
unchanged from the previous rate.
 REUTER

A tremor hit northern Chile early today
but there were no immediate reports of victims or of damage to
the country's vital mining industry, the National Bureau for
Emergencies, ONEMI, said.
    The effects of the tremor at 0620 hrs (0920 GMT) registered
four to six degrees on the 12-degree Mercalli scale in
Antofagasta, 1,000 km north of Santiago, and five to six
degrees in Chuquicamata and Calama, at the centre of Chile's
mining region.
    The tremor was followed by a milder aftershock at 0758 hrs.
    An ONEMI spokesman said windows had been broken and a
number of cornices had fallen off buildings in the worst-hit
areas. These effects are described as up to seven degrees on
the Mercalli scale. The tremor caused a partial power cut in
northern Chile, the spokesman added.
    Quoting from the latest report from the area, received at
8.37 A.M., He said the effects of the tremor registered two to
three degrees on the Mercalli scale in Arica, on the northern
border with Peru, and three to four in Copiapo, 700 km north of
Santiago.
    ONEMI could not provide a reading on the Richter scale.
 REUTER

State-run Tanzania Railway
Corporation (TRC) has secured 25.6 mln dlrs aid from banks and
European countries for a one-year emergency repair program,
Transport Minister Mustafa Nyang'anyi said.
    Nyang'anyi told Reuters on his return from a World Bank
sponsored donors' conference in New York that the aid would
enable TRC to buy spares for 32 locomotives, overhaul 800
wagons and replace 67,000 sleepers over the next 12 months.
    The World Bank, African Development Bank, European
Community, Canada, Belgium, West Germany, Britain, Sweden,
Italy and Denmark had contributed to the package, he said.
    TRC runs a rail network linking Dar es Salaam and the
northern port of Tanga with the coffee-growing area around
Mount Kilimanjaro and ports on Lake Victoria and Lake
Tanganyika.
    It is under separate administration from the
Tanzania-Zambia railway linking Dar es Salaam with the Zambian
copperbelt and the railway system of southern Africa, which has
already received substantial aid as part of international
efforts to ease the dependence of landlocked African states on
trade routes through South Africa.
    But this is the first international aid package for TRC,
which also carries cargo for Uganda, Zaire and Burundi.
 REUTER

The two 150 mln dlr equity warrant
eurobonds for Mitsui and Co Ltd, reported earlier today from
Tokyo, have now been formally launched, lead manager Nomura
    The first tranche matures on March 30, 1992 and has an
indicated coupon of 2-3/4 pct while the second tranche matures
on March 30, 1994 and has a fixed coupon of three pct. Both
deals have an indicated pricing of par.
    The selling concession for both deals is 1-1/2 pct while
management and underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct. Final terms
on the deals will be fixed on March 12.
 Reuter

BAKER INTERNATIONAL CORP SUES HUGHES TOOL SEEKING MERGER COMPLETION

OPEC crude oil output in the first few
days of March was running at about 14.7 mln bpd, down from a 16
mln bpd average for February and well below the 15.8 mln bpd
ceiling the group adopted in December, a Reuter survey shows.
    The figures were polled by Reuters correspondents from oil
traders, industry executives and analysts in Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
    They back recent statements by OPEC ministers that the
group is producing within its ceiling to support the return to
a fixed price system, which came into effect last month.
    OPEC output for the whole of February was about 200,000 bpd
above the ceiling, largely because of overproduction by the
United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the figures show.
    The UAE, together with the much smaller producer Ecuador,
was also producing above quota in the first days of March, the
survey reveals.
    But such overproduction was compensated for by a sharp fall
in Saudi Arabian output, together with Iran"s inability to
export as much as its quota allows.
    Iraq rejected its OPEC quota of 1.466 mln bpd and produced
1.75 mln bpd in February and early March, the figures showed.
    Saudi output -- excluding movements into stocks -- fell to
3.1 mln bpd in early March from 3.5 mln bpd in February,
against a 4.133 mln bpd quota. The Saudi figures include a
200,000 bpd share of Neutral Zone production.
    Kuwait, which has consistently denied quota violations, was
estimated to be pumping 1.4 mln bpd in February and 1.15 in
early March -- both figures including 200,000 bpd as its share
of Neutral Zone output -- against its 948,000 bpd quota.
    Reports of customer resistance to fixed prices set by some
OPEC states were reflected in output from Qatar and Nigeria,
both substantially under quota in February and early March.
    Qatar's February output was 230,000 bpd, and this fell to
180,000 bpd in early March compared with its 285,000 bpd quota.
    Industry sources say Japanese buyers are resisting Qatar"s
prices and Gulf Arab oil states have pledged to make up for any
shortfall in sales which a fellow Gulf state suffers.
    Nigeria's early March output was about one mln bpd, down
from 1.14 mln bpd in February and its quota of 1.238 mln bpd.
    Industry sources say Nigeria's customers believe its Bonny
grades are overpriced compared with compatible Brent crudes
from the U.K. North Sea.
    Country-by-country production figures are as follows, in
mln bpd -
 COUNTRY        CURRENT        FEBRUARY    QUOTA
 ALGERIA        0.64           0.64        0.635
 ECUADOR        0.26           0.26        0.210
 GABON          0.15           0.15        0.152
 INDONESIA      1.16           1.16        1.133
 IRAN           1.80           2.20        2.255
 IRAQ           1.75           1.75        1.466
 KUWAIT         1.15           1.40        0.948
 LIBYA          0.95           0.95        0.948
 NIGERIA        1.00           1.14        1.238
 QATAR          0.18           0.23        0.285
 SAUDI ARABIA   3.10           3.50        4.133
 UAE            1.10           1.15        0.902
 VENEZUELA      1.50           1.50        1.495
 TOTAL          14.7           16.0        15.8
 REUTER
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp has
investigated the ramifications of a filing for reorganization
under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy laws but has no
present plans to file, a company spokesman told Reuters.
    The spokesman said the investigation was made some time ago
and was undertaken as a precaution in the interest of prudent
management.
    He said while Bethlehem, which has been losing money for
several years, does not intend to seek protection from
creditors now, it could do so if conditions worsened,
particularly if it ran out of cash.
    But the spokesman said Bethlehem ended 1986 with over 460
mln dlrs in cash on hand, partly due to the sale of assets over
the year, and expects to maintain its cash position at around
that level through 1987.
    At the end of 1985, Bethlehem had less than 100 mln dlrs in
cash.
 Reuter

The City of Quebec is issuing a 40 mln
Canadian dlr, nine pct bond due April 1, 1997 at 100-1/2 pct,
sole lead manager Societe Generale said.
    The non-callable issue is of direct unsecured,
unsubordinated debt.
    Fees are 1-1/4 pct for selling and 3/8 pct each for
management and underwriting. Payment date is April 1,
denominations are of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs and listing is in
 REUTER

Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc said
sales for the four weeks ended February 28 were up 7.6 pct to
240.8 mln dlrs from 223.8 mln dlrs a year before, with
same-store sales up 5.6 pct.
    Sales for the prior year exclude John Wanamaker stores,
sold at the end of 1986.
 Reuter

Baker International corp said it has
filed suit in state court in Houston to compel Hughes Tool Co
to complete its proposed merger with Baker.
    Late yesterday, Hughes said it had terminated the merger
agreement because Baker would not agree to an alternative
divestiture plan devised by Hughes.  Hughes' board had
previously found unacceptable a U.S. Justice Department consent
decree that would have required broader divestitures.
    Baker said it has not obtained any satisfactory explanation
from Hughes of its objections to the provisions of the Justice
Department consent decree.
    Hughes yesterday adjourned the special meeting at which
shareholders were to vote on the merger without permitting the
counting of votes on the deal.  Baker said it believes the vote
was overwhelmingly in favor of the merger.
    Baker said the new terms that Hughes proposed for the
merger, as an alternative to the consent decree, were "more
burdensome" than those of the consent decree themselves.
    Baker said divestitures under the consent decree would
reduce revenues for the combined company by about 65 mln dlrs
or three pct.
    Baker said it will continue to pursue the divestitures of
the units named in the consent decree.
    It said its suit names as defendants Hughes and certain of
its directors and seeks either an injunction forcing Hughes to
live up to the merger agreement or "substantial" monetary
damages it did not name.
    Baker said it believes the merger to be in the best
interests of shareholders of both companies.
 Reuter

Spain's Finance Ministry deregulated bank
deposit rates in an effort to raise competition among banks and
bring legislation into line with the European Community (EC), a
ministry spokesman said.
    The measure was published today in the Official State
Gazette. It takes effect tomorrow and lifts restrictions on
rates, now limited to six pct on deposits of up to 180 days.
    The government also enacted a decree cutting to one pct
from 13 pct the proportion of total assets which banks must
lend at favourable rates to industries classified "of public
interest."
    Some bankers expect the deregulation of rates to result in
a 20 pct drop in profits this year.
    Secretary of State for the Economy Guillermo de la Dehesa
told Reuters in a recent interview the reduction in fixed asset
investments would offset losses from the rate liberalisation.
 REUTER

USAir Group Inc said its board has
rejected Trans World Airlines Inc's offer to acquire USAir for
52 dlrs per share in cash as grossly in adequate and not in the
best interests of USAir shareholders, employees or passengers.
    The company said the unsolicited bid by the Carl C.
Icahn-led TWA was "highly conditional."
    USAir said its board and that of Piedmont Aviation Inc
<PIE> met separately yesterday to consider USAir's offer to
acquire 50.1 pct of Piedmont for 71 dlrs per share and
remaining shares for 1.5 to 1.9 common shares each, valued at
about 73 dlrs per share based on the average closing price of
USAir common during a period just before the merger.
    The company said it is continuing talks with Piedmont on
arriving at a definitive merger agreement and the two companies
hope to reach one very shortly.
    USAir said "In light of the highly conditional nature and
other terms of the TWA offer, the timing of the offer and the
circumstances under which it was made, USAir Group believes
that the purpose of the TWA offer is to interfere with USAir
Group's proposed acquisition of Piedmont.
    "TWA's proposal is nothing more than an attempt by Carl
Icahn to disrupt at the eleventh hour USAir Group's acquisition
of Piedmont, a transaction which the USAir Group board views as
most beneficial to USAir Group shareholders, employees and
passengers and which Mr. Icahn obviously regards as contrary to
his own personal interests."
    USAir said its board has authorized counsel to explore all
appropriate legal remedies against what it called TWA's
last-minute attempt to interfere with USAir Group's acquisition
    The company said conditions to the TWA offer include TWA
obtaining financing, the USAir board redeeming defensive rights
issued to shareholders last year and acting to render the "fair
price" provision contained in USAir's charter inapplicable to
the TWA offer and Transportation Department approval.
 Reuter...

Payless Cashways Inc said its
sales for the four weeks ended February 28 rose six pct on a
comparable store basis to 108.6 mln dlrs from 89.3 mln dlrs a
year ago.
    Year to date, it said sales advanced to 332.1 mln dlrs from
274.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Sterivet Laboratories Ltd said it is
proceeding with development of a new drug to treat navicular
disease in horses.
    The company said it received an unspecified financial
contribution from the National Research Council of Canada to
help develop the drug for treating navicular disease, which
affects horses' feet.
    Sterivet said the drug has produced promising results in
limited clinical trials conducted over the past 18 months in
Ontario.
 Reuter

The U.S. economy is facing several
serious problems which threaten its continued expansion,
according to a Congressional report released today.
    The report by the Democratic majority of the Congressional
Joint Economic Committee said the outlook was for sluggish
growth in the U.S. and the rest of the world for the near
future.
    Committee Republicans released a separate, more optimistic
report predicting continued stable growth with low inflation.
    Democrats have a 12 to eight majority on the committee,
which is made up of 10 Senators and 10 Representatives.
    "The annual report of the committee surveys a 3.7 trillion
dlr economy whose tranquil appearance obscures the danger
signals that lie just below the surface," Committee chairman
Sen. Paul Sarbanes said in a statement.
    "A close inspection of the economy reveals that the current
recovery, while long, is fragile, and we are skating on thin
ice," the Maryland Democrat said.
    He said the danger signals included a decline in
investment, increased demand for borrowing which was straining
the financial system, a possible increase in inflation fueled
by higher oil prices and the depressed condition of the
nation's farmers.
    Republicans said most private economists saw no likelihood
of a recession and were predicting a growth rate of around
three pct for this year and next, similar to Administration
forecasts.
    "The economy appears to be on a path of stable growth. We're
comfortable with the current low rate of inflation, hopeful
that interest rates will continue to decline, optimistic that
employment opportunities will continue to improve and confident
in this nation's resilient, innovative and diversified economy,"
the Republican report said.
    "The greatest economic challenge facing the 100th Congress
is reducing the federal deficit," the Republicans added.
    Democrats said the budget deficit should be reduced but
also wanted the government to spend more on education, job
training, research and development and health care.
    They said pressures on the dollar might make it difficult
for the Federal Reserve to use monetary policy to stimulate the
economy if this becomes necessary.
    "There is now substantial concern about the inflationary
effects of a declining dollar and the buildup of monetary
pressure arising from the recent rapid growth in the money
supply," the Democrat report said.
    "At the same time, the increased reliance on foreign sources
of capital in American investment markets means that the
Federal Reserve can no longer be as aggressive as in the past
in lowering interest rates and driving the dollar down."
    "Taken together, the outlook for fiscal and monetary policy
is thus not very encouraging," the Democrats said.
    The Democrats called on the Administration to be more
aggressive in removing foreign trade barriers and in seeking
new initiatives to solve the international debt problem.
    The Democrats said much of the U.S. trade deficit had been
caused by misalignment of the world's currencies, especially
the overvaluation of the dollar that began in 1982.
    Both Democrats and Republicans called for policies to
increase American productivity including incentives for saving
and investment in plant and equipment and development of a
better educated work force.
 Reuter

New applications for unemployment
insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 332,900 in the
week ended Feb 21 from 368,400 in the prior week, the Labor
    The number of people actually receiving benefits under
regular state programs totaled 3,014,400 in the week ended Feb
14, the latest period for which that figure was available.
    That was up from 2,997,800 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

Jaguar Plc <JAGR.L> is about to sell its
new XJ-6 model on the U.S. And Japanese markets and expects a
strong reception based on its success in the U.K., Chairman Sir
John Egan told a news conference.
    Commenting on an 11 pct growth in 1986 group turnover to
830.4 mln stg and pre-tax profits at 120.8 mln stg, slightly
below 1985's 121.3 mln, Egan said Jaguar aimed at an average
profit growth of 15 pct per year. However, the introduction of
the new model had kept this year's pre-tax profit down.
    Jaguar starts selling XJ-6 in the U.S. In May and plans to
sell 25,000 of its total 47,000 production there in 1987.
    U.S. Sales now account for 65 pct of total turnover,
finance director John Edwards said.
    A U.S. Price for the car has not been set yet, but Edwards
said the relatively high car prices in dollars of West German
competitors offered an "umbrella" for Jaguar. He added the XJ-6
had also to compete with U.S. Luxury car producers which would
restrict the car's price.
    Jaguar hedges a majority of its dollar receipts on a
12-month rolling basis and plans to do so for a larger part of
its receipts for longer periods, John Egan said.
    In the longer term, capital expenditure will amount to 10
pct of net sales. Research and development will cost four pct
of net sales and training two pct.
    Jaguar builds half of its cars and buys components for the
other half. The firm is in early stages of considering the
building of an own press shop in Britain for about 80 mln stg,
but Egan said this would take at least another three years
    On the London Stock Exchange, Jaguar's shares were last
quoted at 591p, down from 611p at yesterday's close, after
reporting 1986 results which were in line with market
expectations, dealers said.
 REUTER...

The Commodity Credit Corporation,
CCC, has accepted bids for export bonuses to cover sales of
25,000 tonnes of wheat flour to Iraq, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the bonuses awarded averaged 116.84
dlrs per tonne.
    The shipment periods are March 15-April 20 (12,500 tonnes)
and April 1-May 5 (12,500 tonnes).
    The bonus awards were made to Peavey Company and will be
paid in the form of commodities from CCC stocks, it said.
    An additional 175,000 tonnes of wheat flour are still
available to Iraq under the Export Enhancement Program
initative announced January 7, 1987, the department said.
 Reuter

DIAMOND SHAMROCK RAISES CRUDE POSTED PRICES ONE DLR, EFFECTIVE MARCH 4, WTI NOW 17.00 DLRS/BBL

Shr 19 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 2,656,000 vs 1,712,000
    Revs 15.4 mln vs 9,443,000
    Avg shrs 14.1 mln vs 12.6 mln
    Year
    Shr 98 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 13.8 mln vs 8,928,000
    Revs 58.8 mln vs 48.5 mln
    Avg shrs 14.0 mln vs 11.6 mln
    NOTE: Shr figures adjusted for 3-for-2 split paid Feb 6,
1987.
 Reuter

The earthquake which hit northern Chile
today, registering 7.0 on the open-ended Richter scale, caused
no damage to the copper mine at Chuquicamata, a mine spokesman
said.
    Chuquicamata public relations director Guillermo Barcelo
told Reuters by telephone from the mine that the quake had
caused no problems and operations continued as usual.
    A spokesman for the state Chilean Copper Commission in
Santiago confirmed there had been no damage at Chuquicamata.
 Reuter

<Orbit Oil and Gas Ltd> said
the value of its oil and gas reserves increased by 19 pct to
52.6 mln dlrs from 44.2 mln dlrs reported at year-end 1985,
according to an independent appraisal.
    Orbit said it has reserves of 2.4 mln barrels of oil and
natural gas liquids and 67.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
    In addition, 75 pct owned <Sienna Resources Ltd> has
Canadian reserves of 173,000 barrels of oil and 1.6 bcf of
natural gas with a current value of 2.2 mln dlrs, Orbit said.
 Reuter

CCC, has accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover a sale of
2,000 tonnes of semolina to Egypt, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the bonus was 233.91 dlrs per tonne and
was made to International Multifoods Corp. The bonus will be
paid in the form of commodities from CCC stocks.
    The semolina is for shipment during June 1987, it said.
    An additional 13,000 tonnes of semolina are still available
to Egypt under the Export Enhancement Program initiative
announced on August 6, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

France's state-owned Cie Generale
d'Electricite (CGE) is likely to be privatised during May this
year, sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said.
    Although the Finance Ministry simply said that the group
would be privatised during the course of this year, when it
first announced the operation in early January, the May date is
earlier than the market had expected.
    As a result it will follow close on the heels of the
privatisation of the TF1 television channel and the advertising
group <Agence Havas>.
    Last month the government privatised the first of the state
financial groups, Cie Financiere de Paribas <PARI.P>, in a
floatation which was 40 times oversubscribed.
    And in December the first of the industrial groups, glass
maker Cie de Saint-Gobain <SGEP.P>, returned to the private
sector.
    CGE has interests ranging from telecommunications to
shipbuilding and nuclear engineering, and recently struck a
deal with ITT Corp <ITT.N> to create the world's second largest
telecommunications group under the Alcatel name.
 REUTER

Five consortia have applied to buy the
French state-owned telephone equipment manufacturer <Cie
Generale de Constructions Telephoniques (CGCT)>, which will
give the owners control of 16 pct of the French telephone
switching market, sources close to Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur said.
    The French government has given itself until the end of
April to decide which applicant will be accepted, they added.
    While several foreign groups have said they want to gain a
foothold in the French market, their potential stake in CGCT is
limited to 20 pct under privatisation laws passed last year,
with 80 pct to be left in French hands.
    The Finance Ministry sources gave no details of the groups
interested in CGCT, but several have publicly announced their
candidacies.
    U.S. Telecommunications giant American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <T.N> which has been at the centre of the two-year
battle for CGCT, has teamed up with the Dutch-based <Philips
Telecommunications Industrie B.V.>, a subsidiary of NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabriek <PGLO.AS> and <Societe Anonyme de
Telecommunications> (SAT) to present a joint bid, in
association with holding company Cie du Midi SA <MCDP.P> and
five French investment funds.
    A second bid has come from the West German electronics
group Siemens AG <SIEG.F>, which hopes to take a 20 pct stake
in CGCT, with the French telecommunications <Jeumont-Schneider>
taking the remaining 80 pct.
    Sweden's <AB LM Ericsson> has also submitted a bid for the
maximum 20 pct permitted, in association with French defence
electronics group <Matra>, which would hold between 40 and 49
pct, and construction group <Bouygues>.
    Matra has already acquired CGCT's private telephone
business.
REUTER...

House Speaker Jim Wright is lobbying
congressmen to support a plan to cut the 1988 budget deficit
about 40 billion dlrs, half through spending cuts and the
remainder through tax hikes, congressional sources said.
    He is backing a half and half plan and has made the
suggestion to Democrats on the House Budget Committee
privately, committee sources said.
    However, a committee source told Reuters that committee
Democrats already generally favor a plan to cut the deficit
about 40 billion dlrs, half through taxes and the Speaker's
move was seen as building support outside the committee.
    Wright's 20 billion dlr revenue raising plan has no
specifics, although he has floated a stock transfer tax and
also has suggested deferring tax cuts due to the wealthy.
    Neither of those plans has caught fire yet in Congress, and
some congressmen are cool to the idea of a stock tax.
    The Budget committee is considering a 1988 budget aimed at
reducing the estimated deficit of 170 billion dlrs as estimated
by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
    Committee Chairman William Gray has publicly backed a
budget cutting move of 40 billion dlrs but says that will not
reach the Gramm-Rudman deficit target for 1988 of 108 billion
dlrs, although he claims it will be in the spirit of it.
 Reuter

Blizzard conditions halted shipping
through the Bosphorus waterway and piled snow up to 70 cms deep
in central Istanbul, paralysing the city for the second day
running.
    Snow whipped by 48 kph winds continued to fall on Istanbul
and northwest Anatolia after 36 hours and weather reports
predicted no relief for another two days.
    Port officials said at least six large vessels in the Black
Sea and 13 in the Sea of Marmara were waiting for conditions to
improve.
    Istanbul's Ataturk international airport has been closed
since yesterday.
 Reuter

The <Sterling Grace Capital Management
L.P.> group said it is confident financing can be arranged if
The Japan Fund's board recommend's the group's acquisition
proposal.
    The group, which also includes <Anglo American Security
Fund L.P.> and T.B. Pickens III, Tuesday proposed an entity it
controls acquire for cash all the assets of Japan Fund for 95
pct of the fund's aggregate net asset value.
    The group said it has had a number of meetings over the
past few days with domestic and overseas financial institutions.
    The Sterling Grace Capital group said certain of these
institutions have expressed serious interest in providing
financing for the proposed acquisition of Japan Fund, "adding
we are reasonably confident that the financing can be quickly
arranged if the Japan Fund's board of directors is willing to
recommend the transaction to shareholders."
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr profit 20 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 2,665,000 vs loss 202,000
    Revs 12,141,000 vs 5,993,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 35 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 4,653,000 vs loss 1,167,000
    Revs 35.1 mln vs 18.0 mln
 Reuter

Stop and Shop Cos Inc said sales for the
four weeks ended February 28 for its Bradlees Discount
Department Stores Division were up six pct to 104 mln dlrs from
98 mln dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up three pct. 
    The company said the modest comparable store sales increase
was due to a combination of difficult weather conditions in the
Northeast, a later Easter this year and a possible slowing in
consumer demand.
 Reuter

Mitsubishi Motor Sales
of America Inc said sales of all vehicles rose 43.7 pct in
February to 9,735 units from 6,776 in February 1986.
    Sales of passenger cars and wagons grew 11.7 pct to 5,314
from 4,758 and truck and van sales more than doubled to 4,421
from 2,018, the affiliate of Mitsubishi Motors Corp said.
    Year-to-date total vehicle sales increased 16.5 pct to
14,966 from 12,842.
    Car and wagon sales in the two months fell 13.7 pct to
7,640 from 8,848 but sales of trucks and vans grew 83.4 pct to
7,326 from 3,994.
 Reuter

Shr 99 cts vs 1.25 dlrs
    Net 418,733 vs 235,572
    Revs 2,777,425 vs 2,024,116
    Note: 1986 shr after November, 1986 600,000 class A
subordinate floating share issue
 Reuter

Supermarkets General Corp reported sales
of 424.8 mln dlrs for the four-week period ended Feb 28, 1987,
A 7.2 pct increase over sales of 396.4 mln dlrs for the
comparable period last year.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it had given the
money market 206 mln stg of assistance this afternoon and
offered the discount houses borrowing facilities to take out
the rest of the 1.10 billion stg shortage, revised down from an
initial 1.15 billion estimate.
    It made no alteration to its established dealing rates,
buying 95 mln stg of band one bank bills at 10-7/8 pct and 111
mln of band two bank bills at 10-13/16 pct. This brings the
Bank's total assistance so far today to 243 mln stg.
 REUTER

Supermarkets General Corp
reported sales of 424.8 mln dlrs for the four-week period ended
Feb 28, 1987, A 7.2 pct increase over sales of 396.4 mln dlrs
for the comparable period last year.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group Inc said it has
started its previously announced offer to purchase up to
6,332,471 common shares of Purolator Courier Corp at 35 dlrs
each.
    In a newspaper advertisement, the company said the offer,
proration period and withdrfawal rights will expire April One
unless extended.  The offer is conditioned on receipt of at
least 5,116,892 Purolator shares, or a 66.7 pct interest, and
is the first step in a merger agreement that has been approved
by the Purolator board.
    Hutton said it reserves the right to buy more than
6,332,471 shares but has no present intention of doing so.  It
said it may waive the condition that at least 5,116,892 shares
be tendered as long as it received at least a 50.1 pct
interest.  If it were to receive fewer shares than that, it
said it would only purchase sharesd with the consent of
Purolator.
 Reuter

Responsibility for the appreciation of
the Taiwan dollar and the South Korean Won lies soley with
those countries, said U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter
    Speaking to the Asia Society, Yeutter said that it is in
those countries' own long-term interest to raise the value of
their currencies against the dollar.
    Yeutter was responding to a question about what the U.S.
could do to encourage appreciation of those currencies against
the dollar in order to reduce the large U.S. trade deficits
with Taiwain and Korea.
    "An undervalued currency will help those countries' exports
in the short term, but in the long run they have to be
concerned about how they are perceived in the international
business community," Yeutter said.
    For Taiwan, Yeutter said that with its per capita trade
surplus with the U.S., much larger than that of Japan's, and
with huge foreign exchange reserves, it was difficult to defend
the high import tarrifs and other barriers that prevail in that
country.
    He also said that the south Korean Won should begin to move
to reflect underlying economic fundamentals, "otherwise in two
or three years' time, Korea will be in the same situation that
prevails in Taiwan."
    Turning to the U.S. deficit with Japan of more than 50
billion dlrs, Yeutter said that this situation was not
sustainable.
    "Something must give soon. If not, there is a great threat
of U.S. legislative action to counteract that trend," Yeutter
said.
 Reuter

Shr diluted loss 31 cts vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 2,806,005 vs profit 1,513,395
    Revs 15.0 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 8,982,754 vs 8,804,899
    NOTE: Current year includes loss of 3.4 mln dlrs from
takeover defense expenses. Also includes losses of 1.8 mln dlrs
vs 332,000 dlrs from equity in limited partnerships.
 Reuter

Orange-Co Inc said its
largest shareholder, <Summit Resoureces Inc>, has increased its
stake to 15 pct from 14 pct and now owns 644,727 shares.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 1.66 dlrs vs loss eight cts
    Oper net profit 12.0 mln vs loss 572,000
    Revs 27.4 mln vs 4,311,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 1.36 dlrs vs loss 43 cts
    Oper net profit 9,817,000 vs loss 2,433,000
    Revs 35.0 mln vs 13.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,224,000 vs 6,731,000
    NOTE: 1985 net includes tax credits of 492,000 dlrs in
quarter and 2,433,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 net both periods excludes 168,000 dlr loss from
    1986 net both periods includes pretax gain 21.8 mln dlrs
from sale of remaining interest in Paradise Hills, N.M.,
development.
 Reuter

Shr 33p vs 38p
    Net 97 mln vs 111 mln
    Revs 1.71 billion vs 1.76 billion
    NOTE: Figures in sterling.
    Share results after deducting preferred share dividends of
one mln pounds sterling in 1986.
 Reuter

The EC agriculture ministers' agreement on
reducing dairy output puts milk producers in an impossible
situation, French farm unions said.
    The accord to limit butter sales into intervention, part of
planned dairy output cuts of 9-1/2 pct over two years, will cut
milk producers' income, a spokeswoman for France's largest farm
union, the FNSEA, said.
    The move has destroyed part of the Common Agricultural
Policy, French milk producers said in a press release.
    But Agriculture Minister Francois Guillaume said
repercussions of the plan will affect dairies, not farmers.
    "If there are negative repercussions, it will be at the
level of the dairies which have never looked for new outlets
for butter and milk," he told journalists during a visit to
Rouen.
    FNSEA president Raymond Lacombe said on French radio the
milk sector needs restructuring by encouraging early retirement
and helping young farmers to start. But Commission proposals,
rejected by ministers, would have frozen land prices, he said.
    The FNSEA says it will demonstrate over Commission
proposals to freeze most 1987/88 farm prices and cut supports.
Pig farmers have held violent demonstrations over falling pork
prices and milk producers blocked roads in protest at cuts in
milk output.
 Reuter

The Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd (IBJ),
London Branch, said it is establishing a sterling certificate
of deposit (CD) issuance programme for up to 200 mln stg.
    The arranger is LLoyds Merchant Bank Ltd and dealers are
LLoyds, Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd, Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd
and S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
    The paper will have maturities between seven and 365 days.
 REUTER

Shr loss 3.84 dlrs vs nil
    Net loss 56,879,000 vs profit 23,000
    Rev 10.3 mln vs 17.7 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 4.60 dlrs vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 67,818,000 vs profit 1,807,000
    Rev 50.9 mln vs 56.1 mln
    Avg shares 14,734,000 vs 12,801,000
    NOTE: Fourth qtr net includes a one-time restructuring
charge of 45.2 mln dlrs. 1985 net income includes extraordinary
gain of 3.2 mln dlrs, or 25 cts.
 Reuter

Iraq said its forces killed or wounded
15,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards as they crushed a new
Iranian offensive near the strategic port city of Basra.
    A high command war communique said four Revolutionary
Guards divisions attacked Iraqi positions east of Basra on the
Gulf War southern front, but they were fully crushed by noon
(0900 GMT).
    Adbul-Jabbar Mohsen, chief of the defence ministry
political department, said the Iranians had 15,000 casualties.
    Iran earlier today said its forces launched fresh attacks
near Basra last night, adding that 1,200 Iraqis were killed or
wounded in fighting near Fish Lake, 10 km east of Basra.
    In its first reaction to Tehran reports of a new Iranian
offensive on the northern front, Iraq said fighting continues
around the strategic mountain peak of Kardamanend, overlooking
the Haj Omran-Rawandiz axis close to the Iranian border.
    A military spokesman said Iran launched its attack in the
north "to (turn) Iraqi attention towards that area and relax
pressure in the south."
    He added, "Iraq knows well that Iran's main goal is to
occupy Basra in the south and that was the reason why Iraq has
repelled their new offensive so decisively and firmly."
    Iran reported heavy fighting on both fronts today.
 REUTER

Enzon Inc said a new
treatment using its investigational new drug PEG-ADA has
restored the functioning of the immune system in the first two
children that were born deficient in the enzyme adenosine
deaminase.
    The disorder is known as severe combined immunodeficiency
disease, or "bubble boy disease"
    Bubble Boy Disease is a rare but severe disease that
hampers the development of the immune system. It has killed
most of its victims before adulthood.
    Children with the disease are consigned to live in a
sterile environment, such as a plastic bubble, to avoid
infection, the company said.
    The study of Enzon's drug, conducted at Duke University,
showed that two children suffering from the disease were
treated for 11 and seven months, respectively, and were free of
serious infection during that time, the company said. The
results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
    The disease is caused by a missing enzyme, called Adenosine
Deaminase, or ADA, that is crucial to the development of the
immune system.
    Enzon said it has developed a technology to coat the enzyme
with a substance called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, serving to
disguise the enzyme when it is reintroduced into the body,
preventing rejection.
    "Marked improvement in laboratory tests of immune function
occurred in each child, along with an increase in the number of
T-lymphocytes, the immune cells that were missing before
treatment with PEG-ADA had begun," the study said.
    "The children are now more active and have begun to gain
weight and height. Before treatment their growth had been very
poor in comparison to normal children of the same age," the
study, conducted by Doctors Michael Hershfield and Rebecca
Buckley, said.
    The PEG-ADA injections were given once a week. Victims of
the disease have traditionally been treated by bone marrow
transplants, but for most, donors are not available or
transplantation is unsuccessful, the company said. Other
diseases caused by a missing enzyme might also be treated by
introducing a PEG coated enzyme, the article noted.
 Reuter

Trimedyne Inc said it will
distribute one Class B common share of <Automedix Sciences Inc>
for each four Trimedyne shares held of record on March Nine.
    The company said in the spinoff it is distributing its
entire 44 pct interesdt in Automedix.  The spun-off stock will
not be saleable for 13 months, the company said.
 Reuter

K Mart Corp said February sales 
rose 13.1 pct from a year ago and comparable store sales in the
four-week period ended February 25 rose 8.2 pct.
    K Mart said consolidated sales in the period were 1.46
billion dlrs compared with 1.29 billion last year. It said the
year-ago figures excluded sales for discontinued operations.
    K Mart cited "favorable consumer response to our
merchandise programs" and said its specialty retailers had
"excellent February sales."
 Reuter

    Net 1,900,000 vs 1,600,000
    Sales 68.2 mln vs 69.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 60 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 7,100,000 vs 4,700,000
    Sales 214.0 mln vs 219.5 mln
 Reuter

French operators have requested licences
to export 40,000 tonnes of free market feed wheat, 32,500
tonnes of soft bread wheat, 375,000 tonnes of barley and
465,000 tonnes of maize at today's European Community tender,
trade sources here said.
    Rebates requested ranged between 134 and 136.50 European
currency units (Ecus) a tonne for the feed wheat, 137.39 and
141.50 Ecus a tonne for the bread wheat, 137.93 and 142.95 Ecus
for the barley and 133.75 and 140.25 Ecus for the maize.
 Reuter

common stock offering has been further increased to a total of
37,950,000 shares.
    The company explained that underwriters exercised in full
their option to increase tohe offering by buying an additional
4,950,000 shares over and above the 33 mln brought to market
yesterday. Originally, Occidental had planned to offer 30 mln
shares. It had 165 mln outstanding prior to the offering.
    The underwriters are Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc, Kidder
Peabody and Co Inc and Salomon Brothers Inc.
    At the public offering price of 30.50 dlrs a share,
Occidental said, the total value of the offering was nearly
1.16 billion dlrs, making it the largest underwritten common
equity offering by a U.S. natural resource company.
    The company said the significant financial improvements
from applying the net proceeds of the offering, principally to
the reduction of debt, along with its 1986 restructuring of oil
and gas operations and the acquisition of Midcon Corp have
positioned Occidental to benefit from an improving oil and gas
industry environment.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock said it raised its
posted prices for all grades of crude oil one dlr a barrel,
effective yesterday.
    The one dlr increase brings West Texas Intermediate, WTI
the U.S. benchmark crude, to 17.00 dlrs a bbl, the company
said.
    Diamond Shamrock joined Sun Co, Coastal, Citgo and Murphy
Oil in raising crude oil posted prices one dlr a barrel
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 1,026,000 vs 1,025,000
    Sales 27.8 mln vs 25.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 95 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 3,682,000 vs 598,000
    Sales 102.1 mln vs 100.4 mln
    Avg shrs 3,858,000 vs 3,700,000
 Reuter

Oper shr loss five cts vs loss 50 cts
    Oper net loss 3,862,000 vs loss 15,900,000
    Sales 42.6 mln vs 38.8 mln
    Avg shr 72.1 mln vs 31.7 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 51 cts vs loss 2.10 dlrs
    Oper net loss 30.3 mln vs 51.3 mln
    Sales 151.7 mln vs 153.1 mln
    Avg shrs 59.4 mln vs 24.4 mln
    Backlog 57.1 mln vs 52.9 mln
    NOTES: Operating losses exclude profits from discontinued
operationgs of 1,000,000 dlrs, or one cent a share, vs
2,493,000 dlrs, or eight cts a share, in quarter and 65.0 mln
dlrs, or 1.09 dlrs a share, vs 13.7 mln dlrs, or 56 cts a
share, in year
    1986 year operating loss also excludes extraordinary gain
of of 25.6 mln dlrs, or 43 cts a share
    Backlog, which includes only orders to be shipped within 12
mths, was 63.0 mln dlrs on January 31. Orders to be shipped
beyond 12 mths were 27.6 mln dlrs vs 17.1 mln dlrs at December
31
 Reuter

Qtly div 4-1/2 cts vs 4-1/2 cts prior
    Record March 24
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp said it had sales
for the four weeks ended February 28, excluding leased
departments, were 31.7 mln dlrs, up 13 pct from 28.0 mln dlrs
in the comperable four week period a year earlier.
    On a store for store basis, the company said, sales
increased five pct. It operated 100 stores last month, up from
92 in February 1986.
 Reuter

    K Mart said consolidated sales in the period were
1,459,193,000 dlrs compared with 1,289,635,000 dlrs last year.
It said the year-ago figures excluded sales for discontinued
operations such as Designer Depots, Furr's Cafeterias and
Bishop Buffets.
 Reuter

Congressional ire is rising against
the multinational development banks which make loans to help
other countries produce goods in direct competition with
beleagured U.S. farmers and miners.
    With a record U.S. trade deficit of 169 billion dlrs last
year and a farm economy in the doldrums, Congress is pressing
to hold back U.S. funds for the World Bank and other
development banks if the money is used to subsidize production
or to produce goods already in oversupply around the world.
     "American tax dollars are being used to subsidize foreign
agriculture and mineral production that is often in direct
competition with our producers," Senator Don Nickles, an
Oklahoma Republican, said in a letter to fellow senators
seeking support for his legislation to limit these loans.
    Nickles and Senator Steven Symms, a conservative Republican
from Idaho, have introduced legislation that would strictly
limit U.S. funding of multinational development banks if they
make any loans to help developing countries produce surplus
commodities or minerals.
    Current law requires that the United States vote against
such loans but carries no reprisals if they are ultimately
approved by the banks.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker's assurances that U.S.
policy is to oppose these loans did not satisfy concerns raised
at two Senate committee hearings last week.
    Baker told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign
Operations, "As a policy matter, we oppose loans for production
of commodities in oversupply."
    The senators cited a 350-mln-dlr World Bank loan made to
Argentina last year to help it increase its agricultural
exports by one billion dlrs a year by 1989.
    Nickles, Symms and others also have cited other loans such
as a 1985 World Bank loan to Hungary to expand livestock
exports and 500 mln dlrs lent to Thailand from 1981 to 1985 at
low interest rates for agriculture.
    Last year the Republican-controlled Senate voted three
times over the objections of the administration to cut U.S.
funding of development banks by the amount of these loans.
    But even with a 65 to 15 vote in favour of the proposal,
the restrictions were weakened in the final version. Only a
provision directing U.S. officials to vote disapproval cleared
Congress.
    This year's version, called the Foreign Agricultural
Investment Reform (FAIR) Act would require the U.S. to vote
against loans designed to increase production of surplus
commodities and minerals. Also, the recipient countries would
have to prove that the production, marketing and export of the
commodities could be handled without government subsidy.
    If the loan is approved over U.S. objections, the United
States would not increase or replenish funds for that
institution until it agrees to stop making such loans.
    Objections to such loans have most often been raised by
conservative Republicans who have traditionally opposed U.S.
funding for these international development banks.
    But the loss of many jobs to foreign competition has raised
similar concerns among more moderate senators.
    The administration opposes any legislation that would tie
its hands in votes on the loans. It argues there might be
instances in which a country needed the money to continue its
moves toward U.S. policies in other areas.
    Baker said the United States would continue to use its
leverage in the banks to require foreign trade liberalization
measures, often in the form of elimination of subsidies.
    Two House Republicans, Representatives Larry Craig of Idaho
and Beau Bolter of Texas, have introduced the bill. But it
faces stiff opposition in the House Banking Committee which has
blocked its consideration by the House in the past.
    Symms intends to offer the bill as an amendment to any
related legislation this year, an aide said.
 Reuter

Co, a satellite data network concern, said it has signed an
agreement with Contel Corp's <CTC>, Contel ASC, unit allowing
Contel ASC to buy 3.6 mln shares of Equatorial stock at 3.25
    In addition, Equatorial said under the agreement Contel ASC
would buy a minimum of 10 mln dlrs of equipment from
Equatorial, loan Equatorial up to six mln dlrs and assume a
portion of Equatorial's rights and obligations under a
satellite transponder lease.
 Reuter

Mannesmann AG <MMWG.F>, the
diversified engineering and pipe-making group, is interested in
taking a stake in a U.S. Company or companies but has not yet
found a suitable firm, a spokesman said in reply to questions.
    Mannesmann managing board chairman Werner Dieter told the
business weekly Wirtschaftswoche in an interview that
Mannesmann wanted to invest in a U.S. Company in order to
strengthen its presence on the U.S. Market.
    Dieter said Mannesmann would act quickly when and if it
found a firm in which it wanted to take a stake.
    The Mannesmann spokesman declined to say in which
industrial sector the group may make a U.S. Acquisition or how
big the acquisition might be.
    He also said the group had not yet completed taking over a
stake in car components firm <Fichtel und Sachs AG>.
    Mannesmann had said in January it hoped to take a 37.5 pct
stake in Fichtel und Sachs's holding company, Sachs AG, in the
first quarter. The spokesman said Mannesmann had a letter of
intent on the takeover from the heirs of the company's late
owner but completion has been delayed by legal questions
concerning the inheritance.
 REUTER

Shr 1.83 dlrs vs 77 cts
    Net 296.6 mln vs 120.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 4.90 dlrs vs 2.76 dlrs
    Net 795.8 mln vs 420.5 mln
    NOTE: Includes gains of 139.2 mln vs 46.8 mln in year and
94.0 mln vs 11.6 mln from capital gains from investments.
 Reuter

Systems for Health Care Inc said it
repositioned the company through a one-for-50 reverse stock
split.
    It said there are now 3,002,500 common shares outstanding
with a quoted price of about 7/8 bid, compared to 150,125,000
shares outstanding prior to the split.
    In another recent development, Systems for Health Care
formally changed its name to its present form from Orcas Corp.
 Reuter

First Executive Corp said that its
principal subsidiary contributed 152 mln dlrs to one of its
divisions to cover credits it wrongfully took on its 1983 to
1985 regulatory accounting statements.
    The company said Executive Life Insurance Co gave the
capital infusion to its subsidiary, Executive Life Insurance Co
of New York. It said the new funds bring to 280 mln dlrs the
company has received from its parent the past three years.
    Executive Life Insurance Co of New York admitted a
violation of state insurance law and paid a fine of 250,000
dlrs levied by the New York Insurance Department, according to
the company.
    Executive Life of New York took credits for reinsurance
agreements that provided less protection to the insurer and its
policyholders than New York rules require, according to
published reports.
 Reuter

Hard Rock Cafe PLC said it has filed
for an initial U.S. offering of 2,240,000 American Depositary
Shares representing 11.2 mln Class A ordinary shares.
    It said 240,000 of the ADS's will be sold by a current
    Lead underwriter is <Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc>.
    The company said proceeds will be used for the financing of
additional restaurants, the expansion of existing restaurants
and retail operations and the repayment of debt.
 Reuter

Belgium is to issue a 150 billion
franc, eight-year state loan carrying a coupon of eight pct, a
Finance Ministry spokesman said.
    Pricing will be fixed next week.
    The spokesman said the loan will feature a call option
after four years at a price also to be determined.
    Some 120 billion francs of the loan will be taken up by
members of the issuing consortium, comprising major Belgian
commercial banks, and the remaining 30 billion by semi-state
owned financial institutions.
    The most recent public authority loan stock issue, for the
state road building fund Fonds des Routes, was also for eight
years with an eight pct coupon. It was priced at par.
    The issue also featured a call option after four years at
102, falling to 101-1/2 after five and by a half point each
year thereafter.
 REUTER

Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD.AS> earnings
for 1986 from the U.S. Fell sharply because of difficult market
conditions, lower crude and gas prices and also due to
different accounting methods, Shell chairman Peter Holmes said.
    The Shell Oil dollar net income fell 47 pct in the year,
while the additional effect of currency movements reduced the
contribution to group net income by 57 pct to 472 mln stg.
    The group earlier reported a drop in net income for the
year to 2.54 billion stg from 3.03 billion previously, with
lower crude prices outweighing the effect of increased sales by
volume.
    Although the figures were lower, they were nonetheless at
the top end of market forecasts. Shell Transport and Trading
Plc <SC.L> shares, the U.K. Arm of the group, rose to 11.39 stg
from a close last night of 11.06 stg. Analysts noted that a
general collapse in exploration and production volumes was
partially offset by earnings from chemicals rising to 462 mln
stg from 205 mln in 1985.
    Also, a windfall tax credit and lower than expected
currency losses had added about 100 mln stg onto fourth quarter
results, which was the main reason for the figures exceeding
forecasts, industry analyst Chris Rowland of Barclays de Zoete
Wedd noted.
    However, he added there could well be a sharp fall in
performance in the first quarter of 1987, due to the
improbability that the group would be able to repeat the high
refining and marketing margins of first quarter 1986.
    The impact of recovering oil prices would come through
faster on the downstream side than on the upstream as such a
high proportion of upstream activity centred on gas, which
typically reacted to oil price changes with about a half-year
lag, analysts said.
    Holmes said that in the upstream U.S. Sector the third
quarter of 1986 had been the worst of all.
    Only two of the oil majors had managed to make a profit in
the period, with Shell Oil being one of them. The decrease in
U.S. Earnings had been accentuated by tax rates but the group
had increased share to become volume market leader, Holmes
added.
    Continued low crude oil prices would continue to subdue
U.S. Exploration activity. "Exploration is currently pretty
flat. We are going to go on, but at 16-18 dlrs there will be no
massive upturn," he said.
    A renewal of exploration in high cost areas of the North
Sea and the U.S. Requires prices of around 25 dlrs a barrel.
    Ultimately this would lead to a rise in U.S. Imports. "If
you are not exploring you are not going to find anything," he
noted.
    U.S. Oil production had dropped some half mln barrels a day
(bbd) in 1986 and would continue to fall if the price stayed
below 20 dlrs a barrel.
    This favored OPEC's attempts to stabilise prices, as the
lower the price the more likelihood there was of non-OPEC
marginal production shutting down. "OPEC has done pretty
extraordinarily well...Everything is moving in (its) direction,"
he added.
 Reuter

J.C. Penney co Inc said sales for the
four weeks ended February 28 for its JCPenney stores and
catalogs were up 5.3 pct to 780 mln dlrs from 741 mln dlrs a
year earlier, with comparable store sales up 5.5 pct.
    The company said total company sales for the period were up
6.0 pct to 888 mln dlrs from 838 mln dlrs, with same-store
sales up 6.3 pct.
 Reuter

F.W. Woolworth Co said total sales for
the four weeks ended February 28 rose 11.3 pct to 416 mln, from
374 mln in the comparable 1986 period.
    Woolworth said domestic sales increased 7.1 pct, to 249 mln
from 233 mln, while foreign sales rose 18.4 pct to 167 mln,
from 141 mln.
 Reuter

Bankers welcomed the Bank of Spain's
decision to raise the reserve requirement for banks and savings
banks, saying it reflected the socialist government's
determination not to ease up in the fight against inflation
despite the painful social effects of four years of austerity.
    The central bank last night raised the requirement by one
percentage point to 19 pct from March 13, saying that excess
liquidity threatened money supply and inflation targets.
    Bankers said the move represented a change of tactic by the
Bank, which until now has relied on raising interest rates to
choke off money supply growth.
    "I think it's a good measure," a senior foreign banker said.
"It's a faster way to get the job done than using interest rates
and avoids unpleasant effects on other areas of the economy."
    "It shows that the political will is very strong. They know
that controlling inflation will make industry more competitive
and bring down unemployment in the long run," he added.
    The head of another foreign bank said that only a month
ago, the Bank of Spain had dismissed his suggestion of a rise
in reserve requirements, preferring to pursue its strategy of
raising interest rates.
    But bankers said the high real interest rates on offer now
-- around eight pct for overnight funds -- was attracting money
from abroad, strengthening the peseta and making Spanish
exports less competitive.
    The government says industry's competitiveness is also
being hit hard by inflation. At 8.3 pct last year, the rate was
way above that of Spain's major trading partners in the
European Community, which it joined a year ago.
    To help meet this year's target of five pct, it is
insisting pay rises stay at that level, setting the stage for
clashes with trade unions, who say they have made enough
sacrifices.
    Demonstrations by workers, students and farmers, whose
demands essentially involve more government spending, have
become an almost daily occurrence. But Prime Minister Felipe
Gonzalez insists that the state is doing as much as it can.
    Bankers said the reserve requirement increase could have
some impact on commercial lending rates but should not hit the
money market too hard.
    The Bank of Spain, which only yesterday raised its key
overnight call money rate to 13.5 pct, left it unchanged at
today's auction. The rate has been increased nine times since
the start of the year, when it was below 12 pct.
    Bankers said commercial lending rates were set to rise in
any case with the end of the six pct maximium interest rate
banks can offer for time deposits of up to six months.
    The measure will take effect tomorrow, following the
publication of the decree in today's official gazette. Bankers
say the liberalisation will increase the cost of funds and,
inevitably, push lending rates higher.
    A companion measure, reducing the proportion of funds which
banks must invest in specific areas, also takes effect
tomorrow. Officials said when the cut was approved last month
that it was aimed partly at compensating banks for higher
interest rates.
 REUTER

133.5 mln crowns vs 101 mln.
    Sales 1.61 billion vs 1.51 billion.
    Proposed dividend 0.80 crowns vs 0.40 crowns.
 REUTER

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS> said
its load factor rose to 66.5 pct in February from 62.5 pct in
January and 65.7 pct in February 1986.
    The load factor was 66.6 pct in the April/February period
of 1986/87 compared with 67.2 pct in the same period in
1985/86.
    Traffic rose 18 pct and capacity rose 17 pct in February
versus 12 and 13 pct respectively in January.
    In the April/February period of 1986/87 traffic rose nine
pct and capacity rose 10 pct compared with eight and nine pct
respectively in the same period in 1985/86.
 REUTER

TRANSPORTATION AGENCY GIVES FINAL OKAY FOR US AIR PACIFIC SOUTHWEST ACQUISITION

Officials and diplomats said EC farm
ministers, who earlier this week ended another marathon
negotiating session, achieved more than ever before in the
fight to end food surpluses, and delighted EC officials are now
preparing to carry the reform offensive into other areas.
    Their immediate aim is to drain the wine and olive oil
"lakes" and level the "grain mountain" that have brought the
Community so much unwelcome publicity.
    Earlier this week, ministers finally agreed after 36 hours
of negotiations the fine details of an outline accord to cut
milk output by 9.5 pct over two years and reduce butter stocks,
now at a record 1.2 mln tonnes.
    Officials said new rules, which place strict limits on
farmers' rights to benefit from high subsidised prices, could
be expected to reduce sales into intervention to a trickle and
pave the way for reform in other surplus sectors.
    The deal was reached despite determined attempts at
backsliding by some states as the implications of the original
outline accord reached last December began to sink in.
    "Despite coming under tremendous pressure, the ministers
never wavered from the main features of the deal," one senior
official said, adding the result augured well for talks later
this month on other reforms.
    The Commission is leading the fight against food surpluses
and has now proposed the most severe annual price review, at
which ministers fix farm support prices, in the EC's history.
    Most prices would be cut or frozen, new quality standards
enforced, and most farmers' rights to sell to intervention
curtailed. Officials say the measures could lead to effective
price cuts for some low quality cereals of eight to 11 pct.
    EC Commissioner Frans Andriessen is currently working on
proposals to provide direct income aids to farmers to cushion
them from the worst effects of a restrictive price policy and
encourage ministers to swallow the reform pill.
 Reuter

Mercantile Stores Co Inc said
its February sales totaled 113.2 mln dlrs, up 6.9 pct 105.9 mln
dlrs in the year earlier month.
    The company said its comparable store sales rose 4.3 pct
 Reuter

Mobil Corp said its Montgomery Ward and
Co's retail sales for the four weeks ended February 28 rose
12.7 pct on a comparable store basis to 276.7 mln from 249.0
mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

MCI Communications Corp. called for
immediate federal deregulation of American Telephone and
Telegraph Co., its principal competitor.
    MCI said it will ask the Federal Communications Commission
tomarrow to deregulate ATT in order to let marketplace forces
govern the long distance telephone market.
    "It's time to let the market manage ATT," MCI president Bert
Roberts told a news briefing here.
    MCI has seen its profits shaved recently by ATT long
distance rate reductions ordered by the FCC following the
breakup of the Bell System.
    The MCI move signals its belief that ATT may raise profits
rather than cut rates if deregulated.
    To allay consumers' fears that deregulation might lead to
price increases, Roberts said one alternative open to the FCC
would be adoption of a transitional "price cap" concept.
    Roberts noted that such a plan is backed by FCC
commissioner Dennis Patrick, whose is widely expected to be
named FCC chairman.
    Roberts conceded that ATT's deregulation posed risks to
MCI.
    "The greater risk, however, is continuing the artificial
market environment created by piecemeal FCC deregulation of
ATT."
 Reuter

Seven managers and employees at
General Mining Union Corp Ltd's Kinross Mines Ltd will face
charges of culpable homicide following last year's disaster
when 177 gold miners died, the Attorney General's Office said.
    The mineworkers were killed last September at Kinross when
a fire set off toxic fumes which suffocated miners underground.
    Three of the accused face alternative charges of breaking
safety regulations set out in the Mines and Works Act.
    The spokesman said the case would probably be heard in
Witbank Regional Court, near Kinross, in mid-May.
 Reuter

Western Canada's resource-based economy
is being hurt by international market forces and there is
little Ottawa can do about it, Finance Minister Michael Wilson
said.
    "If you can tell me how we can get the international energy
price up and how we can get the price for copper up and how we
can get the price for wheat up, then we will listen," Wilson
told the House of Comnons Finance Committee.
    Although under pressure from oil companies and wheat
farmers for help in battling depressed commodity prices, Wilson
said it has to be recognized the area was a "prisoner of market
forces outside the boundaries of this country."
    Wilson, appearing before the committee to discuss the
government's spending estimates released earlier this week,
said the government is doing what it can in the region, citing
more than 3.5 billion dlrs in aid for western agriculture.
    "Those resources are a reflection of very real concerns on
our part in dealing with a very difficult problem," Wilson said
in response to questions about management of the economy from
opposition party members.
    He said the long term answer for depressed regions of the
country was reaching a free trade pact with the United States,
which he claimed would improve the outlook for Western Canada.
 Reuter

Ames Department Stores Inc
said sales for the four weeks ended February 28, the firstr
month of its fiscal year, were up 30.4 pct to 113.6 mln dlrs
from 87.1 mln dlrs a year earlier, with same-store sales up
28.6 pct.
 Reuter

Amgen said it has filed
for an offering of two mln common shares, including one mln to
be sold outside the U.S.
    It said U.S. underwriters will be led by PaineWebber Group
Inc <PWJ> and <Montgomery Securities> and PaineWebber will lead
the overseas underwriters.
    Proceeds will be used to fund capital spending and working
capital requirements on the commercialization and further
development of Amgen products.
 Reuter

West German Farm Minister Ignaz Kiechle,
who objected strongly to this week's European Community
agreement to cut milk surpluses, conceded the accord would have
the positive effect of stabilizing prices.
    According to the text of a speech made in the town of
Trudering, near Munich, Kiechle said farmers' earnings would
benefit from more stable prices. He said he had rejected the
agreement because he preferred there to be no change in the
EC's system of intervention. However, an objective analysis of
the accord showed it contained positive elements, he said.
    No formal vote was taken on the EC accord, but a spokesman
for the Agriculture Ministry in Bonn said Kiechle had made it
clear in discussions in Brussels that he did not accept it.
Ireland and Luxembourg were also opposed.
 Reuter

beleagured American farmers and miners.
    With a record trade deficit of 169 billion dlrs last year
and a farm economy in the doldrums, Congress is pressing to
hold back U.S. funds for the World Bank and other development
banks if the money is used to subsidize production or to
produce goods already in oversupply around the world.
    "American tax dollars are being used to subsidize foreign
competition with our producers," Sen. Don Nickles, an Oklahoma
Republican, said in a letter to fellow senators seeking support
for his legislation to limit these loans.
    Nickles and Sen. Steven Symms, a conservative Republican
    Current law requires the United States to vote against such
loans but carries no reprisals if they pass anyway.
Operations, "as a policy matter, we oppose loans for production
    The senators cited a 350 mln dlr World Bank loan made to
low interest rates for agriculture. Baker said the Argentine
loan was "really the only one you can point to and criticize."
    Even with a favorable vote of 65 to 15, the restrictions
were weakened in the final version. Only a provision directing
U.S. officials to vote disapproval was enacted into law.
    This year's proposal, called the Foreign Agricultural
commodities and minerals.
    Also, the recipient countries would have to prove that the
production, marketing and export of the commodities could be
handled without government subsidy.
    Democratic senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland told Baker
at the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, "Many say the
banks are financing competition for American jobs."
    She recommended that the United States use its
participation in debt forgiveness for developing country loans
as a wedge to open markets to U.S. goods.
 Reuter

American Software Inc said its board
declared a three-for-two stock split on Class A and Class B
common shares, payable March 31, record March 16.
    The company said it expects to increase its semiannual
dividend 12.5 pct to six cts per share post-split from eight
cts pre-split.
 Reuter

Comdata Network Inc said
it has entered into a letter of intent with a limited
partnership managed by Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS)
to merge Comdata into a corproration to be formed by WCAS.
    Comdata said in the merger each share of the company's
stock would be converted at the holders election into either 15
dlrs in cash or a combination of 10 dlrs in cash and a unit of
securities including common stock.
    Comdata said the terms are subject to the condition that
WCAS' affiliate investors would own a minimum of 60 pct of the
fully diluted stock of the new entity.
    Comdata said WCAS and its affiliate investors would commit
50 mln dlrs to buy the securities comprising the new entities
units of securities resulting from the merger in the same
proportions and at the same price as the company shareholders.
    Comdata said the move is subject to execution of definitive
agreement and approval by Comdata shareholders as well as
obtaining up to 200 mln dlrs in debt financing.
    WCAS told Comdata it believes that it can get commitments
for this financing.
   
 Reuter

Noel Industries Inc said its board
approved in principle a private placement of 900 units, each
unit consisting of 1,000 dlrs of nine pct senior subordinated
convertible debentures due Marcxh 31, 1991, and 95 warrants to
purchase Noel common.
    The company said chief executive officer Leon Ruchlamer has
supplemented the planned funding with 300,000 dlrs.
    It said the investment package is subject to shareholder
approval and will be presented to its adjourned shareholder
meeting on March 26.
    Noel said proceeds will be used for additional working
capital and expanding its factory in Kingston, Jamaica.
    It said the debentures, which will be priced at 100 pct,
will have interest payable semi-annually and be convertible
into common after April 30, 1987, at seven dlrs a share.
    Each warrant will be exercisable after April 30 at 7.50
dlrs a share, the company added.
    It said holders of 80 pct of the units may request one
registration by the company kof the underlying common shares
any time after Jan 15, 1988. Holders of the debentures and
warrants will also have piggyback registration rights.
 Reuter

Best Buy Co Inc said its sales for
February rose five pct on a comparable-store basis to 20.7 mln
dlrs from 10.4 mln dlrs a year ago.
    It said for the 11 months, sales rose to 213.4 mln dlrs
from 101.2 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    Best Buy said sales for the current period are based on 23
retail facilities compared with 12 retail outlets a year ago.
 Reuter

Federated Department Stores Inc said
sales for the four weeks ended February 28 were up 9.6 pct to
720.0 mln dlrs from 656.8 mln dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Morton-Thiokol Corp will be included in
Standard and Poor's 500 Stock index, effective today, Standard
and Poor's Corp said.
    Trading in Morton-Thiokol stock opened up 4-1/4 at 50 on
turnover of 122,700 shares after
a delayed opening due to an imbalance of orders.
    There are certain funds which base their portfolio on the
500 stocks listed on the index, and the imbalance of orders
reflects those managers adding shares of Morton-Thiokol,
Standard and Poor's said.
    Adding Morton-Thiokol's stock to the 500 index list is a
"minor positive development," analyst Martin Ziegler said,
noting that it brings in new buyers for the shares and gives
the company a higher profile.
    James Arenson at DLJ Securities agreed that
inclusion on the index automatically creates new buyers and
noted it also allows those portfolio managers who could not buy
the stock to purchase shares.
    While Morton-Thiokol's stock opened up much higher, it gave
back some of its gains and is currently trading at 47-3/8, up
1-5/8, a pattern termed, by one analyst, as "typical" when a
company is newly added.
 Reuter

Circuit City Stores Inc said sales
for February were up 33 pct to 67.4 mln dlrs from 50.5 mln dlrs
a year before, with comparabvle store sales up nine pct.
    The company said salesd for its full fiscal year ended
February 28 were up 43 pct to 1.01 billion dlrs from 705.5 mln
dlrs in the prior year, with comparable store sales up 18 pct.
    Circuit City said it expects to report higher earnings for
the fiscal year just ended and expects strong sales and
earnings in the current year.  In fiscal 1986, Circuit City
earned 22.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Carson Pirie Scott and Co said its
February sales increased 18.2 pct to 104.3 mln dlrs from 88.2
    It said each of its business groups - retail foodservice
and lodging and distribution - contributed to the sales gain.
    The Food Service and Lodging Group's sales were up 8.9 pct
after eliminating sales of the Steak 'n Egg Kitchen Restaurant
chain sold Aug 15, 1986.
 Reuter

The Agriculture Department must make
a decision soon on how to change the current U.S. soybean loan
or more soybeans will continue to be forfeited to the
government and foreign soybean production will increase, the
president of the American Soybean Association, ASA, said.
    "The USDA will have to bite the bullet one way or another
... USDA can dodge and dart around it (the soybean loan) as
much as they want, but they have to eventually address this
problem," David Haggard, ASA president, told Reuters.
    USDA is not offering any new soybean loan options, and
Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng has not consulted ASA on the
soybean loan, Haggard said.
    "I don't know if USDA is really very serious about
addressing the soybean loan problem," he said.
    At ASA's annual winter board of directors meeting here, ASA
leaders refused to change their official position on the  loan
-- still calling for income support at 5.02 dlrs.
    The association backs current bills of Rep. Bill Emerson,
R-Mo. and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., which call for either a
5.02 marketing loan or a producer option payment.
    Haggard said he does not know what chances the ASA-backed
proposals have but said, "in all honesty, we do not want to see
the farm bill be torn apart."
    He said if USDA feels it cannot withdraw its opposition to
a market loan, there are still numerous ways the USDA could
change the loan without new legislation.
    Making the loan partially in certificates which would not
have to be paid back would be one option, he said.
 Reuter

Shr 78 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 6.7 mln vs 9.5 mln
    Revs 278 mln vs 290 mln
 Reuter

<Praxis Biologics Inc> said it
Commission for the initial public offering of 1.5 mln shares of
common.
    It said the offering is being managed by Shearson Lehman
Brothers Inc and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    Praxis said it will use the proceeds to fund product
research and development costs and initially will focus on
vaccines for infants and young children.
 Reuter

Consolidated Store Corp said it
purchased two mln square feet of warehouse space on 146 acres
of land adjacent to its present Columbus distribution center of
430,000 square feet on 121 acres.
    The company said the building and lands were acquired from
White Consolidated Industries Inc, an <Electrolux AB>
subsidiary, for 27 mln dlrs through a sale and leaseback.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 2,903,000 vs 1,307,000
    Revs 13.1 mln vs 8,937,000
    Avg shrs 6,877,360 vs 6,874,970
    Nine mths
    Shr 98 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 6,740,000 vs 4,085,000
    Revs 33.9 mln vs 27.8 mln
    Avg shrs 6,875,706 vs 6,605,879
 Reuter

Sterivet Laboratories
Limited said the the National Research Council of Canada is
contributing financing for the development a new drug to treat
a disease of the feet in horses.
    It said the drug has produced promising results in limited
clinical trials over the past 18 months in Ontario.
 Reuter

The Italian treasury said it would offer
3,500 billion lire of short-term treasury bills (BOTs) at rates
slightly lower than the preceding offer in mid-February.
    It said it would offer 1,500 billion lire of six-month
paper priced at 95.35 pct for a net annualised compound yield
of 9.30 pct. Net yield on the preceding issue was 9.46 pct.
    The treasury said it would also offer 2,000 billion lire of
12-month bills at a base price of 91.15 pct for a net annual
yield of 9.05 pct, down from 9.22 pct in mid-February.
    The bills replace maturing paper worth 3,196 billion lire
and subscriptions to the offer close March 10.
 REUTER

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard
Lyng does not intend to discuss a wheat export enhancement
initiative to the Soviet Union at a cabinet-level Economic
Policy Council meeting set for tomorrow, an aide to Lyng said.
    "He (Lyng) does not intend to bring it up," the aide said,
adding that the subsidy offer remains "dormant."
    Lyng plans to spend "about five minutes" reviewing the status
of farm legislation on Capitol Hill before the Economic Policy
Council, which is responsible for guiding the administration's
economic policy, the aide said.
    The USDA secretary met this morning with members of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, but the handful of lawmakers
present did not ask whether the administration intended to
offer Moscow a wheat export bonus, the aide said.
 Reuter

Export Import Bank president John
Bohn said the agency was adopting a new policy of increased
risk coverage and as part of it will adopt a system of
risk-related fees.
    In an address before the Ex-Im's annual bankers conference
Bohn outlined a series of measures designed to bridge the gap
between reduced export lending by commercial banks and
activities by U.S. trading partners.
    Bohn said the bank will be more selective in requiring
soverign guarantees and will consider well-conceived projects
"even if they do not earn foreign exchange."
    He said the Exim will operate four broad programs after May
1. They are short-term insurance, a direct loan program that
will be available for both medium and long-term transactions, a
guarantee program and intermediary funding program.
    For medium-term guarantees, Bohn said Exim will increase
exporter coverage for commercial risks from the 85 pct
currently to 98 pct.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp said it agreed to
sell <Bankhaus Centrale Credit AG>, its German consumer banking
subsidiary, and German credit card operations to <Banco de
Santander> of Spain.
    Terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in
the second quarter, the bank holding company said.
    Bankhaus Centrale Credit, with 31 branches, had total
assets of 927 mln marks at year-end 1986. The credit card
operation services 115,000 Visa card holders and 35,000
merchants in Germany, it said.
    Reached later, a BankAmerica spokesman said the company
would record a pretax gain of 45 mln dlrs from the
    The spokesman declined, however, to disclose the price paid
for the operations by Banco de Santander or other terms of the
deal.
 Reuter

French official reserves 375.95 billion francs end Jan (421.00 billion end Dec) - official

Shr 30 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 1,211,000 vs 1,428,000
    Revs 1,536,000 vs 1,743,000
    Year
    Shr 1.36 dlrs vs 62 cts
    Net 5,438,000 vs 2,498,000
    Revs 6,567,000 vs 2,971,000
    NOTE: Company began operations after its July 29, 1985
public offering, therefore annual data are not directly
comparable.
 Reuter

NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> said it had agreed with
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd <MC.T> and Nippon Gakki
Co Ltd <NGAK.T> of Japan to jointly produce the components of
the newly developed laser audio-video player.
    Philips last month announced it and Sony Corp <SNE.T> had
developed a world standard for the new combi-player.
    The player will be able to take the three sizes of new
compact disk videos (CDV), which give near perfect sound and
image production, as well as the traditional audio laser discs.
    Yamaha will develop the laser technology, Matsushita the
video specifications and Philips will work on rendering the
player compatible with existing European 50-hertz television
standards, Philips spokeswoman Marijke van Hooren said.
    Each company will assemble and market the product under its
own label, and it is hoped other hardware companies will join
in the marketing of the new product, she said.
    She said there were around 160 companies which hold
licences for the manufacture of CD players.
 Reuter

Shr 79 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 581,915 vs 536,040
    Revs 13.9 mln vs 13.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.28 dlrs vs 3.21 dlrs
    Net 2,413,407 vs 2,360,048
    Revs 54.9 mln vs 54.2 mln
 Reuter

Ryder System Inc said it has acquired
Caledonian Airmotive Ltd from <British Caledonian Group PLC>
for undisclosed terms.
    Caledonian Airmotive repairs and rebuilds aircraft engines.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co said its
sales for the four weeks ended February 28 rose 15 pct to 631.8
mln dlrs from 549.5 mln dlrs a year ago.
    On a comparable-store basis, it was a 9.4 pct gain.
 Reuter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said
February sales were up 44 pct to 885 mln dlrs from 615 mln dlrs
a year before, with same-store sales up 14 pct.
 Reuter

Swedish tyres, process equipment and
components firm <Trelleborg AB> said it was taking a larger
stake in mining and metals concern Boliden AB <BLDS.ST> than it
had originally intended.
    Trelleborg had previously announced it was exercising an
option to acquire up to 65 pct of Boliden's voting rights.
    In a statement, the company said they had received offers
of up to 68 pct of the rights, and that they would accept all.
 Reuter

Shares of Polaroid Corp rose following
a reiterated recommendation by Merrill Lynch and Co that
focused on strong earnings momentum for the company, traders
said.
    "We have been recommending the stock since it was in the
50s, but we reiterated today because of expectations of strong
earnings momentum, its benefits from the lower dollar and
anticipation of nice gains in margins," Merrill Lynch
analyst Charles Ryan said. He said a negative opinion by
another brokerage house hurt the stock Wednesday, and it can be
bought at a relatively bargain price today.
    Ryan said "you always have to look at Polaroid at its
weakness. Its a volatile stock that has to be caught on
weakness." Polaroid's stock, which gained more than a point
early this morning, was trading at 76-1/8, up 5/8. It was down
over three points Wednesday morning before closing down 7/8.
    "Polaroid is working overtime on production of cameras and
film, so we expect first quarter earnings to be up about 40
pct," Ryan said, estimating earnings of 70 cts a share in the
first quarter compared to 52 cts a share earned a year earlier.
He expects the company to earn four dlrs a share in 1987 as
compared to 3.34 dlrs a share last year.

 Reuter

Profit after net financial items
    500 mln crowns vs 359 mln
    Sales 10.90 billion crowns vs 10.72 billion
    Proposed dividend 12.50 crowns vs 10.50 crowns
 REUTER

French official reserves fell 45.06
billion francs to 375.95 billion at the end of January from
421.00 billion at the end of December, the Finance Ministry
said in a statement.
    It said the fall was largely due to sales of foreign
currency that preceded the January 11 realignment of the
European Monetary System (EMS).
    Foreign currency reserves fell by 8.91 billion francs
during the month, the ministry said.
    This reflected outflows of 10.26 billion francs through
operations of the French exchange stabilisation fund,
counterbalanced by a gain of 1.35 billion francs resulting from
the quarterly adjustment in the value of dollar deposits held
with the European Monetary Cooperation Fund (FECOM).
    But most of the decline reflected a 33.90 billion franc
deficit that France built up during the month with FECOM as a
result of using very short-term financing instruments.
    The Bank of France, in conjunction with the Bundesbank and
other central banks, intervened heavily in foreign exchange
markets between late December and the January 11 EMS accord, in
an attempt to hold down the mark, which was attracting a flight
of funds from the dollar, and simultaneously shore up the
franc.
    On January 11, the mark was revalued by three pct against
the French franc, relieving pressure on the French currency.
    The fall in foreign exchange reserves took these reserves
to 98.83 billion francs at the end of January from 107.74
billion at end December.
    Gold reserves were unchanged at 218.45 billion francs.
    Reserves of European Currency Units fell to 73.25 billion
francs from 75.27 billion at end December.
    Claims on the International Monetary Fund fell 219 mln
francs to 19.31 billion francs.
 REUTER

Mars Stores Inc said sales for
the four weeks ended February 28 were off 1.6 pct to 6,307,096
dlrs from 6,411,103 dlrs a year earlier.
    The company said sales were hurt this year by store
closings caused by snowstorms.
 Reuter

Oper shr 22 cts vs 20 cts
    Oper net 1,153,000 vs 1,068,000
    Revs 15.7 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr 38 cts vs 38 cts
    Oper net 2,039,000 vs 2,051,000
    Revs 31.4 mln vs 31.6 mln
    NOTE: exlcudes 145,000 discontinued operations for 1986
oper net for six mths for sale of electronics division.
    Oper shr for qtr and six mths 1986 adjusted for stock split
and dividend distribution in November.
 Reuter

General Refractories Co said it
agreed to sell its European refractories and building products
operations for about 62 mln dlrs to an Austrian investor group.
    The European operations had sales of 186 mln dlrs in 1985,
the last year for which results have been released, the company
said.
    The sale, to a group headed by Girozentrale Bank of
Austria, is subject to shareholder approval by April 24, 1987,
it said. Its board has approved the deal, it said.
    General Refractories' mineral operations are not affected.
 Reuter

Brazil has no set target for
its coffee exports following this week's breakdown of
International Coffee Organization talks on export quotas,
President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, IBC, Jorio Dauster
said.
    He told a press conference Brazil now had to reconsider its
export plans and that the 15.5 mln bag export figure which it
had proposed for itself earlier should no longer be taken as
the country's export target to ICO-member countries.
    The 15.5 mln bag offer had been made on the assumption an
agreement would bring stability to world markets, he added.
    It had been a gesture to ease negotiations, but the lack of
an agreement leaves it no longer valid and exports could be
above or below 15.5 mln bags, he said.
    Dauster said he would talk to producers, exporters and
market analysts before taking any decision on export policy,
but any future policy would be flexible and adjusted to market
conditions.
    "We will not take any short-term decisions which might cause
markets to panic," Dauster added.
    He said it would be a policy which shows Brazil has coffee
to sell and that it could do so without an ICO agreement.
    "Brazil has coffee (to sell) and wants to show that it does
not need an ICO agreement as a crutch," Dauster said.
    Commenting on the breakdown of the talks, Dauster said
consumer proposals would have implied a reduction of one to two
mln bags in Brazil's export quotas.
    "It was a proposal which would lead to a substantial loss
for Brazil and which would be difficult for the country to
recover," he said.
    The consumer proposal to base quotas on a six-year moving
average of exportable production surpluses would lead to
overproduction as countries boosted output to win higher
quotas, he said.
    Dauster rejected reports which said Brazil's inflexibility
had been the cause for the breakdown of talks, noting that its
stance had the backing of 85 pct of producing countries.
    Close links would continue with these producers,
particularly Colombia, Mexico and Francophone African
countries, but Dauster said no joint marketing action was
envisaged at present.
    He also said Brazil currently had no plans to return to a
system of roaster buying contracts, although "no hypothesis has
been abandoned."
    Dauster said he had not yet decided when registrations for
May shipment coffee will be opened.
    He declined comment on whether the IBC will adopt a policy
of opening registrations for up to six months in advance, as
some exporters had suggested.
    He noted export registrations for the first four months of
the year totalled around 5.5 mln bags, more than half the 9.9
mln exported in 1986 when drought reduced the crop to between
11.2 mln and 12 mln bags.
    He said that, although he had heard forecasts of 30 mln
bags for the coming crop, the IBC would not make any estimate
until late April.
 Reuter

Kidder Peabody and Co analyst Roy Burry
issued a strong buy recommendation on Pepsico Inc, citing an
improved profit outlook for both domestic soft drinks and
Frito-Lay snack foods.
    Pepsico climbed 7/8 to 34-3/4 on 615,000 shares by
midmorning.
    Burry forecast earnings of 2.00 dlrs per share in 1987 and
2.30 dlrs in 1988. In 1986 the company earned 1.75 dlrs per
share. Burry previously had a sell recommendation on Pepsico.
"We're looking at 10 to 15 pct earnings growth for Frito-lay in
1987, a trend that should continue through the decade."
 Reuter

Britain appeared set for a new cash row
with its European Community partners as evidence emerged that
it could be much worse off as a result of new proposals to
radically alter the way the EC is financed.
    Analysis by officials and diplomats of proposals released
yesterday by the EC's executive Commission showed their full
impact, were they in force this year, would have left Britain
worse off by 545 mln European Currency Units.
    The proposals have to be agreed unanimously by member
government after a debate expected to open next month.
    The Commission said they were necessary to prevent the EC
from sliding once again into bankruptcy, and has described the
current financing system as unfair and unacceptable.
    British dissatisfaction with the cost of EC membership has
long been a source of friction, and diplomats said the
proposals could well reopen the wound.
    This was despite a proposed correction of Britain's budget
contribution to reflect its inability to take full advantage of
the EC's farm subsidies system because of the relatively small
size of its agricultural sector.
    Diplomats said although other nations such as Italy,
Belgium and the Netherlands were certain to oppose elements in
the system which could also substantially increase their own EC
payments, the main opposition was expected from Britain.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has made clear in recent
statements that she is not prepared to abandon the present
system, under which Britain is refunded two-thirds of its net
payments to the EC, unless a fairer system is devised.
    The diplomats said Thatcher was unlikely to consider the
proposed system as fair.
    The Commission's proposals would base a state's
contribution on its gross national product, which the
commission says is a fairer measurement reflecting relative
wealth.
    The main element of the previous system was a share of
value added tax collected in member states.
    The mechanism to compensate Britain for its inability to
take up a higher proportion of EC farm expenditure will have to
be paid for by the other 11 states.
    The Commission has also proposed to end repayments to all
states of a service charge paid to them for collecting customs
duties on behalf of the EC.
 REUTER

Securities and Exchange Commission
chairman John Shad said progress was being made in stopping
insider trading, but the chairman of a House subcommittee with
jurisdiction over securities laws said he was concerned about
conditions on Wall Street.
    "Greed has created a feeding frenzy on Wall Street and in
the process laws are broken and multi-billion dlr corporations
have become easy prey," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass, the
chairman of the Telecommunications and Finance said at the
start of a hearing on SEC activities.
    "Congress is understandably nervous. We perceive the
current scandals as a warning of even worse things to come,"
Markey said. "The frenzy and disruption created by merger mania
is particularly distressing."
    Shad said the recent cases involving Ivan Boesky, Dennis
Levine and others was a warning that those who engage in
insider trading were taking a heavy risk of imprisonment, high
fines and disbarment from the securities industry.
    "Insider trading has not been eradicated, but it has been
inhibited and multimillions of dollars of profits that Boesky
and others have been siphoning off the markets are now flowing
through to legitimate investors and traders," Shad said in his
    Shad said insider trading cases involved only 10 pct or
less of SEC enforcement actions in recent years but they have
increased significantly to 125 cases brought during the past
five years compared to 77 cases in the preceeding 47 years.
    Markey said he did not favor banning takeovers but thought
the tender offer process needed reform including earlier
disclosure of takeover attempts.
    N.J. Rep. Mathew Rinaldo, the senior subcommittee
Republican, said he was introducing legislation to create a
five member commission to study the securities industry for a
year and report its findings and recommendations to Congress.
Commission members would be appointed by the SEC.
    "Its primary mission would be to analyze the extent of
illegal trading on insider trading and to assess the adequacy
of existing surveillance systems and government oversight
operations. The commission would advise Congress as to what
additional resources or civil or criminal remedies are needed
to combat fraud and improve compliance with federal laws,"
Rinaldo said.
 Reuter

The World Bank is issuing a
multicurrency financing package totalling 232 mln U.S. Dlrs,
coordinator DG Bank Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank said.
    The package includes a 250 mln mark five year straight
eurobond with a 5-3/8 pct coupon priced at par, led by DG.
    The bond, which is a private placement, matures on March
17, 1992. It will be listed in Frankfurt beginning in May, with
no precise date yet specified. Denominations are 5,000 and
50,000 marks. Details of fees were not immediately available.
    The package also includes a five year 100 mln guilder
eurobond with a 5-3/4 pct coupon priced at par.
    The Dutch guilder issue will be led by Rabobank Nederland.
    The third bond in the package is a seven year, five billion
yen bond with a 4.95 pct coupon priced at par, led by The
Norinchukin Bank.
    The package also includes a 25 mln Swiss franc 10-year
credit agreement, with interest at 4-7/8 pct, underwritten by
Swiss Volksbank, DG said.
 REUTER

Moseley Holdings Corp <MOSE> said an
offering of 1,700,000 common shares of NEECO Inc is under way
at 18.25 dlrs each.
    The company is selling 1,200,000 of the shares and
shareholders the rest.  The shareholders have granted
underwriters an overallotment option to buy up to 255,000 more
shares.
 Reuter

OPEC output in February was "well below"
the 15.8 mln bpd ceiling it set in December and all countries
are strictly adhering to their quotas, the OPEC news agency
Opecna quoted an OPEC secretariat official as saying.
    The official was quoted as saying that lower output was the
result "of member countries' firm determination to defend the
organisation's official price of 18 dlrs per barrel, and to
refrain from selling any quantity below that price."
    The unnamed official was further quoted as saying that no
OPEC meeting was foreseen before the next biannual OPEC session
planned to start on June 25.
    The official gave no figure for February output. The
statement said only that "the reduction in total supplies,
namely actual exports of crude oil and products, plus local
deliveries in member countries, is even more pronounced as
those supplies fell very noticeably during that month."
    "No matter what the pressure on member countries by lifters
to align the official selling price to the ongoing market
price, member countries are, without exception, strictly
adhering to the official selling price in spite of the
financial hardship this may entail," the statement said.
    "The very recent improvement in the price structure is an
indicator of such determination by the organization to stick to
the official selling price," the statement said.
    Free spot market prices rose from around 14.50 dlrs a
barrel in early December last year to near OPEC's official
levels towards the end of the year, after the OPEC pact.
    There has been oil industry speculation that OPEC might
have to hold an extraordinrary meeting prior to its scheduled
June session to discuss reports of overproduction by some
states and strains on the differential matrix, which prices
each OPEC crude according to its quality and distance from main
markets.
    The official said in the statement that no such emergency
session was scheduled "because of member countries' firm
determination to defend the price (system)" agreed in December.
    Opec"s differential committee was to have met in Vienna
starting April 2 but this session has been postponed, with no
new date set, according to an official of the United Arab
Emirates, which chairs the seven-state body.
    Other members are Algeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya,
Nigeria and Qatar.
 REUTER

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE 1ST QTR SHARE BASIC 61 CTS VS 64 CTS

Perkin-Elmer Corp said it
acquired <Atomika Technische Physik>, based in Munich, West
Germany, a high technology concern specializing in surface
science instruments.
    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
    It said Atomika will became a part of its Physical
Electronics Division, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., The
division is part of its Materials Surface Technology Group.
 Reuter

Heck's Inc said it has filed for
protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal
bankruptcy act.
    The company said its wholly owned wholesale subsidiaries,
its Maloney's subsidiary and its discount drug store operation
are not included in the filing.
    Heck's said it made the filing because its bank lending
group failed to renew on acceptable terms a credit agreement
that expired February 28.
    It said the 12 banks provided about 50 mln dlrs in credit
lines to Heck's, representing all its short-term borrowings.
    Heck's said some of the banks have demanded repayment.
    The company said another reason for the filing was a
developing shortage in merchandise as suppliers reacted to the
breakdown in bank support.
    Heck's said two representatives of the bank group, Charles
B. Gates Jr. and Walter B. Dial Jr., have left its board.
    Heck's said it is exploring, with its investment banker,
the possibility of selling all or parts of the company.
    It said the filing will allow it to work out arrangements
with suppliers for the delivery of merchandise while permitting
it to continue its previously-announced programs of
cost-cutting and the paring of operations.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Transportation
said it gave final approval to USAir Group's proposed 400 mln
dlr acquisition of Pacific Southwest Airlines.
    The department said the acquisition is not likely to
substantially lessen competition and would not harm the public
interest.
    The department had given its tentative approval of the
acquisition in January.
    The department said it decided to make final its tentative
decision after reviewing the public response to it.
    The agency said it rejected an assertion by Air North
America, which currently is not operating but plans to start
service to some of the cities served by USAIR and PSA, that the
acquisition would lessen chances of new entry into those
markets by other carriers.
    The agency said Air North America provided no support for
its claim that the transaction would give the two carriers
monopoly power in some markets.
    The transportation agency said Air North America also
failed to show that there are barriers that would prevent new
entrants into those markets or prevent other carriers from
increasing their service.
    The agency noted in its final order that PSA operates
exclusively in the West and Mexico while USAir serves the West
for the most part with some long-haul flights from the East and
Midwest.
    The two carriers serve five point in common; Los Angeles,
San Diego, San Francico, Phoenix and Tucsonm, the agency said.
     The transportation department also rejected a request by
the Teamsters Union, which represents some PSA workers, to
require protections for PSA workers.
    The agency noted that USAir has promised to give protective
benefits to PSA workers and that unions representing PSA
workers have collective bargaining agreements that provide such
protections.
 Reuter

Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc said
its subsidiary BBN Advanced Computers Inc sold approximately
700,000 dlrs worth of its Butterfly parallel processors to
Indiana University, MITRE Corp, FMC Corp and the Naval Research
Laboratory.
    Among the uses for the system are graphics, development of
genetic algorithms for solving complex combinational problems,
and artificial intelligence applications, the company said.
 Reuter

MCI Communications Corp President
Bert Roberts said he expects MCI's financial performance to
improve in the current quarter compared to the previous
quarter.
    He said American Telephone and Telegraph Co long-distance
rate cuts had cut into MCI's fourth quarter performance but
added: "There's going to be a continuing impact (on profits) but
we expect this quarter to be better than the fourth quarter."
    The current quarter ends March 31.
    For the fourth quarter, MCI reported a 448 mln dlr loss,
due mainly to write-offs and staff reductions.
    Roberts said the ATT long-distance rate reductions, which
had been ordered by the Federal Communications Commission have
had "A significantly negative impact on our profits."
    As reported earlier today, MCI said it plans to ask the FCC
to immediately deregulate ATT, apparently in hopes that an
unregulated ATT would pocket a greater proportion of its
revenues rather than cut rates further.
 Reuter

P.A.M. Transportation Services
Inc said president and board member Robert Weaver resigned to
pursue other interests.
    The company said its board elected chairman Paul Maestri to
the additional post of president.
 Reuter

Personal taxation has emerged as the
major economic issue in Finnish general elections later this
month, and Conservative gains could mark a shift towards
indirect taxation and accelerate moves towards more
market-oriented banking practices, economists say.
    Opinion polls indicate the Conservative Party, Finland's
second largest, may gain enough clout after the elections to
join a coalition government which is still likely to be
dominated by the Social Democrats of Prime Minister Kalevi
Sorsa.
    But the economists point out that Conservative economic
policies differ only slightly from the governments', and that
trade with the Soviet Union will not be affected.
    Helsinki bankers said a new government, including the
Conservatives for the first time in 20 years, could bring about
a shift from direct to indirect taxation.
    The present coalition of Social democrats and Centrists has
embarked on a tax reform programme to cut marginal taxation,
which is up to 75 pct in the highest income scales. The
opposition has also called for reforms, but they differ over
how to regain lost state revenues.
    One Conservative favoured possibility is abolishing tax
exemption on interest from bank deposits and government bonds.
    Hannu Halttunen, of Helsinki bank Kansallis-Osake-Pankki
(KOP), told Reuters "We want to be more free in setting interest
rates and in creating different deposits to suit the individual
investors. If tax on interest is introduced, then we prefer a
system with taxation of real interest gains."
    Under present laws, bank customers are exempted from tax on
interest when banks jointly set interest rates. Bankers said
this had encouraged cartel-style banking and was hindering
tougher inter-bank competition.
    A London-based Nordic banking expert said liberalisation
was too strong a word to use in a Finnish context, but a
Conservative presence could dislodge traditional practices.
    "It would probably result in new practices that have been
seen elsewhere for a few years growing rather more quickly in
Finland," he said, in a reference to money market instruments.
    All parties, especially the Conservatives, have been
careful to avoid making Finnish-Soviet trade an election issue.
Moscow is Finland's largest trading partner. Until a few years
ago the Conservative Party was seen as anti-communist, but has
now moderated its stance, political analysts say.
    Trade between Helsinki and Moscow is based on a barter
system, and is balanced under long-term accords.
    In January the two countries signed a 1987 agreement worth
30 billion markka, but trade in the past two years has been
declining due to the fall in the price of crude oil, which
accounts for 80 pct of Finnish imports from the Soviet Union.
    The bankers said taxation had become the major economic
theme of the campaign because there were few other issues.
    Inflation was 3.4 pct in 1986, compared with 5.9 pct in
1985, and unemployment has increased slightly from 6.1 pct of
the workforce in 1985 to last year's levels of 6.7 pct.
    The Social democrats in 1986 doubled the country's foreign
trade surplus compared with 1985, from 2.50 billion markka to
5.04 billion markka.
    Opinion polls say Sorsa's Social Democrats will remain the
largest party in the 200-seat Parliament, with some 26 pct of
the vote. They currently hold 57 seats.
    The Centre Party, the other major coalition partner, is
also expected to hold on to its 37 seats.
    But increased Conservative support and a decline for the
Communists could make force Sorsa to allow the Conservatives
into government. They currently hold 44 seats.
 REUTER

Net 5,521,000 vs NA
    Revs 358.1 mln vs 359.0 mln
    Year
    Net 55.3 mln vs NA
    Revs 1.43 billion vs 1.34 billion
    NOTE: Current year includes earnings of 49.6 mln dlrs for
the four months ended April 30, 1986. Year-ago earnings not
comparable because of acquisition by Aancor Holdings Inc on
April 29, 1986.
 Reuter

Salomon Inc's TMC Mortgage Securities I
Plc unit is issuing 200 mln stg floating rate mortgage-backed
notes priced at par, said Salomon Brothers International as
co-lead manager.
    S.G. Warburg Securities is the other co-lead manager.
    The securities are priced at 25 basis points over the three
month London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), payable quarterly.
They are payable March 31.
    Salomon said it expects the securities to receive a AA
rating from Standard and Poor's Corp.
    The mortgages in the pool are endowment-linked residential
mortgage loans and the entire pool is insured by Sun Alliance
and London Insurance Plc.
    The notes will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
    Combined management and underwriting fees are 50 basis
points.
 REUTER

Sears, Roebuck and Co said revenues of
its Merchandise Group in February rose 4.9 pct to 1.85 billion
dlrs from 1.76 billion dlrs a year ago.
    It said domestic sales were led by better than average
increases in apparel, home fashions and hardware.
 Reuter

Results for year 1986 -
    Group pre-tax profit 385 mln crowns vs 380 mln
    Net turnover 14.17 billion crowns vs 16.69 billion
    Dividend eight pct vs nil
    Group profit after tax 16 mln crowns vs 244 mln
 Reuter

Tokheim Corp said its Advanced
Products and Electronics Division reached a four-year
manufacturing and marketing agreement with TechVend, a New
Jersey-based company which has developed a credit card
activated video cassette rental machine.
    It said the agreement could contribute "significantly" to
the growth of Tokheim
    It said deliveries of the devices are expected to begin in
the fall.
 Reuter

<General Videotex Corp> said it
added Investment Technologies Co's VESTOR on-line stock market
analysis database to its DELPHI network service.
    It said the VESTOR service will be available on Delphi
within 30 days.
 Reuter

The White House said a tax increase
is not needed to reduce the federal budget deficit.
    "We think that's certainly unnecessary. We are opposed to
tax increases," spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
    House Speaker Jim Wright told Budget Committee Democrats
Wednesday he would fight for a tax increase this year to reduce
the deficit.
    Fitzwater said the administration believed its budget would
show the way to get the deficit down without a tax rise "and
that's our course."
 Reuter

Best Products Inc said sales for
the four weeks ended February 28 were off 12.7 pct to 111.3 mln
dlrs from 127.6 mln dlrs a year before, excluding sales from
catalog stores and Ashby's Ltd outlets that were closed or sold
last year.
    The company said in an effort to improve gross margins, it
significantly cut promotional activity in February from a year
earlier.  In addition, it said it distributed its spring
catalog nationwide in February last year and will distribute it
in March this year.
 Reuter

Pirelli UK International Finance BV is
issuing a 50 mln stg eurobond due April 9, 1992 paying 10 pct
and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Barclays De Zoete Wedd
Ltd.
    The non callable issue is available in denominations of
10,000 and 1,000 stg and will be listed in Luxembourg. The
payment date April 9, 1987.
    The selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while management pays
1/4 pct and underwriting  3/8 pct.
 REUTER

Dayton Hudson Corp said sales for
the four weeks ended February 28 increased 10.8 pct on a
comparable-store basis to 601.8 mln dlrs from 503.8 mln dlrs a
year ago.
    It called the pace of February's sales "encouraging, with
strength evident in all companies."
 Reuter

<Besicorp Group Inc> said it
reached an agreement with <LCP Chemicals and Plastics Inc> to
develop an 80 megawatt cogeneration station at LCP's facility
in Syracuse N.Y., in a project estimated to require about 50
mln dlrs in financing.
    Under the agreement, it said a standard power sale
agreement is expected to be entered into with Niagara Mohawk
Power Corp <NMK> for the sale of electrical power output.
    Besicrop said it is developing the project with <Kamine
Engineering and Mechanical Contracting <Inc>, and both
companies will retain long-term interests in the project.
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 1.9 mln vs 800,000
    Revs 17.6 mln vs 12.8 mln
 Reuter

Period ended January 31
    Shr 61 cts vs 64 cts
    Shr diluted 60 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 96.5 mln vs 87.0 mln
    Loans 44.87 billion vs 48.07 billion
    Deposits 69.86 billion vs 68.45 billion
    Assets 83.92 billion vs 78.93 billion
    Note: shr after preferred dividends
 Reuter

Satellite Auction Network Inc <SATL>
said its wholly owned unit, Premier Auction Services, has
booked over nine mln dlrs in direct auction equipment for March
and April, 1987, versus between six and seven mln dlrs in the
same period in 1986.
    In addition Satellite Auction said it expects the unit's
auction operations to generate over 50 mln in sales in 1987,
matching the unit's sales when it was under the aegis of ITT
Auction Services Corp, a unit of ITT Corp <ITT>.
    Satellite Auction assumed the operations, contract and
personnel of the unit from ITT in February.
 Reuter

Triumph Capital Inc said it has signed a
letter of intent to acquire First Securities Transfer Systems
Inc of Pompano Beach, Fla., for undisclosed terms.
    The company said it is also entering the commercial finance
business through the formation of Triumph Financial corp.
    It said the new wholly-owned unit has extended a 350,000
dlr secured line of credit to Micro Designs Inc.
 Reuter

Systems Strategies Inc, a unit of AGS
Computers Inc, said International Business Machines Corp <IBM>
has licensed five of its Systems Network Architecture and
Binary Synchronous software packages.
    Systems said it modified the software to run on the IBM
4361 under the IX/370 operating system.
 Reuter

    Pay April Six
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is not expected to
intervene in the U.S. government securities market to add or
drain reserves, economists said.
    Most economists said they did not expect the Fed to add
reserves with Federal funds trading below six pct.
    They said the funds rate's softer tone may indicate that
the need to add reserves in the current bank reserve
maintenance period is smaller than previously estimated.
    Fed funds opened at 5-15/16 pct and remained at that level.
Yesterday funds averaged 6.01 pct.
 Reuter

House Speaker James Wright said
President Reagan should realize that there will be no way to
meet the deficit reduction targets in the 1988 budget without a
tax increase.
    "In my judgment there isn't any way to achieve the commanded
reductions in the deficit without some additional revenue," the
Texas Democrat told reporters before the opening of the House
session.
    Wright said the Democrats intended to make the additional
tax burden fairer than was Reagan's plan for 22 billion dlrs in
additional revenues in the 1988 budget.
    "It's not a question of whether new revenue is needed, it's
a question of who has to pay," Wright said.
    He has opposed deficit reduction proposals included in
Reagan's budget which would raise fees on medicare recipients,
tax black lung benefits and reduce tax breaks for home
purchases.
    Wright has sought to delay the 1988 income tax rate cut but
has said other options such as a tax on securities transfers
were merely floated as possible deficit reduction alternatives.
    "There has to be a recognition of reality," he said.
 Reuter

Ltd.
 Reuter

Bell Petroleum Services Inc said
Regal International Inc has doubled its offer for Bell stock to
one Regal share for each Bell share from half a share
previously.
    The company said it is seriously considering the new offer
but has also received an expression of interest for a possible
merger into a Fortune 500 company it did not identify that will
be investigated at meetings to be held later this week.
    It said it will explore all possibilities before
recommending a final course of action.
 Reuter

AZP Group Inc said its subsidiary
Arizona Publc Service will redeem on June 1, 1987, all of its
outstanding shares of its 3.58 dlr cummulative preferred stock
Series O, 25 dlr par value.
    The redemption price will be 27.39 dlrs per share, plus
occurred dividends in accordiance with its terms of the orignal
offering, the company said. The company issued two mln shars of
the stock in May 1982.
    Retiring the series at the first call date will save the
compnay and its customers about three mln dlrs annually in 
financing costs, said the company.
 Reuter

Duke Power Co is raising 100 mln dlrs
through an offering of first and refunding mortgage bonds due
1997 yielding 7.663 pct, said lead manager Morgan Stanley.
    Morgan led a syndicate that won the bonds at competitive
bidding. It bid them at 98.403 and set a 7-1/2 pct coupon and
reoffering price of 98.875 to yield 55 basis points more than
comparable Treasury paper.
    Non-refundable for five years, the issue is rated Aa-2 by
Moody's and AA-minus by S and P. On June 12, 1986, the utility
sold 125 mln dlrs of same-rated nine-year securities priced to
yield 8.54 pct, or 58 basis points over Treasuries.
 Reuter

EQK Green Acres LP said cash
flow for the first 126 days of its operation, ended December
31, was 34.2 cts per unit, three cts p*er unit over budget.
 Reuter

Qtly div 26-1/4 cts vs 25 cts prior
    Pay Aug 14
    Record June 30
 Reuter

Enviropact Inc said it purchased two
facilities in Miami and Tampa, Fla.
    In Miami, its said it bought a 1.9 acre lot with a 12,500
square foot facility for 545,000 dlrs. In Tampa, it said it
bought a 13,000 square foot facility for 440,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Ogden Corp said a unit won approval
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to test a bed
combuster, a device that burns some hazardous wastes under
highly controlled conditions.
    The company said the approval will allow its Ogden
Environmental Services unit to operate a pilot scale model of
the device, test the results, and fine tune the instrument to
burn a number of wastes. Testing begins at the end of March.
    The wastes include contaminated soils, chlorinated solvents
such as carbon tetrachloride, non-chlorinated solvents like
toluene, and distillation residues, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs profit 15 cts
    Net loss 10,863 vs profit 176,344
    Revs 672,073 vs 766,066
    Year
    Shr loss seven cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 77,804 vs loss 16,627
    Revs 1,717,810 vs 1,317,402
 Reuter

A study of salmonella poisoning has
uncovered new evidence that the common practice of feeding
antibiotics to cattle is helping to create deadly bacteria that
can infect humans and resist medicines.
    Researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control
tracked the spread of an unusual strain of salmonella that is
resistant to the drug chloramphenicol and were able to link the
resulting food poisoning to farms that used the drug to promote
the growth of cattle.
    Cattlemen often give their animals a constant supply of
antibiotics in feed to help them grow faster. But critics have
been warning for years that the constant exposure to the drugs
is helping bacteria learn to resist the drugs.
    Industry officials have disputed this, saying the diseases
that develop a resistance in cattle probably do not affect
humans.
    But the new study, reported in Thursday's New England
Journal of Medicine, shows the diseases can spread to humans.
    The research team, led by Dr. John Spika, said the number
of people who have developed the chloramphenicol-resistant
infection in Los Angeles County alone jumped from 69 in 1984 to
298 the following year. Two of those victims died and half the
victims in their study of 45 patients had to be hospitalized
for their illness.
    They also discovered that cooking the meat didn't always
prevent the disease. Only 15 pct of the victims reported eating
raw, infected hamburger. Thus, the researchers concluded, "the
majority of cases appear to have been caused by eating
hamburger that was at least partially cooked."
    The researchers said the results show that "food animals are
a major source of antimicrobial-resistant salmonella infections
in humans, and that these infections are associated with
(antibiotic) use on farms."
 Reuter

EC REJECTS ALL FREE MARKET WHEAT EXPORT  OFFERS AT WEEKLY TENDER - TRADERS

Great American First Savings Bank is
issuing a 15 billion yen eurobond due April 2, 1992 paying five
pct and priced at 101-3/4 pct, lead manager Nikko Securities Co
(Europe) Ltd said.
    The issue is collateralised for 140 to 150 pct by U.S.
Government and federal securities and cash, to aim for a AAA
listing, a Nikko official said.
    The issue is available in denominations of 20 and five mln
yen and will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment date is April
2,  1987. The selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while management
and underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct.
 REUTER

EC AWARDS 123,000 TONNES BARLEY EXPORT  LICENCES AT 138.75 ECUS PER TONNE - TRADERS

French cereal exports through the port of
Rouen fell 6.4 pct to 725,023 tonnes during the period February
1 to 25, from 774,704 for the period February 1 to 26 last
year, trade sources said.
    Main destinations were Saudi Arabia with 158,109 tonnes of
barley, the Soviet Union 147,214 of wheat, Italy 104,704 of
wheat, Spain 91,381 of wheat and maize, China 52,500 of wheat
and Algeria 41,000 of wheat.
    Between February 26 and today, five ships have loaded
137,000 tonnes of cereals, the sources added.
    The 137,000 tonnes comprised 59,500 tonnes of wheat for
China, 53,000 of wheat for the Soviet Union and 24,500 of wheat
for Algeria.
    By this Friday, sources estimated a further 233,600 tonnes
of cereals will have been loaded, comprising 47,000 tonnes of
barley, 78,600 of wheat and 25,000 of rapeseed for the Soviet
Union, 30,000 of wheat for Sri Lanka, 28,000 of wheat for China
and 25,000 of wheat for Poland.
 Reuter

National Convenience Stores Inc said it
expects to report a loss for the third quarter ending March 31
due to continued poor sales in Texas, especially in Houston.
    In last year's third quarter, National Convenience earned
1,788,000 dlrs or eight cts per share, including a gain of
2,883,000 dlrs from the sale of 186 stores to another operator.
 It said the results also included earnings from gasoline
operations of 2,500,000 dlrs or 11 cts per share caused by
unusually high gross margins on gasoline sales of 12.7 cts per
gallon that were caused by rapidly falling oil prices.
    National Convenience said its third quarter is usually weak
due to winter weather.
 Reuter

MARATHON RAISES CRUDE POSTED PRICES 50 CTS A BBL, EFFECTIVE TODAY, WTI AT 17 DLRS/BBL.

A presidential commission that has
been studying oil imports, including their effect on national
security, is to to make its report soon, the White House said.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the panel, set up last
October to examine U.S. oil import needs, would make its report
soon, probably within the next few weeks.
    He said National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci "will wait
until that report is in and then see if there is any special
action needed to be taken in the national security area to
implement it."
 Reuter

Time Management Systems
Software Inc said it will receive 2,400,000 dlrs from
Management Technologies Inc <MTI> in exchange for an equity
position.
    The company said the money will be used to service existing
and pending contracts as well as the overall anticipated growth
    In a separate action, Management Technologies  will acquire
options to purchase enough shares from the personal holdings of
J.W. McKellip, chairman of Time, to become a controlling
shareholder of Time.

 Reuter

U.S. COMMERCE DEPT'S ORTNER SAYS YEN IS 10 OR 15 PCT UNDERVALUED

Texas Air Corp's <TEX> Continental
Airlines said its February load factor fell to 60.3 pct from
62.3 pct in February 1986.
    Revenue passenger miles grew 95.8 pct in February to 2.75
billion from 1.40 billion and 69.7 pct year-to-date to 4.85
billion from 2.86 billion, the company said.
    Available seat miles more than doubled in February to 4.55
billion from 2.25 billion and increased 73 pct in the two
months to 8.17 billion from 4.72 billion.
    The load factor, or percentage of seats filled, fell to
59.4 pct from 60.6 pct in the two months.
 Reuter

International Lease Finance
Corp said it has agreed to lease a new Boeing Co <BA> 757-200
jet and two new McDonnell Douglas <MD> MD-83 jets.
    The company said the value of the combined transactions
totals 71 mln dlrs.
    The Boing jet will be leased to Monarch Airlines Ltd in
five-year, 26-mln-dlr transaction and will be delivered in May,
1987.
    The two McDonnell Douglas jets will be leased to British
Island Airways PLC, in an eight-year, 45-mln-dlr transaction.
They will be delivered in April, 1988, the company said.
 Reuter

U.S. COMMERCE DEPT'S  ORTNER SAYS DOLLAR FAIRLY PRICED AGAINST EUROPEAN CURRENCIES

Shr 77 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 13,843,000 vs 14,478,000
    Sales 374.6 mln vs 368.3 mln
    Avg shrs 18,003,000 vs 19,025,000
    Year
    Shr 2.16 dlrs vs 2.65 dlrs
    Net 39,503,000 vs 51,573,000
    Revs 1.41 billion vs 1.41 billion
    Avg shrs 18,269,000 vs 19,497,000
    NOTE: 1986 period ended February One
    Company changed fiscal yearend to January 31 from October
31. 1986 results were restated to reflect the change.
 Reuter

EC AWARDS EXPORT LICENCES FOR 25,000  TONNES MAIZE - PARIS TRADE.

Salomon Inc said it elected Gerald
Rosenfeld exeuctive vice president and chief financial officer,
succeeding Ray Golden who left January 31 and has since joined
<Trammell Crow Co>.
    Salomon also said Rosenfeld was named to the new position
of chief financial officer of Salomon Brothers, where he will
oversee its financial division of 560 people.
    Rosenfeld joined Salomon in 1979 and has been a member of
Salomon Brothers' merger and acquisitions group. Last year he
became head of Salomon Brothers' Capital commitments committee,
a role he retains.
 Reuter

Sapporo Breweries Ltd of Japan is issuing
100 mln Swiss francs of five year notes with a 4-5/8 pct coupon
and 100-1/4 issue price, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Fuji Bank.
    Payment is due March 17.
 REUTER

Zambian copper production rose 3.2 pct to
113,275 tonnes in fourth quarter 1986 from 109,767 in the same
1985 period but sales fell 18.7 pct to 119,967 tonnes from
147,537, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, ZCCM, said.
    A spokesman for the government-controlled mining company
said the country's cobalt production fell 24 pct to 879 tonnes
over the same period, while cobalt sales rose 92 pct to 1,734
tonnes. He did not give figures for the fourth quarter of 1985.
    Lead production fell 22.9 pct to 1,670 tonnes from 2,165
and zinc production dropped 14 pct to 4,830 tonnes, he added.
    ZCCM, which monopolises copper mining in Zambia and
accounts for about 90 pct of the country's foreign exchange
earnings, made a net loss of 718 mln kwacha in 1986 compared
with a net profit of 19 mln kwacha the previous year.
    The 1986 losses were after taking into account net interest
payments of 426 mln kwacha, an exchange loss of 412 mln kwacha
and taxes of 235 mln kwacha.
 Reuter

Strong winds and high seas
today closed Alexandria, Egypt's biggest port, and an oil
pipeline terminal nearby, officials said.
    Facilities of the Suez-Mediterranean Arab Petroleum
Pipelines Company at Sidi Kreir, 32 km southeast of Alexandria,
were closed this morning after one tanker loaded and sailed.
    Officials said that five other tankers were waiting outside
the terminal for conditions to improve.
 Reuter

    Revs 12.1 mln vs 5,993,000
    Year
    NOTE: Current qtr includes gain of 1.1 mln dlrs from tax
benefit.
 Reuter

Aceto Corp said its board authorized an
extension of a stock buyback program for three years until May
1990.
    The 200,000 share repurchase program, initially authorized
in May 1984, was due to expire May 1987. Since its inception,
the company said it has repurchased 35,957 shares.
 Reuter

Commerce Dept. undersecretary of
economic affairs Robert Ortner said that he believed the dollar
at  current levels was fairly priced against most European
currencies.
    In a wide ranging address sponsored by the Export-Import
Bank, Ortner, the bank's senior economist also said he believed
that the yen was undervalued and could go up by 10 or 15 pct.
    "I do not regard the dollar as undervalued at this point
against the yen," he said.
    On the other hand, Ortner said that he thought that "the yen
is still a little bit undervalued," and "could go up another 10
or 15 pct."
    In addition, Ortner, who said he was speaking personally,
said he thought that the dollar against most European
currencies was "fairly priced."
    Ortner said his analysis of the various exchange rate
values was based on such economic particulars as wage rate
differentiations.
    Ortner said there had been little impact on U.S. trade
deficit by the decline of the dollar because at the time of the
Plaza Accord, the dollar was extremely overvalued and that the
first 15 pct decline had little impact.
    He said there were indications now that the trade deficit
was beginning to level off.
    Turning to Brazil and Mexico, Ortner made it clear that it
would be almost impossible for those countries to earn enough
foreign exchange to pay the service on their debts.  He said
the best way to deal with this was to use the policies outlined
in Treasury Secretary James Baker's debt initiative.
 Reuter

The European Community's cereal
management committee rejected all bids to export free market
soft wheat at today's weekly tender, traders said.
    The committee awarded 123,000 tonnes of free market barley
export licences at a maximum export refund of 138.75 Ecus per
tonne.

Zayre Corp said sales for the
four weeks ended February 28 were up 25.7 pct to 327.0 mln dlrs
from 260.2 mln dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Corning Glass Works' subsidiary
Corning International Corp said it agreed to transfer 55 pct of
its capital stock of an Argentine glass manufacturer to a
European group.
    It said it will transfer the capital stock of Rigolleau,
S.A., to the group controlled by Camillo Gancia, an Argentine
industrialist.
    The company said the transaction would reduce Corning's
ownership in Rigolleau to approximately 20 pct. The company
said the change will not impact on its net income for th year.
 Reuter

Shr 73 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 43,792,000 vs 36,480,000
    Rev 1.78 billion vs 1.34 billion
    Year
    Shr 1.49 dlrs vs 1.61 dlrs
    Net 88,974,000 vs 94,647,000
    Rev 5.35 billion vs 4.04 billion
    NOTE: 4th qtr net includes pre-tax gain of 9.7 mln dlrs
from sale of real estate and real estate development company.
    Fiscal 1986 net includes extraordinary charge of 3.5 mln
dlrs, or six cts a share. All per share data reflects a
two-for-one stock split paid June 25, 1986.
 Reuter

The National Farmers Union, NFU, remains
concerned about the future ownership of British Sugar despite
last week's decision by the government to block bids from
Italy's Gruppo Ferruzzi and Britain's Tate & Lyle Plc.
    The union's sugar beet committee met yesterday to consider
the implications of a government Monopolies and Merger
Commission, MMC, report issued last week. "We are still
concerned about S and W Berisford being long-term owners of
British Sugar," a spokesman said. "We do not view Berisford as
providing the long-term stability we want."
    The Trade and Industry Secretary accepted a recommendation
last week by the MMC that it block a bid by Tate and Lyle for S
and W Berisford Plc and stop Gruppo Ferruzzi buying a majority
of British Sugar, owned by Berisford.
    Union officials believe a new bid for the monopoly beet
processor is now likely. "We are looking again at the
undertakings that we have demanded of existing bidders and
which we would seek of any future bidders," the spokesman said.
The NFU, which represents Britain's 11,500 sugar beet growers,
is also taking legal advice on particular paragraphs in the MMC
report which it says need further explanation.
 Reuter

Zayre Corp said it plans to
open 25 additional Zayre Stores, 35 new T.J. Maxx stores and 50
Hit or Miss Shops in 1987.
    In addition, Zayre said it plans to add six new BJ's
Wholesale Clubs and eight new HomeClubs to its warehouse group.
    Earlier, the company reported 1986 earnings, ended January
31, of 89.0 mln dlrs, or 1.49 dlrs per share, versus 94.6 mln
dlrs, or 1.61 dlrs per share, in fiscal 1985. It also reported
fourth quarter net of 43.8 mln dlrs, or 73 cts a share, versus
36.5 mln dlrs, or 60 cts a share in 1985's fourth quarter.
 Reuter

Leaks of a major Dutch official
economic forecast due to be published on Monday indicate
reduced economic growth and a renewed rise in unemployment this
year, political and market sources say.
    Concern over an anticipated fall in Dutch competitiveness
this year against a background of an average 2-1/2 pct wage
increase, zero inflation and a firm guilder has triggered some
calls for a change in monetary policy to help boost growth.
    But whatever the government's response, the central bank
will stick to its policy of keeping the guilder firm, they say.
    The official forecasting agency Centraal Planbureau (CPB)
publishes its 1987 outlook at the start of a week which will
also see a key parliamentary debate on government finances and
    Merchant bank Pierson, Heldring en Pierson - in an estimate
reflecting general sentiment - said last month that Dutch
economic growth was now seen around one pct.
    Domestic consumer spending is not expected to offset the
decline in export growth caused by slowing growth in West
Germany, the main Dutch trading partner, and the lower dollar,
Pierson said in its February economic outlook.
    The latest growth forecasts are well below a 1.5 to two pct
growth figure seen by the CPB early last month and forecasts of
2.5 pct economic growth in 1987 made last September.
    The fall in unemployment is bottoming out and the
government has already admitted it will not meet its goal of
reducing unemployment by an annual 50,000 from 1986 to 1990.
    Some analysts and industry leaders have questioned central
bank policy of pegging the guilder firmly to the mark and if
necessary keeping interest rates up to support the guilder.
    Employers federation NCW chairman Fred Lempers criticised
the guilder's revaluation in line with the West German mark in
last January's European Monetary System (EMS) realignment and
expressed concern over its effect on competitiveness.
    But the employers federation VNO noted the Dutch economy
had become more competitive since 1980 and the fall of the
dollar was affecting this gain more than the EMS realignment.
    Some analysts also question the central bank's decision not
to copy the latest Bundesbank discount rate cut and instead
lower money market rates and abolish a credit quota surcharge.
    Central bank president Wim Duisenberg has defended the move
saying the bank had adjusted the rates with the most impact on
the money market, noting "the (4.5 pct) discount rate is at the
moment not the most important Dutch rate because it is already
far below the market rates."
    Central bank officials say the heavy dependence on trade of
the Dutch economy requires a stable exchange rate, and interest
rate policies serve that goal.
    Analysts noted a large capital outflow from the Netherlands
recently as foreign investments in Dutch stock are being sold
to take profits.
    Loosening the tie between the guilder and the mark would
reduce international confidence in the guilder and make it more
dificult to attract foreign capital, they said, noting Dutch
interest rates rose sharply when the guilder was not revalued
completely in line with the mark in a 1983 EMS realignment.
    Many Dutch banks have reacted favourably to the decision
not to copy the last German discount rate cut, but Pierson
warned it could actually add to uncertainty over the guilder.
    Some analysts noted friction between the Finance Ministry
and the central bank, with Finance Minister Onno Ruding having
said before the Bundesbank discount rate cut he favoured lower
Dutch rates but that the Germans should move first.
    One analyst said Ruding wanted to bring interest rates down
to reduce the government debt burden.
    A Finance Ministry spokesman said lower interest rates were
needed but denied any suggestion of conflicting views between
the ministry and the central bank. "The cabinet's policy is
steady, the guilder has to stay with the mark," he said.
 REUTER

Chrysler Corp said its board declared a
three-for-two stock split in the form of a 50 pct stock
dividend and raised the quarterly dividend by seven pct.
    The company said the dividend was raised to 37.5 cts a
share from 35 cts on a pre-split basis, equal to a 25 ct
dividend on a post-split basis.
    Chrysler said the stock dividend is payable April 13 to
holders of record March 23 while the cash dividend is payable
April 15 to holders of record March 23. It said cash will be
paid in lieu of fractional shares.
    With the split, Chrysler said 13.2 mln shares remain to be
purchased in its stock repurchase program that began in late
1984. That program now has a target of 56.3 mln shares with the
latest stock split.
    Chrysler said in a statement the actions "reflect not only
our outstanding performance over the past few years but also
our optimism about the company's future."
 reuter

Shares in financial group Cie Financiere
de Paribas <PARI.PA>, privatised in January, will begin trading
on the Paris Bourse monthly settlement market on April 23,
France's Association of Stockbrokers said.
    The shares are currently traded on the immediate settlement
market.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc said the U.S.
Department of Transportation has granted preliminary approval
for service between Baltimore/Washington International Airport
and London.
    It said once a final decision is reached, it will proceed
with plans to start service on the route.
 Reuter

<Banco Santander> signed a letter of
intent with Bank of America <BAC> to purchase its West German
affiliate <Bankhaus Centrale Credit AG>, CC-Bank, the bank said
in a statement amplifying an earlier report from Frankfurt.
    "The incorporation of CC-Bank in our group will provide a
major boost...For chanelling investment between Spain and the
European Community," the statement said.
    "This operation enables us to take up a solid position in
West Germany ahead of Spain's full integration into the EC's
financial system in five years' time."
    The deal included the license for Visa credit cards.
 REUTER

<Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce>,
earlier reporting higher net income for the first quarter ended
January 31, said it expects loan losses to be lower than last
year's 697.0 mln dlrs.
    However, the bank said it will maintain the high level of
provisioning for loan losses established last year because of
many market uncertainties. Commerce bank set loan loss
provisions of 636.0 mln dlrs in fiscal 1986, ended October 31.
    The bank earlier said first quarter net income rose to 96.5
mln dlrs from 87.0 mln dlrs in the prior year. Profit per basic
share after dividends fell to 61 cts from year-ago 64 cts.
    Commerce Bank said because of market uncertainties, it used
an estimate of 600.0 mln dlrs for fiscal 1987 loan losses in
calculating first quarter results.
    The bank's first quarter provision for loan losses rose to
172.0 mln dlrs, from 152.0 mln dlrs in the prior year.
    Commerce Bank also said it will continue to adopt an
agressive posture in adding to its general provisions against
loan exposure to 34 countries designated by the federal
government's Inspector General of Banks.
    First quarter net partly benefitted from net interest
income, up to 561.8 mln dlrs from year ago 540.9 mln dlrs.
    Commerce Bank said improved other income, which rose to
213.6 mln dlrs from year-earlier 170.1 mln dlrs, and net income
was partially offset by the increased loan loss provisions,
non-interest expenses and income taxes.
    The bank said first quarter total assets increased to 83.92
billion dlrs from 78.93 mln dlrs in the prior year, due mainly
to continued expansion in consumer loan and mortgage fields.
    Return on assets increased by two cts to 46 cts per 100
dlrs of average assets from the first quarter in fiscal 1986,
but declined two cts from fiscal 1986 fourth quarter.
    The bank also said total non-accrual loans increased to 2.4
billion dlrs in the first quarter from year-ago 1.8 billion
dlrs. However, non-accrual loans declined 130 mln dlrs from
fiscal 1986 year-end.
    "Despite the recent announcement of the suspension of
interest payments by Brazil, virtually all of the bank's loans
to this country were income producing up to January 31, 1987,
and there was little adverse impact on the bank's earnings
prior to the announcement," Commerce bank said.
    The bank did not disclose a forecast of the impact on
future earnings by Brazil's suspension of interest payments.
 Reuter

Lowe's Cos Inc said sales
for the four weeks ended February 27 were up seven pct to 136.6
mln dlrs from 127.4 mln dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Jan 31
    Shr 3.26 dlrs vs 3.17 dlrs
    Net 47.9 mln vs 46.7 mln
    Revs 673.1 mln vs 630.2 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 7.54 dlrs vs 6.95 dlrs
    Net 111.1 mln vs 102.4 mln
    Revs 2.03 billion vs 1.88 billion
.

India bought eight cargoes of white
sugar at a buying tender this week but also gave sellers
options to sell an extra eight cargoes at the same prices,
    Four international firms shared the business which gave
each of them sales of two cargoes of Mar/Apr shipment sugar at
233 dlrs CIF and options on two cargoes of Apr/May.
    This brings recent options India has given traders to some
200,000 tonnes at fixed prices and makes future Indian
purchases very dependent on price fluctuations, traders said.
    At 233 dlrs CIF the sugar sold this week was at a discount
of up to 10 dlrs to current prices, some traders said.
 Reuter

UNITEL VIDEO SHAREHOLDER PROPOSES POSSIBLE SALE OR LIQUIDATION OF COMPANY

Ross Stores Inc said sales for
the four weeks ended February 28 were up 33 pct to 40 mln dlrs
from 30 mln dlrs a year earlier, with same-store sales flat.
 Reuter

<Telematics International
Inc> said 2,550,000 shares of common at 12 dlrs per share are
being offered in an initial public offering.
    It said it is offering 2,050,000 and certain shareholders
are offering 500,000 shares.
    <Alex. Brown and Sons Inc> and Robertson, Colman and
Stephens are the managers of the syndicate offering the larger
number of shares, and Alex. Brown, Colman and Hambros Bank
Limited are the managers of the international offering of
500,000 shares.
 Reuter

Tokheim Corp said its advanced
products and electronics division has reached a four-year
manufacturing and marketing agreement with <TechVend>, a New
Jersey-based corporation which had developed a credit card
    Tokheim said the agreement gives it exclusive manufacturing
and servicing rights for all TechVend machines, as well as
exclusive marketing rights for convenience stores and other
petroleum market-related installations.
    The company said the vending machines are a springboard
into the video cassette rental industry.

 Reuter

Qtly div 73 cts vs 73 cts prior
 Reuter

Oper shr 57 cts vs 73 cts
    Oper net 6,051,000 vs 7,818,000
    Revs 50.0 mln vs 56.0 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.06 dlrs vs 1.24 dlrs
    Oper net 11,301,000 vs 13,203,000
    Revs 171.9 mln vs 207.4 mln
    NOTE: Current oper net excludes extraordinary income of
180,000 dlrs in qtr and 1,119,000 dlrs in year vs previous
losses of 2,345,000 dlrs and 515,000 dlrs, respectively.
                        
 Reuter

Mthly div 2.108 cts vs 2.158 cts prior
 Reuter

Jutland Telephone Co has launched a 75
mln 10 year bond with a 4-3/4 pct coupon and par issue price,
market sources said.
    They said the issue is led by Union Bank of Switzerland.
    The bond is on sale until March 19 with payment due April
10.
 REUTER

 Reuter

ENGELHARD CORP SETS THREE FOR TWO STOCK SPLIT AND RAISES QUARTERLY

The EC Commission rejected all bids for
free market bread-making and feed wheat and all bids for the
special West German tender at today's weekly EC cereals tender,
trade sources said here.
    It granted export licences for 123,000 tonnes of free
market barley at a maximum rebate of 138.75 Ecus per tonne and
25,000 tonnes of maize at a maximum rebate of 133.75 Ecus, they
said.
    Licences for 100,000 tonnes of the barley were awarded to
French trade houses, they added.
 Reuter

Ericsson Corp, the U.S. unit
of <LM Ericsson Telephone Co> of Sweden, said it won a 1.4 mln
dlr contract from California's Somona State University for
computer communications equipment.
    The contract includes Ericsson's MD110 digital private
branch exchange and a local area network, supplying voice
services to 1500 campus computer users and greater computer
access, the company said.
 Reuter

Michael Landes, a major stockholder
in Unitel Video Inc, said he has asked the company to consider
liquidating, or selling some or all of its assets.
    "Mr. Landes has requested the company to implement a
program to maximize shareholder values, which might include a
sale of all or part of the company or a liquidation," he said
in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Landes and another Unitel Video investor, Albert Schwatz,
have formed a shareholder group and together hold 329,225
common shares, or 15.2 pct of the total outstanding common
stock.
    Landes and Schwartz had reached an agreement in principle
with the New York video tape service company on a 12.50 dlr a
share takeover proposal last September, but subsequent merger
talks broke down in October.
    The investors told the SEC they are continuing to review
their positions company and may acquire more shares or sell
some or all of their current stake.
 Reuter

HUGES TOOL COMPANY SAYS BAKER INTERNATIONAL MERGER PLAN NOT TERMINATED

Shr Royal Dutch Petroleum Co <RD> 2.30 dlrs vs 2.90 dlrs
    Final Royal Dutch dividend of 8.30 guilders for total 12.80
guilders vs 12.80 guilders for 1985
    Shr Shell Transport and Trading Co PLC <SC> 1.38 dlrs vs
1.65 dlrs
    Final Shell Transport dividend 118.0 pence for total of
172.0 pence vs 140.0 pence for 1985
    Group Net 1.07 billion vs 1.24 billion
    Group Sales 20.42 billion vs 25.84 billion
    Year
    Shr Royal Dutch 8.65 dlrs vs 9.11 dlrs
    Net Shell Transport 4.78 dlrs vs 5.16 dlrs
    Group Net 3.71 billion vs 3.88 billion
    Group Sales 81.40 billion vs 94.57 billion
    NOTES: Group is 60 pct owned by Royal Dutch and 40 pct by
Shell Transport
    Dollar amount of Royal Dutch dividend will depend on
guilder/dollar exchange rate on May 14. Final dividend is
payable June 16 to holders of record May 26
    Shell Transport dividend and per share results based on New
York shares, which are equal to four ordinary shares. Dollar
final dividend will be determined by sterling/dollar exchange
rate May 18. At current rate, with tax credits, is equal to
2.59 dlrs. Final dividend is payable May 28 to holders of
record April 10
    Fourth quarter U.S. dollar figures for group translated
from sterling at average rate of exchange for the quarter which
was 1.43 dlrs per pound in 1986 and 1.44 dlrs in 1985. Full
year U.S. dollar figures are sum of sterling translations to
U.S. dollars for first, second, third and fourth quarters
    Net includes FIFO inventory gain 217 mln dlrs vs loss 80
mln dlrs in quarter and loss 1.23 billion dlrs vs loss 178 mln
dlrs in year. If LIFO accounting had been used, company said,
Royal Dutch per share net would have been 1.78 dlrs vs 3.17
dlrs in quarter and 11.60 dlrs vs 9.53 dlrs in year, Shell
Transport per share net would have been 1.10 dlrs vs 1.81 dlrs
in quarter and 6.36 dlrs vs 5.40 dlrs in year
    Net includes restructuring credit 114 mln dlrs vs charge 72
mln dlrs in quarter and credit 67 mln dlrs vs charge 467 mln
    Per share impact of restructuring on Royal Dutch was credit
27 cts vs charge 17 cts in quarter and credit 16 cts vs charge
1.10 dlrs in year, on Shell Transport was credit 15 cts vs
charge 10 cts in quarter and credit nine cts vs charge 62 cts
in year
    Net also includes currency exchange losses of 20 mln dlrs
vs 69 mln dlrs in quarter and 170 mln dlrs vs 401 mln dlrs in
year. Exchange losses had per share impact on Royal Dutch of 14
cts vs 31 cts in quarter and 96 cts vs 1.26 dlrs in year and on
Shell Transport of eight cts vs 17 cts in quarter and 51 cts vs
71 cts in year.
 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright said he
expects the House Banking Committee to approve legislation in
"a week or so" for an infusion of funding for the cash-short
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).
    The agency, which insures depositors in thrift institutions
against losses, only has about 1.9 billion dlrs left, House
Banking Committee officials said.
    The administration wants legislation for a long term 15
billion dlr replenishment, but Wright is pushing for an
emergency, short-term five billion funding effort.
    Wright made his prediction in a talk with reporters.
 Reuter

World grain trade could be turning
the corner and heading toward recovery in the 1986-87 season, a
Cargill, Inc. analyst said.
    Writing in the March issue of the Cargill Bulletin, David
Rogers of Cargill's Commodity Marketing Division cited a
gradual rise in world wheat trade in recent months, with a slow
rise in wheat prices after recent historic lows.
    He said the wheat trade, because wheat can be produced in
many nations, is a good barometer of world grain trade and
could lead to more activity in other grain markets.
    Rogers said that with world grain prices at their lowest
level in over a quarter of a century in real terms, demand has
begun to rise while producing nations are re-examining their
expensive price-support policies and reducing planted acres.
 Reuter

Halcyon Investments, a New York
investment partnership that deals mainly in risk arbitrage and
stock trading, said it raised its Purolator Courier Corp stake
to 726,700 shares, or 9.5 pct, from 474,900, or 6.2 pct.
Halcyon, whose managing partner is Alan B. Slifka and Co, said
it bought 201,800 Purolator common shares between Feb 3 and
March 2 at prices ranging from 28.689 to 34.811 dlrs each.
    Halcyon, which said it has spent 20.1 mln dlrs for its
Purolator common shares, said it also acquired options on Feb
27 giving it the right to buy 50,000 shares for 1.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Aetna Life and Casualty Co said
its Aetna Life and Casualty of Canada Ltd subsidiary has agreed
in prnciple to sell its casualty-property subsidiary, Aetna
Casualty Co of Canada to <Laurentian Group> of Montreal for
    The company said the agreement is subject to Canadian
government approval.
 Reuter

Delegates from the National Pork
Producers Council, NPPC, yesterday approved programs for
control and eradication of pseudorabies and establishment of a
national safe drug use program.
    The delegate body, attending the American Pork Congress in
Indianapolis, approved a pseudorabies control and eradication
program at the state level after a recommendation from NPPC's
PRV (pseudorabies virus) oversight committee.
    The PRV committee received results of a three year, five
state pilot project which had a 97.5 pct success rate in
eradication of the disease within 116 hog herds. The project
was jointly funded by the USDA and NPPC.
    "Primarily it (the program) allows individual states to
deal with their own problems according to a timetable that
suits them best," Mike Wehler, member of the NPPC's PRV
oversight committee said.
    In regards to safe drug use, the delegates approved a plan
asking that NPPC be active in establishing a national safe drug
use program.
    The program would establish better relationships between
producers and veterinarians and eventually lead to a quality
assurance program in pork production, according to the plan.
    "This program basically communicates to the FDA that we are
concerned about safe drug use and will do our part to use drugs
safely, if FDA will allow the same policy to continue in
effect," Wehler said.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 77,400 vs profit 134,000
    Revs 418,500 vs 435,900
    Year
    Shr profit eight cts vs profit 27 cts
    Net profit 315,100 vs profit 1,082,700
    Revs 1,761,900 vs 2,511,200
    NOTE: Per-share figures adjusted for four-for-three stock
distribution effective Dec 14, 1984
    1985 results include an extraordinary tax benefit of 55,000
dlrs, or one ct a share in each period
 Reuter

The Bank of England again fought against
money and bond market pressure for a pre-Budget interest rate
cut, leaving the pound to take the strain with a further rise
in its trade-weighted index to a six-month high.
    It closed at its best level since September 12, at 71.4 pct
of its 1975 value on the index, as foreign investors continued
to buy into a currency which offers high relative returns and
the possibility of short-term capital gains, dealers said.
    Meanwhile, opinion is divided over whether the Bank can
stop a cut before Budget Day, March 17, and why it should want
to.
    The Bank's latest strong signal to the market that it wants
rates to stay steady for the moment came in midafternoon, when
it lent to the discount houses at a penal rate of 11-3/4 pct to
relieve a money market shortage.
    "They're really making the discount houses suffer," said
Stephen Lewis, economist at brokerage house Phillips and Drew.
"Eleven and three-quarters pct is way above money market rates."
    This money market signal was apparently not accompanied by
any sterling sales on the foreign exchanges, talk of which had
inhibited strong rises yesterday and Tuesday, so buyers came
strongly into the pound.
    The pound surged to a high of 1.5798/808 dlrs at the London
close, up from the previous finish at 1.5650/60, and 2.8900/60
marks, up from 2.8720/50.
    "If this pressure keeps up...There is a possibility that
rates could drop before the Budget," said Jeremy Hale, economist
at finance house Goldman Sachs International Corp.
    Some gilt traders are forecasting a half-point cut in the
base rate from the current 11 pct as early as tomorrow.
    However, analysts said the Bank of England will need to be
convinced that the present rise is a fundamental re-rating
rather than a result of short-term speculative gains.
    There are valid reasons for the Bank to be cautious, said
Peter Fellner, U.K. Economist at brokers James Capel and Co.
    Markets have become highly optimistic about the chances of
a Conservative Party victory in any early general election, and
disappointment if Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher decides to
hold back could lead to a decline in the pound and a setback
for bonds, Fellner said.
    An election could be delayed until mid-1988, but most
forecasts say it will be this year.
    Others note that the pound could yet prove vulnerable to
oil price losses or a change of fortune for the dollar.
    However, analysts agree the Bank is largely trying to set
the timing of a cut than holding out against one altogether.
    The authorities traditionally prefer a single sustainable
rate move, one way or the other, to half points here and there.
    Some add the Bank will be influenced by signs that at least
a proportion of the latest bout of sterling buying is long-term
capital coming into the London market, notably from Japan.
    They argue that the pound is being perceived as a safer bet
than the dollar, given the latters recent sharp falls and
current political upheavals in Washington.
    The Bank may want to see another few points on the
trade-weighted index before the Budget, argued Lewis. "But by
then sterling should be firm enough to satisfy even the Bank of
England," he added.
    The Bank declined to comment on its reasons for resisting
pressure for a rate move before the budget, but banking sources
said the authorities see the recent rise in sterling as more
than just marking up by foreign exchange traders.
    Meanwhile, analysts noted the market ignored potentially
harmful news on the trade front, today's figures showing that
the current account deficit in 1986 was 1.1 billion stg.
    This was above previous estimates of the current account
deficit and compares with a surplus of 2.9 billion stg in 1985.
    Fellner said that under more normal conditions this would
have given the bond and currency markets a pause, but that they
were too bullish to worry about such fundamentals.
    The guessing game over the timing of a cut has the clearing
banks divided as well as the markets. Privately, some bank
officials forecast the Bank will hold out at least for this
week, but at least one bank says a rise is possible tomorrow.
If a move comes before March 17, forecasts are for a half-point
cut, with another half or full point about Budget day.
 REUTER

said he may recommend that the United States retaliate against
Japan if the Japanese do not permit U.S. construction firms to
participate in building the eight billion dlr Kansai airport.
    But he said he had a personal commitment from Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone that U.S. firms would have a
chance at the work.
    "I think he will honor that commitment," Baldrige told the
Senate Appropriations subcommittee on commerce affairs."
    He said one form of retaliation could be to curb Japanese
firms' two billion dlr construction work in the United States.
 reuter

Engelhard Corp said its board
declared a three-for-two stock split and raised the quarterly
dividend to 19-1/2 cts per share presplit from 19 cts, both
payable March 31 to holders of record March 17.
 Reuter

Non-Opec Egypt produced 40.3 mln tonnes
(about 295 mln barrels) of crude in 1986 against 44.3 mln
tonnes (about 323 mln barrels) in 1985, according to official
figures released today by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp.
(EGPC).
    Officials say Egypt can produce up to one mln bpd per day,
but production was cut when world prices plunged last year.
    In an attempt to help OPEC stabilize the world market,
Egypt cut its 1987 production target of 940,000 bpd to its
current output of 870,000 bpd.
    Egypt, which exports a third of its output, currently sells
its top Suez and Ras Bahar blends for 17.25 dlrs a barrel.
 REUTER

The European Commission authorised the
export of 33,500 tonnes of Irish intervention barley at today's
tender for non-European Community destinations at 53.10 Ecus
per tonne, grain traders said.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith
Inc said it has fully subscribed the 120 mln dlrs in
partnership interests it offered in the ML Venture Partners II,
LP.
    The firm said ML Venture Partners II will make equity
investments in new and developing privately held companies in
high technology industries, or young privately held companies
offering innovative services or advanced manufacturing
processes.
    Merrill Lynch said the partnership will make another cash
distribution of 364 dlrs per 5000 dlrs invested this month.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 196,000 vs profit 71,000
    Revs 2,512,000 vs 5,776,000
    Year
    Shr loss 1.09 dlrs vs loss 18 cts
    Net loss 3,509,000 vs loss 587,000
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 21.0 mln
    Note: 1986 year includes special charge of 1,600,000 dlrs,
or 50 cts per shr on write-down of rental equipment.
 Reuter

Chrysler Overseas Capital Corp said it
authorized redemption on April 17 of its 4-3/4 pct and five pct
convertible debentures due 1988.
    The Chrysler Corp unit said the move is prompted by the
parent company's three-for-two stock split, which requires a
recalculation of the debentures' conversion prices that will
adversely affect those prices by at least five pct.
    Chrysler said holders converting debentures before the
stock split becomes effective March 23 will receive a greater
number of shares on a post-split basis than if they convert
afterwards.
 Reuter

Shr 2.10 dlrs vs 1.72 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.98 dlrs vs 1.72 dlrs
    Net 2,228,000 vs 1,730,000
 Reuter

Amoskeag Bank said it signed an
agreement to acquire <Entrepo Financial Resources Inc>, a
Philadelphia-based company which leases and remarkets high
technology equipment.
    It said Entrepo has assets of 20 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 27 cts vs 27 cts prior qtr
    Pay 1 April
    Record 16 March
 Reuter

Trade house Kaines said it sold Jordan
two cargoes of white sugar at its buying tender today.
    The sale comprised two 12,000 to 14,000 tonne cargoes (plus
or minus 10 pct) for Mar/Apr shipment, a Kaines trader said.
    Traders said the business was done at 235.5 dlrs a tonne
cost and freight.
 Reuter

Community Bank Systems Inc and
the <Nichols National Bank> said they have signed a definitive
agreement for Nichols to become a member of the CBSI Group of
banks for an exchange of stock worth 2.8 mln dlrs.
    CBSI said it expects to complete the deal, pending Nichols'
shareholder and regulatory approval, later this year.
 Reuter

International Pharmaceutical
Products Inc said Eli Lilly and Co has filed a patent
infringement suit against it for marketing Vincristine Sulfate
for injection.
    International Pharmaceutical said it believes that becaue
of differences in formulation, it is not infringing on Eli
Lilly's patent.
    Vincristine Sulfate is a chemotherapeutic product used to
treat cancer.
 Reuter

Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Janusz
Kaczurba told Reuters that Poland would have to diverge from
traditional Communist bloc centrally-planned economic policies
if it wanted to bring about economic renewal and compete in
world markets.
    Stressing his commitment to a series of reforms recently
introduced to streamline the economy and boost export-oriented
industry, he also called for an expansion in the role of the
private sector.
    Asked whether the policies the government was advocating
did not represent a departure from the strictly controlled
economic model within the Soviet bloc, he said in an interview
with Reuters "I don't see any alternative but to try to proceed
along the lines of economic reasoning."
    He referred specifically to bankruptcies, which he said
would be "the logical outcome of a more stringent economic
policy," once the state stopped propping up enterprises to
guarantee jobs, regardless of how inefficient they were.
    He added, "We should follow the policy of creating a system
whereby managers will be really responsible for the overall
economic effect of enterprises. This can be done in one way
only, through the reduction of subsidies."
    But he also noted the need to curtail bureaucracy of branch
ministries, allow domestic prices to reflect the world market,
make foreign exchange rates more realistic, provide incentives
to export-oriented industry and encourage private business.
    Kaczurba was talking to Reuters about the effect on the
economy of U.S. Sanctions imposed in 1982 in response to the
suppression of the Solidarity trade union under martial law.
    He acknowledged that Poland's economic decline would add to
its problems in trying to regain markets and support from
Western creditors even after Washington lifted remaining
restrictions and restored Most Favoured Nation trading status
     Western officials say Polish goods have to be more
competitive and of better quality in the face of trade wars and
protectionism amongst U.S., Japanese and European competitors.
    Reaffirming the government's view that the key to solving
some of those problems and meeting payments on a 33.5 billion
dlr foreign debt lay in increasing hard currency exports,
Kaczura said private enterprise could play a greater role.
    "I think we could have some 20,000 small private enterprises
active in export-oriented business if such operators are
successfully convinced that the policy towards the (private)
sector is stabilised," he said.
    Poland already has a more developed private sector than
most other East European countries.
    Among economic reforms already under way, Kaczurba listed
easier access to hard currency profits, tax incentives, access
to investment credits and two devaluations of the zloty to
increase competitivity of prices.
    He said such policies had been welcomed by the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund, through which Poland is hoping
to gain new credits, but Poles were caught in a "vicious circle."
    Creditors wanted proof that the policies were directed
towards improving exports, but in order to fulfil their
expectations Poland first needed fresh inputs, he said.
 REUTER

Taihei Kogyo Co Ltd is launching 40 mln
Swiss francs of five year notes with a 4-3/4 pct coupon and
100-1/4 issue price, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    Payment is due March 18.
 REUTER

Euratom, the European Atomic Energy
Community, is issuing a 50 mln Ecu, six-year bond with a coupon
of 7-1/2 pct and priced at 101-1/2, lead manager Banque
Generale du Luxembourg SA said.
    The bond features a sinking fund from 1989 which will
retire 10 mln Ecus worth each year thereafter, giving the issue
an average life of four years.
    Payment date is April 8 and the issue matures on the same
date in 1993. The bond will be denominated in lots of 1,000
Ecus and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees total 1-7/8 pct, with 1-1/4 pct for selling and 5/8
for management and underwriting, including a praecipuum of 1/8
pct.
 REUTER

Turkey is holding a buying tender for
100,000 tonnes of white sugar on March 24, traders here said.
    The sugar is being sought for early arrival and will
probably be met with April/May shipment sugar, they added.
    Earlier today newspapers in Turkey carried an advertisement
from Turkish Sugar Factories inviting offers of 100,000 tonnes
of crystal sugar with a 50 pct option to increase or decrease
the amount.
    Over the 1983/85 period Turkey each year has exported
between 240,000 and 350,000 tonnes of whites to Iran and
between 62,000 and 230,000 tonnes to Iraq.
    Following lower sugar crops in the past two years analysts
said Turkey needs to import sugar now if it is to continue
filling these export contracts, and may need to buy more.
    Last month London broker C Czarnikow estimated Turkish
1986/87 production at 1.42 mln tonnes raw value against 1.4 mln
in 1985/86 and an average 1.76 mln in the previous three
seasons.
Minister of Industry and Trade Cahit Aral as saying Turkey
would export 100,000 tonnes of sugar this year and import the
same amount.
 REUTER

Chairman John Shad said the SEC favors shortening the current
10-day period for disclosing takeover attempts but opposes
putting restrictions on the use of so-called junk bonds.
    "We favor shortening the disclosure period to two days,"
Shad told members of the House Telecommunications and Finance
subcommittee when asked for his recommendation.
    He said the SEC's responsibility was to provide full
disclosure for securities, including junk bonds, and not to
make decisions based on merit. He said junk bonds had some
value because of their liquidity.
    Shad said he opposes proposals to require those attempting
takeovers to file a statement on the impact the takeover would
have on the communities involved.
    "We've opposed it in the past. It goes far beyond investor
protection," Shad said.
    He said he had no comment on a proposal by House Speaker
Jim Wright, D- Texas, to tax securities transactions.
 Reuter

Aluminum Co of Canada Ltd, a unit of
Alcan Aluminium Ltd, said it began an offer of 400,000 shares
of a new series of preferred stock after its board approved the
final prospectus.
    The offering, which is being made in Canada, is for 400,000
shares of cumulative redeemable retractable preference shares
at 25 dlrs apiece.
    The quarterly dividend on the stock, to be known as series
F, will be 50 cts Canadian, equal to eight pct a year, the
 Reuter

    Year
    NOTE: company corrects reporting period to 4th qtr and year
from 3rd qtr and nine mths
 Reuter

Lead underwriters Wheat, First
Securities Inc and E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH> said an initial
public offering of 110 mln shares of beneficial interest of MFS
Multimarket Income Trust is under way at 10 dlrs per share.
    The trust has granted underwriters an option to buy up to
16.5 mln more shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Hughes Tool Co Chairman W.A. Kistler
said its counter proposal to merge with Baker International
Corp was still under consideration and that a merger was in the
best interests of both companies.
    "Our hope is that we can come to a mutual agreement that is
good for both companies," Kistler said of the proposed merger
that would result in a 1.2 billion dlr oil field service
company. "We're working very hard on this merger."
    Hughes' board today again adjourned a shareholders meeting
to vote on the proposed merger and rescheduled it for March 11
to give Baker more time to consider the counter proposal.
    The Hughes board, which had previously expressed concern
about a U.S. Department of Justice consent decree that would
require Baker to sell its drilling bit operations and
submersible pump business, met yesterday and threatened to
terminate the proposed merger.
    The Hughes board made a counter proposal that the two
companies first find acceptable buyers for the businesses
before signing the decree.
    The directors of Baker immediately after receiving the
counter proposal filed a law suit in Texas in a Texas state
court to force to Hughes to complete the merger.
    "The uncertainty as to the price and conditions that might
be imposed by the Department of Justice makes us very nervous
about what the outcome might be," Kistler said, in explaining
why Hughes had made the counter proposal.
    "We need additional time to understand why Baker did not
accept our proposal."
    Kistler also said that the law suit filed by Baker "was not
a factor" in the board's decision to keep its merger proposal
on the table.
    He declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.
    Kistler said Hughes would be willing to consider a
compromise counter proposal, but declined to be more specific.
    The Justice Department in January said it would block the
Hughes and Baker merger on anti-trust grounds unless both
companies agreed to sign a consent decree that would provide
for the sale of the assets after the merger took place.
    The Hughes board said it would not sign the decree because
its was too "unreasonable." Hughes said that Baker should
instead complete the sale of the disputed assets before the
merger is finalized and given government approval.
    Under the decree, if Baker is unable to find acceptable
buyers within a specified period of time after the decree is
approved, a federal trustee would become responsible for
finding a buyer.
    Kistler said that under those terms, the trustee could take
up to 10 years to complete the sales.
    He also expressed concern that the combined companies might
be required by the government's conditions to license some of
its technology to any purchaser of the assets.
    Baker said last night in a statement that the required
assets to be sold would reduce revenues by about 65 mln dlrs,
representing about three pct of the revenues of the combined

 Reuter

    Shr loss five cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 247,100 vs profit 345,300
    Sales 4,529,300 vs 3,482,800
    Nine mths
    Shr profit six cts vs profit 18 cts
    Net profit 261,300 vs profit 793,700
    Sales 12.3 mln vs 9,957,200
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 7,168,000 vs 11.3 mln
    Sales 497.4 mln vs 475.6 mln
    Avg shrs 39.6 mln vs 37.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.34 dlrs vs 1.64 dlrs
    Net 52.2 mln vs 59.7 mln
    Sales 2.28 billion vs 2.07 billion
    Avg shrs 39.0 mln vs 36.5 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes charge
2,885,000 dlrs or seven cts shr from early note retirement and
charge seven cts shr from reversal of tax credits.
    Current year net both periods includes gain six cts shr
from plywood manufacturers litigation settlement.
 Reuter

Shoe-Town Inc said <shu> it had
record February sales of 10,052,000 up 21.8 pct from 8,252,000
dlrs in the year earlier months.
    The company said sales for the eight weeks ended February
28 were 19.5 mln dlrs up 19.9 pct 14.1 mln dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

Tekelec said it signed a
license agreement with British Telecommunications PLC <BTY.L>
to make and market a test instrument for digital microwave
communications equipment.
    Tekelec said the new product is expected to be priced at
25,000 dlrs and to be shipped in the second half of 1987.
    The 20-year, non-exclusive agreement grants Tekelec the
right to manufacture and market the instrument in North America
and Japan.
 Reuter

Spain's metal workers, the biggest
organised labour force, broke off talks with employers over
1987 wages, union sources said.
    The main Socialist and Communist unions rejected an offer
from the Confemetal employers' organization for a six pct wage
rise, one point above the government inflation target for 1987.
The metal working industry has 900,000 workers in 60,000
factories.
    The unions said they were considering a bid to resume talks
next week.
 REUTER

The French government is to
sell to the public its 47.42 pct direct holding in Societe
Generale <STGN.PA>'s regional bank subsidiary <Societe Generale
Alsacienne de Banque>, SOGENAL, from next Monday, SOGENAL
    SOGENAL, founded in 1881 and nationalised in 1982, is the
leading French regional bank and has branches in Austria,
Belgium, Luxembourg, East and West Germany and Switzerland.
    Chairman Rene Geronimus told a news conference the share
offer price, expected to be announced tomorrow by Finance
Minister Edouard Balladur, would be between 110 and 130 francs.
    Societe Generale, which will itself be privatised later
this year, will retain its 52.58 pct majority holding in the
bank, Chairman Marc Vienot said.
    SOGENAL officials said they forecast 1987 consolidated
group profit of around 170 mln francs after an estimated 160
mln this year and 159 mln in 1985.
    SOGENAL's privatisation will be preceded by a capital
increase to 320 mln francs from 263 mln, earning about 250 mln
francs in new funds. Its shares will be divided by eight,
giving a capital of 12.8 mln shares of 25 francs nominal.
    The bank will be listed on the Nancy stock exchange, in
line with the Finance Ministry and government's aim of a
regional operation, Geronimus said.
    He said he was hoping for shareholders to total around
30,000 to 35,000 against the 12,500 before nationalisation. Ten
pct of the capital to be floated will be reserved for employees
with the rest offered to the public. There will not be a share
reserved for foreign investors. "This is too small an operation
and anyway they will be able to buy shares in France," he said.
    Stockbroker sources said that a likely share offer price of
120 francs would value SOGENAL at 1.5 billion francs.
    Geronimus said the bank's future aim would be to reinforce
its existing strong points, with no major projects planned
apart from the opening soon of a Basle branch.
    SOGENAL is the only French bank in Austria, it set up the
first foreign exchange dealing room outside Paris at its
Strasbourg headquarters in 1985, and is the only foreign
banking subsidiary to be a broker on the Zurich Bourse.
    The government's banking adviser for the operation was
<Banque Privee de Gestion Financiere>, BPGF, owned by French
financier Pierre Moussa's <Pallas> group, assisted by Britain's
<Hambros Bank Ltd>.
 REUTER

Continental Airlines Inc, a unit of
Texas Air Corp, said it filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for an offering of 350 mln
dlrs of equipment certificates.
    Continental plans to raise 125 mln dlrs through an issue of
first priority secured equipment certificates due 1992, 125 mln
dlrs through second priority certificates due 1995 and 100 mln
dlrs via third priority certificates due 1999. Interest will be
payable March 15 and September 15, starting September 1987.
Lead manager will be Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    It also plans a filing of 100 mln dlrs of 10-year notes.
 Reuter

Midland Co said its board declared a
two-for-one stock split, subject to approval of a doubling of
authorized common shares at the annual meeting on April 9, and
an increase in the quarterly dividend to 12 cts pre-split from
10 cts.
    The dividend is payable April 8, record March 17, and the
split would be payable May 7, record April 23.
 Reuter

The Prudential Insurance Company of
America, a privately held company, said today that net income
in 1986 rose to 2.8 billion dlrs from the 2.3 billion dlrs
reported the year earlier.
    Assets under management rose to 177.5 billion dlrs in 1986
from 150.1 billion dlrs in 1985, while consolidated assets
jumped to 134.5 billion dlrs from 115.7 billion dlrs.
    Discussing its major subsidiaries, the company said that
Prudential Capital and Investment Services Inc, the holding
company for brokerage house Prudential-Bache Securities and
certain other related subsidiaries, earned 142 million dlrs in
1986. Of that, the securities operations of Prudential-Bache
netted 81.7 mln dlrs after taxes and a charge of 25 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bancorp, which last
month withdrew its takeover proposal for BankAmerica Corp
<BAC>, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an
offering of 1,500 shares of auction preferred stock.
    Proceeds from the sale will be used for general purposes,
mainly to fund or make loans to its subsidiaries, it said.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co will be lead underwriter, it said.
    The company also said its loans to Brazil, which suspended
interest payments on medium and long-term bank debt, were 504
mln dlrs on Dec 31, while nonperforming Brazilian outstandings
were 4.1 mln dlrs and interest receiveable was 5.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Amro Bank NV announced a 150 mln
guilder seven-year dual-currency bond issue with a 6.5 pct
coupon on behalf of BP Capital BV, guaranteed by British
Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> subsidiary BP Maatschappij Nederland
BV.
    The par-priced public issue will be redeemed in full at
487.80 dlrs per 1,000 guilder bond on April 15, 1994.
    Amro said the bonds, the second dual-currency issue in the
Dutch market in two weeks, is aimed at investors who expect the
dollar to rise in the medium term.
    Interest payments during the life of the loan are, however,
not exposed to exchange rate fluctuations.
    Early redemption will not be allowed.
    Subscriptions on the loan close at 1400 gmt on March 13.
Payment date is April 15.
    The issue is underwritten by a management group led by
Amro, Algemene Bank Nederland NV and Pierson, Heldring and
Pierson NV.
 REUTER

The EC Commission decided to open a
special daily export rebate today for maize exports to Morocco,
Israel, Canary Islands and zone 5c (Sub-Saharan Africa), trade
sources said here.
    The rebate was set at 153 European currency units per tonne
for March and 133 for April through July.
 Reuter

Aequitron Medical Inc said costs
related to its previously announced plan to consolidate Life
Products operations in Boulder, Colo, are expected to total
720,000 dlrs, or eight cts a share for the fourth quarter
ending April 30.
    It said the costs including moving expenses, severance pay
and future lease payments.
    The company said it will consolidate Life Products into the
company's headquarters and manufacturing operations in
Minneapolis.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,742,000 vs 1,1512,000
    Sales 62.6 mln vs 53.6 mln
    Avg shrs 7,854,000 vs 6,617,000
    Year
    Shr 61 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 4,469,000 vs 4,039,000
    Sales 209.8 mln vs 175.4 mln
    Avg shrs 78,369,000 vs 6,610,000
 Reuter

Pakistan complained to the United
Nations today that planes from Afghanistan attacked Pakistani
villages last Thursday and Friday, killing 90 people and
wounding 230 others.
    "These wanton and barbarous attacks are unprecedented in the
scale of the casualties inflicted and damage caused," Pakistan's
acting U.N. representative Aneesuddin Ahmed said in a letter to
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
    Ahmed, who did not request any specific U.N. action, said
the attacks took place immediately after the start of the
current round of U.N.-sponsored talks on Afghanistan in Geneva
and indicated that "the Kabul regime is deliberately aggravating
tensions and vitiating the prospects of the talks."
 Reuter

Wilshire Oil Co of Texas, which has a
9.8 pct stake in Jacobs Engineering Group Inc, said its
chairman, Siggi Wilzig, was appointed to the Jabobs board.
Wilshire, which holds 417,100 Jacobs common shares, said Wilzig
was appointed to the Jacobs board of directors on March 3 after
the company's annual shareholder meeting.
    Wilshire also said that Jacobs Chairman Joseph Jacobs has
agreed to recommend a second Wilshire nominee for election to
the board if the person was found to be qualified.
 
 Reuter

U.S. retailers posted stronger than
expected sales in February, but not enough to prompt analysts
to change their expectations of sluggish sales growth for the
first half of 1987.
     "My feeling is that it (February) borrowed some of the
business we normally see later in the quarter and the real
strength of general merchandise sales will be in the second
half of 1987," said Bear Stearns and Co analyst Monroe
Greenstein.
    "I don't think March will be as strong because Easter falls
in April this year," said Morgan Stanley analyst Walter Loeb.
   Analysts generally average the sales results of March and
April to account for the variation of Easter's occurrence.
    Analyst Edward Johnson of Johnson Redbook Associates said
sales for February rose between six and 6.5 pct, compared to a
3.6 pct increase last year.
     Analysts noted that February is considered a small,
transitory month between winter and spring.
    In addition, sales comparisons were boosted by an
especially soft February last year which was adversely affected
by severe weather.
    Apparel sales outshone other product groups in sales,
according to retailers and analysts.
    "February's strong sales reflected a lot of fresh
merchandise on the shelves and higher consumer income due to
tax reductions," said Greenstein of Bear Stearns.
    Analysts expect apparel sales to remain good as sales of
durable and houseware items grow softer due to the continuing
high levels of consumer debt.
     May Department Stores Co <MAY> and K Mart Corp <KM> were
among the strong performers, posting comparable store sales
gains of 9.4 pct and 8.2 pct, respectively. May had an overall
sales gain of 15.0 pct and K Mart had a 13.1 pct sales gain 
    "Favorable consumer response to our merchandise programs
continued to positively impact our sales comparisons. IN
addition to the strong contribution by K Mart stores, all our
specialty retailing companies had excellent February sales,"
said K Mart chairman Bernard Fauber.
    Sears Roebuck and Co <S> posted a 4.9 pct increase.
"Domestic sales were led by better than average increases in
apparel, home fashions and hardware and especially strong
catalog sales," said Sears chairman Edward Brennan.
    Analysts were a little disappointed by J.C. Penney Co Inc
<JCP> which started out with especially strong sales early in
the month. Penney posted a 5.5 pct increase on a comparitive
store basis and a 5.3 pct gain in overall sales.
    Penney chairman William Howell said, "store sales were
strongest during the early part of the month, while catalog
demand was consistently strong throughout the period.
    Store sales activity varied throughout the country, ranging
from good in the East to weak in the depressed southwest.
    Analysts also said gross profit margins were high as
retailers were not overly promotional due to leaner inventories
than a year ago.
    "February is not a big month seasonally but these numbers
suggest a fairly good trend for consumer spending," said Drexel
Burnham Lambert analyst Jeff Edelman.
    FEBRUARY SALES FOR MAJOR U.S. RETAILERS
    STORE          PCT      1987       1986
 SEARS             4.9      1.8 BILL   1.8 BILL
 K MART            13.1     1.5 BILL   1.3 BILL
 WAL-MART          44.0     885 MLN    615 MLN
 JC PENNEY         5.3      780 MLN    741 MLN
 FEDERATED         9.6      720 MLN    657 MLN
 MAY               15.0     632 MLN    550 MLN
 DAYTON HUDSON     19.5     602 MLN    504 MLN
 ZAYRE             25.7     327 MLN    260 MLN
 MONTGOMERY WARD   11.1     277 MLN    249 MLN
 Reuter

    Shr nil vs nil
    Net loss 59,922 vs loss 357,203
    Revs 714,263 vs 926,964
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said it has
acquired an 18.7 pct equity interest in Enzon Inc, a
pharmaceutical company specializing in protein therapy.
    Kodak said it secured worldwide marketing rights for three
of Enzon's PEG enzymes used in the treatment of oxygen toxicity
disorders, hyperuricemia and gout.
    The company said it acquired two mln Enzon shares for 15
mln dlrs, with loans to Enzon of two mln dlrs and interest of
30,000 dlrs credited against the purchase price.
    Kodak said the drugs covered by the marketing rights are in
initial stages of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approval process.  It said the investment should provide the
necessary capital to complete the FDA review process and
provide a marketing outlet for the drugs.
    The drugs are PEG-superoxide disdmutase and PEG-catalase,
for use against oxygen toxicity disorders that cause the
often-fatal tissue damage associated with severe burns, organ
transplants, heart attacks and trauma, and PEG-uricase, for
treatment of gout and other conditions caused by the buildup of
high levels of uric acid in the body.
 Reuter

General Electric Credit Corp is issuing a
75 mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 16, 1990 paying 15 pct
and priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
1,000 Australian dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The
    The payment date is April 16.
 REUTER

Shr 42 cts vs 1.21 dlrs
    Net 2,317,000 vs 5,847,000
    Sales 360.0 mln vs 282.4 mln
    Avg shrs 5,463,000 vs 4,829,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 4,700,000 dlr pretax charge from
writedown of land and abandonment of land and pretax charges of
5,800,00 dlrs from pending rescission offer, settlements with
U.S. agencies, adjustment of the prior booking of residuals
arising from collateralized mortgage obligation bond issues,
writedowns of land held by a joint venture, startup costs
associated with entering new markets, an increase in reserves
for customer service and writeoffs and reserves for
mortgage-related receivables to reflect current market values.
 Reuter

Brown-Forman Corp said it filed
a shelf registration covering up to 200 mln dlrs of debt
securities guaranteed by its parent company, Brown-Forman Inc.
    Proceeds will be used to retire commercial paper, to repay
some long-term debt and for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

    Shr profit nine cts vs loss 30 cts
    Net profit 317,000 vs loss 997,000
    Sales 6,338,000 vs 3,119,000
    Note: 1986 net includes extraordinary gain of 90,000 dlrs,
or two cts per shr.
 Reuter

Shr loss 19 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 851,000 vs profit 227,000
    Revs 2,600,000 vs 4,800,000
    Year
    Shr loss 46 cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net loss 2,100,000 vs profit 600,000
    Revs 9,900,000 vs 15.9 mln
 Reuter

Witco Corp said it filed with the
covering a 100 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Proceeds will be used to finance acquisitions and for
general corporate purposes, the company said.
    Witco named Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc as lead
manager and Goldman, Sachs and Co as co-manager of the
offering.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman
Manuel Johnson said that maintaining price stability was
critical to achieving non-inflationary economic growth in the
world and said that progress was being made.
    "It is worth reiterating that the Federal Reserve's
promotion of price stability is critical to the successful
implementation of virtually all of the important ingredients
for growth," he told the Eastern Economic Association.
    Johnson said initial progress has been made on a variety of
fronts. "Federal Reserve monetary policy, the
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation, the G-6 agreement, and the
Baker debt initiative for example all have moved us in the
right direction," he said. G-6 is comprised of U.S., Britain,
France, Japan, West Germany and Canada.
    On the budget deficit, Johnson said meeting precise
numerical goals was less important than a continuing commitment
toward slowing the growth of federal spending.
    There was evidence deficits as a pct of Gross National
Product were declining and would continue to drop, he said.
    But Johnson warned against reliance on inflow of foreign
capital to finance investment and the budget deficit and keep
interest rates stable.
    "This situation, however, cannot continue indefinitely.
Sooner or later progress must be made in controlling excessive
federal spending," he said.
    A disinflationary monetary policy should continue to be the
main objective of the Fed, Johnson said.
    He also said a more stable and sustainable alignment of
exchange rates was needed for long-term growth.
    On the trade deficit, Johnson warned against "quick fix"
solutions, which he identified as excessive dollar depreciation
or protectionist trade legislation.
    "What is important is that we attempt to maintain healthy
returns to capital and adopt policies encouraging genuine
economic growth," he said.
    Such an approach would finance the trade deficit but allow
for its gradual resolution over time.
 Reuter

Year to Feb 28
    Shr 1,700.3 cts vs 1,533.0
    Pre-tax 373.3 mln rand vs 341.0 mln
    Net 373.3 mln vs 336.5 mln
    Tax nil vs 4.5 mln
    Final div 900 cts making 1,600 cts vs 1,450
    Div payable April 24, register March 20
 Reuter

Switzerland's three major banks have
offered Argentina an extra 110.5 mln Swiss franc credit to help
finance the building of a heavy water plant there by Gebrueder
Sulzer AG <SULZ.Z>, Union Bank of Switzerland, UBS said.
    The three -- UBS, Credit Suisse and Swiss Bank Corp --
provided an initial 409 mln franc credit after Argentina signed
a contract with Sulzer in 1980. The plant will supply its
nuclear power industry.
    The extra credit, provided at market rates, covers extra
costs incurred due to building delays, a UBS spokesman said.
 REUTER

investment advisory partnership, said it lowered its stake in
Triad Systems Corp to 1,355,296 shares, or 17.9 pct of the
total outstanding, from 1,463,962 shares, or 19.3 pct.
Harris said it sold a net 108,666 Triad common shares between
Dec 16 and Feb 23 at prices ranging from 10.00 to 14.25 dlrs a
share.
    It said its dealings in Triad common stock were done on
behalf of its advisory client.
 Reuter

Bahrain has passed a decree approving
the establishment of the country's first stock exchange, the
Gulf News Agency reported.
    The decree placed responsibilty for the stock exchange with
the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture.
    There was no indication when the exchange will open.
    Banking sources said government officials are finalising
details of a building to house the exchange.
    Stock trading in Bahrain is currently conducted via a
telephone market.
 Reuter

Diamond-Bathurst Inc said an
explosion yesterday during a furnace rebuild at its Antioch,
Calif., facility completely destroyed the furnace.
    The glassmaker said the rest of the facility was undamaged
and there were no serious injuries.  It said it believes it is
fully covered by insurance.
    The company said it cannot yet determine the impact on the
plant's operations.
 Reuter

on creditwatch with developing implications Allis-Chalmers Corp
because of the company's recapitalization plans and intention
to sell most of its businesses.
    Allis-Chalmers' restructuring plan would include the sale
of its fluids handling and solid materials processing
businesses, S and P noted. That would leave the company with
its profitable American Air Filter Co unit.
    The company plans to drastically reduce debt with proceeds
from asset sales. In addition, it plans to exchange debt for
common stock shares, S and P said.
    Allis-Chalmers carries B-minus senior debt and C-rated
preferred stock. The firm has nearly 97 mln dlrs of debt and
preferred outstanding.
 Reuter

Datametrics Corp said it won
a 4.9-mln-dlr contract from the U.S. Army.
    The company said Datametrics will deliver printer/plotters
to the Army's Redstone Arsenal, beginning in September, 1987.
    Datametrics said it had a record backlog of funded and
unfunded projects of 31.8 mln dlrs on March 1, 1987.
 Reuter

A Treasury Department spokesman
refused comment on statements by Robert Ortner, undersecretary
of economic affairs for the Commerce Department, that the
Japanese yen was undervalued.
    Ortner, senior economist at the Commerce Department, told
an Export-Import Bank conference "the yen is still a little bit
undervalued," and "could go up another 10 or 15 pct."
    Asked for reaction, a Treasury spokesman said officials
were aware of Ortner's comments but had no intention of making
any comment on them.
    Ortner, who stressed he was expressing personal views, said
he thought the U.S. dollar was "fairly priced"
against most European currencies and added "I do not regard the
dollar as undervalued at this point against the yen," he said.
    But the yen should go up 10 or 15 pct in value, Ortner
said, because it is undervalued against the dollar.
    The United States and major trade allies West Germany,
France, Britain, Japan and Canada met recently in Paris to
discuss maintaining stability in international currency values.

 Reuter

<Royal Trustco Ltd> said it does not
plan to enter the brokerage business when ownership of Ontario
investment dealers is opened to other financial institutions on
June 30.
    "The short answer is no, we do not intend to get directly
into the brokerage business, but we will compete with it,"
chief executive Michael Cornelissen told the annual meeting in
reply to a shareholder's inquiry.
    Cornelissen said Royal Trust, Canada's second biggest trust
company, was concerned about a possible conflict of interest
between its current asset management functions and brokerage
and stock promotion activities.
    Cornelissen also cited the heavy competition in the
Canadian securities industry as a factor in Royal Trust's
decision to avoid direct involvement in a brokerage firm.
    He told shareholders, however, that Royal Trust would
continue to compete with investment dealers through its asset
management programs and discount processing of retail stock
trades.
    Royal Trust also plans to take further advantage of
networking possibilities offered by its involvement in
financial conglomerate <Trilon Financial Corp>, 50 pct-owner of
Royal Trust, Cornelissen said.
    Afterward, Cornelissen told reporters that Royal Trust's
Dow Financial Services Corp unit planned no more divestitures
after its previously reported agreement yesterday to
restructure its financial operations in Asia with joint owner
<MBF Holdings Ltd>.
    Cornelissen also told reporters the company was confident
of achieving its targeted 15 pct growth in earnings per share
this year. Royal Trust's basic per share earnings rose 16 pct
in 1986 to 2.20 dlrs.
    "With two months of the year gone, we are ahead of it (the
15 pct growth target)," he said.
 Reuter

Banque Francaise de l'Agriculture said it
is issuing for its own account a 300 mln franc, variable-rate,
seven year and 13 day domestic bond which it will lead along
with l'Union de Garantie et de Placement.
    The bond, issued at 98.30 pct, will have interest based on
the annualised money market rate (TAM) with the first coupon
paid on April 6.
    Denominations are of 5,000 francs nominal and the issue
will be quoted on the Paris Bourse.
 REUTER

Cadbury-Schweppes Plc <CADB.L> said it
had asked the London Stock Exchange to launch a formal enquiry
into dealings in the company's shares in recent months.
    It said it believed such a move was in the best interests
of shareholders following recent charges being made under U.K.
Insider dealing laws about the shares.
    Last week, former <Morgan Grenfell Group Plc> executive
Geoffrey Collier was charged with insider dealing in Cadbury
shares.
    Collier resigned from the bank last year and was later
charged with offences on deals in shares of AE Plc <AENG.L>.
    A Stock Exchange spokeswoman said she could give no
specific details about the request. An investigation would be
requested from the Exchange as it had access to the relevant
dealing records.
    If it appeared that some offence had been committed details
would be passed to the U.K. Trade Department, which had the
power to bring charges under the Companies' Act.
    No spokesman for Cadbury was immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

LIBRA BANK EXPECTS BRAZIL TO REACH DEBT ACCORD LONDON, March 5
- London-based &lt;Libra Bank Plc&gt; said when announcing its 1986
annual results that it expected Brazil to reach agreement with
its creditors over debt repayments.
    "In recent years Brazil has demonstrated its ability to
generate surpluses sufficient to service its debt, and I have
no doubt that, in due course, it will reach an agreement with
the banks and its other creditors," Libra managing director
Peter Belmont said in a statement.
    Earlier the bank, which specialises in providing finance to
Latin America and the Caribbean, announced pretax profits of
43.9 mln stg for calendar 1986, against 43 mln in 1985.
    Libra's net worth increased by 24 pct to 134 mln stg last
year, and Belmont said the improvement to the bank's balance
sheet was due to profits being mostly retained in the bank, and
to the issue of 10 mln stg of cumulative redeemable preference
shares during the year.
    Libra is a consortium bank --National Westminster Bank Plc
&lt;NWBL.L&gt;, Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. &lt;CMB&gt;, Royal Bank of Canada
&lt;RY.TO&gt;, Swiss Bank Corp &lt;SBVZ.Z&gt;, Westdeutsche Landesbank
Girozentrale &lt;WELG.F&gt;, &lt;Mitsubishi Bank Ltd&gt;, &lt;Bancomer SNC&gt;,
&lt;Banco Itau SA&gt;, &lt;Credito Italiano SpA&gt; and &lt;Banco Espirito
Santo e Comercial de Lisboa&gt; all have shareholdings.
 REUTER

IDEA Inc said it signed a
letter of intent to buy privately-held Structural
Instrumentation Inc.
    The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, will be made mostly
with IDEA common stock, the company said.
    IDEA said the purchase will add about 32 cts per share to
its fiscal 1988 earnings.
    IDEA reported earnings of four cts per share for the
quarter ended October 31, 1986.
 Reuter

FirsTier Inc said president William C.
Smith has been named chief executive officer, succeeding
Charles W. Durham, who remains chairman.
    The company said Durham had been chief executive on an
interim basis only.
 Reuter

The Fonds Special de Grands Travaux (FSGT)
is issuing a 1.7 billion franc, 9.10 pct, 12-year domestic bond
at 99.30 pct, lead manager Societe Generale said.
    The bond, guaranteed by the state, will carry warrants
exchangeable for variable-rate bonds with interest based on the
average monthly yield of long-term state bonds (TME).
    Denominations are of 5,000 francs nominal and the first
coupon of 455 francs will be paid on March 23, 1988. Both the
bonds and the warrants will be quoted on the Paris Bourse.
 Reuter

Interstate Bakeries Corp said
it has entered into a joint venture with Pain Jacquet S.A.,
Europe's leading bread baker, for distribution of a three item
French bread line.
    Interstate said terms of transaction were not disclosed.
 Reuter

    Audiotronics Corp <ADO> - Shelf offering of up to five mln
dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures due 2002 through
H.J. Meyers and Co Inc.
    Georgia Gulf Corp <GGLF> - Offering of four mln shares of
common stock through Goldman, Sachs and Co.
 Reuter

downgraded 225 mln dlrs of debt of Beverly Enterprises.
    Cut were the company's senior debt to BB-minus from BB and
subordinated debt to B-plus from BB-minus. The implied senior
secured debt rating is BB.
    S and P said the action reflected Beverly's aggressive
plans to repurchase stock that would increase financial risk
while earnings prospects become more clouded.
    Despite the planned use of proceeds from asset sales for a
portion of the buy back's costs, decapitalization would raise
adjusted debt leverage above the 75 pct level of recent years.
 Reuter

Ducommun Inc said it sold its
Airdrome Parts Co division to a group of investors headed by
Airdrome's management for a cash price of 12 mln dlrs.
    Ducommun said the sale, coupled with its sale last month of
Metermaster, were steps taken to improve the company's balance
sheet and that no further sales are being contemplated.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 472,000 vs 454,000
    Revs 16.2 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,135,315 vs 1,835,325
    12 mths
    Shr 71 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 1,393,000 vs 1,285,000
    Rwevs 61,805,000 vs 55,367,000
    Avg shares 1,960,319 vs 1,835,325
 Reuter

State-owned food company <Societa
Meridionale Finanziaria Spa - SME> is discussing possible share
exchanges and joint ventures with Unilever PLC-NV <UN.A> and
Swiss firm Jacobs Suchard AG <JACZ.Z>, a SME parent company
    A spokesman for state holding company <Istituto Per La
Ricostruzioni Industriale - IRI>, which controls SME, said the
talks were centered on "possible swaps of minority stakes and
production collaboration."
    He declined to say if SME was close to an accord with one
or both of the foreign firms.
 Reuter

Midway Airlines Inc said its February
load factor declined 1.6 pct to 55.9 pct from 57.5 pct in the
    February traffic increased 23.7 pct to 167.4 mln revenue
passenger miles from 135.3 mln revenue passenger miles at the
same time in 1986, Midway said. Available seat miles rose 27.2
pct to 299.5 mln seat miles, it said.
    For the year-to-date, Midway's load factor also decreased
1.6 pct to 54.3 pct from 55.9 pct, it said.
    Traffic for the year-to-date advanced 17.7 pct to 332.9 mln
revenue passenger miles from 282.8 mln revenue passenger miles
in the comparable period a year ago, Midway said. Available
seat miles jumped 21.2 pct to 613.0 seat miles, it said.
 Reuter

Texon Energy Corp said it has entered
into a preliminary agreement to purchase an 80 pct interest in
a privately-held specialty plastics manufacturing company it
did not name.
    Texon said completion of the acquisition is subject to the
consent of banks and third parties and the acquisition would be
made for promissory notes and common stock.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc's 49.7 pct owned
<Union Texas Petroleum Co> affiliate said it has restated its
fourth quarter and full-year losses and revenues to increase
the provision for the proposed settlement of a price dispute
involving Indonesian liquefied natural gas.
    It said the restated increases the provision against 1986
fourth quarter earnings to 23.5 mln dlrs from 15.5 mln dlrs
estimated earlier.
    Union Texas said its fourth quarter loss was increased to
29.5 mln dlrs from 21.5 mln dlrs reported previously and
revenues reduiced to 214 mln dlrs from 228 mln dlrs.
    Union Texas said for the full year it restated its loss to
57.5 mln dlrs from 49.5 mln dlrs and revenues to 1.26 billion
dlrs from 1.27 billion dlrs.
    the restatement results from a tentative agreement reached
in February with Pertamina, the Indonesian state-owned
petroleum enterprise, and Japanese purchasers of LNG.
    Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co also owns 49.7 pct of Union
Texas and the remainder is owned by management.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 787,000 vs 2,250,000
    Revs 23.6 mln vs 23.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 70 cts vs 1.06 dlrs
    Net 4,598,000 vs 6,974,000
    Revs 73.1 mln vs 73.6 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split in
 Reuter

The Reagan administration soon will
propose a program of no-fault compensation for people injured
by childhood vaccines, a senior Treasury Department counsel
told the House select revenue measures subcommittee.
    "Within the next few weeks, we expect to propose a program
that will provide equitable, no-fault compensation to injured
persons, and predictable (and hence insurable) liabilities for
vaccine manufacturers," Dennis Ross, tax legislative counsel for
treasury, said in prepared testimony.
    The Vaccine Act was signed into law last year but did not
include a funding mechanism for its compensation program.
    Ross noted 50 to 75 children a year suffer serious
long-term or injuries from adverse reactions to vaccine for
diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough alone.
    But he said lawsuits were causing drug companies like Wyeth
Laboratories and Parke, Davis and Co to stop producing
childhood vaccines.
    The administration would not favor funding compensation
through an excise tax levied on the vaccine producers because
it would add to collection and auditing burdens, Ross said.
    He did not suggest a favored funding mechanism but said
a lump-sum trust fund for compensation might be preferable.
 Reuter

The Music Shop said it signed a
stock option agreement with the <Saxon Co> calling for it to
receive 100,000 dlrs in return for 210 mln shares and an option
for Saxon to buy additional common stock for up to 400,000
dlrs.
    The company also said it will hold a special shareholders'
meeting April 15 to vote on a proposed one-for-100 share
reverse split.
    Saxon is a venture capital firm from Dallas, the company
said.
 Reuter

Imperial Chemical Industries PLC
expects earnings from its pharmaceuticals operations to grow  
to about 35 pct of world profits within the next five years
compared with a current 30 pct, chairman elect Denys Henderson
told financial analysts.
    "Over the next five years we expect to launch one major new
product each year," Henderson said.
    He also said research and development spending in this
business segment will be increased to 14 pct of total sales
income in 1987 from 13 pct, or 130 mln sterling, in 1986.
    ICI, the world's fifth largest chemicals firm in terms of
sales, recently reported 1986 profits of about 888 mln dlrs on
15 billion dlrs in sales, compared with income of 817 mln dlrs
on 15.87 billion dlrs in sales a year earlier.
    Sales in the United States totaled about three billion
dlrs, ICI executives said.
    In addition, Henderson said overall corporate growth will
come from ICI's research and development activities, but the
company intends to continue to grow through an acquisition
program.
    ICI spent just under one billion dlrs for acquisitions
during 1986, the largest of which was the 580 mln dlr purchase
of Cleveland, Ohio-based Glidden Inc, a paints, resins and
coatings company, from <Hanson Trust PLC>.
    ICI financial director Alan Clements said the company's
borrowing limits are at a level of about 6.3 billion sterling,
1.5 billion of which have already been used.
    While the company has no current plans for a major
acquisition, "we are ready to move quickly in the acquisition
field if the need arises," Clements said.
 Reuter

SafeCard Services Inc said
its board declared a three-for-two stock split and is
maintaining the quarterly dividend on post-split shares at the
same six cts it now pays for an effective 50 pct increase.
    Both the split and the dividend are payable April 30 to
 Reuter

Oper shr profit two cts vs loss 31 cts
    Oper net 72,000 vs loss 1,130,000
    Sales 7,896,000 vs 9,333,000
    1st half
    Oper shr profit 32 cts vs profit eight cts
    Oper net profit 1,187,000 vs profit 299,000
    Sales 21.3 mln vs 26.0 mln
    NOTE: Current year net excludes tax credits of 54,000 dlrs
in quarter and 945,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Dutch Social Affairs Minister Louw de
Graaf announced he is withdrawing the annual 10 mln guilder
labour subsidy for Rotterdam's strike-hit general cargo sector
as from July 1.
    Late last month de Graaf said that if the dispute was not
settled by Monday this week he would withdraw the subsidy.
    The chairman of the port employers' organization, SVZ,
Jacques Schoufour, said he was unhappy with the decision and
added there was now no alternative to proceeding with
redundancy plans.
    The series of strikes in the sector started on January 19
in protest at employers' plans to make 800 redundancies from
the 4,000-strong workforce by 1990 starting with 350 this year.
    Meanwhile, the port and transport union, FNV, attacked loss
figures given for the port for this year.
    The figures, issued by accountants on behalf of the SVZ,
put total losses for last year at 34 mln guilders and in 1985
at 37 mln. Earlier, the employers had put the figure at around
30 mln.
    The FNV said the actual losses were nearer 17 to 20 mln and
said the employers had inflated the figures as part of their
plan to restructure completely the port's general cargo sector.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc said February
load factor rose to 56.5 pct from 53.1 pct a year before.
    The company said revenue passenger miles rose to 1.95
billion from 1.66 billion a year before and available seat
miles rose to 3.45 billion from 3.14 billion.
    For the year to date, the company said load factor rose to
56.4 pct from 52.8 pct a year before, as revenue passenger
miles rose to 4.10 billion from 3.66 billion and available seat
miles rose to 7.26 billion from 6.92 billion.  The 1986 figures
exclude recently-acquired Ozark Air Lines Inc.
 Reuter

S.A.Y. Industries Inc said it
expects a loss of about two mln dlrs in its third quarter ended
February 28 from the proposed sale of its Omnilab Inc health
care unit.
    S.A.Y said its board of directors approved the unit's sale
because Omnilab was losing about 140,000 dlrs a quarter.
    "We no longer see a near-term prospect for a reasonable
return on our investment," Romilly Humphries, S.A.Y. president
and chief executive officer said.
    S.A.Y. said proceeds from the sale would be used to
increase the company's market share in automotive products
packaging and diversify its packaging capabilities.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said it is
reviewing the eligibility for continued listing of Heck's Inc's
commonn stock after the company announced that it has filed a
voluntary petition under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp said it filed a
registration statement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for an offering of four mln depositary shares.
    Each depositary share represents one quarter share of a
convertible exchange preference share. The liquidation
preference of each depositary share is 50 dlrs.
    Quarterly dividends on the preference shares are cumulative
and are payable beginning July 1, 1987.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem outstanding five dlr
convertible exchangeable preference shares, to repay bank debt
and for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Shr profit 26 cts vs loss 86 cts
    Oper net profit 780,000 vs loss 2,609,000
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 5.28 dlrs vs loss 1.11 dlrs
    Oper net profit 16.1 mln vs loss 3,311,000
    Revs 64.9 mln vs 69.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net excludes 598,000 dlr tax credit.
    1986 net includes pretax gains on sale of property of
2,330,000 dlrs in quarter and 24.5 mln dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Paradyne Corp said a hearing is
scheduled in the Federal District Court in Tampa today for
criminal charges against it and eight of its present and former
    The charges pertain to the 1981 and 1982 Social Security
Administration Equipment and Software Development Contracts.
    Paradyne said it will issue announcements with respect to
the 1985 indictments and other proceedings after today's
hearings.
    Miriam Frazer, a spokeswoman for Paradyne, said the major
charge was for conspiracy to defraud the Social Security
Administration in the procurement of a contract award to
upgrade their computer network operation.
    The contract is valued at about 80 mln dlrs and the
equipment is currently installed and operating at the agency,
Frazer said.
    If found guilty, the sentence would likely be a fine for
the company, and fines or imprisonment for the individuals,
 Reuter

Orient-Express Hotels Inc said it
reached agreement in principle to sell four hotels and the
SeaCo Business Park near Houston for a total consideration of
54 mln dlrs, payable 51.8 mln dlrs in cash.
    The company said it is expected the sales will be concluded
within 90 days. The purchasers have asked not to be identified
until the completion of the sales, it added.
    Orient-Express said its board has decided not to raise new
equity capital at this time, explaining the proceeds from the
planned sales will be sufficient to pay all the company's
immediate obligations and leave resources for investment.
    Orient-Express said the Turnberry Hotel and Golf Courses in
Scotland will be sold but the company will retain a 20 year
managment contract.
    It said the Lodge at Vail, Colo., will be sold and leased
back for 10 years with tghe option to extend the lease.
    The company said the Royal York hotel in York, England, and
the Lochalsh Hotel at the Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland will be
sold to a British hotels group and Orient-Express will have no
further involvement in these properties.
    The company said it expects to make improvements to its
Italian hotels soon and is considering Italian acquisitions.
 Reuter

Delta Air Lines Inc said February load
factor fell to 54.1 pct from 59.9 pct a year before.
    The company said revenue passenger miles rose 4.1 pct to
2.48 billion from 2.39 billion a year before and available seat
miles rose 15.3 pct to 4.60 billion from 3.99 billion.
    For the first two months of calendar 1986, Delta said load
factor fell to 52.1 pct from 56.7 pct a year before, as revenue
passenger miles rose 4.7 pct to 4.97 billion from 4.75 billion
and available seat miles rose 14.0 pct to 9.55 billion from
8.37 billion.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs 12 cts
    Net 248,000 vs 647,000
    Revs 23.7 mln vs 21.9 mln
 Reuter

UAL Inc's United Airlines said it is
adding flights into Los Angeles International Airport between
now and June.
    United said it will be adding flights between Los Angeles
and  Phoenix, Ariz., Oakland, Calif., Sacramento, Calif.,
Chicago and  Salt Lake City.
 Reuter

signed a definitive agreement for the previously-announced
acquisition of Lincoln Savings Bank.
    The company said the transaction is still subject to
 Reuter

First Eastern Corp said it has
completed the acquisition of Peoples Bank of Nanticoke, Pa., in
an exchange of 11 First Eastern shares for each Peoples share.
    Peoples has assets of about 24 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The African Development Bank (ADB) opened
a regional office in Rabat which will cover Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Somalia.
    Babacar N'Diaye, president of the Abidjan-based bank, said
the regional office, headed by Tunisia's Hedi Meliane, will try
to consolidate and diversify Arab-African relations, the
Moroccan news agency MAP reported.
    N'Diaye said the ADB intends to increase its capital by 200
per cent by next June. This will allow it to invest about eight
billion dollars in the next five years, he said..
 Reuter

Bishop Graphics Inc
said it completed the sale of its Newport Beach Art Supply
Center to Standard Brands Paint Co's <SBP> Art Store unit.
    Bishop also said it has opened a new sales and service
office in Irvine, Calif.
   
 Reuter

Striking Brazilian seamen, who say
they have made idle 158 ships and halted Brazilian exports,
today held pay talks in Rio de Janeiro with Labour Minister
Almir Pazzianotto, union officials said.
    Jorge Luis Leao Franco, a senior official of the National
Merchant Marine Union, told Reuters he was optimistic the talks
would lead to an end of the stoppage, which began last Friday.
    Brazil's 40,000 seamen are seeking a pay rise of 275 pct.
    The union official said the strike had halted a total of
158 vessels, including 50 in Brazil's main port, Santos, and
about 50 more in Rio de Janeiro.
    Abroad, six ships lay idle, in the Netherlands, Spain,
Venezuela, France and South Africa, he said.
    Economic analysts said the strike was of serious concern to
the government, which has already had to suspend interest
payments on part of Brazil's foreign debt following a drastic
deterioration in the country's trade balance.
    The head of the National Merchant Marine Authority, Murilo
Rubens Habbema, was quoted in today's Gazeta Mercantil
newspaper as saying that if the strike continued foreign ships
could be authorized to transport Brazilian exports.
    "Brazil is living through a crisis at the moment, and it is
not conceivable that exports be hit," he said.
    "But even using foreign ships we must not forget that we are
going to lose foreign exchange paying freight charges abroad,
and all this through the fault of the seamen," Rubens Habbema
said.
    A spokesman for the port of Santos, which has been the
scene of labour unrest and congestion in recent months, said
movement of ships out of the port was running at about half its
normal level of 12 ships a day.
    He said a total of 76 ships were either waiting at anchor
on moored in the harbour.
 Reuter

FED'S JOHNSON SAYS DOLLAR IS VERY CLOSE TO APPROPRIATE EXCHANGE RATE LEVEL

Meridian Diagnostics Inc said it has
developed a rapid diagnostic test for endemic or murine typhus
infections caused by Rickettsii typhi and transmitted by flea
bites.
    It said the product will be sold to hospitals, physicians,
commerical laboratories and veterinarians by <Integrated
Diagnostics Inc>.
 Reuter

MEDIQ Inc said it has filed a
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to set up
its Copelco Financial Services Group Inc unit as a publicly
traded leasing company.
    MEDIQ said it could gain 6.2 mln dlrs on the move.
    MEDIQ said as part of the move it will offer MEDIQ common
and preferred shareholders the right to purchase one share of
the 1.2 mln Copelco shares for each 20 shares of Mediq owned as
of March 20, 1987, for five dlrs a share.
    MEDIQ said the shareholders may not exercise the rights for
fewer than 100 Copelco common shares and the rights will expire
30 days after issuance.
    MEDIQ added that the rights and shares will trade on the
over-the-counter market under the symbols <CFSGR> and <CFSGW>,
    Later, it said, they will trade on the NASDAQ system under
the symbol <CFSG>.
 Reuter

Qtly div 37-1/2 cts vs 37-1/2 cts prior qtr
    Pay 1 April
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 11 cts vs loss 2.45 dlrs
    Oper net profit 3,594,000 vs loss 81.9 mln
    Revs 38.5 mln vs 48.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes 68.5 mln dlr gain from debt
extinguishment.
    1985 net includes 72.0 mln dlr writedown of drilling rigs.
 Reuter

HITK Corp said its Worldwide 800
SErvices telemarketing unit has added Nipon Electric Co and
Murdoch Publishing to its list of clients.
    HITK said Nipon will use the service for promotion and
sales to hotels and individuals. Murdoch will use the service
to sell subscriptions.
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs loss 32 cts
    Net loss 2,585,000 vs loss 2,885,000
    Sales 27.6 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Avg shrs 9,352,000 vs 9,049,000
    1st half
    Shr loss 63 cts vs loss 94 cts
    Net loss 5,867,000 vs loss 8,405,000
    Sales 51.9 mln vs 43.7 mln
    Avg shrs 9,349,000 vs 8,966,000
    NOTE: Prior year net includes tax credits of 1,827,000 dlrs
in quarter and 5,347,000 dlrs in half.
 Reuter

YEUTTER SAYS U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT REDUCTION KEY TO TRADE DEFICIT SOLUTION

Shr 40 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 1,369,602 vs 628,193
    Revs 12.5 mln vs 4,909,369
    Avg shrs 3,460,217 vs 2,610,913
    Year
    Shr 97 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 2,952,830 vs 1,414,369
    Revs 37.0 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Avg shr 3,031,494 vs 2,609,313
    Note: Prior qtr and year per share figures restated for 10
pct stock dividend of December 1986.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs nil
    Net 9,949,000 vs 3,799,000
    Revs 15.5 mln vs 13.5 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts prior
    Record March Five
 Reuter

Qtly div 22 cts vs 22 cts prior
    Record April 10 
 Reuter

Shr loss 46 cts vs loss 1.17 dlrs
    Net loss 4,990,000 vs loss 12.8 mln
    Revs 47.0 mln vs 42.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 3.08 dlrs vs loss 1.28 dlrs
    Net loss 33.7 mln vs loss 13.3 mln
    Revs 132.8 mln vs 132.5 mln
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 10.4 mln
    NOTE: Includes losses of 501,000 vs 83,000 in qtr and 2.2
mln vs 83,000 in year from equity of 50 pct-owned companies.
 Reuter

<Energy Optics Inc> said it has
been selected by the U.S. Navy to develop a low cost, optical
triangulation system.
    Energy Optics said the Navy awareded a Phase I contract to
investigate various analog and digital design alternatives and
select the best for development and demonstration of a
prototype.
    The company's statement gave no value for this contract,
but said this task is expected to take six months.
 Reuter

Stanley Works said it has acquired Acme
Holding corp, a maker of sliding and folding door hardware, and
the designs, patents and other righs of Plan-A-Flex Designer
Co, which provides kits for home design and remodeling
projects.
    It said Acme had 1986 sales of over 50 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said it
sold 17 seats on the New York Futures Exchange, three for 200
dlrs, unchanged from the previous sale on February 25, and 14
for 100 dlrs, down 100 dlrs.
    The Exchange said the current bid is 100 dlrs and the
current offer is 300 dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 7-1/2 cts vs 7-1/2 cts prior
    Record March 27 
 Reuter

Qtly div 45 cts vs 45 cts prior
    Record March 20 
 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs eight cts prior
    Pay May 11
    Record April 24 
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said that some U.S. banks have been too rigid in
talks with lesser developed countries on debt refinancings and
warned that a breakdown of the renegotiation process could be
harmful.
    "There have been some difficulties in those negotiations ...
banks have sometimes been too rigid," Johnson said in response
to a question during an address before the Eastern Economic
Association, an academic group.
    "I think there have been potential breakdowns in that
process," he said, adding that an actual breakdown "would be very
unfortunate."
    He declined to comment on the situation of specific nations
and said it was not the Fed's role to become involved in such
talks.
    However, he said it was "always a little bit risky" for a
heavily indebted nation to seek refinancing without first
negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on economic
reforms. He added that he remains optimistic that current talks
would be resolved successfully.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 14 cts vs loss 31 cts
    Oper net profit 374,000 vs loss 707,000
    Revs 19.1 mln vs 15.5 mln
    Avg shrs 2,610,000 vs 2,560,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 20 cts vs loss 69 cts
    Oper net profit 530,000 vs loss 1,376,000
    Revs 69.1 mln vs 64.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,603,000 vs 2,565,000
    NOTE: Excludes gain of 309,000 dlrs vs loss 72,000 dlrs in
qtr and gains of 458,000 dlrs vs 23,000 dlrs in year from tax
loss carryforwards. Includes gains of 76,000 dlrs and 378,000
dlrs in 1985 qtr and year, respectively.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said the rapid recent growth in corporate and
household debt burdens posed risks to the economy but should be
kept in perspective.
    The heavy debt load "is one of our major concerns ... the
risks are significant," he said in response to questions from
the Eastern Economic Association, an academic group.
    However, he added, the recent bull market on Wall Street
had also made corporate equity levels soar, keeping corporate
debt to equity ratios about constant.
    Similarly, he said household net worth has increased at a
faster pace than household debt "so that household debt-to-asset
ratios have once again gone down."
    Nonetheless, "I think that it's something to watch
carefully, and obviously it's something we do," he said.
 Reuter

A reduction of the U.S. federal budget
deficit will be needed to help eliminate the nation's huge
trade deficit, U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter said.
    Speaking to the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Yeutter said "Capital and trade flows are clearly
inter-releated now.
    "Unless we get the budget deficit down, we will not get the
trade deficit down."
    He did not elaborate on his views of the linkages between
the two deficits.
    Private analysts have said that the financing of large U.S.
budget deficits requires heavy capital inflows from overseas
investors through purchases of U.S. Treasury and, to a lesser
extent, other U.S. securities as well.
    "We'll make some progress in reducing the 170 billion dlr
trade deficit in 1987, but there's still a long way to go,"
Yeutter said.
    He said the problem must be approached on many fronts and
focus most strongly on U.S. and overseas fiscal and monetary
policies to foster economic growth, U.S. competitiveness and
the establishment of a "level playing field" for trade.
    The U.S. trade representative said the Federal Reserve
under Chairman Paul Volcker has done its part to improve the
trade situation by getting interest rates down.
    On the fiscal side, Yeutter said "the budget deficit is
still our biggest problem" and there has not been enough
progress toward reducing that deficit.
    In the international area, he said that "our major trading
partners could still do more to stimulate domestic growth."
Commenting on Japan, which is running around a 80 billion dlr
trade surplus with the United States, Yeutter said "Japan is
just not doing the job on the import side."
    Yeutter declined to comment on statements relating to the
dollar made earlier today by Commerce Dept undersecretary of
Economic Affairs Robert Ortner.
    In a Washington address to an Export-Import Bank sponsored
meeting, Ortner said he believed the dollar at current levels
was fairly priced against most European currencies, but that
the yen is 10 or 15 pct undervalued.
    "The market will determine the dollar's proper value in the
end," Yeutter said. However, he added that, if the U.S. and
other nations do not take the necessary steps to cut the U.S.
trade deficit, "the dollar will be the equalizer."
    Yeutter said there is no quick fix to the trade problem and
any resort to such tactics as protectionist trade legislation
or trade restrictions poses real dangers.
    He said "there's relatively little that Congress can do to
legislate a solution to the trade problem."
    Protectionist legislation will only provoke retaliation by
U.S. trading partners, Yeutter said.
    "There is no doubt in my mind about the willingness of our
trading partners to retaliate against unfair trade
legislation," Yeutter said, adding that policy flexibility is
essential in solving international trade problems.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.18 dlrs vs 58 cts
    Oper net 2,266,000 vs 1,037,000
    Revs 45.8 mln vs 41.4 mln
    Avg shrs 1,924,000 vs 1,800,000
    NOTE: Excludes gain of 73,000 dlrs vs 290,000 dlrs from
benefit of tax loss carryforward.
    Results for Tel Aviv, Israel-based company translated at
rate of one dlr to 1.485 new Israeli shekels.
 Reuter

 REUTER...

World Bank president Barber Conable
said he believed that Brazil would come up with a medium term
economic plan and that the current debt moritorium would be
temporary.
    Speaking briefly to reporters following an address before
the Export-Import Bank, Conable said that the bank had been
urging the Brazilian government to come up with a specific plan
designed to work the country out of its present economic
difficulty.
    "Brazil would like to come up with such a plan," he said,
adding: "the moritorium is likely to be a temporary affair."
    During his formal remarks, Conable made it clear that he
believed Brazil must take some specific internal action.
    He said "they have everyone's attention but it must be
followed by a construtive plan."
    He said that he expected Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson
Funaro, who he met with last week to discuss the Brazilian debt
suspension action, to return for further discussion but did not
currently have a specific meeting arranged.
    Conable also told the gathering of mostly commericial
bankers that in order for the Baker debt initiative to work all
parties to the program must be on board.
 Reuter

Polydex Pharmaceuticals Ltd <POLYXF>
said the Canadian unit of American Home Products Corp's Ayerst
Labs subsidiary will probably receive marketing and
distribution rights to its cholesterol lowering drug Dexide,
now in clinical trials in Canada.
    George Usher, president of Dextran Products Limited, the
Canadian subsidiary of Polydex, said that the company will file
in August to both U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities to
receive marketing approval for the drug. He also said that
American Home Products would quite possibly get distribution
rights to the drug in the U.S.
   
 Reuter

Tandem Computers Inc said it expects
higher earnings and revenues in its second fiscal quarter
ending March 31 against a year ago.
    "We feel we will continue to see higher growth in the
quarter," James Treybig, president and and chief executive
officer, told a meeting of securities analysts.
    In the second fiscal quarter last year, Tandem earned
9,950,000 dlrs or 29 cts per share on revenues of 176.3 mln
dlrs.
    Treybig declined to offer specific projections for the
quarter but he said the results might be lower than those for
the first quarter of fiscal 1987, when Tandem earned 27.1 mln
dlrs or 58 cts a share. He said Tandem's second quarter is
traditionally slower than the first.
    L.F. Rothschild Unterberg Towbin analyst Frederic Cohen
estimated Tandem's second quarter net at 40 to 45 cts per
share. For the full year, he said he expects the computer maker
to earn about 2.40 dlrs a share. In fiscal 1986, Tandem earned
1.44 dlrs a share.
    Treybig, who founded the Cupertino, Calif.-based company,
said he has seen a rebound in computer orders in the United
States. "The U.S. economy is picking up, and buying decisions
are being made. We didn't see that a year ago," he said.
    The executive said Tandem will increase its research and
development spending to about 100 mln dlrs this year from 87
mln dlrs in fiscal 1986.
    He said the company plans to introduce several products,
including two low-end systems and a data base that uses the SQL
programming language, an industry standard. Tandem also won a
major order from the <Bank of Tokyo>.

 Reuter

FED'S JOHNSON SAYS HE DOES NOT SEE INCREASING PRESSURE ON INTEREST RATES

Australia accused the U.S. of increasing
protectionism on agricultural products and called for an end to
Washington's special 32-year exemption from certain GATT rules
on agricultural trade.
    Robert Arnott, Australia's delegate to the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), made the appeal at a
special annual meeting which reviews the 1955 U.S. waiver.
    "Australia today said the United States' goals of reducing
U.S. barriers to agricultural trade were being contradicted by
actions which in fact increased protection in trade in
agriculture," the Australian delegation said in a statement.
    "The United States section 22 waiver is one of the basic
flaws in the GATT coverage of agriculture," Arnott told the
meeting.
    Arnott said the waiver had continually been used as a
justification for "dubious protective measures" by the U.S. He
listed a recent Dairy Export Incentive Program and steps to
close the U.S. sugar market to imports.
    He also told Reuters the waiver allowed Washington to
impose quotas on imports of farm products where it had domestic
support programs. This covered imports of dairy products,
peanuts, cotton and sugar.
    Asked to comment, Michael Samuels, U.S. ambassador to the
GATT, told Reuters: "These charges have been made since the very
beginning. The waiver is part of domestic U.S. agricultural
policy, part of our law when we joined the GATT".
    "We have agreed to put the waiver on the table during the
Uruguay Round and invite other countries to do the same with
their programs. We can negotiate them all," Samuels added.
    Ninety-two nations are taking part in the four-year Uruguay
round of talks launched in Punta del Este last September.
Bargaining in agricultural goods and services (banking,
tourism, insurance) is included for the first time as well as
manufactured goods.
 Reuter

Freymiller Trucking inc said
it has filed for an initial public offering of one mln common
shares, including 250,000 to be sold by its principal
    Lead underwriters are Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> and
Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards Inc.
    Freymiller is a long-haul truckload carrier specializing in
temperature-controlled and time-sensitive deliveries.  It said
proceeds will be used to reduce debt and buy equipment.
 Reuter

Manor Care Inc said vice
chairman Stewart Bainum Jr., 40, has been named chairman and
chief executive officer, succeeding his father Stewart Bainum
Sr., 67, who becomes vice chairman and chairman of the finance
committee.
 Reuter

Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> expects
currency factors to cause a further drop in its U.S. Sales in
1987 following a 5.2 pct sales decline in the United States in
1986, board member Karl-Heinz Briam said.
    Briam, who described the current situation of the U.S.
Market as critical, also said VW was uncertain whether it would
be able in 1987 to fully match its record 1986 European sales.
    In 1986 the VW group, which includes Audi AG <NSUG.F>,
delivered a record 981,000 vehicles to European markets outside
of West Germany, a rise of 5.1 pct against 1985, Briam told a
regular quarterly meeting of the Wolfsburg plant's workforce.
    Briam said sales conditions in Europe had generally become
more difficult in 1987 because of weaker growth rates and
fiercer competition in the region.
    Briam gave no forecast for VW domestic sales. But he said
car sales in West Germany for all manufacturers combined would
probably fall by a slight three to four pct from 1986's record
2.73 mln because car sales in West Germany had likely passed
their peak for this business cycle.
    Summing up his predictions, Briam said limits to growth
were becoming apparent on the VW group's most important markets
but there were no grounds for great worries.
    The automobile industry, as far as VW was concerned, had
entered its fourth consecutive good year, with VW's incoming
orders and sales remaining favourable overall, he said.
    Briam, who is VW's director of labour relations, also said
VW currently had no plans for further increases in its
workforce.
    He told the plant's workforce that an
internationally-active company like VW must be able to adjust
to changed economic conditions and manage situations in which
unfavourable currency relations restrict its room for financial
maneuver.
    Briam said VW needed to hold and expand market share in
order to overcome its cost disadvantages compared with some of
its foreign competitors, particularly those in the Far East.
    This could only be done if capital-intensive plants were
used as fully as possible, if the workers' qualifications were
raised through comprehensive training and if working hours were
arranged so that expensive production plants operated as
efficiently and soundly as possible.
    The metalworkers union IG Metall has said it plans to push
for a 35-hour working week in its sector of West Germany
industry this year.
    Walter Hiller, the chairman of VW's works council, told the
same Wolfsburg meeting that a cut in the working week to 35
hours was necessary to help reduce unemployment.
    He said the works council was prepared to negotiate on
making working hours more flexible to suit the needs of both
the company and the workforce.
    A seven-week strike by IG Metall in the summer of 1984 for
a 35-hour week in the West German metal industry ended in a
compromise that cut hours to 38.5 hours but also allowed each
company in the industry to decide, in consultation with the
workforce, how the reductions should be made.
 REUTER

Freeport-McMoran Gold Co (FMG),
a unit of Freeport-McMoran Inc <FTX>, said it will explore and
develop gold properties in Canada in a joint venture with <Aber
Resources Ltd> and <Highwood Resources Ltd>, both Canadian
    FMG said the area is located on the Bugow property on the
northeast arm of Great Slave Lake, about 75 miles from
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.
    FMG said that under the agreement it will either spend 7.4
mln dlrs over the next four years, or bring the property into
the feasibility stage over that time.
    FMG said during that time it will pay Aber and Highwood
775,000 dlrs in cash that, together with the 7.4 mln dlrs, will
earn FMG a 51 pct interest in all leases and claims.
    FMG said all expenditures and payments are in Canadian
dollars.
 Reuter

Charles Haughey, leader of the Irish
party Fianna Fail, said if he becomes prime minister following
last month's Irish general election, he will seek the advice of
the EC Commission on management of the country's 24 billion
punt foreign debt.
    Haughey told a news conference he is confident of being
asked to form a government when the Irish parliament meets next
Tuesday. Fianna Fail won 81 of the 166 seats in the February 17
poll. Haughey said an offer of Commission help on debt
management was made to him today by Commission president
Jacques Delors.
    Haughey said:" Delors assured me we could have full recourse
to the Commission for advice, guidance and expert skills in
dealing with our overall financial problems, particularily in
the matter of debt management."
    Noting current debt servicing charges are about two billion
punts a year, he added :"If we could achieve any significant
improvement in the management and reduction in the cost of
servicing, it could have significant budgetary benefits."
    He added that he would seek advice, not a Community loan.
    However, Haughey said Ireland had in the past used its
position within the EMS to make borrowings in Europe at
favorable interest rates, notably for onlending to its farming
sector.
    "It is a mechanism which we have availed ourselves of before
and we would look at it again," he said.
     Haughey said he regarded as "almost paramount" the
maintenance of the punt's current position within the European
Monetary System.
    He criticized the attitude of the outgoing Irish government
in recent EMS realignments -- the punt was devalued by eight
pct last August.
    "Until 1983, the policy of the Irish government was to was
to adopt a neutral stance in any realignments within the EMS. I
believe that policy was right," Haughey said.
                     
 Reuter

First Union Corp said it has
agreed to acquire First State Bancshares Inc of Pensacola,
Fla.,  and its First State Bank of Pensacola subsidiary for
about 457,000 common shares.
    First State has assets of about 110 mln dlrs.  The
acquisition, expected to be treated as a pooling of interests,
is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 1987
subject to approval by regulatory agencies and First State
 Reuter

Oppenheimer and Co analyst Robert
McAdoo raised his 1987 earnings estimate for NWA Inc, parent of
Northwest Airlines, following a strong quarterly report by the
company yesterday, according to Oppenheimer market strategist
Michael Metz.
    NWA shares rose 1-5/8 to 74-3/8 in active trading.
    McAdoo raised his 1987 estimate to 7.50 dlrs a share from
five dlrs and maintained a buy recommendation on the stock,
Metz said.
    McAdoo was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
    Yesterday, Minneapolis-based NWA reported fourth quarter
net of about 9.8 mln dlrs or 45 cts a share against a loss of
two mln dlrs or nine cts in the 1985 quarter.
    For the year, earnings rose to 76.9 mln dlrs or 3.26 dlrs
from 73.1 mln or 3.18 dlrs. The 1986 results include Republic
Airlines since NWA acquired it Aug 12, 1986.
 Reuter

A House Agriculture Committee meeting
later today to draft a disaster aid bill is expected to spark a
debate between lawmakers who want to expand the 0/92, or
"de-coupling," provision to cover feedgrains, and those who
oppose 0/92 or want it severely limited, Congressional sources
said.
    The disaster aid bill as it now stands calls for a one-year
0/92 pilot program for 1987 crop wheat and the 1988 winter
wheat crop. The bill would allow farmers to forego planting and
still receive 92 pct of deficiency payments.
    The administration has strongly urged that the bill be
expanded to feedgrains and to more than one year.
    It is difficult to tell in what form the 0/92 provision
will emerge from the committee, the sources said.
    Proponents of an expansion of 0/92 maintain there are large
estimated cost savings of such a bill -- ranging from estimates
by the administration of 200 to 500 mln dlrs.
    Opposition to a reopening of the 1985 farm bill at this
time is the major reason cited by those against an expansion of
the bill, committee staffers said.
    The 0/92 plan is scheduled to be discussed at 1530 EST. A
conflicting floor vote delayed the start of the meeting, and
staffers said it may have to be delayed even until next week.
    Such a delay would not bode well for proponents of an
expanded 0/92 program, since spring planting in many areas of
the country will be underway in the next few weeks and signup
for the 1987 wheat and feedgrains program ends March 30.
    Farmers are now making their planting decisions, so
something has to be done quickly if a 0/92 program is to be
implemented, an Agriculture Department source said.
    An expansion of 0/92 to feedgrains was opposed in last
week's subcommittee hearing on the bill, with subcommittee
chairman Dan Glickman, D-Kan., saying that more study of the
consequences of decoupling on feedgrains plantings was
necessary.
    Major commodity groups, including the National Corn
Growers, the American Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen's
Association, have voiced strong opposition to 0/92.
    But proponents of an expanded 0/92 argue that the bill
currently is not equitable for all grains producers, so it
should be extended to other crops.
    There will be difficulty in limiting 0/92 to wheat, said
Gene Moos, aide to house majority leader Tom Foley, D-Wash.
    Projected cost savings, in the current atmosphere of try to
decrease farm expenditures, would also be hard to ignore in the
debate to expand the 0/92 application, Moos said.
    Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Tex., may be planning to introduce
a bill to restrict 0/92 to only 1987 crop wheat, with the
argument that now is not the time to vote in favor of any major
changes in the farm bill.
    "Stenholm's bill is not a rejection of 0/92, only of the
timing," a congressional staff member said.
    Rep. Arland Stangeland (R-Minn.) is reported to have an
amendment to expand the 0/92 provision to 1987 and 1988
feedgrains.
 Reuter

J.C. Penney Co said it will sell
telemarketing services to other companies through a newly
established wholly-owned subsidiary, Telemarketing Network Inc.
    The New York-based subsidiary will use a network of 14
telemarketing centers Penney has already established. The
centers are part of its catalog marketing operation.
    A large domestic motel chain already uses the network for
its reservations services, Penney said.
    Frank Engels, director of telemarketing, was named chairman
of the new subsidiary.
 Reuter

Zehntel Inc said it filed a
Commission covering a proposed public offering of 13.5 mln dlrs
principal amount of convertible subordinated debentures.
    The offering will be managed by Sutro and Co Inc, Zehntel
said.
    It said proceeds from the proposed sale will be used to
repay bank debt, fund a deposit of the first three interest
payments on the debenture, repurchase 350,000 common shares at
4.46 dlrs per share from former parent company Plantronics Inc
<PLX> and to fund future product development and marketing.
 Reuter

Yellow Freight System Inc said
its expects 1987 first quarter profits to be substantially
below the 14.2 mln dlrs or 50 cts a share earned in the same
period a year ago.
    Revenues have been depressed by recent price discounting,
added costs from expansion programs, lower shipping volumes and
increased costs associated with severe weather conditions
on the East coast, company officials told analysts here.
    An industry-wide rate hike of 2.9 pct, set for April one,
will cover Yellow Freight's upcoming labor and other costs but
will not make a contribution to operating margins, it said.
 Reuter

Novacor Inc, a unit of <Nova,
an Alberta Corp>, said it would raise prices for U.S. customers
by five cts a pound on linear low-density and low-density
polyethylene, effective April 1.
    The company did not immediately disclose the actual new
prices.
    A Novacor official later said in reply to an inquiry that
the new prices, effective April 1, would range from 31 U.S. cts
a pound to about 38 cts.
    The official said the increase reflected improved market
conditions, although he noted the new prices would still be
lower than those of three years ago.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it is closing
two plants for brief periods in March, placing 5,500 on
temporary layoff for up to two weeks.
    The company said its Hamtramck Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac
assembly plant in Detroit will be down from March 9 to March 16
due to excess inventory of several models, placing 2,000
workers on temporary layoff.
    Its Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada assembly facility in
Norwood, Ohio, will be closed two weeks from March 9 to 23 due
to material shortages, affecting 3,500. There is no change in
the 37,000 hourly workers out of work indefinitely.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust Co is raising 200 mln
dlrs through an offering of subordinated equity contract notes
due 1997 with an eight pct coupon and par pricing, said lead
manager Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    That is 87 basis points more than the yield of comparable
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated Aa-3 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and AA by Standard and Poor's
Corp. Salomon Brothers Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

The 20 pct stake in Moulinex SA <MOUP.PA>
sold by <Scovill Inc> of the U.S. Was spread among at least 50
institutional investors worldwide, a spokesman for brokers
James Capel said. Capel handled the deal.
    The buyers were based in centers ranging from Europe to
North America and Japan, he added.
    Moulinex's capital is split among Jean Mantelet, president
of the company, with 42 pct, along with private investors
holding 38 pct and the 20 pct which has just been sold, company
sources said earlier in Paris.
 REUTER

Carl Icahn's bold takeover bid for
USAir Group <U> has clouded the fate of Piedmont Aviation Inc,
which was being courted by USAir.
    Yesterday, Icahn's Transworld Airlines Inc <TWA> made a 1.4
billion dlr offer for USAir Group. The move complicated a USAir
takeover offer for Piedmont, which was believed to be close to
accepting the bid.
    Today, USAir rejected Icahn's 52 dlr per share offer and
said the bid was a last-minute effort to interfere in its
takeover of Piedmont. Icahn was unavailable for comment.
    Piedmont fell one to 68-5/8 on volume of 963,000. TWA was
off 3/8 to 31-1/2. USAir fell 1-3/8 to 47-3/4 as doubt spread
it would be taken over.
    Analysts and market sources view the TWA bid as an attempt
to either trigger a counter offer from USAir or to attract a
suitor who might want both airlines once they merged.
   "The next move is either Icahn starts a tender offer or
Piedmont and USAir announce a deal," speculated one arbitrager.
    Some arbitragers said there is now some risk in the current
price of Piedmont since it is not clear that USAir's bid will
succeed.
    Piedmont's largest shareholder and other suitor, Norfolk
Southern Corp <NSC> has offered 65 dlrs per share for the
company. USAir offered 71 dlrs cash per share for half of
Piedmont stock, and 73 dlrs per share in stock for the balance.
    Some arbitragers, however, believe the depressed price of
Piedmont offers a buying opportunity since the airline is
destined to be acquired by someone. USAir, they said, is the
least likely to be bought.
    Icahn, who has long talked about further consolidation in
the airline industry, also offered USAir the alternative of a
three-way airline combination, including TWA and Piedmont.
    But Wall Street has given little credibility to Icahn's
offer, which lacked financing and was riddled with
contingencies.
    Still, he has succeeded in holding up a merger of two
airlines - both of which analysts said would fit well with TWA.
    "You can't discount him," said one arbitrager.
    Analysts, however, said Icahn would have to prove he is
serious by following through with his threats or making a new
offer. In making the offer for USAir, Icahn threatened to go
directly to shareholders for 51 pct of the stock at a lower
price if USAir rejected his offer.
    "It's clear Icahn wants to sell and he's bluffing," said
one arbitrager.
    Analysts said the 52 dlr per share offer was underpriced by
about six dlrs per share.
    Some analysts believe Icahn's proposed three-way airline
combination might face insurmountable regulatory hurdles, but
others believe it could be cleared if the companies are
acquired separately.
    "TWA would have to be the surviving company for the deal to
work," said one analyst.
    Analysts said such a merger would be costly and
complicated. TWA has the best cost structure, since Icahn
succeeded in winning concessions from its unions.
    In order for the other carriers to come down to TWA's wage
scale in a merger, TWA would have to be the surviving entity,
    Such a move does not necessarily free Icahn of TWA, they
said. They said he showed skill in reducing Ozark Airlines'
costs when he merged it into TWA last year, and he might be a
necessary ingredient for a merger to work.
    However, other analysts speculated the managements of
Piedmont and USAir would not tolerate Icahn as head of a new
company. They said a USAir acquisition of TWA might be a way
for him to exit the company if USAir's airline is then merged
into TWA.
 Reuter

Baker International Corp treasurer Eric
Mattson said the company hoped to iron out snags in a proposed
merger with Hughes Tool Co <HT> but declined to say if or what
compromises might be acceptable to it.
    The proposed merger that would create a 1.2 billion dlr
oilfield services company was thrown into limbo yesterday when
Hughes management, balking at the terms of a government consent
decree, offered a counter-proposal to Baker.
    Earlier today, Hughes adjourned a shareholders meeting
called to vote on the proposed merger until March 11 and said
it hoped to resume negotitations with Baker.
    Hughes chairman W.A. Kistler told reporters that Hughes did
not want to sign the Department of Justice consent decree until
after Baker's submersible pump and drilling bit operations were
sold.
    Mattson told Reuters that Baker still believed a merger was
possible between the two giant oilfield service companies.
    "The company's position is we would like to see the merger
be completed, which is in the best interests of our
shareholders and their shareholders," Mattson said.
    "Our goal is for a merger to occur. Because of the
litigation, I can't go any further than that," he said.
    Baker filed a lawsuit in Texas state court late yesterday
to force Hughes to abide by terms of the proposed consent
decree.
    Mattson also declined to comment on whether the directors
of Baker and Hughes have scheduled any meetings to discuss the
merger.
 Reuter

LUCKY STORES INC REINSTATES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND AT 12.5 CTS PER SHARE

Eastern Airlines Inc said its February
load factor rose 6.73 percentage points to 64.91 pct from 58.18
pct a year ago.
    The company said February revenue passenger miles rose 21.8
pct to 3.02 billion from 2.48 billion a year ago. Available
seat miles in the month of February rose 9.2 pct to 4.66
billion from 4.27 billion a year ago.
    For the year-to-date period, load factor was up 4.64
percentage points to 61.96 pct from 57.32 pct a year ago, the
company said. Revenue passenger miles rose 14.5 pct to 6.01
billion, and available seat miles rose 5.9 pct to 9.70 billion.
 Reuter

Homestead Financial Corp
said it has increased the dividend on its Class A common shares
to 6-1/4 cts a share, from five cts prior, while declaring an
initial dividend on its Class B common stock of 3-3/4 cts a
share.
    Homestead said the two classes of stock emerged as part of
its recapitalization plan which also doubled the number of
authorized common, comprising both classes, to 11 mln shares.
    Homestead said the dividends are payable on April 6, to
shareholders of record March 20.
    Homestead also said that class b shareholders who want to
increase their dividends may exchange their shares for an equal
number of class A shares on or before March 20.
 Reuter

Oper shr 52 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper net 626,013 vs 613,127
    Sales 4,544,929 vs 4,402,572
    NOTE: Earnings exclude extraordinary securities loss of
29,532 dlrs, or two cts a share vs a gain of 81,358 dlrs, or
seven cts a share

 Reuter

The chairman of TRW, inc said his
company had overcharged the government on defense contracts but
promised to prevent the improper conduct from recurring.
    "There were a number of instances of mischarging and other
irregularities in TRW's defense contracting business," TRW
chairman Ruben Mettler said in testimony to the House Oversight
subcommittee.
    "As the person ultimately responsible for the management of
TRW, I am determined to do everything in my power to prevent
any recurrence," Mettler said.
    TRW holds over 3 billion dlrs in defense contracts.
    Subcommittee chairman John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat,
said TRW was being sued by the Justice Department and was being
investigated by federal grand juries in Colorado and Cleveland.
    Mettler said the overcharges had been uncovered by TRW's
internal procedures and all were reported to the government.
    "In every case we advised the government of our findings and
committed to make restitution. We immediately put a stop to the
practices in question and disciplined those who were culpable,"
he said.
    Mettler said TRW had hired a new chief financial officer, a
vice president of internal audit and a corporate controller. He
said the internal audit department was being strengthened and a
corporate review board had been established to monitor
compliance activities.
    He said a business ethics and conduct council had also been
created and over 15,000 managers and employees would be given
training programs on contract compliance.
 Reuter

China has added 90,000 tonnes of U.S.
wheat to its purchases for delivery in the 1987/88 season and
cancelled 30,000 tonnes of wheat purchases for delivery in the
1986/87 season, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    According to the department's Export Sales Report covering
transactions in the week ended February 26, China has
outstanding wheat commitments for the 1986/87 season of 30,000
tonnes and 420,000 tonnes for delivery in the 1987/88 season.
    The wheat season begins June 1.
    China has total corn commitments for 1986/87 of 1,011,200
tonnes and soybeans commitments of 157,500 tonnes.
    The season for corn and soybeans began September 1.
 Reuter

Opec Conference President Rilwanu Lukman
said the group was producing well below the 15.8 mln bpd
ceiling it set in December, partly because liftings had been
delayed or postponed by customers unwilling to pay fixed Opec
prices.
    Lukman, during a brief visit to London on his way home from
Jamaica, told Reuters in a telephone interview that in
February, Opec had underproduced partly because members were
strictly abiding by production quotas and partly because they
were resisting the temptation to sell at discounts to official
    "We are determined to stand firm by the (December) accord,"
he said. "I have spoken to every other Opec minister and they
are committed to making the accord work," he said.
    Lukman gave no specific figures for February output. He
said the Opec secretariat in Vienna was finalizing these
figures.
    Told of a Reuters survey published today which estimated
that Opec output so far this week was below 15 mln bpd, he
said; "That could well be correct."
    Opec"s news agency Opecna today issued a statement saying
group output was "well below" its ceiling in February. But it
gave no figures.
    But one source close to Opec indicated that February output
may have been between 15.3 and 15.5 mln bpd.
    The Reuter survey estimated Opec February output at around
16 mln bpd.
    Opec agreed in December to cut output by 7.25 pct to 15.8
mln bpd and to return to fixed prices starting February 1.
    Lukman said Qatar, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran had all
produced in February below their Opec quotas. Iraq, which said
it would not honour its 1.466 mln bpd quota under the December
pact, had produced less than had been anticipated, he said.
    Lukman said that some industry reports "may be correct" that
in February, Nigeria propuced 75-100,000 bpd below its 1.238
mln bpd quota, Saudi Arabia 500,000 bpd less than its 4.133 mln
allocation and Qatar 20 to 30 pct under its 285,000 bpd quota.
    He said that sweet crudes such as those produced by his
country were coming under price pressure because they were
currently officially priced above sweet North Sea grades and
the United States" West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude.
    However, he said Opec in December had anticipated that
demand would be slack at this time of year for seasonal reasons
and expected the market to firm in two to three weeks.
    "We have to be patient for two or three weeks. The market is
now firming on actual fundamentals," he said, adding that he
expected it to go "up and up" even beyond official prices after
early April. This is when, traditionally, there is more demand
for gasoline-rich crudes such as Nigeria"s.
    The Opec President said producers such as Kuwait, Venezuela
and Indonesia were having less problems with output than
producers like his own country because they exported oil
products.
    Also, some of Venezuela"s heavy grades were outside the Opec
pricing system, he said.
    Lukman said that if refiner-buyers, now refusing to lift
some Opec oil at official prices, instead used their own stocks
and ran them down to "dangerous levels," they would eventually
have to buy Opec oil.
    "When they realise it is not a free-for-all (in the market)
they will realise they should buy now instead of paying more
later on," he said.
    Lukman, asked about industry reports that Nigeria was being
pressured by equity producers for better terms, said it was
important to know that terms with them were negotiable,
flexible and under constant review, not only when the market
seemed weak.
    He said that so far, no meeting of the seven-nation
ministerial differentials committee had been scheduled and that
such a meeting, now twice-postponed, was not a high priority
for Opec at the moment.
    "At this time, we have to get our priorities right," he said.
"The most important thing now is ensuring that the accord is
working, not dealing with a differential of cents between
grades."
    But if any Opec member raised concerns or objections over
the differential system, a meeting would be called, he said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12.5 cts vs nil
    Pay April 3
    Note: in quarters preceeding 4th qtr, dividend was 29 cts.
 Reuter

House Majority leader Thomas Foley
(D-Wash.) has urged Congress to give the farm credit system a
few more months to reorganize itself before rushing into a
federal rescue of the system, a senior aide to Foley said.
    Gene Moos, agricultural aide to the Majority leader, told
Reuters that while Foley believes action will be necessary
later this year to rescue the system, a bail-out package is not
necessarily needed immediately.
    Foley's view appears to differ with the Senate leadership
who have said they hope to have farm credit legislation under
consideration before Congress breaks for Easter April 9.
    Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.) chairman of the Senate
Agriculture subcommittee responsible for the farm credit issue,
last week pledged to consider a bill before Easter. Boren said
his subcommittee would proceed even if neither the system's
regulator, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) nor the system
itself ask for aid.
    Chairman of the FCA Frank Naylor, like Foley, has 
expressed caution about rushing to a bail-out, prefering to
wait a few months and keep pressure on the system to reform
itself, farm credit sources said.
 Reuter

Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., has
introduced a bill to create an international debt adjustment
facility to deal with third world debt.
    He said in a statement the facility would purchase debt of
a debtor nation at a discount and then sell the loans to
private investors. LaFalce said the facility could use funds of
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as collateral to
for the necessary financial banking to issue debt instruments.
    LaFalce, a member of the House Banking Committee, said the
facility was needed because most American banks were refusing
to fund more foreign debt and debtor countries were having
trouble paying the loans on schedule.
 Reuter

Over 750,000 head of cattle are suffering
the effects of a severe shortage of feed as a result of a
prolonged drought in the normally rich sugar and cattle
producing province of Camaguey, the newspaper Granma reported.
    The province produces 23 pct of Cuba's beef and is the
island's number two province in milk production. Granma said
20,000 head of cattle are now in imminent danger.
    The newspaper said a "cattle emergency" had been decreed and
the cattle are being rounded up.
    Some 110,000 head have been transferred to the sugar cane
conditioning centers where newly harvested cane is cleaned
before being sent to the mills. The cattle are being fed the
residue left after cleaning the cane stalks. 32,000 head have
been sent to nearby provinces of Las Tunas and Ciego de Avila.
    Despite Cuba's ambitous cattle development plans, beef
rationing has been in effect over the past 25 years. In Havana,
each Cuban receives approximately 3/4 lb of rationed beef every
18 days.
    In a major area hit by drought, San Miguel, practically no
rain has fallen in the past 14 months. Grazing lands are
parched and the region was unable to produce 117,000 tonnes of
silage projected in its annual plan.
    Granma said rainfall over the past year has been less than
50 pct of normal precipitation.
 Reuter

The Commerce Department on Monday
will set final dumping duties on frozen orange juice from
Brazil, department officials said.
    A preliminary duty of 8.54 pct was set last Oct 17 on the
imports, which run at about 700 mln dlrs a year. Commerce's
ruling on Monday will reset the duties on the basis of more
detailed cost information, industry officials said.
    The duties now are being assessed on a temporary basis,
pending a final ruling by the U.S. International Trade
Commission (ITC) on whether the imports are injuring the
domestic orange industry.
    The ITC ruled provisionally last June 18 that the domestic
industry was being injured by Brazilian orange juice imports.
    A complaint that the Brazilian imports were being dumped at
below costs on the U.S. market was filed on behalf of U.S.
growers by the Florida Citrus Mutual, a Lakeland, Fla., group,
Alcoma Packing Co, Inc, and Barry Citrus Products.
    U.S. officials say about half of the orange juice consumed
in the United States comes from Brazil.
 reuter

 Reuter

Calny Inc director and former
president and chief executive officer said he is resigning from
Calny's board because of the company's recently announced
lawsuit against Pepsico Inc <PEP> and its La Petite
Boulangerie.
    In a statement, Larvive said the suit is a "lose-lose"
situation for Calny, which is the only franchisee for La Petite
Boulangerie and is the largest francisee of PepsiCo's Taco Bell
Corp.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs eight cts
    Net 1,364,712 vs 881,082
    Rev 11.6 mln vs 11.5 mln
    NOTE: Qtr includes extraordinary gain of 586,826 dlrs, or
six cts a share, versus 183,850 dlrs or two cts a share in
fiscal 1986's first qtr.
 Reuter

Endevco Inc said it has agreed to acquire
a 17.5-mile, 16-inch pipeline in Marion and Pearl River
Counties, Mississippi, for undisclosed terms.
    The company said the pipeline was recently constructed from
the Poplarville gas field in Pearl River County to a proposed
interconnect with a pipeline operated by Occidental Petroleum
Corp's <OXY> United Gas Pipe Line Co subsidiary in Marion
County but has nmot been placed in service.
    Endevco said it plans to extend its existing Mississippi
Fuel Co System in southern Mississippi 18 miles to the new
pipeline.
 Reuter

completed the purchase of 112 mln tons of recoverable coal
reserves in Pike County, Ky., from Rouge Steel, a unit of Ford
Motor Co <F>.
    Norfolk Southern said the deal involves about 30,000 acres
of coal bearing properties that will be administered by the
company's Pocahontas Land Corp unit.
 Reuter

Qtly div 65-1/2 cts vs 65-1/2 cts prior
    Record March 19
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts previously
    Pay May 29
    Record May Eight
 Reuter

FFB Corp, parent of the First
Federal Bank of Connecticut FSB, said it declared an initial
quarterly dividend of five cts per share.
    The company said the dividend is payable March 31 to
holders of record March 17.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it plans to
offer driver-side airbags as standard equipment on 500,000  
cars in the 1990 model year and up to three mln by 1992 if a
federal safety rule is relaxed for domestic automakers.
    A GM spokesman said the statement comes in advance of a
congressional hearing tomorrow in Washington on a proposed
extension of a federal deadline for installation of "automatic
occupant protection systems" on all cars beyond the current
September, 1989, target.
    GM previously said it would offer airbags as optional
equipment on its 1988-model Oldsmobile Delta 88 models.
   
 Reuter

Radtech Inc said its board has
removed Ronald G. Williams as chairman and chief executive
officer and has elected President Samuel A. Francis chief
exeuctive officer.
    Williams is the majority owner of <Forum Cos Inc>. On
December 12, Radtech exchanged 10 mln of its shares for 20,000
Forum shares. Of the 10 mln, 7.5 mln went to Williams and 2.5
mln to Forum's other owner, <Audley Inc>. In addition to the 10
mln shares involved in this transaction, Radtech has 9.9 mln
shares outstanding.
    On January 27, Radtech said, it announced an agreement to
rescind the Forum transaction.
    Radtech said six mln of its shares held by Williams and the
20,000 Forum shares were turned over to Radtech's attorney's.
Subsequent to the rescission agreement, however, Williams and
Audley have refused to recognize Radtech's position that a
recission has occurred, it said.
    On March 3, the company said, its attorneys filed an action
in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
giving control of both blocks of stock to the court and asking
it to rule on the recission.
    Radtech said it intends to defend its position in the legal
proceeding, which names the company, Williams and Audley, that
the rescission has occurred, that all 10 mln shares it issued
should be returned, and that the 600,000 dlrs of Radtech funds
used by Forum should be returned.
    The company also said a dispute exists whether Williams
continues to serve on its board.
 Reuter

UNION CARBIDE SAYS OPERATING PROFITS FOR 4th qtr WERE 181 MLN DLRS VS LOSS THREE MLN DLRS

MONEY MARKET FUND ASSETS ROSE 552.5 MLN DLRS IN LATEST WEEK TO 237.46 BILLION

<Toronto Dominion Bank> will hold a news
conference tomorrow to make "a major announcement" about its 
Green Line Investor Service, which provides discount brokerage
services to customers, a bank spokesman said.
    The spokesman declined further comment except to say bank
president Robert Korthals would be available to answer
questions tomorrow.
    Toronto Dominion started Green Line in February 1984 and
became the first Canadian bank to offer discount brokerage
services. The Ontario government recently said banks will be
permitted to buy brokerage firms after June 30.

 Reuter

Combined International Corp should have
another strong year, President Patrick G. Ryan told analysts,
although he declined to forecast earnings specifically.
    In 1986, the company reported operating income of 5.51 dlrs
a share, up from 4.84 dlrs a share a year earlier. Revenues
increased to 1.81 billion dlrs from 1.36 billion dlrs.
    Ryan said Combined is testing a direct response long-term
care product through its Union Fidelity Life Insurance Co and
has plans to offer it through Ryan Insurance Group.
    In answer to a question on Combined's possible exposure to
AIDS-related health claims, Ryan said it was "minimal" although
he conceded that every carrier who provides coverage is
vulnerable.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson said
large inflows of capital into Canada, principally into the
country's bond market, is a major reason behind the sharp
recovery in the Canadian dollar.
    He said the inflow of funds, mainly from Japan, Europe and
the United States, is the result of "confidence in the
direction this country is going in."
    "That is the reason why the (Canadian) dollar today is
higher than 75 cts (U.S.) compared to this time last year (when
it was) a little over 69 cts," Wilson told the House of Commons
daily question period.
    Figures released this week show foreigners purchased a
record 23.1 billion dlrs of Canadian bonds in 1986, more than
double the previous year, with Japan investing a record 9.5
billion dlrs in the market.
    Wilson was responding to opposition party questions about a
possible loss of jobs from the rise in Canadian investment
abroad. Canadian investment, including the buying of foreign
companies, stocks and bonds, rose to 12.53 billion dlrs from
6.19 billion dlrs in 1985.
    The minister said the flow of funds from abroad would
generate many new jobs in Canada.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Credit Co, a unit of Ford
Motor Co, is raising 250 mln dlrs via an offering of notes due
1990 yielding 6.95 pct, said lead underwriter Goldman Sachs.
    The notes have a 6-7/8 pct coupon and were priced at 99.80
to yield 47 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated A-1 by Moody's
and AA by Standard and Poor's.
    On October 7, 1986, the credit unit sold 200 mln dlrs of
same-maturity notes, rated A-1/A, that were priced to yield
7.172 pct or 77 basis points over Treasuries.
 Reuter

Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd is
offering 100 mln dlrs of certificate of deposit notes due 1992
yielding 7.28 pct, said sole manager Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc.
    The notes have a 7-1/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.875
to yield 61 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated a top-flight
Aaa by Moody's Investors Service Inc but AA by Standard and
Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs three cts
    Net 549,000 vs 72,000
    Rev 7.0 mln vs 2.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 49 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,441,000 vs 801,000
    Rev 19.6 mln vs 9.7 mln
   
 Reuter

Pitt-Des Moines Inc said it will
acquire <Chicago Steel Corp> in exchange for a portion of its
stock.
 Reuter

Giant Bay Resources
Ltd said a metallurgical study of its Gordon Lake gold deposit
indicated an overall recovery of 95 pct to 96 pct of the gold
can be achieved by either direct cyanidation of ore or
flotation followed by cyanidation of concentrate.
    Continuation of an underground program on the property will
begin in June, extending an existing drift along the
200-foot-level where the main ore zone was encountered, Giant
Bay said.
    The company did not elaborate on production figures for the
property.
 Reuter

Alltel Corp is raising 50 mln dlrs
through an offering of debentures due 2022 yielding 8.90 pct,
said lead manager Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    The debentures have an 8-7/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.726 to yield 135 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
    Non-callable for five years, the issue is rated A-3 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and A by Standard and Poor's
Corp. Stephens Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Evans and Sutherland Computer Corp said
it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a
registration statement covering a 50 mln dlr issue of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2012.
    Proceeds will be used for working capital, Evans and
Sutherland said.
    The company named Hambrecht and Quist Inc as lead
 Reuter

Manor Care Inc said its
chairman and chief executive officer, Stewart Bainum Sr., has
resigned his post.
    The company said he is being replaced by his son, Stewart
Bainum Jr., who has served as vice chairman the past five
years.
    Bainum Sr. was the founder of Manor Care, a nursing home
and hotel operator.
 Reuter

Northern Indiana Public Service Co
said its five-year construction budget for 1987-1991 will be
793 mln dlrs, almost all of which will be internally generated.
    The utility said in its 1986 annual report that this
budget, primarily for electric and gas equipment and
facilities, is some 57 mln dlrs lower than its estimate a year
ago of spending for 1986-1990. Such spending at its peak was
2.6 billion dlrs for 1980-1984.
    It said the Tax Reform Act of 1986 will probably not have a
material effect on its operating results. In December it cut
59.4 mln dlrs from a 135.8 mln dlrs rate request before the
Indiana Public Service Commission because of the affect the tax
act will have on operating results.
    The rate request is still pending, a spokesman said.
 Reuter

Atlantic City Electric Co
said it will redeem all of its outstanding 5-7/8 pct cumulative
convertible preferred stock.
    The stock will be redeemed April 30 at the scheduled
redemption price of 101.50 dlrs a share plus accrued and unpaid
    The shares are also convertible until the redemption date
into common stock at the rate of 3.5 common shares for each
preferred share. The company has 10,855 of the 5-7/8 pct
preferred shares outstanding, it said.
 Reuter

Top U.S. and European farm trade and
government representatives called for a sweeping reform of
world agriculture to redress a critical demand and supply
imbalance.
    Speakers at a conference on world agricultural markets here
demonstrated a growing U.S.-European consensus on the need for
an urgent and collective overhaul of world farm trade and
    "It is vital that we work together to bring more freedom and
harmony into the world agricultural trade...(if not) the
disruptions in markets may grow even more severe, the walls of
protection climb higher and the level of possible retaliation
become more harmful," U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy
Administrator William Bailey said.
    Bailey said his attendance at the two-day meeting, which
ends tomorrow, demonstrated the U.S. recognises the need to
adjust its policies to the changing market environment.
    The need for urgent reforms is justified by the "imbalance
and tensions of the world economy," the secretary general of the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Jean-Claude Paye said.
    And the forum for such a reform is the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade, he noted.
    Paye stressed the need for a progressive and joint
reduction of agricultural subsidies as well as social measures
to help farmers in unprofitable areas.
    Another possible solution would be to stop supporting farm
prices, allowing them to be fixed by supply and demand, and
instead help farmers through income support and adjustment
aids, proposed James Howard, Executive Vice-president of
Cargill (USA), one of the world's largest cereal houses.
    Franz-Josef Feiter, agricultural adviser to West German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, agreed the European Community must take
greater heed of market constraints in fixing farm prices.
    However, "differentiated policy treatment is required" to
take account of large disparities in the situation around the
EC, he said.
    "Agriculture is an efficient sector of the European economy
and will remain so if the right policy is pursued within the
Community," he said.
 Reuter

Northgate Exploration Ltd said it
appointed John Kearney as president of the company, effective
    A company spokesman said Patrick Hughes, who previously was
both president and chairman, will continue as chairman and
chief executive officer.
    Kearney had been executive vice-president of Northgate.
 Reuter

Rexcom Systems Corp said it agreed to
buy all the assets of Postech Inc from Comtech Group
International Ltd, a Canadian computer service company, for 70
pct of Rexcom's voting shares.
    The purchase will be for Rexcom common and preferred stock.
    Postech, the Canadian firm's U.S. marketing arm, sells
computerized restaurant management systems and security systems
in the U.S.
    The deal is subject to approval by the boards of Postech
and Rexcom.
 Reuter

Conservation Service (ASCS) bought 2.3 mln pounds of peanut
products at a cost of 2.1 mln dlrs and 7.4 mln pounds of
vegetable oil/shortening for 2.0 mln dlrs, for domestic
distribution April 1-15 and April 16-30, an ASCS spokesman
said.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 709,000 vs 3,605,000
    Rev 86.4 mln vs 87.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.79 dlrs vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 7,452,000 vs 4,695,000
    Rev 362.8 mln vs 316.0 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gains from sale of non-operating
assets of 800,000 dlrsm versus 1.2 mln dlrs in 1985.
    1985 net includes nonrecurring cost of 2.6 mln dlrs and
provision for separation pay of 1.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Norman Matthews has been elected president and chief operating
officer.
    Matthews has been vice chairman of the company since 1984,
and corporate executive vice president prior to that post, the
company said. The president's position has been vacant since
1982, it added.
    Federated also said it elected Allen Questrom as its
executive vice president. Questrom will continue in his present
position as chairman and chief executive officer of the Los
Angeles-based Bullock's/Bullocks Wilshire department store
division, a subsidiary of Federated, the company said.
 Reuter

Venezuela's recent agreement with its
creditor banks reprograms six billion dlrs of its 21 billion
dlr public sector foreign debt rescheduling and reduces
repayments due between 1987 and 1992, Finance Minister Manuel
Azpurua said.
    Azpurua was commenting in a television interview on
Friday's agreement to lower the interest margin to 7/8 pct over
Libor from 1-1/8 pct and extend the period to 14 years from
12-1/2.
    He said in addition to the reduction in amortizations over
the next three years sought by the government, agreed at 1.35
billion dlrs instead of 3.335 billion, Venezuela will also pay
less in the subsequent three years. The accord runs till 1999.
    Azpurua said that in 1990, payments of restructured debt
are lowered to 1.05 billion dlrs from 1.339 mln, to 1.25
billion from 1.994 mln in 1991 and to 1.45 billion from 2.403
billion in 1992.
    He said the contingency clause implemented by Venezuela
soon after the original rescheduling was signed in February
1986 stays in effect and that the new payment schedule is based
on an assumption of oil prices varying between 15 and 18 dlrs a
barrel.
    Venezuela, hit by a 40 pct drop in oil income last year,
had sought a direct link between repayments and the level of
oil income, but banks resisted on the grounds this could create
a dangerous precedent for other Latin American debtors.
    Azpurua said the new terms have been telexed to Venezuela's
450 creditor banks for acceptance with information on
government plans to draw up debt capitalization rules and
return to the capital markets.
    Public finances director Jorge Marcano said the government
plans to issue dollar, mark and yen denominated bonds this year
for amounts varying between 100 and 150 mln dlrs.
    He noted that some existing Republic of Venezuela bond
issues are maturing, and that the government intends to replace
them with new issues to maintain its presence in the capital
markets and encourage new investments through an enhanced
credit image.
 Reuter

to draft a disaster aid bill containing a controversial 0/92
provision has been postponed until next Tuesday, committee
staff members announced.
    The bill contains a provision implementing a 0/92 acreage
reduction plan for 1986 wheat and 1987 winter wheat, thereby
making payments available to farmers who were not able to plant
last year's winter wheat crop because of flooding.
    Controversy exists over whether the 0/92 provisions of the
bill should be expanded, cut back or left as is.
 Reuter

Pacific Southwest Airlines said its
average load factor during February was 54.9 pct, down from
56.1 pct a year earlier.
    In the first two months of the year the load factor totaled
51.5 pct, down from 54.0 pct a year ago.
    Revenue passenger miles in February totaled 327.6 mln,
compared to 295.5 mln. So far this year, revenue passenger
miles totaled 640.2 mln, compared to 600.5 mln.
    Available seat miles in February totaled 596.6 mln, up from
526.8 mln a year ago. Year to date available seat miles totaled
1.24 billion, compared to 1.11 billion a year ago.
 Reuter

Reuters while Foley believes action will be necessary later
this year to rescue the system, a bail-out package is not
    "He (Foley) is willing to give Mr. Naylor some time in this
regard," Moos said.
    Moos predicted Congress will begin serious action on a
rescue package sometime this summer. Any package of legislation
is unlikely to include large federal outlays of money, he said.
    "I  don't see a big infusion of federal bucks," said Moos,
adding that the more likely outcome will be federal guarantees
of borrower stock and bonds held by investors.
 Reuter

Union Carbide Corp said its 1986
long term debt was 3.06 billion dlrs compared to 1.71 billion
dlrs in 1985.
    The company released its audited 1986 results.
    The company also said its long term debt was reduced by
about 1.5 billion dlrs from the third quarter to the end of the
year by asset sales and equity offerings. Union Carbide sold
its battery products, home and automobile products and
agricultural products businesses in 1986. In the fourth
quarter, it offered 30 mln shares of stock, raising about 650
mln dlrs.
    The asset sales and equity offering were part of a
recapitalization plan undertaken by the chemicals company last
year.
    Audited net earnings in 1986 of 496 mln dlrs or 4.78 dlrs a
share compared to a 1985 loss of 581 mln dlrs or 2.78 dlrs were
unchanged from the company's preliminary earnings report made
on Jan 28. The earnings results for the fourth quarter were
also unchanged.
    Included in the 1986 numbers are a 564 mln dlr gain from
sale of the different businesses, a 270 mln dlr pension credit
and a charge of 473 mln dlrs from the purchase of long term
debt at a premium under the recapitalization.
    In the audited results released today, the company broke
down results by business segment.
    Operating profit in the fourth quarter for all of the
company's operations on a consolidated basis, before corporate
and interest expense and taxes, was 181 mln dlrs against a loss
of three mln dlrs in the 1985 quarter.
    In the year, operating profit was 791 mln dlrs compared to
a loss of 253 mln dlrs in 1985.
    In a statement, the company said it defeated a hostile
takeover attempt, by GAF Corp <GAF>, and recapitalized the
company, adding, "While all this was going on, our continuing
businesses performed very soundly, with substantial operating
profit improvement over 1985."
    Carbon products posted operating profit of eight mln dlrs
in the quarter, down from 29 mln dlrs, and 49 mln dlrs in the
year against a loss of 146 mln dlrs.
    Chemicals and plastics had fourth quarter operating profit
of 122 mln dlrs compared to a year-ago loss of 49 mln dlrs. In
the year, chemicals and plastics earned 472 mln dlrs against
losses of 142 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Operating income at industrial gases rose to 64 mln dlrs
from 55 mln in the quarter and to 276 mln dlrs from 222 mln in
the year.
    The company's specialties and services segment cut its
losses in the quarter to 13 mln dlrs from 40 mln dlrs and in
the year to three mln dlrs from 181 mln dlrs.
    Eliminations of business conducted between the company's
industry segments contributed two mln dlrs to fourth quarter
1985 profits but did not affect the 1986 quarter. The
eliminations caused losses of three mln dlrs compared to six
mln dlrs in the year.
    The 1985 operating results include a host of unusual
writeoffs and depreciation charges totaling 134 mln dlrs in the
quarter and 906 mln dlrs in the year.
    Capital expenditures rose to 524 mln dlrs in 1986 from 501
mln dlrs.
    By segment, spending at carbon products fell to 42 mln dlrs
from 57 mln dlrs and spending fell at specialties and services
to 126 mln dlrs from 143 mln dlrs.
    At chemicals and plastics, expenditures rose to 147 mln
dlrs from 133 mln and at industrial gases they rose to 209 mln
dlrs from 168 mln dlrs.
    The company's cash and equivalents fell to 299 mln dlrs at
year end from 430 mln dlrs at year end 1985, after a net
decrease of 131 mln dlrs during 1986.
    Current assets at year-end fell to 2.41 billion dlrs from
4.43 billion dlrs and current liabilities fell to 1.88 billion
dlrs from 2.38 billion.
 Reuter

Shr loss 49 cts vs loss 1.36 dlrs
    Net loss 928,835 vs loss 1,648,665
    Year
    Shr loss 33 cts vs loss 4.21 dlrs
    Net loss 593,533 vs loss 4,970,951
    Assets 203.9 mln
    Loans 151.5 mln
    Deposits 192.0 mln
    Note: 1986 loss included non-recurring expenses of
1,275,000 dlrs comprised of asset write-downs, legal proceeding
and a 930,000-dlr provision for loan losses.
 Reuter

Eurotunnel, the Anglo-French channel
tunnel consortium, will offer potential backers a wide choice
of ways to invest in a planned 750 mln stg capital issue later
this year, co-Chairman Alastair Morton said.
    Speaking to reporters after a shareholders meeting, he said
Eurotunnel would offer "a menu of securities" designed to
overcome investor reluctance.
    Details are still to be worked out but investors could be
offered a choice of paying immediately for shares or buying
them on a part-paid basis, or buying convertible bonds, or
bonds with warrants giving a right to buy shares at a later
date, he said.
 Reuter

Cabot Medical Corp said it has
introduced a new high flow insufflator for laparoscopy, a
minimally invasive form of adominal surgey.
    The company said the KLI high-Flow Insufflator has features
and capabilities which were previously available only in
insuffulators costing three to four times as much. Labaroscopy
procedures, especially involving lasers, have grown in
popularity, it pointed out.
 Reuter

Kurt Wulff, oil analyst at Donaldson,
Lufkin and Jenrette Securities, said he has retired from the
brokerage firm and will work as a consultant to the firm.
    Wulff said he also plans to start a money management firm.
    As a consultant to Donaldson, Lufkin, Wulff will continue
to give advice on oil stock values to DLJ clients. He will also
continue to write reports that will be published by the
brokerage firm.
    Wulff is a shareholder activist and has several resolutions
pending before oil companies for vote at their annual meetings.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 8,877,000 vs 9,530,000
    Revs 342 mln vs 278.9 mln
    Avg shrs 39.4 mln vs 34 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.91 dlrs vs 1.62 dlrs
    Net 70.5 mln vs 50.5 mln
    Revs 1.3 billion vs 990.5 mln
    Avg shrs 37 mln vs 31.3 mln
    NOTE: On Dec one, 1986, company acquired Holt, Rinehart and
Winston and W.B. Saunders and The Dryden Press and their
foreign subsidiaries. By including these companies for the
single month of December 1986, 4th qtr earnings were raised by
seven cts per shr and for the year by eight cts per shr.
 Reuter

Lone Star Industries Inc said
it has agreed to acquire ready-mixed concrete and aggregates
businesses from <Riedel International Inc> of Portland, Ore.,
for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Lone Star's one sentence statement gave no further details
and company spokesmen were not available.
 Reuter

Shell Francaise <SFMF.PA>, a subsidiary of
<Shell Petroleum NV>, returned to the black last year for the
first time since 1982, with parent company net profit of 43 mln
francs against losses of 968 mln in 1985 and 1.07 billion in
1984. In 1982 it posted a profit of 329 mln.
    The company said in a statement that cash flow had improved
strongly although it remained negative at 182 mln francs
against 1.34 billion in 1985, due largely to improved
performances by its main profit centres.
    It said the results could have been even better had it not
been for the collapse of refining and sales profit margins in
the last quarter of the year.
    In 1986 Shell sold 14.74 mln tonnes of oil products against
14.52 mln tonnes in 1985.
    The company said the results were in line with its targets
for the second year of its three-year recovery programme.
    Meanwhile, <Societe Shell Chimie) said it also returned to
profit in 1986, for the first time since 1976, posting net
profit of 160 mln francs against a 1985 loss of 57 mln. No
other details were available.
 Reuter

Brazil has suspended the importation
of 500,000 tonnes of maize ordered last year because of the
excellent domestic maize harvest expected this year,
Agriculture Minister Iris Resende said.
    The Agriculture Ministry expects a record maize crop of
27.7 mln tonnes, a 36 pct increase on last year's crop of 20.3
mln tonnes.
    Brazil's total grain crop is expected to be 65.3 mln
tonnes. "This is a record in the history of Brazilian
agriculture," a ministry spokesman said.
    Resende announced suspension of the maize imports at a news
conference in Brasilia yesterday.
    The ministry spokesman said he had no other details on the
maize transaction.
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 584,100 vs loss 459,500
    Sales 1,339,800 vs 1,6390,800
    Year
    Shr loss 64 cts vs loss 79 cts
    Net loss 1,314,700 vs loss 1,237,100
    Sales 7,249,600 vs 6,311,500
 Reuter

VMS Hotel Investment Trust said it
agreed to fund a 19.4 mln dlr secured loan for the Santa
Barbara Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, Calif.
    It said the financing will be applied toward renovating and
refurbishing the hotel.
    Separately, VMS Short Term Income Trust <VST> said it
agreed to fund or extend four loans totaling 70.9 mln dlrs for
income producing properties in the southwest.
    The announcements were made by VMS Realty Partners, the
trusts' investment advisors.
 Reuter

Profit TEchnology INc said it will
produce an eletronic summary of "LOTUS 1-2-3 Simplified," a
leading textbook for the industry-standard spreadsheet program.
    Terms of the agreement between Profit Technology, the
book's author David Bolocan and the publisher Tab Books INc
were not disclosed.
    The electronic version of the book is scheduled for release
in late Spring, it said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 19 cts vs 19 cts in prior qtr
    Record April two
 Reuter

U.S. COMMERCIAL PAPER FALLS 1.27 BILLION DLRS IN FEB 25 WEEK, FED SAYS

Edison Brothers Stores Inc said its
February sales rose 5.6 pct to 56.7 mln dlrs from 53.7 mln dlrs
a year ago.
    For the eight weeks ended February 28, it said sales
increased to 109.4 mln dlrs from 109.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

<VMS Realty Partners> said three of its
investment subsidiaries will fund or extend loans totalling
approximately 97 mln dlrs for various properties in California.
    The company said its its VMS Short Term Trust <VST> unit
agreed to fund or extend four loans totalling 70.9 mln dlrs.
    It also said its VMS Hotel Investment Trust <VHT> unit will
fund a 19.4 mln dlr secured loan for the Santa Barbara Hotel in
California.
    And its VMS Mortgage Investors II <VMTGZ> division approved
a loan of 6,547,000 mln dlrs for a retail office building in
downtown San Francisco, the company said.
    VMS Realty Partners is a full service real estate firm
focusing on acquiring, developing and managing hotels, office
buildings, shopping centers, highrise apartment complexes,
townhouses and garden apartments, it said.
 Reuter

Delegates at the American Pork Congress
in Indianapolis elected Tom Miller of Maricopa, Ariz as the new
president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).
    Miller, who was vice president of the NPPC the past two
years, replaces Ron Kahle who served the maximum two-year term
as president, the NPPC said.
    Miller said the white meat campaign and the checkoff
program are very important, but based on talk at the pork
congress, farm credit is next in line.
    Ray Hankes of of Fairbury, Ill was elected Vice President.
Hankes was active in development of the "Pork - The Other White
Meat" campaign, the NPPC said.
 reuter

Mitel Corp said it awarded
exclusive rights to units of <British Columbia Telephone Co>
and provincially owned Alberta Government Telephones to sell
its new SX-200 Digital systems in the western Canadian
provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.
    The SX-200 is a telephone switching system for voice and
data for customers using up to 400 telephone lines.
 Reuter

Financial Corporation of
America's American Savings and Loan Association unit said it
signed a definitive agreement to buy three retail savings
branches from Gibraltar Financial Corp's <GFC> Gibraltar
Savings unit.
    The purchase, which must be approved by the Federal Home
Loan Bank and the California Department of Savings and Loans,
would increase American Savings' deposits by about 40 mln dlrs.
    The branches are in La Jolla, La Mesa and San Juan
Capistrano, Calif.
 Reuter

Producers Council, NPPC, attending the American Pork Congress
in Indianapolis, voted overwhelmingly to recommend the U.S.
congress not to change the farm bill. While there are no
specific pork items in that legislation, feed grain prices
directly affect pork producer profits, the NPPC said.
    Don Gingerich, a delegate from Iowa, said "to have
unpredictable changes come along periodically makes it very
difficult to plan and causes a lot of disruption."
    Other members said the farm bill has some imperfections but
that's a price pork producers are willing to pay for
legislative stability, an NPPC spokesman said.
    Delegates also passed unanimously a resolution that
Congress and the administration should act swiftly to identify
problems in the farm credit system.
    Farm Credit Task Force chairman and newly elected Vice
President of the NPPC Ray Hankes, said delegates wanted a
program that all commodity groups can work with and bring a 
resolution to this problem with legislators in Washington.
    Hankes added that the National Pork Producers Council will
work to save farmers and keep credit available, but not to save
or create any one credit system.

 Reuter

Renewed confidence in OPEC's ability to
limit production helped U.S. energy futures settle above
yesterday's closing prices, according to analysts.
    They also said the heating oil contract found additional
support from a short-covering rally on the close.
    April crude closed 24 cts higher to 17.75 dlrs. April
heating oil was 1.47 cts higher to 47.91 cts a gallon.
    "Most traders expected follow through profit-taking from
yesterday but the market found suport from bullish reports that
OPEC is producing within its quota," said Simon Greenshields, a
vice president with Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    News today, including OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman
statement that OPEC February production did not exceed its
official quota of 15.8 mln barrels per day, helped bouy prices,
traders said. A Reuter survey found OPEC production in early
March was 14.7 mln bpd.
    In addition to short-covering, heating oil found support
from traders buying it against sales of gasoline and crude, as
well as from expectations for continued drawdowns in stocks as
refiners shut down for maintenance, traders said.
    Unleaded gasoline for April finished 0.55 cent higher to
51.24 cts a gallon.
 Reuter

The Airline Pilots Association said
members working at Trans World Airlines Inc welcomed their
airline's announced proposal to acquire USAir Group Inc,.
    Union leaders for the TWA pilot group said the offer of 52
dlrs a share was a positive indication that Carl Icahn intends
to build TWA into a viable air carrier.
 Reuter

Hughes Aircraft Co, a division of
General Motors Corp, has received a 61.1 mln dlr contract for
electronic display equipment for U.S., Australian and Spanish
surface ships, the Navy said.
 reuter

The U.S. Treasury repeated a White
House statement that only President Reagan and Treasury
Secretary James Baker are authorized to speak on the dollar.
    A Department spokesman was commenting on remarks by
Commerce Department Under-Secretary Robert Ortner that the yen
was undervalued 10 or 15 pct against the dollar but European
currencies were fairly priced against the U.S. currency.
    "As Larry Speakes said on January 14 this year, only two
people in this administration are authorized to speak on the
dollar and that is the president and the secretary of the
treasury," the spokesman told Reuters.
 reuter

it is offering collateralized Euroyen notes worth about 100 mln
dlrs, or 15 billion yen, only to investors outside the U.S.
    The bank said the notes will be offered through a syndicate
with Nikko Securities Co, in conjnction with Goldman Sachs
International Corp.
    The issue price will be 101.75 pct of the principal. The
notes will mature April 2, 1992 at par.
 Reuter

General Electric Co has received a
42.7 mln dlr contract for work on 97 engines for Sea Hawk,
Super Cobra and CV helicopters, the Army said.
 reuter

MNX Inc said it completed an
offering of 1,225,000 shares of common at 17.25 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Corn sales gained 2,494,900 tonnes in
the week ended February 26, the highest weekly total since
August 1984 and two and three-quarter times the prior week's
level, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    In comments on its Export Sales Report, the department said
sales of 1.0 mln tonnes to the USSR -- previously reported
under the daily reporting system -- were the first sales for
delivery to the USSR under the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR
Grains Supply Agreement, which began October 1.
    Japan added 689,700 tonnes to previous purchases and sales
to unknown destinations rose by 429,800 tonnes.
    Wheat sales of 362,400 tonnes for the current season and
151,000 for the 1987/88 season were down by more than half from
the previous week's combined sales, it said.
    Egypt, Japan and Iraq were the major wheat buyers for
delivery in the current year, while sales to China decreased by
30,000 tonnes for the current season, but increased by 90,000
tonnes for the 1987/88 season, which begins June 1.
    Net sales of soybeans totalling 274,200 tonnes equaled the
preceding week, but were nearly a third below the four week
average. Major increases were for Belgium, South Korea, Mexico
and Italy, it said.
    Soybean cake and meal sales of 103,700 tonnes were 2-3/4
times the previous week's marketing year low, but six pct less
than the four week average.
    Major increases for West Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and
Australia were partially offset by declines to unknown
destinations.
    Soybean oil sales of 5,400 tonnes were the result of
increases for Venezuela and reductions of 500 tonnes for
unknown destinations.
    Combined sales activity in cotton of 75,200 running bales
-- 44,700 bales for the current year and 30,500 bales for the
1987/88  bales -- were 56 pct below the prior week's good
showing, the department said.
    Major purchasers for the current season were South Korea,
Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, while South Korea and Indonesia
were the major buyers for the 1987/88 season, which begins
August 1.
   
 Reuter

General Dynamics Corp has received
two contracts totaling 29.2 mln dlrs for upgrade and retrofit
work on F-16A/B aircraft, the Air Force said.
 REUTER

Shr loss 1.62 dlrs vs profit 83 cts
    Net loss 17.2 mln vs profit 8.3 mln
    Revs 264.0 mln vs 338.0 mln
    NOTE:Year ago figures based on 12 months ended February 28,
1986 because company changed reporting period to end December
31.
   1986 10 months loss includes 10.3 mln dlrs writedown of
certain assets.
                        
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 680,000 vs 533,000
    Sales 6,473,000 vs 5,996,000
    Year
    Shr 57 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 1,967,000 vs 2,099,000
    Sales 20.8 mln vs 19.0 mln
 Reuter

Computer Power Inc said it
booked 10.1 mln dlrs in orders for 1986, a record year for the
company.
    The company also announced a new low cost product will be
introduced in the second quarter of 1987.
    Computer Power manufactures and markets Uninterruptible
Power Systems, line conditioners and related components for the
protection of the computer and emergency lighting industries.
 Reuter

Unicorp American Corp said it signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Lincoln Savings Bank FSB.
    Under terms of the agreement announced in January, Lincoln
would be acquired by a unit of Unicorp which is minority-owned
by Lincoln president Alton Marshall.
    The acquisition will take place through a voluntary 
conversion of Lincoln to a federally chartered stock savings
bank from a mutual federal savings bank.
    In connection with the conversion, Unicorp will contribute
150 mln dlrs in cash to Lincoln.
 Reuter

may downgrade Duquesne Light Co's two billion dlrs of debt.
    Moody's said it would assess the likely financial
consequences of the 19 mln dlr rate reduction ordered today by
the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
    The unexpected order raises significant doubts about the
quality of Duquesne's regulatory support and financial
prospects. The Commission's determination that Perry Unit 1's
power is not needed could depress Duquesne's earnings and cash
flow well into the future. Duqusne has Baa-1 senior debt and
preferred stock and Baa-2 debentures and preference stock.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp said it is
moving its Unimation operations from Danbury, Conn, to other
existing Westinghouse facilities, affecting approximately 210
    The engineering, product integration, administration and
final assembly functions will be moved to the Westinghouse
automation division headquarters at O'Hara Township, near
Pittsburgh, the company said.
    The manufacturing of Unimation controls is being
consolidated in existing automation division manufacturing
facilities, the company said.
    The moves are scheduled to be completed by the third
quarter of this year, Westinghouse said, and said they are part
of its plan to increase competitiveness in the factory
automation market.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 MONEY SUPPLY RISES 1.9 BILLION DLRS IN FEB 23 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK DISCOUNT BORROWINGS AVERAGE 233 MLN DLRS A DAY IN MARCH 4 WEEK, FED SAYS

The sharp fall in international coffee
prices will not affect Colombia's external credit situation,
finance minister Cesar Gaviria told reuters.
    He said the current depression on world coffee markets was
not totally unexpected and would have no immediate bearing on
Colombia's financial state which he described as sound.
    "Our foreign debt is high, but we can pay and I hope the
he said.
    Calls for a rescheduling of the debt have come this week
from the opposition conservative party and the biggest trade
union following the coffee price drop. Gaviria said lower
coffee prices this year could mean a loss of 1.5 billion dlrs
in revenues for 1987.
    Gaviria submitted to the world bank and the inter-american
bank last week in new york a borrowing plan, for a total of
3.054 billion dlrs to be disbursed over the next four years,
which he said was approved.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply rose 1.9 billion
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 738.5 billion dlrs in the
February 23 week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 736.6 billion
dlrs from 736.7 billion dlrs, while the four-week moving
average of M-1 rose to 736.7 billion dlrs from 735.0 billion.
    Economists polled by Reuters had forecast M-1 in a range
from down 500 mln dlrs to up 4.5 billion dlrs.
    The average forecast called for a 2.2 billion dlr M-1 rise.
 Reuter

Hunt Building Corp of El Paso, Texas,
has received a 31.7 mln dlr contract for construction of 492
family housing units and a 75-space mobile home park at the
Marine  Corps combat training center at Camp Pendleton, Calif.,
the Navy said.
 REUTER

Humana Inc said its board
approved a shareholder rights plan, or so-called poison pill
plan, to ensure its shareholders receive fair treatment in the
event of a proposed takeover.
    Humana said it is now aware of any effort to gain control
    Under the plan its board declared a dividend distribution
of one right for each outstanding common share held as of March
16. It said each right entitles holders to purchase a unit of
1/100 of a share of newly authorizes series A participating
preferred at 75 dlrs per unit.
    Humana said the rights become effective after an entity
acquires 20 pct or more of its outstanding common or tenders
for 30 pct of its stock. After such an acquisition, then each
right entitles holders to purchase securities of the company or
an acquiring entity having a market value of twice the right's
exercise price.
    Humana said the rights expire March 4, 1997, unless
redeemed earlier. It said the rights may be redeemed by the
company for one ct per right at any time prior to 10 days
following a public announcement that a 20 pct position has been
acquired.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 63 cts vs loss 1.15 dlrs
    Oper net profit 6,629,000 vs loss 12.4 mln
    Revs 23.6 mln vs 22.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 1.65 dlrs vs loss 1.28 dlrs
    Oper net profit 17.5 mln vs loss 13.8 mln
    Revs 93.1 mln vs 86.8 mln
    Note: Oper data does not include loss from discontinued
operations of 7,932,000 dlrs, or 73 cts per shr in 4th qtr
1985, loss of 40.5 mln dlrs, or 3.83 dlrs per shr in the 1986
year or gain of 104.3 mln dlrs, or 9.68 dlrs per shr in 1985.
Also does not include 4th qtr 1985 extraordinary loss of
1,028,000 dlrs, or ten cts per shr.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said
5,500,000 shares of Riverbend International Corp began trading
today under the symbol RIV.
    It said the agricultural concern, based in Sanger, Calif.,
opened on 37,000 shares at nine.
    AMEX said the company is the 14th initial public offering
to be listed on AMEX this year. Last year AMEX listed 53
initial public offerings.
 Reuter

Alaska Air Group Inc said it has
registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer
1.8 mln shares of common stock, plus 180,000 shares to cover
over-allotments.
    The company said Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith
Inc and The First Boston Corp will lead the underwriting
syndicate.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce debt and for working
capital and capital expenditures, the company said.
 Reuter

Great Western Financial
Corp's subsidiary Great Western Bank said it will purchase
three retail banking branches in south Florida with total
deposits of 90 mln dlrs.
    Great Western said it will purchase branches in Deerfield
Beach and Hollywood with approximately 80 mln dlrs in deposits
from Guardian Savings and Loan Association, and one in Palm
Beach with approximately 10 mln in deposits from Goldome
Savings Bank.
 Reuter

A one billion dlr lawsuit pushed
Hughes Tool Co into an about-face on its rejection of a
proposed merger with Baker International Corp <BKO>, Wall
Street analysts said.
    Last night, Hughes said the planned merger with Baker was
off. Baker then filed a suit seeking punitive damages from
Hughes for calling off the merger. At midday today Hughes said
it was still interested in the merger.
    The analysts also said Hughes may be worried that its
troubles could make it a takeover candidate.
    There was speculation today that Harold Simmons, the Dallas
investor, might try to acquire Hughes, but Simmons told Reuters
he is not interested.
    Simmons said he intends to file a 13-D with the Securities
and Exchange Monday reporting a stake of five pct or more in
some publicly traded company. He declined to identify the
target other than to rule out Hughes.
    One analyst said another factor in the latest Hughes
turnabout was Borg-Warner Corp <BOR>, which owns 18.5 pct of
Hughes. Borg-Warner ex-chairman J.F. Bere, who serves on the
Hughes board, is believed to favor the merger with Baker.
    Despite the Hughes statement that it is interested in a
merger, and Baker's response that a merger is still possibile,
analysts said no one could be certain where the situation was
going.
    "I think the merger is not going through," said Phil Pace,
analyst at Kidder, Peabody and Co. He said the merger "lost a
lot of its appeal" when the U.S. Department of Justice required
that Baker sell off its Reed Tool Co operation.
    Although the Reed operation is relatively small in view of
the total size of a combined Baker-Hughes, Pace said "30 to 40
pct of the cost savings are tied up in that."
    "They (Hughes) are obviously concerned about the lawsuit,"
said James Crandell, analyst at Salomon Brothers Inc.
"Apparently they are willing to continue discussions but
whether they will alter their position, I don't know.
    "It's getting a little confusing," said James Carroll,
analyst at PaineWebber Group Inc. He said the arguments cited
by Hughes yesterday for not doing the merger "tend to be weak."
Hughes said yesterday that as a condition of the merger it
wanted Reed Tool and other businesses sold prior to April 22,
the projected merger date. A government decree allowed a longer
period of time.
    Hughes contended it was better to formally combine the
companies with the status of Reed already settled. Baker
apparently sees no reason to speed up the sale.
    Carroll said Baker had previously estimated 110 to 130 mln
dlrs in savings if the companies were combined without selling
Reed. But he said Baker now thinks 75 to 85 mln dlrs will be
saved while Hughes sees a saving of only 50 to 60 mln dlrs.
    Carroll also noted that since the merger accord was first
signed "the outlook for the industry has improved materially."
Hughes may simply feel the pressure on the oil service industry
is lifting.
 Reuter

Armtek Corp, formerly known as
Armstrong Rubber Co, said it signed agreements with <Condere
Corp> for the sale of its Natchez, Miss. tire plant and its S
and A Truck Tire Sales and Services Corp.
    Terms were not disclosed. Armtek spokesman John Sievers
said S and A is a 50 mln dlr business.
    Earlier this week, Armtek announced the sale of its
industrial tire and assembly business division to Dyneer Corp
of Scotsdale, Ariz.
    Cash proceeds from both sales will be used to reduce
outstanding debt.
     Under a long term supply agreement with Condere, it is
anticipated that truck tires produced at the Natchez plant will
be supplied to the Armstrong Tire Co, an Armtek operating
company, the company said.
    The closing is scheduled to be concluded by March 31, it
said.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it raised
to A from A-minus Bay State Gas Co's preferred stock.
    S and P affirmed the company's A-rated senior debt and A-1
commercial paper. Bay State has 75 mln dlrs of long-term debt
and preferred outstanding.
    The rating agency said its action mainly reflected debt
redemptions. S and P also said the outlook for firm sales
growth is positive because of a vibrant regional economy.
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs loss 34 cts
    Net loss 2,922,000 vs loss 19.9 mln
    Revs 4,071,000 vs 8,012,000
    Year
    Shr loss 23 cts vs loss 79 cts
    Net loss 17.3 mln vs loss 46.2 mln
    Revs 22.4 mln vs 28.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 94 cts vs profit 28 cts
    Net loss 6,319,337 vs profit 1,702,016
    Revs 2,899,513 vs 5,239,106
    Note: 1986 net includes 5,250,000 dlr writedown of oil and
gas properties.
 Reuter

The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) issued a proposed policy statement for the 
recovery of take-or-pay costs imposed by existing natural gas
contracts between producers and pipelines.
    It put out the statement, by 5-0 vote, for a 30-day comment
period. It also put out an alternative policy statement by
Commissioner Charles Stalon.
    FERC said in a press release that "the proposed policy
statement estblishes an exception to the commission's general
policy that take-or-pay buy-out and buy-down costs must be
recovered through pipeline' commodity sales rates."
    FERC added that "specifically, in cases where pipelines
assume an equitable share of buy-out or buy-down costs, the
commission proposes to permit the pipelines to recover the
remaining costs through their demand rates."
    It said it wanted guidelines for buying out and reforming
existing contracts to help spread the impact of these
take-or-pay costs in a responsible, fair and equitable way.
    Commission chairwoman Martha Hesse said "this proposal
represents the commission's sincere attempt to help the
industry through this difficult period of transition to a more
competitive market."
    Hesse said "it is my hope that our proposed policy will
encourage and guide the timely resolution of take-or-pay
contractual disputes that have impeded the industry's
transition to a more competitive environment.  It is vital to
the industry that we get this problem behind us."
 reuter

National Medical Enterprises Inc
said its Rehab Hospital Services Corp unit opened four
facilities and plans to contruct three physical rehabilitation
hospitals.
    The company said the seven hospitals represent a total
investment of 44.5 mln dlrs.
    The three to be constructed will be in Montgomery, Ala.,
Fort Myers, Fla. and Monroeville, Penn.
    Of the four recently opened, three were in Florida and one
in Arkansas.
 Reuter

Qtly div 41 cts vs 41 cts
    Pay June 10
    Record May 29
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 10.0 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Revs 441.6 mln vs 470.8 mln
    YEAR
    Shr 86 cts vs 1.77 dlrs
    Net 29.1 mln vs 44.1 mln
    Revs 1.43 billion vs 1.54 billion
    Note: 1986 fl-yr net includes 9.3 mln dlr writedown of U.S.
oil and gas properties partly offset by 1.1 mln dlr
extraordinary gain from tax gains and proceeds from sale of
Minnesota utility operations. 1985 net includes extraordinary
gain of 892,000 dlrs.
    Shr after preferred divs.
 Reuter

Shr profit 26 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net profit 1,371,000 vs profit 482,000
    Revs 48 mln vs 45.7 mln
    Avg shrs 5.20 mln vs 5.15 mln
    12 mths
    Shr profit 1.05 dlrs vs loss 34 cts
    Net profit 5,454,000 vs loss 1,766,000
    Revs 191.7 mln vs 185.2 mln
 Reuter

Hexcel Corp said it plans to build
a manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona.
    The company said construction will begin this summer, with
completion scheduled for early in 1988.
    The facility will produce engineered and structural
products and employ about 200 people, it said.
 Reuter

First Federal Savings of Arkansas FA
said it bought back 4.75 mln dlrs of its 15-3/8 pct
subordinated capital notes.
    There are now 14.25 mln dlrs of these notes outstanding,
compared to an original issue of 25 mln dlrs sold in September
1985, First Federal said.
         
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said that
General Motors Corp's planned five billion dlr stock repurchase
would not affect the carmaker's debt ratings.
    S and P said the parent company would generate sufficient
cash flow over the next several years to fund the stock buyback
program without weakening its financial position.
    S and P affirmed the AA ratings on the senior debt of GM, 
General Motors Acceptance Corp, GMAC Grantor Trust and various
overseas units.
    Also affirmed were GM's AA preferred stock, and GMAC's
AA-minus subordinated debt and A-1-plus commercial paper.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 33 cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 5,632,426 vs loss 2,373,358
    Revs 3,277,976 vs 1,535,550
    Avg shrs 16.9 mln vs 14.4 mln
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said it is
restructuring its workforce to reduce payroll costs by
terminating 75 full-time and four part-time employees, or 33
pct of its total ranks.
    The company said despite the cutbacks it remains commited
to development of promising new areas and it intends "to
maintain our research commitment to our programs in cancer
immunotherapy and a new Hepatitis-B vaccine."
 Reuter

Shr basic 42 cts vs 1.41 dlrs
    Shr diluted 42 cts vs 1.33 dlrs
    Net 4,394,000 vs 13,070,000
    Revs 191.0 mln vs 223.3 mln
 Reuter

Alpha Health Systems Corp, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Pesch and Co, said it submitted a
merger proposal to the board of REPH Acquisition Co, the parent
company of Republic Health Corp, which is 64 pct owned by Pesch
interests.
    The balance of REPH's common stock is owned by members of
Republic management, McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD>, Donaldson,
Lufkin and Jenrette and Pacific Asset Holdings L.P.
    Republic currently owns 44 hospitals and manages 46 other
facilities, in 25 states.
    Details of the proposal were not disclosed.  Company
representatives were not immediately available.
    The proposal provides that REPH would become a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Alpha and that the existing REPH common
stockholders would become stockholders of Alpha, it said.
    REPH's board has appointed a special committee to negotiate
terms of the proposed merger, Pesch said.
    Last year, Republic was acquired by REPH in a leveraged
buyout transaction led by Dr. LeRoy Pesch, the principal
shareholder of Pesch and Co.
    Alpha recently submitted a second offer to acquire the
stock of American Medical International Inc (AMI) at 22 dlrs a
share in cash and securities, which is still being considered
by American Medical's board, Pesch said.
 Reuter

<Spar Aerospace Ltd>, reporting a
sharply lower 1986 profit, said it anticipated solid profit and
revenue growth during the next five years.
    "Looking to the longer term, Spar is confident that its
continuing concentration on advanced robotics, satellite-based
communications and electro-optical defense systems will lead to
significant growth in revenues and earnings over the next five
years," the company said.
    It also forecast higher 1987 sales due to an increased
order backlog. Revenues last year fell to 191 mln dlrs from
223.3 mln while profit fell to 4.4 mln dlrs from 13.1 mln.
    Spar added that lower development costs in the
communications group and a return to normal operations in gears
and transmissions and aviation services "will remove a serious
drain on profits" this year.
    It attributed its reduced 1986 earnings to communications
group losses resulting from continued heavy investment in new
products and market development, a four-month strike at its
Toronto plants and delays in receipt of authorization from
customers to start work on new programs.
 Reuter

House Speaker James Wright, a Texas
Democrat, said he found a favorable response from key House
Democratic taxwriters to a general idea of raising 18 billion
dlrs in unspecified taxes for the 1988 financial year.
    Wright met with House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan
Rostenkowski of Illinois and other Democrats to discuss a plan
broached by the House Budget Committee to spread 36 billion
dlrs deficit reduction through 9 billion dlrs in domestic cuts,
9 billion dlrs in defense spending and the rest in tax hikes.
"They are realists," Wright said of the tax writers after the
private meeting.
 Reuter

Qtly div 28-3/4 cts vs 28-3/4 cts prior
 Reuter

United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Local 222 rejected a new contract proposal from Iowa Beef
Processors Inc and remain out of work, union spokesman Allen
Zack said.
    In mid-December, Iowa Beef, a subsidiary of Occidental
Petroleum Corp, closed its beef processing plant at Dakota
City, Nebraska, because it said "it had no alternative to
threats by meatpackers to disrupt operations."
    About 2,800 UFCWU members are affected by what the union
terms as a lockout.  A 3-1/2 year labor contract at the plant
expired December 13.
    Zack said IBP's proposal included elimination of a two-tier
wage structure, a 60 cent an hour wage cut for slaughterers and
a 45 cent an hour wage reduction for processors.
    The new proposal also included a bonus system of 1,000 dlrs
for workers who had been at the plant for two years, Zack said.
The annual turnover rate at the facility is 100 pct, he said.
 Reuter

Periods ended January 31
    Net 1,443,000 vs 3,539,000
    Revs 765.2 mln vs 685.8 mln
 Reuter

CHEMLAWN SAYS IT REJECTS 27 DLRS PER SHARE TENDER OFFER FROM WASTE MANAGEMENT

USG Corp is raising 200 mln dlrs
through an offering of debentures due 2017 yielding 8.77 pct,
said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
99.784 to yield 120 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
    Non-refundable for 10 years, the issue is rated A-1 by
Moody's and A by Standard and Poor's. A sinking fund starting
in 1998 to retire five pct of the debentures annually can be
increased by 150 pct at the company's option, giving them
estimated average lives of 20.5 or 14.5 years, Salomon said.
 Reuter

France and Yugoslavia agreed to set up a
joint economic commission as part of efforts to promote
commercial links and industrial cooperation between the two
    The French Finance Ministry said the commission, to be
composed of businessmen, was agreed during talks between
Foreign Trade Minister Michel Noir and Yugoslavian minister
without portfolio Egon Padovan.
    A ministry statement said both sides had agreed on the need
to boost trade links in keeping with an accord signed last year
calling for a 50 pct rise in commercial exchanges between the
two countries over the next six years.
    French trade with Yugoslavia has grown little over the past
two years.
 Reuter

ChemLawn Corp said its board
rejected Waste Management Inc's 27 dlr-per-share tender offer
and urged its shareholders not to tender their shares.
    ChemLawn said its board asked management and its financial
advisor, Smith Barney, Harris Upham And Co Inc, to seek other
purchasers of the company to maximize shareholder value.
    ChemLawn also said it adopted a shareholder rights plan, or
"poison pill," during a 120-intermin safeguard period its board
adopted to deter attempts to acquire the company through any
means other than an all-cash tender offer while it seeks other
purchasers.
    ChemLawn also said it began litigation against Waste
Management in federal court in Columbus, seeking injunctive and
other relief.
    The suit alleges, among other things, that certain Waste
Management officers and directors purchased ChemLawn's stock
before making the tender offer. ChemLawn claimed such purchases
possibly violated the officers' fiduciary duties and the
Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading rules.
    Last week, Waste Management made a tender offer to acquire
ChemLawn for 27 dlrs per share or 270 mln dlrs.
    ChemLawn said its board was determined that Waste's offer
was inadequate and not in the best interest of shareholders,
and could "adversely affect" the interests of its employees,
suppliers, creditors, and customers.
    "Our board carefully reviewed Waste Management offer and
concluded that it does not fully reflect the value of the
company. We strongly urge our shareholders not to tender their
shares to Waste Management," said Chairman L. Jack Van Fossen.
    ChemLawn said its rights plan is designed to protect
shareholders against abusive tactics, such as "market
accumulations by Waste Management or others."
    Under the plan, one comon stock purchase right will be
distributed as a dividend on each outstanding share of ChemLawn
common.
    ChemLawn said its rights holders can buy a share of its
common for one dlr if any entity acquires 25 pct or more of its
commmon, other than by an all cash tender offer for all its
shares or an approved acquisition agreement by its board.
    It said the rights expire July three 1987, or 60 days after
they become exercisable if later than that date. It said its
board may redeem the rights for five cts per right any time
prior to their exercise date.
    ChemLawn said the plan will not be triggered by purchases
purusant to Waste Management's present tender offer.
    It said the dividend will be paid to shareholders of record
March 20.
 Reuter

<First Toronto Capital Corp> said it
planned to issue a five mln dlr convertible debenture to its
Dutch parent, Arcalex B.V., which if fully converted would
raise Arcalex's stake in First Toronto to 62 pct from 54 pct.
    It said the debenture would have a five-year term, bear 10
pct yearly interest and be redeemable by First Toronto after
one year at issue price.
    First Toronto, an investment bank, also said it planned to
grant directors an option expiring March 1, 1992 to acquire up
to 500,000 First Toronto common shares at five dlrs each.
 Reuter

Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah) said a delay
in rescuing the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp risked
a run on thrift deposits by nervous customers.
    Garn told a Georgetown University conference on financial
institutions that news reports that the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corp was technically in deficit were true and
urged swift congressional action to strengthen the fund.
    Garn said his office received calls from individuals
worried about the safety of their money. "The runs have started,"
Garn, a member of the Banking Committee, said.
    Legislation to infuse more money into the fund which
insures savings deposits was to be voted on today by the
committee but was postponed because of last-minute differences.
    FSLIC has reserves of two billion dlrs but faces potential
claims of 15 billion dlrs, Garn said.
    He said the claims would not come all at once, however, and
dismissed any real danger to deposits at federally insured
thrifts up to the insurance level of 100,000 dlrs.
    "People's money is safe," Garn said, but he added, "We need to
quiet down the situation and put their fear to bed."
    Garn said he and Committee Chairman William Proxmire
(D-Wis) agree on the need for legislation but they differed
over strategy.
    Garn opposes including other issues in the legislation and
would prefer a bill that was limited to restoring FSLIC and
giving regulators more power to cope with failing banks and
thrifts.
    Proxmire's bill also would prohibit new so-called nonbank
banks and thrifts which use a regulatory loophole to operate
outside the usual legal limits on traditional banks.
    William Isaac, former chairman of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp, told the conference that if that fund were
combined with FSLIC they could have 29 billion dlrs and cover
contingencies for both the bank and thrift industries.
    However, political differences make a merger of the two
federal funds unlikely, Isaac, now president of the Secura
Group, a consulting firm, said.
    By the 1990's the financial industry will include a handful
of nationwide institutions offering every type of financial
service which evolved from today's banks, nontraditional
financial firms and industrial companies.
 Reuter

Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson
Funaro will extend his international tour, flying to Japan for
talks with government officials and representatives of banks to
explain Brazil's decision to halt payment of part of its
109-billion dlrs foreign debt, Finance Ministry sources said.
    Funaro, who is in Rome today, will fly to Tokyo on Sunday,
after having completed a week-long trip to the United States,
France, England, Italy, West Germany and Switzerland.
    Brazil halted payment of interest rates on 68 billion dlrs
owed to 700 private commercial foreign banks as part of an
strategy to alleviate the burden of its commitments.
    Funaro, who is accompanied by Central Bank governor
Francisco Gros, met only with government officials of the
countries visited over the week.
    In Tokyo, however, he is due to meet private bankers, to
whom Brazil owes some 6.8 billion dlrs, the sources said.
    He is due back in Brasilia next Wednesday, March 11, the
sources added.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs not given
    Net 8,801,000 vs not given
    Revs 33.2 mln vs not given
 Reuter

ConAgra Inc agreed to acquire
Monfort of Colorado Inc in a stock transaction, both companies
said.
    According to the letter of intent signed by the companies,
ConAgra will acquire all of Monfort's 4.3 mln outstanding
shares for 10.75 mln of its own shares.
    Based on ConAgra's closing price of 34 dlrs today, the
transaction is worth about 356.5 mln dlrs. The merger is
expected to be completed in June, they said.
    The companies said the acquisition will result in a
restatement of ConAgra's earnings for the fiscal year ending
May 31, but the restatement is not expected to materially
change the previously reported, or upcoming, fiscal year-end
earnings. In fiscal 1986, ConAgra had net income of 105.3 mln
dlrs on sales of 5.9 billion dlrs.
    For its fiscal year ending August 1986, Monfort reported
25.1 mln dlrs in earnings on sales of 1.6 billion dlrs. The
company is one of the largest lamb and beef producers in the
U.S., producing, transporting and selling the products
domestically and internationally.
 Reuter

Gould Inc said it
registered to offer two mln shares of convertible exchangeable
    Gould said the proposed new issue will be underwritten by
First Boston Corp and Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
    In a registration statement filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Gould said the shares will be convertible
at any time into Gould common.
    The shares also will be exchangeable into Gould convertible
subordinated debentures at a rate of 50 dlrs principal amount
per debenture.
 Reuter

chairman Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, said his
committee would raise taxes if the idea were approved by
Democrats as part of the 1988 budget, but the committee would
find it difficult since President Reagan opposes tax increases.
    "There's always the question of how to do it without Ronald
Reagan. I'd rather have him than not," he told reporters after a
meeting with House Speaker James Wright.
    Wright approached the taxwriters with a tentative plan to
raise 18 billion dlr in taxes in 1988 as part of a 36 billion
dlr budget deficit reduction plan.
 Reuter

Key members of the House Agriculture
committee have agreed to scale-back the 0/92 provision of a
pending disaster aid bill to cover only 1987 crop wheat, but a
broader 0/92 proposal is likely to be resurrected later,
Congressional sources said.
    The sources said key lawmakers including Reps. Glenn
English (D-Okla.), and Dan Glickman (D-Kan.) agreed to support
an amendment to be offered next week by Rep. Charles Stenholm
(D-Tex.) which would limit 0/92 only to producers of 1987 crop
winter and spring wheat.
    This would scale-back the 0/92 provision to the original
proposal by English allowing a pilot 0/92 program for 1987
wheat only. That provision was later broadened by the
subcommittee to include 1988 crop winter wheat.
    Under 0/92, a farmer can forego planting a crop but still
collect 92 pct of deficiency payments.
    Earlier today, the House Agriculture committee postponed
until next Tuesday a meeting to consider the disaster aid bill
and 0/92.
    The agreement to limit 0/92 to a wheat pilot program
follows vocal criticism of the proposal by some influential
farm groups who are concerned about the major impact of 0/92,
and by members of Congress wary of reopening the farm bill.
    Congressional sources said there has not been enough time
to study the implications of a broad 0/92.
    "The timing (of the proposal) is off," said one aide to a
House Agriculture committee member.
    However, several Congressional sources said they expect a
broader 0/92 provision to emerge again when the House
Agriculture committee is faced next month with the need to make
spending cuts in the agriculture budget for fiscal 1988 as part
of an overall deficit reduction package.
    Gene Moos, aide to House Majority leader Tom Foley
(D-Wash.), predicted agriculture's share of budget cuts may
exceed one billion dlrs.
    A broader 0/92 might be resurrected later because both the
Congressional Budget Office and the Reagan administration
estimate it would result in significant budget savings.
    A U.S. Agriculture Department official said 0/92 for all
1987 crops would save 300 to 400 mln dlrs and more than 1.5
billion dlrs over five years.
    Another factor which could affect the 0/92 debate is the
approach of planting season, Congressional sources said.
    Some officials said it already is late for implementation
of a 0/92 in 1987 because farm program signup ends March 31 for
wheat and feedgrains.
    If Congress approved 0/92 later in the year sign-up either
would have to be extended or reopened, sources said.
 Reuter

Arizona Appetito's Stores Inc
said it has tentatively agreed to sell its franchise operation
to privately-held Appetito's Inc.
    Under the agreement, Appetito's Inc would acquire all
Arizona Appetito's assets except for 25,000 dlrs in cash and
assume all liabilities for 1,018,000 shares of Arizona
Appetito's stock and 150,000 dlrs in a three-year secured
promissory note.
    After the transaction, which is subject to shareholder
approval, Arizona Appetito's said it proposes to seek to merge
or acquire an existing private company in the food sector.
 Reuter

TCW Convertible Securities Fund Inc
said it has sold 20 mln shares of its common stock to a group
of underwriters led by Bear Stearns and Co Inc, E.F. Hutton and
Co, Advest Inc, Blunt Ellis and Loewi Inc, Piper, Jaffray and
Hopwook Inc and Sutro and Co Inc.
    The shares were sold by the underwriters at ten dlrs per
share in a public offering.
    The offering produced net proceeds of 186 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration wants to
encourage expanded trade with the Soviet Union but does not
believe Moscow yet warrants most-favored-nation treatment,
Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead said.
    "It seems to me that more trade between us is better than
less trade," he told a forum on U.S.-Soviet trade relations.
    To that end, the administration in January allowed foreign
policy controls on the export of oil and gas equipment to the
Soviet Union to lapse, he said.
    Also, Washington and its allies are reviewing remaining
export controls in hopes of simplifying the list of prohibited
items and speeding up the licensing process, he said.
    Whitehead said, however, the prefential treatment that
comes with most-favored-nation status is out for the moment.
    U.S. law prohibits most-favored-nation status for countries
that restrict emigration and other rights.
    "What we have seen so far (in improved rights under Soviet
Leader Mikhail Gorbachev) are promising trends," he said.
    But, he added: "We don't know if they will continue, we
don't know how significant they will be."
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp, which has a five
mln dlr investment in Republic Health Corp <REPH>, said it has
not been approached to sell its shares in Republic Health.
    Earlier, Alpha Health Systems Corp, a unit of Pesch and Co,
said it submitted a merger proposal to the board of REPH
Acquisition Co, the parent of Republic Health. LeRoy A. Pesch
is the principal stockholder of Pesch.
    "We have not been approached by Mr. Pesch or anybody else
with respect to our holdings" in Republic Health, a McDonnell
Douglas spokesman told Reuters.
 Reuter

Paradyne Corp said it pleaded guilty
to criminal charges of conspiracy to defraud the Social
Security Administration and agreed to pay 1.2 mln dlrs in fines
and costs to the U.S. Government.
    The company also reached agreements in principle for an 8.1
mln dlr settlement of class action law suits.
    About 2.9 mln dlrs of the class action settlement will be
provided by Paradyne's insurance carrier. The settlement is
contingent on court approval after notice to class members, it
said.
     The criminal case settlement dismisses all charges
including bribery and false statement, except for conspiracy to
which Paradyne pleaded guilty.
    The criminal settlement includes the lifting of the
government's suspension, the dismissal of the federal civil
false claims suit and all charges against the individuals.
    Of the 2.9 mln dlrs the insurance carrier will provide for
the civil settlement, 750,000 dlrs will go to settle a
derivative lawsuit.
    For the year ended December 31, Paradyne reported a net
loss of 38.5 mln dlrs. The year-end results include an 8.0 mln
dlrs provision for future legal and or settlement costs to
cover the civil and criminal settlements announced today.
    Paradyne also said it named Jerry Kendall as president and
chief executive officer, succeeding Robert Wiggins who resigned
as chairman and chief executive officer as part of the
settlement of the indictment.
    Kendall formerly served as executive vice president and
chief operating officer.
    The company also said that due to the sluggish marketplace,
it does not expect to be profitable in the first quarter but is
optimistic about the outlook for the year.
    For the first quarter of 1986, the company reported net
income of 875,000 dlrs on sales of 66.0 mln dlrs.
    Wiggins was among five Paradyine executives who were
charged along with three former officers in a 1985 federal
indictment stemming from a 115 mln contract awarded to Paradyne
in 1981 to build a computer network for the Social Security
Administration.
    The men were accused of conspiring to bribe government
officials and defaud the Social Security Administration.
Wiggins and other defendants were also charged with providing
false testimony and obstructing justice during a Securities and
Exchange Commission investigation.
 
   Under the settlement announced today, federal prosecutors
agreed to defer all charges against Wiggins and three other
defendants under a one-year pretrial agreement.
    The charges would then be dropped if the defendants
successfully complete the probation period. Details of the
requirements in the agreement were not immediately available.
          
 Reuter

In their search for ways to cut
spending on U.S. farm programs, policymakers and their advisers
here are citing trading in options contracts as an alternative
to federal income and price supports.
    Critics of costly federal farm programs maintain that the
government could get out of guaranteeing minimum support prices
if farmers systematically used options contracts to protect
themselves against vacillating market prices.
    "With agricultural options now available, there is less need
for government price support programs to provide price
stability for farmers," the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
think tank, said in a recent position paper.
    "Washington no longer needs to restrict the level and
variability of commodity market prices. Farmers and others in
agribusiness can now achieve the benefits of price stability by
trading in option markets," the paper, written by Clemson
University professor Kandice Kahl, said.
    Critics of farm programs contend that options offer the
benefits of price support programs without entailing the cost
to taxpayers.
    Kahl's paper urged farmers to buy "put" options in order to
obtain the right to sell at a particular price to the private
seller of the option contract.
    "This gives the farmer a guaranteed price, but still allows
him to profit from higher market prices, if they are available,
by foregoing his option," Kahl said.
    Interest in promoting understanding of options trading
among farmers also has been stirred in Congress by a proposed
change in agricultural policy that would have the effect of
exposing participants in federal farm programs to fluctuations
in income subsidies.
    The proposal -- supported by the Reagan administration and
a cross-section of lawmakers -- would allow farmers to receive
at least 92 pct of their income subsidies regardless of how
much they planted.
    Under current law, farmers enrolled in federal price
stabilization programs receive income subsidies, or deficiency
payments, equal to the difference between a set target price
and the higher of the support price or market price.
    The so-called decoupling plan, or "0/92", would aim to
curtail surplus production by eliminating the requirement that
farmers plant in order to receive deficiency payments.
    Critics of "0/92" plan contend that if the scheme succeeded
in curbing surplus output, market prices would rise and
deficiency payments fall -- leaving farmers who chose not to
plant with shrunken income subsidies and no crops to sell.
    Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), who has been in the
forefront of efforts to decouple income support from acreage
plantings, advocates replacing the variable deficiency payment
with a fixed and gradually declining payment.
    But many farm state lawmakers are turned off by the idea of
offering fixed subsidies to farmers who plant nothing.
    Some congressional staff members said they are intrigued by
the notion of having the federal government subsidize the
purchase of "call" options to help farmers hedge their income
risk.
    By buying a call option, the farmer would obtain the right
to buy a commodity at a particular price. If the market price
rose above that option price, the farmer could exercise the
option and sell the commodity on the spot market, making up
most of the reduction in the deficiency payment.
    An aide to Boschwitz said the senator might offer
legislation linking options and decoupling, but that it might
have to await the results of a pilot project on futures and
options trading mandated by the 1985 farm bill.
    The bill required USDA, in association with the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, to conduct a pilot program in at
least 40 counties which produce major program crops.
    The program, only recently launched, was designed to
encourage producers to participate in futures and options
markets and to ensure that producers' net returns would not
fall below the county loan level for the crops in question.
 Reuter

South Africa's state-owned energy
firm Soekor said it would continue tests after striking oil
some 120 kms (75 miles) south-southwest of Mossel Bay.
    During production tests, about 5,000 barrels of oil and
five mln cubic feet of gas per day were produced, it said.
    "This oil discovery will be followed-up as soon as possible
by further seismic surveys and drilling. Should further
drilling and tests in the area yield positive results oil
production from a floating platform could be considered."
    Director General of Mineral and Energy Affairs Louw Alberts
announced the strike earlier but said it was uneconomic.
 Reuter

Cemdac Corp said it told the state
of Minnesota to permanently suspend trading of its common
stock.
    The company said it is ceasing operations.
 Reuter

Greece, replying to a warning from Turkey
that it will stop Athens from seeking oil in the Aegean Sea,
repeated today that it has an exclusive right to decide where
or when to drill in the area.
    A government spokesman said in a statement that if Ankara
believed Greece was contravening international law, it could
bring the issue before the courts.
    The spokesman was responding to a statement by Turkish
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yalim Eralp that Ankara would take
action to stop Greece's oil activities beyond its territorial
waters as they were a violation of the 1976 Berne accord.
 Reuter

Shr loss 45 cts vs loss 1.34 dlrs
    Net loss 1,240,000 vs loss 3,621,000
    Revs 6,264,000 vs 4,626,000
    Year
    Shr loss 90 cts vs loss 2.01 dlrs
    Net loss 2,487,000 vs loss 5,406,000
    Revs 20.8 mln vs 21.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss two cts
    Net profit 52,405 vs loss 67,967
    Sales 289,572 vs 188,713
    Year
    Shr loss one cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 51,019 vs loss 201,680
    Sales 1.1 mln vs 490,935
 Reuter

Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp will
later today formally ask the U.S. Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) to reconsider its earlier rejection of the
merger of the holding company's railroad assets, a company
    "We expect to file papers late tonight" asking the ICC to
reopen the rail merger case, spokesman Rich Hall said in a
telephone interview from the company's Chicago headquarters.
    The ICC had rejected in July, on grounds it would reduce
competition, the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific
Railroads.
    The deadline for seeking ICC reconsideration of the merger
plan is midnight tonight.
    Santa Fe Southern Pacific owns the Santa Fe railroad and
holds the Southern Pacific railroad assets in trust while
awaiting federal approval of the merger plan.
    The ICC had ordered the holding company to divest one or
the other railroad but stayed its ruling pending a decision on
the request for reconsideration.
    If the ICC ultimately decides not to reopen the case, it is
expected to reinstate the divestiture order.
 Reuter

Brazil's recent announcement of a
suspension in interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of foreign
debt gave the banking system the jitters and confirmed views
among many international economists and commodities analysts
that Brazil will continue to flex its trading muscles in 1987.
    The developing world's most indebted nation is also its
most prolific exporter of agricultural commodities such as
coffee and soybeans, and might maximize foreign exchange
revenue by selling hard on world markets, economists said.
    "That sounds like a reasonable strategy. But there is no
way they can trade their way out of this situation," Aldo
Roldan, Vice President for International Services at Chase
Econometrics, said.
    Roldan told Reuters that Brazil not only had to tackle the
problems of satisfying domestic demand and competing on glutted
world markets, but also had to work to make its position on
foreign exchange markets more profitable.
    "Domestic costs have increased (due to inflation) and
exporters have not had the same offsetting movement in exchange
rates," Roldan said.
    The Chase economist also said commodities markets were
depressed and generally did not appear very promising for a
country like Brazil, where pure commodities account for some 50
pct of exports and in 1986 had a total value of around 23
    But he added: "They are always pretty aggressive and they
have good foreign marketing channels."
    Analysts said a key factor in Brazilian trade will be
coffee, and even without background pressure from foreign
creditors the world's largest producer was expected to hit the
market this year with a vengeance.
    Negotiations between International Coffee Organization
(ICO) members to re-establish producer export quotas broke up
earlier this week with major producers and consumers accusing
each other of intransigence.
    "Brazil would not tolerate a change in ICO regulations,
which others wanted changed," one senior coffee dealer said.
    The dealer, who declined to be named, said Brazil wanted to
preserve its market share. At the end of the talks, he said
Brazil hinted it could sell more than anyone else and others
would suffer.
    Brazil will be an aggressive seller under any scenario but
as yet there is no sign of unusually heavy Brazilian sales, the
dealer said.
    "If they do come into the market at this level it will go
lower and you could breach a dollar, ninety or eighty cents,"
he said.
    New York coffee futures for May delivery settled 2.29 cents
lower Thursday at 104.68 cents a lb, while more distant
deliveries fell the six-cent maximum trading limit.
    President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, Jorio Dauster
told a press conference in Rio de Janeiro today that Brazil has
no set target for its coffee exports following the breakdown of
the ICO talks on export quotas.
    Many economists and analysts believe soybeans could be the
focus of possible stepped-up Brazilian marketing efforts. "They
will be more aggressive this year than they have ever been,"
according to Richard Loewy, analyst for Prudential-Bache
Securities Inc.
    Loewy believes the foreign debt problem, a good crop, plus
difficulties with storage would help motivate selling of the
Brazil soybean crop. "Brazilian farmers also need cash flow and
they can't afford to store the crops," he said.
    The Chicago soybean complex has been nervous for some time
about large South American crops developing under near ideal
conditions towards record yields.
    "We are going to see a very rapid decline, earlier than
usual, this year in our (U.S.) exports," Loewy said.
    Tommy Eshleman, economist for the American Soybean
Association (ASA), said this year's Brazilian soybean harvest
could total 18 mln tonnes, versus 13.7 mln last year.
    Marketings will be very aggressive this summer when prices
are usually high relative to the rest of the year due to the
vulnerability of the U.S. crop to bad growing weather.
    Another incentive to sell might be trade anticipation of a
reduction in the U.S. government soybean loan rate, offered to
farmers who give crops as collateral, Eshleman said.
    He said there has been some uncertainty this year about the
soybean loan rate, which acts as an effective floor for prices
by keeping supplies away from the free market. Farmers can
forfeit their beans to the government rather than repay the
loan.
    "We're getting into a period when they (Brazil) are
starting to harvest and starting to export," Eshleman said. But
he added it will be a while before U.S. exports fall to below
10 mln bushels a week from around 20 mln bushels currently.
    Jose Melicias from the research department of Drexel
Burnham Lambert said Brazil would be trying to export as much
as it can this year because of its economic situation.
    He said the debt situation was a major consideration. "The
Brazilian government also does not have enough money to pay for
storage," he added.
    Asked if a return to an inflationary environment in Brazil
would make farmers inclined to hold onto crops, Melicias said
it would not make a big difference.
    On other commodity markets, Brazil's selling impact may be
muted no matter its need to generate capital.
    Brazil is faced with a poor 1986/87 sugar harvest, which
could limit exports to the world market, analysts said. The
country may have oversold and be unable to honor export
commitments, and this plus higher domestic demand caused by
consumer price subsidies on ethanol and refined sugar, will
give it little room to stretch exports, they said.
    Brazil's other major crop, cocoa, is in its third year of
surplus. "Cocoa consumption is basically flat and last year it
fell, so I don't think they can start throwing out cocoa and
find many more markets for it," one analyst said.
    "If they come out as aggressive sellers, the market would
collapse and they can't afford to do that," she added.
 Reuter

OPEC produced an average 16.1 mln barrels
per day (bpd) of crude oil in February, down from 16.5 mln the
previous month and an overall 17.3 mln bpd in fourth quarter
1986, the International Energy Agency said.
    A few OPEC countries last month exceeded the production
quotas set at their last conference in December, but liftings
were reduced from several countries, it said in its latest
monthly oil market report.
    These cutbacks were due in part to buyer resistance to
fixed prices, introduced from February 1, particularly for
fixed volumes over an extended period.
    It gave this breakdown for OPEC crude output, in mln bpd
                    FOURTH QTR 1986  JANUARY 1987  FEBRUARY
1987
    SAUDI ARABIA    4.9              3.7           3.8
    IRAN            1.6              2.2           1.9
    IRAQ            1.6              1.6           1.7
    UAE             1.3              1.2           1.2
    KUWAIT          1.0              1.0           1.0
    NEUTRAL ZONE    0.5              0.4           0.4
    QATAR           0.3              0.3           0.2
    NIGERIA         1.3              1.2           1.2
    LIBYA           1.0              1.0           1.0
1987
    ALGERIA         0.6              0.6           0.6
    GABON           0.1              0.2           0.2
    VENEZUELA       1.6              1.6           1.6
    ECUADOR         0.2              0.2           0.2
    INDONESIA       1.3              1.2           1.2
    TOTAL           17.3             16.5          16.1
    The IEA said while Saudi production stayed below its quota
of 4.133 mln bpd, actual sales might exceed output due to
Norbec stock disposals. Contracts for Saudi crude have been
signed, but it is understood they have much leeway in required
liftings.
    The report said the reduction in Iraqi air attacks on
Iranian export facilities allowed Iran's output to reach 2.2
mln bpd in January, but buyer resistance to fixed prices
apparently cut February production.
    It said Iraqi exports are about 1.0 mln bpd through the
Turkish pipeline, 0.1-0.2 mln by truck through Jordan and
0.2-0.3 mln via the Saudi pipeline to Yanbu. Internal
consumption is some 0.3 mln bpd.
    The IEA estimated total non-communist world oil supply in
February at 45.0 mln bpd, down from 45.4 mln in January and
47.0 mln in the fourth quarter.
    The February world supply figure is made up of 16.1 mln bpd
OPEC crude production, 1.4 mln bpd OPEC natural gas liquids
(ngls), 16.6 mln bpd OECD crude and ngls, 8.3 mln bpd other
developing countries' crude and ngls, net trade of 1.1 mln bpd
with centrally planned economies, 0.5 mln bpd of
non-conventional crudes (such as tar sands and oil from coal)
and 1.0 mln bpd from processiing gains.
    Within the OECD, preliminary Norwegian data show record
1.06 mln bpd output in January, with lower production expected
in February in accordance with government curtailments of
approximately 80,000 bpd, announced in support of OPEC.
 REUTER

Two separate class action lawsuits
were filed against ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc and its Viratek Inc
<VIRA> subsidiary, charging the companies with disseminating
allegedly false and misleading information regarding the
company's drug Virazole, which is being tested as a possible
treatment for AIDS.
    The suit, filed in Federal Court here on behalf of ICN
shareholders, charges that disclosures made by ICN over about
the past year encouraged the investing public to believe that
Virazole was a promising drug of major importance and did not
disclose serious adverse side effects, court documents said.
    An ICN spokesman declined comment on the lawsuits.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs were not immediately available for
comment.
    Virazole, also known as ribavirin, is undergoing extensive
testing as a possible treatment for AIDS-related illnesses.
    The drug, which is available in a number of countries
outside the United States, has been approved by the FDA for use
domestically in aerosol form as a treatment for an infection
that strikes young children, called respiratory syncytial
virus.
    The FDA and a house subcommittee are conducting their own
separate probes into whether ICN withheld data from the FDA on
adverse reactions to the antiviral drug.
    The Securities and Exchange Commission is also
investigating the company.
 Reuter

A majority of the Senate Agriculture
Committee urged President Reagan to reverse his opposition to
export subsidies to the Soviet Union as a way to get its
negotiators to purchase some 500 mln dlrs in American wheat.
    The group, led by committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a
Vermont Democrat, urged Reagan to step up negotiations with the
Soviet Union by providing export subsidies to help U.S.
farmers.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration issued a
formal statement to Congress designed to free the remaining 40
mln dlrs in 1987 aid for the U.S.-backed "Contra" rebels in
Nicaragua.
    The aid is the last instalment of 100 mln dlrs voted by
Congress for the Contras, and is to be spent on major military
equipment. Congress now has 15 days to disapprove of the 40 mln
dlrs.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said: "We think the
prospects for approval are very good."
    The long-awaited administration move followed by one day
President Reagan's speech to the nation on a report on the
secret Iran arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to the
contras.
    In the House of Representatives earlier today, Rep. David
Bonior, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Democratic leaders
in the House had decided to push for a 180-day moratorium on
further aid. He said the House would vote next Wednesday.
   
 Reuter

<Enfield Corp Ltd> said it planned to
issue 60 mln dlrs principal amount of notes and 1.6 mln class E
preferred shares at 25 dlrs a share.
    The notes would bear 8 pct yearly interest, mature March
31, 2002 and be convertible to common shares on either March
31, 1997 or the business day before a fixed redemption date at
13.50 dlrs a share, Enfield said.
    It said each preferred share would be convertible to 1.85
common shares on either March 31, 1997 or the business day
before a fixed redemption date. Gordon Capital Corp and
Dominion Securities Inc agreed to acquire the issues, it said.
    Enfield said it would use proceeds to retire short-term
bank debt and boost its 22 pct stake in <Consumers Packaging
Inc> and its interest in <Federal Pioneer Ltd> through open
market purchases.
 Reuter

Holiday Inns Inc, a unit of Holiday
Corp, is raising 1.4 billion dlrs through offerings of notes
and debentures, said bookrunner Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Junk bond traders said they thought this to be the
second-largest junk bond deal ever brought to market. They said
the biggest was BCI Holdings' 2.35 billion dlr offering on
April 10, 1986.
    Via sole manager Drexel, Holiday Inns is selling 900 mln
dlrs of senior notes due 1994 with a 10-1/2 pct coupon and par
pricing. Non-callable for five years, the notes are rated B-1
by Moody's and B-plus by Standard and Poor's.
    Holiday Inns is also offering 500 mln dlrs of subordinated
debentures due 1999 with an 11 pct coupon and par pricing. The
debentures are non-callable for three years and non-refundable
for five years, Drexel said as lead manager.
    A sinking fund starts in 1997 to retire 60 pct of the
debentures by maturity. This issue is rated B-2 by Moody's and
B-minus by Standard and Poor's. Goldman Sachs co-managed the
debenture deal.
 Reuter

Wichita Industries Inc said it
agreed to buy Fountain Oil and Gas Inc.
    Wichita said it it will acquire all of the outstanding
shares of Fountain in an exchange for about 11 mln newly issued
Wichita common shares. Wichita presently has about 3.6 mln
    The transaction calls for the issuance of 1-1/2 shares of
Wichita common for each outstanding Fountain share.
    Wichita also said it made a number of refinancing
agreements in connection with the acquisition.
 Reuter

Argentina's cost of living index
grew 6.5 pct in January, down from last month's 7.6 pct, the
National Statistics Institute said.
    It said consumer prices rose 98.9 pct over the last 12
months, against 81.9 pct inflation in the calendar year 1986.
 Reuter

The Mexican state oil company
Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) said its Far East customers would
be charged 17.25 dlrs per barrel for Isthmus crude in February
and 14.45 dlrs for the heavier Maya.
    Pemex said this was 32 cts less than January Isthmus and 15
cts less than January Maya.
    Far East customers, primarily Japan which buys an average
180,000 barrels per day of which 150,000 is Isthmus, pay
retroactively while European and U.S. clients are charged per
delivery.
 Reuter

Retail sales in the quarter ended
December 31 fell a seasonally adjusted 13.2 pct compared with a
7.8 pct rise in the September quarter and a 1.3 pct fall a year
ago period, the Statistics Department said.
    Actual retail sales in the December quarter totalled 6.17
billion N.Z. Dlrs compared with 6.70 billion in the previous
quarter and 6.10 billion a year ago period.
    The largest decreases in the December quarter were recorded
by the same stores which recorded the highest increase in sales
in the September 1986 quarter before the introduction of a 10
pct value added goods and services tax on October 1, 1986.
 Reuter

REPH Acquisition Co said its board
appointed a special committee to negotiate the terms of an
offer made earlier today by <Pesch and Co> to merge with its
Republic Health Corp <REPH> unit.
    Pesch, through its Alpha Health Systems Corp unit, offered
to acquire the 36 pct of Republic Health stock that it does not
already own.
    Terms of Pesch's offer have not been disclosed.
   
 Reuter

<Royal Trustco Ltd> said it planned a
154.7 mln dlr issue in Canada in late March of 4.5 mln class A
common shares at 34.375 dlrs a share.
    The company added that it would also double the amount of
class A and class B common shares on June 26, 1987 through a
stock dividend of one class A or one class B share for each
class A or class B share held on June 5 record date.
    Each series A and B cumulative redeemable convertible
preferred share will be convertible after June 5 to 5.70 common
shares, Royal Trust said. The current conversion rate is 2.85
common shares for each preferred.
    Royal Trust said it would use proceeds to acquire
income-producing investments.
    Underwriters are Gordon Capital Corp and Dominion
Securities Inc as co-lead managers and Merrill Lynch Canada
Inc, McLeod Young Weir Ltd, Nesbitt Thomson Deacon Inc and Wood
Gundy Inc. as co-managers, Royal Trust said.
 Reuter

An investor group led by members of
the Hunt family of Dallas, Texas, told the Securities and
Exchange Commission it has acquired a 6.2 pct stake in Comdata
Network Inc <CDN> and may try to influence company policy.
    The investor group, led by Rosewood Financial Inc, said it
opposes a company recapitalization plan worked out between
Comdata and Mason Best Co, a Texas investment firm, which last
reported holding about 9.5 pct of the company's stock.
    The Hunt group said it offered on March 3 to buy the entire
5.3 pct stake held by dissident shareholder Donald Carter at 14
dlrs each, but has received no reply as of yesterday.
    Rosewood, which is owned by the Caroline Hunt Trust Estate,
whose trustees include Margaret Hunt Hill, also said it has
notified the Federal Trade Commission of its intent to buy
between 15 and 25 pct of Comdata's common stock.
    Under federal law, it cannot buy more than 15 pct of
Comdata's stock until a 15 to 30 day waiting period is over,
unless the FTC gives it early approval.
    Under the proposed Comdata recapitalization plan, the
company would buy up to 10 mln of its common shares at 13.25
dlrs each.
    Mason Best, which belongs to CNI Parnters, a Texas
partnership, would not tender any of its stake under the plan,
but would instead buy another one mln Comdata common shares and
would get representation on the company's board.
    The Hunt group said it has told Comdata that it considers
required payments under the plan, such as a 1.5 mln dlr fee and
the issuance of a warrant to buy 500,000 common shares to be a
waste of the company's assets.
    The Hunt group, which also includes securities Texas firms
Cypress Partners L.P and Driftwood Ltd, said it spent 15.2 mln
dlrs on its 1,197,700 Comdata common shares.
 Reuter

Trade between Argentina and Brazil
jumped 90 pct in 1986 versus 1985, Foreign Minister Dante
Caputo said.
    Speaking to reporters, Caputo said the near doubling in
trade showed the "tangible and immediate results" of a wide-
ranging economic integration accord signed by the presidents of
both countries last July.
    He said trade last year totalled 1.3 billion dlrs versus
700 mln dlrs in 1985.
    The accord provided for capital goods trade between the two
countries to rise to 2.0 billion dlrs over four years.
    Argentine wheat exports to Brazil will increase from
1,375,000 tonnes in 1987 to 2.0 mln tonnes in 1991, the accord
said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said its
members overwhelmingly approved a rule change that elminates
the limits on fines imposed as a result of disciplinary
proceedings.
    The NYSE said the amendment to its constitution, already
approved by its board, must now be approved by the Securities
    The NYSE said it currently limits penalties to a maximum of
25,000 dlrs per charge against individuals and 100,000 dlrs per
charge against firms.
 Reuter

The Securities Industry Association,
SIA, has asked the U.S. supreme court to overturn a lower-court
ruling that would allow banks to sell commercial paper, SIA
general counsel William Fitzpatrick said.
    In a petition, the SIA said the court of appeals erred in
upholding the decision of the Federal Reserve board of
governors to permit Bankers Trust New York Corp <BT> to
underwrite and distribute commercial paper.
    The SIA charged that the Fed's ruling violates the 1933
Glass-Steagall Act barring banks from underwriting most types
of securities.
    The court of appeals decision, issued last December,
reversed an earlier district court ruling that selling
commercial paper is an improper bank activity and that private
placements by banks is also improper.
    In an earlier round of the case, decided in 1984, the
Supreme Court upheld the SIA's contention that commercial paper
is a security for the purposes of th Glass-Steagall Act.
    The SIA is a trade association representing the interests
of more than 500 U.S. investment banks and securities firms.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 918,000 vs profit 585,000
    Revs 5,475,000 vs 4,430,000
    YEAR
    Shr profit 32 cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net profit 2,909,000 vs loss 1,501,000
    Revs 23.7 mln vs 15.0 mln
    Note: 1986 4th qtr net includes 1.5 mln U.S. dlr, or 17 ct
shr, writedown of stake in Heck's Inc <HEX> and 300,000 U.S.
dlr, or three ct shr, writedown of arbitrage positions. 1986
fl-yr net includes 900,000 dlr net writedown of stake in
Heck's.
    U.S. dlrs.
 Reuter

A group led by GFI Nevada Inc, a
subsidiary of General Felt Industries, a Saddlebrook, N.J.
carpet maker, said it cut its stake in Allied Products Corp to
169,888 shares, or 3.4 pct, from 288,652 shares, or 5.8 pct.
GFI said it sold 114,000 Allied Products common shares on March
3 at 42 dlrs each and donated another 4,746 shares to two
universities.
    It said its dealings in the company's common stock were for
investment purposes only.

 Reuter

World Bank President Barber Conable
said he was confident Brazil would come up with a debt plan and
that the current suspension on commercial bank debt payments
would be temporary.
    He said Brazil's decision to stop payments on its debt had
captured the attention of the international community but the
country should now produce a plan to reform its overheated
economy.
    "They have everyone's attention but it must be followed by a
constructive plan," he said.
    Conable made his remarks before a group of commercial
bankers at a meeting sponsored by the Export-Import Bank and
later informally to reporters.
 Reuter

Pay talks aimed at ending a
week-old national seamen's strike collapsed today and the
strike will continue, a union official said.
    The walkout by Brazil's 40,000 seamen has idled 160 ships
in various ports, Jorge Luis Leao Franco, a senior official of
the National Merchant Marine Union, told Reuters.
    The strikers, who are seeking a 275 pct pay increase, have
rejected offers of a 100 pct raise from the state oil company
Petrobras and an 80 pct increase from the National Union of
Maritime Navigation Companies (Syndarma).
    Leao Franco said eight hours of talks in Rio de Janeiro
with Labor Minister Almir Pazzianotto ended today without
resolving the dispute.
    He said six ships were idle abroad -- in the Netherlands,
Spain, Venezuela, France and South Africa.
    Economic analysts said the strike was of major concern to
the government, which has suspended interest payments on part
of Brazil's foreign debt following a drastic deterioration in
the country's trade balance.
Rubens Habbema, was quoted today as saying that if the strike
continued foreign ships could be authorized to transport
Brazilian exports.
    "Brazil is living through a crisis at the moment and it is
not conceivable that exports be hit," he told the Gazeta
Mercantil newspaper.
 Reuter

Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc, the
brokerage subsidiary of American Express Co <AXP>, said it has
acquired 131,300 shares of Chicago Milwaukee Corp, or 5.4 pct
of its total outstanding common stock.
Shearson said it bought the stake for 18.8 mln dlrs for
investment purposes and has no intention of seeking control of
 Reuter

E.A. Viner Holdings Ltd said the earlier
reported Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Heck's Inc <HEX>, in
which Viner holds 408,000 shares, would not materially affect
Viner's capital position or its ability to carry on its
profitable brokerage business.
    Viner said its brokerage subsidiary, Edward A. Viner and Co
had regulatory capital of 24.5 mln U.S. dlrs at year-end 1986.
    The company said Heck's Chapter 11 filing could, however,
affect Viner's previously reported legal action to recover
costs from an aborted merger agreement with Heck's.
     It said it and the Toussie-Viner group, with which it made
the merger offer, were assessing their options regarding the
Heck's investment.
    Viner earlier reported a fourth quarter loss of 918,000
U.S. dlrs after a 1.5 mln dlr writedown of its stake in Heck's.
It earned 585,000 dlrs in the previous fourth quarter.
    Full-year earnings totaled 2.9 mln dlrs against a
year-earlier loss of 1.5 mln dlrs. The full-year earnings
included a 900,000 dlr net writedown of the Heck's stake, it
said.
 Reuter

Italian Treasury Minister Giovanni Goria
met Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro today and
expressed Italy's willingness to support his efforts in trying
to resolve Brazil's pressing debt problems.
    Goria told reporters after meeting Funaro, who is in Rome
on the fifth leg of a tour to seek governmental support for his
efforts to solve Brazil's debt crisis, that Italy's expression
of support was based on reason as much as sympathy.
    "The problems of one country are also those of the rest so
we should all work together to help solve them," Goria said. "It
is in the interest of all to work for the future."
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc said it filed
suit in Delaware Chancery Court against USAir Group Inc and its
board of directors seeking to invalidate its "poison pill"
anti-takeover plan.
    TWA vice president and general counsel Mark Buckstein said
TWA also sought a declaratory judgement from the court that its
52 dlr per share takeover offer for USAir would in no way
interfer with USAir's possible buyout of Peidmont Aviation Inc
<PIE>.
    Buckstein said TWA asked the court to enjoin the
enforcement of USAir's shareholder rights plan, or "poison
pill." Such provisions, which typically allow for the issue of
securities to shareholders in the event of a hostile takeover
bid, are aimed at deterring takeovers by making them more
expensive.
    USAir earlier today rejected TWA's offer, saying TWA's bid
was an attempt to interfer with its buyout of Piedmont.
    USAir also had said its counsel would investigate the
matter. Tonight, a spokesman for USAir said the airline had no
comment on TWA's lawsuit.
    USAir did respond, however, to a TWA request to the
Department of Transportation for permission to buy up to 51 pct
of USAir stock and place the stock in a voting trust pending
approval of a takeover.
    USAir said the request was "hastily pasted together in
order to take advantage of a regulatory anamoly that would
allow TWA to accomplish in a regulated environment actions that
would be impermissable in the non-regulated economy at large."
    USAir called on the transportation department to reject
TWA's request.
 Reuter

    Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Co, subsidiary of
American Electric Power Co Inc <AEP> - Offering of 100 mln dlrs
of first mortgage bonds due 2017.
    Blocker Energy Corp <BLK> - Offering of 12 mln shares of
common stock through Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Alex. Brown
and Sons Inc.
    Freymiller Trucking Inc - Initial public offering of one
mln shares of common stock, including 250,000 being sold by
current holders, at an estimated 12 to 14 dlrs each through
Alex. Brown and Sons Inc and Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards
Inc.
    Ohio Mattress Co <OMT> - Offeing of 75 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2012 through Lazard
Freres and Co.
    Zehntel Inc <ZNTL> - Offering of 13.5 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentured due 2012 through Sutro and
Co Inc.
    Intel Corp <INTC> - Offering of 75 mln dlrs of senior
subordinated notes due 1994 and offering of 1.5 mln shares of
convertible cumulative exchangeable Class B preferred stock,
Series C, both through Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
 Reuter

Oper shr 99 cts vs 54 cts
    Oper net 9,515,000 vs 3,449,000
    Revs 509.3 mln vs 440.5 mln
    Note: 1985 net excludes extraordinary gain of 1.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Ivey Properties Inc said it
raised its quarterly dividend to 18 cts a share from 14 cts and
declared both an extra dividend of 27 cts a share and a 50 pct
stock dividend.
    It said the dividends will be paid April one to
shareholders of record March  16.
    For the stock dividend, Ivey said it will pay for
fractional shares at 25 dlrs per share.
   
 Reuter

Mexico has temporarily suspended
overseas coffee sales due to falling prices triggered by the
failure of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) meeting
to agree a quota system at its latest meeting, the official
Notimex news agency said.
    "We're just waiting a while for prices to improve," an
unidentified Mexican trader told the agency.
    Mexico has already sold 80 pct of its export coffee
produced in the year to last September, the source said. The
country exports about 3.3 mln 60-kilo bags a year.
 Reuter

A shareholder group led by a Swedish
investment firm and a Norwegian investor said it raised its
stake in the Scandinavia Fund Inc to 2,165,300 shares, or 33.3
pct of the total, from 1,978,900 shares, or 30.5 pct.
the group, which includes Ingemar Rydin Industritillbehor AB,
the firm, and investor Erik Martin Vik, said it bought the
additional shares between Feb 24 and March 9.
 Reuter

VBI Corp, an offshore-based
investment firm, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
raised its stake in the France Fund Inc <FRN> to 681,800
shares, or 9.1 pct of the total, from 551,000, or 7.4 pct.
    VBI, which is based in Turks and Caicos Islands, the
British West Indies, said it bought the additional shares
between Feb 24 and March 4.
    It has said it bought its France Fund stake for investment
purposes only.
 Reuter

Costa Rica's economy minister said he
sees new hope for winning changes in the International Coffee
Organisation system of export quotas.
    Minister Luis Diego Escalante, who serves as president of
the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, said he was hopeful because
of the support offered Costa Rica and other smaller producing-
nations by such major consumers as the United States, Britain
and the Netherlands at last week's ICO meeting in london.
    Escalante told a news conference here he "carried the weight
of the negotiations" at the meeting by calling for larger export
quotas for the smaller coffee-growing nations.
    Costa rica is insisting, Escalante said, on a new quota
system based on a producing nation's real export capacity, once
it has satisfied internal demand.
    "There are countries such as our own whose sales
possibilities are close to or above 100 pct of their current
quotas," Escalante said.
    At the same time, there are countries favoured by the
current system that have been assigned quotas far above their
export potential, he said.
    The current ICO quota system is "unfair and autocratic,"
Escalante said.
    Escalante attributed the nosedive in international coffee
prices over the last week to speculation rather than real
matters of supply and demand.
    "Be careful," he warned, "there's not as much coffee in the
world as they say. What there is are bags of sawdust."
 Reuter

U.S. money supply growth is slowing
down rapidly, and some economists believe that all three of the
Federal Reserve's main monetary aggregates may even have
contracted in February.
    A contraction is unlikely to be a major concern for the
Fed, especially as it would follow a long period of torrid
growth, but it could give the central bank extra leeway in the
weeks ahead if it decided that a relaxation of monetary policy
was justified on account of weakness in the economy.    
    M-1 money supply for the week ended February 23, reported
today, rose 1.9 billion dlrs to 738.5 billion, but preliminary
forecasts call for a drop next week of around two billion dlrs.
The monthly average in January was 737.1 billion dlrs.
    M-1 makes up about a quarter of M-2 and a fifth of M-3.
With other components of M-2, such as money-market deposit
accounts and small time deposits, also falling, the stage is
set for falls in the broader aggregates too, economists say.
    M-1 has been largely discredited because its traditional
link to economic growth has disintegrated under the impact of
falling interest rates and banking deregulation.
    But the consistent behavior of all three aggregates is
likely to impress the Fed, said Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch
Economics Inc.
    "The Fed has confidence in the aggregates when they're all
sending the same signal. This is going to raise some eyebrows
at the Fed," McCarthy said.
    Stephen Slifer of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc added, "We
have some very good-looking monetary aggregate data. It's
coming in a lot weaker than I thought."    
    The economists were quick to caution that one month's data
prove nothing, especially because money growth previously had
been so rapid. M-1 in the last 52 weeks has grown at a 16.7 pct
rate and at a 19.1 pct rate in the past 13 weeks.
    Moreover, some of the contraction in M-2 can probably be
explained by a shift of funds from savings vehicles into the
booming stock market and is thus not an indication of a
slowdown in the business expansion.
    But the data raise the tantalizing possibility for the bond
markets that the slowdown in money growth is partly a
reflection of a weaker economy that needs more Fed stimulus.
    McCarthy noted that the slower money growth coincides with
signs that the economy is losing momentum as the quarter
progresses. "Some of the economic indicators are not as rosy as
they were a month ago," he noted.
    He expects only five to six pct M-1 growth in March and
rises in M-2 and M-3 of about four pct.
    Slifer sees stronger growth of 10 pct in M-1 and five pct
or less for M-2 and M-3, but the rates would still be moderate
enough to encourage the Fed to ease policy if gross national
product for the first quarter proved to be weak. "You'd
certainly be more inclined to ease than you would in the past."
    There was certainly nothing in the Fed's latest balance
sheet, however, to suggest a change of policy is already under
way, economists said. Discount window borrowings were in line
with expectations at 233 mln dlrs a day.
    Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co International Inc
argued that an easier Fed policy is unlikely to do much to
solve America's most urgent economic problem, its massive trade
deficit. Because of the possibility that further dollar
depreciation - and thus rising inflation - may be needed to
close the trade gap, Brusca said "I'm not prepared to be all
that optimistic about the bond market."
 Reuter

Ecuador's consumer price index rose 2.5
pct in February to 562.4 (base 1978), the National Statistics
and Census Institute said.
    The rise compared to a 1.8 pct rise in January and a 2.5
pct rise in February 1986.
    The Institute said accumulated overall inflation for the
first two months of this year was 4.0 pct compared to 5.0 pct
for the same period last year.
    Inflation for the 12 months ending February 1987 was 25.5
pct compared to 13.0 pct for the 12 months ending February
1986.
 REUTER

The opposition National Party took a
five percentage point lead over New Zealand's Labour government
in an opinion poll, reversing the seven point lead held by
Labour in a comparable poll in February.
    In the regular Television New Zealand Heylen/Eyewitness
poll, National's support rose to 50 pct against 45 pct a month
earlier while Labour's popularity dropped to 45 pct from 52
pct. National has not been ahead in this poll since April.
    This result contrasts with a newspaper poll published
yesterday that put Labour's popularity at 50 pct and National's
at 44 pct.
    Both polls showed large numbers of voters are uncommitted.
    Approval of the government's handling of the economy also
dropped in the television poll, to 34 pct from 40 pct.
    Prime Minister David Lange remained first choice as Prime
Minister but with 25 pct against 28 pct last month. Opposition
leader Jim Bolger remained steady on nine pct in this category
but his colleague and former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon rose
two points to 18 pct.
    An election is due to be held before September this year.
 REUTER

West German gross fishmeal imports rose
60,260 tonnes, or 14.6 pct, last year to 471,891 tonnes, the
highest level since 1972, trade sources said.
    Re-exports fell by 6.6 pct, resulting in a surge in net
imports from 175,901 to 251,708 tonnes, an increase of 43 pct.
    Total West German consumption was estimated at around a
high 287,000 tonnes, largely reflecting attractive prices. The
sources, however, could not give comparative figures for 1985.
    South American producer countries supplied 97 pct of West
German requirements, with Chile shipping 229,176 tonnes (1985 -
182,959) and Peru 210,513 (147,014) tonnes.
    The two South American countries' share of the West German
market rose to 93.2 pct from 80.2 pct because imports from
Ecuador fell to 21,110 tonnes in 1986 from 51,722 in 1985.
    West Germany imported 56,823 tonnes of fishmeal in
December, up from 46,236 tonnes in the same 1985 month, with
re-exports at 22,262 tonnes after 25,062 a year earlier.
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts
    Net loss 753,000
    Revs 8,932,000
    Avg shrs 16.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss seven cts
    Net loss 995,000
    Revs 27.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.8 mln
    NOTE: Company started operating in August 1985.
    Results reflect change in fiscal year from November 30 end.
 Reuter

Silver State Mining Corp said it expects
gold production this year to be more than double 1986's 17,458
ounces.
    The company's 1985 production was 2,050 ounces.
 Reuter

McGrath RentCorp said as a
result of its December acquisition of Space Co, it expects
earnings per share in 1987 of 1.15 to 1.30 dlrs per share, up
from 70 cts in 1986.
    The company said pretax net should rise to nine to 10 mln
dlrs from six mln dlrs in 1986 and rental operation revenues to
19 to 22 mln dlrs from 12.5 mln dlrs.
    It said cash flow per share this year should be 2.50 to
three dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs one ct
    Net 528,790 vs 286,969
    Revs 2,537,803 vs 773,729
    Year
    Shr seven cts vs one ct
    Net 2,429,576 vs 404,394
    Revs 6,726,327 vs 1,150,961
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 2,547,000 vs 2,242,000
    Revs 56.7 mln vs 44.0 mln
    Avg shrs 17.6 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 54 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 9,249,000 vs 8,334,000
    Revs 173.3 mln vs 134.3 mln
    Avg shrs 17.1 mln vs 15.5 mln
 Reuter

last night concluded this week's tour of European capitals
having gleaned little in the way of concrete support from
governments for his country's attempts to find a radical
solution to its debt payments crisis.
    However, banking sources noted the existence of
considerable sympathy for Brazil's position among most of its
commercial bank creditors, manifested in the widespread belief
that adopting a hard line could only exacerbate the problems
while patience might pave the way for an eventual
reconciliation.
    Brazil on February 20 unilaterally suspended interest
payments on its 68 billion dlr debt to commercial banks,
followed by moves related to around 15 billion dlrs of bank and
trade credit lines deposited by foreign banks and institutions.
    The action had been preceded by a significant deterioration
in Brazil's balance of payments situation in the final quarter
of 1986, along with a marked acceleration in inflation.
Reserves had dipped to below four billion dlrs.
    Funaro and central bank president Francisco Gros last week
visited Washington to explain Brazil's move to government
officials and agencies.
    This week they have sought official support in the U.K.,
France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
    They have now decided to extend their tour, flying on
Sunday to Tokyo to talk to government officials, with a
possible visit to Canada before they return home.
    Funaro and Gros have so far confined their consultations to
government representatives, believing that problems with
Brazil's 109 billion dlr debt call for a political solution.
    However, banking sources noted that their attempts to
enlist the support of European and U.S. Governments had been
met almost unanimously with advice to talk first to banks.
    This counsel has been coupled with emphasis on the need for
Brazil to present to creditors a convincing economic programme,
with U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson also
recommending an accord with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), advice which Funaro subsequently rejected flatly.
 Reuter

MCANDREWS AND FORBES ARE OFFERING 18.50 DLRS PER SHARE FOR REVLON STOCK

its estimate of the shortage in the money market back to its
initial forecast of 550 mln stg.
    At midsession the central bank changed the shortfall to 500
mln and provided assistance worth 96 mln stg through bank bill
purchases in bands one and two at established dealing rates.
 REUTER

Shr six cts
    Net 155,764
    Revs 6,506,792
    NOTE: Company formed in August 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 931,000 vs profit 7,000
    Revs 2.3 mln vs 2.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 55 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 1,619,000 vs profit 185,000
    Revs 7.7 mln vs 7.1 mln
    NOTE: Shr figures adjusted for issue of 600,000 shares in
October, 1986. Avg shrs not given.
    Full name is <Peter Miller Apparel Group Inc>.
 Reuter

Period ended Jan 31
    Shr seven cts vs 14 cts
    Net 136,000 vs 274,000
    Sales 48.4 mln vs 38.2 mln
    Nine mths
    
    Shr 30 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 573,000 vs 328,000
    Sales 140.0 mln vs 102.4 mln
    NOTE: Prior year period ended Sept 30
    Comparable periods reflect change in fiscal yearend to
April from December
 Reuter

Donegal Group Inc, which today
reported earnings of 155,764 dlrs on revenues of 6,506,792 dlrs
for the period from August 26 startup through the end of 1986,
said it expects "much improved" profits for the full year 1987
on revenues of about 32 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

McAndrews and Forbes Holdings Inc said
it will offer 18.50 dlrs per share for all of Revlon Group
Inc's <REV> outstanding common stock.
    McAndrews said terms of the acquisition have not been
determined and are subject to the acquisition of financing.
    Revlon closed yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange at
14-3/4.
    The company said it would bid for all stock it or its
affiliates do not already own.
    McAndrews and Forbes said it informed the board of
directors of Revlon that it expects to make a formal proposal
in the near future. It also said there can be no assurance as
to the terms of the proposals or that the deal can be
concluded.
 Reuter

The Gillette Company <GS.N> and
Sweden's Electrolux AB <ELUX.ST> said they would form a
partnership to commercialise a new technology developed by the
U.S. Firm which uses solar cells to generate electricity.
    Electrolux is interested in harnessing the technology to
produce portable domestic appliances and will provide capital
and development contracts for the joint venture.
    The two companies are to establish a laboratory outside
Boston to develop what are known as thermophotovoltaic (TPV)
technologies that convert hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline
into light and electricity through the use of solar cells.
 REUTER

Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor
traders and commission house representatives are guesstimating
today's hog slaughter at about 300,000 to 305,000 head versus
292,000 week ago and 316,000 a year ago.
    Saturday's hog slaughter is guesstimated at about 30,000 to
55,000 head.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 128,000 to
130,000 head versus 129,000 week ago and 119,000 a year ago.
    Saturday's cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 20,000
to 40,000 head.
 Reuter

Inc <MS>, <Goldman, Sachs and Co> and <Salomon Inc> said an
offering of 1,000 shares of market auction preferred stock of
<Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Illinois'>
Talman Finance Corp C unit is underway at 100,000 dlrs a share.
    It said the initial dividend rate is 4.35 pct and the
diovidend will be reset every 49 days in a Dutch auction
process.  The first Dutch action date is May 12.
 Reuter

<Borealis Exploration Ltd> said
it entered into an agreement with <Faraway Gold Mines Ltd> of
Vancouver, British Columbia, under which Faraway will acquire
an interest in Borealis's Whale Cove Gold Property in the
Keewatin district of the Northwest Territories.
    Faraway will spend 1.5 mln dlrs on exploration over three
years and will hold 50 pct of the property until all expenses
are paid out, when the interest will drop to 40 pct.
    Also, Borealis and Faraway will issue treasury shares to
each other and Faraway will buy 575,000 Borealis shares from
Borealis president Lorne Spence.
 Reuter

<Rapid-American Corp> said its Faberge
Inc subsidiary was granted approval by federal court to pursue
its 11 mln dlr fraud suit against <Porterfield Buying Unit> and
its partners.
    Faberge said the U.S. District Court, Southern District of
New York, reinstituted the suit against Porterfield and its
partners Samuel Wyman and Grace Porterfield, vacating an
earlier court decision dismissing the suit.
    The suit, filed in 1982, charges Porterfield with
overcharging commissions and for billing commericals that were
promised but never aired, according to the company. Faberge
alleges that Porterfield used fraudulent invoices and schemes
which netted it more than 3,500,000 dlrs in illegal profits.
    The suit, brought under the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), was dismissed earlier because
the court ruled it did not meet certain criteria of the RICO
Act. But an Appeals Court sent the suit back to district court
based on two related decisions involving the RICO Act, Faberge
said.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it provided
assistance worth 350 mln stg during the afternoon session which
takes total help so far today to 446 mln stg against a shortage
estimated at around 550 mln stg.
    The central bank purchased outright bank bills comprising
120 mln stg in band one at 10-7/8 pct and 227 mln stg in band
two at 10-13/16 pct. It also bought treasury bills worth one
mln stg in band one and two mln stg in band two at the same
rates of interest as bank bills.
 REUTER

IMRE Corp said it has received
commitments for a group of European institutions to buy about
400,000 IMRE shares for 2,500,000 dlrs, with closing expected
on March 16.
                                                   
 Reuter

Finland's medical group Instrumentarium
Oy <INMR.HE> said it has acquired electronics components
importers and marketers <Ferrado Oy> and <Insele Oy>,
subsidiaries of Finland's electronics group Nokia Oy <NOKS.HE>.
    It said in a statement Ferrado and Insele will be merged
into Instrumentarium's Professional Electronics and Information
Systems Division.
    It did not disclose a price for the acquisitions but said
it had issued 30,000 restricted B shares as partial payment to
Nokia.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Shr 73 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 1,691,878 vs 1,117,747
    Revs 7.1 mln vs 4.9 mln
    Avg shrs 2.3 mln vs 2.0 mln
    NOTE: Share results reflect two-for-one stock split in
June, 1986.
 Reuter

Engineered Support Systems Inc
said Jerome Labarbera will retire as chairman but remain a
director, effective May one, 1987.
    President Michael Shanahan will assume the additional post
of chairman pending approval of the company's directors, it
said.
 Reuter

DOME PETROLEUM REAFFIRMS DOME MINES STAKE FOR SALE AT RIGHT PRICE, SPOKESMAN SAYS

Commonwealth Mortgage Co said
it purchased Westfiar Funding Corp of Armonk, N.Y., for an
    Commonwealth said Westfair originated 60 mln dlrs of
residential mortgage loans during 1986.
 Reuter

Semi-annual div 7-1/2 cts vs five cts
    Pay April nine
    Record March 26
 Reuter

Permian Corp said that effective march 5
it raised its posted prices for crude oil 50 cts a barrel.
    The raise brought its posted prices for West texas
Intermediate up by 50 cts to 17.00 dlrs a barrel.
    West Texas Sour was also raised by 50 cts to 17.00 dlrs a
barrel.
    A Permian spokesman said that the South Louisiana sweet
posted prices was also raised 50 cts a barrel to 17.35 dlrs.
 Reuter

Postmasters Inc said its common
stock has been listed on the NASDAQ system, effective today.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters PaineWebber Group Inc
<PWJ> and Ryan, Beck and Co Inc <RBCO> said an initial public
offering of 537,500 shares of Montclair Savings Bank common
stock is under way at 15 dlrs per share.
    Underwriters have been granted an option to purchase up to
an additional 322,500 shares to cover overallotments.
    The company also sold 1,612,500 shares in a subscription
and community offering.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 20 cts
    Shr diluted 18 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 578,000 vs 554,000
    Sales 10.7 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Avg shrs 3,006,s302 vs 2,795,820
    Avg shrs diluted 4,271,488 vs 4,081,534
 Reuter

Annual div four cts vs 1.76 cts
    Pay March 20
 Reuter

Pace Membership Warehouse Inc said it
made a series of recent purchases of its 13 pct subordinated
notes totaling about 13.6 mln dlrs.
    It said the amount of notes originally issued totaled 60
mln dlrs.
    Pace also said it may purchase additional outstanding notes
in the future.
 Reuter

    Net 761,000 vs 490,000
    Revs 7.3 mln vs 4.5 mln

 Reuter

U.K. Officials are studying the possible
link between the use of antibiotics in calf feeds and the
spread of drug-resistant strains of salmonella in humans, a
Ministry of Agriculture official said.
    A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine
yesterday stated that the spread of an unusual strain of
salmonella that is resistant to the drug chloramphenicol had
been shown to be linked to farms that used the drug to promote
   The U.K. Ministry of Agriculture is working with the
Department of Health and the Public Health Laboratory to
investigate the whole subject of resistant strains of
salmonella.
    "The Ministry of Agriculture is concerned about the possible
effects on human and animal health," the official said. The
government is also studying a recommendation from the Farm
Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) to restrict the trade of calves
under 56 days old through markets. The FAWC says this would
help reduce the spread of salmonella.
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd's 23.2 pct stake of
gold producer Dome Mines Ltd continues to be for sale "at the
right price," spokesman David Annesley said in response to an
inquiry.
    Reaffirming remarks made last year by chairman Howard
Macdonald, Annesley said the company is considering selling its
stake in Dome Mines.
    Concerning Dome Petroleum's 42 pct stake in <Encor Energy
Corp Ltd>, Annesley said "Encor is a strategic investment for
Dome, and we have no intention of selling it."
    Dome spokesman Annesley said in answer to a question that
he was not aware of any negotiations now under way toward the
sale of Dome Petroleum's 20.9 mln Dome Mines shares.
    He also declined to specify at what price the company would
consider selling it shares.
    "Clearly today's prices of more than 15 dlrs a share (of
Dome Mines stock) are very attractive," Annesley commented.
    "We were considering the sale 'at the right price' at a time
when the shares were priced around nine to 10 dlrs," he added. A
price of around 15 dlrs a share would be considered "fairly
attractive," Annesley said.
    Annesley also Dome Petroleum may be able to sell its Dome
Mines' shares at a premium to market prices. "There might be an
opportunity to pick up a premium on that because it would be
virtually a control block in Dome Mines," he said.
    Dome Mines shares traded earlier at 15-1/4 dlrs, off 1/4 on
the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    Dome Petroleum is now negotiating a plan to restructure
debt of more than 6.1 billion Canadian dlrs with a group of 56
major creditors, which includes Dome Mines and Encor Energy.
    The company previously said it expects to detail the plan
to lenders early next week.
 Reuter

said it is proposing a new simplified approach to regulating
the long-distance telecommunications market.
    In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, ATT
proposed replacing the current rate of return regulation with
simplified rules that "would eliminate many costs now imposed on
customers while freeing ATT to introduce new services and
pricing options more swiftly."
    The filing comes one day after MCI Communications Corp said
the firm will seek immediate deregulation of its principal
long-distance competitor, ATT.
    Under the approach outlined in the filing, ATT would commit
to continue providing basic long-distance services to all
customers and to maintain uniform nationwide prices in all
parts of the country unless granted regulatory approval to do
otherwise.
    Specifically, ATT proposed that the FCC require the company
to file tariffs for new interstate services and price changes
that would go into effect within 14 days.
    In addition, the proposal calls for the reduction of the
voluminous documentation ATT is required to file each time it
introduces or changes long-distance services.
    The new proposal would place the burden on challengers to
demonstrate that ATT's tariffs "are unreasonable".
    It would also require long-distance companies to submit
periodic reports to help regulators monitor competition in the
industry.
    Lawrence Garfinkel, ATT's Vice-President of Marketing
Services, said, "With this filing, we're suggesting that
regulators replace a blanket approach to regulating ATT with a
more finely tuned, targeted approach."
 Reuter

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia's 16
pct Australian dlr 101 pct bond issue of yesterday has been
raised to a total of 125 mln Australian dlrs from 100 mln, lead
manager Swiss Bank Corp International said.
    The coupon is valid for one year and will then be re-fixed
annually at the one-year Australian Treasury rate. There will
also be an investor put option annually at par
 REUTER

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS PARIS PACT ONLY A START TO GREATER COOPERATION

The Dutch central bank announced new
eleven-day special advances at an unchanged 5.3 pct to aid
money market liquidity, covering the period March 9 to 20.
    The amount will be set at tender on Monday March 9 between
0800 and 0830 GMT. The new facility will replace the current
4.8 billion guilders of seven-day advances expiring Monday.
    Money dealers estimated today's money market shortage at 11
to 11.25 billion guilders, barely changed from yesterday.
    They said call money was still relatively high at 6-1/8 to
6-1/4 pct as a result of the tight set of bids accepted by the
Bank for the previous seven-day facility.
 REUTER

Shr loss not given vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 309,000 vs profit 426,000
    Revs 6,358,000 vs 6,747,000
    Year
    Shr profit 27 cts vs profit 76 cts
    Net profit 713,000 vs profit 2,021,000
    Revs 24.9 mln vs 27.1 mln
    NOTE: Pretax net profits 113,000 dlrs vs 824,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,863,000 dlrs vs 3,606,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

<Colonial Municipal Income Trust> said it
has filed for an initial public offering of six mln shares of
beneficial interest through underwriters led by Morgan Keegan
and Co Inc, Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards Inc and Piper,
Jaffray and Hopwood Inc at an expected price of 10 dlrs per
share.
    It said proceeds will be invested in portfolio securities.
Colonial is a closed-end investment company seeking high
current income by investing in federally tax exempt medium and
lower quality bonds and notes issued by state and local
 Reuter

Stone Container Corp said it and
Southwest Forest Industries Inc <SWF> completed all waiting
period requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Anti-Trust
Improvements Act of 1976.
    Stone said it will proceed with its previously proposed
acquisition of Southwest.
 Reuter

<Fisher Transportation Services
Inc> said it has filed for an initial public offering of
1,100,000 common shares at an expected price of six to seven
dlrs a share through underwriters led by Laidlaw Adams and Peck
Inc.
    Fisher is an irregular route truckload quantity general
commodity carrier operating throughout the continental U.S.
 Reuter

The failure of International Coffee
Organization talks on the reintroduction of quotas has
paralysed business on the Hamburg green coffee market in the
past week, trade sources said.
    There was only sporadic activity for spot material, which
was mainly requirement buying, they said, adding that
pre-registered coffees were no longer available.
    They said they expected Brazil and Colombia to open export
registrations for May shipment next week. However, the
president of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, Jorio Dauster,
said yesterday he had not yet decided when its registrations
would reopen.
 REUTER

Qtly div 24 cts vs 24 cts prior
 Reuter

Southwest Forest Industries said
it and Stone Container Corp have complied with all federal
waiting period requirements for Stone's proposed 32.25 dlr per
share cash acquisition of Southwest.
    Southwest currently has 12.3 mln shares outstanding. The
companies entered into a merger agreement on January 27, and
made their initial findings with the Department of Justice and
the Federal Trade Commission on February three.
    Southwest said the waiting period expired on March 5,
without receiving a formal second request for information.
   
REUTER...^M

The State Bank of South Australia is
issuing a novel 50 mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 8,
1992 paying an initial coupon of 16-1/4 pct and priced at 101
pct, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp International said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by the state of South
Australia and will be listed in Luxembourg. Denominations are
1,000 and 10,000 Australian dlrs. Payment date is April 8.
 REUTER

OKC Limited Partnership said it will make
a five ct per share distribution to unitholders, down from 15
cts in December and payable March 30 to holders of record March
18.
    The partnership said the payout is the largest quarterly
cash distribution allowable under terms of its letter of credit.
 Reuter

<Rapidtech Systems Inc> said it
acquired all rights to the patent for the "pocket modem", which
eliminates the need for stand-alone modems that are attached
between telephones and computer terminals, as well as modems
built into computers.
    Rapidtech said the patent includes all rights to license
and build the modems, as well as a patent application for an
optical isolator.
    The company did not disclose a price for the rights.
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 63,761 vs loss 43,006
    Revs 1,961,219 vs 1,413,859
    Year
    Shr loss seven cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 380,273 vs loss 1,108,151
    Revs 6,245,012 vs 5,368,522
    Shr out 5,950,000 vs 5,462,547
 Reuter

South Africa's director-general of
finance Chris Stals said he was optimistic about reaching a
mutually acceptable agreement with foreign bank creditors in
debt renegotiation talks scheduled to begin next month.
    Stals, the country's chief foreign debt negotiator, said "we
are busy finding out how they (banks) feel. They all have
different opinions. There is no consensus."
    But asked if he was optimistic on agreement for a new debt
repayment plan, Stals replied "yes" in a telephone interview from
his Pretoria office.
    He declined to comment further before the major review of
the interim debt agreement regarding the moratorium on
principal repayments on 13 billion dlrs of South Africa's 24
billion dlr external debt.
    The agreement on the moratorium with some 330 creditor
banks expires on June 30. "We have had a series of discussions
with a great number of banks both bilaterally and individually
on the foreign debt situation in preparation for April," Stals
said.
    He said no date has been set for the meeting and declined
to comment on published reports in the past few months that
banks may demand accelerated repayments.
    Banking sources here said only an escalation of South
African political unrest would increase foreign pressure on
repayments.
    Finance Minister Barend du Plessis said last month that in
the forthcoming talks South Africa would give a fair deal to
all creditors but not agree to "unrealistic demands."
 REUTER

Morgan Stanley Mortgage Trust I, a unit
of Morgan Stanley Group, is offering 317.8 mln dlrs of
AAA-rated collateralized mortgage obligations that include two
floating-rate tranches, said sole manager Morgan Stanley.
    The floaters have average lives of 7.85 and 15.6 years for
maturities of 2012 and 2015. The rate on the shorter term
floater will be reset quarterly at 55 basis points over
three-month LIBOR while the rate on the longer tranche will be
reset at three-month LIBOR plus 65 basis points.
    Fixed-rate CMO yields are 7.153 to 8.97 pct for maturities
of 2004 to 2017 and average lives of 2.5 to 23.99 years.
 Reuter

MTech Corp said it expects to file
shortly for an offering of subordinated debentures convertibe
into common stock.
    It gave no details on the size of the offering.
 Reuter

The Canadian Import Tribunal ruled today
subsidized U.S. corn imports were injurious to Canadian growers
and upheld a countervailing duty of 84.9 U.S. cts a bushel set
earlier this year.
    The ruling is the result of trade action launched in 1985
by the Ontario Corn Producers Association that contended U.S.
subsidies were driving American corn prices below Canadian
production costs.
    A spokesman for the Department of Revenue said a study of
the level of the duty will be undertaken in the next six months
to determine if it should be adjusted.
 Reuter

Momentum in th U.S. economy may be
picking up given solid across-the board increases in the
February U.S. employment report, economists said.
    U.S. non-farm payroll employment rose 337,000 in February,
twice what the financial markets expected. This follows a
319,000 gain in January, revised down from a previously
reported 448,000 increase.
    "Even if you look at January and February together, this is
still a much stronger report than the consensus expectation in
the market," said Allan Leslie of Discount Corporation.
    Economists stressed that gains in hours worked signal much
larger gains in February U.S. production and income than
previously forecast.
    The average work week rose 0.2 hours to 35.0 hours from
34.8 hours in January. The average manufacturing work week rose
0.3 hours to 41.2 hours, the longest factory work week since
November 1966, the Commerce Department said.
    "The gains in manufacturing employment point to a very
large increase in industrial production of between 0.5 and 0.7
pct," said Joe Carson of Chemical Bank. This compares to a 0.4
pct  gain in January U.S. industrial production.
    Peter Greenbaum of Smith Barney Harris Upham and Co Inc
noted that the average wage rate increased to 8.87 dlrs an hour
in February from 8.83 dlrs in January.
    "Combined with the increase in hours worked, this means
we'll get a pretty healthy gain in personal income vis-a-vis
the wage and salary disbursement," he said.
    Greenbaum said that February U.S. personal income should
rise at least 0.5 pct after being flat in January.
    He said the February employment gains are consistent with
his firm's first quarter U.S. real gross national product
growth forecast of 3.7 pct.
    Economists agreed that the employment data were negative
for the credit markets in that they signal a healthier economy
and no easing in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. But
most said that the market need not fear tighter policy either.
    "This report is another reason for the Fed to not consider
easing," said Ray Stone of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc.  
  "It gives them more room to address the dollar situation," he
said. "If they had to nudge policy tighter, they could do so,
but it's most likely they'll sit and wait."
    "The data have not been uniform," Stone added. "Durable
goods were weak in January and now employment is strong."
    In January, U.S. durable goods orders dropped 7.5 pct,
followed by a 4.0 pct drop in U.S. factory goods orders. U.S.
retail sales fell 5.8 pct, and the U.S. merchandise trade gap
widened to 14.8 billion dlrs.
    "Things just aren't adding up," said Steve Slifer of Lehman
Goverment Securities Inc. "Consumer spending, capital spending,
goverment spending, and net exports data show very weak first
quarter GNP growth of one pct," he said.
    "The employment and production data point to a big
inventory build-up, but that's what we thought in the fourth
quarter and we only got 1.3 pct GNP growth."
    Manufacturing employment gained 50,000 after falling 15,000
in January. Economists estimated that 30,000 of the gain was
accounted for by striking workers in the steel and machinery
industries returning to work.
    Even so, some economists said that the manufacturing gains
have resulted from an improving trade outlook.
    Jason Benderly of Goldman, Sachs and Co noted that the U.S.
trade picture improved in the fourth quarter as net exports
grew at a 20 pct annual rate while the rate of increase in
imports fell to only six pct, and that it continues to improve
in the first quarter.
    "Not only the official statistics for the fourth quarter,
but evidence of a pick up in orders from overseas for paper
products, chemicals, high-tech goods, and capital goods show
that trade is improving," Benderley said.
    "The economy is moving between extremes," he said. "Some
reports are going to look bad and some good, but first quarter
GNP is going to grow in the middle at about three pct."
    A 287,000 gain in services employment comprised the greater
part of February's employment gain. Retail services employment
rose 129,000 in February, compared to a gain of 117,000 in
January, previously reported at 166,000.
    Construction employment rose a slim 2,000 in February. But
this follows a robust 113,000 gain in January, revised down
from a previously reported 142,000 gain.
    The U.S. civilian unemployment rate was unchanged in
February at 6.7 pct. This means the jobless rate has stayed at
6.7 pct for three consecutive months, the lowest reading since
March 1980, the Commerce Department noted.
    "The Federal Reserve has to be pleased with this report,"
Carson said. "This takes away the Fed's flexibility to ease,
but there's no reason to tighten. It's way too early for that."
      
 Reuter

Shr 1.57 dlrs vs 1.60 dlrs
    Net 55.7 mln vs 56.5 mln
    Revs 3.7 billion vs 3.6 billion
    Year
    Shr 3.79 dlrs vs 4.11 dlrs
    Net 144.5 vs 154.5 mln
    Revs 14.0 billion vs 13.9 billion
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr per shr amts includes reduction
of 15 cts per shr for establishment of reorganization reserves.
Tax increase reduced 1986 yr per shr by 26 cts.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker said
the agreement among industrial nations in Paris last month is
only a start in Washington's drive to intensify economic
cooperation among leading countries.
    In a speech to the National Newspaper Association, Baker
said "the six steps beginning with the Plaza Agreement and
culminating in the Paris Accord, are only a start."
    He added "we see our role as a steward of a process in which
we sit down with our industrial allies to find ways to promote
more balanced international growth."
    The Paris agreements called trade surplus countries to
strengthen their growth and on the U.S. to reduce its budget
deficit. Under such circumstances, the countries agreed their
currencies were within ranges broadly consistent with economic
fundamentals.
    Baker also said he still sees "ominous" signs of pressure for
protectionist trade legislation "and this pressure for
protectionism is coming from new areas of society."
    But he also said he believed a coalition was forming that
supported free trade.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER FULLY EXPECTS BRAZIL TO STRIKE DEAL WITH PRIVATE CREDITORS

TREASURY'S BAKER FORECASTS REDUCTION IN JAPANESE TRADE SURPLUS THIS YEAR

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY ON DOLLAR

USG Corp is raising 100 mln dlrs
through an offering of notes due 1997 with an eight pct coupon
and par pricing, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    That is 80 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Treasury paper. Non-callable to maturity, the notes are rated
A-1 by Moody's and A by Standard and Poor's. Goldman Sachs and
Shearson Lehman Brothers co-managed the deal.
    Yesterday, USG sold 200 mln dlrs of same-rated debentures
due 2017 that were priced to yield 8.77 pct, or 120 basis
points over Treasuries, through a syndicate headed by Salomon
Brothers.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to
operate in the U.S. government securities market during its
usual intervention period this morning, economists said.
    Fed funds opened comfortably at 5-15/16 pct and remained at
that level. Yesterday Fed funds averaged 5.99 pct.
 Reuter

<Toronto Dominion Bank> said it agreed
to acquire a seat on the Toronto Stock Exchange, becoming the
first Canadian bank to do so after government proposals to
allow banks full involvement in the securities industry.
    The bank, Canada's fifth largest, said one of its
subsidiaries was already a member of the Toronto Futures
Exchange and that this further step showed the bank's
commitment to active involvement in the securities industry.
    Toronto Dominion established a discount brokerage service
in 1984 called Green Line Investors Service that now serves
more investors than any other discount broker in Canada.
    The bank previously said in January that it preferred to
establish its own securities unit rather than acquire an
existing investment dealer.
    "Full TSE access will enable us to provide an even higher
level of customer service and maintain Green Line's position as
an industry leader," said Toronto Dominion president Robert
Korthals in a statement.
    He told reporters at a news conference that the bank agreed
to purchase the seat for 195,000 dlrs from Hector M. Chisholm
and Co.
    The price represents a recent high from the 166,000 dlrs
paid for a seat in 1981, but the record price remains 200,000
dlrs paid in 1929.
 Reuter

Martin Ardbo, managing director of <AB
Bofors>, which is at the centre of a police inquiry into
illegal arms shipments to Iran, has resigned, the company said.
    Ardbo was Bofors marketing head at the time peace groups
say the company supplied arms to countries Sweden had
blacklisted.
    Ardbo was stepping down from his post at Bofors but would
continue to work for the parent company, Bofors said in a
statement. "For the past two years, an inquiry into alleged
illegal arms exports has been carried out at Bofors. Arbo has
decided that it would be unsuitable if he continued to
represent the company," the statement said. It gave no further
details.
 REUTER

PicTel Corp said it is filing an
amendment to increased the size of its proposed offering of
common stock and warrants.
    It said it is still offering one mln units, but each unit
will now consist of five common shares and three warrants,
rather than two shares and one warrant.  F.N. Wolf and Co Inc
is underwriter.
 Reuter

Boston Bancorp said its board declared a
two-for-one stock split, payable March 31, record March 17.
 Reuter

said.
the forthcoming talks, South Africa would give a fair deal to
 Reuter

U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
said he believes Brazil will strike an agreement with its
private creditors.
    Answering questions from the National Newspaper
Association, Baker said "Brazil is not defaulting on its debt,"
and pointed out its interest payments moratorium was called
because of dwindling foreign reserves.
    He said that based on discussions with Brazilian officials
here last week, he believed Brazil's approach to its problems
was "nonconfrontational," adding, "We fully expect Brazil will
work this out with its private creditors."
    Baker pointed out Brazil was paying in full and on time its
debts to multilateral institutions, the U.S. government and
other western creditor governments.
    The country has declared an interest payments moratorium on
68 billion dlrs of its 108 billion dlr foreign debt and frozen
some 15 billion dlrs in trade and interbank deposits by
commercial bank creditors at Brazilian institutions.
 Reuter

there has been no change in U.S. policy on the value of the
dollar.
    Baker, when asked if the policy was changed in view of
comments yesterday by a senior Commerce Department official who
said he thought the Japanese yen was undervalued against the
dollar by 10 to 15 pct, replied, "No."
    Yesterday Robert Ortner, Undersecretary of Commerce for
Economic Affairs, said he thought the yen was undervalued but
said that was his personal view.
    This remark caused the dollar to drop as it appeared to
conflict with a recent agreement in Paris by the United States
and five other industrial nations that currency rates were at
about the right level to reflect underlying economic
    Baker, who spoke earlier to the National Newspaper
Association, declined to elaborate on his statement about U.S.
policy.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - MACANDREWS AND FORBES HOLDINGS
    In New York story headlined "MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings
bids for Revlon," pls read in headline and first paragraph,
"MacAndrews and Forbes considers bid for Revlon," and in first
paragraph, "MacAndrews and Forbes holdings Inc said it is
considering making a proposal." (Corrects from "bids for
Revlon," in headline and "will offer"in first paragraph)

Limited shipping restrictions due to high
water remain in force on parts of the West German stretch of
the Rhine river between the Dutch border and the city of Mainz
but most are expected to be lifted this weekend.
    water authority officials said The restrictions, caused by
high water levels, include speed limits and directives to keep
to the middle of the river to prevent damage to the river
banks. The high water was expected to recede within two days to
below levels at which the restrictions come into force.
    Traffic was halted briefly late Tuesday night, Wednesday
and parts of Thursday on stretches of the Rhine between Bonn
and Koblenz but the shipping bans were lifted, the officials
said. Shipping is now permitted on all parts of the West German
section of the Rhine, with restrictions in some areas.
 Reuter

Allure Cosmetics Inc said it
reached an agreement with <Motown Industries> of Los Angeles to
be the exclusive licensee of the Motown name for skin care,
cosmetics and hair-care products.
    Allure said the medium-priced products are scheduled to be
introduced at a trade show in Philadelphia in early April. The
company said the products will be sold in professional salons,
major drug chains and department stores.
    Allure also said it entered into a merchandising agreement
with the U.S. Olympic Committee to use the Olympic designation
on  suntan, sun treatment, lip care and other
facial skin-care products.
    Alllure said it also introduced a new face lift masque,
intended to reduce wrinkles and other signs of aging.
 Reuter

<Hawker Siddeley Group PLC>'s offer of
74 dlrs a share for all of Clarostat Mfg Co Inc's stock was
scheduled to expire at 2400 EST yesterday.
    Company officials were unavailable for comment as to why
the American Stock Exchange had stopped trading in Clarostat's
stock for a pending news announcement.
 Reuter

Narragansett Capital Inc <NARR>
said it and Dudley S. Taft have requested a response from Taft
Broadcasting Co by March 12.
    Earlier today, Taft Broadcasting said Taft, the company's
vice chairman, and Narragansett had offered 145 dlrs for each
of Taft's 9.2 mln outstanding shares.
    The company said the offer is conditioned on approval of
its board, but a spokesman declined comment on whether or not
the board has scheduled a meeting.
     The Narragansett/Taft group will provide the equity portion
of the offer by contributing at least 125 mln dlrs in cash and
Taft Broadcasting common, Narragansett said.
    It said the group has been advised by First Boston Inc's
<FBC> First Boston Corp that the investment banker is "highly
confident that financing for the acquisition can be
consummated."
    Narragansett said the offer is subject to negotiation of a
definitive merger agreement and definitive financing agreements
as well as approval by regulators, Taft's board and Taft's
stockholders.
    The Narragansett/Taft group said its letter to Taft's board
states the group intends to return control over a significant
portion of the company's equity to the Taft family while
providing other stockholders with a means of realizing a very
attractive value for their shares.
 Reuter

Stone Container Corp said that effective
April six, prices for all grades of containerboard products
will increase 30 dlrs per ton.
    Stone Container chairman and chief executive officer Roger
Stone said that, for example the base price of 42 lb paper
delivered to the Northeast, will rise to 380 dlrs a tone from
350 dlrs a ton.
    The Stone container increase follows International Paper
Co's <IP> announcement yesterday it would hike linerboard
prices on April six, to 380 per ton from 350 ton, except in the
Northeast and West where the new price is 390 per ton.
    International Paper also said its medium grade linerboard
prices would increase to 360 dlrs a ton from 340 dlrs a tone,
effective April six, expect in the Northeawst and West, where
the news price will be 370 dlrs a ton.
 Reuter

<Scandinavian Airline System> said it
has cut the price of its peak-season Super Apex fares from New
York to Scandinavia about 150 dlrs.
    The airline said there will be comparable savings from
other U.S. gateways. The new fares, which are subject to
government approval, were introduced so SAS can remain
competitive with all scheduled carriers from the United States
to Scandinavia, it said.
    SAS said the price of a round-trip Super Apex ticket from
New York to Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen and Gothenburg during the
shoulder season -- the month of May and from mid-August to
mid-September -- will be 644 dlrs midweek and 694 dlrs on
weekends with Stockholm 50 dlrs higher.
   
 Reuter

American Can Co said it plans
to change its name to Primerica Corp, subject to approval by
shareholders at the April 28 annual meeting.
    It said its new New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol would
be <PA>.
    American Can sold all its packaging operations -- and
rights to the American Can name -- to Triangle Industries Inc
<TRI> in November.
    The company said the new name gives it flexibility as it
moves into new areas of enterprise.  American Can is now
involved in financial services and specialty retailing.
 Reuter

Sound Warehouse Inc said revenues for the
five weeks ended March One were up 27 pct to 15.0 mln dlrs from
11.9 mln dlrs a year before, with same-store revenues off one
pct.
    It said revenues for the third quarter were up 24 pct to
48.0 mln dlrs from 38.7 mln dlrs a year before, with same-store
revenues off one pct, and nine month revenues were up 21 pct to
116.8 mln dlrs from 96.4 mln dlrs, with same-store revenues up
three pct.
 Reuter

<IBM Canada Ltd> said it filed a lawsuit
in the federal court of Canada against a number of companies
and individuals operating in Montreal under the names Crazy
Irving Inc, Irving Le Fou Inc and other names.
    IBM said the companies are making and distributing copies
of IBM personal computer programs that infringe upon IBM
copyrights and trademarks.
    IBM said it is seeking injunctions to prevent the companies
from continuing to sell the programs in question. A hearing is
expected in the next few weeks. IBM Canada is 100 pct owned by
International Business Machines Corp <IBM>.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it lowered its
rating of Southdown Inc's 50 mln dlrs of sinking fund
debentures to BB-plus from BBB and removed the issue from
Creditwatch.
    The downgrading reflects higher debt levels from the
debt-financed repurchase of 89 mln dlrs worth of common shares,
combined with a bleaker earnings outlook due to weakness in key
energy and Southwest cement markets.
 Reuter

period ended January 31
    Shr loss 28 cts vs profit seven cts
    Sales 2,303,000 vs 2,006,000
    Nine mths
    Sales 7,684,000 vs 7,059,000
    Note: per share reflects issue of 600,000 shares in October
1986.
 Reuter

La Caisse Centrale Desjardins Du Quebec
is issuing a 10 billion yen eurobond due April 7, 1994 paying
five pct and priced at 102-3/8 pct, Yamaichi International
(Europe) Ltd said as joint book runner for the deal.
    Tokai International Ltd is other joint book runner.
    The bond is available in denominations of one mln yen and
    Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession and 5/8 pct for
management and underwriting combined.
 REUTER

Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp said it
filed a petition asking the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission
to reconsider its earlier rejection of the merger of the
holding company's railroad assets.
    The ICC had rejected in July the merger of the Santa Fe and
Southern Pacific Railroads on the grounds that it would reduce
competition.
    Santa Fe in its petition outlines an array of
pro-competitive agreements with other railroads which would
preserve the economic benefits of the merger for the merged
railroad and the public.
    If the commission agrees that public benefits and
competitive enhancements will result, it can vote to reopen the
merger case. Interested parties have until March 25 to file
statements in response to the supplemental petition.
 Reuter

said the Japanese trade surplus would begin to decline this
year.
    He told the National Newspaper Association "You're going to
see a reduction in the Japanese trade surplus -- some of it
this year".
    But he said the reduction would be due principally to the
exchange rate shifts since the Plaza Agreement, and these
shifts would take a long time to work their way through the
system.
 Reuter

Monfort of Colorado Inc soared 21-1/2
to 75 in over-the-counter trading, responding to an
announcement late yesterday that the firm will be acquired by
Conagra Inc <CAG>.
    According to a letter of intent signed by both companies,
Conagra will offer 2.5 of its own shares for each of Monfort's
4.3 mln outstanding shares.
    Conagra fell one to 33 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Monfort is an integrated beef and lamb producer.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 255 mln dlrs of debt of Triangle
Industries Inc and the unit National Can Corp.
    S and P cited an increase in Triangle's equity base to
about 450 mln dlrs at year-end 1986 from 102 mln dlrs a year
ago. That resulted from a conversion of debt securities and the
issuance of equity to American Can Co <AC> as part of the
purchase prices for American Can's packaging operations.
    Affirmed were Triangle's B-minus subordinated debt and
preferred stock and National Can's B-plus senior debt and
B-minus subordinated debt.
 Reuter

Sweden's <Nordbanken> banking group
said it would sell the 4.2 mln B free shares deposited as loan
collateral by Fermenta AB's <FRMS.ST> founder and former chief
executive Refaat el-Sayed and it planned to buy them up itself.
    The bank said the sale - by public auction on March 16 --
was because of a debtor's inability to repay an overdue loan.
    The B free shares closed at 16.50 crowns on the bourse's
unofficial list -- down from a peak of 300 in January 1986.
Nordbanken said it did not exclude accepting a suitable bid for
the shares although it expected to buy them back itself.
    The statement said the sale did not represent any
withdrawal from Nordbanken's undertakings towards the Fermenta
group and that it had been sanctioned by the other main
    Nordbanken is Fermenta's third largest creditor with loans
of 155 mln crowns. It was one of the four Swedish banks which
last month agreed to advance the group 110 mln crowns to solve
its immediate liquidity problems. Together with two other main
shareholders, it also advanced Fermenta an additional 65 mln
crowns until a new equity issue could be made.
    Fermenta is due to hold an extraordinary shareholders'
meeting on Tuesday to approve the planned equity issue.
    Nordbanken had to make a provision against a 200 mln crown
loan to el-Sayed in its 1986 results.
    Fermenta's new management originally hoped to raise 160 mln
crowns through the new one for four rights issue and an extra
170 mln from an issue to Nordbanken, another major creditor and
shareholder <Gotabanken> and the group's new majority owner
<Industrivarden AB>.
    The share price was to be 20 crowns. But there has been
doubt over the plans since the stock fell below this level this
week after Fermenta's former chairman Kjell Brandstrom said the
company was in a much worse state than he thought.
 REUTER

The Vancouver Stock Exchange said
February volume rose to 362.4 mln shares, up from 274.8 mln a
year ago and up 27 pct from the previous volume record for the
month set in 1983.
    The exchange said market value for the month was 469.5 mln
dlrs, up from 336.3 mln dlrs a year before and 8.5 pct ahead of
the previous record for the month, set in 1980.
    It said year to date volume was 724.2 mln shares, up 21.1
pct from a year before, and value was up 29.4 pct to 944.4 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Sole underwriter E.F. Hutton Group Inc
<EFH> said an offering of 2,100,000 common shares of Computer
Factory Inc is under way at 24.50 dlrs per share.
    The company is selling 1,800,000 shares and a shareholder
the rest.  Computer Factory and the shareholder have granted
Hutton an option to buy up to 315,000 more shares to cover
 Reuter

 Reuter

to BBB-plus from BBB Public Service Co of Indiana's first
mortgage bonds.
    The utility's BBB-minus preferred stock was affirmed. The
company has one billion dlrs of debt outstanding.
    S and P cited continuing improvement in earnings protection
measures because of a 1986 emergency rate increase.
    While various writeoffs related to the abandoned Marble
Hill nuclear facility have weakened common equity, the
retention of all common earnings until at least 1989 will help
restore capital structure balance fairly quickly, S/P said.
 Reuter

America West Airlines said its
February load factor slipped to 57.9 pct from 58.1 pct a year
earlier and the year-to-date load factor was up slightly at
55.5 pct compared with 55.4 pct a year earlier.
    February revenue passenger miles rose to 367.6 mln from
209.1 mln and year-to-date revenue miles were up to 730.3 mln
from last's year 421.9 mln.
    Available seat miles for the month increased to 634.4 mln
from 360.1 mln a year earlier and for the two-month period
available miles totaled 1.32 billion, up from the 761.7 mln
reported for the comparable period in 1986, America West said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.27 dlrs vs profit 43 cts
    Net loss 17.0 mln vs profit 5,667,000
    Sales 67.8 mln vs 70.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 69 cts vs profit 2.18 dlrs
    Net loss 9,174,000 vs profit 29.1 mln
    Sales 272.5 mln vs 269.4 mln
    Avg shrs 13.3 mln vs 13.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits of 14.5 mln dlrs in
quarter and 8,408,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 year net includes 616,000 dlr loss from discontinued
operations and 10.6 mln dlr gain on their disposal.
    1986 net both periods includes 19.1 mln dlr provision for
future losses from several major projects in defense contractor
subsidiary.
    Backlog 310 mln dlrs, up six pct from a year before.
    Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in February 1987.
 Reuter

Oper shr basic 1.04 dlrs vs 77 cts
    Oper shr diluted 89 cts vs 60 cts
    Oper net 31.6 mln vs 12.5 mln
    Revs 500.6 mln vs 170.9 mln
    Avg shrs 29.1 mln vs 14.3 mln
    Note: 1985 net excludes extraordinary gain of 1,756,000
dlrs or 12 cts shr basic and eight cts shr diluted.
    1986 net involves 53-week reporting period to reflect
change in yr-end to coincide with calendar yr.
 Reuter

Mine Safety Appliances Co said it
agreed to sell its filter products division to Donaldson Co Inc
<DCI> for undisclosed terms.
    It said the filter products unit will be relocated from its
plant in Pennsylvania to a Donaldson facility in Illinois. It
said it expects a number of the unit's 100 employees will be
offered positions with Donaldson.
 Reuter

Equimark Corp said <Equimark
Purchasing Partners> will be dissolved, effective February 24.
    Equimark, a bank holding company with is the limited
partership's general partner, said the partnership's
dissolution will proceed in accordance with the partnership
agreement and the assets are being distributed to partners on
a pro rata basis.
    The assets primarily consist of 27.6 pct of Equimark's
stock, it added, saying no individual partner will own in
excess of 10 pct of the stock after the distribution.
    Equimark said the partnership was formed in October 1984 as
one of the principal components in the corporation's
recapitalization plan.
    On June 28, 1985, the partnership purchased 9,328,358
Equimark common shares from Chase Manhattan Corp for 25 mln
dlrs. The purchase was funded with the proceeds of cash capital
contributions made by the partners.
 Reuter

Purchases of West German bonds in
January reached a record 13 billion marks' worth as a result of
investment from other European countries amid expectations of a
European Monetary System realignment, the Bundesbank said.
    This produced a surplus in the securities item of the
long-term capital account of 11.17 billion marks and was the
primary contributor to a 10.15 billion surplus in the total
capital account, turning round December's 6.48 billion deficit.
    In January last year, the capital account, combining long
and short-term flows, showed a surplus of 2.27 billion marks,
the Bundesbank said.
    The Bundesbank said foreign purchase of German shares in
January was, by contrast to the massive bond investments, only
about 200 mln marks worth, while overseas purchases of
"Schuldschein" promissory notes fell by 500 mln from December.
    The long-term account in total showed a surplus of 11.17
billion marks, reversing the 2.60 billion deficit in December
and up from a surplus of 9.37 billion in January, 1986.
    Among other items, direct domestic investment abroad posted
an outflow of 2.86 billion marks after a deficit of 4.98
billion in December and a surplus of 1.13 billion in January
last year.
    The Bundesbank confirmed earlier figures from the federal
statistics office that the current account surplus in January
fell to 4.86 billion marks from 8.47 billion last year.
    The trade surplus in the month was down to 7.20 billion
from 11.57 billion in December.
    In the invisibles account, the surplus on services was 100
mln marks, turning round a deficit of 500 mln marks in
December. The balance on payments transfers narrowed to a
deficit of 2.40 billion marks from 2.70 billion.
 REUTER

Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 50 cts
    Net loss 1,830,000 vs loss 3,584,000
    Revs 40.7 mln vs 26.8 mln
    Avg shrs 19.2 mln vs 7,115,847
    12 mths 
    Shr profit 10 cts vs loss 91 cts
    Net profit 1,422,000 vs loss 6,195,000
    Revs 185.7 mln vs 126.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.8 mln vs 6,811,280
    NOTES: In May 1986 Prospect raised 101,810,0000 dlrs from
an initial public offering of common stock.
    The company purchased in March 1986 MidSouth Corp, a
regional railroad company in Mississippi and Louisiana, which
contributed sales of 39.5 mln dlrs and operating income of 16.3
mln dlrs during first nine months of operation.
 Reuter

France Fund Inc said its board declared
an initial dividend of 1.12 dlrs per share, payable April six,
to holders of record March 20.
    The fund said the dividend represents two cts per share for
net investment income realized during 1986 and 1.10 dlrs from
net taxable gains realized during the year.
 Reuter

3Com Corp said it filed a
Commission covering a proposed public offering of one mln
    It said the offering will be managed by Goldman Sachs and
Co and Montgomery Securities.
    Proceeds from the proposed offering will be added to
working capital to fund future growth, 3Com said.
 Reuter

Pre-tax profit 513.2 mln guilders vs 545.5 mln
    Net profit 285.3 mln guilders vs 265.4 mln
    Consolidated net turnover 6.68 billion guilders vs 6.40
billion
    Net profit per 25.00 guilder nominal share 11.11 guilders
vs 10.33, taking into account one-for-three scrip issue last
year
    Final dividend two guilders vs same, making total 3.50
guilders vs same
 REUTER

Oper shr loss 15 cts vs profit 57 cts
    Oper net loss 151,000 vs profit 570,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 2.08 dlrs vs loss 12 cts
    Oper net profit 2,122,000 vs loss 127,000
    NOTE: Net excludes realized capital loss 19,000 dlrs vs
gain 896,000 dlrs in quarter and gains 1,646,000 dlrs vs
1,331,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net both periods excludes tax credit 1,288,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said debt
ratings on 840 mln dlrs of debt of Baker International Corp and
Hughes Tool Co remain on creditwatch.
    S and P cited the adjournment of a special shareholder
meeting in which Hughes objected to certain conditions for the
merger of the companies set by the U.S. Justice Department.
    If the merger is consumated, S and P would rate the newly
formed Baker Hughes Inc senior debt at A-minus, subordinated
debt at BBB-plus and commercial paper at A-2. But if the merger
does not occur, Baker's senior debt would be cut to A-minus
from A and commercial paper to A-2 from A-1.
    Without the merger, Hughes Tool's current ratings of B-plus
for senior debt, B-minus for subordinated debt and C for
commercial paper would be affirmed, S and P said.
    That would reflect the continuation of dismal industry
conditions and the company's substantially weaker credit
profile, S and P explained.
 Reuter

Wilson Foods Corp said an offering
of 2,500,000 common shares is underway at 10.375 dlrs each
through underwriters led by <Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co
Inc>.             
 Reuter

Rollins Environmental Services
Inc said an offering of 900,000 common shares is under way at
34.625 dlrs a share through underwriter Merrill Lynch and Co
Inc <MER>.
 Reuter

Cyprus Minerals Co said along with about
40 other companies, it has been named a defendant in 23 product
liability lawsuits filed in California by individual
tireworkers aleging injury as a result of exposure to talc and
other products.
    It said other suits are expected to be brought.
    Cyprus, which produces talc, said it has significant
factual and legal defenses and substantial insurance coverage
and does not expect the suits to have a material adverse impact
on its financial condition.
 Reuter

Donaldson Co Inc said it reached an
agreement to buy the assets of the Filter Products Division of
Mine safety Appliances Co for undisclosed terms.
    It said Filter Products will operate as part of Donaldson's
Industrial Group and its manufacturing operations will be
relocated to Dixon, Ill., from Evans City, Pa.
    Donaldson said the acquisition complements its
microfiltration business and internal research and development
efforts.
 Reuter

Philip Crosby Associates Inc
said it and police authorities are investigating a possible
embezzlement by a bonded former employee that may involve
several hundred thousand dollars.
    The company said it does not expect the possible
embezzlement to materially affect 1986 earnings. It said the
release of results will be delayed for about a week by the
investigation.
    Crosby said the amount may be covered by a fidelity bond
and it believes it stands a good chance of recovering much of
the money.
    The company said it intends to prosecute.
 Reuter

Shr 1.73 dlrs vs 1.66 dlrs
    Net 3,637,000 vs 3,789,000
    Revs 27.6 mln vs 26.6 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.47 dlrs vs 2.34 dlrs
    Net 7,815,000 vs 5,340,000
    Revs 94.3 mln vs 81.9 mln
 Reuter

finalized a licensing agreement with the University of Arizona
for the production of a test kit that detects Giardia lamblia,
a major cause of traveler's diarrhea.
    Giardia is a common parasite found in water and Meridian
said it is the most common parasite in the U.S. It said it
expects to release the product to the hospital market in late
1987.
    It also said new government regulations indicate a
significant need for a product to screen public water surplies
for this parasite.
 Reuter

Gulf States Utilities Co said
auditor Coopers and Lybrand has issued a qualified opinion on
1986 financial statements.
    Gulf States said the audit opinion satated that without
sufficient rate increases or funds from other sources, Gulf
states may be unable to maintain its financial viability,
which is necessary to permit the realization of its assets and
the liquidation of its liabilities in the ordinary course of
business.
    IT said it received a similar qualified opinion in 1985.
 Reuter

Genentech Inc said it filed
a suit against the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia over an unresolved
issue relating to genetically engineered human growth hormone.
    At issue, said Genentech, is whether Eli Lilly and Co's
<ELI> recombinant human growth hormone and its new recombinant
growth hormone, are the same drug. Both drugs are under review
by the FDA.
    Since 1985, Genentech has been marketing Protropin, a
recombinant human growth hormone for treating abnormally short
children.
    The biotechnology concern said it has the right to seven
years of exclusive marketing for Protropin, granted orphan drug
status by the FDA. Orphan drugs are a special category of drugs
that are used to treat rare diseases.
    Genentech said the suit seeks clarification of what
constitutes a drug under the standards of the orphan Drug Act.
It suggested that without the "clarification," companies that
develop orphan drugs may not recover development costs during
the period of marketing exclusivity.
    It said Lilly's growth hormone and its new growth hormone
differ slightly, and are produced by different processes.
 Reuter

The Finance Ministry said it set a price
of 335 francs per investment certificate for a public offering
of the state's rights to a 2.5 billion franc one-for-five
rights issue of certificates by Rhone-Poulenc <RHON.PA> opening
Monday.
    The price was based on a 12 billion franc minimum value set
on Rhone-Poulenc by the independent Privatisation Committee
established by the government to oversee its five-year
privatisation programme, the Ministry said.
    A Ministry statement said eight mln privileged investment
certificates, a form of non-voting preference share, would be
issued, equivalent to one certificate for every five existing
shares.
    It said 10 pct of the certificates would be reserved for
Rhone-Poulenc employees at a preferential price, and 1.5 mln
certificates would be placed on the U.S. Market by a public
offering.
    About four mln certificates, the remainder of the state's
rights entitlement to the issue, would be offered on the Paris
Bourse on the basis of 20 francs per lot of five rights and 315
francs per new certificate, making a total 335 francs, it said.
    Rhone-Poulenc is 88.39 pct state-owned.
 REUTER

The Mississippi River is now open for
barge traffic up to the Twin Cities in Minnesota after repairs
were completed and the first barges moved upstream through Lock
and Dam 20 near Quincy, Ill at 0600 CST today, an Army Corps of
Engineers spokesman said.
    About 14 to 15 inches of ice were reported between locks
three and four on the upper Mississippi River, but other
sections were generally free of ice, the spokesman said.
    Midwestern weather has been so mild that barges probably
could have kept loading at Mid-Mississippi River terminals
through the winter, if Lock and Dam 20 had not been scheduled
for repairs, he said.
    The Peoria and La Grange locks on the Illinois River are
still scheduled to close July 13, for two months of repairs.
 Reuter

Fieldcrest Cannon Inc said it filed
statement covering a 100 mln dlr issue of convertible
subordinated debentures.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce outstanding bank debt under
the company's revolving credit agreement, Fieldcrest Cannon
said.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve entered the
government securities market to arrange one billion dlrs of
customer repurchase agreements, a spokesman for the New York
Fed said.
    Fed funds were trading at 5-15/16 pct at the time of the
indirect injection of temporary reserves, dealers said.
 Reuter

Residential Mortgage Acceptance Inc, a
unit of Residential Mortgage Investments Inc, is offering 100
mln dlrs of collateralized mortgage obligations, said sole
manager Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    Average lives for two floating-rate classes are 2.36 and
11.27 years for maturities of 2011 and 2016. Rates will be
reset at three-month LIBOR plus 35 basis points for the shorter
class and plus 60 basis points for the longer one.
    An inverse floater tranche has an average life of 11.27
years and matures 2016. Its rate will be reset by subtracting
the product of 1.8 times LIBOR from 21.975.
    The Residential CMO package also has three fixed-rate
tranches, Merrill Lynch said.
    Yields on these securities, to be fully paid by dates from
2011 to 2017, range from 7.21 to 8.70 pct. Spreads over
comparable Treasury securities run from 90 to 115 basis points.
Average lives are 2.36 to 23.28 years.
    The issue is rated a top-flight AAA by Standard and Poor's
Corp.

Duff and Phelps said it has downgraded
fixed income securities of USX Corp and its subsidiaries and at
the same time took the issues off its watch list.
    The change affects about 6.6 billion dlrs in debt
    USX senior debt was lowered to DP-11 (high BB) from DP-9
middle BBB), Marathon oil senior debt to DP-11 from DP-9,
United States Steel senior debt to DP-11 from DP-9 and
subordinated debt to DP-13 (low BB) from DP-11, USX preferred
stock to DP-14 (high B) from DP-12 (middle BB) and preference
stock to DP-15 (middle B) from DP-13.
    The downgrades reflect substantial business risk and
increased financial risk, Duff and Phelps said.
    The steel industry remains intensely competitive and major
domestic integrated producers have lost share to imports and
minimills, D and P said. In oil and gas, profitability and cash
flows are larger, but there is still considerable volatility.
As for financial risk, USX has arranged to borrow 1 billion
dlrs through a production payment of its Marathon subsidiary.
Consequently a selected group of creditors has prior claim to
public debt holders for cash flows from this asset, D and P
said.
 Reuter

Cash in circulation in West Germany
rose by 2.8 billion marks in the last week of February to 121.5
billion, a gain of 8.3 pct over the same month last year, the
Bundesbank said.
    Cash in circulation is one of two components of the West
German money supply which the German central bank is targeting
to grow between three and six pct this year.
    Gross currency reserves in the week rose by 200 mln marks
to 109.5 billion. Foreign liabilities fell 100 mln to 22.9
billion, giving a net currency reserves increase of 300 mln to
86.6 billion.
    Commercial bank minimum reserve holdings at the Bundesbank
fell 300 mln marks to 51.9 billion marks at the end of
February, averaging 51.2 billion over the month.
    The rediscount debt of the banking system fell 800 mln
marks to 55.2 billion marks, the Bundesbank said.
    Banks made heavy use of the Lombard emergency funding
facility to meet month-end payments and borrowed 3.1 billion
marks, a rise of 2.9 billion over the week before.
    The net position of public authorities at the Bundesbank
declined 6.7 billion marks in the last week of February.
    The federal government drew down 3.8 billion marks of its
Bundesbank cash deposits, which had stood at 4.1 billion in the
third week of February, and also borrowed a 1.8 billion in
credit from the central bank.
    Federal states' deposits fell 1.5 billion marks to 1.3
billion and their cash credits dropped 400 mln to 300 mln.
    The Bundesbank balance sheet total rose around 5.44 billion
to 222.22 billion marks.
 REUTER

Shr profit 15 cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 1,051,000 vs loss 381,000
    Revs 50.8 mln vs 41.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,033,00 vs 6,557,000
    NOTE: 1987 net includes tax credits equal to six cts vs one
cent in 1986.
 Reuter

Ecuador today suspended its crude oil
exports indefinitely due to an earthquake last night that
damaged pumping and crude transport installations, an Energy
and Mines MInistry statement said.
    It said the state oil firm Corporacion Estatal Petrolera
Ecuatoriana (CEPE) notified foreign customers that it was
declaring force majeure on its crude exports due to the tremor.
    Ecuador"s OPEC oil output quota is 210,000 barrels per day
(bpd).
    A senior energy ministry official said that one pumping
station at El Salado on Ecuador's main pipeline was damaged.
    He also said an 180 metre section of the pipeline attached
to the bridge over the Aguarico river collapsed.
    The pumping station was about 20 km from the Reventador
volcano, near the epicentre of the quake, which Ecuadorean
seismologists said registered six on the 12-point international
Mercalli scale. The Aguarico bridge was also close to the
volcano, he said.
    The quake struck northern Ecaudor and southern Colombia,
according to Ecuadorean officials. No injuries were reported.
 REUTER

RJR Nabisco Inc said it will
redeem all 1.2 billion dlrs of its 11.20 pct notes due August
1, 1997 on April Six, using the proceeds from the sale of its
Heublein Inc subsidiary to Grand Metropolitan PLC.
    The company said it completed the previously-announced sale
of Heublein, for 1.2 billion dlrs in cash, today.
    It said the redemption price will be 1,095.22 dlrs,
including accrued interest, for each 1,000 dlrs of the notes.
 Reuter

    Evans and Sutherland Computer Corp (ESCC) - Offering of 50
mln dlrs of 25-year convertible subordinated debentures through
Hambrecht and Quist Inc.
    Gould Inc (GLD) - Offering of two mln shares of convertible
exchangeable preferred stock through First Boston Corp and
Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 39 cts vs profit 62 cts
    Oper net loss 4,628,000 vs profit 7,256,000
    Revs 338.1 mln vs 327.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 1.12 dlrs vs profit 1.88 dlrs
    Oper net profit 13.2 mln vs 22.2 mln
    Revs 1.32 billion vs 1.29 billion
    NOTE: Net excludes gains from discontinued leasing
operations of 37.6 mln dlrs vs 40.3 mln dlrs in year and 32.6
mln dlrs vs 34.3 mln dlrs in quarter.  Results restated for
    1986 net both periods includes charge 6,300,000 dlrs from
elimination of investment tax credits.
 Reuter

Hertz Corp, a unit of UAL Inc, filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a shelf
offering of up to 500 mln dlrs of senior debt securities on
terms to be set at the time of sale.
    Underwriters were not named in the draft prospectus.
    Hertz said offering proceeds would be used for general
corporate purposes and to reduce short-term borrowings.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 4,710,000 vs 4,086,000
    Sales 109.2 mln vs 98.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.62 dlrs vs 1.39 dlrs
    Net 15.0 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Sales 314.6 mln vs 279.7 mln
 Reuter

downgraded 50 mln dlrs of debt of Allied Bancshares Inc and the
lead bank, Allied Bank of Texas.
    Cut were the parent's senior debt to Ba-3 from Baa-2 and
commercial paper to Not Prime from Prime-2. The lead bank's
long-term deposits were reduced to Ba-1 from Baa-2 and
short-term deposits were cut to Not Prime from Prime-2.
    Moody's cited the effects of a weak operating environment
on Allied's asset quality and profitability. The rating agency
expects nonperforming loans to remain high by industry
standards because of exposure to energy and real estate.
 Reuter

<Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co>
said its property-casualty companies had a net loss of 56 mln
dlrs last year while its life insurance operations earned 66.8
mln dlrs.
    Nationwide said its property-casualty group, the
fourth-largest U.S. property-casualty insurer had a 106 mln dlr
loss in 1986. Nationwide Life Insurance Co earned 62.8 mln dlrs
in 1985, with last year's profit including record capital gains
of 14.4 mln dlrs, up from gains of 2.6 mln dlrs the previous
year.
    The company said its property-casualty group had a record
loss from insurance operations last year of 859 mln dlrs after
policyholders' dividends, up 25 pct from 1985's 710 mln dlrs.
    Nationwide said a surge in claims from personal auto
insurance and the volatile commercial liability coverages
during a period of unprecedented sales growth generated the
loss.
    The company said over 576 mln dlrs of last year's group
losses came from commercial insurance lines and 282 mln dlrs
from its personal auto insurance business.
    Partially offsetting 1986's record insurance losses,
Nationwide said, were record investment gains of 775 mln dlrs
and a 28 mln dlr federal tax credit. The investment gains were
up 39 pct from 1985's gains of 559 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Sun Co's Sun Refining and Marketing
subsidiary said it increased the price it charges contract
barge customers for heating oil in New York harbor 0.50 cent a
    They said the 0.50 cent increase brings Sun's contract
barge price to 49 cts. The recent price hike represents the
fifth this week, totalling 4.75 cts. The increases are
following sharp spot and futures price rises, the company said.
 Reuter

The French primary bond market is showing
signs of renewed effervescence after several weeks of lethargy
and the trend is expected to continue if hopes of imminent
interest rate cuts are fulfilled, market operators said.
    The Bank of France is generally expected to give a signal
to the market, possibly at the beginning of next week, by
announcing a quarter point cut in its intervention rate, which
has stood at eight pct since January 2, or in its seven-day
repurchase rate, set at 8-3/4 pct since January 5.
    The central bank's averaged-out day to day call money rate,
the reference rate for interbank money market operators, which
reached 8-3/4 pct on February 18 has fallen to 7-3/4 pct this
week, dealers noted.
    The Bank of France's "open market" policy to regulate the
money markets since December has been based on a floor and
ceiling of rates within the limits of its intervention and
seven day repurchase rates.
    For the moment the sentiment is of "wait and see" on rate
cuts, but there are now more optimists than pessimists among
market operators, a dealer for a major French bank said.
    Dealers said there is abundant liquidity on the bond
market, noting that this week's monthly Treasury tap issue of
11.87 billion francs had a good reception and was fairly easily
absorbed.
    The Treasury had set an upper limit on the issue of 12
billion francs and was likely to continue to try and sell as
much paper as it could over coming months to meet its borrowing
needs for this year of around 150 billion, one banker said.
    Dealers said there was no difficulty in placing liquidity
in the primary market at the moment despite competition from
the surge in investments on the Paris stock exchange.
    There has been a flood of large bond issues, but with
formulas well adapted to market conditions and investor demand
- with warrants or a mix of fixed and floating-rates - which
have been snapped up, and with generally broadly negative fees.
    Dealers pointed to the recent Caisse d'Aide a l'Equipement
des Collectivites Locales (CAECL) 8.90 pct two billion franc
bond with warrants exchangeable for floating-rate bonds issued
over 13 years and 80 days at 97.04 pct with payment date March
9, which was today quoted at -0.90 to -1.10 pct.
    Even classic fixed-rate issues, after being neglected since
the end of last year, are finding buyers, one banker said.
    Dealers said that now the question was to see how the terms
of imminent operations would be set, with great market interest
focussed on the likely three next issues.
    These will include an expected four to five billion franc
issue for Electricite de France, to be followed by a bond of
around one billion francs for Auxiliaire du Credit Foncier, a
subsidiary of the banking group Credit Foncier de France, and a
new issue by tender from the mortgage agency Caisse de
Refinancement Hypothecaire.
 REUTER

U.S. TREASURY SELLING 9.5 BILLION DLRS OF ONE-YEAR BILLS MARCH 12 TO RAISE 275 MLN DLRS

The investor group owning about 42 pct
of the outstanding capital stock of <The First Women's Bank>
said a cash tender offer for the bank's remaining outstanding
shares at 11 dlrs per share expired on March three.
    The investors said about 132,000 shares, or about 20 pct of
the outstanding, had been tendered.
 Reuter

    Shr loss nine cts vs loss 1.92 dlrs
    Net loss 950,000 vs loss 21,334,000
    Revs 580,000 vs 22.2 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss six cts vs loss 1.23 dlrs
    Net loss 694,000 vs loss 13,710,000
    Revs 5,129,000 vs 111.9 mln
    Note: Current qtr includes tax loss of 118,000 vs loss of
476,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker
expressed doubts about a proposal to tax securities
transactions as a solution to the budget deficit and said it
could hurt financial markets.
    "If you start taxing markets, it could impair their
efficiency," Baker said after a speech to the National Newspaper
Association.
    "The problem is not that Americans are undertaxed. We as a
government are overspending," he told reporters.
    House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex) has proposed a transfer
tax to be paid by buyers and sellers of stocks.
 Reuter

Reuters Holdings PLC's Reuters
Information Services Inc subsidiary and Real Estate Financing
Partnership of Philadelphia said they have developed RSVP, an
electronic market access system for commercial property
    The companies said the system, on completion of testing,
will use the Reuter communications network to provide a
confidential method for the purchasing, selling and financing
of commercial property. They said principal participants in
RSVP are expected to be private and institutional commercial
real estate owners, brokers, purchasers and investors.
    The companies said the system, which will operate in
domestic and international markets, is expected to be
particularly useful to mortgage brokers and loan
correspondents.
    They said Reuters will provide systems software, hardware
and telecommunications capabilities and support under a
long-term working agreement with Real Estate Financing
Partnership and will also provide sales assistance and
marketing support to Real Estate Financing.
    Real Estate Financing designed RSVP.
    The companies said RSVP will use Reuter Monitor technology
and the Reuter private communications network to provide a
global financing capability for commercial real estate
ventures. It will enable parties seeking real estate financing
to identify funding sources on a private basis.
    They said the system is scheduled for testing in August in
selected U.S. cities and is expected to be operational about 90
days after initial testing.
 Reuter

The Venezuelan government is close to
agreement with foreign banks to refinance 300 mln dlrs in
foreign debt owed by the Banco de los Trabajadores de Venezuela
(BTV), finance minister Manuel Azpurua said.
    He told reporters, Bankers Trust, which heads the BTV's
bank committee, is consulting other creditors on an eight year
refinancing plan with a margin of 3/8 pct over libor.
    He added there is a relending option for which the state
owned Banco Industrial de Venezuela will act as agent. BTV, 49
pct owned by the government and 51 pct by unions, was taken
over by trustees in November 1982 with severe liquidity
problems.
 REUTER

9.5 billion dlrs of one-year bills at auction.
    The March 12 sale will raise 275 mln dlrs of new cash by
refunding about 9.23 billion dlrs of maturing bills.
    The bills will be issued March 19 in minimum amounts of
10,000 dlrs and mature March 17, 1988.
 Reuter

New Jersey Resources corp said it has
filed for an offering of 1,300,000 common shares through
underwriters led by Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER> and E.F.
Hutton Group Inc <EFH>.
    It said the offering is expected to be completed in late
March or early April and proceeds will be used to reduce
short-term debt.
 Reuter

Den Danske Bank of Denmark is raising
200 mln dlrs through a programme of short and medium term
euro-certificates of deposit, arranger London-based Salomon
Brothers International Ltd said in a statement received here.
    Signing takes place today and the first issuance, of
maturities from seven days to five years, should take place
later this month. Denominations would be 500,000 and one mln
dlrs, and similar amounts in sterling and other currencies.
    Aside from the London branch of Den Danske and the
arranger, other dealers in the programme would be the Swiss
Bank Corp International and S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
    Salomon said the principal paying agent for the CDs would
be Bankers Trust Co.
    Den Danske's U.S. Domestic commercial paper program is
rated A1 by Standard and Poor's, and P-1 by Moody's rating
agency, Salomon said.
 REUTER

Oper shr profit 18 cts vs loss four cts
    Oper net profit 1,847,000 vs loss 282,000
    Revs 25.9 mln dlrs vs 8,626,000 drs
    12 mths
    Oper shr profit 39 cts vs loss 24 cts
    Oper net profit 3,262,000 vs loss 1,555,000
    revs 67.5 mln vs 27.9 mln dlrs.
    NOTE: 1986 qtr and year excludes investment gains of
1,541,000 and 1,865,000, respectively, and 1985 qtr and year
includes investment gains of 301,000 dlrs and 1,424,000.
 Reuter

The Belgian government, which
introduced large-scale public spending reductions last year,
has been told by an International Monetary Fund team there is
scope for further cuts in 1988.
    The suggestion is contained in the preliminary conclusions
of the annual IMF consultations with Belgium on its economic
policy, a copy of which was distributed to journalists at the
weekly press conference following meetings of the cabinet.
    The IMF team also urges Belgium to adopt a firm interest
rate policy, with a particular emphasis on long-term rates.
    The team's report to the government praises last year's
spending cuts, which are due to reduce 1987 government spending
by 195 billion francs, and says 1986 saw the Belgian economy
perform "better, on a broader basis, than at any time so far in
the 1980s."
    However, it adds that with lower inflation, stabilisation
of the debt to gross national product ratio requires a much
lower budget deficit than the seven pct of GNP target the
government has set itself for 1989.
    The government's net financing requirement was 11.0 pct of
GNP in 1986.
    The report says "The most that can be afforded over the next
few years is a zero growth of real non-interest expenditure of
general Government."
    It says there is a need for a revision of the Belgian tax
system to iron out distortions and meet hopes of a reduced tax
burden but substantial progress is needed in stabilising the
debt to GNP ratio before this is possible.
    "Because of the difficulty of sustaining zero expenditure
growth and of likely growing impatience (for) tax reductions,
we feel that your position would be stronger if you could
decide on rather sharp expenditure reductions in 1988," the
report adds.
    The IMF urges a strong interest rate policy to signal the
government's determination to keep its currency strong and to
curb inflation.
    It says firmer long-term rates would slow private net
long-term capital outflows, which increased strongly in 1986.
    It also urges net repayments of foreign currency debt and
an overhaul of domestic capital markets to facilitate the
subscriptions by non-residents of government bond issues in
Belgian francs.
 REUTER

General Public Utilities Corp
said the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a 72
mln dlrs annual reduction in energy-adjustment charges for the
company's Jersey Central Power and Light Co subsidiary.
    The change in the utility's Levelized Energy Adjustment
Charge represents a five pct decrease in overall electricity
rates.
    On January 28, Jersey Central filed for a 32 mln dlr a year
decrease in the charge, asking to retain the difference to
prevent an increase in these charges next year, a company
 Reuter

Bush Industries Inc said that
after an audit it has revised upwards its 1986 fourth quarter
and year end results. On February 12 it reported unaudited
results.
    Under the audited amounts, 1986 fourth quarter income was
1,098,978 mln dlrs, or 55 cts a share. The unaudited income for
the period was 1,014,000, or 51 cts per share.
    For the year, the audited amounts showed earnings of
2,505,978, or 1.25 dlrs per share. The prior results reported
income of 2,421,000, or 1.21 dlrs per share. Sales figures for
both periods did not differ significantly from prior amounts.
 Reuter

lowered the ratings on about 489 mln dlrs of debt of MCorp and
its subsidiaries.
    Moody's said the change reflects the effect that the
company's difficult operating environment will have on its
asset quality, core earnings and equity base. It said the
firm's asset quality problems are considerable and centered in
its loans to energy and real estate sectors.
    Ratings lowered include MCorp's senior debt to BA-3 from
BAA-2, subordinated debt to B-1 from BAA-3 and preferred stock
to B-2 from BA-1.
 Reuter

Medi-Rx America Inc said its Rx
Plus Inc subsidiary received a letter of intent for a proposed
initial public offering of four mln dlrs to six mln dlrs.
    It also said the subisidary, formed to franchise retail
drug stores, recently placed a 1.2 mln dlrs equity offering
with private investors and secured a one mln dlrs line of
credit for assisting applications for a Rx Plus franchise.
 Reuter

Universal Furniture Ltd said in a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had
increased its stake in Bench Craft Inc common stock to
2,548,975 shares or 45.3 pct of the total outstanding.
    Universal said its Universal Furniture Industries N.V. unit
bought 235,750 Bench Craft shares March 4 in the
over-the-counter market.
 Reuter

American Airlines Inc, owned
by AMR Corp, said its load factor for February dropped to 60.2
pct from 64.0 pct a year ago.
    It said revenue passenger miles for the month increased 5.9
pct to 3.66 billion from 3.45 billion a year ago. Available
seat miles rose 12.7 pct ot 6.08 billion from 5.40 billion and
passenger boardings rose 8.6 pct to 3.5 mln from 3.2 mln a year
earlier.
 More

Valero Energy Corp <VLO> said
it knows of no reason for its stock activity today.
    The stock rose 1-5/8 to 10-7/8, a gain of about 17.5 pct.
    A spokesman for Valero, Steve Fry, said the company knows
of no reason for the increased volume and sharp gain in the
stock.
 Reuter

may downgrade Service Merchandise Co's 300 mln dlrs of Ba-2
senior subordinated notes.
    The rating agency said it had anticipated that Service
Merchandise would be able to achieve better operating results
than it actually did in fiscal 1986.
    Moody's said it would assess future prospects for the
company, as well as for the whole catalogue showroom industry.
The agency will also examine the effects of recent acquisitions
on Service Merchandise's operating results, financial structure
and cash flow.
 Reuter

Oper net loss 411,000 vs profit 875,000
    Sales 69.7 mln vs 70.5 mln
    Year
    Oper net profit 6,258,000 vs profit 4,785,000
    Sales 299.5 mln vs 297.2 mln
    Note: Company made initial public offering in June, 1986.
Assuming the offering had occurred on Jan. 1, 1986, operating
net income per share would have been 85 cts a share for 1986.
    1986 oper net excludes one-time charge of 16.8 mln dlrs, or
2.46 dlrs a share, in qtr and year due to the February 1987
sale of the company's engine parts division. Oper net for 1986
year also includes profit from discontinued operations of
360,000 dlrs, or five cts a share.
    Oper net for 1986 excludes extraordinary loss of 1.1 mln
dlrs, or 17 cts a share, due to the June 1986 write-off of
unamortized debt issue costs from the public offering. 1985
oper net excludes extraordinary profit of 1.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

NEC Electronics Inc, a
unit of NEC Corp <NIPNY> said a U.S. District Court judge
denied NEC's motion to disqualify Judge William Ingram from
presiding over its lawsuit against Intel Corp <INTC>.
    NEC said it sought to disqualify the judge when it learned
in October 1986 that Ingram had an ownership interest in an
investment club that owned Intel stock.
    Ingram reported that his interest in Intel through the club
amounted to about 80 dlrs worth of Intel's stock and the judge
ended his participation in the investment club after NEC moved
to have him disqualified, an NEC spokeswoman said.
    NEC said it intends to appeal the ruling.
    NEC sued Intel in December 1984 seeking a judgement
declaring that microcode, or the control function, in certain
NEC microprocessor products does not infringe on any valid
Intel copyrights.
    Intel subsequently filed a suit charging NEC with
infringing on Intel semiconductor copyrights.
 Reuter

<CMS Advertising Inc> said its
board has approved a three-for-two stock split in the form of a
dividend payable March 30 to holders of record March 16.
    The company said a similar split was paid December eight,
leaving it with 2,344,200 shares outstanding.
    CMS Advertising said the next split will result in a
proportionate reduction in the exercise price of its stock
purchase warrants to 1.67 dlrs a share from 2.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

AMAX Inc said it has accepted
offers to buy its share and option interests in <Australian
Consolidated Minerals Ltd>.
    AMAX said the sale is part of its ongoing program to
increase shareholder value.
    The company did not identify who made the offer, but said
the interests involved include 35.2 mln Australian Consolidated
shares to be sold for 6.32 Australian dlrs per share and 5.4
mln options to be sold for 4.82 Australian dlrs per option.
 Reuter

Parent company net profit 385 mln francs vs 226.9 mln
    Dividend five francs vs no comparison
    Note - The financial and banking group was privatised by
the government in January this year.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - HEINEKEN 1986 YEAR
    In item headlined "HEINEKEN N.V. &lt;HEIN.AS&gt; 1986 YEAR" please
read in first line pre-tax profit 513.2 mln guilders vs 454.5
mln.
    Corrects year ago comparison to 454.5 mln from 545.5 mln.
 Reuter

Food Lion Inc said its sales totaled
207.5 mln dlrs last month, up 26.0 pct from the 164.7 mln dlrs
reported for February 1986.
    The company said sales for the first eight weeks of the
year were up 26.1 pct to 411.1 mln dlrs from 326.0 mln dlrs.
The company operates 396 supermarkets in six southeastern
states.
 Reuter

This week's Bank of England resistance to
strong market pressure for lower interest rates succeeded in
holding bank base rates at 11 pct.
    But at a cost of threatening the Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson's policy, stated at the end of the Paris
Group of Six meeting last month, that he wanted to see sterling
broadly stable about then prevailing levels, market sources
said.
    Since then, the pound has risen to 71.8 pct on its closing
trade-weighted index, up from 69.7 pct imediately after the
Paris meeting and up 0.4 on the day.
    Today's peak at 72.0 pct was its highest since August 19.
    A Treasury spokesman said Lawson had said he neither wanted
a substantial rise or fall in sterling. The question is
therefore how large a rise he is ready to see before acting.
    Paul Temperton, chief economist at Merrill Lynch Europe
Ltd, estimated that the government wanted to see the
trade-weighted index about 72-73 pct. "Even after this action
over the last few weeks, sterling's only just within striking
distance of that range," he said.
    Other analysts agree that the government probably has some
broad target range around this area.
    However, they said Lawson would be prepared to see the
pound go higher at least in the short term, despite the risk of
a loss of export competitiveness and cheaper prices on imports.
    "If the Bank of England keeps the interest rates as they
are, what's to stop it (going higher)," said John Cox, executive
director of EBC Amro Bank Ltd, a major operator on the London
foreign exchange market.
    Cox estimates that the Bank of England has been active
selling sterling over the past few days, despite the lack of
general market talk of such intervention, and this has helped
keep it below 1.60 dlrs.
    The pound rose to 1.5870 dlrs from 1.5764 yesterday and
1.5400 February 23, the day after the Paris meeting.
    But Cox says the government must be worried with sterling
heading toward 2.95 marks and would be very concerned if it
holds around these levels.
    He warned the Bank may run the risk of missing the interest
rate boat. "If rates don't come down, the market will say they
ought to have come down and will sell sterling," he said.
    Most dealers agree there is a good deal of "hot money" being
invested in sterling, money simply attracted by high overnight
or one-week rates, which could flow out at equally short
notice.
    However, the authorities will hope that at least a
proportion of the buying reflects long-term investment.
    "The last thing they want to do is reduce them (rates) and
have to jack them back up again," said Richard Jeffrey,
economist at brokerage house Hoare Govett Ltd.
    He said a half point cut would ensure continued support for
sterling, at least in the near term.
    However, most analysts are still looking for a full point
about March 17, Budget Day.
    The Bank must hold out until it sees the reaction to the
Budget, said Temperton.
    The Budget is widely forecast to be a vote winner in the
run-up to a general election, the major factor behind current
bullishness in the government bond and currency markets.
    "Lawson wants to delay a cut in base rates until the budget.
He wants it to be crowned with the glory of an interest rate
cut," said Ian Harwood, economist at Warburg Securities, the
equities arm of Mercury International Group.
    Speculation a clearing bank might break ranks and lead the
way lower were confounded today. There was excitement a fall in
the weekly Treasury Bill rate to 9.7 pct from 10.2 pct last
Friday might mean the Bank had changed its mind.
    This followed the imposition of penal lending rates of 11
3/4 pct on the discount houses yesterday, and was the lowest
since base rates were at 10 pct, early last October.
    However, with this Bill rate pertaining to three-months
money, banking sources said the market could not take the cut
as a guide to the Bank's intentions on short term rates.
 REUTER

SHULTZ AND SHEVARNADZE TO MEET IN MOSCOW IN MID-APRIL, U.S. SOURCES SAY

Lyng said he is "very disappointed" by a Canadian government
finding that U.S. corn has injured Ontario Corn growers.
    "This action is not helpful in the context of the ongoing
U.S.-Canada free trade talks or in the new round of
multilateral trade negotiations," Lyng said in a statement.
    The Canadian government today said Ottawa would continue to
apply a duty of 84.9 cents per bushel on U.S. corn imports.
    Lyng said the U.S. made a case that U.S. corn imports are
not the cause of any problem of Canadian corn producers, adding
that U.S. corn exports to Canada are declining.
    "Apparently they (Canada) have ignored the fact that
Canadian corn and other coarse grain production is rising
faster than consumption," Lyng said.
 Reuter

Bancroft Convertible Fund Inc, the
target of an unfriendly cash offer by <Zico Investment Holdings
Inc>, said its shareholders approved proposals requiring a
66-2/3 pct affirmative vote of all outstanding shares before
fundamental changes in its status could be made.
    Previously, only a simple majority of outstanding shares
was needed to change Bancroft's investment status from a
diversified to a non-diversified fund, among other things.
    Bancroft said its board continues to recommend that
stockholders not tender their shares to Zico, a British Virgin
Islands company which it said had ties to South Africa.
 Reuter

International Totalizator Systems Inc
Vice President of Finance Joel Graff said he expects to report
an improved first quarter compared to the 377,000 dlr loss
reported in the year ago quarter.
    "A profit looks quite favorable," Graff said.
    Last week, the automated ticket systems supplier reported a
loss of 1.2 mln dlrs for the 1986.
    Graff said "we invested heavily in 1986, which we believe
will result in higher future growth and earnings for the
company."
 Reuter

Chief Soviet arms negotiator Yuli
Vorontsov said Soviet-American talks on cutting medium-range
nuclear missiles had made a breakthrough.
    Vorontsov said he expected a treaty would be ready for
signing within three to four months following the latest talks
in Geneva.
    He told a news conference here "all the elements point to
optimism" and only technical work on treaty language remained
 REUTER

The world trade body GATT said its
negotiators in Geneva are discussing a possible agreement for a
ceiling on agricultural subsidies.
    GATT director-general for agriculture Jean-Marc Lucq told
reporters here that the talks had not got anywhere yet as the
participants were still reluctant to lay all their cards on the
table.
    He said the ceilings under discussion would only be applied
to those members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
with high subsidy spending.
    Lucq said a survey by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development showed that its 24 member western
industrialised countries subsidised their agriculture by a
total average of more than 100 billion dlrs a year from
1979-81.
    Within that total, the U.S. Spent 26 billion dlrs, Japan 24
billion, and the European Community 57 billion dlrs.
    Yves Berthelot, an official for the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development, said the suppression of
agricultural subsidies in temperate countries, which would
allow a resurgence of world prices and a lowering of domestic
prices, would be difficult but inevitable.
 Reuter

Walker Energy Partners said
restructuring of the partnership is being negotiated with
<Tipperary Corp> which is considering a capital infusion into
the partnership.
    Walker Energy said Tipperary's investment will be
conditioned upon restructuring of the partnership's debt.
    Walker Energy said it and Tipperary are negotiating toward
definitive agreements that will result in a major restructuring
of the master limited partnership.
    It said the transactions, if made, will result in Tipperary
acquiring control of the partnership's general partner and
making a substantial capital infusion into the partnership.
    Walker said it had requested indications of interest from
several investment sources and selected the Tipperary offer
after a careful review of all offers received.
 Reuter

Secretary of State George Shultz and
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnaze will meet in Moscow
in mid-April, administration sources said.
    The sources said they will meet April 13 to 16 and are
expected to discuss the full range of U.S.-Soviet issues.
    But arms control is expected to be the major focus of the
talks, with a breakthrough widely expected on removing
medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe.
 Reuter

in Geneva.
 Reuter

Outboard Marine Corp's top executives
are making sales presentations to portfolio managers and
analysts ahead of a planned two mln share offering expected
soon, company officials said.
    Chairman Charles Strang and Wayne Jones, vice president for
strategic planning, are meeting with portfolio managers in New
York and Boston to line up interest for the offering
underwritten solely by Morgan Stanley, the officials said.
    Outboard Marine has been the subject of recurring takeover
rumors, with one rumor this week naming Sun Chemical as the
potential suitor for 40 dlrs a share.
    Sun Chemical is said to have 4.9 pct of Outboard and is
conducting a study on whether to bid for control of the marine
engine and boatbuilding company. A Sun Chemical spokesman
declined to comment.
    Stanley Fishman, analyst at Fahnestock and Co, said it is
better for a suitor to bid for Outboard before the two mln
shares are sold. Outboard now has 17 mln shares outstanding.
    "Even though Outboard would use proceeds from the share
offering to pay down debt, and there would be less debt the
acquiring company would assume, it still means more shares the
suitor must buy to acquire the company," he said.
    Fishman, who has heard the Sun Chemical rumor, said a 40
dlrs a share would just open the bidding.
    Outboard Marine today was trading at 33-5/8, down 5/8.
    "There are only two companies that count in the marine
leisure business, Brunswick Corp <BC> being the first. But you
can't play down number two," He said. "It's a growing field.
There's a lot of leisure money out there. I think 40 would be a
minimum price. It will be higher."
    A Morgan Stanley spokesman said the offering has been
approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission but a
kick-off date and price have not been set.
 Reuter

Hadson Corp said it intends to
file a registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission
within one week covering an offering of 3,750,000 common
shares.
    The company had 14,260,000 shares outstanding on December
31 and 75.0 mln shares authorized.
    It said proceeds of the offering are intended to be used to
finance expansion of existing operations, for acquisitions and
for working capital.
 Reuter

<BOC Group Inc>'s Airco
Distributor Gases finalized the sale of its Virginia-based gas
appaturs business to <Controls Corp of America>, a newly formed
investment group organized by former Airco employees.
    Under the terms of the sale, Airco said Controls will
continue to make the gas apparaturs product line under the
Airco brand name, marketing the products exclusively through
the Airco's distributor network.
 Reuter

New Jersey Resources Corp said it
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 1.3
mln common shares through managing underwriters Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets and E.F. Hutton and Co.
    The utility holding company said the offering should be
completed in late March or early April.
    Net proceeds will be used to reduce debt at the company's
main subsidiary, New Jersey Natural Gas Co.

 Reuter

The central bank recommended a major
change in the traditional ownership structure of Swedish
commercial banks that bankers said would inevitably lead to the
takeover of remaining small regional banks.
    The recommendation was prompted by a recent proposal by the
<Proventus> financial group to create a new holding company
that will control the third-largest commercial bank <Gotabanken
and Wermlandsbanken>, a small regional bank.
    The central bank gave its approval and said financial
groups should be allowed to have banking subsidiaries as long
as the groups did not include industrial or trading companies.
    The central bank was commenting on a proposed new bill
governing Swedish financial groups.
    It recommended that insurance companies should not be
allowed to own banks until a separate inquiry into the problem
was completed. Sweden's two biggest insurance companies have
both said they would like to enter the banking business.
    Sweden's commercial banks on the other hand have long
wanted to buy up insurance companies.
    Bankers said the recommendations would mainly bring the
rules up to date with new circumstances created by the
extensive de-regulation of the Swedish financial markets since
1982.
    Bankers said it was clear that others would follow the
Proventus example and that this would lead to a shake-up in the
banking system with the remaining small regional banks being
absorbed by larger banking groups.
    The central bank also recommended banks be allowed to
operate their stockbroking departments as subsidiaries, which
bankers said would lead to banks taking over small stockbroking
firms. Banks have long complained the ban on splitting off the
broking departments forced them to operate at a disadvantage
because they could not match the partnerships and large
salaries stockbrokers could offer their staff.
 REUTER

McDonnell Douglas said it will open a
regional office in New York, occupying 38,366 square feet in
midtown Manhattan.
    It said the office will bring together about 100  employees
in its Information Systems Group who currently work at three
separate New York offices. The group had 1986 sales of 1.2
    McDonnell said the move follows a series of similar
consolidations in San Jose and San Francisco, Calif., Atlanta,
and Denver to reduce costs and consolidate the group's
operations in major metropolitan areas.
 Reuter

The U.S. National Association of
Wheat Growers (NAWG) urged the Reagan administration offer the
Soviet Union wheat under the export enhancement program (eep).
    In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng, NAWG
stated its "strong support" for an eep offer to Moscow.
    "We believe that a solid case continues to exist for Soviet
EEP eligibility, and the recently announced and reported Soviet
purchases of U.S. corn indicate a Soviet willingness to
purchase U.S. grain if it is competitively priced," NAWG said.
    "Consequently, we believe it is important to renew the U.S.
eep offer and do all that is reasonably possible to ensure
mutual adherence to the terms of the U.S.-Soviet grain
agreement," the letter said.
 Reuter

Algemene Bank Nederland N.V. <ABNN.AS>
chairman Robertus Hazelhoff said the bank's 10.3 pct increase
in net 1986 profit to 527 mln guilders from 478 mln in 1985 was
encouraging in view of the sharply lower dollar.
    Hazelhoff, speaking at a press conference after the release
of ABN's 1986 results, said a sharp decrease in foreign
earnings had been compensated by a strong domestic performance,
notably in the securities business.
    He said the bank was also proposing a one for 10
share-split which should facilitate trade in the bank's stock.
    News of the split sparked a 14 guilder rise in ABN's share
price on the Amsterdam bourse to a close of 517 guilders.
    Prospects for 1987 hung on three uncertainties, namely the
future trend of the dollar, the level of interest rates and
ABN's share of equities trade, Hazelhoff said.
    Provisions for general contingencies were reduced in 1986
by 4.1 pct to 575 mln guilders, while taxes increased by 2.1
pct to 242 mln guilders, he added.
    Lower global interest rates in 1986 had nipped earnings
margins via traditional lending activities, he said.
    Hazelhoff said ABN was unlikely to continue reducing risk
provisions in the future but he noted the bank was not overly
concerned about default by Latin American debtors, a factor
which brokers say has distanced Dutch insititutions from bank
stocks recently.
    He said that of the bank's estimated 25 financially
troubled sovereign debtors, about one quarter were Latin
American countries. These would ultimately pay up, he said.
    He added that losses incurred through loans to tin
producers in the wake of the tin council crisis at end-1985 had
been written off.
 REUTER

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 RISES 217 MLN DLRS IN WEEK, BANK OF CANADA SAID

Canadian narrowly-defined money supply
M-1 rose 217 mln dlrs to 32.80 billion dlrs in week ended
February 25, Bank of Canada said.
    M-1-A, which is M-1 plus daily interest chequable and
non-personal deposits, rose 556 mln dlrs to 75.19 billion dlrs
and M-2, which is M-1-A plus other notice and personal
fixed-term deposit rose 651 mln dlrs to 176.87 billion dlrs.s
    M-3, which is non-personal fixed term deposits and foreign
currency deposits of residents booked at chartered banks in
Canada, rose 992 mln dlrs to 216.03 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank general loans outstanding rose 481 mln dlrs
to 124.99 billion dlrs.
    Canadian liquid plus short term assets fell 854 mln dlrs to
35.40 billion dlrs and total Canadian dollar major assets of
the chartered banks fell 118 mln dlrs to 221.20 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank net foreign currency assets fell 23 mln dlrs
to minus 1.92 billion dlrs.
    Notes in circulation totalled 16.24 billion dlrs, up 76 mln
dlrs from the week before.
    Government cash balances fell 565 mln dlrs to 4.31 billion
dlrs in week ended March 4.
    Government securities outstanding rose 1.25 billion dlrs to
224.09 billion dlrs in week ended March 4, treasury bills rose
950 mln dlrs to 74.55 billion dlrs and Canada Savings Bonds
fell 57 mln dlrs to 44.34 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Rochester Gas and Electric Co
said it now estimates Unit Two of the Nine Mile nuclear power
plant will not start commercial operation until 1988's first
quarter.
    The utility said this estimate is based on the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's advisory to the plant's operator,
Niagara Mohawk Power Corp <NMK>, a more through demonstration
of the main steam isolation valve's acceptablility will be
needed before the plant's power ascension program can proceed.
    Rochester Gas disclosed the further delay in the operation
of Nine Mile Unit Two in the preliminary prospectus describing
its proposed offering of 300,000 preferred shares, par value
100 dlrs.
    A spokesman said Niagara Mohawk had been projecting
commercial operation of the plant in September, adding this
projection was scheduled for review upon completion of the main
steam isolation valve testing program which company officials
still expect next week.
    In the past, Niagara Mohawk has put the cost of delays in
Nine Mile Unit Two at two mln dlrs per day.
    Niagara Mohawk has a 41 pct interest in the nuclear power
plant, while Rochester Gas owns 14 pct.
    In a statement released today, Rochester Gas said the NRC,
based on progress of the valve testing program, had advised
Niagra Mohawk a more through demonstration of the acceptability
of the valve's and their ability to meet regulations and
technical specifications will be required before the power
ascension program can proceed.
    The Niagara Mohawk spokesman said the utility would have
not immediate response to the Rochester Gas statement.
 Reuter

The government plans to go ahead with a
three billion franc package to help the long-term unemployed,
with the aim of guaranteeing social security payments to
everyone becoming redundant, government officials said.
    At present only about one-third of the country's 2.6 mln
jobless, corresponding to 10.9 pct of the workforce, receive
unemployment benefit.
    Prime Minister Jacques Chirac told a television
interviewer, "As soon as the law is approved, and it will be in
a matter of weeks, all workers made redundant will have the
right to social benefits."
    The money, which will be used to alleviate unemployment
through retraining or project finance, will come from a 7.5
billion franc government fund set up last month to finance
spending on special areas of concern.
    Apart from unemployment, these include relief to farmers
hit by European Community cost-cutting measures.
    French unemployment has risen by more than 40 pct from 1.8
mln when socialist President Francois Mitterrand took office in
1981.
 REUTER

The Reagan administration continues
to debate whether to offer subsidized wheat to the Soviet
Union, but would need assurances from the Soviets that they
would buy the wheat before the subsidy offer would be made, a
senior U.S. Agriculture Department official said.
    "I think it still is under active debate whether or not it
would be advisable" to make an the export enhancement offer to
the Soviets, Thomas Kay, administrator of the department's
Foreign Agriculture Service, told Reuters.
    "We'd need some assurances from them (the Soviets) that they
would buy if offered" the wheat under the subsidy plan, he said.
Kay called reports that such an offer was imminent "premature."
    The Reagan administration's cabinet-level Economic Policy
Council is set to meet today to discuss, among other matters,
agricultural policy but is not expected to address a wheat
subsidy offer to the Soviet Union, administration officials
said earlier.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit nine cts vs loss seven cts
    Oper net profit 628,000 vs loss 491,000
    Sales 50.7 mln vs 41.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,033,000 vs 6,557,000
    Note: Oper net excludes extraordinary profit of 423,000
dlrs, or six cts a shr, and 110,000 dlrs, or one ct a share,
respectively, in 1987 and 1986 quarters, from utilization of
tax loss carryforwards.
 Reuter

Yeutter said Canada's finding announced today that U.S. corn
imports injure Canadian farmers is "totally unjustified."
    "U.S. corn exports to Canada are so small that it is
inconceivable that they injure Canadian corn farmers by any
reasonable measure," Yeutter said in a statement.
    He said if other countries follow Canada's lead it could
result in "a rash of protectionist actions throughout the
world." French corn growers have recently indicated they will
challenge U.S. corn gluten feed shipments to Europe.
    Yeutter said the U.S. will examine the Canadian decision
closely and if the U.S. believes the decision was not based on
facts, "will carefully evaluate appropriate responses." Yeutter
did not say what steps the U.S. may take in response.
 Reuter

Oper shr two cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 41,000 vs 153,000
    Sales 7,456,000 vs 7,965,000
    Year
    Oper shr 22 cts vs 50 cts
    Oper net 434,000 vs 1,103,000
    Sales 31 mln vs 33.6 mln
    Note: Current qtr and year figures exclude loss from
discontinued operations of 384,000 dlrs, or 20 cts per share.
    Prior qtr and year figures exclude losses from discontinued
operations of 1.9 mln dlrs, or 88 cts per share and 2.3 mln
dlrs, or 1.07 dlrs per share, respectively.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 507,000 vs 762,000
    Sales 11.3 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,789,000 vs 1,961,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 39 cts vs 90 cts
    Net 1,076,000 vs 1,752,000
    Sales 32.9 mln vs 33.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,771,000 vs 1,955,000
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 400,413 vs 421,451
    Revs 9,343,228 vs 8,213,449
    Nine mths
    Shr 39 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 853,891 vs 1,011,999
    Revs 24.6 mln vs 22.3 mln
 Reuter

Moet-Hennessy <MHSP.PA> is issuing an 800
mln French franc 10-year eurobond with share warrants,
lead-manager Lazard Freres et Cie said.
    The issue will be priced at par with a one pct coupon, and
each 10,000 franc bond will carry 18 warrants, each giving the
right to subscribe to Moet-Hennessy shares over a three-year
period at 2,720 francs each. The high equity content of the
issue accounts for the low coupon.
    Moet-Hennessy shares closed on the Paris Bourse today at
2,678 francs, up 38 from yesterday's close.
    The issue is being co-lead managed by Credit Lyonnais,
Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Credit Suisse First Boston.
    Payment date will be April 8.
 REUTER

Shr loss 30 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 1,247,000 vs profit 454,000
    Revs 12.3 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 24 cts vs profit 32 cts
    Net loss 979,000 vs profit 1,303,000
    Revs 60.6 mln vs 61.7 mln
 Reuter

Dec 31
    Shr loss one ct
    Net loss 176,639
    Revs 150,300
    NOTE: Company went public in April 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 91 cts vs 1.25 dlrs
    Net 8,710,000 vs 11.7 mln
    Avg shrs 9,526,287 vs 9,362,379
    NOTE: Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in May 1986.
    Net includes loan loss provisions of 12.7 mln dlrs vs
2,400,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

expects downgrades of corporate debt ratings to ease this year
from the lofty levels of 1986 and 1985.
    However, the rating agency said upgrades will probably stay
at about the same level as in the past few years.
    The narrowing of the gap between downgrades and upgrades
would reflect a calming in takeover frenzy, less volatile
energy markets and slow but steady economic growth, S and P
said.
    In particular, S and P expects that the industrial and
banking sectors would have a less turbulent year than in 1986.
    S and P noted that 60 pct of 1986's downgrades were
concentrated in the industrial sector, where the most negative
factor was takeover fever that led to debt-financed mergers and
acquisitions and costly defenses to fend off takeovers.
    It said takeovers appear to be on the decline this year.
    While S and P noted that the energy markets have stabilized
after last year's collapse, it stressed that 1987 would not
mark a turnaround for this industry.
    In addition, S and P does not expect any big shocks to hit
the junk bond market this year, especially of the magnitude of
1986's unexpected LTV Corp <LTV> bankruptcy filing.
    Utilities, which were a positive influence in the overall
1986 trend, should be a pocket of strength again this year. But
like last year, gas utilities could buck this trend, S and P
said.
    The rating agency said that downgrades would continue to
outpace upgrades among financial institutions. But 1987's
rating changes will not be as skewed as 1986's 2.1 to one ratio
of downgrades to upgrades, S and P predicted.
    S and P said debt ratings for the transportation industry
would remain stable, aside from changes because of mergers. A
detailed report will appear in the March 9 S/P Creditweek.
 Reuter

Nicaraguan rebel leader Adolfo Calero
has for the first time linked payments received for his forces
to a dummy company controlled by former White House aide Oliver
North, legal sources said.
    The company, Lake Resources Inc, was established by North
and his ally, retired Air Force major General Richard Secord,
and had a Swiss bank account into which proceeds from secret
arms sales to Iran were deposited.
    Calero yesterday made public bank statements showing his
group has received 32 mln dlrs since mid-1984, but said he has
no idea who donated the money.
    Calero, head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, known by
its Spanish initials as FDN, provided the same records to a
grand jury investigating the Iran arms scandal that has shaken
the Reagan administration.
    The bank statements he showed reporters ended with March,
1985, so they shed no light on whether Iran arms profits were
diverted to contra rebels since shipments of U.S. arms to Iran
did not begin until September 1985.
    But last night, Calero told Cable News Network that he had
just discovered deposits made in late October, 1985 by Lake
Resources into a contra account in the Cayman Islands.
   
    This came at a time when proceeds from the Iran arms sales
were being funneled to the Swiss bank account.
    "I just found out," he said.
    Legal sources confirmed that Calero had turned over the
newly disclosed information, which was brought to his attention
after one of his lawyers noticed the two desposits made by Lake
Resources buried in the mass of bank records.
    They said that Calero has promised to review in more detail
the bank statements and pass along any further information on
possible deposits by the North-Secord groups.
    The Tower commission said in its report that up to 19.8 mln
dlrs from the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran was unaccounted for
and may have been diverted to the contras.
    Calero's FDN is the largest of the contra rebel groups
that are fighting to overthrow the left-wing Sandinista
government of Nicaragua.
    On the advice of his lawyer, Calero declined to go into
details about what he told the grand jury.
   
 Reuter

India has called a fresh buying tender
for up to four 13,000 tonne cargoes of white sugar on March 11,
traders here said.
    The tender calls for one cargo of prompt sugar and two to
three with March/April shipment sugar, or the same as the eight
cargoes bought at a tender two days ago. That tender originally
only sought two to three cargoes but resulted in the sale of
eight. India also granted the sellers options to sell twice
that amount at the same price but for April/May shipment.
    Depending on prices, traders said it would be likely for
India again to buy more than the tonnage formally sought.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss nil
    Net profit 28,565 vs loss 204,553
    Revs 507,529 vs 6,563
    Nine mths
    Shr loss nil vs loss nil
    Net loss 404,011 vs loss 649,495
    Revs 938,345 vs 32,535
 Reuter

The Pioneer Group Inc said its 70
pct-owned Teberebie Goldfields Ltd venture has been granted an
additional concession of land in Ghana to look for and mine
gold.
    The State Gold Mining Corp of Ghana granted the venture an
additional 14.5 square kilometers in Teberebie, Ghana,
contiguous to 11.5 square kilometers granted earlier, the
    The original concession appears to have a substantial
amount of gold bearing material containing about 2 grams, or
6/100 ounces, of gold per metric ton.
    But the venture has no firm estimates on the costs of
extracting the gold and no assurances can be given that the
reserves can be mined profitably, the company said.
    It said Teberebie Goldfields has not conducted tests on the
newly granted land but added the land seems to be similar in
geological characteristics to the original land.
 Reuter

Insituform Group Ltd of Guernsey,
Channel Islands, said it has exercised an option to convert a
250,000 stg loan to affiliate Insituform Permaline Ltd to
common shares, raising its stake in the unit to 75 pct from 50
pct.
    The remainder is held by Permaline's management and an
investment group.
    Insituform also said James Colclough has resigned from its
board for health reasons and secretary Scott Saltpeter has
resigned, effective June Five.
 Reuter

The world's major copper producing and
consuming countries have reached "a degree of consensus" on
objectives and functions of a future study group aimed at
reviewing the world copper market, officials said.
    Governments represented at a meeting to consider a proposed
forum for copper have recommended that another session be held
in September to consider further the nature of such a group, a
spokesman for the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) said.
    The one-week meeting, which ended today, was held to
examine a U.S. Initiative to set up a copper study group.
    Its objectives would include increasing market
transparency, through improved statistics, and undertaking
activities aimed at developing the copper market and
contributing to improvement of demand.
    UNCTAD's spokesman said, "Once they have agreed on detailed
functions and objectives, then the way will be cleared to
setting up the body."
 Reuter

Total futures and options turnover on the
London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) fell
slightly during February, although daily average Eurodollar
volume set a new record, LIFFE said today.
    Total futures and options turnover last month was 822,378
contracts, down from January's 881,778, but sharply above the
comparative February 1986 figure of 463,146 lots, it said.
    Eurodollar turnover during February was 140,417 lots,
against January's 100,941 and the year ago figure of 81,648.
The daily average was a record 7,020 lots, up four pct from the
previous record, set in March 1985.
    February trading encompassed a new daily record of 66,087
contracts on the 19th of the month, exceeding the previous
record of 61,398, which had been set on February 6, LIFFE said.
    FT-SE 100 index futures volume was sharply higher during
February, with 22,109 contracts trading, against January's
15,279 and the year-ago level of 8,181.
    Open interest also set new records last month in
Eurodollars at 29,372 contracts, in FT-SE 100 at 4,898 and in
short sterling interest rate futures at 19,846 lots.
    Key futures volumes as detailed by LIFFE were:
                 Feb'87   Jan'87    Feb'86
 Long gilt      424,865  525,354   134,420
 Eurodollar     140,417  100,941    81,648
 Short sterling  94,720   87,619    67,640
 T-bond          84,694   87,980   133,766
 FT-SE           22,109   15,279     8,181
 Currencies       2,799    2,112     7,737
 Short gilt          74       85     6,516
    Key options volumes as detailed by LIFFE were:
              Feb'87    Jan'87     Feb'86
 Long gilt     44,640    54,329     ----
 Eurodollar     3,580     1,720     2,844
 T-bond         1,737     3,479     ----
 Sterling       1,466     2,223    18,191
 FT-SE          1,277       657     ----
 Total options 52,700    62,408    23,238
    (Long gilt, T-bond and FT-SE index options were not trading
in February 1986).
 Reuter

President Reagan announced he is
sending Secretary of State George Shultz to Moscow for talks
with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze next month.
    Arms control is expected to be the major topic.
    The announcement said the talks will take place April 13-16
and would review "the entirety of our relationship."
 Reuter

Colombian oil installations were not
damaged by an earthquake which shook Ecuador and southern
Colombia last night and there are no plans to suspend exports,
a spokesman for the state-run oil company Ecopetrol said.
    He said no damage was reported, unlike in Ecuador where
indefinite force majeure was declared on crude exports.
    Colombia currently produces about 360,000 barrels per day
(bpd) of crude. Exports in january totalled 123,000 bpd.
    The quake, which in Colombia measured between 6.5 and seven
on the 12-point international Mercalli scale, caused panic
among residents but no injuries were reported.
 Reuter

Chicago Milwaukee Corp said it welcomed
an investment by Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc in its company.
    Yesterday, Shearson Lehman, a subsidiary of American
Express Co (AXP), disclosed in a Securities and Exchange
Commission filing that it holds a 5.35 pct interest in Chicago
    Chicago Milwaukee's stock edged up 2-1/8 to 138 on turnover
of 8,100 shares, as one of the biggest gainers on the NYSE. The
stock has been trading in a 154 to 128 range for the last 52
weeks.
    Edwin Jacobson, Chicago Milwaukee president, declined to
comment on movement of the company's stock but said,"From an
investment point of view, we are pleased to have Shearson,
Lehman as a substantial investor."
    Shearson, Lehman purchased the shares for investment
purposes and may continue buying shares depending on market
conditions, according to the filing.
    Chicago Milwaukee, which sold its railroad interests to Soo
Line Railroad Co (SOO) in February 1985, currently manages and
sells its real estate which consists of 28,000 parcels in 11
states.
 Reuter

Dauphin Deposit Corp said it has
signed a letter of intent to acquire Colonial Bancorp Inc of
New Holland, Pa., in an exchange of 3.6 to 4.4 Dauphin shares
for each colonial share, depending on the market value of
Dauphin shares just before the merger takes place.
Colonial shareholders and regulatory authorities.  Colonial had
assets at year-end of about 150 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

UNC Inc said its board has approved a
change in state of incorporation to Delaware from Virginia,
subject to approval by shareholders at the April 24 annual
meeting.
    It said it expects to make the change around April 30.
 Reuter

Qtly div 27-1/2 cts vs 27-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May One
    Record April 17
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 42 cts vs 42 cts prior
    Pay April Seven
 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp is raising 150 mln
dlrs via an offering of deposit notes due 1992 with a 7.45 pct
coupon and par pricing, said sole manager First Boston Corp.
    That is 73 basis points more than the yield of comparable
    The issue has a one-time call after three years, First
Boston detailed. If Mellon does not redeem the notes at that
time, they will be non-callable to maturity.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the debt Aa-2 and
Standard and Poor's Corp rates it AA.
 Reuter

U.S. crude oil prices rose above 18 
dlrs a barrel this week and industry analysts said the price
could rise another dollar as inventories fall.
    "OPEC is keeping its production down, and in the cash market
there is tight supply of crude with short transportation time
to major refining centers," said Daniel McKinley, oil analyst
with Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co. "That could send prices
50 cts to a dollar higher," he added.
    The U.S. benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate rose to
18.15 dlrs a barrel today, a rise of 1.50 dlrs this week.
    The rally in oil prices this week came after prices fell in
February more than two dlrs from its high of 18.25 dlrs a
barrel.
    "Oil traders were pulling prices down on the assumption that
oil stocks were building and OPEC was producing well above its
15.8 mln bpd quota, but now both of those assumptions have come
under question," McKinley said.
    Yesterday the International Energy Agency in its monthly
report said that oil stocks in the OECD area, or in
industrialized nations, were drawn down by 1.3 mln bpd during
the first quarter of this year.
    IEA estimates that the draw in oil stocks during the first
quarter of this year will come largely from oil companies whose
inventory levels by April one will be an estimated 326 mln
tonnes, or about 74 days consumption.
    Industry analysts also said the estimate of a 3.5 mln bpd
draw in stocks made by Shell Chairman Peter Holmes yesterday
fed speculation that other major companies were destocking.
    Traders said the destocking has come about as a result of a
so-called buyers strike, which kept refiners from buying
officially priced OPEC oil in an effort to get the organization
to offer discounts to the official price.
    "This struggle between the companies and OPEC is the
ultimate game of chicken but it will be resolved relatively
soon. I would imagine by about the middle of the month (March),"
the general trading manager of an international oil company
told Reuters in a telephone interview.
    For its part OPEC has moved to win this game by cutting
excess supplies from the market by a reduction of its own
output, traders said. A Reuter survey estimates OPEC output to
be 14.7 mln bpd this week.
    Also, an earthquake in Ecuador yesterday led it to suspend
oil exports indefintiely and force majeure its shipments.
    "This will reduce short-haul availabilities by about 250,000
bpd almost immediately and the longer the suspension continues,
the larger the draw in stocks will be for companies expecting
it to be there," McKinley said.
    International oil traders said that other short-haul
crudes, such as North Sea Brent, were also scarce because Asian
refiners bought the oil after absorbing a lot of the readily
available Mideast crudes earlier this week.
    If this pattern continues then oil companies will bid up
the price of oil as they purchase for their refineries, trading
managers at several companies told Reuters.
    But there were skeptics who said they wondered how long
OPEC can retain its unity if buyer resistance continues.
    Stephen Hanke, chief economist at Friedburg Commodity
Management, said OPEC production was lower "because of the
Saudi cut (to 3.1 mln bpd) and this could spell trouble if it
gives other members an incentive to exceed their quotas."
     He added, "The Saudis will be picking up the tab for other
members who produce over their quota, and the drain on the
Saudis will continue, forcing them to cut output maybe as low
as 2.5 mln bpd to support the 18 dlrs average price," he added.
    There are also signs of some OPEC crudes being sold in the
spot market at below OPEC official prices, traders said.
    Oil traders said Nigerian Brass River sold for delivery
into the U.S. Gulf at a price related to North Sea brent, which
traded this week at 17.60 dlrs, far below the official price of
18.92 dlrs for the similar quality Bonny Light.
    Iranian oil is also surfacing in the U.S. Gulf and the Far
East at reported discounts to its 17.50 dlrs official price.
    "There is a lot of oil priced on government-to-government
deals, which are below official prices and this is probably
being resold," one international trader said.
 Reuter

The attempt by International Paper Co
<IP> and Stone Container Co <STO> to raise linerboard prices
could stick, industry analysts said, citing strong demand and
tight capacity. But they said rising inventories hurt the odds.
    "It remains to be seen whether the increases will be
accepted, but I think the odds are better than 50-50 they
will," Mark Rogers, paper analyst for Prudential Bache said.
    Mead Corp <ME> and Union Camp Corp <UCC> said they are also
considering price increases.
    Rogers, who has been aggressively recommending Stone and
International Paper for several months, said the increases
could stick because plants are running full tilt and little new
capacity is coming on stream.
    "The operating rates in linerboard are running at about 97
to 98 pct of capacity, but demand continues to climb," Gene
Cartledge, chairman and chief executive officer of Union Camp
said "The industry is essentially sold out."
    Cartledge said domestic linerboard shipments in January hit
about 1.6 mln tons, six pct higher than January 1986, while
exports hit 170,000 tons, three to four pct higher.
    Nevertheless, rising inventories could nip the increase in
the bud, Lawrence Ross, forest products analyst for Paine
Webber, said.
    "Containerboard inventories have been growing for the past
three months," Ross said. "Over that time inventories rose from
4.8 weeks worth of supplies to 5.9 weeks most recently."
    Also, Ross said that the Jacksonville, Fla., paper mill, 49
pct owned by Stone, is planning to come on stream again soon,
which may help alleviate some of the supply constraints. "The
plant's capacity, by itself, is about two pct of the industry
total," Ross said.
    But, Rogers said the Jacksonville mill "won't be enough" to
significantly ease tight capacity this year. The price increase
is necessary, he said, to attract more investment.
    Rates of return in the industry have been too low in recent
years to merit inventment in new capocity, Rogers said, adding
that he sees prices climbing to the 400 dlrs-a-ton range this
year.
    "The consensus on the Street is changing," he said, "from
whether there will be increases to when is the next increase
and how much."
 Reuter

The Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE)
will start trading futures contracts in high fructose corn
syrup on April 6 if the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC) approves the contract as expected next week.
    Pat Henderson, spokesperson for the MGE, said the exchange
expects contract approval at CFTC's Tuesday meeting. It has
been under review since the exchange submitted the proposal in
December, 1985.
    The proposed contract is based on 48,000 pound lots of
55-pct high fructose corn syrup, the equivalent of one tank
truck of the sweetening agent derived from corn in the wet
milling process. The syrup, commonly called HFCS-55, is most
commonly used as a sweetener in soft drinks and other
beverages.
    Delivery would be by shipping certificate from production
facilities designated by the exchange. The contract, designated
by the symbol "HF," would trade from 0900 to 1315 CST. Months
traded would correspond with the Chicago corn futures months of
March, May, July, September and December.
    Contract price will be quoted per hundred weight, with a
minimum price fluctuation of one cent and maximum fluctuation
of one dlr per CWT.
    "We hope the producers and users of fructose will be
actively involved, those producers being the large processors,
the corn wet millers, and the users being the beverage
bottlers," Henderson said. "But there are potentials for all
types of people to use it. There is quite a list of industries
that utilize fructose."
 Reuter

Concorde Capital Ltd Inc said it has
signed an agreement to establish a minimum of 40 Heidi's Frozen
Yogurt Shoppes in South Florida over the next 48 months.
    It said it signed the agreement with <Zenith Capital Inc>,
which received 3,890,000 Concorde shares, or a 10 pct interest,
for the exclusive franchise rights from Orlando south in
Florida.
    Zenith now has seven company owned and 44 franchised
Heidi's open and another 90 franchises sold.
    Concorde said it expects to change its name soon to Heidi's
Frozen Yogurt Shoppes of Florida Inc.
 Reuter

    NOTE: First Federal Savings and Loan Association of
Brooksville.
 Reuter

Energy Ventures Inc said it formed a
new subsidiary, EVI Inc, that will seek to fund growth of and
offer financial services to oil service and equipment
    The new unit is majority owned by Energy Ventures. Simmons
and Co Finance, an affiliate of Houston-based Simmons and Co
International, is minority shareholder.
    Initial capital of 25 mln dlrs was provided by Energy
Ventures with an additional one mln dlrs contributed by Simmons.
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts in prior qtr
    Payable May 25
    Record May one
 Reuter

Technigen Platinum corp said it
initial results of a 13-hole drilling program on its R.M. Nicel
platinum property in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, indicate
"extensive" near-surface zones "highly" enriched in gold,
platinum and palladium were found in rocks on the periphery of
a sulphide deposit.
    It said values of up to 0.073 ounce of platinum, 0.206
ounce palladium, three pct copper and 4.5 pct nickel were found
over a drill section of 13 feet.
                  
 More

Telecom Plus International Inc
said <Siemens AG>'s Siemens Information Systems wants to amend
its agreement to purchase Telecom's 65 pct interest in Tel Plus
Communications to delay payment of 25 mln dlrs for 11 months.
    Telecom's shareholders are scheduled to vote on the 165 mln
dlr transaction Monday.
    Telecom said it advised Siemens it intends to close the
transaction on March 16, as scheduled, if it is approved by
shareholders. A spokesman said this means Telecom will decide
before the 16th whether or not to accept the proposed change.
    Explaining its request for the amendment, Siemens informed
Telecom it had recently become aware of information causing
concern with respect to certain accounting and other matters.
    Siemens said it will therefore need to continue its review
beyond March 16 to determine whether certain representations
and warranties are true.
    Telecom said it advised Siemens it knows of no information
which would make its representations and warranties untrue.
    Siemens already owns the remaining 35 pct of Tel Plus. The
65 pct represenmts Telecom's principal operating asset.
    A Telecom spokesman said the agreement calls for payment of
all but 29 mln dlrs of the price at closing. Of this, 21 mln
dlrs was to be paid 11 months later and two mln dlrs per year
on the anniversary date of the transaction.
    He said Siemens is now proposing that 25 mln dlrs be added
to the 21 mln dlrs to be paid in 11 months.
    Telecom said the proposed amendment would also permit
Siemens to defer repayment of up to an additional 50 pct of
certain intercompany debt until completion of the review.
Telecom said it estimates this to ba about 15 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

LUCKY STORES SAYS IT AND INVESTOR EDELMAN REACHED STANDSTILL AGREEMENT

pct-owned Teberebie Goldfields Ltd venture was granted an
additional concession of land in Ghana to seek and mine gold.
contiguous to 11.5 square kilometers granted earlier.
6/100 ounces, of gold per tonne. But the venture has no firm
estimate on the costs of extracting the gold and no assurances
can be given that the reserves can be mined profitably, the
company said. It said Teberebie Goldfields has not conducted
tests on the newly granted land but added the land seems to be
similar in geological characteristics to the original land.
 Reuter

A counter-proposal from creditor
banks to Argentina's request for rescheduling its 50 billion
dlr foreign debt was faulty, an Argentine observer at
negotiations said.
    "The negotiations are not going to prosper if (the creditor
banks) do not change the counter-proposal put to Argentina, as
it is a Swiss cheese full of holes," ruling Radical Party Deputy
Raul Baglini said.
    Baglini, who was recently observing negotiations with the
steering committee for Argentina's creditor banks in New York,
spoke to reporters in Mendoza, 600 miles west of Buenos Aires.
    Baglini said the counter-proposal did not take into account
Argentina's request for a 2.15 billion dlr loan to meet four
pct growth targets in 1987.
    He said the steering committee wanted only to discuss some
aspects of the request, while Argentina's negotiators were
laying emphasis on a global pacakge.
    The United States said last week it would back a 500 mln
dlr bridge loan to Argentina.
 Reuter

Qtly div 29-1/2 cts vs 29-1/2 cts prior
    Record March 27
 Reuter

International Business Machines
Corp said it has named James A. Cannavino president of its Data
Systems Division, succeeding IBM vice president, Edward M.
Davis, who is retiring June 30 and until then will be IBM vice
president, technology competitiveness.
    The Data Systems Division is responsible for worldwide
development and U.S. manufacturing of IBM's large systems and
associated software.
    Cannavino had been vice president of the division and
general manager of the IBM Poughkeepsie, N.Y., manufacturing
and development facility.
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 99 cts
    Net profit 545,000 vs loss 13.1 mln
    Revs 75.3 mln vs 37.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.8 mln vs 13.1 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 34 cts vs profit 34 cts
    Net profit 4,908,000 vs profit 4,487,000
    Revs 216.8 mln vs 117.7 mln
    Avg shrs 14.6 mln vs 13.1 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net included gain on sale of foreign properties
of 15.5 mln dlrs or 1.19 dlrs per share and a writedown of oil
and gas properties of 12.5 mln dlrs or 96 cts per share. 1985
4th qtr net included writedowns of oil and gas properties.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Dilson Funaro,
currently on a global tour to seek governmental support for his
efforts to solve Brazil's 108 billion dlrs foreign debt crisis,
said creditors have expressed willingness to help.
    In an interview with the Globo television network,
transmitted from Rome, Funaro said he had proposed a "four-year
plan" to the creditors, which would include a rescaling of the
commitments derived from its debt.
    After visiting the U.S., England, France, West Germany,
Italy and Switzerland, Funaro is now on his way to Tokyo, where
he is to arrive on Sunday for talks with Japanese government
officials as well as private bankers.
 Reuter

Lucky Stores Inc said it and
investor Asher Edelman agreed on a settlement that prohibits
Edelman and his group from taking specified actions to obtain
control of the company and that limits the Edelman group's
ownership of Lucky's stock to less than five pct of any voting
    The arrangement also provides for the dismissal of pending
litigation between the parties, Lucky Stores said.
    The settlement also calls for the withdrawal of Edelman's
motion to intervene in pending shareholder actions against
Lucky Stores and its directors, the company said.
    In addition, the standstill provisions also apply to
Hancock Fabrics after it is spun off to Lucky stockholders, the
    Lucky Stores said the arrangement also calls for the
company to submit to stockholders at a special meeting set for
December 31 a proposal from Edelman seeking their views
concerning repeal of a charter provision that limits the voting
power of substantial Lucky stockholders.
    Edelman, who owns about five pct of Lucky Stores' stock,
last year was rebuffed in his effort to acquire the company.
    Last October Lucky Stores implimented a restructuring
program that included the repurchase of 28 pct of its own
common shares and reincorporation in Delaware.
    The spinoff of Hancock Textile Co, a chain of 324 retail
stores, was one of the key parts of the restructuring program.
    Edelman and his Plaza Securities Co partnership
subsequently sued in an attempt to block the proposed
reincorporation, which was a condition of the repurchase and
restructuring plan.
    Under this latest arrangement, Lucky Stores said it agreed
to reimburse the Edelman group for 2.8 mln dlrs of
out-of-pocket expenses, which include litigation and other
costs.
    "This agreement serves the interests of Lucky stockholders
by avoiding the significant cost of continued litigation and
the accompanying demands on management time," Lucky Stores
chairman John Lillie said in a statement.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co's
proposal to deregulate its long distance phone service is
unlikely to produce a radical change in phone rates, but it
should help the company's profits, analysts said.
    "Deregulation will mean more pricing discounts for large
volume users, but status quo for residential users," said
PaineWebber Group analyst Jack Grubman.
    But the proposals will scrap the pricing formula that has
constrained the company's profits in the long distance
business, leading to higher profit margins, analysts said.
    ATT has long pushed for deregulation of its long-distance
business, the profits of which have been limited by a regulated
rate-of-return on the company's investments. The rate was cut
last year to 12.20 from 12.75 pct.
    Earlier today the company proposed to the Federal
Communications Commission to scrap the formula, cut the amount
of time needed to approve rate proposals, and leave it up to
its competitors to oppose it filings.
    MCI Communications Corp <MCIC> made a similar filing
yesterday, saying greater the moves would increase competition
in the telephone business.
    Analysts said the proposals will allow ATT to cut costs in
the long-distance unit, and increase its profit margins
previously constrained by the rate of return. But many said
they did not expect the proposals to lead to higher prices in
the industry, simply because of the competition the phone
industry giant faces.
    "You probably wouldn't see as much of a price decline,"
said Gartner Group analyst Fritz Ringling. "But you wouldn't
see a rise." Grubman said the proposals will allow ATT to
selectively raise or lower prices, depending on the market. "It
will give ATT a lot more flexibility," he said.
    ATT now faces a period of comment in which a number of
companies will be able to respond to the proposals in FCC
hearings.
    It may face at least one strong opponent, U.S. Sprint, the
long distance joint venture between GTE Corp <GTE> and United
Telecommunications Inc <UT>.
    "We think the Congress of the FCC should establish a
reasonable rate of return. Someone should establish it," a U.S.
Sprint spokesman said. But he added the company was not opposed
to greater competition.
    It may also take some time for the proposals to go through,
and in the process they may be altered by the various
constituencies affected by the move.
    "There's so much complexity, so much inertia, so much
bureacracy, that stricly speaking about the mechanisms, it
won't happen that fast," said analyst Victor Krueger of the
Gartner Group.
 Reuter

board of governors announced today the options on Random Length
lumber futures will begin trading on May 29.
    The contract received Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC) approval on January 21 after being submitted for review
last October 13.
    Initially, only January, March and May delivery months will
be listed for trading. The size of the underlying futures
contract is 130,000 board feet. Regular trading hours for the
contract will be from 0900 to 1305 Central Time. However, on
the first day of trading the market will open at 1000.
    On March 4 the CME board amended the contract to eliminate
Christmas Eve expirations for the January option. This
amendment has been submited to the CFTC, the CME said.
 reuter

The Navy last month grounded half of
its A-6E attack jets for wing inspections after a California
accident but has since returned half of the grounded planes to
service, a Navy spokesman said.
    Kevin Mukri said 186 of the Navy's 340 A-6E aircraft, built
by Grumman Corp, were grounded on Feb. 20 after a Jan. 14 A-6E
crash during a training flight near El Centro, Calif., which
killed one of two crewmen aboard.
    "A subsequent inspection of the wreckage at the Naval
Research Laboratory in Washington showed an apparent inner wing
stress problem," Mukri told Reuters.
    "Ninety-seven of the grounded planes have since undergone
visual inspections and 91 of those have been cleared to return
to service," he said.
 Reuter

The House and Senate committees
investigating the Iran arms scandal said they would like to
review tapes of phone conversations between President Reagan
and White House officials, if such tapes exist.
    The committees were responding to a magazine article
that quoted unidentified "sources with first-hand knowledge of
U.S. communications intelligence" as saying there is an archive
of recorded conversations among Reagan administration
officials, including the president.
    The article in Progressive magazine also said the
government had secretly monitored the home telephone of former
National Security adviser Robert McFarlane after he had left
government service in late 1985.
    "According to sources with first hand knowledge of U.S.
communications intelligence operations," the story said, "the
McFarlane intercept grew out of a program that has produced a
still-undisclosed archive of recorded conversations involving
... Reagan, Vice President George Bush, (fired National
Security Council aide) Lt Col Oliver North, (former National
Security Adviser) Adm John Poindexter, (former White House
Chief of Staff) Donald Regan and other key figures in the
Iran-contra arms scandal."
    It said the monitoring was done for security and record
purposes by the top-secret National Security Agency (NSA), and
was apparently done with the consent of those monitored.
    But White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater denied one
premise of the article, saying, "The National Security Agency
said it did not monitor any of McFarlane's conversations."
    He did not comment on the other recorded conversations the
Progressive article said were included in the program.
    "Clearly we would be interested in taking a look if indeed
such tapes exist," a Senate Iran committee aide told Reuters in
response to the magazine article.
    A spokesman for the House Iran committee said the panel
would consider a request to the NSA for copies of the
telephone-tap archive described in the article.
    Several legislators said the tapes, if it is confirmed that
they exist, could prove invaluable to the special House and
Senate committees that were created in January to investigate
Reagan's most damaging political crisis.
    "This sort of evidence could be absolutely crucial in
getting to the bottom of the affair," said Rep. Robert
Kastenmeier, a Wisconsin Democrat and member of the House
Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.
 Reuter

Struthers Wells Corp said it expects
to report a loss, without tax benefit, of about 16 mln dlrs for
the fiscal year ended November 30, 1986, versus a profit of
295,000 dlrs in fiscal 1985.
    The company added, however, that about 13.6 mln dlrs of the
loss relates to discontinued operations and disposal of
subsidiaries.
    The company said the loss is part of its previously
announced restructuring that includes the sale of its foreign
and domestic units.
    Struthers added that it has filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for an extension to file its annual report
on form 10-K as a result of delays caused by the restructuring.
 Reuter

SOROS GROUP TELLS SEC IT MAY BUY UP TO 49.9 PCT OF FAIRCHILD INDUSTRIES

Trans World Airlines Inc said it owns
more than four mln USAir Group shares or about 15 pct of the
total outstanding.
    TWA said it may acquire additional shares in the open
market, in private transactions, through a tender offer or
otherwise, subject to Department of Transportation approval.
    TWA has offered 52 dlrs per share for USAir Group. USAir
rejected the offer yesterday, calling it a last-minute attempt
to interfere with its takeover of Piedmont Aviation Inc.
    A TWA spokesman said the company has filed an application
for approval on its offer to buy USAir with the Department of
Transportation, and later today it will file a response to
USAir's motion with the DOT to dismiss the TWA application.
    TWA said it made the statement today on its stock position
in USAir in response to inquiries.
    Traders said they believed TWA Chairman Carl Icahn was the
buyer of an 855,000 share block crossed today by Salomon
Brothers.
    USAir stock was trading at 50-3/4, up 2-1/4 on heavy volume
of 3.1 mln shares. TWA stock fell 3/8 to 30-5/8.
    While analysts and arbitragers have speculated that Icahn
may have made the offer for USAir in order to trigger the
acquisition of his own airline, Wall Street today began to take
Icahn's effort more seriously.
    "I think he's going to be the next Frank Lorenzo of Wall
Street," said one market source. Lorenzo, chairman of Texas
Air, has added to his airline with the acquisitions of Eastern
Airlines and People Express Airlines.
    There was also speculation that Icahn would like to buy
USAir and then sell TWA as a merged company.
 Reuter

Silver State Mining Corp said it has
corrected its 1986 fourth quarter net income to 485,380 dlrs
from 528,790 dlrs reported earlier today.
    The company earned 286,969 dlrs in last year's fourth
quarter.
 Reuter

An investor group led by New York
investor George Soros said it was dissatisfied with Fairchild
Industries Inc management and was considering boosting its
holdings to as much as 49.9 pct of the aerospace and aviation
company's outstanding stock.
    The group already controls 1,647,481 Fairchild Industries
shares or 11.5 pct of the total outstanding.
    The group said it filed on Wednesday with federal antitrust
regulators for advance clearance to buy enough additional
shares to increase its total stake to up to 49.9 pct of the
total outstanding stock.
    The group said its representatives had met with Fairchild
Industries officials to inform them "that they do not believe
management has been successful in enhancing or protecting
shareholder values."
    It said it was considering the additional share purchases
to enable it to "assert a greater degree of influence over the
future management and policies of the issuer."
    It said a decision on the specific level of share ownership
it would seek depended on market prices, future changes in
management policies, available financial resources and other
factors.
    The group said it also reserved the right to pursue other
measures intended to influence Fairchild management and
policies, either alone or in concert with other investors.
    The group includes Soros and Quantum Fund, an offshore
investment firm headquartered in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
that is advised by Soros.
    The group said that since its last SEC filing, made Jan. 2,
it had purchased no additional Fairchild shares and had sold
6,700 shares on the New York Stock Exchange Jan. 19.
    A Fairchild Industries official later said Soros had told
the company he was not dissatisfied with its management.
    "Contrary to the filing, Mr. Soros has told the company
today that he is not dissatisfied with management," Fairchild's
Bill Fulwider told Reuters.
    However, Fulwider said the company would have nothing to
say at this time about Soros' disclosure that he may buy up
enough additional Fairchild shares to hold as much as 49.9 pct
of the company's outstanding stock.
 Reuter

Payless Cashways Inc chairman David
Stanley told analysts the company's first quarter results to be
reported March 17 will be better than the seven cts per share
    "It was not a wonderful sales quarter, but it only
represents 14 pct of the year's total results," Stanley said.
    Stanley also said that 1987 full year sales will be in
excess of 1.8 billion dlrs as compared to the 1.5 billion dlrs
reported in 1986. He also said that analysts' estimates of 1.55
dlr per shr for 1987 "are not crazy."
    Payless reported net income of 1.22 dlr per share in 1986.
    "The economy may not get a lot better, but we expect our
advantages in the lumber industry and cost cutting measures to
keep us competitive," Larry Kunz, chief financial officer,
said.
     The company acquired Knox Lumber Co for about 24.3 mln
dlrs in October 1986.
    Stanley said the company's stronger-than-optimal balance
sheet will enable it to make further acquisitions but no
negotiations are going on at the current time.
    He said some benefits of a new management information
system will be felt in 1987 and more substantially in 1988.
   
Federal Reserve Board Governor Robert
Heller said the U.S. legal and regulatory framework of the U.S
financial system needs a complete overhaul so American banks
can be more competitive in international markets.
    "It has become abundantly clear that our financial system
must be overhauled to bring it up to the standard that will be
required if we are to remain the leading financial power of the
world in the coming years," Heller said in a speech prepared for
delivery to a financial services industry conference.
    Heller said a patchwork approach to changing the nation's
banking and financial services laws will not work.
    "Instead, a comprehensive overhaul of the entire financial
system is called for," he said.
    Heller said he was encouraged that Congress would take a
comprehensive look at reforming the nation's banking laws after
they enact legislation now pending that would recapitalize the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp and give federal
regulators more power to deal with failing banks.
    Heller said he liked the concept of the financial services
holding company, which would allow a bank to exist side by side
with other financial services companies. He said that would end
the debate on securities powers for banks.
    "The holding company may own both a securities house and a
bank, so that both services may be provided to the same
customer, subject to safeguards against conflicts of interest,"
he said.
    Such an institution be in a better position to compete in
the financial services markets around the globe, he said.
    Heller said he expects world trade to expand more rapidly
that domestic production and that traditional trade finance
should grow with it.
    "It may be time to dust off the old letters of credit and to
prepare for an increase in traditional export financing
opportunities," Heller said.
    But he warned that protectionist sentiments could "kill the
golden goose that is about to provide new profit opportunities
for international traders and bankers alike that will benefit
consumers by providing them with cheaper goods."
 Reuter

Shr loss 3.86 dlrs vs profit 37 cts
    Net loss 24,973,000 vs profit 2,389,000
    Sales 62.5 mln vs 65.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 3.22 dlrs vs profit 1.32 dlrs
    Net loss 20,861,000 vs profit 8,515,000
    Sales 268.0 mln vs 272.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 earnings include a provision for restructuring
costs of 23,675,000 dlrs, or 3.66 dlrs a share (pre-tax) and
the effect of adoption of FASB 87 which reduced pension expense
by 617,000 dlrs for the quarter and 1,817,000 dlrs for the year
before taxes
    Earnings include nonoperating income from the effect of
nonrecurring gains of 1,811,000 dlrs in the 1st Qtr of 1986
from the sale of its minority interest in Plexus Corp and
1,480,000 dlrs in the 3rd Qtr of 1985 related to the sale of
excess property
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 632,000 vs loss 437,000
    Revs 3,206,000 vs 2,650,000
    Year
    Shr loss 19 cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net loss 793,000 vs loss 1,004,000
    Revs 11.5 mln vs 14.4 mln
    NOTE: Prior year figures restated to reflect merger in
March 1986 with Amtron Corp.
 Reuter

GATX Corp said it will buy back up to
750,000 common shares in the open market from time to time
within the next year.
    Morgan Stanley and Co Inc will act as agent.
    As of December 31, 1986, GATX had nine mln shares
 Reuter

Qtrly 42 cts vs 42 cts prior
    Pay April 7
 Reuter

SouthTrust Corp, a 5.1 billion
dlr multibank holding company, said it entered into agreements
to acquire four Florida banks with assets totalling more than
233.2 mln dlrs.
    Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
    The four banks are: Central Bank of Volusia County, with
assets of 59.3 mln dlrs, Bank of Pensacola with assets of 63.8
mln dlrs, and Vista Bank, which operates Vista Bank of Volusia
County with assets of 37.8 mln dlrs and Vista Bank of Marion
County with assets of 72.3 mln dlrs.
    It said the agreements are subject to regulatory approval.
 Reuter

CARLING O'KEEFE SELLS STAR OIL UNIT TO UNITED COAL CANADA FOR 57 MLN DLRS

Advanced Telecommunications Corp <ITEL>
said it called for the redemption on April 10, 1987, of all its
eight pct convertible subordinated debentures due 2006.
    The company said the redemption price is 1,080 dlrs per
1,000 dlrs of principal amount of debentures plus accrued
interest from Feb One, 1987 to April 10, 1987.
    The company said the debentures are convertible into ATC's
common stock at 8.25 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Hughes Tool Co rose one to 12-1/4 on
1,658,000 shares, apparently reflecting a belief that Baker
International Corp <BKO> will be able to persaude Hughes to go
along with a previously announced merger, analysts said.
    This week Hughes seemed to back out of the merger but then
said it was still interested in talking.
    "It sounds like Baker wants it and if people are convinced
a deal is going to go through the stock goes up," said analyst
Phil Pace of Kidder, Peabody and Co. Holders of Hughes would
get 0.8 share of Baker for each Hughes share. 
 Reuter

Advanced Telecommunications Corp said it
has called for redemption on April 10 all of its eight pct
convertible subordinated debentures due 2006 at 1,080 dlrs per
1,000 dlrs principal amount plus accrued interest.
    The debentures are convertible into common stock at 8.25
 Reuter

it reached an agreement to acquire a 49 pct interest in
Universal Life and General Insurance Sdn Bhd <ULG>, a Malaysian
composite insurance company.
    The company said the 51 pct balance will continue to be
owned by Malaysia Apera Group of private investors.
    The transaction is valued at approximately 37.8 mln dlrs
and is expected to be completed by March 31, 1987.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said it has
started trading one mln Class A common shares of newly-public
Ecology and Environment Inc, which provides services related to
the management of hazardous and non-haxardous wastes.
 Reuter

The Jamaican Information Service said
the rescheduling agreement reached with the Paris Club of
western government creditors covers 125.5 mln dlrs of debt and
not 25.5 mln dlrs as it announced yesterday.
    Under the accord, clinched on Thursday in Paris, 100 pct of
the principal and 85 pct of the interest owed between April 1,
1986, and March 31, 1988, is being rescheduled.
    The debts due in 1986 are being treated as arrears and will
be rescheduled over six years with 2-1/2 years' grace, while
the rest of the debt will be rescheduled over 10 years with a
5-1/2 year grace period.
 Reuter

Carling O'Keefe Ltd said it sold its
Star Oil and Gas Ltd unit to United Coal (Canada) Ltd for about
57 mln dlrs cash.
    Carling said it will record an extraordinary gain of about
two mln dlrs after tax, or nine cts a common share resulting
from the sale.
    The company did not elaborate further on financial terms.
    A Carling official later said in reply to an inquiry that
Carling would record the extraordinary gain in its fourth
quarter ending March 31.
    The move came after Carling's 50 pct-owner <Rothmans Inc>
agreed last week to sell its Carling stake to <Elders IXL Ltd>,
of Australia, for 196.2 mln Canadian dlrs.
 Reuter

The channel ferry Herald
of Free Enterprise from the British Townsend Thorensen company
was sinking off the Belgian coast tonight with 463 people on
board, the Dutch newsagency ANP reported today.
    An unspecified number of people had fallen into the water,
it said, quoting the pilot organisation in this south-western
Dutch port city near the Belgian border.
    It said the vessel had capsized after a collision but gave
no more details.
    Dan Kaakebeen a spokesman for the Dutch salvage firm Smit
International told Reuters by telephone from Rotterdam that the
vessel was just off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge with 463
passengers and crew when the accident occurred at 1850 GMT.
    Kaakebeen said the firm had one vessel at the scene and
another on its way with divers on board.
    A spokesman at the port authority of nearby Vlissingen said
attempts were being made to pull the vessel into shallow
waters.
    Weather conditions were good with no fog or wind, and there
were many other vessels in the area.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.22 dlrs vs profit 27 cts
    Net loss 8,812,432 vs profit 1,847,560
    Revs 7,981,198 vs 10.3 mln
    Avg shrs 7,187,941 vs 6,828,368
    NOTE: Current year includes tax credit of 800,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Moniterm Corp said sales of
its display system and color monitors in the first two months
of this year have been strong compared with the fourth quarter
of 1986, giving it confidence its sales target of 4.8 mln dlrs
for the first quarter of 1987 is attainable.
    It said sales of these products for January and February
were a record 3.1 mln dlrs, it said.
    For all of 1986 its sales were 11.5 mln dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

Mobil Oil Corp said it is reorganizing
its U.S. exploration and producing operations into a single
affiliate, Mobil Exploration and Producing U.S. Inc, to be
headquartered in Dallas, effective April one.
    The Mobil Corp subsidiary said the operations are presently
run from three affiliates located in Denver, New Orleans and
Houston.
    It said about 300 employees will be relocated to Dallas,
adding these will be primarily in management, administrative
and staff functions.
    Mobil Oil said most technical and field operating people
will remain at their current locations but some staff functions
will be reduced.
    Spokesmen were not immediately available for comment on the
impact of any reductions.
    The company said the new affiliate will comprise four
producing divisions and six exploration divisions. Four of the
exploration divisions will be located with producing divisions
in Denver, Houston, New Orleans, and Midland, Texas. The
remaining two will be in Oklahoma City and Bakersfield, Calif.
    Mobil Oil said the reorganization will "enhance our
profitability" by emphasizing technology and improved
communications, adding it will be able to respond quickly to
changes in business environment.
    The company said C.E. Spruell, now vice president,
international producing operations, has been appointed
president and general manager of the new affiliate.
 Reuter

dlr foreign debt was full of holes, an Argentine observer at
 Reuter

The government's move to pare its huge
financing costs by shortening debt maturities has left more
room for other borrowers and sparked a lively market for
treasury bills, senior market analysts said.
    The Bank of Canada, Ottawa's fiscal agent in the
marketplace, revealed this week that sharply reduced borrowing
needs has allowed the shift toward shorter bond terms and
heavier emphasis on the weekly treasury bill auction, issued in
terms of up to one year.
and lower financing costs," the Bank of Canada said in its 1986
annual report released this week.
    The government has said its budget deficit financing
requirements will fall to 24 billion dlrs in the fiscal year
ending March 31, 1987, from 30 billion dlrs the prior year.
Projected fiscal 1988 requirements are 21.3 billion dlrs.
    The bank said that of last year's 19 new government bond
issues, nearly two-thirds were for maturities of less than 10
years. Greater use was also made of bond auctions to market new
issues with terms in the two- to five-year range.
    Meanwhile, treasury bills outstanding at year end totalled
nearly 70 billion dlrs, an increase of 10.3 billion dlrs over
the year and 20 billion dlrs since 1984.
    Although the amount of money saved from moving away from
the long bonds was not disclosed, bond experts believe it was
considerable because of the much lower interest premiums paid
on short term debt.
    But market watchers were unsure what affect the move will
have on Japanese investors--who have been snapping up Canadian
bonds at a record clip--because of their traditional preference
for long term financings.
    Bond traders said the Japanese, who purchased a record 9.5
billion dlrs of Canadian bonds last year, have adapted to the
changes by buying longer term provincial issues and shifting to
the medium term issues offered by Ottawa.
    "Their (Japanese) buying over the course of the last six
months has been very much concentrated in the medium term
maturities," noted one Canadian bond trader who asked not to be
    Yet there was some concern a shortage could eventually
develop for bonds that mature in 10 or more years.
    Said David Gluskin, vice-president of Nesbitt Thomson
Bongard Inc, "When interest rates finally seem to have stopped
going down, there is going to be a flood of people trying to
lock in the long end and not everyone will be able to get in
the door."
    But bonds analysts said at the moment with interest rates
trending down, investors appear to welcome the change,
especially the greater treasury bill financing.
    "The wholesale market in treasury bills is very active,"
said Michael Berry, vice-president of the securities firm,
Walwyn Stodgell Cohran Murray Ltd.
    The change also improves receptivity in the market for
other borrowers, including provincial governments, the big
utilities and corporations.
    "There doesn't seem to any lack of bonds in the longer end
now, that also may be the result that any percieved shortage
has probably been taken up by provincial funding activities,"
commented Berry.
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 216,697 vs loss 47,344
    Sales 144,403 vs 118,391

 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 214,000 vs 309,000
    Revs 3,056,000 vs 2,545,000
    Year
    Shr loss 43 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 754,000 vs loss 159,000
    Revs 11.4 mln vs 11.4 mln
 Reuter

Lloyds Bank Canada, a unit of <Lloyds
Bank International PLC>, said net profit soared to 3,053,000
dlrs for the first quarter ended January 31 from 9,000 dlrs a
    Loan loss provisions, a mandatory five-year averaging of
actual loan losses, also rose in the first quarter to 6,375,000
dlrs from year-ago 113,000 dlrs, the bank said.
    Lloyds Bank Canada became Canada's largest foreign bank
last autumn with its 200 mln Canadian dlr acquisition of
Continental Bank of Canada.

 Reuter

Strikes by Brazil's 40,000
seamen and by petrol station owners in four states are causing
major headaches to a government already wrestling with a debt
crisis.
    A week ago seamen began their first national strike for 25
years and union leaders say they have seriously affected
Brazilian exports by making idle 160 ships.
    On February 20 the Brazilian government suspended interest
payments on part of its huge foreign debt following a sharp
deterioration in its trade balance.
    Today the government faced a fresh problem, when most
petrol station owners in Sao Paulo, the country's industrial
heartland, and in three other states closed down to press for
higher fuel prices.
    There were fears that the combination of the two stoppages
could lead to a serious fuel shortage.
    The seamen's leaders say their strike has halted 48 of the
72 ships belonging to the state oil company Petrobras.
    The Jornal do Brasil newspaper, in an editorial today
entitled "Dangerous Confrontation," said: "From the economic
point of view the seamen's strike carries an alarming cost,
with grave consequences for the supply situation and for the
country's external trade."
    The seamen are seeking a 275 pct pay rise and have rejected
offers of up to 100 pct.
    Later today the Higher Labour Tribunal in Brasilia is due
to rule on whether the seamen's strike is legal. But a senior
official of the National Merchant Marine Union, Jorge Luis Leao
Franco, told Reuters that the strike would continue regardless
of the tribunal's ruling.
    Labour unrest has worsened in Brazil following the collapse
over the last few months of the government's Cruzado Plan price
freeze. Prices have been rising at about 15 pct a month. Not
only workers but also businessmen are restive. Petrol station
owners said many garages had closed indefinitely today in Sao
Paulo, Parana, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
    Television reports said that in the Parana state capital of
Curitiba petrol stations were only supplying fuel for
exceptional cases such as ambulances and funeral processions.
    Brazilian garage owners want to be allowed to raise their
profits on alcohol fuel and petrol sales to 1.26 cruzados (six
U.S. Cents) a litre from 0.56 cruzados (about 2.5 cents).
    Queues formed at petrol stations in Sao Paulo late last
night as motorists filled up their tanks while they still
could.
    Political sources said the government of President Jose
Sarney was closely following the strikes and the overall fuel
supply situation.
 Reuter

First Union Corp said its
Capital Management Group has begun publishing an investment
newsletter targeted to private investors.
    The newsletter, Vision, will be published every three
weeks. Annual subscriptions are 126 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said it intends to
file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission covering the sale of 70 mln dlrs principal amount of
    Concurrent with the debenture offering, LyphoMed said it
plans to sell an additional 30 mln dlrs of debentures in
Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, which currently owns about 30
pct of the company's common stock.
    It said the offering will be made only by prospectus.
 Reuter

Franklin Computer Corp said it
received a court order requiring the manufacturer and
distributors of the Laser 128 personal computer to stop selling
the computers with operating systems that are the subject of a
recently filed copyright infringement suit.
    The company said <Video Technology Computers> of Hong Kong
and its distributors, <Video Technology Computers Inc> and
<Central Point Software Inc>, complied with the order.
    The company said the order was signed by U.S. District
Court Judge John Gerry of Camden, N.J.
    Under the terms of the order, all defendants named in the
action are prohibited from selling Apple-compatible computers
containing the programs on which Franklin has alleged copyright
infringement by Marc 13, the company said.
 Reuter

Alaska Air Group Inc said its Alaska
Airlines unit's February load factor fell to 49 pct from 51 pct
during the same month last year and its year-to-date load
factor was 49 pct, down from 50 a year ago.
    February revenue passenger miles fell to 171.7 mln from 
179 mln and year-to-date revenue miles dropped to 361.5 mln
from 377.4 mln.
    Available seat miles for the month totaled 352.8 mln, up
from 348.1 mln and for the two-month period available miles
declined to 745.3 mln from the 751.7 mln reported for the same
period of 1986, Alaska Air Group said.
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd is under pressure
from one of its largest creditors, <Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce>, to sell its 42 pct stake in <Encor Energy Corp Ltd>,
energy industry analysts said.
    Dome has pledged its 42.5 mln Encor shares as security for
part of its debt to Commerce Bank, estimated last year at 947
mln Canadian dlrs, and the bank wants Dome to sell the stock to
pay down debt, analysts said.
    "The Commerce has been slowly but surely moving Encor in the
direction that might make it a saleable asset," said one analyst
who asked not to be named.
    Dome earlier said it was not considering selling Encor
Energy, but reaffirmed the company's 23.3 pct interest in
Canadian gold producer Dome Mines Ltd <DM> is up for sale "at
the right price."
    Dome, now negotiating a plan to restructure more than 6.10
billion dlrs in debt, sees Encor as a strategic investment that
it does not intend to sell, spokesman David Annesley said. The
Encor shares do not pay dividends.
    A Commerce Bank spokesman also declined comment when asked
whether it is pressing Dome to sell its Encor stake.
    At current market prices, Dome's stake in Encor would be
valued at about 308 mln dlrs, while its 20.9 mln Dome Mines
shares would be worth about 319 mln dlrs.
    Recent strength in the price of Encor shares may also
prompt Commerce Bank to press Dome to divest its holding in the
Canadian oil and gas producer, analysts said.
    "Encor's stock price has improved quite substantially in
recent weeks with a runup in crude prices," Peters and Co Ltd
oil analyst Wilf Gobert commented.
    "The possibility is that Commerce Bank would like to see it
sold at these levels because they can get more for it now than
they have been able to in recent years," he added.
    Encor traded earlier on the Toronto Stock Exchange at
7-1/8, near its 52-week high of 7-1/2 and up from around six
dlrs in early February.
    The company also recently set up its own operating
management, which was previously carried out by Dome Petroleum,
Maison Placements Canada Inc analyst Denis Mote commented.
    Dome and Encor "are actually going to get farther apart. So
(the sale) does make a lot of sense," Mote said.
    However, analysts said Dome will resist any moves to divest
Encor in favor of retaining the operating assets since sale
proceeds would likely go directly to pay down Dome's debt to
Commerce Bank.
    "I think they'll probably try to hang onto Encor as long as
they can," said Bache Securities Inc analyst Doug Weber.
    Some of Dome's group of 56 major creditors might move to
block such a sale, arguing they have a claim on company assets.
    "Other creditors generally all want to make sure that
something they might be able to get a piece of is not being
sold out from under them," said analyst Gobert.
    Another stumbling block would be Encor's 225 mln dlr joint
liability in loans to Dome Petroleum advanced by Arctic
Petroleum Corp of Japan for Beaufort Sea exploration.
    Analysts said a similar hurdle could also hinder the
possible sale of Dome Petroleum's interest in Dome Mines.
    Dome Mines has guaranteed 225 mln dlrs of Dome Petroleum's
debt and has a "right of consent" to the sale of Dome Petroleum's
holding.
    Presumably, a potential buyer of the Dome Mines shares
would seek some type of relief on the company's debt
obligations connected with Dome Petroleum, Gobert said.
    Dome spokesman Annesley earlier declined to specify at what
price the company would consider selling its Dome Mines shares,
but said current prices of more than 15 dlrs a share "are very
attractive."
 Reuter

Shr nil vs one ct
    Net 59,608 vs 95,909
    Revs 2,921,629 vs 2,918,682
    Avg shrs 7,062,172 vs 7,273,020
    Year
    Shr loss 1.22 dlrs vs profit 27 cts
    Revs 3,070,327 vs 3,195,710
 Reuter

Earthworm Tractor Co Inc said it
accepted an invitation from the Ministry of Construction, Road
Building and Municipal Machinery to visit the Soviet Union next
week to explore trading construction and liquefied natural gas
equipment.
    The company said a representative of Prudential Bache Trade
Corp will be part of the delegation.
 Reuter

    Shr six cts vs eight cts
    Net 103,436 dlrs vs 134,360 dlrs
    Revs 1,762,270 vs 1,282,463
 Reuter

said it expected continued growth for commercial aviation in
the next 12 years, with passenger traffic increasing at an
annual rate of 4.5 pct on major scheduled airlines and 6.7 pct
on commuter airlines.
    However, the FAA forecast projects slower growth for
general aviation than for the air carriers.
    The number of hours flown by private and business flyers,
for example, is expected to grow at an annaul rate of less than
one pct compared with a six pct rate in the 1960s and 1970s.
 REUTER

arrived in Algiers at the head of a large delegation for talks
on stabilizing oil prices, the official news agency APS said.
    In a brief arrival statement, he said Iran and Algeria were
engaged in "continuous and stronger cooperation" on the world
petroleum market and had "deployed considerable efforts to
stablise petroleum prices."
    He was greeted on arrival by Belkacem Nabi, the Algerian
Minister of Energy, Chemical and Petro-Chemical Industries.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 232,000 vs 814,000
    Revs 22.4 mln vs 22 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.07 dlrs vs 2.43 dlrs
    Net 3,108,000 vs 3,670,000
    Revs 106.7 mln vs 101.1 mln
    NOTE: Per share figures adjusted to reflect four-for-three
stock split paid March 26, 1986.
 Reuter

The director of the Treasury
Department's office of international banking and portfolio
investment said Japan should open its bond and stock markets to
more U.S. firms.
    "The Treasury would like to see greater openness of
Jaspanese markets, including more U.S. firms admitted to the
Tokyo Stock Exchange, and an increased role for U.S. financial
firms in the Japanese Government bond market," Ammerman said in
a prepared speech for a conference on financial services
sponsored by Georgetown University.
    Ammerman also said the Reagan administration hopes "any
discrimination against U.S. banks wishing to set up in the
securities business in Japan in their own name will be
eliminated promptly."
    He said the United States also was pressing Canada to stop
giving favored treatment to domestic banks over U.S.
competitors and was talking with Canadian representatives.
    He said the United States will "press vigorously for
liberalization" of financial services in all foreign markets. If
negotiations fail, "We will not hesitate to take vigorous
actions to promote or protect our interests," he added.
 Reuter

Rexon Inc said it filed a
Commission covering the primary sale of 1.25 mln common shares
through an underwriting group managed by Hambrecht and Quist.
    Rexon, a maker of tape drives, subsystems and
computer-related products, said it plans to use proceeds from
the sale for working capital and for capital expenditures,
primarily related to the company's tape drive products.
 Reuter

A senior Defense Department official
said he believed President Reagan has decided against an early
deployment of the controversial anti-missile defense system
known as "Star Wars."
    But the official, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard
Perle, told a luncheon Reagan could decide within a few weeks
to adopt a less restrictive interpretation of the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty to justify a move towards
wider "Star Wars" testing and development.
    "I think the president has made a decision not to proceed
with an early deployment of SDI," said Perle, referring to the
Strategic Defense Initiative, as Reagan's anti-missile project
is formally called.
   
 Reuter

chile's gross domestic product rose 5.7
pct last year to 18.8 billion dollars, compared to a 2.4 pct
rise in the previous year, the central bank said.
    It said initial projections were for a 4.6 pct increase in
gdp this year.
    The sectors which registered the greatest growth in 1986
were fisheries with 10 pct, agriculture at 8.7 pct, transport
and communications with 8.1 pct and industry at 8.0 pct, the
bank added.
 Reuter

currently on an international tour to seek governmental support
for his efforts to solve Brazil's 108-billion-dlr foreign debt
crisis, said creditors have expressed willingness to help.
transmitted from Rome, Funaro said the reception by
representatives of creditor countries with whom he met along
the week was always to seek new ways.
    "Brazil made several adjustments in its economy in the past
which affected the goodwill of its people. We now wish to keep
the country's growth in order to be able to face the problems
of the future," Funaro said.
    The minister said that he had proposed a "four-year plan" to
the creditors, which would include a rescaling of the
    "We cannot continue negotiating every year with our
creditors, having to face difficulties in the meantime, not
knowing whether a new package will or will not be approved, as
it is happening to other debtor countries," the minister said.
   
 Reuter

ComFed Savings Bank's wholly-owned
subsidiary, ComFed Mortgage Co Inc, said it filed a
Commission for a proposed public offering of 2,700,000 shares
of its common stock.
    The offering represents 16 pct of ComFed Mortgage's stock,
the balance of which it will retain, the company said.
Estimated public offering price range for the stock is between
nine dlrs and 13 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Landmark Savings Association said it
completed the sale of its Whitehall, Pa., office, including
deposits of about 31 mln dlrs, to Parkvale Savings Association.
    Landmark said it realized a gain of about 1.1 mln dlrs on
the sale. The price was not disclosed.
 Reuter

The U.S. Feedgrains Council is
surprised and disappointed by the Canadian Import Tribunal's
decision that imports of corn from the U.S. are materially
injuring Canadian corn producers, a council spokesman said.
    "At a time when the world is attempting to liberalize trade
in the new rounnd of multilateral negotiations, it is
incomprehensible that a country that stands to gain so much
from the reduction in agricultural trade barriers would
threaten that process by caving in to pressures for
protectionism," council president Darwin E. Stolte said.
    Canada's finding will strain the U.S./Canadian trading
relationship, could damage the future of U.S. feedgrains 
support for the free trade negotiations, and also negatively
impact farm trade reform with other nations, the council said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr profit one cent vs loss 37 cts
    Net profit 148,000 dlrs vs loss 1,686,000
    NOTE: Company said net is before extraordinary items and
taxes and declined to provide data on those items
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture Department animal
health officials are conducting a national survey of live-bird
markets and auctions to check for signs of avian influenza, an
infectious viral disease of poultry, the department said.
    The survey will locate poultry dealers and live-bird
markets that sell live birds directly to the consumer and once
the dealers and markets are identified, there will be tests to
determine any past or present exposure to avian influenza
viruses, it said.
    In 1983-84, an outbreak of avian influenza in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey cost taxpayers 65 mln dlrs to
control and required the destruction of more than 17 mln birds,
it said.
    The survey is expected to be completed by April 15.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for a shelf offering of up
to 500 mln dlrs of debt securities on terms to be set at the
time of sale.
    The company said proceeds will be used for general
corporate purposes including repurchases of RJR securities.
    Proceeds also may be used for working capital, reduction of
short-term debt and capital expenditures, it said.
    Underwriters for the offering were not named in the draft
prospectus.
 Reuter

About 200 people were rescued, some
badly hurt, from a sinking cross Channel ferry carrying
approximately 540 people off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, a
port control spokesman said.
    The spokesman, contacted by telephone, said only one third
of car ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise owned by the
British company Townsend Thoresen, remained above water.
    Divers have been sent down to try to rescue passengers
believed trapped in the ferry, which was on its way from
Zeebrugge to the English port of Dover and capsized just off
the pier, he added
 Reuter

The Liposome Co Inc said it and
its wholly-owned subsidiary, Liposome Japan Co Ltd, will
sponsor a major seminar on liposome at Tokyo University on
March  12, 1987.
    Liposomes are microscopic man-made spheres, composed of
lipids, that can be engineered to entrap drugs or other
biologically active molecules within the lipid membranes of the
spheres or in the aqueous space between the membranes, the
company explained.
    Leading academic, research and government institutions in
Japan are expected to attend, the company said.
 Reuter

upgraded Georgia-Pacific Corp's 1.1 billion dlrs of debt.
    Raised were the company's senior debt to A-minus from
BBB-plus, preferred stock to BBB-plus from BBB and preliminary
rating on shelf securities to A-minus from BBB-plus.
    S and P said the action reflected prospects for continued
healthy markets over the next few years. The rating agency also
said Georgia-Pacific benefitted from cost cutting and has
reduced debt by 700 mln dlrs in the past five years.
    The company now has flexibility to pursue a strategy of
increasing its presence in the paper products market.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss one ct vs loss 2.65 dlrs
    Oper net loss 100,000 vs loss 32.7 mln
    Revs 142.3 mln vs 168.8 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr profit 57 cts vs loss 2.76 dlrs
    Oper net profit 7,072,000 vs loss 34.2 mln
    Revs 544.0 mln vs 572.2 mln
    Note: 1986 oper net excludes tax credits of 2,149,000 dlrs
for qtr and 2,200,000 dlrs for 12 mths. Includes restructuring
charges of 120 mln dlrs for qtr, 527 mln dlrs for 12 mths.
 Reuter

Lyng said no decisions were taken today at a White House
Economic Policy Council meeting.
    Speaking to reporters on his return from the meeting, Lyng
said only about five minutes of the session dealt with
agriculture issues.
    "It was not a decision making meeting," Lyng said.
    Aides to Lyng earlier said the administration's agriculture
legislative proposals would be the farm-related topic on the
agenda. Lyng would not comment on what farm issues were
discussed.
    Asked how he would respond to farm groups and Congressmen
urging the U.S. to offer a wheat bonus to the Soviet Union,
Lyng said he would be listen but be "non-committal."
 Reuter

Reserve fell on March 5 to 3.467 billion dlrs from 3.939
billion dlrs the previous business day, the Treasury said in
its latest budget statement.
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 14.350
billion dlrs from 14.391 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 17.817
billion dlrs on March 5 compared with 18.330 billion dlrs on
March 4.
 Reuter

<Amir Mines Ltd>
said it completed negotiations on a private placement with
institutional investors in the United Kingdom, Europe and
Canada.
    The placement will consist of one mln shares of Amir Mines
at 2.90 Canadian dlrs per share.
    In London, Continental Carlisle Douglas Securities and
Yorkton Securities acted as agents for the placement of 900,000
shares in the U.K. and Europe. The additional 100,000 shares
will be purchased by two Canadian gold funds.
    Amir said proceeds will be used for the acquisition of or
joint venture participation in, properties with the potential
for low-cost heap leach gold, regional gold exploration in the
western U.S. or general working capital.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it cut to
B from B-plus 900 mln dlrs of notes due 1994 of Holiday Inns
Inc, a unit of Holiday Corp.
    S and P said the action reflected a change in the issue's
terms to unsecured from secured. That change was made after S
and P's initial rating release on February 20, it noted.
    After the firm's recapitalization, substantially all of its
assets will be pledged to secure bank and other debt totaling
1.4 billion dlrs. S and P said it is making a rating
distinction between secured and unsecured debt because of the
significant amount of secured in Holiday's capital structure.
    However, S and P said that if the amount of secured debt
decreases meaningfully, then the secured and unsecured debt
could be rated equally.
    The 900 mln dlrs of seven-year notes were priced late
yesterday by sole manager Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. The notes
were given a 10-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing.
    Holiday Inns also sold yesterday via Drexel 500 mln dlrs of
subordinated debentures due 1999 with an 11 pct coupon and par
pricing. This issue was rated B-minus by S and P.
    Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service Inc said its initial
rating of B-1 for the notes remained appropriate.
 Reuter

Fluor Constructors Inc, which is
owned by Fluor Corp, has received a 197.6 mln dlr contract for
work on facilities which will be used in ground-based free
electron laser technology, the Defense Department said.
 REUTER

President Reagan formally ended
preferential duty-free trade treatment for exports from
Nicaragua, Romania and Paraguay under the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP).
    He took the action after determining that the three
countries are not taking steps to give their workers
internationally recognized rights.
    U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter had announced the
intended action on January 2. The United States conducts no
trade with Nicaragua and very little trade with Romania and
Paraguay.
 Reuter

Lockheed Corp has received an 80.0
mln dlr contract for engineering support services for high
energy laser facilities, the Defense Department said.
 REUTER

Advocates of a 0/92 plan for
feedgrains will likely delay offering their proposals if a
disaster aid bill before the House Agriculture Committee is
scaled back to include only 1987 winter wheat, congressional
    The disaster aid bill, introduced by Rep. Glenn English
(D-Okla.), sparked sharp controversy with its proposals to
implement a 0/92 program for 1987 wheat and 1988 winter wheat.
    An agreement has been reached to trim the bill back to 1987
wheat, but supporters of a 0/92 feedgrains plan said even that
scaled-down version would not be equitable for farmers.
    Unless the English bill pertains only to 1987 winter wheat,
it is more than a simple disaster payment and feedgrains should
be treated equally, they said.
   If the bill is narrowed to just winter wheat, then
supporters of a 0/92 feedgrains amendment will probably not
offer their proposals next week, sources said.
   English has agreed to support an amendment by Rep. Charles
Stenholm (R-Tex) to narrow the bill to 1987 wheat only, but
whether he would also back a further reduction is unclear.
    Agricultural aides to English said the congressman's first
choice is to make the option available to all 1987 wheat
farmers. However, if the political reality is that disaster aid
for winter wheat farmers would be unavailable because of
controversy over spring wheat, then English might consider an
even greater cutback in the bill, they said.
    Under a 0/92 plan, farmers could forego planting and still
receive 92 pct of deficiency payments.
    Rep. Arlan Stangeland (R-Minn.) and Harold Volkmer (D-Mo.)
have both expressed interest in expanding the English bill to
include a 0/92 program for feedgrains.
    An aide said Stangeland does not want to reopen the farm
bill, but to be fair to all crops.
    Only a small percentage of spring wheat farmers would
likely sign up for 0/92 since the incentives to plant are
greater than to idle the land, economists said.
    Opponents to a 0/92 feedgrains program argue it is
premature to make major changes in the farm bill and that the
House Agriculture Committee needs to study more closely the
impacts of such a program.
 Reuter

FMC Corp has received a 46.6 mln dlr
contract for work on the MK-41 vertical launching system, the
Navy said.
 REUTER

Shr loss 20 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 1,417,000 vs profit 933,000
    Revs 5,623,000 vs 5,403,000
    Avg shrs 6,957,300 vs 7,115,248
    Six mths
    Shr loss 18 cts vs profit 43 cts
    Net loss 1,269,000 vs profit 3,079,000
    Revs 15.7 mln vs 14.2 mln
    Avg shrs 7,195,720 vs 7,115,248
 Reuter

Bell and Howell Co said it
completed the sale of its computer output microfilm business to
COM Products Inc, a unit of privately-held <LeBow Industries
Inc>.
    The sum of the deal was not disclosed.
    The unit makes a device that prints data directly from a
computer onto microfilm.
 Reuter

Food and Drug Administration approved Cephradine, an
antibiotic, for marketing.
    The maker of generic drugs, less costly versions of brand
name drugs that have lost their patents, said Cephradine has
been available as Velosef from Squibb Corp <SQB> and Anspor
from a SmithKline Beckman Corp <SKB> unit.
    Earlier this week the company said it received FDA
marketing approval for Cefadroxil, another antibiotic, which it
said it will market once questions "relating to patent
applicability are resolved."
 Reuter

General Instrument Corp has received
a 36.0 mln dlr contract for electronic support work for P-3C
Orion anti-submarine warfare planes and SH-2F anti-submarine
helicopters, the Navy said.
 REUTER

The Boeing Co has received a 34.6 mln
dlr contract for work on the E-3A AWACS radar plane program,
the Air Force said.
 REUTER

Business loans on the books of major
U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, fell 618 mln dlrs to 278.88
billion dlrs in the week ended February 25, the Federal Reserve
Board said.
    The Fed said that business loans including acceptances fell
897 mln dlrs to 281.23 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 85 cts vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 5,130,000 vs 7,236,000
    Revs 93.6 mln vs 91.9 mln
 Reuter

Hyponex Corp said it filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for a public offering of
100 mln dlrs of senior subordinated debentures due 1999, with
an over-allotment option of 15 mln dlrs.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc is sole manager of the offering,
the lawn products company said.
 Reuter

Airgas Inc said chairman and
chief executive officer C Perkins resigned but agreed to serve
as a consultant on acquisitions and foreign sales.
    The company said Perkins, under a five year consulting
contract, will work closely with his designated successor,
president Peter McCausland. McCausland is expected to be
appointed chairman at a board meeting in May, it added.
 Reuter

Shr loss 33 cts vs profit 38 cts
    Net loss 2,359,978 vs profit 2,805,389
    Revs 76.2 mln vs 61.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,096,886 vs 7,392,586
 Reuter

Brazil's economic crisis is forcing a
wholesale re-examination of the established strategy for
dealing with developing-country debt, leading bankers say.
    While finance minister Dilson Funaro is unlikely to succeed
in his attempt at seeking an outright political solution to the
debt problem, Brazil's suspension of interest payments on 68
billion dlrs of commercial bank debt has convinced at least
some bankers that new ideas are needed.
    "The time has come to look at the alternatives," one
seasoned debt rescheduler said.
    Even before Brazil's move, the difficulty in syndicating
the 77 billion dlr financing package for Mexico agreed to in
principle last October was prompting top bankers to examine 
the way they are managing the debt crisis.
    Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, too, spoke recently
of "debt fatigue" and the need to breathe new life into debt
rescheduling procedures.
    There are already signs of change. Japanese banks are
setting up a jointly owned firm to which they will transfer
some LDC loans in a bid to strengthen their balance sheets,
improve financial management and get tax breaks.    
    But bankers said a move toward a greater governmental role
will be gradual. "The process is such that you cannot expect
tangible progress in a short period of time," one banker said.
    Certainly, Funaro got a frosty reception in Washington and
several European capitals in the past week when he called on
government officials to explain Brazil's crusade for a
political dialogue on debt.
    Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary David Mulford, for
instance, criticized what he called large-scale solutions such
as debt forgiveness or the creation of new multilateral lending
agencies.
are impractical and ultimately counterproductive," Mulford told
a House subcommittee this week. He could have added that any
proposal that might be construed as a bail-out of U.S. banks
would be a non-starter in Congress.
    But bankers said the Reagan Administration could promote
accounting and regulatory changes to foster debt-equity swaps
and debt securitization and to enable banks to consider
interest capitalization as an alternative to new loans.
    Experts say the government must also make it easier for
banks gradually to write down their third-world loan books.
    Mulford, in his Congressional testsimony, urged the banks
to explore different options. "The banks should be encouraged
to look at the so-called menu approach," he said.
    Bankers said the aim would be to keep the loan syndicates
intact or, conversely, to allow small banks to write off their
exposure in a way that is not detrimental to major lenders.
    Big banks say it is unfair that small creditors continue to
receive interest on old debt even if they do not contribute to
new loans. In effect, large banks say they are making new loans
that fund the interest payments on the old debt.
    To solve this problem - and to streamline the cumbersome
negotiating process - Argentina has revived the idea of "exit
bonds", which would be issued at a discount to small creditors
in exchange for their existing debt, bankers said. The banks
would be rid of the loans but would have to recognize a loss.
    Amid the swirl of new ideas, even the role of the
commercial bank advisory committees has come under scrutiny.
    The principle of consensus on which the panels operate was
challenged recently when Citibank - ironically, the original
architect of the committee system - stubbornly refused for a
time to endorse financing offers to the Philippines and Chile.
    The strains have not gone unnoticed in Washington. "There
does seem to be a lot of speculation about the frailty of the
bank advisory committees," a U.S. official said.
    Brazil's Funaro heavily criticized the panels in London on
Monday, charging that they are unresponsive to new ideas and
that U.S. banks are over-represented on them.
    Hannes Androsch, chairman of Austria's
Creditanstalt-Bankverein, said there was some truth to the
charge. "Sentiment is growing in Europe that we're no longer
prepared to bail out the U.S. banks," he told reporters in New
York this week.
    While U.S. bankers obviously see things differently, some
have started to wonder whether the advisory committee is still
the right tool for the job.
    "The debt crisis has probably evolved beyond the capacity
of commercial banks alone, at least in some cases," one top New
York rescheduler said.
    But, with governments unable or unwilling to play a larger
role, bankers see no alternative to the advisory committee.
    "It's the worst form of government there is apart from all
the others," one banker said, paraphrasing former British prime
minister Winston Churchill's opinion about democracy.
 Reuter

The United States plans to sell 84
mln dlrs in electronic equipment to South Korea to upgrade that
country's Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, the Reagan
administration announced.
    The sale of 28 modification kits to upgrade the I-Hawk
(Improved Hawk) missiles already in South Korea is expected to
become official in 30 days without objection from Congress.
    Prime contractor on the sale is the Raytheon Corp <RTN>,
which builds the Hawk medium-range missiles.
 Reuter

Technigen Platinum corp said initial
results of a 13-hole drilling program on its R.M. Nicel
platinum property in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, indicate extensive
near-surface zones highly enriched in gold, platinum and
palladium.
    The metals were found in rocks on the periphery of a
sulphide deposit.
 Reuter

The National Pork Producers Council,
NPPC, announced at this year's American Pork Congress, APC,
that the Congress and trade show will be divided into two parts
in 1988.
    Next years APC, held in Atlanta, will be a business session
only and will continue to be the first week of March.
    The trade show is being changed into a new international
event called the World Pork Expo. The first expo will be held
in June 1988 in Des Moines with an expanded format, they said.
    Executive vice-president Orville Sweet said the decision to
spilt the show and Congress came about because there are
producers who never get to see the trade show floor.
    "It makes sense that we divide the business session from
the trade show," Sweet said.
 Reuter

ICO Inc said its common stock
will be removed from trading on the American Stock Exchange
because it failed to meet certain exchange guidelines,
including net worth requirements.
    The company, which has been unprofitable for three out of
the last four years, said its stock will be delisted from the
AMEX on March 13 and will begin trading on the Boston Stock
Exchange on March 16.
 Reuter

The United States said it was
transferring 115 mln dlrs in aid to Egypt as a cash grant to
help boost its ailing economy.
    The funds are part of 815 mln dlrs in economic aid voted by
Congress for 1987.
    State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley stressed that
the transfer was not unexpected, and told reporters "We simply
want to point out our continued support for Egypt's reform and
the efforts they are taking to reform the economy and create
economic growth."
 Reuter

DTD Enterprises Inc said it filed an
8-K report indicating that <EaglesLair Development Corp> had
assumed control of the company under a reorganization plan
signed last month.
    The company said D. Gerald Lach, president of EaglesLair,
was named president and a director of DTD.
    In addition, DTS's board resigned and EaglesLair appointed
new directors, the company said.
 Reuter

Pittway Corp <PRY> charged Black
and Decker Inc with infringing on Pittway's switch mechanism
patent for two models of Pittway's First Alert rechargeable
flashlights.
    Pittway said it filed suit in U.S. District Court, Northern
District of Illinois, Eastern Division, alleging Black and
Decker also violated the copyright and trademark on the
flashlights. The charge also covered packaging and design
details of the lights.
 Reuter

Qtly div 13 cts vs 12 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 960,143 dlrs vs 1,631,011 dlrs
    Revs 27.4 mln dlrs vs 18.9 mln dlrs
    Avg shrs 3,079,533 vs 3,096,095
    12 mths
    Shr 1.01 dlrs vs 92 cts
    Net 3,113,337 dlrs vs 2,855,755 dlrs
    Revs 106.5 mln dlrs vs 78.3 mln dlrs
    Avg shrs 3,079,516 vs 3,089,140
    NOTE: per share amounts for qtr and year prior have been
restated to reflect a six-for-five stock split in August 1986.
    Revs for qtr include capital gains of 3,049,564 vs
2,010,972, and for year of 9,841,204 vs 5,798,995.
    Revs for qtr include non-insurance revenues of 1,627,518 vs
1,550,329, and for year of 7,289,973 vs 4,639,162.
    Revs for qtr include life subsidiary account deposits of
548,538 vs 241,465, and for year of 2,104,840 vs 300,404.
 Reuter

Knight-Ridder Inc said its newspaper
advertising revenues for the month of January rose 9.1 pct to
105.1 mln dlrs from 96.3 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    It said January broadcasting revenues rose 48.8 pct to 6.8
mln dlrs from a year ago, but include the results of three
stations absent in the prior year period. Business Information
Services revenues rose 5.9 pct to 7.2 mln dlrs, the company
said.
 Reuter

lowered the ratings on about 3.7 billion dlrs of Beneficial
Corp's long-term debt.
    S/P said that its action follows the firm's sizeable 186.6
mln dlr loss at year-end 1986. It also reflects S/P's
expectation that Beneficial's profitability will not return to
pre-1986 levels soon after the firm's recent corporate
restructuring efforts have been completed.
    Ratings lowered include the company's senior debt to
A-minus from A and commercial paper to A-2 from A-1. The issues
had been on creditwatch since January 2.
 Reuter

Bradley Real Estate Trust said it signed
a 99-year lease for property in downtown Minneapolis to BCED
Minnesota Inc.
    The lease will increase net income by about 24 cts a share
on a post-February 1987 three-for-two stock split basis. For
1986, the Trust reported net income of 1.3 mln dlrs or 38 cts a
share on a post-split basis.
    Bradley will also be entitled to a one-time additional
rental payment of 30 cts a share upon BCED entering into a
space lease with a prime national tenant and a share in a
portion of net cash flow from operations on the property.
 Reuter

help boost Cairos' ailing economy.
   
 Reuter

Hogan Systems Inc said it signed a
software contract with Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank N.V.
    The contract is valued at about two mln dlrs over the new
two years, Hogan said.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board member Robert
Heller said the trend toward global financial markets required
that all participants be treated even-handedly on such matters
as bank capital requirements.
    The recent U.S.-U.K. agreement on capital adequacy provided
a model for others, including Japan, Heller told a Georgetown
University conference on financial markets.
    "If they (the Japanese bank) want to do more business in
Europe or the United States they have got to adhere to
international standards," he said.
    Heller said there were talks currently between the United
States and Japan on bank rules.
    He said the trend toward internationalization in financial
services would cause markets to move to centers with the least
regulation.
    "That is not desirable.  We want to have a sensible amount
of regulation," Heller said.
 Reuter

The Government National Mortgage
Association has decided not to raise its guarantee fee on
mortgage securities, Louis Gasper, Ginnie Mae executive vice
president said.
    Ginnie Mae, which guarantees securities backed by Federal
Housing Administration and Veterans Administration mortgages,
had planned to raise the fee March one from six basis points to
10 basis points. Mortgage bankers strongly opposed the proposed
fee increase.
    Gasper said it became apparent Congress was ready to pass
legislation that would have rescinded the fee increase.
 Reuter

(Dumez Investments I Inc) said 94.7 pct
of Westburne International Industries Ltd's outstanding common
shares have been deposited under its takeover bid.
    It said it has received about 11,070,000 shares under its
22.50 dlrs per share offer which expired yesterday.
    Dumez said it will proceed to acquire the remaining common
shares to give it 100 pct ownership of Westburne.
    Dumez is a private company owned jointly by (Dumez S.A.)
and (Unicorp Canada Corp).            
 Reuter

<Canadian Natural Resources
Ltd> said it agreed in principle to sell 80 pct of its working
interest in certain producing and non-producing natural gas
properties located in southwestern Saskatchewan.
    The transaction is expected to close on April 1, 1987, the
company said. It did not identify the buyer nor give the
selling price.
    Proceeds will be used to satisfy a February 1987 repayment
demand by one of the company's lenders. Any excess proceeds
will be added to working capital, the company said.
 Reuter

<Malrite Guaranteed Broadcast Partners
L.P.> said it bought WTRK Inc from <Cox Enterprises Inc> for
13.8 mln dlrs in cash.
    It said WTRK owns and operates WTRK-FM, a Philadelphia
radio station. Transfer of the license for the sation has been
approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
    Malrite Guaranteed said it is a limited partnerhip formed
to acquire and operate radio and tv stations. It said Malrite
Communications Group Inc <MALR> is the general partner.
 Reuter

Analysis and Technology
Inc said it won contracts and increases in existing contracts
valued at 2.9 mln dlrs from the U.S. Navy in February.
    The awards include 1.8 mln dlrs an extension of an existing
contract for engineering and technical services and 1.1 mln
dlrs in several smaller contracts.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp said that forgeries of a
20-year zero-coupon Euronote issued by its Exxon Capital Corp
subsidiary have been discovered in the European market.
    The issue involved was launched in 1984 and matures on
November 15, 2004. About 1,900 notes with a total face value of
19 mln dlrs and a market value of about four mln dlrs have been
identified so far, the company said.
    Exxon said that Morgan Guaranty Trust Co, the fiscal and
paying agent for the issue, Euro-clear and Cedel (the two major
European securities clearing systems), and police in London and
Brussels are investigating the case.
    Indications of forgeries came to light on Wednesday at
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co in London, which acts as Euro-clear's
depositary, and Exxon said they were confirmed today.
    Euro-clear told Exxon that it has examined to its
satisfaction all the notes at the depositary and is checking
the authenticity of new deposits of the notes as they enter the
Euro-clear System.
    Cedel is also reviewing all notes within its system, Exxon
added. At Exxon's direction, Morgan Guaranty Trust Co stands
ready to validate any notes in order to establish their
authenticity, Exxon said.
    A spokeswoman for Exxon was unable to say whether
secondary-market trading in the notes had been affected or who
would have legal responsibility for reimbursing defrauded
investors.
    Zero-coupon forgeries have turned up in the Euromarket
before. Because there are no interest coupons attached to the
bond certificates, they are easier to forge than coupon issues,
 Reuter

Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng
said the export enhancement program (eep) could be funded from
the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) if the one billion dlrs
appropriated for export bonus by Congress is exhausted.
    Lyng told reporters lack of funding should not be a
constraint on the program because USDA has the authority to use
CCC funds to continue the program. He noted Congress authorized
up to 1.5 billion dlrs for eep.
    Earlier this week, Leo Mayer, associate administrator of
USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, said 865 mln dlrs of the
one billion in appropriated funds for eep have been used. USDA
officials said if all the eep offers announced are accepted by
importing countries the one billion dlrs would be exhausted
soon.
    Some Congressional sources have expressed concern that the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) might try to block USDA
from seeking more than the one billion dlrs appropriated for
the program.
    These sources suggested the lack of funds might force USDA
to halt the program, which some commodity groups believe has
given a boost to U.S. exports of some farm products,
particularly wheat and wheat flour.
    However, Lyng's comments seemed to suggest that USDA could
at least temporarily continue the program using CCC funds and
would not be forced to curtail eep.
 Reuter

Cyacq Corp said it extended its 80
dlr a share tender offer for Cyclops Corp to March 20 from
today.
    Cyacq was formed by Citicorp Capital Investors Ltd and
Audio Video Affiliates INc <AVA> to acquire Cyclops. THe tender
offer began on February six.
    The offer is conditioned upon at least 80 pct of the
outstanding shares and at least 80 pct of the voting securities
being tendered before expiration of the offer.
    As of March six, only 353 shares of Cyclops' 4.1 mln
outstanding shares had been tendered.
 Reuter

CCC from B-minus International Rectifier Corp's 58 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2010.
    The company's implied senior debt rating is B-minus.
    S and P said the downgrade reflected expectations of
restricted financial flexibility through at least the
intermediate term. It also cited a highly leveraged balance
sheet and reduced access to capital.
    The rating agency said International Rectifier's ability to
reduce high debt levels and interest expense through cash from
operations is very limited.
 Reuter

Continental Airlines Inc, a unit
of Texas Air Corp, said it filed a registration statement with
the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to 100 mln dlrs
principal amount of Senior Notes due 1997 guaranteed by Texas
Air Corp.
    Interest will be payable March 15 and September 15
beginning September 15, 1987.
    Proceeds will be added to Continental's corporate funds to
provide additional liquidity.
 Reuter

<Newfoundland Capital Corp Ltd> said it
will issue 25 mln dlrs principal amount of eight pct
    Underwriter is Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon and Co Ltd. Net
proceeds will be used for working capital, the company said.
 Reuter

The Semiconductor Industry
Association said the February three-month average book-to-bill
ratio was 1.13 pct, compared to a revised 1.12 pct in January.
    The January figure was revised from the 1.11 pct reported
    In its monthly survey of U.S., European and Japanese
semiconductor makers, the association said average orders for
February totaled 788.2 mln dlrs, compared with 780.2 mln in
January and 684.3 mln in February a year ago.
    A book-to-bill ratio of 1.13 means that for every 100 dlrs
worth of product shipped, manufacturers received 113 dlrs worth
of new orders.
    The association said February shipments were 677.8 mln
dlrs, up 4.9 pct from the 645.9 mln shipped during January and
seven pct higher than the 633.5 mln reported in February a year
ago.
    Three month average billings for February totaled 699.4 mln
dlrs, up 0.2 pct from January's 697.8 mln, the association also
said.
    "The continuing improvement in the U.S. semiconductor
market reflects the fact that U.S. electronics equipment
manufacturers' sales are finally increasing," Semiconductor
Industry Association president Andrew Procassini said.
    The figures of the past few months suggest that the
industry is experiencing a gradual recovery that is likely to
continue, said Edward White, semiconductor analyst at E.F.
Hutton Group Inc.
    But he also said semiconductor makers still need a pickup
in capital spending within the high-technology sector before
any dramatic upturn can take place.
    The February figures show strong single-month improvement
in the semiconductor industry, but after closer examination
they may prove to be disappointing to investors, said Michael
Gumport, an analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    "On the face of it these numbers are below recent
expectations," Gumport also said.
    A 1.15 or higher book-to-bill ratio had been expected,
Gumport said.
    He also said the three month average book-to-bill ratio,
which was reported earlier than expected, reflected a downward
revision in the December order total, Gumport said.
    December's order rate amounted to 757.5 mln dlrs, down from
the earlier-reported 783.8 mln dlrs, the association said.
 Reuter

<Mono Gold Mines
Inc> said <NIM and Co Ltd> Partnership agreed to buy
flow-through shares with an aggregate purchase price of up to
    It said, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions, the
price of the shares to NIM will be 79.6 cts per share, and said
it will issue 376,955 shares to the partnership.
    Mono also said options to buy up to 300,000 dlrs of its
capital stock at 65 cts per share expire March three. It said
39,000 options have been exercised to net the company 25,530
dlrs to be added to working capital.
 Reuter

Qtly div 22 cts vs 20 cts prior
    payable March 27
 Reuter

USAIR GROUP REQUESTS TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT ORDER TWA TO DIVEST STAKE

Roger King, chairman of King World
Productions Inc, faces charges of cocaine possession, auto
theft and strong-arm robbery stemming from his arrest in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., last month, police said.
    The report of King's legal problems sent the stock of his
company -- a syndicator of some of television's most popular
talk and game shows -- down sharply on Wall Street.
    Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Ott Cefkin said King was
arrested on February 21 on charges that he beat up a taxi
driver during a dispute over a fare and then stole the man's
car. After King was taken in custody, police found three small
bags of cocaine in his shirt pocket, Cefkin said.
    King World distributes Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and the
Oprah Winfrey Show. According to the police report, King, 42,
was in Fort Lauderdale visiting his brother when the incident
occurred.
    Police said a taxi driver picked King up outside a Fort
Lauderdale night club but stopped the car after a short
distance when he became concerned that his passenger would be
unable to pay the fare.
  "Mr. King attacked the driver, punched him and then took the
cab and drove off," Cefkin said.
  King was arrested by police a few minutes later and was
charged with strong-arm robbery, auto theft and possession of a
small quantity of cocaine, police said.
 Reuter

Minstar Inc said Kenneth J.
Severinson was named president and chief operating officer to
succeed Irwin L. Jacobs.
    Jacobs remains chairman and chief executive officer of the
company.
    Severinson has most recently worked as president of
Minstar's energy services group.
 Reuter

Diplomat Electronics Corp said it
will reduce expenses by four mln dlrs a year in an effort to
stem losses and return to a positive net worth.
    The company also said certain lenders agreed to take a 24
pct stake in the company by converting seven mln dlrs of debt
into preferred stock.
    Diplomat said it will cut costs by several means, including
dismissal of 100 workers at its corporate headquarters,
consolidation of its warehousing and shipping operations and
reduction of management salaries. Moreover, it said it will
relocate its headquarters to Glendale, Calif.
   
 Reuter

Canada's ruling in favor of a duty on
U.S. corn was a keen disappointment to the National Corn
Growers Association and has set a dangerous precedent for other
nations to follow, said Mike Hall, lobbyist for the
association.
    "The French corn growers will clearly charge ahead now and
just change corn to corn gluten feed" in their complaint, Hall
    A Canadian government agency ruled today that U.S. farm
policies are causing injury to Canadian corn farrmers and
supported an earlier imposed countervailing duty of about 85
cts per bushel.
    "This was cleary a political decision," Hall said. "The
amount of corn we export to Canada is insignificant."
    The unexpected ruling appeared to be based on the agrument
that Canada bases its corn prices on U.S. futures prices and
that American farm policy has driven down these prices, thus
causing lower prices to Canadian farmers and larger government
payments through its farm stabilization program, Hall said.
    Hall said this is a new definition for injury, but that
other nations might also now apply this same argument to attack
U.S. farm programs.
    The French corn growers could now charge that U.S. farm
programs create an unfair subsidy for corn gluten feed, Hall
said. The French have long wanted to control the imports of
U.S. corn gluten feed into the community, saying that the
imported feed was unfairly displacing European grain.
 Reuter

AIRCOA said it formed AIRCOA Hotel
Partners LP, a limited partnership formed to acquire and
operate hotel and resort properties.
    AIRCOA said it holds a one pct general partner interest in
the partnership. The remaining 99 pct interest is held by
AIRCOA affiliates, it said.
    AIRCOA said it plans to file a registration statement for
the public offering of limited partnership interests. Net
proceeds would be used to refinance the partnerships unsecured
debt and for capital improvements to hotels, it said.
    AIRCOA said the partnership bought seven hotel and resort
properties from its affiliates.
    It said financing for the acquisitions was provided by a 90
mln dlr mortgage loan from Bankers Trust Co and Cassa Di
Risparmio Di Torino of New York.
    The partnership also received 30 mln dlrs of unsecured
loans from a group of institutional lenders and 10 mln dlrs in
subordinated debt from AIRCOA, the company said.
 Reuter

    Payable April three
    Reocrd March 20
 Reuter

Healthcare Services Of America
Inc said it will write off about 16 mln dlrs in non-recurring
expenses in 1986.
    It also said it expects income from operations to be about
breakeven for 1986 and the estimated loss for the year to be
about the same as the writeoffs.
    Results will be released by March 31, 1987.
    Included in the writeoffs were six mln dlrs in
developmental costs, six mln dlrs in unamortized loan costs and
debt discounts and four mln dlrs in other non-recurring costs.
    The company said it continues to be in default of certain
financial and non-financial covenants set forth in its major
loan documents.
    It said negotiations continue with the banks, but has no
assurance that such funding will continue.
    It said it authorized Smith barney, Harris Upham and Co to
seek a business combination with third parties.
    Healthcare also said the board has authorized the sale or
lease of certain assets to reduce the cash required from the
revolving credit line for completion of current construction
projects.
    For the year ended December 31, 1985 Healthcare reported
net income of 3.5 mln dlrs on sales of 54.4 mln dlrs
 Reuter

USAir Group said it sought the help
of the U.S. Department of Transportation in its takeover fight
with Trans World Airlines Inc, asking the Department to order
TWA to sell its USAir shares.
    "What they have done is in direct violation of the Federal
Aviation Act," USAir said.
    It said TWA week filed a cursory application with the
Department of Transportation for approval of its proposed 1.65
billion dlr takeover of USAir.
    USAir rejected the offer and said it asked the Department
of Transportation to dismiss the application.
    USAir said it requested the dismissal because TWA avoided
pre-merger notification requirements, and also did not provide
a competitive and public interest analysis required under
regulations.
    USAir said if the application is dismissed, TWA would be
limited to buying only 1.5 pct of its 31.7 mln outstanding
shares. If the application is approved, TWA could buy up to 10
pct, it said. TWA has said it owns less than 10 pct of USAir's
stock.
    TWA today revealed that it has increased its holdings to
more than four mln USAir shares, 15 pct of the outstanding.
    TWA vice president general counsel Mark Buckstein said the
company had made appropriate filings with the DOT and was in
compliance with the law.
 Reuter

Shr loss 52 cts vs profit 1.07 dlr
    Net loss 2,917,000 vs profit 5,963,000
    Revs 34.1 mln vs 40.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.39 dlr vs profit 1.24 dlr
    Net loss 7,749,000 vs profit 6,946,000
    Revs 138.6 mln vs 186.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes certain non-recurring charges of
about 5,506,000 dlrs for a number of items.
    1985 4th qtr and yr net includes extraordinary credit of
4,974,000 dlrs or 89 cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.20 dlrs vs loss 1.97 dlrs
    Net loss 6,248,000 vs loss 10.2 mln
    Revs 33.1 mln vs not given
    Year
    Shr loss 1.25 dlrs vs loss 13.44 dlrs
    Net loss 6,508,000 vs loss 69.6 mln
    Revs 123.4 mln vs not given
    NOTE: Results include charges of five mln dlrs or 96 cts
shr for 1986 qtr and year, compared with charge of 72.2 mln
dlrs or 13.94 dlrs shr in prior year from discontinued
operations and disposal of discontinued operations.
 Reuter

United Companies Financial Corp
said its board declared a two pct stock dividend payable APril
eight to holders of record March 17.
    The board also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend
of 12.5 cts payable April one to holders of record March 16.
                                                   
 Reuter

<Steinberg Inc> said it has affiliated
the first two independent grocers in the Montreal area to the
Steinberg banner. It said it plans to announce shortly
affiliations with independent grocers.
 Reuter

An American Farm Bureau
Federation (AFBF) official said that far from hurting Canadian
corn producers, U.S. farm programs benefit all foreign
    AFBF president Dean Kleckner made the comments in response
to the ruling earlier today by the Canadian Import Tribunal
that subsidized U.S. corn imports were injurious to Canadian
growers. The tribunal upheld a countervailing duty of 84.9 U.S.
cents a bushel.
    "Farm Bureau specialists went to Ottawa and testified
previous U.S. farm programs have actually benefited all foreign
producers by reducing the amount of corn grown in the U.S. (and
losing market share), while exerting an upward influence on the
price of corn Worldwide," he said.
 Reuter

The U.N. Centre on Transnational
Corporations has issued a report containing guidelines and
recommendations for negotiating natural gas clauses in
agreements between transnational petroleum corporations and
host countries.
    The U.N. said the report was aimed at promoting petroleum
exploration in areas perceived as being gas prone. The 49-page
report contains an in-depth examination of the problems of gas
developoment and looks at different ways in which contractual
terms might deal with the risks in gas development associated
with pricing, marketing and volume.
 Reuter

A proposed buyout of Taft Broadcasting
Co by Dudley Taft and other investors includes a plan to sell
the company's Entertainment Group, according to one of the
    Jonathan Nelson, managing director of Narragansett Capital
Corp <NARR>, which is participating in the buyout plan,
declined to say if buyers have already been lined up for the
Entertainment Group. "We are considering selling the group,"
Nelson said. Wall Street analysts said any of the Hollywood
film studios which might be interested.
    Taft Broadcasting Co did not comment on the 145 dlr per
share offer. Taft has 9.2 mln shares outstanding, of which 12
pct are owned by the Taft and Ingalls families.
    Dudley Taft relinquished the title of president in July but
continues as vice chairman of the company.
    Taft-Narragansett requsted a response to its proposal by
March 12.
    If the plan is accepted, Taft would be a private company
financed by high yield bonds and bank debt, Nelson said.
Narragansett is an investment management company specializing
in leveraged buyout transactions.
    Taft shares climbed 19 to 151-1/2, causing arbitrageurs to
say investors believe the bidders may raise their price.
    Robert M. Bass, who controls 25 pct of the stock, and
American Financial Corp, holder of 15 pct, did not return
telephohe calls seeking comment.
    But Dennis McAlpine, analyst at Oppenheimer and Co, said "I
don't think it's worth 150 dlrs." He noted Taft recently agreed
to sell a group of independent television stations at a loss.
He said the entertainment group, which includes the
Hanna-Barbara animation studios, is currently hampered by a
glut of animated product.
    Taft Broadcasting has never commented on reports that its
major stockholders met recently to discuss a break-up of the
company.
    MacAlpine said there are lots of options for reshaping the
company with a distribution of various pieces to the major
shareholders among the possibilities.
    Analyst Alan Gottesman of L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg Towbin
Inc said the Bass group has been increasing its stake in the
belief the company would be worth more with a change in its
strategy. He said Bass pushed for sale of the independent
television stations because the company paid too much.
 Reuter

Higher oil prices and stronger than
expected U.S. employment growth led to sharp losses in U.S.
interest rate futures and diminished what had been a positive
chart outlook, financial analysts said.
    The increase of 319,000 in non-farm payroll employment
during February was above market expectations for a rise of
170,000 to 200,000 jobs and sparked selling in Treasury bond
futures that drove the June contract through key technical
support at 101-2/32 at the opening Friday, they noted.
    "I don't like that fact that we had a close below 101,"
said Prudential Bache analyst Fred Leiner. The 101-2/32 level
in the June bond contract had been the top of a three-month
trading range, which when penetrated during the rally Wednesday
led to bullish forecasts by chartists.
    But analysts called it a false breakout on the weekly
charts when the June bond closed at 100-10/32 Friday.
    Some also forecast that the high of the week at 101-19/32
may signal a bearish double top formation portending steep
losses.
    "I tend to go along with the double top scenario," said
Northern Futures analyst Eileen Rico.
    Rico noted that the possible formation, along with the fact
that the rally of the last two weeks in bond futures has
occurred on relatively low volume, were negative signals.
    Despite what could be a negative chart outlook, Leiner
remains cautiously optimistic, and June bonds should find
support between 100 and 99-16/32 next week.
    The optimistic outlook, as well as Leiner's expectation
that the yield curve will flatten in the near term, is based on
an improving inflation outlook.
    With the dollar stable and economic data giving the Federal
Reserve little room to ease monetary policy, "the inflation
outlook is improving," Leiner said, and that should lead to
relatively stronger bond prices than bill and Eurodollar
prices.
    Still, Leiner noted that the recent rise in oil prices
remains a concern for the inflation outlook.
    Oil rose during the week on reports that OPEC nations were
maintaining production quotas and official prices, and got an
extra boost Friday due to the suspension of oil exports from
Ecuador after an earthquake Thursday.
    "The runup in crude oil will be a short-lived phenomenon,"
said Carroll McEntee and McGinley analyst Brian Singer.
    The rise in oil prices over the past week has been largely
"media induced," Singer said. He noted that even though OPEC
production may be within quotas, "oil stocks are at
tremendously high levels."
    Although the Ecuador situation could cause a delay, oil
prices will eventually decline to the lows of late February, he
said, and that will be a supportive influence for bond prices.
 Reuter

Sandoz Corp's Northrup King Co said
it bought Stauffer Seeds, a unit of Stauffer Chemical Co.
 Reuter

Energen Corp said it has
acquired the distribution system of the City of Clanton, Ala.
for about 1.2 mln dlrs.
    The 1,800 customer system is the fourth municipal system
acquired by Energen's Alabama Gas subsidiary since October
1986, adding a total of 9,600 customers.
 Reuter

Qtly div 43 cts vs 43 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 296,994 vs 657,416
    Revs 6.5 mln vs 9.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 78 cts vs 1.51 dlrs
    Net 1.0 mln vs 2.0 mln
    Revs 27.6 mln vs 29.4 mln
 Reuter

Houston Oil Trust said there will be no
cash distribution to the unit holders in March.
    The most significant factor for the lack of a distribution
this month is the establishment of additional special cost
escrow accounts, the company said, adding, that there may be no
cash distribution in other months or during the remainder of
the year.
    For March, the working interest owner will place 1.9 mln
dlrs in special cost escrow accounts.
 Reuter

First Boston Corp said it is selling
150 mln dlrs of deposit notes due 1992 that it bought from
Mellon Bank NA, a unit of Mellon Bank Corp.
    First Boston is offering the notes to the public with a
7.45 pct coupon and par pricing. That is 73 basis points more
than the yield of comparable Treasury securities.
Boston detailed. If the notes are not redeemed at that time,
they will be non-callable to maturity.
    -- First Boston corrects that it, not Mellon, is selling
the notes to the public.
 Reuter

Puget Sound Power and Light Co said its
board authorized the redemption on April 20 of the outstanding
principal amount of 94.7 mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds.
    The issues included are 29.7 mln dlrs of 9-1/2 pct series
due 2000 at the regular redemption price of 104.4 pct, 51.74
mln dlrs of the 9-7/8 pct series due 2008 at the redemption
price of 100 pct and 13.26 mln dlrs of the 9-7/8 pct series due
2008 at 106.63 pct.
    Accrued interest will be added in each case.
 Reuter

Monoclonal Antibodies Inc
said it signed an agreement in principle to buy <Genesis Labs
Inc> for about 10 mln dlrs of common stock.
    The agreement is subject to shareholders approval and other
 Reuter

<Sono-Tek Corp> said it began an
initial public offering of 400,000 shares at a price of five
    Proceeds will be used to repay debt, product development,
expansion of facilities and working capital.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it cut
the ratings of Atlantic City Electric Co.  About 500 mln dlrs
of long-term debt and 66 mln dlrs of preferred is outstanding.
    S/P said prior ratings reflected anticipation of a
significant improvement in financial condition following the
completion of the Hope Creek nuclear unit and receipt of
subsequent rate relief. But the New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities' recent rate action will not permit enhancement of
key financial indicators.
    Ratings lowered include the senior debt to A-plus from
AA-minus and preferred stock to A from AA-minus.
 Reuter

The Treasury proposed allowing 
temporary imports of South African uranium ore and uranium
oxide until July 1 under certain conditions pending
clarification of anti-apartheid laws passed by Congress last
fall.
    The proposal to be published in the Federal Register next
week requests written congressional and public comment within
60 days and deals with uranium ore and oxide that is imported
for U.S. processing and exporting to third countries.
    The Treasury said it proposed allowing the temporary
imports because it felt Congress had not intended when it
passed the comprehensive South African sanctions bill last fall
-- overriding President Reagan's veto -- to hurt U.S. industry.
    "The domestic uranium conversion industry and the federal
government's enrichment industry could be seriously injured in
a manner not intended by Congress if the . . . import ban on
uranium ore and oxide were implemented to bar imports for
processing and export through a mistaken interpretation of the
act," the Treasury brief said.
    The Treasury said an outright U.S. ban of uranium ore and
oxide might cause foreign electric utilities to divert their
South African origin ore and oxide to other countries including
the Soviet Union for processing.
    Treasury said it would allow imports of the South African
ore and oxide until July 1 for processing and re-export
"provided that the imported ore or oxide is accompanies by a
license for importation issued by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission."
    The Treasury brief also proposed allowing U.S.-origin goods
to be imported temporarily from South African state-controlled
organizations for repair or servicing in the United States.
    "The U.S. Customs will allow such importation to be made
under bond," the brief said.
    The South African sanctions law, enacted by the United
States to protest the apartheid laws of racial segregation
practiced by South Africa's white minority government,
prohibited imports of uranium ore and oxide, iron and steel,
coal and textiles at the end of 1986.
 Reuter

BMC Industries Inc said its West
German subsidiary has received a contract valued at about eight
mln dlrs from the Soviet Union to supply engineering and
manufacturing services to build a television parts plant.
    The company's Precision Etched Products unit in Muellheim,
West Germany, signed the contract to provide services that will
enable the Soviets to build a plant to make television tube
aperture masks, it said.
    A BMC spokesman told Reuters the one-year contract will be
for about eight mln dlrs. The contract is the first BMC has had
with the Soviet Union in 10 years ago, he said.
    The project has received the necessary U.S. government
clearances, he said.
    BMC also said it has entered into a joint venture agreement
with Italy to produce finished single vision plastic eyewear
lenses using a new manufacturing process. It would provide no
 Reuter

Shr loss 37 cts vs loss 13 cts
    Net loss 4.5 mln vs loss 1.5 mln
    Revs 63.3 mln vs 53.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 74 cts vs profit 1.87 dlr
    Net loss 9.0 mln vs profit 23.0 mln
    Revs 239.5 mln vs 244.3 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes extraordinary gain of 10.6 mln dlrs
from tax loss carryforward in year and loss of 198,000 dlrs in
4th qtr.
 Reuter

JUSTICE DEPT. SUPPORTS DISMISSAL OF TWA APPLICATION FOR USAIR CONTROL

TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT DISMISSES TWA APPLICATION FOR USAIR CONTROL

Southwestern Bell Corp said it will file
revisions with the public Utility Commission for its Dial 976
Information Delivery Service.
    The service, available in four Texas cities since November
1986, allows customers to access sponsor-provided messages by
dialing numbers that begin with 976.
    Southwestern Bell said customer concerns center on the need
for restricting access to adult entertainment messages and for
greater awareness that charges apply for calls to 976 numbers.
    It said its revisions are responsive to these concerns.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury proposed allowing 
fall.
    The Treasury also proposed allowing U.S.-origin goods to be
imported temporarily from South African state-controlled
organizations for repair or servicing in the U.S.
    The South African sanctions law, enacted by the U.S. to
protest the apartheid laws of racial segregation practiced by
South Africa's white minority government, prohibited imports of
uranium ore and oxide, iron and steel, coal and textiles at the
end of 1986.
 Reuter

Biomed Research Inc said its
transfer agent, First security Bank of Utah, will not continue
to act as transfer agent for the company due to nonpayment of
fees.
    Since Biomed does not have sufficient funds to pay the
transfer agent, the company urges against any purchases or
sales until further notice.
 Reuter

At least 26 people died when
a car ferry struck a pier as it left Belgium for Britain, a
nurse who took part in the rescue operation said.
    Jan Van Moerbeke, a male nurse, said on coming off the
Herald of Free Enterprise that he had found six people on top
of the vessel who were dead. There were at least another 20
dead inside the boat, he added.
    The governor of West Flanders province said 240 people were
still unaccounted for.
 Reuter

Continental Federal Savings and
Loan Association said it was told that an estate holding 38 pct
of its stock plans to sell its stake at a premium over the
current stock price.
   Continental said the estate of Harold Vernon and certain
parties have signed a letter of intent to sell the stock for
12.25 dlrs a share, for a total of about 6,538,000 dlrs.
Continental's stock closed at seven in over-the-counter
trading.
    The thrift said the buyer is <BAC Inc>, a corporation
acting for certain unindentified parties.
 Reuter

Broker's Choice Capital Inc said
it signed a letter of intent to buy Rubbertech Inc.
    If approved by shareholders, Broker's Choice will issue
about 71 mln shares of authorized, but unissued shares of
restricted common stock to Rubbertech Inc.
 Reuter

A government official said that a
decision by Brazil not to import maize because it forecast a
record harvest would not affect Argentina's exports.
    "We have heard nothing about this, but if Brazil has decided
not to import maize that is no problem for us as it is not one
of our main customers," Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
Under-Secretary Miguel Braceras said.
    Private sources also said Argentina's exports would not be
affected by Brazil's decision, which Agriculture Minister Iris
Resende announced yesterday in Sao Paulo.
    Brazil had not asked for any Argentine maize, they said.
    They also said a smaller crop and adverse weather this
summer in Argentina had reduced production.
    Braceras said that last year Brazil bought 800,000 tonnes
of Argentine maize but in some years it had not imported any
from Argentina.
    The Soviet Union was Argentina's main customer and Japan
was also becoming a bigger importer of the country's maize, he
said.
 Reuter

(DOT) said it dismissed on technical grounds an application by
Trans World Airlines Inc for DOT approval for it to take
control of USAir Group.
    The DOT added, however, that TWA was free to refile when it
could put together an application for control that met the
agency's procedural requirements.
    The DOT acted shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice
disclosed that it supported dismissal of the TWA application.
    It was not immediately clear what impact the denial would
have on TWA's bid to take over USAir.
    In its control application, TWA had acknowledged that
additional documentation was required to meet DOT rules and
said it would file more material on the morning of March 9.
    But the DOT said it would not wait.
    "We have determined to dismiss TWA's application for
approval of the acquisition of USAir," it said in an order
issued late Friday.
    "TWA's application clearly fails to comply with the filing
requirements of our regulations...and TWA has provided no
reason why we should accept such a deficient filing," it added.
    "Accordingly, we will dismiss the application. TWA, of
course, may refile it when it is able to comply with our
procedural rules," the DOT said.
    The agency added that it would continue to consider a
separate TWA request for federal clearance to purchase USAir
stock through a voting trust.
    USAir had said earlier today that it asked the DOT to
dismiss the TWA control application, on grounds the TWA filing
did not meet DOT requirements.
 Reuter

Transworld Airlines Inc plans to refile
an application Monday with the Department of Transportation for
approval to acquire USAir Group <U>.
    The DOT late today dismissed TWA's application to acquire
USAir.
    "When the DOT opens for business on Monday morning, we will
be refiling a perfected and completed section 408 application,"
said TWA general counsel Mark Buckstein.
    Buckstein said the DOT ruled the application, which was
filed Wednesday, was incomplete. He said he did not yet know
why the agency objected.
 Reuter

The Justice Department told the
Transportation Department it supported a request by USAir 
Group that the DOT dismiss an application by Trans World
Airlines Inc for approval to take control of USAir.
    "Our rationale is that we reviewed the application for
control filed by TWA with the DOT and ascertained that it did
not contain sufficient information upon which to base a
competitive review," James Weiss, an official in Justice's
Antitrust Division, told Reuters.
 Reuter

The Hong Kong Association of Banks
said it decided to leave interest rates unchanged at today's
regular weekly meeting.
    Current rates are 1-3/4 pct for savings accounts, 24-hours,
seven-day call, one-week and two-weeks. One-month is 2-1/4 pct,
two-months 2-1/2 pct, three- and six-months are both three pct,
nine-months 3-1/4 pct and 12-months 3-3/4 pct.
    Prime rate is six pct.
 REUTER

(FHLBB) announced the acquisiton of South Bay Savings & Loan
Association in Gardena, Calif., By Standard Pacific Savings of
Costa Mesa, Calif.
    The FHLBB said South Bay had assets of 62.5 mln dlrs and
Standard Pacific had 312.8 mln dlrs in assets.
    It was the fourth federally-assisted merger or acquisition
of a troubled savings institution this year, the FHLBB said.
 REUTER

Colombia denied having sold 440,000 60-kg
bags of old crop coffee below current market prices to clients
in Europe and Asia.
    A spokesman for the National Coffee Growers Federation,
commenting on rumours which had circulated in market circles,
said these were false.
 REUTER

About 200 people are feared
dead after a British cross-channel ferry rolled on its side off
the Belgian coast last night -- but almost 350 passengers were
plucked to safety from the ice-cold sea.
    Belgian Transport Minister Herman de Croo told reporters: "I
fear the dead could be in hundreds, perhaps 200. Given the
state of the water, I fear there is no hope."
    Townsend Thorensen, owners of the 7,951 tonne Herald of
Free Enterprise, said the ferry was carrying 543 people and
that 345 had been rescued. All but one were British.
 REUTER

Malaysia's central bank said it
acquired a 59.2 pct stake in ailing <United Asian Bank Bhd>
(UAB), the sixth largest commercial bank in the country, to
rebuild public confidence in it.
    UAB called for a rights issue last November to raise 152.49
mln ringgit to rectify its capital deficiency following an
accumulated loss of 107.61 mln ringgit at end-1985, the central
bank, Bank Negara, said in a statement.
    But only 16.99 mln ringgit in shares was taken up by
shareholders, mainly local Indian and Malay businessmen and the
Indian Government.
    Bank Negara said it subsequently took up the unsubscribed
shares, totalling 135.5 mln of UAB's new paid-up capital of
228.74 mln ringgit.
    It said the shares, held in trust, will be eventually sold.
    The central bank early this week also announced that it had
bought 49.4 pct stake in another troubled commercial bank,
<Perwira Habib Bank Malaysia Bhd>, after the latter raised its
capital to 405 mln ringgit from 105 in mid-January this year.
    Bank Negara said it does not intend to hold on to the
shares of the two banks.
    "The injection of capital in PHB and in UAB including the
recamp of management in these banks are some of the measures
taken by the bank to strengthen public confidence in the
stability of the these banks," it added.
    The central bank said it is invoking Section 39A of the
Banking (Amendemnt) Act 1986 empowering it to grant loans to an
ailing bank or to buy a stake in it.
 REUTER

OPEC member Ecuador adopted austerity
measures to conserve fuel after oil production was paralyzed by
a strong earthquake.
    Energy and Mines Minister Javier Espinosa announced on
television the country would cut domestic fuel sales by 30 pct.
A ministry statement had earlier announced indefinite
suspension of crude oil exports, declaring force majeure.
    Deputy Energy Minister Fernando Santos Alvite told a
television interviewer that it could possibly take more than a
month to repair Ecuador's main pipeline linking Amazon basin
oil fields to the Pacific Ocean coast.
    The quake on Thursday, which registered six on the 12-point
Mercalli scale, killed at least six people and was centred near
the Reventador volcano about 90 km (50 miles) east of Quito.
    Ecuador had recently been pumping 260,000 barrels per day.
    The government's austerity measures ban the sale of
aviation fuel to foreign airliners on international routes and
no fuel will be available for ships owned by foreign lines.
    Ecuador also banned the sale of petrol on weekends and
holidays and limited sales on weekdays, an Energy and Mines
Ministry communique said.
 REUTER

Fading hope for passengers trapped aboard
a partially-sunk Channel ferry raised fears the accident could
rank among this centuries' worst peacetime shipping tragedies.
    Belgian Transport Minister Herman de Croo said there was no
hope of rescuing any of about 220 passengers trapped in the
Herald of Free Enterprise after it capsized off the Belgian
coast last night.
    If confirmed, the toll would make the incident the world's
worst since a Soviet liner, the Admiral Nakhimov, collided with
a freighter in the Black Sea last September and sank with the
loss of nearly 400 lives. A further 856 people were rescued.
    The world's deadliest single peacetime incident at sea was
the sinking in 1912 of the Titanic with a loss of 1,500 lives.
    The second biggest loss of life in peacetime was in 1914
when 1,014 people drowned when the liner Empress of Ireland
collided with a freighter on the St Lawrence river in Canada.
    The world's worst maritime disaster was in wartime that
took 7,700 lives when the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff was
torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in January 30, 1945.
    In 1985, more than 200 were feared dead after two ferries
sank near Dhaka, 174 drowned when a ferry capsized in China and
147 died when a launch sank off the Malaysian state of Sabah.
 REUTER

There are no more survivors from a
British cross-Channel ferry disaster off the Belgian coast and
almost 200 people seem certain to have perished, a senior
Belgian official said.
    Jacques Thas, in charge of rescue for the Herald of Free
Enterprise, said his men had searched all of the ship except
some inaccessible cabins and the control room.
    "I am afraid there are no more survivors," he said. Thas said
32 of the 543 passsengers and crew were confirmed dead and 160
were missing, bringing the total of dead or presumed dead to
192.
 REUTER

Shr 3.9 cents vs 4.2 cents
    Interim dividend three cents vs same
    Group net 35.8 mln ringgit vs 39.1 mln
    Pre-tax 77.3 mln vs 99.8 mln
    Turnover 1.16 billion vs 1.05 billion
    Note - dividend pay May 22, register April 24.
 REUTER

Six months to December 31
    SHR 2.6 cents vs 5.2 cents
    Interim dividend four cents vs same
    Group net 12.4 mln ringgit vs 24.3 mln
    Pre-tax 26.6 mln vs 53.5 mln
    Turnover 235.3 mln vs 333.9 mln
    Note - dividend pay April 30, register April 3.
 REUTER

    SHR 8.8 cts vs 0.5 ct
    Interim dividend 12.5 cts vs nil
    Group net 9.5 mln ringgit vs 0.6 mln
    Pre-tax 11 mln vs 1.1 mln
    Turnover 88.9 mln vs 70.8 mln
    Note - dividend pay May 15, register April 17.
 REUTER

    SHR 1.4 cts vs 1.6 cts
    Interim dividend one cent vs same
    Group net 4.1 mln ringgit vs 4.7 mln
    Pre-tax 6.7 mln vs nine mln
    Turnover 100.8 mln vs 112.1 mln
    Note - dividend pay April 28, register April 3.
 REUTER

Bangladesh's sugar production increased by
nearly 60,000 tonnes over last year's season to total 140,000
tonnes at the end of this year's season, the Sugar and Food
Industries Corp said.
    The increased output will enable Bangladesh to cut imports.
Corporation officials told Reuters the country has already
imported 37,000 tonnes of sugar and will buy 113,000 tonnes
more to make up shortfall in the 1986/87 year ending June 30.
    Imports in 1985/86 totalled 224,000 tonnes, of which nearly
100,000 tonnes are still in stock, they said without giving
 REUTER

Senior officials in the West German
coalition government said tax cuts planned for next year would
be increased by 5.2 billion marks, in line with a pledge made
by Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg at last month's
international monetary conference in Paris.
    Gerold Tandler, General Secretary of the Christian Social
Union Party, detailing the cuts at a news conference also
attended by officials from the Christian Democratic Union and
Free Democratic Party, said all of the additional 5.2 billion
mark reduction would represent net tax relief.
    An increase in revenue from other sources was not planned.
    The reductions will be added on to a package of tax cuts
already planned for 1988 amounting to some nine billion marks.
    Tandler said three billion marks of the extra tax relief
would be accounted for by reducing the rate of marginal
increase in income tax.
    An increase in personal tax allowances would save taxpayers
1.4 billion marks. Extra tax allowances for people whose
children are being educated would cut 300 mln marks from the
tax bill. A further 500 mln marks would be accounted for by
increasing the level of special depreciations for small- and
medium-sized companies.
    The extra fiscal measures planned for next year are part of
a general reform of the tax system which will come into effect
in 1990. Stoltenberg had said in Paris that part of this
reform, which will cut taxes by a gross 44 billion marks, would
be introduced next year, ahead of schedule.
    The West German government had come under pressure from the
United States to stimulate its economy with tax cuts. But
Stoltenberg said in a speech last night in Hamburg that, while
the economy would continue to expand this year, the rate of
growth was uncertain.
    The government said in January it was aiming for real
growth in Gross National Product this year of 2.5 pct, but some
economists have revised their predictions down to two or below.
    Stoltenberg said: "We remain on a course of expansion.
Whether (this will be) under two pct, as some people believe,
or around 2.5 pct as some others expect, or even closer to
three pct, as the Kiel World Economic Institute forecast a few
days ago, remains open at the moment."
 REUTER

The yield on 30-day bankers security
deposit accounts issued this week by the Saudi Arabian Monetary
Agency (SAMA) fell to 5.84073 pct from 6.21950 last Saturday,
    SAMA increased the offer price on the 900 mln riyal issue
to 99.51563 from 99.48438. One-month interbank riyal deposits
were quoted today at 6-1/4, six pct.
    SAMA offers a total of 1.9 billion riyals each week in 30,
91 and 180-day paper to banks in the Kingdom.
 REUTER

Police and security forces
entered the Golden Temple in Amritsar after six people
including four policemen were wounded in a shooting incident in
the complex, police said.
    Police in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab state, said about
300 men entered the complex after a party of plainclothes
police were fired on, apparently by extremists campaigning for
a separate Sikh homeland.
    It was the first time uniformed police had entered
Sikhdom's holiest shrine since last June when extremists
stabbed a temple guard to death.
 REUTER

As a British government investigation got
under way into the sinking of the car ferry Herald of Free
Enterprise with heavy loss of life, experts said doubts had
already been expressed about the roll-on roll-off type of ship.
    Shipping minister Lord Brabazon said a preliminary
investigation had started into why the 7,951 tonne ferry
capsized and sank in little over a minute as it manoeuvred to
leave Zeebrugge on a routine four hour crossing to Dover.
    Initial reports spoke of water flooding the car decks
through the bow doors. But a spokesman for the owners, Townsend
Thoresen, said it was also possible the ferry had been holed.
    Townsend Thoresen operate two other ships identical to the
Herald of Free Enterprise, but Brabazon said it was not planned
to pull them out of service at present.
    "Our investigator is there already. We shall have to wait
and see. But it is too early to say what happened," he told BBC
radio.
    As the work of retrieving bodies from the half-submerged
hulk continued, maritime safety experts in London said doubts
had already been expressed about the design of so-called "RoRo"
ferries such as the Herald of Free Enterprise.
    In 1980 the Inter-Governmental International Maritime
Consultative Committee issued a report saying more roll-on
roll-off vessels were lost in accidents than ships with deck
areas divided by bulkheads.
    Townsend Thoresen say the ship, built at the West German
yard of Bremerhaven in 1980, was built to the highest safety
standards.
    But salvage expert William Cooper said passengers would
have had problems getting off this type of ship because of its
design.
    Former Townsend Thoresen navigating officer Clive Langley
said the RoRo type of vessels were similar in some respects to
a barge.
    "As any sailor knows it only takes two or three inches out
of line and you can turn a barge over. An ordinary ship is
compartmentalised and you have more stability," he said.
    Cooper said cross-Channel ferries were normally perfectly
stable but had huge wide deck areas above the water level.
    "If you do get water into that area then you can get very
severe effects on the stability of the ship," he added.
 REUTER

The World Bank approved a 100-mln-dlr
20-year loan to help modernise the machine tool industry in
Shanghai, the New China News Agency said.
    It quoted a World Bank press release in Shanghai as saying
that the loan would help modernise 18 plants and research
institutes owned by the Shanghai Machine Tool Works and the
Shanghai Machine Tool Corp to import manufacturing technology
and to develop training programmes for managers and engineers.
    With a five-year grace period, its interest rate is
currently estimated at 7.92 pct but would be variable, it said,
without indicating with what it would vary.
 REUTER

Turkey oil pipeline near the southern town of Adana after it
was cut by a landslide, the Hurriyet and Anatolian news
agencies said.
    Little oil was lost in the landslide Friday night because
taps on the one mln bpd line were switched off after the
accident, they said.
    The pipeline, which carries oil for Turkey and other
customers from Iraq's Kirkuk field to the Yumurtalik terminal
on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, is Iraq's main oil outlet.
 REUTER

Hundreds of marines were on alert
at 11 key Brazilian ports after 40,000 seamen decided to remain
on indefinite strike, even after the Higher Labour Court
yesterday ruled it illegal, union leaders said.
    The halt, the first national strike by seamen in 25 years,
started on February 27, and union leaders said they would not
return to work unless they got a 275 pct pay rise. Shipowners
have offered a 100 per cent raise, which the seamen rejected.
    "We have nothing to lose. If they want to lay off the
workers, fine, but we are determined to carry on with our
protest until the end," a union leader said.
    He said they had decided in a meeting that if the marines
take over the ships, the seamen would abandon the vessels and
let the marines handle the situation by themselves.
    A spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro Port said the order to
send marines to take over the ports was given by Navy Minister
Henrique Saboya on grounds that ports are areas of national
security. But he said there were no incidents. The strike has
cut exports and imports and made an estimated 160 ships idle.
    Petrol station owners in four states also continued their
shutdown and there were fears that the combination of the two
stoppages could lead to a serious fuel shortage.
 REUTER

Indonesia's Armed Forces Commander
General Benny Murdani said warnings about an extremist threat
to the country's forthcoming elections do not mean the security
situation has deteriorated.
   He was quoted in today's edition of the armed forces
newspaper Harian AB as saying the warnings were only an appeal
for vigilance ahead of the April 23 polls.
    Major-General Setijana, military commander of central Java,
said in widely-quoted remarks last week that both leftist and
rightist extremists were planning to sabotage the polls in an
attempt to topple President Suharto's government.
    Murdani told a meeting of the ruling Golkar party in
Jakarta yesterday that he believed the security situation was
now stable.
    However, he also said mass meetings during the election
campaign period should be avoided, as they could trigger what
he termed a critical situation very easily.
    About 60 people died in accidents and election-related
violence during the last parliamentary elections in 1982.
 REUTER

The suspension of Ecuador's crude oil
shipments after an earthquake cut an oil pipeline will last at
least four months, a senior Energy Ministry official said.
    The official said Ecuador could resume exports after
repairing a 40 km section of the 510 km pipeline, which links
jungle oil fields at Lago Agrio to Balao on the Pacific coast.
It would take about 100 mln U.S. Dlrs to repair the pipeline,
the official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
Ecuador had enough oil to meet domestic demand for about 35
days and would have to import crude to supplement stocks.
    The earthquake last Thursday night registered six on the
12-point international Mercalli scale. The damage to the
pipeline was a severe economic blow to Ecuador, where oil
accounts for up to two-thirds of total exports and as much as
60 pct of government revenues.
    Financially pressed Ecuador, a member of the Organisation
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was recently pumping
about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, about 50,000 bpd
above the output quota assigned by the cartel, another Energy
Ministry spokesman said. Last year, it exported an average of
173,500 bpd, according to the central bank.
    However, Ecuador might build an emergency 25 km pipeline,
costing 15 to 20 mln dlrs, to hook up with a Colombian
pipeline, the first official said. He estimated it could take
about 60 days to build.
    Ecuador, squeezed by the slide in world oil prices in 1986,
had only 138 mln dlrs in net international reserves at the end
of January, about equal to one month's imports.
    It suspended interest payments in January on 5.4 billion
dlrs owed to about 400 private foreign banks. The country's
total foreign debt is 8.16 billion dlrs, the eighth largest in
Latin America.
    In Caracas, President Jaime Lusinchi said Venezuela would
loan five mln barrels of crude to Ecuador over the next three
months to make up for losses from damage to the pipeline.
    Ecuador asked for the loan to guarantee domestic supplies
and would ship an equivalent volume back to Venezuela in
repayment in May, Lusinchi said.
    A commission headed by Venezuelan Investment Fund Minister
Hector Hurtado and including representatives from the interior
and defence ministries and the state oil company Petroleos de
Venezuela will travel to Ecuador Tuesday to evaluate and
co-ordinate an emergency relief program, he said.
 REUTER

Any European Community decision to
liberalise farm trade policy would hurt Thailand's tapioca
industry, said Ammar Siamwalla, an agro-economist at the
Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
    He told a weekend trade seminar here that any EC move to
cut tariff protection for EC grains would make many crops more
competitive than tapioca in the European market.
    The EC is the largest buyer of Thai tapioca, absorbing more
than two thirds of the 5.8 mln tonnes of pellets exported by
Thailand last year. Thailand has an EC quota of an average 5.25
mln tonnes a year until 1990.
    Ammar said Thailand had benefited from an EC tariff
loophole that subjects Thai tapioca to a preferential six pct
import duty.
    Ammar, head of the agricultural research group of the TDRI,
suggested tapioca farmers diversify to other crops.
    He said: "If cereal prices in Europe fall so that they are
close to world prices, the tapioca market there will disappear
completely."
    He said the issue may put Thailand in a dilemma because it
had recently joined other major commodity producers in calling
on the EC to cut its farm product export subsidies.
 REUTER

China has raised the prices it pays
farmers for cotton, edible oil, sugar cane and beets to reverse
a decline in output in 1986, He Kang, Minister of Agriculture,
Animal Husbandry and Fisheries said.
    The China Daily quoted He as saying China should adopt
intensive farming to increase per hectare output and improve
crop quality and maintain arable land at 111 mln hectares. He
gave no details of the price increases.
    On grain, He said the state will cut the quota it purchases
from farmers by 50 mln tonnes and abolish the practice of
purchasing through agents.
    He said the state will increase investment in agriculture
and supplies of fertiliser, diesel oil and other production
materials and stabilise fertiliser and diesel oil prices.
    The state offers cheap fertiliser and diesel oil and
payment in advance to farmers who contract to supply grain at a
low state-fixed price.
    He said China aims to produce between 425 and 450 mln
tonnes of grain by 1990, up from a target of 405 mln this year
and an actual 391 mln last year.
    He gave no more details.
 REUTER

Australia sold 180,000 tonnes of raw
sugar to the Soviet Union for shipment in the next few weeks,
Queensland Primary Industries Minister Neville Harper said.
    Loading of a 50,000-tonne cargo on the Soviet freighter
Nikolay Kuznetsov for shipment to Odessa was completed today at
the Lucinda terminal, he said in a statement.
    The balance will be shipped from Mackay by end-March,
Harper said.
    Australia exported 159,000 tonnes of sugar to the Soviet
Union in 1986.
 REUTER

Thai natural rubber exports rose to
763,331 tonnes in 1986 from 689,964 a year earlier, the private
Board of Trade said.
    Japan, the biggest buyer, imported 384,622 tonnes of Thai
rubber in 1986, up from 348,855 the previous year, it said.
    Other major buyers were the U.S. At 86,383 tonnes, up from
81,629 in 1985, China 69,952 (60,296) and West Germany 32,172
(25,909).
    Exports to France rose to 20,479 tonnes from 12,143 in
1985, Austria 6,048 (4,104), and Italy 4,014 tonnes (1,340).
 REUTER

Australian beef output declined to
104,353 tonnes carcass weight in January from 112,262 in
December and 105,715 a year earlier, the Statistics Bureau
said.
    This followed a decline in the cattle slaughter to 472,900
head from 509,500 in December and 478,800 in January 1986, the
bureau said.
    But cumulative beef output for the first seven months of
fiscal 1986/87 ending June 30 rose to 838,416 tonnes from
746,837 a year earlier following a rise in cattle slaughter to
3.84 mln head from 3.40 mln.
 REUTER

Increased federal government borrowing
needs and a growing unwillingness by foreign investors to buy
mark assets could push yields in German public authority bonds
higher this year, bond market sources say.
    "At the moment we have a sideways movement in the short-term
rates. But how rates move in the long end will depend strongly
on foreigners," one portfolio manager for a large securities
investment house in Frankfurt said.
    The sources also said the government had already stepped up
its borrowing programme in anticipation on increased needs.
    Friday's loan stock was the third this year already, the
sources noted. It carried a 10-year maturity, a coupon of six
pct and price of 100-1/4 to yield 5.97 pct at issue.
    This compared with the last issue which had a 5-3/4 pct
coupon priced at 99-3/4 pct for a yield of 5.75 pct.
    But dealers said the terms were not enough to attract
foreign investors, and the federal government would have to
push yields higher in future if it wanted to borrow again soon.
    Sources noted federal government issues had also increased
in size, with the introduction of a four billion mark volume
only starting last May.
    One finance ministry economist said "It isn't more. It's
just the size (of each bond) which has increased." He added
conditions in the capital market currently remained fairly
favourable for raising new debt.
    Until recently, federal issues sold very strongly abroad,
with up to 90 pct of some being placed with foreign investors.
    With the recent stabilisation of the U.S. Dollar, however,
foreign investors have begun to back away from the market, as
hopes of further currency gains in marks diminish.
    Sources said the government has may have already stepped up
its borrowing, having raised more than 18 billion marks.
    The government made net borrowings of 23 billion marks in
1986. But Bundesbank statistics showed that net borrowing
through bonds was 26.6 billion.
    The sources said this indicated a move by the government
out of other types of debt to gain access to foreign funds
through the more acceptable loan stock form.
    Although new credit needs were partly inflated by a large
amount of issues maturing recently, other factors, including
the government's tax reduction program, would also reduce
income next year. "The problem here will be the tax reform," the
portfolio manager said.
    He added that the government's cut in its top income tax
rate to 53 pct from 56 pct in 1988 would make it difficult for
the government to reduce borrowings.
    The sources said the government would fall far short of
covering all of its 40 billion marks in lost revenue from the
tax reform by making expenditure cuts and would be forced to
fall back on debt markets in one form or the other.
    The portfolio manager noted that besides the three federal
government loan stocks so far this year, it has also fallen
back twice to raise a total 6.43 billion marks through the
issue of fixed-rate medium-term "Kassenobligation" notes.
    A finance ministry economist said the government did not
expect to have any trouble keeping to its plan to borrow only a
net 22.3 billion marks this year.
    Though many sources agreed, they added that the trend would
probably not continue next year as the further tax cuts come
into effect.
    "I would expect the efforts for a further tax reform would
mean government borrowing will increase," the manager said.
    Bond prices last week were slightly firmer on balance, with
the Bundesbank's public authority bond yield calculation
falling to 5.64 pct on Friday from 5.66 a week earlier.
    But sources said foreign demand for the new federal
government loan stock was slack, as sentiment grows that the
dollar may now rise against the mark.
    "The demand wasn't so good," a dealer for a German bank in
London said.
    The dollar's recent slight appreciation against the mark
even meant that foreign investors have sold mark bonds
recently, some dealers said.
 REUTER

Philippine President Corazon Aquino swore
in four new cabinet secretaries to fill vacancies created by
the resignations of secretaries who have said they will run for
the May 11 senate elections.
    Carlos Dominguez, 41, was made agriculture secretary. A
former deputy agriculture secretary, Dominguez is considered an
expert on land reform.
    Sedfrey Ordonez, 65, was made justice secretary and
Fulgencio Factoran, 43, secretary for natural resources. Ramon
Diaz, 65, was named chairman of the Presidential Commission on
Good Government. All three men are lawyers.
 REUTER

Kenya and Shenzhen Electronics Group
(SEG) of China will set up a joint venture in the Kenyan port
city of Mombasa to assemble colour televisions and other
electronic goods, the China Daily said.
    It said the venture, with an estimated annual production
value of 50 mln Kenyan shillings, will sell domestically and to
other nations in the preferential trade area of east and south
Africa. SEG will open two shops in Kenya.
    SEG employs 170,000 people in 130 firms in China and has
exported 18 mln dlrs worth of goods to western countries, it
said, without providing further details.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union has agreed to cut its
coking coal export prices to Japanese steel mills by about five
dlrs a tonne in 1987/88 starting April 1 in exchange for an
increase in export volume, industry sources said.
    The prices were set at 44 dlrs a tonne for Neryungrinsky
coal and at 43.80 dlrs for Kuznetsky coal, fob.
    Japan will import a total of 4.9 mln tonnes from both
areas, up from 4.2 mln a year earlier, they said.
    The steelmakers had asked Moscow to agree to a cutback to
3.7 mln tonnes in 1987/88, but the Soviet Union urged Japan to
increase the amount to 6.5 mln, they said.
 REUTER

<Placer Pacific Ltd> said it hopes the
Papua New Guinea government will approve development of the
Misima gold project next month, following the submission of its
final environmental plan in Port Moresby today.
    This completes the major documentation required to gain
official approval to proceed, Placer said in a statement.
    Placer has estimated the epithermal deposit, located on the
eastern half of Misima Island off the southeastern coast of
Papua New Guinea, contains proven and probable reserves of 62.1
mln tonnes grading 1.35 grams/tonne gold and 20 grams/tonne
silver, and exploration is continuing.
 REUTER

The special prosecutor in the Iran arms
scandal is expected to bring indictments that could include
felony charges against senior Reagan administration officials,
the New York Times reported.
    It quoted law enforcement officials with knowledge of the
investigation as saying special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, who
is investigating the scandal, was focusing on three areas.
    The paper identified these as conspiracy to defraud the
government, obstructing justice and making false statements to
the government. It said the prosecutor had not ruled out any
suspects, including current and former government officials.
    But the paper said Walsh, in his investigation of the sale
of arms to Iran and the diversion of funds to the U.S.-backed
contra rebels in Nicaragua, was running short of time. This was
because Congress has begun granting immunity to key figures in
the affair to speed up congressional investigations.
    The paper quoted one official as saying that, while
obstruction of justice was usually hard to prove, evidence of a
cover-up "may have been comically obvious here."
 REUTER

The Bangladesh trade deficit narrowed to
1.91 billion Taka in October from 5.64 billion in September and
2.43 billion in October 1985, the Central Bank said.
    Imports dropped to 4.31 billion Taka in October from 8.22
billion in September and 4.72 billion in October 1985.
    Exports totalled 2.4 billion Taka in October, as against
2.58 billion in September and 2.29 billion in October 1985.
 REUTER

The outlook for Australian industrial
investment is uncertain, with capital spending at an historical
low and business overly dependent on domestic demand, the
Australian Chamber of Manufactures and the National Institute
of Economic and Industry Research said.
    The organizations were commenting in their monthly Economic
Focus on a survey commissioned by the Australian Council of
Trade Unions concluded.
    Private investment as a proportion of gross domestic
product fell to 9.8 pct in 1985/86 from 15 pct in 1981 and is
forecast to decline to 8.8 pct in 1987/88, the Focus said.
    Earlier studies indicated private investment could sustain
a two pct long-term economic growth rate, but the latest
figures suggested this could not be maintained, it said.
    The Australian dollar's depreciation, coupled with research
incentives, is increasing the profitability of investment for
exports but several factors inhibit growth. These include weak
commodity prices, high fixed capital costs, uncertain domestic
economic policy and corporate debt.
    Firms have tended to finance expansion with debt rather
than equity, leading to a 39 pct rise in the ratio of interest
payments to gross cash flow between 1980/85, the survey found.
    Economic Focus said many companies looked for a 2.5 to 4.5
year payback on capital investment or export development --
often too short a period to secure markets.
    The relatively low incentive to produce for export in part
reflected the ownership of Australian industry, they said.
    Sixty-seven pct of Australian-owned companies said external
demand was conducive to investment against only 27 pct for
foreign-owned companies.
    The survey covered 45 companies accounting for about 25 pct
of total investment, Economic Focus said.
 REUTER

The central bank has issued 12 billion
Taiwan dlrs worth of one and two year savings bonds to help
curb the growth of M-1b money supply, a bank spokesman said.
    The new bonds bear interest rates ranging from five to 5.25
pct and will be sold to the public, he said.
    The bank issued eight billion Taiwan dlrs worth of similar
bonds last month.
 REUTER

Three Japanese credit rating agencies are
entering into fierce competition with <Moody's Japan K.K.> and
<Standard and Poor's Asia Inc>, the local branches of the two
U.S. Giants, as the Japanese credit market opens up to
foreigners, Japanese rating agency managers said.
    Standard and Poor's recent triple-A rating of <Chiyoda Fire
and Marine Insurance Co Ltd's> claims-paying ability caused the
Japanese agencies, which had rated Chiyoda's convertible bond
only A-plus, to come under some criticism for being too
conservative, they said.
    Chiyoda is Japan's eighth largest non-life insurer.
    Standard and Poor's Corp has been in the business for more
than a century while <Moody's Investors Service Inc> was
founded more than 80 years ago. Each has rated some 20,000 to
30,000 U.S. And about 100 Japanese issues.
    With Japanese insurers eager to issue more bonds through
overseas financing companies, Chiyoda's rating will stimulate
their interest in using the U.S. Agencies, the analysts said.
    Standard and Poor's said Chiyoda's rating was based on its
strong capitalisation, stable performance and high levels of
unrealised appreciation, particularly in its stock portfolio.
    The U.S. Agency also emphasised the favourable regulatory
environment in which Japan's non-life insurers operate.
    Japanese agencies were shocked by the earlier AAA ratings
on the claims-paying ability of <Sumitomo Life Insurance Co>
and <Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co> by Standard and Poor's,
the first ratings given to Japanese life insurers.
    Strong Japanese insurers can accumulate cash to ward off
shocks from any foreign investment, Standard and Poor's said.
    A month ago <Nippon Investors Service Inc> (NIS) assigned
an AAA rating to <Financial Securities Assurance Inc>, a U.S.
Firm that gives financial guarantees on corporate securities.
     "NIS has assigned rates on a U.S. Firm for the first time in
Japan, which was the first step into the U.S. Rating market,"
Kazuya Kumura, general manager of NIS, said.
    Kyosuke Yoshida, managing director of Japan Bond Research
Institute (JBRI), said, "Agencies should be more actively used
to respond better to growing overseas investor interest."
    Takeshi Watanabe, president of Japan Credit Rating Agency
Ltd (JCRA), said, "(Our) advantages are that we have a deeper
understanding of business practices in Japan, other Asian
nations and Japanese investor behaviour and are also more alert
and quick to react to domestic news."
     JBRI, with 12 years' experience, is Japan's largest agency.
The other two have been in business for two years.
    Finance Ministry approval of yen commercial paper issues by
Japanese residents, which is expected soon, will stimulate
local agencies to grow quickly, securities analysts said.
    The Finance Ministry is encouraging more use of agencies by
gradually abolishing limits on corporate debt creation.
    In December it allowed non-residents holding at least an
A-rating from one of the agencies to issue samurai, shogun and
euroyen bonds without first meeting the normal stringent
financial criteria.
     But local companies, regardless of the rating obtained for
a planned bond, must meet the tough financial criteria set by
commissioned banks and underwriters, which includes minimum net
asset requirements and capitalisation, local agency managers
said.
    Commissioned banks are responsible for protecting
bondholders and conducting principal and coupon payments.
    Investors' risk in corporate default has been checked by
the very system that is slowing the smooth growth of Japanese
credit rating agencies, the managers said.
     "The idea of rating in Japan has been woven into
prerequisites for an issuer company to satisfy financial
criteria," JCRA's Watanabe said.
    The Finance Ministry, commissioned banks and securities
companies wanting to issue non-collateral straight bonds.
    "An internationally comprehensive market system is needed to
lure more overseas investors into the Japanese market," JBRI's
Yoshida said.
 REUTER

Most commodity agreements are close to
collapse and the debt problem continues to weigh heavily on
developing countries, Bangladesh Commerce Minister M.A. Munim
told officials from 30 Asian countries in the Group of 77.
    The officials are meeting to finalise the agenda for the
group's regional ministerial conference here Saturday.
Delegates from all 43 Asian member countries of the G-77 are
expected to attend the later meeting.
    Commerce Ministry officials said the countries will try to
adopt a common strategy to counter protectionist measures by
developed countries and forge developing country cooperation
    Commerce Secretary A.B.M. Ghulam Mostafa said the officials
would discuss issues relating to financial resources,
commodities, international trade and least developed countries,
and formulate "concrete measures towards concerted action."
    Recommendations of the Dhaka meeting will be placed before
the July United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
meeting at Geneva, officials said.
    The Dhaka meeting would also discuss the possibility of
setting up a "South Bank," along the lines of the Asian
Development Bank, to boost financial exchanges and economic
coperation between developing countries. It has not been
proposed formally and no details were given.
 REUTER

Swiss industrial output rose nine pct in
the fourth quarter last year after a four pct third quarter
decline, and was up three pct from the final three months of
1985, the Federal Office of Industry, Trade and Labour said.
    For the full year 1986 the index, base 1963, stood at 166
after up four pct from the 159 recorded the previous year.
    Incoming orders gained four pct in the quarter after a five
pct third quarter fall and were up one pct from the year
earlier level. In the full year they gained one pct. The order
backlog fell eight pct, the third straight quarterly decline
and ended three pct under the year earlier level.
 REUTER

Japanese securities houses are thinking of
allowing foreign brokerages to underwrite more Japanese
government bonds from April, securities managers said.
    The average foreign brokerage now underwrites only around
0.07 pct of each such issue's volume, they told Reuters.
    The proposal is a response to overseas calls for Japan to
liberalise its markets in the trend towards global trading.
    Japanese brokerages are consistently heavy buyers of U.S.
Treasury issues. <Nomura Securities International Inc> and
<Daiwa Securities America Inc> were named primary dealers in
U.S. Government securities in December, they noted.
    Brokerages within the government bond-writing syndicate are
now negotiating by how much foreign house subscriptions to
government bonds should be raised, the managers said.
    The syndicate members agreed in April, 1982 that 26 pct of
10-year government bonds should be underwritten by 93
securities firms, 17 of them foreign, and 74 pct by banks.
    The Finance Ministry later approved the arrangement.
    Foreign brokers want to underwrite more government bonds
due to their end-investor appeal. <Salomon Brothers Asia Ltd>
caught market attention by buying 45 billion yen of the 100
billion of government two-year notes auctioned on February 3.
    Salomon's operation was an attempt to demonstrate its
commitment to the Japanese market in the hope of expanding its
underwriting share of 10-year bonds, securities sources said.
    They said that to expand participation by foreigners, the
syndicate must either expand the securities industry's 26 pct
share, cut local brokerages' share, or introduce auctions to
the government bond primary market, the sources said.
    Bankers are likely to oppose losing any share and the
Finance Ministry is unwilling to introduce auctions on the
ground that it would slow smooth absorption of bonds in the
secondary market, securities manager said.
 REUTER

The United States has openly attacked
Japan's tight-fisted fiscal policy for the first time and
warned Tokyo its promised economic package in April must be
significant, senior U.S. Officials said.
    In high-level talks last week, the U.S. Criticised Japan's
overall fiscal policy as deflationary and argued that its
fiscal position is not as dire as it says.
    The criticism reflects a growing feeling among some U.S.
Policy-makers that Japan's tight fiscal policy is frustrating
attempts to stimulate domestic demand and boost imports.
    The U.S. Attack represents a distinct shift by the
conservative Reagan administration, which until recently has
been sympathetic to Tokyo's efforts to reduce the government
role in the economy, diplomats said.
    Pointing out that Japan pledged in Paris last month to take
action to boost demand, a senior U.S. Treasury official said
the April package must be more than routine.
    Japanese government bureaucrats have already said they do
not expect the package to contain much more than a rehash of
last April's measures.
    That means accelerated public investment, lower interest
rates on government housing loans and measures to pass along
the benefits of the strong yen to consumers, none of which
would have a major immediate economic impact.
    Several Japanese officials agreed that the real obstacle to
stimulating the economy is the fiscal policy pursued by the
Finance Ministry and said they welcomed the shift in U.S.
Policy.
    But they expressed concern that the move might backfire by
fanning resentment against U.S. Interference in domestic
affairs.
    Makoto Kuroda, vice minister for international affairs at
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, said Japan
would stimulate the economy not in response to U.S. Criticism,
but to meet mounting pressure from Japanese businessmen.
    The shift in U.S. Policy is also causing some nervousness
within the Reagan administration.
    U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Allen
Wallis told reporters last week the U.S. Does not necessarily
want an increase in Japan's budget deficit.
    "There are many measures Japan could take to stimulate its
economy," he said.
    The argument is not new and has been raised in the past by
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
    What is new is U.S. Backing for the position.
    At last week's talks, Japanese officials said, they argued
Tokyo had been able to maintain a tight fiscal stance and boost
the economy with funds from the giant postal savings system.
    But the Finance Ministry was interested enough to ask for,
and receive, the figures supporting the new U.S. Position, a
senior U.S. Official said.
    Other western officials are not so sure. They said it would
take time to boost public investment much further, as there are
not that many projects in the pipeline.
    Stepped-up capital spending would help domestic
construction companies, but it would not have much impact on
imports, they added.
 REUTER

The Asian dollar market continued to
expand in December with total assets and liabilities rising to
200.60 billion U.S. Dlrs from 188.54 billion in November and
155.37 billion in December 1985, the Monetary Authority of
Singapore said.
    It said the increase came mainly from interbank activity,
with interbank lending rising to 146.61 billion dlrs in
December from 134.76 billion in November and 104.93 billion in
December 1985.
    Interbank deposits increased to 158.52 billion dlrs against
147.95 billion and 120.03 billion, respectively.
    Loans to non-bank customers increased in December to 38.74
billion dlrs from 38.64 billion in November and 37.44 billion
    Deposits by non-bank customers rose to 33.81 billion dlrs
against 33.60 billion and 28.02 billion.
 REUTER

Singapore's M-1 money supply rose 3.7
pct during December to 9.82 billion dlrs, after a 2.0 pct
increase in November, the Monetary authority of Singapore (MAS)
said.
    M-1 growth for calendar 1986 was 11.8 pct compared with 4.0
pct growth over the year ending in November.
    MAS said in its latest monthly statistical bulletin the
December increase was largely due to seasonal year-end demand.
    The demand deposit component of M-1 increased to 4.79
billion dlrs in December from 4.62 billion in November and 4.05
billion in December 1985.
    Currency in active circulation rose to 5.03 billion dlrs in
December from 4.85 billion in November and 4.74 billion a year
earlier.
    Broadly-based M-2 money supply rose 1.6 pct to 30.95
billion dlrs during December after a 1.7 pct rise in November,
bringing year-on-year growth to 10.0 pct for the year ending in
December against 10.2 pct for the year ending in November.
 REUTER

The value of China's industrial output in
January and February this year was 14.1 pct higher than in the
same 1986 period, the New China News Agency said.
    Output increased by 5.6 pct from January 1985 to January
1986 and 0.9 pct from February 1985 to 1986.
    The agency said the most recent increase was largely due to
last year's poor performance. "No significant improvement was
made in economic results," it said, adding that some successes
were reported in readjusting the industrial product mix in the
last quarter of 1986.
    The agency said the amount of tied up working capital rose
and sizeable funds were occupied by unsaleable goods in 1986.
    It quoted unnamed economists as saying they expect 1987
industrial production to increase at a proper rate and with
better results, due to a cost-efficiency drive underway
throughout the country. It gave no more details.
    The official industrial growth target this year is seven
pct, down from an actual 9.2 pct last year.
 REUTER

The Dutch central bank said it has
accepted bids totalling 6.5 billion guilders at tender for new
eleven-day special advances at 5.3 pct covering the period
March 9 to 20 aimed at relieving money market tightness.
    Subscriptions to 500 mln guilders were met in full, amounts
above 500 mln at 35 pct.
    The new facility replaces old seven-day advances worth 4.8
 REUTER

Union Bank of Finland is issuing a 10
billion yen eurobond due March 30, 1992 paying five pct and
priced at 102-3/8 pct, lead manager LTCB International Ltd
said.
will be listed in Luxembourg. Payment date is March 30.
 REUTER

Japanese customers have bought nearly six
mln barrels of crude oil from the National Iranian Oil Company
(NIOC) at a substantial discount to the official price, and
Western traders have received even larger discounts, Japanese
traders involved in the transactions told Reuters.
    NIOC has sold its crude for March shipment to Japanese
customers with different formulas. One company has bought
800,000 barrels of Iranian Heavy at a straight discount of
30-35 cents below the official price, the sources said.
    Other deals have been fixed with prices linked to Oman and
Dubai spot prices less a discount, they said.

    Iran's discounted sales have not, however, managed to
reverse the bullish tone in the crude oil and products spot
markets, oil traders said.
    Market sentiment is being influenced more by the colder
weather in Europe, and reports that OPEC's February output was
below its self-imposed quota of 15.8 mln barrels per day.
    Firmer gas oil on the London futures, and more bullish
sentiment on the New York Mercantile Exchange futures market
are supporting spot price levels, they said.

    Another Japanese trading house has paid the official price
but through a processing arrangement will effectively receive a
discount, the sources said. "It's just disguised cheating," one
Japanese trader said.
    The sources said only one Japanese company had paid the
official price for Iranian oil. It has purchased 1.5 mln
barrels of Iranian Heavy for April shipment for refining in
Singapore. They said about nine VLCCs of Iranian crude have
been sold to Western traders with pricing based 60 pct on the
official price and 40 pct on spot prices, or with part of the
price related to processing arrangements.

Imperial Chemical Industries Plc <ICI.L>
said it had today placed its 19.4 pct stake in Lister and Co
Plc with L Messel and Co and that it had now been placed widely
among institutions.
    Lister is a manufacturer, dyer and finisher of cotton, silk
wool and man-made fibres.
 REUTER

Unilever Australia Ltd is issuing 40 mln
Australian dlrs of bonds due April 14, 1990 carrying a coupon
of 14-3/4 pct and priced at 101-1/2, said County NatWest
Capital Markets as lead manager.
    The bonds are guaranteed by Unilever PLc whose outstanding
debt securities are rated AAA. The bonds are non-callable and
will be available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs.
The securities will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
    Fees are a one pct selling concession and 1/2 pct combined
management and underwriting.
 REUTER

shortage of around 250 mln stg in the money market today.
    Among the factors affecting liquidity, it said bills
maturing in official hands and the treasury bill take-up would
drain around 1.02 billion stg while below target bankers'
balances would take out a further 140 mln.
    Against this, a fall in the note circulation would add 345
mln stg and the net effect of exchequer transactions would be
an inflow of some 545 mln stg, the Bank added.
 REUTER

The Bank of France said it invited offers
of first category paper today for a money market intervention
tender.
    Money market dealers said conditions seemed right for the
Bank to cut its intervention rate at the tender by a quarter
percentage point to 7-3/4 pct from eight, reflecting an easing
in call money rate last week, and the French franc's steadiness
on foreign exchange markets since the February 22 currency
stabilisation accord here by the Group of Five and Canada.
    Intervention rate was last raised to eight pct from 7-1/4
on January 2. Call money today was quoted at 7-11/16 7-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

The U.S. <Amoco Petroleum Corp> has
reported an offshore oil find at its Pearl River basin
concession in the South China Sea, the New China News Agency
said.
    It said the Liu Hua 11-1-1 A well produced at around 2,240
barrels per day at a depth of 305 metres.
    The news agency said Amoco plans to drill a second well in
the area this year, but gave no further details.
 REUTER

Technology transfer problems have delayed
the finalising of contracts between South Korea's state-owned
Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) and U.S. Firms for supplies
of equipment and services for Kepco's latest two 950-megawatt
nuclear power plants, a Kepco spokesman said.
    He told Reuters the contracts for Kepco's tenth and
eleventh stations, costing between two and three billion dlrs,
were due for completion by the end of February.
    Kepco has been negotiating with Combustion Engineering Inc
(CSP) for pressurised light-water reactors and General Electric
Co (GE) for turbines.

    KEPCO has also been negotiating with (Sargent and Lundy
Engineers) for engineering and design consultancy services.
    "We have been waging a tug-of-war on the transfer of
advanced technology. But I am optimistic we will sign contracts
with them within this month," the spokesman said.
    He said the transfer of advanced technology is vital for
South Korea, which wants to build future nuclear power plants
with its own technology.
    Work on the two plants is due to start about June 1988 for
completion in 1995 and 1996, although the sites have yet to be
chosen, he said.
 REUTER

Keiaisha Co Ltd of Tokyo is issuing 12
mln Swiss francs of straight notes due March 26, 1992 with a
4-5/8 pct coupon, lead manager Gotthard Bank said.
    The notes can be called from September 26, 1989 at 101-1/4,
declining semi-annually.
    The issue is guaranteed by the Kyowa Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK SAYS IT CUTTING BASE LENDING RATE TO 10.5 PCT FROM 11 PCT.

National Westminster Bank Plc said it has
cut its base lending rate  0.5 percentage points to 10.5 pct
today.
    National Westminster said that it was responding to general
easing in money market rates.
    Its move followed a signal from the Bank of England earlier
this afternoon that it would endorse a half point cut in the
base rate, a surprise move following its strong signals last
week that such a move would be premature.
    However, since then the pound has continued to gain
strongly.
 REUTER

Semi-annual dividend 4 cts
    Pay May 29
    Record April 14
Note: full name is U.S. Facilities Corp. This is first dividend
declared since company completed its initial public offering on
November 7.
 Reuter

Standard Pacific LP said it
has acquired substantially all of the assets and liabilities of
South Bay Savings and Loan Association of Newport Beach.
    The firm said over the weekend that it will conduct its
savings and loan activities through Standard Pacific Savings
FA, a Federal stock association.
    On Friday, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington
said it approved the acquisition of South Bay S and L, a 62.5
mln dlr state-chartered stock association, by Standard Pacific,
which has 312.8 mln dlrs in assets.
    The Bank Board said that the Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp will make a cash contribution, provide capital
loss coverage and indemnify Standard Pacific against
undisclosed liabilities.
 Reuter

The Treasury Department said it would
temporarily permit imports of South African uranium ore and
oxide pending clarification of anti-apartheid sanctions laws
passed by Congress last fall.
    The decision was announced late Friday. It applies, until
July 1, to uranium ore and oxide imported into the U.S. for
processing and re-export to third countries.
    The Treasury said it took the action because it felt that
when Congress passed the comprehensive South African sanctions
bill last fall over President Reagan's veto it had not intended
to hurt U.S. industry.
    In addition, the Treasury said it would permit U.S.-made
goods to be imported temporarily from South African
state-controlled organizations for repair or servicing.
   
 Reuter

 MORE

An existing New York Stock Exchange,
NYSE, rule might be used to limit the trading activities of its
members in London in stocks listed on both exchanges, sources
at the London Exchange said.
    This could arise if the London Stock Exchange goes ahead
with plans to close its trading floor.
    The London Exchange sources were commenting on press
reports that the NYSE would bar its members firms from trading
on the London Exchange in interlisted stocks during periods
when the NYSE was open.
    The London exchange is seeking clarification.
    London Exchange sources said the possibility of
restrictions on NYSE members appears to reflect a rule which
requires that exchanges recognised by the NYSE possess a
trading floor.
    Last month, the London Exchange said in a statement that it
planned to close its floor in due course, apart from a floor
for traded options, because almost all business is now being
done by screen and telephone between brokerage offices.
    This development stemmed from the Big Bang restructuring of
the market on October 27. The demise of the traditional Stock
Exchange floor has been widely expected, though no date has
been set as yet.
    Market sources said a compromise over the NYSE rule could
well be reached, partly because the interests of U.S.
Securities dealers are not all identical.
    Some of them could well start lobbying the NYSE, pointing
out, among other things, that the expansion of global trading
needs to be based on reciprocal arrangements.
    NYSE brokerage firms which also trade on the London
Exchange would presumably be put at a disadvantage over
non-NYSE U.S. Firms, which  have affiliates on the London
Exchange, market sources said.
    REUTER

USAir Group Inc said Piedmont Aviation
Inc has agreed to be acquired for 69 dlrs per share.
    The company, in a newspaper advertisement, said it has
started a tender offer for all Piedmont shares at that price,
and the Piedmont board, with two directors absent, has
unanimously approved the bid.  The offer and withdrawal rights
are to expire April Three unless extended, and the bid is to be
followed by a merger at the same price.
    USAir said Piedmont has granted it an irrevocable option to
buy up to 3,491,030 new shares under certain circumstances.
Piedmont now has about 18.6 mln shares outstanding.
    USAir said the tender is conditioned on receipt of enough
shares to give USAir at least a 50.1 pct interest in Piedmont
on a fully diluted basis and approval by the U.S. Department of
Transportation of a voting trust agreement permitting USAir to
buy and hold shares pending review of its application to gain
control of Piedmont.
    The company said its merger agreement with Piedmont
provides that the offer is not to be amended without Piedmont's
prior written consent in any way that would be adverse to
Piedmont shareholders, but it said it could cut the number of
shares to be bought without Piedmont's consent.
    USAir said it could reduce the number of Piedmont shares to
be purchased in the offer to no less than the minimum number
needed to cause the voting trust condition of the bid to be
satisfied.
    In that case, it said if more than that minimum number of
shares were tendered, it would buy shares on a pro rata basis.
    In February USAir had offered to pay 71 dlrs per share in
cash for 50 pct of Piedmont's stock and 1.55 to 1.90 USAir
shares for each remaining Piedmont share.
    Last week, Carl C. Icahn-controlled Trans World Airlines
Inc <TWA> made a conditional offer to acquire USAir for 52 dlrs
per share, a bid that was rejected by the USAir board.
    The Transportation Department on Friday rejected TWA's
application to acquire USAir on the grounds that the
application failed to comply with department regulations by
omitting necessary information.  TWA said it would refile
today, providing the information needed.
    On Friday TWA said it had already acquired four mln shares
or 15 pct of USAir.
 Reuter

Senior U.S. Arms control officials
said they were optimistic the United States and Soviet Union
could reach agreement on ways to verify a pact to eliminate
medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
    Chief U.S. Arms control negotiator Max Kampelman said on
the NBC television network a fair pact would be hard to
negotiate, but, "We are determined to do it."
    Assistant Secretary of Defence for international security
policy Richard Perle said he thought the two sides could agree
on a method to ensure each side was honouring a missile pact.
    President Reagan said on Friday that Secretary of State
George Shultz would go to Moscow next month for talks on arms
control and a possible U.S.-Soviet summit meeting.
    The decision to send Shultz to Moscow followed an
announcement by Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev that he was
willing to separate elimination of medium-range missiles in
Europe from his demand for curbs on U.S. Development of a
Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) anti-missile system.
    Kampelman said the United States and the Soviet Union both
had a general definition of so-called "intrusive" or on-site
inspection of a pact, but details would be tough to work out.
 Reuter

Estimated oil and gas drilling
completions in the United States dropped by almost 41 per cent
in 1986 from 1985, the American Petroleum Institute said.
    API, an industry group, said that of the 42,387 wells
completed last year, a total of 19,741 were oil wells, 8,645
were natural gas wells and 14,001 were dry holes.
    In 1985, a total of 71,539 wells were drilled - 36,834 oil
wells, 13,036 gas wells and 21,669 dry holes.
 reuter

New credit advanced by finance houses,
retailers, bank credit cards and other specialist providers of
credit slipped to 2.66 billion stg in January from 2.78 billion
in December - but remained close to the average level for
1986's fourth quarter, the Department of Trade and Industry
said.
    Of the January total, 1.15 billion stg was advanced on bank
credit cards.
    On a three-month basis, total advances in November to
January were 3.0 pct lower than in the previous three months.
Within this total, lending to consumers fell by 6.0 pct and
lending to businesses declined by 5.0 pct.
    At end-January 1987, the total amount outstanding was 24.07
billion stg, up from December's 23.77 billion stg and 3.0 pct
above the total three months earlier, the department said.
    January saw a rise of 300 mln stg in amounts outstanding to
finance houses, other specialist credit grantors and retailers.
    The department said advances on credit cards rose by 1.0
pct between the latest two three-month periods. Retailers
advanced 3.0 pct less in the latest three months than in the
previous three months, it said.
 REUTER

A strike by Brazil's 40,000 seafarers
who want pay rises of up to 180 pct may have cost the
state-owned oil company Petrobras 20 mln dlrs in lost export
orders, the company's commercial director Arthur de Carvalho
was quoted as saying in press reports.
    More than 170 ships in Brazil, and about nine more in
foreign ports, have been halted by the strike, which began on
February 27.
    Marines began blockading the ships on Friday after the
strike was ruled illegal, and some strikers are running short
of food, National Merchants Marine Union president Edson Areias
said.
 Reuter

NEC Corp's NEC Informational
Systems Inc said it introduced three advanced personal
computers that are fully compatible with the International
Business Machines Corp <IBM> PC AT.
    The computers, the PowerMate 1, PowerMate 2 and
BusinessMate, are based on a chip made by Intel Corp <INTC>.
    The PowerMate 1 and 2 are available immediately and sell
for 1,995 dlrs and 2,595 dlrs, respectively, the company said.
    The BusinessMate, scheduled for April availability, will
sell for less than 6,000 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

The 24 nations of the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), hampered by
sluggish industrial output and trade, face slower economic
growth, and their joint balance of payments will swing into
deficit in 1987, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU ) said.
    The EIU said in its World Trade Forecast it revised OECD
economic growth downwards to 2.5 pct this year, compared with a
2.8 pct growth forecast in December.
    It said the new areas of weakness are West Germany and the
smaller European countries it influences, and Japan, hardest
hit by currency appreciation this year.
    The independent research organisation cut its 1987 growth
rate forecasts for West Germany to 2.2 pct from 3.2 pct in
December and to 2.3 pct from three pct for Japan.
    It said it expected the OECD to post a current account
deficit of some 13 billion dlrs in both 1987 and 1988, due in
large part to a 1.50 dlrs a barrel rise in 1987 oil prices.
    It said the U.S. Current account deficit looked likely to
fall even more slowly than forecast, to 125 billion dlrs in
1987 and 115 billion in 1988 from 130 billion in 1986.
    It said it expected West Germany to post a 31 billion dlr
payments surplus and Japan a 76 billion dlr surplus this year.
    The EIU said it saw oil prices dropping to around 16.50
dlrs a barrel by end-1987 and 15.50 dlrs in 1988 from about 18
dlrs last year, as adherence to OPEC output policy becomes
increasingly ragged.
    It said the dollar is poised to resume its decline in
foreign exchange markets, and will lose a further 13 pct on its
trade-weighted index this year and five pct in 1988 after last
year's 18.4 pct drop. The average mark/dollar rate is put at
1.80 marks this year and 1.70 in 1988 while the yen/dollar rate
is expected to break through the 150 yen barrier with an
average value of 150 yen in 1987 and 146 yen in 1988, it said.
    "This is not a crash scenario but the dollar's steeper
angle of descent increases the risk of ending with a fireball
rather than a three-point landing," the EIU said.
    "Talking will not stop the dollar's slide for long and the
February meeting (of finance ministers of the Group of Five and
Canada) produced scant promise of either a decisive shift to
more expansive policies in West Germany and Japan, or a tighter
U.S. Fsical policy," it said.
    It said the key to the dollar's fortunes was the
willingness of Japanese institutions to buy U.S. Government
assets despite prospects of sustaining a currency loss.
    "Thus far they have been willing," the EIC said, adding
that if Japan was deterred from buying U.S. bonds the dollar
would collapse.
    To contain such a currency crisis, dollar interest rates
would have to soar, bringing recession and a Third World debt
crisis, it said.
    On trade, the EIU said prospects for 1987 look
"increasingly sick."
    Import growth, forecast in December at 4.5 pct, is now seen
slowing down to around 3.8 pct in 1987 with a recovery only to
4.2 pct in 1988, it said.
    The weakness of the West German economy is the biggest
single factor, with import growth there expected to feature a
sluggish 3.5 pct growth in 1987 against the 6.5 pct forecast in
December, the EIU said.
    On the export side, it said it saw weak demand in West
Germany affecting export prospects elsewhere in Europe, while
Japan's exports in 1987 would remain flat and sales by U.S.
Exporters would respond only marginally to a lower, more
competitively-priced dollar.
    It said in most of Europe and in Japan, raw materials and
oil will cost less in domestic currency in 1987 than in 1986.
 Reuter

Bundesbank president Karl Otto Poehl
told a closed investment symposium that West Germany could cut
leading interest rates again if the United States makes a
similar move, banking sources said.
    The sources were reporting Poehl's remarks at a symposium
in Duesseldorf last week organised by Deutsche Bank Ag. Press
representatives were not invited.
    The sources, speaking separately, said Poehl told about 200
bankers in reply to questions that a cut in U.S. Interest rates
would give room for a matching measure in Germany.
    "It was a definite hint at lower German interest rates," said
one banker who attended the symposium.
    A Bundesbank spokesman said the central bank would have no
comment on the reported remarks, made at the private meeting.
    But, according to a second source, who also declined to be
identified, Poehl's comments were seen by bankers present as a
direct pointer to further moves by the central bank to defend
German industry from an additional revaluation of the mark.
    "He said if the Americans drop their interest rates then the
Bundesbank would also drop them. He said that quite clearly,"
the second source said.
    In reply to questions, Poehl also said the half-point cut
in the discount and Lombard rates on January 22 came after the
U.S. Had signalled it would be prepared to attend a meeting to
discuss the level of the dollar on condition Germany made such
a move in advance, the sources said.
    Asked if American authorities could have been persuaded, by
cuts in German rates, to come to the bargaining table as early
as last September, one of the sources quoted Poehl as saying,
"No, they wouldn't have been. We checked that."
    The Paris meeting of the Group of Six industrial nations
took place exactly one month after the German cut in rates.
    Poehl emphasised in his comments the very close talks
between central banks before and after the G-6 meeting, saying
that financial markets had not fully realised the significance
of the Paris session and the U.S. Agreement to stem further
falls in the value of the dollar, the sources said.
    For the first time all participants at the summit agreed
that a further fall in the dollar would be harmful for all
world economies, including the U.S., Poehl had said.
    The sources said the tone of Poehl's comments boosted
growing sentiment that the dollar would be stabilised around
current levels by international central bank cooperation.
    One source said Poehl's remarks also underlined the fact
that the Bundesbank was now more prepared to be accommodative
in monetary policy in order to prevent a further slowdown in
West Germany's economic growth.
    Poehl and other Bundesbank officials have in the past
stressed that the German central bank had no direct
responsibility for growth and was solely concerned with
combatting inflation.
    This led, for instance, to the introduction of a tighter
monetary stance from the beginning of December until the
half-point cut in rates in late January.
    The sources quoted Poehl as saying that the current
overshooting of the German monetary target would not directly
respark inflation. The Bundesbank was not obliged to react
immediately whenever such overshooting occurs.
    Latest data for central bank money stock, the Bundesbank's
main measure of money supply, showed the measure was growing at
7-1/2 pct in January, outside its three to six pct 1987 target.
    Share prices rose in very active trading today, with
dealers reporting that Poehl's remarks, coupled with a bullish
outlook on stock prices from Deutsche at the same symposium,
brought in strong bargain hunting at current low levels.
 REUTER

Plessey Co Plc <PLY.L> said it had won a
multi-million stg contract to supply Colombia with the System X
digital telephone exchange, the first major export contract for
the system.
    Company sources said the deal was worth about 15 mln stg.
v    A Plessey statement said the contract, awarded by the
National Telecommunications Authority of Colombia, was won
against competition from Telefon L M Ericsson AB, NEC Corp,
Fujitsu Ltd and Italtel of Italy.
    "The award is regarded as a triumph for System X and a
breakthrough in the South American market," it said.
    Plessey said the contract was one of the largest awarded by
Telecom Colombia for the past 10 years and involved supplying
13 telephone exchanges including 68,000 lines.
    The award also includes transmission equipment for the
interconnection of the exchanges and the existing system.
    The firm was actively marketing  System X worldwide and
contract negotiations in certain countries had reached an
advanced stage, it said.
    Plessey shares were down 5p at 235p, having gone
ex-dividend.
 REUTER

The 20.3 billion dlr debt rescheduling
accord Venezuela signed a week ago will reduce its payments
over the next three years by 64 pct, according to Finance
Ministry figures released this weekend.
    A ministry statistical analysis said while the original
accord called for payments of 3.82 billion dlrs between 1987
and 1989, the new agreement requires debt servicing of 1.35
billion over the same period. In 1987, Venezuela will be
required to pay 250 mln dlrs instead of the 1.55 billion
originally agreed. Payments in 1988 were cut to 400 mln from
1.20 billion, and in 1989 to 700 mln from 1.11 billion.
    The ministry's analysis said the reduction in debt
servicing during 1987-1989 amounts to an effective grace
period, something the Venezuelan negotiators sought from
creditor banks but were not granted.
    Most of the rescheduling falls during 1994-1998, when 53.3
pct, or some 11.25 billion dlrs, must be paid. Under the
February 27 accord, Venezuela will repay 20.3 billion dlrs of
public sector debt over 14 years at 7/8 of a percentage point
over London interbank offered rates (Libor).
    This compares with the February 1986 accord which called
for a 12-year term and interest of 1-1/8 point over Libor.
 REUTER

<MTS Acquisition Corp>, a company
formed by Martin T. Sosnoff, said it has started a tender offer
for all shares of Caesars World Inc at 28 dlrs each.
    In a newspaper advertisement, MTS said the offer and
withdrawal rights expire April Three unless extended.
    Sosnoff, a New York investor, already owns about four mln
of Caesars' 30.3 mln shares outstanding, or about 13.3 pct, and
is Caesars' largest shareholder.  Caesars owns casino hotels in
Nevada and honeymoon resorts in Pennsylvania's Pocono
Mountains.  It also controls Caesars New Jersey Inc <CJN>,
which owns an Atlantic City, N.J., casino hotel.
    For the second quarter ended January 31, Caesars World
earned 12.6 mln dlrs on revenues of 190.4 mln dlrs, up from
earnings of 7,500,000 dlrs and revenues of 163.8 mln dlrs a
year before.  For all of fiscal 1986, the company earned 41.0
mln dlrs on revenues of 694.4 mln dlrs.
    MTS said the offer is conditioned on receipt of at least
enough shares to give Sosnoff a majority interest on a fully
diluted basis, the arrangement of sufficient financing to buy
all Caesars shares not already owned and pay related costs and
approval by the New Jersey Casino control Commission and the
NEvada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board.
    MTS said Marine Midland Banks Inc <MM> has committed to
lend it 100 mln dlrs for the acquisition and use its best
efforts to syndicate another 400 mln dlrs in senior financing
for the transaction.
    It said its financial adviser, PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ>,
has stated in writing that subject to market conditions, it is
highly confident that it can arrange commitments for up to 475
mln dlrs in "mezzanine" financing.
    MTS said it does not expect problems in obtaining New
Jersey and Nevada regulatory approval for the acquisition,
since ownership in a Caesars stake has already been cleared.
    In June 1986, Sosnoff requested a seat on the Caesars World
board, a request that has not yet been granted.  In September
1986, Sosnoff, who is chairman of <Atalanta/Sosnoff Capital
Corp>, filed for clearance under U.S. antitrust laws to raise
his interest in Caesars World to 25 pct.
    Sosnoff said, in a letter to Caesars World chairman and
chief executive officer Henry Gluck, that "The decision to go
directly to the shareholders was made at the urging of may
financial and legal advisors, who repeatedly stressed to me the
lack of responsiveness of the management in the past."
    Sosnoff, who said he has made numerous efforts to express
his views to management on ways of maximizing shareholder
values, said Caesars twicce refused his request for a board
seat.  "My advisers felt that, had I given you advance notice,
you would have used the time to throw up obstacles to my offer
rather than giving it serious consideration," he said.
    Sosnoff said he hopes that Caesars World management will be
willing to negotiate an acquisition agreement with him.
    "As I have indicated publicly in the past, I believe
operating management of the company has performed well and that
appropriate consideration should be given to a significant
equity interest for them in the company following the
acquisition," Sosnoff said in the letter to Gluck.
    MTS said Sosnoff has asked the company to fix March 27 as
the record date for the determination of shareholders entitled
to authorize action without a meeting -- including the election
or removal of directors.
 Reuter

Dutch economic growth is slowing as a
firming guilder cuts competitiveness abroad and industries
reduce the pace of investment, the Dutch official planning
agency CPB said.
    The Centraal Planbureau, publishing its 1987 economic
outlook, said Dutch Net National Income (NNI) was expected to
grow by one pct this year, down from two pct growth recorded in
1986 and 2.5 pct in 1985 and 1984.
    Dutch Gross National Product is expected to rise to 432.20
billion guilders in 1987 in constant prices, a two pct increase
from last year's 423.95 billion.
    The CPB, forecasting an 8.5 pct increase in the value of
the guilder on a trade-weighted basis compared with 10.0 pct
last year, said the dollar was expected to trade at an average
of 2.0 guilders in 1987 compared with 2.45 guilders in 1986.
    "The higher guilder is causing a substantial fall in unit
labour costs abroad, when measured in guilder terms, while
these are rising slightly in the Netherlands," the CPB said.
    More of economic growth now depended on domestic
consumption, the CPB said, but noting that higher margins set
by domestic producers and importers mitigated the effect on
purchasing power of lower import costs and deflation.
    Consumer prices were set to fall by 1.5 pct this year, the
CPB said. Inflation was zero last year.
    Gross investment in industry was expected to grow by five
pct this year, a slowdown compared with 11.5 pct growth last
year, the CPB said.
    Exchange rate and oil price fluctuations will continue to
condition the Dutch economy in the future as it has in recent
years, the CPB said, noting a continued depressing impact of
these factors on Dutch competitiveness.
    In addition, it noted a slight rise in taxation and social
security costs to employers.
    The CPB, forecasting a rise in the budget deficit to 7.2
pct of Net National Income in 1987 from 6.3 pct last year,
urged the government to cut expenditure further to bring down
the deficit and reduce tax and social security payments in
future.
    Dutch government revenue is being depressed further by
falling income from natural gas sales in 1987, the CPB said.
    It said unemployment was expected to fall to 675,000 this
year from 710,000 last year.
    While the two pct GDP growth forecast set by the CPB is
within its latest forecast, issued last month, of 1.5 to two
pct growth, the figure is well above recent market estimates.
    Dutch merchant bank Pierson, Heldring en Pierson said in
its February economic outlook that GDP growth at constant
prices was expected to be 1.1 pct this year and market analysts
had expected the CPB's final forecast to be below its own
latest estimate.
    "It is too early to comment because I haven't seen the whole
document yet, but it would seem we are more pessimistic in some
of our estimates," a Pierson economist said.
    The CPB forecast 2.5 pct export growth in volume terms in
1987, after four pct growth last year. Excluding energy
exports, the 1987 figure would be two pct, it said.
    Imports were set to rise by 4.5 pct this year compared with
four pct in 1986 in volume terms, the CPB said.
    The balance of payments would see a sharp decline in the
surplus, to six billion guilders in 1987 compared with 12.1
billion last year, the CPB forecast.
 REUTER

Casino owner and real estate developer
Donald Trump has offered to acquire all Class B common shares
of Resorts International Inc, a spokesman for Trump said.
    The estate of late Resorts chairman James M. Crosby owns
340,783 of the 752,297 Class B shares.
    Resorts also has about 6,432,000 Class A common shares
outstanding. Each Class B share has 100 times the voting power
of a Class A share, giving the Class B stock about 93 pct of
Resorts' voting power.
 More

Iomega Corp said it has laid off over
a quarter of its professional and management staff and nearly
half of its direct labor force as part of a restructuring and
downsizing of its business.
    The company also said it will receive a qualified opinion
from the auditors of it 1986 financial statement subject to the
outcome of two suits. The company is a defendant in a
consolidated class action law suit which seeks damages in an
unspecified amount and is also a defendant in a related
shareholder action.
    Iomega said the auditors state in their opinion letter that
both actions are in the early stages of discovery and the
likely outcome can not be determined at this time.
    The company said a corporate wide reduction of its
professional, management and indirect labor will result in the
permanent elimination of 183 positions in all functional areas
of the company's business. This represents over 25 pct of
professional, management and indirect employees, it added.
    In addition, Iomega announced layoff of about 182
employees, principally from its manufacturing direct labor
force. Those affected represent about 46 pct of direct labor.
    Commenting on the layoffs, Iomega said those from among the
direct labor force affects personnel building the Alpha Eight
Inch Disk Drive and Bernoulli Boxes.
    "This action is required as we bring our finished goods
inventory and inventory in our distribution channels down to
acceptable levels," it explained.
    The company stated this layoff does not affect the
production of its new 5-1/4 inch Beta 20 product which is
currently being built to a backlog of orders.
 Reuter

Ground-breaking new systems for storing
and retrieving information are ushering in a new era for
computer companies and computer users.
    Within the past few weeks, International Business Machines
Corp <IBM>, Eastman Kodak Co <EK> and others have launched
products that radically increase the amount of data that can be
catalogued and shelved in computerized libraries.
    "This flurry of new technology could yield systems that
handle a multimedia blitz of data," said Ian Warhaftig, a
senior analyst with International Data Corp, Framingham, Mass.
    "We're developing new systems because our customers are
asking for them," Peter Giles, vice president and general
manager of Kodak's mass memory division, said in a recent
interview.
    This demand is expected to soar in coming years. While
estimates vary, industry analysts project that providing
products and services geared for information storage and
retrieval could become a 20 billion dlr a year business by
1995.
    A wide range of technologies will be needed to meet the
varying requirements of users.
    For example, a large credit verification service would want
a system from which it could quickly retrieve credit data and
relay it to its clients. A law firm, however, may need a
computerized law library in which capacity, rather than speed,
is the key feature. For architects and engineers, the ability
to store photographs, sketches and other graphics would be
crucial.
    Regardless of the specific application, the trend is toward
converting information - documents, video or film or even sound
recordings - into to the digital language of zeros and ones
understood by computers.
    Saving space is the key goal in digitizing data for
storage. An optical disk the size of a standard compact disk
can store 550 megabytes of data, or about 250,000 pages of
typewritten text.
    For this reason, the compact disk read-only memory, or
CD-ROM, is already a popular data storage media. Last week,
Microsoft introduced Microsoft Bookshelf, a 300 dlr program
that contains, on a single CD-ROM disk, a dictionary,
thesaurus, national ZIP code directory, Bartlett's Familiar
Quotations, the World Almanac and other reference works.
    Scores of such products are already on the market, but most
are specialty items, such as Lotus Development Corp's <LOTS>
CD-ROM data base of stock information for financial analysts
and investors. "Microsoft Bookshelf is important because it
marks the arrival of CD-ROM packages for the general public,"
said Ian Warhaftig of International Data Corp.
    One drawback of the CD-ROM, which uses a laser to record
and read data, is that that it requires a special player.
CD-ROM players for the retail market will appear later this
year.
    Moreover, IDC's Warhaftig said CD-ROM's will be integrated
with personal computers.
    "Eventually, CD-ROM's will fit right inside the PC box," he
said. "Imagine the advantage of having a spelling checker and
thesaurus at your fingertips when you're writing with a word
processing program."
    But CD-ROM's are just the beginning. Also last week, Kodak
unveiled several systems that use 12-inch optical disks. The
largest Kodak system uses a jukebox-like cabinet to hold up to
150 optical disks from which data can be retrieved in a matter
of seconds.
    Kodak also announced a 14-inch optical disk with 6.8
gigabytes of memory, five times the memory of a CD-ROM. The
Kodak disk, which will not be available until the middle of
1988, is designed for users who need quick access to very large
amounts of data, said Kodak's Giles.
    Meanwhile, N.V. Philips <PGLO.AS>, the Dutch electronics
giant, is preparing to take optical disk technology a step
further with the first disk that can combine text, video and
sound. Philips said the system, called Called CD-Interactive,
will be ready next year. It will include a new kind of CD-ROM
player that can hook up with a television set and stereo.
     Additional breakthroughs are expected as the next
generation of computer memory chips are introduced. Last month
IBM said it has made a four-megabyte chip, capable of storing
more data than eight CD-ROM's. Meantime, <Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone> of Japan said it has built a 16-megabyte chip.
    Analysts say commercial versions of these chips are several
years away, though some suspect that IBM may start volume
production of its four-megabyte chip sometime this year.
    Such chips will enable computer makers to build computers
with immense memory capacities.

 Reuter

Saturday ruled it illegal, union leaders said.
 more
 Reuter

The American Bankers Association said
the profitability of the nation's commercial banks declined by
12 pct during the first three quarters of 1986.
    During the first nine months of last year, the industry's
annualized rate of return on assets dropped to 0.68 pct from
0.77 pct in the same period in 1985, the ABA said. Return on
equity fell to 10.8 pct from 12.3 pct the previous year.
    Despite the decline in profits, the ABA said banks' capital
grew boosting the industry's capital ratio to 6.4 pct from 6.3
pct.
    The number and size of banks losing money during the period
increased significantly, the ABA said.
    During the first nine months of 1986, 17.5 pct of banks,
holding 9.6 pct of banking assets, were unprofitable, the group
said. That compares with 13 pct of banks, holding 8.8 pct of
assets, during the same period in 1985, it said.
    The industry's provisions for loan losses increased to 0.73
pct of assets during the period, up from 0.59 pct of assets
during the same period in 1985, the group said.
 Reuter

The American Paper Institute said the
industry is headed for another year of record volume in 1987,
with linerboard particularly strong.
    "A pro-growth trade policy, continued attention to currency
management, a fairly low interest rate climate and no major tax
increases are the essential ingredients in this outlook," Red
Cavaney, American Paper Institute president said.
    Cavaney said that so far this year the industry's
performance mimics last year's strength.
    Last year, he said, paper and paperboard production hit a
record 71 mln tons, 5.9 pct above 1985's 67 mln tons, while
industry after-tax profits in 1986 exceeded 1985 profits.
    Cavaney said that inventories will play a major role in
this year's performance.
    "Inventories, which are generally low, are a positive
factor in the industry's outlook this year," he said, citing
market pulp stocks, which are currently at 21 days supply, at
the low end of the industry's long term average.
    Cavaney added that as a result of slimmer inventories in
1986 and in the early part of this year, shipments for 1987 as
a whole will be higher than last year, even if demand slackens.
    Cavaney said, however, he expects demand this year to be
strong, spurred by consumer spending.
    The benefits of tax reform on individual after-tax income
and consumer goods companies' cash flow, he said, will increase
demand for both communications paper and packaging this year.
    In addition, Cavaney said low mortgage rates should support
high levels of housing starts in 1987, increasing demand for
many kinds of packaged goods.
    Inventory building should help demand for cartons and
corrugated containers this year, he added.
    Cavaney said he expects exports to remain fairly high in
1987, as well, as a result of the recent declines in the dollar
against major world currencies.
    But more importantly, he said, an improved balance of trade
in 1987 from the lower dollar would induce increased industrial
activity at home and thus higher packaging demand.
    Cavaney said increased competitiveness, caused by lower
costs, higher productivity and improved efficiency would also
contribute to a strong showing from the industry this year.
    Cavaney said, however, that the Tax Reform Act of 1986
could have a negative impact on the industry this year.
    "For manufacturers, the removal of the investment tax
credit creates an impediment to future investment," he said.
    Also, he said API estimates the industry will lose three
billion dlrs in cash flow over a five year period as a result
of reforms.
    "Adjustments to this loss will require time and careful
evaluation and will adversely affect the capital spending
decisions of individual companies," Cavaney said.
 Reuter

West Germany takes "very seriously" the
recent undertaking by major industrial countries to promote
exchange rate stability around current levels, Finance Ministry
State Secretary Hans Tietmeyer said.
    Talking to journalists before a meeting of European
Community Economy and Finance Ministers here, Tietmeyer
declined to say whether the February 22 Paris accord by the
Group of Five countries plus Canada included secret agreements
for stabilising currencies.
    But he noted the official communique said the participants
agreed to cooperate closely to foster stability of exchange
rates around current levels. "We're taking this sentence very
seriously," he said.
    Tietmeyer remarked that the dollar had hardly moved against
the mark since the meeting.
    He said a slowdown in West German economic growth had been
caused by sharp exchange rate swings and that the Paris
agreement should help in this respect.
    Economics Ministry State Secretary Otto Schlecht said the
Bonn government saw no current need for measures to bolster the
economy but was paying close attention to the slower growth and
had not ruled out "appropriate and timely" action if necessary.
    Schlecht and Tietmeyer were speaking ahead of a discussion
by the EC ministers of the latest EC Commission report on the
economic situation in the 12-nation bloc.
    The Commission has sharply revised down expected German
gross national product growth this year to two pct from 3.2 pct
predicted last autumn and says Bonn has the most room of any EC
country to stimulate economic activity.
    Schlecht said the upturn in West Germany's economy slowed
in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of
1987. But he said there was no cumulative downwards trend in
view that would make quick remedial action necessary.
    He said a number of favourable indicators such as high
level of investment and a good climate for consumption meant a
recovery could be expected, while exports would pick up
slightly during the course of the year.
 REUTER

<Al Bank Al Saudi Al Fransi>, also known
as Saudi-French, will double paid-up capital to 400 mln riyals
from 200 mln by converting reserves into equity, bank officials
said.
    Jeddah-based Saudi-French, 40 pct owned by Banque Indosuez
and 60 pct by the Saudi public, will sign a technical services
agreement with Indosuez in Riyadh on Tuesday for management of
the bank over the next five years, they said.
    The officials said the increase in paid-up capital,
doubling the number of shares held by shareholders, will add
depth to the market and extend trading to more investors.
 REUTER

Compaq Computer Corp said it has
introduced a new 12 megahertz desktop personal computer called
the Compaq Deskpro 286R.
 More

Uganda, Africa's second largest coffee
producer, was disappointed by the stalemate in recent coffee
talks in London, the chairman of the state-run Coffee Marketing
Board, CMB, said.
    "This has not been good for coffee producers, more so in a
situation where the prices dropped by 200 pounds per tonne of
robusta coffee," J. Makumbi said when he returned from London on
Friday.
    Producers and consumers failed to agree on a quota formula
to share the world's coffee production during International
Coffee Organisation, ICO, talks that ended last week.
    Makumbi blamed the failure to set quotas, which were
suspended in Feburary last year, on Indonesian demands that its
quota be increased dramatically.
    Uganda -- which earns about 400 mln dlrs annually from
coffee exports, over 95 pct of its foreign exchange earnings --
had sought to raise its ICO quota to 3.0 mln from 2.45 mln
60-kilo bags, according to sources close to the CMB.
    The CMB has estimated that production will rise 20 to 25
pct in the current 1986/87 October-September season to over
three mln bags.
    For several years Uganda had been unable to meet its ICO
export quota as rebel activity disrupted the coffee industry.
    The Ugandan government depends on coffee export duties for
about 60 pct of its sales tax revenue and the industry employs
over half of salaried manpower.
    In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's Agriculture and Livestock
Development Minister Paul Bomani said today Third World
countries would suffer from the failure of the London coffee
talks.
    "It is only the middlemen who will benefit, he said.
    Bomani called on the ICO to convene another meeting within
two months, saying, "Once tempers have cooled and delegations
have had time to report back to their headquarters, common
sense will prevail."
 Reuter

Chrysler to take over Renault stake in American Motors, says Renault

CCC, has authorized an additional 8.0 mln dlrs in credit
guarantees for sales of vegetable protein meals to Hungary for
fiscal year 1987, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The additional guarantees increase the vegetable protein
meal credit line to 16.0 mln dlrs and increases the cumulative
fiscal year 1987 program for agricultural products to 23.0 mln
dlrs from 15.0 mln, it said.
    The department also announced an extension of the export
period from September 30, 1987, to December 31 for sales of
vegetable protein meals.
    To be eligible for the credit guarantees all sales must be
registered before export but not later than September 30.
 Reuter

SOUTHERN CO TO TAKE 226 MLN DLR CHARGE ON PROJECTED VOGTLE COST RISE

Applied Circuit Technology Inc
(ACT) said it has agreed in principal to sell its primary
computer electronics business to the <Sanpao Group> of San
Francisco.
    ACT said it has not disclosed the deal's terms, but added
that 50 pct of the sale price is in cash, with the remainder to
be paid over a two year period.
    The deal is expected to close on March 31, ACT said.
    ACT said it made the move to concentrate resources on its
pharmaceuticals subsidiaries.
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it has
acquired 2,292,599 Piedmont Aviation Inc shares, about 9.9 pct
on a fully diluted basis, from Norfolk Southern Corp <NSC>.
    The acquisition of Piedmont by USAir has been approved by
the directors of both companies.
    USAir said it has been advised by Norfolk Southern that the
company supports the proposed merger and intends to tender all
of its remaining 1,477,829 Piedmont common shares in response
to USAir's tender offer which began today. This total includes
shares issuable upon conversion of Piedmont preferred, USAir
noted.
    USAir said Piedmont has about 23.1 mln common shares on a
fully diluted basis, adding its offer is conditioned on the
tender of at least 9,309,394 shares, representing 40.2 pct of
the oustanding shares on a diluted basis.
    USAir said the 3,491,030 new shares it has an option to buy
represent 18.5 pct of Piedmont's currently outstanding shares.
 Reuter

THE FOLLOWING RAINFALL WAS RECORDED IN
THE AREAS OVER PAST 72 HOURS
    PARANA STATE: UMUARAMA NIL, PARANAVAI 1.5 MILLIMETRES,
LONDRINA NIL, MARINGA NIL.
    SAO PAULO STATE: PRESIDENTE PRUDENTE O.6 MM, VOTUPORANGA
12.0 MM, FRANCA 28.0 MM, CATANDUVA 10.0 MM, SAO CARLOS NIL, SAO
SIMAO NIL. REUTER11:43/VB

GENCORP TO SELL LOS ANGELES TELEVISION STATION TO WALT DISNEY CO

Nationwide Cellular Service
Inc said it has completed the previously-announced acquisition
of privately-held Nova Cellular Co, a Chicago reseller of
mobile telephone service with 1,800 subscribers, for about
65,000 common shares.
    Nova Cellular has an accumulated deficit of about 650,000
dlrs and had revenues of about 2,600,000 dlrs for 1986, it
said.
 Reuter

today.
    National Westminster said it was responding to general
strongly.
 Reuter

market with further assistance during the afternoon, buying
bills worth 166 mln stg at the lower rates introduced this
morning.
    It bought 45 mln stg of local authority bills plus 27 mln
stg of bank bills in band one at 10-3/8 pct together with 94
mln stg of band two bank bills at 10-5/16 pct.
    The bank also revised its estimate of the market shortage
up to 300 mln stg from 250 mln this morning. It has given total
assistance of 213 mln stg today.
 REUTER

The heads of the Chicago Board of
Trade, CBT, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME, are to
address a meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's
financial products advisory committee March 11 in Chicago, CFTC
said.
    CBT Chairman Karsten Mahlmann will present the objectives
and views of the CBT's ad hoc committee on off exchange trading
issues, CFTC said.
    CME President William Brodsky is set to discuss current
issues involving equity index markets, including factors
affecting price volatility, changes in settlement procedures,
margin changes and price limits.
    The CFTC committee, headed by Commissioner Robert Davis,
examines financial futures market issues.
 Reuter

Container port operator, <Hong Kong
International Terminals Ltd>, a 89 pct held unit of Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK>, said it has placed a 164 mln H.K. Dlr
order for seven quayside container cranes of 800 tons each with
Japan's Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co Ltd <MSET.T> for
May 1988 to August 1989 delivery.
    Hong Kong International Terminals operates 32 cranes.
 REUTER

Istanbul remained at a virtual
standstill today under snow up to a meter deep but shipping was
moving through the narrow Bosphorus waterway linking the Sea of
Marmara and the Black Sea, officials said.
    The authorities ordered government offices closed until
Wednesday. Many banks, businesses and schools stayed shut as
workers struggled to keep main roads and supply lines open in
this city of 6.5 mln people.
    The second blizzard to hit Istanbul in a week stopped
yesterday afternoon and the international airport reopened
today after a two-day closure. It was also shut earlier last
week.
 Reuter

FRENCH JAN M-3 MONEY SUPPLY ROSE PROV ADJUSTED ONE PCT (O.7 PCT FALL IN DEC) - OFFICIAL.

Blizzards lashed Greece today, piling up
to 10 feet of snow in places and paralyzing transport in what
state radio called unprecedented weather conditions for this
time of year.
    Except for a handful of flights of the national airline
Olympic Airways that took off before the blizzards started, all
air traffic in and out of the Athens international airport was
canceled, radio said.
    The weather service said heavy snowfalls would continue for
several hours.
    Cold weather also hit southern and eastern Italy. Heavy
snowfalls caused long delays and difficulties for road, rail
and air traffic.
 Reuter

Malaysia said the success of talks
opening today on a new International Natural Rubber Agreement
(INRA) depends on how flexible consumer countries are.
    Rubber producer and consumer countries meet for 12 days in
Geneva from tomorrow to try to hammer out a rubber pact after
they failed to reach agreement last November to replace the
current accord, which expires next October.
    Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said in a
statement that Malaysia wants to continue with a second INRA
and is prepared to accept modifications that would strengthen
the present agreement.
    He said the second INRA would allow for an orderly disposal
of the accumulated buffer stock of 375,000 tonnes, since the
market is now capable of absorbing such releases.
 Reuter

Pharmacia AB said it was launching a
200 mln dlr Eurocommercial paper programme as part of a move to
internationalise the company's financing.
    Market makers will be Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan
Stanley International and Svenska Handelsbanken PLC.
    Pharmacia treasurer Bertil Tiusanen said gaining direct
access to the short term international capital market would
improve its ability to meet its dollar borrowing requirement.
    He said it was a natural step for an internationally known
company whose shares are noted in Tokyo and Stockholm and are
traded over the counter in the United States.
 REUTER

McDowell Enterprises Inc said
it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an 80 pct
interest in privately held Interpharm Inc for a 19.9 pct
interest in McDowell.
    The company said subject to contigencies, including future
sales and profit levels, McDowell could over a four-year period
acquire 100 pct of Interpharm in exchange for up to 51 pct of
McDowell's voting stock.
    It said the transaction is expected to be completed within
60 days, at which time the McDowell board would be restructured
to include Interpharm management. 
 Reuter

The Federal Home Mortgage Corp
announced the sale of 400 mln dlrs for residential mortgages to
First Union Corp's mortgage subsidiary.
    Freddie Mac said that First Union Mortgage Corp already
swapped 70 mln dlrs of new residential mortgages to Freddie Mac
in the first phase of the contract.
    Freddie Mac said buy selling 400 mln dlrs worth of
mortages, it makes more mortgage money available. It said
through its guarantor program, First Union will be allowed to
convert its investment-quality mortgages into mortgage-backed
securities accepted in capital markets.
    Freddie Mac explained that the securities can be used as
collateral for borrowings, sold to other investors, or employed
in a variety of cash management techniques.
 Reuter

British Caledonian Airways said it has
filed an application with the British Civil Aviation Authority
for a license to operate between San Diego's Lindbergh Field
and London's Gatwick Airport.
    It said it would extend its existing Los Angeles/London
nonstop service to San Diego and would initially offer three
roundtrips weekly.
 Reuter

Regie Nationale des Usines Renault
<RENA.PA> said it and Chrysler Corp <C> have signed a letter of
intent in which Chrysler plans to buy American Motors Corp
<AMO.N>, 46 pct owned by Renault.
    Renault President Raymond Levy said in a statement issued
by the French state car group the agreement was an important
stage in Renault's redeployment. "It will allow Renault to
continue its export programme to the U.S. And also opens a
perspective of cooperation with a major American constructor,"
the statement said. Under the terms of the letter of intent,
Chrysler will purchase Renault's stake held in the form of
bonds and shares.
    The Renault statement quoted Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca
as saying, "We welcome AMC shareholders into the Chrysler
family."
    He added that the accord would allow Renault and Chrysler
to study the development of future products destined to be
distributed by Renault and Chrysler in the North American and
    "Renault is a leader in our industry and I am happy to be
working with them," Iacocca was quoted as saying.
    Chrysler will pay for Renault's AMC interests held in bonds
by a 200 mln dlr bond and will pay up to 350 mln dlrs for
Renault share interests, depending on AMC sales and future
profits, the Renault statement said.
    The statement said the agreement in principle gave each
side 30 days to put together a definitive accord. Approval
would also be necessary from the Renault, Chrysler and AMC
boards, from AMC shareholders and the relevant government
authorities.
    If the deal goes ahead, the statement said, AMC
shareholders other than Renault will receive Chrysler shares
for each of their shares valued at four dlrs.
    AMC shareholders with convertible preferential shares will
have the possibility to exchange them for Chrysler shares on
the same conditions as those they would have had in exchanging
them for AMC shares.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 285,000 to 300,000 head versus
292,000 week ago and 309,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 125,000 to
131,000 head versus 129,000 week ago and 119,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

British retailer Burton Group PLC said
trading in its American Depositary Receipts will start today.
    Each ADR represents four Burton shares.
 Reuter

Claire's Stores Inc said February sales
were up 46 pct to 6,360,000 dlrs from 4,350,000 dlrs a year
before, with same-store sales up 16 pct.
    The company said March sales may not increase at the sdame
rate, since Easter falls late in April this year, but earnings
and sales for the first quarter should be up significantly from
a year ago.
    In last year's first quarter ended May Three, Claire's
earned 934,000 dlrs on sales of 18.4 mln dlrs, compared with
earnings of 2,289,000 dlrs on sales of 16.4 mln dlrs a year
earlier.
 Reuter

Bank of France said it cut money market intervention rate to 7-3/4 pct from eight pct

FIRST BOSTON AFFILIATE TO ACQUIRE ALLEGHENY INT'L FOR 24.60 DLRS/SHR

Southern Co said it will take an
after-tax charge of 226 mln dlrs against earnings no later than
January 1988 because the projected cost of the Vogtle nuclear
power plant has risen abover the amount which retail customers
in Georgia will be asked to pay.
    The company's largest subsidiary, Georgia Power Co, said
the budget for the plant has increased by 6.3 pct, or 522 mln
dlrs, to 8.87 billion. However, because of a pledge the made
last year to Georgia's Public Service Commission, the increased
cost will not be included in the utility's retail electric
rates.
    Geogia Power also said its board has delayed the scheduled
completion of Vogtle's Unit Two to June 1989 from September
1988. Unit Two is about 60 pct complete, it added.
    The utility said fuel loading has been completed at Unit
One and the unit is being put through a series of low-power
tests before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asked for a
full-power license.
    The nuclear power plant, located near Waynesboro, Ga., is
co-owned by <Oglethorpe Power Corp>, the Municipal Electric
Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton.
    Georgia Power said the revised Vogtle budget estimate was
due to several factors, including additional labor costs
incurred to keep the plant's first unit on schedule for
commercial operation by June. The new figure represents the
first change in the plant's budget since August 1985, when it
was estimated at 8.35 billion dlrs.
    In March 1986, the utility told Georgia regulators it would
"cap" the price of Vogtle its customers would be asked to pay
at 3.56 billion dlrs, the company's share of the then projected
8.35 billion dlr total. Under the new budget, Georgia Power
said, its share amounts to 3.87 billion dlrs.
    Noting that Georgia Power's share of the Vogtle increase is
313 mln dlrs, Southern said this will result in a charge
against earnings of 177 mln dlrs after taxes.
    In addition, the company said, Georgia Power's contracts
with the joint owners require the utility to buy back
significant amounts of Vogtle capacity during the plant's
initial years of operation. Under terms of the cap on costs, it
will not attempt to recover the portion of the budget increase
that applies to the buybacks.
    This bings the total amount that must be charged against
earnings to 2326 mln dlrs after taxes, Southern said.
    Southern said new rules of the Financial Accounting
Standards Board, which are effective in January 1988, require
any costs that are determined nonrecoverable to be charged
against earnings once that determination is made.
    The company also said its board has approved a capital
budget of 2.1 billion dlrs in 1987, including work on the
Vogtle project.
    It said a 5.9 billion dlr capita budget for the three-year
period 1987-1989 was also outlined at the board meeting, noting
this is 700 mln dlrs below the comparable figure for the years
1986-1988.
 Reuter

Sweden's Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags
AB <SKPS ST> said it had now acquired 90 pct of shares in rival
pulp and paper makers Papyrus AB, thus passing the threshold
above which it can compulsorily buy the rest of the company.
    Remaining shareholders would have until later this month to
sell their shares to Stora, the company said in a statement.
    Stora announced last September it would acquire Papyrus at
a price of 5.8 billion crowns, thus forming Europe's second
largest forest group after London-based Reed International Plc
<REED L>.
 REUTER

Export-Import Bank of Japan president
Takashi Tanaka told Brazil the bank will continue to cooperate
with it, but he refrained from making any commitment to a new
credit, Ex-Im officials said.
    In a 30-minute meeting, Tanaka told Brazilian Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro the bank would consider his country's
request for a 300 mln dlr credit in the context of
international cooperation, the officials said.
    They said this meant the Ex-Im Bank would grant the credit
as part of a package with money from the International Monetary
Fund and private banks.
    Brazil has resisted going to the IMF for help because it
fears that the Fund will ask for changes in its economic
policies that will throw it into recession.
    Brazil first requested the 300 mln dlr credit last
November, to help it develop the sale and generation of
electric power. Funaro renewed the request today.
 REUTER

year's 18.4 pct drop.
    The average mark/dollar rate is put at 1.80 marks this year
and 1.70 in 1988 while the yen/dollar rate is expected to break
through the 150 yen barrier with an average value of 150 yen in
1987 and 146 yen in 1988, it said.
    "This is not a crash scenario but the dollar's steeper angle
of descent increases the risk of ending with a fireball rather
than a three-point landing," the EIU said.
U.S. Fiscal policy," it said.
    "Thus far they have been willing," the EIC said, adding that
if Japan was deterred from buying U.S. Bonds the dollar would
collapse.
    On trade, the EIU said prospects for 1987 look "increasingly
sick."
    However, rates of inflation will edge up in 1988 to over
the current OECD average of three pct. Non-oil commodity prices
will show a modest dollar price increase in 1988 for the first
time since 1984, the EIU said.
    After a rise of 18 pct in 1986, the dollar price of
internationally traded manufactures will go up by 8.5 pct in
1987 and by five pct in 1988, it said.
    It said OECD industrial production would rise by only 1.6
pct in 1987 after a weak 1.5 pct increase in 1986.
 Reuter

market with unspecified late assistance worth 15 mln stg.
    It has given the market total assistance of 228 mln stg
today compared with a liquidity shortage it estimated at a
revised 300 mln stg.
 REUTER

The Bank of France said it cut its money
market intervention rate to 7-3/4 pct from eight pct when it
injected money against first category paper.
    The bank also cut its seven-day repossession rate to 8-1/2
pct from 8-3/4 pct.
    The intervention rate has stood at eight pct since it was
raised from 7-1/4 pct on January 2 as the French franc came
under pressure ahead of the EMS realignment on January 11.
    The bank said the purchase, effective tomorrow, is for five
pct of private paper and fixed rate Treasury bills maturing
between March 25 and June 25 and of other Treasury bills
maturing between March 25, 1987 and March 25, 1989.
    The rate cut had been expected since the bank announced a
money market intervention tender earlier today.
    Money market dealers said conditions seemed right for a
quarter percentage point cut, reflecting an easing in the call
money rate last week, and the French franc's steadiness on
foreign exchange markets since the February 22 currency
 REUTER

White Engine, a manufacturer of
industrial and automotive diesel and gasoline engines with more
than 100 mln dlrs in sales, said it has been sold to a group of
group investors.
    White Engine said the purchase is led by Donald Stewart, a
private investment banker, along with White senior executives.
    A source close to the transaction said the purchase prices
is being set at more than 55 mln dlrs.
    The company said it will change its name to Hercules
Engines Inc, and Stewart will be the majority interest owner,
as well as the president and chief executive officer.
    In addition, John Lennon, current chairman and chief
executive officer, will remain as chairman, he company said.
And Joseph G. Scheetz, currently president, will be vice
chairman, according to the company.
 Reuter

 Reuter

AB <SKPS.ST> said it has now acquired 90 pct of shares in rival
<REED L>.
 REUTER

has entered into an agreement to merge with an affiliate of
First Boston Inc's <FPC> First Boston Corp in a transaction
valued at about 500 mln dlrs.
    Allegheny said the agreement calls for holders of its
common to receive 24.60 dlrs a share. Holders of the company's
2.19 dlrs cumulative preference shares will receive 20 dlrs a
share and those owning its 11.25 dlrs convertible preferred
will receive 87.50 dlrs a share.
    Allegheny International said the agreement calls for the
First Boston affiliate to start a cash tender offer for all
outstanding shares of Allegheny's common, cumulative preferred
and convertible preferred.
    The company said First Boston has committed to provide all
financing necessary to acquire such securities in the tender
offer which is estimated to be about 500 mln dlrs.
    It said the agreement is also subject to the waiver by
March 13 of certain conditions under the company's existing
bank credit agreement.
    Allegheny International's statement did not name or
describe the First Boston affiliate involved in the agreement.
    It did say the offer for the company's stock will be
conditioned also on the valid tender of securities representing
at least a majority of the voting power for the election of
directors of the company and the valid tender of at least two
third's of the outstanding cumulative preferred and convertible
preferred shares.
   
 Reuter

French money supply, measured in terms of
M-3, rose a provisional one pct in January after falling 0.7
pct in December, the Bank of France said.
    M-3 is the main money supply aggregate used by the French
monetary authorities. It has been joined as a second main money
supply aggregate for 1987 by M-2, which rose a provisional 1.2
pct in January after falling a confirmed 0.9 pct in December.
    Calculated on a three-month moving average basis, M-3 rose
4.4 pct year-on-year in the quarter based on December after
rising 5.4 pct in the quarter centred on September.
    The M-2 aggregate, centred on a three-month moving average,
rose year-on-year by four pct, within a 1987 target range of
four to six pct.
    M-1 rose 2.5 pct after a 1.1 pct fall in December. M-1
measures notes and coins in circulation plus sight deposits.
    M-2 adds in short-term bank deposits and M-3 adds in other
short-term deposits.
    The central bank's widest measure of liquidity, L, rose 1.5
pct in January after one pct fall in December. The bank said
the money supply growth reflected a net increase of sight
deposits and renewed interest in money market instruments.
 REUTER

CHRYSLER SAYS AMC HOLDERS TO GET CHRYSLER STOCK WORTH FOUR DLRS A SHARE UNDER BUYOUT PLAN

Genex Corp said it has
completed an agreement for Eberstadt Fleming Venture Capital's
Plant Resources Venture Fund II and Morgenthaler Venture
Partners II and accounts managed by Citicorp <CCI> to provide
it with a four mln dlr interim credit line.
    It said the Eberstadt venture capital funds and the
Citicorp accounts will receive warrants to buy 1,666,667 common
shares at 60 cts each and two representatives of the funds will
be named to the Genex board.
    Genex said as part of the transaction, it has signed an
emplopyment agreement for a senior executive it did not name to
become president and chief executive officer of Genex at the
end of March, on completion of his obligations to his current
employer.
    The company said over the next six months, it will use its
best efforts to increase its authorized capital and make a six
to eight mln dlr rights offering to holders of its convertible
preferred stock at 60 cts per equivalent common share, with
proceeds to be used to repay sums drawn from the interim line
of credit and for working capital.
    Genex said the rights would not be transferable separately
from the common stock.
    It said its three largest shareholders, Robert F. Johnston,
Koppers Co <KOP> and J. Leslie Glick, who together own about 34
pct of Genex stock, will provide irrevocable proxies to the
venture firms on completion of the rights offering and have
agreed not to exercise their rights to acquire stock in the
rights offering.
    Genex said the venture firms will have the right to buy any
unsubscribed shares of convertible preferred and may buy
additional shares at the time of the rights offer.
 Reuter

The Turkish Central Bank set a
Lira/Dollar rate for March 10 of 773.05/776.92 to the Dollar,
down from the previous 769.60/773.45.
    The Bank also set a Lira/Mark rate of 417.20/419.29 to the
Mark, up from the previous 419.15/421.25.

Continental Bank of Canada, a subsidiary
of Lloyds Bank PLC <LLOY.L>, said it intends to redeem all
existing preferred shares and distribute a stock dividend to
common shareholders.
    The initial distribution will be in cumulative redeemable
retractable floating rate class A preferred shares series II,
which will carry a retraction right enabling holders to receive
12.75 dlrs for each share.
    Continental said the 58.6 mln dlrs of existing outstanding
preferred shares will be paid off at par plus accrued dividends.
     Continental said the notes will carry a dividend rate of
72 pct of prime and it expects that the shares will trade at
12.75 dlrs or more, enabling shareholders who wish to receive
cash to do so.
    The bank said it expects the distribution will be made in
early May, subject to various approvals.
    Continental also said that, as of March 2, it had cash of
more than 250 mln dlrs and equity of about 284.6 mln dlrs,
allowing for a final total distribution of 16.60 dlrs per
    Continental Bank said it continues to expect that the final
distribution to shareholders will be in the range of 16.50 dlrs
to 17.25 dlrs per share and will take place in late 1988 or
early 1989.
    Until the initial stock distribution takes place, regular
dividend payments will be maintained on the existing preferred
shares, the bank said.
    The distribution is part of the terms of Continental Bank
of Canada's sale of its banking assets to Lloyds Bank Canada, a
subsidiary of Lloyds Bank PLC.
    Continental Bank said Lloyds Bank Canada paid the balance
of the purchase price but that it was lower than originally
anticipated since Continental was unable to transfer certain
income tax deductions to Lloyds Bank. Continental did not give
 More

A free trade pact between the United
States and Canada could spur the economies of both sides
substantially, according to a study released by the Institute
for International Economics.
    The study, by Paul Wonnacott, said a successful conclusion
to the free trade talks now under way could raise Canada's
gross national product by more than five pct and expand U.S.
export's by about seven pct.
    He said the pact could resolve the knotty issue of
government subsidies, end curbs on trade in services and
investments and pave the way for new global talks under the 
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
    The United States and Canada - the world's two biggest
trading partners with cross border shipments of about 150
billion dlrs a year - opened free trade talks last June. They
are aiming for a pact by next October.
    Wonnacott, an economics professor at the Univerity of
Maryland, said an agreement should include:
    - Elimination of tariffs between the two countries, phased
in over a five to 10-year period;
    - Equal access to federal government procurement in the two
countries, replacing current "Buy America" and "Buy Canada"
provisions with a "Buy North America" provision;
    - Fewer restrictions in trade in services, chiefly finance
and transportation;
    - A commitment not to screen foreign investments in favor
domestic producers;
    - A commission to resolve bilateral trade disputes.
     Wonnacott said that to resolve the subsidy problem, the
two sides should permit export subsidies of exports of up to
2.0 or 2.5 pct without imposing coutervailing duties.
    The limit on subsidies is now 0.5 pct.
    He proposed that any attempt to impose new duties to offset
subsidies should go first a special disputes commission for
resolution at an early stage.
    Wonnacott said "bilateral free trade would contribute to the
efficiency of the North American economies and to their
competitiveness in facing overseas producers.
    He said it would it would open U.S. markets to Canadian
goods and enable them to benefit from the economies of mass
    Benefits to the United States would be fewer than those to
Canada proportionately, he said, because of the already large
U.S. gross national product.
    Wonnacott said also that a U.S.-Canada pact in such areas
as export subsidies and the creation of a dispute commission
could set an example for the current attempt by GATT to write
new and more liberal global trading regulations.
 Reuter

Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp said it
has sold 9,534,633 shares of <Imperial Continental Gas
Association> for 720 pence a share, or 68.6 mln stg, in a
private transaction for a pretax gain of about 19.6 mln dlrs.
    Gulf Resources said it still owns 6.7 mln shares of
Imperial Continental, or a 4.6 pct interest, and continues to
study various alternatives.
 Reuter

A Stockholm court today appointed a
bailiff to find the founder of troubled Swedish biotech group
Fermenta AB <FRMS.ST>, who is being sued for 30 million crowns
by a disgruntled shareholder.
    The court heard that Refaat el-Sayed, sacked from the
Fermenta board after losing his principal shareholding to
creditors, had failed to reply to an official court notice
about the action which was sent to him two weeks ago.
    The bailiff was appointed to find el-Sayed and gain an
official response to the court notice within the next
fortnight.
 Reuter

Graan Elevator Mij said its balance in
port of grains, oilseeds and derivatives rose to 136,000 tonnes
on March 7 from 31,000 a week earlier, after arrivals of
523,000 tonnes and discharges of 418,000 tonnes last week.
    The balance comprised 38,000 tonnes of grains and oilseeds
and 98,000 tonnes of derivatives.
    This week's estimated arrivals total 194,000 tonnes, of
which 45,000 are grains/oilseeds and 149,000 derivatives.
    The figures cover around 95 pct of Rotterdam traffic in the
products concerned.
 Reuter

DONALD TRUMP SAID HE HAS AGREED TO PURCHASE CROSBY ESTATE'S RESORTS SHARES

Three London markets which trade potato,
soymeal and meat futures said they will merge to form a new
Agricultural Futures Exchange.
    Legal advisers have been instructed to implement the
amalgamation of the London Potato Futures Association, LPFA,
the London Meat Futures Exchange, LMFE, and the Grain and Feed
Trade Association's, GAFTA, Soya Bean Meal Futures Association,
SOMFA. No timetable was given.
    Members of the three exchanges have been consulted,
Agricultural Futures Exchange secretary Bill Englebright told
Reuters, and no objections have been raised to the merger.
    Three markets are involved at present but the new exchange
could ultimately combine five markets.
    Discussions are taking place with the Baltic International
Freight Futures Exchange, BIFFEX, and the GAFTA London Grain
Futures Market is considering the possibility of joining the
other markets, market officials said.
    The BIFFEX board is expected to reach a decision on the
merger at its meeting at the end of this month, after members
are consulted at a meeting on March 16.
    The grain futures market also intends to consult its
members soon, GAFTA director general James Mackie said.
    The aim of the amalgamation is to limit regulatory and
administrative costs and achieve the recognition required under
the 1986 Financial Services Act. This legislation requires a
futures market to become a Recognised Investment Exchange, RIE,
for trading to continue.
    Representatives of all the futures markets on the Baltic
Exchange have been discussing the possibility of a single RIE
structure since the beginning of the year.
    The new exchange now planned will apply to the Securities
and Investments Board for recognition as an RIE "at the
appropriate time," the Agricultural Futures Exchange said.
    "This commitment by the markets will enable progress to be
made to develop a stronger and more effective exchange to the
benefit of all those involved in the industry," the chairman of
the formation committee, Pat Elmer, said.
    The merged markets will remain at the Baltic Exchange.
 Reuter

BSN Corp said its agreement to sell
1,750,000 new common shares, or a 25 pct interest, to 31
unaffiliated European institutional investors for 30.4 mln dlrs
has become definitive.
    The company said closing is expected shortly after the
filing of a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, which is expected to be made this month.
 Reuter

Gencorp said its RKO General
subsidiary agreed to sell KHJ-TV in Los Angeles to Walt Disney
Co <DIS> for 217 mln dlrs cash plus working capital and other
adjustments at closing.
    The company said under the agreement in principle, RKO's
application to renew the station's broadcast license would be
dismissed and the competing application of Fidelity Television
would be granted. Disney would then acquire privately held
Fidelity for about 103 mln dlrs and other adjustments.
    Renewal of the KHJ-TV license has been challenged in
regulatory proceedings for more than 20 years.
    The deal is subject to prior approval by the Federal
Communications Commission, the company said.
    Late in 1985, Gencorp cut a deal with Fidelity, a Los
Angeles investor group, and Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX> to
settle the license proceedings and sell KHJ-TV for 313 mln
dlrs, 70 pct of which would go to Westinghouse and the
remainder to Fidelity. But on Jan 28, 1987, Westinghouse
withdrew from the deal because the FCC would not approve it.
    In early 1986, Gencorp and RKO agreed to sell WOR-TV in
Secaucus, N.J., to MCA Inc <MCA> for 387 mln dlrs. The FCC has
approved the transaction, but several parties have appealed.
    The FCC has not said when it would rule on the appeals,
according to a spokemsan for Akron, Ohio-based Gencorp.
    Fidelity Television originally filed a competing
application for the RKO license for KHJ, an independent
station, in 1965.
    In 1980, the FCC disqualified RKO as licensee of WNAC-TV in
Boston, citing anti-competitive trade practices and inaccurate
financial reporting to the agency, causing renewals previously
granted to RKO in New York, for WOR, and Los Angeles, for KHJ,
to be denied.
 Reuter

BARCLAYS BANK SAID IT CUTTING BASE LENDING RATE TO 10.5 PCT FROM 11 PCT.

MIDLAND BANK SAID IT CUTTING ITS BASE RATE TO 10.5 PCT FROM 11 PCT.

Imatron Inc said
Mitsui and Co Ltd of Japan has purchased a two mln dlr equity
interest in Imatron at market price and was granted a 120-day
option to make another two mln dlr investment at the same price.
    Imatron said Mitsui, the exclusive importer of Imatron's
Ultrafast computed tomography scanners into Japan, is scheduled
to take delivery of its first scanner next month for
installation in a large cardiology center.
    It said it has entered into preliminary discussions with
Mitsui on the formation of a joint venture to finance the
accelerated development of Imatron's technology and its
commercialization in Japan.
 Reuter

Morocco, buoyed by an economic turnaround
and last week's Paris Club debt rescheduling, is likely to
obtain over 100 mln dlrs worth of development aid at a meeting
with donors beginning here tomorrow, John Shilling, director of
the World Bank's Moroccan division, said.
    "A certain optimism has appeared in the economy to the
effect that things are no longer impossible and Morocco can get
out of its problems ... We are aiming for 100 mln Special
Drawing Rights and if we can get more it will be put to good
use," he told a news conference.
    The agreement last week with the Paris Club of western
creditors rescheduling over 10 years 900 mln dlrs worth of
official debt due by mid-1988, together with an accord late
last year to reschedule 1.8 billion dlrs of commercial bank
debt, had already encouraged donors to increase aid, he added.
    Debt sources said a World Bank concessional loan of around
200 mln dlrs to help rationalise Morocco's public sector was
likely to be agreed in Washington soon.
 REUTER

A. H. Robins Co, the drug company
in bankruptcy proceedings due to litigation over its Dalkon
Shield contraceptive device, reported consolidated net earnings
for the month ended January 31 of 17.3 mln dlrs.
    In the corresponding year-ago period it reported net
earnings of 13.8 mln dlrs.
    Robins said the filings were made with the U.S. trustee
overseeing its chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
 Reuter

Barclays Bank Plc <BCS.L> and Midland
Bank Plc <MDBL.L> said they are cutting their base lending
rates to 10.5 pct from 11 pct. The cuts follow a similar move
by National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>
    The rate changes take effect tomorrow.
 REUTER

Control Data Corp said it
agreed to acquire Unisys Inc's <UIS> 13 pct stake in <Magnetic
Peripherals Inc>.
    The letter of intent provides that Unisys converts from an
owner in Magnetic Peripherals to a customer of Control Data's
data storage products group over a two year period.
    Under the agreement, Control Data will continue to furnish
disk drives to Unisys, it said.
    No other details of the proposed agreement were available.
    Magnetic Controls, managed by the data storage products
group of Control Data, was founded in 1975 as a joint venture
to maintain a technological base in data storage, and supply
peripheral equipment for the computer systems of its owners.
    The venture has become a developer and manufacturer of high
performance, high-capacity data storage products sold by
Control Data to computer systems manafacturers worldwide, it
said.
    After conversion of the Unisys interest, Control Data will
own 80 pct, Honeywell Inc <HON>, 14 pct and Bull S.A. of
France, six pct, it said.
 Reuter

Casino hotel operator and real estate
developer Donald Trump said he has agreed to purchase the Class
B common stock of Resorts International Inc held by the family
and estate of late Resorts chairman James Crosby for 135 dlrs
per share.
    Trump said he is also considering a tender offer for
remaining Class B shares at the same price but has no interest
in Resorts' Class A shares.
    Trump said the shares he has agreed already to buy
represent a 78 pct interest in the Class B stock. The estate
itself owns 340,783 of the 752,297 Class B shares. There are
also about 6,432,000 Class A shares outstanding, but Trump said
"I have no interest in the Class A shares."
    Each Class B share has 100 times the voting power of a
Class A share.
    In Atlantic City, Resorts said in a statement that the
Class B shares being sold to Trump represents 73 pct of the
combined voting power in Resorts.
    It said closing is dependent on receipt of necessary
regulatory approvals and other matters, and after closing,
Trump will tender for remaining Class B shares at the same
price.
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said a U.S. District
Court in Pittsburgh issued a temporary restraining order to
prevent Trans World Airlines Inc from buying additional USAir
shares.
    USAir said the order was issued in response to its suit,
charging TWA chairman Carl Icahn and TWA violated federal laws
and made misleading statements.
    TWA last week said it owned 15 pct of USAir's shares. It
also offered to buy the company for 52 dlrs a share cash or 1.4
 More

Grease Monkey Holding Corp said it has
received and rejected an unsolicited merger offer from Jiffy
Lube International Inc <LUBE>.
    The company said the proposal involved an exchange of
Grease Monkey common stock for a combination of Jiffy Lube
securities with an estimated current value substantially below
Grease Monkey's current market
 price.
    It said it will not disclosed details.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court declined to hear an
appeal by U.S. West Inc <USW> challenging whether a consent
decree was legally binding on the seven regional telephone
firms created by the breakup of American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <T>.
    The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling by a U.S.
Court of Appeals last August that the restrictions of the 1982
decree were legally binding on the regional companies, even
though they were not parties to it.
    U.S. West, one of the seven regional companies, argued that
the restrictions violated the constitutional protections of due
process under the law because AT and T did not adequately
represent its subsidiaries during the consent decree
    The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to reject
the appeal, saying, "As a parent corporation, AT and T had the
legal authority to bind (its operating subsidiaries) in a
consent decree."
    Also opposing the appeal was AT and T.
    The appeals court ruling also allowed the Bell operating
companies to offer certain services outside their territory
without express permission of the federal courts.
    That part of the ruling was not appealed to the Supreme
Court.
    Justice Antonin Scalia did not take part in today's ruling,
and the court gave no explanation.
 Reuter

A decision on final dumping duties on
frozen orange juice from Brazil may not be issued until
tomorrow, Commerce Department officials said.
    They said the department has until midnight tonight to set
the duty but may not make the finding public until tomorrow.
    A preliminary duty of 8.54 pct was set October 17, 1986.
    The final ruling will be based on more detailed
information, the officials said.
 Reuter

Bank of England says issuing further one billion stg 8-3/4 pct bonds due 1997

Chrysler Corp said it agreed in
principle with French state-owned Renault to acquire American
Motors Corp., in which Renault is controlling shareholder,
under a deal in which AMC stockholders other than Renault would
receive Chrysler common stock with a market value of four dlrs
for each AMC common share they hold.
    Chrysler said the letter of intent for the deal, which
needs government and AMC shareholder and board approval,
provides that AMC holders will receive not more than .0840 or
less than .0687 of a share of Chrysler common for each share of
AMC common they hold.
 more

Frank B. Hall and Co Inc said the
superintendent of insurance of New York, as liquidator of Union
Capital Indemnity Insurance Co of New York, has filed a lawsuit
against the company, Touche Ross and Co, a group of Hall units,
and former officers and directors of Union Indemnity seeking
damages of 140 mln dlrs in connection with Union's insolvency.
    Union Indemnity was a unit of Hall prior to being placed
into liquidation by the New York Insurance Department in July
1985.
    Hall said it intends to oppose this action vigorously.
 Reuter

Advanced Tobacco Products Inc
said it will make an announcement regarding its stock halt this
morning on NASDAQ.
    The company said lawyers are preparing the release with
company officials and should be making the announcement within
the hour.
    The stock's last bid was 3/8 and last ask 1/2.
 Reuter

    The base rate reductions came after the Bank of England cut
its dealing rates this morning in a signal to the money markets
that it would not resist a half percentage point drop in bank
base lending rates, market sources said.
    Until the end of last week, the central was holding out
staunchly against market pressures for lower rates in an
apparent effort to preserve the expected rate cuts for around
the time of the government's annual Budget on March 17.
    Sterling remained firm around 1.59 dlrs compared with its
close here on Friday at 1.5865 dlrs.
 REUTER

The U.S. Mint said it is seeking
offers on 4,784,000 lbs of special high-grade zinc that it
intends to purchase.
    It said selling offers will be due at 1100 hrs EST, March
24.
    The Mint said two increments of 1,300,000 lbs each are for
delivery the weeks of April 13 and april 20 to Ball Corp,
Greeneville, Tenn., and two increments of 1,092,000 lbs each
are to be delivered the weeks of April 20 and April 27 to
LaSalle Rolling Mills, LaSalle, Ill.
    Firms, in submitting offers, may elect to receive payment
from the Mint by standard check or by wire transfer. Awards
will be based on whichever method is most cost advantageous to
the goverment at the time the awards are determined.
    The offers will have a minimum acceptance period of 10
calendar days, the Mint said.
 Reuter

Led by the non-residential sector,
Canadian building permits issued in November rose 0.7 pct to
2.18 billion dlrs, seasonally adjusted, from 2.16 billion dlrs
in October, Statistics Canada said.
    Residential permits fell 3.9 pct to 1.25 billion dlrs from
1.30 billion dlrs in October while the number of units approved
fell to 17,552 from 19,079 units.
    The value of non-residential projects rose 7.6 pct to 927.6
mln dlrs in the month.
 Reuter

Corp said pursuant to a letter of intent signed between it and
<Panbaxy Laboratories>, an AIDS test will be jointly
manufactured by the two companies.
    Cambridge said that before the test may be used for human
clinical purposes, it must undergo extensive clinical and human
testing and receive approval for marketing from the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration.
    The company said it is unable at this time to predict when
the test will become available.
 Reuter

Dixie Yarns Inc and <TI-CARO
Inc> jointly said they signed a merger agreement calling for
Dixie to acquire all TI-CARO's stock in exchange for three mln
of Dixie's common.
    The companies said the previously announced merger has been
approved by TI-CARO's board and is expected to close by early
April.
    They said the revenues of the combined companies will be
over 600 mln dlrs, and Dixie said the merger will not dilute
its 1987 results. TI-CARO was taken private in 1984 in a
management led leveraged buy-out.
 Reuter

<Ciba-Giegy Corp>'s Ciba-Giegy 
Pharmaceuticals division said it had an agreement with
<Gipharmex S.P.A.> (Giuliani Group), of Milan, Italy, to
develop and eventually market in the U.S. a new gallstone
dissolving drug.
    The company said the drug, ursodeoxycholic acid, is a
naturally occurring bile acid and has been approved for
marketing in most European countries and in Japan.
    The division said it holds a patent on the use of the drug
to dissolve gallstones.
 Reuter

the duty, but may not make the finding public until tomorrow.
    A preliminary duty of 8.54 pct was set last Oct. 17.
    The final duty will be based on more detailed information,
the officials said.
 reuter

The National Weather Service said
warnings of gale force winds remained in effect over lakes
Erie, Huron and Michigan.
    Also, warnings have been posted for large waves and beach
erosion along the shores of the Lakes. Winds gusting to 45 mph
caused four to six foot waves along the western and southern
shores of Lake Michigan during the morning.
    Advisories for low wind chill temperatures have also been
posted across portions of upper Michigan and northern lower
Michigan. Early morning gusty winds brought the wind chill to
15 and 25 degrees below zero.
    Freezing rain was scattered over central Colorado by mid
morning, also over central Kansas and northeast Illinois.
    Snow reached from south central Montana across Wyoming,
western Nebraska and western Kansas. Snow also extended across
northern Wisconsin, upper Michigan and northern lower Michigan.
    Rain reached along the northern Pacific Coast, across
northwest Utah, Maryland, Deleware, Virginia, the Carolinas,
Georgia and northern Alabama.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it was taking
onto its books a further one billion stg tranche of 8-3/4 pct
Treasury Loan stock due 1997, payable 40 stg pct on
application. The stock was issued to the Bank at 96.50 stg pct
and will be available for dealings from March 11, with the
remainder of the amount payable on May 5. The Bank said the
bonds would yield 9.28 pct at the issue price and would be free
of tax to residents overseas. The issue would be designated
8-3/4 pct Treasury Loan 1997 "B."  A further 100 mln stg was
reserved for the National Debt Commissioners.
    The market dropped by up to 1/2 point following the Bank's
announcement, with the Treasury 13-1/2 pct stock due 2004/08
quoted one full point lower at 134-12/32 stg pct around 20
minutes after the news.
    Dealers said the announcement had to be viewed against the
backdrop of intense pressure for lower U.K. Interest rates
which had built up over the past two weeks as a result of
sterling's strength.
    The Bank this morning finally signalled it was prepared to
see lower rates and U.K. Clearing banks this afternoon
announced cuts in their base lending rates to 10.5 pct from 11
pct.
    The Bank had initially been reluctant to countenance a rate
cut because, dealers said, the authorities had wished to delay
a reduction until around the time of the U.K. Budget on March
17, thereby preserving the full impact of Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson's package of measures.
    However, in the face of sterling's apparently inexorable
climb, the authorities today decided to cede to pressure and
allow a half-point cut.
    Today's one billion stg tap issue was viewed by the market
as a move by the Bank to eradicate hopes for a further early
rate cut which might arise as a result of strong sterling.
    Most market participants believe that Lawson will now
foster a further half point interest rate reduction at the time
of the budget, although one or two said they would not be
surprised to see a full point decline at this stage.
    Dealers noted that as part of the authorities' attempts
last week to ease pressure for lower rates, the Bank had issued
a one billion stg tap stock with a view to subduing the
Government bond market.
    To the surprise of most participants, the issue was sold
out within hours of becoming available for trading and the
market pushed on to register further sharp gains.
    Dealers said that at this stage it seemed unlikely that the
issue announced today would be absorbed by the market as
rapidly as last week's.
    However, they noted that although sterling had edged down
from its highs following the base rate cut, it had still closed
on a trade-weighted basis at 72.4, well ahead of Friday's final
71.8 and only just beneath the peak of 72.5 touched at 1300
GMT.
 REUTER

President Reagan's denial that he
knew proceeds from Iran arms sales were diverted to Nicaraguan
contra rebels might be challenged by his former national
security adviser, according to the Washington Post.
    The paper said yesterday that John Poindexter, who resigned
last November when the illegal transfer of up to 20 mln dlrs
was disclosed, was ready to break the silence he has so far
maintained over the affair.
    The Post said he might tell a special Senate committee
investigating the Iran scandal that he told Reagan twice in
1986 that money from Iran sales was being used for aid to the
contras.
    It said the panel was considering granting Poindexter
immunity from prosecution over the fund diversion, which was
illegal under a Congressional ban in force at the time against
aid for the contras.
    Poindexter has so far invoked the Fifth Amendment to the
Constitution which protects people from giving evidence which
could be self-incriminating.
    Reagan has said he authorized the sale of arms to Iran in
the hope of establishing links with Iranian moderates, but has
denied knowing that proceeds were ending up in Nicaraguan rebel
hands.
    A White House spokesman had no comment on the Post story,
but David Abshire, who is coordinating White House handling of
the affair, said Reagan would never approve any illegal action.
    Abshire, on the CBS television show "Face the Nation," did
not comment directly on the Post story, but said: "He (Reagan)
is deeply honest, he is deeply dedicated, he tells the truth
and when he says he has no knowledge, he has no knowledge."
    The Post quoted a source close to Reagan as saying the
White House expected Poindexter "will say he had direction and
authority, directly or indirectly," from the president for the
diversion of funds.
    The paper said the former security adviser's testimony
could damage the president's claim he was unaware of the funds
diversion.
    It quoted a legal source as saying Poindexter and his
lawyers planned to contend that twice in 1986 he told Reagan
that the arms sales were generating money for the "contras."
    The paper quoted the source as saying Poindexter did not
tell Reagan there was an illegal diversion of funds, but that
help for the contras was "an ancillary benefit" of the sales.
    The Post's sources also said the Senate committee could
grant immunity from prosecution this month to Oliver North, who
was fired from the National Security Council on the same day
that Poindexter resigned.
 Reuter

Italian President Francesco Cossiga asked
veteran Christian Democrat politician Giulio Andreotti to try
to form a new government, officials said.
    They said Andreotti had reserved his reply on whether to
accept the mandate, normal procedure until he has ascertained
whether he can form a government.
    Cossiga nominated Andreotti, sole candidate of the majority
Christian Democrats, despite stiff opposition from the
Socialists of outgoing Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.
 REUTER

AMC SAYS IT IS "STUDYING" CHRYSLER BUYOUT PROPOSAL AND WILL COMMENT WHEN "APPROPRIATE"

Petro-Canada, Canada's
state-owned oil company, said it will drill two delineation
wells this summer at the Terra Nova oil field offshore
Newfoundland.
    Evaluation of test results and preliminary engineering work
should put Petro-Canada in a position to propose a development
plan for the Terra Nova field in 1988, the company said.
    Depending on time required for regulatory approvals,
construction could begin in 1989, with first oil production as
early as 1991, Petro-Canada said.
    "We have a high degree of confidence that the western
portion of the (Terra Nova) field contains at least 11 mln
cubic meters of recoverable oil, or more than 70 mln barrels,
and that we could produce it economicly using a floating
production system," Petro-Canada said.
    The Terra-Nova field, lying 350 kilometers east of St.
John's and 35 kilometers southeast of Hibernia field, was
discovered by Petro-Canada in 1984.
    "We've had encouraging results from the eastern portion of
the field, and we hope this summer's drilling will prove up
additional reserves there," the company said.
    Petro-Canada believes Terra Nova field is a good commercial
prospect and the company wants to move some of those resources
towards development so it can start generating a return on
investments, Petro-Canada said.
    Petro-Canada, which will act as operator of the two wells,
has a 75 pct interest in the western portion of Graven block of
the Terra Nova field and a 26 pct interest in the field's East
Flank block, a company spokesman said later. Other field
participants include Canterra Energy Ltd, Mobil Oil Canada Ltd,
Gulf Canada Resources Inc, ICG Resources Ltd, Trillium
Exploration Corp and general partnership PAREX.
    Petro-Canada estimates reserves in the Terra Nova field's
Graven block of between 68 mln and 70 mln barrels of oil,
company spokesman Bob Foulkes said from Petro-Canada's Calgary
office.
    Combined reserves for Graven Block and the field's East
Flank block are estimated between 70 mln and 130 mln barrels,
he added.
    Petro-Canada expects to spend about 500 mln Canadian dlrs
to bring the field to production by about 1991, and the
development budget could double if the company builds a
production system combining both blocks in the field, he said.
    Petro-Canada estimates the Terra Nova field Graven block
would produce between 25,000 and 26,000 barrels average daily
production, with a production system that would have maximum
capacity of 40,000 bpd, company spokesman Foulkes said in
answer to a query.
    The company estimates a production system combining both
Graven and East Flank blocks in the Terra Nova field could
produce about 45,000 bpd average daily production, he said.
 Reuter

Kingdom of Sweden is issuing a 100 mln
stg bond due April 15, 1997 carrying a coupon of 9-1/2 pct and
priced at 101-1/4, said Baring Brothers and Co Ltd as lead
manager.
    The issue is payable on April 15, 1987.
    The bond is callable after seven years at 100-1/8 pct and
it will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Fees are a
1-3/8 pct selling concession and 5/8 pct combined management
and underwriting fee.
 REUTER

(Charan Industries Inc), a distributor
of toys and other consumer products, expects 1987 net profit to
rise at least 50 pct over last year's 6.1 mln dlrs, president
Earl Takefman told reporters before the annual meeting.
    "We grew basically 100 pct last year, I'm not sure we're
going to be able to grow 100 pct again this year but we
certainly will grow at least 50 pct over last year," Takefman
said.
    Charan reported profit of 3.0 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Takefman said he expects sales to rise to about 100 mln
dlrs this year from 57.3 mln dlrs in 1986.
    Fiscal 1985 ended September 30, while fiscal 1986 ended
November 30.
    Takefman said the company is actively looking for
acquisitions in the consumer products industry, likely in
Canada.
    The company said it expects to resolve delivery problems
this year which last year hindered the growth of its toy
distribution business, which accounts for about one-third of
revenues.
    Charan is the exclusive distributor in Canada for <Worlds
of Wonder> toys, which include the Teddy Ruxpin voice-activated
talking plush bear.
    Takefman said new products this year, which will be on the
shelves for Christmas, include a smaller version of Teddy
Ruxpin, a talking Mickey Mouse toy, dancing plush toys, a doll
with a voice activated by sound, touch, light and heat, and
talking books.
    The company is also marketing an extended line of "laser
tag" kits, which shoot rays of light and tell you when you've
hit someone.
    Other products include a recorder device which allows
students to leave taped messages in each others' school
lockers, retailing for about 60 dlrs.
 Reuter

Mayfair Super Markets said its
sales for the second qtr ended Feb 28 were 122.0 mln dlrs, an
increase of more than 15 pct compared to sales of 105.9 mln
dlrs in the comparable quarter last year.
    The company said sales for the first six months of the year
were 242.0 mln dlrs, more than 15 pct above the 210.1 mln dlrs
reported in the same period last year.
    This was the 12th consecutive quarterly gain, the company
said.  The company said it expects to release earnings in
April.
 Reuter

Timeplex Inc said it
completed its previously-announced redemption of its 7-3/4 pct
convertible subordinated debentures due 2008.
    The company said there had been 35 mln dlrs total principal
amount of debentures outstanding.
    Debenture holders were entitled to convert their debentures
into shares of the company's common stock at a 22.50 dlrs per
share, or 44-4/9 shares of common stock per  1,000 dlrs
principal amount of debentures.
 Reuter

PPG Industries Inc said a group of
investors led by <Sterling Group> of Houston said it has agreed
to acquire PPG's ethylene products business, including its
inteest in an ethylene glycols joint venture with du Pont Co
<DD> in Beaumont, Texas, for undisclosed terms.
    The company said completion is expected in the second
quarter.
    It said the business had sales of over 50 mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

intervene in the government securities market to add temporary
reserves via customer repurchase agreements, economists said.
    Most economists said the Fed will add 1.5 to two billion
dlrs of temporary reserves via customer repurchase agreements,
but some said there is a slim chance the Fed will inject
permanent reserves via three-day system repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds opened at 6-1/16 pct and firmed to 6-1/8 pct
in early trading. Funds averaged six pct on Friday.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Ecology and Environment Inc said
an initial public offering of one mln common shares is under
way at 15 dlrs a share.
    The company is selling 919,948 shares and shareholders the
rest.  <Prudential-Bache Securities Inc> is sole underwriter.
 Reuter

About 8,000 West German farmers marched
through the northern city of Kiel today in a protest against
European Community (EC) agricultural policies, organisers said.
    The demonstrators burned straw effigies of the two West
German members of the EC's 17-man Commission, Karl-Heinz Narjes
and Alois Pfeiffer, and demanded their removal from office.
    Speakers at a rally also called on the government to take a
tougher stance in dealings with the Commission.
    The protest was the latest of several by West German
farmers against Commission proposals to cut EC farm
spending.The farmers say the proposals will put many of them
out of business.
 Reuter

RLR Financial Services said it
will be releasing a statement shortly concerning the company.
    RLR's stock was halted this morning for news pending by the
NASDAQ.
 Reuter

Angola and Uruguay have
established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level,
according to a joint communique signed by their U.N.
representatives and circulated here today.
 Reuter

Lloyds Bank Plc <LLOY.L> said it is
cutting its base lending rate to 10.5 pct from 11 pct,
effective tomorrow.
    The reduction follows similar moves from the three other
British clearing banks.
    National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L> led the way this
morning after the Bank of England lowered its dealing rates in
a signal that it would tolerate a half percentage point
reduction.
    The central bank's surprise signal followed its strenuous
efforts last week to prevent market forces from bringing down
base rates before the U.K. Budget on March 17.
 REUTER

Norcros <NCRO.L> Plc said it has no
intention of proceeding any further with talks on Williams
Holdings Plc's suggestion that there would be benefits arising
from a merger between the two groups.
    Norcros said any such benefits could be achieved through
normal trading and did not warrant a closer formal association.
    Norcros shares firmed 30p to 342p after the news on
investor speculation of a possible hostile bid from Williams,
dealers said. Williams rose 2p to 742.
    Williams earlier informed Norcros that it holds some
2,890,000 of its ordinary shares or 2.2 pct of those issued.
 Reuter

The Burton Group Plc <BRTO.L> said
trading will commence in the U.S. In Burton Group American
Depositary Receipts (ADRs).
    Burton said it expected the ADRs to increase significantly
the North American demand for Burton's shares. A programme to
promote the ADRs with presentations in the U.S. Is due soon.
Burton shares here were 6p firmer at 306p.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The West German Intervention Board said
it accepted 962,192 tonnes of grain from the start of the
current agricultural year to the end of last month, compared
with 1.8 mln tonnes during the July/February period in 1985/86.
    It said it accepted 336,097 tonnes of bread wheat (nil in
the year-earlier period), 16,818 (nil) tonnes of high quality
wheat, 33,623 (523,625) tonnes of feed wheat, 3,426 (168,682)
tonnes of rye, 88,494 (32,766) tonnes of high quality rye,
2,313 (105,005) tonnes of summer barley and 481,421 (972,794)
tonnes of winter barley.
 Reuter

Lloyds Bank Plc said it is cutting its
base lending rate to 10.5 pct from 11 pct, effective tomorrow.
    National Westminster Bank Plc led the way this morning
after the Bank of England lowered its dealing rates in a signal
that it would tolerate a half percentage point reduction.
 Reuter

FRENCH 13-WEEK T-BILL AVERAGE RATE FALLS TO 7.37 PCT FROM 7.69 PCT - OFFICIAL

The Hamburg fishmeal market saw little
movement in the past week with demand slack as in other protein
feed sectors, trade sources said.
    Prices edged up on firmer origin offering levels and the
stronger dollar. Sellers quoted 64 pct fishmeal at between 640
and 650 marks per tonne free on truck for spot and between 630
and 640 marks for April/Dec.
    International demand was also slow but some inquiries from
Far Eastern buyers were noted in South American producer
countries, the sources said.
    Chile is said to have good catches in northern and southern
fishing grounds, with offers unchanged at 330 dlrs per tonne c
and f North German ports.
    Peru's catches differ regionally and stocks are low.
Sellers quoted a nominal offering level of 320 dlrs per tonne c
and f north German ports. Ecuador was not in the market and
catches are said to be poor.
    Denmark has seasonally low catches, with 72 pct meal
offered at 315 crowns per 100 kilos cif North European ports
for April/Oct deliveries. Iceland has good catches and sellers
quoted a price of 5.45 dlrs per percentage point protein cif
North European ports. Norway was not in the market.
 Reuter

Banque Francaise du Commerce Exterieur
(BFCE) is issuing a 150 mln dlr, seven pct bond due April 1,
1992 at par, lead manager Societe Generale said.
    The issue of unsecured, unsubordinated debt, is guaranteed
by France. Fees are 1-1/4 pct for selling, 1/4 pct for
management and 3/8 pct for underwriting.
    Payment date is April 1, listing is in Luxembourg and
denominations are of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs. The launch spread
is 53 basis points over equivalent five-year treasuries.
 REUTER

A half point cut in base lending rates
was announced by the big four clearing banks today after the
Bank of England finally endorsed such a move following weeks of
downward pressure, dealers said.
    During its routine intervention in the market, the bank
trimmed the rates at which it deals with the discount houses by
half a point and National Westminster led the other clearing
banks in reducing its base rate to 10-1/2 pct from 11 pct.
    The timing of the Bank of England move took operators by
surprise after its recent action seemingly designed to dampen
hopes of a base rate cut ahead of the U.K. Budget on March 17.
       For some time, fundamentals have
led the market to push for a one point cut in base lending
rates to 10 pct but the central bank has declined to follow
wholesale money market rates down.
    Although political considerations -- the government's wish
to see a fall in base rates coincide with the Budget -- had
been suggested by operators last week as reasons for the Bank's
delaying action, worries about the real strength of sterling
and perhaps about the market's reaction to the content of the
Budget may have been behind the central bank's caution, dealers
said.
    In the event, sterling continued firm after the rate cut,
leaving the market still looking for another half point fall.
    Consequently, rates in the money market eased during the
day, one-month interbank sterling shedding 5/16 point to
10-9/16 7/16 and three-months trading 1/16 point down at
10-5/16 3/16 pct. Sterling cd's were similarly down between
5/16 point in one month and 1/8 point in one year.
    Overnight interbank money for tomorrow was indicated at
around 11 pct, almost a point below the levels ruling at the
end of last week. Today, overnight touched a high of some
11-3/4 pct after the Bank took out 228 mln stg of an estimated
300 mln stg shortage.
 REUTER

Over 240 mln bushels of government
grain have been allocated in redemptions for commodity
certificates since the program began April 30, according to the
Commodity Credit Corporation.
    Redemptions included 11.4 mln bushels of corn valued at
17.0 mln dlrs, or an average per-bushel price of 1.492 dlrs,
since the current grain catalogs were issued December 1 by CCC.
    Wheat redemptions totaled 9.6 mln bushels, valued at 23.7
mln dlrs, since December 1.
 More

is studying a proposed merger with Chrysler Corp.
    American Motors said it received a letter from Chrysler
Corp "advising us of their proposal to enter into a merger
transaction with American Motors Corp."
    In a brief statement, the company said, "We are studying
the proposal. We will have further comment when it is
appropriate."
 Reuter

Den Danske Bank af 1871 A/S said it
was issuing the first certificates of deposit from a Danish
bank and that the CDs will be for six, nine and 12 months or a
negotiable period.
    They will come in denominations of 10 mln crowns without
commission to the bank. Interest will be linked to money and
capital market rates and paid on a discount basis, with
certificates sold below par and maturing at par, a bank
    The certificates are not liable to stamp duty. "They will be
a flexible supplement to negotiated deposits and will give
companies and institutional investors better chances to
organise liquidity," the statement said.
    Bank spokesman Arne Lund said "We could not do it earlier
because it was not possible for the tax authorities to say if
the certificates were liable to stamp duty or not."
    He said the issue should be assisted by high short-term
 REUTER

International
Geosystems Corp, a subsidiary of Golden Tech Resources, said
recent orders of its TianMa Chinese Language word processing
system have brought year-to-date sales to more than 2,900,000
Canadian dlrs.
 Reuter

American Express Co's stock fell
sharply, reflecting, in part, investors' disappointment that
the company did not make an announcement about its plans for
brokerage unit Shearson Lehman Brothers, traders said.
    The company has said it is studying options for its
Shearson unit. Traders said many investors anticipated an
announcement this weekend that it would spin off Shearson
Lehman. Also, they said, a flurry of arbitrage related sell
programs that pounded the general market today accelerated the
selloff of American Express, a component of the Dow Industrial
Average. American Express fell 3-1/8 to 77-3/8.
    "It was part programs and part that there was anticipation
of an announcement of a spinoff or something with Shearson this
weekend, and that announcement never happened," one trader
said.
    In the last few minutes of trading on Friday, another
trader said, the stock jumped to close up 3-3/8, largely on
anticipation that the company would make a weekend
 Reuter

Infotron Systems Corp said it
elected Robert E. Purcell chairman of the board, a position
held vacant for several years.
 Reuter

Ranger Oil Ltd said it
completed on March 2 the previously announced sale of its U.S.
oil and gas properties held by subsidiaries Ranger Oil Co and
Ranger Inc to Ampol Exploration Ltd, of Australia, for 18.5 mln
U.S. dlrs.
    Ranger said that under the deal, it would retain a five pct
gross overriding royalty on its stake from blocks east cameron
65 and 82 in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Lousiana.
    It said the sale did not include U.S. properties acquired
from <Berkeley Exploration and Production PLC> last December.
 Reuter

AMOCO'S FIRST SOUTH CHINA SEA EXPLORATORY WELL FLOWS 2,240 BARRELS OF OIL DAILY

priced at 101-1/4, Baring Brothers and Co Ltd said as lead
manager.
    The bonds are callable after seven years at 100-1/8 pct and
and underwriting.
 REUTER

In an unusual move, Standard and Poor's
Corp downgraded a U.S. corporate debt issue soon after it was
priced for offering late last week.
    But, unlike a similar action in September 1986, which
investment bankers said disrupted the financing, the agency's
rate reduction had no effect this time, traders said.
    S and P announced Friday afternoon that it cut to B from
B-plus a 900 mln dlr issue of senior notes due 1994 of Holiday
Inns Inc, a unit of Holiday Corp <HIA>. The notes were priced
late Thursday by sole manager Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    In a release, Standard and Poor's said the action reflected
a change in the note issue's terms to an unsecured form of debt
from secured. That change was made after the agency rated the
notes on February 20, S and P stated.
    "We took action as we became aware that the issue's
structure had changed," said Robert Nelson of S and P. "We
generally make a distinction between secured and unsecured
debt, and this was the key factor in our downgrade."
    A spokesman for Drexel said the action did not affect the
Holiday Inns deal, which had already sold out to investors by
late Friday afternoon.
    "The Holiday notes are trading at 100.50 on a when-issued
basis," the Drexel spokesman said soon after S and P's
announcement. The 10-1/2 pct notes had been priced at par.
    That is a far cry from late September, when S and P
downgraded a 215 mln dlr issue of subordinated sinking fund
debentures due 1998 of New World Pictures Ltd <NWP> just hours
after the pricing. Because of the rating cut to CCC-plus from
B-minus, the underwriter halted sales and repriced the issue.
    Sole manager L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin initially
gave the debentures a 12-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing. It
then repriced the issue at 97 to yield 12.74 pct.
    New World Pictures had increased the issue to 215 mln dlrs
from an original offering of 150 mln dlrs, and that brought in
S and P. The agency cited the larger financing in its action
and said it believed the issuer's cash from existing operations
would not be enough to adequately service debt.
    An officer with S and P said at the time the rating agency
was not told beforehand that the issue had been increased in
size. Usually, issuers and underwriters alert the rating
agencies to any changes in debt offerings, he said.
    In both cases, Moody's Investors Service Inc declined to
follow suit, bond traders noted.
    Indeed, Moody's announced Friday that its original rating
of B-1 for the Holiday Inns notes remained appropriate.
    Moody's pointed out that while the seven-year notes would
be unsecured obligations of Holiday Inns, the issue would
benefit from a negative pledge provision and a call for
specified collateral under certain circumstances.
    The agency also said the B-1 rating continued to recognize
a highly leveraged debt structure that would result from
Holiday's recapitalization program, as well as the company's
dependence on property sales to produce adequate cash flow for
near-term debt service.
    "Aside from Holiday Inns and New World Pictures, I cannot
remember the last time an issue was downgraded so soon after
the pricing," remarked one corporate bond trader.
    Holiday Inns also sold Thursday via Drexel 500 mln dlrs of
pricing. The debentures' ratings of B-2 by Moody's and B-minus
by S and P were left unchanged on Friday.
    The combined offering of 1.4 billion dlrs was the
second-largest junk bond deal ever brought to market,
underwriters and traders said. They said the biggest was BCI
Holdings' 2.35 billion dlr offering on April 10, 1986.
    That the Holiday Inns deal sold out quickly underscored the
appetite of many investors for high-yield securities.
    "People are hungry for yield. They are not worried about
downside risk at all, especially for junk bonds issued by
well-known companies," said one portfolio manager.
    As a result, investors are expected to snap up this week's
planned offerings by Allied Stores Corp of 200 mln dlrs of
senior notes due 1992, rated B-2/B, and 600 mln dlrs of senior
subordinated debentures due 1997, rated B-3/CCC-plus.
    Lead underwriter First Boston Corp said Friday it has
tentatively scheduled the securities for pricing today.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will
probably decrease its estimate of the 1986/87 Florida orange
crop today to as low as 123 mln boxes from 129 mln boxes,
analysts and industry sources said.
    The Department is scheduled to release the new estimate at
1500 hrs EST (2100 gmt) today.
    Analysts said the market is anticipating a downward
revision and much of the bullish impact has been discounted.
    The estimate, which the USDA has left unchanged since
October, should be affected this time by recent evidence of a
shortfall in the early and midseason crop now that those
harvests are complete. Analysts said based on earlier USDA
projections, the harvests should have been five to seven mln
boxes larger than they were.
    "They are going to cut their estimate," said Bob Tate, an
FCOJ broker with Dean Witter Reynolds in Miami. "The only
question is whether they will admit the whole thing in this
estimate."
    Tate said it is possible the USDA will lower its estimate
by a lesser amount, perhaps three mln boxes, and continue to
drop the estimate in subsequent reports as the crop picture
clarifies. The late season harvest, consisting mostly of
Valencia oranges, has not yet started, he noted.
    "They'll temper it," said Judy Weissman, FCOJ analyst with
Shearson Lehman Bros. "The main drop will probably come in
July."
    She expects today's estimate will be 126 mln boxes.
 Reuter

downgraded 50 mln dlrs of debt of Florida National Banks of
Florida Inc and its lead bank, Florida National Bank.
    Moody's cut the parent's subordinated debt to Baa-1 from
A-3 and the lead bank's long-term deposit obligations to A-1
from Aa-3. Affirmed were Florida National's commercial paper at
Prime-2 and the unit's short-term deposits at Prime-1.
    The rating agency cited elevated levels of non-performing
assets that are concentrated in real estate lending. Moody's
pointed out that losses escalated throughout 1986 and said it
expects only a partial improvement this year.
 Reuter

Perry Drug Stores Inc said
February sales were up 19.5 pct to 52 mln dlrs from 43 mln dlrs
a year earlier, with same-store sales up five pct.
    It said sales for the first four months of its fiscal year
were up 17.0 pct to 241 mln dlrs from 206 mln dlrs a year
before, with same-store sales up five pct.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers <UAW> union said
it supports Chrysler Corp's proposal to buy American Motors
Corp as creating "a good match that potentially points the way
to a more secure future for workers at both companies."
    "We believe our members' interests can be well served
within the Chrysler family, and we are committed to making that
happen," UAW president Owen Bieber and vice president Marc
Stepp said in a statement.
    "We believe Chrysler's purchase is a logical and sound step
for all concerned," the union said.
    The UAW is negotiating with AMC over the carmaker's demand
for economic concessions covering workers at its Wisconsin
operations, without which AMC has said it would cease vehicle
production at its Kenosha, Wisconsin, assembly plant by 1989.
 Reuter

A Transworld Airlines Inc official said
the airline has no comment on USAir Group Inc's planned buyout
of Piedmont Aviation Inc.
    TWA, however, has pursued its application with the
Department of Transportation for a takeover of USAir, according
to Mark Buckstein, TWA general counsel and vice president. TWA
filed a revised application today, following the DOT's
rejection Friday of an incomplete application filed last week.
    Earlier USAir said it agreed to buy Piedmont for 69 dlrs
cash per share.

may downgrade 120 mln dlrs of debt of Piedmont Aviation Inc
because of the airline's agreement to be acquired by USAir
Group Inc <U>.
    The rating agency said its review would focus on the effect
of the acquisition on Piedmont's financial leverage and its
debt-service requirements. Moody's said it is also examining
the potential use of the airline's borrowing capacity to
finance the merger.
    Piedmont currently carries Baa-2 preferred stock and
Prime-2 commercial paper.
 Reuter

The chairman of the conference on a new
International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA), Manaspas Xuto of
Thailand, said it was imperative to try to settle the main
outstanding issues this week.
    The INRA renegotiation conference, which resumed today
under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD), is scheduled to last until March 20.
    Xuto told delegates this session of the conference
presented a promising opportunity to conclude a new pact but it
had to be the last before the current accord expires in
October.
    Xuto said in his consultations with representatives of
major exporting and importing countries over the last few
months, "I have found a constructive attitude and willingness to
be flexible on the part of all concerned."
    "It is imperative that we try to settle the major
outstanding issues in the course of this week, since a
considerable amount of technical drafting work will remain to
be completed." He said he will immediately start consultations
with producers and consumers.
    The last October negotiations collapsed in disagreement
over buffer stock operations.
    Consumer demands for tighter buffer stock controls, aimed
at preventing INRA from following the collapse of the
International Tin Agreement (ITA), were rejected by producers
who argued for unchanged INRA terms.
    The tin pact failed when its buffer stock manager ran out
of funds to support prices.
    Three previous rounds of talks between rubber producers and
consumers for a new five-year pact ended without agreement. The
INRA, originally due to expire in October 1985, was extended to
October 1987 to facilitate renegotiation.
    Wong Kum Choon, head of the Malaysian delegation, said he
was cautiously optimistic "that together we should be able to
save INRA and prevent it from being scuttled."
    Without INRA, he added, prices of natural rubber would
become more volatile.
    Calling on delegates to show a sense of purpose and
reality, he said, "There is no reason why we could not put aside
differences and come up with a successor agreement."
 Reuter

Highland Superstores Inc said its
February sales rose 14 pct to 46.5 mln dlrs from 40.9 mln dlrs
a year ago.
    The company said on a comparable store basis, considering
stores open for at least 24 months, sales declined 10 pct. It
said it currently operates 53 stores.

 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service Inc said the
212.75 mln dlrs of debt of USAir Group Inc and its USAir Inc
unit remain under review for possible downgrade.
    The rating agency cited USAir Group's proposed acquisition
of Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>, as well as Trans World Airlines
Inc's <TWA> proposed cash merger with USAir.
    However, the status of TWA's bid for USAir Group is
currently uncertain. The U.S. Transportation Department has
rejected TWA's application to acquire USAir on deficiency
grounds, but TWA has said it will file a revised application,
Moody's noted.
    Under Moody's review for possible downgrade are USAir
Group's Baa-1 senior debt and Baa-2 subordinated debentures,
along with the USAir unit's A-3 senior debt and Baa-1
    Moody's said it would examine the effects of the proposed
mergers on USAir Group's financial measurements, as well as
potential damage to the company's financial flexibility because
of the probability of increased debt-service requirements.
 Reuter

Enterra Corp said its bank group
has reduced its revolving credit agreement to 40 mln dlrs from
60 mln dlrs.
    Also, the company said it and its units granted the group a
security interest in their assets.
    Enterra said the change resulted from Enterra's previously
announced agreement to sell its Hale Fire Pump Co and Macomson
Machine Co for about 27 mln dlrs as part of its restructuring.
 Reuter

Royal Bank of Canada <RT.TO>  said it
is extending its discount brokerage service which has been
available to Ontario residents since last year, to Quebec
    The bank said the success of the Ontario service is also
prompting it to consider making the service available in
several other provinces.
    Royal Bank said the service offers cuts of up to 75 pct on
standard brokerage commissions, toll-free, up-to-the-minute
stock quotes, and margin loans in U.S. or Canadian dollars at
competitive rates.
 Reuter

expects a charge to earnings in the first quarter of this year
of 17.3 mln dlrs as a result of its deal to buy back 2.6 mln of
its common shares from real estate developer Donald Trump.
the Chicago-based hotel, casino, gambling and amusement concern
also said the anticipated charge against first quarter earnings
will not be deductible for federal income tax purposes.
    Under a February 21 deal, Bally agreed to buy 2.6 mln of
the 3.06 mln shares held by Trump at 24 dlrs a share, or 62.4
mln dlrs, while Trump agreed not to try to seek control of
Bally.
    The agreement also calls for Bally to pay Trump another 6.2
mln dlrs for certain agreements, claims and expenses related to
his purchase of the Bally common stock, Bally said.
    Trump agreed not to buy any more Bally stock or to try to
seek control of the company for 10 years, it said.
    Bear, Stearns and Co Inc signed a similar standstill
agreement with Bally for three years, Bally said. But it can
still deal in Bally stock as a broker, it said.
    The deal also obligates Bally to buy Trump's remaining
stake in the company for 33 dlrs a share if the stock price
does not reach that level by February 21, 1988, it said.
 Reuter

SHELL CANADA SAID IT RAISED CRUDE PRICES BY 47 CANADIAN CTS A BARREL TODAY

Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co Ltd
said it cut prices for all grades of zinc sold in North America
by one U.S. cent a pound and by one Canadian cent a pound,
effective immediately.
    The new price for high grade zinc is 37 U.S. cents and
49-1/2 Canadian cents a pound, the company said.
    Special high grade, prime western and continuous
galvanizing grade with controlled lead now costs 37-1/2 U.S.
cents and 50 Canadian cents a pound. The new price for
continuous galvanizing grade alloyed with controlled lead and
aluminum additions is 37-3/4 U.S. cents and 50-1/4 Canadian
cents a pound.
 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange 2.5 billion dlrs of
 Reuter

WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN REITERATES PRESIDENT REAGAN'S OPPOSITION TO TAX HIKE

An appeal by Buitoni SpA against a court
ruling that an accord under which it was to acquire Italian
state food firm SME - Societa Meridionale Finanziaria was not
contractually binding has been rejected, court officials said.
    An appeal court rejected Buitoni's claim that the 497
billion lire accord with the state industrial company IRI -
Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale was a binding
contract. The decision upholds a court ruling of last July.
    Buitoni is controlled by CIR - Compagnie Industriali
Riunite, an investment company itself controlled by Ing C
Olivetti EC SpA (OLIV.MI> chairman Carlo De Benedetti.
 Reuter

American Electric Power Co
(AEP) said its 1.3 mln kilowatt Mountaineer Plant at New Haven,
W. Va., will be taken out of operation March 13 for routine
maintenance.
    AEP said Mountaineer is owned and operated by Appalachian
Power Co, one of the AEP System's seven operating companies.
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc,
the consumer products concern that today announced a merger
agreement with a First Boston Corp <FBC> affiliate in a deal
worth about 500 mln dlrs, said it intends to divest more units
as a way to increase profits.
    "We're going to reduce AI to a size consistent with our
financial resources," said Chairman Oliver S. Travers.
    "We have made a conscious, strategic choice to become a
smaller, financially sound, consumer products company which
operates predominantly in the stable political and economic
environment of North America," he said.

Hamilton Oil Corp said reserves at the
end of 1986 were 59.8 mln barrels of oil and 905.5 billion
cubic feet of natural gas, or 211 mln barrels equivalent, up 10
mln equivalent barrels from a year before.
 Reuter

Computer Sciences Corp said
it has joined American Telephone and Telegraph on a bid for a
4.50-billion-dlr, ten-year contract to provide the federal
government with a telecommunications network.
    AT and T will be the prime contractor. The General Services
Administration will award the contract by the end of the year.
    Computer Sciences Corp will be responsible for design,
development and maintenance of a software system that would
issue customer bills under the contract.
    AT and T said it is also using resources from Boeing Co
<BA> and seven regional holding companies that were formerly
Bell Operating Co's for work on the contract bid.
 Reuter

Rohr Industries Inc is raising 150 mln
dlrs through an offering of subordinated debentures due 2017
with a 9-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Dillon, Read and Co Inc.
    That is 160 basis points over the yield of the off-the-run
9-1/4 pct Treasury bonds of 2016. Non-refundable for 10 years,
the issue is rated Baa-2 by Moody's and BBB by S and P.
    A sinking fund beginning in 1998 to retire five pct of the
debt annually can be increased by 200 pct at the company's
option, giving the debentures an estimated minimum life of 13.9
years and estimated maximum life of 20.5 years.
 Reuter

Life Technologies Inc said it
signed a two mln dlr technology transfer and licensing
agreement with Toray Industries Inc, a Tokyo-based maker of 
synthetic fibers and industrial, consumer and medical products.
    Under terms of the agreement, Life said Toray purchased
exclusive rights to market Life's hepatitus B detection
technology in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
    Moreover, Life said the companies agreed to begin a joint
research and development program to develop other human
diagnostic products.
 Reuter

UAL Inc said its United Airlines unit's
load factor for February rose to 63.2 pct from 58.9 pct the
    The airline said scheduled capacity for the month rose 27.7
pct to 7.60 billion available seat miles from 5.95 billion,
while traffic rose 37 pct to 4.80 revenue passenger miles from
3.50 billion.
    February 1987 figures include its new Pacific routes
acquired from Pan American World Airways in early 1986.
 Reuter

Graham-McCormick Oil and Gas
Partnership said it completed the sale of interests in two
major oil and gas fields to <Energy Assets International Corp>
for 21 mln dlrs.
    The company said it sold about one-half of its 50 pct
interest in the Oak Hill and North Rucias fields, its two
largest producing properties.
    It said it used about 20 mln dlrs of the proceeds to prepay
principal on its senior secured notes. Semi-annual principal
payments on the remaining 40 mln dlrs of notes have been
satisfied until December 1988 as a result, it said.
    The company said the note agreements were amended to
reflect an easing of some financial covenants, and an increase
of interest to 13.5 pct from 13.0 pct until December 1990.
    It said the noteholders exercise price for 1,125,000
warrants was also reduced to 50 cts from 1.50 dlrs.
    The company said Energy Assets agreed to share the costs of
increasing production at the Oak Hill field.

 Reuter

<Fujitsu America Inc>, a
subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd, said it will form a joint company
with <GTE Communication System> to develop and market voice and
data business communication systems to the North American
market place.
    The new company, Fujitsu GTE Business Systems Inc, will be
headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., and is scheduled to begin
operations April 11. Fujitsu said the new company will be 80
pct owned by Fujustu of America and 20 pct by GTE
Communication.
    No other terms of the financial transaction were being
disclosed, the company said.

said it has ended talks on being acquired by Sterling Drug Inc
<STY> but has resumed acquisition talks with other parties.
    The company had previously announced that a "major U.S.
based company" that it did not identify was evaluating its
nicotine technology.
    Advanced said Sterling's board has decided not to enter the
nicotine product market.
    It said it received a 200,000 dlr payment to deal
exclusively with Sterling through March Six.
    Advanced said it had suspended merger talks with other
parties as a result of the exclusivity agreement.
 Reuter

Mixed media group
Bertelsmann AG <BETG.F> said its subsidiary Publicsoft GmbH has
agreed to market Apple Computer Inc's <AAPL.O> software
products to the specialized West German computer retail trade.
    The cooperation agreement between Publicsoft and Apple's
West German subsidiary Apple Computer GmbH did not involve
either company taking any kind of financial stake in the other,
a Bertelsmann spokesman said.
    He declined to say how much the agreement was worth.
 Reuter

MTech Corp said it filed with the
    The company named Alex Brown and Sons Inc as lead manager,
with First Boston Corp and Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc as
co-managers, of the offering.
    MTech said it granted the underwriters an option to buy an
additional 11.25 mln dlrs in principal amount of the debentures
to cover over-allotments.
 Reuter

British Airways said it is introducing
a short-stay fare, called "On The Town," permitting passengers
to book a theater holiday in London at the last minute and
spend up to four days in England.
    British Airways said the packages are available beginning
today and ending April 16 from New York, Boston, Chicago, and
Detroit for 468 dlrs midweek and 518 dlrs on weekends.
    The airline also said packages from Pittsburgh, Baltimore
and Washington, D.C. will be priced at 499 dlrs midweek and 549
dlrs on weekends, and Philadelphia for 479 dlrs midweek and 529
on weekends.
 Reuter

T.H.E. Fitness INc said it
agreed to buy Livingwell Inc's manufacturing unit, Powercise
INternational Inc, for 11.0 mln T.H.E. Fitness shares valued at
about 30 mln dlrs.
    This acquisition includes all of Livingwell's rights to its
recently announced Powercise fitness equipment.
    IN a separate transaction, Livingwell INc, an operator of
300 health clubs, placed a six mln dlrs order with Powercise
INternational to install the Powercise equipment in all of its
clubs.
 Reuter

Oil traders in the New York area said
Exxon Corp's Exxon U.S.A. increased the price it charges
contract barge customers for heating oil in New York harbor by
1.5 cts a gallon, effective Saturday, March 7.
    They said the increase brought Exxon's contract barge price
to 50 cts a gallon.
    Traders said the price hike followed higher spot and
futures market prices for heating oil.
 Reuter

RLR Financial Serivces Inc said
the National Association of Securities Dealers intends to
delist it because the NASD beleieves market sales of RLR's
broker/dealer subsidiary, RLR Securities Group Inc, are not
being made under an effective registration statement, as
required by the Securities Act of 1933.
    RLR said the NASD intends to delist it on March 12 unless
RLR demonstrates compliance with the law.
    RLR said it believes the action is without merit because
there is an effective registration statement for the RLR
Financial securities involved, and it intends to defend itself
in the matter.
    RLR said it has asked the NASD to stay any deletion of its
securities from NASDAQ pending its continuous review of the
matter and a possibility of a hearing on the merits.
    RLR said it has stopped market making in its own securities
pending resolution of the matter.  It said a delisting from
NASDAQ could have an adverse effect on the market and prices
for its securities.
 Reuter

<Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co Ltd>
by one U.S. ct a pound and by one Canadian ct a pound,
    The new price for high grade zinc is 37 U.S. cts and 49-1/2
Canadian cts a pound, the company said.
cts and 50 Canadian cts a pound. The new price for continuous
galvanizing grade alloyed with controlled lead and aluminum
additions is 37-3/4 U.S. cts and 50-1/4 Canadian cts a pound.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp's Bank of America
unit said it completed the previously announced sale of
BankAmerica Finance Ltd to <Bank of Ireland> for an expected
pre-tax gain of 23 mln dlrs.
    BankAmerica Finance provides residential mortgages in south
east England.
    Its total assets at the end of 1986 were about 1.2 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Rolls Royce, the U.K.'s state-owned car
and aircraft engine maker, is seeking a 250 mln stg multiple
option facility to provide it with additional sources of
financing, banking sources said.
    They said the facility, which will be syndicated among a
small group of the borrower's relationship banks, is being put
in place ahead of the privatisation of Rolls Royce in April or
May. At the borrower's request, terms will not be disclosed
until later this week, when bankers expect the syndication to
close. But while the terms are in line with the market, they
are somewhat tight, bankers said.
    The bankers noted that although Rolls Royce's debt will be
negligible after privatisation it wants to have a range of
financing arrangements available to allow it to take advantage
of market opportunities when they become available.
    The financing will involve a 150 mln stg five-year
committed tranche and will be backed by an uncommitted tender
panel through which Rolls Royce will be able to issue bills or
multi-currency advances.
    S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd is arranger for the financing, the
 REUTER

SUPERMARKETS GENERAL GETS UNSOLICITED BID FOR 41.75 DLRS/SHR CASH

The Treasury Department is due to
release funds for the Brazilian Coffee Institute, IBC, to pay
for the coffee purchased from local producers, the IBC said in
    IBC production director Oripes Gomes said in the statement
that payment would be made within the official guarantee
prices.
    The statement said the IBC is sending a document to the
National Monetary Council asking the government to set a budget
for the purchase by the Institute of up to five mln bags of
coffee until June 30.
    Gomes said in the statement there have been no problems in
the concession of funds by the Treasury for payment of the
coffee delivered to the IBC warehouses by the producers.
    He said producers have already delivered 2.2 mln bags, of
which 1.5 mln bags have been paid for.
    In the future, according to an agreement to be signed with
the Treasury, the Institute will no longer need to seek
approval by the Treasury to seek the release of additional
funds to buy coffee, the statement said.
 Reuter

West German private banks, in the
latest twist in a long-running battle over the size of their
holdings in industry, have said the holdings were falling and
rejected calls for tighter limits on these participations.
    Under West Germany's banking system, banks can hold shares
in non-banking companies giving them seats on company
supervisory boards, and administer the holdings of small
shareholders in safe custody accounts.
    Holdings of over 25 pct, which give a veto right in the
supervisory board of a company, must be disclosed.
    "The claim that the concentration of power has intensified,
as made by the Monopolies Commission, therefore turns out not
to be accurate ... There is no reason to impose further legal
restrictions on the acquisition of holdings by banks," it said.
    The Association's letter is the latest skirmish in a long
running battle between banks on the one hand and a range of
government offices and political lobbies on the left and right.
    The number of holdings above 10 pct in public companies
with a nominal share capital of over one mln marks held by
these 10 banks fell to 86 in 1986 from 129 in 1976, it said.
    Of these 43 reductions, 41 represented holdings of over 25
pct in 1976. The banks' holdings of nominal share capital fell
to 1.70 billion marks in 1986, or 1.34 billion adjusted for
capital changes in the past 10 years from 1.80 billion in 1976.
    Over this period total West German nominal share capital
rose to 235 billion marks from 136 billion, so that the holding
of banks in German companies fell to 0.7 pct from 1.3 pct.
    The nominal share capital of listed non-bank companies rose
to an estimated 49 billion marks in 1986 from 35.58 billion in
1976, with banks' holdings falling to 1.57 billion marks or 3.2
pct from 1.61 billion marks or 4.5 pct, the Association said.
    It argued that bank representatives were in a minority on
the supervisory boards of the 100 biggest German companies, and
in most cases could be blocked by non-banking representatives.
    The survey covered Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F>, Dresdner Bank
AG <DRSD.F>, Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F>, Bayerische Vereinsbank AG
<BVMG.F> and Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank AG
<BHWG.F>.
    It also covered Berliner Handels- und Frankfurter Bank
<BHFG.F>, <Berliner Bank AG>, <Industriekreditbank AG>,
Vereins- und Westbank AG <VHBG.F> and <Baden-Wuerttembergische
Bank AG>.
    Deutsche holds by far the largest number of such stakes,
including 28.5 pct of Daimler-Benz AG <DAIG.F>.
    Criticism of the bank holdings has not only come from the
Monopolies Commission and left-wing parties. An advisory
commission, in a report late last year to the Economics
Ministry, urged implementation of the five pct proposed by the
Monopolies Commission to promote competition and avoid interest
conflicts.
    The Economics Ministry has been controlled by the liberal
Free Democrat Party, junior partner in the centre-right
coalition government and increasingly in favour of
deregulation.
    Furthermore the West German Supreme Court recently
supported an action by a private Deutsche shareholder demanding
more transparency in the bank's balance sheet.
    The shareholder argued that the bank's ability to declare
industrial stakes of more than 25 pct as only temporary
holdings evaded the statutory requirement to report them in
full. If a bank declares stakes temporary it does not have to
disclose them but can include them under securities holdings.
    The case is due to be heard again by the Frankfurt higher
regional court.
 REUTER

Shell Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary
of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> said that it raised crude
oil prices by about 47 Canadian cts a barrel today.
    The increase riased its posted price for Light sweet crude
oil to 21.95 dlrs a barrel from its march one level.
    Light sour crudes were raised to 19.95 dlrs a barrel, the
 Reuter

GHANA COCOA PURCHASES 1,323 TONNES IN  LATEST WEEK, CUMULATIVE 216,095 TONNES - OFFICIAL

The staff of the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, CFTC, recommended that the regulatory
agency approve the Minneapolis Grain Exchange's application to
trade high fructose corn syrup-55, HFCS-55, futures contracts.
    The commission is expected to approve the application at a
meeting tomorrow.
    The proposed contract would provide for the delivery of
48,000 lbs, plus or minus two pct, of bulk HFCS-55, a liquid
food and beverage sweetener produced through processed corn
starch by corn refiners.
    Under proposed rules, a shipping certificate has a limited
life, as it expires 30 days following the last day of trading
of the expiring contract month. A premium charge of 14.40 dlrs
per contract per day would be assessed under the proposal.
 Reuter

The World Bank intends to bring
borrowing forward into the first half of 1987 because it
expects global interest rates to rise by year end, World Bank
vice president and treasurer Eugene Rotberg said.
    He told a news conference that rates in the U.S., Japan,
West Germany and Switzerland were near their lows. "The weight
of opinion is (that in a year from now) there is a higher
probability there will be one pct higher than one pct lower
interest rates," he said.
    The World Bank had not issued floating rate notes so far
this year because of the expectation of higher interest rates.
    The policy of the World Bank was to maintain liquidity at a
level that gave the bank flexibility to decide when, where and
how much to borrow, Rotberg said.
    Cash in hand was now about 50 pct of the next three years'
anticipated net requirement and comprised 25 pct of outstanding
debt and 66 pct of its debt maturing within five years.
    Although the World Bank had pioneered the swap market, it
did not intend to launch new financial instruments just for the
sake of innovation, Rotberg said.
    Of a total of 74.5 billion dlrs debt outstanding, only some
eight billion had been swapped into another currency.
    Many recent innovations were either unfair to investors or
unfair to borrowers. Until the World Bank was confident that
this was not the case, it would not adopt new instruments.
    The World Bank would raise 90 pct of the funds needed over
the next year with methods used before, Rotberg said. However,
for some 10 pct of new requirements the bank would try out new
instruments such as bonds with warrants.
    The World Bank had publicly offered 60 bonds in Germany
since the first issue was launched in 1959, he said.

Comair Inc said February load factor
fell to 34.6 pct from 38.0 pct a year before.
    The company said revenue passenger miles rose 9.5 pct to
10.9 mln from 9,962,399 a year before and available seat miles
rose 20.3 pct to 31.5 mln from 26.2 mln.
    For the year to date, it said load factor fell to 36.2 pct
from 40.3 pct a year before, as revenue passenger miles rose
3.3 pct to 119.1 mln from 115.3 mln and available seat miles
rose 15.0 pct to 328.5 mln from 285.7 mln.
 Reuter

ServiceMaster L.P. approved
a second quarter cash distribution of 58 cts, payable April 10,
record March 23.
    Previously, ServiceMaster said it would pay in 1987 an
indicated cash distribution of 1.50 dlrs a share, including  95
cts a share which would be paid before April 15, 1987.
    In other action, the company set May eight as the date of
its annual shareholders' meeting.
 Reuter

Disposable income available to people
employed in European Community agriculture rose 0.9 pct in 1986
after an 8.8 pct fall the previous year, the EC statistics
agency Eurostat said in a report.
    It said income available to farm holders and members of
their family working on the holding rose 2.5 pct after a 13.9
pct fall in 1985.
    Eurostat said the reason for the increases was higher
production, with a 1.6 pct increase in crop output and a 0.7
pct rise in animal products compared with 1985.
    However, Eurostat added a 1.6 pct fall in prices for animal
products was more than offset by a 3.1 pct increase in those
for crops.
    It said income changes varied widely across the EC in 1986.
Disposable income of all those employed in agriculture rose
12.9 pct in West Germany but fell 7.8 pct in Denmark, while
income available to holders and their families rose 17.0 pct in
Britain but fell 9.7 pct in Ireland.
 Reuter

OEA Inc said it received from a
division of Rockwell International Inc <ROK>, a contract to
design and develop a space shuttle egress slide system which
could be used under post-mission landing conditions.
    OEA said its Inflation Systems International Inc subsidiary
will produce ten of the post-landing emergency egress slides.
The system is expected to allow the crew to exit the space
shuttle through a side hatch on the left side of the crew's
compartment, it said.
    "There is no showing that (the owners') reasonable
investment-backed expectations have been materially affected by
the additional duty to retain the small percentage that must be
used to support the structures protected by (the law)," Justice
John Paul Stevens wrote for the court's majority.
    He was joined by Justices William Brennan, Byron White,
Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun.
    However, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, joined by
Justices Lewis Powell, Sandra O'Connor and Antonin Scalia,
argued that the law deprived the owners of constitutionally
guaranteed protections.
 Reuter

Wertheim Schroder and Co Inc said it
appointed Steven Kotler, 40, president of the investment
banking and securities firm.
    Wertheim said Kotler has been a managing director and
member of the executive committee of the firm, which is 50 pct
owned by <Schroders PLC> of the United Kingdom and 50 pct owned
by Wertheim partners.
 Reuter

The proposed 757 mln dlr deal under
which Chrysler Corp would acquire American Motors Corp was
described by analysts as a reasonable deal for both companies.
    Ronald Glantz of Montgomery Securities said AMC common
stock could be fairly valued at "just under five dlrs a share"
given changes brought by tax reform and that Chrysler's offer
to pay four dlrs a share of Chrysler stock to AMC holders other
than Renault as a "a good price for Chrysler.
    AMC common shares opened at four dlrs this morning after
the Renault-Chrysler announcement, up 3/8, while Chrysler
shares lost 1/4 to 52-1/4.
    Though AMC issued a statement saying that it was studying
the proposed buyout and had no other comment, Glantz said he
regarded the proposal as a "done deal" because "I can't believe
anybody else would make a bid."
    "It's a reasonable deal for both sides," the analyst told
Reuters.
    "Chrysler gets the jeep franchise and the (new AMC)
Bramalea, Ontario, plant and the (new Renault) Premier
(mid-sized car) and AMC's sales will go up because buyers will
have more confidence that the manufacturer will still be around
to service the products," Glantz said.
    Analyst Thomas O'Grady said Chrysler would be getting more
manufacturing capacity, including a brand-new plant in Canada,
for a bargain price and Renault would be getting some return
after its prolonged loss-making investment in AMC.
 Reuter

South Korean Foreign Trade Minister
Rah Woon Bae said his country's firms have agreed to buy 1.8
billion dlrs worth of U.S. goods during his two-week buying
trip to the United States.
    Rah said most of the purchases represented shifts from
Japanese firms to U.S. firms as part of South Korea's effort to
reduce its seven billion dlr trade surplus with the United
States.
    South Korea has a five billion dlr trade deficit with
Japan.
 Reuter

Trust America Service Corp
said it signed an agreement with the First Union Bank of
Florida for a 35 mln dlr mortgage warehouse credit line.
    It said the new agreement more than doubles its previous 14
mln dlrs line of credit.
 Reuter

VTX Electronics Corp said it
signed a distribution agreement with American Telephone and
Telegraph Co under which it will act as an agent for ATT's
electronic cable and wire, fiber-optic cable and related
products to original equipment manufacturers in the Northeast.
    Terms of the contract, reached with ATT's Network Systems
Group, were not disclosed.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Spectrum Digital Corp said it
installed its first multi-node ISDX T-1 multiplexer.
    The company said the T-1 system was installed at the
University of North Carolina's Education Computing Service at
Research Triangle Park, N.C.
 Reuter

White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said President Reagan's record in opposing tax hikes
is "long and strong" and not about to change.
    "We're opposed to tax increases.... We will fight tax
increases.... We will deal with it politically in every forum
possible," said Fitzwater when questioned about whether there
was any change in the administration's position.
    Fitzwater said Reagan's strong feelings against a tax hike
included opposition to an oil import fee.
    "The President's position is that he is opposed to it," he
said.
 REUTER

Supermarkets General Corp said
it received an unsolicited proposal from a third party to
acquire the company at 41.75 dlrs per share in cash.
    Supermarkets also said it retained Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc to advise its board of directors on the proposal.
    Supermarkets General currently has about 38.5 mln shares
    Its stock is currently trading at 34-1/4 on the New York
    The Woodbridge, N.J., supermarket operator of over 180
supermarkets and other specialty retail stores, convenience
food stores and drug stores.
    For the nine months ended November 30, Supermarkets
reported net income of 41.7 mln dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 5,000 to 7,000
tonnes of Canadian rapeseed in export business over the weekend
for April shipment, trade sources said.
    Japanese crushers continue to concentrate on rapeseed
purchases since it converts to a higher percentage of oil than
other oilseeds, they said. A glut of feed meals makes other
oilseeds, such as soybeans, less desirable because they would
add to already large meal stocks.
 Reuter

Total U.S. slab zinc stocks held by
smelters rose to 24,735 short tons at the end of February  from
22,120 short tons at the end of January, the American Bureau of
Metal Statistics reported.
    Zinc production increased to 26,732 short tons in February
from 25,786 short tons in January.
    Shipments from smelters' plants declined to 23,560 short
tons in February from 24,564 short tons in January.
 Reuter

Jefferies and Co Inc said it intends
to make a market in the stock of Diamond Shamrock Corp, when,
as and if distributed.
    Diamond Shamrock has offered to repurchase twenty miillion
shares of its common stock at 17 dlrs per share until midnight,
EST, March 9.
   
 Reuter

Holiday Corp said its Holiday Inn
Hotel Group will soon introduce a chain of limited-service
hotels in international markets.
    The company said the chain, which will be launched
initially in Western Europe, will usually feature 60 to 150
guest rooms and a small restuarant/lounge area, but will offer
fewer services and amenities than typical Holiday Inn hotels.
    It said the new hotels will cater to commercial travelers
in smaller cities and suburbs.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Offshore Partners said
it has started development drilling on West Cameron 178 block
off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico after a significant natural
gas find on the block.
    It said the discovery well there encountered 46 feet of net
natural gas pay. No flow tests have been conducted, it said.
    Diamond Shamrock Offshore said it has a 46.15 pct interest
in the block, Phillips Petroleum Co 28.85 pct and Santa Fe
Energy Partners LP <SFP> 25.00 pct. Diamond Shamrock Corp <DIA>
owns 80.3 pct of Diamond Shamrock Offshore.
 Reuter

Lead stocks held by U.S. refiners rose
to 37,295 short tons at the end of February from 34,224 short
tons (revised higher) at the end of January, the American
    Production of lead decreased to 33,619 short tons in
February from 38,759 short tons in January.
    Shipments from plants increased to 30,467 short tons in
February from 27,041 short tons (revised lower) in January, the
ABMS said.
 Reuter

Technology Research Corp said
an unidentified marketing company agreed to sell its products
and placed an initial order for about six mln dlrs.
    It said the company will sells its product that protects
against serious electrical shock. The product will be sold
through mass merchandisers and retail hardware stores, it said.
    The company also said it won an additional contract worth
500,000 dlrs, boosting its total current backlog to about 14
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

BCI Holdings Corp said it named
Stephen Rowley president of Day-Timers Inc, a subsidiary of the
company's Beatrice Consumer Durables, effective immediately.
    It said he replaces Robert Dorney, founder and former
president, who will remain as senior vice president, new
product development of the company, which produces time
management systems.
 Reuter

The Federated Group Inc
said its four-week March 1 sales totaled 25.7 mln dlrs, down
eight pct from the same period a year ago.
    The company said sales in the 13 weeks ended March 1 rose
11 pct to 136.6 mln dlrs.
    In the 52-weeks ended March 1 sales totaled 430.2 mln dlrs,
up 18 pct from a year earlier, the company said.
 Reuter

Wings West Airlines said
its load factor remained constant in February at 42.7 pct.
    The company said it boarded 39,812 passengers in February,
up from 22,141 a year ago.
    Revenue passenger miles in February totaled 6,146,787, up
51.8 pct from a year ago, while available seat miles rose 62.2
pct to 14,385,113, the company said.
 Reuter

Sharon Steel Corp said it extended
from March six to March 31 the expiration date for its debt
exchange offer to allow time to complete the sale of its
Mueller Brass Co unit and to meet other conditions of the
offer.
    The exchange offer covers Sharon's outstanding 13.5 pct
subordinated sinking fund debentures due 2000 and its 14.25 pct
subordinated sinking fund debentures due 1990.
    Sharon said that as of March six, 31.6 pct of the 13.5 pct
notes and 20.9 pct of the 14.25 pct notes were tendered. The
Mueller sale is conditioned on receipt of 80 pct of the notes.
 Reuter

U.K. Insurers could face more than 30 mln
stg of insurance claims following the Zeebrugge ferry disaster,
a spokesman for Lloyds of London said.
    It could take weeks before the extent of the compensation
claims for passengers, crew and cargo was known and also before
it was known how much, if any, of the ship could be salvaged,
said David Larner of Lloyds.
    The hull and machinery of the Herald of Free Enterprise
were valued at 25 mln stg and were insured by Townsend
Thoresen's parent company Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co Plc <PORL.L>.
    The vessel was in turn reinsured in the London market with
Lloyds and various other companies, Larner said.
    Passengers, crew and cargo were insured by the Standard
Steamship Protection and Indemnity Association, one of several
shipowners' mutual insurance funds worldwide. These were also
underwritten by Lloyds and other companies.
    Larner said claims from passengers could be expected to
total at least five mln stg, given the number of deaths and the
normal level of liability set by the Athens Convention of 1974
of between 30,000 stg and 50,000 in case of death.
    Shipping sources said, however, that these claims could
soar if a court found there was negligence or design faults
involved.
    Larner said estimates of compensation claims "were pure
guess work" at this time. But if the ship could not be salvaged,
the claims would total at least 30 mln stg.
    Shares of insurances on the London stock exchange fell
across the board in a generally weak market.
    General Accident fell 21p to 936, Royal Insurance dropped
18p to 966 and Prudential fell 9p to 888.
    P and O shares stood at a late 616, 27p lower on the day.
 REUTER

Engineering industry
employers in North Rhine-Westphalia state said they made an
unprecedented offer on pay and working hours.
    The offer, which came amid warning strikes by some 33,000
workers, was the first time since World War Two that employers
have proposed cutting working hours and is seen as averting a
repeat of the nationwide strike of 1984 which brought the auto
industry to a standstill for seven weeks, union sources said.
    The employers propose a half-hour cut in the 38.5 hour
working week from July 1, 1988 and a pay rise of 2.7 pct from
April 1 and a further 1.5 pct from July 1, 1988.
    The engineering union IG Metall, Europe's largest union,
wants a five pct wage rise and a 35-hour week at full pay.
    It called today's warning strikes, mostly involving work
stoppages of up to one hour, after more than 50 rounds of talks
since December failed.
    The employers' offer was seen breaking the deadlock in
negotiations, even though the union said the half-hour cut is
not enough, union sources said.
    The offer applies to workers in North Rhine-Westphalia and
it was unclear if further offers would be presented in talks
between unions and employers of other West German states.
 REUTER

<Citibank NA> said it has cut its British
base lending rate to 10.5 pct from 11 pct, with effect from
tomorrow.
    This move follows similar cuts by four major British
clearing banks, led by National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>.
    Lower rates were signalled by the Bank of England this
morning in an attempt to curb recent upward pressure on the
pound, market sources said.
 REUTER

Crane Co said it will redeem on March
31 all 75 mln dlrs of its outstanding 8-3/4 pct convertible
senior debentures due October 1, 2005 at 107.875 pct.
    It said accrued interest to March 31 will be paid on that
date to holders of record as of March 15.  The debentures may
be converted into common stock at 28.80 dlrs per share through
March 24.
 Reuter

Oglethorpe Power Corp said it does not
plan to raise its electric rates to cover higher construction
costs at the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Plant, in which Oglethorpe
holds a 30 pct interest.
    Earlier today, Southern Co's <SO> Georgia Power Co said it
raised the estimated cost of building the plant by nearly six
pct, to roughly 8.87 billion dlrs.
    Oglethope said its share of the increased costs amounts to
about 147.5 mln dlrs. "We do not plan to raise rates to the 39
Electric Membership Corporations we serve in 1987 as a result
of this budget increase," the company said.
 Reuter

The Bank of Zambia has paid out foreign
exchange arrears from three auctions conducted last year, a
    "We have now cleared three auctions and are left with only
four, worth eight mln dlrs," the spokesman said without
specifying the amount paid out.
    The bank had not paid foreign exchange to private firms
since it suspended the weekly auctions on January 28.
    It has said the auctions were suspended because it planned
to introduce a modified system after talks with the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund.
    President Kenneth Kaunda announced last month that the
auction would be retained for allocating foreign exchange to
approved private sector bidders, but would not be used to
determine the kwacha's exchange rate.
    Last week, he said the auction had run into trouble because
of a shortage of foreign exchange.
    The government has fixed the exchange rate at nine kwacha
per dollar, effectively revaluing the kwacha by 67.7 pct.
 REUTER

A small investor group led by Melvyn
Gelch, a Providence, R.I., surgeon, told the Securities and
Exchange Commission it has acquired 60,840 shares of Datarex
Systems Inc, or 5.5 pct of the total outstanding common stock.
    The Gelch group said it bought the stake for about 935,000
dlrs for investment purposes only.
 Reuter

<Amoskeag Co> said Joseph B. Ely
II, became chairman, in addition to his duties as chief
executive officer, succeeding Albert B. Hunt, who served in
that position since 1972.
    It also said James M. Fitzgibbons, currently executive vice
president and chief operating officer, will beomce president, a
position Ely also held.
 Reuter

The Ghana Cocoa Board said it purchased
1,323 tonnes of cocoa in the 21st week, ended February 26, of
the 1986/87 main crop season, compared with 1,961 tonnes the
previous week and 1,344 tonnes in the 21st week ended March six
of the 1985/86 season, the board said.
    Cumulative purchases so far this season stand at 216,095
tonnes, still up on the 201,966 tonnes purchased by the 21st
week of last season, the Board said.
 Reuter

Barton Valve Co Inc said
shareholders at the annual meeting approved a name change to
Barton Industries Inc and a reduction in board size to three
members from five.
 Reuter

Wm. Wrigley Jr Co expects the cost of
technological improvements and renovation projects to push
1987's capital expenditures up considerably from last year's
25.4 mln dlrs, President William Wrigley told the annual
meeting.
    In 1985, the company's spending totaled 26.8 mln dlrs.
    He also said the pace of the company's marketing activity
set in 1986 will continue this year, with advertising and
merchandising expenditures to exceed the 1986 level which
Wrigley said was "somewhat over 100 mln dlrs."
    Wrigley said product line extensions would continue in
1987, although the company has no immediate plans to venture
into areas outside of chewing gum. He said Wrigley's overall
share of the gum market is "a little less than 50 pct."
    In answer to a question, Wrigley said there have been no
buyout offers for the company.  He also said the company will
continue to strengthen its international presence.
 Reuter

The following import levies for white
and raw sugar are effective tomorrow, in European currency
units (ecu) per 100 kilos.
    White sugar, denatured and non-denatured 49.70 versus 50.05
    Raw sugar, denatured and non-denatured 41.35 versus 41.35
    The rate for raws is based on 92 pct yield.
 Reuter

Leon Greenblatt, a Chicago investor,
told the Securities and Exchange Commission he has acquired
89,450 shares of Technology Development Corp, or 5.3 pct of the
total outstanding common stock.
    Greenblatt said he bought the stock for 350,000 dlrs soley
as an investment and has no intention of seeking control of the
company.
 Reuter

A group of brokerage executives with
a 25.25 pct stake in the cumulative convertible preferred stock
of Piezo Electric Products Inc said it will seek two seats on
the company's board of directors.
Providence Securities Inc, a Providence, R.I. brokerage firm,
and two executives said they will seek the seats that opened
because of a dividend payment default to preferred holders.
    The firm, its president, Thomas DePetrillo, and its vice
president, Vincent DiGuilio, also said they may seek additional
representation on the company's board.
    The Cambridge, Mass., research firm defaulted on dividends
to preferred holders on January 31, which automatically gives
preferred holders the right to elect two directors, the
executives said.
    The firm and its two executives, who hold a combined
104,500 preferred shares, said they originally bought their
stake as an investment, but are also trying to motivate the
company into reinstating dividends.
    DePetrillo said he has proposed that the preferred
conversion rate change to 85-to-one from 10-to-one and that
dividends be cut to 10 cts a share from 1.10 dlrs.
 Reuter

Vneshtorgbank, the Soviet Foreign Trade
bank, is seeking an increase to 250 mln stg from the original
150 mln for a five year, sterling bankers' acceptance facility
arranged last autumn, Lloyds Merchant Bank Ltd said as
arranger.
    The facility has a 10 basis point facility fee and there is
a 15 basis point maximum cap on the margin.
    Banking sources said syndication for the increase was
proceeding very well so far, although the syndication would not
necessarily be confined to banks participating in the original
group.
    Banking sources said that one reason for the increase was
that Vneshtorgbank had been very impressed by the relatively
low cost of financing by means of eligible bills, rather than
through more traditional instruments priced in relation to
    The facility is Vneshtorgbank's first ever
sterling-denominated bankers' acceptance facility.
    Banking sources noted that Vneshtorgbank now has two
facilities in the market, since First Chicago Ltd was awarded a
mandate last week to arrange a 200 mln dlr, eight year loan at
1/8 point over LIBOR.
 Reuter

CheckRobot Inc said it
recieved four mln dlrs in financing through the private
placement of convertible preferred stock.
    It said 2.8 mln dlrs of the financing has already been
funded from existing shareholders, <Sensormatic Electronics
Corp> and <Southeast Venture Capital Limited II>.
 Reuter

Tracor Inc said its Tracor
Aerospace Inc unit won three follow-up contracts worth 1.9 mln
dlrs from the U.S. Air Force.
    It said the unit will conduct special studies and
modifications in systems components for flight tests on the
Peacekeeper Missle.
    Tracor said it previously received 49.3 mln dlrs worth of
contracts from the defense program.
 Reuter

University Patents Inc said
4,344 of its Aleges soft bifocal contract lenses were sold in
February, after allowances for exchanges and returns, up from
3,011 in January.
    It said 1,800 opthalmologists and optometrists were fitting
the product last month, up from 1,600 a month before. Sales of
the lens started in May 1986.
 Reuter

WearEver-ProctorSilex Inc said
it will relocate is corporate headquarters from Chillicothe to
Richmond, Va., beginning this fall and ending by early 1988.
    The company said Richmond was chosen because it is
centrally located to its main operating facilities, which will
reduce travel and other costs.
    About 150 headquarters employees will be offered the chance
to relocate, the company said. WearEver's cookware plant in
Chillicothe will not be moved, and its sales and marketing
offices will remain in Englewood, N.J.
 Reuter

<Angio-Medical Corp> said it filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public
offering of 1,666,667 units of one share of common and one
redeemable warrant to buy one share of common at six dlrs per
unit.
    It said Keane Securities Co Inc <KEAN> is the underwriter.
    The company said its securities are proposed for trading on
NASDAQ under the symbol <ANGMU>.
 Reuter

Bear Stearns Cos Inc said it was
relocating its Wall Street headquarters to a mid-town location
on Park Ave. and signed a lease with <Olympia and York>.
    The firm said it will occupy 537,000 square beginning
January 1988 under a 15 year lease. It will begin to move into
the new offices later this year.
    It said the space will accommodate the increase in
personnel, which has grown 30 pct since the firm went public in
October 1985. It will centralize all of its executive offices
at the new location.
 Reuter

investment advisory firm, said it cut its stake in Cyclops Corp
to 437,425 shares, or 11.1 pct of the total outstanding common
stock, from 524,775 shares, or 13.3 pct.
Harris said it sold 87,350 Cyclops common shares between Jan 6
and March 2 at prices ranging from 65.75 to 91.00 dlrs a share.
    Harris said its dealings in Cyclops common stock were made
on behalf of its advisory clients.
 Reuter

has received a 30 mln dlr order from Micro D Inc for a number
of Lotus software products.
    It said the order is the largest it has ever received and
is to be delivered over six months.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it valued its
proposed buyout of American Motors Corp at 757 mln dlrs, not
counting the effect of a contingent payment that could reach
350 mln dlrs based on AMC's future profits.
    A Chrysler spokesman told Reuters that the letter of intent
signed with Renault, AMC's controlling shareholder with a 46.2
pct direct stake, includes a provision for Renault to be paid
35 mln dlrs in cash for AMC's finance subsidiary and 200 mln
dlrs in the form of an eight pct note. He said he did not know
the maturity of the note.
 Reuter

Dart Group <DARTA> is likely seeking to
buy Supermarkets General <SGL>, analysts said.
    "There's been rumors that they've taken a position in the
company, said Wood Gundie analyst Edward Comeau.
    Last year, Dart Group, owner of Auto Trak INc and Crown
Books, competed against Kohlberg, Kravis to acquire Safeway
Stores INc.
    The company later reached an accord under which it would
buy 20 pct of the company after Kohlberg Kravis completed its
leveraged buyout of the company.
    The company later sold its 20 pct stock for about 180 mln
to 200 mln dlrs, according to analysts.
     Dart Group Corp was not immediately available for comment.
    Jerry Ballan, analyst with Conner Ballan division of Edward
Viner and Co, said, "They <Dart> has been rumored to be buying
some other supermarkets as well, such as Stop and Shop."
    "My guess is that Supermarkets General does not want to be
bought out," said Ballan.
    Analysts, however, said Supermarkets General is facing
problems due to its Purity Supreme and Rickels operations,
which might make it difficult to thwart a bid.
    Supermarkets General is expected to report about 1.70 dlrs
a share compared to a 1.73 dlrs a share reported for 1985 on a
post stock split basis.
    For the first quarter, Comeau predicts the company will
earn 39 cts a share from 35 cts a share a year ago, and should
earn about 2.05 dlrs for 1987.
    "But that estimation could go to a 1.80 dlrs easily, due to
Purity Supreme in New England," Comeau said.
    He said competition among supermarkets is getting heated in
that area and that the company has had difficulty with
integrating Purity Supreme with its Pathmark store operations.
    Rickels, a home center business, has faced problems due to
the state of that industry, and has reported lower returns as
an operating unit, according to analysts.
    Analysts said that if Dart buys Supermarkets General it
would probably divest the company's operations.
    Analyst Comeau said "supermarkets general may seek a
combination with another supermarket company."

ADVO-System Inc said it could
report a break even second quarter ending March 28, 1987
compared with a loss of 1.8 mln dlrs, or 16 cts a share, in
fiscal 1986's second quarter ended March 29, 1986.
    ADVO said it previously announced it would report a net
loss for the quarter.
 Reuter

National Franchisors Inc, a
franchise development and consulting business, said it will
launch its first project, the Shoesmith shoe-care and repair
shop.
    The company said it is negotiating for several shopping
center locations for initial franchise sites and that it will
soon open a pilot Shoesmith shop and training center.
    It also said it signed an agreement with <Sutton-Landis
Shoe Machinery Co>, St. Louis, to supply the franchises with
machinery and support services.
 Reuter

<British Airports Authority Plc>, which
will be privatised later this year, is seeking a 200 mln stg
multiple option facility, banking sources said.
    The facility will incorporate a 100 mln stg revolving
standby credit and a 50 mln stg swingline credit, both of which
will be available for seven years. There also will be an
uncommitted tender panel for the issue of sterling and
multi-currency advances and sterling acceptances.
    A minimum of 65 pct of the revolving credit will be
immediately available, with a facility fee of six basis points.
    Up to 35 pct of the revolving credit will be available
subject to two months notification. There will be a facility
fee of three basis points while this is not utilised, after
which the fee rises to six basis points.
    Drawings will be at 10 basis points over the London
Interbank Offered Rate, plus mandatory liquid asset
requirements, or a 10 basis point sterling acceptance
commission. The swingline will be available for a maximum of
seven days. There will also be a participation fee of five
basis points for 12.5 mln stg.
    The financing is being arranged by Samuel Montagu and Co
Ltd and is being syndicated on a restricted basis among a group
of the borrower's relationship banks.
 REUTER

This year will see a pickup in U.S.
economic growth and inflation, the Shadow Open Market Committee
said in its semi-annual policy statement.
    The SOMC, a group of basically "monetarist" private
economists, said that "economic growth will accelerate in 1987
in response to powerful stimulative actions by the Federal
Reserve."
    The group said the Fed's actions have been excessive. As a
result, it said that "inflation and ultimately another
recession now loom on the horizon."
    The SOMC said that central bank policies that rely on
progressively larger swings in monetary expansion will not lead
to sustainable economic growth and stable prices.
    The group made no specific nominal forecasts of economic or
inflation growth in its policy statement. However, the
Committee at its Sunday policy-making meeting said it was
basically in accord with projections by Jerry Jordan, who is a
member of the SOMC and economist at First Interestate Bancorp.
    Jordan expects real GNP growth to be about one percentage
point higher than in the past two years. He expects consumer
prices to rise about 4-1/2 pct this year.
    The SOMC said in recent months rapid money growth has been
a principal cause of the devaluation. To avoid another costly
inflation and disinflation, the SOMC urged the Fed to "abandon
its inflationary policy and set the growth rate of the monetary
base on the path toward sustained lower inflation."
    The Fed in February said it would no longer target the
narrow M-1 money supply because the link between M-1 and
economic growth has been largely severed.

London Stock Exchange officials feel
confident that problems arising from a New York Stock Exchange,
NYSE, rule which might limit the trading activities in London
of NYSE members can be solved, a London Exchange spokeswoman
said.
    The situation will be sorted out during the regular
contacts between the two exchanges, she added.
    Recent press reports raised the possibility that an NYSE
rule could bar its members from trading jointly listed stocks
on the London Exchange during hours when the NYSE was open.
London plans to close its trading floor in due course, but the
NYSE only recognises foreign exchanges which possess a trading
floor.

The Dutch current account surplus fell
5.4 billion guilders last year to a provisional 12.1 billion
guilders, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
    The surplus is expected to fall further in 1987, the
statement said, but gave no details. Earlier today, the
official planning agency CPB said it expected the surplus to
fall to six billion guilders during 1987.
    The visible goods surplus excluding energy fell by 5.6
billion guilders in 1986 to 11.4 billion due to declining terms
of exchange, while more goods were imported as consumer
spending and investment increased.
    While the energy trade balance surplus rose by 5.4 billion
guilders, 4.7 billion of this gain was caused by temporary
improvements of terms of exchange and was aided by the delay
between the fall in oil and gas prices.
    The current account showed a 5.2 billion guilder deficit on
invisibles, compared with a balance in 1985, the Finance
Ministry said, noting the surplus on transport services was
reduced substantially due to the lower dollar and oil price
falls.
    The fourth quarter current account showed a deficit, for
the first time since 1980, of 700 mln guilders, it said.
 REUTER

Honeybee Inc said it knows of no reason
for the recent rise in its stock price.
    "There are no corporate or business developments, announced
or unannounced," the company said in a statement.  "Business is
continuing as usual," it said, adding that it is not engaged in
any merger or acquisition discussions.
    The company's stock is trading up 2-1/8 points at 14-1/4.
    Honeybee said it plans to release later this month
preliminary financial results for the year ended January 30.
 Reuter

Consolidated Grandview Inc said it
acquired a 60 pct stake in <All Ticket Group PLC>, of London,
for undisclosed terms. The seller was also undisclosed.
    All Ticket is a special events travel company with
exclusive European rights to UAL Inc <UAL>'s United Airlines
Apollo system, booking all United Airlines flights in Britain
and Europe. All Ticket and its subsidiaries will also
co-sponsor various events this year including the British Open
golf tournament and rowing's Henley Regatta.
    Its 1986 revenues totaled 12 mln Canadian dlrs.
   
 Reuter

United Cities Gas Co said it
has acquired Lyle Propane Gas Co, a Cairo, Ga., propane gas
distributor, for undisclosed terms.
    It said Lyle has sales of about four mln gallons annually
and serves about 4,000 customers in seven counties in southwest
Georgia and north Florida.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury's weekly auction is
expected to produce an average rate of 5.63-65 pct for
three-month bills and one of 5.59-61 pct for six-month bills,
dealers said.
    Shortly before auction time on the new bills, the rate on
the outstanding three-month bills was unchanged at 5.64 pct
bid, while the rate on the six-month bills was one basis point
higher at 5.68 pct bid.
 Reuter

The board of Medical Properties
Inc said it has declared an initial monthly cash dividend of
11-1/2 cts a share and has adopted a monthly dividend policy.
    The initial dividend will be payable April 10 to
shareholders of record March 31.
 Reuter

Barter Resources said it formed a
television home shopping unit, Television Catalogue Inc.
    The company said an investor group paid 500,000 dlrs in
funding for a 51 pct interest in the unit.
    Barter said 100,000 dlrs of the funding has been paid, with
the balance due within sixty days.
 Reuter

wheat Ria Luna 20,000 mt
Norrkoping and Djuron/EC Mexico 12.50 dlrs option loading
Uddevalla at 50 cents less 4,000/1,500 16-23/3 Continental.
    Reference New York Grain Freights 2 of March 6, brokers say
the charterer of the Saturn from US Gulf to Japan is reported
to be Nordstrom and Thulin, while the Antigone is reported to
have been arranged from Tilbury to the Black Sea by Soviet
charterers.
 Reuter

Air Wis Services Inc said
February load factor fell to 42.9 pct from 44.2 pct a year
before.
    The company said revenue passenger miles rose 2.1 pct to
22.2 mln from 21.7 mln a year before, with available seat miles
up 5.3 pct to 51.8 mln from 49.2 mln.
 Reuter

Immucor Inc said its board of
directors has declared a five-for-four stock split in the form
of a 25 pct stock dividend payable April 15 to shareholders of
record March 27.
   
 Reuter

Bermuda Star Line Inc said it has
agreed in principle to acquire 815-passenger SS Liberte from
Barnstead Shipping Ltd for use in its New York/Montreal
"Northeast Passages" cruises, starting this summer.
    The company said it is working to conclude a lease
financing or other financing for the purchase of the 23,500 ton
vessel, which is to be delivered in early April and renamed
Canada Star.
 Reuter

Municipal Assistance Corp of New York
said its planned offering later this week of 670 mln dlrs of
Series 62 bonds would probably be the last time it taps the
market until the third quarter.
    The bonds will be sold by a syndicate led by Salomon
Brothers Inc. Their maturity will be set at the pricing.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem all outstanding Series 50,
53 and 54 bonds, each with final maturities of 2008 and bearing
interest at 10 pct, 9-7/8 pct and 9-3/8 pct. Municipal
Assistance said it will buy back at 102 the Series 50 bonds in
July 1994 and the Series 53 and 54 bonds in July 1995.
 Reuter

<MTS Acquisition Corp's>
28-dlr-per-share offering price for Caesars World Inc is
thought to be much too low and is likely to attract other
suitors for the hotel/casino company, industry analysts said.
    "I think someone else will probably come in, or they (MTS)
will have to raise their bid," said Marvin Roffman, an analyst
at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc.
    MTS, a company formed by Martin Sosnoff, Caesars World's
largest shareholder, today began a tender offer, valued at
725.2 mln dlrs, for all shares Sosnoff doesn't already own.
    "I think the offer is too low by at least five points,"
said Roffman, who described Caesars World as the operator of
"one of the finest casinos in the world."
    Sosnoff, a New York investor, already owns 13.3 pct of
Caesars World's 30.3 mln shares.
    Following news of the tender offer Caesars World's shares
were trading at 27-7/8, up 3-3/8.
    A Caesars World spokesman said the company was declining
comment on the Sosnoff move for the moment, but Caesars may
issue a public statement after it has studied the offer.
    Roffman said Caesars World has considerable growth
potential and he is forecasting fiscal 1988 earnings of two
    Caesars World owns casino hotels in Nevada and honeymoon
resorts in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. It also controls
Caesars New Jersey Inc <CJN>, which owns an Atlantic City,
N.J., casino hotel.
    For its fiscal year ended July 31 Caesars World reported
net income of 41 mln dlrs, or 1.36 dlrs per primary share.
    The company reported second quarter net income of 12.6 mln
dlrs, or 41 cts per share, compared with income of 7.5 mln
dlrs, or 25 cts per share a year earlier.
    Daniel Lee, an analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc, said
that although Sosnoff's relatively low bid may attract other
suitors willing to pay a higher price for Caesars, there is
little likelihood that a competing bid would start a battle for

Merck and Co Inc said it will spend
more than 530 mln dlrs this year on research and development,
up 11 pct from the 480 mln dlrs it spent in 1986 on research
and development.
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc said its
chairman and chief operating officer will remain in their
positions following the merger of the company with an affiliate
of First Boston Corp.
   "It is expected that Oliver S. Travers will continue as
chairman, president and Chief executive officer, and Thomas J.
Albani will continue as chief operating officer," said an
Allegheny spokesman.
    Allegheny today said it agreed to a buyout from First
Boston at 24.60 dlrs per share. The transaction was valued at
500 mln dlrs. Its stock rose 8-5/8 to 24 in active trading.
 Reuter

Imperial Continental Gas Association
<ICGS.L>, IC Gas, said its board is not making a recommendation
on the partial tender offfer at 710p per share announced by
<Tractebel SA> and <Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA>.
    At the same time, however, the board would not recommend a
general offer for all the shares at a price of 710p, the
statement added.
    Shareholders wondering whether to tender either to the
Tractebel consortium or to the rival 700p per share partial
offer from <SHV Holdings NV> should consult professional
advisers.
 Reuter

ALC Communication Services Inc
said its Allnet Communications Corp will consolidate its two
data centers and relocate at a Southfield, Michigan office
center.
    The new facility will employ more than 300 people and is
expected to absorb employees from the existing centers in
Birmingham and Chicago, a company spokesman said.
    Start-up of the consolidated computer data center is
expected in late June, it said.
 Reuter

National Heathcare Inc said it
signed an agreement to sell five rural hospitals to a private
corporation for about 18 mln dlrs, including the assumption of
six mln dlrs of debt.
    The company said it plans to complete the sales, which are
subject to various regulatory approvals, by the end of July.
    National Healthcare said it expects no material gain on
loss on the sales and that substantially all proceeds will be
used to reduce debt.
 Reuter

USX Corp chairman David Roderick called
for a lower value for the U.S. dollar against other currencies
to help speed a correction in the U.S. trade deficit, which
last year reached 170 billion dlrs.
    In remarks prepared for a speech before the Economic Club
of Detroit, Roderick said, "There should be total resolve that
the dollar versus other major currencies, as well as the
currencies of other nations having a substantial trade surplus
with us, must continue to decline so that the correction in our
trade deficit starts on the road to recovery."
    Roderick said the U.S. should be understanding of the
"economic pain" our trading partners experience as a result of
a falling dollar.
    But, he added, "As painful as the correction may be to our
trading partners, it is less painful than leaving the problem
uncorrected because that would lead us into an inevitable,
lengthy and steep world recession."
    Roderick said between February 1985 and December 1986 the
dollar fell by more than 40 pct in real terms against major
industrial currencies and by 30 to 35 pct against a broader
group of currencies of nearly all developing nations.
    At the end of 1986, he said, the value of foreign assets in
the U.S. exceeded the value of U.S. assets abroad by 240
billion dlrs, compared to five years ago when the U.S. had a
surplus in assets of 141 billion. A company spokesman said the
data were provided by economic consultants to USX.
    The primary reason for the trade imbalance was the 70 pct
rise of the dollar between 1980 and 1985, although other
factors were involved, Roderick said. But it is wrong, he said,
"to attribute the massive trade deficit to a fundmental
deterioration of U.S. productivity or of American product
quality."
    These areas need to be improved but they are not the root
cause of the trade gap problem, Roderick said. He urged
American manufacturers to become more competitive so they can
compete in global markets.
    In the speech, the USX chairman also called for changes in
securities laws to curb what he called abuses by corporate
raiders and speculators.
    Among his proposals, which he presented to the Senate
Banking Committee in testimony last week, were a requirement
that raiders give 24-hour notice for every one pct of stock
they acquire in a company.
    Roderick proposed that tender offers must be made for all
cash to all stockholders on equal terms and that raiders be
required to have financing in place before a tender is made.
    Further, raiders should be required to make an all-cash
tender offer once they acquire 10 pct of a target company's
stock, he said. And payment of greenmail, or a preferential
price by a target company to buy back a raider's stake, should
be prohibited under the revised laws.
    Roderick said changes were necessary to curb abuses but
that he did not want laws that would hurt the financial markets
or discourage "fair price to all" takeovers.
 Reuter

the Gulf of Mexico was unchanged at 35.6 pct during the past
week, a level that has remained relatively steady since January
due largely to a reduction of nine rigs in the Gulf fleet,
Offshore Data Services said.
    The total number of working rigs was 83 for the week,
compared to 83 last week and 129 rigs one year ago.
fell 0.3 pct to 53.9 pct with a total of 335 idled rigs. The
number of rigs contracted worldwide was 392.
remained unchanged at 41.3 pct during the past week with 64 of
155 rigs contracted.
 Reuter

Canadian Pacific Ltd said fourth
quarter 1986 operating profit rose to 91.6 mln dlrs, or 30 cts
a share, from 50.7 mln dlrs, or 20 cts a share, a year ago.
    The statement confirmed released preliminary earnings
figures the company released in February.
    A 102.6 mln dlr gain on the sale of CP's Cominco Ltd
interest helped raise final 1986 fourth quarter profit to 193.8
mln dlrs or 65 cts a share.
    The company said a drop in 1986 full-year operating profit
to 150.1 mln dlrs from a restated 252.7 mln dlrs in 1985 was
due mainly to lower world oil prices.
    The company said its CP Rail division reported 1986 net
income of 119.4 mln dlrs, compared with 133.4 mln dlrs in 1985.
It said grain traffic recovered from drought-affected levels of
a year ago but was offset by weakness in other traffic areas
and increased expenses.
    It said the net loss from its Soo Line increased to 33.5
mln dlrs loss from 8.7 mln dlrs loss in 1985, mainly due to
restructuring charges.
    Canadian Pacific said favorable developments during the
year included reduced bulk shipping losses as a result of a
recovery in tanker markets and a turnaround in the forest
products sector.
 Reuter

U.S. drilling activity slowed
significantly in Texas and Oklahoma last week, resulting in the
number of U.S. active rotary rigs to plunge by 35 to a total of
766, against 1,212 working rigs one year ago, Hughes Tool Co.
said.
drilling, which dropped to a total of 671 from last week's 707.
A total of 78 rigs were active offshore and 17 were working in
inland waters during the week, Hughes Tool said.
    Among individual states, Texas lost 23 working rigs,
Oklahoma dropped by 13, Louisiana was down three and New Mexico
dropped by one. Wyoming, Kansas and California reported gains
of six, five and four rigs, respectively.
    In Canada, the rig count was up 16 to 180, against 398 one
year ago.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co's stock rose 1-1/4 to
82-1/4 after analyst Maryann Keller of Furman Selz Mager Dietz
and Birney raised earnings estimates on the company, traders
said.
    Keller said that she expects the company's 1987 earnings to
rise to between 13.50-to-14 dlrs a share as compared to 12.32
dlrs a share earned last year.
    She said Ford's already good market share is expected to
remain favorable and earnings from overseas are expected to
improve.
    In addition, Keller said, the company is selling more of
its expensive model cars, which are more profitable.
    The non-automotive operations, including Ford Motor Credit,
are also expected to post improved earnings this year.
    Keller said she expects the company to split its stock and
raise its dividend to at least three dlrs a share this year.
    She noted that Chrysler Corp's <C> announcement of a merger
proposal for American Motors Corp <AMO> should have no short
term effect on Ford but could cut into Ford's share of the
truck market in the long term.
 Reuter

Italy has shown interest in British new
crop wheat recently but the actual volume booked so far by
Italian buyers has not been large, traders said.
    They put purchases at around 50,000 tonnes for Sept/Dec
shipments but said some of the business was transacted at the
start of the year.
    Italian interior home markets have been active in recent
weeks and traders said around 200,000 tonnes have traded
between dealers and home consumers. Some of this has been
covered in the market here and more possibly will be, traders
said.
 Reuter

Dutch food retailer Ahold
NV <AHLN.AS> expects unchanged profits in 1987 but said it will
take advantage of the lower dollar to expand further in the
U.S.
    Turnover will grow but net profits are expected to remain
around the 1986 level of 132.4 mln guilders due to higher Dutch
taxes and a three-year expansion plan, Ahold Chairman Albert
Heijn told a news conference.
    The profit forecast allows for a dollar rate around current
levels of just over three guilders.
    Turnover and net profit in 1986 were hit by the dollar,
which fell to an average 2.46 guilders from 3.35 in 1985.
 Reuter

Flying Tigers said it has expanded
its air cargo routes to include Asia-to-Europe jetfreighter
flights.
    The company also said it is launching a jetfreighter
service to Milan, Italy.
    Both routes will operate weekly.
 Reuter

receive a qualified opinion from auditors on its 1986 and 1985
financial statements.
    It said the qualification related to its inability to
determine the effects, if any, of the final resolution of a
suit filed against it by <Washington Public Power Supply
System>.  The 1985 suit was dismissed in a 1986 lower court
action, but the ultimate outcome of the matter is still
uncertain since Washington Public Power has appealed to the
U.S. Court of Appeals.
 Reuter

Reading Co said it has agreed in
principle to convey properties it owns in and around the
Philadelphia Convention Center site to the city of Philadelphia
and the Philadelphia Convention Center Authority.
    It said in exchange it will receive about 23 mln dlrs in
cash, rights to acquire 22 acres adjacent to the Philadelphia
International Airport and an option to acquire the development
rights over the Gallery II shopping mall on Market Street in
downtown Philadelphia.
    Reading said it will be responsible for the demolition and
cleanup of certain of the properties, for which a portion of
the cash proceeds will be escrowed.
    The company said it will continue to own and operate the
Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.
    The land it is giving up amounts to about seven acrease and
includes part of the Reading Terminal Train Shed, it said.
 Reuter

Montedison SpA <MONI.MI> has acquired a 70
pct stake in <Plant Cell Research Institute - PCRI> of
California from Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC.N> for "several tens
of millions of dollars," a senior Montedison executive said.
    Renato Ugo, a member of Montedison's management committee,
told reporters that <Stanford Research Institute International>
of Menlo Park, California, had acted as a partner in the
purchase, itself acquiring a stake in PCRI of under 10 pct.
    PCRI, based in Dublin, California has a biotechnology
research laboratory.
    Ugo said the price paid included outlays for the laboratory
technology and staff.
    He said other negotiations were under way with
biotechnology companies in the health care and diagnostics
sectors through Montedison's health care subsidiary <Erbamont
NV>, but gave no details.
    "We hope they will be concluded by the year end," he said.
    Montedison currently invests around 30 billion lire a year
in biotechnology research and expects to increase this figure
to around 50 billion lire in the next few years.
 Reuter

The London Meat Futures Exchange, LMFE,
will cease trading in its deliverable pigmeat contract from
April 3, the LMFE said.
    The move will enable the exchange to concentrate on the
cash settled contracts introduced last year.
    "This allows the exchange and its members to concentrate our
marketing on the pig and live cattle contracts," LMFE official
Peter Freeman said. "These two have already shown their
effectiveness for hedging, and the trade in both contracts is
increasing," he added.
    "Using the futures market allows better planning and forward
price fixing that our industry needs," chairman Pat Elmer said.
    Some 131 pig contracts were settled against the Meat and
Livestock Commission's Average All Pigs Price in February,
which represents hedging for over 13,000 pigs, more than twice
the number cash-settled in January, the LMFE said.
    Cash settlement on the new cattle and pig contracts was
introduced last June in the expectation that the appeal of the
futures market to farmers, abattoirs and users of meat would
increase because of the absence of a delivery requirement.
 Reuter

White House communications director
John Koehler resigned after just one week in the job, saying
President Reagans' new chief of staff Howard Baker had a right
to appoint his own team.
    Koehler was hired to replace Patrick Buchanan as Reagan's
communications chief a few days before Donald Regan quit as the
president's top aide.
    "I don't feel I've been jerked around ... I recognize that
Senator Baker must have people around him for the next 22
months that he's known for a long time, that he understands,
that he's comfortable with and who are comfortable with him,"
said Koehler during an appearance in the White House press
room.
 Reuter

A senior Iraqi official said today Iran
had exaggerated reports of fighting on the Gulf war northern
front to make up for failure in the south and to encourage
anti-Baghdad Kurdish rebels to support its troops.
    The head of the defence ministry political department,
Abdul Jabbar Muhsen told Reuters in a telephone interview that
fighting continues in the Kurdistan mountain region, where Iran
launched its northern offensive last Tuesday night.
    Asked about the silence of Iraqi war communiques on the
battle he said, "Small units are taking part, the biggest of
which is brigade size.

<TCN Inc>, a long distance
phone service, said it has completed installing it
state-of-the-art switching system.
    TCN also said it began building a fiber optic transmission
network to initially link San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and
Houston, Texas.
    TCN said the service will expand during the second quarter
1987 to include service to California and Florida.
 Reuter

The USDA's weekly export inspection
report is expected to show a decline in soybean exports and
steady to slightly lower corn and wheat exports, according to
CBT floor traders' forecasts.
    Traders projected soybean exports at 15 mln to 16 mln
bushels, down from 20.3 mln bushels a week ago and 25.5 mln
bushels a year ago.
    Corn guesses ranged from 20 mln to 25 mln bushels, compared
with 21.9 mln bushels a week ago and 28.2 mln a year ago.
    Wheat guesses ranged from 13 mln to 18 mln bushels,
compared with 14.1 mln bushels a week ago and 17.9 mln a year
ago.
 Reuter

Two new eurosterling bonds were launched
today, making a total of 10 new deals in the sector so far this
month, as borrowers rush to cash in on a bull sterling market
fueled by the strength of the pound and pre-budget euphoria.
    The Bank of England finally gave way to a 1/2 point cut in
banks' base lending rates earlier today, but dealers said this
had been largely discounted and was not likely to detract from
the current popularity of sterling-denominated investments.
    "Sterling, in any shape or form, is flavor of the month and
we're set to see many more eurosterling deals," one dealer said.
    Today's new eurosterling bonds were a 10-year, 100 mln stg
deal for Sweden at 9-1/2 pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead by
Baring Brothers and Co Ltd and a 14 year 60 mln stg convertible
deal for Storehouse Plc launched by SBCI International Ltd. "We
thought we saw a proverbial flood of new deals with the 14 we
had last month but it seems March will beat February hands down
with 10 already," one eurosterling specialist said.
    "Optically, psychologically, these single figures are much
more attractive for the borrower. Eurosterling looks like a
cheap and attractive way to raise your money," he added.
    This accounts for the wide variety of borrowers who have
tapped the sector recently, ranging from sovereigns such as the
Kingdom of Sweden today, continental banks including
Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank and British corporations.
    Another U.K. Merchant bank analyst noted that the current
vogue for eurosterling enabled several corporate borrowers last
month to offer paper priced below comparative gilt yields.
    A Storehouse official confirmed that the issue was aimed at
Swiss and German investors who were showing good interest.
    This is the first entry into the long term international
capital markets by Storehouse, British designer Terence
Conran's retail conglomerate which incorporates U.K. Chain
stores Mothercare, British Home Stores and Habitat.
    "We have been considering the move for quite some time now
and the current strength of the eurosterling sector provided
the perfect opportunity and spur for us to finally tap the
market," Lance Moir, corporate treasurer at Storehouse Plc told
Reuters.

McDonnell Douglas Corp said recent talks
with Airbus Industries about joint development and production
of a new jetliner with the European aircraft manufacturing
consortium have been very informal.
    "If there have been talks, they were casual at best," said
a source at the company. "There is nothing going on that would
lead to immediate or near-term collaboration" on a new plane.
    Senior officials at the aerospace firm's St. Louis
headquarters were unable to comment more specifically on
weekend published reports from Europe that talks about a joint
venture have resumed after they broke off last fall.
    McDonnell Douglas and Airbus last spring and summer had
discussed jointly developing and building a long-range aircraft
to compete with Boeing Co <BA> 747 wide-body jetliner, or its
successor. Talks ended when neither side wanted to forego plans
to launch its own widebody jetliner projects - McDonnell
Douglas with its MD-11 and Airbus with its A340.
    McDonnell Douglas has since launched the MD-11 jetliner, a
successor to its DC-10, and has more than 100 orders and
options.
    Airbus wants to launch its program this spring and is now
seeking customers for the long-range A340 and a companion
plane, the shorter-range A330.
    "I don't want to say we're not interested, because we are
in any collaboration that benefits McDonnell Douglas without it
giving up anything," the source told Reuters. "There just
haven't been in-depth discussions."
    He said any joint venture would not affect the MD-11
program already underway.
    McDonnell Douglas last month claimed Airbus tried to
overturn pledges made by airlines to buy the MD-11 by offering
cut-rate prices for the A340.
    The firm said Airbus, in an effort to line up enough
customers to launch the program, is engaging in "predatory
practices" with prices substantially below those needed to
recover the cost of developing and building the plane.
    U.S. government and aerospace industry officials believe
Airbus can offer low prices because the consortium gets
government subsidies that cover many of its costs.
    The Reagan Administration decided last month to consult the
General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, GATT, to determine
whether Airbus is unfairly subsidized. Under GATT rules an
enterprise can be subsidized but only if it will make a profit.
    U.S. officials say Airbus countries have poured 15 billion
dlrs into Airbus since the early 1970's and the consortium has
yet to make a profit.
 Reuter

The volume of European exports to
South Africa carried by container line vessels has declined 40
pct in the last two years, British shipping executive Antony
Butterwick said.
    Butterwick told reporters that despite the drop and low
freight rates, the shipping conference he heads will increase
the frequency of sailings to South Africa as a "very strong act
of faith and confidence" in the country's future.
    He is chairman of the Europe South and South-East African
Conference Lines and joint managing director of P and O
Containers Ltd.
    A statement issued by the conference here said frequency of
Southern Africa/Europe container service sailings is being
increased from nine to seven days.
    "This is the most positive development on the shipping front
between South Africa and its main trading partners in Europe
for more than four years, when the service last operated
weekly," it said.
 Reuter

European consortium <Airbus Industrie>
said it had no comment on press reports that it had resumed
talks with U.S. <McDonnell Douglas Corp.> over a possible joint
development and production of airliners.
    A spokesman at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse said in a
telephone interview: "We have no knowledge of talks and have no
comment to make."
    Talks broke off last autumn after the two rivals failed to
agree on cooperation over a new long-range jet. McDonnell
Douglas wanted Airbus to help build its MD-11, while Airbus
insisted McDonnell drop the MD-11 and cooperate over its A340.
 Reuter

Mathematical Applications Group
Inc said it has signed a letter of intent to sell all of its
operating business and will propose a plan of liquidation
following the sale.
    If the company is unsuccessful in obtaining the approvals
needed for the sale and liquidation, it said, the company may
be required to initiate reorganization proceedings under
federal bankruptcy law to facilitie the distribution of its
assets.
    Mathematical Applications said it tentatively agreed to
sell its direct marketing business to Pagex Inc for 400,000
dlrs plus an amount equal to the working capital of the
business at closing as well as a 1.7 mln dlr note payable in
installments over six years.
    Mathematical Applications said the business' working
capital is estimated to be about 600,000 dlrs.
    Pagex has been formed by Paul A. Goldner the owner of Pagex
Systems Inc, which is also engaged in the direct marketing
computer service business.
    Mathematical Applications said the tentative agreement
calls for Pagex to buy substantially all of the assets and
liabilities related to the direct marketing business and
continue to use the Mathematical Applications name.
    It said the sale is also subject to renegotiation of a real
estate lease and approval of a definitive agreement by the
company's board, stock holders and debenture holders.
    The company said it has obtained waivers from holders of
its six mln dlrs principal amount of debentures due March 31,
1993, to defer interest payments aggregating 270,000 dlrs
through March 31, 1987. The company said it will seek waivers
to defer these interest payments, and those due March 31, for
enough time to enable the company to accomplish the proposed
sale of its operations.
    Mathematical Applications said it is talking to debenture
holders, its landlord, a lessor of equipment to the marketing
operation and holders of other liabilities not being assumed by
Pagex to arrange distribution of assets after the proposed
sale, adding that these assets will be significantly less than
its liabilities.
to defer these payments, and those due March 31, for enough
time to accomplish the proposed sale of its operations.
operation and holders of liabilities Pages is not assuming to
arrange distribution of assets after the proposed sale, adding
these assets will be significantly less than its liabilities.
    As part of the distribution of assets, the company said, it
expects shareholders to receive an amount based on the bid
price of the company's stock, which was 1/16 on March five.
 Reuter

With the death of Sen. Edward
Zorinsky (D-Neb.), Midwestern grain farmers have lost an ally
who from his senior post on the Senate Agriculture Committee
had fought hard against cutbacks in farm benefits.
    Zorinsky's passing could trim the Democrats' majority in
the Senate and change the makeup of the Senate farm panel.
    Zorinsky, who died of a heart attack last Friday, was the
second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee and
chairman of the crucial subcommittee on agricultural production
and stabilization of prices.
    Once a Republican, Zorinsky was fiscal conservative. But he
was an outspoken critic of Reagan administration proposals to
trim target prices, and at the time of his death was girding
himself for another push for mandatory supply controls.
    If Melcher decides, however, to continue as chairman of the
subcommittee on agricultural research, conservation, forestry
and general legislation, other Democrats would have a crack at
the vacated chairmanship.
    By order of seniority, those senators would be David Pryor
(Ark.), David Boren (Okla.), Howell Heflin (Ala.) and Tom
Harkin (D-Iowa), a forceful advocate of mandatory supply
controls.
 Reuter

Financial Corp of America's
American Savings and Loan Association said it completed the
previously announced purchase of 16 retail savings branches
from Great Western Financial Corp's <GWF> Great Western
Savings.
    American Savings said the purchases boost its deposits by
about 550 mln dlrs, but do not affect its asset base.
 Reuter

American and Soviet arms negotiators will
resume talks on curbing medium-range nuclear missiles here
tomorrow, a U.S. Spokesman said.
    The negotiations on nuclear and space arms formally
recessed their seventh round last Friday.
    But both sides agreed that the group dealing with
Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) would continue its work,
following proposals introduced last week by both superpowers
for deep cuts in those weapons.
 Reuter

Central bankers said they
were generally satisfied with the response to the Paris accord
two weeks ago to stabilize currencies at around current levels.
    Speaking after a meeting at the Bank for International
Settlements (BIS), which reviewed the agreement, they also
welcomed interest rates cuts in France and today's drop in
British rates.  One top official said the rate cuts would help
to stimulate growth generally in Europe and welcomed that
countries other than West Germany were seen to be helping
sustain the economy. 
    The central bankers, who spoke on the condition they not be
named, said the meeting of governors from the Group of 10
countries also heard a report from Michel Camdessus, the new
managing director of the International Monetary Fund, on the
IMF's latest assessment of the debt crisis. In particular, they
discussed Brazil's debt moratorium.
    But there was no sense of urgency, they said, and Brazil
had made no appeal for bridging loans from the BIS or central
banks.
 Reuter

Union Carbide Corp said it filed
a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission covering 250 mln dlrs of senior subordinated notes
due 1994 and 250 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated
    The notes, which will be callable after 1992, will be
underwritten by First Boston Corp.
    First Boston is co-lead underwriter with Morgan Stanley and
Co of the debentures, which will be convertible into Union
Carbide common at any time prior to maturity, unless previously
redeemed.
    Union Carbide said it will use the proceeds of the issues
to repay debt incurred in connection with a recapitalization
plan unveiled in November 1986.
    The plan was aimed at reducing debt levels and interest
expense, strengthening the chemical company's finances and
increasing its operating flexibility.
 Reuter

The Student Loan Marketing
Association said it priced its 300 mln dlr short-term floating
rate note offer at par to yield 25 basis points above the
bond-equivalent yield of the 91-day Treasury bill.
    Sallie Mae said previously interest on the notes, which are
for settlement March 12 and are due Sept 10, 1987, will be
reset the day following each weekly T-bill auction.
    When-issued trading is expected to begin at 0930 hrs EST
tomorrow, it said.
    Sallie Mae said it generally offers short-term floating
rate notes each month.
 Reuter

Johnson Products Co Inc said it
completed the sale of Debbie's School of Beauty Culture Inc and
the assets of Ultra Precise Beauty Boutique Inc to management.
    It said the sale price of 2,533,000 dlrs consisted of
700,000 dlrs cash, a secured promissory note for 1,506,000 dlrs
and the forgiveness of a debt of 327,000 dlrs owed by Johnson
Products to Debbie's School.
 Reuter

A newly formed credit rating agency based
in London, EuroRatings Ltd, said it will begin providing
evaluations of the quality of eurobond offerings including the
first-ever ratings of some of the U.K. And Irish clearing
banks.
    The agency said that already, it has published ratings on
90 issues of 45 euromarket issuers.
    Among the bank issues never rated publicly are long-term
debt securities of LLoyd's Bank PLC Allied Irish Banks, Bank of
Ireland and Bank of Scotland.
    Shareholders in the new firm are Fitch Investors Service
inc, a U.S.-based rating agency and Compagnie Belge
D'Assurance- Credit S.A., A credit insurance firm, which is a
subsidiary of Societe Generale de Belgique.
           
 Reuter

Eli Lilly and Co said it obtained
approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration to market
the natural sequence human growth hormone, humatrope, made by
recombinant DNA technolgoy.
    The company said humatrope is identical in chemistry and
structure to the growth hormone produced by the human body. It
is the only commercially available biosysnthetic human growth
hormone that is identical to naturally-occurring growth
hormone, according to the company.
    It said humatrope is indicated only for the long term
treatment of children who have growth failure due to an
inadequate secretion of the body's own normal growth hormone.
    Humatrope joins humulin, human insulin in Eli Lilly and
Co's line of human health care products of recombinant DNA
origin.

 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it seeking two
billion dlrs in bank debt to complete its takeover of Piedmont
Aviation Inc <PIE> and its pending acquisition of PS Group
Inc's Pacific Southwest Airlines.
that details its proposed 69 dlr a share cash tender offer for
Piedmont, USAir said Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co <MHC>
"indicates its willingness" in a March 6 letter to provide up
to 500 mln dlrs of the financing.
    Manufacturers Hanover would also to act as agent for a bank
group to raise the rest of the financing, USAir said.
    USAir said a Manufacturers Hanover affiliate is currently
agent for its 400 mln dlrs revelving credit facility, which
would be replaced by the proposed two billion dlr financing.
    USAir put its total cost of completing the tender offer at
1.7 billion dlrs. Its Pacific Southwest takeover, which has
received federal approval and is due to come up for shareholder
approval later this month, is for 17 dlrs a share, or 400 mln
dlrs total.
    USAir said it has already bought 2.3 mln Piedmont common
shares, or 9.9 pct of the total outstanding from Norfolk
Southern Corp <NSC> for 161.9 mln dlrs.
    The tender offer, which is being made through a USAir
subsidiary, USAG Acquisition Corp, would not be valid unless
USAir is left with more than half of Piedmont's total
outstanding common stock after the April 3 expiration.
    While negotiations on terms and interest rates of its bank
loans are not yet complete, USAir said it expects them to be in
the form of a one billion dlr two-year term loan and a one
billion dlr seven-year revolving credit facility.
    The company said it expects to repay the two-year loan
through equity, preferred and debt offerings and possibly
internal funds and the sale and/or leaseback of aircraft.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS  SOYBEANS 18,616 WHEAT 16,760 CORN 25,193

Pitney Bowes Inc's Dictaphone Corp
subsidiary said it has contracted the exclusive right to sell
<Sudbury Systems Inc>'s RTAS digital dictation system in
medical markets in the United States.
    Inaddition, Dictaphone said, it will market RTAS in
non-medical marekts on a non-exclusive basis. RTAS is a
centralized system which provides users with 24-hour instant
access to dictated reports from any remote location. Dictaphone
has been selling the RTAS system since 1984.
 Reuter

Xyvision Inc said it has
received 1,900,000 dlrs in orders for its computer-integrated
publishing systems from nine commercial customers.
 Reuter

<Jannock Ltd> said it acquired a 50 pct
interest in Intercon Security Ltd for five mln dlrs and
Intercon founders Brian Legge and Richard Grange will hold the
remaining 50 pct and will continue to manage the company.
    Intercon Security, employing 850 people, provides a full
range of security equipment and services, Jannock said.
 Reuter

Petro-Canada, the state-owned oil
company, said it raised the contract price it will pay for
crude oil 64 Canadian cts a barrel, effective March six.
    Petro-Canada's posted price for the benchmark light sweet
grade, Edmonton/Swann Hills at 40 api gravity, now stands at
21.95 Canadian dlrs/bbl. Their light sour grade is posted at
19.88 Canadian dlrs/bbl.
    Earlier today, Shell Canada <SHC> said it raised its crude
postings about 47 Canadian cts/bbl, bringing Edmonton light
sweet to 21.95 Canadian dlrs/bbl, and the light sour crude to
19.95 Canadian dlrs/bbl.
    Imperial oil <IMO.A>, a 70 pct owned subsidiary of Exxon
Corp, said that effective March five it also raised its light
sweet crude posting to 21.95 Canadian dlrs/bbl.
 Reuter

DART GROUP SAID IT OFFERS TO BUY SUPERMARKETS GENERAL AT 41.75 DLRS/SHR

The Agriculture Department will have
to release an estimated 1.6 billion dlrs worth of in-kind
certificates, or certs, to corn farmers this fall if USDA
decides to maintain an equal split of total 1986 feedgrain
deficiency payments in cash and certs, USDA officials said.
    Final 1986 crop deficiency payments will be available to
feed grain producers in October. Wheat deficiency payments for
the 1986 crop, now complete, were made in a 50/50
cash-certificate split, and USDA officials have indicated they
want to do the same for feedgrains.
    Over 3.2 billion dlrs of an estimated 6.0 billion in corn
deficiency payments have already been announced, with 1.42
billion dlrs (43 pct) set in certificates. The final payment
must be 1.6 billion dlrs in certs (57 pct) for a 50/50 split.
    However, the release this month of almost 600 mln dlrs of
deficiency payments was equally divided in cash and certs,
doing nothing to bring up the percentage of certs.
    Some USDA analysts said the payments reflected hesitation
from the Office of Managament and Budget to allow another huge
release of certs onto the market.
    Bills are pending in Congress to move up the final
feedgrain deficiency payment to "as soon as five months after
harvest as possible," rather than the current year lag time.
    Neither Rep. Edward Madigan (R-Ill.) nor Sen. Bob Dole
(R-Kans.), sponsors of the bills, have brought the legislation
forward. Aides said timing will depend on budget discussions.
 Reuter

Singer Co said
its flight simulator designed to train pilots in dealing with
wind shear was endorsed by the Federal Aviation Administration,
FAA.
    The wind sheer profile will be available on all of Singer's
SimuFlite Training International Phase II jet simulators by
mid-1987, the company said.
    While the company can use the device to train pilots
without the FAA evaluation and qualification, it said the FAA
act is an endorsement.
 Reuter

J.W. Mays Inc said it made the
final payment of 84,519 dlrs due its unsecured creditors under
its reorganization plan.
    The company said it has been out of bankrputcy since
February 14, 1984 and has now made its final payment to
creditors.
    Mays said it had until March 1, 1988 to pay certain
interest due to unsecured creditors but has elected to prepay
that interest now.
 Reuter

<BCI Holdings Corp>  said its <Beatrice
U.S. Food Corp> retained Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc to assist
in the sale of its national bottled water business.
    It said products of the subsidiary, based in Monterey Park,
Calif., are sold under the Arrowhead brand name in California
and Arizona, the Ozarka name in Texas and the Great Bear name
in 11 northeastern states.
 Reuter

The first 23 members have been elected to
the joint traded options facility of the London Commodity
Exchange (LCE) and the International Petroleum exchange (IPE),
the exchanges said in a statement.
    More firms have applied and the final tranche will be
admitted on April one and trading is planned to start in early
June on the new trading floor on Commodity Quay.
    Traded options need a volatile and liquid futures base to
succeed and chairman of the joint formation committee Jack
Patterson said the existing LCE cocoa, coffee, sugar and IPE
gas oil contracts should have no difficulty in providing this.
 Reuter

USDA ESTIMATES 1986/87 USSR GRAIN IMPORTS  26.0 MLN TONNES VS 23.0 IN FEB, 29.9 IN 1985/86

USDA ESTIMATES 1986 SOVIET GRAIN CROP  AT 210 MLN TONNES VS 210 IN FEB, 192 YEAR-AGO

Dart Group Corp said it offered to
buy Supermarkets General Corp for 41.75 dlrs per share in cash.
    Earlier Supermarkets General said an "unsolicited third
party" had made the offer. Analysts estimated the value at
about 1.6 billion dlrs, based on 38.5 mln shares outstanding.
    Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc told Dart that Kidder's
affiliate will be prepared to advance up to 750 mln dlrs on a
subordinated basis.

forecast the Soviet 1986/87 wheat crop at 92.30 mln tonnes, vs
92.30 mln tonnes last month. It put the 1985/86 crop at 78.10
mln tonnes, vs 78.10 mln tonnes last month.
    Soviet 1986/87 coarse grain production is estimated at
103.30 mln tonnes, vs 103.30 mln tonnes last month. Production
in 1985/86 is projected at 100.00 mln tonnes, vs 99.99 mln
tonnes last month.
    USSR wheat imports are forecast at 15.00 mln tonnes in
1986/87, vs 14.00 mln tonnes last month. Imports in 1985/86 are
put at 15.70 mln tonnes, vs 15.70 mln tonnes last month. USDA
estimated Soviet 1986/87 coarse grain imports at 10.00 mln
tonnes, vs 8.00 mln tonnes last month, and 1985/86 imports at
13.70 mln tonnes, vs 13.70 mln tonnes last month.

projected an average yield of 1.47 gallons of frozen
concentrated orange juice per box (42.0 degree brix equivalent)
from Florida's 1986/87 crop.
    That compares with 1.46 gallons per box previously and 1.38
gallons per box from the 1985/86 crop.
    The crop reporting board said the estimates for the 1986/87
season are based on maturity and yields tests as of March 1.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it is
reviewing debt of Caesars World Inc with negative implications
following New York investor Martin Sosnoff's 725.2 mln dlr bid
to buy the Caesars World common shares he does not yet own.
    The issues include Caesars World's BB-rated senior debt and
single-B-plus subordinated debt, and Caesars World Finance
Corp's B-plus subordinated debt, guaranteed by the parent.
About 230.8 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S and P said that, if successful, the debt financed
acquisition would greatly increase the firm's financial risk
and cause a marked drop in earnings and cash flow.
 Reuter

estimated 1987 winter potato production, based on March 1
conditions, at 2,788,000 cwts (100 lbs), vs 2,764,000 cwts
indicated last month and 2,991,000 cwts last year.
    The department estimated winter potato area for harvest at
11,900 acres, vs 11,900 acres last month and 12,300 acres in
1986.
    The yield per harvested acre for winter potatoes is
estimated at 234 cwts per acre, vs 243 cwts last year.
    The department also projected 1987 spring potato crop area
planted at 79,300 cwts, vs 77,400 cwts last year, and area for
harvest at 76,700 acres, vs 75,900 acres harvested last year.
 Reuter

About 800 members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers Union, UFCWU, struck John Morrell's Sioux
City, Iowa, pork processing plant at midnight Sunday, a
spokesman for the UFCWU national said.
    Meatpackers at the plant have been working without a
contract since the old pact expired January 31, UFCWU spokesman
John Mancuso said. The plant can slaughter and process about
13,000 to 14,000 hogs a day, he estimated.
    The UFCWU bargaining committee and full membership rejected
in late January a contract proposal by John Morrell, a
subsidiary of United Brands Inc, he said.

Chrysler Corp said over the next two
years it will phase out production at its Indianapolis
Electrical Plant, which currently employs 975 hourly hourly and
    The company said that its recently concluded study
indicated the plant, now operating at less than 50 pct
capacity, could not be competitive in an increasingly
competitive automotive market in the production of
electro-mechanical automotive components.

MTS Acquisition Corp said it will need
about 907 mln dlrs to acquire the 31,781,461 Caesars World Inc
shares not owned by its owner, Martin T. Sosnoff.
    The estimate came in MTS Acquisition's proxy statement to
Caesars World shareholders describing its offer of 28 dlrs a
share for their stock which was announced this morning.
    In that announcement, MTS Acquisition said its bank and
investor bankers felt they could provide financing totaling 975
mln dlrs for the offer.
    Sosnoff is Caesars World's largest shareholders with
4,217,675 of the company's shares. That is about 11.7 pct of
the outstanding stock on a fully diluted basis, the proxy said.
    Besides being the sole owner of MTS Acquisition, Sosnoff
owns 61 pct of Atalanta/Sosnoff Capital Corp's <ATL> stock and
is chairman of that investment management and brokerage firm.
 Reuter

is reviewing the long-term debt ratings of Ford Motor Co and
Ford Motor Credit Co for possible upgrade. About 23 billion
dlrs of debt is affected.
    Moody's said it recognizes Ford's recent superior operating
results and is assessing whether this performance can be
expected to continue. The rating agency will focus on Ford's
long-term competitive business and financial condition.
    Ratings under review include Ford Motor's A-1 rated senior
long-term debt, the Credit unit's A-1 rated senior debt and its
A-2 rated subordinated debt.
 Reuter

Carolin Mines Ltd
said recent assays of tailings at its Hope, British Columbia
mine ranged from 0.50 to 0.64 ounces of gold per ton. 
    There were only trace amounts of platinum and palladium,
the company said.
    Carolin said the results sharply disagreed with an earlier
assay performed by Intergold U.S.A. Inc which showed 1.0 ounce
of gold per ton and 0.50 ounce of platinum per ton.
    Carolin also said it expects to receive results of further
tests and assays of the tailings within two to three weeks.
 Reuter

CCC, has authorized 25.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees to North
Yemen to cover purchases of U.S. wheat under the Intermediate
Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-103), the U.S. Agriculture
    Under the program credit terms extended must be in excess
of three yeras, but not more than seven years.
    All sales under the line must be registered and exports
completed by September 30, 1987, the department said.
 Reuter

CCC, has accepted one bonus offer from an exporter on the sale
of 4,400 tonnes of barley malt to Nigeria, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the bonus awarded was 100.00 dlrs per
tonne and was made to Rahr Malting Co and will be paid in the
form of commodities from the inventory stocks of the CCC.
    The barley malt is scheduled for shipment during April,
1987.
    An additional 76,300 tonnes of barley malt are still
available to Nigeria under the Export Enhancement Program
initiative announced December 10, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

<Guinness PLC> said William G.
Pietersen has been named president of Guinness America Inc in
addition to his role as president of the company's North
American Wine and Spirits operations.
    Guinness also said John M. Huston has been named vice
president finance of the North American unit, which has also
created the offices of vice president general counsel and vice
president human resources.
    It said the office of general counsel will be filled on an
interim basis by Donald J. Lunghino, the recently retired
general counsel of Unilever United States.
 Reuter

Bank of Ireland said it has mandated
Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd (BZW) to arrange a 300 mln stg
committed certificate of deposit issuance facility.
    The facility will be used to fund Bank of Ireland's new
U.K. Home mortgage subsidiary, BankAmerica Finance Ltd, which
will be renamed shortly.
    The certificates will be sold through an uncommitted tender
panel but the facility will be fully underwritten for five
years by a syndicate of banks formed by BZW.
    Four banks-- Barclays Bank Plc, Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce, Lloyds Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Bank-- have
agreed to underwrite the credit in a pre-syndication agreement
and will act as lead managers in syndication, due to begin
soon.
    Bank of Ireland also said it has appointed BZW as sole
dealer on a separate 100 mln stg certificate of deposit
program.
 Reuter

mine indicated that ounces of gold per ton ranged from 0.64 to
0.50.
assay performed by Intergold U.S.A. Inc which showed one ounce
of gold per ton and 1/2 ounce of platinum per ton.
 Reuter

Bausch and Lomb Inc said it
began marketing a new product designed to lubricate and protect
the cornea of the eye for post-surgical and other patients.
    The company said the product, the Bio-Cor Fyodorov Collagen
Corneal Shield, will be manufactured and distributed through
its newly formed surgical products unit located in Clearwater,
Fla.
    The corneal shield was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration in January, the company said.
 Reuter

Brazilian marines were today
working on the unloading of ships at the local port as a
national strike by 40,000 seamen entered its 10th day without
signs of an agreement.
return to work unless they received a 275 pct pay rise.
    Shipowners have offered a 100 pct raise, which the seamen
rejected.
    "Television reported that the port was operating at full
speed, but that's not true," a striking seaman told Reuters.
    "The marines are doing their best, but they don't have the
manpower nor the experience to control the situation in such a
quick period," he said.
    Port officials said the national halt had already caused
losses estimated at 1.5 mln dlrs.
    Despite the presence of marines, there were no reports of
incidents.
 Reuter

increased its estimate of Soviet 1986/87 grain imports to 26
mln tonnes from last month's projection of 23 mln tonnes.
    In its monthly USSR Grain Situation and Outlook, USDA said
the increase reflected the return of the Soviet Union to the
U.S. corn market and continued purchases of both wheat and
coarse grain from other major suppliers.
    USSR wheat imports were projected at 15 mln tonnes, up one
mln from last month's estimate and 700,000 tonnes below the
preliminary 1985/86 figure.
    Soviet grain for feed use was estimated at a record 129 mln
tonnes. Record or near-record livestock inventories, along with
a dry fall which likely reduced late season pasturage, and a
cold winter have increased feed demand, USDA said.
    USSR meat and egg production in January rose only slightly
from the previous January's level, while milk production
increased by nearly six pct.
    Unusually cold weather in January and smaller increases in
roughage supplies during 1986 than in 1985 kept livestock
production from expanding as much as it did a year earlier,
USDA said.
 Reuter

Hartford National Corp said the
China Industry Commerce and Development Corp agreed to work
exclusively with its Connecticut National Bank unit in banking
business between China and all six New England states.
    The company said China Industry Commerce will provide
import and export assistance, economic and business
information, contacts and introductions.
 
 Reuter

up to 300 people were feared dead and more
than 15,000 people left homeless by thursday's earthquake,
which will cost Ecuador close to 800 mln dlrs in lost petroleum
revenues, authorities said.
    They estimated the cost of repairing a damaged oil pipeline
at 150 mln dlrs.
    "the magnitude of the damages caused by the earthquake is
gigantic," president leon febres cordero said after inspecting
the damages in napo, the hardest-hit jungle province, 100 miles
from here.
    The quake damaged 40 km of an oil pipeline, forcing this
opec nation to suspend crude exports for four months, president
febres cordero said in a statement issued today by the
presidential press office.
    The country would lose an estimated 800 mln dlrs in crude
exports until the pipeline was repaired, the president said. It
would cost 150 mln dlrs to repair the pipelline which carries
oil from jungle oil fields over the andes to Balao, a pacific
ocean port.
    Crude traditionally accounts for up to two-thirds of
ecuador's exports.
    the quake triggered landslides, swelling the aguarico river
which burst it banks carrying away homes and huts in napo
province, health minister jorge brancho told reuters.
    "we fear that up to 300 people died in napo though there is
no way of now knowing the exact figure because many people have
disappeared," he said.
    Other estimates ranged as high as 500 dead.
    So far 20 corpses have been recovered, bracho said.
    Information Minister Marco Lara told reporters: "the number
of dead and injured is not known ... because we do not know how
many people lived in the homes hit by the landslides."
    Bracho said at least 15,000 were left homeless in the
cayambe district.
 Reuter

BUSINESS EDITOR THEODORE CROSS OFFERS 34 DLRS SHARE FOR HARPER AND ROW

estimated Canada's 1986/87 wheat crop at 31.85 mln tonnes, vs
31.85 mln tonnes last month. It estimated 1985/86 output at
24.25 mln tonnes, vs 24.25 mln last month.
    Canadian 1986/87 coarse grain production is projected at
27.62 mln tonnes, vs 27.62 mln tonnes last month. Production in
1985/86 is estimated at 24.95 mln tonnes, vs 24.95 mln last
month.
    Canadian wheat exports in 1986/87 are forecast at 19.00 mln
tonnes, vs 18.00 mln tonnes last month. Exports in 1985/86 are
estimated at 17.71 mln tonnes, vs 17.72 mln last month.
 Reuter

forecast Australia's 1986/87 wheat crop at 17.30 mln tonnes, vs
17.50 mln tonnes last month. It estimated 1985/86 output at
16.13 mln tonnes, vs 16.13 mln last month.
    Australian wheat exports in 1986/87 are forecast at 14.50
mln tonnes, vs 15.00 mln tonnes last month, while exports in
1985/86 are estimated at 15.96 mln tonnes, vs 15.96 mln last
month.
 Reuter

Theodore Cross, editor of Business
and Society Review, a business publication, said an investor
group he heads has offered to buy Harper and Row Publishers Inc
for 34 dlrs a share cash.
Cross said he proposed the takeover to the board of the New
York publishing house today.
    Cross, whose investor group includes his wife, Mary, said
they already hold 261,650 Harper and Row common shares, or 6.0
pct of the total outstanding common stock. They said they have
spent 3.5 mln dlrs on their stake so far.
    Cross said he proposed in a letter to Harper and Row that
the company be merged into a company Cross is forming.
    Suggesting that the total cost of completing the merger
would be 190 mln dlrs, Cross said he would use 20 mln dlrs of
his own money for the deal and up to 170 mln dlrs which would
be borrowed from the First National Bank of Boston under a
revolving credit facility the bank has agreed to provide.

French maize producers will ask the EC
Commission to grant permanent maize export rebates following
the recent EC/U.S. Accord guaranteeing the U.S. An annual
export quota of two mln tonnes of maize for Spain over four
years, the French maize producers association, AGPM, said.
    The Commission has already decided to accord rebates for
the export of 500,000 tonnes of French maize, of which rebates
for around 100,000 tonnes have been granted.
    The request will be made when export certificates have been
granted for all the 500,000 tonnes, the AGPM said.
    The association said that the request would cover exports
to all destinations, adding that the Soviet Union, which has
important maize needs, is currently excluded from the list of
destination countries for the 500,000 tonnes of French maize.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department has forecast Soviet maize
imports for the 1986/87 campaign at 4.90 mln tonnes against
10.40 mln in 1985/86.
 Reuter

The dollar will decline over the next
two to three years, but this is unlikely to result in a
complete reduction of the U.S. current account deficit, said
Anthony Solomon, chairman of S.G. Warburg (USA) Inc and former
president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    In a presentation to the Japan Society, Solomon said
without elaboration that he expects a "significant decline in
the dollar," within the next three years.
    "The dollar will fall more, but the current account deficit
will stop being reduced when it reaches its structural core,"
he said.
    Solomon described the structural core as about one-half of
the current 150 billion dlr annual deficit. He cited several
factors which will prevent an elimination of the deficit.
    For one thing, it is unlikely that there will be any new
investment in those manufacturing industries that shrank when
the dollar was at uncompetitive levels, he said.
    In addition, he said that the U.S. has an increased
propensity to import in order to satisify consumer tastes.
    Solomon forecast inflation at 4.5 pct by year-end, but said
it could be kept below five pct in the medium-term if oil
prices are stable and commodity values remain low.
 Reuter

CCC, has accepted a bonus offer from an exporter on the sale of
13 head of dairy cattle to Morocco, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the bonus awarded was 1,505.00 dlrs per
head and was made to Brown Swiss Enterprises Inc. It will be
paid in the form of commodities from CCC inventories.
    The cattle are for delivery during March 9-September 30,
1987.
    The department said the purchase completes the Export
Enhancement Program initiative for dairy cattle to Morocco
announced on April 16, 1986.
 Reuter

75 head of dairy cattle to the Canary Islands, the U.S.
    The department said the bonus awarded was 1,459.00 dlrs per
head and was made to T.K. International Inc. It will be paid in
the form of commodities from the inventory of CCC stocks.
    The cattle are for delivery during March-June, 1987, it
said.
    An additional 3,925 head of dairy cattle are still
available to the Canary Islands under the Export Enahcnement
Program initiative announced July 28, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

U.S. CONSUMER CREDIT ROSE 536 MILLION DLRS IN JAN VS 144 MILLION DEC GAIN

Marathon Petroleum Company, a
subsidiary of USX Corp <X>, said it raised the contract price
it pays for three grades of crude oil, effective March 6.
    Illinois Sweet and Indiana Sweet are both being raised 50
cts a barrel to 16.75 dlrs/bbl, and the Southern Michigan grade
is being raised 25 cts/bbl, also to 16.75 dlrs a bbl.
    The West Texas Intermediate grade was unchanged.
 Reuter

National Fuel Gas Co said its board has
approved a two-for-one stock split and will consider an
increased cash dividend at its June meeting.
    The company also said management will recommend, at the
June board meeting, an increase of 12 cts per share in the
current annual dividend rate of 2.28 dlrs a share, raising it
to 2.40 dlrs per share, or 1.20 dlrs a share after the split.
    National Fuel Gas said the split will be paid to holders of
record May 29.  A spokeswoman said the distribution date for
the split has not been determined.
    The company said the split is subject to approval of the
Securities and Exchange Commission under the Public Utility
Holding Act. The company now has 11,928,871 shares outstanding.
            
 Reuter

Sensormatic Electronics
Corp said it upped its investment in CheckRobot Inc in the form
of 2.5 mln dlrs of convertible preferred stock, raising its
stake in CheckRobot to 42 pct from 37 pct on a fully diluted
basis.
 Reuter

Emergy Air Freight Corp said its
shipments rose 12 pct to 1,190,000 last month from 1,067,000 in
February 1986.
    The company said the weight of these shipments was up 20
pct to 52.7 mln pounds from 44.0 mln a year earlier.
 Reuter

The New York Shipping Association and
International Longshoremen's Association said they agreed to
cut cargo assessments at the Port of New York and New Jersey by
more than 50 pct on some labor intensive cargos.
    The charges on cargo handled by union workers will be
reduced to 2.85 dlrs a ton from 5.85 dlrs a ton, effective
April one, according to the agreement between the union and
shippers. The assessments are used to fund workers' benefits.
    "What were doing is lowering the price to get more bulk
cargo flowing through here," a spokesman for the New York
Shipping Association said.

Reserve rose on March 6 to 3.879 billion dlrs from 3.467
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 12.453
billion drls from 14.350 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 16.332
billion dlrs on March 6 compared with 17.817 billion dlrs on
March 5.
 Reuter

CSX Corp's Sea-Land Corp unit
said it will offer improved containership services between
Puerto Rico and the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United
States, beginning March 16.
    The carrier said it will provide shorter door-to-door
transit times, more convenient cargo availability and better
rail connections for traffic moving between Puerto Rico and
North America.
 Reuter

Oshkosh Truck Corp (OTRKB) has
received a 64.0 mln dlr contract for work on 432 diesel engine
drive MK-48 series vehicles, the Army said.
 REUTER

a confidential world bank report on the
peruvian economy said the government's strategy does not offer
good prospects for medium and long-term growth and is likely to
quickly lead to inflation.
    The report, published today by an economic monthly, the
peru report, said the success of president alan garcia's
government in stimulating output last year to achieve eight pct
gross domestic product growth "represents gains in the short
term at the expense of the long."
    Government officials had no immediate comment on the
report, which advised a reduction in the overall size of the
public investment programme and greater emphasis on the
preservation of peru's export potential.
    The report said that although the government had succeeded
in cutting inflation 50 pct a year in the first half of 1985 to
under 70 pct, its stabilisation and reactivation programme was
encountering increasing difficulties.
    "an early renewal of inflationary pressures, linked to
monetary expansion, exchange rate devaluation and an easing of
price controls, appears not improbable," it added.

European Community finance ministers
discussed the economic outlook for the 12-nation bloc and many
said a recent gloomy forecast by the EC Commission was too
pessimistic.
    The Commission, the EC's executive authority, two weeks ago
cut its forecast for economic growth in the Community to 2.3
per cent for this year from 2.8 per cent predicted last autumn.
    It said economic prospects had been less promising over the
past few months because of a sharp fall in the value of the
dollar and a slowing of world trade -- factors which would
restrain Community exports.
    But diplomats said several member states, led by West
Germany, Britain and France, felt the forecast was too gloomy,
especially since it was drafted before a recent agreement
between the leading Western economic powers to stabilise
currencies around current levels.
    "Many delegations feel the (Commission's) report is rather
too pessimistic," said Belgian Finance Minister Mark Eyskens,
who chaired the meeting.
    The Commission, which slashed its growth forecast for West
Germany to two per cent from 3.2 per cent, has made clear it
feels Bonn has room to introduce additional measures to
stimulate its economy that would benefit the rest of Europe.
    But two top German officials, State Secretaries Otto
Schlecht and Hans Tietmeyer, told reporters Bonn saw no need at
the moment for action to bolster the EC's biggest economy.
    The diplomats said they were backed by Britain and France,
while Italy, Greece and Denmark supported the Commission's view
that Bonn should bring in new measures to aid EC growth.

U.S. consumer instalment credit rose
a seasonally adjusted 536 mln dlrs in January after a revised
rise of 144 mln dlrs in December, the Federal Reserve Board
said.
    The annual rate of growth in January was 1.1 pct, up from
0.3 pct in December. Previously the Fed said consumer credit
rose 105 mln dlrs in December.
    Among the credit categories, auto credit fell in January to
1.02 billion dlrs from 2.06 billion dlrs in December, the Fed
said.
    Revolving credit in January fell by 366 mln dlrs after
rising by 552 mln dlrs in December.
    Mobile home credit was up by 130 mln dlrs after falling by
21 mln dlrs in December.
    The category referred to as "other," covering bank and credit
union loans, fell by 250 mln dlrs in January after declining by
2.44 billion dlrs in December, the Fed said.
    Before seasonal adjustment, consumer credit outstanding
totaled 580.37 billion dlrs at the end of January, compared
with 531.29 billion dlrs at the end of January, 1986.
 Reuter

CONOCO RAISES CRUDE OIL PRICES UP TO ONE DLR BARREL, WTI AT 17.50 DLRS

Systemhouse Inc said it won a
contract valued at 2.6 mln dlrs from Genstar Stone Products, a
Hunt Valley, Md., supplier of building materials, to design,
install and operate Genstar's data center in Baltimore.
    The data center is scheduled to begin operating in May. The
pact is a three-year deal, the company said.
 Reuter

The chiefs of Viacom International Inc
and <National Amusements Inc> said they met and agreed to work
together to complete the previously announced merger of the two
companies "as expeditiously as possible."
    A spokeswoman for Viacom declined to say if the executives
had set a timetable for closing the deal.
    Viacom last week agreed to be acquired by National
Amusements for a combination of cash and stock with an
estimated value of 53 dlrs a share, or a total of about 3.4

Officials of major brokerage firms
expressed dismay at a New York Stock Exchange decision to force
strict compliance with a rule barring members from trading in
NYSE-listed issues in London during New York trading hours.
    Most major brokerage houses said they had seen no formal
notice from the NYSE on the interpretation of rule 390.
Officials of the NYSE were unavailable to explain the timing or
the technical details of enforcement of rule 390.
    "It's a step backward," said Samuel Hunter, senior vice
president for equity trading at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.,
    Hunter said any perceived problems caused by overlapping
trading ought to be addressed by a search for equitable
solutions instead of "hiding behind legalistic and technical
definitions."
    The NYSE evidently feels some traders use London to
circumvent rules preventing short sales on minus ticks, Hunter
said. But he believes simultaneous printing of trades in London
and New York would be a way to have dual trading with an
element of fairness. "I'm a great advocate of the view that the
greater the volume, the better the market will be," he said.
 Reuter

Conservation Service (ASCS) bought 25.7 mln pounds of wheat
flour at a cost of 2.8 mln dlrs for domestic shipment April
1-15 and April 16-30, an ASCS spokesman said.
    ASCS also bought 11.1 mln pounds of bakers flour for 1.1
mln dlrs, 1.9 mln pounds of pasta for 408,258 dlrs, 1.4 mln
pounds of processed cereal products for 304,043 dlrs, 4.8 mln
pounds of corn products for 474,944 dlrs, and 16.3 mln pounds
of milled rice for 2.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board said
interest rates on both fixed rate and adjustable rate home
mortgage loans were down substantially in early February.
    The bank board said the average effective commitment rate
for fixed mortgages with a maturity of at least 15 years for
new home purchases dropped to 9.54 pct in early February, a 30
basis point decline from early January.
    The commitment rate on adjustable rate mortgages declined
by 16 basis points in the same period bringing the average rate
to 8.5 pct, the bank board said.
    The average effective interest rate on all loans closed by
major lenders declined 27 basis points from early January to
9.26 pct in early February, the lowest rate since March 1978,
the bank board said.
    The average effective rate for fixed mortgages was was 9.51
pct, down 30 basis points from the early January level. The
average effective rate for adjustable rate mortgages declined
22 basis points to 8.61 pct, the bank board said.
 Reuter

Cullinet Software Inc said it
reached a marketing agreement with <Epic Data Corp> under which
both companies will sell data collection and software products
for inventory management.
    Epic makes data collection equipment, while Cullinet is a
software developer. The initial product developed under the
accord is expected to be available later this year, they said.
    Separately, Cullinet said it bought a fixed assets system
from <Computer Associates International> for 440,000 dlrs. The
system will be designed to run with its data base software, and
will be help its customers with asset control.

 Reuter

American Petroleum Institute President
Charles DiBona said no options should be rejected to combat 
growing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
    "No action should be ruled out--import fees or quotas,
floor prices, tax incentives or other alternatives--while a
national dialogue on the issue continues," DiBona said at a 
paper institute conference in New York today.
    DiBona said there is no unanimity within the industry on
how to stimulate energy production but there is consensus on
removing several government policies that hinder investments in
new prospects.
    DiBona said the windfall profit tax should be abolished
immediately and current proposals for increased environmental
regulations on acid rain and waste disposal should be not
adopted. He also suggested that the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska should be opened up for leasing to oil
companies, DiBona said.
    "This is a battle the industry cannot afford to lose if the
nation is to continue to benefit from Alaskan oil," DiBona
said. Since 1986 U.S. oil production has fallen while
consumption rose and that has raised dependence on imported
oil, particularly from OPEC, DiBona said.
   
 Reuter

U.S. SELLS 3-MO BILLS AT 5.63 PCT, STOP 5.64 PCT, 6-MO 5.59 PCT, STOP 5.60 PCT

A top Treasury official said he does
not expect any comprehensive Congressional reform of the U.S.
banking industry until after the 1988 presidential election due
to political pressures and, to a lesser extent, the insider
trading scandal on Wall Street.
    George Gould, Under Secretary of the Treasury, told a Wall
Street Planning Group luncheon, "legislation is not going to
happen before the election ... (people) do not like to vote on
controversial issues in election years."
    "It may take a while in the next administration ... to get
something done," he added.
    Calls for a major overhaul of the U.S. banking industry,
which would probably feature wider investment banking powers
for commercial banks, has met strong opposition from private
interest groups, such as the Securities Industry Association.
    "These discussions have nothing to do with merit ... these
groups are trying to cloak self-interest in public policy
terms," Gould said. "It is easier to stop something than it is
to get it going."
    He also described current concern about insider trading as
"a major impediment to further progress ... it is not a helpful
backdrop to accomplish financial reform."
    Similarly, Gould said lobbying by such groups as the U.S.
League of Savings Institutions would probably mean that the
Reagan Administration's proposal for the recapitalization of
the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp would be watered
down.
    Gould foresaw a five billion dlr injection over two years,
compared with the original request for 15 billion dlrs over
    Gould ruled out any new government initiative on banking
reform but said that some broad guidelines to address these
issues would be made public over the next few months.
 Reuter

National Distillers and
Chemical Corp said it completed the sale of Almaden Vineyards
Inc to Heublein Inc for about 128 mln dlrs.
    Heublein, a former subsidiary of RJR Nabisco Inc <RJR>, was
recently acquired by <Grand Metropolitan PLC>.
    Almaden, based in San Jose, Calif., makes and sells table
wines, champagnes and brandies as well as some premium wines
under the Charles Lefranc Cellars label.
 
 Reuter

SoftTech Inc said it received a
24.8 mln dlr five-year contract from the U.S. Air Force
Aeronautical Systems Division to assist in tracking and
controlling the development and modification of Modular
Automatic Test Equipment Systems Products.
    The MATE program is a system for defining, acquiring and
supporting automatic testing capabilities within the Air Force,
    SofTech said its role includes the development and
maintenance of a MATE master plan aimed at keeping it current
with evolving technology.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it placed 6.6
billion dlrs of Chrysler Corp securities on CreditWatch with
negative implications because of its plan to acquire the
outstanding common shares of American Motors Corp <AMO> from
Renault Acceptance BV for about two billion dlrs.
    Among the ratings under review is Chrysler's BBB grading
for senior debt. The AMC purchase is larger and riskier than
current ratings anticipate, but any downgrade would be small
and Chrysler would remain investment grade, S and P said.
    American Motors's CCC preferred stock rating was also added
to CreditWatch, but with positive implications.
    Standard and Poor's said that, in return for its two
billion dlr investment, Chrysler would be receiving a business
with questionable prospects.
    "The Jeep line is a worthwhile extension for Chrysler's
product line, but the presumed price seems hard to justify. The
additional production facilities inlcude both modern and
antiquated plant, all of which will add to Chrysler's fixed
overhead and increase its breakeven point at a time that the
industry faces a glut of automaking capacity.
    "Chrysler will be challenged to integrate these facilities
and the distribution network it is acquiring," S and P said.
 Reuter

CEASARS WORLD SAYS IT IS STUDYING UNSOLICITED 28 DLR-PER-SHR OFFER BY MARTIN SOSNOFF

The U.S. Treasury said its weekly
auction of three-month bills produced an average rate of 5.63
pct, with a 5.59 pct rate on six-month bills.
    These rates compared with averages of 5.47 pct for the
three- and 5.51 pct for the six-month bills sold last week.
    The bond-equivalent yield on three-month bills was 5.81
pct. Accepted bids ranges from 5.61 pct to 5.64 pct and 29 pct
of the bids at the high, or stopout rate, were taken. For six
months, the yield was 5.85 pct and the bids ranges from 5.56
pct to 5.60 pct with 30 pct of the bids accepted.
    The Treasury said it received 30.9 billion dlrs of bids for
the three-month bills, including 1.0 billion dlrs in
non-competitive bids from the public. It accepted 6.6 billion
dlrs of bids, including 2.2 billion dlrs from the Federal
Reserve and 9.1 mln dlrs from foreign and international
monetary authorities.
    Some 25.7 billion dlrs in bids for six-month bills were
received, including 785 mln dlrs in non-competitives. The
Treasury accepted 6.6 billion dlrs, including 1.9 billion dlrs
from the Fed and 942 mln dlrs from foreign and international
    The average price for the three-month bills was 98.577 and
prices ranged from 98.574 to 98.582.  The average price for the
six-months bills was 97.174, and prices ranged from 97.169 to
97.189.
    The average yield on the three-month bills was the highest
since 5.66 pct on Feb 17. The average yield on the six-month
bills was the highest since 5.70 pct on Feb 17.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said the
government was considering selling Petro-Canada and the sale
would proceed if it were in the national interest to do so.
    Mulroney told the House of Commons assets of the huge oil
company would be examined before a decision was made, just as
other state-run companies were studied before being sold under
Ottawa's privatization program.
    "The government is going to examine assets of this nature
to ascertain if they continue to play an appropriate role in
public policy and we will make a determination as we have in
other cases," Mulroney told the daily question period.         
    Asked by opposition members to clairify Finance Minister
Michael Wilson's statement on Friday that Petro-Canada no
longer has any pubilic policy role, Mulroney said his
government has long promised to sell off companies that could
be better run by the private sector.
    Outside the House, Energy Minister Marcel Masse said
Petro-Canada would be worth between three and four billion dlrs
and, because of the size, could be difficult to sell.
    He also said he would prefer to see Canadians participating
in any privatization, but would not give any details on timing
of a sale.          
 Reuter

may downgrade 12 billion dlrs of debt of Chrysler Corp and its
units, including Chrysler Financial Corp.
    It cited Chrysler's proposed acquisition of American Motors
Corp <AMO>. Moody's said it would also review American's B-1
preferred stock for possible upgrade.
    Moody's will assess the effect of the proposed transaction
on Chrysler's capital structure. Under review are the parent's
Baa-1 senior long-term debt, the finance unit's Baa-1 senior
debt, Baa-2 senior subordinated debt and Baa-3 junior
subordinated debt and Chrysler Canada's Baa-1 Eurobonds.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court left intact a
ruling that vacated a judgment ordering China to pay 41.3 mln
dlrs for allegedly defaulting on a 1911 loan to finance
construction of a railroad from Peking to Canton.
    The Imperial Government of China issued bonds in 1911 to
help construct a section of the so-called Hukuang railroad in
an agreement with British, German, French and American banks.
    According to court documents, payments on the loan were
made until the mid-1930s, when China was torn by civil war. The
present government, which came to power in 1949, has never
acknowledged the debt.
     Nine U.S. bondholders sued China for repayment of the loan
in 1979, less than a year after the normalization of relations
between Washington and Peking.
    A U.S. District Court in Alabama in 1982 issued a judgment
that the bondholders were entitled to all unpaid interest and
principal on the bonds, totaling 41.3 mln dlrs.
    But a U.S. Court of Appeals last July vacated the award,
ruling that the Chinese government was entitled to sovereign
immunity, and dismissed the lawsuit.
    Supported by the Reagan administration, China argued that
it could not be held liable for a debts involving bonds issued
in 1911 and that it enjoyed absolute immunity.
    The Supreme Court, without comment, declined to hear an
appeal by the bondholders seeking to reinstate their lawsuit.
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp's Continental Airlines
said it will begin service in April to Bakersfield, Calif., and
Eugene and Medford, Ore., from its hub at Denver.
    From Denver, Continental will fly a daily nonstop and a
one-stop flight to each of the three cities, the company said.
Service to the Oregon cities will start April 5 and to
Bakersfield, April 22.
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said the company planned a
public share offer within three months of its Noranda Forest
Inc unit, which holds Noranda's forest products interests.
    Size of the offer is still undetermined, Noranda said.
    Noranda said Noranda Forest would operate as a freestanding
subsidiary of Noranda. Noranda Forest holds 100 pct of Fraser
Inc, James Maclaren Industries and Noranda Forest Sales and 50
pct stakes in MacMillan Bloedel Ltd <MMBLF> and Northwood Pulp
and Timber.
     Noranda Forest's consolidated 1986 revenues were more than
three billion dlrs, with earnings of 158 mln dlrs.

The News Corp said the South China
Morning Post Ltd of Hong Kong become a wholly-owned subsidiary
March 7 as previously announced.
 Reuter

Richmond Hill Savings Bank and
<Riverhead Savings Bank FSB> said they terminated their
previously announced merger negotiations.
    The banks gave no reason for ending the talks, which began
on January 14.
 Reuter

European consortium Airbus Industrie said
it had no comment on press reports that it had resumed talks
with U.S. McDonnell Douglas Corp over a possible joint
 Reuter

General Cinema Corp said
lower attendence at its theatres against last year's record
Christmas season lowered its first fiscal quarter operating
earnings nine pct to 15.9 mln dlrs.
    "While we are not off to as good a start in fiscal 1987 as
we would like, business has picked up in the last few weeks,"
chairman Richard Smith said.
    He said that the company expected net pricing to be higher
and unit volume to improve in the remaining quarters of the
fiscal year.
    The company added that operating earnings in its theatre
unit will be higher in fiscal 1987 if the important summer
season film releases perform well.
    In addition, its other key business, General Cinema
Beverages, is expected to achieve record operating results for
the full year, Smith said.
    The company's superstar video business which rents video
cassettes in supermarkets continues to operate at an expected
loss, the company added.
    General Cinema said the financing costs associated with its
purchase of 3.5 mln Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc <CHH> shares
for 177.9 mln dlrs, and its 89.7 mln sterling investment in
<Cadbury Schweppes PLC>, lowered first quarter net.
    But it said the loss was offset by a 2.5 mln dlr gain on
the sale of common shares of Sea-Land Corp, a unit of CSX Corp
<CSX>.
 Reuter

Ceasars Wold Inc said its board is
studying the unsolicited and conditional tender offer for all
its common shares at 28 dlrs per share from Martin T. Sosnoff.
    A company spokesman said the board expects to make a
recommendation "shortly", but could not specify a time period.
    Ceasars World Chairman Henry Gluck in a statement urged
shareholders not to take any action with respect to the offer
prior to the board's recommendation.
    Sosnoff made the offer directly to shareholders in a
newspaper advertisement through a company he formed, called MTS
Acquisition Corp. It expires April 3.
 Reuter

Americus Trust For Bristol Myers shares
announced an initial dividend of 68.75 cts payable May 12 for
shareholders of record April 3.
 Reuter

is reviewing the B-2 debt ratings of Resorts International Inc
and of Resorts International Financing Inc for possible
downgrade. Approximately 505 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    Moody's said the review was prompted by the recent bid by
Donald Trump to acquire control of the company.
    The rating agency said its review is focusing on the
effects the acquisition is likely to have on Resorts
International's leverage and ability to service its debt.
Moody's said Resorts already has a highly leveraged
capitalization.
 Reuter

United Security Financial Corp of
Illinois said it has signed a letter of intent to buy Robert
Co. Brown and Co Inc's <RCBI> MAGIC Insurance Group unit.
    Robert C. Brown and Co would receive newly issued United
Security stock. United Security said it is anticipated that
such stock would represent a substantial majority of the shares
outstanding after the merger.
    United Security's principal subsidiary is United Security
Life Insurance Co of Illinois. The MAGIC Group owns Pilgrim
Life Insurance Co of America and Middle Atlantic Life Insurance
Co.
 Reuter

may downgrade 215 mln dlrs of debt of Caesars World Inc and its
unit Caesars World Finance Corp.
investor Martin Sosnoff to acquire control of the company.
While Sosnoff's bid depends on several factors, including
licensing by both the Nevada and New Jersey gaming commissions,
the deal could result in a significant increase in Caesars
World's leverage, the rating agency said.
    Caesars currently carries B-1 convertible debt and the
finance has same-rated subordinated debentures.
 Reuter

There were three grain ships loading
and two ships were waiting to load at Portland, according to
the Portland Merchants Exchange.
 Reuter

(Warrington Inc) said it sold its shoe
divisions to Montreal-based (Taurus Footwear Inc) for
    The divisions manufacture and distribute Greb, Hush
Puppies, Kodiak, and Santana brand shoes and had revenues of
about 69 mln dlrs last year, Warrington said. It said the sale
of the shoe divisions and the previous sale of its ski boot
businesses will result in an unspecified net gain.
    Warrington said it plans to concentrate on its Canstar
Sports Group Inc skate and athletic footwear division, the
largest ice skate manufacturer and distributor in the Western
world.
    Warrington said it decided to rationalize the balance of
its ski businesses, which is expected to result in a divestment
loss which could outweigh the net gains on the sales of its
shoe and ski boot divisions.
    Taurus said the acquisition is expected to increase its
annual sales to about 100 mln dlrs and make it Canada's largest
footwear manufacturer.
 Reuter

Up to 300 people were feared dead and more
than 15,000 were left homeless by Ecuador's earthquake whose
economic cost is at least 950 mln dlrs in damages, authorities
said.
    "The magnitude of the damages caused by the earthquake is
gigantic," President Leon Febres Cordero said after inspecting
the damages in Napo, the hardest-hit jungle province.
    Shaking loose earth from hills, the thursday night quake
triggered landslides, swelling the Aguarico river which burst
it banks carrying away homes and huts in Napo province, health
minister Jorge Brancho told reuters.
    "We fear that up to 300 people died in napo though there is
no way of now knowing the exact figure because there are many
disappeared."
 Reuter

Conoco Inc, a subsidiary of DuPont
Corp, said it was increasing its contract prices for crude oil
between 10 cts and one dlr a barrel, effective today.
    Conoco said the increase brings its price for the U.S.
benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate to 17.50 dlrs a barrel,
up one dlr.
    South Louisiana Sweet, also up one dlr, is now 17.85 dlrs.
West Texas Sour was up 10 cts to 16.60 dlrs a barrel.
    Conoco was the last company to raise prices following a
series of increases initiated last week by Sun Co <SUN>, which
reversed the posted price cuts made at the end of February.
 Reuter

Chicago Board of Trade (CBT)
agricultural and financial futures markets could be in for a
period of major upheaval later this year if the exchange goes
ahead with planned renovation.
    A CBT spokesman told Reuters the exchange was looking at a
number of options to identify the most cost effective and
efficient way to proceed, including one which would involve
moving the entire grains floor out of the building and into the
nearby MidAmerica Commodity Exchange.
    "One of (CBT Chairman) Karsten Mahlmann's agenda items has
been to proceed with renovation in the financial futures room,"
    Another CBT official, executive vice president George
Sladoje, said the issue would be discussed this Friday at a
special meeting on the exchange floor.
    A number of presentations have been made with regard to
renovating the financial futures room, Sladoje said. "We've
looked at five or six different alternatives, involving such
things as flip-flopping the trading rooms," he added.
    It is conceivable that under a couple of these plans, we
might use the MidAmerica Exchange temporarily for some CBT
markets, Sladoje said.
    "If we move out of one floor entirely, then the
construction period will be about a year," he said, adding that
the issue was likely to go to a membership vote first and then
be on the drawing board for eight months to a year.
    The CBT spokesman stressed that discussions were very
preliminary at this stage and nothing was likely to begin until
this summer at the earliest.
    In order to renovate the crowded financial futures pits,
exchange officials have discussed providing them a temporary
home next door in the present grains-dominated area.
    This could involve moving CBT markets in U.S. Treasury Bond
futures, Treasury Notes, Muni-bonds, and options on T-Bonds and
T-Notes through an adjoining corridor, while utilizing the
MidAmerica floor for such CBT futures contracts as corn, wheat,
soybeans, soybean products and agricultural options.
    Any such moves could meet with opposition among some CBT
members.
    One senior floor trader said the financial futures room
badly needs renovating.
    "There is talk the grains floor will shift to the MidAm and
the financials will move to the grains area," he said.
    The CBT spokesman said another option being discussed was
to renovate the financial floor in quadrants, one quarter at a
time. "The first step, after deciding the most effective way to
proceed, would be to get architectural and engineering
drawings," he said.
    He added that it was difficult at present to determine an
exact time frame for any possible moves. "This is a major
undertaking and a process that would spread out over next
year," he said.
    Floor traders at the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange, which
merged with the CBT about a year ago, said they were preparing
to vacate their floor at the end of this month.
    Space has recently been cleared for them at the CBT by
moving its Major Market Index pit into the area once reserved
for lightly-traded CBT gold and silver futures, which now share
their trading area.
    The MidAm specializes in mini-contracts in grains,
livestock, metals, financials and foreign currencies as well as
some options contracts.
    "Rumor has it that the CBT grains are coming over here
because the bonds are too crowded," one MidAm trader said.
    Another source at the MidAm said this change could take
place by July or August.
 Reuter

Fluor Corp said it won a 197.6
mln dlr contract from the U.S. Army Engineer District, with a
follow-on option for an additional 450 mln dlrs.
    Fluor's Fluor Constructors Inc unit will perform
procurement and construction for Ground Based Free Electron
Laser-Technology Integrated Experiment Project at the White
Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
    Phase I Construction will begin this month and is scheduled
for completion in September, 1990.
    Based on its results, a Phase II follow-on option may be
implemented for an additional two years, the company said.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said it may
cut Piedmont Aviation Inc's BBB-minus preferred stock because
of USAir Group Inc's <U> proposed acquisition of the airline.
    While the combination would strengthen both airlines'
market position and enhance revenue generating capability,
USAir Group would require substantial debt to finance the 1.6
billion dlr acquisition, S and P said.
    USAir's balance sheet and cash flow support of debt, among
the strongest in the industry, would be weakened by financing
all-cash acquisitions of Piedmont and PSA Inc. USAir's A-rated
senior debt is already on S/P watch for possible downgrade.
 Reuter

Beker Industries Corp said it
was unable to confirm its plan for reorganization at a March 5
hearing before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court because necessary
agreements had not been reached with its institutional lenders.
    The company said it could set no specific date for
completing its reorganization.
    At the March 5 hearing, the company said it filed a motion
for approval of an agreement that has been reached in principal
with a unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc <FTX> for the sale of
Beker's facilities in Louisiana and Florida.
 Reuter

A group of investment firms led by
Far Hills, N.J., investor Natalie Koether said it is seeking
information about the shareholders of Prime Medical Services
Inc, over which it has said it is seeking control.
the group, which includes Shamrock Associates, included a March
6 letter to Prime which asks for a complete list of all
shareholders and their addresses.
    The group said it wants the information so it can contact
shareholders on issues, including election of an opposition
slate of directors to the board and other proxy contests.
    The Koether group's letter gives the company five days to
respond to its request. If there is no response from Prime
Medical, the group said it would consider the demand refused
and would take "other proper steps" to get the information.
    The group said it already holds 1,483,886 Prime Medical
shares, or 17.5 pct of the total. It said it has taken legal
action to try to force the company to set an annual meeting and
require all directors to stand for election.
    In a previous SEC filing, the group has said it has decided
to try to seek control of Prime Medical through a tender offer,
exchange offer, proxy contest or other ways.
 Reuter

Grand Metropolitan PLC said its
Grandmet USA Inc unit decided to sell its physical fitness and
exercise equipment business.
    The company said Morgan Stanely and Co Inc is advising it
on the sale of the business.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp's proposed acquisition of
American Motors Corp is valued at about 1.55 billion dlrs,
including the cost of acquisition and the 767 mln dlrs in
American Motor' debt that Chrysler will assume, analysts said.
    They said Chrysler's cost of acquisition was valued at  782
mln dlrs, paid in cash, notes and Chrysler shares.
    The analysts told Reuters that at a New York briefing
Chrysler treasurer Fred Zuckerman outlined his company's
agreement with Renault to assume AMC's debt as well as 332 mln
dlrs in unfunded pension liabilities, though the latter is not
included valuing the transaction.
    Analysts were generally positive on Chrysler's proposed
purchase of its much-smaller rival, but said they expected the
transaction would carry with it a short-term dilution in
Chrysler's earnings.
    A Chrysler financial source, speaking anonymously, told
Reuters that the proposed purchase price was smaller than it
would have been had a deal been struck last year because the
impact of the new U.S. tax law removes Chrysler's ability to
assume AMC's large reserve of tax-loss carryforwards
accumulated from its losses since 1980.
    "There were very serious discussions last fall but we
didn't pull it off," the source said in a reference to the
assassination in November of former Renault chairman Georges
Besse.
    "It's too bad because the tax benefits fell on the floor.
And Renault could have gotten a much better price if we'd done
it before the end of last year."
    In addition to AMC's debt and its pension liabilities, the
source said Chrysler would also assume any liability from
lawsuits over the safety of Jeeps, which he called "an overhang
to the company."
    Analysts quoted Chrysler officials as having told them that
the deal includes payment to Renault of 200 mln dlrs principal
in the form of a 10-year note at eight pct interest, 35 mln
dlrs cash for Renault's equity in AMC's finance subsidiary, 25
mln dlrs in cash for "transaction fees" in connection with the
acquisition and 522 mln dlrs worth of Chrysler stock to be paid
AMC shareholders.
    "The big number is the 767 mln dlrs in debt assumption,"
analyst Jack Kirnan of Kidder Peabody and Co told Reuters.
     Moody's Investors Service Inc said it may downgrade 12
billion dlrs of Chrysler Corp and unit debt due to the deal.
     But the Chrysler source said that in assuming AMC's
liabilities, his company will refinance at a lower rate any AMC
debt that is being carried at "non-market" rates.
    He said there were difficulties in negotiating with the
previous Renault management on the acquisition because they
were committed to the group's business plan of which AMC was an
integral part.
    "The new management didn't have that problem - AMC wasn't
their baby," he said.
 Reuter

The Philippines' bank advisory
committee meets tomorrow to discuss its response to a novel
proposal by finance minister Jaime Ongpin to pay part of the
country's interest bill with investment notes instead of cash,
    Ongpin outlined his plan today to the 12-bank advisory
committee headed by Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co.
    Bankers declined to comment on today's meeting but said the
panel's response could be crucial to the fate of the talks,
which are now in their second week. "The ball's in our court
now," one banker on the committee said.
    Under Ongpin's rescheduling plan, the Philippines would
offer to make interest payments in cash at 5/8 pct over the
London Interbank Offered Rate.
    Banks which found this rate unacceptably low would be
offered an alternative of LIBOR payments in cash plus a margin
of one pct in the form of Philippine Investment Notes, PINs,
bankers explained.
    These tradable, dollar-denominated zero-coupon notes would
have a maturity of six years, but they would be redeemable at
any time at par for pesos to fund investments approved as part
of the government's debt-equity scheme.
    Because banks would be able to sell the PINs to
multinational investors at relatively small discounts to face
value, their total yield would be boosted well above the 5/8
pct cash margin, according to the Philippine proposal.
    Although bankers are eager to foster foreign investment in
the Philippines, the PINs idea is likely to run into stiff
resistance by at least some members of the bank advisory
committee because it would establish the precedent of some
interest payments being made with paper rather than cash.
    Ongpin has said that U.S. regulators and accountants had
given a green light to his idea, but bankers are not so sure.
    U.S. bankers fear that they would not be able to account
for the notes in the same way as accruing cash interest
payments and that their profits would suffer accordingly.
    If the banks reject the proposal out of hand, however, they
run the risk of scuttling the talks, for Ongpin has insisted
that he would not accept a margin above 5/8 pct.
    The Phillipines is asking the banks to reschedule 3.6
billion dlrs of debt falling due between 1987 and 1992 and to
grant easier terms on 5.8 billion dlrs of previously
restructured debt.
 Reuter

Varity Corp said Perkins Engines,
Varity's British-based diesel engine subsidiary, introduced
three families of new industrial diesels, ranging from 37 to
400 horsepower.
    The new models include four and six cylinder units, two to
12 liters in displacement, Varity said.
 Reuter

Washington National Corp's
Washington National Insurance Co said it bought the remaining
15 pct of United Presidential Corp's <UPCO> outstanding shares
at 19 dlrs a share cash.
    The acquisition of the shares is part of a plan of exchange
approved by United Presidential shareholders at a special
meeting March 6.
    The purchase of the remaining United Presidential stake
follows Washington National's buying 85 pct of United
Presidential in a 19 dlrs a share tender offer which terminated
December 12.
 Reuter

Conagra Inc said it completed the
merger of its Sea-Alaska Products Co unit and <Trident Seafoods
Corp.>
    Conagra said the new company, in which it holds a 45 pct
stake, will be called Trident Seafoods Corp. Charles Bundrant,
president of Trident before the merger, was named president of
the new company, Conagra said.
    Conagra said it also completed the previously announced
acquisition of <Bristol Monarch Corp> and that Trident
completed the purchase of the remaining 50 pct stake of <San
Juan Seafoods Inc.>
 Reuter

Grain analysts said the increase of
three mln tonnes in 1986/87 Soviet grain imports is unlikely to
affect the market Tuesday.
    They said the market already has discounted higher Soviet
imports, partly on news last month that the Soviet Union bought
one mln tonnes of U.S. corn, and on rumors that the Reagan
administration is pushing for authority to sell the Soviets
U.S. wheat under the Export Enhancement Program.
    In its supply-demand report, the USDA raised its estimate
for 1986/87 Soviet grain imports to 26 mln tonnes from 23 mln.
    "That was business already done, for all practical
purposes," said Drexel Burnham analyst Dale Gustafson,
reflecting similar statements made by other analysts.
 Reuter

Investors Group Inc, a unit
of <Power Financial Corp>, said filing a final prospectus for
the previously announced new issue of one mln common shares of
Investors Group and secondary offering by Power Financial of
three mln Investors Group common received regulatory approval.
    The issue will be priced at 23.50 dlrs a share and
1,650,000 shares of the total issue will be offered outside
Canada. The Canadian offering will be purchased by investment
dealers <Dominion Securities Inc> and Gordon Capital Corp, and
the international offering will be acquired by Dominion
Securities, Gordon and S.G. Warburg Securities, Investors said.
 Reuter

<Gull Air Inc> said it filed an
anti-trust suit against Texas Air Corp, charging the airline
broke a marketing agreement and undertook predatory business
practices aimed at shutting down Gull Air.
    Gull Air, flying commerical routes in some 20 cities in the
Northeast, Florida and the Bahamas, said it reached a feeder
agreement with Texas Air Corp in March 1986.
    Under the five year marketing pact, Gull said it
coordinated its flights with Texas Air, Continental, Eastern
and New York Air, to facilitate connections and increase its
business.
    But when Texas Air acquired People Express Inc and its
units, including Bar Harbor Air Line and Provincetown-Boston
Airline, the privately-held Gull became a competitor to the
Texas Air units, the company said.
    The company said Texas Air then broke the five year
agreement previously reached with Gull, causing it to lose
millions of dollars.
    A company spokesman said Gull has not yet set a monetary
value on the amount on the damages it is seeking in the suit.
 Reuter

President Reagan signed an order 
allowing sales of U.S. nuclear fuel to the European Atomic
Energy Community (EURATOM) to continue for a further year, even
though they do not comply with a 1978 U.S. law.
    Under the law, which is designed to combat the spread of
nuclear weapons, foreign importers of U.S. nuclear fuel must
get American consent to any reprocessing.
    The United States and EURATOM have had a series of 11
rounds of talks from 1978 to 1986 to renegotiate its nuclear
cooperation agreements, signed more than 20 years ago, to
conform with the 1978 law.
    Since 1978 the U.S.-EURATOM nuclear coooperation accords
have been extended by a series of presidential waiver orders.
    State Department officials said negotiations had made more
progress in the last two years after the United States had
offered a longterm reprocessing consent arrangement, rather
than requiring EURATOM to have U.S. consent for each fuel
delivery.
     In notifying Congress of today's order extending
U.S.-EURATOM nuclear cooperation, Reagan said: "A disruption of
nuclear cooperation would not only eliminate any chance of
progress in our talks with EURATOM related to our agreements,
it would also cause serious problems in our relationships."
      He said further progress in talks with EURATOM was 
expected this year.
 Reuter

Atco Ltd said its Atco
Development unit agreed to sell the Canadian Utilities Center
in Edmonton, Alberta and the Canadian Western Center in
Calgary.
    The sales, together with the previously-announced sale of
Atco's Australian operations, will gross 114 mln dlrs and
result in an after-tax gain of 31 mln dlrs, which will be
reflected in Atco's fiscal year results.
    Its fiscal year ends March 31, the company said. In
addition, the sales will produce 47 mln dlrs cash after debt
reduction of 67 mln dlrs, Atco said.
 Reuter

LINDNER TELLS SEC HE HAS HAD TALKS WITH TAFT ON SEEKING CONTROL OF COMPANY

The need to eliminate "inefficiencies
and redundancies" was behind the decision to dismiss more than
200 employees at CBS News, according to a memo from Laurence
Tisch, chief executive officer of CBS Inc.
    CBS made public the memo to employes in which Tisch sought
to re-assure news employes that news divison will have the
resources to "serve the needs of the public" in the future.
    Tisch said he accepted recommendations of the management of
CBS News that 10 pct of the work force be trimmmed. "It was not
an assignment that anyone relished or that I enjoyed giving
them," he said.
 Reuter

A 3.6 billion dlr plan to rid the
European Community (EC) of one mln tonnes of surplus butter is
in doubt as Spain and Portugal refuse to drop their opposition
to the scheme, diplomats said.
    The plan, proposed by the Community's executive Commission,
aims to level most of the EC's huge and costly butter mountain
by disposing of a total of 1.04 mln tonnes this year and next.
    But the officials said Spain and Portugal, which joined the
12-nation bloc at the beginning of last year, continued to
oppose the scheme at a meeting of EC finance ministers here.
    They argued they should not have to pay for the disposal of
surpluses created before they became EC members.
    The plan, already approved by farm ministers despite
opposition from Madrid and Lisbon, had been sent to finance
ministers for final approval.
    But the diplomats said the finance ministers instead
referred it back to the Commission, asking it to study possible
ways to solve the row as soon as possible.
    They said Spain and Portugal indicated they may go to the
European Court of Justice over the issue if the Commission did
not come up with a satisfactory solution.
    The scheme has also run into criticism from the EC's
financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors.
    The Court has said the plan is unsound because the
Commission wants member states to foot the bill until it starts
reimbursing them in four annual instalments from 1989.
    Diplomats said Spain and Portugal backed the court's view
and also complained that, under complex financial agreements
worked out when they joined the EC, they would get less back
later than if they were reimbursed now.
    Commission sources said it appeared the two countries were
holding out in a bid to squeeze some form of compensation out
of their partners but it was unclear how much longer they would
continue to block the scheme.
 Reuter

Bancroft Convertible Fund Inc said it
filed a lawsuit in federal court in Newark, N.J., seeking to
block a hostile 30 dlr a share takeover offer by <Zico
Investment Holdings Inc.>
    Bancroft said the suit also names Michael B. Javett,
principal officer of Zico, and First Fidelity Bancorp's <FFB>
First Fidelity Bank unit, the depositary for Zico's offer.
    Bancroft said the suit also names <Georgeson and Co Inc>,
Zico's information agent, and <Luthie Intercontinentale Inc>, a
Panamanian corporation.
    Bancroft said its complaint alleges that Zico's tender
offer materials include false and misleading information and
that the offer violates the Investment Company Act of 1940.
    The company said its stockholders approved proposals that
will insure that it remains independent.

 Reuter

<Lavalin Bell Geomat>, a company owned
by Bell Canada Enterprises Inc and engineering company <Lavalin
Inc>, plans a bid to take over the federal government's map
making service, Lavalin said.
    The service has an annual budget of about 130 mln Canadian
dlrs and includes the surveys and mapping and remote sensing
branches of the Energy, Mines, and Resources department, and
the hydrographic services of the Fisheries and Oceans
department, Lavalin president Bernard Lamarre said.
    Lamarre said company officials have held preliminary talks
with the government to discuss the possibility of taking over
the service.
 Reuter

A confidential World Bank report on the
Peruvian economy has said the government's strategy does not
offer good prospects for medium and long-term growth and is
likely to lead to an early renewal of inflationary pressure.
    The report, published today by the economic monthly, The
Peru Report, said the success of president Alan Garcia's
government in stimulating output last year to achieve a growth
in gross domestic product of over eight pct "represents gains in
the short term at the expense of the long."
public investment program and greater emphasis on the
preservation of Peru's export potential.
in cutting inflation from 250 pct a year in the first half of
1985 to under 70 pct, its stabilisation and reactivation
program was encountering rising difficulties.
    "An early renewal of inflationary pressures, linked to
    The world bank report said the government's policies had
reduced inflation and short-term increases in consumption at
the apparent cost of price distortions, overvaluation of the
currency, balance of payments disequilibrium, reserve losses,
and sharply diminished creditworthiness.
    It said unless the government took action quickly to fix a
competitive exchange rate and control the public sector
deficit, "the higher the probability will be that the government
will eventually have to resort to drastic curtailment of
domestic demand and either sharp devaluation or still further
controls on imports in order to stem inflation and support the
balance of payments."
    It said the bank would place more emphasis on the
preservation of peru's export potential, external links and
overall economic efficiency.
    The government's incentive policies towards the mining and
petroleum sectors, among its main traditional exports,
suggested that it did not accord high priority to their
economic viability, it added.
 Reuter

BSD Medical Corp said it received
a patent from the U.S. Patent Office for its invasive/external
electric field sensors.
    The company said the patent is its fourth in seven months.
 Reuter

Financier Carl Lindner, who holds a
16.2 pct stake in Taft Broadcasting Co, told the Securities and
Exchange Commission he has discussed with the company the
possibility of seeking control of it.
    Lindner, the Cincinnati, Ohio, investor who controls
American Financial Corp, said his talks with some of Taft's
managers and directors have been aimed at "achieving an
increased ownership position" in the company.
    Lindner said his increase in ownership would be made either
by making an offer to acquire control of Taft or taking part in
a group to acquire the company.
    Lindner, who holds his Taft stake through American
Financial and its subsidiaries, said he is also considering
buying more Taft stock on the open market or in private deals.
    He did not say whether the talks with Taft officials led to
any agreements or understandings.
    But Lindner said he intends to review his investment in
Taft and may be involved in further talks or take other steps
regarding the future control and direction of Taft.
    Lindner's investor group recently raised its Taft stake to
1,489,298 shares, or 16.2 pct from 1,439,498 shares, or 15.6
pct, after buying 49,800 shares for a total of 5.8 mln dlrs.
    Although he recently received clearance from the Federal
Trade Commission to raise his stake in the company to 24.9 pct,
Lindner in previous SEC filings has always stressed that his
interest in Taft was for investment only and not was not
seeking to control the company.
    An investor group headed by members of the wealthy Bass
family of Fort Worth, Texas, also holds about 24.9 pct of
Taft's common stock.
 Reuter

New Zealand's total foreign debt
fell to 32.94 billion N.Z. Dlrs in the quarter end December 31
against 33.42 billion in the quarter end September 30, revised
from 33.12 billion dlrs, and 24.61 billion in the quarter end
March 1985, the statistics department said.
    The department began releasing quarterly figures in June
1986.
    It said in a statement Government Corporation foreign debt
in the December quarter fell to 5.86 billion against a 6.78
billion in the September quarter, revised from 6.63 billion and
5.25 billion in March quarter 1985.
    Private sector foreign debt fell to 5.75 billion dlrs from
5.89 billion, revised from 5.74 billion, and 5.45 billion in
March 1985.
    Government departments and Reserve Bank foreign debt rose
to 21.32 billion against 20.75 billion and 13.92 billion.
    Contributing to the total fall of 0.48 billion dlrs were
2.11 billion in net realised and unrealised exchange gains, a
result of an appreciation of the New Zealand dollar against
other currencies, the department said.
    The U.S. Dollar remained the predominant borrowing currency
for all three sectors in the economy at December 31.
 Reuter

An investor group that includes T.
Boone Pickens III said it set a deadline of 1600 EST on March
11 for its offer to acquire Japan Fund Inc.
    The group, which also includes <Sterling Grace Capital
Management Inc LP> and <Anglo American Security Fund LP>, said
it was willing to deposit in escrow 100,000 Japan Fund shares,
worth about two mln dlrs, to insure its ability to obtain
financing if Japan Fund approves its offer.
    The group said Japan Fund has not responded to its offer,
worth about 525 mln dlrs at current market prices.
 Reuter

A group of affiliated firms led by
Warburg, Pincus Capital Co L.P., a New York venture capital and
investment partnership, said it has acquired 1,920,527 shares
of Symbion Inc, or 25.5 pct of the total outstanding.
the Warburg Pincus group said it bought the stake for
investment purposes.
    Although the group said it is considering buying more
shares of Symbion, it said it has no plans to seek control of
 Reuter

Kindness N.V., a Bahamas-based firm
owned by U.K. investor and Bahamas resident John Templeton,
said it has acquired 137,900 shares of Hausereman Inc, or 5.9
pct of the total outstanding common stock.
Templeton said he bought the shares for investment purposes
only and has no intention of seeking control of the company.
 Reuter

A group of affiliated investment
firms led by Bermuda-based Fidelity International Ltd and
Boston-based FMR Corp, told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it raised its stake in McGill Manufacturing Co Inc.
    The group said it raised its stake to 88,580 shares, or 6.2
pct of the total outstanding common stock, after buying 14,135
McGill common shares between Jan 19 and March 2 at prices
ranging from 33.57 to 34.57 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

U.S. INTERVENED TO BUY 50 MLN DLRS AGAINST YEN ON JANUARY 28, FED SAYS

CTS Corp said it increased its
1986 loss from continuing operations to 26.6 mln dlrs from the
previously announced 23.8 mln dlrs loss.
    The 1986 figure was increased to include expenses involved
with its settlement of a dispute with Dynamics Corp of America
<DYA>.
    The settlement involved a takeover bid for CTS by Dynamics
Corp, which had offered to buy the shares of CTS that it did
not already own.
    CTS made a profit of 7.9 mln dlrs from continuing
operations in 1985.
    CTS said it charged an additional 2.8 mln dlrs in special
expenses to its 1986 operations as a result of the Dynamics
Corp settlement.
    The additional expenses include the obligation to reimburse
Dynamics Corp, subject to approval of CTS shareholders, a total
of 2.1 mln dlrs for Dynamics Corp's expenses and other costs
relating to CTS.
 Reuter

U.S. authorities intervened in the
foreign exchange market to support the dollar on one occasion
during the period between the start of November 1986 and the
end of January, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in a
report.
    The Fed's quarterly review of foreign exchange operations
said that the U.S. bought 50 mln dlrs through the sale of yen
on January 28. This operation was coordinated with the Japanese
monetary authorities and was funded equally by the Fed and the
U.S. Treasury.
    The Fed's intervention was on the morning after president
Reagan's State of the Union message and was "in a manner
consistent with the joint statement" made by U.S. Treasury
secretary James Baker and Japanese finance minister Kiichi
Miyazawa after their January 21 consultations.
    At that meeting, the two reaffirmed their willingness to
cooperate on exchange rate issues.
    The Fed's report did not say at what level the intervention
occurred. But on January 28, the dollar closed at 151.50/60 yen
after dipping as low as 150.40 yen earlier in the session. It
had closed at 151.05/15 yen the previous day.
    The dollar had plumbed a post-World War II low of 149.98
yen on January 19 and reached a seven-year low of 1.7675 marks
on January 28. It ended that day at 1.7820/30 marks.
    The Fed noted that, after trading steadily throughout
November and the first half of December, the dollar moved
sharply lower until the end of January.
    It closed the three-month review period down more than 11
pct against the mark and most other Continental currencies and
seven pct lower against the yen and sterling. It had fallen
four pct against the Canadian dollar.
    During the final days of January, pressure on the dollar
subsided. Reports of the U.S.-Japanese intervention operation
and talk of an upcoming meeting of the major industrial
countries encouraged expectations for broader cooperation on
exchange rate and economic policy matters, the Fed said.
    Moreover, doubts had developed about the course of U.S.
interest rates. The dollar's swift fall had raised questions
about whether the Fed would let short-term rates ease.
    Thus the dollar firmed to close the period at 1.8320 marks
and 153.70 yen. According to the Fed's trade-weighted index, it
had declined nine pct since the beginning of the period.
    The dollar had risen as high as 2.08 marks and 165 yen in
early November.
    The Fed last intervened in the foreign exchange market on
November 7, 1985 when it bought a total of 102.2 mln dlrs worth
of marks and yen.
    The Fed's action followed the September 1985 Plaza
agreement between the five major industrial nations under which
they agreed to promote an orderly decline of the dollar.
 Reuter

Louart Corp, a Los Angeles investment
firm, said it raised its stake in Certron Corp to 237,000
shares, or 7.8 pct of the total outstanding common stock, from
164,000 shares, or 5.4 pct.
Louart said it bought 73,000 Certron shares between Sept 9 and
March 6 at a total of 109,315 dlrs a share.
    It said its dealings in Certron were for investment only,
but said it might increase its stake. It said it has no plans
 Reuter

Sono-Tek Corp said it reduced to
350,000 from 400,000 the number of shares it will sell in its
initial public stock offering.
    The price of the offering remains unchanged at five dlrs
per share, it said.
 Reuter

proposed changing its name to Barnett Banks Inc, the company
said.
    The company said shareholders will vote on the proposal,
made in its 1987 proxy statement, at the annual meeting on
April 22.
 Reuter

Hogan Systems Inc said it acquired
<Systems 4 Inc> of Durango, Colo., for 1.7 mln dlrs.
    Hogan said Systems 4 provides integrated applications
software and processing services to about 30 community banks.
    Systems 4 has revenues of 1.5 mln dlrs a year, Hogan said.
 Reuter

Yeutter declined to comment publicly on a rumor that Nebraska
Gov. Kay Orr was considering appointing him to replace
Democratic Sen. Edward Zorinsky, who died last week.
    However, Yeutter told senior staff this morning that he was
not interested in replacing Zorinsky and wanted to continue
serving as President Reagan's chief trade negotiator, an aide
    Orr reportedly is considering naming a Republican to
replace Zorinsky. Nebraska Republican Reps. Doug Bereuter and
Hal Daub were said to be among those being considered by Orr.
 Reuter

AirCal said its February
load factor averaged 53.4 pct, down slightly from 54.2 pct a
    The company said available seat miles, at 357.1 mln, were
up 40.5 pct from a year ago, while revenue passenger miles, at
190.8 mln, were up 38.5 pct.
    Year to date revenue passenger miles were 383.3 mln at the
end of February, up 33.4 pct from a year earlier, while
available seat miles, at 750.5 mln, were up 39.5 pct.
    The load factor for the first two months of the year was
51.1 pct, down from 53.4 pct a year earlier.
 Reuter

unit said it will begin service to Mexico from Atlanta in May.
    Continental said it will add non-stop flights to Mexico
City, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Acapulco and Ixtapa.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union will likely honor
its commitment with the United States to buy a minimum of four
mln tonnes of corn this year, an Agriculture Department
    "They have always honoured the agreement, and there's no
reason now to think they won't this year," he told Reuters.
    "They have an aggressive buying campaign from the European
Community, from Canada, from the U.S. They're active buyers
from all sources at this point," the official said in
explaining why the Department raised its Soviet grain imports
estimate today by three mln tonnes to 26 mln tonnes.
    This is a dramatic shift from just a few months ago when
analysts were saying the USSR might not buy any U.S. corn for
the first time in 15 years.
    A drawdown of corn supplies in China and Argentina, concern
over Soviet winter crops, and increasing competition for U.S.
corn were all cited as possible factors in creating Moscow's
recent interest.
    Lower corn production prospects in some major supplying
countries have stirred activity from big buyers such as Japan,
and the Soviets are also closely watching the situation, the
    "The Soviets will try to out-capitalize the capitalists"
and buy corn before prices get too high, the official said. "As
soon as they need corn, they'll buy it," he added.
    USDA has confirmed one mln tonnes of corn sold to the
Soviet Union, but both U.S. and Soviet analysts have said the
purchases stand at 1.5 mln tonnes.
    The USDA official would not speculate on when the Soviets
would enter the U.S. market again.
    "There has definitely been an evolving mind set -- from the
situation of slow grain buying a couple months ago to one of
frenetic buying now," the official said.
    However, the situation in wheat is "a different story," he
said. Greater world supplies of wheat, heavier Soviet purchase
commitments and less competitive U.S. wheat prices make Soviet
purchases of U.S. wheat less likely, he said.
    Speculation has continued for several days that the U.S.
is considering making an export bonus wheat subsidy offer to
the Soviets, but U.S. officials have provided no confirmation.

 Reuter

T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman and
financier, said he believes the heady days the oil service
industry had in the early 1980s, when over 4,500 oil rigs were
once reported operating, will not return in his lifetime.
     Pickens told Reuters he expects the rig count to drop to
below 600 before recovering. He added that oil prices will
eventually rise to 35 dlrs, then to 50 dlrs after 1990.
     Currently, some 700 oil rigs are operating in the U.S.,
down sharply after oil prices slipped from 30 dlrs in late 1985
to around 10 dlrs in 1986. Prices are now around 18 dlrs. The
highest number of working rigs was 4,500 in December 1981.
     "The rigs won't go back to work until the price of oil
gets above 30 dlrs," he said, adding that while he expects to
see 50 dlr a barrel oil, he does not expect to see 2,000 rigs
operating in his lifetime. Pickens is 58.
     Pickens, who is currently touring the country promoting
his autobiography "Boone," said he does not believe the U.S.
should impose an oil import fee in order to stimulate the
domestic oil industry.
 Reuter

    Angio-Medical Corp - Initial public offering of 1,666,667
units, each consisting of one share of common stock and one
redeemable warrant to buy one share of common stock through
Kean Securities Co Inc.
    ABM Gold Corp - Initial public offering of six mln shares
of Class A common stock at an estimated seven to nine dlrs each
through PaineWebber Inc and Advest Inc.
    COMFED Mortgage Co Inc - Initial public offering of 2.7 mln
shares of common stock at an estimated nine to 13 dlrs a share
through PaineWebber Inc and Bear, Stearns and Co Inc.
    MTech Corp <MTCH> - Offering of 75 mln dlrs of convertible
subordinated debentures due March 15, 2012 through a group led
by Alex. Brown and Sons Inc.
 Reuter

The Arbitration Commission awarded
the Australian workforce a flat 10 dlrs a week wage increase
and allowed trade unions to begin bargaining for a second-tier
increase of up to four pct, Commission President Justice Barry
Maddern said here.
    The decision is effective from the next pay period of
individual employers, he said in delivering the Commission's
National Wage Case decision.
    Full-time adult ordinary time weekly earnings are 453.00
dlrs a week for males and 428.40 dlrs for all adults, according
to latest official statistics.
    The wage decision is the first under the previously
announced two-tier system which replaced the concept of wage
indexation. It is the first national wage rise since a
partially-indexed increase of 2.3 pct was awarded by the
Commission last July.
    The decision is a compromise between the Federal
government's call at the Wage Case hearing for a 10 dlr weekly
rise plus a three pct second-tier ceiling and the Australian
Council of Trade Unions' (ACTU) claim of 20 dlrs and up to four
pct.
    Employer groups had sought no rise at all.
    The Commission is willing to convene another Wage Case in
October to establish if another wage increase of up to 1.5 pct
should be awarded, Maddern said.
    He said the success of the new system depended on the
commitment of all parties - employers, unions and governments.
    He said the Commission had rejected employers' calls for a
freeze on overall labour cost increases.
    "We do not think that such an outcome is feasible, given the
needs and expectations of wage and salary earners,' he said,
adding a freeze could have destroyed the possibility of a
cooperative effort to lift Australia's economic performance.
    The decision would ensure the effects of the depreciation
of the Australian dollar and the adverse terms of trade would
not be reflected in wage increases, Maddern said.
    If necessary, it would arbitrate second-tier claims at an
implementation rate of no more than two pct from September this
year and a further two pct from July 1988, he said.
    He said labour cost rises would be phased in over the life
of the package, adding that second-tier rises will be mainly
achieved by a restructuring and efficiency principle, covering
elimination of restrictive work practices, improved efficiency
and productivity and reduction of demarcation disputes.
    Maddern said the Commission again ruled out claims for a
cut in weekly working hours below 38 and allowed employers to
be exempted from wage case decisions on the basis of severe or
extreme economic adversity.
    The Commission said the poor economic outlook noted in its
last decision had persisted, and was perhaps now more serious.
    "The prevailing uncertainty and lack of confidence in the
economy which underlines the economic circumstances must be
allayed to halt further decline and to turn the economy around.
In this connection, what happens to labour costs is of critical
importance," he said.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said the
Paris currency accord has contributed to the stability of
exchange rates.
    Miyazawa told a press conference the agreement reached last
month in Paris by six major industrial nations to cooperate in
bringing about currency stability has prevented speculative
concerns from being active in money centres.
    The decision in Paris is being understood by the market, he
said. The yen-dollar exchange rate has been moving in a narrow
range since finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France,
Japan, the U.S. And West Germany reached the accord.
 REUTER

will continue to decline as major energy projects are
refinanced, Finance Minister Roger Douglas said.
    Statistics Department figures show total debt fell to 32.94
billion N.Z. Dlrs in the December quarter from 33.42 billion in
September, although the government's share rose to 21.32
billion from 20.75 billion.
    Douglas said in a statement this was due to the boosting of
reserves to refinance so-called "Think Big" projects.
    "These reserves do not add to New Zealand's total
indebtedness.... They are money in the bank," he said.
    "As negotiations to refinance each Think Big project are
completed, existing loans will be replaced with debt currently
held in reserves for this purpose," Douglas added.
    This in turn will result in a drop in quasi-government and
private debt, he said.
    He said refinancing of projects allowed the government to
borrow on more favourable terms and to manage Think Big debts
more effectively.
    "Both of these will reduce the cost of Think Big to the
taxpayer over time," he said. "The refinancing also paves the way
to deregulation of the oil industry."
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said at 1230 local time
it was offering to buy short-dated government securities in the
short-term money market.
    The bank's action followed its purchase of short-dated
government stock and six-day repurchase agreements earlier in
the session.
    Money market traders said the move was aimed at easing cash
market interest rates which had risen on demand for funds to
meet PAYE tax and treasury note settlement commitments.
 REUTER

Business groups criticised the
Arbitration Commission's national wage case decision announced
earlier but the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) gave
it qualified approval.
    As earlier reported, the commission awarded a 10 dlr a week
flat rise plus the opportunity for unions to bargain
immediately for extra payments of up to four pct based on the
new two-tier system which replaced wage indexation.
    "The decision is economically irresponsible and industrially
naive," said Bryan Noakes, director-general of the Confederation
of Australian Industry's industrial council.

Police arrested two Polish citizens for
trying to steal Japanese computer technology, local media
reports said today.
    The reports said the two had worked at a computer-related
company in Tokyo and visited Japanese computer makers several
times after coming to Japan on tourist visas last October.
    One report said they were computer specialists at a Polish
technology institute, and that the company they worked for was
managed by a naturalised Japanese from Poland who was a
graduate of the institute.
    Police officials declined to comment on the reports.
 REUTER

The leaf disease corenes pora,
which has affected some rubber trees in Sri Lanka and
Indonesia, is likely to force a cut in supply and push up
depressed prices, a Malaysian rubber disease researcher said.
    Trees with leaves hit by the fungus disease cannot be saved
and must be felled, Chee Kheng Hoy, Head of the Crop Protection
and Microbiology Division in the Rubber Research Institute of
Malaysia (RRIM), told Reuters.
    He was commenting on a Reuter report which said corenes
pora had hit seven pct of Sri Lanka's plantations and may cause
output to drop below its 1987 target of 143,000 tonnes.
    The report said the Sri Lankan Rubber Research Institute
may ask estates to remove trees seriously affected by the
disease and added that most estates affected belong to the
State Plantations Corp and Janatha Estates Development Board.
    Chee said corenes pora is an old disease which only affects
certain rubber clones in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and that
further use of such clones must be discontinued.
    Clones not resistant to the disease are the Rubber Research
Institute of Sri Lanka clone 103, Indonesia's PPN 2058, 2444,
2447 and PR 265 and Malaysia's RRIM 725, he said.
    Chee said corenes pora affected trees from the RRIM 725
clone planted in Malaysia several years ago but had been curbed
after use of such clones were discontinued.
    Fungicide may be used to curb the disease, which also
affects leaves of 30 other species of plants, but experience
has proven that it is uneconomical and expensive, he added.
    "The disease is extremely difficult to control. If it is not
curbed in the two affected countries their rubber output may
drop and prices can rise," he said.
    He added that the RRIM was aware of the disease outbreak in
Sri Lanka and was monitoring the situation.
 REUTER

Japan's Finance Ministry auctioned 1,000
billion yen worth of tankoku, six month debt-financing paper,
to roll over previously issued tankoku maturing on March 19, a
    The last tankoku auction, on February 12, produced a record
low yield of 3.383 pct, reflecting expectation of a half point
cut in Japan's discount rate, he said.
    In the previous auction for 1,000 billion yen, four major
Japanese securities houses took 92 pct of the issue amount in
an attempt to meet strong demand from large institutional
investors, securities managers said.
    Securities managers said they expect the auction to go well
again this time as securities houses will try to expand their
inventories of tankoku on continuing good response from
institutional investors.
    Contrary to a projected low yield on tankoku, short-term
interest rates have been resisting a fall on growing demand for
funds ahead of the March 31 financial year-end, they said.
    The Bank of Japan has been trying to dampen money market
rates to make the latest discount rate cut effective, but so
far in vain, dealers said.
    The auction results will be announced tomorrow.
 REUTER

The search continued for a
cargo of poisonous chemical substances loaded on the Herald of
Free Enterprise Ferry which capsized in Zeebrugge harbour
Friday.
    A total of 72 drums of various toxic materials which were
loaded on trucks in the ship's hold have been recovered, but
Belgian authorities warned it was essential to recover a
further 61 containers of a cyanide-based solution.
    A net has been thrown over the gaping loading doors at the
front of the ship to prevent any more drums floating out.
    Salvage workers have moved cranes into place alongside the
wreck of the 7,951 ton roll-on, roll-off ferry which now lies
partly submerged on a sandbank outside the harbour.
    The ferry's owner is <European Ferries Plc>, majority owned
by Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co Plc <PORL.L>.
    The operation to right the vessel began yesterday after
divers abandoned their search for more bodies. Experts said it
could take months to refloat the ship and free the 80 bodies
estimated to be trapped amid debris.
    "The problem is that in these waters you can normally expect
one working day out of four," said Daan Kaakebeen of Dutch
Salvage experts Smit Tak International of Rotterdam. He
estimated the job itself would require 35 working days.
    Using reinforced cables, salvage experts intend to raise
the ship and set it down into a trench dug alongside.
    Salvage work could pinpoint the exact cause of the loss of
the ferry, one of three sister vessels plying cross-Channel
routes from England to continental Europe.
    Suspicion at present is focused on the ferry's main vehicle
loading doors, set close to water level.
    In London, Transport Secretary John Moore told parliament
yesterday that the ship keeled over after water gushed in
through the bow doors. He said a major government inquiry into
the disaster will be held, all similar ferries sailing from
Britain will be inspected and owners will be asked to fit
lights to give warning if bow doors are not properly closed.
    Experts carrying out tank and computer tests to determine
how the accident occurred will focus attention on the ship's
doors, its ballast system and crew procedures, he added.
    Two other investigations into the disaster have also begun,
one Belgian and one by the ferry's owners.
 REUTER

There is little chance Soviet exports
to the United States will rise in 1987, but Moscow's current
trade reforms should result in more trade in manufactured goods
in future, a Soviet economist said.
    Sergey Frolov, chief economist at Amtorg Trading Corp, an
agent for Soviet trade organisations and industries, told a
U.S.-USSR business meeting the Soviet Union produces few items
that western nations want.
    But reforms, including upgrading the quality of goods and
allowing joint ventures with foreign firms, will encourage
modest export gains in future.
    Frolov said the Soviet Union exported 500 mln dlrs worth of
goods to the United States in 1986 and imported 1.5 billion
dlrs worth. He gave no trade forecast for 1987.
    But he said that even if all obstacles were removed, total
trade between the two countries would remain between two and
three billion dlrs a year.
    "The post-detente embargoes have taught the USSR to limit
its trading with the U.S.," he said.
 REUTER

People throughout China can now open
foreign exchange accounts at the Bank of China, the official
Shenzhen Economic Zone Daily said.
    Previously only residents of Guangdong and Fujian provinces
could do this.
    The paper also said the minimum for opening a fixed deposit
account had been cut to 50 yuan equivalent, from 150 yuan. The
minimum for a current account is 20 yuan equivalent.
    The paper said depositors could now withdraw all or part of
their account, subject to a branch's reserves, instead of only
a fixed amount as previously.
    The paper said deposits may now be opened in French francs
as well as the already available U.S. Dollar, Hong Kong dollar,
sterling, yen and marks.
    Bank of China branches in Hainan island also accept
deposits in Singapore dollars, and those in Wenzhou, Zhejiang
province, accept deposits in Dutch guilders, the paper said.
 REUTER

The Singapore High Court has
adjourned summary judgement for the second time on a <National
Bank of Brunei Bhd> case for loan repayments from Khoo Teck
Puat and 15 associated companies, court sources said.
    The case will be heard again on May 4, when a summary
judgement will decide if the civil case should proceed.
    Khoo owned most of the bank's equity before it was closed
in November by the Brunei government after some of its
officials were charged with mismanagement.
    The bank, now controlled by Brunei, is seeking repayment of
about 900 mln Singapore dlrs in loans guaranteed by Khoo.
 REUTER

Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> may assemble
computers in Oregon for sale in the United States under the
Fujitsu brand name, a company spokesman said.
    He said the rising value of the yen against the dollar has
virtually erased the wage differential between the two
countries and Fujitsu would like to make the medium-size,
multi-functional business computers in the United States.
    The Oregon plant, owned by Fujitsu subsidiary, <Fujitsu
America Inc>, now makes magnetic computer discs and will soon
make printers. Fujitsu Ltd also has a licensing agreement to
make Amdahl Corp <AMH> computers for sale in the U.S.
 REUTER

The Sichuan government has ordered that
any work or meeting which interferes with the fight against
drought must be cancelled or postponed to save time, energy and
manpower, the People's Daily domestic edition said.
    Sichuan is one of six provinces threatened by drought.
    Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong daily, said the drought, the worst
for more than 20 years, is affecting nearly two mln hectares in
100 counties in Sichuan, the country's biggest agricultural
producer.
    Sichuan has experienced temperatures three degrees
Centigrade higher than normal and rainfall up to 70 pct less
than normal since early February, affecting wheat, oil-bearing
crops, rice planting and dryland cash crops, it said.
    The paper said 43,000 hectares in Meixian county in
Guangdong are seriously short of water.
    The People's Daily said Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei are
also suffering from drought.
    Henan's grain output fell by 2.5 mln tonnes last year from
the 1985 level because of drought which has been affecting the
province since May.
 REUTER

Japanese microchip makers are being
strong-armed into compliance with a U.S.-Japan pact on
semiconductors halting predatory pricing and opening Japan's
market to foreign chips, industry analysts said.
    But doubts remain over whether the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI), which is pressuring
the firms, can successfully battle market forces and whether
the U.S. Industry is geared up to take advantage of any
breathing space, they said.
    U.S. Threats to scrap the agreement signed last September
have pushed MITI to try harder to get recalcitrant Japanese
chipmakers to abide by the pact, the analysts said.
    "MITI has been moving hot and heavy throughout the industry
to get things done," said Bache Securities (Japan) associate
vice president Peter Wolffe.
    Last month, MITI told chipmakers to cut production for the
January to March period by 10 pct to help dry up inexpensive
chips that have escaped from Japan to grey markets not subject
to the pact's price controls.
    The ministry also asked electronics firms to provide
distributors with certificates designating them as authorised
exporters, in an effort to close loopholes through which grey
marketeers sneak chips out of Japan, market analysts said.
    U.S. Trade negotiators here last week said the pact was in
jeopardy because of continued dumping in non-American markets
and little sign of increased foreign sales in Japan.
    But major Japanese firms appear to have agreed to the
production cuts, several analysts said. Last week, NEC Corp
said it would cut production in line with MITI's request.
    "NEC has been the most aggressive in resisting MITI's
demands," said David Keller, analyst at James Capel and Co. "Once
NEC cuts production, it means they all have."
    Still, pressures remain to keep production high. Japanese
firms need high output to cut unit prices for U.S. Sales that
the Commerce Department assigns them under the pact.
    "The best way to lower cost is to produce more," said Salomon
Brothers Asia Ltd analyst Carole Ryavec.
    Preparations for a possible upturn in demand could also
spur higher production next quarter, Merrill Lynch analyst Matt
Aizawa said.
    Grey marketeers may also be able to outfox any new
restrictions, some industry officials said.
    "It's like tax avoidance schemes," said Steve Donovan, head
of MMI Japan K.K. "As soon as you close one route, another
opens."
    MITI's pressure has annoyed some makers, who had earlier
shrugged off MITI guidance.
    "It's getting to be like communism," said one.
    But analysts said output cuts could help by making it
easier to increase prices as planned on April 1 and forcing
firms to stop extending market share by selling at a loss.
    "They're going to have to start running their businesses
like businesses," Bache's Wolffe said.
    MITI has also been conducting a highly public campaign
urging chip users to buy foreign-made chips, but U.S. Industry
officials said response has been mixed at best.
    "There has been some change, but it's not across the board,"
said one U.S. Spokesman. "The companies have a varying degree of
urgency."
    The ultimate impact of all these efforts by MITI on the
troubled U.S. Industry remains in doubt, analysts added.
    Pressure to cut production of 256 kilobit DRAM (dynamic
random access memory) chips could merely speed the transition
to one megabit chips, where Japan now leads, analysts said.
    Whether U.S. Firms are able to stage a comeback in memory
chips, or interested in doing so, also remains unclear, they
said.
    Analysts are watching with interest the fate of a new U.S.
Consortium which hopes to challenge Japan by developing the
most advanced technology for microchip manufacturing.
    Even in the thorny area of access, much depends on U.S.
Commitment as well as on Japanese openness, some said.
    "The SIA (U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association) doesn't
even have an office here," a source close to the industry said.
"You could question just how committed they are."
    In addition, some industry analysts question the
effectiveness of a bilateral agreement that leaves out third
country chipmakers such as those in South Korea.
    "(South) Korea's gaining market share," said one analyst.
"They're the real winners from the agreement."
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry said its auction
yesterday of 1,000 billion yen of tankoku, six-month debt
financing paper, produced a record low average yield of 3.246
pct on aggressive bidding from securities houses.
    The tankoku mature on September 21, 1987.
    The previous record low was 3.383 pct at the last auction,
on February 12.
    One of four major Japanese securities house bought 39.5 pct
of the total 1,021.1 billion yen in bids accepted, ministry
    Securities houses bid aggressively as big retail accounts,
such as tokkin, special money trust and trust funds have been
showing strong interest in tankoku on increasing demand for
short-term fund management, securities house managers said.
    The yield for tankoku, issued on a discount basis, is one
point below the 4.26/12 pct interest rates for six-month
certificates of deposit today.
    In the previous auction for 1,000 billion yen, the four
majors took 92 pct of the issue to increase their tankoku
inventory, the managers said.
    Bids totalled 1,975.8 billion yen.
    The average price was 98.36 to give a yield of 3.246 pct
and lowest was 98.33, giving 3.314 pct, the Ministry said.
 REUTER

Sumita says little room for Bank of Japan to further ease credit policy

Bank of Japan governor Satoshi Sumita
said there is little room left for the central bank to further
ease its credit policy as interest rates levels are now
approaching their lower limit.
    "The government should instead seek ways of making the best
use of its fiscal policy," he told a press conference.
    His remarks were concerned with a comprehensive economic
stimulative package the government plans to adopt in the coming
days.
    At the recent talks among the six major industrialised
nations in Paris, Japan promised to work out a comprehensive
economic package to boost domestic demand, which in turn would
help increase its imports and reduce its trade surplus.
    Sumita also said the economy will show a gradual upturn in
the second half of the year if the yen remains stable.
    He said there is caution in the foreign exchange market
against a further rise of the yen and mark and this explains
the recent stability in the currency markets. Conflicting
economic indicators from the U.S. Have also been dampening
market activity, he added.
 REUTER

An Iranian military commander said Iraqi
troops suffered 3,000 casualties in a week-old offensive by
Iran's forces in the mountains of northeast Iraq.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted the commander in the
Kurdish border village of Haj Omran as saying nine Iraqi
counter-attacks had been repulsed with heavy casualties.
    He said Iraq lost at least 3,000 men killed or wounded and
another 289 captured, IRNA, monitored by the British
Broadcasting Corp, said.
    Iran's offensive into Iraqi Kurdistan is coupled with
support for anti-Iraqi Kurdish rebel operations in the region.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Bob Hawke is more popular
than ever despite Australia's economic problems, according to
opinion poll results released today.
    His popularity rating went up to 64 pct compared to 19 pct
for opposition leader John Howard, according to Morgan Gallup
Poll results published by The Bulletin magazine.
    The poll of more than 1,000 voters throughout Australia
also showed support for Hawke's Labour Party running at 47 pct
against 44 pct for the Liberal-National opposition.
    Labour support was unchanged from last month but the
opposition fell one pct.
 REUTER

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza
Aqazadeh is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to discuss oil
prices and the general market situation, Iranian officials
accompanying him said.
    He will meet UAE President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan
al-Nahayan and Oil Minister Mana Said al-Oteiba.
    Aqazadeh arrived last night after a brief stopover in
Riyadh, where he met Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Hisham Nazir.
    The official Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying his
talks at Riyadh with Nazir had been constructive and good.
    Aqazadeh said Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) members were agreed on holding production stable and he
reiterated the importance of maintaining oil prices.
    OPEC members agreed in December to limit production to 15.8
mln barrels per day for the first half of this year and on a
benchmark price of 18 dlrs a barrel from February 1.
    Aqazadeh also visted OPEC members Gabon, Algeria and Libya.
The Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted him as saying before
leaving Tripoli that OPEC should do everything possible to make
oil prices permanently stable.
 REUTER

Japanese crushers are likely to buy at
least 200,000 tonnes of Brazilian soybeans this year and
another 100,000 to 200,000 if quality and shipping conditions
are good against 128,089 tonnes in 1986, trade sources said.
    A Japanese trading house recently bought about 31,000
tonnes of soybeans for April 10/May 10 shipment, they said.
    "Because Brazilian soybean prices are now some 10 cents a
bushel cheaper than U.S. Origin due to the bumper harvest, it
is highly likely that Japanese crushers will increase their
buying volume," one source said. Brazilian beans are available
to Japan for shipment from May to July.
 REUTER

<Metal Traders Australasia Ltd> said a
newly-formed subsidiary, the <Austmet Ltd> group, has
negotiated an exclusive long-term contract with Spain's
<Asturiana de Zinc> to market its zinc metal exports.
    Metal Traders said in a statement the contract would
underpin the worldwide zinc, copper and lead trading activities
of Austmet, a wholly-owned London-based company with a U.S.
Unit in Stamford, Connecticut.
    Austmet has recruited a group of base metal traders,
currently operating out of Britain and the U.S., Who have
handled Asturiana's business for the past five years, it said.
    Asturiana has a three-year option to purchase 25 pct of the
Austmet group, to be priced on an independent valuation at the
time of exercise, Metal Traders said.
    Austmet will have an initial equity base of one mln stg, a
turnover of 200 mln Australian dlrs rising to 300 mln in the
first year, and credit lines of up to 30 mln U.S. Dlrs.
    Austmet should be generating profits from July 1 and a
1.5-2.5 mln dlr net is envisaged within two years, it said.
    Metal Traders said Asturiana has the largest zinc smelting
capacity in Europe -- nearly 200,000 tonnes a year of 99.995
pct high-grade zinc, at Aviles in northern Spain.
    Metal Traders, a listed company, was formerly <Pyrotech
Resources N.L.> whose chief activity was the development and
marketing of high-technology smelting processes invented in
Australia, notably the Siromelt Zinc Fuming Process.
    But in late 1986, control of the company changed and it
expanded by acquisition into metal trading in Australia and
Asia. It then changed its name.
    It also has the marketing contract for mineral sands
produced by <TiO2 Corp N.L.>, of which it holds 17.5 pct.
    In today's statement, Metal Traders also said it is
reviewing possible acquisition of a mineral producer.
 REUTER

King Fahd said today Saudi Arabia wants
oil price stability and he called on non-OPEC producers to
avoid harmful competition with the 13 nation group.
    His plea, in an interview with Reuters and the television
news agency Visnews, came ahead of a state visit he will make
to Britain later this month.
    King Fahd was asked whether Saudi Arabia would be prepared
to reduce its oil output below its OPEC quota of 4.133 mln
barrels per day (bpd) to defend the 18 dlr benchmark price
agreed to by OPEC last December.
    The King replied: "Saudi Arabia doesn't decide prices by
itself but certainly desires price stability."
    Non-OPEC countries "must help us in a framework of common
interest so that there is no type of competition which could
prove harmful to everyone," he said.
    Asked if he saw the 18 dlr per barrel benchmark as a first
step towards higher world oil prices, King Fahd said it was not
for Saudi Arabia but for all OPEC countries to determine such
issues. Iran and Algeria have already called for a higher
benchmark.
    In recent weeks the 18 dlr level has come under pressure,
due partly to quota violations by some OPEC members. King Fahd
said Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, was
adhering to decisions made at OPEC's December conference which
set a 15.8 mln bpd output ceiling for the first half of 1987.
    A major non-OPEC producer, Britain has so far resisted the
group's pleas to curb its North Sea oil output.
    The King also urged the world community to help the
Palestinians return to their homeland and called for a peaceful
end to the Iran-Iraq war. The 6-1/2-year-old war could not be
resolved on the battlefield, he said.
 REUTER

Shr 16.3p vs 12.2p
    Div 2.75p vs 2.25p making 3.8p vs 3.15p adjusted for
    Three-for-one capitalisation
    Pre-tax profit 54.9 mln stg vs 33.4 mln
    Turnover 1.70 billion vs 1.13 billion
    Tax 7.6 mln vs 2.6 mlnProfit attributable 51.9 mln vs 30.1   
 Mln
    Cost of Sales 1.49 billion vs 999.3 mln
    Gross profit 215.9 mln vs 136.2 mln
    Distribution costs 90.3 mln vs 57.2 mln
    Adminstrative expenses 65.9 mln vs 40.8 mln
    Other operating income 3.9 mln vs nil
    Interest payable 8.7 mln vs 4.8 mln
    Minority interests 1.0 mln vs 0.7 mln
    Extraordinary credit (sale of share in S and W Berisford
Plc) 5.6 mln vs nil
    Poultry, eggs and animal feed 21.7 mln vs 17.2 mln
    Food processing and distribution 15.4 mln vs 6.9 mln
    Furniture and timber distribution 8.4 mln vs 3.4 mln
    Fresh meat and bacon 8.0 mln vs 4.5 mln
 REUTER

<Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd> has
reached agreement with <Lombard North Central Plc> of the U.K.
To build plants and boost the local content in Nissan's U.K.
Produced cars to 60 pct in 1988 from 40 to 50 pct, the Nissan
Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> said.
    The agreement will allow the cars to be designated as
domestically manufactured rather than imported vehicles, Nissan
said. The agreement was reached through negotiations with the
British government and the European Community (EC) after they
threatened to impose duties on imports.
    According to the 230 mln stg contract, Lombard North
Central, an affiliate of National Westminster Bank Plc
<NWBL.L>, will build and lease plants for engine assembly, body
panel pressing and resin moulding by 1988. They will be near
the existing Nissan plant in Sunderland in north-east England,
Nissan said. The Sunderland plant currently produces 24,000
Bluebird cars annually for the British market.
    Nissan hopes to begin U.K. Exports to Europe in 1991 after
building an engine machining plant which would boost output to
100,000 units a year and local content to above 80 pct, in
accordance with EC requests, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Japanese crushers, starting to buy U.S.
Soybeans for April shipment, have recently made purchases of
some 48,000 tonnes, trade sources said.
    The sources said they could not estimate the total volume
to be purchased for April shipping because Japan's crushing
program for April and June is unclear.
    They had predicted earlier that crushers' April shipment
U.S. Bean purchases would drop to 260,000 to 270,000 from the
monthly average of 300,000 to 330,000 tonnes due to low soybean
meal prices.
 REUTER

West German retail group Kaufhof AG
<KFHG.F> is considering taking a stake in shipping and
transport group Hapag-Lloyd AG <HPLG.F> but has yet to reach a
final decision, a spokesman said in response to queries.
    Press reports said Kaufhof wanted a stake of up to 12.5 pct
in Hapag-Lloyd.
    The Kaufhof spokesman noted any decision on purchasing
shares in the shipping group would have to be approved by the
supervisory board, which is due to hold a meeting tomorrow.
    Late last year the Gevaert group of Belgium and West
Germany's VEBA AG <VEBG.F> said they had each acquired a 12.5
pct stake in Hapag-Lloyd from Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> and
Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F>.
     Industry sources estimate Deutsche and Dresdner,
Hapag-Lloyd's majority shareholders, held about 75 pct of
Hapag-Lloyd's share capital before selling portions of it to
Gevaert and VEBA.
    The two banks have said they eventually wanted to reduce
their stake in the shipping group to 15 pct each.
 REUTER

Japan's Agency of Natural Resources and
Energy said it will begin experiments with Thailand at the end
of March to start commercial production of rare metals in 1989
under a joint project.
    An agency official said it will set up a 500 mln yen pilot
plant in Bangkok which will extract high quality rare metals
such as titanium and niobium from sand left over from tin
production processes in Thailand.
    The plant wilq use about a tonne of sand per day, although
it is unclear how much rare metal will be extracted, the
 REUTER

Hungary is to devalue the forint by an
average of eight pct against Western currencies, the official
news agency MTI said.
    MTI did not say when the devaluation would become
effective, but it expected new rates to be announced later
today.
    Hungary devalued the forint by a similar amount last
September 23. Western bankers say the forint is more
realistically valued than currencies of Hungary's COMECON
allies.
 REUTER

Domestic group turnover 4.48 billion marks vs 4.29 billion.
    Turnover comprised -
    Coal a rounded 1.14 billion vs 1.22 billion
    Metal 851.0 mln vs 1.14 billion
    Transport 435.3 mln vs 534.4 mln
    Oil and chemicals 479.7 mln vs 831.7 mln
    Plant construction 625.7 mln vs 568.8 mln
    Miscellaneous 3.3 mln vs 2.2 mln
    Turnover from majority stake in C. Deilmann AG,
consolidated for first time, 951.8 mln marks vs nil
    Domestic group fixed asset investment 392.6 mln marks vs
291.2 mln.
    Investment total includes 76.3 mln marks in investment at
C. Deilmann AG.
 REUTER

Hillsdown Holdings Plc <HLDN.L> said
early results for 1987 were encouraging, and the combination of
its investment and acquisition strategies enabled it to look
forward confidently for an excellent result for the year.
    The company was commenting on 1986 results which showed
pre-tax profit rising to 54.9 mln stg from 33.4 mln previously
on turnover that lifted to 1.70 billion from 1.13 billion.
    The figures initially boosted the share price to 286p from
281p last night, but they then eased back to 283p by 0830 GMT.
    Hillsdown said capital expenditure rose in 1986 to 60 mln
stg from 31.5 mln and would continue at this high level in
1987.
    The placing of 82.5 mln shares last year raised 160.7 mln
stg and enabled shareholders' funds to more than double to 352
mln at year-end.
    Net borrowings were 20 pct of shareholder's funds and the
group had listed investments of 47.1 mln.
    The company said it had bought a total of 40 companies
during the year for a total price of some 180 mln stg. Although
these had made minor contribution to profits the real benefits
would come in 1988 and beyond.
 REUTER

Iraq said today its forces had crushed
an Iranian attack on a strategic mountain peak in a rugged and
snow-clad area of Iraqi Kurdistan.
    The official Iraqi news agency INA said the attack was
repelled yesterday by the Fifth Army Corps' 96th Brigade on
"Karda Ku" peak, overlooking the northern post of Haj Omran and
340 kms north of Baghdad.
    INA said hundreds of Iranians were killed and large
quantities of armour and weapons were left behind. It did not
give Iraqi casualties.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA said yesterday that Iraqi
troops had suffered 3,000 casualties in Iran's week-old
offensive in northeast Iraq.
    Iran attacked across snow-capped peaks of northeastern Iraq
last week in an area which saw heavy fighting in mid-1983.
    The thrust followed fierce battles near Basra, Iraq's
second city on the southern front of the 6-1/2-year-old
conflict, after an Iranian cross-border offensive launched on
January 9.
    The political department head at Iraq's Defence Ministry,
Abdul Jabbar Muhsen, said on Monday fighting was continuing in
the north but that Iran had exaggerated battle reports.
    He said Tehran had done this "to make up for failure in the
south and to encourage anti-Baghdad Kurdish rebels to support
its troops."
    Tehran has supported anti-Baghdad Kurdish guerrillas in
operations against government positions and installations in
northern Iraq.
 REUTER

U.K. One billion stg tranche of 8-3/4 pct Treasury bonds due 1997 exhausted - dealers

Nippon Oil Co Ltd <NPOL.T> predicted
parent company net profit of about nine billion yen in the year
ending March 31, down 10.4 pct from a year earlier, president
Yasuoki Takeuchi told a press conference.
    Current profit for the year was estimated at 17 to 18
billion yen, down 20 to 24 pct from a year earlier, he said.
    Takeuchi said sales are expected to fall 40 pct to 1,700
billion yen for the fifth consecutive year-on-year drop. This
year's fall was due to lower selling prices for end-users,
which more than offset the yen's appreciation. The company will
retain six yen dividend for 1986/87.
 REUTER

The joint committee of Taiwan's soybean
importers will tender March 12 for a 27,000 tonne cargo of U.S.
Soybeans for March 20 to April 5 delivery, a committee
    Taiwan's soybean imports in calendar 1987 are provisionally
set at 1.81 mln tonnes compared with a revised 1.74 mln tonnes
imported last year.
    The 1.74 mln tonne figure was revised from 1.76 mln tonnes.
    Taiwan imports all its soybeans from the United States.
 REUTER

Shr 5.95p vs 4.41p
    Div 2.25p vs 2.0p
    Pre-tax profit 11.6 mln vs 9.1 mln
    Tax 4.2 mln vs 3.6 mln
    Turnover 256.3 mln vs 185.3 mln
    Note - company said it was unlikely second-half profits
will show same rate of increase as first. But it had great
confidence in prospects for future growth.
 REUTER

Nippon Steel Corp <NSTC.T> and <Inland
Steel Co> of the U.S. Are negotiating to set up a joint steel
venture in Indiana, a Nippon Steel spokesman said, declining to
give more details.
    Several local newspapers reported the joint venture would
be capitalised at 150 mln dlrs, owned 60 pct by Inland and 40
pct by Nippon Steel, and have annual production capacity of one
mln tonnes of steel to supply car makers.
 REUTER

A one billion stg tranche of 8-3/4 pct
Treasury Loan stock due 1997 was exhausted in very early
trading on the U.K. Government bond market only minutes after
becoming available for trading, dealers said.
    The Bank of England said the issue, announced on Monday and
available for official dealings from this morning, was no
longer operating as a tap. The striking price was a partly paid
41 stg pct, at which price bids were allotted 53.8 pct.
    Dealers noted that strong demand had been detected for the
bonds yesterday afternoon and interest was further stimulated
by sterling's surge at the opening this morning.
    The issue was announced on Monday, when it was widely seen
as a move by the authorities to brake market optimism for a
further U.K. Interest rate reduction following the half-point
cut in clearing bank base lending rates to 10.5 pct earlier in
the day.
    Dealers said that the Bank's strategy succeeded in stemming
pressure for a further rate reduction only briefly, as the
market yesterday recovered all the ground it lost on Monday
immediately after the announcement.
    Demand for the issue was lively from U.K. And overseas
sources, with particular interest seen from Japan.
    The bonds were issued at a price of 96-16/32 stg pct,
partly paid as to 40 stg pct on application, although the
Government broker this morning sold them at a premium of one
stg pct over the partly paid issue price.
    The issue has been designated the "B" tranche of the bonds,
since 1.3 billion stg of 8-3/4 pct Treasury Loan stock due 1997
is already in issue.
    Dealers noted that the Bank of England last week issued one
billion stg of nine pct Exchequer bonds due 2002 in an effort
to dampen enthusiasm for an interest rate reduction caused by
sterling's uptrend on foreign exchange markets.
    Last week's issue was sold out on its first day of dealings
but with nothing resembling the determined demand seen this
morning for the new tranche of bonds, dealers said.
    After stifling pressure for a rate cut last week, the
authorities finally sanctioned a base rate reduction on Monday,
following it up with the announcement of the one billion stg
bond issue.
    Sterling was briefly depressed by the rate cut but this
morning opened very strongly again, starting on a
trade-weighted basis at 72.6 against yesterday's final 72.1 and
later edging up to 72.7.
    U.K. Money market rates declined again this morning by up
to 1/8 point, strongly reinforcing yesterday's speculation that
clearing bank base lending rates could drop into single figures
after the budget next Tuesday, money market dealers said.
    U.K. Government bond dealers noted that under the influence
of stronger sterling and the further fall in money market
rates, prices this morning had opened as much as 3/4 point
higher at the longer end of the market.
 REUTER

Sumitomo Corporation is launching 200
mln Swiss francs of convertible notes due September 30, 1992
with a coupon indication of 5/8 pct, lead manager Swiss Bank
Corp said.
    The issue carries a put option after three years at 103
pct.
    Terms will be fixed on March 19 and payment date is March
30.
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The yen's rise against the dollar is
expected to boost Japan's unemployment rate to an average 3.3
pct in the 1987/88 fiscal year beginning April 1 from January's
record three pct, the private Nomura Research Institute said.
    The official 1987/88 estimate is 2.9 pct.
    The research arm of Nomura Securities Co forecast
unemployment would exceed two mln by mid-fiscal 1987, against
an estimated 1.75 mln for the current year.
    Nomura urged the government to take pump-priming measures
to help redress trade imbalances and boost employment.
    Employment in manufacturing during fiscal 1987/88 was
predicted to fall 550,000 from the current year due to higher
job losses in the steel, shipbuilding and heavy electrical
machinery sectors, Nomura said.
    Employment in the non-manufacturing sector will continue to
increase, the institute said, without giving figures.
 REUTER

Cargo handling remains
halted at Bangladesh's Chittagong port since nearly 7,000
workers walked out on Monday following a pay dispute, the Port
Workers Association said today.
    Fourteen ships are stranded at the port.
    Port officials said they would meet Association leaders
today to try to resolve the dispute.
 REUTER

Cons banking gp net profit 496.7 mln schillings vs 354.5
mln
    Cons banking gp balance sheet total at year-end 453.4
    Billion schillings vs 425.4 billion
    Parent bank net profit 370.6 mln vs 253.0 mln
    Parent bank balance sheet total 372.5 billion vs 348.2
    Billion
    Parent bank dividend 12 pct vs 10 pct
    Parent bank div payout 363.0 mln schillings vs 247.5 mln
 REUTER

Norsk Hydro A/S <NHY.O> is issuing 50
mln stg bonds due April 15, 1993 carrying a 9-7/8 pct coupon
and priced at 101-5/8, said Hambros Bank Ltd as lead manager.
    Norsk Hydro is 51 pct owned by the Kingdom of Norway. The
bonds, which are available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
stg will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
    Payment date is April 15. Fees consist of a 1-1/4 pct
selling concession and 5/8 pct combined management and
underwriting.
 REUITER

Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> said that <County
Ltd> had yesterday bought on its behalf 2.06 mln shares, or
around 4.2 pct, in <Hillards Plc> for between 302p and 310p a
share.
    Tesco yesterday launched a 151.4 mln stg bid for the north
of England supermarket chain, which Hillards promptly rejected.
    Hillards shares were last quoted at 324p, compared with
last night's close of 313p.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it
would float a 100 mln dlr 10-year bond with a 7.5 pct coupon in
New York, its first Yankee bond issue in 21 years.
    The bond will be priced at 99.515 to yield 7.585 pct.
    The issue will be immediately swapped into Swiss francs,
putting actual interest rates at around four pct, a Tokyo
government spokeswoman said.
    The lead manager is First Boston Corp and the co-leaders
are Goldman Sachs and Co and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, she
said.
    The funds will be used for sewerage and reclamation work.
 REUTER

<Daewoo Industrial Co Ltd> of South
Korea will sign a 45 mln U.S. Dlr loan tomorrow through its
Hong Kong unit, lead manager Banque Nationale de Paris said.
    The three-year loan, which will carry interest at 1/2
percentage point over London interbank offered rate, will be
borrowed under the name of <Daewoo Industrial Co (H.K.) Ltd>.
    The loan will be used mainly to finance repayment of the
the company's other borrowings.
    The other lead managers are Arab Banking Corp, Bank of
Tokyo Ltd and KEB (Asia) Finance Ltd.
    There are 24 managers and five participants.
 REUTER

Shr 8.1p loss vs 26.3p earnings
    Div 3.25p making 5.25p vs 10.5p
    Net loss 62.1 mln stg vs 71.6 mln profit
    Operating profit before tax 73.6 mln vs 273.8 mln
    Turnover 1.47 billion vs 1.74 billion
    Cost of sales 1.22 billion vs 1.39 billion
    Gross profit 241.8 mln vs 357.6 mln
    Distribution costs and administrative expenses 152.2 mln vs
    123.1 mln
    Share of profits in associates 17.1 mln vs 68.2 mln
    Other operating income 15.8 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Financing charges 48.9 mln vs 45.8 mln
    Tax 63.9 mln vs 169.7 mln
    Exceptional items 4.9 mln debit vs 5.5 mln debit
    Net results of discontinued operations 15.6 mln debit vs
    20.9 mln debit
    Loss on ordinary activities before minority interest 10.8
    Mln vs 77.7 mln profit
    Minority interest 11.3 mln vs 6.1 mln
    Extraordinary debits 40.0 mln vs nil
 REUTER

liquidity shortage of around 300 mln stg in the market today.
    Among the main factors, the Bank said bills maturing in
official hands and the treasury bill take-up would drain 483
mln stg from the system while below target bankers' balances
and a rise in the note circulation would take out 50 mln and
100 mln stg respectively.
    Partially offsetting these, exchequer transactions would
add around 355 mln stg, the Bank added.
 REUTER

The Belgian National Bank bought
foreign currencies against francs on the open market in the
week ended March 9, a Bank spokesman said.
    In line with central bank policy he declined to give any
details of the amount bought.
    The foreign currency purchased was used by the Treasury to
repay foreign debt and did not affect the Bank's foreign
exchange reserves. They slipped 394 mln francs to 37.33
billion, mostly due to sales of dollars for Special Drawing
Rights, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Japanese car makers will curb their
exports to the European Community (EC) following an unofficial
directive from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
(MITI), automobile industry sources said.
    Some sources said exports to the EC this year are likely to
be at most unchanged from last year's 1.10 mln units and may
even fall due to an anticipated slackening of EC economic
growth and increasing trade friction.
    Last week, MITI vice minister for international affairs
Makoto Kuroda said the ministry had asked car makers to
exercise prudence in exporting to Europe.
    Japanese car makers boosted exports to the EC in January to
build up depleted vehicle inventories, industry sources said.
    Japan's vehicle exports to Europe in January rose 38 pct
from a year earlier to 174,133 units.
    In December, exports fell 70.4 pct year-on-year as makers
curbed shipments to meet an earlier directive from MITI to
limit 1986 exports, they said.
 REUTER

Lending by the World Bank and its soft
loan arm, the International Development Agency (IDA), to China
is expected to almost double to about two billion dlrs by
1989/90 from the levels of 1984 to 1986, foreign bankers told
Reuters.
    They said approved lending in 1986/87 (July-June) is
expected to total 1.4 billion dlrs, of which 550 mln will come
from the IDA and 850 mln from the World Bank.
    World Bank figures show approved lending to China by the
two bodies amounted to 1.137 billion in 1985/86, 1.102 billion
in 1984/85 and 1.04 billion in 1983/84.
    The bankers said that 1.2 billion dlrs had been disbursed
by the end of 1986 and China's disbursement record compares
very favourably with that of other countries.
    They said Japan has so far been the main source of
bilateral concessional assistance for China, followed by West
Germany, Canada, Italy, Australia and Britain.
    But China will probably find that such funds will not
increase, except for those from Japan and the World Bank, given
other claims, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries
which cannot raise commercial credits, they added.
 REUTER

Shr 28.5p vs 26.6p.
    Final div 8p, making 13p vs 12p.
    Pre-tax profit 132.4 mln stg vs 132.7 mln.
    Net profit befire minorities  81.0 mln vs 74.4 mln.
    Sales 2.06 billion stg vs 2.20 billion.
    Extraordinary debit 36.5 mln vs 20.4 mln.
    Trading surplus after depreciation 145.7 mln stg vs 158.1
    Mln
    Investment and interest income 5.4 mln vs 3.8 mln
    Interest payable 42.5 mln vs 43.9 mln
    Profits from related companies, less losses, 23.8 mln vs
    14.7 mln
    Tax 51.4 mln vs 58.3 mln
    Profit attributable to outside shareholders' interests 12.6
    Mln vs 11.2 mln
    Note - Extraordinary debit included charge for
restructuring auto parts distribution in France and loss of 10
mln stg on sale of steel stock business.
    Trading surplus comprised -
    Automotive components and products 101 mln stg vs 105 mln
    Industrial services and supplies 30 mln vs 21 mln
    Wholesale and industrial distribution 11 mln vs 22 mln
    Steels and forgings four mln vs 10 mln
    By region, Britain contributed 34 mln stg vs 47 mln
    Continental Europe 77 mln vs 56 mln
    U.S.A. 28 mln vs 51 mln
    Rest of world seven mln vs four mln
 REUTER

Genetech Inc <GENE.O> is issuing a 100
mln dlr convertible bond due March 30, 2002 with an indicated
coupon of five to 5-1/2 pct and an issue price of par, Credit
Suisse First Boston (CSFB) said as lead manager.
    Genentech's stock closed at 58-5/8 on the New York Stock
Exchange last night. CSFB said final terms, to be set around
March 12, anticipate a conversion premium of 20 to 25 pct.
    The securities will be available in bearer or registered
form in denominations of 5,000 dlrs each.
    The deal is callable immediately at 106 for the first three
years, declining by one pct per year each year thereafter.
     However, if the stock price rises to more than 130 pct of
the conversion level, the issue will be callable immediately,
CSFB said. PaineWebber is co-lead manager.
    Fees consist of a 1-1/2 pct selling concession and a one
pct combined management and underwriting fee.
 REUTER

China's foreign debt reached 27 billion
dlrs by the end of 1986, but despite an over-exposure to
short-term credits and yen borrowing, China remains very
creditworthy with an improved 1987 export outlook, foreign
bankers and Chinese officials told Reuters.
    Foreign bankers said China's total debt rose sharply from
an estimated 20 billion dlrs at end-1985 to cover increased
import commitments but the debt/equity ratio remains low,
between eight and 10 pct.
    China remains a cautious and popular borrower, they said.
    Zhang Haoruo, vice minister of Foreign Economic Relations
and Trade, said last Friday that China signed foreign loan
agreements for 6.94 billion dlrs last year, 96.6 pct up on
1985, with actual loans amounting to 4.83 billion, up 93 pct.
    Officials said China would borrow 25 to 30 billion dlrs in
the 1986-90 five year plan period, but foreign bankers said
they estimate foreign loans at 30 to 40 billion.
    A Western banker said China's portfolio contains too much
short-term debt and too much of it is denominated in yen as a
result of aggressive lending by Japanese banks and attractive
low interest rates in the Japanese market.
    The strong yen appreciation has cost China dearly and is
likely to make it reduce new yen borrowings, the banker said.
    A Chinese trade official estimated the yen component of the
country's total debt at about 30 pct.
    The Peking representative of a Japanese securities house
said the rapid yen rise had caught China and his firm unawares.
    "Interest rates in Japan are at a historical low, but China,
which will remain an active borrower this year, is likely to go
elsewhere for capital, to get a better currency spread," he
said.
    The Western banker said the excess of short-term loans is
in part a result of China's inexperience in the foreign capital
markets, which it entered only in the early 1980s.
    "Officials do not think of China but of their own department
or firm. Some loans that were entered into did not have the
full backing of the People's Republic of China," he said.
    "The dilemma for China, in foreign borrowing as in other
areas, is to balance central control with giving reasonable
autonomy to firms. It is searching for the mechanisms to
exercise indirect controls," he said.
    The banker said officials have stressed repeatedly over the
past six weeks that China's foreign borrowing will not be
affected by a drive against "bourgeois liberalism," a phrase
meaning Western political ideas, following the dismissal of
Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang on January 16.
    A U.S. Banker said there is no evidence that China's
foreign exchange reserves have fallen below the officially
stated figure of 10 billion dlrs.
    "The Bank of China is both a buyer and a seller in the
market, which would know quickly if it was buying heavily in
advance of an announcement the reserves were down," he said.
    The banker said such buying has not been going on. "Things
are normal. Trade deficits such as China had last year and in
1985 are normal for a country at its stage of development."
    Customs figures show China had a trade deficit of 11.9
billion dlrs in 1986, down from 14 billion in 1985.
    A Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade official
said this year's outlook for exports, which account for more
than 75 pct of foreign exchange earnings, is much healthier
    The renminbi has matched the U.S. Dollar fall, he said. It
was quoted at 3.72 today, little changed from 3.7 a year ago.
    The official said China has taken measures to improve its
export performance, including incentive offers to exporters and
the establishment of export production bases.
    "We expect higher prices for our oil exports this year," he
added.
    Official estimates put China's 1986 export losses from the
drop in world oil prices at three billion dlrs.
    A Western diplomat said China's foreign debt needs careful
management but its debt service ratio remains very low at six
to eight pct.
    "We base our assessment not on China's foreign exchange
reserves but on its export performance, just as you assess a
company on its performance, not its bank account," he said.
    He said China performed very well in the export field last
year and remains a very creditworthy country which will have
few difficulties in increasing its borrowing.
 REUTER

U.S. Commercial banks are expected to
receive Finance Ministry approval in late April to operate
securities subsidiaries in Japan, U.S. Bank officials said.
    A senior official at one of four prospective banks said the
ministry told his bank it would give approval as long as the
parent firm holds no more than 50 pct of the capital.
    "We expect the ministry to give us permission by the end of
April," he said.
    <J.P. Morgan and Co>, Bankers Trust New York Corp <BT.N>,
Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC.N> and Chemical New York Corp
<FNBF.N> have asked for securities business licenses.
    Ministry officials declined to say when they would give
formal approval, but said they were working on the issue.
    Approval would pave the way for U.S. Commercial banks to
underwrite and trade equities in Japan under their own names.
    Citicorp <CCI.N> and Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB.N> have
already entered the Japanese securities market by acquiring
U.K. Securities houses already operating in Japan. Citicorp
took over <Vickers de Costa Ltd> and Chase bought <Laurie
Milbank and Co>.
    Bankers did not know if all the banks would get licenses,
but said J.P. Morgan probably would as it was first to ask.
 REUTER

Ultramar Plc <UMAR.L> said that while
its fourth 1986 quarter had improved from the operational point
of view, several special charges adversely affected results.
    Overall the year had not been a good one, with upstream
operations dramatically hit by the fall in crude oil prices and
downstream operations also affected in the first half by large
losses on inventories.
    But margins improved in the second half and in particular
refining and marketing in Eastern Canada showed a good
recovery.
    The company was commenting on results that showed a net
loss for the year of 62.1 mln stg after a 71.6 mln profit in
1985.
    The fourth quarter charges included a 20.8 mln stg
provision on a retroactive price agreement recently initialled
by Pertamina and Japanese buyers of the company's liquid
natural gas and 4.7 mln for the early months of its ownership
of Gulf Canada's marketing assets.
    Ultramar said it had also included the estimated cost of a
further reorganisation programme, which was partly offset by a
withdrawal of surplus funds from U.S. Pension schemes, and a
13.5 mln stg provision for the estimated cost of selling its
U.S. Flag shipping operation.
    The immediate outlook for crude oil prices was uncertain
although it was unlikely there would be any sizeable increase
in the near term. However, Ultramar said it was optimistic
prices would strengthen over the longer term.
    Its substantial reserves of crude oil and natural gas put
it in a good position to benefit from any price recovery.
    In the meantime, Ultramar's objectives were to improve
profitability by selling or restructuring weak operations while
strengthening core businesses and developing a sound
operational and financial base.
    Proven, probable and possible reserves at end-1986 totalled
about 700 mln barrels net on an oil-equivalent basis.
    Ultramar shares firmed on the announcement to 187p from
181p at last night's close.
 REUTER

The <Queensland Press Ltd> (QPL) board
said it unanimously recommended the one billion dlr takeover
bid by <Cruden Investments Pty Ltd>, a family company of News
Corp Ltd <NCPA.S> chief executive Rupert Murdoch.
    The 23 dlrs a share cash-only offer is nearly double the
market price before News announced its now-completed bid for
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd <HWTA.S> in early December and
no other offer is likely, it said in a statement.
    Independent adviser, <Wardley Australia Ltd>, had also
concluded the offer was fair and reasonable, it added.
    QPL is already owned 48.3 pct by HWT.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) Commission
declined to give an official reaction to reports that a group
of european operators plan to offer one mln tonnes of sugar
into intervention in protest at Commission export policies.
    However, a spokesman for the Commission confirmed the
offers had been made to intervention agencies in various member
states, and said it would now take up to three weeks for the
agencies concerned to complete all necessary documentation.
    The spokesman said that under current regulations, the EC
would have to accept all the offers if there were no technical
problems.
    The spokesman said the Commission would only have to
reimburse the member state for the cost of buying-in the sugar
after the product was sold out of intervention stores at a
later date.
    He said that at present there was virtually no sugar held
in intervention stores.
    Last year, 45,000 tonnes were sold into intervention and
during the 1984-85 campaign 108,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

A tight money market has pushed
interest rates on three to six month time deposits to between
15 and 18 pct from 13 to 15 pct a month ago, bankers said.
    March is usually a tight month for the money market because
of tax payments and banks' need to attract funds for their
year-end accounts on March 31.
    This year the situation has been made worse by December's
rush to buy dollars by companies and businessmen who feared
imposition of exchange controls. Much of that outflow has yet
to be converted back into rupiah.
    "A lot of small money has come back in, but the big money is
holding out until after April," one U.S. Banker said.
    The tight money policy of Bank Indonesia, the central bank,
is helping to keep rates high.
    Short-term lending rates now average 25 pct a year, with no
prospect they will be lowered soon, the bankers said.
    Central Bank governor Arifin Siregar said earlier this week
that Indonesia could look forward to better economic prospects
in 1987/88, but added the "speculators" who led a run on the
rupiah late last year could again pose problems.
    Indonesia holds general elections on April 23, the first in
five years, and most businessmen expect no new government
economic packages or incentives before then.
    "Some people are nervous about what the government will do
after the election," one banker said. "They normally try to do
things before the IGGI (Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia)
meeting (in June) to prove they are doing something about the
economy to show they deserve a couple of billion dollars."
    The IGGI, which groups 14 industrialised donor countries
and four agencies, gave Indonesia 2.5 billion dlrs in soft
loans and grants last year.
 REUTER

News International <NWSL.L> Plc is
issuing 100 mln dlrs of senior unsubordinated notes due April
10, 1990 carrying a coupon of 7-1/2 pct and priced at par, said
Credit Suisse First Boston as lead manager.
   The notes, which are non-callable, are available in
denomnations of 1,000 and 5,000 dlrs. Payment date is April 10.
   They are guaranteed by News Corp Ltd.
    Fees consist of a 7/8 pct selling concession and 1/2 pct
combined management and underwriting.
 REUTER

The Bank of Nova Scotia, Nassau branch,
is issuing a 50 mln New Zealand dlr eurobond due April 14, 1989
carrying a 18-1/4 pct coupon and priced at 101 pct, lead
manager Morgan Stanley International said.
    The issue, which will take the form of deposit notes, will
be co-lead by Dominion Securities and Wood Gundy Inc.
    The bond is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
dlrs and payment date is April 14.
    Fees comprise 3/4 pct selling concession and 1/2 pct for
 REUTER

<Polly Peck International Plc> said it
has agreed to place 10 mln new ordinary shares at 203p each
with a group of institutional investors.
    Polly Peck said it proposes to use the 20.3 mln stg raised
by the share placing to further the development and expansion
of its European marketing base and to hasten the development of
its agricultural sourcing network in the Southern Hemisphere.
    The company added that this investment will assist the
group's agricultural division in realising its aim of catering
for an increasingly diverse range of worldwide markets on a
round the year basis.
 REUTER

Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corp
Ltd said it expects 1987 earnings will be lower than last
year's previously reported 85 cts a share.
    But profits "will be at a satisfactory level," the company
said in the annual report without giving a specific estimate.
    Highveld said it expects appreciation of the rand will be
offset to some extent by increasing U.S. Dollar prices for its
exports as the year progresses.
    Highveld said measures taken last year by the European
Economic Community and the United States prohibiting all South
African steel products "presents a challenge to management to
place the steel in other areas."
    The company said overall world vanadium consumption in 1987
is expected to be similar to last year although China's role is
still an unknown factor in the total supply-demand situation.
    "World vanadium production capacity is still believed to be
adequate to cater for any foreseeable demand," it added.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia bought 5,000 tonnes of
refined bleached deodorised palm olein at its import tender
yesterday for April 16/25 shipment at 353 dlrs per tonne cost
and freight Jeddah, traders said.
 REUTER

Investors in Industry International BV is
issuing a 500 mln franc bond with warrants guaranteed by
Investors in Industry Plc, lead manager Credit Commercial de
France said. Listing will be in London. The issue has a coupon
of 9-1/8 pct, matures on April 7, 1994 and is priced at 101
pct.
    Fees total 1-7/8 pct, with 1-1/4 for selling and 5/8 for
management and underwriting. There is a call at par from the
end of the third year. Each 10,000-franc bond has one 275 franc
warrant giving the right in the first three years to exchange
the host bond for a similar non-callable 9-1/8 pct 1994 bond,
or in years four-seven to buy a 9-1/8 pct 1994 non-callable
bond.
 REUTER

The Bank of Thailand said it has
floated 500 mln baht of new five-year loan bonds for public
sale.
    The bonds will yield 7.25 pct net after tax with interest
compounded semi-annually.
    The aggregate five-year yield will amount to 42.77 pct of
the principal on maturity.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will
step down only after his plan to overhaul Japan's tax system
gets parliamentary approval, one of his closest aides said
today.
    The aide, who declined to be identified, said at a private
meeting, "Nakasone's power in office does not necessarily
terminate at the end of his term in October. It depends on when
(the) seven tax reform bills get parliamentary approval."
    Nakasone vowed yesterday to press on with his plan despite
Sunday's unexpected Upper House by-election defeat of the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a conservative
stronghold.
    The socialist winner, backed by other opposition parties,
had campaigned against a controversial five pct value added
sales tax, the main plank of the reform plans.
    The aide dismissed the possibility of any amendment of the
sales tax on the grounds the opposition parties were demanding
nothing but retraction of the tax.
    They have been refusing to discuss a draft budget for the
1987 fiscal year starting on April 1, which includes the tax
plans. They have been resorting to an on-off boycott of
parliament since February 4.
   "If I were Nakasone, I would close the current regular
parliamentary session on May 27 as scheduled, attend the Venice
summit of industrial democracies in June and open an
extraordinary session to discuss the tax plans," the aide said.
    Under law, a regular session can be extended only once
while an extraordinary session can be extended twice.The other
option would be to extend the current session, he said.
    "The opposition parties will surely present a no-confidence
motion against the Nakasone Cabinet at one stage or another."
    One scenario then will be to reject the motion opening up
the way for tax reform.
   "Another scenario is the resignation of the Nakasone Cabinet
en masse. A third scenario is a dissolution of the Lower House
for a snap general election," the aide said.
    That is only possible if the 200 opposition members resign
from the 512-seat Lower House, necessitating by-elections.
    The LDP now has 304 seats in the Lower House after its
landslide victory in general elections last July.
    There are five independents and three vacancies.
    "The LDP which will put up candidates will certainly inflate
their seats, but at the expense of fierce media criticism," the
aide said.
    He said he expected the proposed sales tax to have little
effect on local elections to be held on April 12 and 26.
    About 2,600 elections will be held in all but three of the
nation's 47 prefectures including 13 gubernatorial elections.
    "Candidates running in prefectural assemblies will all
oppose the sales tax irrespective of their party tickets.
    "Possible effects, if any, will be on gubernatorial
elections in Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido and
Fukuoka in southern Japan," he said.
    The two posts are now held by opposition socialists.
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Credit Foncier de France is issuing a
150 mln ECU eurobond due April 14, 1994 at 7-5/8 pct and priced
at 101-5/8 pct, lead manager Banque Paribas Capital Markets
said.
    The issue is guaranteed by France and will have a 50 mln
ecu tap exercisable for six months.
    The bond will be available in denominations of 1,000 and
10,000 ECUs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
management and underwtriting combined. Payment date is April
14.
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A spokesman for Preussag
AG <PRSG.F> said it was not yet certain whether the company
would pay a dividend on 1986 results
    He was commenting on a Preussag statement which said
results in 1986 were lower than in 1985. Preussag has
frequently said its results came under further pressure in 1986
following a difficult year in 1985.
    Managing board chairman Guenther Sassmannshausen said in
December the board would prefer to stick to its policy of not
dipping into reserves to pay dividends. The spokesman noted the
final dividend decision rests with the supervisory board.
    The Preussag statement said results fell in 1986 compared
with 1985 because declines in earnings in metals, oil and
shipping were not entirely compensated by positive trends in
the group's other divisions.
    The spokesman said it was not clear whether the domestic
group would show a net profit in 1986, adding this would depend
partly on the level of provisions.
    Preussag cut its 1985 dividend to eight marks from nine
marks on 1984 results after parent company net profit dropped
to 65.0 mln marks from 103.0 mln the year before.
    The Preussag world group made a net loss of 13.1 mln marks
in 1985 after a net profit of 154.5 mln the year before.
Domestic group net profit fell to 77.9 mln from 122.2 mln.
    The statement said its results in 1986 were affected by
unsatisfactory selling prices for metals and oil as well as by
poor use of capacity in the supply ship sector.
    The reduction in natural gas prices in the fourth quarter
of 1986 to reflect earlier falls in oil prices was an
additional factor behind the drop in results.
    Preussag said rationalization measures already introduced
would not begin to take full effect until this year.
    Preussag's domestic group turnover rose to 4.48 billion
marks in 1986 from 4.29 billion in 1985, helped by the first
time consolidation of 951.8 mln marks of turnover from its
majority-owned oil and gas subsidiary C. Deilmann AG.
    Domestic group turnover in the 1986 fourth quarter alone
was 1.1 billion marks, it said without giving comparison
figures.
    Preussag said its domestic crude oil production fell 4.0
pct to 94,400 tonnes in 1986, while foreign oil production rose
to 182,900 tonnes from 174,500 tonnes.
    Preussag said its Amalgamated Metal Corporation Plc (AMC)
subsidiary, whose results are included in the world group
accounts, made an unspecified profit in the fourth quarter of
last year.
    AMC's large losses in 1985, caused principally by the
international tin crisis, were the reason behind the world
group losses that year.
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Dutch car imports rose 27.5 pct in
1986 to 610,500 units in 1986, reflecting a 41.8 pct growth in
Japanese imports, the association for the Dutch vehicle
industry reported.
    Dutch imports of Japanese cars rose 41.8 pct last year to
143,880 units, compared with a 37.4 pct rise in imports from
other EC countries to 437,500 units, the association said,
quoting unpublished Central Bureau of Statistics figures.
    The figure excludes Dutch imports of vehicles for final
destination outside the Netherlands.
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Foreign oil companies will spend less
on exploration in Indonesia this year than last, budgeting 2.7
billion dlrs for calendar 1987 against 1986 spending of 2.8
billion dlrs, the state oil company Pertamina said.
    Actual spending last year fell short of the budgeted figure
of 3.2 billion dlrs, as oil companies slashed expenditure
because of the crash in world oil prices.
    Jumardi Jukardi, head of Pertamina's coordinating board for
foreign contractors, said foreign companies will drill 110
exploration wells and 431 development wells this year, against
108 and 330 last year.
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is issuing a 100 mln stg eurobond due April 15, 2005 paying
9-3/4 pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead manager Warburg
    Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd is co-lead.
    The bond is in partly paid form with 30 pct due on April 15
and the remainder due for payment on July 15.
    It will be available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
    Fees comprise 1-1/2 pct selling concession and 1/2 pct each
for management and underwriting.
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Negotiations between Indonesia's state
oil company Pertamina and foreign oil contractors on extension
of the standard 30-year production sharing contract will be
concluded by the end of this month, a Pertamina official said.
    Jumardi Jukardi, head of Pertamina's foreign contractors
coordinating board, gave no details about the outcome of the
talks.
    But Pertamina President Abdul Rachman Ramly has said
priority will be given to extending contracts for companies
whose exploration and production contracts expire within the
next seven to 10 years.
    Jukardi, speaking to Indonesian reporters, said the
negotiations would determine whether the 85-15 production
sharing split in favour of Pertamina would be adhered to or
altered in some cases as oil companies are asking for.
    Hardjoko Seputro, spokesman for the Mines and Energy
Ministry, has said that President Suharto has agreed in
principle to extension of the standard 30-year production
sharing contract to reflect better current depressed conditions
on the international oil market.
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Salomon Brothers International's CMO
Eurotrust subsidiary is issuing a 228 mln dlr collateralised
mortgage obligation priced at par and yielding 40 basis points
over the three-month London interbank offered rate (Libor),
Salomon said as lead manager.
    However, interest, which is paid quarterly, cannot rise
above 11.50 pct.
    The stated maturity date of the issue is May 1, 2017, but
the deal has an expected life of 3.6 years which will vary with
the rate at which homebuyers prepay their mortgages
    The pool itself consists of Federal National Mortgage
Association (Fannie Mae) securities paying 10.50 pct.
    The issue settles on April 27 with no accrued interest.
    Salomon noted that the issue carries the lowest spread over
Libor of any CMO issued in the euromarkets to date.
    In explaining the pricing, a Salomon official noted that
there has been very heavy demand for high-coupon U.S.Agency
mortgage issues such as Fannie Maes and that the rising price
of the collateral must be passed along to investors.
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Traders here and in Paris said the
results of today's EC white sugar tender are hard to forecast
because of plans by a group of French, West German, Dutch and
Belgian operators to sell one mln tonnes of sugar into
    London traders said bids for licences have been reported
between 43.00 and 44.00 Ecus per 100 kilos and if any licences
are granted they are likely to be towards the lower end of that
range, possibly 43.30/43.50 Ecus.
    Traders in Paris said they expect maximum rebates of
between 43 and 43.50 Ecus.
    Other than the Commission releasing no sugar for export,
the likely tonnage is expected to be very small, the London
traders said, while the French sources declined to estimate
volume in view of the psychological impact of the planned sales
into intervention in protest against EC export policies.
    Last week licences for 60,500 tonnes were awarded at a
maximum rebate of 43.147 Ecus.
 REUTER

South Korea will further open its market
to help cut its trade surplus with the U.S. And to fight off
pressure to revalue the won against the dollar, a government
    The spokesman said Korean trade minister Rha Woong-Bae's
stand in Washington yesterday against pressure from industrial
nations to revalue the won underlined the government's
determination to stand firm.
    Rha told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Demands that Korea
carry out a drastic and sudden currency revaluation of five or
10 pct are, I believe, extremely ill-advised."
    Deputy prime minister Kim Mahn-Je told a meeting of local
businessmen "The government's policy on the question of
revaluing the won is to maintain a steadfast position."
    Kim said South Korea was ready to move slowly to raise the
won's value because of its heavy foreign debt which stood at
44.5 billion dlrs at the end of 1986.
    Six industrialised nations agreed in Paris last month that
newly industrialising countries, such as South Korea and
Taiwan, should allow their currencies to appreciate.
    But local businessmen have said won/dollar parity has
already reached "a crisis level."
    An official of the Korea Traders' Association (KTA) said if
the won strengthened another five pct, this would mean the loss
of profitability for nearly half of all South Korean exporters.
    "We are determined not to go the way of Latin American
debtor nations which have suspended interest payments of their
debts," the spokesman said. "The only way to keep our good record
is to maintain our exports.+
    The trade minister said yesterday should Seoul revalue the
won suddenly Korea would run "a tremendous trade deficit and
could degenerate into a country, like many other developing
countries, which is reneging on its international obligations."
    The spokesman said South Korea had been gradually
appreciating its currency, ruling out a major revaluation. So
far this year, the won has gone up by 0.8 pct against the
dollar after a 3.34 pct revaluation in 1986.
    He said South Korea was selecting "many" of 122 items on
which Washington recently asked Seoul to lower tariffs to help
narrow its trade surplus with the U.S. No further details were
given.
    Seoul announced in January the lifting of bans on 158
items, including sensitive agricultural products and large
cars, effective from July.
    South Korea posted its first ever current account surplus
last year, due largely to a trade surplus with the U.S. Of 7.1
billion dlrs, against a 4.3 billion deficit in 1985. It earlier
forecast that its current account surplus could reach eight
billion dlrs this year.
    But the government official said the surplus would be held
at around five billion dlrs to avoid further pressure by
industrialised nations to push up the value of its currency.
 REUTER

Security Services Plc, a unit of
Securicor Group Plc, is seeking a 50 mln stg multi-option
facility, County NatWest Capital Markets said as arranger.
    The facility will be for seven years and will allow the
borrower to issue multi-currency advances and sterling
acceptances through a tender panel.
    There will be an underwriting margin of up to of 3/16 pct
over the London interbank offered rate. Underwriters will
receive a fee of 15 basis points on the available portion of
the facility and a fee of 10 basis points on the unavailable
portion, which could be for up to half the facility.
    There will be a utilization fee of 1/16 pct when more than
half the facility is in use.
    Securicor Group and other subsidiaries will guarantee the
facility.
 REUTER

Call money eased to 3.75/80 pct from
3.80/85 yesterday following a net injection of 6.7 billion
marks at a rate of 3.80 pct in fresh funds from this week's
securities repurchase agreement, dealers said.
    But rates were expected to rise toward the end of the week.
    A major tax payment period by banks on behalf of customers,
payments for the federal railways loan stock and repayments of
mark liabilities incurred by foreign central banks with the
Bundesbank in the framework of the European Monetary System
(EMS) are likely to significantly burden the system. Banks
built up minimum reserves today, ahead of the expected outflow.
    The Bundesbank credited banks with a gross 15.2 billion
marks, but some 8.5 billion left the system at the same time as
an earlier securities repurchase pact matured.
    Dealers estimated the EMS related outflow as high as six
billion marks.
    The Bundesbank declined to comment, but a spokesman said
yesterday although the funds now due may be allowed to roll
over, the possibility that other central banks may choose to
redeem them meant a net infusion was needed.
    Dealers forecast tax payments of 25 and 30 billion marks,
but much of it is expected to burden the system only next week.
    Banks' minimum reserve holdings at the Bundesbank totalled
53.6 billion marks on Monday, averaging 54.0 billion over the
first nine days of March.
    Dealers said although the figure was well above an expected
requirement of around 51 billion marks, the expected outflow of
funds was so large that banks might find it difficult to meet
the requirement toward the end of March.
    No securities repurchase agreement is expiring next week,
but dealers said the Bundesbank could offer fresh liquidity if
conditions significantly tighten. "The Bundesbank wants to keep
rates around 3.80 pct," one dealer said.
 REUTER

Krupp Stahl AG <KRPB.F>
said it will cut about 2,000 of a total 18,000 jobs by the end
of 1987 and is considering reducing the work force by a further
3,000 in subsequent years.
   The company, which is 70.4 pct owned by Fried Krupp GmbH,
said the job losses were part of immediate and longer-term
restructuring plans. The statement denied published reports
that total job losses would amount to 9,000 employees.
    Krupp has said previously that the work force cuts are
necessary because of weaker conditions on the steel market.
 REUTER

Borrowing on the international capital
markets rose moderately in February with 25.9 billion dlrs of
medium and long term funds raised, up 1.5 billion from January
and up 3.2 billion from February last year, the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, said.
    Borrowing on external bond markets totalled 20.8 billion
dlrs, some 2.8 billion more than in January, the OECD said in
its latest monthly report.
    But the market for floating rate notes (FRNs) saw further
serious difficulties and the volume of new offerings was only
1.4 billion dlrs against a 1986 monthly average of 4.2 billion.
    However, the OECD said, issues of straight bonds and
especially equity-related issues continued at a brisk pace.
    As in January, exchange rate uncertainties had a major
impact on the currency composition of new bond issues, with
issues in dlrs totalling only 6.5 billion against a monthly
average of over 10 billion dlrs in 1986.
    "The share of the U.S. Dollar in total external bond
offerings has fallen below 32 pct this year - the lowest figure
in the present decade," the report said, but added that the
market has absorbed a record volume of yen offerings.
    In the syndicated credit market, the volume of new loans
declined to 3.9 billion dlrs in February from 4.7 billion in
January. Activity on the market for note issuance and other
back-up facilities continued to be particularly subdued with a
total of only 1.2 billion dlrs completed in February, some 500
mln dlrs less than the already depressed figure for January.
    In February, OECD borrowers accounted for some 85 pct of
total borrowing with major borrowers including the U.S. With
4.5 billion dlrs, Japan, 3.1 billion, and France with two
billion, in addition to a one billion dlr refinancing for
electricity board EDF.
 REUTER

Shr 21.2p vs 16.0p
    Div 4.75p making 8.25p vs 5.83p
    Pretax profit 505 mln stg vs 362 mln
    Turnover 4.02 billion vs 3.88 billion
    Tax 128 mln vs 85 mln
    Operating profit 527 mln vs 421 mln
    Other income 30 mln vs 41 mln
    Financial costs 52 mln vs 100 mln
    Minorities 25 mln vs 16 mln
    Earnings 352 mln vs 261 mln
    Extraordinary credit 78 mln vs 34 mln debit.
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A Turkish-West German joint venture,
Turk Henkel A.S., Issued the first commercial paper in Turkey
through private Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S., Bank officials
said.
    "A total of 500 mln lira of commercial paper of Turk Henkel
A.S. Is on sale today," Osman Erk, deputy general-manager of
Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi told Reuters.
    He said the 90-day paper of the chemicals company has an
annualised yield of 46.64 pct. Turkey passed legislation last
year allowing commercial paper.
    Erk said the capital and other requirements for issuing
commercial paper is too high for some Turkish companies to
meet.
    "The state Capital Markets Board has also limited the yield
with 46.64 pct, which is slightly higher than that of the
90-day government paper," Erk said.
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The Bank of China will become a
card-issuing member of <Visa International> this year, Visa's
chief general manager for Asia, Carl Pascarella, said in a
    Visa is designing a card for China, where international
credit cards are accepted but not yet issued.
    He said Visa was developing training programs for the bank
on card issuance and processing procedures. A Chinese group
will visit Visa's San Francisco headquarters next month to
discuss future cooperation, he said.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Indonesia signed an agreement to borrow
up to 150 billion yen in an untied yen loan from Japan's
governmental Export-Import Bank, a bank spokesman said.
    The accord on the loan for Indonesia's 21 development
projects was signed by the visiting Indonesian Finance Minister
Radius Prawiro and Ex-Im President Takashi Tanaka, the
    The loan will be the bank's first untied loan to an Asian
country in co-financing with the World Bank, but it will not be
tied to purchase of Japanese goods or services, he said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Spain has extended the
reserve requirement for banks to their convertible peseta funds
in an attempt to curb speculation in short-term capital which
is currently fuelling money supply growth.
said convertible peseta accounts, funds which are not subject
to exchange controls, would also be subject to a 19 pct reserve
requirement with effect from Friday.
    Convertible peseta funds had been previously exempt from
reserve requirements.
    The measure comes one week after the central bank raised
reserve requirements on domestic deposits by one percentage
point to 19 pct, also with effect on Friday.
    Banking sources say the high real interest rates on offer
now -- around eight pct for overnight funds -- have attracted a
large influx of speculative foreign capital which is
threatening the government's monetary targets.
    They say this influx is largely responsible for Spain's
principal measure of money supply, the broad-based liquid
assets in public hands (ALP), to have grown by an estimated 17
pct annualised rate in February, compared with January's 8.3
pct rise and an 11.4 pct rise during the whole of 1986. The
target for 1987 is eight pct.
    The Bank of Spain today did not provide assistance funds to
banks in a move to drain excess liquidity from the money
market. Liquidity will be further tightened by the fortnightly
Treasury Bill auction tomorrow and Friday's hike in reserve
requirements, expected to absorb over 200 billion pesetas from
    The immediate reaction was a hike in interbank interest
rates today to 13.75/14.00 pct from yesterday's 13.46 pct
average for deposits.
    Bank of Spain officials said this was an understandable
response "given that the market is short of funds."
    But banking sources noted that a continued rise in interest
rates would neutralize the central bank's attempts to curtail
short-term speculation with foreign funds by making the Spanish
money markets more attractive.
 REUTER

Prices rose on the Danish bond
market after Prime Minister Poul Schlueter said the government
was prepared to impose further austerity measures to limit
domestic consumption if the economy did not improve over the
summer.
    A typical 20-year mortgage bond had risen to 81 by noon
from 79-1/4 at the close last night. "It is because of possible
optimism that the government will intervene if necessary," one
dealer told Reuters.
    Schlueter said after a routine cabinet meeting yesterday "If
economic tightening up is necessary, we will do it."
    The government has already imposed three austerity packages
since December 1985, in an attempt to bring down the external
current account deficit, which rose to a preliminary 34.5
billion crowns in 1986 from 29.1 billion the previous year.
    Schlueter made clear that an autumn general election would
not make the government postpone any austerity measures. The
government has to call an election by January 1988.
    He expressed surprise at concern in some financial quarters
over the level of private and public wage settlements last
month, worth a minimum three to four pct a year. These would
lead to higher productivity, Schlueter said.
 REUTER

Gunze Sangyo Inc of Tokyo is issuing 25
mln Swiss francs of five year convertible notes with a 1-1/2
pct coupon, lead manager Swiss Volksbank said.
    The conversion price has been set at 463 yen per share,
compared with today's 450 yen close.
    Payment is due March 30.
 REUTER

Westpac Banking Corp and the
Melbourne University Institute of Applied Economic and Social
Research said their leading index of Australian economic
activity rose for the ninth successive month in December.
    The index rose to 134.1 (base 1980) from 129.8 in November
and 122.8 a year earlier, the Westpac-Institute report said.
    Annualised, it rose 13 pct in December against seven pct in
November and one pct a year earlier, based on the ratio of the
latest index to the average over the previous 12 months.
    The report said the index is now 12 points or 9.8 pct above
its trough in March 1986.
    Westpac's chief economist Bob Graham said the consistent
upward trend in the leading index emphasised the need for a
tough mini-budget in May. "An untoward increase in consumption
spending before the balance of payments improves would have
disastrous consequences," he said.
    The coincident index also rose an annualised three pct in
December against zero movement in November and a seven pct rise
a year earlier, Westpac and the Institute said.
    They said this index continued to show the current
recession is shallow and is more likely to involve a slowing in
real growth than an absolute fall in economic activity.
 REUTER

Japan cannot bear a further rise of the
yen, Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari said.
    "A further stronger yen would be a misfortune for Japan and
the Japanese people would not be able to bear such a burden," he
told reporters.
    The minister said he wants to tell U.S. Political leaders
of the sacrifices Japan is making to cut its trade surplus.
    Kuranari was widely expected to fly to Washington tomorrow
for talks focussing on trade. But departure remains uncertain
because of the continuing parliamentary boycott by opposition
parties protesting plans for a new sales tax.
    If the boycott is lifted tomorrow, Kuranari would probably
have to remain in Japan to attend parliamentary discussions on
the government's 1987/88 budget, Japanese officials said.
    Kuranari said both the U.S. And Japan should approach the
trade imbalance in a calm, unemotional manner.
    But, he added, "If the issue of rice is to be raised...I
would mention the feelings of the Japanese people."
    Japanese politicians have said repeatedly the country
cannot bow to U.S. Pressure to liberalize rice imports because
the issue is too sensitive.
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The Bank of England said it did not
operate in the money market during the morning.
    Initially, the bank forecast a liqudity shortage of some
300 mln stg for the market today.
    Overnight interbank sterling traded at the 11-1/4 1/8 pct
level for most of the morning while period rates have eased on
the strength of sterling, dealers said. At 1200 gmt, sterling's
trade-weighted index was up 0.6 at 72.7.
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The U.S. is urging reluctant
commercial banks to seriously consider accepting a novel
Philippine proposal for paying its interest bill and believes
the innovation is fully consistent with its Third World debt
strategy, a Reagan administration official said.
    The official's comments also suggest that debtors' pleas
for interest rate concessions should be treated much more
seriously by the commercial banks, in cases where developing
nations are carrying out genuine economic reforms.
    In addition, he signaled that the banks might want to
reconsider the idea of a "megabank," where Third World debt would
be pooled, and suggested the administration would support such
a plan, even though it was not formally proposing it. At the
same time, however, the official expressed reservations that
such a scheme would ever get off the ground.
    The Philippine proposal, together with Argentine
suggestions that "exit bonds" be issued to end the troublesome
role of small banks in the debt strategy, would help to
underpin the flagging role of private banks within the plan,
the official said in an interview with Reuters.
    "All of these things would fit within the definition of our
initiative as we have asked it and we think any novel and
unique approach such as those should be considered," said the
official, who asked not to be named.
    In October 1985, Washington outlined a debt crisis strategy
under which commercial banks and multilateral institutions such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
were urged to step up lending to major debtors nations.
    In return, America called on the debtor countries to enact
economic reforms promoting inflation-free economic growth.
    "The multilaterals have been performing well, the debtors
have been performing well," said the official. But he admitted
that the largest Third World debtor, Brazil, was clearly an
exception.
    The official, who played a key role in developing the U.S.
Debt strategy and is an administration economic policymaker,
also said these new ideas would help commercial banks improve
their role in resolving the Third World debt crisis.
    "We called at the very beginning for the bank syndications
to find procedures or processes whereby they could operate more
effectively," the official said.
    Among those ideas, the official said, were suggestions that
commercial banks create a "megabank" which could swap Third World
debt paper for so-called "exit bonds" for banks like regional
American or European institutions.
    Such bonds in theory would rid these banks of the need to
lend money to their former debtors every time a new money
package was assembled, and has been suggested by Argentina in
its current negotiations for a new loan of 2.15 billion dlrs.
    He emphasised that the "megabank" was not an administration
plan but "something some people have suggested."
    Other U.S. Officials said Japanese commercial banks are
examining the creation of a consortium bank to assume Third
World debt. This plan, actively under consideration, would
differ slightly from the one the official described.
    But the official expressed deep misgivings that such a plan
would work in the United States.
    "If the banks thought that that was a suitable way to go,
fine. I don't think they ever will."
    He pointed out that banks would swap their Third World
loans for capital in the megabank and might then be reluctant
to provide new money to debtors through the new institution.
    Meanwhile, the official praised the Philippine plan under
which it would make interest payments on its debt in cash at no
more than 5/8 pct above Libor.
    "The Philippine proposal is very interesting, it's quite
unique and I don't think it's something that should be
categorically rejected out of hand," the official said.
    Banks which found this level unacceptably low would be
offered an alternative of Libor payments in cash and a margin
above that of one pct in the form of Philippine Investment
Notes.
    These tradeable, dollar-denominated notes would have a
six-year life and if banks swapped them for cash before
maturity, the country would guarantee a payment of 7/8 point
over Libor.
    Until now, bankers have criticised these spreads as far too
low. The talks, now in their second week, are aimed at
stretching out repayments of 3.6 billion dlrs of debt and
granting easier terms on 5.8 billion of already rescheduled
debt. The country, which has enjoyed strong political support
in Washington since Corazon Aquino came to power early last
year, owes an overall 27.8 billion dlrs of debt.
    But the official denied the plan amounts to interest rate
capitalisation, a development until now unacceptable to the
banks. "It's no more interest rate capitalisation than if you
have a write down in the spread over Libor from what existed
before," the official said in comments suggesting some ought to
be granted the rate concessions they seek. "Some people argue
that (cutting the spread) is debt forgiveness... What it really
is is narrowing the spread on new money," he added.
    He said the U.S. Debt strategy is sufficiently broad as an
initiative to include plans like the Philippines'.
 Reuter

Interest in the currency futures market
has shifted to the soaring British pound and the potentially
explosive Canadian dollar, and away from the dull Continental
and Japanese currencies, analysts said.
    The June pound, which added 6.3 cents over the past
week-and-a-half to reach a new contract high of 1.5930 to the
dollar on Monday, has spawned a new-found speculative boom.
    "Brokers have to push their clients somewhere...and
technically, the pound is in the best shape," PaineWebber
analyst Jason Gillard said.
    "We've tried to take a bullish approach to the pound, and
we're going to stay with that, there's no reason to change,"
Smith Barney analyst Craig Sloane said.
    Many traders took on long pound/short West German mark
futures positions, although some of those cross-trades were
liquidated yesterday, Sloane said.
     The fundamental keys to the pound's rise have been
relatively high U.K. interest rates and a vague optimism
surrounding the British economy, analysts said.
    "Money seems to be chasing yields," William Byers, of Bear
Stearns, said of the 10-1/2 pct U.K. base lending rate.
    Many analysts are skeptical about further gains in the
pound, on the inference that the Bank of England will seek to
relieve upward pressure on the currency by pushing down
interest rates after the nation's budget is released March 17.
    The budget itself could have an impact, depending on how
well it is received, but analysts say relative interest rates
and oil income remain the main influences on the currency.
    However, the market may be able to absorb lower U.K.
interest rates, as it has done when other countries have cut
their discount rates, and extend the pound's rally, Sloane
said.
    The Canadian dollar has not been rising like the pound, but
Sloane and other analysts cautiously predicted a big move soon.
    The sideways price pattern in the June contract, with
smaller and smaller price ranges, has formed a "bull flag" on
price charts, technically-oriented analysts said.
    "It makes for an explosive type of situation that often
leads to a breakout," in this case to the upside, Sloane said.
    Byers agreed there was potential for the June Canadian
dollar to rally above the 77.00 cent level from the most recent
close at 74.80 cents to the U.S. dollar.
    "At this stage of the game I'd call the market long-term
positive, but for the technical burden of proof you need a
close above (the previous contract high of) 75.25," Byers said.
    As to the traditionally more active currencies, stability
was the catchword and reluctance the watchword among analysts.
    Sloane said it was important that June Swiss francs and
June German marks held above support at 0.6400 and 0.5400,
respectively, closing at 0.6438 and 0.5430.
    Yesterday's rebound showed the market was still very
respectful of the Paris accord, and the threat of central bank
intervention by the G-5 nations plus Canada.
    "We may still probe to see what the parameters are," Byers
said, "but people are very reluctant because they don't know
where the central banks will be (to intervene)."
    Gillard said the mark could drop to a previous price
consolidation area around 0.5250 based on the profoundly
sluggish West German economy, but that he would be a buyer at
that level.
 Reuter

The stg convertible bond issue launched
Monday for Storehouse PLC <STHL.L> was raised to 69 mln stg
from the original 60 mln, co-lead Swiss Bank Corp International
said. County NatWest Capital Markets is the other co-lead
manager.
    The coupon has been fixed at 4-1/4 pct. The conversion
price into Storehouse ordinary shares has been fixed at 346
pence which represents a premium of 9.84 pct over last night's
315 pence closing share price. The put price after five years
is 126.8 to yield 8-3/4 pct.
    Selling period for the bond -- which dealers say has been
seeing good demand -- has been accelerated to noon on Friday.
    The bond was trading today at 104-3/8 104-7/8 against its
par issue price, traders said, adding the equity link ensured
popularity on an oversupplied eurosterling primary market.
    The proceeds of the issue will be used to fund outstanding
short-term borrowings, Storehouse Plc corporate treasurer Lance
Moir told Reuters.
    The issue was also designed to increase the international
profile of the British high street retail conglomerate and was
consequently aimed primarily at continental investors who have
shown a high degree of interest in the issue, he added.
    Demand came mainly from West Germany and Switzerland.
 REUTER

European Community
Commission President Jacques Delors said he met with strong
objections from some EC government heads to his radical plan
for changes to Community financing.
    In a speech to the European Parliament, Delors said some EC
leaders told him on a recent tour they could not easily allow
additional resources for the bloc when they were themselves
pruning their own spending.
    Others called for major spending cut in the EC's
controversial farm policy in order to free money for regional
and social development.
    The Parliament later registered its support for the Delors
plan by voting to approve his continuation in office for a
second two-year term.
    Delors has proposed that payments by member states to the
EC should be based on their gross national product instead of
on the amount of value added tax they receive. He said this
would increase EC resources and provide a fairer system of
sharing the financial burden.
    He told the Parliament that in reply to complaints about
increased payments, he had told some heads of government the
Community needs more money.
    Delors said he agreed with leaders who argued the need to
reform the EC farm policy, which currently accounts for over
two thirds of the 41 billion dlr annual budget."We have to ask
for sacrifices but we have to create a future for those
farmers."
    He added, "I was forced to say to some heads of government -
Do you want to destroy this common market in agriculture when
you are asking for a common market in goods and services?"
    EC leaders have set 1992 as a target for creating a genuine
internal market in industrial products and services.
    Delors said the people had to be convinced that increasing
group resources did not necessarily mean raising their taxes.
 REUTER

NEW WORLD PICTURES TO HAVE GAIN FROM SALE OF FIVE PCT OF TAFT BROADCASTING

Jamaica agreed in principle with its
bank advisory committee on a rescheduling of 181 mln dlrs of
foreign commercial bank debt falling due between 1987 and 1989,
the Jamaican Information Service said.
    Repayments on the debt will be stretched out over 12 years
with 8-1/2 years' grace at 1-1/4 percentage points over the
London Interbank Offered Rate, Libor. The margin on previously
restructured debt also will be cut to 1-1/4 point from 2-1/2.
    The package should save Jamaica about 3.3 mln dlrs a year.
    Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who led the Jamaican
delegation, called the terms very favourable to his country.
    The agreement in principle with the bank advisory committee
led by the Bank of Nova Scotia <BNO.TO> comes five days after
Jamaica successfully concluded a 125.5 mln dlr rescheduling
accord with the Paris Club of creditor nations.
    That pact in turn followed the International Monetary Fund
(IMF)'s approval on March 5 of a 85 mln special drawing rights
standby arrangement and a 40.9 mln sdr drawing under the
compensatory financing facility.
    Of Jamaica's foreign debt of 3.3 billion dlrs only 12 pct
is owed to commercial banks, and Seaga yesterday reaffirmed the
government's policy of not seeking new bank loans.

Lower production of coconut
and palm oils could lead to a decline in vegetable oil stocks
this year despite growing supplies of oilseeds, senior oilseeds
analyst for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Mario Balletto said.
    Balletto told a conference of Canadian farmers at Alberta
Agriculture's annual farm outlook conference that the world
vegetable oil situation is one of potentially tight supplies.
    "Prices for edible oils appear to have more upside
potential reflecting strong world demand and an unprecedented
decline in the production of tree oils," Balletto said.
    Balletto estimated production of palm, coconut and palm
kernel oils this year at 8.5 mln tonnes, down from 9.1 mln
tonnes last year, enough to offset higher oilseed output.
    He estimated total vegetable oil production this year at
33.4 mln tonnes, up from 33.0 mln last year, and disappearance
at 34.0 mln tonnes, up from 32.6 mln.
    Unless oilseed crushing increases sharply, he said,
disappearance of vegetable oils could exceed production by
600,000 tonnes, the largest deficit since 1976.
    "If world protein meal demand stagnates, thus limiting the
crush of soybeans ... the need for serious supply rationing in
the edible oils sector could develop," he said.
    "This would be relatively favorable for the prices of high
oil yielding seeds," Balletto said.
    Oilseeds, on the other hand, remain at depressed prices
because of burdensome supplies, he said.
    World ending stocks of oilseeds are estimated to increase
for the fourth straight year to a record 28.4 mln tonnes,
compared with 25.4 mln last year.
    The increase should result from lower disappearance, as
production is expected to fall to 184.0 mln tonnes from 185.7
mln last year, he said.
    World soybean production in 1987 totalled a record 98.9 mln
tonnes, up from 90.6 mln the previous year, Balletto said,
while production of other oilseeds was lower.
    Higher soybean production in South America and Europe made
up for lower production in the United States, he said.
    Soybeans account for the bulk of the surplus, and U.S.
stocks make up most of those, Balletto said.
    The Commodity Credit Corporation owned 12.7 mln tonnes,
about half of the world soybean surplus, he said.
    Since 1983-84, he said, world oilseed stocks have increased
13.1 mln tonnes.
    "During the same period, U.S. soybean stocks increased 12.1
mln tonnes, becoming the dumping ground of the entire world
surplus, courtesy of the CCC and highlighting the artificially
high prices caused by the U.S. loan program."
    "Soybean prices and, to a great extent, world oilseeds
prices are likely to be dominated by the loan program, as long
as the U.S. soybean surplus continues.
    For the 1987 crop, he said, prices are likely to hover in a
range tied to the U.S. loan program.
    "Upside potential for prices is limited by the huge supply
overhang while strong underlying support is provided by the
U.S. loan rate."
    The problem is likely to become worse as the artificially
high prices encourage producers in South America, Canada and
Australia to shift from grains to oilseeds, Balletto said.
 Reuter

Portugal's trade deficit narrowed in
1986 to 336.5 billion escudos from 354.8 billion in 1985,
according to provisional National Statistics Institute figures.
    Imports totalled 1,412.6 billion escudos and exports
1,076.1 billion compared with 1,326.5 billion and 971.7 billion
in 1985.
    Expressed in terms of dollars, imports rose 21.2 pct and
exports 26.1 pct and the trade deficit increased by 7.8 pct.
    In its first year as a member of the European Community,
Portugal recorded a deficit of 98.1 billion escudos in its
trade with the other Community states compared with a deficit
of 2.4 billion escudos in 1985.
    Imports from the EC in 1986 totalled 830.2 billion escudos,
while exports to the Community were 732.1 billion, compared
with 609.5 billion and 607.1 billion the previous year.
    Portugal's deficit with Spain was 83.2 billion escudos
against 57.7 billion in 1985, with Italy it was 70.4 billion
against 30.3 billion, and with West Germany 40.5 billion
against 19.1 billion.
 REUTER

Brazil's central bank governor
Francisco Gros will meet senior commercial bankers here today
in a new attempt to defuse the anger generated by the country's
unilateral suspension of interest payments on 68 billion dlrs
of foreign commercial bank debt, bankers said.
    Gros will meet representatives of Citibank, the head of
Brazil's bank advisory committee, and of co-heads Morgan
Guaranty Trust Co and Lloyds Bank Plc.
    High on the agenda will be banks' complaints about Brazil's
accompanying freeze on some 15 billion dlrs of short-term trade
and interbank lines, the bankers said.
    Brazil's several hundred creditor banks worldwide agreed
last March to extend the credit lines until March 31, 1987, as
part of a 31 billion dlr financing package.
    Bankers said the looming expiry of this commitment, coupled
with Brazil's freeze, raised a spate of technical and legal
questions that the banks want to discuss with Gros.
    They said they face problems because of the freeze
requirement that any payment due to be made by a Brazilian bank
under the trade facility must be deposited instead with the
central bank. This means foreign bankers cannot easily switch
their credit lines from one borrower to another.
    The requirement to deposit with the central bank has also
meant Brazilian banks have been able to negotiate lower
interest-rate spreads, because foreign banks would rather
accept a reduced margin than see their money deposited with the
    "It's caused a lot of ill-will with the banking community,"
one banker said.
    Gros is also expected to brief the banks on the results of
a 10-day tour of Europe and Japan that he and finance minister
Dilson Funaro have just completed to seek official support for
Brazil's debt stance.
 REUTER

Oper shr profit five cts vs loss 1.71 dlrs
    Oper net profit 196,000 vs loss 2,388,000
    Sales 40.5 mln vs 43.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,212,000 vs 1,482,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 71 cts vs loss 6.24 dlrs
    Oper net profit 1,799,000 vs loss 8,991,000
    Sales 154.5 mln vs 145.0 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes losses from discontinued operations of
712,000 dlrs vs 2,843,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,972,000 dlrs vs
10.6 mln dlrs in year.
    1986 net excludes extraordinary loss 1,167,000 dlrs in
quarter and gain 628,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 year net includes gain one mln dlrs from sale of
building and gain 3,200,000 dlrs from termination of pension
plan.
 Reuter

Axlon Inc said Austin C.
Marshall has been named president and co-chief executive
officer, sharing power in the latter post with founder and
chairman Nolan K. Bushnell.
    The company said Marshall, who had been executive vice
president of New York toy company Playtime, will have
responsibility for the distribution of toys and Bushnell will
concentrate on research and development and licensing.
 Reuter

Oper shr 22 cts vs 22 cts
    Oper net 2,058,000 vs 2,129,000
    Revs 44.5 mln vs 35.7 mln
    Avg shrs 9,589,000 vs 9,348,000
    Year
    Oper shr 94 cts vs 94 cts
    Oper net 8,889,000 vs 8,570,000
    Revs 155.0 mln vs 123.4 mln
    Avg shrs 9,450,000 vs 9,174,000
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations gain 1,637,000
dlrs vs loss 720,000 dlrs in quarter and gain 4,679,000 dlrs vs
loss 720,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net both periods includes charge 865,000 dlrs from
repal of investment tax credits.
 Reuter

China welcomed a U.S. Supreme Court
decision dismissing claims by holders of 41 mln dlrs of
pre-1949 Chinese bonds, but U.S. Officials said Peking has a
long way to go before it can issue bonds in the U.S.
     A Foreign Ministry spokesman told a news briefing that
China welcomed a Monday court ruling, which rejected a petition
by holders of railway bonds issued in 1911 by the ruling Qing
dynasty, which the Communist government does not acknowledge.
     The spokesman said the ruling "indicates the ... Railway
bearer bonds case is finally closed."
    But a U.S. Embassy official said that two other bond cases
were still in litigation and it was not known if the other
courts involved would accept the Supreme Court ruling.
    China has issued much of its recent overseas debt in Japan,
and has been badly hit by the yen's sharp rise. A Western
banker said the U.S. Market has become more attractive to
China, since it is likely to issue bonds denominated in
currencies other than yen, and so protect itself against future
currency fluctuations.
    But a Western diplomat warned that potential U.S. Buyers
would not give China the warm reception it received in Japan.
    "U.S. Investors are not interested in China per se, as many
Japanese are. China has no track record in the U.S. Bond
market. Investors may demand disclosure of information Chinese
institutions are unwilling to give," he said.
    He said potential buyers might scrutinise China's human
rights record. Some institutions are reportedly concerned about
recent events in China, including a drive by the Chinese media
against "bourgeois liberalism."
    An official of state-owned China International Trust and
Investment Corp, which has raised funds in Hong Kong, Tokyo and
Frankfurt, declined comment on the court decision.
 REUTER

New World Pictures Ltd said it sold
456,900 shares or about five pct of Taft Broadcasting Co common
stock for a gain of 17.8 mln dlrs.
    The company said in a brief statement that it acquired the
stock in late 1986.  It gave no further details and company
officials were not immediately available for comment.
    On Friday, Taft vice chairman Dudley S. Taft and
Narragansett Capital Inc <NARR> offered to acquire Taft for 145
dlrs per share.  Dudley Taft and his family have owned 12 pct
    An investment group leds by Robert M. Bass, one of the Bass
brothers of Fort Worth, Texas, has been reported as owning
about 25 pct of Taft stock, and <American Financial Corp>
chairman Carl Lindner has been reported to own about 16 pct. 
Both Bass and Linder have acquired Taft shares in recent months.
 Reuter

Los Angeles Securities Group said
delist its securities effective tomorrow because the NASD
believes that market-making sales of the company's securities
by its Los Angeles Securities brokerage subsidiary are not
being made under an effective registration statement.
    The company said it must demonstrate compliance with the
Securities Act of 1933, which requiresd the registration
statement, to avoid delisting.  It said it believes that the
NASD action is without merit and that an effective registation
stateement is in place.
    Los Angeles Securities said it is asking the NASD to stay
the delisting pending a review of the matter, consultation with
the Securities and Exchange Commission and a potential hearing
on the merits.  It said pending resolution of the matter, it
has ceased making a market in its own securities.
    The NASD has instituted similar actions against other
holding companies for broker/dealers that are quoted on its
NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
announced a major shakeup in the ranks of his key advisers 
after weeks of continuing criticism of his government.
     Mulroney announced the departure of his senior policy
advisor, the resignation of his press secretary and the
reassignment of his communications director.
     Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government, shaken by
a series of cabinet resignations and allegations of corruption,
has been trailing the opposition parties for months in public
opinion polls.
     The prime minister, who led the Conservatives to a
landslide victory in the 1984 general election, had been urged
by party loyalists to make major changes within his office.
     A cabinet shuffle is expected later this month in advance
of more personnel changes within Mulroney's office as the prime
minister seeks to regain public confidence.
     The next election is expected sometime in 1988, although
it could be delayed until mid-1989.
 Reuter

The borrowing limit of the Hong Kong
Exchange Fund, set up to regulate the value of the Hong Kong
dollar, has been raised to 50 billion H.K. Dlrs from 30 billion
by the legislature, an official statement said.
    The limit governs total borrowing by the fund from the
government's general revenue account and various funds as well
as borrowing by the fund arising from money market operations.
    The bulk of the government's fiscal surplus is invested by
the Treasury with the exchange fund against the issue by the
fund of interest-bearing debt certificates, Financial Secretary
Piers Jacobs said.
    "At the close of the business today, the total amount of
debt certificates issued by the Exchange Fund in return for
money transferred from the general revenue account and the
various funds, in other words the total borrowing by the
Exchange Fund from these sources, will be 26.9 billion dlrs,"
Jacobs said.
    He said borrowing arising from money market operations
would amount to an additional 2.9 billion dlrs, making a total
of 29.8 billion dlrs, just short of the borrowing limit of 30
    Jacobs said the government's fiscal reserves are expected
to total 32 billion dlrs by the end of the current fiscal year
ending March 31.
    "The current borrowing limit of 30 billion dlrs will,
therefore, constrain the ability of the Exchange Fund to
continue to take in these fiscal reserves by the issue of
interest-bearing debt certificates," he said.
    "It will also constrain the ability of the exchange fund in
its money market operations," he added.
 REUTER

The Reagan administration is totally
opposed to recent Democratic suggestions that securities
transactions should be taxed to help curb the budget deficit,
an administration official said in an interview.
    "We're totally opposed to a securities transfers tax. It
would impair the efficiency of some of the most efficient
markets in the world," he said. He declined to be named.
    In recent days House Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat,
has called for such a tax to raise the 20 billion dlrs he
estimates is needed to meet legal deficit reduction targets.
    "It would fall primarily in my view not on wealthy
individuals but on middle income people who occasionally invest
and trade. So I think it's a very bad idea," said the official,
who is an administration economic policy-maker.
    The official also rejected a suggestion by Wright that the
administration delay next year's cut in top tax rates, called
for in the recently-passed overhaul of the U.S. Tax system.
    "It is breaking faith with the American people ... It would
be a real breach of faith," he said.
    The Gramm-Rudman Hollings law calls for a balanced budget
by 1991, but its power has been reduced in the Supreme Court.
    Wright and other Democrats say even if they pass President
Reagan's budget proposals for the fiscal year starting this
October, they would miss by some 20 billion dlrs the 108
billion dlr target for the budget deficit set under the
Gramm-Rudman law.
    The administration puts the deficit at 173.2 billion dlrs
in the current fiscal year and claims that spending cuts and
revenue increases will achieve the Gramm-Rudman goal.
    The official, who is knowlegeable on budget strategy, also
said President Reagan was still opposed to a so-called 'budget
summit' with Congress to resolve the deficit issue.
    The suggestion of a 'budget summit' emerged again recently
after Democrats and Republicans alike said Reagan needed a
deficit reduction package and an arms control accord with
Moscow to rebuild his presidency after the Iran arms scandal.
    But the official dismissed the budget summit idea as an
attempt by the Democrats to secure a tax increase. He accused
them of being overly critical before they had written their own
budget proposal, due out on April 1.
    "It's easier to write a book review than it is to write a
book. We've written a book and the Democrats are writing a book
review every day. Let's see their book," he said.
 REUTER

The London Commodity Exchange (LCE) has
put back the date at which it will move to its new premises in
Commodity Quay to end-May from the intended early April launch,
an LCE spokeswoman said.
    The move has been delayed as the installation of
telecommunication facilities is running behind schedule due to
the recent British Telecom strike, she said.
    Trading in the LCE's present markets is expected to end on
May 22 and start in the new premises after the Spring Bank
Holiday on May 26. The introduction of local traders and traded
options is scheduled for early June, the spokeswoman added.
 REUTER

Sight deposits of commercial banks at
the Swiss National Bank fell 2.88 billion Swiss francs in the
first 10 days of March to 7.65 billion, the National Bank said.
    Foreign exchange reserves rose 3.30 billion francs to 33.94
billion.
    Sight deposits are a major indicator of money market
liquidity in Switzerland.
    The National Bank said banks paid back 5.5 billion francs
of central bank credit taken out at the end of February for the
end-month liquidity requirement.
    This drain was offset in part by new currency swaps, which
had the effect of increasing the National Bank's foreign
exchange holdings.
    Bank notes in circulation fell 309.1 mln francs to 24.49
billion, and other deposits on call -- basically government
funds -- rose 1.06 billion to 2.10 billion.
 REUTER

Ecuador needs 120 mln dlrs to repair the
damage to its oil export pipeline caused by last week"s
earthquake, which will stop crude exports for five months,
energy and mines minister Javier Espinosa Teran said.
    Espinosa said yesterday the pipeline, which carries crude
from jungle fields to the Pacific Ocean coast of Balao, would
be repaired with the help of Texaco Inc <TX.N> and a Mexican
and an Argentine firm.
    President Leon Febres Cordero said two days ago that
Ecuador, an OPEC member, would have to suspend crude exports
for four months due to the quake.
    Oil traditionally accounts for up to two-thirds of
Ecuador's total exports and as much as 60 pct of government
revenues.
    Deputy energy minister Fernando Santos Alvite said Ecuador
would have to import six to seven mln barrels of crude oil to
meet its needs until the line was repaired.
    The Ecuadorean minister at the Presidency, Patricio
Quevedo, told reporters that Venezuela will lend Ecuador five
mln barrels of crude, which would repaid in kind after a
180-day period.
    He added the Caracas-based Andean Development Corp had
granted a loan of 11.7 mln dlrs towards repairing the pipeline,
50 km of which had been damaged in the quake.
    In Quito, Foreign Minister Rafael Garcia Velasco yesterday
summoned ambassadors from about 40 countries to whom he issued
appeal for emergency aid for the country. Only three countries,
the U.S., Colombia and Venezuela, had offered assistance.
 REUTER

Oper shr seven cts vs 20 cts
    Oper net 347,855 vs 787,117
    Revs 6,748,868 vs 6,849,499
    Avg shrs 5,391,666 vs 4,277,157
    Year
    Oper shr 56 cts vs 46 cts
    Oper net 2,617,528 vs 2,003,661
    Revs 27.1 mln vs 27.3 mln
    Avg shrs 4,763,793 vs 3,377,157
    NOTE: Net excludes realized gains on investments of 925,576
dlrs vs 577,389 dlrs in quarter and 1,776,341 dlrs vs 797,932
 Reuter

The International Monetary Fund has
warned Israel in a report that a continued rapid rise in wages
could undo the achievements of its economic stabilization
program in controlling hyperinflation.
    An IMF delegation, which visited Israel this week, issued
an interim report praising Israel's success in slashing
inflation from 440 pct in 1985 to 19.7 pct last year without
triggering mass unemployment.
    But it held up Argentina and Brazil as examples of the
perils awaiting countries who did not follow up on
stabilization programs.
    "Continued rapid rise in wages would threaten the progress
in reducing inflation and the present level of employment," the
IMF said.
    The report echoed warnings last week by Bank of Israel
Governor Michael Bruno and the private Bank Hapoalim that
higher wages, government overspending and a consumer boom were
rekindling inflation. "Though wage developments and the
reacceleration of inflation are worrisome, there is still time
to put the stabilization program back on track," it said.
    The warning comes ahead of Israel's key public sector wage
negotiations next month.
    Bank Hapoalim chief economist Petahia Bar-Shavit said real
growth of wages in 1986 was about 10 pct, following a fall of
between 15 and 20 pct in the second half of 1985 when the
government's economic stabilisation programme was introduced.
    Hapoalim forecast last week that inflation would rise to
around 30 pct this year and a second devaluation might be
necessary later in the year, following the 9.75 pct devaluation
against the dollar in January.
    Bar-Shavit also said the government was implementing a
policy of cutting taxes without a clear strategy for balancing
the budget.
    The IMF report said monetary policy was relaxed too fast
last year and it supported the Bank of Israel's raising of
interest rates in the last month.
 REUTER

The Algerian authorities have regulated
the addition of chickpeas and barley used to make imported
coffee go further, the official APS news agency reported.
    Taking advantage of scarcity, private roasters were selling
ground coffee mixtures which were 75 pct non-coffee, it said.
Since the beginning of March, the coffee market has been
strictly regulated by the state food marketing monopoly Enapal.
    Now a third of imported coffee will be sold as pure beans
and two thirds as a ground mixture with a choice of 30 pct
chickpeas or 30 pct barley. In March private dealers will
handle 2,050 tonnes of pure coffee and Enapal 6,050 tonnes of
mixtures.
 Reuter

Foreign Secretary Joe Clark urged
the United States to take firm action on reducing "acid rain" and
on sticking with the strict interpretation of the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty but said he won no promises.
    After a day of meetings with Vice President George Bush,
Secretary of State George Shultz and Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige, Clark told a press conference he was persuaded the
Reagan adminstration had begun to deal seriously with Canada
and its concerns.
    But he admitted he had won no assurances Washington would
go along with his government's position on several key
controversial issues.
    "There's a lot more attention to Canadian files. What
remains to be seen is how much progress will be achieved," he
    The meetings, which end today with talks on Capitol Hill,
are part of a routine U.S.-Canadian consultation but are also
expected to lay groundwork for a summit in Ottawa next month
between President Reagan and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
    Clark discouraged speculation that lack of a firm American
committment on the thorny issue of acid rain could render the
summit a failure.
    Canada is seeking evidence that Reagan is prepared to live
up to a commitment made last year to implement in the United
States a five-year five billion dlr U.S. program to test
cleaner ways of burning coal.
    "We expect the U.S. government to honor its commitment" and
discussed this with Shultz today, Clark said.
    "There's no question the matter is under serious detailed
consideration at the highest levels of the U.S. government," he
said, adding that Shultz "left my meeting today to attend a
(White House) cabinet meeting that was discussing this as well
as other questions."
    "We will wait and see the results of that examination," he
said.
    Clark also said he reiterated Canada's position that the
United States should adhere to a strict interpretation of the
1972 ABM treaty, the only remaining operative arms control
 Reuter

heavy afternoon and evening rainfall caused a threat of
flooding over portions of Texas. There were reports of more
than two inches of rain falling across Terrall and Val Verde
counties during the afternoon, which caused street and highway
flooding.
    A coastal flood watch was also posted along the outer banks
of North Carolina and warnings of gale force winds have been
posted along the central Atlantic Coast.
    Cold temperatures and rain mixed with snow caused the
advisories for livestock which were posted over northwest Texas
through the morning.
    Rain continued over central Texas into the morning hours.
Rain also extended over the Oregon coast, near San Francisco
Bay, California and over northwest Montana.
    Snow was scattered over northwest Texas, as well as from
northeast Montana across North Dakota into western Minnesota.
    There were no reports of measurable snowfall during the six
hours ending at one am est.
 Reuter

U.S. banks and savings and loan
institutions could face important changes as a result of
emergency legislation adopted overwhelmingly by the Senate
Banking Committee.
    The bill approved 12-6 yesterday would rescue the
underfunded federal deposit insurance fund for thrifts and
temporarily halt new developments in the provision of financial
services.
    The bill, which goes to the full Senate, will infuse a
badly needed 7.5 billion dlrs into the Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp., which insures accounts of depositors.
    It also limits banks' ability to sell securities and
restricts a new breed of competitor, the so-called nonbank
banks.
    Committee Chairman William Proxmire, the bill's sponsor,
promised the committee will work on a long-term plan for new
developments in the financial services industry, which is
confronted by growing competition from firms in other
commercial centers, such as London and Tokyo.
    "This bill we are taking up today is the first step in this
effort," the Wisconsin Democrat said.
    But Sen. Jake Garn, the committee's top Republican,
chastised senators for imposing temporary restrictions on
financial providers.
    "It is time to forget the special interests," the Utah
senator said.
    Garn failed to win approval for an amendment that would
have eliminated virtually all of the bill's provisions except
the rescue for FSLIC.
    A major controversy focused on nonbank banks, which offer
limited financial services of a bank and avoid most banking
    Proxmire succeeded in closing a loophole which would permit
new nonbank banks and thrifts until Congress passes
comprehensive bank reform, a move welcomed by the bank
industry.
    But at the same time, the bill set a moratorium on a number
of new activities that banks may undertake, including selling
insurance, securities and real estate for one year after the
bill becomes law.
    The 7.5 billion dlr rescue for FSLIC represented a
compromise between a larger amount sought by the Reagan
administration and a smaller figure proposed by the thrift
industry.
    The U.S. League of Savings Institutions, an industry group,
feared approval of a larger amount for FSLIC would lead to a
surge of closings of thrifts by federal superviors.
    "We hope the Congress will finally settle on a lower number,"
William O'Connell, president of the league, said after the
committee voted.
 Reuter

The oil services industry is on the
verge of a recovery because of rising crude prices, oil
industry analysts said.
    The analysts, who issued buy recommendations on some
stocks, said the recovery in oil services should begin in the
second half of 1987, after drilling activity bottoms out in the
first half, and continue into the next decade.
     "People, however, cannot afford to wait for drilling to go
up to start buying," said Sandi Haber Sweeney, senior research
analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein and Co Inc.
    Among the recommended buys are Schlumberger Ltd <SLB>,
Halliburton Co <HAL>, Dresser Industries <DI>, Baker
International <BKO>, and McDermott International Inc <MDR>,
which may be the target of a takeover by Harold Simmons, a
Dallas-based investor.
    Analysts said although major oil companies are increasing
exploration and development overseas, they expect the pickup in
oil services will begin in the U.S.
    "Activity in the U.S. is so depressed it should move up
faster," said Vishnu Sharp of Goldman Sachs.
    The number of active oil drilling rigs in the U.S. was 766
last week compared with 1,212 rigs one year ago, Huges Tool Co
<HT> figures show.
    The average number of working rigs in the U.S. for 1987 is
projected at 978 versus 964 in 1986, according to Ike Kerridge,
vice president of stockholder relations at Hughes Tool. "The
first significant pickup in drilling activity will occur in the
second half of 1988," Kerridge said.
    Overseas drilling activity is expected to follow a similar
pattern, Kerridge said.
    "Halliburton is the best value," said Jeffrey Freedman,
vice president at Smith Barney, Harris and Upham Inc, adding
the company controls the greatest amount of liquidity of common
stock market value, is diversifed in non-oil field businesess,
and has the lowest multiple of stock price to operating cash
flow including debt.
    Schlumberger is Freedman's second favorite oil service
stock.
    "Schlumberger is expected to continue to be the dominant
technical leader in the industry," Freedman said.
    "Schlumberger's management shift, asset restructuring,
including a pending merger of Fairchild Semiconductor, and its
considerable cash horde sets the stage for the company to
maximize its significant industry advantage and capitalize on
the project upturn in exploration and development activity,"
according to a report by George Gaspar, first vice president at
Robert W. Baird and Co Inc.
    Gaspar estimates earnings per share for Schlumberger at 25
cts for 1987 and one to 1.75 dlrs in 1988 compared with 20 cts
in 1986 excluding a fourth quarter special charge of 1.87
    Bernstein's Sandi Sweeney is recommending a group of oil
service companies and said choosing among them is difficult.
Her favorite is Baker International, which is involved in a
possible merger with Hughes Tool Co.
    Dresser Industries will also benefit from the recovery but
possibly not as much as other companies because it is not a
pure service company, Sweeney said.
    Dresser is expected to improve profitability owing to cost
reductions and streamlined operations, including the sale and
leaseback of its headquarters, said Swarup.
 Reuter

Creditanstalt-Bankverein <CABV.VI> is
likely to raise its 1987 dividend from the 1986 payment of 12
pct of share capital, deputy general-director Guido
Schmidt-Chiari said.
    The 1985 dividend was 10 pct, unchanged from the previous
year and Schmidt-Chiari noted that the parent bank's share
capital had risen to 3.1 billion schillings at the end of 1986
from 2.7 billion a year earlier.
    Schmidt-Chiari made the forecast at a news conference when
the bank announced a 1986 consolidated banking group net profit
of 496.7 mln schillings for 1986, against 354.5 mln in 1985.
    Schmidt-Chiari did not elaborate on his dividend forecast.
    The banking group's consolidated balance sheet total rose
to 453.4 billion schillings at year-end from 425.4 billion.
    General director Hannes Androsch said higher investment
would lead to continuing growth in profits in future. Last
year's better profits had resulted from improvements in
services provided by the bank and also in profits on schilling
lending.
    Schilling lending had grown last year and interest rate
margins had also improved but remained unsatisfactory when
compared with those in other countries, he said.
    Increased provisions for possible bad debts at home and
abroad, particularly in Latin America, had lowered profits,
Androsch said, but declined to give an exact figure.
    Schmidt-Chiari said that foreign lending business had
fallen significantly due to exchange rate fluctuations,
removing some 22 billion schillings from the balance sheet
total.
    In an attempt to generate more foreign business,
representative offices would be opened this year in Tokyo, Hong
Kong, Moscow and Prague. Androsch welcomed government plans to
abolish legal controls on foreigners buying voting shares and
drawing dividends.
    Preference shares of state-controlled Creditanstalt rose
eight schillings on the Vienna Bourse today to 2,008. Brokers
said improved results had been widely expected by investors.
    Androsch said industrial holdings had performed better in
1986 than in previous years, giving a return on investment of
2.6 pct compared with 1.3 pct in 1985. Creditanstalt, Austria's
largest bank, holds majority interests in 10 medium-sized and
large Austrian companies.
    But he forecast its biggest industrial subsidiary, Steyr
-Daimler-Puch AG <SDPV.VI> would return a 1987 result similar
to the expected 1986 operating loss of 700 mln schillings.
 REUTER

CPC International Inc
said it has agreed in principle to sell its Peterson/Puritain
Inc subsidiary to Hi-Port Industries Inc.
    CPC said the sale is not expected to have a significant
impact on its earnings and is subject to approval by boards of
both companies.  Terms were not disclosed.
    Peterson/Purittan is a contract packager of personal care
and household products.
 Reuter

Gynex Inc said distributor
Monsanto Co <MTC> has recalled at Gynex's request two generic
oral contraceptives developed by 50 pct-owned Gynex
Laboratories Inc because some packages may contain out of order
or missing tablets.
    The company said privately-held <Watson Laboratories Inc>,
owner of the other 50 pct of Gynex Laboratories, has
temporarily suspended production of the products, and an
inspection of the packaging operation is currently underway. It
said corrective measures will be implemented to prevent a
recurrence.
    Gynex said because of the recent introduction of the
products, it believes only a limited number of packages have
been dispensed to consumers.  The products are Gynex 1-35E and
Gynex 0.5-35E.
 Reuter

Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari has
cancelled a trip tomorrow to the U.S. Because of continued
confusion in the Japanese Parliament, Foreign Ministry
    The cancellation comes just as the U.S. Congress is to
consider legislation aimed at cutting America's mammoth trade
deficit, much of which is with Japan.
    Kuranari has to attend the budget debates the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been forced to resume,
after the opposition accused it of trying to railroad the bill
through parliament.
 REUTER

Shanghai plans to rely on soft loans
to finance a number of large-scale projects in the city
including an underground railway system, Mayor Jiang Zemin
said.
    Jiang told Reuters general manager Michael Nelson that he
hoped work on the railway system to ease Shanghai's transport
problems would start within two years.
    Other projects in this city of 12 mln people include a
bridge and an extra tunnel under the Huangpu river, a new
airport and passenger ship terminals and China's biggest
railway station, due to open at the end of this year.
    The mayor said foreign companies would be invited to
participate in some projects through international tendering.
    But he added that firms hoping to take part would have to
come up with package deals involving soft loan financing.
    "This is a complex issue. The conditions relating to
tendering will have to be associated with conditions for
receiving soft loans," he said.
    He said the city was willing to use commercial loans to
finance technological improvements to factories which could
show a quick return in increased exports and foreign exchange
earnings.
    "But infrastructure projects take much longer and involve
much bigger investments, and with them, the ideal way is to use
soft loans," he said.
    The mayor added that British, French and Japanese firms had
already contacted the Shanghai authorities with proposals on
the underground railway project.
    Western business sources in Shanghai said the project,
involving the construction of 14 km of tunnelled track, had
been discussed for over 20 years, adding it was expected to
cost at least 750 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

Shr 47 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 4,258,000 vs 5,942,000
    Revs 92.6 mln vs 77.1 mln
    Avg shrs 8,977,000 vs 15.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.22 dlrs vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 16.4 mln vs 20.0 mln
    Revs 329.1 mln vs 272.1 mln
    Avg shrs 13.5 mln vs 15.0 mln
    NOTE: Interest expense 4,384,000 dlrs vs 545,000 dlrs in
quarter and 6,979,000 dlrs vs 2,425,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 year net reflects undisclosed amount of expenses for
defense of takeover effort.
 Reuter

HUGHES TOOL SAYS IT APPROVES REVISED TERMS FOR MERGER WITH BAKER INTERNATIONAL

OPEC has reaffirmed its commitment to
fixed crude oil prices of around 18 dlrs a barrel and an
overall output ceiling of 15.8 mln barrels per day (bpd) to
defend prices, its president Rilwanu Lukman said.
    He told a news conference here "After due consultation with
my colleagues in OPEC, I hereby wish to emphasize that Nigeria
and all member countries of OPEC remain determined to uphold
the December agreement by adhering strictly to their various
quotas and official selling prices."
    Lukman added no extraordinary OPEC conference was planned.
    "We are in a position to re-confirm that, despite misleading
news in foreign media to the contrary, ... OPEC member
countries as a whole produced below their agreed quota in the
month of February," Lukman, who is Nigerian oil minister, said.
    Lukman put the overall OPEC output shortfall in February at
900,000 bpd and said this was as a result of their firm
determination to defend official selling prices of 18 dlrs
agreed upon last December in Geneva.
    The December agreement set an overall output ceiling for
OPEC of 15.8 mln bpd for first half 1987 and restored fixed
prices as from February 1 around a reference point of 18 dlrs.
    Oil prices rallied immediately after the Geneva accord but
fell again last month on reports that OPEC was producing more
than the agreed level.
    "The idea was to suggest that OPEC's agreement would not
hold and this caused some customers to hold back purchases of
OPEC oil and resort to destocking to meet their needs," Lukman
said.
    He said the 900,000 bpd shortfall last February was based
on the verified figure for 10 out of OPEC's 13 members, adding
that Nigeria alone had a shortfall in production of 100,000
bpd.
    Iraq disassociated itself from the December agreement,
while the production figures of Ecuador and the United Arab
Emirates needed to be verified, Lukman said.
    "If that is the price we have to pay to make the agreement
succeed, we are ready ... OPEC is not changing its price level
of 18 dlrs," the group's president said.
    He said the OPEC price differentials committee meeting
formerly postponed to April had been put off indefinitely.
    "Furthermore, no extraordinary meeting of the conference is
at the moment contemplated since most agreements reached in
December are being adhered to," he said.
    Asked if the committee did not need to meet soon to narrow
the gaps in the prices of the various OPEC crudes -- fixed in
relation to the 18 dlr benchmark -- Lukman replied "We consider
the defence of our prices much more crucial than differentials."
    Lukman said OPEC was aware that consumers had heavily drawn
on stocks of both crude oil and refined products to levels well
below this time last year and soon they would return to the
market in search of crude.
    "We don't see that there is going to be any difficulty in
maintaining the 18 dlr price throughout the rest of the year,"
Lukman said.
    The OPEC president praised non-OPEC oil producers, which he
said had contributed to the group's efforts to stabilise
prices, but he criticised Britain for maintaining its long-held
view not to do anything to help the market.
    "We are quite confident, however, that in the long-term with
two-thirds of the world's reserves in OPEC hands, the future is
ours. We will use that advantage responsibly," he said.
    Lukman described the disruption in Ecuador's output
following an earthquake as tragic, but refused to say if the
South American country would be allowed a higher output quota
when it recovered from the disaster.
 REUTER

is presenting its case against 800 planned redundancies in
Rotterdam's general cargo sector to parliament's standing
committee on social affairs today, a union spokesman said.
    With 285 of the 4,000-strong workforce on strike, the union
will tell the committee the government has a duty to help solve
the dispute that has been disrupting the general cargo sector
for more than seven weeks, the spokesman added.
    The union will also take its case against the redundancies,
350 of them planned for this year, to a court in Amsterdam
tomorrow, he added.
 Reuter

<Qintex America Ltd> said it is again
extending its offer of 13 dlrs a share for 3.3 mln Princeville
Development Corp shares until today from yesterday.
    At midnight yesterday, 7,242,117 Princeville shares had
been tendered, up from 5,887,165 shares 24 hours earlier.
    Qintex said it is extending the offer to allow Princeville
to comply with federal law restricting the ownership of U.S.
airlines by non-U.S. citizens and to finalize the terms and
conditions of the letter of credit or bank guarantee required
under the previously announced acquisition agreement.
   
 Reuter

St. Joe Gold Corp said it plans to
proceed with development of its Golden Patricia gold property
in northwestern Ontario.
    It said about five mln dlrs will be spent to continue
underground development and obtain operating permits and
another 10.2 mln dlrs is expected to be required to complete
underground development, construct a mill and provide the
infrastructure needed to put the mine into commercial
    St. Joe Gold said if the necessary operating permits were
granted in time, it would start gold production in the second
half of the year ending October 31, 1988 at an annual rate of
about 40,000 troy ounces.
    The company said the property is estimated to contain over
500,000 troy ounces of gold, and the initial mining project
covers only seven of 192 claims, with drill-indicated reserves
of 293,000 short tons grading 0.88 troy ounce of gold per ton.
    It said initial mine output is expected to be about 150
tons of ore daily.
    St. Joe Gold said the Golden Patricia vein has not been
tested at depth or along strike to the east and west and
exploration is continuing on the Golden Patricia property and
the adjacent wholly-owned Muskeg Lake property.
    The company also said its Richmond Hill gold and silver
deposit in the Carbonate district of western South Dakota has
been shown by drilling to contain about 3,900,000 tons grading
0.055 troy ounce of gold and 0.23 troy ounce of silver per ton.
 It said preliminary results are encouraging and a feasibility
study is nearing completion.
 Reuter

Novell Inc said its board
declared a two-for-one stock split, payable to holders of
record at the close of business on MArch 31.
    It said shareholders at the annual meeting approved a
doubling of authorized common shares to 30 mln from 15 mln and
a limitation of directors' liability.
 Reuter

Thousands of people evacuated from
two towns in flood-hit southern New Zealand began returning to
their homes late today as the waters began to recede.
    A state of emergency had been declared in Southland
province apart from the city of Invercargill and its port,
Bluff, as rivers rose over four meters above normal after
torrential rain.
    Local officials in the farming province said stock losses
were "miraculously low" but they expect major crop destruction.
    Roads and rail links were cut and Invercargill airport was
closed. Part of neighbouring Otago province also had a state of
emergency with some rivers well above normal.
 Reuter

Johnson and Johnson said the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has notified the company its food
additive petition for a high-intensity sweetener has been
formally accepted and now will be reviewed by the agency.
    The company said the product, with the generic name of
sucralose, is made from sugar and tastes like sugar, but is
about 600 times sweeter.
    It yields no calories and does not promote tooth decay.
 Reuter

Heart Federal Savings and Loan
Association said its board declared a two-for-one stock split,
payable April 30 to holders of record April 15.
    The company said the split is subject to shareholder
approval at the April 15 annual meeting of an increase in
authorized common shares to 10 mln from five mln.
 Reuter

Pre-tax income 788 mln Danish crowns vs 872 mln
    Sales 4.21 billion crowns vs 4.11 billion
    Income after tax 521 mln crowns vs 604 mln
    Earnings per 20-crown share 20.45 crowns vs 23.79
    Dividend 20 pct (unchanged).
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

The European Court in Luxembourg has
ruled a so-called "Christmas butter" scheme, under which surplus
stocks were sold off cheaply, did not infringe European
Community (EC) rules, a Commission spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the Court rejected a case brought by
three European margarine manufacturers which argued the EC
Executive Commission did not have the power to launch the
scheme in October 1984 without approval from EC ministers.
    The plan was aimed at offloading 200,000 tonnes of butter
from a one mln tonne stockpile at a specially reduced price of
1.6 European currency units per kilogram.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 556,036 vs 403,945
    Sales 15.6 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Avg shrs 3,132,555 vs 2,934,285
    Year
    Shr 60 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 1,805,229 vs 1,400,247
    Sales 60.1 mln vs 52.3 mln
    Avg shrs 3,012,917 vs 2,940,219
    NOTE: 1985 share data adjusted to reflect three for two
stock split effective June 30, 1986
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Bank of England said it gave the
money market assistance worth 106 mln stg this afternoon,
buying bank bills at the rates established on Monday.
    The Bank bought 11 mln stg of band one bills at 10-3/8 pct
and 95 mln stg of band two paper at 10-5/16 pct. This is the
first time that it has intervened today.
    The Bank has revised its estimate of the liquidity shortage
in the market down to 250 mln stg from 300 mln initially.
 REUTER

Shr 45 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 18.0 mln vs 19.9 mln
    Sales 116.1 mln vs 108.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.01 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 39.8 mln vs 41.1 mln
    Sales 304.5 mln vs 278.1 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two split in June 1986.
 Reuter

GOODYEAR TIRE TO RECEIVE 588 MLN DLRS FOR GOODYEAR AEROSPACE FROM LORAL CORP

Hughes Tool Co said its board voted at
a special meeting last night to approve a new agreement with
regulators that would allow the company to complete its
proposed merger with Baker International Corp <BKO>.
    The agreement, approved by the U.S. Department of Justice
yesterday, will give the merged company, Baker Hughes, six
months instead of three to sell certain assets.
    The pact also allows a three-month extension, if warranted,
and limits the obligation of the new company to give financial
support to the businesses to be divested, pending their sale.
    The company said its board recommended that shareholders
approve the merger of the oilfield service companies. A
previously adjourned meeting of Hughes Tool stockholders will
be resumed this afternoon, it said.
    "Hughes will work with Baker and the Justice Department
towards negotiating the final form of the consent decree and
filing it as soon as possible," the company said in a
statement. Closing of the merger would occur immediately after
the filing, it said.
    The assets to be sold under the consent decree consist of
Baker's domestic oilfield drilling bit business and its
domestic submersible electric pump business. Baker has an
agreement to sell the pump business to Trico Industries Inc
<TRO>.
    The financial terms of the merger are unchanged, a Hughes
spokesman said. Under those terms, each Baker common share and
Hughes common share would be converted into one share and 8/10
of a share, respectively, of Baker Hughes Inc, which would be
formed as a new holding company.
 Reuter

Lorimar Telepictures Corp
said it accepted resignations of three executives at
Karl-Lorimar Home Video, its wholly owned subsidiary.
    The company said Stuart Karl, president and chief executive
officer; Court Shannon, executive vice president, and Gary
Hunt, vice president sales, resigned effective immediately.
    Lorimar said it had been reviewing possible conflicts of
interest involving the departing executives with an unnamed
outside service organization. Lorimar declined to explain the
nature of the conflict or the amount involved.
   
    The company said a settlement has been reached between the
parties and and Karl Lorimar, which includes a settlement of
the employment contract between Lorimar and Stuart Karl. No
employment contracts exists with the other executives, the
    The company said Jerry Gottlieb, senior vice president,
Lorimar-Telepictures, will serve as acting chief executive
officer of Karl Lorimar video. Gottlieb joined Lorimar as
senior vice president in 1985.

 Reuter

    Johnson and Johnson said the sweetner is being jointly
developed with Tate and Lyle PLC <TATL>.
    Tate and Lyle is seeking approval in Canada, the United
Kingdom and other European countries, Johnson and Johnson said.
The company noted its petition covering the product and its
safety evaluation were submitted to the FDA last month.
    While awaiting FDA approval, the company said, it is
proceeding with plans for commercialization through its McNeil
Specialty Products Co subsidiary.
    Johnson and Johnson said it is operating under a licensing
agreement with Tate and Lyle, whose collaborative research with
scientists at Queen Elizabeth College in London led to the
discovery of Sucralose in 1976.
    Patents and licensing agreements control the use of
sucralose through the year 2001, Johnson and Johnson said.
    Sucralose is a chlorinated derivative of ordinary sugar.
The carbon-chloride bonds in sucralose are stable and are not
broken during digestion or metabolism.
    Sucralose is essentially not metabollized by the body. The
chlorine content enhances sweetness without providing calories.
 Reuter

Senators and a special prosecutor
were in dispute today over a legal maneuver to force quick
answers from key figures in the Iran arms scandal and the
diversion of profits to Nicaraguan rebels.
    Senators on a special Senate committee investigating the
scandal want to grant limited immunity from prosecution to
force early testimony from Lt. Col. Oliver North and John
Poindexter.
    North is the National Security Council (NSC) aide President
Reagan fired November 25 for possibly illegal diversion of Iran
arms payments to the so-called contra rebels. Poindexter, who
was NSC director and North's boss, resigned the same day. 
    The Washington Post said over the weekend that Poindexter
was ready to testify that he told Reagan twice of the funds
diversion, contrary to Reagan's denial that he knew of it.
    Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh said he asked a special
House committee yesterday to delay limited immunity for North
and Poindexter for at least 90 days, and would make the same
request to the Senate committee today.
    Walsh said he was also urging the committees to delay
granting immunity for a third key figure, retired Air Force
Maj. Gen. Richard Secord, a close North associate.
    Walsh, whose job is to determine whether anyone should be
prosecuted for criminal misconduct, said premature immunity
could put the three beyond the law before a grand jury can
decide whether they should be prosecuted.
 Reuter

HANSON TRUST PLC UNIT TO SELL KAISER CEMENT TERMINAL AND PLANT FOR 50 MLN DLRS

Triton Energy Corp said its 70 pct owned
<Canadian Worldwide Energy Ltd> affiliate's Lasmo et al
Tableland 4-36-2-10W2 well in Saskatchewan flowed 567 barrels
of 37 degree gravity oil through a 17/64 inch choke from depths
of 8,531 to 8,548 feet and 636 barrels of oil per day through a
20/64 inch choke from depths of 8,500 to 8,507 feet.
    Triton said because of the well's status as a deep
exploratory well, production qualifies for a five-year royalty
holiday under the Saskatchewan drilling incentive products.
    It said the well's initial production is expected to be
restricted to an allowable level of about 300 barrels a day,
although it is capable of sustaining much higher rates.
    The company said London and Scottish Marine Oil PLC owns a
50 pct interest in the well and its spacing unit, Canadian
Worldwide 25 pct, <Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Corp> 10 pct,
<Interprovincial Pipeline Ltd's> Home Oil Co Ltd 7.5 pct and
Scurry-Rainbow Oil Ltd <SRB> 7.5 pct.
    Triton said Royal Dutch/Shell Group's <RD> <SC> Shell
Canada Ltd <SHC> affiliate retains a convertible overriding
interest in the well.
 Reuter

National Bank of Hungary first
vice-president Janos Fekete said he hoped a planned eight pct
devaluation of the forint will spur exports and redress last
year's severe trade deficit with the West.
    Fekete told Reuters in an interview Hungary must achieve at
least equilibrium on its hard currency trade.
    "It is useful to have a devaluation," he said. "There is now a
real push to our exports and a bit of a curb to our imports."
    The official news agency MTI said today Hungary would
devalue by eight pct and it expected the new rates to be
announced later today. Fekete said the rates would come into
effect tomorrow.
    He said one reason for the devaluation was that Hungary had
a higher rate of inflation over the past two years than its
main partners (around eight pct in 1985 and between five and
5.5 pct in 1986).
    This was partly an after-effect of action Hungary took to
prevent inflation from soaring during the oil price shocks of
the 1970s, he added.
    Hungary devalued by a similar amount last September and by
between three and four pct early last year.
    But the country's hard currency trade balance nevertheless
fell into a deficit of 539.4 mln dlrs from a surplus of 295.3
mln in 1986 and 1.2 billion in 1985.
    Fekete said Hungary was hoping for a hard currency trade
surplus of between 200 and 300 mln dlrs this year, but that a
more likely outcome would be closer to equilibrium on total
hard currency trade of around 10 billion dlrs.
    One Western commercial attache here said: "Devaluation of
itself will not change anything. It will only be useful if they
also make efforts to restructure industry and improve the
quality of their export goods."
    Fekete said he hoped to raise credits on good terms this
year to invest in restructuring industry.
    It would be his role to persuade international banks to
cooperate in this process. He noted Hungary had been given an
AA rating enabling it to raise money on the Japanese Samurai
bond market.
    Hungary's net hard currency debt soared to 7.79 billion
dlrs last year from 5.01 billion in 1985, partly because of a
current account deficit of 1.42 billion dlrs and partly because
the fall in the dollar increased the dollar value of debt
denominated in marks or yen.
    He said he feared net debt would also rise slightly this
year, but he was in favour of borrowing for the purpose of
modernisation.
    "I am for credits to invest for that purpose," he said. "I am
against credits for consumption." He forecast gross domestic
product growth of two pct this year, from one pct in 1986.
   Fekete said Hungary would continue to restructure its debt
profile by prepaying high interest shorter and medium term
loans with cheaper long term money for which it was looking
more and more to the fixed interest rate bond market, where he
considered rates to be low.
    Hard currency foreign exchange reserves would stay at
around 3.5 billion dlrs, he said. On the budget deficit, which
tripled to a provisional 47 billion forints last year after
quadrupling in 1985, Fekete said the finance ministry was
working out measures to reduce an approved target deficit for
this year of 43.8 billion forints to between 30 and 35 billion
forints.
 REUTER

Ecuador's deputy energy minister
Fernando Santos Alvite arrived here last night for talks on
further Venezuelan assistance to his country's oil industry
following last week's earthquake, officials said.
    Ecuador was obliged to suspend crude oil exports for an
expected five months as a result of damage to 25 miles of
pipeline linking its jungle oil fields with the Pacific port of
Balao. Oil normally accounts for 60 pct of its exports.
    Fellow OPEC member Venezuela has already agreed to lend
Ecuador five mln barrels of crude, to be repaid in kind after
180 days, to help meet its domestic consumption needs.
    The officials could neither confirm nor deny reports that
Venezuela will temporarily produce Ecuador's entire OPEC quota,
set at 210,000 barrels per day for first half 1987.
    "All options are open at this moment in the context of
cooperation on oil production," a Venezuelan energy and mines
ministry source said.
    Discussions are also under way to arrive at a formula to
compensate Ecuador for the loss in oil export revenue while the
pipeline is repaired, officials said.
    Santos Alvite last night met Venezuelan energy and mines
minister Arturo Hernandez Grisanti and will today hold talks at
technical level, officials said.
    Industry sources said that among the options are for
Venezuela to produce Ecuador's entire quota, or for Venezuela
and non-OPEC Mexico to share it and for the latter to supply
Ecuador's Far Eastern clients.
    But the ministry source said that no decision has yet been
reached on the matter, and that an announcement would be made
in due course.
    Santos Alvite said earlier in Quito that Ecuador would have
to import six to seven mln barrels of crude oil to meet its
needs until the line was repaired.
    Ecuador energy and mines minister Javier Espinosa Teran
said last night his country needs 120 mln dlrs to repair the
damage to the export pipeline caused by the earthquake.
 REUTER

today's hog slaughter at about 295,000 to 308,000 head versus
305,000 week ago and 308,000 a year ago.
132,000 head versus 130,000 week ago and 126,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co said it
will receive about 588 mln dlrs in cash from Loral Corp <LOR>
for the business of Goodyear Aerospace Corp.
    Goodyear said the previously announced acquisition by Loral
is expected to be completed March 13. When Loral announced the
transaction January 12, the company said it was paying 640 mln
dlrs for Goodyear Aerospace.
    Goodyear said the price it will receive is after
adjustments for such items as pension and benefits provision,
allocation of liabilities and asset valuations. Last year
Goodyear Aerospace had revenues of 695 mln dlrs.               
 Reuter

Raab Karcher AG, a trading
subsidiary of VEBA AG <VEBG.F>, said it increased operating
profit in 1986 despite a sharp decline in turnover, and added
there were good chances this profit level could be held in
1987.
    Operating profit rose to just under 120 mln marks in 1986,
from around 100 mln in 1985.
    However, the group's third party sales fell sharply to 7.2
billion marks from 9.4 billion the year before, largely due to
lower prices for energy products, particularly oil and coal,
managing board chairman Klaus Giesel told a news conference.
 Reuter

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc said
its board of directors has declared a two-for-one split of its
outstanding common stock.
    The company said shareholders will receive one additional
share for each share held at the close of business on March 23,
1987 and additional shares will be distributed on April 13,
1987.
 Reuter

British Aerospace Plc <BAEL.L> said it
has increased its stake in <Systems Designers Plc> to 22.1 pct
or 25.46 mln ordinary shares following the purchase of 10.45
mln ordinary shares.
    The British Aerospace Pension Fund holds 2.15 mln ordinary
shares in Systems, representing a stake of 1.9 pct.
    A spokesman for British Aerospace said it has no present or
future intention of making a full bid for Systems Designers.
System Designers shares were nine pence higher at 100 prior to
the share stake announcement, and have showed little movement
since.
 Reuter

CIGNA Corp said it has fixed April
24 as the date for the previously-announced redemption of its
99.8 mln dlrs of outstanding eight pct subordinated
exchangeable debentures due December 1, 2007 at 105.867 pct of
par plus accrued interest.
    The debentures are exchangeable through the redemption date
into 29.205 common shares of PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> for
each 1,000 dlrs principal amount.
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 14 cts prior
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 32 cts vs loss 66 cts
    Oper net profit 2,454,000 vs loss 3,558,000
    Sales 96.1 mln vs 91.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 72 cts vs loss 63 cts
    Oper net profit 6,495,000 vs loss 1,833,000
    Sales 368.1 mln vs 322.1 mln
    NOTE: Earnings exclude losses from discontinued
consolidated operations of 460,000 dlrs, or eight cts a share
vs 5,364,000 dlrs, or 86 cts a share in the quarter and
11,334,000 dlrs, or 1.82 dlrs a share vs 11,637,000 dlrs, or
1.88 dlrs a share for the year
    Earnings exclude a loss on the sale of discontinued
consolidated operations of 200,000 dlrs, or three cts a share
in the 1986 quarter and a loss of 4,960,000 dlrs, or 80 cts a
share vs a gain of 4,404,000 dlrs, or 71 cts a share for the
year
    NOTE: 1985 earnings exclude losses from discontinued
unconsolidated operations of 5,488,000 dlrs, or 89 cts a share
in each period
    1985 earnings exclude gain from termination of defined
benefit pension plan of 490,000 dlrs, or eight cts a share in
the quarter and 1,438,000 dlrs, or 23 cts a share for the year
 Reuter

PMI Fund Inc said its board declared
monthly dividends of six cts for April, four cts for May, five
cts for June, seven cts for July and six cts for August.
    The fund, which customarily omits dividends in March and
September, last paid six cts in February.  Dividends declared
today are payable April Three, May Six, June Four, July Three
and August Six to holders of record March 23, April 17, May 15,
June 12 and July 17.
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Shr 51 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 3,254,000 vs 2,423,000
    Sales 65.9 mln vs 51.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.18 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Net 7,485,000 vs 7,285,000
    Sales 207.5 mln vs 164.1 mln
 Reuter

TENERA LP said it will make an
initial quarterly distribution of 17 cts per unit on April 15
to holders of record March 31.
    The partnership said the dividend is greater than it had
expectd to pay and was warranted by fourth quarter results and
anticipated results for this year's first quarter.
    TENERA said it expects a comparable distribution for the
second quarter.  It said about 13 cts per share of the first
quarter amount will be taxable income.
 Reuter

Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (London
branch) is issuing a 120 mln dlr, five-year straight bond with
equity warrants, lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd
said.
    The issue, which matures April 3, 1992, has an indicated
coupon of 5-1/2 to six pct and par pricing. Fees total 2-1/4
pct and listing will be in Luxembourg. Payment date is April 2.
    The bonds will be sold in denominations of 1,000 dlrs with
one warrant attached, which will be exercisable between April
15, 1987 and April 3, 1992.
    Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase 45 savings
shares of EFI Banca at a premium of about 10 pct above the
closing price on the Milan Stock Exchange on or before March
17.
    EFI is a medium-term credit institution, about 36-1/2 pct
owned by Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.
 REUTER

Hanson Industries, the U.S. arm of
Hanson Trust PLC <HAN>, said it has proposed to sell, in
separate transactions, Kaiser Cement's Northwest Terminals and
Montana City plant, to Lone Star Industries Inc <LCE> and <Ash
Grove Cement West Inc>, respectively for a total of 50.2
mln dlrs.
    Hanson said the deals are subject to normal conditions of
closing.
    Hanson Industries completed the purchase of Kaiser Cement
on March 3, for about 250 mln dlrs.
    Hanson said Kaiser Cement is now an indirect wholly owned
unit of Hanson Trust and forms part of its building products
group.
    "These sales are a continuation of an asset redeployment
program at Kaiser Cement and will allow Kaiser to concentrate
its efforts in the California marketplace, where it is the
largest cement producer and holds a premiere market position,"
Hanson Industries chairman Gordon White said.
   
 Reuter

The federal government said Calmos
Systems Inc will be given 3,075,000 Canadian dlrs to join the
European consortium Eureka in a research project involving
integrated circuit boards.
    The Kanata, Ontario based microchip manufacturer was the
first company to qualify under Ottawa's 20 mln dlr fund called
the Technology Opportunitie in Europe Program. Other grants
will be announced shortly, the government said.
    In a statement, Calmos said it and its European partner,
European Silicon Structures, expects to use the research to
improve the design of silicon chips.
 Reuter

 Reuter

U.S. 4TH QTR BALANCE OF PAYMENTS TRADE DEFICIT WAS RECORD 38.37 BILLION DLRS

NY TRADERS SAY E.C. SOLD 71,000 TONNES  OF WHITE SUGAR AT TENDER.

money market with unspecified late assistance of around 240 mln
stg.
    This brings its total assistance on the day to 346 mln stg
compared with a liquidity shortfall it estimated at a revised
250 mln stg.
    Overnight interbank sterling was being offered at eight pct
shortly after the Bank's announcement.
 REUTER

Finland's mining and metals group
Outokumpu Oy <OUTO.HE>, which last week reported a 1986 loss of
83 mln markka after three successive years of profits, said it
restructured its key copper processing division in an attempt
to rationalize production and improve profitability.
    Outokumpu's Managing Director Pertti Voutilainen told a
news conference the reorganization involved a split of the
division into a new independent division with six profit
centres.
    Outokumpu group had a 1986 loss before appropriations and
taxes of 83 mln markka after a profit of 355 mln in 1985. It
had profits in 1984 and 1983 but a loss, 171.2 mln, in 1982.
    Outokumpu acquired two Swedish copper manufacturers in
January 1986, <Metallverken Ab> and <Wirsbo Bruks Ab>, that
were merged into its copper processing division.
    The division had a turnover of 3.2 billion markka last
year, 42 pct of Outokumpu's group turnover of 7.58 billion.
    The new Outokumpu division, called Copper Products
Industry, is to incorporate Outokumpu's copper production
plants, including its two U.S. Subsidiaries <Nippert Co> and
<Valleycast Inc>, as well as Metallverken and part of Wirsbo.
    Outokumpu is planning to make Wirsbo an independent
division in the Outokumpu group and transfer only Wirsbo's
copper tube production into one of the new division's profit
centres. A definite decision on Wirsbo will be taken later this
year.
    The new division will have production plants in Finland,
Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the U.S.
 REUTER

Chile will open talks next month with
international lending agencies on the renegotiation of 150 mln
dlrs of official debts due for repayment in 1987 and 1988, the
influential Mercurio newspaper reported.
    The newspaper, quoting official sources, said the terms
sought will be similar to those agreed with the country's
commercial banks last month.
    Chile reached agreement with bank creditors on the
rescheduling of some 10.6 billion dlrs of debt, maturing
between 1988 and 1991, over 15-1/2 years, with six years'
grace. Interest was set at one pct over Libor.
 REUTER

The U.S. merchandise trade deficit
on a balance of payments basis was a record 38.37 billion dlrs
in the October to December fourth quarter, the Commerce
    The record trade shortfall came after a revised 37.15
billion dlr third quarter deficit. The department previously
reported the third quarter deficit was 37.67 billion dlrs.
    For the full year 1986, the merchandise trade deficit was a
record 147.7 billion dlrs, up from 124.4 billion dlrs in 1985,
the department said.
    During the final quarter last year imports rose 2.78
billion dlrs or three pct to 95.7 billion dlrs, while exports
rose 1.56 billion dlrs or three pct to 57.33 billion dlrs.
    The trade report on a balance of payments basis excludes
such factors as military sales and the costs of shipping and
insurance.
    The Commerce Department said non-petroleum imports in the
quarter were up 2.7 billion dlrs or three pct to 87.7 billion
dlrs, with the largest increases in consumer goods, which rose
1.2 billion dlrs, and in non-monetary gold and passenger cars
from Canada, up 900 mln dlrs each.
    Lumber imports from Canada fell 300 mln dlrs or 33 pct
because of a 15 pct duty on imports from Canada, the department
said. Passenger car imports fell 600 mln dlrs because of an 18
pct decrease in the number of South Korean-made imported cars
and a nine pct decrease from Japan.
    On the exports side, agricultural exports rose 600 mln dlrs
or nine pct to 7.1 billion dlrs, primarily because of a 104 pct
or 600 mln dlr increase in soybean exports.
    Soybean shipments to Western Europe rose sharply because
supplies from Brazil, a traditional major exporter, were
limited by drought.
    Commerce said the U.S. trade deficit with Latin America
rose 900 mln dlrs to 2.6 billion dlrs, with Japan increased 700
mln dlrs to 14.8 billion dlrs and with Western Europe rose 200
mln to 7.2 billion dlrs in the quarter.
    The deficit with newly industrialized Far East countries,
including Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, fell
500 mln dlrs to eight billion dlrs and with Canada the deficit
decreased 200 mln dlrs to 3.3 billion dlrs in the quarter.
    In the full year 1986, imports rose 30.6 billion dlrs or
nine pct to 369.5 billion dlrs. Exports increased by only 7.3
billion dlrs or three pct to 221.8 billion dlrs.
    Commerce said petroleum imports during 1986 fell 16.6
billion dlrs or 33 pct to 33.9 billion dlrs because of lower
prices. The average price per barrel decreased to 14.72 dlrs
from 26.41 dlrs.
    Agricultural exports fell by 2.6 billion dlrs or nine pct
to 26.9 billion during the year. The average price of rice fell
27 pct, cotton was down 22 pct, corn 18 pct, wheat 16 pct and
soybeans nine pct.
    The trade deficit with Japan for all of 1986 rose 11.1
billion dlrs to 54.6 billion dlrs and with Western Europe
increased 7.2 billion dlrs to 28.6 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

UK INTERVENTION BD SAYS EC SETS WHITE SUGAR TENDER REBATE 43.248 ECUS.

Symbol Technologies Inc said it
called 610,000 outstanding five-year stock warrants issued in
1985 and 1986 to Reliance Insurance Co, a subsidiary of
Reliance Group Holdings <REL>.
    The company said cash proceeds from the warrants will be
6,065,000 dlrs.
    Symbol said it issued 550,000 of the warrants to Reliance
in 1985, exercisable at 9.50 dlrs per share, and 60,000 in
mid-1986 at 14 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

American Communications and
Television Inc said its common stock will continue to be
included in the National Association of Securities Dealers'
NASDAQ system due to an exception from filing requirements,
which it failed to meet as of February 14.
    The company said it believes it can meet conditions imposed
by the NASD for the exception, but there can be no assurance
 Reuter

Bayer USA Inc said sales of its
affiliated operating cmpanies based in the U.S. increased in
1986 by 4.4 pct from the previous year.
    Combined sales were 4.2 billion dlrs, up from 4.0 billion
dlrs in 1985, the company said.
    However, the company said net income was 106.9 mln dlrs,
three pct below 1985.
    Bayer said its operating companies include Mobay Corp,
Miles Laboratories Inc, Agfa-Gevaert Inc, Compugraphic Corp,
Haarmann and Reimer Corp, Deerfield Urethane Inc and Helena
Chemical Co.
    Bayer said Mobay, its primary chemicals company, reported
net income of 83.4 mln dlrs, up eight pct of 1985. It also said
Miles, its pharmaceutical and healthcare company, recorded
net income of 29 mln dlrs, a 44 pct increase over 1985.
   
 Reuter

Deb Shops Inc said its board
declared a 100 pct stock dividend and will increase the
quarterly dividend to four cts from 3-1/4 cts after adjustm,ent
for the split.
    The company said the split is payable April 17 to holders
of record March 25.  The dividend increase will be effective
with the April 30 payment, it said.
 Reuter

CANADA LEADING INDICATOR UP 0.4 PCT IN DECEMBER, AFTER 0.4 PCT NOVEMBER GAIN - OFFICIAL

Continental Health
Affiliates Inc said that it has acquired <Marketech Inc>, an 80
pct partner in <Diatronics Nutrition Services>.
    Continental said Diantronics Nutrition Services is a joint
venture with physicians providing patient-ready home infusion
therapy products and services to outpatients of five northern
New Jersery hospitals representing over 1,900 inpatient beds.
    Continental said the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Visual Graphics Corp <VGCA> <VGCB>
said its board declared a quarterly dividend of 7-1/2 cts per
share on its class "B" common stock and 8-1/4 cts per share on
class "A" common stock payable April Three to shareholders of
record as of March 23.
     The company set up the two classes of common stock in
February. Previously, the company had paid a 7-1/2 cent per
share quarterly dividend on one class of common stock.
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 5,457,000 vs 4,299,000
    Sales 62.9 mln vs 50.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.65 dlrs vs 1.37 dlrs
    Net 12.6 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Sales 181.4 mln vs 147.1 mln
 Reuter

<Sigma Mines (Quebec) Ltd>, 65 pct
owned by Dome Mines Ltd <DM>, said its Sigma Mine had proven
and probable reserves at the end of 1986 of 4,902,940 tons,
with an average grade of 0.139 ounces of gold a ton.
    Sigma said the reserves are equivalent to 10 years future
production at current milling rates.
    The reserves comprise 1,640,779 tons proven reserves
grading an average of 0.163 ounces of gold a ton and 3,262,161
tons probable reserves grading an average of 0.127 ounces of
gold a ton.
    Sigma said it changed its 1986 reserve reporting method
following Dome Mines previously reported move to adopt general
industry practice of reporting proven and probable ore
reserves.
    Prior to 1986, Sigma conservatively reported only proven
reserves that could be mined without future development costs.
    Proven reserves as of December 31, 1985 were 978,000 tons
grading an average of 0.194 ounces of gold a ton, equivalent to
about two years future production.
 Reuter

Shr profit nine cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 1,419,000 vs loss 314,000
    Revs 8,097,000 vs 4,794,000
    Avg shrs 15.8 mln vs 15.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 37 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 5,695,000 vs loss 1,268,000
    Revs 40.9 mln vs 4,794,000
    Avg shrs 15.6 mln vs 12.5 mln
    NOTE: Company began operations Nov 17, 1985.
 Reuter

The Metropolis of Tokyo is offering in
the Yankee bond market 100 mln dlrs of guaranteed bonds due
1997 yielding 7.57 pct, said lead manager First Boston Corp.
    The bonds bear a 7-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 99.515
to yield 35 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated a top-flight AAA
by both Moody's and Standard and Poor's. Goldman Sachs and
Merrill Lynch co-managed the deal, which was the metropolis's
first foray into the Yankee bond market in 20 years,
underwriters said.
 Reuter

Shr 64 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 4,373,000 vs 3,346,000
    Sales 59.8 mln vs 45.5 mln
    Avg shrs 6,808,000 vs 6,600,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.57 dlrs vs 1.18 dlrs
    Net 10.7 mln vs 7,745,000
    Sales 167.0 mln vs 123.1 mln
 Reuter

Danish-based insulin and enzymes
producer Novo Industri A/S (NVO.CO) said pre-tax earnings fell
almost 10 pct in 1986 though sales rose by two pct.
    The pre-tax figure fell to 788 mln crowns from 872 mln in
1985, on sales increased from 4.1 billion to 4.2 billion,
giving net earnings of 521 mln crowns against 604 mln in 1985.
    Earnings per 20-crown share went from 23.79 crowns to 20.45
crowns but the company proposed an unchanged 20 pct dividend.
    "Foreign exchange fluctuations in 1986 were a very
significant factor behind developments in the result before and
after tax," Novo said in a statement.
    "Not only the U.S. Dollar but also other currencies
essential to Novo fell in 1986 in relation to the Danish crown,"
the statement added.
    In November 1986, Novo purchased 75 pct of shares in A/S
Ferrosan, which heads a group specialising in research and
development of CNS (central nervous treatment) treatments and
the sale of pharmaceuticals and vitamins in Scandinavia.
    The 357 mln crowns paid in goodwill "had a very limited
effect on the 1986 result," the Novo statement said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 43 cts
    Net loss 891,000 vs loss 969,000
    Revs 1,930,000 vs 1,815,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss one dlr vs loss 1.36 dlrs
    Net loss 2,622,000 vs loss 3,037,000
    Revs 4,638,000 vs 4,105,000
    Avg shrs 2.6 mln vs 2.2 mln
 Reuter

Alpine Associates, a Cresskill, N.J.
securities dealer, told the Securities and Exchange Commission
it has acquired 565,100 shares of Leaseway Transport
Corp, or 5.9 pct of the total outstanding common stock.
    Alpine, a limited partnership, said it bought the stock for
28.1 mln dlrs as an investment in the ordinary course of its
business as a securities dealer.
    It left open the possibility that it might buy more
Leaseway stock or sell some or all of its current stake, but
said it has no plans to seek control of the company.

 Reuter

Shr 1.26 dlrs vs 67 cts
    Net 7,299,000 vs 3,607,000
    Revs 52.4 mln vs 40.7 mln
    Avg shrs 6,028,755 vs 2,408,766
    NOTE: 1985 results restated to include Deltona Corp <DLT>
investment on equity method.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 18 cts vs loss one ct
    Oper net profit 387,832 vs loss 29,312
    Revs 6,872,630 vs NA
    Year
    Oper shr profit 39 cts vs loss 23 cts
    Oper net profit 835,010 vs loss 441,836
    Revs 20.8 mln vs NA
    Avg shrs 2,135,909 vs 1,885,909
    NOTE: Excludes gains of 378,000 dlrs or 18 cts and 715,000
dlrs or 33 cts in current qtr and year, respectively, from
benefit of tax loss carryforwards. Year-ago excludes losses of
75,809 dlrs or four cts in qtr and 146,061 dlrs or eight cts in
year from discontinued operations. 1985 restated.
 Reuter

Turkish banks and government offices
reopened here after snow blanketing the city began to melt,
causing floods and traffic jams.
    Turkish radio said 16 villages in the southern province of
Hatay were evacuated after the Karasu river burst its banks,
flooding 5,000 hectares of crops.
    The radio said cold weather and snow still covered much of
central and eastern Anatolia, the Asian part of the country,
and two people were frozen to death near the town of Corum. The
weather office in Istanbul said the cold front was moving east
and conditions should be back to normal by the weekend.
 Reuter

Alliant Computer Systems Corp
<ALNT> said that it has signed an agreement with
MacNeal-Schwendler Corp <MNS> where MacNeal will develop a new
version of its MSC/NASTRAN software for Alliant's FX/Series
Computers.
    Alliant said MSC/NASTRAN is used for finite element
analysis, particularly in the automotive and aerospace
industries.
 Reuter

Oper shr 91 cts vs seven cts
    Oper net 4,356,774 vs 289,764
    Revs 69.2 mln vs 50.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,736,692 vs 4,151,672
    NOTE: 1985 net excludes 3,027,714 dlr loss from
 Reuter

Micropolis Corp is raising 75 mln dlrs
via an offering of convertible subordinated debentures due 2012
with a six pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
stock at 48.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 23.6
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated B-minus by
Standard and Poor's. Robertson, Colman and Stephens co-managed
the deal.
 Reuter

Thai sugar production totalled 960,788
tonnes in January, an increase of 12.7 pct on January 1986,
according to figures received by the International Sugar
Organization.
    November and December production figures also exceeded last
year's totals with the result that output in the first three
months of the season showed a 23.1 pct increase over 1985/86.
Production in the November 1986 to January 1987 period totalled
1.29 mln tonnes.
    Thai exports in December and January were down, however.
January exports fell from 73,164 to 35,910 tonnes.
    Domestic consumption increased 7.3 pct to 192,069 tonnes
for the three month period, but this was not sufficient to
prevent a significant rise in stocks, which climbed to 1.62 mln
tonnes by the end of January, compared with 1.52 mln a year
earlier.
    Thai Agricultural Ministry officials have previously
forecast a decline in 1986/87 raws output to around 2.3 mln
tonnes from 2.48 mln in 1985/86.
 Reuter

Canada's leading composite indicator
advanced 0.4 pct in December after gaining 0.4 pct in the two
previous months, Statistics Canada said.
    The unfiltered index rose 0.8 pct in the month, a
turnaround from the 0.3 pct decline in November, the federal
agency said.
    The manufacturing groups continued to post advances while
goods production rose 1.6 pct, the third increase in the last
four months. The advances, however, were offset by a
deceleration in household demand.
 Reuter

Nordic Investment Bank is issuing a 300
mln Danish crown bond, due April 15, 1994, priced at par with
an 11-1/4 pct coupon, lead manager Enskilda Securities said.
    The bonds are callable on April 15, 1992 at par and at any
time for tax reasons. They will be sold in denominations of
20,000 crowns and listed in Luxembourg. Fees involve 1-1/4 pct
for selling and 5/8 pct for management and underwriting
combined, minus 1/8 pct for the co-leads. Payment date is April
15.
    The co-leads are Privatbanken A/S and Generale Bank
Brussels.
 REUTER

Lead underwriters Josephthal and Co
Inc, Emmett A. Larkin Co Inc and Hays Securities Corp said an
initial public offering of 865,000 common shares of Mesa
Airlines Inc is underway at 7.50 dlrs per share.
    Underwriters have been granted an overallotment option to
purchase up to another 129,750 shares.
 Reuter

<ANova Ventures Corp> said its board
declared a dividend payable in the form of registered shares of
stock in <Duvel Corp>, a blind public pool.
    ANova describes itself as a publishing and financial
services firm specializing in arranging revers acquisitions and
mergers between blind pools/shells and private companies.
    ANova said it created Duvel to act as a blind pool and will
seek an operating private company to merger with Duvel. Duvel
has sold 300,000 common shares to a private investor group to
finance expenses of registration and 640,000 shares will be
paid to ANova stockholders as a dividend, it added.
 Reuter

DNC International Finance A.S. Is
issuing a 10 billion yen eurobond due April 7, 1994 with a five
pct coupon and priced at 102-3/8 pct, Yamaichi International
(Europe) Ltd said as joint book-runner with Tokai International
Ltd.
    The non-callable bonds, guaranteed by Den norske
Creditbank, will be issued in denominations of one mln yen and
will be listed in Luxembourg. Total fees of 1-7/8 pct comprise
5/8 pct for management and underwriting and 1-1/4 pct for
selling. Pay date is April 7.
 REUTER

Chrysler Corp's 1.5 billion dlr bid to
takeover American Motors Corp <AMO> should help bolster the
small automaker's sales, but it leaves the future of its 19,000
employees in doubt, industry analysts say.
    It was "business as usual" yesterday at the American Motors
headquarters, one day after the proposed merger was unveiled by
Chrysler and AMC's French parent Renault, according to company
spokesman Edd Snyder.
    But AMC's future, to be discussed at a board meeting today,
would be radically different as a Chrysler subsidiary than if
it had continued with the state-run French car group as its
controlling shareholder.
    Industry analysts said the future of AMC's car assembly
plant in Kenosha, Wis., and its Toledo, Ohio, Jeep plant would
be in doubt if the overcapacity predicted in the North American
auto industry by the early 1990s comes to pass.
    Both plants are far from "state of the art" for car
manufacturing sites, and AMC has a history of poor labor
relations at each.
    "Chrysler doesn't need that many new plants," said Michael
Luckey, automotive analyst for the Wall Street firm Shearson
Lehman Brothers. "They probably will close the Toledo plant and
move Jeep production to Canada."
    Ronald Glantz of Montgomery Securities said that at the
very least, the new owner of the Toledo plant would be able to
wring concessions from the United Automobile Workers union
local representing Jeep workers.
    "The UAW won't be able to hold them up for ransom as they
have AMC because during a down year, Chrysler will have
underutilized facilities to transfer production," he said.
    Analysts said they foresaw no major complications that
would abort a combination which historians said would be the
auto industry's biggest merger since American Motors was formed
in 1954.
    AMC was in need of a financial savior because of its losses
of more than 800 mln dlrs since 1980 and pressures in France
for Renault to cut its backing. The company had said it could
not forecast consistent profitability until 1988 at the
earliest.
    In announcing the takeover agreement, Chrysler chairman Lee
Iacocca cited AMC's Jeep division as well as its new 675 mln
dlr assembly plant at Bramalea, Ontario, and its network of
1,200 dealers as the major attractions.
    Analysts reasoned that Chrysler might feel moved eventually
to sell off or close some of the older plants to cut overhead
costs in view of the new debts and liabilities it would incur
in the AMC buyout.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs eight cts prior
    Pay May 12
 Reuter

Shr 1.60 dlrs vs 3.12 dlrs
    Net 10.6 mln vs 20.6 mln
    Revs 162.5 mln vs 214.6 mln
    Note: 1985 shr restated to reflect January 31, 1986 stock
split.
    73 pct-owned by Kelsey-Hayes Co.
 Reuter

Nigeria's military government clamped a
dusk-to-dawn curfew on northern Kaduna state and ordered all
schools and colleges there closed after 11 people died in
clashes between Moslems and Christians.
    A statement said the situation in Kaduna was now under
control, after two days of disturbances caused by "undesirable
elements hiding under the cover of religion."
    The statement, signed by Rear-Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the
regime's number two, urged the media to exercise restraint in
reporting the clashes which began last weekend in Kafanchan, a
Christian enclave in the mainly-Moslem north.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Pacer Systems said it has
agreed in principle to acquire the assets of Sea Data Corp, a
maker of low-powered electronic systems including undersea
intelligent recording sensors and high-density digital data
recorders, for one mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Concord Computing Corp said
Thomas E. Swithenbank has resiged as president and a director
and John L. burns has resigned as vice president of
manufacturing.
    It said chairman and chief executive officer Victor M.
Tyler will assume the additional post of president.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said almost
125,000 of Chevrolet's two newest cars - the four-door Corsica
sedan and two-door Beretta Sport Coupe - have been ordered by
dealers in advance of their official introduction Thursday.
    It said on hand in dealer inventory and for immediate
delivery were 35,000 of the two models. Another 8,000 were in
transit from assembly plants.
 Reuter

SHL Systemhouse Inc said it
Commission relating to common shares owned by <Kinburn
Technology Corp>.
    SHL said the filing was made to satisfy exchange rights
under a proposed offering of U.S 100 mln dlrs principal amount
of exchangeable secured debentures due 2007 by Kinburn.
    Kinburn owns 31.6 pct of the issued and outstanding common
shares of SHL, the company said.
    It said the debentures may be exchanged at any time prior
to maturity unless previously redeemed, for SHL Systemhouse
common shares at an exchange rate to be determined at the time
of the sale of the debentures.
    SHL said it was advised that Kinburn intends to exercise
this option to maintain its ownership and effective control of
Systemhouse.

 Reuter

Bilfinger und Berger-Bau
AG <GBFG.F> expects group construction output in 1987 to fall
to around 2.5 billion marks in 1987 from 2.73 billion last year
and sees foreign business stabilizing just under its 1986
level.
    In a letter to shareholders, Bilfinger und Berger said
foreign construction work fell to 1.37 billion marks in 1986
from 2.10 billion the year before. It said the drop was due to
a fall in orders and the dollar's decline against the mark.
    The firm expects good 1986 results, with an appropriate
dividend. In 1985 group net profit fell to 14.1 mln marks from
22.6 mln in 1984 and the dividend lost one mark to nine marks.
    Bilfinger und Berger's U.S. Units took up 600 mln marks of
its total foreign construction output.
    The company said domestic earnings in 1986 improved
slightly despite strong competition, due to efforts to avoid
taking on orders which would not break even.
    Foreign earnings were hit by the lower dollar and temporary
payment difficulties by clients.
    Incoming orders in 1986 rose to 3.05 billion marks from
2.58 billion the year before, comprising domestic 1.30 billion
marks versus 1.41 billion and foreign 1.75 billion marks versus
1.18 billion.
    Foreign incoming orders rose despite economic difficulties
in developing countries and OPEC nations hit by lower oil
prices, Bilfinger und Berger said.
    In 1986 it won new orders in the U.S., Pakistan, Nigeria
and Egypt.
    Orders on hand at end-1986 totalled 3.64 billion marks
against 3.32 billion at end-1985.
 REUTER

Versar Inc, a technical
environmental services company, said it will release an
announcement this afternoon concerning the company.
    A Versar spokesman said he was unable to divulge any
further information.
    The American Stock Exchange halted trading of Versar's
stock this morning.
 Reuter

Mizuno Corp of Osaka is issuing 30 mln
Swiss francs of five year notes with a 4-5/8 pct coupon and
100-1/8 issue price, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The notes, which are guaranteed by Sumitomo Bank Ltd, can
be called at 101-1/2 from September 27, 1989.
    Payment is due March 27.
 REUTER

A Bank of Spain spokesman qualified a
bank statement announcing an extension of reserve requirements
to convertible peseta funds held by banks, saying the move
applied only to future rises above current balances.
    "The 19 pct reserve requirement will only be applied to
further increases in bank's convertible peseta funds," the
spokesman said. Convertible peseta funds previously were exempt
from reserve requirements. The spokesman said the measure was
intended to curb an influx of short-term foreign speculative
capital which threatened the government's money supply growth
target.
 REUTER

Spain's broad based M-4 money supply
rose at an annualised rate of 16.7 pct in February against 8.1
pct in January and 22.4 pct in February last year, Bank of
Spain figures show.
    The broad-based money supply is measured as liquid assets
in public hands plus quasi-monetary assets.
    Money supply growth was 11.4 pct last year. The government
wants to reduce the rate to eight pct this year.
 REUTER

Robert Halmi Inc said it has received
a commitment for a five mln dlr revolving credit line from
Wells Fargo and Co <WFC>.
    It said it will use funds for the development and
production of television programming.
 Reuter

Pennsylvania Power and Light Co
said it will offer 500,000 shares of 6-7/8 pct series preferred
stock at 100 dlrs per share and 500,000 shares of 7-3/8 pct
series preferred stock at the same price, plus accumulated
dividends from the date of original issuance.
    The First Boston Corp, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc, Merrill
Lynch Capital Markets and Prudential-Bache Capital Funding are
the underwriters offering the stock, said Pennsylvania Power.
    The 6-7/8 pct series preferred stock is redeemable at any
time, at the option of the company at 106.88 pct per share on
or before March 31, 1992, and declining to 100 pct on and after
April 1, 1994, the company said.
    The company added that no optional redemption may be made
prior to April 1, 1994, with or in anticipation of borrowed
funds or senior or parity stock having an effective cost of
less than 6.88 pct per annum.
    The 6-7/8 pct series preferred stock will have a mandatory
sinking fund in the amount of 100,000 shares in each year
commencing on April 1, 1993, calculated to retire the issue no
later than April 1, 1997.
    The company has the non-cumulative option to retire an
additional 100,000 shares on any sinking fund payment date, it
said.
    Pennsylvania Power said the 7-3/8 pct series preferred
stock is redeemable at any time, also, at the option of the
company at 107.38 dlrs per share on or before March 31, 1992,
and declining to 100 pct on and after April 1, 2002.
    The company said that no optional redemption may be made
prior to April 1, 1992, with or in anticipation of borrowed
less than 7.38 pct per annum.
stock will have a mandatory sinking fund of 25,000 shares in
each year commencing April 1, 1993, calculated to retire the
issue no later than April 1, 2012.
    It said it has the non-cumulative option to retire an
additional 25,000 shares on any sinking fund payment date.
 Reuter

Leucadia National Corp, a U.S. Financial
services holding company, has received a 50 mln dlr, five-year
revolving underwriting facility (RUF), said Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets as arranger.
    Under terms of the facility, Leucadia may issue euro-notes
in maturities from one to six months, subject to a maximum of
183 days. The method of issuance will be the issuer-set margin
system under which Leucadia will determine the spread over the
London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
    Leucadia has already established a euro-commercial paper
program for which Merrill acts as dealer.
    The RUF may serve as medium term back-up to the commerical
paper program although the two may be used simultaneously,
Merrill said.
    In addition to issuing euro-notes, Leucdia may also draw
under the RUF by use of a so-called "swing line," which provides
same day availability of funds of up to 25 mln dlrs. Also, the
swing line provides for use of a "spot issuance procedure which
allows the company to borrow up to the full amount of the 50
mln dlrs on two days notice.
 REUTER

Foreign exchange market rumours that the
the Bank of England has been selling sterling to halt its rise
prompted a wary response from dealers who said they saw no
obvious confirmation, market sources said.
    Bank of England officials were not immediately available
for comment. Earlier this week, the Bank sanctioned a cut in
bank interest rates in a surprise move, which aimed at limiting
sterling's rise ahead of the March 17 budget.
    But today the pound has strengthened to 72.7 on its
trade-weighted index from 72.1 last night, though the U.K.
Currency is below its day's high against the dollar.
 REUTER

Nov 30 end
    Shr four cts vs 11 cts
    Net 62,986 vs 174,158
    Sales 720,906 vs 907,542
    Year
    Shr 18 cts vs six cts
    Net 277,852 vs 94,263
    Sales 2,247,374 vs 2,030,390
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs five cts
    Net 50,745 vs 161,019
    Revs 478,700 vs 1,048,543
    Avg shrs 4,350,000 vs 3,217,500
    Nine mths
    Shr four cts vs 12 cts
    Net 169,275 vs 390,179
    Revs 1,478,066 vs 2,658,692
 Reuter

Oper shr profit one ct vs profit two cts
    Oper net profit 63,000 vs profit 84,000
    Sales 5,009,000 vs 4,042,000
    1st half
    Oper shr profit two cts vs loss 17 cts
    Oper net profit 87,000 vs loss 794,000
    Sales 9,838,000 vs 7,368,000
    Backlog 17.8 mln vs 11.4 mln
    NOTE: Current year net excludes tax credits of 32,000 dlrs
in quarter and 45,000 dlrs in half.
 Reuter

The French electricity utility
Electricite de France is issuing a five billion French franc
bond in three tranches, co-lead manager Banque Paribas said
here.
    The issue is also being lead-managed by Credit Lyonnais.
    The first two billion franc tranche carries a fixed
interest rate of 8.30 pct, with a life of 11 years 316 days and
redeemable en bloc at par at the end of its life. The issue
price will be 96.44 pct and the payment date is March 30.
    The second tranche of 1.5 billion francs will be
denominated in 5,000 franc units and carry an 8.50 pct coupon,
payable December 14 each year.
    The issue price will be 98.18 pct and it will have a life
of 12 years 259 days. Redemption will be en bloc at par at the
end of its life, and the payment date will be March 30.
    Each bond will carry a warrant permitting subscription on
December 14, 1987 to a fixed-rate bond, which will be
integrated with the previous issue at an issue price of 98.18
pct, and with a nominal coupon of 8.50 pct.
    The life of the issue will be 12 years.
    A third tranche of 1.5 billion francs will be issued at a
variable interest rate, and the whole issue will be quoted on
the Paris Bourse.
    Paribas and Credit Lyonnais will be market makers for the
first two tranches, the communique added.
 REUTER

Oper shr 21 cts vs 34 cts
    Oper net 480,000 vs 765,000
    Revs 6,386,000 vs 5,862,000
    Year
    Oper shr 1.20 dlrs vs 78 cts
    Oper net 2,692,000 vs 1,732,000
    Revs 25.2 mln vs 20.3 mln
    NOTEL Net excludes tax credit 35,000 dlrs vs reversal of
credit 40,000 dlrs in quarter and credits 79,000 dlrs vs 72,000
 Reuter

Sahlen and Associates Inc
said it has completed the purchase of Gleason Securities
Service Inc of New York and Gleason Plant Security Inc of
Connecticut.
    Sahlen said the deal's terms were not disclosed, but added
that the acquired companies had combined annual revenues of
over 18 mln dlrs.
    Sahlen, a private invetigation company, said the Gleason
companies provide security guard services to corporations in
the tri-state area.
   
 Reuter

    Pay May 11
    Record March 31.
 Reuter

NYNEX Corp will urge the U.S.
District Court to approve Justice Department recommendations
easing restrictions on offering new services by regional
telephone firms, chairman Delbert Staley said.
    "While NYNEX would have prefered the unqualified lifting of
all of the Modified Final Judgement restrictions, we intend to
urge Judge (Harold) Greene to act as quickly as possible to
approve the recommendations," Staley told a news conference.
    NYNEX will file its comments with the U.S. District Court
on Friday, he said.
    Staley referred to Justice Department recommendations to
Greene last month that restrictions on manufacturing,
information services and out-of-region, long-distance service
be eliminated.
    Referring to information services, Staley said, "That
certainly is one area we would quickly move into."
    Electronic mail, voice mail and videotext are some of the
services NYNEX could offer, he added.
    NYNEX disagreed with the department's recommendation to
retain restrictions on long-distance service within a local
service region, Staley said.
    The company would like to have the option of providing
long-distance service within and outside its region, he said.
    "Our entry in long-distance would further stimulate
competition," Staley said.
    "We believe it would put downward pressure on consumer
costs."
   
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs four cts
    Net 658,159 vs 299,930
    Revs 3,770,341 vs 2,614,224
    Avg shrs 7,382,802 vs 6,747,442
    Year
    Oper shr 33 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 2,287,179 vs 1,045,799
    Revs 13.1 mln vs 8,577,853
    Avg shrs 6,874,505 vs 5,951,612
    NOTE: 1985 year net includes 13,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Southwest Airlines Co's TranStar
Airlines said it will add new flights and increase service to
several cities, including Los Angeles.
    TranStar said it will add a third daily nonstop April One
from New Orleans to Los Angeles, bringing to 10 the total of
non stop and connecting flights to that city.
    It also will start nonstop service from San Antonio to Las
Vegas and increase service to Orlando, Fla., it said.
    The new schedule will feature three daily flights from San
Antonio to Las Vegas, including one nonstop, one direct and one
connecting flight, via Los Angeles.
    TranStar said it will increase to three daily connecting
flighs to Orlando, via Houston.
    TranStar said the new April One schedule will offer 21
daily departures from New Orleans to 11 cities in Florida,
Texas, Nevada and California.
 Reuter

Computer Network Technology Corp
said it introduced the CHANNELink Model 5100/R, a high speed
networking product line.
    It said the product line is designed for remote IBM
mainframe-to-mainframe data communications.
 Reuter

Shr loss 19 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 1,140,270 vs profit 590,463
    Revs 1,259,164 vs 3,225,512
    Year
    Shr loss 67 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 4,004,840 vs profit 580,488
    Revs 3,184,480 vs 9,123,041
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts
    Net 510,917
    Sales 12.3 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five for four stock split in
January 1987.
    Backlog 13.0 mln dlrs vs 3,733,000 dlrs.
    Company began operating January 27, 1986.
 Reuter

The Securities and Exchange Commission
said it charged a managing director of
<Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Ltd> in London with
masterminding "a massive insider trading scheme."
    Nahum Vaskevitch, the managing director of the Mergers and
Aquisitions Department of the broker's London office, was
charged in a civil complaint by the SEC filed in Manhattan
Federal Court. The complaint said Vaskevitch leaked information
about 12 companies that were involved in a merger or aquisition
which resulted in more than four mln dlrs in profit for himself
and others involved in the scheme.
    Besides Vaskevitch, who is a British and Israeli citizen
who lives in London, others named as defendants in the suit
were David Sofer, an Israeli citizen living in Jerusalem, and
two corporations, <Plenmeer Ltd>, a British company, and <Meda
Establishment>, a Lichtenstein corporation.
    The scheme, which covered a two year period, allegedly
involved Vaskevitch leaking information to Sofar about looming
takeovers and mergers, some of which he worked on, according to
the complaint. The SEC secured a temporary restraining order
freezing all the assets of the defendants in the United States.
A hearing is set for March 20.
    Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith is a subsidiary of
Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>.
    According to the court documents, Sofer is a principal in
both Plenmeer and Meda Establishment and Vaskevitch has an
interest in Plenmeer.
    The suit was filed in New York because trading allegedly
took place here. 
    One of the deals in which an insider profit was alleged was
the 1984 merger of K-Mart Corp <KM> with <Pay Less Drug
Stores>.
    Another deal was the sale by W.R. Grace and Co <GRA> of its
holdings in <Hermann's Sporting Goods Co>.
    An SEC official in Washington said the Vaskevitch case is
unrelated to the agency's widening investigation into Wall
Street's insider trading scandal involving Ivan Boesky and
Dennis Levine.
    Neither Vaskevitch nor Sofar are currently living in the
United States and cannot be extradited on the basis of the
SEC's civil charges filed against them, the official said.
    Vaskevitch is living in England and Sofar's whereabouts are
unknown, he said.
    "We can't force them to come back," the official said.
    The agency is moving to seize all U.S. assets of both men,
which they could forfeit if they do not contest the case, the
SEC official said.
    Although the SEC recently signed an accord with Britain
aimed at improving cooperation between the two countries in
investigating securities law violations, the SEC official said
it did not need to rely on U.K. authorities in this case.
    "We were able to make our case against them here," he said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said
Tenneco Inc declined to comment on whether there were any
corporate developments that might explain the unusual activity
in its stock.
    The exchange said it had requested a statement from the
company in light of the activity. Tenneco was up 1-7/8 dlrs to
48-5/8.
 Reuter

<Henry Ansbacher Holdings Plc> said it
has acquired a 51 pct interest in the U.S. Retail and general
corporate insurance broker <Adams and Porter Inc>.
    The move is the first step in building a new international
insurance broking group following the appointment of a new
management team for its Seascope Insurance Holdings unit.
    Ansbacher said A and P has exciting growth potential,
particularly on the east coast of the U.S. And has an annual
revenue of more than four mln dlrs. Ansbacher shares were up
4-1/2p to 90-1/2, helped by the announcement earlier today of a
1986 pretax profit rise to 5.56 mln stg from 2.74 mln in 1985.
 REUTER

The Central Issuing Office of the Swiss
cantonal banks said it is launching a 150 mln Swiss franc 4-1/2
pct 12-year bond issue at 99.75 pct.
    Subscriptions close March 23.
    The funds will be partly used for the conversion or
repayment of an 80 mln franc 4-3/4 pct 1972/87 bond maturing on
April 15.
 REUTER

Deutsche Bank Finance NV is issuing a
150 mln Australia dlr bond due April 15, 1992 with a coupon of
14-1/2 pct and priced at 101-1/2, said Deutsche Bank Capital
Markets as lead manager.
    Payment date is April 15. The securities will be listed on
the Luxembourg Stock exchange and will available in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs.
    There is a 1-3/8 pct selling concession and a 5/8 pct
combined management and underwriting fee.
 REUTER

The engineers union IG Metall said
35,700 workers at 152 West German engineering companies held
brief warning strikes today in support of the union's demands
for higher wages and shorter working hours without loss of pay.
    It said most of the stoppages were in northern Germany,
where employers and union representatives met for talks on a
collective wage agreement for 300,000 engineering workers in
the Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony areas.
    IG Metall members began a series of nationwide warning
strikes this week as part of the union's bid to raise wages by
five pct and cut the working week to 35 hours from 38.5 hours.
    Warning strikes held so far this week have generally lasted
about one hour each.
    Employers in northern German offered IG Metall a 2.7 pct
rise in wages from April 1 and a further 1.5 pct from July next
year. It also offered to cut the working week by half an hour
from July 1988.
    IG Metall rejected the offer, and further talks for
northern Germany were later scheduled for March 23.
    On Monday employers in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia
offered workers there a similar package of wage rises and
shorter working hours.
 REUTER

Dutch bank F. Van
Lanschot Bankiers N.V., Co-owned by National Westminster PLC
<NWBL.L> and RABOBANK B.A. <RABN.A> , said 1986 net profit rose
8.8 pct to 24.1 mln guilders on a 4.8-pct higher balance sheet
total of 6.2 billion.
    Van Lanschot Bankiers is a subsidiary of Van Lanschot
Beleggingscompagnie B.V. In which Britain's National
Westminster Bank PLC and Dutch cooperative bank RABOBANK
Nederland B.A. Each have a 40-pct stake. Commercial Union's
Dutch insurance unit <Delta Lloyd Verzekeringsgroep N.V.> has a
5.4-pct stake in Van Lanschot, which lowered risk provisions to
22.5 mln guilders.

Missouri-based Interco Inc is
establishing a 50 mln dlr, five year revolving credit facility,
Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd said as arranger.
    The facility allows for eurodollar and swingline advances
up to 50 mln dlrs and also has an uncommitted option for
short-term, multi-currency advances.
    The margin for eurodollar advances is 20 basis points over
London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) and there is a
utilisation fee of five basis points per annum if utilisation
exceeds 50 pct.
    Swiss Bank Corp said that the facility pays a commitment
fee of 10 basis points per annum on undrawn amounts.
    It has been syndicated on a club basis and signing is
planned by the end of March.
    Interco is a manufacturer and retailer of consumer products
 REUTER

West German sugar statistician F.O.
Licht estimates European beet plantings this year at 7.22 mln
hectares compared with a revised 1986 figure of 7.21 mln,
    In its first estimate for 1987, it puts EC plantings at
1.85 mln hectares compared with 1.89 mln in 1986, while it
estimates sowings in Western Europe (including EC) at 2.49 mln
hectares compared with 2.50 mln in 1986.
    Traders said Licht forecasts Eastern Europe plantings at
4.73 mln hectares against 4.72 mln in 1986.
 Reuter

Frank B. Hall and Co, an
insurance and brokerage firm, said it has joined with <Risk
Science International> to offer banks a new service that
assesses their environmental risk level.
    Hall said that under recently enacted legislation banks and
other financial institutions can be held liable for
environmental risks in projects that they finance.
    Therefore, Hall said, RSI will evaluate a property, assign
it an environmental risk level and advise the bank about its
options to reduce environmental risks.
 Reuter

LTV Corp said Pakistan ordered
180 military trucks and spare parts worth 18.5 mln dlrs from AM
General, a unit of LTV's Missles and Electronics Group.
    The company said the order includes 140 M809 Series
five-ton trucks and 40 M44A2 Series 2-1/2 ton trucks. They are
scheduled to be delivered later this year.
 Reuter

Rodman and Renshaw Capital Group Inc
said its directors approved the repurchase of up to 200,000
shares of the company's common stock on the open market, from
time to time.
    The shares may be used for acquisition and for stock option
plans, it said.
    Rodman and Renshaw completed its initial public offering of
1.5 mln common shares in June 1986.  There are currently about
4.2 mln shares issued and outstanding, it noted.
 Reuter

reserves via customer or system repurchase agreements,
    Most economists said the Fed will inject reserves
indirectly via customer repurchases, but they added that the
Fed might opt for a direct injection of reserves via overnight
system repurchases.
    Federal funds opened at 6-3/8 pct and eased to 6-5/16 pct
in early trading. Funds averaged 6.29 pct yesterday.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs two cts
    Net 163,832 vs 31,063
    Sales 5,434,430 vs 3,167,735
    Avg shrs 1,712,231 vs 1,533,277
    Year
    Shr 59 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 1,016,375 vs 550,625
    Sales 19.7 mln vs 9,755,018
    Avg shrs 1,710,256 vs 1,327,172
 Reuter

raised to A-1-plus from A-1 the commercial paper of Citizens
Fidelity Corp and its unit Citizens Fidelity Bank and Trust.
    S and P cited the completion of the firm's merger with PNC
Financial Corp <PNCF>, saying PNC has shown solid earnings,
excellent liquidity and a conservative capital position.
    The rating agency also upgraded long-term debt supported by
letters of credit of lead bank Citizens Fidelity Bank to
AA-plus from A. The bank's certificates of deposit were upped
to AA-plus and A-1-plus from A and A-1 respectively.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 4,921,601 vs 3,157,070
    Revs 35.8 mln vs 31.7 mln
    Avg shrs 8,939,955 vs 7,600,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 52 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 4,604,406 vs 2,585,621
    Revs 36.0 mln vs 32.1 mln
 Reuter

Ford Motor Credit Co <F> is raising
200 mln marks through a five-year eurobond with currency
warrants attached, carrying a coupon of 5-3/4 pct and priced at
116-3/4, lead manager Deutsche Bank AG said.
    The issue will be sold in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
marks and listed in Frankfurt. Each 1,000 mark bond carries two
warrants which can be converted into 500 dlrs each at an
exchange rate of 1.86 marks. The exercise period runs from
April 8, 1987 until March 6, 1989.
    Fees total two pct, with 1-1/4 pct for selling and 3/8 pct
each for management and underwriting.
    Each 10,000 mark bond carries two warrants which can be
converted into 5,000 dlrs each on the same terms as the
warrants for the 1,000 mark bonds, Deutsche said.
    The bond pays interest annually on March 25 and matures on
the same date in 1992. Payment date is also March 25.
    A management group is currently being formed.
 REUTER

J.C. Penney Co's stock rose sharply 
after analyst William Smith of Smith Barney recommended the
stock, based on the company's strong earnings momentum and the
possibility of a stock buyback, dividend hike or stock split,
    "I am very impressed with the strong basic earnings story,"
analyst Smith said, noting that the company has "fine tuned its
buying and inventories, and has admirably controlled costs in a
time that they needed to."
    The stock jumped 2-1/2 to 98-3/4.
    Smith said the company ended 1986 with a strong cash
position of about 639 mln dlrs as compared to 158 mln dlrs the
year before. "This implies the possibility of a share buyback,
or significant dividend increase or a stock split," he said.
    In addition, he said the company has been gradually
adjusting its merchandise mix and its gross margins have been
improving.
    Smith expects the company to earn 8.25-to-8.50 dlrs a share
in 1987 as compared to the 7.06 dlrs a share earned last year.
Last year's results include a 69 cent charge for the buyback of
debt.
 Reuter

Schering Corp, a unit of
Schering-Plough Corp, said <Nature's Blend Products Inc> agreed
to an injunction against its Fiber Slim product.
    Schering, the U.S. distributor of Fibre Trim made by <Farma
Food A/S> of Denmark, said it and Farma had sued Nature's
Blend, claiming Nature's product infringed their trademark on
Fibre Trim.
    Schering said Nature's Blend agreed to stop making and
selling food supplement products under the Fiber Slim
trademark, but it did not admit liability.
 Reuter

The West German intervention board said
about 100,000 tonnes of sugar have been offered into
intervention so far.
    A spokesman, speaking from Frankfurt, told Reuters offers
have increased recently but contracts have not yet been
concluded. A European Commission spokesman in Brussels earlier
confirmed that one mln tonnes of sugar had been offered to
intervention boards in various member states. The intervention
board spokesman in Frankfurt said, "One million tonnes is an
awful lot and the Community's coffers are almost empty. This
could turn into a serious political problem."
    West German trade sources said they believed the one mln
tonne offer by the EC sugar industry into intervention would
have a neutral market impact overall.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust Co said it raised its
broker loan rate to 7-1/4 pct from seven pct, effective
    U.S. Trust Co, which also quotes its broker loan rate
publicly, is posting a 7-1/2 pct rate.
 Reuter

National Gypsum Co's Austin Co
said it signed a joint agreement with <Kawasaki Heavy
Industries Inc> to join forces to win contracts in connection
with the construction of Kansai Airport.
    Austin said it and the Japanese firm will develop concepts,
investigate systems and compete for the contracts for the
international airport to be built off the coast near Osaka,
Japan.
    The company said the airport is expected to be the largest
construction project in the country for the rest of the
century. It will be built on 2,964 acres and estimates put the
cost as high as 10 billion dlrs.
    Cost estimated for the facilites that the Austin-Kawasaki
team will propose to design and implement have ranged between
200 mln dlrs and 250 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

owned by Dome Mines Ltd, said its Sigma Mine had proven and
probable reserves at the end of 1986 of 4,902,940 tons, with an
average grade of 0.139 ounces of gold a ton.
gold a ton.
following Dome Mines' previously reported move to adopt general
reserves.
 Reuter

Witco Corp is raising 140 mln dlrs via
an offering of convertible subordinated debentures due 2012
with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc.
stock at 54.55 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.76
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated A-3 by
Moody's and A-minus by Standard and Poor's. Goldman Sachs
co-managed the deal, which was increased from an initial
offering of 100 mln dlrs because of investor demand.
 Reuter

Genzyme Corp said the U.S. Patent Office
has approved a patent for the company's method of testing for
serum alpha amylase, an indicator of pancreatic disease.
    "The patent strengthens Genzyme's proprietary position as
the leading independent supplier of diagnostic enzymes and
substrates," Henri Temeer, Genzyme president, said.
    The company said the technology combines a unique substrate
with two indicator enzymes in a diagnostic assay to measure
serum amylase levels.
    Genzyme said that since 1985 it has entered into several
licensing agreements for the technology with amylase test kit
makers.
 Reuter

Moore McCormack Resources Inc said it
agreed in principle to sell its Globe Metallurgical Inc unit to
Cyprus Minerals Co <CYPM> for undisclosed terms.
    The sale, expected to close by mid-April, is subject to
certain conditions, including board approval at both companies.
    Globe produces silicon metals and magnesium ferrosilicon.
The products are used in the chemical, aluminum, iron, rubber
and semiconductor industries.
 Reuter

U.S. Completions of new homes fell
0.2 pct in January to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.884 mln
units from 1.888 mln in December, the Commerce Department said.
    The January fall came after a strong 6.4 pct rise from
November's rate of 1.774 mln units and brought completions to
6.7 pct above the January, 1986 level of 1.765 mln units.
    In January, completions of single-family units rose 0.4 pct
to a seasonally adjusted 1.183 mln units from 1.178 mln units
in December while multi-family units fell 1.3 pct to 701,000
units in January, the department said.
 Reuter

Lead underwriter McDonald and Co
Investments Inc <MDD> said an offering of 900,000 shares of
Action Auto Rental Inc is underway, priced at 12 dlrs per
share.
    Undewriters have been granted an option to purchase up to
another 135,000 shares to cover overallotments.
    The company is selling 697,500 shares and shareholders the
rest.
 Reuter

Talks between management and unions at
Cargill U.K. Ltd's Seaforth oilseed processing plant will
resume Monday, a company spokesman said.
    He said some progress had been made.
    Three consecutive days of negotiations ended this afternoon
after failing to break the deadlock.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
is reviewing whether Trans World Airlines Inc <TWA> and
Chairman Carl Icahn violated federal antitrust law by failing
to seek advance clearance from the DOJ or the Federal Trade
Commission for his extensive open-market purchases of USAir
Group Inc <U> stock, a DOJ official told a Senate panel.
    "This is a matter that is being looked into," Charles Rule,
acting assistant attorney general-antitrust, told the Senate
Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee.
    Rule declined further comment while the review was
continuing.
    Rule was responding to panel Chairman Howard Metzenbaum
(D-Ohio), who had asked why the department was not acting
against "what appears to be a clear violation of the law."
    Metzenbaum said Icahn had failed to file a pre-merger
notification form with the FTC prior to purchasing more than 15
mln dlrs' worth of USAir stock.
    But Rule said that, for airline companies, a purchaser
would be exempt from the requirement if it instead had filed a
merger application with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
    Icahn filed such an application with the DOT, but the
filing was thrown out by the DOT on Friday.
    The DOT threw out the application late Friday on grounds it
lacked the necessary data for the government to review the
proposed USAir takeover bid.
    Icahn refiled a more complete application form Monday.
    Rule pledged to act against Icahn and TWA if a violation
were found.
 Reuter

Anitec Image Technology Corp is
raising 75 mln dlrs via an issue of convertible subordinated
debentures due 2012 with a 5-7/8 pct coupon and par pricing,
said lead manager Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc.
stock at 32 dlrs a share, representing a 26.73 pct premium over
the stock price when terms on the debt were set.
    Non-callable for two years, the debentures are rated B-2 by
Moody's and B by Standard and Poor's. Donaldson Lufkin, Salomon
Brothers and Mabon Nugent co-managed the issue, which was
increased from an initial offering of 60 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 117,989 vs loss 528,394
    Revs 820,484 vs 35,186
    Avg shrs 8,226,577 vs 3,150,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss seven cts vs loss 37 cts
    Net loss 527,864 vs loss 1,177,434
    Revs 1,975,487 vs 90,875
    Avg shrs 7,277,418 vs 3,150,000
 Reuter

Wisconsin Public Service Corp
said in its annual report the company's five-year construction
program, 1987 through 1991, is projected at 330 mln dlrs.
    It said the amount, which includes about 4.0 mln dlrs for
sulfur dioxide controls at company power plants, is 42 mln dlrs
more than the previous five-year period.
    Wisconsin Public Service also said natural gas sales
dropped 22 pct, mainly because of the growing trend of large
industrial customers to purchase gas directly from producers.
 Reuter

MERRILL LYNCH SAYS IT SUSPENDS NAHUM VASKEVITCH, HEAD OF LONDON MERGERS DEPARTMENT

Merrill Lynch and Co <MER> said the
head of its mergers and acquisitions department in London,
accused by U.S. authorities of insider trading violations, has
been suspended from the firm.
    If the charges are true "we are disappointed and angry,"
Merrill Lynch said in a statement. Merrill Lynch said it has
been cooperating with a Securities and Exchange Commission
investigation of the matter for several months. The SEC charged
Nahum Vaskevitch, a managing director of Merrill Lynch, Pierce,
Fenner and Smith Ltd, with profiting from inside information
about 12 companies involved in mergers.
    "Merrill Lynch's position is and has always been that
violations of the law are not tolerated," the firm said in a
prepared statement.
    "The apparently illegal trading activity took place away
from Merrill Lynch through another broker-dealer and involved
the employee's use of information which was properly available
to him but improperly used," the statement said. "Merrill Lynch
in no way benefited from the trades."
    Merrill Lynch said Vaskevitch was suspended "when we were
informed of the specific allegations and evidence." The company
did not say precisely when the suspension took place.
 Reuter

Dutch seasonally-adjusted
unemployment totalled 690,600 people in February, unchanged
from January but down from 732,700 in February 1986, a Social
Affairs Ministry spokesman said.
    The unadjusted figure stood at 708,700 at the end of last
month, a decline of 3,800 from the January total of 712,500 and
comparing with 750,000 at the end of February last year.
 REUTER

Bremer Landesbank Kreditanstalt Finance
Curacao NV is issuing a 40 mln Australian dlr eurobond due
April 24, 1990 paying 15 pct and priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead
manager ANZ Merchant Bank Ltd said.
    The issue, which is guaranteed by Bremer Landesbank
Kreditanstalt, is available in denominations of 1,000 dlrs and
    Fees comprise one pct selling concession and 1/2 pct for
management and underwriting. Pay date is April 24.
 REUTER

Completions of new homes fell 0.2
pct in January to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.884 mln units
from 1.888 mln in December, the Commerce Department said.
6.7 pct above the January, 1986, level of 1.765 mln units.
 Reuter

4th qtr Jan 31
    Shr five cts vs 28 cts
    Net 2,448,000 vs 13.3 mln
    Revs 156.1 mln vs 225.5 mln
    Avg shrs 47.3 mln vs 47.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 18 cts vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net 8,430,000 vs 48.2 mln
    Revs 587.9 mln vs 843.9 mln
    Avg shrs 47.4 mln vs 47.9 mln
 Reuter

Businessland Inc said it sold
50 mln dlrs of 5-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures
due 2007 in a registered public offering.
    The company said each debenture is convertible into shares
of Businessland common stock at a conversion price of 20.50
dlrs.
    Net proceeds will be used to repay amounts outstanding
under the company's bank credit line and for working capital,
the company also said.
 Reuter

Pentair Inc said it has filed
for an offering of two mln shares of cumulative convertible
preferred stock at an expected price of 25 dlrs per share
through underwriters led by <Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc > and
<Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood Inc>.
    It said proceeds would be used to repay bank debt incurred
in the acquisition of McNeil Corp last August.
 Reuter

<Grand Metropolitan PLC>'s
Heublein Inc subsidiary said it will phase out operations at
Almaden's San Jose winery and transfer production of the wines
to the company's Madera, Calif., winery.
    Heublein said the move will increase the Madera winery's
efficiency by bringing it close to full capacity and result in
the addition of more than 150 employees there.
    Heublein said the phase-out of the recently acquired
Almaden operations in San Jose is expected to be completed by
late summer. The San Jose winery is expected to be sold, it
added.
    Heublein also said Almaden wines will continue to be
marketed and sold by a separate marketing and sales force.
    Almaden's administrative functions will move to Heublein's
headquarters in Farmington, Conn., the company said.
 Reuter

The Canadian Bond Rating Service said
it downgraded ratings for long-term senior debt and
subordinated debentures at <Royal Bank of Canada> and <Bank of
Montreal> due partly to loan loss problems.
    Royal's long-term senior debt was downgraded to A plus
(high) from A plus plus and 1.60 billion dlrs of subordinated
debentures to A plus from A plus plus (low). Bank of Montreal's
senior long-term debt rating fell to A plus (high) from A plus
plus (low) and 1.46 billion dlrs of subordinated debentures to
A plus (low) from A plus.
    The rating service cited continued difficulties among Royal
Bank customers, particularly in the energy industry, a
continued high level of loan losses expected this year and 
relatively high sovereign debt exposure in relation to common
equity.
    It cited Bank of Montreal's below average profitability and
internal capital generation and relatively high international
debt exposure in relation to common equity, although it noted
that loan losses were expected to moderate in 1987.
 Reuter

Witco Corp said it is offering 140 mln
dlrs of 5-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures due 2012
through co-managing underwriters Smith Barney Harris Upham and
Co and Goldman Sachs and Co.
    Each debenture is convertible into the company's common
stock at a rate of 54.55 dlrs per share, which represents a
conversion premium of about 25.8 pct over the last sale price
of 43-3/8 per share yesterday, it said.
general purposes. The company said it has no agreements for and
is not in talks regarding any acquisitions.
 Reuter

The <American Stock Exchange> said it
has started put and call option trading in Chemical Waste
Management Inc stock as a replacement for options on
Chesebrough-Ponds's Inc, which was recently acquired.
    Initial expiration months are June and September and
initial exercise prices 30 and 35, it said.  Position and
exercise limits are 5,500 contracts on the same side of the
market.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 850,000 vs 432,000
    Sales 9,850,000 vs 4,783,000
    Avg shrs 4,504,000 vs 3,527,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 57 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,400,000 vs 1,281,000
    Sales 25.2 mln vs 12.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4,233,000 vs 3,485,000
 Reuter

BellSouth Advanced Systems, a
unit of BellSouth Corp, said it has introduced a private
telephone system, called BellSouth System 30, offering smaller
companies a wide range of advanced telecommunications services.
    BellSouth said the services, aimed at companies requiring
up to 20 telephones, include speed dialing for 500 frequently
called numbers, last number redial, conference calling and
speakerphones, among others.
    The company said the System 30 has the capacity for 10
outside lines.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Pragma Bio-Tech Inc, a
clinical testing company, said it has started performing
comparative studies on differnet varieties of nitroglycerin for
use in the treatment of angina pectoris episodes.
    The company would not disclose details of the testing.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange two billion dlrs of
    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-5/16 pct when
 Reuter

Engineering Measurements Co
said it formed a general partnership with several external
investment groups in which the company will have a 58.5 pct
interest and be managing partner.
    Called Measurement Auditors Co, the partnership provides
flowmeter certification and testing services to the oil and gas
industry, Engineering Measurements said.
    The company also said marketing vice president Jerome J.
Rusnak has been apointed president, succeeding Charles Miller
who continues as chairman.
 Reuter

Private exporters said China bought a
total of 550,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat under the export
enhancement program, with final confirmation by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture of the subsidies still awaited.
    The purchase consisted of a total of 340,000 tonnes of hard
red winter wheat for various May/Aug shipments, with 210,000
tonnes of soft red winter for Aug/Sept, the exporters said.
 Reuter

Ope shr 63 cts vs 80 cts
    Oper net 3,169,000 vs 3,757,000
    Revs 9,585,000 vs 10.2 mln
    Avg shrs 5,070,000 vs 4,721,000
    NOTE: Net excludes gains from sale of investments of
887,000 dlrs vs 304,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Synergen Inc said it agreed to
provide its human elastase inhibitor, designed to treat
emphysema, to Ciba-Geigy AG <CIGZ> for human clinical trials.
    Ciba-Geigy is currently testing the substance in animals,
but the company said the new supplies of the drug will be
suitable for human tests.
    The company said Ciba-Geigy initially licensed the product
in 1985. The new agreement calls for Synergen to set up a
commercial manufacturing process to produce the drug and
deliver quantities to Ciba-Geigy in the second half 1987.
 Reuter

Shr loss 38 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 10.4 mln vs profit 2,144,317
    Revs 72.9 mln vs 67.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 21 cts vs profit 38 cts
    Net loss 5,747,393 vs profit 10.1 mln
    Revs 224.6 mln vs 200.6 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes 20.0 mln dlr
pretax charge for disposition of 21 underperforming
company-owned restaurants.
    Current year net includes tax credits of 3,205,000 dlrs in
quarter and 7,305,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

CHEMLAWN CORP SAID IT IS TALKING WITH NEW SUITORS ABOUT BEING ACQUIRED

Chi-Chi's Inc said it has taken
a 20 mln dlr pretax charge against earnings for the third
quarter ended January 31 to cover the cost of disposing of 21
"underperforming" company-owned restaurants.
    The company also said it has agreed to repurchase up to
three mln common shares on the open market.
    The company now has about 27.1 mln shares outstanding.
    Chi-Chi's today reported a loss for the third quarter ended
January 31, after the pretax charge and a 7,305,000 dlr tax
credit, of 10.4 mln dlrs, compared with a year-earlier profit
of 2,144,317 dlrs.
    Chi-Chi's said it believes the disposition of the
restaurants has the potential of increasing its pretax earnings
by about two mln dlrs next fiscal year.
    The company said it will use existing cash resources for
the share repurchases.
 Reuter

Shares of Du Pont Co rose today after
accumulating recommendations from Shearson Lehman Brothers and
First Boston, traders said.
    Du Pont, which opened with a two point gain, stood at
109-1/8, up 1-1/8.
    First Boston's analyst was not available for comment.
    Analyst Theodore Semegran of Shearson said he raised his
earnings estimates for the company to 7.25 dlrs a share in 1987
and eight dlrs a share in 1988. The company earned 6.35 dlrs a
share in 1986.
    "Good domestic demand, higher operating earnings and a
strng export business, probably benefitting from a lower dollar
and effects of reduced imports in chemicals will continue to
aid Du Pont." He also noted that energy earnings in the first
quarter are better than expected because of the rise in crude
prices. Semegran expects first quarter earnings
of about 1.85 dlrs a share from 1.67 dlrs last year.
    He also expects the company to raise its annual dividend
about 20 to 30 cts a share, from its current dividend of 3.20
dlrs a share, "and a stock split is possible but it has a low
probablility."
 Reuter

ChemLawn Corp said it has
started talks on the possible sale of the company with "various
parties" that it did not identify.
    The company said the talks began after it considred and
rejected Waste Management Inc's <WMX> 27 dlr per share tender
offer for all its sharesd.
    ChemLawn gave no details on the talks.
 Reuter

Uluslararasi Endustri ve Ticaret Bankasi
AS (INTERBANK), a large privately-owned trade financing bank in
Turkey, is seeking a 20 mln dlr committed export advance
facility, Morgan Guaranty Ltd said as lead manager.
    The financing will be for 14 months, but the borrower will
have the option after 10 months to request an extension for
another six months. Those banks wishing to extend would receive
another 25 basis point fee.
    The financing will be in dollars and marks, although mark
borrowings cannot exceed 50 pct of the facility.
    The facility will be available for 70 days and interest
will be at 1-1/4 pct over the London Interbank Offered Rate
(LIBOR). There will be a commitment fee of 50 basis points.
    Banks are being invited to join the facility at four mln
dlrs for 55 basis points and at two mln dlrs for 40 basis
points.
    Responses are due by April 3 and the financing is being
syndicated among a broad-based group of international banks to
diversify the borrower's traditional lending base.
 REUTER

Cato Corp said it has filed for
an initial public offering of about three mln common shares.
    Cato said the offering, to be made in late April or early
May, is expected to raise 35 to 45 mln dlrs.
    Cato, which had been publicly held several years ago before
going private, operates a chain of women's specialty stores in
small to medium-sized towns.
 Reuter

SHV Holdings NV said it is
withdrawing its take-over bid for Imperial Continental Gas
Association <ICGS.L> after failing to gain the minimum number
of pledges sought from IC Gas shareholders.
    SHV said in a statement it had sought to gain 750,000 IC
Gas shares under a 700p offer for IC Gas ordinary stock but was
informed that level was not reached when the deadline expired.
"The tender offer is therefore void," it said.
     SHV also offered 252 pence for every one stg nominal of IC
Gas loan stock under the bid, made by <SHV (United Kingdom)
Holding Co Ltd>.
 Reuter

Negotiators at a United Nations
conference on natural rubber are making slow progress towards
reaching an agreement, delegates said.
    The conference, which began Monday, is widely seen as the
final effort to adopt a new International Natural Rubber
Agreement (INRA) before the current one expires in October.
    Some 40 producing and consuming countries are taking part
in the two-week meeting. This is the fourth such conference in
nearly two years.
    Delegates said both sides still appeared divided on the key
issue of the price adjustment mechanism.
    Consumers want frequent price reviews at 12 month intervals
instead of 18 months as at present, a proposal currently
rejected by producers.
    And while consumers press for the price adjustment to be
automatic, producers have resisted reducing the role of the
International Rubber Organization Council in the price
adjustment procedure.
    Conference chairman Manaspas Xuto of Thailand has said it
was "imperative" to settle outstanding issues this week so that
technical drafting work can be done next week.
 Reuter

Schering-Plough Corp said it
obtained an injunction against Nature's Blend Products Inc of
due to trademark infringement on its Fibre Trim label.
    Under terms of the injunction, Nature's Blend agreed to
refrain from making and selling food supplement products under
the trademark Fiber Slim or using any any trademark that
simulates the trade dress of Fibre Trim.
 Reuter

LORD ABBETT VALUE APPRECIATION FUND
    Annual div 33 cts vs 23 cts prior
    Long term capital gain 2.06 vs 75 cts prior
    Short term capital gain 18 cts vs 11 cts prior
    Pay April 6
    
    LORD ABBETT U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES FUND
    Daily div .029 cts vs .029 cts prior
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME NATIONAL SERIES
    Daily .068 cts vs .068 prior
    
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME FUND NY SERIES
    Daily .067 cts vs .067 cts prior
    
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME FUND TEXAS SERIES
    Daily .059 cts vs .059 cts prior
    LORD ABBETT CALIFORNIA TAX FREE INCOME FUND
    Daily .062 vs .063 cts prior
 Reuter

    Net 55.3 mln dlrs vs 51.7 mln dlrs
    Revs 419.1 mln vs 391.7 mln
    Note: Revs include investment and other income of 18.4 mln
dlrs vs 18.5 mln dlrs.
    Company is wholly owned by Gulf and Western Corp <GW>.

 Reuter

Consumers Power Co said the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission approved the company's Midland
cogeneration venture as a "qualifying" facility under the
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.
    It said the approval overcomes the last potential federal
hurdle to converting Midland to a combined-cycle, natural
gas-fired cogeneration plant.
    In October 1986, the venture received permission from the
U.S. Department of Energy to fuel the plant permanently with
natural gas.
 Reuter

Vipont Laboratories Inc
said the Canadian Bureau of Non-Prescription Drugs approved its
Viadent toothpaste and oral rinse for marketing.
    The company also said it finalized an agreement with a
Canadian marketing company to introduce the product in the
country. It said Viadent helps prevent plaque build-up and
inflamed gums.
    The products should be available in Canada in three to four
months, the company added.
 Reuter

<Metromedia Long Distance> said it has
introduced OnePlus Wats, a telecommunications service for high
volume callers.
    Metromedia said OnePlus uses a local switched network
rather than dedicated connections to link customers to the
nearest Metromedia Long Distance switching center and could
save customers up to 35 pct off of competitors' rates for long
distance service.
 Reuter

Period ended January 31.
    Shr loss six cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 536,000 vs profit 166,000
    Revs 2,099,000 vs 3,149,000
    Avg shrs 10,429,000 vs 9,943,000
    Nine Mths
    Shre loss nine cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 790,000 vs loss 377,000
    Revs 7,089,000 vs 7,646,000
    Avg shrs 10,406,000 vs 9,351,000
    Note: Full name Newport Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
 Reuter

Integrated Genetics Inc said
the Food and Drug Administration approved field trials of a
hormone which is essential to the regulation of cows'
reproduction.
    Integrated said field trials will begin immediately under
the direction of Granada Corp's Granada R and D Ventures,
Integrated's partner in this area.

 Reuter

Qtly div 11-3/4 cts vs 11-3/4 cts prior
 Reuter

Mitchell Energy and
Development Corp said it plans to hold its capital spending in
fiscal 1988, ending January 31, to 96 mln dlrs, down from the
123 mln dlrs spent in 1987 and 213 mln dlrs in 1986.
    The company also said its natural gas revenues so far this
year have been reduced by lower contract customer purchases due
to mild weather and soft economic conditions.
    "But the contracts call for the lower 'takes' to be made up
during the course of the year," Mitchell Energy said. Meanwhile
it will sell additional quantities of gas on the spot market.
    Mitchell Energy said the additional spot sales will tend to
lower the average price realized for gas in the early part of
fiscal 1988.
    However, it said the average for the full year is not
expected to be significantly lower than the 2.99 dlrs per
thousand cubic feet averaged in fiscal 1987.                   
   
 Reuter

River Oaks Industries Inc said
it agreed in principle to give control of the company to Benson
Seizer, a New York investor, in return for 2.6 mln dlrs in
capital.
    The company, a maker of mobile homes, said it terminated
merger discussions with <Nursing Centers of America>.
    River Oaks said it will place a 2.6 mln dlr convertible
note with Seizer, who in turn will name six additional members
to the company's five-member board. One of the new directors
will take over as chairman and chief executive officer, River
Oaks said.
    River Oaks said the note will be convertible into two mln
shares of its common stock at one dlr a share. The company
currently has 14 mln shares outstanding.
    The company said it will also grant Seizer an option to buy
an additional 2.6 mln shares during the next four years at 1.25
dlrs a share during the first year and 1.50 dlrs a share
thereafter.
    The company said the money raised from Seizer will further
strengthen its balance sheet and enhance its ability to seek
selective expansion opportunities.
    Seizer is experienced in turnaround situations and is
expected to take direct involvement in River Oaks management,
said Charles F. DeGroot, who will remain a director of the
company after giving up the post of chairman to one of Seizer's
board nominees.
    Don Manning will cede his post as chief executive but will
remain president, the company said.
 Reuter

Consolidated group net profit 1.88 billion francs vs 1.29
billion.
    Net financial and operating profit 1.11 billion vs 825.1
mln.
    Extraordinary earnings 774.7 mln vs 462.8 mln.
    Net dividend 165 francs vs 150.
 Reuter

(Credithrift Financial Corp)
said its board authorized the redemption of the company's 8.20
pct Senior Notes due Dec 15, 1987.
    It said the notes are to be redeemed April 20 at a price
equal to 100 pct of the principal amount of the notes plus
accrued interest.
 Reuter

U.K. Interest rates look set to move
lower even after Monday's half-point cut in bank base rates to
10-1/2 pct, analysts said, citing as evidence the suspension of
a British National Savings issue yesterday.
    The Department of National Savings, effectively a Treasury
Department unit, yesterday suspended its 32nd issue, launched
in October and paying a high tax-free 8-3/4 pct on five-year
private investments between 25 and 5,000 stg. A spokesman said
the suspension was just a reaction to yields on national
savings bonds being way out of line with the rest of the
market.
    The move was followed by a surprise sell-out within minutes
today of a Bank of England one-billion stg tap issue, the
second such issue in as many weeks, analysts noted.
    They said the near-instant sale of the entire new gilts
issue, for which the Bank of England had required a high 40 pct
downpayment, was clear evidence that the market thought rates
had to drop sooner rather than later.
    The sale of the tranche of 8-3/4 pct treasury bonds due
1997 occurred in an active, bullish gilts market as downward
pressure on money market rates remained intact, with the
bellwether three-month interbank rate down 1/8 point at
10-9-7/8 pct.
     It coincided with another strong sterling rally which
pushed the pound to four-year highs against the dollar.
    "That government stock disappeared very quickly indeed," said
Stephen Lewis, head of economic research at stockbrokers
Phillips and Drew; "It is an indication that the market believes
rates are going to fall further ... At least by a half-point
immediately after the budget (on March 17), and some people
hope for more."
    Stockbrokers James Capel said in a comment the move by the
National Savings Department was "of considerable significance."
    It said, "the real message ... Is that the decks are being
quickly cleared so as to facilitate a speedy decision by the
building societies to cut their rates when the inevitable cut
in bank base rates to 10 pct materialises."
    Building societies have said a drop in bank base rates
would normally have to exceed half a point to give rise to a
reduction in mortgage lending rates.
    Lewis of Phillips and Drew said he too believed the
National Savings issue suspension may reflect new U.K. Treasury
policy to point building societies towards a mortgage rate cut.
    "National Savings has been competing too effectively with
the building societies of late. Building society income has
been depressed in recent months," he said.
    He and other analysts said Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson was keen to see mortgage rates fall to keep a lid
on U.K. Inflation.
    Underlying upward pressure on prices is stronger in Britain
than in most other Western economies with inflation seen rising
well above four pct this year and above five pct in 1988 after
last year's 3.7 pct.
    Emphasising the impact of mortgage rates on consumer
prices, Lewis said a one-point cut in building society rates
would reduce inflation in Britain by about 0.4 pct.
    But Lewis and others noted that building societies had been
complaining to the government about intense competition from
National Savings, which they argued reduced the scope for early
mortgage rate cuts.
    "The Chancellor need not be worried about losing some PSBR
funding from National Savings, but he must be taking the
building societies' criticism to heart. It looks like the
National Savings move reflects this," one senior dealer said.
    A Savings Department spokesman refused to comment on this
interpretation, saying the suspension of the issue was merely a
reaction to the recent fall in U.K. Interest rates, which had
pushed yields on national savings bonds way out of line with
the rest of the market.
    "We are not politically motivated ... Funding was just
becoming too expensive and we don't need all that money," he
told Reuters, adding the department had suspended issues at
least twice in the past, when offered interest rates were above
or below market rates.
    He said demand for the issue had risen sharply of late as
U.K. Money market rates continued their steady decline and
income was threatening to overshoot an unofficial three billion
stg target set for fiscal 1986 ending March 31.
    In the first 10 months of fiscal 1986, National Saving's
contribution to government funding totalled 2.72 billion stg,
compared with 2.01 billion stg in the same period of the
previous year, official figures show.
    Figures for February, out on Monday, are expected to show a
further increase of between 300 and 400 mln stg, pushing the
total for 11 months above target, government officials said.
 REUTER

Qtly div 45 cts vs 45 cts previously
    Pay May 1
 Reuter

 Reuter

    Pay June 16
    Record May 22
 Reuter

JONES AND VINING SAID VULCAN CORP OFFERS FIVE DLRS A SHARE FOR JONES

The Farmers Home Administration, the
U.S. Agriculture Department's farm lending arm, could lose
about seven billion dlrs in outstanding principal on its
severely delinquent borrowers, or about one-fourth of its farm
loan portfolio, the General Accounting Office, GAO, said.
    In remarks prepared for delivery to the Senate Agriculture
Committee, Brian Crowley, senior associate director of GAO,
also said that a preliminary analysis of proposed changes in
FmHA's financial eligibility standards indicated as many as one
half of FmHA borrowers who received new loans from the agency
in 1986 would be ineligible under the proposed system.
    The agency has proposed evaluating applicants' credit using
a variety of financial ratios instead of relying solely on
cashflow ability.
    Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
slammed the proposed eligibility changes, telling FmHA
Administrator Vance Clark at a hearing that they would mark a
"dramatic shift" in the agency's purpose away from being farmers'
lender of last resort toward becoming a "big city bank."
    But Clark defended the new regulations, saying the agency
had a responsibility to administer its 70-billion dlr loan
portfolio in a "compassionate yet judicious manner."
    Crowley of GAO, Congress' investigative arm, said the
proposed credit scoring system attempted to ensure that FmHA
would make loans only to borrowers who had a reasonable change
of repaying their debt.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 11 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Oper net loss 1,963,000 vs loss 2,199,000
    Revs 17.5 mln vs 40.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit nine cts vs profit two cts
    Oper net profit 1,555,000 vs 456,000
    Revs 86.3 mln vs 143.7 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes extraordinary tax charges of 115,000
dlrs vs 995,000 dlrs in quarter and credits 8,096,000 dlrs vs
1,173,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 year net includes pretax gain 7,400,000 dlrs from
termination of pension plan.
    1985 net includes pretax charge 1,200,000 dlrs in quarter
and gain 1,400,000 dlrs in year from restructuring and
consolidation.
    1985 quarter net includes 1,480,000 dlr tax credit.
    1986 year net includes pretax gain 17.2 mln dlrs from sale
of foreign subsidiary.
 Reuter

General Refractories Co had no comment on the activity in its
stock.
    The company's shares were trading off 1-1/2 at 15-1/4.
    The exchange said it contacted the company and asked if
there were any corporate developments to explain the unusual
activity. The company declined to issue a statement, the NYSE
said.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) expressed
disquiet over protectionist moves in the United States to limit
imports of textiles and said it would retaliate immediately if
EC exports were hit.
    A spokeswoman for the EC Commission said EC External Trade
Commissioner Willy De Clercq had written to his U.S.
Counterpart, special U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter,
outlining the concerns of the 12-nation Community.
    The draft legislation under consideration by Congress would
impose permanent quotas on products entering the U.S. and seek
to limit any increase to a growth in the overall trade.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 102,000 vs profit 258,000
    Revs 1,695,000 vs 1,371,000
    Year
    Shr loss 33 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net loss 488,000 vs profit 384,000
    Revs 6,700,000 vs 4,774,000
    NOTE: 1986 results include operations of radio stations
WJYE-FM for the full year and WNNR-AM for the last six months.
    Speed-O-Print Business Machines Corp is full name of
company.
 Reuter

Asbestec Industries Inc said
its board declared a three-for-two stock split, payable April
17, record April Three.
 Reuter

Dataproducts Corp said
it received a multi-year contract, valued at more than 30 mln
dlrs, to supply band printers to <Siemens AG> of West Germany.
    Siemens will use the printers for office applications and
for medium to large mainframes, Dataproducts said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 20 cts previously
 Reuter

Jones and Vining Inc said
Vulcan Corp, one of its main competitors in the production of
shoe lasts, has offered to acquire Jones and Vining for five
    Jones and Vining said a management effort to take the
company private will go ahead at 4.50 dlrs per share. The form
of the buyout has not yet been determined and the buyout is
subject to a nunber of conditions, it said.
    Jones and Vining said its board believes that a transaction
with Vulcan would be difficult to complete, but it has asked
Vulcan for further information to explore the bid.
    On January 23, Jones and Vining said its board had
recommended that shareholders aprove a management buyout at
4.50 dlrs a share.
    On February Six, Vulcan initially offered to acquire Jones
and Vining for five dlrs a share, but Jones and Vining
dismissed the offer as "frivolous" and "without substance" and
said the bid failed to comply with provisions of the Securities
Act of 1934.
 Reuter

Viragen Inc said it is sponsoring
clinical studies of Human Leukocyte Interferon, Alpha, in the
treatment of renal cell carcinoma and bladder cell carcinoma.
    The Food and Drug Administration approved human trials 
will be conducted on at least 30 patients, male and female for
each cancer type.
 Reuter

PPG Industries Inc will continue to
show earnings growth in 1987 despite a difficult economic
climate, the company said in its annual report, mailed to
shareholders today.
    For 1986, the company's earnings rose five pct, to 316 mln
dlrs, on revenues that increased eight pct, to 4.7 billion
dlrs. Earnings per share were 2.66 dlrs, compared with 2.27
dlrs.
    The company added that in 1986 its return on equity reached
17.3 pct, up from 15.5 pct in 1985 and close to its goal of 18
pct.
 Reuter

Waste Management Inc said it
filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the southern district
of Ohio to dismiss the counterclaim brought against it by
Chemlawn Corp <CHEM>.
    The litigation relates to Waste Management's cash tender of
27 dlrs a share for all shares of Chemlawn.
    A hearing on the counterclaim is scheduled for March 19 and
20.
    Waste Management also said that Chemlawn has offered to
supply Waste Management with materials being forwarded by
Chemlawn to other potential purchasers of Chemlawn, but only if
Waste Management agrees to conditions which would result in
termination of its current offer and a 120-day standstill on
any unnegotiated transaction.
    Waste Management said it refused to agree to the requested
preconditions. The company stated its believe that Chemlawn is
obligated to permit it to compete with others to acquire
Chemlawn on a fully-informed basis.
    Waste Management's offer is scheduled to expire March 25.
 Reuter

Belgian Budget Minister Guy
Verhofstadt has proposed a plan to sell off shares in several
state-owned enterprises, including national airline Sabena and
the postal and telecommunications authority, government sources
said.
    They said the plan could raise more than 25 billion francs
in revenue over the next five years according to Verhofstadt's
projections, helping the government to reduce its huge budget
deficit, targetted this year at 418 billion francs.
    But the scheme had received a guarded reception from the
Social Christian parties in Belgium's centre-right coalition
when Verhofstadt unveiled it at a cabinet meeting yesterday.
    Discussion of the plan was likely to be long and difficult,
the sources said.
    Verhofstadt proposes beginning the selloffs in the last
quarter of 1987, with the sale of 30 to 40 pct of state
investment company SNI. He expects the sale to raise three
billion francs, they added.
    A 25 pct share in Sabena would be sold in mid-1989 for 1.5
billion francs, while 50 pct of the postal and
telecommunications authority would be sold off in two stages in
mid-1990 and early 1992, raising at least seven billion francs.
    Also on Verhofstadt's list are the Maritime Transport
Authority, leading gas distributor Distrigaz, CGER savings
bank, CGER, and several other credit institutions.
    Le Soir daily quoted CGER vice-president Paul Henrion as
expressing strong opposition to the privatisation of his bank.
    "Public company we are and public company we wish to stay,"
Henrion told the paper.
 REUTER

Reichhold Chemicals Inc said it is
raising the prices of its Emulsion Polymers Division's
styrene-based latexes for nowovens, textiles, adhesives and
other specialty end uses, effective April nine.
    The increases range between three and nine cts per dry
pound.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it will use a
product designed by Telecredit Inc's Light Signatures Inc unit
to prevent counterfeit automotive parts.
    Light Signatures will provide coded warranty labels for
Chrysler's replacement parts. The system will first be used for
glass and then expanded to other products.
    Parts replaced by independent repair shops, and containing
the coded warranty label, will be tested by Chrysler dealers to
ensure authenticity.
    The company also said the system will tracks each piece of
warranty glass distributed by Chrysler.

 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 704,803 vs 385,081
    Revs 5,669,682 vs 4,142,095
 Reuter

Avery Inc said it began a public
offering of two mln shars at 50.25 dlrs per shares.
    PUrchasers of the shares are entitled to get one additional
share for each share purchased to give effect to the
two-for-one stock split approved by the board February 26.
    There are about 19.9 mln shares outstanding on a presplit
basis, it said.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce borrowings and other
general purposes.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 570,000 vs 476,000
    Sales 122.4 mln vs 123.1 mln
    NOTEL Prior year net includes pretax charge 453,000 dlrs
for reopening of eight stores.
 Reuter

    Net 102,508 vs 264,910
    Revs 2,278,083 vs 2,536,312
    Nine mths
    Shr 18 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 489,253 vs 404,877
    Revs 6,679,745 vs 6,613,551
    NOTE: Excludes discontinued operations gain of 40,519 dlrs
in the third quarter fiscal 1986, and loss of 9,666 dlrs in the
nine months fiscal 1986.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs 24 cts
    Net 43,000 vs 1,032,000
    Revs 10 mln vs 4.9 mln
    Avg shrs 3.7 mln vs 4.3 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 1.02 dlrs vs 1.62 dlrs
    Net 3,950,000 vs 7,308,000
    Revs 30.8 mln vs 33.3 mln
    Avg shrs 3.9 mln vs 4.5 mln
    NOTE: 1985 restated to reflect tax loss carryforwards.
 Reuter

Qtly div 37-1/2 cts vs 37-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

 Reuter

IC Industries Inc called for redemption
113.6 mln dlrs worth of securities.
    IC said it will redeem 69 mln dlrs in 14 pct guaranteed
notes, seven pct Swiss Franc notes of Abex International worth
40 mln Swiss francs (26.2 mln dlrs), and 18.4 mln dlrs of
11-5/8 pct Pneumo subordinated sinking fund debentures.
    The guaranteed notes will be redeemed May 15 at a
redemption price of 100.5 pct. The Swiss Franc notes will be
redeemed July 12 at 100.5 pct. The debentures will be redeemed
June one, with 5.75 mln dlrs to be redeemed at 100 pct and the
balance to be redeemed at 102.33 pct.
 Reuter

Rexnord nc said it signed a
definitive agreement to sell its Railway Maintenance Equipment
Co subsidiary to Banner Industries Inc. Terms were withheld.
    It said Railway Maintenance had 1986 sales of 16 mln dlrs
and employs 100 people.
    Rexnord said the sale is part of a major program to divest
several of its businesses representing about 200 mln dlrs in
net assets. Still to be divested are the Process Machinery
Division with sales of 137 mln dlrs and Mathews Conveyer Co,
with sales of 83 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

it signed an agreement to buy or lease five import cement
terminals from Hanson Industries' <HAN> Kaiser Cement Corp.
    Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
    Lone Star said three of the terminals are located in
Alaska, one in Seattle and the other in Portland, Ore.
 Reuter

The overall area devoted to sugar
beet in Europe is forecast to remain stagnant this year at 7.22
mln hectares compared with 7.21 mln ha in 1986, West German
statistician F.O. Licht said.
    It was feared that the recent steep rise in sugar prices
would have a marked effect on planting intentions this year,
Licht said, but judging by this first estimate the effect was
probably minimal.
    The total beet area in the European Community is forecast
to fall two pct to 1.85 mln ha against 1.89 mln in 1986.
    The total Western Europe area is put at 2.49 mln ha,
against 2.50 mln in 1986. Eastern Europe area is forecast at
4.73 mln ha against 4.72 mln.
    Individual West Europe country estimates, in 1,000 hectares
(with 1986 figures in brackets), are, Belgium/Luxembourg 114
(118), Denmark 69 (69), France 419 (421), Greece 35 (44),
Ireland 36 (38), Italy 270 (275), Netherlands 129 (138),
Portugal 1 (1), Spain 192 (190), U.K. 200 (201), West Germany
385 (399), Austria 32 (28), Finland 30 (31), Sweden 51 (52),
Switzerland 15 (14), Turkey 355 (340), Yugoslavia 160 (136).
    Eastern Europe plantings are forecast as follows, USSR 3400
(3440), Albania 10 (9), Bulgaria 52 (50), Czechoslovakia 195
(196), East Germany 210 (205), Hungary 108 (96), Poland 460
(440), Romania 295 (280).
    On the basis of average yields this year, Licht said these
area forecasts pointed to a total European beet sugar crop in
1987/88 of 29.8 mln tonnes, raw value, down from 31.4 mln
tonnes in 1986/87. Licht said sugar yields were fairly high
last season, thanks to favourable weather, and this increases
the chances of a significant reduction in production in
1987/88.
    Based on average yields, EC beet sugar production could
fall nearly 10 pct this year to 13.5 mln tonnes from 14.9 mln
in 1986/87, while total Western Europe production could be 16.9
mln tonnes against 18.1 mln. Eastern Europe production could be
12.9 mln tonnes against 13.3 mln in 1986/87.
 Reuter

Britain will from next autumn mint and
market a new bullion coin called the "Britannia" containing one
ounce of 24 carat gold, together with bullion coins of smaller
denominations, a Treasury official said.
    The new investment coin, to be sold worldwide, will
fluctuate in price according to the international price of
gold.
    The smaller coins will be in denominations of a half ounce,
a quarter ounce and a tenth of an ounce. REUTER

Benihana National Corp said it signed a
letter of intent with <Tishman Realty and Construction Co Inc>
to build a teppanyaki-style restaurant at the Hilton Hotel at
Walt Disney World Village in Lake Buena Vista, Fal.
    Benihana National said it currently owns and operates 16
teppanyaki-style restaurants under license from its parent,
<Benihana of Tokyo Inc>.
 Reuter

Attorney General Edwin Meese said he
saw some benefit in the proposed purchase of American Motors Co
<AMO> By Chrysler Corp <C> in that it would return the smallest
of the U.S. auto manufacturers to American hands.
    Meese told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that
consideration would be part of the Justice Department's review
of the proposed merger. He said the agency has not yet received
a formal notice of the merger which would start the review
process.
   Chrysler has made a 1.3 billion dlr bid to buy AMC from its
French parent Renault.
    "I think one of the things that has to be recognized in that
merger is that it appears, at least, that a good portion of the
ownership of American Motors, which has been in overseas hands
will be put back in American hands," Meese told the
    "That may be one of the factors that would be weighed in the
judgment," he added.
    Renault currently holds about 46 pct of AMC.
 Reuter

Dutch members of parliament said they
could do little to help resolve the dispute over redundancies
in Rotterdam port's general cargo sector and urged the union
and employers to sort out their differences themselves.
    Both sides gave evidence to the all-party standing
committee on Social Affairs today, but committee members said
they saw little chance of parliamentary intervention.
    The dispute began on January 19 in protest at employers'
plans for 800 redundancies from the 4,000-strong workforce,
starting with 350 this year. The port and transport union, FNV,
is to challenge the redundancies in an Amsterdam court
tomorrow.
 Reuter

Martin Sosnoff, who has offered to
buy Caesars World Inc for 28 dlrs a share, said senior
officials of the company have offered to buy back the Caesars
stake he already holds, now 13.6 pct of the total outstanding.
Sosnoff, a New York investor and money manager, said the offers
to buy back his stock occurred "on several occasions during the
past year."
    The offers were made by several Caesars World
representatives, including its chairman, Henry Gluck, he said. 
   Sosnoff said he rejected all of the proposals.
    The Caesars World official suggested various forms of
payment for Sosnoff's stake, including other securities of the
company and cash, he said. Sosnoff did not detail the value of
the proposed compensation.
    Also suggested was a deal involving "put" and "call" option
regarding Sosnoff's Caesars World holdings, he said.
    The proposed deals would have also included a "standstill"
agreement, which would have restricted Sosnoff's right to buy
more Caesars World stock or "to take any action adverse to
incumbent management," he said.
    Sosnoff's report on the offers he received for his Caesars
World shares were amended to his official offer to purchase the
company, as well as reported to the SEC.
    Sosnoff now holds about 4.1 mln Caesars World shares, or
13.6 pct of the company's 30 mln shares outstanding.
    The Sosnoff offer to buy the shares of the company he does
not already hold has been valued at 725.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Lured by the weakening dollar and the
conviction that oil prices are poised for a rebound, European
energy companies are buying up cheap U.S. oil and gas reserves
to replenish their supplies, oil industry analysts said.
    They said owning oil reserves in a politically stable
United States is good insurance against future shortages.
However, the quick pace of foreign investment has heated up
competition among European firms, well-heeled U.S.
institutional investors and major oil companies to snare choice
domestic oil properties.
    Strevig and Associates, a Houston firm that tracks oil and
gas reserve sales, said growing interest among foreign buyers
had helped push reserve prices in recent months higher. All
buyers of U.S. reserves paid a median price of 6.45 dlrs a
barrel of oil during the fourth quarter of 1986 for
acquisitions, up from 5.33 dlrs in the third quarter and five
dlrs in the second quarter, according to the firm's research.
    "Foreign investors have been here nibbling a long time, but
we're seeing new names and smaller companies coming in," said
Arthur Smith, an oil property appraisal specialist and
president of John S. Herold Inc in Greenwich, Conn.
    "Europeans, especially, do not have much indigenous oil and
gas and realize the tide will eventually turn in favor of the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries," he added.
    Smith and other oil industry analyst and economists believe
the trend in foreign investments will continue in 1987 because
of the fall in value of the U.S. dollar, the perception that
oil prices have hit bottom and the fact that it is cheaper to
buy new reserves than to explore for them.
    Plenty of properties are available on the market, thanks to
the need of many companies to raise cash for debt payments and
general restructuring throughout the oilpatch.
    In two of the biggest transactions of recent months,
French-owned Minatome Corp., a unit of <Total Compagnie
Francaise des Petroles>, spent more than 230 mln dlrs to
separately acquire oil assets of Texas International <TEICC>
and Lear Petroleum Partners <LPP>. A spokesman for Minatome
said the company is searching for additional acquisitions.
    A partnership of two Belgian-owned firms, <Petrofina S.A.>
and <Cometra Oil S.A.> paid 150 mln dlrs late last year to buy
virtually all the exploration assets of the Williams Cos <WMB>,
the Oklahoma pipeline firm.
    But Japanese investors prefer entering into joint ventures
with experienced U.S. companies to explore for new oil. Japan's
<Nippon Oil> is a partner of Texaco Inc's <TX> Texaco USA in a
100 mln dlrs U.S. drilling program, and has joined with
Dupont's <DD> Conoco Inc in a similar 135 dlrs mln deal.
    Most buyers said the pay-back period of a property, its
geographic location and the lifting cost of the crude oil are
more important factors in evaluating potential acquisitions
than relying on a simple price-per-barrel formula.
    Rich Hodges, a Houston-based land manager representing
International Oil and Gas Corp, a partnership of <Preussag
Corp> and <C. Deilmann Inc> of West Germany, said the firm had
earmarked at least 50 mln dlrs to spend on oil reserves in
Texas, Oklahoma or Louisiana in the coming months.
    But he called that a small amount compared to the amount
other investors have for acquisitions. PaineWebber's Geodyne
Energy Income Fund, for example, has said it plans to spend up
to 300 mln dlrs on oil and gas properties.
    "The competition is stiff, not only from other foreign
investors but from the brokerage houses and U.S. oil
companies," he said. "Our company is shopping around because we
feel it's substantially less risky than pure exploration. If
you're going to take the risk inherent in exploration, you need
prices higher than the current market," he added.
    In addition to the foreign investors and U.S. brokerage
houses, analysts said many of the major oil companies were also
competing for prime properties.
    Houston-based Shell Oil Co, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group
<RD>, has been one of the most active companies in buying and
selling reserves, Smith said. Since 1982, Shell has acquired
two billion dlrs in new reserves, including 470 mln barrels of
oil equivalent at a net cost of 2.80 dlrs a barrel, he said.
    "Buying reserves is a good strategy for most of these
companies," Smith said. "Domestic production has dropped by one
mln barrels a day because of cutbacks in drilling and it may
drop by another one mln barrels a day in 1988."
 Reuter

CBT BOARD OF DIRECTORS POSTPONES LAUNCH  OF NIGHT TRADING UNTIL APRIL 30, EXCHANGE SAYS

A meeting of leading politicians,
bankers and economists has forecast Austrian real gross
domestic product growth for this year at between 0.5 and 1.5
pct, a government spokesman said.
    This compared with a two pct growth forecast made by the
semi-official Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) last
December.
    Helmut Kramer, spokesman for Chancellor Franz Vranitzky,
told Reuters that the forecast had been made during the meeting
attended by Vranitzky, Finance Minister Ferdinand Lacina,
National Bank President Stefan Koren and a WIFO representative.
    Economists have been cutting growth forecasts recently
mainly due to expectations of a poor export performance this
year, notably to Eastern Europe and oil exporting states.
    Hannes Androsch, general director of
Creditanstalt-Bankverein <CABV.VI>, today put 1987 GDP growth
at between one and 1.5 pct.
    Kramer also said the meeting had heard that unemployment
for the year would be above the 5.5 pct forecast, but was
unlikely to be more than six pct.
 REUTER

Shr profit primary 91 cts vs loss 86 cts
    Shr profit diluted 90 cts vs loss 86 cts
    Net profit 787,000 vs loss 751,000
    Sales 20 mln vs 12.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit profit 2.63 dlrs vs profit five cts
    Shr profit diluted 2.59 dlrs vs profit five cts
    Net profit 2,273,000 vs profit 43,000
    Sales 70.1 mln vs 47.1 mln
    Note: Prior qtr and year figures include gains on disposal
of discontinued operations of 76,000 dlrs and 79,000 dlrs,
 Reuter

the expiration of its 1,424,500 common stock purchase warrants
to September 30 from March 31.
    Each two warrants allow the purchase of one share at two
dlrs.
 Reuter

<Prudential Insurance Co of
America> said it will enter the real estate brokerage business
in 1988 and plans to develop a national network of franchised
brokerage offices.
    Prudential said its new real estate unit, Prudential Real
Estate Affiliates, will be headed by Jerome M. Cole, who has
been chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co Inc's <S> Coldwell
Banker Residential Affiliates Inc unit.
    The unit will be headquarted in Southern California, it
said.
 Reuter

Interleaf Inc said it will
introduce a series of new software packages that allow users to
build electronic publishing systems comprised of personal
computers, workstations and mainframe computers.
    In addition, the company said it will announce a software
program that lets users create documents in different languages
or mix languages within a single document.
 Reuter

Airlines Corp said it will add nonstop flights from Houston's
Hobby Airport to Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg, San Diego and
Austin on April One.
    It said the changes will increase daily service to Austin
to four roundtrips daily, to Tampa to three nonstops and a
one-stop, to Orlando to one nonstops, three onestops and two
connecting flights and to San Diego to one nonstop and three
direct flights.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss nine cts vs loss four cts
    Oper net loss 108,000 vs loss 55,000
    Sales 3,029,000 vs 2,694,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 42 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Oper net profit 511,000 vs profit 177,000
    Sales 13.3 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Avg shrs 1,233,136 vs 1,217,981
    Note: Current qtr and year figures exclude operating loss
carryforward gain of 26,000 dlrs vs gain of 88,000 dlrs in
prior year periods.
 Reuter

Qtly div 44 cts vs 44 cts prior
    Pay June One
 Reuter

Qtly div 68 cts vs 68 cts prior
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co selected <Scicon Corp's>
Systems Control unit to install a manufacturing automation
system at Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico, plant, Scicon said.
    The system, the value of which was not disclosed, will
provide Ford with automated vehicle tracking capabilities,
Scicon said.
 Reuter

RLR Financial Services Inc
said the National Association of Securities Dealers has decided
not to delist its stock from NASDAQ on March 12 as it had
threatened.
    The company said the NASD has granted it an indeterminate
amount of time to resolve issues raised by the NASD on the
market making of RLR's RLR Securities Group Inc subsidiary in
shares of the parent company.
    The NASD had alleged that no registration statement for the
shares was in effect.  RLR contested the charge but stopped
market making in its own stock.
 Reuter

McDermott International Inc said
ASEA Babcock PFBC  received a 48 mln dlrs contract to supply a
combustion system for Tidd Power Plant in Brilliant, Ohio.
    ASEA Babcock PFBC is a joint venture between its Babcock
and Wilcox unit and ASEA PFBC of Sweden.
 Reuter

Alaska Air Group Inc said it will offer
1.8 mln shares of common stock at 25.875 dlrs per share.
    The company said proceeds from the 45.1-mln-dlr offering
will be used to reduce debt, for working capital and for
capital expenditures.
 Reuter

El Paso Electric Co said it has
agreed to limit rate increases in its New Mexico service
territory to a maximum of nine pct over the next three years.
    Last year, about 18 pct of the utility's revenues came from
New Mexico, 70 pct from retail electricity sales in Texas and
12 pct from wholesale sales under federal regulation.
    In January the company filed a formal rate case with New
Mexico regulators seeking a 21.66 pct increase in its annual
rates there which would have been equal to about 13.9 mln dlrs
net of fuel savings.
    El Paso Electric said it reached a stipulated settlement on
its New Mexico rates with several parties, including the state
of the New Mexico Public Service Commission, which provides for
rate treatment of the utility's investment in the Palo Verde
Nuclear Generating Station located near Phoenix, Ariz.
    The company said commission hearings on the stipulated
settlement are expected to start next month. If it is approved,
the new rates could go into effect as early as this summer. El
Paso Electric's January rate case will remain before the
commission pending approval of the settlement.
    El Paso Electric said the agreement provides got continued
full inclusion in its rate base of the costs of Palo Verda Unit
one, maximum rate increases of three pct on a cents per
kilowatt hour basis in 1987, 1988 and 1989, and no further rate
increases until 1994.
    Once the agreement is approved, the utility would still
have to prove cost of service increases to support at least the
maximum increase each year, a spokesman explained.
    The company said it will attempt to settle the cost of
service issues in timed to allow the new rates to go into
effect this summer.
    El Paso Electric said the agreement allows recovery in its
New Mexico rates of lease payments in connection with the
utility's 1986 sale and leaseback of its investment in Palo
Verde Unit Two to the extent of the book value sold.
    The company said it agreed that none of its costs for Palo
Verde Unit Three will be included in its New Mexico rates.
    The utility said the agreement also resolves any issue
relating to the prudence of the planning, management and
construction of Palo Verde and settles any possible issue of
excess generating capacity through 1993.
    El Paso Electric said it does not expect to have excess
generating capacity.
    The agreement also provides that any portion of the cost of
service deferrals not recouped prior to December 31, 1994 will
not be recovered through New Mexico rates, the company said,
adding it expects to recoup all deferrals in full by that date.
 Reuter

Chronar Corp said it signed a
joint venture agreement with <Rade Koncar>, a Yugoslav maker of
electric energy equipment, to build a 12 mln dlr, one megawatt
photovaltaic manufacturing plant in Split, Yugoslavia.
    Under the agreement, Rade Koncar will own 60 pct of the
venture and Chronar will own 40 pct, Chronar said.
    Chronar said it will receive 7.5 mln dlrs for supplying
equipment and technology and will invest 2.5 mln dlrs for its
40 pct stake. It said it cancelled a previous pact with a
Yugoslav firm because the firm could not raise enough capital.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board of Trade's (CBT)
board of directors voted to postpone the start of what will be
the first U.S. evening futures trading session until April 30
from April 2 to give participants a chance to get ready, the
exchange announced.
    Several trading firms had asked for a delay in the start-up
of the evening session so that the firms can work out
operational difficulties created by the off-hours session.
    CBT chairman Karsten Mahlmann said in a statement the delay
will "afford all firms the time necessary to be 100 pct ready
for this innovative program, we are postponing the opening
date."
    The board of directors accepted yesterday's recommendation
by a committee of members overseeing the planned evening
session, which was originally scheduled to start April 2. The
session is designed to begin the global trading day from 1800
to 2100 local Chicago time Monday through Thursday.
    CBT members overwhelmingly approved the evening session in
a vote conducted a month ago.
    But before night trading can begin, the CBT still has to
obtain approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
    Pending regulatory approval, the CBT plans to offer evening
trading in the world's most active futures contract, Treasury
bonds, along with Treasury note futures and options on those
contracts.
    The evening session will make available to traders in the
Far East interest rate hedging vehicles when their day is just
beginning, and the CBT hopes to attract trading capital from
the Pacific Rim's burgeoning financial centers.
    When the idea for a night trading session was broached, it
met with resistance from many local traders who said the
session would add to the physical strain of their jobs.
    Many traders and member firms also questioned whether the
night session would have the liquidity necessary to survive,
and complained that the cost of manning trading desks for two
sessions per 24-hour cycle might not be worthwhile.
    Some credit market analysts, including Norman Quinn,
president of Golden Gate Futures, said the night session would
likely be dominated by institutions, because the larger local
traders would refuse to return at night.
    Nevertheless, Quinn and other traders said the night
session has a good chance of succeeding.
 Reuter

The Bank of France announced that it will
publicly auction 10.5 billion francs of negotiable Treasury
bills on March 16.
    The auction will comprise 3.5 billion francs of 13-week
bills, 3.5 billion francs of 26 week bills and 3.5 billion
francs of 52-week bills, all fixed rate.
 Reuter

Shr profit nine cts vs loss 45 cts
    Net profit 2,500,000 vs loss 9,900,000
    Revs 16,800,000 vs 3,300,000
    Note: 1986 net includes 2.6 mln dlr or nine ct a shr
writedown of nine pct stake in <Trans-Canada Resources Ltd>.
    1985 results reflect only six mths of mining operations due
to merger of Erickson Gold Mines Ltd and Total Eastcan
Exploration Ltd on June 30, 1985.
 Reuter

The French aerospace industry had a mixed
year in 1986, with military sales hit by the falling dollar and
lower oil and raw material prices but the civilian sector
performing better, Jacques Benichou, president of the the
French aeronautics and space industries group (GIFAS) said.
    He told journalists here that the sales success of the
European Airbus Industrie consortium, in which France has a 38
pct stake through Aerospatiale, and the SNECMA aero-engine
group, which has a 50 pct stake in CFM International with the
U.S. Group General Electric, had both performed well.
    Turnover for the French aerospace industry was 74 billion
francs last year, comparable in constant terms with 1985, while
the trade surplus for the industry was around 30 billion
francs.
    "We should be neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic,"
Benichou said.
 Reuter

Inc said it has acquired an option to purchase rights to about
4,000 subscribers from Americom L.A. Systems, a Los Angeles
reseller of mobile telephone service, for 2,750,000 dlrs.
    It said the option can be exercised within 120 days and
would mark its entry into the Los Angeles market. During the
option period, it said it will manage American L.A.'s
    The option is subject to negotiation of a definitive
agreement and the receipt of certified financial statements
from Americom.
 Reuter

said it strongly supports the decision yesterday by the Senate
Banking Committee to freeze the entry by commerical banks into
non-banking businesses such as the underwriting of commerical
paper.
    "This committee vote is not only a prudent and thoughtful
approach to review of the Glass-Steagall Act, but a strong and
needed message from the Senate that it is the responsibility of
Congress to review, and if necessary, amend the nation's
banking laws," the association said in a statement.
 Reuter

Versar Inc said it has agreed
in principle to acquire Martin Marietta Corp's Martin Marietta
Environmental Systems unit for about 5,300,000 dlrs.
    Versar said it would use its working capital and an
established life of credit to find the purchase, which is
subject to approval by both boards and is expected to be
completed in April.
    Marietta Environmental had 1986 revenues of about nine mln
dlrs.
    Versar said the acquisition should have a "moderately"
favorable effect on its earnings this year.
 Reuter

Transco Energy Co said on April 10 it
will redeem all 707,905 outstanding shares of its 3,875 dlr
series cumulative convertible preferred stock at 51.17 dlrs per
share plus accrued dividends of 74 cts.
    Transco said each share of the preferred is convertible
into 1,263 common shares.
 Reuter

Merrill Corp said it acquired Frayn
Financial printing, the financial printing division of Frayn
Printing Co, Seattle. Terms were not disclosed.
    It said the acquired division, now known as
Merrill/Seattle, becomes the company's 10th financial printing
service center.
 Reuter

I.I.S. Intelligent Information Systems
Ltd said it has received received and completed delivery on an
order worth over 700,000 dlrs to supply Textron Inc's Bell
Helicopter Textron Inc unit with leased International Business
Machines Corp <IBM> 3270 and 3191 plug-compatible work stations
and printers.
 Reuter

Two major U.K. Clearing banks announced
they will offer a total of 800 mln stg in new mortgages at a
fixed interest rate of 10.2 pct for the first three years,
below current bank base lending rates of 10.5 pct.
    Midland Bank Plc <MDBL.L> said it has initially allocated
500 mln stg for home loans at this rate, while Lloyds Bank Plc
<LLOY.L> will offer 300 mln stg.
    Earlier this week, Midland said it would cut its standard
rate of mortgage payment to 11.5 pct from April 1, following a
half a percentage point reduction in leading banks' base
lending rates from 11 pct.
    Building society and other bank mortgage rates are largely
still well above the new base rate level, although last year
Lloyds offered a fixed rate of 9.9 pct on certain home loans.
    A Midland spokesman said his bank calculated that at the
current level of 2.7 billion stg, its existing mortgage book
accounts for about 5 pct of the total British home loan market.
    Lloyds said it has 3.6 billion stg in outstanding mortgage
loans, but had not estimated its total market share.
    Among other major clearing banks, Barclays Plc <BCS.L> and
National Westminister Bank Plc <NWBL.L> said they had no
immediate plans to announce similar fixed rate schemes.
 Reuter

Primages Inc said it
introduced a new daisywheel printer that can print 90
characters per second and features graphics capabilities.
    The printer, called Primage 90-GT, is priced at 1,500 dlrs
and can be combined with the company's paper-handling systems,
Primage said.
 Reuter

Datarex Systems Inc said it was
named a distributor for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co's
data recording media and other computer suppliers and
accessories in the United States.
    The company said sales of the 3M products will have a
material impact on its sales for the balance of 1987.
 Reuter

Jim Walter Corp said it completed
the acquisition of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp's mineral
ceiling and fiberboard plant in Meridian, Miss.
    Terms were not disclosed
    The plant's operations will complement existing ceiling
materials production within jim Walter's building material's
group, which last year generated income of 54.9 mln dlrs on
sales of 740 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright predicted
the House would vote by a substantial margin to block 40 mln
dlrs in aid to the Nicaraguan "contra" rebels until President
Reagan has accounted for previous assistance.
    Wright, a Texas Democrat, conceded Congress ultimately will
be unable to stop the money but said the House vote expected
later today will tell the White House its contra program -- one
of Reagan's pet projects -- is in trouble.
    "The adminstration must face reality and focus on other ways
to find peace," Wright said.
    The House is voting on legislation that would block for six
months 40 mln dlrs appropriated last year. The administration
has said it intends to start using the money next month to
provide arms and equipment to the rebels.
    "We expect to win by a substantial margin," Wright said.
    The legislation calls on Reagan to account for all previous
aid, including money diverted to the contras from the secret
U.S. arms sales to Iran. The scandal over the arms sales and
the diversion of profits to the contras has plunged the Reagan
administration into its deepest crisis.
    The legislation also demands an accounting of 27 mln dlr in
humanitarian aid appropriated by Congress in 1985 and all funds
given to the contras by foreign governments or private
individuals at the urging of the Reagan administration.
 Reuter

American President Cos Ltd said
its American President Lines shipping subsidiary  obtained
final approval from U.S. and Japanese authorities to lease four
new ships from Lykes Bros Co.
    The move will will enable it to boost service in the
Pacific by 15 pct in 1987, American President said.
    The company said it will lease the ships for three years
and hold two additional three-year options.
    It said American President Lines is currently operating at
capacity in the Pacific and the new ships will arrive in time
for the normal demand surge of the spring and summer seasons.
 Reuter

Bowne and Co Inc said its board
declared a two-for-one stock split, payable May 10 to holders
of record April 17.
 Reuter

The London Stock Exchange has no
immediate comment on the U.S. Insider trading charge against a
senior London executive of Merrill Lynch and Co <MER>, an
Exchange spokesman said.
    "This is a civil action in New York and no-one here has any
proper details yet," he added.
    The London Exchange, which keeps in touch through the U.K.
Government's information channels to the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, will await further developments, he said.
    Trade and Industry Department officials also declined
immediate comment.
    Merrill Lynch in London said any further amplification on
the SEC charge against its executive Nahum Vaskevitch would
have to come from the firms's New York office.
    Market queries here centred on whether the 12 companies
involved in mergers, referred to in the SEC complaint, included
British companies such as Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> which have
featured in recent official inquiries.
    Merrill Lynch is a member of the London Stock Exchange, in
addition to its U.S. And other international investment
 Reuter

Louart Corp, a Los Angeles
investment firm, said it raised its stake in Amerford
International Corp to 105,615 shares, or 7.8 pct of the total
outstanding, from 69,715 shares, or 5.2 pct.
Louart said it bought 35,900 Amerford common shares between
March 19, 1986 and Jan 30, 1987 at prices ranging from 3.92 to
4.29 dlrs a share.
    It said it bought the shares for investment purposes and
might increase its stake in the future.
 Reuter

Emerson Electric Co is offering in the
U.S. debt market 100 mln New Zealand dlrs of notes due 1989
with an 18.55 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead underwriter
Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.
    That is 170 basis points below comparable New Zealand
rates.
AAA by both Moody's Investors Service Inc and Standard and
 Reuter

<Visa International>, owned
by a consortium of banks, said Bank of China has agreed to
become a Visa member in May, and a Visa card will be issued for
use in China and around the world.
    No international credit cards are currently issued in
China.
    Visa said plans are underway to install electronic
terminals at Visa-accepting merchants in China later this year
to authorize the growing number of credit card transactions by
tourists and minimize operating risks.
    Visa said it plans to extend its worldwide
telecommunications network to China this year through a
satellite link, allowing authorization requests to be forwarded
to card issuers around the world.
    Over 1,000 merchants in China now honor the Visa card and
the number is expected to double by the end of next year, it
said, and card transactions in China are expected to rise 50
pct from the current 130 mln dlrs a year during 1987.
    Visa International said it is already designing the Visa
card that Bank of China will issue.
 Reuter

A pressure leak in a containment building
hatch at FPL Group Inc's Turkey Point nuclear plant has forced
a brief reactor shutdown, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
    Ken Clark, the NRC's representative in Atlanta, said no
radioactivity escaped during the incident last night, which he
described as "a relatively minor problem that poses no safety
hazard."
    Clark said repairs were underway and Turkey Point Unit 4,
one of two nuclear reactors at the site south of Miami, was
expected to be reactivated later today.
 Reuter

Austrian gross domestic product growth
for this year is likely to be between 0.5 and 1.5 pct, Helmut
Kramer, head of the semi-official Institute for Economic
Research (WIFO) said.
WIFO last December.
    Kramer made the forecast at a meeting today on Austria's
economic outlook also attended by Chancellor Franz Vranitzky,
Finance Minister Ferdinand Lacina and National Bank President
Stefan Koren.
 REUTER

First
Boston, the Swiss affiliate of First Boston Inc, said it raised
its stake in the company to 11,262,307 shares, or 35.5 pct of
the total, from 10,262,307 shares, or 32.8 pct.
Financiere Credit Suisse said it bought 870,100 First Boston
common shares between Feb 10 and 27 at prices ranging from
48.125 to 53.000 dlrs a share, or 22.5 mln dlrs total.
    It said it bought the shares as part of an agreement to
raise its minority stake in First Boston to 40 pct, the same
stake level First Boston holds in Financiere Credit Suisse.
 Reuter

Oper shr 23 cts vs 77 cts
    Oper net 5,255,179 vs 17.6 mln
    Revs 37.8 mln vs 73.7 mln
    NOTE: Cash flow 19.5 mln dlrs or 86 cts shr vs 36.7 mln
dlrs or 1.62 dlrs shr.
    1985 net excludes 32 ct shr loss from discontinued
    Gross proven and probable reserves of crude oil and natural
gas liquiids 18.4 mln barrels, off 7.6 pct from a year before.
 Reuter

Farah Inc said it omitted its
quarterly common stock dividend for the second consecutive
quarter.
    The company, which last paid a quarterly common dividend of
22 cts a share in December, said it will consider future
dividend payments on the basis of improved profitability and
cash flow.
    Farah said it expects to turn a profit for the balance of
1987. For its first quarter ended January 31, Farah lost
1,891,000 dlrs, or 32 cts a share, on sales of 71 mln dlrs.
    In addition, Farah said it received shareholder approval to
change its name to Farah Inc from Farah Manufacturing Co.
 Reuter

    Minnesota Power and Light Co <MPL> - Offering of 50 mln
dlrs in first mortgage bonds due April 1, 1994 and 75 mln dlrs
in first mortgage bonds due April 1, 1997 through PaineWebber
Inc.
    International Lease Finance Corp <ILFC> - Shelf offering of
up to 1,000 shares of Dutch Auction Rate Transferable
Securities (DARTS) preferred stock through Salomon Brothers Inc
and Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    Trinity Industries Leasing Co - Offering of 100 mln dlrs of
convertible debentures due April 1, 2012 through Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets.
 Reuter

A two-year project to search for oil and
gas in Jordan was agreed in Amman by Jordan's Natural Resources
Authority (NRA) and the Canadian company, Petrocanada
International Assistance Corporation (PCIAC).
    The 19.1 mln dlr assistance agreement was signed by
Jordan's Minister of Energy Hisham al-Khatib and PCIAC chairman
Peter M. Towe.
    PCIAC is a Canadian government corporation providing
assistance to countries like Jordan to reduce their dependence
on oil imports, Towe said.
 Reuter

Keystone Camera Products Corp
said it has agreed to be the United States distribution manager
for Le Clip clip-on fashion watches.
    Keystone said its agreement with <Le Clip S.A.> of
Switzerland is effective through March 31, 1990.
 Reuter

NECO Enterprises Inc said it
has postponed its annual meeting to May 21 from the previously
scheduled April 28 and the record date for the meeting to March
25 from March 11.
    A spokesman said the changes were made because of the
pending tender offer for the company's stock.
 Reuter

Numac Oil and Gas Ltd said it expects
significant improvement in operating performance during 1987.
    The company today reported 1986 earnings from continuing
operations of 5,255,179 dlrs, down from 17.6 mln dlrs a yuear
earlier, due to lower prices for crude oil and pipeline
capacity constraints.
    Numac said changes introduced by federal and provincial
governments during 1986 should help results.
 Reuter

U.S. Senate Republican leader Robert
Dole said Congress should consider legislation to apply the
so-called 0/92 option to producers of major commodities.
    Dole told the National Corn Growers Association that he
thought the proposal, supported by the Reagan administration,
"should be seriously considered" because a refusal to do so could
"play into the hands of those who want mandatory controls" placed
on production.
    However, Dole did not say whether he would support the 0/92
option, which would offer producers at least 92 pct of their
income support payments regardless of how much they planted.
    The Senate Republican leader said the 0/92 option posed two
problems. First, it is viewed, he said, by some as welfare. In
addition, debate on the proposal could open up the whole farm
bill, Dole said.
    Dole also repeated his call for an across-the-board export
enhancement program, saying a subsidy offer to the Soviet Union
could help improve U.S. relations with that country.
    Dole said that the United States has made the decision to
trade with Moscow and that it's important to offer competitive
prices.
    The senator predicted Congress would have to decide this
year whether to require an expansion of the export subsidy
program, which currently targets benefits to recapture markets
lost to other suppliers which subsidize.
    Dole, who last year pledged to offer legislation to require
a marketing loan for major crops but never did so, again called
for the marketing loan for wheat and feedgrains.
    The Reagan administration's proposed farm policy changes
"are not going anywhere" this year, Dole said, singling out the
proposal to cut target prices 10 pct per year.
    Asked by reporters after his speech whether he sensed a
shift in the State Department towards supporting an export
enhancement initiative for the Soviet Union, Dole said he
didn't see any change.
    Dole also said it would be a very close call in the Senate
whether to open up the farm bill to general debate this year.
    Dole said he was encouraged by the selection of Republican
David Karnes to replace the late Sen. Edward Zorinsky (D-Neb.)
 Reuter

L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co of Sweden
said it was awarded a 7.5 mln dlr contract to supply its
Alfaskop computer terminals to the West German Bundespost, West
Germany's telecommunications and postal administration.
    Ericsson said the contract covers 2,000 terminals, which
will be used by West German post offices.
 Reuter

Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc chairman
Harland Stonecipher said the company's sales growth rate for
each of the next five years would substantially exceed the
average 100 pct recorded over each of the last few years.
    Addressing analysts, Stonecipher declined to give specific
figures but attributed his optimism to a recent loan agreement
with I.C.H. Corp <ICH>, under which Pre-Paid is slated to
receive 10 mln dlrs.
    In 1986, Pre-Paid earned 2.5 mln dlrs on sales of 42.4 mln
dlrs compared to net of 1.5 mln dlrs on sales of 19.8 mln dlrs
in 1985.
    Stonecipher said the company's product will be marketed
through at least two I.C.H. subsidiaries. The agreement with
I.C.H. will provide access to all 50 states from Pre-Paid's 
present coverage in 22 states, he said.
    Pre-Paid provides insurance for legal services primarily in
the private sector.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs loss 3.83 dlrs
    Net profit 1,700,000 vs loss 13,900,000
    Revs 18.7 mln vs 25.6 mln
    Note: Current shr after preferred dividends of 2.0 mln dlrs
    Prior shr and net includes 34.5 mln dlr writedown on oil
 Reuter

Iraq said it had repelled an Iranian
attack on positions held by its fourth army corps east of the
southern Iraqi town of Amarah on the Baghdad-Basra highway.
    A Baghdad war communique said an Iranian infantry brigade,
backed by tanks, launched the overnight attack and fierce
fighting raged for more than six hours before Iranian troops
fled the battlefield, leaving 220 men killed and many wounded.
    No major battles have been reported fought by the fourth
army corps for more than a year in the area, mainly swamplands
of the Hawizah marshes running eastward to the southern port
city of Basra.
 Reuter

Dole (R-Kan.) said he and a group of Republican lawmakers are
considering introducing legislation to extend the ethanol tax
exemption through the year 2000.
    Dole, addressing the National Corn Growers Association
board, said the proposal was under consideration by a rural
task force of Republican members of Congress and governors.
    Gasoline containing at least 10 pct ethanol now receives a
six cents per gallon exemption from a nine cent federal excise
tax. The exemption is to expire the end of 1992.
    Ethanol is produced primarily by a few large agribusiness
firms including Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and A.E. Staley.
The tax exemption has helped bolster ethanol production despite
a sharp drop in the prices of competing crude oil.
 Reuter

Oak Industries said it signed
a definitive agreement to buy the stock of Rexnord Inc's
Railway Maintenance Equipment Co unit, for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said Railway Maintenance had 1986 revenues of
16 mln dlrs.
    Oak said the acquisition is part of its two-tier strategy
of buying releated and unrelated businesses.
    Oak had a tax loss carryforward of 125 mln dlrs at the end
of 1986.
 Reuter

Sumitomo Bank of California said
it declared a 7-1/2 pct stock dividend in addition to its
regular quarterly cash dividend of 29 cts per share.
    Both dividends are payable April 27 to shareholders of
record March 31, the company said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 17 cts prior
    Record April One
 Reuter

H.J. Heinz Co said its board of
directors has elected Anthony O'Reilly chairman of the board,
succeeding Henry Heinz II, who died on February 23.
    Heinz said O'Reilly will retain his present titles of
president and chief executive officer.
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 46 cts
    Qtly div 28 cts vs 25 cts prior
    Net 74.7 mln vs 63.2 mln
    Revs 1.08 billion vs 1.01 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.78 dlrs vs 1.60 dlrs
    Net 244.4 mln vs 219.7 mln
    Revs 3.33 billion vs 3.15 billion
    Note: Dividend payable April 10 to shareholders of record
March 23.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp today sold 405 mln dlrs
of corporate bonds from its nearly 3.5 billion dlr pension fund
to Wall Street investment bankers, vice president and treasurer
Fred Zuckerman said.
    He said this was the first of two planned sales of
corporate issues from the fund's portfolio. Zuckerman said
Chrysler will sell slightly less than one billion dlrs of
corporates.
    "Phase two (the second sale) will be in a month or so," the
Chrysler executive said, adding that proceeds will be invested
exclusively in the equities market.
    Before today's sale of corporate bonds, those securities
had comprised roughly two thirds of the pension fund portfolio.
    "After the two sales, equities will amount to 50 pct or
more of the portfolio," Zuckerman said.
    "We believe that the equity market has much more upside
potential than the bond market," the executive said. "Interest
rates are not coming down and I would not bet a lot that they
will drop sharply."
    He added, "I personally think interest rates may decline by
50 basis points at the most this year."
    Zuckerman said the 405 mln dlr bond sale was composed of
139 separate issues.
    "Sixty pct were utilities, 20 pct were issued by foreign
governments or corporations, and 20 pct were financial
institutions," he detailed.
    The Chrysler treasurer said that the corporate paper had
typically an 18-year maturity. "The securities were long-term,
high-quality bonds, mostly rated AA-minus or A-plus," he said.
    Zuckerman said Chrysler sold the corporate bonds at about
1.6 pct above yesterday's closing prices for these issues.
"That showed our portfolio is desirable," he commented.
    Corporate bond traders noted that Chrysler's sale occurred
against the backdrop of a slightly weak secondary market.
    They said they believed that Chrysler was sold the
corporates at a large profit because the issues were bought by
the automaker for its portfolio when interest rates were much
higher.
    Chrysler's Zuckerman said his company sold the corporate
issues to four large Wall Street securities firms.
    He said that Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and Salomon Brothers
Inc bought most of the bonds. However, Zuckerman declined to
name the other two houses.
    Yesterday, Chrysler presented four investment bankers with
a list of bonds and asked them to submit bids by this morning.
    Zuckerman said that Morgan Stanley bought more corporate
bonds than any one of the other three houses.
    Wall Street sources said they believed First Boston Corp
and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets were also in on the bidding
for the corporate bonds. They believed these two firms were
awarded bonds by the carmaker as well.
    A spokesman for Morgan declined to comment and referred
inquiries to Chrysler. Officials at Salomon, First Boston and
Merrill Lynch were unavailable for immediate comment.
 Reuter

Maoist guerrillas using dynamite derailed
two locomotives and four train wagons, interrupting traffic on
Peru's sole railway line linking the capital to the central
Andes, where most of the country's mining centres are located,
authorities said.
    Damages was estimated at 800,000 dlrs in the dynamite blast
yesterday at Chacapalca, where the explosion wrecked the train
laden with minerals and 45 metres of the railway line.
    Crews hoped to restore traffic to the line later today
after clearing the damaged train and repairing the tracks at
Chacapalca, 225 km east of the Capital, Lima.
    An official at Mineroperu comercial (Minpeco), Peru's state
minerals marketing firm, said the agency was assessing the
situation. There had not been a declaration of force majeure on
contracts to ship minerals abroad.
    Foreign sales of silver, copper, zinc and other minerals
earn Peru over half of its export income. Most of the minerals,
extracted and refined in the central peruvian andes, are
shipped down the central railway to the lima port of callao.
 Reuter

Tenneco Inc, a company that has long
been rumored to be a takeover candidate, rose sharply today
when speculation surfaced that investor T. Boone Pickens may be
targeting the company for an acquisition, traders and analysts
said.
    Tenneco spokesman Joseph Macrum said "we have no comment to
make whatsoever." Pickens was not available for comment.
    Traders noted that activity in the stock increased today
after a published report linked Pickens to Tenneco.
    Tenneco rose two points to 48-3/4.
    Paul Feretti, an analyst with New Orleans-based Howard,
Weil, Labouisse, Friedrichs, Inc, said he was not surprised at
market rumors that Tenneco might be the target of a takeover
attempt.
    "It's pure market speculation that Boone Pickens and his
group may be interested," Feretti said.
    "But Tenneco would be a challenge to run because of its
sheer size and diversity. Mr. Pickens is a man who likes a
challenge."
    Pickens, who made an unsuccessful attempt to take over
Dallas-based Diamond Shamrock Corp <DIA> last winter, has made
no secret of his plans to acquire additional natural gas
reserves in the belief that gas prices will stabilize sooner
than oil prices. Tenneco holds natural gas reserves estimated
in excess of 3.5 trillion cubic feet, analysts said.
    Feretti conservatively estimated Tenneco's breakup value at
58 dlrs a share and said the company generated a cash flow of
about 10 dlrs a share "which is probably very attractive to
Pickens." Other analysts, however, estimate a breakup value
well into the 60 dlr a share range.
    "I strongly doubt that there is going to be any hostile
takeover," Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc's Houston-based analyst
John Olson said, putting little credence in the rumors.
    "Tenneco is a gargantuan enterprise with seven billion dlrs
in long-term debt and preferred stock outstanding." He said the
buyer would also have to deal with "the intractable problems"
Tenneco faces with its farm equipment unit and energy
    Analysts suggested that Tenneco could use a number of
defensive strategies to fend off an unwanted buyer, such as
spin off some of its non-energy businesses directly to
shareholders, buy back shares or create a limited partnership
out of its natural gas pipeline interests.
    An analyst who asked to remain unidentified, discouraged
the Pickens rumor. "Pickens has a plateful already with his
holdings in Burlington Northern and Amerada Hess," he said. "I
don't think he would be willing to take on Tenneco's problems
with Case (the farm equipment unit), which has been losing
about 180 mln dlrs annually and is worth less than a billion
dlrs on the market today."
 Reuter

Software AG Systems Inc said it
expects to report earnings for its third quarter "substantially
weaker" than earnings of prior periods due to an unexpected
shortfall in U.S. domestic license revenues.
    For the second quarter ended November 30, Software AG
earned 2,089,000 dlrs, down from 5,014,000 dlrs a year before.
In last year's third quarter, Software AG earned 1,598,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it is escalating its
war with automotive parts counterfeiters and will use the
service of Light Signatures Inc of Los Angeles.
    It said computer technology by Light Signatures initially
will be used to safeguard warranty glass.
 Reuter

Net 3,563,000 vs 2,821,000
    Sales 318.6 mln vs 305.4 mln
    Year
    Net 28,950,000 vs 20,167,000
    Sales 1.22 billion vs 1.17 billion
    Note: Company is a subsidiary of Bayer AG of West Germany.
1986 figures exclude Miles' Bayvet animal health business, sold
Jan. 1, 1986, to Mobay Corp, another Bayer AG affiliate.
 Reuter

<Equity Silver
Mines Ltd> said it agreed to sell 6.6 mln shares of a new class
of par value voting stock to Placer Development Ltd for 37.1
mln dlrs, increasing Placer's stake in Equity to 74.5 pct from
68 pct.
    The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and a
vote by Equity minority shareholders at the April 23 annual
meeting, the company said.
    Proceeds from sale of the shares, priced at 5.625 dlrs
each, will be used to buy and deliver 4,985,000 ounces of
silver to Placer, Equity said.
    Equity Silver said the silver remains to be delivered under
its sale agreement with Placer, after delivery of its 750,000
ounce minimum commitment for 1987.
    Equity said it arranged to acquire 4,985,000 ounces of
silver at 7.40 dlrs an ounces, subject to selling the shares to
Placer.
    Purchase and delivery of the silver to Placer will result
in an after-tax gain of about 6.6 mln dlrs, Equity said.
    It also said the stock and silver transactions will create
a 37,059,000 dlr fund out of which dividends will be paid when
cash is available.
    The cash fund will enable Equity Silver to continue to pay
dividends on its preferred shares and increase the likelihood
that it may be able to pay dividends on its common shares, the
    It did not elaborate on what common share dividends might
be paid.
    The company normally pays quarterly preferred dividends
totalling 619,000 dlrs from retained earnings, Equity Silver
said.
    Equity Silver had retained earnings of 2,312,000 dlrs at
December 31, 1986.
 Reuter

With troops in place in Brazil's
ports and oil installations, the government of Prersident Jose
Sarney today sought to end a wave of labour unrest by a show of
force.
    Yesterday the government sent thousands of troops supported
in some instances by tanks to occupy nine oil refineries and
six areas of oil production.
    The state-oil company Petrobras requested the intervention
because of a threatened strike by 55,000 oil industry
    The government had already dispatched more than 1,000
marines to occupy the country's main ports after a national
seamen's strike was ruled illegal last Friday.
    The strike by 40,000 seamen, now in its 13th day,
represents a stern challenge to the government.
    The stoppage has delayed exports at a time when Brazil
desperately needs foreign exchange.
    It was a deterioration in the country's trade balance which
precipitated Brazil's current debt crisis and the decision on
February 20 to suspend interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of
commercial debt.
    There was no sign today of an early end to the seamen's
strike, which has badly hit the port of Santos -- the most
important in South America -- and the country's other main
ports.
    Small groups of marines armed with submachineguns stand on
the quays near the strike-bound ships, but the military
presence here is generally discreet.
    A total of 800 marines are inside the docks but most are
out of sight.
    Yesterday marines and police occupied one ship, the
Docemarte, seamen's leaders said. After explaining to the
captain that the strikers faced up to one year in jail because
the strike was illegal, the men returned to work.
    One of the strike leaders, Elmano Barbosa, said "it is a
psychological war. They are using force and we are using
peaceful methods."
    Port sources said only two Brazilian ships in Santos, the
Docemarte and the Henrique Leal, were working.
    At the seamen's national strike headquarters in Rio de
Janeiro, spokesmen say a total of about 190 ships are
strike-bound in Brazil and in foreign ports.
    Contradicting earlier reports from strike headquarters in
Rio de Janeiro, seamen in Santos said the strikers on board
ships here were not running out of food.
    The current labour unrest is the worst faced by Sarney's
civilian government since it came to power two years ago.
    Yesterday, in a separate protest, hundreds of thousands of
farmers held rallies directed largely against high bank
    The current rash of labour unrest in industry and
agriculture stems from the failure of the government's
now-collapsed Cruzado Plan price freeze.
 Reuter

Shr profit 20 cts vs profit five cts
    Net profit 2,273,000 vs profit 563,000
    Rev 38.7 mln vs 30.3 mln
    Avg shares 11,138,503 vs 10,982,699
    Shr profit 40 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 4,448,000 vs loss 1,123,000
    Rev 108.4 mln vs 75.2 mln
    NOTE: Third qtr net includes gain from discontinued
operations of 3.5 mln dlrs, or 31 cts a share, vs 271,000, or
two cts a share, in fiscal 1985's third qtr. Nine months net
includes gain from discontinued operations of 3.8 mln dlrs, or
34 cts a share, vs 731,000 dlrs, or seven cts a share, in the
first nine months of fiscal 1985.

The U.S. House of Representatives,
in a key procedural vote, today opposed a grant of 40 mln dlrs
to the Nicaraguan rebels until President Reagan accounts for
previous aid, including proceeds from U.S. Arms sales to Iran.
    The major test of House sentiment came several hours before
the chamber was to take a final vote on the assistance.
    However, the 227 to 198 vote on a procedural matter was
seen as a temporary defeat for Reagan, who has made aid to the
"contra" rebels one of his major foreign policy initiatives.
   Congressional leaders, including foes of contra aid, have
acknowledged that despite today's rebuff, which was expected,
it will be virtually impossible to prevent the 40 mln dlrs,
which was approved last year, from going through.
    Even if the Senate goes along with the House in postponing
the aid, Reagan will veto the legislation and Congress is not
expected to be able to override the veto.
    But House Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat, said
today's vote was important because it would "send a message" to
Reagan that his contra program was in trouble.
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 79,778 vs profit 458,176
    Revs 1,063,623 vs 1,165,186
    Note: 1986 year includes 400,000 dlr writedown on Utah oil
and gas properties
 Reuter

Paralax Video Enterprises Inc said it
has agreeed to acquire <American Video Group Inc> in exchange
for 287,700 Paralax restricted common shares and three year
warrants to buy 318,600 restricted shares at six dlrs a share.
    Paralax said holders of some American Video convertible
debentures have elected to exchange them for Paralax restricted
common with a market value of about 380,000 dlrs with that
value to be determined in about 45 days.
    American Video is a closely held company operating video
rental concessions in post and base exchanges at 54 Army, Air
Force, Navy and Coast Guard installations. In its most recent
year, the company had revenues of about 1.5 mln dlrs.
    Paralax said the acquisition is scheduled to close March
16. The company now has about 5.5 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 1,246,000 vs loss 1,420,000
    Revs 2,120,000 vs 1,186,000
    Avg shrs 5,853,587 vs 4,880,427
    Year
    Shr loss 85 cts vs loss 1.21 dlrs
    Net loss 4,968,000 vs loss 5,274,000
    Revs 6,536,000 vs 5,056,000
    Avg shrs 5,854,543 vs 4,367,864
 Reuter

Dividend 34 cts vs 34 cts previously

 Reuter

The Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank has
signed with a group of Japanese banks a 40 billion Euroyen
equivalent loan, which is the largest syndicated loan
denominated in euroyen for a European borrower, Bank of Tokyo
Ltd said as one of the lead managers.
    The financing is for seven years and provides the borrower
with the option to borrow in other currencies.
    Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd was the other lead manager and
nine Japanese banks joined the financing. The syndication of
the deal was designed to enhance the Foreign Trade Bank's
relationship with Japanese financial institutions, Bank of
Tokyo said.
    The financing marked the first trip to the international
capital markets for the borrower since 1985.
    The loan has a six year grace period and interest is at 1/8
pct over the London Interbank Offered Rate for the first two
years, with the margin rising to 1/4 pct thereafter.
 Reuter

The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission said it charged a managing director of
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Ltd in London with
    Nahum Vaskevitch, managing director of the Mergers and
Acquisitions Department of the broker's London office, was
Federal Court.
    The complaint said Vaskevitch leaked information about 12
companies involved in a merger or acquisition which resulted in
more than four mln dlrs in profit for himself and others
involved in the scheme.
Merrill Lynch and Co Inc.
 Reuter

A Bank of Italy circular that gives the
green light for Italian banks to establish merchant banking
units stipulates that such units must have a minimum capital of
50 billion lire.
    The circular, which renders operative a previously detailed
resolution agreed by a government interministerial committee
last month, will open the door for wider participation by
Italian banks in merchant banking activities.
    Previously, such activities were essentially confined to
state banks operating special credit sections to provide
medium- and long-term loans to industry.
    The circular also stipulates that merchant banks set up by
banks can have debts totaling a maximum of double their
capital.
    It also stipulates that the total amount of risk capital
that a merchant bank can hold in its portfolio must not exceed
the value of the bank's own combined capital and reserves.
    No investment in any single company must exceed 20 pct of
the combined value of the merchant bank's capital and reserves.
    The merchant banks may not acquire, either directly or
indirectly, controlling stakes in companies in which they
invest.
 Reuter

Bayly Corp said it acquired 55 pct
of Chutes Corp, a maker of denim-oriented sportswear
headquartered in Seattle, Wash.
 Reuter

Shadowfax Resources Ltd said it set a
normal course issuer bid to acquire for cancellation up to five
pct of its three mln outstanding common shares on the open
market on the Alberta Stock Exchange, subject to regulatory
approvals.
 Reuter

The Commodity Futures Trading
Commission has approved the Minneapolis Grain Exchange's
application to trade high fructose corn syrup-55, HFCS-55,
futures contracts, the commission said.
    The contract provides for the delivery of 48,000 lbs, plus
or minus two pct, of bulk HFCS-55 meeting specified standards
regarding its physical and chemical properties.
    CFTC said the exchange plans to begin trading a July 1987
HFCS-55 contract on April 6.
    CFTC said the soft drink industry currently buys at least
95 pct of all U.S.-produced HFCS-55, a liquid food and beverage
sweetener produced through the processing of corn starch by
corn refiners.
 Reuter

General Instrument Corp's government
systems division said it received a 35.9 mln dlr contract from
the Naval Air Command Systems.
    The company said the contract calls for continued
production of General Instrument's family of electronics
warfare systems for application in naval aircraft.
    The contract also contains options for more than 100
systems to be ordered within the next several years, the
company added.
 Reuter

senior London executive of Merrill Lynch and Co, an Exchange
 Reuter

Intelligent Systems Master
Limited Partnership said it will make a cash distribution of 25
cts a unit in early April to unitholders of record as of March
31.
    The company said continued strength in its results prompted
the move.
    Intelligent Systems added that if current plans to sell
some of its assets, as previously announced, are successful, it
may make further distributions estimated at 15 cts to 25 cts a
unit.
    Earlier, the company reported fiscal third quarter ended
December 31 net income of 2.3 mln dlrs, or 20 cts a share, up
from fiscal 1985 third quarter results of 563,000 dlrs, or five
cts a share.
    In addition, it reported fiscal 1986 nine months' net
income of 4.4 mln dlrs, or 40 cts a share, versus a loss of 1.1
mln dlrs, or 10 cts a share, in fiscal 1985's first three
quarters.
 Reuter

A group of state officials and a key
U.S. senator said a corporate merger wave was harming the
economy and blamed the Reagan administration for laxness in
enforcing the federal antitrust laws.
    Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the
Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee, also
cautioned the Department of Justice (DOJ) to comply with his
request for a listing of each case since 1980 in which
department officials had rejected a staff recommendation to
prosecute a suspected antitrust violation.
    Metzenbaum had asked for the data by Monday, but the DOJ
failed to meet the deadline and later hinted it might refuse to
comply.
    Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Charles
Rule defended the administration's record on antitrust
enforcement and told the panel at today's hearing that the
department was in the process of preparing a response to
Metzenbaum's request.
    "We have nothing to hide, but we have to be concerned about
our institutional interests," Rule said. He provided no
explanation of what those interests were.
    Metzenbaum said he had scheduled the hearings and requested
the data out of concern "that this administration has abandoned
the nation's historical commitment to effective antitrust
enforcement."
    "The green light is on," he said. "Merger mania is rampant
in this country...and it is not serving us well."
    Rule countered that the low inflation and interest rates
and the continuing economic expansion meant the
administration's policies were working well.
    He said simply looking at the number of challenges filed
against pending mergers was misleading because there was no
reason to believe that a fixed proportion of all mergers were
anticompetitive.
    "If you look at the individual cases rather than the
statistics, you will see that we are appropriately enforcing
the antitrust laws," Rule said.
    Metzenbaum's view, however, was bolstered by the National
Association of Attorneys General, a group of top state law
enforcement officials.
    "The federal assault on antitrust has been comprehensive,"
Robert Abrams, attorney general of New York and chairman of the
group's antitrust committee, told the panel.
    "The reduction in enforcement has been exacerbated by
federal attempts to prevent both state attorneys general and
private parties from enforcing the law in accordance with its
clear meaning and Supreme Court interpretations," Abrams said.
    The group has drafted its own merger guidelines to bring
uniformity to the attorney generals' efforts to enforce the
laws at the state level.
 Reuter

Kurzweil Music Systems Inc said
it has taken steps this year to reduce costs, including a 10 to
15 pct reduction in its work force.
    A spokesman said the company now has about 70 employees.
    It said other reductions include the use of professional
services, administrative costs, manufacturing overhead and
non-essential development services, adding these cuts are
expected to have a significant impact beginning in the second
quarter.
    Earlier today Kurzweil reported a 1986 loss of 85 cts a
share compared to a 1985 loss of 1.21 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

The White House said that a proposal
by House Speaker Jim Wright for a tax on stock transfers "would
clearly be a tax increase" and that President Reagan opposed it.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater noted that some 47 mln Americans
owned securities, shares in mutual funds or had pensions
invested in the stock market.
    He said Wright's proposal differed from user fees, which
the Administration has proposed in its budget and "clearly is a
tax increase."
 Reuter

France supports the European Commission's
plans for a European Community (EC) fats and oils tax but
objects to some of its oilseeds proposals, Yves Van Haecke, an
aide to French agriculture minister Francois Guillaume said.
    He told a general assembly of France's Oilseeds Federation
(FFCOP) that a suppression of monthly increases of oilseed
support prices, for example, was unacceptable.
    French oilseeds experts added the principle of a single tax
regardless of varying quality was clumsy and capable of
unneccessarily alienating exporters such as the U.S.
 Reuter

Engelhard Corp <EC> said its
Japanese joint venture Nippon Engelhard Ltd is constructing a
new chemical catalyst manufacturing facility at its Numazu
complex and expanding its research laboratories at Ichikawa.
    Start-up is targeted for third quarter 1987.
 Reuter

H.J. Heinz Co said net income for
the third quarter rose 18.2 pct despite an 17.2 pct increase in
marketing expenses.
    Meanwhile, the company said it raised its quarterly
dividend to 28 cts a share from 25 cts a share in part on the
expectation that its tax rate under the new tax law will result
in greater cash flow.
    For the third quarter ended January 31, Heinz earned 74.7
mln dlrs, or 55 cts a share, up from earnings of 63.2 mln dlrs,
or 46 cts a share, for the year-ago quarter.
    For the nine months, the company posted a profit of 244.4
mln dlrs, or 1.78 dlrs a share, compared with a profit of 219.7
mln dlrs, or 1.60 dlrs a share, for the year-ago period.
    "Based on the company's performance for the first nine
months, we expect to achieve our 23rd consecutive year of new
growth records," Anthony J.F. O'Reilly, Heinz's newly elected
chairman.
 Reuter

State Banking
Commissioner Robert Empie, ordered removed from office in an
alleged insider trading scheme, plans to fight the charges, an
aide said today.
    "There will be a hearing on the allegations," a spokeswoman
said, when Empie returns from a meeting outside the state.
    Governor Henry Bellmon yesterday issued an executive order
removing Empie from office "by reason of his incompetence,
malfeasance and neglect of duty."
    Bellmon said Empie held or controlled more than 50,000
shares of stock in United Oklahoma Bank, a firm whose assets he
regulated. He said the commisssioner used "information available
to him only by reason of his position as commissioner to
determine when to sell or attempt to sell shares of stock."
    The order gave Empie 20 days to request a hearing,
something his aide indicated he planned to do. In the meantime
he was suspended from office.
    "Empie intentionally misled the state of Oklahoma into
believing that he had removed hmself from any potential
conflict of interest by placing the ... shares in a so-called
blind trust beyond his control, when in fact Empie continued to
be infomred of the assets in the trust and the value of those
assest and remained in control of their disposition, as shown
by his transfer of the shares on or about December 23, 1985,"
Bellmon said.
 Reuter

Mario Branco Peres, president of
the Brazilian Association of Citrus Juice Industries
(Abrassuco), welcomed a decision by the U.S. Commerce
Department sharply cutting its duties on imported frozen
concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) from Brazil.
    Speaking by telephone from Sao Paulo, Peres said, "With its
decision, the U.S. government recognised the honesty of
Brazilian exporters, who never have the intention of practising
dumping."
    In a final ruling yesterday, the U.S. government eliminated
the duties shipped by Sucocitrico Cutrale and cut to 1.96 pct
the duty on Citrosuco. Duties of 8.54 pct had been set last
October.
    Peres said Brazil had enough orange juice to meet the needs
of its major clients.
    "We do not have in stock what we would like to have, but we
certainly have enough orange juice available to supply our
buyers," Peres said, declining to estimate the amount of the
current stock. "To keep it a secret is part of our strategy," he
added.
    Peres said the price policy of the orange juice was based
on market conditions.
    "There is nothing better than a free trade policy," he said.
    Cutrale and Citrosuco officials were not immediately
available for comment.
 Reuter

ICH Corp's stock
continued under pressure because of lower earnings
expectations, Wall Street analysts said.
    The stock was down one today at 17-1/4, and down about four
since Thursday, when ICH announced it would be reporting
lower-than-expected fourth quarter net income.
    The company said it would report full year 1986 net income
of 2.00 dlrs per share compared to 2.32 dlrs per share in 1985.
Analysts said they had estimated 1987 net at 3.00-4.00 dlrs and
were now looking for at 2.50 dlr to 2.80 dlr range.
    ICH officials were unavailable for comment.
 Reuter

Shr profit 26 cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net profit 1,458,000 dlrs vs profit 1,070,000 dlrs
    Rev 30.9 mln dlrs vs 27.5 mln dlrs
    12 mths
    Shr profit 60 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net profit 3,367,000 dlrs vs loss 1,061,000 dlrs
    Revs 111.5 mln dlrs vs 94.3 mln dlrs
 Reuter

Shr 47 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 4,757,000 vs 2,466,000
    Revs 32.8 mln vs 33.5 mln
    Avg shrs 12,638,000 vs 8,941,000
 Reuter

Atlantic Southeast Airlines
Inc reported an 11.1 pct increase of revenue passenger miles
during February 1987 from a year ago the same period.
    The regional carrier reported it flew 17.5 mln passenger
revenue miles during the month, up from 15.7 mln miles in
    ASA said its load factor, however, was down to 38.8 pct
from 42.7 pct a year ago.

 Reuter

USDA ACCEPTS OFFERS FOR 550,000 TONNES  OF BONUS WHEAT FOR CHINA

Quebec housing starts fell in February
to 2,191, a four pct drop from last year when growth in Quebec
housing starts was among the highest in the Canada, the Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corp said.
    The February rate seasonally adjusted now stands at 40,000,
down from 79,000 in January, the government agency said.
 Reuter

Invacare Corp chairman, president
and chief executive officer A. Malachi Mixon III said he
expects the home healthcare equipment company to post sales
increases in the 10 to 15 pct range in 1987.
    Mixon said the increases should come from internal growth
as well as potential acquisitions.
    "Invacare is aggressively seeking acquisitions to
complement the company's existing product lines," Mixon said.
    Earlier, the company reported fourth quarter 1986 net of
1.5 mln dlrs, or 26 cts a share, up from 1.1 mln dlrs, or 19
cts a share, in 1985's fourth quarter.
    Invacare also reported 1986 net income of 3.4 mln dlrs, or
60 cts a share, up from a loss of 1.1 mln dlrs, or 19 cts a
share, in 1985.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 26 cts vs profit five cts
    Oper net loss 1,506,000 vs profit 312,000
    Revs 42 mln vs 27.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 43 cts vs profit 16 cts
    Oper net loss 2,535,000 vs profit 1,236,000
    Revs 129.9 mln vs 120.3 mln
    NOTE: Excludes discontinued operations loss 1.42 dlrs a
share versus loss nine cts in the quarter, and loss 1.62 dlrs a
share versus loss 12 cts in the year.
    Also excludes extraordinary loss of six cts a share in the
fourth quarter 1985, and gain of 1.81 dlrs a share in full year
1985.
    Also excludes 1986 full year gain of 80 cts per share from
accounting change.
 Reuter

Argentine meat exports during
Jan/Dec 1986 totalled 220,911 tonnes, against 223,204 tonnes
shipped in the same 1985 period, the National Meat board said.
    Shipments in tonnes with comparative figures for the 1985
period, in brackets, included: beef 120,184 (137,686), horse
meat 25,651 (33,892) and beef offal 50,100 (47,745).
    Argentina's meat exports totalled 20,481 tonnes in December
1986, against 15,801 tonnes in the same 1985 month.
    Shipments in tonnes, with comparative figures for December
1985, in brackets, included: beef 14,384 (10,339), horse meat
1,609 (1,539) and beef offal 3,388 (3,098), the board said.
    Main destinations for refrigerated beef (bone in
equivalent) were as follows, in tonnes, with comparative
figures for 1985 in brackets:
    E.C. 46,300 (49,700), Israel 16,200 (17,600), Brazil 18,100
(unavailable), Peru 8,100 (2,300), Angola 4,800 (12,100), Chile
3,400 (8,200), Switzerland 3,000 (3,000), Canary Islands 2,400
(3,700), Singapore 1,900 (1,700), Aruba/Curazao 1,600 (1,700).
    Main destinations for canned meat and cooked beef (bone in
equivalent) in tonnes, with figures for 1985 in brackets, were:
United States 88,300 (102,900), E.C. 30,700 (24,100).
 Reuter

South Korean Trade Minister Rha
Woong Bae said his nation would maintain a trading surplus for
three to five years as a way to cut its foreign debt.
    He said in an interview with Reuter that after a few years
it was likely South Korea would drop barriers to foreign goods
and move toward a more balanced trade position.
    He said the present trade surplus was vital if his nation
was to reduce its 44.5 billion dlr foreign debt.
    Rha said that 1986 was the first year South Korea had a
trade surplus - 4.5 billion dlrs, against a 1985 deficit of 
900 mln dlrs.
    Rha made his remarks at the end of a two-week trade mission
here during which a team he led agreed to buy U.S. products
valued at 1.8 billion dlrs.
    About 800 mln dlrs of the purchases here were in goods of
the type South Korea normally bought from Japan.
    Rha leaves today for Ottawa for trade talks with Canadian
officials and businessmen.
    Asked if South Korea would retaliate against U.S. goods if
Congress closed U.S. markets to its products, he said "at this
moment, we have no thought of retaliation."
    South Korea is a major exporter to the U.S. of textiles and
apparel and electronic goods, such as television sets, video
cassette records and personal computers.
    Its purchases from the United States include electronic
testing equipment, grains and cotton.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 36 cts
    Shr diluted 25 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 1,389,000 vs 1,412,000
    Revs 56.9 mln vs 35.1 mln
    Avg shrs 5,412,000 vs 3,962,000
    Year
    Shr 90 cts vs 75 cts
    Shr diluted 86 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 4,692,000 vs 2,961,000
    Revs 201.4 mln vs 140.0 mln
    Avg shrs 5,234,000 vs 3,954,000
    NOTE: Results for 14 and 53 week periods ended January 3,
1987, vs 13 and 52 week periods ended December 28, 1985
    1985 net in both periods includes gain of 99,000 dlrs from
tax loss carryforward
    Spokeswoman said average shares outstanding on a diluted
basis were not available
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corp (CCC) has
accepted bids for export bonuses to cover sales of 340,000
tonnes of hard red winter wheat and 210,000 tonnes of soft red
winter wheat to China, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The bonuses awarded averaged 36.22 dlrs per tonne, and the
wheat is scheduled for delivery during May-Oct 1987.
    The bonus awards were made to Cargill, Inc (305,000
tonnes), Continental Grain Co (155,000 tonnes), Mitsubishi
International Corp (60,000 tonnes) and Richco Grain Co (30,000
tonnes).
    Bonuses will be paid to the exporters in the form of
commodities from CCC stocks.
    The purchases complete the Export Enhancement Program
initiative for China announced Jan 26.
 Reuter

Qtly div 72 cts vs 72 cts prior
    NOTE: Company's full name is Southern New England
Telecommunications Corp.
 Reuter

the council of ministers approved
petroleos de venezuela's planned purchase of a half interest in
the champlin petroleum refinery at corpus christi, texas,
government sources said.
    The cabinet authorized energy and mines minister arturo
hernandez grisanti to approve the purchase in the shareholders
assembly of the state oil company petroleos de venezuela
(pdvsa).
    Pdvsa last april 14 signed a letter of intent to buy a half
interest in champlin's corpus christi refinery for an
    Under the terms of the provisional agreement, venezuela
would supply up to 160,000 barrels a day to the plant through a
new company which would be jointly owned by the pdvsa and
champlin, a subsidiary of the union pacific corp <unp>.
    The deal would also allow pdvsa a joint share in champlin's
refinery and distribution network.
    The purhcase is one of a series of overseas joint ventures
by which venezuela has managed to assure markets for some
400,000 barrels of its approximately 1.5 mln bpd exports.
    Hernandez grisanti told reporters after the cabinet meeting
that pdvsa will pay 93 mln dlrs for its half ownership in the
champlin refinery - 33 mln dlrs in cash and 60 mln dlrs crude
oil and products.
    Through the deal, he said, venezuela will be assured the
sale of at least 140,000 bpd of crude and products.
    Hernandez said pdsva has entered similar joint ventures
with veba oel of west germany, nynas petroelum in sweden, and
citgo in the united states.
 Reuter

Amoskeag Co said its board voted to seek
shareholder approval at its April 27 annual meeting of a
recapitalization plan calling for the distribution of one Class
B common share for each common share now held.
    The company said the Class B common would have 10 votes per
share and the common one vote per share. Each common share
would be entitled to at least the same dividend as each Class B
share, which would not be freely transferrable for five years
but could be converted share-for-share into common at any time.
    Amoskeag said the proposed recapitalization would increase
total authorized stock to 26.0 mln shares from 2.2 mln. The
board has proposed a total of 20.0 mln authorized common shares
and 6.0 mln authorized Class B shares.
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 4,234,000 dlrs vs 803,000 dlrs
    Revs 15.4 mln dlrs vs 10.3 mln dlrs
    12 mths
    Shr 1.26 dlrs vs 67 cts
    Net 7,299,000 dlrs vs 3,607,000 dlrs
    Revs 52.5 mln dlrs vs 40.7 mln dlrs
    NOTE: Empire's investment in the Deltona Corp is reported
on the equity method beginning the fourth qtr of 1986. Amounts
for 1985 and the first three qtrs of 1986 have been restated to
reflect the retroactive application.
    During 1986, the 17-1/2 pct debentures and 9-7/8 dlrs
preferred stock were redeemed or converted resulting in
6,028,755 common shares outstanding at December 31, 1986 as
compared to 2,408,766 common shares outstanding at December 31,
1985.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss six cts vs profit seven cts
    Oper net loss 481,517 vs profit 487,432
    Revs 7,492,686 vs 5,575,043
    Avg shrs 8.5 mln vs 7.2 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss six cts vs profit 34 cts
    Oper net loss 465,043 vs profit 2,283,811
    Revs 29.5 mln vs 19.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7.8 mln vs 6.7 mln
    NOTE: Excludes extraordinary credit of four cts a share in
fourth quarter 1986, and 15 cts in year.
 Reuter

Rexnord Inc said it signed a
Co subsidiary to Oak Industries Inc. Terms were withheld.
    Also participating in the agreement was Banner Industries
Inc, which previously agreed to acquire Rexnord.
    Railway Maintenance had 1986 sales of 16 mln dlrs.
with sales of 83 mln dlrs. -- Corrects mame of purchaser
 Reuter

Dart Group Corp <DARTA>, which wants
to acquire Supermarkets General Corp for 1.62 billion dlrs, is
not likely to give up without a fight if its target seeks
another buyer, arbitrageurs said.
    Speculation that Dart's offer of 41.75 dlrs per share could
be just the beginning of a bidding contest helped Supermarkets
shares gain one to 42-1/8  on 2.3 mln shares.
    One rumor had Federated Department Stores Inc <FDS> taking
a look at Supermarkets General. "Our policy is that we do not
comment on any rumors or speculation of this nature," a
Federated spokeswoman said.
    An arbitrageur noted that Dart, controlled by chairman
Herbert H. Haft and his son Robert, last year raised its
initial bid for Safeway Stores by approximately 10 pct when
Safeway resisted.
    However, that company was later sold to a buyout group that
topped the Hafts.
    If history repeats itself, the Hafts could raise their bid
to 46 dlrs if they are rebuffed by Supermarkets General, the
arbitrageur said. But another arbitrageur said the Hafts'
present bid seemed "quite fair." He said the offer amounts to
10 times after-tax-cash flow which is "probably fully priced."
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 455,000 TONNES  OF WHEAT SOLD TO CHINA FOR 1986/87 AND 1987/88

<Russo Securities Inc> said in a
statement it acted as a broker executing unsolicited orders for
an individual named in a Securities and Exchange Commission
civil suit alleging insider trading violations.
    Russo filled orders for David Sofer, an Israeli citizen,
who allegedly traded on inside information from Nahum
Vaskevitch, head of Merrill Lynch and Co's <MER> London mergers
office. Vaskevitch was suspended by Merrill, which said it was
cooperating with the probe. Russo said it "had no knowledge or
reason to believe that any of these transactions were based on
the improper use of inside information."
 Reuter

Home Shopping Network Inc filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for an offering of 400
mln dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures due April 1,
2002.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to build and equip
enlarged broadcast and order processing facilities, to redeem
some of the company's 11-3/4 pct senior notes due Oct 15, 1996
and for general corporate purposes, the company said.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc will underwrite the sale.
 Reuter

directors met Wednesday to review the takeover proposal which
the corporation received Monday from Chrysler Corp <C>.
    AMC said its board has retained independent investment and
legal advisers and expects to meet periodically over the next
several weeks on the proposal.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Kansas City Southern
Industries Inc said an attempt by Santa Fe Southern Pacific Co
<SFX> to reopen the proposed merger of the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railway Co and the Southern Pacific Transportation Co
offers "nothing truly new."
    In a letter to shippers, Kansas City Chairman Landon
Rowland stated "This proposed merger is plainly
anti-competitive, as found by the ICC and urged by the
Department of Justice. Nothing has changed."
    Landon said Kansas City Southern is continuing its efforts
to acquire the transportation operation of Santa Fe Railway.
 Reuter

Rose's Stores Inc reported
February sales of 92.7 mln dlrs, an increase of 18.1 mln dlrs,
or 24.2 pct from sales of 74.6 mln dlrs in the comparable
period the year prior.
    The company said identical stores sales increased 15 pct
for the month of February.
    Rose's operates 224 discount stores as of February 1987
compared to 208 stores a year ago in 13 southeastern states.
 Reuter

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Inc said Embassy Communications, a Californai general
partnership affiliated with Coca-Cola Co <KO>, plans to sell
its 10.1 pct stake in the company.
    In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for
a secondary offering, De Laurentiis said Embassy will offer its
entire stake in the company of 964,936 shares of common stock
in the public sale.
    De Laurentiis said it has 9.6 mln shares outstanding.
    PaineWebber Inc will underwrite the offering.
 Reuter

Robert Halmi Inc said it obtained a
five mln dlr line of revolving credit from Wells Fargo Bank
available through February 29, 1988.
    Halmi said the funds will be used for the development and
production of television programming and for regular company
business.
    Halmi said it reported earnings of 2,800,000 dlrs in fiscal
year 1986 ended May, 1986, on sales of 17.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs 17 cts
    Net 275,000 vs 490,000
    Rev 2.4 mln vs four mln
    Six months
    Shr 29 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 885,000 vs 884,000
    Rev 6.1 mln vs 7.1 mln
    NOTE: Company's full name is Herley Microwave Systems Inc.
 Reuter

Rockwell International Corp is raising
200 mln dlrs through an offering of notes due 1997 yielding
7.682 pct, said lead underwriter Daiwa Securities America Inc.
    An officer on Daiwa's corporate syndicate desk said he
believed this was Rockwell's first debt offering since 1984,
when the company tapped the Euromarkets.
    Daiwa, the U.S. unit of Daiwa Securities Co Ltd of Japan,
has become the first foreign bookrunner in the U.S. corporate
debt market this year. The firm is sustaining a trend that
first emerged in early 1986, investment bankers said.
    Daiwa headed a syndicate that won the Rockwell notes in
competitive bidding. Rockwell has a net interest charge of
7.722 pct for the issue, the Daiwa officer said.
    The Japanese firm bid the notes at 98.473 and set a coupon
of 7-1/2 pct and reoffering price of 98.75 to yield 46 basis
46 basis point spread over Treasuries was aggressive. They said
a premium of 50 basis points or more would have been more
appropriate. "It looks like Daiwa submitted a kamikaze bid just
to get the business," said one competitor.
    However, the Daiwa officer defended his firm's pricing of
the deal.
    "Because Rockwell has not floated debt since 1984, the
company's note issue is a museum piece," he said.
    The officer said he believed the Rockwell paper would sell
quickly, mostly because the company is well known and has not
tapped the debt market in three years.
    "Investors are hungry for high-grade debt issued by
household names," agreed one corporate bond trader.
    Non-callable for seven years, the issue is rated Aa-2 by
    Daiwa became the second foreign firm to manage an offering
in the domestic debt market in September 1986 when it won in
competitive bidding 125 mln dlrs of 10-year first mortgage
bonds of General Telephone Co of California, a unit of GTE Corp
<GTE>.
    It followed the lead of UBS Securities Inc, the U.S. unit
of Union Bank of Switzerland. UBS won its first deal in June
1986 when it bid for, and won, 100 mln dlrs of Allied-Signal
Inc <ALD> debentures due 2016.
    UBS brought two negotiated deals to the marketplace after
that.
    UBS led in late June an offering of 100 mln dlrs of
five-year notes issued by Transamerica Financial Corp, a
subsidiary of Transamerica Corp <TA>. That following September
UBS priced as sole underwriter 100 mln dlrs of Borg-Warner Corp
<BOR> notes due 1991.
    In early December Nomura Securities International Inc
became the third, and so far last, foreign securities firm to
manage a U.S. offering. The U.S. unit of Nomura Securities Co
Ltd of Japan, acting as sole underwriter, won in competitive
bidding 250 mln dlrs of extendible notes of General Electric
Credit Corp, a subsidiary of General Electric Co <GE>.
    The Rockwell deal is Daiwa's second as lead underwriter.
    Last December, Daiwa and Nomura were named primary dealers
by the Federal Reserve, along with L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg,
Towbin Inc and Security Pacific National Bank.
    UBS, Nikko Securities Co International Inc and Yamaichi
International (America) Inc have also applied to the Fed for
primary dealership status.
    Primary dealers are considered an elite group of firms
because they are approved to purchase U.S. Treasury securities
directly from the Fed's agent, the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, investment bankers explained.
 Reuter

The Wall Street Journal said the
stocks of Owens-Illinois Inc <OI> and Inco Ltd <N> will be
dropped as components of the 30 stock Dow Jones Industrial
aveage, effective with the start of trading on the New York
Stock Exchange tomorrow.
    They will be replaced with Coca-Cola Co <KO> and Boeing Co
<BA>.
    The paper, which is published by Dow Jones and Co Inc <DJ>,
said the change in components will require revision of the
divisors used to calculate the industrial average and the
related 65 stock composite index to maintain the statistical
continuity of the indices. The new divisors will be published
in tommorw's editon, it added.
    It explained that Owens-Illinois, which has been one of the
Dow 30 since 1959, is the object of a leveraged buyout. The
tender offer is set to expire March 16.
    The Journal said Inco is being dropped to substitute a
stock that will make the index more representative of the
market. Previously named International Nickel Co, Inco is one
of the original components of the index established in 1928.
    While the Owens-Illinois deletion was forced, the Inco
substitution is being made solely to improve the market-sector
weighting of the index, not because of any change in the
company, the paper stated. Such substitutions are made from
time to time, most recently with the addition of McDonald's
Corp <MCD> in October 1985, to reflect long-run changes in the
economy and the market, it added.
   
 Reuter

Panhandle Eastern Corp said it had made
steady progress in reducing its natural gas take-or-pay
exposure from 4.9 billion dlrs to 1.7 billion dlrs worth of
potential claims.
    Panhandle Eastern chairman R.L. O'Shields said settlement
payments of 247 mln dlrs plus releases and waivers of gas
purchase obligations since 1982 had reduced the company's
take-or-pay exposure.
    "While substantial, we believe the unresolved take-or-pay
exposure will remain manageable," he said in a letter to
shareholders that appeared in the company's new annual report.
    Panhandle Eastern also said it had budgeted 78 mln dlrs for
its 1987 capital spending program, an increase from 65 mln dlrs
spent last year. The company said its primary focus of 1987
spending would be to modernize and automate its pipelines for
greater efficiency.
    Houston-based Panhandle Eastern earned 133.5 mln in 1986 on
revenues of 2.0 billion, compared to net income of 113.1 mln on
sales of 2.5 billion in 1985.
 Reuter

Williams Cos said it completed the
sale of its Agrico Chemical Co unit to Freeport-McMoRan
Resource Partners L.P. <FRP> for an initial 250 mln dlrs cash.
    The company said it will also receive an additional 100 to
250 mln dlrs in five years based on the operating performance
of the unit.
    It said the cash proceeds will be used to lower its debt
costs.
 Reuter

The U.S. Austin Co and Japan's
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Inc said they have joined to compete
for contacts for a new Japanese airport at Kansai, near Osaka.
    Austin, a design, engineering and construction firm, said
in a statement that it and Kawasaki would bid for support
facility work worth 200-250 mln dlrs.
    The Kansai project is to cost about eight billion dls.
    U.S. officials have complained to Japan that American firms
are being squeezed out of work on Kansai and threatened to
restrict Japanese construction firms in the United States if
Kansai is not opened to U.S. companies.
 reuter

The European Community Commission has
told EC member states that it is not prepared to discuss EC
sugar prices while sugar traders threaten to make a huge sale
into intervention stocks to protest against its policies,
Commission sources said.
    "Our position is that we are not willing to discuss the
problems of market prices at a time when traders are making
threats," one source said.
    The sources said the Commission's view was made clear at a
meeting of its sugar management committee today.
    They said French, West German and Dutch officials had
informed the committee that traders in their countries intended
to sell just over 850,000 tonnes of sugar into EC intervention
stocks.
    The Commission riposted by signalling that it would sell
the sugar sold into intervention back onto the EC market by
tender, a move that would push down prices.
    The sources said French traders planned to sell 775,000
tonnes into intervention stocks, West German traders 7,500
tonnes and Dutch traders 2,500.
 Reuter

Senate Republican leader Robert Dole
(R-Kan.) said he and a group of Republican lawmakers are
six cts per gallon exemption from a nine cts federal excise
tax. The exemption is to expire at the end of 1992.
firms including Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), and A.E. Staley.
The tax exemption has helped helped bolster ethanol production
despite a sharp drop in the prices of competing crude oil.
 Reuter

Reserve fell on March 10 to 2.842 billion dlrs from 3.073
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 9.828
billion dlrs from 11.418 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 12.670
billion dlrs on March 10 compared with 14.490 billion dlrs on
March 9.
 Reuter

    He said in an interview with Reuters that after a few years
trade surplus - 4.5 billion dlrs, against a 1985 deficit of 900
mln dlrs.
    Asked if South Korea would drop its trade barriers once its
foreign debt was substantially reduced, he said "yes, I think
so."
    About 800 mln dlrs of the purchases are in goods of the
type South Korea normally bought from Japan.
    Rha was to leave later today for Ottawa for trade talks
with Canadian officials and businessmen.
    He said in the interview the U.S. purchases were to reduce
his country's 7.1 billion dlr surplus with the United States
and also to cut its 5.6 billion dlr shortfall with Japan.
    Rha said it was also due to a shift in exchange rates
between the U.S. dollar and the yen that made it cheaper to buy
U.S. goods than Japanese goods.
    He said South Korea heavily relied on foreign trade and he
hoped the leaders of major trading nations could find a way to
resolve the growing trend toward protectionist legislation.
    Rha said "I hope the leaders can get together to find a
solution by making some mutually satisfactory concessions."
    But he added "the leaders seem hesitant to make concessions
because of domestic political reasons."
    Speaking of his own country, he said "We have made a lot of
concessions already."
    He cited regulations permitting foreign investment in
industrial firms, allowing increased foreign banking activity
and cracking down on piracy of intellectual property by
strengthening protection of copyrights and patents.
    Rha said South Korea had also lowered many of its tariffs.
    South Korea is a major exporter to the United States of
textiles and apparel and electronic goods, such as television
sets, video cassette records and personal computers.
    Its puchases from the United States include electronic
testing equipment and grains and cotton.
    The trade mission's purchases here included three Boeing
passenger planes for 400 mln dlrs, four McDonnell Douglas
planes for 300 mln dlrs; and machinery worth 725 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it may lower
its BBB-minus rating of Clark Equipment Co's 108 mln dlrs of
long-term debt because of weak industry fundamentals and the
company's plan to repurchase 70 mln dlrs worth of common stock.
    Despite a dramatic rationalization of its fork-lift truck,
axle and transmission, and construction equipment operations,
continuing intense competitive pressures are limiting Clark's
growth and profit potential, S and P said.
    The company may be forced to increase debt to achieve its
strategic acquisition goals, the rating agency added.
 Reuter

Hong Kong investment firm, said it raised its stake in Calmat
Co to 1,480,830 shares, or 9.8 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 1,217,230 shares, or 8.0 pct.
Investments Ltd, a publicly held New Zealand firm, said it
bought 263,600 Calmat common shares between Feb 17 and March 9
for 13.1 mln dlrs.
    It has said it bought the stock for investment purposes,
but may raise its stake to 15 pct.
                    
 Reuter

signed a definitive agreement to buy <American Video Group Inc>
for stock.
    According to the merger proposal, American Video
shareholders will receive about 287,700 restricted Paralax
shares, and warrants to buy another 318,600 restricted shares
at six dlrs a share. The warrants run for three years.
    In addition, it said holders of American Video convertible
debentures agreed to exchange their holdings for about 380,000
dlrs worth of Paralax stock.
    American Video operates stores in U.S. military bases.
 Reuter

Corp said it formed a new business group to sell and support
telecommunications products.
    Called the Telecommunications Marketing and Service
organization, IBM said the group combines the U.S. direct
sales, service and support operations of its Rolm Corp unit
with the marketing support operations of its Information
Systems Group.
    IBM said the new group is responsible for direct sales,
installation and service of the Rolm product line as well as
other IBM telecommunications products.
    IBM acquired Rolm, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based maker of
telephone swichboards and other telecommunications equipment,
in 1984.
    Analysts in the past have criticized IBM for not moving
faster to integrate Rolm's telecommunications products with its
computer systems.
    But Edward E. Lucente, an IBM vice president and group
executive of the Information Systems Group, said in a
statement, "This is an important step toward providing a single
IBM marketing and service organization to increase our focus on
our customers' telecommunications products needs."
    IBM said Jack W. Blumenstein, a Rolm vice president and
head of its Business Communications Group, will take charge of
the new telecommunications organization, which will operate as
a unit within the Information Systems Group.
    Blumenstein was named an assistant group executive of the
Information Systems Group and he will report to Lucente, IBM
said.
    IBM said the new organization will oversee the technical
and marketing support of Rolm and IBM telecommunications
products but will not be responsible for sales and marketing of
IBM gear.
    IBM said Rolm will retain responsibility for the worldwide
manufacture and development of Rolm products. Rolm will also
continue to direct the sale of its products by Rolm
distributors in the United States and overseas.
    At the same time, IBM said its Communications Products
Division will continue to direct the worldwide development and
U.S. manufacture of IBM's non-Rolm telecommunications products.
    Dennis D. Paboojian, Rolm's president, will continue to
report to IBM senior vice president Allen J. Krowe, IBM said.
 Reuter

Detroit Edison Co said it has nearly
completed the 50 pct power level testing of its Fermi 2 nuclear
power plant near Monroe, Mich.
    The company said it is preparing to ask the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for the go-ahead to enter the next series
of tests at up to the 75 pct power level.
    Detroit Edison also said because of a decision to modify
Fermi's reheating apparatus, the company has set back the
schedule for the plant's commercial operation run to early June
from May One.
    Detroit Edison said with interest and other charges running
about 1.0 mln dlrs a day, the delay caused by reheater
modifications will add approximately 30 mln dlrs to the plant's
cost, raising the estimated total cost to 4.26 billion dlrs
from 4.23 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Lamson and Sessions Co said it has
decided to discontinue operations of Youngstown Steel Door, a
maker of components and equipment for railroad freight cars.
    The company said the unit is to be sold sometime this year,
so was included as discontinued operations in its 1986 results
announced earlier today.
    The company reported a loss from continuing operations of
2.5 mln dlrs for the year, against a 1985 profit of 1.2 mln
dlrs. For discontinued operations, it reported a loss of 9.5
mln dlrs compared to a year earlier loss of 922,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Two U.S. government agencies are in
dispute over a proposal for U.S. firms to sell computers to
Iran, officials said.
    The Commerce Department said it intends to approve export
licenses for two firms to sell computers and related equipment
to the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency and the Iran Power
Generation Transmission, spokesman B. Jay Cooper said.
    The export companies were not identified, but the sales
included computers made by Digital Equipment Co <DEC> of
Maynard, Mass.
    High-technology exports must be approved by the departments
of Commerce, Defense and State.
    The Pentagon will appeal Commerce's approval of the sales
because the technology could be turned against U.S. national
security, Commander Bob Prucha, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
    The Pentagon will ask the National Security Council in the
White House to prohibit the sales.
    Cooper said the State Department did not object to the
sales, but Secretary of State George Shultz indicated he may
weigh in against the deal.
    Under questioning by Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY) at a hearing,
Shultz said he was unaware that the Commerce Department was
preparing to grant export licenses for the sale of computers.
    "I'm not in favor of sales to Iran" of advanced U.S.
technology, Shultz said.
    The Commerce Department has argued that excessive
restrictions hurt U.S. companies that compete with foreign
exporters.
    Cooper said the technology in the Iranian sales was
available elsewhere and that foreign companies would get the
Iran business if the U.S. export licenses were not approved.
 Reuter

Rochester Telephone Corp said
it agreed to buy <Canton Telephone Co> for undisclosed terms.
    Canton serves customers in northeastern Penn. In 1986, it
had operating revenues of about 1.3 mln dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

ecuador is considering measures for
dealing with its foreign debt following the earthquake that
killed 300 people, left 4,000 homeless and cost the country
close to a billion dollars, information minister marco lara
told reuters.
    "the government's position ... is to honour the (debt)
commitments, but without sacrificing the country, because first
we have to survive and later we can comply," lara said.
    He said the nation would later announce plans to deal with
the country's 8.16-billion-dlr foreign debt.
    The government has estimated the economic cost of the
earthquake last thursday night at nearly one billion dlrs,
including oil revenues lost because an oil pipeline was
damaged.
     The president of the ecuadorean Red Cross, hugo merino,
told reuters the official toll of 300 dead and 4,000 missing
could rise as rescue workers inspect stricken sites from
helicopters and wade through mud to reach victims in the four
northeastern provinces hardest hit.
 Reuter

International Lease Finance Corp
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a shelf
offering of up to 500 mln dlrs of debt securities in addition
to 15.75 mln dlrs of debt securities already registered with
the SEC but unsold.
including the acquisition of aircraft, the company said.
    It said underwriters may include Merrill Lynch, Pierce,
Fenner and Smith Inc, Salomon Brothers Inc, Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc or Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
 Reuter

A Portland-based wood
products company has signed a 13 mln dlr contract with the
Iraqi government to supply finished softwood lumber to Iraq,
Edward Niedermeyer, president of Niedermeyer-Martin Co said
    Niedermeyer told the House Foreign Affairs sub-committee on
International Economic Policy and Trade in Washington that the
sales agreement contains an option that could make lumber
exported worth more than 20 mln dlrs.
    The delivery of about 8.0 mln dlrs worth of plywood, in
addition to lumber, hinges on whether the U.S. Department of
Agriculture will interpret plywood as an agricultural commodity
under the credit guarantee program, he said.
    Niedermeyer said the government export credit guarantee
program (GSM-102) administered by the USDA was the key to
opening the Iraqi market which up to now had been captured by
Scandinavian lumber producers.
    "This is the first time we have been able to sell wood
products in Iraq, he said. Without the USDA program it would
not have been possible. We hope this will lead to a long term
export market for U.S. lumber products."
    He said the contract calls for supplying 21 mln board feet
to 30 mln board feet of softwood lumber for housing,
construction and furniture manufacturing. He estimated the
profit potential for his company on the sale at five to six
pct.
    Niedermeyer spent two weeks in Baghdad negotiating the sale
late last month and early March. He is a member of the United
States-Iraq Business Forum, a non-profit group designed to
promote commerce with Iraq.
    The forum members include Westinghouse and General
Electric, but Niedermeyer's company is the only wood products
firm on the membership roster.
 Reuter

    On-Line Software International Inc <OSII> - Offering of 30
mln dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures due March 15,
2002 through Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Donaldson, Lufkin
and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    Covenant Corp - Initial public offering of two mln shares
of common stock, including 1,543,916 being sold by current
holders, at an estimated 11.00 to 12.50 dlrs each through First
Boston Corp.
    Marine Midland Banks Inc <MM> - Offering of 125 mln dlrs of
subordinated capital notes due March 1, 1997 through
underwriters led by First Boston Corp.
    Pentair Inc <PNTA> - Offering of two mln shares cumulative
convertible preferred stock, series 1987, through Kidder,
Peabody and Co Inc and Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood Inc.
    SunGard Data Systems Inc <SNDT> - Offering of 1.2 mln
shares of common stock through Alex. Brown and Sons Inc and
L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin Inc.
    Weyerhaeuser Co <WY> - Shelf offering of up to 250 mln dlrs
of debt securities in addition to another 100 mln dlrs of debt
securities already registered with the SEC but unsold.
    Xicor Inc <XICO> - Offering of 1.8 mln shares of common
stock through Montgomery Securities and Smith Barney, Harris
Upham and Co Inc.
    LyphoMed Inc <LMED> - Offering of 70 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due March 15, 2012 through
Alex. Brown and Sons Inc and Montgomery Securities.
 Reuter

    Pay June 19
    Record June One
 Reuter

Canadian Utilities Ltd said
it will redeem all its 14.5 pct cumulative redeemable second
preferred shares series G on May 1, 1987.
    Redemption price is 26 dlrs per share, the company said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 97 cts vs loss 73 cts
    Oper net loss 883,000 vs loss 659,000
    Revs 19.4 mln vs 16.7 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 2.37 dlrs vs loss 1.97 dlrs
    Oper net loss 2,228,000 vs loss 2,145,000
    Revs 72.4 mln vs 63.8 mln
    NOTE: Excludes gain 3.41 dlrs a share versus gain 41 cts in
the quarter, and gain 5.68 dlrs a share versus gain 1.99 dlrs
in the year from discontinued and disposed operations.
 Reuter

Giant Food Inc reported sales
on a 52-week basis ended last month increased 10.4 pct to  2.48
billion dlrs, compared to 2.25 billion dlrs for the prior
52-week period.
   
 Reuter

Donaldson Bramham Lee, an investor
from Birmingham, Alabama, said he raised his stake in Penobscot
Shoe Co to 40,500 shares, or 6.6 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 33,500 shares, or 5.5 pct.
Lee said he bought 7,000 Penobscot common shares between Feb 12
and March 2 at prices ranging from 13.75 to 16.25 dlrs a share.
    Lee has said he bought the Penobscot stock for investment
purposes only and has no plans to seek control of the company,
although he may buy more stock.
 Reuter

The recent purchase of 1.5 mln
tonnes of U.S. corn by Japan and 600,000 tonnes by South Korea
suggests that the two countries' demand for reliable supplies
of corn is increasing, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
said that view is reinforced by the expectation of a decline in
exportable supplies of Argentine corn and uncertainty over the
availability of South African and Chinese corn.
    With these corn purchases, Japan is committed to buying 7.7
mln tonnes of U.S. corn in 1986/87 (Sept-Aug), nearly 400,000
tonnes greater than year-ago figures to date.
    South Korea's cumulative commitments amount to 2.5 mln
tonnes, up 1.5 mln compared to last year, it said.
 Reuter

The Mexican Secretariat of Commerce
has told the U.S. that recent implementation of a 10 pct ad
valorem tariff for fixed vegetable oils, fluid or solid, crude,
refined or purified, was not targeted at sunflower oil, the
said the increase in tariffs on this category which includes
sunflower, corn and rapeseed oils, was a reaction to importers
using basket categories to avoid paying tariffs on specific
high-tariff products.
 Reuter

Aero Services International Inc
said it expects to achieve improvements in overall operations
in the year ending September 30, 1987.
    Earlier, Aero reported a 1986 year end net loss of 3.0 mln
dlrs compared to a profit of 483,000 dlrs in 1985.
    The company said the loss was attributable to costs
associated with its acquisition costs and operating losses of
nine Beckett Aviation fixed base operations purchased in August
1985 and discontinued weather service and flight simulator
segments.
   
 Reuter

Shr loss 63 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 3.0 mln vs profit 483,000
    Revs 61.9 mln vs 43.7 mln
    NOTE:1986 net loss includes loss of 1.4 mln dlrs or 28 cts
a share from discontinued operations. 1986 revenues include
revenues for the last eight months of Beckett Aviation,
acquired in September of 1985. Year ended September 30, 1986.

 Reuter

<Franco Nevada Mining Corp Ltd> said
the gain in its stock price today is related to deep drilling
being conducted by American Barrick Resources Corp <ABXFF> at
the Goldstrike claims in the Carlin camp in northern Nevada.
    Franco Nevada stock is up two at seven dlrs per share on
    Franco Nevada said American Barrick announced on March nine
that the drilling indicated a number of significant
intersections of sulfide gold mineralization below a depth of
about 1,000 feet.
    One vertical drill hole intersected gold continuously from
1,100 feet to 1,730 feet averaging 0.30 ounces per ton, the
announcement said.
    Extensive drilling continues at Goldstrike, the company
said, adding that the full economic value of the property
cannot be assessed until further results are available.
    Franco Nevada said it has a four pct royalty plus a five
pct net profit interest on the acreage. Those holdings are part
of more than 3,400 acres of mineral rights held by Franco
Nevada in the Carlin gold belt.
 Reuter

Shr 1.36 dlrs vs one dlr
    Net 1,010,249 vs 750,856
    Revs 15.2 mln vs 11.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 3.24 dlrs vs 2.18 dlrs
    Net 2,407,186 vs 1,627,250
    Revs 57 mln vs 53.1 mln
 Reuter

An 11-day-old strike by
Brazilian seamen is affecting coffee shipments and could lead
to a short term supply squeeze abroad, exporters said.
    They could not quantify how much coffee has been delayed
but said at least 40 pct of coffee exports are carried by
Brazilian ships and movement of foreign vessels has also been
disrupted by port congestion caused by the strike.
    A series of labor disputes and bad weather has meant
Brazil's coffee exports have been running at an average two
weeks behind schedule since the start of the year, one source
added.
    By the end of February shipments had fallen 800,000 bags
behind registrations, leaving around 2.4 mln bags to be shipped
during March. By March 10 only 230,000 bags had been shipped,
    Given Brazil's port loading capacity of around 100,000 bags
a day, even if normal operations were resumed immediately and
not interrupted by bad weather, some March registered coffee
will inevitably be shipped during April, they added.

 Reuter

Cleaver Brooks, a subsidiary of
<Aqua Chem>, which is owned by the French firm Societe
Lyonnaise DesEaux Et de L'Eclairage, said it plans to build a
manufacturing plant near Tulsa.
    The company said it entered into a 90-day option effective
March 9 to purchase a 20.7 acre lot with a vacant 143,000
square foot building located in Sapula, Okla.
    No price was disclosed by the company.
 Reuter

Alcoa officials acknowledged the
possibility that they may have a position in the off-exchange
aluminum options market, but declined specific comment on trade
speculation that the company is holding a large outstanding
position.
    An Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) source involved in
terminal trading for the company said: "We use all means
available to manage our business, so it's a possibility we're
trading options."
    "We won't go into specifics about what we're doing. But
when you're dealing in un-alloyed ingot, it's a commodity
business where there are a lot of tools available (for hedging)
and Alcoa is using all of those tools," said Al Posti, Alcoa's
manager of corporate news.
    Trade sources have said Alcoa is long call options equal to
30,000 to 50,000 tonnes of aluminum due to mature in April and
May. However, some New York-based aluminium traders said they
believe the size of Alcoa's position has been exaggerated.
    The possibility that Alcoa may be long call options is one
factor indicating that supply tightness may worsen in the
second quarter, traders said.
    "If they decide to exercise their right to buy, it would
mean really squeezing the market," one New York trader said,
noting that aluminum stocks on the London Metal Exchange were
90,500 tonnes at the end of last week.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.32 dlrs vs profit two cts
    Net loss 5,666,000 vs profit 84,000
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 21.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 1.87 dlrs vs loss 71 cts
    Net loss 8,030,000 vs loss 3,062,000
    Revs 40.9 mln vs 53.0 mln
    Note: includes losses from discontinued operations of
190,000 dlrs vs loss 185,000 dlrs in 3rd qtr and 731,000 dlrs
loss vs 815,000 dlrs loss in nine mths.
 Reuter

MARATHON TO RAISE CRUDE PRICES 50 CTS/BBL TOMORROW WTI  TO 17.50 DLRS

General Electric Co's GE
Semiconductor Business said it agreed to sell its Datel unit to
a group led by the unit's president, Nicolas Tagaris.
    Tagaris founded the company, which produces precision data
acquisition, conversion and control components and subsystems,
in 1970. He sold it to GE in 1979.
 Reuter

Trico Industries Inc said it
set March 31 as the date for a special shareholders meeting for
a vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by Paccar Inc
<PCAR>.
    In January the two companies announced an agreement
covering a proposed acquisition by Paccar of Trico's
approximately 8.2 mln shares outstanding for eight dlrs per
share in cash.
 Reuter

The federal government's transfer
payments to seven provinces will rise by five pct over the next
two years, the finance department announced.
    The payments, used by poorer provinces to fund various
public services, will rise to 5.6 billion dlrs next year from
5.3 billion dlrs in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1987. In
fiscal 1989 payments will rise to 5.9 billion dlrs.
    Payments are being made to Newfoundland, Prince Edward
Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan.
    The department also said another 270 mln dlrs owed to
Ottawa by the four Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Saskatchewan
will be forgiven. The debt arose from overpayments in previous
years.
 Reuter

<Nelson Holdings International
Ltd's> Nelson Entertainment Inc unit said it has entered an
agreement to co-finance ten motion pictures with Hemdale
Releasing Corp.
    Under the pact Nelson will have domestic home video rights
and Hemdale will be responsible for distribution in all other
media.
 Reuter

HUGHES TOOL SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE MERGER WITH BAKER INTERNATIONAL

Wall Street market analysts said two
changes in the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
were part of a shift away from smokestack industries that have
long dominated the 30-stock index.
    "It strengthens the Dow," said William LeFevre, analyst at
Advest Inc. He said Coca-Cola Co <KO>, one of the two
additions, "is a genuine consumer stock as opposed to a
smokestack." He applauded the decision to drop Inco Ltd <N>, "a
super stock at one time that hasn't done much lately."
    The editors of the Wall Street Journal also decided to add
Boeing Co <BA> and dropping Owens-Illinois Inc <OI>.
    Charles Jensen of MKI Securities said Inco was a "stodgy
number." But he noted that putting two new stocks in an average
of 30 is a relatively minor change.
    "This will distinctly make the index more useful," said
Frank Korth of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. "The movement of
the market to the upside will be enhanced by the shift to
Coke."
    But he said Shearson's aerospace analyst today removed
Boeing from the firm's recommended list, taking it from a buy
to a hold. Korth said Boeing's business appeared to be leaning
too heavily to the military side as opposed to commercial.
    Prior to tomorrow's market opening the Wall Street Journal
will publish a new divisor to be used in calculating the index.
LeFevre said the divisor will probably go up a bit but will
probably be lower than its current level of 0.889 later in the
year due to forthcoming splits in components such as
International Paper Co <IP>.
    The divisor, which is adjusted whenver stocks are split,
dropped below one for the first time in May of last year. The
0.889 divisor means that a change of 1/8 (12.5 cts) in the
price of a component produces a change of about 14 cts in the
index.
 Reuter

Turner Broadcasting System Inc's CNN
said it reached an agreement with China Central Television to
air its news programming in China.
    It said China Central TV will use CNN reports during its
daily newscasts on two channels, reaching an audience of about
300 mln viewers.
    The company said the agreement also gives CNN the right to
sell advertising spots on China Central TV.
    CNN also said it reached an agreement with Televerket Kabel
TV of Sweden to broadcast 24-hour news on its cable TV network.
The program will reach an initial 118,000 viewers.
 Reuter

Thomas and Betts Corp said the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed an
earlier judgment by the U.S. District Court for the District of
Delaware directing a unit of Litton Industries <LIT> to pay it
5,781,711 dlrs in damages for patent violations.
    Thomas and Betts said the court upheld the May 26, 1986,
award plus interest to be paid by Winchester Electronics, a
division of Litton Systems Inc, which is a subsidiary of Litton
Industries.
    The company explained the judgment was in regard to a
lawsuit first filed in 1978 for patent violations on the
manufacture and sale of transition "d" subminiature IDC
connectors.
 Reuter

Shr 3.13 dlrs vs 2.02 dlrs
    Net 39.1 mln vs 26.9 mln
    Revs 203.2 mln vs 173.8 mln
 Reuter

(Power Corp of Canada) said it
received subscriptions for 252,223 shares of its recent issue
of participating preferred shares for total proceeds of 4.3 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Pacific Southwest Airlines said it
reached an agreement with the Southwest Crew Controllers
Association needed to satisfy conditions of USAir Group's <U>
proposed acquisition of PSA.
    PSA said this is the third of four unions agreement is
needed with for USAir's acquisition to be consummated.
    Under the agreement, PSA crew controllers received
assurances they will be provided with labor protective
provisions and a seniority integration process.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs four cts
    Net 3,370,000 vs 353,000
    Revs 27.8 mln vs 20.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 35 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 3,543,000 vs 3,845,000
    Revs 103.6 mln vs 74.8 mln
 Reuter

Southwest Bancorp said it will
commence an exchange offer for all of its 108,710 issued and
outstanding shares of 2.50-dlr cumulative convertible preferred
stock on March 12.
    Southwest said it will issue 11 shares of its no par value
common stock in exchange for each preferred share.
 Reuter

The senior Republican on the U.S.
Senate Agriculture Committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana, called
for repeal of the cargo preference law that aids the American
shipping industry but which he said hurts farmers.
    "Cargo preference is a costly special interest operated at
the expense of American farmers and dockworkers," Lugar said in
signing on as a co-sponsor or cargo preference repeal
legislation.
    The law requires shipment of U.S. goods on American ships
rather than foreign vessels which are less costly.
 Reuter

Reliance Electric Co said its Reliance
Industrial Co unit will redeem on April 10 all outstanding
7-1/4 pct debentures due 1996 and 9-5/8 pct debentures due
1994.
    Reliance Industrial will buy back the 7-1/4s at 101 plus
accrued interest and the 9-5/8s at 102.344 plus accrued
interest.
    Reliance Electric was a unit of Exxon Corp <XON> until
December 30, 1986, when a group of investors took the company
private in a leveraged buyout, a Reliance spokesman said.
 Reuter

EIA SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 8.8 MLN, GASOLINE OFF 500,000, CRUDE OFF 1.2 MLN

Shr loss 43 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 3.1 mln vs profit 502,896
    Revs 5.6 mln vs 4.2 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes negative effect of accounting change
of 354,650 or five cts a share.
 Reuter

Democrats on the House Budget
Committee, meeting behind closed doors to draft the outlines of
next year's federal budget, say their work is proceeding at a
snail's pace.
    In a series of interviews, panel members conceded that the
budget panel's drafting sessions, which began yesterday and
were initially expected to end late tomorrow, will now extend
into next week.
    "We've a long ways to go," Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.). told
Reuters.
    "We are not making the progress that we should," said Rep.
Vic Fazio (D-Calif.).
    Members also acknowledged that the panel's preliminary 
goal for spending cuts and new revenues would not be enough to
enable the government to meet the 108 billion dlr deficit
ceiling set for the coming year by federal law.
    Budget Commitee Chairman William Gray (D-Pa.), interviewed
during a break in the lawmakers' secret deliberations, said the
committee was still debating the shape of the overall budget
and had come to no agreement on the size or precise form of the
new revenues or spending cuts to be pursued.
    But the lawmakers said the House Democratic leadership has
asked the panel to come up with a package of 36 billion dlrs in
deficit-reducing measures.
    The package would include 18 billion dlrs in new revenues,
nine billion dlrs in military spending cuts and nine billion
dlrs in domestic spending reductions, they said.
    The Democratic lawmakers said they were still trying to
meet those goals but had made no firm decisions.
    In particular, the legislators said they were having
trouble coming up with the nine billion dlrs in military
spending cuts.
    "We're talking in the range of 15-20 billion dlrs in new
revenues, but if we can't come up with the full amount of
defense cuts, we would have to raise more in new revenues,"
Fazio said.
    The particular manner in which new revenues would be raised
also has not been decided, the lawmakers said.
    House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas) has urged passage of a
tax on securities transactions to bring an estimated 20 billion
dlrs in new revenues into the U.S. Treasury.
    But the administration is totally opposed to such a tax, a
top official told Reuters yesterday.
    The official, who spoke on condition he not be identified,
said the administration also opposed another suggestion by
Wright that the administration delay next year's cut in the top
tax rate, called for in the recent tax overhaul law.
    The Congressional Democrats first hinted about two weeks
ago that they would seek to reduce the deficit by about 36
billion dlrs and put aside the question of whether the effort
would meet the 108 billion dlr deficit target set for fiscal
year 1988 by the new federal balanced budget law.
    The administration has predicted that approval of 42
billion dlrs in deficit reductions would meet the target.
    Its budget plan, submitted in January, called for 1.024
trillion dlrs in spending on revenues of 916 billion dlrs.
    But the Congressional Budget Office has said the
administration forecast was based on overly optimistic
assumptions about the economy.
    The nonpartisan office said the administration's budget
plan, if adopted, would yield a deficit of 134 billion dlrs,
missing the deficit target by 26 billion dlrs and.
 Reuter

Enrollment in the U.S. Agriculture
Department's fourth conservation signup is expected to be
announced tomorrow, and USDA officials said the figure may be
higher than total enrollment for the first three signups.
    Enrollment will be in the range of seven to 12 mln acres,
USDA conservation specialists said. Total enrollment so far in
the 10-year conservation program is 8.9 mln acres.
    Producers submitted bids to enter 11 to 12 mln acres into
the program, Milton Hertz, administrator for USDA's
Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service said at a
congressional hearing yesterday. Not all the bids will be
accepted, Hertz said, but enrollment is expected to be high.
    As in the first three signups, the Great Plains area is
expected to attract the greatest enrollment.
    "The Great Plains area will be the predominate area which
we'll get signup in," a USDA conservation specialist said.
    Marginal corn acreage will likely be the bulk of the
acreage pulled from that area, he said.
    Fringe soybean acres in the southeast and some bean acreage
in the midwest are also expected to be taken out of production,
but the USDA source said this would be a relatively small
percent of the total.
    A special two dlr bonus to corn producers who enroll part
of their corn base acreage into the program has sparked more
interest in this latest signup, USDA officials said.
    Under the program, USDA pays farmers annual rents to take
land out of production for 10 years. The average rent payment
accepted in the first three signups was 43.50 dlrs per acre.
 Reuter

primary storage fell by 8.8 mln barrels in the week ended March
six to 119.6 mln barrels, the Energy Information Administration
Energy agency said gasoline stocks were off 500,000 barrels in
the week to 251.0 mln barrels and refinery crude oil stocks
fell 1.2 mln barrels to 331.8 mln.
    The EIA said residual fuel stocks fell 1.5 mln barrels to
36.4 mln barrels and crude oil stocks in the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose 200,000 barrels to 516.7 mln.
    The total of all crude, refined product and SPR stocks fell
10.3 mln barrels to 1,564.8, it said.
 Reuter

Heavy rains fell again in
Argentina's main grain growing areas in the week to yesterday,
    Rains fell heaviest early in the week, and in particularly
high volume in Buenos Aires province, Cordoba, La Pampa and
Santa Fe provinces.
    Rainfall totalled between 20 and 290 mm in Buenos Aires,
heaviest in western sectors of the province, 20 to 145 mm in La
Pampa, 25 to 120 mm in Cordoba, and 10 to 75 mm in Santa Fe.
Rainfall was lighter in other provinces.
    Rainfall totalled from five to 50 mm in Corrientes, five to
31 mm in San Luis, five to 30 mm in Entre Rios, three to 20 mm
in Misiones, 11 to 17 mm in Formosa and one to eight mm in
Chaco.
    Growers said it was still too early to tell whether the
rains had damaged crops, though they said maize and sunflower
crops may have suffered.
    Harvesting of both those crops and sorghum was paralysed by
the bad weather. For harvesting to resume as normal, the rains
would have to stop long enough for the soil to dry and allow
farm machinery to operate.
    The rains caused flooding in western and northwestern
Buenos Aires, as more than 750 mm have fallen in some areas
there since February 23 while the annual average is 1,200 mm.
    Flooded areas total between 1.2 and 1.5 mln hectares,
Buenos Aires province governor Alejandro Armendariz said after
flying over the flooded area.
    Agriculture Secretary Ernesto Figueras said only 500,000
hectares of the area now flooded had been planted, and that
200,000 to 300,000 hectares could be lost. Growers said large
parts of the flooded areas were not planted because they are
low-lying and flood easily.
    Trade sources said it was certain crops were damaged by the
heavy rains but it was too early to tell the exact extent of
the damage. They said it was likely rain combined with high
winds uprooted many sunflower and maize plants.
    The sunflower harvest moved forward in the centre and south
of Cordoba and Santa Fe and got underway in a few isolated
areas of northern Buenos Aires. Growers have harvested between
15 and 18 pct of total planted area, up from seven to nine pct
a week ago.
    Estimates of the total volume of the sunflower crop were
revised downward in light of the bad weather.
    Estimates for total crop ranged from 2.3 to 2.6 mln tonnes,
down from 2.4 to 2.7 mln tonnes estimated last week and down
34.1 to 41.5 pct from last year's record harvest of 4.1 mln
tonnes.
    Maize harvesting also advanced, reaching between 13 and 15
pct of total planted area compared to seven to nine pct a week
ago. The maize harvest is expected to total between 10 and 10.2
mln tonnes, down from the 10 to 10.4 mln tonnes estimated a
week ago.
    Last year's maize harvest totalled 12.8 mln tonnes,
according to official figures.
    Soybean production estimates were revised downward, to 7.8
to 8.2 mln tonnes compared to estimates of eight to 8.4 mln
tonnes a week ago. Last year's soybean harvest totalled 7.1 mln
tonnes, according to official figures.
    Sorghum harvesting moved slowly forward, reaching between
four and six pct of total planted area, compared to two to four
pct a week ago.
    Sorghum production estimates remained steady at 3.2 to 3.5
mln tonnes, down 16.7 to 22 pct from the 4.1 to 4.2 mln tonnes
produced in the last harvest.
 Reuter

Today's debt rescheduling talks
between the Philippines government and its bank advisory
committee were postponed until Thursday to give the banks more
time to consider Manila's novel proposal for paying part of its
interest bill in notes instead of cash, bankers said.
    The committee banks met briefly earlier today and decided
that they needed more time in particular to consider a news
report which quoted a Reagan Administration official as urging
that the proposal be given serious consideration.
    "The banks felt that this was new information and that
further consultation was called for," one banker said.    
    In a despatch yesterday from Washington, Reuters quoted the
official as saying Manila's plan to pay some interest with
notes that could be converted into equity investments in the
Philippines was fully consistent with the Reagan Administration
strategy for handling developing country debt.
    Because of the key role the U.S. plays in the debt crisis,
foreign banks in particular wanted time to analyze the
significance of the policymaker's comments, bankers said.
 Reuter

HARPER AND ROW GETS BID FROM HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH FOR 50 DLRS/SHR

An overwhelming majority of Hughes Tool
Co shareholders approved a merger agreement with Baker
International Corp based on revised terms that allow the
companies additional time to sell a drilling bit business as
required by the U.S. Justice Department.
     Hughes chairman William Kistler said the revised terms of
the proposed consent decree also set a 10 mln dlr cap on how
much funding the newly combined companies will have to spend on
the disputed drilling bit business until it is sold.
    An earlier proposed consent decree did not establish a
funding limit.
    The Baker-Hughes merger, which would would create a 1.2
billion dlr oilfield services company, almost fell through
earlier this month when Hughes balked at terms of a proposed
Justice Department consent decree that would have given the
companies only three months to find a buyer for the Reed
business.
    Baker said today it would withdraw the one billion dlr
lawsuit it had filed to force Hughes to follow through with the
merger.
    Hughes' Kistler, speaking to reporters after 85 pct of
Hughes' shareholders approved the merger, said the revised
terms of the agreement give the companies six months to find a
buyer for the Reed drilling bit business. The previous
agreement had proposed a three-month period.
    Kistler said the the government had also indicated it would
consider granting, if necessary, an additional three-month
extension to complete the sale.
    He said there were "several people looking" at the domestic
drilling bit business.
    The companies, Kistler said, have also decided to
voluntarily sell a Reed plant in Singapore.
    Kistler estimated that the merger, which should be
completed in about two weeks, will result in annual cost
savings of about 50 mln dlrs. He said he expects "substantial
cutbacks" in the 20,000-member workforce at Baker-Hughes Inc,
the name the merged company will take.
    Kistler said the cost savings and greater efficiencies
should put the company on a profitable course. "We think that
in the third or fourth quarter after the merger we should see
something close to breakeven," he said.
    In the fourth quarter of 1986, Hughes earned 31.7 mln dlrs
on sales of 215.7 mln dlrs.
    Baker, in its first fiscal quarter ended December 31, lost
34.2 mln dlrs on revenues of 297.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

USX's subsidiary, Marathon Petroleum
Co, said it will raise its contract prices for eleven grades of
crude oil 50 cts a barrel, effective tomorrow.
    The increase brings Marathon's posted price for West Texas
Intermediate and West Texas Sour grades to 17.50 dlrs a barrel.
    The Light Louisiana grade was also raised 50 cts to 17.85
dlrs a barrel.
 Reuter

downgraded Baker International Corp and upgraded Hughes Tool Co
to reflect the companies' merger into Baker Hughes Inc.
    The action affected About 840 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    S and P said that depressed market conditions would
continue to constrain the new company's operating earnings and
cash flow for several years, despite dominant positions in the
oil services industry.
    Nonetheless, pro forma debt leverage of about 40 pct should
decline within a year to about 35 pct because of proceeds from
asset sales, S and P said.
    Cut were Baker International's senior debt to A-minus from
A and commercial paper to A-2 from A-1. The unit Baker
International Finance NV's senior debt, guaranteed by Baker,
was reduced to A-minus from A.
    S and P raised Hughes Tool's senior debt to A-minus from
B-plus, subordinated debt BBB-plus from B-minus and commercial
paper to A-2 from C.
 Reuter

Inco Ltd said it did not expect its
earlier reported removal from the Dow Jones industrial index to
make a major impact on the company's stock.
    "We don't think that individuals or institutions buy our
shares because we were one of the Dow Jones industrials,"
spokesman Ken Cherney said in reply to a query.
    Inco closed 1-3/8 lower at 19-3/8 in second most active
trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    Cherney, asked about the stock price slide, said: "I don't
think we can speculate. It appears to be a reaction but we have
no control over the content of the Dow Jones."
    The Wall Street Journal, which selects the index, said Inco
was dropped to make the index more representative of the
market. Inco, the non-Communist world's largest nickel
producer, was a member of the index since 1928.
    Cherney said Inco did not view the move as a blow to its
prestige.
    "I don't see any change in that area. We haven't used that
factor (Dow membership) as part of our promotional material,"
he said.
    Replacing Inco and Owens-Illinois Inc <OI> will be
Coca-Cola Co <KO> and Boeing Co <BA>, effective tomorrow.
    Nickel analyst Ilmar Martens at Walwyn Stodgell Cochran
Murray Ltd said Inco's removal from the index would likely
spark short-term selling pressure on the stock.
    "Some investors who have Inco may suddenly say, 'Well,
because it's not now a Dow stock, we should eliminate that
investment,' " said Martens, although he added the move was
unlikely to have a serious long-term impact on Inco stock.
    Inco has struggled in recent years against sharply lower
nickel prices. Its net earnings fell to 200,000 U.S. dlrs in
1986 from 52.2 mln dlrs the previous year.
 Reuter

(Nationair) said it plans to begin
service between Montreal's Mirabel airport and Brussels three
times a week for an unrestricted one-way fare of 299 Canadian
dollars.
    The fare will rise to 379 dlrs in high season, beginning 
June to September, and compares with a regular unrestricted
one-way economy fare of 944 dlrs on Canada's major airlines,
Nationair said.
    The airlines said it sees the service as an option for
business travellers.            
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 2,509,000 vs 7,582,000
    Revs 186.2 mln vs 182.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 23 cts vs 95 cts
    Net 4,318,000 vs 17.8 mln
    Revs 564.8 mln vs 584.4 mln
 Reuter

Broad Corp said it acquired
the construction activities of Vogt and Conant Co of Cleveland.
    The combined companies, to be called Broad, Vogt and Conant
INc, will be the largest structural steel erection company in
the U.S. Combined sales of the two operations were more than 40
mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Harper and Row Publishers Inc said it
received an acquisition offer from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
INc to acquire all of Harper and Row's shares at 50 dlrs a
    Harper said it will consider the proposal, including such
possible concerns as anti-trust and other legal considerations.
    On Monday, Harper and Row received a surprise 34 dlr-a-
share bid from investor Theodore Cross, owner of six pct of the
shares, for the stock he does not own.
     Harcourt made clear in its offer that it will step aside
if Harper's directors and shareholders reject the bid, Harper
said.
    Harper said the board has previously expressed a strong
determination to remain an independent publishing enterprise.
    Harper also said that New World Pictures, a shareholder,
has requested a copy of Harper's shareholder list to be used in
soliciting proxies.
    New World has 30,800 shares of the total 4.4 mln shares.
    Harper and Row's stock closed off 3/4 to 33-1/2 after
rising 9-1/4 points yesterday.
    Shareholders are due to vote April 2 on a shareholders
rights plan designed to thwart hostile takeovers.
    Ivan Obolensky, an analyst with the investment banking for
of Sterling Grace and Co said Harper and Row is one of the few
remaining independent publishers with a "back list" of authors
stretching back 200 years.
    He said as long as the company maintains copyrights with
the estates of deceased authors, it controls all motion picture
and television rights to the stories. And he said new printing
technologies make new editions a profitable business.
    "Harcourt Brace needs a back list of that nature and is
willing to pay up for it," Obolensky said. But he said Harper
and Row "has plenty of beef to warrant a 50 dlr bid.
 Reuter

The Department of Transportation
(DOT) said it would go ahead at seven airports with a
controversial plan to reduce airline delays by enabling
competing companies to coordinate their schedules.
    Under the plan, the DOT will grant the airlines immunity
from the antitrust laws so they can redistribute their flight
times over the day and avoid the clustering of flights that
typically occurs at the most desirable travel times.
    Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole said she had
decided to grant unconditional immunity to the carriers serving
Atlanta's Hartsfield and Chicago's O'Hare airports.
    At five other airports--Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Denver,
Newark and Philadelphia--Dole said she would grant conditional
immunity to enable further government study.
    Under this part of the plan, the carriers serving these
five airports have been asked to give DOT their summer 1987
schedules by the end of the week.
    The agency will then review the schedules and decide by
Monday whether they threaten to cause delays.
    If so, those airports would be added to the list of those
granted wider immunity to enable scheduling talks.
    Dole said she was confident no anticompetitive effects
would result from the talks, which she said would be monitored
by U.S. officials and would be open to the public.
    Flight delays at the nation's 22 busiest airports soared in
1986 to 367,000 from 295,000 in 1985. The government believes
most delays are caused by weather.
    The DOT first proposed the immunity plan in late January
and said it might be granted for a total of 13 airports.
    Dropped from the final plan were the Minneapolis-St. Paul,
New York-LaGuardia, New York-J.F. Kennedy, San Francisco, St.
Louis and Washington-Dulles airports.
 Reuter

Goldman, Sachs and Co told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it sold nearly its entire
stake in First Pennsylvania Corp of 2,450,598 shares, or 5.2
    Goldman Sachs said it has about 17,800 First Pennsylvania
common shares remaining. On February 26, the company redeemed
convertible debentures with common stock, which at once
increased Goldman's stock holding and the total outstanding.
    Goldman Sachs said it originally bought the stake as part
of its arbitrage business. Marine Midland Banks <MM> has an
agreement in principal to acquire First Pennsylvania.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.05 dlr vs 51 cts
    Oper net 14.1 mln vs 5,669,000
    Revs 163.2 mln vs 133.2 mln
    Avg shrs 13.5 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 65 cts vs 26 cts
    Oper net 8,664,000 vs 1,906,000
    Revs 287.8 mln vs 251 mln
    Avg shrs 13.4 mln vs 8,403,562
    NOTE: Prior year 4th qtr and year oper net excludes 13.1
mln dlrs and 17.4 mln dlrs, respectively, for income from
    Prior year 4th qtr and year oper net also excludes 19.2 mln
dlrs and 20.3 mln dlrs, respectively, for operating loss
carryforwards and other reogranization items.
    Prior year 4th qtr and year ended January 25, 1986.
 Reuter

products supplied rose 1.9 pct in the four weeks ended March
six to 16.39 mln barrels per day from 16.08 mln in the same
period a year ago, the Energy Information Administration (EIA)
said.
Department agency said distillate demand was down 2.2 pct in
the period to 3.33 mln bpd from 3.40 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.75 mln bpd, up 3.3 pct from 6.53
mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.40 mln bpd, off
2.7 pct from 1.43 mln, the EIA said.
bpd, down 8.5 pct from 9.15 mln a year ago, and gross daily
crude imports (excluding those for the SPR) averaged 3.67 mln
bpd, up 23 pct from 2.97 mln, the EIA said.
    Refinery crude runs in the four weeks were 12.05 mln bpd,
up 1.5 pct from 11.87 mln a year earlier, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 6.2 mln vs 4.9 mln
    Loans not given
    Deposits not given
    Assets 3.8 billion vs not given
    Note: full name Montreal City and District Savings Bank
    Period ended January 31
 Reuter

Franco Nevada Mining Corp Ltd said the
gain in its stock price today is related to deep drilling being
conducted by American Barrick Resources Corp at the Goldstrike
claims in the Carlin camp in northern Nevada.
1,100 feet to 1,730 feet averaging 0.30 ounces per short ton,
the announcement said.
 Reuter

The United States charged that a
Soviet nuclear test last month blew radioactive debris outside
the Soviet Union in violation of a test ban treaty.
    The State Department, which made the charge in a statement,
gave no details of where the debris had landed or what level of
radioactivity had been measured. It said Moscow had been told
of U.S. concern over the incident.
    U.S. officials refused to give details of the fall-out, 
saying it would reveal how the intelligence had been gathered.
    The Soviet test took place near the Siberia, Kazakhstan
boarder, according to Swedish monitors.
 REUTER

John Cotton, an Arizona businessman,
told the Securities and Exchange Commission he has acquired the
equivalent of 213,500 shares of Class A common shares in Del E.
Webb Investment Properties, or 8.9 pct of the total.
    Cotton, president of Finalco Group Inc, a Paradise Valley,
Ariz., data processing equipment maker, said he bought the
stake, which includes warrants to buy 186,300 shares, for
266,958 dlrs.
    The warrants are exerciseable at 9.50 dlrs a share, he
said. Cotton said it bought the stock for investment purposes
only.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 22 cts
    Net loss 278,949 vs profit 346,368
    Revs 11.9 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 49 cts vs profit 49 cts
    Net profit 1.2 mln vs profit 949,626
    Revs 61.7 mln vs 52.7 mln
    NOTE:1985 net includes loss of three cts or 49.1 mln dlrs
in 4th qtr and loss of 13 cts or 258,720 dlrs in year from
 Reuter

    Replacing Inco and Owens-Illinois Inc will be Coca-Cola Co
and Boeing Co, effective tomorrow.
    "Some investors who have Inco may suddenly say, 'well,
investment,'" said Martens, although he added the move was
 Reuter

Mason Benson, former president and
chief operating officer of Empire of Carolina Inc, a toy maker,
today was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to a year and
one day in jail for his involvement in a kickback scheme.
    Benson pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, tax
evasion, filing false corporate tax returns and defrauding the
company's shareholders. He was also fined 5,000 dlrs.
    Benson was charged with demanding kickbacks from sales
representatives who were asked to turn over a portion of their
commisisons as a condition for doing business with Empire.
 Reuter

In a discovery that could complicate the
search for an AIDS vaccine, a team of U.S. Army doctors said
they have uncovered a potentially-fatal interaction between the
AIDS virus and a virus used to protect against smallpox.
     Physicians at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
said a 19-year-old man, who apparently had been exposed to the
AIDS virus, developed a pox-like disease and died after
receiving the smallpox vaccine. The military now tests recruits
for AIDS before vaccinating them.
    The findings, reported in The New England Journal of
Medicine, are significant because scientists have begun working
on an AIDS vaccine that relies on the smallpox vaccine.
     "Our case report raises provocative questions concerning
the ultimate safety of such vaccines," said the group led by
Dr. Robert Redfield.
     The report also throws into question the belief held by
some scientists that the smallpox vaccine, which exposes people
to a milder, protective form of the disease known as cowpox,
could be further modified to protect people against a host of
other diseases.
 Reuter

Doctors at the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta said they have new evidence that birth
control pills can help provide long-term protection from cancer
of the ovary, even if the pills are only taken for a few
months.
     The study, reported in the New England Journal of
Medicine, also found that all the various types of oral
contraceptives on the market were equally effective in lowering
the rate of ovarian cancer.
     The researchers estimated that the use of birth control
pills in this country probably prevented about 1,700 cases of
ovarian cancer in 1982.
    As more and more women who have taken oral contraceptives
"move into the age groups that are at highest risk for
epithelial ovarian cancer we may witness a declining incidence
of this serious disease," they said.
     Specifically, the team led by Dr. Howard Ory found that
"oral contraceptive use, even for a few months, reduces the
risk of epithelial ovarian cancer by 40 percent for women 20 to
54 years of age.
     "The effect probably takes from five to ten years to
become apparent, but it persists long after the use of oral
contraceptives ends. Moreover, protection exists regardless of
the formulation of oral contraceptive used," they said.
 Reuter

U.S. economic data this week could be
the key in determining whether U.S. interest rate futures break
out of a 3-1/2 month trading range, financial analysts said.
    Although market expectations are for February U.S. retail
sales Thursday and industrial production Friday to show healthy
gains, figures within or slightly below expectations would be
positive for the market, the analysts said.
    "You have to be impressed with the resiliency of bonds
right now," said Smith Barney Harris Upham analyst Craig
Sloane.
    Treasury bond futures came under pressure today which
traders linked to a persistently firm federal funds rate and a
rise in oil prices. However, when sufficient selling interest
to break below chart support in the June contract failed to
materialize, participants who had sold bond futures early
quickly covered short positions, they said.
    "Everyone is expecting strong numbers, and if they come in
as expected it won't be that bad for the market," Sloane said.
    Sloane said the consensus estimate for the non-auto sector
of retail sales is for a rise of 0.6 to 0.7 pct.
    Dean Witter analyst Karen Gibbs said a retail sales figure
below market forecasts would give a boost to debt futures, and
she put the range for the non-auto sector of retail sales at up
0.8 to 1.2 pct.
    Industrial production and the producer price index Friday
both are expected to show increases of about 0.5 pct, she
added.
    Retail sales "will tell us whether or not we will be able
to fill the gap," Gibbs said, referring to a chart gap in June
bonds between 100-26/32 and 101-3/32 created Friday. June bonds
closed at 100-4/32 today.
    Also key to debt futures direction, in addition to the
federal funds rate, is the direction of crude oil prices, said
Carroll McEntee and McGinley Futures analyst Brian Singer.
    "A higher fed funds rate and firm oil prices precluded the
market from breaking out of the trading range the last time the
market approached the top of the range," Singer said.
    In order for bonds to break above the top of the range,
which is just below 102 in the June contract, "the crude oil
rally needs to run its course and pull back a little bit,"
Singer said. "Fed funds are already easing back down toward the
six pct level."
    The recent surge in oil prices has also been a concern to
Manufacturers Hanover Futures analyst Jim Rozich, but the rally
may be nearing a top around 18.50 dlrs per barrel, he said.
    Rozich said he is looking for the June bond contract to
ease to 99-6/32 and find support.
    "I'm not quite ready to jump on the bullish bandwagon yet.
The jury is still out this week," Rozich said.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration,
responding to last year's United Nations special session on
Africa, today outlined a U.S. "action program" for sub-Saharan
Africa focusing heavily on economic reform and self-help.
    A White House statement announced establishment of "a
long-term U.S. goal for all U.S. economic programs and policies
in sub-Saharan Africa: to end hunger in the region through
economic growth, policy reform and private sector development."
    The statement said the "program of action" was recommended by
a White House task force set up last September.
    In a series of recommendations, the task force called for
new efforts to address Africa's heavy debt burden and said U.S.
food aid should stress production incentives to reinforce
African nations' economic reform and productivity.
    It also said better African access to world markets should
be promoted to reward good performance and enable African
nations to earn their way toward economic growth.
    The U.S. private sector should be mobilized to provide
"private, voluntary and corporate involvement of a humanitarian
    It said donor countries "should negotiate, through the
existing International Monetary Fund/World Bank coordination
process, framework agreements with each sub-Saharan African
country to establish long-term structural adjustment and reform
programs."
    The task force called for a separate budget account for
U.S. bilateral aid "in order to focus better on rewarding
economic performance and increasing the flexibility of U.S.
assistance programs for incentive economic reforms and private
sector development."
 Reuter

In a novel type of financing, Texas
Instruments Inc marketed a three-part, 225 mln dlr issue of
convertible money market preferred stock through Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc as sole manager.
    Shearson, which originated the new convertible concept,
said each of the three tranches totaled 75 mln dlrs. In the
first, a 2.85 pct dividend was set on the stock with a strike
price of 190 dlrs that represented a 15 pct premium over the
common stock price when terms were set.
    Also included were 4.36 pct dividend preferred with a 220
dlr strike price and 33 pct premium and 4.49 pct dividend
preferred with a 235 dlr strike price and 42 pct premium.
    Texas Instruments common closed at 167.25 dlrs, up 2-1/8.
    Ronald Gallatin, managing director at Shearson, said that
"demand for the offering was unbelievable, especially for the
first tranche."
    He said that Shearson originated the concept of auction
money market preferred stock three years ago. The conversion
feature of this issue is the new wrinkle.
    Commenting on the first tranche, Gallatin noted that the
original pricing talk called for a dividend in the four to 4.20
pct area. This was gradually cut to 2.85 pct because of intense
demand, saving the issuer money in financing costs.
    The Shearson official said that virtually all buyers of the
first tranche received less than they wanted. He said the
latter two tranches were less strongly oversubscribed.
    Like non-convertible money market preferred stock, the new
version allows investors to redeem their holdings every seven
weeks. Investors then can maintain their holdings, sell them,
or offer to hold on to the securities if the auction
dividend is at least at a level they specify in advance.
    Gallatin said the securities were sold to a broad range of
investors, including major insurance companies, banks, money
managers and pension funds.
 Reuter

Canadian Foreign Secretary Joe
Clark, winding up a two-day visit to Washington, said he
expected the Reagan administration to take some action on
reducing acid rain.
    "My impression is there will be some movement by the United
States administration on acid rain (but) how much movement I
can't judge or predict," he told reporters.
    The meetings with American officials are part of a routine
U.S.-Canada consultation but are also expected to lay the
groundwork for a summit in Ottawa next month between President
Reagan and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
    Clark today held discussions with Treasury Secretary James
Baker and Democratic Sens. Patrick Moynihan of New York,
Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Lloyd Bentsen of Texas and
George Mitchell of Maine.
    Yesterday, he held talks with Vice President George Bush,
Baldrige.
    Among its priorities, Canada is seeking evidence that
Reagan is prepared to live up to a commitment made last year to
implement in the United States a five-year 5 billion U.S. dlr
program to test cleaner ways of burning coal.
    This issue was discussed at length with Baker and several
of the senators, including Mitchell who urged Canada to "keep
the heat on" the Reagan administration to force action, Canadian
    Also taken up with most of the senators and Baker were
trade issues, including the need for the United States and
Canada to establish a better mechanism for settling trade
disputes between the two countries, who are each other's major
trading partner, Canadian officials said.
 Reuter

Ford Motor COr said that profit-sharing
checks were distributed to employees in its U.S. facilities.
    About 371 mln dlrs was distributed to 160,253 emplyees. The
average payment per employee was more than 2,100 dlrs compared
with 1,200 in 1985.
   
 Reuter

jamaica has put a cap on its 3.5
billion dlr foreign debt and will reduce its obligations by 300
mln dlrs this year, prime minister edward seaga said today.
    Speaking at a news conference, seaga said jamaica has
reached its "maximum stock of debt" and will not undertake any
more borrowing until it is justified by economic growth.
    "this year we'll be reducing the stock of debt by 300
million dollars," he said.
    He told reporters his government aims to reduce jamaica's
ratio of debt payments to foreign exchange earnings from the
current 50 pct to 25 pct within three years.
    Debt payments this year are expected to total 287 mln
dollars, seaga said.
    yesterday jamaica agreed with creditor banks to reschedule
over the next 12 years some 181 miln dlrs due in 1987-89.
    The accord includes a grace period on principal payments
for eight and a half years and a reduction of interest rates
from 2.5 to 1.125 pct above libor.
    Last week, jamaica obtained a 10-year rescheduling of 100
pct of principal and 85 pct of interest on 125 mln dollars of
debt to the paris club nations  the debt would have fallen due
over the next two years.
 Reuter

A team of California researchers said
that they have developed a better, faster test for detecting
sickle cell anemia in unborn children than existing procedures.
     The test, developed by Cetus Corp <CTUS> researchers,
requires only a small amount of genetic material from a fetus
and produces a diagnosis within a day, unlike other tests that
require several days and can only be done in a few specialized
centers, they said.
     Sickle cell anemia is a painful, inherited blood disease
that causes the normally-flexible red blood cells to stiffen
into a sickle-like shape. It is primarily found in blacks.
    The researchers said in The New England Journal of Medicine
that their "procedure promises to be a rapid, sensitive and
reliable method for the prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell
disease."
     In addition, they said, the technique might also be
adapted to detect other types of genetic disease.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss two cts vs profit three cts
    Oper net profit 273,000 dlrs vs profit 1,710,000
    YEAR - period ended October 31, 1986
    Oper shr loss 23 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Oper net loss 4,397,000 vs profit 7,527,000
    Assets 2.67 billion vs 3.25 billion
    Note: 1987 1st qtr net excludes extraordinary loss of 2.2
mln dlrs or six cts shr.
    1986 yr net excludes extraordinary loss of 66 mln dlrs or
1.94 dlrs shr involving 22.1 mln dlrs of costs from sale of
bank assets to Hongkong Bank of Canada, eight mln dlrs for
contingent liabilities in respect of litigation and potential
tax reassessment by U.S. govt and 35.9 mln dlrs of deferred tax
debits.
    Most bank assets sold to HongKong Bank of Canada, a unit of
<Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp> in Nov, 1986.
 Reuter

Albert Hakim, an arms merchant, is
the first top-ranked player in the Iran arms scandal who may be
enticed into testifying by the promise of immunity,
investigators said.
    The House Select committee probing the Iran arms scandal
has voted to grant limited immunity from criminal prosecution
to Hakim in return for his testimony.
    Hakim, 51, was said deeply involved from the start in the
attempt to trade arms to Iran for help in freeing American
hostages in Lebanon and the diversion of funds and arms to
rebels in Nicaragua.
  
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 1.4 mln vs 1.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 86 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 4.7 mln vs 3.0 mln
    REvs 201.4 mln vs 140.0 mln
    NOTE:1985 4th qtr includes 99,000 loss from carryforward.
Shares restated to give effect to 1.4 to one stock split in the
form a 40 pct class A dividend in August 1985.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.02 dlrs vs 1.01 dlr
    Net loss 18.1 mln vs 11.4 mln
    Revs 96.0 mln vs 90.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.65 dlrs vs loss 3.06 dlrs
    Net loss 39.3 mln vs 34.6 mln
    Revs 386.0 mln vs 373.0 mln
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr, year loss includes 14.4 mln dlrs, 4.6
mln dlrs respectively from discontinued. 1985 4th qtr and year
include loss of 13.1 mln, 1.9 mln dlr respectively.
 Reuter

USX Corp said proved reserves of oil
and natural gas liquids fell 28 pct to 802.8 mln barrels at the
end of 1986 from 1.12 billion barrels at year-end 1985.
    The figures, in USX's just-released 1986 annual report,
indicate much of the drop resulted from the exclusion of 293.7
mln barrels of Libyan reserves, after the U.S. government last
June directed U.S. oil companies to end Libyan operations.
    USX, which owns Marathon Oil Co and Texas Oil and Gas Corp,
had 60 pct of its 1986 sales of 14.94 billion dlrs from its oil
and gas operations.
    About 24 pct of total sales came from USX's USS steel unit
and 16 pct from diversified businesses, which include oilfield
services, raw materials, minerals, chemicals and real estate.
    According to the report, domestic liquids reserves fell
slightly to 628.5 mln barrels from 628.9 mln and foreign
reserves fell to 174.3 mln from 486.4 mln barrels. The large
drop in foreign reserves was in the Middle East and Africa,
where they fell to about 9.3 mln barrels from 316.7 mln,
reflecting the exclusion of Libya.
    Total natural gas reserves fell to 4.82 trillion cubic feet
at year-end 1986 from 5.18 trillion at the end of 1985.
    Again, most of the drop came from the Middle East and
Africa, where reserves fell to zero from 71.9 billion cubic
feet, excluding Libyan reserves.
    U.S. natural gas reserves fell to 3.44 trillion cubic feet
from 3.65 trillion and foreign reserves fell to 1.38 trillion
from 1.53 trillion.
    In other areas, USX said total capital spending fell to 962
mln dlrs in 1986 from 1.78 billion dlrs in 1985. The 1986
audited figure is eight mln dlrs higher than the unaudited
figure the company reported on Jan 27.
    USX also said it expects to record a gain of 150 mln dlrs
in 1988, representing 50 pct of previously existing investment
tax credits allowable under the new tax law. The loss of the
other half of the credits was reflected in the fourth quarter.
    In a discussion of steel results, USX said plants that were
shut down last month and some previously idled plants may be
permanently closed. USX took a fourth quarter charge of 1.03
billion dlrs to restructure its steel operations. The charge
included the "indefinite idling" last month of four plants in
Utah, Pennsylvania and Texas.
    Other plants or parts of plants in Pennsylvania, Indiana,
Alabama, Ohio and Chicago had been previously idled.
    "These operations are not permanently shut down. Improved
market conditions for the products from these plants may make
it feasible to reopen some of them," USX said in the report.
    "On the other hand, a lack of any future market improvement
may necessitate their permanent closing," it added.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Co Chairman C. J.
"Pete" Silas said his company's stock, ranked fourth on the
most active list of stocks traded today, rose partly because of
steps it took to pare its debt.
    Silas told Reuters in an interview today, "part of this
strength results from the rise in oil prices and also because
some of the analysts have been happy with the steps we've taken
in 1986 to pare our debt."
    Phillips stocks rose 1/4 to 14 dlrs a share following
recommendations by some oil analysts, a company source said.
    Phillips debt stood at 5.9 billion dlrs in December 1986
down from a 1985 high of 8.6 billion dlrs, analysts said.
    "At 14 dlrs a share, Phillips is priced closer to the actual
price of oil," he added.
    Silas said, "if the analysts are right that oil prices will
rise to 20 dlrs or higher, then it seems to make sense to buy
Phillips." He is, however, more cautious about the strength in
crude prices, expecting the price to fluctuate between 16-18
dlrs a barrel for the year.
    Oil industry analysts said one reason for the stock's
popularity of the stock is that it traded at a strong discount
to its appraised value and was attractively priced for small
    Charles Andrew, an analyst who follows Phillips for John S.
Herold Inc of Greenwich, Conn said that the appraised value of
the company, based on available data is 34.25 dlrs.
    "The stock is trading at about 1/3 its appraised value. The
company has tremendous leverage and if it can get its act
together and if oil prices are steady to higher there is good
room for improvement," he said.
   But, he added, "if oil prices turn lower, there will be a
lot of pressure on Phillips."
   Phillips' shares fell as low as eight dlrs a share over the
last 52 weeks with a 1987 low of 11-3/4 dlrs in 1987.   
Analysts say that the appraised value of the company could be
revised due to asset sales of their oil and gas reserves.
   Silas told Reuters that the asset sales which amount to
about two billion dlrs for 1986 were completed and that none
were planned.
 Reuter

Michigan General Corp said
it began an exchange offer for its 110 mln dlrs outstanding
principal amount of 10-3/4 pct senior subordinated debentures
due December 1, 1998.
    Pursuant to the exchange offer, each 1,000 dlr principal
amount will receive 500 dlr principal amount of senior
subordinated notes due March 1, 1992, 200 dlr principal amount
of non-interest bearing convertible senior subordainted notes
due March 1, 1997 and 12 shares of delayed convertible
preferred stock, liquidation preference 25 dlrs per share.
    The offer will expire April nine.
    Michigan General said the exchange offer is crucial to is
attempt to restructure and reduce its risk from Chapter 11.
    The principal purpose of the offer is to reduce its debt
service on the 10-3/4 pct debetures, increase stockholders'
equity and induce its lender to continue to fund.
    Assuming a 90 pct acceptance of the offer, Michigan's
annual cash interest requirements will be reduced by about 10.6
mln dlrs, it said.
    Completion is subject to the tender of at least 90 pct of
the debentures and its lender to waive it from default under
its loan agreements.
      
 Reuter

Bank of British
Columbia said it revised its estimate of shareholder
distributions from last November's sale of most of the bank's
assets to HongKong Bank of Canada to between 65 cts and 1.15
dlrs a share from 55 cts to 1.20 dlrs a share.
    The bank said the estimate could rise to between 1.30 dlrs
and 1.80 dlrs a share if the full pension surplus is obtained.
It said it did not know when distributions would be made.
    It earlier reported that operating profit for first quarter
ended January 31 fell to 273,000 dlrs from 1.7 mln dlrs the
previous year.
    For full-year 1986 ended October 31, the bank posted an
operating loss of 4.4 mln dlrs against year-earlier profit of
7.5 mln dlrs. The bank also posted a 66 mln dlr extraordinary
loss in fiscal 1986.
    Bank of British Columbia sold most of its assets last
November to HongKong Bank Canada, a unit of <HongKong and
Shanghai Banking Corp>, of Hong Kong, for 63.5 mln dlrs.
    It said efforts to wind up the bank's affairs were
proceeding as quickly as possible.
    The bank said it expected to report positive earnings in
future periods, barring unforeseen circumstances.
    Loan losses, which the bank previously said figured in its
move to sell off most of its assets, rose to 105.7 mln dlrs in
fiscal 1986 from year-earlier 36.1 mln dlrs. The bank said 31.1
mln dlrs of the 1986 total represented downward adjustments to
its portfolio of syndicated sovereign risk loans as required
under the sale to HongKong Bank.
    Since November 27, the bank has confined activities to the
winding up of affairs, Bank of British Columbia said.
 Reuter

The House voted to block 40 mln dlrs
in military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels until President Reagan
accounts for past assistance, including money diverted from the
U.S. sale of arms to Iran.
    The vote was seen as a temporary defeat for Reagan, who has
made aid to the "contras" a key initiative.
    Congressional Democratic leaders have conceded that despite
today's vote, they can not muster a two-thirds majority to
override a certain Reagan veto. But they have said it is likely
they can win a battle expected this fall over 105 mln dlrs iin
new aid Reagan is requesting.
             
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 1,019,000 vs 985,000
    Revs 7,997,000 vs 7,492,000
    YEAR
    Shr 1.18 dlrs vs 64 cts
    Net 6,959,000 vs 3,778,000
    Revs 36.5 mln vs 29.8 mln
 Reuter

Jan/Feb 1987 totalled 39,714 tonnes, against 36,594 tonnes
shipped in the same 1986 period, National Meat board said.
    Shipments in tonnes with comparative figures for the 1986
period, in brackets, included: beef 26,945 (20,096), horse meat
3,257 (4,211) and beef offal 7,660 (10,502).
    Argentine's meat exports totalled 20,243 tonnes in February
1987, against 19,217 tonnes shipped in the same 1986 month.
    Shipments in tonnes, with comparative figures for February
1986, in brackets, included: beef 13,272 (11,464), horse meat
1,543 (2,083) and beef offal 4,476 (4,672), the board added.
figures for 1986 in brackets -
    EC 5,500 (7,900), Brazil 5,200 (unavailable), Israel 3,700
(3,000), Peru 2,500 (800), Singapore 500 (300), Switzerland 500
(400), Canary Islands 500 (300), Malta 500 (700), Aruba/Curazao
200 (300), Chile 100 (600).
equivalent), in tonnes with comparative figures for Jan/Feb
1986, in brackets, were -
    United States 11,200 (13,400), EC 4,700 (5,100).
 Reuter

<Kiena Gold Mines Ltd> said it planned
a two-for-one common stock split, pending shareholder approval
on April 7.
    It said approval would require 66-2/3 pct of votes cast.
Kiena said 57 pct-owner Campbell Red Lake Mines Ltd <CRK> was
expected to vote in favor of the split.
 Reuter

vanzetti Systems INc said its
shareholders approved increasing the number of authorized
shares to five mln from three mln.
    Shareholders also approved increasing the number of shares
reserved for options to employees to 300,000 from 150,000
 Reuter

 Reuter

House trade lawmakers took their
first votes on measures designed to toughen U.S. trade laws but
held over until tomorrow the most difficult votes on
controversial plans to protect American industries.
    Meeting in closed session, the House Ways and Means Trade
Subcommittee failed to resolve one of the most sensitive issues
in the bill--whether they will force major foreign trading
partners to severely cut their trade surpluses with the United
States.
    The subcommittee is considering a toned-down version of
Democratic-sponsored trade legislation that aims to open
foreign markets but which drops last year's effort to force
President Reagan to retaliate with quotas or tariffs.
    Congressional aides who asked not to be identified said the
lawmakers intend to wrap up their proposals tomorrow and will
consider a proposal to mandate retaliation without setting
specific trade penalties.
    The legislation faces another hurdle in the full Ways and
Means Committee next week before the full House votes on it.
    Rep. Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat who is seeking
his party's 1988 presidential nomination, said he may offer an
amendment to call for reductions in the trade surpluses of
those countries with barriers to imports of U.S. goods.
    This would be a moderated version of his earlier plan to
force a mandatory ten per cent annual cut in the trade surplus
with the United States by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, West
Germany and other countries with the largest trade imbalances.
    "My criteria for a good amendment sets a standard for
getting the trade deficit down," he told reporters.
    The trade law changes are to become part of a major
congressional and administration effort to turn around the
record U.S. trade deficit of 169 billion dlrs last year by
opening up foreign markets and making U.S. products more
competitive.
    House Speaker James Wright, a Texas Democrat, said again
today he expects the full House will approve the trade bill by
May and that Reagan will accept the final congressional bill.
    "I expect whatever is reported (by the Ways and Means
Committee) will pass. We will have a good bill and an effective
bill," he told reporters.
    The comprehensive trade bill will include work by other
committees to ease export controls on high technology, to aid
U.S. workers displaced by foreign competition, to stimulate
research and development, to remove foreign trade barriers and
to improve education and worker training.
    The lawmakers agreed that for the first time a U.S.
industry could charge foreign producers with unfair competition
if they deny basic worker rights such as collective bargaining,
safety rules and payment of a minimum wage appropriate to the
country's economic development.
    They transferred to U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter the powers now held by Reagan to decide whether to
retaliate against foreign violations of fair trade rules and
whether an injured industry deserves import relief.
    They agreed to make it easier for a company to get
temporary relief from import competition but agreed the
industry should provide a plan to become competitive.
    The administration has not announced its support but
Yeutter said yesterday, "I am cautiously optimistic," that the
Democratic-led House will come up with an acceptable bill.
 Reuter

Soviet first deputy prime minister
Vsevolod Murakhovsky said at the end of a brief visit here his
country wanted to boost joint business with France, but that a
reduction of France's trade deficit with the Soviet Union
depended on the French.
    Murakhovsky, who is also chairman of the State
Agro-Industrial Committee (GOSAGROPROM), told a news conference
he had discussed a variety of possible deals with French
companies Rhone-Poulenc, Pechiney and Imec.
    Declining to put figures on possible contracts he said he
had discussed plant protection and the processing of highly
sulphuric gas with Rhone-Poulenc, packaging technology for
agricultural products with Pechiney, and fruit and vegetable
juice processing with Imec.
    An official for Pechiney said an agreement of intent on
packaging could be signed soon, but could not give any other
details. The other two companies were not immediately available
for comment.
    Asked whether he foresaw a reduction this year of France's
trade shortfall, at 7.6 billion francs in the first 11 months
of 1986 against 5.1 billion for the whole of 1985, Murakhovsky
told Reuters: "It all depends on France."
    At a meeting in Paris last January French and Soviet
foreign trade ministers said they were committed to increased
efforts to reduce the deficit. Estimates at the time showed a
French 190 mln franc surplus for December 1986.
    Murakhovsky said the Soviet Union was prepared to talk with
anybody with "interesting" proposals offering latest technology
and assuring "a mutual advantage."
    He said the Soviet Union had many tasks ahead of it and
would deal rapidly with proposals it considered interesting.
    He encouraged companies to take advantage of new laws
guaranteeing "the interests of foreign partners" in joint
ventures.
    But he said no agreements had yet been finalised under the
new joint venture laws.
    He said concrete deals had not yet been finalised as a
result of a one billion dollar accord signed in Moscow last
month with French businessman Jean-Baptiste Doumeng.
    He said Doumeng's Interagra company was preparing proposals
for further examination by the Soviet Union. Doumeng last month
said the agreement was to exchange one billion dollars worth of
goods.
    Murakhovsky said the agreement was one of intent, and
designed primarily to renew and increase the Soviet Union's
food production capacity.
 Reuter

venezuela will supply ecuador with an
as yet undetermined amount of crude oil to help it meet export
commitments, seriously affected by last week's earthquake,
energy and mines minister arturo hernandez grisanti said.
    He gave few details about the deal, but said a crude oil
loan agreement will be made between state oil companies
petroleos de venezuela (pdvsa) and ecuador's cepe.
    Ecuador was forced to suspend oil exports for an expected
four months after an earthquake damaged a pipeline. Oil
accounts for 60 per cent of its export income.
     Hernandez was speaking to reporters at miraflores palace
on the results of talks with ecuador's deputy energy minister
fernando santos alvite, who arrived here last night.
    "the volume lent to ecuador would be discounted from its
opec quota and would not affect venezuela's," he said. "we would
from august on produce our own quota and sell the additional
amounts that ecuador would be repaying us," he said.
    He did not elaborate on the quota arrangements but did say
ecuador would notify opec by telex that venezuela would be
lending it a certain amount over so many days.
    Venezuela's opec output quota is currently 1.495 million
barrels a day, and ecuador's has been set at 210,000 bpd.
 Reuter

Shr profit 17 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net profit 1.3 mln vs profit 901,000
    Revs 36.9 mln vs 36.2 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit 18 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 1.4 mln vs loss 716,000
    Revs 63.6 mln vs 57.7 mln
    NOTE:1986 six months includes increase in provision for
doubtful accounts to 1.5 mln dlrs. 1986 shares give effect to
issuance of 1.5 mln shares in exchange for outstanding Series 1
 Reuter

Britain today called on Japan to
increase foreign imports or risk the rise of protectionism and
the harm it would bring to it and other trading nations.
    British Trade and Industry Secretary Paul Channon said
Japan must heed a report issued by a Japanese government
advisory body in December calling for faster domestic demand to
help cut its trade surplus and restructure its economy.
    "I recognise that the strong yen has brought problems to
Japan's domestic economy," he told a group of Japanese
businessmen in London.
    "But these short term difficulties should not be allowed to
deflect Japan from the fundamental reforms necessary," he said.
    "It is not just a domestic issue for Japan. If import
propensity does not expand very soon there is a real risk from
protectionist lobbies, particularly in the U.S. With whom Japan
has so massive a surplus," he said.
    "They may well succeed in securing action by governments
which would be highly injurious to trading nations like Japan
and the U.K."
    Channon said there had been substantial growth in the
volume of trade between Japan and Britain, amounting to 6.2
billion sterling (9.8 billion dlrs) last year.
    But he added: "Regrettably too much of it was in one
direction, with the Japanese selling us 3.7 billion sterling
(5.8 billion dlrs) more than we sold them."
 Reuter

TAFT BROADCASTING REJECTS 145 DLR PER SHARE BUYOUT OFFER FROM THETA CORP

Taft Braodacasting Co said its board
of directors unanimously decided not to accept the pending
proposal of Theta Corp, an investor group led by Dudley Taft.
    The decision was based on, among other things, the advise
of its financial advisors, goldman sachs and co, that the offer
of 145 dlrs per share was inadequate.
    Taft said the board concluded that the offer failed to
recognize fully the future propsects of the company and
directed management to explore alternatives including possible
financial restructuring.

 Reuter

Ecuador, stricken by a severe earthquake,
will honour its 8.16 billion dlr foreign debt but only after
ensuring the survival of the country after the tremor which
claimed at least 300 lives and caused 4,000 persons to
disappear.
    "The government's position ... is to permit us to honour the
(debt) commitments but without sacrificing the country, because
first we have to survive and later we can comply," information
minister Marco Lara told reuters.
     He said the nation would later announce definitive
measures on the foreign debt in the aftermath of the earthquake
which the government said will cause nearly a billion dlrs in
economic losses.
 Reuter

A British minister said that a proposed
European Community tax on vegetable oils and fats would raise
the price of fish and chips and he pledged the government would
fight against it.
    Lord Belstead, a junior agriculture minister, told the
House of Lords the tax would raise the price of raw materials
used in many processed foods by about 100 pct.
    He said revenue should not be raised by taxing the consumer
and called the proposal "repugnant."
 Reuter

Australia's seasonally-adjusted
unemployment rate eased to 8.2 pct of the estimated workforce
in February from 8.3 pct in January, compared with 7.9 pct a
year earlier, the Statistics Bureau said.
    The number of unemployed declined to 632,100 from 638,300
in January, against 594,500 in February 1986, it said.
    But unadjusted, the number of jobless rose to 699,800 or
9.1 pct of the workforce from 671,400 or 8.9 pct in January and
658,500 or 8.7 pct a year earlier.
 REUTER

is seeking through negotiations with private foreign banks to
postpone all payments due to them for the rest of the year,
Finance Minister Domingo Cordovez said.
    He said in a statement, "The idea with the foreign banks is
to obtain from them the best terms to give the Ecuadorean
economy a complete relief in the period of deferral of payments
on the foreign debt during the present year."
    The statement referred only to payments due to private
foreign banks, a senior government finance official told
Reuters.
    These creditors hold two-thirds of Ecuador's foreign debt
which totals 8.16 billion dlrs.
    It did not refer to debts maturing to foreign governments
and multilateral lending agencies, accounting for the remainder
of Ecuador's foreign debt, the official said.
    He said Ecuador owed the private foreign banks between 450
and 500 mln dlrs in interest payments for the rest of 1987 and
about 66 mln in principal payments maturing this year.
    Cordovez said Ecuador would seek new loans from
multilateral organisations. A World Bank mission was due here
soon to evaluate emergency loans, government officials said.
    Ecuador has also appealed for emergency
aid from about 40 foreign governments.
    Government officials have calculated losses to the 1987
budget from last Thursday's earthquake at 926 mln dlrs.
    In 1986, Ecuador's total service on the foreign debt was
about 996 mln dlrs to all creditors.
    The quake ruptured Ecuador's main oil pipeline, suspending
crude exports for five months until the line is repaired. Oil
accounts for up to two-thirds of its total exports and up to 60
pct of total revenues. Before the tremor, Ecuador suspended
interest payments on January 31 to private foreign banks.
    Officials said they stopped interest payments due to a
cash-flow squeeze stemming from a slide in world oil prices,
which cut 1986 exports by about 25 pct to 2.18 billion dlrs.
    Ecuadorean finance officials have been in telephone contact
every day this week with some of the banks who sit on its
14-bank advisory committee, the senior government finance
official said. The committee represents the country's 400 or so
private foreign bank creditors.
    Cordovez also said in the statement, "The banks should
perceive that it is impossible at this moment to comply with
what was forseen."
    Cordovez added, Ecuador must make a new proposal in line
with the reality since the earthquake by seeking better options
of deferment and of softening the negotiation conditions."
    Interest payments fall due at least monthly to private
foreign banks.
    Ecuador's initial proposal earlier this year was to make
only one semi-annual or one annual interest payment this year.
    Under this proposal, it sought to defer interest payments
until June at the earliest, foreign bankers and government
officials here said.
    Ecuadorean officials held their last formal meeting with
the advisory committee in New York in January, but the
negotiations were suspended on January 16 due to the 12-hour
kidnapping of President Leon Febres Cordero by air force
paratroopers.
    The Red Cross says that least 300 people died and at least
4,000 are missing due to the earthquake.
 REUTER

declined comment on the February 22 Paris accord between the
six major industrial nations under which they agreed to foster
exchange rate stability.
    Asked by reporters after a speech before the National
Fitness Foundation banquet what, if any, currency intervention
levels had been set in Paris, Baker replied: "We never talk
about intervention."
    Baker also declined to comment on his views about the
foreign exchange markets' reaction to the accord.
 REUTER

Ecuador will ask OPEC to raise its oil
export quota by 100,000 barrels per day to 310,000 to
compensate for lost output due to last week's earthquake,
deputy Energy Minister Fernando Santos Alvite said.
    Santos Alvite, who arrived in Caracas last night to discuss
an aid plan for Ecuador, did not say when the Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be approached.
    The additional output would be related to plans now under
discussion for Venezuela and Mexico to lend Ecuador crude while
it repairs a pipeline damaged by the quake.
    Earlier, Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Aturo
Hernandez Grisanti said his country would supply an unspecified
part of Ecuador's export commitments.
    But Santos Alvite told reporters he hoped a first cargo of
300,000 barrels could leave Maracaibo this weekend to supply
refineries near Guayaquil. He added Ecuador also wanted to make
up for 50,000 bpd it shipped to Caribbean destinations. Mexico
might supply Ecuador's South Korean market.
    Ecuador may be unable to export oil for up to five months
due to extensive damage to a 25 mile stretch of pipeline
linking jungle oilfields to the Pacific port of Balao.
 REUTER

The yield on 46,000 hectares (ha) of
rapeseed in central China will be cut by up to 70 pct by
hailstorms and tornadoes that swept across nearly 100,000 ha of
crops on March 6, the New China News Agency said today.
    The storm, which lashed the Huai and Yangtze rivers and
eastern Anhui province, left two people dead and 800 others
injured. Some 800 houses were flattened and 19 boats sunk, it
said.
    The Anhui provincial government has sent emergency relief
to the 19 counties affected, the news agency said.
 REUTER

China has closed the second round of
bidding by foreign firms for offshore oil exploration rights,
the China Daily has reported.
    It quoted a spokesman for the China National Offshore Oil
Corp (CNOOC) as saying China signed eight contracts with 15
foreign firms for blocks in the Pearl River mouth and south
Yellow Sea covering a total area of 44,913 sq km.
    Second round bidding began at the end of 1984 and only one
well has so far produced results -- Lufeng 13-1-1, 250 km
south-east of Shenzhen, with an output of 6,770 barrels a day.
The well was drilled by a group of Japanese companies.
    The spokesman added CNOOC was ready to enter into contracts
for offshore blocks before third round bidding began. He did
not say when this would be, but added the contracts would not
be bound by restrictions imposed during the second round.
    China has signed 36 oil contracts and agreements with 37
companies from 10 countries since 1979, when offshore
exploration was open to foreigners. Eleven contracts were
terminated after no oil was discovered.
    Foreign firms have invested 2.1 billion dlrs on offshore
China since 1979.
 REUTER

Japan has relaxed its limit on the
establishment of securities company outlets in order to service
a growing number of individual investors, the Finance Ministry
said.
    Japanese securities companies can now set up as many as 21
new outlets in the two years before March 31, 1989, against the
previous maximum of 13.
    The rules apply to outlets in department stores,
supermarkets and other locations convenient for individuals.
    Foreign securities firms are not affected by the ruling, it
said.
 REUTER

American Motors Corp <AMO> management
has ordered a hiring freeze in view of Chrysler Corp's <C> 1.5
billion dlr takeover bid, a spokesman for AMC said.
    Analysts said the merger is virtually certain to go ahead.
    American Motors directors met for five hours Wednesday to
review the takeover proposal. "The board ... Expects to be
meeting periodically over the next several weeks on the
Chrysler proposal," AMC said in its first formal statement since
it acknowledged the Chrysler proposal on Monday.
    Chrysler, the number three U.S. Automaker, has said the
merger is motivated principally by its desire to acquire AMC's
profitable Jeep business and dealers, as well as a new modern
car assembly plant in Bramalea, Ontario.
    That means a guaranteed future for much of AMC, but it
leaves in question the fate of many of its 19,000-plus
employees, according to industry analysts. AMC's Toledo, Ohio
Jeep plant has 1,850 hourly workers on indefinite layoff while
its Kenosha, Wisconsin, car plant has another 2,250 on layoff.
 REUTER

Rothmans International plc <ROT.L> aims
to set up a joint venture with Jinan cigarette factory in
Shandong, China to produce high quality cigarettes, some for
export, Chinese newspapers said.
    The China Daily said the factory has produced high-quality
"General" brand cigarettes using advanced machinery and technical
assistance worth 2.5 mln dlrs donated by Rothmans under a
co-operation agreement signed in 1985.
    The Economic Daily newspaper said the high quality "General"
will help China's cigarettes enter the international market.
The two papers gave no more details.
 REUTER

The net inflow of foreign investment
into Australia jumped to 7.3 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter
of 1986 from 4.32 billion in the third quarter and 4.55 billion
a year earlier, the Statistics Bureau said.
    The Bureau attributed the increase to a turnaround of 2.08
billion dlrs in official sector transactions and a 1.09 billion
turnaround in direct investment.
    The turnaround in official transactions to a 1.52 billion
inflow from a 555 mln outflow in the third quarter, against a
520 mln inflow a year earlier, was largely on account of
government foreign currency borrowings, it said.
    Direct investment recorded a turnaround to a 1.04 billion
dlr inflow in the fourth quarter from a 57 mln withdrawal in
the third quarter, against a 546 mln inflow in the fourth
quarter of 1985, the Bureau said.
    It said the major part of the turnaround reflected an
injection of funds, estimated at around 700 mln dlrs,
associated with the previously reported restructuring of the
Australian operations of General Motors Corp <GM>.
    GM used the funds to pay out or take over certain
Australian liabilities of its local unit <General
Motors-Holden's Ltd>, it said.
    However, net borrowings remained the major part of total
inflow, accounting for 6.16 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter
against 3.88 billion in the third quarter and 4.03 billion a
year earlier, the Bureau said.
    Net official borrowings comprised 1.52 billion dlrs against
a net outflow of 548 mln in the third quarter and a 516 mln
inflow a year earlier.
    Total private and semi-public authority net borrowings rose
to 4.64 billion dlrs from 4.42 billion in the third quarter and
3.51 billion a year earlier.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union carried out a nuclear
test early today, the official Tass news agency reported.
    According to the report, monitored by the British
Broadcasting Corporation, the explosion was at 0200 gmt.
    A blast on February 26 ended a 19-month unilateral test
moratorium declared by the Soviet Union. Moscow blamed the end
of the freeze on U.S. Refusal to join a total test ban.
    Tass said the latest explosion, with a power of up to 20
kilotonnes, had "the aim of improving military equipment."
 REUTER

Taiwan's maize import commitments are
expected to rise to 970,000 tonnes in the first four months of
1987 from 870,000 tonnes a year earlier, a spokesman for the
Joint Committee of Maize Importers told Reuters.
    He said more than 75 pct of the imports come from the U.S.
And the rest from South Africa.
    The maize import target for calendar 1987 is set at well
over 3.4 mln tonnes compared with an actual 3.07 mln in 1985,
he added.
 REUTER

Taiwan said it would soon relax import
controls on some 400 foreign items, including stationery and
books, in a further effort to allow trading partners,
especially the U.S., Greater access to its markets.
    Taiwan announced the easing of import curbs on some 600
farm and industrial products last month, a Council for Economic
Planning and Development spokesman told Reuters.
    He said the new move was intended to balance trade between
Taiwan and its trading partners. The island's trade surplus
reached a record 15.6 billion U.S. Dlrs last year, up from
10.62 billion in 1985.
    In January, Taiwan cut import tariffs on some 1,700 foreign
products and allowed imports of U.S. Wine, beer and cigarettes.
    "We hope the measures will help reduce our trade surplus
this year, especially with that of the U.S.," the spokesman
said.
    Washington is pressing Taiwan to open its markets wider as
a way of cutting its trade deficit with the island, which rose
to 2.35 billion U.S. Dlrs in the first two months of 1987 from
1.87 billion in the year-earlier period.
 REUTER

International efforts to redirect Japan's
export-driven economy toward domestic consumption face heavy
going if the country's largest defence contractor and world's
biggest shipbuilder is anything to go by.
    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd <MITH.T> (MHI), which began
making ships and iron goods for Japan's military rulers 130
years ago, is responding to the strong yen by redoubling its
efforts to maintain its share of export markets.
    "If we sell the best quality and the cheapest products,
everyone will buy them," MHI president Yotaro Iida said.
    Although two of MHI's main businesses, shipbuilding and
power plant construction, have been hit hard by the yen's 40
pct rise against the dollar, the company has no plans to
abandon them, Iida told Reuters in an interview.
    Its other big activity, aircraft component manufacture, has
performed so well that MHI now accounts for half of the money
Tokyo spends on defence procurement each year.
    "We have made the utmost efforts among the world's
manufacturers to improve productivity," he said. "You may be
surprised if you come to see our plants. The outside is old but
the inside is ultra-modern, with robots and computers."
    Securities analysts at major securities houses agreed that
MHI has pared costs more quickly than its competitors. The
company has slashed its workforce to 47,000 from 86,000 in
1976.
    Despite its cost-cutting, MHI expects profits to drop 40
pct to 30 billion yen in the current fiscal year ending March
31, from 1985/86's record 50.14 billion.
    And that includes gains from the sale of MHI's stake in
Mitsubishi Motors Corp <MIMT.T> for 49 billion yen.
    Iida is optimistic about the future, however. He said a
resurgence of demand from the Middle East following the recent
recovery in oil prices coupled with persistent demand for power
plants in developing countries will help MHI restore its
exports-to-sales ratio to the past decade's average of 30 pct.
    MHI's exports-to-sales ratio fell to 25.9 pct in the
half-year ended last September, from 35 to 36 pct five years
ago.
    China is the most promising market, although MHI also
considers other non-oil-producing developing countries as major
    "Our customers are all seen as being in trouble due to a
lack of foreign currency," Iida said. But he added that he felt
MHI could sell to those markets with Japanese government
financial support.
    It can also finance the plants itself and recover its
investment through product sales, a strategy Iida said could
prove popular in the future.
    In shipping, MHI is fighting back against low-priced South
Korean competition by building more technologically advanced
carriers to carry liquefied natural gas and other products
difficult to transport.
    Shipbuilders Association officials told Reuters MHI is the
world's largest shipbuilder in terms of orders and capacity.
    Domestically, MHI is involved in 12 national projects,
including development of nuclear fusion reactors and launch
vehicles for man-made satellites.
    It has been the biggest contractor for the Japan Defence
Agency's F-15 and F-14 jet fighters and missiles, although all
of these have been built under licence from U.S. Firms.
    MHI is now heading up five Japanese companies seeking to
develop the country's own fighter plane to replace the
currently used F-1 support fighters in the late 1990s.
    Military experts said Washington is putting strong pressure
on Tokyo to buy a U.S. Plane, either the McDonnell Douglas Corp
F-18 or General Dynamics Corp F-16, to reduce Japan's huge
trade surplus with the U.S.
    "It might be a good idea to jointly produce planes with U.S.
Makers as Japan is supported by the U.S. Defence umbrella," Iida
said.
    MHI also plans to cooperate with the U.S. In its Strategic
Defence Initiative space defence program by participating in
the project when it moves from the research stage, he said.
    The U.S. Has been seeking Japan's technological support.
    In fiscal 1985/86, aircraft accounted for 17.1 pct of MHI's
sales, shipbuilding 17 pct and power plants 27.9 pct. Iida said
the ideal ratio is power plants 30 pct, aircraft and special
vehicles 25 pct and shipbuilding 15 pct.
    As for the remaining 30 pct, Iida said he wanted to shift
the domestic focus away from heavy machinery sold to
manufacturers and towards household goods, but he declined to
specify which products.
    "By the end of this year, you may find our brand name on
your daily products, although this does not mean we will run
away from our mainstream business," he said.
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Japan's corporate bankruptcies in
February fell 10.8 pct from January to 1,071 cases and total
debts dropped 49.4 pct to 149.40 billion yen, the Tokyo
Commerce and Industry Research Co said.
    February bankruptcies fell 14.9 pct from a year earlier,
the 26th straight monthly decline, and debts fell 54.3 pct.
    The lower number of bankruptcies in February reflected a
relaxation of money market conditions and reduced bill
settlements due to fewer operating days, it said.
    Bankruptcies caused by the strength of the yen against the
dollar totalled 69, or 6.4 pct of those in February, with debts
of 25.52 billion yen, the research firm said.
    This compared with 64 with debts of 125.59 billion yen in
January, it said.
    Currency-linked bankruptcies since November 1985, when the
dollar's depreciation against the yen began to affect Japanese
export-linked firms, totalled 772, with cumulative debts of
660.53 billion yen, it said.
    The value of the yen against the dollar rose to an average
153.49 yen per dollar in February from 184.62 a year earlier.
    Bankruptcies usually decline in the first quarter of the
year due to fewer operating days and for seasonal reasons.
    Bankruptcies are expected to increase in the quarter
starting April 1 due to expectations of slow consumer spending,
low wage increases for the 1987/88 fiscal year which starts in
April, and slow capital spending by manufacturers, the company
said.
    Bankrupcties among export-linked subcontractors will rise
due to a recent shift by major manufacturers to overseas
production, it added.
 REUTER

Cargo handling resumed at
Bangladesh's Chittagong port today after 7,000 workers ended
their three day walk-out triggered by a pay dispute, port
    Loading and unloading of 14 ships stranded by the strike
started this morning and will be completed as quickly as
possible, they said.
    The strikers returned to work after an agreement was
reached last night between port authorities and the Port
Workers Association, they said without giving details.
 REUTER

The Bank of England does not favour the
introduction of rules to shield companies from hostile takeover
attempts, its governor, Robin Leigh-Pemberton, said.
    Instead, merchant banks advising bidding companies must
show restraint and responsibility to avoid the excesses that
have marred recent takeovers, he told the Yorkshire and
Humberside Regional Confederation of British Industries' annual
dinner.
    Leigh-Pemberton also called on companies to improve ties
with institutional investors, suggesting representatives of
those institutions be granted seats on the boards of directors
of companies they invest in.
    "Boards cannot expect protection from unwelcome predators,
for that is but a short step from saying that they should be
protected from their own shareholders -- who are, after all,
the proprietors of the company," Leigh-Pemberton said.
    He added takeovers and mergers had an important role to
play in furthering economies of scale, integration and more
efficient market penetration. "The degree of success or failure
(of a takeover) has not in my experience depended on whether or
not the takeover was contested," he said.
    Leigh-Pemberton noted there had been excesses in takeover
activity in the recent past. "The aim is to pressurise a
company's management into action dedicated solely to a
favourable impact on the share price in the short-term, partly
or even primarily at the expense of the future," he said.
    Such bids "often depend for their success on creating a
highly-charged and artificial situation in the share market,
and give rise to temptations, on both sides of the battle, to
engage in aggressive, even manipulative tactics that are
immensely damaging to the interest of the shareholders," he
said.
    In a clear reference recent events, he said "those in the
City who act for companies or individuals .. Must, I suggest,
be ready to accept a full measure of responsibility -- even if
it entails opprobrium -- for the transactions that may result."
    They "should exercise the most careful judgment at the
outset with respect to the clients for whom they act and the
activities contenplated. Those who sow wind cannot expect the
whirlwind to visit elsewhere," he added.
 REUTER

<Tonen Sekiyukagaku KK> and <Exxon
Chemical Co>, a petrochemical division of Exxon Corp <XON>,
said they agreed to accelerate a study to set up an
equally-owned joint venture to make waterwhite resin in Japan.
    Details of the venture, to be based on Exxon Chemical
technology, will be set later, the companies said.
    Waterwhite resins are widely used in adhesive applications
for baby nappies, medical tapes, and other bonding agents.
    Tonen is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toa Nenryo Kogyo KK
<TNEN.T> which is owned 25 pct by Exxon Corp.
 REUTER

has asked the White House to consider blocking the planned
Japanese acquisition of a major U.S. Computer and semiconductor
maker, U.S. Officials said yesterday.
    The officials told reporters Baldrige had serious concerns
on national security grounds about the sale of Schlumberger Ltd
<SLB> unit <Fairchild Semiconductor Inc> to Fujitsu Ltd
<ITSU.T>. The officials said the sale could leave the United
States overly dependent on a foreign company for equipment used
in advanced missiles, aircraft electronics and intelligence
gathering.
    The U.S. Officials added the sale would also worsen the
strained relations between the two countries stemming from the
huge Japanese trade surplus.
    The White House Economic Policy Council would consider the
sale in the coming weeks, they said.
    Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger's position was not
known, but in the past, he has opposed the transfer of high
technology to foreign governments or companies.
    Computers made by U.S. Manufacturers are widely used in the
world, but Tokyo told U.S. Negotiators recently it prefers
local manufacturers and would not buy U.S. Supercomputers.
 REUTER

South Korea plans to import about 387,000
tonnes of cotton this year compared to 225,000 tonnes in 1986,
trade ministry officials said.
    More than three quarters of the total, some 290,000 tonnes,
will come from the United States. That will be a 93.7 pct
increase on 1986 when U.S. Imports totalled 150,000 tonnes, an
    He said the U.S. Increase is due partly to the
competitiveness of American cotton and partly to efforts by
Seoul to reduce its trade surplus with Washington. South Korea
is the second largest importer of U.S. Cotton after Japan.
 REUTER

The Australian Wheat Board's (AWB)
1986/87 export program is well advanced with over 10 mln tonnes
already sold, AWB general manager Ron Paice said.
    "We are certainly within reach of our 15 mln tonne export
target for the year," he said in a statement.
    He did not detail the commitments already made, but an AWB
spokesman said they include sales to Egypt, China, Iran, the
Soviet Union and Iraq.
    In the 1985/86 wheat year ended September 30, the AWB
exported a record 15.96 mln tonnes.
    Paice also said the 1986/87 Australian wheat harvest has
ended after a long, cool summer with 15.14 mln tonnes delivered
to the AWB.
    The season produced another good crop, with only 0.2 pct of
receivals being downgraded to feed quality, he said.
    However, it is likely that some weather-damaged grain was
still being held on farms and further milling and feed wheat
may be delivered following the recent announcement of the final
Guaranteed Minimum Price for 1986/87, he said.
    Paice did not give a crop estimate, but the AWB's February
Wheat Australia publication put the crop at 16.7 mln tonnes.
    But the AWB spokesman said it is likely this estimate could
turn out to be too high, based on the receivals level, and the
final crop figure would probably be nearer to 16.2 mln tonnes.
The official estimate is not yet available.
    In the 1985/86 season, the AWB received 15.08 mln tonnes of
the 16.13 mln tonne crop.
    Another 422,000 tonnes was retained on-farm and 620,000
sold under the permit system introduced in 1984/85 to allow
farmers to sell feed wheat to the grain trade outside the AWB's
receival system, according to Bureau of Agricultural Economics
data.
 REUTER

North Broken Hill Holdings Ltd
<NBHA.ME> (NBH) said it will offer one <Norgold Ltd> share for
every five NBH shares in the float of its newly created gold
offshoot.
    The 20 cent par-value shares will be offered at 22 cents to
shareholders registered April 3, NBH said in a statement.
    Norgold's issued capital will be 240.5 mln shares, of which
63 pct will be held by NBH after 89 mln are issued to
shareholders to raise 19.6 mln dlrs, it said.
    Norgold will take control of a portfolio of precious metal
exploration and pre-development interests held by NBH.
    The major gold deposit to be acquired by Norgold is 100 pct
of the Bottle Creek deposit, west of Leonora in Western
Australia, NBH said.
    Production of gold from the project, at an annual rate of
35,000 ounces, is scheduled to begin early in 1988.
    Norgold will also have a 10 pct stake in the Coronation
Hill gold/platinum project in the Northern Territory and 43 pct
of the Poona copper/gold project in South Australia.
    Other gold exploration interests to be acquired by Norgold
are in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and
Tasmania, NBH said.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said in a
statement it is considering reducing brokerage fees on yen
convertible bonds.
    The cut would be in response to a planned increase in
securities transaction tax to 26 yen per 10,000 yen from 4.5 as
part of the government's proposed tax reform bills, securities
house managers said.
    Under the current system, investors must also pay 0.6 pct
of face value as brokerage fee to securities houses for
transactions involving principal over 30 mln yen.
    The exchange's draft revision sets brokerage fee percentage
rates in inverse proportion to the size of amounts transacted,
    Details of rates on transactions under 30 mln yen have yet
to be worked out, an exchange spokesman said.
    The news had little immediate impact on the convertible
bond market because participants are unsure when the new rates
will be introduced and because the timing of parliamentary
approval of the tax reform bills is uncertain due to opposition
to them, securities dealers said.
 REUTER

The overseas production in yen terms of
Japanese firms should rise 26 pct in 1987/88 ending March after
a four pct fall in 1986/87, a Ministry of International Trade
and Industry survey said.
    It attributed the rise to companies moving production
overseas to avoid losses due to the strong yen. The survey
covered 122 major firms in 17 sectors.
    The survey called for bold moves to stimulate domestic
demand to achieve the government's goal of 3.5 pct gross
national product growth in 1987/88. A package of economic
measures to boost the economy is expected next month.
    The survey said Japanese car output in the United States
and Canada would jump to two mln vehicles in fiscal 1990 from
617,000 in 1986 and worldwide electronic appliance output would
rise 31.7 pct. Domestic unemployment is likely to reach four
pct, or about 2.5 mln jobless, in fiscal 1990 from three pct
now if current trends continue.
    Recruitment in the car industry is expected to fall by 35
pct in 1987/88 and by 40 pct in the electronics sector.
    The steel industry plans to cut its 150,000 workforce by 27
pct by the end of 1990/91 and the shipbuilding, coal and
non-ferrous metal industries all plan big cuts in 1987/88.
 REUTER

Striking seamen said they would
offer their collective resignation rather than end their
13-day-old national strike on management's terms.
    The seamen said they were spurred to their decision after
marines occupied the ship Docemarte in Santos harbour Tuesday
night. They said seamen on the vessel were being forced to work
under duress.
    President Jose Sarney's government despatched troops to
Brazil's ports and oil installations on Tuesday.
    Seamen in Santos, Brazil's main port, are in defiant mood.
One of their leaders, Orlando dos Santos, told Reuters that
most of the 1,100 seamen in the port offered their resignations
on Wednesday. The national strike headquarters in Rio de
Janeiro said seamen were offering to resign in all the
country's main ports.
    The strike by 40,000 seamen comes as Brazil faces a serious
debt crisis brought on by a sharp deterioration in its trade
balance. The country needs all the foreign exchange it can get,
and shipowners have been quick to denounce seamen for the harm
the strike is doing to exports.
    An advertisement placed in the newspapers by the Shipowners
Association read, "The seamen's strike is illegal, irrational
and unpatriotic."
    The seamen respond that they cannot live on their present
salaries. According to officical pay lists available in the
union's office, the basic pay for ordinary seamen is 1,977
cruzados a month, while various allowances can bring their
total pay up to 4,000 cruzados a month.
    At the other end of the scale, captains earn 7,993 cruzados
a month basic pay, which is brought up to 15,229 cruzados with
allowances. 
    "Brazil's seamen are the second worst paid in the world,
after Ghana's," dos Santos said. He said the seamen had not
received a pay increase since February 1986, and prices have
doubled since then with the collapse of the government's
Cruzado Plan price freeze.
    Talks in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday involving Labour Minister
Almir Pazzionotto, seamen and employers failed to resolve the
dispute. The seamen are demanding pay raises of about 200 pct
but have been offered less than half that.
 REUTER

German net currency reserves rise 400 mln marks to 87.0 billion - Bundesbank

Indonesia's coffee production in
1986/87 ending September 30 may fall slightly from last year's
level of 360,000 tonnes, Dharyono Kertosastro, chairman of the
Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters told Reuters.
    He said shade trees had been damaged by pests and this may
have affected the crop, though it remains to be seen how
seriously. Indonesia's main crop is harvested next month.
    He gave no figure for expected output, except to say it
would probably be down a little from 1985/86. He said stocks
were about normal at 90,000 tonnes.
    Kertosastro predicted that exports were unlikely to rise
much from last year's level of 320,000 tonnes. "I expect exports
will be a bit more, maybe 330,000 tonnes, but not above that,"
he said. Exports in 1985/86 were valued at 944 mln U.S. Dlrs,
but the value could fall by 30 pct this year because of low
prices, he added.
    Dharyono said production was behind a five year plan target
of 420,000 tonnes for the current year, but Indonesia is trying
to boost output through introduction of higher yielding seeds,
better training for farmers and increased use of fertilizers.
 REUTER

<Renouf Corp Ltd> said it sold its
10.83 pct stake in <NZI Corp Ltd> to <Brierley Investments
Ltd>, (BIL), for 207.7 mln N.Z. Dlrs.
    Renouf managing director Mike Cashin said in a statement it
had been Renouf's intention to build up a long-term strategic
position in NZI. "But it became clear to us that it was in the
best interests of both NZI and ourselves for Brierley
Investments to acquire our holding," he said.
    He said Renouf built up its NZI holding over the past six
months. The sale comprised 74.9 mln shares at 2.725 N.Z. Dlrs a
share and 2,095 warrants at 1,709 dlrs each.
    The warrants are attached to a 150 mln Swiss franc note
issue. Each bond of 5,000 francs carries a detachable warrant
entitling the bearer to 2,486 NZI shares.
    In its 1986 annual report BIL reported that it held a 19
pct stake in NZI.
    NZI has 673.4 mln ordinary shares on issue. Total capital
including shares attached to warrants is 678.8 mln shares.
    Cashin said the sale will result in a significant profit
and places Renouf in a good position to consolidate on recent
transactions and pursue other opportunities.
    NZI shares were at 2.18 N.Z. Dlrs, BIL at 4.08 and Renouf
at 6.15 at the close of trading.
    BIL executives were unavailable for comment.
 REUTER

Group loss after financial income and expenses 1.08
    Billion vs loss 71 mln crowns
    Sales - 12.38 billion crowns vs 6.16 billion.
    No proposed dividend vs 10 crowns.
    Note - The company this year consolidated wholesale and
investment conglomerate Ahlsell AB.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia's 11 commercial banks are
reporting a further decline in profits for 1986 as increasing
provisions have to be set aside to cover the burden of non-
performing loans.
    Bankers in the Saudi capital said the need to build
reserves for bad and doubtful debts may start to decline a
little this year.
    But the kingdom's still sluggish economy and legal problems
hampering traditional lending operations mean earnings will
remain vulnerable.
    One senior bank credit officer said "The work is largely
done in terms of identifying bad loans and making provisions,
but banks are still going to face difficulties earning money."
    The sudden decline of Saudi Arabia's corporate sector in
1983 - culminating in a number of debt reschedulings - has
taken a heavy toll of bank profits, with first results now
appearing for 1986 showing a fourth successive year of broad
decline.
    The cumulative net 1985 earnings of the kingdom's banks had
sunk to 827.9 mln riyals from 2.66 billion in 1982 before world
oil prices tumbled.
    Of the kingdom's nine joint-venture banks which operate on
the Gregorian calendar year, four have already reported and
revealed a further profits decline - or net loss - for 1986 at
the expense of increased provisions.
    The newest and smallest of the joint ventures, <United Saudi
Commercial Bank> (USCB) reported a 1986 net loss of 15.9 mln
riyals, marginally less than 1985's shortfall of 17.0 mln.
    Profits before provisions were sharply higher, in part
reflecting an 18 pct staff cut last year. But the bank nearly
trebled the amount set aside against bad and doubtful loans to
60 mln riyals from 22 mln in 1985.
    Other results released so far show <Saudi American Bank>
(SAMBA) reporting a 53.8 pct fall in 1986 net profit to 80.7
mln riyals, while <Al Bank Al Saudi Al Fransi>, known as Saudi
French, slid 14 pct to 94.9 mln riyals.
    Both Saudi American, owned 40 pct by Citicorp's <CCI.N>
Citibank NA and Saudi French, 40 pct owned by Banque Indosuez,
increased provisions sharply.
    <Arab National Bank>'s net profit fell 17.8 pct to 152.1
mln riyals and provisions were more than doubled to 86.6 mln
riyals.
    Bankers said there are first signs that the number of non-
performing loans has stopped growing as the decline in the
Saudi economy bottoms out.
    Few are willing to predict a sharp upturn in economic
activity, but one banker said "The top 50 pct of the Saudi banks
are now at or close to international levels on provisions."
    From 1982 to 1985, the kingdom's largest bank <National
Commercial Bank> (NCB) stashed away 1.7 billion riyals in
provisions or 8.9 pct of its total loans and advances to the
private sector, bankers calculated.
    Between 1982 and 1985, <Riyad Bank>, NCB's rival as the
second biggest of the two all-Saudi shareholding banks, had
covered 12.8 pct of its loans and advances. Both banks operate
on an Islamic year that does not coincide with the other nine.
    Although the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has been
tightening supervision, there is still no standardised rule for
declaring loans as non-performing.
    Bankers say this makes comparison of profit figures
difficult because some banks still book non-accruing interest
as revenue while others follow more conservative practices in
force in major world financial centres.
    Bankers generally said NCB, Riyad Bank and the
joint-ventures SAMBA, Saudi French and Arab National Bank rank
as the strongest earners.
    Other banks such as <Saudi British Bank>, 40 pct owned by
the <British Bank of the Middle East>, are disadvantaged by a
relatively low deposit base.
    Saudi British slashed 1985 profit 91 pct to just 9.1 mln
riyals and 1986 accounts due soon are expected to show another
low figure. But the bank has traditionally been one of the most
conservative in making provisions.
    Bankers said SAMA has proved it is not prepared to see a
Saudi bank go under and not only supported <Saudi Cairo Bank>
after its troubled 1985 accounts came to light but also made
available cheap deposits to <Saudi Investment Bank> and USCB.
    The banks can on-lend these to generate profit, but
generally banks are awash with liquidity since they are
unwilling to risk incurring fresh non-performing loans.
    And while banks in more liberal financial markets can
attempt to diversify away from traditional lending,
conservatism in Saudi banking has made it difficult to generate
fee income from new investment banking products.
    One banker said "Operating earnings in the Kingdom are not
good."
    Reflecting the caution in new lending, the amount of
advances is showing a declining trend, while the days when
banks had ample funds in interest-free current accounts to
invest are disappearing as Saudi customers seek a better return
on their money.
    In 1979, the ratio of interest-bearing accounts to current
accounts was 27 to 73 pct. Today, only about 40 pct of customer
funds are held on current account.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell tomorrow 200
billion yen of financing bills under a 50-day repurchase
agreement maturing on May 2, to help absorb a projected money
market surplus due largely to distribution of local allocation
tax ahead of the March 31 fiscal year-end, money traders said.
    The yield on the bills for sales to banks and securities
houses from money houses will be 3.9496 pct against the 3.9375
pct discount rate for two-month commercial bills and the
4.46/37 pct yield today on two-month certificates of deposit.
    The operation will put outstanding bill supply at about
1,500 billion yen.
 REUTER

Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> , the
brewing group, has challenged a 5.2 mln stg payment to a U.S.
Lawyer who says he organised its controversial takeover of
Scotch whisky maker <The Distillers Co Plc>.
    But attorneys for lawyer Thomas Ward, a member of the
Guinness board, told a court yesterday in the Channel Island of
Jersey that Ward saw the payment as his reward for services in
last year's 2.7 billion stg takeover.
    Britain's Department of Trade and Industry is investigating
the takeover.
    Guinness says its former chairman Ernest Saunders and Ward
"breached their fiduciary duty" in authorising the payment to
Ward, via a Jersey-based company, Marketing and Acquisitions
Consultants and has gone to the Jersey court to recover it.
    MAC said in defence documents that Ward was the main
negotiator in the battle for Distillers against rival bidder
Argyll <AYLL.L> Group Plc.
    "The bid would not have been successful but for the ...
Services of Mr Ward," MAC attorneys said in the documents
submitted in court. "The payment was, in all the circumstances,
reasonable, proper and fully earned."
 REUTER

Britain's ruling Conservatives have
moved into a six-point lead over the main opposition Labour
Party, a Marplan poll published in today's Guardian newspaper
reports.
    The Conservatives are shown with a 38 pct share of the vote
against 32 pct for Labour and 27 pct for the centrist
Social-Democratic/Liberal Alliance. Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher has until June, 1988 to call a general election, but
most political analysts expect her to go to the country some
time this year.
  REUTER

Indonesian coffee exporters are
preparing for a period of depressed prices while urging their
government to lobby for a resolution of the deadlocked issue of
export quotas, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian
Coffee Exporters (AICE) told Reuters.
    Dharyono Kertosastro said in an interview that Indonesia,
the world's third largest producer, is trimming costs and
improving its marketing while seeking a compromise on quotas.
    "But as long as Brazil sticks to its hardline position, we
can never bridge the gap," Dharyono said.
    Indonesia was one of a group of eight producing countries,
along with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Honduras, India, Papua New Guinea and Peru, which proposed a
new quota system at last month's failed International Coffee
Organistion (ICO) talks in London.
    Brazil, which would have had its quota reduced under the
Group of Eight scheme, blocked the proposal.
    AICE officials are now hoping Colombia can use its contacts
with Brazil to suggest a compromise.
    Edward Muda, an AICE official who attended the ICO
negotiations, said Latin American members of the Group of Eight
were in contact with Colombia, the world's second largest
producer, but gave no details.
    "Colombia has shown interest because they will gain from a
compromise. Without one, they will suffer if the present market
stays like it is," Muda said.
    He said Indonesia was in contact with consumers such as the
U.S., Japan, the Netherlands, West Germany and Canada ahead of
an ICO executive board meeting scheduled for April 1.
    Dharyono said the AICE will send delegations to the U.S.
And Japan to brief Indonesian embassy officials there and press
them to present Indonesia's case more firmly.
    He urged the Indonesian government to do more to help the
country's coffee traders through the ICO negotiations.
    Muda said the Group of Eight had some common ground with
the big consumers because they agreed on the need for basing
quotas on what he termed "realistic criteria."
    The breakaway group believes the old quota system, which
gives Brazil a 30 pct share of the quota exports, does not
reflect up-to-date supply and demand trends.
    Brazil has stuck rigidly to its insistence that the old
system be applied.
    Export quotas were suspended in February 1986 when market
prices surged because of the failure of the Brazilian crop.
    Although prices have long since come down to a point where
export controls could be reintroduced, producers and consumers
at the 75-member ICO have not been able to agree on new
guidelines. Brazil and the U.S., The largest consumer, are both
refusing to alter their positions.
    Dharyono said if new quotas are not agreed he believed
Indonesia was well placed to survive low prices.
    Indonesian farmers are trimming production costs and the
AICE is improving its marketing system, Dharyono said.
    Indonesia's coffee output in 1986/87, ending September 30,
is expected to stagnate or fall slightly from last year's level
of 360,000 tonnes, he said.
    He said stocks, at 90,000 tonnes, were about average for
the time of year.
 REUTER

The convertible eurobond issue announced
yesterday for Genentech Inc <GENE.O> has been increased to a
total of 150 mln dlrs from 100 mln, Credit Suisse First Boston
Ltd (CSFB) said as lead manager.
    The coupon has been set at five pct and conversion price at
74 dlrs per share which represents a 23.85 pct premium over
Genentech's stock closing level of 59.75 on the New York Stock
Exchange last night.
    Payment date has been brought forward to March 27 from
March 30 and the bonds will mature on March 27, 2002.
 REUTER

Hydro Quebec is issuing a 125 mln
Canadian dlr bond due April 21, 1997 paying nine pct and priced
at 100-3/4 pct, lead manager Merrill Lynch International said.
    The bond is available in denominations of 1,000 and 5,000
dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession and 3/8 pct each
for management and underwriting. Pay date is April 21.
 REUTER

Japanese corporate earnings will rise 8.9
pct in fiscal 1987/88 for the first year-on-year increase in
three years, partly because of the yen's stable exchange rate,
the Nomura research institute said.
    Sales of all industries are predicted to rise 1.9 pct in
the year, which starts April 1, the research arm of Nomura
Securities Co said in a statement.
    Recurrent profits were estimated to fall 20 pct in the
current fiscal year with sales forecast to drop 14 pct.
    The forecast assumes an average rate of 148.5 yen to the
dollar in 1987/88, compared with 160 yen in the current year.
    Corporate efforts to cope with the yen's appreciation, such
as cutting production costs, are expected to bear fruit next
fiscal year, the institute said. The economy should also
benefit from pump-priming expected from the government and a
halt in rising prices of manufactured goods, it said.
    Recurrent profits of manufacturing industries are projected
to rise 29.6 pct next fiscal year against an estimated 40.1 pct
fall in the current year.
    Non-manufacturing sector profits will decline 4.5 pct in
1987/88 against an estimated 2.2 pct rise in the current year,
it said.
 REUTER

Swedish mining and metals group
Boliden AB <BLDS ST> forecast a return to profitability during
1987 after recording a 1.08 billion crown 1986 loss burdened by
a massive write-off.
    The company, which consolidated the Swedish wholesale and
investment conglomerate <Ahlsell AB> this year, said the result
included restructuring costs and write-offs of 802 mln crowns.
    "These costs have arisen as a results of a change of
direction for the group. They are mainly one-off but they have
burdened the annual accounts," the company said in a statement.
    Boliden said the company's liquid assets were 1.36 billion
crowns at year-end which together with an investment portfolio
of 1.60 billion made it one of the most liquid Swedish
    As a result of the 1986 losses, the board proposed
cancelling dividend for the year although it predicted a return
to profitability during 1987, the statement added.
    Swedish tyres, process equipment and components firm
<Trelleborg AB> has taken a majority stake in Boliden since the
beginning of this year. Trelleborg then said it had no plans
for consolidating Boliden.
 REUTER

importers awarded a contract to Richco Grain Ltd of New York to
supply a 27,000-tonne cargo of U.S. Soybeans, a committee
    The shipment, priced at 210.34 U.S. Dlrs per tonne c and f
Taiwan, is set for delivery between March 20 and April 5, he
said.
    Taiwan's soybeans imports in calendar 1987 are targetted at
1.81 mln tonnes, against an actual 1.74 mln tonnes imported in
1986, he said.
    All the imports come from the U.S., He added.
 REUTER

China's wheat imports in January were
218,000 tonnes, down from 393,000 in January 1986, the China
Daily Business Weekly said, quoting customs figures.
    It said imports of sugar were 25,165 tonnes, down from
54,000, but exports of rice rose to 71,144 tonnes from 20,000.
It gave no more details.
 REUTER

The French 1986 current account balance
of payments surplus has been revised slightly upwards to 25.8
billion francs from the 25.4 billion franc figure announced
last month, the Finance Ministry said.
    This compares with a 1.5 billion deficit in 1985, and while
it is the first surplus since 1979, is substantially lower than
the 50 billion surplus forecast by the previous socialist
government before they lost office in March last year.
    Net long-term capital outflows rose sharply to 70.5 billion
francs last year from 8.8 billion in 1985, largely due to a
major program of foreign debt repayment, the ministry said.
    In the fourth quarter alone the unadjusted surplus rose to
14.1 billion francs from 6.6 billion the previous quarter, but
the adjusted surplus fell to 7.4 billion from 9.1 billion.
    Fourth quarter medium and long-term foreign debt repayments
exceeded new credits by 11 billion francs.
 REUTER

Salomon Brothers international inc said
it has raised the size of its Collateralised Mortgage
Obligation TRUST 23 to 350 mln dlrs from the 228 mln dlrs
announced yesterday.
    All other terms of the issue remain the same, Salomon said.
  REUTER

Malaysia's Central Bank, Bank
Negara, said the economic outlook for 1987 is good in view of a
marked improvement in commodity and oil prices in the later
months of last year.
    It said in its latest quarterly review that real gross
domestic product averaged an annual growth of 1.1 pct over the
first nine months of last year compared with a decline of 0.1
pct in the corresponding period in 1985.
    Growth was generated mainly by the manufacturing sector, it
added.
 REUTER

Rowntree Mackintosh Plc <RWNT.L>
announced it made a pretax profit of 84 mln stg in the 53 weeks
ending January 3, 1987, compared with 79.3 mln stg in the
    Turnover was up to 1.29 billion stg from 1.2 billion. A
final dividend of 9.2p was proposed, after a final 8.2p last
year. Earnings per share rose to 35p from 34.8p.
    The results were broadly in line with market expectations,
leaving shares at 499p in early trading, up one pence from
yesterday's close, but slightly off pre-announcement opening
levels.
    Profit on ordinary activities after tax was 66.2 mln stg,
up from the previous year's 60.7 mln.
    The U.K. Remained Rowntree's largest centre for trading
profits, accounting for 47.9 mln stg, up from 45.3 mln in 1985.
Profit from its second largest geographical area, North
America, slipped to 34.7 mln stg from 37.2 mln. North American
profits were affected by the fall of the value of the dollar.
    Operations in continental Europe made 7.8 mln stg in
trading profit, up from 3.4 mln, with 4.0 mln stg made in
Australasia, up from 2.3 mln, and 11.3 mln stg from the rest of
the world, against 13.1 mln in the previous year.
    Extraordinary items amounted to a 11.3 mln debit after a
16.5 mln debit previously. A company spokesman said this
represented additional provisions for the cost of
rationalisation plans announced in earlier years.
    Rowntree expects North American operations will this year,
ahead of company expectations, be of the same order as those
from the U.K. And the rest of Europe combined, the statement
said. A spokesman said no specific figures had been forecast.
    Acquisitions will continue to be sought worldwide,
including further moves in the speciality retailing business
which Rowntree first entered in 1983, the statement said.
    Rising profit from Europe this year was forecast by
chairman Kenneth Dixon in a statement. He added the performance
of seven businesses bought last year was encouraging.
    The U.K. Confectionery side gained market share and
increased trading margins. The Sun-Pat British grocery concern
increased profit and Rowntree's small health food business,
Holgates, raised earnings 10-fold, the statement said.
    Offsetting factors included currency movements, which cost
the company nearly 5.0 mln stg. Sales tax hurt Canadian profits
on confectionery operations, and the company faced strong
competition in the U.K. Snack and Mid East export markets.
 REUTER

New Zealand's budget deficit in the
10 months to January widened to 4.37 billion N.Z. Dlrs from
3.41 billion in the 10 months to January 1986, government
    Revenue rose to 12.92 billion dlrs from 10.82 billion,
while spending climbed to 17.28 billion from 14.24 billion.
    Taking into account expenditure on major energy project
debt totalling 2.28 billion, as against nothing in the earlier
period, total net expenditure was 19.57 billion dlrs.
    Finance Minister Roger Douglas said in a statement the
deficit was on course for the year-end forecast.
    Douglas said, "Net expenditure to this point in the year was
about as we would have expected it to be, while revenue was
slightly ahead of forecast."
    He said, "Revenue before provisional tax flows is looking
encouraging at this stage in the year."
    But he said considerable uncertainty remains about the
year-end revenue result, because of difficulty predicting the
size of March tax collections.
 REUTER

France's Oilseed and Bean Cooperatives
Federation, FFCOP, said it expected French rapeseed sowings for
the 1987 harvest to rise by between 54.6 pct and 67.5 pct to
between 600,000 and 650,000 hectares from 388,000 planted last
year.
    Its latest estimates also suggested a 66.7 pct rise in
soybean sowings to 80,000 ha from 48,000 last year. Sunflower
sowings were expected to increase by between 8.6 pct and 14.6
pct from 829,000 ha. Pea sowings are estimated likely to rise
27.7 pct to 350,000 ha against 274,000, while field bean
sowings are forecast unchanged at 40,000.
 REUTER

China's trade deficit in January fell to
310 mln dlrs from 460 mln in January 1986, the China Daily
Business Weekly said.
    Quoting customs figures, the paper said exports fell to
1.75 billion dlrs from 1.84 billion and imports fell to 2.06
billion from 2.3 billion.
 REUTER

Net 190.9 mln Swiss francs vs 150.4 mln
    Turnover 5.24 billion vs 5.38 billion
    Dividend 160 per bearer vs 155 francs, 32 francs per
registered vs 31 francs, 16 francs per participation
certificate vs 15.50 francs
    Cash flow 294.3 mln vs 242.6 mln
    Note - Confirms forecast of results issued in January.
    Operating profit 337.6 mln vs 265 mln
    Depreciation 103.4 mln, up 12.2 pct
    Capital spending 84.6 mln, down 15.7 pct.
 REUTER

Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson
<ERIC ST> said one of its units won a contract worth 7.5 mln
dlrs from the West German PTT, taking the value of orders
signed with the Bundespost in the past few days to 47.5 mln
dlrs.
    The latest order for Ericsson Information Systems is for
2,000 Alfaskop computer terminals to be supplied over the
coming two years, the company said in a statement.
    On Tuesday the Ericsson subsidiary announced a 40 mln dlr
contract from the Bundespost to deliver personal computers and
related equipment.
 REUTER

British Telecom third quarter pre-tax profit 506 mln stg vs 452 mln

the discount houses to make an early round of bill offers to
help offset a large liquidity shortage in the money market.
    It estimated the shortage at around 1.55 billion stg, one
adverse factor being the unwinding of a sale and repurchase
agreement, with the market having to buy back bills worth 542
mln stg from the Bank.
    Bills maturing in official hands and the treasury bill
take-up would drain 957 mln stg wile exchequer transactions and
a note circulation rise would take out 15 mln and 25 mln
respectively. Above target bankers' balances would add 10 mln.
 REUTER

Shr 5.1p vs 4.2p, making 15.3p vs 12.7p for nine months.
    Pre-tax profit 506 mln stg vs 452 mln, making 1.51 billion
stg vs 1.35 billion.
    Net profit before minorities 320 mln vs 268 mln, making 960
mln vs 807 mln.
    Note - Company's full name is British Telecommunications
Plc <BTY.L>.
    Third quarter turnover 2.40 billion stg vs 2.11 billion,
making 7.01 billion vs 6.16 billion for nine months.
    Operating profit 578 mln vs 520 mln, making 1.72 billion vs
1.56 billion.
    Net interest payable 72 mln vs 68 mln, making 208 mln vs
203 mln.
    Tax 186 mln vs 184 mln, making 552 mln vs 547 mln.
    Minorities nil vs nil, making two mln vs nil.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it had bought
bills worth 1.059 billion stg from the market for resale on
March 31 at rates of interest between 10-7/16 pct and 10-17/32
pct.
    Earlier, the Bank said it estimated the liquidity shortage
in the market today at around 1.55 billion stg.
 REUTER

Denmark's seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate rose to 7.9 pct of the workforce in January
from 7.8 pct in December, unchanged from January 1986, the
National Statistics Office said.
    The total of unemployed in January was 216,200 against
212,200 in December and 216,600 in January 1986.
 REUTER

Shr 35.0p vs 34.8p
    Div final div 9.2p vs 8.2p
    Pretax profit 84.0 mln stg vs 79.3 mln
    Net after tax 66.2 mln vs 60.7 mln
    Turnover 1,290.4 mln vs 1,205.2 mln
    Trading profit 105.7 mln stg vs 101.3 mln, consisting -
    U.K  47.9 mln vs 45.3
    Europe 7.8 mln vs 3.4 mln
    North America 34.7 mln vs 37.2 mln
    Australasia 4.0 mln vs 2.3 mln
    Rest of world 11.3 mln vs 13.1 mln
 REUTER

Taiwan's new controls on currency
inflows, implemented today, are a desperate bid to stem a flood
of speculative money prompted by the local currency surge
against the U.S. Dollar, local and foreign bankers said.
    The central bank now has to clear remittances exceeding one
mln U.S. Dlrs earned from exports, shipping and insurance and
bank lending plus remittances of more than 10,000 dlrs from any
other source.
    Petitioners have to show their remittances relate to
genuine commercial transactions.
    Meanwhile, traders are no longer required to report all
outward payments concerning invisible trade, including freight,
insurance and royalties, to the central bank.
    But bankers said they believed the new controls would be
ineffective since businessmen could split up remittances into
smaller units or simply remit money through Taiwan's
flourishing currency black market.
    The bankers said the controls, announced on March 6, are a
panic reaction to U.S. Pressure, which has intensified over the
past week, for a faster appreciation of the Taiwan dollar to
slow the growth of Taiwan's exports to the U.S.
    The government has denied local press reports Washington is
pressing for an exchange rate of up to 28 dlrs.
    The Taiwan dollar opened four cents up today at 34.70.
    "I don't think the central bank has a final target," said an
executive with a U.S. Bank. Other bankers and economists said
they are wary of making any firm predictions about how far the
Taiwan dollar will rise.
    Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Hit 13.6 billion U.S.
Dlrs last year against 10.2 billion in 1985. The surplus
widened in the first two months of the year to 2.35 billion
dlrs from 1.87 billion in the same period last year.
    Economists estimate up to five billion dlrs in speculative
money flowed into Taiwan in 1986.
    This inflow helped boost foreign exchange reserves to more
than 51 billion dlrs from just under 25 billion this time last
year and provided further upward pressure on the currency.
    The Taiwan dollar has appreciated by almost 15 pct against
the U.S. Currency since September 1985, further encouraging
speculators.
    Central bank governor Chang Chi-cheng said last week
Washington's pressure plus rising foreign exchange reserves
meant a further strengthening in the currency is inevitable.
    Many local bankers argue the only effective solution to the
currency problem is to drop foreign exchange controls and allow
the local dollar to find its own level.
    "Lifting exchange controls is the final answer, but the
central bank is not prepared to do it. It simply does not want
to take the risk," said one local banker.
    He said he believed the new restrictions are a temporary
measure designed to buy time as the central bank grapples with
the exchange rate problem.
    The restrictions are a bureaucratic imposition and skirt
around the real issue, he said.
    Taiwan needs a fundamental restructuring of foreign
exchange controls, said an executive with a western bank.
    "The controls will create more paperwork, but the extra bank
charges will not outweigh the profits of speculation," said the
manager of a European bank.
    Economists criticised the controls, saying they could
antagonise Washington, which is pushing for further economic
liberalisation in Taiwan.
    "Instead of liberalising outflows, the government has
restricted inflows," said Kate Newman, an economist with Vickers
da Costa.
    A local banker, who declined to be named, said, "It's
basically ridiculous. It's a backward movement and goes against
the government's liberalisation programme."
    Taiwan last year eased some of its financial regulations to
enable Taiwan nationals to invest in foreign government bonds,
treasury bills and certificates of deposit and to allow
individuals to take 5,000 U.S. Dlrs in cash out of the country
each year.
 REUTER

Shr, net basis 27.47p vs 22.15p
    Div 6.5p vs 5.4p making 10.1p vs 8.4p
    Pretax profit 46.1 mln stg vs 35.6 mln
    Net after tax 30 mln vs 23.3 mln
    Extraordinary items debit 3.8 mln vs debit 2.3 mln
    Interest payable 2.7 mln vs 4.0 mln
    Net borrowings 7.6 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Turnover 478.9 mln vs 464.1 mln
 REUTER

Toyota Motor Credit Corp is issuing a 23
billion yen eurobond due April 10, 1992 paying 4-1/2 pct and
priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Nomura International Ltd
said.
will be listed in Luxembourg. Payment is April 10.
 REUTER

Dutch sugar traders deny involvement
in a plan to offer more than 850,000 tonnes of sugar to
intervention in protest at EC export policy and prices, traders
    Although some 2,500 tonnes of sugar have been offered to
intervention in the Netherlands, Dutch producers and traders
said this sugar was actually Belgian and was being offered by
the Belgian industry.
    "We sympathise with the actions of the French, West German
and Belgian traders and producers, but we are not party to it,"
a spokesman said.
    EC Commission sources said yesterday French traders planned
to sell 775,000 tonnes into intervention stocks, West German
traders 75,000 tonnes and Dutch traders 2,500. Dutch trade
sources gave the same figure for France, but estimated up to
110,000 tonnes offered by German traders and producers.
    The Dutch spokesman added, "The weekly export tender policy
and prices are squeezing the European sugar industry, and this
is the only way in which they can really register their
protest.
    "These are desperate actions, but we believe that most of
this offered sugar will be withdrawn within the three-week
breathing space allowed."
 REUTER

Glynwed International Plc <GLYN.L> in a
statement accompanying their results that present indications
are that 1987 has started well and it is confident that the
year will be one of further progress.
    The company added that results in the U.S. Were poor and
the deterioration in the South African economy left its Falkirk
Industries unit with a loss of one mln stg. But it said there
was a continuing improvement in its core businesses.
    The extraordinary items debit of 3.8 mln stg arose on the
closure and disposal of various businesses.
 REUTER

British Telecommunications Plc <BTY.L>
expects to announce satisfactory results for its 1986/87
financial year ending March, chairman Sir George Jefferson said
in a third quarter statement.
    Full year results will be published in June. In the 1985/86
financial year, pre-tax profit rose to 1.81 billion stg from
1.48 billion in the previous period.
    Jefferson said good progress was made in the latest nine
months, while most customers were able to maintain their normal
level of calls during the recent strike by company engineers.
    The statement said a positive cash flow of 381 mln stg for
the first nine months will diminish in the final quarter due to
corporation tax and dividend payments.
    Earlier, the company reported third quarter pre-tax profit
for the period ended December 31 of 506 mln stg compared with
452 mln a year earlier. Nine month pre-tax was 1.51 billion stg
against 1.35 billion.
    British Telecom shares were last quoted at 246-1/2p, level
with late yesterday, in the wake of results which were in line
with market expectations, dealers said.
 REUTER

India yesterday bought two cargoes of
white sugar from London traders for April/May shipment and
granted the trade houses the option to sell an additional two
cargoes at the same price for May/June shipment, the firms
involved said.
    E D and F Man and Woodhouse, Drake and Carey both said they
sold single cargoes at 237.35 dlrs a tonne cif for April/May
and were granted options to sell an extra cargo each at the
same price for May/June at the Indian buying tender for three
to four cargoes of whites held yesterday. The tender had called
for a single cargo of prompt and two to three cargoes of
April/May.
 REUTER

Shr 7.67p vs 5.34p
    Div 1.5p vs 1.08p
    Pretax profit 30.12 mln stg vs 12.40 mln
    Net interest payable 2.55 mln vs 200 stg
    Net after tax 19.58 vs 7.44 mln
    Turnover excluding VAT 257.66 mln vs 74.09 mln
    Note - The company said it intends to issue a second
interim statement for the six months to July 1987 and to pay a
related dividend in early 1988.
 REUTER

Australia expects meat and livestock
exports to the Middle East to maintain an upward trend this
year, managing director of the Australian Meat and Livestock
Corp, Peter Frawley, said.
    He told Reuters an improvement in the economic climate and
less competition from the European Community should lead in the
Gulf area to higher beef sales, which dropped from 33,000
tonnes in 1980 to just 2,300 tonnes last year.
    "In the last three to four months there has been a
resurgence of inquiries," he said.
    Frawley is on a Gulf tour which will also take him to Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to assess market
potential.
    On beef exports, he said a 50 pct drop in European
Community intervention stock in the past 12 months would help
Australian sales.
    The fall meant the EC was not as aggressive in these
markets, where the Australian trade was the natural source of
supply, and Australia was "now back in," Frawley said.
    He said there was a debate in Australia as to whether the
Middle East market for livestock, which accounts for two-thirds
of meat export value to the area, would be maintained.
    He believed the trade would remain with a continuing demand
for fresh meat.
    The number of live sheep shipped last year to Saudi Arabia,
the biggest single market, was 3,214,159 compared with
2,939,226 in 1985. The numbers shipped to the United Arab
Emirates and Bahrain fell, however.
    Frawley said the slackening in demand in the Gulf had been
offset by other Arab countries around the Mediterranean.
    Other than livestock, Australia's overall meat sales to the
Middle East rose to 72,374 tonnes in 1986 from 52,403 tonnes
the previous year, largely due to the sale of 25,790 tonnes of
mutton and lamb to Iran.
    Australia sold 9,824 tonnes to Iran in 1985 after being
virtually excluded by New Zealand competition for several
years. Frawley said the 1986 sale contract had included a
barter provision, but Iran had paid in full in cash.
    Negotiations with the Iranians for 1987 shipments were
currently under way, with Iran again seeking credit and barter
provisions, he said.
    Frawley said there had been a tremendous growth in demand
for chilled lamb in the last four to five years and he
predicted this would continue.
    "The Middle East, and the Gulf in particular, is now
Australia's largest market for lamb, chilled and flown in.
Australia is in an ideal position to provide the supplies if
the market is willing to pay a premium for a fresh, young
product," he said.
 REUTER

The Kingdom of Belgium is issuing 100
mln Swiss francs of 10-year bullet notes with a 4-3/4 pct
coupon and 100-3/4 issue price, lead manager Kredietbank
(Suisse) SA said.
    Payment is due March 31.
    Denominations are 50,000 francs.
 REUTER

India's raw cotton export quota has
been raised by 190,000 170-kg bales to 600,000 bales in 1986/87
ending August, still well below the 1985/86 quota of 1.35 mln
bales, Minister of State for Textiles R.N. Mirdha said.
    State and private agencies contracted to export 1.34 mln
bales in 1985/86, he told journalists. But only 433,000 bales
were shipped that year, with the rest to be delivered in
1986/87. About 758,000 bales from 1985/86 contracts were
shipped up to February 2 in 1986/87.
     The government will export 600,000 bales of long and
extra- long staple cotton in the three years from 1986/87, he
said.
 REUTER

Denmark, Norway and Sweden have jointly
proposed deregulating air fares between Scandinavia and the
U.S. In exchange for greater access to the domestic U.S.
Airline market, Norwegian officials said.
    The proposal, handed to federal aviation authorities in
Washington by a delegation from the three countries' transport
ministries, was seen in the industry as a major concession to
demands by U.S. Airlines to deregulate air fares to
Scandinavia.
    The scheme in return requests the <Scandinavian Airlines
System>, owned by Sweden, Denmark and Norway's governments, be
allowed to compete freely and fairly in the U.S. Market.
    SAS, the only Scandinavian airline flying transatlantic
routes to the U.S., Is currently allowed to land at only four
U.S. Cities and has no commercial routes within the U.S.
    SAS has long held that regulations allowing U.S. Airlines'
connecting flights from international to regional airports
within Scandinavia have given these companies an advantage
denied to SAS in the United States.
    Initial U.S. Reaction to the proposal has been positive,
officials said. Industry sources added that if approved, the
scheme would likely lower air fares dramatically between
Scandinavia and the U.S.
 REUTER

Consolidated attributable net 1986 profit 360 mln francs vs
279.8 mln.
    Parent company net profit 191 mln vs 150.9 mln.
    REUTER

Consolidated attributable net profit of
Ste Lyonnaise des Eaux <LYOE.PA> is likely to rise by at least
10 pct this year from the 360 mln francs reported for 1986,
Chairman Jerome Monod told a news conference.
    Group turnover should rise about seven pct from the 15.7
mln reported for this year, while group investments should
total around 1.8 billion francs, somewhat above the 1.3 billion
annual average of the past three years, he added.
    Investments will be aimed mainly at developing the group's
leisure industry, health and communications activities, Monod
said.
    In the leisure sector the group planned a joint development
with Club Mediterranee <CMI.PA>, Club Med, of a 200 hectare
pleasure park at Puisaye in the Yonne department of Eastern
Central France, he said.
    Wholly-owned subsidiary Lyonnaise de Developpement
Touristique would carry out the construction work and financial
planning of the development which would be leased to Club Med
as operator of the complex, he said.
    He gave no financial details but said leisure sector
investments would total about 100 mln francs over the next
    Investments in the communications industry would go mainly
to develop the group's cable television activities and its 25
pct owned Metropole Television affiliate. Metropole recently
won the concession to operate a sixth television channel in
France.
    Financing requirement of Metropole would be about 700 mln
francs over the next four years, of which Lyonaise des Eaux
would provide about 175 mln, Monod said.
    Monod said Metropole aimed to win a 15 to 20 pct audience
share and to capture about 10 pct of the national television
advertising market.
    Total investment by the group in the communications sector,
including cable activities, would be between 300 mln and 400
mln francs over the next five years, mainly concentrated in the
coming year.
    Investment in cable operations would total between 150 mln
and 200 mln over the five years, with the aim of widening the
audience to 280,000 subscribers from 12,000, and boosting
turnover to around 450 mln francs a year from 10 mln.
 REUTER

Great Universal Stores Plc <GUS.L> said
it has made an agreed offer for <Pantherella Plc>, valuing the
company at 8.2 mln stg and each Pantherella ordinary share at
205 pence.
    The offer is based on eight new "A" non voting ordinary
shares in GUS plus 95.16 stg for every 100 ordinary
Pantherella.
    The new GUS shares will not receive the eight pence per
share interim dividend in respect of the year ending March
1987, the statement said.
    GUS has received irrevocable undertakings to accept the
offer in respect of 39.1 pct of Pantherella shares from the
company's directors and their families.
    The Pantherella board estimates the company, which
manufactures socks, will show a 1986 pretax profit of about
690,000 stg.
 REUTER

IBM Deutschland GmbH <IBM.F>, the
West German subsidiary of International Business Machines Corp
<IBM.N>, said its turnover fell nine pct to 12.0 billion marks
in 1986 as a result of currency factors, weaker demand in the
second half and stiff price competition.
    IBM Deutschland planned to strengthen its software and
service activities in future to ensure growth remained at
desired levels in the medium term, managing board chairman
Hans-Olaf Henkel said. He gave no 1986 profit figures.
    Domestic turnover fell 12.7 pct to 7.2 billion marks while
exports declined 3.2 pct to 4.8 billion.
    Most of IBM Deutschland's exports go to IBM companies in
    Henkel said volume sales had been positive overall,
especially in the large computer and personal computer sectors.
However, at the same time, fierce international competition,
worldwide overcapacity and currency movements had reduced large
computer prices for IBM Deutschland by some 23 pct.
    In January Henkel said the annual growth rate of the German
computer market may in the long term be less than 10 pct, well
below the 20 pct expansion originally forecast.
 REUTER

Japan is ready to discuss bank
regulation and capital adequacy with western monetary
authorities but cannot say when or how joint rules can be
agreed, Japanese vice-minister of finance for international
affairs Toyoo Gyohten said.
    He told a Nikkei conference on Tokyo financial markets that
Japan viewed a January outline agreement between the Bank of
England and U.S. Regulatory authorities as "significant."
    The accord, setting joint rules on capital adequacy, was
criticised in financial markets for excluding Japan, thus
putting U.S. And U.K. Banks at a disadvantage to Japanese banks
    "I am pleased to say that we are prepared to work with
British and American regulators," Gyohten said.
    He added that preliminary contacts had already been made in
the margin of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in
Basle where central bank governors of western nations meet
every month.
    But proper negotiations were still some way off. "We have to
start learning about the different situations in each country
before we can start working towards joint rules," he said.
    "I can't predict when or how we will reach conclusions," he
added.
 REUTER

Avalanches, landslides and floods have
killed almost 100 people since the start of the year in the
Soviet Transcaucasian republic of Georgia, the official daily
Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya said.
    Some 16,000 people have been left homeless and 80,000
hectares of arable land and plantations rendered useless, the
newspaper said. The figures are still preliminary, but it
estimated total losses at over 300 mln roubles.
    It said a large number of livestock and birds were killed
in the natural disaster and more than 1,800 km of roads needed
repairing.
 REUTER

Shr loss 17.4 H.K. Cents (no comparison)
    Dividend nil (no comparison)
    Net loss 11.49 mln dlrs.
    Notes - Net excluded extraordinary losses 27.91 mln dlrs.
Property valuation reserve surplus 67 mln dlrs.
    Results reflected trading in subsidiary <Humphreys Estate
Group> but excluded influence of a bulk of properties which the
firm bought late last year from Hongkong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HK>
for 1.4 billion dlrs.
    Company controlled by Bond Corp Holdings Ltd of Australia.
 REUTER

Rowntree Mackintosh Plc <RWNT.L> is
issuing a 55 mln stg eurobond due March 31, 2002, paying an
indicated coupon of 4-1/2 pct to five pct and priced at par,
lead manager J Henry Schroder Wagg and Co Ltd said.
    Final terms on the issue will be fixed by March 16.
Denominations are 1,000 stg and listing will be London.
    There is a put option on March 31, 1992, to yield 8-1/2 to
nine pct and the bond is also callable by the borrower until
March 31, 1988, at 106 pct, declining by one pct per annum
thereafter to par. However the call will not be before 1992.
 REUTER

The net position of federal states
worsened in the first March week, cutting public authority net
holdings at the Bundesbank by 500 mln marks, the central bank
said.
    States' cash deposits at the central bank fell to 800 mln
and they also drew down 1.2 billion marks in book credit, 900
mln marks more than in the prior week.
    By contrast, however, the federal government was able to
reduce its credit drawdown at the central bank by 900 mln marks
to 900 mln.
    Despite the stronger states' net needs in the week, their
cash position and other market dependent influences just about
balanced the outflow of liquidity from the money market through
an increase in cash in circulation, the Bundesbank said.
    Cash in circulation rose by 1.4 billion marks in the week
to 122.9 billion.
    Liquidity also came in through the maturing of short-term
treasury bills bought from the Bundesbank in the prior week.
    Gross currency reserves rose in the week by 400 mln marks
to 109.9 billion. Foreign liabilities of the Bundesbank were
largely unchanged at 22.8 billion marks, giving a rise in net
currency reserves of 400 mln to 87.0 billion, it said.
    The Bundesbank said its balance sheet total fell by 3.77
billion in the week to 218.45 billion.
 REUTER

CANADA JANUARY TRADE SURPLUS 533 MLN DLRS AFTER DECEMBER 965 MLN DLRS SURPLUS

Canada had a trade surplus of 533 mln dlrs
in January compared with an upward revised 965 mln dlrs surplus
in December, Statistics Canada said.
    The December surplus originally was reported at 964 mln
dlrs. The January surplus last year was 1.19 billion dlrs.
    January exports, seasonally adjusted, were 9.72 billion
dlrs against 10.39 billion in December and 10.89 billion in
January, 1986.
    January imports were 9.19 billion dlrs against 9.43 billion
in December and 9.71 billion in January 1986.
 Reuter

Hungary is to grow sugar beet on
105,000 hectares of land this year compared with some 95,000 in
1986, the official MTI news agency said.
    Diplomats said this reflected Hungary's policy of keeping
the sugar beet area stable under the current five-year plan
(1985-89) and producing enough to cover only domestic demand
despite the recent rise of world prices to 10 month highs.
    Drought cut the 1986 harvest to 3.58 mln tonnes from 4.07
mln in 1985. But a record yield of 130 kilos per tonne of beet
kept production at 454,000 tonnes, with 30,000 extra refined in
Yugoslavia from Hungarian beet. Output was 483,000 in 1985.
 REUTER

 REUTER

<Kidston Gold Mines Ltd> attributed
the rise in 1986 net profit to higher prices and an increase in
gold sales to 237,969 ounces from 206,467 ounces in 1985.
    The <Placer Development Ltd> offshoot, which operates
Australia's largest gold mine, in North Queensland, earlier
reported net profit rose to 60.50 mln dlrs from 50.76 mln in
the 1985 period of 10 months from the start of production.
    Sales of silver also rose to 165,968 ounces from 109,516.
    Kidston said in a statement it will spend about 5.5 mln
dlrs to upgrade its mill grinding circuit to a mill-ball,
mill-crushing circuit to boost output by 25 pct from end-1987.
 REUTER

Sweden's second largest bank Svenska
Handelsbanken <SHBS.S> said it will launch trading in share
futures with fixed maturity dates from March 19.
    Trading will start in four stocks -- Svenska Cellulosa AB
<SCAB.S> (SCA), Forsakrings AB Skandia <SKDS.S>, AB Volvo
<VOLV.S> and Pharmacia AB <PHAB.S>. Each futures contract is
for 1,000 shares and with fixed terms of three and six months.
    The bank did not say whether the futures instruments will
be open to foreign investors, who are only allowed to own
so-called unrestricted shares in Swedish companies.
    The Swedish Central Bank last month gave the go-ahead for
foreigners to trade in share options, but said such approval
will only be given on an individual basis.
    The Handelsbanken scheme, aimed at mainly institutional
investors, is only the latest of several novelties introduced
on Sweden's fast-growing financial markets in recent years.
    The country's private options exchange is already the
world's fifth largest and tomorrow a rival market, the Sweden
Options and Futures Exchange (SOFE), will begin trading.
    SOFE will also launch a market for share index futures this
spring.
    REUTER

The tin price is likely to rise to
20 ringgit a kilo this year because of the producers' accord on
export quotas and the reluctance of brokers and banks to sell
the metal at lower prices, a Malaysian government bulletin
said.
    The Malaysian Tin bulletin said it is in producers'
interest to keep to their quotas to limit total exports to
90,000 tonnes and to gradually deplete the 80,000 tonnes
overhang.
    It said consumption by industrialised countries should stay
at 160,000 tonnes and that International Tin Council creditors
and brokers are not likely to dump their stocks excessively
unless there is a large and abrupt price jump.
    The continued depreciation of the dollar could also help
push up the price of tin, the bulletin said.
    A depreciation of the dollar means the depreciation of the
ringgit which is closely pegged to it, making the price of tin
cheaper in sterling terms, it added.
    "Even in the absence of economic rationale in the tin
market, psychological optimism alone is sufficient to secure a
price recovery of up to 20 ringgit per kilo," the bulletin said.
 REUTER

Shr 48.4 cents vs 40.6
    Yr div 37 cents vs 15
    Net 60.50 mln dlrs vs 50.76 mln
    Turnover 134.54 mln vs 100.63 mln
    Other income 1.02 mln vs 920,000
    Shrs 125 mln vs same.
    NOTE - Company paid total 37 cents in previously declared
quarterly divs vs 15. Net is after tax 173,000 dlrs vs 285,000,
interest 9.67 mln vs 8.05 mln and depreciation 11.76 mln vs
9.59 mln.
 REUTER

Reuters.
    Ecuador has also appealed for emergency aid from about 40
foreign governments.
 REUTER

French stockbrokers will lose their
jealously guarded 180-year-old monopoly of share trading over
the next five years under reforms announced on Tuesday by
Finance Minister Edouard Balladur.
    But with the prospect of fresh money flooding into their
seriously under-capitalised share trading business, there were
few signs of regret over the gradual passing of an era.
    "It is a question of survival after London's Big Bang," said
private market analyst Edouard Cointreau.
    Balladur said the long-expected reform of the Bourse
structure will progressively allow domestic and foreign banks
to buy stakes in stockbrokers' capital, while at the same time
brokers will be allowed access to the money markets.
    The project foresees free access to the Bourse by January
1, 1992, the date set for the opening of a unified European
financial market.
    The planned reform, expected to be put before Parliament
before the end of the Spring session, will open up the capital
of the 45 Paris and 15 regional stockbroker houses in three
stages beginning on January 1 next year.
    The aim of the move, following the examples of Tokyo and
London in opening up their tightly-controlled membership, was
"to take up the challenge of European financial integration and
fierce international competition," Balladur announced.
    Cointreau, founder and chairman of the private market
analysis company Centre d'Observation et de Prospective
Sociales (COPS), said the reform was a natural development.
    "The Paris market is rising but that cannot go on for ever.
The brokers know it's a good time to sell part of their
business," he told Reuters.
    The reform was inevitable given the European Community
directive, said Ben Williams of Paris brokerage house
Fauchier-Magnan. "From a French point of view one cannot be very
disappointed," he said, "but some brokers must be a bit worried
as it is not entirely evident that all brokerage houses are
worth a lot of money."
    He said that with the expansion of the market generally
here quality brokerage staff would do very well out of the
reforms in salary terms. "But on the whole expertise is not very
deep and the banks already have a lot of such expertise."
    Dealers agreed generally that by allowing brokers to
reinforce their equity capital, the reform was expected to
improve their ability to take large positions in stocks and
bolster the liquidity of the Paris market.
    The French Banking Association, grouping domestic and
foreign banks operating here, welcomed the reforms. French
banks, which only won direct access to the bond markets last
September, have never been happy with the stockbrokers'
continuing monopoly on share trading.
    Brokers said it was too soon to say what form links with
other foreign brokerage houses and banks might take. "Nobody is
willing to talk about this yet but one can be sure that
alliances have been formed over the past years," Williams said.
    Some brokers said the opening up of their capital to banks
could pose questions such as whether the major banks might all
aim for stakes in the most prestigious and best-performing
brokerage houses, or whether the smaller houses might be
targetted for swallowing up to give banks an easy entry onto
the Bourse.
    Individual banks were reticent over likely strategy with
their future partners. "Discussions will get underway soon but
no specific choice (of broker) has been made yet," a spokesman
for Credit Lyonnais who declined to be named said.
    Balladur's project does not touch on dealing commissions
but many dealers said the question had to be addressed since
current bank commission was higher than that of brokers because
banks, who cannot deal directly in shares, have to pay a fee to
the broker they use for customer trading.
    According to a study by the Bourse official watchdog body
COB in January, dealing fees on a transaction in shares for a
gross total of 1,000 francs were 14.86 pct if the order was
placed directly by a broker, against 20.79 pct for the same
order passed through a bank.
    Xavier Dupont, Chairman of the Stockbrokers' Association,
said the reform would not mean an end to the fixed scale of
commissions. He said the overall reform would give the French
financial markets a "dynamic and efficient organisation." But as
both brokers and bankers commented, "let's wait and see."
 REUTER

market with a further 442 mln stg assistance during the morning
to offset a liquidity shortage it estimated at 1.60 billion
stg, revised up from 1.55 billion
    The bank bought outright eight mln stg of band one treasury
bills and five mln stg of band one bank bills at 10-3/8 pct.
    It bought a further 429 mln stg of bills for resale to the
discount houses on April 2 at an interest rate of 10-7/16 pct.
    So far today, the bank has given the market assistance
worth a total of 1.501 billion stg.
 REUTER

Jacobs Suchard AG <JACZ.Z> hopes for
another excellent year in 1987 after a 27 pct increase in 1986
net profit. Results in the first few months show it heading in
the right direction, company president Klaus Jacobs said.
    The group reported 1986 net profit of 190.9 mln Swiss
francs compared with 150.4 mln in 1985 and raised its dividend
per bearer share to 160 francs from 155 francs.
    Jacobs said the increase in profit, which far exceeded the
company's target of five pct real annual growth, had been made
possible by restructuring measures introduced in January 1986
which had also made some major acquisitions possible last year.
    Hermann Pohl, general director in charge of economic
affairs, said the 2.7 pct decline in group turnover to 5.24
billion francs was due to currency factors.
    A 5.2 pct negative currency influence was partially offset
by growth in operations and by structural changes within the
group.
    Turnover in the coffee business fell to 3.10 billion francs
from 3.56 billion in 1985 while turnover in the chocolate
sector rose to 2.14 billion francs from 1.82 billion. The
tonnage sold in both sectors declined due to higher prices and
lower consumer demand, especially in France and West Germany.
    Jacobs Suchard increased its market share in West Germany
to 44.9 pct from 39.9 pct in 1985, largely as a result of
acquisitions. Market share in France was little changed at 25
pct against 25.3 pct.
    Pohl said the group's average tax rate rose to 32.5 pct
from 28.8 pct because of the higher profits and despite
write-offs on the losses of new acquisitions. A further
increase in tax levels was expected in future.
    Taxes jumped 51.3 pct to 92 mln francs in 1986 from 61 mln
the previous year.
 REUTER

A Japanese real estate company
said it will launch a campaign to sell land in U.S. Farming
areas to rich Japanese.
    Higashi Nippon House said it would offer around 2,200 acres
of land in Illinois, California, Florida and Indiana from early
April to gauge response. It set up International Farm Corp of
America in Chicago last September to oversee the operation.
    American farmers would continue as working tenants and part
of the profits from harvests of rice, corn, soybean and oranges
would go to the Japanese investors as rental.
    Japanese Agriculture Ministry officials told Reuters sales
were limited to farmers to keep land in agricultural use.
    "Two years ago, I began to seek my own farmland in Japan,"
said Isao Nakamura, president of Higashi Nippon. "However, sale
of Japanese farmland is strictly controlled by the government,
so I began to look for the land in the U.S to make my dream to
own farm land come true."
    Nakamura said hundreds of companies exist in the U.S. To
sell farmland to investors as more and more farmers face
difficulties due to the recession in U.S. Agriculture.
 REUTER

Fiat SpA <FIAT.MI> declined to confirm or
deny an Italian newspaper report that it was studying the
possibility of issuing a convertible bond.
    The Milan daily, Il Giornale, said a convertible bond issue
was under study but gave no details.
    A Fiat spokesman contacted by Reuters said only that the
report was "one of the typical rumours which circulate on the
bourse."
    Senior sources at the Milan investment bank Sige, which Il
Giornale said was involved in the planning along with
Mediobanca - Banca di Credito Finanziario SpA and IMI -
Istituto Mobiliare Italiano, said they were unaware of any such
project.
 REUTER

Taft Broadacasting Co said its
board of directors unanimously decided not to accept the
pending buyout proposal of <Theta Corp>, an investor group led
by Dudley Taft.
    The decision was based on, among other things, the advice
of its financial advisors, Goldman Sachs and Co, that the offer
 Reuter

Deutsch-Suedamerikanische Bank AG, a
wholly owned subsidiary of Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F>, said it
was not worried about Brazil stopping its interest payments.
    Board member Herbert Mittendorf told a news conference that
Brazil's example was unlikely to be followed by other Latin
American countries.
    He pointed out that the region's debt rose by only 2.8 pct
last year to a total 396 billion dlrs. The countries' efforts
to further economic growth and to consolidate budgets were "not
unsuccessful." But the slump in oil prices and the decline in
commodity prices hampered these efforts, he said.
    Latin American countries' exports fell last year by about
16 pct to 80 billion dlrs, with imports declining slightly to
around 65 billion dlrs, Mittendorf said.
    The region's 1986 trade surplus was halved to an estimated
15 billion dlrs, he said. The cut in exchange earnings of oil
exporting countries was only partly offset by the advantages
gained by the region's oil importing states, he noted.
    The region's principal debtors are Brazil and Mexico, each
owing about 100 billion dlrs at the end of last year, followed
by Argentina with around 49 billion dlrs, Venezuela with 33
billion and Chile with 20 billion dlrs debt.
    Deutsch-Suedamerikanische Bank welcomed Mexico joining the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in mid 1986,
which it saw as an effort to integrate the country to a larger
extent into the world economy.
    However, realistic exchange rates were needed if the debtor
countries were to compete in the world market, Mittendorf said.
    In this respect an easing of protectionist barriers was
imperative, he said.
    The conversion of debt into equity was regarded as an
important additional step towards debt consolidation.
    West German exports to Latin America declined by 4.1 pct in
1986 to 11 billion marks. Shipments to Mexico fell 19 pct to
1.9 billion marks and to Colombia by 15 pct to 600 mln marks,
Mittendorf said.
    Exports to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Central America were
also lower last year than in 1985, while shipments to Brazil
rose 11.5 pct to around two billion marks. Exports to Argentina
went up by over three pct to 1.5 billion marks and those to
Paraguay surged by 42 pct to 106 mln marks, he said.
    Brazil was West Germany's main Latin American supplier, but
shipments fell to 4.4 billion marks from 6.4 billion in 1985.
 REUTER

Turnover in the U.K. Government bond
(gilt) market in February slipped to 81.25 billion stg from
January's 83.37 billion, although it was 165 pct higher than
the 30.63 billion in February 1986, the Stock Exchange said.
    The Stock Exchange noted, however, that turnover between
bond market-makers through the inter-dealer broker (IDB) screen
system, as distinct from business with outside clients, has
only been included from October 1986, meaning that prior data
is not strictly comparable with recent figures.
    The contribution to overall February, 1987 volume from IDB
 business was 43.10 billion stg, against 43.19 in January.
    In the 20 trading days of February, the average daily
volume of business was 4.06 billion stg, against an average of
3.97 billion in January, which had 21 trading days.
    Total Stock Exchange turnover for the month was 116.73
billion stg, marginally higher than the 116.65 billion recorded
in January but 129 pct more than the 50.92 billion of February
1986.
 REUTER

Pakistan is likely to import 100,000
tonnes of refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil between
April and June this year, vegetable oil dealers said.
    They said the import would be financed by the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB) which signed an agreement with Pakistan
earlier this week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
    Pakistan had imported 600,000 tonnes of edible oil since
the beginning of the current financial year last July, they
added. The palm oil would come from Malaysia or Indonesia.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Jennifer Convertibles Inc said an
initial public offering of 500,000 units is underway at eight
dlrs each through underwriters led by Evans and Co Inc.
    Each unit consists of two common shares and one redeemable
Class A warrant enabling the holder to buy one common share at
five dlrs until March 11, 1992.
    The shares and warrants are immediately separately
transferable.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,063,000 vs 639,000
    Sales 7,489,000 vs 4,656,000
    Year
    Shr 55 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 2,633,000 vs 1,343,000
    Sales 23.3 mln vs 17.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 44 cts vs profit 1.13 dlrs
    Net loss 1,544,000 vs profit 3,912,000
    NOTE: Cash flow 1,010,000 dlrs or 29 cts shr vs 2,835,000
dlrs or 82 cts shr.
 Reuter

Southwest Realty Ltd said it believes it
could make all of its scheduled montly debt service payments
for 1987 despite the falloff in its rental operations, but
making the payments would probably severely impair its
liquidity and restrict its ability to maintain the quality of
its properties.
    The company today reported a 1986 loss of 1,544,000 dlrs
compared with a 1985 profit of 3,912,000 dlrs.
    Southwest said in addition to its monthly scheduyled debt
service payments, a 1,743,000 dlr loan on one of its Houston
properties is due to mature on April One.
    Southwest said a commitment to reduce the interest rate and
extend the Houston loan for one year has been accepted.
    It said talks are underway with lenders on other Houston
properties to obtain partial debt service moratoriums which, if
granted, would cut 1987 cash deficits from 1986 levels.  The
loan renegotiations could involve bankruptcy or other
litigation connected with the specific properties involved and
could involve the suspension of interest and principal payments
to some of the lenders.  Southwest said if the attempts to
restructure debt do not succeed, it could lose one or more of
the properties.
    Southwest said the Houston properties made up about 10 pct
of its current value equity as of December 31 of 14.20 dlrs per
share, down from 16.68 dlrs a year before.
    The company said depending on the success of the talks and
operating results for 1987, one or two more properties could
become subject to similar negotiations.  The two additional
properties comprised about 11 pct of its current value equity
at year-end, Southwest said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Pope, Evans and Robbins Inc said it
has repurchased 780,000 common shares from Putnam Mills Corp
principals Sidney and Peter Kaplan for 2.25 dlrs per share.
    It said the purchase price will be applied against the
1,700,000 dlrs Putnam Mills currently owes Pope Evans for
merchandise.  Pope Evans has about 7.6 mln shares outstanding.
    The company also said it has agreed in principle to acquire
privately-held Pat Fashions Industries Inc for 18 mln dlrs in
cash and notes, with financing to come partly from bank
borrowings, subject to approval by the Pope Evans board and Pat
    Pat Fashions imports apparel from the Far East and makes
apparel domestically as well.  In the year ended November 30,
Pat earned 5,400,000 dlrs pretax on sales of 83.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Baird Corp said the Massachusetts state
court for Suffolk county has granted it a temporary restraining
order prohibiting Mark IV Industries Inc <IV> from further
purchases of Baird stock until Mark IV complies with the
Massachusetts Anti-Takeover Statute.
    The company said Mark IV currently owns at least 17.6 pct
of Baird stock and has indicated that it may attempt to acquire
Baird.
    Baird said the U.S. District Court in Boston has denied
Mark IV's application for a temporary restraining order to
prevent enforcement of the Massachusetts takeover law.
 Reuter

Jacobs Suchard AG expects a world cocoa
surplus of around 100,000 tonnes in 1987 compared with a
104,000 tonne surplus in 1986, Jens Sroka, head of commodity
buying, told a news conference.
    The company expects prices to remain at around current
levels despite the likelihood of agreement on buffer stock
rules at the forthcoming London cocoa talks, and believes
market intervention by the buffer stock manager would stabilise
prices.
    Sroka said world coffee prices are expected to remain weak
if any international coffee talks fail to produce agreement.
    Sroka said stagnating consumption and slight overproduction
will continue to weigh on coffee prices and he forecast a
continued build-up in stocks.
    The recent failure of the London coffee talks had surprised
market observers.
    Unless reason prevails and the major producers return to
the conference table, the world coffee market will remain free
and the consequences for some producers dependant on coffee for
their foreign exchange earnings would be catastrophic, Sroka
added.
 REUTER

DUDLEY TAFT AND NARRAGANSETT CAPITAL TO PURSUE TAFT BROADCASTING BID

Shr 616 cts vs 481
    Final div 150 cts vs 140, making 230 vs 195
    Pre-tax 705.4 mln rand vs 485.2 mln
    Net 591.7 mln vs 458.0 mln
    Tax 79.2 mln vs 82.2 mln
    Attrib to outside shareholders 123.7 mln vs 52.3 mln
 Reuter

U.S. RETAIL SALES ROSE 4.1 PCT IN FEB, NON-AUTO SALES ROSE 1.5 PCT

An 18-month strike against
Watsonville Canning and Frozen Foods, one of California's
largest food processors, ended with workers overwhelmingly
ratifying a new contract.
    More than 1,000 workers walked off their jobs in September
1985 after Watsonville Canning cut their wages from 6.66 dlrs
an hour to 4.85 dlrs.
    Watsonville declared bankruptcy last week and the cannery
was taken over by Norcal Frozen Foods Inc., a consortium of
growers. A spokeswoman for Teamsters Local 912 said the workers
voted 543-21 in favor of a new contract.
    The Norcal offer provides a 5.85 dlrs-per-hour wage with no
additional benefits for most workers for up to three years.
 Reuter

U.S. retail sales rose 4.77 billion
dlrs, or 4.1 pct, in February to a seasonally adjusted 122.29
billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    The increase came after a revised 7.4 pct drop in January
sales to a level of 117.52 billion dlrs. The department
previously reported January retail sales fell 5.8 pct.
    Excluding autos, retail sales in February were up 1.5 pct
after falling by a revised 0.4 pct in January.
    Department spokesmen said the major cause for the revision
downward in January sales was a weaker January auto dealer
sales figure than originally estimated.
    Auto dealer sales were 26.91 billion dlrs in February, a
14.4 pct rise from January levels. But January sales dropped by
27.7 pct from December levels to 23.52 billion dlrs, more than
the 22.4 pct fall originally reported.
    The expiration of the sales tax deduction under new tax
laws on January 1 was the main reason for the drop in January
sales, department spokesmen said.
    Sales of durable goods rose in February by 8.8 pct to 46.72
billion dlrs after dropping by 17.7 pct in January.
    Building materials rose 1.8 pct in February after falling
by 1.7 pct in January.
    Non-durable goods sales rose by 1.3 pct to 75.58 billion
dlrs in February after falling by 0.2 pct in January, the
    General merchandise stores rose 1.4 pct after increasing
sales by 1.6 pct in January, and department stores were up two
pct in February after rising 1.5 pct in January.
    Food store sales increased 0.4 pct after declining by 1.0
pct in January, while grocery store sales increased 0.3 pct in
February after falling 0.6 pct in January.
    Gasoline service station sales rose 2.0 pct in February
after a 1.9 pct January increase.
    Apparel store sales were up 0.8 pct last month after
falling 3.0 pct in January, while sales at eating and drinking
places increased 1.5 pct after rising 0.5 pct in January.
    February's retail sales were 4.4 pct above the year-ago
level of 117.09 billion dlrs, the department said.
 Reuter

Taft Broadcasting Co vice chairman
Dudley Taft and Narragansett Capital Inc <NARR> said they
intend to pursue their effort to acquire Taft Broadcasting
despite the rejection yesterday of their 145 dlr per share
offer by the Taft Broadcasting board.
    Dudley Taft and Narragansett, in a joint statement, said
they intend to explore alternatives to achieve the acquisition,
including further talks with Taft Broadcasting.
    They said they are confident that the Taft Broadcasting
board will conclude that the resolution of the company's
current "unstable situation" as quickly as possible is in the
best interests of all parties.
    They said the Taft board did not conclude that their offer
was not fair to Taft shareholders.  Taft Broadcasting
yesterday, however, said financial advisor Goldman, Sachs and
Co found the offer to be inadequate.
 Reuter

Commission, CFTC, should increase speculative position limits
on agricultural futures and do away with them for financial
futures, Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, chairman Karsten Mahlmann
said.
    Reporting to the CFTC Financial Products Advisory Committee
on the conclusions so far of an ad hoc CBT committee on
off-exchange trading issues, Mahlmann said, "We came to the
conclusion that no meaningful purpose is served by speculative
position limits."
    Position limits were supposed to prevent market
manipulation, but "I would submit that the Exchange and the
CFTC currently have all the tools necessary to prevent market
manipulation, whether an account is speculative or a hedge,"
the CBT chairman said.
    Malmann said the issue was of particular concern to the CBT
because the exchange faced increasing competition from foreign
markets, most of which did not have position limits.
    He said the ad hoc committee, which he also chairs, had
agreed to propose that the definition of hedging be expanded to
include risk management as well as risk reduction.
    Mahlmann said there was a danger that if a category of
trading was given a name such as "non-speculative hedging,"
insurance companies and pension funds might be held back from
engaging in it by the regulatory bodies that govern such
entities.
    The ad hoc committee proposed the establishment of
"prudence guidelines" and a list of market activities that fell
within those lines which might be lengthened in the future, he
said.
    The committee might also propose that CBT itself be allowed
to enforce position limits on agricultural futures, he added.
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 2,245,000 vs 2,885,000
    Revs 50.7 mln vs 46.5 mln
    Avg shrs 9,396,000 vs 9,270,000
    Year
    Oper shr 96 cts vs 99 cts
    Oper net 8,994,000 vs 9,220,000
    Revs 191.5 mln vs 174.7 mln
    Avg shrs 9,394,000 vs 9,282,000
    NOTE: 1985 year net excludes 1,360,000 dlr loss from
    Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split.    
 Reuter

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said he
held "frank" discussions with the Canadian province premiers on
the pace of free trade talks with the United States, but the
longstanding issue of provincial ratification remains to be
settled.
    Speaking to reporters after nearly five hours of meetings
with the 10 premiers, Mulroney said further discussions would
be held in June and September to discuss the role of the
provinces in approving any new trade deal.
    But he maintained progress was being made in the sweeping
talks with the Unites States that got under nearly two years
ago.
    "It appears reasonable progress is being made (in the
talks)," Mulroney said.
    Alberta Premier Don Getty agreed, "Things are running pretty
quickly now."
    The talks, launched by Mulroney's Progressive Conservative
government after concerns about protectionist sentiment in the
U.S., are aimed reducing the remaining barriers between the
world's largest trading partnership.
    But the provinces are expected to play a major role in any
new trading arrangement, and some of the provincial leaders
complained of a lack of progress on reaching a ratification
formula.
    "It's my view that we should be thinking about these things
right now, along with the questions of the substance of the
agreement," commented Ontario Premier David Peterson, who has
been highly critical of the talks in the past.
    But Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford said an agreement
was more likely to emerge by consensus and there would be no
need for a "hard and fast formula."
    Peckford said it appears Canada is prepared to make
concessions to the United States on financial services in order
to make inroads on other bargaining areas, such as agriculture.
    Canadian published reports, quoting government sources, say
the two countries are close to reaching a trade deal and it
will involve eliminating border tariffs and many non-tariff
barriers over the next 10 to 12 years.
    A rough draft of the accord is expected to be presented to
the premiers at the June meeting while the finished document is
hoped to be presented to Congress in October.
    "It's a very tight time frame," Ontario's Peterson said last
night. "But at this moment it is tough to say what will
transpire."
 Reuter

Shr profit eight cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 622,000 vs loss 564,000
    Revs 7,508,000 vs 1,913,000
    Year
    Shr profit 15 cts vs loss 28 cts
    Net profit 933,000 vs loss 1,548,000
    Revs 19.8 mln vs 4,799,000
 Reuter

Japanese acquisition of a major U.S. supercomputer and
semiconductor manufacturer for national security reasons, U.S.
    The officials, who asked not to be named, said yesterday
that Baldrige has "serious concerns" about the sale of Fairchild
Semiconductor Corp. to Fujitsu Ltd., another major electronics
firm.
    The officials told Reuters that if the sale went through it
could leave the U.S. military overly dependent on a foreign
/ompany for vital high technology equipment used in its
advanced missiles, aircraft electronics and intelligence
    In addition, they said, the sale would also worsen the
already strained trade relations between the U.S. and Japan
stemming from the huge Japanese surplus.
    Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's position was not
immediately known but in the past he has opposed the transfer
of high technology to foreign governments and companies.
    Supercomputers made by Fairchild and other U.S.
manufacturers are widely used throughout the world, but none
have been sold to the Japanese government or to Japanese
government-run agencies and universities.
 Reuter

First Union Corp said
shareholders of First North Port Bancorp of Northport, Fla.,
have approved a merger into First Union for 40 dlrs per share,
or about 5,100,000 dlrs.
    The company said the acquisition is still subject to
regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed during the
second quarter.
 Reuter

Sand Technology Systems Inc said it is
considering a reverse stock split of at least one-for-10 and
expects to report a second-quarter profit, compared to a loss
last year.
    The stock consolidation "is something we're discussing, but
it's not definite," Sand Technology president Jerry Shattner
    A private placement recently brought the number of
outstanding shares to 106 mln, up from 97.1 mln shares on July
31, 1986, the fiscal yearend.
    "The company has always had the aura of a penny stock,"
Shattner said, adding that Sand plans, at some time, to apply
for listing on the Montreal Stock Exchange.
    Shattner said the company expects to report a profit of
five pct, or about 350,000 dlrs, on sales of seven mln dlrs,
for the second quarter ended January 31. Results for the third
quarter should be about the same as the second, he added.
    Last year, Sand lost 243,064 dlrs on revenues of 7,012,195
dlrs in the second quarter.
    After "a disastrous first quarter," Sand hopes to break even
in the current fiscal year, Shattner said. The company has
scaled back its sales forecast to about 25 mln dlrs, from the
33.5 mln dlrs projected in December.
    The rapid appreciation of the Japanese yen against U.S. and
Canadian dollars last year led to Sand's loss of 2.1 mln dlrs,
or two cts per share, on sales of 24.9 mln dlrs.
    In the first fiscal quarter this year, the company lost
1,350,387 dlrs, or one ct per share, on sales of 3,570,585
dlrs.
    Shattner believes the company will post better results this
year due to several factors.
    "Last year, one of our biggest problems was we were buying
products in Japanese yen. We now buy some products from Hitachi
in U.S. dollars and the results are starting to show up in the
second quarter," he said.
    Sand Technology sells, under its trademark, computer
accessories such as disk drives, solid-state memory enhancement
devices and printers manufactured by Hitachi Ltd <HIT> of
Japan.
    Shattner said Sand's affiliate in Detroit, ST Systems Inc,
is developing software that lets large maniframe computers
handle large databases and share them between applications.
    It is also distributing a new product called Sapiens, which
is artificial intelligence computer language for use by major
corporations.
    The company has also reduced costs through some staff
cutting and a switch to profit sharing plans for sales staff
instead of straight commissions, Shattner said.
    And Sand plans to market a laser printer in the fourth
fiscal quarter, Shattner said.
 Reuter

Concorde Ventures Inc said it has signed
a letter of intent to acquire Englewood, Colo., homebuilder
Winley Inc for 12 mln common shares.
    The investment company said after the merger the combined
company will have 15 mln shares outstanding.
    For the year ended January 31, Winley earned 116,000 dlrs
pretax on revenues of 11.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Dune Resources Ltd said its oil
reserves increased 225 pct during 1986 while its natural gas
reserves were up six pct.
    The company said its proven oil reserves were estimated at
605,682 barrels on December 31, up from 186,655 barrels a year
earlier boosted by discoveries during the year put at 423,659
barrels.
    It said gas reserves rose to 8.8 mln cubic feet from 8.3
mln on Dec 31, 1985, as discoveries of nearly 1.3 mln cubic
feet were partialy offset by production of 287,391 cubic feet
and downward revisions of previous estimates totaling 491,694
cubic feet.
 Reuter

Deutsche Babcock AG
<DBCG.F> said it and Siemens AG <SIEG.F> subsidiary Kraftwerk
Union AG <KAWG.F>, KWU, have won an order from the city of
Munich for an electricity and heating-generating plant which
company sources said was worth slightly more than one billion
marks.
    A Babcock statement said its share of the order alone was
worth 800 mln marks, the largest domestic contract it has ever
received.
    It gave no figure for KWU's share but company sources said
the total order was worth slightly more than one billion marks.
 Reuter

BORG-WARNER TO SELL INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS BUSINESS FOR ABOUT 240 MLN DLRS

The worst may be just about over for
Japan's battered economy but economists said they do not expect
a vigorous recovery anytime soon. Japanese bank economists
polled by Reuters said the economy's 18 month-old slowdown is
likely to end in the first half of this year, helped by rising
exports, stepped-up government spending and falling prices. "The
economy will bottom out in the middle of the year," said
Sumitomo Bank Ltd chief economist, Masahiko Koido.
    Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd senior economist Susumu
Taketomi agreed. "It (the bottom) is in the offing," he said.
    But he added that the recovery will be slow. Growth in the
fiscal year beginning next month will only pick-up 2.2 pct,
from two pct in the current year, he said.
    Signs that the economy has just about weathered the worst
are increasing.
    The volume of exports in the first two months of the year
rose slightly on a year-on-year basis, after declining toward
the end of last year.
    Although this may be due to extraordinary factors such as a
sharp rise in car exports to rebuild depleted European stocks,
several economists said it could mark the beginning of a
recovery.
    Industrial production fell 0.7 pct in January, much smaller
than expected, and is forecast by the government to rise 0.3
pct in February and 2.6 pct in March. A Bank of Japan survey
released last week showed that the decline in Japanese
corporate earnings may be nearing its end.
    And the Paris currency accord last month has fostered hopes
the rapid yen rise has come to the end, they said.
    Six nations - the U.K., Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. And
West Germany - pledged in Paris last month to stabilise
    The yen's 40 pct climb against the dollar over the last two
years has hit the export-driven economy hard, by forcing its
companies to raise prices and lose sales in the U.S. Market.
    "The important thing is the exchange rate," Taketomi said.
    If it stabilises firms will grow more confident and raise
investment in plant and equipment, although there are no signs
of that yet, economists said.
    A stable yen would also help exporters regain some of their
competitive edge just as the U.S economy may be starting to
recover, economists said.
    Domestically, the economy may get a boost from some
loosening of the government's tight fiscal policy said Haruo
Muto, manager of national economics at the Bank of Tokyo Ltd.
    The next reading of the economy's health should come early
next week with the release of gnp figures for the last quarter,
1986.
    Most private economists expect a rise of about 0.5 pct from
the previous quarter. In the third quarter, GNP rose 0.6 pct.
    But a senior government official said the fourth quarter
figures could surprise by showing a rise of more than one point
quarter-on-quarter. But he added that would be a statistical
aberration and not a significant shift in economic activity.
    To maintain year-on-year growth of around 2.5 pct, the
economy would have had to rise about 1.2 pct in the fourth
quarter as the final quarter of 1985 was strong.
     The rise in the fourth quarter of 1985 was probably a
statistical anomaly that was repeated in the final months of
1986, the official said.
    Economists said the fourth quarter figures were also
distorted by the government's sale of gold coins in the second
half of 1986.
    Because the coins were classified as legal tender, their
purchase did not show up in the statistics on consumer
expenditure. Consumer spending also tailed off in December
because of bad weather and smaller-than-normal end-year
bonuses, they said.
    As the government had to buy back some of the coins from
retailers because they were unsold, the government's
contribution to the economy in the fourth quarter may have been
boosted, economists said.
    Taketomi said it may have received a further boost from
government buying of farm products as the domestic crop last
year was good.
    The senior government official said the fourth quarter
performance of the domestic sector was probably worse than
generally expected, while that of the external sector was
better.
 REUTER

reports.
Social-Democratic/Liberal Alliance.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has until June, 1988 to
call a general election, but most political analysts expect her
to go to the country some time this year.
 Reuter

    As reported yesterday, Qintex said, about seven mln
Princeville shares had been tendered in response to the offer.
   
 Reuter

Shares in building firm <JM Byggnads
och Fastighets AB> were suspended on the Stockholm bourse at
the company's own request, the bourse said.
    The suspension will last until the end of trading on
Friday, the bourse added in a statement, but gave no further
details.
    JM is half-owned by Skanska AB <SKBS ST>, which has offered
to buy out the remaining stock, but analysts said JM could have
been approached with a rival bid.
 Reuter

Feb 28 end
    Shr five cts vs one ct
    Net 161,019 vs 50,745
    Revs 1,048,543 vs 478,700
    Avg shrs 3,217,500 vs 4,350,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 12 cts vs four cts
    Net 390,179 vs 169,275
    Revs 2,658,692 vs 1,478,066
    NOTE: Corrects reversed figures in March 11 item.
 Reuter

Taiwan imposed currency controls today
in what bankers called a desperate move to prevent speculation
as the Taiwan dollar appreciated against the U.S. currency.
    The strict controls will require proof that large
remittances to Taiwan are connected to commercial transactions
rather than currency speculation.
    Bankers attacked the controls as ineffective, saying they
were a panic reaction to pressure from Washington for faster
appreciation of the Taiwan currency against the U.S. dollar,
which would slow exports to the United States.
    Remittances exceeding one mln dlrs earned through exports,
shipping, insurance or bank lending will now need government
approval, along with remittances of more than 10,000 dlrs from
any other source.
 Reuter

Iran attacked the Saudi Arabian
supertanker Arabian Sea off the United Arab Emirates last night
but the vessel was able to proceed after the incident, Lloyds
Shipping Intelligence reported.
    The 315,695-dwt Arabian Sea had set sail on Tuesday after
loading oil at the Saudi port of Ras Tannurah. Lloyds said the
attack occurred at about 2200 hrs local time (1800 GMT).
 Reuter

Taiwan will relax import controls on
more foreign goods, a government spokesman said today.
    The move was to allow greater access to Taiwan markets by
overseas trading partners, especially the United States, an
official of the Council for Economic Planning and Development
    Import curbs on about 400 foreign goods, including
stationery and books, would soon be relaxed, he said.
    Taiwan announced it would ease curbs on some 600 farming
and industrial products last month.
    The official said the moves were intended to balance trade
between Taiwan and the United States and other trading
partners. Taiwan's trade surplus reached a record 15.6 billion
dlrs last year, up from 10.62 billion in 1985.
 Reuter

U.K. Retailers expect consumer spending
to accelerate in March after a disappointing increase in
February, according to a monthly survey by the Confederation of
British Industry (CBI).
    Fifty-nine pct of the 325 retailers questioned for the
latest Distributive Trades Survey expected sales to be higher
in March than they were in March 1986, with only six pct
expecting lower sales.
    The chairman of the Distributive Trades Survey Panel, Nigel
Whittaker, said a favourable Budget next week would further
help sales during the summer.
    Figures released earlier this week showed retail sales in
January fell 2.2 pct, mainly due to exceptionally cold weather.
    "Sales did not recover in February as much as retailers had
expected, and they are now looking for better business in
March," today's survey said.
    It reported clothing stores were the most optimistic, with
80 pct expecting sales in March to be higher than a year ago.
    Wholesalers also expected stronger sales in March, while
both retailers and wholesalers reported slower growth in import
penetration, it said.
 REUTER

Most Japanese companies have decided not
to renew term contracts to lift Iranian crude oil because spot
prices remain considerably lower than OPEC's official levels,
industry sources said.
    They said a cargo of the Mideast benchmark crude Dubai
traded yesterday at 16.50 dlrs a barrel, compared to its
official price of 17.42 dlrs.
    Only one Japanese company has renewed its term contract for
Iranian crude oil for the second quarter, the sources said.
    The sources said Japanese companies had been lifting a
total of about 185,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude
under term contracts, but only one firm has agreed to lift in
the second quarter. It is lifting just 10,000 to 15,000 bpd.
    They said this move could inspire Iran to offer discounts
on cargoes loading in April, but the likelihood of discounts
depended largely on the levels of spot prices.
    "If the spot price of Dubai goes above 17.30 dlrs we would
probably buy Iranian crude at the official price," one Japanese
refiner said.
    "We don't intend to put pressure on them," he added.
    Buyers have little incentive to renew contracts to lift oil
at official OPEC prices while spot prices on all grades are
considerably lower, oil traders said.
    They said if spot prices move higher there will be no
problem finding OPEC crude to purchase at the official prices.
Qatar has chartered floating storage for its crude oil after
finding no buyers at official prices in March. The problem is
likely to recur in April, adding to that country's surplus.
    The traders added that Iraq had dissociated itself from
OPEC's December production agreement, while agreeing to the
fixed prices.
    But oil analysts said if OPEC keeps group output close to
its first-half 1987 ceiling of 15.8 mln bpd, supply and demand
would be balanced by the end of the second quarter.
    They also said if OPEC holds its official price structure
based on a reference price of 18 dlrs, spot price fluctuations
should be limited to a 16.50 to 17.20 dlrs range for Dubai and
a 17 to 18 dlrs range for the North Sea's Brent blend.
    One Japanese refiner said, "At the moment there's a lot of
pressure on OPEC, particularly on Qatar. But if they hold out
there will be no problem, and I'm beginning to trust their
ability."
    Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president Rilwanu Lukman
told a news conference in Lagos yesterday, "Nigeria and all
member countries of OPEC remain determined to uphold the
December agreement by adhering strictly to their various quotas
and official selling prices."
    He said OPEC believed consumers had drawn heavily on stocks
of both crude oil and refined products, reducing them to levels
well below this time last year. He said consumers would soon
return to the market in search of crude.
    A Japanese refiner said, "The European and U.S. Markets are
beginning to look better so OPEC might be quite lucky."

Possis Corp said its board approved
a 100 pct stock dividend payable May One, record March 27.
    At the company's annual meeting Wednesday, Possis said
shareholders approved a proposal to increase the authorized
common shares to 20 mln from eight mln. The company currently
has about 3.9 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 29 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 610,000 vs 329,000
    Sales 6,714,000 vs 4,582,000
 Reuter

Qtly div 50 cts vs 50 cts prior
 Reuter

Telco Systems Inc said its plan
to distribute a dividend of common stock purchase rights to
shareholders of record on March 16 has been delayed pending the
completion of necessary regulatory approvals.
 Reuter

Jamaica has put a cap on its
3.5 billion dlr foreign debt and will reduce its obligations by
300 mln dlrs this year, Prime Minister Edward Seaga said.
    Seaga yesterday said Jamaica has reached its "maximum stock
of debt" and will not undertake any more borrowing until it was
justified by economic growth. "This year we'll be reducing the
stock of debt by 300 mln dlrs," he said.
    He said his government aims to get Jamaica's ratio of debt
payments to foreign exchange earnings down from the current
level of 50 pct to 25 pct over the next two to three years.
Debt payments this year are expected to total 287 mln dlrs,
Seaga said. Seaga yesterday concluded an agreement with
Jamaica's creditor banks to reschedule some 181 mln dlrs due in
1987-89 over the next 12 years.
 Reuter

Synergetics International Inc
said it has received its first order from China, a 250,000 dlr
order for a flood management system to be used in the Daning
and Yuzixi river basins of the Yangtse River.
    The company also said it has received Japanese government
certification for its satellite transmitter products, allowing
users of Synergetics' remote computer systems to transmit a
variety of hydrological and meteorological data via the Japan
Space Agency's GMS satellite.
    In addition, it said it has appointed Vaisala KK of
Helsinki as exclkusive distributor of its products throughout
Japan and has awarded Sierra/Misco Inc expanded distribution
rights, in the Philippines, Malaysia, Sumatra, Nepal, India,
Bengal, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
 Reuter

<British Caledonian Airways> said
it filed an application with Britain's Civil Aviation Authority
for authority to operate the only direct flights between the
United Kingdom and Mexico City.
    The airline said it will submit an application March 17 to
provide direct service between the United Kingdom and Phoenix.
Earlier this week it applied for the license to serve San Diego.
 Reuter

Clayton and Dubilier Inc and senior
management of a unit of Borg-Warner Corp <BOR> said it will
form a new company to buy Borg-Warner's industrial products
group for about 240 mln dlrs.
    Borg-Warner industrial products has sales of about 300 mln
dlrs from three divisions, which provide advanced technology
fluid transfer and control equipment, systems and
services worldwide, Clayton said.
    The new company will have 3,000 employees and be
headquartered in Long Beach, Calif., the company said.
    Peter Valli, vice president of Borg-Warner Corp and
president of its industrial products division, will become
president and chief executive officer of the new company,
according to Clayton.
    Clayton, a private investment firm, said this was the third
mangement buyout of a divestiture completed by them since
 Reuter

Combustion Engineering Inc said
the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has exercised
an option to purchase a 300 megawatt coal-fired steam generator
from CEMAR, a consortium of Combustion Engineering Canada Inc
and Japan's Marubeni Corp.
    Combustion Engineering said the project is valued at about
30 mln dlrs.
    The new steam generator, which will burn local lignite,
will be manufactured in Canada and installed as Unit Nine at
the Mae Moh power station in Lampang, Thailand. The unit is
expected to go into commercial operation in 1990.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs seven cts
    Net 1,541,000 vs 1,056,000
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 17.0 mln
    1st half
    Shr 19 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 2,945,000 vs 1,742,000
    Revs 38.2 mln vs 35.2 mln
 Reuter

First Ameri-Cable Corp said that
First Ameri-Cable Income Fund Ltd filed a registration
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise
from one mln dlrs to 50 mln dlrs on a best efforts basis.
    First Ameri-Cable said it acts as general partner for First
Ameri-Cable Income Fund.
    First Ameri-Cable said First Ameri-Cable Income Fund
intends to use the funds to buy existing cable systems or
ownership interest in existing cable systems from third parties
or from First Ameri-Cable Corp.
    First Ameri-Cable Income Fund intends to operate the
systems it purchases, First Ameri-Cable said.
    The company said the offering will be made in two series,
with the Series A units priced at 29.20 dlrs each, and the
Series B units priced at 20 dlrs each.
    First Ameri-Cable said the minimum purchase allowed is 25
units in any combination of series A and B.
    The selling agent for the offering is First Cable
Securities Corp, a wholly owned unit of First Amer-Cable Corp,
 Reuter

<Consolidated Five Star
Resources Ltd> said it agreed to issue 1.25 mln dlrs of common
stock and 10.75 mln dlrs of convertible preferred stock in a
private placement.
    The three-year 7-1/2 pct preferred shares are convertible
into common shares at 60 cts a share, and exchangeable into
1,650,000 common shares of <Cancapital Corp> owned by
Consolidated Five Star. Proceeds will be used to retire bank
debt, with the balance added to working capital.
    Consolidated Five Star previously said it borrowed 10.75
mln dlrs from a bank to acquire <Chaffinch Ltd>.
                                                               
 Reuter

market further assistance of two mln stg during the afternoon,
buying that amount of band two bank bills at 10-5/16 pct.
    The bank has given the market assistance worth 1.503
billion stg today to offset a shortage it estimated at a
revised 1.60 billion.
 REUTER

Shr 13 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 2,193,000 vs 1,918,000
    Revs 18.2 mln vs 15.2 mln
    NOTE: Share after preferred dividends.
 Reuter

A Swedish virologist unveiled a new AIDS
blood test using synthetic antigens, or substances which
combine with antibodies to make them detectable, which would be
much cheaper and more reliable than existing tests.
    Anders Vahlne said the test, developed at Gothenburg
University, was accurate enough to eliminate the need for a
second test usually carried out to double-check those found to
be "AIDS positive," that is with AIDS antibodies in their blood.
    Vahlne said the test could be on the market in between four
and eight months. A small Swiss firm, Virovahl S.A., Helped
finance it.
 REUTER

Exchange (CME) adjourned a meeting late last night without
reaching a decision on a petition to ban dual trading in
Standard and Poor's 500 stock index futures, an exchange
    CME president Bill Brodsky told Reuters that the CME board
would meet again today and probably reach a decision either
late today or tomorrow.
    Dual trading involves the right of members to trade for
their own account as well filling orders for customers.
    The petition, signed by several hundred exchange members
when it was circulated on the floor of the CME two weeks ago,
calls for the elimination of dual trading in the S and P pit.
Some industry watchers believe that if the CME eliminates the
practice other exchanges will have to consider such a move.
    The practice has drawn criticism from some sectors in that
it provides an opportunity for abusive practices in which
customer orders are not executed at the best possible price.
    One practice, know as "front-running," involves a broker
trading ahead of a large customer order and then profiting by
the impact on the market of the customer order.
 Reuter

General Mining Union Corp Ltd
chairman Derek Keys cautioned that profits may not rise this
year if the rand stays at its current level of 48 U.S. Cents.
    "We would do well to repeat last year's results if the rand
stays depressed," Keys said.
    The level of the dividend, however, "ought not to be
affected," he added, discussing the 1987 outlook.
    General Mining earlier reported that 1986 per share
earnings rose 28 pct to 616 cts.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 34 cts vs 34 cts
    Pay May 15
    Record April 24
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 414,968 vs 449,533
    Revs 5,726,722 vs 5,276,627
    Six mths
    Shr 23 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 779,981 vs 1,116,857
    Revs 11.3 mln vs 11.3 mln
 Reuter

MarkitStar Inc said it has signed an
agreement for Orimedia of Paris to become a sales
representative for MarkitStar products and services in the
European Community.
 Reuter

Turnover in U.K. Equities soared to a
record 31.05 billion stg in February, a 12 pct increase on the
previous month's 27.83 billion, the London Stock Exchange said.
    February turnover was also 96 pct higher than the 15.84
billion stg total posted in the same month a year ago.
    A monthly fact sheet from the Stock Exchange showed eight
new companies were admitted to listing in February, six of
which were U.K. Firms.
    The largest of these was British Airways, which was
privatised in February and whose share offer raised over 900
mln stg, it said.
    The Stock Exchange also said six rights issues during the
month raised 223.6 mln stg compared with 129.5 mln from nine
issues in Febuary 1986.
    Daily average equity turnover in the 20 business days in
February was 1.55 billion stg after 1.33 billion in the 21
trading days in January, an increase of 17 pct.
    Total Stock Exchange turnover of both gilts and equities
was 116.73 billion stg, marginally higher than the 116.65
billion recorded in January but 129 pct more than the 50.92
billion of February 1986.
 REUTER

Southwest Airlines Co said its February
load factor fell to 51.2 pct from 54.5 pct in February 1986.
    Revenue passenger miles increased 14.1 pct in February to
538.9 mln from 472.3 mln and 22.3 pct year-to-date to 1.15
billion from 944.1 mln, the company said.
    Available seat miles grew 21.6 pct in February to 1.05
billion from 866.2 mln and 21.3 pct in the two months to 2.20
billion from 1.81 billion.
    Load factor, the percentage of seats filled, rose to 52.5
pct from 52.1 pct in the two months, Southwest said. Traffic
results include Southwest and its Transtar Airlines unit.
    The carrier also said it opened a new Phoenix reservation
center on March one.

 Reuter

Technimed Corp said it has completed
development of a home cholesterol testing product and will
start clinical testing of its whole blood cholesterol test
strip shortly.
    The company said the strip is inexpensive and is simpler
than lab tests now being used.  A drop of blood is applied to
the strip and within about 30 seconds a simple color change
allows the user to determine his own cholesterol level.
    It said it expects to be the first to market a home
cholesterol test and the test should contribute substantially
to future earnings.

 Reuter

CCC, has reallocated two mln dlrs in credit gurantees
previously earmarked for sales of U.S. protein meals to cover
sales of vegetable oil and tallow to El Salvador, the U.S.
    The action reduces coverage for sales of protein meals to
14 mln dlrs from 16 mln dlrs and creates new lines of one mln
dlrs for tallow and/or greases and one mln dlrs for vegetable
oils, the department said.
    All sales under the credit guarantee lines must be
registered and exported by Sepember 30, 1987, it said.
    The guarantee rates include a charge to provide for a
yearly interest rate coverage of up to 4.5 pct on the
guaranteed value, the department said.
 Reuter

Borg-Warner Corp said it agreed to sell
its industrial products group to <Clayton and Dubilier Inc>
and senior management of the group, for about 240 mln dlrs.
    Clayton and Dubilier is a New York-based private investment
firm, which has completed two other management-led buyout
transactions since December 1986.
    Borg-Warner's industrial products group, based in Long
Beach, California, has sales of about 300 mln dlrs and employs
about 3,000 staff.
    Its businesses include standard and custom engineered
centrifugal pumps and mechanical seals for the petroleum
industry and advanced controls for the aerospace and defense
    The sale is part of Borg-Warner's planned restructuring.
    the proposed sale is subject to approval by Borg-Warner's
directors, it said.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch <MER> Capital Markets said
it and Bennetton Group SPA <BTOM.M> will form a joint venture
to attract investment in unquoted Italian companies.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets will launch the venture with
In Capital SPA, a Milan investment bank in which Bennetton has
a 75 pct holding. The remaining 25 pct is owned by Gruppo
Finanziario Tessile S.P.A., A private textile firm.
    The two companies, who have signed a letter of intent, said
they hoped the venture will generate investments of up to 50
billion lire in private Italian firms operating in fast-growing
fields.
    Benetton is a large Italian clothing maker, with some 4,400
retail outlets worldwide. The new venture, which represents the
first partnership between an international investment bank and
a large company, is designed to help Benetton expand the
operations of In Capital.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets is the London-based
international merchant banking arm of Merrill Lynch Europe Ltd,
which in turn is part of the U.S. Based investment banking firm
of Merrill Lynch and Co Inc.
 Reuter

The Panamanian bulk carrier Juvena is
still aground outside Tartous, Syria, despite discharging 6,400
tons of its 39,000-ton cargo of wheat, and water has entered
the engine-room due to a crack in the vessel bottom, Lloyds
Shipping Intelligence Service said.
    The Juvena, 53,351 tonnes dw, ran aground outside Tartous
port basin breakwater on February 25 in heavy weather and rough
seas.
 Reuter

<Guardian-Morton Shulman Precious
Metals Inc> said Morton Shulman and Guardman Investment
Management Services Inc agreed in principle for Andrew Sarlos
to make a takeover bid for all special shares and series II
warrants of Guardian-Morton, subject to regulatory approval and
completion of definitive documentation.
    Guardman Investment, current manager and owner of all
common shares of Guardian-Morton, also agreed to sell the
common and its management agreement to a company controlled by
Sarlos if the takeover bid is successful, Guardian-Morton said.
    Price to be offered for the Guardian-Morton special shares
under the takeover bid will be 90 pct of the net asset value of
the special shares at the time of the bid, and two dlrs for
each series II warrant, the company said.
    Guardian-Morton said the takeover bid will be conditional
on Sarlos acquiring at least 90 pct of the special shares and
90 pct of the series II warrants, when combined the number of
special shares and warrants owned by the offeror at the time of
the bid.
    Investment companies managed by Sarlos currently own
slightly less than 10 pct of Guardian-Morton's special shares.
 Reuter

Shr 2.11 dlrs vs nine cts
    Net 285,000,000 vs 10,500,000
    Revs 7.35 billion vs 6.76 billion
    Avg shrs 134,300,000 vs 131,600,000
    Year
    Shr 4.35 dlrs vs 1.73 dlrs
    Net 582,300,000 vs 221,200,000
    Revs 24.13 billion vs 22.33 billion
    NOTE: Latest year earnings include a loss in each period of
16.4 mln dlrs, or 12 cts a share, for a premium paid in the
early call of a 250 mln dlr 12.75 pct 30-year debenture
    Earnings include a gain from discontinued operations of
30.8 mln dlrs, or 23 cts a share vs a loss of 238.9 mln dlrs,
or 1.82 dlrs a share in the quarter and a gain of 28.4 mln
dlrs, or 21 cts a share vs a gain of 472.0 mln dlrs, or 3.64
dlrs a share for the year
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 290,000 to 310,000 head versus
309,000 week ago and 328,000 a year ago.
131,000 head versus 129,000 week ago and 127,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Stan West Mining Corp said it
engaged an investment banking firm to act as financial adviser
in arranging a construction financing package for McCabe mine.
    The company said it intends proceeds of the financing
package would be utilized to construct a 500 ton per day mil,
complete the underground construction necessary to start mining
and provide working capital.
 Reuter

Heekin Can Inc said it plans to
build a seven mln dlr Columbus, Ohio, plant financed by
industrial revenue bonds.
    It said construction on the 50,000 square foot plant is
scheduled to start in April and manufacturing will start at the
end of 1987.  The plant will initially make two-piece 6.5 ounce
steel cans for pet food.
 Reuter

Dutch shipping and transport group
PHS Van Ommeren NV <OMMN.AS> said it has taken over a small
Dutch gas container firm as a first step in establishing a
world-wide gas container organisation.
    The firm, Liquid and Gas Transport BV (LGT), employs 10
people and has a fleet of 200 gas containers.
    Van Ommeren will shortly open an office in Singapore and
expand its facilities in Houston to establish the gas container
network.
    REUTER

Qtly div 10 cts vs eight cts prior
    Pay April 16
 Reuter

The <National Association of
Securities Dealers> said it has named Jaguar Cars Inc president
Graham W. Whitehead as one of its three governors-at-large
representing companies listed on the NASDAQ system.
    Jaguar Cars is the U.S. marketing arm of Jaguar PLC
<JAGRY>, which was NASDAQ's third-most-actively traded issue in
1986.
 Reuter

International American Homes inc
said it has contracted to acquire <Diversified Shelter Group
Ltd> for about 11,850,000 dlrs to be paid 73 pct in cash and 27
pct in International American common stock to be valued on a 30
day trading average prior to closing.
    It said the price is based on Diversified's estimated 3.2
mln dlrs pro forma pre-tax earnings for 1986 after adjustment
for certain non-continuing expenses. Diversified, a developer
of single family housing in the Atlanta market, had 1986
revenues of about 25.3 mln dlrs. The acquisition if subject to
International American arranging financing.
 Reuter

Municipal Development Corp said it
signed an agreement to purchase land and facilities in Florida
from <Quail Hollow Properties Inc> for 2.8 mln dlrs, and plans
to invest an additional two mln dlrs to install infrastructure
on the property.
    The company said under the deal it will purchase Quail
Hollow Utilities Inc and, with its joint venture partner,
<Groveland Developments Inc>, will acquire 190 acres of land
from Quail Hollow Properties.
    Municipal Development said Quail Hollow Utilities owns and
operates two wastewater treatment systems, which will become
part of Central Pasco Utilities Inc, a business formed by the
company to provide utility services to part of Pasco County.
    Municipal Development said it will develop the Quail Hollow
Business Park on the 190 acres of property.
    Under the joint venture agreement with Groveland, Municipal
Development said it will develop the business park's roads and
other infrastructure, while Groveland will improve and sell
property in the area.
    Central Pasco will develop and deliver the water supply and
wastewater treatment services for the business park.
 Reuter

Environmental Systems Co said
it signed a contract with the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency to build a modular incinerator at the Lenz
Oil Site in Lemont, Ill.
    The company said the project is slated for completion by
the end of fiscal 1987 at a total price of 4,500,000 mln dlrs.
    The incinerator can treat approximately 7,000 tons of
contaminated soil, 150,000 gallons of liquids and 200 drums of
other wastes, according to the company.
    Environmental said it expects to build two more systesm in
fiscal 1987.
    The company posted first quarter net income of 2,193,000
dlrs, or 13 cts per share, compared to 1,918,000 dlrs, or 15
cts per share the prior comparable quarter.
 Reuter

The EC Commission said it was
adopting an "open attitude" about whether a system of production
quotas should remain for the indefinite future on heavy steel
products which account for about 45 pct of all EC steel goods.
    In a statement, the Commission reiterated its view that the
industry needs to lose between 25 and 30 mln tonnes of capacity
by 1990. It had previously said the quota system, started in
1980, should be wound up completely by the end of next year.
    The industry has argued for the maintenance of existing
quotas, which cover almost 70 pct of all output, saying almost
all steelmakers are losing money due to the depressed market.
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs two cts
    Oper net 467,000 vs 52,000
    Sales 8,954,000 vs 6,338,000
    Avg shrs 2,939,459 vs 1,979,916
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 45 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 1,068,000 vs 387,000
    Sales 24.5 mln vs 19.6 mln
    Avg shrs 2,299,764 vs 1,979,916
    NOTE: Current year net both periods excludes 176,000 dlr
gain from retirement of notes.
    Backlog 30.8 mln vs 26.7 mln at start of fiscal year.
 Reuter

Hadson Corp said it filed a
registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an
underwritten offering of 3,750,000 new common shares to be
managed by Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and PaineWebber Inc.
 Reuter

Shr 100.6 cts vs 76.9 cts
    Final div 40 cts vs 32 making 58 cts vs 50
    Pre-tax 14.17 mln rand vs 8.85 mln
    Net 10.06 mln vs 7.69 mln
    Tax 4.10 mln vs 1.16 mln
    Gross premiums 210.16 mln vs 178.69 mln
    Net premiums written 143.99 mln vs 123.88 mln
    Underwriting loss 1.78 mln vs loss 6.25 mln
    Div pay April 10, register March 27.
    Note - period year to December 31 1986.
 Reuter

Shr diluted five cts vs 13 cts
    Net 278,780 vs 442,532
    Revs 5,101,747 vs 4,293,393
    Avg shrs diluted 6,050,968 vs 3,414,145
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 123,500 dlrs vs 179,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 60 cts vs 85 cts
    Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts prior
    Net 1,407,000 vs 1,996,000
    Sales 75.4 mln vs 58.2 mln
    NOTE: Dividend pay April 16, record April Nine
 Reuter

K Mart Corp said its record fiscal
1986 net earnings of 582.3 mln dlrs, a rise from 221.2 mln dlrs
a year ago, marked a "major turning point" for the world's
second biggest retailer.
    K Mart said the earnings rise for the fourth quarter ended
January 28 to 285 mln dlrs from 10.5 mln dlrs resulted from 
"merchandising, refurbishing and expense control."
    A year ago, K Mart took a charge of 239 mln dlrs for
discontinued operations. Earnings from continuing retail
operations in the quarter totalled 270 mln dlrs or 2.00 dlrs a
share compared with 249.4 mln dlrs or 1.91 dlrs a year ago.
    K Mart Chairman Bernard Fauber said "the success of these
programs is better illustrated by the strong 35.9 pct increase
in 1986 income from continuing operations before income taxes
to 1.03 billion dlrs, the first time K Mart Corp has reached
this milestone."
    Sales for the 1986 fiscal year reached a record 23.8
billion dlrs, an 8.1 pct rise from 22.04 billion dlrs the prior
year. K Mart said 1985 was restated to account for discontinued
operations. Comparable store sales rose 5.5 pct in 1986 over
1985, it said.
    Fauber said the sales growth came from greater consumer
acceptance of K Mart's apparel merchandise, "a marked increase
in hardline merchandise sales and a growing contribution from
specialty retailing operations."
    K Mart said its fourth quarter pre-tax income from
continuing operations was 493 mln dlrs, a 32.3 pct gain from
372.6 mln dlrs last year. It said sales in the period grew 8.8
pct to 7.23 billion dlrs from a restated 6.65 billion dlrs in
1985 with comparable store sales up 4.7 pct.
    K Mart said its effective tax rate rose in 1986 to 44.6 pct
from 37.6 pct in 1985. But it said selling, general and
administrative expense eased to 23.2 pct of sales from 23.7 pct
in 1985.
    "Our performance in 1986 marks a major turning point for K
Mart," Fauber said in a statement.
    "In the years immediately prior to 1986, we focused on
changing the look of our stores and the structure of the
company."
    K Mart, he said, committed billion of dollars for store
remodeling and installing a centralized point of sale system,
upgraded its merchandise mix, acquired three large specialty
retailers, divested underperforming businesses and restructured
its long-term debt.
    "We were forced to pay a temporary price in the form of
slower earnings growth and a lower rating by the investment
community. However, beginning with the fourth quarter of 1985,
our improved performance is proof that our approach is correct
for the long term," the K Mart chairman said.
 Reuter

Sonex Research Inc said it has
completed a private sale of common shares and warrants for two
mln dlrs.
    It said if all warrants are exercised it will receive
another 4,600,000 dlrs.
    Proceeds will be used for working capital, it said.
 Reuter

British Airways PLC said February 1987
load factor rose to 64.7 pct, up 5.4 percentage points  from
    Revenue passenger miles increased 14.8 pct in February to
1.75 billion but fell 0.7 pct in the fiscal year-to-date to
23.54 billion, the British carrier said.
    Available seat miles rose 5.2 pct in February to 2.73
billion and 1.3 pct in the 11 months to 35.27 billion.
    Load factor, the percentage of seats filled, fell 1.4
percentage points to 66.7 pct in the April through February
period.
    The British carrier made its first traffic report since the
British Government sold it to the public last month.
 Reuter

David Rockefeller, chairman of the
international advisory committee of Chase Manhattan Bank NA,
said an accommodation would be found between Brazil and its
commercial bank creditors to solve the problem of the nation's
recent interest payment halt.
    "I think one will find that the banking community, the
Brazilian government and the international banking authorities
will be talking for the next several weeks and I am very
hopeful that we would find an accommodation." Rockefeller told
bankers at a luncheon.
    Brazil announced on February 20 that it was suspending
interest repayments on about 68 billion dlrs of private sector
debt owed to commercial banks.
    Rockefeller said the recent tour by Brazilian Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro of major industrial nations was a sign
that Brazil wanted to be cooperative. But it was notable that
Funaro did not meet with the creditors immediately affected,
the commercial bankers, he added.
    Brazil's moratorium on commercial debt becomes critical by
end-May, when payments would be 90 days overdue, obliging U.S.
Regulators to downgrade Brazilian debt, financial sources said.
    This would require banks in turn to cease accruing interest
and set aside expensive loan loss reserves.
    Rockefeller reminded bankers of the depth of concern over
Latin American debt at the Toronto World Bank/International
Monetary Fund meeting in 1982, and said an accord would be
reached in the current circumstances just as it had been then.
    "(Brazilian authorities) have no more interest in seeing
their credit sources cut off then we have in seeing their
obligations stop," he added.
 REUTER

Quixote Corp said Dainippon Ink and
Chemicals Inc of Japan will buy 526,315 shares of Quixote
common stock, a 6.7 pct stake, for 10 mln dlrs, or 19 dlrs a
share.
    It said the two companies also agreed to share the results
of their research and development activities in optical disc
technology.
    Dainippon Inc's optical disc technology focuses on the
development of a new Direct-Read-After-Write optical disc and
an advanced erasable optical disc.
    Quixote said its wholly owned subsidiary, LaserVideo Inc,
is making advancements in the art of mastering and
manufacturing Compact Discs, CD-ROMs and laser-read videodiscs.
    Quixote said the agreement with Dainippon, which has annual
sales of more than two billion dlrs, provides for a Dainippon
representative to sit on the LaserVideo board of directors.
 Reuter

    Record March 30
 Reuter

American Savings and Loan Association of
Florida said <Knoll International Holdings Inc> has offered to
purchase 500,000 new shares of American Savings for 10 mln
dlrs, and the board has accepted Knoll's offer.
    Knoll already owns 796,413 shares or 9.9 pct of American
Savings.
    American Savings said the purchase will resolve a
previously-announced disagreement between American Savings and
the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta on the replacement of the
capital American Savings used to repurchase common shares in
January 1985 from former chairman Marvin L. Warner.
    It said completion of the transaction would give Knoll 15
pct ownership in American Savings.
    American Savings said Knoll also had talks with chairman of
the executive committee Shepard Broad and chairman Morris Broad
on the purchase of their American Savings shares as well at 20
dlrs each but no agreement was reached.
    American Savings said The company said Knoll's offer to buy
the new shares is not conditioned on other purchase of common
stock from any person or entity.
    It said its previously-announced engagement of Salomon Inc
<SB> to evaluate alternatives to enhance shareholder values,
including the possible sale of American Savings, is still being
actively pursued.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it extended
its current buyer incentive program on selected cars and light
trucks to April Six.
    It also said it added the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable to
the program which gives customers a choice of 3.9- to
9.9-annual percentage rate financing.
    Ford said buyers of all 1986 and 1987 Taurus and Sable
models can choose between the low financing rates or cash
allowances of 400 dlrs.
    Buyers of all other eligible cars will get a cash allowance
of up to 600 dlrs, plus the low financing rates. It said those
buying trucks can choose between the low financing or a cash
rebate of up to 600 dlrs.
    Ford said the program takes effect now and applies to most
vehicles delivered to retail customers from dealer stock. A
program for Mustang ends March 31 as announced earlier.
 Reuter

IGENE Biotechnology Inc said its
research teams at Auburn and Hebrew universities have found its
patented pesticide is highly effective in combating a disease
reponsible for approximately three billion dlrs in annual crop
losses.
    The company said it learned ClandoSan controls nematodes,
deadly plant pathogens formerly controlled by now-banned
synthetic chemicals.
    Varieties of the deadly disease attack major cash crops
such as cotton, vegetables, orchard trees, citrus fruits, and
garden plants, the company said.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Co will emphasize
improving its short-term cash flow this year to pare its debt,
C.J. "Pete" Silas, chairman, told Reuters in an interview.
    "Our priority is to get cash flow increased from the assets
already installed," he said, but he declined to estimate annual
cash flow for 1987.
    Analysts estimate Phillips" cash flow at over one billion
dlrs for 1987, while long term debt, which resulted from
restructuring to find off corporate raiders in 1985, hovers
about 5.9 billion dlrs as of December 1986.
     Silas said Phillips hope to achieve its goal by raising
the capital expenditures budget to develop its oil and gas
    "We plan to develop the properties with short-term high cash
flow prospects," he said. He projected a capital expenditure
budget of 730 mln dlrs, up from the 1986 expenditure of 655 mln
dlrs.
    Nearly half of that will be spent on exploration and
production, and most of that will be spend overseas, Silas
said.
    "Phillips' top priority in 1987 will be to get the
waterflooding in Norway and jack up the (Ekofisk) oil fields to
improve our ability to extract oil and increase earnings," Silas
said.
     Phillips estimates that the project, which is expected to
cost 1.5 billion dlrs, will increase recovery by 170 mln gross
barrels of oil over a period of 24 years.
    Phillips is also pursue opportunities in China where Silas
said he was seeking "a modification of terms with the Chinese
government to make oil discoveries (in the offshore Xijang
fields) commercially viable."
    In the U.S. Silas said Phillips hopes to get the Point
Arguello, Calif., field started up by the fourth quarter. "We
expect to start up the first platform then," Silas said.
    But emphasis on short-term cash flow has also forced the
company to part with several oil and gas assets.
    Phillips sold its interests in the T-Block in the U.K.
North Sea and U.S. reserves totaling about 1.3 billion dlrs in
1986 as part of a two billion dlrs asset sales program that is
now completed, Silas said.
     "We sold high cost producing assets. They were not good
value for us but possibly so for someone else," Silas said.
    Silas said the 1986 assets sales will not affect earnings
for the company.
    "Everything we are doing is to manage our cash flow and we
are using that to manage our debt. Even the asset sales, while
regrettable, were necessary to reduce debt," Silas said.
    He said no asset sales are planned this year as long as oil
prices don't fall sharply lower and stay at lower levels  for
several months. "Then, everyone would be looking at sales (of
assets), and we're no different from the others," Silas said.
    In other areas, Silas looks for improved earnings from
Phillips chemical operations, which provided 299 mln dlrs in
earnings for 1986, up from 219 mln dlrs in 1985.
    "This was our second best year pushed by a good supply and
demand balance for products, low feedstocks and energy costs
for our operations," Silas said, "In 1987 we think the market's
supply and demand balance will be just as good but feedstock
and energy costs will rise due to price recovery."
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch Canada Inc, wholly owned
by Merrill Lynch and Co, is considering acquiring another
Canadian securities company as the result of federal and
provincial government moves to lift investment dealer ownership
restrictions on June 30, according to a published report.
    "We're talking to a number of people," Merrill Lynch Canada
deputy chairman E. Duff Scott told The Toronto Star. "Whether
we're going to do something, I don't know," he said.
    A Merrill Lynch Canada spokesman declined to comment on the
newspaper report when queried.
    Scott did not disclose which investment dealers Merrill
Lynch Canada was considering acquiring, but the Toronto Star
quoted unidentified industry sources as saying serious
discussions have already been held with Burns Fry Ltd.
    Burns Fry chairman Jack Lawrence told the newspaper the
investment dealer has not made a final decision, but was
examining "three or four alternatives."
    Discussions between brokers about possible mergers is to be
expected pending industry deregulation, one investment industry
source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
    "It's silly not to take a look (at making a merger or
acquisition). If you're a businessman, you have to take a look,"
the industry source said.
    Under federal and provincial government regulations
expected to be in place by June 30, banks, trust companies and
foreign companies will be allowed to acquire existing
investment dealers or establish their own securities
 Reuter

PerfectData Corp said it
agreed to license certain disk cleaning related patents to the
<Texwipe Co>.
 Reuter

<Consolidated Gold Fields
PLC>'s ARC America Corp subsidiary said it has acquired
7,521,643 American Aggregates Corp shares, about 95 pct of
those outstanding, as a result of its tender offer which
expired February 27.
    As soon as is practicable, ARC America will acquire
American Aggregates, converting the company's remaining shares
into the right to receive 30.625 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

The French government plans new
legislation this year which will lower the thresholds at which
investors in companies must declare their shareholdings, Bourse
    The new rules, part of a scheme to provide more openness in
corporate ownership structure, will lower the initial
declaration threshold to five pct of a company's capital.
    Under current rules, an investor has to notify the Bourse
supervisory commission when a holding exceeds 10 pct, and again
at 33 pct and 50 pct. The officials said a 20 pct level has
also been added to the scale.
 Reuter

Biotech Capital Corp said it agreed to
buy High Technology magazine from the Goldhirsh Group of
Boston.
    The magazine publishes information about emerging
technologies and their impact on business. It has a circulation
of 200,000 and is the largest of its kind in the world, the
 Reuter

Pakistan's trade deficit narrowed to
2.64 billion rupees (provisional) in February 1987 from 2.85
billion (final) in January and compared with 2.94 billion in
February 1986, the Federal Bureau of Statistics figures show.
    Exports fell to 5.04 billion rupees (provisional) in
February from 5.34 billion (final) in January and compared with
3.90 billion in February 1986.
    Imports fell to 7.68 billion rupees (provisional) in
February from 8.19 billion (final) in January and compared with
6.84 billion in February 1986.
 REUTER

4th qtr
    Shr nine cts vs four cts
    Year
    NOTE: 1985 year net excludes 13,000 dlr tax credit.
    Corrects March 11 item to exclude tax credit
 Reuter

Qtly div 34 cts vs 34 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Qtly div 12-1/2 cts vs 10 cts prior
 Reuter

The Canadian dollar bond launched
earlier today for Hydro Quebec has been increased to 150 mln
dlrs from 125 mln, lead manager Merrill Lynch International
said.
 REUTER

Vishay Intertechnology Inc said it
wished to clarify its pending offer to exchange shares of its
Class B stock for its outstanding common stock
    The company said shareholders who already have or plan to
take advantage of the offer, may withdraw their offer by the
close of business March 25, 1987.
 Reuter

Consumers Power Co said it will
redeem 200,000 shares of its 3.85 dlr preference stock at 27.50
dlrs a share plus accrued dividends of 0.320833 dlrs a share.
    It said the redemption will be made May One to holders of
record March 23, with shares selected by random lot.
    It said some 100,000 of the shares are being redeemed under
mandatory sinking fund provisions. The balance will be redeemed
at the company's option as part of its efforts to reduce its
cost of capital.
 Reuter

Semi div 7-1/2 cts vs 7-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

Saudi Arabian oil output has fallen to
its lowest level in more than a year, giving fresh evidence of
the kingdom's determination to keep oil prices at 18 dlrs a
barrel, as agreed by Opec last December, oil industry sources
said.
    They said Saudi output in the first eight days of March
averaged 2.6 mln barrels per day (bpd) including oil from the
neutral zone shared with Kuwait, compared to a February average
of 3.5 mln bpd.
    They said Saudi Arabia was also selling oil from its crude
oil stocks in tankers around the world, which OPEC says must be
counted towards a member's production quota. Saudi Arabia's
quota is 4.133 mln bpd.
    The lower production levels indicated Saudi Arabia, the
world"s largest oil exporter, was insisting on getting Opec
official prices, even at the cost of lower production, the
    King Fahd reiterated yesterday, in an interview with
Reuters and the television news agency Visnews, the Saudi
commitment to OPEC's December pact to boost oil prices to an
average 18 dlrs.
    "Saudi Arabia is completely sticking to OPEC decisions," he
said.
    The sources said the kingdom's exports from Gulf ports
averaged one mln bpd during the eight days ending last Sunday,
down from a February average of 1.9 mln bpd.
    They said Saudi Arabia was allowing production to fluctuate
with lifting nominations and was not trying to maintain
artificially high levels by putting oil into storage.
    The kingdom's main buyers, the four U.S. Oil firms with
past stakes in the national oil company Aramco -- Mobil, Exxon,
Texaco and Chevron -- enjoy considerable flexibility in the
timing and volume of their liftings but are bound to pay
official prices, the sources said.
    Spot market prices have firmed in the past two weeks but
still remain below OPEC levels and major buyers have delayed
liftings in the hope they would improve, the sources said.
    They expected low early March output to pick up towards the
end of the month as buyers sought to fulfill their contractual
obligations.
 REUTER

Morgan Stanley Group Inc said Lewis E.
Lehrman will join the firm as senior advisor as a directory of
Morgan Stanley Asset Management.
    It said Lehrman will concentrate on the growth and
development of Morgan Stanley's asset management business in
the U.S., Europe and Asia.
    Lehrman, the former president and chairman of the executive
committee at Rite Aid Corpo <RAD>, ran against Mario Cuomo as
the Republican and Conservative Party Candidate for governor of
New York State in 1982.
 Reuter

Assistant Defense Secretary Richard
Perle is preparing to announce his resignation from the
Pentagon, possibly as early as today, Pentagon officials said.
    The officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters
that Perle was expected to quit in order to become a private
defense consultant.
    Perle, a staunch critic of U.S.-Soviet arms control
agreements and an influential spokesman for anti-Soviet
hardliners in and out of the Reagan Administration, has served
as assistant defense secretary for international security
policy since 1981.
 Reuter

Leader Development Corp said it
has purchased 300,000 shares of convertible preferred stock in
<Petrosurance Inc> for 1,500,000 dlrs in cash and real estate.
    Petrosurance specializes in property and casualty insurance
for the oil industry.
    Leader said the stock is convertible into a Petrosurance
common. Leader said it already owns 12.5 pct of Petrorusrance
and conversion would give it about 45.0 pct.
    The company said Petrosurance will use the sale proceeds to
support growth and improve the structure of its reinsurance
treaties to retain a larger part of premiums written.
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp said it has opened its
101st store, a 43,000 square foot unit in Luray, Va.
 Reuter

Telcom General Corp, which
stopped operating a month ago, said Robert F. Friedman has
resigned as president, chief executive officer and a director.
 Reuter

Monsanto Corp said a call by the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency requesting the
Illinois Attorney General file a lawsuit against the company is
"inappropriate and counterproductive."
    The company said the suit seeks to force Monsanto to
replace the chlorosulphonic acid cooling system at its William
G. Krummrich plant in Sauget, Ill.
    Monsanto said the basis for the agency's action was an
accident March Three in which the plant's acid unit experienced
an emission due to a failed expansion joint in the cooling
system.
    Monsanto said when the environmental agency recommended
that the company replace the present cooling system, it
contacted the manufacturer of the system to seek outside
technical advice.
    Monsanto said its analysis indicated that the present
system represents the safest technology for producing
chlorosulfonic acid, and removal of the system with expansion
joints would increase - not decrease - the chances of further
accidents.
 Reuter

Qtly div 27 cts vs 27 cts prior
 Reuter

BDM International Inc said it has
received a 26.7 mln dlr contract to provide operations,
maintenance and test support to the U.S. Air Force Weapons
Laboratory Nuclear Simulator Test Facilities at Kirtland Air
Force Base in Albuquerque.
    The company said the contract covers a four-year peiod and
includes an option for another year.
 Reuter

The White House welcomed the
February retail sales figures showing a 4.1 pct rise, following
a slow performance in January.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters: "The February
sales growth was broad-based and good news for the economy."
    Commerce Department figures showed a larger than expected
rise following depressed levels of sales and factory orders in
January.
 Reuter

An agreement in the debt rescheduling
talks between the Philippines and its commercial bank advisory
committee seems to be close at hand, said David Mulford,
Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
    "The Philippines negotiations resumed in early March and
agreement now appears to be very near," Mulford told a debt
conference, organized by the Euromoney magazine.
    Mulford gave no further details. He told reporters after
his speech that he had no information on the banks' response to
the Philippines' revised proposal, based on partial payment of
interest with investment notes instead of cash.
    Progress in the Philippines talks, following recent
agreements with Mexico, Chile and Venezuela, will help to
dispel concerns of a new debt crisis, Mulford told the
    However, he said there will continue to be difficulties and
periods of significant risk, requiring creative thinking on the
part of the banks.
    In particular, he urged the banks to develop a "menu of
options for supporting debtor reforms as a means of maintaining
broad bank participation in new financing packages."
    Mulford said the banks should be able to offer a range of
options to members of the lending syndicates, provided that the
liquidity value of the total transactions to the debtor nations
is equivalent to the banks' new money obligation.
    He said it is more important to find ways of encouraging
banks to remain in the syndicates than to find ways of enabling
them to quit the lending groups.
    Mulford said his menu of options could include more trade
credits, direct portfolio investments, debt/equity swaps,
project loans, co-financings and the invesmtent note concept,
which has been proposed by the Philippines.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Feb 28
    Shr 10 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 411,275 vs 584,118
    Revs 4,977,818 vs 4,714,581
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs profit five cts
    Net loss 279,726 vs profit 76,591
    Revs 1,300,000 vs 2,200,000
 Reuter

Sweden announced its promised program
of unilateral economic sanctions against South Africa and gave
firms an October deadline to cut trading links.
    Foreign Trade Minister Anita Gradin said a trade boycott of
South Africa and neighbouring Namibia would take effect from
July 1, followed by a three-month period of grace to give
companies time to wind down their operations.
    From October 1, no direct trade would be allowed in either
direction, with certain exceptions covering medical supplies
and printed matter, Gradin told a news conference.
    She said exceptions would also be granted in cases where a
Swedish trade boycott would benefit South African firms and
disadvantage South Africa's black-ruled neighbours, the
front-line states.
    Gradin cautioned that legislation upon which the boycott
would be based was not impossible to get round. She said a
parliamentary committee would investigate ways of closing some
of the bigger loopholes, including indirect trade with South
Africa via Swedish subsidiaries in third countries.
 REUTER

<General Building Products Corp> is
offering one mln shares of stock at 11 dlrs a share, said
co-managing underwriters, PaineWebber Inc and Ladenburg
Thalmann and Co Inc.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay short-term
debt, to finance the opening of new locations and as working
capital, they said.
    The company, headquarted in Medford, N.Y., sells lumber and
building supplies to building contractors and, through retail
outlets, to consumers.
 
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Shr profit 49 cts vs loss not given
    Net profit 1,360,000 vs loss 241,000
    Revs 20.8 mln vs 14.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,760,000 vs 1,970,000
 Reuter

Centre National des Caisses d'Epargne et
de Prevoyance (CENCEP) said it is issuing a 1.9 billion franc
two-tranche, 12-year domestic bond led by Caisse des Depots et
Consignations.
    One 1.3 billion franc tranche of 5,000 franc bonds will
have a fixed rate of 8.70 pct and issue price of 96.30 pct. A
600 mln franc tranche of 5,000 franc bonds will carry interest
of nine pct in the first year and then will have interest based
on 90 pct of average bond market yields (TMO) with a guaranteed
minimum of 5.5 pct. Issue price is 97.16 pct.
    Payment date for both non-callable tranches is April 6.
 REUTER

Herley Microwave Systems Inc
said it won a series of contract additions and new awards worth
    It said the contracts were from the U.S. Navy and Airforce,
Martin Marietta Corp <ML>, and Northrop Corp <NOC>. The orders
are scheduled to be delivered in 1987 and early 1988.
    The company said its Jan 31 backlog was 20 mln dlrs against
21 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Ocean Showboat Finance Corp, a unit of
Showboat Inc, is raising 180 mln dlrs through an offering of
mortgage-backed bonds due 2002 with an 11-3/8 pct coupon and
par pricing, said sole manager Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette
Securities Corp.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the bonds B-1 and
Standard and Poor's Corp rates them B-plus.
 Reuter

Vitronics Corp said it plans to
establish a plant in Plymouth, England, to serve European
 Reuter

British Telecommunications Plc's <BTY.L>
profit growth prospects for the coming years will be reduced by
increasing competition and continued costs for replacing old
telephone systems, deputy chairman Graeme Odgers said.
    Speaking at a news conference on the third quarter results
which were released earlier today, Odgers said the company
faced heavy costs for installing new digital telephone systems
in Britain for three to five years.
    He said <Mercury Communications Ltd>, a Cable and Wireless
Plc <CAWL.L> subsidiary, was becoming a significant competitor.
    Odgers said Mercury was seeking to make inroads into some
of British Telecom's most profitable areas.
    One company official privately estimated that British
Telecom still had a 99 pct share of the U.K. Telecommunications
market but feared that this could slip to 95 or 90 pct.
    The recent two-and-a-half-week engineering strike, which
lead to some disruption in service, could well have encouraged
clients to consider using the Mercury system, Odgers said.
    However, he forecast that the last quarter's results
overall should not be adversely affected by the walkout.
    He calculated salary savings as a result of the strike at
50 mln stg and while loss of income on telephone calls should
be limited revenue probably dropped on peripheral activities.
    But on balance Odgers said that group's financial strength,
economies of scale and the fact that it operates in a growth
industry will help produce annual profit increases for the
forseeable future.
    British Telecom will also seek to expand into
manufacturing, he said, adding that research and development
expenditure will rise both in terms of value and compared with
the current proportion of two pct of overall turnover.
    Analysts said the company's downbeat forecasts helped
shares dip to 242p in mid-afternoon, down 4p from yesterday's
close and off an early high of 248p.
    Philip Augar of stockbrokers Wood Mackenzie and Co Ltd said
the market expects slower profit growth, but forecast a seven
to eight pct rise in both earnings per share and pretax profit
over the next two years. In the 1985/86 financial year, pre-tax
profit rose to 1.81 billion stg from 1.48 billion.
    Augar noted that a government-imposed formula linking
charges to inflation meant that the company's scope for raising
prices was limited as long as inflation remains low.
 Reuter

The Brazilian Coffee Institute,
IBC, is unlikely to disclose its future export policy until the
end of next week at the earliest, trade sources said.
    IBC president Jorio Dauster is meeting government
ministers, producers, exporters and market analysts to assess
Brazil's position in the light of the failure of talks in
London earlier this month to set new International Coffee
Organization, ICO, export quotas.
    "The failure of the talks means Brazil has got to rethink
its position completely," one Santos exporter said.
    A meeting of the National Coffee Policy Council is set for
Thursday, March 19, and Dauster will almost certainly explain
his plan to members then before announcing any new measures.
    Dauster told reporters on his return from London last week
that no decisions would be made on exports before he had held
talks with all sectors of the industry.
    Exporters said Dauster is not under any great pressure to
start marketing coffee immediately. World prices have been
recovering from the lows which followed the collapse of the ICO
talks and Brazil has sold a reasonable 5.5 mln bags of 60 kilos
for export in the first four months of this year.
    The exporters said the key factor in the eventual opening
of May and June export registrations will be the amount at
which the contribution quota is set.
    With little expectation of other sales incentive mechanisms
such as discounts, bonuses and price fall guarantees being
introduced, the level of the quota will be decisive in
determining the competitiveness of Brazilian coffee on world
markets, they said.
    They noted that on February 16, the eve of a planned
increase in the quota, April registrations were opened and
closed after 1.68 mln bags were registered for export, a record
amount for a single day.
    If May/June registrations are opened under similar
conditions as before, Brazil would have no difficulty in
selling at least 2.0 mln bags per month.
    "The problem would be how to limit sales," one exporter said.
    Brazil's present foreign trade and payments problems mean
there are pressures from the government to boost exports to
maximise foreign exchange earnings.
    However, the sources said they expect the IBC to adopt a
marketing strategy aimed at regaining Brazil's dominant
position as an exporter, but without causing a price war.
    General opinion among exporters was that Brazil would plan
to export between 17 and 18 mln bags this year of which between
1.5 and 2.0 mln would be to non-members of the ICO.
    The 15.5 mln to 16 mln bags sold to members would be around
the figure Brazil had offered to ship if ICO quotas were
reintroduced, although Dauster has said this offer expired with
the breakdown of talks.
    With the prospects of a crop of at least 28 mln bags this
year, Brazil has the capacity to export up to 20 mln bags after
meeting local consumption of around 7.0 mln, the sources added.
    However, the sources said Brazil is unlikely even to
consider exporting such quantities, as this would almost
inevitably lead to a fall in world prices as Brazil tried to
encroach on other producers' markets.
    Maximum export earnings would be achieved by orderly
marketing of traditional amounts, thus re-establishing Brazil's
market share after last year's unusually low exports of 9.9 mln
bags, enabling it to rebuild stocks and maintaining cordial
relations with the producer group which backed Brazil's stance
at the ICO talks, they added.
 Reuter

The White House said President
Reagan would send to Congress today proposed legislation
providing for sweeping reform of the budgetary treatment of the
federal credit program.
    Called the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1987, the proposal
consists of a package of legislation and accompanying budget
amendments, said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.
    He noted that in fiscal 1986 the federal government
disbursed 42 billion dlrs in new direct loans and guaranteed
loans totalling 159 billion dlrs.
    Under the reform bill, Fitzwater said the subsidy element
in direct loan and guaranteed loan programs would be
established and Congress would appropriate the amount of the
subsidy to the lending agency.
    "This is kind of a truth in spending reform package,"
Fitzwater said.
 Reuter

Foster Wheeler Corp said its
energy subsidiary signed a 90 mln dlr contract to design,
engineer and construct two 550 mega-watt steam generators to be
installed at the new Taichung Fossil Power project of Taiwan
Power Co, Taiwan.
    The contract also includes an option for two additional 550
mega-watt units for the same site, the company said.
    Taiwan Power Co's long range plans call for the
installation of a total of eight units at the station.
    Commercial operation of the two units is scheduled for June
and December 1991, respectively, the company added.
 Reuter

Fieldcrest Cannon Inc is raising 110
mln dlrs through an offering of convertible subordinated
debentures due 2012 with a six pct coupon and par pricing, said
sole underwriter Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
stock at 44.25 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 26.43
    Non-callable for two years, the debt is rated Ba-2 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and BB-minus by Standard and
Poor's Corp. The issue was increased from an initial offering
of 100 mln dlrs because of investor demand.
 Reuter

Norsk Hydro is issuing a 100 mln dlr
bond due April 9, 1997 carrying a coupon of 8-1/4 pct and
priced at 101-5/8, said Swiss Bank Corp International as lead
manager.
    The issue is non-callable and will be listed on the London
Stock Exchange. Payment date is April 9.
    Fees for the issue include a 1-1/4 pct selling concession
and a 3/4 pct combined management and underwriting fee.
    The securities are available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs
each. They are priced to yield 97 basis points over 10-year
U.S. Treasury notes.
 REUTER

Philadelphia Electric Co said it filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission a shelf
registration statement covering up to 250 mln dlrs of first and
refunding mortgage bonds.
    Proceeds will be used for the company's construction
program and to reduce short-term debt that may be incurred from
time to time for interim financing of such building,
Philadelphia Electric said.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs nine cts
    Net 86,469 vs 325,937
    Revs 5,119,637 vs 6,390,995
    12 mths
    Shr 10 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 354,820 vs 1,148,476
    Revs 21.2 mln vs 23.2 mln
 Reuter

<Medizone International Inc> said it
acquired a patent that covers procedures for the use of the
Medizone Therapy in deactivating certain viruses commonly
associated with AIDS, hepatitis and herpes.
    The company said the patent covers procedures for the
deactivation of the viruses in human and animal blood, and the
treatment of stored blood prior to transfusion.
    Medizone said the acquisition is seen as a significant step
to enhance the company's proprietory position.
    The company said the patent was acquired from an unnamed
company involved in medical research and development for one
million shares of its common stock.

 Reuter

intervene in the government securities market today, several
    They said the Fed does not have a much of an adding need
this week and may wait until tomorrow or Monday before
supplying reserves.
    But a few economists said there was an outside chance that
the Fed may inject reserves indirectly via a small round of
customer repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds hovered at 6-1/8 pct this morning after
averaging 6.32 pct yesterday.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 226,000 vs 236,000
    Sales 1.3 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 38 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 819,000 vs 1,001,000
    Sales 5.8 mln vs 6.4 mln
 Reuter

Instinet Corp said its board has
scheduled a special shareholders' meeting for May 21 to vote on
its proposed merger into Reuters Holdings PLC <RTRSY>.
    It said shareholders of record as of April 10 will be
eligible to vote at the meeting.
    Instinet said the meeting date is subject to adjustment,
based on the length of time needed for the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission to complete its review of the filing of
merger proxy materials, which Instinet expects to make before
the end of March.
    Instinet said the filing of the preliminary merger proxy
materials is tied to the finalization of audited financial
statements of Instinet and Reuters for 1986.
    Under a merger agreement entered into in November, Reuters
tendered for up to 5.10 mln Instinet common shares, or about 45
pct of those not already owned by Reuters. As a result of the
tender, Reuters now owns about 49 pct of Instinet shares.
    In the merger, holders of remaining Instinet shares will
receive 8.50 dlrs of Reuters American Depositary Shares for
each Instinet share.
    The ADS's will be valued at the average of their closing
prices in the 10 trading days before the effective date of the
merger.
    Instinet said it expects the merger to become effective as
soon as possible after shareholder approval at the special
meeting.
 Reuter

EC GRANTS 5,000 TONNES SOFT WHEAT EXPORT  LICENCES AT 134.75 ECU REBATE - BRUSSELS TRADE

EC GRANTS LICENCES FOR 35,000 TONNES  BARLEY AT 137.35 ECUS REBATE - BRUSSELS TRADE

UNION PACIFIC SAYS WILL SIGN PACT IN CARACAS ON MARCH 17 FOR SALE OF HALF ITS CORPUS CHRISTI REFINERY

CYACQ OFFERS TO RAISE CYCLOPS BUYOUT TO 92.50 DLRS/SHR FROM 80 DLRS

The Issuing Centre of the Swiss Regional
Banks said it is launching two bond issues of 90 mln and 58 mln
Swiss francs.
    The 90 mln franc 1987/95 issue has a coupon of 4-1/2 pct
and issue price of 99.75 pct, while the 58 mln franc 1987/97
issue has a coupon of 4-5/8 pct and issue price of 99.75 pct.
    Subscriptions close March 25. The funds will be partly used
to repay a 45 mln franc bond maturing on April 15.
 REUTER

Qtrly div 17.5 cts vs 17.5 cts prior
    Record April 2
 Reuter

The flavours and
fragrances firm <Naarden International N.V.>, acquired by
Anglo-Dutch food and detergents group Unilever Plc N.V. <UN.AS>
last year, said net profits for 1986 fell 11.4 pct to 19.5 mln
guilders.
    Naarden said earnings were hit by the fall in the value of
both the dollar and sterling, noting the figure was in line
with prior expectations. Net profit was 22.0 mln guilders in
1985.
    Earnings per share fell to 4.64 guilders from 5.48 in 1985
on turnover of 627.8 mln, down from 662.6 mln. Naarden set a
cash dividend of 1.80 guilders, unchanged from last year but
without last year's share option for payment.
 Reuter

The financial institutions
subcommittee of the House Banking Committee postponed
indefinitely a session to draft legislation on the Federal
Savings and Loan Insurance Corp, FSLIC.
    The mark-up session was postponed after Democrats on the
subcommittee failed in a caucus to agree on several issues,
including the size of a financial rescue package for FSLIC, a
committee staff member said.
    On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee passed a bill to
recapitalize FSLIC at 7.5 billion dlrs over two years.
 Reuter

Shr 81 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 8,750,024 vs 7,772,932
    Revs 157.6 mln vs 162.4 mln
    Avg shrs 10.8 mln vs 9.6 mln
 Reuter

A Portuguese court has made a
preliminary ruling that the state grain buying agency EPAC
should not be allowed to take part in public import tenders
open to private importers, grain traders and officials said.
    Under the terms of Portugal's January 1986 accession to the
European Community, EC, a grain import monopoly held by EPAC
(Empresa Publica de Abastecimento de Cereais) is being reduced
by 20 pct annually until all imports are liberalised in 1990.
    Private traders protested last year that EPAC was being
permitted to take part in tenders open to them for the first
liberalised 20 pct share of the country's annual import needs.
The grain and oilseed importers association ACICO opened legal
proceedings to stop EPAC participating in the public tenders.
    Miguel Ascensao of ACICO told Reuters that Lisbon's civil
court, in a preliminary ruling, had decided EPAC should not be
allowed to take part in tenders open to private traders.
    Trade sources said the ruling, though effective
immediately, was subject to appeal and would have to be
confirmed in further proceedings.
    A member of the government Cereals Market Commission said
that, as a result of the court's decision, the Commission would
not be able to accept offers from EPAC in a public tender being
held today for the import of 80,000 tonnes of corn.
    Ascensao said the court ruling stated that EPAC's
participation in the public tenders violated the clauses of
Portugal's EC accession treaty dealing with the gradual
dismantling of the state agency's import monopoly.
    It also said the participation of EPAC, which still
controls the national grain storage and distribution network,
was unfair competition to the private traders.
    Traders said they believed the EC's Executive Commission
was unlikely to get involved in the dispute, preferring to
leave the case to be resolved as an internal Portuguese issue.
    "They (the EC Commission) will be keeping a low profile," one
    ACICO says it is ready to take its case to Brussels if
 Reuter

U.S. retail sales rose sharply in
February but many economists said the underlying consumer
spending trend remains weak.
    February retail sales jumped 4.1 pct, more than the 2.5-3.0
pct rise the financial markets had anticipated. But January's
sales were revised down to a 7.4 pct drop, from a previously
reported 5.8 pct decline.
    "The trend is toward continued spending but certainly at a
much more sluggish pace," said Don Maude of Midland Montagu
Capital Markets Inc.
    Maude averaged out the wide swings in the retail sales data
over past four months to show that the pace of consumer
spending is slowing.
    Combining the latest data with a 0.6 pct drop in November
and a 4.6 pct gain in December, the average retail sales gain
over the four months was 0.2 pct, he said, compared to to a 0.4
pct rise for year-over-year sales through February.
    "You can see a pattern developing," Maude said. "I wouldn't
be surprised to see a fall-off in March, especially since sales
probably won't be boosted by auto sales as they were in
February."
    Despite the weak underlying trend, economists were
impressed by a robust 1.5 pct gain in total sales excluding
autos in February. This compared to a revised 0.4 pct decline
in January, previously reported as a 0.1 pct decline.
    "The increase in non-auto sales was broadbased, with gains
in durable goods as well as non-durables," noted Ward McCarthy
of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc. "It was a pretty healthy
report."
    He noted that building materials rose 1.8 pct in February
after falling 1.7 pct in January. General merchandise store
sales gained 1.4 pct after a 1.6 pct rise in January.
    "There are signs of life in the economy," McCarthy said.
"But it's jumping to conclusions to extrapolate this report
into the future." 
    A 0.7 pct increase in disposable personal income in January
which may be linked to the new tax laws probably helped boost
spending in February, he said.
    "A lot of people may be inadvertently under-withholding
taxes from their paychecks," he said. "When people in this
country get an increase in disposable income, the inclination
is to go out and spend it," he said.
    Economists said tomorrow's release of U.S. auto sales for
the first 10 days of March will be an important indicator of
how much this sector will add to first quarter spending.
     Auto sales accounted for the lion's share of total
February sales, rising 14.4 pct. This followed a 27.7 pct drop
in January, previously reported as a 22.4 pct fall, due largely
to the expiration of the sales tax deduction under new tax laws
January 1, the Commerce Department noted.
    Some economists argued that the because the gain in total
sales excluding autos also followed a decline in January, the
strength in the February report is less than impressive.
    "There is strength in the February data, but that's because
they were compared to low sales levels in January," said said
Beth Reiners of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. "We don't see it as a
precursor of continued strength."
    Durable goods sales rose 8.8 pct in February, after falling
17.7 pct in January. February non-durable goods sales gained
1.3 pct, after declining 0.2 pct in January.
    Gasoline service station sales rose two pct in February,
following a 1.9 pct gain in January, but economists said higher
oil prices rather than an increased volume of gas sales
probably accounted for these gains.
    Reiners also emphasized that the trend in consumer spending
is weakening. Total retail sales on average were 123 billion
dlrs in the fourth quarter of 1986, she said. In January, they
fell to a seasonally adjusted 117.52 bilion dlrs, and in
February rose to 122.29 billion dlrs.
    "On average, it looks like they'll total 120 to 121 mln
dlrs in the first quartrer," she said. "We don't look at this
as indication that the economy is barrelling along."
    "The number is not really that problematic for those of us
who are constructive on the bond market," agreed Elliot Platt
of Donaldsen Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    Platt does not foresee potential for tighter monetary
policy on the basis of the latest retail sales report.
    "The Fed is on hold now because the data have been so
confusing," he said.
    "Before the 337,000 gain in February non-farm payroll
employment, I would have looked for a discount rate cut in
March," he said. "But now Fed officials will have to wait for
the first quarter real U.S. gross national product data in
April to sort things out."
 Reuter

Newmont Mining Corp <NEM> said Magma
Copper Co anticipates being able to produce copper at a profit
by 1991, assuming copper prices remain at their current levels.
    In an information statement distributed to Newmont
shareholders explaining the dividend of Magma shares declared
Tuesday, Newmont said Magma had a net loss of 46.6 mln dlrs in
1986, adding this was equal to 1.22 cts a share.
    Newmont holders will receive 80 pct of Magma's stock as a
dividend of one share for each of the 30,458,000 Newmont shares
now held. Newmont will retain 15 pct of the stock.
    The 1986 net loss was on a pro forma basis, Newmont said.
On a historical basis, it added, Magma had a 1986 net loss of
58.1 mln dlrs on a loss from operations of 42.3 mln dlrs.
    On Dec 31, 1986, Newmont said, Magma had about 85.0 mln
dlrs of net operating loss carryforwards expiring in 1999-2000
and about 4.0 mln dlrs of investment tax credit carryover
expiring in 2000-2001.
    Newmont said Magma has pre-tax losses of 290 mln dlrs
during the 1981 through 1985 period, noting the five major U.S.
primary copper producers reported aggregate pre-tax losses of
1.9 billion dlrs during five year period.
    Newmont said Magma had total sales of 347.3 mln dlrs last
year, including copper sales of 293.4 mln dlrs.
    It said the copper sales value was up from 267.6 mln dlrs
in 1985 reflecting a 10.1 pct increase in quantity sold to
212,000 short tons and a 0.4 pct decrease in price.
 Reuter

4th qtr
    Year
    NOTE: 1985 year net excludes 131,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

FED SAYS IT SETS TWO BILLION DLRS OF CUSTOMER REPURCHASE AGREEMENTS

The Securities and Exchange
Commission removed a key regulatory obstacle to trading futures
on designated foreign debt securities on U.S. exchanges.
    The move would allow the Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, to
apply to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, for
approval of a futures contract on yen bonds.
    The CBT has said it may apply for approval of the yen bond
futures contract, a CFTC spokesman said.
    The SEC's action, which was approved by a 4-0 vote,
specifically removes a regulation against trading futures on
designated foreign government debt securities on contract
markets that are not located in the country that issued those
    Futures on the government debt securities of Japan, Canada
and Great Britain can already be marketed in the United States
under a designated exemption issued by the SEC.
    But the new move would permit U.S. exchanges to apply to
the CFTC for approval of establishing futures contracts on
those securities, SEC officials said.
    The new SEC move would also allow those foreign government
debt securities to be marketed in the United States by
countries other than those that issued the securities, the
    Since the foreign government securities underlying the
futures cannot be traded in the United States unless they are
registered with the SEC, settlement and delivery of the futures
would often take place in the foreign country, the SEC
    The SEC is also considering expanding futures trading of
additional countries' government securities to be marketed and
traded in the United States, the officials said.
 Reuter

NL Industries Inc said its chairman
and chief executive officer Theodore Rogers resigned this
morning.
    Rogers, who also resigned his posts as chairman and ceo of
the company's subsidiary, NL Chemicals, was immediately
replaced by Harold Simmons, the company said.
    Simmons is president and chief executive officer of <Valhi
Inc>, which owns approximately 51 pct of NL Industries,
according to the company.
    Fred Montanari will remain executive vice president of NL
Industries and president of NL Chemicals, the company said.
    Rogers was the company chief executive officer since 1983
and its chairman since 1984, according to the company. He
retained both posts after a takeover in 1986 led by Simmons, th
    Rogers will remain as a consultant in certain company
matters, NL said.
 Reuter

The European Community's, EC, cereal
management committee granted export licences for 5,000 tonnes
of quality soft bread-making wheat at a maximum export rebate
of 134.75 European currency units, Ecus, per tonne, traders
said.
    The committee also granted export certificates of 35,000
tonnes of barley at 137.35 Ecus per tonne, but rejected all
bids for the export of soft feed wheat, they said.
    Certificates were also granted for the export of 15,000
tonnes of maize at a maximum rebate of 132.90 Ecus per tonne,
the traders said.
 Reuter

Uncertainty is growing about the prospects
for the economy as orders for industry fall and companies scale
back investment plans, the German Savings Banks and Giro
    Exporters expect foreign demand to remain weak, while
industry is less optimistic than it was, the association said
in a report.
    However, last month's agreement among the six leading
western industrialized countries to keep currencies around
present levels was expected to be a stabilizing influence for
exporters, it added.
    The banking association said the possibility of using
monetary policy to stimulate the economy should not be
overestimated.
    Another small drop in already low interest rates could not
be expected to cause any significant rise in purchases of
consumer or capital goods, it said.
    The Bundesbank's half-point cuts in the discount and
Lombard rates in January have largely exhausted the scope for
any further monetary moves, the association added.
    On Tuesday the Federal Statistics Office said gross
national product stagnated in real, seasonally and calendar
adjusted terms in the fourth quarter of 1986 compared with the
    The Economics Ministry, commenting on the figures, said GNP
in the 1987 first quarter was also expected to be relatively
weak.
    Bank economists have forecast the economy will either
stagnate or contract slightly in the first quarter. Official
first-quarter figures are due in early June.
 REUTER

customer repurchase agreements, a spokeswoman said.
    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-1/8 pct when
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said it will
build a major facility here for the production of color film,
reaffirming its commitment to its core photographic business.
    Kodak said the plant will cost more than 200 mln dlrs to
build and will be staffed by about 250 people who will be
transferred from existing manufacturing operations. It said the
plant should be operational by the fall of 1990.
    Kodak said it does not intend to shut down any current
capacity as anticipated growth in demand for photography
products will "offset the additional capacity."
    The company also said the facility will position it "well
into the 21st century," in the photography business. It said
the plant will initially produce color films for the
professional and motion picture industry.
    Kodak also said it will maintain its Rochester site as the
center of its photographic technology operations. "We have been
encourgaged that in recent years this community and New York
state have been working hard to improve the business climate
for manufucturing," said William F. Fowble, Kodak's sernior
vice-presient and general manager of manufacturing. "We assume
thesse efforts will continue."
 Reuter

Colorocs Corp said it signed a
manufacturing agreement with Sharp Corp <SHRP> of Japan for
Sharp to build Colorocs' full-color copier.
    No other details of the agreement were disclosed, but the
company said more details would follow shortly.
 Reuter

received notice of early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino
waiting period for its 270 mln dlr takeover bid for Chemlawn
Corp <CHEM>.
    The waiting period was terminated March 11, Waste
Management said.
    Chemlawn has rejected Waste Management's 27 dlrs a share
bid. It has said it was talking with other parties about
selling its business.
 Reuter

Shr 1.42 dlrs vs 1.61 dlrs
    Net 13.6 mln vs 15.5 mln
    NOTE: Net asset value per share 77.72 dlrs vs 54.35 dlrs.
 Reuter

Cyacq Corp, an investor group
bidding for Cyclops Corp, said it would raise its outstanding
tender offer price for Cyclops common to 92.50 dlrs a share
from 80 dlrs, if certain conditions were met.
    The increased offer would exceed the 90.25 dlrs a share
price offered by Dixons Group PLC in a tender offer for Cyclops
that is part of a definitive agreement to acquire the
Pittsburgh-based maker of carbon tool and specialty steel
products.
    Cyacq includes Audio/Video Affiliates Inc and Citicorp
Capital Investors Ltd and other investors.
    Cyclops has about 4.1 mln shares outstanding.
    For the tender price to be raised, Cyclops must provide
Cyacq with all non-public information provided to Dixons Group
and Cyacq must be satisfied with financial projections made in
offering material by Dixons based on the information, Cyacq
said.
    Additionally, Dixon Group's rights to buy Cyclops common
and its rights to fees or expenses if the Dixon-Cyclop merger
agreement is broken must be rescinded, Cyacq said.
    Cyacq said financial projections it developed for Cyclops
were materially lower than the financial projections provided
by Cyclops to Dixons Group.
    A Cyclops spokeswoman said the company had no details of
the new Cyacq proposal and could not comment. "We have nothing
in hand," she said.
    In addition to making specialty metal products, Cyclops
also operates about 115 specialty stores that sell consumer
electronics products. The stores are located in 17 states
concentrated in the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest.
    Cyclops employs about 8,900 people in Pennsylvania, Ohio
and other states. It also has interests in non-residential
construction.
    In 1986, Cyclops earned 21.3 mln dlrs or 5.26 dlrs a share
on sales of 1.5 billion dlrs, compared to 1985 earnings of 26.2
mln dlrs or 6.20 dlrs on sales of 1.4 billion, the spokeswoman
said.
    The agreement with Dixons Group calls for Cyclops's steel
and construction businesses to be sold to a unit of Alleghany
Corp <Y> for about 110 mln dlrs once the merger is completed.
    A Cyacq spokesman said the new conditional tender price
would be all cash. He had no comment on whether Cyacq plans to
withdraw its current offer, which is scheduled to expire
midnight on March six.
    Dixon Group's offer extends to March 17.
   
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.24 dlrs vs 1.55 dlrs
    Oper net 120,800,000 vs 150,100,000
    Revs 3.12 billion vs 2.74 billion
    Year
    Oper shr 2.62 dlrs vs 2.89 dlrs
    Oper net 255,000,000 vs 280,500,000
    Revs 9.26 billion vs 8.26 billion
    NOTE: Results exclude earnings from discontinued operations
of 9.0 mln dlrs, or nine cts a share vs 3.2 mln dlrs, or three
cts a share in the quarter and 2.1 mln dlrs, or two cts a share
vs 3.1 mln dlrs, or three cts a share for the year
    1987 earnings exclude gain on sale of B. Dalton Bookseller
of 85.2 mln dlrs, or 88 cts a share in each period
    1987 earnings exclude extraordinary charge from purchase
and redemption of debt of 12.6 mln dlrs, or 13 cts a share in
the quarter and 32.3 mln dlrs, or 33 cts a share for the year
 Reuter

The Indian State Trading Corp bought
one, or possibly two, 6,000 tonne cargoes of Malaysian refined
bleached deodorised palm olein at its vegetable oil import
tender today for Mar 15/Apr 15 shipment at 355 dlrs per tonne
cif, traders said.
 Reuter

The number of Spanish registered
unemployed rose by 15,608 to 2.98 mln or 21.5 pct of the
workforce in January in the sixth consecutive monthly increase,
the Labour Ministry said.
    Registered unemployed totalled 2.81 mln or 21.1 pct of the
workforce in February 1986.
 REUTER

Shr 49 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 886,937 vs 892,323
    Revs 25.9 mln vs 23.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.78 dlr vs 1.34 dlr
    Net 3,254,301 vs 2,472,676
    Revs 100.6 mln vs 87.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year net includes income loss of
MetCap subsidiary of 14,881 dlrs and 311,848 dlrs or 17 cts per
share, respectively.
    1985 4th qtr and year net includes loss in MetCap unit of
108,598 dlrs and 298,412 dlrs or 16 cts per share,
 Reuter

American Century Corp said it was
granted an injunction against Merrill Lynch and certain
affiliates barring them from taking or selling any of the
collateral for a 12 mln dlr line of credit extended by Merrill.
    American said State District Judge Fred Biery granted the
injunction in connection with a suit filed by <G.H.Stool>
against Merrill Lynch in November 1986.
    Under the order, Merrill Lynch is barred from taking or
selling the collateral, namely 32 pct of the outstanding
American Century shares plus real estate interests, for the
credit line extended to <G.H. Stool>, American's chairman John
Kerr and Robert Feldman, a director with American.
    The company said the suit seeks punitive and actual
damanges from Merrill Lynch for fraud and refusing to honor
what it contends was a binding commitment to a extend and
increase the loan to provide the financing to acquire 100 pct
of the American Century shares.
 Reuter

Anheuser-Busch Cos is raising 150 mln
dlrs through an offering of sinking fund debentures due 2017
yielding 8.593 pct, said sole manager Dillon, Read and Co Inc.
    The debentures have an 8-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at
99 to yield 97 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
    Non-refundable for 10 years, the issue is rated Aa-3 by
Moody's and AA-minus by S and P. A sinking fund starting in
1998 to retire five pct of the debentures a year can be upped
by 200 pct at the company's option, giving them an estimated
minimum life of 13.9 years and maximum of 20.5 years.
 Reuter

completed its previously announced acquisition of Orbanco
Financial Services Corp after receiving federal approval of the
deal.
    Security Pacific said the Federal Reserve Board approved on
Wednesday its purchase of the Portland, Ore.-based bank holding
company and financial services concern.
    The purchase of Orbanco, for about 47 mln dlrs in cash and
common stock, will be effective in 30 days, a Security Pacific
    Terms call for each share of Orbanco common stock to be
exchanged for about 14 dlrs of Security Pacific common stock,
plus 1.50 dlrs cash.
    Each share of Orbanco's 100-dlr par value preferred stock
will be exchanged for 100 dlrs cash, plus accrued dividends.
    Orbanco, with one billion dlrs in assests, is the holding
company for the Oregon Bank, Orbanco Real Estate Service Co,
American Data Service Inc and Orbanco Securities Corp.
    Security Pacific now has four major regional bank purchases
outside California completed or pending.
    Security Pacific bought The Arizona Bank, with assets of
four billion dlrs, in the fourth quarter of 1986.
    Pending approval currently is the purchase of Rainier
Bancorporation <RBAN>, with assets of 9.2 billion dlrs. In
anticipation of legislative changes that take effect in 1989,
Security Pacific has also negotiated the future purchase of The
Nevada Bank, with assets of 615 mln dlrs.
    Security Pacific is the sixth largest U.S. bank holding
company, with assets of about 61.60 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Businessland Inc is raising 50 mln
2007 with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
stock at 20/50 dlrs a share, representing a 25.19 pct premium
over the stock price when terms on the debt were set.
    Non-callable for two years, the debt is rated B-3 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc. The issue was increased from an
initial offering of 40 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 77 cts
    Qtly div six cts vs six cts prior
    Net 2,198,469 vs 3,635,565
    Revs 23.1 mln vs 26.0 mln
    Note: 1986 net includes one-time charge of 249,000 dlrs or
five cts a share from discontinuation of Boat Sentry and
Lakontek products.
    Qtly div payable April 15 to shareholders of record March
24.
 Reuter

Lyng said he will ask Japan to offer a share of its rice market
to U.S. exporters when he visits that country next month.
    In an interview with Reuters, Lyng also said the Reagan
administration will ask Tokyo to remove its quotas on U.S. beef
and citrus exports.
    Lyng, who plans to be in Japan April 14-27, said he will
not ask Tokyo to liberalize fully its rice market. "We will urge
that they consider sharing their rice market," he said.
    The USDA secretary would not say how big a share of the
Japanese rice market the U.S. would request. "We've got none of
it now. If we got one per cent of it, it would be a big
improvement," he said.
    Last year, the Reagan administration rejected a petition by
the U.S. rice industry seeking relief from Japanese import
restrictions.
    However, the U.S. said it would reexamine the issue if by
mid-1987 Japan did not roll back import barriers to U.S. rice
exports.
    Lyng said he would not be conducting formal negotiations
next month with Japan over their beef and citrus quotas, but
that his visit "may be a forerunner in a general way" to talks
prior to expiration of the bilateral agreement in March 1988.
    He said, however, that the U.S. "will ask for a definite
liberalization of those items (beef and citrus).... When you
translate 'liberalization' into Japanese, it means do away with
the quota."
 Reuter

Union Pacific Corp said it will sign a
pact in Caracas on March 17 with Petroleos De Venezuela, PDVSA,
to sell the state owned company half of its Corpus Christi,
Texas refinery owned by its Union Pacific's Champlin Petroleum
Co subsidiary.
    The sale will also include the related marketing and
distribution system for the refinery's products.
    A spokesman for the company said that a statement may be
issued later today giving details of the transaction.
    There was no immediate comment from PDVSA officials in New
York.
    The Corpus Christi refinery has a capacity of about 160,000
barrels per day, the Union Pacific spokesman said, and is a
largely upgraded facility but he would place no value on the
    The additional acquisition of refinery and distribution
assets by PDVSA has been expected as Venezuela has been moving
aggressively to enhance its role in the oil industry from
producer to excpanding its presence in the downstream sector.
    Purchase of part of Champlin's operations also fits a
profile which PDVSA officials have said previously they looked
for in any acquisition.
    One PDVSA official said the company was looking for
independent oil companies with good refinery and distribution
network and a strong regional presence.
    The potential purchase of the interest in Champlin followed
its earlier acquisition of a part interest in Southland Corp's
<SLC> Citgo Petroleum Corp subsidiary.
    In that agreement signed September 15, 1986, PDVSA paid
Southland 290 mln dlrs for half of Citgo's stock.
    The potetnital acquisition of half Champlin's Corpus
Christi plant will also give Venezuela an additional outlet for
its crude oil production while giving the refiner an assured
source of supply, trade sources said.
    In the earlier deal with Southland, PDVSA agredd to to
supply Citgo with at least 130,000 bpd of crude oil and other
feedstocks.
 Reuter

downgraded Canada's Province of Saskatchewan. The action
affects the equivalent of 1.68 billion U.S. dlrs of debt.
    S and P lowered the province's long-term debt to AA-minus
from AA.
    The rating agency said the action reflected a substantial
increase in Saskatchewan's budget deficit for fiscal 1987 and
prospects for greater tax-supported debt in the medium term.
    S and P pointed out that the outlook for future revenue
growth is constrained by general weakness in the province's
commodity-based economy because of low prices.
 Reuter

Niagara Mohawk Power Co said the
existing ball-type main steam isolation valves installed at
Unit Two of the Nine Mile Nuclear Station will be replaced with
standard Y-pattern globe valves.
    This decision will delay start-up of the power plant for
about three to four months, resulting in a delay in commercial
operation of the plant to as late as the beginning of 1988, the
utility said. It previously had projected commercial operation
in September.
    The possibility of a delay to the first quarter 1988 was
raised by Rochester Gas and Electric Corp <RGS> last week.
    Niagara Mohawk said the delay will add to the plant's cost
at the rate of about 60 mln dlrs per month.
    A spokesman said this includes a total of about 10 mln dlrs
for removing the old valves and buying and installing the new
ones.
    The utility said the total anticipated cost of the plant is
now about six billion dlrs, up from the 5.87 billion dlrs
projected previously.
    This has increased the minimum overall disallowances under
the settlement Nine Mile Two's owners reached with New York
state regulators to over 2.1 billion dlrs, it added.
    Niagara Mohawk has a 41 pct interest in Nine Mile Two,
making its share of the disallowance about 1.1 billion dlrs
before income tax effects.
    Long Island Lighting Co <LIL> and New York State Electric
and Gas Corp <NGE> each have an 18 pct interest in the plant
while Rochester Gas owns 14 pct and Central Hudson Gas and
Electric Corp <CNH> has nine pct.
    The ball valves were manufactured by a Gulf and Western Inc
<GW> subsidiary which is now owned by Crosby Valve and Gauge
Co, a subsidiary of Gearhart Industries Inc <GOI>, the
    The Niagara Mohawk spokesman said the Nine Mile Two owners
are looking into the possibility that the valve supplier might
have liability for the costs of the delays caused by the
valves.
    The utility said the replacement valves are manufactured by
Rockwell International Inc <ROK>.
    The company said it spent considerable time testing and
modifying the ball valves which, until recently, "demonstrated
potential for both improvement in performance and in ease of
maintenance."
    "Since activities to date have not yet proven to be
completely successful and because of timing and resulting
additional cost of achieving the leak tightness standard is
uncertain, we have no choice but to replace them," Niagara
Mohawk said of the ball valves.
 Reuter

Shr 1.46 dlrs vs 1.13 dlrs
    Net 14,650,000 vs 11,270,000
    Sales 265 mln vs 227.1 mln
    Avg shrs 10,020,000 vs 9,980,000
    Note: Earnings are pro forma, including the increase in
common shares that took place last October when the company
went public through an initial offering of 1.4 mln shares. Avg
shrs assume the shares sold to public and employees were
outstanding during the entire period.
 Reuter

<New Bedford Institution for
Savings> said it completed its conversion to a stock form of
ownership from a mutual savings bank.
    In the conversion, it said it issued 9.4 mln shares at
14.375 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Budapest Bank Rt has become the first
of the commercial banks operating since January to issue bonds
to expand its resources, the official Hungarian news agency MTI
said.
    The seven-year bonds totalling 500 mln forints may be taken
up by companies, cooperatives and enterprises, MTI said.
    The interest rate will always be 0.5 points above that
charged to commercial banks by the National Bank of Hungary for
loans exceeding one year. This year's rate will thus be 11 pct.
    The funds raised will be used to increase the bank's
investment loan offer for small and medium-sized companies.
 REUTER

First Provident Group Inc said
it received a contract for over nine mln dlrs for the
development of a 252-unit apartment community complex here.
 Reuter

<Saab-Scania AB> of Sweden said
its Saab-Scania of America Inc unit was awarded a 15 mln dlr
contract to supply transit busses to the transport services
department of Honolulu, Hawaii.
    The company said it will supply 94 CN-112 busses under the
contract.
 Reuter

Zico INvestment Holdings INc said that
Bancroft Convertible Fund Inc filed suit seeking to enjoin
Zico's 30 dlr-a-share tender offer for 500,000 Bancroft shares.
    In its complaint, Bancroft said the tender offer materials
and letters to shareholders are false and misleading and that
the tender offer violates the investment company act of 1940.
    Zico said the suit is totally without merit and vigorously
intends to contest it.
    A motion is scheduled to be heard on March 16.
 Reuter

France's state-owned computer group Cie
des Machines Bull <BULP.PA> is to receive a government cash
infusion of about 800 mln francs in addition to an 800 mln bond
issue with share warrants planned for April, a Finance Ministry
    The capital injection will be in two stages, the first this
year and the second at the start of 1988, she said.
    Earlier this month Bull reported a consolidated net 1986
profit of 271 mln francs compared with 110 mln in the previous
year. It also cited a fall in debt and increasing productivity.
 Reuter

Triton Energy Corp said president Thomas
Goff resigned.
    The company gave no reason for the resignation.
    It said chairman and chief executive officer William Lee
will assume the role of president until a replacement has been
found.
 Reuter

The Finance Ministry said it will
allow companies to claim exemption from a wage freeze imposed
in January because of exchange rate fluctuations .
    The Price and Cartel Board, empowered by the government to
oversee the price freeze, will allow importers to charge
consumers the extra required if exchange rates changed, the
ministry said in a statement.
    The board had granted very few exceptions from the freeze
and will continue to apply the rules rigidly, apart from the
newly-announced measures, the statement said.
 REUTER

Shr 14.63 dlrs
    Net 21.8 mln
    Revs 252.9 mln
    NOTE: Company changed its reporting period to Dec 31 from
May 31. It said prior year comparisons were thus not
applicable.
 Reuter

The Turkish ore/bulk/oil vessel Obo
Engin, 78,078 tonnes dwt, had an explosion in its boiler
yesterday, Lloyds shipping Intelligence Service reported.
    The vessel has retained some power and yesterday evening
was in position Lat. 25 57 N., Long. 75 06 W. It is diverting
to Jacksonville, Florida, with its cargo of 58,000 tons of
coal.
   The vessel was bound for Iskenderun, Turkey from Lake
Charles.
 Reuter

Porsche Cars North America Inc said
it will recall 892 Porsche 928S-4 model vehicles to replace
possibly defective fuel return hoses.
    It said the recall involves only 1987 model year vehicles.
    Porsche said the cars involved may have been fitted with
fuel return hoses which are not sufficiently resistant to
damage by exposure to atmospheric ozone.
 Reuter

Shr 67 cts vs six cts
    Net 1.6 mln vs 131,630
    Revs 6.5 mln vs 4.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 85 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 2.0 mln vs 427,749
    Revs 25.1 mln vs 17.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 1.4 mln dlrs in tax loss carryback.
Reuter Inc is a spindle maker. It is not connected with Reuters
Holdings PLC.
   
 Reuter

Qtly div 62-1/2 cts vs 62-1/2 cts previously
 Reuter

placed on creditwatch with negative implications American
Stores Co because of its intention to repurchase up to 2.56 mln
shares of common stock, currently valued at 170 mln dlrs.
    American has 78 mln dlrs of A-rated senior debt and 256 mln
dlrs of BBB preferred stock, as well as A-1 paper.
    S and P said it projected debt to capital, pro forma for
the stock buy back, at more than 67 pct compared with an
average of 58.6 pct for the five years through 1985. Return on
permanent capital is estimated at between 15 and 16 pct, versus
an average of 18.4 pct.
 Reuter

Mobil Oil Corp said it will
restructure its Dallas-based Mobil Exploration and Producing
Services Inc operations April one, to provide stronger
technological support to its U.S. and overseas operations.
    Mobil said the operation will consist of two new units,
Technical Services and Application Technology, along with the
existing Drilling and New Exploration Ventures groups. It said
R.C. Mills, president and general manager of its Exploration
and Producing Southeast Inc, has been named vice president and
general manager of the new operation reporting to P.J.
Hoenmans, president of its Exploration and Producing division.
 Reuter

Badger Meter Inc said it was not
aware of any reason for the unusual trading activity in its
    Badger was trading at 21-5/8, up 1-5/8.
    The company made the statement in response to an inquiry
from the American Stock Exchange regarding the unusual activity
 Reuter

Lane Co Inc said its chairman,
B.B. Lane, has submitted his resignation as a director, officer
and employee, effective immediately.
    A company spokesman said there were no details available
beyond Lane Co's one sentence statement.
    According to proxy material the company filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission in February 1986, B.B. Lane
then held about 4.5 pct of the company's stock.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 1,102,592 vs profit 1,364,763
    Revs 2,836,508 vs 5,547,121
    Year
    Shr loss six cts vs profit 32 cts
    Net loss 789,300 vs profit 3,953,822
    Revs 11.7 mln vs 21.1 mln
    NOTE:  Per share figures reflect five pct stock dividend
paid December 1986.
 Reuter

Fabrique Nationale Herstal SA
<FNHB.BR> said it suffered a net loss of 2.99 billion francs
last year after being hit by strikes, the falling dollar and
declining oil prices.
    An FN statement said the loss, which compared with a 6.8
mln franc profit the previous year, included considerable
charges for restructuring in 1986 and 1987. Without these the
net loss would have been 1.45 billion francs, it said.
    It added that the restructuring plan would allow the firm
to return to long term profitability once it had been approved
by local authorities, banks and the workforce.
 Reuter

<Protein Databases
Inc> said Millipore Corp through its venture capital
subsidiary, Millicorp, acquired an equity position in the
company.
    Protein said it and Millipore intend to establish an
"interactive relationship."
    No other details were disclosed about the amount of
Millipore's investment in Protein.
 Reuter

The National Wildlife Federation 
rejected an Interior Department draft plan to open wilderness
lands in Northern Alaska to oil and gas exploration.
    The federation, the nation's largest conservation group,
said further study was needed to assess any possible damage
that development might have on the wildlife in the area, the
coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
    Jay Hair, the federation's executive vice president, called
the Interior's research into the effects of development "so
fundamentally flawed that it provides little or no basis on
which to make a public policy decision."
    Hair called the department's proposal a "reflection of a
largely political decision," adding "we have no confidence in
Interior to represent the broad public interest in this area."
    Interior wants to open the 1.5 million acre coastal plain
to oil and gas exploration, but it said only with tough 
safeguards to protect the area's caribou and musk-oxen.
    It said a preliminary survey showed the region could hold
billions of barrels of oil and gas, and that its potential as
an energy resource would never be known without exploration.
    Interior said oil on the coastal plain could match the 10
billion barrels found at Prudhoe Bay, just west of the plain.
    Under existing law, Congress must agree to oil and gas
exploration, and if it does not act, the land will remain a
wildlife refuge protected from commercial development.
    Hair said Interior's report failed to stress the
probability that finding recoverable oil is only 19 pct.
    He said Interior's study also failed to weigh oil, gas,
fish and wildlife information the State of Alaska had gathered
nor had the department consulted the Environmental Protection
Agency on the possible effects of exploration.
    The federation, in letters to Congressmen, proposed that a
nine-member commission be set up to study all aspects of the
issue and report back to Congress in about two years.
    Hair said the federation was not opposed to the possible
exploration of oil, only that Interior's study was inadquate to
make a sound judgement.
    Congressional observers said that at present there was
little sentiment in Congress to open the wildlife area for
commercial exploitation dispite increasing concern that the
United States is becoming overly dependent on foreign oil.
 reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss one ct
    Net profit 150,594 vs loss 55,352
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 12.4 mln
 Reuter

U.S. Minerals Exploration Co said it
filed an amendment to its registration statement for a proposed
public offering of a minimum of 500,000 shares and a maximum of
1.3 mln shares of common stock.
    The amendment reflects an increase in the maximum number of
shares to be offered from 800,000 to 1.3 mln.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc fired the
head of the mergers department in its London office today,
saying he had been unable to provide a "satisfactory
explanation" in response to insider trading charges filed
yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Merrill had suspended the official, Nahum Vaskevitch,
yesterday saying at the time it was "disappointed and angry" if
the SEC charges are true.
    Merrill Lynch's statement at midday today said the firm
will continue to cooperatie fully with authoriteis in the U.S.
and London investigating Vaskevitch's activities.
 Reuter

Qtly div 54 cts vs 54 cts prior qtr
    Pay 1 May
    Record 10 April
 Reuter

The St Lawrence Seaway and the Welland
Canal linking Lakes Erie and Ontario were expected to open as
scheduled on March 31 and April 1, respectively, a St Lawrence
Seaway official said.
    The entire Seaway is already free of ice due to the mild
Winter and could be open for navigation today, "but there
doesn't seem to be enough demand from shipping companies to
warrant an early opening," the Canadian official said.
    Repairs are continuing at a stepped up pace on the Welland
Canal and should be completed by the April 1 start-up date, she
added.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit two cts vs loss 19 cts
    Oper net profit 523,000 vs loss 2.2 mln
    Revs 102.5 mln vs 39.9 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr profit 11 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Oper net profit 2.2 mln vs loss 2.9 mln
    Revs 304.4 mln vs 50.3 mln
    NOTE: All 1986 and last two months of 1985 include results
of NICO Inc acquired Oct 1985.
    Prior year excludes discontinued operations loss of 14 cts
per share in the quarter and loss 18 cts a share in the year.
    1986 excludes extraordinary gain of two cts per share in
the quarter and four cts per share in the year.
 Reuter

ProtocomDevices Inc said it has seen
more erosion of its general financial condition since December
31, and is actively engaged in negotiations to secure
additional financing. It also said it has undergone a
restructuring of its management and is instituting further
staff reductions.
    It said Ramon Morales has relinquished his role as
president and chief operating officer and assumed the position
of executive vice president in charge of international sales.
    It also said Rafael Collado has assumed the positions of
president and chief operating officer in addition to his role
    For the year ended January 31, 1986, the company had a net
loss of 51,000 dlrs or 24 cts a share on revenues of 2.8 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Century Telephone Enterprises Inc
said it agreed to sell its cable television properties located
in Michigan, Tennesse, Tennesse, Florida, Arkansas and
Louisiana.
    Terms and the name of the purchaser were not disclosed.
    The transaction, subject to a definitive agreement, is
expected to be completed in the near future, it said.
    Century said it expects to recognize a substantial gain on
the sale. For the year ended December 31, Century reported net
income of 17.2 mln dlrs on sales 146.0 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

(ICO) executive board meeting scheduled for the end of this
month has been delayed by one day and will now run from March
31 to April 2 and not March 30 to April 1, ICO officials said.
    On March 30, the ICO ad hoc working group will meet to
consider management consultants Ernst & Whinney's report on the
ICO secretariat. This report was commissioned late last year to
report on the administrative structure of the ICO.
 Reuter

Emerson Electric Co said it will
issue about 56 mln dlrs (U.S.) 18.55 pct notes due 1989.
    It said interest and principal are payable in either New
Zealand or U.S. dollars.
    The notes will be offered through an underwriting syndicate
managed by Prudential-Bache Capital Funding at an offering
price of 100 pct. Proceeds will be used to retire commercial
paper and for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 99 cts
    Net 435,610 vs 497,160
    Sales 16.6 mln vs 17.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net penalized 13 cts shr from loss of
investment tax credits.
  
 Reuter

Zenith Electronics Corp asked
the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its anti-dumping case
against Japanese television manufacturers.
    In a complex case that dates to 1974, Zenith has charged a
group of Japanese companies with violations of U.S. antitrust
and anti-dumping laws.
    The U.S. electronics company today said it asked the high
court to review a 1986 lower court ruling that dismissed both
the antitrust and anti-dumping portions of the case.
 Reuter

Net loss 14,144,000 vs loss 863,000
    Revs 10.3 mln vs 16.7 mln
    NOTES: 1986 loss includes write-down of 15.1 mln dlrs in
the carrying value of oil and gas properties taken in the first
quarter 
    Cash flow from operationswas 6,237,000 dlrs, or 3.01 dlrs
per unit, vs 9,315,000 dlrs, or 4.56 dlrs per unit
 Reuter

Eurobond prices in the floating rate
note sector slumped across the board by as much as a full point
on some issues.
    "Today has been irrational, irresponsible -- possibly the
worst day in what has been a dire six months for the floater
market," commented a senior FRN trader at a U.K. Bank.
    Republic of Ireland FRNs were marked sharply down in
initial trading and market nerves soon infected other
supra-national and sovereign paper with dealers attributing the
falls to aggressive professional shorting by a few leading U.S.
Investment houses.
    The FRN market has been suffering from acute contraction of
liquidity and consequent drain of investor confidence since the
effective collapse in the market for perpetual floating rate
issues late last year.
    Since then, FRN specialists noted that retail interest has
been sparse or completely absent and the stagnant market for
floating rate paper has become increasingly vulnerable to
manipulation, with nerves affecting all variety of borrowers.
    Floating rate debt of U.S. And Canadian banks came under
pressure last month when fears resurfaced about their exposure
to Latin American debt. Canadian banks were hard hit today.
    Fears about the Irish economy, exacerbated by recent
post-electoral political wrangling in Dublin, prompted a
sell-off of Ireland paper this morning with both dollar and
mark-denominated Irish issues tumbling by a full point or more.
    However, FRN dealers polled by Reuters felt the Irish
issues had been singled out -- as the U.S. And Canadian banks
were most recently -- as the market's most vulnerable sector.
    "A handful of professional houses are targetting the weak
paper, shorting it aggressively and this is just starting the
domino effect with basically sound paper also starting to roll
with it," a senior FRN market source explained.
    Although floating paper from better-regarded borrowers such
as the U.K. Managed to finish the day only around 10 basis
points down, other sovereigns like Sweden and supranationals
like Eurofima suffered heavier losses, FRN dealers said.
    Debt exposure fears continued to undermine U.S. And
Canadian bank paper with one U.K. House citing a fall of 1-5/8
point on the day on a Royal Bank of Canada issue.
    FRN traders noted Japanese investors, initially
enthusiastic floating rate debt buyers, had lost confidence in
the market and speculated that a crisis meeting, such as the
one called upon the collapse of the perpetuals, could be
imminent.
    "Retail clients just don't want to know about the floaters
any more so it has degenerated to a wily pass-the-parcel among
the professionals, all scheming to sweep the paper under the
carpet," another senior FRN trader said.
    "I don't know what is going to happen to the market. It
can't go on like this," he added.
    In the fixed-rate sector, trading was dull with the market
still attempting to digest a heavy volume of new issues from
earlier this week although primary market activity slowed
somewhat today, trading and syndicate sources reported.
    Dollar straight bonds ended the day barely changed from
opening levels as investors failed to react on the unexpectedly
large 4.1 pct rise in U.S. February retail sales, prefering to
wait for tomorrow's producer price and business inventory data.
    A 100 mln dlr deal for Norsk Hydro was launched later in
the day and the issue was trading around its total two pct fees
at close of grey market trade although dealers said the
borrower's frequent appearance in the euromarkets could deter
    The Canadian dollar sector however saw good two-way trade
and a continuation of recent healthy volume as the Canadian
dollar rides high on the foreign exchanges and futures markets.
    Dealers said the strength of the Canadian dollar, which has
firmed especially over the last two days, has renewed end
investors confidence in the currency.
    A new Canadian dollar issue for Hydro Quebec was seeing
excellent demand, sector specialists said, and the issue was
quickly increased to a total of 150 mln dlrs from 125 mln.
    "This kind of paper can be hard to sell and it is gratifying
to see such a high level of interest, both European and
domestic Canadian demand," commented one trader at a Canadian
house.
    Eurosterling, which has been in the limelight lately, also
on foreign exchange and currency bullishness, slipped slightly.
    Senior eurosterling sources noted that bond prices fell
back today, more or less in line with losses seen on the U.K.
Government bond market -- around 5/8 point lower at the longer
end of the eurosterling market.
    Dealers said overseas investors had not been buying today
and predicted consolidation before next week's U.K. Budget. A
55 mln stg convertible issue for confectioners Rowntree
Mackintosh was well bid at 104-5/8 105-1/8 pct and expected to
go well.
    Euroyen bonds showed a firmer tone led by some professional
short covering from Tokyo. Today's 23 billion deal for Toyota
Motor Credit with a 4-1/2 pct coupon was deemed tight however.
 REUTER

Biomet Inc said its revenues for the
third quarter ended February 28 were up 21 pct to 14.1 mln dlrs
from 11.7 mln dlrs and nine month revenues were up 25 pct to
39.7 mln dlrs from 31.8 mln dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Lyng said the Reagan administration had not decided on offering
the Soviet Union subsidized wheat but that such an offer had
not been ruled out.
    In an interview with Reuters, Lyng also said that he had no
knowledge of any upcoming discussion of the matter within the
cabinet.
    Asked if the administration had ruled out offering to
subsidize wheat exports to the Soviet Union under the
department's export enhancement program, Lyng said, "No. We
haven't made a decision on it, haven't even talked about it,
haven't even looked at it."
    Reminded that there have been reports that Moscow would buy
U.S. wheat if competitively priced, Lyng responded, "If they
(the Soviets) would offer to buy some wheat, would we accept
it? It would depend on what price they offered."
    Lyng added that he did not think the price of U.S. wheat
was far off the world price.
    Asked about persistent speculation that the administration
would offer Moscow a wheat subsidy, Lyng said, "Some people
think they're doing it to see if they can get a little spurt in
the market."
    Agriculture Undersecretary Daniel Amstutz last week asked
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate reports
that wheat prices were being manipulated by reports that a U.S.
wheat subsidy offer was imminent.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 1.1 mln vs 994,000
    Year
    Shr 83 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 4.3 mln vs 3.1 mln
    NOTE:1985 net includes tax loss carryforward gain of 8,000
dlrs.
  
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss five cts
    Net profit 232 vs loss 124,380
    Revs 143,397 vs 61,901
    1st half
    Shr profit one ct vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 15,722 vs loss 264,539
    Revs 354,843 vs 120,403
 Reuter

Synercom Technology Inc said
shareholders at the annual meeting approved the limnitation of
directors' liability in certain circumstances in accordance
with Delaware law.
 Reuter

Blue Grass Breeders Inc said it has
completed the acquisition of Equine Enterprises Inc for four
mln common shares.
    It said it is obligated to deliver another 2,741,660 shares
on the attainment of a certain level of shareholders' equity
during any fiscal quarter within 12 months of closing.
    If all the contingent shares are issued, Blue Grass said
former owners of Equine will have a 75 pct interest in Blue
Grass.
    Equine is a New Mexico quarter horse breeding and racing
company.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 17,334 vs loss 51,507
    Sales 245,560 vs 179,839
    Avg shrs 1,136,785 vs 1,046,785
    Six mths
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 47,749 vs loss 174,373
    Sales 721,937 vs 284,809
 Reuter

Enviropact Inc said its stock has been
included for listing in the National Association of Securities
Dealers' NASDAQ National Market System effective March 17.
 Reuter

periods ended January 31
    Shr profit 22 cts vs loss 26 cts
    Net profit 439,000 vs loss 522,000
    Revs 5,600,000 vs 3,859,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 46 cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 912,000 vs loss 59,000
    Revs 14.6 mln vs 18.3 mln
    NOTE: Year ago revenues include 400,000 dlrs in quarter and
2,227,000 dlrs in nine months from operations of subsidiary
sold in April 1986
 Reuter

Financial and industrial holding company
Nord Est plans to make a convertible bond issue for a total of
400 mln francs, President Gustave Rambaud said.
    He told a news conference Nord-Est expected to receive
approval from the Bourse supervisory body COB in the next two
week, when terms would set according to market conditions.
    He said the issue was meant to boost capital ahead of new
investments.
    Rambaud said the company would pay a 1986 dividend of 5.25
francs, unchanged on 1985. Parent company net profit last year
rose to 99.5 mln francs against 71.1 mln in 1985.
    Provisional consolidated profits were lower at 185 mln
francs compared with 200 mln in 1985, of which 120 mln, against
147 mln, was attributable to the group. He said the lower
profit was mainly due to losses made by steel-tube maker
Vallourec, in which Nord Est has a 12.5 pct stake.
    Rambaud said he forecast a 1987 parent company net profit
before provisions of around 135 mln francs.
 REUTER

Solv-Ex Corp said it
successfully completed its oil sands pilot testing program
under its agreement with Shell Canada Limited <SHC> and
received a 250,000 U.S. dlr bonus payment.
    It also said that Shell Canada exercised its option to take
over Solv-Ex's 25 pct working interest in the construction of
the oil facility, relieving it of its obligation to raise about
62.5 mln Canadian dlrs for plant construction.
    It said 30 pct of that loan was guaranteed by the
Government of Alberta.
    In exchange for Shell's participation, Solv-Ex said Shell
is obligated to pay it an up-front royalty and a running
royalty based on the operating profits of the oil sands
facility. It said the Shell Canada 7,500 barrel per day oil
sands project will be built on Shell's oil sand lease about 40
miles north of Fort McMurray in the Athabasca region of
northern Alberta.
    Solv-Ex said the project will cost about 260 mln Canadian
dlrs. It said that following a final feasibility study the
plant should open in the early 1990s when oil prices are
expected to exceed 20 U.S. dlrs per barrel.

 Reuter

Spain had a 68 mln dlr current account
balance of payments surplus in January compared with a 556 mln
deficit in December and 370 mln surplus in January last year,
Bank of Spain figures show.
    The trade deficit rose to 664 mln dlrs in January from 146
mln in January 1986.
 REUTER

Union Pacific Corp said it will enter
a 50-50 partnership with Petroles de Venezuela, PDVSA, to own
and operate Union Pacific's 160,000 barrel-per-day Corpus
Christi, Texas, oil refinery.
    The assests to be acquired by the partnership are valued at
190 mln dlrs, Union Pacific said.
    Closing is expected to take place in early April and the
venture is to be called Champlin Refining Co.
    The partnership will acquire the refining and distribution
systems currently owned and operated by Champlin Petroleum, a
wholly owned subsidiary of Union Pacific.
    The venture will acquire the related inventories and the
Champlin trade name, the company said.
    PDVSA and Union Pacific will each contribute half the
capital required by the venture and arrange a revolving credit
facility with U.S. and foreign banks to finance inventories and
receivables, Union Pacific said.
    Petroles de Venezuela also signed a 25-year agreement to
supply at least 140,000 bpd of Venezulean crude oil and naphtha
to the refinery at market related prices.
    Under various options the in the agreement PDVSA could
supply another 50,000 bpd on similar terms, the company said.
    "This will provide a stable, long-term supply to the
refinery at competitive costs, thereby assuring the economic
viability of the plant," a statement issued by Union Pacific
said.
   The statement said the agreement with PDVSA will enable the
company to supply a steady flow of refined products to its
   Union Pacific said employees of the refinery would be
transfered to the new company and would retain the same
benefits as in the past.
 Reuter

Scott Instruments Corp said it
has decided to concentrate on marketing new applications of its
existing research.
    It said it will realize cost savings from the reduction of
manufacturing and marketing staff and overhead expenses.
    The company said it will seek to license its Coretechs Vet
3 speech recognition product to other companies and have them
provide manufacturing, market development, distribution and
support activities in the industrial market.
    It said it is near completion of talks for a British
company to distribute Vet 3 in Britain and Europe.
 Reuter

A Purolator Courier Corp director
resigned from the company's board, saying he plans to take
steps to make or find an offer that tops the 265 mln dlr buyout
deal already accepted by Purolator's board, the company said.
    The director, Doresy Gardner, resigned in a March 10 letter
to the Purolator board, which was included in a filing made by
the company to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Gardner noted that the terms of the merger agreement in
which the company would bought out by a group of its managers
and E.F. Hutton LBO Inc bar directors from taking action to
solicit, initiate or encourage acquisition proposals.
    "I, as a shareholder, wish to solicit, initiate or
encourage such an offer or indication of interest, and believe,
therefore, that I should resign as a director of the
corporation," Gardner said in the letter.
    "Accordingly, I hereby resign as a director of Purolator
Courier Corp, effective immediately," he said.
    Gardner said he believes shareholders could get a better
deal than the buyout offer if the company would agree to be
sold to some other entity, or if it could sell off all or part
of its U.S. courier division.
    On March 4, another Purolator shareholder, Rodney Shields,
filed a class action suit on behalf of the company's
shareholders charging the company and its board with breaching
their fiduciary duty by failing to take steps to ensure that
shareholders got the highest possible price in the buyout.
    The deal would give shareholders 35 dlrs a share in cash if
just 83 pct of Purolator's 7.6 mln shares are tendered. If more
are tendered, they would receive 29 dlrs in cash and six dlrs
in debentures and a warrant to buy stock in the new company in
exchange for each share.
 Reuter

Shr profit 75 cts vs profit 25 cts
    Net profit 2,742,962 vs profit 936,333
    Sales 74.9 mln vs 70.1 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 1.05 dlrs vs loss 1.07 dlrs
    Net profit 3,868,888 vs loss 3,931,580
    Sales 299.3 mln vs 281.1 mln
 Reuter

said it has accepted an offer to sell its cable television
properties in Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas and
Louisiana for a "substantial" gain.
    The company said details were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs seven cts
    Net 817,000 vs 512,000
    Revs 107.5 mln vs 99.9 mln
    Avg 6.9 mln vs 7.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes 2.4 mln dlr pretax gain on
settlement, 743,000 dlrs gain on securities sale, interest
expense net of investment income of 2.2 mln dlrs and 920,000
dlrs in fiscal 1986. Change of European operations method
resulted in pre-tax translation losses of 1.1 mln dlrs in 1987.
Period ended January 30.
 Reuter

Copper Co's certificate of incorporation and by-laws have been
restated to limit the transferability of the company's stock.
    In an information statement on its decision to distribute
Magma stock as a dividend, Newmont said the changes "will
impede any change of control of Magma."
    It said this has been done by authorizing two closses of
common stock -- 60 mln class A shares with one vote each and
38.1 mln class B shares with four votes each. In the dividend
of one Magma share for each Newmont share outstanding announced
Tuesday, Class B shares are being distributed.
    Newmont is distributing 30,458,100 Magma shares, or 80 pct
of the Class B common, to its shareholders.
    It said this stock will be transferable as Class B stock
until one entity acquires over 10 pct of the shares.
    Any shares over 10 pct of those outstanding will
automatically be changed by the transfer agent to Class A
stock, Newmont said.
    The company said there are two exceptions under the bylaws
-- the 15 pct of Magma's stock it is retaining and the 21 pct
which will be held by <Consolidated Gold Fields PLC> as a
result of its ownership of that portion of Newmont.
    However, Newmont Secretary Roger Adams said, any additional
Magma shares acquired by Newmont or Consolidated will
automatically become Class A shares.
    None of the authorized Class A shares is being distributed
at this point, Newmont said.
    The company also said five pct of Magma's stock is being
held in trust for members of Magma's management.
    Newmont said Magma's restated certificate of incorporation
also limits change in control of the company by dividing the
board into three classes serving staggered terms.
    Newmont said the new Magma rules also provide that
shareholder action can be taken only at shareholder meetings,
prohibiting shareholder action by written consent, and include
"fair price" provisions limiting combinations with any holder
of more than 10 pct of Magma's voting power.
 Reuter

Paradise Fruit Co Inc said its
board declared a dividend of 25 cts per share, payable March 31
to holders of record March 19.
    The company last paid 50 cts per share in January 1986 and
before that paid 60 cts in January 1985.
    Paradise said commercial bank lending agreements it entered
into in June 1986 include retained earnings requirements that
limit the amount of earnings available for distribution to
 Reuter

Digitext Inc said it
signed a letter of intent covering a planned 12 mln dlr unit
offering consisting of preferred stock and warrants to purchase
    The company said it expects to file a registration
statement covering the offering with the Securities and
Exchange Commission within the next 60 days.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.51 dlrs
    Oper net 4.06 mln vs 4.17 mln
    Sales 146.3 mln vs 155.9 mln
    Note: 1985 excludes extraordinary loss of 7.45 mln dlrs, or
2.70 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

received a 19 mln dlr subcontract from General Electric Co <GE>
for 36 100 kilowatt transmitters to be used in the Air Force's
advanced AN/FPS-118 over-the-horizon backscatter radar systems.
    Nearly 15 mln dlrs was funded immediately, Varian said.
 Reuter

Dec 31 end
    Shr profit nil vs loss four cts
    Net profit 6,891 vs loss 590,460
    Revs 6,518,133 vs 2,521,884
    Avg shrs 13.1 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit six cts vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 772,703 vs loss 758,620
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 7,599,017
    Avg shrs 13.2 mln vs 10.9 mln
 Reuter

Melville Corp said it elected
Robert Huth as executive vice president and chief financial
officer, succeeding Kenneth Berland on April six.
    Berland will continue as vice chairman and chief
administrative officer.
    Huth is a partner in the accounting firm of Peat, Marwick,
Mitchell and Co.
 Reuter

    Pay April Three
 Reuter

Automobile production by U.S.
manufacturers this week will be 2.5 pct below output for the
same week last year, according to Automotive News.
    The trade paper said 167,942 cars will be made in the
United States this week, down from 172,348 during last year's
week.
    Production will also be below last week's level, when
173,596 cars were made, the paper estimated.
    Truck output this week will be 79,784 vehicles, ahead of
the 76,059 units made during the same week last year but behind
the 80,424 trucks made last week.
 Reuter

Lyng said he was not sure a long-term U.S.-Soviet grain
agreement would be worth extending when it expires next year.
    "It hasn't been worth much in the last two years....They
haven't lived up to the agreement as I see it," Lyng said in an
interview with Reuters.
    "It would be my thought that it's not worth any effort to
work out an agreement with someone who wants the agreement to
be a one-sided thing," he said.
    However, Lyng said he did not want to make a "definitive
commitment one way or another at this point."
    Under the accord covering 1983-88, the Soviets agreed to
buy at least nine mln tonnes of U.S. grain, including four mln
tonnes each of corn and wheat.
    Moscow bought 6.8 mln tonnes of corn and 153,000 tonnes of
wheat during the third agreement year, which ended last
September, and this year has bought one mln tonnes of corn.
    Lyng said he had no knowledge of how much U.S. grain Moscow
would buy this year.
    "I've seen people making comments on that and I don't know
how they know, unless they talk to the Soviets," he said. "I have
no knowledge, and I really don't think anyone other than the
Soviets have any knowledge."
    Lyng said he thought the Soviets bought U.S. corn last
month because "they needed it and because the price was right."
    "Our corn has been pretty reasonably priced. And I think
they've always found that our corn was good," he said.
 Reuter

Morocco is likely to get an extra aid
package exceeding 100 mln Special Drawing Rights (126 mln dlrs)
in 1987 following a three-day Consultative Group meeting of
donors chaired by the World Bank, Moroccan Finance Minister
Mohamed Berada said.
    Berrada said most of the extra aid sought to complete high
priority investments in agriculture, education, and public
health had already been secured, and additional sums were
likely to emerge from forthcoming bilateral meetings with
donors.
    A World Bank statement said the Consultative Group meeting
attended by 15 donor countries and agencies noted with
satisfaction a marked improvement in Morocco's economic
performance and urged it to continue recent adjustment efforts.
    It added that the Group saw as realistic Morocco's
medium-term goal of restoring creditworthiness on financial
markets, and agreed to reconvene in a year to discuss Morocco's
five year development strategy for 1988-92, introduced in its
broad outlines at this week's meeting.
    Morocco reached an agreement here last week with the Paris
Club of western creditor governments to reschedule over 10
years the 900 mln dlrs of debt due by mid 1988. That followed
an agreement late last year to reschedule 1.8 billion dlrs of
commercial bank debt.
    Morocco's foreign debt currently totals 14 billion dlrs,
Berrada said, adding that Morocco intended to stop rescheduling
its debts, and pay them off instead.
    He told Reuters the forthcoming five-year development plan,
designed to avoid the negative effects of adjustment without
growth, could require further aid of 700 or 800 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Shr loss 1.5 cts vs loss five cts
    Six mths
 Reuter

<Powerine Oil Co> said
its refinery here will resume operation today, with initial
crude oil runs of 20,000 barrels per day.
    Powerine, a privately-held company, said it expects the
refinery to become fully operational by May, with crude oil
throughput at 35,000 bpd.
    Initial oil products deliveries are scheduled for Monday,
Powerine said. The refinery had been closed due to a change of
ownership, the company said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

 Reuter

    Pay May 20
 Reuter

National Distillers and Chemical Corp
said it was unable to explain a sharp rise in its stock.
    National Distillers rose 3-1/8 to 63-3/4 in moderate
trading of 84,000 shares. Texas investor Robert M. Bass
recently filed a 13D with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, disclosing a stake of more than five pct.
    John Salisbury, vice president and general counsel of
National Distillers, said there were no new developments
concerning Bass. Salisbury also said the company continues
efforts to sell its liquor business and several potential
buyers have inspected the properties.
    Robert Reitzes, analyst at Mabon, Nugent and Co, said
National Distillers's wine and liquor business combined might
be sold for between 600 and 700 mln dlrs. The company completed
sale of its Almaden wine business to Heublein Inc earlier this
week but did not disclose any figures. Heublein is owned by
Grand Metropolitan plc.
    Reitzes said he reiterated a buy recommendation on the
stock yesterday, calling it the biggest commodity chemical play
in the industry. He said recently increased polyetylene prices
appear to be holding.
 Reuter

Lyng said a marketing loan for soybeans would serve no present
purpose because the U.S. price is not above the world price.
    Asked in an interview if it was time to consider a
marketing loan for soybeans, Lyng said, "I don't think so. I
don't think the world price is lower than our price anyway."
    However, the USDA secretary said that if current conditions
of surplus production persisted, it might be appropriate to
consider a marketing loan.
    "I suppose that under that condition there is a danger our
exports will continue to drop and that the government will
continue to accumulate large stocks of soybeans," he said. "It
might be (worth contemplating a marketing loan), if there were
a world market that was lower than our market."
 Reuter

The United States made its proposals
for verifying adherence to a prospective treaty on medium range
nuclear weapons and in a highly unusual move made public the
outlines of its recommendations.
    State Department spokesman Charles Redman told reporters
the proposals were made to the Soviet Union at Geneva arms
control talks today.
    The proposals included on-site inspection that could result
in inspectors from the two superpowers being stationed
permanently on the territory of the other.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said a
seat on the New York Futures Exchange sold for 200 dlrs, which
is unchanged from the previous sale, made yesterday.
    The NYSE said the current bid is 200 dlrs and the current
offer is 300 dlrs.
 Reuter

British Telecommunications PLC's
Dialcom unit said it will begin next month to sell a software
package that allows computers made by different manufacturers
to send and receive electronic-mail messages.
    The software, which is based on the X.400 international
standard recommendation, will be marketed internationally,
Dialcom said.
    In addition, the company said Data General Corp <DGN>
agreed to conduct engineering tests of the software in the
United States. Data General is a strong proponent of the X.400
standard.
 Reuter

In a step that could lead to a
breakthrough in the drafting of next year's federal budget,
Democratic and Republican members of the House Budget Committee
met behind closed doors to explore the possibility of a
bipartisan budget, lawmakers said.
    No conclusions were reached on whether the two sides would
be able to get together on a budget outline, the lawmakers
said.
    After the meeting broke up, panel Democrats reconvened
behind closed doors for further talks.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend six cts vs six cts
 Reuter

Qtly div 54 cts vs 54 cts prior
    Pay May One
 Reuter

Qtly div 17-1/2 cts vs 17-1/2 cts prior
    Record April 2.
o
 Reuter

donors.
 Reuter

DeSoto Inc said it sold the
plant, inventory and certain other assets of some of its
industrial chemical operations to Plastic Specialities and
Technologies Inc, a privately-held company headquartered in
Parsippany, New Jersey.  Terms were not disclosed.
    Desoto's industrial chemical operations are based in Fort
Worth, Texas, and has annual sales of about 17 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> supervisory
board chairman Karl Gustaf Ratjen said entire data tapes had
been erased and complete programs altered in forged
transactions amounting to around 480 mln marks.
    "In this case a degree of criminal energy has been brought
into play which until now was unimaginable in a German company,"
he said in a radio interview.
    He could not completely rule out the possibility that
losses would exceed 500 mln marks, but said there were
currently no signs that they would be higher than the 480 mln
announced on Tuesday.
    Some 70 to 80 mln marks had probably been lost through
disregard for internal instructions, he added, but did not
elaborate. However, the remainder had definitely been lost
through criminal action and forgery in 1984.
    Ratjen said the affair would lead to consequences up to the
board room. He would recommend that those under suspicion of
being involved in criminal acts would have to go immediately.
    Those who had not exercised checking functions sufficiently
would also have to go.
    But Volkwagen management board chairman Carl Hahn was not
involved in the affair, he said.
    A Volkswagen spokesman said the company had made sufficient
provision in previous years to cover the losses from the fraud.
Its 1986 profit would, therefore, match 1985 world group net
profits of 595.6 mln marks.
    Volkwagen disclosed the existence of the fraud on Tuesday,
saying it was possible that documents about currency hedging
had been falsified and that those responsible may have come
from outside Volkswagen and may have been assisted by company
staff.
    Criminal complaints on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust
and forgery of documents had been filed, it added.
    The company spokesman said the supervisory board would meet
on April 9 to examine the precise extent of the losses and to
approve the year-end results.
    Ratjen said it was important for Volkwagen to maintain a
degree of "internal integrity" on account of its 200,000
employees, particularly as shop floor elections were coming up.
    "On the one hand one fights for every single mark of income.
And here is a case where hundreds of millions are being just
thrown away," he added.
 Reuter

It could be months before major
assistance is provided for Earthquake-stricken Ecuador,
although the International Monetary Fund and the development
banks have already taken the first steps, monetary sources and
U.S. officials said.
    They said the IMF had informed the Ecuadorean government
that it was prepared, under its emergency system, to provide
about 50 mln dlrs, or about 25 per cent of the country's quota
in the agency, but it is up to Ecuador to request the money.
    At the same time, the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank have dispatched missions to the region hit by
last Thursday's quake to determine what the country's needs are
and how they can speed up disbursement of funds from programs
already approved.
    The World Bank estimates that of the over one billion dlrs
it has approved for Ecuador in recent years, some 277 mln dlrs
has yet to be disbursed and a portion of this could,
potentially, be made available.
    The bank said that the programs it has approved are for
rural development, agriculture, water and sewerage, electrical
power and others.
    If the assistance that is needed can be fit into these
general categories, the funds could be then provided for from
expedited disbursements
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net loss 2,374,000 vs profit 970,000
    Revs 15.7 mln vs 13.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 13 cts vs profit 46 cts
    Net loss 1,054,000 vs profit 3,425,000
    Revs 61.8 mln vs 49.9 mln
    Note: Full name Safeguard Health Enterprises Inc.
    Current qtr and year figures include 2.9 mln dlr reserve
for estimated loss from proposed divestment of one-third of
existing 40 offices.
 Reuter

There has been slight progress towards
reaching a rubber pact, the chairman of a United Nations
conference on a new International Natural Rubber Agreeement,
INRA, Manaspas Xuto of Thailand, said.
    "There has been some slight progress but it is not the end
of the road yet," he said.
    The conference, which began Monday, is seen as the last
effort to adopt an accord to replace the current one which
expires in October. Some 40 producing and consuming countries
are taking part in the two-week meeting.
    Xuto said if the key outstanding issues are not resolved by
tomorrow he would hold weekend meetings.
    At the beginning of the conference, the fourth such meeting
in nearly two years, Xuto said it was imperative to settle
those issues this week so that technical drafting work can be
done next week.
    Conference sources said it is highly unlikely that
producers will accept a pact that will provide for any possible
downward adjustment of the floor price, as proposed by
consumers under certain circumstances.
    The sources said this means that any possible adjustment
would centre on the reference price, and the "may buy" (or "may
sell") and "must buy" (or "must sell") levels without changing the
"lower indicative price" (or floor price) of 150
Malaysian/Singapore cents a kilo in the present pact.
    The present five-day average of the indicator price is
around 192 Malaysian/Singapore cents.
    Consumers are seeking an adjustment of the reference price,
set in the current accord at 201.66 Malaysian/Singapore cents a
kilo, and of the "lower indicative price" if the buffer stock,
currently 360,000 tonnes, rises to 450,000 tonnes.
    Consumers want price reviews at 12-month intervals instead
of the 18 at present, and the price revision mechanism to
respond automatically to market trends.
    At present, if the market price has been above or below the
reference price for six months, the reference price is revised
by five pct or by an amount decided by the International
Natural Rubber Organisation council.
    Consumers say that, in these circumstances, the adjustment
be automatic at five pct or more.
    Producers have resisted reducing the role of the council in
the price adjustment procedure and have expressed concern that
changes proposed by consumers would weaken the present pact.
 Reuter

Cummins Engine Co said it will
temporarily recall about 150 production workers at its
Columbus-area plants because it sees a moderate upturn in North
American demand for heavy-duty truck engines.
    The company said the recalls will begin March 30.
    Production rates for Cummins' heavy-duty truck engines have
increased about 10 pct over fourth-quarter levels and should
stay at these levels through the first half of 1987, Cummins
said.
    The company also reported some upswing in demand for its
components and service parts.
 Reuter

The new British one ounce gold coin, the
"Britannia," will be priced on the basis of the gold price on the
day of purchase plus a "competitive premium," Treasury officials
said.
    Value added tax will be levied on all purchases by members
of the U.K. Public, as is currently the case with foreign
coins, although transactions between members of the London Gold
Market and all exports of the coins will be zero-rated. No
decision has yet been taken on the face value of the coins.
    Although a number of gold coins, especially the Canadian
Maple, have been issued elsewhere in an attempt to take the
place of the South African krugerrand, the British government
still feels that there is a gap in the market for a British one
ounce gold coin. The only British gold coin available at
present is the sovereign, which contains 0.2354 ounces of gold.
    Gold from South Africa or the Soviet Union will not be used
in the coin, officials said, adding that bullion would be
bought on the world gold market. But analysts said it would be
difficult to ascertain the origins of such purchases.
    No details are yet available on how many coins will be
issued or how much gold will be bought, but traders said that
the amounts involved would be unlikely to move the gold price.
    There were some enquiries on the "Britannia" from coin
dealers today, but value added tax would prove a major factor
in the success of the coin, with the 15 pct tax likely to put
off many investors, traders said.
    Some said that the "Britannia" had come too late, with the
Canadian Maple Leaf, the American Eagle and other gold coins
already well established.
 Reuter

CytRx Corp said its 60 pct owned CytRx
Biopool Ltd subsidiary has acquired Biopool AB of Umea, Sweden,
    It said former shareholders of Biopool AB own the remaining
40 pct in CytRx Biopool Ltd. Biopool AB develops cardiovascular
and fibrinolytic products for diagnostic applications.
    The company said CytRx Biopool is studying the possible
combination of CytRx Corp's RheothRx drug to reduce platelet
aggregation and viscosity in blood with Biopool AB's drug t-PA
for dissolving blood clots.
 Reuter

CANADA 91-DAY T-BILLS AVERAGE 7.03 PCT, MAKING BANK RATE 7.28 PCT

North American Holding Corp
said it expects to have record fourth quarter earnings and for
sales to exceed 10 mln dlrs.
    For the fourth quarter ended March 30, 1986 the company
reported net income of 631,720 dlrs on sales of 5.2 mln dlrs.
    It also said it expects revenues for the year to exceed 30
mln dlrs. For fiscal 1986, North American reported a net loss
of 126,900 dlrs on sales of 12.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A group of investment firms told the
Securities and Exchange Commission they raised their stake in
Intermedics Inc to 1,721,900 shares, or 16.8 pct of the total
outstanding, from 1,565,900 shares, or 15.2 pct.
    Bessemer Securities Corp, a New York investment firm,
Cilluffo Associates L.P., a New York investment partnership,
and related entities said they bought 156,000 Intermedics
common shares between February 24 and March 9 for 1.4 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Qtly div six cts vs 4-1/4 cts prior
 Reuter

A proposal the London Metal Exchange,
LME, change its new clearing system, due to start May 29, was
made today at a meeting of LME members and International
Commodities Clearing House, ICCH, representatives.
    Amalgamated Metal Trading Ltd, AMT, proposed that a daily
cash-cleared system common to all other markets should be
adopted, rather than the system currently planned whereby
prompt dates are settled when they mature.
    AMT claims the margin requirements for the latter will be
costly.
    Opposition to the proposal came mainly from trade and
industry representatives who, as traditional users of the
Exchange's hedging facilities, said a cash-cleared system would
be more costly for them.
    LME Board Chairman Jacques Lion said any major alterations
to the planned new clearing system would have to be referred to
the Securities and Investment Board, SIB, and this could be
time consuming, bearing in mind the May 29 start-up.
    There was also a risk of the Exchange losing its greatest
asset, its trade hedging business, he said.
    Lion accepted a proposal that, while clearing with the ICCH
continue as planned, details of AMT's cash clearing system be
circulated for consideration and discussion by LME Board,
Committee and members for possible introduction at a later
date.
    The LME also said that Japanese yen contracts will now be
excluded from clearing as they are not used widely enough to
warrant inclusion.
 Reuter

Home Shopping Network Inc announced it
agreed with underwriter Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc to amend its
recent filing for an offering of 400 mln dlrs of 15-year
convertible subordinated debentures in order to accommodate
demand from Europe.
    The firm said it now plans to offer 150 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures in the Eurodollar market.
    It will file an amended domestic registration statement for
the Eurodollar offering and reduce the size of the domestic
offering to 300 mln dlrs. Drexel Burnham Lambert International
Ltd is sole underwriter for the European issue.
 Reuter

<New York Life Insurance Co> said it
will invest up to 30 mln dlrs in properties purchased by
<NYLIFE Realty Income Partners I L.P.>, a newly formed real
estate limited partnership.
    The partnership is co-sponsored by New York Life's NYLIFE
Realty Inc and a subsidiary of <Linclay>, a national real
estate firm which has developed properties in 25 cities.
    A New York Life spokesman said the company's 30 mln dlr
commitment, along with projected investment by the partnership,
is expected to result in a total investment of 80 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 651,397 vs 2,602,120
    Revs 26.4 mln vs 21.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain 291,027 dlr gain from quantity
discount rebates on purchases of materials in prior years.
 Reuter

Shr loss 20 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 352,000 vs loss 248,000
    Revs 285,000 vs 681,000
    Year
    Shr loss 92 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net loss 1,613,000 vs loss 842,000
    Revs 1,523,000 vs 2,557,000
    NOTE: Full name is North Atlantic Technologies Inc
 Reuter

E-Systems Inc said John W. Dixon will
retire April 21 as chairman and chief executive officer but
remain on the board as chairman emeritus.
    The company said president and chief operating officer
David R. Tacke will succeed Dixon as chairman and chief
executive and senior vice president E. Gene Keigger will become
president and chief operating officer.
 Reuter

A member of the board which
regulates the Farm Credit System predicted the troubled farm
lender may lose about 900 mln dlrs in the first half of 1987,
hastening the need for a federal rescue this year.
    Speaking to the House subcommittee responsible for farm
credit issues, Farm Credit Administration (FCA) board member
Jim Billington said "My recommendation is that legislation
(aiding the system) must be moved prior to June, 30, 1987, or
it will be difficult to close the (farm credit system) books."
    Billington's loss prediction is gloomier than either the
system or its regulator had previously admitted.
    The system itself has so far predicted losses for all of
1987 will reach only 1.1 billion dlrs, down from 1.9 billion in
1986 and 2.7 billion in 1985.
    However, Billington said the system is losing in excess of
400 mln dlrs per quarter, implying total losses for 1987 of
more than 1.6 billion.
    Losses of that magnitude would exhaust the 1.4 billion dlrs
in capital surplus the system held at the end of 1986.
    The system also has 4.2 billion dlrs in capital held by its
member borrowers, called borrower stock, which theoretically
could be used as capital.
    Billington said by the end of 1987, more than 1.6 billion
dlrs of the 4.2 billion in borrower stock would be downgraded
in value because of the mounting losses.
    Chairman of the FCA board, Frank Naylor, urged that
Congress begin to consider legislation rescuing the system by
Easter and that a bill be completed by the fall.
    Chairman of the House subcommittee, Rep. Ed Jones,
(D-Tenn.) said today "the time has arrived to consider
assistance to save the system."
    The Senate Democratic leadership indicated last month that
it would begin drafting a bailout bill by Easter.
    FCA board members differed on whether a direct government
infusion of cash will be needed to rescue the system. FCA
chairman Naylor said a federal guarantee of both borrower stock
and system bonds held by investors might avoid the need to
provide "hard capital" to the system.
    However, Billington said "its not really that simple, in my
opinion," adding that government funds may be needed to rescue
    Neither regulator estimated how much money might be needed.
 Reuter

Teletimer International Inc
said it successfully closed its new issue at the maximum
    Teletimer said it intends to offer a computerized
subscription energy management service that is delivered to
homes and businesses over cable television systems. Subscribers
will be charged an annual subscription fee, the company said.
 Reuter

Thermwood Corp said its common stock
has begun trading on the Pacific Stock Exchange under the
symbol "THM."
    In February, its stock began trading on the Boston Stock
Exchange.
 Reuter

Selm-Societa Energia Montedison is to
close its Priolo crude refining units from March 15th to March
28th for maintenance, a company spokesman said.
    Throughput at the refinery is currently estimated at
140-150,000 bpd, although total capacity is nearer 200,000 bpd.
    Several other Mediterranean refineries are currently
shutdown for maintenance, most of which were scheduled some
months ago. But industry sources said that shutdowns may have
been rearranged to avoid running negative-netback crude.
     Tighter availabilities of products as a result of the 
shutdowns in the Med is helping to keep products markets
bullish, particularly for March deliveries, oil traders said.
    Garrone's refinery at San Quirico (capacity 130,000 bpd) is
due to shutdown on March 14th for three weeks, and the
jointly-owned ISAB/Garrone refinery at Mellili, capacity
220,000 bpd, is due to start up around March 20-25th following
its closure for maintenance a month ago, a company spokesman
said.
    The Esso Italiana refineries at Augusta and Siracusa will
not be closing this spring, a spokesman for the company said.
    In France, the distillation unit at Societe Francaise de
BP's Lavera refinery has been closed for maintenance since
March 2, and is due to restart early April. Total capacity is
181,900 bpd. It is currently operating at around 50 pct
capacity, a company spokesman said.
    Shell Francaise's Berre l'Etang refinery will shut down in
early April until mid-June, a company spokesman said. Capacity
is around 150,000 bpd. Compagnie Francaise de Raffinage (CFR)
will close the visbreaker at its La Mede refinery in early
April, but would not affect crude throughput at the refinery, a
company spokesman said. Current capacity is 136,000 bbl/day.
    Despite current bullish sentiment in the Med, however,
traders noted that crude netbacks are beginning to look more
attractive, and most maintenance shutdowns should be finished
in two to three weeks.
    As a result, oil industry sources suggest that the
situation may ease by mid-April.
 Reuter

downgraded First Interstate Bancorp's 1.3 billion dlrs of debt
because of higher levels of non-performing assets.
    S and P also cited net charge-offs, especially in real
estate, energy and consumer loans. However, the agency said
First Interstate has high liquidity and is less vulnerable to
Latin American credits than its peers.
    Cut were the company's senior debt to AA-minus from AA and
subordinated debt to A-plus from AA-minus. Long-term deposits
of several of the parent's banks were reduced to AA-minus from
AA but short-term deposit ratings were left at A-1-plus.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on W.R. Grace and Co's 575 mln dlrs of
debt following its fourth-quarter 1986 loss of 560 mln dlrs.
    Affirmed were the company's BBB-minus senior debt, BB-plus
subordinated debt and A-3 commercial paper.
    S and P pointed out that the fourth-quarter loss resulted
from the write-off of nearly 600 mln dlrs in assets, especially
in agricultural chemicals and natural resources.
    Because that write-off had no effect on Grace's cash, S and
P affirmed the current ratings, noting that Grace intends to
sell its agricultural business.
    Proceeds from the sale of the agricultural segment could be
used to reduce Grace's debt, Standard and Poor's said.
    However, S and P said it is less clear whether Grace can
also extricate itself from the project debt from its phosphate
mining joint venture at Four Corners.
    Despite today's rating affirmation, S and P cautioned that
Grace has greater-than-usual vulnerability to rating change in
the next year or two.
    "Uncertainty abounds as to the firm's future ownership,
management and direction," the rating agency said.
 Reuter

Designs Inc said it intends to
make an initial public offering of common stock in late spring
or early summer, depending on market conditions.
    The company opoerates 27 retil clothing stores under the
name "Designs, exclusively Levi Strauss and Co" along the
Eastern Seaboard.
 Reuter

Continuous rebel raids against oil
pipelines and foreign exploration camps endanger Colombia's
present oil bonanza, Franciso Chona, manager of the state-run
oil company Ecopetrol said.
    "It seems the subversion wants to end with our oil bonanza,"
he told reporters.
    He was speaking after a meeting with Defense Minister
Rafael Samudio, military chiefs and Mines and Energy Minister
Guillermo Perry to review the security situation in the light
of a recent upsurge of leftist guerrilla attacks in the
oil-rich Arauca region, bordering Venezuela.
    Ecopetrol chief of security, Retired General Carlos
Narvaez, said security measures would be stricter and that the
armed forces were closely collaborating but gave no details.
    Samudio said new plans had been designed and hoped they
would be effective. Samudio stressed that, despite the most
recent attacks, which cost more than four mln dlrs in damage,
the overall situation had improved compared with last December
when initial measures were taken to combat a wave of attacks.
    Repeated bombings of a vital pipeline from the Cano Limon
oilfield to the Caribbean then led to a loss of 51,000 barrels
of crude.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 600 mln dlrs of debt of Resorts
International Inc and Resorts International Financing Inc.
    Developer Donald Trump has agreed to pay 101 mln dlrs for
all of Resorts International's class B shares, representing 93
pct voting control, S and P noted. Trump said he would not
tender for the 5.7 mln shares of publicly held class A stock.
    The agreement is subject to approval by the New Jersey
Casino Control Commission. S and P pointed out that Resorts'
aggressive debt leverage is offset by the firm's extensive real
estate holdings in Atlantic City, N.J.
    Affirmed were the B-minus subordinated debt of Resorts
International and its financing unit.
    Standard and Poor's noted that Resorts International
remains highly leveraged, with significant near-term financing
requirements for the completion of its new casino/hotel in
Atlantic City, the Taj Mahal.
    While operations are profitable, the interest burden of
debt, along with unusual charges, net of gains, led to a 30.6
mln dlr net loss in 1986, S and P pointed out.
    Longer-term, Resorts is expected to benefit from a
strengthened competitive position, S and P added.
 Reuter

Peru's biggest state mining firm,
Centromin SA, said today there was no immediate force majeure
possibility on its copper shipments after guerrillas blew up a
railway line, interrupting train traffic from the Cobriza
copper mine to the Pacific coast.
    A Centromin spokesman said the managers of the mine at
Cobriza could always ship the the mineral by road to the coast
for export if the train line continued interrupted. Cobriza
produced the equivalent of around 40,600 fine tonnes of copper
last year.
    Maoist guerrillas using dynamite interrupted train traffic
two days ago when they blew up railway tracks and derailed a
train laden with minerals 225 km (135 miles) east of Lima at
Chacapalca, between the coast and Cobriza.
    An official at Minero Peru Comercial, Minpeco, Peru's state
minerals marketing firm, confirmed there had been no
declaration of force majeure on the shipments from Cobriza.
    Officials at National Train Company, Enafer, headquarters
in Lima, the Peruvian capital, declined to comment on when
train traffic would be restored to Cobriza.
    But an Enafer official, reached by telephone in the central
Andean city of Huancayo, near Chacapalca, said traffic could be
restored by Saturday.
 Reuter

said he would not object to the sale of computers to Iran
because the technology was that of U.S.-designed personal
computers developed ten years ago.
    "We have no reason not to ship it," Baldrige told reporters
after a Senate Banking Committee hearing on export controls.
    Baldrige said the Defense Department's objection that the
computers would be used in newspaper production was not a
reason to bar the granting of an export license. "This is not a
reason for denying it on foreign policy grounds," he said.
 Reuter

FIRST GRANITE BANCORP INC AGREES TO BE ACQUIRED BY MAGNA GROUP INC FOR STOCK

Diasonics Inc said the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has given premarket approval to
<Instrumentarium Corp> of Finland's ULF magnetic resonance
imaging system.
    Diasonics already distributes the system in several
countries and will distribute it in the U.S. as well.
 Reuter

Argentine Vegetable oils shipments
during January/November 1986 totalled 1,693,951 tonnes, against
1,469,208 tonnes in the same 1985 period, the Argentine grain
board said.
    The breakdown was: cotton 4,000 (27,900), sunflower 929,847
(816,727), linseed 113,827 (132,954), groundnutseed 26,248
(25,508), soybean 603,335 (448,344), tung 8,402 (10,633), olive
2,234 (3,465), maize 6,058 (3,677), rapeseed nil (nil), grape
nil (nil), the board added.
    Shipments during November 1986 amounted to 138,257 tonnes,
against 109,250 tonnes in the same month of 1985.
    The breakdwon was, in tonnes, cotton nil (nil), sunflower
27,715 (43,064), linseed 5,228 (4,473), groundnutseed 819
(3,647), soybean 104,314 (56,901), tung 20 (nil), olive 161
(858), maize nil (307), rapeseed nil (nil), grape nil (nil),
the board said.
    The ten principal destinations during January/November
1986, with comparative figures for the same 1985 period in
brackets, were, in tonnes:
    Holland 201,660 (204,391), Iran 182,042 (181,228), Soviet
Union 163,150 (266,389),Egypt 158,119 (159,350), Algeria
116,330 (11,492), Brazil 101,116 (59,430) , South Africa 94,700
(101,062) , Cuba 89,957 (98,740) , United States 80,109 (nil),
India 67,182 (17,403), the board added.
 REUTER

Parker Drilling Co said its board
of directors voted to suspend the payment of dividends to
    Parker Drilling said it has been paying a quarterly
dividend of one ct a share of common stock.
    The company said it expects to save 1.3 mln dlrs a year
through the dividend suspension.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs 22 cts
    Net 700,000 vs 2,200,000
    Revs 5,400,000 vs 5,700,000
    Avg shrs 7,589,344 vs 10.1 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 43 cts
    Net 3,500,000
    Revs 21.6 mln
    NOTE: 12 mth figures not available for 1985 since company
started operations March 31, 1985.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts previously
    Pay May 11
 Reuter

Qtrly div 41.5 cts vs 41.5 cts prior
    Pay July 29

infusion of cash will be needed to rescue the system.
    FCA chairman Naylor said a federal guarantee of both
borrower stock and system bonds held by investors might avoid
the need to provide "hard capital" to the system.
 Reuter

<American Cyanamid Corp> is to set up a
herbicide production plant in the recently-created Dunkirk
enterprise zone, an official for the Dunkirk port authority
said.
    He told Reuters the announcement was made by Industry
Minister Alain Madelin during a visit to the zone today. The
plans involve investment of around 70 mln francs.
    The enterprise zones, created on the sites of naval
shipyards closed down last year and which also include zones at
La Ciotat and La Seyne, provide for exemption from corporate
taxes for 10 years and other incentives.
 Reuter

MacMillan Bloedel
Ltd's share price rose 4-1/2 dlrs to 79-1/4 after climbing by
as much as 5-1/4 dlrs in trading earlier on the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
    Company officials were not immediately available to comment
on the steep gain.
    Forestry analyst Rick Sales at Vancouver, British
Columbia-based Odlum Brown Ltd said the strength partly
reflected the buoyant forest products industry, the company's
proposed three-for-one stock split and strong 1987 earnings
prospects.
    He predicted MacMillan Bloedel would earn eight dlrs a
share this year. The company's 1986 net profit after a 1.45 dlr
extraordinary gain rose to 4.66 dlrs a share from 54 cts a
share in 1985 due to lower costs and stronger markets.
    Sales added that investors might also be expecting "a major
dividend increase." The company paid 75 cts a share in regular
common stock dividends last year.
    MacMillan Bloedel's 49 pct-owner <Noranda Inc> "needs cash
and they do have people on (MacMillan's) board of directors,"
said Sales.
    Noranda said earlier this week it planned a public share
offer in its Noranda Forest Inc unit, which holds Noranda's
stake in MacMillan Bloedel.
    Sales discounted previous speculation that Noranda might
try to sell its stake in MacMillan.
    Noranda would rather probably like to raise its stake,
Sales said, although he added such a move could meet opposition
from the British Columbia government, which limited
Toronto-based Noranda to a minority stake in its 1981 takeover
bid for MacMillan Bloedel.
 Reuter

The United States subsidises its
agricultural industry much more than the European Community,
according to an internal USDA report, Marcel Cazale, President
of the French Maize Producers' Association (AGPM), said.
    He told reporters that according to what he described as a
"confidential" report prepared by the USDA which he had seen, the
US took the leading place regarding agricultural subsidies,
ahead of the EC.
    Cazale said according to the report, Argentina and
Australia were the only countries not to subsidise their
agriculture at all, or only by a small amount.
    Cazale said in Argentina subsidies were granted for
exports, but for a very small amount, while in Australia
subsidies were also only for exports, amounting to 15 to 30
pct.
    But Cazale said Australian agriculture received disguised
aid to the extent that fuel and fertilisers benefited from tax
reductions, and transport, electricity and telephones in the
sector had special tariffs. He did not elaborate.
 Reuter

SUN RAISES CRUDE POSTINGS 50 CTS, EFFECTIVE TODAY, WTI TO 17.50
dlrs/bbl

Qtrly div nine cts vs nine cts prior
    Pay May 1
    Record April 9
 Reuter

First Granite Bancorp Inc
said it agreed in principle to become a wholly owned subsidiary
of Magna Group Inc <MAGI>.
    Under terms of the agreement, First Granite shareholders
will receive 2.175 shares of Magna for each First Granite share
held. First Granite shareholders will be asked to approve the
tranaction in late summer.
    First Granite, which has 675,000 shares outstanding, as of
Dec 31, 1986 had assets of 186.5 mln dlrs. It owns First
Granite City National Bank and Colonial Bank of Granite City,
Ill.
    Magna Groups as of Dec 31, 1986 had assets of 1.47 billion
dlrs. It owns 13 banks, a data services company, a mortgage
company and a trust company, serving St. Louis as well as
Springfield, Centralia and Decatur, Ill.
 Reuter

Sharedata Inc said it signed a
letter of intent with an investment banking firm for financing
up to 2,500,000 dlrs.
    In return, the investment banking firm will be entitled to
name a member of Sharedata's board of directors, the company
said. It added it must seek the authority of its shareholders
for a one-for-four reverse split of its common stock.
 Reuter

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE CUTS PRIME RATE TO 8.75 PCT FROM 9.25 - TOMORROW

    Caterpillar Financial Services Corp, subsidiary of
Caterpillar Inc <CAT> - Shelf offering of up to 300 mln dlrs of
debt securities, including debentures and notes, through
underwriters that may include Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    PacifiCorp <PPW> - Shelf offering of up to six mln shares
of no par serial preferred stock with a total liquidation
preference of 150 mln dlrs.
    Hadson Corp <HADS> - Offering of 3.75 mln shares of common
stock through Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and PaineWebber Inc.
    Hydrogen Power Inc - Initial public offering of three mln
shares of Class B common stock, with a minimum of two mln
shares at five dlrs each needed to be sold.
   
 Reuter

    Net 165,798 vs 143,872
    Sales 1,787,561 vs 1,072,686
    Six mths
    Shr four cts vs four cts
    Net 175,928 vs 191,310
    Sales 3,137,695 vs 2,723,557
    Avg shrs 4,862,046 vs 4,722,150
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 12 cts in prior qtr
    Payable June 25
    Record May 28
 Reuter

Sun Co said it raised the contract
price it will pay for crude oil 50 cts a barrel, effective
today.
    The increase brings Sun's posted price for the West Texas
Intermediate and West Texas Sour grades to 17.50 dlrs/bbl. The
Light Louisiana Sweet grade was also raised 50 cts to 17.85
dlrs/bbl.
    Sun Co last changed its crude postings on March 4.
 Reuter

Interim income dividend 20 cts. Last paid 1.14 dlrs
February 27, including capital gains of 50 cts.
    Pyable April 20
    Record April eight
 Reuter

The Department of Trade and Industry,
DTI, has issued insider dealing charges against a former
employee of British and Commonwealth Shipping Co Plc <BCOM.L>,
a DTI statement said.
    DTI is charging Ronald Richard Jenkins, until recently
employed by British and Commonwealth's subsidiary Cayzer Irvine
and Co Ltd. He is to appear April 27 in a London court.
    The summons is the second insider dealing prosecution
launched by the government under recent legislation.
    The charges allege two insider dealing offences in
securities of B and C and <Steel Brothers Holdings Plc>.
    A DTI spokesman said plans to prosecute follow a probe into
the matter since mid-December by a lawyer and a London Stock
Exchange official who were officially appointed by the DTI as
inspectors.
    In November, B and C said an unnamed employee had resigned
after he was discovered buying shares in Steel Brothers just
before B and C announced an agreed bid for the 55 pct of Steel
which it did not already own.
    The attempted trade, which was subsequently cancelled,
covered 2,500 Steel shares purchase at 595p compared with a bid
price at 630p.
 Reuter

    Net 677,498 vs 461,485
    Revs 6,271,010 vs 5,135,729
    Year
    Shr 81 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 4,406,065 vs 973,967
    Revs 26.5 mln vs 14.1 mln
    Avg shrs 5,457,339 vs 4,978,965
 Reuter

Minister of State for Finance Tom Hockin
said he has asked the Canadian Bankers Association, an industry
lobby group, for an explanation of the level of credit card
    Hockin said he hopes to here the association's response on
the "important" issue soon. Hockin was responding to questions
in the House of Commons about why credit card rates, which run
as high as 28 pct per year, remain high when other rates are
falling.
    Today, the Canadian bank rate fell to 7.28 pct from 7.54
pct last week and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce cut
its prime rate, effective tomorrow, to 8.75 pct from 9.25 pct.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts in prior qtr
    Record Apreil nine
 Reuter

A former broker at PaineWebber Inc was
charged by a federal grand jury with involvement in a 700,000
dlr money-laundering scheme, according to indictment papers.
    Gary Eder, 41, a former vice-president at PaineWebber, was
charged with conspiracy and falsifying brokerage records in the
two-count indictment.
    According to the indictment, Eder produced more brokerage
commissions than any other broker at PaineWebber, and was its
most highly-paid broker between 1982-86.
    Eder is charged with conspiring with unnamed supervisors at
PaineWebber to prevent the filing of Currency Transaction
Reports with the Internal Revenue Service. Federal law requires
that reports be filed with the IRS for any single cash
transaction in one day of more than 10,000 dlrs.
    Asked about the charges, a Painewebber spokeswoman said the
company had not seen the indictment and had no comment. She
said Eder was suspended January 22 and resigned from the firm
on february 17.
    David Spears, the federal prosecutor in charge of the case,
said Eder received cash from individual customers in amounts
ranging up to 70,000 dlrs at a time but avoided filing reports
by depositing the cash into the customers' accounts in amounts
just under 10,000 dlrs on several different days.
    If convicted, Eder could receive a maximum jail term of ten
years and 260,000 dlrs in fines.
   
 Reuter

DIAMOND SHAMROCK RAISED CRUDE BY 50 CTS/BBL TODAY. WTI UP TO 17.50 DLRS.

WHITE HOUSE ASKS CONGRESS TO REFLECT COST OF U.S. LOAN SUBSIDIES IN BUDGET

Essex Chemical Corp said it filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement
covering a 60 mln dlr issue of convertivble subordinated
    Proceeds will be used to redeem the company's outstanding
11-3/8 pct subordinated debentures due 1998 and repay all long
and short-term notes payable to banks, as well as for working
capital, Essex Chemical said.
    The company named Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc as lead
manager and PaineWebber Inc as co-manager of the offering.
 Reuter

Alleghney International Inc said the
plaintiffs in the existing lawsuits opposing its sale requested
an amendment to their complaint to include a class action
count.
    Alleghney said the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court
for the Western District of Pennsylvania, was aimed at blocking
the sale of Alleghney to an affiliate of First Boston Inc.
    Allegheney said the additional count sought by the
plaintiffs alleges the price to be offered for AI's common
stock, 24.60 dlrs, is grossly unfair and one the purposes of
the proposed sale is to absolve the individual defendants of
liability in the lawsuit.
     The additional count among other forms of relief, requests
an injunction against the defendants from taking any steps to
accomplish the proposed sale, Alleghney said.
 Reuter

PHILLIPS RAISES CRUDE POSTINGS 50 CTS EFFECTIVE TODAY, WTI TO 17.50 dlrs/bbl

The number of seismic crews
searching for oil and gas in the United States dropped by nine
to a total of 151 crews, a decrease of six pct from January,
the Society of Exploration Geophysicists said.
    The February total represented a 49 pct decrease from
    Worldwide, the association's monthly survey showed that
seismic exploration for oil and gas increased to 395 in
February, up three from the month before. Africa added three
seismic crews, the Middle East increased by two and the Far
East added one while reductions were reported in Central and
South America, Europe and the United States.
 Reuter

BULL AND BEAR EQUITY INCOME FUND &lt;BULAX&gt; DIV
    NEW YORK, March 12 
    Qtly div eight cts vs eight cts prior
 Reuter

Perle resigned to complete work on a novel and said he was
confident the United States and Soviet Union were headed for a
verifiable arms control agreement.
    Perle, 45, one of the most outspoken and controversial
critics in the Reagan administration of past superpower weapons
treaties, told reporters he would continue to do consulting
work for the government on arms control.
    "I'm leaving in order to do other things, including finish
negotiations (with publishers) on my novel. I also plan to do
some other writing," said Perle.
 Reuter

Pessimism over the effects of a
prolonged dry spell on the coming Bahian temporao cocoa crop is
rising with trade forecasts generally in the 2.0 mln to 2.5 mln
bag range against 2.5 mln to 3.0 mln a fortnight ago.
    Trade sources told Reuters from the state capital of
Salvador that despite scattered rains since mid-February, which
broke a six week drought, plantations have not picked up as
hoped and very little cocoa is expected to be gathered in the
first three months of the May/September crop.
    The sources said arrivals from May through July might only
reach around 600,000 bags whereas in normal years a figure of
1.0 mln to 1.5 mln bags might be expected.
    Arrivals from then should start to pick up sharply as pods
from current flowering are gathered. However, the sources noted
a late temporao is always more susceptible to pod rot, which
flourishes if conditions turn cold and humid, and which is more
likely from late July on.
    This year's crop is doubly susceptible because poor prices
mean farmers were not encouraged to invest in fertilisers and
insecticides and are also unlikely to treat against pod rot.
    A severe attack of pod rot can cause the loss of over
500,000 bags in a very short period, one source said.
    Because of the increased exposure to pod rot damage,
estimates of the final outcome of the temporao are extremely
vulnerable and production could easily drop to below the 2.0
mln bag mark if the disease hits.
    Although flowering was good following the start of the
rains, pod setting was not up to expectations, possibly because
the drought had caused a drop in the insect population which
pollinates flowers, the sources said.
    However, reports from farms indicate moisture levels are
now generally back to near normal levels and that current
flowering and pod setting is good, which should result in
mature fruit from August through September.
    The sources said they expect no break in the harvesting of
beans between the end of the temporao and the beginning of the
main crop, which officially starts on October 1.
    "The cut-off date is completely artificial. If things go
well from now on we should see heavy harvesting without a break
from August through November or even December," one said.
    If predictions of a 2.0 to 2.5 mln bag temporao prove
accurate this would be below the 2.7 mln bag average for the
past 10 years. The last poor temporao was in 1984 when
prolonged drought and later pod rot cut production to 1.79 mln
bags, the lowest since 1974.
    Good growing conditions the following year produced a
temporao of 3.12 mln bags, just below the 1983 3.17 mln bag
record, while last year's output, which also suffered some
drought damage, was 2.77 mln bags.
    Figures for the coming temporao might be distorted upwards
by the inclusion of undeclared current main crop beans.
    The sources said large quantities of beans are believed to
have been undeclared from this year's record total harvest and
they were unsure how much of this would be unregistered by the
end of the official crop year on April 30.
    Recent official arrivals figures have been swollen by the
inclusion of beans which had been delivered previously to port
warehouses but not declared.
    Because of the high turnover of beans this year,
significant amounts have deteriorated because they were stored
too long at the back of warehouses. Some of these are expected
to be held for mixing in with early temporao arrivals.
    With official arrivals figures for the 1986/87 temporao and
main crops totalling over 6.1 mln bags, and over seven weeks
still to go to the end of the year, the total outturn should be
at least a record 6.5 mln bags if all production is declared,
    This would compare with the previous record set last year
of 6.03 mln.
    However, there is no way of telling how many current crop
beans will be declared after the May 1 start of the temporao
and thus the true size of the 1986/87 harvest may never be
officially registered.
 Reuter

Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc said it will
issue 150 mln dlrs in principal amount of 8-1/2 pct sinking
fund debentures due March 1, 2017.
    It said the offering will be through an underwriting
syndicate managed by Dillon, Read and Co Inc. They debentures
will be offered at 99.0 pct of the face amount to yield 8.59
pct to maturity.
    It said the debentures are being issued under a previously
announced shelf registration.
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs 37 cts
    net 7.6 mln vs 7.5 mln
    Revs 383.9 mln vs 326.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.17 dlrs vs 99 cts
    Net 24.0 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Revs 1.2 billion vs 1.0 billion
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 120,000 TONNES WHEAT  PURCHASED FROM FOREIGN SELLERS FOR 1987/88

Phillips Petroleum said it raised the
contract price it will for all grades of crude oil 50 cts a
    The increase brings Phillip's posted price for the West
Texas Intermediate and West Texas Sour grades to 17.50 dlrs a
bbl.
    Phillips last changed its crude oil postings on March 4.
    The price increase follows similar moves by USX's <X>
subsidiary, Marathon oil, and Sun Co <SUN> earlier today.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 48 cts vs profit 50 cts
    Oper net loss 11.3 mln vs profit 18.1 mln
    Revs 262.8 mln vs 399.7 mln
    Note: 1986 net excludes tax gain of 1.1 mln dlrs or three
cts shr vs yr-ago gain of 5.6 mln dlrs or 17 cts shr.
    1986 net includes 15 mln dlr charge for reduction in
carrying value of refinery and related assets. 1985 net
includes 10.8 mln dlr gain on sale of Canadian natural gas
property.
    U.S. dlrs.
 Reuter

    Oper net profit 523,000 vs loss 2,191,000
    Avg shrs 20.0 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Year
    Oper net profit 2,240,000 vs loss 2,884,000
    Avg shrs 19.4 mln vs 9,759,000
     NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a gain of
492,000 dlrs and 1,241,000 dlrs, respectively, for
carryforwards and a loss of 135,000 dlrs and 533,000 dlrs,
respectively, for early extinguishment of debt.
    1985 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a loss of 1,457,000
dlrs or 14 cts per share and loss 1,735,000 dlrs or 18 cts per
share, respectively, for discontinued operations.
 Reuter

Purolator Courier corp's stock rose on
specualtion that a disgruntled former Purolator director would
find a new suitor for the company, traders said.
    Purolator agreed in late February to a 35 dlr-a-share, 265
mln-dlr offer from E.F. Hutton LBO Inc and certain members of
its Purolator courier division's management.
    The stock today hit 36-1/4, up one.
    Today, Purolator revealed in a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission that director Doresy Gardner resigned
from its board of directors in a letter dated March 10.
    The letter from Gardner said he resigned the board because
the merger agreement with Hutton barred directors from
soliciting new offers and he believes shareholders might get a
better deal. Gardner said he believes a better offer might be
found if the company would agree to be sold to some other
entity, or if it could sell off all or part of its U.S. courier
division.
    "Basically, (the courier division) is a company that has
450 mln dlrs in revenues. It's a very large company and it's
being sold for 50 or 60 mln dlrs," said Gardner in a telephone
    Gardner is an official of Kelso Management, a firm
associated with Fidelity International Ltd. A group of Fidelity
companies owns eight pct of Purolator, and Gardner said he
personally owns 20,000 shares.
    A Purolator official said the company has no comment on the
letter from Gardner.
    Arbitragers speculated another overnight messenger service
may emerge as a likely bidder for Purolator. Before the
transaction with Hutton LBO was announced, analysts had also
speculated another courier company would be the most likely
suitor.
    While one arbitrager acknowledged there in fact may be no
new bidders, he said the possibility one could appear pushed
the stock into play again.
    "There's no shortage of possibilities. It's just a question
of management's willingness to let the process continue," said
    Arbitragers said a new buyer might be found because they
believe Hutton LBO has taken on no risk in the transaction.
Hutton has begun a tender for 83 pct of Purolator at 35 dlrs
cash per share. The balance of Purolator's stock will be bought
for securities and warrants in a new company holding the U.S.
    The arbitragers said tender offer documents show that
Hutton does not need to use its cash in the transaction and
will emerge with a giant, majority equity interest in
    "As far as I can tell from the public documents from the
deal that's on the table, Hutton is basically putting up zero.
One always likes a situation like that. You always like to
think if they can do this deal at no risk, there should be
someone else in the world that could do it higher," said one
arbitrager.
    The firm, however, is supplying temporary financing, and
sources close to the transaction disputed the claim that the
firm will not end up paying for its equity position.
    While one scenario mentioned in the tender offer document
did note that the E.F. Hutton Group subsidiary may not have to
keep cash in the transaction, the sources said there is some
risk to the firm.
    "There are a variety of contingencies and restricted cash,
and all sorts of things that make it very speculative," said
one of the sources, adding there are also severance payments to
    The E.F. Hutton Group subsidiary is supplying 279 mln dlrs
in so-called "bridge" financing for the transaction. The bridge
financing is a temporary loan from Hutton.
    The financing is to be replaced with permanent financing,
expected to come from banks. However, it may take some time to
replace the financing, the source said, resulting in what could
be a substantial expense to the firm.
    Gardner said Hutton stands to gain fees of 10 to 20 mln
dlrs from the transaction, but sources close to the transaction
said fees are at the low end of the scale.
    "It's a very complex transaction, but basically what
happens is they ostensibly put up money but the fees recapture
any investment they might have once the merger takes place,"
Gardner said.
 Reuter

private U.S. exporters reported purchases from foreign sellers
of 120,000 tonnes of wheat for delivery to unknown
    The wheat, consisting of 60,000 tonnes of hard red winter
and 60,000 tones of soft red winter, is for delivery during the
1987/88 season, which begins June 1.
    A purchase from a foreign seller is a transaction in which
a U.S. exporter contracts to buy U.S.-produced commodities from
a foreign firm, the department said.
 Reuter

VOLCKER SEES NO CLEARCUT EVIDENCE THAT U.S. TRADE DETERIORATION HAS YET BEEN REVERSED

Diamond Shamrock said it raised the
contract price it will pay for crude oil 50 cts a barrel,
    The increase brings the company's posted price for the
benchmark grade, West Texas Intermediate, to 17.50 dlrs/bbl.
    Diamond Shamrock last changed its postings on March 4.
 Reuter

VOLCKER SEES SEVERE PROBLEMS IN SOME SECTORS OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

TORONTO DOMINION BANK CUTS PRIME RATE TO 8-3/4 PCT FROM 9-1/4 PCT - TOMORROW

BANK OF MONTREAL CUTS PRIME RATE TO 8-3/4 PCT FROM 9-1/4 PCT, EFFECTIVE FRIDAY

R.P. Scherer Corp said it is
offering 1.6 mln shares of 5-3/4 pct convertible exchangeable
    Each stock is convertible into the company's common stock
at 23.60 dlrs a share, which represents a conversion premium of
24.2 pct over the last sale price of 19 dlrs a share on March
11.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co is lead underwriter for the offering.
    Scherer said one of its directors, Richard Manoogian, said
he will buy 200,000 shares of the preferred stock at the same
25 dlrs a share.
corporate purposes including funding an increasing commitment
to research and development on new drug formulations and
delivery systems.
 Reuter

VOLCKER SAYS FED REMAINS CONCERNED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RENEWED INFLATION

ASSETS OF MONEY MARKET MUTUAL FUNDS FELL 35.3 MLN DLRS IN LATEST WEEK TO 237.43 BILLION

will join Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige in fighting
Fujitsu Ltd's <ITSU.T> plan to buy 80 pct of <Fairchild
Semiconductor Corp>, Pentagon officials said.
    "He (Weinberger) opposes it. It is not in the best interests
of the country to have more of the micro-electronics business
leaving the United States," one of the Pentagon officials, who
asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
    Commerce Department officials told Reuters yesterday that
Baldrige opposed the planned sale and that the White House
Economic Policy Council will take up the matter within weeks.
    Commerce and defense officials said Baldrige and Weinberger
feared the U.S. military is already leaning too heavily on
foreign electronic support.
    But the Defense Department also said today that Weinberger
and Baldrige differed on the proposed sale of U.S. computer
equipment to Iran.
    The Commerce Department advised the Pentagon recently that
defense objections to two proposed sales -- to an Iranian power
company and the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency -- were
not valid and the sales of small and medium computers would go
through unless more evidence was presented.
 Reuter

A former account executive and
registered representative at Merrill Lynch Co Inc was charged
by a federal grand jury with diverting 8,400 dlrs of the
company's funds for his own use, according to court papers.
    Bentley Whitfield, 31, was accused by the Grand Jury of
mail fraud stemming from a scheme in which he deposited a check
payable to Merrill Lynch into a trading account that he opened
under a ficticious name.
    The grand jury found he withdrew 8,400 dlrs from the
account and used the money in a real estate deal. He faces a
maximum five years in jail and 1,000 dlr fine.
 Reuter

Implementation of a one-year 0/92
pilot program for wheat and feedgrains was strongly promoted
today by the chairman of a key house agriculture subcommittee
as a way to cut farm costs and simultaneously give farmers
another option when making their planting decisions.
    "We have a budget driven farm policy. It may be a shame,
but we are locked into this," said Dan Glickman, (D-Kans.),
chairman of the subcommittee on wheat, soybeans and feed
grains. "We need to look at ways to cut costs and not hurt the
farmer. A 0/92 plan, if properly done, could do both."
    Glickman announced this week plans to introduce a 0/92 bill
for 1987 and 1988 wheat and feedgrains. An aide to Glickman
said that it will probably be introduced next week.
    Glickman said a 0/92 program, which allows a farmer to
forego planting and still receive 92 pct of his deficiency
payment, would not be a major revision of the 1985 farm bill --
only an extension of the 50/92 option already provided under
the current bill.
    It is premature to make any major changes in the farm bill,
he said, but if agriculture has to make further cuts to meet
budget goals, a voluntary 0/92 plan would be better than
sharply cutting target prices, as USDA has proposed.
    A 0/92 plan, however, would not be decoupling, but simply a
different type of acreage diversion program, Glickman said.
    Decoupling -- delinking planting decisions from government
payments -- is too much of a policy change to approve at this
point, he said.
    "I don't think there is any interest in pursuing a
decoupling bill this year. Period. Unequivocal," Glickman said
at the hearing.
    Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), cosponsor of the
Boren/Boschwitz decoupling plan, said he supports a short term
0/92 program as a move to a more permament decoupling plan.
    Boschwitz plans to introduce a 0/92 plan in the senate. His
plan would guarantee a certain deficiency payment to
participating farmers, require that idled acreage be put to
conservation use only, prohibit haying and grazing on extra
idled acreage, limit participation to a certain number of acres
in a county and provide tenant protection provisions.
    "I know we cannot obtain complete decoupling in 1987, but
we can at least move in that direction," Boschwitz said.
    Robbin Johnson, vice president of Cargill, Inc., testified
in favor of decoupling. Decoupling would end the current bias
in U.S. farm policy towards overproduction and reduce farmers'
dependency on the government, he said.
    A 0/92 plan does not go far enough in decoupling, Johnson
said, and would still encourage farmers to plant.
    Officials from the National Corn Growers Association and
the National Cattlemen's Association said their groups oppose
any 0/92 or decoupling plan due to concerns about reopening the
farm bill and creating more confusion among farmers.
    But when asked if his association were forced to choose
between a ten pct cut in target prices or a 0/92 program, Larry
Johnson of the Corn Growers said they would agree to 0/92
rather than take sharp cuts in target levels.
 Reuter

Director of the Office of Management
and Budget James Miller said the Reagan administration had no
intention of raising taxes in order to reduce the federal
budget deficit.
     "There will be no tax increases," he said three times
before a Management Briefing luncheon of Southern Methodist
University's Edwin L. Cox School of Business.
     The budget deficit, which is currently slated at 173
billion dlrs for fiscal 1988, is supposed to be reduced to 108
billion dlrs under the provisions of the Gramm-Rudman Act,
which calls for a balanced budget by fiscal 1991.
     Miller said he believes the budget deficit can be reduced
but added, "the surest way to put us in a pickle" would be to
raise or ease the Gramm-Rudman goal.
     "If we were to raise taxes so soon after tax reform, it
would create enormous uncertainty on the financial markets," he
said, adding that giving up on the will to reduce the deficit
would also create uncertainty.
     Miller reiterated the president's budget proposal that the
deficit could be reduced by a total of 42 billion dlrs through
increased revenues and spending cuts. An additional 23 billion
dlrs from economic growth is expected to result in the budget
deficit being reduced to the 108 billion dlr target.
     Miller said it was possible the Administration might
support an oil import fee, but added that the President was
concerned that such a move might have more adverse results than
benefits.
     He also said the Administration was seeking to spin off
Amtrak, which costs the government about 500 mln dlrs a year,
but added that he did not expect it to be accomplished this
year.             
 Reuter

Hanover Insurance Co said Joseph Henry
has been elected financial vice president of the company and
its subsidiary, the Massachusetts Bay Insurance Co.
    Henry is a former partner of Peat Marwick Mitchell, Hanover
said.
 Reuter

Safeguard Scientifics Inc
said it made a 2.5 mln dlr equity investment in <Sanchez
Computer Associates Inc>, a private computer software firm
based in Malvern, Pa.
   Safeguard said the investment gives it a "major ownership
position" in Sanchez, which specializes in software products
for financial institutions.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,948,000 vs 2,124,000
    Sales 40.9 mln vs 41.0 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 40 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 3,864,000 vs 4,835,000
    Sales 81.7 mln vs 79.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 results include gain on sale of land of 571,000
dlrs, or six cts a share
    1986 results include loss from discontinued operations of
403,000 dlrs, or four cts a share in the quarter and 598,000
dlrs, or six cts a share in the six months
 
 Reuter

A Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) board recommended raising the two-dollar monthly
subscriber line charge for residential telephone customers by
1.50 dlrs over the next two years.
    The subscriber line charge was first levied by the FCC in
June, 1985, in an effort to more acurately reflect the cost of
providing phone service as a part of phone deregulation.
    The recommendation by the board, composed of federal and
state utility regulators, was expected to be approved by the
FCC in a seperate decision in the next few weeks.
    The subscriber line charge for residences and businesses
with single phone lines will rise to 2.60 dlrs in June 1987,
3.20 in September 1988, and 3.50 dlrs in April 1989.
    The staff of the FCC said at a public meeting that the
increase in the charge would make possible a reduction in
long-distance phone rates of 15 pct or 17 billion dlrs over six
years.
    Supporters of the subscriber line charge have argued that
long distance phone rates had been subsidizing local phone
service, which would lead to abandonment of the phone network
by large commercial phone customers.
 Reuter

cut to Caa from B-2 Allegheny Beverage Corp's 112 mln dlrs of
    The rating agency cited Allegheny's high leverage and poor
operating performance, as well as reduced cash flow.
    Moody's said the company's prospects for improvement are
limited by increasing competition in the food service industry
and decreasing demand for the vending services that Allegheny
provides. Moody's also said a renegotiated bank agreement
includes accelerated amortization requirements that exacerbate
Allegheny's already weakened ability to service its debt.
 Reuter

<Musikahn Corp> said it filed a
reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for itself
and its subsidiary, Jack Kahn Music Co.
    The company said both entities have been operating as
debtors in Chapter 11 since Oct 22, 1985.
    The plan provides for payment in full of administration
expenses and priority claims, and secured claims, the companies
said. In addition, priority claims of governmental units will
be paid in full over a period of six years.
    The companies said unsecured creditors will receive up to
25 pct of their claims.
 Reuter

First Financial Management Corp said
its board declared a three-for-two stock split of its common
stock.
    The split will be effected by a 50 pct stock dividend for
shareholders of record March 23 to be distributed on April six.
 Reuter

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA CUTS PRIME RATE TO 8-3/4 PCT FROM 9-1/4 PCT, EFFECTIVE TOMORROW

Command Airways said its
February load factor rose to 40.4 pct from 39.0 pct, available
seat miles rose to 9.6 mln from 7.1 mln last year and revenue
passenger miles rose to 3.9 mln from 2.8 mln.
    For the year to date, Command's load factor rose to 40.6
pct from 38.1 pct, revenue passenger miles rose to 37.0 mln
from 27.8 mln and available seat miles rose to 91.2 mln from
72.7 mln.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc and Honeywell Inc
said they formed a joint venture to provide advanced industrial
plant control systems and services.
    The companies did not say how much money they will invest
in the Phoenix-based venture, which has been named Icotron Co.
    Louis Garbrecht Jr, general manager of Texaco's engineering
and safety department, was named chairman of the venture, the
companies said. John Hoag, a Honeywell executive, will oversee
the day-to-day operations of the venture as president, the
partners said.
   
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it is adding a
third plant to its temporary layoff ranks.
    It said the Arlington Assembly plant in Arlington, Texas,
will be closed March 16 to 30 for inventory adjustment, a move
affecting some 2,000 workers.
    Two plants previously put on temporary layoff are the
Lakewood (Georgia) assembly plant, which will be closed in
early May for model changeover and the Norwood (Ohio) plant,
down March 9-23 due to material shortage. The total number on
temporary layoff will be 7,600.
 Reuter

Iowa Beef Processors Inc is lifting a
lockout at its Dakota City, Nebraska processing plant and plans
to resume operations March 16, United Food and Commercial
Workers Union spokesman Allen Zack said by phone from his
Washington, D.C. headquarters.
    Iowa Beef, a susbsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp,
mailed a letter to members of UFCWU Local 222 informing them a
lockout imposed by the company on December 14 would be lifted
and meatpackers could return to work under Iowa Beef's
"revised, last and best final offer," according to Zack.
    The letter was signed by four managers at the Dakota City
plant.
    Iowa Beef closed the proessing plant indefinitely in
mid-December because, it said, it had no alternative to threats
by meatpackers to disrupt operations.
    About 2,800 members of Local 222 are affected by the
shutdown. A 3-1/2 year labor contract at the plant expired
December 13.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 79,000 vs profit 507,000
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 2,238,000
    12 mths
    Shr profit two cts vs profit 23 cts
    Net 89,000 vs 1,130,000
    Revs 21.4 mln vs 7,766,000
 Reuter

Brown Transport Co Inc said its board
declared an initial quarterly dividend of four cts a share,
payable April 10 to stockholders of record March 31.
 Reuter

Walt Disney Co <DIS> said it
named Robert J. Fitzpatrick, president of Euro Disneyland.
    Disney said the appointment becomes effective when it and
the French government sign the definitive agreement for the new
outdoor entertainment complex near Paris. It said the park will
be built on nearly 5,000 acres in Marne-la-Vallee, 20 miles
east of Paris. It said it will include the Magic Kingdom theme
park, outdoor recreation, shops and hotels.
    It said it will seek qualified investors in France and
elsewhere to form the Europ Disneyland owner company, in which
it will also be an equity partner.
    Disney also said it will receive management fees for
operating the park in addition to license and royalty income.
    It said Fitzpatrick is president of California Institute of
the Arts and director of the Los Angeles Festival.

 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright said a
gasoline tax is one option to finding a way to reduce the
deficit, but told reporters in response to a question he will
not try to dictate a solution to the debt problem.
    Wright has made suggestions for raising taxes about 20
billion dlrs as part of a budget plan to reduce the deficit.
Tax proposals are being given consideration by members of the
House Budget Committee, but the details of any tax increase
would be made by the tax writing House ways and Means
Committee.
 Reuter

The Reagan Administration sent to
Congress proposed legislation that would require Congress to
reflect the cost of federal loan subsidies in the government's
budget.
    The legislation would require Congress to approve all
subsidies on loans, to sell off many loans to the private
sector shortly after they are made and to buy private
reinsurance for many guaranteed loans.
    White House officials estimated reinsurance premiums  could
amount to six billion dlrs a year to private companies.
    The bill would make little impact on the federal deficit or
payroll, officials said.
    The legislation would not in itself alter the terms of
federal credit programs.
    But officials said they would be pleased if Congress
tightened some programs after seeing their true cost set out in
    The program would call for the immediate sale of many newly
made direct federal loans, but would no effect existing federal
loan portfolios. Some of these are already proposed to be sold
off under previous administration programs.
    Exempt from the sale requirement would be loans made under
the Commodity Credit Corp commodity loan program, which the
government considers to be a commodity purchase program rather
than a credit program, and defaulted guaranteed loans, which
the government considers to be the same as direct loans.
    Also excluded from the sale requirement would be most
foreign loans, though officials said they may at some point
consider selling off some Export-Import Bank loans.
    Officials said government loan programs currently amount to
about 252 billion dlrs in direct loans and 450 billion dlrs in
guaranteed loans a year.
    Officials said U.S. agencies were asked to calculate the
approximate cost of their loan subsidies by looking at
comparable loans in the marketplace.
    The administration is asking Congress to begin reflecting
the cost of these subsidies in the fiscal 1988 budget, which
the House Budget Committee plans to begin marking up late next
week.
    Officials said the reforms, if adopted across-the-board by
all affected congressional committees, would lower the federal
deficit by only 100 mln dlrs in fiscal 1988.
    Officials said the administration hopes to sell a total of
13.0 billion dlrs in loan assets during fiscal 1988, including
1.8 billion dlrs in loan assets under the credit reform program
and 11.2 billion dlrs in loan assets already in the
governemnt's portfolion.
    In fiscal 1989, the administration hopes to sell 8.9
billion dlrs in loans, including 1.3 billion dlrs of loans
under the credit reform program and 7.6 billion dlrs from the
existing portfolio.
 Reuter

KEY U.S. HOUSE TRADE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES BILL TO TOUGHEN U.S. TRADE LAWS

Summit Petroleum Corp said it
sold 11.3 mln shares, or 29.4 pct, of its common stock to
<Halbert and Associates Inc>.
    The company said the shares were previously held by
<Consolidated Energy Corp> and Harken Oil and Gas Inc <HOGI>.
    In addition, David D. Halbert, president and chief
executive officer of Halbert, an Abilene investment firm, was
named chairman and chief executive of Summit, the company said.
   Halbert, Charles M. Bruce and James O. Burke were also named
directors, expanding the board to five, Summit added.
    The company said Burke is president and chief executive of
<Allied Comprehensive Health Inc>, Abilene, while Bruce is a
partner in the Washington law firm of Butler and Binion.
    Summit said it intends to actively seek acquisitions to
increase its asset base.
 Reuter

Genral Dynamics Corp has received a
44.7 mln dlr contract for steam and electric plant development
for SSN-21 submarines, the Navy said .
 REUTER

Japanese crushers bought 8,000 tonnes
of Canadian rapeseed in export business overnight for April
shipment, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker said current data does not give a clear sign that the
deterioration in the U.S. trade balance has yet been reversed.
    "The data we have in hand do not provide clearcut evidence
that the deterioration in the trade balance has yet been
reversed," Volcker said in remarks prepared for delivery to a
luncheon for community leaders here.
    However, Volcker said there are encouraging signs,
particularly the rising volume of exports over the past year,
achieved despite relatively slow growth abroad.
    Volcker warned it is not sustainable from an economic
perspective to pile up foreign debt while failing to make the
investment needed to generate growth and earn the money to
service the debt.
    He said the process of restoring external balance to the
U.S. economy requires dealing with the budget deficit. He said
needed economic adjustment will require a relative shift of
financial and real resources into internationally competitive
industry. "More of our growth will need to be reflected in net
exports and business investment and less in consumption,"
Volcker said.
 Reuter

lockout at its Dakota City, Nebraska, processing plant and
plans to resume operations March 16, United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) Union spokesman Allen Zack said.
    Iowa Beef mailed a letter to members of UFCW Local 222
informing them a lockout imposed by the company December 14
would be lifted and meatpackers could return to work under Iowa
Beef's "revised, last and best final offer," Zack said.
    Iowa Beef had closed the plant indefinitely in mid-December
because it said it had no alternative to threats by meatpackers
to disrupt operations.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss 61 cts
    Net profit 3,000 vs loss 1,148,000
    Revs 18.4 mln vs 17.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 94 cts vs loss 28 cts
    Net loss 1,762,000 vs loss 524,000
    Revs 58.5 mln vs 67.3 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes extraordinary gain of 569,000 dlrs
or 30 cts per share.
 Reuter

Allied-Lyons PLC <ALLD.L> and Canada's
Reichmann brothers are working well together as partners and
currently do not plan any change in their joint ownership of
distiller Hiram Walker-Gooderham and Worts, Allied-Lyons
chairman Derrick Holden-Brown said.
    Allied-Lyons got 51 pct control of Hiram Walker-Gooderham
last year for about 600 mln U.S. dlrs, while the Reichmanns'
<Gulf Canada Corp> acquired 49 pct in an out-of-court pact
after a hostile battle for the wine and spirits division of
<Hiram Walker Resources Ltd>.
    "We are getting along very well as partners ... I hope
there won't be any change, but there could be," Holden-Brown
told reporters after a speech in Toronto.
    He said Allied-Lyons has a two-year call option that could
force Gulf Canada to sell its 49 pct stake to Allied-Lyons, and
Gulf Canada has a two-year put option that could obligate
Allied-Lyons to buy its 49 pct.
    "Both we and Gulf hope very much there will be no occasion
for either the put or call to be exercised," Holden-Brown said.
    In answer to a reporter's question, Holden-Brown said it
would be possible for Gulf Canada to sell off part of its 49
pct in a public offering with Allied-Lyons' consent. "I don't
think we would have any objection to it," he added.
    Allied-Lyons maintains control of Hiram Walker-Gooderham's
board of directors and has total responsibility for its
management. "We cannot contemplate giving up our control," he
said.
    Holden-Brown would not disclose how big a profit
contribution the distiller will make in Allied-Lyons' financial
results, but he said "it will be substantial."
    "I am not able to give profit forecasts," he said.
    Holden-Brown said Allied-Lyons was able to finance the
Hiram Walker-Gooderham acquisition with cash and borrowings,
and has no current plans for a stock issue.
    He said the company is not currently negotiating any more
acquisitions in Canada but has a team of officials evaluating
possible purchases of wines, spirits, soft drinks or food
concerns. "I don't think we shall be looking at the brewery
scene (which is) highly concentrated already," he added.
    Holden-Brown said Allied-Lyons plans to list its shares on
Canadian stock exchanges, possibly later this year.
             
 Reuter

fell 718 mln dlrs to 64.87 billion in the week ended March 4,
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
    Including acceptances, loans fell 581 mln dlrs to 65.63
billion.
    Commercial paper outstanding nationally dropped 13 mln dlrs
to 336.02 billion.
Friday.
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service said it is
reviewing 648 mln dlrs of securities issued by Atlantic City
Electric Co for a possible downgrade because of an unresponsive
rate order from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
    The net effect of the Board's recent ruling was to reduce
the company's rates by 15.9 mln dlrs, Moody's said.
    Ratings under review include the company's first mortgage
bonds and secured pollution control revenue bonds, currently
AA-3.
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 2,253,742 vs 1,332,652
    Avg shrs 4,251,553 vs 3,932,064
 Reuter

Farm credit conditions showed
further signs of stabilizing in the plains and mountain states
during the fourth quarter of 1986, according to bankers
surveyed by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.
    The rate of loan repayment improved as one of every four
bankers reported higher loan repayment rates than a year ago.
Respondents said interest rates continued to edge lower.
    However, the decline in farm real estate values quickened
after moderating through the year, dropping an average four
pct. Farmland values averaged 14 pct lower than a year earlier
and 55 pct below 1981's peak values.
    The survey authors blamed the drop on depressed crop prices
and uncertainty about the future of government crop programs.
    Farm loan demand was the lowest since 1986 with only 13 pct
of the survey respondents reporting an increase in loan demand.
The also reported that 25 pct of the non-farm businesses in
their areas were having severe financial problems, and said the
rate of rural non-farm business closings was nearly three times
higher than normal.
    Over 150 bankers responded to the survey in the Tenth
Federal Reserve District which includes all or parts of
Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and
Wyoming.
 Reuter

Div 12 cts vs 12 cts
    Record April 8
    NOTE: company pays dividend of 12 cts three times annually
with a bulk payment at the end of the fiscal year to equal
annual dividend of 50 cts.
 Reuter

The use of generic in-kind commodity
certificates has helped ease storage problems and is a
necessary part of export promotion programs, a senior executive
for the world's largest grain company said.
    Testifying before the House Agriculture subcommittee on
wheat, soybeans and feedgrains, Robbin Johnson, vice president
of Cargill, Inc., disputed claims that U.S. grain companies
have made huge profits from certificate trading.
    "The certs program is not in any way a windfall to the
trade," he said. Johnson said that Cargill has been dealing
with a two pct spread in certificate transactions, and that
this is within the normal grain marketing levels.
    Johnson recognized current concern over the cost of
certificates as compared to cash, but said that critics need to
look more closely at the savings caused by certs, noting for
example that widespread use of certs in the PIK and Roll
marketing technique last summer helped ease storage costs.
    Certificates are also an important part of any export
promotion program, he said.
    "The more you look at ways to expand export markets, the
more you have to look at ways to expand certs to put more grain
into the market to meet demand," he said.
    Subcommittee chairman Dan Glickman (D-Kans.) said his
committee would be looking at the certificate program later
this year and studying the General Accounting Office report on
certificate costs.
 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright endorsed a
proposal to require the president to take action to reduce oil
imports if they threaten to top 50 pct of U.S. consumption.
    Wright told reporters the plan by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a
fellow Texas Democrat, was positive and useful. Oil imports
peaked in 1977 at 47 pct, were short of 36 pct last year and
this year are up over 40 pct, Bentsen said. 
    The Bentsen proposal, supported by 24 other Senators, would
would require the president to issue annual three-year oil
import forecasts. In any year they threatened to top 50 pct, he
would be ordered to propose quotas or other solution.
   
 Reuter

Orbis COmmunications said it entered
an agreement in principle to join Coca-Cola Co's <KO>
Telecommunications Inc unit and Gulf and Western Inc's
Entertainment Group proposed venture to sell national barter
advertising.
    Under national barter advertising, a syndicator sells
programs to a station for proceeds from national advertising
instead of for cash.
    The joint venture will be called International Advertising
Sales and will handle the sale of advertising time for programs
by all three companies.
 Reuter

<Casey-Werner Co>, producer of "The
Cosby Show," said it filed suit against Viacom International
Inc, seeking assurances that it will receive its share of
revenues from the show's syndication.
    It said the debt burden placed on Viacom by the 3.4 billion
dlr buyout proposal from <National Amusements Inc> and Viacom's
9.9 mln dlr 1986 loss may prevent it from paying Casey-Werner
its money due from the show.
    Casey-Werner sought assurances from Viacom that its share
of the syndication will not go to Viacom's creditors. But it
said Viacom declined to provide the assurance.
    Alvin Schulman, an attorney representing Casey-Werner, said
Viacom should receive about 450 mln dlrs total from the
syndication rights to the show. Casey-Werner is entitled to
about 66 pct of the funds, he said.
    Schulman added that Viacom is due to receive in March and
April an initial 40 mln dlrs from the syndication rights. To
ensure Casey-Werner receives its share, the company filed suit,
he said.
    The suit asked the court to place all funds due
Casey-Werner in a trust, and for Viacom to account for all
funds received.
 Reuter

U.S. SELLS 1-YEAR BILLS AT AVERAGE 5.68 PCT, STOP 5.68 PCT, AWARDED AT HIGH YIELD 71 PCT

President Reagan today had talks
with Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, who afterwards appealed
for more U.S. investment in Kenya and a deeper American
commitment to ending apartheid in South Africa.
    A senior administration official said that during the talks
Reagan stressed to Moi the importance of Kenya's maintaining
its high standards on human rights.
    The official said South Africa had not been a contentious
issue in the talks and that the two leaders had found a lot of
common ground on the issue. 
    The administration has practiced a policy of "constructive
engagement" with South Africa and accepted trade sanctions only
after they had been imposed by Congress.
 Reuter

U.S. BANK DISCOUNT BORROWINGS AVERAGE 148 MLN DLRS A DAY IN MARCH 11 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK NET FREE RESERVES 660 MLN DLRS IN TWO WEEKS TO MARCH 11, FED SAYS

U.S. M1 FALLS 600 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 2 WEEK, FEB M2 DOWN 1.6 BILLION, M3 UP 3.0 BILLION

Phoenix Steel Corp said it
reached a revised debt reorganization agreement under which its
unsecured trade creditors would receive up to 50 cts on the dlr
as well as a share in future profits or sale proceeds.
    Phoenix said it arranged the new agreement with its major
shareholder, <Guardian Ventures>, and a committee representing
its unsecured creditors. The pact, the company said, replaces a
plan that was proposed last December.
    The plan must be approved by April 1 by 80 pct of Phoenix's
unsecured and other creditors, the company said.
    Phoenix said the new plan increases the amount to be paid
unsecured creditors to 50 cts from 40 cts on the dlr and adds
terms for creditor participation in future profits or sale
proceeds.
    In exchange, the company said the creditors must agree not
to sue the company or force it into involuntary bankruptcy.
    The creditors must also withdraw claims against Phoenix,
Guardian and others, Phoenix said.
 Reuter

Princeville Development Corp and
<Aloha Inc>, parent of Aloha Airlines Inc, jointly said they
agreed to terms for the sale of Princeville Airways Inc to
Aloha. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
    Under the proposed sale, the companies said Aloha would
acquire the entire Princeville Airways commuter operation and
access to the Princeville Airport on the island of Kauai.
    They said Princeville Airways is expected to operate as a
subsidiary of Aloha Inc and will continue to use the
Princeville Aiways name.
 Reuter

New Hampshire Savings Bank Corp
said it agreed to buy <Seashore Bankshares Inc> in an exchange
of stock.
    According to the terms of the deal, it said Seashore's
61,000 shares will be exchanged for 9.8 mln dlrs of New
Hampshire Savings stock.
    It said Seashore Bankshares has assets of about 46 mln
dlrs.

 Reuter

Invacare Corp said the Canadian
Federal Court ruled in favor of it in a patent infringement
action filed against Everest and Jennings Canadian Ltd.
    The court ordered that Everest respond in an undisclosed
amount of damages to Invacare for its actions.
    A corresponding case is currently pending in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
 Reuter

Systems Assurance Corp said its
board elected Charles Scott as chairman and chief executive
officer.
    He replaces Ronald Grant, who will remain a director with
the company, Systems said.
    Scott is president of Insurance Data Processing Inc <IDP>,
which is the majority stockholder of Systems Assurance, the
    Two new board members, John Kreisler and James McInerney,
were named executive vice president and senior vice president
at SAC, respectively, according to the company.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp's Chrysler Motors unit
said it will put four of its U.S. assembly plants on overtime
during the week of March 16.
    Three of the plants will also operate Saturday, March 14,
beyond the normal five-day work week.
    Chrysler facilities at Newark, Del., Sterling Heights,
Mich., Warren, Mich., and the Jefferson plant in Detroit will
work overtime hours during the week. Newark, Sterling Heights
and Jefferson will work Saturday.
 Reuter

Florida Citrus Processors
Association said frozen concentrate orange juice movement into
trade channels in the week ended March 7 totalled 3,915,370
gallons versus 3,956,126 gallons in the week ended February 28
and 4,284,693 gallons in the corresponding year-ago period.
    There were 3,814,891 gallons of foreign imports last week
versus 133,505 gallons the week before. Domestic imports last
week were 306,031. Retail movement was 1,652,916 versus
2,015,953 a year ago. Bulk movement was 1,934,494 against
1,954,103 a year earlier.
    Current season cumulative movement was 60,480,375 gallons
versus 59,654,702 last year. Cumulative net pack for the season
was 80,359,978 versus 74,071,755 a year ago. Inventory was
83,422,435 versus 81,963,040 a year ago.
 Reuter

may downgrade 200 mln dlrs of debt of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Inc.
    The rating agency cited Harcourt Brace's recent aggressive
acquisition activity and increasing leverage.
    Harcourt Brace has offered 220 mln dlrs for Harper and Row
Publishers, Moody's noted. This follows Harcourt's completed
acquisitions of the publishing group of CBS Inc and Marineland.
 Reuter

Paco Pharmaceutical Services Inc said
its common stock began trading today on the New York Stock
Exchange.
    The company's stock opened at 26-3/4 and closed at 26-1/8
on 21,900 shares traded.
      Paco said NASDAQ will continue to carry its common stock
warrants due to expire Decmber 31 under the symbol <PPSIW> and
its convertible debentures issued February six under the symbol
<PPSIG>.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply fell 600 mln
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 738.0 billion dlrs in the March 2
week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 738.6 billion
dlrs from 738.5 billion, while the four-week moving average of
M-1 rose to 737.1 billion dlrs from 736.8 billion.
    Commenting on February growth of the broader monetary
aggregates, the Fed said that M-2 fell 1.6 billion dlrs, while
M-3 rose three billion. Economists polled by Reuters had
projected a 900 mln dlr fall in M-1, a 1.8 billion dlr drop in
M-2 and no change in M-3.
 Reuter

A U.S. judge today dismissed
a lawsuit by fired White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver North
seeking to halt a special prosecutor's investigation into the
Iran arms scandal.
    In a 21-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Barrington
Parker threw out North's suit challenging the constitutionality
of the law empowering special prosecutor  Walsh to investigate
secret arms sales to Iran and the diversion of profits to
"contra" rebels in Nicaragua.
    "The nation demands an expeditious and complete disclosure
of our government's involvement in the Iran-contra affair,"
Parker ruled.
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd said a
majority of a group of 56 major creditors support the company's
revised proposal to restructure debt of more than 6.1 billion
    Outlining terms of the plan circulated to the lenders
earlier this week, the company said it is seeking approval in
principle for the proposal "within the next several weeks" in
order to implement the debt rescheduling by June 30, 1987.
    "Although at today's price levels it only allows the company
to struggle on, benefits appear as oil prices rise," Dome
chairman J. Howard Macdonald said in a statement.
    "We believe the plan is a rational one, and will be valid
under a range of circumstances," chairman Macdonald said.
    The lenders previously agreed to an interim debt
rescheduling until June 30 to allow Dome time to negotiate a
long-term recapitalization.
    The debt proposal is designed to ensure continued existence
of the company, which would see lenders get maximum recovery of
their loans, Dome said.
    The plan would maintain debt levels within Dome's ability
to pay, subject to minimum debt service levels for each lender.
    Dome said the debt proposal offers measures such as equity
conversion options and reclassification to lower interest
bearing categories of debt to accomplish its objectives.
    Under certain circumstances, lenders will have the option
to convert all or part of their debt to common shares at a
pre-determined conversion rate upon plan implementation.
    The various conversion rates remain to be set through
negotiations, and the company said it is impossible to predict
the extent to which the conversion option will be exercised and
the amount of dilution that may result.
    Converting debt to common shares after the plan is
implemented would be at a much higher conversion price, Dome
said.
    Common shareholders will be asked to approve the plan
before it is put in place.
    Debt that remains after share conversion will either
receive scheduled payments based on contract interest rates and
a 15 to 20 year pay-out, or interest rates indexed to oil
prices. The company will use both an annual security-to-debt
ratio test and a monthly cash flow test to classify which
interest payments are paid on the different portions of debt.
    To achieve a stable operating base for the company, the
plan provides for deducting operating costs, capital
expenditures and general and administrative expenses before the
remaining available cash flow is distributed to lenders, Dome
said.
    The proposal also assumes efforts will continue to operate
the business as efficiently as possible, it said.
    As the company previously said, debt payments from cash
flow be divided into two broad categories, secured and
unsecured creditors.
    Terms of the debt plan include paying institutional
unsecured creditors, comprising mostly banks who hold private
debt, from cash flow generated by unpledged assets. This
portion will get a fixed low interest rate under a 15-year
repayment schedule.
    Remaining institutional unsecured debt will get paid
through convertible, oil indexed unsecured debt that matures in
20 years, or any available excess cash flow, or conversion to
equity. Any institutional lender also has the option of taking
all or part of its debt in common shares.
    To offer public unsecured debtholders liquidity, Dome said
they can also convert all or part of their debt to common
shares when the plan is implemented. Any debt leftover would be
exchanged for a convertible debenture with an interest rate
linked to oil prices.
    Secured creditors would get paid from cashflow generated by
the assets pledged against their debt under a complex formula,
    Any shortfalls under the formula could also be converted to
oil-linked debentures.
 Reuter

Volcker said severe problems remain in some sectors of the U.S.
economy despite progress in others.
    "Severe problems in some sectors of the economy are all too
obvious," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to a
luncheon of business leaders here.
    He said oil exploration and development, as well as
agricultural prices, have been heavily affected by worldwide
surpluses.
    Commercial construction, he said, is suffering from earlier
over-building in many areas.
    More broadly, he said, there are distortions and imbalances
in the U.S. economy that cut across many sectors.
    "Unless dealt with effectively and forcibly, they will
undermine all that has been achieved," Volcker warned.
    He said one problem is that economic activity over the past
two years has been supported largely by consumption.
    He said that rising consumption was achieved at the expense
of reduced personal savings. At the same time, he said, the
huge Federal budget deficit is absorbing a disproportionate
amount of the savings generated in the U.S.
    Volcker said the adverse consequences of the combination of
low savings rates and high Federal budget deficits have been
escaped by drawing on capital from abroad.
    He noted that the net flow of foreign capital into the U.S.
in 1986 exceeded all the savings by U.S. households.
    "That is a graphic demonstration of the extent to which
our financial markets are hostage to possible changes in
external attitudes and circumstances," Volcker said.
 Reuter

Bolivia is to make a formal offer during
the next few months to buy back its 900 mln dlrs debt from
commercial banks at a discount of up to 90 pct, central bank
president Jier Nogales said.
     Nogales told Reuters in an interview the steering
committee of Bolivia's creditor banks had agreed to consider
the offer at a meeting in New York last month.
     He said the offer would be based on the value of Bolivian
paper on the international secondary debt market, where it now
trades at between 10 and 15 pct of its face value.
    Nogales said Bolivia will make a single offer to buy back
its commercial debt and banks who accepted would be paid the
discounted rate in full.
    Banks which declined the offer would be repaid over 20 to
30 years at interest rates below those fixed in the
international markets, he added.
    Bolivia has frozen payments on medium and long term loans
to commercial banks since March, 1984, and Nogales said there
would be no money available to restart traditional debt
servicing to them for some time.
     Several Latin American countries have initiated schemes to
cancel foreign debt by equity swaps or third party buy-backs,
but Bolivia would be the first country in the region to make a
formal offer to buy back all its commercial bank debt at
discounted rates.
    Nogales said practical and strategic considerations would
determine the exact timing of the offer but it would be made in
the next few months.
     He said Bolivia would not bargain with creditor banks over
the price to paid for the debt paper they hold, and would make
a single non-negotiable offer.
    He said Bolivia could not even pay interest to friendly
creditor countries, let alone commercial banks. The only
traditional way forward was to capitalise interest, which would
mean greater bank exposure in Bolivia and greater loss
provisions, he added.
    "We are confident that the banks are going to be
reasonable," Nogales said. "Now they can resolve their problems
for once and for all."
    "The most conservative ones who want a little more will
wait a year, but I don't know if the window of opportunity will
be open all the time," he added.
    Discussing the status of other parts of Bolivia's four
billion dlr foreign debt, 2.5 billion of which is owed to
governments and the rest to international agencies, Nogales
said negotiators had achieved considerable success in recent
discussions with the Paris Club.
     He said Paris Club creditors had agreed to reschedule
Bolivian debt over 10 years with five to six years grace, while
accepting that interest would not be paid until 1989. Interest
rates were being discussed on a bilateral basis under Paris
Club rules, he added.
     He said some Paris Club members had agreed to disregard
penalty interest payments and negotiations were continuing with
Argentina and Brazil, who hold 700 mln dlrs of Bolivian debt.
    He said Bolivia was continuing to service loans from
international agencies, and it expected to receive up to 400
mln dlrs in disbursements this year.
    The capital flow for loans and their servicing had changed
from a negative balance of 250 mln dlrs in 1985 to a net inflow
of 130 mln dlrs last year, he added.
    Nogales said that Bolivia's net international reserves now
stood at around 250 mln dlrs, compared to one mln dlrs in
disposable funds when the government of Victor Paz Estenssoro
took office in August, 1985.
    Nogales said inflation, which soared to over 20,000 pct a
year in the government's first month in office, was now down to
10 pct on an annualised basis from the last six months, and the
plan was that it should continue at this level.
    He said the government was also expecting at least three
pct growth in gdp this year after several years of negative
rates.
 Reuter

A marketing loan for U.S. wheat,
feedgrains and soybeans would do nothing to help the surplus
production situation and would be extremely costly, Sen. Rudy
Boschwitz (R-Minn.) said.
    "I think I would not support a marketing loan now," he told
the House agriculture subcommittee on wheat, soybeans and
feedgrains. Boschwitz was one of the original supporters of a
marketing loan for cotton and rice, but has since focused
support on decoupling legislation, the Boren/Boschwitiz bill.
    A market loan for grains and soybeans would encourage more
production, especially in high-yielding areas, would be much
more expensive than the current cotton and rice marketing loans
and not increase exports significantly, he said.
 Reuter

Sale of farm wheel tractors in February
declined 26.7 pct to 4,123 units from 5,627 units a year ago,
reported the Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute.
    Year to date, total tractor sales fell 21.7 pct to 10,354
units from 13,231 units a year ago.
    The trade group said in the two-wheel drive sector, 2,477
under 40 horsepower tractors were sold compared to 2,479 a year
ago during the month, while in the 40 to 100 horsepower sector,
1,323 units were sold compared to 1,810 units.
 Reuter

AmVestors Financial Corp said it
declared a 25 pct stock dividend payable June 19 to holders of
record June one, subject to an increase in authorized shares.
    It said shareholders will vote at the April 23 annual
meeting to increase authorized shares to 25 mln from 10 mln.
    The company also said it plans to pay an initial quarterly
dividend of five cts a share on the shares.

 Reuter

The House Ways and Means Trade 
Subcommittee unanimously approved a toned-down version of
legislation designed to toughen U.S. trade laws and wedge open
foreign markets to more U.S. goods.
    The measure now goes to the full House Ways and Means
Committee next week, but major changes are not expected,
congressional sources said.
    "This product could very well be toughening our trade policy
and doing it in a manner that opens markets without this
frightening word 'protectionism'," Ways and Means chairman Dan
Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat said.
    The trade subcommittee backed away from mandating specific
retaliation against foreign countries for unfair foreign trade
practices as the House had approved in a trade bill last year.
    But it held over for the full Ways and Means Committee
debate on a controversial plan by Rep. Richard Gephardt to
mandate a reduction in trade surpluses with the U.S. by
countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
    Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, has not decided the exact
form of his amendment, an aide said. Last year the House
approved his idea to force an annual ten pct trade surplus cut
by those countries. 
    The trade bill will be wrapped in with legislation from
other committees dealing with relaxation of export controls,
incentives for research, expanded worker training and education
and other efforts to increase U.S. competitiveness.
    The comprehensive trade bill is to be considered by the
full House in late April and then will be considered by Senate
committees.
    It requires President Reagan to retaliate against foreign
unfair trade practices but do not mandate quotas or tariffs and
allow an exemption if U.S. economic security would be harmed by
U.S. actions against other countries.
    The bill would make it easier for U.S. industries to win
relief from surges of imports of competitive products.
    It extends until January 1993, the administration's
authority to negotiate trade agreements as part of the new
round of multilateral talks under the General Agreements on
    And, it includes provisions to tighten trade rules on
copyrights, patents and telecommunications goods.
 Reuter

Rochester Gas and Electric Corp
said 300,000 shares of 8.25 pct preferred stock, series R, will
be offered at 100 dlrs per share plus accrued dividends, if
any, from the date of the original issue.
    It said The First Boston Corp <FBC> and <E.F. Hutton and Co
Inc> are co-underwriters of the issue.
    It said net proceeds of the offering will be used to redeem
its 10.84 pct preferred stock, series G, which is currently
callable at 107 dlrs per share and for other corporate
purposes.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Jan 30
    Oper shr loss 45 cts vs profit 44 cts
    Oper Net loss 225,815 vs profit 219,593
    Revs 175,247 vs 827,748
    NOTE: oper net 1987 excludes loss from discontinued
operations of 125,047 vs loss 34,055 for prior qtr.
    excludes tax carryforward 150,000 for prior qtr.
 Reuter

Volcker said both the Fed and the financial markets remain
concerned about the possibility of renewed inflation.
    "A possibility of renewed inflation remains of concern,
both in the markets and within the Federal Reserve," he said in
remarks prepared for delivery to a group of business leaders
here.
    He said one potential channel for renewed inflationary
pressures would be an excessive fall of the dollar in the
exchange markets, which would push import prices up sharply.
    He said participants in financial markets and business
remain skeptical of prospects for lasting price stability.
    "Should the skepticism about our ability to resist
inflation be reinforced by bad policy, the consequences for
interest rates, for exchange rates, and for the economy
generally would clearly be undesirable...recognition of that
danger neccesarily must weigh heavily in the formation of
monetary policy," the Fed chairman said.
    Volcker said attempts to drive the dollar much lower would
undermine the hard won gains against inflation and would risk
dissipating the flow of foreign capital.
 Reuter

Georgia-Pacific Corp said it will
redeem all 3,267,019 shares of its outstanding series A, B, B
second issue and C adjustible rate convertible preferred stock
on April 15.
    The company said it will redeem all four series at 39 dlrs
a share, plus nine cts in dividends accrued from April one to
April 15.
    First quarter preferred dividends will be paid separately
on April one to holders of record March six, the company said.
    It said holders may convert each share of their preferred
stock into one share of common through April 15.
 Reuter

NZI Capital Corp, a unit of <NZI
Corp>, is offering 150 mln dlrs of guaranteed notes due 1997
yielding 8.36 pct, said sole manager Kidder, Peabody and Co
Inc.
    The notes have an 8-1/4 pct coupon and were priced at
99.261 to yield 115 basis points more than comparable Treasury
securities. Non-callable for seven years, the issue is rated
A-2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc and A-plus by Standard and
    The notes will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
NZI is an insurance company in New Zealand.
 Reuter

UNOCAL RAISES MOST CRUDE PRICES 50 CTS, TODAY, WTI AT 17.50 DLRS

Qtly div 51 cts vs 51 cts prior
 Reuter

KENNETH DUBERSTEIN TO BE DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, OFFICIALS SAY

Shr 516 cts vs 347
    Final div 135 vs 125 making 190 vs 180
    Pre-tax 133 mln rand vs 137 mln
    Net 260 mln vs 172 mln
    Tax 76 mln vs 42 mln
    Att to outside shareholders 96 mln vs 53 mln
    Pref div 1 mln vs same
    Turnover 3.14 billion vs 2.56 billion
    Div pay May 8, register March 27.
    Note - Full name is Anglo American Industrial Corp Ltd.
 REUTER

Wisconsin Energy Corp's Wisconsin
Electric Power Co said it will redeem its 100 dlr par value
serial preferred stock on April 14.
    Wisconsin Electric said it will redeem 333,325 shares of
its 8.9 pct preferred at 101 dlrs a share, 225,810 shares of
its 7.75 pct preferred at 101 dlrs a share, and 140,967 shares
of its 8.8 pct preferred at 105.87 dlrs a share.
    The redemption will be financed from a new issue of the
company's preferred stock.
    First Wisconsin Trust Co will be the redemption agent.
 Reuter

Live cattle futures posted a robust
rally today after a major beef packing company said it would
end a lockout at its slaughtering plant in Dakota City, Neb.
    April delivery cattle on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
closed at 64.45 cents a pound, up 0.83 cent, as the market
expected demand for live animals to increase as the plant
restarts operations.
    Iowa Beef Processors, a division of Occidental Petroleum,
said it planned to reopen the plant, one of the largest in the
nation, on March 16. The plant has been closed since Dec. 14,
the day after a contract between IBP and Local 222 of the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union expired.
    The plant employs 2,800 workers and can slaughter several
thousand animals a day, a company spokesman said.
    The company said it locked out union workers because they
threatened to disrupt operations. It was unclear whether union
meatpackers would return to work. They rejected the company's
latest contract offer March 5.
    Traders said cattle prices advanced at midsession as rumors
circulated that the lockout was ending, and gains were further
fueled by a noticeable increase in demand for live animals on
cash markets in Nebraska and the Texas Panhandle.
    The rally in cattle also boosted values of live hogs and
frozen pork bellies, which also were supported by indications
that producers were expanding their hog herds at a slower rate
than previously expected.
    Petroleum futures posted a modest rally on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
    But a report that the Soviet Union planned to reduce the
price of its crude oil exports may pressure the market Friday,
said Nauman Barakat, petroleum analyst in New York with Smith
Barney, Harris Upham and Co.
    Buying by companies that deal in petroleum helped prices
recover from early weakness, traders said.
    Gold futures rallied, partly in response to strength in the
silver market, on the Commodity Exchange in New York. Silver
prices rallied after a U.S. brokerage house recommended its
customers buy the metal, traders said.
    Coffee futures drifted lower in response to a report that
Colombia lowered the price of its exports, traders said.
    Sugar prices closed slightly higher on the Coffee, Sugar
and Cocoa Exchange despite a large export sale by the European
Commission on Wednesday.
    Soybeans were higher, wheat lower and corn mixed on the
Chicago Board of Trade.
    Soybeans were boosted by expectations that the Agriculture
Department would report a healthy signup for the Conservation
Reserve Program, which pays farmers to leave highly erodible
land idle instead of planting a crop, traders said.
    Concern that a strike by Brazilian seamen might interrupt
exports of soybeans from Brazil, where the harvest is just
beginning, also underpinned prices, they said.
    Wheat prices were pressured by selling in response to
trends on price charts, they said.
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service said it has
confirmed its ratings on about 4.4 billion dlrs of outstanding
securities of Public Service Electric and Gas Co, a unit of
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.
    The ratings include Aa3-rated first and refunding mortgage
bonds, secured pollution control revenue bonds and Eurobonds.
    Although Public Service recently received a disappointing
rate order from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the
agency believes the company's strong financial management
should help maintain debt-protection measurements within
current levels over the next few years.
 Reuter

Japan Fund Inc said its board would
recommend at its April 23 stockholders meeting that the Fund be
converted to a no-load open-end fund.
    If approved, the Fund said a redemption fee of one pct of
net asset value will be imposed on redemptions for a period of
time not to exceed six months after open-ending.
    It said such a redemption fee is designed to cover
trasaction costs related to early redemptions and will remain
in the assets of the Fund.
    It said Shearson Lehman Brothers is serving as its
financial advisor.
    In a prepared statement, Jonathan Mason, Japan Fund's
chairman, said "open-ending, which is timely, given the
expansion of the Japanese stock markets, particularly in the
last few years, will eliminate the discount from net asset
value and will afford investors the continuing opportunity for
investment in Japan through the Japan Fund."
    Japan Fund said it proposed the conversion to an open-end
fund after rejecting a takeover offer of about 525 mln dlrs
from an investment group led by T. Boone Pickens III, son of
the Texas oilman.
    The investor group, whose other members include <Sterling
Grace Capital Fund LP> and <Anglo American Security Fund LP>,
could not be reached tonight for comment.
    When it made its takeover offer on March 3, the group said
it owned 1.4 mln shares, or about 4.9 pct, of the fund's
    Asked to comment on the rejection of the investor group's
offer, a Japan Fund spokeswoman said, "The board decided that
an open-end fund was preferable."
    The spokeswoman, Davia B. Temin, said no other comments
would be made on the offer.
    She also declined to provide details on other options Japan
Fund said previously that it would consider along with the
takeover bid.
 Reuter

General Electric said its
unducted fan jet engine lived up to expectations in recently
completed tests on a Boeing Co <BA> 727 airplane.
    The engine, which contains two sets of counter-rotating fan
blades, marks an advance over conventional engines built with
ultra high bypass ducted fans. The testing was a joint effort
of GE and Boeing, using technical and financial support from
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, the
    The company said the engine has fuel savings of 40 to 70
pct over those used in aircraft used today.
 Reuter

Permian Basin Royalty Trust
said that as of December 31, 1986, its estimated proved
reserves totaled 18.5 mln barrels of oil and 52.9 mln MCF, or
thousand cubic feet, of gas.
    This compares with yearend 1985 proved reserves estimates
of 26.4 mln barrels of oil and 78.6 mln MCF of gas, Permian
said.
    Permian said December 1986 future net revenues from proved
reserves were 335.6 mln dlrs, down from 814.2 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Permian said the present value of estimated future net
revenues discounted at 10 pct is 165.3 mln dlrs, compared with
374.3 mln dlrs.
    It said the downward revisions in both proved reserves and
estimated future net revenues resulted from decreased prices for
oil and gas.

 Reuter

Commission asked the New York Stock Exchange to tighten an
experimental procedure used in the past six months to dampen
volatility linked to the so-called "triple-witching hour."
    The Big Board has been collecting and publicizing
information on large imbalances of "market-on-close" (MOC)
orders placed on 50 major stocks one-half-hour before closing
on so-called expiration Fridays in September and December.
    Expiration Fridays, or triple witching hours, occur every
three months when stock options, stock index options and
futures on index options expire simultaneously.
    As aribrageurs liquidated their futures and options on
previous expiration Fridays, they sold huge amounts of stock
which they had used to offset their positions.
    The huge sell orders, which usually entered the market in
the final frantic minutes on expiration Fridays triggered wild
price swings in the 50 stocks which serve as the basis for the
options and futures.
    The gyrations prompted the SEC last September to request
that the Big Board ask its members submit all MOCs by 1530 hrs
on expiration Fridays, which would then be made public, giving
the market a half-hour to settle order imbalances.
    But in a March 12 letter to NYSE President Robert Birnbaum,
SEC Director of Market Regulation cited problems in the
experimental procedure during the Dec 19 expiration Friday.
    A large number of MOC buy orders were not placed until
after 1530 EST on Dec 19, which helped send the Dow Jones
Industrial Average up 21 points in the final minutes of the day
to a 14.20-point gain on the day, Ketchum said.
    Citing the SEC's concern about such trading, Ketchum asked
the exchange to tighten its procedure by not accepting any
pre-existing MOC orders after 1530 if they could have been
placed earlier.
    The new restriction, which SEC officials said merely
clarifies the terms of the existing experimental procedure,
would bar the liquidation of stocks through MOC orders for
arbitrage purposes after 1530 hrs, even if they offset other
reported order imbalances in those stocks.
    The only MOC orders the SEC will allow to be placed after
1530 EST on March 20, the next expiration Friday, are those
that are received by Big Board member firms after 1530 EST and
which help reduce existing order imbalances, Ketchum said.
    If there are no published imbalances in a particular stock,
no MOC orders will be accepted in that stock, he said.
    "If dissemination of MOC orders is to provide an accurate
indication of true order imbalances, then all existing MOC
orders must be submitted by 3:30 p.m. and only those new MOC
orders responding to reported imbalances can be permitted,"
Ketchum said.
    The letter did not say how the SEC or the NYSE would
determine the difference between pre-existing MOC orders that
would be barred, and new MOC orders that would be allowed to
reduce imbalances. But an SEC official said the agency hopes
the NYSE and its members would adhere to the rules "in a spirit
of cooperation."
 REUTER...

Former White House aide Kenneth
Duberstein has been chosen to be President Reagan's deputy
chief of staff, administration officials said.
    Duberstein, who is now a Washington lobbyist, previously
served in the Reagan White House as head of the president's
congressional liaison team.
    As top assistant to White House chief of staff Howard
Baker, he will handle administrative chores and serve as a
contact point between the White House and Congress, officials
 Reuter

Northern Telecom Ltd said it would
redeem its outstanding 2.1875 Canadian dlr cumulative
redeemable retractable class A series one preferred shares on
April 27 at 26.50 Canadian dlrs a share plus accrued dividends
of 0.012 dlrs a share.
    Northern Telecom issued the 4.4 mln shares in 1984 at 25
dlrs a share for total consideration of 110 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

president jaime lusinchi defended the
20.3 billion dlr debt rescheduling accord his government
recently signed, saying it will open new credit flows and bring
needed foreign investment to venezuela.
    In his annual state of the nation speech, lusinchi also
said venezuela supports other latin american debtors, despite
having reached a rescheduling accord on its own.
    In the 90-minute speech to the congress, lusinchi summed up
the achievements of his administration, which took office in
february 1984. He pointed to the 3.3 pct growth in non-oil gdp
in 1986 and to a "moderate" 12 pct inflation rate.
    Lusinchi said the 20.3 billion dlr debt rescheduling signed
feb. 27 put an end to a process which had been 'the calvary of
our nation over the post four years.'
    In the refinancing accord, he said, venezuela managed to
achieve 'the most inmportant thing, which is the reopening of
financial flows from abroad, essential for the financing of
development and the (financing) of trade and investment.'
    Once all the details of the agreement are finalized, he
said, venezuela will seek new financing for the imported
components of new development projects.
    "our intention is not to continue being net exporters of
capital, but to protect our balance of payments with a flow of
capital towards venezuela," he said.
    Under the agreement signed february 27, venezuela extended
payments on the debt from 12 to 14 years, while the interest
rate was lowered from 1 y 1/8 to 7/8 of a pct over libor.
    At the same time, payments over the next three years were
lowered from 3.450 to 1.350 billion dlrs.
    Lusinchi defended the rescheduling accord against critics
who said it merely deferred the weight of payments to future
 Reuter

 Reuter

Volcker said that Brazil will need more external financing to
work its way out of its current debt crisis than earlier
anticipated.
    "External financing will have to be found in larger amounts
than anticipated a few months ago," he said in remarks prepared
for a business leader luncheon.
    Volcker said that financing, however, must take place along
with policies that come to grips with Brazil's internal
difficulties.
    Volcker said Brazil has a lot more negotiating to do with
international institutions and its bank creditors but added
that a solution to its financial problems can be found.
    "The predicate for these negotiations has to be effective
policy at home (in Brazil)," Volcker told reporters.
    "Brazil, it seems to me, has a strong self interest in
restoring a more normal situation (on interest payments) so
that it can continue to participate freely in trade with the
rest of the world - and it has so indicated," Volcker said in
his prepared remarks.
    Brazil suspended interest payments on its debt last month.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said it raised the
contract price it will pay for most grades of crude oil 50 cts
a barrel, effective today.
    The increase brings Unocal's posted price for the U.S.
benchmark grade West Texas Intermediate to 17.50 dlrs a barrel.
It also brought the price for West Texas Sour to 17.50 dlrs a
bbl. Light Louisiana Sweet was also raised 50 cts to 17.85
dlrs/bbl.
    Unocal last changed its crude postings on March four, and
brings it price in line with other major companies, which have
been raising prices steadily in recent weeks.
    The increase also represents the latest in a series of
increases that began with USX Corp's <X> Marathon Petroleum
Corp's notification yesterday evening that, effective today, it
raised its crude postings 50 cts a barrel, bringing its
contract price for WTI to 17.50 dlrs a barrel.
    Earlier today, Sun Co <SUN>, Phillips Petroleum <P> and
Diamond Shamrock <DIA> also said they raised their crude
postings 50 cts a barrel, bringing their WTI contract price to
17.50 dlrs a barrel.
    Contract prices have risen in response to higher spot
market prices, oil traders said.
 Reuter

Local 222 of the United Food and
Commercial Workers Union said it is calling a membership
meeting, possibly Sunday, to discuss its response to a decision
by Iowa Beef Processors Inc to lift a lockout at its Dakota
City, Nebraska plant and resume operations.
    The UFCWU will consider all options available to it
including a strike or returning to work under IBP's last labor
contract proposal, a spokeswoman for Local 222 said by phone.
    About 2,800 UFCWU members have been locked out at the
Dakota City plant since December 14.
    IBP is a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp.
 Reuter

CITGO RAISES CRUDE POSTINGS 50 CTS, TODAY, WTI TO 17.50 DLRS/BBL

Baird Corp <BATM> said the
Massachusetts State Court for Suffolk County has lifted a  
temporary restraining order prohibiting Mark IV Industries Inc
from further purchases of Baird stock.
    According to filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, Mark IV owns at least 17.6 pct of Baird's stock and
may attempt to acquire Baird, Baird said.
    Baird said the court also issued an order enjoining Baird
from enforcing the Massachusetts Anti-Takeover Statute against
Mark IV industries.
 Reuter

Rexcom Systems Corp said its board
voted to extend the exercise period for the company's publicly
traded warrants until March 31, 1988 from March 31, 1987.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 60 cts vs loss 55 cts
    Oper net profit 928,000 vs loss 88,000
    Revs 48.7 mln vs 39.7 mln
    Avg shrs 3.7 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 1.17 dlrs vs loss 60 cts
    Oper net profit 2,537,000 vs profit 587,000
    Revs 178.8 mln vs 117.6 mln
    NOTE: Per share figures come after preferred dividends.
    Excludes fourth quarter and full year 1986 extraordinary
gains of 29 cts and 71 cts per share, respectively.
 Reuter

American Motors Corp
president Joseph E. Cappy, in a telegram to dealers, said
Chrysler Corp will retain American Motors' plans to begin
selling four new cars within the next year.
    Cappy reassured dealers that American Motors, if it is
acquired by Chrysler, would go ahead with plans to introduce
the "Medallion", "Premier", Premier "X59" coupe, and the
"Alpine" models.
    Cappy, in a statement, said American Motors' board met
yesterday on the Chrysler buyout, and will meet "periodically
over the next several weeks on the Chrysler proposal." No other
details of the Chrysler takeover were disclosed.
    American Motors did not release further details of
Chrysler's plans for maintaining or changing American Motors'
current strategy other than to quote Cappy as saying, "we will
try to keep you informed as developments warrant."
 Reuter

<Counsel Corp> said it plans a
three-for-two stock split, pending shareholder approval at the
April 28 annual meeting.
    The company said it recently reported 1986 profit of 5.9
mln dlrs, or 1.51 dlrs a share, before extraordinary items,
compared with 2.2 mln dlrs, or 81 cts, in 1985.
 Reuter

Southland Corp's Citgo Petroleum Corp
said it raised the contract price it will pay for crude oil 50
cts a barrel, effective today.
    The increase bring's Citgo's posted price for the West
barrel. The Light Louisiana Sweet South Onshore grade was also
raised 50 cts to 17.85 dlrs a barrel, and Light Louisiana Sweet
North was increased to 17.75 dlrs a barrel.
    Citgo last changed its postings on March four.
 Reuter

The Cannon Group Inc said its
financial statements will show substantial losses for fiscal
1986 and "significant downward adjustments in previously
reported stockholders' equity."
    The company also said its 1986 audit being conducted by
<Arthur Young and Co> will cover the year ended January 3,
1987, instead of the nine-month period ended September 27, 1986
as previously announced.
    It said it anticipates the results of the audit will be
available in mid to late April 1987.
 Reuter

<Eager Technology Inc> said it signed a
letter of intent to acquire Nuclad Inc, a private Colorado
corporation, and its subsidiaries.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul
Volcker said a combination of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp, FDIC, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp,
FSLIC, could be contemplated in the longer term but is not an
answer to the thrift industry's immediate problems.
    "I don't think it's an answer to 1977 or 1988," Volcker
said at a press conference.
    But a merger of the two deposit-insurance agencies could be
an option as part of a general structural reform of the U.S.
banking system.
    The aim of a merger would not be for commercial banks to
subsidize ailing savings and loan associations but to improve
official oversight of depository institutions, Volcker said.
    "The attractive element is that you get almost by
definition a consistency of supervision and regulation that you
don't have now," he explained.
 Reuter

Motorola Inc expects continued
steady improvement in semiconductor orders for the rest of the
year, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Staff
Officer Gary Tooker told security analysts.
    He said the company's semiconductor products sector showed
a nine pct increase in sales last year to 1.88 billion dlrs and
expects growth this year to range between 11 and 13 pct.
    Semiconductor products accounted for 31 pct of Motorola's
1986 net sales of 5.89 billion dlrs.
    Tooker said Motorola has shipped about 300,000 of its
32-bit 68020 microprocessor to 200 customers. Apple Computer
Inc recently announced it is using the 68020 in its new Mac II
personal computer.
 Reuter

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
(FDIC) said two Texas banks were closed by U.S. bank
regulators, making a total of 40 failures of federally insured
financial institutions so far this year.
    Fourteen of the 40 have been in Texas, which has been hard
hit by plummeting oil prices.
    The FDIC said it approved paying off the insured depositors
of the failed Plaza National Bank, Del Rio, Texas.
    The bank, with assets of 34.8 mln dlrs, was closed today by
the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.
    The FDIC said it decided to pay off depositors because no
other institution wanted to buy the failed bank.
    The FDIC said 15 accounts exceeded the federal insurance
limit of 100,000 dlrs by a total of 38,000 dlrs.
    Owners of the uninsured deposits will share with the FDIC
as the failed bank's assets are liquidated.
    The FDIC also approved the assumption of deposits of The
First National Bank of Olney, Texas, by Olney Bancshares Inc.,
Olney, Texas.
    The bank had total assets of 15 mln dlrs when it was closed
by federal regulators.
 Reuter

The San Juan Basin Royalty
Trust said proved reserves as of December 31 were estimated at
283.1 thousand cubic feet of gas and 1,087,000 barrels of oil.
    In the year-ago period, it said proved reserves were
estimated at 346.4 thousand cubic feet of gas  and 1,974,000
barrels of oil.
    It said the present value of future net revenues discounted
10 pct was 156.2 mln dlrs compared with 446.8 mln dlrs in the
    It also said that about 60 net infill wells are not
economical to drill at December 31 prices.
 Reuter

<Interconnect Capital Corp>
said it sent a letter to the board of Gates Learjet Corp,
offering to buy the company for 7.07 dlrs a share.
    Gates Corp, which owns 64.8 pct of Gates Learjet, agreed
earlier this week to sell its shares to a partnership formed by
privately-held <Cobey Corp> and a unit of Bear Stearns Cos Inc
<BSC> for 6.50 dlrs a share or 51 mln dlrs. The proposal is
subject to approval by Gates Learjet's board.
    A spokesman for privately-held Interconnect said it made
the new proposal to Gates Learjet's board, but would not say if
it had held talks with the parent company's board.
   
 Reuter

Seal Inc said it acquired
Ademco Ltd, a United Kingdom company which distributes mounting
and laminating equipment and supplies, for a combination of
cash and stock valued at 2.6 mln dlrs, based on current
    Seal said it will pay up to an additional 1.3 mln dlrs
contingent on the market price of Seal's common on December 31,
1988, and on certain earnings targets by the acquired business.
 Reuter

Brazil's state-oil company,
Petrobras, cancelled a 40 mln dlr crude oil purchase from Saudi
Arabia after the Saudis refused to accept credit guarantees
from the Bank of Brazil, a Petrobras official said.
    Export director Carlos Santana told a press conference the
Saudis were the first suppliers of oil to impose such
conditions after Brazil's decision to halt interest payment of
its commercial debts last month.
    The shipment of 2.2 mln barrels represents two days of oil
consumption in Brazil.
    But Santana said if the Saudis change their minds and
decide to respect the terms of the contract, then Petrobras
will lift the order to cancel the shipment.
    Santana said if the Saudis do not accept Brazil's terms by
Monday then Petrobras will negotiate elsewhere.
    "Petrobras has been Saudi Arabia's traditional client since
1955. If they do not accept our conditions now, it will be much
better for us, because with the market prices more or less the
same, buying from Iraq and China is an advantage," he said.
    Iraq and China have barter deals with Brazil, importing
Brazilian goods in exchange for oil, but the Saudis buy nothing
from Brazil, he said.
    Santana said despite a strike threat by oil industry
workers and a two-week stoppage by Brazilian seamen, Petrobras
oil stocks are "reasonably balanced." 
    Saudi Arabia is Brazil's second biggest oil supplier, with
an average 115,000 bpd. Iraq is the main supplier with 235,000
bpd. China comes third, with 58,000 bpd.
    "If the Saudis wish to stop our trade relationship, fine, I
am sure that if they do, we will be getting dozens of offers
from elsewhere," Santana added.
 Reuter

In order to accomodate the shift in the
settlement procedure for options on the Standard and Poor's 500
stock index that the exchange announced last month, the Chicago
Board Options Exchange (CBOE) said it has created a new class
of options for the S and P contract <SPX>.
    The CBOE's new contract was needed to coincide with changes
in the settlement procedure that the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange (CME) made on its S and P 500 futures and options
contract which will be implemented with the expiration of the
June contract.
    Settlement of the CBOE's new option contract will be based
on the opening price of the S and P 500 index on expiraton day,
while settlement of the current contract is based on the
closing price of the index.
    "CBOE doesn't think that opening settlement is the solution
to the expiration effect, but we cannot exposure investors in
our market to unanticipated risks arising from different
settlement times in options and futures," CBOE chairman Alger
Chapman said in a release.
    "We're taking this step to give investors a choice of
settlement times that meet their hedging needs," Chapman said.
    The new contract was necessary because the Options Clearing
Corp (OCC) did not allow its member exchanges to modify terms
of any of its outstanding contracts, the CBOE said.
    The new contract will satisfy the needs of customers who
require an options contract based on opening prices of the
index, the CBOE said.
    The opening settlement contract will trade parallel to the
closing settlement contract as long as the CME maintains its
opening settlement procedure for the S and P 500 futures
contract, a CBOE spokesperson said.
    However, she noted that customer preference for one type of
settlement procedure will eventually determine which contract
will prevail.
    The opening settlement contract will trade on a March,
June, September, December quarterly expiration cycle and will
be listed as soon as the OCC revises its contract prospectus,
possible in April, the exchange said.
 Reuter

The U.S. House Ways and Means Trade
approved his idea to force an annual 10 pct trade surplus cut
by those countries.
 Reuter

Titan Corp said it extended its
odd-lot tender offer program to purchase shares of its
preferred stock to June 10, 1987.
    The offer is made to holders of 99 or fewer preferred
shares.
    The offer was originally scheduled to expire March 10.
 Reuter

Volcker said a bill passed this week by the Senate banking
committee is too restrictive regarding the Federal Reserve.
    "I don't think our hands should be tied so much as in that
bill," he said.
    The bill would set a one-year moratorium on approval of
certain powers that banks have already applied to the Federal
Reserve for -- selling insurance, securities and real estate.
    Volcker added, however, that comprehensive new legislation
dealing with such issues is needed.
 Reuter

Enrollment figures in the
Agriculture Department's fouth annual conservation signup will
be released tommorrow afternoon, a senior USDA official said.
    Bill Bailey, deputy administrator for USDA's Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation Service, told Reuters that USDA
will announce enrollment into the Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP) after the close of the futures markets.
    The report was originally scheduled to be released today.
No explanation was given for the postponement.
    Conservation specialists expect a heavy signup and said
enrollment could amount to more than the total of the first
three signups, which was 8.9 mln acres.
   
 Reuter

There were no shipments of U.S.
grain or soybeans to the Soviet Union in the week ended March
12, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's latest
Export Sales report.
     The USSR has purchased 1.0 mln tonnes of U.S. corn for
delivery in the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR grain agreement.
     Total shipments in the third year of the U.S.-USSR grains
agreement, which ended September 30, amounted to 152,600 tonnes
of wheat, 6,808,100 tonnes of corn and 1,518,700 tonnes of
soybeans.
    Shipments to the USSR in the second year of the agreeement
amounted to 2,887,200 tonnes of wheat and 15,750,100 tonnes of
corn.
   
 Reuter

The World Bank said it has approved
a 140 mln dlr loan for India to help lessen that country's
dependence on imported oil and spur development of its own
petroleum resources.
    The bank said the loan will be used to boost production by
injecting gas in the partially depleted Assam oil fields and to
assist exploration in other areas, including drilling 10
exploratory wells.
    The bank said the recipient of the 20-year loan will be Oil
India Ltd (OIL), which is the smaller of two public Indian
petroleum exploration and production companies.
 Reuter

said it began a public offering of 300,000 shares of 8.25 pct
preferred stock, Series R at 100 dlrs per share.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem its 10.84 pct preferred
shares.
 Reuter

U.S. bank reserve, monetary and
discount window borrowings data released by the Federal Reserve
today clearly indicate that policy is "on hold" and may not be
changed for weeks or even months, economists said.
    "The Fed is keeping policy at dead center and it is not
about to change policy unless something fairly dramatic occurs
on the economy," said John Williams of Bankers Trust Co.
    "These numbers contain no hint that a policy shift is in
prospect, nor do economic or financial developments argue for
policy change," said William Griggs of Griggs and Santow Inc.
    Fed data released today were all in line with economists'
expectations and similar to the numbers of recent weeks.
    The Fed said net discount window borrowings in the two
weeks ended Wednesday averaged 191 mln dlrs, up from 381 mln
dlrs in the February 25 statement period, but little changed
from 160 mln dlrs in the period before that.
    It said that banks' net free reserves in the latest two
weeks averaged 660 mln dlrs versus 675 mln dlrs previously.
    Finally, the Fed said that the M-1 money supply fell 800
mln dlrs in February, with the broader M-2 measure down 1.6
billion dlrs and M-3 up an even three billion dlrs.
    Analysts said that M-1 last month grew at a negative 1.3
pct annual rate compared with minus 0.7 pct for M-2 and actual
positive growth of 1.0 pct annualized for M-3.
    February levels of M-2 and M-3 left the aggregates 18.2 and
20.8 billion dlrs under their respective upper growth limits
set by the Fed for 1987. The annual growth target for both is
5-1/2 to 8-1/2 pct. There is no M-1 target.
    "In the near term, there is absolutely no reason for the
Fed to ease policy, even apart from the slowdown in money
growth," said Stephen Slifer, economist at Lehman Government
    Economists generally expect a modest pickup in monetary
growth in March after February's anemic growth rates. However,
they stress that money growth will not be strong enough to
prevent the Fed from dropping interest rates further if the
economy shows evidence of weakness.
    Commenting on February's decline in the key M-2 aggregate,
Slifer said the main cause was a 3.2 billion dlr drop in money
market deposits at banks. This number has risen three to four
billion dlrs a month for a long while, he said, so February's
weakness is not likely to persist. Slifer expects modest M-2
and M-3 growth rates of 3-1/2 to four pct during March.
    Griggs said that M-2 and M-3 in coming months should return
to the five to seven pct annualized growth region and so
continue to present no problem for the Fed.
    Economists said the Fed appears to be very comfortable with
its current policy stance and it is likely to wait for perhaps
several more months of economic data before deciding whether or
not to ease its grip on reserves.
    Given the economy's fragility in many sectors, the analysts
agreed that there is almost no chance that the Fed will choose
to raise, rather than lower, interest rates when it next
changes policy.
    "Discount window borrowings in the past week were about as
low as the Fed can get them, although Fed funds held above six
pct," said Williams of Bankers Trust. Funds averaged 6.12 pct
in the week to Wednesday, up from 6.06 pct in the prior week.
    The Fed added reserves indirectly via one billion dlrs of
customer repurchase agreements last Friday, 2.5 billion dlrs on
Monday and two billion dlrs on Wednesday. On Tuesday, it added
reserves directly through two-day System repurchases.
    Williams and Griggs agreed the Fed will let the funds rate
be largely market-driven. They said it is focusing instead on a
borrowings target of around 300 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Colombia intends to improve the
marketing of its coffee with the accent on more flexibility on
setting export registration prices, finance minister Cesar
Gaviria said.
    Speaking to reporters after announcing a lower export
registration price, or reintegro, of 1.10 dlr per lb ex-dock
New York, Gaviria said export mechanisms would be more agile.
    "In the first stage, we decided not only to lower the
reintegro but also to adopt a flexible policy of reintegro that
will allow private exporters to participate more actively in
Colombia's coffee export policy," he said.
    Traders said this means the export registration price will
change more often in a truer reflection of market trends.
    Gaviria said the measures merely responded to new market
factors since a return to a system of International Coffee
Organisation (ICO) export quotas may not occur in the short
term.
    ICO talks last month in London failed to break a deadlock
over re-introduction of export quotas, suspended in February
1986.
    Gaviria stressed that Colombia will not necessarily suffer
from depressed prices because it can compensate lower prices
with increased volume.
    "Colombia will continue to export its traditional amount of
coffee, between 9.6 and 10 mln bags (of 60 kilos), and will do
so without an agreement among producers," he said.
    He ruled out a much higher volume of exports, or up to 13.5
mln bags as mentioned in market circles, "because the idea is
precisely not to disrupt the market."
    Colombia exported a record 11.5 mln bags in the 1985/86
coffee year which ended last September 30.
    Echoing Gaviria's words, Jorge Cardenas, manager of the
national coffee growers' federation, said Colombia sought to
adapt its coffee marketing policy to circumstances.
    "There is great expectation in the world for the policies
that Brazil and Colombia will adopt. Ours is beginning to
emerge and no agreement among producers is foreseeable in the
immediate future," he told journalists.
    Trade sources in Rio today said Brazil's future export
policy was unlikely to be revealed before the end of next week.
    Cardenas said a new ICO meeting could only take place when
problems that hindered an agreement at the recent London talks
have been resolved.
    Asked to comment on a Reuter report from Jakarta saying
Indonesia hoped Colombia could use its contacts with Brazil to
suggest a compromise on the quota issue, Cardenas said the
Brazilian stand was quite clear.
    He said Brazil's current quota "reflects the reality of the
market, allows for an orderly supply and satisfies demand," but
added more clarity was needed to assess the criteria that
determined it.
    Cardenas said lows registered immediately after the failure
of the London talks were triggered by a widespread fear among
dealers of an imminent price war and the belief that producers
would go out and sell their coffee as quickly as possible,
which did not happen.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved a
140 mln dlr loan for India to help lessen that country's
 Reuter

WEintraub Entertainment Group Inc
said it agreed to acquire Cannon Group's Screen Entertainment
film library.
    The library was purchased in May 1986 as part of Cannon's
acquisition of Screen Entertainment Ltd from Bond Corp Holdings
Ltd. The library has over 2,000 theatrical motion pictures.
    Terms call for the price to be established through an
appraisal process beginning immediately and not to exceed 175
mln dlrs or be below 125 mln dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Gerber Scientific Inc said
its GST Acquisition Corp purchased 444,646 shares of its 84 pct
owned Gerber Systems Technology pursuant to a January 15 tender
offer.
    Following the purchase, Gerber made a capital contribution
to GST of all the shares it owned resulting in 95.6 pct
ownership by GST.
   
 Reuter

United Medical Corp said it
it has requested a meeting of holders of its Swiss Francs 30
mln 5-1/8 pct convertible subordinated notes due 1991.
    The meeting has been requested in order to amend the
negative pledge and financial covenants which have proved to be
too restrictive in light of the company's activities, it said.
    United also said it plans to acquire some of these notes to
reduce its exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations.
 Reuter

Institutional investors are finding it
difficult to find "the best price" for transactions in U.K.
Government bonds (gilts) and have become more active in the
market since the deregulation of the London Stock Exchange in
October, agency broker Capel-Cure Myers said in a survey.
    The survey, covering a broad section of institutional
investors, also showed that investors were uneasy about the
impartiality of market makers' advice. Given their concerns,
over half those surveyed said they spend more time managing
their portfolios. At the same time, the investors believed the
market was more liquid and efficient than before Big Bang.
    Capel-Cure, a unit of Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd, conducted the survey during January among 70
institutions which are not clients of that firm.
    Banks and merchant banks accounted for 32 pct of the total,
building societies 30 pct, life assurance companies 20 pct,
insurance companies 11 pct and pension funds seven pct.
    The survey found that with the virtual elimination of
commissions, the improved market liquidity has encouraged
investors to deal more frequently in the market. Of those
responding, 70 pct were encouraged to deal more actively, 25
pct which saw no change and five pct dealt less actively.
    A Capel-Cure official told reporters the elimination of
commissions has made the market more competitive.
    He said Capel-Cure has deliberately set low commisstions
because of this.
    Nearly half the respondents said they now have their own
dealing team to cope with the new market, although the
definition of a "dealing team" was ambiguous, the survey said.
    Rather than being a self-contained, specialised group of
dealers who spend all their time searching for prices, the
definition now appears to be the less formal idea of a
multi-purpose fund manager, it said.
    The survey supported the general view in the gilt market
that a shake-out of the 27 market-makers is likely.
    It showed nearly 90 pct of the respondents believed that
the total number of market makers in three years time would be
less than 20, while 46 pct thought the number would be less
than 15.
    Some 79 pct of respondents said they expect the number of
agency brokers (for which there was no estimate) to fall over
the next three years. Unlike broker/dealers, agency brokers do
not take positions in the market, but the survey showed 68 pct
of respondents did not consider this very important when
deciding whether to use one.
 REUTER

Venezuela will lend Ecuador 50,000
barrels per day of crude oil over the next few months to help
it meet its export commitments, Energy and Mines Minister
Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said today.
    He said that under the terms of this loan, agreed during a
visit here this week by Ecuador's Deputy Energy Minister
Fernando Santos Alvite, Ecuador will begin repaying the loan in
August.
    Hernandez Grisanti said the loan will go part way to
offsetting the loss of Ecuador's 140,000 in exports caused by
earthquake damage to 25 miles of pipeline last week.
    Ecuador was forced to suspend exports after the pipeline
connecting its jungle oil fields with the pacific port of Balao
was put out of action.
    Venezuela has an output quota of 1.495 bpd, while Ecuador's
is 210,000 bpd. Santos Alvite said Ecuador will ask OPEC to
allow it to produce 100,000 bpd above its quota when the
pipeline is repaired to offset present production losses.
    Hernandez Grisanti said also a first 300,000 barrels
shipment of Venezuelan crude oil will leave for Ecuador this
weekend to help meet domestic consumption needs.
    The oil, part of a five mln additional crude oil loan by
Venezuela, will be processed at Guayaquil refineries.
    "If we had not supplied oil to Ecuador the life of this
country would have ground to a halt," he said.
 Reuter

First half ended December 31
    Shr 55.01 cents vs 97.76
    Int div 18 cents vs 16
    Net 75.05 mln dlrs vs 55.68 mln
    Turnover 156.94 mln vs 177.87 mln
    Other revenue 72.50 mln vs 31.18 mln.
    One-for-five rights issue at 11.50 dlrs a share
    One-for-four bonus issue on capital enlarged by rights
issue
    Shrs 99.36 mln vs 70.94 mln.
    NOTE - Shr applies to total net 54.66 mln dlrs vs 69.48 mln
after extraordinaries loss.
    Pre-extraordinaries net shr 75.53 cents vs 78.32
    Div pay April 30. Div and rights issue reg March 30. Bonus
reg May 6. Net equity-accounts share of associates' earnings.
    Pre-equity pre-tax earnings 59.52 mln dlrs vs 64.13 mln.
Pre-equity net 52.07 mln dlrs vs 43.35 mln after tax 3.45 mln
vs 16.34 mln, minorities 4.00 mln vs 6.44 mln, interest 33.89
mln vs 26.11 mln and depreciation 2.67 mln vs 2.72 mln but
before net extraordinary loss 20.39 mln vs 13.79 mln.
 REUTER

Debt talks between the Philippine
government and its bank advisory committee were delicately
poised after a brief meeting between the two sides today,
bankers and sources close to the Philippine delegation said.
    "We had a businesslike meeting and made good progress," a
banker said. "The banks are anxious to come to an agreement."
    But bankers were reluctant to predict whether the talks
would end successfully. Caution was also evident in the
Philippine camp. "We feel the ball's in the banks' court," one
source said. The two sides will meet again on Friday.
    The talks, in which the Philippines is seeking to
reschedule about 9.4 billion dlrs of debt, are now dominated
by a discussion of the innovative proposal made by finance
minister Jaime Ongpin to pay part of the country's interest
bill in Philippine Investment Notes, PINs, instead of cash.
    Manila wants to pay the London Interbank Offered Rate in
cash and to issue PINs in respect of the margin above LIBOR.
    The banks rejected the original PINs proposal last Friday,
but Ongpin presented a revised proposal on Monday which sought
to satisfy the banks' objections by guaranteeing that the notes
would yield 7/8 pct over LIBOR in cash.    
    The banks have apparently yet to pass final judgment on the
new proposal.
    Senior Reagan Administration officials expressed warm
support for the PINs proposal this week, which gave Ongpin hope
that the banks would embrace the idea.
    But the banks are still being circumspect, weighing
possible accounting consequences as well as considering the
precedents that they would set if they agreed to PINS.
    One of the  main architects of the PINs proposal, U.S.
lawyer Lee Buchheit, is adamant that the banks have nothing to
worry about.
    "To the extent that it's a precedent, it's a precedent to
be encouraged," Buchheit, a partner with Cleary, Gottlieb,
Steen and Hamilton, told a debt-equity swaps conference
sponsored by Euromoney magazine.
    Under the proposal, banks would sell the dollar-denominated
PINs at a discount to multinational firms which would convert
them into pesos at face value to fund government-approved
equity investments in the Philippines.
    In effect, international firms would be paying part of
Manila's interest bill, allowing the government to conserve
much-needed hard currency.
    One of the beauties of the scheme, according to Buchheit,
is that it widens the scope of third-world debt negotiations,
which have been confined to debtors and creditors for the past
4-1/2 years.
    "There's another pool of cash at the table now," he said.
    David Mulford, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury,
told the Euromoney conference that ideas such as PINs should be
part of a "menu" of options available to banks instead of pure
new-money packages.
    He said the difficulty of syndicating Mexico's 7.7 billion
dlr loan package shows that new approaches must be encouraged.
    "We must face the fact that greater flexibility in devising
new money packages may, in effect, be essential to future bank
syndications," Mulford said.
    In an unusually frank comment about the Mexican deal, he
said that dissatisfaction with Mexico's economic program and
criticism of communication and coordination within the bank
syndicate had prompted a number of banks to refuse to
participate in the loan.
    This refusal "for a time appeared to jeopardize the
prospects for successful agreement with the rest of the banks,"
    The Mexican package is now due to be signed on March 20,
but bankers said the U.S. clearly feels the need to breathe new
life into the financing process, especially with crucial
negotiations with Brazil, about to start.
    The banks for their part insist that they are more than
willing to discuss Mulford's "menu", and say it is the debtors
that need to be more flexible. For example, they say financing
talks with Argentina are proving tough because Buenos Aires
dislikes the debt-equity schemes and onlending provisions that
the banks are promoting. But whether the banks are ready to
endorse the PINs concept right away still hangs in the balance.
 Reuter

Air Midwest INc said its february
load factor rose to 42.9 pct from 37.0 pct, its revenue
passenger miles rose to 13.4 mln from 9.1 mln and its available
seat miles rose to 31.2 mln from 24.5 mln.
    For the year to date, load factor tose to 39.9 pct from
36.6 pct, revenue passenger miles rose to 25.5 mln from 20.6
mln and available seat miles rose to 63.8 mln from 56.4 mln.
 Reuter

    NOTE:Bryn Mawr was reorganized as a holding company on
January 2, 1987, resulting in each share of Bryn Mawr Trust Co
being converted into three shares of the new holding company's
stock. The 30 cts dividend represents a 15 pct increase over
prior quarter.
 Reuter

Greenwood Resources Inc said its
board approved a restrucuting and recapitalization plan uner
which more than four mln dlrs of debt and interest will be
restructured.
    As part of the plan, its preferred stock will be converted
into one class of common stock.
 Reuter

Price Co said it agreed to buy at
least 81 pct of the stock of <TSS-Seedman's INc> for about 50
mln dlrs.
    The terms envision a purchase of the entire company, it
said.
    The transaction is expected to close at the end of April.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told a
press conference he thinks exchange rates will remain stable
due to the currency accord reached in Paris last month by six
major industrialised nations but he did not say for how long.
    The dollar has hovered around 153 yen since the six agreed
to cooperate to bring about currency stability.
    Asked to comment on remarks by some U.S. Officials calling
for a further decline of the dollar, Miyazawa said only the
U.S. President and the U.S. Treasury Secretary can make
official statements about exchange rates.
 REUTER

Two small shipping companies have
reached a pay deal with striking seamen, but union leaders said
most of Brazil's 40,000 seamen were still on strike.
    A union spokesman in Rio de Janeiro said the seamen had
accepted a 120 pct pay offer from the companies, Globo and
Flumar, which have less than 200 employees each.
    The two-week strike comes as Brazil faces a debt crisis and
is delaying exports badly needed to earn foreign exchange.
    Labour Minister Almir Pazzionotto said the government will
not force a settlement of the strike, which was ruled illegal
last Friday.
 REUTER

A U.S. Judge dismissed a lawsuit by
fired White House aide Oliver North seeking to halt a special
prosecutor's investigation into the Iran arms scandal.
    In a 21-page ruling, Judge Barrington Parker threw out
North's suit challenging the constitutionality of the law
empowering special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh to investigate
secret White House arms sales to Iran and the diversion of
profits to contra rebels in Nicaragua.
Parker said in his ruling.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry will institute a
study to consider changing the corporate disclosure rules to
provide more information for investors, a ministry official
said.
    The study will look at whether companies should include
data on profits for separate divisions, products and overseas
regions in corporate earnings statements the official said.
    At present, companies give such breakdowns for sales only.
    He said no time limit has been set for the study.
 REUTER

CHOCK FULL O'NUTS CORP 2ND QTR JAN 31 LOSS
    NEW YORK, March 12
    Oper shr loss 38 cts vs profit 24 cts
    Oper net loss 2,243,000 vs profit 1,192,000
    Revs 43.6 mln vs 41.0 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss 35 cts vs profit 28 cts
    Oper net loss 2,090,000 vs profit 1,399,000
    Revs 84.3 mln vs 72.9 mln
    Note: Year-ago oper excludes loss from discontinued
operations of 1,028,000 dlrs for qtr and 1,076,000 dlrs for six
mths.
 REUTER

The Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd <ADSA.S>
(Adsteam) said its one-for-five rights issue at 11.50 dlrs a
share will raise 228.5 mln dlrs for general working capital and
investment, both in Australia and overseas.
    The group announced the issue with its first half earnings
and said in a statement that the rights issue will be followed
by a one-for-four bonus issue.
    Adsteam's equity-accounted net earnings rose to 75.05 mln
dlrs in the half ended December 31 from 55.68 mln a year
earlier and interim dividend to 18 cents from 16.
    Adsteam shares eased to 14.20 dlrs from an opening 14.60
and yesterday's close of 14.50 on the issue announcement.
    The issue will be underwritten by <Morgan Grenfell
Australia Ltd> and <McCaughan Dyson Ltd> apart from the shares
to be taken up by Adsteam's associate and largest shareholder,
department store retailer <David Jones Ltd>.
    New shares will not rank for the interim dividend but will
rank equally thereafter.
    Adsteam said it expects to maintain an annual dividend rate
of 36 cents on capital enlarged to about 149 mln shares by both
issues from 99.36 mln.
    Adsteam said its diverse industrial interests generally
performed well and its results, as the ultimate holding company
and beneficiary, reflected this solid performance.
    David Jones, owned 49.2 pct by Adsteam, earned the largest
associates' net of 57.38 mln dlrs in the half against 40.29 mln
a year earlier, Adsteam's figures show.
    Wholly-owned and joint venture companies also did well
apart from timber, building supplies and real estate, which
returned below-budget profits due to the housing downturn.
    Adsteam said it sees 1987/88 as a year of reconstruction
and consolidation with the capital base boosted by the issue.
 REUTER

The <Hearst Corp> is buying the Houston
Chronicle from Houston Endowment Inc for 400 mln dlrs.
    The announcement was made jointly by Frank Bennack Jr,
president and chief executive officer of Hearst, and Richard
Johnson, president of the Chronicle.
    The Houston Endowment is selling the paper to comply with
federal tax laws requiring charitable institutions to divest
themselves of profit-making subsidiaries by 1989.
    The Chronicle has a daily circulation of over 425,000 and
is in competition with the Houston Post, owned by the <Toronto
Sun Publishing Corp>, with a circulation of about 316,000.
    The acquisition gives Hearst its biggest newspaper holding
in Texas, where the California-based publisher already owns
papers in San Antonio, Beaumont and Laredo.
    The chain also owns, among others, the flagship San
Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
 REUTER

<Industrial Equity Ltd> (IEL) unit
<Acmex Holdings Ltd> said it proposed to make a formal takeover
offer for all the issued capital of <Cheetham Ltd>, a producer
of salt, animal feed and seeds.
    Acmex said in a statement it would offer one share for
every two Cheetham shares or 3.40 dlrs cash for each share.
    Acmex said it was presently entitled to 5.1 mln Cheetham
shares or 16.85 pct of its 30.27 mln issued shares.
    The scrip offer values Cheetham at about 110 mln dlrs,
based on Acmex's current price of 7.20 dlrs, and the cash offer
at about 104 mln. Cheetham last traded at 3.10 dlrs.
 REUTER

The U.S. Has given further details
of an action program announced yesterday aimed at helping
sub-Saharan Africa overcome hunger and economic problems,
senior U.S. Offficials said.
    Under the new program, a 500-mln dlr Development Fund for
Africa will be set up to consolidate most of the aid money
going to the continent to replace the large number of bilateral
accounts currently in existence.
    Chester Crocker, assistant secretary of state for Africa,
said he believed Congress will favour the program, which stems
from a U.N. Conference on Africa's economic problems.
    The 500-mln dlr fund, coupled with an additional 100 mln
dlrs in food aid, would surpass Congress' 1986 vote of 483 mln
dlrs for equivalent programs, officials said.
    Washington is also increasing its funding to the
International Development Agency (IDA), the World Bank's soft
loan affiliate, and is seeking a greater share of a bigger fund
for Africa, they said.
    Officials said under the last IDA replenishment Africa got
37 pct of 8.7 billion dlrs, but the Reagan administration wants
this increased to 45-50 pct of 12.8 billion dlrs in new funds.
 REUTER

Senior U.S. Economic officials
disagree on the likelihood the government can meet its budget
deficit reduction targets.
    Beryl Sprinkel, chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers, reiterated the Reagan Administration's opposition to
a tax increase and its pledge to reduce the deficit by cutting
spending and fostering economic growth.
    By contrast, Rudolph Penner, Director of the Congressional
Budget Office, said the budget process has broken down and the
deficit will remain close to 200 billion dlrs for fiscal 1987.
    Sprinkel told a symposium sponsored by New York University
that spending could be cut by avoiding decisions based on the
desire to influence votes and by shifting the responsibility
for local projects to state governments.
    He also suggested a line-item veto, which allows the
President to veto parts of bill without rejecting all of it, to
limit wasteful spending. Spending and taxing decisions should
be linked more closely.
    Sprinkel said the Administration still looks for 2.7 pct
growth in U.S. Real gross national product (GNP) in 1987 and
3.5 pct in 1988.
    Asked if the latest economic reports signal this rate of
economic growth is attainable, Sprinkel said, "It looks pretty
good to me. We've had two very strong employment reports."
    He also said federal reserve policy is appropriate, adding,
"It looks like they're on track."
    While further reductions are needed in the trade deficit,
Sprinkel said the lower dollar is having an impact.
    The new 1987 tax laws will not hurt the economy and the tax
reform act of 1986 significantly lowers tax rates and will
greatly increase private production incentives, he said.
    "Our estimates at the Council of Economic Advisers suggest
national net output of goods and services will permanently
increase by approximately two pct because of the long-run
consequences of tax reform," Sprinkel said. "In 1986, this would
have amounted to an increase of approximately 600 dlrs in the
income of the average American family."
    Sprinkel also argued the 1981 tax cuts were not responsible
for the large increase in the budget deficit.
    In fiscal 1986 ending September, federal spending amounted
to 23.8 pct of GNP, while federal receipts absorbed 18.5 pct of
GNP, leaving a deficit of 5.3 pct, he said.
    Sprinkel said that, compared with fiscal 1978, the 1986
federal expenditure share of GNP is 2.7 percentage points
higher and the revenue share of GNP is virtually the same.
    "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, therefore, the 1981
tax cut is not the root cause of the extraordinary budget
deficits of the past few years," Sprinkel said.
    "This tax cut merely rolled back the inflation-induced tax
increases that occurred between 1978 and 1981," he added.
    However, the Congressional Budget Office's Rudolph Penner
argued that the tax cut in 1981 was misguided.
    "Since making the big mistake in 1981 of cutting taxes
enormously without any plan to decrease spending by the
Administration or Congress, indeed with increases in defence
spending, now all the options (for reducing the budget deficit)
are unpleasant," he said.
    Penner said the tax cut resulted from the ideological
turmoil in the U.S. Caused by the "biggest sustained inflation
in our nation's history," which helped foster widespread
distrust of government.
    "The American people turned on the government with tax
revolt at the state level and new demands on the government at
the national level," Penner said.
    "But their dislike of taxes exceeded their general dislike
of spending programs. Now the correction of that 1981 mistake
demands that the system change a lot."
    Penner sees little hope the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget
deficit reduction targets will be met and said the deficit will
remain at roughly 200 billion dlrs this year.
    He said a budget process that sets targets arbitrarily is
not likely to succeed.
    "I feel pretty safe in saying that any process that tries to
dictate a numerical outcome from above is doomed to fail simply
because there's no ... Way to enforce it," Penner said.
    Penner questioned the methods by which the 1987 budget
deficit was cut. He said 18 to 19 billion dlrs were eliminated
by one-time measures, such as a temporary increase in taxes
related to tax reform and sales of government assets.
    "Another four billion dlrs was cut by what I call creative
timing changes, like moving the military payday from the last
day of fiscal 1987 to the first day of fiscal 1988. That saved
more than two billion dlrs," Penner said.
 REUTER

Diversified industrial and investment
group The Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd <ADSA.S> said it was
looking to the British market for future investment in view of
high share prices and interest rates in Australia.
    "Because of lower interest rates and improved economic
statistics, we believe the U.K. At the present time offers
better value and we hold strategic investments in that market,"
    Adsteam did not name any British investments but it has
disclosed a stake in Blue Circle Industries Plc <BCIL.L>, last
stated by Adsteam in London at 6.85 pct in late February.
    Adsteam said it was continuing to look for investment
opportunities both in Australia and overseas, but with the
Australian stock market at record levels, opportunities to
acquire companies on reasonable investment criteria were
limited.
    As earlier reported, Adsteam will raise 228.5 mln dlrs for
working capital and investment both in Australia and overseas
through a one-for-five rights issue at 11.50 dlrs a share.
    "We expect to enter 1988 in a highly liquid position and
will be looking to take advantage of investment opportunities
as they arise," it said.
    Nevertheless, Adsteam said it continues to be a large
investor in the Australian market through its equity-accounted
associates and through other major investments.
    "We have enjoyed a very substantial increase in the market
value of our investments over the course of this financial
year, but we are concerned at the economic fundamentals which
persist in Australia, particularly the high interest rates
which currently apply," it said.
    Adsteam also said it had hedged part of its Australian
stock market portfolio in the futures market and had hedged all
foreign currency borrowings.
    Realised losses from futures hedging have been brought to
account as extraordinary items but unrealised gains from
investments significantly exceed realised and unrealised losses
on hedging, Adsteam said.
    In its earlier reported first half ended December 31,
Adsteam posted an extraordinary loss of 20.39 mln dlrs against
a 13.79 mln profit a year earlier.
    Equity-accounted net profit before extraordinaries rose to
75.05 mln dlrs from 55.68 mln a year earlier.
 REUTER

Kidnapped Japanese businessman Noboyuki
Wakaoji is alive and well and may soon be released, Cardinal
Jaime Sin, the archbishop of Manila, said.
    Wakaoji, head of the Philippines branch of Mitsui and Co
Ltd, is being visited on a daily basis by a senior priest, Sin
told reporters at a briefing. He refused to reveal Wakaoji's
whereabouts.
    The businessman was kidnapped last November and his captors
have demanded a five mln dlr ransom from Mitsui.
 REUTER

Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke
called on businessmen to hold their salaries and profit margins
as part of his campaign for economic restraint.
    In a speech to the National Press Club, Hawke said business
"must not puncture the spirit of community restraint" evident in
low wage increases and suppressed consumer demand.
    Hawke said the Federal Government would coordinate with
State administrations to monitor prices and profit margins.
    "At a time when a concerted national effort to restrain
costs is required, profit margins should not be increased," he
said.
    Direct price control did not appeal to the government, but
it would act to ensure market forces operated fairly and
businesses were reminded of their obligations to Australia,
Hawke said.
    The government would demonstrate its commitment with
spending cuts in its May 14 economic statement, he said.
    It would also limit increases in government excises
normally indexed to inflation to about six pct, Hawke said.
 REUTER

Australia's terms of trade fell by a
further 3.5 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986 after declining
0.8 pct in the third quarter and 2.7 pct a year earlier, the
Statistics Bureau said.
    It said the seasonally adjusted current account deficit of
3.22 billion dlrs in the quarter would have dropped to 912 mln
if not for the terms of trade decline.
    The fourth quarter decline followed a 1.1 pct fall in
export prices and a 2.4 pct rise in import prices, it said.
    The Bureau noted Australia's terms of trade had fallen by
19.9 pct since the fourth quarter of 1983.
 REUTER

China has to decide if it will increase
sugar imports this year to cover falling domestic output and
rising demand, in view of market predictions that international
sugar prices will remain firm this year, traders and the
official press said.
    He Kang, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and
Fisheries, said this week that China has adjusted the
purchasing price for sugar cane and beet to check a drop in
production last year but he gave no price details.
    One Japanese trader said domestic demand is rising rapidly
because of improving living standards and rising demand for
sweet drinks, cakes and biscuits and other sugary foods.
    "It will not be easy to cut domestic demand, even in a
state-controlled economy. China may have to import," he said.
    Customs figures show imports fell to 1.182 mln tonnes in
1986 from 1.909 mln in 1985 and fell to 25,165 tonnes in
January 1987 from 54,000 in January 1986.
    The official Economic Information newspaper last month said
production in the 1986/87 crushing season (September-April)
will be 1.18 mln tonnes short of demand.
    The paper put 1986/87 output at 4.82 mln, down from 5.24
mln in 1985/86, and domestic demand at about six mln tonnes.
    "In the last two years, acreage under sugar cane and beet
has fallen, sugar mills are underutilised, output has dropped
and cannot meet demand that is rising every day," it said.
    "The country will have to continue imports of sugar and draw
down stocks to meet market demand," it added.
    It quoted the Ministry of Light Industry as blaming the
drop in output on unreasonable state purchasing prices for cane
and beet as against other crops, which has resulted in farmers
refusing to grow them.
    The paper said in 1985 a farmer could earn up to three
times more per hectare from pineapple and watermelon and up to
seven times more from bananas than from sugarcane. He could
sell grain on the free market at 560 yuan a tonne, against only
70 yuan a tonne for sugarcane.
    Sugar mills are suffering because refined sugar prices have
not changed for 20 years despite rising costs, it said.
    In Fujian, the cost of producing one tonne rose to 702 yuan
in 1985 from 520.1 in 1980, cutting the mills' profit to 117
yuan a tonne from 217.9, it added.
    The paper said unreasonable pricing resulted in 144 of the
442 sugar mills working in the 1985/86 crushing season losing
money. China has 521 sugar mills.
    A foreign agricultural expert forecast a drop in cane
acreage in 1986/87 (September-August) of up to 10 pct in
Guangdong, which produced 45 pct of China's sugar in calendar
1985, and a smaller drop in Fujian, which produced 11 pct of
China's sugar in calendar 1985.
    He said both provinces are more developed than other
sugar-producing areas and more sensitive to demand from cities.
    But cane acreage in Guangxi and Yunnan, which accounted for
28 pct of the 1985 crop, has risen by 10 to 30 pct in 1986/87,
because cane-growing is more economic there, he said.
    He put sugar stocks at 2.333 mln tonnes in September 1986.
    A Hong Kong trader estimated stocks at more than three mln
at end-January. "Now they are falling but (they) have not
reached the critical level, compelling China to import quickly,"
he said.
    "China has options not easily available in western
countries. It controls stocks strictly and can release less
into the consumer market if stocks fall too quickly," he said.
    The Hong Kong trader said calendar 1987 imports will be
slightly less than those of 1986, because of firm world prices
and serious foreign exchange constraints which, he said, are
likely to continue until at least end-1988.
    He said nearly all cane and beet is sold to the state-owned
mills, with a small amount sold raw to consumers.
    "Most of the mills are old and inefficient, with many of
them using Soviet equipment imported in the 1950s," he said.
    He said demand in rural areas will in future rise an annual
four pct, with demand in the cities rising an annual two pct.
 REUTER

The Agriculture Ministry said it set
Japan's beef import quota for the six months from April 1 at
93,000 tonnes, up from 83,000 in the second half of 1986/87 and
85,000 a year earlier.
    Under an agreement with the U.S. And Australia, Japan has
been increasing imports by 9,000 tonnes a year from March 31,
1985, to reach a projected 177,000 tonnes in the year to March
31, 1988.
 REUTER

Japan denied breaking a pact with the
U.S. On semiconductor trade but said prices set out in the pact
were too high and acknowledged difficulties in implementing the
accord.
    "We are faithfully abiding by the ... Agreement but of
course there are some problems," a spokesman for the
International Trade and Industry Ministry told Reuters.
    He said the high semiconductor prices recommended by the
agreement were leaving Japanese manufacturers piling up stocks
of unsellable products. "We are aiming to reduce production in
Japan but of course this takes time," he said.
    The spokesman said some Japanese companies were selling
chips in Europe and Asia below stipulated prices, but added: "It
is only a matter of time before we solve this problem."
    The eight month old pact aims to stop Japan selling large
quantities of chips at knock-down prices to the United States
and other countries and to increase U.S. Semiconductor sales in
Japan.
    The U.S. Senate Finance Committee this week called on
President Reagan in a non-binding resolution to retaliate
against Japan for violating the agreement.
 REUTER

International Trade and Industry Minister
Hajime Tamura told a parliamentary session Japan's small- and
medium-sized enterprises are seriously suffering from the yen's
rise and can only stand levels around 170 yen.
    He also said he still believes a dollar exchange rate level
plus or minus 10 yen from 170 yen would be within levels agreed
upon last month in Paris by six major industrial nations.
Finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S.
And West Germany agreed on February 22 to cooperate in
stabilizing exchange rates around the current levels. The
dollar had closed here at 153.77 yen on February 20.
 REUTER

West German wholesale prices fell 0.4
pct in February from January to stand 6.9 pct lower than in
February 1986, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    In January wholesale prices rose 0.8 pct from December to
stand 8.6 pct below their level in January 1986.
    Wholesale price declines were led by starch products, down
13 pct, light heating oil 11 pct lower, heavy heating oil 10
pct lower and green coffee down 6.9 pct.
    Among higher wholesale prices were those for fresh
vegetables, up 17 pct, fresh fruit up 12 pct and eggs up 8.9
pct, the statistics office said in a statement.
 REUTER

SWISS FEB TRADE DEFICIT 629.7 MLN FRANCS (JAN DEFICIT 209.4 MLN) - OFFICIAL

Australian beef output is forecast to
decline to 1.34 mln tonnes carcass weight in 1987 and 1.36 mln
in 1988 from 1.44 mln in 1986, the Australian Meat and
Live-Stock Corp (AMLC) said.
    Exports of beef/veal are also predicted to decline to
480,000 tonnes shipped weight in 1987 from 515,000 in 1986, and
then rally to 490,000 in 1988, the AMLC said in a summary of
its bi-annual meat and livestock forecasts.
    It sees cattle numbers remaining at around the 1986 level
of 23.2 mln beasts in both years because herd rebuilding is
expected to be slower than previously forecast.
    Beef producers are becoming more confident that higher
returns in the market, both domestically and overseas, will
continue, the AMLC said.
    The slow herd build-up and the forecast lower production is
expected to bring about a slight drop in both export and
domestic consumption this year, it said.
    The forecast does not assume a turnaround in production
levels until late next year.
    It said the outlook for beef exports as a proportion of
output remains much the same as last year when it was around 55
pct of total production. In 1985 it was 52 pct.
    The increase in exports of beef as a percentage of
production has mainly been attributed to the decline in the
Australian dollar, the AMLC said.
    It also forecast that Australia's four major markets, the
U.S., Japan, Canada and Taiwan, will continue to dominate the
chilled and frozen beef export markets. They take collectively
around 94 pct of total Australian exports.
 REUTER

China's grain exports in January totaled
386,157 tonnes, down 22.1 pct from January 1986, customs
    They gave no detailed breakdown.
    The official China Economic News quoted the figures as
showing tea exports rose 9.7 pct to 8,474 tonnes during the
month.
    Imports of wool rose 117.6 pct to 10,248 tonnes over the
same period, the figures show.
 REUTER

Switzerland had a trade deficit of 629.7
mln Swiss francs in February compared with a revised 209.4 mln
deficit in January and 723.2 mln shortfall in February 1986,
the Federal Customs Office said.
    February imports were 6.00 billion francs against exports
of 5.37 billion.
    Imports rose in real terms by 5.1 pct against February 1986
while exports rose by a real 4.6 pct, the office said.
    But a further improvement in the terms of trade left the
deficit smaller than last year.
    Last February's figure had also been hit by the import of
two passenger aircraft.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it
would offer 500 mln dlrs of 13-week treasury notes and 200 mln
dlrs of 26-week notes for tender next week
    The Bank said it would take up 300 mln dlrs of the 13-week
notes at the average yield. It is not taking up any 26-week
notes.
 REUTER

Japanese shipbuilders have applied to the
state's Fair Trade Commission to form a cartel to restrict
tonnage built to about half of total capacity for the year
starting April 1, officials of the Shipbuilders Association of
Japan said.
    Under the plan, 33 yards capable of building ships of more
than 10,000 gross tons will curtail operations to three mln
compensated gross registered tonnes (CGRT) a year against
capacity of about six mln CGRT.
    The Transport Ministry estimates new orders at 3.3 mln CGRT
in the year to March 1988 and 3.1 mln the following year.
    The industry has curtailed production due to oversupply
nearly every year since 1977/78, under cartel or Transport
Ministry guidelines. The latest guidelines call for a ceiling
of four mln CGRT in the year to March 31.
    The cartels, self-imposed and self-regulated, are not
legally binding, but industry finds it in its own interest to
stick to them.
    The slowdown in orders has been caused by the strong yen
and a protracted worldwide shipbuilding slump.
 REUTER

Swiss wholesale prices fell by 0.3 pct in
February, giving a drop of 4.3 pct from February 1986, the
Federal Office of Industry, Trade and Labour said.
    Prices had been unchanged in January, giving an annual drop
of 4.6 pct. They fell by 2.6 pct in the year to February 1986.
    The wholesale price index, base 1963, stood at 168.5 in
February from 176.1 last year.
    The office said the fall was largely due to lower prices
for energy, raw materials and semi-finished goods. Consumer
goods prices rose slightly.
 REUTER

Bangladesh will seek additional money
from the World Bank to finance industrial development which is
facing a capital shortage and a lack of expertise, Finance
Ministry officials said.
    They said the government had revised downward its Annual
Development Programme budget for this fiscal year by seven pct
to 44.4 billion Taka.
    A team will visit Washington next month for talks with
World Bank executives and to ask for 200 mln dlrs from the
bank's Industrial Programme Credit scheme, they said.
    The new money would be in addition to nearly two billion
dlrs aid which the World Bank, other leading agencies and donor
countries are expected to offer Bangladesh for the year from
July at their Paris meeting next month. They offered 1.85
billion dlrs to the country in 1986/87.
    The Annual Development Programme budget has been cut mainly
because of poor tax collection and a fall in public and private
sector industrial investment, the Finance Ministry officials
said. They said they expect a two pct growth in the industrial
sector this year, against a target of five pct and a growth of
1.5 pct in 1985. They gave no further details.
 REUTER

Expanding global links between
futures markets mean that the Singapore International Monetary
Exchange (SIMEX) must add Chicago and London to its list of
rivals, banking sources said.
    When SIMEX and the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) introduced
U.S. Treasury bond futures last autumn, the sources expected to
see fierce rivalry between the two exchanges, ending with only
one winner in Asia.
    But surprisingly, the challenges now appear to be coming
from the other side of the world, they said.
    The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) will introduce night
trading in its U.S. Treasury bond contract on April 30, which
could clash with SIMEX morning activity, banking sources said.
    The CBOT had planned to introduce night trading on April 2,
but postponed the move to allow participants time to prepare.
    The London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE)
could cut further into the SIMEX contract with a U.S. Treasury
bond contract that can be offset on the CBOT, they said. Such a
LIFFE contract is expected later this year.
    LIFFE liquidity could be higher than at the SIMEX, where
average daily volume in Treasury bonds dropped to 165 in
February from 1,286 last October when the bonds were first
introduced.
    The contracts were set up to attract hedging from the
rapidly growing underlying cash market in U.S. Treasury bonds
in Toyko, but interest has waned as that market has grown more
stable, traders said.
    Restrictions on investments by Japanese residents have also
inhibited the growth of the futures contracts in both Singapore
and Sydney, the banking sources said.
    Nevertheless, all 450 seats on SIMEX are now taken, with
the last trading at 55,000 dlrs against the initial price of
50,000 dlrs. The current bid is 55,500 dlrs, but offers at
65,000 show that confidence in SIMEX remains, said Michael
Killian, general manager of Chase Manhattan Futures Corp.
    Killian, a SIMEX board member, said the CBOT night session
might raise arbitrage opportunities and SIMEX would benefit
from a local stock exchange index contract planned for the end
of 1987. SIMEX also became more competitive after this month's
budget eliminated withholding tax on interest earned on futures
margin deposits.
    Banking sources said the tax change would boost SIMEX
trading by non-bank institutions and individuals and would
benefit foreign firms and institutions.
    While the Treasury bond contract has been somewhat
disappointing, other SIMEX contracts continue to expand, Fong
Yew Meng, SIMEX assistant general manager, told Reuters.
    Volume in the SIMEX's Nikkei stock index, based on the
Tokyo stock market, has risen to a daily average of more than
1,000 contracts this month, from 320 contracts last October,
helped by uncertainty during the recent bull run in Tokyo
stocks, Fong said.
    Open interest in the Nikkei contract, introduced last year,
reached a record 2,697 on February 26.
    Killian said the Nikkei contract has considerable potential
for expansion, as overseas investors have been avoiding the
contract because they currently see no need to hedge the rising
cash market in Tokyo.
    SIMEX is also enjoying record trading in other contracts.
In February, total volume on the exchange reached a record
122,819 contracts, surpassing the previous monthly record of
116,767 set in September. Eurodollar volume reached a record
78,546 contracts last month against 70,306 in September.
    SIMEX is likely to try to maintain its growth by moving
into options soon, but competition continues regionally as well
as globally, banking sources said.
    The Sydney exchange plans to introduce by June a share
index futures contract based on a composite of stocks on which
equity options are traded, which could generate more liquidity
than the ordinary index, banking sources said.
    Local interest in the Sydney Treasury bond contract may
also flare if the Sydney exchange establishes a three-way link
with Chicago and London, traders in Sydney said.
    LIFFE is discussing such a link with the CBOT, they said.
 REUTER

Group shr 53 yen vs 22
    Net profit 3.58 billion vs profit 1.47 billion
    Pretax profit 4.94 billion vs loss 248 mln
    Operating profit 5.36 billion vs profit 789 mln
    Sales 127.34 billion vs 130.22 billion
    Nine months ended January 15
    Group shr 134 yen vs 119
    Net 9.10 billion vs 8.03 billion
    Pretax 19.78 billion vs 14.77 billion
    Operating 17.35 billion vs 16.00 billion
    Sales 430.06 billion vs 446.26 billion
 REUTER

The National Australia Bank's Hong
Kong branch is planning a 75 mln Australian dlr floating rate
certificate of deposit (CD) issue, banking sources said.
    The three-year issue, which matures April 9, 1990, is in
two tranches. Tranche A of 50 mln dlrs carries interest at 30
basis points below one-month bank bill rate, payable monthly,
and tranche B of 25 mln dlrs carries interest at 25 basis
points below three-month bank bill rate, payable quarterly.
    Fee for co-managers is 1/8 pct.
    Lead manager is BT Asia Ltd, and syndication is expected to
close on March 16.
 REUTER

Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> said its
previously announced float of <Bond Media Ltd> will be on the
basis of three shares at 1.55 dlrs each for every four Bond
Corp shares.
    For each five Bond Corp shares, Bond Media shareholders
will receive one free option exercisable up to March 1991, also
at 1.55 dlrs, Bond said in a statement.
    Bond Media will be owned about 50 pct by Bond Corp.
    Bond Corp is injecting Kerry Packer's electronic media
interests, which it purchased for one billion dlrs, into Bond
Media. It is also injecting Bond's own media holdings.
 REUTER

Fiji gold miner <Emperor Mines Ltd>
said it will float a gold investment company in the Isle of Man
to be known as <Odin Mining and Investment Co Ltd>.
    Sixty pct of Odin's 51 mln issued shares will be offered to
Emperor shareholders on a one-for-one non-renounceable basis at
1.20 Australian dlrs each, it said in a statement.
    Each share will carry a free option exercisable at the same
price up to March 1992.
    Odin in turn will be allotted a 10 pct stake in Emperor at
6.06 dlrs a share against the market level of about 7.70 dlrs.
    Odin shares will be listed in Australia and New Zealand.
    Emperor said Odin's chief activity would be strategic
investment in emerging gold companies and projects.
    Emperor's 22 pct stake in Australia's <Nullarbor Holdings
Ltd> and 10 pct stake in Canada's <Osborne and Chappel
Goldfields Ltd> will be transferred to Odin at substantial
discounts to their market prices, it said.
    The offer will not be available to shareholders registered
in the U.S. And Britain in view of compliance costs, it said.
    But David Kingston, of advisers <Rothschild Australia Ltd>,
told Reuters those few shareholders were being urged to switch
their registrations to an Australian nominee.
    Kingston said about 65 to 70 pct of Emperor's shareholders
are domiciled outside Australia, but the vast majority are
registered through Australian nominees and are thus entitled to
participate.
    Stockbroker <Ord Minnett Ltd> will underwrite the issue,
Emperor said.
    Odin shares are expected to be listed in May, it added.
    Emperor changed its domicile to the Isle of Man from
Australia last October because of changes in Australian tax
laws that would affect its tax position, even though it has no
activities in Australia.
 REUTER

The cabinet has approved a bill making it
easier for the government to issue commemorative coins, a
Finance Ministry official said.
    The bill, which must still be approved by parliament, would
take effect in April 1988. It would allow the government to
issue 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 yen coins without special
legislation, although higher-valued coins would still need a
special law, the official said. At present it can only issue
coins of 500 yen or less.
 REUTER

Group 1986 net profit 541 mln Swiss
francs vs. 529 mln
    Dividend 105 francs per 250 francs nominal share vs. 100,
21 francs per 50 franc nominal participation certificate vs 20
    Group Turnover 8.36 billion francs vs. 8.45 billion
    Cash Flow 956 mln francs vs. 941 mln
    Parent company net profit 153.8 mln francs vs. 135.3 mln
 REUTER

India is to partially cover the cost
of its Malaysian palm oil imports through a countertrade deal
involving the construction of two bridges valued at 20 mln
dlrs, an Indian trade source told Reuters.
    He said Malaysia agreed to the oil-for-bridges deal in
October after India said it could no longer buy some 700,000
tonnes of palm oil a year because of its trade deficit.
    Malaysia has also agreed to barter palm oil for 30 mln dlrs
of hydroelectric equipment and is interested in countertrading
for Indian iron ore, wheat and other goods and services, he
said.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry has clarified
regulations governing fund management, satisfying overseas
critics who charged the rules were too tightly-drawn, ministry
officials and Western diplomats said.
    They said "double licensing" has been dropped so a foreign
fund management firm need apply only for a licence for its
Japanese subsidiary and not for the parent company as well.
    A foreign investment management company will be permitted
to employ only one fund manager in Japan, with another on
standby in the home country. Domestic companies must have two.
    In deciding whether a Japanese subsidiary of a foreign firm
is eligible to manage funds in Japan, the ministry will take
account of the amount of funds the parent company has under
management, a ministry official said.
    "This should make it very easy for foreign firms to meet the
criteria for a licence," he said without elaborating.
    He said the ministry expects to grant the first investment
management licences by the end of June. Some 135 firms,
including some 15 foreign companies, will probably be licensed
under the new law passed late last year.
 REUTER

ALUSUISSE GROUP 1986 NET LOSS 688 MLN SWISS FRANCS (LOSS 756 MLN)

The short-term effect of foreign exchange
rate movements in correcting international trade imbalances
appears to be waning, and long-term efforts are required to cut
Japan's chronic dependence on external demand, the Bank of
Japan said in a monthly report.
    Japan's trade surplus in nominal terms is likely to remain
high in the near future, the central bank said.
    Fundamental adjustments will be needed as long as Japan
hopes to benefit from a better international allocation of
resources and maintain the free trade system, it added.
 REUTER

The U.S. Company Du Pont De Nemours <DD>
has abandoned plans to build a chemical factory near the west
coast port of Lukang after environmental protests.
    A company spokesman told a news conference yesterday that
Du Pont would conduct an environmental impact study and then
look for another site for the 160 mln U.S. Dlr titanium dioxide
plant, the largest foreign investment project in Taiwan.
    The decision came after almost a year of protests by
residents who feared pollution from the plant might ruin the
tourist industry and nearby fish farms.
 REUTER

London - Floating rate note prices open sharply lower, dealers say

Net Loss 688 mln Swiss francs vs. Loss
756 mln
    Gross sales 5.93 billion vs. 8.51 billion
    Operating income 198 mln francs vs 256 mln
    Net extraordinary charges 592 mln vs 472 mln
    Note - Company plans 50 pct capital reduction, banks to
convert 300 mln francs of credit facilities to subordinated
loans. No immediate plans for capital increase. Company full
name Schweizerische Aluminium AG.
 REUTER

Opec deliberately under 15.8 mln barrel ceiling to defend price - Subroto

<County Ltd>, which is acting in concert
with Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> in its 151.4 mln stg for supermarket
chain operator <Hillards Plc>, has purchased 300,000 Hillards
ordinary shares at 316p per share, a statement said.
    These purchases, together with those made by County on 10
March, represent about 4.8 pct of Hillards issued ordinary
share capital, it said.
    Tesco's offer, made on March 10, values each Hillards
ordinary share at 305.5p, a 37.6 pct premium over the previous
day's  closing price. A cash alternative of 290.55p will be
made available.
 REUTER

South African year-on-year producer
price inflation fell to 14.9 pct in January against 16.4 pct in
December, Central Statistics Office figures show.
    The all items index (base 1980) rose a monthly 0.8 pct in
January to 233.9, after also rising 0.8 pct in December to
232.1.
    A year ago the index stood at 203.6 and year-on-year
producer price inflation at 22.2 pct.
 REUTER

Sandvik AB <SVIK.ST> and Belgian group
<Diamant Boart SA> have completed preliminary negotiations on
forming a joint venture which will combine their oil and gas
drilling tools activities, Diamant Boart said in a statement.
    The two companies announced in January that they had signed
a letter of intent to form a venture in which each would have
equal stakes and which would have annual turnover of about 75
mln dlrs.
    In today's statement Diamant Board said "The results of the
negotiations support strong synergy between the two units
involved."
    Diamant Boart is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sibeka SA in
which Societe Generale de Belgique <BELB.BR> has a 52 pct
stake.
 REUTER

Indonesian Energy Minister Subroto said
he sees the oil market continuing bullish, with underlying
demand expected to rise later in the year.
    He told a press conference in Jakarta at the end of a
two-day meeting of South-East Asian Energy Ministers that he
saw prices stabilizing around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    "The sentiment in the market is bullish and I think it will
continue that way as demand will go up in the third or fourth
quarters," Subroto said.
    Asked about the prospect for oil prices, he said: "I think
they will stabilise around 18 dlrs, although there is a little
turbulence ..."
    "Of course the spot price will fluctuate, but the official
price will remain at 18 dlrs," he added.
 REUTER

Schweizerische Aluminium AG <ALUZ.Z>,
Alusuisse, plans to reduce share and participation certificate
capital by 50 pct to cover losses in 1986 and those carried
forward from the previous year, chief executive Hans Jucker
said.
    Jucker told a news conference that the greatest drain on
its financial resources had been stopped, but after
extraordinary charges the net loss of 688 mln francs in 1986
was only slightly under the 756 mln loss of the previous year.
    The losses in 1986 and those carried over from 1985 made it
necessary to reduce capital by 50 pct, he said.
    However, Jucker said the company improved liquidity through
a recovery in cash flow and conversion of 300 mln Swiss francs
of credit into a subordinated loan.
 REUTER

OPEC is deliberately under its production ceiling of 15.8 mln
barrels to defend its 18 dlr a barrel price target.
    He told reporters at an energy conference in Jakarta that
OPEC had decided to maintain its price level of 18 dlrs.
    "We are deliberately defending the price, so OPEC production
is less than 15.8 (mln) at the moment," he stated.
    Asked if OPEC would increase production if prices went
above 18 dlrs a barrel, he said this would be decided at the
next OPEC meeting in June. "We will discuss the market situation
then," he added.
    He said a meeting of the OPEC Differentials Committee had
been postponed because "there is no need for the meeting."
    He did not elaborate. The committee had originally been due
to meet in Vienna this week.
 REUTER

A Foreign Ministry official dismissed
arguments made by senior U.S. Government officials seeking to
block the sale of a U.S. Microchip maker to a Japanese firm.
    "They appear to be linking completely unrelated issues,"
Shuichi Takemoto of the Foreign Ministry's North American
Division told Reuters.
    U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige has asked the
White House to consider blocking the sale of <Fairchild
Semiconductor Corp> to Japan's Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T>, U.S.
Officials said yesterday.
    Baldrige expressed concern that the sale would leave the
U.S. Military dependent on a foreign company for vital high
technology equipment. Pentagon officials said Defence Secretary
Caspar Weinberger also opposes to the sale.
    U.S. Officials have also said the sale would give Fujitsu a
powerful role in the U.S. Market for supercomputers while
Japan's supercomputer market remains closed to U.S. Sales.
    Takemoto said national security should not be an issue
since the planned purchase of Fairchild from its current owner,
Schlumberger Ltd <SLB>, does not include Fairchild's main
defence-related division.
    In addition, Takemoto said tension over the supercomputer
trade should not affect the sale as Fairchild does not make
supercomputers.
    Analysts noted that Fairchild does make sophisticated
microchips used in supercomputers. Fujitsu makes similar chips
and supplies them to U.S. Supercomputer makers, they said.
    Takemoto also dismissed U.S. Fears that the proposed
takeover would violate U.S. Antitrust law, saying "the purchase
would not result in Fujitsu monopolising the U.S. Semiconductor
market."
    Two separate issues appear to have come together to boost
pressure to block the purchase, industry analysts said.
    The move is in part an attempt to force Japan to open its
domestic market to more U.S. Supercomputer sales, they said.
    U.S. Officials have repeatedly charged that the Japanese
public sector is closed to U.S. Supercomputer sales despite
U.S. Firms' technological lead in the field.
    "The United States believes Japan will only react when
bullied, and this is a bullying ploy," Salomon Brothers Asia
analyst Carole Ryavec said.
    However, the analysts said more is at stake than
supercomputer sales as the U.S. Fears it is losing its vital
semiconductor industry to Japanese competitors.
    "The real issue is xenophobia in (the U.S.) Silicon Valley,"
said Tom Murtha of brokerage James Capel and Co.
    U.S.-Japanese tension over the semiconductor trade has
failed to subside despite recent efforts by Japan's Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI) to get Japanese firms
to abide by a bilateral pact aimed at halting predatory pricing
and opening Japan's market.
    A MITI official said that while Japan is faithfully abiding
by the agreement, problems remain in halting the sale of
microchips in Europe and Southeast Asia at prices below those
set by the pact.
    "It is only a matter of time before we solve this problem,"
he told Reuters.
    Despite the furore, Fujitsu will proceed with talks on the
acquisition in line with the basic agreement reached with
Schlumberger last year, a Fujitsu spokeswoman told Reuters.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it invited an
early round of bill offers to help ease tight conditions in the
money market.
    The bank estimated today's liquidity shortage at about 1.10
take-up would drain 1.21 billion stg from the system while a
rise in the note circulation and below target bankers' balances
would take out 265 mln and 180 mln respectively, the bank said.
    Against this, exchequer transactions would add a net 535
mln stg.
 REUTER

Oesterreichishce Kontrollbank AG is
issuing a 100 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due March 20, 1997 at
nine pct and priced at 101-7/8 pct, Morgan Guaranty Ltd said as
joint book-runner with LTCB International.
    Fees comprised 1-1/4 pct selling concession with 3/4 pct
 REUTER

President Reagan's legal adviser said
the President could not recall when he approved a 1985 arms
sale to Iran, the New York Times reported.
    "We were trying to stimulate his (Reagan's) recollection and
he had no recollection, although he remembered being surprised
about something," Peter Wallison, who is resigning, was quoted
as saying in an interview.
    "That led us to expect that he would not be able to recall
(the date) when he appeared before the Tower board," Wallison
said, referring to the question of whether Reagan gave prior
approval to an Israeli shipment of U.S. Arms to Iran.
    Wallison said John Poindexter, then head of the National
Security Council (NSC), kept him from probing the scandal for
weeks after it was first made public last November, the Times
reported.
    Wallison told the newspaper that Poindexter, who resigned
from his NSC post last November 25, refused to give him
information about the deal, despite pleas by former White House
Chief of Staff Donald Regan.
    "Regan told me on several occasions that he had been unable
to move Poindexter to include me in any of the discussions or
to provide me with ... The facts," he said.
 REUTER

CBS Inc <CBS.N> is issuing 400 mln dlrs
of convertible debt due April 7, 2002 with a coupon of five pct
and priced at par, said Morgan Stanley Ltd as lead manager.
    The securities are convertible into shares of CBS at a
price of 200 dlrs per share, which represents a premium of 26.2
pct over the company's closing stock price yesterday of 158.50
dlrs on the New York Stock Exchange.
    The issue is callable in the first three years only if the
stock prices rises abouve 130 pct of the conversion level.
There is a 1-1/2 pct selling concession and a one pct combined
management and underwriting fee.
 REUTER

Japan's Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
has refused to drop a proposed sales tax as debate on a draft
budget for 1987 resumed after a nine-day opposition boycott.
    "I have no plan to withdraw the sales tax as I think it is
the best policy (for Japan)," Nakasone told the budget committee
of the lower house of parliament.
    Kyodo News Agency said a small group of members of
Nakasone's ruling Liberal Democratic Party filed a complaint
with their local headquarters calling for his expulsion from
the party on the grounds he broke a campaign pledge by
introducing the sales tax.
    Nakasone admitted the tax was a major factor in an upper
house by-election defeat for his party on Sunday.
    The election was the first national-level poll since
Nakasone presented his plan for overhauling Japan's tax system,
which has remained unaltered for the past 36 years.
    The sales tax and the planned abolition of the tax-free
saving system are designed to offset proposed income and
corporate tax cuts.
 REUTER

A total of 1.886 mln hectares was sown
to wheat in Britain, excluding Northern Ireland, up to December
1, 1986 for the 1987 crop, a Ministry of Agriculture census
shows.
    It compares with 1.925 mln planted in the same period 1985.
    The barley area was unchanged at 952,000 ha, but oilseed
rape increased to 393,000 from 333,000 ha.
 REUTER

Senior Belgian cabinet ministers
reached an agreement on budgetary economies, which will allow
the net budgetary financing requirement to remain within
previously set limits, the government said in a statement.
    The statement, issued as ministers ended a marathon meeting
in the early hours of this morning, did not give further
details.
    However, Budget Minister Guy Verhofstadt said before the
meeting he was seeking economies of at least 21.2 billion
francs in order to keep the financing requirement at 418
billion francs this year, or eight pct of Gross National
Product.
    The government set this figure as its target for the
financing requirement last year when it announced a program of
cuts designed to reduce spending by 195 billion francs in 1987.
    However, Verhofstadt had claimed that subsequent
developments had meant that unless further cuts were found, the
financing requirement would be considerably higher.
    Last year, Belgium had a financing requirement of 561
billion francs, or 11.0 pct of GNP.
    A government spokeswoman said the accord would be
considered by the full cabinet later today, and Prime Minister
Wilfried Martens would announce it to Parliament on Monday.
    She said no details would be made public before then.
 REUTER

State-owned Indian Railway Finance
Corporation's first ever bond issue has been oversubscribed by
3.5 to 6.0 billion rupees, brokers said.
  The 2.5 billion rupee issue consisted of 10-year maturity
bonds of 1,000 rupees each, earning 10 pct tax free interest.
They were listed for subscription on major stock exchanges from
March 2 to March 7.
    The Corporation has sought Finance Ministry permission to
retain the entire oversubscribed amount, brokers said. "The
collection of such a large amount within just one working week
is a record for the Indian capital market," one broker said.
  REUTER

A mix of electoral boldness and fiscal
caution is expected from Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson next week when he unveils his budget for fiscal 1987/88.
    Exceptionally robust tax revenues have given Lawson very
favourable budget options with which to please voters, industry
and financial markets alike.
    The budget will Lawson's fourth, and probably the last from
the Conservative government before the next general election,
political analysts say.
    Analysts said the major budget question is how Lawson will
balance expected tax cuts with lower public borrowing, and
allow for fresh falls in U.K. Interest rates.
    They said a boost given to the economy by consumer spending
has helped reduce the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement
(PSBR) for financial 1986/87 from an originally targetted 7.1
billion stg, despite big rises in government spending.
    Economists say Lawson may have up to five billion stg to
split between income tax cuts and other electoral "sweeteners,"
higher spending and a drop in borrowing, while still meeting
his earlier 1987/88 PSBR target of 7.0 billion stg.
    The decision facing Lawson is how best to use that
so-called "fiscal adjustement" to maximise the government's
all-round popularity ahead of the next general election.
    Economist Ian Harwood of Warburg Securities said Lawson's
budget must strike a balance between tax cuts aimed at home
consumption and lower public borrowing for attracting support
from overseas investors.
    Peter Fellner of James Capel and Co said "a budget which
concentrates on tax cuts for the consumer will be a budget for
an early election."
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher must call a poll before
June, 1988. But anticipation of a summer or autumn 1987 ballot
has risen as the opposition Labour Party has slipped in voter
surveys. Forecasts that the economy may deteriorate later this
year add to arguments for an early poll, analysts say.
    The Conservatives have pledged to cut the basic rate of
taxation in the U.K. From the current 29 pct level to 25 pct.
    While confirming that aim, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
last month seemed to dash speculation that that would happen in
the near future. She said in a television interview that it
would happen "Eventually. But I think it will be eventually."
    Most market analysts now expect a two-pence reduction in
the basic rate of taxation and a lowering in of the top rate of
income tax from 60 pct.
    A one billion stg cut in the 1987/88 PSBR - to six billion
stg - is considered the minimum needed for reassuring financial
markets, they add.
    The Treasury's inflow of tax receipts has far surpassed
that previously envisaged, economists say. Lawson as recently
as December 17 said that "I very much doubt whether there will
be much scope for reductions in taxation in next year's budget."
    The Conservative government is eager to get the basic rate
of tax down to 25 pct as soon as possible, since every pound
off the tax base would make the opposition Labour Party's
spending plans look more painful to the electorate, analysts
say.
    The direct revenue effect of a one penny change in the
basic rate of income tax would be about 1.1 billion stg in
1987/88 and 1.45 billion stg in 1988/89, Treasury figures show.
    Lawson's budget speech to Parliament on Tuesday starts at
1530 GMT, and is sure to echo the government's distinct tone of
optimism, analysts say.
     The tax measures which Lawson is expected to announce will
be based firmly on a positive assessment of past economic
achievements and confidence for the future, they add.
    But even if he does cut his planned PSBR for 1987/88 by
between one and 1.5 billion stg, as most economists predict,
Lawson is still likely to find himself announcing a higher PSBR
than the outturn for this financial year.^M
    That could leave him with a presentation problem,
economists say.
    A lower PSBR would raise financial confidence by reassuring
markets that the borrowing burden imposed by the government
would stay low even if certain key aspects of the budget's
arithmetic seem over-optimistic, economists say
    Lawson is slated to reaffirm the government's goals, as set
out in its Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), of reducing
inflation and raising economic growth.
    Regarding monetary targets, some analysts expect him to
drop the wayward broad money aggregate, sterling M-3, while
retaining the tamer M0 narrow measure. Few foresee any other
monetary aggregate being chosen by Lawson for formal targeting.
    Analysts were surprised this week when the government
sanctioned a half percentage point cut in interest rates, in an
attempt to cool down sterling and the gilts market. Analysts
had expected the authorities to wait until after the budget.
    Further declines in bank base lending rates are anticipated
after the budget. Many analysts foresee them falling by as much
as a full percentage point from the current 10.5 pct level.
    The main electoral attraction of reducing interest rates is
to cut mortgage borrowing costs, and thus reduce inflation,
analysts say. Each one percentage point cut in the mortgage
rate reduces retail prices by 0.4 pct, government figures show.
 REUTER

Miyazawa says current dollar/yen rate not necessarily satisfactory

Japan agreed in talks with the U.S. To
amend its laws to allow more companies to engage in
international value-added network telecommunications services,
a Post and Telecommunications Ministry official said.
    Such services make communications between otherwise
incompatible computers possible over telecommunications lines.
    The official said firms registering as "Special Type Two
Telecommunications Firms," which are those leasing lines from
common carriers, will be permitted to re-lease the lines to
users and provide international services.
    Steps will also be taken to assure fairness in negotiations
between common carriers and firms seeking to lease lines, the
    Since December, 10 companies have registered as Special
Type Two firms, including two which have American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <T> or McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> as major
shareholders, the official said.
    Currently only <Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd> and <Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp> are allowed to operate
international telecommunications services.
 REUTER

Sweden's Nordbanken banking group

said it would postpone indefinitely its planned auction on
Monday of 4.2 mln B free shares deposited as loan collateral by
Fermenta's <FRMS ST> founder and former chief executive Reefat
el-Sayed.
    A statement cited Fermenta's financial position as the main
reason for delay. The company's 1986 deficit had earlier been
estimated at 136 mln crowns, but that was revised at an
extraordinary shareholders meeting last Monday to half a
billion crowns. The company said at the meeting a planned new
share issue would not be launched but that another, estimated
to raise 580 mln crowns, was scheduled for April.
    Nordbanken said the auction was the natural result of a
debtor's inability to repay an overdue loan. Although it
expected to buy the shares back itself, it did not exclude
accepting a suitable bid for them.
    Nordbanken loaned 200 mln crowns to Reefat el-Sayed
privately and is Fermenta's largest creditor with loans of l55
mln crowns.
    It was one of the four Swedish banks which last month
agreed to advance Fermenta 110 mln crowns to solve its
immediate liquidity problems.
 REUTER

Kampuchea harvested more than two mln
tonnes of rice paddy in 1986, up on the crops of the previous
two years, the official SPK news agency said yesterday.
    Diplomats said estimates put the 1985 harvest at less than
one mln tonnes, slightly up on 800,000 in 1984.
    SPK said Kampuchea planned to expand planting from 1.5 mln
to 1.93 mln hectares and boost rice paddy output to 2.5 mln
tonnes this calendar year.
    Two mln tonnes of paddy would produce some 1.3 mln tonnes
of milled rice, above the 1.25 mln tonnes Kampuchea says is the
minimum its 7.5 mln people need.
 REUTER

China's 1987 cotton output must rise
above the 1986 level of 3.54 mln tonnes or supply will fall
short of increasing demand, the China Daily said.
    Demand in 1986 rose 10.9 pct over 1985.
    Output in 1986 fell from 4.15 mln tonnes in 1985 and a
record 6.2 mln in 1984, official figures show. The China Daily
attributed the decline to several factors, including less
favorable weather conditions and new state measures to restrict
cotton production after the 1984 build-up of stocks.
    According to Customs figures, cotton exports rose to
558,089 tonnes in calendar 1986 from 347,026 in 1985.
    To increase output quickly, the state will raise by 10 pct
the price it pays for cotton produced above and beyond quota
levels, the newspaper said. Its official purchasing agencies
will buy cotton produced in excess of that originally
contracted for, it added.
    The China Daily said all cotton growing areas in south
China should be maintained, and growing in the north should be
concentrated in Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Xinjiang.
    It called for comprehensive planning to coordinate
production of cotton with that of grain, edible oil and other
crops, but gave no more details.
 REUTER

parliamentary session the current dollar/yen exchange rate is
not necessarily satisfactory for the Japanese economy.
    Miyazawa said the Paris currency accord among six major
industrial nations last month does not necessarily mean the yen
should stay stable around current levels in the future.
    The Paris agreement was aimed at stopping a further rapid
fluctuation of exchange rates, he said.
    The accord stipulated that current rates reflect
fundamentals of the six nations - Britain, Canada, France,
Japan, the U.S. And West Germany.
 REUTER

(STC) bought three cargoes of rbd palm olein at its vegetable
oil import tender yesterday, traders said. Late yesterday the
market was reporting it had bought one to two cargoes.
    The business comprised two 6,000 tonne cargoes for March
15/April 15 shipments at 355 dlrs per tonne cif, and 6,000
tonnes for May at 358 dlrs. The first two cargoes were on a
cash basis and the May position was transacted on a 30 pct
counter-trade basis, traders said.
 REUTER

market with 478 mln stg of early assistance to help ease a
liquidity shortage it estimated at 1.10 billion stg.
    It made outright purchases of seven mln stg of band one
bank bills at 10-3/8 pct and 30 mln stg of band two bank bills
at 10-5/16 pct.
    In addition, it bought 294 mln stg of paper for resale to
the market on March 30 and 147 mln stg for resale on April 8,
in both cases at an interest rate of 10-7/16 pct.
 REUTER

Metal Box Plc <MBXL.L> is issuing 60 mln
stg of convertible eurobonds due April 28, 2002 with an
indicated coupon of 5-3/4 pct to six pct and priced at par,
Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd said as lead manager. The
conversion premium will be five to 10 pct and the price will be
fixed on or before March 18.
    The bonds will be callable at 106 after five months and
until April 28, 1988 and thereafter at prices declining by one
pct per annum until 1993 but only if the share price is 130 pct
of the conversion price. The bonds will be listed in London and
will be issued in denominations of 1,000 stg.
    Fees for the issue total 2-1/2 pct, comprising 1-1/2 pct
for selling and 1/2 pct each for management and underwriting.
There is a 1/4 pct praecipuum. Pay date is April 28.
 REUTER

The proposed note issuance facility
for Elders IXL Ltd has been reduced to 100 mln Australian dlrs
from the original 200 mln dlrs, lead manager Westpac Finance
Asia Ltd said.
    Terms of the facility have also been amended. It will still
be half underwritten and half uncommitted, but the underwriting
margin has been raised to 10 basis points over the Australian
dollar bank bill rate.
    The margin was originally set at 6.25 basis points over
bank bill rate for up to 50 mln dlrs and at 2.5 basis points
for the remaining 50 mln dlrs.
    There is a 10 basis point utilisation fee if the
underwriters are required to pick up more than 67 pct of the
paper issued, and a five basis point fee if they are to pick up
34-67 pct of the paper. No utilisation fee will be charged if
they are to pick up less than 33 pct.
    Underwriting fee is 1/8 pct.
    Under the facility, notes in denominations of 500,000 dlrs
will be issued with maturities ranging from one to six months.
    Syndication deadline has been extended to March 20 from
today to allow banks more time to consider the facility.
 REUTER

Japanese securities houses have asked the
Finance Ministry again to consider introducing auctions of
10-year government bonds, securities sources said.
    Finance Ministry officials declined comment but said the
Ministry has been aware of growing calls from securities houses
for 10-year bond auctions.
    Japanese securities houses also may allow foreign brokers
to underwrite more 10-year bonds from April. Four U.S. Banks
are expected to receive Finance Ministry approval in late April
to operate securities subsidiaries in Japan as long as they
hold no more than 50 pct of the capital, bankers said.
    These firms are likely to join the syndicate, which will
increase the number of participants in the 10-year government
bond primary market, securities managers said.
    Each of the 17 current foreign securities houses in the
syndicate underwrites 0.07 pct of each issue, they said.
    In order to expand participation by foreigners, the
share or introduce auctions to the primary market, they said.
    Local brokers have requested the head of the syndicate, now
Fuji Bank Ltd, to increase their share to 30.7 pct but banks
oppose any cut in their 74 pct share, bankers said.
 REUTER

Japanese personal savings grew 10.3 pct
in 1986 from 1985 helped by a sharp increase in stock
investments by individuals, the Bank of Japan said.
    Outstanding savings on December 31, 1986 totalled 545,303
billion yen. Funds in investment trusts alone totalled 21,918
billion yen, up 37.4 pct from a year earlier.
    The outstanding balance also included deposits at banks and
post offices, up 7.4 pct to 337,867 billion yen, savings in the
form of insurance, up 18.6 pct to 111,431 billion, corporate
bond investments, up 7.8 pct to 46,867 billion, and investments
in trust banks, up 4.1 pct to 27,220 billion.
 REUTER

Trading in shares of Schweizerische
Aluminium AG, Alusuisse, <ALUZ.Z> was suspended on the Zurich
stock exchange after today's announcement by the company that
it would cut its share capital by 50 pct, the bourse said.
    The bourse said trading would resume again on Monday.
    Alusuisse bearer shares closed at 490 francs yesterday,
registered shares at 170 francs and the participation
certificates at 45.50.
 REUTER

New Zealand is launching a 100 mln stg
eurobond due April 9, 1995, priced at 100-1/4 with a 9-5/8 pct
coupon, lead manager Warburg Securities said.
    Fees are 3/8 pct each for management and underwriting and
1-1/4 pct for selling. Payment date is April 9 and listing will
be in London. The bonds will be sold in denominations of 1,000
and 10,000 dlrs.
 REUTER

Brazil's state oil company
Petrobras has cancelled a 40 mln dlr crude oil purchase from
Saudi Arabia after the Saudis refused to accept credit
guarantees from the Bank of Brazil and did not disclose
reasons, a Petrobras official said.
    Export director Carlos Santana told reporters the Saudis
were the first suppliers of oil to impose such conditions after
Brazil's decision to halt interest payment of its commercial
debts last month. The shipment of 2.2 mln barrels represents
two days of consumption.
    He said the Saudis reported they would no longer accept
letters of credit from the Bank of Brazil or even from Saudi
banks and that Brazil would have to obtain credit guarantees
from leading international banks.
    In February, Brazil had contracted to buy 125,000 bpd from
the Saudis until June. Saudi Arabia is Brazil's second biggest
oil supplier, with an average 115,000 bpd. Iraq is the main
supplier with 235,000 bpd. China comes third, with 58,000 bpd.
    "If the Saudis wish to stop our trade relationship...I am
sure that if they do, we will be getting dozens of offers from
elsewhere," Santana added.
    Santana said if the Saudis change their minds and decide to
respect the terms of the contract, then Petrobras will lift the
order to cancel the shipment.
    The Saudis had put similar conditions on a previous
shipment, he added. "We telexed them saying that if they
insisted, we would rather cancel the contract and buy the
product elsewhere," Santana said.
    After Petrobras threatened to cancel the contract, the
Saudis changed their minds and decided to accept the Bank of
Brazil's credit guarantees, he said.
 REUTER

A Mannesmann AG <MMWG.F> spokesman
said the company has lodged an application with the Federal
Cartel Office for approval of a possible majority stake in car
parts company <Fichtel und Sachs AG>.
    He described the application as a precautionary move and
said no agreement on buying a majority stake had yet been
reached. Until now Mannesmann has said only that it wanted to
buy a 37.5 pct stake in Fichtel from the heirs of Ernst Wilhelm
Sachs, the grandson of the firm's founder.
    The spokesman declined to say from whom it may buy the
other shares to create a majority stake in the firm.
    Fichtel's other principal shareholders are Commerzbank AG
<CBKG.F>, with 35.01 pct, and Salzgitter AG <ISLG.F>, with
24.98 pct. Spokesmen declined to comment directly on the
possibility of selling Fichtel shares to Mannesmann.
    Mannesmann said in January it hoped to take a 37.5 pct
stake in Fichtel's holding company Sachs AG in the first
quarter.
    Last week a spokesman said Mannesmann had a letter of
intent on the 37.5 pct stake but completion was being delayed
by legal questions surrounding the inheritance.
 REUTER

Sandoz AG <SANZ.Z> would
have reported a percentage rise in net profits "close to double
figures" rather than the actual two pct had it not been for
November's warehouse fire, a senior company official said.
    The official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters
Sandoz had made a substantial addition to reserves to cope with
the consequences of the accident at Schweizerhalle, which
caused severe pollution of the Rhine.
    Sandoz today reported without comment a rise in net profits
to 541 mln francs from the previous 529 mln and a five pct
increase in dividend to 105 francs per 250 franc nominal share.
    This year began well, with the performance in January and
February at least equal to the same period last year, the
    The company is expected to give fuller details of its
results at a news conference on April 22.
    Sandoz has insisted that it is adequately insured to cover
any liability arising from the accident.
    The official said the addition to reserves was to cover the
"one pct" of claims somehow not covered and any voluntary
gestures it wanted to compensate for the effects of pollution
from the fire.
    Sandoz has not given any figure for claims, which have been
flowing in from Switzerland and other countries bordering the
Rhine since the accident.
    However, the official said the final figure would be "much
less than that cited in earlier comments." He gave no further
details.
    In line with fellow chemical giant Ciba-Geigy <CIGZ.Z>,
which reported last month, Sandoz profit and turnover were also
hit by the falling dollar, the official said.
    Sales in local currency terms were up by 14 pct, with
market share increases in the United States and Japan. But this
was more than offset by a 15 pct negative foreign exchange
effect, which produced the reported one pct drop in turnover to
8.36 billion francs,the Sandoz official said.
    Net profit at Ciba-Geigy dropped by 21 pct to 1.16 billion
francs, while sales fell by 12 pct to 15.95 billion francs.
    The third major Swiss chemical company, F. Hoffmann-La
Roche and Co <HOFZ.Z> has not yet reported its results.
 REUTER

Schweizerische Aluminimum AG <ALUZ.Z>
(Alusuisse) may be able to break even this year after cleansing
its balance sheet for 1986, chief executive Hans Jucker said.
    "The threshold of profitability has returned to the
foreseeable future," he said. "We expect already in 1987
approximately to break even. That presupposes, however, that
our industrial environment does not worsen."
    He said Alusuisse would no longer face the burden of past
losses.
    Alusuisse made a net loss of 688 mln Swiss francs in 1986
after a restated 756 mln loss in 1985.
    Gross sales were 5.93 billion francs after 8.51 billion and
net turnover 5.65 billion after 8.00 billion.
    Alusuisse had originally reported a 692 mln francs loss for
1985.
    But Jucker and Finance Director Hermann Haerri told a news
conference the new management installed a year ago had decided
to restate the previous five years' accounts to eliminate
rights on Australian bauxite previously in the books as an
asset.
    Together with other one-off charges, Alusuisse took an
gross extraordinary charge in 1986 of 698 mln francs, up from
472 mln in 1985.
    It also had 106 mln extraordinary income in 1986 remaining,
after provisions, from the sale of its Maremont Corp subsidiary
in the United States. There were no extraordinary gains in
1985.
    Jucker said the losses, plus those carried forward from
1985, had wiped out the company's remaining reserves and
exceeded legally allowed levels, forcing Alusuisse to adopt a
50 pct capital cut, to be approved by shareholders on April 22.
    Jucker said he knew shareholders would find this "radical
elimination of the mortgages of the past" painful, but said the
foundation had been laid for a successful new company strategy.
    Haerri said despite the losses, the company's liquidity was
strong. Bank debt had been cut by about one-third to 2.56
billion francs against the end-1985 level of 3.85 billion.
    Cash flow improved substantially to 323 mln francs from 111
mln and represented 5.7 pct of turnover against a mere 1.4 pct
in 1985.
    In addition, to reassure other creditors, Alusuisse had
arranged with three major Swiss banks -- Union Bank of
Switzerland <SBGZ.Z>, Swiss Bank Corp <SBVZ.Z> and Credit
Suisse <CRSZ.Z>, to convert 300 mln francs of credits into a
subordinated loan.
    The main sources of losses in 1986 were book losses and not
cash losses, Haerri said. Existing credit lines were used only
to a small extent, and the parent company had been granted a
new credit line of 200 mln francs from a consortium of Swiss
banks that would cover most of the loans falling due in 1987.
    Haerri said the company had been criticized for maintaining
bauxite rights as an asset, and so had restated the accounts.
    That left the 1985 account with a 756 mln franc loss
instead of 692 mln, 1984 with a 68 mln profit instead of 169
mln, 1983 with a 217 mln loss instead of 82 mln and 1982 with a
479 mln loss instead of 179 mln.
    The new accounts show 1985 with shareholders' equity of
1.15 billion francs instead of 1.75 billion, and similar
alternations were made for previous years.
    After 1986 losses, shareholder's equity stood at only 895
mln francs.
 REUTER

Dutch state-owned chemical group N.V.
DSM is launching a 150 mln guilder dual currency bond with a
7-1/4 pct coupon due 1992 and priced at par, lead manager
Algemene Bank Nederland N.V. Said.
    Interest will be paid in guilders and each 1,000-guilder
bond will be redeemed in 313.00 sterling on April 15, 1992.
    Subscription closes Friday March 20, payment date is April
15, listing will be on the Amsterdam stock exchange.
    Co-leads are Bank Mees en Hope, AMRO Bank and Citicorp
Investment Bank (Netherlands). The management group consists of
RABO, NMB, CLN Oyens en van Eeghen and F van Lanschot Bankiers.
 REUTER

The French government and Walt Disney Co
 <DIS.N> expect to sign a contract for Europe's first
Disneyland amusement park before the end of next month, a
senior French official said today.
    The complex, to be built 20 miles east of Paris, will
include a so-called "Magic Kingdom" theme park, outdoor
recreation, shops and hotels.
    Initial investment by Walt Disney and a group of French and
other investors has been put at around eight billion francs for
the project's central theme park.
    A preliminary agreement was reached in December 1985.
 REUTER

Current profits of Japan's major firms in
the October-December quarter rose four pct from a year earlier
to 5,654 billion yen against a 2.6 pct year-on-year rise in the
preceding quarter, the Finance Ministry said.
    The improved earnings resulted mainly from a 22.5 pct
profit increase in non-manufacturing industries, supported by
an 88.7 pct rise for construction firms and a 138 pct gain in
real estate, according to a ministry survey.
    Total sales of the 15,308 firms with capital of 10 mln yen
or more which responded to the poll, fell one pct to 217,217
billion yen against a 1.2 pct fall the previous quarter.
    Current profits of manufacturing industries in the fourth
quarter dropped 13.7 pct to 2,394 billion yen against a 22.1
pct fall in the preceding quarter, the ministry said.
    Plant and equipment investments of all firms polled fell
3.9 pct to 8,004 billion yen, compared with a 1.4 percent fall
the previoius quarter.
    Ministry officials said the survey showed that the Japanese
economy is in a delicate stage in which it is hard to tell if
economic growth has stopped deteriorating or if the economy is
heading for a recovery.
 REUTER

The U.S. Is to lend Sudan 57 mln dlrs
to buy 309,000 tonnes of wheat and 73,000 tonnes of wheat
flour, according to an agreement signed here.
    Under the agreement Sudan will receive 50 mln dlrs for the
commodities and the rest for sea transportation.
    The loan is repayable in 40 years, including a 10-year
grace period. Interest will be two pct for the grace period and
three pct over the repayment period of 30 years.
 REUTER

Schweizerische Aluminium AG <ALUZ.Z>
(Alusuisse) plans further drastic cuts in its aluminium
smelting capacity and more concentration of higher value-added
products, chief executive Hans Jucker said.
    Elaborating on plans disclosed in outline last September,
company officials said current smelting capacity of 390,000
tonnes a year would be cut to between 250,000 and 260,000
tonnes by 1989 or 1990. They did not say where cuts might be
made.
    Two years ago, before selling its Ormet Corp subsidiary in
the United States to local management and staff, Alusuisse had
an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

CANADA FEBRUARY UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS TO 9.6 PCT FROM JANUARY 9.7 PCT, STATISTICS CANADA SAID

The Singapore government should
reduce its stake in major state-owned or run companies like
Singapore Airlines Ltd <AIRH.SI> to around 30 pct over the next
decade and privatise statutory boards, a government report
said.
    The report of the Public Sector Divestment Committee also
recommended flotation of as many government-linked companies
(glcs) as possible, and secondary distribution of state-owned
shares to add breadth and depth to the Singapore stock market.
    The Singapore government owns or backs 608 companies under
three holding companies with total assets in access of 10
billion dlrs, the report said.
    The report said a study of 99 glcs showed that 41 of them
should be privatised, 52 should not be privatised, and six
should be studied further because they have foreign government
participation, serve a "social mission," or are defence-related.
    Of the 41, 15 should seek listing on The Stock Exchange of
including shipyards, printing firms and airport service firms.
    The government should privatise a further 17, including
Intraco Ltd (a government trading firm), Chemical Industries
(FE) Ltd, and Acma Electrical Industries Ltd, and reduce its
stake in nine, it added.
    These included Singapore Airlines, SIA, now 63 pct-owned by
the government's Temasek Holdings, The Development Bank of
Singapore <DBSM.SI>, Keppel Corp Ltd <KPLM.SI>, Sembawang
Shipyard Ltd <BAWH.SI> and Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.
    The ceiling on foreign ownership of SIA should be allowed
to rise to 49 pct from the current 20 pct, it said.
    "The committee recommends that Temasek Holdings reduces its
stake (in SIA) in tranches to around 30 pct. The size and
timing of each tranche would depend on the absorptive capacity
of the Singapore stock market," it added.
    Trading in shares of SIA, which has a paid-up capital of
619 mln dlrs, closed here today at 10.60 dlrs.
    The report said the government's 48 pct stake in DBS, one
of Singapore's four major local banks, should be cut to 30 pct
through public offerings or dilution by issuing new shares.
    Among firms which should not be privatised, nine are to be
wound up, it said, including storage and food trading firms.
    The report said seven statutory boards should be considered
for privatisation so as to reduce competition with the private
sector, with a 20 pct ceiling on foreign ownership.
    The seven include the Telecommunications Authority of
Singapore, the Public Utilities Board, the Port of Singapore
Authority, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the
Singapore Broadcasting Corp.
    The latter is least able to be privatised because of the
sensitivity of its activities, it said.
    "The others can be privatised only after various issues have
been thoroughly debated and adequate safeguards formulated for
post-privatisation control and regulation," it added.
    "The committee recommends that as many government-linked
companies as possible should be privatised," the report said.
    But it added that there should be "a policy of robust
privatisation where initiative is decentralised and order is
maintained through adequate monitoring, control and direction."
    The committee's findings will be subject to final approval
from the Ministry of Finance.
 REUTER

Canada's February unemployment rate,
seasonally adjusted, fell to 9.6 pct from 9.7 pct in January,
Statistics Canada said. The rate was 9.8 pct in February last
year.
    Seasonally adjusted employment in February was 11,777,000,
compared with 11,747,000 in January, while unemployment slipped
to 1,252,000 from 1,255,000.
 Reuter

FRENCH 1986 BUDGET DEFICIT CUT TO 141.1 BILLION FRANCS FROM 143.6 BILLION - OFFICIAL

of convertible debt due April 7, 2002, with a coupon of five
pct and priced at par, said Morgan Stanley Ltd as lead manager.
 REUTER

Japan will carry out a
government-coordinated study of uses for superconducting
materials, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
(MITI) said.
    University and industry representatives will start
discussions in April on basic research and possible
applications, Masatoshi Urashima, MITI's director for
development of future basic technology, said.
    Superconductors, which conduct electricity with very low
resistance, could be used in computers, semiconductors and high
speed trains, he said.
    Urashima said recent discoveries of superconductive
materials which do not need extremely low temperatures led to
MITI's decision to coordinate research.
    MITI's electric technology laboratory is currently
researching energy efficiency and superconductive electrical
generation, he added.
 REUTER

France's 1986 budget deficit has been
revised down to 141.1 billion francs from the estimate at the
end of last year of 143.6 billion, the Finance Ministry said.
    This compares with the 1985 budget deficit of 153.3 billion
francs and the deficit target for this year of 129 billion.
    The ministry said it was the first time since 1980 that the
final budget deficit had been below the initial target.
    The budget deficit corresponded to 2.87 pct of the gross
domestic product (GDP), down from 3.35 pct in 1985.
    This year the government is aiming to cut the budget
deficit to 2.5 pct, reducing it further to two pct in 1988.
    Expenditure totalled 1,228 billion francs last year, up 6.1
pct from 1985, while receipts rose 7.3 pct to 1,076 billion.
    The 1986 budget deficit excludes IMF credits and activities
of the exchange stabilisation fund, but takes account of a four
billion franc payment to the public debt depreciation fund from
income from the privatisation programme.
    The ministry also said that the 1986 expenditure total
included the integration into the general budget of Treasury
loans to the steel industry, which had a neutral impact on the
deficit but boosted the spending figure.
 REUTER

<Organon International BV>, a
subsidiary of the pharmaceutical division of Dutch chemical
group Akzo NV <AKZO.AS>, said it agreed to cooperate in drug
research and development with <California Biotechnology Inc>.
    Organon will receive world clinical development and
marketing rights for any products pioneered under the agreement
with the U.S. Firm, an Organon spokesman said. He gave no
    The two companies will be looking at drugs to treat
ailments of the nervous system like Alzheimer's disease which
often affects the elderly, he said.
 REUTER

A three-year eurobond launched earlier
this week for News International Plc <NWSL.L> has been
increased to 150 mln dlrs from 100 mln due to good demand, lead
    The bonds pay 7-1/2 pct and were priced at par.
 REUTER

Burma's paddy production fell to 729.4
mln baskets in fiscal year 1986-1987 (to end March) from 737.3
mln in 1985-1986, a cabinet report to parliament said.
    A basket is a local measure equal to 46 lbs.
    Paddy output in 1984-1985 was 699.1 mln baskets, it said.
    Burma's "Green Revolution" sparked by the introduction of
high-yield variety paddy strains in the mid-1970s appears to
have hit a plateau with production levelling off over the past
two years, economists said.
 REUTER

money market with a further 168 mln stg of assistance to help
offset a shortage it now estimated at 1.05 billion stg, revised
down from 1.10 billion.
    It bought 21 mln stg of bank bills outright, 20 mln in band
one at 10-3/8 pct and one mln in band two at 10-5/16 pct. In
addition, it bought 98 mln stg of bills for resale on March 30
and 49 mln stg for resale April 8 at an interest rate of
10-7/16 pct. All these rates are the same as for today's
earlier help.
    So far today, the bank has provided the market with
assistance worth 646 mln stg.
    The bank also announced the rates applicable to temporary
lending facilities rolled over today.
    The average mid-market rate for lending rolled over for one
week is 10-15/16 pct and for two weeks 10-5/8 pct.
 REUTER

The Liberal party easily won the Truro
by-election with almost twice as many votes as its nearest
rival, the Press Association news agency reported.
    The poll in the South-West of England constituency was
called after the death of the previous member of parliament,
also a member of the Liberal party.
    Matthew Taylor raised the Liberal majority by winning
30,599 votes. Conservative Nicholas St Aubyn was second with
15,982 while Labour candidate John King polled 3,603.
    The last by-election, in the London suburb of Greenwich,
was won by the Social Democrat-Liberal alliance.
 REUTER

AIRBUS SAYS IT HAS 104 COMMITMENTS FROM NINE CUSTOMERS FOR A330/340 PLANE PROGRAM

AIRBUS BOARD SAYS IT WILL TAKE STEPS FOR FORMAL A330/340 LAUNCH DECISION BY MID-APRIL

The supervisory board of the
European consortium, <Airbus Industrie>, has begun a critical
meeting to review government funding and airline orders for its
proposed A340 long range jet, Airbus officials here said.
    Airbus insists it needs five airlines to firmly commit
themselves to the plane before going ahead with the project by
the month's end, the deadline for its launch.
    The plane, a four-engined widebodied jet, has so far only
been bought by one airline -- <Lufthansa>, which has placed 15
firm orders and 15 options for the plane.
    But while Air France has said it wants to buy seven of the
aircraft, it has not yet formally placed an order. Discussions
with up to a dozen other airlines have not yet resulted in
public commitments.
    Apart from a shortage of orders, Airbus also is facing an
uphill struggle persuading its member governments to fund the
2.5 billion dlr project, which involves not only the A340 but
its sister A330 aircraft, a twin engined, wide bodied medium
range jet with many identical components.
    The British government remains unconvinced that there will
be sufficient room in the world long range jet market.
    The West German government is also uncommitted, and is
currently pressing for a restructuring of the consortium's West
German company, <Deutsche Airbus GmbH>, while only the French
government appears to be fully behind the program.
    Another major factor delaying a final decision on the plane
has been the engine which will power it. Airbus agreed last
October with <CFM International> that its CFM-56 engine with
28,600 lbs of thrust would power the plane. But in December,
Airbus announced an agreement with CFM rival <International
Aero Engine> (IAE) to power a slightly larger version of the
A340 with a 30,000 lb thrust high-technology superfan engine.
   Airbus has made clear to potential customers that the IAE
engine is now the principle engine for the project.  The
incorporation of the superfan engine made the plane on paper
more attractive to airlines, but the engine has yet to be
developed and CFM International had openly expressed scepticism
that the engine will be ready when the plane goes into service.
    The future of the Airbus consortium depends on the right
decision being made on the A340 in the next few weeks, for it
could find itself severely exposed in the 1990s either by
staying absent from the long range jet market or by committing
itself to a commercially unviable project.
 REUTER

The European Airbus Industrie consortium
has obtained a total of 104 commitments from nine customers for
its planned A340 long-range jet and A330 twin-engined
medium-range jet, the consortium said in a communique here.
    Its supervisory board, meeting in Toulouse, "concluded that
the commercial and industrial objectives ... Have been
fulfilled and that a strong basis for a commercially successful
programme has been established," the communique said.
    But the consortium still has to obtain funding guarantees
from its member governments for the 2.5 billion dlr programme.
    The nine committed customers are well above the five
airlines that the consortium said it needed to launch the plane
project.
    "Therefore the supervisory board has decided to take all
necessary steps for a formal launch decision by mid-April 1987
to ensure first deliveries of the A340 in May 1992, to be
followed by first deliveries of the A330 a year later," it said.
    Airbus is a four-nation consortium grouping Britain,
France, West Germany and Spain.
 REUTER

Puget Sound Bancorp said it is
offering extended warranty service on items purchased in the
U.S. with its Visa Classic or BanClub credit cards.
    It said it believes it is the first bank in the nation to
offer the service in connection with Visa cards.  American
Express Co <AXP> has been offering extended warranties on items
purchased with its credit cards since last fall.
    Puget Sound said the extended warranty service doubles the
manufacturer's warranty at no extra charge, with a limit of one
extra year, excluding motorized vehicles and purchases carrying
more than a five year warranty.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 586,000 vs 802,000
    Sales 14.2 mln vs 15.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,006,372 vs 2,506,250
 Reuter

Southern California Edison Co
said 1.100 megawatt Unit 3 at its San Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station is back in service after the completion of a scheduled
refueling.
    The unit was taken down January Two.  Other owners include
San Diego Gas and Electric Co <SDO> and the cities of Anaheim
 Reuter

Rom-Amer Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it
has entered into a preliminary agreement with Huck's Landings
Nevada Inc to jointly develop a Las Vegas resort.
    The company said the agreement is contingent on
capitalization of the venture, which is expected to take place
within 30 days and include Rom-Amer stock, and to Rom-Amer
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 1,392,000 vs 4,686,000
    Sales 81.9 mln vs 81.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 10 cts vs 97 cts
    Net 355,000 vs 3,375,000
    Sales 270.4 mln vs 272.8 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three pct stock dividend in
    Pretax net profits 3,052,000 dlrs vs 4,498,000 dlrs in
quarter and loss 572,000 dlrs vs profit 2,922,000 dlrs in year.
    Latest year net includes pretax gains of 166,000 dlrs in
quarter and 4,420,000 dlrs in year from pension plan
reversions.
    Prior year net includes gain 1,549,000 dlrs on sale of
property.
 Reuter

First Boston Inc said it has started
its previously-announced tender offer for all common shares,
2.19 dlr cumulative preference shares and 11.25 dlr convertible
preferred shares of Allegheny International Inc at 24.60 dlrs,
20.00 dlrs and 87.50 dlrs respectively.
    In a newspaper advertisement, the company said the offer
and withdrawal rioghts will expire April Nine unless extended.
The offer is conditioned on receipt of at least a majority of
Allegheny voting power on a fully diluted basis and on receipt
of at least two thirds each of the preference and preferred
shares.
    A merger approved by the Allegheny board in which remaining
common, preference and preferred shares would be acquired at
the tender prices is to follow the offer.
    Receipt of the minimum amounts under the offer would give
First Boston sufficient voting power to assure approval of the
merger without the affirmative vote of any other shareholder,
 Reuter

Willow Resources Ltd said drilling of
the Number One Dudley Williams Heirs well in Panola County,
Texas, in which it has a 75 pct working interest, has begin.
    The company said it obtained a 12-month loan of 109,000
dlrs at two points over prime from Altair Investments Inc to
fund its share of the drilling costs.
    It said the well will be drilled to about 6,800 feet and is
likely to yield natural gas and condensate from multiple zones.
 Reuter

Employers in Rotterdam port's
strike-hit general cargo sector have been served with an
injunction until May 7 preventing them from continuing with
plans for 350 redundancies this year, an employers'
organisation spokesman said.
    An Amsterdam court yesterday ruled there had been a legal
fault in the employers' redundancy procedure.
    The employers' spokesman said they were likely to restart
the redundancy procedure afresh next week in an attempt to
pre-empt the May 7 final court ruling.
    Port and transport union representative Paul Rosenmuller
described the court ruling as a victory for the union, but
added there was still a long way to go before the dispute that
has hit the general cargo sector for the past eight weeks was
resolved.
    Rosenmuller said there would be a meeting of the sector's
4,000 workers this afternoon to decide on further action in the
campaign of lightning strikes that began on January 19 in
protest at planned redundancies of 800, starting with 350 this
year.
    The employers said there were no immediate plans for
meetings with the union either on the proposed redundancies or
on a new work practice agreement in the sector.
    Meanwhile, discussions on a new work agreement in the
port's grain sector, due to resume next week, are stalemated,
although agreement could be close in the coal and ore sector,
the employers' spokesman added.
 Reuter

Spanish farmers took their tractors to
the roads today and blocked a border crossing with France in a
protest against the Socialist government's EC policies,
    Protestors set cars ablaze and cut off traffic in the Rioja
wine growing district, while they blocked roads with tractor
convoys in other northern regions such as Saragossa, where
5,000 farmers joined the demonstrations.
    Farmers blockaded the border crossing with France at La
Junquera near Barcelona, refusing to allow lorries from other
European countries to enter Spain.
    Spanish farmers have been protesting for the past two weeks
to demand a better deal within the Community. The farm protest
came in the wake of demonstrations last night in over 30 cities
in which workers marched for wage rises and against job losses.
    But the turnout, regarded as a dress rehearsal for a
general strike next month, disappointed the communist-led
Workers Commissions union organisers. The ruling Socialist
Party's trade union arm, the General Workers' Union, did not
join in.
    More than 20 strikes are planned for this month and next in
the transport sector, with stoppages at the state-owned Iberia
and Aviaco airlines and RENFE railways.
 Reuter

The Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey said it has awarded USX Corp a 3,400,000 dlr contract to
replace the expansion joints and gratings on the upper level of
the George Washington Bridge between New York and Fort Lee,
N.J.
    It said most of the joints and gratings have been in place
for over 50 years.  The bridge opened in 1931
    Work on the project should start this spring and be
completed in the fall of 1988, it said.  Work affecting traffic
will be performed on weeknights and at least one lane in each
direction will remain open at all times.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Harbour workers said they will
strike for 24 hours on Monday, effectively closing all New
Zealand's ports.
    The strike is over deadlocked wage negotiations.
    A Harbour Employees Workers' Union spokesman told reporters
there will be no ship movements in and out of ports from
midnight on Sunday (1200 hrs GMT March 15).
    There will be no loading or unloading involving harbour
board workers and the Cook Strait ferries, which provide a
vital link between New Zealand's North and South Islands, will
not run, he added.
 Reuter

Two small shipping companies reached
a pay deal with striking seamen late yesterday, but union
leaders said most of Brazil's 40,000 seamen were still on
strike.
accepted a 120 pct pay raise offer from the companies, Globo
and Flumar, which have less than 200 employees each.
 Reuter

Portugal's consumer prices rose one pct
last month after a 1.2 pct increase in January and a 1.3 pct
rise in February 1986, the National Statistics Institute said.
    The consumer price index (base 1976) rose to 761.3 from
753.7 in January and compared with 695.4 in February 1986.
    This gave a year-on-year February inflation rate of 9.5 pct
against 9.8 pct in January and 12.6 pct in February 1986.
    Measured as an annual average rate, inflation in February
was 11.1 pct compared with 11.4 pct in January.  The government
forecasts annual average inflation of about eight pct this
year.
 REUTER

forced the closure of Egypt's main port of Alexandria and a
nearby oil terminal, port officials said.
    Tanker loading at the Suez-Mediterranean Arab Petroleum
Pipelines Co in Sedi Kerir, southwest of here, stopped and
officials said five tankers were at anchorage awaiting improved
weather.
 Reuter

The U.S. Producer Price Index for
finished goods rose 0.1 pct on a seasonally adjusted basis in
February, the Labor Department said.
    The increase came after a 0.6 pct increase in producer
prices in January.
    Higher energy prices were primarily responsible for the
increase in February, though they rose at a slower pace than
they had in January, the department said.
    The finished goods index was up 0.1 pct from its February,
1986 level.
    Before seasonal adjustment, the index for finished goods
stood at 292.3 over its 1967 base of 100.
    Among finished goods, the index for energy products rose
four pct in February after a 9.8 pct increase in January. But
price increases slowed sharply for gasoline and home heating
oil, the department said.
    There were some price declines, including a 3.4 pct fall
for passenger cars and 1.3 pct for light trucks from January
levels. This reflected expanded factory-financed rebates and
discount loan programs, the department said.
    The index for consumer foods fell 0.5 pct after a 1.8
pct drop in January as vegetables, pork and coffee cost less.
The index for intermediate goods rose 0.5 pct following a sharp
0.9 pct rise in January.
    The department said that energy prices again were the main
reason, with the index for intermediate energy up 2.7 pct.
    Gasoline and diesel fuel prices were about five pct higher,
half the 10 pct jump recorded in January.
    The durable manufacturing materials index edged down 0.1
pct last month after jumping 1.0 pct in January as prices for
steel, precious metals and copper stabilized.
    The department said lead and zinc prices fell, while
hardwood lumber and cement cost more. The crude materials index
rose 1.8 pct in February after a 2.9 pct rise in January. Crude
energy materials were up 2.6 pct, much less than the 10 pct
rise in January. Crude petroleum prices rose 4.4 pct last month
after a sharp 19.7 pct rise in January.
    Price rises accellerated for logs and timber and tobacco,
but fell for cotton, metal ores and copper and aluminum scrap.
    Among finished goods, gasoline rose 5.5 pct after a 15.7
pct January increase, and fuel oil was up three pct in February
after an 18.0 pct increase in January.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.22 dlrs vs profit nil
    Net loss 5,568,000 vs profit 11,000
    Revs 42.2 mln vs 37.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 3.74 dlrs vs profit 1.02 dlrs
    Net loss 4,898,000 vs profit 1,384,000
    Revs 139.0 mln vs 132.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods includes 1,603,000 dlr loss
from discontinued operations due to settlement of lawsuit and
redemption of preferred.
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said today it
is paying a wage dividend of about 236 mln dlrs to about 84,100
U.S. employees, down slightly from 239 mln dlrs last year.
    Kodak pays the wage dividend annually based on an
employee's earnings over the past five years and cash dividend
on Kodak stock.  It said it will pay about 192 mln dlrs in cash
and trhe remainder to the Eastman Kodak Employees' Savings and
Investment Plan, according to employee election.
    Kodak, which has been cutting down its staff, paid its wage
dividend last year to about 85,000 employees.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs two cts
    Net 22,000 vs 58,000
    Sales 951,000 vs 901,000
    Year
    Net 88,000 vs 293,000
    Sales 4,014,000 vs 3,533,000
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 46,000 dlrs vs 84,000
dlrs in quarter and credit 19,000 dlrs vs provision 37,000 dlrs
in year.
 Reuter

<Service Control Corp> said it has
started a tender offer for all shares of <American Service
Corp> at 37 dlrs each.
and withdrawal rights expire April Nine unless extended.  The
American Service board has approved the offer, which is to be
    Service Control said the offer is conditioned on receipt of
at least 534,806 shares.  It said holders of 534,819 shares
have agreed to tender their shares under the offer and have
granted Service Control an option to buy them at 37 dlrs each.
 Reuter

New Century Entertainment Corp said
it expects to realize about 7,500,000 dlrs in foreign
guarantees and advances on New Century films being distributed
overseas during the remainder of 1987 by Lorimar-Telepictures
Corp <LT>.
    The company said together with 10 mln dlrs in advances
Lorimar has received for domestic home video rights, guarantees
will have exceeded 80 pct of the costs of the films.
    New Century retains other domestic distribution rights to
the films.
 Reuter

<Dittler Brothers> said a
court-appointed auditor has recommended that Bally
Manufacturing Corp's Scientific Games Inc subsidiary should be
held in contempt of the Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia
as a result of alleged violation of a court order.
    It said the auditor has also recommended that Scientific
Games by fined the maximum amount permissible in Georgia for
allegedly violating the order.
    Dittler is a lottery ticket printer that has been involed
in extensive litigation with competitor Scientific Games.  The
contempt recommendation involves Scientific;s bidding for a
contract to print Pennsylvania lottery tickets and allegedly
printing the tickets without authorization by the court, as
required by previous court orders.
    Dittler said it will pursue allegations of fraud against
Scientific and will also ask the Pennsylvania attorney general
to investigate a potential violation by Scientific of a
Pennsylvania statute prohibiting false written statements to
public officials that carries a maximum penalty of two years in
jail.
 Reuter

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream said
it has restated its previously-reported fourth quarter loss to
904,000 dlrs or 13 cts per share because it has now decided to
take a charge of about 700,000 dlrs to provide for losses of
Midwest Distributing Co, which was acquired December 30.
    Dreyer's said the restatement reduces net income for the
full year to 5,914,000 dlrs or 80 cts per share.
    The company said the restatement does not indicate any
change in its thinking on the benefits of the acquisition or
future prospects in Midwest Distributing's markets.
    Dreyer's Grand previously reported 1986 earnings of
6,614,000 dlrs or 90 cts per share, down from 7,960,000 dlrs or
1.08 dlrs a share.  For the first nine months of the year, it
had earned 6,818,000 dlrs or 92 cts per share, up from
6,354,000 dlrs or 86 cts a share a year before.
 Reuter

Heritage Entertainment Inc said
419,867 of its 745,976 warrants were exercised at the reduced
price of 3.75 dlrs a share under an offer that expired March
12.
    The company said the exercise price will now be 4.50 dlrs a
share though the end of 1987 and five dlrs for 1988.
 Reuter

Oper shr nine cts vs three cts
    Oper shr diluted eight cts vs three cts
    Oper net 15 mln vs five mln
    Revs 518 mln vs 622 mln
    NOTE: Oper net excludes extraordinary income of seven mln
dlrs vs four mln on tax loss carryforward, offset by writedowns
of three mln dlrs vs eight mln on U.S. oil and gas properties
and other assets.

 Reuter

A Volkswagen AG
<VOWG.F> spokesman said the group had no immediate comment on
reports of greater than expected losses at its Spanish
subsidiary Sociedad Espanola de Automoviles de Turismo (SEAT).
    German newspapers reported that Werner Schmidt, SEAT
supervisory board chairman, had told journalists that SEAT
losses for 1986 were around 27 billion pesetas, or about 386
mln marks, almost double original expectations.
    According to the Boersen-Zeitung newspaper, Schmidt said VW
would invest 42 billion pesetas in SEAT this year and in the
years to 1995 would spend 462 billion on its new Spanish unit.
 Reuter

CME SETS BROAD TRADING REFORMS FOR STOCK FUTURES, PARTIAL BAN ON DUAL TRADING

Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> said it has
dismissed the head of its foreign exchange department and
suspended several other staff members following the recent
emergence of a possible currency fraud at the company.
    A VW statement said foreign exchange department chief
Burkhard Junger had been dismissed with immediate effect.
    It said it has also suspended Guenther Borchert, head of
the financial transfer department, and Siegfried Mueller, head
of the central cash and currency clearing department. Four
other members of the foreign exchange staff were also
    VW said the possibly fraudulent foreign currency
transactions, which could cost the company 480 mln marks, fell
directly within the area of responsibility of Borchert and
Mueller.
    VW said Adalbert Sedlmair, formerly finance director at
VW's former office equipment subsidiary Triumph-Adler AG, would
temporarily take over responsibility of the financial transfer
department during Borchert's suspension from duties.
    Meanwhile, the state prosecutor's office in Brunswick,
which is looking into the currency transactions, said the
Federal Criminal Office in Wiesbaden had also joined the
investigation and would be responsible for measures such as
possible police searches.
    A spokeswoman for the office said prosecutors in Frankfurt
were looking into the possibility of taking over the VW case
but added a final decision would be taken next week.
    The short VW statement said, "Burkhard Junger, 39, who had
already been suspended from his duties in January, has been
dismissed with immediate effect."
    Company sources said Borchert and Mueller were not thought
to have been directly involved with the currency transactions
but they may have been lax in their supervision.
 REUTER

The United States this week signaled
it is pressing commercial banks, increasingly disenchanted with
providing large cash loans to debtor nations, to develop new
ways of financing that will prove more acceptable to both
sides.
    Heading off challenges to its Third World debt strategy,
U.S. officials also say they think concessions should be made
to debtors that enact reforms speeding inflation-free growth.
    In particular, they stress new techniques that shift the
emphasis from debt to equity and shave interest rates.
    "The strategy is sufficiently broad as an initiative or
concept that there can be additional emphasis such as in
debt-equity swaps and that sort of thing," a Reagan
administration official said of the slow pace of commercial
bank lending to the Third World.
    "The debtors have been performing well...some people argue
that taking 1-1/8 pct down to 13/16 pct is debt forgiveness.
Well if that's what it is, fine. What it really is a narrowing
of the spread that could be charged on new money," the official
said.
    This week, therefore, U.S. officials signaled their backing
for a novel proposal by the Philippines that called for partial
payment of interest in tradeable investment notes.
    On Tuesday, officials said Treasury Secretary James Baker
told Secretary of State George Shultz the idea was a creative
one and signaled his approval to Philippine Finance Minister
Jamie Ongpin later that day. An administration official told
Reuters this week the Philippines' proposal to partially pay
interest with investment notes instead of cash should be
considered seriously by the banks. An agreement with the banks,
officials now say, is expected soon.
    "New bank lending has been slow in materializing but the
fact of the matter is there have been 70 billion dlrs in bank
loans restructured, which is a form of extension of credit. As
you know, there's been 8.5 billion dlrs in new money," said the
official, who plays a key role in keeping the plan afloat.
    The plan was launched in October 1985 by Secretary Baker
and called on commercial and multilateral banks to lend 29
billion dlrs in the subsequent three years to major debtors
undertaking reforms that promoting economic growth.
    But it has taken almost six months to complete the
syndication of a 7.5 billion dlrs loan to Mexico, which has
created deep misgivings here about the liklihood of such large
straight cash loans being assembled ever again.
    U.S. officials want the banks not only to consider swapping
their debts for equity in local corporations -- a development
that has already met with success in Chile and Mexico -- but to
pin loans on specific projects, finance trade and invest
directly in debtor country private sectors.
    These forms of lending, they say, give the banks a greater
stake and more economically secure return on investment.
    In a major challenge to the U.S. plan, Brazil last month
declared a moratorium on interest payments and followed it up
with a world tour by officials seeking a political way out of
its 109 billion dlr debt burden.
    The country is beset by a falling trade surplus and
dwindling reserves endangering its ability to service its
foreeign debt, at 109 billion dlrs the Third World's largest.
    One official attending the Washington talks with Brazilian
Finance Minister Dilson Funaro said "they've come in here now
and said "Look, we're out of money, help us," but they haven't
come in with a plan. And they've gone all over the world, and
at every stop they've been told the same thing."
    The official said Brazil would have to enact a credible
economic program, either in consultation with the World Bank or
the International Monetary Fund, to cool its overheated economy
before commercial banks would begin negotiations.
    As a result of the Brazilian action, private banks and
major debtor nations redoubled their efforts to reach
agreements stretching out debt repayments.
    For its part, the administration has signaled its strong
support for new techniques that in some cases effectively
amount to interest rate concessions for major debtor nations.
    It pressed the banks to allow Chile to make annual instead
of bi-annual interest payments, speeding an accord.
    Administration officials, who asked not to be named, have
also debated whether to allow banks greater flexibility in
building up loan loss reserves against Third World loans.
    The debate centers on a rule, known as FASB-15, under which
banks experiencing delayed interest payments on real estate
loans need not set aside reserves against debt principal if it
is believed payments will resume.
    More recently, the rule was extended to cover farm and
energy loans and Senator Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat,
has suggested it should be extended to Third World loans.
    Bradley is prominent among Congressmen urging that
provisions for debt relief be attached to tough new trade
legislation now being considered on Capitol Hill.
    But the officials said the debate has been inconclusive.
 Reuter

Oper shr 63 cts vs 47 cts
    Oper shr diluted 56 cts vs 38 cts
    Oper net 3,284,955 vs 2,176,925
    Revs 31.6 mln vs 23.0 mln
    NOTE: Current oper net excludes writedown of 344,039 dlrs,
or seven cts a share, on unidentified investment.
 Reuter

Applied Biosystems Inc said
it has lowered its internal product sales forecast following a
review of market conditions in Europe.
    The company also said Chairman Sam Eletr has resigned for
personal reasons.
    The company said it now expects third quarter, ending March
31, sales to approximate the second quarter's 21.1 mln dlrs and
third quarter earnings to be less than the second quarter's 2.7
mln dlrs, or 20 cts a share, due to unexpected European
softness and previously announced new product delays.
    Applied Biosystems earned 2,654,000 dlrs, or 20 cts a
share, in 1986's third quarter on sales of 13.4 mln dlrs.
    Explaining European orders have not materialized at the
rate expectd, the company added "we believe that the slowness
in orders reflects current conditions in the market for
research instrumentation in Europe."
    It said sales in the current quarter are also being
affected by the previously announced delay in completion of the
software for the Model 900A Data Analysis Module. The
unavialability of that product also impacts sales of the
associated model 420A Derivatizer system.
    Applied Biosystems said it presently expects this software
will be completed during the fourth quarter, but the resulting
lack of demonstration units in the field may postpone some
sales.
    Due to the delays and European uncertainties, "we must now
view the coming quarters with caution," it said, adding "some
earnings pressure is anticipated during the remainder of this
fiscal year."
 Reuter

The European Coal and Steel Community is
issuing a 100 mln stg eurobond due April 6, 1992 paying 9-3/8
pct and priced at 101-5/8 pct, lead manager Warburg Securities
said.
stg and will be listed in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it has revised
its estimate of today's shortfall to one billion stg, before
taking account of 646 mln stg morning assistance.
 REUTER

The Finnish metal and mining group
Outokumpu Oy said it will close its nickel refinery at
Harjavalta in central Finland for six weeks in July and August
this year due to current low prices on the nickel market.
    "We consider nickel prices as bad at the moment, although
they have been rising slightly since January," refinery sales
manager Pekka Purra said.
    He said the closure will mean a drop in production of 3,000
tonnes in 1987 from last year's output of 17,800 tonnes. The
closure was also a move to cut labour costs as no extra staff
have to be employed during holidays to keep the plant open.
 Reuter

U.S. FEB INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION ROSE 0.5 PCT AFTER REVISED 0.1 PCT JAN GAIN

U.S. industrial production rose 0.5
pct in February after a revised 0.1 pct increase in January,
the Federal Reserve Board said.
    The Fed previously said industrial production rose 0.4 pct
in January.
    The Fed said the February gain was dominated by a sharp
rise in motor vehicle production, which boosted output of both
consumer goods and business equipment. Industrial production
stood at 127.3 pct of the 1977 average in February and was up
1.7 pct from a year ago, the Fed said.
    The Fed also revised the December industrial production
figure to a gain of 0.5 pct from 0.3 pct originally reported.
    Manufacturing output rose 0.5 pct in February after a 0.1
pct increase in January and included gains of 0.8 pct in
durables and 0.1 pct in non-durables, the Fed said.
    Manufacturing was 2.4 pct above the year ago level.
    Production of auto assemblies rose to an annual rate of 8.3
mln units last month from a January rate of 7.5 mln units.
    Output of consumer goods rose 0.6 pct after falling 0.3 pct
in January and output of consumer durables was up 2.1 pct in
February after falling by 2.0 pct in January.
    Business equipment production rose 1.0 pct in February,
reflecting more output of autos and trucks for business use and
a recovery from strikes in farm equipment industries, the Fed
said.
    Mining output rose 0.1 pct after a 1.6 pct increase in
January, but was still six pct lower than a year ago.
    Utilities output rose 0.7 pct in February after a 1.2 pct
rise in January.
    Output of defense and space equipment was up 0.4 pct, the
same as in January, and 6.2 pct higher than a year ago.
    Output of construction supplies rose 0.2 pct in February
after a 1.5 pct January rise.
    Materials output increased by 0.2 pct last month, the
fourth consecutive monthly increase after declining throughout
much of 1986. The recent strength in materials has been
concentrated in textiles, paper and chemicals, the Fed said.
    Output of home goods was up 0.3 pct in February and the Fed
said production of items like appliances and furniture
continued strong last month.
 Reuter

Caesars World Inc said its board
unanimously rejected a 28 dlr a share takeover offer by New
York investor Martin T. Sosnoff.
    Caesars said Sosnoff's offer to by all its outstanding
shares of common stock was inadequate and not in the best
interests of its shareholders.
    The company recommended that shareholders reject Sosnoff's
offer, made through his <MTS Acquisition Corp>, and not tender
any of their shares.
    Caesars said it will explore a variety of alternative
transactions but did not elaborate.
    Caesars, in a brief statement, did not say whether it would
seek to buy back its shares held by Sosnoff.
    A Caesars spokesman said the company would not comment
further on its decision.
    On Wednesday, Sosnoff told the Securities and Exchange
Commission that he controls 13.6 pct of the company's stock.
    Sosnoff also informed the SEC that Caesars had offered to
buyout his holdings several times during the past year.
    No one from the Sosnoff organization was immediately
    Caesars said its financial advisor, Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc, had determined that Sosnoff's offer was financially
inadequate for shareholders other than Sosnoff.
    The company said other factors it considered in rejecting
the offer were its financial condition, future prospects,
current market conditions and the numerous conditions on which
Sosnoff's bid was conditioned.
    Caesars' stock opened up 1/8 point at 28-1/8. That is 1/8
point above Sosnoff's offer price.
 Reuter

Group profit after net interest items
742 mln crowns vs 741 mln.
    Sales 11.25 billion crowns vs 10.22 billion.
    Estimated profit per share 10 crowns vs 9.20.
    Proposed dividend four crowns vs 3.38.
 Reuter

Conseco Inc said it has signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Western National Life Insurance
Co from Beneficial Corp for 275 mln dlrs in cash.
    Western National had assets of 1.9 billion dlrs at the end
of 1986 and 1986 premium and investment revenues.  Western
issues structured settlement annuities for the settlement of
personal injury and damage claims and sells tax-sheltered
annuities.
    The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.
    Conseco said the acquisition would raise its assets to 2.7
billion dlrs and annual revenues to about 800 mln dlrs.
    Beneficial had previously announced plans to leave the
insurance business.  On March Three, it said it agreed in
principle to sell its American Centennial Insurance Co,
Beneficial International Insurance Co, Consolidated MArine and
General Insurance Co Ltd, Consolidated Life Assurance Co Ltd,
Wesco Insurance Co and Service General Insurance Co
subsidiaries to a management-led group for 98 mln dlrs in notes
mostly contingent on performance of the units and 10 mln dlrs
in cash.
    Conseco had 1986 operating earnings of 4,968,000 dlrs on
revenues of 84.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit seven cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net profit 151,000 vs loss 523,000
    12 mths
    Shrs loss 1.70 dlrs vs loss 44 cts
    Net loss 3,670,000 vs loss 947,000
    Assets 99.7 mln vs 102.6 mln
    Deposits 91.1 mln vs 90.6 mln
    Loans 44.3 mln vs 51.7 mln
 Reuter

Net 1986 profit 132.6 mln guilders vs 117.3 mln
    Turnover 1.6 billion guilders vs same
    Earnings per share 16.00 guilders vs 15.80 on capital
expanded by 11 pct to 8.21 mln outstanding shares.
    Proposed dividend per share 5.50 guilders vs 5.00
    Note - Full company name is Koninklijke Nederlandse
Papierfabrieken NV.
 Reuter

Shr 64 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 56,900,000 vs 46,400,000
    Sales 1.31 billion vs 1.13 billion
    Avg shrs 88.2 mln vs 89.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.09 dlrs vs 1.59 dlrs
    Net 185,900,000 vs 141,300,000
    Sales 3.84 billion vs 3.36 billion
    Avg shrs 88.9 mln vs 89.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 period ended February 23
    Prior year amounts restated to reflect discontinued
furniture operations
    Earnings include gains from discontinued operations of 1.5
mln dlrs, or two cts a share in the 1986 quarter and gains of
8.5 mln dlrs, or 10 cts a share in the fiscal 1987 nine months
vs 3.0 mln dlrs, or four cts a share a year earlier
 Reuter

About 220 men in Rotterdam port's
grain sector stopped work this afternoon in an unofficial
protest at the slow progress of negotiations over a new work
practice agreement, a spokesman for the port and transport
union FNV said.
    Negotiations between the union and employers, which are due
to resume early next week, are currently stalemated with the
union refusing to accept sweeping changes in working hours and
practices in return for a 1.5 pct pay increase.
    The FNV spokesman said the action did not yet have official
backing, but added that next week matters might be different.
 Reuter

Novell Inc said the dividend to
effect its previously announced two-for-one stock split will be
distributed April 13.
    As stated at the time of the original announcement, the
company said the payment will be made to holders of record
March 31.
 Reuter

Qtly div common 2-1/2 cts vs 2-1/2 cts prior
    Qtly div special common one ct vs one ct
    Pay May Eight
 Reuter

has called off the strikes against planned redundancies that
have hit Rotterdam port's general cargo sector for the past
eight weeks, strike leader Paul Rosenmuller told a mass
meeting.
    The decision followed yesterday's ruling by an Amsterdam
court preventing the sector's employers continuing with current
plans for 350 redundancies this year until the court sits again
on May 7, Rosenmuller told a meeting of the general cargo
sector's 4,000 workers today.
    The court ruled the employers had made a mistake in the
complicated legal procedure for obtaining official permission
for the redundancies, and therefore could not proceed.
    "There is no need to continue the strikes for the moment now
the immediate pressure of redundancies has been lifted,"
Rosenmuller said.
    But he added that the strikes, which began on January 19 in
protest against plans for 800 redundancies by 1990, could
resume at any time before May 7 if the employers made any moves
to re-apply for permission for the redundancies.
    SVZ labour relations manager Gerrard Zeebregts said they
would be meeting their lawyers today with a view to re-applying
for this permission next week in the hope of gaining approval
for the redundancies within a month.
 Reuter

money market with a further 195 mln stg assistance during the
afternoon.
    This brings total help today to 841 mln stg compared with a
liquidity shortage it has estimated at a revised one billion
stg.
    The Bank bought 176 mln stg of band two bank bills outright
at 10-5/16 pct and 13 mln stg of band one bank bills at 10-3/8
pct. In addition, it bought four mln stg of bills for resale to
the market on March 30 and two mln stg for resale on April 8,
at a common interest rate of 10-7/16 pct.
 REUTER

Walker Telecommunications Corp
said it discontinued operations of its mobile communication
division, resulting in an undisclosed one time substantial loss
for the fourth quarter and year for fiscal 1986.
    Howard Lassler, president, said the company intends to
focus management and other resources during 1987 on its
telephone systems division, and on developing new projects for
its mutual signal corp subsidiary.
    The company said dropping retail prices resulted in the
mobile division no longer being able to make a profit.
 Reuter

Long delays at the railway crossing on
the Kenyan border have led Uganda to re-route its coffee
exports through a ferry link with the Kenyan port of Kisumu
across Lake Victoria, Ugandan officials based in Kenya said.
    Uganda has a direct rail link with the Kenyan port of
Mombasa through which it conducts 70 pct of its external trade
but there is a chronic shortage of railway wagons, they said.
    Customs at Kisumu take less than a day compared with two to
three at the Malaba rail border crossing, a Ugandan Railways
official said. "Malaba is now handling only 10 pct of the trade
and all the coffee and oil goes through Kisumu," he said.
    However, an accident recently damaged the wagon ferry which
plies between Kisumu and the Ugandan port of Jinja, causing
bottlenecks on the lake route too.
    Sources at the Coffee Marketing Board in Kampala reported
delays in coffee export shipments last January due to
congestion on the lake ferries.
    Coffee accounts for about 95 pct of Uganda's export
earnings and last November President Yoweri Museveni ordered
all coffee shipments to be carried by rail in order to avoid
the higher costs of road haulage.
 Reuter

Norway's wholesale price index (base 1981)
rose 0.5 pct in February to 136.0 after a 1.7 pct rise in
January to 135.0, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
    The year on year increase for February was 7.9 pct compared
with 5.7 pct in January and 2.2 pct in February 1986, it added.
 REUTER

Oper shr 51 cts vs 43 cts
    Oper shr diluted 47 cts vs 43 cts
    Oper net 3,182,000 vs 2,462,000
    Revs 101.7 mln vs 87.0 mln
    Avg shrs 6,246,664 vs 5,671,607
    Avg shrs diluted 7,501,209 vs 5,671,607
    Year
    Oper shr 1.84 dlrs vs 1.48 dlrs
    Oper shr diluted 1.76 dlrs vs 1.48 dlrs
    Oper net 11.5 mln vs 8,312,000
    Revs 349.2 mln vs 307.0 mln
    Avg shrs 6,238,720 vs 5,616,019
    Avg shrs diluted 6,969,389 vs 5,616,019
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods excludes charge 1,205,000 dlrs
from distribution system restructuring costs.
    1986 year net excludes 440,000 dlr debt retirement gain and
gain 12.8 mln dlrs from sale of HPSC Inc <HPSC> stock.
    1986 net both periods includes charge 768,000 dlrs from
reversal of investment tax credits.
 Reuter

The continued strength of the Swiss franc
against the dollar will largely deprive Swiss exporters of the
benefits of the upturn in the world economy, a quarterly study
by the Economics Department said.
    It said the export industry would scarcely get a boost from
the upturn in the economies of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), and predicted declines in
new orders for highly export-orientated firms.
    However, domestic demand, which stagnated in the last
quarter of 1986, would resume its growth, fuelled by higher
real incomes and buoyant consumer sentiment, it said.
    The study, which was drawn up by the department's
Commission for Economic Questions, said industrial production
would scarcely increase, with most firms apparently happy with
current numbers of workers.
    However, an increase in labour demand in the service sector
should help push up total employment, it said.
    The Commission also predicted an increase in inflation from
current low levels.
 REUTER

Association, Sallie Mae, announced an offering of 100 mln dlrs
of three-year fixed rate notes redeemable at maturity in the
U.S. dollar equivalent of 145.2 mln Australian dlrs.
    It said the 12.125 pct obligation will be priced at par and
sold in the United States in a public offering managed by
Morgan Stanley.
    Interest payments on the notes will be made semiannually in
U.S. dlrs starting on Sept 20, 1987, Sallie Mae said.
    It added that the notes are due march 20, 1990.
    Sallie Mae said it will enter into a separate currency
exchange agreement to convert the principal payment at maturity
from Australian dollars to U.S. dollars.
    It said the notes will be issued in registered form and be
available in denominations of 10,000 U.S. dlrs and in 5,000 dlr
increments above that amount.
    Sallie Mae said proceeds will be used for general corporate
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs 36 cts
    Net 182,000 vs 3,433,000
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 21.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 71 cts vs 98 cts
    Net 6,706,000 vs 9,275,000
    Revs 85.7 mln vs 75.4 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net both periods includes gain 743,000 dlrs from
cancellation of debt.
    1986 quarter net includes reversal of 216,000 dlrs in
 Reuter

    Net 913,000 vs 1,273,000
    Revs 37.7 mln vs 24.7 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 61 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 5,529,000 vs 5,448,000
    Revs 123.6 mln vs 96.8 mln
    NOTE: net for qtr and yr 1986 and 1985 adjusted to reflect
retroactive effect of three-for-two stock splits distributed to
shareholders in July 1986 and August 1985.
    1986 net includes results of operations of Parmed
Pharmaceuticals Inc, acquired May 29, 1986.
 Reuter

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's (CME)
board of directors issued a letter to its members that sets
limits, but does not ban, dual trading in the S and P 500
futures and options pit.
    The rules prohibit brokers who execute customer orders to 
trade for their own account, or engage in dual trading, from
the top step of the pit -- which the board defines as a
geographically advantageous position in the pit.
    Brokers who engage in dual trading in other areas of the
pit must record to the nearest minute those personal trades.
    The board will also set as yet unspecified percentage
limits on the trades brokers can conduct among "broker groups,"
otherwise known as "trading rings."
    By issuing its own rules, the CME's board rejected a
petition presented in February by some CME members that sought
to prohibit dual trading of any kind in the S and P 500 pits.
    The full CME membership will vote on the petition, since it
was rejected by the board, by April 13. If the members reject
the petition, the board would be free to implement its rules, a
CME spokesman said. However, the members can vote to adopt the
petition and institute a total ban on dual trading.
    The board's rules on dual trading, if implemented, would
prohibit brokers from trading for their own account once they
have executed a customer order from the top step of the pit.
    "It's a step in the right direction," said stock futures
analysts William Marcus of Donaldson, Lufkin, Jenrette Inc.
    "It's very difficult to engage in large broker business
from anywhere but the top step," he said.
    "If there were abuses, (the rules) should act to curb
them," Marcus added.
    The spokesman for the CME said the tenor of the board of
directors' letter to members appears to leave open the
possibility of additional limits on dual trading. In addition,
the limits set forth so far will have to be more closely
defined.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 2,867,000 vs 1,208,000
    Revs 100.0 mln vs 85.0 mln
    Avg shrs 10.4 mln vs 9,791,671
    Nine mths
    Shr 57 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 6,327,000 vs 3,951,000
    Revs 284.4 mln vs 225.4 mln
    Avg shrs 10.1 mln vs 9,831,097
    Current year net both periods includes gain 1,755,000 dlrs
from change inestimation of useful lives used in depreciation
of property and equipment.
 Reuter

Schweizerische Aluminium AG, Alusuisse,
plans to reduce share and participation certificate capital by
50 pct to cover losses in 1986 and those carried forward from
the previous year, chief executive Hans Jucker said.
    Trading in Alusuisse shares was suspended on the Zurich
Trading would resume again on Monday.
 Reuter

Industries Inc said it has restated its earnings on a pre-
stock split basis for fiscal 1987's third quarter and nine
months ended January 31, which were reported March 10 on a post
four-for-three stock split basis.
    The company said its earnings per share for the third
quarter on a pre-split basis, converts to 16 cts from 12 cts
post-split, versus three cts pre-split from two cts post-split
for fiscal 1986's third quarter.
    For the nine months, Davis said, earnings per share would
convert to 77 cts and 44 cts for fiscal 1987 and 1986
respectively, from 58 cts and 33 cts, respectively.
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 1.09 dlrs
    Net loss 19.3 mln vs loss 139.6 mln
    Revs 611.7 mln vs 868.6 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 12 cts vs loss 1.31 dlrs
    Net profit 16.1 mln vs loss 167.9 mln
    Revs 2.68 billion vs 3.35 billion
    Avg shrs 134.7 mln vs 128.1 mln
 Reuter

Elder-Beerman Stores Corp said
owners of about 70 pct of its stock have offered to take the
company private by offerring 30 dlrs per share for the
remaining 30 pct of its stock.
    The company said the proposal will be considered at a
regularly scheduled board meeting on March 17.
    It said the offer was made by members of the Beerman family
holding about 70 pct of the company's stock, Chairman Max
Gutmann, and certain members of the board.
 Reuter

FRANCE SETTLES 21.95 BILLION FRANCS SHORT-TERM CURRENCY INTERVENTION
 DEBT - OFFICIAL

Citicorp denied financial market
rumors that it has written off some of its loans to Latin
American debtors,
    "Rumors that we have written off any of our Latin American
debt are unfounded," a Citicorp spokesman told Reuters in
response to London-based rumors in the money markets.
    Citicorp is the largest bank group in the U.S. and one of
the biggest lenders to Latin America, with some eight to nine
billion dlrs outstanding to Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, bank
    In response to more specific market rumors that it had
taken action on its exposure to Brazil, Citicorp said it made
an 8-K filing on the subject with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on Tuesday in relation to a registration statement
for a preferred stock issue.
    Citing the filing, Citicorp said that Brazil's recent
suspension of interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of
commercial bank debt and related actions "may require Citicorp
to place 3.9 billion dlrs of intermediate and long-term
Brazilian loans on a cash basis."
    When loans are placed on a cash basis, interest or
principal payments are only booked when received instead of
being accrued on their due dates, analysts noted.
    However, Citicorp said in the 8-K filing that "it is
premature to make such a decision at this time in view of the
fluidity of the situation and management's high confidence in
the long-term outlook for Brazil."
    Brazil's new central bank governor Francisco Gros met
senior commercial bankers here on Wednesday and Citicorp said
formal talks on Brazil's recent actions and future financing
needs should begin in "the near future".
    Citicorp said in the filing, "the issue will be
re-evaluated at the end of the first quarter."
    The bank group continued, "if it is decided that these
loans to Brazil should be placed on a cash basis, Citicorp
estimates, based on existing interest rates, that the impact in
the first quarter would be approximately 50 mln dlrs after tax
and for the full year would be approximately 190 mln dlrs after
tax."
    It added that these amounts include interest accrued in
1986 that has not yet been collected.
    Although Citicorp denied earlier rumors of major loan
writedowns, its warning that it may have to place some of its
Brazilian loans on non-accrual unnerved many Wall Street
    The common stock price was down one dlr to 51-1/8 after the
first hour on a volume of over 500,000 shares.
    However, Lawrence Cohn, analyst at Merrill Lynch and Co
Inc, said that the market's nervousness was not really
warranted.
    "Citicorp can afford it," he said. "The amounts they are
talking about are peanuts."

Qtly div 14 cts vs 12.5 cts in prior qtr
    Payable April 18
 Reuter

Private Brands Inc said it will
separate itself into component parts, all of which will trade
individually effective March 16.
    The designer and manufacturer of men's and women's leisure
wear said the L.C. Wegard and Co Inc., its underwriter
representative, requested the units trade separately.
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Net 177,000 vs 252,000
    Revs 3,209,000 vs 1,070,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 12 cts vs eight cts
    Net 365,000 vs 247,000
    Revs 7,156,000 vs 2,960,000
    NOTE: Prior year net both periods includes 91,000 dlr tax
credit.
 Reuter

National Entertainment Corp
said shareholdersapproved a one-for-25 reverse stock split and
a name change to Major Video Corp, both effective March 16.
    It said its new ticker symbol will be <MAJV>.
    The company also said it expects to add nine company-owned
and franchised Major Video stores in the next 60 days.  It now
operates 64.
 Reuter

Shr 48 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 3,986,000 vs 6,760,000
    Revs 77.3 mln vs 40.5 mln
 Reuter

Computer Memories Inc, which ended
its disk drive operations in June 1986, agreed to acquire
<Hemdale Film Corp> in a transaction which will give Hemdale's
owner control of the resulting company.
    Computer Memories' principal asset is about 29.4 mln dlrs
in cash and cash equivalents. It has agreed to exchange newly
issued shares equaling 80 pct of the aggregate issued to
acquire Hemdale. That company's owner, John Daly, would then
become chief executive officer of the combined company which
would be renamed Hemdale Film Corp.
    Computer Memories said the proposed transaction is subject
to the results of certain corporate reviews and approval of its
shareholders, who will hold a special meeting as soon as
practicable.
    The company said it has 11,109,190 shares outstanding, of
which about 1,734,000 are held by Intel Corp <INTC>. It is
anticipated the FIntel shares will be purchased for 2.75 dlrs a
share in connection with the merger with Hemdale, Computer
Memories said.
 Reuter

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS>
said it is negotiating for a minority stake in a British and
Commonwealth Shipping Plc <BCOM.L> courier service in a
transaction which might include a convertible loan issue.
    KLM, already active in the fast growing door-to-door
delivery market through a 50-pct stake in a Dutch courier
service, is seeking to buy one-third of <IML Air Services Group
Ltd> from British and Commonwealth.
    The two companies agreed earlier this month for KLM to take
a 15-pct stake in British and Commonwealth commuter airline Air
U.K. Ltd in a deal worth around two mln stg.
 Reuter

U.S. JAN BUSINESS INVENTORIES ROSE 0.9 PCT AFTER A REVISED 0.6 PCT DEC FALL

The European Monetary System marks its
eighth anniversary still vulnerable to turmoil in world money
markets despite creating an island of currency rate stability
in Europe, economists say. But many economists say the system,
which holds eight European Community currencies within narrow
fluctuation bands, remains in its infancy.
    Its new currency, the European Currency Unit (Ecu), has
been a runaway success with investors and borrowers alike
seeking an alternative to the volatile dollar.
    And on Wednesday, the long term vision of the Ecu as
Europe's common currency took a step nearer to becoming reality
when Belgium minted the world's first Ecu coin.
    But economists say members such as West Germany have so far
blocked a second stage of development envisaged by the system's
founding fathers, ex-West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and
former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
    Under this phase, originally due to have started two years
after the EMS was set up, decision-making was to have been
transferred from national governments and central banks to an
autonomous European Monetary Fund.
   But members have jealously guarded their sovereignty in
economic and monetary matters. "The basic problem of the EMS is
that governments are not prepared to make the quantum leap to a
situation where certain decisions are taken in common," said one
economist who has closely watched the system's development.
    The result is that the EC is often divided over policy on
third currencies, accentuating what the economists say is the
system's greatest weakness, its vulnerability to a weak dollar.
    Over the past 18 months, as the U.S. Dollar plunged and
investors moved into strong currencies, the resulting sharp
rise of the West German mark severely strained the system. MORE
    As the mark soared against the dollar, it also rose against
EMS currencies less favoured by international investors. And as
West Germany last year refused to give in pressure from several
EC partners and the United States to cut interest rates to slow
the mark's rise, the EMS had to be realigned twice to ease
financial and trade strains within the community.
    Two months ago the mark and the Dutch guilder were revalued
by three pct and the Belgian and Luxembourg francs by two pct
against other currencies in the system -- the French franc,
Italian lira, the Irish punt and Danish crown.
   Another frustration has been Britain's failure to lend the
EMS political support by keeping the pound, still a major world
currency, outside the system.
    No change in the British government's attitude is expected
before the country's next general elections, due by mid-1988.
    Meanwhile, the system's last realignment, the 11th since it
was set up, prompted European finance ministers to ask the EC's
highly-secretive Monetary Committee and Committee of Central
Bank Governors to come up with suggestions for reinforcing it.
    Their ideas are due to be unveiled when finance ministers
hold an informal meeting in Belgium early next month.
    But economists said the proposals are unlikely to involve
more than tinkering with technical details. They are sceptical
about the chances for any fundamental change.
    "Technical measures won't be enough to protect the EMS
against external factors such as dollar weakness. For that we
must take the step forward to the institutional level," said Leo
de Corel of Kredietbank's economic research department.
    Economists say the system's fortunes now will depend
largely on the success of an agreement last month among major
industrial nations to stabilise exchange rates. If the dollar
resumes its slide the EMS could be in for more turbulence, they
predict.
 REUTER

General Mills Inc, reporting
stronger results for the third quarter ended February 22, said
it expects the momentum to continue in the fourth quarter.
    The company said it expects to report "strong earnings per
share growth and a record return on equity in fiscal 1987." It
said this should be achieved despite expected non-operating
charges in the final quarter.
    General Mills said these charges will likely offset
non-operating gains, which included six cts a share in the
first half.
    General Mills said at the end of the third quarter, its
return on average equity was 31.6 pct.
    It said major factors contributing to the third quarter
improvement were an 11 pct gain in unit volume by Consumer
Foods, continuing good profit growth at Red Lobster USA and
strong performance in Specialty Retailing.
    The company reported quarterly earnings of 56.9 mln dlrs,
or 64 cts a share, up from 46.4 mln dlrs, or 52 cts a share a
year ago. Sales rose to 1.31 billion dlrs from 1.13 billion
dlrs. Year-ago data reflect a two-for-one common stock split.
 Reuter

U.S. business inventories rose 5.6
billion dlrs, or 0.9 pct, to a seasonally adjusted 592.19
billion dlrs in January, the Commerce Department said.
    It was the largest inventory rise since July, 1979, when
inventories were up 1.7 pct.
    In December, inventories fell a revised 3.4 billion dlrs,
or 0.6 pct, to 586.65 billion dlrs. Previously, the department
said inventories fell 0.5 pct in December.
    Business sales fell 20.1 billion dlrs, or 4.5 pct, in
January to 428.75 billion dlrs after rising by three pct in
December to 448.82 billion dlrs.
    The department said it was the largest monthly sales drop
on record.
    January inventories were up 8.2 billion dlrs, or 1.4 pct,
from the year-ago level of 583.99 billion dlrs.
    Durable goods inventories rose 1.4 pct to 366.13 billion in
January dlrs while nondurables inventories were up 0.2 pct from
December levels to 226.07 billion dlrs.
    Manufacturers inventories were up 0.5 pct to 277.02 billion
dlrs in January after falling by 0.3 pct in December to 275.53
    Wholesalers' inventories rose 1.3 pct in January to 140.25
    The inventory-to-sales ratio rose to 1.38, up .07 from
December, the department said.
    January's sales were 2.82 billion dlrs or 0.7 pct below the
January, 1986, level of 431.56 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Packaging Systems Corp said
it agreed to acquire <Walter-Richter Labels Inc>, a privately
held maker of woven labels based in Paterson, N.J.
    Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed
within 60 days, were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Orbis Inc said an initial
public offering of one mln common shares is underway at 2.50
dlrs each through underwriter Providence Securities Inc.
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 85 cts
    Net 2,033,425 vs 3,718,325
    Revs 120.6 mln vs 79.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 3,300,000 dlr provision for credit
loss.
    1985 net includes charge 504,571 dlrs from cumulative
effect of accounting change.
 Reuter

lowered Minnesota Power and Light Co's 490 mln dlrs of debt.
    Cut were the company's first mortgage bonds and pollution
control revenue bonds to A-2 from Aa-3, unsecured pollution
control and industrial revenue bonds to A-3 from A-1 and
preferred stock to A-2 from Aa-3.
    Moody's expects Minnesota Power's earnings, returns,
coverage ratios and cash flow measures to decline substantially
during the next few years. It cited tax reform, weaker
performance by the utility's securities investment program and
initial losses for non-utility business.
 Reuter

The  Ministry of Mines
has announced the discovery of a major gold field in Grand Bois
in Haiti's mineral-rich North.
    At a press conference yesterday, a Ministry spokesman
reported the deposit contained an estimated 44 mln tons of ore,
with each ton capable of containing 7,666 grams of gold. The
spokesman gave no estimate of what he thought the find,
discovered on Wednesday, was worth.
    However, mining could only begin after foreign partners
invest eight mln dlrs needed for technical equipment, the
    The Haitian government has never before operated a gold
mine, but the United Nations has recently completed a three
year feasibility study which lists Grand Bois and Morne Bossa
as sites of important gold deposits.
    In 1971, the Sedren copper mine in Gonaives, operated by a
Canadian firm, closed down after years of mining a concentrate
containing gold as well as copper.
    "The new Grand Bois mine represents large amounts of money,"
said a former official of Sedren Mine.
    "But like everything else there's a catch. The gold has to
be extracted, and first someone has to come up with the money
to finance the operation," the official, who asked not to be
named, told Reuters.
 Reuter

Home Group Inc said its common stock
will be listed on the <New York Stock Exchange> on March 31.
    The stock now trades on the Amex.
 Reuter

Holiday Corp and Communications
Satellite Corp said they closed the previously announced sale
to Comsat of Holiday's 50 pct interest in Hi-Net
Communications, their joint venture that provides in-room video
entertainment to hotels by satellite.
    Under terms of the deal, Comsat paid Holiday 25 mln dlrs in
cash and assumed half of the venture's 50 mln dlrs of
outstanding debt, the company's said.
    Hi-Net, they added, will continue to provide programming to
Holiday's hotels.
 Reuter

Shr 61 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 6,247,000 vs 5,587,000
    Rev 65.4 mln vs 53.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes investment gains of 25 cts a share,
versus six cts a share for 1985, and extraordinary gain of
seven cts a share.
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 156,576 vs 443,404
    Sales 5,309,519 vs 5,381,264
    Year
    Shr 1.06 dlrs vs 1.55 dlrs
    Net 788,220 vs 1,151,330
    Sales 22.3 mln vs 23.6 mln
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    Record May One
 Reuter

money market late, unspecified assistance of around 185 mln
stg.
    This takes the total liquidity injected into the system by
the bank today to 1.026 billion stg compared with a shortage it
estimated at around one billion stg.
    Overnight interbank sterling dipped to 10 nine pct after
the bank's announcement compared with levels around 10-1/2 pct
shortly before and 11-1/4 11 pct initially today, dealers said.
 REUTER

A delegation from McDonnell-Douglas
Corp <MD.N> will visit the Dutch parliament on Monday in an
attempt to win a 2.5-billion guilder helicopter order, a
Defence Ministry spokesman said.
    U.S. Helicopter manufacturer <Sikorsky> approached Dutch
parliamentarians and army officials last month, he added.
    The Dutch seek 50 new army helicopters over a 10-year
period and plan to replace Lynx navy helicopters before the
year 2000.
    The first batch of 20 helicopters has to be operative in
1990, while the next 30 will be introduced gradually in the
following years, spokesman Cent van Vliet said.
    The U.S. Visit come as the Dutch have already narrowed down
their options to the Mongoose of Italian producer <Agusta Spa>
and the Panther of French firm <Aerospatiale>, Van Vliet said.
    The Dutch had not considered U.S. Helicopters, he said,
adding the Ministry planned to present its choice to parliament
in May.
    European models rejected include the Lynx III of British
manufacturer <Westland>. A parliamentary accounting watchdog
this week blasted the performance of 22 older versions of the
Lynx currently used by the navy, saying they were hardly up to
their job.
 REUTER

Negotiations on a new International
Natural Rubber Agreement, INRA, are approaching the
make-or-break point and prospects for a future pact appear to
be in the balance, delegates said.
    Manaspas Xuto of Thailand, chairman of the INRA
renegotiation conference, is holding consultations with a small
group of producers and consumers to try to resolve major
outstanding issues. When the talks began on Monday Xuto said
those issues should be settled by the end of the first week to
allow time to draft an agreement during the second week.
    The talks are due to last until March 20.
    Xuto said, "There is nothing concrete yet, but the
atmosphere is good." The discussions are expected to continue
late into the night, and Xuto said he may hold weekend
meetings.
    Delegates said negotiations now focus on the degree to
which price adjustments should be automatic.
reference price (set at 201.66 Malaysian/Singapore cents a kilo
in the current agreement) for six months, the reference price
is revised by five pct or by an amount decided by the
International Natural Rubber Organisation council.
    Consumers are asking that, in these circumstances, the
adjustment be automatic at five pct or more.
    Producers want the council to have the last word and have
resisted reducing its role in the price adjustment procedure.
    Delegates said there seems to be optimism about settling
another issue -- that of the floor price.
    It now appears that consumers may consider dropping their
insistence of a downward adjustment of the floor price, called
the "lower indicative price," under certain circumstances.
    This means that any possible compromise would centre on the
reference price, and the "may buy" (or "may sell") and "must buy" or
"must sell" levels, without changing the "lower indicative price"
-- which is set at 150 Malaysian/Singapore cents in the current
pact.
    Delegates said that in exchange for consumer flexibility on
the floor price question, producers may consider agreeing to
another consumer proposal for more frequent price reviews -- at
12 month intervals instead of 18 at present.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union is rumored
this morning to have bought up to 1.5 mln tonnes of U.S. corn,
export trade sources said.
    The amount was not confirmed, but the talk was widespread
through the trade. Gulf cash barge basis levels jumped two to
three cents this morning on the rumors, which were expected to
boost futures prices on today's open.
    The Soviet Union recently bought over 1.0 mln tonnes of
U.S. corn, ostensibly as a conciliatory gesture ahead of trade
talks with U.S. agriculture officials.
    Purchases rumored today were seen as a positive factor in
light of a Soviet trade official's statement that the previous
purchase had satisfied near-term needs.
 Reuter

Bioassay Systems Corp said its
toxicology facility in Woburn was closed February 28.
    The company said it is exploring opportuniites to dispose
of the operation's assets and assign its lease or sublease the
space.
    Bioassay said its Decatur, Ill., facility remains fully
operational.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs three cts
    Net 66,922 vs 194,531
    Rev 4.2 mln vs 5.7 mln
    Shr two cts vs four cts
    Net 93,802 vs 260,702
    Rev 10.1 mln vs 13.2 mln
    NOTE: Nine months 1987 period includes gain of 196,043 dlrs
from sale of Meston Lake Resources shares and a credit of
127,000 dlrs from a favroable settlement of s state income tax
assessment. 1986 nine months period includes gain of 160,431
dlrs, or two cts a share, from sale of Ferrotherm Co.
 Reuter

France today repaid 21.95 billion francs
of short-term currency intervention debt to the European
Monetary Cooperation Fund, EMCF, the Finance Ministry said.
    It said the debt was part of a 33.90 billion franc
liability incurred through the activation of EMCF swap
facilities to defend the franc before the January 11 European
Monetary System realignment.
    The realignment, following several weeks of speculative
pressure, produced a three pct revaluation of the West German
mark and the Dutch guilder against the French franc and a two
pct revaluation of the Belgian franc.
 REUTER

The West German federal railway is
raising 900 mln marks through a 10-year loan stock on the
domestic market with a coupon of 6-1/4 pct and price of par, a
Bundesbank spokesman said in response to enquiries.
    Some 750 mln marks will be offered for immediate sale with
75 mln held back for market regulation and the remaining 75 mln
placed with the railways own bank.
    The stock will be offered for sale between March 17 and 19
and will be listed on all German stock exchanges from March 20
to 24. The stock pays annual interest on April 1.
    Terms of the bond conformed with those expected earlier
today, dealers said.
    The bond rose in the first hour of grey market trading to
less 7/8, less 5/8, after being quoted at less 1-1/8, less 7/8
in first business.
    Dealers said demand rose owing to the bond's relatively
small size.
    In contrast, the last railway issue in January totalled 1.1
billion marks, of which 900 mln was distributed for immediate
sale.
 REUTER

SHELL CANADA RAISES CRUDE PRICES BY 64 CANADIAN CTS/BBL TODAY AT EDMONTON

CORRECTION - TWO BRAZIL SHIPPING FIRMS SETTLE
    In today's Sao Paulo story headlined "TWO BRAZILIAN SHIPPING
FIRMS SETTLE WITH STRIKERS" please read in second para ... Offer
from the companies, Global and Flumar ... instead of ... Offer
from the companies, Globo and Flumar ... corrects name of first
company.
 Reuter

Haiti's agriculture minister
yesterday announced his department will permit the importation
of 730 black Creole pigs, which had been banned from the island
nation since 1983.
    Between 1981 and 1983, a team of Canadian veterinarians
funded by the United States, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica
supervised the slaughter of all Haiti's 1,200,000 pigs under a
program to eradicate African swine flu.
    Today's announcement that Catholic Relief Services
(CARITAS) can import 730 Jamaican pigs comes after months of
protests by farmers who had owned 90 pct of the slaughtered
pigs.
 Reuter

Lear Petroleum Corp said it consolidated
and reorganized its gas transmission, gathering and marketing
operations into three new companies.
    It said the new Lear Gas Gathering Co will handle all the
gas gathering and processing operations previously done by
Producer's Gas Co, Rael Gas Co, PGC Processing Co, Anadarko
Gathering Co and LPC Energy Inc.
    Lear said its gas transmission businesses, LPC Energy Inc,
Producer's Gas Co and Rael Gas Co, were consolidated in Lear
Gas Transmisssion Co.
    At the same time, Lear said the gas marketing business
previously conduct by PGC Marketing Inc will be assumed by Lear
Gas Marketing Co.
 Reuter

Soviet-West German trade is expected
to develop favourably due to Moscow's increasing openness to
East-West economic relations, Dresdner Bank AG's Moscow
representative Michael Stein said.
    He told a bank presentation the Soviet Union was last year
hit by the fall in world oil prices, which cut export revenue
from oil-related products and natural gas, and its overseas
buying power was also adversely affected by the lower dollar.
   Dresdner Bank economist Alfred Apholte said the Soviet
Union's large currency and gold reserves had softened the
impact of the dollar weakening and oil price drop.
 REUTER

Penril Corp said its board
elected Henry David Epstein president, chief executive officer
and a director.
    The company said Epstein and other investors have agreed to
invest 1.5 mln dlrs in the company's shares and warrants
subject to satisfaction of certain conditions.
    Penril said its founder, Alva T. Bonda, remains as
chairman.
    It noted Epstein is chairman of Computer Communications Inc
<CCMM>. He is a former senior executive of Loral Corp <LOR> and
of Texas Instruments Inc <TXN>.
 Reuter

The 10-year eurodollar bond issue
launched yesterday for Norsk Hydro at 8-1/4 pct and 101-5/8 pct
has been increased to a total of 125 mln dlrs from the original
100 mln amount, Swiss Bank Corp International said as lead.
    The issue is due on April 9, 1997.
 REUTER

General Electric Credit Corp, a
unit of General Electric Co, said it has called for redemption
on April 13, 1987, its 150 mln dlrs 7-5/8 pct notes due 1988.
    The company said the notes' redemption price is 100 pct of
their principal amount plus accrued interest.
    GE Credit said the Bank of New York will be the
redemption's paying agent.
 Reuter

NYSE, NYFE MOVE EXPIRATION OF INDEX OPTIONS AND FUTURES CONTRACTS

National Pizza Co said it reached an
agreement in principle to buy seven Straw Hat pizza restaurants
and certain related real estate for approximately three mln
dlrs in cash.
    The acquisitions will be converted to Pizza Hut
restaurants, said National Pizza, and are expected to generate
annual sales of approximately eight mln dlrs.
    When the sale is complete, it will bring to 24 the number
of restaurants operated by National Pizza, the company said.
 Reuter

downgraded 3.4 billion dlrs of debt of Beneficial Corp.
    Cut to Baa-2 from Baa-1 were the senior debt of the company
and the guaranteed debt of its unit, Beneficial Overseas
Finance NV.
    Also downgraded were Beneficial's shelf registrations of
senior debt to Provisional Baa-2 from Provisional Baa-1 and of
subordinated debt to Provisional Ba-1 from Provisional Baa-3.
    Moody's said the magnitude of Beneficial's 1986 operating
losses from write-downs of discontinued businesses has weakened
its financial position.
    "The costs of meeting the potential liability for insurance
losses to facilitate the sale of the company's insurance unit
and of revaluing other discontinued business segments have
substantially exceeded original indications," Moody's said in a
release.
    The agency said Beneficial's consumer finance business
remains strong and has the capacity to withstand foreseeable
adverse developments.
    But the withdrawal from nontraditional businesses is
weakening consolidated leverage, narrowing funding operations
and depressing the quality of earnings, Moody's stressed.
 Reuter

CITICORP SAYS PLACING BRAZIL LOANS ON CASH BASIS COULD CUT 1ST QTR NET BY 50 MLN DLRS

Ayer Hitam Tin Dredging Malaysia Bhd
said it planned to raise its authorised share capital to 50 mln
Malaysian dlrs from the present seven mln by adding 43 mln new
shares.
    The firm also said in a statement it will launch a 6.1 mln
dlr bonus issue, to be paid out of unappropriated profit, with
stockholders getting one new share for every existing one. It
said the issue date will be decided later.
    Ayer added that it will not pay a dividend for the half
year ended December 31, 1986 on the new shares.
 Reuter

The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA)
will spend 1.2 billion dlrs to develop port facilities and
cargo-handling equipment over the next five years,
Communications Minister Yeo Ning Hong told parliament.
    Yeo said the improvements were needed to cope with an
expected growth of ship tonnage and cargo handled by the port,
but gave no further details.
    The PSA handled 529 mln gross-registered tonnes of cargo in
1985, according to the latest available statistics from the
port authority.
 Reuter

Range Rover of North America
said it will begin to sell in the U.S. its upscale
British-built Range Rover four-wheel drive automobile.
    The company said it is hoping to find a niche at the top of
the American sports/utility market with a price tag of just
over 30,000 dlrs.
    Range Rover of North America is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of the Land Rover group of companies, and is manufactured by
the British company of <Land Rover UK Ltd>, according to the
company.
 Reuter

The <New York Stock Exchange> said it
and its <New York Futures Exchange> affiliate will move the
expiration of their respective index options and index futures
contracts to the opening of trading in the underlying stock on
expiration Friday from the close of trading.
    The exchange said it has submitted the changes to the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission for approval.
    The exchange said, "The NYSE has long advocated settlement
in the morning rather than at the close of trading as a
practical way to deal with order imbalances and price
volatility which historically occur on triple witching days."
    The "triple witching hour" falls four times a year when
stock options, index options and futures on index options all
expire on the third Friday of every month, leading to major
last-hour market swings.  On the last triple witching Friday,
December 19, the NYSE traded almost 85 mln shares at the close
of the market.  The next triple witching hour will take place
Friday March 20.
    The exchange said, "Morning settlement would expose order
imbalances to the full sunlight of public disclosure, ensure
the broadest dissemination of market information and facilitate
the participation of all interested investors."
 Reuter

<ORS Corp> said <Dominion
Securities (Alberta) Inc> has been appointed to offer common
shares in a new Canadaina company being organized to exploit
heavy oil production opportunities in Canada and Western
Europe.
    ORS said the offer for private sale of the stock being made
on a best efforts basis is designed to raise five mln Canadian
dlrs which the new company will invest in properties and
projects using the Electromagnetic Well Stimulation Process
developed by IIT Research Institute under sponsorship of ORS.
 Reuter

West Germany and Sierra Leone signed an
agreement to reschedule 26 mln marks of principal and interest
payments on loans, the West German Foreign Ministry said.
    A statement said the agreement related to interest and
principle and obligations from previous reschedulings due
between July 1, 1986 and November 13, 1987 as well as arrears
from the period up to June 30, 1986.
    The statement said the payments were rescheduled for 1992
to 1996 under the accord, which followed a multilateral
rescheduling pact agreed by "Paris Club" creditor nations on
November 19, 1986.
 REUTER

Chrysler Corp said its Chrysler
First Inc acquired a major portion of the commercial lending
portfolio of Beneficial Business Credit Corp, a subsidiary of
Beneficial Corp.
    It said the acquisition involves about 84 mln dlrs of net
receivables.
    Chrysler First, a subsidiary of Chrysler Financial Corp,
had receivables of 4.3 billion dlrs at the end of 1986.
 Reuter

3Com Corp said it is
offering 1.2 mln shares of its common stock for sale at 23.50
per share in a public offering.
    It said the sale is being co-managed by Goldman, Sachs and
    The company said it granted the underwriters an option to
buy 180,000 shares to cover over-allotments.
    Net proceeds from the sale will be added to the company's
 Reuter

Volkswagen of America said its U.S.
car sales for the March 1-10 period rose 4.9 pct to 849 from
809 a year earlier.
    It said there were eight selling days in each period.
    Year to date, Volkswagen said domestic sales declined 42.5
pct to 7,476 from 13,003.
 Reuter

<Sheller-Globe Corp> said it has
named Alfred Grava president and chief operating officer to
replace James Graham who was granted a medical leave in June,
1986.
    In addition, the company said it named George Berry
executive vice president of the corporation and president,
automotive/truck operations, reporting to Grava.
 Reuter

Italian Prime Minister designate Giulio
Andreotti expressed cautious optimism about his chances of
forming a government, amid concern by industrialists that a
lengthy political crisis could cause economic damage.
    Andreotti today wound up his first round of political
consultations aimed at finding a way out of the crisis.
    His Christian Democrats and the Socialists of outgoing
premier Bettino Craxi, whose row caused last week's collapse of
the five-party coalition, remained deeply divided.
    Andreotti said he would spend the weekend considering the
situation before a second round of consultations next week.
    Meanwhile Italy's top industrialists expressed concern that
a long drawn-out crisis, or continuing squabbling between the
five coalition partners, could jeopardise the major economic
progress made in three-and-a-half stable years under Craxi.
    Luigi Lucchini, president of the employers organisation
Confindustria said in a speech yesterday, "What is certain is
that a precarious political situation is damaging to the
economy, to the objectives of companies, to competitivity."
    His remarks were supported by Fiat chairman Giovanni
Agnelli, who said in a radio interview that he hoped for a
reconstruction of the coalition.
 REUTER

Lanesborough Corp is raising 50 mln
dlrs via an offering of senior subordinated notes due 1997 with
a 12-3/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole manager First
    Non-callable for five years, the debt is rated Caa by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and B-minus by Standard and
    The issue was increased from an initial offering of 40 mln
dlrs because of investor demand for high-yield securities.
 Reuter

New South Wales Treasury Corp is issuing
15 billion yen of eurobonds due April 15, 1992, priced at
101-5/8, with a 4-7/8 pct coupon, Nikko Securities Co (Europe)
Ltd said as book-runner and joint lead manager with Mitsui
Trust and Banking Co Ltd.
    The issue will be guaranteed by New South Wales and will be
sold in denominations of one mln yen, with listing in
    Fees are 1-1/4 pct for selling and 5/8 pct for management
and underwriting combined. Payment date is April 15.
    Co-lead manager is Mitsubishi Finance International Ltd.
 REUTER

downgraded to Ba-2 from Baa-3 Southdown Inc's 140 mln dlrs of
senior debt.
    The agency also assigned an initial rating of B-1 to the
company's 90 mln dlrs of senior subordinated notes due 1997.
    Moody's said the action reflected increased leverage and
reduced interest resulting from lower earnings. It also cited
Southdown's repurchase of 28 pct of its common stock and the
financing of that transaction by debt.
    Moody's said the lower ratings anticipate certain debt
reduction in the coming year from the sale of assets.
 Reuter

HealthWays Inc, a unit of Eldon
Industries Inc, said it reached a final settlement of the
year-old litigation with Central Jersey Individual Pratice
Association, the Union County Medical Society and individual
physicians.
    On February 2 the company, a health maintenance
organization, said a tentative agreement had been signed under
which all approved outstanding claims to Central Jersey
participating physicians in Middlesex and Union Counties for
services provided before June 30 would be paid.
 Reuter

Proposals for a secondary market for
the resale of farm real estate loans similar to home mortgage
markets is gaining support in Congress and among rural lenders
and could be established this year, Congressional and financial
    Several bills which would establish a farm secondary market
have been introduced in both the House and Senate. Furthermore,
Representatives of the Farm Credit System, commercial bankers
and life insurance companies are meeting in an attempt to agree
on a method of establishing the market.
    Frank Naylor, chairman of the Farm Credit Administration
(FCA), which regulates the farm credit system, yesterday said a
farm loan secondary market would be positive for agriculture
"as long as the farm credit system is a key player."
    Naylor told a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing the
secondary market could be established either with Congressional
legislation or administratively.
    Any farm loan secondary market would be modeled after the
successful resale markets in home mortgages, the Government
National Mortgage Association (GNMA) and the Federal Home Loan
Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), industry sources said.
    Commercial banks and life insurance companies are the main
supporters of a farm loan secondary market because they believe
it would allow private lenders to compete more effectively in
rural lending with the quasi-government farm credit system,
traditionally the largest lender to farmers.
    A farm secondary market would allow lenders to sell
high-quality loans on farmland to "poolers" who in turn would
package the loans and issue farm mortgage-backed securities for
resale to investors-- called Aggie-mae by some supporters.
    However, the FCA and financially-troubled farm credit
system have in the past been ambivalent about the idea.
    The ambivalence is because any farm secondary market
established in the private sector that excluded the farm credit
system would put the system at a competitive disadvantage. That
could be a financial blow to the system, which has lost 4.6
billion dlrs in two years, Naylor and farm credit system
officials have said.
    A study commissioned by one of the main supporters of the
secondary market idea, the American Council of Life Insurers,
concludes the farm credit system's market share in rural
lending would fall if a secondary market were established. The
study was released earlier today.
 Reuter

will perform work valued in excess of 200 mln dlrs on the
1150-megawatt Sizewell B commercial nuclear power station which
the United Kingdom will build near Suffolk on its southeast
coast.
    Westinghouse said it will design and erect the primary
reactor coolant system, manufacture components and transfer
technology for the power plant which the U.K. government
announced plans for yesterday.
    Westinghouse said its technology for the design of the
pressurized water reactor will be transferred through its
licensee in the United Kingdom, <National Nuclear Corp>.
    The company said Britian's national utility, the Central
Electricity Generating Board, has announced plans to apply for
planning consent for a second pressurized water reactor,
Hinkley C in Somerset, before the end of 1987.
    The board has said it would like to build up to five
pressurized water reactors before the end of the century,
Westinghouse added.
 Reuter

Salomon Inc has lowered its investment
ratings on all U.S. money center banks, institutional sources
said.
    The sources said Salomon believes that other money center
banks may feel compelled to follow Citicorp's <CCI> lead
in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission
relating to its loan exposure to Brazil.
    They also said Salomon believes that other banks may
strongly consider the possibility of placing Brazilian loans on
a non-accruing status with the consequent negative impact on
earnings.
    The sources said the ratings were lowered to M from O-plus.
The stock are now expected to match the Standard and Poor's 500
Index, rather than outperform the index as previously expected.
    The sources said it is also understood that the change in
the coding of these stocks should definitely not be taken as a
sell-recommendation because Salomon is said to believe that its
downgrading will only prove temporary.
    The banks affected by the change in investment coding are
Bank of New York Co Inc <BK>, Bankers Trust Co <BT>, Chase
Manhattan Corp <CMB>, Chemical New York Corp <CHL>, Citicorp
<CCI>, Irving Bank Corp <V>, Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC>,
J.P. Morgan and Co Inc <JPM>, Marine Midland Banks Inc <MM>,
Republic New York Corp <RNB>, Bank of Boston Corp <BKB> and
First Chicago Corp <FNB>.
    The institutional sources said that Thomas Hanley, a
director of Salomon Inc subsidiary Salomon Brothers who is in
charge of bank stock research, believes Citicorp's move is
well-timed.
    Should Citicorp actually place the Brazilian loans in a
non-performing category at the end of this quarter this action
would serve to alleviate the urgency associated with the debt
negotiations, he argues.
    Thus Citicorp's bargaining position would appear to have
been much enhanced.
 Reuter

Today's panic in the floating rate note
market has been simmering for months and is, in many ways, of
the market makers' own doing, traders and bank officials said.
    "For the last six months, there have been a series of crises
in the FRN market. Each has cut deeper and deeper into the very
fibre of the market," said a senior official at a U.S. Bank.
    As prices have fallen, he explained, the underwriters who
originally brought the issues have retreated. They have
divested themselves of the paper as quickly as possible,
unwilling to bear losses of the magnitude seen in recent panic
trading.
    In the virtual effective closure of the market for
perpetual floaters last month, bankers witnessed the
consequences of this kind of contraction of liquidity and
investor confidence.
    Fears were engendered about the possibility of this crisis
infecting the market in conventional dated FRN issues, which is
almost 10 times as large as that for perpetuals, with an
estimated 130 billion dlrs of debt outstanding.
    "The professionals are so nervous about holding inventory
that they will sell at any price," said an official at a leading
U.S. Bank, explaining the panic selling which has pushed prices
down sharply over the last two days.
    Bankers and FRN traders emphasised that today's trading was
unique in that it was driven exclusively by professionals and
that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the securities
they sold.
    In highlighting this point, dealers noted that the
benchmark issues in the FRN market -- the two FRN's for the
U.K., Launched in 1985 and 1986 -- fell an unprecedented 50 and
40 basis points, respectively, at the opening this morning.
    Certainly, dealers said, Britain is no less credit-worthy
today than it was yesterday and the country's economic health
currently appears better than it has for some time.
    Pointing out that this kind of sovereign and supra-national
debt had not sagged on any fundamental weakness, one senior FRN
source said: "The idiocy of the situation is aptly shown by the
fact that these kind of borrowers can now tap the syndicated
loan markets at rates lower than their floaters currently pay."
    Dealers agreed that banking sector paper, which constitutes
a significant part of the market, was currently under pressure.
    Floating rate debt of major U.S. And Canadian banks eased
markedly in nervous trading last month on renewed investor
fears about the banks' exposure to Latin American debt.
    The U.S. And Canadian money centre bank FRNs, along with
Republic of Ireland paper, were hard hit again this week with
dealers citing one heavily-traded Citicorp note falling to
levels so low it is now effectively yielding 55 basis points
over Libor (the London Interbank Offered Rate).
    By comparison, the 500 mln dlr note which matures in 1998
yielded only a fine 20 basis point over Libid (the London
Interbank Bid Rate) when it was issued in January last year.
    Price declines of this size can really only be explained by
an understanding of the operating practices of leading players
in the market, dealers and banking analysts said.
    "This has to be understood as a matter between banks who
have a brief to buy low and sell high," one U.S. Bank source
noted.
    Another senior source at a U.K. Bank drew attention to the
enormous overhead costs and high salaries generated over the
last few years in the FRN market, which have to be justified.
    But even beyond the cost of running an FRN trading desk,
dealers said, is the way the securities are bought and sold.
    Although sophisticated on-screen dealing exists in most
markets, in the euro-markets trading is conducted by telephone.
    "If somebody calls you up and asks you to make him a price
in any issue, and you do, he can say "Right. You own five mln',"
a trader said, explaining market practice.
    The unfortunate buyer is then forced to unload the
securities just minutes later to yet another firm at an even
lower price, the trader explained.
    It is precisely this phenomenon that forced the rapid
downward price spiral earlier today, traders said, adding that
it is likely to continue until the markets either regain their
confidence or market practices change.
    One possible solution, dealers said, would be to initiate
trading exclusively through brokers' screens, so that only
those who wanted to buy bonds would have to "lift a bid" or buy
at that price.
    Meanwhile, bank regulators are apparently concerned about
the implications of the collapse in FRN prices.
    Traders in London said that the Bank of England has called
around to market makers asking whether they intended to
continue trading and what they calculated the losses to be.
    The Bank often makes periodic checks in the market, but
dealers said the latest enquiries were more specific.
    A spokesman for the Bank of England was not able to comment
immediately on the Bank's action.
    One trader at a major U.S. Bank here said that in addition,
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's international capital
markets unit has phoned banks in London today seeking
information about trading in FRN's. He also said that this was
not an unusual procedure.
 Reuter

and its New York Futures Exchange affiliate will move the
each expiration Friday from the close of trading.
volatility which historically occur on so-called "triple
witching days."
    The triple witching hour falls four times a year when
individual stock options, stock index futures and options on
stock indexes all expire on the third Friday of the month,
which has led to volatile last-hour market swings.
    On the last triple witching Friday, December 19, the NYSE
traded almost 85 mln shares at the close of the market. The
next triple witching hour will take place Friday, March 20.
the broadest dissemination of market information, and
facilitate the participation of all interested investors."
 Reuter

Brazil's state-oil company
Petrobras has asked the Army to withdraw the troops which were
occupying its oil installations since Tuesday, Petrobras said
in a statement.
    The statement said the request for the withdrawal of the
troops was made because of the calmness reigning in all of its
    "The request was also due to the end of the seamen's strike
and the willingness of the oil industry workers to sit again by
the negotiating table," the statement said.
    Even though the Petrobras statement said the seamen's
strike was over, a union spokesman said only two small shipping
companies had reached a pay agreement. The overwhelming
majority of Brazil's seamen remained on strike.
    The statement said a meeting between Petrobras and oil
industry leaders was set for next Wednesday in Rio, with the
presence of Labour Minister Almir Pazzionotto as a mediator.
    Petrobras said the request for the withdrawal of the troops
was made at 1100 local hours (1400 GMT), but a company
spokesman said he did not know if the troops had already been
removed.
 Reuter

A U.S. appeals court threw out a two
mln dlr libel award against The Washington Post for an article
that said former Mobil Corp president William Tavoulareas set
up his son in a shipping firm that did business with Mobil.
    The article said Tavoulareas had used his influence to set
up his son, Peter, in 1974 as a partner in the London-based
Atlas Maritime Co, a shipping company whose business included a
multi-million dollar contract with Mobil.
    "We are convinced that ... the 'set up' allegation was
substantially true," the appeals court said in the 7-1 ruling.
    The Tavoulareases said the 1979 article by the Post's
investigative reporter, Patrick Tyler, was false and that it
embarrassed them and held them up to ridicule.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its early March
retail sales of domestic-built cars rose 0.4 pct to 25,286 from
25,191 a year ago.
    Chrysler said truck sales in the March 1-10 period rose 15
pct to 15,565 from 13,585 a year ago to the highest level ever
for the period.
    There were eight selling days in each period.
 Reuter

GCA Corp said its shareholders
approved a restructuring plan to raise 72 mln dlrs in equity
for the troubled maker of semiconductor production systems.
    GCA said 90 pct of the shareholders voting at a special
meeting yesterday approved the restructuring.
    The plan calls for GCA to raise 48 mln dlrs through a
rights offering and 24 mln dlrs through the sale of stock to
joint venture partners.
    GCA said the rights will be mailed March 17 to shareholders
of record March 16 and will expire at 1600 EST April 6. The
plan should be closed by April 30, it said.
 Reuter

The Reagan Administration's soon-to-be
published proposals to make experimental therapies more rapidly
and widely available to terminally ill patients pose product
liability problems for drug companies, experts in the
pharmaceutical field said.
    Details of the proposals will be published in the Federal
Register shortly and will become effective after a 90-day
comment period.
    Under the proposed policy, announced Tuesday by
Commissioner of Food and Drugs Frank E. Young at a press
conference, patients with life threatening diseases who are not
enrolled in clinical trials would be allowed access to an
experimental therapy. The policy also allows drug companies to
sell the promising drugs to patients.
    Previously drugs like AZT could be rushed into wider use
free-of-charge if the agent was shown to be effective. Under
the new policy, the FDA could only refuse to permit a physician
to administer an experimental drug if it was shown to be
unsafe.
    Financial analysts said the plan would likely benefit
biotechnology companies with few or no products approved for
marketing in the U.S., but would have little economic impact on
large drug companies with many other sources of revenue.
    "Charging a fee for still experimental drugs could help
biotech companies' near-term financial situation and help make
them less dependent on outside sources," said Teena Lerner, a
biotech analyst at L.F. Rothchild.
    Other observers were concerned that drug companies would be
put into a legal bind if promising drugs later proved to have
devastating side effects.
    "Before a lot of drug companies release these drugs they
are going to have to think long and hard about liability--the
product liability problems are enormous," said a
Washington-based lawyer who specializes in the drug field.
    Patients in clinical trials normally sign lengthy informed
consent papers before taking an investigational drug. The
lawyer said no more than two cases had gone to trial for suits
against a drug company's investigational drug.
    "The new proposals are a whole new kettle of fish," said
the lawyer. "Drug companies are right now probably meeting with
their insurance companies."
    Burroughs-Wellcome Co, the U.S. arm of the British firm
Wellcome PLC that makes AZT, Merck and Co Inc <MRK>,
Hoffman-LaRoche Inc and SmithKline Beckman Corp <SKB> said it
was too soon to comment on the policy.
    "I'm very uncomforable with this," said Wellcome
spokeswoman Kathy Bartlett. "We haven't had a chance to
formulate a response yet. It's too early."
    But some financial analysts say the proposals would benefit
drug companies.
    "I find the proposal to be a very significant alteration of
the FDA's past policies that should positively affect (drug
companies') stocks," said drug analyst Davis Saks, with Morgan,
Olmstead, Kennedy and Gardner.
    Saks also warned that many health care providers would balk
at the proposal, and would call it "amoral" to charge patients
with life-threatening diseases for drugs that otherwise would
be given out for free in clinical trials.
    Jeffrey Warren, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Association, which represents the major drug
firms in the U.S., said "A mechanism already exists at the FDA
permitting certain seriously ill patients access to
experimental drugs and perhaps that system can be approved."
    Warren acknowledged that the PMA may not be able to come up
with a consensus among its membership when the rules are
formally published.
    He also admitted that product liability problems could be a
concern to major drug companies.
    Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force, which is actively in AIDS policy and
funding issues, cited the drug Suramin from Bayer AG <BAYRY>,
which had shown early promise as an AIDS treatment, but on
wider clinical testing was shown to have deadly side effects.

 Reuter

Markus Lusser, vice-president of the
Swiss National Bank, said he was sceptical of the recent
U.S.-British accord on joint bank supervision, fearing smaller
countries could be forced to cooperate.
    In a speech prepared for delivery to a meeting of West
German savings banks, he said such an accord would cover the
three most important financial centres of the world if extended
to Japan as planned.
    "Countries not prepared to cooperate with an agreement of
the group of three could easily be put under pressure," Lusser
said.
    "It would be enough to forbid banks the right to make use of
those financial markets or to place them under a special
status," he added.
    Banks which operate worldwide could scarcely afford to stay
away from these centres and would place their national
governments under pressure to conform.
    Lusser added that he was opposed to the form, though not
the content of the accord. Switzerland itself was not affected,
since capital adequacy requirements here were already stricter
than in Britain or the United States. But he feared such
accords might be substituted for internationally negotiated
pacts.
 REUTER

West German banking authorities are
considering requiring German banks to bring securities holdings
into lending ratio calculations used to regulate credit risk,
banking sources said.
    The present interpretation of the credit law limits banks'
maximum lending to 18 times eligible capital -- reserves plus
equity capital -- but sets no restraints on securities
holdings.
    Under new provisions, weightings would be attached to
securities similar to those used for lending. Weightings would
range from a zero rating for no-risk assets to 100 pct of total
asset value for what authorities consider the highest risk.
    Low-risk securities carrying a zero rating would include
public authority bonds for the federal government, states and
municipalities, the sources said.
    A 20 pct rating would be assigned to issues of domestic
banks. Secured bonds of mortgage, shipping and public authority
banks would be an exception to this, via such securities as
mortgage and municipal bonds.
    Securities issued by foreign banks would attract a
weighting of 50 pct, while authorities are considering
requiring banks to include 100 pct of the value of debt assets
of foreign issuers, including sovereign borrowers.
    The sources said the revision is still being discussed, and
required approval by the federal Banking Supervisory Office in
West Berlin, the Bundesbank, and West Germany's four banking
associations.
    The move is a response to the increasing securitisation of
debt markets, they added.
 Reuter

CNW Corp said its Chicago and North
Western Transportation Co sold 25 mln dlrs of consolidated
mortgage 9.93 pct bonds, series C, due 1992, in a private
placement.
    Morgan Stanley and Co Inc was the placement agent. The
bonds were sold yesterday.
    Proceeds of the bond sale will be used for general
corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Talks between France and Iran on the
repayment of a one billion dlr loan by the late Shah have made
progress, Roland Dumas, head of a parliamentary Foreign Affairs
Committee said.
    "They are progressing as far as I have heard," Dumas told
reporters. "The two delegations appear to be near an agreement
on the figures."
    Dumas, a close aide to President Francois Mitterrand,
earlier this week met Iranian Charge d'Affaires in Paris
Haddadi Gholam-reza.
    The report of progress contrasts with official French
statements last month after talks between Deputy Iranian
Finance Minister Mehdi Navvab and the French Finance Ministry.
    The talks, the latest round in long-running negotiations
between the two countries, were said to have led to little
progress on the loan repayment issue.
    France made a first repayment of 330 mln dlrs last
November. Since then negotiatiors have shuttled between Tehran
and Paris for talks which France hopes will help secure freedom
for hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
    Iran is claiming full repayment of principal and interest
on the Shah's loan, made in 1975 to the EURODIF uranium
enrichment consortium. It has also asked France to curb the
activities of Iranian dissidents in France and stop selling
weapons to Iraq, its enemy in the Gulf War.
    France for its part has made a counter claim for more than
500 mln dlrs in compensation for contracts with French firms
broken after the 1979 revolution.
 REUTER

Duff and Phelps said it changed the
ratings on outstanding senior debt of Baker International Corp
and Hughes Tool Company.
    The change affects 515 mln dlrs in debt and assumes a
merger of the two companies will be completed.
    Baker's senior debt was downgraded to DP-8 (high BBB) from
DP-7 (low A).
    Hughes senior debt was raised to DP-8 from DP-12 (middle
BB) while subordinated debt was raised to DP-9 (middle BBB)
from DP-14 (high B).
    The debt ratio of the combined compaies will be about 40
pct but available cash plus proceeds from the sale of assets
will permit a prompt reduction in debt, Duff and Phelps said.
    However, fixed charge coverages will remain very thin until
the company's markets improve, D and P said.
 Reuter

Zenith Laboratories Inc said
it received Food and Drug Administration approval to market
Cephalexin, an antibiotic that is the generic version of Eli
Lilly Inc's <LLY> Keflex.
    Generic drugs are low-cost copies of brand name drugs that
have lost their patents. Keflex's patent expires April 21.
Analysts said four generic drug companies, including Zenith,
will have approval to market generic Keflex this year.
    Analysts said Keflex is Lilly's second leading drug
product, with 1986 worldwide sales of about 335 mln dlrs. In
1986 Lilly had sales of 3.7 billion dlrs.
    "We think that in the first year that it loses its patent,
U.S. sales of Keflex will drop to about 240 mln dlrs from 280
mln dlrs," said Joe Riccardo, associate director of Bear
Stearns.
    Riccardo said Lilly would offset the loss with sales from
Humatrope, a genetically engineered human growth hormone
recently approved for marketing in the U.S.
    He also said it was likely that Lilly would get U.S. FDA
marketing approval this year for Prozac, a drug for treating
clinical depression that also shows promise in weight
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd's revised debt
restructuring plan keeps the company alive and improves its
appeal as a takeover target, but full debt repayment depends on
a sharp oil price rise, oil and banking analysts said.
    Dome's complex proposal to let creditors link some or all
of their debt to oil-indexed debentures or convert it to equity
is "very cut and dried and to the point," Peters and Co Ltd
Calgary-based energy analyst Wilf Gobert said.
    Dome "is saying, This is the way it is. There isn't enough
money to pay you back,'" he added.
    The plan "strikes me as a very pragmatic thing to do,"
First Marathon Securities Ltd oil analyst Jim Doak commented.
    He said the plan seeks to formally tie payments to
creditors with the price of oil, which governs Dome's cash flow
and ability to service its debt.
    Dome expects its total debt to reach 6.4 billion Canadian
dlrs by June 30, 1987, when an interim debt rescheduling plan
expires and Dome hopes to implement the long term plan.
    Gobert said the plan would rank secured and unsecured
creditors in a complex series of repayment categories or "an
agreed pecking order of what your (creditors) claim to assets
is."
    Potential suitors would find Dome easier to swallow under
the debt restructuring plan because it proposes to resolve
competing claims on assets pledged to secured creditors and on
remaining unpledged assets, Gobert and others said.
    "Certainly the restructuring plan, once it's agreed to and
put in place, is going to make it easier for someone to come in
and look at doing a deal on it (acquiring the company)," Gobert
remarked.
    "It's going to be a lot easier than it is right now because
you'll have settled the pecking order question," he added.
    Gobert believes the debt plan may be partly motivated by a
desire to sell Dome Petroleum as a whole.
    "If the creditors wanted to liquidate their bank loans they
could do it in an orderly fashion through the sale of the
company, as opposed to dismemberment," he said.
    Dome's proposal includes rescheduling secured debt payments
over a 15 to 20 year schedule, linking payments to cash flows
generated by assets pledged against loans and establishing
interest rates that allow for changing oil prices.
    Creditors' only real alternative to Dome's plan is "an
asset grab which would liquidate the company at distress
prices, and the banks would spend the next 20 years in court
deciding who had what asset," First Marathon's Doak said.
    For Dome's creditors, the plan does not offer a quick
method to recover loans, but extends payment time in the hope
that oil prices will rise, increasing the amount of the
company's debt payments, Merrill Lynch Canada Inc bank analyst
Terry Shaunessy said.
    The plan "is not a solution. It says give me more time and
let's keep our fingers crossed that oil goes way up."
    Doak and Shaunessy estimated oil prices would have to rise
to about 28 to 30 U.S. dlrs a barrel to fully service all of
the company's debt.
    Analysts said the plan would ensure the company continues
to operate, but provides little other benefit to common
    "From a common shareholder standpoint, all this does is
sort of keep him on the life support system, because there
isn't any equity unless you get a big increase in oil prices,"
Gobert remarked.
    Analysts said Dome's common shares, trading today at 1.12
dlrs, off four cents, on the Toronto Stock Exchange,
essentially represent a long term warrant pegged to oil prices.
    "You have to be looking at an extremely high price of oil
in the context of historical trends before there's any residual
value for the common shareholders," analyst Doak said.
    While Dome's plan said lenders will be able to convert debt
to common shares, the amount of dilution depends on share
conversion prices still to be negotiated and how much lenders
would choose to convert, the company said.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said car sales in
the early March period declined 8.2 pct to 99,882 units from
108,850 a year ago.
    It said the figures include sales of Sprints and Spectrums.
There were eight selling days in the period both this year and
last.
    The company said truck sales in the period rose 14.4 pct to
40,131 units from 35,081 a year ago.
    In the year-to-date period, car sales declined 26.6 pct to
629,088 units from 856,969 a year ago. Truck sales declined 9.7
pct to 247,372 units from 274,036 a year ago.
 Reuter

Italy's average interbank rate
rose to a provisional 12.18 pct in February from 12.05 pct in
January, figures from the Bank of Italy show.
    Weighted average rate on bank lending was a provisional
13.78 pct in February compared with 13.83 in January, while
average weighted rate paid on deposits eased a provisional 7.49
pct from 7.66 pct.
    Italy today announced that its official discount rate would
be cut to 11.5 pct from 12 pct effective tomorrow.
 REUTER

Yeutter said that whether the exchange rate of the dollar would
fall or rise in the coming decade would depend on nations'
financial, monetary and tax policies.
    But, he said, in a speech and remarks to the Heritage
Foundation, that in the end "the marketplace will ultimately
rule the day."
    Asked about the future of the dollar, he said that whether
or not it would rise or fall depended on economic policies and
coooperation among trading nations.
    Yeutter said "if nations do the right kinds of things in
financial, monetary and tax policies, then a lesser burden of
adjustment is placed on exchange rates, and one could envision
a situation of the major trading nations moving back far closer
to what most of us would consider equilibrium and exchange
rates becoming relatively stable."
    But he said, on the other hand, that if nations did not
exhibit greater self discipline and international cooperation,
"It is simply inevitable that the exchange rates will make that
adjustment."
 Reuter

A decision by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission to remove a key regulatory obstacle to
trading foreign debt futures on U.S. Exchanges was a
constructive development, London International Financial
Futures Exchange (LIFFE) Chief Executive Michael Jenkins said.
    The SEC yesterday agreed to remove the regulation against
trading futures in designated foreign government debt
securities on markets not located in the issuing country.
    Jenkins said the decision cleared the way for the Chicago
Board of Trade possibly to trade U.K. Long gilt futures and a
Japanese yen bond contract.
    The CBOT is now likely to proceed with an application to
trade gilts to the Commodity Futures Trading Commmission
(CFTC), he said.
 REUTER

Metropolitan Consolidated Industries
Inc, a New York paint company, said it has acquired 278,709
shares of Metex Corp, or 21.2 pct of the total, and left open
the possibility that it might acquire more through a merger.
Metropolitan said it bought the Metex stock as an investment.
    It also said it may buy additional shares, or sell some or
all of its current stake. If it buys more shares, Metropolitan
said it would consider doing so in the open market, in private
deals, or through an exchange offer, tender offer or merger.
    Metropolitan said it may acquire an option on or may buy
some or all of the Metex shares owned by William Hack, a Metex
director, who, together with this wife, holds 149,750 of the
company's common shares, or 11.4 pct of the total.
    Metropolitan said it already has an option to buy another
42,750 Metex common shares at 11.25 dlrs each. The option is
not exercisable until April 12, 1988, it said.
    If Metropolitan were to exercise the option and acquire all
of Hack's stake, it would have 471,208 Metex common shares, or
35.9 pct of the total. Metropolitan's SEC filing was
made as a shareholder group with Hack.
    Metropolitan, which said it spent 3.1 mln dlrs to acquire
its Metex stake, listed its recent stock purchases as 54,993
common shares on March 67 at 10 dlrs each and 83,916 shares on
March 11 at 11.25 dlrs.
 Reuter

CNW Corp said its subsidiary, Chicago
and North Western Transportation Co, sold in a private
placement 25 mln dlrs of Consolidated Mortgage 9.9 pct Bonds,
Series C, due 1992.
    It said Morgan Stanley and Co Inc acted as placement agent.
Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

said the company has decided to discontinue operations of its
Mobile Communications Division which will result in a one-time
substantial loss for the fourth quarter and year.
    For the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 1985
Walker reported a net loss of 17,000 dlrs and net income of
175,000, respectively.
    Walker said retail prices for mobile cellular telephones
have declined dramatically to point where the company no longer
believes that it can profitably participate in the market.
 Reuter

BPI Systems Inc said it is
holding discussions that could lead to the sale of all its
outstanding shares for about 12 mln dlrs.
    BPI president and chief executive officer David R. Fernald
declined to identify the other party involved in the talks.
    For the nine months ended December 31, BPI lost 1,286,000
dlrs on sales of 6,452,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

2,150,000 limited partnership units of newly formed Galaxy
Cablevision LP began trading today.
    It said the partnership, based in Sikeston, Mo., will buy
and operate cable television systems in six states.
    Trading opened on 3,000 units at 20-3/8, the AMEX said.

 Reuter

BALLY MANUFACTURING SAID IT IS CONSIDERING SALE OF SIX FLAGS THEME PARKS

(Telemedia Inc) said its (Telemedia
Publishing Inc) subsidiary agreed to buy privately-owned
Harrowsmith and Equinox magazines for an undisclosed amount of
cash.
    Telemedia said the acquisition is expected to have a small
positive impact on short-term earnings.
    Harrowsmith, an alternative life-style magazine, is
Canada's seventh-largest paid circulation English-language
magazine while Equinox is the country's eighth largest. Each
has a circulation of about 160,000 copies.
     The magazine group had revenues of eight mln dlrs last
year and employs 50 people, Telemedia said.             
    Telemedia said it will also acquire a 10 pct interest in
the company which recently launched the U.S. edition of
Harrowsmith.
    The magazine's U.S. editiion, begun last year, now has a
paid circulation of 180,000, the company said.
    It said a final deal is expected in mid-April.
    Telemedia said the magazines' founder has agreed to
continue to provide editorial and publishing direction for the
magazines.
 Reuter

Congressional budget leaders are
asking President Reagan to join in a bipartisan effort - or
even a summit - to write a new budget, but White House chief of
staff Howard Baker said no decision has been made yet, a Senate
source said.
    The request for White House cooperation was made yesterday
by Senate Budget Committee chairman Lawton Chiles at a meeting
with Baker, the source said.
    The appeal came as the Senate Budget Committee made plans
to start drafting next Tuesday a fiscal 1988 budget plan that
Democrats controlling Congress hope to get through both
chambers by April 15.
    House Democrats have been meeting privately and will
continue discussions on Tuesday to develop a plan for the full
committee which holds its first drafting meeting Thursday.
    Reagan's own budget was submitted in January but Congress
generally has rejected it as unrealistic, with the
Congressional Budget Office saying the deficit is understated
and should be a more realistic 134 billion dlrs.   
    Among major controversial decisions that Congress has to
make are levels of deficit deductions to meet the Gramm-Rudman
budget law target of cutting the estimated 171
billion dlr deficit for 1988 to 108 billion dlrs.
    A key decisions is the amount of new revenues - Reagan
proposed some 22 billion dlrs in asset sales and excise taxes -
as part of a deficit cutting plan.
    Reagan, who opposes new taxes, refuses to say he is
advocating higher taxes through his revenue scheme.
    The Gramm-Rudman law sets fixed deficit targets for
Congress with the aim of wiping out huge deficits by 1991, but
over the past two years deficits have exceeded the targets.
    The Senate source said that Chiles asked for cooperation to
avoid clashes when the Senate and House Budget committees start
writing separate budget plans for congressional approval,
starting next week.
    The source said Chiles told Baker "If you start working
sooner, rather than later you have a chance to do something
before everyone gets locked in."
    Baker has had conversations about the budget problem with
Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the senior Republican on
the Senate Budget Committee, and with House Speaker Jim Wright.
    Baker reportedly said that he plans to have further talks
with other Republicans and House Budget Committee Chairman
William Gray "before the the White House decides what it is
going to do, if anything," the source said.
    House sources said that Gray --who has been pushing the
idea of a budget summit with Reagan--is anxious to work with
the White House to get a compromise budget plan.
    Besides reaching decisions on actual spending and revenue
levels in a new budget, congressmen are considering adjusting
or redefining the targets of the Gramm-Rudman law to make them
more realistic.
    Reagan presented about 36 billion dlrs in spending delays,
cuts and revenues he said will reach 108 billion dlrs.
    Gray has said that if Congress approves 36 billion dlrs in
reductions, the deficit would be 134 billion dlrs realistically
because of what he says are more accurate economic assumptions.
 Reuter

Shr profit 36 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net profit 1,162,000 vs profit 464,000
    Revs 16.6 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 89 cts vs loss 79 cts
    Net loss 2,988,000 vs loss 2,673,000
    Revs 35.1 mln vs 25.1 mln
    NOTE: Nine months fiscal 1987 includes extraordinary gain
of 16 cts per share.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it is
considering the sale of its Six Flag theme amusement park unit
and would use the proceeds to pay off debt.
    In addition to the possible sale of the amusement parks,
Bally plans to sell a minority stake in its health club chain
to the public. The company will register a proposed offering
with the Securities and Exchange Commission for 20 to 30 pct of
the health clubs soon, spokesman William Peltier told Reuters.
    "Selling Six Flags is definitely under consideration,"
Peltier said in response to an inquiry. He said the company
would use much of the income from the amusement park chain,
were it to be sold, to repay debt.
    Six Flags might sell for as much as 300 mln dlrs, analysts
said. The health club chain, the nation's largest, is valued at
350 to 375 mln dlrs, they said.
    Bally reportedly already has been approached about Six
Flags by several prospective buyers.
    The company needs the cash to begin paying back a 1.6 mln
dlrs mountain of debt.
    Bally recently completed a 439 mln dlrs acquisition of the
Golden Nugget casino hotel in Atlantic City from Golden Nugget
Inc <GNG.N>.
    The purchase pushed its long-term debt to 1.6 billion dlrs,
or almost 2.7 times its equity of 600 mln dlrs.
    Bally's 325-unit health and tennis clubs had revenues in
1986 of more than 450 mln dlrs, or about 28 pct of Bally's
total revenues of 1.64 billion dlrs.
    Bally acquired Six Flags for 147.4 mln dlrs in January 1982
from Penn Central Corp. Bally bought the Great America theme
park in Gurnee, Ill., in May 1984 for 113.2 mln dlrs from
Marriott Corp <mhs>.
    In 1986 the parks had pretax operating profit of 48.6 mln
dlrs on revenues of 369.4 mln dlrs.
    The clubs and equipment unit combined to post operating
profit of 60.4 mln dlrs on revenues of 475.6 mln dlrs in 1986,
of which 456.2 mln came from the clubs.
    The company earlier this month said it will take a charge
to earnings in the first quarter of 17.3 mln dlrs as a result
of its deal to buy back 2.6 mln of its common shares from real
estate developer Donald Trump.
    Under a February 21 deal, Bally agreed to buy the 2.6 mln
of the 3.06 mln shares held by Trump at 24 dlrs a share, or
62.4 mln dlrs, plus 6.2 mln dlrs related expenses in exchange
for Trump not seeking control of the company for 10 years.
    The deal also requires Bally to buy Trump's remaining
shares for 33 dlrs a share if the stock price does not reach
that level by February 21, 1988.
 Reuter

Franklin Resources Inc said
it believes earnings could double this year as compared to a
year ago when the company reported income of 32 mln dlrs on 143
mln dlrs in revenues.
    Franklin Resources is a financial services company. Its
fiscal year ends September 30.
 Reuter

Evans and Southerland Computer Corp is
raising 50 mln dlrs through an offering of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012 with a 6-1/2 pct coupon and
par pricing, said sole manager Hambrecht and Quist Inc.
stock at 48.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 24.36
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated B-plus by
Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board Options Exchange said
it will begin trading call and put options March 16 on
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
    It said options will trade on the February quarterly
expiration cycle with initial exercise prices set at 15, 17-1/2
and 20 and position limits of 8,000 contracts on the same side
of the market.
    It said the new listing augments the exchange's trading of
Coca-Cola Co <KO>.
 Reuter

Soviet livestock herds are possibly
in better shape than expected after the recent harsh winter,
the U.S. agriculture counselor in Moscow said.
    Livestock procurement levels for January and February were
recently reported in a Soviet agriculture newspaper to be up
five pct from year ago levels, an attache report said.
    "These procurement levels ... are surprisingly normal given
the harshness of the 1986/87 winter ... indicating neither
abnormal distress slaughter nor subnormal livestock product
output. While the overwintering period is not over yet, the
worst of it is, and herds are possibly in better shape than
expected," the counselor said.
    A healthy livestock sector will keep Soviet feed demand 
strong and impact USSR grain imports, analysts said.
    January livestock procurement levels were up only 1.6 pct,
indicating a turn around in February, an Agriculture Department
analyst of the Soviet Union said.
    The analyst said an easing of the cold weather in February,
coupled with heavy amounts of grain fed to the animals would
account for the rise in procurements.
    "There's no question that the (Soviet) livestock is in good
shape," he said.
 Reuter

Cuban sugar export figures for January
suggest that this year's crop may be at least as large as last
year's 7.35 mln tonnes, according to sugar analysts.
    Exports in January totalled 733,000 tonnes raw value, up
from 725,000 a year earlier, according to figures received by
the International Sugar Organization.
    January is the first major export month and the figures
thus give a good indication of the current crop, they said.
Fourth quarter exports fell to 622,000 tonnes from 909,000
tonnes a year earlier, but this was because Cuba was destocking
at the end of 1985, they added.
    Trade house C Czarnikow recently estimated production this
year at 7.50 mln tonnes.
    Cuban sugar production in the third quarter of 1986 was
12,000 tonnes, giving a final 1985/86 crop total of 7.35 mln
tonnes, compared with a 1984/85 crop of 8.10 mln tonnes.
    There is normally no third quarter production in Cuba, but
a hurricane meant that last year's crop was extended.
    Exports to the USSR were substantially down in January at
362,000 tonnes from 489,000 in January 1986, but other Comecon
countries received 210,000 tonnes, against 80,000 tonnes in the
same month last year, figures received by the ISO show.
    Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania all took
substantially more Cuban sugar.
    Cuba's November 1986 exports totalled 158,000 tonnes,
compared with 190,000 tonnes in 1985, and December's total was
237,000 tonnes, down from 518,000 tonnes the year before.
Calendar year exports for 1986 were also lower at 6.69 mln
tonnes against 7.21 mln in 1985 -- the lowest level since
1980's 6.19 mln tonnes, the figures show.
 Reuter

<American Honda Motor Co Inc>
said its domestic sales for the first 10 days of March totaled
4,394 as compared to 3,786 a year earlier.
    It said year-to-date sales rose to 52,143 from 31,686 last
year.
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs nine cts
    Payable June one
    Record May 15
 Reuter

Shr loss 45 cts vs profit 20 cts
    Net loss 1,841,000 vs profit 983,000
    Revs 56.2 mln vs 102.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 13 cts vs profit 80 cts
    Net loss 534,000 vs profit 4.4 mln
    Revs 121.4 mln vs 209.3 mln
    NOTE: Six months fiscal 1987 includes loss of 17 cts per
share from discontinued operations.
    Per share figures also reflect partial three-for-one stock
split effected December 1985.
 Reuter

Midland Bank Plc <MDBL.L> said its
Greenwell Montagu Securities unit would pull out of equity
market making and concentrate instead on providing a broker
dealer and agency service for its clients.
    The operation has become the first major casualty in the
London markets since deregulation last October abolished fixed
commissions and allowed the merging of broking and jobbing
operations into market making activities.
    A spokesman said Greenwell Montagu Gilt Edged, which is a
primary gilt edged market maker, and Greenwell Montagu
stockbrokers, were not affected by the decision.
    The market making operation had encountered much greater
competition than had been expected in the post-Big Bang period,
the spokesman added.
    Although Midland considered that the operation would be
viable in the long term, it would require the concentration of
greater resources than could be justified for an operation that
was not a core Midland activity. He confirmed Greenwell Montagu
Securities had been losing money in past months.
    The pull out from market making would be conducted in an
orderly fashion in the near future. There might also be some
job losses, he said without giving any details.
    Market sources said it was no great surprise that a market
maker had pulled out, as the intensity of competition had
suggested for some time that sooner or later someone would
decide to withdraw.
    They said some retreat by Greenwell had been likely because
of its losses, and added there also been speculation that it
could pull out of market making in gilts also.
    The move was unlikely to have any major impact on market
confidence, as the occasional speculation in the past few weeks
had had little impact.
    Analysts said commission rates on institutional equity
trades have dropped sharply in the five months since
deregulation, with some firms covering some of their reduced
profits by trading on their own account.
    In a recent report, Greenwell Montagu Research said, "Those
who have made profits are either immensely clever or immensely
lucky. Some are already approaching the pain barrier, others
are prepared to tough it out. But until some players withdraw
from the market, it will be difficult to improve profitability."
    Dealers said the pace of withdrawals was likely to speed up
in the next year, and would intensify if the three-month bull
run on the London stock exchange petered out.
 REUTER

Fitzwater said the administration had some disagreements with
the trade bill that cleared a House subcommittee yesterday but
generally felt good about the bill.
    "Generally we feel very good about the bipartisan
consideration of the trade legislation. I think we are
progressing very well," he told reporters.
    "There are wide areas of agreement. There are some areas of
disagreement," he said.                 
 Reuter

SUNTER ACQUISITION BEGINS TENDER FOR ALLEGHENY INTERNATIONAL INC

Grain traders and analysts look for a
10 to 12 mln acre sign-up in the USDA's conservation reserve
program, scheduled to be announced after 1400 CST today.
    The USDA probably will accept about 80 to 90 pct of the
acres submitted, they said.
    Total enrollment in the first three years of the program is
only 8.9 mln acres, so the sharp increase expected this year
has underpinned new crop corn futures all week.
    However, some analysts said a 10 to 12 mln acre sign-up may
end up being negative to new crop corn prices, citing trade
talk earlier this year that 14 to 15 mln acres may be submitted
by farmers. Also, acres set-aside under the conservation
program are by definition poor yielding, so the impact on total
corn production will be minimal, they added.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp made a 15 pct reduction in
its long term debt in 1986 from the previous year according to
data in its 1986 annual report.
    Mobil chairman, Allen E. Murray said in his report to
shareholders, "that lower debt and our strong cash and
marketable securities position improves Mobil's flexibility."
    Long term debt as of December 31, 1986 was put at 7.9
billion dlrs, down 15 pct from 9.3 billion dlrs on the same day
in 1985.
    Mobil has moved to reduce debt at high interest rates,
which may reduce interest payments.
    Murray said that with the results from 1986, "we're paying
back 3.8 billion dlrs in the past two years, or the equivalent
of 66 pct of the debt incurred in 1984 when we bought Superior
Oil."
    Mobil said that it has about 183 mln dlrs of long term debt
which is due in 1987 although this will rise appreciably to 1.2
billion dlrs of long term debt due in 1988.
    At the end of 1986, Mobil said it also had an existing
effective shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange
Commmission to permit the sale of 205 mln dlrs of debt.
   Mobil's debt reduction program has also been abetted by
several steps taken by the company to restructure its
    Mobil's Murray said in his remarks to shareholders that the
company was continuing to dispose of assets which did not fit
the company's long range plans and had realized some 1.1
billion dlrs from the sale of its Container Corp subsidiary.
    Murray said that as a result of lower debt and more
efficient operations "the company is now is a position to seize
opportunities that may become available and use this strength
in whatever way best builds shareholder value."
 Reuter

<Phoenix Steel Corp> said it and
the union representing workers at its seamless tubing mill in
Phoenixville, Penn., were unable to reach agreement to extend
the union contract that expires March 31.
    Phoenix said the union rejected its offer to extend a labor
agreement through May 30 and a medical insurance agreement for
active employees through June 30.
    The company said no further bargaining sessions are planned
between it and United Steelworkers Local 2322.
 Reuter

Bryson Oil and Gas plc, a Belfast,
Northern Ireland, oil company which has said it is considering
seeking control of Cenergy Corp, said it raised its stake in
the company to 1,281,887 shares, or 13.2 pct of the total.
Bryson said it bought 440,000 Cenergy common shares on March 10
at eight dlrs each. Previously it had held 841,887 shares, or
8.5 pct.
    Bryson has request detailed shareholder information from
Cenergy in case it decided to communicate with shareholders.
But it said Cenergy has made legal challenges to the request.
 Reuter

    Pay May 20
    Record April 27
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc said  
Sunter Acquisititon Corp, formed by First Boston Inc, began a
cash tender offer in accordance with their previously announced
merger agreement for all the outsanding shares of Allegheny's
common stock, 2.19 dlr cumulative preference stock and 11.25
dlrs convertible preferred stock.
    The offer expires April 9, unless extended.
    Under terms of the agreement, tendering shareholders will
receive 24.60 dlrs per common share, 20 dlrs per preference
share and 87.50 dlrs per preferred share.
    Allegheny said the offer is conditioned upon the valid 
tender of stock representing a majority of the voting power and
at least two-thirds of outstanding shares of preference stock
and preferred stock.
    The merger agreement was announced earlier this week.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 531,840 vs 188,362
    Revs not given
    Year
    Shr 83 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 1,249,000 vs 620,000
    Revs 10,800,000 vs 5,600,000
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc is raising 70 mln dlrs
through an offering of convertible subordinatred debentures due
2012 with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Alex Brown and Sons Inc.
stock at 36.25 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 27.75
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated BB by
Standard and Poor's Corp. Montgomery Securities co-managed the
deal.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss six cts vs profit four cts
    Oper net loss 58,388 vs profit 34,101
    Revs 2,419,203 vs 2,145,967
    1st half
    Oper shr profit six cts vs profit 18 cts
    Oper net profit 61,763 vs profit 172,166
    Revs 5,731,582 vs 4,458,040
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes extraordinary credits of
4,500 dlrs in quarter and 46,000 dlrs in half.
    Current quarter net includes 47,470 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

De Nationale Investeringsbank NV of
the Netherlands has signed a 3.1 billion yen bullet loan
agreement, arranger Mitsubishi Bank (Europe) SA said.
    The five-year term loan carries an interest rate of
Japanese long term prime rate flat. It features a swap
agreement but a Mitsubishi Bank spokesman declined to give
    The lenders are Mitsubishi Bank Ltd and one other Japanese
financial institution which the spokesman declined to name.
    Mitsubishi said the loan was believed to be the first the
borrower has raised in yen.
 Reuter

Antonio Ortiz Mena, president of the
Inter-American Development Bank, warned that if Latin countries
were unable to speed up their economic growth, then in the long
run there would be a default.
    He told a press conference foreshadowing the bank's annual
meeting next week, "For the banks it is convenient to be
repaid. But to achieve that, the countries need to grow. If
they don't, then in the long run there will be a default."
    Ortiz Mena warned that Latin America needed to reverse the
capital outflows from the region and beyond that needed more
resources.
    Ortiz Mena declined to agree with estimates that capital
outflows from Latin America last year totaled 35 billion dlrs
and that therefore he was calling for an inflow into the region
above that sum.
    He said the U.S. debt strategy, which envisaged stepped up
lending by commercial and multilateral banks to major debtor
nations of 29 billion dlrs over three years, was insufficient
to achieve the necessary rates of growth.
    But he did stress the U.S. plan was important and the right
approach.
    Ortiz Mena said, "It is in the interest of the creditors,
not only the debtors, to push forward the development process
in Latin America and that has happened."
    He added, "The only problem is the resources have not been
enough."
    Turning to Brazil, whose growth rate he predicted will
decline slightly this year from 1986, Ortiz Mena said the
country's moratorium was the right action in order to avert a
long term default.
    "So it's preferable they negotiate now," a move which would
eliminate any chance of panic in the markets.
    Ortiz Mena also said that Brazilian authorities have opened
negotiations already with commercial banks.
    He pointed out Brazil took the action because of its
deteriorating economic situation.
 Reuter

The Food and Drug Administration said
Monsanto Co's <MCT> G.D. Searle and Co unit is voluntarily
recalling all lots of its Gynex oral contraceptives.
    The FDA said some of the blister-pack cards that house the
birth contol pills may contain out of sequence tablets in the
28-day-cycle package. It said other 21-day-cycle packages may
be missing some tablets.
    If oral contraceptives are taken in the wrong order or
skipped, the likelihood of pregancy increases.
    The FDA said said the recall affects 315,000 packages of
the pills which were distributed nationwide since the drug was
first distributed in February.
    The FDA said Searle believes only a small number of
pacakges, about 2,000 to 3,000, were dispensed to consumers.
    The FDA also said the labeling on the product indicates
that Gynex oral contraceptives are manufactured and packaged by
Corona Pharmaceutical of Corona, Calif., for G.D. Searle and
Co.
 Reuter

to 200,500 shares, or 5.0 pct of the total outstanding, from
260,500 shares, or 6.4 pct.
the group, led by Mutual Shares Corp, said it sold 60,000
Cyclops common shares since February 26.
 Reuter

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange today
declined to comment on a press report saying Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc's request for membership had been delayed pending
investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
    The Exchange was replying to Reuters inquiries after the
leading Dutch evening daily NRC Handelsblad published a report
this evening quoting an unnamed bourse official as saying
Drexel's application was delayed while the firm was under
investigation by the SEC.
    It usually takes the bourse one to two months to process a
membership application, the official said, adding: "It's been
going on for three to four months with Drexel, so draw your own
conclusions."
   "We're not particularly worried about the contents of the
application but we think the timing is somewhat unfortunate,"
the NRC quoted the official as saying.
   Drexel is currently under investigation by the SEC in
connection with insider trading activities by Ivan Boesky and
Dennis Levine last November, a month after the company applied
for permission to deal in Dutch equity.
   An exchange spokesman said there was nothing unusual about
the processing period of Drexel's application, adding that he
would not comment on any company before all documents had been
studied by the bourse board.
   A spokesman from Drexel's London branch, which is dealing
with the application, said the delay was of a purely technical
nature in Drexel's head office in New York.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.41 dlrs vs profit 27 cts
    Net loss 8,225,052 vs profit 1,566,936
    Revs 4,028,231 vs 6,725,462
    Note: 1986 shr and net after 6,606,646 dlr writedown on
property and other assets
 Reuter

NV Nederlandse Gasunie of the
Netherlands has signed a 3.28 billion yen bullet loan
    The interest rate on the 5-1/2 year loan is the Japanese
long term prime rate flat. The loan has a swap agreement but a
bank spokesman declined to give further details.
    The lenders are Mitsubishi Bank Ltd and another Japanese
 REUTER

<Transit Financial Holdings Inc>,
earlier reporting higher fourth quarter and full year earnings,
said it expects 1987 share profit to increase to 1.27 dlrs from
83 cts in 1986.
    The company said the 1987 share forecast is based on 2.5
mln shares outstanding, after a one mln common share issue on
December 30, 1986. Its 1986 and 1985 earnings were based on 1.5
mln shares outstanding.
    The company earlier reported 1986 profit rose to 1,249,000
dlrs or 83 cts a shares from year-earlier 620,000 dlrs or 41
 Reuter

A proposal by the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange's (CME) board of directors to restrict dual trading by
stock-index futures floor brokers would not provide a solution
to alleged abuses in the market, House Small Business Committee
chief economist John Helmuth said.
    Helmuth worked on legislation offered earlier this week by
Rep. Neil Smith (D-Iowa) to ban dual trading in the Standard
and Poor's 500 stock index futures trading pit.
    Last night the CME board recommended curbing, but not
banning, dual trading in S and P 500 futures and options.
    The CME board rejected a petition presented in February by
some members seeking an outright ban on dual trading, whereby 
floor brokers trade for their own accounts as well as for
    Helmuth said the board's proposal would not prevent traders
from falsifying the record that shows the times of their
trades.
    Helmuth predicted Smith's bill would be closely examined by
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. John
Dingell (R-Michigan). Dingell and his staff were unavailable
 Reuter

SAN PAOLO DI TORINO CUTS PRIME RATE TO 12.50 PCT FROM 13.00 PCT - OFFICIAL

Pegasus Gold Inc said it
cut its long term debt to 85 mln dlrs from 100 mln dlrs when
its European bondholders voluntarily converted some of their
debt holdings into 1.5 mln shares of Pegasus common.
    The company said the debt converted represents about 40 pct
of the total 60 mln Swiss franc convertible debentures it
completed last Fall.
    In addition, Pegasus said it began mining and processing
operations at its Zortman/Landusky Mine one month ahead of
schedule.
    Pegasus said it completed the first phase of its 1987 Super
Pad ahead of schedule as well, allowing the mining company to
load up to 7.5 mln tons of new ore on the pad.
    Pegasus estimated that 1987 production at the
Zortman/Landusky mine will be about 80,000 ounces of gold and
225,000 ounces of silver.
 Reuter

 Reuter

PRESIDENT REAGAN VOWS NO TAX RATE INCREASE AS LONG AS HE IS PRESIDENT

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 RISES 592 MLN DLRS IN WEEK, BANK OF CANADA SAID

    Avg shrs 4,127,000 vs 4,835,000
    1st half
    Oper shr four cts vs 80 cts
    Oper net 172,000 vs 4,359,000
    Avg shrs 4,127,000 vs 5,439,000
    NOTE: Current half net excludes 706,000 dlr loss from
discontinued oil and natural gas operations.
    Share adjusted for three-for-one stock split and
recapitalization in December 1985.
    Prior year net both periods includes pretax charge of
2,300,000 dlrs from recapitalization costs.
 Reuter

Chrysler Canada Ltd, wholly owned by
Chrsyler Corp, said it added some car and truck models to the
company's cash rebate program and discontinued the models from
its 3.9 pct financing plan.
    Chrysler Canada said effective March 16 it will offer a 750
dlr cash rebate on 1986 and 1987 Dodge Aries and Plymouth
Reliant sales. It will also offer a 500 dlr rebate to buyers of
1986 and 1987 Tursimo and Charger cars as well as Ram 50 and
Power Ram 50 trucks.
    The financing plan on the models will be discontinued March
15.
 Reuter

High Point Financial Corp is raising
six mln dlrs through an offering of redeemable subordinated
debentures due 1997 yielding 8.65 pct, said sole underwriter
Ryan, Beck and Co.
99 to yield 147 basis points more than comparable Treasuries.
    High Point also sold 6.66 mln dlrs of cancellable mandatory
stock purchase contracts that require the purchase on March 1,
1997 of the company's common stock at 23 dlrs per share. High
Point is trading at 22 dlrs a share in the over-the-counter
market, according to Ryan, Beck.
 Reuter

Cyclops Corp said its board rejected
a request by Cyacq Corp, an investor group, for more non-public
information about Cyclops, a maker of specialty steels and an
electronics retailer.
    Cyclops cited its agreement to be acquired by Britain's
Dixons Group PLC for 90.25 dlrs a share under a tender offer
that expires midnight March 17.
    Cyacq, comprising Audio/Video Affiliates Inc, Citicorp
Capital Investors Ltd and other investors, yesterday said it
would increase its tender offer for Cyclops to 92.50 dlrs a
share from 80 dlrs, subject to certain conditions.
    The conditions were that Cyclops provide Cyacq with
non-public data given to Dixons and that Cyacq be satisfied
with financial projections made by Dixons in its offer.
    Cyclops also said its board determined that Cyacq's
announcement was not an offer. "Cyacq's press release does not
amend Cyacq's outstanding tender offer which remains at 80 dlrs
per share and it does not state that Cyacq has financing
commitments necessary to carry out its original offer or any
increased offer that it may make," Cyclops said in a statement.
    Its agreements with Dixons are binding and Dixons indicated
it will not rescind or waive any provisions of the pacts,
Cyclops said.
    The company also said it was advised that Dixons'
shareholders approved the merger, satisfying that condition of
the agreement.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 915,911 vs 970,141
    Revs 8.0 mln vs 8.0 mln
    Shr 69 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 3.0 mln vs 2.4 mln
    Revs 23.5 mln vs 22.1 mln
    NOTE:1987 3rd qtr and nine months include extraordainry
gain of 341,145 dlrs and 480,412 dlrs, respectively, on sale of
land.
 Reuter

Status Game Corp said it has
started making condom vending machines which it will start
distributing within the next 30 days.
    It said initially it will place the machines in the 1,200
Nevada locations in which it has other vending machines. But it
said it has already received a substantial number of inquiries
from potential customers in Europe, Canada and the U.S.,
including two large English breweries which each operates over
5,000 pubs.
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp's Natural Gas
Pipeline Co of America unit said it has introduced a "Fast
Break" plan for expedited processing of requests for
interruptible natural gas transportation service.
    It said under Fast Break, customers submitting streamlined
service requests will receive interim transportation agreements
and, in most cases, have gas flowing within seven working days.
 Reuter

A group led by New York investor
Asher Edelman said he lowered its stake in Lucky Stores Inc
<LKS> to 1,827,734 shares, or 4.8 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 1,930,734 shares, or 5.1 pct.
the Edelman group said it sold 103,000 Lucky Stores common
shares on March 9 and 10 at prices ranging from 28.625 to
30.375 dlrs a share.
    So long as Edelman's stake is below five pct he is not
required to report his dealings in Lucky Stores stock.
 Reuter

M-1 rose 592 mln dlrs to 33.36 billion dlrs in week ended March
4, Bank of Canada said.
non-personal deposits, rose 778 mln dlrs to 75.95 billion dlrs
fixed-term deposit rose 1.09 billion dlrs to 177.95 billion
dlrs.
Canada, rose 1.13 billion dlrs to 217.28 billion dlrs.         
    Chartered bank general loans outstanding rose 500 mln dlrs
to 125.54 billion dlrs.
    Canadian liquid plus short term assets fell 244 mln dlrs to
35.12 billion dlrs and total Canadian dollar major assets of
the chartered banks rose 257 mln dlrs to 221.53 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank net foreign currency assets rose 782 mln
dlrs to minus 876 mln dlrs.            
    Notes in circulation totalled 16.28 billion dlrs, up 45 mln
    Government cash balances rose 1.37 billion dlrs to 5.68
billion dlrs in week ended March 11.
    Government securities outstanding fell three mln dlrs to
224.08 billion dlrs in week ended March 11, treasury bills rose
600 mln dlrs to 75.15 billion dlrs and Canada Savings Bonds
fell 294 mln dlrs to 44.05 billion dlrs.           
 Reuter

The Soviet Union has been a heavy
buyer of Yugoslav corn since October, purchasing close to 1.5
mln tonnes in the 1986/87 marketing year, according to a report
from the U.S. agriculture counselor in Belgrade.
    Approximately 1.5 mln tonnes of Yugoslav corn have already
been committed to foreign buyers for 1986/87, with most of this
sold to the Soviet Union, the Yugoslav Grain Association
reported to the U.S. official.
    In a report dated March 10, the official said that about
800,000 tonnes of the corn has been delivered, with the balance
of 700,000 tonnes to be shipped between now and June.
    An additional 500,000 tonnes of corn can be shipped from
July-September, the grain associaiton said, so total Yugoslav
corn exports could reach 2.0 mln tonnes, the counselor said.
    Heavier than normal monthly shipping rates for Yugoslav
corn exports are due to the increased use of river barges for
exporting corn to the Soviet Union, the counselor said.
    Monthly corn shipments out of Yugoslavia have averaged
around 160,000 tonnes since October 1, higher than earlier
estimates of 150,000, the official said.
    The Soviet Union has taken an increased share of Yugoslav
corn sales during this marketing year, he said.
 Reuter

President Reagan told a group of
supporters his pledge to veto a tax hike is solid, adding,
"There will be no tax rate increase in the 100th Congress."
    While he did not mention House Speaker Jim Wright by name,
Reagan said that some members of Congress were urging that
taxes be raised.
    "I'm sorry but that's just not going to happen," said Reagan.
"We're not going to break faith with the American people."
    "I promise you, tax reform will go ahead as scheduled," the
president added. "All these tax hike schemes have as much chance
of flying as a dead duck," he said.
    Reagan combined his strongly-stated opposition to a tax
hike with a warning to Congress to meet the deficit reduction
targets set by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget control law.
    Failure to do so, he said, would jeopardize a continuation
of the current favorable economic climate.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. Has dropped its insistence that
the floor price in a new International Natural Rubber
Agreement, INRA, be revised downward under certain
circumstances, conference sources said.
    The surprise conciliatory move by the U.S. Meets one of the
producers' main concerns -- that the floor price, or "lower
indicative price," remain unchanged, they said.
    It is not clear, however, whether all consuming countries
will follow suit, as a number of them, in particular Britain,
West Germany and Belgium, appeared to have strong reservations,
the sources added.
    The group of consumers has been seeking an adjustment of
the "lower indicative price" (set at 150 Malaysian/Singapore
cents a kilo in the present pact) if the buffer stock,
    The sources said the question of to what extent price
adjustments should be automatic remains a problem.
    Conference chairman Manaspas Xuto of Thailand has been
holding consultations with producers and consumers throughout
the day.
    The consumers' group is now holding a separate meeting
ahead of further consultations within the "president's group"
tonight.
 Reuter

    Pegasus said it began mining and processing operations at
its Zortman/Landusky Mine one month ahead of schedule.
    It completed the first phase of its 1987 Super Pad ahead of
schedule as well, allowing the mining company to load up to 7.5
mln tons of new ore on the pad. Pegasus estimated 1987
production at the Zortman/Landusky mine will be about 80,000
ounces of gold and 225,000 ounces of silver.
 Reuter

Caesars World Inc is likely to seek
out a friendly suitor or restructure operations to fight off
the unsolicited takeover offer by investor Martin Sosnoff,
securities analysts said.
    "They could be talking to a "white knight" right now," said
Janney Scott Montgomery Inc analyst Marvin Roffman, adding.
"That would be my best guess."
    Analysts also said other options for Caesars could include
a restructuring or a buyback of Sosnoff's 13.6 pct holdings.
    Earlier today, Caesars World announced that its board
unanimously rejected a 28 dlr per share, or 725.2 mln dlr,
takeover offer from MTS Acquisition Corp, a company formed by
Sosnoff.
    The company also said it will explore a variety of
alternative transactions but did not elaborate.
    In announcing the rejection, Caesars said the offer was
inadequate given the company's financial condition, future
prospects and current market conditions.
    A Caesars spokesman said the company expects to file a
14D-9 with the Securities and Exchange Commission later today
with more information on its analysis of the Sosnoff offer.
    Analysts are generally bullish on the outlook for Caesars
World and some have placed the value of Caesars stock at from
32 to 35 dlrs per share.
    They have also asserted that Sosnoff is not likely to
succeed with the unsolicited bid unless he raises his offering
price to a higher level.
    Caesars World's stock is up 1-1/8 today at 29-1/8.
    Janney Montgomery's Roffman believes potential suitors for
the hotel/casino company could be Golden Nugget Inc <GNG>, or
Tracinda Corp, a company controlled by investor Kirk Kirkorian.
    Golden Nugget has a good deal of cash on hand as the result
of the sale of its Atlantic City, N.J., casino to Bally
Manufacturing Corp <BLY>, Roffman said.
    Earlier this month Golden Nugget completed its sale of the
Atlantic City property for 440 mln dlrs.
    Roffman also believes Kerkorian is interested in getting
involved in the gaming business.
    Mark Manson, an analyst at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, said
options available to Ceasars also include a restructuring in
the form of a selloff of individual properties, a stock buyback
or forming a master limited partnership.
    "Very few of these options would weaken the value of the
company," Manson said, but he declined to speculate on which
approach Caesars might take.
 Reuter

U.S. February reports reflecting slim
gains in industrial output and moderating inflation pressures
reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue
to follow a stable course of monetary policy, economists said.
    "If you're the Fed, there's no reason to do anything," said
Steve Slifer of Lehman Government Securities Inc.
    "There are hints that GNP is picking up. On the inflation
front, all is well," he said. "Money supply is well under
control. It's an absolutely ideal situation."
    February U.S. industrial production rose 0.5 pct, slightly
less than the 0.7 pct gain the financial markets had expected.
This compared with a slim 0.1 pct rise in January's production
number, previously reported as a 0.4 pct increase.
    The February U.S. producer price index gained only 0.1 pct,
less than a 0.3-0.4 pct expected rise. This followed a 0.6 pct
rise in the PPI in January.
    "The Fed is going to look at this positively," said Allan
Leslie of Discount Corporation. "Certainly inflation is not as
bad as what Volcker (Fed Chairman) has said lately. Industrial
production growth is along the lines of what the Fed wants."
    The energy products component of PPI rose 4.0 pct in
February, after a 9.8 pct increase in January.
    "This shows that the impact of energy prices on inflation
is behind us in terms of the move from 15 dlrs to 18 dlrs per
barrel," said Maria Ramirez of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. "The
trend is still 3.5 pct in the first half of the year."
    In 1986, declining energy prices contributed to a 2.5 pct
decline in the PPI.
    Economists said that a rise in energy prices was expected,
but a sharp drop in auto prices was not. Passenger car prices
fell 3.4 pct and light truck prices dropped 1.3 pct.
    Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said that
a possibility of renewed inflation remains a concern in both
the financial markets and the Federal Reserve.
    "The Fed may be lowering its own inflation expectations
today," said Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities International.
    While low inflation permits the Fed to maintain an easier
monetary policy, Brusca said if import prices do not rise this
could necessitate a weaker dollar.
    "The outlook for the dollar is still up in the air," he
said. "We need inflation for U.S. producers to compete with
foreign producers."
    Brusca said prices of electronic equipment dropped 0.8 pct
in February's PPI. With many electronic goods produced
overseas, this may show that foreign producers are not raising
prices which bodes ill for U.S. competitiveness, he said.
    If further dollar declines are needed, this could diminish
overseas investment in U.S. debt, Brusca added, which might
necessitate higher interest rates and lower bond prices.
    By contrast, Slifer said imported goods prices rose 11.8
pct from first quarter 1985 to first quarter 1986 reflecting to
a large degree a 22 pct drop in the trade-weighted real value
of the dollar from February 1985 to February 1987.
    Slifer said import prices may rise further as
manufacturers' contracts put in place before the dollar dropped
to current levels expire, and new contracts are made that
reflect a weaker dollar.
    David Wyss of Data Resources Inc noted that imported
manufactured goods prices rose 8.5 pct at an annual rate in the
second half of 1986, which has contributed to rising U.S.
industrial output.
    "It's the other side of the lower dollar," Wyss said.
"Producers are beginning to find themselves more competitive
and they are increasing output."
    Wyss said that the latest data point to an average
industrial production gain of 0.3-0.4 pct in the first quarter.
"It's an encouraging sign that the manufacturing sector is
beginning to revive."
    But Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley and Co Inc was not 
convinced that the February reports portend economic gains. He
said much of the strength came from factors that do not point
to a sustained rise in industrial output.
    Roach pointed out that stikers returning to work in farm
equipment industries helped account for a one pct rise in
February business equipment production.
    Utilities output rose 0.7 pct in February after gaining 1.2
pct in January, but Roach said it shows mostly that more energy
was produced, not that manufacturing activity gained.
    Finally, he pointed out that auto production accounted for
half of the industrial production gain as production of auto
assemblies rose to 8.3 million units at an annual rate from 7.5
million units.
    "In the first quarter, it looks like automakers are
producing at an 8.5 mln unit annual rate, but selling at
roughly a seven mln unit rate," Roach said. "The disparity
between output and sales is showing up in inventories."
    Economists pointed to sharp rise in January U.S. business
inventories as a sign that production may be outstripping
demand in the first quarter of 1987.
    January business inventories rose 0.9 pct, the largest gain
since July 1979 when inventories rose 1.7 pct, the Commerce
Department said. Business sales dropped 4.5 pct in January, the
largest monthly sales drop on record.
    Nonetheless, economists do not expect the Fed to react to
month-to-month changes. "The Fed has been standing pat for the
last seven months," Ramirez said. "They will continue to stand
pat for at least the next couple of months."
 Reuter

Philadelphia Electric Co said on
May One it will redeem its 17.125 pct preferred stock at 111.50
 Reuter

A secondary market for resale of
farm real estate loans similar to markets on home mortgages is
gaining support in Congress and among rural lenders and could
be set up this year, Congressional and financial sources said.
    Frank Naylor, chairman of the Farm Credit Administration,
FCA, which regulates the farm credit system, yesterday said a
National Mortgage Association, GNMA, and the Federal Home Loan
supporters of a farm loan secondary market since they believe
high-quality loans on farmland to "poolers," who in turn would
resale to investors -- called Aggie-mae by some proponents.
    The FCA and financially-troubled farm credit system have in
the past been ambivalent about the idea, mainly because any
farm secondary market established in the private sector which
excluded the farm credit system would put the system at a
competitive disadvantage and could be another financial blow to
the system, which has lost 4.6 billion dlrs in two years,
Naylor and farm credit system officials have said.
    However, the system and FCA have become more positive to
the idea recently because the system could benefit if it were
appointed the agent for a secondary market.
    "If the farm credit system were the guarantor of the pools
of farm mortgage loans, it would benefit from the fees charged
for providing this service," the Life Insurers' study said.
    Congressional sources believe a secondary market available
to both private lenders and the farm credit system, with the
system as agent, could be included in a major federal
government rescue package for the system to be drafted by
Congress later this year.
concludes that the farm credit system's market share in rural
lending would fall if a secondary market were established.
    The study was released earlier today.
    The study said a secondary market could be established with
virtually no federal money if the government provided a
guarantee of 90 pct of the farm loans but a private
co-insurance plan guaranteed the first 10 pct of any losses.
    It estimated between 500 mln and two billion dlrs of the
eight billion in new farm real estate loans issued each year
would qualify for the secondary market in the first few years,
expanding significantly later as investors accept the idea.
    The study also said interest rates charged to farmers who
meet the underwriting standards of a secondary market would
fall 50 to 100 basis points due to the new resale market.
    The possible interest rate declines are a major reason why
leading U.S. farm organizations such as the American Farm
Bureau Federation have recently endorsed the idea.
    Proponents say a secondary market also would increase
liquidity in farm lending, and spread the risk of such loans.
 Reuter

ecuador cannot service its debt owed to
private foreign banks due to the earthquake that forced a
suspension of crude oil exports, central bank officials said.
    "we hope to obtain a tacit, explicit acceptance from foreign
banks ... that we are not able to service the debt," central
bank president carlos julio emanuel said.
    "the reality is that our debt service capacity has been
totally affected by the recent cataclysm," he added in a news
conference last night.
    A central bank spokesman said emanuel was referring to
payments owed private foreign banks, already suspended since
january. These banks hold two-thirds of the country's 8.16
billion dollar foreign debt.
    Emanuel was not refering to debts to foreign governments
and multilateral organisations, the spokesman said.
    The march 5 earthquake damaged an oil pipeline, preventing
crude exports for a projected five months. Oil generates about
two-thirds of ecuador's total exports and as much as 60 per
cent of the government's revenues.
    Emanuel did not specify how long ecuador would be unable
service private foreign banks. But finance minister domingo
cordovez said two days ago the government is seeking to
postpone all payments due to private foreign banks in 1987
until next year through negotiations with creditors.
    Emanuel said ecuador was seeking soft loans from
multilateral organisations for reconstruction work. It also
wanted a "reprogramming" of already-approved loans, an apparent
reference to the disbursement schedule of thee credits.
 Reuter

Darius N. Keaton, former member of the
board of <Santa Fe International Corp>, pleaded guilty to an
insider trading scheme that netted him 274,800 dlrs in profit.
    In Manhattan Federal Court, Keaton pleaded guilty to
trading on non-public information involving his purchase of
10,000 shares of the company's stock in September 1981 shortly
before the company was acquired by Kuwait Petroleum Co in 1982
for two billion dlrs.
    Keaton, 62, of Monterey, Calif., admitted he failed to
report the purchase to the Securities and Exchange Commission,
and admitted commiting wire fraud stemming from his
    He faces up to 10 years in prison on both counts, and a
fine of 11,000 dlrs when he is sentenced by Judge Whitman Knapp
on June 1.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp chairman Allen E. Murray
said in the annual report issued today that the company's total
1987 capital expenditures would be lower than the three
billion dlrs spent in 1986.
    "Overall capital and exploration expenditures will fall
slightly below the level for 1986 although we'll be ready to
increase spending whenever the outlook becomes more promising,"
Murray said.
    Mobil data in the annual report shows capital expenditures
have been cut every year since 1984's 3.6 billion dlrs to 3.5
billion dlrs in 1985.
    Murray told shareholders that despite the cuts "the company
has promising acreage to explore as well as major oil and gas
reserves to develop in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa and
Indonesia.
    Over the past two weeks Mobil has announced restructuring
of its domestic exploration and development organization and
this week a restructuring of its oil services units, which
support the new affiliate.
    "Mobil's chairman has explained this change by saying we
need a leaner organization to get more efficient usage from our
assets," said John Lord, a Mobil Corp spokesman.
    Murray said in announcing the first reorganization, which
will combine its current three exploration and producing
affiliates into one organization, Mobil Exploration and
Production U.S. Inc, that it is more effective than the present
organization and will improve the company's upstream
competitive position.
    Yesterday the company said that it will restructure its
Mobil Exploration and Producing Services Inc, MEPSI, to enhance
the development and transfer of technology supporting critical
areas of exploration, drilling, resevoir management and
    Earnings from Mobil's upstream operations in 1986 were 827
mln dlrs, down 54 pct from the previous year's 1.8 billion dlrs
in earnings.
    Mobil's strategy in the exploration and production sector
will be to give most attention to exploration possibilities
with the greatest long term potential, the company said.
    In its annual report, Mobil said that this will include
greater emphasis on "frontier plays that, although riskier, fit
our strengths of technology and size...This probably also means
a shift toward emphasis in the foreign area since selective
overseas exploration offers greater potential."
 Reuter

<Interconnect Capital> said it
seeks to acquire Gates Learjet Corp on friendly terms.
    Late yesterday the company said it has offered 7.07 dlrs
per share for all Gates Learjet shares.
    Interconnect Capital said it intends to purchase the <Gates
Corp> loan to Gates Learjet for 13 mln dlrs should its bid be
successful.
    Interconnect Capital is controlled by <Interconnect Inc>.
    Gates Corp owns 64.8 pct of Gates Learjet.
 Reuter

Brazil's labour troubles eased a
little today as the authorities announced they were withdrawing
troops from the country's main oil installations occupied three
days ago.
    The troops went in at the request of the state-oil company
Petrobras because of the threat of a strike by 55,000 oil
industry employees.
    Petrobras said in a statement today it had requested the
withdrawal of the troops. The situation in the refineries was
calm, it said, and the employees had indicated their
willingness to negotiate a pay deal.
    A national seamen's strike, however, continued and marines
remained in the country's main ports. The marines were
despatched to the ports after the seamen's strike, now two
weeks old, was ruled illegal last Friday.
    A spokesman at the national strike headquarters in Rio de
Janeiro said today a total of l63 ships were strike-bound, 135
in Brazil and 28 in foreign ports.
    Yesterday two small companies specialised in the transport
of chemicals, Global and Flumar, struck a pay accord with their
seamen who have secured a 120 pct increase.
    Brazilian newspapers today hailed these agreements as a
sign that the national strike could soon come to an end.
    Both companies employ fewer than 200 seamen and union
leaders said the vast majority of Brazil's 40,000 seamen were
still on strike.
    The threat of a stoppage by oil industry employees appeared
today to be receding. Petrobras said in its statement that the
company would meet union leaders for pay talks in Rio de
Janeiro next Wednesday.
    Labour Minister Almir Pazzionotto would act as a mediator.
    Besides industrial troubles, there has also been
considerable unrest this week in the agricultural sector.
    On Tuesday hundreds of thousands of farmers held rallies
throughout the country to protest against high interest rates.
    Television reports showed some of these protests still
continuing today, with farmers blockading banks with their
vehicles in several towns in the states of Sao Paulo and
Parana.
    The strikes in Brazil come as the government is trying to
extricate itself from a serious debt crisis brought on by a
    On February 20 President Jose Sarney announced that Brazil
was suspending interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of debt to
private banks.
    Because of the seamen strike exports are being delayed and
the country is losing badly needed foreign exchange.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 31,734 vs loss 190,677
    Sales 1,325,978 vs 1,029,921
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit eight cts vs loss 53 cts
    Net profit 142,200 vs loss 939,435
    Sales 4,066,777 vs 2,793,479
 Reuter

(Mindscsape Inc) said it
agreed to buy the educational software unit of Holt, Rinehart
and Winston Inc, a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc,
    Sales of the division, which had been purchased by Holt,
Rinehart from CBS, peaked at about 10 mln dlrs in 1985,
Mindscape said.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 17 cts vs 17 cts
 Reuter

United States Video Vending Corp said
<Hill International Inc> called a 260,000 dlr promissory note
that is collateralized by the assets of United States Video.
    The company, which has two days to repay the note, said 
there is no assurance it will be able to find the funds needed
to meet the payment.
    Hill International said in January that it holds 5.9 pct of
United States Video's outstanding stock, the company said.
 Reuter

ALC Communications Corp said it
urged the U.S. District Court in Washington not to allow the
regional Bell companies to offer long distance telephone
services.
    ALC, parent of Allnet Communications Services, a long
distance carrier, said it made the request in comments filed
with the court on a Department of Justice proposal to free the
regional Bell companies from various business restrictions.
Under terms of the divestiture of American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <T>, the Bell companies are prohibited from
providing long distance services.
 Reuter

CAESARS WORLD SAYS IT CONSIDERS RESTRUCTURING AND SALE TO OTHER COMPANY

FAIRCHILD INDUSTRIES INC 4TH QTR OPER SHR LOSS 44 CTS VS LOSS EIGHT CTS

Mobil Corp increased net proven
reserves of natural gas liquids in 1986 from the previous year
according to data in its 1986 annual report.
    The report states that total net proved reserves at year's
end stood at 2.5 billion barrels, an increase of 94 mln barrels
or four pct above the previous year and detailed data show that
the gains resulted from an increase in net proved reserves of
natural gas liquids.
    Mobil said gains were in Indonesia where a sixth production
facility began operation in October with a capacity to
manufacture 1.7 mln tonnes of liquified natural gas.
    The company also said that new capacity brought onstream
last year replaced 120 pct of Mobil's production, which
declined by about four pct in 1986 from the previous year.
    Detailed data on reserves shows that U.S. net proved
reserves of crude oil fell to 837 mln barrels from 853 mln
barrels in 1985, natural gas liquid reserves were also lower in
1986 from the previous year.
    Net proved crude oil reserves also fell in Canada to 224
mln barrels and in Europe to 403 mln barrels from the previous
year's level of 231 mln barrels and 439 mln barrels,
 Reuter

Atlantic Richfield Co said it sold
its Plan Cell Research Institute unit and its Arco Seed Co
operations in two transactions for undisclosed prices.
    The company said it sold Dublin, Calif.-based Plant Cell
Research to Montedision SpA of Milan, Italy, and ARCO Seed Co
to U.F. Genetics of Hollister, Calif.
    Atlantic Richfield said the divestitures are in line with
its policy of focusing resources on oil, gas, chemical and coal
 Reuter

Caesars World Inc, in rejecting a 28
dlr a share takeover bid by New York investor Martin Sosnoff,
said it is considering alternatives that include a
restructuring of the company and the sale to someone else.
Caesars World said its board decided at a special meeting
yesterday to "explore and investigate" several alternatives in
an effort to thwart Sosnoff's takeover attempt.
 More

Any further decline in raw sugar prices
is likely to attract buying from the Soviet Union and China,
Woodhouse, Drake and Carey said in their latest weekly market
report.
    Present lower terminal values may be a reflection of the
lack of renewed prompt offtake, particularly from these two
large consumers, the report said.
    The week has seen good demand for Thai raws, particulary
for October/December shipment, which has traded above twenty
points premium to the October New York delivery, it said.
 Reuter

downgraded four Texas banks in a move that affects a combined
800 mln dlrs of debt securities and preferred stock.
    Cut were the debt ratings of Allied Bancshares Inc <ALBN>,
First Amarillo Bancorp Inc <FAMA>, MCorp <M> and Texas American
Bancshares Inc <TXA>.
    S and P cited continuing asset quality problems.
    While problem energy loans appear to be abating, real
estate problems are mounting, S and P said. The rating agency
also said it expects earnings to remain under pressure for the
remainder of this year.
    Standard and Poor's reduced Allied Bancshares' senior debt
to BBB-minus from BBB and commercial paper to A-3 from A-2.
Issues supported by a letter of credit from lead bank Allied
Bank of Texas, and the bank's certificates of deposits, were
reduced to BBB-minus and A-3 from BBB and A-2 respectively.
    Allied has 50 mln dlrs of debt outstanding. S and P said
its profitability remains severely depressed.
    S and P cut First Amarillo's 15 mln dlrs of subordinated
debt to CCC-minus from B-minus. The institution's implied
senior debt rating is CCC-plus. S and P noted that First
Amarillo has had three consecutive years of losses.
    S and P downgraded MCorp's senior debt to BBB-minus from
BBB-plus, subordinated debt to BB-plus from BBB, preferred to
BB-minus from BB and commercial paper to A-3 from A-2.
    That affected 600 mln dlrs of debt. S and P cited rising
non-performing loans and high loan-loss provisions.
    Also, the agency cut to BBB-minus and A-3 from BBB-plus and
A-2, respectively, CDs and issues supported by letters of
credit from the units MBank Dallas and MBank Houston.
    S and P cut to BB from BBB-minus Texas American's 65 mln
dlrs of senior debt. Lead bank Texas American Bank NV's CDs
were lowered to BB-plus/B from BBB-minus/A-3.
 Reuter

K Mart Corp will sell 26 billion
dlrs worth of goods in 1987, up from 23.8 billion dlrs in sales
in 1986, chairman Bernard M. Fauber predicted.
    The K Mart official also said the company is committed to
"retail automation," and will equip all K Mart stores with slot
scanning point of sale register systems. Some 400 systems are
already in place.
    Fauber said each K Mart costs five mln dlrs, including
land, building, fixtures, equipment and inventory. Each store
serves an average 90,000 customers, he said.
 Reuter

    Essex Chemical Corp <ESX> - Offering of 60 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2012 through Thomsom
McKinnon Securities Inc and PaineWebber Inc.
    International Game Technology <IGAM> - Offering of 35 mln
dlrs of senior notes due 1995 and 25 mln dlrs of convertible
senior subordinated deberntures due 2002 through Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc.
 Reuter

CitiCorp <CCI> appears to be digging
in its heels for tough negotiations over the billions of
dollars in loans that Brazil owes to money center banks, Wall
    "I view it as pre-negotiation posturing," said analyst
Carole Berger of Cyrus J. Lawrence Inc, referring to both
Brazil and Citicorp. Brazil recently stopped paying interest on
its commercial bank debt. Today, CitiCorp said its first
quarter income would be reduced by 50 mln dlrs after tax if it
lists the loans as non-performing status.
    Citicorp filed an 8-K form with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, indicating a material change in its financial
situation. "Citicorp is saying  you can't scare us with
threats, we'll make your loans non-performing right now,"
Berger said.
    The loans have to be treated as non-performing after 90
days without a payment. CitiCorp said only that the situation
will be reviewed at the end of the current quarter.
    Berger asserted that Brazil is doing its own politicking by
talking to U.S. regulators and trying to drive a wedge between
U.S. and European banks.
    Analyst Lawrence Cohn of Merrill Lynch and Co said it is
unlikely the situation will be resolved until the second half
    "Ultimately the Brazilians are going to have to pay up on
all the interest they owe," Cohn said. "The real issue is the
rescheduling of debt terms.
    Another question is whether or not the International
Monetary Fund can help Brazil with a new austerity program.
    Stocks of money center banks were mostly down fractions in
late dealings. One trader most stocks in the group bounced off
their lows by midday as investors took the news in stride.
    Cohn said the bank stocks may be risky until numbers on
non-performing loans are reported for each bank. But he said
investors looking ahead six to 12 months might want to buy at
present levels for the "tremendous fundamental values" in the
group.
    Analyst Robert Gordon of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc said
Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC) has the greatest exposure to
Brazilian loans of any New York bank, in terms of percentage of
earnings. He said his only two recommendations currently among
New York banks are J.P. Morgan and Co <JPM> and Bankers Trust
Co <BT> which happen to have the least exposure.
    Gordon said his positive opinion on J.P. Morgan and Bankers
Trust was not merely a response to the fact that the two have
lower exposure to Brazilian loans than other banks. 
    In fact he said there's a chance those banks could get more
involved in the future. He noted that Morgan has already set up
a brokerage subsidiary to deal in loans to less developed
    "I don't see any reason to change full year earnings
estimates, said Frederick Meinke, analyst at E.F. Hutton Co. He
thinks the confrontation with Brazil could end in a replay of a
situation that occurred with Argentina in 1984 and 1985.
    Meinke noted that in the case of Argentina the loans became
non-accruing for a couple of quarters but then when the banks
came to an agreement with Argentina all the back interest was
paid. "What it did was distort the quarterly earnings pattern,"
he said.
    He said in the case of Brazil write-offs of loans is a
worst-case outcome which is highly unlikely. He noted that
Brazil is a country with a diversified economy, going through
some economic upheaval after the transition from a military to
a civilian government.
    "The countries of Latin America have too much debt relative
to their ability to service it," said John Mason of
Interstate Securities. "We've been fiddling around with these
problems for five years and the hour is growing late."
    He said up to now the banks have reduced their spreads, cut
interest rates internally and extended maturities and none of
these measures has been enough. He expects re-classification of
as much as a third of the loans as non-accruing and he sees
partial write downs of some loans.
    Nevertheless Mason thinks the money center bank stocks 
could be poised for a short term rally.
    A spokesman at First Chicago Corp <FNB> said it is
premature to put Brazil's loans on a cash basis. "It is our
expectation that economic development will allow Brazil to meet
its debt," a spokesman said.
    Bankers Trust in New York said it would be premature to
make a decision. Several other banks queried by Reuters said
much the same thing.
    A spokesman at Manufacturers Hanover noted that of 2.3
billion dlrs in loan exposure to Brazil only 1.3 billion is
subject to Brazil's unilateral moratorium on repayment of
interest.
   
 Reuter

ChemLawn corp said it has asked
potential purchasers of the company to submit their proposals
by 1700 EST on March 18.
    ChemLawn said if Waste Management Inc <WMX> intends to
participate in the bidding process, it will have to submit a
confidentiality agreement to Chemlawn financial advisor Smith
Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc.
    Waste Management has a 27 dlr per share tender offer for
Chemlawn underway that Chemlawn has already rejected as
inadequate.
    Chemlawn has already said it is holding talks with various
parties on the sale of the company and said it has informed all
potential purchasers that they mnust sign confidentiality
agreemnents to receive confidential information on Chemlawn.
    ChemLawn said if Waste Management were to sign such an
agreement, ChemLawn would supply it with the same information
being supplied to other potential purchasers. But it said it
will not make an exception for Waste Management which would
give that company an advantage in the bidding process.
 Reuter

Central Bank President Jose Luis
Machinea said negotiations with creditor banks on Argentina's
30 billion dlr private sector foreign debt were difficult.
    "There is considerable divergence with the banks. We must
try to get them to lower the spreads," Machinea told Reuters.
    He said negotiations with the steering committee for the
country's creditor banks in New York would not end next week.
    Machinea leaves for New York tomorrow with Treasury
Secretary Mario Brodersohn to complete Argentina's team at
negotiations with the steering committee for a 2.15 biilion dlr
loan to see the country through 1987.
    Argentina is aiming at four pct growth in 1987 and has said
this target is not negotiable.
 Reuter

Shr loss 48 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net loss 1,234,000 vs loss 259,000
    Revs 715,000 vs 1,941,000
    Year
    Shr loss 1.26 dlrs vs loss 34 cts
    Net loss 3,229,000 vs loss 870,000
    Revs 3,001,000 vs 9,767,000
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods includes 672,300 dlr writedown
of value of seismic laboratory and 165,000 dlr increase in
reserve for doubtful accounts.
 Reuter

U.S. sales for the March 1-10 period dropped 57 pct to 760 cars
from 1,780 cars in the same period last year.
    There were eight selling days in both years.
    Domestic sales for the calendar year-to-date fell 61 pct to
5,682 cars from 14,641 cars in the comparable period of 1986,
American Motors, controlled by Renault of France, said.
    Jeep sales in early March rose 18 pct to 4,500 vehicles
from 3,800 vehicles at the same time last year, and for the
year-to-date declined two pct to 35,523 from 36,050 vehicles in
the comparable period, American Motors said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 44 cts vs oper loss eight cts
    Oper net loss 3,158,000 vs profit 2,035,000
    Rev 166.0 mln vs 162.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 34 cts vs loss 93 cts
    Oper net profit 7,599,000 vs loss 283,000
    Rev 643.3 mln vs 576.3 mln
    NOTE: Per share results after provision for pfd dividends.
    Fourth qtr earnings exclude loss from discontinued
operations of 67.6 mln dlrs, or 4.72 dlrs a share, and a loss
of 25.8 mln dlrs, or 1.81 dlrs a share, from tax reverse,
versus a gain from discontinued operations of 1.8 mln dlrs, or
14 cts a share, in 1985's 4th qtr.
     1986 oper earnings excludes loss from discontinued
operations of 62.5 mln dlrs, or 4.41 dlrs a share, versus a
loss of 166.8 mln dlrs, or 12.24 dlrs a share, in 1985.
 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co said Peter F.
Culver, 42, senior vice president of its Morgan Guaranty Trust
Co subsidiary and general manager of the Euro-Clear Operations
Centre in Brussels, has died of an apparent heart attack at a
business meeting in Frankfurt.
 Reuter

SmartNames Inc said it reached
an agreement in principle to buy American Information Network.
    The company said the purchase of American will allow it to
meet the needs of a broader range of direct mail industry
 Reuter

ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL EXTENDS STOCK REPURCHASES BY ANOTHER 500 MLN DLRS

Auxton Computer Enterprises Inc
said it has entered into an agreement to provide cellular
business office services to a major non-wireline cellular
carrier in 12 major cellular markets throughout the U.S.
    It said it has also reached agreement to determine the
process needed to install its SOCRATES and LUCAS software
packages for a national communications carrier outside the U.S.
    In addition it said it has agreed to start evaluating the
feasibility of installing its SOCRATES software to provide a
major national satellite paging company with billing services
to subscribers traveling beyond the signal capacities of their
home systems.
 Reuter

expects the asset-backed securities market to grow dramatically
over the next few years, spurred by what it termed the
compelling benefits of secured financing.
    S and P projected the market would grow to 100 billion dlrs
in the next five years. Investment bankers say the market
currently stands at roughly 11.9 billion dlrs.
    Assets used to secure the debt included auto loans, credit
cars, computer leases and corporate loans, S and P noted. The
most active issuers to date had two main motivations, lower
costs of funding and increased financial flexibility.
    Standard and Poor's pointed out that General Motors Corp
<GM>, Chrysler Corp <C> and Nissan Motor Co Ltd <NSAN> realized
funding advantages by issuing car loan backed debt. But more
important, these issuers were able to increase loan volume, and
hence car sales, without substantially increasing financial
leverage, the rating agency said.
    S and P noted that Bank of America, a unit of BankAmerica
Corp <BAC>, and RepublicBank Corp's <RPT> RepublicBank Delaware
unit issued credit card backed debt and also realized lower
funding costs while mitigating increased funding and liquidity
risks resulting from weak financial performance.
 Reuter

H.K. Porter Inc Co said it will
redeem its 5-1/2 pct cumulative sinking fund preference stock.
    H.K. Porter said it will provide more details about the
redemption later in the day.
    The company's stock was halted in trading on the NYSE at
97-1/4.
 Reuter

Research to <Montedision SpA> of Milan, Italy and ARCO Seed Co
 Reuter

GTE Corp said it supports
recommendations by the Department of Justice to allow the
regional Bell companies to enter some new businesses but that
it rejects the government's proposal to let the companies offer
long distance services.
    "As a vigorous competitor in many telecommunications
businesses, GTE supports efforts by policy makers to preserve
and promote fair opportunities for competition," GTE said in
comments filed with the U.S. District Court, which oversees the
regulation of the Bell companies.
    But the Stamford, Conn.-based company added that entry by
the regional Bell companies into the long distnce market "would
set back the progress toward a truly competitive interexchange
environment that has occurred."
    GTE owns the largest independent telephone system in the
country and manufacturers telecommunications equipment through
joint ventures with <Fujitsu> of Japan and <Siemens AG> of West
Germany.
    GTE also holds a 50 pct stake in <US Sprint Communications
Co>, the third-largest long distance carrier in the country.
 Reuter

Construction workers today began building
a 26 km (16 mile) pipeline to link Ecuador's jungle oilfields
to a pipeline in Colombia through which Ecuadorean crude could
be pumped to the Pacific Coast, Ecuadorean energy minsitry
    They said it would take about two months and at least 15
mln dlrs to build the pipeline from Lago Agrio in Ecuador to
Puerto Colon, Colombia for connection to the Colombian
pipeline, which goes to the port of Tumaco on Colombia's
Pacific Ocean coast.
    The Lago Agrio to Puerto Colon pipeline is designed to
transport between 30,000 to 50,000 barrels of day (bpd) of
Ecuadorean crude to the Colombian pipeline, they said.
    The Colombian pipeline to Tumaco has ample room for
Ecuadorean crude, they said. It is currently transporting about
17,000 bpd out of its 100,000 bpd capacity, an Ecuadorean
energy ministry official said.
    The Ecuadorean crude reaching Tumaco will be shipped by
boat to Ecuador for refining into oil products to meet domestic
demand.
    The completion of the pipeline would allow Ecuador to
resume some of production, paralysed since March six by an 
earthquake the night before.
    The tremor ruptured the country's main pipeline from jungle
oilfields to the Ecuadorean port of Balao, on the Pacific
Ocean.
    Ecuador was pumping about 260,000 bpd before the
earthquake. It would take about five months to repair the
pipeline to Balao, government officials said.
    Ecuador estimates that it will cost between 145 to 150 mln
dlrs to repair oil installations damaged by the earthquake,
energy ministry Javier Espinosa said.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department's
Export Enhancement Program, EEP, contributed to the recent
agreement to include farm subsidies in the new round of global
trade talks, according to the General Accounting Office.
    GAO Senior Associate Director Allan Mendelowitz told a
Senate Agriculture subcommittee that the EEP has increased the
cost of the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy.
    However, there is little reason to believe that once EEP
expires, gains in U.S. farm exports attributable to the program
will be sustained in targeted markets, he said.
    Mendelowitz said broadening the EEP by making it
across-the-board would eliminate charges of discrimination by
traditional buyers and increase pressure on the EC, but
antagonize non-subsidizing exporters.
 Reuter

<Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc> said
during  the first nine weeks of 1987 ended March six it managed
or co-managed 57 transactions representing 8.6 billion dlrs in
the public and private corporate markets.
    Overall, Drexel said it ranks fifth in the category for the
period, with a market share of 10 pct, up from eight pct for
the same period last year.
    Drexel said its market share of lead managed industrial
financing also increased to 23 pct from 14 pct during the nine
week period.
 Reuter

said it increase the price of its Chrysler Fifth Avenue  luxury
sedan by 300 dlrs to 15,966 dlrs.
    The higher price applies to cars produced by Chrysler at
the American Motors Corp's <AMO> Kenosha, Wis., assembly plant,
where Chrysler shares production with American Motors.
Shipments of Chrysler cars from Kenosha began March nine.
    Chrysler in the past year transferred production of the
Fifth Avenue and two other car models to Kenosha from its St.
Louis Number Two facility. A Chrysler spokesman said the price
increase will cover the cost of moving the production line.
    The spokesman said the higher price will apply only to the
Fifth Avenue. Prices of the other two Chrysler models--the
Plymouth Gran Fury and Dodge Diplomat--made at Kenosha will
remain unchanged.
    Chrysler moved production of the three large
rear-wheel-drive cars to Kenosha in order to build stretch
minivans at the St. Louis facility.
    The spokesman said the first stretch minivan will roll off
the line later this month.
 Reuter

The Netherlands recorded a flat trade
balance in January, with both exports and imports totaling 14.2
billion guilders, a modestly lower compared with December but
sharply down from January last year, an Economics Ministry
spokesman said, quoting official statistics.
    January 1986 exports compared with a December figure of
15.0 billion guilders and were 25 pct below last year's level
of 18.9 billion.
    January 1986 imports compared with 15.3 billion guilders in
December and fell 18 pct from 17.4 billion in January last
year.
 REUTER

A greater than anticipated need,
competitive prices and political motivations could be sparking
Soviet interest in U.S. corn, industry and government officials
said.
    As rumors circulated through grain markets today that the
Soviet Union has purchased an additional 1.5 mln tonnes of U.S.
corn, industry and government sources noted a number of factors
that make Soviet buying of U.S. corn likely.
    First, there are supply concerns. Some trade sources said
recent speculation has been that last year's Soviet grain crop
be revised to only 190 mln tonnes, rather than the 210 mln
announced, therby increasing the Soviet need for grain.
    A drop in Argentine corn crop prospects could also affect
Soviet corn buying, an Agriculture Department source said.
    Dry weather in Argentina -- a major corn supplier to the
USSR -- and reported crop problems prompted USDA to lower its
Argentine 1986/87 corn crop estimate this week to 11.0 mln
tonnes, down from 11.5 mln. Argentina corn exports were also
cut by 500,000 tonnes to 6.8 mln tonnes.
    Argentina has already committed four mln tonnes of this
year's corn for export, a USDA official said, with two mln
tonnes of that booked for April-June delivery to the USSR.
    "Significant downside potential" still exists for the
Argentine crop, the official said, which will decrease the
amount of additional corn that country can sell to Moscow.
    "If the Soviet needs are greater than we have been
thinking, then they might need more than what Argentina can
provide during the April to June period," he said.
    Current competitive prices for U.S. corn have also sparked
Soviet buying.
    U.S. corn was reported to be selling on the world market
earlier this week for around 71 dlrs per tonne, Argentine corn
for 67 dlrs -- a very competitive price spread, U.S. and Soviet
    "This price difference makes American corn competitive,"
Albert Melnikov, commercial counselor for the Soviet Union,
    Impending crop problems in Argentina will likely cause
those prices to rise, and with the recently strong U.S. corn
futures prices, the Soviets might feel corn prices have
bottomed and that this is a good time to buy, sources said.
    Finally, some industry sources said that by buying the
minimum amount of corn guaranteed under the U.S./USSR grains
agreement (four mln tonnes), the Soviet Union may be hoping to
convince the USDA to offer Moscow a subsidy on wheat.
    In an inteview with Reuters this week, USDA secretary
Richard Lyng said that no decision had been made on a wheat
subsidy offer, but that such an offer had not been ruled out.
 Reuter

Fairchild Industries Inc said
it will close the Fairchild Republic plant at Farmingdale this
year, and sell it next year, after agreeing with the U.S. Air
Force to terminate the T-46A trainer aircraft program.
    John Sanford, the Fairchild Republic unit's president and
vice president of the corporation, said Reublic will fulfill
its remaining current obligations, but will cease work on the
T-46A immediately.
    Fairchild said the unit has already delivered two protoype
and one production T-46A.
    Sanford said lack of additional Air Force funding for the
trainer due to budget constraints prompted the termination
    Sanford added that without the T-46A or business to replace
the work, Fairchild was forced to close the plant.
    Fairchild said it expects to retain about 200 engineers and
technicians at a small operation to be set up in 1987 on Long
Island to continue providing technical support for the Air
Force's A-10 aircraft.
    Fairchild added that its Fairchild Composites/Bonding
Center, formerly a part of the Fairchild Republic operation,
will become an independent operation.
    Paul Wright, Fairchild president and chief operating
officer, said, "With the settlement of the T-46A issue we have
put behind us the last of two problem aircraft programs that
caused the company heavy losses over the past two years."
    Wright added that the company can now move forward with its
restructuring to emphasize on growth areas in aerospace,
communications, electronics and its commercial and industrial
    Earlier, Fairchild reported losses from continuing
operations in 1986's 4th qtr of 3.2 mln dlrs, or 44 cts a
share.
    This compares with a operating profit of two mln dlrs, or a
loss of eight cts a share, after subtracting the provisions for
preferred shares, in 1985's fourth quarter.
    Fairchild reported 1986 operating net of 7.6 mln dlrs, or a
loss of 34 cts a share, after provisions for preferred shares,
versus a loss of 283,000 dlrs, or 93 cts a share, in 1985.
 Reuter

Qtly div 35 cts vs 35 cts previously
 Reuter

Qtly div Class B 1-1/2 cts vs 1-1/2 cts prior
    Class A two cts vs two cts prior
 Reuter

Texas Utilities Co's TU Electric unit
said it filed an application with the Texas Public Utilities
Commission for authorization to refund about 69.7 mln dlrs to
    The refund, TU's fifth since May 1986, is made possible by
lower costs for fuel to make electricity, the company said.
 Reuter

The growth rate of Brazilian
industrial output slowed in January to 6.09 pct above the same
1986 month after rising 6.71 pct in December, Brazilian
Geography and Statistics Institute figures show.
    The result is in line with the declining trend in the
growth rate since October, the Institute said.
    In the 12 months to end-January industrial production was
10.48 pct above the 12 months to end-January last year while in
calendar 1986 output was 10.89 pct above 1985.
    The biggest output rises in the 12 months to end-January
were 23.68 pct in pharmaceuticals and 22.12 pct in machinery.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc is raising 500 mln
dlrs via an issue of sinking fund debentures due 2017 yielding
8-3/4 pct, said lead manager Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
98.675 to yield 115 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
Moody's and A by Standard and Poor's. A sinking fund beginning
in 1998 to retire annually five pct of the debentures can be
increased by 200 pct at the company's option.
    Dillon, Read and Co Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Britain wants Japan to agree a timetable
for work towards joint rules on capital adequacy for banks
along the lines of a January outline agreement between the U.S
and the U.K., Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard said.
    Howard told a Nikkei conference on Tokyo financial markets
"I want to see an agreement between us on what progress is to be
made and the rate at which it will happen."
    Japanese vice-minister of finance for international affairs
Toyoo Gyohten told the conference yesterday he was ready to
discuss capital adequacy, but no negotiations were planned and
he could not see how or when agreement would be reached.
    Howard said another issue he would raise during a visit to
Japan, starting on April 13, was equal access for U.K.
Financial firms to the Japanese market.
    He said 14 London-based financial firms were based in
Tokyo, nine of them wholly British, with licences to deal in
securities. This compared with 58 wholly-licensed Japanese
firms in London.
    "I am not a protectionist. We welcome all these firms here.
But I want our firms to be able to compete just as freely in
Japan and at the moment they are not allowed to do so," he said.
 REUTER

Loadmaster Systems Inc said Mark
A Cote has been appointed president of the company and its
Loadmaster Systems Inc USA subsidiary.
    The company said he succeeds David L. Shorey who accepted
an appointement as president of <Shelf Storage Systems
International>.
 Reuter

may downgrade Home Shopping Network Inc's 250 mln dlrs of Ba-3
senior notes.
    The rating agency cited Home Shopping's plan to issue
additional debt, thereby increasing leverage. Moody's noted
that the company intends to use a portion of the proceeds to
repurchase existing debt.
    Moody's said its review would focus on Home Shopping's
future capital structure and examine the added risk associated
with the company's commitment to diversify its product line to
include financial services.
 Reuter

    Recrod April nine
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 109,131 vs 75,793
    Revs 1,811,636 vs 1,280,618
 Reuter

PLM Cos Inc said its PLM Power Co
unit broke off merger discussions with Sunlaw Energy Corp of
Beverly Hills, Calif.
    In January PLM Power entered into a letter of intent to
negotiate a potential acquisition of Sunlaw, subject to
substantial due diligence, the company said.
    But it also said the two companies were not able to agree
on mutually satisfactory final terms and conditions.
 Reuter

Colombia opened coffee export
registrations for April and May with the National Coffee
Growers' Federation setting no limit, Gilberto Arango,
president of the private exporters' association, said.
    He told Reuters the decision not to put any limit responded
to "new factors" which have emerged from recent International
Coffee Organisation talks in London, where producers and
consumers failed to agree on a re-introduction of export quotas.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department has
accepted 10,572,402 more acres of highly erodable cropland into
the Conservation Reserve Program, USDA announced.
    In the latest signup, farmers on 101,020 farms submitted
bids on a total of 11,254,837 acres.
    The accepted bids for annual rental payments ranged up to
90 dlrs per acre with an average of 51.17 dlrs per acre.
    Land entered into the Conservation Reserve Program will be
ineligible for farming for ten years and must be planted with
permanent vegetative cover.
    Producers enrolled 1,894,764 acres of corn base acreage in
the conservation program to take advantage of a corn "bonus"
rental payment that was offered by USDA.
    The corn bonus, to be paid in generic comodity
certificates, amounts to two dlrs per bushel, based on the ASCS
program payment yield for corn, for each acre of corn based
accepted into the reserve.
    The state showing the biggest enrollment in the
conservation program during this signup was Texas with
approximately 1.225 mln acres, followed by Iowa with 1.030 mln
acres, Minnesota with 890,000 acres, Montana 875,000 acres, and
Kansas with 842,000 acres.
    Other states showing big enrollment were Missouri with
646,000 acres, North Dakota with 588,000 acres, and Nebraska
with 554,000 acres.
    In the corn belt states of Illinois and Indiana, 217,000
acres and 116,000 acres respectively were enrolled.
    Farm land signed up to date in the conservation program
totals 19,488,587 acres. Bids on the previous signups ranged up
to 90 dlrs per acre with an average of 45.52 dlrs.
 Reuter

situation. "Citicorp is saying you can't scare us with threats,
we'll make your loans non-performing right now," Berger said.
group.
he said.
interest.
   
 Reuter

Rockwell International Corp said its
board has authorized extension of the company's 500 mln dlr
stock repurchase program by an additional 500 mln dlrs.
    Since the beginning of the present repurchase program in
March 1986, Rockwell said, it has bought 10.4 mln shares for
461 mln dlrs. At present prices, it said, the program would
reduce the presently outstanding 140 mln common shares by about
seven pct. Since November 1983, the company has repurchased
18.1 mln shares for 672 mln dlrs, it said.
    Rockwell said the stock will be repurchased through open
market and private transactions.
    Rockwell said the repurchased shares will be available for
potential acquisitions, stock options, employee benefit
programs, conversion of convertible securities and other
purposes.
    The company said, "We continue to view our repurchase
program as an integral part of our long term goal of improving
    Rockwell said the program "complements our aggressive
program of support for the growth plans of our businesses with
capital investments, product and research development
resources, and acquisitions in support of our core businesses."
  
 Reuter

issued a full-power operating license for Unit 1 of the Vogtle
Electric Generating Plant, said Southern Co <SO> unit Georgia
Power, which is a co-owner of the plant.
    Georgia Power said the license allows for completion of
pre-operational testing, which will be followed by full-power
operation. Unit 1 is scheduled to begin commerical operation by
June one, it said.
    The other co-owners of the plant are <Olgethorpe Corp>, the
Municpal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton.
 Reuter

British Airways said the British
government reached an agreement on new traffic rights with the
Japanese government which clears the way for non-stop flights
between London and Tokyo.
    The flight is scheduled to cut across Siberia, shaving
almost six hours off the previous flight path to 11-1/2 hours,
British Airways said.
    The trans-Siberian route is subject to approval by the
USSR, British Airways added.
    Under the agreement, British Airways said it will continue
to leave Heathrow daily, but the new non-stop service will
operate on Thursdays and Saturdays starting early June. The
company said return flights will be on Fridays and Sundays.
 Reuter

    Howard told a Nikkei conference on Tokyo financial markets,
 Reuter

The American Meat Institute, AME,
said it intended to ask the U.S. government to retaliate
against a European Community meat inspection requirement.
    AME President C. Manly Molpus also said the industry would
file a petition challenging Korea's ban of U.S. meat products.
    Molpus told a Senate Agriculture subcommittee that AME and
other livestock and farm groups intended to file a petition
under Section 301 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
against an EC directive that, effective April 30, will require
U.S. meat processing plants to comply fully with EC standards.
    The meat industry will seek to have the U.S. government
retaliate against EC and Korean exports if their complaints are
upheld.
 Reuter

Commerce Bancorp Inc said it
has filed a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for a 575,000 share Series B cumulative
preferred stock offering, including 75,000 shares to cover
allotments.
    Commerce said it and its banking subsidiaries will use the
proceeds to support their planned growth and for general
    The bank holding company said each share of preferred
stocks initially will be convertible into one share of Commerce
    Commerce said the preferred shares will be priced at a
range of 20-22 dlrs a share, with a proposed sale to the public
commencing in early-to-mid April.
    Commerce said Butcher and Singer Inc will be the offering's
managing underwriter.
 Reuter

Adia Services Inc said it
agreed to sell 500,000 shares of common stock to its principal
stockholder, Adia S.A., at a price based on the current market
price.
    The sale will raise Adia S.A.'s ownership in the company to
74.7 pct from 72.7 pct, Adia said.
    The company also said it intends to use proceeds from the
stock sale to retire debt, for working capital and for general
 Reuter

Qtrly 15 cts vs 15 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 1,553,000 vs loss 1,031,000
    Revs 10.0 mln vs 8,696,000
 Reuter

International Game Technology said it
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a
registration statement covering a 35 mln dlr issue of senior
notes due 1995 and a 25 mln dlr issue of convertible senior
subordinated debentures due 2002.
manager of the offerings.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs profit 55 cts
    Net loss 414,000 vs profit 3,936,000
    Sales 109.4 mln vs 126.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.75 dlrs vs profit 55 cts
    Net loss 12,589,000 vs profit 3,965,000
    Sales 341.7 mln vs 389.5 mln
    NOTE: Year results include 14.0 mln dlr restructuring
charge in 2nd Qtr of 1986
 Reuter

Mead Corp said it filed a shelf
covering potential debt securities offerings of up to 150 mln
dlrs.
    It said the underwriters for this offerings may include
Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc, Goldman Sachs and Co
and/or Salomon Brothers Inc.
    Mead said proceeds will be used to retire short-term debt,
a portion of which was incurred to finance part of the recent
acquisitions of Ampad Corp and Zellerbach Distribution Group.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 122,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO MEXICO FOR 1986/87

Shr profit three cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net profit 124,000 vs loss 370,000
    Rev 11.3 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Avg shares 3,673,000 vs 2,368,000
 Reuter

Alcide Corp said its shelf
registration of 4,500,000 shares of common has been declared
effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 Reuter

Maxtor Corp and U.S. Design
Corp <USDC>, said they reached definitive agreement covering
the acquisition of U.S. Design by Maxtor.
    They said the arrangement, which is subject to a number of
conditions including U.S. Design shareholder approval, calls
for Maxtor to issue 12 mln dlrs worth of its own common stock
in exchange for all of U.S. Design.
    The number of Maxtor shares to be issued will be determined
by the average closing price of Maxtor stock over the 10
trading day period prior to the day the acquisition becomes
effective, the companies also said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 18 cts prior
 Reuter

said it picked the CFM International CFM56-5 high bypass
turbofan engine to power its three new Airbus Industries A320
aircraft.
    International Lease said it is negotiating to buy up to 27
more A320s. Initial aircraft deliveries are planned for 1991,
 Reuter

JWP Inc said it sold 30 mln
dlrs principal amount of its 9.25 pct senior notes due 1996 to
certain institutional lenders.
    The company said about 15 mln dlrs of the proceeds will be
used to pay debt and the balance for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Storage Technology Corp said it is
holding dicussions with the Internal Revenue Service that could
end their dispute over the amount of back taxes owed by the
company.
    "We are currently pursuing discussions with the IRS that
could lead to a final solution," Stephen G. Jerritts, president
and chief operating officer said. "Simultaneously, we are
taking all necessary actions to try to expedite the court
appeal process, resolve these issues and allow final court
approval of the plan of reorganization, by our target date of
June 30, 1987," he said.
    Last year, Storage Technology's bankruptcy court ruled that
the company owed about 25 mln dlrs in taxes, an amount much
lower than the IRS is seeking.
    The IRS has appealed the court's decision.
    Jerritts also said his company and <Siemens AG> of West
Germany extended an agreement under which Storage Technology
distributes a laser printer made by Siemens.
 Reuter

Retail sales of new cars by U.S.
automakers eased 2.2 pct in early March to the weakest levels
since 1983, with industry giant General Motors Corp down 9.3
pct while Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Corp both had gains.
    The decline by GM continued its trend of weaker sales since
the beginning of the 1987 model year, which has forced the
world's biggest corporation to cut its car production several
times through temporary and permanent layoffs at various
plants.
    Consumer incentives apparently had some success, analysts
said, as the seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate improved
to 7.5 mln compared with about 7.0 mln in late February. The
eight domestic carmakers sold 8.2 mln units during 1986.
 Reuter

<Capital Investments
Development Corp> said it formed Bradford-Taylor Clearing House
Inc, a unit that will compile mailing lists for use by the
direct mail industry.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 348,298 vs 308,927
    Sales 4,166,750 vs 3,740,970
    Year
    Shr 72 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 1,409,867 vs 1,020,096
    Sales 16.5 mln vs 15.0 mln
    Avg shrs 1,974,529 vs 1,956,214
 Reuter

Goldman Sachs International Corp
received forged bonds of a unit of Exxon Corp <XON> in a trade,
a spokesman for Goldman Sachs and Co Inc said in a telephone
conversation from New York.
    He said the transaction left Goldman Sachs International
with an exposure of about 2.2 mln dlrs but that it had
insurance to cover the loss.
    The spokesman was responding to an enquiry about an item in
the London "Standard" newspaper, which said Goldman Sachs "is
feared to be the victim of a new multi-million pound City
scandal."
    The newspaper also said, "The firm (Goldman Sachs) is
believed to be the paying agent for some 900 bonds issued in
the name of oil giant Exxon which were deposited at banks in
Brussels and have now been found to be forgeries."
    The spokesman said that the bonds were delivered to the
firm by a man working on behalf of a third party. He said it
wasn't until the bonds were cleared through Euro-clear (a major
clearing house for the eurobond market) that it was discovered
they were forgeries.
    The spokesman also said he believed that the intermediary
had been apprehended by police. However, a spokesman for the
City of London police said he was unaware of such an arrest and
could neither confirm nor deny it.
    Last Friday, Exxon Corp said forgeries of a 20-year zero
coupon euronote issued by its Exxon Capital Corp subsidiary
have been discovered in the European market. It also said
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co was the fiscal agent and paying agent
and that Morgan, Euro-clear and Cedel (another major clearing
system) and police in London and Brussels were investigating
the case.
 Reuter

 Reuter

<Electricite de France> (EdF) will make
its first offering of Euro-commercial paper in the
international market on Monday, EdF chief financial officer
Daniel Lallier said in a telephone call from Paris.
    The program was announced in late January and dealers
expect the company will be pushing to maintain its ability to
obtain some of the finest terms available in the international
markets.
    Lallier did not say how much would be offered, although he
has noted that EDF would be cautious because it believes the
market is still in its infancy. In January he said EdF may not
issue more than 300 to 500 mln dlrs of paper this year.
    EdF plans to oversee the program itself, with Goldman Sachs
International Corp, Morgan Guaranty Ltd and Salomon Brothers
International Ltd acting as dealers for the general program,
which will be aimed at institutional and retail investors.
    Union Bank of Switzerland will act as dealer for a specific
program, which is aimed at smaller retail investors.
 Reuter

The 11,254,837 acres of highly erodable
farmland submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for
the conservation reserve program was within trade guesses of
10-12 mln and should have an overall neutral impact on grain
and soybean prices Monday, grain traders said.
    Farmers enrolled 1,894,764 acres of corn base acreage in
the conservation program to take advantage of a corn bonus
rental payment that was offered by the USDA, which may underpin
new crop futures, they said.
    New crop corn prices firmed earlier this week on ideas of a
large sign-up in the program. But traders noted that the poor
yielding acres being set-aside will result in only a modest
decrease in final production figures, since farmers will
concentrate on high yielding land.
    Of a total 11,254,837 erodoble acres submitted, usda
accepted 10,572,402 acres into the program at an average rental
payment of 51.17 dlrs per acre.
    Farm land signed up to date now totals 19,488,587 acres.
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs profit four cts
    Net loss 199,000 vs profit 81,000
    Rev 1.9 mln vs 2.5 mln
    Shr loss 14 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Net loss 261,000 vs profit 273,000
    Rev 6.4 mln vs 7.6 mln
    NOTE: Per share information adjusted for three-for-two
stock split on January 31, 1986.
 Reuter

British Columbia
Resources Investment Corp said it successfully concluded
refinancing negotiations with bankers for a new 360 mln dlr
restructured credit facility.
    The credit line will be in place for four years to March
31, 1991, but is extendable up to 10 years under certain
circumstances which were not specified by the company.
    B.C. Resources said subsidiaries Westar Timber and Westar
Petroleum have settled revised lending agreements, but debt
discussions regarding subsidiary Westar Mining are continuing.

 Reuter

try to get them to lower the spreads," Machinea told Reuter.
    Machinea said Argentina had World Bank support. He said he
and Economy Minister Juan Sourrouille had discussed Argentina's
loan request with World Bank Vice-President David Knox, who is
currently in Buenos Aires.
this target is not negotiable. It has indicated that it would
not put payment of interest due on its foreign debt ahead of
its growth target if the loan was not granted.
    The United States and 12 other industrial nations granted
Argentina a 500 mln dlr bridge which was received this week.
    Talks on the 2.15 billion dlr lona began in January.
 Reuter

Prices of wholesale finished energy
goods in the U.S. rose 4.0 pct in February after a 9.8 pct rise
in January, the Labor Department said.
    The Producer Price Index for finished energy goods fell by
20.9 pct in the past 12 months.
    Heating oil prices rose 3.0 pct in February after a 18.0
pct rise in January, the department said.
    Gasoline prices rose by 5.5 pct last month after a 15.7
pct January rise, the department said. Natural gas prices rose
1.8 pct after a 4.2 pct rise in January.
    Crude oil prices rose 4.4 pct in February, after a 19.7 pct
January rise and were off 21.3 pct from the year ago level.
 Reuter

upgraded 1.2 billion dlrs of debt of Union Carbide Corp and its
affiliate, DCS Capital Corp.
    Raised were the pair's senior debt to BB-plus from
BB-minus. Union Carbide's subordinated debt was upgraded to
BB-minus from B.
    S and P said the action reflected several positive factors
which emerged over the past year, including a better balance of
supply and demand in the chemical industry. Union Carbide has
also benefitted from the turnaround in foreign exchange rates
and lower feedstock costs, the agency noted.
    Standard and Poor's said the company's asset sales, and
subsequent use of the proceeds for debt reduction, exceeded the
corporate plan of a year ago.
    The rating agency also pointed out that Union Carbide's
successful refinancing of more than 2.5 billion dlrs of
long-term debt has resulted in a substantially lower interest
burden.
 Reuter

since 1983, with industry giant General Motors Corp <GM> down
9.3 pct.
    Ford Motor Co <F> and Chrysler Corp <C> both had gains.
plants.
    Relatively weaker sales by all of the Detroit Big Three
carmakers have compelled the companies to offer a string of
sales incentives including cash rebates and below-market
interest loans in an effort to reignite the market.
    Incentives apparently had some success, analysts said, as
the seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate improved to 7.5
mln compared with about 7.0 mln in late February. The eight
domestic carmakers sold 8.2 mln units during 1986.
    GM said its sales of domestic-built cars in the March 1-10
period declined to 97,487 from 104,952 a year ago while truck
sales rose 14.4 pct to 40,131 from 35,081. There were eight
selling days in each period.
    Despite the lower car sales, the giant automaker had a
bright spot as its Chevrolet division, which is launching a
national sales campaign this month for its new Corsica and
Beretta compact cars, was up almost 21 pct when only
domestic-built cars were counted. GM's Buick division was also
up, by 11.4 pct, while Cadillac was down 7.8 pct, Pontiac was
off 10.8 pct and Oldsmobile plunged 41 pct.
    GM also showed an improvement in its market share to 53.6
pct from 48.1 pct in late February, which analysts said was
partly due to the increasing sales for the new Chevrolets.
    Meanwhile, Ford said its car sales rose 5.9 pct to 50,407
compared with 47,592 a year ago while truck sales gained by
12.6 pct to 35,814 from 31,811.
    Number three Chrysler's car sales gained to 0.4 pct to
25,286 from 25,191 while its truck sales gained 15 pct to
15,565 from 13,585. The truck sales were a record for the
period, the company said.
    Among the smaller makers, Honda <HMC> said domestic car
sales rose 16 pct to 4,394 from 3,786 and Volkswagen of America
rose 4.9 pct to 849 from 809.
    American Motors Corp <AMO> fell 57 pct to 760 from 1,780
for cars but rose 18 pct in jeep sales to 4,500 from 3,800.
    Nissan <NSANY> car sales rose 19.1 pct to 2,137 from 1,794
and gained 3.6 pct on trucks to 1,686 from 1,628. Toyota
<TOYOY> said it sold 500 U.S.-built cars compared with none a
year ago.
 Reuter

Expiration dates on upland cotton
certificates issued under the 1986 upland cotton program are
being extended, the Agriculture Department announced.
    The certificates are being extended because of a shortage
of Commodity Credit Corporation inventory available for
exchange with certificates, USDA undersecretary Danial Amstutz
said.
    Presently, upland cotton commodity certificates expire nine
months from the last day of the month of issuance.
    Under the new procedure, all current outstanding and all
new upland cotton certificates issued under the 1986 upland
cotton program will have an expiration date of either February
29, 1988, or nine months from the last day of the month in
which the certificate is issued, whichever is later.
 Reuter

to C from CCC-minus Michigan General Corp's 110 mln dlrs of
10-3/4 pct senior subordinated debentures due 1998.
    S and P said if Michigan General's exchange offer for the
debentures is not successful, the firm anticipates it will
default on the June 1 interest payment and will have to seek
protection from creditors under the Federal Bankruptcy Act.
    The exchange offer faces numerous obstacles, including the
tender of at least 90 pct of the debentures and additional
financing from lenders, S and P noted.
    The company's implied senior debt rating is CCC-minus.
 Reuter

State-owned <Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
BNL> said 1986 profits for its banking activities equalled 155
billion lire against 146 billion lire in 1985.
    Consolidated 1986 results for BNL, which also has interests
in tourism, public works, industrial credit and other sectors,
are expected to be announced later this year.
    The results for the banking sector are to be presented at a
shareholders meeting scheduled for April 29.
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs nil
    Net loss 148,007 vs loss 58,863
    Revs 198,919 vs 133,071
    Avg shrs 7,476,433 vs 6,633,989
    Year
    Shr loss three cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 230,949 vs 424,719
    Revs 666,626 vs 509,971
    NOTE: Amounts include losses of a 50 pct owned scientific
development affiliate, Analytical Biosystems Corp.
 Reuter

Kansas oilman Nicholas Powell told
the Securities and Exchange Commission he has acquired 195,000
shares of QED Exploration Inc, or 8.7 pct of the total
    Powell, who heads Prairie Resources Corp and Mack C. Colt
Inc, both Kansas oil and gas exploration companies, said he
bought the stock for investment purposes.
    Powell, who said he has already spent 609,831 dlrs on his
QED stock, said he plans to buy more shares as long as he
considers them to be undervalued.
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp said it named Norman
McInnis as president of its Britt Airways unit, succeeding Bill
Britt, who retired March one.
    McInnis, former president of Royale Airlines, most recently
was a consultant to the commuter airline industry.

 Reuter

Armatron International Inc said
it negotiated a new seasonal line of credit with three lenders
for 10 mln dlrs for working capital requirements to support its
lawn and garden product line.
 Reuter

Shr loss 31 cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 1,780,000 vs loss 449,000
    Revs 13.9 mln vs 17.8 mln
    NOTE: Current 1st qtr loss included a gain of 870,000 dlrs
and 70,000 dlrs from the sale of restaurant leases.
 Reuter

Reserve rose on March 12 to 3.038 billion dlrs on March 12 from
2.715 billion dlrs the previous business day, the Treasury said
in its latest budget statement.
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 7.623
billion dlrs from 8.870 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 10.661
billion dlrs on March 12 compared with 11.586 billion dlrs on
March 11.
 Reuter

Shr loss 52 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 2,943,000 vs profit 334,000
    Revs 33.5 mln vs 18.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.57 dlrs vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 8,781,000 vs profit 792,000
    Revs 116.0 mln vs 56.5 mln

 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 104,874 vs profit 90,470
    Sales 3,154,673 vs 1,666,313
    Nine mths
    Shr loss one cent vs profit four cts
    Net loss 39,169 vs profit 159,784
    Sales 8,250,003 vs 4,665,553
 Reuter

Industrial output in January was
6.09 pct above the same 1986 month after rising 6.71 pct in
December, Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute figures
show.
10.48 pct above the 12 months to end-January last year, while
in calendar 1986 output was 10.89 pct above 1985.
 Reuter

Qtly div 1.4375 dlrs vs 1.4375 dlrs
    Pay May 1  
    Record April 3     
    Note: Dividend paid to all shareholders other than Norfolk
Southern Corp's <NSC> Norfolk and Western Railway Co.
 Reuter

Qtly div class B 13.5 cts vs 13.5 cts
    Record April 9   
   
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 31 cts
    Shr diluted 32 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 26,158,000 vs 21,798,000
    Revs 1.05 billion vs 844.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.28 dlrs vs 1.22 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.15 dlrs vs 1.08 dlrs
    Net 92,779,000 vs 77,971,000
    Revs 3.16 billion vs 2.70 billion
    Avg shrs 72.4 mln vs 64.0 mln
 Reuter

Authorizations to purchase 50 mln
dlrs worth of U.S. wheat and wheat flour under Public Law 480
were issued to Sudan today, the Agriculture Department said.
    The authorization provides for 34 mln dlrs -- about 309,000
tonnes -- worth of wheat, grade U.S. number two or better
(except durum which shall be number three or better).
    It also provides for 16 mln dlrs -- about 73,000 tonnes --
worth of wheat flour.
    The contracting period for both commodities is March 20
through August 31, 1987. The delivery period for wheat is March
20 through September 30, 1987 and for wheat flour is April 10
through SEptember 30, 1987, USDA said.
 Reuter

The House Ways and Means Committee
is moving toward passage of a trade bill that sponsors said was
intended to help open foreign markets to U.S. agricultural
goods and to modify some U.S. agricultural trade laws.
    The trade subcommittee voted to require President Reagan to
take into account the potential harm to U.S. agricultural
exports of any trade retaliation he might impose for foreign
unfair trade practices against other domestic industries.
    The bill would allow U.S. agricultural producers to seek
government monitoring of imports if there is a reasonable
chance the industry would be harmed by an import surge.
    The full Ways and Means Committee is to consider the bill
next week and congressional sources said they expect it will be
approved.
     In investigations involving a processed agricultural
product, trade associations of processors or producers would
have to petition for relief from foreign dumping or unfair
duties.
     The bill sets out U.S. trade negotiating objectives for
the Uruguay round of talks under the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade. It would seek fair trade in agriculture,
seek to discipline restrictive or trade distorting import and
export practices, to eliminate tariffs, subsidies, quotas and
non-tariff barriers.
     President Reagan's authority to negotiate a new GATT
agreement would be extended through January 1993 and authority
to negotiate a free trade zone with Canada would be extended
through January 3, 1991.
    The bill extends Reagan's authority to negotiate an
international coffee agreement through October 31, 1989.
    It allows a refund of import duties paid on raw sugar
imported from November 1, 1977 to March 31, 1985 for production
of sugar or products containing sugar and destined for
re-export. The export of the sugar or products must occur
before Octoer 1, 1991.
    Presently, to qualify for the refund the sugar must be
processed within three years after import and exported within
five years.
    Agriculture would also benefit from more rapid decisions in
complaints of unfair foreign trade practices or injury from
imports.
 Reuter

American City Business
Journals Inc said it declared an initial dividend of 15.4 cts a
share on its recent issue of 1.6 mln shares of convertible
exchangeable preferred stock.
    The dividend is payable March 31 to shareholders of record
March 20, American City said, adding that future dividends will
be paid on a quarterly basis.
    The preferred stock was issued on February 23.
 Reuter

U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, rose 377 mln dlrs to 279.085
billion dlrs in the week ended March 4, the Federal Reserve
    The Fed said that business loans including acceptances
increased 484 mln dlrs to 281.546 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

goods in the United States were up in February, rising by 4.0
pct after a 9.8 pct rise in January, the Labor Department said.
    The Producer Price Index for finished energy goods has
fallen 20.9 pct in the past 12 months.
    Energy goods at the intermediate stage of processing rose
2.7 pct in February after rising 3.5 pct in January and were
down 16.1 pct over the past 12 months, the Labor Department
said.
    Prices for crude energy goods, such as crude oil, coal and
gas at the wellhead, rose 2.6 pct last month after a 10.0 pct
January rise. They were down 11.6 pct from February 1986, the
     At the intermediate stage, liquefied petroleum gas prices
rose 10.1 pct last month after a 5.0 pct January rise and were
41.0 pct below prices a year earlier, the department said.
    Residual fuel prices rose 16.7 pct in February after a 13.4
pct rise a month earlier and were off 17.4 pct in 12 months.
    Electric power prices fell 0.3 pct last month, after a 1.3
pct January decline, and were down 3.6 pct from a year ago.
    Prices of natural gas at the wellhead rose 1.8 pct in
February after rising 4.2 pct a month earlier and were 14.8 pct
lower than they were 12 months earlier, the department said.
    Coal costs were down 0.3 pct last month after rising 0.4
pct in January and were down 0.8 pct from a year ago.
 Reuter

WEYERHAEUSER SAID IT SEES SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN EARNINGS IN 1987

BankAmerica Corp is seeking a buyer
for its branch in Asuncion, Paraguay, a spokesman in Miami for
the bank holding company said.
    "We are in ongoing negotiations for the sale of our
Paraguay operations," the spokesman said. He declined to name
the possible buyer.
    A sale of the Paraguayan operations, which employ about 80
people, would be consistent with Bank of America's strategy of
concentrating its international efforts on wholesale banking,
he added. The bank has sold operations in a number of countries
recently, including Italy and Sri Lanka.
 Reuter

474.5 mln dlr contract for 172 F-110-GE-100 fighter jet engines
and 32 other jet engines, the Air Force said.
 REUTER

General Host Corp said a
federal district judge in Wichita, Kan., affirmed a preliminary
1984 ruling that the company's Amerian Salt Co unit polluted
groundwater near a plant in Lyons, Kan.
    The company said it would appeal the ruling, which calls
for actual damages of 3.1 mln dlrs and punitive damages of 10
mln dlrs.
    General Host believes it has strong grounds for a reversal
of the ruling. It reiterated that it is not including a
provision for losses in its financial statements.
    American Salt, part of General Host's AMS Industries Inc
unit, has agreed with the State of Kansas to carry out an
effective clean-up plan, the company said.
    In the current ruling, Federal Judge Cecil Miller affirmed
his August 1984 preliminary ruling.
    The suit was brought in 1977 by a group of local
landowners, a General Host spokesman said.
 Reuter

Mobil Oil Corp has received a 107.2
mln dlr contract for jet fuel, the Defense Logistics Agency
said.
 REUTER

Iomega Corp said its president,
Gabriel Fusco, resigned as president to become chairman and
chief executive officer of <Sequoia Systems>.
    Fusco was president and chief executive officer of Iomega
between April 1983 and January 1987, and will remain on the
company's board of directors.

 Reuter

Guilford Mills Inc said it filed with
covering a 60 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
debentures.
    Proceeds will be used to repay certain indebtedness and
increase working capital, as well as for general corporate
purposes.
    Guilford Mills said it expects the issue will be offered
later this month. The company named Bear, Stearns and Co as
lead underwriter of the offering.
 Reuter

Central banks have easily beaten back
the foreign exchange market's first test of the industrialized
nations' recent pact to stabilize currencies, analysts said.
    In active trading this week, the market pushed the dollar,
sterling, the Canadian dollar and Australian dollar higher. But
operators got their fingers burned as one by one the central
banks signalled their displeasure.
    "So far G-6 has been a roaring success,"said James O'Neill,
financial markets economist at Marine Midland Bank NA.
    "The central banks are sending strong signals that they
won't tolerate any kind of momentum building behind
currencies," added a senior corporate trader at one U.K. bank.
    On February 22, the finance ministers and central bank
governors of the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France and the U.K.
-- the Group of Five -- plus Canada, signed an accord under
which they agreed to cooperate closely to foster stability of
exchange rates around prevailing levels.
    The agreement was viewed by many in the market as an
attempt to put a floor under the dollar after its sizeable
two-year decline against major world currencies.
    And initially, traders indicated their respect for the
accord by refraining from pushing the dollar lower.
    But by Wednesday, the dollar climbed to more than 1.87
marks, about five pfennigs above its levels the Friday before
the G-6 accord.
    The move was aided by indications that the U.S. economy
picked up steam in February at the same time as the West German
economy was regressing.
    But dealers said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York gave
traders a sharp reminder that the G-6 pact had encompassed the
idea of limiting inordinate dollar gains as well as declines.
    Dealers differed as to whether the U.S. central bank
actually intervened to sell dollars above 1.87 marks, or simply
telephoned dealers to ask for quotes and enquire about trading
    But the dollar quickly backed off. It hovered today around
1.85 marks. "The market was surprised that the Fed showed its
face so soon," said Marine Midland NA's O'Neill.
    Also on Wednesday, London dealers said the Bank of England
intervened in the open market to sell sterling as the U.K.
currency rose to 1.60 dlrs compared with 1.5355 dlrs before the
G-6 pact.
    Sterling, along with the other high-yield currencies like
the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar, was in favor after
traders surmised that the the chance of intervention pursuant
to the Paris currency accord left limited room for profit plays
on dollar/mark and dollar/yen.
    The pound also was boosted by suggestions of an improving
U.K. economy, anticipation of a popular British budget on March
17 and public opinion polls showing good chances for the
incumbent Conservative party in any general election.
    "There was a real run on sterling," said Anne Mills of
    Sterling traded today around 1.5750 dlrs, down from 1.5870
dlrs last night. It slid to 2.917 marks from 2.950 yesterday
and from a peak of about 2.98 recently. "There's been some
heavy profit-taking on sterling/mark ahead of next Tuesday's
U.K. budget," said James McGroarty of Discount Corp.
    As speculators detected the presence of the U.S. and
British central banks, they acclerated their shift into
Canadian and Australian dollars. But here too they were
stymied. The Bank of Canada acted to slow its currency's rise.
    The Canadian dollar traded at 1.3218/23 per U.S. dollar
today, down from 1.3185/90 yesterday.
    And the Australian Reserve Bank, using the Fed as agent,
sold Australian dollars in the U.S. yesterday, dealers said.
    The Australian dollar fell to a low of 67.45/55 U.S. cents
today from a high of 69.02 Thursday.
    Analysts said the central banks' moves to stifle sudden
upward movement, leave the market uncertain about its next
step. Today, the focus shifted to the yen which has held to a
very tight range against the dollar for several months.
    The dollar fell to 152.35/40 yen from 153.35/40 last night.
Analysts said the yen also gained as traders unwound long
sterling/short mark positions established lately.
    "Because of the change in perceptions about the health of
the German economy, the funds from those unwinding operations
are ending up in yen," a dealer at one U.K. bank said.
    Recent West German data have shown falling industry orders,
lower industrial output and slowing employment gains.
    Moreover, the yen is benefitting as Japanese entities who
have invested heavily overseas, for example in Australian
financial instruments, repatriate their profits ahead of the
end of the Japanese fiscal year on March 31.
    Noting that the dollar/yen rate is in a sense the most
controversial one because of the large U.S. trade deficit with
Japan, analysts said the stage could be set for another test of
the dollar's downward scope against the Japanese currency.
    In its latest review of the foreign exchange market through
the end of January, the Federal Reserve revealed that it
intervened to protect the dollar against the yen on January 28.
On that day, the dollar fell as low as 150.40 yen.
    "Sure, the Fed bought dollars near the 150 yen level in
January. But the market has to bear in mind that time marches
on and the situation changes," said McGroarty of Discount.
 Reuter

Weyerhaeuser Co said it should
have significant increases in earnings in 1987 and 1988 should
be another very good year.
    Weyerhaeuser reported 1986 earnings of 276.7 mln dlrs, or
1.91 dlrs per share, on 5.65 billion dlrs in revenues.
    Anticipated improved cash flows will allow the company to
invest and acquire much more aggressively than it has in the
past few years, Weyerhaeuser also said.
    Weyerhaeuser, principally a lumber products company, said
the forecast was made by the company's chief financial officer
during a meeting of institutional investors in Tokyo.
    It also said its expects to see opportunities in the
building products area, particularly in composite panels and in
other engineered products directed toward specific, rather than
commodity, end-use markets.
    But it said growth may be higher in added-value products,
in financial services and in other diversified businesses.
    In addition, the company said rising product prices and
demand for pulp and paper are reflected in all the major world
markets, except in the case of some light-weighted paper grades
where overcapacity remains a problem.
    Weyerhaeuser further stated that it has lowered its
manufacturing cost structure and is obtaining significant
productivity increases.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net loss 662,000 vs profit 1,520,000
    Revs 59.1 mln vs 63.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr profit 23 cts vs profit 20 cts
    Net profit 2,802,000 vs profit 2,543,000
    Revs 138.5 mln vs 126.7 mln

 Reuter

General Electric Co said it will
redeem on May 1 RCA Corp's 75 mln dlrs of 11-1/2 pct notes due
1990.
    General Electric is the successor obligator to RCA.
    GE said it will buy back the notes at par plus accrued
interest to, but not including, May 1. No further interest will
accrue on the notes after the redemption date.
    Bankers Trust Co is trustee.
 Reuter

American Brands Inc said
it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission its
financial statements for fiscal 1986 in connection with its
previously announced offering outside the U.S. of its 50 mln
stg 9-1/2 pct notes due 1994.
    American Brands said the notes are not to be sold in the
U.S. or to a U.S citizen.
 Reuter

Spendthrift Farm Inc said it
will miss the 1,875,000 dlr March 16 interest payment on its 30
mln dlrs of 12.5 pct senior subordinated notes due 1994.
    It said it is currently holding talks with its creditors
about a possible debt restructuring. The company said it
expects to finalize an agreement before the end of the 30 day
grace period on April 14. If it fails to make an agreement by
that date, it will default on the notes.
    The company also said it is holding talks with its bank
creditors and expects a restructuring agreement soon.
 Reuter

    Net loss 80,333 vs profit 67,967
    Revs 1,162,678 vs 1,009,731
    Avg shrs 3,317,104 vs 2,494.049
    year
    Shr loss 21 cts vs profit four cts
    Net loss 679,520 vs profit 96,724
    Revs 4,191,540 vs 4,702,999
    Avg shrs 3,242,641 vs 2,525,677
    NOTES: Revenues exclude hospital television rental business
sold Dec 29, 1986
    1986 losses in both periods include gain of 530,000 dlrs on
sale of discontinued business
 Reuter

Tony Lama Co Inc said it signed
a letter of intent to buy Coulson of Texas Inc, a maker of
heels and leather components.
    The company said exact terms of the deal have not been
determined but that it does not expect the acquisition to have
a material effect on its financial position.
    In addition to buying substantially of all Coulson's
assets, Tony Lama said it would assume certain of the company's
 Reuter

Shr loss 89 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net loss 3,030,548 vs loss 548,442
    Revs 1,519,360 vs 1,081,915
    Avg shrs 3,399,993 vs 2,725,425
   
 Reuter

CANADA DECEMBER BUDGET DEFICIT FALLS TO 2.01 BILLION DLRS FROM 2.27 BILLION YEAR EARLIER

Tribune Co said it completed the sale
of the Danville, Va., cable television system to Cablevision
Industries Ltd Partnership, affiliated with Cablevision
Industries Inc of Liberty, N.Y.
    It said the Danville system was one of two systems acquired
by Tribune on September 30, 1986 as part of its purchase of The
Daily Press Inc, publisher of the Newport News Daily Press and
The Times-Herald. Agreements to sell both systems for a total
of 100 mln dlrs were reached in October.
    Sale of the Newport News system was completed in December.
 Reuter

Infortext Systems Inc said it
finalized a two-year agreement under which GTE Services Corp
and eight affiliates will sell Infortext's line of personal
computer-based telephone call accounting systems.
    GTE Services, a unit of GTE Corp, evaluated 23 competitive
call accounting systems, the company said.
 Reuter

Sheppard Resources Inc
said it signed a letter of intent to merge with Breast Centers
Inc, an owner, operator and franchiser of clinics that provide
services for the early detection of breast cancer.
    After the merger, Breast Centers shareholders would become
the majority shareholders of the combined company.
    Also, if approved, Sheppard will change its name to Breast
Centers.
 Reuter

Qtly div 27.5 cts vs 27.5 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs profit 38 cts
    Net profit 19,000 vs profit 1,239,000
    Revs 31.7 mln vs 31.2 mln
    12 mths
    Shr profit 52 cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 2,173,000 vs loss 119,000
    Revs 103.5 mln vs 98.6 mln
    
 Reuter

Qtrly seven cts vs six cts
    NOTE: full name of company is Second National Building and
Loan.
 Reuter

The Bank of Spain said it approved a
package of measures liberalising some exchange controls and
easing some restrictions on the raising of foreign funds.
    It said in a statement that the circulars were the latest
steps to deregulate Spain's financial sector -- a move
triggered by entry into the European Community (EC) a year ago.
    A Bank of Spain spokesman said in response to an enquiry
from Reuters that the new measures were not yet in force and
added that he could not say when they would take effect.
    The statement said one measure meant that residents in
Spain would now be able to borrow up to the equivalent of 1.5
billion pesetas from abroad, providing that the average length
of the loans was at least one year, that the borrower was not a
Spanish branch of a non-resident lending agent, and that the
loan was denominated in a currency traded in Spain, in
convertible pesetas or in European Currency Units (ECUS).
    All foreign loans not approved under those rules will be
approved automatically if the Bank of Spain does not
specifically reject applications within 15 days of receiving
them.
    The statement said another measure frees most of the
restrictions on how banks can capture foreign funds and lend
them.
    The existing limit on foreign obligations of three times
the value of capital and reserves of a borrower bank is
abolished, although the Bank of Spain will continue to monitor
the banks' obligations.
    Restrictions on the maximum time difference between the
maturity of foreign assets and obligations are also abolished
and regulations governing risk by country are loosened.
    The latest measures follow recent moves to abolish the
maximum interest rates banks can offer for some peseta funds
and the lifting of restrictions on investments abroad by
Spaniards.
    The government has also allowed foreign companies to be
quoted on Spanish stock exchanges and has promised further
reforms of the domestic financial system.
 Reuter

Southwestern Bell Corp said it
opposes the Department of Justice recommendation that regional
holding companies be banned from offering interexchange
services within their regions.
    Southwestern Bell said state regulators should decide
whether regional holding companies are allowed to provide the
service, according to a brief filed in U.S. district court in
Washington outlining the company's position.
    The company contends there is little likelihood competition
would be hampered, according to the brief.
     Southwestern Bell supports the Justice Department's
recommendation to lift bans on information services and
equipment manufacturing, and to allow regional holding
companies to enter non-telecommunications businesses, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 5.67 dlrs vs loss 5.17 dlrs
    Net loss 17 mln vs loss 15.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 12.42 dlrs vs loss 9.60 dlrs
    Net loss 37.0 mln vs loss 28.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year net includes 11.9 mln dlr and
43.8 mln dlr provision, respectively, for possible land and
real estate losses. 1985 4th qtr and year net includes 5.1 mln
dlr and 13.4 mln dlr provision, respectively, for possible
losses.
 Reuter

    Net 123,000 vs 371,000
    Revs 2,944,000 vs 2,138,000
    Avg shrs 11.4 mln vs 11.6 mln
    Six mths
    Shr five cts vs six cts
    Net 531,000 vs 725,000
    Revs 6,200,000 vs 4,128,000
 Reuter

First Boston Inc's <FBC> Sunter
Acquisition Corp said it began its previously announced 24.60
dlr per share tender offer for Allegheny International Inc's
    The company is also offering 20 dlrs for each 2.19 dlr
cumulative preferred share, and 87.50 dlrs for each share of
11.25 dlr convertible preferred stock.
    The company said the offer and withdrawal rights will
expire at midnight April nine unless extended.

 Reuter

Varity Corp, formerly Massey-Ferguson
Ltd, said it expected to report on March 25 a loss for the
fourth quarter and full-year ended January 31.
    A company spokesman said specific figures were unavailable.
    Varity posted a net profit of 3.9 mln U.S. dlrs for the
previous fiscal year ended January 31, 1986 and a 3.3 mln dlr
net profit for the previous fourth quarter. Its net loss for
the nine months ended October 31 totaled 4.7 mln dlrs after a
19.7 mln dlr third quarter loss tied to strikes and plant
shutdowns at its British and French operations.
    Varity also said it would seek shareholder approval at a
special shareholders' meeting on April 9 to authorize a
transfer of values to the contributed surplus account on its
balance sheet from the stated capital account for common
shares.
    The spokesman said the move would help raise company values
required to pay dividends under Canadian law.
 Reuter

Healthcare International Inc said
it completed two financial transactions with HealthVest <HVT>,
a health care real estate investment trust.
    The company said the first entailed receiveing
approximately 11 mln dlrs through a sale and leaseback
arrangement on the property of Austin Diagnostic Clinic, which
it acquired in December 1986.
    The company also said it received 33 mln dlrs in financing
on its Healthcare Medical Center of Tustin in Orange County,
Calif. The funds will be used to repay floating indebtedness,
 Reuter

<Cablevision Industries Corp>
said its Cablevision Industries of California Inc subsidiary
has entered into an agreement to buy substantially all of the
assets of Valley Cable TV for about 100 mln dlrs.
    The company said it will buy the system from a California
limited partnership, which is wholly-owned by Toronto-based
<Hollinger Inc>.
    It said Valley Cable operates a 60,000 subscriber cable
television systems passing about 180,000 homes in the west San
Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.
    Cablevision said it is the nation's 21st largest cable
company and is ownnd by Alan Gerry, its chairman, president and
chief executive officer. The company said the agreement is
subject to regulatory approval.
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs nine cts
    Oper net 2,281,000 vs 1,319,000
    Year
    Oper shr 13 cts vs six cts
    Oper net 2,635,000 vs 1,775,000
    Revs 31.9 mln vs 31.7 mln
    Note: 1986 qtr excludes extraordinary loss of 1,155,000
dlrs or nine cts share, versus gain of 607,000 dlrs or five cts
shr
    Note continued: 1986 year excludes extraordinary loss of
3,101,000 dlrs or 25 cts share, versus extraordinary loss of
265,000 dlrs or two cts share
 Reuter

Pubco Corp said Maurice Saltzman had
resigned as chairman and a director of the company, effective
immediately, due to continuing health problems.
    At the same time, it said Saltzman resigned as chairman and
a director of its 32 pct owned Bobbie Brooks Inc <BBKS>.
 Reuter

Borg-Warner Corp said its directors
approved the sale, for about 240 mln dlrs, of its industrial
products division to a New York-based private investment firm,
Clayton and Dubilier Inc, and senior management of the group.
    Yesterday, the company said it agreed to sell the division,
which has annual sales of about 300 mln dlrs and is based in
Long Beach, California.

 Reuter

Central Bank president Francisco
Gros said possible retaliation by Brazil's creditors would not
be an intelligent measure because it would affect both sides.
    "If our creditors considered retaliation, Brazil would lose
its capacity to export, thus would never be able to pay its
debt," Gros said in a news conference.
    Gros said that during their 12-day globe-trotting tour of
several countries, he and Finance Minister Dilson Funaro warned
creditors that Brazil could no longer continue representing the
role of merely an exporter of capital.
    "We made it very clear to our creditors that we must find
other means to pay our debt. We told them we wish to pay but
that first we must make sure that the country grows," Gros said.
    "We pointed out to them that in the last two years Brazil
paid 24 billion dlrs just in interest rates, while only
receiving two billion dlrs in new loans over a similar period."
Gros reiterated that Brazil will not accept interference from
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as creditors suggested.
    "The performance of the IMF over the years has not been
convenient to our needs. It is an important institution, but we
do not accept it to monitor our economy," he said.
    "The banks would welcome us going to the IMF. We would
welcome if they pardoned half our debt," Gros said.
    Brazil announced suspension of interest payment of 68
billion dlrs owed to commercial foreign banks on February 20.
No deadline was established for the renewal of the payment.
    "Our major commitment is with the country's growth.
Therefore, we need more money to invest on new projects," Gros
said.  He said that before the announcement of the suspension
of interest payment, Brazil was paying about 500 mln dlrs a
month to its commercial foreign creditors.
    "We can say that at least we are saving some money," he said.
    Gros said Brazil has not submitted specific proposals to
creditors, and instead hopes that proposals would come through
bilateral negotiations.
    The Central Bank president said he will be going next week
to Washington to take part in a meeting of the Inter American
Development Bank .
    In Brasilia, sources linked to the Presidency said Brazil
was preparing a new program of economic readjustment to
strengthen its negotiations on its 109 billion dlr foreign
debt. The sources said the new program could be announced by
the end of the month and calls basically for preservation of
the country's growth.               
 Reuter

The entire House Agriculture
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry has written U.S.
Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter a letter urging the Reagan
administration to block a European Community, EC, plan to
tighten meat inspection requirements.
    The letter signed by the 16 panel members said the EC plan
to require U.S. meat processing plants to comply with EC
standards would "impose an unnecessary and unfair hardship on
the U.S. meat industry."
    The EC plan is set to go into effect April 30.
    "It would be inconceivable that we would allow the EC
continued access to the U.S. market while they attempt to halt
our meat exports to the EC," the March 9 letter said.
 Reuter

Shr one cts vs two cts
    Net 50,000 vs 58,000
    Revs 467,000 vs 760,000
 Reuter

Hytek Microsystems Inc said
its board accepted the resignation of President James Phalan at
a special meeting held today.
    Phalan, who had been president since the company was
founded in 1974, resigned for personal reasons, Hytek said.
    It also said Thomas Bay, Hytek's vice president for
marketing, was appointed to the additional role of president
and chief executive.
 Reuter

<Southam Inc> said its Flyer Force unit
acquired three community newspapers in Winnipeg with a combined
circulation of 65,000 for undisclosed terms.
    Southam said the newspapers, The Herald, The Lance and
Metro One, will be printed at its Canadian Publishers division
in Winnipeg.
    Flyer Force intends to expand distribution of the
newspapers to begin improved service to the Winnipeg market,
Southam said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange sought to
defuse a trans-Atlantic flap over whether member firms can
trade stocks on London's electronic dealing system during New
York trading hours.
    "I don't know what the hub-bub is about," said Richard
Torrenzano, NYSE spokesman. Some member firms had said they
were worried that a strict interpretation of NYSE rule 390
curtail trading when London closes its trading floor next year
and all trading is done via electronic systems.
    "If the British Parliament calls it a stock exchange,
that's good enough for us," Torrenzano said.
    Torrenzano did not see any conflict with rule 390 if
members wanted to trade in London. The rule, in effect since
the mid 1970's, says in part, "During NYSE trading hours a
member, a member organization or affiliated person may trade as
principal or agent in any listed stock on any organized
exchange of which they are a member, in any foreign country at
any time."
    "The rule has not been changed, there is nothing new here,"
he said.
 Reuter

venezuela's biggest private company, la
electricidad de caracas, will meet with bank creditors in new
york on monday to discuss the danger of a  default on its 622
mln dlr foreign debt, a company spokesman said.
    "we are in an impossible situation. Unless we get
government relief, the company will be bankrupt in three
years," he told reuters.
    La electricidad's problems stem from the government's
december decision to set private debt payments at 7.50 bolivars
per dollar instead of 4.3.
    Company officials estimate that the currency change raised
the debt to 4.67 billion bolivars from 2.67 billion. additional
preferential dollar premiums put the total cost at 7.47
billion, not including interest payments.
    Under the government plan for repaying the 7.8 billion dlr
private debt, the central bank will guarantee debtors their
dollars at 7.5 with a premium of 4.50 per dollar.
    La electricidad president francisco aguerrevere will meet
his bank advisory committee, led by morgan guaranty, to explain
that unless government assistance is forthcoming the company
cannot meet its obligations.
    La electricidad ceased principal payments under a five-year
refinancing plan last year, althouigh interest has been paid,
the officials said. They said exchange contracts, which the
government no longer recognizes, were signed with the central
bank for this refinancing at 4.3 per dollar.
    The company spokesman said the new york meeting will be
held to inform the committee, representing 72 banks, of the
latest developments on efforts to lobby the government.
    "the banks are anxious to know the situation on debt
payments, but we can only tell them we are waiting for a
government response to our proposals," he said.
    La electricidad is seeking permission for a 50 pct rate
increase, which officials say would bring in an extra 1.3
billion bolivars this year.
    The 30 pct tariff increase introduced in january will only
bring in an extra 600 mln bolivars per year against additional
debt costs of 900 mln.
    Without relief, the company will incur losses of 287 mln
bolivars this year, 556 mln in 1988, 733 mln in 1989 and 1.47
billion in 1990. In 1990 the company would be decapitalized 874
mln bolivars.
    As alternatives to the rate increase, the company has also
proposed allowing la electricidad a grace period on payment of
the exchange risk premium to the central bank, a longer period
to pay it, or a soft loan from the government.
    The company spokesman said the government has not responded
to the proposals and there have been no formal meetings since
january.
    "if these solutions are not agreed to, we face the final
resort of either the government buying the debt or the company
being nationalised," he said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 1,815,000 vs profit 65,000
    Revs 59.9 mln vs 2,798,000
    Avg shrs 15.8 mln vs 9,775,000
    Year
    Shr loss 11 cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 1,217,000 vs loss 324,000
    Revs 83.3 mln vs 3,195,000
    Avg shrs 11.2 mln vs 9,775,000
 Reuter

Enzo Biochem Inc said (Ortho
Diagnostic Systems Inc) withheld a payment of 1.5 mln dlrs due
Jan 15, 1987 under a research and development contract.
    Ortho indicated it suspended payments due under the 1985
contract pending resolution of certain contractual matters but
intends to maintain the agreement, Enzo said. Ortho also plans
to keep a 1982 research contract in effect, it said.
    Enzo said it continues to work under the contract and
recognize revenues on a cost recovery basis. It recognized
revenues under the 1985 contract of 820,000 dlrs and 1,655,000
dlrs for the quarter and six months, respectively.
    The revenues recognized were only partially received, an
Enzo spokesman said. He declined to elaborate.
    Total revenues were 2,944,000 dlrs for the quarter and
6,200,000 dlrs in the six months ended Jan 31, 1987.
    The next payment under the 1985 contract of 1.5 mln dlrs is
due in June, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

John Labatt Ltd said its share of the
Canadian beer market is holding at more than 41 pct but the
total market has grown only three pct since last year when
volumes were depressed by labor disruptions in the industry.
    Labatt earlier reported profits in the third quarter ended
January 31 rose 20 pct to 26.2 mln dlrs from 21.8 mln a year
earlier, while nine month earnings were up almost as much to
92.8 mln dlrs from 78 mln dlrs.
    "Through acquisitions as well as growth in the core
businesses, all segments achieved both sales and earnings
improvement over a year ago," it said.
    Labatt purchased Tuscan Dairies, Green Spring Dairy,
EverFresh Juice Co and Pasquale Food Co in the third quarter.
    The company said cool wet weather last summer slowed total
market demand in the past nine months. "Lack of significant
market growth emphasizes the importance of customer service and
new product development," it added.
 Reuter

Dome Mines Ltd said it was extending
the closing date of its previously announced public offer of
seven mln common shares to either March 19, pending
registration of the shares under U.S. securities laws, or to
March 27.
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA)
figures for highly-erodible land enrolled into the Conservation
Reserve Program were regarded by most grain analysts as neutral
to bearish, although some said a full state-by-state breakdown
would be needed to assess the full price impact.
    "Out of 10.5 mln acres only 1.9 mln acres were accepted in
corn -- That's neutral at best and perhaps bearish to what the
trade was looking for," Dale Gustafson of Drexel Burnham
Lambert said.
    The USDA said it had accepted 10,572,402 more acres into
the conservation program out of bids on a total of 11,254,837
acres.
    Gustafson said he would not be changing his estimate of
planted acreage for corn as a result of the latest figures, but
some other analysts said they would adjust their estimates
slightly. The USDA is due to release planting intentions
figures March 31.
    Indications of a heavy sign-up in the conservation program
recently lowered most trade estimates of corn planted acreage
to 63.0 to 67.0 mln acres from 67.0 to 69.0 mln.
    Richard Loewy, analyst with Prudential Bache Securities,
said there was not enough information to completely assess the
conservation figures. "The 1.9 mln acres on corn is certainly
disappointing," he added.
    The USDA later released the state-by-state breakdown of the
enrollment figures.
    Loewy said the initial figures appeared to be negative for
both new crop corn and soybeans, and might possibly mean an
upward adjustment in planting intention figures.
    Asked about the impact on the flow of generic certificates
onto the market this spring, he said: "The trade was definitely
looking higher, so certificates are going to be less than
expected."
    The USDA offered a special corn "bonus" rental payment to
the farmers to be paid in generic certificates. The bonus
amounts to two dlrs per bushel, based on the farm program
payment yield for corn, for each acre of corn accepted into the
reserve.
    Katharina Zimmer, analyst for Merrill Lynch Futures, said
the conservation sign-up was slightly higher than she had
expected, although she noted that some trade expectations were
considerably higher than the actual figures.
    "I think it is friendly for the market, at least in the
long run," she said.
    Susan Hackmann of AgriAnalysis said there was some
confusion over whether trade ideas of an enrollment figure
between 15 and 18 mln acres referred to the total sign-up or
the latest addition.
    "It seems the trade was looking for more acres to be bid
into the program," she said.
    Hackmann said she would not make much change to her ideas
about corn planting figures as a result of the conservation
sign-up. She added that while some trade guesses were as low as
61 mln acres, she was looking for corn plantings to be in the
high 60's.
    Zimmer of Merrill Lynch said she would be making a slight
reduction of about one mln acres in her planting estimate to
around 64 mln acres.
    New crop corn prices at the Chicago Board of Trade firmed
earlier this week on ideas of a large sign-up in the program,
despite the fact that acres enrolled are generally poor
yielding and not likely to make a substantial difference to
final production figures.
 Reuter

Canada's federal budget deficit fell to
2.01 billion dlrs in December from 2.27 billion dlrs a year
earlier, the finance department said.
    The government said revenues in December totaled 8.17
billion dlrs, up from 7.26 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Expenditures were 10.18 billion dlrs, up from 9.53 billion
dlrs in the previous year, the government said.
 Reuter

opposed recent recommendations by the U.S. Justice Department
that would loosen restrictions on the regional bell operating
    MCI said the restrictions on the regional bell companies
should only be loosened if their monopolies on local service
are eliminated.
    It said the proposals to loosen those restrictions are at
odds with the rulings that governed the break-up of American
Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> in 1984.
 Reuter

Forest City Enterprises Inc said it
completed the previously announced sale of assets of its retail
store division, excluding real estate, to Handy Andy Home
Improvement Centers Inc, a private Gurnee, Ill., firm.
    The sale is for cash and notes but exact terms were not
disclosed.
 Reuter

Beaver Creek State Bank in Beaver
Creek, Minn., failed and the bank's insured assets were
transferred to Citizens State Bank of Silver Lake, Minn., the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
    Separately, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board said Victor
Federal Savings and Loan Association of Muskogee, Okla., was
placed into receivership.
    Beaver Creek's two offices will re-open as branches of
Citizens on Monday.
    The transfer was arranged because there were no bids to buy
Beaver Creek, the FDIC said.
    Citizens will pay a premium of 30,000 dlrs  to the FDIC and
purchase Beaver Creek's assets for 5.3 mln dlrs.
    It was the 43rd bank failure in the nation this year.
    The FHLBB said Victor Federal Savings was insolvent and its
assets were transferred to a newly chartered federal mutual
association with directors named by the FHLBB.
    Victor was a stock association with 564 mln dlrs in assets.
    The new association is to be known as Victor Savings and
Loan Association and its assets continue to be insured by the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp, the FHLBB said.
 Reuter

Lifestyle Restaurants Inc said
revenues for the first quarter ended January 24, 1985, were
17.5 mln dlrs and not the 17.8 mln dlrs it had reported
earlier.
    The company also said a note attached to its earnings
concerning a gain in 1986 on certain sales was incorrect and
should be disregarded.
 Reuter

The Commerce Department said that
all Canadian firms had begun to pay an agreed to 15 pct
surcharge on softwood shipped to U.S. markets.
    It made the statement after talks with Canadian officials
about press reports and speculation in Canada that some
exporters were not paying the charge.
    Canada and the United States agreed last December to the 15
pct charge, ending a lengthy trade dispute over alleged
Canadian subsidies to Canada's softwood exporters.
    Commerce officials would not say if they found any Canadian
companies had been evading the charge, but that following the
talks they were convinced all exporters were complying with the
    Undersecretary of Commerce Bruce Smart said "We are
gratified to learn that companies in Canada have begun paying
the export charge on lumber."
    He added the agreement was important to the health of the
U.S. lumber industry and he intended to see that it was fully
carried out.
 reuter

Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. said it
will sign a contract March 17 to buy a half interest in a
Corpus Christi, Texas refinery and related operations.
    The contract, to be signed by PDVSA and Champlin
Petroleum's parent company, the Union Pacific Corp, will create
a new joint venture called Champlin Refining.
    The state oil company said PDVSA will pay on the order of
30 mln dlrs for the half interest in Champlin.
     Energy minister Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said Wednesday
the cost would be 33 mln dlrs in cash, plus an additional 60
mln in crude and refined oil shipments.
    PDVSA and Union Pacific have sought a line of credit from a
group of North American and Japanese banks to finance the new
company's working capital, the Venezuelan company said.
    Under the deal, PDVSA will supply up to 140,000 barrels a
day to the refinery with the option to place 50,000 bpd more -
mostly gasoline and distillates - through Champlin's
distribution system in 10 U.S. states.
    The new company will be directed by a six-member board,
with three representatives each from PDVSA and Union Pacific.
    According to PDVSA, Venezuelans will occupy such key
positions such as treasurer and vice-president for
    The total capacity of the Champlin refinery is 160,000 bpd
of crudes and another 40,000 bpd of intermediates. The plant
will be able to handle 110,000 bpd of Venezuelan heavy crudes,
which make up more than half of the country's crude oil
exports.
 Reuter

Investor Martin Sosnoff said in a
statement that he was disappointed in Caesars World Inc's
response to his 28 dlrs a share offer to buy the company.
    The company had said the offer was inadequate and that it
was exploring restructuring or sale of the company to another
party.
    Sosnoff said he believes the offer is fair to all
shareholders. "My primary desire is still to sit down with
management to negotiate a friendly acquisition," he said.
 Reuter

Venezuela will lend Ecuador up to 12.5
mln barrels of crude oil to help it meet its export commitments
and its domestic energy demand, Ecuadorean Energy and Mines
Minister Javier Espinosa said today in a statement.
connecting its jungle oil fields with the Pacific Ocean port of
Balao was damaged last week by an earthquake.
    Venezuela would lend 50,000 barrels per day of crude for a
total of up to to 7.5 mln barrels to help Ecuador meet export
commitments, Espinosa said. Also, Venezuela will sell the crude
and provide the foreign exchange earnings to Ecuador, he said.
     Ecuador would repay Venezuela in crude once it resumed its
exports after repairing its pipeline to Balao, a task that
would take an estimated five  months.
    Venezuela is lending Ecuador five mln barrels of crude for
refining in this country to meet domestic demand. Ecuador would
repay that loan with crude once the oil pipeline is repaired.
    Both countries are the only Latin American members of the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
    Ecuador was exporting about 140,000 bpd before the
earthquake, Energy Ministry officials said. Its total output
was around 260,000 bpd.
 Reuter

Petroleum's parent company, the Union Pacific Corp <UNP>, will
create a new joint venture called Champlin Refining.
 Reuter

Venezuela's biggest private sector
company, La Electricidad de Caracas, will meet urgently with
bank creditors in New York on monday to discuss the danger of a
total default on its 622 mln dlr foreign debt, a company
    "We are in an impossible situation, unless we get
government relief the company will be bankrupt in three years,"
he told reuters.
    La Electricidad's problems stem from the government's
decision in december to set private debt payments at 7.50
bolivars per dlr instead of 4.3, adding 74 pct to the debt in
bolivar terms.
    La Electricidad is seeking permission for a 50 pct increase
in industrial and commercial tariffs, which officials say would
bring in an extra 1.3 billion bolivars this year.
    A 30 pct tariff increase introduced in january will only
bring in an extra 600 mln bolivars per year as against
additional debt costs of 900 mln.
 Reuter

PH Acquisition Co, a unit of Pratt Hotel
Corp, said its 135 mln dlrs per share tender offer for all
shares of Class B common stock of Resorts INternational Inc
expired.
    As of today, about 45,690 shares were tendered, an
insufficient number of shares to satisfy the condition that 51
pct of the voting power be tendered.
    Earlier this week, New yOrk developer Donald Trump made a
competing bid for the class B shares.
 Reuter

Manville Corp said it named John Roach
senior vice president and chief financial officer.
    The post of chief financial officer has been vacant since
W.T. Stephens was appointed president of the company last
April, Manville said.
    Roach, 43, was most recently a partner of Braxton
Associates, a unit of the accounting firm Touche Ross and Co.
He was previously with Northrop Corp <NOC>.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabia has dropped its
condition that Brazil secure international bank guarantees
before Saudia Arabia would ship it oil, the state-oil company,
Petrobras, said in a statement.
    Petrobras said the Saudis will accept Banco do Brasil
credit guarantees.
    Petrobras cancelled a 40-mln dlr crude oil purchase from
the Saudis yesterday after they refused to accept a letter of
credit from the official Bank of Brazil. The Saudis had
demanded that Brazil get credit guarantees from leading
international banks.
    Petrobras said the Saudis had been advised that if they did
not change their mind by Monday, Petrobras would negotiate the
purchase of oil with other producers.
    The Petrobras statement said the shipment of 2.2 mln
barrels will be made by the Saudis on March 24 as scheduled.
    The shipment is part contract signed in February for the
Saudis to supply Brazil with 125,000 barrels per day until
June.
 Reuter

United Telecommunications Inc said
it called for rejection of the recommendation that the regional
Bell telephone companies be allowed to enter the long-distance
business at this time.
    In comments to U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene, the
company said modification of other restrictions currently
imposed on the regionals would be acceptable.
    United Telecommunications operates U.S. Sprint, a long
distance telephone service, in a joint venture with GTE Corp
<GTE>.
    Separately, US Sprint in its comments told Judge Green that
allowing the Bell operating companies into the long-distance
business could undo all the strides toward full competition
since the breakup of American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> in
1984.
    The U.S. Justice Department has proposed lifting
restrictions on the regional phone companies so they can enter
the long-distance business in areas where they do not provide
local service.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabia has lifted the
condition it imposed on the sale of oil to Brazil and will
accept Banco do Brasil's credit guarantees, state-oil company
Petrobras said in a statement.
    Petrobras cancelled a 40 mln dlr crude oil purchase from
the Saudis yesterday, after they refused to accept a letter of
credit from the Bank of Brazil, demanding guarantees from
leading international banks.
    It advised the Saudis the company would negotiate oil
purchases elsewhere unless they changed their mind by Monday.
    The 2.2 mln barrels shipment will be made by the Saudis on
March 24 as scheduled, the statement said.
    Under a 125,000 bpd contract signed in February the Saudis
agreed to supply oil to Brazil until June.
 Reuter

Micron Technology Inc said it
expects to record a net loss of about 11 mln dlrs in the second
quarter compared to a loss of 9.7 mln dlrs in the first quarter
and 9.8 mln dlrs in the year-ago second quarter.
    Revenues in the quarter ended March five increased to about
20.4 mln dlrs from 18.8 mln in the preceeding quarter and 9.4
mln dlrs in the year-ago quarter.
    The company makes semiconductors, memory components and
related products.
 Reuter

U.S. economic data due out next week is
unlikely to hold any surprises that will shake U.S. interest
rate futures out of their relatively narrow trading range of
the last 3-1/2 months, financial analysts said.
    "People don't seem to have any firm conviction about the
current strength of the economy or about the Federal Reserve
doing anything," said Drexel Burnham Lambert analyst Norman
Mains.
    The narrow range trading is also taking its toll on trading
volume, he noted. "We've had a decline in activity as recent
economic statistics have not greatly changed people's
viewpoints on interest rates," Mains said.
    The data, which has provided not clear-cut view of the
economy, coupled with dampened activity in the foreign exchange
markets after the Paris initiative has made for "less than
ebullient market action," Mains said.
    He added, however, that Treasury bond futures could be in
for a retracement after the recent rise as they are near the
top of the trading range.
    "My view is that the economy remains relatively strong and
market participants will see that current prices are
unjustified," Mains said.
    Refco Inc senior vice president Michael Connery also noted
that the market is showing very little momentum and lacks
retail interest. "All of the movement occurs at the opening,"
afterwhich volume dwindles and momentum fades, Connery said.
    Although data during the week was mildly positive for bond
prices, the small rise in February producer prices and downward
revisions in January retail sales and industrial production
were "not real exciting," said Prudential Bache analyst Fred
Leiner.
    "There is no one factor that will push us through the highs
at this moment," Leiner said.
    Next week's revision to fourth quarter U.S. Gross national
Product is also likely to be of little interest to the market,
said Kleinwort Benson chief financial economist Sam Kahan.
Still, forecasts for first quarter GNP could play a role in the
direction of bond prices over the next month.
    Kahan said his early estimate for first quarter growth is
around three pct, due largely to a buildup in inventories
reflected in the January inventory data Friday, which showed
the largest increase since 1979.
    "The key question will be not whether there is a large
increase in first quarter GNP, but whether any increase is
sustainable or a one shot deal," Kahan said.
    He said that a sizable increase in first quarter GNP
stemming from an increase in inventories will be a drag on
second quarter growth.
    If that is the case, GNP in the second quarter could ease
back to a one to two pct growth rate, Kahan said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 35 cts vs 34 cts
    Oper net 2,313,000 vs 1,646,000
    Revs 100.1 mln vs 77.3 mln
    Note: 1986 net excludes extraordinary loss of 294,000 dlrs
or four cts vs shr vs yr-ago loss of 579,000 dlrs or 12 cts
shr. 1986 net includes non-cash loss of 1,436,000 dlrs or 22
cts shr vs yr-ago loss of 1,922,000 dlrs or 39 cts shr from
depreciation and amortization allowances on U.S. cable TV
    Fewer shrs outstanding.
 Reuter

Citibank, the main susbidiary of
Citicorp, said the filing it made with the Securities and
Exchange Commission about the possible impact on earnings
should certain Brazilian loans be placed on a cash basis was
not linked to debt talks that are about to begin with Brazil.
    Citibank said it had told the SEC that its earnings could
be reduced by 50 mln dlrs after-tax in the first quarter, and
190 mln dlrs in the year, if it has to declare 3.9 billion dlrs
of medium- and long-term Brazilian loans non-performing.    
    Rather, Citibank said it was simply complying with the
disclosure requirements contained in the U.S. Securities Acts.
    Citibank said in its filing with the SEC that it was
premature to decide now whether the loans should be placed on a
non-perfoming basis, a view that was echoed by spokesmen of
several other major U.S. banks.    
 Reuter...

FPL Group Inc shut down a nuclear reactor
at its Turkey Point power plant after engineers discovered a
tiny leak of radioactive water from the pressure vessel
surrounding the reactor core, a company spokeswoman said.
    FPL spokeswoman Stacey Shaw said FPL shut down Turkey Point
Unit Four voluntarily to repair the leak, which she described
as "a tablespoon full of water that never posed any danger to
the plant or the public."
    The nuclear reactor -- one of two at the site south of
Miami -- was already partially shut down for the repair of a
leaky pressure valve discovered on Wednesday.
    Shaw said the reactor was expected to be back on line in
about a week.
 Reuter

Mexico has temporarily suspended its
debt-equity swap program in a move that some bankers see as an
attempt to increase pressure on reluctant foreign banks to
participate in a new 7.7 billion dlr loan for the country.
    The scheme, which gives foreign firms access to cheap pesos
to finance investment in Mexico, is likely to resume soon after
the loan package is signed on March 20.
    But the move is a further indication of the strains that
have developed between Mexico and the banks because of the
difficulty of syndicating the huge loan, bankers said.
    Bankers said that Mexico suspended the swap program on
February 25.
    Adolfo Hegewisch, Mexico's Undersecretary for Commerce,
confirmed that the swap program had been halted, but he told a
Euromoney conference on debt-equity swaps that Mexico had been
forced to act because it had been inundated with applications.
    Between January 1 and February 15, 132 firms had applied to
do a debt-equity conversion, compared with 100 between May and
December 1986. "We were not accustomed to receive so much
work," said Hegewisch, who is responsible for foreign
investment in Mexico.
    Bankers said applications totalling two billion dlrs had
piled up at the finance ministry, which has said it wants to
limit the amount of swaps to 100 mln dlrs a month.
    But some bankers, who declined to be identified, said the
halt also suited Mexico as it would keep up pressure on the
banks during the final campaign to persuade all 400 creditors
worldwide to participate in the loan.
    Over 97 pct of the loan has been subscribed, but dozens of
smaller banks are still baulking. Assistant U.S. Treasury
Secretary David Mulford said yesterday that the reluctance of
these banks had nearly jeopardized the deal at one stage.
    "The Mexicans basically said, We're not going to subsidize
foreigners until we have a deal," one banker said.
    Other bankers, however, said Mexico's motives were not so
sinister and that the suspension was mainly due to the absence
of top ministry officials in New York for the debt talks.
    "They want to focus on the deal, and they wanted the banks
to focus on the deal," one source said.
    Apart from the present disruption, bankers and company
officials said the Mexican debt-equity scheme has been a huge
success.    
    Frank Fountain, Assistant Treasurer at Chrysler Corp, said
a 100 mln dlr swap it made in December had gone so smoothly
that Chrysler has plans for more.
    Chrysler, working through Manufacturters Hanover Trust Co,
bought Mexican public-sector debt with a face value of 110 mln
dlrs, mainly from European banks. The cost was about 65 mln
dlrs in cash and paper.
    It then presented the paper to Mexico's central bank and
received the equivalent of 100 mln dlrs worth of pesos which it
invested in its local subsidiary to produce cars for export to
    Susan Segal, senior vice president of Manufacturers
Hanover, said the swaps not only reduce Mexico's debt burden
but help to recapitalize local industries that may have been
squeezed out of the local capital markets.
    Fountain said that even a large well-established firm such
as Chrysler had found it difficult to arrange long-term peso
financing on reasonable terms in Mexico.
    Industrial companies have done most of the swaps to date,
and Hegewisch said that many of the applications now pending
are for investments in the electronic and chemical industries,
with Japanese and Korean firms showing particular interest.
    But the interest is spreading. Segal said Manufacturers
Hanover has been authorized to convert part of its own
portfolio of loans into equity investment in Mexican hotels.
    She said the sums involved are considerable, but gave no
details. The bank is also looking into joint ventures with
manufacturing and trading companies, Segal added.
    And, as part of the agreement with the banks that will be
signed next week, Mexican residents will be allowed to
participate in the scheme, hitherto reserved for foreign firms,
in the hope that some of the 30 billion dlrs estimated to be
held abroad will be repatriated.
 Reuter

The Commerce Department said all
Canadian firms have begun to pay an agreed 15 pct surcharge on
softwood shipped to U.S. markets.
about rumors in Canada that some exporters were not paying the
charge.
    Canada and the U.S. agreed last December to the 15 pct
charge, ending a lengthy trade dispute over alleged Canadian
subsidies to Canada's softwood exporters.
    Commerce officials declined to say if any Canadian
companies had been evading the charge, but said following the
 reuter

Ecuador President ratifies unilateral suspension of debt payments to private foreign banks

A decision by Colombia to open coffee
export registrations for an unlimited amount does not imply the
country will heavily sell coffee until recently withheld,
Gilberto Arango, president of the private exporters'
association, told Reuters.
    Colombia today opened export registrations for april and
may, with the National Coffee Growers' Federation setting no
limit.
    Since the start of the coffee year last october, private
exporters were on average allowed 350,000 bags of 60 kilos per
month.
    "Traders will initially interpret this measure as announcing
heavy sales. Even today it pressured the market. But it will
quickly become apparent that Colombia does not intend to go
over the top," Arango said in an interview.
    "Colombia's marketing policy is to sell without haste but
consistently. No targets for volume will be set. We will react
to market factors adequately. Colombia has no intention to give
its coffee away," he added.
    Arango described measures adopted here yesterday, including
a lower export registration price, as a major change in
Colombia's coffee marketing policy.
    The export registration price, or reintegro, was lowered to
1.10 dlr per lb ex-dock new york, or 155.83 dlrs per bag of 70
kilos, from 1.35 dlrs (194.33 dlrs).
    The government announced a more flexible policy of
reintegro, in order to closely reflect market trends, which
arango warmly welcomed saying private exporters will
undoubtedly be more actively present in the market.
    A frequent gap between international market prices and the
reintegro was unlikely to recur, he said.
 Reuter

Baird Corp said its independent
directors adopted a plan under which one stock purchase right
will be distributed as a dividend on each common share to
stockholders of record March 23.
    The plan is designed to protect shareholders against
unsolicited or coercive takeover attempts.
    The rights, which would allow holders to buy one-half share
of common for 20 dlrs, will be exercisable if a suitor acquires
25 pct or more of the company's common as of today or 30 pct at
a later date, or if such a holder begins a tender offer to
acquire the company, or in other circumstances.
    Under certain conditions, the rights will allow holders to
buy stock in a surviving company at half price.
    Baird can redeem the rights at five cts apiece subject to
certain conditions, it said.
 Reuter

William Mulholland, president of the
Bank of Montreal, said here it is important for Brazil to seek
its economic growth.
    Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Brazilian
Finance Minister Dilson Funaro, the Canadian banker said he
suggested to Funaro the conversion of Brazil's 1.3 billion
dollars debt with the Bank of Montreal by direct investments in
this country.
    He said the Brazilian minister was impressed with his
initiative and that he (Funaro) had submitted the proposal to
the Central Bank for a broader analysis.
    Commenting on Brazil's decision to suspend payment of
interests to private creditor banks, Mulholland said he would
rather see that it did not happen, but that he understood the
decision made by the Brazilian government:
    "A country like Brazil cannot stop growing. Of course, it
must also seek an internal adjustment capable of controlling
the spiral of its inflation and public deficit," he said.
    He suggested Brazil and the international financial
community to work together and seek stable conditions to face
the problems of this country's foreign debt.                 
 Reuter

Ecuadorean President Leon Febres Cordero
said his country was unilaterally suspending payments to
private foreign banks due to last week's earthquake which
caused up to one billion dollars in damage.
    Febres Cordero, quoted in an Information Ministry
communique, said: "We have to ratify this suspension ... on debt
service to the private international banks.
    "I am not ashamed to say it, there definitely isn't a way to
pay," he said.
    Ecuador had already suspended payments to private foreign
banks, holding two-thirds of Ecuador's 8.16 billion dollar
foreign debt, from last January due to a cash-flow squeeze
stemming from a slide in world oil prices last year.
    But finance officials had earlier said the length of the
suspension would depend on negotiations with private foreign
banks.
    The information ministry communique said febres cordero
made these statments to reporters at lago agrio, at the heart
of ecuador's region of jungle oilfields, before returning to
quito.
    Febres cordero said up to a total of 1,000 people died or
were missing in avalanches and mudslides during the march 5
earthquake.
    The tremor damaged an oil pipeline, thus barring all crude
exports for a projected five months. Oil accounts for up to
two-thrids of ecuador's total exoprts and for as much as 60 per
    He did not specify for how long the suspension of payments
would last.
    Ecuador owes private foreign banks 450 to 500 mln dlrs in
interest payments for the rest of the year and 66 mln dlrs
in principal payments maturing in 1987, finance officials said.
    Finance minister domingo cordovez said two days ago the
government seeks to postpone all the payments due to private
foreign banks in 1987 until next year through negotiations with
these creditors.
 Reuter

GENEVA - negotiators at U.N. Conference agree basic elements in new rubber pact - chairman

conference on a new International Natural Rubber Agreement
(INRA) have agreed on basic elements in a new pact, conference
chairman Manaspas Xuto said.
    "We have resolved major differences of opinion," he told
Reuters.
    Xuto said the way is now cleared for drafting a new accord,
to replace the current one which expires in October.
    Xuto said: "I welcome the friendly and cooperative
atmosphere that has prevailed without interruption" since the
talks began last Monday.
    "It is my hope that delegations will go back home and try to
ratify the new agreement," he added.
    The renegotiation conference, under the auspices of the
U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is the
fourth such meeting in two years.
    Xuto said producers and consumers had agreed on four
points:
    1) Regular price reviews will be held every 15 months.
    Previously consumers were proposing 12-month intervals
between price reviews instead of 18 in the current pact.
    2) If the average of the daily market indicator prices over
six months prior to a review is below (or above) the lower
intervention price (or the upper intervention price), the
reference price will be automatically revised downwards (or
upwards) by five pct unless the International Natural Rubber
Organisation council decides on a higher percentage.
    If buffer stock purchases or sales reach 300,000 tonnes,
the reference price will be lowered or raised by three pct
unless the council decides on a higher percentage.
    3) If the buffer stock reaches 400,000 tonnes, the price at
which the additional contingency stock of 150,000 tonnes is
brought into operation will be two Malaysian/Singapore cents
above the floor price -- or 152 cents.
    4) The floor price will not be breached. Throughout the
talks producers had adamantly resisted a consumer proposal to
lower the floor price of 150 cents if the buffer stock,
currently 360,000 tonnes, rose to 450,000 tonnes.
    The proposal, initiated by the U.S., Was withdrawn last
night, setting the stage for compromise.
    Legal drafting of provisions will start next week and
formal adoption of the new accord by the 40 countries taking
part in the conference is expected to take place on March 20.
    The current conference was widely seen as the last chance
to clinch a deal. Three previous attempts to negotiate a new
five- year pact had failed, the last round breaking down in
October over consumer demands for tighter controls of the
buffer stock.
    The United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Italy and
Britain are the major consumers.
    UNCTAD's latest estimates project an increase of 8.5 pct in
rubber prices this year and 4.1 pct in 1988.
 REUTER

World Bank Vice-President David
Knox said creditor banks must become more flexible in providing
funds for Latin American debtor nations.
    "The international creditor banks must make their position
more flexible, ensuring a flow of funds for Latin American
countries, especially the most indebted," Knox told the semi-
official newsagency Telam.
    Knox said Brazil's decision last month to suspend payments
on a large portion of its foreign debt had shocked the creditor
banks. The banks were "in no hurry to provide funds for the
debtor nations," he said.
    But he said the situation of debtor nations transferring
funds to the developed should be reversed. "It must be the other
way round, to make development in indebted states possible."
    He said the World Bank was supplying special lines of
credit to make up for this inflexibility on the part of the
banks. It had increased its involvement in development projects
by 60 pct in the last two years, he said.
    Knox said banks would grant Argentina loans of up to two
billion dlrs over the next two years to help the country meet
growth targets. Argentina is currently negotiating a 2.15
billion dlr loan with creditor banks for 1987.
 REUTER

(FHLBB) announced the acquisition of Home Savings and Loan
Association in Seattle, Washington, by InterWest Savings Bank
of Oak Harbour, Washington.
    The FHLBB said Home Savings was the 12th troubled savings
institution requiring federal action this year.
    It said Home Savings had assets of 150.6 mln dlrs in assets
and InterWest had assets of 342.9 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

Bangladesh floated an international
tender for the purchase of 10,000 tonnes of refined soyabean
oil for delivery at Chittagong/Chalna port by April 24, Food
    The tender closes March 28 at 0500 GMT.
 REUTER

President Leon Febres Cordero said
Ecuador would honour its debt when it had the capacity to make
payments, but said foreign banks had calculated oil would have
to be 25 dlrs a barrel for Ecuador to meet its commitments.
    Ecuador yesterday said last week's earthquake was forcing
it to reaffirm an earlier decision -- based on the slide in
world oil prices -- to suspend debt payments to private foreign
banks, which hold two-thirds of its 8.16 billion dlr foreign
debt.
    "All legitimate debt is a commitment of honour," the
president said during a visit to the quake zone. "A government
as a sovereign entity has dignity and prestige to maintain."
    He said he had previously held that Ecuador was obliged to
make debt payments when crude oil was at 26 dlrs a barrel
because the government had projected plans with crude prices at
    Private foreign banks and the World Bank had calculated oil
would have to be at least 25 dlrs a barrel for Quito to be able
to meet its commitments, Febres Cordero said.
    He added that Ecuadorean crude was now selling for 15 to 17
dlrs a barrel after having been sold for many months at 12 dlrs
a barrel and as low as seven dlrs before that.
 REUTER

The Bank of Spain said banks must make
provisions amounting to at least 25 pct of outstanding loans to
countries deemed to be high-risk borrowers.
    The measure was included in a package of circulars approved
by governors of the central bank yesterday.
    The bank said it was retaining a complex system for
calculating the proportion of loans which must be covered by
special provisions but added that sudden shifts in the
situation of borrowers had made it advisable to set a minimum
level of 25 pct for such provisions.
    The bank said another measure instructs banks and financial
institutions to begin setting aside provisions for future
pension obligations.
    Banks were obliged last year to ensure that they had made
sufficient provisions for current pension obligations and a new
circular sets a maximum time limit of five years to cover
future obligations.
 REUTER

Ecuador announced an austerity program
and a price freeze on key consumer goods as a result of last
week's earthquake which killed at least 300 people.
    Presidency Minister Patricio Quevedo said in a televised
address that the budget would be cut by five to 10 pct,
government hiring would be frozen and salaries of top
officials, including the president and cabinet, would be
reduced.
    He also said a price freeze would be imposed on 20 basic
consumer items, mainly food staples, while the price of petrol
would rise by between 69 and 80 pct and bus fares would rise by
20 pct. Petrol supplies would also be limited.
    Information Ministry officials said the price freeze was
aimed at protecting poor Ecuadoreans from a wave of
specualtion. Violators would be severely punished, according to
the price freeze order, signed by five cabinet ministers.
    The items for which prices were frozen included rice,
sugar, cooking oil, potatoes, salt, wheat flour, cigarettes,
soft drinks, school supplies and several kinds of vegetables.
    Ecuador's consumer price inflation was 23 pct in 1986.
    The price of 92-octane petrol rises to 110 sucres a U.S.
Gallon from 65 sucres. Eighty-octane petrol increases to 90
sucres from 50.
 REUTER

Sweden's trade surplus rose to 3.6
billion crowns in February from 1.5 billion in January and 3.48
billion in February 1986, the Central Bureau of Statistics
said.
    The trade surplus for the first two months of the year rose
to 5.1 billion crowns from 4.9 billion in the corresponding
period of 1986.
    The report said February imports stood at 20.1 billion
crowns while exports were 23.7 billion.
 REUTER

The Bank of China, the state foreign
exchange and foreign trade bank, has increased its capital to
five billion yuan from three billion yuan, the New China News
    The bank's board of directors meeting here announced that
the increased funds had been allocated to the bank last
December.
    The meeting approved the bank's 1986 balance sheet, showing
total assets of 345 billion yuan by end-1986. No comparative
figure was given for 1985.
    A bank spokesman said the increased capital would enhance
its position at a time of rapidly expanding business.
    By end-1986, the bank had 369 domestic institutions and 347
elsewhere including Hong Kong and Macao.
 REUTER

Yugoslavian steel output will rise by
one mln tonnes to 6.3 mln tonnes a year between 1986 and 1990
under a development program adopted by the Yugoslav Iron and
Steel Metallurgy Association, the official Tanjug news agency
said.
    The association groups together the main Yugoslav iron and
steel enterprises.
    Extraction of iron ore should show an annual growth rate of
nine pct and reach seven mln tonnes by 1990 under the program.
Iron output is planned to grow at eight pct a year, reaching
4.5 mln tonnes at the end of the decade.
    Tanjug said the programme would create conditions for
raising exports of finished steel products.
    The main Yugoslav steel producers plan to market 5.35 mln
tonnes of steel goods this year, or 150,000 tonnes more than
last year, with 1.5 mln tonnes going to export.
 REUTER

French state-owned aluminium and special
metals group Pechiney said it has signed two protocols of
intent to set up joint ventures with the Soviet Union.
    Pechiney said in a statement one accord was to set up joint
ventures manufacturing aluminium packaging for food and
cosmetics, while another was to produce machinery to
manufacture packaging.
    Under the latter, Pechiney, which does not manufacture
packaging equipment, will form and lead a consortium of yet
unspecified European partners, a spokesman said.
    He said it was early to put figures on possible deals, or
outline what form joint ventures would take.
    The statement said joint working groups for each accord had
a three-month deadline to come up with contract proposals.
    No firm contracts have yet been finalised under new laws
enabling joint ventures, First Deputy Prime Minister and
Chairman of the State Agro-Industrial Committee (GOSAGROPROM)
Vsevolod Murakhovsky told journalists here on Wednesday.
 REUTER

Yugoslavia's top oil and natural gas
producer <Ina-Naftaplin> has started to implement a cooperation
contract signed last year with the French petrochemical concern
<Petro Chemie>, the official Tanjug news agency said.
    Under the deal Petro Chemie supplies oil to Ina refineries
in Sisak and Rijeka and ships parts to 12 Yugoslav firms in the
petrochemical, chemical, textile and plastics industries. The
Yugoslav firms, in turn, will export oil products to France.
    Tanjug said this year's exchange will value 530 mln dlrs.
    Ina signed a similar deal with West Germany's Hoechst AG
<HFAG.F> two years ago.
    Ina also has joint ventures and co-production projects,
involving Yugoslavia's other main producer <Naftagas> of Novi
Sad, with partners in Angola, Algeria and Tunisia, exploring
for and exploiting oil and natural gas.
    An estimated 300,000 tonnes of oil will thus be obtained
from fields in Angola over the next 15 years, Tanjug said.
    Ina accounts for some 75 pct of Yugoslavia's total oil
production, which amounts to 4.2 mln tonnes a year.
    Ina earned more than 154 mln dlrs from exports of goods and
services to 39 countries last year and ranks among Yugoslavia's
leading export enterprises.
    In a separate statement issued through Tanjug, Ina said it
has successfully completed the first drill at the depth of over
3,000 meters in the Bay of Baes, in Tunisia. Ina is jointly
prospecting with the U.S. Firm Conoco for oil and gas there.
    Work on a second drill, below 4,000 meters, would start
soon in the Bay of Gabes, the statement said. Ina would invest
about 8.5 mln dlrs in prospecting in the Gabes area.
    Conoco, which has completed geological prospecting for the
Tunisian government, has transferred one third of its option
rights in the region to Ina, it said.
 REUTER

Britain and Japan agreed to operate 12
flights a week over Siberia each other including eight non-stop
services from May 31, officials of the Transport Ministry said.
    The officials said both countries reached agreement at
their civil aviation talks here enabling British airline
companies to begin regular air service on the trans-Siberian
route between London and Tokyo. Japan Air Lines Co <JAPN.T>
(JAL) already operates one flight on that route.
    Ministry sources said <British Airways> and <British
Caledonian Air Lines> were expected to share the six British
flights each week over Siberia.
    They said Britain, currently operating seven weekly
Japan-Britain flights, all via Anchorage, Alaska, will be
allowed to operate a total of 10 flights a week from May 31.
    Under the agreement, the British side can also operate
flights from Tokyo to Seoul instead of Singapore.
    Japanese airway companies will be able to increase the
number of weekly flights to nine from May 31 from eight
currently, comprising six trans-Siberian flights, including
four non-stop flights, and three flights via Anchorage.
 REUTER

Indonesia, the world's second largest
producer of palm oil, has not issued licences to import the
commodity, a spokesman for the Ministry of Trade said.
    Traders in London said Indonesia has issued licences to
local operators to import around 135,000 tonnes of palm oil
starting in April, but the spokesman said this was incorrect.
    A spokesman for the Indonesian Importers Association also
denied knowledge of the import plan. He said importers would
quickly know if licences were issued. The Trade Ministry
official said there was no sign of a palm oil shortage in
 REUTER

India will get 104.65 mln stg as
grants from Britain to develop its coal, zinc and lead
industries, the British Information Services said in a
    It said a 31 mln stg grant would be disbursed over three to
four years under an agreement signed here yesterday between the
Indian Finance Ministry and the British Overseas Development
    The British grants for developing the Indian coal industry
using British mechanised longwall technology totalled 52 mln
stg in the past 10 years, it said.
    Under a separate agreement, the British government agreed
to provide 73.65 mln stg as a grant to develop a zinc and lead
mine at Rampura-Agucha and an associated smelting complex at
Chaneriya, both in India's northern state of Rajasthan, the
    The grant will finance the basic engineering for the
smelter complex to be undertaken by Britain's <Davy McKee> of
Stockton. It will also help develop the mine complex, it added.
 REUTER

Iran has deployed about six large
missiles near the Strait of Hormuz which increase the threat to
shipping in the Gulf, the New York Times said.
    The paper quoted U.S. Intelligence sources as saying the
missiles appeared to be of a Chinese design known as HY-2 which
is based on the Soviet SSN2 or Styx missile.
    Styx missiles have a range of up to 50 miles.
    It said the missiles had been deployed at two sites and
quoted a naval analyst as saying they could be used to sink a
supertanker and block the Strait of Hormuz.
    Missiles now used by Iran had only a fraction of the
explosive power of the Styx and could sink a supertanker only
with a lucky hit, the paper said. None of the new missiles had
been fired yet, it added.
    The CBS television network reported on Friday that Iran had
installed new missiles along the Gulf and said Washington had
warned Tehran not to use them against civilian shipping.
 REUTER

Yugoslav trade union leaders are
touring the country in an attempt to quell a wave of strikes
following a partial wages freeze, official sources said.
    Eyewitnesses in the northern city of Zagreb reported far
more police on the streets than normal after the city and areas
nearby experienced the biggest wave of strikes in the country
in recent memory.
    National newspapers in Belgrade have given few details of
the strikes. But Zagreb papers said thousands of workers went
on strike and thousands more were threatening action over pay
cuts.
    Official sources said there were also strikes at a Belgrade
medical centre, a food factory in Sambor, and enterprises in
Nis, Leskovac and Kraljevo, as well as other towns.
    They said national union officials were travelling
throughout the country to speak to meetings in an attempt to
restore calm.
    But trade union leaders were avoiding making statements to
the press and had not made their stand on the strikes clear.
    Western diplomats said the strikes appeared to be
spontaneous and without any unified orchestration.
 REUTER

Brazilian bank workers voted
to launch a nationwide strike this month, compounding labour
unrest arising from the failure of the government's
anti-inflation plan.
    At a rally in this city, about 100 km northwest of Sao
Paulo, about 5,000 bank workers voted to strike on March 24
unless their demand for 100 pct pay rises is met.
    Wilson Gomes de Moura, president of the national
confederation which groups the bank employees' 152 unions
representing 700,000 workers, told Reuters the indefinite
stoppage would affect all banks.
    The vote came as a stoppage by seamen entered its third
week and as 55,000 oil workers threatened action against the
state-owned petroleum company Petrobras.
    The government ordered thousands of troops into the
refineries on Tuesday to forestall any occupation, but the
troops were removed yesterday.
    Petrobras said it had requested their withdrawal because
the refineries were calm and oil workers had indicated their
willingess to negotiate next Wednesday. The government has also
sent marines into the main ports.
    A spokesman at strike headquarters for the seamen in Rio de
Janeiro said unions were studying an offer by private
shipowners for a 120 pct pay rise.
    Seamen employed by two small companies have already
accepted a 120 pct pay rise and returned to work, as have about
5,000 seamen employed by Petrobras.
    Last week also saw widespread protests by hundreds of
thousands of farmers over what they see as unfairly high
interest rates charged by banks.
    According to official estimates, prices rose by more than
33 pct in the first two months of this year.
 REUTER

President Reagan for the first time
admitted he was wrong to sell arms to Iran in an initiative
which four months ago plunged him into the worst crisis of his
six-year-old presidency.
    He made the admission in a weekly radio address while
defending the role played by Secretary of State George Shultz
and Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger in the affair.
    He said: "In the case of the Iranian arms sale matter, both
Secretary Shultz and Secretary Weinberger advised me strongly
not to pursue the initiative. I weighed their advice but
decided in the end the initiative was worth the risk and went
forward."
    "As we now know, it turned out they were right and I was
wrong. But they discharged their responsibilities as my
advisers and as my subordinates," he said.
    Since the scandal broke last November, Shultz and
Weinberger have said they told Reagan of their opposition to
the deal and were not fully informed of the effort, carried out
by National Security Council members.
    They also said they were unaware of the diversion of
millions of dollars in profits from the arms sales to the
Nicaraguan contra rebels, who have been fighting the leftist
Managua government for six years.
 REUTER

Bank of China has increased authorised
capital to five billion yuan from three billion to help meet
expanding business needs, the official People's Daily reported.
    The state-owned bank's total assets reached 345 billion
yuan at end-1986, up from 260.5 billion at end-1985, it said.
    The bank handles almost all of China's foreign exchange
business and the settlement of international trade
 REUTER

West German Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg was quoted as saying a possible currency fraud at
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> may affect government plans to sell its
20 pct stake in the carmaker this year.
    "It is all very unpleasant for us because we have decided to
privatise the VW shares this year. We will now have to ask
ourselves the question whether we can keep to this date," he
told Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview.
    Bild am Sonntag released the text ahead of publication
    Stoltenberg did not elaborate on the share sale. The West
German government owns 20 pct of VW ordinary share capital and
has said previously it plans to sell it either in 1987 or 1988.
    Stoltenberg told Bild am Sonntag the possible fraud showed
there had "clearly been reprehensible criminal conduct below the
level of the responsible management board."
    "I do not want to prejudge results but the immediate and
serious question which poses itself is whether certain
management board members have kept their areas of business
under appropriate control," he was quoted as saying.
    VW said last week it had discovered possibly fraudulent
currency transactions which could cost the company 480 mln
marks and had asked state prosecutors to investigate.
    It said on Friday it had dismissed the head of its foreign
exchange department, Burkhard Junger.
    VW also said it suspended six staff, including financial
transfer department chief Guenther Borchert and the head of the
central cash and currency clearing department, Siegfried
Mueller.
 REUTER

U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige predicted Congress will pass a reasonable trade bill
this year and said tough protectionist legislation could prompt
a trade war.
    "The mood of the Congress right now is as tough on trade as
I've ever seen it in six years in Washington," Baldrige said in
a television interview.
    "I think we'll still be able to get a reasonable trade bill
out in spite of that because the whole Congress is trying to
work together with the administration, but there is a hardening
trade attitude," he said.
    President Reagan opposes protectionist legislation, but
agreed to support a trade bill when it became apparent that
opposition Democrats would pass such legislation.
    However, Baldrige warned measures that would penalise
trading partners such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan for
failing to cut their trade surpluses with the U.S. Could lead
to retaliation and he said he would urge Reagan to veto any
such bill.
    When asked if there is a rising danger of a worldwide trade
war, Baldrige said: "Yes, I don't think there's any question
about that."
 REUTER

Britain's ruling Conservatives have a
nine point lead over the main opposition Labour Party, their
biggest in two years, according to an opinion poll published in
the Sunday Times.
    The MORI poll's findings come as the latest in a series of
setbacks for Labour and are bound to encourage talk that Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher may call a general election in June.
    The poll gives the Conservatives a rating of 41 pct against
32 pct for Labour and 25 pct for the centrist Liberal-Social
Democratic Alliance -- enough to give Thatcher an overall
majority of 46 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons.
    The poll, which follows a survey by Marplan last week
giving the Conservatives a six-point lead over Labour, shows
how dramatically the fortunes of Britain's two largest parties
have changed over the past six months.
    As recently as September, Labour was still ahead in opinion
polls and was looking forward to forming Britain's next
government. Since then, it has been beset by inner wrangling
and its popularity among Britain's voters has tumbled.
    Morale among Labour politicians slumped further last month
when the party lost a key by-election in Greenwich, south
London -- a seat which Labour had held for 50 years.
 REUTER

European Commission President Jacques
Delors, quoted by Le Monde newspaper, said he favoured a
Franco-German candidate to take over <Cie Generale de
Constructions Telephoniques>, which has a 16 pct stake in the
French public telephone switching market.
    "I wish for a European solution ... That will enable Germany
and France to move closer together, which is currently
necessary," he was quoted as saying.
    "Given the situtation of the EC (European Community) and of
the importance for our future connunications audiences and of
cooperation already undertaken on the Community level, that
seems the best choice," Delors added.
    Five groups, including an alliance between West Germany's
Siemens AG <SIEG.F> and France's Schneider S.A. <SCHN.PA>
subsidiary Jeumont-Schneider, have applied to buy what is
France's second largest telephone switching firm.
    Under French privatisation law, foreign companies are
restricted to a 20 pct stake in privatised companies.
 REUTER

The head of a Philippine panel charged
with recovering illegal wealth accumulated by former President
Ferdinand Marcos and his associates said they still controlled
large funds circulating in the country's economy.
    Ramon Diaz, Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good
Government (PCGG) told Reuters in an interview: "There is every
reason to believe that the cronies and President Marcos and his
family were able to hide millions and millions of pesos before
they fled. As a matter of fact we have been able to get hold of
crates of newly printed currency."
    Diaz did not give figures, but said: "We believe they still
have a lot of funds. These are the funds that they will use in
the coming elections. These are the funds that they used to
stage those coups."
    He was referring to congressional elections scheduled for
May 11 and to the three coup attempts faced by President
Corazon Aquino since she toppled Marcos a year ago.
    Diaz said the PCGG so far has recovered cash and property
valued at about eight billion pesos and had sequestered shares
of stock of at least 286 firms. "We have achieved more than what
we thought we could achieve in one year," he added.
    The PCGG, set up by Aquino in February 1986, has sweeping
powers of sequestration, seizure and inspection of bank
accounts. Diaz said the panel's main task is to gather evidence
for legal prosecution. "But we have to sequester before we file
a case and that is the legal objection because they say that we
shoot first before we ask questions," he said.
    He said dividends from seized shares were held in trust
funds pending court verdicts, adding several Marcos associates
had made confessions about their wealth. He did not name them.
    "They are very concerned and afraid that if their names
appear something may happen to them," he said.
    The government last week announced that businessman Antonio
Floirendo, an associate of Marcos known as the "banana king," had
turned over 70 mln pesos in cash to the PCGG and promised to
surrender titles to property in New York and Hawaii worth
another 180 mln pesos. In return, the PCGG said it had lifted
freeze and sequestration orders on Floirendo's properties.
    Diaz said there were already similar preliminary agreements
with another Marcos associate, Roberto Benedicto. He said
Benedicto had surrendered control of several newspapers and
radio and television stations and agreed to PCGG control of the
boards of a bank and a hotel he owned in the Philippines.
    Diaz said the PCGG based its estimates of illegal wealth on
income-tax returns and land titles of Marcos associates.
"Anything over and above reported income -- that's what we have
to recover," he said.
    He said a decision by the PCGG last week to probe street
certificates held by brokers at Manila's two stock exchanges
was prompted by suspicion that illegal funds were in
circulation.
    Street certificates describe securities held in the name of
a broker or another nominee instead of a customer so as to
permit easy trading or transfer.
    Share prices at the two exchanges reacted nervously last
Tuesday when news of the probe leaked. The composite index at
the Manila Stock Exchange fell 18.61 points to 451.51, while
that at the Makati Stock Exchange slipped 1.7326 points to
close at 63.0618. There was a slight recovery the following
day.
    The presidents of the two exchanges appealed to Diaz to
carry out the probe discreetly so investors were not scared
away, saying street certificates did not necessarily indicate
"anomalous transactions."
    "It's unfortunate that (news of the probe) leaked out to the
papers," Diaz said.
    Diaz said PCGG suspicions were aroused by the stock market
boom over the past year. The Manila Stock Exchange composite
index jumped 224 pct from 131.32 to 424.81 in 1986.
    "One of our functions is to see to it that these assets that
we have sequestered do not go right back into the hands of the
(Marcos) cronies," he said.
    "We want to make sure that these stock exchanges are not
being manipulated by the cronies because maybe they want to
launder their pesos and that is why the prices are just
skyrocketing."
    Diaz said the PCGG would limit its probe to sequestered
stock in brewery giant San Miguel Corp, the Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Co, mining conglomerate Benguet Corp, and
Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp.
    Shares of the four companies are among the most frequently
traded on the two stock exchanges.
    Diaz said at a meeting with the heads of the two exchanges
last Thursday that the PCGG would act prudently in its
investigation of street certificates, adding the panel
supported government efforts to create a favourable investment
climate.
 REUTER

Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, warned the nation's civilian and military
hierarchy against discord and dissent, Tehran radio said.
    A report, monitored by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, said he gave the warning in a speech to senior
government and military figures.
    He said Iranians should guard against internal dissent and
try to prevent it in a situation where foreign powers aimed to
"smash Islam...And destroy every one of us."
    His audience at a Tehran mosque included President Ali
Khamenei, Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Hojatoleslam
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, influential Speaker of the Majlis
(Parliament) as well as military leaders, the radio said.
    It quoted Khomeini as saying: "Everybody around us is
pursuing the aim of destroying us from within. They say things
like such-and-such happened at such-and-such a place, who is
fighting whom...These things have an impact, and if one does
not beg God for preservation from such evils, one may fall into
a trap."
    Urging support for Parliament and the armed forces,
Khomeini said it was a "religious duty" to control negative
feelings about others and to behave in a friendly way.
    "We must support the Majlis. The Majlis must take sides with
the nation. We must support the government and it must serve
the nation," he said. "We must support the armed forces...They,
too, should support you.
    Khomeini said there should not be "one faction on one side
and another on the other...The armed forces must be on the side
of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Corps must support
the armed forces."
 REUTER

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
has assured Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi it will continue
to give his country maximum support, the official Kenya News
Agency KNA said.
    It said IMF Managing director Michel Camdessus made the
pledge during talks with Moi in Washington yesterday.
    Earlier this month, Moi told parliament Kenya would face a
difficult balance of payments situation this year as a result
of falling income from coffee exports and a higher oil import
bill.
    Foreign bankers in Nairobi have said a new loan agreement
with the IMF would be Kenya's first option for dealing with the
expected deficit.
    According to KNA, Moi thanked Camdessus for the IMF's help
to Kenya during difficult times in the past.
    "Mr Camdessus assured president Moi that the IMF would
continue to give Kenya maximum help," it added.
    Moi pressed the U.S. To increase its level of aid to Kenya,
which fell to 53 mln dlrs this year from 111 mln in 1984, and
called for more U.S. Investment in the country.
 REUTER

SAUDI OIL MINISTER FORESEES NO NEED FOR NEW OPEC MEASURES BEFORE JUNE 25

said OPEC's December agreement to stabilise oil prices at 18
dlrs a barrel was being implemented satisfactorily and there
was no immediate need to change it.
    Nazer, in an interview with Reuters and the television news
agency Visnews, said Saudi Arabia was producing around three
mln barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, well below its OPEC
quota.
    Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, will
continue to restrain production as long as other OPEC members
adhere to the pact, Nazer said.
    The 13-nation OPEC agreed in December to cut its production
ceiling by 7.25 pct to 15.8 mln bpd and abide by fixed prices
averaging 18 dlrs a barrel from February 1.
    Nazer, in his first interview since succeeding Ahmed Zaki
Yamani last October, said: "I do not foresee any need for new
measures before the 25th of June when our (next OPEC) meeting
will take place as scheduled."
    Nazer said OPEC was producing below 15.8 mln bpd and all
members were abiding by its agreements.
    "We've heard news every now and then of violations but they
were not at all verified," he said.
    OPEC production curbs have boosted world oil prices from a
13-year low of around eight dlrs a barrel last August to near
18 dlrs after announcement of the December pact.
    Spot market prices slipped some two dlrs in February but
have firmed in the past two weeks to near OPEC levels as
traders gained confidence in OPEC price and output discipline.
    Nazer said Saudi Arabia would continue to produce below its
4.133 mln bpd quota if necessary to defend the 18 dlr price.
    "As long as all the OPEC members adhere to the program as
devised in December, Saudi Arabia will continue to adhere to
the agreement," he said.
    Current production of three mln bpd includes oil from the
Neutral Zone shared with Kuwait, but not sales from floating
storage, Nazer said.
    King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, in an interview with Reuters and
Visnews on March 11, said the kingdom wanted oil price
stability and called on non-OPEC producers to avoid harmful
competition with OPEC.
    "Saudi Arabia doesn't decide prices by itself but certainly
desires price stability," he said.
    Nazer said the output level did not mean the kingdom had
returned to a role of "swing producer" within OPEC.
    Saudi Arabia allowed its output to sink as low as two mln
bpd in August 1985 to compensate for slack demand and
over-production by some OPEC states.
    "Saudi Arabia is not playing that role. It is being played
by OPEC membership as a whole because the reduction in the 15.8
mln bpd share of OPEC in the market is being shared by other
members of OPEC," Nazer said.
    Nazer said OPEC estimated demand for its oil during third
quarter this year would be around 16.6 mln bpd.
    But he said if circumstances changed "I am sure then the
OPEC members will consult with each other and take the
necessary measures."
    Oil analysts say the OPEC pact could come under strain when
demand for petroleum products generally falls in the northern
hemisphere spring and summer.
    Nazer said he was satisfied with the extent of cooperation
from non-OPEC producers. Norway, Egypt and the Soviet Union
agreed to help OPEC by restraining production or exports after
he visited them on OPEC's behalf earlier this year.
    "We did not ask any country to do anything. These were
programmes they thought were necessary to stabilise market
conditions and to help themselves attain better pricing
conditions," Nazer said.
    He said it was up to countries that declined to cooperate
-- such as Britain -- to come up with their own proposals if
they saw fit.
 REUTER

A senior Ivory Coast Agriculture
Ministry official confirmed his country's backing for a new
international cocoa pact and said Ivorian delegates would be
present at talks on its buffer stock starting this week.
    The official told Reuters that Ivorian Agriculture Minister
Denis Bra Kanon would attend the opening of the talks, convened
by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), in London on
Monday.
    While Bra Kanon is due to return home this week for funeral
ceremonies for a sister of Ivorian President Felix
Houphouet-Boigny, scheduled to be held in the country's capital
Yamoussoukro between March 19-22, senior Ivorian delegates will
be present throughout the London talks, the official said.
    Bra Kanon is chairman of the ICCO Council and rumours that
he or Ivorian delegates might be delayed because of public
mourning in the West African nation helped depress already low
world cocoa prices Friday.
    The official said Ivory Coast continued to support the new
pact, which was agreed in principle last year by most of the
world's cocoa exporters and consumers.
    He also said Bra Kanon would fulfil his duties as ICCO
Council chairman during the talks, scheduled to end on March
27.
    The meeting aims to set rules for the operation of the
pact's buffer stock which producers hope will boost a market
hit by successive world cocoa surpluses.
    Ivory Coast did not participate in the last international
cocoa pact and its decision to join the new accord has sparked
hopes that it will be more successful in supporting prices.
 REUTER

Tense trade relations with the U.S.
And Japan and concern about the foreign impact of a proposed
European Community (EC) tax on edible oils and fats are
expected to dominate talks by EC foreign ministers here
tomorrow.
    EC diplomats said Britain demanded the early debate on the
EC Executive Commission's proposal to impose a hefty tax on
domestic and imported oils and fats in an attempt to head off a
proposal it sees as extremely damaging to EC foreign relations.
    The proposal was the most controversial part of a reform
package, due to be discussed by EC farm ministers later this
month, of the EC's Common Agricultural Policy -- widely seen as
the root cause of the EC's persistent financial problems and of
tensions with major trading partners.
    The proposal is described by its promoters as a
stabilisation program which would penalise a new sector going
into massive overproduction and complement proposals to cut
cereals and dairy production, rather than a straight forward
tax.
    They say it would not only curb the growth of oils and fats
production and prevent imports from filling any vaccum left by
a fall in EC output, but would also save the EC some two
billion European Currency Units, over two billion dlrs, in farm
costs.
    It has provoked strong protests from domestic producers as
well as foreign exporters, led by the United States.
    The diplomats said the protests had been received from most
corners of the developing and developed world, ranging from
Senegal, Malaysia and Indonesia, to Brazil, Argentina, Canada,
Iceland and Norway.
    The proposal had little chance of approval by EC
governments, with West Germany as strongly opposed to it as
Britain, and Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal also
unconvinced of its political or economic wisdom.
    Even Mediterranean countries such as Italy, France and
Greece, which backed similar proposals in the past, did not
seem as enthusiastic now because olive oil had been added to
the list of products affected.
    But the diplomats said a protectionist lobby in the U.S.
And elsewhere was using the proposal as an excuse to promote
anti-EC action, and the foreign ministers' debate should
demonstrate the strength of feeling against the proposal within
the EC and deprive its oponents of this argument.
    The ministers were also due to discuss proposals in the
U.S. Congress for a range of protecionist legislation such as a
bill that would curb EC textile exports.
    The diplomats said the ministers were expected to strongly
back a Commission warning to Washington that such a bill, if
enacted, would provoke swift EC retaliation.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance and
National Economy has started to issue an index to measure share
activity in the kingdom.
    An official of the Ministry's National Centre for Financial
and Economic Information said the weekly index, based on the
U.S. Standard and Poors Index, had been kept for over two years
but was only now being published.
    Measuring the prices of 48 companies currently traded in
Saudi Arabia, the index reached 68.72 points in the week ended
last March 5, down from the previous week's 69.50.
    It is divided into four subcategories -- agriculture which
stood at 99.03 points on March 5, industry at 54.44, services
at 76.93 and finance at 61.46.
    The ministry begun issuing the index at a time when the
situation is improving in the Saudi stock market after a
two-year decline.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabian business
leaders assembled for a conference aimed at thrashing out
problems facing the private sector of the kingdom's
oil-dependent economy.
    The meeting of some 500 top businessmen from across Saudi
Arabia comes at a time of guarded optimism in industry and
commerce following the OPEC pact to boost world oil prices.
    The four-day conference in this resort town, high in the
mountains above the Tihamah plain stretching to the Red Sea,
has been organised by Saudi Arabia's chambers of commerce.
    Finance Minister Mohammed Ali Abal-Khail and Commerce
Minister Suleiman Abdulaziz al-Salim will attend the first day.
    Bankers and businessmen said the conference will air
problems facing commerce and industry after last year's slide
in oil prices and examine ways to promote higher investment in
a private sector sorely short of finance.
    Government planners have long recognised that Saudi Arabia,
the world's largest crude exporter, needs to foster private
enterprise to diversify its oil-based economy.
    The fledgling private sector was hard hit by the Middle
East recession as early as 1983 and several big manufacturing
and trading companies ran into problems repaying loans.
    Renewed optimism this year stems largely from the accord
reached by OPEC last December to curb oil output and boost
prices to a benchmark level of 18 dlrs per barrel.
    With oil prices recovering, Saudi Arabia went ahead at the
turn of the year with long-delayed budget plans incorporating a
52.7 billion riyal deficit to be bridged by drawing down
foreign reserves.
    The simple act of publishing a budget restored a measure of
confidence to the business community.
    Some share prices have risen by more than 35 pct since last
November, while banks are generally reporting a slowdown in the
number of new non-performing loans.
    But not all bankers are convinced. One senior corporate
finance manager in Riyadh said: "Banks are still reluctant to
lend ... There is certainly more optimism in the air, but I am
not sure if it is firmly based."
    Some businessmen and bankers point out that government
spending is still under tight control and the non-oil economy
may still be contracting.
    Capital expenditure on large projects has been cut sharply.
A U.S. Embassy report on Saudi Arabia published just before the
budget said: "While industrialisation has continued to be one of
the government's highest priorities, the recession, the
payments problem and the lack of financing have reduced Saudi
and foreign investor interest in industry."
    It is the lack of fresh investment that is expected to be a
major issue among the businessmen gathered here.
    Official figures show the number of new licences for
industrial ventures fell 24 pct in the six months to March
1986, compared with the same period in 1985.
    Lending by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, a major
source of industry backing, has fallen steadily since 1983.
    Trading companies have also been hit, some caught with huge
inventories of construction equipment as recession bit.
    Some firms laid off workers and cut bloated inventories.
Others have effectively been liquidated. A few have reached
agreement with bankers to extend debt repayments.
    The latest rescheduling is for the shipping-to-hotels
conglomerate REDEC. Its negotiators have just initialled a
draft accord to restructure payments on 1.3 billion riyals of
bank debt.
    Bankers and businessmen said the conference was also likely
to discuss the apparent reluctance of U.S. And British firms to
step up investment in the kingdom.
    A British government delegation has just left Riyadh after
holding preliminary talks on ways of offsetting the huge Saudi
outlay on a defence contract to supply 132 fighter aircraft
worth five billion stg.
 REUTER

Automobiles Citroen expects rising
sales of its new AX compact car to help boost profits
significantly this year, continuing a financial recovery after
six straight years of losses, president Jacques Calvet said.
    Speaking to reporters during weekend trials for the new AX
sports model, he said: "All the budgetary forecasts that we have
been able to make ... Show a relatively significant improvement
in 1987, compared with 1986," he added.
    Citroen, part of the private Peugeot SA <PEUP.PA> group,
increased its share of the French new car market to 13.7 pct in
first two months 1987 from 12.1 pct a year earlier. It is
aiming for an average 12.8 pct share throughout the year after
11.7 pct in 1986.
    The firm believes it is on target to raise its share of the
European market, excluding France, to 3.2 pct this year from
2.9 pct in 1986.
    "Our first problem is to produce enough vehicles to meet the
demand," Calvet said. "This is a relatively new problem for us."
    Citroen lost close to two billion francs in 1984 but cut
the deficit to 400 mln in 1985, helped by moves to modernise
its range and improve productivity.
    Calvet indicated last December he expected Citroen's 1986
profit to be between 250 and 500 million francs.
    This weekend he said that those profit estimates "remain
about the same -- perhaps even a little more optimistic."
    Some of this optimism is due to the early success of the
AX, launched on the French market last October. It will be
available throughout most of western Europe within four months.
    The car has registered just over 20,000 sales.
    It is being built at Citroen's large plant at Aulnay-sous-
Bois in northern Paris, as well as at Rennes in Brittany and
Vigo in Spain, with production just reaching target level of
1,000 cars a day.
    The car, which Citroen markets as an intermediate model
between its long-running 2CV and the Visa, is designed to
compete with the Renault 5, Volkswagen Polo and Opel Corsa.
    The AX had built up its market share in France to around
four pct last month. Calvet said: "Our hope is that once the AX
is fully developed, we will have between 6.5 and seven per cent
of the national market."
 REUTER

Trading bank staff in Wellington and
Auckland voted to accept a 7.9 pct pay rise, ending any threat
of strike action, the Bank Officers Union said.
    Union president Angela Foulkes told Reuters that Wellington
and Auckland staff are still unhappy with the offer but
accepted it because they could not have forced a higher offer
when provincial union members had already accepted the 7.9 pct.
    Provincial bank staff approved the offer at meetings last
week but Wellington and Auckland workers had initially
threatened to strike in support of a higher claim.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it has
cancelled the regular weekly treasury bill tender scheduled for
March 17.
    It said in a statement that forecasts show a net cash
withdrawal from the system. Cash flows, which include
half-yearly provisional and terminal tax payments, are expected
to more than offset cash injections.
    Cash balances should fluctuate around 30 mln N.Z. Dlrs over
the week after open market operations, it added.
 REUTER

Taiwan is not expected to export sugar
this year because of falling production and growing domestic
consumption, state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corp said.
    A company spokesman told Reuters this will be the first
time in more than 40 years Taiwan has not exported sugar. Last
year, sugar exports totalled 149,755 tonnes.
    He said the actual production during the 1986/87 season
(November/May) is about 480,000 tonnes, barely enough to meet
local consumption. This compares with actual 1985/86 output of
570,000. He said the production fall was due to typhoon damage
to more than 6,000 hectares of canefields last year.
 REUTER

Leading industrial nations will meet
again next month to review their accord on currency stability,
but U.S. Officials said financial markets are convinced for now
the countries will live up to commitments to speed up economic
growth.
    The narrow currency movements of recent weeks strongly
suggests the six leading industrial countries have tamed the
normally unruly financial markets and next month's talks seem
likely to build on that stability.
    A Reagan administration official said the Paris agreement
last month was the main reason markets were calm.
    But he said in an interview that financial markets also
understood, "That all six countries concluded that the measures
to be taken over a period of time in the future should foster
stability of exchange rates around current levels. That is in
fact what has happened since Paris."
    Monetary analysts said stability has been helped in part by
the decision of industrial nations to bury the hatchet and
cease to quarrel over short-term policy objectives.
    Instead they have focused on medium-term policy goals, but
left room to adjust their agreements with periodic meetings.
    The official refused to comment, however, on whether the
agreement included a secret pact to consider further
coordinated interest rate cuts -- a measure industrial nations
have taken jointly several times in the past year.
    On February 22, the United States, Japan, West Germany,
France, Britain and Canada agreed that major currencies were
within ranges broadly reflecting underlying economic
conditions, given commitments by Washington to cut its budget
deficit and by Toyko and Bonn to boost economic growth.
    The shake-up would strengthen the U.S. Position in
future international talks.
    "I think these changes will strengthen the President's hand
politically and the stronger he is politically the better off
we are with the Congress and the better off we are in
international fora," said the official, an Administration
economic policymaker. "So it would be beneficial to the
continued conduct of our initiatives."
    But the official also said the Administration would resist
calls for a tax increase to cut the budget deficit -- a target
Europeans say is crucial to help curb economic instability.
    Last week, dealers said the Federal Reserve intervened to
stop the dollar rising against the mark, which had breached
1.86 to the dollar. British authorities are also understood to
have intervened to curb sterling's strength.
    International monetary sources say finance ministers and
central bankers, who will review market performance and their
own economic prospects, will reassemble again in Washington
just before the April 9 policymaking meeting of the
International Monetary Fund.
    The sources said Italy, which refused to join the Paris
pact, was invited back by Treasury Secretary James Baker.
    Since Paris, there are signs West German growth is slowing,
while U.S. Officials said they were giving Japan until April to
show that an economic stimulus package was in the offing.
    Signs of concern about German prospects emerged recently
when Bundesbank (central bank) president Karl Otto Poehl told
bankers he would consider cutting West German interest rates if
the Fed was ready to follow suit.
    A Reagan Administration official said this would show there
had been some change in approach on the part of the central
bank in Germany.
    But he declined to comment on the prospects for action by
the Fed and the Bundesbank.
    "If there is such a provision it is private and if I talked
about it, it would no longer be private," said the official, who
asked not to be identified.
    Public comments by Fed officials suggest the central bank
is keeping credit conditions broadly unchanged, but if the
major economies continue to show sluggish growth and the U.S.
Trade deficit remains stubbornly high, further coordinated
action could be on the April agenda.
 REUTER...

Harper and Row Publishers Inc said its
board of directors decided to take no action on two takeover
bids that the company has received. Instead, it appointed a
committee of independent directors to study strategic
alternatives for the 170-year-old firm.
    The alternatives include continuation of the company's
existing business plans, possible business combinations, sales
of stock, restructuring and the sale of all or part of the
company.
    Kidder Peabody and Co Inc has been retained to advise on
the alternatives, Harper and Row added.
    Private investor Theodore Cross last week offered 34 dlrs a
share for Harper and Row, prompting a rival bid of 50 dlrs a
share from another publishing firm, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Inc <HBJ>.
    After considering the two offers at a meeting on Friday,
the Harper and Row board decided not to act on them.
    The directors unanimously expressed their strong desire to
preserve the company's independence and take advantage of its
"considerable future prospects," according to director Winthrop
Knowlton, former chief executive and now chairman of the newly
established independent committee.
    "However, given the significant current interest in the
company, we also feel that we should carefully review all the
options available. The committee will consider all the
pertinent facts and alternatives.... We intend to make a
careful and informed decision but will proceed expeditiously to
a conclusion," Knowlton said.
    Pending its deliberations, Harper and Row's board has
postponed indefinitely a special meeting of stockholders that
had been scheduled for April 2 to discuss a proposal to
recapitalize the company's stock to create two classes of
shares with different voting rights.
 REUTER

The Soviet economy recovered slightly
last month after a poor performance in January, but major
industries, including oil and machinery, are still short of
production targets, official figures show.
    Central Statistical Board data published in the weekly
Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta yesterday showed that industrial output
was only up 0.8 pct in the first two months of 1987 over the
same period of last year.
    However, the figure for January alone showed a fall in
output of 0.1 pct from a year earlier. Production is targetted
to increase 4.4 pct for all of 1987.
    The figures showed that only 77 pct of enterprises met
their supply obligations in January and February.
    Production of oil, the country's main export to Western
nations, hit 100 mln tonnes in January and February, up from
97.3 mln a year earlier, and exceeded its target by 0.5 pct.
    Economists said this reflected the huge investments poured
into the oil sector in recent months in an effort to reverse
the stagnation in production which began in November 1983.
    Falling world oil prices last year helped cause a decline
in Soviet trade with the West to 130 billion roubles from 141.6
billion in 1985.
    Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta said labour productivity targets
were also not fulfilled, but did not give figures.
    Economists said the overall data reflected exceptionally
bad weather at the start of the year and stricter quality
controls imposed on enterprises.
    Production in the machine-building sector, a priority in
Moscow's plans for economic renewal, recovered slightly in
February but was still 3.6 pct lower in the first two months of
the year compared with the same period of 1986.
    The figures showed that five republics produced less than
in the first two months of 1986.
 REUTER

Banque Paribas, which arranged a 220
mln dlr loan for Ecuador last year to pre-finance oil exports,
wants to adjust the terms of the facility to help the country
recover from a devastating earthquake, bankers said.
    But the French bank's plan, which would effectively
postpone repayment of about 30 mln dlrs of the loan for several
months, is running into stiff resistance from many of the 52
members of the loan syndicate.
    The pipeline that carries all Ecuador's oil exports was
ruptured in the March 5 tremor and will take about five months
to repair at a cost of some 150 mln dlrs.
    President Leon Febres Cordero on Friday estimated total
damage caused by the quake at one billion dlrs and said that as
a result Ecuador would maintain January's suspension of
interest payments on its foreign commercial bank debt.
    Payments were halted in January because of the drop in the
price of oil, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of Ecuador's
export earnings and 60 pct of government revenue.
    Many banks in the Paribas facility, although sympathetic to
Ecuador's plight, feel that emergency financial relief is a job
for international financial organisations and not for
commercial banks, bankers said.
    The 18-month oil-financing facility, which was signed last
October 28, is one of the few purely voluntary credits for a
Latin American nation since the region's debt crisis erupted in
August 1982.
    Because it was a voluntary deal, many bankers feel strongly
that the orginal terms must be adhered to. Otherwise, they
fear, the gradual re-establishment of normal market conditions
for Latin borrowers will be set back.
    "There's a lot of reluctance by the other banks. They feel
it's a different facility, and so any kind of suggestion of a
restructuring would look bad," one banker said.
 REUTER

Egypt and the Soviet Union are expected
to sign an agreement in Moscow next week settling Cairo's three
billion dlr military debt, Egyptian officials said.
    One official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters a
draft agreement would reduce to zero from two pct future
interest payable on the 10 year-old debt, and set a 25 year
repayment term.
    Talks are due to begin in Moscow on Wednesday.
    Economy Minister Youssri Mustapha, who leaves for Moscow on
Tuesday, met President Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian ambassador to
Moscow Salah Bassiouni to discuss the issue.
    One official said Egypt would propose a new exchange rate
for trade with the Soviet Union. Current commerce is based on a
rate set in the 1960s of 0.38 Egyptian pounds to the dollar
which Moscow sees as unreasonable. The fluctuating official
rate is about 1.36 pounds to the dollar.
    The officials said part of the debt would be paid in
exports of goods such as textiles, leather and furniture.
    Egypt wants to settle the debt problem partly to open the
door for new cooperation, mainly in modernising Soviet-built
steel, aluminium and fertiliser plants under a five-year
development plan ending June 30 1992.
    Egypt, which already imports Soviet coal, wood, newsprint
and glass, also wanted a debt deal to allow purchases of
currently blocked spare parts for its ageing Soviet military
hardware, the officials said.
    An estimated 65 pct of Egypt's arsenal is still made up of
Soviet-supplied equipment, one official said.
    Cairo stopped repaying Moscow for arms purchases in 1977
when then-president Anwar Sadat broke with its long-standing
ally and turned to the U.S..
 REUTER

Peru will put into effect Monday a foreign
exchange rationing system for imports designed to stop a slide
in the country's international reserves, a government decree in
the Official Gazette said.
    Under the system, importers will be required to present a
bill from the foreign seller of goods and apply for a license
for foreign exchange. The central bank will have 10 days to
decide whether to issue the required foreign exchange.
    Net international reserves now total about 800 mln dlrs
compared to 1.54 billion dlrs a year ago.
    The system will be effective until the end of 1988.
    A ceiling for foreign exchange availability will be set by
a council with members from the central bank, the economy
ministry and the planning and foreign trade institutes. The
central bank will issue licenses to procure foreign exchange in
accordance with guidelines set by the council.
    Peru's reserves fell sharply due to a drop in the trade
surplus to about five mln dlrs in 1986 from 1.1 billion in
1985, according to preliminary central bank estimates.
   Total exports dropped to 2.50 billion dlrs last year against
2.97 billion in 1985.
   Imports last year rose sharply as gross domestic product
grew by about 8.5 pct, the highest economic growth level
registered in 12 years. Imports were about 2.49 billion dlrs in
1986 against 1.87 billion in 1985, according to preliminary
estimates.
    The cushion of reserves allowed Peru to take a hard-line
debt stance last year and suspend most payments due on its 14.3
billion dlr foreign debt.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Mohammed
Ali Abal-Khail said a committee will be set up to examine the
problem of late government payments to contractors and
companies operating in the kingdom.
    He told a working session on the first day of a
businessmen's conference yesterday that the committee, made up
of Finance Ministry and Chamber of Commerce officials, will be
formed shortly.
    He said the committee will also investigate disputes
between contractors and the government, but said the foreign
press had to some extent exaggerated payments problems.
    Abal-Khail said, "It is only natural that among those
thousands of contracts some problems perpetrated by disputes
over specifications, contractual obligations, project-handovers
and duration of contracts arose."
    Late payments, or in some cases total absence of payments,
have been a major source of concern for both the Saudi private
sector and foreign contractors operating in the kingdom.
    Businessmen said the minister's remarks were a rare
admission of problems in the contract sector and the first
concrete sign of government action to tackle payments delays.
 REUTER

The United States wants Taiwan's
currency to appreciate faster to reduce Taiwan's trade surplus
with the U.S., A senior trade official said.
    Board of Foreign Trade director Vincent Siew told reporters
on Saturday U.S. Officials told him in Washington last week
that unless Taiwan allowed its dollar to rise faster it would
face retaliation.
    Siew returned from Washington on Friday after the U.S
responded to Taiwan's request to increase its textile export
quotas by promising further talks in May. Taiwan's surplus with
the U.S. Hit a record 13.6 billion U.S. Dlrs in 1986.
    Washington signed a three-year accord with Taipei last year
limiting textile export growth to 0.5 pct a year.
    Siew said the Taiwan dollar had risen by about 15 pct
against the U.S. Dollar since September 1985.
    It surged last week amid indications Washington was seeking
a major rise in its value. It rose four cents against the U.S.
Dollar on Saturday to close at 34.59.
    Western trade sources told Reuters Taiwan and the U.S. Have
been holding talks on the currency issue but added it is not
clear how far Washington wants to see the Taiwan dollar rise.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia's economy is
showing signs of picking up after problems last year caused by
the steep fall in oil prices, Commerce Minister Suleiman
Abdulaziz al-Salim said.
    Salim told a conference of Saudi businessmen the government
had taken a bold step to stimulate the economy by drawing down
more than 50 billion riyals of reserves in its 1987 budget.
    Salim said one tangible sign of that optimism had been a
strong rise in the price of Saudi shares. Some have gained by
more than 35 pct since last November.
    But the keynote speaker, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, accused
Saudi businessmen of ingratitude because they preferred to
invest abroad rather than in Saudi Arabia.
    The need to increase private investment in Saudi Arabia is
expected to be a major theme of the conference.
    Saudi Arabia's economic planners have long recognised the
need to stimulate the private sector and diversify the
    But despite the encouraging signals cited by Salim, some
businessmen and bankers said they are still sceptical about
prospects for the economy.
 REUTER

Tanzania seeks to export a
surplus of 200,000 tonnes of maize from last year's bumper
harvest, agriculture minister Paul Bomani said yesterday.
    The 1986 maize crop was officially estimated at 2.1 mln
tonnes, but only a fraction of this was marketed, with most
grain consumed by the farmers who grew it.
    The state-owned National Milling Corp (NMC) meanwhile said
it is trying to sell 190,742 tonnes of maize stored in
different parts of the country.
    NMC acting general manager John Rubibira said Tanzania has
only 56,000 tonnes of silo storage capacity, concentrated in
Dar es Salaam, Arusha in the north and Iringa in central
Tanzania.
    In addition, the country has 450,000 tonnes of flat storage
capacity, he added.
    Rubibira said the government is planning to build new silos
in the main maize producing areas of Iringa, Mbeya, Ruvuma and
Rukwa.
 REUTER

Philippines finance minister Jaime
Ongpin said he was cautiously optimistic an accord on debt
rescheduling would be reached with commercial bank creditors,
as he prepared for the third week of talks starting Monday.
    "One can never be too optimistic, but I'm cautiously
optimistic that we can get an agreement....We think we're close
to a deal," Ongpin told Reuters by telephone.
    He said he had received a new proposal from the banks late
Friday and had spent the weekend evaluating it with other
members of the Philippine delegation.
    Ongpin declined to disclose details of the banks' new offer
and bankers also declined to be specific ahead of their next
meeting with Ongpin on Monday. But one senior banker said he
too was guardedly optimistic a deal could be struck, possibly
by the end of the week.
    Still at the heart of the talks is Ongpin's offer to pay
part of the country's interest bill in Philippine Investment
Notes, PINs, instead of cash. The bank creditors' advisory
committee led by Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co rejected the
concept as it was originally drafted, but the counter-proposal
made on Friday contains a revised version, bankers said.
    Manila, seeking to reschedule 9.4 billion dlrs of its total
debt of 27.2 billion, wants to pay the London Interbank Offered
Rate (LIBOR) in cash and a margin above LIBOR in PINs.
    These dollar-denominated notes would be sold by banks at a
discount to multi-national firms which would then convert them
at face value with the central bank, thus receiving subsidized
pesos for use in funding government-approved investments.
    Effectively foreign companies would be paying the interest
margin above LIBOR. The Philippines would conserve foreign
exchange and enjoy investment inflows, reducing marginally the
need to seek new bank loans.
    But the banks rejected the PINs proposal in its original
form, fearing regulatory and accounting problems.
    They were also reluctant to veer from the principle that
interest should be paid in cash not paper, fearing that other
debtor nations would emulate the idea, bankers said.
    Ongpin sweetened his original offer by guaranteeing that
his government would redeem the notes at 7/8 pct over LIBOR if
there was no buyer in the secondary market.
    Last week the banks came under pressure to accept this,
when senior U.S. Officials endorsed it as fully consistent with
Treasury Secretary James Baker's debt strategy.
    But banking sources said that the margin over LIBOR was
still a sticking point.
    After Venezuela clinched a revised rescheduling agreement
last month at 7/8 pct over LIBOR, some New York bankers
imediately claimed that 7/8 pct should be seen as a new
benchmark for a debtor that needs no new loans, is current on
interest and is repaying some principal.
    The Philippines meets the first two criteria but not the
third.
 REUTER

The cabinet has approved a finance
ministry plan to raise the amount of outstanding government
bonds as a percentage of the total budget in financial year
1987/88 starting July 1, to meet growing demand for funds for
major construction projects, a cabinet official said.
    The increase would allow outstanding bonds to total 40 pct
of the 1987/88 budget, up from 25 pct in the current year.
    He said the increase would allow the government to issue
bonds worth up to about 105 billion Taiwan dlrs in the next
financial year, up from 49.6 billion in the current year. The
proposal will go to parliament for final approval.
    A finance ministry official told Reuters the increase in
bond issues was necessary to finance 14 major projects,
including highways, power plants, an underground railway and a
receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas.
    Spending on major projects is expected to total more than
120 billion Taiwan dlrs in 1987/88, compared to 89 billion in
the current year, he said.
 REUTER

Year to December 31, 1986
    Net profit 78 mln N.Z. Dlrs vs 45 mln
    Pre-tax profit 147 mln vs 88 mln
    Total assets 7.7 billion vs 6.4 billion
    Notes - The company is 100 pct owned by Lloyds Bank Plc
<LLOY.L>. Results include for the time first a pre-tax profit,
of 11 mln N.Z. Dlrs, from Australian unit <Lloyds Bank NZA
Ltd>.
 REUTER

Australia's current account deficit for
February is expected to narrow to a range of between 700 mln
and one billion dlrs, from the unrevised January level of 1.29
billion, market economists polled by Reuters said.
    Statistics Bureau February figures are out tomorrow.
    The economists said a key element in the narrowing would be
a reversal of the drop in exports which took place in January,
after a sharp rise in December when the deficit was only 598
mln dlrs.
    As an example they quoted wheat export volume, which rose
about 30 pct in February after dropping as much in January.
    A lack of aircraft imports in February should also
contribute on the trade account although it is still likely to
remain in deficit, the economists said.
    Other positive influences on the current account balance
should be a decline in the invisibles deficit following a
seasonal fall in interest payments and the dropping out of
certain official aid payments, they said.
    They said the Australian dollar, which last week touched an
eight-month high of 0.6900 U.S. Dlrs but is now around the
0.6800 level, should not react adversely to the figures unless
the current account shortfall tops one billion dlrs.
 REUTER

Zambia's talks with the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a financial rescue package
have run into difficulties on the issue of food subsidies, an
official newspaper said.
    The Times of Zambia, which is run by the ruling United
National Independence Party (UNIP), quoted official sources as
saying the IMF and World Bank had refused to continue financing
food subsidies and were pressing the government to explain how
it proposes to pay for them.
    President Kenneth Kaunda tried to abolish maize subsidies
last December, in line with IMF recommendations, but the move
caused maize meal prices to double overnight and led to riots
in which 15 people were killed.
    The subsidies were immediately restored as part of moves to
quell the disturbances, but they are estimated to cost the
government about 500 mln kwacha per year.
    The Times of Zambia said another major issue in the
government's current talks with the IMF and World Bank was the
remodelling of Zambia's foreign exchange auction.
    The central bank's weekly auction of foreign exchange to
the private sector has been suspended since the end of January,
pending modifications to slow down the rate of devaluation and
dampen fluctuations in the exchange rate.
    The kwacha slid to around 15 per dollar under the auction
system, losing 85 pct of its value in 16 months. However, since
the end of January it has been revalued to a fixed rate of nine
    Banking sources said Zambia was persuaded by the World Bank
and IMF to lift its proposed ceiling of 12.50 kwacha per dollar
on the currency's devaluation once the auctions restart.
    According to the Times of Zambia, the IMF team, led by
assistant director for Africa Paul Acquah, is due to conclude
its talks with the government on schedule on March 23.
    The IMF mission arrived in Lusaka on February 26 and its
talks with the government have taken longer than expected.
 REUTER

Major tanker operator, Japan Line Ltd
<JLIT.T>, is selling 20 VLCCs and several bulk carriers for
scrap or further trading, industry sources said.
    The tanker disposals include Japan Orchid (231,722 dwt),
Japan Lupinus (233,641 dwt), Sovereign (233,313 dwt), Rosebay
(274,531 dwt), Saffron (268,038 dwt) and Cattleya (267,807
dwt), all of which have been reported on the London sale and
purchase market, they said, but refused to give further
details.
    Japan Line officials declined to comment.
 REUTER

Jordan's key economic priorities are
having a sound national treasury and adequate foreign exchange
reserves, Prime Minister Zeid al-Rifa'i said.
    "First, the national treasury should be in sound shape when
dealing with the public and other countries so that its
credibility is preserved," he said in a television interview
Saturday.
    "The second priority is to maintain an acceptable level of
foreign exchange reserves to provide (the) stability and
confidence needed by the government to meet foreign
commitments."
    Rifa'i said Jordan's outstanding government-guaranteed and
commercial loans total 902 mln dinars with a debt service ratio
of 14.9 pct.
    The figure was sharply lower than the 1.02 billion dinars
in outstanding loans at the end of September, according to
latest Central Bank figures.
    Rifa'i dismissed the view of some bankers and economists
here that the dinar, which is pegged to a basket of currencies,
is overvalued.
    "The dinar is strong and stable and we intend to preserve
its stability," he said.
    The prime minister said he hoped the next Arab summit would
tackle the question of continuing financial aid to Jordan.
Under a 10-year agreement reached in 1978, Jordan was to
receive a total of 1.25 billion dlrs annually from Algeria,
Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates to help it resist Israel.
    But only Saudi Arabia met its obligations, while the others
failed because of falling income due to lower oil prices.
 REUTER

New Zealand's inflation rate could
fall to eight pct in the coming year, Prime Minister David
Lange said.
    He said forecasts to be released soon by research groups
would predict a rate of around eight or nine pct in the 12
months to the end of March 1988, against 18.2 pct in calendar
1986.
    "I predict it will be something between eight and 10 per
cent," he told a news conference.
    Lange would not name the forecasting groups.
 REUTER

Malaysian Primary Industries
Minister Lim Keng Yaik welcomed the basic accord reached over
the weekend in Geneva between producers and consumers on a new
International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA).
    "This is a good development and if a new pact is adopted
this week it will augur well for the rubber industry and prices
in the long term," he told Reuters here.
    Negotiators at a United Nations conference on a new INRA
resolved differences and agreed last Saturday on basic elements
for a new pact to replace the current one, which expires in
October.
    Conference Chairman Manaspas Xuto said legal drafting of
the new pact will begin this week and it is expected to be
formally adopted by some 40 countries on March 20.
    Malaysia, the world's top producer, acted as spokesman for
producers at the talks, which began on March 9.
    Malaysian traders said they expected prices to firm by a
few cents on the news that a pact is expected to be adopted.
    Prices will also firm in the short term because some
370,000 tonnes of rubber held in INRA buffer stock will not be
liquidated with a new pact in sight, they said.
 REUTER

Japan's January seasonally adjusted
industrial production index (base 1980) was revised upwards to
122.3 from a preliminary 122.0, the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry said.
    The revised adjusted January index was down 0.5 pct from
December when it rose 3.6 pct from a month earlier.
    The revised unadjusted January index rose 0.5 pct from a
year earlier, after a one pct year-on-year December rise.
    The adjusted producers' shipment index (base 1980) for
January was revised upward to 117.7 from a preliminary 117.4.
    The index was down 0.7 pct from December when it rose three
pct from a month earlier. The revised unadjusted index was up
1.0 pct from a year earlier after a 1.4 pct year-on-year
December rise.
    The adjusted index of producers' inventories of finished
goods (base 1980) for January was unchanged from a preliminary
105.9. The index was down 0.3 pct from December when it rose
1.1 pct. Unadjusted, the revised index was down 2.3 pct from a
year earlier after a 2.1 pct year-on-year drop in December.
 REUTER

A Japanese consortium will supply 10
generators worth some 10 billion yen to a joint
Argentine/Paraguay hydroelectric project, a Mitsubishi Electric
Corp <MIET.T> official said.
    The presidents of Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T>
and Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T>, the three firms in the consortium,
will sign the contract with Entidad Binacional Yacyreta, an
Argentine public company, later this month.
    The Export-Import Bank of Japan Ltd will provide yen
financing for the project, the official said.
 REUTER

State-affiliated financial institutions
and commercial banks from eight countries are expected to lend
a U.S. Leasing company 400 mln dlrs to finance the purchase
from Boeing Co <BA> of six Boeing 767 planes that will be
leased to Brazil's Varig airline, banking sources said.
    The deal is expected to be signed in May, covering a 12
year period, with deliveries starting the same month.
    Japan's share in the deal is expected to be about 14 mln
dlrs, part of which will come from the Export-Import Bank of
Japan Ltd, the sources said. Canada, France, Italy, Sweden, the
U.K., U.S. And West Germany are also involved, they said.
 REUTER

Australia faces the risk of recession if
capital expenditure does not grow from the subdued levels of
recent years, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said.
    "Without stronger levels of capital expenditure, the
structural adjustment that is so critical to overcoming the
economy's fundamental problems cannot occur," the bank said its
latest Economic Newsletter.
    "In that event, Australia would be destined to experience a
prolonged period of sub-par growth at best, with the very real
risk that the onset of serious recession would become
unavoidable," it said.
    Australia's medium-term economic performance will be
fundamentally determined by business investment in the period
immediately ahead, the bank said.
    It said spending has been disappointing in recent years due
to low capacity utilisation, low expected profitability and
very high real interest rates.
    There also appears to be little likelihood of any
significant improvement for the present, it said.
    Investment is strongly influenced by medium-term
uncertainties and risks and these are likely to continue for
the present, it said.
 REUTER

The extraordinary foreign exchange
loss of 480 mln marks reported last week by Volkswagen AG
<VOWG.F> (VW) is so large that outside currency traders were
probably involved in the case, currency sources said.
    They were commenting after weekend newspaper reports that
prosecutors were transferring the focus of their enquiries to
Frankfurt, West Germany's main foreign exchange centre.
    Volkswagen announced last Tuesday that it had called in
prosecutors to investigate a possible fraud involving currency
hedging.
    The newspaper Welt am Sonntag said the investigation by
state prosecutors was now considering whether the alleged VW
currency manipulators had outside banking accomplices.
    The transactions were only possible, "because the culprits
possessed genuine bank forms, with the help of which they were
able to deceive controllers for years," the newspaper said.
    But currency sources said there were so many loopholes in
every bank's currency dealing system that controls could easily
be avoided.
    Rolf Selowsky, financial member of the management board,
has resigned in the wake of the affair, a VW spokesman said.
    Selowksy's resignation followed a VW announcement on Friday
that foreign exchange chief Burkhard Junger had been dismissed
and Guenther Borchert, head of the financial transfer
department, had been suspended along with Siegfried Mueller,
head of the central cash and currency clearing.
    Four other members of the foreign exchange staff were also
suspended, but no charges have been laid.
    VW Supervisory board chairman Karl Gustaf Ratjen said
entire data tapes had been erased and programs altered in
forged transactions.
    Der Spiegel magazine said VW financial controllers
discovered the uncovered positions on February 18 when VW
expected a currency forward contract with the Hungarian
National Bank to mature, but Hungarian bank officials said they
knew nothing of the transaction and the supposed contracts were
forgeries.
    The Budapest-based bank refused to buy the dollars and has
not commented on the affair.
    The Hungarian National Bank is, along with the Soviet Bank
of Foreign Trade, one of two major East Bloc currency traders
and most major banks based in Germany deal with it regularly.
    It would not be possible, the sources said, for any bank to
renege on a genuine forward contract since this would
immediately become known and effectively prevent the bank from
operating further in the spot or forward currency markets.
    Longer-maturity forward contracts, even contracts of up to
10 years, were now becoming more common, they said but the
longer and larger the contract, the more likely it was that it
would be transacted with a domestic institution.
    Being one of Germany's most diversified multi-nationals, VW
has exposure in a large number of currencies and dealt in these
with most banks in Frankfurt and also abroad, sometimes through
currency brokers, although it has the reputation of doing
relatively little hedging, currency sources said.
    "They (VW) are always in the market, more or less trading as
a bank," one senior dealer said.
    Some newspaper reports said the losses were incurred
because of VW's failure to take out currency hedging contracts
beginning at the end of 1984, when the dollar was rising.
    But the currency sources said market speculation was that
dollar income of around one billion dlrs was involved and that
the bulk of the transactions occurred last year since which
time around 50 pfennigs per dollar was lost when the dollar
fall continued.
    Longer-maturity currency contracts for more than 100 or 200
mln dlrs each were rare. Taking several in this size out with a
single bank would be easily spotted by financial controllers.
    One senior dealer for a German bank said, "There's no way
they can have hoped to get away with it. It's too big."
    The sources added that the involvement of the Federal
Criminal Office (BKA) in Wiesbaden could indicate that the
investigation would lead outside Germany.
    BKA has the mandate to handle criminal cases that may
involve foreign police forces or supranational services such as
Interpol. However the branch also handles cases that transcend
federal state borders within Germany.
 REUTER

German banking authorities are
weighing rules for banks' off-balance sheet activities in an
attempt to cope with the growing volume of sophisticated
capital market instruments, banking sources said.
    Interest rate and currency swaps and currency options are
under closest scrutiny, and if revisions are made they may
resemble regulation jointly proposed by the U.S. And U.K. To
Japan. Juergen Becker, director of the Bundesbank's division of
banking law and credit supervision, said the U.S.-British
proposals were interesting, but declined to elaborate.
    But banking sources said West Germany was more likely to
produce its own conclusions than to adopt foreign proposals.
    "There is no formal plan yet, but talks are in the latter
stages," one representative of the German Banking Association in
Cologne said. Bankers expect rule changes this year.
    All alterations must be approved by the Bundesbank, West
Germany's four major banking associations and the Federal
Banking Supervisory Office.
    Talks have been slowed by the fact that fundamental changes
would require a revision of Germany's credit law, which has
been in effect since 1934.
    Authorities favour reinterpreting the credit law to fit
present circumstances in order to avoid the long parliamentary
political process of changing it, banking sources said.
    Since the beginning of 1984 the banking law has limited
banks' lending to 18 times shareholders' equity plus reserves,
on a consolidated basis.
    But lending ratios do not extend to several newer
instruments such as spot and forward currency contracts,
currency and interest swaps, commercial paper programs,
currency options, interest rate futures in foreign currencies
and various innovative types of interest rate hedges.
    The sources said the main value of the U.S.-U.K. Proposals
lay in differentiating between different types of risk factor,
and, for instance, in placing greater weight on currency swaps
than interest swaps. But even if German banking authorities
agree with some of the assessments of swaps, they disagree on
how to find balance sheet equivalents for the risk.
    U.S.-British proposals include a complicated series of
formulae for assessing the stream of payments involved in
swaps, whose ultimate risk is borne by the financial
intermediary, especially when counterparties remain anonymous.
This is the so-called market-to-market value.
    But German authorities are likely to consider this much too
complex and to base their evaluation instead on a schedule of
lending ratings assigned according to the creditworthiness of
the borrowers involved, the sources said.
    The weightings, also likely if lending ratios are extended
to include banks' securities portfolios, are zero for public
authorities, 20 pct for domestic banks, 50 pct for foreign
banks and 100 pct for other foreign and non-bank borrowers.
    A further complication is that the more flexible
definitions of equity allowed in the U.S. And the U.K. May put
German banks at a competitive disadvantage, the sources said.
    Stricter definitions here also mean the use of a version of
the U.S.-U.K. Proposals could far exceed the intent of the U.S.
And British authorities, the sources said.
    One specialist for Dresdner Bank AG said a long-dated
foreign exchange forward transaction could, for instance, be
brought under the same rule as a cross-currency swap, despite
the fact that the risk may be entirely different.
    How new regulations will affect foreign banks here was
uncertain. Many have converted to full subsidiary status and
applied for a full banking licence over the last two years in
order to lead-manage mark eurobonds.
    But as their equity capital is fairly small, tight lending
ratios will severely hamper foreign banks' freedom of movement,
particularly in the growing business of currency swaps, if they
are required to include more transactions in the balance sheet,
 REUTER

The New Zealand government borrowed
100 mln stg on the Eurosterling market to refinance a loan of
the same amount maturing in June, Finance Minister Roger
Douglas said in a statement.
    The coupon rate is 9.62 pct and the loan life is eight
years.
    Douglas said the coupon rate is the lowest obtained by the
government on a sterling loan since 1971.
 REUTER

said it will merge its BHP Minerals division and <Utah
International Inc> into a single business unit under a common
management structure.
    The merger will be effective June 1, coinciding with the
retirement of Utah International chairman and chief executive
Bud Wilson, BHP said in a statement.
    The new BHP-Utah Minerals International Group will be
headed by Jim Curry as executive general manager and chief
executive officer. Curry is currently executive vice-president
of Utah International, BHP said.
    <BHP Petroleum (Americas) Inc>, formerly part of Utah
International, will become a subsidiary of BHP's renamed <BHP
Petroleum International>, now <BHP Petroleum Pty Ltd>, the
    BHP will also bring its Queensland coal operations under
one management structure and consolidate minerals marketing and
sales offices in various markets throughout the world.
    BHP acquired Utah from General Electric Co <GE> in 1984.
    Utah's assets include stakes of 40.25 to 52.25 pct in seven
large Central Queensland coking mines, 49 pct of the Samarco
iron ore operation in Brazil, 60 pct of La Escondida copper
deposit in Chile, the Island Copper mine at Port Hardy in
Canada, 70 pct of a coal mine and 30 pct of a gold mine in
South Africa and coal and other mines in the U.S.
    BHP Minerals' assets include wholly and partly-owned iron
ore mines, coal mines, manganese and base-metal operations or
prospects and 30 pct of the Ok Tedi gold-copper project in
Papua New Guinea.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan satisfied with yen around current range, senior bank official says

West German retail turnover rose a
real one pct in January compared with the same month a year
earlier, according to provisional data from the Federal
Statistics Office.
    There were 26 shopping days in January this year, the same
as in January 1986, a Statistics Office statement said.
    A Statistics Office official added retail turnover had
risen by 7.6 pct in December compared with the year-ago month,
a slight upward revision from the 7.5 pct increase
provisionally posted.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan is satisfied with the
yen around its current range, a senior central bank official
    He said the pledge by major industrial nations in Paris
last month to cooperate to hold exchange rates around current
ranges applied in both directions, a dollar fall or a dollar
rise.
    Unilateral intervention itself cannot ensure currency
stability, but it can be useful when coordinated with other
policies and with other central banks, he said.
    The Bank of Japan is rather confident currency stability
will continue for some time, the senior bank official said, but
declined to be more specific.
    Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told parliament on Friday
the current dollar/yen exchange rate is not necessarily
satisfactory for the Japanese economy.
    Asked what factors might destabilize the markets, the
official cited a lessening of market fear about intervention, a
completely unexpected change in the economy of Japan, the U.S.
Or West Germany, or resumption of comments by government
officials seeking to talk the dollar up or down.
    The senior bank official said he expects Japan's gross
national product (GNP) to grow three pct or slightly more in
the fiscal year beginning in April. That would be little
changed from the performance expected this year.
    Domestic demand may grow nearly four pct in 1987/88, but
the external sector will have a negative impact on GNP of
nearly one percentage point, he said.
    He said there was virtually no room for further monetary
policy action to boost the economy. The economy's performance
in the future very much depends on fiscal policy, he added.
    The central bank's monetary policy has already done its
part in stimulating the economy, the senior bank official said.
The Bank of Japan has cut its discount rate five times over the
last year and a half.
    Although the central bank does not see any imminent risk of
inflation, there could be some problems in the future, he said.
"We are sitting on a barrel of powder, but fortunately it may
still be wet," he added.
    Liquidity among private households and especially the
corporate sector has increased substantially, he said.
    The liquidity is the reason for the recent boom of stock
exchange prices, the bank official said. This inflow of funds
into the stock exchange, occurring also in other countries, may
continue, he said.
    The senior official said the Bank of Japan is hoping
Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker will be re-appointed when
his current term expires later this year.
    "He's a great man," the official said, adding that more and
more people expect his reappointment.
    Turning to exchange rates, the official said the
substantial drop in the dollar is beginning to have an effect
on reducing the imbalance in world trade, even though the
impact has taken longer than expected to show through. Even the
U.S. Trade position has begun to feel the impact, although so
far it has not been very strong, he said.
 REUTER

Bangladesh's broad-based M2 money supply
rose 6.95 pct to 132.79 billion taka in December after rising
0.51 pct to 124.16 billion in November and 3.07 pct to 114.22
billion in December 1985, the Central Bank said.
    On a year on year basis, M2 rose 16.25 pct in the 12 months
to December, 12.04 pct to November and 16 pct to December 1985.
    Narrowly-based M1 rose 9.55 pct to 50 billion taka against
a fall of 0.45 pct to 45.64 billion in November and a 3.03 pct
rise to 45.51 billion to December 1985, it added.
    Year on year, M1 rose 9.86 pct in December.
 REUTER

Opposition to government plans to impose
a five pct sales tax is spreading nationwide ahead of the start
of campaigning for local elections next week, political
    The Asahi Shimbun said 31 of the 47 prefectural assemblies
had so far opposed, demanded amendments to, or expressed
wariness about the tax. Assemblymen from the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) have also joined the opposition against
the tax in 11 prefectural assemblies, the daily reported.
    About 2,600 elections will be held on April 12 and 26 for a
wide range of local posts, including 13 governors.
    The sales tax is one of the main planks of Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone's plan to overhaul the tax system.
    A close aide to Nakasone has said the sales tax issue will
have a minimal impact on the local elections because centrist
parties by and large support LDP candidates in many of the
races for governors. In the assembly elections, even LDP
candidates oppose the tax, he said.
    On March 8, the LDP lost an Upper House by-election in the
conservative stronghold of Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan
for the first time in 25 years. The opposition socialist winner
campaigned on the single issue of the sales tax.
    The surprise LDP defeat in Iwate, coupled with Nakasone's
sagging popularity, has forced the party to compromise with the
opposition and agree to postpone public hearings on the fiscal
1987/88 budget to March 19/20 from March 13/14.
    The opposition parties have been staging recurring
parliamentary boycotts to show their disapproval of the sales
tax contained in the budget. They returned to the Lower House
Budget Committee last Friday but walked out again after a few
hours, demanding detailed data on the tax. But parliamentary
sources said they are expected to agree in a day or two to
dispose of some of 29 bills the LDP will submit.
    The bills include nine which will become extinct on March
31 unless some action is taken, the sources said. These cover
such uncontroversial topics as wages for diplomats and
revisions of the law covering court employees.
    Discussion is also expected of a provisional budget to
allow the government to continue operating while debate on the
main budget continues beyond the April 1 start of fiscal
1987/88, the sources said. The provisional budget could cover
some 50 days and include authorisation for spending on some
public works. Otherwise, parliament will go into virtual recess
until local elections start on April 12, they said.
 REUTER

<Dowa Mining Co Ltd> said it will start
commercial production of gold, copper, lead and zinc from its
Nurukawa Mine in northern Japan in April.
    A company spokesman said the mine's monthly output is
expected to consist of 1,300 tonnes of gold ore and 3,700 of
black ore, which consists of copper, lead and zinc ores.
    A company survey shows the gold ore contains up to 13.3
grams of gold per tonne, he said.
    Proven gold ore reserves amount to 50,000 tonnes while
estimated reserves of gold and black ores total one mln tonnes,
he added.
 REUTER

The extended decline in Japan's overall
business performance was likely to bottom out in the current
January-March quarter, the Finance Ministry said.
    Improved corporate earnings and better prospects for the
stability of the yen had made companies more optimistic, it
said after carrying out a quarterly survey.
    The survey, conducted in February, was based on
questionnaires returned by 8,328 large and small firms in all
sectors except the finance and insurance industries.
    The survey said overall corporate earnings were expected to
turn positive with an estimated 0.4 pct year on year increase
in the second half of fiscal 1986 ending on March 31 after a
5.4 pct decrease in the first half.
    Corporate earnings will grow further in the first half of
fiscal 1987, rising an estimated 10.7 pct, it added.
    Manufacturers' earnings, hit hard by the yen's steady rise
against the dollar, will rise 7.7 pct in first-half fiscal 1987
after falling 10.7 pct in the second half of fiscal 1986, it
said.
    Overall earnings of non-manufacturing companies will rise
11.8 pct year on year in the first half of fiscal 1987 after
growing 9.8 pct in the second half of fiscal 1986, the survey
said.
    It said this figure was bolstered by profits of firms such
as electric power and gas companies which have benefitted from
 REUTER

Eksportfinans A/S of Norway is issuing
15 billion yen in eurobonds due April 23, 1992 priced at 103
with a five pct coupon, Mitsubishi Finance International Ltd
said as lead manager.
and underwriting. Payment date is April 23. Listing will be in
London and the bonds will be sold in denominations of one mln
yen.
 REUTER

Carlton Communications Plc <CCML.L> said
in a statement it had purchased a 20 pct stake or some 5.1 mln
shares in Central Independent Television from Ladbroke Group
Plc <LADB.L> at 578p per share.
    The consideration of 29.5 mln stg will be met with 18.2 mln
stg in cash and the issue of one million ordinary Carlton
shares, it said.
    Central showed pretax profits up by 57 pct to 18.8 mln stg
for the year ended 30 September 1986.
 REUTER

The amount of a convertible eurobond
launched on Friday for Metal Box Plc <MBXL.L> has been
increased to 65 mln stg from the original 60 mln and the coupon
has been fixed at 5-3/4 pct, Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd
    The conversion price has been fixed at 262p, which
represents a premium of 9.62 pct over Friday's closing share
price of 239p.
    The indicated coupon on Friday was 5-3/4 to six pct.
 REUTER

European sugar beet plantings are
expected to show little change from last year, despite recent
firmness in world prices, analysts and industry sources said.
    A Reuter survey of planting intentions showed that while,
so far, European Community (EC) growers plan unchanged to lower
areas, increases are expected in some Eastern European nations.
    Trade analysts said their private reports give similar
results and do not differ significantly from the first estimate
of stagnant 1987 European beet plantings made last week by West
German sugar statistician F. O. Licht.
    Areas may be slightly lower but analysts and agricultural
experts said the steady rise in yields resulting from improved
seed varieties and better farming techniques could offset this.
In recent years, good autumn weather has given yields a late
boost, making up for lower areas despite some disappointing
starts to growing seasons.
    Changes in EC areas reflect the extent to which producers
will grow so-called "C" sugar for unsubsidised sale to the world
market. This is what is produced in excess of the basic area
needed to meet the EC "A" and "B" quotas, which receive full and
partial price support, respectively.
    Some analysts said the open row that broke out last week
between producers and the EC commission over its export policy
could have serious implications for future sugar output.
    Beet producers have threatened to effectively dump nearly
one mln tonnes of white sugar into EC intervention stocks as
they feel export subsidies have been too low to compensate for
the gap between high EC internal and low world market prices.
    However, with the EC budget stretched to breaking point,
this could give treasury ministers extra resolve in resisting
higher guaranteed sugar prices and build a case for a future
cut in the basic "A" and "B" quotas, they added.
    In France, the largest producer of EC quota and non quota
sugar, the sugar market intervention board FIRS said first
planting intentions indicate an area about the same as last
year's 421,000 hectares, nine pct below the previous year.
    "The basic trend is towards stability," a FIRS spokesman
said. Unlike world market raw sugar prices in dollars, white
sugar French franc prices are not particularly high and are not
encouraging higher planting levels, he said. Beet sugar output
last year was 3.37 mln tonnes, with an average yield of 8.00
tonnes per ha, the highest in the EC apart from the Netherlands
but below 8.52 the previous year and a five year average 8.11.
    In West Germany, recent price rises have not altered plans,
since planting decisions were taken a few months ago, industry
sources said. The farm ministry said a December survey is still
valid and plantings should be cut slightly after being trimmed
by just under four pct in 1986 when yields were above average.
    Licht last week estimated West German plantings at a
reduced 385,000 hectares against 399,000 last year.
    British Sugar Plc, the monopoly beet processor, has signed
up U.K. Farmers to grow 8.1 mln tonnes of beet. This should
yield about 1.25 mln tonnes of whites. Last year's crop
equalled the second highest ever at 1.32 mln tonnes.
    British Sugar has "A" and "B" quotas totalling 1.144 mln tonnes
of whites and its "C" output is due to improved yields from more
consistent disease-resistant seed types.
    Recent price rises have not altered Polish plans, Wincenty
Nowicki, a deputy director of Cukropol, the Amalgamated Sugar
Industry Enterprises, said. World prices are still below Polish
production costs and there is no way to convince farmers to
increase the area above the already signed contracted level.
    The national plan, set before prices began to rise, put
plantings this year at 460,000 hectares, against 425,000 in
1986, Nowicki said. Last year production was 1.74 mln tonnes.
    World prices have less impact in Italy than in France or
Germany as it is traditionally not an exporter but is geared to
the domestic market, an official at the national beet growers'
association said. Italian sowings are not yet complete but
surveys suggest a drop from last year's 270,000 ha, especially
in the north where some farmers have switched to soya.
    Beet output last season of 15.5 mln tonnes yielded a higher
than expected 1.72 mln tonnes of white sugar.
    Dutch plantings are expected to fall to 130,000 ha from a
record 137,600 in 1986 as a new self-imposed quota system comes
into force, a spokesman for Centrale Suiker, the second largest
Dutch sugar processor, said.
    The new system aims for an average of around 915,000 tonnes
of white sugar and to cut output of "C" sugar. Last year, the
Netherlands produced a record 1.2 mln tonnes of white sugar
against a combined "A" and "B" quota of only 872,000 tonnes.
    "The world price of sugar would have to rise much higher
than it has done recently to make planned production of "C" sugar
really worthwhile," the spokesman said.
    Western agricultural experts in Moscow said Soviet planting
intentions are likely to be unchanged. Licht put this year's
Soviet beet area at 3.40 mln ha, against 3.44 mln last year.
    Hungary is expanding its beet area to 105,000 ha from some
95,000 in 1986, the official MTI news agency said, but
diplomats said policy is to balance supply with domestic
demand.
    The Spanish ministry of agriculture said beet sowings are
estimated unchanged at 180,000 ha this year.
    A spokesman for Denmark's largest beet concern, De Danske
Sukkerfabrikker A/S, said its 1987 sugar target was unchanged
from 1986 at 365,000 tonnes from a steady area of 60,000 ha.
    In Sweden, where beet is grown just to meet domestic
demand, the planted area is seen little changed at 51,000 ha
against 51,300 last year, according to a spokesman for sugar
company Svenska Sockerfabriks AB.
    Last year, Irish yields were the lowest for 10 years due to
late sowings and the state-run Irish Sugar Plc said the 1987
plantings target is the equivalent of 36,400 hectares, down
from 37,600 in 1986.
 REUTER

Swiss unemployment edged down to 0.9 pct
of the working population from one pct in January and in
February 1986, the Federal Office of Industry, Trade and Labour
said.
    Seasonally adjusted, however, there was a slight rise in
unemployment.
    The number out of work fell to 28,439, down 1,142 compared
with the previous month. The number of vacant positions
registered with employment offices stood at 11,968 against
10,694 in January.
 REUTER

Malaysia's gold and foreign
exchange reserves rose to 16.07 billion ringgit in February
from 15.73 billion in January and 12.23 billion in February
1986, Bank Negara Malaysia said.
    The central bank said cumulative assets at end-February
fell to 20.02 billion ringgit from 20.68 billion at end-January
but were up from 17.07 billion at end-February last year.
    Holdings of federal government securities dropped to 876
mln ringgit in February from 1.70 billion a month earlier and
2.30 billion in February 1986.
    Malaysia's special drawing rights rose to 355 mln ringgit
at end-February from 352 mln at end-January and 286 mln at
end-February 1986, the bank said.
    The IMF position was unchanged from January at 507 mln but
was above the 422 mln in February a year ago.
    Currency in circulation in February fell to 7.43 billion
ringgit from 8.32 billion a month earlier but was up from 7.18
billion in February last year.
 REUTER

Japan should step up the pace of its
financial liberalisation if it wants to become a world
financial centre equal to New York or London, a leading U.S
banker said.
    "For Tokyo to become the third link in an international
capital markets triangle, it will need to create an environment
more hospitable to international finance than currently exists,"
Robert Binney, senior vice-president of Chase Manhattan Bank
N.A., Told a group of Japanese members of parliament and
financial leaders.
    Binney said Japan must liberalise its financial markets not
just to attract more jobs, capital and taxable income, but also
to recycle effectively its vast trade surpluses to help counter
growing protectionism in the United States.
    He called on Japan to remove all controls on deposit
interest rates soon and to remove obstacles to the growth of
its offshore market. He also said it should fully deregulate
its short-term money markets, develop comprehensive futures
markets, further open the Tokyo Stock Exchange to foreign
membership and remove fixed rate brokerage commissions.
    Binney also urged Japan to abolish Article 25 of its
Securities and Exchange Law which, like the U.S. Glass Steagall
Act, separates commercial from investment banking.
    At the same meeting Goldman Sachs (Japan) Corp president
Eugene Atkinson urged Japan to fully de-regulate short-term
interest rates, introduce commercial paper and open long-term
government bond markets to an auction system.
    He said Japan should allow securities firms to participate
in foreign exchange business and develop over-the-counter stock
options and futures. Short-selling of Japanese government cash
bonds was a vital hedging mechanism, he added.
    The group of some 60 Japanese legislators and financial
leaders which Atkinson and Binney addressed was recently formed
to study ways in which Japan should promote liberalisation of
its financial markets.
    "We should not leave such matters solely to government
bureaucrats," Masao Hori, Chairman of the lower house finance
committee, told the group.
 REUTER

Malaysian crude palm oil (cpo)
production fell to an estimated 270,400 tonnes in February from
an estimated 273,300 tonnes in January and 332,995 in February
1986, the Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority (PORLA)
said.
    Cpo stocks fell to an estimated 286,440 tonnes in February
from 287,940 in January and 653,411 in February last year.
    Processed palm oil stocks in February fell to an estimated
193,060 tonnes from 205,060 in January and 225,576 in February
1986.
    The January and February figures are subject to revision.
 REUTER

Shr 37.4p vs 30p.
    Final div 7p, making 12p vs 10p.
    Pre-tax profit 121.1 mln stg vs 109.3 mln.
    Net profit before minorities 76.6 mln stg vs 62.8 mln.
    Turnover 952.6 mln vs 970.1 mln.
    Pre-interest profit 132.1 mln vs 124.6 mln.
    Net interest 11 mln vs 15.3 mln.
    Tax 44.5 mln vs 46.5 mln.
    Minority interests 3.1 mln vs 5.2 mln.
    Extraordinary debit 9.1 mln vs credit 11.5 mln.
    Note - Extraordinary debit reflected full provision for
discontinuing the Financial Times's printing operations at
Bracken House in 1988, partly offset by gains on disposals.
 REUTER

China's trade deficit totalled 700 mln
dlrs in the first two months of this year, according to figures
released by the State Statistics Bureau.
    The New China News Agency quoted the Bureau as saying
foreign trade totalled 9.3 billion dlrs in the period, of which
exports were worth 4.3 billion dlrs.
    The bureau said total trade volume was up 2.5 pct on the
same 1986 period, with exports up 18.1 pct, but it gave no
other comparative figures.
    China's 1986 trade deficit totalled 12 billion dlrs,
official figures show.
 REUTER

Finns cast their final votes in
two-day general elections today with opinion polls predicting a
swing to the right which would bring the conservatives back
into government after 21 years in the political wilderness.
    Turnout on the first day yesterday, about five pct lower
than in 1983 polls, was lowest in leftist strongholds around
the capital Helsinki, electoral officials said today.
    Finnish media said this supported pre-election opinion
polls predicting falling among voters for the Social Democratic
Party of Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa. Several days of
inter-party bargaining are expected before a new government
emerges.
 REUTER

French machinery maker <Poclain>, 40 pct
owned by <Tenneco Inc>, said it will raise its capital to 791
mln francs from 91 mln by a 100 for 13 rights offering to
shareholders priced at par of 10 francs a share.
    The offer, between March 25 and April 13, is the second
stage of a capital restructuring plan announced in December
under which Tenneco will become Poclain's majority shareholder.
    In the first stage Poclain reduced its capital to 91 mln
from 455 mln by reducing the nominal value of its shares to 10
francs from 50.
    Poclain traded Friday on the Paris Bourse at 38.20 francs.
 REUTER

early round of bill offers from discount houses after
forecasting a shortage in the system of some 1.05 billion stg.
in official hands and treasury bill take-up will drain some
1.07 billion stg while exchequer transactions will take out
around 335 mln stg and bankers' balances below target five mln
stg.
    Partly offseting these outflows, a fall in note circulation
will add some 355 mln stg to the system today.
 REUTER

Hailstorms and strong winds in south
China killed two people, injured 20 and damaged an undisclosed
amount of crops, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.
    The pro-Peking New Evening Post said in a report from
Canton that more than 50 houses collapsed when the storms swept
across five counties in south-western Guangdong province.
    It said the crops were damaged over a five-day period ended
yesterday. It gave no other details.
 REUTER

While world exchanges revel in a
continuing securities boom, the Dutch stockmarket remains
lacklustre despite a series of largely positive annual
corporate results and signs of a more stable dollar, analysts
said.
    Prices and turnover on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange have
sprung back from lows reached when the dollar dipped below the
two guilder mark in January. But market analysts say only lower
interest rates or a further rise in the dollar, now trading at
around 2.09 guilders, could keep the momentum going.
    "Between end-1982 and end-1986 Dutch stocks rose by around
150 pct, but the dollar's sharp fall last year put the brake on
the bull market," said Philip Menco, analyst with bank CLN Oyens
en van Eeghen.
    The dollar's current level compares with an average in 1986
of 2.45 guilders, and 3.35 in 1985, official figures show.
    But Arjen Los, analyst with Dutch merchant bank Pierson,
Heldring en Pierson, sees room for some optimism,
   "The market is exaggerating the whole dollar affair. We've
seen the bottom of its decline. But what is lacking is a
stimulus on the interest rate front," he said.
    Analysts said they expected little impact from provincial
elections on Wednesday as the government's position was secure.
    "The scope for price rises in Dutch shares is narrow, given
the limited room for lower interest rates," said Los, adding the
Dutch market can currently only dream of returns of around 15
pct seen in rising markets elsewhere in Europe.
    "When the dollar slumped in the second half of 1986, U.S.
And U.K investors were heavy sellers of Dutch stock. They made
an enormous currency gain," Menco said.
    Finance Ministry figures show foreign investment in Dutch
stock last year fell by nearly half to 4.2 billion guilders.
    Los envisaged no significant revival of foreign interest in
the Dutch market. He saw the large, liquid Dutch pension funds
pursuing a more aggressive portfolio management policy while
continuing to invest in markets with weaker currencies.
    Outflows of non-bank Dutch capital totalled a record 21.4
billion guilders last year, 12.3 billion of which stemmed from
securities transactions.
    "Dutch institutions have been rallying to buoyant foreign
markets, but this season's results could coax some of them back
to the relatively underpriced Dutch market," Koos Ten Have of
Staal Bankiers said.
    Ten Have said Dutch price/earnings ratios based on
forecasts of 1987 results were broadly unchanged compared with
1986. With an average ratio of 10, they were still attractively
lower than shares of other exchanges, he added.
    He said the reliability of the strong guilder was a further
factor favouring Dutch stock investments.
    Senior bank economists said this week's official economic
forecast by the CPB planning agency painted a gloomy picture of
the Dutch economy but this would not shake investor confidence
in the Dutch business sector. The Dutch economy was doing
relatively well compared with other nations, they added.
    Analysts say most companies have fulfilled expectations,
while some firms, particularly in food and publishing,
surprised the market with continued solid profit growth despite
major dollar and sterling investments.
    Unexpectedly positive results from companies like Unilever
Plc-NV <UN.AS>, NV Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> and
Heineken NV <HEIN.AS> were balanced by poor performances by the
three banks, which achieved higher profits partly by reducing
their risk provisions. Analysts still have doubts about the
insurance sector, and many companies stressed the negative
impact of lower currencies on their guilder earnings in 1986.
    Food and publishing are seen as major growth areas, despite
the fact many of these companies have significant activities in
the U.K and U.S.
    Food chain Ahold NV <AHLN.AS> reported an 8.1 pct increase
in net 1986 profit but said it did not see profits growing in
1987 due to the uncertainty of the dollar.
    Turnover declined by 5.7 pct to 11.4 billion guilders.
About 1.5 billion guilders of this decline was due to the lower
dollar and one third of turnover volume was achieved in the
U.S.
    "Ahold is too cautious over the dollar," Los said. "As long as
such companies continue to maintain their U.S. Activities and
fund their expansion there, the negative influence is purely an
accounting effect."
    Koninklijke Wessanen NV <WESS.AS> and Heineken also managed
handsome profit increases of 16.6 and 7.5 pct respectively,
while blaming disappointing turnover in their substantial
overseas activities on the lower dollar.
    Initial publishing results indicate a bumper year for
shares in this sector and ensure firm interest despite higher
price/earnings ratios, ranging from 12 to 14. REUTER

A government commission that controls 51
pct of <San Miguel Corp> (SMC) stock will increase its nominees
on the firm's 15-member board to nine from six.
    "We want to correct business practices," Ramon Diaz, chairman
of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), told
Reuters.
    "Right now there are a lot of companies that keep so many
things from their shareholders and one of them is San Miguel,"
he said.
    A San Miguel spokesman declined comment.
    Diaz said New York investment bank Allen and Co Inc told
the PCGG it was interested in tendering for all outstanding SMC
stock, with the subsequent dispersal of 60 pct of the stock to
Filipino investors to comply with investment laws.
    He said Australian businessman and brewer Alan Bond and the
brewing company Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> were interested in
buying 40 pct each of SMC stock.
    He added that the PCGG wanted some foreign input but would
not allow foreign control of the brewing and food conglomerate,
the Philippines' biggest manufacturing concern.
    Diaz said the PCGG did not plan to remove SMC president
Andres Soriano from his family company.
    "He has tremendous prestige to run the company," Diaz said.
"We appreciate his management, but certainly some practices have
to be corrected."
 REUTER

Knox said the bank was eager to finance Argentine plans to
stimulate growth and that he was urging private banks to grant
new loans to the country.
    Knox said in an interview with the local daily La Nacion
yesterday that Argentina's current economic policies contained
key elements to stimulate growth and the World Bank was very
interested in financing its growth.
    "We are encouraging creditor banks to grant new loans to
make Argentine growth possible," said Knox, who arrived in
Argentina last Thursday.
 REUTER

<Cie Bancaire>, a subsidiary of recently
privatised banking group Cie Financiere de Paribas <PARI.PA>,
said it is issuing 2.35 mln new 100 francs nominal shares on
the basis of one for five already held.
    The operation will begin on March 31, a spokesman said.
    Cie Bancaire also said it has increased its capital to 1.41
billion francs from 1.17 billion by the incorporation of 237.74
mln francs of reserves.
 REUTER

NEC Corp <NESI.T> may take legal action
to halt introduction of <Seiko Epson Corp>'s NEC-compatible
personal computer series, which NEC alleges infringes
copyrights for NEC's 9801 V computer series, an NEC official
said.
    "We may have no choice but to take legal action," the NEC
    A Seiko Epson official said the company's PC 286 series,
the first NEC-compatible personal computer, does not infringe
on NEC copyrights. He said the company intends to go ahead with
plans to market the computers from late April.
    A Seiko Epson official said of the new machine, "It's
compatible with NEC's machine, so it appears similar. But our
intention was to develop an original machine."
    Industry analysts said NEC controls about 70 pct of the
domestic personal computer market.
    They said introduction of NEC-compatible machines could
start a price war and cut NEC's profits, as happened to IBM
following the introduction of IBM-compatible machines.
 REUTER

Preparations for the launch of a Swiss
options and futures exchange, billed as the first completely
electronic market of its kind, are at an advanced stage,
according to members of the project team.
    The Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange (Soffex)
is a new departure in that it will introduce an additional
range of financial instruments and electronic trading methods
to the traditionally conservative Swiss market.
    There will be no physical exchange floor and both trading
and clearing systems will be completely automated.
    The new market, due to start operating in January 1988,
follows a series of innovations by the bourses in Zurich, Basle
and Geneva aimed at preventing loss of business in the face of
keen competition from London and Frankfurt.
    These innovations included the introduction last October of
continuous trading in major shares, plans to establish a single
continuously updated Swiss share index from next month to
supplement the various indices produced by the major banks at
the close of business, and experiments in electronic trading.
    Banks themselves last year took the initiative of launching
covered warrants on the shares of other Swiss companies.
    "If Switzerland wants to maintain and expand its
international prominence in portfolio management, our bankers
and fund managers must have the same modern instruments at
their disposal as their competitors," says Soffex president
Rudolf Mueller, a director of Union Bank of Switzerland.
    The computer terminals on which business will be conducted
will be confined to Switzerland. It is still unclear how many
Swiss-based institutions will seek membership of the exchange.
    Formal applications are not due until next month but a
preliminary survey completed by the Soffex project team this
week showed strong interest in membership.
    "The response from both Swiss and foreign institutions all
over the country has been very encouraging," says Philippe
Bollag of the project team.
    Hans Kaufmann, who follows Swiss equities for Bank Julius
Baer, says a regulated traded options exchange should boost
foreign interest in Swiss shares and possibly increase bourse
turnover generally.
    The possibility of protecting portfolios by hedging should
attract Swiss institutional investors, Kaufmann added.
    Soffex is a private company set up by the five major Swiss
banks and the bourses of Zurich, Geneva and Basle.
    Trading will initially be limited to stock options on 10 to
15 leading Swiss bearer shares. An options contract on the new
Swiss share index should follow within six months but trading
in financial futures will be delayed until an unspecified
future date. Options on foreign shares may also be added later.
    Participants will be either brokers or dealers, operating
in the market through computer terminals in their own offices.
Trading must be conducted exclusively through the exchange.
    Exchange membership is open to banks, traders and brokerage
firms with an office in Switzerland, while Clearing Members
must be recognised as banks under Swiss law.
    The trading system, based on Digital Equipment Corp
software and hardware, provides for the display of best bid and
offer prices, matches orders electronically, allows anonymous
negotiation of block orders and maintains members' order books.
    An "interest" facility, aimed at helping participants to
gauge the market mood, shows the number of users watching a
particular instrument at any time. Most of the electronic
clearing functions will be carried out overnight.
    Each contract will cover only five shares instead of the
100 shares normally traded on existing options and futures
markets in the United States, London, Amsterdam and Stockholm.
    This reflects the fact that Swiss shares often cost
thousands of francs. Bearer shares in F. Hoffman-La Roche und
Co AG <HOFZ.Z>, likely to be on the Soffex opening list, were
quoted this week at 209,000 francs each.
    Contracts will initally be offered for the three end-months
following the trading date plus the subsequent January, April,
July or October end-months. Longer maturities may be added in
future if market liquidity permits.
    Detailed provisions have still to be worked out in areas
such as margin requirements, position limits, the supervisory
and regulatory functions of the exchange and brokerage fees.
    Banks polled by Reuters in a random survey were
enthusiastic about Soffex but reticent about the level of their
own involvement and about the exchange's prospects for success.
    "We're moving into completely new surroundings and it will
require a change in psychology," said a securities dealer at a
major Swiss bank. "We in Switzerland are not used to sitting all
day at a screen where nobody shouts at you."
    Moving into traded options will also require considerable
investment in equipment and staff by participants. Completely
new dealing and back-office skills will have to be acquired and
some banks are already sending staff abroad for training.
 REUTER

Israel's inflation rate for February
was one pct, compared to 2.1 pct in January and 1.6 pct in
February 1986, a spokesman for the Central Bureau of Statistics
said.
    Inflation for the 12 months ending in February was 23 pct,
    February price rises were mostly in housing, health,
education, entertainment and transport.
    Wage and price controls have been in force since August
1985. Officials said the controls have helped soften the effect
of a recent 10 pct devaluation of the shekel.
 REUTER

money market with assistance worth 90 mln stg in response to an
early round of bill offers from discount houses.
    Earlier, the bank estimated the shortage in the system
today at some 1.05 billion stg.
    The bank bought bills for resale to the market in equal
amounts on April 1, 2 and 3 at an interest rate of 10-7/16 pct.
 REUTER

A 250 mln dlr Philippine capital fund
will be launched shortly to encourage private sector
investment, Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin said in a report to
President Corazon Aquino on his first year in office.
    The First Philippine Capital Fund will be launched jointly
by New York investment house <Shearson Lehman Brothers> and the
International Finance Corp, an affiliate of the World Bank,
Ongpin said. He gave no date for the launch.
    Ongpin said the implementation of the fund had been delayed
by his government's negotiations to reschedule about 9.4
billion dlrs of its 27.8 billion dlr foreign debt.
    Craig Nalen, president of a U.S.-government backed Overseas
Private Investment Corp mission which visited Manila in
February, told reporters at the time the capital fund would
amount to at least 100 mln dlrs.
    Ongpin proposed the 250 mln dlr fund during a trip to the
United States last September.
    His plan called on private investors to raise funds to buy
discounted obligations of Philippine borrowers from creditors
and convert them to equity in local projects.
 REUTER

<Bond Corp International Ltd>, a
subsidiary of the Australian-based Bond Corp Holdings Ltd
<BONA.S>, said it would defer its planned rights issue but
still wants the issue to be made before July 31.
    No date has been set for the issue, announced in January.
    In a document to shareholders, Bond Corp said the delay
follows its receipt of a 240 mln H.K. Dlr loan from its parent
company to meet the first payment on the newly acquired Bond
Centre commercial complex in central Hong Kong.
    It also wants outside partners to take up to 50 pct in the
project, the company said.
    The January announcement said the rights issue would
finance Bond Corp's 1.4 billion dlr acquisition of a 23.77 pct
stake in HK-TVB Ltd <TVBH.HK> from film magnate Run Run Shaw.
    The company then reached an agreement with a consortium led
by Sino Land Co Ltd <SINO.HK> to buy a commercial complex that
is still under construction for 1.9 billion dlrs.
    Bond International said in the document that except for the
240 mln dlr loan, the deal would be financed from internal
resources and by selling an interest in the building.
    The payments must be completed by the end of 1987.
    Bond International has also sold several residential
buildings in Hong Kong's mid-levels district for a total of
68.35 mln dlrs, the statement said.
    The flats were among the properties it bought last year
from Hongkong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HK> for 1.4 billion dlrs.
    Analysts said Bond International is heavily geared as it
has relied on bank borrowings to purchase both the Hongkong
Land properties and the HK-TVB shares.
    Bond International also said in the document that while it
plans to sell an interest in the complex it will hold the
HK-TVB shares as a long-term investment.
 REUTER

Philippine government revenue is
expected to rise 26 pct to 99.9 billion pesos this year from
79.1 billion in 1986, Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin said.
    In a report to President Corazon Aquino on his department's
performance during the year ended February 28, Ongpin said at
least 15.9 billion pesos were expected to accrue from new tax
reform measures announced last year.
    He said the goal for official development assistance (ODA)
this year is two billion dlrs, adding that aid donors have
committed ODA inflows of 1.7 billion dlrs in 1987, up 30 pct
from 1.3 billion in 1986.
    Ongpin said steps planned to provide a sound revenue base
included a value added tax (VAT) system due to be introduced in
1988. He gave no other details.
    He said treasury bill maturities, interest rate levels and
the volume of government securities sold to the private sector
have improved significantly. "In particular, short-term prime
interest rates which had gone over 40 pct in 1985, are now down
to less than 10 pct," he said.
    Ongpin said the government's debt-equity scheme, introduced
in August last year, had attracted more than 276 mln dlrs worth
of applications, but selective evaluation had resulted in
approvals of only 61.8 mln dlrs at end-February.
    He said his department aims to accelerate its privatisation
program and the sale of non-performing assets owned by
associates of former President Ferdinand Marcos to achieve a
1987 sales target of four billion pesos which would help
finance land reform.
    Aquino said earlier this month that all the 24 billion
pesos the government hopes to raise from the sale of the failed
companies will be used to finance the land reform plan.
    Ongpin also said the government would pursue efforts to
obtain 500 mln dlrs in concessional funding for the program
from a World Bank-led consultative group of multilateral and
bilateral aid donors.
    The government has said the land reform plan aims to
distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land to poor peasants.
 REUTER

Norway's trade deficit widened in February
to 957 mln crowns from 80 mln crowns in January and 492 mln
crowns in February last year, the Central Bureau of Statistics
said.
    Exports dropped to 10.66 billion crowns last month,
compared with 11.11 billion in January and 10.85 billion in
February 1986, it added.
    Crude oil and natural gas exports totalled 4.56 billion
crowns in February, against 5.10 billion in January and 5.36
billion a year ago.
  REUTER

Yields on certificates of deposit
issued by the United Arab Emirates Central Bank were unchanged
at 6-1/8 pct, the bank said.
    The yield applies to maturities of one, two, three and six
months.
 REUTER

The Dutch cost of living index (base
1980) fell 1.2 pct to 121.5 in the year to mid-February after a
1.3 pct fall in the year to mid-January 1987, the Economics
Ministry said.
    The February index was 0.2 pct up on January.
    Clothing, shoe and vegetable prices rose in February while
prices of coffee, heating oil and most car fuels fell, the
Ministry added.
 REUTER

Helaba Luxembourg Hessische
Landesbank International has issued a 300 mln Luxembourg franc,
seven-year private placement with a coupon of 7.5 pct and
priced at par, lead manager Banque Generale du Luxembourg said.
    A spokesman said the issue had already been placed in full.
Fees total 1-3/4 pct, with 1-1/2 pct for co-managers. The
management group includes Banque Paribas (Luxembourg),
Kredietbank SA Luxembourgeoise and Banque de Luxembourg SA.
    The borrower is an affiliate of West Germany's Hessische
Landesbank Girozentral
 REUTER

Sweden's industrial production fell
1.8 pct during January compared with a fall of 0.8 pct the
month before and remains unchanged compared with January 1986,
according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
    The bureau attributed the fall to a long Christmas break
and particularly cold weather, which lowered production in the
forestry industry.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank came into the domestic
money market to add temporary liquidity through federal
government funds as call money rates rose above 4.0 pct,
    They estimated that the bulk of liquidity was added at
about 3.95 pct. Call money fell to 3.90/4.0 pct after the move.
It had been 3.80/90 on Friday.
    The move came as call money extended a rise begun Friday
after the Bundesbank took up some six billion marks owed to it
by other European central banks after currency interventions in
the framework of European Monetary System in January.
    Rates could ease further in trading today but dealers
expect them to rise later in the week as banks begin paying out
funds for tax payments on behalf of clients.
    Some 30 billion marks is likely to leave the market this
month, with the bulk being paid out next week.
    In anticipation of this liquidity drain, banks have stocked
up reserves at the Bundesbank.
    On Thursday, minimum reserve holdings declined to 57.0
billion marks from 60.0 billion on Wednesday but were well
above the 53.2 billion held on Tuesday. Daily average reserve
holdings rose slightly to 54.7 billion marks from 54.5 billion.
    The daily average reserve holdings were above the level of
around 51 billion marks dealers said is needed for the required
daily average for the month.
    With the heavy tax drain in March, banks are likely to
remain cautious about taking more liquidity out of reserves
than is absolutely necessary.
    However, a new securities repurchase pact likely to be
added next week to replace a facility expiring then could
somewhat offset the drain.
    The Bundesbank is expected to allocate more than the 3.4
billion marks which is due to be rolled over, dealers said.
 REUTER

Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> is likely to
name more American companies as suppliers of car parts for its
wholly-owned U.S. Subsidiary Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA Inc
(TMM), a Toyota official told Reuters.
    Toyota is studying the use of General Motors Corp's <GM.N>
GM Delco Products as a supplier of motors for windshield wipers
and Illinois Tool Works Inc for window handles, he said.
Another U.S. Firm may be used to supply radiator tanks.
    Toyota had originally planned to use two Japanese companies
to supply the parts, Nippondenso Co Ltd <DNOT.T> and Aisin
Seiki Co Ltd.
    Toyota is also considering some other U.S. Firms as
suppliers, but the spokesman declined to name them.
    Cars produced at Toyota's Kentucky plant will consist of 60
pct local content, instead of an earlier planned 50 pct, he
said. The plant is scheduled to start production in mid-1988
and have an annual capacity of 200,000 cars.
    Industry sources said the Toyota move was designed to head
off criticism that it was not using enough U.S. Company-made
parts at its Kentucky plant.
 REUTER

Pechiney <PUKG.PA> said it signed two
letters of intent with the Soviet Union covering the setting up
of packaging and packaging materials joint ventures.
    It said one proposed venture would produce  aluminium
packaging for food and cosmetics. The other envisaged Pechiney
putting together a consortium of  European partners to set up a
packaging and equipment manufacturing unit in the Soviet Union.
    A Pechiney spokesman said two working groups would prepare
detailed projects over the next three months. He said it was
too soon to estimate the financial value of the two ventures.
 REUTER

OPEC produced only about 14 mln bpd of
oil in the second week of March -- 1.8 mln bpd below its
ceiling -- largely because of pipeline problems in Turkey and
Ecuador, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) estimated.
    A landslide breached Iraq's one mln bpd pipeline through
Turkey on March 6 for a week, and earthquakes in Ecuador have
shut down its export pipeline for four to five months. Ecuador
has an OPEC quota of 210,000 bpd.
    MEES put Saudi Arabian output at 2.9 mln bpd in the first
week of March and 3.1 mln bpd in the second, in addition to
output from the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
    MEES said Saudi Arabia was pumping more than 300,000 bpd of
its total production into floating storage.
    Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazer told Reuters and the
television news agency Visnews yesterday that Saudi output,
including Neutral Zone production, was around three mln bpd.
    The Cyprus-based newsletter also said authoritative Libyan
oil sources said Libya was producing 850,000 bpd, compared with
its 948,000 bpd quota, and that actual liftings are much lower
than that.
    It said one major Libyan equity producer had partially
stopped lifting its 55,000 bpd equity entitlement for March
because Libya was insisting on official prices, but is still
lifting 40,000 bpd of debt crude at official prices and a
further 25,000 bpd of "purchase crude."
    It said small equity producers, with entitlements of only
2,000 to 3,000 bpd, had also told Tripoli they could not lift
at official prices.
    MEES said Iraq had sent a telex to OPEC and member
countries calling for the formation of a committee to study
what it said were inequalities in marketing potential among
various members.
    The newsletter said the Iraqi letter indicated Baghdad was
having difficulty selling crude at official prices.
    The Iraqi telex pointed out that some member countries
export substantial volumes of oil that are not subject to OPEC
price regulations -- exports of refined products, equity crude
on which the margins are equivalent to covert discounts and
"other forms of hydrocarbons" which are marketed in package deals
with crude oil.
 REUTER

Year-on year Finnish consumer prices
fell to 3.5 pct in February 1986 from 3.7 pct in January and
4.6 pct in February 1985, the Central Statistical Office said.
    Consumer prices rose 0.3 pct in February after rises of one
pct in January and 0.5 pct in February 1985.
    The consumer price index, base 1981, was 142.7 in February,
142.2 in January and 137.8 in February 1986.
 REUTER

Engineering group Alsthom <ALSF.PA> said
it planned to slash 420 jobs this year from the 5,000 strong
workforce in its electrical equipment division.
    Details of the proposed staff reductions will be put to
labour representatives at a meeting on March 19.
    Company officials said the cuts were needed to adjust to a
drop in orders from French state utility Electricite de France
and the cancellation or postponement of unspecified export
    REUTER

Bridgestone Corp <BRIT.T> said it and
<Clevite Industries Inc> of the United States will launch a
joint venture in the U.S. To produce parts for car engines.
    The joint firm is to have a capital of 40 mln dlrs and will
produce rubber for cushioning car engines from vibration.
Launch date for the company, be owned 51 pct by Clevite and 49
pct by Bridgestone, is to be in June.
 REUTER

Club Mediterranee <CMI.PA> said it planned
a 150 mln franc increase in its authorised capital to 388.11
mln francs from the present 238.11 mln.
    Shareholders approval would be sought at an extraordinary
meeting on April 16.
    The meeting would also be asked to approve a merger of two
Italian subsidiaries, <CM Italia Spa> and <Societa
Amministrazioni Turistiche Srl>.
    This would realise a capital gain on CM Italia's assets,the
amount of which would be determined by exchange rates ruling on
the effective date of the merger, a company announcement said.
 REUTER

Japanese banks may have to realize
significant losses on their seven billion dlrs in perpetual
floating rate notes after the recent collapse of the market,
    How much of a loss is realized in the current fiscal year
ending March 31 depends on the accounting treatment recommended
by the Finance Ministry. Ministry sources said the Ministry has
yet to decide what guidance to give Japanese banks in valuing
the perpetual floating rate notes they hold.
    The notes are held by Japanese city, trust, long-term and
regional banks, including their overseas branches.
    Roughly half of the Japanese banks assess foreign asset
portfolios on the basis of current market prices while the
others assess them at either the acquisition cost or the
current market price, whichever is lower, bankers said.
    With the market for such perpetuals non-existent, Finance
Ministry officials questioned the propriety of using nominal
quotations supplied by the notes' lead managers to determine
bank book losses.
    The Ministry is currently awaiting a legal judgement by the
National Tax Administration Agency on the propriety of using
such quotations, one official said.
    Banks using current market prices alone to value their
holdings can avoid realizing losses now because they can argue
that the market is non-existent and hope for a recovery next
year, bankers said.
    But those banks who use acquisition cost to value foreign
portfolios cannot look to the market, bankers said. The
acquisition cost is obviously higher than the market price,
whatever it may be, these banks must realize losses in the
current fiscal year.
 REUTER

Pearson Plc <PSON.L> said the recent
sale of its Fairey Engineering companies, in a 51.5 mln stg
management buy-out, was part of its policy of concentrating on
four key sectors.
    In a statement with its 1986 results, the company said its
information and entertainments sector's Financial Times, FT,
newspaper had record sales and profits.
    The FT is subject to a 70 mln stg investment programme,
with the printing and publishing operation moving to a new
plant in the London docklands next year.
    Its other key sectors are merchant banking, oil and china.
    Commenting on its Camco Inc oil service subsidiary, Pearson
said it believes the oil business setback is only temporary.
    The group has been acquiring oil properties in both the
U.S. And Britain which will begin to make a significant impact
on profits in the 1990s.
    Far East operations of fine china subsidiary Royal Doulton
Ltd are being expanded in the wake of record recent sales in
Japan, it added.
    Pearson reported 1986 pre-tax profit of 121.1 mln stg, up
from 109.3 mln in 1985. Turnover fell to 953 mln from 970 mln.
  REUTER

German February central bank money grows annual 7.5 pct (January, same) - prov. Bundesbank data

The government-owned <Kowloon-Canton
Railway Corp> is planning a new line to link up the existing
railroad with the new light rail system now under construction,
a company spokeswoman said.
    She said the 14.9-kilometre link will connect the two
independent lines in the northern part of the suburban area
near the China border. It is not yet decided whether a light
rail system or a conventional system will be used for the link.
    The link, which will take about 3-1/2 years to complete, is
expected to cost 1.26 billion H.K. Dlrs, she said.
    The spokeswoman said the final decision on the link is up
to the government, depending on the government's overall
transport and development policy.
    She said consultancy studies commissioned by the company
show that by 1996 the new link will carry 137,100 passengers
daily and generate an additional 50,000 passengers in the
conventional railway system.
 REUTER

West German central bank money stock
was growing at an annualized 7.5 pct in February, unchanged
from the 7.5 pct reported in January, provisional data from the
Bundesbank showed.
    The figure was thus outside the three to six pct range set
by the Bundesbank for 1987.
    In absolute terms, the measure rose to 223.2 billion marks
in February from 221.8 billion in the prior month.
    The data showed that the stock grew at an annualized 8.6
pct over the six months to February, slower than the 9.4 pct
rise in the same period to January.
    Of the two components comprising central bank money stock,
cash in circulation rose to 111.7 billion marks in February
from 110.9 billion in January, the Bundesbank data showed.
    This gave an annualized 8.3 pct rise over the six months to
February, down from a 10.2 pct increase over the six months to
January.
    Minimum reserve requirements on domestic liabilities grew
to 111.5 billion marks in February from 110.9 billion in
January.
    This yielded an annualized 8.8 pct rise over the six month
to February, up slightly from an 8.6 pct increase over the same
period to January.
 REUTER

UK FEB RETAIL SALES RISE PROVISIONAL 2.2 PCT (JAN FALL 2.2 PCT) - OFFICIAL

Gold is expected to continue its rise
this year due to renewed inflationary pressures, especially in
the U.S., Hamburg-based Vereins- und Westbank AG said.
    It said in a statement the stabilisation of crude oil
prices and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries'
efforts to achieve further firming of the price led to growing
inflationary pressures in the U.S., The world's biggest crude
oil producer.
    Money supplies in the U.S., Japan and West Germany exceed
the central banks' limits and real growth of their gross
national products, it said.
    Use of physical gold should rise this year due to increased
industrial demand and higher expected coin production, the bank
said.
    Speculative demand, which influences the gold price on
futures markets, has also risen. These factors and South
Africa's unstable political situation, which may lead to a
temporary reduction in gold supplies from that country,
underline the firmer sentiment, it said.
    However, Australia's output is estimated to rise to 90
tonnes this year from 73.5 tonnes in 1986.
 REUTER

The volume of U.K. Retail sales rose a
provisional, seasonally adjusted 2.2 pct in February after
falling a final 2.2 pct in January, figures released by the
Department of Trade and Industry show.
    The February sales index, base 1980, was put at a
preliminary 125.0 after a final 122.3 in January.
    In the three months from December to February, the level of
sales was little changed over the previous three months but was
nearly six pct higher than the same year ago period.
    On a non-seasonally adjusted value basis, retail sales in
February were a provisional 9.0 pct higher than a year earlier.
    The Department noted the latest figures were similar to the
average in the fourth quarter last year but well above the
January index, which was depressed by the effects of severe
weather.
    The February trading period comprised the four weeks
February 1 to 28. Final February retail sales figures will be
published on April 6.
 REUTER

Shr 17.15p vs 12.37p
    Final dividend 5.5p, making 7.5p vs 6.2p
    Pre-tax profit 39.4 mln stg vs 29.7 mln.
    Turnover 543.2 mln stg vs 481.5 mln
    Operating profit 48.2 mln stg vs 38.2 mln
    Net interest 8.9 mln vs 8.6 mln
    Tax 14.3 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Profit after tax 25.1 mln vs 18.4 mln
    Minority interest 300,000 vs 615,000
    Net tangible assets per ordinary shr 111.3p vs 101.6p
    REUTER

The credibility of government efforts to
stabilise fluctuating commodity prices will again be put to the
test over the next two weeks as countries try to agree on how a
buffer stock should operate in the cocoa market, government
delegates and trade experts said.
    Only two weeks ago, world coffee prices slumped when
International Coffee Organization members failed to agree on
how coffee export quotas should be calculated. This week, many
of the same experts gather in the same building here to try to
agree on how the cocoa pact reached last summer should work.
    The still unresolved legal wrangle surrounding the
International Tin Council (ITC), which had buffer stock losses
running into hundreds of millions of sterling, is also casting
a shadow over commodity negotiations.
    The ITC's failure has restricted negotiators' ability to
compromise as governments do not want to be involved in pacts
with built-in flaws or unlimited liability, but want clear
lines drawn between aid and trade.
    A more hopeful sign of cooperation was agreement on basic
elements of a new International Natural Rubber Agreement in
Geneva at the weekend.
    Some importing countries insist the International Cocoa
Organization (ICCO) buffer stock rules must not be muddied with
quota type subclauses which might dictate the type of cocoa to
be bought. One consumer country delegate said this would
"distort, not support" the market.
    Trade and industry sources blame uncertainty about the ICCO
for destabilising the market as the recent collapse in coffee
prices has made traders acutely aware that commodity pacts can
founder. On Friday this uncertainty helped push London cocoa
futures down to eight month lows. The strength of sterling has
also contributed to the recent slip in prices.
    The ICCO daily and average prices on Friday fell below the
"must buy" level of 1,600 SDRs a tonne designated in the pact,
which came into force at the last ICCO session in January but
without rules for the operation of the buffer stock.
    Consumers and producers could not agree on how it should
operate and what discretion it should be given. The agreement
limits it to trading physical cocoa and expressly says it
cannot operate on futures markets.
    A cash balance of some 250 mln dlrs and a stock of almost
100,000 tonnes of cocoa, enough to mount large buying or
selling operations, were carried forward from the previous
    Members finance the stock through a 45 dlrs a tonne levy on
all cocoa they trade. It has an upper limit of 250,000 tonnes.
    The key arguments being faced by the ICCO working group on
buffer stock rules which is meeting today and tomorrow will be
over non-member cocoa and differentials the buffer stock should
pay when trading different types of cocoa. Another working
group is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss administrative
matters, and the full council meets on Thursday.
    Producers have so far maintained that buffer stock funds
should not help mop up surplus cocoa produced in non-member
countries such as Malaysia.
    Consumers say when this cocoa is the cheapest the buffer
stock should buy it rather than compete with chocolate
manufacturers for premium-priced high quality cocoas.
    The argument over buying non-member cocoa is closely linked
to the one over differentials for different qualities.
    European industry and trade advisers have suggested as a
compromise that the buffer stock have a maximum share that can
represent non-member cocoa and that it use the London futures
market's existing differentials for different qualities.
    Currently, good West African cocoa is tendered at par onto
the London market.
    Discounts, which are currently under review, range up to 50
stg a tonne for Brazilian and Malaysian cocoa.
    Consumer delegates said the same arguments in reverse would
operate when prices are high - the buffer stock should sell the
highest priced cocoa in most demand, forcing all prices lower.
    The January talks were slowed by a split inside the
European Community, a key ICCO consumer group, with France
siding with producers. EC representatives met in closed session
in Brussels on Friday in an attempt to reach a common ground
and, a diplomatic source said, narrowed the range of positions
among the 12 nations.
    The source said the EC will be looking for signs of
flexibility on the part of producers in the next few days and
will be able to respond if they are there.
    One ICCO delegate describing the producer/consumer split
said consumer proposals mean buying more cocoa for less and
backs the concept of the pact which is "meant to support the
market where trade buying is not."
    In contrast, he said, producers seem to want to sell their
cocoa to the buffer stock rather than consumers.
    Other, more technical, issues still outstanding include
whether the buffer stock should buy at a single announced
"posted price" as in the previous pact or by announcing it is
buying then accepting offers.
    In either case, delegates said, it is accepted that
producers must be given a clear opportunity to make offers of
cocoa for forward shipment directly to the buffer stock in a
way that is competitive with spot offers made by dealers.
 REUTER

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd <CAPH.HK>
has won a two-year license from the Hong Kong government to
operate scheduled flights to Toronto, a Cathay spokesman said.
    He told Reuters the airline had sought a five-year right to
add Toronto to its existing license to serve the United States
and Canada.
    "We're pleased," the spokesman said. "It's important because
Toronto has a large ethnic Chinese commmunity and there's a
growing amount of travel."
    Canadian and British authorities must agree on air service
rights before Cathay can begin service to toronto.
    Cathay Pacific is controlled by Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.
HK>.
    Hongkong Dragon Airlines Ltd, a fledgling locally  based
airline, had opposed the move, saying that Cathay should wait
until its license for its U.S. And Canadian routes expires in
February next year.
    A hearing started today and continues tomorrow. An
application by Dragonair is to start flights to Malaysian
cities including Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu. Cathay is
opposing Dragonair's request.
  REUTER

Yugoslav retail prices in February
rose 7.2 pct from January to stand 91.6 pct higher than in
    In January retail prices rose 6.6 pct from December to
stand 90.4 pct higher than in January 1986.
    The cost of living, an index that includes services and
utilities as well as retail prices, was up 7.3 pct in February
from January and stood 93.6 pct higher than in February 1986.
    In January the cost of living increased by 6.4 pct from
December and stood 91.8 pct higher than in January 1986.
 REUTER

Finnish two-day general elections
ending tonight have not affected financial markets, with trade
continuing as normal, bankers said.
    "There is no sign of nervousness, the market is steady as a
rock. Trade is normal, I see no special increase or decrease,"
one foreign banker said.
    The markka's currency index was fixed today at 103.8,
unchanged since early March. The mid-rate fix of the dollar was
4.517 markka, down from 4.546 last Friday.
    Opinion polls show a possible return into government of the
Conservatives after 21 years in opposition.
    Trade at the Helsinki Stock Exchange was unaffected by the
election, securities analysts said.
    They said the likelihood of major changes in economic
policy even if the Conservatives join the government are slim
although they favour further liberalisation of financial
markets.
    The Conservatives, who hold 44 seats in Parliament, have
shelved plans to privatise state industry in order to improve
their chances of joining a centrist coalition.
 REUTER

Radioactive contamination of water
supplies around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will not
reach danger levels when the winter snowfall starts to melt, a
Soviet scientist was quoted as saying at the weekend.
    Konstantin Sytnik, vice-president of the Ukrainian Academy
of Sciences, said there had been fears that melted snow
containing radioactive particles might flow into main water
supplies.
    But he told the Communist Party newspaper Pravda that
contamination of snow around the plant was within safety levels
and some of it had already been absorbed into the soil.
    Snowfall this winter had been greater than usual and a
certain increase in the amount of radiation in the water was
inevitable. But contamination would be within the permissible
limits, Sytnik said.
    The banks of the river Pripyat, which flows near the plant,
had been reinforced to prevent it bursting its banks when the
thaw began this spring, he added.
    About 135,000 people were evacuated and 31 were killed
after an explosion and fire at Chernobyl last April 26. A
concrete wall was built last summer to prevent contamination of
the Pripyat by radioactive ground water.
    Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official was quoted as saying today
that preparations were under way in the Ukraine to evacuate
towns and villages before there was heavy flooding after higher
than usual snowfall this winter.
    V. Martynenko, head of a flood commission in the Donbass
area of the Ukraine, told Pravda preparations had begun for the
evacuation of about 112,000 people in the Donbass in the south
of the republic. About 190 towns and villages and 12,000 homes
could be flooded when snow -- falls of which had been six times
higher than usual in some areas -- started to thaw. Cattle had
already been moved from some parts, they said.
 REUTER

President Aquino has ordered the
dissolution of all armed civilian vigilante groups around the
Philippines, officials said.
    The order follows protests about the activities of
vigilantes by human-rights activists, but goes against calls by
the military for more such groups.
    The vigilantes have been credited with a major role in
recent successes in several districts against communist rebels.

 Reuter

Shr 25.7p vs 21.5p
    Div 6p vs 4p
    Pretax profit 24.13 mln stg vs 16.40 mln
    Net after tax 15.08 mln vs 10.52
    Extraordinary credit 8.71 mln stg vs nil
    Turnover 140.8 mln vs 96.55
    Note - The extraordinary item comprises profit less losses
on the sale of certain subsidiaries less related tax and
minority interests.
    Pretax profit comprises -
    Securities and money broking 15.44 mln stg vs 10.75 mln
    Personal financial services 3.6 mln vs 735,000 stg
    Media 3.74 mln vs 3.16 mln
    Market reserch 912,000 stg vs 732,000
    Net interest 438,000 vs 1.03 mln
 REUTER

 Reuter...

Madagascar's vital rice crop is
estimated at 2,286,000 tonnes of paddy this year, up from
2,138,000 in 1986, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
    The Trade Ministry said rice imports quadrupled in local
currency value during the first nine months of last year as the
government established a buffer stock of the country's staple
food.
    Rice imports increased to 82.4 billion Malagasy francs
during the first nine months of last year from 20 billion in
the same period of 1985, the ministry said, without disclosing
the tonnages involved.
 REUTER

The National Bank of Hungary said its
name had been used in fraudulent foreign exchange contracts
with Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> but denied any misconduct on its
part.
    National Bank managing director Laszlo Karczag told
Reuters, "All our businesses (with Volkswagen) had been closed
with all payments made when due on both sides and therefore we
do not have ... Any open or unsettled positions whatsoever with
them."
    Karczag said the bank was in contact with Volkswagen and
was "rendering them all possible assistance in their
investigations."
    The West German weekly Der Speigel said a fraud involving
VW's reported 480 mln mark loss on foreign exchange dealings
came to light when the Hungarian National Bank refused to
honour what turned out to be a fake forward currency purchase
contract.
    Reading a prepared statement, Korczag said, "We have
knowledge, however, of the fact that in certain fraudulent
contracts the name of the National Bank of Hungary has also
been misused. We deny any kind of misconduct on our part."
    The bank had been doing foreign exchange business with
Volkswagen "for a few years," he said.
 REUTER

    Ecuador said on Friday that last week's earthquake was
forcing it to reaffirm an earlier decision -- based on the
slide in world oil prices -- to suspend debt payments to
private foreign banks, which hold two-thirds of its 8.16
    Meanwhile, Ecuador announced an austerity program and a
price freeze on key consumer goods as a result of the
earthquake, which killed at least 300 people.
    Presidency Minister Patricio Quevedo said the budget would
be cut by five to 10 pct, government hiring would be frozen and
salaries of top officials, including the president and cabinet,
would be reduced.
consumer items, mainly food staples, while the price of
gasoline would rise by between 69 and 80 pct and bus fares
would rise by 20 pct. Gasoline supplies would also be limited.
 Reuter

its estimate of the shortage in the money market today up to
1.15 billion stg before taking account of its early operations.
    Earlier, the bank forecast the deficit at 1.05 billion stg
and gave 90 mln stg assistance at an early round of bill
offers.
 REUTER

ruptured in the March 5 tremor and will take some five months
to repair at a cost of about 150 mln dlrs to repair.
damages caused by the quake at one billion dlrs and said that
Ecuador as a result would maintain January's suspension of
    Although sympathetic to Ecuador's plight, many banks in the
Paribas facility feel that emergency financial relief is a job
for international financial organizations and not for
restructuring would look bad," one banker commented.
 Reuter

rise.
 REUTER

Bank of China has taken a stake in
Luxembourg-based finance company BAII Holdings SA, a spokesman
for BAII said.
    The stake was between three and five pct but no further
details of the deal, which was announced simultaneously in
Paris, London and Hong Kong, were immediately available.
    BAII, which is 50 pct Arab owned, is looking to expand its
activities in the Far East and recently established a
wholly-owned merchant banking subsidiary in Hong Kong, the
    The group had earnings of 15.4 mln dlrs in 1985.
 REUTER

said OPEC's December agreement to stabilize oil prices at 18
quota.

Turkey's trade deficit rose to 3.65
billion dlrs in 1986 from 3.39 billion in 1985 following
increased imports from Western countries, figures from the
State Statistics Institute show.
    Exports were down 6.3 pct at 7.45 billion dlrs, compared
with 7.95 billion in 1985, while imports were down 2.1 pct at
11.10 billion dlrs from 11.34 billion.
    Total trade with Mid-East Gulf states fell some 40 pct due
to lower oil prices, with imports at 1.55 billion dlrs,
compared with 2.74 billion, and exports at 1.65 billion after
2.72 billion.
    Exports to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development countries rose to 4.29 billion dlrs from 4.11
billion in 1985, while imports were 4.56 billion after 3.55
billion.
    Turkey's trade deficit in December narrowed to 216 mln dlrs
from 340 mln in November, and compared with 277 mln in December
1985.
    
 Reuter

A huge explosion in a flax factory in
the northeast China city of Harbin killed 45 workers and
injured 185, the official China Legal News reported.
    The newspaper said the explosion in the early hours of
yesterday destroyed four buildings at the plant.
    More than 470 workers were in the factory at the time of
the explosion. Doctors specializing in burns were rushed to
Harbin to help treat the injured.
    The paper said the cause of the blast was still being
investigated.
 Reuter

Bearer shares of Schweizerische
Aluminium AG <ALUZ.Z> (Alusuisse) fell sharply as trading
resumed after a one-day suspension on Friday, when the firm
disclosed plans for a capital cut.
    The bearers, held mainly by foreign investors, dropped 30
Swiss francs to 460. But volume was not particularly heavy.
Registered shares were less affected, slipping five to 165. The
participation certificates fell to 43 francs from 45.50.
    Alusuisse made a net loss of 688 mln francs, after a
restated 756 mln loss in 1985, and set a 50 pct capital cut.
The company said it could break even this year.
 REUTER

money market with a further 30 mln stg assistance.
    This brings the Bank's total help so far today to 120 mln
stg and compares with its upward revised estimate that the
system would face a shortage of some 1.15 billon stg.
    The central bank bought bills for resale to the market in
equal amounts on April 1, 2 and 3 at an interest rate of
10-7/16 pct.
 REUTER

Peru will put into effect today a foreign
 Reuter

before Saudia Arabia would ship it oil, state-oil company
    The shipment was part of a contract signed in February for
the Saudis to supply Brazil with 125,000 barrels per day until
June.
 REUTER

Philips DuPont Optical Co is arranging a
145 mln dlr, three-year transferable loan facility, Chemical
Bank International Ltd said as agent.
    The financing involves a 70 mln dlr loan which is available
for drawing in the six months after signing and a 75 mln dlr
revolving credit, which is available for the life of the
credit.
    Drawings under both tranches will be at 17.5 basis points
over the London Interbank Offered Rate. There will be a
utilisation fee of five basis points on the revolving credit if
more than 50 pct is used and a commitment fee of 7.5 basis
points.
    Borrowings will be available in currencies other than
dollars and banks have been invited to join as lead managers at
15 mln dlrs for 7.5 basis points and as managers at 7.5 mln
dlrs for five basis points.
    The borrower is an optical disk joint venture between
Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken NV and E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and
Co.
 REUTER

Banca della Svizzera Italiana <BISZ.Z>
said it planned a one-for-12 rights issue at 300 pct of nominal
value to raise about 50 mln francs new capital.
    The rights issue would have a theoretical value to
shareholders of 140 Swiss francs per bearer share and 45 per
registered share.
    BSI was also seeking shareholder authorization for 200,000
new participation certificates of a nominal value of 100 francs
without rights for shareholders, to back future convertible or
warrant bonds or for other purposes. Existing 500-franc "B"
tranche certificates would be split five-for-one.
    The split would improve the marketability of the existing
certificates, chief executive Giorgio Ghiringhelli told a news
    The new bearer shares would be priced at 1,500 francs,
compared with a closing price last Friday of 3,325 on the
Zurich Stock Exchange, while the registered shares would be
issued at 300 francs against a market price of 900.
 REUTER

Britain and West Germany told their
European Community partners they would strongly oppose major
elements of proposals to rid the EC of its farm surpluses.
    At a meeting of EC foreign ministers, Britain called for a
full debate on a proposed tax on edible oils and fats that has
already angered EC consumer groups and unleashed Washington-led
protests from exporters to the EC, diplomats said.
    West Germany, also opposed to the oils and fats tax, will
advise the meeting formally later today it cannot countenance
other proposals that could hit German farmers, they added.
    They said West Germany's objections were put in a letter
this weekend from Chancellor Helmut Kohl to Jacques Delors, the
president of the EC's Executive Commission which had put
forward the proposals last month in a bid to avoid a new EC
cash crisis.
    Kohl reiterated German objections to proposed cereals
production curbs but reserved his harshest criticism for a
proposed dismantling of Monetary Compensatory Amounts (MCAs) -
a system of cross-border subsidies and taxes which level out
foreign exchange fluctuations for farm exports.
    Kohl made clear the dismantling would mainly hit German
farmers who, without MCAs, would find it much more difficult to
export to weaker currency states, which means virtually all
other 11 EC states, diplomats said.
    Britain initiated the discussion on the proposal to impose
a hefty tax on domestic and imported oils and fats because it
could seriously damage EC trade relations.
    The diplomats said the United States had been the most
outspoken among foreign critics of the proposal, describing it
as a breach of the EC's obligations under the world trade body
GATT.
    But protests had also come from other exporters to the EC,
such as Senegal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina,
Iceland and Norway, they added.
    Britain has often lined up against West Germany on the farm
reform issue in the past but is keen to avoid measures that
could spark a damaging trade war with the U.S.
    Foreign ministers were unlikely to take a decision on
either the oils and fats tax or the MCA proposals today,
diplomats said. But their discussion should make clear that
neither has a chance of surviving when it comes up for
substantive consideration by EC farm ministers later this
month, they added.
 REUTER

company.
Inc <HBJ>.
    After carefully considering the two offers at a meeting on
Friday, the Harpers and Row board decided not to act on them.
pertinent facts and alternatives... We intend to make a careful
and informed decision but will proceed expeditiously to a
conclusion," Knowlton said.
recapitalize the company's stock in order to create two classes
of shares with different votinmg rights.
 Reuter

 Reuter

a weekend television interview.
    President Reagan opposes protectionist legislation but
    However, Baldrige warned measures that would penalize
failing to cut their trade surpluses with the U.S. could lead
such bill.
 Reuter

Seventeen people were killed and 22 are
missing after a dam collapsed following heavy rains in Soviet
Tadzhikistan, the official news agency Tass said.
    Water broke through the dam in the Kulyab region of the
Central Asian republic, and fell on the village of Sargazan,
sweeping away 53 houses, destroying bridges and damaging
railway lines, Tass said.
    The Central Committee of the Tadzkhikistan Communist Party
had sent condolences to the relatives of the dead, Tass said.
 Reuter

growth.
    The shake-up would strengthen the U.S. Position in future
international talks.
    Currency analysts believe the Paris agreement set secret 
short-term target ranges for their currencies with a specific
agreement to defend those bands with intervention.
    According to market sources, the ranges agreed were 1.60 to
1.90 marks to the dollar, and 140 to 155 yen to the dollar.
    There is no official confirmation that specific bands  were
set, although the agreement used the term "ranges", for the first
time in an international economic agreement.
    The Paris accord stated the six would cooperate closely to
foster currency stability around current levels.
 REUTER

Calny Inc said it has
received an offer to be acquired by PepsiCo Inc, which already
owns 9.9 pct of Calny stock, for 11.50 dlrs per share, subject
to approval by PepsiCo and Calny boards and Calny shareholders.
    The company said its board intendsd to schedule a meeting
in the near future to review the proposal and it has asked
<Oppenheimer and Co Inc> to assist it in evaluating the offer
and advise Calny on its alternatives.
    Calny is the largest franchisee of PepsiCo's Taco Bell
restaurants, operating 143 in California, Oregon, Texas and
Washington as well as 15 La Petite Boulangerie bakeries in
Seattle.
    Calny earned 1,192,000 dlrs on sales of 56.2 mln dlrs for
the nine months ended November Four.
    On December Four, Calny rejected as inadequate an investor
group led by former president and chairman Robert A. Larive's
second offer to acquire it because the bid was inadeuqate and
subject to too many contingencies.  The group offered 11.50
dlrs and one dlr of 10 pct preferred stock per Calny share.
 Reuter

Indonesia will build a crude palm oil
terminal at a new port on Batam island, south of Singapore,
Research and Technology Minister Yusuf Habibie said.
    The terminal will be able to handle 2.1 mln tonnes of crude
palm oil from new plantations in northern Sumatra and western
Kalimantan (Borneo), he said.
    A tender for engineering work on the Asia Port project will
be offered mid-year. Habibie did not say when the terminal was
expected to be operational.
 Reuter

<Warburg, Pincus Capital Corp> said it
has started a tender offer for up to 2,500,000 common shares of
Symbion Inc at 3.50 dlrs each.
    In a newspaper advertisement, The firm said the opffer is
not conditioned on receipt of any minimum number of shares but
is conditioned on holders of nor more than 400,000 Symbion
sharesseeking to receive the fair value of their shares under
provisions of the Utah Business Corporation Act.  Warburg said
receipt of 2,500,000 shares would raise its interest in Symbion
to about 59.3 pct from 25.8 pct currently and give it control.
    Warburg said it reserves the right to buy more than
2,500,000 shares if the offer is oversubscribed but has no
present intention of doing so.  It said it has asked Symbion to
provide its shareholder list to help in disseminating the
offer.
    The firm said the offer, proration period and withdrawal
rights expire April 22 unless extended.
 Reuter

ZIM Energy Corp said it has entered
into an agreement for a group consisting of <Strategy and
Development Inc>, <Norsk Vikingolje A/S> of Oslo and MIS Gas
Corp -- which already owns one third of ZIM -- to buy 15 to 20
mln new common shares at 20 cts each in association with <Polo
Energy Corp> and <Jaguar Petroleum Corp>.
    The company said the investor group also bought about 6.3
mln shares from ZIM management. It said James Mitchell, William
Richardson and Steven Duin have resigned as officers and
    ZIM said Chemclear Inc <CMCL> has unilaterally canceled an
agreement to merge with ZIM, and ZIM's board is studying the
possiblity of a claim against Chemclear.
    The company said it expects to report a loss for the year
of about 3,125,000 dlrs due to lower oil and natural gas
prices, unsuccessful well workover programs and excessive
overhead and corporate expenses. It said it plans a dramatic
reduction in overhead costs that should improve results.
    The company said Michel Billard has been named chairman and
Robert Berckmans has been named president and chief executive,
and Berckmans and two others have joined the board.
    ZIM said it has agreed to acquire the remaining interest in
its Buccaneer and Blue Dolphin Pipeline affiliates for about
one mln dlrs in cash and stock.  It gave no further details.
 Reuter

Bluefield Supply Co said its
board declared its second liquidating dividend of 1.71 dlrs per
share, payable March 16 to shareholders of record March 13.
    The company paid an initial liquidating dividend of 15.75
dlrs per share on January Eight.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 48 cts
    Shr diluted 33 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 4,435,000 vs 6,410,000
    Revs 839.3 mln vs 751.8 mln
    1st half
    Shr 55 cts vs 94 cts
    Shr diluted 55 cts vs 88 cts
    Net 7,374,000 vs 12.6 mln
    Revs 1.68 billion vs 1.51 billion
 Reuter

A rash of firings, fears of mass layoffs
and management overtures for wage concessions have set the
stage for all-out war between Eastern Airlines and its unions,
analysts and labor leaders say.
    The bitter labor-management dispute has hurt efforts to
revive the ailing carrier and could ultimately lead Texas Air,
Eastern's new owner, to tranfer scores of Eastern jets to its
non-union sister airlines, analysts said.
    "It's a trump card that Texas Air could resort to if things
get bad enough -- repainting Eastern planes and shifting them
over Continental Airlines," said Louis Marckesano, an analyst
for Janney Montgomery Scott Inc of Philadelphia.
    Eastern lost 130.8 mln dlrs in 1986, and analysts see
little chance of the carrier returning to profitability this
year.
    Since the Miami-based carrier was taken over by Texas Air
last year, the morale of Eastern's 38,000 employees has
plummeted, workers and labor leaders say.
    Some Eastern officials acknowledge privately that morale
problems have contributed to high absenteeism and a decline in
customer service, triggering a barrage of passenger complaints.
    Union leaders are accusing Eastern's managers -- many of
them newly installed by Texas Air chairman Frank Lorenzo -- of
conducting a campaign of harassment and intimidation aimed at
ridding the airline of high-paid, senior employees.
    "It's an underhanded way of forcing experienced people out
in an attempt to cut the company's labor costs," said Nancy
Tauss, vice president of the Transport Workers Union Local 553.
    Some flight attendants complain that they are being stalked
by what they call "spyriders" -- teams of auditors they say
have been hired by Lorenzo to fly on Eastern jets and secretly
examine flight crew performance.
    Since the beginning of the year, at least a dozen flight
attendants have been fired as a result of such audits, some for
having as little as two dlrs missing from liquor sales and
movie headset rentals, Tauss said.
    Eastern officials acknowledge that management is tightening
its accounting procedures and cracking down on absenteeism,
which the airline says cost 70 mln dlrs last year -- the 
highest in the industry.
    But Eastern spokeman Jim Ashlock denied that the Miami-base
airline was using unfair labor tactics. "We're just trying to
correct long-standing problems and that causes some
dissatisfaction," he said.
    U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, has met with
groups of dissident Eastern employees in Atlanta and is
reported to have told them he may call for hearings on the
airline's labor tactics.
    Labor and management have a long history of bitter
relations at Eastern Airlines.
    But the conflict has escalated sharply since January 21,
when Eastern president Philip Bakes called for a reduction of
490 mln dlrs, or 29 pct, in annual labor costs, mostly through
union concessions.
    Eastern's three principal unions have rejected demands for
wage cuts and have refused to open their contracts for
renegotiation.
    Union officials say that in retaliation for their
resistance, the airline has launched a "firing frenzy" aimed at
intimidating employees and squeezing concessions from labor.
    During 1986 -- the year in which Texas Air managers assumed
control of Eastern -- 123 flight attendants were fired.  That
was nearly five times greater than 1985, the union said. In the
first two months of this year 35 flight attendants losing their
jobs, according to union records.
    Other unions report similar losses.
    Texas Air last month said it would switch six of Eastern's
wide-body jets to Continental, its cut-rate sister airline.
    Eastern has begun hiring other Texas Air carriers to repair
its planes in several cities and plans to shut down some
maintenance bases, according to a recent internal memo.
    "Texas Air is not going to write checks to Eastern to
underwrite an outmoded labor cost structure," Bakes told a
meeting of Miami businessmen this month. He denied, however,
that Lorenzo planned to strip Eastern of its assets.
 Reuter

Dixons Group Plc <DXNS.L> has sold 8.3
mln shares in Woolworth Holdings Plc <WLTH.L> through Salomon
Brothers U.K. Equity Ltd, a statement from Salomon said.
    The shares were placed with about 45 to 50 institutions in
Europe and the Far East. Dixons retains one mln Woolworth
shares, a Dixons spokesman added.
    Industry sources said Dixons acquired the Woolworth shares
in connection with its unsuccessful bid for the company last
year.
    Dixons paid an average price of 695p per share which
compares with 819p today. Woolworth closed on Froday at 833p.
    A Dixons spokesman said the decision to retain one mln
shares reflected Woolworth's buoyant prospects.
 REUTER

Joule' Inc said its board declared
a three-for-two stock split, payable April 30, record March 31.
 Reuter

Widcom Inc said effective
immediately it has cut the U.S. price for its Video
Teleconferencing System by 32 pct to 49,950 dlrs.
    It said it will consider volume discounts on orders of more
than 10 systems.
 Reuter

This month's endorsement by
International Business Machines Corp <IBM> of two desktop
publishing software products should add some much-needed
standards to one of the fastest growing segments of the
computer industry, analysts say.
    Desktop publishing is a relatively new market but industry
analysts estimate that sales will reach one billion dlrs this
year and jump to six billion dlrs by 1990, fueled by the rush
of corporations to bring their printing and publishing needs
in-house rather than to more expensive outside printers.
    Printing is a big expense for most companies. Analysts
estimate U.S. corporations will spend about six to 20 pct of
their total operating budgets on publishing expenses this year.
    At a desktop publishing conference in Chicago earlier this
month, IBM said it will adopt Adobe Systems Inc's Postscript
typesetting language in future electronic printing products.
IBM also said it will support Microsoft Corp's Windows
operating environment as the graphics interface standard in
future publishing announcements rather than its own Topview
    "IBM's announcement will give tremendous stimulation to the
development of the desktop publishing market," said David
Goodstein, president of the consulting firm Interconsult Inc.
    "It gives users permission to go ahead and buy products that
are already available without being afraid that they will not
be compatible with whatever IBM does," he said.
    The advent of personal computers, laser printers and
graphics software has allowed users to design and print
brochures, newsletters and a host of other communications at
their desks for a fraction of the cost of an outside printing
firm. Analysts credit Apple Computer with creating desktop
publishing when it introduced its Macintosh personal computer
four years ago, with its easy-to-use formats and excellent
graphics capabilities.
     Since then Digital Equipment Corp, Xerox Corp, Apollo
Computer Inc and a number of other vendors have identified
desktop publishing as a major growth area. IBM entered the
market only last July when it formed its Publishing Systems
Business Unit. IBM's embrace of the already-widely used
Postscript, a language that interprets computer commands and
translates them into instructions for the printer, was an
acknowledgment of what is already a de facto standard.
    Both users and makers of electronic publishing systems said
the support of the world's largest computer maker was critical
to the language's ultimate acceptance by users.
    John Warnock, president of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Adobe,
said, "Ten pct of corporations have (moved) into desktop
publishing but 90 pct are still sitting back and waiting for an
IBM announcement."
    IBM entered a licensing pact with Adobe for Postscript, but
its support of Windows was not quite so broad. IBM recognizes
Windows as a standard but would not comment on the extent of
its commitment to the software.
    Windows, a program integrator, allows personal computer
users to run a number of different applications simultaneously.
 Reuter

Whippany Paper Board Co Inc said
shareholders at a special meeting approved a merger into NPN
Inc for 2.50 dlrs per share.
    NPN acquired control of Whippany in a recent tender offer.
 Reuter

Privately-held <Pilot Air Freight>
said it met with officials of Northern Air Freight Inc to try
to negotiate a friendly acquisition of Northern, but Northern's
management had no interest in the proposal.
    Northern has annual revenues of about 60 mln dlrs and is
based in Seattle.
     
 Reuter

the <National Association of Securities Dealers> has decided
not to delist its securities from the NASDAQ system for now, as
it had threatened.
    The company said the NASD has granted it an undetermined
period of time to resolve issues raised by the NASD on
market-making in its own common stock.
 Reuter

Summit Energy Inc said it has extended
to April Three from March 13 its offer to exchange six common
shares for each of its 569,200 outstanding shares of 1.80 dlr
cumulative convertible preferred stock.
    The company said through Friday it had received 302,669 of
the shares or 53.2 pct.
 Reuter

Export Development Corp is issuing a 15
billion yen eurobond due August 28, 1992 paying 4-1/2 pct and
priced at 101-7/8 pct, lead manager Bank of Tokyo International
said.
 REUTER

Shr 35 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 1,311,000 vs 1,619,000
    Revs 125.2 mln vs 117.2 mln
    NOTE: American Building Maintenance Industries Inc.
 Reuter

Renouf Corp International said it has
extended the expiration of its offer to pay 31 dlrs a unit to
buy all outstanding units of Benequity Holdings a California
Limited Partnership to March 24 from March 13.
    As of March 13, Renouf said, about 3,847,375 units had been
tendered.
    Renouf pointed out this exceeds the minimum number sought
in the offer, but its statement gave no reason for the
extention. Benequity has 5.7 mln units outstanding.
 Reuter

Commodity Futures Trading
Commission, CFTC, chairman Susan Phillips said the agency
opposed efforts to set up a federal regulatory framework over
futures and options margins.
    Phillips told the National Grain and Feed Association
yesterday that futures margins are best set by the exchanges.
    Earlier this year Securities and Exchange Commission
Chairman John Shad suggested that futures volatility might be
dampened if federal regulators could set margins.
    Phillips predicted Congress would discuss the issue in the
context of program trading of stock index futures and options.
 Reuter

Debt securities issued by major U.S.
banks are under pressure in the secondary market as investors
shy away from the paper because of Brazil's suspension of
interest payments last month, analysts and traders said.
    On February 20, Brazil said it would suspend interest
payments on 68 billion dlrs owed to foreign commercial banks.
No date was established for the renewal of payments.
    "Buyers have backed away from bank paper. These securities
have become very difficult to sell despite a rise in their
yields," said one corporate bond trader.
    "Debt issues of major money center banks will probably
continue to trade off until such time as the Brazil situation
is resolved," said Loretta Neuhaus, a vice president with
    "I have not told any of our investors to stay away from the
banks in general," she added. "But I have not received too many
inquiries by prospective buyers lately either."
    Traders said debt securities of U.S. banks that are
perceived by investors to be heavily exposed to Latin American
debtor nations declined moderately in price last week. They
said the difference between bids and offers widened.
    "There is not much trading of bank issues these days," an
underwriter said, referring to the wider bid/offer spreads.
    However, he and others pointed out that the secondary
market has not seen heavy selling by institutions, funds and
    "The selling has been steady over the past couple of weeks.
But it has been far from panicky," said another trader.
    In addition, institutional sources told Reuters on Friday
that Salomon Brothers Inc lowered its investment ratings on the
stocks of all U.S. money centers. But the sources said it is
understood the action is not a sell recommendation.
    While institutional sources said Salomon lowered the
ratings to M from O-plus on bank stocks, bond traders said this
carried over to the secondary market and further undermined
confidence in bank paper.
    The banks affected by Salomon's change in investment coding
were Bank of New York Co Inc <BK>, Bankers Trust Co <BT>, Chase
First Chicago Corp <FNB>, sources said.
    The institutional sources said Salomon cited a filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission by Citibank, the lead
bank of Citicorp.
    Citibank said Friday it told the SEC its earnings could be
reduced by 50 mln dlrs after-tax in the first quarter, and 190
mln dlrs in the year, if it has to declare 3.9 billion dlrs of
medium- and long-term Brazilian loans non-performing.
    "I believe there will be some renegotiation along the way
between Brazil and the banks such that the banks will not have
to charge off their loans to Brazil," Merrill Lynch's Neuhaus
commented.
    But until then, investors are widely expected to remain
leery of buying bank paper, according to analysts and traders.
    In an unrelated development, RJR Nabisco Inc <RJR> paid
what some bond traders said amounted to a "penalty fee" when
the company tapped the domestic debt market on Friday.
    RJR Nabisco sold 500 mln dlrs of sinking fund debentures
due 2017 via lead manager Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. The
debentures had an 8-5/8 pct coupon and were priced at 98.675 to
yield 8-3/4 pct, or 115 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4
pct Treasury bonds of 2016. The yield and premium over
Treasuries was greater than a similar financing in January.
    On January 22 Nabisco sold 500 mln dlrs of same-maturity,
same-rated sinking fund debentures priced to yield 8.62 pct, or
107 basis points over the 9-1/4 pct Treasury bonds.
    Both issues were rated A-1 by Moody's and A by S and P.
    Bond traders noted that Nabisco has called for redemption
around 1.2 billion dlrs of its 11.20 pct notes of 1997. Nabisco
will buy them back at 107.50, traders said.
    "The redemption of an attractive double-digit yield issues
has tainted Nabisco in investors' eyes," said one trader.
"Obviously, a lot of prospective buyers believe Nabisco should
pay a higher yield because of that."
    Traders also asserted that the higher yield in Friday's
pricing reflected the total debt issuance of one billion dlrs
so far this year by Nabisco.
    "Investors may be showing some signs of indigestion,"
remarked one trader. Traders said they expect Nabisco will
float more debt in the coming weeks to finance the redemption
of the 11.20 pct notes.
    Officers on Shearson's syndicate desk declined to comment.
    IDD Information Service said the 30-day corporate visible
supply rose to 3.28 billion dlrs last week from 1.79 billion
dlrs in the previous week.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 4,717,000 vs 2,587,000
    Revs 72.9 mln vs 37.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.7 mln vs 12.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 75 cts vs 41 cts
    Oper net 10.7 mln vs 4,642,000
    Revs 188.9 mln vs 106.6 mln
    Avg shrs 14.2 mln vs 1.4 mln
    NOTE: 1985 year net excludes 495,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Shr profit 17 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 520,000 vs loss 51,000
    Sales 11.1 mln vs 6,897,000
    1st half
    Shr profit 34 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net profit 951,000 vs profit 320,000
    Sales 20.6 mln vs 14.9 mln
 Reuter

    Net 1,574,000 vs 1,725,000
    Sales 104.2 mln vs 116.0 mln
    Avg shrs 10.1 mln vs eight mln
    1st half
    Shr 37 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 3,675,000 vs 2,925,000
    Sales 244.5 mln vs 230.6 mln
    Avg shrs 10.0 mln vs eight mln
 Reuter

Indonesia has imported palm oil this
year and is likely to take more, trade sources said.
    They were commenting on a weekend Jakarta report quoting a
Ministry of Trade spokesman as saying Indonesia had not issued
licences to import the commodity. He also said there was no
sign of a shortage of palm oil in Indonesia.
    A major palm oil dealer said he shipped Malaysian palm oil
to Indonesia in February, additional vessels were loading this
month and other vessels had been earmarked for April.
    Other operators claimed they had palm oil booked for
Indonesia but would not disclose tonnages.
    Traders said palm oil production in Indonesia this year had
been below expectations and current stocks were low. They said
licences were issued at the start of the year to import crude
palm oil but were subsequently revised to include RBD olein and
RBD oil.
    Last week there were rumours in European markets that
Indonesia had issued licences to import around 135,000 tonnes
of palm oil for deliveries commencing April. An Indonesian
Ministry of Trade official said this was incorrect.
    Some traders here said the total could be more. Others said
they could include those issued earlier this year and
applications not yet granted.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net profit 558,000 vs loss 580,000
    Sales 66.2 mln vs 29.5 mln
    Avg shrs 4,476,000 vs 3,615,000
    Year
    Shr loss 61 cts vs loss 79 cts
    Net loss 1,760,000 vs loss 2,180,000
    Sales 158.4 mln vs 76.3 mln
    Avg shrs 4,475,000 vs 2,751,000
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 247,970 vs loss 57,341
    Revs 2,393,622 vs 2,627,612
    Avg shrs 5,958,423 vs 2,440,100
    Year
    Shr profit 71 cts vs loss 35 cts
    Net profit 3,213,310 vs loss 849,180
    Revs 14,571,434 vs 9,099,767
    Avg shrs 6,177,666 vs 2,440,083
    NOTE: 1986 earnings include a loss from carryforward of
investment tax credits of 85,000 dlrs in the quarter and a gain
of 250,000 dlrs, or four cts a share for the year
 Reuter

A year after squeezing to power with a
narrow bare coalition majority, Gaullist Prime minister Jacques
Chirac has swept away a cobweb of controls and regulations
choking the French economy.
    But France is still waiting for a promised industrial
recovery the government says will follow from its free market
policies. Company profits and the stock market are rising. But
so is unemployment. Growth is stagnant at about two pct a year
and the outlook for inflation, held to a 20-year low of 2.1 pct
in 1986, is uncertain.
    Forced last month to cut the government's 1987 growth
target and raise its inflation estimate, Finance Minister
Edouard Balladur ruled out action to stimulate the economy. But
some government supporters say they fear time for an economic
miracle may be running out.
    The political clock is ticking towards Presidential
elections due by April next year.
    France's economic performance, led by a mixed cast of
right-wing ministers and a socialist President, has won mixed
reviews from non-partisan analysts.
    For Michel Develle, Director of Economic Studies at
newly-privatised Banque Paribas, the government's outstanding
achievement has been to launch "a veritable intellectual
revolution" breaking the staid habits formed by centuries of
state control.
    "The figures may look mediocre -- neither good nor bad --
but set in their context of structural reforms, they are
excellent," Develle said.
    But some analysts say they fear that Balladur, chief
architect of the government's free market policies, may be
pursuing a mirage.
    "The belief that economic liberalism will produce an
explosion of economic forces is ideological" said Indosuez chief
economist Jean Cheval. "Personally I think it's an illusion.
Dirigisme (direction) is a basic fact of the French system,
from school onwards. Ultra-liberalism is impossible."
    Illusion or not, the government has pushed its vision hard.
Over the past year foreign exchange and consumer price controls
have been largely abolished, labour regulations have been
pruned to ease the sacking of redundant workers and a hugely
popular programme has been launched to sell state-owned banks
and industries to private investors.
    Since December, nearly five mln French investors have
bought shares in Cie Financiere de Paribas <PARI.PA> and glass
maker Cie de Saint-Gobain SA <SGEP.PA>, the first two state
companies brought to the stock market under the 300 billion
franc five-year privatisation plan.
    Encouraged by an amnesty for past illegal exports of
capital, and the lifting of most currency controls, money has
flooded into the Paris stockmarket from abroad, helping to lift
the market 57 pct last year and another 12.5 pct since
December.
    At the end of last year the government abolished price
controls that had existed for 42 years on services such as car
repairs and hairdressing, freeing from state intervention small
businesses which account for some 60 pct of the French economy.
    The immediate result was a 0.9 pct rise in consumer prices
in January, partly responsible for a forced revision in the
official 1987 inflation forecast, to 2.5 pct from two pct or
less.
    "But even 2.5 pct would be a fantastic result, when you
consider that prices are now free for the first time since
1945," commented Develle of Paribas.
    Other achievements include a major reduction in the state's
foreign debts, and a cut in the state budget deficit to 141.1
billion francs last year, 2.5 billion francs below target and
down from 153.3 billion in 1985.
    But despite a healthy balance of payments surplus and a
gradual improvement in industrial productivity, the French
franc was forced by speculators in January into a humiliating
three pct devaluation against the West German mark, its second
since Chirac took power.
    A recent report by the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development pilloried French industry for
failing to produce the goods that its potential customers
wanted.
    Outside the mainly state-controlled high technology
sectors, French industrial goods were "increasingly ill-adapted
to demand" and over-priced, the report said.
    French economists, including Cheval at Indosuez, agreed
with the report. "One of the assumptions of the government is
that if you give them freedom, the employers will invest and
modernise....But nine out of ten will say yes, they like
freedom, and then wait to be told which way to go," he said.
    And despite rising industrial investment and the
introduction of special incentives to boost youth employment,
the end-1986 number of jobless was reported at a record 2.7
million, some 300,000 more than a year earlier.
    The problem for the government is that there may be little
more it can do to prod the economy into faster growth.
    French producers failed more than most to take advantage of
last year's oil price falls and growth hopes now rest on the
shaky prospects of expansion in other industrial countries like
West Germany and Japan, they say.
 REUTER...

Spectra Pharmaceutical Services
Inc said current clinical studies of its proposed dry eye drug
Tretinoin have not produced encouraging results based on
preliminary indications.
    The compnay said the tests are being conducted for
submission to the Food and Drug Administration for the drug
which has the trade name Lacramore.
    Spectra said earlier studies showing dramatic improvements
in isolated cases have still occurred. However, the overall
evaluation of a large number of patients with dry eye syndrome
do not demonstrate consistantly beneficial results, it added.
    Spectra said it will continue its current studies, while at
the same time undertaking a review of the feasability of the
proposed product
    Spectra, a development stage company, also said it has
introduced its first proprietary product, a hyo-allergenic
noniirritating cleanser for the cleaning of eyelids and
eyelashes.
    The company said it has also begun marketing a line of
ophthalmic drugs.
 Reuter

BECOR WESTERN GETS OFFER TO BE ACQUIRED BY NEW GROUP FOR 15.50 DLRS SHARE

Shr profit nine cts vs loss 58 cts
    Net profit 738,000 vs loss 4,643,000
    Sales 50.9 mln vs 43.8 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 1.50 dlrs vs loss 61 cts
    Net profit 12.1 mln vs loss 4,875,000
    Sales 195.3 mln vs 174.2 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net both periods includes 4,952,000 dlr
provision for plant closing.
    1985 net includes gains on sale of West Los Angeles real
estate of 650,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,471,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 year net includes gains on sale of West Los Angeles
real estate of 9,903,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The Independent Federation of Flight
Attendants said U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs entered a
temporary restraining order prohibiting Trans World Airlines
Inc from refusing to recognize and deal with the union.
    The union said the order also prohibits TWA from denying
union representatives access to the company's property.
    The union said the Kansas City judge acted on its
complaints made seeking to enforce a recent U.S. Court of
Appreals decision reinstating contractural provisions which
existed at the time of the 70-day strike which ended in May
1986.
    The flight attendants union said it petitioned the district
court because of TWA's ongoing refusal to allow union
representatives on the airline's property.
    The union said the court order also requires TWA to post
notices of a temporary restraining order throughout its system
and to districute copies of the order to all its
flight-attendant employees.
    The union said the order requires the airline to appear in
U.S. District Court in Kansas City March 20 to show cause why a
preliminary injunction should not be granted.
 Reuter

efforts to achieve further firming of the price has led to
growing inflationary pressures in the U.S.
central bank limits and real growth of their gross national
products, it added.
said.
futures markets, has also risen, the bank said.
    These factors and South Africa's unstable political
situation, which may lead to a temporary reduction in gold
supplies from that country, underscore the firmer sentiment, it
said.
 Reuter

<MAXCOM Corp> said it elected
Ugo de Fusco to the newly-created positions of chairman and
president.
    MAXCOM said de Fusco's last post was a vice president of a
European division of International Business Machines Corp
<IBM>.
    
 Reuter

biggest in two years, according to an opinion poll published
yesterday in the Sunday Times.
    The MORI poll's findings were the latest in a series of
majority of 46 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. The poll
follows a survey by Marplan last week giving the Conservatives
a six-point lead over Labour.
 Reuter

ENDOTRONICS SEES HEAVY LOSSES IN QTR FROM WITHDRAWAL OF JAPAN DISTRIBUTOR

Shr profit seven cts vs loss five cts
    Net profit 303,000 vs loss 205,000
    Revs 16,945,000 vs 7,695,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 27 cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net profit 1,161,000 vs profit 787,000
    Revs 39.2 mln vs 22.8 mln
    NOTE: Profits include gains of 130,000 dlrs, or three cts a
share, in quarter and 490,000 dlrs, or 11 cts a share, vs
52,000 dlrs, or one cent a share, in nine months from tax loss
carryforward
 Reuter

said it expected business to be good again this year after
1986's 15.2 pct increase in net profit to 42 mln Swiss francs.
    Chief Executive Giorgio Ghiringhelli told reporters he
expected almost all important sectors to expand well in 1987.
An important exception would be its securities business, which
would grow more slowly.
    Ghiringhelli also said the bank planned to convert its
representation in London into a subsidiary at the end of this
year and further expand activities at its New York subsidiary,
particularly in private banking.
 Reuter

DIAMOND SHAMROCK SETS 27 PCT PRORATION FACTOR FOR TENDERED SHARES

 Reuter

Becor Western Inc said <Investment
Limited Partnership> of Greenwich, conn., and Randolph W. Lenz
are offering to acquire Becor for 15.50 dlrs per share, subject
to Becor's receipt of at least 110 mln dlrs from the proposed
sale of its Western Gear Corp subsidiary.
    Becor said it has also received expressions of interest
from other parties seeking information about Becor.
    Becor had previously agreed to sell Western Gear for at
least 110 mln dlrs and to be acquired by BCW Acquisition Inc
for 10.45 dlrs in cash and four dlrs in debentures per Becor
share.  BCW was formed by Becor executives and <Goldman, Sachs
and Co>.  Both deals are subject to shareholder approval.
 Reuter

Clark Equipment Co said it was
informed by Arthur M. Goldberg acting on behalf of a group of
investors that the group had accumulated 1,262,200 shares, or
about 6.7 pct of Clark's outstanding common stock.
    It said Goldberg recently approached Clark to repurchase
the shares. However, negotiations for the block repurchase were
unsuccessful and have been terminated.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 295,000 to 302,000 head versus
293,000 week ago and 309,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 123,000 to
126,000 head versus 123,000 week ago and 121,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

U.S. roastings of green coffee in the
week ended March 7 were about 325,000 (60-kilo) bags, including
that used for soluble production, compared with 290,000 bags in
the corresponding week of last year and about 315,000 bags in
the week ended February 28, George Gordon Paton and Co Inc
reported.
    It said cumulative roastings for calendar 1987 now total a
3,295,000 bags, compared with 3,620,000 bags by this time last
year.
 Reuter

<Avia Group International Inc> 
stockholders filed a class a action suit in Multnomah County
Circuit court seeking to halt the sale of Avia to Reebok
International Ltd <RBOK>.
    Avia stockholders also seek to receive compensation from
the defendants, who include most of Avia directors, according
to court papers.
    The suit grew out a meeting of several dozen dissatisfied
minority stockholders of Avia following the announcement of
Reebok's proposed acquisition of Avia and the sudden drop in
the price of Avia stock.
    The complaint was filed on behalf of Clem Eischen, a
Portland-area resident, who owns 500 shares of Avia, and Robert
Withers, also of the Portland-area, who owns 954 shares, and
other individuals who held stock at the time of Reebok's
announcement. A jury trial has been requested.
    "The actions of the small group that contral Avia have hurt
the little guy," said Eischen.
    The stockholders, according to a statement, have organized
a steering committee.
    The complaint reviews the price action of Avia stock from
March 1986 and noted the plaintifs who purchased stock between
19 dlrs and 25 dlrs per share. The price fell from 24 dlrs to
16.50 dlrs a share following the Reebok announcement.
    The complaint asked the defendants be enjoined from
proceeding with the Reebok acquisition of Avia. It also
requests damages to be determined at the time of trial.
    Avia said it had not seen the court papers and said it had
no comment on the suit.
 Reuter

U.K. MONEY MARKET GIVEN 451 MLN STG AFTERNOON HELP LONDON,
March 16 - The Bank of England said it provided the money
market with a further 451 mln stg assistance.
    This brings the bank's total help today to 571 mln stg and
compares with its estimate of the deficit in the system which
was earlier revised down to 1.10 billion stg from 1.15 billion.
    The central bank bought 108 mln stg of bills for resale to
the market in equal amounts on April 1, 2 and 3 at 10-7/16 pct.
    It also made outright purchases comprising 326 mln stg of
bank bills in band one at 10-3/8 pct, 15 mln stg of bank bills
in band two at 10-5/16 pct and two mln stg of local authority
bills in band one at 10-3/8 pct.
 REUTER

caused maize meal prices to double overnight and led to riots.
quell the disturbances.
    The kwacha slid to around 15 per dollar under the auction,
losing 85 pct of its value in 16 months, but since the end of
January has been revalued to a fixed rate of nine per dollar.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 17 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Oper net profit 5,146,000 vs profit 2,691,000
    Revs 269.5 mln vs 274.4 mln
    Avg shrs 20.5 mln vs 17.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 14 cts vs loss 45 cts
    Oper net profit 4,131,000 vs loss 7,148,000
    Revs 802.8 mln vs 766.0 mln
    Avg shrs 20.4 mln vs 16.9 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations loss 1,667,000
dlrs vs profit 42,000 dlrs in quarter and loss 2,123,000 dlrs
vs profit 1,334,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    Net excludes gains on insurance recovery of 54,000 dlrs vs
91,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,289,000 dlrs vs 218,000 dlrs in
nine mths.
    Prior year net excludes 1,103,000 dlr loss from change in
accounting for textiles inventories.
    Prior year results for discontinuance of apparel segment
and change in accounting for textile inventories.
    Share adjusted for stock dividends.
    Net includes pretax unrealized loss provision recoveries
related to marketable securities of 580,000 dlrs vs 824,000
dlrs in quarter and recovery 640,000 dlrs vs provision 366,000
dlrs in nine mths.
    Prior nine mths net includes pretax gain on sale of
marketable securities of 493,000 dlrs.
    Net includes tax credits 5,738,000 dlrs vs 494,000 dlrs in
quarter and credit 4,194,000 dlrs vs provision 11.2 mln dlrs in
nine mths.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Corp said it will
accept about 27 pct of the 73,653,000 shares of its common
stock tendered in response to the company's offer to pay 17
dlrs a share for 20 mln shares.
    The company said it expects to mail checks representing the
purchase price of the 20 mln shares purchased later this week
and will be returning unpurchased shares shortly thereafter.
 Reuter

A 75 mln stg revolving credit contained
in a 100 mln stg multiple facility for Argyll Group Plc has
been oversubscribed in syndication and the borrower is
considering an increase, banking sources said.
    The facility will allow Argyll to issue sterling
acceptances and multi-currency advances and domestic sterling
advances.
    There will be a facility fee of 7.5 basis points on the
available part of the facility and a fee of five basis points
on the reserved part. There is a front end fee of 1/32 and a
utilisation fee of five basis points if more than 50 pct of the
revolving credit is drawn.
    There will be a tender panel for the acceptances and
advances. However, Argyll will have the option to raise funds
through an issuer set placement, under which the underwriters
can take up to their available commitment under the standby.
    The available tranche will be determined by Argyll on an
annual basis.
    Drawings under the five year facility will be subject to a
cap rate of 1/8 pct over the London Interbank Offered Rate or
acceptance commission. Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd is lead
manager and agent.
 REUTER

Shr loss 2.70 dlrs vs loss 25 cts
    Net loss 60.6 mln vs loss 3,122,000
    Revs 101.0 mln vs 167.7 mln
    Note: 1986 includes charge of 44.1 mln dlrs due to
writedown of oil and gas interests, writeoff of goodwill and
patents, provision against disposal of surplus inventory,
losses on disposition of operating units and writedown of
assets held for disposal.
 Reuter

cuts.
spontaneous and without unified orchestration.
 Reuter

BANK OF FRANCE LEAVES MONEY MARKET INTERVENTION RATE UNCHANGED AT 7-3/4 PCT - OFFICIAL

With the April 15 tax return deadline
less than a month away, confused taxpayers will be converging
on H and R Block Inc's offices to interpret the new tax codes.
    Financial results for the nation's largest tax preparer are
expected to be good in fiscal 1987 but next year could be a
"bonanza," analysts say.
    "For the short term the key word is confusion, Block Vice
President Tom Bloch said in an interview. "When Congress
drastically changes laws, confusion results and tax preparers
benefit," Bloch said.
    "Next year, when taxpayers take the new forms and place
them side by side to compare them, more people will throw their
hands up and say 'I'm going to get help,'" he said.
"Tax forms will look very different next year," he added.
    Kidder Peabody analyst Herbert Buchbinder expects Block's
fiscal 1987 year (to end April 30) to show good gains over
fiscal 1986 earnings of 60.1 mln dlrs or 2.41 dlrs a share on
revenues of 606.7 mln dlrs. He estimates Block's fiscal 1987
earnings at 2.75 to 2.80 dlrs.
    "Next year, Block could have a bonanza," Buchbinder said.
Based on estimates of a larger work force, Block could show a
gain of more than five pct in tax forms prepared, he said. In
the 1986 tax season, Block prepared 9,215,300 U.S. tax returns,
up 1.5 pct over the previous year.
    The Internal Revenue Service estimates about 100 mln
individual income tax returns will be filed for the 1987 tax
season, up from last year's 94 mln forms. Professional tax
preparers accounted for just over 43 million forms, according
to the IRS.
    For the longer term, while confusion will continue to bring
clients into Block's 8,866 tax preparation offices worldwide,
there are some changes in the act that will have a negative
effect, Bloch conceded.
    Certain changes in filing requirements will shorten the tax
return, and in some cases, simplify the form, he noted. In
addition, some low income wage earners will be taken off the
tax rolls, he said.
    Block is currently analyzing its price structure to try to
offset some of the negatives. Last tax season, the average cost
for each return in the U.S. amounted to 48.05 dlrs and 45.73
dlrs worldwide, Bloch said. This tax season, rates will be up
about three or four pct, in line with the inflation rate, he
said.
    Block expects "some expansion" this tax season of its
electronic filing system which directly feeds into the IRS and
can speed up the refund process. Block can choose where and by
how much it wants to expand into the seven cities made
available for the direct filing by the IRS, Bloch noted.
    The IRS estimates about 90,000 returns will be directly
filed this tax season, up from the 26,000 returns injected in
the 1986 tax season.
    First Kansas City analyst Jonathan Braatz said that Block
will benefit greatly from lower tax rates in fiscal 1988.
    Braatz expects Block's advertising budget to be about the
same as last year which will be helped a bit by lower costs for
television ads. "They may get a little more bang for their
buck," he said.
    He estimates Block has about 150 mln dlrs cash on its
balance sheet sheet, and says if interest rates rise it could
be of great benefit to them.
 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs five cts prior
 Reuter

Barbara said its Santa Barbara Savings and Loan Association
subsidiary is offering 25 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated
    The debentures, to be offered in minimum denominations of
10,000 dlrs, are the joint obligation of Santa Barbara Savings
and the parent company.
    The offering will be underwritten by Bear Stearns and Co
and First Boston Corp.
 Reuter

ask shareholders at the annual meeting to approve an increase
in authorized common shares to 90 mln shares from 50 mln.
    The company now has about 28.4 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Aldershot Resources Ltd said
it signed an interim agreement to acquire 100 pct of the
outstanding shares of Intracoastal Refining Inc of Conroe,
Texas.
    Aldershot will pay a certain number of shares of common
stock based on book value, and up to a maximum of one mln
shares under a formula linked to the next five years' pre-tax
net revenues.
    The transaction is subject to completion of a definitive
agreement and to regulatory approval.
 Reuter

<Derlan Industries Ltd> said it
acquired 80 pct of Aurora Industries Inc of Montgomery,
Illinois for an undisclosed price.
    Closing is subject to completion of legal formalities,
Derlan said.
 Reuter

Marion Laboratories Inc said
its board declared a two-for-one common stock split in the form
of a dividend, with distribution April 21, record March 25.
    The board also said it intends to increase the regular
quarterly dividend by 43 pct, to five cts a share, reflecting
the split. It said the increase will be declared at the May
1987 board meeting and reflected in regular payments beginning
in July 1987.
 Reuter

<Dart Group Inc> said it is
preparted to negotiate all terms of its proposed acquisition of
Supermarkets General Corp.
    Early this month, Dart made an unsolicited offer of 41.75
dlrs a share in cash for Supermarkets General's stock.
    Releasing a letter sent friday to Supermarkets General,
Dart said "we believe that an agreement can be reached which
will be in the best interests of Supermarkets General, its
stockholders, management, employees and customers.
    "To that end, we are prepared to negotiate all terms of an
acquisition agreement," Dart said.
    Dart said it urges a meeting with Supermarkets General
officials be held promptly.
    The letter pointed out the company has not heard from
Supermarkets General since making the offer "other than on this
past Monday when we were informed that our offer would be
seriously considered and that you would get back to us on a
timely basis to arrange a meeting."
    Dart said it has "acted openly and amicably" in an effort
to facilitate its proposed acquisition, adding it has not
purchased additional Supermarkets General stock since prior to
submission of its offer.
    Dart said it continues to be interested in acquiring
Supermarkets General in a friendly manner, noting it has given
the company "the tune that you suggested in order to allow you
to evaluate the available options."
    Dart now owns 1.9 mln Supermarkets General shares, slightly
less than five pct of those outstanding.
 Reuter

<Seabright Resources Inc>
said it received regulatory approvals for an issue in Canada of
up to 1.3 mln 1987 flow through units priced at 6.25 dlrs each
and 1.4 mln equity units priced at 4.30 dlrs each.
    Each 1987 flow through unit allows the holder to receive
one Seabright flow through common share, and the company
expects about 8.33 dlrs per flow through unit will be available
to subscribers as 1987 income tax deduction. Minimum
subscription is 500 units, the company said.
    Each equity unit comprises one common share and one-half
warrant for either a common share or one flow-through unit.
 Reuter

Ended Jan three
    Shr profit five cts vs NA
    Net profit 58,088 vs loss 279,718
    Revs 6,310,841 vs 5,468,893
    Year
    Shr profit 12 cts vs loss 74 cts
    Net profit 126,321 vs loss 773,090
    Revs 23.1 mln vs 19.1 mln
    NOTE: Loss per share not given for quarter.
 Reuter

    Shr 37 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 4,346,000 vs 4,202,000
    Revs 232,006,000 vs 223,151,000
    
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 5,154,000 vs 2,496,000
    Revs 17.7 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 70 cts
    Net 11.5 mln seven mln
    Revs 50.3 mln vs 41.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 periods include pretax investment income
of 2.9 mln dlrs in capital gains distributions from mutual fund
 Reuter

Thermo Electron Corp said it has
entered into talks with underwriters on the possible public
sale of a minority interest in its packaged cogeneration
systems subsidiary, Tecogen Inc.
    The company also said it plans to offer convertible
subordinated debentures publicly.
 Reuter

Net 3.1 mln vs not given
    Note: results not comparable with last year due to November
1986 acquisition of Bank of British Columbia.
    Subsidiary of <Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp>
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 45 cts vs profit 56 cts
    Oper net profit 1,492,000 vs profit
    1,842,000
    Sales 36.5 mln vs 38.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 48 cts vs loss 2.44 dlrs
    Oper net profit 1,596,000 vs loss 8,084,000
    Sales 131.1 mln vs 144.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes pretax provision for loss on
sale of subsidiary of 1,600,000 dlrs.
    1985 year net includes pretax loss 6,600,000 dlrs from
plant closing provision.
    1986 net excludes tax credits of 1,295,000 dlrs in quarter
and 2,712,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net both periods excludes charge 9,400,000 dlrs for
estimated settlement and expenses connected with Chapter 11
 Reuter

money market with late assistance of around 550 mln stg.
    This takes the Bank's total help today to some 1.12 billion
stg and compares with its estimated deficit of around 1.10
billion.
 REUTER

Hanns Christian Schroeder-Hohenwarth,
President of the West German Federation of Banks, said that as
far as he knew no member bank of the Federation was involved in
activities which led to currency losses of some 480 mln marks
for Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, VW.
    VW has said fraudulent currency manipulation possibly led
to the losses.
    The Federation of Banks includes all the major West German
commercial banks. Schroeder-Hohenwarth was speaking at a news
conference after a Federation meeting.
 REUTER

RENOUF EXTENDS BENEQUITY HOLDINGS &lt;BH&gt; OFFER
    repeat
    NEW YORK, March 16 - Renouf Corp International said it has
tendered.
 Reuter

Lyng said it is too late to implement a full 0/92 acreage
provision, or "decoupling," for 1987 grain crops.
    "I think there's a chance we'll see that legislation (0/92)
passed, (but) not for 1987 crops. It's too late," Lyng told the
National Grain and Feed Association convention here.
    Lyng added that there seems some support in Congress for
0/92 and there was a good chance a pilot 0/92 program will be
passed as part of a pending disaster bill.
    But he indicated that it is already too late in the year to
alter the 1987 crop program. Sign-up for spring crops closes
the end of this month.
    Overall, Lyng predicted very little change will be
legislated in the 1985 farm bill this year.
 Reuter

U.S. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS SET DEBT OFFERING TOTALLING 2.55 BILLION DLRS

Smoky River Coal Ltd, operator
of the Smoky River coal mine near Grande Cache, Alberta, said
it agreed to supply 1.5 metric tons of metallurgical coal in
the next five years to Pohang Iron and Steel Co of Korea.
    Smoky River said the agreement is an extension of the
current long-term coal supply contract.
 Reuter

Salant Corp said it and its Thomson Co
Inc and Obion Co Inc subsidiaries have filed a joint
reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and expect
to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the near future.
    The company said a hearing on the adequacy of the
associated disclosure plan is scheduled for April Nine and
completion of the plan is subject to approval by creditors,
equity security holders and the bankruptcy court.
    Salant said it has reached agreement for Ray W. williams to
continue as president and chief executive officer for five
years from the effective date of the reorganization plan and
has substantially concluded talks for a new 15 mln dlr
unsecured credit, effective the same date.
    The company said the committee of its unsecured creditgors
and the committee of its equity security holders have approved
the terms of the plan.  As previously announced, creditors will
receive 450 mln dlrs in cash, 500 dlrs of 13-1/4 pct senior
subordinated debentures and four common shares for each 1,000
dlrsd of allowed unsecured claims.
    Salant today reported earnings for the year ended November
29 of 1,596,000 dlrs, after a 1,600,000 dlr pretax provision
for loss on the sale of a subsidiary but before a 9,400,000 dlr
post-tax charge attributable to costs and expenses of Chapter
11 and the settlement of pre-Chapter 11 claims, as well as a
2,712,000 dlr tax credit.
    A year before, it lost 8,084,000 dlrs after a 6,600,000 dlr
pretax provision for plant closings.
 Reuter

    Net 1,965,577 vs 2,474,357
    Revs 38.3 mln vs 34.7 mln
    1st half
    Shr 61 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 11.3 mln vs 4,132,129
    Revs 84.4 mln vs 66.2 mln
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME,
and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, CME, will hold a joint
news conference at 1200 CST (1800 GMT) today.
    Neither exchange would elaborate on the topic of the press
conference, although a CBOE spokesperson said it will deal a
new financial product.
 Reuter

The Office of Finance of the Federal
Home Loan Banks announced a debt offering totalling 2.55
billion dlrs consisting of three issues.
    The issues are 1.11 billion dlrs maturing March 26, 1990;
1.065 billion dlrs maturing March 25, 1992; and 375 mln dlrs
maturing March 25, 1997.
    Sale date and announcement of rates is set for Tuesday
March 17, 1987.
    The office of finance said allocation of the 1997 issue
will be limited to members of the long term selling group.
Proceeds of the offering will be used to refund the issues
maturing March 25, 1987 and to raise additional funds, it said.
    The finance office added that 171 mln dlrs of the 1990
issue, 146.5 mln dlrs of the 1992 issue and 49.5 mln dlrs of
the 1997 issue will be reserved for the Federal Reserve System
and their own or customer accounts.
    The bonds will be availalbe in book entry form only, it
said.
 Reuter

West German exports to the United
States fell below four billion marks worth in January for the
first time since mid-1984, provisional Bundesbank data showed.
    The figures showed exports were 3.85 billion marks in
January, sharply down from December's 4.40 billion and the
lowest since the 3.56 billion exported to the U.S. In July
1984. This compared with 4.86 billion marks in January 1986.
    Total West German exports to Western industrialised
countries also fell in January to 34.76 billion marks from
December's 36.45 billion, also posting the lowest monthly total
since July 1984.
    West German exports to the European Community were 21.60
billion marks in January, down from 22.14 billion in December
and 22.94 billion in January last year, the figures showed.
    Exports to developing nations and centrally-planned
economies also slackened.
    Separately, Commerzbank AG said in a report that the focus
of West German exports this year was likely to shift to Europe
because of an expected downturn in growth in the dollar area.
    This was one of the strengths of West German exports
compared with Japan, which depended in large part on the U.S.,
OPEC and developing country markets, it added.
 REUTER

Stone Container Corp said it signed a
definitive agreement with a group of banks establishing a total
of 1.1 billion dlrs term loan and revolving credit facility.
    It said the action represents the last step toward
completing the previously announced acquisition of Southwest
Forest Industries Inc <SWF>.
    Stone said the completed portion of the new credit facility
consists of an 800 mln dlr term loan and a 200 mln dlr
revolving credit.
    Stone said the final portion of the 1.1 billion dlr credit
facility will be a 100 mln dlr letter of credit, which will
replace an existing letter of credit relating to the operating
lease of its co-generation energy facility nearing completion
at its linerboard and kraft paper mill in Florence, S.C.
 Reuter

TEXAS AIR TO GIVE FORMER CONTINENTAL AIR HOLDERS ANOTHER 3.75 DLRS A SHARE

WTD Industries Inc said it filed with
covering a 30 mln dlr issue of senior subordinated debentures
due 1997.
    Proceeds will be used mainly for the acquisition of
additional woods products manufacturing facilities and related
properties, WTD said.
 Reuter

French February inflation between 0.1 and 0.2 pct vs 0.9 pct in january - official

U.S. lawmakers are gearing up for a
showdown between protectionists and free traders as a major
trade bill winds its way through committees to a vote by the
full House of Representatives in late April.
    In a move to toughen U.S. enforcement of trade laws, a key
House subcommittee last week approved a toned down version of
legislation to require President Reagan to retaliate against
foreign countries that follow unfair trade practices.
    This bill will be the cornerstone of congressional efforts
to restore competitiveness of American industries and turn
around last year's record 169 billion dlrs trade deficit.
    Several lawmakers have argued the new trade bill made too
many concessions to Reagan and said they intend to back
amendments to "get tough" with countries that violate trade
agreements or keep out U.S. products.
     On the other hand, congressmen known for their allegiance
to free trade, said the bill ties Reagan's hands too much in
trade disputes and they will seek to restore his negotiating
powers.
    Republican Bill Frenzel of Michigan said the subcommittee's
bill was not one "that a free trader like me could endorse in
all respects," but he emphasized there was a consensus among
trade lawmakers to work toward a bill Reagan and Republicans
would ultimately endorse.
    Frenzel said the goal of trade legislation was, "to make our
trade policy stronger without violating our international trade
agreements. You'll find a lot of people who think we have not
done the former enough. You'll find poeple who think we haven't
avoided violating agreements."
    In a key concession made at the urging of the powerful
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the trade
subcommittee backed off a requirement that would have forced
Reagan to automatically impose quotas or tariffs on imports
from countries that engage in unfair trade practices.
    It also agreed he may waive any retaliation if it would
hurt the U.S. economy.
    Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois
Democrat, insisted the more moderate approach was necessary if
the House wanted to pass a bill Reagan would sign into law.
    Reagan last year had blocked Senate consideration of a
tough House trade bill he branded as protectionist and this
year only reluctantly agreed to support a trade bill when he
saw Democratic leaders were determined to pass a bill.
    As an indication of his success, White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater told reporters Friday the administration still
did not like some provisions. But he added, "Generally we feel
very good about the bipartisan consideration of the trade
legislation. I think we are progressing very well."
    The first battle will take place next week when the full
House Ways and Means Committee considers an amendment by Rep.
Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, to force countries such
as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to cut their trade surpluses
with the United States.
    The subcommittee limited the Gephardt plan to provide only
that the existence of a large trade surplus with the United
States will trigger an investigation of unfair trade practices,
but would not automatically set off retaliation.
    Rep. Phil Crane, an Illinois Republican and staunch free
trader, said he will try to further weaken the Gephardt plan.
    Organized labor has pressed lawmakers for more relief from
imports where jobs have been lost to foreign competition.
AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland this year angered the
administration in a statement that any trade bill Reagan would
sign would not be worth passage in Congress.
    But Rostenkowski set the tone of the trade debate in a
statement, "I'm not trying to write legislation to please Lane
Kirkland. I'm trying to write legislation that will be signed
by the president."
    In writing the bill, the subcommittee rejected calls for
trade relief for specific industries such as textiles.
    Rep. Ed Jenkins, a Democrat from Georgia, agreed to hold
off his fight. He intends to push separately a bill to protect
the domestic textile and shoe industry, an aide said. Reagan
vetoed a similar measure last year.
    House Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat, is one of the
most influential proponents of aid for specific industries
beset by low priced foreign competition.
    Wright Thursday renewed his call for import relief for the
domestic oil industry and announced his support for a Senate
plan to trigger a temporary oil import tariff when imports
reach half of domestic consumption.
    For the most part, the trade bill's provisions toughen U.S.
enforcement of trade laws. The bill forces the administration
to act rapidly on complaints of unfair trade practices such as
dumping products in the United States at prices below the cost
of production.
    It also forces the administration to act rapidly when an
industry complains that a surge in imports threatens its
existence. Congressmen said the change would have required the
U.S. International Trade Commission to impose limits on car
imports in 1981.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said it expects to
incur "substantial losses" for the second quarter ending March
31 and fiscal year ending Sept 30, 1987.
    As one factor behind the anticipated loss, Endotronics
cited a dispute by one of its Japanese distributors, <Yamaha
Inc>, over payment of a 3,686,000 dlr promissory note.
    In a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, Endotronics said the note was for overdue accounts
receivable from sales of instruments to Yamaha and another
Japanese distributor during the company's 1986 fiscal year.
    Endotronics said at its present reduced level of operations
it will exhaust all currently available cash and credit
facilities in early May 1987. It said this assumes full use of
the remaining 1,250,000 dlrs available under a line of credit
from Celanese Corp, which requires approval of Celanese Corp
<CZ>.
    The company said its ability to obtain funding was
adversely affected by a suit filed March 4 by two of its
shareholders seeking to represent a class of holders against
three officers of Endotronics.
    Endotronics said the complaint against it alleges
violations of the federal securities laws in connection with
statements made in the company's annual and quarterly reports.
    The company also said the Securities Division of the
Minnesota Department of Commerce is conducting an inquiry into
the company's Japanese sales for fiscal 1986 and trading by
insiders and brokers in the company's common shares.
    It said similar inquiries are being conducted by the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigations will
hurt the company's ability to obtain funding, it said.
    As a result of the dispute over payment of the promissory
note, the law suit challenging its financial data and the
various investigations concerning insider trading, the company
said it no longer expects that anticipated declines in
instrument sales in Japan in fiscal 1987 will be offset by
increased instrument sales in other foreign countries and the
 Reuter

French February year on year inflation 3.4 pct vs three pct January - official

Texas Air Corp said under a settlement
of class action litigation with <Mutual Shares Corp>, former
minority shareholders of Continental Airlines Inc will receive
an additional 3.75 dlrs per share.
    In February, Texas Air acquired the minority interest in
Continental that it did not already own for 16.50 dlrs per
share. Mutual had challenged the adequacy of the price.
    Texas Air said any former Continental holder who has sought
appraisal rights under Delaware law may continue to seek the
appraisal remedy in Delaware Chancery Court or accept the
settlement and drop the appraisal process.
    Texas Air said the settlement has other terms relating to
employee shareholdrs of Continental, who will receive options
from Texas Air.  It did not give details.
    The company said the settlement is subject to approval by
the Delaware Chancery Court, which is expected to take about 60
days.
 Reuter

Kawasaki Steel International Finance Plc
is issuing a stepped coupon 30 mln dlr eurobond due March 26,
1994 priced at 101-7/8 pct, lead manager Wako International
Europe Ltd said.
    The deal, guaranteed by Mitsui Trust and Banking Co Ltd,
will carry a seven pct coupon in year one, rising to 8.44 pct
in the final year.
    Payment date is March 26. The bond is available in
denominations of 100,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
Fees were not disclosed but a Wako official confirmed the deal
was a targetted issue.
 REUTER

Viragen Inc said it will start an
expanded study of its alpha interferon topical ointment for the
treatment of genital herpes.
    It said it will conduct a phase III study of two different
dosage forms of the treatment and compare it to a placebo, or
nonmedicated substitute, in at least 154 men and women. Viragen
said study results are expected by October 1987.
    Viragen said it is prepared to submit license applications
for the ointment in England, Canada, and West Germany, in
addition to the U.S., when the phase III study is completed.
 Reuter

Representatives of cocoa consuming
countries at an International Cocoa Organization, ICCO, council
meeting here have edged closer to a unified stance on buffer
stock rules, delegates said.
    While consumers do not yet have a common position, an
observer said after a consumer meeting, "They are much more
fluid ... and the tone is positive."
    European Community consumers were split on the question of
how the cocoa buffer stock should be operated when the ICCO met
in January to put the new International Cocoa Agreement into
effect, delegates said.
    At the January meeting, France sided with producers on how
the buffer stock should operate, delegates said. That meeting
ended without agreement on new buffer stock rules.
    The EC Commission met in Brussels on Friday to see whether
the 12 EC cocoa consuming nations could narrow their
differences at this month's meeting.
    The Commissioners came away from the Friday meeting with an
informal agreement to respond to signs of flexibility among
producers on the key buffer stock issues, delegates said.
    The key issues to be addressed at this council session
which divide ICCO members are whether non-member cocoa should
be eligible for buffer stock purchases and what price
differentials the buffer stock should pay for different types
of cocoa, delegates said.
    A consumer delegate said producers and consumers should be
able to compromise on the non-member cocoa question.
    A working group comprising delegates from all producing and
consuming member countries met briefly this morning, then broke
up into a producer meeting and an EC meeting, followed by a
consumer meeting.
    Producers, who are in favour of the buffer stock buying a
variety of grades of cocoa and oppose non-member cocoa being
accepted, reviewed their position ahead of the working group
meeting this afternoon.
    "We are waiting to see what consumers say," a producer
delegate said. "We hope they will be flexible or it will be
difficult to negotiate."
    The ICCO comprises 33 member countries. Non-
members include the U.S., a consumer, and Malaysia, an
increasingly important producer.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corportion,
CCC, has accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale
of 15,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat to West African countries, the
    The dark northern spring wheat is for shipment May 15-June
15, 1987.
    The bonus of 40.05 dlrs per tonne was made to Peavey
Company and will be paid in the form of commodities from the
CCC inventory, it said.
    An additional 315,500 tonnes of wheat are still available
to West African countries under the Export Enhancement Program
initiative announced October 30, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Corken International Corp said it
has completed an initial public offering of 500,000 common
shares at five dlrs each through underwriters led by Lowell H.
Listrom and Co Inc.
    The company said proceeds were used to pay a dividend to
Hinderliter Industries Inc <HND>, which had been its sole
shareholder, and for working capital.
 Reuter

Lowrance Electronics Inc said
results from operations in the third and fourth quarter may not
be comparable to the first and second quarters, which were
strong because of orders for new sonar equipment.
    For the six months ended Jan 31, the company reported net
income almost tripled to 951,000 dlrs or 34 cts a share as
sales rose 38 pct to 20.6 mln dlrs.
    The company, which went public Dec 23, also said it expects
to be able to fill back orders from the first two quarters
because of improved supply of computer chip components.
  
 Reuter

the close of business, and experiments in electronic trade.
covered warrants on shares of other Swiss companies.
firms with an office in Switzerland, while clearing members
software and hardware, provides display of best bid and offer
prices, matches orders electronically, allows anonymous
negotiation of block orders and maintains member order books.
thousands of francs. Bearer shares in F. Hoffmann-La Roche und
Co AG, likely to be on the Soffex opening list, were quoted
this week at 209,000 francs each.
 Reuter

AC Teleconnect Corp's unit, ACC
Long Distance Corp, said customers in Binghamton, Buffalo,
Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y., will be able to place calls to
Canada.
    The company also said it plans to offer overseas telephone
service to a number of countries in the summer 1987.
 Reuter

Utilization of Canadian manufacturing
capacity rose to 77.2 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986 from 77
pct in the third quarter, Statistics Canada said.
    "Although the change was small, this marked the first
quarter since the third quarter of 1985 in which the
utilization rates for manufacturing as a whole rose," the
federal agency said.
    Increased residential construction led to strong increases
in the building materials sector, led by a 3.3 pct increase in
non-metallic mineral industries.
 Reuter

French inflation slowed in February to
between 0.1 and 0.2 pct against 0.9 pct in January, the
National Statistics Institute (INSEE) said.
    The retail price index showed a year-on-year rise of 3.4
pct against three pct in January. An INSEE official said the
final figure for February would be released later this month.
    After January's rise the government was forced to revise
its inflation target for 1987 to 2.5 pct year on year from an
initial target of two pct, after 2.1 pct in 1986.
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said half the January
rise was due to higher oil prices and forecast a February
slowing.
 REUTER

Capitol Bancorp said it expects to
restate its results for 1986 to a loss of about one mln dlrs
due to a reclassification of loans recommended by auditor Ernst
and Whinney.
    The company said the restatement also reflects a
substantial increase in reserves of its principal subsidiary,
Capitol Bank and Trust Co.
    It said it expects to earn 2,250,000 to 2,750,000 dlrs for
the first quarter of 1987.
    Capitol said to maintain an adequate capital ratio it will
seek additional equity capital in the near future.
    It also said it has delayed its annual meeting until May
due to the restatement of annual earnings.
    Capitol said its board raised the quarterly dividend to 23
cts from 22 cts a share, payable April 28, record MArch 31.
    The company originally reported 1986 earnings of 7,700,000
dlrs.  It earned 3,848,000 dlrs in last year's first quarter.
    The annual meeting had been scheduled for the second week
of April.
 Reuter

American soybean producers are
confident the proposed European Community (EC) tax on vegetable
oils and fats will be rejected but are leaving nothing to
chance, American Soybean Association (ASA) president-elect
Wayne Bennett said.
    Bennett, who is leading one of three soybean producer
delegations on a lobbying tour of EC capitals, was speaking at
a lunch.
    After meetings at the Economics and Foreign ministries this
morning, he said the Dutch Government had indicated it would
vote against the proposal, as had a number of other countries.
    "Our information suggests we will have the required number
of votes in Brussels to prevent the tax proposal going forward,"
he said.
    "The proposal has been talked of in Brussels for the past 20
years, and dropped every time. What we want now is to kill it
once and for all," Bennett added.
    Backing up the soybean producers' active lobbying, the U.S.
Government has also indicated it will be prepared to retaliate
with penal import taxes if the proposal does get through, he
said.
    The U.S. Government also feels it has a good case to fight
the proposed tax in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
    U.S. Exports of soybeans and products to the EC account for
one-fifth of annual production, and are worth about 2.5 billion
dlrs a year, Bennett said.
    The proposed tax on oils and fats would hit U.S. Producers
badly while at the same time virtually doubling the price of
soyoil in the EC, which would suffer far worse than other
higher-priced oils because of the nature of the proposed tax,
he added.
    The revenue to the EC from the tax would simply be used to
finance the EC's own oilseed subsidy machine, he said.
    "We in the ASA are dedicated free-traders. We helped defeat
the Wine Equity Act two years ago, but we will not stand by and
watch our own farmers suffer from such protectionist EC
measures," Bennett said.
    "The mood in the U.S. Is turning increasingly protectionist,
and the EC's actions are fueling the chances of a trade war,"
he added.
 Reuter

A new method of calculating Sweden's
unemployment figures reduced the number of jobless by a sixth,
a spokesman for the Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB) said,
reporting a substantial drop in the past year.
    According to the revised data there were 94,000 jobless in
February representing 2.2 pct of the workforce against 120,000
or 2.8 pct of the workforce in February 1986.
    SCB official Olle Wessberg said the new figures were based
on a more extensive survey of the unemployed which brought
Sweden into line with the practises recommended by the
Geneva-based International Labour Organisation.
    Wessberg said the new method cut the number of unemployed
by about 16 pct. "The way we are now collecting data is far more
accurate and we are asking many more questions to find out
whether the jobless want work, whether they are able to work
and whether they have actually looked for work," he told
Reuters.
    The new method was first used for the January figures,
which showed unemployment dropping to 2.1 pct of the workforce
from 2.7 pct (old style) in December, but Wessberg said the
change had apparently not been noticed by the press.
    Recalculated according to the new method, unemployment in
February 1986 would have stood at 2.2 pct, the SCB said.
 REUTER

FRENCH 13-WEEK T-BILL AVERAGE RATE RISES TO 7.46 PCT FROM 7.37 PCT - OFFICIAL

    But members have jealously guarded their sovereignty in
rise of the West German mark severely strained the system.
    Another frustration has been Britain's failure to lend the
predict.
 REUTER

<Indal Ltd>'s wholly owned Indal
Technologies Inc said it received a contract to design,
manufacture and install a 50 kilowatt Vertical Axis Wind
Turbine on Grand Trunk Island in the Caribbean.
    The wind turbine project is supported by Canadian
International Development Agency, Turks and Caicos Utilities
and the Turks and Caicos government, the company said. Value of
the contract was not disclosed.
    The 65 foot high wind turbine is expected to be in use by
May, 1987 and will generate about 65 megawatt hours of
electricity a year, Indal said.
 Reuter

Intermagnetics General Corp
said it completed the purchase of the advanced products
department of Air Products and Chemicals Inc <APD>.
    The department, which makes cryogenic equipment, will
continue operating at its present location in Allentown, Pa.,
the company said. It will market its products as APD Cryogenics
Inc.
 Reuter

Clevite Industries Inc said it
agreed in principle to form a joint venture company with
Bridgestone Corp of Tokyo.
    Based in Milan, Ohio, the joint venture company,
Clevite-Bridgestone Co, will manufacture and sell
rubber-to-metal products for the automotive industry in the
United States, Canada and Mexico.
    Initially, it said the new company will manufacture
products in Clevite's existing Angola, Ind. plant.

 Reuter

Italy's Ferruzzi SpA has taken a 67 pct
stake in Spanish sunflower seed and cotton mill Cooperativa
Agricola del Guadalete SA (GUADALCO), sources at GUADALCO said.
    The Italian firm's Spanish subsidiary, Ferruzzi Espana SA,
took the majority equity stake, with the remaining 33 pct
retained by GUADALCO.
    Ferruzzi plans to set up a sugar division and import some
30,000 tonnes of industrial sugar from its French factories in
its first year of operation.
    GUADALCO has a processing capacity of 250 tonnes a day of
sunflower seeds and 12,000 tonnes a day of raw cotton.
 Reuter

has started put and call option trading in the common stock of
Wyse Technology, with initial expiration months of April, July
and October and position and exercise limits of 5,500 contracts
on the same side of the market.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corporation
(CCC) has accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale
of 380 head of dairy cattle to Kuwait, the U.S. Agriculture
    The dairy cattle are for shipment on or before May 31,
1987, it said.
    The bonus of 1,465.00 dlrs per head was made to American
Marketing Services, Inc, and will be paid in the form of
commodities from the CCC inventory, it said.
    An additional 761 head of dairy cattle are still available
to Gulf countries (kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates under the Export Enhancement Program initiative
announced October 30, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

ITT Corp said its long distance
unit is offering WATS telephone service for its customers.
    The service is designed for customers with more than 500
dlrs in monthly telephone bills, the company said.
    The company said customers will save up to 15 pct over a
similar service offered by American Telephone and Telegraph Co
<T>. ITT is also waiving the 50 dlr per line installation fee
for new or existing subscribers through March 31.

 Reuter

Net 38 mln vs 5.7 mln
    Revs 1.71 billion vs 1.69 billion
    NOTE: Fully owned subsidiary of Hoechst AG.
 Reuter

News Corp's Fox Television Stations
said it will redeem 230,000 shares of increasing rate
exchangeable guaranteed preferred stock from holders of record
on April 1.
    Fox said the offer represents 50 pct of preferred shares
currently outstanding.
    The preferred stock will be redemmed for 1,000 dlrs per
share plus an accrued dividend of 5.83 dlrs per share, the
    On completion of the redemption, 230,000 shares of
preferred stock will remain outstanding, the company said.
 Reuter

intervene in the government securities market to add reserves
via two to 2.5 billion dlrs of customer repurchase agreements,
    Economists said the Fed will inject temporary reserves
indirectly to offset pressure on the Federal funds rate
associated with quarterly corporate tax payments to the
Treasury department.
    Fed funds opened at 6-1/4 pct and remained at that level
late this morning. Friday funds averaged 6.05 pct.
 Reuter

Congressional investigators of the
Iran-contra scandal have tentatively agreed to grant immunity
from prosecution to a star witness --President Reagan's former
national security adviser John Poindexter, congressional
sources said today.
    Sources told Reuters the chief counsels of the two special
committees probing the two-year episode that has darkened the
White House image plan to take their preliminary accord to
court-appointed special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, possibly
today or tomorrow.
    The tentative accord follows weeks of negotiating with
Walsh and with committee members.
   Poindexter would be the highest ranking official to be
granted immunity in the investigations of the 1985-1986 arms
sales to Iran to gain release of hostages held in Lebanon and
the clandestine shifting of arms profits to arm U.S.-backed
rebels in Nicaragua, at a time aid would have been illegal.
    If the agreement --reached on Friday by Arthur Liman and
John Nields, chief legal advisors of the Senate and House
committees respectively --is ratified as expected by Walsh and
the full committees, closed door interviews could be held with
Poindexter in two months with public testimony in about 90 days
or mid June, sources said.
    "They have tentatively reached an agreement and are supposed
to meet with Walsh or his deputies," a source told Reuters of
the deliberations by the two chief counsels
    Sources said Poindexter could assist investigators
determine what Reagan knew about the diversion of funds from
arms sales to Iran to rebels in Nicaragua, if anything.
    Reagan has denied knowing about the shift of funds although
he has admitted he gave orders to sell arms through Israel in
either August or after the first shipment in September 1985,
but can't remember when. Congress was kept in the dark about
the affair until last autumn.
    "He will be a credible witness," one source said of the
pipe-smoking Poindexter. 
    Besides Reagan's knowledge, or lack of it, another key
unanswered questions lingering from earlier congressional
investigators and a special presidential review board, is who
received  millions of dollars from clandestine arms profits.  
    So far the money trail uncovered by probers stops at secret
Swiss and Cayman Islands bank accounts.
    The committees have been privately negotiating with Walsh
over the immunity matter, and the prosecutor, also called an
independent counsel, has been urging the committees to hold off
on their request for at least 90 days.
    Under the tentative accord, the wishes of Walsh could be
met since public testimony is not expected before 90 days.
    Poindexter, a Navy vice admiral, along with his fired
deputy at the National Security Council, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver
North, have refused to testify before investigators,
claiming their fifth amendment rights against self
incrimination.
    Yesterday, Vice President George Bush said in a a
television interview that he disagreed with Maureen about court
martials, but he too disclaimed any details of diverted funds.
    So far, granting immunity to compel testimony from
reluctant witnesses has been granted to five persons--with the
key figure so far, shadowy California international arms
merchant Albert Hakim.
    Also, getting immunity has been North's attractive personal
secretary, Fawn Hall, who was said to have assisted North in
shredding documents in his White House basement office after
the scandal broke.
 Reuter

U.S. Video Vending Corp said it may
have to file for protection under bankruptcy laws if <Hill
International Inc> does not grant U.S. Video's request not to
call a loan due.
    The company said it has asked Hill for forebearance over
the weekend and again this morning, and if its request is not
granted, it expects to make the bankruptcy filing today.
    U.S. Video also said it has reached a preliminary agreement
to acquire Texas Automatic Sprinkler Corp from Mills-Jennings
Co <JKPT> for an undisclosed amount of stock, subject to
approval by U.S. Video shareholders and Hill agreeing not to
call the loan by 1100 EST today.
    Texas Sprinkler had sales of about 15 mln dlrs for the year
ended November 30.
 Reuter

Oper shr 42 cts vs 11 cts
    Oper net 1,433,000 vs 382,000
    Revs 38.6 mln vs 20.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 60 cts vs 49 cts
    Oper net 2,033,000 vs 1,682,000
    Revs 90.4 mln vs 73.0 mln
    NOTE: 1985 4th qtr and year excludes extraordinary credit
of 349,000 dlrs or 11 cts per share.
 Reuter

Yeutter said the Export Enhancement Program, EEP, should be
used as a "tactical tool" and not as a general policy.
    Yeutter made the comment in response to a question whether
the U.S. should expand the EEP to cover grain sales to the
Soviet Union.
    He did not comment directly on the Soviet question,
replying that any decision would be made at the highest levels
of the Reagan administration, and "I don't want to preempt that."
    Yeutter told the National Grain and Feed Association EEP
should continue to be used as a tactical tool against the
European Community but not as a general policy. He said
selective EEP use has been successful in pressuring the E.C.
 Reuter

National Pizza Co said the
seven Straw Hat Piza restaurants in Los Angeles and
Bakersfield, Calif., that it announced plans to buy Friday are
expected to generate annual sales of about 3,800,000 dlrs, not
the eight mln dlrs the company originally announced.
    The company said it will convert the restaurants to Pizza
Hut units.  Closing is expected around March 31.
 Reuter

Net profit 34 mln dlrs vs 43 mln dlrs.
    Turnover 1.82 billion dlrs vs 1.83 billion.
    NOTE: Company lowered to nine pct from 13.5 pct interest
rate on outstanding subordinated loan for period august 1,
1987, to July 31, 1988.
    TBG, formerly known as <Thyssen-Bornemisza Group>, reports
in dlrs since December 1, 1984, the start of the 1985 financial
year.
    TBG said the decline in profits was mainly caused by losses
in container rental activities.
 Reuter

<AVAQ International Inc> said it
intends to require Gates Learjet Corp <GLJ> to honor its
agreement to sell its shares to the company.
    AVAQ said it made the statement in response to an offer by
<Interconnect Capital Corp> for all of Gates Learjet shares
after what it believed to be an agreement by Gates to accept
its offer.
    AVAQ said it offered, pusuant to Gates' guidelines, six
dlrs per share, plus the purchase of Gates Corp's promisary
note for 23 mln dlrs.
    Interconnect said it offered 7.07 dlrs per share, plus the
repurchase of the loan for 13 mlns, for an aggregate price in
the 95 mln dlr range. Interconnect said it made the offer to
the board of directors of Gates Learjet on March 9.
    AVAQ said Gates Corp and Gates Learjet approved its offer
Feb 26.
 Reuter

The Bank of Spain is relaxing exchange
controls to help put Spanish banks on an equal footing with
European Community competitors by the 1993 deadline for the
ending of restrictions, a central bank spokesman said.
    "The measures to take effect by June were designed to lift
restrictions on foreign currency operations, in line with
deregulation in the banking industry," he said in a telephone
    The spokesman said the relaxation of exchange controls
highlighted a broader package of reforms announced last Friday.
    The central bank said in a statement the measures included
increased provisions for high-risk borrowers and a provision
for future pension fund obligations.
    It said the measures were the latest steps to deregulate
Spain's financial sector, a move triggered by entry into the
Community last year.
    Spain has five years to complete bank deregulation, a
process that began in 1978 when the government allowed foreign
banks to open branches.
    Since then 39 foreign banks have come into the market and
they now control about 15 pct of the system's lending assets.
    Residents in Spain can now borrow freely in foreign
currency up to the equivalent of 1.5 billion pesetas against a
previous ceiling of 750 mln pesetas.
    The 750 mln peseta limit was set last March. Between that
date and the end of last year some 430 mln dlrs flowed into the
country on new foreign currency loans.
    The central bank spokesman said operations over 1.5 billion
pesetas were technically subject to authorisation, but would be
given clearance if the government failed to act in 15 days.
    Spanish banks will also be allowed to expand their foreign
currency funding, formerly obtainable through deposits, by
issuing certificates of deposit, bonds and commercial paper.
    They can also employ these funds to invest in foreign
issues, while before they had to be converted into deposits.
    Foreign exchange operations can be in mixed currencies,
instead of having to borrow and lend in the same currency.
    The central bank has also lifted the restriction on the
amount of foreign exchange loans, which previously were limited
to three times a bank's capital equity.
    The latest deregulation measures were welcomed by most
bankers, in contrast to rulings issued earlier this month which
imposed a 19 pct reserve requirement on new convertible peseta
funds held by banks and freed short term deposit rates.
    The reserve requirement, which was already in place on
normal peseta deposits, was intended to curb short-term foreign
speculative capital which is entering the country and
threatening the government's money supply growth target.
    A foreign banker said high reserve requirements, which now
account for about 30 pct of deposits, placed Spanish banks at a
disadvantage with European competitors.
    The government reduced fixed asset investment requirements
to 11 pct from 23 pct to help offset the negative impact of
interest rate deregulation. "The real problem is the freeing of
interest rates," the banker said. "This is going to take a big
bite out of profits."
    The ruling lifted a six pct ceiling on interest rates paid
on deposits of up to 180 days.
    The chairman of one of Spain's leading banks said the
measure was expected to bring a 20 pct drop in profits this
year.
 REUTER

Ryan Homes Inc, controled by NV
Homes LP <NVH>, said it has called for redemption on April 30
all 873,000 dlrs of its six pct convertible subordinated
debentures due 1991 at 1,000 dlrs pluys 19.83 dlrs in accrued
interest per 1,000 dlrs principal amount.
    The debentures are convertible through April 28 into Ryan
common stock at 30.50 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 16 cts prior
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Shr 31 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 5,705,000 vs 8,101,000
    Revs 50.6 mln vs 67.2 mln
    1st half
    Shr 63 cts vs 71 cts
    Net 11.6 mln vs 13.2 mln
    Revs 80.9 mln vs 105.2 mln
    NOTE: Current half net includes 750,000 dlr charge from
 Reuter

    Shr loss 22 cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 4,700,000 vs profit 150,000
    Sales 15.0 mln vs 16.7 mln
    Avg shrs 21,538,000 vs 19,259,000
    Note: Prior qtr figures include gain of 1.1 mln dlrs, or
six cts per share, from discontinued operations.
 Reuter

    Oper shr two cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 96,000 vs 449,000
    Sales 37.6 mln vs 35.8 mln
    Avg shrs 5,317,900 vs 5,689,277
    NOTE: Full name is Diversified Industries Inc
    Earnings exclude gains from utilization of tax loss
carryforwards of 62,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 358,000
 Reuter

S/P DOWNGRADES DENMARK'S 17.6 BILLION U.S. DLRS OF LONG-TERM EXTERNAL DEBT

The city of Amsterdam launched a 300
mln guilder commercial paper program in the Dutch market, lead
manager Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV said.
    The issue has denominations of one mln guilders and
maturities ranging from two weeks to one year. Clearing and
delivery is through the facilities of the Dutch central bank.
    Amsterdam is the third Dutch municipality to use a
commercial paper program as credit facility. The Hague and
Rotterdam preceded with programs arranged by Algemene Bank
Nederland NV <ABNN.AS>. Details of the first tranche of the
program are still unknown.
    "At the moment, commercial paper is a cheaper form of credit
than the traditional "kasgeldleningen'," said Amsterdam's
financial alderman Walter Etty after signing the contract.
Current regulations allowed the city to acquire only half of
its short term borrowing requirement with CPs, he added.
    Kasgeldleningen or short term advances are a widely used
instrument in the Dutch market which has faced competition from
CPs since the Finance Ministry approved them in January 1986.
    "CPs and CDs are currently slightly cheaper than traditional
credit lines for promotional reasons," Amro board member Dick
Meys told journalists at the signing ceremony.
    Despite the lower cost to borrowers, the Dutch market for
commercial paper and certificates of deposits is growing only
slowly in the face of the well-developed kasgeld market and
institutional investors have hardly discovered this instrument,
Meys said.
    Foreign interest in guilder CPs and CDs is almost
non-existent due to the strong position of the guilder, but
Amro's London-based subsidiary EBC Amro Bank Ltd joined the
syndicate in case such interest emerges, Meys said.
 REUTER

161125******S/P DOWNGRADES DENMARK'S 17.6 BILLION U.S. DLRS OF
LONG-TERM EXTERNAL DEBT

Hoechst AG's <HFAG.F> U.S. unit,
Hoechst Celanese Corp, said it has begun projects that will
cost more than 150 mln dlrs.
    The unit was formed last month when Hoechst completed the
acquisition of Celanese for 2.84 billion dlrs.
    The company said it will expand its Sanwet super absorbent
polymers unit and its acrylic acid facility. It also said it
plans an acetaminophen production plant at Bishop, Texas.

 Reuter

Oper shr loss 20 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Oper net loss 7,001,000 vs loss 6,761,000
    Revs 93.0 mln vs 90.6 mln
    Avg shrs 35.2 mln vs 34.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 10 cts vs profit 65 cts
    Oper net profit 3,419,000 vs profit 22.6 mln
    Revs 381.7 mln vs 385.0 mln
    Avg shrs 33.8 mln vs 34.9 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes debt retirement gain 2,001,000 dlrs vs
loss 316,000 dlrs in quarter and losses 15.9 mln dlrs vs
1,714,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net includes tax crdits of 2,942,000 dlrs in quarter
and 2,729,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Oppenheimer Industries Inc said it
expects to report a loss for the year ended January 31 of about
980,000 dlrs, compared with a profit of 211,074 dlrs a year
before.
    The company blamed the loss on the continuing depression in
agriculture, the discontinuance of several programs due to the
passage if the 1986 tax bill and the failure to close the sale
of four ranches in the California Carrizo Plains during the
year as expected.
    The company said the prospective purchaser forfieted a
500,000 dlr deposit  It said it is in talks on a new contract.
 Reuter

Banque Francaise du Commerce Exterieur is
issuing a three billion franc, 8.50 pct, 11 years and 302 days
domestic bond with warrants at an issue price of 96.42 pct,
    The 600,000 bonds of a nominal 5,000 francs are identical
to those of the BFCE five billion franc 8.50 pct January 1987
issue, bringing the total of the issue to eight billion francs.
    Interest will be paid for the first time on February 2,
1988, and on the same date of each subsequent year. Redemption
will be in three tranches on February 2, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
    Each bond will carry a warrant and two warrants will give
the right to subscribe to an 8.50 pct nominal bond between
December 22, 1987 and January 22, 1988.
    The exercise price of the subscription warrants will be 99
pct. BNP said that if all the warrants were utilised, the total
of the January 1987 issue would rise to 8.5 billion francs.
 REUTER

downgraded to AA from AA-plus the Kingdom of Denmark's
long-term external debt.
    The action affects the equivalent of 17.6 billion U.S. dlrs
of debt.
    S and P cited Denmark's weakened external competitiveness,
saying it contributed to a steady deterioration of the
country's current account balance and a substantial rise in its
external debt burden.
    Net foreign debt increased to 129 pct of total exports in
1986 from 83 pct in 1983, S and P pointed out.
    Standard and Poor's said that while it expects lower
imports and current account imbalances this year, rising labor
costs should further weaken Denmark's competitiveness.
    However, S and P said its downgrade did not affect the
A-1-plus short-term debt rating of Denmark or its wholly owned
Danish Oil and Natural Gas.
    Similarly, the AA ratings on the long-term debt obligations
of Copenhagen County Authority and I/S Elsam were affirmed.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 5,645,000 vs 4,737,000
    Sales 55.2 mln vs 50.6 mln
    1st half
    Shr 60 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 10.9 mln vs 9,659,000
    Sales 110.4 mln vs 102.2 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes 474,000 dlr
gain from land sale.
    Share adjusted for three-for-two split in August 1986.
 Reuter

The chairmen of the House and Senate
Budget Committees are in general accord on the need to cut the
federal budget deficit by about 36 billion dlrs, half through
new revenues, congressional sources said.
    The sources told Reuters Senate Budget Committee Chairman
Lawton Chiles, a Florida Democrat, believes that it would be
necessary to raise "at least" 18 billion dlrs in higher
revenues--the same being proposed by House Budget Committee
Chairman William Gray, a Pennsylvania Democrat.
    The Senate committee will hold its first drafting session
on a budget tomorrow, the House group later in the week.
    Both sides want to meet a congressional target of April 15
for congressional approval of a new budget. However, the
Congressional Budget Office said that a deficit cut of 36
billion dlrs will fail to reach the Gramm-Rudman budget law
goal of a 108 billion dlr deficit and would fall 27 billion
dlrs short. 
    President Reagan's budget, not accepted by either
committee, proposed about 36 billion dlrs in deficit
reductions--including some 22 billion dlrs in new revenues
through asset sales and excise fees--off of an estimated
deficit base of 144 billion dlrs.
    Reagan said his budget hits the Gramm-Rudman goal for 1988
but the Congressional Budget Office said it is way off the mark
with over optimistic economic assumptions.
    Currently, there are discussions underway by House and
Senate committees to redefine the fixed Gramm-Rudman targets
for more realistic levels that can be reached, which would push
off by a year or two the 1991 goal for a balanced budget,
 Reuter

General Motors Corp and PPG
Industries Inc announced jointly that they had signed an
agreement that will give PPG responsibility for operating the
paint shop in GM's Buick Reatta Craft Center here.
    The Reatta is a two-seat luxury car that will be introduced
in the spring of 1988, said GM.
    The companies described the agreement as an arrangement
aimed at integrating GM's auto production expertise with PPG's
coatings expertise.
    Under the agreement, PPG's and GM's paint operating staff
at the center will be consolidated under the PPG area manager.
   
 Reuter

Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> said in a statement
it expects pre-tax profits of 166 mln stg for the year ending
February 28, 1987, before nine mln stg of net property profits.
This compares with 122.9 mln stg pretax profits and a net 8.1
mln on property sales the previous year. It said the forecast
was in its formal offer document sent to <Hillards Plc>
    On March 10 Tesco launched a 151.4 mln stg bid for
Hillards. The offer, of 13 new Tesco ordinary shares for every
20 Hillards ordinary shares, valued each Hillards ordinary
share at 305.5p.
 Reuter

<MathSoft Inc> said it
licensed its PC-based software for mathematical analysis and
numerical calculations to Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
    Addison-Wesley will market the product, a student edition
of MathCAD, to universities and colleges in April 1987. It will
cost less than 50 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Business Computer Solutions Inc said it
expects to report a profit for the fourth quarter ended
February 28 -- its first quarterly profit ever -- of about
175,000 dlrs on revenues of about 750,000 dlrs.
    A year before, it lost 217,852 dlrs on sales of 469,274
dlrs.  The company attributed the improved results to increased
purchases of its ZFOUR language and development environment for
computer software.
    Business Computer said it expects to report a full-year
loss of about 500,000 dlrs on sales of about 2,100,000 dlrs.
Last year it lost 1,079,000 dlrs on revenues of 720,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The failure of the West German government
to abolish a tax on bourse turnover when other taxes came under
discussion during recent coalition negotiations was a "bitter
disappointment," the president of the West German Federation of
Banks, Hanns Christian Schroeder-Hohenwarth, said.
    Schroeder-Hohenwarth told a news conference that, contrary
to numerous assurances from the government, the abolition of
the turnover tax had not been touched upon.
    "This must not be allowed to be the last word. Otherwise a
major chance for West Germany as a financial centre will have
been missed," he said.
    After the January 25 election the government decided upon a
reform of the West German tax system, involving gross tax cuts
of 44 billion marks, which would be implemented in 1990.
    In line with a pledge made by Bonn at the February monetary
conference in Paris, the government said earlier this month
part of the planned tax cuts would be effective next year.
    Government sources have said the fact the latest coalition
discussions did not touch upon the bourse turnover tax does not
necessarily rule out the possibility that it could be abolished
later in the current four-year legislative period.
    The bourse turnover tax, levied on securities trades where
an end-investor is involved, generated government revenue of
some 750 mln marks in 1986, according to the Finance Ministry.
    Schroeder-Hohenwarth said there were no fiscal reasons for
maintaining the tax because companies would benefit from its
abolition. Their earnings would increase and the government
would receive more in profits tax.
    Wolfgang Roeller, chief executive of Dresdner Bank AG, said
the bourse tax decision did not fit into the general background
of liberalisation of the German capital market, and represented
a weakening of West Germany as a financial centre.
 REUTER

The Plessey Co Plc <PLYL.L> said it won
initial orders for more than 10 mln stg for "intelligent' coin
and cashless payphones from seven European telephone
administrations. The major orders were from Sweden's
<Televerket>, Spain's <Telefonica SA> and British
Telecommunications Plc <BTY.L>.
    It said that the Finnish PTT had also invited the company
to install a field trial for Finland.
    Sales executive Peter Findlay told reporters that Plessey
was negotiating on further contracts with several other
 Reuter

Mount Isa Mines Holding Ltd plans to
acquire a 30 pct stake in Europe's largest primary copper
producer, Norddeutsche Affinerie AG, a spokesman for
Metallgesellschaft AG said.
    MIM intends to take Preussag AG's total 20 pct share in the
copper producer in exchange for some three pct of MIM's share
capital. MIM will also take another 10 pct now held by Degussa
AG, reducing Degussa's share to 30 pct from 40.
Metallgesellschaft's share will remain at 40 pct.
    The move is subject to approval of the federal cartel
office and supervisory boards of the companies involved.
 Reuter

Magna International Inc said it created
a new wholly owned unit, Cosma International Inc, to design,
develop and coordinate production from Magna's 27 auto part
stamping and related facilities in Canada and the United
States.
    Cosma is expected to have 1987 sales of more than 400 mln
dlrs and the company projects future sales will "increase very
rapidly," a Magna spokesman said. Cosma will also raise its own
capital through an equity issue in about 18 months, spokesman
Jerry Barker said, responding to a query. Terms of the issue
have not been set, he added.
    Magna said it established the Cosma unit to make the
company's extensive stamping operations more responsive to the
needs of North American automakers.
    The Cosma unit will be centered on its Bramalea, Ontario
stamping facility, which manufactures car bodies for American
Motors Corp <AMO>'s Premier model.
 Reuter

Shr 2.27 dlrs vs 74 cts
    Net 4,945,989 vs 1,612,624
    Revs 28.2 mln vs 27.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.57 dlrs vs three cts
    Net 3,417,659 vs 73,614
    Revs 47.0 mln vs 46.8 mln
    NOTE: Current periods include pretax gain of 4.3 mln dlrs
from sale of leasehold of Glen Oaks store in Queens, N.Y. and
gain of 1.9 mln dlrs from benefit of tax loss carryforwards.
    Year-ago six mths includes gain of 95,988 dlrs from refund
of prior year's real estate taxes.
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs 14 cts
    Oper net 5,818,000 vs 5,284,000
    Revs 88.2 mln vs 69.7 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 96 cts vs one dlr
    Oper net 36,101,000 vs 37,375,000
    Revs 374.0 mln vs 307.0 mln
    Note: Current qtr and year figures exclude extraordinary
losses on early debt retirement of 1.7 mln dlrs, or five cts
per share and 7.9 mln dlrs, or 21 cts per share, respectively.
    Full name Circus Circus Enterprises Inc.
 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange three-day System
repurchase agreements, a Fed spokesman said.
    Dealers said that Federal funds were trading at 6-1/4 pct
when the Fed began its temporary and direct supply of reserves
to the banking system.
 Reuter

National Fuel Gas Co said its mail
date for its previously-announced two-for-one stock split is
June 19, 1987.
    The company, which announced the split last week, had said
the record date for the split is May 29, 1987.
 Reuter

Comtech Inc said it agreed in
principle to sell 95 pct of its outstanding shares in Premier
Microwave Corp for seven mln dlrs.
    It said the buyers include an investment group composed of
the unit's management.
    The company said it expects the sale to close in the next
few weeks. Proceeds will be used to reduce debt.
 Reuter

A group of affiliated New York-base
investment firms and funds told the Securities and Exchange
Commission they have acquired 453,300 shares of Purolator
Courier Corp, or 5.9 pct of the total outstanding.
    The group, led by Mutual Shares Corp, said it bought the
stock for investment purposes.
    It also said it is studying the 35 dlr a share leveraged
buyout offer made by Purolator managers and E.F. Hutton LBO Inc
but has not decided whether it will tender its stock in the
offer. The group said it has held talks with the Hutton LBO
group before and may do so again.
 Reuter

Tofutti Brands Inc said it is
changing its fiscal year to a calendar year from a year ending
July 31, and it expects to be profitable on higher sales in
1987.
    The company lost 658,000 dlrs on sales of 11.6 mln dlrs in
the year ended July 31.  A company spokesman said Tofutti will
be reporting earnings for the last five months of calendar 1986
by the end of March and will then report calendar first quarter
results.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs eight cts
    Net 270,000 vs 1,212,000
    Revs 1,858,000 vs 1,420,000
    Avg shrs 16,817,618 vs 12,507,671
 Reuter

Members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers union, UFCW, local 222 voted Sunday to go on
strike against Iowa Beef Processors Inc Dakota City, Nebraska,
plant, effective Tuesday.
    The company submitted their latest offer to the union at
the same time announcing that they would end the lockout as of
tomorrow that started December 14.
    Members unanimously rejected the latest company offer that
was submitted to the union late last week. An overwhelming
majority of the approximately 2,500 members attending the
meeting then voted to go on strike, UFCW union spokesman Allen
Zack said.
    Zack said the company's offer for a cut in wages was
unacceptable and said IBP was refusing to bargain in good
faith.
    IBP's latest offer included wage cuts of 60 cents an hour
for slaughter operations and a 45 cents an hour cut in pay for
processing workers. The cut follows the 1.07 dlr cut in pay
workers received in 1982 and the wage freeze that has lasted
since then, Zack said.
    The offer also eliminated overtime after eight hours
following the normal 40 hour work week, he added.
 Reuter

Ultrasystems Inc said the U.S.
Defense Department awarded the company's Ultrasystems Defense
and Space Inc unit several new contracts and extensions to
existing contracts having a total value of more than 15.1 mln
dlrs.
    The new awards involve software development and hardware
integration for secure office automation systems, Ultrasystems
said.
 Reuter

The Belgian government has lowered its
forecast for the nominal increase in gross national product in
1987 to 3.5 pct from an originally forecast 3.9 pct, Prime
Minister Wilfried Martens said in a statement to parliament.
    He said this revision, which brings government forecasts
more closely into line with those by private institutions,
takes account of an anticipated slowdown in the world economy
and international trade.
    But he said the impact on the Belgian economy will be
limited due to recent agreements on wages and working
conditions agreed by employers and unions.
    Martens did not say how much the government expected GNP to
grow in volume terms.
    However, last month the government's Planning Bureau said
it had revised its 1987 forecast for this to 0.9 pct from 2.0
pct.
    In 1986, Belgium's gross national product rose 2.15 pct in
volume terms against a 5.9 pct nominal rise.
 REUTER

Moleculon Inc said it
successfully completed initial tests in animals of its
Poroplastic transdermal nicotine delivery system to help
smokers break the habit.
    Transdermal systems are designed to deliver drugs through
the skin in constant dosages.
    The company said it is discussing licensing and marketing
agreements for the product with a major international
pharmaceutical firm, but did not identify the firm. It also
said it retained Allen and Company, New York, as its financial
advisor.
 Reuter

Raytheon Co said its Beech
Aricraft unit has received a five-year 337 mln dlr
incrementally-funded contract from the U.S. government to
support C-12 and U-21 type aircraft.
    It said the first year of the contract has been funded to a
level of 35 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Barclays De Zoete Wedd Ltd said it today
began market-making in Japanese convertible eurobonds
denominated in dollars.
    This venture will be followed within a few months by the
establishment of a trading operation for Japanese U.S.
Dollar-denominated equity warrant issues.
    Director in charge of the Japanese convertible operation is
Kelvin Saunders, who said the desk was currently staffed by
seven traders and salespeople. This number would be doubled
with the addition of the equity warrant operation, "an even more
important element in the current market environment," he said.
 REUTER

Shr four cts vs two cts
    Net 240,902 vs 106,054
    Revs 3,408,481 vs 2,566,769
 Reuter

Oper shr loss one ct vs loss 11 cts
    Oper net profit 89,000 vs loss 323,000
    Revs 9,603,000 vs 6,116,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss six cts vs loss 21 cts
    Oper net profit 158,000 vs loss 629,000
    Revs 34.6 mln vs 22.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes tax credits of 170,000 dlrs in
quarter and 321,000 dlrs in year and gains on termination of
pension plan of 82,000 dlrs in quarter and 190,000 dlrs in
year.
    Share after preferred dividends.
 Reuter

External risks for the economy have
increased, but growth of two to 2.5 pct this year is still
possible, according to President of the West German Federation
of Banks, Hanns Christian Schroeder-Hohenwarth.
    Schroeder-Hohenwarth told a news conference the further
fall of the dollar since the start of this year and the
revaluation of the mark against European currencies meant West
German exporters were facing a "rough wind."
    However, domestic demand was continuing to rise and private
consumption in particular would support the economy, he said.
He saw good prospects for consumer industries.
    Schroeder-Hohenwarth said economic policy now had to
concentrate on strengthening this domestic growth. In this
context, he welcomed a decision by the government to increase
the scope of tax cuts due in 1988.
    He added, a planned reform of the fiscal system scheduled
for 1990, which was worked out by coalition partners this
month, was an "important step in the right direction."
    The government plans to cut corporation tax to 50 pct from
56 pct. However, Schroeder-Hohenwarth said the decision to cut
the maximum rate of income tax to only 53 pct from 56 pct was
"rather half-hearted."
 REUTER

Cambridge Analytical Associates Inc said
it expects to incur a loss for the first quarter of fiscal 1987
equal to or greater than its loss of 240,697 dlrs for the
fourth quarter ended December 31, 1986.
    Cambridge said it expects revenues for the first quarter to
be approximately the same as those recorded for the fourth
quarter ended December 31, 1986, of 1,025,961 dlrs.
    Cambridge recorded a profit of 2,204 dlrs on revenues of
847,000 dlrs for the first quarter of fiscal 1986, the company
said.
    The company attributed the expected loss to lower than
expected sales from its laboratory and consulting business and
planned major investment in its proprietary treatment
    The company said winter is traditionally its slowest
season.
 Reuter

Seton Co said its board has
received a proposal from chairman and chief executive officer
Philip D. Kaltenbacher to acquire Seton for 15.75 dlrs per
    Seton said the acquisition bid is subject to Kaltenbacher
arranging the necessary financing.  It said he intends to ask
other members of senior management to participate.
    The company said Kaltenbacher owns 30 pct of Seton stock
and other management members another 7.5 pct.
    Seton said it has formed an independent board committee to
consider the offer and has deferred the annual meeting it had
scheduled for March 31.
 Reuter

U.S. Based speciality food retailer <Mrs
Fields Inc>, which earlier announced pre-tax profits of 17.1
mln dlrs in 1986 against 6.8 mln in 1985, said it plans further
growth this year with the opening of 125 new stores in the U.S.
    The company, which is quoted on London's Unlisted
Securities Market (USM), said it also planned to expand its
outlets internationally.
    However, chairman Randall Fields told a news conference the
company would not move into any new countries during 1987 but
would intensify its efforts where it already had stores.
    During 1986 the company opened 81 new stores, including 76
in the U.S., Two in Australia and one each in Japan, Canada and
the U.K.
    "We intend to open a minimum of five more units in London
for example and it is reasonable that we might open other
stores in other European countries in 1988," Fields said.
    He said the company acquired competitive businesses as a
matter of routine, and might add others in 1987, but declined
to say how much the company planned to spend on them.
    Last year turnover rose by 20.8 pct to 87.1 mln dlrs from
72.6 mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

Hitech Engineering Co said it agreed
to make a new version of (Electrohome Ltd's) large-screen video
projector and to obtain certification for the projector on the
Defense Department's preferred products list.
    Under the agreement, Kitchener, Ontario-based Electrohome
will pay an undisclosed amount to Hitech for initial research
and development and to buy some of the units, the Tempest
version of the ECP2000.
    The Tempest program is a classified U.S. Government program
dealing with data processing equipment.
 Reuter

Brazilian Finance Minister
Dilson Funaro said his country's foreign debt crisis could only
be solved by changes in the international financial system.
    Speaking to a business conference he said "It is not Brazil
that has to make adjustments with the IMF (International
Monetary Fund). It is the international financial community
that is taking away resources from the developing countries."
    "The crisis is not in Brazil, a country that has had the
third biggest trade surplus ...In the past two years Brazil had
remitted 24 billion dlrs in debt servicing and received only
two billion in fresh funds," he added.
    Funaro said that during his recent trip to the U.S., Europe
and Japan to explain Brazil's decision last month to suspend
interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of commercial debt, he
stressed the country's commitment to growth.
    "We need to and will make the effort (to solve the debt
problem) but we cannot make an effort that means we stop
growing," he said, adding that political and not purely
commercial solutions were needed to the debt crisis.
    Brazil, whose 108 billion dlr foreign debt is the largest
in the developing world, has been under pressure from official
and private creditors to work out an economic adjustment
program with the IMF to combat rocketing inflation and foreign
payments problems.
    President Jose Sarney's government has repeatedly refused
to approach the Fund, arguing that an IMF programme would lead
to recession. Funaro said that in his talks with creditors he
had tried to restore credibility in the country in the hope of
finding a lasting solution to the debt problem.
    "We are negotiating so that the debt question should not be
one of continuous crisis."
    To sustain internal growth Brazil would have to import more
machinery and equipment this year and export fewer raw
materials. The country was thus targetting a fall in this
year's trade surplus to 8.0 billion dlrs from 1986's 9.5
billion.
    Domestically, Funaro said economies had led to a reduction
in the public sector deficit to 2.7 pct of gross domestic
product in 1986, the lowest for many years and that this should
fall to 1.5 pct this year.
 REUTER

<Wilson and George Meyer and Co>
and the Eastman Chemicals division of Eastman Kodak Co said
they formed 50-50 joint venture called WGM/Eastman Inc.
    According to the agreement, Eastman will buy Meyer and Co's
interest in the unit by the end of 1991.
    The unit will supply Eastman Kodak chemicals to companies
in the western region of the U.S., they said.

 Reuter

U.S. INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY USE RATE ROSE TO 79.8 PCT IN FEB FROM 79.6 PCT IN JAN

Shr loss five cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net loss 154,654 vs loss 419,606
    Revs 517,699 vs 374,108
    Year
    Shr loss 28 cts vs loss 56 cts
    Net loss 821,979 vs loss 1,368,591
    Revs 1,650,657 vs 1,285,473
 Reuter

Credit Foncier de France said it will
issue on Wednesday around 500 mln francs worth of Specialised
Financial Institution Bonds (BIFS).
    This second issue of eight pct BIFS, maturing on December
23, 1993, are identical to the 535 mln franc issue of bonds
issued last month.
    BIFS, created in December 1985 and reserved for issue by
certain specialised financial bodies, are negotiable securities
with a life of between two and five years and are issued in
units of five mln francs. At the end of February there was a
total of 3.9 billion francs in BIFS in circulation.
 REUTER

A spokesman for Penn Central Corp said
he was unable to explain a rise in the company's shares.
    Penn Central rose 2-1/4 to 55-7/8 on 538,000 shares by
    The spokesman noted the stock had dipped to 52-3/4 in
intrasession dealings Friday but closed at 53-5/8. The stock
had traded over 54 dlrs in the preceding week but was pressured
last week on a large block sale. The spokesman said he did not
know who the seller was. He said he did not believe it was Carl
Lindner, a Cincinnati investor who owns about 28 pct of Penn
Central's stock.
 Reuter

Shr primary 28 cts vs 22 cts
    Shr diluted 26 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 8,637,000 vs 6,577,000
    Sales 140.3 mln vs 116.8 mln
    Year
    Shr primary 92 cts vs 77 cts
    Shr diluted 88 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 28.3 mln vs 23.1 mln
    Sales 588.4 mln vs 479 mln
 Reuter

Metex Corp said its chairman and
chief executive officer Alan Cohen sold 78,375 shares of Metex
common stock to Metropolitan Consolidated Industries Inc
<MONY>.
    The company said the selling price was 11.25 dlrs per share
with an option for Metropolitan Consolidated Industries to
purchase up to 42,750 shares more at the same price.
    Metex also said Mason Carter was elected president and
chief operating officer of the company. Carter joined Metex in
1982, where he was formerly its executive vice president.
    In addition, Attilio Petrocelli, president of Metropolitan,
was named to fill a vacancy on the Metex board of directors,
    Metropolitan owns 21 pct of Metex common stock, the company
said.
 Reuter

Cetus Corp said the European
Patent Office allowed and intends to grant the company a patent
for pharmaceutical and veterinary preparations of genetically
engineered Interleukin-2 analog.
    Interleuken-2 is an immune modulating protein currently
undergoing clinical trials in the United States and Europe for
potential use in the treatment of various forms of cancer,
Cetus said.
    It said the allowance is the first step in the patent
process.
    Following allowance, the patent is published for opposition
and a nine-month period begins during which interested parties
have an opportunity to voice any objections to the patent,
 Reuter

A 0/92 program would have very
little impact on U.S. acreage, prompting farmers to idle only
an additional 3.5 mln acres of cropland every year, according
to a report from the Agriculture Department.
    The savings resulting from the additional 3.5 mln acres
idled would be a little over 400 mln dlrs in loan savings, 35
mln dlrs in transportation and storage savings, and 10-20 mln
dlrs per year in deficiency payment savings, the report said.
    The USDA report asssessed the impacts of the proposed 0/92
acreage program for wheat, corn, cotton, sorghum and barley.
Last year, almost 245 mln acres of those crops were harvested.
    "The likelihood that the 0-92 provisiion will cause very
large acreages to be removed from crop production is quite
small," the report said.
    "The returns on typical farms still favor participation in
the usual acreage reduction programs and seeding the permitted
acreage," the USDA report said.
    The 0/92 program, which would allow farmers to forego
planting and still receive 92 pct of their deficiency payment,
would be most used by producers in high production/high risk
areas where cost of production is high, said Keith Collins,
director of USDA's economics analysis staff.
    "In the heart of the corn belt, you would not get that much
participation," Collins said.
    USDA estimated that an additional one mln acres of wheat
would be ildled under 0/92, 1.5 mln acres of corn, 500,000
acres of sorghum and barley and 500,000 acres of cotton.
    Production from these idled acres would be equivalent to 40
mln bushels of wheat, 180 mln bushels of corn, 20 mln bushels
of sorghum, 10 mln bushels of barley, and 500,000 bales of
cotton, the report said.
    "In determining whether to participate, a producer would
need to weigh the expected cash costs of production against the
loan rate ... The risk that market prices may rise above the
expected levels and reduce the deficiency payment also must be
considered," according to the analysis.
    "What you're giving up under 0/92 is the difference between
the loan rate and the cost of production," Collins said.
    For producers with low production costs, that difference is
greater and can be applied to paying variable costs, he said.
Under these cicumstances, farmers would not want to go along
with 0/92. But for high cost producers, 0/92 would be more
attractive.
    Also, as loan rates get lower, Collins said there would be
more incentives to participate in a 0/92 program.
    "I would admit that its impacts would be very marginal at
first, but it is a step towards the goal of separating
production decisions from government payments," Collins said.
    In a speech earlier today before the National Grains and
Feed Association, USDA Secretary Richard Lyng said it is too
late to implement 0/92 for 1987 crops since program signup will
be over by the end of this month.
 Reuter

The International Finance Corporation
is planning to intervene to help certain developing country
companies to borrow on world capital markets, IFC chief
executive Sir William Ryrie told a news conference.
    Ryrie said the IFC is at present seeking to overcome
regulatory barriers to its underwriting business on the United
States and London markets.
    "There are many companies in the more advanced developing
countries which are strong enough to borrow by issuing bonds or
floating rate notes," he added.
    However, such companies needed help and the IFC could play
a role by introducing them into the market and underwriting
issues, Ryrie said.
    "The capital markets would then get used to the idea of
buying the paper of these companies," he added. "There is a
potential source of development finance there which could be
very large."
    He said he was confident there were enough institutional
investors who would be interested in taking paper in the
interests of portfolio diversification.
    The IFC, whose role is to provide international financing
for private sector investments in developing nations, generally
does this by providing pump priming finance to persuade western
companies to invest in third world enterprises.
    However, in recent years it has set up three investment
funds through which institutional investors can hold shares in
developing country stock exchanges.
    It announced the third such fund, one of 30 mln dlrs for
investment on the Thai stock exchange, in December. There is a
120 mln dlr South Korea fund and one of 50 mln dlrs which
invests in a number of developing country stock exchanges.
 REUTER

American Security Corp said a
release will be forthcoming shortly regarding its pending
merger with Maryland National Corp <MDNT>, approved by its
stockholders October 10.
    American was halted on NASDAQ pending a news announcement.
 Reuter

Group profit after net financial items 1.39 billion crowns
    vs 1.32 billion
    Sales 15.22 billion crowns vs 12.61 billion
    Profit per share 20.50 crowns vs 19.60
    Proposed dividend five crowns vs 4.40
 Reuter

Private coffee exporters say Colombia's
more pragmatic coffee marketing policy will ensure that the
country does not suffer excessively from current depressed
prices and erratic market conditions.
    Gilberto Arango, president of the exporters' association,
said in an interview that Colombia, the world's second largest
producer, was in a position to withstand a prolonged absence of
International Coffee Organization (ICO) export quotas.
    "Colombia is one of the countries that will benefit most
from this situation," he said.
    Recent ICO talks in London failed to break a deadlock over
re-introduction of export quotas, suspended in February 1986,
and no date has been set for a new meeting on the issue.
    Arango said that government measures adopted here last
week, including a lower export registration price, indicated a
major change but also disclosed a welcome pragmatism.
    "This is the start of a new era in Colombia because world
market conditions are also new," he said.
    The government lowered local taxes for exporters and said
the export registration price, or reintegro, will be changed
more often in order to closely reflect market trends.
    Arango said an illustration of Colombia's new attitude was
the decision on Friday to open export registrations for an
unlimited amount.
    But he added it did not imply the country would begin heavy
selling of coffee.
    "Our marketing policy is to sell without haste but
to market factors adequately and Colombia has no intention of
giving its coffee away."
    Colombia's past records should be the basis for upcoming
exports, he said.
    "We will certainly not export seven mln (60-kilo) bags but
neither are we going to sell like mad. The trade knows full
well what Colombia's export potential is," he said.
    Colombia, with stockpiles standing at about 10 mln bags,
exported a record 11.5 mln bags in the 1985/86 coffee year
which ended last September, and 11.3 mln in calendar 1986.
    Arango did not want to commit himself on export predictions
but said that output for the 1986/87 coffee year would not
exceed 10.5 mln bags, compared with 12 mln forecast by the
National Coffee Growers' Federation and 12.5 mln by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, a figure he said was "ridiculous."
    He said ageing plantations and rust, in particular in the
number one producing province of Antioquia, meant output was
likely to fall but that nationwide estimates were rare and
oscillated between 9.5 mln and 11.5 mln bags.
    On the failure of the recent ICO talks, Arango said
Colombia understandably felt frustrated at not having managed
to force a compromise.
    Jorge Cardenas, manager of the national federation and head
of his nation's delegation in London, has blamed the
intransigence of some big countries, without naming them.
    However, Arango, like Colombian Finance Minister Cesar
Gaviria last week, was more explicit and said the United States
would undoubtedly be under great political pressure in coming
weeks to revise its policy.
    "Washington will have to take into account that for many
countries, and some of its allies for instance in Central
America, a sharp fall in coffee export revenue would have
far-reaching political and economic consequences."
    Arango ruled out a fresh Colombian initiative on export
quotas saying producers had now to show a common resolve which
could emerge from continuous contacts.
 Reuter

Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried
Martens announced to Parliament a plan to reduce the 1987
government financing requirement by 20.6 billion francs.
    He said this will enable the requirement to be held to
419.7 billion francs, against the previous government target of
417.8 billion, or eight pct of gross national product.
    Martens said following a lowering of government estimates
of 1987 nominal GNP growth and a re-estimation by government
departments of 1987 spending, the government calculated that
unless action was taken, the requirement would exceed the
target by 22.5 billion francs.
    Martens said the plan involved raising non-fiscal receipts
by 5.8 billion francs and reducing spending by 14.3 billion.
The remaining 0.5 billion francs will be raised through
treasury operations.
    Martens said the money is being found through a series of
small economies and confirmed that it includes the raising of
two billion francs through the sale of part of the government's
50 pct holding in the gas company Distrigaz.
    Last year, the government announced a major program
designed to cut 1987 spending by 195 billion francs.
    The program was designed to get Belgium out of what the
government said was a "snowball effect" under which the
government constantly borrowed more to finance budget deficits
which were due largely to the cost of servicing and repaying
existing debt.
    In 1986, the government financing requirement is estimated
at 561 billion francs or 11.0 pct of GNP.
 REUTER

<Royal Trustco Ltd>, in a move unique
among Canadian trust companies, is pursuing a bold global
expansion that could someday lift the foreign share of its
yearly earnings to 50 pct, president Michael Cornelissen said.
    First Marathon Securities Ltd financial services analyst
Michael Walsh said Royal Trust's international growth target is
attainable. But it "will be a tremendous achievement because
... they're going to have to build an international earnings
base larger than the earnings of a lot of significant domestic
trust companies," Walsh said.
    Global operations, which made up 22 pct of Royal Trust's
154 mln dlr 1986 net profit, will post 33 pct profit growth
this year against an expected 15 pct jump in total company
profit, Cornelissen told Reuters in an interview.
    He said the foreign share of total profit would rise to 26
pct in 1987 and to 44 pct by 1990.
    Royal Trust, Canada's second largest trust company with
assets of about 19.54 billion Canadian dlrs, has operated
internationally since 1929 when it opened a London bank.
    Its aggressive global strategy began in the 1980s, when
other Canadian trusts, the equivalent of U.S. savings and
loans, were focusing on domestic retail banking.
    The company's overseas ambitions were whetted by heightened
domestic competition and impressive growth at its London bank
operations, which attained full British banking powers in 1980,
Cornelissen said.
    Last year, Royal Trust moved into continental Europe and
Asia with its 239 mln Canadian dlr acquisition of Dow Chemical
Co <DOW>'s Dow Financial Services Corp, which included asset
management, merchant and private banking companies.
    "It was a heaven-sent opportunity," Cornelissen said of the
Dow Financial acquisition. "We achieved in one year what would
otherwise have taken five to 10 years to set up."
    Cornelissen stressed that Royal Trust would shun direct
competition with major global financial institutions in
activities such as international lending and stock brokerage,
in order to exploit "profitable niches" overseas in traditional
trust activities such as asset management, private banking and
advisory services.
    He said that Royal Trust hoped to complete negotiations
"before the end of this month" to sell its London-based Savory
Milln brokerage, acquired in the Dow Financial deal.
    "The international market is so big and we have such a
miniscule share of it that growth opportunities are really
limited only by our energy and our desire to find more
business," he said, adding that in trust-type services, "we
don't think the international markets are well-served."
    Aiding Royal Trust's foreign growth are greater foreign 
investment interest in North America and increased Canadian
investment abroad, Cornelissen said.
    Central to Royal Trust's strategy is Asia, boasting rapid
economic growth and huge pools of Japanese capital, said
Cornelissen, whose company administers assets of 71.85 billion
dlrs, more than any other Canadian trust.
    Citing statistics indicating that by the year 2000, Asia
will contain two-thirds of the world's population and 50 pct of
global productive capacity, Cornelissen said, "We knew we had
to be there." Royal Trust's 14 international locations include
offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company also
recently listed its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
    The Royal Trust president said the company was stressing
growth within its overseas units, adding he did not foresee any
acquisitions in the "immediate future," although "we have our
eyes wide open for the right opportunities."
    Asked about Royal Trust's plans for the U.S., which the
company abandoned with the 1983 sale of its Florida bank units,
Cornelissen said the company faced a trust services market well
covered by hundreds of small regional banks.
    "That doesn't mean to say we shouldn't be in the U.S.,"
said Cornelissen. "That is probably one area that we will
probably do something with in the next five years."
    He said the company would continue to emphasize its home
Canadian market, which Cornelissen and financial services
analysts agreed would remain vital to Royal Trust.
    Proposed government regulations to allow Canadian banks,
trusts, insurance and securities dealers full participation in
one another's actitivies will mean more domestic competition
for Royal Trust, "but not drastically more," Cornelissen said.
 Reuter

Salomon Brothers Inc said it raised
its opinion on Caterpillar Inc's stock to an aggressive buy
from a hold because of a brighter earnings outlook for 1988.
    Salomon analyst David Sutliff said in a statement he sees
1988 earnings of 3.35 dlrs a share, up from an earlier forecast
of three dlrs for the year. The outlook for 1987 remains at
2.50 dlrs to three dlrs.
    Caterpillar's stock was down 1/2 points at 46-1/4.
    "Although earnings will be poor for the next two quarters,
we believe that profits could begin to improve in the second
half - perhaps significantly - and should surge sharply through
1988 and 1989," he said.
    Sutliff said improved results should come from four factors
- higher prices, improved market share, reduced costs, and
improved demand.
    The higher prices will stick because its Japanese
competitor, Komatsu, has had to raise prices because of the
increased value of the yen, he said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 78 cts vs loss 38 cts
    Net profit 3,108,000 vs loss 1,510,000
    Revs 35.5 mln vs 47.1 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 2.42 dlrs vs loss 2.01 dlrs
    Net profit 9.6 mln vs loss eight mln
    Revs 157.2 mln vs 182.2 mln
    NOTE: Includes extraordinary gains of 22 cts per share and
36 cts in the fourth quarter and 1986, respectively.
 Reuter

CANADA PRIME MINISTER SAYS A MAJOR TRADE DEAL EMERGING WITH U.S.

Forum Group Inc said it has
terminated its agreement in principle to buy eight retirement
living centers in six states from Beverly Enterprises due to a
failure to reach a satisfacotry definitive agreement.
 Reuter

formerly the
British Airports Authority - is to be privatised in June or
July of this year, Transport Secretary John Moore told
    He said BAA's 7,000 employees would each be given free
shares in BAA worth a nominal 100 stg. Employees would also
receive two free shares for each purchased, up to a maximum of
400 stg worth of free shares.
    BAA runs London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, Stansted
and the Scottish airports. The flotation is to be managed by
<Country Bank Ltd>. Private studies have put total proceeds of
the BAA sell-off at just over one billion stg, analysts said.
 Reuter

The Governor of the Bank of England,
Robin Leigh-Pemberton, repeated his criticism of City
predators, describing them as "thoroughly irresponsible."
    "I have been concerned when predators have sought to use a
minority shareholding to unsettle a perfectly well-managed
company and to create an atmosphere in which a bid becomes
daily expected," he said in a speech to the Industrial Society.
    "Such activity can amount to a thoroughly irresponsible
exercise of shareholder power, and an abuse of the arrangements
we have for the protection of shareholders' interests," he said.
    Leigh-Pemberton was resuming a theme he developed in a
speech last week, when he attacked the practice of "putting a
company into play."
    This is when predators use a minority shareholding to force
a company's management into action which will raise the
company's share price. The predator then withdraws, taking
substantial profits.
    In today's speech, Leigh-Pemberton said it was hard to find
the right tightrope to walk between intervention and adherence
to a free market philosophy.
 REUTER

Some 7,000 black miners went on
strike at South African gold and coal mines, the National Union
of Mineworkers (NUM) said.
    A NUM spokesman said 6,000 workers began an underground
sit-in at the Grootvlei gold mine, owned by General Union
Mining Corp, to protest the transfer of colleagues to different
jobs.
   He said about 1,000 employees of Anglo American Corp's New
Vaal Colliery also downed tools but the reason for the stoppage
was not immediately clear. Officials of the two companies were
not available for comment and the NUM said it was trying to
start negotiations with management.
 Reuter

Consul Restaurant Corp said it began
an exchange offer for its 13 pct convertible debentures due
1992 with an aggregate principal amount of 17.5 mln dlrs.
    Consul officials told an analysts meeting that in return
for each 1,000 dlr face value of the bonds tendered, investors
will receive 10 shares of preferred stock convertible after Dec
1, 1987, into 500 shares of common. The company said the value
represents a substantial premium over the debentures' market
value, which traded at 410 dlrs per 1,000 dlr face amount on
March 13.
    Consul said the debt was taken on to finance expansion.
    James Crivits, Consul chairman, said debt service on the
outstanding debentures has cost the company 55 cts a share per
quarter and cut deeply into the company's profitability.
    For the year ended May 31, 1986, the company reported a net
loss of 1.12 dlr per share or 5.3 mln dlrs on revenues of 77.6
mln dlrs.
    Crivits said the company will report an improved but still
unprofitable third quarter ended February 28, compared to a
loss of 22 cts a share in the year-ago thrid quarter. He said
current third quarter results would be similar to 1987's
second quarter's loss of 12 cts per share.
    Crivits said the company will not produce a gain in the
fourth quarter or the full year, and said there will be a write
off in the fourth quarter for the debenture exchange offer. He
would not specify the amount of the write off.
    Robert Lamp, Consul's chief financial officer, said the
company needs to have at least 90 pct of the bonds exchanged in
the transaction to report a profit in the first quarter of
fiscal 1988. Lamp said that if the exchange is successful, the
company will report profits much higher than the three cents a
share reported in the first quarter of fiscal 1987.
    The Minneapolis-based company, which it said is the
nation's largest franchisee of Chi-Chi's family-style Mexican
restaurants, said it had the planned to expand to 80 units, but
had to abandon the effort, leaving 38 units in operation.
    The company also said the restaurants are profitable, with
profit margins increasing over last year.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs three cts
    Net 313,000 vs 80,000
    Revs 12.5 mln vs 11.3 mln
 Reuter

<Hoechst AG's> Hoechst Celanese Corp
subsidiary said it plans to raise about 500 mln dlrs in U.S.
capital markets in three to four months.
    Company officials, at a press conference, said the money
would be raised through the sale of debentures, adding these
securities are expected to be registered with the Securities
and Exchange Commission following Standard and Poor's Corp's
rating of the company's debt next week.
    Officials said most of the funds raised will be used to pay
down 600 mln dlrs of bridge loans taken out last month when
American Hoechst bought Celanese for 2.8 billion dlrs.
    The officals said Hoechst Celenese's 1987 capital spending
of over 200 mln dlrs will be funded from internally generated
cash. They pointed out this is little changed from the combined
spending of American Hoechst and Celanese Corp in 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. factories, mines and utilities
operated at 79.8 pct of capacity in February, compared with a
revised 79.6 pct in January and December, the Federal reserve
    The Fed previously said the rate was 79.7 pct in January
and 79.5 pct in December.
    A surge in automobile assemblies in February and a gain in
primary metals production helped raise manufacturing to 80.1
pct capacity from 79.9 pct in January.
    Durables manufacturing increased to 76.8 pct last month
from 76.3 pct in January, the Fed said.
    Nondurable manufacturing eased to 85.2 pct of capacity use
from 85.4 pct in January.
    Last month's rate was down from 80.2 pct in February, 1986.
    Fabricated metals increased to 81.4 pct in February from
81.2 pct in January, while motor vehicles and parts jumped to
83.6 pct from 80.0 in January.
    Primary metals rose to 67.7 pct from 66.7 pct in January.
    Petroleum products fell to 92.5 pct in February from 94.5
pct in January.
    Capacity utilization for mining rose to 75.3 pct in
February from 75.1 pct in January, but was below the February
1986 rate of 79.4 pct, the Fed said.
    The use rate for utilities was up to 80.8 pct last month
from 80.4 pct in January.
    Producers of industrial materials operated at 78.9 pct of
capacity, the same as in January and December, but down from
the February 1986 rate of 79.6 pct.
    The Fed said the decline in energy materials use and
durables goods materials were the reason for the decline over
the past year for producers of industrial materials.
 Reuter

Administration's Dermatologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted
unanimously that Upjohn Co's Rogaine baldness drug was safe and
effective.
    The panel recommended that the FDA approve Rogaine for
marketing in the United States, so long as accompanying
packaging and promotional materials disclose that the product
has only limited effect on male pattern baldness.
    The five outside experts attending today's FDA committee
meeting seemed less concerned about Rogaine's safety after an
outside consultant told them the drug "appears to be quite safe
in the normal male population."
    The consultant, Ohio State University Professor of Medicine
Carl Leier, said Rogaine's side effects were minimal, based on
a study of 10,000 individuals who have been getting the drug in
Canada, where it was approved for marketing last year.
    "The Canadian record is quite a good one in terms of side
effects," Leier said.
    The experts urged the FDA to require a warning in the
drug's packaging that patients be monitored for heart effects
while taking the drug, such as irregular heart beats, changes
in heart rate, palpitations and fluid retention in the body.
    Rogaine, whose chemical name is minoxidil, has already been
approved by the FDA when taken orally as a high blood pressure
drug.
    But Upjohn is now seeking agency approval of it as a male
baldness treatment when put directly on the skin in liquid
form.
    Upjohn has previously claimed that, when applied to the
scalp, too little of Rogaine was absorbed into the bloodstream
to affect the heart.
    But panel members concluded that the amount absorbed
merited physician monitoring of patients taking the drug.
    Under questioning by panel members, Upjohn official Richard
De Villez acknowledged the drug in clinical trials produced
moderate hair growth on the crown of the head in only about 40
pct after 12 months.
    He also acknowledged discontinuing treatment would make the
new hair fall out.
    "The Upjohn problem is that they have a tremendous placebo
effect," panel member Paul Bergstresser of the University of
Texas told the meeting.
    He said patients administered a placebo during clinical
trials typically had about half as much new hair growth as did
individuals treated with Rogaine.
    As a result, it may take patients eight-12 months before
they can tell whether thay are benefiting from the drug, he
said.
    In Canada, a year's treatment costs about 550-640 dlrs
(U.S.).
    An Upjohn official said no price would be set for the drug
in the U.S. market until it was approved for sale.
    During trials, the drug was found to have a bizarre side
effect on some individuals: It caused a state of sexual
dysfunction known as "exagerrated erection."
    Stewart Ehrreich, a former FDA official who conducted a
safety review of Rogaine before leaving the agency, said
researchers had found a number of cases of patients who had
exagerrated erections as a result of the drug.
    He said this was a common effect for drugs of the same
class as Rogaine, called vaso-dilators.
    FDA officials said they could make no prediction on when
Rogaine might be approved for marketing.
    Following the vote, panel member Dr. Robert Stern, a Boston
dermatologist, said Upjohn statistics had exaggerated the
effect of the drug.
    He said "about one in five will have a substantial clinical
effect," which he defined as a significant growth of new hair
that made the patient actually look better.
    He urged insurance companies not to cover the cost of
Rogaine treatment in order to preserve scarce medical fund
    "I would hope that insurance companies will take a strong
line that this is not a product we will reimburse for," Stern
    "I think this is a drug that has some application for some
people, and I think some people will find it worth the expense,"
he said.
    But he said individuals should be required to pay for the
treatment out of their personal funds.
    Stern estimated more than 100,000 American men are already
using minoxidil on their scalps, outside the law, by grinding
up the blood pressure pill and dissolving in a solvent.
 Reuter

The United Food and Commercial Workers
union, Local 222 said its members voted Sunday to strike the
Iowa Beef Processors Inc Dakota City, Neb., plant, effective
Tuesday.
    The company said it submitted its latest offer to the union
at the same time announcing that on Tuesday it would end a
lockout that started December 14.
    Union members unanimously rejected the latest company offer
that was submitted to the union late last week, UFCW union
spokesman Allen Zack said.
 Reuter

was examining an idea for a new tabloid newspaper in Britain
after being being approached about the concept by a person in
England it declined to indentify.
    "We were talking to this individual and offered to help him
in effect formulate his concept and that is about as far as it
has gone," Toronto Sun Publishing vice-president of finance
Bruce Jackson said in reply to a query.
    "We have not decided anything," Jackson added. "It has not
been brought to the board of directors for any kind of approval
or heavy discussion."
    Jackson said that Toronto Sun recently produced a dummy
newspaper for the individual to use in testing possible British
market reaction. Toronto Sun publishes tabloids in Toronto,
Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta and the Houston Post.
    Asked about possible financial or editorial support by
Toronto Sun, Jackson replied: "It is far too premature to
discuss anything like that." He said further developments were
unlikely to unfold for "at least a month."
    Jackson described the British tabloid market as "very
competitive, but it is a very large market as well. It most
likely doesn't take a large market share to be profitable there
as long as you find the right niche."
    He said Toronto Sun is approached almost every month about
ideas for starting newspapers, mostly in North America, "as the
Toronto Sun is known to be a newspaper group that has started
papers.
    "Unfortunately, this one leaked out and it probably
attracted a little more attention than it really deserves at
this point," Jackson said.
    Toronto Sun recently dropped plans to start a second
English language newspaper in Montreal, citing a study that
indicated the lack of a sufficient advertising base for such a
paper.
 Reuter

Integrated Generics Inc said its
wholly-owned A.N.D.A. Development corp Subsidiary has signed a
letter of intent with underwriters R.F. Lafferty and Co Inc and
S.J. Bayern and Co Inc to raise three mln dlrs through a unit
offering.
    The company said each unit would consist of two common
shares priced at about five dlrs each and a warrant to buy
another share at 6.50 dlrs.  Integrated said it would retain a
controlling interest.
    Integrated said proceeds would be used to finance the
development of prescription drugs on which patents expire.
 Reuter

Balladur maintains 1987 2.5 pct inflation target after February 3.4 pct year-on-year

A 250 dlr spot charge will be added to
the New York cocoa futures, July delivery, contract starting
Wednesday, March 18, the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange said.
    The March delivery ceases trading March 17, making May and
July the two nearby unlimited positions. Previously, March and
May were unlimited.
    The margin requirement for a May or July position will be
1,000 dlrs--750 dlrs original margin plus 250 dlrs spot fee.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 1,387,000 vs 2,532,000
    Revs 80.5 mln vs 82.6 mln
 Reuter

Media General Inc said its
February revenues were 53.1 mln dlrs, up from 49.1 mln dlrs a
    It said newspaper revenues rose to 21.3 mln dlrs from 20.2
mln dlrs, newsprint to 14.6 mln dlrs from 14.5 mln dlrs,
broadcast 14.6 mln dlrs from 11.5 mln dlrs and others 3,631,000
dlrs from 3,621,000 dlrs.  Intercompany sales of 1,021,000
dlrs, up from 752,000 dlrs, were included.
    Media General said year-to-date revenues rose to 104.0 mln
dlrs from 95.9 mln dlrs a year before.
    The company said year-to-date newspaper revenues were 41.7
mln dlrs, up from 39.8 mln dlrs, newsprint 29.9 mln dlrs, up
from 28.0 mln and broadcast 27.5 mln dlrs, up from 21.2 mln
dlrs, while other revenues fell to 6,896,000 dlrs from
8,566,000 dlrs.  Intercompany sales rose to 2,034,000 dlrs from
1,639,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,866,000 vs 1,476,000
    Revs 33.0 mln vs 30.3 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 71 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 4,828,000 vs 3,857,000
    Revs 92.0 mln vs 89.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 1,200,466 vs 545,670
    Revs 8.2 mln vs 6.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.52 dlrs vs 27 cts
    Net 4,972,683 vs 1,046,460
    Revs 33.3 mln vs 23 mln
 Reuter

    Shr two cts vs two cts
    Net 78,537 vs 72,364
    Revs 626,942 vs 640,030
 Reuter

Worldgroup Cos Inc said it was
sued by two companies operating three franchised travel
agencies for violating franchise and trademark agreements.
    The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the western
district of Missouri, seeks 385,000 dlrs for losses and almost
9.2 mln dlrs in additional damages.
    The suit alleges the sale of the franchises by IT Financial
Corp of Tulsa to International Tours Inc, a Worldgroup unit,
violated franchise, trademark and other agreements. It also
claims the defendants have conspired to restrain trade and
violated federal racketeering laws, the company said.
    Worldgroup said the claims are unfounded and that it plans
to defend itself vigorously.
    In addition to Worldgroup and IT Financial, K mart Corp
<KM> was named as a defendant, Worldgroup said. Worldgroup has
agreements with K mart to market travel services.
 Reuter

French adjusted February trade deficit 400 mln francs vs January deficit 2.5 billion

Members of the Baltic International
Freight Futures Exchange (BIFFEX) are to be balloted at the end
of this week on whether it will merge with the London Commodity
Exchange or come under a new umbrella of Baltic futures
exchanges, a BIFFEX official said.
    The final decision will be left with the BIFFEX board,
which will meet at the end of this month, he said.
    Last week three exchanges currently trading on the Baltic
Exchange, the London Potato Futures Association, the GAFTA Soya
Bean Meal Futures Association and the London Meat Futures
Exchange, instructed legal advisers to implement a merger.
 Reuter

Machine Technology Inc said it
expects to report a second quarter loss of 13 to 17 cts per
share on sales of about 4,400,000 dlrs.
    A year earlier, it lost 139,000 dlrs or three cts per share
on sales of 4,271,000 dlrs.
    The company said it booked over six mln dlrs in the quarter
and its backlog has risen 35 pct since the end of its fiscal
year, leading it to expect improved results in the second half.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net loss 31,896 vs loss 753,518
    Revs 840,075 vs 716,361
    Avg shrs 5.45 mln vs 4.17 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 25 cts vs loss 55 cts
    Net loss 1,271,972 vs loss 2,115,662
    Revs 2,071,676 vs 1,933,562
    Avg shrs 5.02 mln vs 3.85 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts previously
    Pay May 11
    Record April Nine
 Reuter

Edward Hines Lumber Co, which is in the
process of complete liquidation, said the estimated net
realizable value of its assets as of Dec 31, 1986 was four dlrs
a share.
    It said this is the same estimated per share value
announced earlier in 1986.
    The company said total liquidation distributions so far are
slightly in excess of 40 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Cheyenne Software Inc, whose stock
has been halted on NASDAQ, said it will issue a news
release soon.
    The company declined to comment on the nature of the news
release.
 Reuter

Triangle Microwave Inc said
it is involved in talks on its possible purchase by a
"substantial U.S. company" it did not identify.
    Triangle said no agreement has yet been reached and there
can be no assurance that one will be reached. Any acquisitioon
would be subject to approval by its shareholders and to
regulatory filings, it said.
    Triangle Microwave makes microwave system components and
had earnings for the first half ended January 31 of 1,055,000
dlrs on sales of 7,292,000 dlrs, up from earnings of 763,000
dlrs on sales of 6,034,000 dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Yeutter said the United States will retaliate if the European
Community adopts a proposed tax on vegetable oils, but he did
not say what EC products would be singled-out for reprisal.
    Speaking to the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA)
convention here, Yeutter said he is "cautiously optimistic" the
controversial oils tax proposal will be rejected by the EC
Council of Ministers.
    Yeutter said the proposed tax is a "flagrant violation of
the spirit of GATT" because it would imperil the zero binding
duty on U.S. exports of soybeans to Europe.
    He said the Reagan administration has yet to decide on a
retaliation list. The administration would not reveal a
retaliation list unless the EC approved the proposal, he said.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said
"significant progress" was being made in trade talks with the
United States and a profile of a major deal was emerging.
    Opening a debate on free trade in the House of Commons,
Mulroney said an accord would create thousands of jobs in
Canada and bring greater economic prosperity to both countries.
    Mulroney, who offered few new details of the talks, said
that while the negotiations were risky and difficult, "a
profile of a major trade deal is now emerging."
  In a 50-minute address, Mulroney made an often passionate
defense of the initiative that he said would give poorer areas
of the country a major economic boost.
    "Because of our trading patterns over a period of decades,
we are in the process of building two Canadas -- one that is
rich and promising, one that is under-developed and
under-employed," said Mulroney.
    "What we want is to make sure Newfoundlanders and British
Columbians and Albertans and others, that they get their
chance. They must be given the opportunity to trade their way
to prosperity."
    Few detials have been released on the trade talks which
were launched nearly two years ago between the two nations that
are each others most important trading partners.
    Recent published reports in Canada, quoting senior trade
sources, said the countries were close to reaching a trade deal
and it will involve eliminating border trariffs and many
non-tariff barriers over the next 10 to 12 years.
    It has been reported a key stumbling block in the talks is
a Canadian proposal to find a new way to settle trade disputes,
something that would give Canada protection from Washington's
tough trade remedy laws.
    But Mulroney, sharply critical of protectionist sentiment
in the U.S, said Canada was a "fair trader" and denied the
government was pursuing the deal to win unfair access to the
American market.
    He said a trade deal must bring benefits to both sides.
    "We recognize a good deal must be a fair deal, one that is
fair to both sides," Mulroney said.
 Reuter

France posted a seasonally adjusted trade
deficit of 400 mln francs in February after a 2.5 billion franc
deficit in January, the Finance Ministry said.
    For the first two months of this year the trade deficit, on
a seasonally adjusted basis, was 2.9 billion francs.
    Unadjusted, the February deficit was 2.4 billion francs and
the two-month cumulative deficit 8.1 billion, the ministry said
    The Ministry said February exports totalled 73.8 billion
francs, an 8.9 pct increase on January, while imports totalled
74.3 billion francs, an increase of 5.8 pct.
    Farm and food trade showed a two billion franc surplus
after a surplus of 2.4 billion in January.
    The energy deficit was reduced to 6.5 billion francs from
eight billion in January, while industrial trade showed a
surplus of 1.4 billion francs against only 800 mln francs in
January.
 REUTER

seat sold on the New York Futures Exchange for 200 dlrs,
unchanged from the previous sale on March 13.
    It also said a second seat sold on the NYFE for 100 dlrs,
down 100 dlrs from the previous sale.
    The current bid is for 100 dlrs and the offer is for 300
dlrs.
 Reuter

NCR Corp is very optimistic that it will
post record revenues and profits for 1987, Charles E. Exley Jr,
chairman and president, said.
    "Much of our considerable optimism about the future is
based on the strength of a continuing flow of new products,"
Exley told a meeting of securities analysts. "Our current
position is the strongest in modern NCR history with
new-generation offerings deliverable in every major category
    For 1986, NCR's earnings rose nine pct, to 3.42 dlrs a
share, on sales that increased 13 pct, to 4.9 billion dlrs.
    During the balance of 1987, Exley said NCR will pay close
attention to increasing its penetration of major accounts,
expanding its third-party distribution channels and continuing
its introduction of new products.
    "In 1986, new products introduced within the proceding 36
months accounted for more than 65 pct of our major equipment
order activity," he said.
    "At the end of two months," he added," I can say we are off
to a good start" for 1987.
 Reuter

<Desjardins Group>, the Quebec credit
union organization with 30 billion dlrs in assets, needs a new
structure to raise capital and compete outside of Quebec and is
considering a share issue, president Claude Beland said.
    Beland said the group is considering forming a holding
company which would raise capital by issuing preferred,
non-voting shares.
    "If we want to expand we have to look into other markets,"
Beland said in an interview. "Right now we have many
opportunities but we don't have the tools to react properly,"
he said.
    The co-operative organization, which was founded in 1900,
said it accounts for 38 pct of Quebec consumer loans, 50 pct of
mortgage loans, and 18 pct of commercial loans in the province.
It said it also controls Quebec's largest life insurance
company.
           
 Reuter

Sources close to the Italian state credit
institution (Istituto Mobiliare Italiano - IMI) said a
convertible bond issue was one of the possibilities being
studied to facilitate market absorption of Fiat shares sold
last year by Libya and still in the hands of banks.
    The sources could give no further details of the options
under study.
    A Fiat spokesman contacted by Reuters said the company had
no comment to make on the possibility of a convertible bond
issue, saying any decision to be taken "did not depend on Fiat."
    Italian press reports that a bond issue was under study
pushed Fiat's shares higher on the Milan bourse today.
    The company's ordinary shares closed in Milan today at
12,540 lire in Milan today, up from a closing 12,195 Friday.
    Fiat preference shares and savings (non-voting) shares
gained even more strongly, closing at 7,740 and 7,841 lire
respectively against 7,353 and 7,600 Friday.
    Bourse dealers say the fall in value of Fiat stock over the
last six months partly reflects selling by foreign operators of
shares acquired as a result of the 2.1 billion dlr equity offer
after Libya sold its minority stake last September.
    On September 23, 1986, the day Fiat announced it had
reached an agreement under which Libya would sell its 15 pct
stake, Fiat shares closed in Milan at 16,600 lire. Since then,
the trend has been down.
    Last September's share offer, which triggered criticism by
underwriters about the handling of the sale, opened at a
substantial discount to its offer price, resulting in losses
for holders of the shares.
    Some analysts have said the size of offer was too big for
the market to handle efficiently.
 REUTER

France's state-owned Aerospatiale is
working on designs for a hypersonic plane to fly 150 passengers
at five times the speed of sound, and plans to unveil computer
studies at the Paris air show in June, a company spokesman
said.
    The plane, which is similar in concept to the Orient
Express project announced by President Reagan last year, would
have four ram-jet motors, lacking the moving parts of
conventional turbo-jet engines, and each having 30 tonnes of
thrust.
    It would cruise at an altitude of up to 30,000 metres,
around three times higher than conventional aircraft and nearly
twice as high as the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic jet.
    With a range of 12,000 km it would be capable of flying
from Paris to New York in one hour, compared with three hours
taken by Concorde, and Paris to Tokyo in two hours.
    The aircraft could reach speeds in excess of 5,000 km an
hour.
    The Aerospatiale spokesman said its research scientists had
been working on the project for about two years, drawing on the
experience it gained from Concorde as well as experience in
heat-resistant materials needed on high-speed aircraft which it
has developed from building French nuclear missiles.
 Reuter

The market in floating rate notes showed
no clear signs of recovery today from the confusion which sent
prices tumbling and paralysed trading at the end of last week,
dealers and bank officials said.
    FRN dealers said at least 10 houses did not open for
business with many market operators pausing to assess their
next steps in the wake of Friday's huge drops and panic
trading.
    Despite some late signs that prices were recovering last
week, today's erratic trade provided a similarly mixed final
picture with longer-dated FRNs still clearly under pressure.
    While FRN specialists noted that paper on which coupons are
shortly due to be refixed had managed to hold up today, as had
notes paying a relatively higher margin, longer term FRNs were
still subject to intense selling pressure.
    "Anything longer than 10 years is still being sold off
seriously, as is just about any paper in the banking sector,"
one FRN market source at a leading U.S. House said.
    He noted that one long-dated Citicorp issue -- paper which
has suffered recently on fears over Latin American debt
exposure -- slipped by two points to around 94.00. FRNs, whose
coupons are refixed regularly, usually trade around par.
    U.S. And Canadian bank paper was still generally under
pressure, as was Republic of Ireland paper, due to renewed
worries about the Irish economic situation.
    The malaise was felt through the banking sector with a two
point fall registered by one BNP note, to give a three point
drop over two trading days.
    Retail clients, usually seen returning to the market as
price falls push yield margins up to these attractive levels,
have been unnerved by the last three days' panic, dealers said.
    "Yes, there's been some bargain hunting, but no one dares to
be first to come seriously back in," said one dealer.
    "A handful of market giants have frightened the retail away
with this aggressive manipulation. As true liquidity drains, we
are going to have to see some better market cooperation and
rationalisation," commented one FRN trader now dealing with
straight bond issues since the floater market crisis.
    This view was shared by the majority of FRN market sources
polled by Reuters since trade began to collapse last week.
    Of the 50 or so houses who have up until now made a market
in floaters, dealers estimated that around a dozen did not
quote FRN prices today and they reported that one or two houses
were not expected to resume trade in the securities at all.
    Many called meetings to assess the current market
    "Given the potential volatility of this market -- one which
has been conclusively proved by the events of the last days --
senior management are now duty bound to revise the set of
parameters within which they, as market makers, are now to
work," commented one senior source at a leading U.K. Investment
house.
    However, there were no reports that a formal crisis meeting
of market makers -- such as that called in December last year
during the perpetual FRN market collapse -- was on the cards.
    Several firms were expected to cut back drastically on the
list of FRNs traded, with most volatile paper first to go.
    Elsewhere in the eurobond market, business was extremely
quiet, with virtually no activity seen in the dollar straight
sector which has been becalmed of late, traders said.
    "There has been no real two-way business today, neither has
there been any new issues for diversion," noted one trader.
    "All we have seen today is some squaring up of positions,"
she added. Investors remain cautious of the dollar, which
though recently stable, still has potential downside risk.
    Eurosterling, the market sector which, aside from the FRNs,
has been in the headlines lately, was quiet today ahead of the
U.K. Government budget due to be announced tomorrow.
    Undertone was very firm with dealers expecting a positive
fiscal package tomorrow and, if not more good economic news to
boost sterling, at least confirmation of the bull factors which
have bolstered eurosterling and gilt-edged bonds lately.
    "It was just sit and wait today but I expect it will be full
steam ahead on Wednesday," commented one sterling market source.
    Prices showed gains to 1/8 to 3/8 point across the board.
    Dealers said several new eurosterling issues were currently
in the pipeline and an early issue is expected to be for a
major European bank which currently has a mandate in the
market.
    In other sectors, euroyen also maintained its firm tone.
    Although the market is expected to be resting until trading
switches to an April value date, the euroyen sector is expected
to be buoyed by some professional switching out of Japanese
government bonds into relatively cheaper euroyen bonds.
    Two new yen issues were features on an otherwise quiet
primary market. Both for 15 billion yen due 1992, the first for
Eksportfinans was at five pct and 103 pct, led by Mitsubishi
Finance International. The second for Export Development Corp
at 4-1/2 pct and 101-7/8 pct led by Bank of Tokyo
International.
    The day's only other feature was a targetted 30 mln dlr
stepped coupon deal for Kawasaki Steel due 1994.
 REUTER

A group controlled by Equitable
Bancorp Chairman Alfred Lerner said it has acquired a 9.6 pct
stake in AmeriTrust Corp <AMTR> and may buy up to 24.9 pct if
obtains regulatory approval.
the group said it bought its stake of 2.0 mln Ameritrust common
shares, for 81.1 mln dlrs as an investment.
    But the group, acting through Clevebaco L.P., a Cleveland
partnership, also said it would seek regulatory approval to
increase its stake. Lerner owns Clevebaco Corp, which is the
general partner of Clevebaco L.P.
    The Lerner group said it filed with the Federal Reserve
Board on March 13 notice of its intent to buy more than 10 pct
of the common stock of AmeriTrust, a Cleveland bank holding
company.
    If the Fed approves, Lerner, whose Equitable Bancorp is
also in Cleveland, said he intends to buy more AmeriTrust
stock, subject to market conditions and other factors.
    Since Lerner heads a bank holding company with assets
greater than one billion dlrs, he said he is barred by law from
serving as a director or officer of AmeriTrust or of having his
representatives on its board.
    Lerner said he has no intention of influencing AmeriTrust
management or its policies.
    The group said Clevebaco L.P. bought one mln of its shares
from Bear, Stearns and Co Inc on March 9 at 41 dlrs a share.
    Lerner said he accumulated the other one mln shares through
March 3 and sold them to Clevebaco L.P., which he controls, on
March 10 for 40.10 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Maryland National Corp <MDNT> said it
has completed the acquisition of American Security Corp in an
exchange of 0.81 Maryland share for each of American's 12 mln
    The company said the mandatory 30-day review by the U.S.
Justice Department was completed today.
    Maryland National said American Security shareholders will
be entitled to receive the 32-1/2 ct per share Maryland
National regular quarterly dividend that is payable March 31 to
holders of record today.
 Reuter

Yeutter suggested the U.S. could file a formal complaint with
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) challenging
Canada's decision to impose duties on U.S. corn imports.
    Asked about the Canadian government decision to apply a
duty of 84.9 cents per bushel on U.S. corn shipments, Yeutter
said the U.S. could file a formal complaint with GATT under the
dispute settlement procedures of the subsidies code.
    Other U.S. options would be to appeal the decision in
Canadian courts, or to retaliate against Canadian goods, a
lower-level U.S. trade official said. However, retaliation is
an unlikely step, at least initially, that official said. No
decision on U.S. action is expected at least until after
documents on the ruling are received here later this week.
 Reuter

Rainier Bancorp said it completed the
acquisition of Tacoma, Wash.-based United Bank, for 59 mln dlrs
worth of Rainier stock.
    United, a savings bank with 607 mln dlrs in assets and 23
offices, will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, Rainier
said.
    Rainier, which last month agreed to merge with Security
Pacific Corp <SPC>, said the United acquisition will increase
its assets to 9.8 billion dlrs from the 9.2 billion reported at
the end of 1986.
 Reuter

Navistar International Corp said it is
recalling 33,000 medium tucks and 19,000 school buses equipped
with power assisted hydraulic brakes to modify the electrical
power supply to the backup breaking system.
    The company said an electrical failure in the main engine
wiring harness could stall the engine, knocking out the primary
power assist to the brakes while simultaneously shutting off
electrical power to the backup pump. This would render the
vehicle's service brakes inoperative.
    It said it is aware of only one accident arising from the
problem.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said he
was maintaining his 2.5 pct inflation target for 1987 after the
announcement earlier today of a 3.4 pct year-on-year rise in
retail prices for February.
    He told a radio interviewer he saw no reason to revise his
target for 1987 after the February monthly result of between
0.1 to O.2 pct, following a 0.9 pct rise in January (three pct
year on year) that forced the government to revise an earlier
target of two pct to a current 2.5 pct.
    He said he was happy with "a good result" for February but
stressed a need for continued "vigilance" against inflation.
    A Finance Ministry statement said the year-on-year
differential between French and lower West German inflation
rates, calculated on the last three months, had narrowed in
February to two to 2.3 pct compared to 2.7 pct in January.
    If calculated on the last 12 months, the differential came
to 3.9 pct, the statement said, adding "The tendency is
therefore one of a lessening of the inflation gap with our main
trading partner."
 REUTER

product supply agreement with <Sharp Corp> under which Sharp
will be the exclusive manufacturer of Colorocs full color
copiers.
    In addition, the company said it signed a licensing
agreement under which Sharp will sell a version of the Colorocs
copier under the Sharp name.
    The companies previously announced a joint copier
development program.
 Reuter

General Cinema Corp said it expects
flat net income for fiscal 1987 ending Oct. 31 against 125.8
mln dlrs or 3.43 dlrs a share a year ago.
    The company said the costs of a restructuring at its Carter
Hawley Hale Stores Inc unit and the previous purchase of an 8.5
pct stake in <Cadbury Schweppes PLC> will lead to the flat net
figure.
    It also said it may raise its stake in Cadbury Schweppes to
25 pct, but has not made any additional stock purchases so far.
    According to the restructuring, Carter Hawley plans to
spin-off its specialty stores, including Neiman-Marcus,
Bergdorf Goodman and Contempo Casuals, into a new company named
<Neiman-Marcus Group>, whose shares will trade on the New York
Stock Exchange, it said.
    As previously announced, General Cinema will own 60 pct of
the equity and 40 pct of the voting shares in the new company.
The restructuring is subject to approval by Carter Hawley

 Reuter

Levon Resources Ltd
said re-checked gold assays from the Howard tunnel on its
Congress, British Columbia property yielded higher gold grades
than those reported in January and February.
    It said assays from zone one averaged 0.809 ounces of gold
a ton over a 40 foot section with an average width of 6.26
feet. Levon previously reported the zone averaged 0.226 ounces
of gold a ton over a 40 foot section with average width of 5.16
feet. Levon said re-checked assays from zone two averaged 0.693
ounces of gold a ton over a 123 foot section with average width
of 4.66 feet.
    Levon Resources said the revised zone two assays compared
to previously reported averages of 0.545 ounces of gold a ton
over a 103 foot section with average width of 4.302 feet.
    The company also said it intersected another vein 90 feet
west of zone two, which assayed 0.531 ounces of gold a ton
across a width of 3.87 feet.
 Reuter

The Paris Financial Futures Market,
MATIF, will shortly name 12 new members, bringing its total
membership to 100 from 88, market officials said.
    The 12 new members will be selected from a list of 28
candidates and priority will be given to foreign applicants
with the aim of internationalising the market, they said.
    The MATIF was set up in February 1986 with a founding
membership of 44 brokers and 40 banks. Turnover currently
averages about 20,000 contracts a day.
 REUTER

Qtly distribution 10 cts per unit vs 10 cts prior
   
 Reuter

A 15 year convertible bond for Rowntree
Mackintosh Plc has been increased to 69 mln stg from the
original 55 mln and the coupon set at 4-1/2 pct against an
indicated 4-1/2 to 4-3/4 pct, lead manager J. Henry Schroder
Bank said.
    The conversion price was set at 557p, representing a
premium of 14.3 pct over the stock's closing price for the last
three business days of 496p. The put option will be at 125 pct
to yield 8.7 pct.
 REUTER

Shr loss three cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net loss 25,836 vs loss 88,819
    Revs 50.3 mln vs 45.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr profit nil vs loss 18 cts
    Net profit 2,843 vs loss 137,653
    Revs 109.3 mln vs 99.3 mln
 Reuter

report is expected to show steady corn and wheat exports and
lower soybean exports, according to CBT floor traders'
    Traders projected soybean exports at 16 mln to 18 mln
bushels, down from 18.6 mln bushels a week ago and 20.3 mln
    Corn guesses ranged from 22 mln to 26 mln bushels, compared
with 25.2 mln bushels a week ago and 22.4 million bushels a
year ago.
    Wheat guesses ranged from 13 mln to 17 mln bushels,
compared with 16.8 mln bushels a week ago and 13.4 mln bushels
a year ago.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs six cts
    Net 1,410,000 vs 550,000
    Revs 6,901,000 vs 2,392,000
    Avg shrs 10,326,000 vs 9,064,000
    Note:  Prior qtr per share figure adjusted for two-for-one
stock split of February 27.
 Reuter

Armtek Corp, formerly
Armstrong Rubber Co, completed the previously announced sale of
its Natchez, Miss., tire plant and other assets to <Condere
Corp>, Condere said.
    Condere, formed to acquire the Armstrong assets, said it
named Dennis Terwillger, formerly vice president and controller
of Armstrong's Tire Division, president.
 Reuter

West German state
prosecutors have focussed their inquiries in the suspected
foreign exchange fraud reported by Volkswagen <VOWG.F> on
Wolfsburg, the company's headquarters, the state prosecutor's
office said here.
    Chief state prosecutor Carl Hermann Retemeyer told Reuters
his office would focus its attention on Wolfsburg, and not
Frankfurt as newspaper reports suggested over the weekend.
    "We asked Frankfurt prosecutors to assist us in our
investigations but their findings led us to believe that we
have to concentrate on Wolfsburg," Retemeyer said.
    The newspaper Welt am Sonntag said yesterday the state
prosecutors investigation was now focusing on possible outside
banking accomplices.
    The company's reported loss of 480 mln marks in currency
transactions aimed at hedging against fluctuations in the value
of the U.S. Dollar has produced a shake-up among senior staff.
VW announced over the weekend that Rolf Selowsky, financial
member of the management board, had resigned.
    Hanns Christian Schroeder-Hohenwarth, president of the West
German Federation of Banks, said today that no member bank was
involved in activities which led to the currency loss.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs four cts
    Net 101,376 vs 125,922
    Revs 568,884 vs 494,227
 Reuter

GenRad Inc said its
Semiconductor Test Group shipped a GR125 VSLI test system to
Marshall Industries <MI>.
    GenRad said the new digital integrated circuit tester will
be used in Marshall's Milpitas plant for retest and
certification of programmable logic devices that Marshall
distributes.
 Reuter

Vishay Intertechnology Inc said
its board declared a two pct stock dividend, payable April 10
to holders of record on March 26.
    The company said the stock dividend will be paid only to
holders of commons tock who do not exchange for Class B stock
in Vishay's current exchange offer, which expires March 25.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.82 dlrs vs profit 35 cts
    Net loss 10,556,478 vs profit 1,286,341
    Revs 6,202,157 vs 7,641,290
    Note: 1986 shr and net after 10,282,353 dlr writedown on
oil and gas property values
 Reuter

U.S. drilling activity fell last week,
with the number of active rotary rigs dropping by five to 761,
against 1,137 working rigs one year ago, Hughes Tool Co said.
    The drilling rig count, which historically falls during the
first quarter of each year, has dropped steadily since early
January when a total of 962 rotary rigs were working. Hughes
economist Ike Kerridge said the U.S. rig count was expected to
fall to a about 700 working rigs by mid-April.
    "I think we're pretty much on track with the expectation
that the seasonal low will come in late March or early April,"
he said. "We're getting close to the bottom."
   Among individual states, Texas and Oklahoma reported gains
in drilling activity last week, with increases of 21 and 13,
respectively. Kerridge attributed the jump in activity to the
likelihood that many of the rigs were omitted from the previous
week's count because they were in transit or being prepared for
work. In the week ended March 9, the rig count for Texas and
Oklahoma fell by 23 and 13, respectively.
    Other states reported slight decreases in drilling activity
last week, Hughes said. Wyoming and Louisiana were down by six,
Kansas and Colorado lost four and Michigan and West Virginia
were down by three rigs.
    Most of the week's decrease came among rigs used for
onshore drilling, which dropped to a total of 669 from last
week's 671. A total of 74 rigs were active offshore and 1 were
working in inland waters during the week, Hughes Tool said.
    In Canada, the rig count was up 1 to 181, against 367 one
year ago.
 Reuter

Integrated Circuits Inc said it
set March 17 as the record date for its previously announced 10
pct stock dividend.
    The company said it will distribute the dividend on March
31.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co PLC said based on
a feasibility report from <Ridgeway Mining Co>, its joint
venture Ridgeway Project in South Carolina could start
commercial gold production by mid-1988.
    The company said the mine would produce at an approximate
rate of 158,000 ounces of gold per year over the first four
full years of operation from 1989 through 1992 and at an
average of 133,000 ounces a year over the full projected
11-year life of the mine.
    BP's partner in the venture is Galactic Resources Ltd
<GALCF> of Toronto.
    The company said subject to receipt of all statutory
permits, finalization of financing arrangements and management
and joint venture review, construction of a 15,000 short ton
per day processing facility can start.  Capital costs to bring
the mine into production are estimated at 76 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Norway's parliament has approved an
extensive trade ban against South Africa but left shipowners a
key loophole through which controversial oil shipments on
Norwegian tankers may continue, government officials said.
    The unilateral boycott, proposed by Norway's minority
Labour government, gives domestic companies until late
September to cut remaining trade ties with South Africa and
Namibia.
    "The legislation discussed today must not be seen as an
isolated measure, but as a step in an international process,"
Norway's foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg told parliament.
    Government officials said they hope the move will intensify
international pressure against the Pretoria regime's apartheid
policies. Sweden, in a similar move last week, promised to halt
all trade with South Africa by October.
    Norway's boycott, although forbidding crude oil shipments
to South Africa on Norwegian-owned tankers, makes an important
exception for ships whose final destination is decided while
they are at sea.
    Oil cargoes are often resold by trades after loading,
making it difficult for shipowners to know their ships' final
port at the start of a voyage.
    Critics said the bill leaves the door open for continued
oil shipments to South Africa. They called for stricter
sanctions to stop all Norwegian shipping to South Africa.
    Norwegian tankers supplied South Africa with about 30 pct
of its crude imports during the early 1980s, but the trade has
dropped sharply to just one cargo in the last three months,
    The latest trade figures show Norwegian imports from South
Africa dropped 36 pct to 160 mln crowns during the first eight
months of 1986, while exports plunged 52 pct to 265 mln crowns
from the year-ago figure.
    "Many would say that the law has already had its effect
because of the dramatic drop in trade between South African and
Norway," Foreign Ministry spokesman Per Paust told Reuters.
    "Norwegian business at an early stage started restructuring
its relations with South Africa in anticipation of the law.
    "No one has said the boycott will have a profound effect on
international trade with South Africa, but it is an important
political statement by the Norwegian government," he said.
    The Oslo government said it will review the effects of the
ban on Norwegian industry after two years and may propose
amendments if industry can show it is hurt by the law.
    Norwegian imports from South Africa are limited mainly to
high-grade manganese and coppernickle ores used in it
ferro-alloys and light metals industries.
    Metals manufacturers estimate some 2,000 jobs could be
affected by the boycott is suitable replacements for these ores
are not found.
    The legislation now goes on to the upper house for formal
ratification later this week, parliamentarians said.
 Reuter

    Avg shrs 5,958,432 vs 2,440,100
    Year
    Revs 14.6 mln vs 9,099,767
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and yr net includes a loss of 85,000
dlrs and a gain of 250,000 dlrs, respecitvely, for
extraordinary item.
    1986 net assumes all warrants exercised for the 2nd qtr
only. The adjustment to second quarter income for earnings per
share was 1,175,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss nil vs loss nil
    Oper net loss 112,000 vs loss 125,000
    Revs nil vs nil
    Avg shrs 26.7 mln vs 21.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss two cts vs loss two cts
    Oper net loss 450,000 vs loss 503,000
    Avg shrs 24.8 mln vs 20.8 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes losses from discontinued oil and natural
gas operations of 44.7 mln dlrs vs 9,489,000 dlrs in quarter
and 92.3 mln dlrs vs 80.7 mln dlrs in year.  Company sold all
its operations at the end of 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.13 dlr vs loss 2.04 dlrs
    Net loss 3,674,000 vs loss 3,016,000
    Revs 2,894,000 vs 1,464,000
 Reuter

 Reuter

Rapholz Silver Inc said <R and M
Construction Services>, Montrose, Colo., will conduct a study
on using water discharge from Rapholz's Carbonero's Mine to
produce hydroelectric power.
    R and M will also seek to obtain a Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission license for construction of a
hydroelectricity plant at the mine, Rapholz said.
    The company added, however, that it will not use its own
capital to build the plant. If the study shows construction is
feasible, it said it will try to form a joint venture with
firms experienced in the hydroelectricity business.
 Reuter

<Consolidated Rail Corp> said the
initial offering of its common stock could be made as early as
next week at an estimated price of 26 to 29 dlrs per share.
    The U.S. government has proposed the sale of 52 mln Conrail
shares in the U.S. and 6,750,000 overseas under the Conrail
Privatization Act, which was enacted in October.
    Lead underwriters are <Goldman, Sachs and Co>, First Boston
Inc <FBC>, Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>, Morgan Stanley Group
Inc <MS> Salomon Inc <SB> and American Express Co's <AXP>
 Reuter

Foreland Corp said it signed an
agreement to fund drilling for three test wells on its
exploration sites in Nevada.
    It said an additional test is called for under "specified
circumstances," and said its drilling participant will bear all
costs, estimated to exeed five mln dlrs, for the four initial
test wells.
 Reuter

Worthen Banking Corp said G.
Michael Sigman has resigned as president and chief executive
officer of its First National Bank of Hot Springs subsidiary to
pursue other business interests.
    It said James C. Patridge, executive vice president of its
Worthen Bank and Trust Co subsidiary, will act as Sigman's
replacement on an interim basis until a successor is found.
 Reuter

<Onyx Petroleum Exploration Co
Ltd>, earlier reporting a 1986 net loss against year-ago
profit, said it converted 7,344,000 dlrs of its 11 pct
convertible debentures into 2,824,611 common shares.
    The conversion eliminates its obligation to pay principal
amount due 1993 on the debentures and will increase cash flow
through an interest saving of more than 800,000 dlrs a year,
    Onyx earlier reported a 1986 net loss of 10.6 mln dlrs,
after a 10.3 mln dlr writedown on oil and gas property values,
compared to a 1.3 mln dlr profit in the prior year.
    Onyx also said the company is a 37.5 pct partner with
Westcoast Petroleum Ltd in a new oil well drilled in
Otter/Ogston area of central Alberta that tested at rates of
more than 1,000 barrels a day from the Granite Wash formation.
    Well production will be royalty free for five years, with
initial allowable rates expected to be in the range of 150
barrels a day, the company said.
 Reuter

Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corp
said it had exercised an option to build a fifth in a series of
crude oil carriers to be constructed by <Daewoo Shipbuilding
and Heavy Machinery Ltd> in South Korea.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Palle Simonsen said
today's downgrading of Denmark's credit rating by Standard and
Poor's Corp should not be over-dramatised.
    Standard and Poor's said it had downgraded the Kingdom of
Denmark's long-term external debt to AA from AA-Plus, following
the country's loss of the top AAA rating in January 1983.
    "This change is regrettable but there is no reason to
dramatise. This is a change of nuance. Standard and Poor's
defines the AA category as only slightly different from the top
AAA rating," Simonsen said in a statement.
    "The direct effect of the lower rating on our borrowing
capability is unlikely to be very great. But if, against
expectation, we fail to reduce permanently the external account
deficit... This will inevitably affect borrowing terms and
capability," he added.
    "Standard & Poor's has noted that in 1986 there was a series
of austerity measures designed particularly to cut lending and
encourage saving. Tax reforms have also gone into effect.
    "If and when it becomes necessary, the government will be
ready to take any necessary economic and political initiatives
as it has in the past," Simonsen said.
   Standard and Poor's said weaker international
competitiveness in the face of rising labour costs would mean a
deteriorating current account balance and a rise in external
debt.
    The external current account deficit rose to a record
preliminary 34.5 billion crowns in 1986 from 29.1 billion in
1985, bringing total foreign debt to 265 billion crowns,
according to government statistics.
    Government economists forecast that the external current
account deficit will fall to 19 billion crowns this year.
    Denmark's net foreign debt rose to 129 pct of total exports
in 1986 from 83 pct in 1983, S and P said.
 REUTER

Jan 31 end
    Net profit 105,013 vs loss 745,641
    Sales 3,661,565 vs 2,810,132
 Reuter

Shr 77 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 17 mln vs 19 mln
    Sales 650 mln vs 614 mln
 Reuter

<Markel Financial Holdings Ltd> said
subsidiary Morden and Helwig Group Inc filed a preliminary
prospectus for a proposed initial share offering in Canada by
way of treasury issue and secondary offering of subordinate
voting shares.
    Markel did not elaborate on financial terms of the issue.
    Morden, an independent insurance services company, expects
to use proceeds primarily for business acquisition and
expansion in the insurance services industry in Canada and
possibly overseas. Underwriters are Wood Gundy Inc and Dean
Witter Reynolds (Canada) Inc.
 Reuter

a feasibility report from Ridgeway Mining Co, its joint venture
Ridgeway Project in South Carolina could start commercial gold
production by mid-1988.
    The company said the mine would produce approximately
158,000 ounces of gold per year over the first four full years
of operation from 1989 through 1992 and at an average 133,000
ounces a year over the full projected 11 year life of the mine.
    BP's partner is Galactic Resources Ltd of Toronto.
    BP said subject to receipt of all statutory permits,
finalization of financing arrangements and management and joint
venture review, construction of a 15,000 short ton per day
processing facility can start. Capital costs to bring the mine
into production are estimated at 76 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Safety-Kleen Corp said it has
tentatively agreed to buy an 80 pct stake in Breslube
Enterprises of Toronto for 14 mln dlrs in stock, cash and
    Price includes 14 mln dlrs of Safety-Kleen common stock,
cash and a rerefining plant owned by Safety-Kleen. Closing of
the deal is expected by May.
    Breslube is a leading rerefiner of used lubricating oils in
North America, collecting used oils from auto garages, car
dealers and other businesses. In 1986 it refined 20 mln gallons
of used oil.
 Reuter

<Loblaw Cos Ltd> said it agreed to sell
75 mln dlrs of 10 pct debentures, series 8, due April 15, 2007,
to investment dealers Burns Fry Ltd and McLeod Young Weir Ltd.
    Loblaw said it plans to file a preliminary prospectus
relating to the issue in all provinces of Canada.
    Proceeds will be added to general funds and used to finance
capital expenditures in 1987, the company said.
 Reuter

House subcommittee last week approved a toned-down version of
    The bill will be the cornerstone of congressional efforts
    Generally, the bill's provisions toughen U.S. enforcement
of trade laws.
    The trade bill forces the administration to act rapidly on
complaints of unfair trade practices, such as dumping products
in the United States at prices below cost of production. It
also forces the administration to act rapidly when an industry
complains that a surge in imports threatens its existence.
    But congressmen known for their allegiance to free trade
said the bill ties Reagan's hands too much in trade disputes
and they will seek to restore his negotiating powers.
    Bill Frenzel, R-MI., said the subcommittee's bill was not
one "that a free trader like me could endorse in all respects,"
but he emphasized there was a consensus among lawmakers to work
toward a bill Reagan and Republicans would ultimately endorse.
    The goal of trade legislation was "to make our trade policy
stronger without violating our international trade agreements,"
he said.
    In a key concession made at the urging of Ways and Means
Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski, D-IL., the trade
Reagan to impose automatically quotas or tariffs on imports
    It also agreed the president may waive any retaliation if
it would hurt the U.S. economy.
    Rostenkowski insisted the more moderate approach was
necessary if the House wanted to pass a bill Reagan would sign
into law.
    Reagan last year blocked Senate consideration of a tough
House trade bill he branded as protectionist and this year he
only reluctantly agreed to support a trade bill when he saw
Democratic leaders were determined to pass such legislation.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters late
last week that the administration still did not like some of
the bill's provisions, but he added, "Generally we feel very
good about the bipartisan consideration of the trade
Richard Gephardt, D-MO., to force countries like Japan, South
Korea and Taiwan to cut their trade surpluses with the U.S.
    AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland this year angered the
administration when he said any trade bill Reagan would sign
would not be worth passage in Congress.
    But Rostenkowski set the tone of the trade debate by
saying, "I'm not trying to write legislation to please Lane
    Rep. Ed Jenkins (D-GA.) intends to push separately a bill
to protect the domestic textile and shoe industry, an aide
said. Reagan vetoed a similar measure last year.
    House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas, one of the most
influential proponents of aid for specific industries beset by
low-priced foreign competition, last week renewed his call for
import relief for the domestic oil industry and announced his
support for a Senate plan to trigger a temporary oil import
tariff when imports reach half of domestic consumption.
 Reuter

Golden Valley Microwave Foods Inc
said it will file a registration statement with the Securities
and Exchange Commission for a secondary public offering of
700,000 shares held by company shareholders.
    These shares are substantially all of the shares which,
under an agreement between the selling holders and the company,
are permitted to be sold by the original shareholders without
company consent during the two-year period ending September 16,
1988, it said.
    The shares will be marketed to the public in late April
through underwriters, it said.
 Reuter

Magnetic Technologies Corp said
it expects the second half to show continued growth in earnings
and sales.
    The company today reported a profit for the first half
ended January 31 of 105,013 dlrs, compared with a year-earlier
loss of 745,641 dlrs, on sales of 3,661,565 dlrs, up from
2,810,132 dlrs.  In all of last year, Magnetic earned 996,000
dlrs after a loss from discontinued operations of 359,000 dlrs,
on sales of 6,084,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

a ton. Levon previously reported the zone averaged 0.226 ounces
of gold a ton. Levon said re-checked assays from zone two
averaged 0.693 ounces of gold a ton.
to previously reported averages of 0.545 ounces of gold a ton.
west of zone two, which assayed 0.531 ounces of gold a ton.
 Reuter

Shr 58 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 3,144,000 vs 2,464,000
    Revs 54.6 mln vs 38.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,394,000 vs 4,602,000
    Year
    Shr 2.03 dlrs vs 1.76 dlrs
    Net 10.5 mln vs 8,084,000
    Revs 201.1 mln vs 152.4 mln
    Avg shrs 5,154,000 vs 4,602,000
 Reuter

Oper shr four cts vs three cts
    Oper net 340,036 vs 223,297
    Revs 11.1 mln vs 9,514,115
    Avg shrs 8,926,909 vs 7,672,146
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 252,160 dlrs vs 152,717
dlrs.
 Reuter

<Starrex Mining Corp Ltd> said a sharp

rise in its share price is based on speculation for favorable
results from its current underground diamond drilling program
at its 35 pct owned Star Lake gold mine in northern
    Starrex Mining shares rose 40 cts to 4.75 dlrs in trading
on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    The company said drilling results from the program which
started in late February are encouraging, "but it is too soon
for conclusions." Starrex did not disclose check assay results
from the exploration program.
 Reuter

COMBINED INT'L TO ASK DOUBLING OF AUTHORIZED SHARES, STOCK SPLIT

International King's Table Inc
said it named Everett F. Jefferson president and chief
    The company said Jefferson was previously president and
chief operating officer of Marriott Corp's <MHS> Straw Hat
Pizza unit.
    It said he assumes the positions from Roger W. Houmes, who
will continue as chairman and chief executive officer of the
company, which operates a chain of 82 restaurants in the West.
 Reuter

Africa may have to follow Brazil in
halting foreign debt payments unless industrialised nations are
prepared to be more flexible in trade and economic policy,
Ethiopian trade minister Tesfay Dinka said.
    Growing protectionism and declining commodity prices had
caused a major deterioration in the export earnings of all
developing countries, he said in an opening speech to a meeting
of African trade ministers in Addis Ababa.
    Unless there was an early improvement in developing
countries' terms of trade "the only choice is to follow the
route that Brazil appears to have taken," Tesfay said.
   The two-day meeting of delegates from 50 African states was
called to work out a consensus ahead of the Group of 77
ministerial meeting in Havana next month, when the developing
countries will debate their strategy in economic negotiations
with the West.
    Tesfay accused the West of intransigence in the negotiation
of recent commodity agreements.
    The failure of the International Coffee Organisation to
agree on the reintroduction of export quotas would mean "several
African countries will not have the foreign exchange to import
essential items," he said.
    Coffee accounts for 60 pct of Ethiopian exports and the
recent fall in world coffee prices has sharply reduced the
country's foreign exchange earnings.
    Adebayo Adedeji, the executive secretary of the U.N.
Economic Commission for Africa, told the meeting that there was
an increasing net outflow of resources from Africa.
    He blamed this on high interest rates, debt servicing and
the repatriation of profits by foreign investors.
    Africa paid 13 billion dlrs to service its total foreign
debt last year and by 1990 annual service payments are expected
to rise to between 16 and 24 billion, Adedeji said.
    He accused industrialised countries of failing to provide
more resources to implement the U.N. Program for Africa's
economic recovery and development, despite Africa's willingness
to raise two thirds of the capital from domestic sources.
    The U.N. Program, approved last year, calls for 128 billion
dlrs of economic investment in Africa over five years.
    Western donors were asked to contribute 46 billion dlrs,
with the rest being raised from local resources, but Adedeji
said the donors had not responded as hoped.
   In view of this poor response, he said "it is possible that
by the year 2,000 nearly all African countries, except a few,
will be categorised as least developed countries."
    At present, 27 of Africa's 50-odd states are officially
listed in this category.
 REUTER

CANBRA FOODS LTD SETS SPECIAL ONE-TIME FIVE DLR/COMMON SHR CASH PAYOUT

Oper shr profit 21 cts vs loss 55 cts
    Oper net profit 1,528,000 vs loss 3,296,000
    Sales 329.4 mln vs 368.0 mln
    1st half
    Oper shr profit 28 cts vs loss 4.55 dlrs
    Oper net profit 2,026,000 vs loss 27.3 mln
    Sales 691.3 mln vs 738.2 mln
    NOTE: Prior half net includes pretax charge 21.4 mln dlrs
from plant closings and workforce reductions.
    Current year net excludes tax credits of 1,381,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,722,000 dlrs in half.
 Reuter

The United States and Turkey signed
a five-year defence and economic agreement (DECA) that will
channel hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid to
Ankara.
    The agreement was signed by Secretary of State George
Shultz and Foreign Minister Vahit Halefoglu after 18 months of
negotiations that won Ankara considerably less than it wanted.
    Under the agreement, the U.S. government pledged it would
use "vigor and determination" to persuade Congress to vote the
money to build up Turkish defenses in return for U.S. air bases
and intelligence-gathering facilities.
    Under today's agreement, which runs until December, 1990,
Turkey will receive nearly 720 mln dlrs in military and
economic aid this year.
    Next year, the U.S. government has promised to ask Congress
for 910 mln dlrs under an agreement that prompted domestic
crticism in Turkey for not winning enough aid.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 1.52 dlrs vs loss 55 cts
    Oper profit 4,172,188 vs loss 1,502,032
    Note: 1986 shr and net exclude extraordinary gain of
1,294,245 dlrs or 47 cts share on sale of Stafford Foods unit
 Reuter

Oper shr 45 cts vs 24 cts
    Oper net 1,766,000 vs 950,000
    Revs 9,321,000 vs 5,298,000
    Year
    Oper shr 1.25 dlrs vs one dlr
    Oper net 4,985,000 vs 3,894,000
    Revs 28.3 mln vs 19.9 mln
161,000 dlrs vs 66,000 dlrs in quarter and 464,000 dlrs vs
226,000 dlrs in year.
    Dividend pay May Five, record April 13.
    Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split.
 Reuter

New Nebraska Republican Senator
David Karnes said he supports proposals to "decouple" farm
subsidies from production decisions.
    Karnes, formerly a vice president of Scoular Grain Co. in
Omaha, was appointed last week to complete the term of the late
Sen. Edward Zorinsky (D-Nebr.).
    On target prices, Karnes said he believes the gradual
reductions in supports included in the 1985 farm bill should be
continued, but administration proposals for 10 pct cuts in
target prices each year are "excessive."
    Karnes said he opposes mandatory production controls for
major crops. His predecessor, Sen. Zorinsky, had supported
mandatory controls for wheat and was the author of a farm bill
provision requiring a referendum on the subject last year.
    Sen. Karnes accompanied Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.) to
the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) convention
earlier today and spoke to Reuters after Boschwitz addressed
the NGFA meeting.
    Karnes said he is seeking a seat on the Senate Agriculture
Committee but no decision has been made on the request.
    Karnes, who has not held political office before, was
appointed by Nebraska Republican Governor Kay Orr. He will be
up for election in 1988.
 Reuter

Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd
said it will integrate Utah International Inc, which it bought
three years ago, under a common management structure.
    The company said effective June 1, when Utah International
Chairman Alexander Wilson retires, James Curry will become
chairman and chief executive officer and a new BHP-Utah
Minerals International board will be named. Curry is currently
executive vice president of Utah International.
    BHP Petroleum (Americas) Inc, formerly part of Utah
International, will become a subsidiary of BHP's renamed BHP
Petroleum International, headquartered in Melbourne.
 Reuter

Harris-Teeter Properties Inc
reported fourth quarter fiscal 1986 earnings per share of 24
cts on earnings of 601,000 dlrs. 
    The realty investment trust company started operations in
August and had no comparable figures, it said.
 Reuter

Cooper LaserSonics Inc said
it rescheduled its annual meeting to Monday, May 11, at the
company's office in Santa Clara, Calif.
    The meeting had previously been set for May 14 in Palo
Alto, the company said.
 Reuter

Kron Chocolatier Inc said it will
redeem on April 13 all its outstanding class A warrants at 0.01
ct a warrant.
    The company said the warrants, which allow the holder to
buy one share of Kron common stock at 40 cts a share, will
become void after the redemption date.
    Kron also said all its 318,460 dlrs of outstanding
convertible debt had been converted into 4,126,741 shares of
common. Assuming that all the class A warrants are converted,
Kron said it will have 18,356,174 common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

    Net 73,000 vs 233,000
    Revs 21.0 mln vs 9,510,000
    Avg shrs 3,620,000 vs 2,886,000
    Year
    Shr 66 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,246,000 vs 1,064,000
    Revs 68.3 mln vs 40.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,392,000 vs 2,886,000
    NOTE: 1985 year net includes extraordinary gain one ct shr
and gain two cts from cumulative effect of accounting change.
 Reuter

BSN Corp said it expects revenues of
about 120 mln dlrs and a substantial increase in net income and
earnings per share for 1987.
    Today it reported 1986 net income of 2,246,000 dlrs or 66
cts per share on revenues of 68.3 mln dlrs, up from 1,064,000
dlrs or 37 cts per share on revenues of 40.8 mln dlrs a year
before.
 Reuter

SEC OKAYS REQUEST FROM BOESKY FIRMS TO PROTECT FUNDS FROM CLAIMANTS

Combined International Corp said it
will ask shareholders at the April 23 annual meeting to approve
the doubling of authorized common shares to 120 mln.
    Holders will also vote on a proposal to create a new class
of 25 mln shares of serial preferred stock one dlr par value in
place of its existing classes of authorized and unissued
    It said at its regular March board meeting members will
consider a stock split or stock dividend, which would be
contingent upon stockholder approval of the changes in the
capital structure at the April annual meeting.
    Holders will also be asked to approve a new corporate name,
Aon Corp. It said aon is a Gaelic word meaning unit. The name
is intended to eliminate confusion between the parent company
and its principal subsidiary, Combined Insurance Co of America.
    Holders will also vote on a proposal to limit the liability
of directors and amend the provision for indemnifying
directors, officers employees an agents. This is being done to
reduce the costs of liability insurance.
 Reuter

<Canbra Foods Ltd>, earlier
reporting a 1986 net profit against a year-ago loss, said it
declared a special, one-time dividend of five dlrs per common
share, pay March 31, record March 26.
    Canbra said it set the special payout to allow shareholders
to participate in the gain on the sale of unit Stafford Foods
Ltd in November, 1986, as well as the company's "unusually
profitable performance" in 1986.
    Canbra earlier reported 1986 net earnings of 4.2 mln dlrs,
excluding a 1.3 mln dlr gain on the Stafford sale, compared to
a year-ago loss of 1.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

may have a hard time convincing U.S. regulatory authorities
that lifting controls on its long-distance business will
benefit consumers, industry and congressional analysts say.
    "There's clearly going to have to be an effort (by ATT) to
say that deregulation will not have an adverse effect on the
consumer," said Gerry Salemme, a policy analyst for the House
telecommunications, consumer protection and finance
    Salemme said that if the Federal Communications Commission
eased restrictions on ATT, Congress probably would consider
taking legislative oversight action to protect consumers'
    ATT has about 80 pct of the interstate long-distance
market. It asked the FCC to cut back price and rate regulations
that have control its long-distance phone business.
    ATT spun off its local telephone services operations into
the seven regional Bell companies in 1984 as part of the  court
ordered breakup of the telephone giant.
    The regional companies have been prohibited from
manufacturing equipment and from offering information services
and out-of-region long-distance service.
    But some of them want to move into those areas,
particularly the provision of long-distance services, which
would compete directly with ATT.
    ATT's request came in response to an FCC notice issued in
January that proposed to streamline regulation of certain parts
of its long-distance business.
    The FCC will closely examine the potential effects of the
proposal on consumers, said FCC spokeswoman Mary Beth Hess.
    "That would be foremost in our mind," Hess said.
    Hess said she expected the FCC to respond in a few months.
    Congressional aides said they were concerned that if
regulation is reduced, ATT will use its dominant market
position to raise consumer rates.
    Consumer groups say ATT's concern for its business clients,
its most lucrative market, underscores a danger that, without
full regulation from the FCC, any increased costs will be
passed onto the consumer rather than big business.
    ATT, however, says deregulation would benefit consumers.
    The company would become more competitive because it would
not have to wait for FCC authorization before introducing new
services, spokeswoman Edith Herman said.
    However, Gene Kimmelman of the Consumer Federation of
America, which represents more than 200 consumer groups
nationally, said, "When ATT offers new services, they tend to be
geared toward the high volume business market rather than the
average consumer."
    ATT proposed that in addition to lifting profit regulation,
the FCC allow new rates to go into effect in 14 days instead of
the current 45 days.
    The company also called for a reduction in the amount of
documentation it must file with the FCC each time it introduces
or changes long-distance services.
    "With this filing, we're suggesting that regulators replace
a blanket approach to regulating ATT with a more finely-tuned,
targeted approach," said Lawrence Garfinkel, AT&T's vice
president of marketing services, in a statement.
    "We believe that by using a scalpel instead of a meat axe,
the public interest can be protected and all consumers will
benefit," he added.
    MCI Communications Corp, also asked the FCC to ease
restrictions on ATT, saying this would encourage competition.
    Some industry analysts said the MCI proposal was an effort
to halt FCC-mandated price cuts that have forced ATT and its
rivals to cut prices, eroding profits in the industry. MCI lost
448.4 mln dlrs on sales of 3.59 billion dlrs last year.
    The analysts said the proposal would benefit MCI because
ATT would no longer impose price cuts that MCI would have to
follow when costs fell in the industry.
    "I'm sort of mystified by those comments," retorted Herman, a
district manager for ATT.
    "ATT (if deregulated) has no intention of not passing on
cost reductions," she added.
    Kimmelman, legislative director of the Consumer Federation,
said he opposed deregulation because it left no alternatives
that would ensure against overcharging by ATT.
    He said the FCC had in the past instructed ATT to reduce
prices when the company was benefitting from lower costs from
increased use by consumers of long-distance services.
    Without full regulatory authority this may no longer
happen, he added.
 Reuter

Jordan is to receive 98.8 mln dlrs in
loans to finance development projects, Planning Minister Taher
Kan'an said.
    Kan'an told reporters the loans, concluded during the past
six months, were made by the European Investment Bank, the
Islamic Development Bank and three Arab funds. He gave no other
details.
    Kan'an said the loans were for Jordan's own nine billion
dlr 1986-1990 development plan and not for the parallel,
controversial 1.3 billion dlr plan for the Israeli-occupied
West Bank and the Gaza strip.
    He said jordan would concentrate on obtaining concessionary
foreign loans and keep commercial borrowings to a minimum.
    Performance in the first year of the national plan was
close to target, the Minister said. The gross domestic product
at factor cost grew 2.4 per cent instead of the planned 2.9 per
cent, he added, but gave no figures.
    Kan'an said public investment was also near the planned
level, but investments by the private sector fell below
expectations. "The private sector still feels inhibited," he
said.
 Reuter

Commission approved a request by two firms controlled by inside
trader Ivan Boesky that allows them to take steps to protect
hundreds of millions of dollars from potential claimants.
    The SEC granted requests made by Seemala Partners L.P. and
IFB Managing Partnership L.P., to withdraw as registered
brokers, effective March 12.
    With the action, the partnerships are no longer subject to
the SEC's net capital rules requiring them to remain solvent as
brokerage firms. Seemala argued the move would be necessary if
noteholders of Ivan Boesky and Co L.P. are to be repaid.
    In asking the SEC to speed its withdrawal as a registered
broker, Seemala said it wold repay to Boesky and Co, which is
also controlled by the former Wall Street arbitrageur, 660 mln
dlrs in subordinated debt, plus accrued interest.
    IFB Managing Partners, which was also given approval to
withdraw as a broker, has no significant assets, the SEC said.
    Once it is repaid, Boesky and Co will pay 200 mln dlrs in
senior participating notes and 440 mln dlrs in subordinated
participating notes of Hudson Funding Corp to certain
noteholders, Seemala told the SEC.
    Under the planned repayment scheme, Seemala told the SEC
the noteholders would forgo claims of prepayment penalties and
some additional interest amounting to more than 100 mln dlrs.
    The plan would be in the public interest, Seemala argued,
since the noteholders, many of which are savings and loan
institutions and insurance companies, would receive repayment
of the principal on their notes.
    Seemala also argued that the plan would help the limited
partners of Boesky and Co, who were not charged in the Boesky
insider trading scandal, by protecting its remaining equity
from the noteholders' claims.
    Unless the Boesky firms are allowed to complete the
repayment plan, Seemala said Boesky and Co noteholders would
seek total claims of 116.8 mln dlrs, plus 9.2 mln dlrs to 10.6
mln dlrs a month in addition, in addition to other claims.
    Such claims could wipe out Boesky and Co's assets before
other creditors can establish their claims, Seemala said.
    The only opposition to Seemala's Feb 12 request to withdraw
as a broker came from Berger and Montague P.C., counsel for the
plaintiffs in a class action suit against Seemala and other
defendants. The suit involves charges stemming from Boesky's
insider trading in the stock of several major companies.
    Berger and Montague told the SEC it opposes the Seemala
proposal because it would allow Boesky and Co noteholders to
settle their claims ahead of the plaintiffs in the class action
and because Seemala did not disclose the total amount of claims
against it and what percentage defrauded investors would get.
    Seemala has said that its repayment scheme would leave a
pool of about 278 mln dlrs free of claims from Boesky and Co
noteholders which could satisfy other claimants.
    The pool would be in addition to funds placed in escrow
under insider trading settlement agreements, including 11.4 mln
dlrs from Dennis Levine and 50 mln dlrs from Boesky.
    In approving the request, the SEC barred Seemala and Boesky
and Co from making any distributions to its limited partners
for one year and required limited partners who receive
distributions to agree to make themselves liabile up to a point
in any case filed the partnerships.
    The SEC also required Seemala and Boesky and Co to get
confirmation of their assets from a nationally recognized
accounting firm.
    The agency said Boesky and Co and existing and potential
claimants against it have similar interests in eliminating
major creditors and preserving assets for future claims.
 Reuter

Investors Savings Bank said it has
called its Series B 8-1/2 pct cumulative convertible preferred
stock for redemption on April 24 at 64.80 dlrs plus accrued
dividends of 34 cts per share.
    The company said each share of the stock is convertible
through April 17 into 6.3158 common shares.  At year-end, when
the stock was issued in the acquisition of Centennial Group
Inc, there were 190,118 shares of the preferred outstanding.
 Reuter

Kent Toys Inc said it signed an
agreement with Lorimar-Telepictures Corp to produce a
television game show called Lottery.
    Under terms of the agreement, Kent said it will receive a
share of the above the line production, a percentage of net
profits and a percentage of first-run syndication fees.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit one cts vs loss 22 cts
    Oper net profit 35,000 vs loss 948,000
    Revs 17.4 mln vs 13.8 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss 23 cts vs loss 48 cts
    Oper net loss 1,025,000 vs loss 2,093,000
    Revs 32.5 mln vs 27.6 mln
    NOTE: Results exclude credits of 1,737,000 or 39 cts shr
for both 1987 periods from refinancing of debt.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 26 cts Class A vs 12 cts
    Qtrly div one cent Class B vs nil
    Pay May 15
    NOTE: prior qtr pro rated on 45 day basis for abbreviated
qtr.
    Full name of company commonwealth mortgage of america.
 Reuter

Shr 90 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 924,000 vs 679,000
    Loans 88.7 mln vs 67.4 mln
    Deposits 165.5 mln vs 106.7 mln
    Assets 181.5 mln vs 124.5 mln
 Reuter

    Shr profit one ct vs loss two cts
    Net profit 74,000 vs loss 122,000
    Revs 1,657,000 vs 1,416,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit five cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 299,000 vs loss 624,000
    Revs 5,134,000 vs 3,744,000
    NOTE: Full name Precision Target Marketing Inc.
    Nine months 1987 includes extraordinary gain of two cts per
share.
 Reuter

Cheyenne Software Inc said it is
in preliminary talks on the acquisition of compouter hardware
distribution firm F.A. Components Inc and its Freeman-Owings
Inc subsidiary.
    The company said F.A. had sales of 43.1 mln dlrs for 1986
and expects to report a loss for the year.
    Cheyenne said the purchase price would be paid in common
stock and it would provide additional finances for the
operation of F.A.
 Reuter

Hudson Valley Patrol Inc said it
agreed to acquire privately held Federal Protection Services
Inc, a Palm Beach, Fla., security firm, for 200,000 common
shares and other considerations.
    Hudson Valley, which provides guard and patrol services in
upstate N.Y., said Federal Protection Services provides
investigation, uniformed guard and armoured truck services to
banks, corporations and residential communities in southern
Florida.
    The company said it will issue 200,000 shares of its common
at closing and additional shares based on Federal Protection's
pretax earnings over the next three years.
    Closing is subject to setting a definitive agreement, it
said.
 Reuter

The International Cocoa Organization,
ICCO, council adjourned after presenting divergent producer and
consumer views on buffer stock rules and agreeing to examine a
draft compromise proposal on the buffer stock issue tomorrow,
    ICCO Executive Director Kobena Erbynn will draw up what
some delegates called a "pre-compromise" and present it to the
buffer stock working group at 1130 hrs GMT Tuesday, they said.
    While consumer and producer member nations disagree how a
buffer stock should be implemented, both sides reiterated they
were willing to compromise to come to agreement, they said.
    "I am optimistic we will be able to come to an agreement --
maybe not tomorrow or the next day, but some time later in the
session," a consumer delegate said.
    Producers say they want the buffer stock to consist only of
ICCO member cocoa, comprise a representative basket of various
grade cocoas and pay different prices for different grades,
    Some consumers would rather the buffer stock manager be
able to buy non-member cocoa also, and pay a single price for
the buffer stock cocoa without respect to origin.
    Consumer members were not unified in their views on how the
buffer stock should operate, with several countries backing
different aspects of the producer stance, delegates said.
    The semi-annual council meeting is scheduled to run until
March 27. Consideration of the buffer stock rules is the most
controversial topic on the agenda, delegates said.
 Reuter

Top Saudi businessmen
discussing ways to bolster the kingdom's private sector at a
Chamber of Commerce conference here today called for finance to
be made available more easily for industrial projects.
    Saleh Kamel, a leading businessman and head of the
Jeddah-based Dallah group, said business needed more funding
and welcomed recent measures to encourage banks to step up
lending.
    But yesterday conference participants were publicly
reprimanded for not investing enough in the kingdom.
    Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of the Asir region
hosting the four-day conference, accused businessmen of showing
ingratitude at a time when the government had been prepared to
draw heavily on reserves to maintain spending and stimulate the
economy.
    Businessmen, for their part, argued today that the
kingdom's commercial banks were unwilling to take risks and
help finance industrial projects.
    Saleh Kamel, one of Saudi Arabia's leading businessmen and
head of the Jeddah-based Dallah group, told Reuters the general
economic outlook for trade and industry had improved.
    "We can be optimistic, the economy is looking brighter," he
said. But he also said businessmen needed more finance and
welcomed measures being taken to encourage banks to step up
lending.
    A committee at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the
kingdom's central bank, is now examining the problem.
    Commercial banks are in fact extremely liquid but have
become highly selective in extending new credit after many
companies ran into trouble repaying debt during the last three
years.
    Between 1982 and 1985 banks had to make risk provisions
totalling 4.3 billion riyals and results now coming in for 1986
show another year when heavy reserves had to be made against
bad and doubtful loans.
    The effects of the Middle East economic downturn hit the
construction sector in Saudi Arabia very hard and there has
been a sharp fall in development lending for new industrial
projects.
    The Saudi Industrial Development Fund, a major source for
private sector finance, made loan commitments totalling 752 mln
riyals in the financial year to September 4, 1986, a decline of
nearly 20 pct on the previous year.
    The government credit agency specialises in low cost loans
for development, funding 50 pct of a project's total value.
    The pattern of the agency's lending has also shown a
distinct shift away from infrastructre-related industry - such
as cement plants - to capital-intensive projects.
    Businessmen said opportunities are now available in service
industries and tourism which is slowly developing in the Gulf
region. But new investment in manufacturing industry shows
fewer signs of taking hold.
 REUTER

Shr profit 10 cts vs loss 2.20 dlrs
    Net profit 687,000 vs loss 14.5 mln
    Sales 68.3 mln vs 54.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,018,000 vs 6,577,000
    1st half
    Shr profit 38 cts vs loss 1.95 dlrs
    Net profit 2,596,000 vs loss 12.8 mln
    Sales 129.9 mln vs 113.3 mln
    Avg shrs 6,964,000 vs 6,568,000
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co, <Guy F.
Atkinson Co> and <Woodward-Clyde Consultants> said they formed
a venture to combat groundwater contamination.
    The venture, called AWD Technologies Inc, will offer site
analysis, planning, engineering and construction services for
restoration of groundwater.
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net profit 160,700 vs loss 1,867,100
    Revs 4,700,000 vs 5,600,000
    Year
    Shr profit two cts vs loss 1.20 dlrs
    Net profit 84,400 vs loss 4,507,800
    Revs 20.5 mln vs 22.5 mln
 Reuter

Semi-annual div four cts vs four cts
 Reuter

Qtly div 13 cts vs 13 cts prior
    Record April 3.
   
 Reuter

Diamond-Star Motors Corp, the
joint-venture company owned by Chrysler Corp <C> and Mitsubishi
Motors, said it has additional product suppliers for the
all-new vehicle to be produced at the company's plant now under
    It said Globe Industries Inc, Chicago Heights, Ill., was
picked to supply roof silencer pads and dash panel pads, and
Fabricon Products of River Rouge, Mich., for hood insulators.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS  SOYBEANS 18,345 WHEAT 11,470 CORN 34,940

Hilton Hotels chairman and president
Barron Hilton will introduce the hotel chain's newest product,
the Hilton Suites, at a press conference Tuesday at the Waldorf
Astoria, the company said.
 Reuter

Banking Center said it has
signed a letter of intent to acquire First Railroad Mortgage Co
from First Union Bank of Augusta, Ga., for undisclosed terms.
    The company said First Railroad had loan production of over
100 mln dlrs in 1986 and was servicing over 435 mln dlrs in
loans at the end of 1986.
 Reuter

Italian state bank <Istituto Bancario San
Paolo di Torino> said its fully-owned <San Paolo U.S. Holding
Co> of Wilmington in the U.S. had signed a letter of intent to
acquire <Valley National Bank> of California.
    San Paolo said in a statement that, subject to obtaining
official authorization from the relevant bodies, it would merge
Valley National Bank with its subsidiary <First Los Angeles
Bank>.
    Value of the planned acquisition was not disclosed.
 Reuter

Farmers enrolled over 6.5 mln acres
of program crops in the latest conservation reserve program
signup and around four mln acres of non-program crops,
Agriculture Department conservation specialists said.
    Soybean acreage amounted to less than two mln acres of the
non-program crop acreage enrolled, a USDA analyst said. Heavy
enrollment of non-base acreage in wheat states, of which a big
percentage would be fallow and non-soybean land, accounted for
a large portion of the non-program acreage, the analyst said.
    Wheat and corn acreage comprised slightly over 40 pct of
the total 10,572,402 acres accepted into the ten-year program.
    USDA analysts gave the following enrollment breakdown:
    -- wheat  2,615,140 acres
    -- corn   1,894,764 acres
    -- barley   705,888 acres
    -- sorghum  585,552 acres
    -- cotton   417,893 acres
    -- rice       2,035 acres
    -- peanuts      611 acres
    -- tobacco      285 acres
    -- total program crops  6,512,700 acres
    -- total nonprogram     4,059,702 acres
    -- total enrollment    10,572,402 acres
    USDA analysts are currently working on a complete state
breakdown of crop acreage enrollment and should have it ready
for publication later this week, they said.
 Reuter

Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana,
ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee,
has not decided whether to introduce an administration-backed
bill to apply the so-called 0/92 provision to 1988 through 1990
grain crops, an aide to the senator said.
    The Reagan administration has asked Lugar to offer the
measure, the aide said.
    However, a number of farm groups have told Lugar they
oppose the proposal on the grounds it would reopen the 1985
farm bill, and the senator has decided to take a second look at
the proposal, the aide said.
    Last week the aide indicated Lugar was planning to offer
the 0/92 measure and a bill to tighten a payment limitation
loophole.
 Reuter

will cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission by
disclosing imbalances in market-on-close orders in 50 major
stocks thirty minutes prior to the close of trading Friday.
    The procedure will be followed this Friday when stock index
futures and options and individual stock options expire
simultaneously. Such triple expirations occur four times a year
and in the past have been associated with big swings in stock
market averages. In a new variation of the disclosure rules,
the NYSE said no market-on-close orders related to index
arbitrage can be entered after 1530 EST.
    The NYSE said all market-on-close orders for 50 big
capitalization stocks, including the 30 components of the Dow
Jones Industrial Average, must be entered by 1530 EST Friday.
The NYSE will then furnish to financial news services any
imbalance in market-on-close orders of 10,000 shares or more.
    After 1530 EST market-on-close orders in the 50 stocks can
be entered only on the opposite side of the imbalance. But the
bar on entering market-on-close orders related to index
arbitrage after 1530 EST is a new element of the disclosure
plan, which has the goal of making the market less volatile
during the triple expirations.
 Reuter

raised to Aa-2 from Aa-3 the long-term deposit obligations of
Citizens Fidelity Bank and Trust Co because its parent,
Citizens Fidelity Corp, has merged into PNC Financial Corp.
    Moody's said the merger should strengthen the bank's
earnings potential through the acquired access to PNC's product
lines. It should also result in significantly more financial
flexibility to Citizens Fidelity, Moody's said.
    The bank's Prime-1 rating for short-term deposits was not
affected.
 Reuter

<Video Shopping Mall Inc>
said it signed agreements to increase its programming by four
additional stations, adding 3.04 mln viewers.
    It said its programs now reach 24.8 mln households.
 Reuter

<International Fine Foods Inc> said it
has acquired 2001 Distributors Inc of West Babylon, N.Y., for
875,000 common shares, plus contingent shares based on future
earnings.
    2001 distributes fresh-squeezed juices and had a loss on
sales of about one mln dlrs in 1986, its first year of
 Reuter

The House Committee on Energy and
Commerce is studying recommendations for stricter penalties for
violation of securities laws, said Rep. John D. Dingell, D-
Mich., chairman of the committee.
    Dingell told Reuters after a speech to businessmen here
that insider trading laws must be strengthened to assure that
self-regulation by the securities industry is more effective.
    "We've got to see to it that (exchange) members regulate
their employees," he said.
    Dingell said his committee is "looking at a number of
possibilities" to harshen penalties for violation of securities
laws. But he would not be more specific, saying proposals on
stiffer penalties are still being drafted in Washington.
    "I wish I could be more definitive, but I can't," Dingell
    Dingell said another solution to the problem of insider
trading would be a "significant" increase in funding for the
Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as in SEC's
authority to enforce securities laws.
    Dingell added that he supports self-regulation by the
securities industry rather than government creation of "some
new structure that may or may not work."
    "The markets must regulate themselves," he said.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 2,936 vs loss 170,866
    Revs 4,147,248 vs 1,091,392
 Reuter

Pro-Med Capital Inc
said its common will be included in the next expansion of the
NASDAQ National Market System, which will take place tomorrow.
 Reuter

Systemhouse Inc said it has been
awarded a 12 mln dlr contract by the County of Los Angeles to
design and develop its integrated County Justice Information
System.
    Systemhouse also said it has opened a branch in Los
Angeles, as a direct result of the contract.
 Reuter

Seven Oaks International Inc
said it has formed a new 80 pct owned subsidiary called Seven
Oaks Direct Inc to offer a full line of telemarketing services.
    It said Seven Oaks direct management will own the remaining
20 pct.
    The company said initial costs connected with the startupo
of a new Memphis, Tenn., marketing center for Seven Oaks direct
may hurt earnings slightly in the first half of the year ending
in April 1988, but Seven Oaks Direct should operate at no worse
than breakeven for fiscal 1988 as a whole.
 Reuter

and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, CBOE, announced today
that they will trade futures and options, respectively, on an
index of international securities compiled by Morgan Stanley
Group Inc.
    Morgan Stanley said it has agreed to license the exchanges
to use the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe,
Australia and Far East, or EAFE, stock index as the trading
basis.
    The EAFE index is comprised of 900 international stocks
from 16 nations in Europe, the Far East, and Australia.
    "The EAFE is the only instrument by which world markets are
measured," CME special counsel Leo Melamed said at a news
conference announcing the agreement.
    CME Chairman Jack Sandner noted that one-third of the
exchange's daily trading volume now derives from overseas.
    "The success of our index markets, particularly the S and P
index, is ample precedent to forging ahead" in international
markets, he said.
    Mark Sladkus, publisher of Morgan Stanley Capital
International Perspective, said Japanese bank stocks represent
the largest portion of the index.
    The officials said the exchanges have not yet submitted the
EAFE index to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the
Commodities Futures Trading Commission for approval.
    However, Melamed said approval is not expected to be
granted quickly, and the exchanges did not set a starting date
for the new contracts.
    The EAFE index is tabulated daily, but Sladkus said
real-time calculation will be introduced when trading begins.
    The conflicting opening and closing of international
securities markets will have to be accommodated in the
calculations, he noted.
    Morgan Stanley has been calculating the EAFE index weekly
since 1970 and daily since 1972.
    The CME and CBOE will negotiate with a third party to be
"an independent monitor ... the guardian" of the index, Melamed
said. "Morgan will remove itself from deciding which stocks
move in and out of the index."
 Reuter

Western Digital Corp said it intends
to call for redemption on April six all of its outstanding
6-3/4 pct convertible subordinated debentures due 2011.
    It said it would buy back the convertible debentures at
1,090.94 dlrs per each 1,000 dlr face amount, including accrued
interest.
    Until the close of business on April six, the debentures
are convertible into the company's common stock at 17.50 dlrs
per share, or 57.14 shares per each 1,000 dlr debenture. The
company's stock closed at 26.625 dlrs a share on Friday,
WEestern Digital said.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 586,000 vs los 1,497,000
    Revs 13.8 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net loss 1,135,000 vs loss 1,377,000
    Revs 57.7 mln vs 55.1 mln
 Reuter

may downgrade Conseco Inc's 100 mln dlrs of debt.
    The rating agency cited Conseco's proposal to acquire
Western National Life Insurance Co from Beneficial Corp <BNL>.
Moody's said its review would focus on the financing of the
deal, which will increase Conseco's size from 650 mln dlrs in
assets to about 2.7 billion dlrs.
    Moody's will also study the adequacy of projected earnings
and cash flow from Western National in relation to the
financing plan. Conseco currently carries B-1 senior
subordinated debentures and convertible debt.
 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co Inc said that
Brazil's recent suspension of interest payments on part of its
commercial bank debt may lift its nonaccrual loans this year.
    Morgan, which has over 1.9 billion dlrs of Brazilian debt,
said in its annual report, "it is possible that nonaccrual
loans to borrowers in Brazil could increase during 1987."
    However, a spokesman for Morgan told Reuters, "right now we
are still accruing interest and we have not yet decided what
will be done as of March 31."
    Citicorp <CCI> said last week that 3.9 billion dlrs of
Brazilian loans may be put on a cash basis on March 31.
 Reuter

said its fourth quarter and annual earnings report will be
delayed two more weeks.
    The company cited the recent in-house embezzlement and a
subsequent review by auditors of its international situation as
reason for the delay.
    Philip Crosby, however, said it believes its December
estimate calling for earnings per share between 10 cts and 15
cts, on revenues of 11 mln dlrs, was still valid.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said its
Health and Tennis Corp filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for an initial public offering of 5,800,000 shares
of common stock and a concurrent offering of 50 mln dlrs of
20-year convertible subordinated debentures.
    The company said it expects the initial public offering
price to be between 13 dlrs and 15 dlrs a share.
    Upon completion of the offering, Bally said it will own 76
pct of Bally's Health and Tennis Corp.
    Bally said Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Paine Webber Inc
will represent underwriters of the offering, and Drexel will
underwrite the debenture offering.
    Bally's Health and Tennis Corp operates more than 250
fitness centers and has about 1,800,000 members.
 Reuter

Shr nil vs loss 10 cts
 Reuter

Pacific Resources Inc said it has
installed a CALM (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring) single-point
mooring terminal off the southwest coast of Oahu at its
Hawaiian Independent Refinery at a cost of 3.5 mln dlrs.
    The system transfers crude and fuel oils from tankers to
the refinery's tank farm and carries refined products to ships
for export, PRI said.
    Company chairman Robert G. Reed said the new mooring system
will permit 24-hour service in most kinds of weather and will
reduce ship turnaround time. He said the mooring is the first
of its kind in the U.S.
    The new system can accomodate vessels up to 150,000
deadweight tons, or one mln barrels of cargo, PRI said.
 Reuter

U.S. money managers and investment
advisors said they expect stocks to continue to outperform
bonds, but some are hedging bets by keeping roughly half of
portfolios in bonds and cash for quick investment shifts.
    Merrill Lynch said its new asset mix report due today will
urge weightings of 50 pct stock, 35 pct bonds and 15 pct cash
versus 40 pct bonds, 35 pct stock and 25 pct cash previously.
    "We believe an overweighting in stocks is warranted because
of the positive momentum of corporate earnings," said Christine
Lisec-Tinto, Merrill senior investment strategist.
    Lisec-Tinto, who formulated Merrill's latest asset mix
recommendations with new chief investment strategist Charles
Clough, said there may be some consolidation of recent stock
price gains, but the market appears to have good potential.
    Through Friday, stock prices as measured by the Dow Jones
Industrial Average surged 19.13 pct in 1987. Meanwhile, the 
Shearson Lehman Treasury bond price index edged up 0.4 pct.
potential than the bond market," Chrysler Corp <C> treasurer
Fred Zuckerman said. He said "interest rates are not coming
down and I would not bet a lot that they will come down
sharply."
    Chrysler's 3.5 billion pension fund last week sold 405 mln
dlrs of corporate bonds in the first of two planned sales of
slightly less than one billion dlrs of corporates.
    Zuckerman told Reuters the proceeds will be used to buy
stock to bring equities to 50 pct or more of the portfolio.
    A roughly even bond/stock portfolio split also is urged by
Wright Investors Service, with 4.25 billion dlrs under
management, but it is more optimistic on bonds than stocks.
    "We'd put half in bonds and half in equities now," said
Judith Corchard, Wright senior vice president. She said the
bond share was lifted from 35 pct in the last three months.
    "The stock market has appreciated sharply and discounted
future corporate earnings extensively," Corchard said. She said
"we're worried about a stock price correction of as much as 10
to 15 pct within six, or possibly even three months."
    Meanwhile, Wright expects bonds to benefit from a half to
one percentage point decline in interest rates by year's end.
    "At this level of the stock market, there is more of an
advantage to being in long-term bonds than in equities, given
our interest rate scenario," Corchard said.
    "The stock market has come a long way in a short time. I'd
be hardpressed to jump into stocks with the Dow near 2300
unless I was really convinced that earnings and multiples will
increase," said a fixed-income securities portfolio manager at
a major money center bank.
    He said the bank has kept bond/equity portfolio mix fairly
stable recently and probably will make no major changes for
months as it awaits economic, oil price and dollar trends.
    "We've seen no real movement from bonds to stocks among our
funds," said George Collins, president of T. Rowe Price
Associates, with 22 billion dlrs in assets under management.
    While he detected no rush into stocks from bonds, either
among the many mutual funds under the T. Rowe Price umbrella or
among outside money managers, Collins thinks stocks are better
investments than bonds at this time.
    "In the near term, the stock market has more prospects for
growth, due to the mixed signals on the economy so far, the
slim chance the Federal Reserve will ease policy and still
heavy debt accumulation," Collins said.
    He expects U.S. stocks to improve further because there is
more corporate earnings potential, nominal interest rates
already are low and there is strong foreign demand for stock.
    Collins said that in funds which include bonds and stocks,
the firm has long maintained an aggressive 75 pct weighting in
equity with the rest in bonds and cash.
    "Our equity managers have taken a slightly heavier cash
position in equity portfolios lately," Collins said.
    "Cash" in portfolios usually means short Treasury bills
which can be readily sold to allow rapid investment shifts.
    Many portfolio managers are working with relatively high
cash positions in equity accounts, often 25 to 30 pct, given  
the belief that there may well be downward price corrections
enroute to higher ground.
    In bond portfolios, the money managers generally showed a
preference for shorter term (10 years and under) Treasury notes
and, to a lesser extent, agency securities, rather than
longer-dated Treasury issues and corporate bonds.
    Since yield premiums of corporate over Treasury bonds are
now the lowest in years, many investors believe corporates are
overvalued versus Treasury and agency issues. Another negative
cited for corporate bonds is the risk of hostile takeovers,
leveraged buyouts and sudden ratings declines that does not
exist with Treasury or Federal agency securities.
    Farm Credit paper was cited by some as undervalued and a
good buy, despite the issuer's well-publicized financial woes.
 Reuter

    Shr 22 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 4,549,000 vs 3,666,000
    Revs 8,903,000 vs 7,791,000
    Avg shrs 20.9 mln vs 19.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 42 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 8,641,000 vs 7,928,000
    Revs 17.5 mln vs 14.6 mln
    Avg shrs 20.8 mln vs 19.4 mln
    NOTE: earnings were restated to reflect the three-for-two
stock split on April one, 1986.
 Reuter

BellSouth Corp's BellSouth
Mobility Inc unit said its mobile phone customers can now
choose their long-distance carrier.
    Previously, all mobile calls were routed through American
Telephone and Telegraph Co's long distance service.
 Reuter

SCHLUMBERGER SAYS IT TERMINATES PACT TO SELL FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR BUSINESS TO FUJITSU

(CCC) has approved an additional 84.0 mln dlrs in credit
guarantees for sales of U.S. agricultural products to Algeria
for fiscal year 1987 under the Export Credit Guarantee Program
(GSM-102), the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the additional guarantees provide up to
31.0 mln dlrs in coverage for sales of protein meals, 9.0 mln
dlrs for tallow, and 44.0 mln dlrs for vegetable oils.
    The latest guarantees increase the cumulative fiscal 1987
program for sales of U.S. agricultural products to Algeria to
464.0 mln dlrs from 380.0, it said.
    To be eligible for the credit guarantees, all sales must be
registered with the CCC by September 30, and shipments
completed by December 31, 1987, it said.
 Reuter

The United States has signed a
Public Law 480 agreement with Honduras to provide for the sale
of 12.0 mln dlrs worth of U.S. agricultural commodities, the
    The agreement, signed March 11, provides for the sale of
about 75,000 tonnes of wheat/wheat flour worth 8.5 mln dlrs,
15,000 tonnes of corn/sorghum worth 1.5 mln dlrs and 6,000
tonnes of tallow worth 2.0 mln dlrs, the department said.
    The commodities will be supplied in the current fiscal
year, ending September 30, and sales will be by private U.S.
traders on a competitive bid basis.
    Purchase authorizations will be announced as issued.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 150,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS FOR 1986/87

More than 500 people arrested during last
week's riots in northern Nigeria will face summary trial by a
judicial tribunal, President Ibrahim Babangida said.
    He said investigations showed the the violence was
carefully planned by "evil men" and those arrested would be tried
for arson, murder, rape and treason, some of which carry the
death penalty.
    Babangida said the crisis was "the civilian equivalent of an
attempted coup d'etat" against the government.
 Reuter

Missouri Republican Senators John
Danforth and Christopher Bond have introduced a bill that would
allow wheat and feedgrain producers along the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers hurt by flooding last year to collect at least
92 pct of their deficiency payments this year without planting.
    Danforth aide Austin Schlick said the bill was similar to a
provision included in a House Agriculture Committee-passed
emergency disaster assistance bill scheduled to be taken up by
the House tomorrow.
    Schlick said flooding destroyed a number of levees along
the two rivers last October, leaving farmland there vulnerable
to further damage this year.
 Reuter

(CCC) has accepted a bid on an export bonus to cover the sale
of 8,000 tonnes of barley to Cyprus, the U.S. Agriculture
    The barley is for shipment May 5-20 and the bonus of 39.32
dlrs per tonne was made to Harvest States Cooperatives, the
    The bonus will be paid in the form of commodities from the
inventory of CCC stocks.
    The department said an additional 42,000 tonnes of U.S.
barley are still available to Cyprus under the Export
Enhancement Program initiative announced on August 26, 1986.
 Reuter

Lynch Corp subisidiary Lynch
Entertainment Corp said it formed a general partnership called
Coronet Communications Co, which has acquired WHBF-TV station,
in Rock Island, Ill.
    The company said the price for the station, a CBS
television network affiliate, was 20 mln dlrs. The company also
said the other partner is Lombardo Communications Inc, a
wholly-owned corporation of Phillip Lombardo.
    Lynch said it will pursue further acquisitions of media and
entertainment entities with emphasis on broadcasting and cable
television operations.
 Reuter

Morgan Stanley Group Inc said its
Capital International Europe, Australia and Far East, or EAFE,
stock index will be a used as a basis for trading futures and
listed options.
    The company said it granted licenses to the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Options for the
EAFE index.
    The index includes 900 companies representing 16 national
stock markets in Europe, Australia and the Far East. It is used
as a benchmark of international stock market activity, the

 Reuter

Schlumberger Ltd said it terminated an
agreement in principle for Fujitsu Ltd to buy 80 pct of its
Fairchild Semiconductor operations.
    The company said the rising political controversy in the
U.S. concerning the venture made it unlikely that the sale of
the Fairchild stake could be completed within a reasonable
time.
    The sale has been opposed by the U.S. Commerce Department
and the U.S. Defense Department, in part on national security
grounds.
    The company said termination of the agreement opened other
possibilities, including a possible leveraged buyout of the
semiconductor maker by Fairchild management.
    In the interim, Fairchild would continue its ongoing
business within Schlumberger, the oilfield services concern
said.
    Last October, Schlumberger announced the sale of the
Fairchild stake and said it would take a 200 mln dlrs charge in
the fourth quarter from the sale. The company ended up
recording special charges of 2.1 billion dlrs in the fourth
quarter, leading to a loss of 2.02 billion dlrs for the year.
    Schlumberger never announced a price for the sale, but
industry analysts have estimated the value of the deal at about
200 mln dlrs.
    The proposed sale was under antitrust review by the U.S.
Justice Department. Additionally, Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldridge and other U.S. officials have voiced reservations
about the transaction since it was announced.
    Government officials have expressed concern that the sale
could reduce the competitiveness of U.S. chip makers by putting
key advanced technology into Japanese hands.
    New, high-technology semiconductors are used in
supercomputers, which are faster and more powerful than
existing computers.
    Schlumberger is an oilfield services company controlled by
French interests and headquartered in New York. Fujitsu Ltd is
a computer and telecommunications company based in Japan.
 Reuter

Henley Group Inc said it
declared a special dividend distribution of one Fisher
Scientific Group Inc share for every 16 Henley shares.
    Previously, it said it would pay one fisher share for every
20 outstanding, but it changed the ratio because of the
reduction in its outstanding shares to 109 mln from 129 mln.
    It said the distribution of about 20 pct of Fisher's common
stock will be made April six to holders of record March 26.
Fisher will trade on NASDAQ under the symbol <FSHG>.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it is
recalling about 33,600 of its 1987-model year Ford Crown
Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car vehicles
equipped with 5.0 -liter engines.
    It said the vehicles may have been produced with some
improperly manufactured sterring linkage components that could
fracture, causing reduced steering control.
    Ford said it was unaware of any accidents or injuries
caused by the conditions prompting the recall.
    It said of the affected vehicles, about 32,000 are in the
United States, 1,200 in Canada and 400 in export locations.
 Reuter

Office of Management and Budget
Director James Miller said he believed Congress was moving
closer to a compromise with the administration over federal
budget deficit cuts for the coming fiscal year.
    "I think Congress is moving in the direction of the
president," he told Reuters as he was about to address a meeting
of the Federal Managers Association.
    He did not elaborate on this but said a reported agreement
by House and Senate budget writers calling for about 36 billion
dlrs in deficit cuts was "six billion too short." The
administration proposed 42 billion dlrs in deficit reductions.
 Reuter

GenCorp said its first quarter
earnings from operations rose four pct as sales increased six
pct to 650 mln dlrs from 614 mln a year earlier.
    However, the company reported net income declined to 17 mln
dlrs, or 77 cts a share, in the quarter ended February 28 from
19 mln dlrs, or 84 cts a year earlier. This year's net included
700,000 dlrs from the sale of assets while last years was
increased 3.0 mln dlrs by such sales.
    GenCorp said lower operating profits for the tire and
plastics and industrial products segments were essentially
offset by higher wallcovering results.
 Reuter

U.S. exporters will have the
opportunity to sell an additional 300,000 tonnes of U.S. durum
wheat to Algeria under the Export Enhancement Program, EEP, the
    The department said the sales will be subsidized with
commodities from the Commodity Credit Corporation, CCC,
inventory and the subsidy will enable U.S. exports to compete
at commercial prices in the Algerian market.
    Algeria has already purchased 300,000 tonnes of U.S. durum
wheat under a previous export enhancement initiative announced
November 10, 1986, it said.
    Details of the latest initiative, including an invitation
for offers from exporters, will be issued in the near future,
 Reuter

Advanced Micro Devices said
it plans to build the first of a new generation of 32-bit CMOS
microprocessors designed to operate three to five times faster
than the 32-bit devices currently built.
    The new microprocessor is capable of sustained performance
of 17 mln instructions per second and has a peak of 25 mln
instructions per second, the company said.
    It said the new device is suitable for engineering
workstations, super-minicomputers, laser printer controllers
and other high-performance applications.
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs 35 cts
    Revs 232.0 mln vs 223.2 mln
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said it and Vestar
Inc entered into a joint venture to develop and market liposome
formulations of selected drugs.
    Liposomes are spheres of subcellular size which are
composed of phospholipids, the primary components of living
cell membranes.
    During the project's first year, the companies will jointly
develop liposome formulations for designated drugs and
establish a commercial production capacity as well as
coordinate and fund clinical studies of the formulations.
 Reuter

TWA SAID IT DOES NOT INTEND TO SEEK CONTROL OF USAIR, ACQUIRE MORE STOCK AT THIS TIME

The Business Journal of New
Jersey said it will publish Garden State Home and Garden
monthly, beginning in September.
    The company said the publication was launched as a
bi-monthly in November 1986. The decision to covert to a
monthly was made as a result of increasing demand for
advertising space in the first four issues.
    The company also said it expects 1987 revenues of about
three mln dlrs, continuing average growth of over 50 pct for a
second year.
    A spokesman declined to release actual 1986, stating the
company had not completed its 10K report. For the first nine
months of 1986, it had sales of 1,070,000 dlrs while sales for
all of 1985 were a little less than one mln dlrs, he added.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 35 cts
    Net loss 299,000 vs profit 1,025,000
    Sales 9,704,000 vs 9,659,000
    Avg shrs 3,792,138 vs 2,892,138
    Year
    Shr profit one ct vs profit 58 cts
    Net profit 45,000 vs profit 1,705,000
    Sales 25.4 mln vs 17.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,567,138 vs 2,892,138
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture Department
proposals to offer 260,000 tonnes of subsidized vegetable oil
to four countries are still under consideration by an
interagency trade policy group, a USDA official close to the
group said.
    The official, who asked not to be identified, dismissed a
report circulating in markets today that the interagency trade
policy review group had rejected the proposals.
    Under the proposals, USDA would offer vegetable oil under
the export enhancement program, EEP, to four countries,
including 80,000 tonnes to Turkey and 60,000 tonnes to Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia, industry sources said.
    The proposals "are still under review" by the interagency
working group, the USDA official said.
 Reuter

The United States today dismissed as
insignificant gains by Iranian forces in Northern Iraq.
the gain in an area around Mount Kardemand had no signifficant
bearing on the seven-year-old Gulf war.
    Press reports from the region said the Iranian push had
placed its forces to move against the road to Rawandiz, some 60
miles (96 KM) north of major Iraqi oil fields and refineries
and the Turkish-Iraqi pipeline at Kirkuk.
    But Redman said the Iranian push "took place in an area of
Iraqi territory which is of little strategic value".
    "Actual possession of the area has seesawed between Iraq and
Iran since the early days of the war," he added.
    The Iranian push that captured the territory nearly two
weeks ago and reported in the American press this weekend, was
not a major offensive, Redman said.
   
 Reuter

Qtr ends March One
    Shr profit 10 cts vs loss 2.20 cts
    Revs 68.3 mln vs 54.8 mln
    Six mths
    Shr profit 38 cts vs loss 1.95
    Revs 129.9 mln vs 113.3 mln
    NOTE: figures for qtr and year prior include pre-tax
restructuring charge of 22.5 mln.
 Reuter

    Shr 16 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 901,000 vs 562,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.77 dlrs vs 19 cts
    Net 9,886,000 vs 1,122,000
    NOTE: Full name is Chicago Dock and Canal Trust
    1987 nine months earnings include gain from dispositions of
real estate of 7,666,000 dlrs, or 1.33 dlrs a share
 Reuter

McGraw-Hill Inc said it bought
<Medecines et Sciences Internationales SA>, a French Healthcare
publisher, from Harper and Row Publishers Inc.
    It said the French company publishes original titles by
French authors, as well as translations of American, British
and German Medical books. The company will be consolidated with
McGraw-Hill France, it said.
 Reuter

Infinite Graphics Inc expects earnings
for the fourth quarter ending April 30 to exceed the 127,587
dlrs, or seven cts a share posted a year ago, Chairman Clifford
F. Stritch Jr. told a meeting of financial analysts.
    Stritch also said the company's annual revenues should
exceed 6.0 mln dlrs, up from 4.1 mln dlrs in the previous
    He said the company, which markets advanced computer-aided
engineering, design and manufacturing systems, plans to double
its dealers to 50 during the coming fiscal year.
 Reuter

Suburban Bancorp said a Cook
County Circuit Court ruled in favor of one of its companies,
Suburban Bancorp of Bartlett (formerly Bartlett State Bank) on
claims against six former directors.
    Suburban Bank of Barlett claimed that the former directors
breached their fiduciary duties and were negligent in opposing
Suburban Bancorp's tender offer in January 1985, costing
Bartlett State Bank several hundred thousand dollars.
    It said a hearing to determine the amount of damages owed
to the bank was set for April 21.
 Reuter

Qtrly div eight cts vs eight cts prior
    Pay June 1
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs six cts prior qtr

 Reuter

TWA FILES APPLICATION SEEKING RIGHT TO RAISE USAIR STAKE TO 25 PCT

CooperVision Inc <EYE> told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 1,420,500
shares of Cooper LaserSonics Inc, or 6.5 pct of the total
    CooperVision said it bought the stake for 2.9 mln dlrs for
    It said it might buy additional Cooper LaserSonics common
shares, but said it does not plan to boost its stake above 10
pct of the total outstanding.
 Reuter

Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis,
a newcomer to national politics, ended weeks of speculation
with the announcement he plans to seek the 1988 Democratic
presidential nomination.
    Dukakis said he had authorized the formation of a
presidential campaign committee and would make a formal
announcement of candidacy in Boston on May 4.
    The 53-year-old Dukakis is serving his third term as
governor. He was reelected with 67 per cent of the vote last
November.
 Reuter

DNA Medical Inc said Walter G.
Mize had bought about 9,400,000 shares, or about 33 pct of
DNA's outstanding stock, for 100,000 dlrs cash.
    Under an agreement with Mize, DNA said he will also become
chairman, and may, at his option, expand the board to provide
him equal representation with the current board.
    DNA also said it will submit a proposal at its annual
meeting for it to acquire three companies owned by Mize,
<Heritage Lite Meat Corp>, <National Lean Beef Corp> and
<Heritage Cattle <Corp>. DNA said the total value of the
transactions is 700,000 dlrs.
    DNA said that when the transactions are approved by its
shareholders, it will issue additional shares of its common so
that Mize will own 80 pct of its issued and outstanding stock.
    DNA said Mize will replace its current chairman, Donald
Holbrook, who will remain on the board.
    The company also said it will continue in the medical
development business as "long as it is deemed to be
advantageous."
 Reuter

Western Digital Corp said it
plans to call for redemption on April 6 all of its
approximately 47 mln dlrs principal amount of 6-3/4 pct
convertible subordinated debentures due 2011.
    It said the debentures will be redeemable for 1,090.94
dlrs, including accrued interest, for each 1,000 dlrs principal
amount.
    The debentures will be convertible into Western Digital
common stock up until the redemption date at a conversion price
of 17.50 dlrs per share, the company also said.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net profit 916,000 vs loss 2,886,000
    Revs 20.0 mln vs 28.2 mln
 Reuter

CityFed Financial Corp said
its City Federal Savings Bank has a preliminary agreement to
sell 14 consumer lending offices to <Goldome FSB> for
    Goldome is the largest mutual savings bank in the U.S.
    CityFed said it decided to sell its consumer lending
offices outside its main market areas in New Jersey and Florida
to concentrate its resources to these markets.
    The offices being sold operate under the name of City
Consumer Serices Inc in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland,
New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines said it told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it does not intend to seek
control of USAir Group or to acquire more of its stock at this
time.
    TWA also said it is amending its application with the
Department of Transportation to seek control of USAir.
    The amendment said TWA reserves the right to seek control
of USAir in the future, that it intends to maintain its 15 pct
stake, and that it also is seeking the flexibility to acquire
up to 25 pct of USAir.
    TWA said all USAir stock owned by it would be in a voting
trust and voted in the same proportion as the vote of all other
USAir shareholders.
    TWA filed a 13-D with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, reporting its holding of 4,023,200 shares of USAir.
TWA has said the stake amounts to about 15 pct.
    TWA also said that by order of the federal court in
Pittsburgh, it is temporarily barred from buying additional
shares of USAir pending a hearing March 23 to reconsider
USAir's application to expand the temporary restraining order
to a preliminary injunction.
 Reuter

First Bank System Inc said it has
found a potential buyer for First Bank Luverne and its office
in Pipestone, Minnesota.
    The bank holding company said 215 Holding Co, a corporation
controlled by the family of the late Robert Short, will buy
First Bank Luverne. The bank has 59.2 mln dlrs in assets.
    First Bank, which announced plans in 1985 to restructure
its banking assets by offering to sell 28 of its banks with a
total of 45 offices, said agreements have now been signed for
43 of these offices.
 Reuter

Banner Industries Inc said 2,204,832
shares of its Class A common were tendered for exchange into
Class B common in response to an offer which expired February
27.
    The company pointed out its Class A common is traded on the
currently listed on any securities exchange. The company has
over 4.6 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Joseph Harrosh, a Fremont, Calif.,
investor with a 5.6 pct in Bethlehem Steel Corp preferred
stock, said he intends to seek at least one of two board seats
which may open should Bethlehem delay dividend payments.
    In a handwritten filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, Harrosh said he would seek the board seat if
Betheleham Steel falls six quarters behind in its dividend
payments to preferred holders.
    A six-quarter dividend delay would open two board seats
which would be filled by preferred holders.
    Harrosh reported he has 139,300 shares of Bethlehem's five
dlr cumulative convertible preferred stock.
 Reuter

American International Petroleum Corp
<AIPN> said it agreed to acquire for one mln dlrs the assets of
a western Louisiana oil and gas company. American International
would not identify the company.
    American said assets included nine leases totalling 2,600
acres, various working interests in 15 oil and gas wells on
that property, all equipment and machinery necessary for
operation, and a 50 pct interest in a nine-mile gas pipeline.

 Reuter

Datapower Inc said it failed
to meet the NASDAQ capital and surplus requirements as of
February 20, but it received an exemption which will allow its
common stock to continue to be included in the automated
quotation system, subject to certain conditions.
    Should Nasdaq terminate quotation of its securities at some
future date, the securities will continue to be quoted in the
over-the-counter market, Datapower also said.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs 15 cts
    Net 132,851 vs 501,537
    Revs 10 mln vs 15.5 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 12 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 409,383 vs 812,045
    Revs 19.4 mln vs 29.1 mln
 Reuter

Shr 1.19 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 1,499,234 vs 1,713,941
    Revs 23.2 mln vs 10.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 58 cts
    Net profit 119,000 vs loss 1,629,000
    Sales 18.4 mln vs 17.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs seven cts
    Net 1,487,000 vs 778,000
    Sales 64.4 mln vs 58.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 66 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 7,388,000 vs 6,127,000
    Sales 223.0 mln vs 222.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 quarter and nine month earnings includes a gain
on sale of idle facilities of 406,000 dlrs, or four cts a share
    1986 nine months earnings include gain on sale of idle
facilities of 377,000 dlrs, or three cts a share
 Reuter

American Locker Group Inc said
environmental tests revealed low but unacceptable levels of two
chemical compounds in ground water at its Signore plant near
here.
    The tests, conducted by Dames and Moore, an environmental
engineering firm, followed the termination of talks for sale of
the plant, which makes steel office furniture.
    The company said the compounds were not used as part of its
current operations. Testing will continue, it said.
 Reuter

    Net 771,000 vs 314,000
    Revs 24.1 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Avg shrs 3,234,000 vs 2,426,000
    12 mths
    Shr 65 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 1,983,000 vs 904,000
    Revs 71.5 mln vs 37.7 mln
    Avg shrs 3,035,000 vs 2,371,000
 Reuter

The Senate budget committee sits
down tomorrow to start drafting a fiscal 1988 budget, with the
budget writers expected to look at several proposals for fuel
taxes and other tax options to cut the budget.
    In a briefing book for the drafting sessions, a number of
revenue raising tax options are proposed, including a five dlrs
a barrel fee on domestic and imported oil, a fee just on
imported oil, and a broad based tax on domestic energy
consumption based on five pct of value.
    Other proposals include various excise taxes and
combinations of import surcharges or tariffs, including a 10
pct import across the board import surcharge that would raise
22 billion dlrs next year alone, more in later years.
    The committee, however, will only include revenue numbers
in its proposed budget with the actual revenue decisions left
to the House and Senate tax-writing committees.
     The committee will draft a budget which its chairman, Sen
Lawton Chiles, a Florida Democrat, said he hopes would raise at
least 18 billion dlrs in revenues, or about half the minimum 36
billion dlr deficit reduction he has in mind.
    The House Budget Committee also plans to start drafting a
separate budget plan later this week, which would have to be
reconciled with the Senate version. The final budget would be
the fiscal 1988 spending and revenue blueprint.

 Reuter

The trade surplus doubled in
february to 261 mln dlrs from January's 129 mln, but was  below
the 628 mln of February 1986, official figures show.
    The director of the Banco do Brasil's foreign trade
department (CACEX), Roberto Fendt, told reporters the upturn in
February confirmed a rising trend in exports, which totalled
1.53 billion dlrs against 1.26 billion in January and, after
excluding coffee and oil derivitives, was only slightly below
the same month last year.
    Coffee earnings were down to 110 mln dlrs against 295 mln
in February 1986 because of lower prices, he added.
    Fendt said that although the February results were lower
than the average expected for the rest of the year, the
government's target of an eight-billion-dlr surplus for 1987
should be achieved. This would compare with a 1986 surplus of
9.5 billion dlrs.
    Exports this year are expected to total 22.5 billion dlrs
and imports 14.5 billion, he added. In 1986 exports totalled
22.4 billion dlrs and imports 12.9 billion.
    Fendt said the rise in imports in February to 1.27 billion
dlrs from 1.12 billion in February last year was in line with
government plans to foster economic growth.
    Fendt said that imports were running at levels well above
the traditional average for Brazil.
    In the first two months of the year imports, excluding oil
and wheat totalled, 1.8 billion dlrs against 1.47 billion in
the same 1986 period.
    This rise in import demand reflected the needs of Brazilian
industry to equip to raise production and is perfectly
compatible with the government's program for economic growth,
Fendt added.
 Reuter

Farah Manufacturing Co said it
named Christopher Carameros senior vice president of finance,
effective April 1.
    Carameros will succeed Richard Jaeger as chief financial
officer. Jaeger, who continues as chief financial officer on a
transitional basis, was named vice chairman responsible for
corporate finance.
    Carameros has been in public accounting for 12 years, most
recently as partner at Coopers and Lybrand.
 Reuter

Condere Corp, formed by former
managers of Armtek Corp, said it completed the acquisition of a
tire plant and other assets of Armtek for undisclosed terms.
    In addition to a tire manufacturing plant, Condere bought
S. and A. Truck Tire Sales and Service Corp, which operates 51
Sears Truck Tire Sales and Service Centers through a licensed
agreement with Sears Roebuck and Co <S>.
    The plant will supply tires to Armtek's Armstrong Tire Co
as well as to several Sears Centers. Condere said it expects
first year revenues to be 90 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 34 cts vs 34 cts prior
    Pay May 1
 Reuter

ASHLAND OIL CHAIRMAN SEES LOSS FROM OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND FISCAL QUARTER

Henley Group Inc said it plans
to issue 20 pct of the common stock of its Fisher Scientific
Group Inc unit to Henley Group shareholders.
    The company said it intends to issue one share of Fisher
Scientific for each 16 Henley shares held to shareholders of
record March 26. The distribution is scheduled for April six,
    It said the Fisher shares will trade in the
over-the-counter market under the symbol FSHG.
 Reuter

Schlumberger Ltd most likely has an
alternate buyer lined up for its Fairchild Semiconductor unit,
    "I think its clear that in cancelling its agreement with
Fujitsu, Schlumberger has signaled that it has another deal in
the works," said Paul Johnson, a semiconductor analyst with
L.F. Rothschild.
    "There are unquestionably other buyers out there," added
Kidder Peabody analyst Adam F. Cuhney. "A lot of companies have
looked at Fairchild and would be willing to buy it."
    Among the companies that would be interested in bidding for
Fairchild are Advanced Micro Devices <AMD>, Sunnyvale, Calif.,
and LSI Logic Corp <LLSI>, Milpitas, Calif., industry analysts
said.
    Top U.S. chipmakers like National Semiconductor Corp <NSM>,
Texas Instruments Inc <TXN> and Motorola Inc <MOT> might also
seek to buy Fairchild, but could possibly run into antitrust
problems, the analysts added.
    Moreover, Fairchild's management is thought to be
considering proposing a leveraged buyout of the Cupertino,
Calif., company, analysts said.
    In a brief statement announcing the termination of the
agreement with Fujitsu, Schlumberger said the decision opened
up other possibilities, including a possible buyout by
Fairchild management.
    The company said it ended the deal, in which Fujitsu would
have bought 80 pct of Fairchild for an estimated 200 mln dlrs,
because rising opposition to the deal by the Reagan
administration made it unlikely that the sale could be
completed within a reasonable period of time.
    Analysts questioned this explanation, however, arguing that
the companies did not need government approval to complete the
transaction. Both Schlumberger and Fujitsu are foreigned-owned
    "Schlumberger would not have terminated the deal because
the U.S. government didn't want it," said Johnson of L.F.
Rothschild.
    A spokesman for Schlumberger declined to elaborate on the
company's news release.
    He said only that the company was reviewing a number of
possible alternatives for the Fairchild unit.
    Officials at Fairchild and Fujitsu were not immediately
    Analysts noted the significance of the government's
apparent success in preventing Fujitsu from taking control of
Fairchild.
    Administration officials, including Commerce Secretary
Malcolm Baldrige and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger,
feared that the sale to Fujitsu would lead to Japanese control
of key semiconductor technology for supercomputers and military
weapons systems.
    "The government really stood up for the semiconductor
industry," said Johnson of L.F. Rothschild. "That, I think, is
the real significance of this."
    Consequently, analysts said, the Japanese government might
now feel more pressure to address U.S. complaints about
Japanese chipmakers' violation of the semiconductor trade
agreement signed last summer.
 Reuter

Votrax International Inc said it
won a contract to sell 150 telephone communications systems to
Ford Motor Credit Co, a unit of Ford Motor Co.
    The contract, under which Ford Motor Credit will buy 150
Votrax Call Director Systems during the next 18 months, is a
multi-million dlr agreement, the company said.
 Reuter

Brazil's trade surplus doubled
in February to 261 mln dlrs from January's 129 mln but was well
below the 628 mln dlrs of February last year, official figures
show.
    Director of the Banco do Brasil's foreign trade department
(CACEX), Roberto Fendt, told reporters the upturn in February
confirmed a rising trend in exports which totalled 1.53 billion
dlrs against 1.26 billion in January and, after excluding
coffee and oil derivatives, was only slightly below the same
in February, 1986, because of lower prices, he added.
    Fendt said although the February results were lower than
the average expected for the rest of the year, the government's
target of an eight billion dlr surplus for 1987 should be
achieved. This would compare with a 1986 surplus of 9.5 billion
dlrs.
    Fendt said imports were running at levels well above the
traditional average for Brazil.
    Imports in the first two months of the year, excluding oil
and wheat, totalled 1.8 billion dlrs against 1.47 billion in
    This rise reflected industry's need for equipment to raise
production and is perfectly compatible with the government's
program for economic growth, Fendt added.
 Reuter

SAFT, a unit of Cie Generale
d'Electricite of France, said it bought U.K.-based Alcad Ltd
from Penn Central Corp's Marathon Manufacturing Cos Inc.
    Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
    Alcad is one of the world's largest producers of
pocket-plate nickel-cadmium storeage batteries, used in
industrial and railroad applications to start engines and as
light sources, SAFT said.
    SAFT said it expects to add 400 jobs at the U.K.
 Reuter

Silicon Valley Bancshares
said it declared a five pct stock dividend, payable May 1 to
shareholders of record April 1.
 Reuter

General Instrument Corp said its
government systems division was awarded a 4,900,000 contract by
the U.S. Air Force for a surveillence and targeting system
aboard its B-52 aircraft.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers denied a
published report it is expected to pick Ford Motor Co to be the
prime target in its upcoming contract talks with the auto
industry.
    A UAW spokesman called "premature" a press report that the
union picked Ford over General Motors Corp <GM> as the lead
company in talks expected to begin in mid to late July.
    Earlier, the Detroit Free Press, quoting local union
officials, said Ford would probably be picked as the auto
company to set the pattern for a negotiated settlement with the
entire U.S. car industry.
    According to the report, the fact that Ford earned more
money last year than GM will cause the union to select Ford as
the company with which the union will negotiate the
pattern-setting settlement.
    The UAW traditionally picks one of the major car companies
in its national contract talks with the auto industry, which
occur every three years.
    GM was named the lead company in the last round of talks in
1984.
 Reuter

West German President Richard von
Weizsaecker met Argentine President Raul Alfonsin for talks on
the first day of the German leader's four-day visit.
    Local officials placed great importance on the meeting
because Weizsaecker is considered a key backer here for more
flexible repyament terms for Argentina's 51 billion dlr foreign
debt.
    "I suppose (the debt) will be unavoidable" in talks, said
Juan Carlos Pugliese, speaker of the lower house of the
Argentine Parliament and one of Alfonsin's top political
allies, before the meeting.
    He said that "Germany in particular and most European
countries" have supported more liberal repyament terms for
Argentina's debt, Latin America's third largest.
    An Argentine mission is now in the United States concluding
negotiations on debt repyayment with 11 creditor banks.
 Reuter

CARL ICAHN SAYS HE IS TARGET OF SEC PROBE OF POSSIBLE EXCHANGE ACT VIOLATIONS

U.S. SELLS 3-MO BILLS AT 5.58 PCT, STOP 5.59 PCT, 6-MO 5.58 PCT, STOP 5.59 PCT

Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc in its annual
report said its capital expenditures for 1987 are expected to
approximate 900 mln dlrs.
    In 1986, Anheuser said it spent 777.3 mln dlrs, up from
601.0 mln dlrs the prior year.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 16 cts prior qtr
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

A high-level meeting last week which
included the Secretary of Agriculture and other senior  USDA
officials, along with leaders of the major soybean lobbying
groups, failed to reach any decision on what should be done
about the soybean loan level, participants at the meeting told
Reuters.
    "We didn't feel a lot was accomplished last week, but we
were delighted to meet with the Secretary, and he didn't close
the door on anything," a member of the soybean delegation said.
    At issue is the current soybean loan and the fact that at
the present level of 4.77 dlrs (without Gramm-Rudman
reductions) it encourages foreign soybean production by making
soybeans more profitable to grow than corn.
    But while recognizing that soybeans are priced too high in
relation with corn, soybean groups have pledged their support
to maintaining current price supports for soybean growers.
    Leaders of the American Soybean Association and the
National Soybean Processors Association offered specific loan
options to USDA Secretary Lyng in last week's meeting, but
participants would not reveal what those options were.
    "There were no surprises in our package," one participant
said. Bandied about for several weeks has been the idea of
offering producers soybean loans partially in cash and in
certificates.
    The most prevailing scheme would be to pay a 4.77 loan with
77 cts worth of soybean-specific certificates which would not
have to be paid back and the remaining four dlrs in cash.
    This would have the effect of lowering the world price,
maintaining domestic support levels and reducing the
government's soybean inventory.
    A marketing loan for soybeans was not discussed at last
week's meeting, participants said.
    One member of the soybean delegation said that the meeting
was a "listening session" for USDA, and that the proposals will
now be studied further by the Department.
    USDA officials, however, would not commit to any time
frame. Participants in the meeting do not look for changes in
the soybean loan to be announced in the near future.
    "USDA is very sensitive about saying anything that could
influence the market, so the Secretary was very non-committal,"
a participant said.
 Reuter

Delegates from across Latin America
and the Caribbean opened a five-day meeting here today aimed at
mapping a regional strategy for this year's meeting of the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
    Representatives from 26 nations are participating in the
talks here, which well-placed sources said would focus on Latin
America's staggering foreign debt and efforts to pull the
region out of its worst economic nosedive in more than half a
century.
    UNCTAD's annual meeting is scheduled for July in Geneva. In
april developing countries belonging to the so-called group of
77 will attempt to hammer out a common position for the UNCTAD
conference at a preparatory session in Havana, Cuba.
 Reuter

Royale Airlines Inc said its
load factor for February was 42.9 pct, up from 42.6 pct the
same period last year.
    Royale said it recorded 4,180,000 revenue passenger miles
compared to 5,681,000 the same period the year before.
    Royale said it cut its available capacity 26 pct in
response to regional weaknesses, which resulted in a slightly
higher load factor this past month.
 Reuter

Consul Restaurant Corp chief financial
officer Robert Lamp told analysts a previously announced
conversion offer will reduce its debt-to-equity ratio to 55 pct
from 380 pct, assuming full acceptance of the offer.
    As of November 30, the company had about 26 mln dlrs of
total debt outstanding.
    Earlier, Consul said it would exchange 174,912 shares of
convertible preferred stock for 17.5 mln dlrs of outstanding 13
pct debentures.
    Lamp said that excess debt due to its withdrawal from the
Texas marketplace has been the key factor to blocking further
progress.
    The Mexican restaurant franchisee reported a net loss of
415,493 dlrs for the six months ended November 30, 1986.
    Acceptance of exchange offer by 90 pct of the debenture
holders will enable Consul to decrease its outstanding
indebtedness and report profitably beginning in the first
quarter of 1988, Lamp told analysts.
   
 Reuter

A supply shortage of number two oil in
New York for prompt delivery boosted the April heating oil
contract on U.S. energy futures, traders said.
    Crude oil futures followed but gasoline futures lagged.
April heating oil ended 1.24 cts higher to 51.65 cts a gallon,
while April crude settled 28 cts higher at 18.64 dlrs.
    "The rally was led by spot month heating oil contract,
which seemed to move higher because of tigtened prompt
deliveries in New York Harbor," said James Ritterbusch, vice
president at Paine Webber Inc in Chicago.
    April gasoline was 0.28 cent higher at 53.15 cts a gallon.
    Ritterbusch said the market also found support from a
report in the Middle East Economics Survey that said that OPEC
oil output was down to about 14 mln barrels per day in the
second week of March.
    "There was not a lot of interest to sell the market because
of belief in OPEC," said Richard Redoglia, a broker with
Merrill Lynch Futures Inc.
    Redoglia and Ritterbusch said April heating oil could
continue to rally above 53 cts a gallon, while crude futures
could test 19 dlrs a barrel before profit-taking stunts the
move higher.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 19 cts prior period
    Note: Full name Transamerica Income Shares Inc.
 Reuter

the purchase of a 5.4 pct block of its stock was an apparent
violation of the laws of Panama, its country of incorporation.
    The company said a detailed disclosure of an acquisition
offer must be made to the Panamanian National Securities
Commission or to the target's board before acquiring more than
five pct stake.
    It said transfers of securities in violation of these
Panamanian regulations are invalid.
    The company was not immediately available to say who had
acquired the 5.4 pct block of stock.
 Reuter

High Voltage Engineering Corp
said it adopted an employee stock ownership plan.
    All domestic non-union employees who have completed one
thousand hours of service in the 12 months ended December 31
are eligible to participate in the plan.
    On March 12, the plan purchased 259,186 common shares at
14.50 dlrs per share. In connection with the purchase, the plan
borrowed 3.8 mln dlrs under a loan that is guaranteed by High
Voltage.
     In addition, High Voltage contributed 814 shares to the
plan.

 Reuter

Corporate raider Carl Icahn
acknowledged that he is one of the targets of an investigation
by the Securities and Exchange Commission into possible
violations of securities laws.
    Icahn, who heads and controls Trans World Airlines Inc
<TWA>, made the acknowledgement in a filing TWA was required to
make with the SEC disclosing its 14.8 pct stake in USAir Group.
    The SEC issued a formal order launching the private
investigation on Nov 12, 1986, Icahn said in the SEC filing.
    The order empowers SEC investigators to try to find out
whether any persons, including Icahn, violated securities laws
and related rules, Icahn said.
    Specifically, the probe is examining the acquisition and
subsequent sale of more than five pct of the stock of certain
unspecified companies, he said.
    Federal law requires individuals or groups of individuals
who have made shareholder agreements, to disclose stakes in
companies of at least five pct within 10 days.
    Icahn has acknowledged that he has been subpoenaed in
connection with SEC probes, but this is the first time he has
disclosed that he is among those being investigated.
    By making the disclosure in a filing with the SEC, which is
obviously already aware of its own probe, Icahn was also
alerting current and potential shareholders of TWA.
    It is not uncommon for companies which are aware that they
or their officers are the targets of government probes to
acknowledge the existence of the otherwise secret
investigations to fulfill their legal disclosure requirements
to their shareholders.
    Icahn said the SEC is looking into whether he and others
whom he did not name violated securities laws by acquiring and
selling more than five pct of a company's stock.
    SEC investigations into those kinds of possible securities
law violations have been spawned by the agency's widening probe
into the Wall Street insider trading scandal, according to
    Making late filings of 13D forms, which disclose the amount
of stock over five pct an investor has in a company, or making
no filing at all could indicate a scheme to "warehouse" shares
of stock.
    In a warehousing scheme, a group of investors acting in
concert would each amass stock in the company without
disclosing that they have an agreement among them.
    By failing to disclose that they are acting together the
market is unware of the amount of stock of a company that is
controlled by a group acting in concert.
    Last year, the SEC charged members of the wealthy Belzberg
family of Canada with taking part in a warehousing scheme while
it was accumulating stock in Ashland Oil Inc.
 Reuter

SmithKline Beckman Corp said it is
pursuing a three-point stragey that will achieve a 10 pct
annual increase in operating earnings throughout the remainder
of the decade.
    In 1986, SmithKline earned 521.1 mln dlrs or 6.78 dlrs per
share on revenues of 3.6 billion dlrs.
    The company said in its annual report that its
nonpharmaceutical business will play a major role in meeting
its earnings growth target, and will in fact grow faster than
its pharmaceutical business.
    SmithKline, whose major product is the antiulcer medication
Tagamet, said in the report that it intends to improve earnings
from existing products, expand its product portfolio and
optimize its financial resources.
    To bolster its position in the antiulcer market, in which
Tagamet has met stiff competition, SmithKline said its strategy
to develop an over-the-counter version of Tagamet is bolstered
by two joint ventures, one with <Wellcome PLC>, and one pending
venture in Japan.
    SmithKline also said its Allergan Inc eye and skin care
products division can be a one billion dlr organization in the
next five years that can grow at more than seven to 10 pct
annually.
    "Nondilutive acquisitions are a real possibility," Gavin
Herbert, president of the eye and skin care product group said
in the report. In 1986, Allergan had worldwide sales of 433 mln
dlrs.
    It said its Smith Kline and French Laboratories
pharmaceuticals unit, with 1986 sales of 1.9 billion dlrs, will
file for Food and Drug Administration marketing approval for a
number of cardiovascular agents, including tissue plasminogen
activator, over the next two years.
    It also said SK and F's U.S. sales force will be 20 pct
larger in 1987, with more than 1,000 sales personnel.
    Smith Kline also said its small clinical laboratory testing
unit, with 1986 sales of 373 mln dlrs, performs 24 mln tests a
year, and sees increases in employee drug testing as well as in
testing for the AIDS antibody.
    Smith Kline said that depending on its share price and the
cost of money, it may buy back more shares. In the last three
years, it has bought back about 25 pct of its shares.
    SmithKline begins the year with a new management team,
including its new chief operating officer George Ebright.
 Reuter

Ashland Oil Inc said it expects to
report a loss from operations in the second quarter.
    The company also said it expects to report a 10 mln dlrs
net gain in the quarter from excess pension funds used to pay
down debt. "However, it is difficult to determine now whether
this gain will be sufficient to offset the expected operating
loss," the company said in a statement. A company spokesman
would not elaborate.
    The company's Ashland Petroleum Co unit operated at a loss
in January and February since it was unable to raise product
prices enough to recover higher crude oil costs, Ashland said.
    Although Ashland Petroleum and SuperAmerica, a retail
marketing operation, are having a difficult quarter, the
company's Valvoline, Ashland Chemical and coal businesses are
expected to report good results for the quarter ended March 31.
    In the year-ago quarter, Ashland had income from operations
of 93.8 mln dlrs before corporate and interest expenses, taxes,
equity income and other items.
    Net income in the quarter was 39.4 mln dlrs or 1.12 dlrs a
share on sales of 1.78 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Ameritrust Corp said it sold two mln
shares of its common stock to an investment group named
Clevebaco Ltd Partnership.
    The partnership is controlled by Alfred Lerner, and a
subsidiary of the Progressive Corp <PROG> is the limited
partner, according to the company.
    Ameritrust said it was advised that the Clevebaco group has
filed an application with bank regulatory authorities seeking
permission to acquire up to an additional three mln shares of
Ameritrust common stock.
    The company said the group indicated to it that it had no
hostile takeover intent toward Ameritrust, and that the
purchase was for investment purposes.
 Reuter

Vulcan Packaging Inc said it received
regulatory approval for a normal course issuer bid, allowing
the company to acquire for cancellation up to five pct of
outstanding common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange between
April 24, 1987 and April 23, 1988.
 Reuter

BANKAMERICA CHAIRMAN SAYS BANK IS TURNING AROUND, HEADING TO PROFITABILITY

Shr 30 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 868,000 vs 728,000
    Revs 7,300,000 vs 6,500,000
    Avg shrs 3,000,000 vs 750,000
 Reuter

Farm subsidies and protectionist
moves threaten healthy trade on both sides of the Atlantic,
Michael Jopling, British minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food, warned.
    "It would not be sensible to provoke another dispute between
Europe and the United States," Jopling said in remarks prepared
for an evening speech.
    "But some things are clear and they apply on both sides of
the Atlantic. We cannot continue to pile up stocks while world
demand shrinks," he said.
    "Governments must not operate farm policies as if they were
purely domestic affairs with no impact on others. They also
have to recognize that they cannot in the long run develop a
healthy and stable farm sector on the basis of protectionism
and excessive subisdies.
    "And above all, Europe and the United States have too many
common interests to make it worthwhile to engage in trade wars
and competitive export subsidies which end by benefitting no
one." He added, "It is crucial that the United States and the
European Community remain friends."
    Jopling, who is a member of the EC agriculture committee,
was in Indiana to visit several farms prior to talks with U.S.
officials in Washington later this week.
    Jopling also criticized a recent proposal still under
consideration by the EC for a tax on vegetable and fish oils.
    He said his government would oppose such a move because "We
do not think it is correct that a shortage of funds to support
(EC) farmers should be alleviated by raising money at the
consumer's expense."
 Reuter

New England Power Co said it
will redeem all 250,000 shares of its Preferred Stock
cumulative, 100 dlr par value, 13.48 pct series in two stages.
    First on July 1, it will redeem 225,000 shares at 110.86
    Then, on September 1, it will redeem the remaining 25,000
shares pursuant to the sinking fund provisions at 100.75 dlrs
plus accrued and unpaid dividends of 2.25 dlrs per share, it
said.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp Chairman A.W.
Clausen said the bank holding company is turning around and is
back on the road to profitability.
    In a speech to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce,
Clausen said he was "absolutely convinced" BankAmerica would
return to its position of preeminence.
    "Fundamental to achieving that goal is to continue to
reduce costs dramatically, to get our arms around our loan loss
problems and begin to reduce charge-offs, and to enhance our
revenue generation," Clausen said.
    Clausen said he doubts BankAmerica would be in a position
this year to make any acquisitions or experience any growth.
    He said BankAmerica will continue to reduce staff and
operations, noting that expense growth in 1986 increased only
one pct over 1985 expenses.
    Clausen also said it will continue to phase out its
overseas retail banking and concentrate on wholesale banking,
with emphasis on a premium list of multinational corporations.
  
 Reuter

Qtly div 66 cts vs 66 cts
    Pay May one
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts
 Reuter

Qtly div 26 cts vs 26 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 773,000 vs profit 1,618,000
    Revs 16.3 mln vs 26.7 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 56 cts vs profit 27 cts
    Net loss 4,763,000 vs profit 3,398,000
    Revs 29.3 mln vs 49.9 mln
 Reuter

A U.S. Commerce Department spokesman
said the agency would have no comment on Schlumberger Ltd's
announcement that it had terminated an agreement in principle
to sell its Fairchild Semiconductor Corp unit to Fujitsu Ltd.
    Sclumberger had said that controversy surrounding the
venture made it unlikely the sale could be completed any time
soon. The sale was opposed by Commerce and the U.S. Defense
Department, in part on national security grounds.
    Commerce chief spokesman B.J. Cooper said the department
had had no contact with Schlumberger about the deal.
    A Defense Department spokesman said the agency was unaware
of Schlumberger's announcement and would have no immediate
reaction.
    Officials last week told Reuters that Commerce Secretary
Malcolm Baldrige and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger had
joined forces to fight the planned sale because it could have
left the U.S. military overly dependent on foreign sources for
vital equipment used in high-technology weapons.
    Administration opposition to the deal also stemmed from
ongoing trade tensions between the United States and Japan,
 Reuter

Shr profit one cts vs loss two cts
    Net 74,000 vs loss 122,000
    Revs 1.7 mln dlrs vs 1.4 mln
    Revs 5.1 mln vs 3.7 mln
    NOTE:3rd qtr ended January 31. 1987 3rd qtr and nine months
includes 36,000 dlrs and 129,000 dlrs gains respectively from
tax loss carryforward.
 Reuter

In what may easily be the largest
initial public offering in U.S. history, Consolidated Rail Corp
estimated that the sale of its 59 mln government-owned shares
could earn the freight railroad as much as 1.7 billion dlrs.
    In an amended registration statement filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Conrail said its public
offering could come as early as next week and estimated its
shares will sell for between 26 and 29 dlrs each, slightly
higher than Conrail's initial prospectus had anticipated.
    A sale in this price range would net between 1.53 billion
dlrs and 1.7 billion dlrs for Conrail's 58.8 mln shares, with
52 million sold in North American and the remainder for sale in
an international offering.
    The previous largest initial U.S. public offering occurred
last May when the Henley Group Inc., a diverse collection of 38
companies spun off by Allied-Signal Corp, raised 1.19 billion
dlrs.
    In its initial prospecus filed with the SEC, Conrail had
estimated its government-owned shares would fetch only 22 to 26
dlrs a share, or a maximum of 1.52 billion dlrs.
    "We cannot comment on any question," said a spokesman for
Goldman Sachs and Co., one of the co-managers of the selling
syndicate. "The SEC is being extremely cautious," he said.
   Conrail was created by the government in the mid-1970s from
the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad and six other bankrupt or
failing Northeast railroads. After several years of large
losses, the railroad company turned its first profit in 1981.
    Last year Conrail earned 431 mln dlrs on revenues of 3.14
billion dlrs, down slightly from its 1985 profit of 442 mln
dlrs on revenues of 3.21 billion dlrs.
    Conrail operated its last passenger service in 1982.
    Legislation passed by Congress last year calling for the
public sale of Conrail set two billion dlrs as a target to be
raised.
 Reuter

Royal Bank of Canada's <RY> small
Brazilian commercial bank subsidiary Banco Royal do Canada
(Brasil) S.A. sees opportunities for its own growth with an
expected substantial increase in Brazilian exports to Canada,
Banco Royal president Michael Brennan said.
    "They (Brazilian exporters) are very interested in the
Canadian market because it's an untapped market," Brennan told
reporters after a speech to the Brazil/Canada Chamber of
Commerce.
    Brennan said Brazil is currently exporting products like
paper machinery and ships to Canada.
    He said he hopes to see medium-term financing facilities
for Brazilian companies reinstated shortly, following an
agreement reached in January with international financial
    Brennan estimated Brazilian exports to Canada totalled
roughly 800 mln Canadian dlrs in 1985 while imports from Canada
reached about 700 mln dlrs.
    Brennan said he expects Banco Royal profit to increase this
year from the three mln U.S. dlrs reported for fiscal 1986
ended September 30 but said he could not predict by how much
because of the country's uncertain financial climate.
    Brennan said he expects his bank's growth to come from
increased exports to Canada. Banco Royal is the only
Canadian-owned commercial bank in Brazil although <Bank of
Montreal> has a Brazilian investment bank subsidiary, he said.
    Brennan said he expected Brazil to be able to reach an
equitable agreement with foreign banks on restructuring its 68
billion U.S. dlr foreign debt, because the Brazilian economy is
essentially healthy. He said he believed Brazil might be in a
position to resume debt repayments within a year.
    Brennan said he could not comment on the impact of Brazil's
interest payment moratorium on the Royal Bank of Canada.
 Reuter

Wang Laboratories Inc expects the
office automation industry to grow at 10 to 15 pct a year over
the next two years, according to Chairman An Wang.
     However, Wang, who was in Dallas to open the company's new
showroom, would not predict what the company would earn in its
third fiscal quarter which ends March 31. Wang earned 21 cts a
share, or 21.4 mln dlrs, in the same quarter last year.
     The company has said it expects to break even in the
quarter.
 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs eight cts
    Pay June one
 Reuter

Clausen said the bank holding company plans to go foward with
its one-billion-dlr debt offering, but declined to specify
when.
    Speaking to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Clausen
said that during the coming months, "at the appropriate time,
we will be placing or underwriting for equities."
    "We do need to improve our capital. We are in registration.
For the moment, we filed a one-billion-dlr shelf registration
for approval by the SEC, which we believe will be
approved very shortly," he said.
    On January 26, BankAmerica filed a shelf offering for up to
one billion dlrs of preferred stock and subordinated capital
notes.
    The offering was seen by the banking industry as one of the
major deterrents to First Interstate Bancorp's <I> take over
bid, which it withdrew on February 9.
    Since then, banking analysts have speculated BankAmerica
may do well to defer action on the offering, while it continues
to attempt to improve its financial situation.
    Clausen said despite improvement in the past quarter,
BankAmerica must do more to improve its capital ratios.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs nine cts
    Net 217,000 vs 192,000
    Revs 3,325,000 vs 2,506,000
    Year
    Shr 31 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 660,000 vs 932,000
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 10.7 mln
 Reuter

Central Pennsylvania Savings
Association said it made a 30 pct investment in <Pinnacle
Mortgage Investment Co>.
    Pinnacle, incorporated in 1985, generates about 60 mln dlrs
in closed mortgage loans annually.
    Central Pennsylvania also said its directors recently
approved a letter of intent to acquire Hamilton-Reliance
Savings Association of Norristown, Pa.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp chairman A.W.
Clausen said he believes Brazil will successfully restructure
its foreign debt sometime this year, but in the meantime that
country's creditors could suffer somwehat over the short term.
    He also said Brazil's decision to suspend foreign debt
payments is most likely a move aimed at strengthening its
negotiating position.
    "I believe it was a posturing move on the part of the
country," Clausen said.
    Clausen made his comments during an address at a Chamber of
Commerce luncheon here.
    Last month Brazil, which has about 110 billion dlrs of
foreign debt, suspended payment on some 68 billion dlrs owned
to private banks while it worked out its economic problems.
    BankAmerica has some 2.74 billion dlrs in loans outstanding
to Brazil.
    Clausen also said he did not think any financial
institutions would be "done in" by Brazil's suspension of debt
payments and he added "I do not believe the International
Monetary Fund will come to a roaring halt."
 Reuter

Harbour workers returned to work
this morning after a strike in support of pay claims closed New
Zealand's 15 ports for 24 hours yesterday.
    But the Harbour Workers Union told reporters the pay
dispute is not settled and the union's national executive will
meet here tomorrow to decide its next moves.
    "Obviously we will be considering further industrial action,"
Union secretary Ross Wilson said in a radio interview.
    The union rejects employers offers of a 7.5 pct pay rise
over 15 months. It wants 7.0 pct over 12 months.
 Reuter

Zimmer Corp said it reached an
agreement with its banks to boost its credit line by 4.3 mln
dlrs.
    It currently has 7,660,000 dlrs in outstanding debt.
    Under the terms of the accord, the banks will receive a
security interest of nearly all the company's assets, excluding
inventory. The pact also calls for repayment of the debt over
12 months and the application of cash proceeds from the sale of
its Black Fin Yacht Corp unit.
    It said the credit agreement and sale of Black Fin is
expected to relieve its liquidity problems.
 Reuter

Explosive Fabricators Inc
said its common stock began trading on NASDAQ over-the-counter
market March 16 with the quotation symbol BOOM.
 Reuter

Atcor Inc said the magnitude of any
earnings recovery in fiscal 1987 depends on the direction of
steel pricing and how fast the company's severe operating
problems in its consumer segment are resolved.
    Atcor's consumer segment represents about 25 pct of its
sales. In a letter to shareholders the company said that that
part of its business continues to be unprofitable.
    Atcor said it does not expect performance improvements in
the first quarter to be sustained throughout the year due to
increasing raw material costs.
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs four cts
    Net 1,474,000 vs 286,000
    Revs 15.5 mln vs 1.4 mln
    Avg shrs 10.6 mln vs 7.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 38 cts vs eight cts
    Net 3,387,000 vs 588,000
    Revs 33.4 mln vs 2.9 mln
    Avg shrs 8.8 mln vs 7.5 mln
 Reuter

Pacific Lighting Corp said it is
considering the sale of its land development line of business
and will be initiating discussions with potential buyers.
    The book value of the company's investment in land
development operations is 224 mln dlrs. The Pacific Lighting
Real Estate Group earned 24.2 mln dlrs and employed 800 people
during 1986, the company said.
    Alternatives to the sale being considered include a master
limited partnership and an initial public offering of the
equity in the land development companies, it said.
    Proceeds from the sale would likely be invested in Pacific
Lightings' new specialty retailing line of business and its oil
and gas operations, the company said.
    The investment banking firm Morgan Stanley has been
retained to advise Pacific Lighting on the disposition of the
land development operations.
    Completion of a transaction, it one is made, is expected by
the end of the year, the company said.
 Reuter

MLX Corp said a subsidiary has
tentatively agreed to acquire a sintered friction materials
business in Milan, Italy, from a unit of Abex Corp for
    The deal will close after obtaining Italian government
approvals, expected in late April.
    The business, which will operated under the name S.K.
Wellman, will become a member of MLX's specialty friction
materials group. The business is a manufacturer of high-energy
friction materials for heavy-duty transmissions and clutches.
 Reuter

    Oper shr loss two cts vs loss 92 cts
    Oper net loss 28,045 vs loss 1,040,700
    Sales 4,943,584 vs 5,613,400
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 11 cts vs loss 93 cts
    Oper net profit 124,434, vs loss 1,054,000
    Sales 22.6 mln vs 26.3 mln
    (Mouduline International Inc)
    Note: oper data does not include 1986 gains from tax
benefit carryforwards of 30,000 dlrs, or three cts per shr, in
qtr and 110,000 dlrs, or ten cts per shr, in nine mths.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12.5 cts vs six cts
    Note: Co also declares 12.5 ct qtly div on special shares
issued in December, 1986, with same pay and record dates.
 Reuter

USP Real Estate Investment
Trust said it will post a first-quarter gain of 2,258,216 dlrs
on the sale of the Spanish Villa Apartments in Savannah, Ga.,
which was completed last week.
 Reuter

Oper shr primary 28 cts vs 17 cts
    Oper shr diluted 24 cts vs 17 cts
    Oper net 1,826,000 vs 1,104,000
    Revs 205.4 mln vs 171.1 mln
    Avg shrs primary 6,512,462 vs 6,510,462
    Avg shrs diluted 10.3 mln vs 10.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr primary 83 cts vs 76 cts
    Oper shr diluted 77 cts vs 74 cts
    Oper net 5,393,000 vs 4,955,000
    Revs 719.9 mln vs 633.5 mln
    Avg shrs primary 6,511,591 vs 6,508,379
    Avg shrs diluted 10.3 mln vs 9,122,722
    Note: Revs includes investment income 2,323,000 dlrs vs
2,239 dlrs for qtr and 10.1 mln dlrs vs 6,612,000 dlrs for 12
mths. 1986 revs also include unrealized loss on equity
securities of 59,000 dlrs for qtr and 1,155,000 dlrs for 12
mths.
    Oper net excludes extraordinary gain of 875,000 dlrs vs
284,000 dlrs for qtr and 1,053,000 dlrs vs 462,000 dlrs for 12
mths.
 Reuter

<Techniclone International>
said it has entered a joint venture with Seeds of Tomorrow to
apply its electrogene process to developing new or improved
plant varieties.
    The process, which has a patent pending, was developed
originally for use in human cancer.
    The joint venture will address genetic transformation of
cotton and tomatoes.
    The company said it is also negotiating such ventures with
several other plant companies.
 Reuter

Centel Corp said it sees 1987 first
quarter results below those of 1986 due to regulatory limits on
telephone earnings and 15 cts to 20 cts a share dilution from
1986 acquisitions.
    In the annual report, Chairman Robert Reuss told
shareholders telephone profits will continued to be limited by
ceilings imposed by regulators as well as deregulation and
structural changes within the industry that have slowed growth
in the investment base for setting rates.
    As such, its first quarter 1987 results will be below last
year's first quarter of 1.11 dlrs a share, he said.
    "Several of the company's telephone units may be faced with
a reduction in the rates of return authorized by their
regulators," Reuss said. "This could result in some rate
reductions and refunds to customers."
    Reuss said he is encouraged by the prospects for progress
in Centel's business communications, cable television and
cellular telephone units.
    Centel is asking shareholders at the annual meeting to
approve the tripling  to 120 mln in authorized shares.
 Reuter

Association said it will not purchase home-equity loans as part
of its mortgage-purchase and swap activities in the secondary
market.
    "We don't believe that our provision of liquidity is needed
in this segment of the market," David Maxwell, Fannie Mae's
chairman, said.
 Reuter

Morgan Stanley Mortgage Trust, a unit
of the Morgan Stanley Group, is offering 313.87 mln dlrs of
collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) in seven classes.
    These consist of 79 mln dlrs of adjustable rate class J-1
bonds to be fully paid by November 20, 2013 priced at 99.80 pct
to yield 7.49 pct. The notes will bear an interest rate of
seven pct for one year from April 20, 1987, rising to 7.50 pct
until April 1989 and an eight pct rate thereafter.
    Morgan also will offer 89.60 mln dlrs of floating rate,
class J-2 bonds to be fully paid by 2013, priced at par to
yield three-month Libor plus 0.45 pct. There is an 11 pct cap.
    Also among the issues are 24.417 mln dlrs of class J-three
bonds to be fully paid by May 2015 and priced at par to yield
8.26 pct and 11.491 mln dlrs of floating rate class J-four
bonds to be fully paid by the same date and priced at par to
yield three-month Libor plus 0.50 pct. The cap is 12 pct.
    The class J-five bonds totalling 49.987 mln dlrs will be
fully paid by August 2017 and priced at par to yield 8.57 pct.
The 17.25 mln dlrs of floating rate class J-six bonds of the
same maturity are priced at par at a rate of three-month Libor
plus 0.65 pct with a 13 pct cap.
    The 42.125 mln dlrs of 8.75 pct class J-seven bonds due
August 2018 are priced at 99.25 pct to yield 8.85 pct.
    Interest on all classes of bonds will be payable quarterly.
    Morgan Stanley is sole manager of the offering which will
be rated AAA by Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

    Shr one ct vs nine cts
    Net 29,000 vs 349,000
    Revs 7,892,000 vs 4,721,000
    Note: nine mth data unavailable
    .
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc, which
disclosed that it does not intend to seek control of USAir
Group at this time, said it still believes a combination of the
two airlines would have benefits to both.
TWA, which is controlled by Carl Icahn, said it continues to
closely watch the developments of USAir, which has an agreement
to acquire Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>.
    TWA said it spent 178.2 mln dlrs to acquire its 4,043,200
USAir shares, which amount to 14.8 pct of its total outstanding
    TWA said it would not buy more USAir Group stock, at least
for the moment.
    But it said it still believes a TWA-USAir combination would
"create certain synergies that would be mutually beneficial to
both carriers."
    TWA stressed that it reserved the right to revive its
takeover attempt and said it may continue to explore the
feasibility and strategies of gaining control of USAir.
    Further purchases of USAir stock would require the approval
of the Department of Transportation, TWA said.
    Because of Department of Transportation rules, TWA also
said it put its USAir stock into a voting trust with Fleet
National Bank as the voting trustee.
    The voting trust agreement requires the bank to vote in
favor of any acquisition agreement between TWA and USAir and to
opposed any other merger of USAir.
 Reuter

Adobe Resources Corp and High Plains Oil
Corp said they reached an agreement in principle under which
High Plains will be merged into a unit of Adobe.
    Under terms of the agreement, the companies said each share
of High Plains common stock not owned by Adobe or held in the
High Plains treasury will be exchanged for 1.12 shares of newly
issued Adobe common.
    The exchange, they said, will be made on the effective date
of the merger, which must be approved by both companies' boards
and High Plains' shareholders.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) delivered
warnings to both Japan and the United States over trade
frictions which have hit relations between the Community and
its main trading partners.
    EC foreign ministers meeting here issued a statement
deploring Japan's continued trade imbalance and appealed for
greater effort by the country to open its markets.
    Ministers also issued a statement saying they were
disturbed by moves in the U.S. to limit imports of textiles and
warned that the Community would react to any such moves.
    EC External Trade Commissioner, Willy De Clercq has already
written to his U.S. counterpart, special U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter, outlining the EC's concerns.
    The ministers' said they were "very disturbed" by the U.S.
moves, adding, "the adoption of such measures would not fail to
have a negative effect on the process of multilateral
negotiations just started as well as on bilateral relations."
    Any unilateral U.S. moves would leave the EC no option but
to react according to the laws of the world trade body, the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), they said.
    In a separate statement on Japan, the EC ministers said
they "deplore the continued aggravation of the imbalance in
trade ... (and) expect Japan to open up its market more."
    The statement added that the EC continued to insist that
the Japanese government must boost imports and stimulate
demand.
    Ministers also called on the European Commission to prepare
a report on U.S.-Japanese trade for July this year to enable
them to take action where necessary.
    One diplomat said the call for a report showed ministers
were determined not to let the Japanese question drop. "It wil
be back on the table again and again," the diplomat said.
    De Clercq told journalists, "There is a certain nervousness,
a growing impatience within the Community on trade relations
with Japan."
    But diplomats said the Community is keen to continue
talking with Tokyo to try and solve the problem rather than
embark on a costly and damaging trade war.
 Reuter

National Medical Care Systems
INc said it has named Arthur Axelrod its Chairman and Robert
Kim its president.
    Axelrod, who had been president, replaces U.T. Thompson
III, who resigned March 1.
    Kim had been a board director and director of operations
for the company's primary operating subsidiary, National Health
Care Systems of California, Inc.
 Reuter

CEASARS WORLD FILES SUIT AGAINST MARTIN SOSNOFF AND MTS ACQUISITION ON TENDER OFFER

TransAmerica Natural Gas Corp said it
is seeking two billion dlrs in punitive and actual damages in a
lawsuit it filed today against Coastal Corp, its chairman and
certain Coastal affiliates.
    TransAmerica, a privately held company that has been in
bankruptcy since 1983, said its suit alleges that Coastal and
its chairman, Oscar S. Wyatt Jr, unlawfully interfered with
agreements it previously reached with its creditors, causing
the company significant damage.
    TransAmerica also said its suit, filed in state district
court in Harris County, Texas, seeks injunctions against Wyatt
and Coastal to enjoin them from interfering with its
contractual agreements with its creditors.
    The company alleged that beginning in mid-1986, Coastal and
its chairman took various steps to acquire its gas and other
assets.
    Coastal has used TransAmerica's bankruptcy proceedings to
engineer a hostile takeover attempt, the company charged.
    In its suit TransAmerican alleged that Coastal and Wyatt
are "notorious corporate raiders who have been restrained in
the past from taking over other corporations in their attempt
to create a stranglehold position from which they could control
and raise gas prices..."
    "It is obvious that Coastal's efforts to improperly take
over TransAmerican is a thinly veiled attempt to control a
larger share of the Texas gas market to the detriment of end
users and consumers," the company alleged.
    Coastal could not be reached for comment. Company name is
Transamerican.
 Reuter

Caesars World Inc said it filed a
lawsuit against Martin T. Sosnoff and MTS Acquisition Corp
regarding its March 9 unsolicited tender offer for Caesars
World stock.
    The company said it filed in the Federal Court in the
Central District of California, charging the tender offer,
which its board rejected, violated federal securities laws and
federal margin regulations.
    The suit charges the offering materials are materially
false and misleading and misstate and conceal material
information required to be disclosed to shareholders.
    The suit also charges the offer is illusory and designed to
manipulate the market in Caesars World stock to enable Sosnoff
to sell the Caesars World stock he already owns for a
substantial profit.
    The complaint seeks, among other things, to enjoin the
tender offer and to require MTS and Sosnoff to correct false
and misleading statements in the offer.
    Caesars World is expected to seek a friendly suitor,
restructure operations, or buy back Sosnoff's holdings in an
attempt to fight off the bid.
    Sosnoff holds about 13.6 pct of the company's stock.
 Reuter

investment advisor, said it raised its stake in Centerre
Bancorporation to 508,062 shares, or 6.6 pct of the total
outstanding, from 427,061 shares, or 5.5 pct.
Harris said it bought 81,001 Centerre common shares between Jan
2 and March 4 at prices ranging from 36.00 to 39.75 dlrs a
share.
    It said its dealings in the company's stock are on behalf
of its clients.
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss 14 cts
    Net profit 279,000 vs loss 1,896,000
    Sales 199.6 mln vs 142.4 mln
 Reuter

Latin America urgently needs more money
if it is to grow its way out of its deepening debt crisis, but
fresh ideas about how to stimulate new lending quickly seem to
be in short supply.
    Bankers, officials and academics at a conference organized
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stressed the
importance of proper economic policies and increased private
investment. But they offered no glimpse of a grand design to
banish the specter of a widespread repudiation of the region's
380 billion dlr debt. "Such a solution is still not in sight,"
said Nobel Prize-winning economist Franco Modigliani.
    The conference was held against the background of the
recent suspension of interest payments by Brazil and Ecuador,
but it was Argentine finance secretary Mario Brodersohn who
spelled out most clearly the social and economic strains caused
by the need to service billions of dlrs of debt.
    Brodersohn, who is negotiating currently with foreign banks
for a 2.15 billion dlr loan for 1987, says Argentina will have
to grow at a four pct annual rate between now and 1992 simply
to restore per capita income to the level of 1975.
    He said the investment needed to fuel this growth can come
partly from structural economic reforms at home, but this alone
will not be enough.
    "We have to reduce the transfer of resources," Brodersohn
said, adding that mounting economic strains in Latin America
make this a matter of urgency.
    Brodersohn and other Latin officials, however, did not
spell out how this should be achieved.
    The creditors' strategy, spelled out by U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker in October 1985, is to spur additional
lending by private banks and multilateral development banks in
return for economic reforms.
    But there was a widespread recognition at the conference
that the Baker Plan has fallen well short of expectations.
    Miguel Urrutia, a senior official of the Inter-American
Development Bank, for instance, said IADB lending had actually
declined in 1986 and had started slowly in 1987.
    Mexico is due to sign a 7.7 billion dlr loan on Friday that
will be the first major facility under the Baker Plan, which
called for net new bank lending between 1986 and 1988, a target
that Morris Goldstein of the International Monetary Fund said
is now optimistic.
    Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs Paul Taylor acknowledged that the Baker Plan "has not
yet succeeded as well as we hoped."
    But if the debtors at the conference were hoping to hear an
official commitment to try a new tack, they must have been
disappoiunted.
    Ted Truman, director of the International Finance Diviision
at the Federal Reserve Board, said banks were short-sighted in
not lending promptly and in the amounts called for by Baker.
    He said some streamlining of the lending process may be
needed, but added, "I see no alterantive to the present course
of responsible cooperation."
    A major theme at the conference, however, was that the
world economy might not continue to cooperate while the debtors
and creditors muddle along. If export markets dry up because of
recession or protectionism, speakers warned, Latin America will
be even more hard-pressed to service its debts.
    Rimmer de Vries, chief international economist at Morgan
Guaranty Trust Co, said he was very concerned that world
economic growth of three to 3-1/2 pct cannot be sustained and
that West Germany and Japan wowuld not take up the slack in the
world economy that will arise as the U.S. narrows its trade
deficit.
    "There's a deflationary force coming down the mountain, and
I don't know who's going to be rolled over," de Vries said. He
called for a new lending initiative with a wide menu of options
as alternatives to pure new money.
    "Can we not manage this lending a bit more imaginatively?"
he asked the conference.
    But new ideas take time to devise and implement, and
Brazil's suspension of interest payments shows that the
aptience of debtors might be wearing thin.
    Persio Arida, a former director of the Brazizlian central
bank who was a key architect of that country's Cruzado plan to
curb inflation, said there is an "incentive problem" throughout
 Reuter

    Mead Corp <MEA> - Shelf offering of up to 150 mln dlrs of
debt securities, including debentures and notes.
    Philadelphia Electric Co <PE> - Shelf offering of up to 250
mln dlrs of first and refunding mortgage bonds.
    Hechinger <HECHA> - Offering of 100 mln dlrs of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012 through Morgan Stanley and Co
Inc.
    UAL Inc <UAL> - Shelf offering of up to 200 mln dlrs of
debentures due March 31, 1997 and 2,564,102 shares of common
stock.
 Reuter

The European Community's (EC)
executive Commission defended attacks on major elements of its
ambitious program to rid the EC of its controversial farm
surpluses, after strong attacks from northern states.
    Britain and West Germany, backed by the Netherlands and
Denmark, opposed a proposed tax on edible oils and fats which
has already sparked strong protest from exporters to the EC led
by the U.S. and from EC consumer groups, diplomats said.
    But EC Agriculture Commissioner Frans Andriessen told
journalists he had warned ministers that failure to agree the
tax, proposed last month as part of the Commission's annual
farm price package, would leave a large hole in the group's
budget.
    He added that he hoped states had not yet made their mind
up for good. "I hope the debate is still open, if not there will
be a formidable hole in the budget," he said.
    The shortfall could reach two billion dollars in 1988 and
would be only slightly less this year, he said.
    Foreign ministers were taking a first look at the tax ahead
of farm ministers in a move described by diplomats as
unprecedented and welcomed by Andriessen as a sign ministers
recognised the importance of reforming the EC's farm policy.
    The proposed tax is designed to provide the EC with extra
cash to finance community oilseed crops at their current levels
and to brake a dramatic decrease in olive oil consumption by
making it more competitive with other oils.
    Andriessen noted the EC has over two mln olive oil
producers, mostly small farmers, who could be helped by the
tax.
    "What we are suggesting is reasonable, it should be better
understood not just outside the community but at home," he said.
    Britain, normally a keen advocate of radical changes in the
EC's costly farm subsidies system, warned the proposal to
impose the tax on both domestic and imported oils and fats
could seriously damage the EC's trade relations with other
    Britain also warned that the tax could hit developing
countries already receiving aid from the EC, they said.
    The Commission also defended proposals to dismantle
Monetary Compensatory Amounts (MCA) -- a system of cross border
subsidies and taxes to level out foreign exchange fluctuations
for farm exports -- against harsh West German criticism.
    In a letter this weekend from Chancellor Helmut Kohl to EC
executive Commission President, Jacques Delors, Kohl made clear
such a dismantling would mainly hit West German farmers.
    Diplomats said West Germany again repeated its criticism at
the talks here but Andriessen told journalists that Germany had
been alone in its opposition. The question was a key aspect of
the Commission's farm price proposals, he added.
   Ministers also agreed a 3.5 billion dlrs scheme to rid the
EC of its butter mountain, despite Spanish and Portuguese
opposition.
    The scheme will pay for the disposal of one mln tonnes of
unwanted butter, by selling it at knock-down prices, turning it
into animal feed or exporting it at subsidised prices.
    National capitals are due to be reimbursed later out of
savings from another plan to curb milk production.
    Diplomats said Spain and Portugal have been angered by the
scheme, which they feel forces them to pay for massive
surpluses built up before they joined the community last year,
but the two countries did not block today's vote.
 Reuter

said it signed an agreement with Dibo Attar, who controls about
39 pct of its common stock, under which three nominees to
Aero's board have been selected by Attar.
    In addition to Attar, the nominees are Stephen L. Peistner,
chairman and chief executive officer of <McCrory Corp> and
James N.C. Moffat III, vice president and secretary of
<Eastover Corp>.
 Reuter

it has concluded negotiations with Ronald Vannuki under which
he will become its chief executive officer and buy about
710,000 shares of its common stock.
    The company said Vannuki will buy about 210,000 shares from
current shareholders and about 500,000 shares from the company
    Vannuki, 46, has been Vice President for Kayne, Anderson
and Co Inc, a Los Angeles-based securities broker-dealer.
 Reuter

Australia Feb current account deficit 750 mln dlrs vs Jan 1.23 billion - official

Australia's current deficit narrowed
to 750 mln dlrs in February from 1.23 billion (revised from
1.29 billion) in January, the Statistics Bureau said.
    This compared with an 897 mln dlr shortfall a year earlier.
    February merchandise trade recorded a 42 mln dlr surplus
against a 246 mln shortfall (revised from 287 mln) in January
and a 162 mln deficit in February 1986.
    The current account deficit fell at the lower end of the
range of forecasts of 700 mln to one billion dlrs made by
market economists yesterday.
    February FOB exports rose to 2.82 billion dlrs from 2.74
billion (revised from 2.72 billion) in January and 2.54 billion
a year earlier while FOB imports fell to 2.77 billion from 2.99
billion (revised from 3.01 billion) against 2.70 billion a year
earlier, the Bureau said.
    It said a four pct decline in rural exports, despite an 11
pct rise in wheat exports, was more than offset by a seven pct
rise in non-rural exports, notably minerals and fuels.
    On the import side, the main decreases were falls of 17 pct
in machinery and transport equipment and 21 pct in fuels, the
Bureau said.
    The net services deficit narrowed to 146 mln dlrs from 253
mln (revised from 268 mln) in January and 192 mln a year
    This made a sharply lower deficit of 104 mln dlrs on the
balance of goods and services against deficits of 499 mln in
January and 354 mln a year earlier.
    Deficit on net income and unrequited transfers was 646 mln
dlrs against 736 mln in January and 543 mln a year earlier.
    Official capital transactions in February showed a surplus
of 786 mln dlrs against a 2.56 billion surplus in January and a
505 mln surplus a year earlier.
    Non-official capital and balancing item showed a 36 mln dlr
deficit against a 1.33 billion deficit in January and a 392 mln
surplus in February 1986, the Bureau said.
    The cumulative current account deficit for the first eight
months of fiscal 1986/87 ending June 30 widened to 9.37 billion
dlrs from 9.32 billion a year earlier.
    The cumulative trade deficit narrowed to 2.09 billion dlrs
from 2.21 billion and the services deficit to 2.25 billion from
2.75 billion but the transfers deficit widened to 5.03 billion
from 4.36 billion. The cumulative official capital surplus
narrowed to 2.90 billion dlrs from 3.86 billion.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said he
had no intention of modifying at the moment a proposed bill
introducing a sales tax.
    "Parliamentary deliberation must be conducted fully before
we see whether to revise it or not," Miyazawa told reporters.
    He also said he had not heard anything about Deputy Premier
Shin Kanemaru suggesting modification of the tax.
    The Japanese press has reported that Kanemaru proposed
yesterday a freeze or a modification of the value-added tax as
he saw growing public opposition.
    Debate on the sales tax has been stalled by a sporadic
opposition boycott over their objections to the tax.
    Miyazawa said he did not expect the bill to be altered even
after Parliament completes its deliberations. He also said the
Government is undecided on the scale of a proposed provisional
budget for fiscal 1987 beginning on April 1.
    The minister declined to comment on wide-spread press
speculation that the stop-gap budget would total more than
1,000 billion yen.
    The Government is working on a provisional budget as the
chances of passing a full one by April 1 are virtually nil as a
result of the halt in parliamentary business, officials said.
    The Government wants to include as many economic stimuli as
possible in the provisional budget to boost domestic demand,
increase imports and reduce its trade surplus, they said.
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Australia's official reserve assets fell
to the equivalent of 8.50 billion U.S. Dlrs in February, from
9.15 billion in January, compared with 9.06 billion a year
earlier, the Reserve Bank said.
    In Australian dollar terms, reserves fell by 1.24 billion
dlrs to 12.60 billion after falling 1.71 billion to 13.85
billion in January and rising 792 mln to 12.92 billion in
    The bank said that excluding valuation effects, it
estimated reserves fell 853 mln dlrs after falling 2.34 billion
in January and rising 323 mln a year earlier.
    The individual value of reserve assets in Australian
dollars at end-February with end-January and year-earlier
respectively in brackets were.
    Gold 4.71 billion (4.90 billion and 3.83 billion), SDR's
503 mln (524 mln and 468 mln), IMF reserve position 354 mln
(365 mln and 312 mln), U.S. Dollars 3.25 billion (both 3.99
billion), other foreign exchange 3.78 billion (4.07 billion and
4.32 billion).
 REUTER

Japan February wholesale prices fall 0.1 pct (0.6 pct January drop) - official

Japan's overall wholesale price index
(base 1980) fell 0.1 pct in February from a month earlier to
86.4 for the second consecutive month-on-month fall, the Bank
of Japan said.
    Wholesale prices fell 0.6 pct in January from December.
    The index fell 9.1 pct from a year earlier for the 21st
straight year-on-year drop, the central bank said.
    The reduced month-on-month drop mainly stemmed from the
recovery in world crude oil prices, it said.
    On a customs-cleared basis, crude oil prices rose to around
17 dlrs a barrel in February from about 15 dlrs in January.
    The average value of the yen against the dollar rose 0.8
pct to 153.50 in February from 154.67 in January and was up
16.8 pct from 184.55 a year earlier, the bank said.
    The export price index in February fell 0.7 pct from a
month earlier reflecting price cuts in export products like
cars and precision instruments due to severe foreign
competition. The index was down 7.1 pct from a year earlier.
    The import price index rose 1.1 pct from a month earlier to
57.4 for the sixth successive month-on-month gain mainly due to
the continued strength of world crude oil prices. But the index
was down 29 pct from a year earlier.
    The domestic price index fell 0.1 pct to 91.9 in February,
its 24th straight monthly drop, mainly reflecting falls in
prices of home appliances such as colour televisions due to
severe sales competition at home. Lower edible oil prices added
to the decline.
    The index was down 6.7 pct from a year earlier.
    The domestic index marked its largest year-on-year drop of
7.1 pct in January since the central bank started compiling
such statistics in 1960 under its current system.
    Wholesale prices are likely to turn upward in March as
higher world crude oil and raw material prices are expected,
the bank said.
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Mitsubishi Bank Ltd's Hong Kong
branch is planning a 40 mln New Zealand dlr certificate of
deposit, CD, issue, banking sources said.
    The three-year CDs are denominated in 100,000 dlr units and
will carry interest at 37.5 basis points below the three-month
New Zealand bank bill rate.
    Payment date is expected to be around April 1.
    ANZ Securities Asia Ltd is lead manager for the issue.
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Weizsaecker said both debtor and creditor nations share
responsibility for the Third World's foreign debt crisis.
    Weizsaecker, in a speech on the first day of an official
visit to Argentina, said: "Debtor and creditor countries have
created this situation jointly. They also share responsibility
for finding lasting solutions."
    Local officials have payed great importance to
Weizsaecker's visit because they consider him a key backer of
more flexible repayment terms for Argentina's 51 billion dlr
foreign debt, Latin America's third largest.
    Weizsaecker, speaking at a reception held for him by
President Raul Alfonsin at Buenos Aires' City Council hall,
also said no one could overlook the enormity of the obstacle
posed by the foreign debt to countries like Argentina.
    "Democracy in Latin America must not be endangered because
of misery or new injustices," he said.
    Argentine officials said they might halt debt payments last
month if creditor banks did not agree to a new 2.15 billion dlr
loan. An Argentine mission is now in the U.S. For talks with 11
banks, seeking to win an easing of repayment terms and secure
the loan.
    Weizsaecker said Argentina has had difficulties with the
European Community over trade barriers and subsidies for grain
exports.
    "We are making efforts to eliminate them with the help of
balanced interest from all parties," he said.
    Argentina has said the barriers and subsidies cut unfairly
into the country's traditional markets for its grain exports.
    Weizsaecker arrived for a four-day visit, opening a Latin
American tour which includes Bolivia and Guatemala. He held
brief talks on Sunday with Brazilian President Jose Sarney
during a stopover in Brasilia.
 REUTER

European Community (EC) foreign
ministers have agreed on an aid package of loans and grants
totalling more than 1.6 billion European Currency Units (Ecu)
for states in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.
   The five-year accord increases aid to the states, Tunisia,
Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Syria, by
about 60 pct from the previous pact, Belgian Foreign Minister
Leo Tindemans told a news conference. The EC's executive
Commission had proposed a package of more than 1.7 billion
Ecus, about 70 pct more than the last aid deal, but West
Germany and Britain called for the rise to be kept to 30 pct.
    The package includes 615 mln Ecus in cash grants from the
EC, while just over one billion Ecus will be made available in
loans from the European Investment Bank, the EC's long-term
investment arm. Details of how the money is to be distributed
will be worked out by EC officials.
    Syria, while still officially included on the list, will
not receive any money unless EC ministers specifically agree to
it. The EC last year imposed sanctions against Syria because of
its alleged role in the attempted bombing of an Israeli
airliner.
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Strikes against a government freeze on
wages spread to most regions of Yugoslavia last week, the
official news agency Tanjug said last night.
    It said thousands of workers were involved, and officials
feared more strikes were on the way.
    At least 60 strikes have taken place around Yugoslavia in
the past two weeks, but most of those previously reported were
in the northern republic of Croatia.
    Prime Minister Branko Mikulic imposed the wage freeze last
month in an effort to curb rampant inflation, now running at an
annual rate of almost 100 pct.
    The government froze wages at their level in the fourth
quarter of 1986 and said any future rises must be linked to
productivity.
    The measure met widespread disapproval. Even some senior
executives of major industrial enterprises have criticised the
freeze in interviews with Tanjug.
    The agency said strikes took place last week in the
southern republic of Montenegro and the predominantly ethnic
Albanian province of Kosovo. In the central republic of Bosnia
and Hercegovina 1,700 workers struck, while many teachers in
Belgrade refused to take their paychecks.
    Earlier, Yugoslav journalists, who asked to remain
anonymous, told Reuters they had been barred from strike-hit
    They said they had been told they could not enter without
permits, whereas before the strikes no permits had been
necessary to visit factories.
 REUTER

Finland's Conservatives emerged with
major general election gains after a swing away from the left.
    Conservative Party leader Ilkka Suominen told reporters
"they can't keep us out of government now" after the Party gained
nine Parliamentary seats in elections held on Sunday and
Monday, taking its total to 53 seats.
    With 99 pct of votes counted, Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa's
Social Democratic Party had lost just one seat despite a 2.5
pct drop in support.
    The Social Democrats held 57 seats in the last 200-seat
parliament, the Conservatives 44 and the Centre Party 37.
    It may take weeks for the political complexion of the new
government to take shape as major parties negotiate to see
which grouping can form a majority. But the result is expected
to be a change from the outgoing centre-left coalition.
    Political commentators said the results will have
far-reaching implications as they showed a significant swing
from the left, which has dominated post-war Finnish politics.
    Despite the Conservative revival, commentators said there
would be no immediate change in foreign policy, which is
moulded by Finland's sensitive position in the shadow of the
neighbouring Soviet Union.
    The environmentalist "Greens" doubled their seats in
parliament to four, although opinion polls had forecast they
would win 10.
    The Communists split for the first time into pro-Moscow
Stalinists and Eurocommunists. The Eurocommunists retained
their 17 seats, while the Stalinists, expelled from the
official Communist Party in 1986, lost six of their 10 seats.
 REUTER

Congressional investigators
tentatively plan to grant immunity to former presidential
National Security Advisor John Poindexter who they say may help
track missing money from Iran arms sales.
    Congressional sources told Reuters the House of
Representatives and Senate committees probing the arms scandal
are expected to back a preliminary accord reached last Friday
by their legal advisors to grant Poindexter immunity from
prosecution in return for his testimony. He would be the first
leading figure in the affair to be granted immunity.
    Poindexter resigned from his White House post in November
when it was divulged that up to 30 mln dlrs in arms sales
profits might have been diverted to Nicaraguan contra rebels.
Congressional investigators and a presidential review
commission have not tracked beyond secret Swiss and Cayman
Island bank accounts mlns of dlrs said to have been diverted.
    The sources said Poindexter could help trace the money,
which is one of the big riddles of the scandal. "Obviously we
think he is a very important witness," said a House source.
    Poindexter has refused to testify before Congress, citing
his constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
 REUTER

The <Oil and Natural Gas Commission>
of India has signed for a 26.5 mln U.S. Dlr Italian buyers'
credit, co-lead manager Bankers Trust Co said.
    It said the 12-year facility, guaranteed by the Indian
government, carries interest at a fixed rate of 7.40 pct.
Repayment starts in 1989 and is in 20 semi-annual instalments.
    Italy's export credit agency Mediocredito Centrale provides
an undisclosed interest subsidy to the lenders.
    The other lead managers are State Bank of India and
Grindlays Bank Plc. Managers are Irving Trust Co, Toyo Trust
and Banking Co Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank.
 REUTER

Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> of Japan is
expected to get approval from a Philippine government agency to
produce cars and other items here, government sources said.
    This follows the company's proposal to invest about 400 mln
pesos and generate about 100 mln dlrs in export earnings over
    The sources said Toyota is likely to be brought into the
government-backed Progressive Car Manufacturing Program (PCMP),
which since the 1970s has controlled the number of car makers.
The PCMP is administered by the Board of Investments (BOI),
which screens investments by foreigners and locals.
    The sources said Toyota had also applied to produce wiring
harness, hardboard and ferro-silicone for local and export
markets. It has not yet said what kind of cars it will make.
    The sources did not say when BOI would announce its
decision on the Toyota application.
    In 1984 Toyota severed its ties with <Delta Motor Corp>,
its local partner for more than 20 years, because the latter
was suffering financial difficulties. The state-owned
Philippine National Bank later foreclosed on Delta's assets and
the sources said Toyota is now negotiating to buy these.
    The government sources also said Toyota was in the final
stages of negotiations with a new local partner.
    Toyota would be the third participant in the PCMP, joining
<Pilipinas Nissan Inc> and <Philippine Automotive Manufacturing
Corp>, formerly Canlubang Automotive Resources Corp.
    Two U.S. Car firms, General Motors Corp <GM.N> and Ford
Motor Co <F.N>, withdrew from the local car market shortly
after the country was hit by a financial crisis in 1983.
 REUTER

Underlying dollar sentiment is bearish,
and operators may push the currency to a new low unless Japan
takes steps to stimulate its economy as pledged in the Paris
accord, foreign exchange analysts polled by Reuters said here.
    "The dollar is expected to try its psychological barrier of
150.00 yen and to fall even below that level," a senior dealer
at one leading bank said.
    The dollar has eased this week, but remains stable at
around 151.50 yen. Six major industrial countries agreed at a
meeting in Paris in February to foster currency stability.
    Some dealers said the dollar may decline in the long term,
but a drastic fall is unlikely because of U.S. Fears of renewed
inflation and fears of reduced Japanese purchases of U.S.
Treasury securities, needed to finance the U.S. Deficit.
    Dealers generally doubted whether any economic package
Japan could adopt soon would be effective enough to reduce its
trade surplus significantly, and said such measures would
probably invite further U.S. Steps to weaken the dollar.
    Under the Paris accord, Tokyo promised a package of
measures after the fiscal 1987 budget was passed to boost
domestic demand, increase imports and cut its trade surplus.
    But debate on the budget has been delayed by an opposition
boycott of Parliamentary business over the proposed imposition
of a five pct sales tax, and the government has only a slim
chance of producing a meaningful economic package in the near
future, the dealers said.
    If no such steps are taken, protectionist sentiment in the
U.S. Congress will grow, putting greater downward pressure on
the dollar, they said.
    The factors affecting the U.S. Currency have not changed
since before the Paris accord, they added.
    "Underlying sentiment for the dollar remains bearish due to
a still-sluggish U.S. Economic outlook, the international debt
crisis triggered by Brazil's unilateral suspension of interest
payments on its foreign debts and the reduced clout of the
Reagan administration as a result of the Iran/Contra arms
scandal," said a senior dealer at a leading trust bank.
    "There is a possibility that the dollar may decline to
around 140.00 yen by the end of this year," said Chemical Bank
Tokyo branch vice president Yukuo Takahashi.
    But operators find it hard to push the dollar either way
for fear of possible concerted central bank intervention.
    Dealers said there were widespread rumours that the U.S.
Federal Reserve telephoned some banks in New York to ask for
quotes last Wednesday, and even intervened to sell the dollar
when it rose to 1.87 marks.
    The Bank of England also apparently sold sterling in London
when it neared 1.60 dlrs on Wednesday, they said.
    But other dealers said they doubted the efficacy of central
bank intervention, saying it may stimulate the dollar's decline
because many dealers are likely to await such dollar buying
intervention as a chance to sell dollars.
    However, First National Bank of Chicago Tokyo Branch
assistant manager Hiroshi Mochizuki said "The dollar will not
show drastic movement at least to the end of March."
    Other dealers said the U.S. Seems unwilling to see any
strong dollar swing until Japanese companies close their books
for the fiscal year ending on March 31, because a weak dollar
would give Japanese institutional investors paper losses on
their foreign holdings, which could make them lose interest in
purchases of U.S. Treasury securities.
    U.S. Monetary officials may refrain from making any
comments this month to avoid influencing rates, they said.
 REUTER

The Australian dollar rose more than 40
points and money market interest rates retreated on the better
than expected improvement in the February current account
deficit, but economists and dealers were cautious about
identifying it as the start of a downward trend.
    The current account deficit narrowed to 750 mln dlrs in
February from 1.23 billion in January. It hit 13.82 billion
dlrs in 1985/86 to end-June.
    The currency jumped to 0.6858/63 U.S. Dlrs and traded as
high as 0.6875 before retreating to around 0.6864/69.
    "It's got 69 cents written all over it," one dealer said.
    Foreign exchange dealers said some buyers had gone long on
the dollar expecting a lower figure and sold it down about 30
points to 0.6820 U.S. Dlrs before the release.
    The 750 mln dlr deficit was at the lower end of forecasts
and analysts said the market would welcome any figure below one
billion dlrs for March.
    Banque National de Paris <BNPP.A> senior dealer Peter
Nicolls cautioned that in the long term the currency and
interest rates were too high for import substitution and export
    Nicolls said he expected the dollar to go as high as 0.6875
and perhaps to 69 cents tomorrow.
    <Lloyds Bank NZA Ltd> chief economist Will Buttrose said
the 42 mln dlr trade surplus was encouraging as were imports at
2.77 billion dlrs, down from 2.99 billion in January.
    But he warned that the outlook for rural and iron and coal
exports remained poor. "We should remember we are paying
something like seven to eight billion dollars simply to service
our foreign debt and that is not going to go away in the near
term," Buttrose said.
    Buttrose said he expected a March deficit of around 900 mln
dlrs, and added "Any figure under a billion dollars will be
acceptable (to the markets)."
    ANZ Banking Group Ltd <ANZA.S> senior economist Ian Little
said the big question was whether the improvement in exports
could be sustained. February FOB exports rose to 2.82 billion
dlrs from a revised 2.74 billion in January.
    Interest rates responded quickly to the deficit news, with
90-day bank bill yields falling to 16.42-16.45 pct from early
highs of 16.50 and yields yesterday as high as 16.65.
    Longer term yields fell with 10-year bonds at 13.66/68 pct
from 13.74 before the release and highs of 13.87 yesterday.
    The stock market was easier at midsession but brokers said
the current account data had little impact on trading.
 REUTER

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp
<HKBH.HK> is close to a deal on the sale of a commercial
building in Hong Kong's Mongkok business district, a bank
    He said the 21-storey Wayfoong Plaza was likely to be sold
for about 280 mln H.K. Dlrs but declined to identify the buyer.
    The spokesman gave no further details.
 REUTER

China will set quotas later this month
to cut the amount of farmland converted to non-agricultural
uses, the China Daily said.
    The quotas will restrict the conversion of farmland to
farmers' housing or construction by state departments and
collective institutions and enterprises.
    The newspaper quoted Wang Xianjin, general director of the
State Land Administration, as saying the 1987 quota would be
below the 320,000 hectares lost in 1985. Land loss and
population growth have cut cultivated land per person to
one-tenth of a hectare, half the amount of the early 1950s.
 REUTER

Thailand's M-1 money supply rose 9.8
pct to an estimated 117.3 billion baht in January after
increasing 6.6 pct in December, the Bank of Thailand said.
    It said year-on-year M-1 grew 23.1 pct in January after an
18.5 pct increase in December.
    The central bank said M-2 rose 1.7 pct to an estimated
686.5 billion baht in January after a 2.4 pct increase in
December while year-on-year it expanded 13.3 pct after a 12.6
pct rise in December.
 REUTER

The Economic Planning Agency will
announce gross national product (GNP) figures for the
October/December quarter today at 1700 hrs local time (0800
gmt), Agency officials told Reuters.
    In the July/September quarter, GNP rose 0.6 pct from the
previous three months.
 REUTER

U.S.-backed Contra rebels tried to blow
up an electricity pylon supplying a Managua industrial zone in
what Western diplomats say was the rebels' first sabotage
attack in the Nicaraguan capital.
    An Interior Ministry statement said power supplies were not
affected by the blast, which slightly damaged the tower. No
injuries were reported.
    Residents near the site of the blast told reporters the
rebels also scattered leaflets in the area, encouraging
rebellion against the Sandinista government.
 REUTER

Taiwan's balance of payments surplus
widened to a record 16.62 billion U.S. Dlrs in calendar 1986
from 9.35 billion in 1985, the central bank said.
    A bank official attributed the increase mainly to Taiwan's
growing trade surplus, which increased to a record 16.8 billion
U.S. Dlrs in 1986 from 11.2 billion in 1985.
    He said the deficit on invisible trade narrowed to 740 mln
U.S. Dlrs from 1.97 billion.
    Invisible earnings rose to 6.77 billion from 5.09 billion
while invisible spending climbed to 7.51 billion from 7.06
billion, he said.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) yesterday
warned Japan and the United States, its main trading partners,
that friction over trade issues is affecting the EC's relations
with both countries.
    EC foreign ministers issued a statement deploring Japan's
continued trade imbalance and appealed for the country to make
a greater effort to open up its markets. They also said they
were disturbed by a draft bill before the U.S. Congress that
would impose permanent quotas on textile imports and were
prepared to react. The U.S. Administration has already
distanced itself from the bill.
    EC External Trade Commissioner Willy De Clercq has written
to his U.S. Counterpart, Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter,
outlining the EC's concerns.
    The statement said ministers were very disturbed by U.S.
Moves towards protectionism. "The adoption of such measures
would not fail to have a negative effect on the process of
multilateral negotiations just started, as well as on bilateral
relations," it said.
    Any unilateral U.S. Moves would leave the EC no option but
to react according to the laws of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade, it said.
trade (and) expect Japan to open up its market more."
    The statement said the EC would continue to insist that
Japan boost imports and stimulate domestic demand.
    Ministers also called on the EC Commission to prepare a
report on U.S.-Japanese trade for July this year to enable them
to take appropriate action where necessary.
were determined not to let the Japanese question drop. "It will
    De Clercq, talking to journalists during the meeting, said,
"There is a certain nervousness, a growing impatience within the
Community concerning trade relations with Japan."
    The EC is not satisfied with Japan's inability to cut its
trade surplus, and the Commission has adopted a tough approach
on imports of goods such as Japanese photocopiers, where it has
imposed 20 pct anti-dumping duties.
    But diplomats said the EC is keen to negotiate with Tokyo
to solve the problem rather than embark on a costly and
damaging trade war, and the ministers called for more
cooperation with Japan in industry and research.
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Buoyed by low fuel prices and
favourable currency factors, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd's
<CAPH.HK> 1986 profits are expected to surpass the airline's
forecast of one billion H.K. Dlrs, stock analysts said.
    Analysts said they expect the airline to show net earnings
of between 1.1 billion and 1.25 billion dlrs when it reports
results tomorrow for its first year as a public company.
    Cathay, 51 pct owned by Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HK>, made
its earnings forecast in the prospectus for its flotation in
May last year.
    Cathay is expected to pay a 13-cent final dividend, making
a total of 19 cents for the year, as forecast in the
prospectus, analysts polled by Reuters said.
    They said the airline's performance improved in the second
half of the year after it reported interim profits of 503 mln
dlrs.
    The weakness of the local currency, pegged at 7.80 to one
U.S. Dollar, and low fuel prices moved further in the company's
favour from the assumptions made in the prospectus at the time
of the flotation, James Capel (Far East) Ltd said.
    James Capel estimates average fuel prices for the airline
industry in 1986 at 63 U.S. Cents per gallon, 27 pct below the
1985 level. It said a one pct movement in fuel prices would
affect Cathay's net profits by 10 mln dlrs and forecast profits
of 1.25 billion dlrs.
     Analysts said the company's estimates of fuel price and
currency movements set out in its prospectus were conservative.
    "This is reflected in their interim results which showed
that profit margin has increased," said Frederick Tsang of
Mansion House Securities (F.E.) Ltd.
    Cathay's six-month turnover rose 19.8 pct from year-earlier
levels, but profits rose 69 pct.
    The rise in oil prices in late 1986 had little impact on
the company's fuel oil bill last year, as aviation fuel prices
usually lag behind crude price movements by several months,
    By last September the yen had risen some 54 pct against the
Hong Kong dollar from the end of 1985, the mark 43 pct and
sterling 12 pct.
    "Overall the weakness of the Hong Kong dollar against
Cathay's major trading currencies helped push passenger yields
in the first half up 7.2 pct," said James Capel. "This should
continue through the second half to enable passenger yields to
end the year up 7.6 pct."
    A strong performance from the 2.9 billion dlrs in cash
under management also improved profits, James Capel said.
    A general improvement in air traffic last year contributed
to Cathay's revenue increase, but the company's load factor
declined because of increased competition and an expansion of
its fleet and services.
    James Capel estimated Cathay's passenger-kilometres flown
last year rose six pct from 1985 and freight-kilometres flown
climbed 17 pct, though the airline's load factor probably fell
to 68.8 pct from 70 pct.
    "Cathay added new planes, and was forced to fly some routes
last year because of the threat of competition from Dragon Air,"
said Tsang. "This affected its load factor."
    Fear of possible competition from fledgling carrier <Hong
Kong Dragon Airways Ltd> may have contributed to Cathay's
decision to resume service to New Zealand last year, analysts
said.
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The Renison Goldfields Consolidated Ltd
<RGFJ.S> (RGC) Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania will stay open
for an extra five years following a new aid package from the
state government, RGC said in a statement.
    The mine had been scheduled to close in 1989 after the 40
series stopes were mined, but will now stay open until the
deeper 50 and 60 series have played out, probably in 1994.
    The Australian dollar's fall since 1985 also improved the
local dollar copper price, making the company profitable and
justifying the mining of deeper reserves at a copper grade of
about 1.95 pct against about 1.60 pct now, the firm said.
    Ore output will be cut, but the higher grades will keep
contained-copper output at current levels of about 24,000
tonnes a year, it said. Capital expenditure of about 18 mln
dlrs will be required over the life of the new plan, RGC said.
    The latest aid package is the third since 1977 for RGC, a
major employer in Queenstown on the thinly populated west coast
of Tasmania.
    The mine was kept open in 1985 after Tasmania gave RGC 10
mln dlrs in aid. The new package includes an eight mln dlr
advance to RGC at the long-term bond rate, power concessions
and deferred royalties and payroll taxes.
 REUTER

<Independent Newspapers Ltd> (INL)
said it bought two more community newspapers in Houston, Texas,
through a subsidiary there, for an undisclosed sum.
    INL said in a statement <Houston Community Newspapers Inc>
bought the South West Advocate and the South Bend Advocate,
with combined circulation of 74,000 copies, and associated
assets, from <The Advocate Communications Corp Inc>.
    INL publishes Wellington's morning and evening newspapers
as well as New Zealand provincial dailies and newspapers in
Rhode Island. Just under 40 pct of INL is owned by <News Ltd>,
an Australian subsidiary of News Corp Ltd <NCPA.S>.
    Production and administration of the two publications would
be transferred to the company's existing centre in Houston. INL
said the acquisition took effect on March 1.
    INL chairman Alan Burnet said the purchase would enable the
subsidiary to offer advertisers a combined distribution of nine
community newspapers to 340,000 homes in the greater Houston
area. Trading conditions in the area are particularly difficult
because the city's economy depends to a large extent on the
fortunes of the petroleum industry, but the situation should
improve in the medium to long term and the investment will
prove to be sound, he said.
 REUTER

India is preparing to launch
its first intercontinental-range rocket, which it insists is
part of a purely peaceful space program.
    But a space department official who did not wish to be
identified said the Augmented Space Launch Vehicle (ASLV), with
the range of an intercontinental rocket and able to carry a
150-kg satellite, could be converted into a weapon after
modifications.
    Space Commission Chairman Udipi Ramachandra Rao said the
ASLV will be launched between March 20 and April 5, depending
on weather and other factors.
    "This launch will pave the way for the most important stage,
by the end of 1989, when we test the Polar Space Launch Vehicle
(PSLV)," Rao told Reuters.
    The space department official said the PSLV would be able
to launch 1,000-kg satellites into polar orbit.
    Rao said a successful ASLV launch could speed up the space
program slightly but was not likely to solve the problem of a
backup satellite for India's Insat 1B.
    Insat 1B handles telephone communications, controls 182 of
the country's 187 television stations and provides
meteorological data for farmers.
    "It is a great worry that we do not have a second satellite
to back up Insat 1B in case it fails. Even with Insat 1C's
launch by Ariane in the first quarter of 1988, we will still be
in trouble because the life of Insat 1B ends in 1989," Rao said.
    He said India plans to send up Insat 1D as soon as possible
as a backup for Insat 1C, but will have to wait for a place on
a NASA or Ariane launch vehicle. "We can't use Soviet vehicles
because the satellites are made in the United States," he said.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Richard Lyng warned the European Community yesterday it will
face serious retaliation if it enacts a new tax on products
such as U.S. Soybean oil.
    Speaking at a news conference before a scheduled speech,
Lyng said he did not think the tax, which is still in the
discussion stage, would be approved.
    He said the U.S. Would take serious retaliatory action
because if implemented, the tax would have a considerable
impact on U.S. Farmers.
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The Kobe Rubber Exchange said it will
extend its trading hours from May 1 to enable more operators to
use the exchange.
    Subject to Ministry of International Trade and Industry
approval, the Exchange will add a sixth session starting at
1700 local time, and will close the account for trading at the
new session the following day before the opening call starts at
0930 local time, an Exchange official said.
    Trading on the Singapore rubber market, a major producer
price indicator for Japanese end-users, is usually active after
the end of the current final session here.
    The introduction of the new session will enable
participants to trade overnight after taking account of
Singapore rubber prices, because brokers and members who are
designated by the Kobe Exchange are allowed to add the volume
traded overnight to the new final session before the opening
session starts next day, the official said.
    But because the Kobe Exchange uses the auction system which
sets a fixed price at each session, the price of contracts
traded overnight should be a fixed price settled at the sixth
session, he added.
    Industry sources said they expected the Ministry to approve
the plan because it has encouraged the Japanese futures
industry to expand and internationalise.
    The Tokyo Commodity Exchange for Industry, TOCOM, which
also trades rubber futures in Japan, said it has no plans to
introduce an extra session.
    TOCOM also has five rubber trading sessions a day. Four
sessions start 15 minutes later than Kobe Exchange sessions,
but both Exchanges' final sessions start at the same time.
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Coastal Corp said a federal bankruptcy
court will hear its request today for a restraining order to
stop a two billion dlr lawsuit against it by <TransAmerican
Natural Gas Corp>.
    TransAmerican, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings in 1983 to reorganise its debts, filed the lawsuit
to block Coastal from taking control.
    Coastal spokesman Jim Bailey confirmed the company, which
is an unsecured creditor of TransAmerican, would present its
own reorganisation plan to the bankruptcy court.
    Under the plan, Coastal would buy the natural gas reserves
and pipeline system owned by TransAmerican in Texas for an
    TransAmerican lawyer John Nabors said the company values
its total assets, including an unused oil refinery, at about
one billion dlrs.
    The company, the second-largest natural gas producer in
Texas, said it has gas reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic feet and
over 1,000 miles of pipeline and gas gathering lines.
    About 80 pct of TransAmerican's gas is available for spot
market sales in Texas during peak demand, it said.
    Nabors said the TransAmerican reorganisation would repay
its 770 mln dlr debt with profits from natural gas sales. The
lawsuit seeks one billion dlrs in actual damages and one
billion in punitive damages from Coastal.
    Coastal has been trying to break into the Texas gas market
since 1979, when it was forced to sell <Lo-Vaca Gas Gathering
Co> to settle over 1.6 billion dlrs in lawsuits by Texas
customers facing abrupt curtailment of supply.
    Coastal, a natural gas producer and pipeline company,
earned 71.6 mln dlrs on sales of 6.7 billion in 1986, about
half the its 1985 profits, due to slumping energy prices.
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India's state owned <National Thermal
Power Corp Ltd> signed a 169.1 mln mark Italian buyer's credit,
Bankers Trust Co, a joint lead manager, said.
    The 15-1/2 year facility, with a six year grace period,
carries fixed interest of 6.48 pct. It is guaranteed by the
Indian government with an interest subsidy provided by Italy's
export credit agency, Mediocredito Centrale.
    The lead managers are the State Bank of India, Grindlays
Bank Plc and MecFint (Jersey) Ltd. Managers are Dresdner (South
East Asia) Ltd, Mitsui Trust and Banking Co Ltd and the UCO
Bank. Co-manager is DB Asia Finance (HK) Ltd.
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TOKYO STOCK MARKET AVERAGE RISES 99.36 TO RECORD CLOSING HIGH OF 21,514.73

A government study has concluded the
U.S. Will be dependent on oil from the middle east into the
next century and must take steps to reduce its vulnerability,
the New York Times said.
    The newspaper said the inter-agency government study found
a serious oil-dependency problem due to steadily falling
domestic production and rising demand for imported oil.
    The study concluded that by 1995 the U.S. Will be relying
on foreign countries for 50 pct of its oil, more than the peak
of 48 pct reached in 1977 and far above the 33 pct rate during
the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo.
    The U.S. Now imports about 38 pct of its oil needs, up from
27 pct a year ago, the New York Times said.
    It said recommendations sent to the White House by Energy
Secretary John Harrington include financial incentives to raise
domestic oil production by one mln barrels a day from the
current 8.4 mln barrels.
    The newspaper said the administration has placed increased
emphasis on stockpiling oil reserves. It said the view now held
is that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be tapped in times
of shortages, should be increased by 100,000 barrels a day,
rather than 35,000 as called for in the 1988 budget.
   The newspaper said Harrington may propose restoring the
depletion allowance to major producers.
    "The administration also plans to renew its efforts to
...Repeal the windfall profits tax, remove bars to drilling on
the outer continental shelf and repeal the law that limits the
use of natural gas in industrial and utility boilers," it added.
    The New York Times quoted Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma
as saying the study greatly underestimated potential U.S.
Demand for imported oil in the next decade and overestimated
the amount of domestic oil which would be produced.
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JAPAN M-2 PLUS CD MONEY SUPPLY ROSE 8.8 PCT IN YEAR TO FEBRUARY (JAN 8.6) - OFFICIAL

Japan's broadly defined money supply
average of M-2 plus certificate of deposits (CDs) rose a
preliminary 8.8 pct in February from a year earlier, compared
with an 8.6 pct rise in January, the Bank of Japan said.
    The seasonally adjusted February average of M-2 plus CDs
supply rose 0.8 pct from January, it said.
    Unadjusted M-2 plus CDs stood at an average 336,000 billion
yen in February compared with 337,100 billion yen in January.
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is issuing 1.6 billion ringgit worth of loan stock on the
domestic money market, a treasury statement said.
    The issue, the first such offering this year, will comprise
250 mln ringgit of eight-year stock at 6.6 pct, 700 mln of
10-year stock at 6.8 pct and 650 mln of 21-year stock at 7.6
pct, all prices at par, it said.
    The issue is open with immediate effect and will close when
fully subscribed, the statement said.
    Proceeds will be used to finance development.
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China's grain imports will rise
in 1987 because of a serious drought and increasing demand, but
will be not be as large as in the past, Chinese officials and
Japanese traders told Reuters.
    They said foreign exchange constraints and national policy
would not allow a return to large-scale imports, which peaked
at 16.15 mln tonnes in 1982.
    An agricultural official of the Shanghai government put
maximum imports at about 10 mln tonnes this year, against 7.73
mln in 1986 and 5.97 mln in 1985.
    Officials said grain imports rose in 1986 because of a poor
harvest and rising domestic demand, but remained below exports,
which rose to 9.42 mln tonnes from 9.33 mln in 1985.
    "China is short of foreign exchange," the Shanghai official
said. "We cannot rely on imports, even at current low world
prices. Only if there is a major disaster will we become a
major importer."
    A Japanese trader in Peking said Chinese grain imports
would rise and exports fall this year because of the drought,
low world prices and rising domestic demand for human and
animal consumption.
    "At current prices, China loses yuan on every tonne of grain
it exports, though it earns foreign exchange which it badly
needs," the trader said.
    The People's Daily said last Saturday a serious drought is
affecting 13.3 mln hectares of arable land, which will reduce
the summer grain harvest from last year's level.
    The paper added that leaders in some areas were not paying
enough attention to agriculture, especially grain, making it
difficult to achieve the 1987 grain output target of 405 mln
tonnes against 391 mln in 1986.
    "All areas must spare no effort to raise the autumn harvest
area, especially of corn, sweet potatoes, paddy rice and
high-yield cash crops," it said.
    It added factory production might have to be reduced to
provide electricity for agriculture if it was needed to fight
the drought.
    Since January, the press has devoted much attention to
grain, stressing that growth in output is vital to China's
economic and political stability and that prices paid to
farmers are too low.
    Officials in east China have repeatedly said stable grain
production is a key state policy and outlined the measures
being taken in their areas to encourage output.
    The Shanghai official said that in one suburb, 10 pct of
the pre-tax profits of factories are used to subsidise
agriculture. He said rural industries in other suburbs also set
aside money for grain and pay the salaries of some of the
70,000 workers available to help farmers.
    Chu Jinfeng, an official of Fengbing county outside
Shanghai, said factory workers get 60 yuan a month and three
years unpaid leave to grow grain and can keep the profits.
    Pan Huashan, an official of the agricultural department of
Zhejiang Province, said rural industry also subsidises grain
output in his province.
    "In addition, we are setting up grain production bases,
raising the level of science and technology on the farms and
improving the supply of raw materials, roads and other
infrastructure," he said.
    The Shanghai official said rural residents who work in
industry or commerce usually keep their land to farm in their
spare time, or let other family members farm it. In some cases,
they lease the land to grain farmers.
    The China Daily said last month that grain output should
reach between 425 and 450 mln tonnes by 1990 and between 480
and 500 mln by 2000. It said growing grain should be made
profitable.
    "The advantages the state promises grain growers actually
yield tangible profits for them and are not siphoned off by
intermediate agencies because of bureaucracy or corruption.
Only this will boost enthusiasm," it said.
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South Korea proposed a meeting of prime
ministers to improve relations with North Korea, but said the
two countries must first restore mutual trust.
    South Korean Prime Minister Lho Shin-yong proposed in a
letter to his North Korean counterpart Li Gun-mo that they meet
to "discuss ... Various issues raised by the two sides to
improve relations and ease tension."
    The letter, released to the media by a government
spokesman, said if the proposed meeting took place it would
open the way for summit talks between South Korean President
Chun Doo Hwan and North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.
    The letter was in reply to a recent North Korean call for
high-level political and military talks.
    Lho said the prime ministers could discuss any proposal to
be made by the North, once "the minimum conditions for mutual
trust have been created by the convening of a water resources
meeting and the resumption of the suspended dialogues."
    Lho was referring to discussions on a controversial
northern dam project Seoul has said is aimed at flooding large
areas of the South, and to a resumption of stalled talks on
trade and humanitarian issues.
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The government proposed a 1987 budget
of up to 41.7 billion Syrian pounds, a 4.8 pct decrease from
last year's allocation.
    Finance minister Qahtan Seyoufi told parliament last night
the reduction was due mainly to a cut in investment
allocations.
    Planned recurrent spending of 24.2 billion pounds, almost
unchanged from 1986, took account of national security needs
and "Syria's role in steadfastness and liberation," he said.
    The budget, which is still subject to approval by
parliament and by President Hafez al-Assad, also aims to meet
mounting spending on education, health and essential imports.
    Power and water projects would take up 43.5 pct of
investment allocations of 17.5 billion pounds and agriculture
about 20 pct, Seyoufi said.
    The budget's basic goals were to restrict current spending,
curb inflation and step up reliance on local resources, he
said.
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Japan October/December GNP up 0.8 pct (July/Sept revised 0.7 rise) - official

Japan GNP rises 2.5 pct in calendar 1986 (4.7 pct in 1985) - official

Japan's gross national product (GNP) rose
a real 0.8 pct in the October/December quarter after an
upwardly revised 0.7 pct increase the previous three months,
the Economic Planning Agency (EPA) said.
    The rise in the July/September quarter had originally been
put at 0.6 pct. The annualized growth rate accelerated to 3.2
pct in October/December from 3.0 pct in July/September.
    In the 1986 calendar year, GNP rose 2.5 pct, after a 4.7
pct increase in 1985. Last year's performance was the worst
since 1974, when GNP fell 1.4 pct. Agency officials blamed the
strong yen for depressing exports and manufacturing industry.
    In nominal terms, GNP rose 0.5 pct in the October/December
quarter, reflecting stable prices, after a one pct increase in
the previous three months, the Agency said.
    Domestic real demand increased 0.6 pct in October/December,
after a one pct rise the previous quarter.
    Domestic demand contributed 0.5 percentage point to real
GNP growth in October/December, while foreign trade added 0.2.
The figures do not tally exactly due to rounding.
    In July/September, domestic demand contributed one
percentage point to GNP growth while foreign trade knocked off
0.3 point.
    Of the 0.2 point contribution of foreign trade to GNP last
quarter, falling exports knocked off 0.2 while falling imports
contributed 0.4 point.
    Total export volume fell 1.2 pct quarter on quarter in
October/December. Imports also fell, by 2.9 pct.
    Of the 0.5 point contribution of domestic demand to
October/December GNP growth, the private sector accounted for
0.4 point and the public sector, 0.2.
    The private sector contribution included 0.3 point for
housebuilding, 0.4 for corporate capital outlays and 0.1 for
stockbuilding. Consumer spending had a 0.4 negative impact.
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<The Commonwealth Bank of Australia>
said it was preparing a 500 mln dlr commercial paper facility
aimed at establishing a new Australian dollar denominated paper
market in Asia.
    Commonwealth senior manager Graham Hand told Reuters the
facility was the first in a program modelled on the U.S.
Commercial paper market.
    Hand said the bank was still putting together its dealing
panel and would begin discussing the facility with potential
customers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo next month. It
hoped to launch the facility soon afterwards, he said.
    The paper would be investor driven with the bank gauging
demand through the dealing panel which would also offer a
liquid secondary market, Hand said.
    For flexibility the bank would post yields daily to dealers
on an absolute rate basis providing a range of short term
maturities. The paper would be issued at a discount and
guaranteed by the Australian government, Hand said.
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The government will find it very
difficult to achieve its new gross national product (GNP)
forecast of three pct growth in the fiscal year ending March
31, Economic Planning Agency officials said.
    They made the comment to reporters after news that GNP rose
0.8 pct in the October/December quarter, after a 0.7 pct
increase the previous three months.
    For Japan to achieve three pct growth in 1986/87, GNP in
the January/March period would have to grow 2.6 pct from
October/December, the officials said. The government lowered
its GNP forecast for 1986/87 from four pct last December.
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Schlumberger Ltd's <SLB.N> decision to
end an agreement in principle for Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> to buy
80 pct of its <Fairchild Semiconductor Corp>, and the political
furore that surrounded the proposed sale, will make Japanese
companies more cautious in their efforts to acquire U.S. High
technology firms but will not halt such attempts, industry
    The collapse of the deal will not be a critical blow to
Fujitsu but it will boost the cost of future U.S. Expansion by
the Japanese firm, said analysts polled by Reuters.
    "The acquisition of Fairchild is not essential to Fujitsu's
North American operations, but it would have been a great
boost," James Capel and Co analyst Tom Murtha said.
    French-controlled Schlumberger said yesterday it was ending
the agreement because mounting political controversy in the
U.S. Made it unlikely that the sale of the Fairchild stake
could be completed in a reasonable time.
    The sale was opposed by the U.S. Commerce Department and
Defence Department, partly on national security grounds.
    Fujitsu's acquisition of Fairchild would have given the
Japanese computer maker control of a comprehensive North
American sales and distribution system and access to
microprocessor technology, an area where Fujitsu is weak,
    The deal would also have given Fujitsu 14 additional
microchip production facilities worldwide, eight of them in the
U.S., A report by the Capel firm said.
    "It was an entry point, a port for semiconductors and a
marketing channel for other things," said Barclays de Zoete Wedd
analyst Rick May.
    Several analysts said the purchase would not have given
Fujitsu access to critical defence technology.
    "(Fairchild) simply doesn't have key technology -- that's a
thing of the past," May said.
    The failure could be a blessing in disguise for Fujitsu as
it might have had to spend several hundred million dollars to
modernise Fairchild's production lines, Capel's Murtha said.
    The failure of the deal will doubtless encourage Japanese
firms to take a lower profile in attempts to acquire U.S. High
tech firms but they are unlikely to stop, analysts said.
    Most analysts said Fujitsu was likely to go the more costly
route of expanding its own production and distribution
facilities in the U.S., Although some said it could use the
estimated 200 mln dlrs set aside for buying Fairchild to try to
acquire some less politically symbolic firm.
    "It may slow the pace of Japanese acquisitions, but the
necessity of expanding their production and design capacity in
America remains," said Capel's Murtha. "The Japanese will
continue to shop for bargains, but it will be harder to find
ones that are politically acceptable."
    Japanese firms are likely to favour joint ventures or
smaller equity stakes in firms to avoid the political backlash
that blocked the Fairchild sale, analysts said. "They're not
going to slow up, they're just going to buy smaller pieces ...
Because of the political risk," said Barclays de Zoete's May.
    Several Japanese firms have already taken 10 to 30 pct
shares in smaller U.S. High technology firms such as super
minicomputer makers, he said.
    Opposition of the sort that blocked Fujitsu could end up
harming U.S. Firms and undermining a trend toward multinational
tie-ups, some analysts said.
    "This is not really of benefit to U.S. Firms either," said
Jardine Fleming (Securities) Ltd analyst Nick Edwards. "The
pooling of resources in semiconductors is a positive move --
why should the government step in to prevent it?"
    Japan's Minister of International Trade and Industry Hajime
Tamura told a press conference that interference by U.S.
Government officials in the Fairchild deal was inappropriate.
    "This is entirely a private sector matter and not a matter
for governments' comment," Tamura said. "I think it was improper
for U.S. Government officials to intervene to the extent they
did," he said.
    A spokesman told Reuters the ministry's view is that
international investment flows ought to be free and that such
flows are of increasing importance in line with the growing
closeness of U.S.-Japanese economic ties.
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The Bank of Japan will sell 300 billion
yen of financing bills tomorrow under a 55-day repurchase
accord maturing on May 12, money traders said.
    The bills are meant to soak up a projected money market
surplus due largely to coupon and principle payments of a
previously issued Japanese National Railways bond.
houses from money houses will be 3.9497 pct against the 3.9375
4.43/32 pct yield on two-month certificates of deposit today.
The sale will raise the bill supply to 1,500 billion yen.
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Japan has complained to the secretariat
of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that South
Korea's five-year plan to cut its trade deficit with Japan
breaks GATT rules, Trade Ministry officials here said.
    They said Japan submitted a report earlier this month
alleging South Korea's plan to import less from Japan and more
from the U.S. And elsewhere was tantamount to creating
non-tariff trade barriers.
    South Korea unveiled the plan in November. It said it hoped
to narrow its trade deficit with Japan to two billion dlrs by
1991.
    South Korea's trade deficit with Japan was a record 5.45
billion dlrs in 1986, and rose to 752 mln dlrs in the first two
months of 1987 from 727 mln in the same 1986 period.
    The plan envisages giving incentives to importers not to
import Japanese goods, and to exporters to sell more to Japan.
    The officials said they believed the Japanese action, one
step short of filing a suit, was designed to bring South Korea
to the negotiating table and stop the plan.
    The Seoul government wants Tokyo to ease various import
restrictions and simplify customs inspections for South Korean
goods to help reduce the trade deficit.
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Spot volume in the Australian foreign
exchange market jumped to a record 22.63 billion dlrs a day in
January from 16.18 billion in December and 8.27 billion a year
earlier, the Reserve Bank said in its monthly bulletin.
    The previous record was 17.51 billion dlrs last August.
    The peak broke a steady trading trend of 15 to 17 billion
dlrs a day seen in the second half of 1986.
    Including forward deals, total deliverable volume was 27.01
billion dlrs a day (13.43 billion against the Australian
dollar) against 19.56 billion (8.48 billion) in December and
9.92 billion (5.88 billion) a year earlier, the bank said.
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The Agriculture Ministry is expected to
reduce official intervention prices for beef and pork in
1987/88 starting in April, but the cutback ratio has not been
set yet, industry sources said.
    Production prices, the basis for setting intervention
prices, have been falling because of declining compound feed
prices due to low coarse grain import prices, they said.
    Last November an advisory panel urged the government to
work on reducing officially set high farm product prices to
levels closer to international values, the sources added.
    In Japan the government maintains a price stabilisation
zone system for beef and pork to support domestic producers.
    The stabilisation zone is kept by the semi-government
Livestock Industry Promotion Corp (LIPC) through a buffer stock
operation in the wholesale market.
    The 1987/88 beef and pork price stabilisation zone will be
set by the end of March after an advisory panel to the
Agriculture Ministry recommends the price zone at a meeting on
March 25, ministry officials said. At present, the standard or
bottom price of castrated wagyu beef, known as marbled beef, is
1,400 yen per kilo, while its ceiling is 1,820, they said.
    The standard price of other beef, mainly produced from
dairy steers, is now 1,090 yen per kilo and the ceiling is
1,420, the officials said. The pork standard price is now 540
yen per kilo and the ceiling 760.
    They said the domestic beef intervention price influences
imported beef selling prices on the domestic market.
    Japan sets an annual beef import quota. A semi-government
body imports most of this and releases it to wholesalers or
processors in line with the standard price of other beef
categories in an attempt to avoid jeoparadising domestic beef
prices, they said.
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Swiss watchmaker SMH Societe Suisse de
Microelectronique et d'Horlogerie is issuing a 100 mln Swiss
franc 10-year bond with warrants to buy participation
certificates, lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland said.
    The bond carries a 2-1/4 pct coupon and is priced at par.
Subscription is from March 24 to 30. The bond can be called at
par on April 15, 1995 or 1996. Each 2,000 franc bond carries
three warrants, each of which allows the purchase of one
certificate, of a nominal 100 francs, at a price of 600 francs
from June 1, 1987 until November 30, 1990. The certificates,
created in October last year, closed at 570 francs today.
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Danish central bank cuts overnight money market interest rate to 10.5 pct from 11 pct - official

Year ended January 31
    Parent shr 5.73 yen vs 5.80
    Div five yen vs same
    Net 7.01 billion vs 6.77 billion
    Current 24.06 billion vs 23.76 billion
    Operating 37.62 billion vs 45.26 billion
    Sales 630.08 billion vs 810.89 billion
    NOTE - Company forecast for current year parent div five
yen, net seven to eight billion, current 24 billion, sales 610
billion.
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The Belgian government's new 150
billion franc, eight pct loan has been priced at par, a Finance
Ministry spokesman said.
     The eight-year loan features a call option after four
years at 102, falling to 101-1/2 after five years and by half a
point each year thereafter.
    The conditions are the same as those on the most recent
public authority loan stock issue, for the state road building
fund Fonds des Routes.
members of the issuing consortium, comprising major commercial
banks, and the remaining 30 billion by publicly-owned credit
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The Taiwan cabinet approved a record
deficit budget calling for government spending of 479.67
billion Taiwan dlrs in fiscal 1987/88 starting July 1, a
cabinet statement said.
    The budget, which has been submitted to parliament for
approval in May, represents an increase in spending of 11 pct
over the 432.06 billion dlrs budgeted for the current year.
    The deficit will widen by 33 pct to a record 73.97 billion
dlrs from 55.6 billion in the current year.
    Spending on defence and foreign affairs, traditionally
combined, will be 175.92 billion dlrs against 160.33 billion.
    Social affairs will receive 85.37 billion dlrs against
71.76 billion. Economic construction and communications will
receive 82.68 billion against 85.49 billion, and education
62.21 billion compared with 54.34 billion.
    Public debt repayments will rise to 23.91 billion dlrs from
17.86 billion.
    Central government revenue from business and personal tax
and sales from the government alchohol and cigarette monopoly
will be 262.52 billion dlrs, 54.7 pct of the total.
    Income from state-owned corporations will be 99.50 billion
dlrs, accounting for 20.8 pct of the total.
    Income from sales of property and fines imposed by the
government will bring in 28.59 billion dlrs, 5.9 pct of the
total.
    The 1987/88 deficit will be covered by the issue of
government bonds worth 59.5 billion dlrs and a budget surplus
of 13.54 billion from the current year.
    The cabinet allocated 16.92 billion dlrs to cover a 10 pct
rise in civil service salaries.
    Central government revenue, excluding proceeds from sales
of government bonds, but including the carried over current
year budget surplus, will rise 6.6 pct to 419.24 billion dlrs.
    Total capital investment by the central government, local
governments and state-owned corporations will increase 38 pct
to 330 billion Taiwan dlrs, the statement said.
    Capital investment covers 14 major construction projects,
including several coal-fired power stations, highways, a
naphtha cracking plant and an underground railway.
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New foreign shipbuilding orders received
by Japanese yards in February rose to six vessels totalling
329,999 gross tons from three ships of 79,499 tons in January,
the Japan Ship Exporters Association said.
    This compared with six ships of 125,150 gross tons a year
earlier, an association official said.
    The backlog of orders at end-February was 157 ships of 4.41
mln gross tons against 161 ships of 4.39 mln a month earlier
and 265 vessels of 6.81 mln a year earlier, an association
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shortage of around 450 mln stg in the money market today.
some 650 mln stg while banker's balances below target will take
out around 50 mln stg.
and a fall in note circulation will add some 200 mln stg and 50
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Meritor Savings Bank, a U.S. Savings and
loan, is issuing 200 mln dlrs of collateralised eurobonds due
April 14, 1992 priced at 101-3/8, with a 7-1/2 pct coupon, lead
manager Goldman Sachs International Corp said.
    The issue is non-callable and is collateralised by U.S.
Treasury and agency securities and cash and will be offered in
targetted registered form. The bonds will be sold in
denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 dlrs and listed in
and underwriting combined. Payment is April 14.
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Major tanker operator Japan Line Ltd
<JLIT.T> said it will raise seven billion yen by issuing 63.66
mln shares at 110 yen each to help reduce debt and restore
profitability within two years.
    Half of the sum raised will be returned to creditor banks
which in December were asked to temporarily waive part of their
loan repayments, it said.
    The other half will be used to bolster operations hit by
the yen's steep appreciation and the global shipping slump, the
 MORE

Net profit 16.66 mln H.K. Dlrs vs 11.28 mln
    Total divs to shareholders 7.5 mln vs nil
    Note - Firm underwrote 23 capital market issues in 1986.
Next industrial transaction in May is syndication of a 35 mln
U.S. Dlr loan to the Shanghai Ta Chun Tyre Project. The company
is a joint venture merchant bank between the <Bank of China>,
<First National Bank of Chicago> and the Industrial Bank of
Japan <IBJT.T>
 REUTER

Swedish Export Credit (SEK) has launched
a novel 220 mln Australian dlr bond which will give the
investor the option of receiving interest and principal in
Australian dollars or marks, Warburg Securities said as lead
manager.
    The issue is a five-year bullet, maturing March 26, 1992,
and carries a coupon of 7-1/2 pct and is priced at 101-3/4.
    The coupon will be paid 75 pct in Australian dlrs, with the
investor having the option to receive the balance in Australian
dlrs or marks. Redemption at maturity is at par, when 50 pct
will be paid in Australian dlrs and again the investor will be
able to opt for the balance in one of the two currencies.
    The exchange rate has been fixed at 1.24 Australian dlrs to
the mark.
    Fees total two pct and are divided 1-3/8 pct for selling
and 5/8 pct for management and underwriting combined.
    The bonds will be sold in denominations of 500,000
Australian dlrs and listing will be in Luxembourg.
    Payment is March 26.
    The lead manager noted that the issue already has been
pre-placed in Europe and the Far East. It is believed to be the
largest ever issue denominated in Australian dlrs.
 REUTER

General Motors Acceptance Corp Canada is
issuing a 100 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due October 15, 1992
paying 8-1/2 pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Union
Bank of Switzerland Securities Ltd said.
    The bond, guaranteed by parent General Motors Acceptance
Corp, is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs
and will be listed in Luxembourg.
   Payment date on the issue if April 15, 1987 and the first
coupon will be short.
    Fees for the issue comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession
 REUTER

Honda Motor Co Ltd <HMC.T> said it
shifted production of motorcycles with engine capacity of 700
cc and bigger for sale in the U.S. To its wholly owned
subsidiary <Honda Motor of America Inc> in Ohio, partly due to
the yen's appreciation against the dollar.
    A parent company spokesman said the Ohio plant, which makes
360,000 cars a year, is now also producing 1,100 cc and 1,200
cc motorcycles, partly for export.
    Motorcycle output in Ohio totalled 28,000 in 1986, down 33
pct from a year earlier, but the shift in production will raise
production to 44,000 in 1987, the spokesman said.
    The move to the U.S. Of large motorcycle manufacturing was
also due partly to higher U.S. Tariffs for imported motorcyles
bigger than 700 cc, industry sources said.
    The U.S. Imposed tariffs on imports of large motorcycles
from April 1983, starting at 49.9 pct and gradually falling, to
help the U.S. Motorcycle manufacturing industry to reconstruct,
the sources said. The tariff for U.S. Fiscal year 1987/88 is
set at 14.5 pct.
    They said the U.S. Planned to cut the tariff to 4.4 pct for
fiscal 1988/89, but that the higher level is likely to be kept
for a few years due to the slow pace of reconstruction.
 REUTER

The heaviest rains for seven months are
believed to have saved more than one mln hectares of
drought-threatened crops in southeast China, the official New
China News Agency said.
    This week's rains have alleviated drought conditions in
Guangdong Province, the agency said.
    China has warned that this year's harvest will be affected
by drought in many areas.
 REUTER

Zambia has stopped sending its copper
exports through South Africa, the official Times of Zambia
said.
    The newspaper yesterday quoted highly placed sources as
saying the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM)
was diverting its mineral exports away from South Africa, but
it did not say which alternative routes were being used.
    ZCCM officials declined to comment on the report, but
Standwell Mapara, general manager of the Tanzania-Zambia
Railway Authority (TAZARA), told Reuters recently virtually all
Zambian mineral exports had been channelled along the TAZARA
line to Dar es Salaam for the last three months.
    During that period no Zambian copper had been shipped
through Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira - the only
other available route which avoids South Africa, Mapara said.
    Last December TAZARA carried 36,000 tonnes of Zambian
mineral ore, the line's record for any one month period, he
added.
    Copper, cobalt and other mineral exports account for 95 to
98 pct of Zambia's foreign exchange earnings and President
Kenneth Kaunda told Reuters in a recent interview it was vital
for his country to assure new outlets for them, avoiding the
traditional route through South Africa.
    Referring to Zambia's preparations for a possible cut in
economic links with South Africa, Kaunda told Reuters in an
interview on March 1, "My main concern, of course, is the mines
because whatever happens we must continue to run the mines."
    According to Mapara, TAZARA handled 1.1 mln tonnes of
freight last year and is still working well below its present
1.4 mln capacity. Kaunda said that once preparations had been
completed for evacuating Zambia's mineral exports on safe and
dependable routes his government would look to increase its
usage of TAZARA for other types of cargo.
    The 1986 annual report of Zambia's state-run Metal
Marketing Corporation said 81 pct of the country's metal
exports were channelled through Dar es Salaam last year, versus
79 pct in 1985. The report said Zambian copper production fell
to 463,000 tonnes last year from 526,000 in 1985.
    Despite the official optimism about diversifying Zambia's
export routes, diplomatic sources in Lusaka expressed
reservations about the capacity of Dar es Salaam and Beira
ports to handle all of Zambia's mineral exports, even if they
could be hauled there by train.
    "The two ports cannot in any way and in their present form
handle the huge exports of Zambian copper," one western diplomat
said.
    "A serious disruption in copper movement to the markets
could be brought about as it would pile up at the two ports
which lack the facilities and space to handle the copper
tonnage," he added.
 REUTER

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd <MITH.T>
and Mitsui and Co Ltd <MITS.T> are likely to win an order for
oil-related equipment worth about 600 mln yen this week from a
Hungarian company trading in equipment for the chemical
industry, sources in the industry said.
    The equipment, developed by Royal Dutch/Shell Group
<RD.AS>, removes water from carbonic acid gas which is injected
into oil wells to increase oil production.
    The sources said the Hungarian company, Chemokomplex, has
asked the World Bank for money to buy the equipment. Hungary
gets 90 pct of its crude oil from the Soviet Union.
 REUTER

<Nissho Iwai Corp> proposes to install a
transport system built by Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX> of
the U.S. In Japan's six billion dlr offshore airport at Osaka,
western Japan, a Nissho Iwai spokesman said.
    It also proposed <Chiyoda Chemical Engineering and
Construction Co> and <Hitachi Zosen Corp> install the unmanned
system, which will transport people between terminals.
    He would not confirm a local report which said the system
would cost about 30 mln dlrs. The proposal is one of several
being considered. The U.S., Europe and South Korea are pushing
hard for greater foreign participation.
 REUTER

Inflation in the 24 industrialised
nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development was 2.1 pct in the year to January, unchanged from
December, the OECD said.
    But monthly inflation throughout the OECD was an average
0.4 pct in January, a rise compared to the 0.2 pct in the last
quarter.
    Retail energy prices rose strongly in January, reflecting
the firming of world oil prices. For OECD states the increase
was 0.7 pct but the January level of retail energy prices was
still 11.6 pct lower than a year earlier, the OECD said.
    The increase in consumer prices excluding food and energy,
at 0.4 pct in January for the whole OECD area, was unchanged on
the four previous months, but over the year to January OECD
consumer prices rose by 3.5 pct, against 3.3 pct in December.
    Unadjusted annual inflation for the seven leading
industrialised nations in January was running at 4.4 pct in
Italy, 3.9 pct in Britain and Canada, three pct in France, 1.4
pct in the U.S., Minus 0.8 pct in West Germany and minus 1.5
pct in Japan, the OECD said.
 REUTER

Toronto Dominion Bank is issuing a 20
billion yen eurobond due April 6, 1992 with a 4-5/8 pct coupon
and priced at 101-5/8, lead manager Nomura International Ltd
said.
    The bonds will be listed in London and will be issued in
denominations of one mln yen.
    Fees consist of 5/8 pct for management and underwriting,
including a 20 basis point praecipuum, and 1-1/4 pct for
selling. Pay date is April 6.
 REUTER

The Stock Exchange of Singapore has
decided to discontinue a 150 mln dlr standby credit facility
for broking firms facing financial problems because of the
failure of Pan-Electric Industries Ltd, an exchange statement
said.
    The credit line from four local banks was set up on
December 3, 1985 to bail out firms involved in forward
contracts with Pan-Electric, which went into receivership in
November 1985 owing 390 mln dlrs. The company was wound up last
year.
    Local broking houses have been contributing a 0.125 pct
levy on share transactions to the scheme but will no longer do
so, the statement said.
 REUTER

Further talks will be held this morning
at Cargill U.K. Ltd's oilseed processing plant at Seaforth,
after yesterday's meeting between management and unions failed
to produce a solution to end the three month old strike, a
    Talks will be extended to tomorrow if there is no
breakthrough in today's session, he said.
 REUTER

Fuerzas Electricas de Catalunya (FECSA)
suspended repayments of principal on its debts in order to
start renegotiating its obligations with banks next month, a
    He said the decision did not affect payment of interest on
loans and debentures.
    FECSA faces repayments of 60 billion pesetas in interest
and 30 billion pesetas in principal this year.
    The Madrid stock exchange suspended trading in FECSA shares
on February 6, saying the company was unable to meet payments
on its 594 billion peseta debt.
    Foreign banks hold almost half the debt.
    The spokesman said FECSA was sending telexes to its
creditors to set dates for the renegotiation. It would seek
longer repayment deadlines and lower interest rates.
    He said banks had insisted on a formal declaration that
FECSA was suspending principal repayments before discussing a
renegotiation of its debts.
 REUTER

Indonesian sugar output is forecast by
the government to reach 2.126 mln tonnes in calendar 1987
against projected consumption of 2.039 mln tonnes, Agriculture
Minister Achmad Affandi said.
    Production in 1986, when Indonesia was forced to import
sugar, is officially estimated at 2.016 mln tonnes against
1.728 mln in 1985.
    The U.S. Embassy said in its annual Agriculture Report on
Indonesia there were growing signs that actual output was lower
than official figures. It estimated 1986 production at 1.8 mln
tonnes and forecast little change for 1987.
    Indonesia imported 162,000 tonnes of sugar towards the end
of last year and in early 1987 to boost low stocks.
    Affandi told reporters stocks fel to as low as 159,000
tonnes at the beginning of 1987. Industry sources said this
represented under one month's consumption.
    The minister said Indonesia should hold three months'
supply, or 510,000 tonnes.
    A spokesman for the National Logistics Bureau, which
distributes and stores sugar, said stocks this month were
489,437 tonnes. The harvesting season begins in April.
 REUTER

Taiwan's central bank issued 12 billion
Taiwan dlrs worth of certificates of deposit after issuing six
billion yesterday, bringing CD issues so far this year to
115.47 billion dlrs, a bank official told Reuters.
    The new CDs have maturities of six months, one year and two
years and bear interest rates ranging from 4.07 pct to 5.12
pct, he said.
    The issues are aimed at helping curb the growth of M-1b
money supply, which is the result of large foreign exchange
reserves. The reserves now total more than 51 billion U.S.
Dlrs.
 REUTER

The European Investment Bank said it
was advancing loans to Italy worth a total of 318.5 billion
European Currency Units, equivalent to 460.6 billion lire, to
finance transport, industry and infrastructure projects.
    It said 40 billion lire will go to state airline Alitalia
for the purchase of 10 McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD.N> MD82
aircraft.
    A further 14 billion lire loan will be made to the internal
Italian airline Alisarda for the purchase of one MD82 and the
improvement of an airport on the island of Sardinia.
    The bank said among the other loans was one of 40 billion
lire to Ing C. Olivetti SpA <OLIV.MI> unit Olivetti Peripheral
Equipment SpA.
    The money will help to enlarge a factory which produces
data processing equipment in the Piedmont region.
    The bank gave no details of the interest rates and other
terms for the loans. This is in accordance with its normal
policy.
 REUTER

FRENCH JANUARY PAYMENTS SURPLUS 0.3 BILLION FRANCS (3.8 BILLION DECEMBER SURPLUS)-OFFICIAL

The wholesale price index rose 1.1 pct
month-on-month in January 1987 after increasing by 0.3 pct in
December 1986, the national statistics institute Istat said.
    The index, base 1980 equals 100, registered 172.8 in
January compared with 170.9 in December.
    The January 1987 figure represents a fall over January 1986
of 1.7 pct after a year-on-year decrease in December 1986 of
2.5 pct.
 REUTER

The European Community cereal trade
lobby Coceral has written to Farm Commissioner Frans Andriessen
asking for talks on ways of preventing their members losing
money as a result of future realignments of currencies in the
European Monetary System.
    In the text of a letter made available to journalists,
Coceral says some members suffered considerable losses on
contracts entered into just before the last realignment in
January.
    This was because of an unforeseeable increase in monetary
compensatory amounts (MCA's) for some member states, it says.
    Coceral estimates losses sustained by West German traders
who are its members at 8.05 mln marks.
    It says Andriessen should work out new regulations to
prevent a repetition of such losses as a result of future
realignments.
    A Coceral spokesman said problems had arisen when traders
importing cereals from weak currency countries into those with
strong currencies bought the weak currencies with which they
were to pay for the cereals forward.
 REUTER

Taiwan's central bank is considering
proposals to ease currency restrictions to reduce foreign
exchange reserves of 51 billion U.S. Dlrs, a local newspaper
reported today.
    The China Times, which has close ties with the government,
quoted central bank governor Chang Chi-cheng as saying the
government had agreed in principle to liberalise financial
    The bank was considering proposals to allow firms and
individuals to hold foreign exchange and invest in foreign
stocks for the first time, Chang was quoted as saying.
    All foreign exchange must now be handed to local banks and
exchanged for local currency. Firms and individuals may only
invest in foreign government bonds, treasury bills and
certificates of deposit.
    Central bank and other government officials were not
available to comment on the report.
    Economists said it was likely that the government would
ease foreign exchange controls, but only gradually.
    They said vast foreign currency reserves, earned mainly
from huge trade surpluses with the United States, made Taiwan a
target for U.S. Protectionism.
    Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to 13.6 billion
U.S. Dlrs last year compared with 10.2 billion in 1985.
    "The central bank has to go in this direction," said Su
Han-min, chief economist with the International Commercial Bank
of China. "If they don't quicken the pace, Washington could
retaliate and really damage Taiwan."
 REUTER

France's current account payments surplus
slipped to a provisional 300 mln francs, seasonally adjusted,
in January from a downward revised surplus of 3.8 billion in
December, the Finance Ministry said.
    The December figure was revised from a provisional 4.8
billion franc surplus reported a month ago.
    On an unadjusted basis, January payments showed a 5.2
billion franc deficit after a revised 7.1 billion December
surplus. The December unadjusted surplus was revised down from
a provisional 8.2 billion.
    The Ministry said trade, measured on balance of payments
criteria, showed an unadjusted 7.1 billion franc January
deficit while services showed a 3.7 billion surplus.
    Other items, mainly including unilateral transfers, showed
a 1.8 billion deficit.
    The current account showed an adjusted surplus of 6.1
billion francs in January last year, and an unadjusted deficit
of one billion.
    The full year 1986 current account surplus was reported
last month at 25.8 billion francs.
 REUTER

Kobeya Baking Co Ltd is planning a
private placement of 10 mln Swiss franc notes paying 4-5/8 pct
and priced at 100-1/8 pct, lead manager The Long Term Credit
Bank of Japan (Schweiz) AG said.
    The notes, due March 31, 1992, will be guaranteed by the
Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd and the Sumitomo Bank Ltd.
    The notes may be redeemed on September 30, 1989 at 101-1/4
pct declining by 1/2 pct per annum thereafter. Denominations
will be 50,000 francs and payment is due March 31.
 REUTER

U.K. JAN INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT RISES 0.4 PCT, MANUFACTURING DOWN 2.3 PCT - OFFICIAL

Britain's Public Sector Borrowing
Requirement (PSBR) showed a provisional net repayment of 300
mln stg in February, compared with an unrevised 3.7
billion stg repayment in January, the Treasury said.
    This gives a cumulative PSBR in the first 11 months of the
current fiscal year of 100 mln stg, compared with a 2.7 billion
requirement in the like period last year.
    The government's forecast for the PSBR in fiscal 1986/87 is
7.1 billion stg, but markets expect a significant undershoot on
this number. The February data was within market forecasts.
    The Central Government Borrowing Requirement on its own
account in February was a net repayment of 100 mln stg after a
unrevised net repayment of 3.4 billion stg in January. In the
first 11 months, the central government borrowing on its own
account was 2.3 billion stg, after 2.1 billion in January.
    Local Authorities made a repayment estimated at 100 mln stg
in February. The cumulative local authorities' repayment for
the first 11 months was 700 mln. The Treasury said the fall
about 2.5 billion stg in the cumulative PSBR at this point this
year over last was largely due to lower public corporation and
local authority borrowing. This was also the case last month,
it said.
    The Public Corporations' Borrowing Requirement is estimated
at minus 400 mln stg, to give a cumulative repayment of 1.4
    The local authority and public sector surplus on the 11
months cumulative basis was 2.1 billion, compared with a flat
position at the same stage last year.
    The Treasury said that the proceeds from privatisation of
<British Airways Plc> reduced requirements by 400 mln stg.
    The Treasury said the General Government Borrowing
Requirement is estimated to be a net repayment of 100 mln stg
in February, giving a cumulative requirement of 1.1 billion.
    Consolidated fund revenue was 8.8 billion stg in February,
giving a cumulative total of 101.4 billion in the first 11
months, 4.5 pct up from the like stage last year.
    Inland Revenue Receipts for the first 11 months were 1.8
billion stg, or 3.5 pct higher than a year earlier. Receipts
from Customs and Excise were 3.5 billion stg in the first 11
months, 10.5 pct higher than in the previous year.
    The Treasury said that budget forestalling, when traders
bring in goods in advance of today's annual budget, brought in
300 mln stg more in customs and excise receipts than in
    Consolidated fund expenditure was 8.4 billion stg in
February, with a cumulative 102.5 billion for the first 11
months, four pct higher than in the previous year.
    Supply expenditure was provisionally estimated at 8.3
billion stg in February, giving a cumulative total of 91.2
billion or three pct above last year's equivalent total.
 REUTER

Maize deliveries to Zimbabwe's
state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) will fall by over 65
pct this year, following a prolonged dry spell, agricultural
    They said 1987 maize deliveries are expected to decline to
around 520,000 tonnes from 1.6 mln tonnes last year. About 60
pct of the maize will be delivered by large-scale commercial
farmers and the balance by small-scale peasant producers.
    Although this will be the lowest level of maize deliveries
since 1980, the sources said there is no danger of a food
shortage in Zimbabwe.
    While annual maize consumption is estimated at 750,000
tonnes, the GMB stockpile is currently around 1.8 mln tonnes,
which means that even with the sharply reduced production this
year Zimbabwe has enough maize for the next three years.
    The sources said the lower maize crop would be offset by a
25 pct increase in cotton production to 315,000 tonnes from
248,000 tonnes last year, and by a rise of 20 pct in soybean
deliveries to 100,000 tonnes from 84,000 tonnes in 1986.
  REUTER

U.K. Industrial production rose a
provisional 0.4 pct in January after a 0.6 pct decline in
December 1986, figures from the Central Statistical Office
show.
    The index for industrial production, base 1980, was set at
a seasonally adjusted 109.8 in January after December's 109.4
and compared with 108.2 a year earlier.
    Output of manufacturing industries fell a provisional 2.3
pct in January after a 0.2 pct rise last December.
    The index for manufacturing, base 1980, fell to 103.9 from
106.3, and compared with 102.3 a year earlier.
    The CSO said industrial production in the three months to
January was provisionally estimated to have fallen by 0.7 pct
from the level of the previous three months, while
manufacturing output rose by 0.5 pct in the same period.
    In the three months, industrial production was 1.5 pct
higher than in the same period a year earlier, while
manufacturing output was two pct higher.
    Within manufacturing, output of the metals industry rose by
six pct and that of engineering and allied industries by one
pct between the two latest three month periods. Output of
chemicals and textiles fell by one pct and minerals by two pct.
    The Office said output of the investment goods industries
rose 0.1 pct while consumer goods output increased 0.6 pct.
    Output of intermediate goods fell 1.6 pct between the two
latest three-month periods.
    The figures showed the energy production index, base 1980,
rose 7.2 pct in January to 126.4 from December's 117.9 and from
124.6 in January 1986.
    In the latest three months, the energy index, which
comprises oil, natural gas and coal production, was down 3.5
pct on the previous quarter and 0.5 pct below the same period a
 REUTER

Zimbabwe's real gross domestic product
increased 0.2 pct in 1986, according to preliminary figures
published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO). This
contrasts with a rise of more than nine pct in 1985.
    The main reason for the slower rate of economic growth was
a drop in the real value of agricultural output. This declined
12 pct in 1986 following a 24 pct improvement the previous
year. Mining output fell one pct in 1986 but manufacturing
production increased 1.4 pct.
    The CSO said that at current prices GDP rose 12.7 pct to
8.2 billion Zimbabwe dlrs, but inflation, measured by the GDP
deflator, was estimated at 12.2 pct, so there was virtually no
growth in real output during 1986.
 REUTER

Japanese officials sought to convince the
U.S. That a U.S.-Japan pact on microchip trade is working ahead
of an April 1 deadline set by the U.S. For them to prove their
case.
    "We are implementing the agreement in good faith and the
situation does not run counter to the pact," Osamu Watanabe,
Director of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's
(MITI) Americas and Oceanic Division, told foreign reporters.
    "The effects of the measures we have taken and are taking
are emerging in the market place," he said.
    U.S. Trade officials have repeatedly accused Japanese
microchip makers of violating the pact by continuing to sell at
below cost in markets outside Japan and the United States.
    The agreement, signed last September, aimed at halting
predatory Japanese pricing policies and increasing U.S.
Semiconductor firms' access to the Japanese market.
    The comments by MITI officials followed a call by Prime
Minsiter Yasuhiro Nakasone to clear up any misunderstandings on
the U.S. Side about the pact, Watanabe said.
    Yukio Honda, director of MITI's Industrial Electronics
Division, denied that Japanese chipmakers were selling at below
cost in third countries.
    MITI's call to Japanese chip makers last month to cut
production of key memory chips in the first quarter of this
year has begun to dry up the source of cheap chips for sale in
the non-regulated grey market, Honda said.
    "The grey market exports from Japan are shrinking now, but
in contrast U.S. And South Korean companies are expanding
market share because of their cheaper prices," Honda said.
    MITI plans to take further steps to reduce the excess
supply of inexpensive chips which developed in Japan after the
pact was formed because of a slump in Japanese semiconductor
exports to the United States, he added.
    The ministry will soon release its supply-demand guidelines
for the second quarter and suggested production volumes are
likely to be lower than that for the first quarter, he said.
    Despite businessmen's ingenuity in finding ways around any
artificial controls, regulation of supply and demand should
bring positive results, Watanabe said. "I am optimistic," he
added.
 REUTER

Bankers in Saudi Arabia are negotiating
a delicate balance between western business practice and
oriental justice as they try to restructure the troubled
corporate sector's debt.
    The problem lies in reconciling Saudi Arabia's
western-style banking system and an Islamic, "Sharia" legal
system in which interest payments may be viewed as usury and
illegal.
    So Saudi Arabia's 11 commercial banks have pinned hopes on
negotiated settlements rather than enforced ones, and are
resigned to not being able to recoup loans in full.
    And they have become highly selective over enterprises
eligible for new credit after a run of failures that forced
heavy loan loss provisions and ate relentlessly into profits.
    As a result, they have attracted complaints from a business
community that says it is starved of funds while the government
is criticising it for not playing a larger role in the economy.
    The private sector's downturn began in earnest in 1983 as
oil prices slid and some companies were slow to react,
businessmen said. Bloated inventories and in some cases poor
management created problems. Some also blamed the government
for not paying for public sector contracts promptly.
    Long negotiations to reschedule some debt are now producing
results. One banker said, "Banks are agreeing reschedulings, but
often at a high price... They are resigned to the fact that
full recovery (of loans) is not always possible."
    In a few cases private sector firms have been stripped of
assets during or prior to debt renegotiations, leaving banks
virtually no hope of repayment in full.
    The first major rescheduling was not sealed until
mid-February this year when <Arabian Auto Agency>, known as
AAA, reached agreement to stretch out repayments of 700 mln
riyals of debt to some 50 Saudi and international banks.
    Bankers said the deal for the Jeddah-based heavy equipment
importer is likely to set a precedent for the private sector.
It was greeted with relief after 18 months of negotiations.
    AAA's rescheduling has been followed in the last few days
by a draft accord on the 1.3 billion riyal debt of one of the
Kingdom's most publicised companies, <Saudi Research and
Development Corp>, REDEC. These two cases have raised hopes
that other companies will also reach agreement soon.
    Bankers said the cement importer <Arabian Bulk Trade>, and
the construction and trading firm <Ali and Fahd Shobokshi
Group> are still negotiating with creditor banks.
    They are increasingly resigned to there being little legal
recourse in Saudi Arabia, and that rescheduling with payments
geared to a company's cash-flow -- often very low -- is the
only way to recover at least a portion of outstanding loans.
    Though bankers feel they generally have the tacit backing
of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the Kingdom's
central bank, some say it should take a more active role.
    However, bankers said it is encouraging SAMA has not
blocked a "black list" of borrowers banks have drawn up and
circulated for over a year.
    Bankers said the AAA accord, negotiated by a committee led
by <Saudi British Bank>, is a likely model in that banks have
not insisted on full repayment of all obligations.
    Sixty pct of the debt will be repaid in monthly instalments
over seven years at 1/4 point over Bahrain interbank offered
rates (BIBOR). The remaining 40 pct is only to be paid after
completion of the first tranche, also at 1/4 over BIBOR. And
accrued interest on the 40 pct will be waived as long as the
first tranche is met in full.
    As one banker put it, "Many banks took the view it was
better to get some money back rather than none at all."
 REUTER

    The unilateral boycott gives domestic companies until late
September to cut trade ties with South Africa and Namibia.
    Although forbidding crude oil shipments to South Africa on
Norwegian-owned tankers, the boycott makes a crucial exception
for ships whose final destination is decided while at sea. As
oil cargoes are often resold after loading, critics said the
door will be left open for continued shipments to South Africa.
of its crude oil imports during the early 1980s, but the trade
has dropped sharply to just one cargo in the last three months,
    The boycott legislation now goes to the upper house for
formal ratification later this week, parliamentarians said.
 REUTER

Hanson Trust Plc <HNSN.L> said it will
sell its Finlays confectionery, tobacco and newsagent business
to a specially formed company, <Finlays Plc> for an estimated
16.9 mln stg cash.
    The chain of stores was acquired when Hanson took over
<Imperial Group Plc> last year.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Orion Royal Bank has decided to withdraw
from making markets in floating rate notes (FRNs), an official
of Orion said.
    He said the decision to withdraw was made about 11 days ago
before the market was battered by a loss of confidence, which
resulted in sizeable losses in these securities.
    The official, who declined to be identified, said Orion,
the merchant banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, had operated
profitably in the market from 1984 to date. However, the
decline in the market made it appear that they could no longer
justify the overhead.
    The official said Orion would redeploy the three traders
who had been in the FRN sector, mostly to their Euro-commercial
paper operation, an area the bank believes has a greater growth
    Officials at several other firms, who also declined to be
identified, said they were reviewing their position to decide
whether to continue making markets in FRNs.
    In trading earlier today, traders said prices of several
dated FRNs had firmed slightly and that some buyers were
beginning to re-enter the market.
 REUTER

The World Bank is expected to approve a
310 mln dlr economic recovery loan for the Philippines at a
meeting of its executive board today in Washington, Central
Bank sources said.
    The sources said the loan, agreed upon in principle last
September during a visit to the United States by President
Corazon Aquino, had been held up by Philippine government
delays in fulfilling key conditions.
    They said the documents required by the World Bank were not
submitted by Manila until late February.
    The sources said the loan is needed to rehabilitate the the
state-owned Philippine National Bank (PNB) and the Development
Bank of the Philippines (DBP), which together are burdened with
seven billion dlrs of non-performing assets.
    They said the World Bank had insisted the two banks appoint
independent auditors and draft revised charters.
    It also laid down several conditions for an Asset
Privatisation Trust (APT) planned by the government to dispose
of the banks' unproductive assets, the sources said.
    The APT, set up in January, is headed by banker and
businessman David SyCip.
    The sources said the World Bank wanted respected private
sector individuals to be appointed to the APT, and immunity
from prosecution for the trust. It wanted a clause saying
buyers of non-performing assets could not be prosecuted.
    The Manila Standard newspaper quoted Rolando Arrivillaga,
World Bank representative in the Philippines, as saying the
loan would be in three 100 mln dlr tranches. The first tranche
would be available late this month or in early April.
    Arrivillaga said the remaining 10 mln dlrs was in the form
of technical assistance available for disbursement during a
36-month period.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin has said approval of the
loan will trigger another 300 mln dlr loan expected from the
Export-Import Bank of Japan.
    The Central Bank sources said negotiations would start in
April on another 150 mln dlr loan from the World Bank to
implement reforms in the government corporate sector.
    The sources said the World Bank is expected to approve the
loan by August, after a review of the government's
non-financial institutions. The government's 14 major
corporations rely heavily on budgetary support to supplement
external borrowing to meet their yearly revenue shortfalls.
 REUTER

operate in the money market in the morning session.
    Earlier, the central bank had estimated the deficit in the
system today at some 450 mln stg.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Sweden is recalculating the January
inflation rate, which showed a sharp 1.3 pct rise in the cost
of living, to check if the figures were overstated, a Central
Bureau of Statistics spokesman said.
    Rumours the figure had been overstated by 0.3 pct due to a
statistical error sent bond prices soaring on the domestic
credit market today.
    The head of the Bureau's consumer price index unit, Hugo
Johannesson, told Reuters, "We are extremely busy at the moment
recalculating the January figures and I think the best thing is
for us to be allowed to get on with it."
 REUTER

A Cypriot tanker was set ablaze in the
Persian Gulf yesterday after an Iranian gunboat fired missiles
at it, shipping sources quoting reports from Japanese tankers
    No casualties were seen and the tanker Pivot, laden with
crude oil, was towed towards Dubai by tugs after they put out
the fire, the sources said.
    Iranian gunboats usually check a ship's nationality and
cargo before attacking but the Pivot was hit near Bu Musa
island without warning, they added.
 Reuter

Production of a four-megabit superchip,
developed jointly by Siemens AG <SIEG.F> and NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS>, could start by late 1988 or
early 1989, West German Technology Minister Heinz Riesenhuber
    "We have caught up (with) our competitors," a Technology
Ministry spokeswoman said. "Now it's a question of who will be
first to produce it, and we are in with a good chance."
    Companies in the United States and Japan say they already
have a prototype but have not yet reached the production stage.
    Siemens and Philips, together with the West German and
Dutch governments, have invested a total of 1.4 billion marks
in researching and developing the chip.
    Representatives of the two companies said the sophisticated
technology could be used to produce cheaper medical diagnosis
instruments and to regulate car fuel consumption and emissions.
 REUTER

<Billiton
International Metals B.V.>, the Dutch mining company, has urged
Surinam to change policies it says are causing heavy losses on
bauxite mining operations there, a company spokesman said.
    He told Reuters that Billiton, a fully-owned Royal
Dutch/Shell <RD.AS> subsidiary, presented the demands to Henk
Heidweiler, a top aide to Surinam military leader Desi
Bouterse, who visited the Netherlands last week for official
talks.
    Billiton and <Suralco>, owned by U.S. Conglomerate Alcoa
<AA.S>, both want devaluation, and lower wages, welfare
contributions, taxes on bauxite and energy prices.
    The two firms are the biggest private sector employers in
Surinam. Billiton also urged Heidweiler to improve the safety
of its employees in the campaign against a jungle guerilla
group, the spokesman said, adding rebel fighting since July
1986 had depressed production at Billiton and Suralco plants.
    High voltage cables from the power plant of Afobakka have
been cut, and a bauxite mine at Moengo has been shut, he added.
    "We are already making vast losses in Surinam and you can't
expect any company to remain operating with losses," the
 REUTER

Employers in Rotterdam's troubled
general cargo sector have decided to restart stalled redundancy
procedures within a week, employers' organisation labour
relations manager Gerard Zeebregts told Reuters.
    Port and transport union spokesman Bert Duim said the
employers' decision would not lead to the immediate resumption
of eight weeks of strikes in the sector.
    The strike action was called off on Friday after an interim
court injunction against the employers' plans for 350
redundancies this year.
    A court in Amsterdam ruled last week the employers had made
an error in the complicated procedure for obtaining permission
for the redundancies and therefore could not proceed until a
final ruling on May 7.
    Zeebregts said the initiation of new procedure might well
take up to two months, but the employers were not prepared
simply to sit and wait for the May 7 court ruling with the
chance they would have to start all over again in any case.
    "We cannot afford not to continue with our plans. The
strikes have already cost a lot of money and damaged business,
and further delays would do even more damage," Zeebregts said.
    The campaign of lightning strikes in the port's general
cargo sector began on January 19 in protest at employers' plans
for 800 redundancies from the sector's 4,000 strong workforce
by 1990, starting with 350 this year.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Western Health Plans Inc said Douglas
C. Werner has resigned as president and chief executive officer
to pursue other business opportunities.
    It said executive vice president Ray Mendoza will serve as
interim chief executive.
 Reuter

Commercial International Corp said
it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of most
of the assets of Growers Distributing International Corp, a
table grape marketer, for an undisclosed amount.
    It said the entire purchase price will be payable over a
three-year period and based on a percentage of pre-tax earnings
of the acquired operation.
    The company said it has an option to acquire Growers' cold
storage facility and related assets in Tulare County, Calif.
Growers is owned by Commercial chairman Sid Schuman Jr. and
director Arnold T. Cattani Jr.
 Reuter

effective March Three it started allowing specialists to accept
both stop orders and stop limit orders in which the stop price
and limit price are not identical.
    Previously, specialists were only allowed to accept stop
order and stop limit orders in which the stop and limit prices
were identical.  The Amex said floor officials may still
prohibit specialists from accepting stop and stop limit orders
that would be detrimental to the market.
 Reuter

<Swiss Corp for Microelectronics and
Watchmaking Industries> said it has acquired International time
corp from privately-held Timex corp for undisclosed terms.
    International Time is exclusive distributor of Swiss Corp's
Tissot watches in the U.S.
 Reuter

Wavehill International Ventures Inc
said it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of
Personal Computer Rental corp for 500,000 restricted common
shares, giving former shareholders of Personal Computer a 25
 Reuter

TransNet Corp said its TransNet
Service Center in Mountainside, N.J., has been named an
authorized service organization for <Leading Edge> computer
products.
 Reuter

Identix Inc said it has sold
59 IDX-10 and IDX-50 identity verification systems to
BankAmerica Corp for undisclosed terms.
    It said deliveries have already started.
 Reuter

The Japanese economy will remain sluggish
in the months ahead after turning in its worst performance for
12 years in 1986, private economists said.
    Consumer spending, a main driving force of domestic demand,
was likely to remain lacklustre although brisk housing and
business investment would help sustain the economy this year,
the economists said.
    They said they were shocked by an Economic Planning Agency
report today that private spending fell 0.7 pct in the Oct/Dec
quarter for the first time in 12 years.
    The report said Japan's gross national product rose a real
0.8 pct in Oct/Dec after a revised 0.7 pct increase in the
previous quarter.
    It said GNP growth for 1986 was a real 2.5 pct, down from
4.7 pct in 1985. Agency officials said this was the worst
performance since 1974 when GNP contracted 1.4 pct in the wake
of the first oil crisis.
    They expressed concern about the 0.7 pct decline in
consumer spending in the final quarter of 1986 but said it was
only temporary as exceptionally warm winter weather had
depressed retail sales.
    But most private economists disagreed and said consumers
were likely to remain pessimistic in coming months as they saw
their real income level off.
    "Sure, consumers may have spent less on winter clothes or
heating apparatus because of the warm winter this year, but
they have done so because they have become even more uneasy
about their future pay rises," said Shoji Saito, general manager
of Mitsui Bank's economic research division.
    He said the outlook for pay increases was gloomy because of
 falling employment in many industries, particularly those hit
hard by the yen's rise.
    Masao Suzaki, senior economist at the Bank of Tokyo, said
weakened consumer confidence was the most worrying factor.
Without brisk consumer spending, Japan can hardly achieve
domestically generated economic growth as the government has
put a lid on fiscal measures, he said.
    Other economists said the 0.8 pct growth registered in
Oct/Dec may have been inflated by special factors, including
exceptionally heavy spending in the public sector. Johsen
Takahashi, chief economist at Mitsubishi Research Institute,
said the 14.4 pct increase in public sector spending in Oct/Dec
resulted from an issue of gold coins.
    "This is just a one-shot spending and we can't expect that
high level of public-sector consumption in the following
quarter," Takahashi said. Agency officials said public spending
would have risen 1.1 pct in Oct/Dec without the issue, which
marked 60 years of Emperor Hirohito's reign.
    Takahashi said the economy might contract in the current
quarter given the lack of additional significant government
spending and sluggish consumer spending.
    Saito said the most effective government action would be
income tax cuts and the postponement beyond next January of a
proposed controversial sales tax.
 REUTER

The International Cocoa Organization
(ICCO) buffer stock working group meeting set for 1130 GMT
today was rescheduled for 1430, ICCO delegates said.
    The meeting was delayed so a draft compromise proposal on
buffer stock rules could be completed, they said.
    ICCO Executive Director Kobena Erbynn was preparing the
plan in consultation with other delegates for presentation to
the full working group, they added.
 REUTER

Seven black youths were knifed and
shot to death today in a mass killing in the South African
township of KwaMashu near the Indian Ocean city of Durban, the
government reported.
    The Bureau for Information said the bodies of the youths,
aged from 15 to 17, were found lying together. "It looks like a
mass execution," a spokesman said.
    Local residents said tensions have been high in the teeming
township since Thursday with periodic clashes between black
radicals and supporters of the conservative Inkatha movement.
    The bureau spokesman said the bodies, with knife and bullet
wounds, were discovered this morning. No other details were
immediately available, he added.
 Reuter

<Goldman, Sachs and Co> said <Pearson
PLC's> Financial Times newspaper has started publishing the
daily FT-Actuaries World Indices, which are jointly compiled
with Goldman Sachs, broker <Wood Mackenzie and Co Ltd> and the
British Institute of Actuaries.
    The company said the indices include a main world share
index and indices plotting share prices in different
geographical regions and individual countries, as well as a
number of international industrial indices.
    Goldman said the indices are based on the price of about
2,400 issues from 23 stock markets.
 Reuter

U.S. FEB HOUSING STARTS ROSE 2.6 PCT TO 1.851 MLN, PERMITS ROSE 4.4 PCT TO 1.764 MLN

Boise Cascade Corp said on April 30 it
will redeem all 62,000 shares of its Series A three dlr
cumulative convertible preferred stock at 65 dlrs per share.
    The company said the shares are convertible through April
29 into common stock at the rate of 0.84896 common share per
preferred share.
 Reuter

Data on the U.K.'s public sector
borrowing requirement has boosted hopes of a large fiscal
adjustment for the coming financial year, broking and banking
    Some analysts say that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson may announce this afternoon a total of up to six
billion stg in tax cuts and lower government borrowing targets.
    Total PSBR in the first 11 months of the fiscal year of 100
mln stg compares with a projected seven billion. Forecasts had
generally been for a net repayment in February, but the 300 mln
stg repayment was toward the better end of expectations.
    March is usually a high-spending month, boosting the 11
month figure at the end of the fiscal year. Nevertheless,
Lawson is expected to downwardly revise the 1986/87 PSBR later
today.
    Until now, only the more optimistic forecasts put Lawson's
room for manoeuvre as great as six billion stg for 1987/88,
with many favouring a four billion of five billion package.
    But Bill Martin, economist at brokers Phillips and Drew,
said a six billion stg adjustment now looks within range, split
between three billion off the PSBR and three billion off taxes.
    Malcolm Roberts, of Salomon Bros International, also said
six billion was within a credible range of forecasts.
    Roberts added that he was now expecting Lawson to have at
least five billion stg available following this morning's data,
against his own previous estimates of around four billion.
    He said today's 11 month PSBR figure was genuinely low,
rather than distorted by unusual factors, which fuels pressure
on Lawson to reduce next year's borrowing target. However, he
forecast a March 1987 PSBR of 3.5 billion stg.
    Peter Fellner, of brokers James Capel, cautioned that six
billion still looks on the high side of expectations.
    "Something like 4.5 (billion) or so is still more realistic,"
he said.
 Reuter

U.S. housing starts rose 2.6 pct in
February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,851,000
units, the Commerce Department said.
    In January, housing starts fell a revised 0.5 pct to
1,804,000 units. The department previously said they fell 0.1
pct.
    The rate at which permits were issued for future
construction rose in February by 4.4 pct to a seasonally
adjusted 1,764,000 units after falling 11.52 pct to 1,690,000
units in January.
    Permits for single-family houses fell in January by 6.6 pct
to 1,091,000.
    The number of permits for multi-family houses fell in
February by 11.7 pct to 529,000 units after falling in January
by 19.3 pct, the department said.
    Housing starts in February included a seasonally adjusted
5.6 pct rise in single family units to 1,317,000 units and a
4.1 pct fall in multi-family homes to 534,000 units.
    The seasonally adjusted permits total in February for
single family units was 1,235,000 and for multi-family units
was 529,000 units.
 Reuter

Production of fish meal by the three
South American producers -- Chile, Peru and Equador -- last
year reached 2.5 mln tonnes, equalling the record output of
1970, the International Association of Fish Meal Manufacturers
(IAFMM) said.
    However, IAFMM said in a statement that it expected Chilean
and Peruvian fish meal production in the first quarter of 1987
to be much lower than the 651,000 tonnes produced in the last
quarter of 1986, due to a ban on sardine fishing in Chile for
the month of February and to adverse fishing conditions in Peru
in the same month.
    The statement added that, due to technical market promotion
and energetic sales by Chile and Peru, the stock position at
the end of the year remained reasonable.
    Fish meal production outside South America decreased
slightly, falling from 114,400 to 111,100 tonnes.
    The IAFMM said fish meal consumption in 1986 rose in West
Germany, Scandinavian countries, Eastern Europe and the Far
East, but fell in the U.S. And remained static in the U.K.
    It added that fish meal consumption had suffered from
competition with feed grade tallow in the U.S. And with skimmed
milk powder in the U.K.
    IAFMM figures for fish oil production in the main producing
nations, in thousands of tonnes, were -
                    Oct/Dec            Jan/Dec
                 1986    1985       1986     1985
 CHILE             22       8        109       76
 PERU              56      28        238      104
 NORWAY            14      14         97      130
 ICELAND           44      52        102      118
 DENMARK           20      18         88       77
 U.S.              10       8        152      129
 JAPAN             67      91        213      249
 REUTER

Copper shares, which have lagged
behind the market, should pick up steam this year on stronger
demand and improving prices for the metal, analysts said.
    "Copper prices should move up over the next four to six
quarters," said Daniel Roling of Merrill Lynch and Co <MER>. "I
see average copper prices at 70 cts a pound in 1988, up from
around 63 or 64 cts, based on tight supply and continued world
    Other analysts see metal prices ranging from 65 to 68 cts a
pound this year and 70 to 73 cts in 1988.
    Analysts said Phelps Dodge Corp <PD> will be a strong
performer because it is the largest U.S. copper producer.
    But Asarco Inc <AR>, with about 45 pct of total sales from
copper, and Newmont Mining Corp <NEM> are also potential
winners, they said. Newmont is spinning off 85 pct of its
copper operations to its shareholders.
    "In theory, Phelps is the best stock. It's the purest play
and benefits most from higher copper prices," one said.
    William Siedenburg of Smith Barney Harris Upham and Co,
said Phelps has lowered costs and streamlined mining
operations. "They've accomplished a great deal," he said.
    The company's move into carbon black, a product used in
tires, should provide steady earnings, although not rapid
growth, as a hedge against a copper downturn, Siedenburg said.
He estimates Phelps will earn 2.45 dlrs in 1987 and 4.45 dlrs
in 1988, including tax benefits, versus 1.79 dlrs in 1986.
    Other analysts, including Clarence Morrison of Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc and Merrill's Roling, also recommend Phelps.
    Morrison projects Phelps will earn 3.25 dlrs in 1987 and
four dlrs in 1988, while Roling sees earnings at 2.75 dlrs this
year and around 3.50 dlrs next year.
    "The stock can go to the mid 30s," Roling said, from its
current level of around 30. But others see it climbing to 40.
    "Their (Phelps Dodge) costs are so low, they don't need
copper prices higher than 70 cts to make a lot of money," said
Vahid Fathi of Prescott Ball and Turben Inc. "The shares will
outperform the market over the next 18 months," he said.
    But Nick Toufexis of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc says
Newmont Mining is a more attractive investment. "We'd rather
place our bets with Newmont. Any way you slice it, I see a
significant premium to the current stock price," he said.
    After the spinoff, which closes next month, Newmont will
have gold operations, including 95 pct of Newmont Gold Co
<NGC>, a 15 pct stake in its copper unit and energy operations,
Toufexis noted.
    Analysts see Newmont earning 2.85 dlrs to three dlrs in
1987 and about 3.75 dlrs in 1988, versus earnings of about 1.40
dlrs from operations in 1986.
    "I'd be buying up to 90," Toufexis said last week, when the
stock rose sharply to near that level. "But the shares are
probably worth about 108 dlrs (each)."
    Dean Witter's Morrison and Fathi of Prescott Ball like
Asarco, because of cost cutting and restructuring. Morrison
sees 1987 earnings at 1.25 dlrs and 1988 at 1.75 against losses
in 1986. Fathi projects Asarco will earn one dlr in 1987 and
from three dlrs to 3.25 dlrs in 1988.
    Roling of Merrill Lynch is recommending Cyprus Minerals Co
<CYPM> in addition to Phelps Dodge. Cyprus has interests in
coal and other minerals aside from copper.
    But Siedenburg of Smith Barney thinks Cyprus is overpriced
at current levels. "I would be willing to sell Cyprus and buy
Phelps Dodge if I were picking one copper stock," he said.
 Reuter

OII Holdings Corp, a company formed by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co, said it received and purchased
about 58.3 mln shares or 96 pct of Owens-Illinois Inc common
stock and 50,275 of 4.75 dlr cumulative convertible preference
shares of Owens, or about 83 pct.
    The company said its tender offer for all common and
preference shares expired last night. It said Owens-Illinois
will be merged into a subsidiary of OII Holdings on March 24.
Common shares not bought in the offer will be converted into
the right to receive 60.50 dlrs per share in cash, the tender
price.  The preference stock has been called.
 Reuter

ABM Gold Corp said it has filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial
public offering of six mln Class A common shares at an expected
price of seven to nine U.S. dlrs each through underwriters led
by PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> and Advest Group Inc <ADV>.
    The company said it will use about 30.6 mln dlrs of the
proceeds to buy from Sonora Gold Corp <SONNF> 5,456,000 Sonora
shares at 5.60 U.S. dlrs each, and Sonora will use about 25.0
mln dlrs of its proceeds from that deal to buy 9,259,000 shares
of <Goldenbell Resources Inc> at 2.70 dlrs each.
    ABM Gold said Sonora will use the 5,553,600 dlrs remaining
to repay short-term debt and for working capital, and
Goldenbell will use its own proceeds from the sale of shares to
Sonora to provide about half the financing needed to complete
the construction of production facilitiues for a property.
    ABM said it will use another 8,120,000 dlrs of its proceeds
to buy <New Jersey Zinc Exploration Co>'s 15 pct interest in
net operating profits derived from some Sonora properties.  ABM
said it will trade this interest for 1,234,042 Sonoira shares
valued at 6.58 dlrs each.
    ABM Gold said it will use another 2,825,370 dlrs of the
proceeds to buy from <United Gold Corp> 1,053,000 United common
shares at 2,29 dlrs each and exercise a warrant to buy another
two mln common shares at 20.7 cts per share, with United to use
its proceeds to fund exploration.
    ABM gold manages and develops properties for Sonora,
Goldenbell, United and Inca Resources Inc <INCRF>.
 Reuter

U.S. banks are under pressure to
meet vigorous competition, but Congress continues to duck hard
choices on banking law reform that could benefit consumers.
    Supporters say deregulating banking will increase
competition, offer consumers more choices and bring lower fees
for financial services and home mortgage interest rates.
    But the Senate Banking Committee last week put off until
later in the year decisions on pressing issues such as whether
banks could enter new businesses like underwriting corporate
debt and selling insurance and real estate.
    The committee also reined in banks' competitors, the
so-called nonbank banks, which elude the technical definition
of a bank because they do not both accept deposits and make
loans. The committee meeting room became a battleground for
giants of the financial industry -- banks, brokerages,
insurance firms, retail and industrial corporations -- with but
little consideration given to the consumer.
    The lobbies backed various amendments to protect their turf
and a bill that rescues a federal deposit insurance fund for
thrift institutions and puts a moratorium on any changes in
banking law was passed and sent on to the full Senate.
    The House of Representatives has yet to act.
    Behind the political deals was the larger question whether
Congress would end or modify the half-century-old separation of
commercial and investment banking or leave it alone.
    One argument in support of change is that fees for
financial services would come down if Congress expands banks'
powers.
    Lower fees to underwrite mortgage-backed securities, for
example, could lead to lower interest rates on home mortgages,
supporters say.
    "A lot of nonbanking firms have used loopholes to get into
banking, but banks have not be allowed into any new businesses,"
says Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution.
    "We have been seeing a gigantic turf war," says Litan, who
favors new powers for banks if deposits are safeguarded.
    The swirl of corporate mergers and the financial
information explosion have blurred the distinction between the
activities of banks and security brokerages.
    On a wider horizon, U.S. financial institutions face
stepped-up competition from financial centers like London and
Tokyo in international transactions.
    West German and Japanese banking is more concentrated in a
few, large banks, while most European countries allow banking
and securities to be mixed.
    All these forces put pressure on U.S. financial firms to
adapt to change, but the congressional debate over reform drags
on. The committee's bill put a freeze on any changes and its
chairman, Senator William Proxmire, promised to return the
issues in October. If approved by Congress, the bill would
postpone applications before the Federal Reserve for new powers
to three of the largest banks -- Citicorp, J.P. Morgan and
Bankers Trust.
    Other industries where regulatory barriers have fallen have
experienced lower fees, the emergence of new players and
accelerated innovation.
    But these advances in airlines, trucking, and
telecommunications have not been without drawbacks. Companies
that were slow to adapt disappeared under the new competitive
regime, while the public faced a bewildering number of new
choices. The Reagan administration favors bank reform.
    The traditional method companies use to raise funds --
borrowing from banks -- has given way to selling corporate debt
and other new securities that are off limits to banks.
    But critics say the soundness of the banking system created
by such laws as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act would be
undermined.
    Banks are treated as special and shielded from the
marketplace's vagaries by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp (FSLIC) performs
the same function for thrifts.
    The one issue the committee did act on which benefits
consumers is new funding for the federal insurance fund for
deposits at savings and loan associations, which has fallen to
its lowest ratio of reserves to deposits in history.
    Despite efforts toward change in Congress, a ban on
interstate banking remains.
    The barriers are crumbling anyway because state
legislatures are agreeing to permit bank mergers across state
lines within a region.
    Congress is proceeding cautiously, having in mind the
banking industry's tribulations in the early 1930's.
    But some say it is moving too cautiously for banks to keep
pace with what is happening in business here and around the
world.
 Reuter

President Desmond Hoyte said recent
reports of widespread thallium sulphate poisoning in Guyana
were mischievous and had gravely damaged the country's food
exports.
    "There is no thallium sulphate poisoning epidemic in Guyana,
as has been rumored," Hoyte said in a radio address late Sunday.
    Reports of a spate of poisonings from the chemical had led
some newspapers in the Caribbean to call for a ban on food
exports from Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago had restricted
imports of Guyanese rice, Hoyte said.
    Thallium sulphate, banned in many countries and blacklisted
since 1973 by the World Health Organization as a deadly
chemical, has been used by Guyana's state sugar corporation as
a rodent poison.
    Calling the reports a "mischievous invention," Hoyte said
tests had shown some of Guyana's main exports, such as wheat
and flour, were not contaminated.
    Hoyte based his statements on tests conducted by the WHO
and the Pan American Health Organization, which found only
seven cases of thallium sulphate poisoning thus far.
 Reuter

Admar Group Inc said it will open a new
Eastern Operations Center for its HealthWatch Medical Review
System in Dedham, Mass., by April One.
    The company said it will also make its Med Network
multistate preferred provide organisation available in the
Boston area during the second quarter.
 Reuter

Shr one cent vs nine cts
    Net 51,057 vs 554,878
    Sales 24.5 mln vs 21.3 mln
    First half
    Shr 15 cts vs five cts
    Net 1,026,479 vs 313,676
    Sales 48.4 mln vs 37.4 mln
    NOTE: Net includes gains of 28,000 dlrs, or one cent a
share, vs 61,000 dlrs, or seven cts a share, in quarter and
453,000 dlrs, or seven cts a share, vs 61,000 dlrs, or one cent
a share, in half from tax loss carryforward
 Reuter

 Reuter

Livestock analysts expect renewed bull
spreading in live cattle futures following yesterday's USDA
7-state cattle on feed report.
    The USDA reported high placements in February, which may
weigh on back months of cattle futures. Meanwhile, continued
strong marketings during the month will support the April
contract.
    Contracts for June delivery forward could open 25 to 50
cents lower while April will likely open about steady, analysts
said.
    Cheap corn is still the main incentive for putting cattle
on feed, according to Smith Barney livestock analyst Tom
O'Hare. "They have no place to send the grain," he said.
    Strong daily fundamentals may add to nearby support while
the current discount of deferred months to the cash market may
offset much of the effect of the report, analysts said.
    "The cash market is strong and may overshadow the report,"
said Robin Fuller, analyst for Agri Analysis. She added that
even though placements came in above the average trade guess,
many traders had expected high placements.
    Placements are not that negative, especially since the
technical correction in June and August live cattle futures
since last week, GH Miller analyst Jerry Gidel said.
    He said the current marketing posture will provide added
support to the nearby month. Feedlot marketings have been
running at a heavier than expected pace.
    Chuck Levitt, analyst for Shearson Lehman said that with
the number of cattle on feed down five pct at the beginning of
the year, a three pct decline in marketings was expected. But
the report for January showed marketings at 101 pct of a year
ago and in February marketings were at 100 pct, Levitt noted.
    "So far we haven't seen any decline in marketings. They
(feedlot operators) are marketing more cattle than they had
intended for the first quarter, which is a bullish
development," Levitt said.
    Gidel also noted that marketings for the early part of
March are running ahead of a year ago. Feedlots are not falling
behind and are holding that 100 pct marketing pace.
 Reuter

Tandem Computers Inc said it
has applied for a New York Stock Exchange listing and expects
to start trading there by mid-April.
    Tandem's stock is now traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

    Net 614,000 vs 449,000
    Revs 4,186,000 vs 4,124,000
    Avg shrs 4,131,000 vs 3,321,000
    Year
    Shr 47 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 1,768,000 vs 1,394,000
    Revs 15.0 mln vs 12.5 mln
    Avg shrs 3,799,000 vs 3,324,000
 Reuter

<Shamrock Holdings Inc> said
its subsidiary, Shamrock Holdings of California, acquired
controlling interest in <DBMS Inc> through the purchase of
575,000 shares of its preferred stock.
    The company said the stock was purchased for an undisclosed
amount from an unnamed group of investors.
    Shamrock said Raymond Nawara, a former executive vice
president of DBMS, a privately-held software company, also
granted it options and voting rights on a major portion of his
shares of common stock.
   
    The combination of preferred and common stock holdings
permit Shamrock and Nawara to exercise voting control over
approximately 53 pct of the shares of the company.
    Shamrock also said Nawara has been elected president of
DBMS and one of its directors.
 Reuter

French state agricultural bank <Caisse
Nationale du Credit Agricole> has joined the group led by
publishing house <Hachette> which is bidding for control of the
state television station TF1, replacing <Banque Nationale de
Paris> which has withdrawn, Hachette said in a statement.
    Credit Agricole's stake in the consortium will be 3.5 pct.
    Last week the broadcasting supervisory board asked Hachette
to remove BNP from the consortium because the bank had acted as
adviser to the government for the imminent privatisation of
TF1.
 Reuter

    Net 3,501,000 vs 2,420,000
    Sales 332.7 mln vs 274.9 mln
    Qtly div four cts vs four cts prior
    Record March Six
 Reuter

Gillette Co <GS> exercised an option to
take a 51.2 pct stake in the French pen firm Waterman which it
had previously been authorised to do by the French government,
the French stockbrokers' association (CSAC) said.
    Gillette has given an undertaking to intervene on the
Bourse until April 7 to prevent Waterman shares from falling
below 650 francs, it added.
    This compares with yesterday's rate of 625 francs.
    Under the agreement concluded last November between
Waterman owners Francine and Grace Le Foyer-Gomez and Alice
Lundgren and the Gillette group, Gillette agreed to acquire
51.2 pct of the capital of Waterman at 700 francs a share.
    Gillette is buying a total 180,000 shares, valuing the deal
at 126 mln francs.
 Reuter

Genetics Institute Inc said it
has purchased a 139,000 square foot plant on 50 acres in
Andover, Mass., to which it will move all of its process
development and pilot and clinical production groups from its
Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, from Henley Group Inc <HENG>
for 15.3 mln dlrs.
    Genetics said the purchase of the plant will allow a
fourfold expansion of its pilot and clinical production
facilities for biotechnology-based human pharmaceuticals.
    The company said it plans to invest another 20 mln dlrs to
equip the facility for process development activities and
clinical scale production.  Construction is to be completed by
late 1987.
 Reuter

Airborne Freight Corp said it has
received a three-year contract to be primary overnight carrier
for International Business Machines Corp's domestic air express
traffic.
    The company had previously shared IBM domestic traffic with
several other carriers.  It said the contract includes
overnight and two-day express services for packages 150 pounds
and under.  Financial details were not disclosed.
 Reuter

its forecast of the shortage in the money market today down to
400 mln stg from 450 mln stg.
 REUTER

Shr loss 26 cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net loss 289,649 vs loss 138,372
    Revs 5,944,286 vs 5,902,074
 Reuter

<Deutsche Lufthansa AG> said on
April 1 it will start nonstop service between Washington and
Frankfurt, initially operating four roundtrips weekly.
    It said frequency of the McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> DC-10
flights will rise to five times weekly on April 26.
    It said the lowest priced Holiday fares on the route,
requiring 21-day advance payment, will be 449 dlrs roundtrip in
April, 672 dlrs midweek in May and from September 15 to October
30 and 799 dlrs midweek for the summer months.                 
    
 Reuter

Japan told the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade that South Korea's five-year import
diversification plan violated the spirit of the world trade
governing body, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
    The notification came in Japan's answer to a recent GATT
questionnaire on unfair trade practices, the spokesman said.
    In the five-year plan, which starts this year, South Korea
aims to reduce its dependency on Japan as a source of imported
goods and to increase imports from the U.S. And Europe.
    Japan's move came after several unsuccessful bilateral
negotiations on the plan, the spokesman said. "The notification
does not represent anything resembling a formal complaint, nor
is it intended to pressure South Korea. It is a routine
procedure followed by all other GATT member states."
 Reuter

the money market with 16 mln stg help in the afternoon session.
    The Bank did not operate in the market in the morning and
earlier revised its estimate of the shortage in the system
today down to 400 mln stg from 450 mln.
    The central bank purchased bills outright in band one at
10-3/8 pct comprising two mln stg of local authority bills and
14 mln stg of bank bills.
 REUTER

Atico Financial Corp said it has executed
a definitive agreement to acquire 93.5 pct of Intercontinental
Bank of Dade County, Fla., from Intercontinental Bank Holding
Co for an undisclosed amount of cash and common stock.
    It said closing is subject to regulatory approval.
    Atico said in connection with the acquisition it will apply
to become a registered bank holding company and convert its 99
npct owned Atico Savings Bank subsidiary to a state-chartered
commercial bank.
    Intercontinental had year-end assets of about 487 mln dlrs.
    Atico had year-end assets of about 534 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

    Net 1,683,000 vs 1,407,000
    Revs 42.2 mln vs 28.8 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 83 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 10.0 mln
    Revs 160.3 mln vs 126.5 mln
    NOTE: prior qtr and yr ended Jan 26.
 Reuter

Shr 1.40 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 1,928,800 vs 1,485,600
    Sales 35.2 mln vs 33.5 mln
    Avg shrs 1,350,800 vs one mln
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 879,000 vs 615,000
    Revs 6,394,000 vs 5,561,000
 Reuter

 Reuter

BAKER INTERNATIONAL TO SELL ELECTRIC SUBMERSIBLE OILWELL PUMP UNIT

Kayaba Industry Co Ltd is privately
placing 50 mln Swiss francs of five year straight notes with a
4-3/4 pct coupon and 100.25 issue price, lead manager Credit
Suisse said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Fuji Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

The West German airline, Deutsche
Lufthansa AG, believes the way it decides fares is in line with
European Community (EC) guidelines despite an official probe, a
company spokesman said today.
    The Federal Cartel Office in West Berlin is investigating
whether agreements reached by European airlines over fares are
a breach of EC regulations on competition.
    Hubertus Schoen, the Cartel Office's spokesman, said the
investigation had been running for some weeks.
    A spokesman for Lufthansa told Reuters: "Lufthansa presumes
that the way we decide fares corresponds with EC regulations."
    Airlines did not traditionally have to comply with a clause
in the Community's treaty forbidding companies in member states
from reaching accords likely to hinder free competition.
    However, Schoen said that last year the European Court of
Justice had ruled that this clause should also apply to air
traffic. The Cartel Office"s probe came in the wake of this.
    The Office had not yet officially contacted Lufthansa, but
Schoen said the airline would be asked for information about
the way fares were decided.
    It would then be decided if the practice was a breach of
article 85 of the EC treaty.
 Reuter

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said its overall load
factor for January was steady at 58 pct compared to the same
period a year ago. Its seat load factor dipped to 58 pct in
January from 59 pct in 1986.
    A six pct rise in overall traffic in the month came on
tonne-km capacity eight pct higher than a year ago.
    Cargo traffic in the month was 10 pct higher than a year
earlier and passenger traffic was up five pct, but unfavourable
currency rates led to an eight pct fall in revenue.
    Costs before depreciation were down nine pct in the month.
 REUTER

Baker International Corp said it has
signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets and business
of the electric submersible oilwell pump product line in the
continental U.S. of its Baker Oil Tools Inc subsidiary to Trico
Industries Inc <TRO> for an undisclosed amount of cash and
other consideration.
    The company said the transaction is subject to Hughes Tool
Co <HT> and Baker shareholder approval of the Baker/Hughes
merger. The U.S. Justice Department has announced that it will
require divestiture of the product line for approval of the
merger.
    Baker said the transaction is subject to approval by the
Justice Department and the boards of Baker, Hughes and Trico.
 Reuter

There will be no significant changes
in U.S. agricultural policy this year, said Senate Minority
leader Robert Dole (R-Kan).
    Speaking at the annual convention of National Grain and
Feed Association, Dole said that while the current farm bill is
not perfect, "I still believe it is a step in the right
direction."
    Dole said he would like to reduce the costs of the program
but that expenditures will continue to be high until the U.S.
becomes more aggressive in its export policy through either the
broader use of the Export Enhancement Program or the
implementation of a market loan for wheat and feed grains.
    Commenting on whether the U.S. should offer the Soviet
Union subsidized grain, Dole said, "If your going to trade with
the Soviet Union you have to be competitive."
    He said one way to get around the problem of making direct
subsidies to the Soviets would be to implement a market loan,
which he said would make U.S. commodity prices competitive.
    Prospects for passage of mandatory production controls,
specifically the Harkin-Gephardt mandatory bill, are not good,
he said. "Mandatory has less support now than it did a year ago
and it will have even less support when people understand it,"
he said.
    If the House passes a pending 0/92 bill for 1987 winter
wheat, the Senate will try to address 0/92 for a one year
period, Dole added.
 Reuter

American City Business Journals Inc
<AMBJ> said its president and chief operating officer, Armon
Mills, is stepping down to head a field management team.
    The company said it is realigning its management to
accommodate its unexpected growth through acquisitions. The
company said it has grown from two business journals to 36.
    Other changes include vice chairman William Worley assuming
the role of president, while sharing chief executive duties
with chairman Michael Russell.
   
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 92 cts
    Net 1,042,000 vs 2,510,000
    Revs 20.6 mln vs 29.6 mln
 Reuter

SunGard Data Systems Inc said an
offering of 1,200,000 common shares is underway at 18.25 dlrs
each through underwriters led by Alex. Brown and Sons Inc
<ABSB> and L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin Inc <R>.
 Reuter

CIE Systems Inc, a unit of C.
Itoh Electronics Inc, said it established a program to provide
lease and lease-purchase financing for buyers of its business
computer systems and electronic products.
    The program will be administered by CFC Leasing, an
independent company, and more than 100 mln dlrs in funds are
expected to be available over the next four years from a
consortium of six financial institutions, the company said.
    C. Itoh Electronics Inc is a U.S. unit of (C. Itoh and Co
Ltd) of Japan.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit eight cts vs loss eight cts
    Oper net profit 604,996 vs loss 615,345
    Sales 18.4 mln vs 17.8 mln
156,098 dlrs vs 732,924 dlrs.
    1986 net excludes tax credits of 271,538 dlrs.
    1985 net includes gain 480,0009 dlrs from reversl of
recapture taxes.
 Reuter

    Net 4.2 mln vs 7.1 mln
    Revs 16.1 mln vs 27.2 mln
 Reuter

The European Investment Bank, EIB, is
raising 400 mln marks through a 10-year eurobond carrying a
coupon of 6-1/8 pct and priced at 100-1/4, market sources said.
    Deutsche Bank AG will be lead managing the issue, the
sources added. No further details were immediately available.
    Deutsche later confirmed the details and added the issue
would be sold in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 marks.
    Interest will be paid annually on April 7 and the bond
matures on the same day in 1997. Payment date is also April 7.
    The borrower has the option of redeeming the bonds from
1994 at 100-3/4, then declining by 1/4 point annually until
maturity.
    Fees total 1-3/4 pct, with 1-1/8 pct for selling, 3/8 pct
for underwriting and 1/4 pct for management, Deutsche said.
    The bond will be listed in West Berlin, Duesseldorf,
Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Poul Schlueter said
the downgrading of Denmark's credit rating by the U.S. Standard
and Poor's Corp was regrettable but of little practical
importance.
    3tandard and Poor's yesterday lowered the rating on Danish
long-term external debt to AA from AA-plus, saying Denmark was
less competitive with rising labour costs and this would worsen
the external account deficit and increase external debt.
    Schlueter told journalists after the weekly cabinet
meeting: "It is regrettable that they have taken a plus from us,
but the change will not have much practical significance."
    He was echoing comments by central bank governor Erik
Hoffmeyer, who was quoted by the daily Politiken as saying the
downgrading would have little effect on Denmark's borrowing
capability or the interest it paid on loans.
    But some bank economists said the lower rating would
increase the cost of national borrowing to finance the external
current account deficit, which rose to a record 34.5 billion
crowns in 1986.
    Denmark had total foreign debt of over 260 mln crowns at
    Finance Minister Palle Simonsen said in a statement last
night that the downgrading, the second in four years, should
not be over-dramatised, pointing out that the government had
already imposed a series of austerity measures to limit
consumption and was willing to act again if necessary.
    Prices fell steeply when the Danish bond market opened but
recovered somewhat after the central bank cut the overnight
money market lending rate to 10.5 pct from 11 pct.
    The bank said the cut was due to an inflow of foreign
currency in March, following stabler currency relations after
January's EMS realignment.
 REUTER

Shr 19 cts vs three cts
    Net 515,000 vs 87,000
    Revs 6,830,000 vs 4,107,000
    Six mths
    Shr 36 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 955,000 vs 327,000
    Revs 14.2 mln vs 9,755,000
 Reuter

Oper shr profit one ct vs loss four cts
    Oper net profit 104,386 vs loss 196,265
    Revs 8,174,652 vs 2,309,979
    Avg shrs 6,285,714 vs 5,500,000
    1st half
    Oper shr profit nil vs loss eight cts
    Oper net profit 26,541 vs loss 419,758
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 5,088,134
    Avg shrs 5,836,735 vs 5,500,000
    NOTE: Current year net both periods excludes tax credit of
107,370 dlrs.
 Reuter

Viceroy Resource
Corp said recent drilling on the Lesley Ann deposit extended
the high-grade mineralization over a width of 600 feet.
    Assays ranged from 0.35 ounces of gold per ton over a
150-foot interval at a depth of 350 to 500 feet to 1.1 ounces
of gold per ton over a 65-foot interval at a depth of 200 to
410 feet.
    
 Reuter

Taiwan is scheduled to tender tonight
for 450,000 to 475,000 tonnes U.S. corn, export sources said.
    The tender calls for 11 cargoes for delivery from April
through October with early shipments FOB or Pacific Northwest,
they said.
 Reuter

Clabir Corp said its 86 pct
owned affiliate, Ambrit Inc <ABI>, has agreed to acquire the
Popsicle Industries division of <Sara Lee Corp of Canada Ltd>
for about 37 mln Canadian dlrs in cash.
    Clabir said the purchase from the Sara Lee Corp <SLE>
subsidiary is worht about 28 mln U.S. dlrs.
    The agreement is subject to Canadian regulatory approval.
    Popsicle Canada, through its 19 licensees, is the largest
maker and distributor of frozen novelty products in Canada,
Clabir added.
 Reuter

St. Jude Medical Inc said its board
declared a special dividend of one right for each outstanding
share held of the company's common stock, payable to holders of
record April Six.
    It said each right entitles the holder to buy one-tenth of
a share of preferred stock of St. Jude at an exercise price of
100 dlrs.
    St. Jude said the rights may be exercised only after 10
days following the acquisition of, or commencement of a tender
offer for, at least 20 pct of the company's common stock.
    The company added that it has no reason to believe St. Jude
Medical is a takeover target.
 Reuter

Numac Oil and Gas Ltd said it
arranged a 59.7 mln dlr financing with two investment dealers.
    The financing includes 30 mln dlrs of convertible
subordinated debentures and 2.7 mln common shares at a price of
11 dlrs per share for a total of 59.7 mln dlrs
    Wood Gundy Inc and Gordon Capital Corp agreed to buy the
securities. The debentures will be for a term of 15 years with
a seven pct coupon and convertible into common shares for 10
years at 13.50 dlrs per share. The debentures are not
redeemable for three years, Numac said.
 Reuter

Adams-Russell Electronics Co Inc
said it has acquired Hermetronics PLC, a maker of hermetic
integrated circuit packages, for about 600,000 dlrs. 
    The company said HErmetronics is expected to have sales of
over 800,000 dlrs for the year ending this month.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    NOTE: Partnership said holders of common and preference
units for all of 1987 are expected to have no net taxable
income.   
 Reuter

U.S. CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT RECORD 36.84 BILLION DLRS IN 4TH QTR 1986

Sterling Inc said it intends to
file for an offering of 1,500,000 common shares, including
500,000 shares to be sold by shareholders.
    It said proceedsd will be used to reduce bank debt.
    The company said the sale is expected to be completed
followiong a special shareholders' meeting planned for
mid-April.
 Reuter

The U.S. current account deficit
widened to a record 36.84 billion dlrs on a balance of payments
basis in the October-December fourth quarter of 1986 from a
revised 35.29 billion dlrs in the third quarter, the Commerce
    Previously, the department said the third-quarter deficit
was 36.28 billion dlrs.
    For the full year 1986, the current account, a broad
measure of trade performance, was in deficit a record 140.57
billion dlrs after a 117.68 billion dlr deficit in 1985.
    The department said an increase in the merchandise trade
deficit during the fourth quarter to 38.4 billion dlrs from
37.1 billion dlrs in the third quarter was the main reason for
the worsening deficit.
    Net service receipts declined to 5.5 billion dlrs in the
final quarter from six billion dlrs in the third quarter.
    The current account includes trade in merchandise and
services as well as U.S. financial transactions with the rest
of the world.
    The department said the merchandise trade deficit for all
of 1986 grew to 147.7 billion from 124.4 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Net service receipts were 22.3 billion dlrs in 1986,
compared with 21.7 billion dlrs in 1985, the department said.
    Net unilateral transfers during the fourth quarter last
year, covering foreign aid and government pensions, were down
to 3.9 billion dlrs from 4.2 billion dlrs in the third quarter
because of fewer U.S. government grants to Mideast countries.
    Liabilities to foreigners reported by U.S. banks rose 35.3
billion dlrs between October and December after increasing 30.1
billion dlrs in the third quarter.
    For the full year, these liabilities grew 77.4 billion dlrs
after rising by 40.4 billion dlrs in 1985.
    The department said inflows were boosted in the fourth
quarter by international activities of Japanese banks and
strong demand within the United States to finance acquisitions.
    Net foreign sales of U.S. Treasury securities by foreigners
were 2.7 billion dlrs in the quarter after purchases of 500 mln
dlrs in the third quarter.
    Net foreign purchases of securities other than U.S.
Treasury securities in the fourth quarter were 11.8 billion
dlrs, compared with 17.2 billion dlrs in the third quarter.
    For all 1986, foreign purchases of securities excluding
U.S. Treasury securities were a record 70.7 billion dlrs,
surpassing the previous record 50.9 billion dlr total in 1985.
   Claims on foreigners reported by U.S. banks in the fourth
quarter rose 29.9 billion dlrs after a 19.3 billion dlr
third-quarter increase.
    U.S. sales of foreign securities rose to 2.7 billion dlrs
from 300 mln dlrs in the third quarter because of a sharp
selloff of foreign stocks and bonds, the department said.
    Outflows for U.S. direct investment abroad fell to 5.7
billion dlrs from eight billion dlrs in the third quarter.
    Foreign direct investment in the United States increased
14.4 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.6
billion dlrs in the previous quarter, because of stepped-up
acquisitions, the department said.
    Foreign official assets in the United States increased 800
mln dlrs between October and December after rising 15.4 billion
    For the full year 1986, foreign official assets grew 33.4
billion dlrs after a 1985 decrease of 1.9 billion dlrs as
foreign monetary authorities intervened heavily in exchange
markets late in the year as the dollar fell, commerce said.
 Reuter

raised to Baa-3 from Ba-1 about 86 mln dlrs of subordinated
debt of Hechinger Co.
    The rating agency cited Hechinger's consistently increasing
profitability and relatively stable financial structure.
Moody's pointed out that the company has minimal levels of
variable rate debt.
    Hechinger is aggressively expanding its stores with a
distribution outlet and 28 outlets planned in the next two
years. Moody's said the company's healthy cash flows, along
with outside financings, will be used to fund this growth.
 Reuter

East Germany plans to devolve more
responsibility to factories and boost profitability under a law
obliging plants to generate their own funds for investments in
new machinery, repairs or expansion, the Berliner Zeitung
newspaper said.
    The state would no longer finance projects under five mln
marks under the law which took effect on January 1.
    The paper also hinted at further, more ambitious changes if
this experiment proved successful.
    Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has cited East Germany's
cautious industrial decentralisation as an alternative to the
Hungarian model based on Western-style market economics.
    The law stresses that East Germany remains committed to the
centralised state-planned economic system with no market
experiments.
    "This new regulation is part of our general investment
policy," Berliner Zeitung said, citing the growing importance of
robots and high technology rather than the large-scale plant
construction of the 1950s and 1960s.
    "This step could be the start of even greater changes in GDR
investment policy. We must wait and see," it added.
    Factory investment funds would be drawn from profits above
certain minimum returns pledged to the state under annual plans
and from amortisation -- funds the factory is allowed to keep
to compensate for depreciation in the cost of machinery.
    Amortisation costs and all profits currently go back to the
state, which provides all investment capital in return.
    This centralisation has hindered management's response to
changes in world markets vital for the East German economy,
 REUTER

Treasury Secretary James Baker urged
Congress to support the administration's financing requests for
the multilateral development banks in the next two fiscal
years.
    Baker told a House appropriations subcommittee the
administration's request for a total 2.1 billion dlrs in fiscal
1987 and 1988 would meet administration shortfalls and fulfill
Washington's annual payment responsibilities.
    In testimony that went over much of the same ground as his
remarks to a Senate committee some two weeks ago, Baker said
support for the MDBs was crucial to U.S. economic leadership.
    Baker told the committee, "Our national self respect and
our international leadership depend on our willingness to
fulfill this responsibility."
    The administration budget requests include a supplemental
request for fiscal 1987 of 293 mln dlrs and a 1.8 billion dlr
request for fiscal 1988.
    Baker noted these requests included funding requirements
negotiated by the administration with this committee.
    Baker's remarks outlined why the development banks were
formed and the stake the U.S. had in maintaining them.
    Baker pointed out the U.S. has successfully sought reforms
in several of the institutions and was pressing for reforms in
others aimed at making them more efficient, with policies
oriented toward free markets.
    He also gave the House subcommittee a progress report on
the debt strategy and emphasized the importance of continued
financing for the MDBs if the U.S. is to continue to lead in
resolving the debt crisis.
    In other remarks, Baker repeated the need to finance the
general foreign affairs budget and underscored how MDBs have
served U.S. national interests.
 Reuter

money market with late assistance of around 120 mln stg.
    This brings the bank's total help today to some 136 mln stg
and compares with its forecast of a 400 mln stg shortage in the
system.
 REUTER

Memory Protection Devices Inc said it
expects to close the previously announced acquisition of the
assets and liabilities of Bogen, a division of <Lear Siegler
Inc>, on April one.
    Memory Protection Devices said it received a senior loan
commitment letter as well as the requisite waiver under the New
Jersey Environmental Control Reclamation Act, both of which are
necessary to complete the acquisition. It declined to provide
 Reuter

<Canadian Foremost Ltd>,
earlier reporting lower 1986 net profit, said negotiations are
continuing concerning the previously announced sale of the
company's 49 pct interest in <Macedon Resources Ltd>.
    If concluded, the sale would be refelected in the company's
1987 results, Foremost said without elaborating.
    It also said lower revenues from the last half of 1986 are
expected to continue during 1987, but a strong cash and working
capital position will enable Foremost to go on developing
traditional and new markets. It earlier said 1986 earnings fell
to 1,042,000 dlrs from year-ago 2,510,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

by PaineWebber Group Inc and Advest Group Inc.
proceeds to buy from Sonora Gold Corp 5,456,000 Sonora shares
at 5.60 U.S. dlrs each, and Sonora will use about 25.0 mln dlrs
of its proceeds from that deal to buy 9,259,000 shares of
<Goldenbell Resources Inc> at 2.70 dlrs each.
to repay short-term debt and for working capital.
    Goldenbell will use its proceeds from the sale of shares to
construction of production facilities for a property.
net operating profits derived from some Sonora properties. ABM
said it will trade this interest for 1,234,042 Sonora shares
valued at 6.58 dlrs each. ABM will use another 2,825,370 dlrs
of the proceeds to buy from <United Gold Corp> 1,053,000 United
common shares at 2.29 dlrs each and exercise a warrant to buy
another two mln common shares at 20.7 cts per share, with
United to use its proceeds to fund exploration.
Goldenbell, United and Inca Resources Inc.
 Reuter

Texas International Co said it
has completed the previously-announced 120 mln dlr sale of its
domestic oil and natural gas reserves to <Total Compagnie
Francaise des Petroles>.
    It said on closing it used part of the proceeds to retire
all 100 mln dlrs of its U.S. bank and U.S. senior debt and the
rest will be used for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 4,185,000 vs 2,433,000
    Sales 52.9 mln vs 35.7 mln
    Avg shrs 6,000,000 vs 5,200,000
    Year
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 71 cts
    Net 6,759,000 vs 3,717,000
    Sales 130.4 mln vs 85.3 mln
    Avg shrs 5,622,000 vs 5,200,000
 Reuter

Gruen Marketing Corp said it
expects to report earnings for the year ended January 31 of 60
to 65 cts per share on about 7,309,000 average shares, down
from 78 cts on 6,545,000 shares a year before.
    It said sales fell about 10 pct from the year-earlier 104.9
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
said Sears, Roebuck and Co and Kellwood Co, a Sears supplier,
agreed to pay penalties of 200,000 dlrs each to settle 1981 
charges they misrepresented the amount of down filling in coats
they sold.
    The FTC said Sears and Kellwood also pledged to make
truthful advertising claims about the down and feather content
of their garments and to accurately disclose the type of
filling on the garments' labels.
    The FTC said Kellwood has not made or sold any down
garments since 1983.
    The FTC had charged in a 1981 complaint filed in federal
court that Sears and Kellwood mislabeled and falsely advertised
the down content of clothing made by Kellwood and sold by both
Sears and Kellwood.
    As is typical in such cases, the settlement terms did not
require either company to admit or deny the charges.
    The FTC vote to accept the settlement was 4-1.
    In a dissent, Commissioner Andrew Strenio argued that the
settlement terms held Sears to a lower standard than the rest
of the clothing industry.
 Reuter

Massey Combines Corp, 45 pct
owned by Varity Corp, said it shipped 48 large conventional
combines valued at nearly five mln Canadian dlrs to its Saudi
Arabian distributor, located in Riyadh.
    Massey Combines said the combines shipment is the company's
first major sale in Saudi Arabia since the sharp drop in world
oil prices forced many oil-producing countries to curb
machinery imports.
    Massey Combines, formerly Varity's combines division,
became an independent business during a company restructuring
completed last year.
 Reuter

Already strained relations between
the U.S. And the European Community (EC) are likely to get
worse before they get better, director general of the Dutch
Economics Ministry's foreign affairs division Frans Engering
said.
    Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in The
Hague, Engering noted the developing history of crises over
steel, citrus and pasta, and warned of more to come.
    "I consider the strident tone of US declarations on Airbus
ill-advised, and the EC fats and oils tax proposal a dangerous
provocation," he said. "I feel that we shall probably have to
deal with quite a few more crises in the foreseeable future."
    Not only is the US Congress clearly very determined to get
the American balance of payments into better shape, but the
risks of brinkmanship are all the greater because the EC has
its own constraints in meeting outside pressure, Engering
noted.
    "If we ask ourselves whether it is perhaps inevitable that
we keep pushing each other to the brink of actual trade war,
then I think the answer is probably yes," he said.
    In order to reduce these tensions, decision-making in the
EC must become less self-centred, and the US Administration
will have to exercise the authority to convince Congress and
pressure groups of the need for accommodation, he added.
 Reuter

<Qintex America Ltd> said its offer
for 3.3 mln Princeville Development Corp shares has been
extended to March 19 from March 18.
    As of yesterday, Qintex said, 7,060,197 Princeville shares
had been tendered in response to the offer and not withdrawn,
down from over 7.2 mln on March 10.
shareholders to assess the sale announced last week of
Princeville Airways Inc to Aloha Inc <ALO>, adding a supplement
to the Quintex offer further detailing the agreement with Aloha
will be distributed later today.
 Reuter

Lukens Inc said its backlog at
the end of February was about 140 mln dlrs, up from 104 mln
dlrs at the end of 1986 and more than 50 pct above the February
    The company said "Based upon the current backlog, we are
reasonably confident that sales in the first two quarters will
be stronger than sales in the same two quarters last year.
Earnings from operations should also be better."  Lukens earned
456,000 dlrs in last year's first quarter and 2,500,000 dlrs in
the second quarter, excluding a pension gain and a litigation
provision in that period.
    Lukens had first quarter sales last year of 92.9 mln dlrs
and second quarter sales of 105.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Rubber producers and consumers, who
agreed last week on the central elements of a new international
natural rubber pact, have started work on the legal drafting of
a future accord, delegates said.
    Compromise on issues blocking an agreement was reached at a
United Nations conference on an accord to replace the current
pact, which expires in October.
    The new International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) is
expected to be formally adopted on Friday.
 Reuter

    Assays ranged from about 0.35 ounces of gold per short ton
over a 150-foot interval at a depth of 350 to 500 feet to about
1.1 ounces of gold per ton over a 65-foot interval at a depth
of 200 to 410 feet.
 Reuter

REAGAN TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE AT 2000 EST THURSDAY, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

Qtly div 21 cts
    Payable April 15
 Reuter

The National Association of
Securities Dealers Inc said its board of governors has proposed
adoption of uniform rules by major U.S. stock markets which
would emphasize equal shareholder voting rights but allow for
legitimate variations.
    The NASD said its proposal would eliminate differences in
stockholder voting standards as a competitive factor between
markets. It called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to
adopt such a rule applying to all markets if each equity market
is unwilling to voluntarily adopt a uniform rule under the
commission's guidence.
    "Clearly the NASD would willingly be the first to"
voluntarily adopt a uniform rule such as it is proposing, NASD
President Gordon S. Macklin said in a letter to SEC Chairman
John S.R. Shad.
    The NASD said its view is based on the association's study
of the issue and from information developed at the SEC's
recently concluded hearings on the subject.
    The current discussion of the one share-one vote issue was
triggered by the New York Stock Exchange's application to the
SEC for permission to abandon the standard with respect to
companies listed on the NYSE, the NASD noted.
    It called for limiting variations of equal voting rights to
situations involving complete disclosure such as - 
    (1) shares in a registerd public offering where all facts
connected with the company's capital structure are clearly
spelled out in the prospectus and - 
    (2) shares issued in connection with a merger, acquisition
or recapitalization where the exchange of shares is accompanied
by detailed proxy material.
    The NASD said the uniform rule should be written to
disallow the issuance of dual classes of shares where those
with superior voting rights are not resalable.
 Reuter

Glaxo Holdings Plc <GLXO.L> said it has
filed an application to obtain a listing of its ordinary shares
on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
    It said in a statement it expects to obtain the listing by
by the end of the company's financial year on June 30.
    No new shares will be issued in connection with the listing
on the Tokyo exchange, Glaxo said.
    On February 18 Glaxo said it was seeking to list its
American Depositary receipts, now traded on the NASDAQ system,
on the New York Stock Exchange. It also expected this listing
to be in place by June 30.
 Reuter

President Reagan, ending four months
of semi-isolation from the press, will hold a televised news
conference on Thursday, the White House said.
    Reagan is certain to be questioned extensively at the 2000
EST/0100 gmt session about the secret sale of arms to Iran and
skimming of profits to aid U.S.-backed "contra" rebels in
    During his last news conference on November 19, 1986 -- six
days before the fund diversion came to light -- Reagan strongly
defended the clandestine arms operation.
    During that session, the president also denied any third
country involvement in the Iran initiative even though it was
already known that Israel had played a key role in the arms
shipments. The White House was forced to issue a correction
following the news conference.
    Reagan's fumbling performance in that encounter with
reporters helped contribute to a sharp decline in his job
approval rating in various public opinion polls.
    Since the November 19 news conference, Reagan --who
maintains he knew nothing about the contra diversion -- has
revised his position on his covert Iran policy.
 Reuter

said an agreement has been reached by members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to
control the unfair trade practice of using tied aid to promote
trade.
    He said in a statement the agreement culminates the Reagan
administration's effot to negotiate a virtual end to export
credit subsidies.
    The practice of other governments using tied aid or mixed
credits to promote exports has cost the United States lost jobs
and lost exports, the Treasury said.
    The agreement to be implemented in two stages by July, 1988
would ban tied aid credit among industrialized countries and
place limits on permitted aid by developing countries.
    It would also reduce export credits that do not involve aid
and reduce credit subsidies permitted for relatively poor
countries, the Treasury said.
    Baker said the agreement imposes particular sacrifices on
Japan and praised Japan's willingness to accept the pact as a
demonstration of the Japanese government's willingness to take
concrete steps to resolve important trade issues.
 Reuter

Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp said
the sale of its stake in <Imperial Continental Gas Association>
will result in a pre-tax profit of about 44.1 mln dlrs or 4.69
dlrs per share, fully duliuted, in the first quarter of 1987.
    Gulf said it sold its remaining stake in Imperial of 
6,631,222 shares and 100,000 units of loan stock for 74.8 mln
dlrs, based on an exchange rate of one pound sterling at 1.58
dlr. As previously reported, it sold 9,534,633 of its Imperial
shares on March nine.
    Gulf said the sale of the Imperial shares were accepted as
part of a recent tender offer made by <Groupe Bruxelles Lambert
S.A.> and <Tractebel S.A.>.
    Under the terms of the offer, Gulf said it is entitled to
receive a supplementary payment if a general offer to acquire
Imperial Continental or its Calor Group or Contibel Holdings
becomes wholly unconditional before Jan 1, 1988 at a price
above the tender off of 710 pence per share.
   
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS COMMERCIAL BANK LOANS TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TOO SLOW

Shr 1.27 dlrs vs not given
    Net 5,097,000 vs 3,164,000
    Sales 48.1 mln vs 31.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.42 dlrs vs not given
    Net 5,194,000 vs 3,457,000
    Sales 100.4 mln vs 70.1 mln
    NOTE: Company went public in May 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 20 cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net loss 2,195,000 vs loss 1,402,000
    Revs 3,600,000 vs 5,777,000
    Year
    Shr loss 71 cts vs loss 51 cts
    Net loss 7,851,000 vs loss 5,594,000
    Revs 16.7 mln vs 24.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 419,000 vs 938,000
    Revs 16.2 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 25 cts vs 95 cts
    Net 952,000 vs 3,001,000
    Revs 64.6 mln vs 68.8 mln
    Backlog 30.3 mln vs 31.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes nonrecurring gain 383,000 dlrs in
quarter and charge 175,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS GOVERNMENTS SHOULD NOT MANDATE OR GUARANTEE DEBT RELIEF

The intensive technology concept for
grain production has put a new floor under USSR grain
production, the U.S. Agriculture Department's officer in Moscow
said in a field report.
    The report, quoting a broadcast on Radio Moscow, said that
due to intensive technology grain production in a "bad year" will
not fall below 200 mln tonnes, and in a "good year" grain
production could reach 250 mln tonnes.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department currently forecasts this
year's USSR crop at 210.1 mln tonnes, and if realized this
would be the third year since 1975 that the Soviet Union's
grain harvest has exceeded 200.0 mln tonnes.
    The largest crop since 1975 was 237.4 mln tonnes harvested
in 1978, according to USDA data.
 Reuter

The western industrialised nations have
agreed reforms in rules by which they provide credit for
exports to developing countries, the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development said.
    The reforms tighten the rules for the use of foreign aid to
subsidise export credits in so-called "mixed credits," the OECD
said.
    The agreement, to be implemented in two stages in July this
year and July 1988, means the minimum aid component in mixed
credits will be raised to 35 pct from 25 pct, and to 50 pct for
credits covering exports to the world's least developed
nations.
    Additionally, a new formula will be used for calculating
the aid element in mixed credits, to take account of different
interest rates in the exporting countries, the 24-nation OECD,
which hosted the reform negotiations, said.
    Minimum interest rates for officially subsidised trade
loans have also been revised with the aim of cutting the
subsidies, and ending them completely on loans to relatively
rich developing countries by July next year.
    The reforms follow several years of pressure by the U.S. To
stop competitors, notably France and Japan, using foreign aid
to subsidise exports, putting U.S. Firms at a disadvantage.
    OECD officials said the agreement was based on a
provisional accord reached in January subject to ratification
by member governments. Some governments, including Austria, had
linked their final approval to other trade credit issues which
would be discussed at a meeting here in mid-April, they added.
    By raising the minimum amount of aid required in mixed
credits the agreement aims to make such hidden subsidies too
costly for frequent use.
    "A major loophole in the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade has been closed today," a senior U.S. Official here
 REUTER

TM Communications Inc said it has
completed the acquisition of radio station KNSS-FM of Reno,
Nev., for about 2,500,000 dlrs in cash.
 Reuter

Peoples Heritage Bank said it
has agreed to purchase Northeast Leasing Co Inc, a Portland,
Maine lessor of office equipment, for about 43,000 common
shares.
    It said Norhteast had year-end receivables of 2,700,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net loss 484,556 vs loss 620,607
    Sales 2,167,631 vs 1,062,837
    Avg shrs 3,985,924 vs 3,935,969
    Year
    Shr loss 62 cts vs loss 52 cts
    Net loss 2,468,605 vs loss 1,788,406
    Sales 6,603,285 vs 4,650,585
    Avg shrs 3,983,692 vs 3,446,348
 Reuter

Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp said
it has completed the previously-announced sale of its three
foam products plants to Atlas Roofing Corp for undisclosed
terms.
    The sale is part of its restructuring, the company said.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker,
while defending the progress of his 1985 debt initiative,
conceded that lending by commercial banks to developing
countries has not gone as fast as the administration would have
liked.
    In testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee,
Baker said, however, "I think it is wrong to say that
(commercial bank lending) has not occured in a meaningful way."
    He added though that it has not "materialized as fast as we
would have liked."
    The Treasury secretary also said that it would be
politically wrong for the United States or other countries to
guarantee loans made by commercial banks to the developing
country debtors because that would be "rightly perceived as a
bank bailout."
    Baker also said that it would be impractical for
governments to mandate bank lending to the third world since
this would have the eventual impact of turning commercial banks
away from making all loans to the region.
 Reuter

The Pacific Stock Exchange said
officials of the exchange and other representatives from the
U.S. concluded a 10-day trip to China to exchange information
with Shanghai and Hong Kong financial executives.
    The exchange said the trip was to explore potential trading
links between PSE and other Pacific Rim exchanges and to
discuss growth of capital markets in the Far East.
    "This trip represents the PSE's first effort to provide
technical assistance and begin cooperative relationships with
exchanges and securities markets in the Pacific Rim," Maurice
Mann, chairman of PSE, said in a statement.
 Reuter

U.K. Chancellor forecast in budget speech GDP growth of 3.0 pct in 1987

LAWSON FORECASTS 2.5 BILLION STG U.K. CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT IN 1987

CAMPBELL RESOURCES INC 2ND QTR SHR PROFIT THREE CTS VS LOSS 10 CTS

    Net loss 89,255 vs loss 277,536
    Sales 913,136 vs 854,194
    Six mths
    Net profit 481,372 vs loss 555,722
    Sales 1,845,532 vs 1,754,076
 Reuter

Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson, presenting his budget for fiscal 1987/88 to Parliament,
said U.K. Economic growth was forecast at three pct in calendar
1987.
    He said the Treasury expected a current account balance of
payments deficit in 1987 of 2.5 billion stg, after a 1.1
billion shortfall in 1986.
    Inflation is expected to be 4.0 pct at the end of this
year, Lawson said.
    "As I forecast in the Autumn Statement, inflation may
continue to edge up for a time, perhaps exceeding 4.5 pct by
the summer, before falling back to 4.0 pct by the end of the
year," he added.
    Turning to the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR),
Lawson said the likely outturn for fiscal 1986/87 was 4.0
billion stg, or 1.0 pct of GDP.
    The planned PSBR for 1987/88 was set at 4.0 billion stg.
    On monetary policy, Lawson confirmed the target range for
the narrow M0 measure would be two to six pct in fiscal
1987/88.
    No explicit target was set for the broad sterling M3
aggregate, he said. "But broad money will continue to be taken
into account in assessing monetary conditions, as of course
will the exchange rate," the Chancellor told Parliament.
    Lawson said the low outturn of the PSBR in 1986/87 "is
chiefly attributable to the remarkable buoyancy of non-oil tax
revenues in general, and the corporation tax paid by an
increasingly profitable business sector in particular."
    On oil prices, Lawson said he was sticking to his earlier
assumption that North Sea crude prices will average 15 dlrs per
barrel in calendar 1987.
    He said "it is clear that the increased flow of non-oil tax
revenues, coupled with the prospective further growth of the
economy in excess of the growth of public expenditure, puts the
public finances in a very strong position."
    Lawson said the Treasury would strive to keep the PSBR at
1.0 pct of GDP in future.
    "We have reached what I judge to be the (Medium Term
Financial Strategy's) appropriate destination - a PSBR of 1.0
pct of GDP. My aim will be to keep it there over the years
ahead," Lawson said.
    "Inevitably, this greatly diminishes the scope I have this
year for reducing the burden of taxation, which of course
remains a major objective of government policy."
    "But I am sure it is right to err on the side of prudence
and caution, and to build a still firmer base for the future."
    Lawson said the time had come to strike the Exchange
Control Act from the Statute book.
    On corporation tax, he said the rate will remain unchanged
at 35 pct in 1987/88. But companies' capital gains will be
charged at the "appropriate corporation tax rate."
    He said that under the new proposed system, companies
should be able to set Advanced Capital Tax (ACT) payments
against tax on capital gains.
    "Taken together, these changes should yield 60 mln stg in
1988/89," Lawson said.
    Lawson said he will propose that all companies and building
societies be treated the same way on payment of corporation
tax, "with all liable to pay corporation tax nine months after
the end of the accounting period on which the tax is due."
    "I also propose to legislate now to pave the way for a new
method of collecting corporation tax, to be known as Pay and
File."
    This would be part of a wider programme of streamlining tax
collection, and would not come into force until the early
1990s.
    Lawson said he planned two reliefs on Petroleum Revenue Tax
(PRT). As from today, companies may elect to have up to 10 pct
of the costs of developing certain new fields set against their
(PRT) liabilities in existing fields, until the income of those
new fields exceeds the costs incurred.
    Second, there will be a new relief against PRT for spending
on research into U.K. Oil extraction that is not related to any
particular field.
    On business employment, Lawson said employers will receive
tax relief for retraining workers.
    Lawson said that in future, traders registered for Value
Added Tax (VAT) would be able to choose to account for the tax
on the basis of cash paid and received.
    Small businesses may account for VAT annually instead of
quarterly. The VAT compulsory registration period was being
extended to 30 days, he added, and VAT registration thresholds
are to be raised to 21,300 stg.
    New measures are planned to combat VAT avoidance, he added.
    The capital gains tax retirement relief limit would now be
set at 125,000 stg.
    Lawson said he proposed to change the law so that companies
in multinational groups with dual residence will no longer be
able to secure tax relief twice on the same interest payment.
The change will take effect on April 1, 1987, but "genuine
trading companies" will not be affected.
    He also planned to end the present treatment of tax credit
relief for foreign withholding tax paid on interest on bank
loans, also from April 1.
    "In future, banks will be able to offset this tax credit
only against tax on the profit on the relevant loan," he said.
    The standard rate of taxation is being reduced by two
pence, to 27 pct from 29 pct.
    Lawson reiterated the government's aim of reducing basic
taxation to 25 pence in the pound, but added "given my decision
to use the greater part of the fiscal scope I now have to
reduce the PSBR, that goal cannot be achieved in this budget."
    Small companies' corporation tax is also being reduced to
27 pct, he said.
    On the Lloyd's insurance market, Lawson said he planned to
change the tax treatment of Lloyd's syndicates, bringing it
into line with that of provisions for outstanding liabilities
made by ordinary insurance companies and of comparable
provisions made by financial traders.
    The Inland Revenue would be told to consult urgently with
Lloyd's about the details of the legislation, he said.
    "The new rules will first apply to premiums payable for the
Lloyd's account which closes on December 31 this year," Lawson
said.
 MORE

Royal Resources Corp said it has
exercised its optioon to purchase Montagu Mining Investments
Inc from <Samuel Montagu Ltd> of London for 3,600,000 dlrs in
cash and 200,000 common shares.
    The company said Montagu's main asset is a 10 pct interest
in the Hog Ranch Joint Venture, which operates the open cut
heap leach Hog Ranch gold mine in Washoe County, Nev.  The mine
now produces gold at over 50,000 ounces a year.
    It said after nine months following closing, Montagu may
require Royal to register the 200,000 shares for sale.         
    Royal said from six months after closing until one year
after, Montagu also has the right to require Royal to
repurchase any or all of the 200,000 shares at 4.50 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Harley-Davidson Inc said it is
asking the International Trade Commission to terminate import
relief for heavyweight motorcycles.
    The company said it has regained the leadership in sales of
the premium segment of the heavyweight motorcycle market and no
longer needs special tariffs to compete with overseas
competitors.  Harley is the only U.S. motorcycle maker.
    The tariffs were imposed in 1983 when the ITC found that
Japanese competitors had been flooding the market.
 Reuter

Waxman Industries Inc is raising 25
debentures due 2007 with a 6-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing,
said sole underwriter Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
stock at 14.375 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the debentures B-2.
Proceeds will be used to repay short and long-term
indebtedness.
 Reuter

LAWSON SETS U.K. PUBLIC SECTOR BORROWING REQUIREMENT AT 4.0 BILLION STG FOR 1987/88

City of Bergen, Norway, is issuing an 80
mln Canadian dlr eurobond, due April 13, 1994, priced at
101-1/2 with an 8-5/8 pct coupon, lead manager Bank of Tokyo
    The issue will be sold in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and
listed in Luxembourg. Fees are 1-1/4 pct for selling and 5/8
pct for management and underwriting combined. Payment date is
April 13, 1987. There will be two co-lead managers.
 REUTER

Shr profit three cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 765,000 vs loss 2,600,000
    Revs 9,259,000 vs 14,479,000
    SIX MTHS
    Shr profit three cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 875,000 vs loss 2,303,000
    Revs 17.7 mln vs 29.2 mln
    Note: Campbell changing its yr-end to Dec 31 from June 30.
 Reuter

Oper shr 15 cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 517,333 vs 276,240
    Revs 22.4 mln vs 14.0 mln
1,333,760 dlrs or 40 cts share. 1985 shr and net exclude
extraordinary gain of 294,859 dlrs or 10 cts share
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 3,588,000 vs 2,981,000
    Revs 37.8 mln vs 31.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 72 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 7,843,000 vs 8,344,000
    Revs 103.3 mln vs 90.8 mln
 Reuter

Systemed Inc said it changed its
name to Knowledge Data Systems Inc.
    It will now trade under the NASDAQ symbol KDSI. Its
previous symbol was <SYMD>.
 Reuter

Royal Resources Corp said it
exercised an option to buy all of the common stock of Montagu
Mining Investments Inc, whose primary asset is a ten pct
interest in Hog Ranch gold mine in Washoe County, Nevada.
    Royal said it paid 3.6 mln dlrs in cash plus 200,000 shares
of Royal Resources common stock for the interest.
    Montagu Mining is a subsidiary of London-based Samuel
Montagu Ltd.
    Hog Ranch is a joint venture gold mine which has been in
operation since March 1986 and is currently producing gold at a
rate of more than 50,000 ounces a year, it said.
 Reuter

LTV Corp said it has received
a 23.5 mln dlr fixed-price contract to rebuild 923 M54 five-ton
cargo trucks into more modern M813 cargo trucks.
    It said it will deliver 120 conversion kits a months,
starting late in the second quarter and ending early in the
first quarter of 1988.
 Reuter

There is a slightly better than even
chance that the Federal Reserve will enter the U.S. Government
securities market to add temporary reserves, economists said.
    They said the Fed would supply the reserves indirectly via
around 1.5 billion dlrs of customer repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.25 pct yesterday, opened at
6-1/16 pct and moved in a narrow range between there and six
pct in early trading.
 Reuter

Spain's citrus management
committee said it was suspending lemon exports from Thursday in
view of the likelihood of new European Community tariffs.
    A committee spokesman said the body would meet next week to
review the situation and decide whether to lift the suspension.
 Reuter

predicted 1987 will be the fifth successive year for growth in
housing starts after a 2.6 pct rise overall in February starts
to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.851 mln units.
    "This year should be the fifth solid year in a row for
homebuilding activity -- with single-family units stronger than
multi-family units," he said in a statement.
    Single-family starts rose last month from January levels by
5.6 pct to 1.317 mln units on a seasonally adjusted basis while
multi-family unit starts fell 4.1 pct to 534,000 units, the
 Reuter

upgraded Valero Energy Corp's 120 mln dlrs of debt.
    Moody's cited an improved leverage position that will
result from Valero's sale of its Valero Natural Gas subsidiary
to Valero Natural Gas Partners L.P., the partial sale of units
of that partnership to the public, and the simultaneous sale of
first mortgage bonds to institutional investors.
    Raised were Valero-backed tax-exempt economic development
revenue bonds of Vincennes, Ind, to Baa-3 from B-1, Valero's
subordinated debt to Ba-1 from B-2 and depository preferred
stock to Ba-1 from B-2. 
 Reuter

NL Industries Inc's NL
Chemicals Inc subsidiary said it filed two complaints against
<United Catalysts Inc> for patent infringements and
misappropriation of confidential information.
    NL said the patent infringement suit alleges that United's
product, Thixogel DSS, infringes on NL's patent protecting its
Bentone 128 product.
    NL said it filed the patent complaint in the United States
District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, and the
misappropriation complaint in Circuit Court, Jefferson County,
Ky. United Catalysts is based in Louisville, Ky.
 Reuter

Irving Bank Corp said it bought the
factoring division of Associates Commercial Corp, a unit of
Gulf and Western Co Inc's Associates Corp of North America.
    The terms of the previously announced deal were not
    It said the assets were transferred to Irving Commercial
Corp.

 Reuter

Dittler Brothers called for
investigations by the attorneys general of 24 states in
connection with possible violation of state lottery laws by
Bally Manufacturing Corp <BLY> and its subsidiary, Scientific
Games.
    Dittler Brothers said it requested the states' law
enforcement chiefs to investigate the companies following last
week's determination by a court-appointed auditor that
Scientific furnished erroneous information to those 24 state
lottery officials.
    The states named are spread throughout the country.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs one ct
    Net 196,986 vs 37,966
    Revs 15.5 mln vs 8,900,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 52 cts vs 22 cts
    Net two mln vs 874,000
    Revs 53.7 mln vs 28.6 mln
 Reuter

U.S. Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan.,
chairman of the House Agriculture subcommittee on wheat,
soybeans and feedgrains, said he would today introduce a bill
to apply the so-called 0/92 concept to wheat and feedgrains
    Glickman told Reuters the measure would allow 1987 winter
wheat producers and 1988 feedgrains producers the possibility
of receiving no less than 92 pct of their income support
payments regardless of how much acreage they planted.
    He also said his bill would protect program participants
from reduced income payments in the event market prices rose
above the loan rate.
 Reuter

C. Itoh Finance (Europe) Ltd is issuing
a 30 mln dlr deferred coupon eurobond, due March 30, 1992 and
priced at 100.1 pct, Wako International (Europe) Ltd said as
lead manager.
    From the third year the bonds will pay interest at a rate
of four pct over six month London interbank borrowed rate
(Libor). They will be issued in denominations of 50,000 dlrs
and will be listed in Luxembourg. Fees of 0.1 pct comprise two
basis points for management and underwriting and eight points
for selling.
    Co-leads are Mitsui Trust International and Pru-Bache
Securities International. Pay date is March 30.
    The transaction is guaranteed by C. Itoh and Co (Hong Kong)
Ltd, Wako International said.
 REUTER

International Lease
Finance Corp said it sold two Boeing 737-200 aircraft and
leased one 737-200 in two transactions valued at 28 mln dlrs.
    It said the sales will result in a pre-tax gain for its
second fiscal quarter ending May 31.
    The two jets were sold for 18 mln dlrs to an investor group
and the third was leased for five years to Pacific Western
Airlines Ltd of Calgary, Alberta, International Lease said.
 Reuter

HiTech Engineering Co said it
completed the private sale of 200,000 shares of its common
stock to its chairman and president, Francine Prokoski, for
37,500 dlrs.
    The company said the proceeds will be used to develop
products under a contract with a private company.
 Reuter

    Net 547,000 vs 579,000
    Sales 11.0 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 46 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 2,500,000 vs 2,841,000
    Sales 40.7 mln vs 40.5 mln
 Reuter

California Energy Co Inc
said an initial public offering of 1,900,000 common shares is
underway at 7.50 dlrs each through underwriters led by Laidlaw
Adams and Peck Inc.
    The geothermal power company said the offering is expected
to close March 19.
 Reuter

Divi Hotels NV of Aruba said its
warrants have started trading today on the <American Stock
Exchange>.
 Reuter

FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES INC 4TH QTR SHR 3.64 DLRS VS 3.16 DLRS

Oper net 46.6 mln
    Revs 392 mln
    12 mths
    Oper net 65 mln vs 47.1 mln
    Revs 590 mln vs 591 mln
    NOTE: Eight months represents earnings following
acquisition in May 1986 when company went private.
    Period ending Jan. 3, 1987 excludes 42.3 mln dlrs of
interest expenses, 41.6 mln dlrs of acquisition adjusments, and
1.7 mln dlrs of income taxes.
 Reuter

Bank of Ireland said it launched in the
U.S. Market a commercial paper program for up to 200 mln dlrs,
becoming the first Irish issuer of paper in that market.
    It said the first tranche of an undisclosed amount was sold
today through Goldman Sachs and Co Inc and that the paper last
week had received the top A-1/P-1 rating of Standard and Poor's
Corp and Moody's Investors Service Inc, respectively.
    In a statement, the Bank of Ireland noted that the U.S.
Paper market will provide it with a new source of funding.
 REUTER

the U.S. opposes Soviet membership of the World Bank or the
    Baker told a House foreign affairs subcommittee, "I think
our position is absolutely clear on that ... We do not support
and will not support Soviet membership in the World Bank or the
IMF."
    Baker said the U.S. position was "unqualified and
unconditional."
    The secretary observed that he has written to congressman
Jack Kemp, a New York Republican who is also a presidential
contender, outlining the U.S. position.
    Baker was responding to a questioner who noted that World
Bank President Barber Conable has in the past suggested future
Soviet membership could take place.
    Ever since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev suggested Soviet
membership in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade --
which was also rejected -- there has been speculation Moscow
was interested in joining the international institutions.
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,276,000 vs 1,674,000
    Sales 31.9 mln vs 23.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5.3 mln vs 4.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 90 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 4,508,000 vs 3,096,000
    Sales 98.4 mln vs 75.0 mln
    Avg shrs 5.0 mln vs 4.5 mln
 Reuter

    Net 788,099
    Revs 15.5 mln
    NOTE: Company went public during 1986.
 Reuter

Rabobank Nederland B.A.
Said it is launching under its own management a 250 mln guilder
eight-year bullet bond with a 6-3/4 pct coupon and priced at
par.
    No early redemption is permitted on the bond which will be
paid back in full on April 15, 1995.
    Denominations are in 1,000 and five times 1,000 guilders.
Subscription closes March 23, payment is April 15. Listing will
be on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
 REUTER

Spendthrift Farm Inc said it has
received three tentative proposals to acquyire control of the
company.
    It said it is evaluating the proposals and will not comment
further unless a definitive agreement is reached.
 Reuter

BioTechnica International said
it established a new subsidiary, BioTechnica Agriculture, to
develop and commercialize microbial and plant products for
improving crops. It said the unit will be based in Overland
Park, Kansas.
    It said Charles H. Baker, former president of Rohm and Haas
Co's <ROH> Rohm and Haas Seed Inc affiliate, has been named
president of the new agriculture unit. The company said Baker
will also act for a limited time as president of <Chaco
Enterprises Inc>, formed to acquire the Hybrex hybrid wheat
technology from Rohm and Haas.
 Reuter

Sunworld International Airways
Inc said its February load factor rose to 53 pct from 46.1 pct
a year earlier and its year-to-date load factor was up to 52
pct from the 51 pct posted for the same period last year.
    February revenue passenger miles rose to 27.4 mln from 26.4
mln, but year-to-date revenue miles declined to 59.7 mln from
60.4 mln.
    Available seat miles for the month dropped to 51.7 mln from
57.2 mln and for the two month period available miles totaled
115.3 mln, down from last year's 119.2 mln, Sunworld
International said.
 Reuter

Analyst Sanford Margoshes of Shearson
Lehman Brothers said he recommended a number of oil stocks
today now that it is apparent that OPEC has succeeded in
holding to its prescribed production quotas.
    "It is clear that OPEC, through jawboning and quota
restraint, will boost the price of oil," Margoshes said.
    Prices of oil stocks rose sharply today in response to
higher oil prices and optimism about OPEC quotas. Margoshes
said he recommends Imperial Oil <IMO.A>, up 1/2 to 49-1/8,
Standard Oil Co <SRD>, 7/8 to 62-3/4, Exxon <XON> one to
83-1/8, and Chevron <CHV> 1-1/8 to 54-7/8.
    In addition, Margoshes said he recommended Atlantic
Richfield <ARC> on a short-term basis, though he said he is
still suspect about its debt situation. Atlantic Richfield rose
1-3/4 to 77.
    He said "the market could come down to test the 16 dlr a
barrel level again, but the main thrust of investing in oil is
positive right now. Before the year is out we will see higher
oil prices."
    He noted that belief that the government is interested in
raising the strategic reserves is factored into the rise in oil
 Reuter

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has
invited the European Community's 17-man Commission for talks in
Bonn next month in a bid to repair strained relations, EC
diplomats said.
    The Commissioners, led by President Jacques Delors, will
pay a two-day visit to Bonn on April 1-2 when they were due for
a meeting with the principal West German cabinet members.
    The meeting, the first of its kind between the Commission
and the government of a member state, was originally meant to
focus on problems posed by West Germany's federal constitution.
    But they said the meeting was now likely to be dominated by
Commission plans to restructure the EC's exhausted finances and
its costly farm policy, which have provoked strong opposition
from Bonn.
    Kohl has written two letters to Delors, complaining that
the plans would hit West German farmers hard.  His farm
minister Ignaze Kiechle has publicly criticised the two German
members of the Commission for failing to oppose them.
    This caused protest from Brussels where the Commission
tries to guard the independence of its members from the
governments that nominate them.
 REUTER

Minister of Mines Patrick Chitambala
confirmed that Zambia had ended copper shipments through South
Africa and announced that its state-run mining company had
closed down its liaison office in the white-ruled republic.
    He told the official Times of Zambia newspaper in an
interview the government was diverting all mineral exports
along rail routes to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Beira in
Mozambique. Chitambala declined to say what volume of copper
and other minerals were being shipped through these two ports,
but he said there had not been any problem with the new
arrangements.
    "So far our copper has been reaching its destinations
without hindrance," he told the Times.
    The Times of Zambia quoted unnamed sources as saying Zambia
exported 100,000 tonnes of copper through Dar es Salaam and
17,000 through Beira in the last quarter of 1986. Diplomatic
sources in Lusaka had earlier expressed doubts over Zambia's
ability to ship all its copper through Beira and Dar es Salaam
without causing massive bottlenecks at the ports.
    Chitambala also said that the state-run Zambia Consolidated
Copper Mines (ZCCM) had closed its liaison office in
Johannesburg, since it was now redundant.
 Reuter

TAFT CHAIRMAN'S GROUP RAISES TAFT BROADCASTING BID TO 150 DLRS/SHARE

Development Corp of America
said its merger with Lennar Corp <LEN> was completed and its
stock no longer existed.
    Development Corp of America, whose board approved the
acquisition last November for 90 mln dlrs, said the merger was
effective today and its stock now represents the right to
receive 15 dlrs a share.
    The American Stock Exchange said it would provide further
details later.
 Reuter

that Brazil should come up with a new economic plan if it hopes
to get additional assistance from commercial banks and others.
    In testimony before a House appropriations subcommittee,
Baker said that he had given that message to Brazilian
officials earlier this month when they met for talks in
    He said that the so-called Cruzado Plan had worked for a
while, but that new efforts by the government are now required.
    Baker made it clear that he backed the decision by the
Paris Club official creditors to reschedule loans to Brazil,
even though the country later froze its payments to commercial
bank creditors.
    He said that the official loans are being serviced and that
this was a result of the rescheduling.
 Reuter

California Micro Devices Corp
said its stock was included in the March 17 expansion of the
NASDAQ market system.
 Reuter

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd,
based in Israel, said it sold its wholly owned Promedico
subsidiary, to foreign investors for four mln dlrs.
    It said the book value of the unit is about 2.2 mln dlrs.
    Teva said it will continue to market Promedico's products
through its wholly owned subsidiary, Salomon, Levin and Elstein
Ltd.
   
 Reuter

ERC International said its
Facilities Management Group subsidiary, ERCI Facilities Service
Corp, was awarded a 2.1 mln dlrs contract in the drug
repository field, the third such contract in nine months.
    It said that under the five-year contract, it will manage
the National Cancer Institutes's pre-clinical drug repository
of more than 400,000 drugs and chemicals used to test antitumor
activity in animals and tissue culture systems.
 Reuter

that the United States was not seeking loan veto in its
negotiation for voting power at the Inter-American Development
Bank.
    Discussing the ongoing negotiation, Baker said the U.S.
position is that the countries that pay in the most should have
the greatest say over the loan decisions.
    The U.S. is seeking the power to block loan votes with one
other country, and the issue will be discussed in Miami later
this month at the annual meeting of the Latin development bank.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 20 cts prior
    Reord March 27
 Reuter

K Mart Corp said recent talks to sell
65 remaining Kresge variety stores and their underlying real
estate to F.W. Woolworth Co <Z> have ended.
    Robert Stevenson, K Mart vice president, told Reuters the
talks, which began about six weeks ago, ended. He declined to
give a reason.
    Kresge is the forerunner of what is now the K Mart chain.
The name was changed to K Mart in 1977, Stevenson said.
    "We're selling and buying real estate in our real estate
division, and Woolworth was interested in some of our
properties. The talks were of a casual nature," he said.
    The 65 Kresge stores that are scattered around the country
in downtown and suburban locations, he said.
    Stevenson said K Mart will continue to operate the stores.
"The stores are profitable. The only decision K Mart has made
is that we will continue to operate them," he said
    Kresge had been a nationwide chain of 900 variety stores.
 Reuter

Shr 20 ct vs 27 cts
    Net 1,048,000 vs 1,368,000
    Revs 9,457,000 vs 5,386,000
    NOTE: Dollar amounts converted from Irish pounds at noon
buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at Dec 31,
1986, of 1.4105 dlr per one Irish pound. The equivalent rate at
Dec 31, 1985, was 1.2470 dlr equals one Irsh pound. Full name
of company is The Institute of Clinical Pharmacology PLC, based
in Dulbin, Ireland.
 Reuter

LAWSON SAYS U.K. BASIC RATE INCOME TAX TO BE CUT TO 27 PCT FROM 29 PCT

Lawson, presenting his budget for fiscal 1987/88 to parliament,
1987.
billion shortfall in 1986. Inflation is expected to be 4.0 pct
at the end of 1987, he said, adding it may exceed 4.5 pct by
the summer before falling back to 4.0 pct by the end of the
year.
    The planned PSBR for 1987/88 was 4.0 billion stg unchanged
when compared with the likely outturn for fiscal 1986/87,
Lawson said.
    Although no explicit target was set for the broad sterling
M3 money supply, Lawson said broad money will continue to be
taken into account in assessing monetary conditions as well as
the exchange rate.
    The low outturn of the PSBR in 1986/87 was mainly due to
the buoyancy of non-oil tax revenues in general, and the
corporation tax paid by an increasingly profitable business
sector in particular.
barrel in calendar 1987. The treasury would strive to keep the
PSBR at 1.0 pct of GDP in future, he said.
 Reuter

Butler Manufacturing Co said
its board authorized the repurchase of up to 600,000 shares, or
12 pct of its outstanding common stock.
    It said purchases will be made in open market and private
transactions through Kidder, Peabody and Co.
    Butler currently has 5,001,848 shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Royal Palm Savings
Association said it has entered into an agreement with the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Florida Department of
Banking and Finance resulting in the removal of limitations
which had severely restricted its growth and lending.
    The company said it will now be permitted to grow about 70
mln dlrs in calendar 1987, or about 15 pct for this year, and
at the same rate thereafter.
    Royal Palm said under the accord, it will resume commercial
and nonresidential lending but will place substantial emphasis
on residential loans.
    The company said it agreed to adopt new policies and
procedures but did not elaborate.
 Reuter

West German feedstuffs production is
expected to decline further after it dropped to 16.5 mln tonnes
in 1986 from 16.7 mln the previous year, the West German Feed
Stuff Industry Association (MFI) said.
    Association president Ulrich Wagner told a news conference
West Germany's rate of self sufficiency in the feedstuffs
sector is expected to fall below 70 pct this year from around
75 pct in 1986.
    He attributed the expected decline to introduction of milk
quotas in 1984, aimed at curbing EC milk production, and to
cheaper imports from abroad.
    "Our industry's output is not even close to stagnation,"
Wagner said. "In the long term we expect annual production to
decline steadily."
    The only sector which saw a slight increase last year, by
0.6 pct, was feed for poultry which rose to 3.25 mln tonnes
from 3.23 mln, he said.
    Wagner predicted that the sales volume in feed for dairy
cattle will decline even more this year because of the further
cut in milk output from April.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs eight cts
    Net 856,000 vs 574,000
    Sales 9,593,000 vs 9,232,000
    Avg shrs 8,809,000 vs 6,969,000
 Reuter

    Shr loss two cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net loss 192,370 vs loss 1,494,146
    Revs 6,751,830 vs 2,278,842
    Note: Full name Applied Circuit Technology Inc.
 Reuter

Qtly div 5-1/2 cts vs 5-1/2 cts prior
    Record April Six
 Reuter

is undertaking a review of the long-term effects on securities
markets of computer-driven trading techniques known as program
trading.
    The NYSE said, "The study will review major new trading
techniques involving programmed portfolio hedging and index
arbitrage for their potential benefits and risks to the
financial system.  It will also explore the regulatory
implications of these trading techniques and whether their
increased use could possibly lead to market abuse."
    The exchange said a final report is expected before the end
of 1987.  It said program trading is becoming increasingly
important as a market factor.
 Reuter

    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-1/16 pct when
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Shr 3.64 dlrs vs 3.16 dlrs
    Net 171.3 mln vs 154.0 mln
    Sales 3.44 billion vs 3.23 billion
    Avg shrs 47.1 mln vs 48.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 6.23 dlrs vs 5.88 dlrs
    Oper net 301.9 mln vs 286.6 mln
    Sales 10.51 billion vs 9.98 billion
    Avg shrs 48.5 mln vs 48.8 mln
    NOTE: Latest year net excludes 14.3 mln dlr charge from
loss on early debt extinguishment.
    Net includes charges 15.7 mln dlrs in both periods of
latest year vs charges 23.9 mln dlrs in both periods of earlier
year from merger of divisions.
    Investment tax credits three mln dlrs vs 8,900,000 dlrs in
quarter and 4,900,000 dlrs vs 16.4 mln dlrs in year.
    Latest year net includes nine mln dlr provision for loss on
disposition of two Abraham and Strauss stores and preopening
expenses for another.
    Latest year net includes gain from sale of interest in Fort
Worth, Texas, shopping center of 9,500,000 dlrs.
    Latest year net both periods includes gain 9,100,000 dlrs
from sale of interest in Memphis, Tenn., shopping center.
    Prior year net includes gain 6,600,000 dlrs on sale of
Boston Store division.
 Reuter

    Sales 42.2 mln vs 28.8 mln
    Year
    Net 11,908,000 vs 10,005,000
    sales 160.3 mln vs 126.5 mln
 Reuter

<Phoenix Canada Oil Co Ltd> said it
intends to appeal a ruling in U.S. Federal District Court of
Delaware on its suit against Texaco Inc <TX>, Chevron Corp
<CHV>, Chevron's Gulf Oil unit and their Ecuador subsidiaries.
    The court ruled against Phoenix's claim that a royalty it
held should have entitled it to a share of the 160 mln U.S.
dlrs paid to the defendants when they sold 62.5 pct of their
working interest in Ecuador oil operations, Phoenix said.
    However, the court did award Phoenix 1,250,000 Canadian
dlrs in underpayments, the company said.
    Phoenix Canada Oil said the fiduciary relationship that
existed between Phoenix, as the royalty owner, and the
defendants, as the working interest operators, was fundamental
in the oil industry and was not reflected in the court's
ruling.
 Reuter

Gannett Co Inc said it will ask
shareholders at the May Seven annual meeting to approve a
doubling of authorized common shares to 400 mln and limitations
on the liability of directors under Delaware law.
 Reuter

    Net loss 59,299 vs profit 88,843
    Revs 3,487,693 vs 2,123,488
    Year
    Shr profit 25 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 816,395 vs loss 44,541
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 7,413,328
    Avg shrs 3,208,472 vs 2,348,559
 Reuter

Conservative gains in Finnish general
elections could speed liberalisation of financial markets,
though there will not be a radical economic restructuring,
conservative officials and economic analysts said.
    The conservatives gained nine new seats in parliament after
the two-day elections, which ended yesterday, and political
commentators say social democrat Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa is
likely to be replaced by a centre-right coalition.
    International spokesman Pasi Natri told Reuters: "we are
willing to liberalise the economy as much as possible."
    Helsinki analysts said the outgoing centre-left coalition
had introduced major reforms of money and stock markets in its
period of government between 1983 and 1987.
    They said Finnish conservatives bore little resemblance to
other European conservative movements and had, for example,
shelved privatisation policies to increase their popularity.
    Finnish trade affairs are dominated by its special ties
with its neighbour, The Soviet Union, and a new centre-right
coalition could alter this relationship, the analysts said.
   The two countries have a long-term pact under which trade
must be balanced in value. The 1987 accord signed in January
agreed bilateral trade totalling about 30 billion markka.
    Finland exports finished products to the USSR, with crude
oil accounting for 80 pct of imports.
    The Centre Party said before the elections that Fenno-
Soviet trade would have to be cut because Finland had to trim
exports when the value of Moscow's oil exports to Finland fell.
    Finnish financial markets reacted cautiously to the
election news, with little movement in the markka or on the
Helsinki stock exchange.
    Securities analysts said the market would respond positively
if a centre-right coalition was formed, but added it was too
early to exclude the possibility that social democrats would
hang on to power.
    The spokesman said conservatives favoured legislation
governing the stock market to prevent "casino-style behaviour."
    He said the conservatives also favoured the establishment
of an internal market between the Nordic countries.
     International capital markets were becoming more and more
important, he  said, adding conservatives would speed up the
development of Finland's capial markets.
   He said the conservatives supported the bilateral trade ties
with Moscow, but that links with western Europe should be
studied. Finland is a member of the European Free Trade
Association ( EFTA).
    Negotiations between the major Finnish political parties
are likely to be protracted, and the shape of the new
government will probably not be established before the start of
April.
    Conservatives hold 44 seats now, The Centre Party gained
three to 40 and the social democrats lost one, and now hold 56
seats.
 REUTER

BankAmerica Corp may place its
long-term loans to Brazil on nonaccrual status if Brazil
continues to defer interest payments on the loans, the bank
holding company said in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
    BankAmerica said its outstanding loans to Brazil currently
total about 2.7 billion dlrs, including about 1.5 billion dlrs
in long-term loans and 1.2 billion dlrs in short-term loans.
    The Brazilian government announced in February its
intention to stop paying interest temporarily on its long-term
public and private sector commercial bank debt.
    "Continued deferral of interest payment on these obligations
could result in the loans being placed on nonaccrual status,"
the banking firm said.
    BankAmerica said its outstanding loans to Mexico currently
total about 2.5 billion dlrs, of which about 215 mln dlrs of
loans have been reported as either nonaccrual or past due 90
days or more.
    Outstanding loans to Venezuela currently total about 1.3
billion dlrs, of which 241 mln dlrs of loans have been reported
as either nonaccrual or past due 90 days or more, it said.
 Reuter

State-owned <Chemie Linz AG> is
likely to record a 1986 loss of some 600 mln schillings
compared with a 340 mln loss in 1985, a company spokesman said.
    Falling sales and lower world prices of fertilisers were
largely responsible for the sharp increase, along with the
effects of the dollar's fall which has helped to give U.S.
Fibre producers a competitive edge, he told Reuters.
    The firm would have made a small profit in 1985 had it not
been for 456 mln schillings lost by subsidiary <Merx
HandelsgesmbH> on oil trading. Merx has since withdrawn from
the oil market. The firm will announce 1986 results in July.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 617,000 vs 604,000
    Revs 1,889,000 vs 1,920,000
 Reuter

Dudley Taft and Narragansett
Capital Inc said it was prepared to raise its bid to acquire
Taft Broadcasting Co to more than 150 dlrs per share.
    Taft, through Theta Co, sent and letter to Taft's board of
directors stating he was committed to purchasing the
broadcasting company and was ready to discuss all aspects of
the purchase.
    The company said items to be discussed included price,
structure and form of consideration. Taft said he was prepared
to negotiate a transaction in which Taft Broadcast shareholders
would receive in excess of 150 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS HE IS "QUITE CONFIDENT" JAPAN WILL STIMULATE ITS ECONOMY

The proposed European Community (EC) tax
on vegetable oils and fats is no longer a major issue on the
agenda and the EC Commission merely used it as a threat, the
West German Feed Stuffs Industry Association (MFI) said.
    Association chairman Ulrich Wagner told a news conference
the West German feed industry believes the EC does not
seriously contemplate the introduction of such a tax because it
would end in another transatlantic trade war.
    "We have just avoided a trade conflict with the U.S. And the
Commission used the tax threat to calm national farm lobbies."
    American Soybean Association (ASA) president-elect Wayne
Bennett said yesterday in The Hague that U.S. Soybean producers
were confident the tax would be rejected.
    Bennett, who is leading one of three soybean delegations on
a lobbying tour of EC capitals, will also visit Bonn on
Thursday and Friday.
    There are indications the Bonn government will also reject
the proposed tax, Wagner said.
 Reuter

Allwaste Inc said it entered into an
agreement in principle to acquire all the outstanding common of
a related air-moving and industrial services company. It did
not disclose the name of the company.
    Allwaste, which preforms air-moving and related services,
said it will swap shares of its common, valued at 2.6 mln dlrs,
with the company it is acquiring.
    It said the acquisition is subject to negotiation of a
final agreement.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp, the world's largest oil
company, said in a published interview today that it was
reviewing its worldwide refinery operations and might decide to
close on of its french refineries.
    Lee R. Raymond, Exxon's new president, singled out the
possibility of a closure of one of Exxon's refineries in France
during the interview.
    An Exxon spokeswoman confirmed that Raymond had
specifically mentioned refineries in France but said that no
specific refinery had been named. She also said that all of
Exxon's opertations were under constant review.
    Exxon currently has two refineries in France, FOS in the
mediterranean with a capcity of 175,000 barrels per day and
Port Jerome west of paris with a similar capacity.
    Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, an influential trade
journal, said, in its current issue, that they understood that
Exxon was looking at the possibility of refinery closures in
Antwerp, Southern France or possibly Italy.
    Paul Mlotok, oil analyst with Salomon Brothers inc said
that with the closures Exxon made in 1986 in Europe and the
improvement in the European refining situation, its future
profits there should be good.
    "Exxon and other major oil companies have closed a bunch of
refineries in Europe, upgraded the rest and shaken many of the
indepedents out of the market. Now with demand for products
rising and efficient operations, Exxon should show superior
earnings," Mlotok said.
    "Just after Royal Dutch <RD>, they are seen as one of the
highest grade refiners in Europe," he added.
    Industry sources said that the oil companies were likely to
feel greater pressure on their operations in Southern Europe
where competition from the OPEC countries is increasing as
these producers move further into downstream operations.
    PIW said that refiners in the Mediterranean can expect
increased shipments from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC export
    PIW said "sales from Libya, Algeria and elsewhere are
expected to reclaim markets lost to Italian and other European
refiners as a result of the abundance of cheap netback oil last
year."
 Reuter

said the U.S. opposes Soviet membership of the World Bank or
the International Monetary Fund.
IMF."
 Reuter

Italy's response to protests by U.S.
Soybean producers about the proposed European Community (EC)
tax on vegetable oils and fats had not been encouraging,
American Soybean Association (ASA) board chairman George
Fluegel said.
    Fluegel, heading one of three U.S. Soybean producer
delegations currently on a lobbying tour of EC countries, told
Reuters in an interview meetings with officials from the
Italian Foreign and Agricultural ministries had not yielded
much to encourage hopes that Italy would vote against the
proposed tax.
    Fluegel said his delegation had received a negative
response from the Italian Agriculture Ministry, but that the
attitude of the Foreign Ministry appeared "more realistic."
    He said the proposed tax was discriminatory against U.S.
Farmers since it was basically asking them to help finance the
EC's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on oilseeds.
    Asked which EC countries might be expected to vote against
the proposed tax, he said, "Realistically, from the information
we're getting, it looks like the English, the Germans,
hopefully the Netherlands and Denmark." His delegation also
hoped to convince Belgium to vote against the issue, he added.
    Asked what form he thought U.S. Retaliatory action might
take in the event of the EC tax proposal being approved,
Fluegel said industrial as well as agricultural products could
be involved.
    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng warned the EC
yesterday it would face serious retaliation if it enacted the
tax.
    ASA president-elect Wayne Bennett said yesterday in The
Hague American soybean producers were confident the proposed
tax would be rejected.
 Reuter

Israel has drawn up a five-year plan
for 1987-1991 to raise agricultural production by 500 mln dlrs
to 2.7 billion dlrs, an annual rise of 3.4 pct, the Israeli
Ministry of Agriculture said. Agricultural exports are to be
increased by 180 mln dlrs, or 4.8 pct per year on average.
    The area planted to cotton is to remain at the 1986 level
of 100,000 to 112,500 acres with exports expected to bring in
80 to 90 mln dlrs per year. The 34 pct decline from the 1985
level reflects continued water rationing which will remain in
force, the ministry said.
    Groundnut production is planned to increase by 13,000
tonnes, or 57 pct, by 1991 and exports by 9,000 tonnes, or 82
pct. Maize production is targetted to rise by 48,000 tonnes, or
48 pct, and exports by 34,000 tonnes, or 45 pct.
 Reuter

Brunswick Corp said it filed a
Commission on a shelf offering of 300 mln dlr in senior debt
    It said proceeds from the sale will be used mainly for to
replace variable rate indebtedness, primarily privately placed
commercial paper, incurred in connection with the acquisitions
of Bayliner marine Corp and Ray Industries Inc.
 Reuter

investor George Soros said it acquired a 6.1 pct stake in B.F.
Goodrich Co common stock as an investment.
    The group said it paid about 69 mln dlrs for the 1,389,600
Goodrich shares, which are being held by Quantum Fund N.V., a
Netherlands Antilles investment firm advised by Soros.
    It said all the shares were bought between Dec. 29 and
March 9.
    The group said it reserved the future right to buy
additional shares and to formulate other purposes or plans
regarding its Goodrich investment.
 Reuter

the United States was not seeking loan veto in its negotiation
for voting power at the Inter-American Development Bank.
 Reuter

department reported.
 Reuter

TAFT BROADCASTING SAYS IT WILL CONTINUE TO REVIEW OPTIONS IN RESPONSE TO LATEST BID

COURT ENJOINS ZICO INVESTMENT'S TENDER FOR BANCROFT CONVERTIBLE FUND

Michael Steinhardt told the Securities and Exchange Commission
it bought a 6.6 pct stake in Holiday Corp common stock as an
    The group said it paid 114 mln dlrs for its 1.6 mln Holiday
shares, 530,000 of which were bought since Feb. 6.
    At the same time, group members said they held short
positions in the stock totaling 830,000 shares.
    In addition to Steinhardt himself, the group includes
Steinhardt Partners and Institutional Partners, two investment
firms of which Steinhardt is one of the general partners.
 Reuter

Adm. John Poindexter, a former
National Security Adviser who resigned over the Iran arms
scandal, refused to testify before a House committee probing a
recent expansion of White House and military control over
unclassified information.
    "On advice of counsel, I decline to answer that question
pursuant to my constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment,"
Poindexter said four times in response to questions from House
Government Operations Committee chairman Rep. Jack Brooks.
 Reuter

downgrade Chi-Chi's Inc's 50 mln dlrs of B-plus convertible
subordinated debentures due 2009.
    S and P cited continued poor operating performance of
Chi-Chi's 200 Mexican food restaurants and the company's
planned repurchase of up to three mln of its common shares.
    Chi-Chi's posted a third-quarter loss of 10 mln dlrs,
including a 20 mln dlr pretax loss from the disposal of 21
company-owned restaurants as part of a restructuring plan, the
rating agency noted. Profitability has fared poorly for three
years, mostly because of intense competition, S and P added.
 Reuter

Oper shr 29 cts vs 22 cts
    Oper net 3.9 mln vs 1.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 63 cts vs four cts
    Oper net 10.1 mln vs 855,000
    NOTE: Excludes gain one ct per share vs loss two cts in the
quarter, and gain 41 cts per share vs gain six cts in the year
from investments. Also excludes extraordinary gain of one ct
per share in fourth quarter 1985, and gain of one ct per share
vs one ct in the full year period.
 Reuter

THe New York STock Exchange said an
option trading rights seat sold for 40,000 dlrs, off 5,000 dlrs
from the previous sale on January 29.
    The Exchange said the current bid is 35,000 dlrs, the last
offer is for 45,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Societe Generale de Belgique <BELB.BR>
said the near doubling of net profits in 1986 was due in large
part to the sale of shares in Genstar Corp.
    The company, which announced a net non-consolidated profit
of 5.31 billion francs compared with 2.82 billion in 1985, said
its current profits rose by 19 pct last year, without giving
further figures.
    However, it added in a statement that the company made
major capital gains on sales during the year, in particular
from the sale of Genstar shares.
    Societe Generale governor Rene Lamy told last November's
annual meeting that 1986 asset disposals would total around 4.5
billion francs, including the sale of Genstar shares to Imasco
Limited <IMS.TO>.
    He predicted a profit on extraordinary items of two billion
francs after a rough balance in 1985.
    In today's statement, Societe Generale gave no figures for
extraordinary gains.
 Reuter

Photronics Corp said it has
received two mln dlrs in contracts from General Dynamics corp
for continued production of primary and secondary mirror
assemblies for the Stinger-Post missile.
    It said the orders cover the second year of production of 
a planned five-year program.
    The companby also said it has received 800,000 dlrs in
orders for optical countermeasure coatings from various
customers and its total backlog at March One was 13.6 mln dlrs,
a new record and up from last year's high of 11.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

E-Systems said it received a multi-year
U.S. Navy contract for the continuing production of its
military teleprinters for use in submarines.
    It said the contract is worth 9,208,223 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 217,200 vs profit 83,200
    Revs 3,564,200 vs 3,171,900
    Avg shrs 2,033,750 vs 1,334,950
 Reuter

A proposal by two U.S. House
Democrats to target government farm benefits to small- and
medium-sized farms was warmly received by Democrats on a
House subcommittee today.
    "On balance, this is the best new idea I have seen," said
Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), Chairman of the House Agriculture
Subcommittee on Wheat, Feedgrains and Soybeans. "This is the
first hard constructive proposal coming out as an alternative
to the (Reagan) administration's farm proposal."
    The plan, offered by Reps. Tim Penny (D-Minn.) and Byron
Dorgan (D-ND), would raise target prices for wheat to 5.00 dlrs
per bushel and for corn to 3.50 dlrs. Producers could receive
deficiency payments on up to 80 pct of normal yield but not
more than on 30,000 bu of corn and 20,000 bu of wheat.
    The proposal also would require acreage reductions of 20
pct, eliminate generic certificates and prohibit persons not
actively engaged in farming from receiving program benefits.
    Dorgan said the bill would save 24 billion dlrs over five
years, protect family farms and eliminate government
accumulation of stocks because nonrecourse loans would be
halted.
    However, Rep. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said the measure would
"involve the federal government in deciding and defining who a
family farmer is."
    Roberts said the bill, for example, would restrict program
payments to 500 acres of wheat production in western Kansas.
    Other Republicans on the panel questioned how the bill
would determine if a person was actively engaged in farming and
therefore eligible for payments.
 Reuter

will review the long-term effects on securities markets of
computer-driven trading techniques known as program trading.
financial system.
    "It will also explore the regulatory implications of these
trading techniques and whether their increased use could
possibly lead to market abuse."
of 1987. It said program trading is becoming increasingly
 Reuter

The European Commission is to consider
proposed new higher minimum standards for sales of durum wheat
into intervention stores, European Community sources said.
    They said a document drawn up by Commission officials
proposes a reduction in the maximum humidity level to 13 pct
from 14, an increase in the minimum weight to 78 kilos per
hectolitre from 76, a tightening of other technical standards
and introduction of some new ones.
    Current public stocks of durum wheat in the EC are 1.15 mln
tonnes, of which almost 1.12 mln are in Italy.
 Reuter

Bancroft Convertible Fund said the
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey issued a
preliminary injunction, enjoining <Zico Investment Holding
Inc's> tender offer for Bancroft.
    It said the Court order prevents Zico from buying any
shares tendered to them during the offer, which began on Feb.
17, 1987.
    In the tender offer blocked by the Court, Zico offered to
buy 500,000 shares, or about 22 pct of Bancroft's outstanding
stock, for 30 dlrs a share.
    Previously, Zico had bought 965,000 Bancroft shares for 31
dlrs a share, giving it about 28 pct of the company. If the
recent offer had gone through, the Zico would have owned
slightly more than 50 pct of Bancroft's outstanding shares.
 
 Reuter

Zambia will reintroduce a modified
foreign exchange auction at the end of this month as part of a
new two-tier exchange rate, central bank governor Leonard
Chivuno said.
    Chivuno told a press conference at the end of three weeks
of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that
there would be a fixed exchange rate for official transactions
and a fluctuating rate, decided by the auction, for other types
of business.
    The Bank of Zambia previously held weekly auctions to
distribute foreign exchange to the private sector and determine
the kwacha's exchange rate, but these were suspended at the end
of January.
    President Kenneth Kaunda said at the time that he was
suspending the auction system in view of the rapid devaluation
and violent fluctations of the exchange rate which had
resulted.
    Business and banking sources said another reason for
suspending the auction was that the central bank was low on
foreign exchange and was 10 weeks behind in paying successful
bidders.    The kwacha stood at 2.2 per dollar when the auction system
was first introduced in October 1985, but it slid to around 15
per dollar by the time it was suspended 16 months later.
    Since then, Zambia has operated a fixed exchange rate of
about nine kwacha per dollar.
 REUTER

Shr primary 64 cts vs 45 cts
    Shr diluted 60 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 4,524,000 vs 3,212,000
    Revs 202.5 mln vs 171.9 mln
    Avg shrs primary 7,112,480 vs 7,052,964
    Avg shrs diluted 8,034,223 vs 8,008,763
    Year
    Shr primary 1.70 dlrs vs 1.31 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.65 dlrs vs 1.30 dlrs
    Net 12.1 mln vs 9,252,000
    Year
    Revs 612.4 mln vs 523.4 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 8,034,223 vs 7,732,544
    Note: Includes after-tax LIFO charges of 441,000 dlrs vs
359,000 dlrs for qtr and 539,000 dlrs vs 407,000 dlrs for year.
 Reuter

Taft Broadcasting Co said its
board continues to explore alternatives, such as a possible
financial restructuring, in response to a Theta Corp offer of
150 dlrs per share for Taft stock.
    Last week Taft rejected a 145 dlr-a-share bid by Theta, an
investment group headed by Taft's vice chairman, Dudley Taft.
    Taft also said the new proposal would be submitted to the
board but no decision had been made with respect to the sale of
    In the proposal, Theta said it was prepared to discuss all
aspects of the offer including price, structure and form of
consideration and would be prepared to negotiate a transaction
in which shareholders would receive a value in excess of 150
    Taft said Theta requested that the company cooperate and
provide it with information subject to an appropriate
confidentiality agreement.
    The company declined to comment beyond this statement.

 Reuter

Two new U.K. Tax relief measures for oil
producers, announced today, are aimed at encouraging
developments in the North Sea to go ahead and boost
opportunities for the offshore supplies industry, the Inland
Revenue said in a post-budget statement.
    Earlier, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson announced
in his annual budget to Parliament that from today, companies
will be allowed to offset up to 10 pct of qualifying
development expenditure on certain future oil fields against
Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT).
    To date, full relief was allowed for expenditure on an
individual field itself, when its income stream began, but was
not immediately available against other development
expenditure, the statement said.
    The new relief will apply to fields outside the southern
basin for which development
consent is first given on or after today, and will improve the
post-tax economics of new developments and encourage companies
to proceed with project which might have been delayed, it said.
    Lawson also announced that he would henceforth allow
certain expenditure on oil related research which does not at
present qualify for PRT relief to be offset against PRT
liability.
    This means oil-related expenditure in the U.K. Or on the
U.K. Continental shelf, which has not become allowable in a
particular field within three years of being incurred, to be
allowed against PRT liability in any oil field, the Inland
Revenue said.
    This brings the scope of PRT relief for research costs more
in line with corporation tax relief measures, and is planned to
encourage general research into ways of reducing field
development costs, it said.
    In due course, the industry should benefit by over 100 mln
stg a year, it calculated.
    The Inland Revenue statement also included other technical
measures that Lawson did not comment on in his budget speech.
    These included measures to allow companies to balance their
shares of PRT-exempt oil allowances through reallocation in two
past periods of allowance utilisation.
    Tidier rules on incorrectly allowed PRT expenditure reliefs
were announced, while there were also ammendments on rules on
corporation tax and Advance Corporation Tax relating to the
so-called "ring fence" of activities in the U.K. And its
continental shelf. The Finance Bill will have provisions for
the implementation of measures announced in November, it said.
    Gareth Lewis Davies, a North Sea expert with stockbrokers
Wood Mackenzie and Co Inc in Edinburgh, thought the two reliefs
on PRT would help the depressed offshore industry.
    He said the 10 pct cross field allowance relief would
favour chances that development of smaller North Sea fields
such Osprey, Don and Arbroath would be brought forward.
    Early development of the larger Miller and Bruce oil fields
might also be encouraged, he said.
    Lewis Davies said the measure might also aid the offshore
construction industry, which suffered a huge amount of lay-offs
under the price slump of more than 50 pct last year.
    He pointed out that the relief only applies to the
development of new fields outside the Southern Basin.
    This means more jobs could be created, as the fields in the
central and northern sectors of the North Sea are deeper than
in the south and thus have greater capital and labour
requirements as the waters are deeper than in the south.
    He said the PRT relief for certain research expenditure
would help fundamental research in the oil industry, although
the benefits of this research would not be seen for several
year.
 REUTER

Texas Eastern Corp's Texas Eastern
Gas Pipleline unit President Howard C. Homeyer said the company
is committed to cleaning up polychlorinated biphyenyls PCBs
from its pipeline system.
    In testimony before Sen. Frank Lautenberg's (D-N.J.),
oversight committee on Environment and Public Works, a press
statement said Homeyer said the company will work with the
Environmental Protection Agency to immediately clean up
contaminated sites.
    The New York Times today reported that the EPA knew as
early as the fall of 1985 about PCB contamination at sites
along the Texas Eastern pipeline, but took no action because
the company supplied insufficient information.
    According to the Times, Texas Eastern admitted burying PCBs
at 51 sites along its right of way.
    Homeyer told the committee, according to a statement, that
the cleanup will require cooperation among EPA headquarters,
six EPA regions and a dozen states to avoid delays.
    Texas Eastern officials were not immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 11.4 mln vs 9,905,528
    Revs 194.3 m ln vs 171.7 mln
    Note: Qtly div is payable April 22 to shareholders of
record April three.
 Reuter

Perry Drug Stores Inc, which two
weeks ago reported sharply lower first quarter earnings, plans
to slow its expansion to five to six pct annually from 15 pct
last year, Chairman Jack A. Robinson told Reuters.
    Robinson said after the company's annual meeting that Perry
also would slow its acquisition program, through which the
company has moved into the auto parts business.
     Although Robinson would not make a specific earnings
forecast, he said "We expect to regain our earnings momentum in
the second half of the current fiscal year, ending October 31."
    Perry Drug earned 13 cts a share in its first quarter this
year. It made 11 cts a share in last year's second half, down
from 51 cts in the 1985 second half.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co and
Philips Telecommunications BV (APT) would hold 36 pct through
direct and indirect holdings in France's <Cie Generale de
Constructions Telephoniques> if a joint bid with French
partners for the soon-to-be-privatised firm succeeds, a
director at one of the partner firms said.
    Marc Mathieu of <Societe Anonyme de Telecommunications>
SAT, told journalists the bid foresaw a direct stake of 20 pct
for APT, the joint firm set up by the U.S.'s ATT <T.N.> and the
NV Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS>.
    The other 80 pct would be owned by a holding company made
up of SAT, APT, Cie du Midi <MCDP.PA> and five mutual funds.
   Under French law, foreign investors are restricted to a 20
pct direct stake in privatised companies but can boost their
stake to 40 pct through indirect holdings.
    The make-up of the holding company, however, is subject to
close discussions within the government due to legal queries
over the nationality of the mutual funds, a Finance Ministry
    Although bought by French citizens they are managed by
foreign banks <Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York> and
<Banque de Neuflize, Schlumberger, Mallet SA>, controlled by
Algemene Bank Nederland NV <ABNN.AS>, an SAT spokesman said.
    CGCT, which controls 16 pct of the French public telephone
switching market, is to be sold by the government for 500 mln
francs by private tender.
    Five groups are bidding for the company and the government
has said it will choose CGCT's new owner by the end of April.
    APT vice-president Wim Huisman told a news conference a
capital increase was envisaged if SAT-APT wins CGCT, but
declined to give details or say how an increase would affect
foreign stakes in CGCT.
    In 1985, CGCT posted losses of 200 mln francs on sales of
three billion after 1984 losses of 997 mln francs.
    A joint SAT-APT statement added that buyers were committed
to investing 240 mln francs in CGCT research and production
plants. The APT-SAT offer includes a provision for CGCT to
produce APT 5ESS-PRX switching technology and adapt it to
French standards.
    The tender was launched after a 1985 draft agreement for
ATT to take over CGCT was abandoned following the introduction
of the French government privatisation laws which reopened
bidding among a wider range of applicants.
    Other candidacies to take over CGCT include West Germany's
Siemens AG <SIEG.F> allied with Schneider SA <SCHN.PA>
subsidiary Jeumont-Schneider, Sweden's Telefon AB LM Ericsson
<ERIC.ST> allied with Matra <MATR.PA> and Bouygues SA
<BOUY.PA>, Italy's <Italtel>, and Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd
<NTL.TO>.
 Reuter

British bank base lending rates are
likely to fall by as much as one full point to 9-1/2 pct this
week following the sharp three billion stg cut in the U.K.
Central government borrowing target to four billion stg set in
today's 1987 budget, bank analysts said.
    The analysts described Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson's budget as cautious, a quality which currency and money
markets had already started to reward.
    Sterling surged on foreign exchange markets and money
market interest rates moved sharply lower as news of the budget
measures came through, the analysts said.
    Lloyds merchant bank chief economist Roger Bootle said he
expected base rates to be cut by one full point tomorrow.
    "This is very much a safety-first budget in order to get
interest rates down," he said.
    Bootle said the money markets had almost entirely
discounted such a one point cut, with the key three month
interbank rate down to 9-11/16 pct from 9-13/16 last night, and
it would be rather conservative for banks to go for a
half-point cut now.
    Midland Bank treasury economist David Simmonds said he,
too, expected base rates would be a full point lower by Friday,
but this would likely happen via two half-point cuts.
    "This budget is designed to please both the markets and the
electorate. The implications for interest rates are very
favourable, we could have a half-point cut tomrorow and another
such cut before the end of the week," Simmonds said.
    Pointing to buoyant U.K. Retail data released yesterday, he
said Lawson had done well to resist pressures for a sharp cut
in income tax rates at the expense of a lower borrowing target.
"There is no real need to boost private consumption," he said.
    National Westminster Bank chief economist David Kern said
the lower borrowing target set in the budget had increased the
likelihood of an early one-point base rate cut.
    Kern said the budget would have to be analysed carefully,
in particular to see how exactly Lawson planned to achieve the
sharper than expected borrowing target cut, before a one-point
base rate cut could be implemented.
 But providing the budget small-print was convincing, "and I
suspect it will be, it is entirely possible that we see one
point off base rates by the end of this week," Kern said.
    Bootle of Lloyds said the expected base rate cut would pave
the way for an early one-point cut in mortgage lending rates.
This would help achieve Lawson's lower than expected consumer
price inflation target of four pct at end-1987, he said.
    U.K. Base rates were cut last week to 10-1/2 pct from 11
pct after sustained pressure from the foreign exchange, money
and government bonds (gilts) markets.
    But building societies said they would not cut lending
rates until base rates had fallen by one full point.
 REUTER

A shareholder group led by New York
investor Robert Toussie told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it sold off most of its holdings in Heck's Inc
common stock but reserved the right to again seek control of
the company in the future.
    The group, which includes the Edward A. Viner and Co
brokerage, said it sold 579,600 shares since March 5, leaving
it with 157,000 shares or 1.8 pct of the total outstanding.
    The group had proposed a takeover of Heck's in September
but later withdrew the offer, and Heck's on March 5 filed for
protection from its creditors under federal bankruptcy law.
 Reuter

<Dixons Group PLC>, which is in a
battle with <CYACQ Corp> for control of Cyclops Corp, said a
Cyclops shareholder had agreed to withdraw a motion in U.S.
District Court to prevent Dixons from completing its tender
offer for Cyclops, which expires 2400 EST today.
    Dixons did not name the shareholder and did not disclose
the holder's stake in Cyclops.
   
 Reuter

    Net 20.8 mln vs 14.9 mln
    Revs 328.7 mln vs 239.8 mln
    Avg shrs 28.9 mln vs 25.7 mln
    Note: Prior year shr restated for June, 1986 two-for-one
stock split
 Reuter

Sears Roebuck and Co, said it reached
an out-of-court settlement with the Federal Trade Commission
over the labeling of some down-filled garments sold in 1978 "to
avoid further legal expenses."
    In a statement, Michael Bozic, chairman of Sears
Merchandise Group, said "As part of the voluntary corrective
program, Sears removed 75 mln dlrs worth of down-filled
merchandise from sale prior to the FTC investigation, retested
and where necessary, relabeled goods and nationally offered a
full refund."
    Sears said it was "the only retailer to take extensive
steps to protect consumers, despite the fact that down-labeling
discrepancies were industry-wide in 1978."
    Both Sears and Kellwood Co, a Sears supplier, agreed to pay
penalties of 200,000 dlrs each to settle the charges.
 Reuter

Siebel Capital Management Inc, a
California investment adviser, told the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) it bought 1.3 mln CooperVision Inc common
shares or 5.9 pct of the total outstanding.
    In its SEC filing, the firm said it "intends to acquire more
stock and may attempt to influence management of the company to
make major changes in the company's business or corporate
structure."
    Siebel said it made net purchases of 163,200 CooperVision
shares since Jan. 1.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said it is
prepared to move settlement prices for its broad-based stock
index contracts to the stock market opening on expiration
Fridays providing the change is part of an industry-wide move
to a uniform system.
    "We believe it is in the best interests of the industry for
all markets to participate  in a coordinated move to base
expiration Friday settlement prices on the stock market
opening," Amex president Kenneth Leibler said in a statmenet.
    He said non-uniform procedures will lead to "market and
investor confusion."
    Leibler said expirations based on openings "appears to
offer greater opportunities than the close to most efficiently
handle any order imbalances which may occur on expiration
Fridays."
    He said the markets would have the remainder of the trading
day to correct any "price dislocations" that occur. Market
analysts have attributed some wide swings in the stock market
in part to arbitrage activity involving index options and
futures and individual stocks.
    Options on the Major Market Index and the Institutional
Index, which now expire at the close, are traded on the Amex.
 Reuter

Galaxy Oil Co said it was
notified by its secured bank lenders that they plan to
foreclose on the company's material assets on April 7.
    The company, which is in default of its 26.5 mln dlrs of
bank debt and all of its other interest bearing debt, said it
is unlikely that its board will accept the banks' latest offer
for restructuring its debt.
    Galaxy said that if an agreement cannot be reached with its
lenders, it plans to file for Chapter 11 reorganization on or
before April 7. It added that it is holding talks with other
parties on debt restructuring alternatives.
 Reuter

Cooperation and Development (OECD) said.
said.
nations.
 Reuter

DSC Communications Corp said it was
selected by American Information Technology Corp's <AIT> Ohio
Bell Telephone Co as a vendor of digital electronic
cross-connect systems.
    The systems are used to interconnect both low and high
speed digital transmission links while providomg access to
individual voice/data channels embedded within these links.
.
 Reuter

American Cyanamid Co said it bought
the 50 pct interest of Cyanamid Fothergill Ltd held by
<Fothergill and Harvey PLC>, making the unit a wholly owned
    The unit manufactures structural materials, including
advanced composites, adhesives, and aluminum honeycomb for the
European space industry.
    The current management will remain in place and the unit
will continue at its locations in Wrexham, U.K., the company
said.
 Reuter

An investor group including New
York-based Mutual Shares Corp and Mutual Qualified Income Fund
Inc told the Securities and Exchange Commission it raised its
stake in Gelco Corp common stock to 575,859 shares or 8.2 pct
of the total outstanding.
    The group said its most recent purchases included 241,000
shares bought between January 21 and March 10.
    The group said it purchased the shares for investment
purposes.
 Reuter

    Shr 92 cts vs 1.28 dlrs
    Net 5,415,000 vs 7,730,000
    Revs 114.2 mln vs 112.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,864,000 vs 6,030,000
    Year
    Shr 45 cts vs 1.40 dlrs
    Net 2,664,000 vs 8,536,000
    Revs 322.9 mln vs 312.3 mln
    Avg shrs 5,885,000 vs 6,105,000
   
    Note: Net includes LIFO gains of 48,000 dlrs vs 118,000
dlrs for qtr and charges of 257,000 dlrs vs 225,000 dlrs for
year.
 Reuter

Oper shr 24 cts vs 19 cts
    Oper net 1,096,332 vs 794,711
    Revs 803,085 vs 442,420
    Six mths
    Oper shr 53 cts vs 43 cts
    Oper net 2,375,844 vs 1,741,437
    Revs 1,471,257 vs 768,683
    NOTE: Prior year excludes income from discontinued
operations of 19 cts per share in the quarter and 17 cts per
share in the year.
 Reuter

Freedom Federal Savings Bank
said it voted its first cash dividend of 10 cts a share,
payable April 10, record March 31.
    The 1987 annual dividend will be 40 cts a share, it said.

 Reuter

    Shr six cts vs three cts
    Net 189,683 vs 80,499
    Revs 2,874,930 vs 2,594,474
    NOTE: Full name Hospital Staffing Services Inc.
    Prior year includes extraordinary gain of one ct per share.
 Reuter

The dollar is near appropriate levels
against European currencies and the yen, and a further fall
could damage confidence in the currency while endangering world
economic growth, a top Bundesbank official said.
    Board member Leonhard Gleske also told a Forex Association
conference current exchange rates of major currencies "can be
viewed as equilibrium levels in a medium-term perspective."
    He said the recent Paris agreement on currency
stabilisation and policy coordination between the Group of Five
and Canada may herald "an era of greater exchange rate
stability."
    The Paris agreement was not, however, an attempt to set up
permanent target zones for exchange rates, Gleske stressed,
adding such targets would be extremely difficult to agree and
enforce on an international level.
    "At present levels the dollar can no longer be considered
grossly overvalued in relation to the European currencies and
the yen," Gleske said.
    He said the dollar had fallen much less against currencies
of important trading nations such as Canada, Korea, Taiwan and
Hong Kong, and further falls there may still be necessary.
    But "a further dollar depreciation against major European
currencies and the yen may not be the best way to restore the
dollar to a fully competitive position, as measured by its
weighted external value," he said.
   In fact, a further marked decline in the dollar rate would
hold two major dangers, Gleske said.
    First, in countries with large balance of payments
surpluses such as Japan and West Germany, it threatened to
hamper economic growth and thus slow down the expansion of real
income and domestic expenditure necessary to wipe out
    Second, in the United States, it could damage investors'
confidence in the dollar and thus reduce their willingness to
finance huge fiscal and external payments deficits, Gleske
said.
    Gleske also was strongly sceptical that an international
system of binding target zones for currencies, fluctuating in
narrow bands against each other, can be established. Such
targets threatened to cause policy conflicts, "both within
countries and between them."
    For instance, the U.S. Reliance on foreign capital to fund
its deficits requires interest rates there be set at high
levels, but domestic considerations call for low ones.
    If target zones were established, this would put "pressure
on other countries to reduce their interest rates even more,
even though this may be in conflict with their own domestic
situation and priorities," he said.
    Gleske added, "targeting the exchange rate even within a
wide margin will meet with serious objections where there is a
clearly perceived potential for conflict between domestic and
external policy priorities."
    Commenting on the Paris currency accord, Gleske said its
chances of stabilising exchange rates rested heavily on current
interest rate differentials being maintained.
    These chances "seem to me to rest critically on the
expectation that the current configuration of interest rates,
and the monetary policies behind them, will assure smooth
financing of current account imbalances in the months ahead."
    Gleske said past experience of currency adjustments had
learned "that markets are inclined to be impatient and will thus
tend to overshoot." He said this "would seem to be unnecessary
and should be avoided if at all possible."
    Monetary policies can help achieve this, but only if
markets believe that pledged changes in fiscal policies will
lead to balanced international payments, he said.
 REUTER

A House Banking subcommittee
approved legislation which would require the Treasury Secretary
to begin negotiations on the establishment of an international
debt adjustment facility.
    The facility would buy up some of the debt of less
developed countries and sell it to banks at a discount.
    The facility was proposed by Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., who
said it would help ease the third world debt crisis. It was
approved by the House International Finance subcommittee and
sent to the full House Banking Committee, which will consider
the measure next week.
    The legislation is part of the omnibus trade bill being
considered by several committees.
 Reuter

West German chemical
group Bayer AG <BAYG.F> said it had received claims for damages
from haemophilics who allege they were infected with AIDS
through a blood plasma produced by a Bayer subsidiary.
    Bayer's shares fell 13 marks to close at 292 in Frankfurt
today. Dealers said a newspaper report about possible huge
claims for damages triggered off the share selling in Bayer,
other pharmaceuticals and insurance companies.
    Bayer said in a statement it was insured against claims and
had received two. Bayer did not rule out that some infections
may have been passed on through the plasma in the past.
    But the company added that the method of production had
been changed and according to current knowledge there was now
no danger of contracting AIDS through the blood plasma. The
plasma is used by haemophilics to aid the clotting of blood.
    The Hamburg-based news magazine "Der Spiegel" reported in its
latest edition that the West German pharmaceutical industry
could face billions of marks worth of claims for damages from
infected haemophilics and their relatives.
 Reuter

Plains Resources Inc said that as
of December 31, its estimated proved oil and gas reserves rose
by 27 pct to 5.43 mln barrels from 4.27 mln barrels and proved
developed reserves rose 16 pct to four mln barrels from 3.45
mln barrels a year ago.
    The company said its year end reserves did not include the
oil and gas reserves of Houston Oil Fields Co which recently
agreed to merge with it, pending shareholder approval in
mid-April. If approved, the merger will add another 3.2 mln
barrels to the company's reserve base.
 Reuter

Playboy Enterprises Inc said it has no
plans to restructure or to take the company private.
    Moreover, Chairman Hugh Hefner, who owns 71 pct of the more
than 9.4 mln shares outstanding, has no interest in selling his
stock, spokeswoman Robyn Radomski said. 
    Articles in two weekly business publications have said
Playboy is a takeover candidate because of what financial
analysts see as its undervalued asset base.
    Radomski said there were no corporate developments to
account for the recent unusual trading in Playboy's shares but
that there seemed to be a correlation with the two articles.
    Playboy shares are currently trading at 13-5/8 on turnover
of about 40,100 shares. For the past 52-weeks, the stock has
traded in a range of 5-7/8 to 13-1/4 on light volume.
    The reports, based on an asset evaluation by analyst Mark
Boyar, place Playboy's worth at about 280 mln dlrs, or 30 dlrs
a share. Boyar estimated Playboy's publishing to be worth about
130 mln dlrs, its product licensing, 50 mln dlrs, its real
estate, including a mansion in Beverly Hills at 30 mln dlrs and
its excess working capital after debt repayment of 70 mln dlrs,
according to Business Week.
    According to Boyar, the licensing division, Playboy mansion
and artwork alone make the firm worth about 20 dlrs a share,
the Forbes Magazine article said.
    According to Advertising Age, the Playboy logo is the most
recognized symbol after Coca Cola, another analyst noted.
    Radomski, noting that the articles were written without
contact with Playboy, said that "from time to time people do
speculate about the company."
    She said she had spoken with majority shareholder Hefner in
the "last day or so" for a reaction to the articles.
    American Securities analyst David Leibowitz believes
"anyone who bought in thinking takeover or lbo (leveraged
buyout) is likely to be disappointed because the chances are
nil." Management has repeatedly stated it will not take the
company private, he said.
    But "shareholders who held the stock prior to all the
publicity have gotten a heck of a ride for their money," he
said.
    Leibowitz said he also believes that the true asset value
of the company is likely to exceed the current price of the
stock. "But a leveraged buyout is not in the cards. I take
management at their word," he said.
    While Playboy's cable television operation is considered a
drain on the company by some analysts, Liebowitz sees
potential. "They do have a management plan for the cable
operation and the company as a whole," he said. "Were this plan
to, in fact, translate into reality, the opportunity for
earnings is significant," he said.
 Reuter

Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc said
earnings for the fourth quarter ended January 31 were affected
by the weak economies of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana,
resulting in a drop in net earnings to 5,415,000 dlrs or 92 cts
a share from 7,730,000 dlrs or 1.28 dlrs a share for the
    The company also said sales on the West Coast were hurt by
late snows and poor skiing conditions.
    Same-store sales declined 3.2 pct for the quarter and 2.2
pct for the year.
    For the full year, Oshman's net earnings fell to 2,664,000
dlrs or 45 cts a share, from 8,536,000 dlrs or 1.40 dlrs a
share.
    In 1986, the company said it opened nine stores and closed
three.
    At year-end, the company said it was operating 188 Oshman's
stores and 27 Abercrombie and Fitch stores.
 Reuter

Light, scattered showers covered
winter wheat areas in the North China Plain in the week ended
March 14, moistening topsoils for wheat, just breaking dormancy
in most central and northern areas, the Joint Agricultural
Weather Facility of the U.S. Agriculture and Commerce
Departments said.
    In its International Weather and Crop summary, the agency
said southern winter wheat areas are in the early vegetative
stage. Above-normal February temperatures over the North China
Plain caused winter grains to break dormancy early in the
south.
     Moderate to heavy rains in southern Jiangsu, Anhui,
eastern Hebei, Hunan , Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zheziang, reversed
February's below normal precipitation pattern.
    The agency said the wet weather in these areas provided
ample moisture for rice planting and lessened the need for
irrigation. 
    Mostly dry weather in early-rice areas of Guanxi and
Guandong resulted in irrigation for continued rice planting, it
said.
 Reuter

Qtr ended Feb 28
    Shr 24 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 10.0 mln vs 10.1 mln
    Revs 202.8 mln vs 184.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 66 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 27.3 mln vs 27.6 mln
    Revs 588.2 mln vs 539.2 mln
    Note: 1986 shr data adjusted for 3-for-2 stock split paid
October 1986.
 Reuter

Wet weather covered Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil in the week ended March 14, benefitting soybeans
which are mostly setting to filling pods, the Joint
Agricultural weather Facility of the U.S. Agriculture and
Commerce Departments said.
    In its International Weather and Crop Summary, the agency
said minimal precipitation covered soybean areas in Santa
Catarina, Parana, and southern Matto Grosso do Sul.
    Adequate soil moisture in these areas met crop moisture
demands, reducing the potential for crop stress, it said.
    The agency said February precipitation was above normal
over most soybean areas of Brazil.
    Weekly temperatures were below normal, it said.
 Reuter

Southwest Forest Industries Inc
said 344 members of the United Paperworkers International Union
went out on strike at the company's Snowflake, Ariz., paper
mill, temporarily halting operations at the newsprint and
linerboard facility.
    The mill, which employs 525 people, has an annual capacity
of 282,000 tons of newsprint and 159,000 tons of linerboard,
    Southwest Forest also said it is continuing to negotiate
with the Internatinal Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, whose
65 members are honoring the paperworkers' picket lines.
    The company said it intends to resume mill operations as
quickly as possible using salaried employees, union workers who
elect to work, contractors and newly hired replacements for the
striking workers.
 Reuter

Precipitation diminished over
Argentina's summer crop areas in the week ended March 14, the
U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments Joint Weather
Facility said.
said crop areas in Cordoba, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires received
only light scattered showers -- three to 13 millimeters.
     The beneficial drier weather allowed drying of fields for
summer crop harvesting, following February's heavy rainfall, it
said.
 Reuter

A White House-ordered report said 
that growing U.S. reliance on foreign oil into the year 2000
could have potentially damaging implications for national
security.
    The Energy Department study discusses several options to
curb reliance on foreign oil, but makes no recommendations.
    President Reagan and most Congressmen have previously ruled
out a tax on foreign oil as a way to curb imports and to help
the depressed domestic oil industry.
    Energy Secretary John Herrington said in a statement that
"although we have made gains in energy security in the last six
years, this report shows that there is justification for
national concern both over declining competitiveness of our
domestic oil and gas industry and over rising oil imports."
    The report said imports last year were 33 pct of U.S.
consumption and by the mid-1990s could rise to 50 pct.
    Among the report's options to ease U.S. reliance on foreign
oil are several already advocated by the Reagan Administration.
    President Reagan ordered the study last September, citing a
determination that the country never again become captive to a
foreign oil cartel, referring to the OPEC-led oil shortages and
sharp prices increases of the 1970s.
    The report said an import fee would raise prices and help
make it economical for U.S. oil firms to find and produce new
oil, as well as to cut imports, but on the whole the tax would
depress the nation's economy.
 reuter

VTX Electronics Corp said its
board declared a five-for-four stock split, payable April Nine
to holders of record March 27.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said it expected earnings
for 1987 "to be significantly above" profits of 71.6 mln dlrs
last year.
    In a letter to shareholders appearing in the company's
newly-issued 1986 annual report, Coastal chairman Oscar Wyatt
did not elaborate on how much earnings were expected to
increase.
    The 1986 profits of Coastal, a natural gas production and
pipeline company, were halved from 1985 levels due to slumping
energy prices. The company's sales totaled 6.7 billion dlrs
last year.
    Coastal also said it sold its natural gas for an average
price of 2.17 dlrs per mcf in 1986, a drop of 18 pct from the
previous year. Oil and natural gas liquids sold for an average
14.20 dlrs a barrel in 1986, a reduction of 37 pct.
    The Houston-based company, which produced a daily average
of 120 mln cubic feet of gas and 11,149 barrels of oil, said it
had proved reserves at yearend 1986 of 28.6 mln barrels of oil
and 954 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Average reserve
replacement costs were 8.28 dlrs per barrel of oil equivalent
during the past three-year period, representing a little more
than half of the industry average, the company said.
    Coastal's more than 800 gasoline retail outlets were
operated profitably during 1986 "and are expected to continue
to do so," the company said.
 Reuter

Federal Paper Board Co said its
board has approved the issuance of 140 mln dlrs of convertible
preferred stock, with proceeds to be used to redeem on June 15
its 125 mln dlrs in 13 pct subordinated debentures.
    The company also said it has completed the redemption of
2.3125 dlr convertible exchangeable preferred stock, most of
which was converted into common instead of being redeemed.
 Reuter

Shr profit 26 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 10.3 mln vs loss 1.0 mln
    Revs 208.2 mln vs 123.3 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 38 cts vs profit nine cts
    Net profit 13.0 mln vs profit 2.8 mln
    Revs 635.5 mln vs 429.3 mln
    Note: 1986 full year results include extraordinary loss of
one mln dlrs or three cts per share.
 Reuter

Norstar Bancorp said it has agreed
in principle to acquire United National Bank of Callicoon,
N.Y., by exchanging three Norstar common shares for each of the
201,660 United shares outstanding.
    Based on the recent price of Norstar's stock, it said, the
proposed tax-free exchange would have a market value of about
20 mln dlrs.
    Norstar said the acquisition is subject to approval by
United's holders and state and federal regulators. United has
assets of 90 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

an eventual oil import fee in the
united states will make no difference to champlin petroleum
corp's joint venture agreement signed today with petroleos de
venezuela (pdvsa), champlin chairman william adams said.
    "this was an aspect which was discussed at length during the
negotiations, but we can say our contract covers all
eventualities in this regard," he told reuters during the
signing ceremony here.
    Venezuela's energy and mines minister arturo hernandez
grisanti earlier described the agreement, under which pdvsa
buys 50 pct of champlin's corpus christi refinery, as "one more
step in the maturation and presence of our oil industry in
world markets."
   union pacific chairman william cook said the agreement will
be beneficial to both sides, combining a secure source of
supply with a modern refinery and access to markets.
    "we are looking to a long-term relationship, and at a time
of protectionist tendencies in the U.S. Congress there are
clear benefits to both sides," he said.
    Adams said pdvsa crude would remain competitive even with
an oil import fee because champlin had invested heavily over
the years in adapingthe texas refinery to process venezuelan
heavy crudes with coking and hydro-treating facilities and
obtain a competitive product yield.
    "therefore while the danger of an oil import fee has been a
consideration in the negotiations, and it remains to be seen
what such a fee would represent, we do not foresee any impact
on today's agreement," adams said.
    He said the refinery could run crude as heavy as
venezuela's bolivar coastal field (bcf) 17 api without any
difficultiesand would probably move over time to a heavier diet
to take advantage of bigger margins.
    The refinery has a capacity to process up to 110,000 bpd of
venezuelan high sulphur content heavy crude, with an 80-85 pct
yield of white products.
 Reuter

went on strike at the Snowflake, Ariz., paper mill, halting
operations at the newsprint and linerboard facility.
    Southwest Forest said it is negotiating with the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, whose 65
members are honoring the paperworkers' picket lines.
 Reuter

Secretary of Agriculture Richard
Lyng will meet with representatives from major grain exporting
companies today, and the subject of subsidized wheat to the
Soviet Union will likely be discussed, an aide to Lyng said.
    Today's meeting, set to begin at 1500 EST (2000 gmt), was
scheduled at the request of the exporters, the aide said.
    "The EEP (export enhancement program) is pretty obviously
one of the things they (the exporters) want to talk about, but
they haven't any agenda as far as I know," Lyng's aide said.
    Private industry export officials have met periodically
with Lyng to discuss farm policies and the export situation.
Whether this meeting will prompt any U.S. action on the issue
of whether Moscow will be offered export bonus wheat is
uncertain, the aide said.
    "I don't know what they'll tell us that we don't already
knwo, but we'll hear what they have to say," Lyng's aide said.
    The USDA official said that as far as he knows there has
been no further action on offering the Soviet Union wheat under
the EEP.
 Reuter

ICCO, buffer stock working group began examining a draft
proposal for buffer stock rules this afternoon, delegates said.
    The plan, presented by ICCO Executive Director Kobena
Erbynn, represented a compromise between producer, European
Community, EC, and other consumer views on how the buffer stock
should operate, they said.
    The proposal involved three key principles. First, the
buffer stock manager would be open to offers for cocoa rather
than using fixed posted prices as previously, delegates said.
    Under an offer system, the buffer stock manager would be
free to choose cocoas of varying prices, they said.
    The second provision was that non-ICCO member cocoa could
comprise a maximum 10 pct of the buffer stock, while the third
laid out a pricing system under which the buffer stock manager
would pay differentials for different grades of cocoa, to be
set by a formula, the delegates said.
    After the plan was presented, working group delegates met
briefly in smaller groups of producers, EC consumers and all
consumers to look at the proposal. Producers gave no reaction
to the scheme and will respond to it when the working group
meets tomorrow at 1000 GMT, producer delegates said.
    Consumer members accepted the proposal as a good base to
work from, one consumer delegate said.
    Delegates said the proposal was only a starting point for
negotiations on buffer stock rules and subject to change.
 Reuter

    Net 255,000 vs 242,000
    Sales 7,166,000 vs 6,486,000
    Avg shrs 2,438,000 vs 2,118,000
    Year
    Shr 50 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 990,000 vs 849,000
    Sales 29.0 mln vs 22.8 mln
    Avg shrs 1,972,000 vs 2,118,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five-for-four stock split declared
today.
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,751,000 vs 2,179,000
    Qtly div 40 cts vs 40 cts prior
    Avg shrs 7,699,241 vs 5,943,341
    NOTE: Dividend payable April 10 to shareholders of record
March 30.
 Reuter

E-Systems Inc said it has received a
three-year U.S. Navy contract worth 9,208,223 dlrs for the
continued production of AN/UGC-136 military teleprinters for
use in submarines.
 Reuter

Hilton Hotels Corp chairman Barron
Hilton said the company will build 10 all-suite hotels in
suburban markets in the next 18 to 30 months.
    Hilton said the hotels will feature between 150 and 200
rooms. Construction costs will range between 65,000 dlrs and
85,000 dlrs per suite versus 100,000 dlrs to 200,000 dlrs a
room for its traditional downtown locations.
    Hilton said it will break ground on six hotels this year in
the Chicago, New England and Southern California areas. It said
the new hotels will be targeted to business travelers and rooms
will cost between 65 dlrs and 85 dlrs a night.
   
 Reuter

Hundreds of farmers brought Madrid's
traffic to a standstill with their tractors in the latest
protest to demand a better deal from the European Community
(EC) and more government subsidies to face up to EC
    Farmers said they had planned to bring their cows with them
but police had prevented their entry into the capital.
    In the south, striking shipyard workers clashed with police
in the port of Cadiz in what has become a regular weekly
protest against job layoffs at the state-owned Astilleros
Espanoles. The workers locked themselves in the factory and
traded stones for tear gas, police said.
 Reuter

    Revs 194.3 mln vs 171.7 mln
    Avg shrs 36.6 mln vs 36.4 mln
    NOTE: Sixteen-week periods.
 Reuter

<Fortune Savings Bank> said it
agreed to buy the deposits and assume the leasehold of a
Financial Security Savings and Loan Association <FSSL> branch
here.
    Fortune said the agreement is subject to regulatory
approval. It also said that if the transaction is approved,
Financial would generate a profit on the sale.
 Reuter

Endata Inc said it terminated
development work on a previously announced contract with
<Educational Testing Services>.
    Endata said that under terms of the contract Educational
Testing asked it to terminate development of an advanced image
processing system integration project and to return all
projected-related equipment. Endata said termination of the
project will not materially affect its operating results.
    Separately, Endata said it bought the assets and business
of three service centers from <Midcom Inc> for an undisclosed
amount.
 Reuter

Finance and economy ministers of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) opened a two- day meeting to
discuss further economic integration, officials said.
    They said issues to be discussed by the ministers from
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) would include a recommendation by central bank
governors on a common currency exchange rate.
    The governors agreed in January on a denominator on which
to base currencies of the six states. Any decision will be
forwarded for final approval to a GCC summit meeting due in
Saudi Arabia late this year.
    The six states have different currency systems. Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE are linked in theory to the
International Monetary Fund's basket of currencies -- the
special drawing right (SDR) -- but in practice to the dollar.
    Oman links its currency formally to the dollar, while
Kuwait pegs its dinar to a trade-weighted basket devised by
itself.
    The denominator chosen by central bank governors has not
been disclosed, but some bankers expect the currencies to be
linked to the SDR or a trade-weighted basket.
    Opening the meeting, Ahmed al-Tayer, the UAE's Minister of
State for Finance and Industry, said implementation of joint
economic agreements "is increasingly linking the interests of
GCC citizens together."
    The general assembly of the Gulf Investment Corporation met
in Abu Dhabi earlier under the chairmanship of Bahrain's
Finance and National Economy Minister, Ibrahim Abdul-Karim
    The corporation was formed to contribute to joint economic
and investment projects in the GCC.
    Officials said the corporation's assets rose to 1.31
billion dollars last year from 1.04 billion at the end of 1985.
 REUTER

    Oper net loss 165,000 vs profit 83,000
    Sales 2,413,000 vs 921,000
    Avg shrs 2,908,770 vs 2,203,462
    Year
    Ope shr profit five cts vs profit five cts
    Oper net profit 124,000 vs profit 106,000
    Sales 5,652,000 vs 1,623,000
    Avg shrs 2,369,949 vs 2,061,102
548,000 dlrs vs 14,000 dlrs in quarter and 696,000 dlrs vs
21,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 year net excludes 35,000 dlr tax credit.
    1985 year includes only six months of operations due to
change in fiscal year.
 Reuter

American Stock Exchange said a seat
was sold yesterday for 315,000 dlrs, a record amount and up
10,000 dlrs from the last sale on March Three, which had been
the record.
    The market is now 275,000 dlrs bid and 340,000 dlrs
offered, it said.
 Reuter

<CMS Adversiting Inc> said it is
in preliminary discussions with a Canadian group with
"extensive franchise experience" for a joint venture to start
up a majority-owned CMS Canadian subsidiary called CMA
Advertising International of Canada.
    CMS also said the group intends to seek an undertaker to
investigate a possible stock offering ot the subsidiary.
 Reuter

Medical Research Investment
Fund Inc said net assets as of February 28 were 2,359,722 dlrs,
up 189.5 pct from a year earlier.
    It said net asset value per share rose to 14.64 dlrs from
12.14 dlrs, based on 161,187 shares outstanding compared with
67,136 shares.                
 Reuter

Dry weather pushed further into
South Africa's Orange Free State's Maize Triangle in the week
ended March 14, the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility of the
U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments said.
    In a summary of its Weather and Crop Bulletin, the agency
said scattered showers continued throughout Transvaal, but dry
pockets persisted in the northeast and south.
    Temperatures average one to four degrees C above normal
throughout all grain areas, stressing grain-filling corn in
areas receiving lightest rainfall, it said.
    The agency said rainfall during February was near to above
normal in most areas, but earlier periods of hot, dry weather
reduced yield prospects in parts of the northern Transvaal and
southern Orange Free State.
 Reuter

Lawson's budget contained virtually everything the government
bond (gilts) market had hoped for and is likely to help prices
race ahead in coming months, analysts and traders said.
    Indeed, in the first half hour after Lawson completed his
speech, gilt prices soared about 1-1/2 points, an extremely
sharp gain in such a short period of time. Overall, they rose
about two points on the day.
    "This budget was incredibly bullish for the gilts market,"
Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd economist Stephen Bell said.
    Analysts said that in the light of the reaction to the
budget in the gilts and U.K. Money markets, U.K. Commercial
bank base rates are likely to be cut by as much as a full point
tomorrow.
    Analysts said the market's euphoria was simply a reflection
of supply and demand. The crucial piece of news in the budget
was that the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement would be held
to 4.0 billion stg.
    By comparison, a year ago, the PSBR was set at 7.0 billion
stg.
    The lower PSBR means the Bank of England will have to offer
far less new stock to the market to meet its funding needs and
the scarcity factor is sure to drive prices up further,
    "The PSBR at four billion is lower than anyone realistically
expected," Bell said. Most market expectations called for the
Chancellor to announce a PSBR of about 5.5 billion stg.
    S.G. Warburg Securities Co Ltd economist John Shepherd said
that overall, the Bank will have to sell about two billion less
in new securities next fiscal year -- a cut of about 15 pct in
total new issue volume.
    Chase Manhattan Securities Ltd international economist Andy
Wrobleski noted the Bank has already raised about 1.8 billion
stg of next year's funding needs this year via a series of tap
issues.
    The issues have been in a partly-paid form where the full
price does not have to be paid until the start of the new
fiscal year and therefore they are not counted in the current
year's fund raising.
    But the Bank of England will also be constrained from
issuing gilts in the conventional form by its promise to try
out a U.S.-style auction system in which firms bid for new
stock.
    The Bank will also have to offer at least one index-linked
issue where the rate paid to investors is tied to the Retail
Price Index, leaving about one to two billion stg, in total, to
be raised in the form of traditional stock.
    Analysts noted that the budget contains provision for a two
pence in the pound cut in the basic rate of income tax, in line
with most market expectations, although some operators had
expected a cut of up to four pence in the pound.
    The gilts market approved of the more modest tax cut,
Shepherd said, because "If it was more than two pct, they would
have become concerned about the economy heating up again."
    Also, a cut of two pence in the pound suggests that if the
ruling Conservative party is re-elected, another two pence cut
can be offered at budget time next year.
    Analysts said the gilts market may also be building steam
on the political implications of the budget which suggests an
early election.
    "All the goodies in this budget will be in place by the
middle of May," Morgan Grenfell's Bell said. "This makes a June
election very likely."
    Bell said some politically popular provisions omitted from
the budget, such as lifting the ceiling on the amount of
mortgage eligible for tax benefit and some provisions on
pensions, could not have been implemented until autumn anyway.
    At that rate, they would have been of little use for a
political party expecting to call an election in June.
    Also, analysts noted, the budget does not go overboard with
measures that are seen as generous to the wealthy.
    "This will be a difficult budget for the (opposition) Labour
party to attack," Shepherd said.
 REUTER

Cominco Ltd said it was
in the second round of two-week-old negotiations with about
3,200 unionized workers at its Trail and Kimberley, British
Columbia zinc-lead operations.
    The existing two-year contracts expire April 30. The
workers are represented by the United Steelworkers of America.
    A Cominco spokesman, queried by Reuters, declined to
comment on whether the company was confident of reaching a new
agreement before April 30, but said the union had not yet taken
a strike vote.
    The contracts cover 2,600 production workers at Trail and
Kimberley and 600 office and technical staff at the two
    Trail produced 240,000 long tons of zinc and 110,000 long
tons of lead in 1986. The Sullivan mine at Kimberley produced
2.2 mln long tons of ore last year, most for processing at the
Trail smelter.
 Reuter

Consolidated Oil and Gas Inc and
Consolidated Energy Partners LP <CPS>, whose stocks are halted
on the American Stock Exchange, said they will issue news
releases shortly.
    A spokesman for the companies declined to comment on why
the stocks had been halted.
 Reuter

Shr 56 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 2,005,000 vs 1,685,000
    Sales 189.8 mln vs 156.0 mln
    Avg shrs 3,603,000 vs 3,614,000
    Year
    Shr 1.88 dlrs vs 1.77 dlrs
    Net 6,774,000 vs 6,587,000
    Sales 692.1 mln vs 596.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,604,000 vs 3,713,000
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 250,000 dlrs vs 162,000
dlrs in quarter and 610,000 dlrs vs 1,288,000 dlrs in year.
    Thirteen vs 12 and 53 vs 52-week periods.
    Latest year net includes gain 418,000 dlrs for first nine
months from change in pension accounting, for which results of
first three periods restated.
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 2,253,664 vs 2,806,820
    Gross income 5,173,318 vs 5,873,904
    NOTE: Net includes gains on sale of real estate of 126,117
dlrs vs 29,812 dlrs.
 Reuter

Masscomp said it reached a joint
marketing relationship to promote and sell V.I. Corp's line of
DataView s Graphics Software Products.
    MassComp said it will promote the products to key
government and commercial accounts.
 Reuter

Shr loss 25 cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 713,000 vs profit 69,000
    Revs 2.4 mln vs 921,000
    Six months
    Shr loss 24 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 572,000 vs profit 120,000
    Revs 5.7 mln vs 1.6 mln
    NOTE:To effect change from fiscal to calendar year, company
reported results for six months period ended December 31, 1985.
1985 six months includes one time gain of 35,000 dlrs. 
 Reuter

The Citizens Utility Board said it will
file a class action suit Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court
against Commonwealth Edison Co, seeking refunds of 150 dlrs a
customer for consumers who have been paying what it calls "the
wrong monthly customer charge" for the past two years.
    The suit comes in the wake of an Illinois Commerce
Commission decision dismissing a class action complaint
Citizens Utility Board filed with the commission in September
on behalf of consumers who had been overcharged.
    It said the overcharges stem from Edison's monthly customer
charge, which is supposed to be 11.24 dlrs for those who live
in single family homes or buildings with two units and 5.65
dlrs for people living in buildings with three or more units.
 Reuter

Qtly div 6-1/4 cts vs 6-1/4 cts prior
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts previously
 Reuter

Dry weather covered most European
crop areas in the week ended March 14, except for those in
southwestern France, southern Italy, and Greece, the Joint
Agricultural Weather Facility of the U.S. Agriculture and
    In its International Weather and Crop sumary, the agency
said mixed rain and snow covered Greece.
    Winter grains in England, France, and northern Italy
remained dormant. Grains usuaually break dormancy in March.
    Winter grains in Eastern Europe usually break dormancy in
early April, it said.
    Showers improved irrigation supplies in winter wheat areas
of northern Pakistan and northern India, it said.
    Normally, wheat harvesting is well underwaty in central
India and just beginnning to the north, ending in most areas by
late April.
    Showers improved irrigation supplies in southern India,
reversing February's below-normal trend.
    Summer rice is usually in or nearing reproduction in most
southern areas, it said.
    In the Philippines, most rainfall was restricted to the
central islands, continuing February's drying trend in Luzon
and southern Mindanao.
    Locally heavy showers dotted Indonesia and Malaysia as
rainfall generally decreased eastward through the islands.
    In February locally heavy showers may have caused flooding
in Java, it said.
    The second cnsecutive week of dry weather stressed Moroccan
winter grains, approaching teh heading stage, the agency said.
    Light to moderate rain spread from northern Thailand to
Northern Vietnam as dry weather prevailed elsewhere in
Southeast Asia.
    Dry weather covered winter grain areas in western and
central Algeria, but soil moisture was likely adequate to meet
crop demands, it said.
    Light showers in eastern Algeria and Tunisia maintained
adequate moisture for crop growth, it said.
    Timely rains will be needed in the next several weeks as
winter grains advance through the critical reproductive phase,
the agency said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 17-1/4 cts vs 17-1/4 cts prior
    Record March 31   
 Reuter

    Pay April 22
 Reuter

Lawson's Budget speech was described as sound and well balanced
by analysts, if slightly lacking in excitement.
    A cut in bank base lending rates is now widely expected
tomorrow, with most forecasts predicting a half-point fall. A
follow-up half-point cut is anticipated next week.
    "Worthy but boring would probably sum it up," Peter Fellner,
U.K. Economist at stockbrokers James Capel and Co, said. "It was
a very, very prudent fiscal budget."
    Richard Jeffrey of brokers Hoare Govett said it was a
well-balanced budget within the confines of the government's
philosophy of keeping expenditure levels flat.
    Most analysts said the Budget was very sound on the fiscal
side, but offered nothing new on monetary policy.
    As was widely expected, Lawson split his "fiscal adjustment"
between trimming the 1987/88 PSBR target to 4.0 billion stg
from 7.1 billion and cutting basic rate income tax from 29 to
27 pct.
    The target for the narrow measure of money supply, M0, was
kept unchangd at two to six pct, while the target for the broad
Sterling M3 aggregate was dropped.
    Both Jeffrey and Fellner said the budget clears the way for
a half-point fall in U.K. Base rates tomorrow, but the
authorities are unlikely to sanction a larger cut immediately.
Many analysts and currency dealers have forecast a full
one-point cut tomorrow.
    "The Bank of England will be loathe to take any action which
it will have to reverse later," Jeffrey said, though he added a
further half-point cut was quite possible in the near future.
    The main worry from today's speech is the outlook for
inflation, given the signs of relaxed monetary policy contained
in it, Scrimgeour Vickers economist Richard Holt said.
    Holt noted the "rather loose" inflation forecast of 4.0 pct
at end-1987, and said the lower interest rates likely to result
from the tough fiscal stance could cause longer term concern.
    "A higher PSBR target could be preferable in the long term,"
he said, although lower mortgage interest rates on the back of
falling base rates would have an offsetting impact on
inflation.
    The Budget will inspire a lot of short-term confidence but
it was "not a good budget for inflation," he said
    Jeffrey said he would have liked Lawson to say more about
the dangers of excessive liquidity build-up but overall was not
too concerned about a revival of inflation.
    Fellner noted that the exchange rate was to remain the
"leading edge" of monetary policy, but said the authorities were
likely to be extremely cautious on this front.
    He said they were unlikely to hesitate in holding interest
rates steady or even raising them again if sterling showed any
signs of excessive weakness.
    Most analysts agreed Lawson had bolstered the credibility
of the Budget by adopting realistic forecasts.
    Raising the forecast for the current account deficit from
1.5 to 2.5 billion stg for 1987 would not unsettle the markets,
which are already discounting that amount, Jeffrey said.
that the 4.0 billion stg PSBR target was given credibility by
the favourable outturn for 1986/87, which is now also forecast
to be 4.0 billion stg.
    But analysts said the Budget speech did not give any
clear-cut indication about the timing of the general election,
which has to be held before June, 1988.
    Some believe it signals a poll this June, noting that the
benefits, such as income tax cuts and the decision not to raise
duties on alcohol and tobacco, become available immediately.
    But others said it kept several options open and it was not
possible to deduce too much from it.
    James Capel's Fellner noted that by being fiscally prudent,
Lawson had kept open the possibility of an autumn election in
that there would be no "chickens coming home to roost."
    Richard Jeffrey, who favours the likelihood of a June
election, said it was important the Chancellor had not gone for
a Budget aimed overtly at buying an election victory.
    Nevertheless, he said, it was likely to result in a boost
to the Conservative Party's pre-election popularity.
 REUTER

Taft Broadcasting Co stock rose almost
three points today as its vice chairman and an investment group
proposed to sweeten a takeover offer for the company.
    However, several arbitragers said they would shy away from
the stock at its current price levels since it is unclear how
high bidding for the company would go and whether the company
would agree to a takeover.
    "There are too many uncertainties," said one arbitrager.
    Taft stock rose 2-7/8 to 155-3/4.
    Dudley Taft, Taft vice chairman, and Narragansett Capital
Inc said they sent a letter to the Taft board, stating they
were committed to pursuing acquisition of the broadcast company
and were prepared to negotiate a transaction in excess of 150
    The company responded that the proposal would be submitted
to the board of directors, but that no decisions have yet been
made on a sale of the company.
    "Someone's betting this company will go for 170 (dlrs per
share)," said one arbitrager.
    Arbitragers said the stock is a risky buy at current
levels, unless an offer was accepted in the 170 dlr per share
range. They said to make an arbitrage investment at this level
would be chancy since it will take a long time for any
transaction to be completed because of regulatory approvals
necessary for the broadcast properites.
    Taft earlier rejected a 145 dlr per share or 1.35 billion
dlr bid from the investment group. The company said it rejected
the bid as inadequate based on advice of Goldman, Sachs and Co,
its financial adviser. It said it would consider alternatives
such as restructuring.
    Arbitragers speculated a bidding war may erupt for Taft,
which has two large shareholders in an investment group led by
Robert Bass and Carl Lindner, chairman of American Financial
Corp. The Bass group holds 25 pct of Taft and Lindner holds
16.2 pct. The Taft family, which founded the company almost 50
years ago, has about 12 pct.
    Lindner last week told the Securities and Exchange
Commission he may be interested in making a bid for Taft.
    "I could see if things got really crazy that it might go
for 175 (dlrs per share)," said one arbitrager, but he
speculated it probably would not even be taken over for more
than a price in the 160s.
    Another speculated that Lindner might bid, but he
speculated the investor would not really be interested in
running the company. Lindner was unavailable for comment.
    Dennis McAlpine, an analyst with Oppenheimer and Co, said
he had speculated the company might be considering a leveraged
buyout.
    "Ideally, you'd have to break this thing up to satisfy all
the interests involved," he said, adding the two largest
shareholders might be interested in pieces of Taft.
    He said the highest takeover price he calculated for the
company has been about 140 dlrs per share, but that the highest
estimates on Wall Street have been about 160. He said the
latter would be based on more optimistic expectations for the
broadcast industry.
 Reuter

The Bank of France expects a continued
revival in short-term industrial activity, but the outlook for
any improvement in France's record 10.9 pct unemployment rate
remains bleak, the Bank of France said in its monthly review.
    The upturn in activity in all industrial sectors except the
agro-food sector in February more than compensated for the fall
in January, while construction and civil engineering
experienced a recovery which appears likely to extend over the
next few months.
    Internal demand rose and the export situation improved, in
particular toward the European Community (EC), the Bank said.
    Stocks decreases and order book levels, with the exception
of the agro-food industry, improved substantially.
    In addition, retail prices and salaries stabilised last
months.
    Production rose in all sectors except agricultural
machinery and aeronautics, where it stabilised, and ship
construction, where it declined.
    The car industry was the major beneficiary of the upturn in
activity in February, with both domestic and export orders
rising.
    In the consumer goods sector, actitity rose sharply despite
a fall in the household goods sector and stability in
pharmaceuticals.
    Among semi-finished products, output rose sharply, helped
by a strong growth in construction materials.
    But activity in the retail sector declined slightly over
the past two months.
 REUTER

HERRINGTON SAYS HE MAY RECOMMEND TAX BENEFITS FOR U.S. OIL INDUSTRY

is reviewing for posible downgrade the debt ratings of W.R.
Grace and Co because of concern the company's earnings may not
be high enough to provide meaningful improvement in its
currently thin margins of interest coverage for some time.
    Some 650 mln drls of outstanding debt is affected.
    Moody's said it is evaluating the ability of Grace's less
diversified business portfolio to generate funds sufficient for
reinvestment and growth, along with debt service and repayment,
in the next three to five years.
 Reuter

Consolidated Energy Partners LP said 99
pct owned master limited partnership Consolidated Operating
Partners LP has defaulted on a 10 mln dlr principal payment to
its lending banks and has filed for reorganization under
Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.
    The company said Consolidated Operating Partners intends to
file a plan of reorganization within 90 days.
    It said a request for an extension of the payment time was
not granted.
    Consolidated Energy, an affiliate of Consolidated Oil and
Gas Inc <CGS>, said the value of the properties owned by
Consolidated Operating Partners substantially exceeds the 46.3
mln dlrs of nonrecourse debt due lender banks First Interstate
Bancorp <I> and RepublicBank Corp <RPT>.  The partnership has
other debt totalling about 530,000 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

Energy Secretary John Herrington
said he may recommend to the White House that the domestic oil
industry be given tax benefits to help it produce more oil and
head off increasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
    He said also at a news conference that he would recommend
to the White House that the fill rate of the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve be increased from its planned 35,000 barrels
per day.
    The oil reserve fill rate capacity is 100,000 barrels a
day.
    Herrington said he had always advocated a greater fill rate
for the petroleum reserve, but the rate had been kept down
because of budgetary constraints.
    Herrington did not disclose what tax incentives he might
advocate, but U.S. officials have shown interest in tax
benefits for oil and gas exploration and for research and
development into new ways to extract oil which is now
considered uneconomical to produce.
    He made the remarks in conjunction with the release of the
Energy Department's study on oil's impact on national security.
    Herrington said that before he disclosed what
recommendations for tax benefits for the oil and gas industry
he might make, he would raise the matter with the White House
Economic Policy Committee to see if the proposals to increase
oil production made good tax policy.
    He said he would like to increase U.S. production by one
mln barrels a day.
    The report said that by the end of the century the United
States may be relying on foreign sources for 50 pct of its oil
consumption, posing a serious economic and national security
threat.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 7,602,000 vs 4,879,000
    Sales 141.5 mln vs 71.3 mln
    Avg shrs 45.0 mln vs 42.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 45 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 19.5 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Sales 397.2 mln vs 181.1 mln
    Avg shrs 43.4 mln vs 38.2 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net includes 2,600,000 dlr tax credit.
    Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split in June 1986.
 Reuter

Wainco Oil Corp said it has completed a
wildcat well on its GrandMarais prspect in Jefferson Davis
Parish, La., which is currently producing at a rate of 1.1 mln
cubic feet of gas and 40 barrels of condensate daily.
    The company said it has a 20 pct working interest in the
well which is flowing from Lower Frion Tweedel Sand
perforations between 10,104 and 10,110 feet. Additional
untested but possibly productive zones exist behind the pipe,
it added. It said the remaining owners are privately held
petroleum companies.
 Reuter

Viacom INternational Inc's
MTV Networks Entertainment said that portions of MTV:Music
Television will begin airing on Nine Network Australia,
effective April 16.
    The network will carry 12 hours of MTV programming weekly
featuring an emphasis on local Australian artists.
    Australian media mogul Alan Bond agreed to acquire Nine
Networks from Kerry Packer last year. Nine networks operates
four broadcast television stations and affiliated regional
stations in Australia.
 Reuter

security.
    The study was outlined in a New York Times report today.
 Reuter

Consolidated Rail Corp said it and
CSX Corp's CSX Transportation Corp subsidiary have reduced
rates on boxcar shipments of manufactured products moving
between CSX points in the South and Conrail points in the
Northeast and Midwest.
    Conrail said the prices, which were effective March one,
are expected to meet or beat comparable truck transportation
prices in virtually all target markets.
    It said the reduced prices also represent a simplification
of the prvious tariff-based rate structure, which used price
and milage scales to determine rates. The new prices are
constructed from a single table of origin and destination Zip
Codes.
 Reuter

Feb 28
    Oper shr six cts vs two cts
    Oper net 189,683 vs 47,499
    Revs 2,874,930 vs 2,594,574
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes 33,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Shr 1.53 dlrs vs 18 cts
    Net 841,893 vs 95,477
    Revs 50.3 mln vs 35.1 mln
                                   
 Reuter

Central Bancorporation Inc said
Oliver W. Birckhead, 64, president and chief executive officer
of the company and chairman and CEO of its Central Trust Co NA
Cincinnati unit, will retire on December 31.
    Central Bancorporation said Noble O. Carpenter will succeed
Birckhead at the holding company on January one, 1988.
    The company said Carpenter is currently executive vice
president of the holding company and president and CEO of
Central Trust Co of Northeastern Ohio NA.

 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs eight cts
    Net 373,000 vs 269,000
    Sales 3,501,000 vs 2,507,000
    Avg shrs 4,036,000 vs 3,326,000
 Reuter

U.S. FHL BANKS SETS 6.70 PCT, 7.10 PCT, 7.65 PCT RATES ON 2.55 BILLION DLR OFFER

OPEC believes world oil prices should
be set around a fixed average price of 18 dlrs a barrel, OAPEC
Assistant General Secretary Abdelaziz Al-Wattari said today.
    In a speech to a European Community (EC)/OAPEC/OPEC seminar
in Luxembourg released here, Al-Wattari said: "OPEC believes
...The world energy trade should be kept without restrictions
and should be built around a fixed average price of 18 dlrs."
    But he warned that defense of the 18 dlr a barrel level had
caused hardship for OPEC countries, who had been forced to
curtail production, and he warned that such cutbacks by OPEC
states could not be sustained in some cases.
    "For OPEC to stabilize the world oil price at what is now
considered the optimal level of 18 dlrs a barrel, its member
countries have had to undergo severe hardship in curtailing
production," Al-Wattari said.
    "Such cutbacks ... Cannot, in certain cases, be sustained,"
Al-Wattari said. As well as financial and marketing pressures,
some states depended on associated gas output for domestic use
and oil cutbacks had left insufficient gas supplies, he added.
    Al-Wattari noted that total OPEC output was below the
organization's agreed ceiling for all member countries in
February, although this had meant sacrifices.
    The effect of these sacrifices meant that market stability,
though restored to a good level, was still under pressure,
Al-Wattari said. "A lasting stability in the world market
requires a wider scope of international cooperation," he added.
    He said some non-OPEC oil producing countries had shown a
political willingness after 1986 to cooperate with OPEC.
    But although cutbacks announced by these states were
politically significant and welcomed by OPEC, they were
insufficient in terms of volume, he added. "The overall majority
of non-OPEC producers have not responded sufficiently to OPEC's
calls for supply regulation," he said.
    Al-Wattari said an 18 dlr a barrel price was optimal as it
allowed investment in the oil industry outside OPEC to
continue, while not generating excessive cash flow for
otherwise unviable high-cost areas outside OPEC. Such a price
would no longer encourage protectionist measures, he added.
    Fadhil Al-Chalabi, OPEC Deputy Secretary General, also
addressing the seminar, added that discipline was still needed
to prevent violent fluctuations in the oil market.
    Cooperation between Arab states and Europe was advantageous
for both sides, Al-Chalabi said, adding he hoped cooperation
would ultimately lead to full-fledged Euro-Arab dialogue.
 Reuter

The Office of Finance, Federal Home
Loan Banks, said it set rates on today's debt offering of 6.70
pct on its 1.11 billion dlr issue, 7.10 pct on a 1.065 billion
dlr issue and 7.65 pct on a 375 mln dlr issue.
    It said the issues, which are for settlement March 25, 
mature March 26, 1990, March 25, 1992 and March 25, 1997,
    The office said telephone confirmation of allotments must
be received by 1500 hrs EST today and that secondary trading
will begin at 0930 hrs EST tomorrow.
 Reuter

Oper shr 45 cts vs 63 cts
    Oper net 3,805,000 vs 5,155,000
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 10.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.58 dlrs vs 2.07 dlrs
    Oper net 12,991,000 vs 15,692,000
    Revs 69.8 mln vs 71.7 mln
    Avg shrs 8,265,541 vs 7,598,522
    Note: Current qtr and year figures exclude losses from
discontinued operations of 761,000 dlrs and 875,000 dlrs,
respectively and disposition gain of 6.1 mln dlrs in both
periods.
    Prior qtr and year figures exclude gain from discontinued
operation of 31,000 dlrs and loss of 2,000 dlrs, respectively.

 Reuter

Midway Airlines Inc, which has
frequently been mentioned as an acquisition target, said it
declared a shareholder rights plan.
    Holders will get a dividend of one preferred share purchase
right on each outstanding share of common stock.
    Each right, when exercisable, will entitle the holder to
purchase one one-hundredth share of Series C Junior
Participating preferred stock for 50 dlrs.
    The rights are intended to assure that all holders receive
fair treatment in the event of a takeover. The company said
this is not in response to a known effort to acquire control.
    The rights will be exercisable 10 days after a person or
group buys 20 pct of the company's common, or announces or
commences a tender offer that would result in acquisition of 30
pct or more of its common.
    Midway can redeem the rights at two cts each at any time
prior to expieration of 10 days after the acquisition by any
person of 20 pct or more of the companyt's common, it said.
    If Midway is acquired, each right will entitle its hodler
to purchase a number of the acquiring company's common shares
having a market value at that time of twice the right's
    The dividend will be payable to holders of record April
six, and expire 10 years later on April 6, 1997.
 Reuter

Oper shr 19 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 951,902 vs 987,860
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr 26 cts vs 35 cts
    Oper net 1,332,273 vs 2,502,868
    Revs 33.6 mln vs 29.2 mln
    Note: Oper net excludes tax credits of 897,925 dlrs vs
841,511,dlrs for qtr and 1,306,860 dlrs vs 2,132,073 dlrs for
six mths.
    Note: Year-ago results restated to reflect change in
accounting principle effective August one, 1985.
 Reuter

Intertan Inc said it plans to
close its 17 company-owned retail stores in Germany and
anticipates this will result in a 6.5 mln dlr charge against
third quarter, ended February 28, results.
    The company took over Tandy Corp's <TAN> international
retail operations last September and was spun off to Tandy
holders of record December 31.
    As a result of the proposed Germany closings, Intertan
said, about 57 German employees and 40 support personnel in
Belgium are expected to be discharged.
   
    Intertan said it expects a small staff will be retained in
Germany to service the company's 27 remaining German dealers.
    The company said its German operations had a fiscal 1986
loss of 4.0 mln dlrs on sales of 6.2 mln dlrs. For the first
nine months of fiscal 1987, it had a pre-tax loss of 1.5 mln
dlrs on revenues of 5.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Venezuela has still to work out final
details of its plan to supply Ecuador with 50,000 barrels per
day of crude oil to compensate that country for lost exports
caused by earthquake damage, a senior Petroleos de Venezuela
(PDVSA) official said.
    "We have yet to finalize details on how the compensation
will be carried out and how OPEC production quotas will be
affected," he said during the signing of a joint venture deal
with Union Pacific Corp today.
    He said an agreement was initialled on a visit last week by
Ecuador's deputy energy minister Fernando Santos Alvite.
    He pointed out that there are some contractual points to be
considered. Venezuela, possibly unique among oil exporters,
requires its clients to sign final destination clauses to
ensure its oil is not resold on the spot market.
    Ecuador's oil minister Javier Espinosa was quoted today as
saying Venezuela will export the oil on Ecuador's account and
remit the revenues to Quito. Ecuador would pay back the oil at
a rate of 35,000 bpd.
    He said Venezuela's oil would be traded through Ecuadorean
state oil company Cepe, but the PDVSA official said the company
never allows third parties to trade its oil.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 182,839 vs 132,804
    Revs 25.0 mln vs 19.4 mln
 Reuter

Shr 1.93 dlrs vs 2.21 dlrs
    Net 8,371,000 vs 9,576,000
    Revs 18.3 mln vs 15.7 mln
 Reuter

Period end Jan 31
    Shr loss 17 cts vs loss 26 cts
    Net loss 765,808 vs loss 1,216,501
    Revs 15.8 mln vs 18.7 mln
    Six mths
    Shr nil vs profit 54 cts
    Net loss 12.5 mln vs profit 2,538,030
    Revs 32.5 mln vs 42.6 mln
    Avg shrs 4,310,068 vs 4,712,315
    NOTE: Prior yr results restated to reflect change in value
of aircraft, resulting in increase of 232,000 or five cts shr
for six mths
 Reuter

Temco Service Industries Inc said its
proposed buyout by chairman Herman J. Hellman and president
Harvey Newwman has been terminated by mutual consent, and Temco
has no present intention of being acquired by any other party.
 Reuter

The Surinam Aluminum Company
(SURALCO) registered a 75 pct drop in alumina exports in
February after its operations were shut down by worker violence
and guerrilla sabotage, the official Surinam News Agency, SNA,
reported.
    SNA said Suralco's alumina exports dropped to 23,869 tonnes
in February from 92,852 tonnes in January. Aluminum exports,
meanwhile, decreased nine pct in the same period, to 1,511
tonnes from 1,647 tonnes.
    Suralco's alumina refinery at Paranam, 18 miles south of
the capital, was shut down February 2 after workers destroyed
plant and computer equipment in a protest over layoffs at the
company's nearby aluminum smelter.
    The smelter was shut down January 26 after anti-government
guerrillas dynamited two electricity towers which transmit
power to the plant from the Afobaka dam.
    The alumina refinery, owned jointly by Suralco and Billiton
NV, a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary, was reopened March 9. But
the smelter remains closed, as do the Suralco mines at Moengo,
60 miles east of Paramaribo, which were closed down by
guerrillas last November.
 Reuter

The budget presented by Chancellor of
the Exchequer Nigel Lawson was described by MPs and analysts as
being politically astute, combining tax cuts and fiscal
prudence which promised to boost the Conservative government's
standing with both voters and financial markets.
    The 1987/88 budget contained a two-penny cut in the
standard rate of tax, and a three billion stg reduction in the
Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR), to 4.0 billion stg.
    Parliamentarians said the budget would pave the way for a
fall in domestic interest rates and an early election.
    Conservative MP Anthony Beaumont-Dark said the budget "is
not glamourous - but it is sound and sensible."
    Lawson told journalists later that it was "a budget built on
success, for success."
    But opposition MPs did not agree .
    David Steel, leader of the Liberal Party, said "this was a
strangely deceptive budget.
    The Chancellor had six billion stg to give back - he has
chosen to give half of that to reducing the PSBR, whereas we in
the SDP/Liberal Aliance think it would have been wiser to use
those revenues to reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty."
    Steel said "the cunning thing in this seductive budget is
that all the good things will come in the pre-election period -
the fall in interest rates, the fall in mortgage rates, the
lower income tax, relatively cheaper whisky, beer, cigarettes
and petrol."
    David Owen, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP)
which with the Liberals make up the centrist Alliance grouping,
said "this is a good attempt at an electioneering budget but it
has failed in its objective. It has given money to the "haves" as
opposed to the "have-nots."
    Labour leader Neil Kinnock called it "a bribes budget."
    Kinnock said the budget "had little to do with the general
good, and everything to do with the general election."
    Roy Hattersley, the Labour Party's Treasury spokesman, said
"the Tories should have used available resources to invest in
industry, in health and in education."
    He added that "we know that whoever is elected (to power in
the next general election) will reverse these tax cuts."
    But Lawson rejected that. Rather, he said the Treasury
expected to have at least 3.0 billion stg in fiscal 1988/89 for
use in cutting taxes or raising public spending.
    Lawson rejected claims by opposition MPs that the
government would be forced to call an election by a
deteriorating economy.
    In his financial statement to Parliament, Lawson had said
that "the setting for this year's budget is more favourable than
it has been for many years. We are now entering our seventh
year of steady growth and the fifth in which this has been
combined with low inflation. The public finances are sound and
strong, and unemployment is falling."
    He said that "these are the fruits of the government's
determination, in bad times as well as good, to hold firmly to
our policies of sound money and free markets."
    Lawson later said the Government felt no compulsion to
plump for an early election.
    Asked by political journalists what effect the Budget would
have on election timing, he replied "I think we will hold the
election either late or early. I must confess I am rather
relaxed about it all.
    "There is not any compulsion to go for an early election.
    But he added that "if the Prime Minister decides to go for
an early election, it will bring to an end all this rather
ridiculous pre-election atmosphere and fever - and there is
something to be said for that."
    Industry also welcomed Lawson's budget. Confederation of
British Industry (CBI) President David Nickson said "This budget
will reinforce business success. Lower government borrowing
means lower interst rates for business. This is what the CBI
wanted."
    "We have always said we would judge the budget on how it
affects the cost of borrowing. This should do the trick."
 REUTER

Trans World Airlines Inc said
the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed
charges of sex and age discrimination filed against it by
members of the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants.
    The union went on strike in March 1986 after failing to
agree on a contract and charged that the airline sought greater
wage concessions from the flight attendants because they were
predominantly female.
    TWA said the commission found that there is no reason to
believe these allegations are true.
 Reuter

said it voted to transfer one billion dlrs cash from the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp (FSLIC) to the Dallas
Federal Home Loan bank tomorrow to correct a collateral
deficiency.
    The infusion was needed because the value of collateral
behind FSLIC loans to savings and loan associations in the
region had declined, an FHLBB official said.
    The official said that as a result, auditors of the Dallas
bank, one of the 12 regional federal home loan banks, would be
able to give an unqualified opinion on the bank's condition.
 Reuter

Asamera Inc said it has signed a letter
of intent to sell its Denver refinery to Total Petroleum (North
America) Ltd <TPN> for undisclosed terms.
    It said the sale is subject to regulatory approval.
 Reuter

Market operators subscribed to less than
half of the 3,000 billion lire offer of a new type of indexed
government paper, figures from the Bank of Italy show.
    Operators subscribed to 1,427 billion lire of the 3,000
billion lire issue of seven-year discount certificates (CTs).
    The CTs, of 100 lire nominal value each, were offered for
competitive tender at a price of 74 lire. Yields are adjustable
annually and linked to those on 12-month treasury bills.
Effective net yield on the first coupon will be 9.66 pct. The
Bank of Italy took up 500 billion lire of the offer, leaving
1,073 billion lire unassigned.
 Reuter

Ltd said it increased its current newsprint list price for
customers in the United States by 30 U.S. dlrs a tonne,
effective July 1, 1987.
    Standard white 30 pound newsprint sold through sales unit
Powell River-Alberni Sales Corp will increase to 600 U.S.dlrs a
tonne from 570 U.S. dlrs a ton, MacMillan Bloedel said.
    It also said a five pct temporary competitive allowance
introduced on Dec 1, 1985, will be reduced to three pct, while
a five pct contract performance incentive program introduced
July 1, 1983 will remain in effect.
    MacMillan Bloedel said customers who annually purchase 100
pct against their contract will receive the five pct discount
under the contract performance incentive program plus the three
pct discount under the temporary competitive allowance, against
the new 600 U.S. dlr a tonne newsprint price.
    The company said it is restoring margins on newsprint and
groundwood printing papers so it can continue expanding and
upgrading its pulp and paper facilities.
 Reuter

chairman Dan Rostenkowski said he was ready to support an 18
billion dlr tax increase to help balance the budget but doubted
it could pass Congress without President Reagan's support.
    Rostenkowski, the chief House taxwriter, said his committee
was reluctant to back a tax increase without certainty that it
would pass the full House and this would require Republican
votes.
    "Chairman Rostenkowski still says its an uphill fight unless
the president signs on," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks
for delivery to the Tax Executives Institute.
    Rostenkowski predicted the tax increase will concentrate on
increases in federal excise taxes while leaving the income tax
intact.
    The taxwriters will not consider delaying the income tax
rate cuts for upper income persons scheduled to take effect in
1988, he said. The top rate will fall from 38.5 pct to 28 pct
next year.
    In addition, he said "they don't have the energy or appetite
to endorse a radical new tax like a VAT (value added tax),"
which he also opposes. "The real question is where the
Republicans will be when the tough vote comes," he said.
    Rostenkowski said his committee will not approve any tax
credits to provide incentives for exports as part of a tax or
trade bill this year.
    He added that no extension or expansion of the research and
development tax credit for business is expected since it would
cost billions of dollars.
    And, Rostenkowski told the tax executives that Howard Baker
as Reagan's chief of staff would make it more likely the White
House will ultimately back a tax increase this year. "There are
strong suspicions that the Baker boys will lead the president
down the slippery slope of moderation," he said.

 Reuter

Surprisingly strong U.S. housing
statistics for February cannot be taken as an indication that
the economy is generating any momentum and are not sufficient
cause to start lifting forecasts for first quarter growth,
    Building was boosted by two factors last month, unusually
mild weather and low mortgage rates. But economists said that
seasonal factors make it hard to assess what spur to the
economy, if any, will come from housing in coming months. And
after a steady retreat, mortgage rates seem to be near bottom.
    U.S. housing starts rose 2.6 pct in February to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.851 mln units from 1.804
mln in January. It was the highest pace for starts since April
1986.
    The rate at which permits were issued for future building
climbed 4.4 pct to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.764
mln units after dropping 11.52 pct to 1.690 mln in January.
    "February's weather is usually more adverse for home
building. Because of seasonal factors it's difficult to
determine what this means for the economy down the road," said
Allan Leslie of Discount Corp.
    The housing report is seasonally-weighted to compensate for
weather-related setbacks. As a result, milder temperatures
inflate the statistics.
    Economists said that low mortgage rates also were a spur to
building last month. But several believe that rates will now
consolidate before edging up in late spring/early summer.
    "Builders are looking at current mortgage rates and saying
'Let's do it now'," said Mark Obrinsky of the U.S. League of
Savings Institutions in Washington, whose members supply much
of the financing for home building.
    But Obrinsky doubts that there is much more downward
potential for rates because he foresees higher inflation and 
some overall improvement in the U.S. economy.
    He expects rates to gain 50 to 100 basis points in early
summer from the 9.50 pct fixed rate effective in February. Last
November, fixed rate mortgages were about 10.30 pct.
    As expected, the strength in housing was concentrated in
the single-family sector. The multi-family area -- which
typically represents rental units -- remained weak due to high
vacancy rates and increased capital costs of such units
following tax law changes effective January 1.
    Single-family starts rose at a 5.6 pct annual pace to 1.317
mln units. Multi-family fell 4.1 pct to a 534,000 rate.
    "Strength in the single-family sector indicates that low
mortgage rates are doing their job. But we're probably not
looking at a great deal of growth potential," said Ward
McCarthy of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    McCarthy noted that the housing report, together with
larger than expected gains in U.S. employment, industrial
output and retail sales in February, may cause some observers
to start waving "four pct GNP banners" for the first quarter.
Gross national product grew 1.3 pct in the fourth quarter.
    But McCarthy, who still expects first quarter real GNP to
come in at an annual rate of 2.5 pct or slightly above, is not
convinced that growth will pick up in future.
    "The big story is the inventory re-building that's going on
now, not all of which is intentional," he said. For example,
U.S. automakers, who are already saddled with high stocks,
produced at an annual rate of 8.3 mln units in February
compared with domestic car sales of 7.3 mln.
    Thus while inventories could contribute to GNP in the first
quarter, they may result in scaled-back production and weaker
growth in the second, he said.
    "If most of the first quarter growth is inventory building
and we cannot identify any improvement in export demand, then
there is the potential for softness in the second quarter,"
agreed Allan Leslie of Discount Corp. He is still evaluating
first quarter GNP prospects.
    Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said last week that
current data do not show the worsening in trade has reversed.
    "At the same time that we are pumping up inventories in the
first quarter, we could foresee production slowing in the
second," cautioned Joe Plocek of McCarthy, Crisanti and Maffei
Inc, who expects first quarter growth of about three pct.
 Reuter

Periods ended February 28
    Shr 89 cts vs 87 cts
    Net 119.5 mln vs 114.6 mln
    Revs 872.3 mln vs 917.4 mln
    Avg shrs 134.9 mln vs 131.7 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.87 dlrs vs 3.32 dlrs
    Net 383.4 mln vs 413.5 mln
    Revs 4.5 billion vs 4.4 billion
    Avg shrs 133.7 mln vs 124.7 mln
    NOTES: Year ago results restated to reflect application of
new accounting for disallowances
    Full name is Public Service Enterprise Group Inc
 Reuter

Pentron Corp said its
Rotational Molding Inc unit has purchased privately held Ice
Creations Unlimited for an undisclosed amount of cash and other
considerations.
    The company said Ice Creations had sales of 1.2 mln dlrs in
the year ended May 31, 1986.
    Ice creations is a molder of plastics.
 Reuter

Pennwalt Corp said it bought all
outstanding shares of its third series cumulative convertible
preferred stock from <Anschutz Corp>.
    According to a standstill agreement reached in 1985,
Pennwalt said Anschutz received a 6.25 pct unsecured promissory
note in the face amount of 138.9 mln dlrs for the 28,054
preferred shares it held.
    The company said 50 pct of the note, due August three, will
be paid with the proceeds from its common stock offering
earlier this month. The remainder of the note will be paid from
borrowings under existing credit facilities, it said.
 Reuter

The U.K. Government forecasts that oil
revenues will fall to four billion stg in the fiscal year
1987/88, from 4.75 billion in 1986/87 and 11.5 billion in
1985/86.
    The forecast came in the Treasury's Financial Statement and
Budget Report issued after the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson's annual budget statement to parliament.
    The government is assuming the price of oil will average 15
dlrs a barrel, in line with its earlier forecasts, and its oil
revenue calculation is based on an exchange rate remaining
close to current levels, the Treasury document said.
    The Treasury said the 1987/88 oil revenue shortfall will
reflect the oil price fall of 1986, as North Sea corporation
tax is paid after a time lag.
    The statement calculated that a one dlr a barrel difference
in oil prices this year will change revenue by about 350 mln
stg for the current fiscal year, and 400 mln stg in a full
year.
    Oil production is forecast to fall slightly in 1987,
according to the statement. A change in one mln tonnes in
production would alter revenue by about 45 mln stg in 1987/88
and 50 mln stg in a full year, it added.
    Total general government receipts for 1986/87 are now
estimated to be 159.2 billion stg, 2.75 billion more than the
1986 Budget forecasts and above the Autumn Statement forecasts,
despite a shortfall of 1.25 billlion in oil receipts.
    Additional non-North Sea corporation tax of 1.75 billion
stg and VAT of 750 mln stg account for the bulk of the
overshoot.
    Total general government receipts were forecast to rise to
168.8 billion stg in fiscal 1987/88, and among the main items,
besides diminishing oil revenues, were projected income tax of
40 billion stg, up from 38.4 billion in the current year.
    Non-North Sea corporation tax is forecast to bring in 13.5
billion stg in 1987/88, after the revised 11.2 billion in
1986/87, and VAT revenue should amount to 23.3 billion,
compared with upwardly revised estimated 21.5 billion this
    The general government expenditure for the coming fiscal
year is expected to total 173.5 billion stg, up from a revised
164.9 billion in the current year.
    A repayment of 800 mln on public corporations' market and
overseas borrowings is forecast to bring the total Public
Sector Borrowing Requirement down to 3.9 billion stg in
1987/88, from this year's revised 4.1 billion, the Treasury
said.
 REUTER

Shares of Reynolds Metals Co rose
sharply after Wall Street firm Furman Selz Mager Dietz and
Birney issued a report focusing on the strong earnings
potential from the company's Australian gold holding, traders
familiar with the report said.
    Traders said the report notes that earnings from Australian
gold holdings could be worth about 35 cts to 55 cts a share
this year and 1.40 dlrs to two dlrs a share in 1988.
    Reynolds Metals rose three points to 59-5/8 on volume of
729,500 shares.
    Reynolds owns stakes in the Mount Gibson gold project and
the Boddington gold project, both located in Australia. An
analyst familiar with the two mines said "the properties,
together, have a potential value of 20 dlrs to 40 dlrs a share
for Reynolds."
    The analyst, who asked not to be identified, said the rise
in the stock today was likely the result of "U.S. investors
that were not completely cognizant of the size or the
importance of the (Reynolds') holdings in Australia."
    Traders said the Furman Selz report indicates that gold was
discovered mixed with bauxite in the Boddington mine.
Boddington is principally a bauxite mine.
    The traders said the report goes on to say that the profits
from the Boddington gold with substantially reduce the
production costs of the other metals mined at Boddington.
    Traders said Furman Selz also boosted its earnings
estimates, expecting Reynolds Metals to earn 4.10 dlr a share
in 1987 and eight dlrs a share in 1988.
    Last year, Reynolds reported net earnings of 8.18 dlrs a
share, which included 3.09 dlrs a share for adoption of new
accounting rules, 1.01 dlrs a share for tax loss carryforwards
and other extraordinary items.
 Reuter

Alcan Aluminium Ltd said it may issue
up to two mln first preferred shares in addition to an
unlimited number of additional common shares and an unlimited
number of additional preference shares at any time after its
proposed reorganization.
    In a proxy statement, the company said shareholders are to
vote on the reorganization, which would result in Alcan's
wholly-owned Aluminum Co of Canada Ltd unit replacing Alcan
Aluminium as the group's parent company, at the April 23 annual
meeting. The new company will keep the Alcan Aluminium Ltd
name.
    Alcan said it has no plans to immediately issue any of the
additional shares.
    The company has said it is undertaking the reorganization
mainly to streamline management and give Alcan a stronger and
more stable financing base by making the new Alcan a major
operating company as well as a holding and management company.
    "In an increasingly global capital market, this new
structure should also provide for greater flexibility in
financing the Alcan group," the company said.
    Alcan's current only outstanding securities are common
shares while the new company would have outstanding securities
of common, preferred and preference shares, and its debt.
    Each shareholder would automatically become a shareholder
in the new company without exchanging share certificates.
    Alcan later said it has a provision identical to the one
detailed in the proxy statement allowing for the issue of
preferred, common and preference shares, in its existing
corporate structure.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - SIMMONS AIRLINES INC &lt;SIMM&gt; LOSS
    In CHICAGO item headlined Simmons Airlines Inc &lt;SIMM&gt; 2nd
qtr loss, please reverse qtrs for which figures are reported.
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 12-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

NASDAQ HALT - ALLEGHENY BEVERAGE CORP &lt;ABEV&gt;, NEWS PENDING,LAST 4-3/4

Hydro-Quebec, the provincially-owned
utility, said it is appearing this week before the National
Energy Board to defend its application to export about five
billion Canadian dlrs worth of electricity to the New England
states.
    The contract with the New England Power Pool was signed in
1985 and runs from 1990 to 1999. A spokesman for the Quebec
utility said hearings are normally held on major contracts up
to two years after the deal is signed.
    Hydro-Quebec, which last month agreed to sell 15 billion
dlrs worth of power to Maine starting in 1992, has to convince
the board the electricity is surplus to Canadian needs.
    Utilities in at least three Canadian provinces have said
they are opposing the New England deal. The Ontario and New
Brunswick utilities said they are objecting because
Hydro-Quebec did not offer them the electricity before going to
the New England Power Pool. New Brunswick said it is also
concerned that Hydro-Quebec is taking all the U.S. export
markets.
    Hydro-Quebec spokesman Maurice Hebert said several
provinces, including Newfoundland which wants to renogotiate a
power agreement with Quebec, routinely oppose the Quebec
utility's export contracts.
    Hebert said the National Energy Board has ordered changes
to contracts in the past but has always left the agreements
essentially intact.
    He said the utility was not prepared to comment on whether
it believed the board would call for substantial changes to the
agreement with New England.
    He said the hearings, which began today, will probably last
two or three days and a decision made in about two weeks.
    Hydro-Quebec has recently been trying to move from export
contracts for surplus energy to contracts for guaranteed
amounts of energy, such as the deal signed with Maine.
 Reuter

Assistant General Secretary Abdelaziz Al-Wattari said.
    In a speech to a European Community/OAPEC/OPEC seminar in
Luxembourg released here, Al-Wattari said, "OPEC believes ...the
world energy trade should be kept without restrictions and
should be built around a fixed average price of 18 dlrs."
February, although this had meant sacrifices. The effect of
these sacrifices meant that market stability, though restored
to a good level, was still under pressure, Al-Wattari said.
    "A lasting stability in the world market requires a wider
scope of international cooperation," he said.
 Reuter

The House of Representatives
approved a bill to enable 1987 winter wheat and feedgrains
farmers hit by midwestern flooding last year to receive at
least 92 pct of their federal income support payments even if
they did not plant.
    The one-time pilot 0/92 program, designed to assist farmers
in Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan and parts of Missouri, was passed
by a 304-100 vote and sent to the Senate.
    Although the bill includes a narrow version of the 0/92
provision endorsed by the Reagan administration, the U.S.
Agriculture Department withheld its support from the measure.
    USDA said the bill would discourage farmers from buying
crop insurance and fall short of the administration's proposed
broad-scale revision of farm programs.
    The bill would permit winter wheat producers prevented from
planting their 1987 crop last fall to receive 92 pct of the
deficiency payments they would have received.
    To be eligible, winter wheat farmers could not plant a
different crop on that land this spring, although they could
use the land for grazing or to plant hay.
    USDA estimated this provision would save 30 mln dlrs,
largely because of reduced crop forfeitures.
    The bill also would aid about 200 feedgrains producers
along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers who were prevented
from planting crops this year because of residual damage from
last fall's flooding.
    In addition, the measure would require USDA to make full
payment to farmers eligible for emergency assistance approved
by Congress last fall.
    Currently, because claims have outstripped the 400 mln dlrs
in appropriated funds, USDA plans to offer farmers in the
region 74 cents for every dollar in disaster losses.
    The administration said it opposed the bill because, by
expanding the 400 mln dlrs in disaster relief, it would thwart
efforts to encourage farmers to buy crop insurance as an
alternative to federal disaster assistance.
    USDA also said the 0/92 provisions in the bill were
narrower than the administration's proposal to offer the option
to all major commodities and would produce insignificant
savings.
    USDA said the 0/92 option for 1987 winter wheat farmers
would produce a net savings of about 30 mln dlrs, while the
requirement to compensate fully disaster-struck farmers would
cost about 135 mln dlrs, which must be appropriated by
Congress. The feedgrains provision would cost about five mln
dlrs.
    USDA estimated the overall cost of the bill to be 111 mln
dlrs.
    In January the Senate approved a bill that would make 1987
winter wheat farmers eligible for disaster assistance payments.
    But the Senate bill would not offer the 0/92 option to
wheat and feedgrains producers or raise the 400-mln dlr ceiling
on the disaster assistance program.
 Reuter

Simmons Airlines Inc said its load
factor for February declines to 41.8 pct from 46.1 pct a year
ago.
    Traffic increased 31.3 pct to 15 mln revenue passenger
miles from 11.4 mln, while capacity increased 45.1 pct to 35.8
mln available seat miles from 24.7 mln.
 Reuter

Shr profit one cts vs profit four cts
    Net profit 27,490 vs 89,687
    Sales 2,899,189 vs 2,785,931
    Nine mths
    Shr loss four cts vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 78,038 vs profit 184,062
    Sales 8,785,918 vs 8,273,913
 Reuter

ALLEGHENY BEVERAGE SAYS GROUP INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING ITS SERVICE AMERICA CORP UNIT

Oper shr nine cts vs 128 cts
    Qtly div 18 cts vs 22 cts prior
    Oper net 951,000 vs 1,817,000
    Total income 5,010,000 vs 5,575,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 39 cts vs 59 cts
    Oper net 4,014,000 vs 5,936,000
    Total income 15.2 mln vs 16.7 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes 750,000 dslr
provision for possible losses.
    Net excludes gains from sale of investment of 1,461,000
dlrs vs 346,000 dlrs in quarter and in nine mths.
    Dividend pay April 15, record March 31.
 Reuter

Hilton Hotels Corp expects earnings
per share for first quarter fiscal 1987 to March 31 to be about
90 cts compared with 70 cts a year earlier, Hilton Hotels
division president Carl Mottek said.
    He told a news conference the company expected costs for
its first 10 all-suite hotels, announced today, to be about 150
mln dlrs. Initial financing would come from the company's cash
flow. Later, Hilton plans to use borrowings from traditional
sources, he added.
    Hilton, which hopes to build 50 all-suite hotels within
five years, may take in partners in the new venture, he added.
 Reuter

H.J. Heinz Co is "within sight of our
22nd consecutive year of new records in financial growth" for
the fiscal year ending April 30, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Anthony O'Reilly told investment analysts.
    O'Reilly, who declined to make a specific projection, said
the food company is "stronger than at any time in its 118-year
history."
    Last week Heinz reported third-quarter earnings rose to 55
cts a share from 46 cts a share. Sales rose to 1.08 billion
dlrs from 1.01 billion dlrs a year earlier.
    O'Reilly said Heinz will concentrate on backing its big
brands, new products and services, new geography, internal
growth and acquisitions.
    He said Heinz Ketchup has its highest market share in
history, 55 pct. But in response to a question, the executive
said a volume falloff in the overall product category "is a
concern to us."
    O'Reilly said Weight Watchers continues to perform well and
will generate revenue in fiscal 1987 of approximately 940 mln
dlrs.
    O'Reilly told analysts Heinz is in active negotiations to
build a second plant in China, where it entered a joint venture
with the government in 1984, forming Heinz-UFE Ltd, which
produces dry baby food cereal.
    He said Heinz-Japan is "making a profit and generating its
first substantial dividends," and implementation of a new
partnership, Seoul-Heinz Ltd, is moving ahead with a new
manufacturing plant targeted for completion by June in Seoul,
South Korea.
    To increase its competitiveness, O'Reilly said Heinz
implemented a "lowest cost imaginable" program targeted at
manufacturing, sales and marketing and procurement.
    He said a modernization program is in effect at the
company's United Kingdom operations, where the labor force,
trimmed to 4,000 from 10,000, is expected to be further reduced
to 2,500 in 1988.
 Reuter

An attorney was named today in a
24-count federal indictment alleging he initiated an insider
trading scheme which allowed friends and relatives to make
nearly 1.5 mln dlrs in illegal profits on non-public knowledge
of a corporate restructuring.
    Israel G. Grossman, 34, who had been a pension specialist
for the New York firm of Kramer, Levin, Nessen and Kamin,
allegedly stole information from the firm involving the
recapitalization of Colt Industries Inc <COT> last July.
    Grossman, who was arrested February 17, allegedly enabled
three individuals whom he alerted to purchase 1,006 colt call
options for 33,938 dlrs.
    July 21, the day after the Colt recapitalization was
announced, its common stock rose almost 27 points. The options
increased to a value of about 1.5 mln dlrs, according to
Rudolph Giuliani, U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, who announced the
indictment today.
    Grossman is charged with 12 counts of mail fraid and 12
counts of securities fraud. If convicted, he could be sentenced
to a maximum of 120 years in jail and fined a total of six mln
dlrs.
    Grossman resigned from the law firm following his arrest.
He is scheduled to enter a plea March 26.
 Reuter

Allegheny Beverage Corp said it
has been approached by a group interested in acquiring its
foodservice unit, Service America Corp.
    The group includes senior management of Service America but
no officers of Allegheny Beverage, the company said.
    The company has agreed to permit the group and its
potential lenders to perform a due diligence review of Service
America, it said.
    Allegheny noted it had previously cancelled plans to spin
off the foodservice subsidiary.
    The company said the group's review is preliminary and
there is no assurance that an acquisition proposal will be made
or, if made, accepted.
    Service America had fiscal 1986 revenues of about 934 mln
dlrs, or about 83 pct of Allegheny Beverage's total revenues of
1.13 billion dlrs for the year ended March 29, 1986, a
spokesman for Allegheny Beverage said.
    He declined to identify the Service America officials in
the acquisition group.
    On Feb 18, 1987, Allegheny said it was cancelling the spin
off of Service America, but gave no reason for doing so. It
said it would place major emphasis on managing Service America
to improve operations and increase earnings at the unit.
    Service America, which Allegheny acquired in May 1985,
operates cafeterias and food and beverage vending machines.
Through other subsidiaries, Allegheny provides coin-operated
laundry services, building maintenance services and retail
office and furniture operations.
    In fiscal 1986, Allegheny reported earnings from continuing
operations of 8.2 mln dlrs or 1.09 dlrs a fully diluted share,
excluding income of 59.7 mln dlrs from discontinued operations
and an extraordinary loss of 8.1 mln dlrs. In May 1985,
Allegheny sold its Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co unit to Pepsico Inc
<PEP> for 160 mln dlrs.
    Including discontinued operations and the special item, net
income was 59.8 mln dlrs or 6.21 dlrs a share fully diluted.
 Reuter

Inspiration Resources Corp said a gold
project in northern Manitoba in which it has a 44.8 pct
interest has yielded estimated total reserves of 1,580,000
short tons grading an average 0.185 ounce of gold per ton.
    The company said <Manitoba Mineral Resources Ltd> owns the
remaining interest in the project, which is located about 25
miles east of Lynn Lake.
    Inspiration said the project has proven reserves of 538,000
tons assayed at 0.212 ounce of gold per ton, probable reserves
of 686,000 tons at 0.166 ounce and possible reserves of 355,000
tons at 0.183 ounce.
    Inspiration said a production decision is expected to be
made in 1988.
 Reuter

raised to B from B-minus Valero Energy Corp's preferred stock.
    Also, the rating agency affirmed Valero's BB-minus
industrial revenue bonds and B-rated debentures. About 950 mln
dlrs of long-term debt is outstanding.
    S and P said Valero's financial flexibility would improve
as the company plans to use proceeds of roughly 760 mln dlrs
from a proposed sale of natural gas operations to reduce debt.
Pro forma debt leverage drops to about 30 pct from 67 pct at
September 30, 1986. But S and P said Valero's refining segment
has been unable to consistently generate operating profits.
 Reuter

MarCor Development Co Inc said
it expects to post a profit for its fiscal year ended February
28 of about two mln dlrs, compared to a year earlier loss of
3.2 mln dlrs.
    During the prior year the company operated as F and M
Importing, a publicly-held wholesale food distributor.
    During March last year privately-held Marcor acquired a
controlling interest in F and M Importing, divested the food
business, renamed the company and began operating as a real
estate investment and service company.
 Reuter

Honduras has been authorized to buy
about 75,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat, about 15,000 tonnes of U.S.
corn, and about 6,000 tonnes of U.S. tallow under an existing
PL 480 agreement, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said it may buy the wheat, valued at 8.5 mln
dlrs, the corn, valued at 1.5 mln, and the tallow, valued at
2.0 mln dlrs, between March 24 and August 31, 1987, and ship it
from U.S. ports and/or Canadian transshipment points by this
September 30.
    The purchase authorizations cover the entire quantity
provided under the agreement, signed March 11.
 
 Reuter

Valley Resources Inc said its
board declared a three-for-two stock split and raised the
quarterly cash dividend on the pre-split shares to 42 cts from
38 cts.
    The company said both the split and the dividend are
payable April 15 to holders of record March 31.
 Reuter

investor Theodore Cross said in a Securities and Exchange
Commission filing that it boosted its stake in Frost and
Sullivan Inc common stock to 208,800 shares or 13.7 pct of the
    The group said Cross bought 17,000 shares in the open
market between Feb. 17 and March 10.
    The group had said previously that its Frost and Sullivan
share purchases were for investment.
 Reuter

Champion Home Builders Co, as
part of a previously announced reorganization, said it set up a
subsidiary to handle two of its operations.
    The company transferred its recreational vehicle and
commercial bus manufacturing operations to a new, wholly owned
subsidiary, Champion Motor Coach Inc.
    Total sales from the three manufacturing plants comprising
the new unit totaled 50 mln dlrs for the fiscal year ended
    Champion Home previously said it was reorganizing its
business units into a new holding company structure. The
holding company will be called Champion Enterprises Inc,
subject to shareholder approval at the company's late June
annual meeting.
 Reuter

peru will sell about 40 state-owned firms
to trim a projected 740 mln dlrs loss this year among
government-owned companies.
    Some companies would be sold in their entirety and others
would be privatised only partially, according to jose palomino,
president of the government's state company holding firm, the
national development council (conade).
     He told reporters in a radio interview that the aim was to
slim a projected public sector firm deficit of 11 billion
intis. He did not say if foreigners would be allowed to buy all
or part of the companies.
    Independent economists warn that the deficit could push
inflation to between 60 and 100 pct in 1987, against the
govenment target of 40-50 pct.
    Palomino said aeroperu, the government flagship airline
with a 10-jet fleet, would issue stock for purchase by private
investors. The company in 1986 registered its first profit in
eight years, earning about 44.6 mln intis in pre-tax profits.
    Peru has about 140 non-financial state firms. Palomino said
the government would soon publish a list of those to be sold,
including those whose shares would be offered on the lima stock
exchange.
    Last november, palomino said conade's plans included the
possible sale of a company producing palm oil and another
manufacturing electrical appliances. Shares could also be sold
in a copper mine, empresa nacional tintaya sa, in the southern
state of  arequipa.
    Neither Palomino nor conade's general manager, enrique
estremadoyro, were available for comment on whether foreigners
would be allowed to purchase the companies. Their secretaries
said they were out of their offices.
    Jose antonio almenara, the general manager of the lima
stock exchange, where shares of the state-owned firms could be
sold, told reuters that the only foreigners who could purchase
stock at the exchange had to be tax-paying residents of peru.
    He said foreign stockholders cannot remit profits abroad
until at least july 1988.
 Reuter

Diebold Inc said it signed an
original equipment manfacturing agreement with Wang
Laboratories Inc. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
    Diebold said the agreement gives Wang the right to sell and
support a variety of Diebold retail and electronic funds
transfer systems to selected markets worldwide.
    In a press release, Wang hailed the agrement as a "major
milestone in Wang's strategy to become a supplier of both
transaction and data processing systems to the financial
market."
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs loss 80 cts
    Net loss 2,150,000 vs loss 3,722,000
    Sales 1,478,000 vs loss 2,097,000
 Reuter

The Coldwell Banker Commercial Real
Estate Services unit of Sears Roebuck and Co said it recorded
1986 real estate sales and leases totaling 17.7 billion dlrs,
compared with 15.4 billion in 1985.
    Some 62.1 pct of the volume was in leases and the remainder
in sales, the company said.
    It also said sales and leases in office building properties
accounted for about about 7.8 bilion dlrs, industrial sales and
leases accounted for about 4.9 bilion and commercial/retail 3.5
billion.
 Reuter

<Terumo Corp of Tokyo> has
committed 75 mln dlrs to the expansion of its medical products
manufacturing and research development facility in Elkton, Md.,
said Gov. William Donald Schaefer in a press release.
    Terumo, which operates in Maryland as Terumo Medical Corp,
is the largest manufacturer of disposable medical products in
Japan.
    The release said Terumo bought a 25-acrte site and will
build a 300,000-square-foot plant to manufacture its line of
digital therometers. It said the company plans to add 166 new
employees when the facility is completed later this year.
 Reuter

may downgrade 700 mln dlrs of debt of Dana Corp and its unit,
Dana Credit Corp.
    The agency said its review would focus on the implications
of Dana's aggressive balance sheet management on liquidity and
financial flexibility. Moody's will also take into account
intensifying competition and pricing difficulties in Dana's
highly cyclical core truck and industrial markets.
    Dana currently carries A-2 senior debt and industrial
revenue bonds. The Prime-1 commercial paper of Dana and its
credit unit are also under review for possible downgrade.
 Reuter

    Shr 23 cts vs eight cts
    Net 309,963 vs 110,356
    Revs 2,503,451 vs 1,351,076
    Nine mths
    Shr 62 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 851,776 vs 331,666
    Revs 6,739,351 vs 4,107,713
 Reuter

    Shr loss one cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 52,198 vs profit 602,766
    Revs 18.6 mln vs 7,833,424
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 10 cts vs profit six cts
    Net profit 809,243 vs profit 393,372
    Revs 36.3 mln vs 18.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs three cts
    Net 369,000 vs 347,000
    Revs 21.3 mln vs 14 mln
    NOTE: Per shr reflects payment of preferred dividends.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 1.05 dlrs
    Net profit 1,666,000 vs loss 18,306,000
    Revs 29.1 mln vs 28.3 mln
    Avg shrs 69.1 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 2.72 dlrs
    Net loss 7,571,000 vs loss 45,517,000
    Revs 117.4 mln vs 123.3 mln
    Avg shrs 35.4 mln vs 16.7 mln
    NOTE: Results include losses of nil vs 473,000 dlrs, or
three cts a share, in quarter and 921,000 dlrss, or three cts a
share, vs 1,137,000 dlrs or seven cts a share, in year from
discontinued operations
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts in prior qtr
    Payable May 11
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 350,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS FOR 1986/87

Calumet Industries Inc said it raised
4.2 mln dlrs from holders exercising company warrants. The
program expired February 27.
    It issued 420,000 shares to holders who had exercised
options to exchange four warrants and 10 dlrs for each share of
common stock. About 87 pct of its warrants were exercised.
    These proceeds and another 14 mln dlrs from the sale of
notes will provide long term financing for its HydroCal 2 heavy
hydrotreating system under construction at its Princeton, La.,
refinery.
 Reuter

The Financial Times newspaper said it
has launched a new international share index, which represents
more than 70 pct of the world's total stock market value. The
FT-Actuaries World Indices, published for the first time today,
feature a main world share index and indices plotting the
movement of share prices in different regions and individual
countries, the FT said.
    The first world share indices will be published on an
up-to-date daily basis. The indices are based on the prices of
around 2,400 equity securities from 23 countries.
    Calculated on the same basis as the FT-Actuaries Indices
for UK securities, the indices will be produced daily and
published in the Financial Times. The daily tables have a
series of regional indices together with the overall world
index.
    The FT said its main aim was to provide a set of
measurements against which the performance of international
fund managers could be judged. Markets, companies and
securities have been included only when direct holdings of
shares by foreign nationals are allowed, it said. The FT said
to keep the whole series manageable it has kept the number of
companies from the U.S. To 600.
    The indices are calculated in three seperate currencies -
the US dollar, sterling and the appropriate local currency.
    The regional indices are calculated in a way that takes
into account the relative weight of local capitalisations.The
gross dividend yield is also published on the basis of what
foreign shareholders are entitled to receive before withholding
taxes.
    The FT said it has decided to calculate these numbers after
the enourmous growth in the volume of cross-border equity
investment in recent years.

private U.S. exporters reported sales of 350,000 tonnes of corn
for delivery to unknown destinations during the 1986/87
marketing season.
    The marketing year for corn began September 1.
    This is the second day running that exporters have reported
corn sales to unknown destinations. Yesterday, they reported
sales of 150,000 tonnes to unknown.
 Reuter

    Revs 5,173,318 vs 5,873,904
    NOTE: 1987 qtr includes 126,117 dlrs, or two cts per share,
from gains on sale of property, vs gain 29,812, or less than
one cent per share, for prior qtr.
 Reuter

upgraded 475 mln dlrs of debt of Continental Airlines Inc, a
unit of Texas Air Corp.
    Raised were the unit's senior secured Denver industrial
revenue bonds to B-1 from Ca and subordinated debt to B-3 from
C.
    Moody's said the action recognizes the airline's
reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, risks
associated with its substantial financial leverage and
unpredictable cash flow.
 Reuter

    Net loss 77,879, vs loss 65,501
    Revs 3,895,741 vs 4,872,163
    Nine mths
    Shr profit nine cts vs profit two cts
    Net profit 488,898 vs profit 118,208
    Revs 13.0 mln vs 15.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 54,791 vs profit 28,866
    Sales 137,9810 vs 338,886
    Avg shrs 1,602,717 vs 1,331,739
 Reuter

    Shr loss 89 cts vs loss 82 cts
    Net loss 5,187,000 vs loss 5,362,000
    Revs 128.4 mln vs 50.3 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 1.27 dlrs vs loss 1.04 dlrs
    Net loss 7,015,000 vs loss 6,790,000
    Revs 264.7 mln vs 97.3 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Great American Management and Investment
Inc
 Reuter

Newmont Gold Co said it filed a
Commission for the proposed public offering of five mln shares
of common plus an over-allotment option of 500,000 shares.
    Newmont Gold said the newly registered shares would
represent about 5.2 pct of the 105 mln shares outstanding after
the share issue. It said it will use proceeds to repay the
long-term debt it owes to its parent, Newmont Mining Corp
<NEM>, and for general corporate purposes.
    Newmont Mining will continue to own about 90 pct of Newmont
Gold after the offering.
    Newmont Gold said four mln shares will be offered initially
in the U.S. by a U.S. underwriting group and one mln shares
will be offered initially outside the U.S by an international
underwriting group.
    It said Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc, Lazard Freres and Co
and Salomon Brothers Inc and their affiliates will be
co-managers of both underwriting groups.
 Reuter

Norstar Bancorp said it reached an
agreement in principle to buy United National Bank of Callicoon
through a stock exchange valued at 20 mln dlrs.
    Under terms of the agreement, Norstar would buy all 201,660
shares of United's common stock at a rate of three Norstar
shares for each United share.
    With year-end assets of 90 mln dlrs, United has branches
six upstate New York cities, all of which will become part of
Norstar Bank of the Hudson Valley, N.A.
    Norstar is an 11.1 billion dlr multibank financial services
company.
 Reuter

<Majestic Contractors Ltd>
said it will purchase up to a maximum of 403,828 of its common
shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange at the market price.
    Purchases will begin on April 13, 1987 and will end when
Majestic has bought 403,828 common shares or on April 12, 1988,
whichever comes first.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit one ct vs loss 1.14 dlrs
    Oper net profit 435,000 vs loss 19.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 28 cts vs loss 2.78 dlrs
    Oper net loss 10 mln vs loss 46.5 mln
    NOTE: Excludes investment gains of one ct per share vs 12
cts in the quarter, and gains 10 cts per share vs 13 cts in the
year. Excludes loss from discontinued operations of three cts
per share in fourth quarter 1985, and loss of 21 cts per share
vs loss 2.72 dlrs in the year.
 Reuter

The New York stock exchange said its
rules for triple expiration Friday permit entering
arbitrage-related market-on-close orders in the final 30
minutes of trading providing they are on the other side of
imbalances and providing they open positions.
    The NYSE clarified a statement released yesterday in which
it detailed procedures to be followed this Friday when stock
index options, index futures and individual stock options
expire simultaneously. The NYSE said it will not allow a
market-on-close order after 1530 EST Friday that increases or
liquidates an existing arbitrage position.
    The NYSE in cooperation with the Securities and Exchange
commission will publicize imbalances of 10,000 or more shares
in the 50 stocks beginning at 1530 EST Friday. In the final 30
minutes of trading Friday any market-on-close orders must be on
the other side of the imbalance.
 Reuter

House Budget Committee Chairman
William Gray, D-Pa, said he would propose a freeze on all
spending for federal government programs for the fiscal 1988
budget to meet budget deficit targets.
    "An outlay freeze -- with no additional revenues -- produces
almost enough savings to reach the 108 billion dlr deficit
target. For fiscal 1988, this would mean total spending of just
over 1 trillion dlrs," Gray said in a statement.
    Gray said his plan would call for a freeze in spending on
each individual federal program at fiscal 1987 levels.
    He said this would mean numerous program cuts, lower
benefits for recipients of federal assistance and fewer people
being served by federal programs.
    Gray said he would make the budget freeze proposal when the
House Budget Committee begins work on the budget resolution
this Thursday. The Senate Budget Committee began work on its
budget resolution this afternoon.
 Reuter

The U.S. Office of Management and
Budget does not have a policy position one way or another on
whether the Agriculture Department's commodity certificate
program should be expanded or contracted, an OMB official said.
    Speaking at the National Grain and Feed Association's
annual convention, Ron Landis, chief of OMB's agricultural
branch, said instead of an across the board policy for or
against certificates, OMB has worked and will continue to work
very closely with USDA in determining how many certificates
should be sent out in each government farm payment.
    "Recent evidence by the General Accounting Office and the
Congressional Budget Office suggest that certificates can and
do increase budget exposure," Landis said.
    But Landis also noted that certificates have numerous
beneficial impacts.
    These benefits are helping maintain U.S. price
competitiveness, freeing up storage space and saving the
government storage and handling costs.
    The major drawback to certificates, said Landis, is that
they increase budget exposure relative to cash through use of
the pik and roll marketing strategy.
    In the pik and roll strategy, a farmer puts his grain under
loan, redeems it with certificates, then keeps the difference
between the price he paid for certificates and the county loan
rate.
    However, if the benefits of certificates outweigh the added
costs, OMB officials said they will support continuation of the
program.
    "OMB says certificates have a very positive effect on the
market, but the question is do those positive benefits outweigh
the added costs. If they do, then the certificate program is
good," an OMB official told Reuters.
    Landis calculated that the redemption of each certificate
worth 1,500 bushels results in 176 dlrs in storage savings for
wheat farmers, 270 dlrs for corn farmers and 92 dlrs for
soybean farmers. The pik and roll strategy represents a benefit
of about 35 cents per bushel per farmer, he said.
    But Landis also noted that recent studies by CBO suggest
that an additional one billion dlrs of certificates released to
the market could result in outlays of 1.15 dlrs in cash for
every dlr released in certificates.
    OMB is concerned that too many certificates released onto
the market could cause prices to drop too low and government
costs to increase too much.
    But Landis said OMB has not determined what amount of
certificates would be excessive.
 Reuter

Qtly div 82 cts vs 82 cts prior
    Pay April 25
    Record April one
 Reuter

The European Community may decide to
increase the cereals co-responsibility levy and extend its
scope to cover cereal substitutes if the Commission's 1987/88
farm price package is opposed by member states, Edgar Pye,
vice-president of the British agricultural merchants'
association UKASTA, said.
    At the moment the Commission is proposing the rate of levy
remain unchanged at three pct - but Pye, addressing a feed
manufacturers' dinner in Glasgow, said this could change if its
controversial plans to cut cereal prices and introduce an oils
and fats tax are blocked
    Pye said UKASTA would continue to fight the cereals levy
"tooth and nail."
    However, a test case in the European Court of Justice
contesting the legality of the current regulation applying the
levy, which is being backed by the EC feed manufacturers'
organisation FEFAC, was not now expected to be heard until the
end of 1987, he said.
 Reuter

    Shr 10 cts vs three cts
    Net 194,842 vs 54,200
    Revs 22.2 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 50 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 965,924 vs 502,008
    Revs 43.8 mln vs 21.6 mln
    Note: Current six mths revs include 16.8 mln dlrs in revs
from John F. Beasley Construction Co, a wholly owned unit.
 Reuter

The Hydraulic Co said its
Bridgeport Hydraulic Co subsidiary had its proposal to use land
sales proceeds to help fund capital improvements denied by the
Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control.
    Hydraulic said its proposal also called for a distribution
of the finaical benefits to its stockholders and customers.
    However, Hyraulic said the state utility commission would
consider similar requests in the future. It said the utility
commission felt its request was premature and noted  Hydraulic
did not specify parcels of land considered for sale.
    The company said it will submit a detailed plan shortly.
 Reuter

Mo-Flo Industries Inc said the
federal appeals court has affairmed a trial court ruling that
Mor-Flo infringed on patents held by <State Industries Inc> for
insulating gas water heaters with polyurethane.
    Mor-Flo said it intends to seek a rehearing of the
decision. If the rehearing is denied, further proceedings
before the trial court will be held to determine damages.
    The company said it made provision for a potential award
and related litigation expenses by taking an after-tax charge
of 384,000 dlrs, or 15 cts a share, against 1986 earnings.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 26 cts vs profit 22 cts
    Oper net loss 672,879 vs profit 596,760
    Revs 2,188,678 vs 2,364,280
    Nine mths
    Oper shr loss 1.60 dlrs vs profit 92 cts
    Oper net loss 4,278,055 vs profit 2,472,532
    Revs 5,896,322 vs 7,497,782
    Note: Oper net excludes tax gains of 596,000 dlrs for
year-ago qtr and 2,173,000 dlrs for year-ago nine mths.
 Reuter

From April through December 1986,
the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) issued 3.85 billion dlrs
worth of generic certificates and about 1.8 billion had not
been exchanged by January 1, 1987, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said an additional 4.3 billion dlrs in
certificates has been authorized for issuance during
January-August, 1987.
    These certificates will provide ample free supplies of corn
and wheat for the remainder of the crop year, the department
said in a summary of its Agricultural Outlook report.
    Freeing of stocks through certificates is making U.S. grain
more competitive on world markets, it said.
    The department said last summer, for example, certificates
were exchanged for 215 mln bushels of corn. This helped
increase marketable supplies, so farm-level corn prices
averaged about two dlrs per bushel -- somewhat lower than they
would have otherwise.
    The lower prices probably led to an increase in usage of 40
to 50 mln bushels, it said.
    The department said government spending on farm programs in
fiscal year 1987 is projected to fall half a billion dlrs from
1986's 25.8 billion dlrs.
    During 1988 and 1989, the cost escalation of the first half
of the 1980's will reverse. If current policy remains in force,
annual farm program spending by 1992 will be down from last
year's record by more than eight billion dlrs, it said.
    The department said the President's budget proposals for
1988-1992 would cut farm program spending an additional 24
    In 1987, foreign economic growth is expected to remain
close to 2.6 pct, the same as in 1986, but above the 2.4 pct
average of 1980-86, it said.
    Partially because of this improvement, U.S. export volume
is expected to rise in fiscal 1987 for the frist time in seven
years, the department said.
 Reuter

First Capital Holdings Corp said it
and Robert M. Bass Group formed a joint venture, called FCB
Partners, to acquire and manage real estate investments.
    The joint venture partners also intend to create new
products which will be offered through its Pilgrim Group Inc
mutual funds subsidiary, First Capital said.
 Reuter

SkyWest Airlines Inc said its
revenue passenger miles rose to 10.3 mln from 8.5 mln, its
available seat miles rose to 24.2 mln from 18.9 mln and load
factor decreased to 42.6 pct from 44.9 pct.
    Skywest said February's traffic includes two new EMB-120
aircraft manufactured by Embraer Corp of Brazil.
    For the year to date, revenue passenger miles rose to 20.6
mln from 17.3 mln, available seat miles rose to 49.0 mln from
39.2 mln and load factor decreased to 42 pct from 44.1 pct.
                
 Reuter

An Inland Revenue ruling accompanying
today's U.K. Budget would eliminate a favourable tax treatment
on certain foreign loans by British banks and may be a
"nightmare" of practical application, banking sources said.
    This is because banks will only be able to offset the tax
credit for foreign withholding tax paid on the interest they
receive against the corporation tax on the profit of a specific
loan. Currently, the tax credit is calculated against a banks
profits as a whole.
    For banks, compliance with the ruling could indeed be a
nightmare since they don't fund loans on a individual basis.
    Many of the loans that would be affected by the tax change
are those to less developed countries, such as those in Latin
America. Bankers could not estimate how many loans were
involved expect to suggest it was a "sizable number."
    In a statement, the Inland Revenue said that on loans made
on or after April 1, the new measures would apply to interest
arising from that date. On existing loans at that date, the
measures would apply to interest arising from April 1, 1988.
    Government sources noted that the existing treatment of
withholding tax on interest has enabled some banks to reduce
interest rates on overseas loans, thereby lowering the revenue
to the U.K. Treasury.
    The new measures, they said, are designed to  reduce the
subsidy given to overseas lending through the tax system and
bring the U.K. System more into line with those of overseas
competitors.
    The Inland Revenue estimated that the income to the
Treausry would be negligible in 1987/88 but could build up over
time from about 20 mln stg in 1988/89 to 60 mln stg in 1990/91.
    But while compliance with the new measures could
necessitate hours of clerical work, bankers said the end return
to the Treasury may not prove as lucrative as anticipated.
    They noted that most documentation accompanying these loans
contains a clause allowing for a loan to be restructured if the
tax treatment changes. However, they were unsure to what extent
the loans would and could be changed.
    Bankers said they would seek clarification from the Inland
Revenue, particularly on how to calculate the cost of these
loans. Revenue said it hopes to keep costs of compliance to a
minimum.
 Reuter

12.8 billion dlrs of three and six-month bills at its regular
    The March 23 sale, to be evenly divided between the three
and six month issues, will result in a paydown of 2.875 billion
dlrs as maturing bills total 15.68 billion dlrs.
    The bills will be issued March 26.
 Reuter

Sen. Pete Domenici, a main sponsor
of legislation to set an oil import fee, said the
administration's energy security report was based on flawed
economic assumptions.
    The New Mexico Republican said the report did not take into
account the last few weeks' drop in domestic oil production in
its statement that an oil fee would raise prices for consumers.
The report said a decline in economic growth as a result of the
fee would reduce tax revenues. "A five dlr (per barrel) oil
import fee will provide the stimulus to create jobs and
investment, " and raise revenues, he said.
 Reuter

Upcoming changes being considered in
the U.S. Agriculture Department's transportation and loan
programs were outlined by a USDA official today.
    Addressing the annual meeting of the National Grain and
Feed Association, Tom VonGarlem, assistant deputy administrator
for USDA's state and county operations, said the following
changes are under consideration by USDA.
    Termination of USDA's Transportation Assistance Program for
wheat, barley and sorghum would be proposed this week.
    Changes in USDA's reserve rotation program are also under
consideration, VonGarlem said. While the department has not
made any final decision, banning the use of pik and roll grain
in reserve rotation is under heavy consideration, he said.
    Changes in loan rates will definitely be looked at for next
year's crop, he said, with the option of making soybean loans
partially in cash and in certificates under consideration.
    VanGarlem said he will definitely not extend the 1987 crop
program signup, saying he sees no reason to do so at this time.
    He also said wheat will not be considered for a cash bonus
under the Conservation Reserve Program.
 Reuter

<Davox Corp> said it filed a
Commission covering a proposed initial offering of 1.6 mln
    The company said Kidder Peabody and Co Inc and Hambrecht
and Quist Inc will co-manage the underwriters, adding they
anticipate the initial offering price will be between 8.50 and
10 dlrs a share.
    Davox produces and markets computer-aided communications
systems which automate amd integrate telephone and data
communications functions.
 Reuter

There will be seven to eight billion
dlrs of generic certificates on the market by the end of
harvest, an Agriculture Department official said.
    The Commodity Credit Corp will "depend heavily" on
certificates to relieve storage problems this year, Ralph
Klopfenstein, Deputy Administrator for Commodity Operations,
USDA, told participants at the National Grain and Feed
Association's annual convention.
    Klopfenstein said that CCC will not be able to relocate
grain in any significant amount this fall, so certificates will
be used in various programs to relieve storage tightness.
    Klopfenstein said certificates meet the goal of allowing
prices to go below loan levels and providing USDA with an
inventory management tool.
 Reuter

Seven major U.S. farm groups took
the unusual step of releasing a joint statement urging
congressional leaders not to tinker with existing farm law.
    Following meetings with House Agriculture Committee
Chairman Kika de la Garza (D-Tex.) and Senate Agriculture
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the groups issued a
statement saying lawmakers should "resist efforts to overhaul
the 15-month-old law, which is operating in its first crop
marketing year."
    The farm groups included the American Farm Bureau
Federation, American Soybean Association, National Cattlemen's
Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton
Council, National Pork Producers Council and the U.S. Rice
Producers Legislative Group.
    The statement said Congress should not modify the 1985 farm
bill "so the law might have its intended impact of making
agriculture more competitive in export markets while at the
same time maintaining farm income."
    "We strongly believe American farmers now need
predictability and certainty in farm legislation in order to
have any opportunity of making proper production and marketing
decisions," the groups said.
 Reuter

The Senate Budget Committee, at its
first budget drafting meeting of the year, discarded President
Reagan's economic assumptions upon which he claims his budget
would show a 108 billion dlr deficit.
    In its place, the committee agreed to accept the non
partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) economic assumptions
in its deliberations for drafting a 1988 budget.
    The CBO says Reagan's budget--even if it were adopted
without change --would show a 134.4 billion dlr deficit in
fiscal 1988 and thereby miss the Gramm-Rudman budget law target
of 108 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit six cts vs profit 17 cts
    Net profit 269,000 vs profit 833,000
    Revs 28.0 mln vs 30.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 4.16 dlrs vs profit 74 cts
    Net loss 20.0 mln vs profit 3,543,000
    Revs 93.1 mln vs 117.7 mln
    Note: Current qtr net includes writedown of 20.4 mln dlrs
of net investment in company's oil and gas properties.
    Year-ago results restated to reflect reclassification of
coal mining and marketing segment as ongoing operation rather
than discontinued operation.
 Reuter

    Net 42,469 vs 226,791
    Sales 7,963,620 vs 6,886,414
    Nine mths
    Shr 12 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 490,927 vs 949,650
    Sales 24.0 mln vs 18.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 733,000 vs 788,000
    Revs 31.9 mln vs 28.9 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 5,560,000 vs 6,162,000
    Revs 104.5 mln vs 97.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes tax credits of 25,000 dlrs in the
third quarter and 100,000 dlrs in the nine months compared with
370,000 dlrs and 910,000 dlrs in the 1986 periods.
 Reuter

Qtly div class A nine cts vs 7.5 cts prior
    Qtly div class B nine cts vs 7.5 cts prior
 Reuter

Healthvest said it acquired the
Eastwood Hospital medical complex in Memphis from Healthcare
International Inc for 50 mln dlrs cash.
    Healthcare International will continue to operate the
hospital under a lease agreement, the company said.
 Reuter

Ventra Management Inc, an over the
counter company, said it acquired Joint Venture Leasing Inc for
60 mln Venture shares, valued at 3.6 mln dlrs.
    Joint Venture was organized in September 1986 to establish
leasing joint ventures with manufacturers and vendors of
computer equipment.
    As a result of the acquisition and Joint Venture's backlog,
Ventra said it expects 1987 sales to be 30 mln dlrs with net
profits of 1.5 mln dlrs.
    Ventra was organized in September 1986 and completed a
public offering of 30 mln shares in January 1987.
 Reuter

<Oxford Financial Inc> said it acquired
<Clancy Systems International Inc> for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said Clancy has developed a fully automated
parking citation system, currently in use in Oklahoma City, the
University of California at Sacramento, and in a pilot program
in San Francisco.
 Reuter

Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 82 cts
    Net 1,982,296 vs 1,359,273
    Revs 2,403,481 vs 1,494,304
    Investments 22.4 mln vs 11.5 mln
    NOTE: Shr figures adjusted for 3-for-2 split Feb 23, 1987.
1985 results reflect operations for eight months ended Dec 31,
1985. Company began operating May 1985.
 Reuter

Qtly cash distribution 20 cts vs 20 cts prior
 Reuter

petitioning the International Trade Commission to lift import
taxes on Japanese motorcycle manufacturers.
    Harley-Davidson said it no longer needed tariff relief to
compete with the Japanese. It said President Reagan imposed the
tariff in April 1983 after Harley-Davidson convinced the
administration the Japanese were eroding the U.S. motorcycle
industry by flooding the market with its own models.
    Harley-Davidson said it has increased its market share of
the heavyweight motorcycle to 19.4 pct in 1986 from a record
low 12.5 pct in 1983.
 Reuter

W.R. Grace and Co said it completed
the sale of its Bermans The Leather Experts retail business to
a new company in a management led buyout.
    Grace received 99.3 mln dlrs cash and will record a pretax
gain of about 37 mln dlrs in the first quarter, the company
said. An additional pretax gain of 19 mln dlrs will be deferred
until realization is more fully assured, it said.
    The diversified chemical and industrial company said the
sale completes its program to divest retail operations.
    In addition to the cash payment, Grace received warrants to
buy up to 47.5 pct of the new company and has reinvested about
19 pct of the proceeds in debt of the new firm.
    Financing was provided by Prudential Insurance Co of
America and affiliates.
 Reuter

Period ended Feb 28
    Shr 61 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 2,764,000 vs 2,540,000
    Sales 60.4 mln vs 55.8 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.27 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Net 5,741,000 vs 5,269,000
    Sales 122.8 mln vs 109.9 mln
    NOTE: Per-share data restated for 10 pct stock dividends
paid to holders of record Dec 26, 1986 and Dec 26, 1985
 Reuter

The Director-General of the Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Edouard Saouma, signed an
agreement to aid peru with 160,000 dlrs in technical asistance
to draw up studies for farm development in the country.
    Saouma also formally offered the country 200,000 dlrs in
aid for technicians to draft studies to aid the estimated
25,000 made homeless by mudslides last week on the outskirts of
Lima, a FAO spokesman said.
    Peru would be able to use the studies to present to
multilateral organisations to request more assistance in grants
and loans, the spokesman aid.
    Saouma also discussed agricultural projects with president
Alan Garcia last night for one hour.
    The FAO official returns to Rome on thursday.
 Reuter

Brazilian Planning Minister Joao Sayad
resigned, a presidential spokesman said.
    His resignation was accepted during a meeting with 
President Jose Sarney this afternoon, the spokesman said.
    No official reasons for the resignation were immediately
available, but sources close to the government said Sayad had
pressed for a three-month price freeze and sharp government
spending cuts to combat inflation.
    Neither Sarney nor Finance Minister Dilson Funaro accepted
the proposals, the sources said.
    Sayad was one of the architects of last year's "Plano
Cruzado" program, which froze prices, ended widespread
indexation of the economy and introduced the new cruzado
currency to replace the cruzeiro in a bid to cut the 250 pct
annual inflation rate.
    After holding prices for nearly nine months, the plan was
unable to withstand the inflationary pressures of booming
consumer demand and widespread shortages. In the first two
months of this year prices rose by around 30 per cent.
    A sharp deterioration in Brazil's foreign trade surplus
caused President Sarney to announce last month the suspension
of interest rate payments on 68 billion dollars of commercial
debt.
    Finance Minister Funaro told reporters last week new
measures to correct the economy would be announced within a
month, although he gave no further details.
    Earlier today U.S. Treasury secretary James Baker said 
Brazil should come up with a new economic plan if it hopes to
get additional assistance from commercial banks and others.
    Sayad's resignation might foreshadow other changes in the
Brazilian cabinet.
    Presidential spokesman Frota Netto told journalists earlier
today the government was considering a suggestion by the Chief
of Civilian Staff at the Presidency Marco Maciel that a new
multi-party cabinet be formed to deal with the country's
current economic difficulties.
 Reuter

American Exploration Co said it is
offering units in New York Life Oil and Gas Producing
Properties Program II.
    It said the offer consists of 75 mln dlrs of preformation
units, representing limited partnership interests.
    The unit, which will acquire producing oil and gas
properites, is being formed by a unit of American Exploration
and NYLIFE Equity Inc, a unit of <New York Life Insurance Co>.
Both companies will be general partners.
 Reuter

Taunton Savings Bank said its
board declared an initial cash dividend of six cts per share.
    Taunton, which went public last June, said the rate was
based on 3,220,000 outstanding shares.
    It said the dividend was payable April 15 to shareholders
    The company said it did not know if it would pay regular
dividends in the future.
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 836,327 vs loss 34,926
    Revs 8,939,390 vs 8,136,160
    Year
    Shr loss 34 cts vs loss nil
    Net loss 2,008,103 vs loss 14,078
    Revs 30.1 mln vs 28.0 mln
    Note: Year-ago results restated to reflect acquisition of
Spartacus Inc in Febaruary 1986.
 Reuter

IBM Corp is being awarded a 120.3
mln dlr Navy contract modification to a previously awarded
contract for equipment and work related to the AN/UYS-1
Advanced Signal Processors.
    Work on the contract, which combines purchases for the U.S.
Navy and Spain under the Foreign Military Sales program, is
expected to be completed in July 1989.
 Reuter

Firstcorp Inc said its board has
increased the maximum number of Class A shares in its
repurchase program to 250,000 from 200,000 shares.
    The program was first adopted in June 1986 and provided for
a maximum of 100,000 shares to be repurchased through June
1987.
    In June 1986, the company increased the shares to 200,000
and extended the period to end September 1987.
 Reuter

said its common stock is now listed on the expansion of the
Nasdaq National Market System.
    The company said entry into NMS provides shareholders and
other investors with last sale information and up-to-the-second
volume information through stockbrokers.
 Reuter

and Eastern Air Lines said they will combine their frequent
flyer programs in late April.
    Frequent flyer members will begin receiving one monthly
statement that reflects combined earnings from both Continental
and Eastern, the companies said.
    Continental said reciprocity between the two programs was
established in June 1986 and allowed members of either program
to earn miles and redeem points for rewards from the other
carrier.
 Reuter

Oper shr 94 cts vs 93 cts
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations a gain of
4,679,000 dlrs, or 50 cts a share vs a loss of 720,000 dlrs, or
seven cts a share. 1986 net includes charge of 865,000 dlrs
from repeal of investment tax credits
    Company corrects 1985 year per-share operating net in table
which originally ran march 10
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 7.35 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 2.89 MLN, CRUDE OFF 4.39 MLN

Shr 31 cts vs 31 cts prior
    Payable April 24
 Reuter

Kansas Republican Congressman Pat
Roberts urged the Reagan administration to offer export
enhancement program, eep, subsidies to the Soviet Union.
    Speaking at a House foreign agriculture subcommittee,
Roberts said the U.S. has offered eep to China and Poland, and
should also include the Soviet Union.
    Rep. Roberts said there had been some talk that the issue
of an eep to Moscow had not been raised within the Reagan
administration recently because Secretary of State George
Shultz was out of the country.
    "That very well may be the case," said Tom Kay, U.S.
Agriculture Department Foreign Agricultural Service
administrator. However, Kay told Reuters later that his reply
to Roberts was not based on any particular knowledge.
    Rep. Roberts urged Kay to convey to top officials of the
USDA that some in Congress favor a wheat eep to Moscow.
    "I'd be delighted to deliver the message," Kay replied.
    Earlier, Kay had repeated Agriculture Secretary Richard
Lyng's statement last week that "the door is not yet closed on
an eep to the Soviet Union."
 Reuter

Period ends February 28
    Year
    Net 383.4 mln vs 413.6 mln
    Revs 4.45 billion vs 4.45 billion
    NOTE: Full name Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.
 Reuter

Shr profit 49 cts vs loss 41 cts
    Net profit 543,000 vs loss 457,000
    Revs 10.4 mln vs 14.2 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 71 cts vs loss 2.11 dlrs
    Net loss 781,000 vs loss 2,325,000
    Revs 38.9 mln vs 44.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss 99 cts
    Net loss 1,476,000 vs loss 11,965,000
    Sales 83.4 mln vs 110.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.79 dlrs vs loss 1.90 dlrs
    Net loss 21,720,000 vs loss 22,969,000
    Sales 259.0 mln vs 317.3 mln
 Reuter

raised to BBB-plus from BBB Hechinger Co's 86 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures of 2009.
    S and P cited Hechinger's outstanding record of sales and
earnings growth as well as what it termed the company's
position as one of the best operators in the retail home
improvement industry.
    It also said the firm's financial performance as measured
by profitability and debt leverage underscore strong credit
quality. S and P assigned a BBB-plus rating to Hechinger's
planned 100 mln dlr issue of convertible debt due 2012.
 Reuter

primary storage fell by 7.35 mln barrels in the week ended
March 13 to 112.74 mln barrels from a revised 120.09 mln the
previous week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said.
group said gasoline stocks fell 2.89 mln barrels to 248.44 mln
barrels from a revised 251.33 mln, and crude oil stocks dropped
4.39 mln barrels to 325.13 mln from a revised 329.52 mln.
    It said residual fuel stocks fell 250,000 barrels to 35.73
mln from 35.98 mln barrels.
    API said refinery runs in the week rose to 11.80 mln
barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 11.70 mln and refinery use
of operating capacity was 75.7 pct, up from a revised 75.0 pct.
    Crude oil imports in the week rose to 3.66 mln bpd from a
revised 2.67 mln, API added.
 Reuter

Chevron Corp's Chevron USA Inc is
being awarded a 50.3 mln dlr Defense Logistics Agency contract
for jet fuel, the Defense Department said.
    It said work on the contract, which was awarded as part of
a multi-contract procurement program, is expected to be
completed by April 1988.

 Reuter

The Pacific Stock Exchange said it was
omitting today's closing report on the most active issues
because of a computer malfunction at the exchange.
 Reuter

Pfizer Inc said it expects to file a
new drug application in the U.S. and in other markets this year
for sertraline, a treatment for depression.
    In its annual report, Pfizer said that in addition to the
drug's anti-depressant action, sertraline is currently
undergoing studies to explore its ability to promote weight
loss. Company officials were not immediately available to
comment further.
    Eli Lilly and Co's <LLY> Prozac, an antidepressant awaiting
marketing approval, has shown promise in promoting weight loss.
    Pfizer also said it plans to file for U.S. marketing
approval for certrizine, a "novel" antihistamine for hay fever,
and other allergic reactions.
    In 1986, Pfizer earned 660 mln dlrs or 3.90 dlrs per share
on revenues of 4.5 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 31 cts vs 31 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr 48 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 1,959,404 vs 2,621,778
    Revs 5,132,626 vs 8,167,401
 Reuter

Pride Refining Co of Abilene, Texas,
is being awarded a 75 mln dlr contract for jet fuel, the
Defense Department said.
completed by April 30, 1988.
 Reuter

The Puerto Rico Sun Oil Co is being
awarded a 42.4 mln dlr contract for jet fuel, the Defense
 Reuter

Shr profit 14 cts vs loss 55 cts
    Net profit 864,000 vs loss 2.1 mln
    Revs 24.2 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit seven cts vs loss 74 cts
    Net profit 434,000 vs loss 2.7 mln
    Revs 42.5 mln vs 2.9 mln
    NOTE:1986 2nd qtr and six months includes loss of 600,000
dlrs and 285,000 dlrs respectively from discontinued operations
and exclude operations of Action DRug Co Inc acquired by
company's 81 pct owned subsidiary, Technodyne, in August 1986.
    1987 net includes gain of 2.0 mln dlrs from sale of
building and extraordinary gain of 411,000 dlrs from tax loss
carryforward.
    Share earnings for both periods reflect preferred stock
 Reuter

Shr profit 14 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 686,000 vs loss 831,000
    Six mths
    Shr profit 22 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 1,062,000 vs loss 812,000
    NOTE: Quarter ends January 31.
    1986 excludes extraordinary gain of six cts per share in
the quarter and 10 cts in the six months. 1985 excludes
discontinued operations loss of six cts a share in the quarter
and loss of two cts in the six months.
    Company is 81.5 pct owned by Electro Audio Dynamics <EAD>.
 Reuter

    Shr 22 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 518,564 vs 374,198
    Revs 2,090,724 vs 1,614,079
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps Selected Utilities Inc
said it approved payment of higher monthly dividends.
    The closed end-investment company approved payment of 4.5
cts on April 10, record March 31; of five cts, payable May 11,
record April 30; and of 5.5 cts, payable June 10, record May
29.
    Duff and Phelps first monthly dividend of four cts was paid
on March 10, it noted.
 Reuter

    Net loss 93,000 vs loss 191,000
    Revs 338,000 vs 554,000
    Six mths
    Shr loss four cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 108,000 vs loss 219,000
    Revs 854,000 vs 1,283,000
    NOTE: Company is 80 pct owned by Technodyne Inc <TND>, a
subsidiary of Electro Audio Dynamics Inc <EAD>.
 Reuter

Boeing Co's Boeing Aerospace Co is
being awarded 31.3 mln dlrs under a contract for spare and
repair parts for the E-6A aircraft, the Defense Department
said.
    It said work on the contract is expected to be completed in
December 1992.
 Reuter

Lennar Corp said it completed the
previously announced acquisition of Development Corp of America
<DCA>.
    Consequently, it said the American Stock Exchange suspended
trading of Development Corp's common stock, 10 pct subordinated
debentures due 1993 and 12 pct subordinated debentures due
1994.
    Lennar said the debentures will continue to be traded
over-the-counter.
 Reuter

The Sikorsky Aircraft division of
United Technologies Corp is being awarded a 27.2 mln dlr
contract modification for four Combat Search and Rescue Special
Warfare Support helicopters, the Defense Department said.
 Reuter

Iowa Beef Processors Inc said
"hundreds" of its employees returned to work at its Dakota
City, Nebraska beef processing plant without incident.
    Last week, Iowa Beef said it would lift a lockout in effect
at the plant since mid-December, which affected 2,800 members
of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
    Both union and non-union meatpackers who returned to work,
agreed to comply with Iowa Beef's last contract offer.
    "Start-up went well today and operations will continue to
pick up as employees return and others are hired," according to
a company statement. Picketing UFCWU members at the plant did
not disrupt operations, a company spokesman said.
    "Our employees are asked to continue to return to work at
8AM unless otherwise notified," he said.
    Iowa Beef, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp, said
it is beginning to take applications for permanent positions at
the plant.
    
 Reuter

General Electric Co's Aircraft
Engine Business Group is being awarded 27.4 mln dlr contract
for ancillary equipment for the F110 engine and the F-14A
aircraft, the Defense Department said.
October 1988.
 Reuter

Oakwood Homes Corp said it filed with
covering a 25 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Proceeds will be invested in the company's unconsolidated
finance subsidiary, Oakwood Acceptance Corp, Oakwood said.
    The company named Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities
Corp as lead manager of the offering. It said Legg Mason Wood
Walker and J.C. Bradford would co-manage the deal.
 Reuter

Bristol-Myers Co said scientists at
its Genetic Systems unit, which markets a blood screening test
for AIDS, have created an AIDS vaccine which produced
antibodies to the AIDS virus in mice and monkeys.
    The report said the vaccine will be tested in humans, but
company officials were not immediately available to comment on
when the tests would begin.
    The report said the vaccine consists of smallpox virus
remodeled to carry a key gene found on the AIDS virus, creating
a hybrid virus that simultaneously immunizes against smallpox
and the AIDS virus proteins.
 Reuter

<John Labatt Ltd> is considering
expansion in Europe, but has made no decisions as to strategy,
according to spokesman I.C. Ferrier.
    The company opened a London office about six months ago,
and "we are prepared to invest in that area to see how one might
do business over there," he said.
    But the company has not decided whether it might open
breweries, buy a European company or whether European expansion
is feasible at all, he added.
   Labatt feels Europe is a logical step for the company, since
it is doing "reasonably well" in the U.S. and "there aren't too
many other places" to expand profitably, Ferrier said.
    In Canada, Labatt is the leading brewer, with about 41 pct
of the market, according to market analysts. <Molson Companies
Ltd> holds about 32 pct and <Carling O'Keefe Ltd> has 23 pct,
analysts estimate.
 Reuter

A U.S. Bankruptcy Judge ruled that
<TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp> can not seek an injunction in
Texas State court to block Coastal Corp <CGP> from presenting a
plan of reorganization in TransAmerican's bankruptcy
proceeding.
    However, U.S. bankruptcy judge Manuel Leal also ruled that
TransAmerican could pursue its two billion dlr lawsuit against
Coastal that alleges the Houston based gas company is
attempting to unlawfully gain control of Transamerican's Texas
gas reserve and pipeline system.
    Leal told both Coastal and TransAmerican that he plans to
maintain jurisdiction over TransAmerican's bankruptcy
reorganization proceedings that began in 1983.
    After the hearing, John Nabors, a lawyer for TransAmerican,
said the company would pursue its state court lawsuit seeking
2.0 billion dlrs in damages from Coastal.
    Nabors contends that Coastal has unlawfully attempted to
replace TransAmerican's negotiated reorganization plan paying
secured creditors in full with a plan of its own.
    "They're not going to pay any money under their plan,
they're just going to operate (the gas wells) and give profit
to the creditors," Nabors said.
    He said Coastal's plan, which has not yet been submitted to
the Bankruptcy Court, offered to pay creditors 50 mln dlrs
annually for seven years.
    TransAmerican's plan would repay a total of 770 mln dlrs in
debts to secured creditors and the equivalent of 30 cts on the
dollar to unsecured creditors.
     A Coastal unit is among Transamerican's unsecured
creditors and is owed about 600,000 dlrs.
    Transamerican said it is the second largest producer of
natural gas in Texas with reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic feet
and more than 1,000 miles of pipeline and gas gathering lines.
    Coastal, one of the nation's largest gas producers, earned
71.6 mln dlrs on sales of 6.7 billion dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 358,941 vs 299,838
    Revs 8,645,289 vs 4,532,175
    Avg shrs 3,446,752 vs 2,921,173
    Nine mths
    Shr 23 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 705,799 vs 491,076
    Revs 21.5 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Avg shrs 3,093,491 vs 4,068,000
    Note: Net includes tax credits of 164,000 dlrs vs 123,634
dlrs for qtr and 311,000 dlrs vs 207,719 dlrs for nine mths.
 Reuter

Qtly div 41.5 cts vs 41.5 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 23 cts
    Net loss 418,000 vs profit 1,037,000
    Revs 2,872,000 vs 4,700,000
    Six mths
    Shr profit nine cts vs profit 52 cts
    Net profit 418,000 vs profit 2,365,000
    Revs 6,853,000 vs 9,379,000
    NOTE: Includes tax loss carryforward gains of 164,000 dlrs
vs 551,000 dlrs in quarter, and gains of 365,000 dlrs vs
1,016,000 dlrs in the six months.
 Reuter

Lyng told representatives of several of the largest grain
exporting firms and two farm organizations that he was not in a
position to comment on their request that the Reagan
administration offer subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union,
according to participants in today's meeting.
    "He (Lyng) simply told us he was not in any position to talk
about an EEP (export enhancement program) initiative to the
Soviet Union," said Glen Hofer, vice president of the National
Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
    Another participant in the meeting, who asked not to be
identified, said Lyng was "unresponsive" to the group's request.
    Participants in the meeting included Cargill Inc,
Continental Grain Co, Louis Dreyfus Corp, Union Equity
Cooperative Exchange, the National Association of Wheat
Growers, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, among
others, participants said.
    Deputy Agriculture Secretary Peter Myers and Under
Secretary Daniel Amstutz also attended the 30-minute meeting.
    Hofer described Lyng as "sympathetic but noncommittal," and
said he thought he detected "a sense of frustration" on Lyng's
part at not being able to respond more positively to the
group's urging.
    A grain industry representative said some participants were
"puzzled" by USDA's apparent reluctance to bring before the
cabinet council an EEP wheat offer to the Soviets.
    "There is a feeling that there is more receptivity (to the
idea) within the cabinet council now than there ever has been,"
this official, who asked not to be identified, said, referring
to an EEP wheat offer to the Soviets.
    This official said there was not a significant amount of
pressure being exerted by lawmakers on Lyng to make an EEP
offer to Moscow.
    Reminded that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.) had written two letters to Lyng urging such an
offer, this official said Lyng had received virtually no phone
calls from lawmakers on the subject.
    But Hofer said other important matters at the White House,
rather than an absence of political pressure, might have
restrained Lyng.
 Reuter

Avatar Holdings Inc said it is
offering rights to buy 31.2 mln dlrs principle amount of 5-1/4
pct convertible subordinated debentures due 2007.
    The company said shareholders of record on March 17 have 30
days to exercise rights for the notes.
 Reuter

The National Association of Securities
Dealers said all stock exchanges should require that listed
companies adopt a "one-share, one-vote" rule, but with a few
exceptions.
    In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, NASD
President Gordon Macklin said the group would be happy to be
the first exchange to adopt a uniform rule but with certain
    "Clearly the NASD would willingly be the first to do so. If
a voluntary private sector resolution is not practical, then
the commission should adopt the rule to apply to all markets,"
the NASD said.
    An NASD study found that 95 percent of the companies in the
OTC offered only one class of stock.
    The NASD proposal calls for all stock markets to have a
uniform rule which would emphasize the principle of equal
voting rights, but allow for legitimate variations.
    The NASD would allow companies to issue shares that do not
have voting rights as long as the limitation is clearly spelled
out to investors. It wants to prevent listed companies from
turning voting shares into non-voting shares, without
shareholder approval, Parrillo said.
    "A uniform rule should be written to cure what has been
construed by some to be an abusive practice involving the use
of stock with other than full voting rights," the association
said in the statement.
    Exceptions would include:
    -- shares in a registerd public offering where all facts
spelled out in the prospectus.
    -- shares issued in connection with a merger, acquisition
    The NYSE rule would allow companies to have a dual class of
stock only if a majority of publicly held shares and a majority
of independent directors on the board approve the move. The
NYSE has allowed its few listed companies which have dual
classes to continue trading, pending approval from the SEC.
    The NASD specifically wants to disallow issuance of dual
class shares where those with superior voting rights are not
resalable. Parillo said such a provision would in effect
prevent a firm from ever being purchased by anyone else.
 Reuter

Westworld Community
Healthcare Inc said it is extending by ten days to March 27 its
exchange offers for subordinated notes and debentures.
    The extension effects its exchange offers for 30 mln dlrs
principal amount of 14-1/2 pct subordinated notes due 2000 and
35 mln dlrs principal amount of 14-3/8 pct subordinated
debentures due 1995.
    To date, 3,863,000 dlrs principal amount of the securities
has been tendered under the offer, it said.
 Reuter

The National Energy Board said Trans
Mountain Pipe Line Co Ltd will be allowed to raise its tolls
10.6 pct, effective Jan 1, 1987.
    Last September, the board approved an average rate of
return on equity of 14 pct effective Jan 1, 1987. This rate of
return is unchanged by today's decision.       
 Reuter

<Paperboard Industries Corp> said it
planned to make an unconditional 21 dlr a share cash offer for
<Belkin Inc>'s 7.6 mln common and 2.3 mln non-voting shares.
    Paperboard said Balaclava Enterprises Ltd, owned by Morris
Belkin, agreed to tender 98.2 pct of Belkin's common shares.
It added that in case of a competing offer of more than 23
dlrs, it had the right to match it. If it did not match the
offer, Balaclava could accept the competing bid.
    The two companies manufacture linerboard and boxboard from
recycled fibre. Their combined revenues are about 500 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Hawkeye Bancorporation said
shareholders at the annual meeting approved the bank holding
company's debt restructuring package with its principal
    The plan calls for the company to issue new class of
preference stock to Hawkeye's principal creditors in exchange
for 32.3 mln dlrs of debt, and an exchange offer to preferred
holders.
 Reuter

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 1986 NET PROFIT 1.23 BILLION H.K. DLRS VS 777.5 MLN

The Malaysian government has
deposited 405 mln ringgit with the financially troubled
<Cooperative Central Bank Bhd> (CCB) since last October, Deputy
Finance Minister Sabaruddin Chik said.
    He told Parliament the government has always supported CCB.
The statement is the government's first acknowledgment that it
has put money into the bank.
    CCB's management board has been changed twice since last
June. It reported pretax profit of 10.57 mln ringgit in the
half-year to June 30, 1986, down from 19.83 mln ringgit a year
earlier. The bank did not release its net results.
    New bank chairman Nik Hussein Abdul Rahman has said he
asked police to investigate possible wrongdoing and
malpractices related to loans made mainly to property
developers and politicians.
    The bank had a paid-up capital of 52.16 mln ringgit and
deposits totalling 1.67 billion at June 30 last year.
    Malaysia's Central Bank has rescued two large commercial
banks, United Asian Bank Bhd and Perwira Habib Bank (Malaysia)
Bhd, since late 1986.
 REUTER

Shr 46.5 H.K. Cents vs 29.3
    Final div 14 cents, making 20 cents (no comparison)
    Net 1.23 billion dlrs vs 777.5 mln
    Turnover 9.06 billion dlrs vs 7.52 billion
    Note - Dividend payable May 29, books close May 11 to 22.
    Note - Company floated in April 1986 and is now 50.23 pct
owned by Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HK>, 16.43 pct by Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corp <HKBH.HK> and 12.5 pct by <China
International Trust and Investment Corp>.
 REUTER

A bomb blast at the Philippine Military
Academy killed at least one person and wounded about 40 during
rehearsals for a weekend visit by President Corazon Aquino,
military and hospital officials said.
    Reporters at the scene told Reuters the death toll was
likely to rise, but there was no official confirmation.
    Military sources at first suggested the bomb might have
been planted by communist rebels, but no group immediately
claimed responsibility.
 REUTER

The Reagan administration will
consider curbing foreign takeovers of security-sensitive
industries such as semiconductors and computers, the New York
Times said, quoting an unnamed senior administration official.
    "I think there's a strong sentiment here that some
industries are not totally up for grabs," the paper quoted the
official as saying.
    "Two of the most visible (industries) are semiconductor and
computer companies," said the official, who the newspaper said
was a central figure in the opposition to Japan's Fujitsu Ltd
<ITSU.T> takeover bid for <Fairchild Semiconductor Corp>.
    The Fairchild-Fujitsu deal was abandoned on Monday, and
industry analysts said the move was a victory for the Reagan
administration in its drive to beat back Japanese competition
in the important computer chip manufacturing industry.
    Officials told Reuters last week that Commerce Secretary
Malcolm Baldrige and Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger fought
the planned sale of Fairchild by French-controlled Schlumberger
Ltd <SLB> to Japan's largest computer maker because it could
have left the U.S. Military dependent on foreign sources for
vital technology.
    The New York Times quoted Baldrige as saying the time had
come to limit takeovers in security-sensitive areas.
    "Everybody wants an open investment policy, but there have
to be some exceptions for the national interest," Baldrige was
quoted as saying.
    The newspaper said Baldrige and Weinberger are expected to
bring the takeover issue before a top-level interagency
policymaking group, such as Treasury Secretary James Baker's
Economic Policy Council or the president's National Security
Council.
 REUTER

"Endaka," the strong yen, has usurped
"Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster" as Japan's favourite horror
story.
    The yen's 40 pct surge against the dollar over the last two
years has frightened foreigners with tales of the 40 dlr melon,
the 120 dlr taxi ride from the airport and rents of 15,000 dlrs
a month.
    But "endaka," like many Japanese products, is for foreign
consumption, locals and long-time foreign residents said.
    "It's not really that expensive. I don't pay attention to
the cost of living," said Cheryl Richmond, a 25-year-old
Canadian teacher of English in Tokyo.
    Richmond said she earns 1,635 dlrs a month by "chatting" 40
hours a week in English to Japanese who hope to learn the
language. For 326 dlrs a month she rents a sunny, quiet
two-room flat some 20 minutes by train from Shinjuku, one of
Tokyo's prime business and entertainment districts, and has
managed to send home an average of 320 dlrs a month.
    She spends less than 6.50 dlrs a day on food despite eating
out once a day.
    "For lunch I buy the teishoku (daily special) which comes
with soba (buckwheat noodles) or pork cutlet, pickles, miso
soup, rice and tea," although she takes only coffee for
breakfast and a sandwich for dinner.
    No one argues that Tokyo is cheap, but long-time residents
see no need to spend the 2,000 to 15,000 dlrs a month spent by
foreign firms to house executives in Western-style homes.
    The companies feel otherwise. They say they must pay the
price to bring over the best people needed to back up their
push into Japan's increasingly lucrative markets.
    "You can't expect people to move from New York or Sydney and
trade down. It's not reasonable," said a spokesman for
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), which supports
Western lifestyles for more than 350 foreigners in Tokyo.
    Tokyo is the world's most expensive city for business
travellers, a survey issued this month by Employment Conditions
Abroad said. It found that businessmen visiting Tokyo spend on
average more than 300 dlrs a day.
    While the businessmen have little choice but to come here,
many tourists, especially those from Europe, are opting to
visit sunnier and cheaper climes in Southeast Asia.
    The Japan Tourist Bureau estimates "endaka" caused an 11.5
pct drop in the number of foreign visitors to Japan last year.
    Those who came tried to cut back on expenses, chiefly by
curtailing shopping, it said.
    To help combat "endaka" and the slump in tourism, the Tourist
Bureau prepared a pamphlet, "Economical Travel in Japan."
    It gives budget-saving tips on finding medium-priced
business hotels and Japanese-style inns, cheap sushi and public
baths while getting a "revealing glimpse of Japanese in their
daily lives."
    Residents of Okubo House, a transit hotel in Tokyo's
Shin-Okubo love hotel district, offer even more savvy advice.
    For 9.80 dlrs a night, Scott Perry, a 23-year-old budding
English teacher from New Zealand, shares an unheated,
berth-sized twin-room in the Japanese "flop house."
    Perry has budgeted 26 to 33 dlrs a day while he looks for
work. "Normally I eat 'teishoku' for 400 yen but sometimes I'll
splurge at Shakey's where for 550 yen you can eat unlimited
pizza for at least two hours."
    Still, there are the extras that dent the budget. "I had to
spend 600 yen today to dry-clean my suit coat," he said.
 REUTER

Trade sources here confirmed earlier
tentative reports that Bangladesh had bought 200,000 tonnes of
optional origin feed wheat late last week and over the weekend.
    They said the Continental Grain Co, of the United States,
won the contract to supply the wheat from the EC and other
parts of Europe.
    It will supply 100,000 tonnes at a rate of 96.92 U.S. Dlrs
a tonne as a first consignment by April 7. It will supply the
remaining 100,000 tonnes at a rate of 93.42 dlrs by April 16.
 REUTER

The Philippines' Social Security System
(SSS) is planning to buy eight mln shares in diversified brewer
<San Miguel Corp> (SMC), SMC chief financial officer Ramon del
Rosario said.
    He told reporters the government organisation had expressed
interest in one seat on SMC's 15-man board and was preparing to
invest 800 mln pesos, assuming a purchase price of 100 pesos a
share.
    The shares involved in the proposal were part of the block
of 38 mln shares owned by the United Coconut Planters Bank
(UCPB) and sequestered by the government.
    The block is split between class A and class B stock.
    SMC also proposed to sell a further five mln shares to A.N.
Soriano Corp, the family company of San Miguel president Andres
Soriano, del Rosario said.
    The shares are worth some 500 mln pesos at recent prices.
    Del Rosario said the 14 mln B shares in the block which are
open to foreign ownership would probably be sold to
unidentified foreign purchasers.
    He said SMC and UCPB would meet later this week to try to
resolve disputes over the pricing of the shares.
    President Corazon Aquino earlier this month established an
arbitration panel to settle a row over the disposal of the
shares.
    Their initial sale to Soriano through SMC Hong Kong unit
Neptunia Corp was blocked by the Presidential Commission on
Good Government.
    The commission sequestered the stock on suspicion that the
real owner of the block was Eduardo Cojuanco, the former
chairman of San Miguel and the UCPB and a close associate of
deposed former president Ferdinand Marcos.
 REUTER

Shr 21.6 H.K. Cents vs 12
    Final div six cents vs three, making nine cents vs 5.5
    Net 121 mln dlrs vs 67.42 mln
    Note - Extraordinary gains 72 mln dlrs vs 2.7 mln. Special
bonus four cents vs nil. Dividend payable May 25, books close
April 28 to May 6.
 REUTER

Indonesia imports palm oil to counter possible May shortage, Trade Minister says

A very strong earthquake which struck
southwest Japan killed one person and injured at least three,
cracked walls and cut telephone lines, authorities said.
    The quake, at 0336 GMT, registered 6.9 on the Richter
scale, and officials issued warnings of tidal waves of up to
two metres high, they said.
    A man died in Miyazaki prefecture when his truck
overturned, and another was seriously hurt when his roof caved
in, police said. Two primary school children were hurt by
flying shards of glass as they sat in their classroom. The
extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
    A police spokesman in the western Kyushu city of Miyazaki,
one of the worst hit areas, said walls cracked all over town.
    Weather officials told Reuters the quake's epicentre was 50
km underground and 40 km offshore east of the city of Hyuga, on
Kyushu's eastern coast.
    Maritime Safety Agency authorities ordered fishermen along
the Kyushu coast to return to port, and dispatched a fleet of
six search boats to see them safely back.
    Telephone links with the island were badly disrupted and
all trains in the area were been stopped as a precaution,
police said.
 REUTER

Indonesia has issued licences to
traders to import palm oil to avert a possible shortage of
cooking oil during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan in May,
Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh told Reuters.
    "We have given permission for a small amount of imports to
prevent a shortage during Ramadan," he said. He gave no figures
for the amount of palm oil to be imported, but said it would
come from Malaysia.
    Indonesia, the world's second largest palm oil producer,
earlier denied it had granted palm oil import licences.
    Saleh was replying to a question from Reuters after traders
in London said Indonesia had issued licences to import around
135,000 tonnes of palm oil for delivery in April.
    Indonesia, with 168 mln people, is the world's largest
Moslem country. During Ramadan Moslems fast during the day and
have large meals after sunset.
    Indonesian crude palm oil exports in the first 11 months of
1986 were 469,100 tonnes, according to central bank figures,
against 652,000 tonnes in the whole of calendar 1985.
    Indonesia is expanding palm oil output, and Saleh did not
explain why there might be a shortage during Ramadan.
 REUTER

Millions of dollars in proceeds from
the sale of U.S. Arms to Iran were funneled to groups holding
American hostages in Lebanon, the New York Times said.
    The newspaper, quoting U.S. Officials and others, said
Iranian arms merchant Manucher Ghorbanifar, who served as a
middleman in the sales, deposited two to three mln dlrs in the
Swiss bank account of the Global Islamic Movement.
    The newspaper said the movement was a funding arm for
various terrorist groups in Lebanon, including the Party of God
or Hizbollah group which has been reported to be holding
American hostages but has consistently denied the reports.
    The money was described as ransom by American and other
associates of Ghorbanifar, the Times said, adding that an
unnamed American official called it "payments for services
rendered." The newspaper said the payments suggested the money
may have been used to cover expenses incurred by the hostages'
kidnappers.
    The newspaper also said that according to some accounts,
Ghorbanifar paid Iranian officials and various groups as much
as 10 mln dlrs. It said up to six mln dlrs went to Hojatoleslam
Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of Iran's Parliament, and his
family.
 REUTER

More U.S. And European firms will be
falling prey to Japanese corporations bulging with cash and
eager to extend their reach further overseas, according to
merger and acquisitions specialists polled by Reuters.
    Already, rich Japanese companies have pounced on U.S.
Banks, steel and other businesses.
    In the latest attempt, Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> -- Japan's
biggest computer maker -- unsuccessfully bid for <Fairchild
Semiconductor Corp>, a U.S. Microchip maker which supplies
components for supercomputers.
    Nomura Securities Co Ltd <NMSC.T> and Daiwa Securities Co
Ltd <DSEC.T>, Japan's two largest brokerage firms, are seeking
a niche in the U.S. And European securities markets, while the
country's huge banks are looking for strongholds in overseas
banking, the takeover specialists said.
    Major trading houses, which see their profits evaporating
in the heat of increased competition in merchandise trade, all
have foreign businesses on their shopping lists.
    Among manufacturers, car parts makers are under the most
pressure to buy up overseas companies and follow the big auto
makers they subcontract for as these move offshore.
    "The timing is favourable for Japanese parties to buy up
potential overseas businesses, especially in the U.S. --
Japan's largest market and where political risks are minimal," a
takeover specialist at one trading company said.
    Japanese companies have become among the world's richest
after a series of boom export years and as the yen has climbed
against the dollar by some 40 pct in the past 18 months.
    But the yen's strength, which has also raised the costs of
Japan's exports and allowed its Asian neighbours to move into
its traditional markets, has frozen Japanese corporate growth,
the specialists said.
    Looming trade friction is also threatening to erect more
barriers against Japanese exports.
    Japanese firms see overseas acquisitions as a way to avoid
the gloomy growth outlook and put their excess cash to work.
Domestic interest rates, now at record lows, offer little
investment opportunity.
    "Japanese interest in acquisitions has been continuous, but
the recent economic factors have become a driving force," said a
banking industry source.
    So far, though, the Japanese are being cautious.
    While mergers and acquisitions among U.S. Firms number in
the thousands, Japanese buyouts of overseas companies have
totalled just a few dozen, one merchant banker said.
    Another merchant banker said that a flurry of Japanese
acquisition activity was originally expected five years from
now, but that time span appeared now to be too long.
    Japanese firms are becoming more aggressive now, he said.
    A turning point seemed to be Dainippon Ink and Chemicals
Inc's <DIAC.T> takeover bid for <Sun Chemical Corp> of the U.S.
Last year, which some analysts saw as somewhat hostile, he
added.
    Dainippon Ink bought Sun Chemical's graphic arts group for
550 mln dlrs late last year, after an earlier unsolicited bid
for the whole company. Sun Chemical refused to sell its entire
business after learning that Dainippon planned to liquidate all
but its graphic arts-related businesses.
    Hostile takeovers are considered unethical and frowned upon
by the Japanese, the trading company official says. "Japanese
people don't like fighting. They prefer peaceful amicable
deals." But now after some experience overseas, Japanese
companies are acquainted with local practice, he adds. "This is
a healthy progression."
    However, the experts do not expect the Japanese to run the
board meetings of any giant U.S. Or European concerns.
    "Japanese companies are not fully confident in managing a
large U.S. Or European corporation," one banker said. "They will
expand their operations only gradually, a typical way for
Japanese business."
    A foreign merchant banker also noted, "There are not many
mega-deals left to do in the United States. A lot of the big
deals there have already been done."
    But medium-size and small concerns are potential targets of
Japanese companies, the specialists said.
    Japanese will be aiming for new businesses in
high-technology areas. "Japanese companies had used technology
and quality to get where they are and are unlikely to deviate
from that trend," one takeover specialist said.
    Many are watching the results of the first acquisitions. If
these succeed, activity could build, the specialists said.
    But few such specialists are going to sit back and wait
until the action begins. Already, they said, Japanese trading
houses, long-term credit and commercial banks, brokerages and
foreign merchant banks have set up research sections to act as
go-betweens in deals or find good buys for themselves.
 REUTER

United Biscuits pretax profit 125.2 mln stg vs 102.2 mln in 53 wks to Jan 3

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ali
al-Khalifa al-Sabah said in a newspaper interview that no OPEC
member was exceeding oil production quotas allocated by the
13-nation group.
    Sheikh Ali told Kuwait's daily al-Anba "All OPEC states,
without exception, are producing within the quotas allocated to
them. Some of them are producing less."
    Some oil industry sources had said the United Arab
Emirates, which had been generally been producing over its
quota since OPEC returned to quotas last September, was still
pumping more than its allotted amount in the first months of
this year.
    Ecuador had also publicly stated it was over its quota, but
an earthquake early this month stopped that. Iraq has rejected
its quota, but oil sources say it may be having problems
marketing at official prices all the oil it wants to sell.
    OPEC agreed in December to cut overall oil production by
7.25 pct to 15.8 mln barrels per day (bpd) for the first six
months of this year and abide by fixed prices around 18 dlrs a
barrel from February 1.
 REUTER

Shr 20.3p vs 19.1p
    Div 6.0p vs 5.15p making 9.5p vs 8.0p
    Turnover 1.93 billion stg vs 1.91 billion
    Pretax profit 125.2 mln vs 102.2 mln
    Tax 42.5 mln vs 31.1 mln
    Trading profit 138.0 mln vs 122.7 mln
    Trading profit includes -
    UB Foods Europe 88.7 mln vs 78.4 mln
    UB Restaurants 10.3 mln vs same
    UB Foods U.S. 43.8 mln vs 39.1 mln
    Other 3.9 mln vs 3.5 mln
    Unallocated costs 8.7 mln vs 8.6 mln
    Interest 12.8 mln vs 20.5 mln
    Note - full name of company is United Biscuits (Holdings)
Plc
    Minority interests 0.1 mln vs same
    Extraordinary charges 6.8 mln vs 14.3 mln
    Extraordinary charges and credits include -
    Surplus on bid for Imperial Group Plc 4.9 mln vs nil
    Costs of Philadelphia bakery closure nil vs 19.6 mln
 REUTER

Lawson said he expected British interest rates to fall soon in
response to his fiscal 1987/88 budget, but he did not say by
how much.
    "I would be very surprised if there is not a very early
further fall in interest rates," Lawson said in a radio
    Analysts said they foresaw U.K. Base rates falling as early
as today by as much as one full percentage point after Lawson's
announcement yesterday that the public sector borrowing
requirement in fiscal 1987/88 and 1988/89 was to fall to 1.0
pct of GDP, or some four billion stg.
    British banks' base lending rates fell a half percentage
point on March 9 to the current 10.5 pct.
 REUTER

China said it will continue its efforts
to cut excessive capital investment, and noted policies to cool
the economy have so far failed.
    Fixed asset investment grew 16.7 pct to 296.7 billion yuan
in 1986, outstripping energy and raw materials growth, the
China Daily quoted Zhou Daojiong, president of the People's
Construction Bank of China, as saying.
    Over 160,000 projects costing 895 billion yuan are now
under construction, and will absorb 60 pct of the funds
earmarked for investment under China's current five-year
economic plan (1986-1990), he said.
    The state-run construction bank will review all investment
projects now under way or scheduled, and immediately halt those
deemed unnecessary or with a poor economic return, Zhou said.
    Over 20 billion yuan of unauthorised spending by local
governments or enterprises were partly responsible for the
overheated rate of investment, he said.
    Another two or three years of measures to curb excessive
investment were needed to bring it under control, Zhou said.
 REUTER

Officials of five Thai commercial banks
are expected to meet tomorrow to seek agreement on cutting
interest rates, banking sources said.
    They said they expect Thai banks to opt for a cut to spur
domestic loan demand to help reduce persistent high liquidity
on the money market.
    Many bankers have been urging an average half percentage
point cut in deposit rates and a one point cut in lending
rates, they said.
    Six major Thai major banks reduced minimum loan and
overdraft rates by 0.50 to 0.75 percentage point on February 16
but the move has not substantially increased loan demand, the
    Excess liquidity has been hitting bank profits since early
last year despite five interest rate cuts in 1986. The current
gross 7.25 pct interest rate for one-year fixed bank deposit
and the 11.5 pct minimum loan rate are the lowest in a decade.
    Bankers said the Thai banking system is saddled with about
40 to 50 billion baht of surplus funds which have created
problems for many banks in managing their money effectively.
    Profits of many Thai banks fell sharply last year partly
because of a mismatch of loan demand and bank deposit growth.
The Bank of Thailand estimated overall lending by the Thai
banking system grew 3.8 pct in 1986 against a 12 pct expansion
in bank deposits.
    Reports of a possible new round of interest rate cuts have
further buoyed the Thai stock market this week.
    The Securities Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index on Monday
recorded its biggest daily advance in recent years, shooting up
4.57 points to a new seven-year high of 223.02.
    Brokers and market analysts said Thai stocks will register
more gains as long as liquidity remains in the money market.
    Thai and foreign bankers said the liquidity problem will
grow if the Bank of Thailand does not extend permission for
local banks to hold foreign exchange positions up to 40 pct of
bank capital.
    If the regulation is not extended beyond its April 3 expiry
date, many commercial banks will have to reduce foreign
exchange holdings to a maximum 20 pct.
    Bankers said such that could add another five billion baht
of surplus funds to the local money market.
 REUTER

forecast another good year in 1987 in view of good growth in
both passenger and cargo traffic volumes early this year over
the year-earlier period.
    The airline did not quantify its performance in early 1987
but said it would take delivery of one Boeing Co <BA.N> 747
freighter and one Boeing 747-300 passenger plane in September
and November respectively after it took a 747-300 last month.
    It earlier reported a 58.7 pct increase in 1986 net profit
to 1.23 billion H.K. Dlrs and announced a final dividend of 14
cents a share.
    But Cathay Pacific recorded sharp increases in net finance
charges to 124.9 mln dlrs from 44.4 mln a year.
    A spokesman for the firm linked the rise to two aircraft
deliveries in 1986.
    However, the company said in a statement good returns from
funds placed with investment managers had partly offset higher
interest costs resulting from additional lease financing and
other borrowing.
    It added that the airline last year also saw aviation fuel
prices fall to an average 4.59 dlrs a gallon from 6.76 dlrs in
1985.
    Passengers carried by Cathay Pacific totalled 4.2 mln last
year, up from 3.85 in 1985, with the passengers kilometre
travelled rising to 14.02 billion from 12.56 billion. But
passenger load factor was down to 69.1 pct from 71.0 pct.
    The airline's cargo operations recorded growth of 21 pct in
total tonnage over the previous year and a 35.9 pct rise in
revenue to 1.79 billion dlrs.
    Cathay Pacific floated its shares in April, 1986 and is now
50.23 pct owned by Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HK>, 16.43 pct by
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp <HKBH.HK> and 12.5 pct by
<China International Trust and Investment Corp>.
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Malaysian palm kernel output fell
to an estimated 80,500 tonnes in February from a revised 83,231
(originally 83,700) in January and 98,393 in February 1986, the
Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority said.
    Palm kernel stocks dropped to an estimated 45,870 tonnes in
February from a revised 55,693 (65,100) in January and 85,595
in February last year, it said.
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Shr basic 39.2p vs 36.0p
    Shr fully diluted 37.2p vs 34.3p
    Div 7.0p making 10.5p vs 8.5p
    Pretax profit 82.19 mln stg vs 68.82 mln
    Tax 27.25 mln vs 27.42 mln
    Minority interest 986,000 debit vs 124,000 credit
    Extraordinary items 411,000 credit vs 219,000 debit
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Global trading of yen bond futures is
just around the corner and they are expected to be listed soon
on the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE)
and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), bond managers said.
    "Internationalisation of the yen through expansion of
overseas portfolios in yen assets is the key to the success of
global trading of yen bond futures," said Katsuyuki Okayasu,
general manager of Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd's bond division.
    "But Tokyo-based orders are necessary for a primary stimulus
for the LIFFE yen bond futures market," said Tetsuya Dezuka,
deputy general manager of the money market section of New Japan
Securities Co Ltd, one of the most active yen bond brokers in
London.
    Healthy growth of yen bond futures markets depends
basically on substantial liquidity in cash yen bond markets
overseas and on the yen becoming attractive to traders there,
    Outstanding yen cash bonds worldwide stand at around
140,000 billion yen, with most held in Japan, they said.
    An agreement between CBOT and LIFFE in early February on
mutual settlements is expected to link U.S. Treasury bond
futures trading in London and Chicago, enabling a continuous
12-hour session, bond managers here said, adding the move was
made with yen bond futures trading in mind.
    LIFFE is preparing for an early listing of yen bond futures
after receiving approval from Japan's Finance Ministry last
December.
    But futures markets will never take root unless they are
backed by substantial liquidity in cash bond markets, dealers
said.
    Daily transactions in the London yen cash bond market now
stand at 200 to 300 billion yen, but the extent of investor-
linked transactions is unknown, securities bond managers said.
    "Japanese corporations have been actively setting up their
financing companies in London, suggesting they increasingly are
engaging in, not only fund raising, but management there,"
Dezuka said.
    The steep increase in the number of branches of Japanese
securities houses in London and the growing numbers of U.S. And
U.K. Brokers coming to Tokyo has helped the London market's
growth, dealers said.
    Internationalisation of the yen is also likely to be
promoted by yen bond trading in Chicago and New York later this
year, securities managers said.
    The recent removal of a key regulatory obstacle by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission will allow the CBOT to apply
to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a yen bond
futures contract, they said.
    The ruling removed a regulation which prohibited trading
futures of designated foreign government debt securities not
located in the issuing country.
    Fundamental Brokers Inc, a major U.S. Brokers' broker, has
decided to launch yen bond broking on its display system in New
York as early as April.
    CBOT's start of an evening session, planned for the end of
April, will also multiply yen bond futures trading, a Nomura
Securities Co Ltd bond manager said. But there are still
obstacles to trading on the London market.
    "Problems concerning cash bond delivery and clearing are
major obstacles for an early launching at LIFFE," said Koki
Chiyojima, deputy general manager of Nikko Securities Co Ltd's
bond administration division.
    Nikko Securities Co Ltd, one of the big four Japanese
securities houses, is responsible for corresponding with LIFFE
on these matters.
    Japan's Finance Ministry will start issuing bonds with
coupon payment of either March and September, or June and
December from April 1, matching futures delivery months.
    The ministry now pays coupons in January, June, July and
December. When delivery months and coupon payments do not
match, a 20 pct withholding tax is imposed on interest earned
by non-resident bond holders, a deterrent to LIFFE, securities
managers said.
    LIFFE is likely to wait until the outstanding amount of
bonds with matching months increases to over several billion
yen, bond managers said.
    These bonds will be used for deliveries, as they are
expected to be the cheapest deliverable issues due to low
interest rates, they said.
    Market participants here expect a clearing organisation to
be set up by the time they have substantial deliverable cash
issues, making overseas listings probable in the latter half of
1987.
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Six months to Dec 31.
    Shr 16 H.K. Cents vs 11
    Interim div seven cents vs five
    Net 211.03 mln dlrs vs 138.69 mln
    Turnover 583.83 mln dlrs vs 441.04 mln
    Note - Dividend payable May 4, books close April 21 to 27.
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an early round of bill offers from the discount houses after
forecasting a shortage in the system of around 1.1 billion stg.
    Money market dealers speculated that the central bank could
be taking the opportunity to signal a reduction in U.K. Base
lending rates by cutting the rates at which it intervenes in
the discount market.
    Most operators are expecting a base rate cut today,
possibly of one point, following yesterday's budget in which
the U.K. Public sector borrowing target for 1987/88 was slashed
by three billion stg.
some 1.11 billion stg while a rise in note circulation and
bankers' balances below target will take out around 120 mln stg
and 20 mln stg respectively.
will add some 140 mln stg to the system today.
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Conditions on the floating rate note
market appeared to be returning gradually to normal today with
prices static to a little better generally, dealers said.
    The market was showing limited signs of recovery from the
collapse in trading last night and the calmer tone was
reinforced this morning as the first significant retail orders
for some time emerged, one senior FRN trader noted.
    In fixed rate bonds, the tone was likewise quietly firmer
with euroyen and eurosterling maintaining their recent bullish
trend and activity in dollar straight and ECU-denominated bonds
also picking up slowly.
    Although a handful of FRN market makers were expected to
remain on the sidelines for the time being, dealers noted a
tangible return of retail interest from the Far East, lured
back by extremely attractive yields and bargain prices.
    "We are seeing from Singapore, and from Japan clients keen
to use up their quotas for purchase of particular instruments
before the end of the fiscal year," the senior trader added.
    Any investors not buying to their full limit would run the
risk of having that limit reduced next year, he explained.
    However, he pointed out that mainly sovereign paper was in
demand with U.S. Bank sector paper largely ignored.
    Prices of reasonable quality floaters had firmed by an
average of 10 basis points in early trading but FRN dealers
cautioned that the mood was still nervous.
    "If prices rise by too much too quickly, everyone is more
than well-aware of the danger the selling could set in again,"
commented another FRN market source at a large Japanese house.
    The other sector commanding market attention today was
eurosterling, which soared in line with U.K. Government bonds.
    Both markets were pushed higher by an ebullient pound and
renewed buying by U.K. Institutions following Chancellor of the
Exchequer's Nigel Lawson's well-received budget yesterday.
    "This was definitely a budget for lower sterling interest
rates," said a sterling analyst at a U.K. Merchant bank.
    "It has been exceptionally well-received by the city, looks
good to foreign investors and we are sure to see a rush to tap
the eurosterling markets now," he added.
    News that next year's Public Sector Borrowing Requirement
will be held at 4.0 billion stg from an earlier projected 7.0
billion was influential for fixed rate stg investment markets.
The government's reduced need to tap the gilt-edged markets
will create a perennial shortage of stock, maintaining upward
pressure on prices, a sterling bond dealer commented.
    This could further boost demand for eurosterling bonds, as
long as yield margins remain attractive in relation to gilts --
often the case with newer, if not with more seasoned issues.
    Bullish predictions on the U.K.'s general economic health
were also expected to boost foreign interest in eurosterling.
    Market sources said attention would now switch to
monitoring the fortunes of the ruling Conservative party in
opinion polls ahead of a widely-anticipated general election.
    Although several new sterling deals are expected, in early
trading the only sterling denominated one to emerge was a 30
mln convertible deal for British Land Co Plc.
    Other new deals this morning reflected the recent primary
market trend with little activity in dollar-denominated issues
although the currency sectors were busy.
    Hot on the heels of yesterday's two Canadian dollar issues
was a 75 mln dlr six-year bond for Chrysler Credit Canada,
guaranteed by Chrysler Finance paying 9-1/4 pct and priced at
101-1/2 pct.
    A 15 billion euroyen issue was launched for Associates Corp
of North America paying five pct at 102-3/8 pct due 1992. A
similar euroyen offering was reported to be in the market for a
Scandinavian borrower. Details were not immediately available.
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The Singapore government has taken
over 82 mln dlrs worth of Goodwood Park Hotel Ltd shares and
loan stock certificates belonging to the company's chairman,
Khoo Teck Puat, banking sources said.
    Khoo is a major shareholder of the <National Bank of Brunei
Bhd> (NBB), which closed in November after the Brunei
authorities alleged 90 pct of its loans of 1.3 billion Brunei
dlrs had been extended to Khoo-related firms without
documentation or guarantee.
    The Goodwood securities are now held by the Commercial
Affairs Investigation Department, the banking sources said. The
department declined to comment.
    The government move is aimed at protecting Goodwood's
minority shareholders and securing Goodwood deposits at the
NBB, the banking sources said.
    Goodwood had a total of 87.3 mln dlrs in fixed deposits,
bank balances and accrued interest due from NBB as of last
November, according to Goodwood's annual report.
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BANK OF ENGLAND SIGNALS HALF POINT CUT IN SHORT TERM RATES - DEALERS

Turner and Newall Plc said it planned to
raise a net 71.7 mln stg with a one-for-six rights issue of
36.15 mln shares.
    The shares would be offered at 205p, compared with Turner's
price which fell to 227p from last night's close at 241p.
    The group said the funds would be used to cut borrowings,
which had risen to 234 mln stg at end-February, largely as a
result of the takeover of <AE Plc>.
    The company also reported pretax profits rising to 44.7 mln
stg from 39.6 mln previously.
    It noted that the purchase of AE involved the payment of
some 125 mln stg cash as well as taking on AE's own borrowings
of some 85 mln stg. The net debt/equity ratio at the year end
had risen to 59 pct from 23 pct the year before, it added. The
rights issue would cut borrowings and also allow further
development through investment and acquisition.
    But it said that the purchase of AE -- which was won after
a long and acrimonious battle last year -- greatly strengthened
the group's position in the automotive components and
engineering materials sectors.
    In the 15 months to end-1986 AE produced pretax profits of
27.4 mln stg compared with 25.6 mln in the 12 months
   As the offer for AE was not declared unconditional until
December 5, it made a negligible contribution to Turner's 1986
results.
    Turner said the prospects were good and it looked forward
to taking advantage of the opportunities available.
   1986 operating profits were higher in all areas apart from
Zimbabwe mines, which were hit by the strength of the local
currency against the dollar.
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BANK OF ENGLAND SAID IT INVITED BORROWINGS AT 10 PCT LATER TODAY

BARCLAYS BANK SAID ITS CUTTING BASE LENDING RATE TO 10 PCT PCT FROM 10.5 PCT.

NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK SAID IT CUTTING BASE RATE TO 10 PCT FROM 10.5 PCT.

<Airod Sdn Bhd> said it won a
contract from the U.S. Air Force to repair and service landing
gear and airframe parts of General Dynamics Corp <GD.N> F-16
and McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD.N> F-4 jet fighters.
    The one-year contract, worth 1.3 mln ringgit, was signed
recently and work is expected to begin soon, an Airod spokesman
    Airod is a joint venture between Lockheed Corp <LK.N> unit
<Lockheed Aircraft Service International> and <Aerospace
Industries Malaysia>
    Airod, which was set up in 1985, has a paid-up capital of
5.6 mln ringgit, the spokesman said.
    He said that under the contract, jet parts from U.S. Air
Force bases in the Philippines, Japan and South Korea would be
sent to Airod for servicing and repair. If the Air Force was
satisfied with its performance, the contract could be extended,
he said. Airod now services some Royal Malaysian Air Force and
Indonesian Air Force aircraft, he said.
    Aerospace Industries is equally owned by the Malaysian
government, Malaysian Airline System <MAIM.SI> and <United
Motor Works Bhd>.
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The state-owned Philippine National Bank
(PNB) will fund Toyota Motor Corp's <TOYO.T> planned purchase
of its bankrupt former local partner's manufacturing facilities
for at least 193 mln pesos, a bank official told reporters.
    Toyota has informed the Philippine government it plans to
produce cars again here in joint venture with a local partner.
    It proposes to invest about 400 mln pesos in the
manufacture of car spare parts and other items, and generate
about 100 mln pesos in export earnings over five years.
    The banker said today a letter of intent was signed three
weeks ago but the sale requires approval from government
agencies charged with selling private sector assets taken over
by state-owned banks.
    Official sources said Toyota's application was likely to be
approved.
    Toyota severed ties with its Philippine partner of 20
years, <Delta Motor Corp>, in 1984 because the local company
was suffering financial difficulties. PNB later foreclosed on
Delta's assets.
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those discount houses wishing to use borrowing facilities to do
so at 1430 GMT today at a rate of 10 pct for 14 days.
    This compares with the Bank's present band one dealing rate
of 10-3/8 pct.
    The Bank of England's announcement was quickly followed by
Barclays Bank and National Westminster Bank which announced a
half-point cut in their base rates to 10 pct from 10-1/2 pct.
    Dealers said the lowering in base rates had been widely
expected following yesterday's U.K. Budget in which Chancellor
of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson announced a three billion stg cut
in the Government's public sector borrowing target for 1987/88
to four billion stg.
    Many in the market had expected a full one point cut in
base rates today but some were not surprised by the
authorities' caution, dealers added.
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Sri Lanka's external debts rose to
83.84 billion rupees in November from 83.23 billion in the
previous month and 67.28 billion in November 1985, the Central
Bank said in its monthly bulletin said.
    The rise was due mainly to increases in commodity loans
from aid donor countries to 27.39 billion from 26.96 billion
and 22.34 billion in the previous corresponding months.
    International reserves fell to 9.99 billion rupees in
November from 10.29 billion and 12.59 billion.
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West German producer prices fell 0.3
pct in February from January and were 4.2 pct below prices in
February last year, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    In January, producer prices rose 0.2 pct from December, the
first monthly rise since October 1985, but they were down 4.4
pct from a year earlier.
    The Statistics Office said light heating oil producer
prices fell 22 pct in February from January while heavy heating
oil prices fell 24 pct.
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Net profit 25.5 mln Swiss francs vs 22.2
mln
    Turnover 717 mln vs 739 mln
    Cash flow 75.4 mln vs 58.1 mln
    Proposed dividend 70 francs vs same
    Note - Company plans one for two rights issue of 40,000
participation certificates of nominal 50 francs. Conditions not
yet set.
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The sale of the government's 25.55 pct
stake in VEBA AG <VEBG.F> is still expected this month, banking
sources closely linked with the transaction said.
    A spokesman for the Finance Ministry said no exact date had
yet been set for the privatisation, which the government has
tabled for the second half of March. However, he added a
scandal at Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, VW, over currency losses "has
nothing to do" with the timing of the VEBA sale.
    Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg has said the sale of
the Federal government's stake in VW, originally scheduled for
later this year, may be delayed because of the currency affair.
    A banker involved in the VEBA placement said "Nothing has
changed in the planning. I still presume that it will take
place in the second half of March."
    This banker said there would be no reason to postpone the
issue of the 10 mln VEBA shares for a few days. He added that
the consortium which is arranging the deal had completed its
preparatory work, although the price had not been decided.
    The VEBA share has been weaker ahead of the placement but
West German stocks have been generally bearish and news of the
VW scandal last week put further pressure on the market.
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Building materials group Boral Ltd
<BOAL.S> said it will raise 100 mln Aus dlrs by placing 20 mln
7.5 pct convertible notes with institutions at 5.00 dlrs each.
    The proceeds will refinance existing group liabilities, it
    Interest will be payable over the next five years in
half-yearly instalments on February 28 and August 31.
    Boral said the notes will be convertible into ordinary
shares on a one-for-one basis on the same dates in 1989, 1990
and 1991 and 1992. Unconverted notes will be repaid at par on
February 28, 1992.
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A leading Soviet economist said the
practice of padding figures was significantly inflating the
country's industrial production data.
    "According to the information of state monitoring organs,
the padding of figures makes up one-and-a-half to three per
cent of the volume of production," Alexei Sergeyev told the
official newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya.
    "In my opinion, it is significantly higher," Sergeyev, who
works at the Economics Institute of the Soviet Union's Academy
of Sciences, said.
    Most Western economists have for years allowed for a
certain padding of figures when analysing Soviet statistics for
industrial production.
    Sergeyev said about 600 mln roubles was lost annually in
raw material industries by paying wages and bonuses for work
which was not in fact performed.
    He said the elimination of figure-padding and other
malpractices would save billions of roubles and would pay for
the Soviet Union's social development program up to the year
2000.
 REUTER

Sony Corp <SNE.T> group net income is
expected to be down 65 pct for the five months ending March 31
from the same period a year ago at around 10 billion yen, if
the yendollar rate remains at the present level, managing
director Tsunao Hashimoto told a press conference.
    Sony will have an irregular five-month business term ending
March 31, as its financial year will be changed to run from
April 1 to March 31 from the current October 31 year end.
    Group sales in the same period are estimated at about 550
billion yen, down five pct from a year earlier, he said.
    The company earlier reported net income of 7.65 billion yen
in the three month period ended January 31, down 59.2 pct from
a year earlier, on sales of 343.06 billion, down 6.3 pct.
    The gloomy profits and sales resulted from the yen's recent
appreciation against the dollar and a sharp drop in market
prices due to severe sales competition at home and abroad.
    The yen rose 26 pct to an average of 159 yen to the dollar,
reducing the company's total sales in the three month period by
40 billion yen, Hashimoto said.
    Sales of 8-mm video camera/recorders totalled 300,000 units
in the three months, unchanged from a year earlier, while
Beta-format video tape recorders (vtrs) sales fell to 300,000
from 350,000. Sales of compact disc players rose to 450,000
from 300,000 and those of the Walkman rose to 2.25 mln from
1.30 mln but colour television sales fell to 950,000 from one
mln due to lower exports to China.
    Sales of 8-mm vtrs had already exceeded Beta-format vtrs
sales since the beginning of fiscal 1986, Hashimoto said.
Overseas sales accounted for 68.2 pct of the total in the three
months compared with 71.3 pct a year earlier.
    Overseas production will account for 35 pct of its total
production in 1990 from the present 20 pct.
    Hashimoto also said parent current profit in the five-month
period is estimated at around 17 billion yen, down 33 pct from
a year earlier, on sales of 400 billion, down 12 pct.
    Sony is hoping to retain at least 1985/86 levels of group
net profits and sales in the new financial year starting April
1 1987, he added. The company made 41.9 billion yen group net
profit in the year ended November 31 1986, down 42.6 pct from a
year earlier, on sales of 1,325 billion, down 6.7 pct.
 REUTER

<Associates Corp of North America> is
issuing a 15 billion yen eurobond due November 2, 1992 with a
five pct coupon and priced at 102-3/8, <IBJ International Ltd>
    The non-callable bonds will be issued in denominations of
one mln yen and will be listed in Luxembourg. Fees are 1-1/4
pct for selling and 5/8 pct for management and underwriting
combined, with a 1/8 pct praecipuum. Pay date is April 6.
    Co-lead managers are <New Japan Securities>, <Wako
Securities> and <Yasuda Trust>.
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F. Hoffmann-La Roche und Co
AG <HOFZ.Z> said it introduced a new anti-rheumatism drug with
the brand name tilcotil on the Swiss market starting today.
    The drug, developed by Roche itself, contains the substance
tenoxicam. The company said in a statement that tests had shown
its effectiveness against various types of rheumatism and
arthritis. It was attractive for sufferers because it worked
quickly and needed to be taken only once a day, Roche said.
 REUTER

British Land Co Plc is issuing a 30 mln
stg convertible eurobond due March 26, 2002 with an indicated
coupon of 7-1/4 pct to 7-3/4 pct and priced at 101-3/4 pct,
lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd said.
    The price will be fixed on or before March 24 at a premium
of between 25 and 28 pct over the share price.  There will be a
call from 90 days after payment at 106, declining by one pct
per annum to par but not before March 26, 1992 unless the share
price is 130 pct of the conversion price.
denominations of 1,000 and 5,000 stg.
    Total fees of 2-1/2 pct comprise 1/2 pct each for
management and underwriting and 1-1/2 pct for selling. Pay date
is April 24 with a short first coupon.
    Co-lead is S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
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Chrysler Credit Canada Ltd is issuing a
75 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due Aoril 15, 1993 with a 9-1/4
pct coupon and priced at 101-1/2 pct, Orion Royal Bank Ltd said
as lead manager.
    The non-callable bonds will be listed in Luxembourg and
will be issued in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs. 
Total fees of 1-7/8 pct comprise 1-1/4 pct for selling and 5/8
pct for management and underwriting combined. Pay date is April
15.
    The transaction is guaranteed by Chrysler Finance Corp.
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Dunhill Holdings Plc, a subsidiary of
Rothmans International PLC <ROT.L> has appointed Chemical Bank
International Ltd as sole dealer for a 50 mln U.S. Dlr and
sterling commercial paper program, Chemical said.
    The paper will be sold in denominations of 500,000 dlrs and
have maturities of seven to 364 days. Chemical Bank (London
branch) will act as issuing and paying agent.
    The financing is the first of its kind for the company,
which makes luxury consumer products.
 REUTER

NV KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS>
is "absolutely not" negotiating a takeover of U.S. Regional
carrier Air Atlanta, a KLM spokeswoman said in a comment on an
article in the leading Dutch evening paper NRC Handelsblad.
    "U.S. Law requires that at least 75 pct of shares in a U.S.
Airline be owned by American firms or persons," the spokeswoman
added.
    The newspaper said that Air Atlanta, which flies to 11 U.S.
Cities, has a fleet of five Boeing jets with passenger capacity
of 110 and employs 400 people, is making losses.
    She said KLM had started talks with Vendex International NV
<VENN.AS> on their jointly owned courier service XP Express
Parcel Systems, but declined to confirm an NRC Handelsblad
report saying it wanted to buy the Vendex stake in XP.
    KLM said last week it is negotiating a minority stake in
British courier service <IML Air Services Group Ltd>, a
subsidiary of British and Commonwealth Shipping Plc <BCOM.L>,
to strengthen its position in the fast-growing worldwide
door-to-door delivery market.
    The KLM spokeswoman said she expected further announcements
about the talks with Vendex to be made early next week.
 REUTER

West German new car
registrations in February increased by 31 pct over January's
figure but trailed the February 1986 total by 2.9 pct, the
Federal Motor Office said.
    February new car registrations totalled 190,175 compared
with the year ago figure of 195,852 and last month's 145,122.
    New car registrations in January had fallen 41.6 pct
against December, reflecting the end of tax incentives aimed at
encouraging West Germans to buy cars with catalytic converters.
    The office said total February new vehicle registrations,
including those for trucks and buses, fell to 205,376 from
210,084 in February 1986 but were well above January's 157,357.
 REUTER

An internal report produced by the
Belgian National Bank foresees the country's gross national
product growth falling in 1987 to 1.0 pct from 2.3 pct in 1986,
the independent newspaper Le Soir said.
    A National Bank spokesman said the newspaper article was
basically correct, but that the report was produced six weeks
ago and figures were therefore to some extent out of date.
    The government's planning bureau predicted growth of 0.9
pct this year in a study published last month.
 REUTER

Spain's consumer price index rose 0.4
pct in February after increases of 0.7 pct the previous month
and 0.4 pct in February last year, National Statistics
Institute figures show.
    Year-on-year inflation was six pct compared with the
government five pct target for 1987. It rose 8.3 pct last year.
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importers awarded contracts to five U.S. Companies to supply a
total of 462,000 tonnes of maize for delivery between May 10
and October 10, a committee spokesman said.
    Cigra Inc won a contract for a cargo of 56,000 tonnes,
priced at 79.41 U.S. Dlrs per tonne fob pacific northwest port,
for delivery on July 5 and 20.
    Continental Grain Co of New York received three shipments,
totalling 143,000 tonnes, price ranging from 90.95 to 95.75
U.S. Dlrs per tonne c and f Taiwan for delivery between May 10
and October 10.
    Cargill Inc of Minnesota took two shipments, totalling
83,000 tonnes priced between 92.00 and 92.93 U.S. Dlrs per
tonne c and f Taiwan for September 5-20/September 10-25
delivery. United Grain Corp of Oregon won three contracts to
supply 93,000 tonnes priced from 92.32 to 93.19 U.S. Dlrs per
tonne c and f Taiwan for delivery between May 10 and July 30.
    Garnac Grain Co Inc of New Jersey received two shipments,
totalling 87,000 tonnes at 88.90 to 92.29 U.S dlrs c and f
Taiwan for delivery between July 10 and August 10.
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Credit Lyonnais is issuing a 19 billion
yen zero coupon eurobond due April 15, 1992 priced at 81.22
pct, lead manager Nomura International Ltd said.
    The bond is available in denominations of 10 mln yen and
    Credit Lyonnais is joint lead. Fees comprise 85 basis
points selling concession and 70 basis points for management
    Payment date is April 15.
 REUTER

<DBCG.G> said an issue price of 165 marks had been set on a
two-for-five rights issue of shares which will raise nominal
capital by 100 mln marks to 350 mln marks.
    The subscription period for the offer runs from March 26 to
April eight, it added.
    Babcock shares opened at 222.2 marks in Frankfurt after a
close of 226 yesterday. Babcock, which has set an unchanged
three mark a share dividend on 1985/86 business, announced last
week that Iran was selling its 25.2 pct holding in the company.
These shares will be placed with institutional investors.
    The rights issue will bring Deutsche Babcock 330 mln marks,
which share market analysts said was likely be used partly to
finance expansion, especially in environment technology.
    However, one analyst who follows the stock for a major
Frankfurt bank said the capital increase would also be used to
bring capital ratios back into order after the company suffered
heavy losses in the early 1980s.
    This analyst said Babcock had used reserves to cover these
losses, which were due to problems linked with three major
contracts in the Middle East. The parent company made a net
loss in the year to end-September 1982 of 389 mln marks.
    Deutsche Babcock has not yet presented details of its
results in the 1985/86 period, but it has said profits rose
from the group net of 32.1 mln marks in 1984/85.
    The share market analysts saw no particular problems in the
pricing of the new Babcock shares but said the timing was
unfortunate.
    The government is planning to sell its 25.55 pct stake in
VEBA AG <VEBG.F> this month, in a transaction worth a likely
2.5 billion marks. The Babcock rights issue also coincides with
a large capital increase by the Aachener und Muenchener
insurance group.
    The heavy volume of new stock coming on to the market has
generally put pressure on West German stocks which have also
suffered because of export problems caused by the high mark.
    Analysts have linked the pending capital increase with
Iran's decision to sell its holding in Babcock, held since
1975.
    When the Iranian decision was announced last week, the
market took the news calmly. Analysts said today the
combination of the Iranian sale and the rights issue would not
have a negative effect on the Babcock share because the direct
placement of the Iranian holding with institutional investors
both in Germany and abroad would shield the price from falls.
 REUTER

Peking backed <China Everbright
Holdings Co Ltd> said it signed an accord with a unit of U.S.
Based Lotus Development Inc <LOTS.O> to form a joint venture
cathode ray tube manufacturing plant in Hong Kong.
    An Everbright statement said the company will have a 26 pct
share in the 70 mln U.S. Dlr worth <Everbright Lotus CRT
Manufacturing Ltd>, while <H.K. Lotus Scientific Development
Ltd> will own the remaining stake.
    The plant has an annual production capacity of up to one
mln 14-26 inch cathode ray tubes for colour televisions.
 REUTER

Suspected communist rebels bombed the
Philippine Military Academy and injured at least 20 soldiers,
many of them senior officers, the state-run Philippine News
Agency (PNA) said.
    Quoting military sources, it said a bomb had exploded at
0200 gmt at the academy, in Baguio north of Manila.
    The bomb exploded during rehearsals for a weekend
graduation to be attended by President Aquino, it added. -     
       
 Reuter

A kidnapped Saudi Arabian diplomat has
been freed in Beirut after 64 days in captivity, witnesses
said.
    They identified him as Bakr Damanhuri, responsible for
Saudi Arabian students at Beirut universities.
    Damanhuri appeared at a news conference given by Shi'ite
Moslem Amal militia leader Nabih Berri, Syria's military
intelligence chief in Lebanon Brigadier Ghazi Kanaan and
Lebanese-born Saudi Arabian businessman Rafiq Hariri.
 Reuter

West German finance minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg suggested that the U.K. Should join the European
Monetary System (EMS) and also urged some member countries to
abandon their dual currency structures.
    Stoltenberg was speaking at a meeting of the Committee for
a Currency Union in Europe, whose key members are former West
German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and former French President
Valery Giscard d'Estaing, founders of the EMS.
    He said, "One failing of the EMS is important countries,
like Great Britain, are not members. Other partners should give
up their split currencies or abandon broader fluctuations."
    EMS member Belgium has both a "financial" and a "commercial"
franc and the Italian lira is allowed to fluctuate by six pct
against other member currencies, compared with a permitted
fluctuation of only 2.25 pct for other currencies.
    According to a text of Stoltenberg's speech, the finance
minister also urged greater convergence of economic and
financial policies among European countries.
    He added that monetary stability should be a priority for
European countries and, with reference to the U.S. Dollar, he
said it was wrong to presume that a "permanent devaluation" was
the answer to economic problems.
    Stoltenberg said there were clear reasons to bring down the
dollar in 1985. "But an overshooting in the other direction now
brings the danger of a new inflationary push for the U.S. And
other countries whose currencies have declined," he added.
    He said such a development could also produce further
burdens for heavily indebted developing countries. An agreement
last month in Paris by industrial countries to stabilise the
dollar around current levels had acknowledged these risks, he
said.
 REUTER

Talks are underway between financially
troubled Zaire and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aimed
at rescuing the economy of the second largest nation in
sub-Saharan Africa.
    Diplomatic and banking sources in Kinshasa agreed that a
compromise formula could be reached in the coming weeks
enabling pro-Western Zaire to obtain a much needed injection of
cash.
    For its part the government is expected to increase
budgetary discipline, which in turn is likely to attract
foreign investors, the sources said.
    "Barring last-ditch obstacles, which can't be totally ruled
out in an issue involving a nation's pride and substantial
political and economic interests, Zaire and its creditors are
bound to come to terms soon," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
    "The Zairean economy won't survive without massive IMF
assistance. Similarily, the West has no interest to see Zaire's
strategic minerals fall into communist hands," the diplomat
said.
    Zaire defied its creditors late last year by saying it
would limit repayments on its five billion dlr external debt to
10 pct of its export earnings from January 1987.
    The government also announced an end to the floating
exchange rate for the zaire currency and a return to a fixed
parity against special drawing rights (SDRs) with periodic
adjustments.
    Until last year, Zaire devoted up to 28 pct of its export
revenue to servicing large foreign debts contracted during the
copper boom of the 1970's to finance largely non-productive and
often extravagant investment projects.
    Zaire, the world's leading cobalt producer and the sixth
largest supplier of copper, depends on the two minerals for
two-thirds of its export earnings.
    "A young country cannot go on indefinitely sacrificing
everything for the sake of servicing its external debt,"
President Mobutu Sese Seko commented in October when he
announced his government's decision.
    As early as January 1986, Mobutu had warned that "one does
not feed on austerity and praise. I have another debt, one
toward my people and my people's efforts must not backfire," he
told diplomats.
    Zaire pointed out that during four years of IMF-backed
austerity (1983-86), it had become a net exporter of capital
without receiving appropriate financing from abroad.
    Economists said that since the large devaluation of the
zaire currency in September 1983, the country suffered a net
outflow of 830 mln dlrs each year.
    Zaire's medium and long term public debt in the past few
years reached an equivalent of about 100 pct of its Gross
National Product (GNP), one of the highest such ratios in the
world, banking sources said.
    Mobutu accused the IMF of "strangling" his country at an
October meeting of the ruling MPR party and said his people
could not long endure the hardship caused by austerity.
    Zairean officials blame their present difficulties on the
IMF recovery plan's two basic assumptions which, they said,
failed to materialise last year,
    - a world economic recovery pushing up commodity prices and
boosting Zaire's export revenue and debt servicing capacity,
    - substantial, additional financial help from the country's
traditional donors.
    In 1983 Zaire set out on a major economic reform aimed at
curbing its soaring debt. It floated its currency, slashed
spending and privatised industry, gaining praise from Western
creditors and obtaining debt rescheduling.
    As a result, the overall economic and financial situation
improved markedly, with inflation down to 41 pct last year from
100 pct in 1983.
    But it also led to a severe and steady fall in living
standards for Zaire's 35 mln population, fuelling widespread
discontent among poorer city dwellers, diplomats said.
    Economists estimate the drop in purchasing power at between
20 and 35 pct for an average household over the last 12 months,
despite a pay rise of up to 67 pct for civil servants announced
last May.
    The World Bank has released in the last two months half of
a previously-agreed 80 mln dlrs industrial sector loan and lent
27.6 mln dlrs to modernise the country's vital river transport
system.
    Belgium, Zaire's former colonial ruler and its main trading
partner, recently agreed to release a total of 17 mln dlrs to
ease payments difficulties and finance imports of spare parts
for industry.
    A new agreement between the IMF and Zaire would pave the
way for another debt rescheduling, probably at the next meeting
of the Paris Club of Western creditor nations, diplomats said.
 REUTER

A parliamentary boycott by opposition
members has forced the government to compile its largest-ever
provisional budget, finance ministry officials said.
    The 7,900 billion yen budget for the first 50 days of
fiscal 1988 starting April exceeds the previous record of 3,040
billion yen for an 11-day budget in fiscal 1984.
    An on-again, off-again parliamentary boycott by opposition
parties over a proposed five pct sales tax has prevented
passage of the full 1987/88 budget within the current year
    The stop-gap budget, which is expected to pass parliament
on March 31, is designed to respond to mounting calls for
economic stimulus from domestic industries, hard hit by the
yen's sharp rise, officials said.
    It will include as much as 1,800 billion yen for public
works, about 30 pct of the 6,000 billion yen earmarked for such
works in the full budget. Traditionally, a provisional budget
covers only day-to-day mandatory expenses.
    The government also expects the budget to meet pressure
from trading partners for an expansion of Japanese domestic
demand, they said.
    The budget includes expenditures for a program to create
300,000 jobs and other reflationary measures, the officials
said.
    They quoted ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary
general Noboru Takeshita as telling opposition party officials
yesterday that the budget should include as much pump-priming
as possible.
    Economists said confidence of opposition members in their
campaign to scrap the sales tax has been heightened by their
success in forcing the adoption of a stop-gap budget and could
lead to even further delays in passing the full budget.
    The result may be that the government will have to delay
its planned announcement of a set of pump-priming measures in
April, economists said.
    That package is expected to include a plan to carry out
more than 80 pct of total 1987/88 public works in the first
half of the fiscal year, a government official said.
    Japanese press reports said some LDP executives suggested
Nakasone may have to give up plans to visit Washington in April
because of the sales tax confrontation. Nakasone hopes to meet
President Reagan to prepare for the economic summit of seven
major industrial democracies in June, they added.
 REUTER

A very strong earthquake that struck
 REUTER

LAWSON SAYS HE FAVOURS GRADUAL APPROACH TO CUTS IN U.K. INTEREST RATES

its estimate of the deficit in the system today to 1.3 billion
stg from 1.1 billion.
    The Bank has not provided any assistance to the market so
far today but earlier invited the discount houses to use their
borrowing facilities at 1430 GMT today and set the terms at 10
pct for 14 days.
 REUTER

Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
said he was content with the current level of sterling and
welcomed today's announcement of a further half point cut in
British bank base lending rates to 10 pct.
    However, he said he wanted to see a gradual approach to
declines in domestic U.K. Interest rates, although optimism in
financial markets might push for big moves quickly.
    He told a briefing of economic journalists that "I don't
think we should rush anything." Lawson stressed the themes of
"gradualism and steadiness" as economic policy.
    Lawson acknowledged that today's fall in interest rates
were in response to his budget for fiscal 1987/88, unveiled
yesterday to Parliament and which set a lower target for the
key Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR) of 1.0 pct of
GDP.
    Lawson said the two recent cuts in base rates, both made
this month in the form of half percentage point declines, were
"perfectly consistent" with monetary conditions now in Britain.
    He supported that by saying the narrow M0 money supply
aggregate was "safely inside" its flucuation band of two to six
pct set for both 1986/87 and 1987/88. In his budget, Lawson set
no explicit target range for the broader sterling M3.
    Turning to the question of Britain eventually joining the
exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System (EMS),
Lawson repeated that "it is most unlikely we will enter before
the next election."
    He said Britain was keeping the subject of full EMS
membership under constant review. But he would not indicate
what the chief considerations for this were for the government.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher late last year said a
decision on whether or not to join depended on the strength of
the U.K. Economy. But she later said such a move depended on
other EMS countries scrapping residual capital controls.
    Although Lawson denounced what he said was "the current wave
of election fever" in Britain, he added:  "It is more likely that
there will be an election this year" than not.
    He said he supported an early election only because it
would clear the air. "Ideally, we (the government) should have a
full term," but events could force a premature poll, Lawson
said.
    The government, which has been in power since 1979, must
call an election by June 1988. Speculation is rising for either
a June or an early autumn election, political sources said.
    The decision to cut basic tax by only two pence in 1987/88
"was the right balance, economically and politically," he said.
    Lawson's decision to restrict the fall in the standard rate
of tax to two-pence surprised many analysts, who had predicted
that with Treasurys coffers full of tax revenue would have
allowed the government to reach its goal of 25 pct in one move.
    But it was being praised today by political analysts as a
shrewd move which, while advancing towards that aim, could not
be seized upon by opposition parties as overtly trying to bribe
the electorate.
    Lawson told journalists he had been surprised by how much
the PSBR had undershot his original assumption of 7.1 billion
stg for 1986/87 -- by some three billion stg.
    Returning to changing levels of interest rates, Lawson
stressed that "they are not an objective (for the government) -
they are an instrument of policy." Consequently the Treasury had
no precise target for domestic borrowing levels, he said.
    But "there may be interest rate consequences" from changes in
the level of government borrowing, he added.
    Lawson said he did not think that the U.K.'s relatively
high level of real interest rates had hurt investment in
Britain.
    He said conditions created by London's role as a leading
financial centre had caused sterling interest rates to be
higher in real terms than in other countries.
    Three factors had caused the higher level in relative
interest rates in Britain, Lawson said.
    First, control of credit in Britain rested on interest
rates alone, due to the freedom of its financial markets.
    He said the second reason was political uncertainty caused
by proposed spending plans of the opposition Labour Party.
     Thirdly, he said "we do not have as long a track record of
low inflation" as did the U.S., Japan and West Germany.
    Lawson foresaw London becoming the world's pre-eminent
financial centre, because it was more international in
character and more favourably placed in time zones than New
York or Tokyo.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry said it will allow
more foreign brokers to participate in government note auctions
from April by abolishing a requirement that participants have
current accounts with the Bank of Japan.
    This will allow 18 more Japanese branches of foreign-owned
brokerages to bid, it said. Currently 22 foreign brokers are
allowed to bid.
    Bidders for two, three and four-year notes must be members
of the underwriting syndicate for five-year discount notes and
10 and 20-year government bonds.
    New tender participants are: Vickers da Costa Ltd; Bache
Securities Ltd; Smith Barney, Harris Upham International Inc;
Jardine Fleming Securities Ltd; Kidder Peabody and Co Ltd;
Goldman, Sachs International Corp; Morgan Stanley Co Ltd; S.G.
Warburg and Co Ltd; First Boston Co Ltd; Kleinwort Benson
International Inc; Schroder Securities Ltd; Deutsche Bank AG;
EF Hutton Ltd; Shearson Lehman Brothers Asia Inc; Dresdner Bank
AG; Swiss Union Philips and Drew Ltd; Sogen Security Corp and
Swiss Bank Corp International Asia Inc.
    Only these 18 Japanese branches of foreign-owned brokers
would meet other existing requirements to participate.
 REUTER

Dixons Group Plc <DXNS.L> said its
tender offer for all of the common shares in <Cyclops Corp> of
the U.S. Expired at midnight yesterday and that it had accepted
approximately 2.3 mln shares in the company at 90.25 dlrs each.
    This represents just over 54 pct of the outstanding shares
on a fully diluted basis. But including shares already owned,
Dixons now holds a total of 56 pct of the fully diluted
    The company said it is now entitled to subscribe for all
the authorised but unissued and unreserved shares of common
stock of Cyclops, which total some 5.4 mln shares, at 90.25
dlrs each.
    Dixons said it has waived its condition that 80 pct of the
fully diluted outstanding shares be validly tendered and not
withdrawn.
    Dixons launched the agreed 384 mln dlr offer on February 17
this year in the wake of its unsuccessful battle to take over
the U.K. Retail store chain Woolworth Holdings Plc <WLUK.L>.
    Dixons shares were last quoted at 390p, up on last night's
close of 380p.
    On Friday, <CYACQ Corp>, an investor group formed by
Audio/Video Affiliates Inc <AVA> and Citicorp <CCI>, said it
would increase the price it was offering for all Cyclops shares
to 92.50 dlrs from 80.00 dlrs each if Cyclops would provide it
with confidential information given to Dixons and if it were
satisfied that any rights Dixon might have to recover fees or
expenses from Dixons or to buy Cyclops stock would be rescinded
or proved invalid.
    Audio/Video's offer is scheduled to expire March 20.
 Reuter

An on-off parliamentary boycott has
forced Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to adopt a
provisional budget, government officials said.
    Economic analysts saw this as another setback in Nakasone's
plans to overhaul the Japanese tax system.
    The parliamentary boycott by opposition parties over
Nakasone's plans for a five per cent sales tax has made it
impossible for the full 1987-88 budget to be passed by the
start of the fiscal year on April 1, government officials said.
 Reuter

Iraq said its warplanes hit two ships
off the Iranian coast in attacks last night and early today.
    The planes "dealt accurate and effective blows to both
maritime targets before they returned safely to base," a
military spokesman told the Iraqi new agency INA.
    There was no immediate confirmation of the attacks from
Persian Gulf shipping sources.
    The last confirmed Iraqi attack on shipping was on March 8,
when an Iranian tanker was hit by a missile south of Iran's
Kharg island oil export terminal.
    Gulf shipping sources yesterday reported an Iranian warship
had set the Cypriot supertanker Pivot on fire with a missile.
    They said there were no injuries on board and the ship
headed for the Gulf Emirate of Fujairah under its own power
after the fire was put out.
    The Pivot was the 18th ship hit this year in the maritime
extension of the 6-1/2 year-old Iran-Iraq war.
 Reuter

ICCO delegates accept principles of buffer stock compromise as negotiation base

New Zealand's inflation and interest
rates should decline and the balance of payments improve
significantly in the fiscal year to the end of March 1988, the
Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) said.
    The independent institute said in its quarterly March issue
that it was also revising its fiscal 1987 real gross domestic
product (GDP) forecast to a fall of 0.5 pct against the one pct
drop forecast in December.
    Government figures show GDP grew at an annual 1.8 pct in
the quarter to September and 3.4 pct in the June quarter.
    The NZIER said the sharp improvement in the June and
September quarters was due mainly to a new tax structure and
the introduction of a 10 pct value-added goods and services tax
and is not expected to continue in the second half of 1986/87.
    The government's tight fiscal position is not expected to
change, it said.
    Annual inflation, measured by the consumer price index, is
forecast to fall to nine pct by next March from 18.2 pct in
calendar 1986, it said.
    "Falling inflation is likely to give significant scope for
reductions in nominal interest rates; real interest rates are
also expected to ease (albeit slightly) as the balance of
payments deficit and hence the call on overseas capital, falls
away," the NZIER said.
    Short-term interest rates are forecast to remain between 20
and 25 pct until the June quarter, but will decline over the
second half of 1987/88 to between 16 and 18 pct. Long-term
rates are expected to fall to between 14 and 16 pct.
    Five year government bond rates are currently 18.40 pct and
the key indicator 30-day bank bills 26.53 pct.
    The local dollar is expected to depreciate steadily in the
early part of the coming year and, by next March, reach 57.5 on
the Reserve Bank's trade weighted index, which is based on a
basket of currencies. The index now stands at around 66.4.
    "A marked improvement in the balance of payments is
forecast," the NZIER said. "The current account deficit is
expected to fall from 7.5 pct of GDP in 1985/86 to 4.5 pct in
1986/87 and 2.5 pct in 1987/88."
    The current account deficit is forecast to shrink to 1.32
billion N.Z. Dlrs in 1987/88 from 2.40 billion in 1986/87 and
3.33 billion in 1985/86.
    The 1987/88 budget deficit is forecast to be 2.8 billion
dlrs against an expected 2.9 billion dlrs in 1986/87 and 1.87
billion in 1985/86.
    This compares with the government's 1986/87 deficit figure
of 2.92 billion against an earlier forecast of 2.45 billion.
    "Conditions in the coming year are sufficiently subdued to
contribute to marked improvements in both the balance of
payments and the rate of inflation ...," the NZIER said.
    "Overall, these are significant gains for the New Zealand
economy and, if they continue to be improved upon, bode well
for future prospects."
 REUTER

International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)
producers and consumers accepted the principles of a compromise
proposal on buffer stock rules as a basis for further
negotiation, delegates said.
    The buffer stock working group then asked ICCO Executive
Director Kobena Erbynn, who wrote up the draft compromise, to
flesh out details of the principles with the assistance of a
representative group of delegates, they said.
    The working group broke up for the day, into a smaller
group of five producers and five consumers to discuss
administrative rules and into the group headed by Erbynn to
hammer out buffer stock rules details, delegates said.
    Delegates said many differences of opinion still have to be
ironed out. "Whenever we start getting into details the clouds
gather," one delegate said.
    Erbynn is likely to present fleshed out details of the
buffer stock rules proposal to the working group early
tomorrow, delegates said.
    The principles of the draft proposal included establishing
an offer system for buffer stock purchases rather than a posted
price system, a limit to the amount of non-ICCO member cocoa
that can be bought, and differentials to be paid for different
varieties of cocoa comprising the buffer stock, delegates said.
 REUTER

Land Securities Plc is issuing a 100 mln
stg eurobond due April 29, 2007 with a 9-1/2 pct coupon and
priced at 95-3/4, lead manager J. Henry Schroder Wagg and Co
Ltd said.
    The non-callable bonds will be listed in London and will be
issued in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 stg. Fees are 1-1/2
pct for selling and one pct for management and underwriting
combined with a 3/16 pct praecipuum. The pay date is April 29.
 REUTER

(FDIC) announced the failure of an Oklahoma City bank, the 44th
U.S. bank failure this year.
    The FDIC said it had approved the assumption of the United
Oklahoma Bank by United Bank of Oklahoma, a newly chartered
subsidiary of United Bank Shares, Inc., of Oklahoma City.
    It said the failed bank had 148.9 million dlrs in assets,
including about 94.1 million dlrs in 13,000 accounts.
 Reuter

<General Partners>, controlled by
privately-held Wagner and Brown and by AFG Industries Inc, said
it has started a tender offer for all common shares of GenCorp
Inc and associated defensive preferred share purchase rights
for 100 dlrs a share.
    GenCorp stock closed yesterday in composite tape trading at
90.50 dlrs a share, up two dlrs on the day.
    In a newspaper advertisement, General Partners said the
offer and withdrawal rights expire April 14 unless extended.
    General Partners said the offer is conditioned on receipt
of sufficient financing to buy all shares on a fully diluted
basis and receipt of enough shares to give General Partners at
least 51 pct voting power, again fully diluted.
    It said the offer is also conditioned on GenCorp redeeming
the defensive rights or General Partners being satisfied that
the rights have been invalidated and General Partners obtaining
from the Federal Communications Commission a special temporary
authorization allowing completion of the acquisition of GenCorp
shares.
    General Partners said it would set up voting trust
arrangements pending review of its long-form application for
FCC approval of its acquisition of control of GenCorp's
broadcasting subsidiary.
    The partnership said the offer is further conditioned on
GenCorp management withdrawing its proposals to amend the
company's articles of incorporation and code of regulations to
provide for an increase in authorized common shares, a
classified board of directors and the elimination of cumulative
voting.  The latter two changes would make it harder for
minority shareholders to elect directors.
    General Partners said it is asking GenCorp for its
shareholder lists for help in disseminating the offer.
    GenCorp has about 22.3 mln shares outstanding, making the
value of the offer about 2.23 billion dlrs.
    Last fall, AFG and Wagner and Brown offered to acquire
<Lear Siegler Inc> for about 1.44 billion dlrs but withdrew the
offer when higher bids emerged and due to complications of the
Tax Reform Act of 1986.  Lear Siegler eventually went private
for 1.66 billion dlrs.
    GenCorp is involved in tire and plasticmaking and aerospace
as well as broadcasting.  The company faces challenges to its
two television and 12 radio station licenses, partly becuase it
failed to inform the FCC about allegedly improper foreign
payments and political contributions.
    GenCorp has agreed to sell its New York-area television
station WOR to MCA Inc <MCA> for 387 mln dlrs and its Los
Angeles station KHJ to Walt Disney Co <DIS> for 217 mln dlrs.
An investor group challenging the Los Angeles license would
also receive 103 mln dlrs from Disney.
    For the year ended November 30, GenCorp earned 130 mln dlrs
on sales of 3.10 billion dlrs.
    A GenCorp spokesman said the offer came as a surprise and
the company was not yet in a position to comment on the bid.
 Reuter

France today protested over Canada's
decision to declare its ports off limits to French fishing
vessels and bar further fishing by France off Newfoundland.
    A foreign ministry statement described yesterday's decision
by Canada as "unjustified and contrary to international law and
commitments made by Canada," and called on Ottawa authorities to
reexamin their position.
    Accusing the French of overfishing, Canada yesterday said
that any French fishermen caught in the Burgeo Bank area, off
the south coast of Newfoundland, would be arrested.
    "The French government strongly protests against the closing
of Canadian ports to French fishing vessels and against the
fishing ban decided by canada on the Burgeo Bank," the ministry
    The French foreign ministry said the measure, the latest
episode in the long-running fishing dispute, would have a
negative effect on fishing negotiations currently held between
Ottawa and Paris.
    Canada is claiming the French have exceeded their
6,400-tonne quota of cod allowed in the area.
    In January Canada and France concluded an interim fishing
accord, opposed by fishermen in both countries, allowing France
to increase its cod quota by about 15,000 tonnes during 1987.
    Under this accord, Canada and France also agreed to refer
differences over a maritime boundary zone near the French
islands of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon to international
arbitration.
 Reuter

Egypt rejected all offers at a vegetable
oil import tender yesterday for unspecified amounts of
sunflowerseed oil and/or cottonseed oil, traders said. It has
asked for a renewal of offers on March 24.
    Exporters said they were not prepared to offer material on
Egypt's new landed contract terms which include a clause, "free
from radioactive contamination." Offers submitted were on old
contract terms, all of which were rejected.
 REUTER

Texaco Refining and Marketing, an
operating subsidiary of Texaco Inc, said it would cease to post
crude oil prices for West Texas crudes at the end of this month
following a decision to discontinue purchase of crude oil from
leases, a Texaco spokesman in Houston said.
    But it will continue to purchase quantities of U.S. and
foreign crude oil for use in its refinery system, he added.
     The spokesman also said Texaco Trading and Transport Inc
would continue to acquire and market Texaco lease production as
well as other lease production. The company will continue to
post a Louisiana price, it said.
 Reuter

Ivorian Agriculture Minister Denis Bra
Kanon, chairman of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)
council, will not be able to open the council session here
tomorrow, an Ivorian ICCO delegate told Reuters.
    He will arrive sometime later during the meetings here, the
delegate said. The council session will be chaired instead by
ICCO vice chairman Sir Denis Henry, the delegate from Grenada,
ICCO officials said.
    Ivorian officials last week said Bra Kanon was due to
return home for funeral ceremonies for a sister of Ivorian
President Felix Houphouet-Boigny March 19-22.
 REUTER

Spain's second largest union, the
Workers Commissions, CC.OO, has voted against a general strike
next month to back wage demands and oppose the government's
economic policies, a CC.OO spokesman said.
    The proposal for a general strike was narrowly defeated at
a meeting yesterday but union leaders voted instead for a
national week of strike action beginning on April 3 and urged
their members to concentrate their protests on April 10.
    The Socialist General Workers' Union, UGT, the country's
biggest union, is against a general strike but has joined
forces with CC.OO. To demand real wage rises this year.
 Reuter

U.S. REAL GNP ROSE REVISED 1.1 PCT IN 4TH QTR INSTEAD OF 1.3 PCT RISE

Matrix Science Corp said its
board declared a two-for-one stock split and a six-cent per
share (pre stock split) dividend, payable May 7 to stockholders
of record April 16.
    The company said the dividend is in addition to the ten cts
per share dividend paid January 2, 1987, making the post stock
split annual dividend eight cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr loss 69 cts vs loss 1.45 dlrs
    Net loss 2,015,000 vs loss 4,268,000
    Revs 16.6 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.21 dlrs vs loss 59 cts
    Net loss 3,514,000 vs loss 1,839,000
    Revs 58.8 mln vs 61.4 mln
 Reuter

Contract terms for trade in coconut
oil are to be changed from long tons to tonnes with effect from
the Aug/Sep contract onwards, Dutch vegetable oil traders said.
    Operators have already started to take account of the
expected change and reported at least one trade in tonnes for
Aug/Sept shipment yesterday.
    The Federation of Oils Seeds and Fats Associations, FOSFA,
in London said it had previously advised traders to adopt the
metric system for coconut oil transactions to bring the
commodity into line with other vegetable oils.
 REUTER

Far West Financial Corp
said its Far West Savings and Loan Association unit has reached
an agreement in principle to acquire all the outstanding stock
of Progressive Savings and Loan Association <PRSL>.
    Far West said it does not expect the cost of the
transaction to exceed 15 mln dlrs.
    Progressive Savings has ten branches in Southern California
and about 500 mln dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp said
George A. Ferris, 70, has resigned as vice chairman and chief
executive officer.
    The company also said Lloyd C. Lubensky, 64, its largest
shareholder, has been named chairman.  Lubensky is president of
Ryder System Inc's <RDR> American Jet Industries subsidiary. 
In early January Allan E. Paulson sold his 34.2 pct stake in
Wheeling-Pittsburgh to Lubensky and resigned as chairman.  No
successor was named at the time.  Ferris, Lubensky and director
John P. Innes made up an executive committee formed last month
to operate Wheeling-Pittsburgh.
 Reuter

common stock will continue to be quoted on the NASDAQ system
due to an exception from capital and surplus requirements,
which it failed to meet as of January 20.
for the exception but there is no assurance that it will be
able to do so.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said it belives the two
billion dlr suit against it by <TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp>
in Texas state court is frivolous and without merit.
    The company said it intends toi proceed with filing a
reorganization plan for TransAmerican with the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in Houston.
    Yesterday afternoon, the bankruptcy court issued a
temporary restraining order prohibiting TransAmerican and
Coastal from taking any action in any court that would
interfere with the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court.
    Yesterday's bankruptcy court ruling affirmed Coastal's
rights as a TransAmerican creditor to file a reorganization
plan for TransAmerican.
    TransAmerican's suit alleges that Coastla attempted to
unlawfully gain control of TransAmerican's Texas natural gas
reserves and pipeline system.
    TransAmerican's bankruptcy proceedings began in 1983.
 Reuter

The Bundesbank is likely to steer a
steady monetary course over the next few weeks and a change in
credit policies is not expected at tomorrow's regular central
bank council meeting, bank economists and dealers said.
    "There is no need for action," Hermann Remsperger, chief
economist of Berliner Handels- and Frankfurter Bank (BHF) said.
    Others noted that exchange rates are stable after last
month's Group of Six agreement in Paris and central bank money
stock growth is still well above the three to six pct target
zone, so a change in credit policies could be ruled out.
    One money market dealer said comments by Bundesbank
President Karl Otto Poehl at a private seminar in Duesseldorf
two weeks ago hinting at another interest rate cut only
indicated the Bundesbank might act if conditions changed.
    Bank economists said U.S. Pressure on West Germany to
further ease credit policies had receded since the Paris pact.
    But such demands could re-emerge if West Germany failed to
stimulate its economy enough to affect the massive U.S. Trade
deficit.
    Remsperger said continued strong money supply growth also
precluded a further cut in official interest rates.
    Central bank money stock was growing at an annualized 7.5
pct in February, unchanged from the 7.5 pct in January.
    Economists said some of the 18 members of the central bank
council were worried about the continued overshoot in the money
supply target and were bound to resist any moves to cut rates.
But Poehl played down the risk of inflation.
    Economists said the fact that money stock growth remained
stable last month was a success. Some said it was likely to
return to within the target range later this year.
    "The special factors which boosted money supply growth last
year are disappearing," one economist said.
    He said some 75 pct of the money supply increase in 1986
was caused by a sharp rise in the inflow of foreign funds.
    This trend had been reversed recently and with domestic
credit demand likely to remain at steady levels, money stock
growth was expected to narrow in the medium-term.
    These developments were increasing the Bundesbank's scope
for a rate cut in the medium-term, economists said.
    Money market dealers said period rates remained little
changed, indicating no change in credit policy was expected.
    Call money rates declined to 3.75/80 pct from 3.90/95
yesterday, with the market well stocked with liquidity.
    Dealers said call money was soft because tax payments on
behalf of customers had been less than expected so far. But
rates were likely to tighten again as soon as the full effect
of this month's major tax payment period is felt. Payments for
the federal railways bond are also likely to burden the market.
    The Bundesbank did not inject liquidity via a securities
repurchase agreement this week, but countered a tightening in
rates on Monday by injecting funds through government-owned
banks.
    Dealers said recent securities repurchase pacts had shown
the Bundesbank clearly wanted call money rates stable at 3.80.
    One dealer said, "If the central bank wanted lower interest
rates, it would first of all drive call money rates down."
    Banks remained relatively well stocked with minimum reserve
assets. They held 52.9 billion marks in minimum reserves on
Monday, averaging 53.7 billion marks over the first 16 days of
March. A requirement of around 51 billion is expected.
 REUTER

The U.S. Gross National Product,
after removing the impact of inflation, increased at a revised
annual rate of 1.1 pct in the fourth quarter, the Commerce
    That was down from an earlier preliminary 1.3 pct rise
estimated a month ago and down from the 2.1 pct rise in the
fourth quarter of 1985.
    The final fourth quarter revision, however, left unchanged
the previous estimate of a 2.5 pct increase in GNP for all of
1986 over 1985.
    The revised estimate for fourth quarter GNP partly
reflected a downward revision in inventories to a total
decrease of 28.5 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter, the
    The revisions also indicated personal consumption spending
decreased 2.2 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter after an
increase of 39.6 billion dlrs in the third quarter.
    Exports of goods and services rose 15.3 billion dlrs after
a decline of 9.4 billion dlrs in the third quarter. Imports
decreased 700 mln dlrs in the final quarter, in contrast to an
increase of 20.9 billion dlrs in the third quarter.
 REUTER

Cable and Wireless PLC <CAWL.L> and the
Pacific Telesis group <PAC.N> may take part in a proposed
merger of two rival firms seeking to enter Japan's
international telecommunications market, a senior industry
    Fumio Watanabe, head of a telecommunications committee with
the Federation of Economic Organisations (Keidanren), told a
news conference Japanese shareholders in the two consortiums
agreed that the U.S. And British companies will be invited to
participate in the new merged firm.
    The planned linkup will satisfy Tokyo's request that only
one private company should enter the market.
    The two consortiums, <International Digital Communications
Planning Inc> (IDC) and <International Telecom Japan> (ITJ),
were set up in 1986 to compete with monopoly <Kokusai Denshin
Denwa Co> (KDD) after the market was deregulated in 1985.
    Watanabe said the Post and Telecommunications Ministry
wanted only one competitor for the time being because of the
size of the Japanese telcommunications market and that foreign
investors will only be allowed to hold a minority stake.
    He estimated the two foreign firms' share in the merged
consortium at less than three pct and added that even the
largest shareholders could own only some five pct .
    Cable and Wireless and Japanese trading house <C. Itoh and
Co.> each have a 20 pct stake in the IDC consortium while
Pacific Telesis and Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. <MER.N> jointly
hold 13 pct .
    ITJ is headed by a rival group of trading houses. Several
firms including Toyota Motor Corp. <TOYO.T>  belong to both.
    Watanabe said progress was being made towards a merger
agreement and added that Japanese industry agreed with the
government on having only one private consortium as two
companies might invest "excessive" amounts.
    He said talks with Cable & Wireless will continue this
week.
 REUTER

The European Community executive
Commission today announced plans to open up government
contracts to companies throughout the 12-country bloc.
    Internal Market commissioner Lord Cockfield told a news
conference the Commission will shortly make proposals to open
up contracts awarded by state-owned utilities such as
telecommunications, transport, energy and water.
    About 400 billion European Currency Units worth of
contracts are awarded by governments and public bodies in the
EC every year. The Commission says only 20 pct of these are
open to competition from outside the country.
 REUTER

Italy's <Gruppo Ferruzzi> is in the
advanced stages of negotiations that could result in an
acquisition worth "some hundreds of billions of lire" in the
European agro-industrial sector, a company spokesman told
Reuters.
    The spokesman declined to identify the other party or
parties involved in talks, or whether a complete takeover was
under discussion, but said an Italian newspaper report that
Ferruzzi was studying the possibility of advancing an offer for
13 European cereal processing plants owned by the U.S. Group
CPC International Inc <CPC.N> was incorrect.
    The spokesman said that possibility had been evaluated by
Ferruzzi but that the company's attention at the moment was
"decisively in another direction."
    The spokesman, responding to a report in the Italian
economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore that Ferruzzi was considering a
possible bid for the CPC plants, told Reuters his company hoped
to conclude the talks currently underway in a couple of months.
    The spokesman said that since the U.K. Government last
month blocked Ferruzzi's bid to acquire <British Sugar Plc>,
the company had been looking at other investment opportunities.
 REUTER

Profits of U.S. corporations, after
tax liabilities, increased 8.3 billion dlrs, or 6.1 pct, in the
fourth quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 144.2
    The increase was the largest since the third quarter of
1983, when profits rose 11.4 pct and followed a 5.5 pct rise in
the third quarter of 1986.
    For the full year 1986, profits after tax were 2.5 billion
dlrs, or 1.9 pct, higher than in 1985 at a total of 133.9
billion dlrs, the department said.
    The department also estimated corporate profits to reflect
retroactive provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
    It said profits after tax fell 11.2 billion dlrs in the
fourth quarter after a decline of 10.3 billion dlrs in the
    Profits before taxes and from current production rose 2.8
pct to 310.4 billion dlrs after rising three pct in the third
quarter.
    Profits tax liability rose to 114.6 billion dlrs in the
final quarter last year from 104.4 billion dlrs in the third
quarter, the department said.
 Reuter

Malaysia's state oil company Petronas
will cut oil production to 420,000 barrels per day (bpd) from
May 1, trade sources said.
    Malaysia cut its 510,000 bpd target output by 10 pct last
September to support Opec moves to boost prices, and the latest
cut would reduce output by 17.5 pct from 1986's target level.
    Petronas said in February that Malaysia would maintain its
10 pct production cutback until mid-1987.
    However, the Finance Ministry said in its annual report
that Malaysia's crude oil output was expected to rise to an
average 510,000 bpd in 1987.
    The ministry's forecast assumed average 1987 crude prices
at 13 dlrs/barrel (bbl), but prices have risen enough to permit
further production cutbacks, the sources said.
    Malaysia's benchmark Tapis blend fetched above 18 dlrs/bbl
this year against a low of 10.50 dlrs/bbl in July, they said.
    Traders said further reductions by Malaysia would add to
the tight spot availabilities of Asian grades caused by reduced
Indonesian and Chinese crude output.
    The cutback will also help Malaysia maintain prices, as
there is concern some buyers want to reduce term purchases due
to the availability of cheaper alternatives, the sources said.
    In addition to term sales, Petronas has been offering two
to three 400,000 bbl spot cargoes of Malaysian crude each month
for sale through tender, the sources said.
    However, this practice is likely to dwindle given the
reduced scale of production, they said.

InterCare Inc said it has
agreed to terminate the proposed acquisition of <Universal
Care> because <First Jersey Securities> has withdrawn as
underwriter for a proposed offering of InterCare securities.
    The company said the offering was to have raised 7,500,000
dlrs for working capital through the sale of equity and debt
and would have also financed the 1,897,000 dlr cash portion of
the Universal Care purchase price.  In addition, 1,700,000 dlrs
would have been used to repay debt.
    InterCare said to date it has incurred about 500,000 dlrs
in expenses in connection with the proposed offering.
    The company said to improve its working capital position,
it plans to reduce operating expenses by decreasing hours of
operation and its workforce and selling some assets.
    As of October 31, the copmpany said it had a working
capital deficit of 2,301,000 dlrs, on a pro forma basis to
include recently acquired U.S. Medical Enterprises Inc.
 Reuter

Rank Organisation Plc <RANK.L> said
trading in the current year had continued satisfactorily taking
into account seasonal fluctuations.
    Association companies, such as <Rank-Xerox Ltd>, indicated
an improved performance, a statement issued at the annual
meeting said.
    It said it planned to spend some 15 mln stg on refurbishing
its Odeon cinema chain and the Rank Film Distributors unit was
committed to spending 20 mln to secure international
distribution rights of films.
    Investment in new activities in 1987 should continue at a
relatively high level to exploit opportunities for growth. Rank
said it did not exclude the possibility of making large as well
as small acquisitions.
    In the year to end-October, Rank reported a rise in pretax
profits to 164.1 mln stg from 136.0 mln previously.
    Rank shares firmed in morning trading to be quoted at 712p
at 1320 GMT after 697p at last night's close.
 REUTER

Some 10 Indian ships have been held up
at Calcutta port after four days of industrial action by local
seamen, a spokesman for the shipowners' association INSA said.
    The dispute has prevented local crewmen signing on and off,
but has not affected foreign ships with international crews
docking at Calcutta, which exports tea and jute and imports
machinery, crude oil and petroleum products, the spokesman
said.
    Foreign ships may also suffer if dock workers join the
action, he said. The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has
asked its ships to avoid the port until the dispute is over,
National Union of Seafarers in India president Leo Barnes said.
 Reuter

Shr 3.65 dlrs vs 33 cts
    Net 82.5 mln vs 7,300,000
    Sales 94.4 mln vs 85.4 mln
    Avg shrs 22.6 mln vs 21.7 mln
    NOTE: Current year net includes pretax gain 175.2 mln dlrs
on sale of ophthalmic business and loss 17.9 mln dlrs posttax
from repurchase of debt.
    Prior year net includes 120,000 dlr loss from discontinued
 Reuter

CooperVision Inc said it has
delayed its annual meeting to June 22 from May 14 to allow its
board to review possible recapitalization options before the
meeting.
    CooperVision today reported first quarter net income of
64.6 mln dlrs, after a 175.2 mln dlr pretax gain from the sale
of its ophthalmic business to Johnson and Johnson <JNJ> for 260
mln dlrs in cash and a 17.9 mln dlr posttax charge from a debt
repurchase.  Sales were 94.4 mln dlrs.  A year earlier it
earned 7,300,000 dlrs after a 120,000 dlr loss from
discontinued operations, on sales of 85.4 mln dlrs.
    The company said an aggressive program of investment
spending to maintain or increase market shares its its two core
businesses will accelerate sales growth this year but hold back
increases in operating income in the near future.
    CooperVision said "Furthermore, until the entire net cash
proceeds from the recent sales of several of our businesses are
employed to reduce indebtedness, make strategic acquisitions
and/or are otherwise employed in relation to a possible
recapitalization of the company, recovery of net income will be
held back by the loss, particularly of the tax income, of the
(ophthalmic) pharmaceutical business sold to Johnson and
Johnson."
 Reuter

making a market in Gencorp at 100 bid and 115 offerred.
 Reuter

GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA CO 4TH QTR OPER SHR 55 CTS VS 36 CTS

Mobex Corp said 2,088,461 Grant
Industries Inc common shares, about 87 pct of the 2.4 mln
outstanding, have been tendered in response to Mobex's offer.
    The company said its offer of 7.75 dlrs a share for the
stock has been extended to 2000 EST March 23 from 2400 March 17.
 Reuter

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc
said it has told Harper and Row Publishers Inc representatives
that it intends to withdraw its proposal to acquire Harper and
Row for 50 dlrs per share in cash if the parties have not made
satisfactory progress in discussions by the close of business
on March 30.
    Harcourt Brace said, "We do not wish to put undue pressure
on Harper and Row, but we also, in fairness to our own
shareholders, cannot allow an offer of such magnitude to lie on
the table too long."
    Harcourt said three of its senior officers and its
investment bankers met yesterday with investment bankers for
Harper and Row to discuss the Harcourt Brace offer.
    Harcourt Brace said it will only pursue the acquisition if
a mutually-satisfactory merger agreement can be negotiated.
    Last week, a group formed by Theodore Cross offered to
acquire Harper and Row for 34 dlrs per share.  The group held
about six pct of Harper and Row.
    In addition, New World Pictures Ltd <NWP>, holder of 4.5
pct of Harper and Row, had offered to discuss a merger with
Harper and Row.
 Reuter

The United Arab Emirates, UAE, has
banned a Czechoslovakian milk powder because checks showed
unacceptable radiation levels, government officials said.
    They said stocks of the powdered milk are being withdrawn
from the market following checks on food imported from Europe
since last year's Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet
Union.
    The UAE three weeks ago banned two brands of Austrian
powdered milk for the same reasons.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust International Ltd said it
is issuing 200,000 stg call/dlr put currency warrants at an
initial offer price of 31.25 dlrs per warrant.
    The issue is guaranteed by Bankers Trust New York Corp.
    Each warrant entitles the holder to exchange 500 dlrs for
stg at a rate of 1.60 stg/dlr and the minimum number of
warrants exercisable or tradeable is 100.
    Exercise period for the warrants will run from April 22,
1987 until March 17, 1989. Payment is due April 15, 1987.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank will not hold a press
conference after its regular fortnightly council meeting
tomorrow, a spokeswoman said in answer to enquiries.
    Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl will chair the
meeting.
    The next meeting is scheduled for April 2.
 REUTER

Oper shr 55 cts vs 36 cts
    Oper net 20.7 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Sales 2.34 billion vs 1.58 billion
    Avg shrs 38.1 mln vs 37.7 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.82 dlrs vs 1.48 dlrs
    Oper net 69.0 mln vs 56.1 mln
    Sales 7.83 billion vs 6.62 billion
    Avg shrs 38.0 mln vs 37.8 mln
    NOTES: Results for 13 and 53 week periods ended Feb 28,
1987, and 12 and 52 week periods ended Feb 22, 1986
    Operating net excludes credits from tax loss carryforwards
of none vs 5.3 mln dlrs, or 14 cts a share in quarter and 26.0
mln dlrs, or 68 cts a share, vs 32.2 mln dlrs, or 85 cts a
    Company had 1,200 stores inoperation at year end vs 1,045 a
year earlier
 Reuter

French regional financing group <Societes
de Developpement Regional> is issuing a 1.41 billion franc
domestic bond, Banque Nationale de Paris and <Banque Indosuez>
said.
    The issue will be in three tranches with BNP being the
book-keeper for a 770 mln franc, 15-year, 9.10 pct fixed rate
tranche issued at par. Redemption will be in seven equal
tranches after the eighth year and payment date is April 6.
    The banks said Indosuez will be the book-keeper for two
non-syndicated variable-rate, eight years and 20 day tranches
of 320 mln francs, each issued at par.
    Interest will be based on the annual money market rate
(TAM) with a TAM reference rate of 8.10 pct and with a margin
of minus 0.10 pct. It will be payable on April 26 every year
from 1988 and onwards.
    Redemption is to be in six equal tranches after two years.
 REUTER

GROUP TENDERING FOR GENCORP SAYS IT HOLDS ABOUT 9.8 PCT OF GENCORP COMMON

The city of Rotterdam today signed an
agreement in principle to cooperate with the AOMI Cargo
Distribution Centre in Tokyo.
    Acting Mayor Roel den Dunnen said that cooperation between
private and public entities in the Tokyo and Rotterdam area,
and a fruitful exchange of information have a favourable
influence on the flow of goods and services between the two
    The AOMI Cargo Distribution Center, which will start
operating in October this year, signed a similar agreement with
Rotterdam's twinned-port of Seattle last September.
 Reuter

Davy McKee Ltd, a subsidiary of U.K.
Engineering and contruction company Davy Corp Plc, has been
awarded a contract worth around 15 mln stg for the design of a
zinc and lead smelter in India, a spokesman for the company
said.
    The contract is being funded by Britain's Overseas
Development Administration as part of a total grant of 73.65
mln stg to India's state-owned Hindustan Zinc Ltd.
    The grant is for the development of a major zinc and lead
mine and associated smelting complex in Rajastan, North West
India, the agency said.
    The agency said the project was expected to account for 44
pct of India's total production of zinc.
    A total 55 mln stg of the grant is allocated for the supply
of goods and services from Britain. The grant comes as part of
package announced on March 13 for Indian mineral development.
    The agency is also paying a further 31 mln stg to India's
coal sector, for the expansion of its indigenous coal
development programme, using British-designed longwall
 Reuter

the money market with a further 15 mln stg assistance. This
brings the Bank's total help so far today to 344 mln stg and
compares with the estimated shortage of around 1.3 billion stg.
    The central bank purchased bank bills outright, at the
lower dealing rates established this morning, comprising one
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 14 mln stg in band two at
9-13/16 pct.
 REUTER

West German commercial banks are
cautiously cutting key savings and lending rates, banking
sources said. The cuts follow nearly two months after the
Bundesbank reduced leading interest rates, far longer than the
usual interim period.
    A Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> spokesman said it is cutting
leading savings rate for private customers on a regional basis
by 0.5 percentage points to two pct. Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F>
and Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> have initiated similar moves. Bank
fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG <BKFG.F> cut rates 0.5 pct generally.
    The delay was partly due to commercial banks' desire to
gauge customer reaction to a similar move by regional savings
banks.
    A fall in customer savings because of lower rates could
reduce cheap refinancing available to banks, forcing them to
draw down relatively expensive funds from other sources, one
economist at the German Banking Association said.
    But the volume of savings funds may not be substantially
undercut by lower savings rates because many customers are
parking funds in savings accounts in the hope they can reinvest
them at higher yields in the future, he said.
    He said this may conflict with Bundesbank aims to move more
funds from relatively short-term deposits to longer-dated
securities to reduce strong growth in its central bank money
supply aggregate.
    The aggregate showed annualized growth of a provisional 7.5
pct in February against the fourth quarter of last year,
unchanged from January. The growth rate was outside the
expanded target range of three to six pct.
    Few banks have so far reduced lending rates to private
customers, though lending rates for corporate customers are
beginning to decline.
 REUTER

Shr 89 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 116.0 mln vs 88.1 mln
    Revs 1.17 billion vs 924.0 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 1.17 dlrs vs 93 cts
    Net 152.2 mln vs 119.8 mln
    Revs 2.44 billion vs 1.97 billion
    NOTE: net 1986 were restated to reflect three-for-two stock
split on June 27, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 27 cts
    Qtrly div six cts vs 4.5 cts prior
    Net 6,448,000 vs 4,969,000
    Revs 51.1 mln vs 44.7 mln
    Avg shrs 19.1 mln vs 18.7 mln
    NOTE: pay for dividend was March 11 to shareholders of
record on Feb 20.
 Reuter

    Shr three cts vs one cent
    Qtrly div seven cts vs seven cts prior
    Net 106,185 vs 28,871
    Revs 46.9 mln vs 30.3 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 33 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 1,306,595 vs 878,484
    Revs 187.2 mln vs 140.8 mln
    NOTE: effective July One, 1986, the company acquired the
outstanding stock of Western American Forest Product Inc for
cash and convertible debentures. the acqustion is accounted for
as a purchase and consolidated statements include Western's
results of operations from July One, 1986.
    payout for dividend is may six to stockholders of record on
April 13.

 Reuter

Qtrly div five cts vs five cts

Shr loss five cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 619,000 vs loss 1,730,000
    Sales 3,138,000 vs 5,667,000
    Avg shrs 12.5 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss four cts vs loss 40 cts
    Net loss 343,000 vs loss 3,963,000
    Sales 13.4 mln vs 35.3 mln
    Avg shrs 12.5 mln vs 10.3 mln
 Reuter

Qtrly div 96 cts vs 90 cts
    Pay May One, 1987
    Record March 31, 1987
 Reuter

Rhodes Inc said it now estimates fourth
quarter, ended February 28, earnings were eight cts a share,
down from the 25 cts earned in the final quarter of fiscal
1986.
    The company said the major causes for the reduction were an
unfavorable LIFO adjustment and softer than projected sales in
the quarter, due primarily to unfavorable weather.
    Despite the 4th qtr results, Rhodes said, "net income for
the year just ended should come close to the record level of
the previous year" -- 1.61 dlrs dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Sweden's AB Volvo <VOLV.ST> said its
subsidiary Volvo Flygmotor had won a contract worth 330 mln
crowns over four years from General Electric Co <GE.N> to
supply flight engine components.
    Volvo said it received the order after General Electric had
won a contract for 40 CF-80C aircraft engines from American
Airlines. The CF-80C is a joint venture between Volvo Flygmotor
and General Electric, the Swedish firm said.
    The contract runs from next year until 1992, Volvo added.
 Reuter

(General Partners), a Texas general
partnership equally owned by affiliates of Wagner and Brown and
AFG Industries Inc <AFG>, said it currently holds 2,180,608
common shares, or about 9.8 pct, of Gencorp Inc's <GY>
    General Partners said it began a 100 dlrs a share cash
tender offer for all of Gencorp, an Akron, Ohio-based concern,
that is worth nearly 2.3 billion dlrs.
    Gencorp, which has interests in tire- and plastic-making,
aerospace and broadcasting, has about 22.3 mln shares
    The General Partners offer is subject to receipt of
financing, a majority of Gencorp shares and other conditions.
    In a letter to Gencorp chairman and chief executive A.
William Reynolds describing the offer, General Partners said it
was willing to negotiate terms of the offer and was prepared to
meet as soon as possible.
    In a statement, General Partners said it has contributed
250 mln dlrs in equity financing and also has commitments for 
a one billion dlr credit line from Wells Fargo and Co <WFC> and
a 1.25 billion loan from Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc,
a unit of American Express Co <AXP>.
    A Gencorp spokesman said the company's management was
meeting but that its board was not scheduled to meet today. He
said he was not sure the company had formally received notice
of the offer but was aware of it through press accounts.
    He declined to say what Gencorp's next move might be or
whether it would issue a statement later today.
    In the letter, General Partners said it plans to maintain
Gencorp's corporate headquarters in Akron, and retain the
company's plastics and industrial products businesses and its
tires and related products segment.
    The letter did not mention Gencorp's RKO General
broadcasting subsidiary, which has been involved in disputes
over license renewals at several of its television stations.
Gencorp has agreed to sell two of its independent stations, WOR
in the New York area and KHJ in Los Angeles.
    General Partners officials were not immediately available.
    Gencorp shares were delayed at the opening on the New York
Stock Exchange because of an imbalance of orders, and the NYSE
said the shares were indicated to open at 103 to 115. The
shares closed up two yesterday at 90-1/2, a new 52-week high.
    The financing for the offer includes the 250 mln dlrs in
equity from General Partners, the 1.25 billion dlr loan from
Shearson Lehman Brothers, a senior subordinated bridge loan for
which a binding agreement can be delivered within 24 hours
after a request from the partnership, and the one billion dlr
credit line from Wells Fargo.
    Wells Fargo has agreed to lend up to 250 mln dlrs of the
line itself and form a syndicate of banks to provide the rest,
the partnership said.
    Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc will act as dealer manager in
the tender offer, it said.
    In the letter, the partnership said it was confident it
could obtain the financing and close the transaction promptly.
    Last fall AFG and privately held Wagner and Brown offered
to acquired (Lear Siegler Inc) for about 1.44 billion dlrs but
withdrew the offer when higher bids emerged. Lear Siegler
eventually went private for about 1.66 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Thailand's trade deficit widened to an
estimated 4.7 billion baht in February from 2.1 billion in
January and 2.8 billion a year ago, the Bank of Thailand said.
    Exports fell to around 18.9 billion baht from 20.4 billion
in January compared with 17.4 billion a year ago, the bank
said.
    Imports rose to 23.6 billion baht from 22.5 billion in
January. They were 20.2 billion in February 1986.
    The bank said the trade deficit for the two months widened
to an estimated 6.8 billion baht from 5.2 billion a year ago.
    February's current account showed a 1.2 billion baht
deficit compared with 1.7 billion in January and 263 mln a year
ago.
    The current account for the two months posted an estimated
500 mln baht surplus, down from 1.2 billion a year ago.
    A surplus in the country's balance of payments narrowed to
3.2 billion baht in February from 4.6 billion the previous
month but was higher than 1.5 billion a year ago.
    The bank said the balance of payments surplus for the first
two months of 1987 widened to 7.8 billion baht from 4.6 billion
from the same period in 1986, while the net capital inflow rose
to five billion baht from 3.1 billion.
 REUTER

The Great Atlantic and Pacific
Tea Co said its three-year 345 mln dlr capital program will be
be substantially increased to accommodate growth and expansion
plans for Waldbaum Inc and Shopwell Inc over the next two
years.
    A and P said the acquisition of Shopwell in August 1986 and
Waldbaum in December "helped us achieve better than expected
results in the fourth quarter" ended February 28. Its net
income from continuing operations jumped 52.6 pct to 20.7 mln
dlrs, or 55 cts a share, in the latest quarter as sales
increased 48.3 pct to 1.58 billion dlrs.
    A and P gave no details on the expanded capital program,
but it did say it completed the first year of the program
during 1986.
    A and P is 52.4 pct owned by <Tengelmann
Warenhandelsgesellschaft> of West Germany.
 Reuter

Oper shr 69 cts vs 83 cts
    Oper net 35.9 mln vs 42.4 mln
    Revs 798.9 mln vs 659.2 mln
    Avg shrs 52.0 mln vs 50.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 2.38 dlrs vs 2.75 dlrs
    Oper net 123.3 mln vs 135.6 mln
    Revs 2.31 billion vs 1.86 billion
    Avg shrs 51.8 mln vs 49.3 mln
nil vs 16.1 mln dlrs in quarter and 227.5 mln dlrs vs 42.7 mln
    Quarter net includes gains from sale of aircraft of two mln
dlrs vs 6,200,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Federal Express Corp said
February package and document volume was 14.7 mln, up 26.0 pct
from 11.6 mln a year earlier.
    The company said year-to-date volume was 128.9 mln, up from
100.2 mln a year before.
 Reuter

Austria is issuing a 50 mln Australian
dlr eurobond due April 22, 1992 with a 14-1/4 pct coupon and
priced at 101-3/4 pct, lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston
Ltd said.
will be issued in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs.  Pay
date is April 22. Total fees of two pct comprise 1/4 pct for
management, 3/8 pct for underwriting and 1-3/8 pct for selling.
    Co-leads are ANZ Merchant Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris,
Hambros Bank Ltd and S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
 REUTER

Midland Bank International Financial
Services is issuing a 900 mln franc floating rate note due
April 15, 1997 at par, lead manager Societe Generale said.
    The deal, guaranteed by Midland Bank Plc, will pay interest
based on rates of French 13-week Treasury bills plus 55 basis
points in the first five years and plus 65 points for the rest.
    There is a short first coupon of 8.25 pct payable June 15.
The note is accompanied by 90,000 warrants priced at 220 francs
exercisable for five years into an 8.25 pct 10-year
non-callable bond.
    The note is callable at any payment date after the first
year. Denominations are of 10,000 and 100,000 francs. Co-leads
are Midland Bank SA and Samuel Montagu.
 REUTER

Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd
said he and other critics of Nicaragua rebel military aid will
lose this afternoon an attempt to block 40 mln dlrs in funds to
the contras.
    "We're going to lose today," the West Virginia Democrat told
    The Senate votes at 1600 est/2100 gmt on giving the U.S.
backed rebels, also called contras, the last installment of a
40 mln dlr military aid package Congress voted last year.
    However, Byrd also said that he would continue to try to
bring up for Senate action later this week a House-passed,
six-month moratorium against further Nicaragua assistance until
President Reagan accounts for missing funds previously voted by
Congress and from the secret arms sales to Iran.
 Reuter

<Morgan Grenfell Group Plc> said its
1986 pre-tax profits were lower than forecast because of
depreciation in the value of its Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> shares
and because of securities trading losses in the U.S.
    Morgan chairman Lord Catto said the losses on the group's
seven mln Guinness shares in addition to a 3.5 mln dlr loss on
its risk arbitrage operation in New York depressed profits some
eight mln stg to 82.2 mln.
    He also told a news conference Morgan had received informal
approaches about a takeover of the group but was not
interested. No formal offers had been made, but Catto would not
elaborate.
    Morgan Grenfell acted as merchant banker to Guinness during
the brewing company's successful bid for Distillers Co Plc
<DIST.L> in the first half of last year.
    The U.K. Government launched an investigation into the
affairs of Guinness last December. Public concern has focused
on the way Guinness may have breached U.K. Company law and the
Takeover Code by prompting others to support its share price
during the bid.
    Morgan chief executive Christopher Reeves, head of
corporate finance Graham Walsh and senior corporate finance
director Roger Seelig all resigned in January over the Guinness
affair.
    Another senior Morgan Grenfell executive, Geoffrey Collier,
resigned late last year on allegations of trading on insider
information. He currently faces criminal charges.
    Lord Catto said the second half of 1986 had been "one of the
most traumatic in our history," but that clients and staff had
been supportive.
    "I certainly look on the future in a positive way. We have
the worst behind us and have swept nothing under the carpet."
    Profits for the year, up 19.4 pct from 1985 pre-tax profits
of 68.8 mln stg, were mainly due to a high contribution from
corporate finance activities and progress in asset management.
    Finance Director David Ewart told the news conference the
performance of the group so far in 1987 was "within reasonable
touch of the budget."
    Lord Catto also said the group was actively seeking a new
chief executive to replace Sir Peter Carey, who is acting as
interim director after Reeves' resignation, and hopes to have a
new chief executive within a few months.
    He also said Reeves and Walsh had been paid a total of
562,000 stg in compensation following their resignations, but
declined to say how much each man got. Negotiations were going
on to determine an amount of compensation for Seelig, he said.
    Morgan Grenfell shares stood at a late 366p, 9p down on
yesterday's 375p.
 REUTER...

The Philippines is poised for several
years of stability and economic growth but faces major
long-term problems from its rapidly increasing population, U.S.
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth told Reuters in an interview.
    "Medium-term out to the 1990s I am increasingly optimistic
about this country," he said. "But if you look beyond that... You
are jumping off the edge into the unknown."
    Bosworth, who retires on April 2 after almost four years as
U.S. Ambassador, forecast a real per capita increase in
disposable income of more than four pct in 1987.
    The Philippines has not seen such an increase this decade.
    He said there were reasons to believe the Philippines could
out-perform the world economy by enough to continue to generate
increases in per capita income in the medium term.
    "There is nothing big and dramatic yet and maybe big and
dramatic won't ever happen. But I think foreign investors are
now no longer saying let's wait and see how the political side
turns out," he said.
    Bosworth said much hope had been placed on the land reform
program promised by President Corazon Aquino, but he warned it
was not a complete cure for the country's ills.
    He said even the redistribution of land to tenant farmers
would not be a substitute for the generation of new employment
in the countryside."There is no way even in 1987 that this
country can provide employment growth in farming. Certainly it
is not going to be able to do so in the future," he added.
    "This has to be off-farm employment," he declared.
    Bosworth said the population problem produced major
uncertainties for the future of the country. He said that more
than 60 pct of today's 50 mln people are said to live below the
poverty line and official predictions suggest the population
will double within the next three decades.
    The ambassador said he believed population statistics to be
understated.
    Bosworth said he expected current high domestic liquidity
to be drawn down during the next six months with some
corresponding upward pressure on interest rates, now at about
nine pct.
    He said his predictions only assumed the Aquino government
did not make any big mistakes. They did not assume any great
transformation of the Philippine system.
 REUTER

Commission (SEC) staff is seeking authority to take enforcement
action against Allegheny International Inc, the
Pittsburgh-based industrial and consumer products firm said.
    Allegheny made the disclosure in documents filed with the
SEC in connection with its recent agreement to be taken private
through a leveraged buyout led by First Boston Inc.
    "Following announcement of the merger agreement, the company
was informed by the Enforcement Division of the (SEC) that it
intends to seek authority from the commission to institute a
proceeding against the company," Allegheny said.
    "The company is cooperating in the commission's
investigation which is continuing and now includes the taking
of testimony of employes and others," Allegheny said.
    In the ongoing probe, Allegheny said, the staff has asked
for information about company executive compensation and
benefit plans, certain company-owned real estate, travel and
entertainment spending and the use of corporate aircraft.
    It also has asked for information on acquisitions and
divestitures, the company's accounting system "and other
internal controls," Allegheny said.
   The probe began in February 1986, Allegheny said.
    The SEC, as a matter of policy, routinely declines comment
on its enforcement actions.
    The SEC investigation began just months before Allegheny
became the target of a series of shareholder lawsuits claiming
that the company had violated the federal securities laws by
failing to disclose material matters in recent annual proxy
statements.
    The suits, later consolidated into a single class-action
complaint before a Pennsylvania federal court, allege
securities law violations involving numerous current and former
Allegheny officers and directors.
    Earlier this month, lawyers for the shareholders asked the
court to expand the charges to include an allegation that, in
the buyout, Allegheny had attempted to illegally freeze out its
public shareholders at an unfair price.
    Allegheny said it intends to vigorously defend itself
against all charges.
    The charges made in the shareholder suits are widely
believed to have led to last summer's resignation of Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer Robert Buckley.
    In the buyout, a group led by First Boston tendered March
13 for all outstanding Allegheny shares at 24.60 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Qtly div four cts vs three cts prior
 Reuter

Qtr ends dec 31
    Shr one cent vs 15 cts
    Net 466,000 vs 6,866,000
    Revs 123.1 mln vs 93.5 mln
    NOTE: the company changed its fiscal year end from Aug 31
to Dec 31. qtr prior ended Jan 17, 1986 and included two more
weeks than current qtr.
    current qtr includes loss 899,000 for accounting change.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 18 ctsd
    Net 2,102,000 vs 1,415,000
    Revs 44.1 mln vs 42.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 21 cts vs 91 cts
    Net 1,678,000 vs 7,105,000
    Revs 155.1 mln vs 149.2 mln
    Avg shrs 7,960,000 vs 7,808,000
    NOTE: Latest year net includes writeoff of investment in
Dawn Enterprises ethanol refinery of 79 cts shr.
 Reuter

<Canamax Resources Inc> said it agreed
to acquire the 50 pct interest it does not already own in the
Krezmar gold property, near Wawa, Ontario, by paying nine mln
dlrs to <Algoma Steel Corp Ltd> and granting Algoma a four pct
net smelter return royalty, which is payable after payback.
    The property's drill indicated reserves to a depth of 1,200
feet are estimated at over one mln tons averaging 0.25 ounces
of gold a ton, Canamax said.
 Reuter

NFS Financial Corp said its board
declared an initial dividend of five cts per share, payable
April 21 to holders of record March 31.
 Reuter

Publicker Industries Inc said
its 1986 financial statements will receive an unqualified
opinion by the company's auditors, Authur Andersen and Co.
    The company said the qualified opinion on its 1985
financial statements will be changed to an unqualified opinion.
The 1985 opinion had been qualified due to the uncertainty of
the ultimate recoverability of the amount at which Publicker's
United Kingdom beverage division's assets are carried.
    The company said it has been in the process of
substantially reducing its inventory of Scotch Whisky and
currently intends to complete the reduction by the end of 1987.
 Reuter

National Australia Bank Ltd is issuing a
40 mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 24, 1990 paying 15 pct
and priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead manager Orion Royal Bank Ltd
said.
    The bond, in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs, will
be listed in London.
    Paydate is April 24 and fees comprise one pct selling
concession and 1/2 pct management and underwriting combined.
 REUTER

Audi AG <NSUG.F>, the 99 pct owned
subsidiary of Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, said profit in 1986 fell
by around half compared with 1985, when it achieved a record
221 mln marks net profit, a rise of 19.5 pct on the previous
year.
    Managing board chairman Wolfgang Habbel told a news
conference he expected both profit and turnover to rise this
year compared with 1986, but he said it was questionable
whether 1987 profit would return to 1985 levels.
    He gave no figure for 1986 profit. Audi had predicted last
year that 1986 profit would likely fall by an unspecified
amount from 1985's record levels.
    Habbel said turnover in 1986 rose to 9.9 billion marks from
9.6 billion in 1985 and looked certain to rise to over 10
billion this year.
    Asked whether Audi would pay a dividend to VW to help the
parent company overcome its currency losses, Habbel said Audi
would ensure VW got a share of profits.
    Audi's entire 1985 net profit was paid into its own free
reserves to help finance investment. In the previous 10 years
VW had received 80 pct of Audi's earnings as a dividend.
    Habbel blamed the profit decline on disruptions to output
caused by the introduction of the new Audi 80 model, on
currency factors and on negative publicity in the U.S. About
alleged "sudden acceleration" of some of its Audi 5000 models.
    As reported, Audi's sales in the U.S. Dropped nearly 20 pct
to 59,800 last year.
    Habbel said the U.S. Sales decline would probably bottom
out in 1987.
    Audi's worldwide car deliveries fell two pct to 363,000.
    Of the total, exports fell 10.5 pct to a rounded 210,000,
but domestic sales increased to a rounded 154,000 from 137,180
in 1985.
    Habbel said the new Audi 80 had sold extremely well in the
first two months of 1987, helping Audi to increase its overall
market share in West Germany to 8.4 pct from 5.2 pct in the
same months of 1986. Sales in Europe also rose but U.S. Sales
fell further, he said without giving details. Worldwide
deliveries in the first two months increased eight pct to
57,000.
    Audi said in January that 1987 car production would rise to
over 400,000 from 384,000 in 1986, when output had fallen
compared with 1985's 392,000.
    Habbel said Audi expected the rise in output to lead to
further new hiring of employees.
    At the end of 1986 Audi's workforce stood at a record
39,800, a rise of 3,400 over 1985.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it had lent one
billion stg to the discount market for fourteen days at 10 pct.
    This brings the Banks total help today to some 1.34 billion
stg and satisfies the estimated shortage in the system today
which it had earlier estimated at 1.3 billion stg.
    The Bank's announcement this morning that it was willing to
lend two-week money at 10 pct was interpreted by the market as
a sanction for lower U.K. Base lending rates.
    The U.K. Clearing banks swiftly took this up, cutting their
base rates by a half-point to 10 pct. At midday, the central
bank lowered its money market dealing rates by the same amount.
 REUTER

UK INTERVENTION BD SAYS EC SOLD 60,500 TONNES WHITE SUGAR AT REBATE 44.819 ECUS.

Feb 28 end
    Shr profit 11 cts vs loss 37 cts
    Net profit 3,027,000 vs loss 10.4 mln
    Revs 22.3 mln vs 19.9 mln
    Avg shrs 28.6 mln vs 29.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 34 cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net profit 9,560,000 vs loss 6,072,000
    Revs 71.9 mln vs 64.7 mln
    Avg shrs 28.5 mln vs 27.9 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net both periods after 15.2 mln dlr
writeoff.
 Reuter

white sugar received export rebates of a maximum 44.819
said.
    Out of this, traders in France received 18,000 tonnes, in
Denmark 15,000, in West Germany 12,250, in the Netherlands
12,000 and in Belgium 3,250 tonnes, it added.
    Earlier today, London traders had expected the subsidy for
the current season whites campaign for licences to end-Aug to
be between 44.10 and 44.50 Ecus per 100 kilos.
    Traders had also forecast today's total authorised sugar
tonnage export awards to be between 60,000 and 70,000 tonnes
versus 71,000 last week when the restitution was 43.248 Ecus.
    Cumulative export authorisations for the current 1986/87
season now stand at 1,915,270 tonnes (40 weeks).
 REUTER

AA Gage, a manufacturer of
rotary indexers and test systems for the aerospace and machine
tool industries, said it was awarded an initial subcontract of
2.2 mln dlrs by Singer Co's Kearfott Guidance and Navigation
Division.
    It said the subcontract is to produce computerized two-axis
test stand systems and other support services for the U.S. Air
Force Adints (Automatic Depot Inertial Navigation Test Systems)
program.
    Depending on Air Force requirements, the subcontract will
result in AA Gage shipments between 5.0 and 10 mln dlrs over
 Reuter

Anacomp Inc said it acquired
the common stock of DatagraphiX Inc from General Dynamics Corp
<GD> for about 128 mln dlrs.
    It said the purchase will be financed with a combination of
a new bank credit agreement and through private placement of
senior subordinated notes and convertible preferred stock.
    DatagraphiX, which had 1986 sales of 240.7 mln dlrs,
manufactures a line of computer output to microfilm hardware
and supplie.
    Anacomp's sales for the year ended Sept 30, 1986 were 108.8
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse is
issuing a 15 billion yen eurobond due March 31, 1992 paying
7-1/2 pct and priced at 101-3/4 pct, lead manager Yamaichi
International (Europe) Ltd said.
will be listed in London. Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling
concession and 5/8 pct management and underwriting combined.
   The redemption rate will be calculated according to a
complex formula tied to the spot yen/dlr currency rate,
Yamaichi said.
    Mitsui Trust International Ltd is co-lead.
 REUTER

LTV Corp said it has received a contract
worth more than 500 mln dlrs from Boeing Co to produce major
sections for Boeing 767, 757 and 747 airliners, including the
new 747-400.
    The company said the contract covers continuing production
through mid-1990.  LTV makes aft body sections and horizontal
and vertical stabilizers for 747 and 757's and horizontal
stabilizers for 767's.
    It said as part of the contract it will build a new type of
horizontal stabilizer for the 747-400 containing tanks capable
of holding 3,300 gallons of fuel.
    The added fuel capacity will allow the 747-400 to fly about
1,000 miles further than the 747-300, LTV said.
    The company said it will start making the 747-400 shipsets
in June and the first aircraft is scheduled for completion in
early 1988.  It is to be delivered to NWA Inc <NWA> in December
1988.
 Reuter

Period ended February 28
    Shr 25 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 6,292,000 vs 6,340,000
    Sales 97.0 mln vs 87.0 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 36 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 9,122,000 vs 7,053,000
    Sales 193.2 mln vs 168.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 period ended March One
 Reuter

Most of the cattle now being placed on
U.S. feedlots weigh less than normal and likely will remain on
feed longer, spreading out marketings and supporting cattle
prices through the summer because of reduced beef supply.
    The prospect of so many cattle remaining on feed for a
longer time blunted the market impact of the high placements
reported in the USDA's latest cattle on feed report, livestock
    After the USDA released its report of cattle on feed in
seven states as of March 1, cattle futures on the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange yesterday rose sharply. The trade had
expected deferred contracts to decline on the USDA report of a
15 pct rise in cattle placements in February from a year ago.
    Although the heavy placements were expected, analysts noted
reports that many cattle put on feed were relatively
lightweight and said feedlot operators would feed the lighter
cattle into the autumn, rather than market them during the
summer as would be the case with the heavier cattle normally
placed on feed.
    Although reports of actual cattle weights are difficult to
obtain, industry sources in the West and Southwest acknowledge
that lighter cattle are being put on feedlots in their areas.
    The increase in lighter-weight cattle entering feedlots,
helps explain the jump in feedlot placements last month from
February, 1986.
    University of Missouri Agricultural Economist Glenn Grimes
said, "The probabilities are high that in order to place that
many cattle on feed they (feedlot operators) had to go to
lighter-weight cattle.
    The only statistics available are from some terminal
markets which represent only a small percentage of the total
cattle marketed. But at those markets, steers averaged 708 lbs
in February compared with 718 lbs last year, Grimes said.
    Even if marketing of the lighter cattle is not delayed,
Grimes said, beef supply likely will be reduced.
    If the average weight is down, and there is no price
weakness to delay marketings, the cattle would be marketed at
lighter weights, which could reduce the beef supply as much as
three pct.
    Bruce Ginn, cattle analyst for The Helming Group (formerly
LBAS), said the lighter cattle are being placed on feed mainly
because of two factors: low grain prices and higher live cattle
prices.
    Many farmers like to feed lighter weight cattle and grain
supplies are large, he noted. Also, the higher live cattle
prices have been encouraging early movement of cattle from
wheat pasture onto feedlots, Ginn said.
    Other analysts also noted that cattle are coming off wheat
pasture sooner than normal because of poor pasture conditions.
    Gary Chapmann, a cash livestock trader for Chapmann and
Graham in Sioux City, Iowa said he believed the general trend
is to lighter weight placements but pasture conditions in his
area benefited from a dry, mild winter.
    To the south, however, he said the weather was wetter and
some cattle are coming off pasture weighing 75 to 100 lbs less
than normal after having gained only 75 lbs all winter.
 Reuter

New York cocoa traders reacted with
caution to today's developments at the International Cocoa
Organization talks in London, saying there is still time for
negotiations to break down.
    "I would be extremely cautious to go either long or short
at this point," said Jack Ward, president of the cocoa trading
firm Barretto Peat. "If and when a final position comes out (of
the ICCO talks) one will still have time to put on positions.
The risk at the moment is not commensurate with the possible
gain."
    ICCO producer and consumer delegates this morning accepted
the outlines of a compromise proposal on buffer stock rules as
a basis for further negotiation. A smaller group of
representatives is now charged with fleshing out the details.
    "Market sentiment has reflected optimism, I would't put it
any stronger than that," Ward said.
    "It seems to put them slightly closer to an agreement...
but one shouldn't forget how much they have to negotiate," said
another trader of today's developments.
    Many dealers were sidelined coming into the negotiations
and have remained so, traders said.
    "The dealers have got historically small positions in
outright terms," one trader said.
    Speculators have gone net long "but only slightly so," he
added.
    The recent price strength -- gains of about 52 dlrs the
last two days -- has been due in large part to sterling's rally
against the dollar and in the process has attracted a measure
of origin selling, traders said.
 Reuter

President Reagan said the 1.1 pct
U.S. economic growth rate during the final quarter of 1986
"wasn't all that bad."
    The Commerce Department said the rate of growth of the
Gross National Product in the October-December period was only
slightly less than a preliminary estimate of 1.3 pct made
earlier.
    At the same time, it said inflation, as measured by the GNP
price deflator, rose by 0.7 pct during the period.
    Asked his reaction to the GNP report during a White House
photo session, Reagan replied, "It wasn't all that bad."
 Reuter

Shr 85 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 2,381,000 vs 754,000
    Revs 35.3 mln vs 32.6 mln
    Avg shrs 2,777,620 vs 3,161,603
    Six mths
    Shr 1.35 dlrs vs 44 cts
    Net 3,756,000 vs 1,388,000
    Revs 65.8 mln vs 64.3 mln

 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 986,000 vs profit 576,000
    Rev 9.6 mln vs 9.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss seven cts vs profit 27 cts
    Net loss 714,000 vs profit 2,299,000
    Rev 42.8 mln vs 34.6 mln
 Reuter

Gelco Corp said it signed a letter
of intent to sell its Canadian courier unit, Gelco Express Ltd,
to Air Canada for about 54 mln dlrs (U.S.).
    It said consummation of the transaction depends on
execution of a definitive agreement, which is expected in May.
    As part of its restructuring plan, Gelco had announced that
it would sell four business units. Gelco Express Ltd was one of
the companies scheduled for divestiture.
 Reuter

Synthetech Inc said it
discontinued negotiations on acquiring Southwest Photo chem Inc
of Pomona, Calif.
    The company cited "irreconcilable differences" in the
financial structure of the deal.
    It said Southwest Photo proposed a significant change in
terms outlined in the letter of intent signed last month.
 Reuter

Ranco Inc said shareholders at a
special meeting approved a merger into <Siebe PLC> for 40 dlrs
per share.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs profit two cts
    Net profit 268,000 vs profit 134,000
    Revs 6,951,000 vs 5,938,000
    12 mths
    Shr profit 14 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 801,000 vs loss 623,000
    Revs 24.6 mln vs 24.3 mln
    NOTE: full name of company is american physicians service
group inc.
 Reuter

M.S. Carriers Inc said it has
completed an offering of 550,000 common shares, including
350,000 sold by shareholders, for 32.25 dlrs each.
    Lead underwriters were Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> and
Morgan Keegan Inc <MOR>.
 Reuter

State-owned Air Canada said it will
make a statement at 1100 EST concerning a published report that
the airline has agreed to acquire Gelco Corp's Canadian unit,
Gelco Express Ltd, an Air Canada spokesman said.
    The spokesman declined to comment on the Toronto Globe and
Mail report when queried.
    The sale of Gelco Express, Canada's second largest courier
service, is part of the parent company's strategy to repay 350
mln U.S. dlrs of debt by the end of 1987, the report said,
quoting a Gelco spokesman. The report did not disclose a price
for the sale of Gelco's Canadian unit.
 Reuter

said it expects its audited results for 1986's fourth quarter
to be lower than its previously estimated 10 to 15 cts per
share.
    Philip Crosby Jr, executive vice president, said normal
accounting adjustments, as well as a review of the company's
international operations due to a previously reported alleged
embezzlement, resulted in the lower results.
    Philip Crosby reported fourth quarter 1985 results of 1.3
mln dlrs, or 37 cts a share prior to an August 15 two-for-one
    Crosby said, however, he expects the company to report
higher first quarter 1987 revenues than the 1986 first quarter
revenues of 11.8 mln dlrs.
    Crosby said that tuition levels from the management
consulting service company's courses this month are at the
highest level in the company's history.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs loss 44 cts
    Net profit 247,000 vs loss 2,410,000
    Revs 3,845,000 vs 3,264,000
    Avg shrs 8,743,000 vs 5,507,000
    Year
    Shr profit one ct vs loss 53 cts
    Net profit 41,300 vs loss 2,840,000
    Revs 13.0 vs 9,767,000
    Avg shrs 7,497,000 vs 5,384,000
    NOTE: 1985 4th qtr and year net includes two mln dlr loss
for litigation settlement and 589,000 dlrs for write-off of
goodwill.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs six cts
    Net 43,295 vs 147,724
    Revs 3,787,507 vs 4,000,019
 Reuter

    Pay Apirl 10
    
 Reuter

Group profit after financial income and expenses 731 mln
    Crowns vs 651 mln
    Sales 10.15 billion crowns vs 10.05 billion
    Profit per share after full taxes - 31.80 crowns vs 30
    Crowns
    Proposed dividend - 11 crowns vs 10 crowns.
 Reuter

Sheldahl Inc said it signed
the previously announced agreements with Sumitomo Bakelite Co
Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, providing for a joint participation program
for manufacturing flexible circuits and circuitry components.
    Under terms of the agreement, each company granted the
other a license to use flexible circuit and related technology.
    As part of the transaction, Sumitomo Bakelite has purchased
10 pct, or 325,000 shares of Sheldahl common stock. In
addition, Sheldahl will be a minority holder in Sumitomo's next
flexible circuit manufacturing operation in Japan.
 Reuter

Qtly div 1-3/4 cts vs 1-3/4 cts prior
 Reuter

Eastern Utilities Associates <EAU> said
PaineWebber Inc, Prudential-Bache Capital Funding and A.G.
Edwards and Sons Inc, were the successful bidders for one mln
of its common shares offered at 36-5/8 dlrs per share.
    Eastern said it has about 11.7 mln common shares
    As previously reported, Eastern said it will use the
proceeds from the sale to reduce or eliminates its short-term
debt.
 Reuter

The Icelandic government said it will
privatise the state-owned bank Utvegsbanki, the country's
second largest. Parliament also granted an 800 mln crown cash
infusion to ease cash flow problems that arose when the bank
lost 600 mln crowns in a shipping firm bankruptcy two years
ago.
    Utvegsbanki director Halldor Gudbjarnarson told Reuters the
decision to privatise the bank was a relief and that foreign
banks had already expressed interest in taking a share.
    A quarter of the one billion crown total share capital will
be available to foreign investors, government officials said.
 REUTER

<Candlewood Bank and Trust
Co> said it plans an initial public offering of 500,000 common
shares at an expected price of 10 dlrs each through underwriter
Moseley Holdings Corp <MOSE>, which has been granted an option
to buy up to 75,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
    Candlewood is being formed to serve the area around
Candlewood Lake in Connecitcut,  Proceeds from the offering
would support its operations.
 Reuter

Monetary compensatory amounts (mcas)
for cereals will be unchanged for the week starting March 23,
European Commission officials said.
    Cereals mcas are plus 2.4 points for West Germany and the
Netherlands, minus two points for Denmark, minus eight points
for France, minus nine points for Ireland, minus 5.7 points for
Italy, minus 25.7 points for Britain, minus 44.1 points for
Greece and minus 10.5 points for Spain.
 Reuter

    Record April 13 
 Reuter

Silver looks "unlikely to break out of
gold and platinum's shadow" in the near future, although this
year is likely to see demand increasing at a faster rate than
supply, a study by Credit Suisse said.
    The study predicted demand rising by 300 tonnes to 13,200
tonnes this year, against a 50 tonne increase in supply to
14,050 tonnes. This should cut the global oversupply to 850
tonnes from last year's provisional 1,100 tonnes.
    The study noted that the effects of last year's lower
prices were having a dampening effect on total supply, which
was now back down to around levels of a decade ago.
    However, the study said that primary production, likely to
reach 10,000 tonnes this year against a provisional 9,950 in
1986, is relatively insensitive to price falls.
    Around a third of silver production comes from heavily
indebted Mexico and Peru.
    Price-sensitivity is also reduced by the fact that the
majority of silver is a by-product of other mining activity.
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps said it lowered the
ratings on Duquesne Light Company fixed income securities,
affecting approximately 1.8 billion dlrs in debt.
    Duquesne first mortgage bonds and debentures were lowered
to DP-9 (middle BBB) from DP-8 (high BBB), preferred stock
rating to DP-10 (low BBB) from DP-9 and preference stock to
DP-11 (high BB) from DP-10.
    The change resulted from a denial by the Pennsylvania
Public Utility Commission for a rate increase and an order by
the commission to reduce rates by 18.6 mln dlrs annually.
 Reuter

Pacad Inc said it has entered
into a contractual agreement with <Okamoto U.S.A. Inc> to
market condoms manufactured by Okamoto's parent company,
Okamoto Riken Gomu Co Ltd of Japan.
    Pacad president David Tucker said the agreement covered the
entire U.S. and Caribbean.
    "With mounting public health concerns we expect our condom
sales to begin within 30 days and grow rapidly in 1987," Tucker
said. "We find perception of quality and value in Japanese
products is just now crossing over from cars and cameras to
condoms."
 Reuter

Premark International Inc said
it is extending to April 17 the offer to buy its common stock
from holders of fewer than 100 shares.
    Owners of record Jan 27, 1987 are eligible for the offer,
which enables shareholders to sell their holdings to Premark
without paying brokerage fees or commission.
    The offer is being made on a "first-come first-served"
basis with a maximum of 1.7 mln shares to be accepted.
 Reuter

First Bancorp said it filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission its public offering of
400,000  shares of common stock to be underwitten by Interstate
    First Bancorp said the registration statement also covers
60,000 additional shares that Interstate Securities has the
right to acquire in order to cover over allotments.
    First Bancorp, which is now private, said its stock will
not be traded until the filing becomes effective.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 368,188 vs profit 149,334
    Revs 3,9i3,523 vs 4,129,240
 Reuter

ANIMED Inc said it expects to
return to profitability during the current year.
    Today it reported a loss for the first quarter ended in
January of 368,188 dlrs compared with a 149,334 dlr profit a
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs loss 31 cts
    Net loss 144,522 vs loss 334,890
    Revs 10,019,828 vs 9,021,835
    Year
    Shr loss 16 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 170,177 vs profit 105,090
    Revs 36.8 mln vs 36.1 mln
    Avg shrs 1,068,850 vs 1,074,624
    NOTE: 1985 period ended December 28
    1985 earnings include loss in each period from discontinued
operations of 184,777 dlrs
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 797,000 vs 1,137,000
    Rev 22.2 mln vs 18.2 mln
    Avg shares 3,966,667 vs 3,366,667
    Year
    Shr 73 cts vs one dlr
    Net 2,625,000 vs 3,371,000
    Rev 69.6 mln vs 62.9 mln
    Avg shares 3,583,653 vs 3,366,667
    NOTE: 1986 includes extraordinary gain of 281,000 dlrs, or
eight cts a share.
 Reuter

Shr profit 48 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net profit 1,308,503 vs loss 561,384
    Revs 56.0 mln vs 66.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes pretax gain 2,429,563 dlrs from
sale of Worldwide Computer Services Inc subsidiary and 352,000
dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

<DBCG.F> will increase its dividend on results in the year
ending September 30, 1987, chief executive Helmut Wiehn said.
    Wiehn told a news conference Deutsche Babcock would double
the absolute amount it distributes to shareholders. This
overall increase would also be due partly to an increase of
nominal share capital by 100 mln marks to 350 mln marks.
    A higher dividend had been anticipated because Deutsche
Babcock has said in the past that it will only raise capital
when it can make a lasting improvement in the dividend.
 Reuter

Finance for Danish Industry is issuing a
300 mln Danish crown eurobond due April 23, 1992, paying 11-3/8
pct and priced at 100-1/4 pct, lead manager Privatbanken Ltd
said.
    The bond will be listed in Luxembourg. Pay date is April
24.
 REUTER

Exovir Inc said it sold to an
investor group led by Mark Hammer 200,000 shares of company
common stock and warrants to purchase an additional 200,000
shares.
    Exovir said the transaction increases the group's stake
from 12.9 pct to 18.5 pct.
    The net proceeds to the company total 2.8 mln dlrs, the
company said. The warrants are exerciseable over the next three
years at 19.50 dlrs per share of common stock, according to
Exovir.
 Reuter

    Pay May 4
    Record April 3
 Reuter

Net loss 1,321,000 vs loss 1,397,000
    Sales 31.1 mln vs 29.2 mln
    1st half
    Net loss 94,000 vs loss 1,745,000
    Sales 63.0 mln vs 61.9 mln
    NOTE: Company recently went private.
    Latest quarter net includes 24,000 dlr tax credit.
    Current half net includes gain 2,041,000 dlrs pretax from
 Reuter

International Business Machines Corp
has released software programing standards that will eventually
make it possible to link the company's computers of all sizes,
a spokeswoman said.
    She said standards were contained in a programing
announcement IBM sent to its sales representatives and some
customers. The new standards, known as Systems Application
Architecture, do not constitute a new product. But they provide
the framework for development of saftware to be used in future
computers.
 Reuter

Today's modest half-point cut in U.K.
Bank base lending rates to 10 pct signals the Bank of England's
determination to maintain a cautious monetary stance, but
financial markets appear set to force its hand, analysts said.
    They said a further half-point cut in base rates to 9-1/2
pct was bound to occur within the next week and rates may shed
a further half point soon if markets remain buoyant.
    Earlier, markets were bracing for a one-point cut in rates
after yesterday's budget set a sharp three billion stg
reduction in 1987 government borrowing targets to four billion
stg.
    Sterling money market rates moved lower again, with the key
three-month interbank rate down to 9-5/8 1/2 pct at the start
of business from 9-11/16 9/16 yesterday, and sterling rallied
to four-year highs against the dollar in very active trading.
    Government bond prices also surged on the budget, with
gains in excess of one point pushing yields on long-term paper
below nine pct for the first time in nearly a year.
    But today's smaller than expected rate cut appeared to have
placated markets for now, analysts said. Money market rates
recovered up to 1/4 point from earlier lows while both sterling
and gilts came off highs as trading ground to a near halt.
    Analysts said the slowdown was likely to be temporary, and
the reappraisal of sterling assets by international investors
was set to resume as early as tomorrow, leading to higher gilt
prices, exchange rate advances and lower money market rates.
    "Today's cut was slightly disappointing," said Bill Martin,
chief U.K. Economist at stockbrokers Phillips and Drew. "The
Bank of England is taking a very cautious line ... To temper
the markets' first rush of blood to the head after the budget."
    Analysts said the bank's move today to lend two-week cash
to U.K. Discount houses at a lower 10 pct suggested it hoped to
maintain the new rates for about that period of time.
    The analysts agreed success would depend largely on how
sterling performs in the near term.
    Sharp rises in the pound's value could be checked initially
through Bank of England intervention but eventually the gains
would force the bank to cut interest rates rates again.
    "The market seems to have accepted the modest cut for the
time being," said Midland Bank treasury economist David
Simmonds. "But I am sceptical that the bank will be able to hold
up rates for long."
    Simmonds said he saw sterling rising another two U.S. Cents
this week from around 1.60 dlrs, forcing a rate cut by Friday.
    Robin Marshall, chief economist at Chase Manhattan
Securities, said "There is another half point to come in the
near term, this week or next week at the latest...We see a
whole point off base rates in the next two or three weeks."
    Analysts stressed that apart from prestige, Britain had
very little to gain from a sharp rise in sterling's exchange
rate.
    Martin, of Phillips and Drew, said the dampening effect of
a sterling rise on consumer price inflation would not
materialise for at least nine months while its hampering impact
on manufactured exports would show almost immediately.
    Analysts said the budget, featuring income tax cuts as well
as cautious plans for public finances, had improved the chances
of re-election for the Conservative government and probably
advanced the election date. One must be held before June, 1988.
Combined with overall good prospects for the U.K. Economy, this
was likely to fuel a foreign rush on sterling-denominated
assets, pushing the pound's value well above unofficial
targets.
    With mark-denominated investments largely out of favour
because of low yields and a dull economic outlook, Chase's
Marshall said "Sterling is simply the best game in town,
especially after the budget, and demand will remain strong."
 REUTER

Commercial National Corp said
it cut its quarterly dividend to 15 cts per share from 25 cts
due to current expectations for 1987 earnings.
    The company said the dividend is payable April 10 to
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 188,000 vs 307,000
    Sales 14.6 mln vs 12.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 44 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 600,000 vs 852,000
    Sales 51.0 mln vs 45.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,280,185 vs 875,692
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Assets 585.6 mln vs 469.1 mln
 Reuter

Pakistan and Sweden have signed a
commodity exchange agreement for 88 mln dlrs each way, the
Pakistan government announced.
    Pakistan's exports under the agreement will include raw
cotton, cotton products, cotton textiles, steel products,
molasses, naphtha and fresh and dried fruits.
    Swedish exports to Pakistan will include medical and
laboratory equipment, electrical telecommunication equipment,
diesel engine spares, mining and security equipment,
road-building and construction machinery, fertilisers and palm
oil.
 Reuter

<Peat Marwick>, an accounting and
management consulting firm, and <Nolan, Norton and Co>, an
information and technology planning concern, said they have
merged.
    The companies said with the merger Nolan now will be known
as Nolan, Norton and Co-partners, the information technology
arm of Peat Marwick.
    Also as part of the merger, Nolan's 21 principals have
become Peat Marwick partners, the companies said.
 Reuter

Trus Joist Corp said it agreed to
purchase Dashwood Industries Ltd, a Canadian wood window and
patio door manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Trus Joist said it expects to close the transaction before
June 30.
 Reuter

Kinder-Care Inc projected its
1987 earnings to be 44 mln dlrs.
    Richard Grassgreen, president of the company, said earnings
per share are expected to be between 97 cts and one dlr in
comparison to 75 cts earnings per share for the fiscal year
ended August 29, 1986, and 80 cts for the trailing 12 months
ended November 1986.
    Greengrass said this represents an earnings per share
increase of approximately 25 to 30 pct.
    The company said it changed its fiscal year end from August
31 to December 31.
 Reuter

Shr profit 11 cts vs loss 1.45 dlrs
    Net profit 267,000 vs loss 3,458,000
    Sales 23.6 mln vs 23.0 mln
    First half
    Shr loss 27 cts vs loss 1.91 dlrs
    Net loss 633,000 vs loss 4,548,000
    Sales 46.2 mln vs 49.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,382,000 vs 2,381,000
    Backlog 26.1 mln vs 36.0 mln
 Reuter

Japan's ailing shipbuilding industry
plans to refloat itself in a few years from the twin rocks of
recession and a strong yen through capacity and workforce cuts
and greater use of computers, industry sources told Reuters.
    The salvage measures, which include a government-sponsored
rationalisation program, are aimed at clawing back some of the
market which Japan, the world leader, has lost to South Korea
through currency and labour cost disadvantages, they said.
    The sources said South Korea's yards are now some 35 pct
more competitive than Japan's due to such factors.
    The government plans to help the industry shed 20 pct of
current capacity within two years through mergers and
regrouping under legislation put before Parliament this month
and likely to be approved by May or June, the sources said.
    They said from September a semi-government body will assure
repayment of about 50 billion yen in liabilities incurred
through job losses and the sale of excess capacity, and another
30 billion for buying unneeded land and equipment.
    Last Friday, the Shipbuilders Association of Japan applied
to the Fair Trade Commission to form a cartel to slash tonnage
built to about half of total capacity for a year from April 1.
    The commission has held several hearings with the industry
and approval should be given this month, the sources said.
    A clampdown on output over one or two years combined with a
planned cost-cutting and streamlining program and state support
should help Japanese yards recover their international
competitiveness, they said.
    Under the cartel proposals, 33 yards each capable of
building ships of more than 10,000 gross tonnes would build a
maximum of three mln compensated gross registered tonnes (CGRT)
in 1987/88. This is about half of total capacity.
    This will ease the cut-throat competition which forced most
yards to sign orders below cost, the sources said.
    The industry is likely to seek to renew the cartel for
1988/89 as the Transport Ministry sees new orders falling to
3.1 mln CGRT in 1988/89 from 3.3 mln in 1987/88, they said.
    The rationalisation program includes a cut of 20,000 to
30,000 of the estimated 100,000 workers in the industry between
1986 and 1989.
    Japanese yards topped world order books at end-December,
followed by South Korea and Taiwan, according to Lloyd's
Register of Shipping.
    However, falling orders and declining international
competitiveness due to the strong yen led to heavy losses in
the industry, the sources said.
    Four of Japan's six major heavy machinery and shipbuilding
companies reported current deficits in the first half of the
year to March 31 and five of them are expected to report
current deficits for the whole of 1986/7, they said.
    The shipbuilding companies' streamlining program will raise
productivity to compete with South Korean yards which have also
been hard hit by declining orders and low ship prices in recnt
years, the sources said.
    In Japan, no single yard leads the industry, resulting in
fierce competition and slow progress in reducing capacity. The
two largest firms -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd <MITH.T>
and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd <JIMA.T> --
account for only 30 pct of ships built, the sources said.
    "World shipowners hope Japanese yards can manage to ride out
the recession as their technology is the best in the world,"
said an official at a major Japanese shipping company.
    The Japanese merchant fleet, the largest after Liberia's,
has no intention of shifting to other countries to buy ships,
and this will encourage Japanese yards, the sources said.
 REUTER

CONT'L ILLINOIS SAYS BRAZIL MORATORIUM COULD CUT 1ST QTR NET BY 10 MLN DLRS

reserves indirectly via 1.5 billion dlrs or more of customer
repurchase agreements, economists said.
    They said the below-six pct Federal funds rate suggests the
Fed does not have a large reserve adding need. However, some
dealers reportedly backed out of the three-day System
repurchase agreements set on Monday, leaving the Fed with a
somewhat increased need to supply reserves.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.05 pct yesterday, opened at
5-15/16 pct and remained there in early trading.
 Reuter

Bristol-Myers Co <BMY> said it would
seek Food and Drug Administration permission to test its AIDS
vaccine in humans by the end of March.
    A company spokesman said the company will file an
investigational new drug application by the end of the month,
requesting the FDA to allow testing of the vaccine in humans.
    Scientists at the company's Genetic Systems unit created an
AIDS vaccine, which Bristol-Myers said produced antibodies to
the AIDS virus in mice and monkeys. The vaccine consists of
smallpox virus remodeled to carry a key gene found on the AIDS
virus.
    Drug industry analysts said that that before the FDA would
allow the vaccine to be tested, a number of safety issues would
have to be resolved. Bristol-Myers said that by piggy-backing
two AIDS virus proteins with the small pox virus, a hybrid
virus is created that simulataneously immunizes against
smallpox and the AIDS virus proteins.
    The vaccine uses two proteins found on the surface of the
AIDS virus. The AIDS virus contains a number of such proteins
and it is not yet known which ones would provoke immunity
against AIDS.
 Reuter

The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto
is issuing a 75 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due May 7, 1997
paying 8-3/4 pct and priced at 101-1/8 pct, lead manager Wood
Gundy Inc said.
    The bond will be listed in Luxembourg and is available in
denominations of 1,000 dlrs.
for management and underwriting. Pay date is May 7.
 REUTER

The 1.4 mln tonnes capacity bauxite
refinery at Paranam in Surinam, which closed at the end of
January after being sabotaged by anti-government rebels, has
now reopened, a spokesman for Dutch metals company Billiton
said.
    The refinery is run by Suralco, jointly owned by the U.S.
Company Alcoa and the Dutch company Billiton, which is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell.
    Production of alumina at the refinery is currently running
at around 3,000 tonnes a day and is expected to get back to
full capacity of 4,000 tonnes within a week, the Billiton
spokesman added.
    The refinery was forced to close at the end of January when
rebels cut the main power line.
    Earlier, the refinery had had to import some supplies of
bauxite, as rebel activity shut off supplies from Alcoa's mine
at Moengo in the east of the country.
    Billiton's mine at Onverdacht, between Paranam and the
capital Paramaribo, is still working but Moengo remains closed
and the refinery is continuing to import some bauxite, the
Billiton spokesman said.
 Reuter

Continental Illinois Corp said if the
Brazilian debt moratorium remains in effect, it may place its
medium and long term loans to Brazil on a cash basis.
    This would increase non-performing loans by about 380 mln
dlrs and reduce income before taxes and net income by about 10
mln dlrs in the 1987 first quarter and 35 mln dlrs for the full
year, company officials told a press briefing.
    Loans to Brazil at 1986 year end totaled 474 mln dlrs,
according to the annual report released at the briefing.
    In February 1987, the Brazilian government, citing a
declining level of foreign currency reserves, declared a
moratorium on the payment of interest on the country's medium
and long term debt obligations.
    Continental said it may take similar action on its loans to
Ecuador, which total 25 mln dlrs. This would reduce 1987
pre-tax and after-tax net by 800,000 dlrs in the first quarter,
and by two mln dlrs for the full year, the bank-holding
company's officers said.
 Reuter

The Queensland Government Development
Authority is launching a 300 mln U.S. Dlr euro-commercial paper
program, Morgan Guaranty Ltd said as one of the dealers.
    The other dealer is Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd and
issuing and paying agent is Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New
York's London office.
    The program is guaranteed by the Government of Queensland.
Paper will be issued in denominations of 500,000 dlrs and will
have maturities between seven and 365 days.
 REUTER

Shr loss 3.26 dlrs vs loss 2.75 dlrs
    Net loss 3,479,744 vs 2,939,619
    Year
    Shr loss 5.58 dlrs vs loss 2.20 dlrs
    Net loss 5,964,454 vs loss 2,341,818
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 108,798 dlrs vs 1,445,275
dlrs in quarter and 838,690 dlrs vs 1,124,805 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

    Norwest Corp - Shelf offering of up to 100 mln dlrs of debt
securities, supplementing another 275 mln dlrs of debt
securities which remain unsold from a previous shelf
registration.
    First Bancorp, Troy, N.C. - Initial offering of 400,000
shares of common stock at an estimated 17-19 dlrs a share
through Interstate Securities Corp.
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs profit 23 cts
    Net loss 5,106,000 vs profit 5,120,000
    Sales 11.4 mln vs 20.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 19 cts vs profit 73 cts
    Net loss 4,062,000 vs profit 15.7 mln
    Sales 50.4 mln vs 80.5 mln
    Avg shrs 21.7 mln vs 21.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits of 2,742,000 dlrs in
quarter and 5,903,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Shr loss 22 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 1,056,000 vs profit 427,000
    Sales 5,440,000 vs 4,982,000
    Avg shrs 5,229,542 vs 4,435,691
    Year
    Shr profit one ct vs profit 26 cts
    Net profit 29,000 vs profit 993,000
    Sales 19.1 mln vs 16.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4,947,632 vs 3,780,543
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said the Food and
Drug Administration gave it approval to market Vancomycin HCL,
an antibiotic used in hospitals to treat life-threatening
infections.
    It said the product is currently marketed by Eli Lilly and
Co <LLY> under the trade name Vancocin. Sales in 1986 were 110
mln dlrs.
    LyphoMed said its objective is to get a 15 to 20 pct share
 Reuter

France's <Regie Nationale des Usines
Renault> agreed to forgive 150 mln to 200 mln dlrs of American
Motors Corp debt as part of Chrysler Corp's <C> 1.5 billion dlr
acquisition of American Motors, a Chrysler official said.
    Chrysler investor relations director Everett Scranton said
through a spokesman that the French state-owned car group
agreed to forgive the debt as part of a complex payment for
Renault's 46.1 pct stake in American Motors.
    Other terms of the accord call for Chrysler to give Renault
a 200 mln dlr, eight pct note due in 10 years and 35 mln dlrs
in cash for its American Motors interest.
    Chrysler will also make a further payment to Renault of up
to 350 mln dlrs, depending on Amerian Motors' future
performance, Scranton said.
    American Motors' board will consider the Chrysler bid again
this Friday at a regularly scheduled board meeting.
 Reuter

UIniversal Medical Buildings LP
said its partnership units were admitted for trading on the
NASDAQ National Market System.
 Reuter

ChemClear Inc said it terminated
merger talks with Environmental Systems Co <ESC>.
    ChemClear said it was unable to reach agreement with
Environmental, which was considering buying ChemClear.
    ChemClear said it is considering other options, including
other business combinations and financing through commercial
lending and other financial institutions for internal
expansion.
 Reuter

World stocks of silver are large
enough to accommodate any changes in the supply-demand equation
this year, with industrial consumption expected to again exceed
mine production, the dealer house Handy and Harman said in its
annual review of the silver market.
    The house estimated that the industry last year withdrew
20,000,000 ounces of silver from stocks to bridge a supply
deficit caused by a consumption rate of 403,000,000 ounces and
production level of 382,000,000 ounces.
    However, world stocks are huge, totaling 2,267,900,000
ounces at the end of 1986, it said.
    The review noted that world industrial consumption has been
on an uptrend since 1980, although offtake is still 14 pct
below the 1978 level of 442,000,000 ounces.
    Handy and Harman said 22,800,000 ounces of silver were used
to produce coins last year, up from 12,700,000 ounces in 1985,
with the demand getting a big boost from the production of U.S.
coins, including the American Eagle.
    It also said that in recent years Communist countries have
increased their silver imports and estimated that China and
East Germany alone took in 70,000,000 ounces of foreign silver
in the last five years.
 Reuter

Spain's financially troubled power
company <Fuerzas Electricas de Cataluna S.A.> (FECSA) may
suspend payments if it fails to reach agreement with creditors
on renegotiating its 594 billion peseta debt, a company
    "We would only take this step in the event of a lack of
co-operation on the part of our creditors," FECSA assistant
general manager Jose Zaforteza told Reuters in a telephone
interview. "It is unlikely they will refuse to renegotiate."
    He said creditors would obtain a better deal by negotiating
than under a suspension of payments.
    FECSA is scheduled to begin formal talks with its creditors
on April 6, and foreign banks holding some 184 billion pesetas
of debt said they were angered over what they called a lack of
information on the company's situation.
    The spokesman for one U.S. Bank creditor said in reply to
inquiries "It has been two months since we first detected signs
of serious trouble at FECSA, and we still have no idea of how
the company plans to restructure its finances."
    The spokesman said no foreign bankers had been notified
when FECSA yesterday, in an action unrelated to a possible
total payments suspension, suspended payment on its debt
principal.
    FECSA's Zaforteza said, however, that telexes had been sent
to creditors notifying them of the move, which he said was
unavoidable.
loans and debentures. FECSA faces repayment of 60 billion
pesetas in interest and 30 billion on principal this year.
    The U.S. Bank spokesman said foreign banks "were now more in
the dark" than ever.
    FECSA called for renegotiating its debt when the Madrid
stock exchange on February 6 suspended trading in its shares, a
move which officials said was meant to protect shareholders.
    Zaforteza said the company will ask its creditors to switch
old debt to new loans at lower interest rates, postpone
interest payments and possibly convert some debt into shares.
    Foreign bankers said they assumed the government was
involved in the control and management of the electricity
sector.
    They added that lending policy toward the industry could be
affected if the banks lost money in FECSA.
    Foreign banking sources said they considered likely a fresh
postponement of a 10 billion peseta Chase Manhattan Bank
<CMB.N> led syndicated loan to power company <Hidrolectrica de
Cataluna S.A.> (Hidruna).
    The facility was scheduled to be signed in mid-February but
was postponed when the bourse suspended FECSA's shares.
    "We planned to sign this month but that looks unlikely under
the present circumstances," a foreign banker said.
 REUTER

Vista Chemical co said it expects
earnings for the year ending September 30 to be up
substantially, but extensive planned downtime at two of its
plants is expected to affect third quarter results.
    It said it is looking at a number of financial options for
increasing shareholder value but did not elaborate.
    The company earned 30.2 mln dlrs or 1.66 dlrs per share
before an extraordinary item in fiscal 1986.
    Vista said sales for the year are expected to be
"comparable" to fiscal 1986's 550.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Consolidated Natural Gas Co said it
has received Securities and Exchange Commission approval to
establish a wholly-owned gas marketing subsidiary.
    The company said the unit - to be known as CNG Trading Co -
will do business in six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
West Virgina, Louisiana and Texas.
    The company said the subsidiary will enable it to maintain
and increase gas sales and transport volume.
    CNG Trading will assist customers in the pooling,
transport, exchange, storage, and purchase of gas supplies, the
    Consolidated said customers' needs will be met from a wide
range of low cost sources, including the stock market,
independent producers and brokers, and Consolidated's producing
affiliates - CNG Development Co of Pittsburgh, and CNG
Producing Co based in New Orleans.
 Reuter

Aristech Chemical Corp said it plans
to increase production capacity for three of its key product
lines: polypropylene, bisphenol-A and phenol.
    Aristech said the polypropylene expansion involves a major
modernization of its Neal, W. Va., polypropylene plant.
    When completed, Aristech said, the project would increase
the plant's annual production to 264 mln pounds from 165 mln
pounds now.
    Aristech said the expansion will increase the company's
total polypropylene, a thermoplastic resin, capacity to 600 mln
pounds annually from 515 mln pounds now.
    Aristech also said it will expand bisphenol-A and phenol
production at its Haverhill, Ohio plant.
    It said the project will raise its bisphenol-A, which is
used to make polycarbonate and epoxy reins, capacity to 192 mln
pounds per year from 165 mln pounds now.
    Aristech added that phenol production will increase to 610
mln pounds per year from 585 mln pounds a year now.
    Phenol is used to make phenolic resins and adhesives for
engineering plastics, the company said.
 Reuter

Pearson Plc <PSON.L> said <Camco Inc>,
its 65.4 pct owned U.S. Oil and oil services subsidiary, signed
a letter of intent covering Camco's purchase from Baker
International Corp <BKO.N> of substantially all the business of
<Reed Tool Co>.
    Reed, a leading manufacturer of drilling bits, had sales
for 1986 of around 76 mln dlrs.
    The transaction is subject to negotiation of a definitive
agreement approved by the Baker and Camco boards and by the
U.S. Department of Justice, with which talks are already taking
place concerning the combination of Baker and Hughes Tool.
    Baker International has proposed a merger with Hughes Tool
which could create a 1.2 billion dlr oilfield services company.
    Pearson shares were down 4p to 567 after the announcement.
 REUTER

Pentair Inc is offering two mln shares
of 1.50 dlrs cumulative convertible preferred stock for 25 dlrs
a share, said underwriters Kidder Peabody and Co Inc and Piper
Jaffray and Hopwood Inc.
    The underwriters said the shares are convertible at any
time into Pentair common stock at 38.875 dlrs a share, subject
to adjustment.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay bank
borrowings incurred in the acquisition of McNeil Corp in August
1986, the underwriters noted.
 Reuter

National Savings Bank of Albany
said Thomas P. Bilbao will join the company as President and
Chief Executive officer next month.
    He was fomerly a Senior Vice President for <Goldome FSB>.
    National Savings said Bilbao succeeds George O. Pfaff, who
was elected chairman of the board and continues as chief
 Reuter

said it has begun development of a new generation of systems
that will be introduced in early 1988.
    The provider of software to the insurance industry said the
Series III systems will offer artificial intelligence and
expert systems technology, intelligent workstations, image
processing and other capabilities.
 Reuter

On-Line Software International
Inc said a Canadian venture equally owned with Nexa Corp,
On-Line Software Canada Inc, began operating.
    On-Line Software Canada will offer software products
acquired from Martin Marietta Corp <ML> last October and other
On-Line products.
    Nexa is a Canadian investment firm specializing in
information technology.
 Reuter

Irving Bank Corp said a new
subsidiary, called Irving Trust Co California, will begin
operations tomorrow.
    The unit, which will be headquartered here and have a
branch in Los Angeles, will provide a full range of
institutional and personal asset management services to
companies, institutions and individuals throughout the state.
    Richard Tinervin will be president and chief executive
officer of the Californian unit. He has been managing Irving
Trust Co's institutional investment management division.
 Reuter

    NOTE: First Connecticut Small Business Investment Co.
 Reuter

Teikoku Kako Co Ltd is launching 40 mln
Swiss francs of five-year notes with warrants with a 1-1/2 pct
indicated coupon, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
    Terms will be set on March 24 with payment due April 23.
    The notes are guaranteed by Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

Chase Manhattan Corp said it
introduced the Market Index Investment, a new deposit account
that allows investors to take advantage of stock market gains
without risk of principal loss.
    Chase said the account offers the option of guaranteed
interest rate, carries no commissions or fees, and is fully
insured to 100,000 dlrs by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
    Interest earned on the Market Index Investment is based on
any percentage increase in the Standard and Poor's index from
the day the account begins to the day it matures, Chase said.
    Customers can select terms of three, six, nine of 12
months. The minimum deposit is 1,000 dlrs, it added.
 Reuter

Qtly div 40 cts vs 40 cts prior
    Pay May 15
   
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss 27 cts
    Net profit 22,000 vs loss 763,000
    Revs 161,000 vs 316,000
    NOTE: Prior year net includes 1,209,000 dlr writedown of
oil properites and 314,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

<Metromedia Co's>
Metromedia Long Distance unit said it lowered interstate long
distance rates for business customers by an average of 10 pct.
    The cuts were effective March one.
 
 Reuter

Qtrly div 30 cts vs 30 cts prior
    Pay May One
 Reuter

six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have ended talks
after adopting resolutions and recommendations aimed at
boosting economic integration.
    But the ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) did not endorse a
resolution on a common currency exchange rate system.
    The UAE's Minister of State for Finance and Industry, Ahmed
Humaid al-Tayer, told reporters after the two-day talks that
the ministers referred the issue back to GCC central bank
governors for further discussion.
    He said the governors, who agreed in January on a proposed
denominator on which the six currencies should be based, were
asked to resubmit the recommendation before July, when finance
ministers were due to meet in Saudi Arabia.
    Bankers said the central bank governors would meet soon to
discuss the issue, adding there was a possibility that a new
system could be submitted for final approval to a GCC summit
conference scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia late this year.
    The denominator approved by the governors has not been made
public, but banking sources said it could be similar to the
    Tayer said the ministers agreed in principle to allow GCC
citizens to set up businesses and work in any member state.
They also agreed in principle on a recommendation for citizens
to buy and own shares of GCC shareholding firms.
    He said the ministers discussed a report on imported goods
containing radiation caused by last year's Chernobyl nuclear
disaster in the Soviet Union, and agreed all products with
excessive levels should be returned to the country of origin.
 REUTER

Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection and Insurance Co said its board declared a
two-for-one stock split and raised the quarterly dividend to 25
cts postsplit from 20 cts, both payable April 30 to holders of
record April 10.
 Reuter

said he believes the Reagan Administration will review its
decision to cut the fill rate of the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve because of a department report issued yesterday warning
of growing U.S. dependence on oil imports.
    "As part of this study, I think the Administration will
take the fill rate under review," Herrington said at a House
Energy subcommittee hearing.
    The Administration has proposed cutting the fill rate from
75,000 barrels of oil per day to 35,000 bpd in fiscal year 1988
to save money.
    "My personal feeling is that is too low. I favor the
maximum fill rate (of 100,000 bpd)," Herrington said.
 Reuter

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Claiborne
Pell introduced legislation to permit eight states along the
northeast corridor to sell tax-exempt transportation bonds to
improve high speed rail service.
    His legislation, which also rejects President Reagan's call
to sell the Amtrak rail line, would affect the states of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
    His plan is an outgrowth of a study by a coalition of
northeast governors.
 Reuter

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 will have a
substantial impact on Continental Illinois Corp, the company's
annual report says.
    One provision repeals the reserve method of providing for
bad debts for banks with over 500 mln dlrs in assets and
requires that tax loan loss reserves taken in the past, be
restored to current earnings status, it said.
    As a result, those amounts will be subject to federal
taxes, it said. No amounts were disclosed.
    Continental said it decided to deal with this change "in
its entirety" in 1987.
    Tax reform will also change foreign tax credit limitation
rules, and although the impact will not be material in the
short term, the Act will require, for the first time, that
income from certain foreign subsidiaries be taxable, the report
said.
    The new legislation also reduces existing tax credits by
17.5 pct in 1987 and 35 pct in 1988 and later years, it said.
    Continental's investment tax credits carryforwards of 12.8
mln dlrs at 1986 year end will be reduced to 10.6 mln dlrs in
1987 and, if not used in 1987, to 8.3 mln dlrs in 1988, it
said.
    Another provision of the Act could result in limiting the
use of tax credits if a change in ownership of Continental
takes place, the report said.
    This could happen if the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
sells enough shares of Continental's common stock over the next
two years to cause a change in ownership, it noted.
    In December, the FDIC sold about one-third of its junior
convertible preference stock in Continental to the public in
the form of common stock.
 Reuter

Parent bank net profit 181.5 mln schillings vs 135.1 mln
    Parent bank balance sheet total 197.7 billion vs 182.2
billion
    Parent bank cash flow 877.4 mln vs 715.5 mln
    Dividend 12 pct vs 10 pct on nominal share capital of 1.5
billion vs 1.35 billion.
    Cons banking gp balance sheet total 239.7 billion vs 227.3
billion.
 REUTER

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee
approved nonbinding resolutions urging the Reagan
administration oppose Canada's ruling on U.S corn imports and a
proposed new European Community tax on vegetable oils.
    The resolutions, approved by voice vote, now will be sent
to the Senate floor were they are expected to be approved.
    The EC oils measure, offered by Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo.,
urges the administration to take strong retaliatory measures if
the tax is approved by the EC Council of Ministers.
    Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., offered the corn amendment
which urges the administration to file a complaint with the
GATT if the U.S. believes the corn decision by Canada was
unjustified. Canada recently imposed a permanent duty of 85
cents per bushel on U.S. corn imports.
 Reuter

net 65 mln vs 57 mln
    year
    shr preferred 14.87 dlrs vs 12.51 dlrs
    shr common 236.77 dlrs vs 197.40 dlrs
    net 247 mln vs 208 mln
    NOTE: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. FHLMC had 14,998,210
preferred shares outstanding in 1986 vs 14,998,379 in 1985,
owned by about 3,000 member institutions of the 12 Federal Home
Loan Banks. FHLMC also has 100,000 shares of common, owned by
the Home Loan Banks.
 Reuter

Federal Aviation Administration
chief Donald Engen said he plans to leave the government in
July.
    Engen, 62, has been FAA administrator for the past three
years.
    Before that, he was a member of the National Transportation
Safety Board. Prior to his service there, he  had been in the
U.S. Navy 36 years, reaching the rank of admiral.
    A spokesman said Engen had no specific plans after his
 Reuter

Recent purchases of U.S. corn by the
Soviet Union have skewed the domestic cash market by increasing
the price difference between the premium price paid at the Gulf
export point and interior levels, cash grain dealers said.
    Many dealers expect the USDA will act soon to reduce the
cash price premium at the Gulf versus the interior -- which a
dealer in Davenport, Iowa, said was roughly 20 pct wider than
normal for this time of year at 25 cents a bushel -- by making
it worthwhile for farmers to move grain.
    By lowering ASCS county posted prices for corn, the USDA
could encourage farmers to engage in PIK and roll corn sales,
where PIK certificates are used to redeem corn stored under the
government price support loan program and then marketed.
    If the USDA acts soon, as many dealers expect, the movement
would break the Gulf corn basis.
    "The USDA has been using the Gulf price to determine county
posted prices," one dealer said. "It should be taking the
average of the Gulf price and the price in Kansas City," which
would more closely reflect the lower prices in the interior
Midwest.
    "But we don't know when they might do it," an Ohio dealer
said, which has created uncertainty in the market.
    The USDA started the PIK certificate program in an effort
to free up surplus grain that otherwise would be forfeited to
the government and remain off the market and in storage.
    Yesterday, USDA issued a report showing that only slightly
more than 50 pct of the 3.85 billion dlrs in PIK certificates
it has issued to farmers (in lieu of cash payments) had to date
been exchanged for grain.
    With several billion dlrs worth of additional PIK
certificates scheduled to be issued in the coming months, the
USDA would be well advised to encourage the exchange for grain
by adjusting the ASCS prices, cash grain dealers said.
    A byproduct of the Soviet buying has been a sharp rise in
barge freight costs quoted for carrying grain from the Midwest
to the export terminals, cash dealers said.
    Freight from upper areas of the Mississippi have risen
nearly 50 pct in the past two weeks to over 150 pct of the
original tariff price. The mild winter and early reopening of
the mid-Mississippi river this spring have also encouraged the
firmer trend in barge freight, dealers noted.
    The higher transportation costs have served to depress
interior corn basis levels, squeezing the margins obtained by
the elevators feeding the Gulf export market as well as
discouraging farmer marketings, they said.
    "The Gulf market overreacted to the Soviet buying reports,"
which indicate the USSR has booked over two and perhaps as much
as 4.0 mln tonnes of U.S. corn, one Midwest cash grain trader
said.
    But dealers anticipate that once the rumors subside,
freight rates will settle back down because of the overall
surplus of barges on the Midwest river system.
 Reuter

Senate and House investigators into
the Iran arms scandal agreed to grant limited immunity to
obtain the testimony of key witnesses and to combine their
planned hearings.
    Chairmen of the separate Senate and House select Iran
committees told a news conference they would accede to a
request from special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh and hold off for
90 days before hearing testimony from Oliver North and John
Poindexter, two former White House aides who played leading
roles in the secret arms deal.
    Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House committee, and Daniel
Inoyue, chairman of the Senate panel, also said they would "meld"
their separate investigations, a move that will speed up
congressional hearings into the affair.
    One member predicted Congress now would be able to finish
its work by Labor Day in early September.
 Reuter

HRE Properties said its board cut the
quarterly dividend to 45 cts per share from 57 cts, payable
April 20 to holders of record March 31.
    HRE said the board reduced the dividend due to the
continuing impact of overbuilding in its office building
markets and its inability to replace the income from high
yielding investments that have matured.
    HRE said in the first quarter ended January 31 it earned 38
cts per share, down from 47 cts a year before.
 Reuter

Shr 1.27 dlrs vs two cts
    Net 18.8 mln vs 357,000
    Revs 126.0 mln vs 98.5 mln
    Avg shrs 14.7 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.17 dlrs vs loss 65 cts
    Net loss 28.4 mln vs loss 7,225,000
    Revs 405.0 mln vs 356.2 mln
    Avg shrs 13.1 mln vs 12.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods includes 15.0 mln dlr gain from
sale of real estate.
    1986 year net includes charge 34.0 mln dlrs from
restructuring of Bojangles' restaurant unit and charge
4,090,000 dlrs from exchange of notes for common stock.
    1985 year net includes charge 6,900,000 dlrs related to
foodservice unit and gain 2,400,000 dlrs from sale of
marketable securities.
 Reuter

    Net loss 10.7 mln vs profit 5,188,000
    Sales 119.3 mln vs 216.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 5.80 dlrs vs profit 30 cts
    Net loss 324.2 mln vs profit 21.5 mln
    Sales 549.3 mln vs 859.1 mln
    NOTE: In July 1986, company set a dividend on Series C
preferred, effecting a spin-off of its chemical operations.
They unit has been accounted for as a discontinued operation.
    Fourth quarter and full year 1986 reflect non-recurring
charges from change in control at company. Fourth quarter 1986
also reflects writeoff of 20.7 mln dlrs of goodwill.
    Full year 1986 includes a charge of 224.6 mln dlrs taken in
the second quarter for asset revaluation and restructuring
costs.
    In fourth quarter 1986, reversion of pension plan surplus
assets completed. Fourth quarter and full year 1986 includes
net income of 81.5 mln dlrs or 1.34 dlrs a share.
    Company also gained 2.4 mln dlrs or four cts a share in
fourth quarter 1986, and 15.9 mln dlrs or 26 cts a share in
full year 1986, from adoption of accounting rule SFAS 87.
    In fourth quarter 1986, company also adjusted carrying
value of non-chemicals discontinued operations assets leading
to charge of 15.6 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

The DIW economic research institute
said West German economic growth in 1987 is unlikely to reach
the 1.5 pct rate it had forecast earlier this year.
    The institute, whose forecasts are more pessimistic than
those of the other four leading German institutes, said the
economy had passed its peak in the summer of 1986, and its
prospects had dimmed significantly since the autumn.
    The DIW repeated earlier predictions that gross national
product (GNP) in the first quarter of 1987 would contract in
real, seasonally adjusted terms against the weak final quarter
of last year. 
    The DIW said that even if the economy recovers in the
remaining three quarters, it was unlikely that demand and
production would rise strongly enough to bring GNP growth up to
1.5 pct.
    Other institutes and economists have recently revised their
forecasts for German 1987 growth to around two pct.
    In a report DIW disputed arguments by other economists that
the economy was showing mixed development, with domestic demand
healthy but foreign demand weak.
    DIW said the crucial split was between weak demand for
capital goods, and strong demand for buildings and consumer
goods, not between foreign and domestic demand.
    It noted that domestic demand for capital goods had been
hit in recent months by the weakness of exports, which had
caused West German firms to scale back investment plans.
    Service industries, unlike manufacturing industry, were
continuing to do well because they relied on consumer demand,
it said.
    In a separate report the HWWA economic research institute
in Hamburg said West Germany's real trade surplus would fall
markedly this year.
    However, the nominal trade surplus would show little change
from 1986's record 112.2 billion marks because of a further
improvement in the terms of trade on average in 1987 compared
with 1986, it said.
 REUTER

    Oper shr loss 24 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Oper loss 1,096,332 vs loss 794,711
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss 53 cts vs loss 43 cts
    Oper loss 2,375,844 vs loss 1,741,437
    NOTE: Prior year excludes losses from discontinued
operations of 13 cts per share in the quarter and 17 cts per
share in the year. (Corrects March 17 item to show losses
instead of profits. Also corrects quarter loss from
discontinued operations.)
 Reuter

Several traders and analysts here told
Reuters Latin American coffee producers will meet this weekend
in Managua, Nicaragua. The purpose, they said, is to review the
breakdown of International Coffee Organization quota talks last
month and try to formulate a unified position ahead of possible
future negotiations.
    Two traders, who asked not to be named, said separately
Brazil is expected to attend the meeting along with most or all
of the Central American producers. The Central American
attendees would include Costa Rica and Honduras, who were part
of a minority producer group at the February talks that opposed
Brazil's position, they said.
    Another source, also requesting anonymity, said Colombia
probably will not attend.
 Reuter

Peru registered a 16 mln dlr trade deficit
in 1986, its first trade shortfall in four years, a central
bank statement said.
    The figure compared with a surpluses of 1.17 billion dlrs
in 1985, 1.01 billion in 1984 and 293 mln in 1983. The last
trade deficit was a 428 mln shortfall in 1982.
    Peru's exports fell to 2.51 billion dlrs last year from
2.98 billion in 1985. Last year's imports were 2.53 billion
dlrs against 1.81 billion dlrs in 1985.
 REUTER

Craftmatic/Contour Industries Inc
said it would report substantial profits for the first quarter
of fiscal 1987 ending March 31.
    The company recorded net income of 732,000 dlrs, or 22 cts
per share, on revenues of 10.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The White House said a proposal for
a tax break for the oil industry would undergo review.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said President Reagan had no
position on recommendations submitted by Energy Secretary John
Herrington to encourage investment in the hard hit domestic oil
industry.
    But Fitzwater noted that Reagan did have a fundamental
objection to tax rises and special tax breaks.
    He said that even though Herrington's recommendation did
not agree with existing policy, "We'll take a look at it."
    The review will be undertaken by the president's Domestic
Policy Council.
    Herrington's proposal was reported by the Washington Post
to have been made in a letter to Reagan submitting a study that
found the United States would be importing half of its oil by
the 1990s, threatening U.S. national security.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's Pontiac
said it expanded its current "Option Bonus" program, adding a
1,200 dlr rebate on all new and unused 1986 Fiero models, an
increased savings of 700 dlrs added to the existing 1986 Fiero
rebate of 500 dlrs.
    Under the "Option Bonus" program, which is in effect
through April 30, customers can receive the 1,200 dlrs in a
check directly from Pontiac or apply the rebate amount to the
down payment on the car.
 Reuter

U.K. Agriculture Minister Michael
Jopling said an OECD study which calculates the level of
domestic farm subsidies in industrial countries would be a good
basis for global agriculture negotiations now underway.
    The controversial study, which has not yet been released by
the Paris-based OECD, has calculated a measure of farm
subsidies called the the Producer Subsidy Equivalent, PSE, OECD
sources in Paris said last month.
    Jopling, in a speech to the Commodity Club yesterday,
suggested the PSE be refined as a starting point for reducing
domestic farm policies during the Uruguay round of trade
negotiations begun under the world trade agreement GATT.
    The OECD study shows that there are few countries which do
not significantly subsidize farmers, Jopling said.
    The OECD study attempts to measure all farm subsidies for
the years 1979 through 1981.
    Jopling qualified his endorsement of the PSE as a
negotiating tool, however, by saying the European Community
would want "credit" in the negotiations for recent actions
taken to reform the Common Agricultural Policy.
    Representatives of other industrial countries told Reuters
they are more skeptical than the U.K. about the PSE concept.
    An Australian trade official said Canberra has "grave
technical reservations" about the use of the PSE calculations.
U.S. officials said there are several shortcomings to the study
including the necessity to update the calculations to reflect
recent changes in farm programs worldwide.
    The officials said the study may be released in May.
 Reuter

Shr loss 48 cts vs profit 77 cts
    Net loss 3,923,000 vs profit 11,551,000
    Year
    Shr profit 1.80 dlrs vs profit 2.32 dlrs
    Net profit 30,171,000 vs profit 36,667,000
    Loans 3.38 billion vs 3.17 billion
    Deposits 3.81 billion vs 3.28 billion
    Assets 5.55 billion vs 4.78 billion
    Note: Full name Western Savings and Loan Association.
 Reuter

An official of Boeing Co said the company
would not be handing out any "give-away" deals under its
commitment to provide business worth 4.4 billion francs to
French firms over eight years.
    The U.S. Aircraft maker agreed last month to grant
so-called "offset" contracts equivalent to 130 pct of the cost of
France's purchase of three AWACS radar early warning planes.
    "I would like to stress the need for competitiveness," said
Lee Hessler, Business Manager for Boeing Aerospace Co's
Information Systems Division.
 Reuter

The government announced a three billion
franc program to combat long-term unemployment amid speculation
among political and economic analysts that it is positioning
itself for a period of economic reflation.
    The package presented to the cabinet of Prime Minister
Jacques Chirac by Social Affairs and Labour Minister Philippe
Seguin today is to be financed out of a 7.5 billion franc
contingency fund announced on February 25.
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur previously ruled out a
reflationary program.
    Long-term unemployment, defined as being out of work for
more than one year, affects about 830,000 people or one third
of French unemployed, government figures show.
    The main measures of the employment program give employers
financial incentives to offer short-term work contracts of at
least two years and stress retraining to help the long-term
unemployed return to the labour market.
    Training subsidies and exemptions from social security
contributions are the main incentives for employers.
    "Companies tell us that we have to give them a strong
incentive to take on people who have fallen out of the labour
market and that's why the proposals...Are costly," an aide to
Seguin said.
    The analysts said speculation the government is considering
a reflationary program was sparked by Chirac spokesman Denis
Baudouin, who said yesterday that ministers were generally
agreed on the desirability of relaunching the economy.
    He appeared to contradict statements by Balladur ruling out
economic stimulation despite the government's revision of its
1987 growth forecast to about 2.0 pct from 2.8.
    Finance ministry officials later clarified Baudouin's
remarks, saying there was no question of any move to stimulate
the economy through a boost to consumer spending although
government policy allowed for increased industrial investment
from the proceeds of France's five-year privatisation plan.
    The 1987 budget allowed for 30 billion francs in revenue
from privatisation, to be split between repaying national debt
and providing state enterprises with fresh capital.
    Some political analysts said Baudouin's comments possibly
reflect widening differences within the RPR-UDF coalition on
social issues ahead of next year's presidential elections.
     Divisions began to show last December, when a wave of
strikes led by transport workers paralysed the country and
drove the government into a new mood of conciliation with
labour.
     Officials said that after the success of the privatisation
of Cie de Saint Gobain <SGEP.PA> and Cie Financiere de Paribas
<PARI.PA> the government had decided to speed up its five-year
privatisation program with the aim of completing a third of it
this year, ahead of the presidential elections expected in
1988.
    The accelerated program could provide additional unbudgeted
revenue to boost industrial and research investment and
spending on infrastructure such as the national motorway
network.
   The government also today revived a proposal, blocked last
year by Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, to encourage
more flexible working hours, which it says will boost jobs by
improving the competitiveness of French industry.
    The proposals allowing night-shift work by women and
variations in the standard 39-hour working week are to be put
to parliament as a self-contained draft bill after being vetoed
for procedural reasons by Mitterrand and later the Council of
State.
 REUTER

Air Canada, the state-owned airline,
said it signed a letter of intent to acquire 65 pct of EMS
Corp, a Calgary-based messenger service which operates in
Western Canada and the U.S..
    Gelco Corp (GEL) earlier said Air Canada agreed to buy its
Canadian Gelco Express Ltd unit for 54 mln U.S. dlrs.
    Air Canada said the acquisitions will complement its main
cargo business. It said it expects the courier market to grow
by about 25 to 30 pct a year.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph said
that, effective May 1, it will spend 775 mln dlrs to redeem 
15.5 mln shares of the outstanding 16.7 mln shares in two
publicly held preferred stock issues.
    The two issues have a stated value of 50 dlrs per share and
pay 3.64 dlrs and 3.74 dlrs in annual dividends, respectively,
ATT said, adding it will redeem 7.9 mln shares of its 3.64 dlrs
pfd stock and 7.6 mln shares of its 3.74 dlrs pfd stock.
    ATT's corporate vice president and treasurer S. Lawrence
Prendergast said ATT expects to finance the redemption with
cash.
    "The redemption is part of our continuing efforts to reduce
ATT's financial risk," Predergast said. "In 1986 we reduced our
outstanding debt and preferred stock by a total of 1.6 billion
dlrs. As a result our annual fixed charges were reduced by
almost 200 mln dlrs and our ability to service our existing
debt was strengthened."
    The May one preferred stock redemption will save about 50
mln dlrs in dividends annually and will bring ATT's total debt
and preferred stock reduction to more than 2.5 billion dlrs
since the beginning of 1986, Predergast said.
    ATT said it is required by the issues' terms to redeem
300,000 shares each year as well as providing for the optional
redemption of additional shares.
    The company said it will redeem 600,000 shares of the 3.64
dlrs preferred issue for 50 dlrs per share and 7.3 mln shares
of the issue for 50 dlrs per share plus a premium of 2.18 dlrs
per share.
    ATT said it will redeem each of the 3.74 dlrs preferred
shares 50 dlrs a share plus a premium of 2.35 dlrs a share.
    After the redemption, 600,000 shares of each issue will
remain outstanding, ATT said.
    ATT said it will select the redeemable shares by lot
according to the issues' terms, adding that the record date for
determining the redeemable shares will be March 26, 1987.
    The company said it will pay the May 1 dividend for all
preferred shares, including those being redeemed, in a normal
way to shareholders of record as of March 31, 1987.
    ATT said no transfer of the shares being called for
redemption will be made after March 26, 1987 and the transfer
books will close for those shares on that date.
    American Transtech Inc, the paying agent for the shares, 
will send notices of the redemption on March 30 to the
preferred shareholders who were selected by lot, ATT said.
 Reuter

said he will propose tax incentives to increase domestic oil
and natural gas exploration and production to the Reagan
Administration for consideration.
    "These options boost production, while avoiding the huge
costs associated with proposals like an oil import fee,"
Herrington told a House Energy subcommittee hearing. "It is my
intention to submit these proposals to the domestic policy
council and the cabinet for consideration and review."
    He said proposals, including an increase in the oil
depletion allowance and repeal of the windfall profits tax,
should be revenue neutral and promote domestic production at
the least cost to the economy and the taxpayers.
    "The goal of the Administration policies is to increase
domestic production. I would like to shoot for one mln barrels
a year."
    The proposals were based on a DOE study released yesterday
warning the United States was threatened by a growing
dependence on oil imports.
    "We project free world dependence on Persian Gulf oil at 65
pct by 1995," Herrington said.
    He said it was too soon to say what the Administration
policy on oil tax incentives would be and indicated there would
be opposition to tax changes.
    "Of course, to move forward with these kinds of options
would require reopening tax issues settled last year (in the
tax reform bill) -- an approach which has not, in general, been
favored by the administration. I think what we need is to
debate this within the Administration," he said.
    He said the proposals might raise gasoline prices.
    Herrington did not specifically confirm a report in today's
Washington Post that he had written to President Reagan urging
an increase in the oil depletion allowance.
    Asked about the report by subcommittee members, Herrington
said various proposals were under consideration and would be
debated within the Administration to determine which would have
the most benefits at the least cost.
 Reuter

MAY DEPARTMENT STORES CO RAISES DIVIDEND TO 28-1/2 CTS FROM 26 CTS A SHARE

Shares of Wellcome Plc <WELL.L> fell
sharply following a report that Bristol-Myers Co <BMY> would
seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration permission to test its
aids vaccine in humans by the end of March, dealers said.
    Wellcome shares slumped to a quoted low of 453p on the
report after yesterday's 496p close but later rose to 464p.
    Earlier this month a Wellcome spokesman said the company
was applying for licences in the U.S. And several major
countries for its "Retrovir" drug which can be used for the
treatment of Aids. The U.K. Department of Health and Social
Security has already issued a marketing licence for "Retrovir."
 Reuter

Ended March 1  
    Shr 34 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 2,405,000 vs 1,908,000
    Revs 33.5 mln vs 32.6 mln
    Avg shrs 7,114,000 vs 7,075,000
 Reuter

Wyle Laboratories said it is
issuing in the Euro-Market 25 mln dlrs of 6-1/4 pct convertible
subordinated debentures due March 2002.
    The debentures are convertible into Wyle common stock at a
rate of 19.25 dlrs worth of debentures for each common share,
    It said proceeds from the offering will be used for general
corporate purposes, and to repay borrowings under the company's
bank credit line.
    Kidder Peabody International Ltd and Montgomery Securities
are co-managing the offering, Wyle also said.
 Reuter

First American Bank and
Trust Co said its 88 pct owned Associated Mortgage Investors
<AMIMS> subsidiary has sold its New England operations for
about 2,100,000 dlrs in cash and 1,300,000 dlrs in stock,
resulting in a first quarter gain for First American of about
1,200,000 dlrs after tax.
    The company said the sale will complete Associated's
withdrawal from the general contracting business.
 Reuter

American Express Bank Ltd, a unit of
American Express Co, said it has agreed with the Mexican
government and local business groups to convert 100 mln dlrs of
existing debt into equity to fund the construction of 3,000
hotel rooms around Mexico.
    American Express said in a statement that the swap will be
made via its International Capital Corp unit over two years.
    The Mexican government said in a statement that the deal
should result in about 250,000 extra tourists per year; the
creation, directly and indirectly, of more than 15,000 new jobs
and annual foreign exchange gains of over 80 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Integrated Generics Inc president
Elliot Friedman told Reuters the company plans to make a
statement late Thursday or early Friday.
    Trading in the generic drug company's stock was halted
today by the American Stock Exchange because of a pending
announcement, the exchange said.
    The announcement will deal with several events that are
"favorable," Friedman said but declined to elaborate. The
announcement will not be ready until late tomorrow or early
Friday, he said.
    Shares of the Bellport, N.Y. maker and distributor of
generic drugs closed at 5-3/8 yesterday, unchanged. They were
trading up 3/8 at 5-3/4 before the halt.
 Reuter

it agreed to market Hewlett-Packard's line of matrix printers
through its domestic and international distribution network.
    
 Reuter

Financial Security Savings
and Loan Association said it has agreed to sell its Sunrise,
Fla., branch to Fortune Financial Group Inc <FORF> of
Clearwater, Fla., for a "substantial profit," subject to
regulatory approval.
 Reuter

Memtek Corp said it has sold
1,500,000 shares privately through underwriter Allen and Co Inc
for 1,275,000 dlrs.
    It said proceeds will be used to expand its development and
commercialization of bioactive membrane products and waste
water treatment systems.
 Reuter

Sudan will find it difficult to meet
scheduled debt repayments over the next five years, Finance
Minister Beshir Omer has told parliament..
    He said Sudan's foreign debt rose to 10.6 billion dlrs at
the end of last year, an increase of 300 mln from 1985.
    Omer said it "will be difficult, if not impossible" for Sudan
to pay a scheduled 4.17 billion dlrs in principal and interest
payments over the next five years.
    He said Sudan had reached agreement with the Soviet Union
and its East European allies to service half of its debts to
them in commodities, with the rest in hard currency.
    Western diplomatic and official sources in Khartoum say 32
pct of Sudan's total foreign debt is to the Soviet Union, the
Eastern bloc and Arab countries.
    Sudan is 450 to 500 mln dlrs in arrears to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), which last year declared it
ineligible for fresh loans.
    The sources said Sudan, hit by a slump in export earnings
and remittances from expatriate workers, had an annual debt
liability of nearly 900 mln dlrs but set aside only some 200
mln dlrs to service debts in the fiscal year ending next June
30.
    Sudan, its Treasury depleted by nearly four years of civil
war in the south and the aftermath of the devastating 1984-85
drought, has a budget deficit of 2.86 billion pounds this
    Diplomatic and official sources said Sudan was now only
servicing debts owed to creditors bound by regulations banning
them from extending fresh loans to recipients in arrears.
    They said these included the U.S. Agency for International
Development, the World Bank and its soft loan affiliate, the
International Development Agency.
    Sudan reached a framework rescheduling agreement in 1984
with Western government creditors of the Paris Club.
    The sources said this pact was to have been followed by
bilateral agreements, but fell through when Khartoum became
unable to service debts in 1985.
    A Bank of Sudan (Central Bank) spokesman said last month
Khartoum was negotiating a freeze on interest payments with
commercial banks, owed about two billion dlrs.
    Sudan has not received fresh loans since 1985 and the
sources said it was only getting grants at present. Hopes that
foreign aid would finance 780 mln dlrs  of the 1.14 billion dlr
budget deficit have been dashed, they added.
    Sudanese officials said Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi's
government would shortly announce a four-year economic plan
aimed at starting the country's recovery.
    Details of the plan have not been made public. But the
sources said it would be geared to generate agricultural
exports and would need a substantial injection of fresh loans
that Sudan hoped to receive from Gulf Arab states.
 REUTER

Italian M-2 money supply rose a
provisional 2.8 pct, seasonally adjusted, in the three months
to end January 1987, the Bank of Italy said.
    The bank said M-2, which measures notes and coins in
circulation plus bank and post office deposit accounts, fell to
a provisional 609,457 billion lire in January from a downwards
revised but still provisional 615,307 billion in December 1986.
    The provisional year-on-year rise in January was 10.2 pct,
compared with a downward revised and provisional 9.4 pct in
December.
    M-2A, similar to M-2 but excluding certificates of deposit
and including proceeds from bank repurchase operations, rose a
provisional 2.0 pct, seasonally adjusted, over the three months
to end January 1987.
    The bank said M-2A totalled a provisional 583,806 billion
lire at end January against a downwards revised and still
provisional 593,827 billion in December 1986.
    Year-on-year, M-2A increased by a provisional 8.4 pct in
January, compared with a downwards revised and provisional 8.1
pct in December.
 REUTER

Shr 15 cts vs nine cts
    Net 2,002,261 vs 1,168,638
    Revs 29.2 mln vs 29.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 49 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 6,404,536 vs 4,623,295
    Revs 92.2 mln vs 88.2 mln
 Reuter

of last year.
           
 Reuter

Morrison Knudsen Corp said its
earnings for 1987 are likely to be lower than those for 1986
due to lower than expected growth in engineering and
construction and a previously-predicted decline in earnings of
its National Steel and Shipbuilding unit.
    The company earned 39.4 mln dlrs in 1986, including pretax
gains of 11.5 mln dlrs from pension income and 7,400,000 dlrs
from the settlement of vested pension obligations, down from
41.5 mln dlrs in 1985.
    It said "Lower than expected levels of new work booked in
the last quarter of 1986 and the first two-plus months of this
year have delayed the expected growth in the engineering and
construction area."  The company said it will remain profitable
in 1987 and results should strengthen as the year progresses. 
It attributed the decline in new work to more stringent bidding
standards and a competitive market.
 Reuter

(CCC) accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale of
7,000 tonnes of mixed poultry feed to North Yemen, the U.S.
    The department said the feed is for delivery during April.
    As announced earlier the bonus was 90.00 dlrs per tonne,
made to The Pillsbury Company and will be paid in the form of
     An additional 143,000 tonnes of mixed poultry feed are
still available to North Yemen under the Export Enhancement
Program announced April 14, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Directors of the Chicago Board of
Trade, CBT, decided at their regular board meeting late
yesterday to submit a long-term Japanese Government Bond
futures conrtact to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
CFTC, for approval.
    The CBT's action was made possible by a ruling last week by
the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, which removed a
key regulartory obstacle to trading futures on foreign debt
securities on U.S. exchanges.
    The CBT originally had approved a yen bond futures contract
in December 1986 but the SEC rule precluded the application.
    The application to the CFTC could be made as soon as early
next week, but the SEC's rule change must first be formalized
by its publication in the federal register, an CBT spokesman
said.
    The exchange said it did not know when the yen bond futures
contract would be approved the the CFTC, but that CFTC
provisions require that new contract submissions be acted upon
within one year after submission.

 Reuter

<ERIC ST> said one of its units had won a contract worth 8.7
mln dlrs from the U.S. State of Arkansas to provide a
communications network for three state buildings.
    The voice/data communications system will connect 8,000
users via the Ericsson MD 110 subscriber exchange, the company
said.
 Reuter

30,000 long tons of barley to Israel, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the barley is for delivery April 15/May
15 and the bonus awarded was 41.24 dlrs per ton.
    The bonus was made to Cargill, Inc and will be paid in the
form of commodities from CCC stocks.
     An additional 133,800 tons of U.S. barley are still
available to Israel under the Export Enhancement Program
announced June 17, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

The World Bank is issuing 150 mln
Australian dlrs of zero coupon bonds due April 15, 1992 priced
at 53, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
    The bonds will be listed in Luxembourg and sold in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs. Payment date is April
15. The co-lead managers are Orion Royal Bank Ltd and Citicorp
Investment Bank Ltd.
    Fees are 3/4 pct for selling and 1/2 pct for management and
underwriting. There also is a 1/8 pct praecipuum.
 REUTER

Qtly div 28-1/2 cts vs 26 cts previously
    Pay June 15
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc plans to use First Boston
Corp and Kidder, Peabody and Co as financial advisers on a
tender offer for the company by General Partners, a GenCorp
    The spokesman, in response to questions from Reuters, said
the company does not yet have a comment on the 100 dlr per
share tender offer, launched by the partners today.
    First Boston and Kidder have been advisers to GenCorp in
the past, he said.
    General Partners is comprised of investors Wagner and Brown
and AFG Industries Inc, a glass manufacturer.
 Reuter

Mexican Finance Minister Gustavo
Petriccioli said Mexico will sign its 7.7 billion dlr
commercial bank loan on Friday.
    Petriccioli, speaking to reporters after a visit to the
World Bank, said the loan was currently 98.5 pct subscribed, a
figure Treasury Secretary James Baker used in Congressional
testimony yesterday.
 Reuter

Representatives from Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico and Nicaragua will meet here Friday to discuss the
economic impact of falling coffee prices, a Nicaraguan official
announced.
    Vice-minister of foreign trade Bernardo Chamorro said that
participating in the meeting will be the heads of the coffee
associations from the four countries.
    He did not say if the meeting would continue beyond friday.
    Chamorro said Nicaragua supports the establishment of
export quotas in an effort to boost sagging world prices.
 Reuter

The state prosecutor
investigating a suspected currency swindle which may have lost
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> millions of dollars said he wanted to
question a Frankfurt-based money broker.
    Prosecutor Carl Hermann Retemeyer told Reuters the broker,
Joachim Schmidt, may be able to shed light on the affair in
which VW says it might have been defrauded of up to 480 mln
marks.
    No charges have been laid in what may turn out to be West
Germany's largest known currency fraud.
    The incident has led to political calls for tighter
controls on the free-wheeling money and currency markets.
    Retemeyer gave no further details of the investigation. His
office understood that Schmidt was on a business trip.
    A spokesman for the brokerage firm told Reuters that
Schmidt had been expected back on Monday from the United States
but had not returned yet, and his current whereabouts were not
known.
    Brokerage firms fulfill a middle-man function in currency
and money markets, matching buy and sell orders between banks
and other large customers who may prefer to remain anonymous.
    The financial newsletter, Platow, said today the state
prosecutor, called in when suspicion of fraud first came to
light on February 18, had to date been able to find no evidence
of personal enrichment by VW employees.
    The newsletter reported on November 3 last year that VW had
incurred losses in the "three-figure millions" because it had not
protected itself against a fall in the value of the dollar.
    This was denied at the time by VW executive board chairman
Carl Hahn.
    Financial director Rolf Selowsky resigned last week after
news of the currency fraud, an executive has been fired and
several others are suspended.
    A Frankfurt business lawyer, Egon Geis, said yesterday that
on February 10 he had offered VW information about the currency
fraud and offered to provide a written confession by someone
involved.
    He said VW declined his offer, but the company says the tip
was taken to top management and that Geis later met Hahn but
failed to produce the document.
 REUTER

said.
 Reuter

Discount Corp of New York said its
board of directors increased its quarterly cash dividend to 20
cts a share from 15 cts a share.
    DCNY said the dividend is payable April 15, 1987 to
shareholders of record April 1 , 1987.
    Since the last two-for-one stock split in May 1985, the
corpoartion has customarily declared 15-cnt-per-share dividends
for the first three quarters and a final fourth quarter
dividend based on its total earnings for the year.
    As previously announced, DCNY said its board has also
recommended a two-for-one common stock split to shareholders.
    If the split is approved at the May 13 annual meeting, the
quarterly dividend rate will be adjusted to 10 cts a share,
DCNY said.
   
 Reuter

St. Joseph Light and Power Corp
said its board declared a three-for-two stock split and raised
the quarterly dividend on presplit shares to 49 cts per share
from 47 cts.
    The company said the dividend is payable May 18 to holders
of record May 4 and the split is subject to approval by
shareholders at the May 20 annual meeting.
 Reuter

 Reuter

<Bevis Industries Inc> said it
retained Tucker Anthony and R.L. Day Inc to seek purchasers of
the company or its units.
    It issued no further details.
    The company, which makes stainless steel tubing for the
chemical, petrochemical, and oil industries, earned 1,045,000
dlrs or 51 cts a share in the nine months ending September 30,
1986. It had sales of 17.1 mln dlrs in the period.
 Reuter

A House subcommittee voted to give
President Reagan authority to block foreign takeovers of U.S.
companies similar to the takeover of Schlumberger Ltd's <SLB>
Fairchild Semiconductor Corp by Fujitsu Ltd which was
    The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce
approved as an amendment to the overall House trade bill a
provision giving Reagan the power to block sales to foreign
companies if the sale was not in the national or economic
interest.                
    The takeover provision was sent to the full Energy and
Commerce Committee for consideration as part of the overall
trade bill which is being written by several House committees.
    The subcommittee's bill would bar imports of digital audio
recording equipment that is not made with anti-copying chips.
This provision is designed to protect U.S. companies from the
unauthorized use of U.S. designs in foreign products.
    The bill calls for an investigation of whether U.S.
engineering and construction firms are given adequate
opportunity to bid on Japan's civil works procurement practices
including the construction of the Kansai airport.
    The Energy and Commerce subcommitte rejected a plan offered
by Rep. William Dannemeyer, a California Republican, to require
the U.S. to pay investors one pct for the right to hold their
gold investments in government storage.
    His amendment called for the government to sell gold coins
and gold-backed bonds with maturities of 30 to 50 years to
investors to reduce the federal debt.               
 Reuter

raised to A-minus from BBB-plus Hechinger Co's 19.9 mln dlrs of
    Yesterday, S and P upgraded to BBB-plus from BBB the
company's 86 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures of
2009 and assigned a BBB-plus rating to Hechinger's planned 100
mln dlr issue of convertible debt due 2012.
    In its release yesterday, S and P cited what it termed an
outstanding record of sales and earnings growth by Hechinger.
 Reuter

Oper shr 35 cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 1,185,267 vs 1,001,315
    Sales 16.8 mln vs 12.4 mln
    Six mths
    Oper shr 42 cts vs 32 cts
    Oper net 1,420,815 vs 1,105,555
    Note: oper data does not include year ago qtr and six mths
loss from discontinued operations of 87,449 dlrs, or two cts
per shr.
 Reuter

    Net 118,933 vs 296,272
    Revs 2,742,731 vs 1,840,129
    Six mths
    Shr two cts vs 12 cts
    Net 92,372 vs 444,975
    Revs 4,977,105 vs 3,296,110
 Reuter

National Association of
Securities Dealers Inc said it will be opening a London-based
European office in mid-1987.
    A spokesman said the office would probably open by July.
    NASDAQ said its board of governors appointed J. Lynton
Jones to be its European executive director.
 Reuter

President Reagan, reacting to
Canadian concerns, today announced he will seek 2.5 billion
dlrs over five years to combat acid rain.
    The announcement said the administration will request from
Congress 500 mln dlrs in each of the next two fiscal years to
fund innovative projects to control smokestack emissions --
blamed for acid rain that has killed fish and trees in eastern
Canada.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the
administration had asked for 350 mln dlrs but that Ottawa had
registered concern about the level of funding.
    He said the announcement was "obviously related" to an
April-5-6 summit meeting in Ottawa between Reagan and Canadian
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
    Reagan said that in addition to committing government money
industry would be encouraged to invest a greatwer or equal
amount to promote new technologies to cut air pollution.
    The announcement said an advisory panel, including state
governmments and the canadian government, would advise on
funding and selection of polllution control projects.
    Further, a presidential task force on regulatory relief
would examine the effect of federal, state and local
regulations on deployment of new emission control technologies.
 Reuter

The European Commission said it could
begin legal moves within the next month against three major
airlines - Deutsche Lufthansa AG <LHAG.F>, Alitalia Linee Aeree
Italiane Spa <AZPI.MI> and <Olympic Airways> - accusing them of
unfair fare-fixing and route sharing practices.
    The Commission also announced a move designed to put
pressure on EC ministers to agree by the end of June a new,
more liberal, airline regime, which could bring lower fares and
a greater choice of carriers for passengers.
    The Commission has for years been pushing to force EC
airlines to abandon arrangements under which they agree not to
compete against each other on price and share flights on routes
between major cities on a 50-50 basis.
    Last July, it wrote to 10 major airlines saying their
practices breach EC competition rules and demanding
undertakings that they would be revised or abolished.
    The Commission said in a statement today seven airlines
have responded positively to these letters and negotiations are
taking place on how their practices might be modified.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 22 cts prior
    Record April 1
 Reuter

The French government has no reason to
doubt the European Airbus consortium's assessment that its A340
long-range jet project has a sound commercial basis, French
Trade Minister Michel Noir said .
    Airbus announced last Friday that it had 104 firm orders
and options from nine airlines for its A340 long-range and A330
medium-range jet projects.
    "If Airbus finds an initial cushion of around one hundred
aircraft satisfactory, we have no reason to contradict them,"
Noir told journalists.
 Reuter

Zambia has cleared its arrears to the
IMF for 1985 with a 145 mln dlr bridging loan from Standard
Chartered Bank, central bank president Leonard Chivuno said.
    The government had obtained a further loan of 45 mln dlr
from the Bank of Credit and Commerce to help pay off its
remaining 165 mln SDR arrears for 1986 and is currently
negotiating loans from two other banks to complete payment, he
told a press conference .
    To restrict liquidity all commercial banks will have to
make a supplementary deposit with the Bank of Zambia,
equivalent to 10 pct of their demand deposits, Chivanu added.
    Following the IMF talks, the fixed exchange rate will be
adjusted against a basket of five major currencies, but it will
not fall below 12.50 kwacha per dollar, Chivuno said.
    He was speaking after three weeks' discussions with the IMF
centred on the revision of the exchange system.
    Diplomatic sources said the talks had gone well and a
Zambian delegation would leave for Washington in about three
weeks to complete negotiations with the IMF and World Bank on a
revised economic adjustment programme.
    One western diplomat said the two institutions had promised
"big support to help Zambia keep its head above water."
 REUTER

AMOCO SAID WELL OFF TRINIDAD FLOWS 53 MLN CUBIC FEET NATURAL GAS DAILY

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc said it
registration statement covering 500 mln dlrs of debt.
    The company said it plans to sell 250 mln dlrs of notes due
1997 and an equal amount of debentures due 2017.
    Proceeds will be used to refinance outstanding
indebtedness, Coca-Cola Enterprises said.
    The company named Allen and Co Inc as lead manager and
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Salomon Brothers Inc as
co-managers of the offerings.
 Reuter

Iraq said its warplanes had hit a
vessel in the Gulf off the Iranian coast today, the third in
the past 24 hours.
    A military spokesman told the Iraqi news agency INA the
latest attack was at 1250 GMT. It earlier reported strikes at
0650 GMT and at 1930 GMT last night. The planes "dealt accurate
and effective blows" to the targets and returned safely to base.
Gulf shipping sources. The last confirmed Iraqi attack was on
on March 8, when an Iranian tanker was hit by a missile south
of Iran's Kharg island oil export terminal.
 Reuter

Shr 1.38 dlrs vs 1.24 dlrs
    Net 213,000,000 vs 195,000,000
    Revs 3.37 billion vs 3.12 billion
    Avg shrs 153,000,000 vs 156,000,000
    Year
    Shr 2.44 dlrs vs 2.20 dlrs
    Net 381,000,000 vs 347,000,000
    Revs 10.38 billion vs 9.54 billion
    Avg shrs 154,800,000 vs 156,000,000
    NOTE: 1985 period ended Feb 1, 1986
    Share data restated for common stock split of July 21, 1986
    1986 and 1985 earnings reflect a charge of one ct a share
resulting from use of the LFIO method of inventory valuation
    4th Qtr 1986 earnings include pretax capital gain of 71.2
mln dlrs, or 30 cts a share from sale of Joseph Horne Co
Division in Pittsburgh
    NOTE: 4th Qtr 1986 earnings include a 62 mln dlr, or 20 cts
a share, pretax charge for costs associated with combining May
D and F and the Denver operating divisions
    4th Qtr 1986 earnings include a pretax charge of 26 mln
dlrs, or nine cts a share, for costs associated with several
debt repurchase transactions including retirement of 10 mln
dlrs of 11-7/8 pct debentures
 Reuter

First Union Corp said the
buyout of Commerce National Bank by its First Union National
Bank of Florida unit was approved by Commerce shareholders.
    According to the terms of the deal, First Union will pay
8.5 mln dlrs for the outstanding shares of Commerce National, a
bank with 43.2 mln dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

The drastic cutbacks in U.S. drilling
last year are rapidly deflating the United State's natural gas
bubble, which could bring spot shortages in gas supplies next
winter and a modest recovery in the oilpatch, industry analysts
said.
    Faltering deliverability of natural gas, a commodity that
is difficult and costly to import in large quantities, could
more than double the current U.S. rig count to near 2,000 by
1990, some analysts said.
    The need to lock in future supplies of gas for utilities
and big industrial customers may also bring a resurgence of
activity in the Gulf of Mexico's offshore waters where some of
the nation's largest gas reserves are located.
    "We think an upturn in U.S. drilling is imminent," said
James Crandall, an analyst with Salomon Brothers Inc. "Many
companies appear to be switching from oil to gas drilling
because they're betting that the gas market will be back in
balance in a year or two."
    The prospect of diminishing gas supplies is welcome news
for drilling and oilfield service companies that barely
survived last year's plunge in oil prices from about 30 dlrs a
barrel to less than half that. Today's relatively stable oil
prices of about 18 dlrs a barrel are not enough to spur a
return to the heady days of 1981 when the U.S. drilling rig
count soared to a record high of more than 4,500 and oilfield
roustabouts commanded premium wages.
    The latest weekly Hughes Tool Co <HT> rig count, a
barometer of the oil industry's health, showed 761 U.S. rigs
active in what is traditionally the slowest time of the year.
    In 1986, the Hughes rig count began the year at 1,915 but
dived to a post-World War II low of 663 in July as world oil
prices experienced the sharpest decline in recent times.
    Ike Kerridge, a Hughes economist, said "In 1986, the United
States replaced only about 40 pct of the gas it used and that
replacement rate won't be any better this year."
    He added, "We don't have the options we do with oil.
Imports of gas from Canada are limited by pipeline capacity and
importing liquefied natural gas on ships will not be feasible
in the next 10 years because of the cost."
    Only about 6 trillion cubic feet of additional gas reserves
were discovered last year while U.S. consumption approached 16
trillion cubic feet, according to industry estimates.
    George Gaspar, an oil analyst with Robert W. Baird and Co
agreed that the need for gas supplies would set the stage for a
new cycle of gradual increases in U.S. drilling.
    "We anticipate that natural gas pipelines will need to
dedicate to their systems new gas reserves for 1989 and 1990
supplies. That means new drilling programs must begin no later
than mid-1988," Gaspar said.
    Gasper said he sees a new drilling cycle emerging that
could last until 1992 and that he expects the average rig count
to peak near 2,000 in December of 1989.
    Much of the search for new gas reserves is likely to be
conducted in the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where
federal leases on unexplored areas will revert back to the
government unless drilling begins in the next two or three
years. Some of the industry's biggest companies, such as Exxon
Corp <XON>, Mobil Corp MOB, and Union Texas Petroleum have
already indicated plans to increase spending for drilling later
this year in the Gulf of Mexico, Crandall said.
    For example, Conoco Inc, a Dupont <DD> subsidiary, will
spend 400 mln dlrs to build the Gulf of Mexico's deepest
production platform, which will produce 50 mln cubic feet of
gas per day.
    But T. Boone Pickens, who has acquired huge Texas and
Kansas gas reserves for his Mesa Limited Partnership <MLP> in
recent months, is not convinced that the drilling industry is
on the verge of a recovery.
    Pickens predicts the U.S. rig count will soon drop below
600 and will not increase significantly until oil prices do.
    "The rigs won't go back to work until the price of oil gets
above 30 dlrs a barrel," said Pickens, 58, adding he did not
expect to see the rig count top 2,000 again in his lifetime.
    Tenneco Inc <TGT>, one of the largest U.S. gas producers,
is skeptical that a need for additional gas drilling exists.
    Tenneco vice president Joe Foster said he did not expect
significant increases in drilling for gas until the early 1990s
when the U.S. gas reserves life will have declined to about
seven years' supply. Current spot market prices of about 1.50
dlrs per thousand cubic feet will need to rise to about three
dlrs to spur reserve replacement, he said.
 Reuter

Latin American sugar producers
are awaiting further rises in world market prices before moving
to boost production, official and trade sources said.
    Although prices have risen to around eight from five U.S.
Cents per lb in the past six months, they are still below the
region's nine to ten cents per lb average production cost.
    The recent rise in prices has placed producers on the
alert, Manuel Rico, a consultant with the Group of Latin
American and Caribbean Sugar Exporting Countries (GEPLACEA),
    However, Rico said, it would require another five to seven
cents to stimulate notable increases in output.
    "Producers are taking measures for increasing their
production when the prices are profitable," he said.
    Officials in Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador said a continued
rise in prices would stimulate production, but industry leaders
in Panama and Costa Rica said there was still a long way to go.
    "The prices are ridiculous," said Julian Mateo, vice
president of Costa Rica's Sugar Cane Industrial-Agricultural
League. "At current prices nobody is going to consider
increasing production."
    Other producers are wary of committing funds to increasing
output, given the instability of world markets.
    An official at Colombia's National Association of Sugar
Cane Growers said they had no plans to raise export targets.
"The market is very unstable. What is happening is not yet
giving way to a pattern and so there is no reason to modify
anything."
    In 1985, the latest year for which full figures are
available, Central and South American nations produced 28 mln
tonnes, raw value, of sugar of which 12.3 mln were exported. A
year earlier, they had produced and exported about 800,000
more, according to the London-based International Sugar
    Years of continuous low prices have plunged the sugar
industry in many countries in the region into a recession from
which it will be hard to recover.
    Miguel Guerrero, director of the Dominican Republic's
National Sugar Institute, said it would be difficult to boost
production even if prices recovered sharply.
    Output had slumped to under 450,000 tonnes a year from
900,000 in the late 1970s. Obsolete refineries, poor transport
and badly maintained plantations were barriers to any short
term recovery in output, he added.
    Plans of nearby Cuba, the world's largest cane sugar
exporter, to increase output to 10 mln tonnes a year by the end
of the decade seem ambitious, trade sources said. Output is
running well below the record 8.6 mln produced in 1970.
    Cuba suffers from run down plantations, harvesting problems
and poor processing facilities more than from low world prices,
since much of its output is sold to Eastern Bloc countries
under special deals. Last year, bad weather added to its
troubles, and output fell to 7.2 mln tonnes from 8.2 mln in
1985.
    The low world prices of recent years have led many
countries in the region to cut exportable production to levels
where they barely cover U.S. And, in the case of some Caribbean
countries, European Community (EC) import quotas, for which
they receive prices well above free market levels.
    Progressive reductions in the U.S. Quotas have led to
production stagnating or falling rather than being shifted to
the free world market.
    Peru, for example, shipped 96,000 tonnes to the U.S. In
both 1983 and 1984. This fell to 76,000 in 1986 and this year
its quota is only 37,000.
    A national cooperative official said that, as long as world
market levels continue at around half of Peru's production
cost, the future of the industry is uncertain.
    At a meeting of GEPLACEA in Brazil last October officials
stressed the need to find alternative uses for sugar cane
which, according to the group's executive-secretary Eduardo
Latorre, "grows like a weed" throughout the region.
    Brazil, the largest cane producer with output of around 240
mln tonnes, uses over half to produce alcohol fuel. Cane in
excess of internal demand for alcohol and sugar is refined into
sugar for sale abroad to earn much needed foreign currency.
    The difference in the price the state-run Sugar and Alcohol
Institute (IAA) pays local industry and what it receives from
foreign buyers costs the government some 350 mln dlrs a year.
    Soaring domestic demand for both alcohol and sugar over the
past year, coupled with a drought-reduced cane crop, has meant
Brazil will have difficulties in meeting export commitments in
1987, trade sources said. Negotiations to delay shipments to
next year have been indecisive so far, the main sticking point
being how Brazil should compensate buyers for non-delivery of
sugar it had sold at around five cents per lb and which would
cost eight cents to replace.
    Brazilian sugar industry sources said new sugar export
sales were expected to be extremely low for the next year, with
the Institute wary of exposing itself to domestic shortages of
either alcohol or sugar and because of the need to rebuild
depleted reserve stockpiles.
    However, the situation could change dramatically if the
economy goes into recession and internal demand slumps.
    Sources within Latin America and the Caribbean hold little
hope for the region's sugar industry to return to profitability
unless the U.S. And EC change their policies.
    "The agricultural policies of the European Community and of
the United States have caused our economies incalculable harm
by closing their markets, by price deterioration in
international commerce and furthermore by the unfair
competition in third countries," Brazil's Trade and Industry
Minister Jose Hugo Castelo Branco told the October GEPLACEA
meeting.
    The EC has come under prolonged attack from GEPLACEA for
what the group charges is its continued dumping of excess
output on world markets. GEPLACEA officials say this is the
main cause of low prices.
    GEPLACEA sees a new International Sugar Agreement which
would regulate prices as one of the few chances of pulling the
region's industry out of steady decline. Such an agreement
would have to have both U.S. And EC backing and industrialised
countries would have to see it as a political rather than a
merely economic pact.
    "They have to realise that the more our economies suffer,
the less capcity we have to buy their goods and repay the
region's 360 billion dollar foreign debt," GEPLACEA's Latorre
said.
 Reuter

Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York
plans an issue of 12,000 warrants for gold bullion at 425 dlrs
an ounce, lead manager Morgan Guaranty (Switzerland) AG said.
    Each warrant, priced at 955 Swiss francs, entitled holders
to acquire five-ounce bars of .999 gold in the period from
April 30, 1987, to July 31, 1991, exercisable on Wednesdays.
    The warrants represented unsecured, unsubordinated
liabilities of the borrower. Payment was due April 16, and a
quotation on the Luxembourg bourse was planned.
    The warrants, when exercised, would be repaid in current
dollars based on the value of gold on the exercise date.
    The conditions represent a premium of about 145 dlrs an
ounce to the current gold price.
    A Morgan (Switzerland) official said that on the basis of
the maturity of four years and three months, the pricing
involved an implicit volatility of gold of 24.5 pct before the
warrants were in the money, compared with implicit volatility
of 30 pct for the Indosuez gold warrants and 26 pct for the
Citibank gold warrants recent issued with maturities of 18 and
24 months.
 REUTER

Norstar Bancorp said that its
board and the board of Fleet Financial Group have approved a
definitive agreement to merge.
    A Norstar spokesman said that a press release containing
further details on the merger would be issued shortly.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp said its WEQB-1 exploratory
well 39 miles east of Galeota Point on Trinidad's east coast
flowed 24 mln cubic feet of natural gas and 500 barrels of
condensate daily from one zone and 29 mln cubic feet of natural
gas and 600 barrels of condensate daily from a second.
    The company said both flows were through 40/64 inch chokes
and from zones between 10,000 and 13,000 feet in depth.  The
well, in 260 feet of water, was drilled to a total depth of
14,629 feet, it said.  It said the discovery was made in sands
previously untested in the area.
 Reuter

Eldorado Bancorp said its board
declared a 10 pct stock dividend, Payable April 17 to
shareholders of record April three.
 Reuter

Allied Bankshares Inc said its
registration statement covering a 500,000 share offering was
declared effective.
    The company said the stock will be sold at 12.50 dlrs a
share through an offering underwritten by Johnson Lane Space
Smith and Co Inc and Interstate Securities Corp.
 Reuter

Noble Broadcast Group Inc said it
registration statement covering a 50 mln dlr issue of senior
subordinated debentures due 1999.
    The company named PaineWebber Inc as sole underwriter of
 Reuter

FPL Group Capital Inc, a unit of FPL
Group Inc, is raising 150 mln dlrs through an offering of
debentures due 2017 yielding 8.951 pct, said lead manager
Salomon Brothers Inc.
99.20 to yield 135 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
    Non-refundable for five years, the issue is rated A-2 by
Moody's and A-plus by Standard and Poor's. Goldman Sachs
 Reuter

The surprise 2.2 billion-dlr tender
offer for Ohio-based conglomerate GenCorp Inc will not be
enough to buy the company, analysts said.
    Analysts estimated the 100 dlr-per-share offer from General
Partners is 10 to 20 dlrs per share below the breakup value of
GenCorp. However, market sources and analysts said  uncertainty
surrounds any transaction because of the legal challenges to
Gencorp broadcasting licenses.
    Gencorp's stock rose 15-3/4 to 106-1/4 in heavy trading.
    "The expectation is either there will be someone else or
the bidder will sweeten the offer hoping to get management's
cooperation," said Larry Baker, an analyst with E.F. Hutton
group.
    Analysts said there is concern about challenges to
Gencorp's broadcast licenses for two television and 12 radio
stations. Some of the disputes, dating back about 20 years,
were brought by groups that alleged improper foreign payments
and political contributions.
    "I think it kind of muddies an already muddy situation,"
said Baker of the offer.
    Some arbitragers said they were concerned the ongoing issue
might be a stumbling block or result in a long period of time
for any transaction.
    A source close to General Partners, however, said General
Partners would apply to the Federal Communications Commission
for special temporary authority to hold the broadcast stations.
The source said if approved, the authority would allow a
transaction to be carried out.
    If it received the "short-form" approval, General Partners
would set up a trust which would hold the broadcasting
properties until the licensing situation is resolved.
    General Partners is equally owned by investors Wagner and
Brown and glass-maker AFG Industries Inc.
    Some market sources speculated an outside buyer, such as
General Partners, might even be be a catalyst to resolution of
the challenges since it would carry out GenCorp's plan to sell
the stations.
    GenCorp earlier this month reached an agreement with Walt
Disney Co to sell its Los Angeles television station, WHJ-TV.
Disney would pay 217 mln dlrs to GenCorp and 103 mln dlrs to a
group that challenged the station's license.
    GenCorp also has a pending agreement to sell WOR-TV in
Secaucus, N.J. to MCA Inc for 387 mln dlrs.
    General Partners said it intends to keep the company's
plastics and industrial products businesses and its tires and
related products segment.
    Charles Rose, an analyst with Oppenheimer and Co, said
that, on a breakup valuation, the company might be worth as
much as 125 dlrs per share. Rose estimated the aerospace
business could bring 30 to 40 dlrs per share or one billion
dlrs, as would DiversiTech, the plastics unit. Broadcasting,
including assets pending sale, might be 30 to 40 dlrs per
share, he said.
    The company, formerly known as General Tire
and Rubber Co, also has a tire business Rose estimated would be
worth five to 10 dlrs per share. He estimated the bottling
business might also be worth several dollars per share, he
said.
    Analysts said GenCorp chairman A. William Reynolds, who
became chairman last year, has been emphasizing the company's
Aerojet General and DiversiTech General businesses. GenCorp,
founded in 1915, became an unfocused conglomerate over the
years and analysts believe reynolds has helped it to improve.
    "The management's doing a very fine job in trying to deal
with the non-strategic assets of the company," Rose said.
    Analysts expect GenCorp to resist the tender offer, but
they declined to predict what steps the company might take.
They said it would be possible the company might consider a
leveraged buyout or restructuring to fend off the offer.
    General Partners holds 9.8 pct of GenCorp stock, and there
was some concern about "greenmail." Greenmail is the payment at
a premium for an unwanted shareholders' stock.
    "I would doubt they would greenmail them, but nothing
surprises me anymore," said Rose.
    GenCorp has not commented on the offer. It has retained
First Boston Corp and Kidder, Peabody and Co as advisers.
   
 Reuter

AMERICAN EXPRESS UP ON RUMORS 10 PCT OF SHEARSON TO BE SOLD TO JAPANESE FIRM, TRADERS SAY

Unisys Corp said shipments will begin
in July 1987 of its new security software package to prevent
unauthorized access to its A series mainframe computers used by
commercial customers and for government installations.
    The Infoguard software security module extends the security
facilities already available on A series computers, it said.
    Infoguard may be licensed through a five year extended term
purchase or on a monthly license basis.  The five year ETP
ranges from 8,450 dlrs on an A 2 mainframe to 34,300 dlrs on an
A 15 mainframe, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.51 dlrs vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 7,377,000 vs profit 384,000
    Sales 1,593,000 vs 4,366,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss 2.24 dlrs vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 11,083,000 vs profit 628,000
    Sales 6,517,000 vs 12.6 mln
    Avg shrs 4,941,000 vs 3,926,000
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 767,000 vs 676,000
    Revs 9,476,000 vs 9,091,000
    Six mths
    Shr 47 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 1,897,000 vs 1,719,000
    Revs 19.5 mln vs 19 mln
    NOTE: Full name Paco Pharmaceutical Services Inc.
 Reuter

    Year
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes gain 1,678,000 dlrs from
settlement of litigation with Belcher Oil Co, 375,000 dlr
provision connected with resignation of former president, legal
settlements and costs of 1,074,000 dlrs and 552,000 dlrs in
expenses from closing of contract packaging division.
 Reuter

its will receive an unqualified opinion on 1986 financial
statements from auditor Arthur Andersen and Co and the opinion
on its 1985 statements will be changed to unqualified from
qualified.
    The company said the 1985 opinion had been qualified due to
the uncertainty of the ultimate amount recoverable from the
assets of its British beverage division.  It said it has been
in the process of substantially reducing its inventory of
Scotch whisky and intends to complete the reduction by the end
of 1987.  It said it expects to recover its 12 mln dlr
investment in the division by the end of the year.
 Reuter

2nd qtr Jan 31 end
    Shr loss three cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 112,400 vs loss 275,400
    Sales 318,100 vs 23,600
    Avg shrs 4,294,300 vs 3,028,326
    1st half
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net profit 165,600 vs loss 409,100
    Sales 546,600 vs 44,400
    Avg shrs 4,189,700 vs 3,028,326
    NOTE: Current year net includes gains on sale of assets of
25,000 dlrs in quarter and 396,000 dlrs in half.
    Net includes extraordinary loss 10,000 dlrs vs nil in
quarter and loss 10,000 dlrs vs profit 106,300 dlrs in half.
 Reuter

    Pay May 18
 Reuter

Bionomic Sciences International Inc
said it expects to start operating profitably by the fourth
quarter.
    The company today reported a profit of 165,600 dlrs for the
first half ended January 31 -- after a 396,000 dlr gain on the
sale of assets and a 10,000 dlr extraordinary loss.  A year
before it lost 409,100 dlrs after a 106,300 dlr extraordinary
gain.
 Reuter

NORSTAR SHAREHOLDERS TO GET 1.2 FLEET FINANCIAL SHRS PER NORSTAR SHARE IN MERGER

Ryder System Inc is raising 175 mln
dlrs through offerings of notes and bonds, said lead manager
    A 75 mln dlr issue of notes due 1994 was given a 7-3/4 pct
coupon and was priced at 99.825 to yield 7.782 pct, or 80 basis
points over comparable Treasury paper. The notes are
non-callable for five years.
    A 100 mln dlr offering of 30-year bonds bears an 8-3/4 pct
coupon and was priced at 99.60 to yield 8.788 pct, or 120 basis
points over Treasuries. The bonds are non-callable for 10
years. The debt is rated A-2 by Moody's and A by S and P.
 Reuter

Rubber producing and consuming
countries, which agreed on the bases of a new International
Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) last weekend, are now putting
the final touches to the future accord, delegates said.
    They said discussions are focusing on conditions for entry
into force of the new INRA. The present pact, which expires in
October, required that governments accounting for 80 pct of
world exports and 80 pct of world imports approved or ratified
the pact before it became operational.
    Delegates said figures now being floated range between 65
and 80 pct.
 Reuter

Continental Medical Systems Inc said
it plans to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission a
registration statement covering about 25 mln dlrs of
    The company said it expects to file with the SEC within the
next two to three weeks.
 Reuter

    Year
    Sasles 19.1 mln vs 16.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs loss 48 cts
    Net loss 254,000 vs loss 784,000
    Revs 94.1 mln vs 47.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,317,000 vs 1,642,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for stock dividend and reverse split.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss three cts vs loss three cts
    Oper net loss 388,000 vs loss 452,000
    Revs 1,425,000 vs 1,126,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss 26 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Oper net loss 3,604,000 vs loss 2,108,000
    Res 5,712,000 vs 6,604,000
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods excludes 413,000 dlr gain from
settlement of old obligations.
 Reuter

it completed sale of its Livestock Systems division and part of
its Control division in separate transactions to two unrelated
parties.
    Butler's livestock systems division was sold to an investor
group including the president of the operations and certain
Control division assets were sold to Minneapolis-based Enercon
Data Corp.
    Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Qtly div 69 cts vs 69 cts prior
    Record APril 10
 Reuter

    Pay June 19
    Record June 5
 Reuter

 Reuter

 Reuter

quarterly dividend to 42 cts per share presplit from 38 cts,
both payable April 15, record March 31.
 Reuter

Valero Energy Corp <VLO>
said Valero Natural Gas Partners L.P. was making an initial
public offering of 9.5 mln units at 22.75 dlrs a unit.
    It said a subsidiary will own a 49 pct stake in Valero
Natural Gas. The offering is being managed by Shearson Lehman
Bros Inc, Goldman Sachs and Co, E.F. Hutton and Co Inc, and
Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
    Valero Natural Gas was formed to buy Valero Energy's
natural gas pipeline and liquid assets. It will use the
proceeds from the offering and a 550 mln dlr private placement
of first mortgage notes for the purchase.
 Reuter

Fleet Financial Group said
that its board and the board of Norstar Bancorp have agreed to
merge the two bank holding companies in a transaction which
would create a 23 billion dlr asset bank holding company.
    Under terms of the transaction, each Norstar shareholder
will receive 1.2 shares of Fleet common stock based on the
number of Fleet shares after giving effect to a previously
announced April one Fleet stock split.
     The two-for-one stock split will increase Fleet's
currently 25.7 mln outstanding shares to 51.5 shares. There are
about 34.9 mln Norstar shares outstanding.
    Fleet said the deal is expected to be completed by July one
1988, the date on which the nationalization of Rhode Island's
interstate banking law takes effect.
    For the full year ended december 31, Fleet, a Rhode Island
based bank holding company, reported net income of 136.7 mln
dlrs and assets of 11.7 billion dlrs. Norstar, an Albany N.y.
holding company, reported net income of 104.8 mln dlrs and
assets of 11.1 billion dlrs.
     Fleet comptroller Irv Goss said it is estimated that the
transaction will result in minimal dilution in Fleet/Norstar
earnings per share. It is the intention of both companies that
cash quarterly dividends following the combination not decline
for either company's stock holders, the company said.
    For 1986, Norstar issued 1.31 dlrs annually in cash
dividends on its common stock. Fleet's current annual
distibution on a pre-split basis would be equivalent to 1.68
    In addition, Fleet and Norstar have each granted the other
an option to purchase such number of authorized buy unissued
shares of common stock, that will constitute 24.99 pct of the
fully diluted shares outstanding.
    The transaction is subject to both regulatory and
    The companies said that after the proposed merger, the
combined banking holding wil be among the 25 largest in the
country.
 Reuter

48.31 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended March 14, up 4.9 pct from 46.06 billion a year earlier,
the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said.
ended March 7 was 47.97 billion kilowatt-hours.
    The EEI said power production in the 52 weeks ended March
14 was 2,556.32 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.1 pct from the
    Electric output so far this year was 554.79 billion
kilowatt hours, up 2.1 pct from 543.15 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

Unisys Corp said that UNIX OS-based
computer systems previously offered by Sperry and Burroughs
have been merged into a single family of products.
    It said completeness of product line, brand recognition and
commitment to customers and original equipment manufacturer
vendors prompted the move.
    Unisys UNIX OS products consist of compatible software
packages, terminals and printers for use in such applications
as small business accounting systems to networking requirements
of distributed processing.
 Reuter

Delta Natural Gas Co Inc is raising 14
mln dlrs through an offering of debentures due 2007 with an
8-5/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole manager Edward D.
Jones and Co.
    That is 110 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Treasury securities. The issue is non-callable for five years.
 Reuter

<Telepanel Inc> said The Kroger Co, a
supermarket chain and drug store concern, has purchased and
will install one of Telepanel's Price and Information Network's
on a trial basis.
    Telepanel said it will install the network at a Kroger
Supermarket in a Dallas suburb.
    Telepanel said the installation of more than 1,200
Telepanel price panels, which show price and product
information on liquid crystal displays at the shelf edge level,
will be expanded to the full store after a technical evaluation
period.
 Reuter

<Trilogy Resource Corp> said
<Teck Corp> agreed to purchase 4.5 mln Trilogy common shares at
one dlr per share in a private placement, which would increase
its stake in Trilogy to 37 pct from 29 pct.
    Trilogy also said its board approved a private placement of
3.5 mln common shares at a price of 90 cts per share to a group
of investors.
    The placement will be made through McNeil Mantha Inc.
 Reuter

Rabbit Software Corp said it has
agreed in principle to acquire privately-held communications
hardware maker Micro Plus II Corp for about two mln common
shares, with closing expected by May.
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs eight cts
    Net 643,000 vs 889,000
    Revs 3,934,000 vs 4,373,000
 Reuter

Amour Inc said it has entered into
a letter of intent to acquire <Bard International Associates
Inc> for 70 mln common shares in a transaction that would give
former Bard shareholders control of the combined company.
    Bard makes tennis and squash racquets and accessories.
 Reuter

Eagle Entertainment Inc said its
subsidiary, Performance Guarantees Inc, issued completion bonds
for two films with a production value of five mln dlrs.
    The company said the it would receive 250,000 dlrs in fees
for providing the completion bonds.
    Both films, Green Monkey and Street Justice, are being
produced by Sandy Howard.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co, reporting
record results for the fourth quarter ended January 31, said it
is encouraged about the new fiscal year by a strong start in
February and March.
    The company said its merger last year with Associated Dry
Goods, which was accounted for as a pooling of interests, is
"going very well." May said "We are acting more like one
company every day. Our expansion schedule is on track."
    May said it plans to invest more than 600 mln dlrs this
year to open 11 department stores, eight discount stores and
more than 240 specialty outlets.
    The company reported fourth quarter earnings of 213 mln
dlrs, or 1.38 dlrs a share, up from 195 mln dlrs, or 1.24 dlrs
a share a year earlier. Revenues advanced to 3.37 billion dlrs
from 3.12 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Nutmeg Industries Inc said it has
agreed in principle with Licensing Co of America on a license
to sell "upscale spectator sportswear" for men, women and
children bearing the logos of all 21 National Hockey League
clubs.
    It said the agreement would take effect April One and run
through June 1988.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs loss 1.39 dlrs
    Net loss 94,000 vs loss 1,569,000
    Sales 6,951,000 vs 5,518,000
    Year
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 2.95 dlrs
    Net profit 41,000 vs loss 3,333,000
    Sales 25.3 mln vs 22.9 mln
 Reuter

American Travellers Corp said
it has entered into an agreement to purchase ISL Life Insurance
Co of Dallas, a corporate shell with active licenses to operate
in 12 states, for about 400,000 dlrs.
    The company said closing is expected by late spring and
will result in American Travellers being licensed in seven new
states.
 Reuter

MGM/UA Communications Co said
it has joined Paramount Pictures and MCA Inc's <MCA> Universal
Studios in their agreement with China Film Corp of Beijing to
distribute motion pictures in China.
    MGM said it is also joining a venture to license two hours
a week of primetime television programming to China's national
television network.
    Revenues will be derived from advertising time for U.S. and
foreign companies, it said.
 Reuter

Navistar International Corp said it and
Dina Camiones, a truck subsidiary of Diesel Nacional, a Mexican
government company, said they signed a technical assistance
    It said the agreement provides for Navistar to provide
technical knowledge and assistance to Dina Camiones for the
production of International S-Series medium and heavy trucks
for sale and distribution in Mexico, Central and South America.
    It said production of the ne wmodels by Dina is expected to
begin in January 1988.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Thermo Electron Corp said its
British subsidiary, Peter Brotherhood Ltd, received five mln
dlrs in order for steam turbine and turbine generator systems
during the first quarter of fiscal 1987.
    It said Peter Brotherhood's current backlog is 20 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

American Express Co climbed 2-1/2 to
80-1/8 on rumors the company was about to announce an agreement
to sell 10 pct of its Shearson Lehman Brothers unit to Nippon
bLife Insurance of Japan, traders said.
    Speculation about an impending deal, rumored to be worth
600 mln dlrs, also sent shares of other U.S. brokerages up
sharply. PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> gained 1-5/8 to 37-1/8 and
Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER> rose 1-3/8 to 42-7/8.
    American Express officials declined comment but cited a
statement it released more than two weeks ago in which it said
it was studying matters of strategic importance.
    American Express officials also pointed out the earlier
statement, issued March one, said it is company policy not to
comment on rumors or speculation. The earlier announcement also
said American Express and Shearson were studying options
including expansion of capacity to meet international
competition and broadening access to capital.
    The latest rumors originated in Tokyo, traders said.
    If the rumors are true "it gives them a nice infusion of
capital for an attractive price," said Lawrence Eckenfelder,
analyst at Prudential-Bache Securities.
 Reuter

Continental Illinois Corp's <CIL>
Chairman John Swearingen said he sees negotiations to
reschedule Brazil's debt payments taking at least three to six
months.
    Brazil declared last month a moratorium on payment of
interest on its medium- and long-term debts. The moratorium is
expected to persist the entire time that debt scheduling talks
are under way.
    "I believe it will take three to six months, maybe longer,
for an arrangement to be worked out to reschedule Brazil's
debt," Swearingen told reporters at a press briefing.
    "I think Brazil will pay its debts in the long run. Just
how long the run is is anybody's guess," Swearingen said.
    Earlier the bank holding company said Brazil's moritorium
may force it to increase non-performing loans by 380 mln dlrs
and reduce pretax and net income by 10 mln dlrs in the first
quarter and 35 mln dlrs for the full year.
    The bank will decide March 31 whether to characterize these
loans as non-performing, William Ogden, chairman of the
Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co of Chicago,
Continental's largest subsidiary, said in response to an
inquiry.
    Ogden said the moratoriums will affect both pretax and net
income equally because the banking firm has tax credits to use.
    Swearingen predicted an increase in operating profits for
1987 because he sees higher income and reduced expenses.
Continental will reduce expenses through job cuts and reducing
office rental costs. In 1986 it cut about 850 positions.
    In 1986 it had net profits of 165.2 mln dlrs or 60 cts a
share, up from 150.5 mln dlrs or 53 cts a share.
    The bank transferred 459 mln dlrs of poor-quality loans and
other assets to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, FDIC,
during 1986. It can transfer bad loans under the terms of the
1984 restructuring agreement with the government.
    The bank will transfer the remaining 460 mln dlrs that it
is entitled to transfer to FDIC by September 26, 1987,
Swearingen said. It will choose loans based on ultimate loss
rather than their immediate effect on non-performing loans.
    In 1986 the bank's loans to the Midwest's middle market
rose 20 pct at a time of overall weak loan demand in the U.S.
    Concerning banking acquisitions, Swearingen said the bank
would like to buy additional suburban Chicago banks. In 1986 it
bought three small suburban banks.
    Swearingen said he is concerned that Continental will be
taken over because no bank in the Midwest region is large
enough to buy it, and New York money center banks are
prohibited by law from buying Illinois banks.
    He said, however, that the FDIC still has control over who
will eventually own the firm because it still holds the
equivalent of 148 mln common shares out of a total 215 mln.
    The FDIC sold 52 mln shares to the public last year and has
said it intends to sell the rest as quickly as possible. The
agency received the shares as part of its 4.5 billion dlrs 1984
bailout of the bank.
    Swearingen, who came out of retirement in 1984 to head the
struggling banking firm after a career as an oil industry
executive, said he will retire when the three-year period he
agreed to be Continental chairman ends in August. He would not
comment on a successor.
    The bank will expand its First Options of Chicago options
clearning unit into Tokyo, Swearingen said, but said its
doubtful lending to Japan will occur because that country
doesn't need external sources of cash.
 Reuter

Qtly div Class A 27.5 cts vs 26.4 cts prior
    Qtly div Class B 2.5 cts vs 2.4 cts prior
 Reuter

Cross and Trecker Corp said its
Warner and Swasey subsidiary will seek to sell its Grinding
Division to focus on other areas of its business.
    The company said the Grinding Division had sales last year
of about 18 mln dlrs. It makes grinding machines.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 220,724 vs loss 210,120
    Revs 4,194,466 vs 4,224,633
    Year
    Shr profit eight cts vs profit four cts
    Net profit 207,514 vs profit 98,050
    Revs 17.8 mln vs 16.1 mln
    NOTE: Quarter net includes tax credits of 162,600 dlrs vs
236,100 dlrs.
 Reuter

establish a wholly-owned natural gas marketing subsidiary
called CNG Trading Co.
    It said the new unit will operate in New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Texas and
compete with other markets for delivery of low-cost natural gas
supplies.
range of low cost sources, including the spot market,
 Reuter

CORRECTION - FEDERAL PAPER &lt;FBT&gt; RAISES PAYOUT
    In item appearing March 17 please read headline "FEDERAL
PAPER BOARD CO &lt;FBT&gt; RAISES PAYOUT."
    Also please read ... Qtly div 17-1/2 cts vs 17-1/4 cts.
    Corrects headline and dividend figure to show payout was
raised.

Shell Canada Ltd said its Shell Canada
Products Ltd unit will sell three tankers, effective April one,
1987, to <Socanav Inc>.
    Shell also said it will contract exclusively from Socanav
normal marine distribution requirements for domestic markets,
with some exceptions, for an initial 10-year period.
    Shell also said its Shell Canadian Tankers Ltd unit will
lay off 13 employees and that Socanav will offer jobs to 41
   The three Shell vessels are Lakeshell, Eastern Shell and
Northern Shell, which range in size from 6,000 to 10,000
tonnes, Shell said.
   Shell Canada is 72 pct owned by Royal Dutch/Shell Group
<RD>.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) has
warned the U.S. House of Representatives that tough trade
legislation it is considering could prompt retaliation by U.S.
trading partners.
    The warning was sent in a letter from Sir Roy Denman, head
of the EC delegation in Washington, to Dan Rostenkowski,
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
    A copy of the letter was made available to Reuters.
    Denman told Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, he backed
aspects of the bill, such as one backing new talks under the
GATT and one excluding protection for the textile industry.
    But Denman disagreed with other provisions which would
require President Reagan to take retaliatory trade action
against nations with large trade surpluses with the U.S. and
would set new standards for judging unfair foreign trade
practices.
    Denman told Rostenkowski that GATT regulations prohibit
member nations from taking unilateral retaliatory action in
trade disputes unless the action is GATT-approved.
    He said "If the Congress makes retaliatory action mandatory,
then the United States would be in violation of its
international legal obligations and on a collision course with
its major trading partners."
    Denman added that a president should have flexibility in
enforcing trade laws, saying "in the last resort, any
administration must take its decision in light of the overall
national interest."
    Otherwise, he said, "the risk would be counter-reaction by
trading partners of the United States, i.e., retaliation or
enactment of mirror image legislation to be employed against
imports from the United States."
    Denman also said Congress could prompt retaliation if it
reduced the threshhold of unfair trade by making it easier for
firms to file unfair trade practice claims.
    Retaliation could also be prompted by relaxing standards
for findings that imports were injuring U.S. firms.
    "Changes in these standards must be agreed upon
multilaterally. They cannot be imposed by the United States
alone on the world trading system," he said.
    House leaders have rejected a plan by textile-state
legislators to add to the trade bill a provision to curb
imports of cloth and clothing, similar to a measure passed two
years ago but vetoed by President Reagan.
    There was concern by the leaders that Reagan would veto the
entire trade bill because of the textile amendment.
   
 Reuter

Scott Paper Co said it will spend
70 mln dlrs to upgrade pulping facilities at its paper plant in
Westbrook, Me.
    The company said the effort is part of its plan to reduce
costs by increasing the integration of its pulping facilities
with its papermaking operations.
    Construction is expected to start in early April with
completion of the entire project scheduled for the end of 1988,
 Reuter

<Pacific Eastern Corp> said it added
three trucking operations to its affiliate program totaling
about 6.7 mln dlrs in annual revenue.
    The company said the addition brings to 10 to 12 mln dlrs
its annualized revenues, and predicts that figure will be more
than 25 mln dlrs by the end of the year.
    Pacific Eastern said its sales were about six mln dls in
1986.
 Reuter

Fairchild Semiconductor Corp
president Donald Brooks said he intends to take a management
buyout proposal to the company's parent at some point in the
future and substantial funding is available for such a
purchase.
    Fairchild is owned by Schlumberger Ltd <SLB>.
    Brooks also told a press conference that if management is
successful, it may later attempt to take the company public.
    "I am sure that if such a management buyout is to occur,
and I am hopeful that it does, the public market is one of the
avenues we will ultimately have to use to raise capital,"
Brooks said.
    Brooks also said the company would continue to attempt an
exchange of technology and manufacturing agreement with Fujitsu
Ltd if successful in its buyout bid.
    Futjitsu withdrew an offer to acquire some 80 pct of
Fairchild, a semiconductor maker, after U.S. government
officials expressed opposition to the transaction.
    Brooks told the news conference that any purchase would be
in the form of a management buyout and not a leveraged buyout.
    He also said the transaction could be financed through a
debt issue or conventional financing from investors.
    Brooks said management is pleased by a number of investment
proposals bought to them, but he added, "the investors must be
willing to invest in the future growth of the company and not
just selling off assets."
    Brooks also said he was not aware of any direct
intervention by the U.S. in an attempt to block the merger.
    "I am not aware of any direct contact between Washington
and Fujitsu, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Brooks
said.
    He also said Fujitsu executives remain enthusiastic about a
link with Fairchild.
 Reuter

The 1988 agriculture budget will
have to be cut by an additional one to two billion dlrs, the
chairman of a key house agriculture subcommittee said.
    Implementation of a 0/92 program, a tightening up of the
use of commodity certificates, and reconstitution of farms are
possibilities that will be studied to reduce farm spending,
said Dan Glickman, D-Kans., chairman of the House agriculture
subcommittee on wheat, soybeans and feedgrains.
    Speaking at the annual meeting of the National Grain and
Feed Association, Glickman said he learned this week from the
House budget committee that the agriculture committee will have
to reduce the fiscal year 1988 farm budget by up to two billion
dlrs from the 30 billion dlrs level already approved.
    Decisions on how to cut the farm budget will have to be
made very quickly in order to make any impact on the FY 1988
budget, Glickman added.
    Glickman also said his committee will not approve USDA's 
proposal to cut target prices by ten pct per year.
    "The administration's target price proposals are dead in
the water," he said.
    To cut the budget, Glickman said, "everthing is on the
table," except those moves that would reduce farmers' income.
    Glickman offered a list of possibilities that his committee
will study in order to cut farm spending.
    Implementation of a 0/92 program for 1987 winter wheat and
1988 feedgrains crops has been introduced by Glickman, which he
said would result in a 150-200 mln dlr savings for one year.
    Tightening up on the use of generic (in-kind, or "pik')
certificates will also be another option his committee will
study, Glickman said.
    While not committing himself for or against such action, he
said lawmakers have to examine recent government findings which
indicate certificates cost more than cash payments.
    Glickman said rules for the reconstitution of farms and
tightening up of the person definition for annual payment
limitations is another option and could save 100-200 mln dlrs.
    He also said increasing acreage set-aside requirements by
five pct for wheat and feedgrains at program sign-up was a move
that could save about one billion dlrs, but added that he would
not be in favor of such a change.
    Glickman also said that the Export Enhancement Program's,
EEP, spending authority of 1.5 billion dlrs is quickly being
used up, and Congress will have to decide whether to expand
this program while making cuts in other areas.
    Cuts in the EEP program are unlikely, he said.
    "I don't see right now that the EEP will be on the chopping
block," Glickman said.
 Reuter

CPC International Inc said it expects
1987 earnings per share to increase over 1986 levels.
    "We are confident that 1987 will top 1986 in earnings per
share and are optimistic about our longer-term future as well,"
the company said in its 1986 annual report.
    In 1986, CPC earned 219.2 mln dlrs, or 2.30 dlrs a share,
on revenues of 4.55 billion dlrs compared with income of 142
mln dlrs or 1.46 dlrs on sales of 4.21 billion dlrs in 1985.
The share figures are adjusted for a 2-for-1 split paid in
January.
    A share buyback program started last year reduced the
number of shares outstanding to 82.6 mln at year-end 1986 from
97.2 mln dlrs the end of 1985, adjusted for the split.
    The food and grocery products company also said it was the
subject of five stockholder lawsuits and one class action suit,
filed last November and December in Delaware, New York and New
Jersey.
    The suits are related to the company's purchase of its
shares from Salomon Brothers Inc after Salomon bought a block
of the stock from Ronald Perelman, who had acquired nearly 3.7
mln CPC shares, or 7.6 pct of the company, last year.
    The suits allege the company bought the shares back at an
artificially inflated price, violating securities laws,
breaching directors' fiduciary duties and wasting corporate
assets.
    CPC said the defendants, which include the company, its
directors, Salomon and Perelman, deny all the allegations of
improper conduct and are defending the suits.
 Reuter

The U.S. oil and gas industry is in
better health than it was a year ago, according to testimony
given to the Texas Railroad Commission at its annual state of
the industry hearing today.
     The Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas
industry, heard testimony from a number of high-level company
executives reflecting a belief that the recent industry
downturn had bottomed out.
     "The attitude expressed here today so far is a great deal
more optimistic (than last year)," Commissioner James E. (Jim)
Nugent told Reuters.
     "It reflects their (the executives) belief that they are
seeing the bottom of the economic cycle," he added, "and with
just a few reasonable breaks this industry can begin to move
again."
     The energy industry was hard hit by the sharp drop in oil
prices, which fell from around 30 dlrs a barrel in late 1985 to
as low as 10 dlrs in mid-1986. Prices have since steadied to
around 18 dlrs a barrel.
     At the same time, a number of company executives testified
that the nation's domestic exploration and production segment
was still hurting and in need of government help.
     Production costs are considerably higher in the United
States than in such areas as the Middle East and as prices fell
many domestic producers were forced to shut down their
operations. Currently, there are only about 760 oil rigs
operating in the United States compared with an average of
nearly 2,000 in 1985.
     Citing a study released yesterday by the Department of
Energy, many said the falling production of domestic oil
coupled with increasing U.S. demand, was leading to a growing
dependency on imports, particularly from the politically
volatile Middle East.
     "In the U.S., 1986 petroleum production responded to lower
prices, increasing about 2.5 pct, or 400,000 barrels per day
(bpd)," said J.S. Simon, General Manager of the Supply
Department at Exxon Corp <XON>, the nation's largest oil
company.
     At the same time, Simon said "U.S. oil production declined
by 300,000 bpd, the first decline in several years," and "net
petroleum imports were up 25 pct to 5.3 mln bpd."
     Noting that while oil prices were expected to remain
between 13 and 20 dlrs a barrel, depending on OPEC's ability to
control production, Simon said demand is expected to remain at
1986 levels, leading to "a significant amount of spare
worldwide production capacity, in excess of 10 mln bpd."
     He said the surplus capacity would lead to continued
volatility and called for "governmental and regulatory policies
in support of the domestic petroleum industry."
     Citing the costs recently imposed by the federal
government through the 1986 tax code changes and "Superfund"
legislation, Simon called for the repeal of the windfall
profits tax, total decontrol of natural gas and improved access
to federal lands for oil and gas exploration.
     Simon did not mention an oil import fee, which many in the
industry have called for as a way of building up the nation's
domestic operations before imports reach such a level that
national security might be compromised.
     In yesterday's report, the Energy Department said imports
could make up 50 pct of U.S. demand by 1995, adding that
Persian Gulf producers will provide as much as 65 pct of the
free world's total oil consumption by that date.
     Arguing that "oil is a political tool in every nation on
earth," Frank Pitts, chairman of <Pitts Oil Co>, today called
for a variable oil import fee, among other measures, "before
the treacherous foothold of the Middle East is irreversible and
our national security is compromised."
     Royce Wisenbaker, Chairman of Wisenbaker Production Co,
agreed, saying that like many federal government programs that
were set up with good intentions, it would probably turn into a
"shambles."
     Wisenbaker added that he was optimistic for the future.
"For those of us who have managed to hold on, the worst is
over," he said.
     Roger Hemminghaus, President of Diamond Shamrock Refining
and Marketing Co, said he was "enthusiastic about the future,"
adding that he expected "an increase in profitability by
midyear."
 Reuter

Novar Electronics corp said it
expects improved earnings this year due to a rapid expansion of
its Logic One computerized buolding management system customer
base and expectations of good crime deterrent business.
    The company today reported earnings for the year ended
January Three of 207,514 dlrs, up from 98,050 dlrs a year
before.
 Reuter

<Bralorne Resources Ltd> said
it reached agreement in principle with its long term lenders
for a debt rescheduling plan.
    When the agreements are finalized, Bralorne's debt
structure will be modified so that debt servicing requirements
match available cash flow for each of the next three years.
    During that period, principal payments will be deferred, if
necessary, and interest will be capitalized on a portion of the
long term debt, it said.
    Bralorne said it expects these agreements will enable the
company to operate within its cash flows and provide a stable
financial environment until the energy industry recovers.
 Reuter

Mitsui and Co Ltd said it has
signed a letter of intent with Security Pacific Corp to buy 50
pct of Japan Security Pacific Finance Co Ltd, for an
undisclosed sum, to form a joint venture.
    Japan Security Pacific has assets of 200 mln dlrs.
    The joint venture will introduce various financial products
to the customer base of Mitsui and its group of companies, the
    Security Pacific will provide expertise in consumer and
commercial lending, as well as data processing support.
    Japan Security Pacific Finance is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Security Pacific International Finance Inc, which is owned
by Security Pacific Corp.
    Security Pacific said in addition to originating consumer
and commercial loans and leases, the joint venture will market
related financial products and services.
 Reuter

its board has decided to cancel coal-fired Mayo Unit Two, the
second unit planned for its Mayo Plant in Person County, N.C.
    The company said the 690,000 kilowatt unit was only about
one pct complete and was scheduled for commercial service in
1992.
    Carolina Power said the status of the unit had been under
review because of a decision by the North Carolina
Environmental Management Commission that would have required
the unit to be equipped with expensive sulphur dioxide-removing
scrubbers.
    Carolina Power said Unit One, which has been in operation
since 1983, meets all air quality regulations without scrubbers
through the use of low-sulphur coal, and "The addition of
scrubbers to Mayo Unit Two would have produced only marginal
air quality improvements."
    The company said it will be able to purchase lower-cost
power from Duke Power Co <DUK> for intermediate and peaking
purposes than the projected cost of power from Mayo Two with
scrubbers.  It said it will retain the Mayo Two site for later
development of a generating unit.
    Carolina Power said Mayo Two was projected to cost about
877 mln dlrs, including 200 mln dlrs for scrubbers.  "The
higher construction costs, plus higher operating costs, would
increase the cost of power produced by Mayo Unit Two with
scrubbers by about 90 mln dlrs per year."
    A company spokesman said the company has already spent
about 23 mln dlrs on Mayo Two. He said no estimate has yet been
made of the cost of canceling the plant, but the company does
not expect to take a charge against earnings.  He said Carolina
Power intends to include the cancellation costs in rate filings
it will make late this year or early next year.
 Reuter

ICM Property INvestors INc said
Crestmont Federal Savings and Loan Association signed a
five-year lease on an office building in the Edison Square
complex.
    ICM and Weingarten Group are joint venture partners in the
Edison, N.Y., complex.
   Terms of the lease were not immediately available.
   ICM said it has about 25.1 mln dlrs invested in Edison
Square.
    
 Reuter

Penguin Group Inc said it told a group
of analysts that it has started to book orders for its
L'Ectronique line of costume jewelery and The Simplifier, a
device which employs artificial intelligence to make computers
easy to use.
    Penguin officials were not available to comment on the
potential market of these products.
 Reuter

    Shr seven cts vs 20
    Net 1,84,000 vs 387,000
    revs 9.1 mln vs 6.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,804,752 vs 1,875,000
    12 mths
    shr 13 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 315,000 vs 627,000
    revs 32.4 mln vs 24.6 mln
    Avg shrs 2,475,943 vs 1,875,000
   
 Reuter

    Pay May One
 Reuter

Puritan-Bennedtt Corp said
it has acquired a majority interest in Medicom Inc, which makes
a heart monitor for use in diagnosing heart disorders, for
    The company said the device will be sold under the name
Companion Heart Monitor.
 Reuter

Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co
said it expects first quarter earnings to be higher than the
year-ago 4,800,840 dlrs or 1.25 dlrs per share due to excellent
lawn and garden shipments.
    The company said bicycle sales were soft early in the
period, but recent orders and shipments have been running well
ahead of last year.
    It said it expects to meet analysts' projections of
earnings for the full year of 1.50 dlrs per share and it could
possibly exceed the estimate if orders continue strong.
 Reuter

Mthly div 14-1/2 cts vs 14-1/2 cts prior
    Pay July One
    Record June 17
 Reuter

Enron Corp said it will pay accrued
second quarter dividends on the three series of preferred stock
it will redeem on May 1.
    The company said it will pay second quarter accrued
dividends to the redemption date of 53 cts per share on the
6.40 pct stock, 56 cts on 6.84 pct and 70 cts on 8.48 pct.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union's recent corn
purchases from the United States could total as much as 3.5 mln
tonnes, U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Daniel Amstutz said.
    "We are not sure how much (Soviets have bought) but we think
it could be as high as 3.5 mln tonnes," Amstutz told a House
Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
    He added that China also will need to import more corn this
year than earlier anticipated, but he gave no figures.
 Reuter

Republic New York Corp said it will
redeem on May 1 all 839,700 shares of its Series A floating
rate cumulative preferred stock at 51.50 dlrs per share plus
accrued dividends, or a 1.50 dlr premium over stated value.
 Reuter

Allison's Place Inc president
Marvin Schenker said company-owned stores sales for February
increased 82 pct over the same period last year.
    He said comparable store sales in February increased 36
pct.
    The company, which owns and franchises a total of 237
clothing outlets where all articles cost six dlrs, will
increase that figure to seven dlrs starting March 1, Schenker
said.
    He said the impact of that boost will start to be felt in
the early part of the company's second quarter and continue
throughout the year.
    Schenker said costs of the company's merchandise will not
increase.
 Reuter

Shr 1.10 dlrs vs 1.33 dlrs
    Net 3,065,000 vs 3,730,000
    Sales 273.9 mln vs 241.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.27 dlrs vs 2.62 dlrs
    Net 9,168,000 vs 7,338,000
    Sales 1.07 billion vs 987.2 mln
    NOTE: Fiscal 1987 net includes tax credits of 10 cts for
the fourth quarter and 1.04 dlrs for the year compared with 43
cts and 85 cts in the respective periods of fiscal 1986.
 Reuter

Qtly div 41-1/2 cts vs 41-1/2 cts prior
    NOTE: Full name Bankers Trust New York Corp.
    (Company corrects pay date, April 25, not April 28 in story
that ran yesterday.

 Reuter

New England Electric System's auditors
have again qualified the utility's annual report because of
uncertainty about whether its oil and gas subsidiary can
recover its investments.
    The qualification was noted in the annual report which New
England Electric released at a security analysts meeting today.
The auditors also qualified the company's 1985 report for the
same reason, noting the sharp drop in oil and gas prices in
early 1986.
    President Samuel Huntington told analysts the utility will
have to take a write-down of about 235 mln dlrs if Federal
regulators do not allow the company to pass on the losses cited
by the accountants to its rate payers.
 Reuter

Qtly div 17-1/2 cts vs 17-1/4 cts
    NOTE: Full name Federal Paper Board Co.
    (Corrects headline and dividend figure in item appearing
March 17 to show dividend was raised.)

 Reuter

New England Electric System <NES>
expects its cash construction spending to reach 205 mln dlrs
this year, up from 188 mln dlrs in 1986, the utility said in
material distributed at an analysts meeting.
    It said spending is expected to advance to 215 mln dlrs in
1988 and 220 mln dlrs in 1989.
    The utility said these totals exclude spending on New
England Hydro-Transmission being built to import electricity
from Quebec Hydro. New England Electric is the operator of this
venture as well as owning 51 pct of the project.
    The venture expects to spend 65 mln dlr this year, 105 mln
dlrs next year and 125 mln dlrs in 1989 to build transmission
lines from northern Quebec into New England, the utility said.
    New England Electric said internally generated funds will
cover all of its power plant construction costs this year and
65 pct of the 108 mln dlrs its retail distribution units plan
to spend in 1987.
    The company said it also expects to spend 60 mln dlrs on
its oil and gas activities this year, adding internally
generated funds are expected to provide 85 pct of this total.
    New England Electric said it plans to issue 30 mln dlrs
worth of pollution control bonds in 1987 and retire additional
higher cost preferred stock. Its Granite State Electric unit
plans to issue five mln dlrs of long term notes early this year
as well.
    The company said it does not plan to offer common shares
this year or in the foreseeable future, but expects to raise
about 40 mln dlrs in equity through the sale of stock under its
dividend reinvestment plan and employee share plans.
    President Samuel Huntington told the analysts the
construction spending projection is based on the expectation
that demand for electricity in the New England electric system
will grow about two pct a year for the next 15 years.
    However, the utility cannot ignore the potential for
sharper growth, he said, pointing out that demand was up 5.2
pct in 1986 and 4.7 pct per year in the past four years.
    He attributed this growth to declining electricity prices
and a strong New England economy.
    Huntington said New England Elecetric has "all but rejected
new coal fired plants" to supply additional power.
    He said the most attractive new power supplies are those
with short lead times which can be built in modules.
    Later, vice president Glenn Schleede said the utility is
looking at gas-fired, combined cycle generating units to supply
most of its new power needs, but has not rejected coal-fired
fluidized bed units.
    He explained that fluidized bed technology is available in
modular units, adding that Huntington was referring to the
traditional coal-fired plant which burns pulverized coal.
 Reuter

Ended December 31
    Shr three cts vs nine cts
    Net 220,000 vs 721,000
    Revs 4,920,000 vs 4,184,000
    Avg shrs 6,425,925 vs 6,599,000
    NOTE: Full name Rada Electronic Industries Ltd.
 Reuter

The National Association of Wheat
Growers, NAWG, board of directors is scheduled to meet
Secretary of State George Schultz and Undersecretary of State
Allen Wallis to discuss the Department's current role in farm
trade policy, the association said.
    NAWG President Jim Miller said in a statement that the
organization wanted to convey to Secretary Schultz the
importance that exports hold for U.S. agriculture and the
degree to which farmers are dependent upon favorable State
Department trade policies to remain profitable.
    "Foreign policy decisions of the U.S. State Department have
in the past severely hampered our efforts to move our product
to overseas markets," he said.
    Miller noted Secretary Schultz is scheduled to meet next
month with representatives of the Soviet Union, and the NAWG
"wanted to be certain the secretary was aware of our concerns
regarding the reopening of wheat trade with the Soviet Union."
    The annual spring NAWG board of directors meeting is held
in Washington to allow grower-leaders from around the country
to meet with their state congressional delegations and members
of the executive branch.
    The purpose is to discuss the current situation for
producing and marketing wheat and help set the legislative and
regulatory agenda for the coming year, the NAWG statement said.
 Reuter

World food production over the next decade
will exceed population growth, but because of unequal
distribution, many parts of the world will go hungry, the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
    In a report to be considered by its agriculture committee
at a meeting later this month, FAO said: "The long term trends
point towards a further polarisation of the world food system.
    "Some regions and commodities will continue to be troubled
by chronic surpluses that cannot find outlets...Some of the
poorer countries and regions will still be faced by the
combined problem of low nutritional levels, rapidly rising
populations, inadequate growth in both food production and
incomes...," FAO said.
    FAO set out several long-term goals to be considered by the
committee, which meets between March 23 and April 1.
    These included improving the international trading
environment for agricutural commodities, reducing food
surpluses in developed countries, conserving natural resources
and speeding up the increase of food production in developing
 Reuter

a day," he said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 509,471 vs profit 163,840
    Revs 2,623,974 vs 1,835,580
    12 mths
    Shr loss 18 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 494,352 vs profit 173,948
    Revs 10.1 mln vs 3,551,429
    NOTE: 4th qtr loss reflects 290,000 dlrs of non-recurring
expenses related to senior management changes.
    Full name of company is Children's Discovery Centers of
America Inc.
 Reuter

CPI Corp said it expects to post
higher sales and earnings for its fiscal year ended February 7
when it officially reports results in three weeks.
    It said preliminary figures show total sales of 258 mln
dlrs, up 30 pct from 198 mln dlrs in its 1985 fiscal year. Net
earnings from continuing operations rose to 18 mln dlrs, up
almost 31 pct from 13.9 mln dlrs, while per share earnings from
continuing operations were 2.22 dlrs, up 23 pct from 1.80 dlrs.
There were 552,500 additional shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Commodore International Ltd
said its Commodore Business Machines unit reached an agreement
with Bally Manufacturing Corp to supply software for the design
of coin-operated video games.
    The company said its Amiga computer graphics technology
will be used to develop the games. In return, Commodore will
receive software licensing rights to Bally video games
developed for Amiga computer hardware.
    The first game designed under the arrangement will be
unveiled on March 20, the company said.
 Reuter

downgrade AFG Industries Inc and GenCorp Inc because a
partnership affiliated with AFG and Wagner and Brown made a 2.2
billion dlr tender offer to acquire GenCorp.
    AFG has 185 mln dlrs of BB-plus subordinated debt and
GenCorp carries 100 mln dlrs of same-rated subordinated debt.
    Financing terms of the proposed acquisition are unknown,
including AFG's equity contribution to the partnership. S and P
said AFG's appetite for substantial acquisitions is aggressive.
The tender offer would likely heighten financial risk and
increase leverage for GenCorp, S and P said.
 Reuter

Jamaica has been authorized to
purchase about 56,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat under an existing PL
480 agreement, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    It may buy the wheat, valued at 7.0 mln dlrs, between March
25 and August 341 and ship it from U.S. ports and/or Canadian
transshipment points by September 30, 1987.
 Reuter

Laidlaw Transportation Ltd said
earnings per share for the current fiscal year should increase
by "substantially more" than the 30 pct average annual growth
experienced in the last four years.
    Revenues for the year ended August 31 will be about 1.2
billion dlrs, including GSX Corp, the U.S. waste services unit
acquired from Imasco Ltd last year for 358 mln dlrs, Laidlaw
president Michael de Groote told analysts.
    Last year, Laidlaw had operating earnings of 66.2 mln dlrs,
or 63 cts per share, on revenues of 717.8 mln dlrs.
    De Groote also said the company expects "excellent results"
in the second quarter ended February 28, but would not be more
specific.
    He said his revenue estimate for fiscal 1987 does not
include possible further acquisitions and said that the
addition of GSX will produce increasing benefits in fiscal 1988
through fiscal 1990.
    De Groote said the increased earnings in the previous four
quarters was due partly to internal growth of about 15 pct. The
rest came from acquisitions, he said.
    Laidlaw expects to sell a small rubber recycling operation,
a subsidiary of GSX, within the next few weeks, but this will
not make any material contribution to earnings, de Groote said.
    He also said he is "not very optimistic" about the ongoing
negotiations to buy 50 pct of Tricil Ltd, a Toronto-based
chemical and solid waste services company with Canadian and
U.S. operations, from <Trimac Ltd> of Calgary.
    De Groote said that, regardless of the outcome of the
proposed Tricil acquisition, Laidlaw will decide within the
next 30 days whether to stay in the North American chemical
waste business through GSX Corp.
    "We feel it is a profitable business with good growth
potential and we now want to stay in it if we can get the right
management," de Groote said.
    Laidlaw financed the acquisition of GSX by its U.S.
subsidiary, Laidlaw Transportation Inc, with the proceeds of a
200 mln Canadian dlr preferred stock issue and borrowing.
    De Groote said the company will gain about 138 mln dlrs in
cash by August 31 from the exercise of warrants.
    De Groote also said waste services in fiscal 1987 will
represent about 49 pct of revenues, school buses will
contribute 49 pct and trucking about two pct.
    The trucking subsidiary in western Canada is performing
well and there are no plans to sell it, he said.
    He would not estimate the contribution of each segment to
earnings per share for the year. He also said that further
acquisitions of school bus operations in the U.S. are likely
within the next few months.
 Reuter

Hyponex Corp is raising 150 mln dlrs
through an offering of senior subordinated debentures due 1999
yielding 11.828 pct, said sole underwriter Drexel Burnham
    The debentures have an 11-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at
99.50, Drexel said.
    The issue is non-callable for five years. There were no
ratings by Moody's Investors Service Inc or Standard and Poor's
Corp at the time of the pricing, Drexel said. Hyponex said
proceeds will be used mainly to finance acquisitions of assets
and businesses.
 Reuter

Xerox Corp said it sold a
102-acre site in Greenwich, Conn., to a limited partnership for
10.5 mln dlrs.
    Other details were not disclosed.
    The purchaser was identified as Greenwich King Street
Associates II Limited Partnership.
 Reuter

CCC, received no acceptable bids on the offer to sell about
16,610 short tons of 1986-crop farmers stock peanuts for
domestic crushing, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    An additional offering of 1986-crop peanuts will be made at
a later date, the department said.
 Reuter

peru's short-term foreign trade credit
lines have more than doubled to 430 mln dlrs under president
alan garcia's 20-month administration.
    Central bank general manager hector neyra told reporters 
that many of the credits were for 90-day terms and could be
used several times a year.
    The trade credits stood at 210 million dollars when garcia
took office on july 28, 1985, and announced foreign debt
payments would be limited to 10 pct of export earnngs.
    Neyra told reuters that peru was current on interest
payments on short-term debt, including the trade credit lines
and on about 750 million dollars in so-called  "working capital"
credits.
    Neyra did not specify the source of the trade credit lines.
 Reuter

Brazil's Gross Domestic Product,
GDP, rose by 8.2 pct in real terms last year following an 8.3
pct increase in 1985, the Geography and Statistics Institute
said.
    In money terms this equalled 3.6 trillion Cruzados, giving
per capita GDP of 26,120 Cruzados, or 1.6 pct above the level
achieved in 1980 before the recession of 1981-1983, the
Institute said in a statement.
    Agricultural output, hit by adverse weather, fell by 7.3
pct last year led by coffee production which was 46 pct down.
    Industry grew 12.1 pct, including capital goods by 21.6 pct
and consumer goods by 20.3 pct, while services were up 8.3 pct.
 Reuter

Shr loss 60 cts vs loss 6.50 dlrs
    Net loss 2,012,000 vs loss 21.9 mln
    Revs 8.6 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.04 dlrs vs loss 5.96 dlrs
    Net loss 3.5 mln vs loss 20.2 mln
    Revs 36.6 mln vs 52.1 mln
 Reuter

mexico's proven reserves of liquid
hydrocarbons at end-1986 were 70 billion barrels, slightly down
from 70.9 billion a year ago and 71.75 billion in 1984, the
state oil company petroleos mexicanos (pemex) announced.
    Reserves were just 5.77 billion barrels in 1974, rose
sharply to 40.19 billion in 1978 and flattened out at 72
billion in both 1981 and 1982.
    In its annual report, pemex said average crude output in
1986 was 2.43 mln barrels per day, 202,000 bpd down on 1985.
Average exports were 1.29 mln bpd, down from 1.44 mln bpd.
    The company did not say what percentage of hydrocarbons was
crude oil, but has previouly said it was about 48 pct.
    Natural gas output in 1986 was 3.43 billion cubic feet per
day, down from 3.6 billion in 1985.
    Due mainly to the fall in oil prices to around 12 dlrs from
25 dlrs in the year, 58 wells, both exploratory and production,
were suspended, 38 of them in less productive areas than the
offshore campeche fields which accounted for 64 pct of
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 10 cts prior qtr
    Pay 17 April
    Record 3 April
    NOTE: Great Lakes Federal Savings and Loan is full name of
company.
 Reuter

The Murray Ohio Manufacturing
Co said it expects first quarter earnings to be higher than the
4,800,840 dlrs, or 1.25 dlrs per share, it recorded for the
first quarter of last year.
    The company, which produces lawn mowers and bicycles, said
earnings are ahead of last year due to increased lawn and
garden shipments in January and February and a record-setting
pace in March.
 Reuter

Alleghany Corp said its board 
declared a stock dividend of one share of its common for every
50 shares outstanding, as the company's dividend on its company
for 1987.
    It said the dividend will be distributed on April 30, to
holders of record on March 30.
    Alleghany said cash will be paid in lieu of any fractional
shares of its stock.
 Reuter

A House Banking subcommittee has
approved legislation to limit the interest rates charged by
banks and other credit card issuers.
    The Consumer Affairs and Coinage subcommittee bill would
limit credit card interest rates at eight percentage points
above the yield on one-year Treasury securities.
    If in effect now, the bill would limit credit card rates to
13.8 pct compared to a nation-wide average of 18 pct, the
subcommittee said.
    The bill now goes to the full House Banking committee for
further action.
 Reuter

Ended Feb 28
    Shr 39 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 11.5 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Revs 111.0 mln vs 104.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 34.3 mln vs 30.8 mln
    Revs 335.2 mln vs 320.0 mln
    Avg shrs 26.7 mln vs 29.6 mln
 Reuter

Children's Discovery Centers of
America Inc said Richard Niglio has been appointed chairman and
chief executive officer effective April 15.
    Niglio, 44, is currently president and chief executive
officer of Victoria Station Inc, a restaurant chain based in
San Francisco.
    The company said Niglio replaces James DeSanctis.
 Reuter

Union Corp said it agreed
in principle to sell its Union Flonetics Corp subsidiary to
Irvin Kaplan, a Houston investor.
    The unit makes valves and marine specialty equipment for 
the military. Kaplan is also controlling shareholder of <Hunt
Valve Co Inc>.
    The amount of the cash transaction, expected to close in
April, was not disclosed.

 Reuter

KeyCorp is offering 75 mln dlrs of
subordinated capital notes due 1999 with an 8.40 pct coupon and
par pricing, said sole manager First Boston Corp.
    That is 122 basis points more than the yield of comparable
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated A-3 by Moody's
Investors Service Inc and A-minus by Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

Western Waste Industries said
it believes charges alleging that the company illegally
transported and disposed of hazardous waste are unfounded.
    A complaint, filed by the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's office, alleges that the company was involved in the
disposal of materials at county landfills, Western Waste said.
 Reuter

Problems in the farmbelt and
oilpatch regions contributed to the first decline in overall
income for U.S. banks in a quarter century, the Federal Deposit
    The nation's 14,181 commercial banks had net income of 17.8
billion dlrs in 1986, down slightly from 1985's record 18.1
    The total was still the second highest ever reported, but
it was the first time income had not grown since 1961.
    The figures reflected a radical split in the health of
banks in the two halves of the country, the FDIC said.
    In the East, one in 12 banks had losses last year, while
one in four banks west of the Mississippi River had losses.
    Nationwide, one out of five banks reported losses, the FDIC
said in the first of a new series of quarterly banking profiles
it planned to issue.
    "I don't remember a time when there was such a clear
distinction by geographic area," FDIC Chairman William Seidman
    He said that while the figures were not good, they showed
the problem did not lie with the banking system as a whole but
with regional differences in economic performance.
    Some 44 banks have failed so far this year, twice as many
as failed by this time a year ago, but Seidman said he doubted
the pace would continue. 
    On a positive note, banks increased capital to a record 208
billion dlrs last year, and there has been a slowing in the
number of new problem banks in all regions except the
Southwest, Seidman said.
    Banks' provision for losses from bad loans in the fourth
quarter increased to 21.7 billion dlrs, a 23 pct rise from a
year ago.
    Large banks -- those with assets of one billion dlrs or
more -- reporting fourth-quarter losses totaled 22, the FDIC
said.
    Seidman said it was too early to say what effect Brazil's
moratorium on debt interest payments would have on U.S. banks.
    He said bank deregulation had given managers more freedom
to run their banks and that an increase in failures was to be
expected.
    But this freedom from regulatory restraints also has meant
other banks that were better managed have gotten stronger,
Seidman said.
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs NA
    Net 2,512,000 vs 773,000
    Year
    Net 7,123,000 vs 3,098,000
    Assets 417.7 mln vs 251.1 mln
    Deposits 329.4 mln vs 230.1 mln
    Loans (net) 366.1 mln vs 205.2 mln
    NOTE: Some per shr amounts not available as company
converted to public ownership in July 1986.
 Reuter

Interand Corp said Harris/3M Document
Products Inc is the new national sales representative for the
Discon Imagephone, Interand's advanced interactive video
telephone system.
    It said the portable telephone can display detailed black
and white pictures using the ordinary voice-grade telephone
network.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 30.1 cts vs 34.1 cts prior
    NOTE: company said prior qtr includes end of year
additional four cts dividend.
 Reuter

Qtly div 1.25 dlrs vs 1.25 dlrs
    Pay May 1
    NOTE: Full name is American Information Technologies Corp
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Bottling Group Inc said it
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 125
mln dlrs of subordinated notes due 1997 through Salomon
    Proceeds will be used to repay outstanding debt incurred to
finance recent acquisitions, the soft drink bottler said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts prior
 Reuter

Auditors for Public Service
Co of Indiana Inc lifted a qualification, in effect for two
years, on its 1986 financial results, according to the
company's annual shareholders' report.
    PSI's report was qualified in 1984 and 1985 when its
auditors, Arthur Andersen and Co, questioned the utility's
ability to recover costs of its Marble Hill nuclear power plant
and to extend the maturity of its credit agreement.
    The company wrote off 141 mln dlrs of Marble Hill costs in
November, 1986 and repaid its final 20 mln dlrs in debt in
October, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,017,000 vs 877,000
    Sales 68.1 mln vs 61.2 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 40 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 2,986,000 vs 1,215,000
    Sales 205.3 mln vs 174 mln
    Note: Per share figure reflects two-for-one stock split of
July 1986.
 Reuter

may downgrade the debt of AFG Industries Inc and GenCorp Inc.
    The rating agency cited a 2.2 billion dlr tender offer for
GenCorp by General Acquisitions Inc, a unit of a partnership
affiliate of AFG and Wagner and Brown.
    Moody's said it would study the proposed acquisition's
effects on GenCorp's cash flow and debt protection measures and
on AFG's financial condition. It will also review implications
of any defensive actions by GenCorp.
    AFG has Ba-1 senior subordinated debt and Ba-2 convertible
subordinated debt. GenCorp has Ba-2 subordinated debt.
                                         
 Reuter

Dynalectron Corp said subsidiaries
of its specialty contracting group have recently received over
34 mln dlrs in electrical and mechanical contracting awards.
 Reuter

    NOTE: Includes realized gains of one mln dlrs versus
840,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Arkansas Best Corp said its
1987 first quarter earnings will be significantly lower than
fully diluted earnings of 22-1/2 cts per share in last year's
first quarter.
    The company said pricing competition and lower traffic
levels in the motor carrier industry hurt its first quarter
results.
    However, the company said its furniture and tire operations
are more profitable this year than last year.
    Arkansas Best also said that if the industry sustains the
upcoming 2.9 pct motor carrier rate hike it will offset the
Teamster labor increase scheduled for April 1.
    It said the labor increase then will be 3.2 pct for ABF
Freight System, its largest unit.
 Reuter

Shr primary 29 cts vs 26 cts
    Shr diluted 27 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 1,500,000 vs 1,008,000
    Revs 30 mln vs 23.1 mln
    Avg shrs pimary 5,254,000 vs 3,821,000
 Reuter

The Air Line Pilots Association said
Pan Am Corp agreed that pilots of its non-union subsidiary, Pan
Am Express, will be placed on the pilot seniority list of its
unionized subsidiary, Pan American World Airways, and will be
covered by the current ALPA contract.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.28 dlrs vs loss 59 cts
    Oper net loss 46.0 mln vs loss 21.1 mln
    Revs 63.9 mln vs 77.8 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 1.65 dlrs vs loss 2.09 dlrs
    Oper net loss 59.3 mln vs 75.0 mln
    Revs 298.2 mln vs 321.3 mln
    NOTE: for the qtr and yr 1986, loss reflects pretax loss of
45.0 mln and 55.5 mln, which included a writedown of inventory
and restructuring charges amounting to 37.1 mln and 37.9 mln,
and a tax gain of 940,000 and 3,094,000.
    For the qtr and yr 1985, loss consisted of a pretax loss of
23.9 mln and 102.3 mln which included a writedown of inventory,
restructuring charges and loss on the sale of a division
amounting to 13.0 mln and 61.0 mln, and a tax gain of 3,036,000
and 28.5 mln.
    qtr 1985, excludes estimated loss 3,354,000 for disposal of
HCL Leasing Corp sold July 1986, as well as its operating
results prior to this date.
    year current and prior excludes loss 1,543,000, and
2,859,000, respectively, for estimated loss on disposal of HCL
Leasing Corp.
    qtr and year current excludes foreign tax 312,000, and
1,179,000, respectively, which payment would have been required
in the absence of foreign operating loss carryforwards from
prior years.
 Reuter

A U.S. House subcommittee voted to
give President Reagan authority to block foreign takeovers of
U.S. companies similar to the takeover of Fairchild
Semiconductor Corp. by Fujitsu Ltd which was withdrawn.
    The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce approved
as an amendment to the overall House trade bill a provision
giving Reagan the power to block sales to foreign companies if
the sale was not in the national or economic interest.
    The subcommittee rejected a proposal requiring the U.S. to
pay investors one pct for the right to hold their gold
investments in government storage. His amendment called for the
government to sell gold coins and gold-backed bonds with
maturities of 30 to 50 years to investors to reduce the federal
debt.
 Reuter

<Siebe Plc> of the U.K. said it
completed the acquisition of Ranco Inc, following approval by
Ranco shareholders.
    According to the terms of the deal, Ranco holders will
receive 40 dlrs a share in cash. Ranco will be transferred to
one of Siebe's U.S. subsidiaries, Robertshaw Controls Co.
    Ranco produces automatic control devices and power controls
that regulate temperature, pressure, time sequencing, current,
fluid flow and humidity. Its Teccor unit makes a specialized
line of semiconductors.
 Reuter

Shr 1.06 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 9,455,000 vs 13.4 mln
    Sales 418.7 mln vs 422.0 mln
    Note: 59 pct owned by Hawker Siddeley Group PLC
 Reuter

ESSO SAF <ESSF.PA>, the French subsidiary
of Exxon Corp <XON>, said it had no immediate plans to shut
down one of its two refineries. Exxon's new president Lee R.
Raymond said earlier that it could decide to close a French
refinery.
    An ESSO SAF spokesman said a closure was a hypothesis that
depended on the evolution of the market and refineries' ability
to make money. He said Port Jerome west of Paris and Fos sur
Mer on the Mediterranean had benefitted from new investment
over 1985-86 and had last year broken even after stock losses.
    The Port Jerome refinery has an annual production capacity
of seven mln tonnes while Fos sur Mer's is five mln, the
    Industry sources said the easiest plant to dispose of would
be Fos sur Mer because it is a single refinery, while the Port
Jerome refinery is attached to a wider complex comprising a
petrochemical plant and a lubricant production plant.
    Raymond was quoted as saying in a published interview that
Exxon was reviewing its worldwide refinery operations and might
decide to close one of its French refineries.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on seven billion dlrs of debt and
preferred stock of American Telephone and Telegraph Co.
    It said that despite flat revenues, ATT's interexchange
business and strong cash flow should sustain the current level
of debtholder protection for the next several years.
    But ATT's overall competitive risk continues to grow as it
extends beyond its traditional business area, S and P noted.
Affirmed were ATT's AA debentures and preferred stock and
A-1-plus commercial paper, and Pacific Telephone and Telegraph
Co's AA debt which ATT assumed at divestiture.
 Reuter

The Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC), which regulates interstate freight rail service,
concluded that none of the 24 largest U.S. freight railroads
had adequate revenues in 1985.
    The finding is important because it means the ICC is likely
to look favorably on requests for rate increases by these
railroads made during the current year.
    Under federal law, the ICC must give harsher scrutiny to
rate increase requests for railroads with adequate revenues.
    Though freight rates are no longer strictly regulated by
the government, the ICC can still block a newly proposed rate
if it finds it to be unreasonable.
    In past efforts at calculating revenue adequacy, the ICC
has been accused of favoritism by both the railroad industry
and shippers. This year, the ICC used a new approach but two of
five commissioners nonetheless voted against the finding.
    "For the period from 1979 to the present, railroad returns
have fallen well short of their cost of capital, however
defined," commented ICC Chairman Heather Gradison, who voted
with the majority.
    The ICC concluded that the freight railroads with the
highest rates of return on investment were the Chesepeake and
Ohio with an 11.1 pct rate, the Burlington Northern with a 10.3
pct rate, the Kansas City Southern with a 9.2 pct rate, and and
the Norfolk and Western with a 9.1 pc rate.
    Four of the 24 largest railroads--the Boston and Maine, the
Delaware and Hudson, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern and the
Western Pacific--had operating losses, the ICC found.
 Reuter

Qtly distribution 43.5884 cts vs 37.2427 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

approved for original listing 12,315,000 common shares of
Landmark Technology Corp, a real estate services company.
    The exchange said trading in the new issue is scheduled to
start March 20 under ticker symbol LCO. The Marietta, Ga.,
concern currently trades in over-the-counter market under
symbol LTCO.
    Landmark Technology reported net income of about 3.9 mln
dlrs on sales of 19.2 mln dlrs in 1986 compared with earnings
of almost 2.1 mln dlrs on revenues of about 11 mln dlrs in
1985, the exchange said.
    The company rehabilitates historic buildings and other
structures in metropolitan Atlanta.
 Reuter

The 25-nation Latin American Economic
System (SELA) has presented a document calling for a new
strategy to cope with Latin America's crushing debt and
faltering growth.
    SELA presented the document to a week-long conference of
latin american financial and economic experts, meeting to lay
the groundwork for this year's annual meeting of the united
nations conference on trade and development (unctad).
    SELA called for new efforts to break "the vicious circle of
debt, stagnation and productive retrogression the region has
been immersed in since the beginning of the decade."
    The alterantives to existing approaches for dealing with
the region's crushing foreign debt must include greater
concessions from creditors, according to sela.
    Radical concessions such as debt writedowns and schemes to
tie payments to real income must all be considered, the sela
document stresses.
    It notes that other favorable strategies include foreign
investment/debt equity swaps, already successfully experimented
with in some countries.
    Other policies recommended include more realistic exhange
rates and more producive capital investment programs.
    The sela document is expected to be approved by delegates
from all 26 latin american and caribbean nations meeting here
until friday.
    It will be submitted again for approval by developing
nations belonging to the so-called group of 77 scheduled to
meet next month in havana, cuba.
    At the havana meeting delegates from latin america, asia
and africa will attempt to hammer out a common position for
presentation at unctad's annal meeting next july in geneva.
 Reuter

Emhart Corp said it plans to increase
worldwide revenues and earnings at an annual compounded growth
rate of 15 pct and about 13 pct, respectively.
    It said these objectives were based on several assumptions,
including a four pct average inflation rate through 1989 and a
two pct to three pct GNP real growth.
    In 1986, Emhart reported a net loss of 10 mln dlrs or 35
cts a share, after a 90 mln after-tax restructuring charge,
which realigned the company's assets.
    Emhart has divested itself of many of its units to focus on
three primary markets--industrial products, consumer products,
and information and electronic systems.
    Emhart said industrial products should account for about 62
pct of projected 1987 revenues of 2.3 billion dlrs, while
consumer products should account for about 20 pct of those
revenues and information and electronic systems about 18 pct.
 Reuter

The Belcher Co of New York, a
subsidiary of Coastal Corp <CGP>, said it will raise the posted
prices for number six fuel in New York 25 cts to 1.75 dlrs a
barrel, depending on grades.
    Effective March 19, the new prices are 0.3 pct sulphur
22.50 dlrs, up one dlr, 0.5 pct sulphur 21.75 dlrs, up 1.75
dlrs, 0.7 pct sulphur 21 dlrs, up 1.25 dlrs. One pct sulphur
20.25 dlrs, up one dlr, two pct sulphur 18.25 dlrs, up 25 cts,
2.2 pct sulphur 18 dlrs, up 25 cts, 2.5 pct sulphur 17.75 dlrs,
up 30 cts, and 2.8 pct sulphur 17.50 dlrs, up 50 cts.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 1,713,000 vs 1,447,000
    Revs 46.9 mln vs 39.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 97 cts vs 78 cts
    Net 6,154,000 vs 4,855,000
    Revs 167.9 ln vs 130.4 mln
 Reuter

Ramada Inc said it filed a
Commission covering a proposed offering of 100 mln dlrs of
12-year subordinated notes through underwriter Salomon Brothers
Inc.
    Net proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt
and to fund its capital expenditure program, Ramada said.
 Reuter

    Payable April 22
 Reuter

    Payable April 20
 Reuter

Brazilian red meat production in
1986 fell more than 20 pct to 1.9 mln tonnes due to drought
which reduced slaughter weight and to herd rebuilding which
started because of high cattle prices, the U.S. Agriculture
    In its report on World Production and Trade Developments,
USDA said that in 1987, beef production is expected to reach
2.3 mln tonnes.
    Pork production in 1986 rose 83 pct to 1.1 mln tonnes due
to the sharp rise in beef prices and is expected to remain at
that level this year, USDA said.
 Reuter

<Cato Corp> said it filed with
offering of 2.7 mln shares of stock.
    The company said the offering is expected to be made in mid
or late April at a price of 13 to 15 dlrs a share.
    It said Shearson Lehman Bros Inc and Interstate Securities
Corp are managing the offering. The company is selling 680,000
shares, and 2,020,000 shares are being sold by stockholders.
    Proceeds from the offering will used to fund growth and
increasing levels of inventory and receivables. The company
operates 475 women's specialty stores in 20 states.
 Reuter

<MONY Financial Services> said it
purchased United Administrators Inc in an effort to secure a
larger market share for its group insurance line.
    MONY said this acquisition, coupled with its purchase of
Kelly Associates in 1985, contributes to its goal of expanding
its group business and improving its product lines.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 629,527 vs loss 697,847
    Revs 404,345 vs 1,558,951
    Year
    Shr loss 56 cts vs loss 1.81 dlrs
    Net loss 1,910,063 vs loss 5,744,588
    Revs 5,999,377 vs 6,347,702
    Avg shrs 3,441,513 vs 3,175,402
 Reuter

Fortune Financial Group Inc's
Fortune Savings Bank subsidiary said it executed a definitive
agreement to buy <Marine Savings and Loan Association of
Florida> for 10.1 mln dlrs.
    It said the agreement has been approved by the directors of
both banks and is subject to approval of Marine shareholders by
a majority vote.
    Fortune said that under the agreement it will pay 20.10
dlrs cash for each of Marine's 500,000 shares outstanding,
among other things.

 Reuter

<Hawker Siddeley Canada Inc> said that,
due to poor market conditions for railway freight car
manufacturing, it plans to sell its Trenton Works division in
Trenton, Nova Scotia.
    Hawker Siddeley said it set aside a provision of 7.7 mln
dlrs for the proposed sale.
    It also said lower 1986 earnings were due to much lower
earnings in transportation equipment and losses in steel
castings and forgings, which offset gains in the mining sector
and improvements in forestry equipment.
    Hawker Siddeley also said demand for new railway equipment
was limited with export sales frequently restrained by
customers' financing difficulties.
    Demand for steel castings and wheels for Canadian railways
continued to be very depressed with maintenance requirements at
the lowest level in the past decade.
    However, there was demand for industrial casting due to
increased hydro-electric power generation, the company said.
    The company said manufacturing of mining machinery and
tunnelling equipment showed greatly improved results in the
U.S. and export markets, mainly China and India.
    The Orenda division maintained a high level of activity in
aircraft engine repair and overhaul and in the manufacture of
engine components.
    Sawmill equipment and skidder operations were affected by a
strike in British Columbia and the extended debate on U.S.
imports of Canadian lumber, but there were encouraging signs at
yearend, the company said.
 Reuter

Total Health Systems Inc said
it began a sale of up to 700,000 common shares by the company
and up to 410,000 shares by certain stockholders.
    Proceeds will be used for general purposes.
 Reuter

Shr 2.04 dlrs vs 1.83 dlrs
    Net 76,172,000 vs 71,101,000
    Revs 621.7 mln vs 670.3 mln
    NOTE: Central Illinois Public Service Co is full name of
company.
    Most recent 12 months net excludes preferred dividends of
6.4 mln dlrs compared with 8.6 mln dlrs last year.
 Reuter

Yr ends Nov 29, 1986
    Shr loss 61 cts vs loss 1.19 dlrs
    Net loss 1,017,000 vs loss 1,987,000
    Revs 10.4 mln vs 10.3 mln
    NOTE: Prior yr ended Nov. 30
 Reuter

GAMCO Investors Inc, an affiliate of
Gabelli and Co, plans to propose an anti-greenmail provision at
the GenCorp Inc annual meeting March 31, according to GAMCO
Chairman Mario Gabelli.
    Greenmail often involves the repurchase of shares at a
premium by a company from an unwanted investor. GenCorp today
received a surprise tender offer from a group that holds 9.8
pct of its stock.
    Gabelli also said GAMCO has sent a 13-D filing to the
Securities and Exchange Commission on the 6.5 pct of GenCorp
stock held by GAMCO and its affiliates.
    The stock amounts to 1,462,000 shares and most of it was
reported in an earlier 13-G filing. A 13-G is filed by passive
investors to show holdings of more than five pct.
    Earlier today, General Partners, owned by Wagner and Brown
and AFG Industries Inc, launched a 100 dlr per share tender
offer for GenCorp. Analysts said the offer was between 10 and
20 dlrs per share too low.
    GenCorp has made no comment on the offer.
    Gabelli said he also proposes that management consider
spinning off all assets, other than the GenCorp broadcast
properties, to shareholders. The licenses of the broadcast
properties have long been entangled in a series of challenges.
    "One thing is going to be clear and that is I'm going to
the meeting and putting up "no greenmail," Gabelli said.
    Gabelli said he fears that greenmail might be a motivation
in the offer.
    The annual meeting is to be held in Akron, Ohio.

 Reuter

Oesterreichische Laenderbank AG
[OLBV.VI] expects to maintain its dividend and to record a
moderate rise in profits this year after the 181.5 mln
schilling net profit made in 1986, General Director Gerhard
Wagner said.
    Wagner told a news conference that last year's 34.3 pct
rise in net profit from 135.1 mln in 1985 was largely due to
greater domestic business and wider margins on schilling
    The bank, Austria's third largest, raised its 1986 dividend
to 12 pct of its 1.5 billion schilling nominal share capital
from 10 pct on capital of 1.35 billion in 1985.
    Announcing the 1986 results, Wagner said: "We will endeavour
to maintain the higher dividend in 1987."
    Laenderbank's balance sheet total rose five pct to 197.7
billion schillings against 8.1 pct growth in 1985. Foreign
currency business last year accounted for some 37 pct of
balance sheet total compared with about 41 pct in 1985.
    Wagner blamed the realtive shrinkage of foreign business
chiefly on the dollar's fall against the schilling, which is
effectively pegged to the mark. The dollar's weakness had wiped
some 8.9 billion schillings off the balance sheet total.
    Wagner declined to give an exact figure for profits from
the bank's London branch, which opened in April 1985, but said
that it came close to one mln stg.
    On schilling lending, profit on interest had risen 18 pct
to 2.19 billion schillings while commission earnings climbed
8.7 pct to 738.9 mln.
    According to the 1987 federal budget, the state is due to
lower its stake 60 pct in Laenderbank, probably to 51 pct.
Wagner said the exact timing of the move depended on the state.
 Reuter

National Data Communications Inc said it
is no longer obligated to issue its majority shareholder
<Signature Capital Corp> 20 mln common shares under a previous
    National said it entered into a new agreement with
Signature, which would have owned about 80 pct of National's
common under the prior pact.
    Under the new pact, National said it granted Signature a
five-year option to acquire two mln shares of its common for an
option price equal to its current market value. National has
about 15.3 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

<Pilgrim Venture Corp>
said it signed a letter of intent to merge with <Marketing
Technologies Group Inc>, Rockville Center, N.Y.
    Under terms of the agreement, Pilgrim, a publicly held
corporation, said it will issue two mln shares of authorized
but unissued restricted common stock to Marketing Technologies
shareholders. The company said it expects to complete the
merger by June 17.
    Marketing Technologies is developing a computer-based
advertising system geared toward large advertisers, the company
said.
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc chairman William
Reynolds said the company's board and its financial and legal
advisors will study the unsolicited tender offer from <General
Partners>.
    "Right now, our advice to all our shareholders is to wait
until the board advises them of its position ... which will
happen on or before March 31," Reynolds said.
    Earlier today, General Partners, controlled by Wagner and
Brown and AFG Industries Inc, said it started a tender offer
for all of Gencorp's shares and stock purchase rights for 100
    General Partners said the offer, which is due to expire
April 14, is conditioned on receipt of sufficient financing and
other conditions.
    "We are asking our shareholders to postpone any decision on
whether to accept or reject the offer until the board finishes
its evaluation," Reynolds said in a statement.
    "The Wagner and Brown-AFG offer does not expire until April
14, so shareholders have time to make their decision," he said.
 Reuter

SSMC Inc said it formed a
separate division to consolidate the manufacture and marketing
of its motors for the appliance, computer and automotive
    SSMC was spun-off from Singer Co <SMF> in July and operates
the former sewing machines and furniture businesses of Singer.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury said it will
auction 25 billion dlrs of two, four and seven-year notes next
week to raise a total of 9.275 billion dlrs of new cash.
    The financing will begin with the monthly auction on
Tuesday, March 24 of 10 billion dlrs of two-year notes. That
will be followed on Wednesday and Thursday by respective
quarterly sales of 7.75 billion dlrs of four-year notes and
7.25 billion dlrs of seven-year notes to refund 15.72 billion
dlrs of two-year and four-year notes maturing March 31.
    The two-year notes mature March 31, 1989. The four-years
mature March 31, 1991 with the seven-years due April 15, 1994.
    The two-year notes will be issued in minimum denominations
of 5,000 dlrs and the four- and seven-year notes will be in
minimum denominations of 1,000 dlrs.
    The two-year notes and the four-year notes will be issued
March 31 and the seven-year notes April 1.
    The Treasury said non-competitive bids will be accepted for
all three issues.
 Reuter

Leaders of the major U.S.
commodity exchanges and their federal regulators begin a
three-day meeting here tomorrow satisfied with the industry's
growth but uncertain about their futures.
    An estimated 1,200 industry officials are expected to
attend the annual gathering hosted by the Futures Industry
Association, FIA.
    The satisfaction comes from the dramatic expansion of the
U.S. futures and options industries over the last decade.
    The uncertainty surrounding this year's meeting stems
largely from a pervasive sense that the potential for major
market disruption stalks the futures, options and equity
    This bucolic resort will provide an ironic backdrop as the
financial industry's chiefs anxiously observe this quarter's
triple witching hour, March 20, when price gyrations threaten
to rock markets.
    Triple witching occurs when stock index futures and options
and individual stock options expire simultaneously.
    The quarterly phenomenon has been marked by price
volatility as arbitrageurs have shifted investments between
stocks and their derivative instruments.
    In an effort to quell price fluctuations, the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, CME, home of the Standard and Poor's 500
stock index futures contract, recently announced plans to move
the contract's settlement to the morning of the quarterly
expiration day from the afternoon.
    The New York Stock Exchange this Friday intends to
implement stricter procedures requiring members to submit all
market-on-close orders in 50 blue-chip stocks by 1530 EST.
    Despite these efforts to ensure smoother contract
expirations, there is a sense more might have to be done to
avert an uncontrollable fall in prices someday.
    Looming over the exchanges are the twin threats of
fortified federal regulation and congressional action to strap
market activity.
    Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, Chairman Susan
Phillips has said the current regulatory structure is adequate
to cope with intermarket arbitrage, but that she expects new
surveillance procedures and enhanced cooperation with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.
    SEC Chairman John Shad, voicing concern over price
volatility associated with program trading, has resurrected a
proposal, opposed by CFTC officials, to give federal regulators
control over the setting of futures margins.
    Some contend that because futures margins are low relative
to stock margins, portfolio managers have a tendency to shift
out of stock index futures in a falling stock market, hastening
a downward price spiral.
    Absent from this week's meeting will be a key congressional
player -- Rep. John Dingell (D-Mi.), chairman of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee and head of a subcommittee
responsible for overseeing the SEC.
    Dingell has promised to look into program trading and
explore ways of insuring investors and hedgers against market
disruptions. He is interested in reviewing margins and dual
trading, a practice that allows futures brokers to trade for
their own account before placing customers' orders.
    Recently, a group of CME members, concerned over the
perception of abuse of dual trading, proposed banning the
practice. The CME board responded with a plan that would
restrict, but not ban, the activity.
    The meeting will also be attended by regulators from
Australia, Britain, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and
Singapore. Their appearance coincides with a controversial CFTC
proposal to adopt new regulations over the trading of foreign
futures and options on U.S. exchanges.
    The U.S. exchanges oppose the proposed regulations on the
grounds they would prove unnecessarily burdensome.
    Other areas of disagreement between the CFTC and the
exchanges include the requirement that the exchanges implement
strict, one-minute audit trails by this summer, proposals to
revise federal limits on speculative positions and the
definition of hedging, and CFTC efforts to determine which new
instruments must be traded on regulated exchanges.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said its Desert Power
subsidiary began construction of a 47,500 kilowatt geothermal
plant in Southern California's Imperial Valley.
    The company said Desert Power expects the plant to be
operational by early 1989.
    The new plant will be located at the southern end of the
Salton Sea, about one-half mile from an existing 10,000
kilowatt generating plant owned and operated by Southern
California Edison Co <SEC>, Unocal also said.
 Reuter

    Pay April 23
    Record April nine
    NOTE: Full name Restaurant Management Services Inc
 Reuter

The Senate defeated a move to block
dlrs 40 mln in military aid to the Nicaraguan "contra" rebels,
virtually assuring the aid will go through.
    The 52-to-48 vote was a victory for President Reagan, who
made the contra program the centerpiece of his Central American
policy.
    The vote virtually guaranteed that 40 mln dlrs -- the final
installment of a 100 mln-dlr aid package approved by Congress
last year -- would reach the rebels fighting the leftist
Managua government.
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 12.5 cts prior
    Pay May 1
    Note: Prior dividend is adjusted for recent six-for-five
 Reuter

Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc is
being awarded a 84.1 mln dlr Defense Logistics Agency contract
completed by March 31, 1988.
 Reuter

The Canadian government welcomed
President Reagan's announcement that he would seek 2.5 billion
    "This action on the part of the U.S. administration serves
well our ultimate objective of a bilateral accord providing for
a common resolution of this serious environment problem," Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney said in a statement.
    Environment Minister Tom McMillan said the Reagan
announcement was a major step toward elimination of acid rain
and that Canada was pleased with the U.S. decision.
    The Reagan announcement earlier today said the
administration would ask Congress to approve 500 mln dlrs in
each of the next two fiscal years to fund innovative projects
to control smokestack emissions -- blamed for acid rain that
has killed fish and trees in eastern Canada and the
northeastern United States.
    Canada has been pressing the Reagan administration to live
up to a commitment made last year for 5 billion dlrs in
spending by the U.S. government and industry to cut toxic
emissions that cause acid rain.
    The acid rain issue has been the major irritant in
Canada-U.S. relations for several years, with Ottawa accusing
Washington of failing to act on the issue.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs 20 cts
    Net 184,000 vs 387,000
    Revs 9,100,000 vs 6,700,000
    Year
    Shr 13 cts vs 33 cts
    Revs 32.4 mln vs 24.6 mln
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp said
it received its first order for an executive jet model of its
MD-80 aircraft from Ginji Yasuda, owner of Aladdin Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas, NEvada.
    A spokesman said the commercial model of the aircraft sells
for about 26 mln dlrs, but would not disclose the value of the
customized version of the MD-80.
 Reuter

Litton Industries' Applied
Technology Division is being awarded a 164.2 mln dlr Navy
contract for aircraft radar warning receivers for the U.S.
Navy, Australia and Spain, the Defense Department said.
    It said work on the contract, which combines purchases for
the three countries under the Foreign Military Sales program,
is expected to be completed in Febraury 1990.
 Reuter

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SAYS LOCKHEED AWARDED 304 MLN DLR AIR FORCE SDI CONTRACT

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SAYS GRUMMAN GETS 303.9 MLN DLR AIR FORCE SDI CONTRACT

Pacific Resources Inc said it signed a
definitive agreement with Royal Dutch/Shell Group unit Shell
Oil Co to buy Shell's marketing, terminaling and distribution
assets in Hawaii for 32 mln dlrs.
    The purchase would include Shell's interest in 39 retail
gasoline stations and four petroleum product terminals, PRI
said. The company said it expects the transaction to be
completed by September 1, 1987.
    The pact includes provisions allowing the continued use of
the Shell trademark, credit cards and the sale of Shell brand
products by the gasoline stations, PRI said.
    PRI said all Shell-brand products sold under this agreement
will be manufactured to Shell specifications.
 Reuter

Oper shr 40 cts vs 30 cts
    Oper net 1,364,000 vs 1,025,000
    Revs 14.7 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Avg shrs 3,372,970 vs 3,425,400
    Year
    Oper shr 86 cts vs 32 cts
    Oper net 2,925,000 vs 1,109,000
    Revs 43.0 mln vs 35.7 mln
    Avg shrs 3,383,651 vs 3,418,594
    NOTE: Year-ago periods exclude extraordinary gain of 1.1
mln dlrs or 31 cts/shr.
    Includes gains of 988,000 dlrs vs one mln dlrs in qtr and
2.2 mln dlrs vs 1.1 mln dlrs in year from tax loss
 Reuter

Eight people were killed and some 30
injured in a blast in a crowded cafe in the Red Sea port of
Djibouti, a spokesman for the African country's main newspaper
La Nation said.
    Reached by telephone from Paris, he said the blast in one
of the city's most popular cafes appeared to have been caused
by a bomb.
    He said the death toll had been given by Djibouti's
Interior Minister whom he quoted as speaking of "a criminal act."
 Reuter

reduced the suggested retail price of its 1-2-3 Report Writer
software package to 95 dlrs from 150 dlrs.
    The company said it also removed copy protection from the
program, which is used to generate customized reports and forms
from data base files.
    Lotus said the steps bring 1-2-3 Report Writer in line with
other programs based on the 1-2-3 package.
 Reuter

Shr primary 36 cts vs 31 cts
    Shr diluted 36 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 25.1 mln vs 21.7 mln
    Revs 1.53 billion vs 1.39 billion
    Avg shrs primary 68.8 mln vs 68.9 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 70.5 mln vs 71.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 1.32 dlrs vs 1.13 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.30 dlrs vs 1.11 dlrs
    Net 90.8 mln vs 77.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Revs 5.18 billion vs 4.58 billion
    Avg shrs primary 68.9 mln vs 68.8 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 70.6 mln vs 71.0 mln
    Note: Net is before preferred dividend payments.
    Current nine mths net includes after-tax provision of five
mln dlrs for consolidation of food plants.
    Shr and avg shrs data reflect two-for-one split in December
1986. Results for year-ago nine mths and current first half
restated to reflect acquisition of E.J. Miller Enterprises for
1,040,000 shares in January 1987.
 Reuter

Canadian Pacific Ltd said it retained
Wood Gundy Inc to seek a buyer for Maple Leaf Mills Ltd of
Toronto.
    The company said Maple Leaf had 1986 sales of 819 mln dlrs
and an after tax profit of 16.3 mln dlrs. It is a diversified
agriproducts company which produces and sells industrial and
consumer flour, flour-based products and baked goods.
    It also operates a fully integrated poultry business and a
rendering businesses, markets livestock and poultry feed and
distributes grain through a network of country and terminal
elevators.
 Reuter

Wilson Foods Corp said it
made the final creditor payment under its 1984 plan of
    The plan resulted from its 1983 filing under Chapter 11
filing of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
    Including the final payment, the company said it has paid
its creditors 31 mln dlrs plus interest at 9.5 pct, repaying
all outstanding debt owed under the plan.
 Reuter

Ocilla Industries Inc said its
Flintstone Industries Inc subsidiary obtained a three mln
dollar revolving credit with Bank South Corp <BKSO>.
    It said Bank South will lend Flintstone amounts
constituting up to a maximum of 80 pct of acceptable
receivables and 25 pct of acceptable inventory as defined in
the loan agreement.
    In connection with the agreement, Flinstone was granted a
security interest in its inventory, receivables, and equipment,
and in certain property in Irwin County, Ga.
 Reuter

Air Canada's 54 mln U.S. dlr
acquisition of Gelco Corp's <GEC> Canadian unit has
dramatically altered Canada's fast growing courier industry,
largely dominated by U.S. companies until this year, company
officials and analysts said.
    State-owned Air Canada takes over the country's second
largest overnight courier business just two months after
another Canadian company, <Onex Capital Corp Ltd>, approved the
acquisition of number one ranked Purolator Courier Ltd from New
Jersey-based Purolator Courier Corp <PCC>.
    But analysts said the two acquisitions were prompted by
financial restructuring undertaken by the U.S. parent companies
and likely don't represent an industry trend toward buying out
foreign owned courier operations.
    "It's a case of whether you can buy from the right people at
the right time," McLeod Young Weir Ltd transportation analyst
Tony Hine commented.
    The two acquisitions fit with a larger move by U.S.
companies embroiled in a take-over or restructuring to sell-off
their Canadian units to generate ready cash, said Nesbitt
Thomson Deacon Inc analyst Harold Wolkin.
    "There is a very good correlation between the U.S. parent
selling Canadian subsidiaries and the U.S. parent either being
under siege or taking someone else over," he said.
    Gelco Corp, of Minnesota, decided to sell Gelco Express Ltd
as part of its previously announced program to sell off four
operating units to buy back shares and pay down debt, Gelco
Express marketing vice president James O'Neil told Reuters.
    The sale is the first under Gelco's divestiture program,
and proceeds will be used to help pay down 350 mln U.S. dlrs of
debt by year-end, the company said.
    While company officials declined to disclose earnings and
revenue figures, O'Neil said Gelco Express holds a dominant
position in the industry, handling more than 50,000 packages a
day and generating revenues of more than 100 mln Canadian dlrs
a year.
    The earlier move by Purolator to sell its Canadian unit
formed an important part of a company restructuring program,
adopted after another Canadian Company, <Unicorp Canada Corp>,
acquired a 12.6 pct stake in Purolator and said it would
consider acquiring the whole company.
    Last month, Purolator agreed to be acquired by a company
formed by E.F. Hutton LBO Inc and certain managers of
Purolator's U.S. courier business.
    For Air Canada, its acquisition of Gelco's Canadian courier
business represents an "excellent financial investment" in a
market it sees growing by 25 to 30 pct annually, spokesman
Esther Szynkarsky said.
    The airline also announced it acquired a 65 pct stake in
EMS Corp, of Calgary, an in-city messenger service.
    It did not disclose financial terms, but Szynkarsky said
the two acquisitions totalled about 90 mln Canadian dlrs, and
the two business have combined yearly revenues of 170 mln dlrs.
    She said the acquisition fit with Air Canada's strategy of
seeking attractive investments that compliment its main airline
business.
    Gelco will continue to operate with current management,
independently of Air Canada, although Air Canada already
operates its own air cargo business that includes a small
door-to-door courier operation.
    "They're well run, they're a good investment, they're doing
well in a growing market, and that's the way we want to keep
it," Szynkarsky said.
    Analyst Hine said the Gelco and Purolator Canadian units
will likely retain operating links with their U.S. delivery
network, generating traffic for the former parent companies
without them having to tie up capital in Canada.
    "The nature of the business is that incremental traffic is
incremental revenue," Hine said.
    "It's sort of a sausage maker business where you put in
place the sausage grinder, and the more sausage you can stuff
through, the more money you make," he added.
 Reuter

Chock Full O'Nuts Corp said it filed a
Commission for a proposed offering of 60 mln dlrs in
convertible senior subordinated debentures due 2012.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc, Bear Stearns and Co Inc and
Ladenburg, Thalmann and Co inc will underwrite the offering.
    Proceeds will be used for expansion and acquisitions.
 Reuter

Representatives of the International
Wrought Copper Council (IWCC) and major copper producers have
told the London Metal Exchange (LME) a clear statement of its
forward strategy would lead to a better understanding between
industry and the LME.
    In a press release the IWCC said that at the latest meeting
between the copper industry and the LME to discuss the new
clearing house system, industry expressed grave concern about
latest proposals made by at least one LME member for a cash
cleared market to replace the planned clearing system which
will retain the prompt date settlement basis.
    Copper industry delegates told the LME a decision to change
(the planned clearing system) would indicate a fundamental
change in the function of the LME and in its service to the
industry, the release said.
    By deterring industry use of the Exchange for hedging and
physical needs it would remove many of the unique advantages
currently offered by the LME and make it indistinguishable from
non-trade orientated markets such as Comex.
    The LME had to decide whether dealer convenience should
take a higher priority over customer satisfaction, industry
    The IWCC release also said the LME had confirmed that no
change would be made to the clearing system planned to start on
May 29. But it had indicated that consideration would be given
in due course to the cash clearing proposal, made by
Amalgamated Metal Trading at a LME members meeting last week.
    A copper industry spokesman suggested that some assurance
of permanence in the new clearing system would remove industry
fears of uncertainty resulting from an endless process of
review and change, the press release said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 64 cts vs 52 cts
    Oper net 872,272 vs 706,836
    Revs 9,271,541 vs 7,744,466
    Year
    Oper shr 2.03 dlrs vs 1.96 dlrs
    Oper net 2,782,7801 vs 2,684,089
    Revs 31.2 mln vs 29.1 mln
    NOTE: Full name is North-West Telecommunications Inc
 Reuter

A shareholder group led by Far
Hills, N.J., investor Natalie Koether said it is reconsidering
its plan to seek control of Computer Memories Inc and now plans
to sell its entire stake in the company.
the group, which includes Sun Equities Corp, said it sold a net
365,375 Computer Memories common shares between March 5 and 17
at prices ranging from 3-3/4 to four dlrs a share, lowering its
stake to 687,000 shares, or 6.2 pct of the total outstanding.
The group said it reconsidered its takeover plans after the
company announced it agreed to a stock swap.
    On March 12, the Chatsworth, Calif., computer disk drive
concern said it agreed in a letter of intent to exchange 80 pct
of its stock, all of which would be newly issued, for the
assets of privately held Hemdale Film Corp, with Hemdale as the
surviving entity.
    "In light of these disclosures, Sun found it necessary to
re-evaluate the feasibility of seeking control of the company
and has sold a portion of its shares and currently intends to
sell the balance thereof from time to time," the group said.
    The group, which disclosed plans on Dec 29 to seek control
of the company, reserved the right to change its mind again.
 Reuter

Shr profit eight cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net profit 153,000 vs loss 310,000
    Sales 3,937,000 vs 2,364,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit five cts vs loss 53 cts
    Net profit 97,000 vs loss 1,042,000
    Sales 10.2 mln vs 7,564,000
 Reuter

Former White House aide Michael
Deaver, a close friend of President Reagan, was indicted by a
grand jury on criminal charges that he lied about his
Washington lobbying business.
    Deaver, long a confidant of Reagan and his wife Nancy,
faces a maximum 25 years in prison if convicted on five counts
that he lied to Congress and the grand jury investigating his
business affairs.
 Reuter

Americus Trust for American Telephone
and Telegraph Shares Series Two said it will distribute an
initial dividend of 28.75 cts on May 12 to shareholders of
record March 31.
 Reuter

XTRA Corp said it agreed to acquire all
the stock of RentCo Trailer Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Fruehauf Corp for about 70 mln dlrs.
    RentCo had revenues of about 70 mln dlrs.
    The transaction is expected to be completed in April and is
 Reuter

Lockheed Corp's Lockheed Missiles
and Space Co Inc is being awarded a 304 mln dlr Air Force
contract for work related to the Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI), the Defense Department said.
    It said the work consists of a 34 month SDI Boost
Surveillance and Tracking System demonstration/validation
effort which is expected to be completed in January 1990.
    The department said 34.3 mln dlrs of the contract funds
will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. It added
that 38 bids for the work were solicited and three proposals
were received.
 Reuter

Wickes Companies Inc said
it completed the sale of its Sequoia Supply division to a new
company created by the management of that division.
    Paul Hylbert, president of Sequoia, has been named
president and chief executive officer of the new company.
 Reuter

LDBrinkman Corp Chairman L.D.
Brinkman and members of his family said they cut their stake in
Cenergy Corp to 3,647 shares, or 0.4 pct of the total
outstanding, from 912,147 shares, or 9.4 pct.
the group said it sold 302,833 Cenergy common shares to Snyder
Oil Partners L.P. <SOI> on March 14 for 2,725,500 dlrs and gave
Snyder another 605,667 shares, in exchange for 524,135 units of
limited partnership interests in Snyder.
 Reuter

The Grumman Space Systems division
of Grumman Corp is being awarded a 303.9 mln dlr Air Force
    It said the contract, similar to one awarded to Lockheed
Corp, is for a 34 month SDI Boost Surveillance and Tracking
System demonstration/validation effort which is expected to be
completed in January 1990.
 Reuter

Tiger International Inc said it
will pay the interest due April 1 on its 11-1/2 pct Sinking
Fund debentures by distributing common stock.
    Each debenture holder will receive the number of whole
shares of Tiger common stock obtained by dividing the interest
payable by 90 pct of the average closing price of the stock
from February  18 through March 17. Fractions will be paid in
cash.
    The company said about 165,000 shares of Tiger common stock
will be issued in connection with the interest payment.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs one ct
    Net 235,000 vs 66,000
    Revs 10 mln vs 8,202,000
    Avg shrs 7,972,000 vs 8,545,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 83 cts
    Net loss 2,115,000
    Revs 139.6 mln
    Avg shrs 3.6 mln
    NOTE: Company went public February 1986.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs seven cts prior qtr

 Reuter

Metro Mobile CTS Inc said it declared
a 10 pct stock dividend.
    The dividend will be distributed on April 13 to holders of
record March 30.
   
 Reuter

<Laurentian Group Corp> said it
expects 1987 earnings per share will show about the same
proportionate increase as in 1986.
    Last year, the company had 25.7 mln dlrs operating profit,
or 76 cts per share, up from 11.1 mln dlrs, or 59 cts per
share, in 1985. Shares outstanding increased to 39 mln from
27.8 mln.
    The American holding company, Laurentian Capital Corp, will
show a substantial improvement this year, chairman Claude
Castonguay said before the annual meeting.
    Laurentian Capital Corp, which recently acquired two small
U.S. life insurance companies, had 1986 profit of 1.1 mln U.S.
dlrs, or eight cts per share, compared to seven mln U.S. dlrs,
or 68 cts per share.
    Castonguay said Laurentian Group Corp, the parent firm,
plans to fill out its national financial services distribution
system and make further acquisitions if the right opportunity
occurs.
    The company also may expand this year in continental
Europe, in conjunction with La Victoire, a French insurance
company, he said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.05 dlrs vs 51 cts
    Net 8,500,000 vs 4,100,000
    Revs 183.2 mln vs 136.6 mln
 Reuter

Peru's short-term foreign trade credit
lines, regarded as vital to ensure smooth foreign commercial
transactions, have more than doubled to 430 mln dollars under
the 20-month government of president Alan Garcia.
    Central bank general manager Hector Neyra told reporters
many of the credits were 90-day.
    Trade credits were 210 mln dlrs when Garcia took office in
1985 announcing a tough stance limiting foreign debt repayments
to 10 pct of export earnings.
    Neyra told Reuters Peru was current on interest payments on
short-term debt, including trade credit lines and on about 750
mln dlrs in so-called  "working capital" credits.
    Trade credit lines were 880 mln dlrs in 1982, but fell in
1984 when Peru stopped some payments to private foreign banks.
 Reuter

Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc said it
has sold a new type of certificate of deposit designed to
provide top-rated Japanese banks with broader access to the
U.S. money markets.
    The investment banker said its variable money market
certificates of deposit are structured as traditional floating
rate CDs, with the rate based on the AA commercial paper
composite rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    Shearson said it offered the novel CDs yesterday to mostly
institutional investors. The series totaled 500 mln dlrs and
was oversubscribed with nearly two billion dlrs in bids.
    The first banks to issue the variable money market CDs were
Sanwa Bank Ltd, Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd, Dai-Ichi
Kangyo Bank Ltd, Fuji Bank Ltd and Sumitomo Bank Ltd, each with
tranches of 100 mln dlrs, Shearson detailed.
    The investment banking firm said another series of variable
money market CDs is planned for April.
    "The variable money market CDs provide a low cost
dependable source of funds for issuing Japanese banks," said
Robert Shapiro, executive vice president with Shearson Lehman
Commercial Paper Inc. "The instrument enables banks to
diversify their funding base in a significant way."
    In yesterday's series, the issuing banks' coupon rates were
set at the commercial bank composite rate plus a spread which
is expected to equal an all-in-cost of LIBOR minus 10 basis
points, Shearson said.
    The rate will be reset monthly or quarterly and will be
subject to a maximum of LIBOR and a minimum of the New York
Fed's commercial paper composite rate.
    Shearson stressed, however, that the spread over the
commercial paper index to be paid by an issuing bank will be
determined by investor demand. It added that other Japanese
banks may participate in future issues.
    "For the first time, they (the banks) will gain access not
only to traditional CD investors but also to commercial paper
investors at rates which are competitive with traditional
floating rate CDs," said Michael Balaban, a vice president with
Shearson's commercial paper unit.
    He added, "For U.S. investors, the CDs are attractive
because they are domestically issued paper with competitive
rates offered by AAA-rated Japanese banks."
    Balaban noted that several fiduciary investors and money
market funds which had never previously purchased Japanese bank
paper submitted bids during yesterday's sale.
 Reuter

The British Conservative government said
it would sell off its remaining 31.7 pct shareholding in
British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> during the next financial year
which starts on April 1.
    Treasury Financial Secretary Norman Lamont made the
announcement to Parliament. He said, "The government's policy is
to sell its minority holdings in companies as and when
circumstances permit.
    "As part of this policy I am now able to announce that,
subject to market conditions, the government will sell its
remaining shares in BP during the 1987/88 financial year."
    The last sale of British government shares in BP was in
September 1983. The government currently holds some 578.5 mln
ordinary shares in the company.
    Lamont said the Treasury would appoint financial advisers
for the sale. Merchant banks and stockbrokers interested in
being considered for this would be interviewed in early April.
    In September 1983, the U.K. Government sold 150 mln shares
in an underwritten offer for sale by tender. The striking price
then was 435 pence - 7.5 pct above the minimum tender price, a
    He said the sale of BP shares would not cut across the
government's plans to privatise Rolls-Royce, in either April or
May, or the sale of BAA Plc, the British airports authority
which is slated for privatisation in either June or July.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp's Defense
and Electronic Systems Center is being awarded two Air Force
contract increases totalling 114.0 mln dlrs for work related to
the F-16 radar, the Defense Department said.
    It said both contracts, which combine purchases for the
U.S. Air Force and Turkey under the Foreign Military Sales
program, are expected to be completed in December 1988.
 Reuter

EIA SAYS DISTILLATES OFF 7.6 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 3.4 MLN, CRUDE OFF 4.4 MLN

East Rand Proprietary Mines Ltd
said that barring any major disruption in production, it
expects 1987 gold output to top 10 tonnes after dropping to
9.223 tonnes last year from 10.251 in 1985.
    Chairman Clive Knobbs said in the annual report the mine
was expected to mill a higher tonnage while capital expenditure
during 1987 will be around 118.5 mln rand.
   The decline in gold production last year was due to a four
pct drop in tonnage milled and a seven pct decline in grade.
 Reuter

Snyder Oil Partners LP said
it acquired 1.2 mln shares, or 12 pct, of Cenergy Corp.
    It said it is continuing to review its investment  and has
made no determination of its future course of action.
 Reuter

Progressive Savings and Loan
Association <PRSL> said it has agreed in principle to be
purchased by Far West Financial Corp's Far West Savings and
Loan Association.
    The acquisition would be a cash merger, with Progressive
shareholders receiving up to three dlrs per share, the company
said.
    Progressive Savings has assets of about 500 mln dlrs and
operates ten offices in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
    The agreement is subject to federal and shareholder
approval.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The U.S. Congress and the oil industry
are deeply divided on ways the government should assist the
industry, hurt by the sharp fall in oil prices, and the
subsequent growth in oil imports, industry analysts said.
    "The industry is deeply divided between those who support an
oil tariff and those who believe tax incentives are better,"
said Daniel Yergin, director of Cambridge Energy Research
Associates, which recently completed a survey of the U.S.
Congress on energy issues.
    Yergin said he saw mounting support within Congress for tax
incentives rather than an oil tariff or import fee.
    Today U.S. Energy Secretary John Herington said he will
propose tax incentives to increase edomestic oil and natural
gas exploration and production to the Reagan Administration for
consideration. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the
proposal would be reviewed.
    Herrington said, "I would like to shoot for one mln barrels
a day (addition) to U.S. production." U.S. oil output was off to
8.4 mln bpd in the week of March 13, down six pct from last
year, the American Petroleum Institute said.
    Oil industry analysts have forecast oil prices to average
about 18 dlrs a barrel for the year and many believe that a
move above that level will be unlikey for the near term.
    Paul Mlotok, oil analyst for Salomon Brothers Inc said that
"even with the rise in prices for the last week or two we've
only altered our average price scenerio to about 17.50 dlrs for
the year."
    Analysts said that at that price renewed drilling and
exploration to reverse the decline in U.S. crude oil output
will not take place as the companies are waiting for stable
prices over 20 dlrs to renew exploration.
    John Lichtblau, president of the Petroleum Industry
Research Foundation Inc in New york in recent testimony to
Congress said "The continuing decline in U.S. oil production is
virtually inevitable under any realistic price scenario. But
the future rate of decline is very much a function of world oil
prices and U.S. government policy."
    Lichtbalu said that tax breaks could be used to raise oil
production but would only work over time.
    "Lowering the producing industry's tax burden would probably
be a slower stimulant (to output) than a price increase but
would not raise energy costs." Lichtblau said.
    But the small independent oil companies who do much of the
drilling in the U.S. are looking for the more immediate relief
which could be brought on by an oil import fee.
    Ronald Tappmeyer, president of the International
Association of Drilling Contractors, said, "The members of our
trade asssociation are convinced that only a variable oil
import fee that sets a minimum price trigger can protect our
nation." The association represents some 1,300 drilling and oil
service companies.
    The CERA survey of Congress shows that the oil import fee
will face a stiff uphill battle.
    Yergin said that the poll which was conducted in January by
a former Congressman, Orval Hansen, showed support for the oil
import fee from 22 pct of the Congressmen surveyed largely as a
means of protecting the domestic petroleum industry.
     At the same time 48 pct of the Congressmen surveyed
opposed the fee with the respondents saying the tariff would
hurt consumers and some regional interests.
    But 80 pct of the sample said support for a fee could grow
if production continued to fall and imports to rise.
    Yergin said that imports above 50 pct of U.S. requirements
"is a critical, symbolic level. If they (imports) move above
that level, a fee may not be legislated but there will
certainly be pressure for some form of action."
     But Lichtblau, in a telephone interview, said, "a 50 pct
rate of import dependency is not likely to happen before 1990.
    In 1986 U.S. oil imports rose to 33 pct of u.s. energy
requirements and shopuld be about 34 pct in 1987, he added.
 Reuter

Texstyrene Corp said it has
suspended quarterly cash dividend payments on its 9.5 pct
convertible exchangeable preferred stock.
    The suspension effects the March 15 payment, and it said it
does not expect to pay preferred dividends in the forseeable
future.
    It said the payments were suspended because of certain
covenants contained in its loan agreements. A spokesman said
the company's loss of 2,115,000 dlrs for the first 11 months as
a public company did not meet an income condition on the loans,
leading to the suspension.
    The maker of foam cups, food containers and other products
said it had 733,332 outstanding preferred shares, which had
been privately placed.
    The dividend payments on the shares amounted to 1,045,000
dlrs per year, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

said a law suit alleging breach of contract and
misrepresentation has been filed against its Majestic Crude
Corp subsidiary by AMONI Ltd.
    The suit seeks 600,000 dlrs in damages.
    American International said it will defend against the
charges.
 Reuter

Prism Entertainment Corp said it
has entered an acquisition and distribution agreement with
Tokyo-based Gaga Communications to make and distribute home
video titles in Japan under the Prism label.
    Both companies will provide funding for joint acquisitions
of up to ten mln dlrs.
    Gaga is a subsidiary of Nihon Tape Corp, Japan's largest
wholesaler of pre-recorded cassettes.
    Gaga will manufacture and distribute the videos for the
Japanese market.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.22 dlrs vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 10.2 mln vs profit 760,443
    Revs 1.1 mln vs 3.7 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 3.68 dlrs vs profit 64 cts
    Net loss 16.9 mln vs profit 2.7 mln
    Revs 3.6 mln vs 15.2 mln
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr includes 6.7 mln dlr restructuring charge
and writedowns of 280,000 dlrs. year includes writedown of 3.6
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

    Record March 26.
 Reuter

Asked what the U.S. State
Department's policy is on offering subsidized wheat to Moscow,
Secretary of State George Shultz told a group of farm leaders
that U.S. products must be competitive in the world market.
    "If we are going to sell our products, whatever they may
be, wheat or anything else, then we have to meet the market,"
Shultz told the board of directors for the National Association
of Wheat Growers.
    "We have to be competitive. It's ridiculous to say that
somebody is going to buy your product if they can get the same
thing at a lower price somewhere else. They just aren't," he
said.
    "That is our approach in the negotiations with the Soviets,
and it must be our approach as we look at the American farm
program and try to figure out what we should do to make it
better," Shultz told the Wheat Growers.
    Schultz said that while he does not favor a situation that
would allow the Soviet housewife to buy food cheaper than the
American housewife, he realizes the importance of American
agricultural products being competitively priced.
    Speculation has been in the market for some time that the
United States is considering offering wheat to the Soviet Union
at subsidized prices.
    Soviet officials have said they would buy U.S. wheat if it
were competitively priced. Agriculture Department officials
have declined to take any official position on the issue.
 Reuter

<John Labatt Ltd> said it agreed to
issue in Canada 125 mln dlrs of 1987 adjustable rate
convertible subordinated debentures maturing April 1, 2007.
    Labatt, 38 pct-owned by Brascan Ltd <BRS.A>, said Brascan's
49 pct-owned <Great Lakes Group Inc> agreed to acquire 75 mln
dlrs of the debentures from the underwriters. It said the
underwriters could repurchase up to 12.5 mln dlrs of the issue
from Great Lakes Group.
    The debentures will not be redeemable before April 1, 1992,
and are convertible any time to Labatt common shares at 27 dlrs
each, said Labatt, Canada's biggest brewery.
    Labatt said it would use proceeds to repay short-term loans
    Underwriters are Wood Gundy Inc, Gordon Capital Corp,
Merrill Lynch Canada Inc, Burns Fry Ltd and Midland Doherty
Ltd.
 Reuter

Toronto.
    The company said Maple Leaf had 1986 sales of 819 mln
Canadian dlrs and an after tax profit of 16.3 mln Canadian
dlrs. It is a diversified agriproducts company which produces
and sells industrial and consumer flour, flour-based products
and baked goods.
rendering business, markets livestock and poultry feed and
 Reuter

SpecTran Corp said <Sterling
Extruder Corp> filed a complaint against it and Sonetran, its
partly-owned business venture, claiming a breach of contract
for the purchase of about 545,000 dlrs worth of equipment.
    SpecTran said it and Sonetran deny any liability and intend
to contest the suit "most vigorously."
    SpecTran said the suit was filed in Superior Court in New
Haven, Conn.
 Reuter

Greyhound corp said it completed
the sale of its Greyhound Lines unit to Dallas-based GLI
Holdings Inc for 350 mln dlrs in cash, securities, royalties
and other considerations.
    Greyhound said GLI is authorized to continue using the
familiar running dog logo on a red, white and blue shield,
while Greyhound Corp will continue to use the running dog alone
as its symbol.
 Reuter

InterCare Inc said it 
terminated plans to acquire Universal Care, a California health
mainenance organization, following First Jersey Securities'
decision to withdraw as underwriter for InterCare's proposed
public debt and equity securities offering.
    The acquisition was contingent on its ability to obtain
financing to fund the 1.9 mln dlr cash portion of the purchase
price, InterCare said.
    It also said the offering was aimed at raising 7.5 mln dlrs
for working capital and 1.7 mln to repay debt incurred in
connection with its recent acquisition of U.S. Medical
Enterprises Inc.
    The company further stated that it has a 1.7 mln dlr
working capital deficit and it will therefore reduce operating
expenses by decreasing operating hours, workforce reductions
and the sale of certain assets.
 Reuter

Providence Energy Corp said it
completed the purchase of North Attleboro Gas co.
    North Attleboro serves 2,273 residential customers, 288
commercial customers, and 40 industrial customers.
 Reuter

Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc, a unit
of Legg Mason Inc, said it formed a Philadelphia-based
corporate finance unit headed by Graham Humes, formerly head of
corporate finance for Mellon Bank Corp <MEL>.
   
 Reuter

Argentine grain growers reduced
their estimates for maize and soybean production in the current
harvest in the week to yesterday, trade sources said.
    Soybean production for 1986/87 is now estimated to reach
between 7.7 and eight mln tonnes, versus 7.8 to 8.2 mln tonnes
estimated a week ago and eight to 8.4 mln tonnes estimated in
mid-February.
    But even the lowest of those estimates would be 8.5 to 12.7
pct greater than last year's total of 7.1 mln tonnes, according
to official figures, and would be a new record.
    The total area planted with soybeans for this harvest was a
record 3.7 to 3.8 mln hectares and increased 10.8 to 13.8 pct
compared to the 3.3 mln hectares planted last year.
    The change in yield estimates is due to very high
temperatures and inadequate rainfall since early in the year in
the soybean-producing belt of southern Cordoba and Santa Fe and
northern Buenos Aires province.
    The heat and lack of rain combined to leave many soybean
pods empty, especially in Cordoba.
    Intense rains in recent weeks did not affect crops, since
rainfall was slight in most main soybean-producing areas.
    Rains in the week to yesterday were isolated and weak in
Buenos Aires province, totalling between one and 10 mm. There
was no recorded rain in other grain-producing provinces.
    With clear skies and seasonable temperatures, fields were
able to dry in areas that had received heavy rains in recent
weeks, allowing growers to accelerate the pace of maize,
sunflower and sorghum harvesting.
    Crops were considered in generally good condition, though
it is still too early to judge whether the intense rains of
recent weeks caused any long-term damage.
    The maize harvest advanced to between 20 and 22 pct of the
total area planted, compared to 13 to 15 pct a week ago.
    Total area planted with maize for this harvest stood at
3.58 to 3.78 mln hectares, down two to seven pct from the 3.85
mln hectares planted in the previous harvest.
    Total production for the current maize harvest is expected
to reach between 9.9 and 10.1 mln tonnes, versus 10 to 10.2 mln
tonnes estimated a week ago. The new figure is 21.1 to 22.7 pct
lower than the 12.8 mln tonnes produced in the last harvest,
    The sunflower harvest advanced to between 20 and 23 pct of
total planted area, versus 15 to 18 pct a week ago.
    Total area planted with sunflower for this harvest was two
to 2.2 mln hectares, or 29.9 to 36.3 pct lower than the record
3.14 mln hectares planted in the 1985/86 harvest.
    The current harvest's volume was again expected to be
between 2.3 and 2.6 mln tonnes, or 34.1 to 41.5 pct lower than
last harvest's record 4.1 mln tonnes.
    Yields varied widely from area to area, and growers feared
that heavy rains in recent weeks may have taken their toll on
crops and, consequently, on total production volume.
    The sorghum harvest reached between nine and 11 pct of
total planted area, compared to four to six pct a week ago.
    Total area planted with sorghum stood at between 1.2 and
1.3 mln hectares, or 10.3 to 15.2 pct lower than the 1.4 mln
hectares planted in the previous harvest.
    Estimates for total sorghum production this harvest
remained at 3.2 to 3.5 mln tonnes again this week, or 16.7 to
22 pct lower than last harvest's total volume of 4.1 to 4.2 mln
tonnes.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve Board has
approved the application of Chase Manhattan Corp to engage in
underwriting and dealing in commercial paper of Chase
Commercial Corp, the lending subsidiary of the parent bank
holding company.
    The Fed order said Chase Manhattan's application was
consistent with sound banking practices and existing laws. But
it added a bill adopted by the Senate Banking Committee last
week could affect Chase Manhattan if it becomes law and might
force it eventually to cease commercial paper underwriting
     The Fed said the application was similar to that of
Bankers Trust to engage in commercial paper placement that was
approved last December.
    Chase Manhattan Corp, with consolidated assets of 90
billion dlrs, is the second largest banking organization in New
York and operates in the United States and abroad.
    The Fed noted the Securities Industry Association, a trade
association of the investment banking industry, had opposed
Chase Manhattan's application for more powers.
    Chase Manhattan now will be able to underwrite commercial
paper, buying it for resale to institutions like banks.
     In addition, Chase Manhattan will be able to place
commercial paper as agents for issuers and advise them on rates
and maturities of proposed issues just as Bankers Trust was
given authority to do.
    The minimum denomination of commercial paper offered and
purchased would be 250,000 dlrs.
    The Fed said it felt there would be no violation of banking
laws provided that Chase Manhattan restricted its commercial
paper activities to five pct of its income and five pct of
total market share.
    The Fed said dealing in commercial paper was related to
Chase Manhattan's regular banking activities because "this kind
of instrument has many of the characteristics of a traditional
commercial loan."
    "Because of its short term nature, commercial paper is
customarily held to maturity -- like a commercial loan," the Fed
order said.
    Among the benefits for the public will be increased
competition in the commercial paper market and more convenient
service for borrowers and investors, the Fed said.
 Reuter

Pacific Nuclear Systems Inc
said it has received a contract to lease a nuclear packaging
shipping cask to General Public Utilities <GPU>.
    The cask will be leased for one year, beginning in the
fourth quarter of 1987, with an option for General Public  to
extend the lease for an additional year.
    The exepcted cask lease revenue is in excess of one mln
dlrs, Pacific Nuclear said.
 Reuter

products supplied rose 2.3 pct in the four weeks ended March 13
to 16.49 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 16.11 mln in the same
said.
Department agency said distillate demand was up 2.9 pct in the
period to 3.43 mln bpd from 3.33 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.93 mln bpd, up 4.0 pct from 6.67
mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.31 mln bpd, off
7.9 pct from 1.42 mln, the EIA said.
    Domestic crude oil production was estimated at 8.36 mln
bpd, down 8.1 pct from 9.10 mln a year ago, and gross daily
crude imports (excluding those for the SPR) averaged 3.70 mln
bpd, up 24.8 pct from 2.96 mln, the EIA said.
    Refinery crude runs in the four weeks were 11.92 mln bpd,
up 1.0 pct from 11.80 mln a year earlier, it said.
 Reuter

Mesa Royalty Trust <MRT> said unit
holders of record March 31 will receive a distribution
amounting to 55,192 dlrs or 2.96 cts per unit, payable April
30.
 Reuter

<Cambridge Shopping Centres Ltd> said
wholly owned Cambridge Leaseholds Ltd privately sold 100 mln
dlrs of secured debentures.
    It said the debentures were issued in three parts
consisting of a 20 mln dlr issue at 10.4 pct maturing March 31,
1997, 22 mln dlrs at 10.6 pct maturing March 31, 2002 and 58
mln dlrs at 10.7 pct maturing March 31, 2007.
    Cambridge said it would use proceeds to significantly
reduce short-term debt.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker and
Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker have told House
leaders they were optimistic their debt strategy would work,
but acknowledged the crisis could take a sharp turn for the
worse, Congressional sources and U.S. officials said.
    Baker and Volcker gave these views at closed-door talks 
yesterday with Speaker Jim Wright and other House leaders.
    But the two architects of the Third World debt strategy
gave no indications they would abandon their plan to promote
economic growth and reform.
    "They expressed optimism about the current state of affairs,"
one participant at the meeting said.
    However Baker and Volcker, accompanied by Deputy Secretary
of State John Whitehead, acknowledged there were risks. "And if
things turned sour, they could turn very sour," a source quoted
them as saying.
    They were responding to questions from Wright, a Texas
Democrat, who called the meeting two weeks ago because of his
concern the debt crisis was deepening, an aide said.
    The Speaker asked all three men about the risks to Latin
American democracy and the danger that demagogues of either
left or right could wrest control and halt debt repayments.
    Even though the Fed chief joined Baker in expressing more
confidence in an optimistic outcome, Volcker was especially
concerned about the political risks, and in particular the 
fatigue with belt-tightening. The central banker said resolving
the debt crisis would be a "struggle".
    Since taking over the Speakership at the start of the year,
Wright has shown himself an able political adversary of the
administration on budget strategy.
    His involvement in this issue also seems to signal that
Congressional interest in the debt problem has to be taken more
seriously now than in the past.
    More worrisome for administration strategists is the
possibility that Congressional debt proposals essentially
granting debt relief will be attached to a trade bill.
    "When (Baker and Volcker) left the Speaker's office, they
knew it wasn't just talk," one source at the meeting said.
    The two economic policymakers listened patiently to
descriptions of plans for a Third World debt facility, backed
by gold reserves of the International Monetary Fund.
    The agency could buy up or guarantee developing country
debt at a discount and resell it to debtor nations undertaking
economic reforms.
    The U.S. Treasury would be required to ask other countries
for their views under a bill approved by a House Banking
subcommittee and sponsored by John LaFalce, a New York House
Democrat. A similar proposal is being fashioned by Bruce
Morrison, a House Democrat from Connecticut.
    The sources said House Banking and Foreign Affairs leaders
also attended the discussions.
    U.S. officials said both schemes are regarded by the
administration as providing debt relief. Baker said yesterday
the concept of debt relief was misguided. "If we write it all
off and declare defeat, these countries will decay and wither
on the vine," the Treasury Secretary said of an end to capital
inflows that would follow debt relief.
    Baker has said his own plan was broad and would embrace new
innovative ideas bringing together debtors and creditors.
    Baker and Volcker launched their in late 1985, calling on
commercial and multilateral banks to increase loans to major
debtors pursuing inflation-free expansion and open markets.
    "They sat down together to discuss the implications for
Latin America and feel each other out on the best way out," a
Wright aide said of the meeting. Other sources said they expect
the dialogue to continue.
    The talks come after Brazil's interest rate moratorium and
an uncompromising stand by the country's finance minister,
Dilson Funaro, after talks with western leaders.
    Some U.S. officials feel Funaro's consolidation of power
over the Brazilian economy with the ouster of Planning minister
Joao Sayad is further reason to worry.
    Another proposal, to allow regulators to grant commercial
banks more flexibility in accounting for Third World loans, has
been presented by Senator Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat,
but did not come up yesterday.
    Wright, who has not hitherto concerned himself with debt,
"is concerned about the potential for damage. The Latin American
issue, at least on the surface appears to be a new danger," said
an aide, who asked not to be named.
    There are signs the Brazilian situation and a reluctance by
commercial banks to join in new cash loans even for debtors
following substantial reforms has concerned U.S. officials.
    At the State Department, Secretary of State George Shultz
is being advised the "Baker plan is going through a rough patch"
while Treasury officials are urging commercial banks to adopt
more flexible approaches to guarantee their continued
participation in the plan.
   
 Reuter

Taiwan overnight bought 450,000
tonnes of U.S. number two corn, 14.5 pct moisture, for Gulf and
West Coast shipment in 11 cargoes between May and October,
    Gulf shipment ranged in prices from 75.17 to 78.45 dlrs per
tonne stowed and trimmed, FOB euqivalent, and West Coast
shipments ranged from 79.41 to 81.02 dlrs per tonne, stowed and
trimmed, FOB equivalent, they said.
 Reuter

Results were awaited on Egypt's
tender today for 200,000 tonnes of U.S. soft or white wheat for
April shipment under PL 480, private export sources said.
 Reuter

ecuador's union federations called a
general strike for next wednesday to press the governent to
suspend austerity measures adopted recently to grapple with
losses from a recent earthquake.
    The 500,000-strong unitary workers' front (fut) and the
100,000-member general union of workers (ugt) have protested
the measures, which include a rise in petrol prices of up to 80
per cent and budget cuts of as much as 10 per cent.
    President leon febres cordero imposed the measures after a
march 5 earthquake cost an estimated one billion dollars in
losses. About 1,000 people are dead or missing.
    The leftist-led fut said it was also backing a call by the
maoist popular movement for democracy (mpd) party, to have
congress impeach and oust febres cordero, a conservative, for
having adopted the austerity measures.
    Congress needs to muster two-thirds of the votes in the
71-seat congress to censure and oust the president, whose
four-year presidential term ends in august 1988.
    The congress last january 22 voted 38-29 to approve a
non-binding resolution asking the president to resign for
having allegedly violated laws and provoking his 12-hour
abduction by air force paratroopers on january 16.
 Reuter

Oncogene Science INc said Robert
Ivy is resigning as president, chief executive officer and
director, effective April 12
    No immediate successor was named.
 Reuter

Teleglobe Canada, owned by <Memotec
Data Inc> said it agreed to participate in a fibre optics
project in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
    Teleglobe said its estimated cost in the project is 78.2
mln Canadian dlrs, of which 23.7 mln dlrs is recoverable from
the eventual sale of cable circuits.
    The company said its participation will allow it to meet
forecast market needs in the next century and secure important
Canadian participation in the project.
 Reuter

Pentair Inc said it began a public
offering of two mln shares of 1.50 dlr cumulative preferred
stock priced at 25 dlrs per share.
    Proceeds will be used to repay bank debt incurred to
finance the acquisition of McNeil Corp in August 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary
Daniel Amstutz indicated the world wheat supply/demand
situation has become more bullish recently because of
developments in the world market and increased consumption.
    Speaking to a House Agriculture Appropriations
subcommittee, Amstutz cited three factors which have improved
the wheat outlook.
    He said world consumption of wheat is increasing by about
20 mln tonnes this year, primarily for feed use. There are also
reports from Australia, Canada and Argentina that plantings
have been reduced, he said. Furthermore, he cited reports of
greater than normal winterkill in the Soviet Union.
    "It seems reasonable to expect production and consumption
to be in far better balance than a year ago," Amstutz said.
 Reuter

Argentina's total oil and gas
production fell 9.4 pct in February to 2.78 mln cubic metres
from January's total of 3.11 mln cubic metres, the state oil
company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) reported.
    A YPF statement blamed the drop on momentary problems owing
to the summer season but gave no further details.
    February's production figure fell slightly short of YPF's
target figure of 2.90 mln cubic metres.
    Oil production totalled 1.76 mln cubic metres last month
and natural gas production 1.02 mln cubic metres, down from
1.95 and 1.15 mln cubic metres in January, respectively.
 Reuter

Soybeans produced in the United
States face a competitive price problem because of the loan
rate provisions of the 1985 farm bill, U.S. Undersecretary of
Agriculture Daniel Amstutz said.
    Amstutz told a House Agriculture Appropriations
subcommittee hearing that soybeans are caught in a "squeeze"
because the Farm Bill allowed steep cuts in grain loan rates
while limiting the soybean reduction.
    As a result, he said U.S.-produced soybeans "have a price
problem" in competing with other soybean producing countries.
    Amstutz called the situation a "dilemma" for the USDA, and
said "we have spent hours in ASCS (Agriculture Stabilization
and Conservation Service) looking at this."
    He did not say what may be done to rectify the situation.
 Reuter

<Mitek Systems Inc> said it
expects to report a loss in the current quarter ending March
31, due primarily to the government buying cycle.
    The company did not quantify the size of the expected loss.
It said it expects sales and profits for fiscal 1987, however,
to exceed those of 1986. In 1986 Mitek reported sales of five
mln dlrs and a net profit of 14,000 dlrs.
    Mitek als said it has introduced a line of 15 page per
minute desk top laser printers.
    Limited shipments will begin next quarter, with full
production planned for the following quarter, it said.
   
 Reuter

Champion Parts Rebuilders Inc
said Echlin Inc has bought a 20 pct stake in it by acquiring
600,000 newly issued shares and warrants to buy another 300,000
shares at 9.20 dlrs each, for a total investment of 5,400,000
dlrs.
    The newly issued shares raises Champion's outstanding
shares to 3,113,074.
    There are no voting restrictions on the new shares.
Champion's board will be expanded to include two or three
independent persons suggested by Echlin, it said.
    Champion will use the proceeds to pay down long-term debt,
it said.
    Echlin has agreed to limits on buying additional Champion
shares and its ability to seek control of Champion during the
next seven years, Champion said.
    Echlin will also receive protection against the decline in
price of Champion's stock for seven years. Echlin could receive
a one-time payment, at its option in cash or stock, ranging
from up to one dlrs a share in 1989 to four dlrs a share in
1992 to 1994, to the extent the market price of Champion shares
is less than nine dlrs a share at those times.
 Reuter

Brazil rejected all offers at
tonight's wheat tender, a Brazilian Wheat Board spokesman said.
    He said no date had been set for the next tender.
 Reuter

Boeing Military Airplane Co, a
subsidiary of Boeing Co, is being awarded two Air Force
contracts totalling 53 mln dlrs, the Defense Department said.
    It said the company was being awarded a 49.8 mln dlr
contract for 10 B707 aircraft, components, engineering and data
for a reengining program, adding that the work is expected to
be completed in January 1988.
    The department also said it awarded the company a 3.2 mln
dlr increase to a contract for work modifying two G-22B
aircraft.
 Reuter

Home Shopping Network Inc
<HSN> said, in response to published reports, that it is not
the target of a formal Securities and Exchange commission
    It said, instead, that the SEC initiated an informal
inquiry of all parties involved in the Home Shopping/C.O.M.B.
Co <CMCO> merger negotiations to determine the source of rumors
that caused the stocks to rise prior to a public announcement
    Home Shopping said it cooperated fully and had no
indication that the informal inquiry is being pursued.
 Reuter

Brazilian Coffee Institute (IBC)
president Jorio Dauster said he will attend a meeting in
Managua this weekend.
    He told Reuters by telephone from Brasilia that the
meeting, involving Brazil, Colombia and Central American coffee
producers, will be strictly to review the coffee market
    "The meeting is set for Saturday but could also continue on
Sunday," he said.
 Reuter

<Canterra Energy Ltd> said it
will drill an exploratory well on the Scotian shelf, about 280
kilometers east-southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
    Drilling will begin in late April 1987 in 61 meters of
water and will be drilled to a total depth of 3,500 meters,
Canterra said.
    Canterra will operate the well and has a 39 pct interest in
it. <Petro-Canada Inc> has 26 pct, <Trillium Exploration Corp>
has 20 pct and <Nova Scotia Resources (Ventures) Ltd> has 15
pct.
 Reuter

Fleet Financial Group hopes its
proposed merger with Norstar Bancorp <NOR>, ranked as the
largest U.S. banking merger, can be completed by the beginning
of 1988, according to an executive of Fleet.
    Robert Lougee, director of corporate communications for
Rhode Island-based Fleet, told Reuters the company is exploring
the possiblity of seeking a change in the national trigger date
for the state's reciprocal bank law to Jan 1, 1988 from July
one. The decision is up to the Rhode Island legislature.
    The merger plan was announced in a midday news release that
said the deal, worth about 1.3 billion dlrs, would be
consummated July one when Rhode Island barriers to interstate
banking outside of New England come down. "If we can consummate
the deal earlier that would be better for all concerned,"
Lougee said. He said to the best of his knowledge a change in
the Rhode Island law would not be a hardship for any other
banking institution in the state.
    He said Fleet is optimstic Connecticut law, which only
permits interstate banking mergers within New England, can be
amended. Fleet owns First Connecticut Bancorp.
    If the Connecticut law is not amended in time, Lougee said,
an option would be to spin off that unit with repurchase
provisions.
    The New England reciprocal banking laws have excluded New
York as a means of protecting regional banks from being gobbled
up by the money center giants.
    Wall Street analysts said the merger accord between Fleet
and Albany, N.Y.-based Norstar demonstrates the rapid pace of
interstate banking mergers since state legislatures begain
permitting regional mergers on a reciprocal basis. The U.S.
Supreme Court decided in mid-1985 to permit the mergers.
    Fleet and Norstar in a joint statement billed the proposed
merger as "a partnership of two companies." Both will continue
to operate existing headquarters after the merger.
    Norstar holders will receive 1.2 Fleet shares for each one
of theirs following Fleet's previously announced two-for-one
split. Fleet shares closed today at 59-1/2, up 1/8, giving the
deal an indicated value of 1.3 billion dlrs.
    That topped the proposed merger of Los Angeles-based
Security Pacific Corp <SPC> and Seattle's Rainier Bancorpartion
<RBAN>. The West Coast deal, announced about four weeks ago, is
worth an estimated 1.2 billion dlrs.
    Chemical New York Corp's <CHL> acquisition of Texas
Commerce Bancshares last year was valued at about 1.2 billion
dlrs, making it similar in size to the Security Pacific-Rainer
deal. The California combination of Wells Fargo and Co <WFC>
and Crocker National Corp last year was worth 1.1 billion dlrs
and there have been several bank mergers in the southeast
valued in the 700-800 mln dlr range.
    "It's a merger of equals," said analyst John Rooney of
Moseley Securities Corp. He said Norstar had a book value at
the end of 1986 of 19.63 dlrs per share, while Fleet's book
value was 28.02 dlrs.
    Rooney noted that Norstar chairman Peter Kiernan is in his
60's while Fleet's Terrence Murray is in his late 40's. He said
Kiernan would probably head the combined company until his
retirement then Murray could assume the top post.
    Analyst Thaddeus Paluszek of Merrill Lynch and Co said
Fleet's earnings would have been diluted about two pct in 1986
on the basis of the merger terms announced today.
    He noted that Fleet has a "teriffic reputation" after
having diversified in a number of financial areas. Fleet has
established consumer banks in the southeast and is known as an
innovator in securitization of mortgages.
    The merged banks would have assets in excess of 25 billion
dlrs and be one of the 25 largest banks in the U.S.  Norstar
operates in most of New York state but not in New York City.
    Lougee said at some point in the future banking operations
that both Norstar and Fleet operate in the state of Maine would
be combined.
    The agreement between Norstar and Fleet includes a
"lock-up" option designed to deter other acquirers. Each
granted the other an option to purchase authorized but unissued
shares amounting to 24.99 pct of the fully diluted shares
 Reuter

President Reagan has sent Congress
proposals to streamline high-tech export control procedures,
    "These proposals are part of the president's energetic
program to enhance America's competitiveness in the world
economy," it said in a written statement.
    It said the proposals included exempting from license
requirements a number of low technology items and allowing
foreign manufacturers to re-export U.S. parts and components up
to a certain level without U.S. government re-export
authorization.
 REUTER

Allen-Bradley Co, a unit of Rockwell
International Corp, said it has formed a joint venture with TDK
Corp of Tokyo to produce, market and sell ferrite magnets.
    Allen-Bradley will be responsible for production and TDK
will handle sales and marketing. Products will be marketed
through TDK Corp of America, a Chicago-based TDK unit that
markets TDK's electronic components.
    The venture, to be known as Allen-Bradley/TDK Magnetics,
will be based in Shawnee, Okla, in the existing Allen-Bradley
magnetics production facility.
 Reuter

Smith International Inc
said it has consolidated its Smith Tool and Smith Drilling
Systems divisions.
    The new division will be called Smith International and
will be headquartered in Houston.
    Doug Rock, previously president of Smith Tool, is now
president of Smith International.
 Reuter

Brazilian consumer prices rose
13.9 pct in February, compared to January's record rate of 16.8
pct, the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute said in a
    The February rise brought the increase in consumer prices
since the introduction of the anti-inflation Cruzado Plan a
year ago to 62.5 pct.
 Reuter

The House of Representatives voted
217 to 206 to raise the national speed limit from 55 to 65
miles per hour on rural sections of interstate highways.
    The legislation would give state governments the authority
to raise the speed limit on about three-fourths of the 43,000
miles interstate system.
    The Senate has already approved the speed limit increase as
part of an 88 billion dlr federal highway and mass transit
funding bill. The bill must go back to the Senate for final
action. Congress set the 55 mile per hour limit in 1974 as an
energy conservation and safety measure.
 Reuter

Financial analysts see little chance
that U.S. interest rate futures will break out of their narrow
ranges and low volatility during the remainder of the week.
    "We got a little volatility Wednesday," said Staley
Commodities International analyst Jerome Lacey. "But for the
moment we're still in a trading range."
    Even unexpected developments concerning the growth of the
U.S. economy may not be enough to spur the market out of its
sluggish state, the analysts said.
    "It (the bond market) has not yet demonstrated that it can
break out of its very low volatility," said Carroll McEntee and
McGinley analyst Denis Karnosky. "It needs something, but it's
not going to be news about the economy," he said.
    Karnosky said that the bond market will possibly break out
of the doldrums if participants perceive that the dollar has
stabilized and the Federal Reserve has more room to conduct
monetary policy.
    But even Wednesday, when fed funds were below six pct, the
dollar strong and oil on the soft side, bond futures attracted
eager sellers when contracts approached recent highs, he said.
    In addition to a changing perception about the dollar and
monetary policy, Golden Gate Futures president Norman Quinn
said the beginning of April could bring foreign investors back
into the marketplace.
    "The market is beginning to feel there may be demand at the
beginning of the fiscal year in Japan on April 1," Quinn said.
    Quinn echoed the sentiment of many analysts that there are
large amounts of cash waiting to be invested. If Japanese
investment in U.S. securities does materialize at the start of
Japan's fiscal year, domestic funds may also flow into the bond
market, he said.
    "We could get a stiff rally, possibly enough to bring
yields on long bonds down to seven to 7-1/8 pct," compared to
the current yield of about 7.5 pct, Quinn said.
    In the meantime, even the prospect of new supply is not
likely to move futures.
    The Treasury's announcement of a 15 billion dlr refunding
operation did little to move cash government securities prices
late Wednesday after the close of futures.
    "I'd be surprised if supply pushed us out of it (the
trading range)," Lacey said.
 Reuter

a senior world bank official said the
lending agency planned to authorise almost 70 mln dlrs in new
credits to bolster the productive structure of bolivia's state
oil company ypfb this year.
     David knox, world bank vice-president for latin america,
said bolivia should invest in projects which would spur growth
following six consecutive years of economic contraction.
     Knox said the world bank supported the economic
stabilisation programme adopted by president victor paz
estenssoro.
     Knox said he had suggested to bolivian authorities that
they invest as much of their disposable resources as possible
in works "of rapid reaction, and which support the decision to
make the bolivian economy grow."
     Knox is to hold talks with paz estenssoro, as well as
private businessmen and other government ministers during his
visit.
 Reuter

Microsoft Corp said a Federal
District judge has honored its request for a preliminary
injunction prohibiting four companies from copying, importing,
disseminating or distributing the software package, "Flacon
MS-DOS".
    The companies involved include Taiwan-based Very
Competitive Computer Products Corp, Evergood Computer
International Corp and Favorlon Enterprises, and U.S.-based
Wetex International Corp, which the Taiwan companies were
believed to be importing the software through.
 Reuter

Telecommunications Satellite Organization, a cooperative of 113
nations,  said it has authorized its director general to
contract with martin Marietta Corp <ML> for the launch of two
INTELSAT VI spacecraft.
    The authorization is subject to U.S. government support and
indemnification.
    Martin Marietta's Titan III commercial launch vehicle will
be used for these launches and will complement the three Ariane
4 launches already contracted by Intelsat, it said.
 Reuter

A key House panel voted to greatly
ease government controls on exports as several House committees
moved rapidly toward approval of major changes in trade laws
they hope will help solve U.S. trade woes.
    The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International
Economic Policy voted to direct the administration to cut the
list of controlled exports by 40 per cent by removing items no
longer considered important to U.S. military security.
    Industries had complained they were losing sales to foreign
competitors who were allowed to export freely products U.S.
companies could not sell abroad.
    The issue has been the subject of administration debate.
The Commerce Department had held that unnecessary restrictions
impeded U.S. exports while the Defense Department said current
controls should be retained but better administered.
    Four congressional panels met today to consider portions of
a wideranging trade bill that intends to help U.S. companies
sell more products abroad and to fight unfair foreign trade
    Their separate proposals, some of them conflicting, will be
woven by House Democratic leaders into a final trade bill for a
vote by the full House in late April.
    Sparked by the proposal of Fujitsu Ltd. to take controlling
interest in Schlumberger Ltd's Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.,
the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Commerce voted to
expand Reagan's authority to block foreign takeovers of U.S.
    Reagan would be able to block any takeover found to be
damaging to U.S. economic or national security interests.
    "We are losing our semiconductors which are at the heart of
our national security," subcommittee chairman James Florio, a
New Jersey Democrat said.
    The subcommittee also called for the administration to
consider retaliation against Japan for its restrictive
government procurement practices.
    The retaliation could be triggered by a requirement that
the administration investigate whether U.S. companies were
treated unfairly and whether they have been barred from bids on
lucrative public works projects such as the eight billion dlr
Kansai airport construction. U.S. firms have complained they
were not allowed to bid on its construction.
    At the urging of the U.S. recording industry, the
subcommittee agreed to bar imports of a new Japanese
product--digital audio recorders.
    Meeting in closed session, the House Ways and Means
Committee agreed to allow President Reagan to retaliate against
foreign countries that refuse to open their markets to U.S.
     Congressional aides said the committee also agreed U.S.
companies would be allowed to press for relief from imports of
counterfeit products made in violation of U.S. copyright and
patent laws.
                                         
 Reuter

Chilean left-wing leaders were
elected by the copper workers union for the first time since
the left-wing government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in
a 1973 coup.
     Nicanor Araya, a member of the Popular Democratic Movement
(MDP), was named president of the Chilean Confederation of
Copperworkers (CTC), which groups 22,000 workers employed in
the state-owned copper mines, union officials said.
    Other members of the MDP, which includes the communist
party and a faction of the socialist party, took five of the
principal positions on the union's directorate.
    The state-owned copper company of Chile (CODELCO) produces
around 90 pct of the country's copper output of some one mln
tonnes per year. Chile is the world's leading copper exporter
and sales account for just under 50 pct of its export income.
    The MDP won six out of the 14 places on the union's
directorate in elections earlier this month, with the christian
democratic party holding five and the remainder being won by
independents.
    But the left-wing was left in control of the union after
the christian democrats and independents failed to reach
agreement on a joint candidate for the presidency and withdrew
from negotiations.
    Union elections were called following the resignation of
former president Rodolfo Seguel last October.
    Seguel, a christian democrat and Chile's best-known union
leader, said he was forced to step down after repeated court
actions brought by CODELCO prevented the union from operating.
    The labour leader, who now heads the inter-union national
workers command (CNT), was among 500 workers sacked by CODELCO
following a strike in 1983.
    The strike, the only copper industry stoppage staged in the
past 13 years, marked the start of a wave of protests against
the military rule of President Augusto Pinochet.
     CODELCO argued that Seguel could not continue as union
leader when no longer employed by the company.
 Reuter

plans to sell GenCorp Inc's aerospace and soft drink bottling
divisions if it succeeds in acquiring the company.
General Partners said proceeds from the sale of GenCorp's
aerospace division would help it repay some of the debt it
would incur in the 100 dlr a share cash tender offer.
    General Partners, which launched the surprise tender offer
today, said it already 2,180,608 shares of GenCorp, or 9.4 pct
of the total outstanding common stock.
    General Partners, which estimated the total cost of the
takeover at 2.5 billion dlrs, also said it plans to continue
GenCorp's policy of trying to settle Federal Communications
Commission charges against two of its television and 12 radio
station licenses.
    It said it would also continue GenCorp's policy of trying
to sell its New York-area television station WOR to MCA Inc
<MCA> for 387 mln dlrs and its Los Angeles station KHJ to Walt
Disney Co <DIS> for 217 mln dlrs.
    But General Partners said it plans to keep GenCorp's
headquarter in Akron, Ohio.
    General Partners also said it would maintain GenCorp's
plastics and industrial products division as well as tires and
    But it left open that it might make other changes in
GenCorp's operations after it completes the merger.
    Besides using 250 mln dlrs of its own equity for the tender
offer, General Partners said it would seek one billion dlrs
under a secured margin facility from Wells Fargo Bank N.A.
and other banks. It also said it would seek 1.25 billion dlrs
from the sale to Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc or its
affiliates of senior subordinated promissory notes.
    In a March 18 letter to GenCorp Chairman William Reynolds,
which was included in the SEC filing, General Partners
officials said they were "confident of our ability to promptly
obtain the remaining funding as described in our offer
materials."
    "For this reason, we do not forsee any obstacles to a
prompt consummation of the transaction," General Partners said.
    Shearson is dealer manager of the General Partners offer
for GenCorp.
 Reuter

Mondanto Co said it has paid off
two-thirds of the debt from its 2.8 billion-dlr acquisition of
G.D. Searle and Co by the end of 1986.
    This lowered the company's debt-to-capitalization ratio
from 45 pct at the end of 1985 to 35 pct, it said.
    The company also said that chemical sales accounted for 52
pct of its sales in 1986, down from 70 pct in 1981. This
underscores its strategy of shifting away from low profit
commodity chemicals in mature markets into higher value
chemical businesses in high growth areas, it said.
 Reuter

Lifestyle Restaurants Inc said it
reduced the number of Bombay Palace Restaurants inc common
shares to be received in its previously announced merger
    Under the amended deal, Lifestyle shareholders will get one
Bombay share for each six instead of five Lifestyle shares.
Under the amended offer, Bombay will issue about 900,000
shares, currently 7.2 mln dlrs.
    The amendment also increases the cash consideration to be
offered on Lifestyle's 13 pct convertible subordinated
debentures from 55 pct of the principal amount to 57.5 pct.
        
 Reuter

 Reuter

US Sprint Communications Co, a
joint venture of GTE Corp <GTE> and United Telecommunications
Inc <UT>, said it will initiate long distance service to Spain,
Denmark and Sweden on April two.
    US Sprint said the additions will bring to 34 the number of
countries it serves.
   
 Reuter

Allied Bankshares Inc said it
offered 500,000 shares of stock at 12.50 dlrs a share.
    The offering is underwritten by Johnson, Lane, Space, Smith
and Co Inc and Interstate Securities Corp.
 Reuter

About 9,000 miners employed by the
state corporation Comibol went on hunger strike to press for
higher wages, a miners union spokesman said.
     Victor Lopez, executive secretary of the miners union,
told a news conference the strikers began to fast in the major
tin mining districts of oruro and potosi and the action would
spread tomorrow to la paz and other areas.
     The government has charged that the strike by the miners
union, crippled by massive layoffs, is part of a left-wing
destabilisation plan to coincide with the visit of West German
president Richard von Weizsaecker, who arrives on a four-day
official tour on Friday.
     But miners union chief Simon Reyes told reporters the
strike had nothing to do with subversion and was to press for
more government investment in Comibol.
     The government of president Victor Paz Estenssoro has
streamlined the deficit-ridden state mining corporation laying
off about 20,000 miners, two-thirds of the workforce, following
a collapse of the international tin price in 1985.
 Reuter

European sugar output on the basis of
three year average yields will be over half a mln tonnes white
value down on last year although yields do vary widely from
year to year, broker C Czarnikow said in its market review.
    European Community sowings are likely to be down compared
with last year. There have been suggestions these sowings might
respond to the recent upsurge in world prices, but Czarnikow
said "it is not the sort of fact that easily becomes known."
    The broker bases its forecasts on Licht planting estimates
which put W Germany, the Netherlands and USSR lower but
Hungary, Romania, Poland, Turkey and Yugoslavia higher.
    Czarnikow's projections in mlns tonnes white value and
three differing yields include
      '87/88  max      aver      min    1986/87
 France       3.57     3.42     3.28       3.44
 W Germany    3.08     2.88     2.64       3.19
 EC          13.82    13.01    12.13      13.76
 W Europe    17.71    16.45    14.98      16.71
 Poland       2.02     1.80     1.13       1.74
 USSR         8.65     7.60     5.71       8.05
 E Europe    13.87    12.14     9.08      12.44
 All Europe  31.58    28.58    24.06      29.15
  REUTER

<MAI Plc>, the financial services and
advertising group, has asked S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd to arrange
a 100 mln dlr multiple option facility which will restructure a
part of the company's exisiting banking arrangements, banking
    The financing will be for five years and involves a
committed backstop facility and an uncommitted tender panel for
cash advances in dollars or other available currencies.
    The committed part of the transaction will carry a facility
fee of 7.5 basis points and drawings will be at a margin of 15
basis points.
    There also will be a utilization fee of five basis points
if the underwriting banks are called upon to provide more than
30 pct of the facility.
 Reuter

Joao Sayad, who resigned yesterday
from his post as Planning Minister, accepted President Jose
Sarney's invitation to fill the vacant post as Brazil's
ambassador at the European Community (EC), a Presidential
    The spokesman said Sayad refused Sarney's request to remain
as Planning Minister for another 30 days.
 Reuter

Co said it set an agreement with FIserv Inc <FISV> to supply
and operate a private satellite-based data transaction network.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Equatorial will provide
FIserv with C-200 series transmit/receive micro earth stations
to be located at client financial institutions throughout the
U.S.
 Reuter

Cuban sugar output this season (1986/87)
is put at around 7.5 mln tonnes raw value by broker C.Czarnikow
in its monthly sugar market review.
    Allowing for around 700,000 tonnes for the current year's
domestic usage it would leave around 6.8 mln tonnes for export
of which, Czarnikow estimates, about 3.7 mln tonnes will be
taken by the USSR, 1.530 mln by other socialist countries and
the remainder for delivery to non-socialist bloc destinations.
    Czarnikow also estimated USSR 1986/87 production at 8.75
mln tonnes raw value which when added to the 3.7 mln imports
from Cuba and set against its estimated domestic and export
needs of 14.2 mln tonnes will leave a gap of 1.75 mln tonnes to
be acquired from the world market. Soviet purchases to date may
not be far short of that quantity, Czarnikow said.
 Reuter

Dismantling agricultural subsidies
and implementing international farm policy reform will be the
top priorities of the United States at the upcoming Venice
Economic Summit, Secretary of State George Shultz told a group
of American farm leaders.
    "We want to see the American farmer put in a position in
which he can compete on a level playing field," Shultz told the
board of directors for the National Association of Wheat
Growers.
    The global agricultural situation is in the midst of the
most serious farm crisis in modern history, Shultz said, and
how the U.S. responds to the current problems will determine
whether the U.S. will continue its leadership role in world
    Government policies that subsidize production and exports
have created a "crisis of overproduction," he said. Shultz
particularly criticized European Community policies which he
said encourage domestic production by providing high government
supports to farmers and then exporting the surplus product with
the help of huge subsidies.
    The U.S. and its trading partners cannot afford to continue
current high levels of subsidies, he said. But the U.S. cannot
stop subsidies alone, Shultz said. "We have to agree to
dismantle these systems together," he said.
    The U.S., EC and Japan have the obligation to take the lead
in agricultural reform, he said. For that reason, U.S.
officials will push for farm reform at the Venice meeting and
have made it a top priority for GATT negotiations in Geneva.
 Reuter

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture
and Transportation are close to agreement on how to fund the
increasing share of food aid to be shipped on U.S. flag vessels
under a 1985 farm bill provision on cargo preference.
    Melvin Sims, USDA's general sales manager told a House
Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the two
departments are negotiating a "memorandum of understanding" on
cargo preference.
    Under a 1985 farm bill provision, the percentage of food
aid shipments carried on U.S. flag vessels was to gradually
increase over three years to 75 pct in 1988. The increased cost
of using U.S. vessels was to be funded by the Transportation
Department instead of USDA. However, USDA officials said
Transportation has so far contributed no money.
    The agreement between USDA and Transportation is expected
to resolve the matter, USDA officials said.
    Tom Kay, administrator of the USDA's Foreign Agricultural
Service said yesterday the requirement that more food aid
shipments be carried on U.S. vessels has been difficult to
meet.
    "As the tonnage (required under cargo preference) goes up,
its going to be harder and harder to meet," Kay said.
    Two farm state Congressmen, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Glenn
English (D-Okla.) said cargo preference makes U.S. farm export
programs more costly and the program should be eliminated.
    In the past, farm interests opposed to cargo preference
have been defeated in Congress by the maritime interests who
view cargo preference as vital to the U.S. shipping fleet.
 Reuter

AUSTRALIAN FOURTH QTR GDP RISES 1.1 PCT, AFTER 0.2 PCT THIRD QTR RISE - OFFICIAL.

Australia's seasonally adjusted real
gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.1 pct in the fourth quarter
of 1986 after rising 0.2 pct in the third quarter, the
    This compares with a 1.1 pct fall in the fourth quarter of
1985.
    Compared with the year-earlier quarter, GDP also rose 1.1
pct, the Bureau figures show.
    The annual rise compares with a 0.3 pct fall in the third
quarter compared with the 1985 third quarter and a 4.3 pct rise
in the year-earlier period, the Bureau figures show.
    Real non-farm gross product rose 0.9 pct in the fourth
quarter after zero growth in the third quarter and a 1.3 pct
fall a year earlier, making an annual rise of 0.8 pct.
    Gross farm product rose 4.3 pct compared with rises of 2.6
pct in the third quarter and 2.8 pct a year earlier, making
annual growth of 6.6 pct.
    Elements in the fourth quarter GDP rise included falls of
0.6 pct and 0.2 pct in private and government final consumption
expenditure respectively, the Bureau figures show.
    Gross fixed capital expenditure fell 0.1 pct in the quarter
while exports of goods and services rose 13.0 pct and imports
2.9 pct.
    Seasonally-adjusted expenditure on GDP at average 1979/80
prices rose to 36.67 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter from
36.26 billion in both the third quarter and the year-earlier
quarter.
    The figures are subject to revision over a long period.
 REUTER

<Nippon Life Insurance Co> is pursing a
possible link with an American securities house to expand its
overseas investment portfolio, a company spokesman said.
    But he declined to comment on rumours the company would
take a 10 pct stake in <Shearson Lehman Brothers>, an
investment banking unit of American Express Co <AXP>.
    He said the firm started to sound out several U.S.
Investment banks on capital participation about 18 months ago
and was narrowing the number of prospects, but he did not say
if it had set its sights on one firm.
    Nippon Life, Japan's largest life insurer, also plans to
set up a wholly owned investment unit, <Nissei International
America>, in New York next month and subsidiaries in Canada,
Singapore, the Cayman Islands and Jersey this year, he said.
    These moves are in line with its long-term strategy to put
more emphasis on overseas investment management as
opportunities at home are declining while the company's assets
are growing.
    The company is especially attracted by the scale and depth
of U.S. Money and credit markets and wants to establish a firm
foothold there, the spokesman added.
 REUTER

Former Prime Minister Robert
Muldoon, an outspoken advocate of a managed float for the N.Z.
Dollar, said the currency is at least 10 pct overvalued.
    Muldoon said in a speech last night the exchange rate
should be around 48 U.S. Cents instead of the current 57 cents.
    "A reasonable value for the New Zealand dollar would be
between 10 and 15 pct less and nearer 15 than 10. Perhaps
around about 48 cents," he said.
    The Labour Party government removed exchange controls and
floated the dollar two years ago when it was worth 44 cents.
    Muldoon has no rank in the opposition National Party, and
party leaders, with an eye to general elections to be held by
September, have rejected his calls for a managed float.
    He said the dollar was high because of "grossly excessive"
interest rates for government stock.
    "I know of no other country which is implementing such a
free floating policy," he added. "There is widespread agreement
internationally that we have no alternative to floating
currencies in the short to medium term. But we need more
effective methods of managing them so as to limit the
volatility which has caused so much concern and damage."
 REUTER

The Taiwan Flour Mills Association will
import 81,000 tonnes of wheat from Canada in calendar 1987,
unchanged from the 1986 level, an association spokesman told
Reuters.
    He said the total will be delivered in three shipments. The
first will be shipped to Taiwan between March 20 and April 20
and the other two will be made later this year, he said.
    The total wheat import target this year has been set at
700,000 tonnes, down from actual imports of 758,770 last year.
    Most of Taiwan's wheat imports come from the U.S., The
 REUTER

said it put the Perpetual Savings Bank in Santa Ana, Calif.,
Into receivership because it was insolvent and replaced it with
a new federally chartered Perpetual Savings Association.
    This is the 15th federal action assisting troubled U.S.
Savings institutions this year.
 REUTER

Australian trading bank deposits rose
243 mln dlrs to 45.34 billion in February after rising 589 mln
to 45.10 billion in January and 140 mln to 43.80 billion in
February last year, the Statistics Bureau said.
    Total loans, advances and bills discounted fell to 43.80
billion dlrs from 43.92 billion in January, compared with 38.97
billion in February 1986.
    Total bank assets in Australia rose to 87.02 billion dlrs
from 86.18 billion in January and 72.28 billion a year earlier
while liabilities rose to 80.35 billion from 79.08 billion and
66.93 billion respectively.
    Foreign currency balances included in total assets fell to
5.36 billion Australian dlrs-equivalent in February from 5.37
billion in January, against 3.05 billion in February 1986,
while those in liabilities rose to 8.36 billion from 8.21
billion and 4.56 billion respectively, the Bureau said.
    Trading bank holdings of liquid assets and government
securities rose to 8.68 billion dlrs from 8.51 billion in
January and 7.26 billion in February 1986.
 REUTER

Property looks set to continue to
provide good returns on investment in most major cities in Asia
and Australia this year.
    A Reuter poll of property analysts, bankers and economists
around the region shows better returns are often more likely to
come from buying and selling real estate than from rental
income.
    In central Tokyo, property analysts project commercial land
prices will rise this year by 10 to 20 pct after last year's
53.8 pct jump.
    The main draw for local and foreign investors in Japan is
Tokyo, where the top price paid for a central commercial
property last year was 169,000 dlrs a square meter. A building
in land-poor Singapore recently sold for 3,300 dlrs a meter.
    But the analysts said Tokyo rents could level off as supply
increases slightly and the strong yen puts prices out of reach
of foreign investors.
    Japanese investors, spurred by the yen's rise, are spending
record sums on property abroad, partly elsewhere in Asia, but
in particular in the U.S., Where Japanese investment could
double this year to 10 billion dlrs, the analysts said.
    The analysts forecast that Hong Kong property prices will
rise steadily over the next few years, although a surge in
construction will limit increases in some areas.
    Property sales have become increasingly popular because in
some sectors of the market real estate prices, as in several
cities in the region, have already outpaced rent yields.
    "We still see prices creeping up steadily and I don't see
why the trend should not continue over the next few months,"
said Gareth Williams, a partner of land agent Vigers Hong Kong.
But he warned investors to bear in mind the political risk
linked to the return of the colony to China in 1997.
    In several other countries, analysts predicted at least
some rise in property values, which in one or two cases, such
as Thailand, could help spark a construction boom.
    Bankers and economists in Bangkok said they expect at least
seven pct growth this year in private sector construction as a
result of government assistance, low mortgage rates and a
generally bullish economic outlook.
    Increased confidence in the economy has also improved the
outlook for property in Manila after a three-year slump, one
Philippine developer said.
    Taiwan's property market is also set to turn around after
five years in the doldrums, according to property developers in
Taipei. They, like counterparts in many of the region's
capitals, cited low interest rates as a major factor.
    One leading broker said the property market had become an
attractive investment in Taiwan, noting property development
yields of up to 15 pct.
    Jakarta too has plenty of new office towers. Construction
has helped cut rents to half the levels of the early 1980s,
though foreigners usually have to rent because of limits on
property ownership, as in many parts of Asia.
    In contrast, Australia's easing of rules on foreign
investment in property, combined with financial deregulation
and a weaker dollar, has helped spark overseas interest in the
market, analysts said. But this has not always meant sales.
    "What we have seen is an increase in inquiries, particularly
from Japan, but this has yet to show itself in many new deals
being done," said Allan Farrar, executive director (real estate)
of Elders IXL Ltd's pastoral group.
    Yields on prime Sydney office buildings average 6.5 pct,
and one analyst forecast a 20 pct jump in rents this year after
15 pct rises in each of the past two years.
REUTER...

Deaver, a long-time confidant of President Reagan, has been
indicted on charges of lying about his contacts as a Washington
lobbyist with top U.S. Government officials.
    The five-count perjury indictment charged that Deaver lied
in sworn testimony to Congress and before the grand jury
investigating his business affairs.
    Deaver, who resigned as deputy White House chief of staff
in 1985 to open a lobbying firm, faces a maximum penalty of 25
years in prison if convicted. Immediately after the indictment
was announced Reagan issued a statement wishing Deaver well.
    The indictment charged that Deaver lied about his contacts
with White House and cabinet officials on behalf of a wide
range of clients, including foreign governments and large
    Charges include that he lied about his contacts when hired
by Canada to help settle a dispute over acid rain with the U.S.
And when employed by Trans World Airlines to help thwart a
    Deaver issued a statement denying he had committed perjury
and predicting he would be acquitted at trial.
 REUTER

New Zealand's unemployment rate fell
to 6.0 pct of the workforce at the end of February from 6.1 pct
in January but was above the 4.3 pct level of February 1986,
the labour department said.
    It said the number of unemployed fell to 78,711 from 81,558
in January, and compared with 57,103 in February 1986.
 REUTER

Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus
fell to 1.89 billion dlrs in the first 10 days of March from a
1.91 billion surplus a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance
said.
     The March interim surplus compared with a 1.70 billion dlr
surplus in the same February period.
     FOB exports in the first 10 days of March rose 5.8 pct
from a year earlier to 5.50 billion dlrs and CIF imports rose
9.7 pct to 3.61 billion.
     The average yen/dollar rate used for the statistics was
153.67 yen against 181.23 a year earlier.
 REUTER

A Mitsui and Co <MITS.T> spokesman said
its subsidiary <Mitsui and Co USA Inc> bought two mln dlrs of
newly-issued shares in <Imatron Inc>, an unlisted
California-based medical equipment manufacturer.
    Mitsui and Co USA is now Imatron's fifth-largest
shareholder with 3.1 pct of the firm's outstanding shares.
Imatron is capitalised at 32.76 mln dlrs, the spokesman said.
    Mitsui and Co intends to import Imatron's computerised
diagnostic equipment into Japan, he said.
 REUTER

Indonesia cannot spend its way out of
recession and has very limited economic options due to lower
world oil prices, Central Bank governor Arifin Siregar was
quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency.
    "If Indonesia spurs its economic growth too much, such as
through expansionary monetary and budgetary policies, it might
create negative effects not only on price increases, but also
on the balance of payments," he told bankers and businessmen in
the North Sumatran city of Medan.
    Antara quoted him as saying Indonesia is relying on its
export drive to help narrow its trade deficit.
    Antara reported that Siregar said the government wanted to
help boost exports from the rubber and palm oil industries,
which are centered in Sumatra.
    "I see Sumatra has great potential, as in the plantation
sector in which family units are employed in great number," he
said, according to the agency.
    Indonesia relied on oil and gas exports for 70 pct of its
export revenue until last year's fall in crude prices.
    It has projected its current account deficit will widen to
over four billion dlrs in the current financial year ending
March 31 from 1.8 billion in 1985/86.
 REUTER

Seasonally adjusted retail sales
rose by 0.1 pct in January, compared with increases of 5.7 pct
in December and 1.0 pct a year earlier, the Statistics
    It said in a statement actual retail sales fell to 1.87
billion N.Z. Dlrs in January against 2.42 billion a month
earlier and compared with 1.78 billion in January 1986.
    Year-on-year retail sales rose 5.3 pct compared with a 9.6
pct increase in the year-earlier period.
 REUTER

TDK Corp <TDK.T> and <Allen-Bradley Co
Inc>, a Rockwell International Corp <ROK> subsidiary, have
agreed to set up a joint venture in the U.S. To make ferrite
magnets for the North American market, a TDK spokesman said.
    The new company, <Allen-Bradley/TDK Magnetics>, will be set
up on April 1 at a plant formerly operated by Allen-Bradley's
magnetics division in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
    It targets first-year sales of 30 to 40 mln dlrs which will
be marketed by TDK's subsidiary <TDK Corp of America>.
    TDK will own less than 50 pct of the venture, the spokesman
said without giving other details.
 REUTER

Some 7,000 black workers returned
to work after staging one-day strikes at two mines on Monday,
the National Union of Mineworkers and the companies that own
the mines said.
    About 6,000 miners resumed work at the Grootvlei gold mine
east of Johannesburg after protesting the transfer of
colleagues to other jobs at the same mine, owners General
Mining Union Corp Ltd <GENM.J> said.
    The union said about 1,000 mineworkers at a new coal
facility owned by Anglo American Corp of South Africa Ltd
<ANGL.J> also returned to their jobs on Tuesday.
    The workers at Anglo's Vaal Colliery south of Johannesburg
had struck to protest the alleged refusal of officials of the
South African homeland of Transkei to allow miners to attend a
funeral in the homeland, a union spokesman said.
 REUTER

The Osaka Stock Exchange has postponed
its planned April 6 launch of a futures contract tied to stock
market movements until after parliament considers a bill to cut
tax on futures transactions, an exchange official said.
    Opposition parties have disrupted all parliamentary
proceedings to protest government plans for a new sales tax.
    The bill would reduce the tax to 0.0125 pct of the
transaction value from the current 0.2 pct, the exchange said.
    The Osaka futures contract will be for a package of 50
issues selected from the 225 stocks that make up the Nikkei
average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
 REUTER

The strong contribution of exports to
the growth in Australia's gross domestic product (GDP) in the
fourth quarter of 1986 was a significant and welcome feature of
the data, private economists polled by Reuters said.
    Real GDP rose 1.1 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986, after
rising 0.2 pct in the third quarter and falling 1.1 pct a year
earlier.
    Equally significant was the decline in both private and
government spending, they said.
    Exports of goods and services rose 13 pct in the fourth
quarter, while imports rose only 2.9 pct, Statistics Bureau
figures show. Consumer spending declined 0.6 pct and government
spending by 0.2.
    Bob Edgar of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
Ltd said the government's aim of reducing the current account
deficit by boosting exports and lowering consumption to cut
imports appeared to be working.
    However, he cautioned that care must be taken to keep
growth restrained because if it accelerated too fast imports
would increase and worsen the balance of payments.
    Andre Morony of Bankers Trust Australia Ltd added the
result was positive because growth was export-driven.
    But he said the GDP rise came as no surprise given the
growth in exports disclosed in other statistics.
    The economists' comments were echoed by Treasurer Paul
Keating in a statement issued in Canberra.
    Keating said the figures showed encouraging trends for a
reduction in the current account deficit, notably the decline
in domestic demand and the strong increase in exports.
    A further 3.5 pct fall in the terms of trade in the quarter
underscored the need to continue restraint in wages, prices and
public sector spending and borrowing to improve Australia's
competitiveness, he said.
    "It is clear that through the continued application of that
strategy Australia will make the necessary adjustments in its
external accounts and return to a more sustainable growth
pattern," he added.
 REUTER

The Australian Wheat Board (AWB)
expects to sell about 900,000 tonnes of wheat to the Japanese
Food Agency this year after renewing its annual supply
agreement, AWB general manager Ron Paice said.
    Under the agreement, the AWB makes the wheat available and
sells into the Food Agency's regular tenders, he said in a
    He noted that the Board has sold more than three mln tonnes
to Japan in the past three years.
 REUTER

Sanwa Bank Ltd <ANWA.T> has agreed to buy
a two pct stake in Oporto-based <Banco Portugues de Investmento
Sarl> (BPI), Portugal's largest merchant bank, a Sanwa official
said.
    Sanwa will purchase the shares from International Finance
Corp, a BPI shareholder and sister organisation of the World
Bank, for 351 mln yen, he said.
    The acquisition will be completed this month as both the
Japanese and Portuguse governments are expected to give
permission soon.  This is the first time a Japanese bank has
bought a stake in a Portuguese bank.
    Sanwa plans to increase its stake in BPI to four pct, the
ceiling for foreign shareholders, the official said.
    The bank has also agreed with <Banco Portugues do
Atlantico>, a state-owned merchant bank in Oporto, to exchange
information on customers and help accelerate Japanese
investment and technological transfers to Portugal, he said.
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The Finance Ministry approved the
banking industry's plan to cut its share in the government bond
underwriting syndicate to 73.8 pct from 74 pct from April 1 to
allow six foreign securities firms to participate, a ministry
    Local and foreign securities housess may now underwrite
26.2 pct of 10-year bonds, up from 26 pct previously.
    Under a separate agreement, Japanese and foreign brokers
will allow the latter, including the six newcomers, to
underwrite five pct of the enlarged share, up from 1.19 pct,
underwriting sources said.
    The six new foreign brokers are <E.F. Hutton and Co Inc>,
<Shearson Lehman Brothers Asia Inc>, Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F>,
<Swiss Bank Corp International Asia Inc>, <Sogen Security Corp>
and <Swiss Union Philips and Drew Ltd>.
    The syndicate agreed after negotiation in April 1982 that
26 pct of 10-year government bonds should be underwritten by 93
securities firms, 17 of them foreign, and 74 pct by banks. The
ministry later approved the arrangement.
    The Finance Ministry is also considering public tender of
notes of over four-year maturity, adding to the current two,
three and four-year note auction, the ministry official said.
    The ministry has decided to lower the eligibility standard
for foreign brokers to participate in government note auctions
by abolishing a requirement that participants have current
accounts with the bank of Japan, the official said.
    A request by four foreign banks to join the bond
underwriting syndicate is being considered, banking sources
said. The four are local subsidiaries of Continental Illinois
Holding Corp's <CIH.N> Belgian unit <Continental Bank SA/NV>,
Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV <AMRO.AS>, <Canadian Commercial
Bank> and <Union de Banques Arabes et Francaises>, they said.
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French net investment abroad jumped 70
pct to 34 billion francs in 1986 from 20 billion in 1985, with
total new investment rising to 44 billion francs from 26
billion and liquidation of investments rising to 10 billion
from six, figures released by the Foreign Trade ministry show.
    Investment in the United States rose sharply to 33.95
billion francs last year from 19.8 billion in 1985, while
investment in Canada nearly doubled to 15.9 billion from 8.6
billion. Investment in Europe was also generally higher.
    But investment in Japan fell to 46 mln francs from 167 mln.
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India's trade deficit is
provisionally estimated at 58.34 billion rupees in the first 10
months of fiscal 1986/87 ending March, compared with 70.62
billion in the year ago period, the Commerce Ministry said.
 Exports rose in the latest period to 100.75 billion rupees
from the a year earlier 86.09 billion and imports to 159.09
billion from 156.71 billion in the period, the figures show.
    The trade deficit for all of 1986/87 is provisionally
estimated at around 70 billion rupees from an estimated record
87.47 billion in 1985/86 and actual 53.18 billion in 1984/85,
Commerce Minister P. Shiv Shanker told reporters last month .
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Sweden's rate of inflation during
January has been revised downwards after a fault was made in
calculating the figures, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
    The January rise in consumer prices was 1.0 pct instead of
the previously announced 1.3 pct, the bureau said, without
explaining how the error arose.
    Consumer prices in February rose 0.3 pct compared with 0.1
pct in February last year, the bureau said. The total inflation
rate so far this year is therefore 1.3 pct, allowing for
January's revised figures, it added.
    Year-on-year inflation rose to 3.4 pct in February, against
a revised 3.2 pct in January and a year-on-year rate of 5.3 pct
in February 1986, the bureau said.
    The slowdown in price rises was mainly due to a government
imposed price freeze which came into force on February 4, the
bureau added.
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British Land Co Plc <BLND.L> convertible
eurobond issued yesterday has been raised to a total of 33 mln
stg from the 30 mln originally indicated, lead manager Credit
Suisse First Boston Ltd said.
    The coupon has been fixed at 7.50 pct and the conversion
price at 248 pence to give a 27.84 pct premium over last
night's share price close on the London stock exchange.
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British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> shares
fell sharply in early trading, in response to last night's news
that the U.K. Government will sell its remaining 31.7 pct BP
holding during the financial year starting next month, dealers
said.
    By about 0840 GMT, BP shares were down to 802p, 26p below
last night's close of 828p and 14p lower than the opening
quote. The long-rumoured sale was announced by the government
at the end of the second day of the budget debate in
    At last night's closing price, unofficial estimates put the
value of the government shares in BP at around 4.8 billion stg.
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State-owned <China Steel Corp> said its
steel exports will drop to some 600,000 tonnes in the year
ending June 30, 1987 from more than 810,000 in 1985/86.
    Production by the company, Taiwan's largest steel maker, is
expected to rise to 3.33 mln tonnes from 3.27 mln, a spokesman
    He attributed the export decline to the rise in the Taiwan
dollar, which has eroded the competitiveness of the company's
products against those from South Korea.
    The spokesman said the company is undergoing an expansion
project which calls for a boost in production to 5.65 mln
tonnes a year from the current level. The project, costing 52.3
billion Taiwan dlrs, will be completed by April 1988, two
months ahead of the targetted date, he said.
    The spokesman said the company exports its products to
Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, the U.S., The Middle East and
Africa.
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SWISSAIR 1986 NET 64.5 MLN SWISS FRANC VS 68.5 MLN, DIV 33 FRANCS VS 38

Liquidity in the Philippines rose in
December while loan demand and short-term lending rates fell,
the Central Bank said.
    A bank official said M-3 rose 9.72 pct to a provisional
149.80 billion pesos at the end of December from a month
earlier for a year-on-year gain of 12.72 pct.
    She said short-term bank lending rates fell to an
annualised 13.88 pct at the end of December, from 14.58 pct a
month earlier and 19.82 pct at the end of December 1985.
    Poor loan demand was illustrated by a rise in commercial
bank reserves, the official said.
    The bank official said commercial bank reserves were 22.19
billion pesos at the end of December, when reserves required
were 21.59 billion.
    She said the surplus of 597 mln pesos, compared with a
deficit of 390 mln pesos a month earlier and a deficit of 1.64
billion at the end of 1985, reflected political uncertainty in
the last quarter of 1986.
    Reserve money, the total available to monetary authorities,
was a provisional 52.58 billion pesos at the end of 1986. This
was 5.19 pct up from 49.98 billion at the end of November and
41.85 pct up from 37.09 billion in December 1985.
    The bank official noted M-3, which includes M-1 money
supply, plus savings, time deposits and deposit substitutes.
Was 132.88 billion pesos at the end of December 1985.
    M-1 money supply rose a provisional 17.3 pct to 42.86
billion pesos at the end of December 1986 from 36.52 billion a
month earlier. The year-on-year rise was 19.64 pct, up from
35.83 billion at the end of December 1985.
    The bank official said the broader M-2 measure, which
measures notes and coins in circulation plus savings and time
deposits, rose a provisional 9.7 pct to 140.88 billion pesos at
the end of December from 128.41 billion a month earlier. It
rose 13.35 pct from 124.27 billion at the end of December 1985.
    She said deposits with the commercial banking system rose
to just over 118 billion pesos at the end of December from
107.89 billion at the end of 1985 and 92.83 billion at the end
of 1984.
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Net 64.5 mln Swiss francs vs 68.5 mln
    Div 33 francs per share vs 38
    Turnover 4.03 billion vs 4.35 billion.
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South Korea is considering providing
special loans and tax benefits to ailing construction firms on
condition they stop competing with each other for overseas
contracts, government officials said.
    They told Reuters, in order to benefit under the plan
companies would be obliged to give up their licences to bid for
foreign projects.
    Sources at the construction ministry said the ministry
plans to slash the number of building firms operating overseas
to between 20 and 25, from the current 41.
    The construction ministry sources said the construction
industry had begun to adapt to drastically reduced orders from
the Middle East.
    They said the government wanted to prevent further hardship
by reducing competion between South Korean firms. Already this
year 15 firms had relinquished their licences.
    Other government officials said new foreign construction
orders fell to 2.3 billion dlrs last year, from 4.6 billion in
1985. About 30,000 building workers were laid off in 1986, one
third of the total force.
    No further details of the proposed plan were available.
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Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said it was confirming
six orders for the new MD-11 long-haul jet of McDonnell Douglas
Corp <MD> and had taken options for a further 12 planes.
    The order, which involved rejecting the A-340 plane being
built by the European Airbus consortium, is to replace the
airline's fleet of DC-10 aircraft in the early 1990s.
    Swissair said in December it was giving the MD-11 "primary"
consideration, and had reserved six places for delivery,
pending a final order.
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Finnish wholesale prices rose 0.2 pct
in February after a rise of one pct in January and a drop of
1.2 pct in February 1986, the Central Statistical Office said.
    Year-on-year wholesale prices fell 1.9 pct in February
after drops of 3.3 pct in January and 1.8 pct in February 1986.
    The wholesale price index, base 1980, was 136.5 in
February, 136.3 in January and 139.2 in February last year.
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The value of trade between China and
Taiwan via Hong Kong fell 13 pct to 7.45 billion H.K. Dlrs in
1986 from 8.59 billion dlrs in 1985, Hong Kong's Census and
Statistics Department said.
    Taiwan's exports to China through Hong Kong fell to 6.33
billion dlrs last year from 7.69 billion in 1985, while China's
exports rose to 1.12 billion dlrs from 904 mln dlrs.
    Economists in Hong Kong told Reuters that China's controls
on scarce foreign currency hurt its imports of Taiwanese
consumer goods, such as electric fans and television sets.
    Herbal medicine and textiles were among China's chief
exports to Taiwan.
    Taiwan does not allow direct trade with China and indirect
trade is routed mainly through Hong Kong.
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<Goldstar Precision Co Ltd>, part of
South Korea's <Lucky-Goldstar Group>, agreed with Japan's Canon
Inc <CANN.T> to make cameras using Canon technology, a Goldstar
spokesman told reporters.
    He told reporters Goldstar will invest 25 billion won over
the next five years and would pay Canon three pct of total
sales, which are targetted at eight billion won this year, 25
to 30 billion next year and 76 billion in 1991, as royalties.
    Most of Goldstar's output, due to start in July, will be
sold in South Korea, he said.
    However, the Goldstar spokesman said, Canon has agreed in
principle to buy an unspecified number of cameras for resale in
Japan under its own name, he said, without providing further
details.
    In Tokyo, a Canon spokesman said that under the agreement
Canon would sell facilities, components and technology worth
1.5 billion yen to Goldstar in calendar 1987 and 3.5 billion in
1988, he said.
    He said Goldstar plans to make 35-mm single-lens reflex
cameras and 35-mm compact cameras at an annual rate of 70,000
in 1987 and 200,000 in 1988.
    The camera market in South Korea is expected to expand
rapidly ahead of the 1988 Olympic Games scheduled to be held
there, the Canon spokesman said.
    South Korean camera demand rose to 700,000 in 1986 from
640,000 in 1985. Cameras made with foreign assistance accounted
for 65 pct of cameras sold in South Korea, he said.
    Minolta Camera Co Ltd <MNLT.T>, <Asahi Optical Co Ltd> and
Nippon Kogaku KK <GAKU.T> already assemble 35-mm cameras with
South Korean partners.
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The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has
imposed a penalty tax on <Fuji Bank Ltd> for alleged improper
use of tax-free reserves, a bank spokeswoman told Reuters.
    She declined to reveal the bank's planned response but
another bank official said it has not paid the penalty.
    The bank said in a brief statement it believes that its use
of the tax-free reserves is legal.
    Financial institutions can set aside 0.003 pct of their
risky loans as tax-free reserves. Fuji said a difference of
understanding exists between the bank and the tax bureau
regarding the use of tax-free reserves. It did not elaborate.
    Fuji Bank reported a 72.1 billion yen net profit in the
1985/86 year. Lending totaled 16,120 billion yen.
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North Korea said it welcomed new
contacts between Korean and U.S. Diplomats and would impose no
restrictions on them, the New China News Agency reported from
Pyongyang.
    A North Korean Foreign Ministry statement said it hoped
diplomatic contact would help "promote sincere conversations
with goodwill and broad-mindedness," the agency said.
    The United States on March 9 lifted its ban on its
diplomats speaking with North Korean diplomats on neutral
territory.
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The 30 mln dlr closed-end Korea Europe
Fund to be listed in London early next month will likely prove
as successful as the New York-based 100 mln dlr Korea Fund,
according to most securities analysts polled by Reuters here.
    The paid-in capital of the Korea Fund was 60 mln dlrs when
it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 1984
and increased to 100 mln dlrs in June last year.
    The fund's net assets totalled 154 mln dlrs at the end of
last year.
    "Its (Korea Fund) runaway success was mainly due to steep
price gains on the Korea Stock Exchange ...," said Park Sin-bom,
a director of Lucky Securities Co. "The Europe Fund is certain
to benefit from this booming but closed market."
    The South Korean stock market soared last year with the
composite index, a weighted average of 355 listed shares,
rising 68.9 pct. This week the index passed the 360 level for
the first time after starting the New Year on 264.82.
    Dealers have said prices would continue to gain this year
in view of good prospects for the economy and an expected
partial opening of the market to direct foreign investment.
    However, some analysts are concerned about potential risks
such as South Korea's unstable domestic politics and the lack
of market sophistication.
    Despite the doubts, the new fund is attracting offers in
London and shares are trading at a premium of 40 to 60 pct over
their 10 dlr issue price, said officials of Ssangyong
Investment Company, one co-lead managers.
    The offer is co-lead managed by Baring Brothers and Co Ltd
of Britain and underwritten by 44 international banks and
institutional investors, including eight South Korean
securities firms.
    A foreign securities analyst told Reuters the South Korean
securities firms underwiting the issue were "greedily asking for
high premiums" in reponse to big demand.
    The portfolio will be managed on the London Stock Exchange
by Korea Schroder Fund Management Ltd, a joint venture between
<Schroders Plc> of Britain and four South Korean securities
houses.
    At the moment, foreigners can only invest in the local
market indirectly through five locally-run trusts worth a total
of 140 mln dlrs, and the Korea Fund in New York.
    But the government is expected to announce guidelines for
direct outside investment on the market by October, when
foreigners holding convertible bonds issued by <Samsung
Electronics Co Ltd> will have the option to trade them for
shares.
    Samsung issued 20 mln dlrs worth of convertible bonds in
December 1985, the first of three South Korean firms so far to
take the step.
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some 650 mln stg while a rise in note circulation will take out
around 30 mln stg.
    Partly offsetting these outflows, bankers' balances above
target and exchequer transactions will add some 200 mln stg and
35 mln stg to the system respectively.
 REUTER

13.9 pct in February, compared with January's record rate of
16.8 pct, the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute
(IBGE) said in a statement.
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German net currency reserves fall 5.4 billion marks to 81.7 billion - Bundesbank

A Royal Insurance Plc unit is raising
300 mln marks via a five-year bullet eurobond with a 5-1/2 pct
coupon, priced at par, sole lead manager Commerzbank AG said.
    The bond, for Royal Insurance Finance NV, is guaranteed by
the parent. Investors will pay for the bond on April 9, and the
bond pays annual interest on the same day. It matures on the
same day in 1992. Fees total two pct, with 1-1/4 points for
selling, and 3/8 each for management and underwriting.
    Listing is in Frankfurt. The bond will be issued in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 marks.
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Pyongyang and a group of Tokyo-based
North Korean businessmen plan to resurrect a North Korean
goldmine and boost annual output to almost one tonne within two
years from 600 pounds at present, said Li Sangsu, a spokesman
for <Unzan Mine Development Co>, the venture partner.
    Work will begin on April 3 and the company aims to increase
output to 10 tonnes within a decade to pay off Pyongyang's 70
billion yen debt to 30 Japanese companies, Li added.
    "We expect this mine to be worth about 2,000 billion yen in
gold deposits," he said.
    The mine, started in 1896 by a U.S. Company, is one of six
or seven virtually untapped mines in the Unzan area, 94 miles
north of Pyongyang, Li said.
    Li said modern equipment and advanced technology would
increase yields. "Up to now, the mining was done with antiquated
methods and basic equipment."
    The gold mine scheme is the latest in a series of moves by
North Korea to clear its debts to Japanese creditors.
    Earlier this year, Pyongyang tried and failed to pay off
part of its debt with several tonnes of fish.
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Legal and General Group 1986 pre-tax profit 83.2 mln stg vs 31.5 mln.

The United States will press its case
that the European Airbus airliner is unfairly subsidized at a
special two-day session of the GATT civil aircraft committee
opening today, trade officials said.
    Washington has called for the meeting of the 20-nation
committee to pursue a long-running dispute with the European
Airbus consortium.
    It has charged that the Airbus consortium is unfairly
subsidized by Britain, France and West Germany, arguing the
subsidies amount to unfair competition to its aircraft
industry, including Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia's Defence and Aviation
Minister was quoted as saying the kingdom had completed studies
on the purchase of submarines, and tenders would be invited to
supply the vessels.
    The daily al-Riyadh reported Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz as
saying: "A thorough study by the Ministry on the submarines has
been completed and it is probable King Fahd will announce the
party with which the kingdom will deal to buy them."
    He gave no further details.
    The London-based magazine Jane's Defence Weekly said last
October the Saudi government had approached six European
countries to supply between six and eight submarines at a cost
of up to 2.9 billion dlrs.
    It said Britain was expected to offer the Upholder
submarine, made by Vickers Plc <VICK.L> and designed mainly for
NATO. France, West Germany, Italy, Sweden and The Netherlands
were also submitting proposals.
    British Defence Secretary George Younger said during a
visit to Saudi Arabia last month that the kingdom was
evaluating all proposals.
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A spokesman for Daimler-Benz AG
<DAIG.F> said that rumours the car-maker was suffering from
currency difficulties were "absolute rubbish."
    Like all major exporters Daimler undertakes currency
hedging but has no problems here, according to the spokesman,
contacted by telephone in Stuttgart.
    Daimler shares fell 17 marks yesterday in Frankfurt to a
year's low of 896 on the rumours and was quoted in pre-bourse
trading today around 890.
    A week ago Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> said it may have lost 480
mln marks on fraudulent currency hedging deals.
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AB Volvo is issuing a 70 billion
eurolire bond due May 31, 1990 paying 10-1/8 pct and priced at
100-1/2 pct, lead manager Banca Commerciale Italiana said.
    The bond is available in denominations of two mln lire and
will be listed in London.
    Fees comprise 7/8 pct selling concession with 1/2 pct for
    Payment date is April 24 and there will be a long first
coupon.
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DRG Plc <DRGL.L> is issuing a 40 mln stg
convertible eurobond due September 30, 2002 with an indicated
coupon of six to 6-1/4 pct and priced at par, lead manager
Baring Brothers and Co Ltd said.
    Pricing will take place on March 26 with conversion set at
a premium of 10 to 15 pct over the closing price on that day.
    Fees of 2-1/2 pct comprise 1-1/2 pct for selling and one
pct for management and underwriting combined. The bonds will be
issued in denominations of 1,000 stg and will be listed in
London. The pay date is April 30 with a short first coupon.
    J. Henry Schroder Wagg and Co Ltd is co-lead.
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Three consecutive days of talks between
management and unions aimed at ending the three month old
strike at Cargill U.K. Ltd's oilseed processing plant at
Seaforth, ended yesterday without resolving the situation,
although some progress was made, a company spokesman said.
    Fresh talks have been scheduled for next Tuesday, he said.
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The European Community (EC) farmers'
and farm cooperatives lobbies, Copa and Cogeca, have backed the
EC Commission plan for an oils and fats price stabilisation
mechanism, claiming it would not harm consumers.
    In a letter to Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans,
current president of the EC Council of Ministers, they said the
mechanism, often referred to as a tax, would in fact subsidise
oils and fats prices in the EC under some circumstances.
    This would have been the case in May 1984, when soya oil
prices cif Rotterdam stood at 914 dlrs a tonne, they noted.
    If such price stabilisation is not implemented, EC farmers
should not be the ones to suffer through their prices and
incomes from the financial consequences, the letter, made
available to journalists, said.
    Under the Commission proposal the mechanism would initially
result in a tax of 330 Ecus a tonne on both imported and EC
produced oils and marine fats.
    The mechanism would provide for this tax to be reduced, and
possibly to become a subsidy, as world soya oil prices rose
from present levels.
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Producers zinc stocks in Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) European
countries rose to 159,732 tonnes in January from 151,171 in
December and 127,725 in January 1986, latest International Lead
and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) figures show. Other figures were -
                      JAN'87  DEC'86   JAN'86
 Refined production   155,980 164,243 166,968
 Refined deliveries   131,910 122,364 136,727
 Mine output (metal
 content)              77,120 70,560  81,356
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Higher world oil prices, coupled with a
new realism ushered in by austerity, could lift Saudi Arabia's
economy after five years of falling revenue and growing budget
deficits, bankers and diplomats said.
    The months ahead will prove critical as the government
attempts a balancing act between defending higher oil prices
and fostering recovery through a bigger role for the private
sector.
    Economists said oil earnings could recover this year to
about 20 billion dlrs and nominal gross domestic product could
grow by about three pct, the first rise since 1982.
    But the economists said this will be possible only if the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) succeeds
in defending world oil prices and if Saudi Arabia is not forced
to curtail output for too long.
    Saudi Arabia is now keeping production down to defend
OPEC's newly-established 18 dlr a barrel benchmark price.
    Oil Minister Hisham Nazer told Reuters output is running at
about three mln barrels per day (bpd), well down on Saudi
Arabia's OPEC quota of 4.13 mln set for the first half of 1987.
    King Fahd has stamped his personal authority on OPEC's
new-found determination to defend prices in a move Western
diplomats believe underlines the kingdom's need to secure a
stable source of income for its economy.
    Saudi Arabia, still the world's largest oil exporter, is a
hugely wealthy country. But the past five years of declining
revenue have taken their toll. Economists estimate gross
domestic product fell 10 pct last year and 8.6 pct in 1985.
    Oil revenue last year, when prices briefly dipped below 10
dlrs per barrel, probably totalled no more than 17.5 billion
dlrs, compared to a peak 101.8 billion in 1981.
    "Austerity is still the watchword, but Saudi Arabia will not
be allowed to dip further into recession ... The Saudis can
afford to draw down reserves temporarily to offset the worst
effects," a diplomat said.
    In the short-term, the kingdom can lessen the impact of
lower oil revenues and a gaping budget deficit by drawing on
foreign reserves, still put at around 100 billion dlrs.
    But such a policy cannot be pursued indefinitely. Bankers
and diplomats said it would amount to fiscal recklessness in
the longer term.
    It also increases the dominance of the public sector at a
time when the government is publicly urging private enterprise
to take over the lead role in the economy.
    Bankers and diplomats said the government is well aware of
the risks attached to this policy but is determined to "tough it
out" on the oil front even if that means a short-term depletion
of reserves.
    The 1987 budget deficit is targetted at a huge 52.7 billion
riyals or 31 pct of total outlay. The budget explicitly
recognises the need to draw down reserves while foreign
borrowing has been ruled out.
    Commerce Minister Suleiman Abdulaziz al-Salim told Saudi
businessmen this week the government had carefully considered
the need to stimulate the economy when drawing up its budget
plans late last year.
    "It therefore took the bold step of withdrawing more than 50
billion riyals from its reserves and pumping it into the
    Reserves were built up during the late 1970's and early
1980's when Saudi Arabia's breakneck pace of construction and
tales of high spending became legendary.
    The shrinking economy has wrought huge changes in the
fabric of the Kingdom's private sector where poor management
had gone unpunished in the easy days of the oil boom.
    Modern techniques of cost control have been introduced,
markets expanded and outsized labour forces and inventories cut
back. The expatriate workforce has fallen sharply.
    The number of new bankruptcies appears to be declining but
Saudi banks, hit hard by non-performing loans to the corporate
sector, have become highly selective in extending new credit.
    Government moves to encourage lending and investigate
company complaints about late public sector contract payments
could boost confidence but recession has slowed the nation's
industrialisation program and discouraged foreign investment.
    Private wealth is still very high and banks report more and
more cash being placed on deposit.
    As Saudi Arabia attempts to shift the weight of economic
development from the public to the private sector, one of the
biggest tasks will be to convince businessmen to channel
personal savings into industrial projects within the kingdom
and refrain from the temptation to invest abroad.
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BANK OF FRANCE SELLS 1.6 BILLION FRANCS OF CAISSE DE REFINANCEMENT HYPOTHECAIRE TAP STOCK - OFFICIAL

The rebate granted at yesterday's EC
sugar tender represents some concession to producers'
complaints that they are losing money on exports outside the
bloc, EC Commission officials said.
    The maximum rebate of 44.819 European currency units (Ecus)
per 100 kilos was 1.3 Ecus below what producers say is needed
to obtain the equivalent price to that offered for sales into
    The rebate at last week's tender was 2.5 Ecus per 100 kilos
short of the level producers said was needed, the officials
said.
    The officials said the Commission is not negotiating with
producers who have offered a total of 854,000 tonnes of sugar
for sale into intervention in an apparent attempt to persuade
it to offer higher rebates.
    They said the French and German producers involved are now
unable to withdraw this offer before April 1 when the sugar
will officially enter intervention stores.
    Payment for it is due five weeks later, and it will be open
to them to withdraw their offers at any time between April 1
and the official payment date when the Commission officially
takes ownership of the sugar, the officials said.
    The officials said if the Commission has to buy the sugar,
it is determined to immediately resell it, a move which would
drive down market prices further.
    They expressed some hope that the operators would not
eventually go through with their plan for intervention sales.
    "We think they realise they have gone too far," one official
said.
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26 weeks ended Dec 28
    Net shr 25.9 cents vs 28.2
    Int div 5.5 cents vs 5.0
    Pre-tax 48.30 mln dlrs vs 44.29 mln
    Net 25.94 mln vs 25.35 mln
    Turnover 453.28 mln vs 407.35 mln
    Other income 4.48 mln vs 3.18 mln
    Shrs 100 mln vs 90 mln.
    NOTE - Div pay May 8. Reg April 14.
    Net is after tax 22.09 mln dlrs vs 18.60 mln, interest
11.60 mln vs 13.92 mln, depreciation 8.52 mln vs 7.06 mln and
minorities 267,000 vs 346,000 but before net extraordinary
profit 89.32 rpt 89.32 mln dlrs vs nil.
 REUTER

Media group John Fairfax Ltd <FFXA.S>
said that its flat first half net profit partly reflected the
impact of changes in the Australian tax system.
    Fairfax earlier reported net earnings edged up 2.3 pct to
25.94 mln dlrs in the 26 weeks ended December 28 from 25.35 mln
a year earlier although pre-tax profit rose 9.1 pct to 48.30
mln from 44.29 mln.
    Net would have risen 10.1 pct but for the increase in
company tax to 49 pct from 46 and the imposition of the tax on
fringe benefits, paid by employers and not the recipients, the
company said in a statement.
    Fairfax also pointed to the cyclical downturn in revenue
growth in the television industry as another reason for the
flat first half earnings.
    It said it considered the result satisfactory in view of
these factors.
    Fairfax said its flagship dailies, The Sydney Morning
Herald and the Melbourne Age, boosted advertising volume, as
did the Australian Financial Review, and posted extremely
satisfactory performances. Magazines also performed strongly.
    But an 8.9 pct rise in television costs outweighed a 4.0
pct rise in revenue, it said.
    Fairfax said a fall in net interest also contributed to net
earnings because group borrowings were reduced following the
receipt of a 96.11 mln dlr capital dividend from <Australian
Associated Press Pty Ltd> (AAP) after the sale of AAP's "B"
shares in Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRS.L>.
    This accounted for the 89.32 mln dlr extraordinary profit.
    Fairfax said it is too early to predict results for the
full year. Increased borrowings after the recent 320 mln dlr
acquisition of the HSV-Seven television station in Melbourne
will hit earnings but networking with the Channel Sevens in
Sydney and Brisbane will produce some offsetting cost savings.
 REUTER

The Bank of France sold 1.6 billion
francs of 8.50 pct March 1987/99 Caisse de Refinancement
Hypothecaire (CRH) state-guaranteed tap stock at an auction,
the Bank said.
    Demand totalled 6.82 billion francs and prices bid ranged
from 93.50 to 96.60 pct. The minimum accepted price was 95.50
pct with a 9.13 pct yield, while the average price was 95.69.
    At the last auction on February 19, two billion francs of
CRH tap stock was sold at a minimum price of 91.50 pct and
yield of 9.73 pct.
 REUTER

Shr 6.56p vs 50.31p
    Final div 6p, making 8p vs 13p.
    Pre-tax profit 134 mln stg vs 759 mln.
    Net profit 33 mln vs 253 mln.
    Turnover 978 mln stg vs 1.80 billion.
    Extraordinary debit 50 mln vs nil.
    Operating profit 149 mln stg vs 756 mln.
    Exceptional debit on rationalisation programme 12 mln vs
nil
    Petroleum Revenue Taxes 77 mln vs 319 mln,
    U.K. Corporation tax and overseas tax 24 mln vs 187 mln,
    Note - The net effect of accounting changes in 1986 was to
reduce after tax profits by 47 mln stg. Retained earnings for
prior years were increased by 209 mln.
    Extraordinary debit of 50 mln stg related to the decision
to seek a buyer for the company's U.S. Assets.
 REUTER

(EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 1130 GMT THURS MARCH 19) ******UK
FEB ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT FELL 44,100 TOTAL 3.07 MLN OR 11.1
PCT - OFFICIAL

UK UNIT WAGE/LABOUR COSTS ROSE 3.3 PCT IN THREE MONTHS ENDING JAN - OFFICIAL

UK AVERAGE EARNINGS ROSE 7.6 PCT IN JANUARY, UNDERLYING RISE 7.5 PCT - OFFICIAL

U.K. FEBRUARY ADJUSTED STERLING M3 RISES 2-1/4 PCT, M0 DOWN 3/4 TO ONE PCT - OFFICIAL

Shr 14.58p vs 7.86p
    Div 6.5p making 9.75p, an increase of 19.4 pct
    Pretax profit 83.2 mln stg vs 31.5 mln
    Net after tax 68.6 mln stg vs 37.7 mln
    Pretax profit 83.2 mln stg vs 31.5
mln, consists of -
    Long term business 45.9 mln stg vs 43.8 mln
    U.S. Long term business 6.2 mln vs 8.9 mln
    Fund management 4.7 mln vs 6.5 mln
    Short term business 4.7 mln vs loss 29.0 mln
    Associate companies 0.9 mln vs 0.8 mln
    Shareholders other income and outgoings 0.4 mln debit vs
0.5 mln credit
    Exceptional long-term business profit 21.4 mln vs nil
 REUTER

FEB STERLING BANK LENDING UP 2.9 BILLION STG AFTER 1.75 RISE IN JAN - OFFICIAL

UK FEB ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT FELL 44,100 TOTAL 3.07 MLN OR 11.1 PCT - OFFICIAL

Industry will ask Japanese computer microchip makers to further
slash output in the second quarter in an effort to save its
semiconductor pact with the United States, MITI officials said.
    The United States has accused Japan of reneging on the
semiconductor pact by failing to stop the flow of cut-price
Japanese chips to Asian markets. Washington has threatened to
take retaliatory action after April 1.
    The pact, agreed last year, calls on Japan to stop selling
cut-price chips in world markets and to increase its imports of
American chips to reduce some of its huge trade surplus.
    MITI, anxious to salvage the bilateral agreement, has been
pressing chip makers to limit production in the hope that will
boost domestic chip prices and reduce the incentive to export.
    Last month, the ministry asked Japanese chip makers to
reduce first quarter output by 10 pct. To meet that request,
they had to slash production by 20 pct over the final six weeks
of the first quarter.
    If that reduced production level were maintained through to
the end of June, second quarter output would come in 10 pct
below that of the first three months of the year.
    MITI officials, who declined to be identified, said the
ministry has not yet decided on the extent of the second
quarter cutback.
    One said that Japanese chip makers are losing ground in
Asia to South Korean and U.S. Competition just as markets there
are picking up.
    MITI has been criticized privately by some Japanese
semiconductor makers for what they see as heavy-handed attempts
to ensure the success of the Japan/U.S. Chip pact.
 REUTER

Clearing bank sterling lending to the
U.K. Private sector in February is estimated to have risen by
an underlying, seasonally-adjusted 1.6 billion stg after a 1.2
billion stg rise in January, the Banking Information Service
said.
    The unadjusted rise was 1.31 billion stg, compared with an
813 mln stg increase in January.
    The Banking Information Service said the adjusted rise of
1.6 billion stg was well above the recent monthly average of
about 1.0 billion stg.
    Of the increase, 297 mln stg was accounted for by personal
lending, which the Banking Information Service said was taken
up entirely by lending for home purchases.
    Lending for consumption fell around 17 mln stg while about
182 mln stg of credit card debt was repaid during the month.
    Lending to the manufacturing industry was up 370 mln stg,
and to leasing companies by 308 mln stg.
    The Banking Information Service said February fell within
the governmemnt tax season, so much of the lending was probably
the result of industry's need to pay its tax bills.
    Deposits by the private sector rose an unadjusted 1.1
billion stg in February and by a seasonally-adjusted 1.75
    Deposits from the public sector rose 185 mln stg in
February while deposits from overseas residents rose by 43 mln.
 REUTER

Unemployment in the U.K. Fell a
provisional seasonally-adjusted 44,100 in February, to total
3.07 mln or 11.1 pct of the workforce, the Employment
    In January, seasonally adjusted unemployment fell by a
revised 1,100 to 11.3 pct, it said. Initially the January
position was reported as flat.
    The unadjusted jobless total, including school leavers,
fell to 3.23 mln, or 11.7 pct, from 3.30 mln, 11.9 pct, in
January.
    February was the seventh successive month that seasonally
adjusted unemployment registered a fall.
    It was at a peak of 11.7 pct last summer.
    Lord Young, the Employment Minister, said there appeared
little doubt the monthly fall, which has been running at about
20,000, will continue.
    A Department spokesman said the sharp fall in February
reflected some compensation for the flat figure in January and
continued the downward trend seen in the past six months.
    He said the February fall was spread throughout the country
and among men and women.
 REUTER

The main measure of U.K. Broad money,
sterling M3, grew a provisional, seasonally adjusted 2-1/4 pct
in February after a rise of 1.1 pct in January, the Bank of
England said.
    The narrow measure, M0, fell a provisional adjusted 3/4 to
one pct after a 0.6 pct drop in January, the Bank said.
    Unadjusted annual growth in sterling M3 was 18-3/4 to 19
pct in the 12 months to February against 17.6 pct in January
while M0 rose four to 4-1/4 pct after a 5.2 pct rise in
January.
    Seasonally adjusted, sterling bank lending grew 2.9 billion
stg after a January rise of 1.75 billion.
    Of the unadjusted counterparts to sterling M3, bank lending
to the private sector expanded 2.6 billion stg after a 1.4
billion rise in January, the Bank said.
    The public sector borrowing requirement (PSBR) contracted
by 300 mln stg after a contraction of 3.7 billion stg in
January.
    Funding - debt sales to the non-bank private sector and
external flows to the public sector - rose by 300 mln stg after
a 1.5 billion stg rise in January. Of this, central government
debt sales to the public sector were expansionary by 400 mln
stg after a 1.3 billion expansion in January, the Bank said.
    Other unadjusted counterparts to sterling M3 expanded by
300 mln stg in February after an expansion of 1.3 billion stg
in January, the Bank said.
    Unadjusted figures showed a rise in sterling M3 by 1-3/4 to
two pct in February after a drop of 0.8 pct in January.
    On the same basis, the figures showed a drop of about 1-1/2
pct in MO in February after a sharp 6-1/2 pct fall in January.
    The Bank said it would publish full, final figures on March
30.
    The Bank said non-bank private sector holdings of public
sector debt fell by about 400 mln stg in February while
external flows to the public sector were about 100 mln stg.
    Combined with a net PSBR repayment of about 300 mln stg,
the public sector contribution to the growth in sterling M3 was
therefore about flat, the Bank said.
    It said seasonally adjusted bank lending, at about 2.9
billion stg in February, compared with an average of about 2.6
billion stg a month over the preceding six months.
 REUTER

U.K. Average earnings rose a seasonally
adjusted 7.6 pct in the year to end-January after a 7.4 pct
rise in the year to December, the Department of Employment
said.
    The underlying rise was 7.5 pct after 7.75 pct in December.
    The January index, base 1980, was set at a provisional
seasonally adjusted 190.4, down from 193.4 in December.
    The underlying rise, adjusted for factors such as back-pay
and timing variations, had been steady at 7.5 pct from October
1985 to October 1986.
    Unit wage costs in U.K. Manufacturing industry rose 3.3 pct
in the three months to end January, on a year-on-year basis,
after a 3.1 pct rise in the three months to end December, the
Department of Employment said.
    In January, the unit wage rise in manufacturing industries
was 3.6 pct, unchanged from the December rise.
    The Department said the decline in the underlying rate of
rise in earnings reflected the reduced significance of bonus
payments in January compared with December.
    The actual increase reflected teacher pay settlements and
industrial action in the transport and communications sectors
in January 1987.
 REUTER

U.K. Property company MEPC Plc is
issuing a 75 mln stg eurobond due April 15, 2004 paying 9-7/8
pct and priced at 99-5/8 pct, lead manager County Natwest
Capital Markets said.
    The bond is in partly paid form with 25 pct due on April 15
and the remainder on July 15. It will be available in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 stg and will be listed in
London.
 REUTER

Nomura International Finance Plc is
issuing a 150 mln dlr eurobond due April 28, 1992 with a 7-1/4
pct coupon and priced at 101-1/8 pct, Nomura International Ltd
    The transaction carries the guarantee of Nomura Securities.
Bonds will be issued in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and will be
listed in London. Payment date is April 27.
    Fees comprise 5/8 pct for management and underwriting,
including a 1/8 pct praecipuum, and 1-1/4 pct for selling.
    Co-lead is Pru-Bache Securities. The issue is targeted at
Europe, with no Japanese co-managers.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said
he was looking for ways to help finance a planned tax reform
without increasing value-added tax but could not rule out
raising some indirect taxes, for example, on tobacco.
    Stoltenberg also told parliament that closing tax loopholes
would contribute towards the 19 billion marks the government is
seeking to finance part of its 44 billion mark tax reform
package for the 1990s.
    He confirmed that a temporary and limited increase in the
borrowing requirement was also being considered.
    Chancellor Helmut Kohl yesterday said a temporary rise in
borrowing was acceptable but stressed his government would
exercise strict discipline in spending.
    New net borrowing was 23.0 billion marks in 1986 compared
with 37.2 billion in 1982.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it revised down
its estimate of the deficit in the system today to 400 mln stg
from 450 mln.
 REUTER

A Westdeutsche Landesbank
Girozentrale (WestLB) unit is raising 50 mln Australian dlrs
through a five-year bullet eurobond with a 14-3/8 pct coupon
and priced at 101-1/2, co-lead manager WestLB said.
    The bond, for WestLB Finance N.V., Is guaranteed by the
parent. Investors will pay for the bond on April 15, and the
bond pays annual interest on the same day. It matures on that
day in 1992. Fees total two pct, with 1-3/8 points for selling,
and 5/8 for management and underwriting combined. There is a
1/8 pct praecipuum. Listing is in Luxembourg.
    Co-lead is Hambros Bank Ltd. Denomination is 1,000 dlrs.
 REUTER

Ecuador is seeking between 437 and 450
mln dlrs in loans this year from multilateral organisations and
foreign governments to grapple with economic losses from a
devastating earthquake 13 days ago, a presidential economic
adviser said.
    Foreign governments and multilateral organisations hold
one-third of Ecuador's 8.16 billion dlrs total foreign debt, he
said in a news conference at the presidential palace.
    But he added that the suspension of payments to private
foreign banks, who hold the rest of the foreign debt, would be
prolonged though the government hoped to negotiate an agreement
with these creditors.
    President Leon Febres Cordero says the earthquake cost the
country one billion dlrs in losses and left 1,000 people dead
or missing.
    Swett, who was Finance Minister of Ecuador between August
1984 to June 1986, added: "With the private foreign banks there
has been a ceasing of payments by Ecuador.
    "We are bringing forward the respective negotiations whose
conclusion we hope finalises in the next few weeks."
    Finance Minister Domingo Cordovez said last week that
quake-hit Ecuador sought through negotiations to postpone all
payments due to the private foreign banks in 1987 until next
year.
    Although Swett gave no gave details on the latest plan for
negotiations with private foreign banks, he calculated the
suspension of payment to these creditors would save the
government 54.45 billion sucres.
    This amount is equal to 363 mln dlrs at the free rate of
150 sucres to the dollar -- the rate Swett said reporters
should use in calculating the dollar equivalent.
    The Ecuadorean central bank, which is the institution
remitting debt payments abroad, uses the official rate of 95
sucres to the dollar for its accounting purposes. At the
official rate, the 54.45 billion sucres' sum equals 573 mln
dlrs.
    Ecuador, squeezed by a slide last year in prices for crude,
its main export, suspended payments to private foreign banks in
January.
    Swett said the government would also seek to refinance the
1.429 billion dlr section of the debt owed to the Paris Club
group of foreign governments, though it would continue to
service the debt with them. He gave no more details.
    The government adopted a tough austerity program last
Friday intended to grapple with the tremor's economic costs.
But the country's labour unions have called a general strike
for Wednesday to press for a suspension of the program.
    The 500,000-strong Unitary Workers' Front (FUT) and the
100,000-member General Union of Workers (UGT) called the strike
to cancel the measures, which include a rise in petrol prices
of up to 80 per cent and budget cuts of as much as 10 per cent.
    The leftist-led FUT said it was also backing a call by the
Maoist Popular Movement for Democracy (MPD) party, to have
Congress impeach and oust Febres Cordero, a conservative, for
 Reuter

West German car and van production
rose to 389,900 in February from 380,900 in February 1986, the
German Automobile Industry Association VDA said in a statement.
    Production of trucks of up to six tonnes fell sharply to
11,500 from 14,600, owing to a cut in production of small
delivery vans of up to two tonnes. Total vehicle output rose to
410,000 from 404,600.
    Car and van exports eased to 222,000 in February from
225,000 one year earlier, and exports of trucks of up to six
tonnes dropped to 6,200 from 9.900. Total vehicle exports fell
to 233,200 from 240,300.
    Car and van output in January and February eased to 758,700
from 766,500 in the first two months of 1986. Production of
trucks up to six tonnes fell to 26,300 from 30,700, and total
vehicle production fell to 802,300 from 814,900.
    Car and van exports in January and February fell to 424,700
from 443,300 a year earlier and exports of trucks up to six
tonnes fell to 15,400 from 20,200. Total vehicle exports fell
to 449,200 from 473,500.
 REUTER

money market with 181 mln stg in assistance this morning.
    This compares with the Bank's revised shortage forecast of
around 400 mln stg.
    The central bank purchased bank bills outright at the new
dealing rates established yesterday.
    These comprised 65 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 114
mln stg in band two at 9-13/16 pct and two mln stg in band
three at 9-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

 Reuter

There is no question of stimulating
consumption or relying on a systematic budget deficit or other
reflationary policies to boost the French economy, sources
close to finance minister Edouard Balladur said.
    Their comments followed remarks by prime minister Jacques
Chirac's spokesman Denis Baudouin, who said on Monday ministers
were agreed on the desirability of "relaunching" the economy.
    This sparked speculation the government was preparing for a
reflationary U-turn, but the finance ministry immediately ruled
out any such move.
    The sources today said the government's policy remained one
of "recovery," or sound finances and greater efficiency.
    They said that while 8.6 billion of the 30 billion franc
revenues expected for 1987 from a sweeping privatisation
program will go to providing public companies with fresh
capital, 21.4 billion francs, or two-thirds, will go toward
paying off national debt.
    Any further privatisation revenue this year above the 30
billion would be distributed between repayment of national
internal debt and public companies in similar proportions, they
added.
    The sources said it was absurd to talk of reflation when
the country's internal debt, expected to grow by 10 pct this
year from 1,300 billion francs in 1986 was growing twice as
fast as gross domestic product.
    Nominal GDP is expected to grow by roughly five pct this
year from 5,000 billion francs last year, broadly in line with
earlier forecasts. Real GDP will grow by up to 2.5 pct.
    The sources said that with France's economic targets for
1987 roughly in line with its main trading partners, the
government had no intention of pushing the economy to grow at
an artificial pace out of step with neighbouring economies.
 REUTER

The Banking Commission is reviewing
the present three-tier banking system and its newly established
capital adequacy ratio, banking commissioner Robert Fell said.
    He told a news conference his office has had talks with the
Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board on
risk-based capital ratios, following an agreement on such
standards between the two central banks early this year.
    The Bank of England and the Fed are trying to persuade the
Bank of Japan and European central banks to accept their
    "We welcome international standards," Fell said. "It means a
level playing field for all."
    Under a new banking rule that came into effect last year,
banks in Hong Kong are given a two-year grace period to meet a
five pct capital adequacy requirement.
    "The difference between us (Hong Kong and the U.K.) is
really not that great," he said.
    Fell said the majority of banks are comfortable with the
required capital ratio, though some are under-capitalised.
    Some banks, mostly Japanese, want a lower capital ratio
because of the special nature of their business, mainly
offshore banking operations. These institutions have proposed
the creation of a limited service bank category.
    Financial institutions in Hong Kong are now classified into
three types -- banks, registered and licensed deposit-taking
    Fell said the Commission is reviewing the three-tier
structure in light of the possible changes in capital ratio and
the growing trend towards securitisation of debt.
    Fell said the Commission is also studying a set of
guidelines on loan loss provisions with the help of the Society
of Accountants.
    Other planned guidelines relate to securitisation of debt
and business that banks and deposit taking companies can
conduct.
 REUTER

The Australian dollar eurobond launched
yesterday for the Republic of Austria has been increased to 75
mln dlrs from the original 50 mln, Credit Suisse First Boston
Ltd said as lead manager.
    The five year transaction has a 14-1/4 pct coupon and was
priced at 101-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

Cheltenham and Gloucester Building
Society is issuing a 50 mln stg eurobond due April 22, 1992,
paying 9-1/4 pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead manager Union
Bank of Switzerland (Securities) Ltd said.
    The bond will be available in denominations of 1,000 stg
 REUTER

Brisk increases in personal income and
consumption are to appear in February data released today, but
the bond market's recent sluggishness suggests there will be no
major price reaction unless the rises are much larger than
expected, economists said.
    Personal income is forecast to rise by 0.6 to 0.8 pct,
compared with no change in January, while consumption
expenditures are projected to increase 1.4 to 1.6 pct,
reversing most of the two pct drop recorded in January.
    M-1 money supply data for the March 9 week will also be
released. An increase of some 2.3 billion dlrs is expected.    
    Peter Greenbaum of Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc
expects a one pct rise in income, led by a strong gain in wage
and salary disbursements in February.
    Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 337,000 jobs in February, the
average workweek lengthened by 0.6 pct and hourly wages rose by
four cts, he noted in a report. Vigorous spending on durable
goods last month, especially cars, foreshadow a rise of at
least 1.5 pct in consumption, he added.
    The prospect of bearish data did not trouble the bond
market much yesterday, with the 30-year Treasury bond slipping
just 7/32 to 99-28/32 for a yield of 7.51 pct.
    Analysts said the market is still trapped in a narrow
range, desperately seeking direction.
    "Seasonally adjusted, it's already December in the bond
market," quipped Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co
International Inc.
    Paul Boltz of T. Rowe Price Associates Inc said the
steadiness of long bond yields around 7.5 pct, despite some
signs of a stronger economy, probably reflects expectations
that inflation will remain subdued.
    But he warned that this assumption might not be justified.
    "It took the bond market a long while to see that inflation
was not returning to double digits, and now that it has learned
that lesson, it may be a little slow to see that a four to five
pct inflation is a real possibility ahead," Boltz said in a
report.
    After trading late yesterday at 5-15/16 pct, Fed funds were
indicated by brokers to open comfortably at 5-15/16, six pct.
 Reuter

American soybean producers and processors
are hoping the proposed EC tax on vegetable oils and fats will
not be imposed, but say the U.S. Is prepared to retaliate if it
is introduced.
    Wayne Bennett, the American Soybean Association's first
vice president, told a news conference the U.S. Administration
would not hesitate to retaliate, but both producers and
processors were trying to solve the issue through negotiation.
    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Richard Lyng said in a letter
to EC officials that U.S. Retaliatory measures would cover more
than agricultural products if the tax was imposed, Bennett
said.
    The ASA and National Soybean Processors Association (NSPA)
delegations will meet top West German government officials
today and tomorrow to lobby for support.
    Bennett said West Germany, Britain, the Netherlands,
Denmark and Portugal oppose the tax, but Italy and Belgium seem
to have taken a hardline view on the issue.
    "Europeans in favour of the tax say it would be to their
advantage economically, but that is not correct because we
would hit back," NSPA chairman Jack Reed said.
    This step would be very expensive for all and no one would
emerge as a winner if the tax were introduced, he said.
    Reed pointed out the U.S. Administration and the soybean
industry view the EC proposal as violating the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
    The proposed tax also violates the zero duty bindings
agreed between the EC and U.S. In 1962, he said.
    Under the zero duty bindings pact U.S. Soybeans and
products can be exported to the Community duty-free.
 REUTER

The banking sector has regained its
stability after a protracted period of difficulty, banking
commissioner Robert Fell said.
    "The banking climate has dramatically changed from a year
ago," he said at a news conference to present his annual report
on the banking sector for 1986.
    "We've got confidence back. We've got profitability back." he
said.
    A three-year shake out in the local banking sector forced
the government to take over three banks and arrange for the
acquisition of four others by the private sector.
    Fell said that in many cases the bank problems stemmed from
management fraud which he linked partly to dramatic swings in
the stock and property markets in the early 1980s.
    "We've got it out of the system now," he said. "Fraud is no
longer a systemic problem."
    But he acknowledged there may still be problems.
    "Deliberate fraud is difficult to detect especially where
collusion and senior management are involved," he said.
"Prudential supervision cannot give complete protection. The
(new banking) ordinance is designed to give a "measure" of
protection."
    Fell said a number of banks want to set up operations in
Hong Kong, adding the government approved three banking
licences this week. He did not give details.
    At the end of 1986, there were 151 licenced banks, 25 of
which were locally incorporated, compared with 143 a year ago.
Another 134 foreign banks had representative offices compared
with 131 a year ago.
    There were 34 licensed deposit-taking companies (DTCs) and
254 registered DTCs at the end of 1986, compared with 35 and
278 respectively a year ago, he said.
    Foreign banks seeking banking licences in Hong Kong must
have assets of 14 billion U.S. Dlrs. But Financial Secretary
Piers Jacobs said yesterday the asset criteria are flexible.
    A high asset threshold has worked in the favour of banks
incorporated in countries with relatively large economies, he
noted.
    "No licences in the last few years have been granted to
banks from any of the smaller countries in the Asia-Pacific
region," he said.
 REUTER

AMERICAN EXPRESS SAYS IT'S HOLDING TALKS ON SALE OF SHEARSON STAKE TO NIPPON LIFE

(FHLBB) announced today the replacement of a closed Santa Ana,
Calif., savings bank in the 15th federal action assisting
troubled U.S. savings institutions this year.
    The FHLBB said Perpetual Savings Bank in Santa Ana was put
into receivorship because it was insolvent and was replaced by
    It said the savings bank's insolvency "was a direct result
of losses on speculative investments in real estate which were
not supported by appraisals."
    The FHLBB said it appointed Great American First Savings
Bank <GTA> of San Diego to manage Perpetual Savings.
    It said as of January 31, Perpetual had assets of 61.9 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

American Express Co said it and its
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc subsidiary have been holding talks
on the possible equity investment in Shearson Lehman by <Nippon
Life Insurance Co> of Japan.
    The company said, "The discussions have led to a general
understanding by which Nippon Life would purchase a 13 pct
equity investment in Shearson Lehman for approximately 530 mln
dlrs and American Express, Shearson Lehman and Nippon Life
would explore mutually advantageous, nonexclusive business and
investment opportunities."
    The company said a definitive agreement on the matter is
subject to a number of conditions, including approval of the
American Express board and the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
    The company said its board is scheduled to meet March 27
for its regular monthly sessions.
    American Express said it is continuing to evaluate various
courses of action of strategic importance to Shearson Lehman in
addition to the possible investment by Nippon Life.
    It said the options range from expanding Shearson's
capacity to meet international competition, to broadening
further its access to capital.
    The company also said, "All the courses of action under
study reflect the continuing integral role of Shearson Lehman
in American Express' worldwide financial services strategy."
 Reuter

Xerox Corp has decided to stop selling
personal computers as standalone products, a company spokesman
said.
    The spokesman said "As a first priority, we're selling PC's
as part of preconfigured systems, mostly desktop publishing
systems, and not by themselves anymore."
    He said Xerox does not expect to take any material charge
from changing its marketing of personal computers.  He said for
the past five years, Xerox has sold most of its PC's as
components of larger systems.
    Another Xerox spokesman said the company actually stopped
selling personal computers alone on February 16 but never
announced the move.
 Reuter

The financial rand, widely viewed
as a direct reflection of foreign investor confidence in South
Africa, appears headed above 30 U.S. Cents, dealers and bank
    The currency has risen about 25 pct in the past three
months to its current rate of 29.50 cents, due partly to signs
of a possible power shift with the appearance of a number of
independent candidates in the whites-only election on May 6,
    It has risen about two cents this week alone.
    "Another factor is that banks in London, where the main
market is based, are going long in the currency because of a
general feeling that it will rise in the future," one economist
said.
    Dealers described 30 cents as a psychological barrier that
was expected to be broken soon after a brief consolidation
phase from recent gains.
    After reaching 30 cents, "There is a chance of appreciation
to 32 cents in the next several weeks," one dealer said.
    There was a widespread feeling that both the commercial
rand, holding stable at 48 cents, and the financial rand were
staying firm, banking sources said.
    A Barclays National Bank executive who asked not to be
identified said: "The rise of the independents appears to be
indicative of a potential shift of power in the National Party
and has created a favourable sentiment overseas."
    One dealer said growing business and investor interest from
West Germany and Switzerland were behind the financial rand's
rise.
    Economists said foreigners also were being attracted by
South Africa's long-term government bonds and "semi-gilts" or
securities in partly government-owned firms, many with yields
as high as 30 pct. They could be purchased with financial rands
with interest paid in commercial rands.
    "This has had a definite influence on the financial form of
the rand," a dealer said, adding that at present demand is
slightly in excess of supply.
    The financial rand was reintroduced in September 1985 to
help end capital flight from South Africa during a period of
severe political unrest in the country.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Fi-Tek Corp said it has signed a letter
of intent to acquire <Voice Systems and Services Inc> for an
undisclosed amount of stock.
    It said on completion of the acquisition it would change
its name to Voice Systems and Services Inc.  It said VBoice
Systems has received a 3,600,000 dlr contract to provide FLP
Communications of Dallas with voicemail systems through service
bureaus located throughout the U.S. and has also contracted to
provide voicemail systems and administration to M and S
Communications.
 Reuter

First Wisconsin Corp said it has
agreed to acquire North Shore Bancorp Inc of Northbrook, Ill.,
for 6,160,000 dlrs in cash, or slightly more than twice book
value, subject to approval by North Shore shareholders and
regulatory authorities.
    The company said completion is expected in the third
quarter.
 Reuter

Italy's overall balance of payments showed
a surplus of 1,461 billion lire in February 1987 compared with
a deficit of 1,145 billion in January, provisional Bank of
Italy figures show.
    The February surplus compared with a deficit of 1,578
billion lire in the same month for 1986.
    For the first two months of 1987, the balance of payments
showed a surplus of 302 billion lire against a deficit of 4,622
billion in the same 1986 period.
    The Bank of Italy said the cumulative balance for the first
two months of 1987 does not match the total calculated on the
individual monthly figures because of the provisional nature of
certain data.
 REUTER

Oper shr loss 21 cts vs loss 95 cts
    Oper net loss 666,000 vs loss 2,184,000
    Avg shrs 3,181,805 vs 2,310,200
    Year
    Oper shr loss 30 cts vs loss 23 cts
    Oper net loss 823,000 vs loss 606,000
    Avg shrs 2,757,040 vs 2,614,225
    NOTE: Net excludes realized investment gains of 666,000
dlrs vs 289,000 dlrs in quarter and 2,274,000 dlrs vs 1,468,000
 Reuter

Italy's net official reserves rose to
66,172 billion lire in February 1987 from a previously reported
62,174 billion in January, the Bank of Italy said.
    Gold holdings at end-February totalled 35,203 billion lire,
unchanged on January.
    Convertible currencies totalled 18,467 billion lire, up
from 14,899 billion in January, while European Currency Unit
(ECU) holdings were 10,156 billion lire against 10,133 billion.
 REUTER

SJNB Financial Corp said
Douglas McLendon has resigned as president and chief executive
officer of the holding company and its San Jose National Bank
subsidiary and as a director of its Tri-Valley National Bank
subsidiary to pursue other interests.
    It said vice chairman William Pfeifle, 68, will act as
interim president and chjief executive officer.
 Reuter

The liberalization of West German
capital markets in May 1985 led to a flood of financial
innovations but the lack of a secondary market for these has
diminished their acceptance, Deutsche Girozentrale - Deutsche
Kommunalbank management board member Wiegand Hennicke said.
    While innovations may be intellectualy stimulating, they
lack transparency, he told an investors' forum in West Berlin.
    "Properly functioning markets require standardized products.
This (condition) has not been met by some of the innovations,"
Hennicke said.
    The volume of zero coupon bonds and floating rate notes,
the most widely used financial innovations in Germany, stands
at four billion and 16 billion marks, respectively, a tiny
proportion of the 1,000 billion marks of bonds in circulation.
    Even for zero-coupon bonds and floating rate notes, a
secondary market had not developed, Hennicke said. One
important reason for this was the bourse turnover tax, which
was reducing the rate of return to the investors.
    West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said this
week he believed the tax could still be removed, even if its
abolition was not decided during recent coalition discussions.
    Karl-Herbert Schneider-Gaedicke, deputy management board
chairman of DG Bank Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, said German
domestic and institutional investors had also shown
reservations about investing in participation shares.
    One of the reasons was the widely varying terms and
conditions of participation shares in West Germany. "The
investor has to scrutinize (participation shares) carefully,
before making an investment decision," Schneider-Gaedicke said.
    He added the attractiveness of participation shares could
be increased by limiting the combination possibilities of terms
and conditions and increasing safeguards for investors.
    He also urged publicizing the comparative advantage of
participation shares over ordinary shares for foreigners.
    Foreigners do not receive the corporation tax bonus granted
to domestic investors for share dividends.
    Karl Thomas, head of the Bundesbank's credit department,
said the domestic investor had missed earnings opportunities
over the last four years by failing to invest in German bonds.
    Domestic investors did not believe interest rates would
decline and stay at low levels for such a long time, because
expectations were determined by sharp interest rate
fluctuations at the start of the decade.
    The Bundesbank has a natural interest in seeing domestic
savings channelled into bonds and shares, Thomas said.
    A shift of savings into long-term assets would dampen
monetary expansion and foster a stable rise of the money
supply, he said.
 REUTER

CARTER HAWLEY HALE STORES INC 4TH QTR SHR LOSS 1.58 DLRS VS PROFIT 58 CTS

Chicago Board of Trade, CBT,
President Thomas Donovan said he was confident the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, would not force the CBT and
the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange, MCE, to merge speculative
position limits on futures contracts traded on the two
    Last month CFTC proposed combining CBT and MCE contracts on
corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and oats for the purposes
of applying speculative position limits.
    Donovan told Reuters he had spoken to CFTC officials about
the matter and believed they would modify the proposal.
    CBT officials have complained the CFTC was reneging on a
commitment made when the two exchanges formed an affiliation,
and proposing to decrease spot month limits on the MCE contrary
to congressional intent.
 Reuter

The two top officials of the
Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, are planning to visit three
countries in the Far East next month to drum up support for the
exchange's proposed night trading session, CBT President Thomas
Donovan told Reuters.
    Donovan said he and CBT Chairman Karsten Mahlmann will
leave April 3 and spend two weeks in Hong Kong, Tokyo and
Sydney discussing the night trading session with brokerage
firms, regulators and exchanges.
    CBT hopes to launch the first U.S. night trading session at
the end of April, offering Treasury-bond and T-note futures and
options on the two futures contracts between 1700 and 2100 hrs
central U.S. time (2300 to 0300 hrs GMT).
 Reuter

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said that the order
for McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> MD-11 long haul jets confirmed
this morning was worth a total 1.2 billion Swiss francs.
    President Robert Staubli told a news conference it had not
yet been decided whether the planes would have General Electric
Co <GE.N>, Pratt and Whitney <UTX> or Rolls Royce engines.
    The airline said it chose the U.S. Plane rather than the
rival A-340 of the European Airbus consortium because it met
better the Swissair requirements and would be able to enter
service in 1990 giving a smooth transition from the DC-10s it
replaces.
    Staubli said Swissair planned to have replaced its whole
fleet of 11 DC10s by 1992 at the latest, entailing the order of
five more long-haul planes in addition to the six announced
today. He said it would decide on the basis of the development
of traffic whether these five would be MD-11s or Boeing 747s.
    However, Staubli ruled out the possibility that Swissair
might eventually choose A-340s. "We cannot afford to operate
three different types of aircraft," he said.
    Swissair also had no short term plans to exercise its
option to buy Airbus A-310s, of which it already operates nine,
officials said. But it would still hold the options open.
    Staubli declined to say how much it paid for each of the
MD-11s. The total 1.2 billion franc figure was not only for the
planes but also for spare parts and other related expenditure.
    Company officials said that Swissair intended to cover
around 75 pct of the costs of its entire DC-10 replacement
programme with internally generated funds. It hopes to raise
the remaining 25 pct on the Swiss and other capital markets
through issuing straight or equity related bonds and/or through
a capital increase.
    The first such bond issue would likely come this year, they
predicted.
 REUTER

The U.K. Treasury said its 1987/88
budget arithmetic which was unveiled on Tuesday "took full
account of likely proceeds" from the sale of the government's
remaining 31.7 pct stake in British Petroleum Co PLC (BP.L).
    A statement issued by the Treasury said "the BP announcement
therefore makes no difference to our estimate of privatisation
proceeds in 1987/88, or to subsequent years, which remains 5.0
billion stg a year."
    "It makes no difference to the PSBR (Public Sector Borrowing
Requirement) which the Chancellor set in the budget," it said.
    "It has nothing to do with the future scope for tax cuts."
    The Treasury's move was prompted by press speculation,
officials said, which followed last night's surprise
announcement by the government. It currently holds about 578.5
mln shares in BP.
    The Treasury statement said that the sell-off "is simply a
part of the government's continuing privatisation programme,
the overall size of which was announced in the Autumn
(economic) Statement" (last November).
    It said the BP proceeds "will be received in installments,
of which the first will be in 1987/88."
    News of the privatisation weighed down both BP's share
price in London and the equity market overall, market sources
said.
    The prospect of so much more BP paper in circulation had
cut BP shares at 1340 GMT to 824 pence from yesterday's London
close of 828 pence. The company's shares had been down as low
as 802 pence before rebounding, stock market sources said.
    Worries over the ability of the London stock market to
digest the BP and other privatisation issues sent the Financial
Times/Stock Exchange 100 Share Index down 9.1 points by 1340
GMT to 1997.5 from last night's close. At one point the index
was as low as 1989.1, the sources said.
 REUTER

WASTE MANAGEMENT SAYS IT IS PREPARED TO RAISE ITS BID FOR CHEMLAWN TO 33 DLRS A SHARE

Transamerica Corp said it expects
to realize a gain of about 75 mln dlrs on the
previously-announced sale of the group life and health
operations of its Transamerican Occidental Life Insurance Co
subsidiary to Provident Life and Accident Co <PACC>.
    But it said its Transamerica Life Cos unit plans to change
to a more conservative method of amortizing deferred policy
acquisition costs, resulting in a one-time charge that will
offset most of the gain from the sale.
    Transamerica said it has now signed a definitive agreement
for the sale, which will be structured as a reinsurance
transaction involving about 400 mln dlrs of reserve
    It said the 75 mln dlr gain from the sale and about 125 mln
dlrs of statutory surplus that previously supported operations
of the group being sold will be used to support Transamerica
Life Cos' efforts to accelerate the growth of its remaining
businesses.  It said closing is expected by May One, subject to
 Reuter

Color Systems Technology
Inc <CLST> said it has completed formation of a joint venture
called Screen Gems Classicolor with Coca-Cola Co to color and
distribute feature films and television programs.
    Color Systems said it and Coca-Cola will share profits from
worldwide television, basic cable, pay television and home
video distribution, and Color Systems will also be paid by the
venture to convert to color the black and white material
involved.
    The company said Coca-Cola has initially contributed a
number of its Screen Gems television series and Color Systems
its library of more than 100 feature films and television
series. It said the venture expects to acquire more black and
white material for color conversion and will start generating
revenues by distributing the combined library initially as-is.
 Reuter

AmeriTrust Corp said its board
declared a two-for-one stock split, and management intends to
recommend to directors an increase in the quarterly dividend to
at least 50 cts per share presplit from the current 44 cts.
    The company said shareholders at the May 14 annual meeting
will be asked to approve an increase in authorized common
shares to 100 mln from 25 mln, as well as a limitation of
directors' liability and the establishment of a classified
board.
    The split is subject to approval of the increase in
authorized common shares, it said.
 Reuter

ended Jan 31
    Shr loss 1.58 dlrs vs profit 58 cts
    Net loss 24.2 mln vs profit 18.9 mln
    Sales 1.34 billion vs 1.32 billion
    Avg shrs 20.0 mln vs 19.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.27 dlrs vs profit 92 cts
    Net profit 4.2 mln vs profit 48.0 mln
    Sales 4.09 billion vs 3.98 billion
    Avg shrs 20.2 mln vs 19.6 mln
    NOTES: Share results after provision for preferred
dividends
    Per share profits from operations were 1.46 dlrs vs 71 cts
in the quarter and 2.44 dlrs vs 1.05 dlrs in year. On a fully
diluted basis this was 1.11 dlrs vs 67 cts and 2.42 dlrs vs
1.58 dlrs, respectively, based on 33.0 mln vs 32.3 mln shares
outstanding in quarter and 32.8 mln vs 32.1 mln in year
    1986 results in both periods include pre-tax losses pf 2.2
mln dlr on sale of John Wanamaker and 25.0 mln dlrs related to
recapitalization, for a combined primary per share charge of
1.58 dlrs in quarter and 1.57 dlrs in year.
    1986 results also include an after-tax charge 29.3 mln
dlrs, equal to 1.46 dlrs a share in quarter and 1.44 dlrs in
year, for premium on early retirement of debt
    1985 net in both periods includes pre-tax loss of 2.4 mln
dlrs, equal to 13 cts a share, on sale of Holt Renfrew
    Results include LIFO charge 1.7 mln dlrs vs credit 4.4 mln
dlrs in quarter and credit 1.9 mln dlrs vs credit 6.4 mln dlrs
in year
 Reuter

The results of a controversial study
of farm subsidies conducted by the Paris-based Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, show Japan has the
highest agriculture subsidies in the world, and that dairy
farmers benefit more than any other commodity producers from
subsidies.
    Results of the study, which has not been released by OECD
because of objections from some countries, were provided to
Reuters by officials of several countries on condition they not
be identified.
    The OECD study calculates the level of farm subsidies for
the years 1979-81 using a new measure called the producer
subsidy equivalent, PSE.
    The study shows that on dairy products Japan's PSE, or the
amount of aid to farmers expressed as a percentage, averaged
83.3 pct over 1979-81, with the European Community at 68.8 pct
and the United States 48.2 pct.
    For wheat Japan's PSE averaged 95.8 pct, the EC 28.1 and
the U.S. 17.2. Japan's rice PSE was 68.8 pct compared to the EC
13.6 and the U.S. 5.4 pct, the OECD calculations show.
    In coarse grains, Japan's subsidies reached 107.1 pct
compared with 27.9 pct for the EC and 13.1 pct for the U.S.
Japan's beef subsidy was 54.9 pct versus 52.7 pct for the EC
and 9.5 pct for the U.S., OECD concluded.
    For sugar, Japan's PSE was 48.4 pct versus 27.9 pct in the
EC and 13.1 pct for the U.S., the study shows.
    The OECD calculated farm subsidies for other industrial
countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand but in most
cases the results were much lower than for the U.S., EC and
Japan, the sources said.
    Subsidies in Argentina and Brazil, two major developing
country producers of commodities, were not included in the OECD
work.
    Officials said they hope to persuade reluctant countries to
release the study soon, perhaps coinciding with the OECD
ministerial meeting in Paris during May.
    Some officials hope the OECD results will be used as a 
basis for negotiations during the Uruguay round of global trade
talks now underway in Geneva.
    British Agriculture Minister Michael Jopling during a visit
to Washington this week endorsed the OECD work as a starting
point for the Uruguay round negotiations on agriculture.
    He said the PSE calculations provide a tool to negotiate
down domestic farm support levels, which are a major cause of
the present crisis in world agriculture.
    However, the OECD study results are controversial because
they highlight the levels of assistance to farmers, officials
familiar with the study said.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service
recently published a study of farm subsidies in an attempt to
verify the OECD results and update them to 1982-84.
    In some cases the results were substantially different than
the OECD's, in part because farm policies in both the U.S. and
elsewhere had changed markedly by 1982-84 from the OECD base
period of 1979-81, U.S. officials said.
    For example, the USDA study found the United States
subsidies to corn producers were higher in 1982-84, at 25 to 49
pct, than in the EC, at zero to nine pct.
    French Maize Producers Association president Marcel Cazale,
citing the result of the USDA calculation for corn, told
reporters last week that the United States subsidizes its
farmers more than the EC.
    However, the sources said EC corn subsidies are probably
higher than the U.S. now because of increases since 1984.
    Officials of several countries have been asked to
contribute data to OECD so that the study can be updated to
1985 subsidy levels, a much more relevant measure of the
current world farm situation.
    The updated calculations, which may take several months to
complete, are expected to show substantial increases in U.S.
subsidy levels for sugar because the U.S. imposed restrictive
import quotas in 1982 as aid to the domestic industry.
    U.S. subsidy levels also are increased by the 1985 farm
bill, which sharply boosted government deficiency payments to
grain farmers and applied a marketing loan for rice, officials
added.
 Reuter

First American Financial Corp
said its board declared a special dividend of 20 cts per share
and the regular 25 ct quarterly dividend, both payable April 15
 Reuter

<Caribou Energy Inc> said shareholders
have approved a one-for-100 reverse split that will take effect
by tomorrow and the company has changed its name to <Texas
Petroleum Corp>.
 Reuter

National Capital Real Estate
Trust said it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell
its Irvine Commercial Center in Irvine, Calif., to Shuwa Corp
of California for 10.85 mln dlrs.
    It said the buyer has pl;aced 250,000 dlrs into an escrow
account as a nonrefundable deposit.
    The trust said existing debt secured by the property of
about 6,700,000 dlrs in due on completion of the transaction,
which is expected in early April.
 Reuter

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> reported a 5.8 pct
drop in 1986 net profit to 64.5 mln Swiss francs and said that,
in line with its new, flexible dividend policy, it would cut
its payout to 33 francs per share from 38.
    President Robert Staubli told a news conference that the
first two months of this year gave hope that 1987 profit would
at least equal last year's figure, but said much depended on
outside factors such as fuel prices and the exchange rate.
    The fall was largely due to a 60 mln franc loss on
Swissair's core flying business last year, against a profit of
27 mln francs the previous year, he said.
    The net profit figure was reached after receipt of some 68
mln francs from plane sales, compared with a mere 17 mln francs
in 1985. Finance Head Martin Juenger said he expected around 20
mln francs from sales this year, although said much depended on
the speed with which it decided to sell its DC-10s.
    Gross profit for 1986 reached 340.5 mln francs, with 276
mln francs subtracted for ordinary depreciation.
    Gross profits for the previous year had been 382.5 mln
francs, with 314 mln subtracted for depreciation, including 45
mln francs supplementary depreciation.
    Staubli said the 1986 result, well below predictions made
this time last year, suffered considerably due to exchange rate
fluctuations, in particular the strength of the Swiss franc.
    While the negative effects on revenue of the sharp drop in
the dollar were partially compensated for by cheaper fuel
prices, there was no such offset for the strength of the franc
against other European currencies.
    "Income and profit generated by services to these countries
shrank by a very substantial margin," he said. "Exchange rate
trends therefore hit us much more severely than most other
airlines."
 Reuter

<Canadian Roxy Petroleum Ltd>
said a new oil discovery in the Peerless Lake area of
north-central Alberta is capable of flowing at over 1,000
barrels of oil a day from a lower zone and more than 1,500
barrels a day from a separate upper zone.
    Canadian Roxy has a 35 pct interest in the five-year
royalty free well, known as the Canadian Roxy et Al Trout
A14-8-89-3 W5M. Texaco Canada Inc holds 25 pct, MLC Oil and Gas
Ltd 15 pct, Northstar Energy Corp 13.5 pct and Tricentrol Oils
Ltd 11.5 pct.
    Canadian Roxy said drilling has started on a follow-up
exploratory well about one mile northwest of the discovery
well.
    The company said it holds a net 6,500 acres in the vicinity
of the discovery and a seismic program is underway to evaluate
further drilling opportunities.
 Reuter

sent a letter to the ChemLawn Corp board, saying it is prepared
to increase its bid for ChemLawn to 33 dlrs a share,
from 27 dlrs, if ChemLawn promptly negotiates and executes a
simple two-step merger agreement containing only essential
covenants and conditions.
    Upon such an agreement, Waste Management said, it would
amend its 27 dlrs a share cash tender offer.
 Reuter

American Can cop said it has
filed a shelf registration covering 500 mln dlrs of debt
securities to be issued from time to time.
    It said proceeds will be used for general corporate
purposes, which could include acquisitions, business
investments or debt repayment.
 Reuter

insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 in the
week ended March 7 from 373,000 in the prior week, the Labor
regular state programs totaled 2,507,000 in the week ended Feb
28, the latest period for which that figure was available.
    That was up from 2,477,000 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

Hopes mounted for an agreement on cocoa
buffer stock rules at an International Cocoa Organization,
ICCO, council meeting which opened here today, delegates said.
    Both producer and consumer ICCO members said after the
opening session that prospects for an agreement on the cocoa
market support mechanism were improving.
    "The chances are very good as of now of getting buffer stock
rules by the end of next week," Ghanaian delegate and producer
spokesman Mama Mohammed told journalists.
    Consumer spokesman Peter Baron called the tone of the
negotiations "optimistic and realistic."
    The ICCO council failed to agree on buffer stock rules when
a new International Cocoa Agreement came into force in January,
with deep differences of opinion precluding serious discussions
on the matter at that time. The existing buffer stock of about
100,000 tonnes of cocoa was frozen, with a funds balance of 250
mln dlrs.
    The ICCO made buffer stock rules negotiations a priority at
this semi-annual council meeting in order to stop the slide in
world cocoa prices.
    Consumers and producers agreed yesterday on the principles
as a basis for negotiations.
    The council broke for lunch, and reconvenes at 1500 hrs. A
working group which has been meeting since Monday will tackle
the buffer stock rules issue again at 1600 hrs, when ICCO
executive director Kobena Erbynn presents a fleshed-out version
of a draft proposal he prepared earlier this week, delegates
said.
    Mohammed said delegates will have a much clearer indication
of prospects for an accord after details of the rules are
elaborated by Erbynn, and after producers and consumers meet
separately later today to examine the scheme.
    The draft proposal included three principles: a limit to
non- member cocoa comprising the buffer stock, an offer system
for buying buffer stock cocoa, and price differentials to be
paid for various cocoas making up the buffer stock, delegates
said.
    During the morning council session, the Ivory Coast
delegation gave "an open minded statement" that it is willing to
work out a buffer stock rules solution which could come into
effect as soon as possible, Baron said.
    Ivorian Agriculture Minister Denis Bra Kanon, chairman of
the ICCO council, was now expected to arrive in London Monday
to attend the talks, Baron said. Vice chairman Sir Denis Henry
of Grenada chaired the meeting in his place.
    Soviet and East German delegates did not attend the council
session because of a conflicting International Sugar
Organization meeting today, but could arrive this afternoon,
 Reuter

Ended Jan 31
    Shr one ct vs 31 cts
    Net 29,000 vs 1,350,000
    Revs 43.7 mln vs 32.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 29 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 1,251,000 vs 2,520,000
    Revs 129.9 mln vs 96.1 mln
    NOTE: Full name Stuarts Department Stores Inc.
 Reuter

Iomega Corp announced it expected
revenues for the first quarter of 1987 to be significantly
lower than planned and that it anticipated a loss for the
quarter.
    In its annual report to be mailed to stockholders tomorrow,
the company will announce its first quarter loss will be in
excess of 10 mln dlrs primarily as a result of lower than
anticipated revenues.
    The company said it recored net income of 4,572,000 dlrs,
or 30 cts per share, for its first quarter fiscal 1986, on
revenues of 35.0 mln.
    The company said it lowered its revenue plan for the
balance of 1987 and also expects to record a loss for the
entire 1987 year.
    Iomega said the first quarter loss will place the company
in default under certain covenants in its bank line of credit
unless these covenants are modified.
    The company is currently exploring alternatives for raising
additional funds through a debt for equity financing.
   
 Reuter

    Net 3,166,000 vs 1,780,000
    Sales 30.4 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.6 mln vs 14.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 56 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 7,961,000 vs 4,562,000
    Sales 78.8 mln vs 44.7 mln
    Avg shrs 14.3 mln vs 13.9 mln
 Reuter

Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche AG <PSHG.F>
said earnings in first half year 1986/87 were "satisfactory"
despite burdens caused by the dollar's weakness against the
mark and stagnating domestic demand.
    In its semi-annual shareholders' report, Porsche said first
half turnover fell six pct to 1.71 billion marks from 1.83
billion in the same period of 1985/86.
    However, earnings were satisfactory, it said, without
giving absolute figures.
    Domestic turnover fell 26 pct to 283 mln marks from 380
mln.
    Foreign turnover dipped to 1.43 billion marks from 1.45
billion in the first half of last year, although the export
quota rose to 83 pct from 79 pct.
    The car sector accounted for 1.51 billion marks of
turnover, against 1.63 billion the year earlier, it said.
    Production dropped five pct to 25,876 cars from 27,381.
Manufacture of the 911 and 928 models rose six pct to 11,122
from 10,533 units but production of 924 and 944 models was cut
by 12 pct to 14,754 units from 16,848 and would be cut further,
    Car sales fell four pct to 25.269 units from 26,414 in the
comparable half year, the report said. U.S. Demand continued
for all models but demand fell in other markets.
    Domestic sales were 39 pct down at 3,267 units from 5,397,
while sales abroad rose five pct to 22,002 from 21,017. Share
of exports in sales rose to 87 pct from 80 pct.
    Investments were reduced to 108 mln marks from 125 mln.
    Earnings were hit by lower sales and by the lower value of
the dollar and currencies in other important markets.
    Nevertheless, sales and turnover would finish the July 11
year at a "high level," Porsche said.
 REUTER

Qtly div seven cts vs seven cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

Qtly div two cts vs two cts prior
 Reuter

Period ended Dec 28
    Shr 42 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 941,000 vs 786,000
    Revs 12,798,000 vs 2,269,000
    Year
    Shr 97 cts vs 83 cts
    Net 2,211,000 vs 1,841,000
    Revs 19,027,000 vs 6,474,000
    NOTE: 1985 period ended December 29
    Share results adjusted for five-for-four stock split on
April 28, 1986 and 10 pct stock dividend issued Dec 10, 1986
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 542,119 vs 520,668
    Sales 2,035,759 vs 1,804,350
    1st half
    Shr 38 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 956,228 vs 1,038,300
    Sales 3,748,357 vs 3,482,066
 Reuter

money market a further 191 mln stg assistance in the afternoon
session. This takes the Bank's total help so far today to 372
mln stg and compares with its upwards revised estimate of the
shortage in the system of around 400 mln stg.
    The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising 15
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 176 mln stg in band two at
 REUTER

issuing a 50 mln Canadian dollar issue due May 6, 1990 carrying
a coupon of 8-1/4 pct and priced at 101-3/8, said Merrill Lynch
    The notes are available in denominations of 1,000 and
10,000 dlrs, with payment set for May 6. The securities will be
listed in Luxembourg.
    There is a 7/8 pct selling concesssion and a 1/2 pct
  REUTER

Jefferies and Co said this morning
that it is making a market in Gencorp <GY>. The bid is 106 and
the ask is 111.
    Jefferies also said it is making a market in American
Express <AXP>. Jeffries opened the stock and the bid is 79-1/2
and the ask is 81.
 Reuter

Shr 1.64 dlrs vs 90 cts
    Net 64.9 mln vs 28.8 mln
    Revs 73 mln vs 35 mln
    NOTE: Shares outstanding 39.5 mln vs 32.1 mln. Avg shrs not
given.
    Company recently raised equity and voting interests in
<Hees International Corp> to 13.4 pct and 16.1 pct,
 Reuter

NRM Energy Co LP said an offering of
eight mln two dlr cumulative convertible acquisition preferred
units is underway at 18 dlrs each through underwriters led by
Sears, Roebuck and Co Inc's <S> Dean Witter Reynolds Inc,
Donaoldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp, E.F. Hutton
Group Inc <EFH>, PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> and Oppenheimer
and Co IOnc.
    It said underwriters have an option to buy up to another
1,200,000 of the units, which represent preferred limited
partner interests, to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Unilever Plc <UN.AS> said a reduction in
U.K. Advance Corporation Tax, (ACT) has prompted the company to
adjust its 1986 final dividend to 36.17p per share from the
originally declared 35.18p.
    Unilever's 1985 final dividend amounted 27.05p
    The adjustment stemmed from the dividend equalisation
agreement between the British company and its Dutch partner
Unilever NV. ACT in respect of any dividend paid by Unilever
Plc has to be treated as part of the dividend.
    Unilever NV final dividend remains 10.67 guilders as
declared with the 1986 results on March 3.
 Reuter

The Paris Bourse will add a further three
stocks to its computerised continuous trading system from March
24, bringing the total number of continuously traded stocks to
54, the Stockbrokers' Association said.
    The shares are <Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville> (BHV), <Dollfus
Mieg et Cie> (DMC) and <Maisons Phenix>.
    The Bourse has said it hopes to have at least 100 companies
quoted continuously by the end of this year.
 Reuter

Jordan and Sudan signed a barter trade
agreement under which they will exchange 100 mln dlrs' worth of
goods a year, Sudanese officials said.
    They said Sudan will export corn, sesame, peanuts, spices
and cow hides, while Jordan will export cement, tomato puree,
chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
 Reuter

A new market has emerged in warrants to
buy gold, a vehicle which bankers say brings some of the play
of commodity options into the field of securities.
    Over the past three weeks, Swiss offices of American banks
have launched a total of four issues of warrants with varying
conditions, drawing on renewed inflationary worries and the
recovery of the gold price last year.
    And Credit Suisse and Credit Suisse-First Boston each
issued Swiss franc bonds with warrants for gold which have a
similar character, though they are aimed at a less professional
market.
    The market is still small. Taken together, the four
American-led warrant issues raised only about 50 mln Swiss
francs.
    But banks believe the vehicle meets a need of investors and
predicted a lively future.
    Andrew Barrett of Citicorp Investment Bank (Switzerland) AG
said: "The warrants give smaller investors a chance to have a
long-term investment in gold with limited risk."
    Citicorp in Zurich launched the first of these warrants on
February 27, following it up with a second issue less than a
week later. The issuer in both cases was Citibank NA.
    The idea found some quick copies. Goldman Sachs in Zurich
organized and co-led an issue for the Swiss branch of Banque
Indosuez on March 9 and last night Morgan Guaranty
(Switzerland) AG did another for Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of
New York.
    The four issues now offer investors striking prices for
gold ranging from the Indosuez issue at 410 dlrs an ounce, the
same price as the underlying commodity, to a 430 dlr level on
the first one for Citibank.
    The premiums range from 22 pct to 36 pct and maturities
from 18 months to four years and three months, in all cases
longer than gold futures and options on U.S. Markets.
    The bankers traced the inspiration for the market back to
the February report of U.S. Consumer prices for January, when a
jump of 0.7 pct raised again the threat of inflation.
    "Many people are worried about inflation again," said Mats
Joensson of Goldman Sachs. "Money supply in Germany and the
United States has grown very strongly in the last year and
people want to take a ride on gold."
    The gold market, having seen strong gains in 1986, has
languished just above 400 dlrs an ounce over the past few
weeks. But the banks saw in warrants the vehicle for a more
highly leveraged play where the downside risk was limited.
    Barrett said it was natural that the market developed in
Switzerland. "People here understand gold, and they understand
warrants," he said.
    Citicorp (Switzerland) pioneered warrants with a series of
equity-linked covered issues based on Japanese company shares
over the past two years, and last autumn, Swiss banks launched
covered warrants in Swiss registered shares in a bid to give
foreign investors a chance to play in a market otherwise closed
to all but Swiss citizens, and to play it with higher leverage.
    But after a quick flurry of issues, that market dried up
when Swiss shares prices fell from their January peaks.
    The issues are being marketed not on the basis of simple
premiums, but on implicit volatility models devised to provide
scientific comparisons between titles in the options market.
    Martin Bachem of Morgan Guaranty said his bank's issue was
competitive despite its relatively high premium. The issue, for
five ounces at 425 dlrs, was priced at 955 Swiss francs, making
a premium over the spot gold price of nearly 36 pct.
    Using a Black Sholes options model, he said the issue's
long, 4.3-year maturity meant the warrants needed an implicit
volatility of gold of only 24.5 pct for the option to pay off,
which he claimed was lower than the other issues.
    But Barrett said the Black Sholes variant Citicorp used
pointed to a higher volatily for the Morgan issue and
emphasized that the models were at best an inexact science.
    And each bank, using its own model, put the implicit
volatility needed for its own issue at close to 25 pct.
    Whatever the calculation, the issues have received a warm
welcome from investors.
    Joensson of Goldman Sachs said there was a lot of demand,
even among small investors, who were buying 15 or 20 warrants
apiece. "The most sophisticated ones wouldn't buy these because
the premiums are too high," he said.
 REUTER

<Metro Funding Corp> said its
shareholders approved its merger into <Maxcom Corp> and its
change of incorporation from Nevada to Delaware.
    Metro Funding also said its subsidiary, Comet Corp, will be
renamed Maxcom USA.
    The company also reported shareholders approved the
authorization of 500,000 shares of common stock to be set aside
for an incentive stock option plan.
 Reuter

Hitachi Ltd's Maxell Corp of
America introduced a floppy disk with expanded storage
capacity.
    The company said the 5-1/4-inch disk has a storage capacity
of 3.2 megabytes unformatted, and is in response to user demand
for higher capacity media for newly introduced machines and
drives.
    Maxell said the disk will operate with the newly developed
YD-801 drive, to be produced by Y-E Data Inc, Tokyo, and
planned for introduction later this year in the U.S.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.25 dlrs vs loss 44 cts
    Oper net loss 2,915,000 vs loss 951,000
    Revs 8,131,000 vs 119,000
    NOTE: 1985 net excludes 625,000 dlr gain from discontinued
    Net includes tax credits of 860,000 dlrs vs 285,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

said the closing of the sale of its 65 pct interest in Tel Plus
Communications Inc to <Siemens AG> has been delayed.
    The company said it will be continuing its talks with
Siemens and based on current circumstances believes the
transaction could close next week.
    Closing had been scheduled for March 16.
 Reuter

Jefferies Group Inc said founder
and chairman Boyd L. Jefferies has resigned and intends to
plead guilty to two felony counts of violating federal
securities laws.
    The company said neither Boyd Jefferies nor the company
ever engaged in insider trading and neither he nor the company
ever sought or communicated insider information or violated ny
trust of confidence placed in them by customers.  It said no
governmental authority has ever alleged any such activity on
Boyd Jefferies' part or the part of the company.
    The company said Boyd Jefferies has consented to an
administrative order barring him from the securities business
for at least five years and he has agreed to place his 13 pct
holding in Jefferies Group stock in a voting trust during that
period.
    The company said, without admitting any allegations made by
the Securities and Exchange Commission, Boyd Jefferies,
Jefferies Group and primary brokerage subsidiary Jefferies and
Co also consented to an injunction barring any future
securities laws violations.
    It said Jefferies and Co has agreed further to undertake
reviews to assure that its internal recordkeeping and other
control systems are in compliance with federal laws.
Frank E. Baxter will assume the added duties of chief executive
officer.  Boyd Jefferies had been chief executive.
    The company said the criminal charges against Boy Jefferies
resulted from a transaction in which, on behalf of Jefferies
and Co, he agreed to purchase stocks from entities controlled
by Ivan F. Boesky and later resell the stock to the Boesky
firms.
    It said "Within days of the purchase, the market value of
one of the stocks fell sharply and, pursuant to their
agreement, a Boesky entity paid Jefferies and Co three mln dlrs
to offset the loss.
    The company said Boyd Jefferies will admit that following
the loss he ordered that Boesky receive a bill for three mln
dlrs for investment advisory and corporate finance services,
although Jefferies and Co treated the three mln dlrs as an
offset to the losses it experienced.
    It said by rendering the involice, Boyd Jefferies
apparently enabled one of the Boesky entities to make a false
entry in its books, resulting in the charge, to which Boyd
Jefferies will plead guilty, of aiding and abetting one of the
Boesky firms in making false entries on its books.
    The company said Boyd Jefferies will also plead guilty to a
margin violation resulting from a transaction in which he
caused Jefferies and Co to buy shares at the request of a
customer in the company's trading account.
    It was expected that the customer would be responsible for
any loss on the shares and would also receive any profit, and
because the customer had not put up any funds for the purchase,
Boyd Jefferies had in effect caused Jefferies and Co to finance
the full purchase price for the shares in violation of margin
requirements, the company said.
    The company quoted Boyd Jefferies as saying, "I fully
accept sole responsibility for these transactions.  I think it
is appropriate that I suffer the consequences for my actions
rather than the company."
    Jefferies Group said it expects no impact on its operations
or client base from Boyd Jefferies' departure.
 Reuter

said it approved a 680 mln stg British government aid package
to state-owned Rover Group Plc <BLLL.L> to restructure and
privatise the group's bus and truck subsidiaries.
    In a statement, the commission said Rover's <Leyland
Trucks> subsidiary would be financially and physically
restructured following a recently announced merger between
Leyland Trucks and <DAF> of the Netherlands.
    The Commission said government aid for this program was
justified because it would contribute to Europe-wide
rationalisation of the truck sector.
    The amount of aid approved is slightly below the 750 mln
stg the British government had planned to grant Rover by
writing off accumulated losses and other costs.
    The Commission said there was overcapacity in the European
truck industry estimated at between 25 and 40 pct.
    It said its approval of the aid also took into account the
consequences for jobs and for the regions affected by the
restructuring.
    Under EC rules, the Commission has to approve all
government aid to industry.
 REUTER

Shr 27 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 7,684,000 vs 2,587,000
    Revs 273.9 mln vs 203.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 90 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 23.9 mln vs 8,219,000
    Revs 1.01 billion vs 700.7 mln
 Reuter

said his proposed option to raise the oil depletion allowance
to 27.5 pct was probably the most economically promising way to
spur domestic production.
    The White House has said it would consider the option
although it was generally opposed to any revisions in the new
tax code.
    Herrington told a meeting of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas
Association that the higher depletion allowance on new oil and
enhanced oil recovery would cost taxpayers about 200 mln dlrs a
year.
    The option was one of many contained in a report on oil and
the national security the Energy Department sent to the White
House on Tuesday.
    Herrington said of the increased depletion allowance
option: "that is one that could significantly increase
production at a very low cost to the American taxpayer."
    He again rejected an oil import fee as far too costly to
the overall U.S. economy.
 Reuter

U.S. PERSONAL INCOME ROSE 0.9 PCT IN FEBRUARY, SPENDING UP 1.7 PCT

U.S. personal income rose 0.9 pct,
or 32.4 billion dlrs, in February to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 3,581.3 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department
said.
    The increase followed a revised 0.2 pct rise in personal
income during January. Earlier, the department estimated
January personal income was unchanged.
    The February incomes rise was the largest monthly increase
since a 1.2 pct rise in April 1986, the department said. It
attributed last month's rise to several factors, including
subsidy payments to farmers and government pay raises.
    The department said personal consumption expenditures were
up during February by 1.7 pct or 49.1 billion dlrs to 2,855.9
billion dlrs after falling by 58.4 billion dlrs or two pct in
January.
    Purchases of durable goods were up 24.8 billion dlrs last
month after decreasing by 69.7 billion dlrs in January with
sales of motor vehicles accounting for most of the February
increase and the January decline, the department said.
    Purchases of nondurables rose 10.7 billion dlrs in February
after a 300 mln dlr increase in January.
    The Commerce Department said wage and salary incomes were
up 15.6 billion dlrs in February after an 8.6 billion dlr rise
    Manufacturing payrolls increased by 2.4 billion dlrs last
month after rising 1.9 billion dlrs in February with the gains
widespread through durable and nondurable industries, the
    Farmers' incomes increased by 12.2 billion dlrs in February
after declining by 8.7 billion dlrs in January. Both last
month's increase and January's fall in farm incomes was because
of government subsidy payments, the department said.
    Personal tax and nontax payments fell 5.5 billion dlrs in
February following a 19.5 billion dlrs January drop. The 
declines were a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
    Federal withheld income taxes were up in February from a
month earlier but that was offset by declines in federal
nonwithheld taxes and lower state and local income taxes.
    Disposable personal income in February after taxes was up
1.2 pct or 37.8 billion dlrs to 3,063.4 billion dlrs after
rising 25.8 billion dlrs in January.
    The personal savings rate eased to 3.6 pct in February from
four pct in January, the department said.
 Reuter

The bank of England said it provided the
money market with late assistance of around 40 mln stg. This
brings the Bank's total help today to some 412 mln stg and
compares with its forecast of a shortage in the sytem of around
400 mln stg.
 REUTER

today's hog slaughter at about 295,000 to 305,000 head versus
307,000 week ago and 311,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 124,000 to
128,000 head versus 127,000 week ago and 126,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

<DBCG.F> expects profits to rise in the current financial year
ending September 9 although the earnings level is still
unsatisfactory, managing board chairman Helmut Wiehn said.
    He told a news conference that business during the year had
weakened somewhat but was still generally positive.
    Sales during the first five months to February was 1.26
billion marks, 46.7 pct down from the same 1985/86 period.
However, he expected turnover for the year to be approximately
unchanged from the previous year's 5.14 billion marks when
current orders from major projects are booked.
    Wiehn said incoming orders in the first five months to end-
February totalled 2.50 billion marks compared with 2.04 billion
for the same period in 1985/86. They included a 45.8 pct
increase in domestic orders to 1.57 billion marks.
    Orders in hand for the five months were 16.7 pct higher at
8.64 billion marks.
    Wiehn added that Babcock was still aiming for a three pct
yield on turnover. In the year to September 1986 group profits
totalled 39 mln marks on sales of 5.14 billion against the
previous year's 32 mln on 5.11 billion marks.
    Parent company turnover was unchanged at 25.6 mln marks.
    Wiehn said Babcock's liquidity had clearly improved in the
current business year, with financial reserves in the first
five months rising by 237 mln marks to 831 mln after increasing
by 408 mln marks to 594 mln in 1985/86.
    He said pre-tax earnings per share for 1985/86, according
to the DVFA method, were 26.95 marks from 21.40 marks and
earnings after tax rose to 10 marks from 8.10.
    The company earlier said dividend will be unchanged at
three marks for ordinary shares and 3.50 marks for preference
shares.
 REUTER

Current interest by Soviet charterers in
taking Panamax vessels on timecharter, mainly from the U.S. To
carry grain, is seen as the chief factor behind the recent
surge in values on the Baltic International Freight Futures
Exchange (BIFFEX), dealers said.
    Futures soared through the 1,000 points barrier today for
the first time in the spot position since the market opened in
May 1985. However, the market tends to be nervous, with values
some 100 points above the Baltic Freight Index, which is
calculated on spot physical rates.
    No specific figure has been put for Soviet bookings but
they have been sufficient to drain Panamax tonnage (about
50,000 to 65,000 tonnes dw) from the U.S. Gulf which would
normally operate on the trip to Japan, dealers said.
    "It appears that the Chernobyl disaster had a worse effect
on its (the Soviet) grain harvest than reported," one said.
    Freight rates on the Gulf/Japan grain route have
subsequently been the main beneficiary of current chartering
conditions, with very few, if any, Panamax sized ships left for
the remainder of this month in the Gulf. Rates have risen
steadily for vessels loading next month.
    Dealers said there is even talk that owners are considering
taking older vessels out of lay-up to meet current demand.
    Sentiment has also been aided by suggestions that Chinese
operators may be in the market for similar timecharter business
later in the year, they said.
    They anticipate this would appear around June and it has
prompted keen demand in the July BIFFEX contract, despite it
normally being a slack time in the shipping year.
    Market sentiment has fluctuated in recent weeks. Rates
turned down as an earlier rise in bunker prices, which had
supported the market at the start of the year, faltered but
then recovered on the reported Soviet interest.
 Reuter

Zimbabwe's projected coffee output of
13,000 tonnes for 1987/88 could be reduced by drought, growers
said.
    The main coffee growing areas in eastern Zimbabwe have
received little rain since April 1986 and the Coffee Growers'
Association has begun a survey to assess the effects of the
drought, a spokesman said.
    Zimbabwe exported 11,000 tonnes of coffee in 1986, mainly
to West Germany, Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland
and the United States.
 Reuter

Turkey's external debt rose to the
equivalent of 31.4 billion dlrs at end-1986 from 25.4 billion a
year earlier, Treasury Under-secretary Yavuz Canevi said.
    Canevi, who gave the figure at a briefing on the Turkish
economy arranged for Ankara-based diplomats, said the
short-term component was 9.6 billion dlrs at end-1986, up from
6.6 billion.
    Much of Turkey's debt is denominated in currencies other
than the dollar. Canevi said the increase expressed in dollar
terms was partly attributable to the fall in value of the U.S.
Currency.
    While the rise in total debt was about 24 pct in dollar
terms, it would be only 11 pct if expressed in special drawing
rights and would represent a fall of 11 pct if expressed in the
West German mark, he said.
    On the rise in short-term debt, Canevi said half the amount
was in Turkish citizens' foreign exchange deposits. "On a macro
level it is a liability but it is not really a liability
because it will be repaid in Turkish lira," he added.
    Canevi was Governor of the Turkish Central Bank until last
November, when he was promoted to Under-secretary for the
Treasury and Foreign Trade, a key economic management post.
    Canevi listed what he called the assets of the Turkish
economy, including liberalisation in the last three years, the
country's geographical position and the strength of its
agriculture and manpower skills.
    The debt picture was one of three liabilities, he said,
along with the failure to reduce inflation swiftly and
impatience. "We are an impatient nation ... We should be patient
enough to achieve better results," he added.
    Wholesale prices on an index issued by Canevi's department
rose 27.4 pct in the year to February, compared with 33.3 pct a
    On inflation, Canevi said: "We have chosen to reduce
inflation in a moderate way. We could have reduced it in two
years from 25 pct to five pct but we needed growth ... We
already have high unemployment."
    "I don't blame people who are sick and tired of living with
inflation but it was 100 per cent before. The trend is down, so
let's be patient and not distort overall policies and we will
achieve our targets in one or two years," he said.
 REUTER

Control Resource
Industries Inc said the company estimates 1986 earnings to be
between 800,000 and 900,000 dlrs, or 22 to 25 cts per share,
compared with 852,000 dlrs, or 33 cts per share, during 1985.
    The company said preliminary estimates of 1986 revenues is
24.5 mln dlrs, compared with 7,900,000 for 1985.
    The estimated 1986 results are based on 3,207,000 shares
outstanding, compared to 2,566,000 shares outstanding for 1985.
    R. Steven Lutterbach, chairman, said net income for 1986
was adversely affected primarily due to lower operating margins
at the company's Western Environmental subsidiary, and to an
increase in bad debt reserves.
    Western Environmental was acquired in March 1986.
Lutterbach explained the company has taken steps to improve
financial and accounting controls, primarily at Western, which
were not adequate at the time of acquisition.
    He noted the final results for the fourth quarter will
depend on the allocation of increased costs between the second
and fourth quarters.
    Lutterbach said it is possible second quarter results will
be restated, though final net income for the year will remain
in the estimated range.
    He added preliminary indications for first quarter 1987
revenues were favorable.
 Reuter

<Pagurian Corp Ltd> said it filed a
notice with the Toronto Stock Exchange to buy back up to 10 pct
of its publicly held class A non-voting shares over a one-year
period starting April three.
    About 27.9 mln of the company's 47.2 mln class A shares are
publicly held at present.
 Reuter

MEDIQ Inc said its MEDIQ
Diagnostic Imaging Partners - I LP has signed a letter of
intent to acquire substantially all the assets of American
Medical International Inc's AMI Diagnostic Services Inc
subsidiary for undisclosed terms.
    The company said AMI Diagnostic operates seven magnetic
resonance and mutli-modality diagnostic imaging centers. MEDIQ
Diagnostic is a limited partnership of which MEDIQ is general
partner.
 Reuter

Cyclops Corp said its board has
been restructured under the terms of the company's merger
agreement with <Dixons Group plc> following the British
company's acquisition of 54 pct of Cyclops' stock.
    The company said its board is now composed of three Cyclops
executives -- Chairman W.H. Knoell, President James F. Will and
Senior Vice President WIlliam D. Dickey -- and three Dixons
executives -- Vice-Chairman and Financial Director Egon von
Greyerz, Corporate Finance Director Gerald M.N. Corbett, and
Secretary Jeoffrey Budd.
 Reuter

Blockbuster Entertainment Corp said it
will sell its investment in Amtech Corp to the company
chairman, David Cook, and president, Kenneth Anderson.
    The company said the sale is taking place because Amtech is
not compatible with Blockbuster's main line of business, will
require substaintial additional funding to develop and market
its product, and is expected to sustain operating losses for
the forseeable future.
    The company said Cook and Anderson will form a new company
with the sale called Amtech Holdings Inc.
 Reuter

Dome Mines Ltd said it sold seven mln
common shares priced at 12 dlrs each to an underwriting group,
for net proceeds to the company of about 79,830,000 dlrs after
underwriting fees and issue expenses.
    About 44.0 mln dlrs of the proceeds will be used to repay
outstanding bank debt, and the balance will be used to
strengthen the company's cash position, Dome Mines said.
    The underwriting group includes <Dominion Securities Inc>,
Burns Fry Ltd, Wood Gundy Inc and Gordon Capital Corp.
 Reuter

    Net 9,700,000 vs 8,286,000
    Revs 120.6 mln vs 115.7 mln
    Avg shrs 40.0 mln vs 39.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 69 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 27.8 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Revs 374.9 mln vs 358.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes charge of 2,396,000 dlrs, or
six cts a share, for debt redemption
 Reuter

Pitney Bowes Inc said Mountain Bell, a
unit of US West Inc <USW>, began a test of a new Pitney Bowes
computerized mail processing system.
    The test has been approved by the U.S. Postal Service, the
    The processing and postage payment system allows faster and
less costly mail preparation, automated funds transfer to cover
postage charges and a production and funds tracking system, it
said.
    Mountain Bell processes more than 19 mln pieces of mail
annually.
 Reuter

Oper shr 11 cts vs 11 cts
    Oper net 164,000 vs 161,000
    Revs 2,598,000 vs 2,241,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 28 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 419,000 vs 276,000
    Revs 6,983,000 vs 5,019,000
    NOTE: Net excludes tax loss carryforwards 11,876 dlrs vs
83,045 dlrs in quarter and 36,684 dlrs vs 144,590 dlrs
 Reuter

Morton Thiokol Inc said it created a
joint venture company with the Yokohama Rubber Co Ltd, Tokyo,
Japan, to manufacture automotive windshield sealants.
    It said the company, Morton Yokohama Inc, will be
headquartered in Chicago with manufacturing at Morton Thiokol's
plant in Ringwood, Ill.
    Full-scale production is scheduled for 1988.
 Reuter

CANADA JANUARY RETAIL SALES FALL 0.1 PCT AFTER DECEMBER'S 0.9 PCT GAIN - OFFICIAL

Bank of Tokyo Curacao Holdings NV is
issuing a 120 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due April 27, 1994 with
an 8-1/2 pct coupon and priced at 101-1/8 pct, Bank of Tokyo
International Ltd said as lead manager.
    The bonds, guaranteed by Bank of Tokyo Ltd, will be issued
in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. Fees consist of 5/8 pct for management and
underwriting combined and 1-1/4 pct for selling.
    Co-lead is Pru-Bache Securities.
 REUTER

An accord is in sight in Brazil's
20-day-old national seamen's strike, which has seriously
delayed exports, a union official said.
    The official, speaking from strike headquarters in Rio de
Janeiro, said up to 30,000 of Brazil's 40,000 seamen were still
on strike.
    He said the others had returned to work over the last week,
accepting pay offers of 120 pct from four private companies and
from the Frota Nacional de Petroleiros (Fronape), part of the
state-owned oil company Petrobras.
    The association grouping private shipowners, Syndarma, has
also offered 120 pct but talks have so far been deadlocked over
payment for overtime.
    The union official said he believed this issue would be
resolved shortly.
 Reuter

Shr 56 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 48,500,000 vs 55,400,000
    Sales 1.53 billion vs 1.46 billion
    Avg shrs 86.6 mln vs 87.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.73 dlrs vs 1.79 dlrs
    Net 150,300,000 vs 156,200,000
    Sales 4.60 billion vs 4.30 billion
    Avg shrs 86.7 mln vs 87.3 mln
    NOTE: 1987 results include gain of 9.7 mln dlrs, or 11 cts
a share from sale of assets
    1986 results include gain of 161 mln dlrs, or 18 cts a
share, from sale of assets, offset partly by a restructuring
provision
    Fiscal 1987 results restated to give effect to adoption of
financial accounting standards relating to pension costs.
Segment data for Foods restated to include results of commodity
marketing, previously reported separately. Earnings restated
for two-for-one stock split, effective Nov 30, 1986
 Reuter

Caisse Nationale des Autoroutes is
issuing a three billion French franc bond, the French bond
issuing committee said.
    The issue will be lead-managed by Caisse Nationale du
Credit Agricole, Credit Lyonnais and Cie Financiere de Paribas
subsidiary Credit du Nord.
 REUTER

Growth Ventures Inc
said it is discontinuing its participation in a Mexican joint
venture formed to make flexible diskettes and is liquidating
its wholly-owned Rock Hohl Interiors Inc subsidiary in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
    The company said the resulting losses, lack of assets and
negative net worth will in all likelihood make it impossible
for Groweth Ventures to continue operating.
    The company said it is ending its participation in the
Mexican venture due to continuing delays in obtaining
sufficient working capital funding from government-controlled
banks in Mexico.  The funding is needed not only for joint
venture operations but also for the payment on debentures to
Growth Ventures from the joint venture, it said.
    It said since payment on the debentures has not been made,
it does not have sufficient capital to support the continuing
operations of Rick Hohl Interiors, and it will liquidate Rick
Hohl.
 Reuter

Colombia will not attend a meeting of
coffee producing countries scheduled for this weekend in
Nicaragua, Jorge Cadenas, manager of the National Coffee
Growers' Federation, said.
    "We prefer to wait until things are better prepared," he told
Reuters. He added the meeting could be postponed.
    Colombia, Brazil and the Central American coffee producing
countries were invited to the meeting in Managua to analyze the
market situation
    However, he did not dismiss the idea of dialogue and
negotiation in preparation for meetings of the International
Coffee Organization.
    Gilberto Arango, president of Colombia's exporters'
association, speaking to Reuters earlier this week, ruled out a
fresh Colombian initiative on export quotas saying producers
had now to show a common resolve which could emerge from
continuous contacts.
    The International Coffee Organization executive board is to
meet in London between March 31 and April 2.
 Reuter

Sterling Drug Inc said it submitted a
new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration for
permission to market an oral form of Corotrope (milrinone), a
drug for treating chronic congestive heart failure.
    Sterling said the application includes a series of studies
of 952 patients and results of three multicenter studies
involving another 571 patients, to demonstrate the efficacy and
safety of the drug as an alternative to digitalis.
 Reuter

Preliminary talks are on between two
state-owned Philippine banks and Soviet metal trading and
equipment sales company Tsvetmetpromexport on rescuing Nonoc
Mining and Industrial Corp (NMIC) which operates the
Philippines' only nickel refinery, a Soviet official said.
    G.I. Valentchits, Deputy Trade Minister at the Soviet
embassy, told Reuters a report earlier this week that
Tsvetmetpromexport had asked the Philippine government whether
it could help rehabilitate or operate NMIC was incorrect.
    "It is the other way round," Valentchits said.
    He said the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and
the Philippine National Bank (PNB), which own NMIC, had
approached the Soviet state-owned firm in August last year.
    "We studied the question and asked the banks in which field
and what area they can help in the project," Valentchits said.
    He said there had been no reply yet from NMIC and the talks
were "only just initial."
    NMIC President Arthur Aguilar and other company officials
were not available for comment.
    Manila banking sources said the situation was serious at
NMIC, set up by DBP and PNB in August 1984 after the two banks
foreclosed on the assets of Marinduque Mining and Industrial
Corp over a 17 billion peso obligation.
    The bankers said NMIC itself has recently filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for placing the
company under receivership and the suspension of its debt
payments in order to protect it from threats of foreclosure.
    Business Day newspaper said the latest credits extended to
NMIC include a 127 mln dlr loan, with Chemical Bank as the lead
agent.
    The newspaper said another 33 mln dlr loan was lead managed
by Citicorp.
    It said the government's privatisation program has listed
NMIC at a price of at least 700 mln dlrs, adding that foreign
investors were wary of taking over the ailing nickel firm.
    The bankers said NMIC was currently burdened with debts of
at least 15.8 billion pesos and is facing 10 civil lawsuits for
foreclosures from major creditors.
    The Business Bulletin newspaper said the firm had assets
totalling 12.2 billion pesos, while DBP and PNB exposures with
the firm were estimated at 14.9 billion pesos.
    NMIC has not operated its plant in the southern Philippines
since March 1986 after workers struck demanding payment of
salaries delayed because of the firm's financial difficulties.
    The firm produced 1,863 tonnes of nickel in the first two
months of 1986, compared with 2,364 tonnes in the same period
in 1985. The mine's capacity is 2,000 tonnes a month.
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 62 cts
    Shr diluted 86 cts vs 59 cts
    Net 28.0 mln vs 18.3 mln
    Revs 513.5 mln vs 517.0 mln
    First half
    Shr 2.03 dlrs vs 1.78 dlrs
    Shr diluted 2.03 dlrs vs 1.61 dlrs
    Net 65.9 mln vs 50.0 mln
    Revs 1.11 billion vs 1.08 billion
    Avg shrs 32.4 mln vs 28.1 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 32.4 mln vs 32.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes gains of 645,000 dlrs, or two cts a
share, in quarter and 12,290,000 dlrs, or four cts a share,
from reduced pension expense under new accounting procedures
    Net in both 1987 periods also includes gain of 4.0 mln
dlrs, or 12 cts a share, from sale of land in Alabama.
 Reuter

Canada's retail sales, seasonally
adjusted, fell 0.1 pct in January after gaining 0.9 pct in
December, Statistics Canada said.
    Retail sales fell to 11.98 billion dlrs from 11.99 billion
dlrs in December, 1986. Unadjusted sales were 6.9 pct higher
than in January, 1986.
    In January, automobile sales fell 1.9 pct, department store
sales slipped 3.2 pct and variety stores sales plunged 14 pct.
The declines were offset by a 5.5 pct increase in grocery store
sales and a 9.9 pct gain in hardware sales.
 Reuter

Scan-Graphics Inc said it will be
acquired by Captive Venture Capital Inc, a public company,
in a stock transaction approved by shareholders of both
    As a result of the merger, the former shareholders of
Scan-Graphics will become the majority shareholders of Captive
Venture Capital. The name of the corporation will be changed to
Scan-Graphics Inc and its borad of directors will be composed
of individuals now on the Scan-Graphics board.
    Under the terms of the deal, Capitive Venture Capital will
issue 1.6 mln shares of restricted convertible preferred stock,
convertible into 16 mln shares of common stock, in exchange for
all outstanding stock of Scan-Graphics.
    Upon completing the deal, there will be 2,649,500 common
shares of Capitive Venture Capital issued and outstanding, of
which 149,500 shares will be held by the public.
    In addition, there are 95,050 tradeable class A warrants
and 100,000 B warrants, each of which entitles the holder to
buy 10 shares of common stock at 1.25 dlrs and 1.50 dlrs,
respectively, a share.
    Scan-Graphics makes systems that allow users to convert
graphic documents, such as charts, maps and engineering
drawings, into computer data that can be displayed, edited and
stored by computer.
    Currently, Captive Venture Capital stock is traded over the
counter and will soon trade under the Scan-Graphics name.
Application for Nasdaq listing is expected as soon as
requirements are met.
 Reuter

<TelWatch Inc> said it named
James Edwards, former senior vice president of American
Telephone and Telegraph, its president and chief executive
officer.
 Reuter

Qtly div 76 cts vs 76 cts prior qtr
    Pay 15 May
    Record 30 April
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 835,000 vs 794,000
    Sales 23.9 mln vs 20.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 47 cts vs 91 cts
    Net 2,104,000 vs 3,489,000
    Sales 74.5 mln vs 65.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,450,675 vs 3,822,894
 Reuter

American Electric Power Co's
Indiana and Michigan Electric Co said on June One it will
redeem 64 mln dlrs principal amount of its 80 mln dlrs of
11-3/8 pct first mortgage bonds due 1990 at par.
 Reuter

The U.S. trade deficit with Taiwan and
Korea is expected to widen this year, despite some economic and
currency adjustments by the two newly industrialized countries,
    "The surpluses that Taiwan and Korea ran with the U.S. in
1986 will get bigger. This time next year, the U.S. will be
screaming at those countries about their exports," said Steve
Cerier of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co.
    Taiwan is currently the third biggest exporter to the U.S.
after Japan and Canada, while Korea is the seventh largest.
    Faced with heightened protectionist sentiment in Congress,
the Reagan administration has been stepping up the rhetoric
against Taiwan and Korea, urging those countries to allow their
currencies to appreciate and lift impediments to free trade.
    The thrust has shifted to those newly industrialized
countries (NICs) amid signs the dollar's steep drop against the
currencies of Japan and most EC nations -- previously the main
focus of the U.S. drive to cut its trade gap -- is beginning to
close the competiveness gap for American goods.
    U.S. Treasury secretary James Baker said recently that he
expects a reduction in Japan's trade surplus this year.
    But U.S. manufacturers still are losing markets on their
own doorstep to Taiwan and Korea, whose currencies have not
risen as much as the yen and the mark. As major beneficiaries
of soft oil prices and with low labor costs, Taiwanese and
Korean exporters are well-placed to take up the slack.
    "In 1986, the fashionable comment in Washington was
Japan-bashing. Now it's NIC-bashing," said Robert Chandross, of
Lloyds Bank PLC.
    Asia's four main NICs -- Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore
and Taiwan -- accounted for almost one-fifth of the overall 170
billion dlr U.S. merchandise trade deficit for 1986.
    The U.S. trade gap with Taiwan rose to 15.7 billion dlrs in
1986 from 13.1 billion in 1985, while the bilateral trade
deficit with South Korea grew to 7.1 billion from 4.8 billion.
    And preliminary U.S. data show that the growth trend is
continuing. The U.S. trade shortfall with Taiwan was 1.6
billion dlrs in January, up 24.4 pct from a year earlier. The
gap with Korea was 700 mln dlrs, up 24.8 pct from a year ago.
    Lately both nations have said they will take steps to
defuse incipient trade tensions. Korea said it is choosing many
of the 122 items on which the U.S. wants it to cut import
tariffs in order to deflect pressure for currency revaluation.
    Still, South Korean trade minister Rha Woong Bae said last
week that Korea would maintain a trade surplus for three to
five years as a way to cut its 44.5 billion dlr foreign debt.
    For its part, Taiwan said in January that it will cut
tariffs on 1,700 goods sometime in the second half of 1987 and
try to diversify exports. But vice economic minister Wang
Chien-Shien said last month that he still does not expect
Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. will fall in 1987.
    The NICs have made deep inroads into markets for textiles
and electronic goods. But Korea is raising its profile in the
area of "big-ticket" manufactured goods, notably cars.
    Korea expects its auto exports -- mostly for North America
-- to balloon to 675,000 units in 1987 from zero in 1985.
    "The NICs' exports are almost all manufactured goods. When
their exports rise it hits the heart of the U.S. manufacturing
base. It cuts directly to us and to our customers," said Bob
Wendt, manager for economic studies at Bethlehem Steel Corp.
    The U.S. takes 90 pct of Korea's computer products exports,
72 pct of its electrical appliances and 65 pct of its
telecommunications equipment.
    A recent study by Morgan Guaranty Trust Co says Taiwan and
South Korea are the most pressing trade issue for the U.S.
    While Hong Kong and Singapore run trade surpluses with the
U.S., these are offset by their deficits with other countries.
    But Taiwan and, to a lesser extent, South Korea, stand in
marked contrast. Both of these nations have moved rapidly into
large bilateral surplus with the U.S. and major overrall trade
and current account surpluses, the Morgan study says.
    Morgan expects Taiwan's overall trade surplus to grow to
18.5 billion dlrs in 1987 from 15.2 billion last year, and
Korea's to increase to 6.5 billion dlrs from 3.5 billion.
    Concern about the NICs is not confined to the U.S.
    "A lot of Korea and Taiwan's exports to the U.S. have been
at Japan's expense," said Richard Koss at General Motors Corp.
    February's Paris meeting of six major industrial powers
exorted NICs to lower trade barriers and revalue currencies.
    But this two-pronged approach has drawn little response
from the two nations so far and, in any case, will only work
with a sizeable lag, economists say.
    The U.S. has not said how much it thinks the Taiwan's and
Korea's currencies should climb. The Taiwan dollar, which is
pegged to the U.S. dollar, has risen about 15 pct since
September 1985 while the Korean won has risen about five pct.
    But in real terms the Taiwan dollar has been flat against
the U.S. unit and the won has lost seven pct, economists say.
    "We've not seen any lessening of competition from those
countries that we can attribute to currency changes," said
Bethlehem Steel's Wendt.
    And so far, U.S. pleas for Taiwan and Korea to use their
hefty export earnings to import more have had little effect.
    Moreover, it is uncertain how far U.S. protectionism will
get given the administration's free-trade stance. "It's hard to
see that anything will be passed much before year-end. And then
the question is, will it have teeth?" one economist said.
   
 Reuter

Xerox Corp's U.K. unit, Rank Xerox
Ltd, said it agreed in principle to sell its South African
company, Rank Xerox South Africa Pty Ltd, to <Altron Group's>
Fintech unit.
    Altron said the acquisition was key to making Fintech an
office systems company.
    The South African Rank Xerox unit sells copiers and
duplicators throughout South Africa and in Namibia (South West
Africa). It has over 800 employees, all of whom will be
retained by Fintech when the deal closes, Rank Xerox said.
 Reuter

Anthony R. Martin-Trigona
said he plans to announce shareholder action against CBS Inc
Chairman Larry Tisch tomorrow.
    Martin-Trigona, a self-described public interest lawyer,
announced March 6 he is a candidate for the Democratic Party's
presidential nomination in 1988. He said he has been a CBS
stockholder since 1969.
    Martin-Trigona said he will announce the shareholder
resolutions tomorrow while joining the picket line set up by
Writers Guild of America members on strike against CBS.
 Reuter

Genex Corp said Gary Frashier
was elected its president and chief executive officer,
    The company said he replaces Leslie Glick.
    Frashier is currently chairman and chief executive officer
of Continental Water Systems Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Olin Corp <OLN>.
 Reuter

Feb 28 end
    Shr 44 cts vs 16 cts
    Shr diluted 37 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 5,378,000 vs 1,987,000
    Revs 26.8 mln vs 14.6 mln
    Avg shrs 12.4 mln vs 12.1 mln
    Shr 1.26 dlrs vs 45 cts
    Shr diluted 1.10 dlrs vs 45 cts
    Net 15.5 mln vs 5,401,000
    Revs 80.3 mln vs 46.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for stock dividends declared through
today.   
 Reuter

Canon USA Inc, wholly owned by Canon Inc
of Japan, is issuing a 10 mln dlr floating rate note (FRN) due
December 4, 1989, paying 0.18 pct over six-month London
Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and priced at 100-3/8, Yamaichi
International (Europe) Ltd said as lead manager.
    Fees for the issue total 13/32 and payment date is March
25.
    The issue has already been placed privately on an
international basis and will not be listed.
 REUTER

Countrywide Credit Industries
Inc said its board declared an eight ct per share quarterly
dividend, up from seven cts last quarter, and a two pct stock
dividend.
    The cash dividend is payable April 14 to holders of record
March 30 and the stock dividend is payable April 17 to holders
 Reuter

downgraded Bethlehem Steel Corp's debt securities.
    Bethlehem has one billion dlrs of debt and preferred stock
outstanding. Cut were its senior debt to CCC-plus from B-minus
and subordinated debt to CCC-minus from CCC. S and P affirmed
the C-rated preferred, since preferred dividends were
discontinued last year. 
    S and P cited concerns over Bethlehem's viability over the
intermediate term, rather than any immediate threat to
solvency. Its cash is strong relative to 1987 requirements, but
was accumulated through such means as asset sales.
 Reuter

Madagascar's available coffee
output is estimated at 80,725 tonnes this year, down from
82,210 in 1986, due to a rundown of government agricultural
services and the poor state of feeder roads in rural areas,
Agriculture Ministry sources said.
    This is after accounting for the loss of some 15,000 to
20,000 tonnes due to the transport problems in the countryside,
they said.
    The sources did not give an estimate for exports in 1987,
but they noted that shipments declined to 37,200 tonnes last
year from 41,662 in 1985.
    Low yields from the country's ageing coffee plantations and
prevalence of the fungal disease Hemileia Vastatrix also
contributed to the poor performance, the sources said.
    They pointed out that 52 pct of Madagascar's coffee bushes
were planted before 1930.
    The sources said Madagascar was still a long way from
reaching the production target of 110,000 tonnes per year and
the export target of 63,000 tonnes outlined in the government's
1986-1990 five-year plan.
    In order to reverse the decline in coffee production, the
government has decided to plant 20,000 hectares with
high-yielding arabica and canephora varieties, the sources
said.
    The planting programme will begin this year and is aimed at
producing 300 to 360 kilos per hectare of beans with a low
caffeine content.
    The sources added that Madagascar's plan to export roasted
coffee has failed to take off due to packaging problems. Only
650 tonnes of roasted coffee were exported last year.
 Reuter

Philips Medical Systems Inc, a
unit of (North American Philips Corp), said a research program
is underway at seven medical centers aimed at producing a new
standard of three-dimensional medical imaging systems.
    The goal is to provide doctors with quicker and better
diagnostic information about human organs. Current systems have
limited functions and can examine body parts such as limbs or
the skull but not functioning organs, according to a Philips
Medical spokesman.
    The two-year program involves equipment from Philips and
three private companies: Cemax Inc, a Santa Clara, Calif.,
maker of three-dimensional computer graphics systems, Island
Graphics Corp, a San Rafael, Calif., graphics software firm,
and Pixar, also a San Rafael software concern.
    Philips holds about 10 pct each of Cemax and Island
Graphics, the spokesman said, and is the exclusive worldwide
distributor of Cemax's 1500X computer graphics system.
    Philips also has an original equipment manufacturer
agreement with Pixar.
    The institutions are Duke University Medical Center in
Durham, N.C., Emory University, Atlanta, Johns Hopkins Medical
Institution, Baltimore, Washington University Medical Center,
St Louis, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., UCLA, Los Angeles, and
the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
 Reuter

Federal Paper Board Co Inc said
it has filed for an offering of 140 mln dlrs of cumulative
convertible preferred stock, or 2,800,000 shares with a
liquidation preference of 50 dlrs each, through underwriters
First Boston Inc <FBC>, Morgan Stanley Group Inc <MS> and
PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ>.
    The company said it will use proceeds to redeem on June 15
all 125 mln dlrs of its 13 pct subordinated debentures due
2000.  The remainder will be added to general funds.
    Federal Paper said the preferred will be convertible into
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs eight cts prior qtr
    Pay 20 April
 Reuter

Knowledge Data Systems Inc said
it named John Kerr chairman of the company, and named its
former chairman, Jon Jacoby, vice chairman.
    The company said Kerr was formerly president and co-founder
of <Mediflex Systems Corp>, and Jacoby is also its chief
financial officer.
 Reuter

    Payable 10 June
    Record 15 May
 Reuter

Amcast Industrial Corp said it
completed the sale of its Newman Division to Newman
Manufacturing Inc, a new company formed by Newman's employees.
    The sale price was not disclosed.
    Amcast said Newman's Kendallville, Indiana plant is one of
the country's largest producers of gray iron castings for the
automotive and commercial air conditioning and refrigeration
industries. It said the plant employs 300 people.
    Amcast said it decided to sell the division to move out of
the gray iron castings business.
 Reuter

said he would rule out a tax on gasoline as one option to help
avert what his departmet has called the threat of increased
reliance on foreign oil in the coming years.
    He said at a news conference that any recommendation he
would make would have to increase domestic production, not
cause widespread economic hardship and have a minimal cost to
the U.S. taxpayer.
    On the grounds of increasing production, he said, "I would
rule out a gasoline tax."
    Herrington also repeated he would rule out an oil import
fee because of the widespread dislocation it would cause -- the
loss of about 400,000 jobs nationwide due to higher oil prices
and a drop in the gross national product by about 32 billion
dlrs.
    He said an increased depletion allowance, to 27.5 pct, on
new and enhanced production of oil and natural gas would be a
cheap way to spur domestic production.
    He estimated this cost at about 200 mln dlrs a year.
    Herrington proposed the increased depletion allowance to
the White House Tuesday but the White House reaction was cool.
    The White House said it would study the proposal, but was
generally oppposed to altering the national tax code, just
passed last year.
    Herrington, asked his reaction to the White House reaction,
said, "If I were the White House, I would be cool, too."
 Reuter

Land damaged by wind in the 10-state
Great Plains amount to nearly 3.7 mln acres so far this year,
one-third more than the 1970-84 average and 300,000 acres more
than the amount reported at this time last year, the U.S.
    In addition to the land reported damaged, another 15 mln
acres are unprotected and susceptible to wind damage, 34 pct
more than the 1970-84 average, but about one mln acres less
than last year.
    The states hardest hit were in the Northern Plains, where
wind damaged 2.4 mln acres, an increase of 1.5 mln acres over
the amount reported a year ago, the department said.
    Suffering the most damage in the Northern Plains were
Montana (1.3 mln acres), and North Dakota (518,500 acres.)
    Of the five Southern Plains states, only Colorado reported
an increase in wind-damaged land over last year, it said.
    Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas reported a reduction
in damaged land, due in part to emergency conservation tillage
practices and in part to rainfall and weather conditions.
    Of the land damaged, 96.2 pct was cropland, 3.5 pct
rangeland, and 0.9 pct was other land.
    Inadequate snow cover and high winds, coupled with a lack
of erosion control practices such as windbreaks and
conservation tillage, contributed to the increased wind damaged
land in some areas, the department said.
    Data on wind damage is collected during November-June.
 Reuter

U.S. ENERGY CHIEF RULES OUT GASOLINE TAX AS WAY TO AVERT PENDING OIL CRISIS

North Carolina Savings and Loan
Association elected J. Graham Harwood its chairman, and R.
Martin Hall its president and chief operating officer.
    The company said the chairman's post has been vacant two
and a half years.
    It also said Harwood, who was president, would retain his
chief executive officer's position.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department is
proposing tighter federal standards setting allowable limits on
insect infestations in grain shipments.
    The changes in the standards would include the following:
    -- Establishing equal tolerances for the number of live
insects in shipments of food grains, feed grains and oilseeds.
    -- Revising the definition of "infested" to give equal value
to all insects injurious to grain.
    -- Establishing lower levels of infestations. In 1988, the
infested level would be set at three or more live insects per
representative sample (about 100 grams), in 1990 two or more
insects, and in 1992 the final infestattion level would be set
at one or more live insects per representative sample.
    -- Revising the definition of sample grade by adding a
limit of 10 live or dead insects per sample.
    -- Revising the definition of sample grade for wheat by
adding a limit of 32 insect-damaged kernels per 100 grams of
wheat.
    The department asked for public comments on the proposals
by April 17.
 Reuter

Pillsbury Corp, reporting lower
earnings for the third quarter ended February 28, said a strong
performance by its Foods Group was offset by Restaurants Group
declines.
    Excluding unusual items, it said restaurants operating
profit was down in the quarter 12 pct from a year ago as sales
rose four pct.
    It said Burger King USA and Bennigan's reported higher
operating profit, but profits fell sharply at Steak and Ale,
which introduced a new menu.
    Pillsbury also reported lower profits at Distron, Burger
King's distribution arm, and said increased investment spending
on developing concepts - QuikWok, Bay Street and Key West Grill
- hurt results.
    It said Foods operating profit, excluding unusual items,
rose 10 pct with international operations and domestic breads
and baking products major contributors to improvement in the
quarter.
    A turnaround in grain merchandising was a major factor in
profit improvement for the nine months, Pillsbury said.
    Pillsbury said corporate expense showed a 4.3 mln dlr
profit in the quarter reflecting a 10.5 mln dlr gain on the
sale of a joint interest in an Australian food company and
lower corporate expenses, largely as a result of an early
retirement program initiated a year ago.
    Earlier, Pillsbury reported fourth quarter earnings of 48.5
mln dlrs, or 56 cts a share, down from 55.4 mln dlrs, or 63 cts
a share a year ago. Sales advanced to 1.53 billion dlrs from
1.46 billion dlrs.
    Pillsbury said loss of investment tax credits under the
1986 Federal Tax Reform Act reduced per-share earnings by nine
cts in the quarter and 19 cts in the nine months.
    As a result of the act, it said its effective income tax
rate rose eight points to 48.1 pct in the quarter and 5.5
percentage points to 49.7 pct for the nine months.
 Reuter

Texas Eastern Corp <TET> said an
initial public offering of 12.5 mln units of its master limited
partnership Petrolane Partners LP is under way at 20.50 dlrs
each.
    Petrolane will own and operate Texas Eastern's domestic
liquefied petroleum gas distribution business.  Texas Eastern
said it will retain a 45 pct interest in Petrolane.
    The company said closing of the sale of the assets is
expected March 26.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 5,553,000 vs 4,307,000
    Revs 45.1 mln vs 34.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 86 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 18.2 mln vs 14.0 mln
    Revs 161.1 mln vs 118.3 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for stock dividends.
 Reuter

Agency Rent-A-Car Inc said its board
declared a five pct stock dividend, payable May 22 to holders
of record on May 8.
    The company also said it plans to increase the size of its
rental fleet in the year ending January 31 by 20 to 25 pct and
expand its rental office network.
 Reuter

refrain from reserve-management intervention in the U.S.
Government securities market, economists said.
    If the Fed does act, however, they said it would be likely
to add temporary reserves indirectly by arranging around 1.5
billion dlrs of customer repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds, which averaged 5.97 pct yesterday, opened at
 Reuter

Conservation Service (ASCS) is seeking offers to process rough
rice owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and
deliver about 27.0 mln pounds of milled rice for export
shipment May 6-20 and May 21-June 5, an ASCS spokesman said.
    Offers must be received by 1300 CDT April 7, and successful
offerors will be notified April 10.
 Reuter

European Community (EC) industry
ministers today declared there is a need for a massive round of
closures of steel plants to bring capacity in the 12-country
bloc into reasonable balance with demand.
    The ministers were meeting to discuss a plan for voluntary
plant closures drawn up by the industry lobby group Eurofer
which it calculates would cost around 22,000 jobs.
    Diplomats said that in their initial reactions to the
scheme, most ministers declared it was a useful basis for
discussion, but did not go nearly far enough.
    Eurofer says it has identified scope for the closure of
plants which have an annual capacity of 15.26 mln tonnes,
provided the companies concerned can be fully repaid by the EC
or national governments for redundancy and other social costs.
    But EC Executive Commission sources said Industry
Commissioner Karl-Heinz Narjes told ministers today that 30 mln
tonnes of annual capacity was excess to requirements and should
be closed by the end of 1990.
    He said the Eurofer plan in particular fails to pinpoint
the scope for closure in heavy hot-rolled wide-strip products,
typically produced in plants employing thousands of people.
    The sources said no minister challenged Narjes' analysis
that four or five hot-rolled wide-strip lines would have to
close.
    They said ministers agreed that the Eurofer plan should be
expanded and developed through meetings among the industry
body, the Commission and representatives of member states.
    However, diplomats said it was clear from today's
discussions that such meetings will be difficult.
    They said member states are split on whether to reduce the
scope of a quota production system, which at present protects
EC steelmakers from the full force of competition for 65 pct of
their products, while talks on the closure plan proceed.
    It was also clear that there will be tough talks on which
EC member states should bear the brunt of the closures and on
how much funding for help to those thrown out of work should
come from Community coffers.
    German minister Martin Bangemann said his country's steel
industry, the largest in the EC, should not suffer
proportionately more than others, German sources said.
    But British diplomats said their minister, Giles Shaw,
insists that the profitability of companies should be taken
into account.
    The state owned British Steel Corporation, benefitting from
massive recent write-offs of its accumulated debts, is
currently one of the few EC steel companies in the black.
    Ministers were this afternoon trying to agree a joint
statement on the Eurofer plan and the situation in the
industry.
 Reuter

American Electric Power Co's Ohio
Power Co subsidiary said that on June 1 it will redeem 40,000
of its 177,760 shares of Series A 14 pct cumulative preferred
shares at par value of 100 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Repligen Corp said it intends
to file an investigational new drug application to the Food and
Drug Administration seeking permission to test its AIDS vaccine
in humans by the early summer.
    Repligen said the human tests could begin by the end of the
year.
    "We are sufficiently encouraged and impressed by the work
to date to go ahead with a clinical trial," said Michael Egan,
manager of business development for Repligen, a biotechnology
company.
    Repligen's Egan said the vaccine contains a subfragment of
the protein coat of the AIDS virus. In animal tests, which
included primates, Egan said the vaccine provoked neutralizing
antibodies to the AIDS virus and broader cellular immunity.
    Egan said the approach Repligen is using to deliver its
vaccine, using standard vaccine methods, may be safer than
vaccines using a live smallpox virus to carry proteins found on
the surface coat of the AIDS virus.
    Yesterday, Bristol-Myers Co <BMY> said it would seek
regulatory permission to test its AIDS vaccine, which uses a
smallpox virus, in humans by the end of the month.
    Repligen's AIDS vaccine is a collaborative effort of the
company, Centocor Inc <CNTO>, Duke University Medical School
and the National Cancer Insitutes. The research teams are
directed by John Ghrayeb of Centocor, Scott Putney of Repligen,
Dani Bolognesi at Duke and Robert Gallo and Flossie Wong-Staal
at the National Cancer Institute.
    Although there are several AIDS vaccine candidates, experts
believe that development of a safe and effective vaccine is a
long ways away. Moreover, seeking approval to test a vaccine is
only the first step in a long process of verifying if the
vaccine actually will prevent infection.

 Reuter

Gandalf Technologies Inc said it
introduced two new products, one of which allows its private
automatic computer exchange networking systems to connect
directly to Digital Equipment Corp <DEC>'s Unibus-equipped
    The company said its new VGS 2518 communications gateway
server provides a high capacity pathway for high speed
asynchronous data transfer between Unibus systems and Gandalf's
PACX 200 and PACX 2000 systems. Gandalf said it is the first in
a series of high bandwidth gateway servers it plans to
introduce this year.
    Gandalf said its other new product is the MUX 2000
multiplexing system, which offers a mix of voice and data
capabilities and allows users to select from among four Gandalf
multiplexing elements.
    The company said this flexibility will be attractive to
large users. "The larger the network, the more likely that
flexible multiplexing solutions are required," a Gandalf
 Reuter

Parlex Corp said it named Robert
Cyr to its newly-created post of chief operating officer.
    Cyr, 44, has been the company's senior vice president, the
 Reuter

Murgold Resources Inc said assays
received from 320 feet of drifting on the number-three vein at
the Chester Township property south of Timmins, Ontario,
indicate an average of 0.528 ounce of gold per ton across an
average width of five feet for the 320-foot length.
    The last working face assayed 0.422 ounce of gold per ton
across 8.5 feet and the drift will be continued eastward from
that point, the company said.
    
 Reuter

Qtly div 17.5 cts vs 17.5 cts in prior qtr
    (Company corrects amount of previous payment in MARCH 18
item to show there was no change)
 Reuter

Aluminum Co of America said it has
signed a letter of intent to sell its American Powdered Metals
Co subsidiary to R.W. Technology Inc for undisclosed terms,
with completion expected in early May.
    American Powdered makes metal parts for various industries.
 Reuter

Accountants said it has a set of guidelines to account for
costs from internal use of computers.
    The Association said Statement No. 4F, written by the
Management Accounting Practices Committee, advises that users
generally should be charged for services furnished by an
information system.
    The Association said users can measure internal computing
costs against costs charged by outside vendors. But it said a
company may not want to allocate costs when attempting to
encourage use of a new system.

 Reuter

Banca del Monte di Parma said it
will issue up to 20 mln dlrs of euro-certificates of deposit on
the euromarket.
    Samuel Montagu of London would be dealer for the programme,
while Euromobiliare Ltd would be involved in placing the
certificates with institutional investors, the bank said.
    Maturities on the certificates will be between seven and
365 days.
 REUTER

The water supply outlook for most of
the Western U.S. states this summer looks dim, the U.S.
    Snowpack and precipitation were well below normal
throughout much of the West as of last week.
    Eight of the 12 states in which the department collects
data reported snowpack and precipitation at three-quarters or
less of normal.
    It said unless late winter snows or spring rains bring
relief, these states can expect possible water shortages this
summer.
    Major water users, including agricultural producers,
municipalities and industry, should begin conservation measures
now to avoid water rationing later, USDA said.
    The department said California, one of the country's major
agricultural producers, is the driest, with snowpack and
precipitation so far this year at less than half of normal.
    Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and
Washington also report significant shortages despite pockets of
near normal to above noral rainfall in some areas, the
    Arizona and Alaska have higher than normal snowpack and
precipitation, while Colorado and New Mexico are near normal,
it said.
    The western water supply forecast is based on the latest
snow surveys and analyses of precipitation data by the
department and the National Weather Service.
 Reuter

Applied DNA Systems Inc said Kenneth
Blackman was named vice president and chief operating officer,
and its chairman, Donald Bachmann, was named to the additional
post of chief executive officer.
    The company said the company position of president will be
left vacant with the retirement of Maurice Sussman, who was
also the chief executive officer.
    The company said the chief operating officer's post is
newly created.
    Blackman was executive vice president and chief operating
officer with <BW Biotec Inc.>

 Reuter

Colonial Municipal Income Trust
said an initial public offering of 26 mln shares is under way
at 10 dlrs each through underwriters led by Morgan Keegan Inc
<MOR>, Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards Inc and Piper, Jaffray
and Hopwood Inc.
3,900,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Britoil Plc's <BTOL.L> exploration
expenditure for the U.K. In 1987 was likely to be only about a
third of the level in 1986, though overseas expenditure would
remain approximately the same, Chief executive David Walker
said.
    He told reporters following the release of the company's
1986 figures that project expenditure would also remain at 1986
levels.
    U.K. Project expenditure in 1986 rose to 208 mln stg from
184 mln while exploration expenditure dropped to 87 mln from
156 mln. Overseas exploration fell to 28 mln from 58 mln in
1985.
    Earlier, Britoil posted a drop in pretax profit for 1986 to
134 mln stg from 759 mln in 1985, before an extraordinary
charge of 50 mln stg on the company's U.S. Assets. The results
were slightly better than analysts forecast and the share
firmed to 231p from 222p at last night's close. Chairman Sir
Philip Shelbourne said the collapse in the oil price in 1986
had made the period extremely difficult but the company had
come through remarkably well.
    Provided the recovery in oil prices was maintained, the
conditions would be right for a substantially improved
performance this year.
    He added that the firmness of oil prices in March, when
they were normally weaker, made him "a bit encouraged" about the
prospects for future levels.
    Walker added that Britoil would feel confident if the price
stayed within a band of 15 dlrs to 20 dlrs a barrel.
    Britoil had received some 100 responses to its announcement
of a desire to sell the assets and was asking for bids by the
latter part of April.
    End-year reserves rose to 603 mln barrels of oil compared
with 503 mln previously. However, Walker noted that this
included a revised definition of reserves.
    If 1985 figures were restated along the same lines, the
reserve figure would show a drop from 720 mln barrels
    Gas reserves also eased to 3,568 billion cubic feet from a
restated 3,660 billion.

GTE Corp is raising 250 mln dlrs
through an offering of debentures due 2017 yielding 8.737 pct,
said sole underwriter UBS Securities Inc.
    UBS, the U.S. unit of Union Bank of Switzerland, won the
issue in competitive bidding against syndicates led by such
major U.S. houses as First Boston and Morgan Stanley.
    UBS has become the second foreign firm to manage an issue
in the domestic debt market this year, following Daiwa
Securities America Inc. However, investment bankers noted that
UBS was the first foreigner to break into the U.S. market when
it won a competitive bidding in June 1986.
    An officer on UBS's corporate syndicate desk said the GTE
issue is the fourth that the securities firm has managed.
    UBS bid the GTE debentures at 97.0025 and set a coupon of
8-1/2 pct and reoffering price of 97.50 to yield 112 basis
points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct Treasury bonds of 2016.
    Non-refundable for 10 years, the issue is rated A-3 by
Moody's and A-minus by Standard and Poor's.
    GTE last tapped the debt market when it sold on November
20, 1986, 250 mln dlrs of same-maturity, same-rated debt priced
to yield 9.388 pct, or 174 basis points over comparable
Treasury paper, underwriters noted.
    Underwriters said that two of the UBS-lead offerings were
negotiated deals. UBS won the other two issues in competitive
bidding acting as sole underwriter.
ran the books for a March 11 offering of 200 mln dlrs of
10-year notes of Rockwell International Corp <ROK>,
underwriters noted.
    Thus far, Nomura Securities International Inc is the only
other foreign firm to manage a U.S. debt offering. The U.S.
unit of Nomura Securities Co Ltd of Japan, acting as sole
underwriter, won a competitive issue in early December 1986.
 Reuter

Iran's budget for the fiscal year
starting on Saturday forecasts revenue of 50.3 billion dlrs, a
15 pct increase from this year, figures published by the
Iranian news agency IRNA show.
    IRNA, quoting figures supplied by the head of the Majlis
(parliament) budget and planning committee, said spending for
the war with Iraq was up by 3.6 billion dlrs, but gave no
overall figure.
    Oil revenue has been set at 11.74 billion dlrs, with
average exports of 1.5 mln barrels per day (bpd) at 16 dlrs per
barrel.
 REUTER

The U.K. Government tomorrow will
release the first of its Retail Price Index (RPI) figures
calculated on a revised group of components and rebased on
January 1987, as previously announced, the Employment
    The index, Britain's measure of inflation, is for February.
Earlier data will not be revised as there are no equivalent
figures including the new components, a spokesman said.
    Previously, the RPI base was January, 1974.
    Market forecasts centre on a 0.4-0.5 pct monthly rise in
February and a year on year rate about 4.0 pct. The government
forecasts annual inflation will be 4.0 pct at the end of 1987.
 REUTER

<Mr. Jax Fashions
Inc> said it agreed to sell 600,000 common shares to Pemberton
Houston Willoughby Bell Gouinlock Inc and Dominion Securities
Inc, which the buyers will offer at 13-5/8 dlrs per share to
    Closing is expected on April 30, subject to completion of
necessary regulatory filings. Mr. Jax said proceeds will be
used for internal growth and potential acquisitions.
 Reuter

Racal Electronics Plc <RCAL.L> announced
the formation of a new company <Racal-Guardata Inc.> of Orange
County California, as well as a co-operative marketing
agreement between the new company and <General Electric
Information Services Company> of the U.S.
    Racal said the new company, a part of the Racal-Chubb data
security operation, will sell proven data security devices and
systems into the U.S. Where experts believe computer fraud
could be costing users as much as five billions dlrs a year.
The agreement enables users of GE's worldwide teleprocessing
services to combat fraud against financial institutions.
 REUTER

Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> said its board had
agreed to put an extraordinary motion at the group's annual
meeting to remove former chairman Ernest Saunders and
non-executive Thomas Ward as directors.
    The meeting will be held on May 27.
    Saunders resigned as chairman and chief executive in
January following the start of a Trade Department inquiry into
the group's takeover bid for <Distillers Co Plc>.
    Finance director Olivier Roux later quit from his executive
position and from the board but Saunders and Ward remained as
 REUTER

Lead underwriter Muller and Co Inc
said an initial public offering of 500,000 units of <Advanced
Marketing Technology Corp> is under way at eight dlrs a unit.
    Each unit consists of four common shares and one Class A
warrant allowing the purchase of one common share and one Class
B warrant from March 25, 1987 until March 18, 1992.
    Each Class B warrant will allow the holder to buy one
common share at 2.80 dlrs during the same period.
 Reuter

<Domtar Inc> said it filed a
preliminary prospectus for an issue of 100 mln dlrs of 10 pct
debentures, to be offered at 99-3/4 to yield 10.03 pct and to
mature April 15, 2011.
    Underwriters are Levesque, Beaubien Inc, Wood Gundy Inc,
Burns Fry Ltd and Nesbitt Thomson Deacon Ltd.
 Reuter

Enterprises Inc said it will loan four mln dlrs to Cattle Baron
Inc, a subsidiary of Source Venture Capital <SOR>.
    The loan will be used to contruct the Cattle Baron casino
and restaurant to be located in Henderson, Nev., the company
said.
 Reuter

ended January 31
    Net profit 351,000 vs loss 243,000
    Sales 7,050,000 vs 7,012,000
    Avg shrs 106,780,000 vs 93,666,000
    Six mths
    Shr loss one ct vs loss one ct
    Net loss 999,000 vs loss 563,000
    Sales 10.6 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Avg shrs 106,641,000 vs 92,986,000
 Reuter

Ryan's Family Steak Houses Inc
said its board declared a three-for-one stock split, payable
May 20 to holders of record May 6.
approval of an increase in authorized shares to 100 mln from 20
mln at the April 22 annual meeting.
 Reuter

William Bradt, new chairman of the New
York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX, said his priorities are to
merge the exchange with other futures exchanges at the World
Trade Center and to reallocate space on the crowded NYMEX
floor.
    Bradt, a local trader and member of the board of governors,
assumed his duties yesterday and met reporters.
    "If all four exchanges become one, we would save incredible
costs and become more competitive to Chicago," Bradt told
Reuters.
    Bradt was referring to a merger among the four exchanges at
the Commodity Exchange Center, an idea that has been discussed
intermittently for several years.
    The four exchanges -- the Commodity Exchange, the Coffee,
Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, and the New York Cotton Exchange in
addition to the NYMEX -- are all located on a single floor at
the World Trade Center.
    Bradt said he would address the problem of space shortages
on the exchange floor by reallocating booth space among the
members, including sharing of booths.
    "If you are a company with potential business for the Merc,
you should get a booth," he said, adding that an exchange
committee is studying the problem.
    The election of Bradt, and of local trader Vincent Viola as
an at-large member, increases representation of locals on the
15 member board to five members from four, according to a NYMEX
spokesman.
    Bradt defeated vice chairman Stanley Meierfeld by a vote of
315 to 217. He will serve a two-year term and succeeds Michel
Marks, who decided not to seek reelection after serving as
chairman since 1978.
    Zoltan Guttman was elected vice chairman and Thomas McMahon
was elected as trade house representative.
    John Tafaro, owner of Tafaro Brokerage, was reelected as
floor broker representative on the board, and George Gero, a
vice president of Prudential-Bache Securities, was reelected as
futures commission merchant representative.
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps said it lowered its
ratings assigned to Minnesota Power and Light Co's fixed income
securities, covering about 442 mln dlrs in debt.
    The first mortgage bonds were lowered to D/P-7 (low single
A) from D/P-4 (low double A), and the preferred stock to D/P-8
(high triple B) from D/P-5 (high single A), it said.
    The ratings reflect continuing erosion of a major segment
of its sales base as the outlook for the taconite industry
continues to be depressed, D/P said.
 Reuter

French official reserves 388.68 billion francs at end Feb vs 375.95 billion end Jan

Inertia Dynamics Corp said it
declared a 50 pct stock dividend, payable May 1 to shareholders
of record April 3.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs 21 cts
    Net 24,000 vs 612,000
    Sales 2,061,000 vs 3,914,000
    1st half
    Shr eight cts vs 43 cts
    Net 223,000 vs 1,220,000
    Sales 4,584,000 vs 7,912,000
 Reuter

Shr profit eight cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net profit 251,000 vs loss 731,000
    Revs 29.1 mln vs 25.9 mln
    Backlog 18.9 mln vs 12.5 mln
 Reuter

    Net 191,465 vs 193,799
    Sales 7,160,945 vs 6,576,670
    Avg shrs 2,000,565 vs 1,400,000
    Year
    Oper shr 33 cts vs 50 cts
    Oper net 605,725 vs 694,785
    Sales 23.3 mln vs 22.1 mln
    Avg shrs 1,840,692 vs 1,400,000
    NOTE: 1985 year net excludes 30,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

    Oper net profit 405,914 vs loss 145,380
    Revs 2,446,901 vs 1,295,187
    Year
    Oper net profit 1,211,465 vs loss 178,101
    Revs 9,085,222 vs 4,995,735
    NOTE: Earnings from 1983 on benefit preferred shareholders
until preferred shareholders' equity equals or exceeds
liquidating and mandatory redemption values.
 Reuter

Alcatel Cit <ALCP.PA>, the newly
established French subsidiary of Alcatel NV which now runs the
worldwide telecommunications activities of ITT Corp <ITT.N>,
has won a 15 mln franc contract from the Swedish armed forces
for transmission equipment, Alcatel said in a communique here.
    The order is for multiplexing equipment and falls within
the framework of a 50 mln franc sales contract obtained by
Alcatel in 1982, it added.
    Alcatel NV is a joint venture between ITT and France's
state-owned Cie Generale d'Electricite <CGE>.
 REUTER

The stock of Pacific Telesis Group
rose 1/2 to 54-1/8 in active trading after analyst Charles
Schelke of Smith Barney upgraded a recommendation on the stock
to "buy" from "accumulate," traders said.
    Schelke was unavailable for comment.
    Traders familiar with the opinion said the recommendation
noted that a possible operating rate reduction had already been
discounted in the stock yesterday when it fell 1-7/8, making
the stock a good buy today.
 Reuter

Panama Canal toll charges will not rise
in the year to end-September 1988, despite last October's
landslide which dumped 0.5 mln cubic yards of debris into the
waterway, Canal Commission Administrator Dennis McAuliffe said.
    He told a press conference that in confirming the
Commission's earlier announcement of unchanged tolls for 1988,
he was not necessarily implying there would be a rise in 1989.
    The canal would probably make a five to six mln dlr loss in
the current financial year but this could be carried over and
met from next year's revenues.
    This year's deficit resulted from the landslide which cost
the canal about 15 mln dlrs, McAuliffe said. This included
eight to nine mln dlrs in immediate costs with the rest being
spent on earth-moving operations to prevent any further
landslides.
    He said the landslide was not caused by deforestation and
he described as grossly exaggerated reports that there was any
threat to the canal's water supply in the foreseeable future.
    Studies concerning the possibility of widening the Gaillard
cut would not be affected by the landslide, he said, adding
that he expected the canal board to determine whether and when
the canal needed widening by January 1988 at the latest.
 Reuter

Tele-Art Inc said its class A warrants
which were due to expire March 19 have been extended to April
18.
    Tele-Art designs and manufactures digital watches and
clocks.
 Reuter

Richardson Electronics Ltd said it
agreed to buy for undisclosed terms, G.E.B., Giant Electronics
Brand, a Florence, Italy-based distributor of electron tubes
and semiconductors.
 Reuter

Federal regulators said Boyd
Jefferies, who resigned as head of his Los Angeles brokerage
firm, took part in schemes to manipulate the price of a stock
and in a stock "parking" plot with inside trader Ivan Boesky.
    In a civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New
York, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Jefferies
agreed with an unidentified person to have his firm buy up a
large chunk of stock being issued in a public offering.
    Under the agreement, the firm, Jefferies and Co, drove the
price of the stock up by one-eighth point by buying four blocks
of the stock at or near the close of trading, the SEC said.
    Jefferies and Co's purchases of the unidentified stock
accounted for 66 pct of the total trading volume of the stock
on that day and were aimed at manipulation, the SEC said.
    The complaint did not identify the company whose stock was
being traded, but said that the Jefferies and Co purchases took
place sometime last year when another unidentified company,
which owned a controlling interest in the company, sold several
million shares of the stock in a secondary public offering.
    The stock purchases were made on the New York Stock
Exchange and the Pacific Stock Exchange, the SEC said.
    The person who made the alleged stock manipulation
agreement with Jefferies was also not identified.
    But the person was later billed by Jefferies and Co in a
phony invoice marked for investment banking services for the
exact amount the firm lost on the deal when it later sold the
stock on the open market, the SEC said.
    The payment, the amount of which was also not revealed in
the complaint, was made later by another unidentified person
after Jefferies sent a second invoice for a lesser amount, the
SEC said. The firm recorded the payment as "other income," it
said.
    William McLucas, associate director of enforcement at the
SEC, declined to say why the agency decided against revealing
the identities of other persons and companies involved in the
stock manipulation scheme.
    "We just made a determination that this was the way to go
at this time," McLucas told Reuters.
    The complaint went into far greater detail in its charges
that Jefferies agreed with Boesky to "park" stock at each
other's firms. Parking, or warehousing, stock, refers to deals
where stock is held by one person or firm under an arrangement
where it is actually under the control of someone else.
    Under the agreement between Jefferies and Boesky, Jefferies
and Co would hold stock owned by Seemala Corp, one of Boesky's
brokerage firms, for 31 days, after which Seemala would "buy"
the stock back, the SEC said.
    Seemala realized all gains and sustained all losses on the
stock held by Jefferies and Co during the period, agreed to
compensate Jefferies and Co for carrying the stock and to pay
more than twice Jefferies and Co's usual commission, it said.
    Seemala then agreed to hold stock owned by Jefferies and Co
for a month under terms about the same as the deal in which
Seemala agreed to park its stock at Jefferies and Co, it said.
    The agreement, which violated several securities laws,
allowed Seemala to create a false appearance that no longer
held the stock and could meet the SEC's net capital
requirements, the SEC said.
    Jefferies wanted Seemala to hold some of its stock, the SEC
said, so that Jefferies and Co could meet its net capital
needs, the agency said.
    On March 12, 1985, Seemala "sold" Jefferies 810,000 shares
oc Cooper Laboratories Inc for 11.7 mln dlrs, 600,000 shares of
Southland Financial Corp for 17.3 mln dlrs and 500,000 shares
of G.D. Searle and Co for 27.1 mln dlrs, it said.
    On March 20, Jefferies and Co "sold" Seemala 185,500 shares
of American Broadcasting Co for 19.6 mln dlrs, 210,000 shares
of Ideal Basic Industries Inc for 2.9 mln dlrs, 300,000 shares
of ITT Corp for 9.8 mln dlrs, 105,000 shares of Phillips
Petroleum Co for 4.0 mln dlrs, 70,000 shares of Pioneer Corp
for 2.1 mln dlrs and 300,000 shares of Texas Oil and Gas Corp
for 5.3 mln dlrs, the SEC said.
    The value of Seemala's stock at the time of the transfers
was 56 mln dlrs, while Jefferies and Co's stock was worth 43
mln dlrs at the time, the SEC said.
    Within a month, Seemala and Jefferies and Co unwound most
of the stock transfers with each others firms, the SEC said.
    But a major hitch developed in the deal when the price of
Searle stock, which Jefferies and Co was holding for Seemala,
dipped sharply, it said.
    On March 26 Seemala "bought" back its Searle stock for 23.4
mln dlrs, resulting in a 3.6 mln dlr loss for Jefferies and Co,
the SEC said. Seemala then allowed Jefferies and Co to "buy"
back some it the stock Seemala was holding for it at a 647,812
dlr gain and Boesky's firms later paid the Jefferies firm three
mln dlrs, which it called "fees," it said.
    Among the violations Jefferies committed in the schemes,
were net capital, record keeping, public disclosure and margin
    Under the settlement of the civil SEC's charges, which was
announced simultaneously with the filing of the complaint,
Jefferies and his firm did not have to admit or deny guilt.
    But they agreed to a court order barring them from further
securities law violations.
    Jefferies also agreed to get out of the securities business
for at least five years.
 Reuter

Mortgage and Realty Trust
said C.W. Strong Jr., executive vice president, will succeed
Hayward L. Elliott as president and chief executive officer
when Elliott retires on April 1987.
    It said Elliott, 70, will remain a trustee.
 Reuter

has approved the listing of 12.3 mln common shares of Landmark
Technology Corp.
    Trading of the shares will begin Friday, March 20. The
stock is currently traded over the counter under the symbol
LTCO.
 Reuter

Bahrain-based <Arabian Investment
Banking Corp (Investcorp) EC> is raising 60 mln dlrs through a
medium-term revolving multi-purpose facility, arranger and
co-lead manager <Arab Banking Corp> (ABC) said.
    ABC said the deal had originally been mandated for 50 mln
dlrs, but a lead management group of six banks, each
underwriting 10 mln dlrs, had been formed prior to general
syndication, which started today.
    Investcorp, set up in 1982, specialises in buying companies
and property in industrialised nations. It then sells shares in
these to investors in the Gulf region.
    ABC said Investcorp's facility can be used "alternatively or
simultaneously" through the following facilities:
    - issue of euronotes and or advances through tender.
    - extension of committed advances by the underwriting
banks, a so-called "back-stop" facility.
    - issue of contingent obligations such as performance
letters of credit, letters of guarantee or the receipt of
quotations for interest rate swaps, interest rate caps and
collars from a panel of selected banks.
    ABC said the final option gives Investcorp the right to
request facilities on an uncommitted basis.
    ABC said the facility has a maturity of three years from
signature, with bullet repayment.
    It said the interest margin over London Interbank Offered
Rates (LIBOR) for the committed advances will be based on the
total utilisation of the facility - 17.5 basis points for up to
one third, 20 basis points for up to two thirds and 22.5 points
for an amount above that level.
    Banks are being invited to underwrite the facility at a
flat fee of 0.325 pct for five mln dlrs, 0.275 pct for three to
four mln and 0.25 pct for one to two mln. Syndication runs
until April 8.
 REUTER

FED SAYS IT SETS 1.5 BILLION DLRS OF CUSTOMER REPURCHASE AGREEMENTS

EC GRANTS 25,000 TONNES BARLEY, 80,000  FRENCH MAIZE LICENCES, REJECTS WHEAT - TRADERS

    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at six pct when the
Fed began its temporary and indirect supply of reserves to the
 Reuter

Hampshire said its board voted to omit the quarterly dividend
which would have been paid on May 15.
    The company said the omission is the thirteenth consecutive
dividend omission.
 Reuter

downgraded the ratings on six billion dlrs of debt of Merrill
Lynch and Co Inc.
    Cut were the firm's senior debt, Eurodebt and senior
guaranteed Eurodebt to A-1 from Aa-3 and subordinated debt to
A-2 from A-1.
    Merrill's Prime-1 commercial paper was not under review.
    Moody's said that while Merrill's absolute earnings would
continue to increase, the house's profitability will lag that
of its peers. And Merrill's attempts to improve profitability
will be constrained by accelerating competition, Moody's said.
    Moody's also said Merrill Lynch would continue to
aggressively commit its capital to such merchant banking
activities as bridge financing.
    "These activities elevate the risk content of Merrill's
balance sheet at the same time as low profitability inhibits
the strong internal capital generation which may be necessary
to support business expansion efforts," Moody's said.
    The rating agency noted, however, that Merrill's franchise
retains significant value and gives the firm strong proprietary
securities placement power.
 Reuter

A coupon of 1/2 pct, equal to the lowest
ever in the Swiss franc market, has been set for Sumitomo
Corp's 200 mln franc convertible notes due September 30, 1992,
lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
     The conversion price has been set at 1,004 yen, a 3.93 pct
premium over today's 966 yen close. The exchange rate has been
set at 99.78 yen to the franc.
    The issue, whose coupon was indicated at 5/8 pct, carries a
put option after three years at 103 pct. Payment date is March
30.
 REUTER

Shr loss 76 cts vs profit 50 cts
    Net loss 19,186,000 vs profit 12,438,000
    Sales 157.9 mln vs 149.2 mln
    NOTE: Fiscal 1987 net loss includes a pretax charge of 19.5
mln dlrs from restructuring and an after tax charge of about
seven mln dlrs from debt prepayment premiums.
    Fiscal 1986 net profit includes a pretax gain of 7.2 mln
dlrs on the sale of some land, an after tax loss 1.35 mln dlrs
from discontinued operations and an after tax gain of 6.7 mln
dlrs from a change in accounting.
    All results restated to exclude five businesses divested as
part of the company's restructuring program.
 Reuter

TIME &lt;TL&gt; SAYS IT WILL REFINANCE DEBT
    NEW YORK, March 19, Time Inc said it intends to make a cash
tender offer for its 150 mln dlr outstanding 10-5/8 pct notes
due October 15 1992.
      The price and other terms of the tender offer have not
yet been determined, the company said.
    Time also announced its subsidiary, Time-Life Overseas
Finance Corp NV, intends to call for redemption all of its 100
mln dlr outstanding 10-3/4 pct guaranteed notes due January 26,
1990.
    Time said it expects to fund the tender offer and
redemption through one or more public issues of intermediate or
long-term debt.
    It added a shelf registration statement for up to 500 mln
dlrs of debt securities to be used, in part, for the
debt refinancing is expected to be filed in the near future.
    Time said these moves are part of a continuing effort to
reduce the average cost of its debt and to increase its
financing flexibility.
 Reuter

Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary
James Conrow said he was exceedingly pessimistic that 1988
funding for the multilateral development banks, as proposed by
the Reagan administration, will be approved by Congress.
    Speaking to an international development conference, Conrow
said it appears almost certain Congress will opt to cut
spending for international programs before they cut into
domestic programs.
    He said in such an environment "foreign aid will lose and
lose big."
    The administration has proposed development bank funding of
1.8 billion dlrs for fiscal year 1988 and seeks about 290 mln
dlrs in catch-up from funding reduced in prior years.
  
 Reuter

The EC Commission granted 25,000 tonnes
of free market barley export licences at today's tender and
80,000 tonnes of French maize, grain traders said.
    The maximum export rebate for barley was set at 137.25 Ecus
and for maize at 129.75 Ecus per tonne.
    All bids for wheat were rejected, they said.
 Reuter

Carson Pirie Scott and Co said the Tax
Reform Act of 1986, which repealed investment tax credits, had
a negative impact of 22 cts a share on earnings for the year
    Earlier, Carson reported yearly per-share earnings of 1.83
dlrs, down from 1.86 dlrs a year ago. Average shares increased
to 10.2 mln from 9.9 mln a year earlier. Sales gained to 1.41
billion dlrs from 1.30 billion dlrs.
    Carson said it was "extremely optimistic about improved
profit performance in 1987."
    It said in the first half of 1987 it hopes to reduce
seasonal-type losses sustained in the 1986 first and second
quarters.
    The company said that in early April its Oak Brook Hills
Hotel and Conference Center in suburban Chicago will open under
its management. Provisions for startup expenses have been made,
it added.
 Reuter

<Domtar Inc> said it plans a
two-for-one stock split to take effect May 14.
    The company said shareholders will be asked to approve the
split at the annual meeting on April 29.
    Domtar said its directors believe the split could favorably
affect marketability of the shares and encourage wider
distribution.
    The shares have been trading recently in a range of 45
dlrs. Domtar stock was previously split on a two-for-one basis
in June, 1985.
 Reuter

Financial Performance Corp said it
continued its rapid expansion with a signing of a partnership
agreement with Gold Sierra Financial Advisors, founded by
former Bank of America officers in capital markets.
    It said the agreement, under which it owns 50 pct of the
partnership, enables it to move into the mergers and
acquisitions business.
 Reuter

James Conrow said he was exceedingly pessimistic that Congress
will approve the Reagan administration's proposed 1988 funding
for the multilateral development banks.
said it appears almost certain that Congress will opt to cut
    He said that in such an environment "foreign aid will lose
and lose big."
    He said that this means the multilateral development bank
funding proposal will probably not "be supported and we will get
cuts."
1.8 billion dlrs for fiscal year 1988. In addition, it is
seeking about 290 mln dlrs in catch-up from funding that had
been reduced in prior years.
    Conrow defended the record of the banks in recent years,
saying that they had been rightly pressing debtor countries to
reform their domestic economic policies.
cuts."
    He said most of the loans made by the development banks go
to countries that the United States would like to see helped.
    Conrow said the U.S. financial commitment to the banks
allows them to substantially leverage their economic strength,
by getting assistance from other countries and by borrowing in
the capital markets.
 Reuter

AmSouth Corp said the Federal
Reserve Board approved the affiliation of First Tuskaloosa Corp
with Amsouth.
    The approval was the final regulatory step in the
affiliation process which began in August, Amsouth said.
    Under terms of the affiliation, each First Tuskaloosa
shareholder will receive 66 dlrs value of AmSouth stock for
each share held. The total consideration is valued at 105.6 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

French official reserves rose 12.73
billion francs to 388.68 billion francs at the end of February
from 375.95 billion at the end of January, the Finance Ministry
said.
    It said in a statement the rise was mainly due to inflows
of foreign currency through the exchange stabilisation fund,
which resulted in an increase of 12.41 billion francs.
    Reserves of European Currency Units rose by 25 mln francs
to 73.27 billion francs, due to interest adjustments, while
gold reserves rose by two mln francs to 218.46 billion francs.

French gross domestic product will grow
by only 1.5 pct in real terms this year, compared with the
government's forecast of two to 2.5 pct growth, the private
Institut des Previsions Economiques et Financieres pour le
Developpement des Entreprises (IPECODE) said.
    However, it expects growth to recover next year to the 1986
level of two pct.
    IPECODE said demand and production would develop in
parallel this year, in contrast to last year when production
was unable to keep pace with the strong rise in domestic
demand, unleashing higher import demand.
    Claims on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by 298
mln francs to 19.61 billion francs, due to net withdrawals in
francs by member nations, and an increase in reserves of
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) due mainly to the repayment of
French debts.
    Its deficit with the European Monetary Cooperation Fund
(FECOM) remained unchanged in February at 33.90 billion francs.
    French household consumption, which rose by 3.1 pct last
year, is likely to grow by just 1.1 pct this year and 1.5 pct
in 1988, it added.
    Industrial investment is expected to rise by 4.3 pct this
year and 5.5 pct in 1988, down from 6.5 pct in 1986.
    Inflation, which was running at 2.1 pct at the end of 1986,
is likely to rise to 2.9 pct at the end of this year, IPECODE
said, while the government has forecast 2.5 pct.
    However, the institute said inflation would fall back to
2.5 pct at the end of 1988, "provided that real wage costs
remain within the framework of productivity rises."
 REUTER

Champion International Corp said
its board approved a 285 mln dlrs expansion of its mill in
Hinton, Alberta, Canada.
    The project will double capacity of the mill's pulping
operation to 424,000 short tonnes a year.
    Champion expects the expansion to be completed by 1989.
 Reuter

Independence Bancorp Inc said
it completed its merger with Scranton, Penn.-based <Third
National Bank and Trust Co>, with assets of 316 mln dlrs.
    Independence said its combined assets are now 2.5 billion
dlrs.
    The company said that each share of Third National common
will be exchanged for 4.06 shares of its common. Independence
said the merger will be accounted for as a pooling of
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 93 cts
    Net 1.6 mln vs 2.6 mln
    Revs 5.3 mln vs 1.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 73 cts vs 1.36 dlrs
    Net 2.0 mln vs 3.0 mln
    Revs 9.1 mln vs 11.0 mln
    NOTE:1985 net includes 2.7 mln dlrs gain on disposal of
unit. 1986 includes operations of Dependable Insurance Gruop
Inc.
 Reuter

Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric
Co, a unit of American Electric Power Co Inc, is offering 100
mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds due 2017 priced to yield nine
pct, said lead manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    Morgan headed a syndicate that won the bonds in competitive
bidding. Daiwa Securities, Drexel Burnham and UBS Securities
are co-managers of the offering.
    Underwriters noted that UBS, acting as sole underwriter,
won a competitive bidding for 250 mln dlrs of 30-year
debentures of GTE Corp <GTE> just this morning. And Daiwa ran
the books for an offering in the U.S. earlier this month.
    The GTE deal is UBS's first this year and the fourth since
it won a competitive bidding in June 1986. Daiwa won its first
U.S. corporate debt offering in September 1986 and followed
that with the March 11 competitive win.
    The only other foreign firm to manage an offering in the
U.S. market is Nomura Securities International Inc, which won
as sole underwriter a competitive issue in December 1986.
    Morgan Stanley said it bid the Columbus and Southern Ohio
mortgage bonds at 99.609 and set a coupon of nine pct and
reoffering price of par to yield 140 basis points over the
off-the-run 9-1/4 pct Treasury bonds of 2016.
    The American Electric unit last tapped the domestic debt
market on August 21, 1986, when it issued 80 mln dlrs of
same-rated 29-year debt securities priced to yield 9-1/2 pct,
or 204 basis points over comparable Treasury securities.
    Non-refundable for five years, the 30-year first mortgage
bonds are rated Baa-2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc and BBB
by Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

    Oper net profit 301,000 dlrs vs profit 130,000
    Revs 10.5 mln vs eight mln
    NOTE: Dividends on preferred shares 370,000 dlrs vs 51,000
dlrs.
    Oper net excludes gains on tax loss carryforward of 247,000
dlrs vs 118,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers said it plans
to tell General Motors Corp later today that it will authorize
a strike by its local at GM's truck and bus works in Pontiac,
Mich.
    The union said its letter to GM means the 9,000 workers at
the Pontiac facility will walk out of the plant next week if a
contract dispute is not settled between the two sides.
    The action "triggers an intensive effort to resolve
disputed issues before the letter expires," the UAW said.
    The main unresolved issue is the subcontracting of work by
GM to non-union workers, the union said in a statement.
    The UAW said its vice president Donald F. Ephlin, head of
the union's General Motors bargaining unit, met with officials
of Local 594 in Pontiac, Mich., this morning to review the
issues involved in the dispute.
    The union said it is "hopeful that a settlement can be
reached before a strike becomes necessary."
 Reuter

Tracor Inc's Applied Sciences Inc
unit said it received an 8.4 mln dlrs contract from the U.S.
Navy
    The contract is for one year and includes four one-year
options.
 Reuter

MCI Telecommunications Corp
said it filed suit against 27 Johnson C. Smith University
students in Mecklenburg County General Court to recover damages
from credit card fraud in excess of 600,000 dlrs.
    The suit is based on the use of two credit card codes for
long distance services, it said.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration protested
for the first time the constitutionality of the 1978 special
prosecutor law that led to a current investigation of the
    The constitutional attack by Assistant Attorney General
John Bolton was the first official public objection, although
reportedly the administration privately has opposed the Ethics
in Government Act.
    Bolton told a Senate subcommittee the administration
"believes there are grave constitutional problems" with the law
that sets up court-appointed independent prosecutors, or
independent counsels, to probe high ranking government
officials.
 Reuter

Carroon and Black Corp said it
completed the acquisition of <Poggi-Harrison Agency Inc> and
<Risk Control Inc>.
    Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
    Separately, Carroon said it also completed the acquisition
of <Rosskopf, Rapp and Schmidt Insurance Agency>, based in El
Monte, Calif.
 Reuter

    Payable July one
    Record June 12
 Reuter

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's
board of the directors has decided to drop a proposal to place
a limit on daily price movements of its Standard and Poor's 500
futures contract, CME President William Brodsky said.
    Brodsky told the Futures Industry Association that the
exchange's board decided Tuesday to withdraw the proposal,
which aimed to quell price volatility in the popular contract.
    He said the proposal to establish a one-year pilot program
had generated much negative reaction among users of the
contract and that the CFTC "was not comfortable" with the plan.
    "Now, given the CFTC's posture on our filing, we feel the
negatives outweigh the positives," Brodsky said.
    Brodsky said market users were concerned that limits could
"become self-fulfilling because they could force sales to
(allow users to) avoid becoming locked into the market."
    He also said the board was concerned that the one-year
pilot price limit might become permanent. "Rules when put in
place sometimes don't come off," he said.
 Reuter

Mining companies may have to
develop specialty metals and metal-containing products if
plastics and other substitutes are not to make further inroads
in their markets, according to the United Nations.
    In a report by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar on
world mineral resources, U.N. experts termed conditions in the
non-fuel mineral industry "unlike anything that has been
experienced for the last half century."
    Effects of slower global economic growth were compounded by
diminishing use of the major and base metals and the
development of substitutes in traditional markets, it said.
    The report was prepared for a nine-day session next month
of the U.N. committee on natural resources, an organ of the
Economic and Social Council.
    The gap between world productive capacity and demand would
eventually be eliminated by closing mines, the report
    "Although for the most part mining companies have been slow
to develop specialty metals and metal-containing products and
to develop markets for such products, it seems that such
activities will be needed if plastics and other metal
substitutes are not to make further inroads into the
traditional markets for the major and base metals," the experts
said.
    "Integration of metal-producing and manufacturing
enterprises between and among developed economies seems to be a
likely consequence."
    The report noted that, because of low prices, there was
little incentive for new investment in mining except in the
case of gold, which continued to attract investment at current
prices with important increases in production in the past two
years in North America, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Latin
America.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said one of its U.S. car
and one of its U.S. truck assembly plants will work overtime on
Saturday, March 21.
    The number two automaker said all of its U.S. car and truck
plants will work overtime during the week.
    The two plants scheduled to work Saturday are Ford's
assembly plant in Dearborn, Mich., which makes Mustang cars,
and its Michigan Truck plant in Wayne, Mich., which makes light
trucks.
    No layoffs are scheduled, a spokesman said.
 Reuter

J and J Snack Foods Corp said it filed
    The company said proceeds would be used for potential
future acquisitions.
 Reuter

<Benetton SpA> of Italy expects to
further diversify into financial services and is weighing 
possible acquisitions, a Benetton spokeswoman here said.
    "We are thinking of diversification outside of the retail
line," the spokeswoman said. "We are looking at financial
services and other manfacturing companies."
    However, she said the company was not targeting the U.S.
for its planned expansion, but was looking at a number of
different countries.
    The company's shares are traded in the U.S. as American
Depository Receipts, which were issued through an offering by
Morgan Stanley Group Inc <MS> earlier this month.
    Benetton is now holding talks with Wall Street firms about
the possibility of receiving a quotation of its shares on the
New York Stock Exchange. "There's absolutely no timetable. It
may not even happen," the spokeswoman said.
    She also denied reports that the company was considering an
issue of convertible bonds with warrants in the U.S. "We're not
thinking of issuing bonds," she said.
    In line with its planned Global expansion efforts, Benetton
is also holding talks with the Soviet Union to explore the
possibility of opening up to 150 stores in the country. But the
spokeswoman pointed out that many companies are holding talks
with the Soviets.
    "We are in discussions and are looking forward to some
response," she said. She added the company had no firm
timetable on when a response might be received.

 Reuter

The Hamburgische Landesbank Girozentrale
Canadian dollar bond issued earlier today due May 6, 1990 at
8-1/4 pct and 101-3/8 has been increased to 75 mln dlrs, said
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as lead manager.
 REUTER

MCorp said it plans to convert 35 of its
62 member banks to branches during the next nine months.
    It said it expects the conversions, pending regulatory
approval of branching applications, will provide substantial
long-term benefits for its customers and shareholders.
    In connection with the conversions, MCorp said it also has
realigned its operating structure and named eight group
chairmen.
    It said the group chairmen, with its chairman and
president, will comprise its management committee.
 Reuter

<Trizec Corp Ltd> said it
plans a 171.25 mln dlr issue of class A subordinate voting
shares, consisting of five mln shares at 34.25 dlrs each.
    It said <Great Lakes Group Inc> will buy 3,750,000 shares
from the underwriters after closing and grant the underwriters
an option to repurchase 150,000 shares.
    Underwriters are Dominion Securities Inc, Gordon Capital
Corp, Merrill Lynch Canada Inc, McLeod Young Weir Ltd, Wood
Gundy Inc and Brown Baldwin Nisker Ltd. Trizec said it will
file a preliminary short-form prospectus on the issue with
securities commissions across Canada.
 Reuter

    Net 4.3 mln vs 5.1 mln
    Revs 64.5 mln vs 67.1 mln
    NOTE:1986 reflects two for one stock split, effective July
31
 Reuter

Federated Financial Savings
said it declared an initial quarterly dividend of 85 cts a
share April 27, record April 13.
    This is the first dividend paid by Federated since its
conversion to a stock company from a mutual on Jan 28, 1987.
 Reuter

Elsinore Corp said it deposited about
2.33 mln dlrs with trustee Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co to
cover accrued and unpaid interest on the 15-1/2 pct senior
mortgage bonds due 1999 of its unit Elsinore Finance Corp.
    The interest has not been paid for January and February and
will be paid April 9 to bondholders of record on April 8, the
parent company said.
    Elsinore said it has guaranteed the payment of the bonds.
The interest payment is being made in line with the terms of a
previously announced agreement in principle it reached with an
unofficial committee of senior bondholders.
 Reuter

Rexnord Inc said it expects to
merge with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banner Industries Inc
in early May.
    Late last month, Banner said it completed a tender offer
for and held 96 pct of Rexnord's common shares.
 Reuter

Newcor Inc said its board elected
William Mitchell as chairman succeeding Frank Gofrank, who is
retiring as chairman but remains a director.
    In other action, Newcor's board approved payment of a
regular quarterly dividend of eight cts on May one, record
April 15.
 Reuter

Zurn Industries Inc said it acquired
technology to control potentially toxic gases from polluting
the atmosphere at various stationary sources.
    The equipment was purchased from <Proctor and Schwartz> 
for an undisclosed amount.
 Reuter

Qtrly div three cts vs three cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

West German corporate
insolvencies totalled 1,099 in January, 0.7 pct less than in
the same month of 1986, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    The number of insolvencies fell by 3.6 pct in the building
industry and by four pct in manufacturing industry but rose by
1.8 pct in the services sector.
    Overall insolvencies, including those of private
individuals, totalled 1,522 in January, 1.4 pct down on the
same month of last year.
 REUTER

Immunogenetics Inc said it
declared the distribution of one common stock purchase right on
each outstanding share.
    Each right will entitle holders to buy a share at 20 dlrs
for each share held. The rights are exercisable only if someone
acquires 35 pct or more of the company.
    The rights are not being distributed in response to any
takeover effort, it said.
 Reuter

Symbion Inc said <Warburg, 
Pincus Capital Co L.P.> began a tender offer to purchase up to
2.5 mln shares, or about 33 pct, of Symbion's shares at 3.50
dlrs per share. Warburg already owns about 26 pct of Symbion.
    Symbion has 7,472,000 shares outstanding. The company makes
artificial hearts.
    Symbion said its board and management are carefully
reviewing the offer and on or before March 30 will advise its
shareholders on whether it accepts or rejects the offer. If the
tender offer is successful, Warburg wll own about 59 pct of
Symbion.
 Reuter

French Social Affairs and Labour Minister
Philippe Seguin has renewed a controversy over whether France
is positioning itself for an economic U-turn, saying it was
possible to boost domestic demand without giving rise to
negative economic effects.
    Prime Minister Jacques Chirac's spokesman, Denis Baudouin,
on Monday sparked speculation of a reflation hitherto excluded
by the government when he said ministers were agreed on the
desirability of "relaunching the economy." 
    The Finance Ministry, however, swiftly ruled out the option
of reinflation policies to boost domestic demand, which were
tried and abandoned by the previous Socialist government.
    Earlier today sources close to Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur reiterated policy remained one of restoring sound
finances and enhancing economic competitiveness.
    But political analysts said Baudouin's statements showed
growing divisions over electorally sensitive social issues
among the rightist RPR-UDF coalition, ahead of its bid next
year to capture the presidency from Socialist president
Francois Mitterrand.
    While the government has achieved lower inflation, a better
foreign trade balance and an overwhelmingly successful
privatisation programme, unemployment has continued to edge
upwards, reaching its present record rate of 10.9 pct, with
more than 2.5 mln jobless.
    Seguin, who holds direct responsibility for dealing with
unemployment, told a press lunch, "Everything depends on what
you call reflation...One can arrive at the results of a
reflation without passing through the perverse effects of a
reflation."
    He said conservative prime minister Jacques Chirac would
announce in the next few days a package of capital endowments
for state-owned enterprises including public works and motorway
building.  And while sources at Seguin's ministry said the
package could total 12 billion francs for 1987, sources close
to Balladur, making no mention of public works, said only 8.6
billion francs had been set aside for capital endowments.
    Seguin said the advantage of public works was that they
were non-inflationary and had a fast job-creating power.
 REUTER

Union Carbide Corp is raising 350 mln
dlrs through an offering of senior subordinated notes due 1994
yielding 9.90 pct, said sole manager First Boston Corp.
    The notes have a 9-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.24
to yield 290 basis points more than comparable Treasury paper.
    Non-callable for five years, the debt is rated B-1 by
Moody's and BB-minus by Standard and Poor's. The issue was
increased from an initial offering of 250 mln dlrs.
    Proceeds from the note sale and a 300 mln dlr issue of
convertible subordinated debentures will be used to repay
indebtedness incurred by Carbide's recapitalization plan.
interest expense, strengthen the company's financial condition
and increase operating flexibility, it said in a release.
    The company's convertible subordinated debentures were
priced late Tuesday by lead manager First Boston. The
debentures were given a 7-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing.
    They are convertible into Carbide's common stock at 35.50
dlrs per share, representing a premium of 23.47 pct over the
stock price when terms on the debt were set. The convertibles
are rated B-2 by Moody's and BB-minus by S and P.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Litton Industries said
its Applied Technology division won a 164.2 mln dlr contract
from the U.S. Navy to produce AN/ALR-67 (V) and AN/ALR-45F
airborne threat warning systems.
    The company said the systems will be used on a variety of
Navy attack and reconnaissance aircraft.
    Deliveries are set from August this year to February, 1990.
    The Navy also has an option in June to increase the
contract value to 226.6 mln dlrs, Litton said.
 Reuter

Parent company net profit 754.45 mln francs vs 674.1 mln.
    Dividend 19.50 francs vs same.
    NOTE - Company said the dividend would apply to shares
issued under capital increases during 1986. This means a 32 pct
rise in total dividend payments to 528.14 mln francs on 1986
results from 399.62 mln the previous year.
 Reuter

Solar Systems by Sundance Inc said it
agreed to buy a 45 pct interest in a company that will sell
condoms produced by INKEY SA of Spain.
    It said a spermicide used in INKEY's condoms contains an
ingredient that may help prevent the sexual transmission of
AIDS. The ingredient was cited in an article in the West German
publication, Aids Forschung. But it said the article was
about the ingredient and did not mention the spermicide or the
condoms made by INKEY.
    The company also said it is changing its name to
Eurocapital Corp shortly.
    Solar Systems said it was buying the 45 pct stake in a
U.S.-based <Europharmaceutical Co>. INKEY and an affiliate own
the remaining shares of the company, which was set up to
distribute condoms and vaginal products that are made, or are
being developed by INKEY.
    The agreement calls for a two mln dlr payment to Inkey for
the distributorship. The first 500,000 dlr payment is due 30
days after the products are approved by the Food and Drug
Administration. It said Europharmaceutical plans to soon file
with the FDA to market the condom, but expects the approval
process to be a lengthy one.
    The company said the active ingredient in the spermicide is
currently used in the U.S. in antiseptic applications unrelated
to condoms. As far as it knows, the ingredient has not been
tested in a spermicide.
    Inkey's condoms will be sold in the U.S. under the brand
name, "Carlton." The exclusive distribution contract for the
products runs for three years and is renewable for one-year
periods, the company said.
    It said the condoms are currently sold in Spain but have
not gone on sale in other European countries.
    It said Europharmaceutical currently does not have the
resources to make the payments under the distribution agreement
or fund the studies necessary to obtain marketing approval from
the FDA.
    The company also said Europharmaceutical is in talks to
acquire either one or more publicly held companies with little
or no assets. In the event an acquisition goes through, Solar
Systems' interest in Europharmaceutical would be diluted below
its current 45 pct.
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs profit 37 cts
    Net loss 350,738 vs profit 1,095,991
    Revs 18.8 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 28 cts vs profit 1.29 dlrs
    Net profit 831,901 vs profit 3,000,716
    Revs 60.6 mln vs 48.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,996,903 vs 2,756,596
    Note: Per share date adjusted to reflect 10 pct stock
dividend of March 1986.
 Reuter

IntelliCARD
International Inc said its common stock will continue to be
quoted on NASDAQ due to an exception from capital asset
requirements of the National Association of Securities Dealers,
which it failed to meet as of December 16.
by the NASD for the exception, but there is no assurance that
it will be able to do so.
 Reuter

Owners of two aluminum smelters in
Kentucky received temporary relief from higher electric rates
after a decision Tuesday by state regulators denying a rate
hike to (Big Rivers Electric Corp) of Henderson, Ky.
    But the owners of the smelters, (National Southwire
Aluminum Co) and Alcan Aluminium Ltd <AL>, said further
viability of the operations would depend in part upon how the
rate case is eventually settled.
    "We're hoping for no rate increases but we can't say for
sure. It's still possible we'll have to close the smelter," a
National Southwire spokesman said. He said there were other
variables to consider in any decision whether to close or
continue the smelter, located in Hawesville, about 60 miles
west of Louisville.
    National Southwire is owned by National Intergroup Inc
<NII>, which holds about 55 pct, and (Southwire Co), which
holds the rest, the spokesman said.
    A spokesman for Montreal-based Alcan said, "The decision is
48 pages long and is in legal-ese, so it certainly will be a
long time before we can make a decision" about what it means
for the Sebree smelter in Henderson, about 100 miles west of
Louisville. "But we're delighted that Big Rivers Electric was
denied the requested rate increase."
    A spokesman for the utility, a cooperative that generates
and wholesales electricity to four distributors, said the
requested increase was 7.5 mln dlrs a year over 1985 rates.
    The Kentucky Public Service Commission, in denying the
increase, asked the utility to meet with creditors, which
include Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC> and Irving Bank Corp
<V>, and the smelters, to renegotiate a rate plan, the utility
    The commission suggested that Big Rivers Electric work out
a flexible rate schedule with the smelters that would index
their electric costs to the price of aluminum, he said.
    "We have always been amenable to try, as far as we can, to
assure that the two aluminum smelters remain viable," he said.
    No meetings are scheduled and none have been planned
between the utility, its creditors and the aluminum plant
owners. The commission has set a hearing on the rate issue for
July 28.
 Reuter

Shr 4.45 dlrs vs 3.44 dlrs
    Shr diluted 4.30 dlrs vs 3.34 dlrs
    Net 423.5 mln vs 319.1 mln
    Sales 3.34 billion vs 2.97 billion
    Avg shrs 95.1 mln vs 92.6 mln
    NOTE: U.S. funds.
    Net includes equity in earnings of Du Pont Co <DD> of 169.1
mln dlrs vs 75.7 mln dlrs and dividend income from Du Pont
shares of 154.1 mln dlrs vs 150.8 mln dlrs.
    Latest year net includes pretax charge 35.0 mln dlrs from
sale of wine operations and reorganization of spirits
operations in U.S. and related reduction in tax expense of 27.7
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Caisse Nationale des Autoroutes (CNA) is
issuing a three billion franc 8.50 pct, 15-year domestic bond
at 96.10 pct, co-lead managers Caisse Nationale de Credit
Agricole, Credit du Nord and Credit Lyonnais said.
    Payment date will be April 6. Denominations are of 5,000
francs. Redemption will be in three equal tranches after 12
years.
 REUTER

    Pay May 11
 Reuter

 Reuter

A former vice president of Painewebber
Inc pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to charges he
conspired to launder over 700,000 dlrs in cash from investors.
    Gary Eder, 41, PaineWebber's highest paid broker between
1982-86, was indicted last week on charges of conspiracy and
falsifying brokerage records.
    Eder, who resigned from the firm earlier this year,
admitted he received cash from various clients, and converted
the funds to smaller amounts to avoid reporting requirements by
the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
    Eder said he did not profit directly from the transactions
except for the commissions he received.
    U.S. District Judge Edmund Palmieri scheduled May 27 for
sentencing. Eder could receive up to five years in jail on each
count and 260,000 dlrs in fines.
    Eder had been accused of plotting with unidentified
supervisors at PaineWebber to prevent the filing of currency
transaction reports with the IRS. Under U.S. law, cash
transactions of 10,000 dlrs or more must be reported to the
IRS.
    David Spears, the Federal prosecutor in charge of the case,
said Eder received cash from customers in amounts up to 70,000
dlrs at one time, and then broke the cash down into amounts
under 10,000 dlrs and put the money into accounts on several
different days.
    Outside of Court, Eder's lawyer, Milton Gould, said his
client was not involved in the ongoing Wall Street insider
trading scandel. Rather, Gould said, "Eder accomodated some
wealthy customers (who wanted to avoid taxes)."

 Reuter

Hubco Inc said its board is in
the process of filing an application with the New York State
Banking Department to permit the formation of a loan production
office in that state.
 Reuter

Germantown Savings Bank said
it has started a subscription offering of 3,500,000 shares at a
maximum price of 11.50 dlrs each to customers and community
residents.
    It said the offer will expire April 15.
    The company said any shares not sold will be offered to the
public through underwriter Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB>, and
the stock is expected to trade on the NASDAQ system.  It said
the actual price to be charged for the shares will be
determined after the subscription offering.
 Reuter

First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Salt Lake City <FFUT> said an initial public
offering of 816,927 common shares is under way at 6.50 dlrs
each through underwriters led by Boettcher and Co Inc.
    It said it sold a total of one mln shares, with the others
sold in an earlier offering to customers.
 Reuter

Oper shr one ct vs six cts
    Oper net 48,000 vs 556,000
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 26.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 19 cts vs 46 cts
    Oper net 1,586,000 vs 3,971,000
    Revs 90.8 mln vs 103.1 mln
    NOTE: Previous oper net excludes 404,000 dlrs of
extraordinary expenses for qtr and 991,000 dlr gain for year.
    TIE/communications Inc <TIE> holds 65 pct interest.
 Reuter

The stock market could be jolted one
way or another on Friday as the so-called triple witching
expiration raises the specter of volatile movement.
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average could soar or plunge as
much as 100 points, or both, or even remain static, according
to analysts of the stock and stock index futures markets.
    The simultaneous expiration of March stock index futures
contracts, options on these futures and options on the indexes
themselves, along with options on individual stocks, has
created a mad scramble during several previous "witching
hours."
    Upon expiration of these vehicles, investment managers must
find a place for their funds, and in the past the final hour
has seen a tremendous surge in New York Stock Exchange volume.
    Analysts said the overriding influence of the stock
market's steady climb this year -- and the absence of
worthwhile investment alternatives -- may indicate that the
major players will look to buy into the stock market as the
final hour transpires this friday.
    "I think there will be a substantial swap out of futures
(positions) and into stocks," Jeffrey Miller, of Miller Tabak
Hirsch and Co said. "(But) I've got a streak of four or five in
a row of being right, so I'm bound to be wrong."
    The feeling among some analysts is that the largest money
managers will do the same thing they did at December's
expiration when they plunged their multi-billion dollar funds
into the stock market.
    "Last time, during triple-expiration, there was a
tremendous amount of stock sold, which was offset by huge buy
programs late," said Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Inc analyst
William Marcus.
    Some stock funds quickly place newly arrived investment
dollars into buying futures positions, Miller said. Then, upon
the expiration of the futures, the manager looks to transform
that into a stock portfolio, he said.
    The coming month is also a seasonally strong period for the
stock market, Stotler and Co analyst David Hightower said,
because of the influx of income tax refunds.
    Although Hightower recommended steering clear of trading
during the witching hour, he suggested buying if the market
plunges, believing that the slide would only be temporary.
    Marcus said it was difficult to make a prediction as to
which way the market will go on Friday, partly because many
investors will be engaging in "window-dressing."
    The public disclosure of order imbalances in individual
stocks a half hour before the close may reveal an opportunity
to those investors seeking either to buy or get rid of stocks,
offsetting whatever impact the initial imbalances show.
    Analysts said efforts by exchanges to quell the volatility
on triple-expirations are unlikely to substantially alter the
impact of futures and options on the stock market. Money
managers are sure to find other types of loopholes that emerge
under the new rules, they said.
 Reuter

Bobbie Brooks Inc said its board
approved a defensive common stock purchase rights plan.
    Under the plan, shareholders will receive one common shares
purchase right March 31 on each outstanding share of record on
that date.
    Each right entitles shareholders to buy one share of common
stock at an exercise price of 4.50 dlrs. The rights are
exercisable only if a person acquires 20 pct or more of the
company's common stock.
    Bobbie Brooks said the rights are not being distributed in
response to any specific takeover effort.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12 cts vs 10 cts prior
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs 16 cts
    Net 127,000 vs 605,000
    Sales 14.4 mln vs 9,726,000
    Six Mths
    Shr 17 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 678,000 vs 1,141,000
    Sales 24.6 mln vs 19.2 mln
 Reuter

    Pay June Two
    Record May 12
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 47-1/2 cts vs 47-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May 13
 Reuter

<Meridian Insurance Group Inc> said
an initil public offering of 1,500,000 shares is underway at 12
dlrs each through underwriters led by Prescott, Ball and Turben
Inc and Wm. Sword and Co Inc.
    It said underwriters have been granted an option to buy up
to 225,000 additional shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

American Equine Products
Inc said it has signed a letter of intent for a proposed
underwritten public offering.  It gave no details.
 Reuter

has started trading the common stock of Adams-Russell
Electronics Co Inc, which had been traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

Whitehall Corp said the U.S. Navy has
exercised contract options to lease two additional Quick
Reaction Surveillance Systems for the year ending September 30
from Whitehall for 4,437,000 dlrs.
    The company said the contract contains further options for
the lease of those two systems and two others for two more
years at abouyt 18 mln dlrs per year.
 Reuter

Nostalgia Network Inc said it signed an
agreement to air two minute and five minute commercial
announcements of its home shopping service called Collectible
Showcase on the ACTS Satellite Network.
    ACTS Network, with over six mln subscribers, will air the
spots about 28 times per week for 13 weeks.
   
 Reuter

Rocky Mountain Medical Corp said the
Baby News Store chain of children's stores will carry its
tenderCare line of non-chemical disposable diapers.
    Rocky claimed its patented dryness technology provides a
diaper that is demonstrably drier than conventional disposable
diapers and cloth diapers.
    Baby News' 60 stores are located in the western U.S.
 Reuter

Qtly div Class A 27-1/2 cts vs 27-1/2 cts
    Qtly div Class B 24-1/2 cts vs 24-1/2 cts
 Reuter

The American Petroleum Institute
said that U.S. crude oil production in February declined 9.8
pct from year-ago levels to about 8.3 mln barrels a day.
    In its monthly report on U.S. oil supplies and stocks, API
said that domestic demand for petroleum products, as measured
by products supplied, continued to rise reaching 16.3 mln
barrels a day in the month, up 1.5 pct from February 1986.
    API noted the drop in crude oil output coupled with a
drop in natural gas liquids production, which was off 11 pct
from February 1986 levels, represented a decline in U.S.
production of more than one mln barrels a day.
    API said the decline in domestic production and the rise in
demand brought petroleum imports to about six mln barrels a day
in February, a 30.3 pct increase from last year's level.
    So far this year, API said growth in domestic demand, which
was up 2.9 pct from last year's year-to-date level, has slowed
in comparison to the accelerated growth in the last half of
1986.
    It said crude oil production for the first two months of
1987 was off 8.6 pct from the comparable year-ago period while
crude imports were up 30.6 pct.
 Reuter

<Canada Development Corp> said it is
considering the sale of the 270.8 mln dlrs it holds of
Falconbridge Ltd's 8.5 pct convertible debentures and of its 25
pct holding in <CDC Life Sciences Inc>.
    It said it made the disclosure in two prospectuses filed
today with the Ontario Securities Commission.
    CDC said one prospectus covers a planned issue of units to
raise up to 30 mln dlrs for subsidiary Canterra Energy Ltd's
1987 exploration spending. A second prospectus relates to a
planned public sale of four mln common shares which CDC sold
privately to an unidentified investor in December.
    CDC said the unit offering will consist of a maximum of
18,750 units priced at 1,600 dlrs each. Each unit will comprise
an interest in CDC Flow-Through limited partnership and common
shares of Canterra which will be exchanged for CDC common
shares.
    Through a series of transactions, investors will receive
100 common shares of CDC for each unit, representing a price of
16 dlrs a common share. They will also get rights to income tax
deductions equal to the price of each unit.
    Agents for the sale are Wood Gundy Inc and Dominion
                        
 Reuter

Italy's state-controlled
telecommunications company <Stet - Societa Finanziaria
Telfonica P.A.> and France's Thomson-CSF <TCSF.PA> said they
were negotiating a deal involving their respective subsidiaries
<SGS Microelettronica SpA> and <Thomson Semiconducteurs>.
    The deal in question was in the civil semiconductor sector,
the companies said in a joint statement, but gave no details.
    The final agreement would be submitted for approval to the
French and Italian authorities, they added. The statement
follows recent press speculation that the two companies were
holding talks aimed at a long-term agreement.
 REUTER

Consumers may benefit from new
telephone services if business restrictions against the
regional Bell companies are eased, but safeguards against rate
hikes may be needed, congressional and industry analysts say.
    An easing of the restrictions by the U.S. District Court
would help bring new services to markets that the regional
firms are currently prohibited from serving, the analysts say.
    But consumer groups add that there is a danger the regional
companies would raise rates to subsidize entry into new markets
and safeguards would be needed to prevent that.
    Brian Moir, a spokesman for the International
Communications Association, a national group of telephone
users, said, "If there are no safeguards, there will be higher
rates, less competition and less consumer choice."
    The seven regional Bell companies created from the breakup
of American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> in 1984 have been
prohibited by the terms of the divestiture decree from
manufacturing equipment, offering computerized information
services or providing long-distance service.
    U.S. District Judge Harold Greene, who presided over the
divestiture and continues to enforce its terms, is currently
considering a Justice Department recommendation to eliminate
the restrictions except on long-distance service within a Bell
holding company's local service region.
    In separate filings last week, the regional Bells asked
Greene to remove restrictions, while industry and consumer
groups including the Consumer Federation of America joined ATT
in asking that all or most of them be retained.
    ATT, which has about an 80 pct share in the interstate
long-distance market, said in its filing it would not oppose
entry by the Bell companies into computerized information
services but was against their participation in long-distance
services and manufacturing equipment. ATT does not offer
computerized information services.
    ATT has asked the Federal Communications Commission, in a
separate proceeding, to reduce price and rate regulations that
have dominated the long-distance business for many years.
    Greene is expected to reach a decision on whether to ease
restrictions this year, possibly this summer, analysts said.
    "The restrictions prevent people who can provide services
from providing them," said a congressional aide.
    However, a major concern among consumer groups and
lawmakers is that the companies may subsidize those new
businesses from higher charges to their customers.
    "We're talking about activities funded directly or
indirectly off the backs of ratepayers," said Moir.
    One congressional aide said he was not worried about
subsidizing new businesses from profits, but he was concerned
that the Bell companies may overcharge consumers so that they
can invest in new services.
    Some analysts said accounting regulations would protect
consumers against cross-subsidization by the Bell companies.
    "Those are types of things that really do need review," said
Gerry Salemme, an aide with the House Telecommunications,
Consumer Protection and Finance Subcommittee.
    He added that the House would hold hearings later this year
to examine the potential effects of reduced restrictions.
    Gene Kimmelman of the Consumer Federation, which represents
more than 200 consumer groups, said accounting regulations were
inadequate because accountants could not separate equipment
employed for traditional and new services.
    "We have yet to see adequate regulatory safeguards that
exist that prevent cross-subsidization by the Bell companies,"
Kimmelman said. "You're either asking for great increases in
rates or a great opportunity for cross-subsidization."
    One congressional aide expressed concern that lifting of
the restrictions would lead to joint ventures between U.S. and
foreign firms in manufacturing telecommunications equipment and
that could lead to a loss of American jobs. He suggested some
safeguards may be needed to protect against that happening.
 Reuter

<TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp> said
it denies that Coastal Corp has standing to file a plan or
reorganization for TransAmerican in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
    In an earlier statement, TransAmerican said, Coastal
claimed its rights to file a reorganization planhad been
affirmed by the court. "Coastal claims they have standing, but
no final determinatioon has been made," TransAmerican said.
    The company said various Coastal subsidiaries have made
unsecured claims totaling 700,000 dlrs which are disputed by
    The company said it has a claim against Coastal's Coastal
States Trading Inc subsidiary for almost three mln dlrs. This
claim resulted by a breach of contract in the trading company's
failure to provide crude oil to the Good Hope Refinery in
Louisiana which was operated by TransAmerican's predecessor
company, <GHR Energy Inc>.
 Reuter

L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co of
Stockholm said it has signed a contract to supply BellSouth
Corp with two Ericsson AXE Signal Transfer Point Switches for
use in transfering signals and data between telephone central
offices.
    It said the switches will be installed in early 1988. 
Value was not disclosed.
    Ericsson also said its E-MX3 multiplexer will be installed
in Norlight's digital fiber optic network by June, replacing an
earlier Ericsson multiplexer.  Value was not given. Norlight is
owned by five midwestern electric power companies.
 Reuter

Jiffy Lube International Inc said it
can't account for the drop in its stock price.
    The company's stock is currently trading at 29-1/2 bid,
29-7/8 bid. Yesterday in NASDAQ trading it fell 4-1/4 to close
at 31.
 Reuter

Cytogen Corp said its will
expand clinical trials of its cancer imaging technology. It
said the new studies were anticipated to begin by mid year.
    It said the first phase of human testing begain in October.
The technology uses a monocloncal antibody tagged with a
radioisotope to diagnose colorectal cancer and several
other cancer types. It said preliminary studies revealed the
antibody combination was well tolerated in the patients
studied.
 Reuter

Lanson Champagne of France said it
named Whitbread PLC's Regal Brands Inc unit as its exclusive
U.S. importer, effective April one.
    Regal Brands is also the sole U.S. importer for Benedictine
S.A.'s liqueurs.
 Reuter

Prime Medical Services Inc said merger
talks with National HMO Corp <NHMO> have been terminated.
    Prime gave no reason for the termination of the talks with
National HMO.
 Reuter

Qtly div seven cts vs seven cts prior
    Payable April 28
 Reuter

CORRECTION - PARIS  - FRENCH MINISTER RENEWS
    Please read at end of first para of item
 "FRENCH MINISTER RENEWS ECONOMIC CONTROVERSY" "....An economic
U-turn, saying it was possible to obtain  the results of a
reflation without its negative effects." this makes it clear the
minister did not use the phrase "boost domestic demand."

Shr profit 10 cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 647,390 vs loss 75,967
    Sales 2,120,027 vs 1,666,908
    NOTE: Current year net includes 456,004 dlr gain from debt
 Reuter

A new International Natural Rubber
Agreement (INRA) will be formally adopted tomorrow, chairman of
the negotiating conference Manaspas Xuto of Thailand said.
    "The successful negotiation of the new agreement represents
a significant step forward in international economic
cooperation," he told a news conference. The new INRA is to
replace the current one which expires in October.
    Delegates at the renegotiation conference, held under the
auspices of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), reached agreement over the central elements of a new
accord last weekend.
    Xuto said the new INRA retains the reference price -- of
201.66 Malaysian/Singapore cents per kilo -- and indicative
prices set in the present pact.
    Price levels will continue to be expressed in the joint
Malaysian/Singapore currency, he added.
    The new agreement also maintains the basic structure of
price ranges -- the "may sell" and "may buy" points at plus and
minus 15 pct of the reference price, as well as the "must sell"
and "must buy" zones at plus and minus 20 pct of it.
    Xuto said the new pact maintains the same objectives that
were set in the present accord. "The most important of these are
to stabilise prices and to achieve a balanced growth between
demand and supply," he said. The buffer stock remains the sole
instrument of market intervention for price stabilisation and
its maximum capacity is unchanged at 550,000 tonnes, Xuto
added.
    At this month's session, which was the fourth attempt in
two years to negotiate a new INRA, the main issue to be
resolved concerned the mechanism for adjusting the reference
price.
    It was agreed to conduct reviews of the reference price
every 15 months -- instead of the current 18-month intervals.
    The extent of the adjustment was also modified.
    Under the present agreement if the daily market indicator
price has been above the upper intervention ("may sell") price
(currently 231 Malaysian/Singapore cents) or below the lower
intervention price ("may buy") price (171 cents at present) for
six months, the reference price is then revised by five pct or
whatever amount the International Natural Rubber Council
decides.
    Under the new pact, the adjustment under these
circumstances will be five pct unless the Council decides on a
higher adjustment.
    Similarly, when buffer stock purchases or sales amount to
300,000 tonnes, there would be an automatic adjustment of three
pct under the new accord unless the Council decides on a higher
percentage.
    Throughout the talks, which began on March 9, producers had
strongly opposed a consumer proposal to lower the reference
price and the "lower indicative price" (or floor price) of 150
cents in the present pact if the buffer stock, currently
360,000 tonnes, reached 450,000 tonnes.
    The proposal, initiated by the U.S., was withdrawn last
Friday, setting the stage for compromise at the weekend.
    Since then negotiators have worked on the finer details of
the new pact.
    On the question of conditions for entry into force of the
new INRA, Xuto said it was tentatively agreed that governments
accounting for 75 pct of world exports and 75 pct of world
imports approved or ratified the new agreement before it became
    The present agreement had a figure of 80 pct.
 Reuter

A group of New York investment
companies told the Securities and Exchange Commission they have
acquired 173,000 shares of Moore-Handley Inc, or 6.9 pct of the
    The firms, Robert H. Barker and Co, J.M.R. Barker
Foundation, Quaker Hill Associates L.P., Upland Associates L.P.
and James M. Barker Trust, said they bought the stock for two
mln dlrs soley for investment purposes.
    But the group said it might buy more Moore-Handley shares.
 Reuter

Ventra Management Inc said it
received a 10.8 mln dlr equipment lease with Georgetown Medical
Clinic of San Clemente, Calif.
    The lease was funded by by Ventra's leasing subsidary,
Joint Venture Leasing, in a venture agreement with Phillips
Equipment Co West, a unit of Telefunken AG of West Germany.
    Ventra said the lease will yield over its five year term a
net profit of over one mln dlrs for Joint Venture Leasing.
 Reuter

Panhanele Eastern Corp said its two
interstate pipeline subsidiaries will extend the availability
of self-implementing transportation service beyond the
scheduled May one termination of the program set by federal
    The company explained that Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co
and Trunkline Gas Co are engaged in renegotiating their basic
utility service agreements to provide both traditional tariff
sales and transportation service. Because this process requires
considerable time, the continuity of transport service is being
preserved, it added.
 Reuter

Sugar which EC producers plan to sell
into intervention may be offered by the European Commission for
sale within the Community, broker C. Czarnikow says in its
latest sugar review.
    The Commission will propose to offer the sugar at a very
nominal premium of 0.01 European Currency Unit (Ecu) to the
intervention price, with detrimental consequences for
producers' returns, Czarnikow says. The move is seen as an
attempt to persuade the producers to take back the surrendered
sugar.
    The Commission may also take other steps to dissuade
producers from their chosen course, such as removing the time
limit on storage contracts, which presently means that
intervention stocks have to be removed by the end of September,
Czarnikow says. There is also the possibility of production
quotas being reduced.
    If the Commission decided to offer the sugar to traders for
export, the restitutions would have to be higher than those at
recent export tenders, Czarnikow notes. To match the difference
between the EC price and the world market price, the extra
costs might be as much as 20 Ecus per tonne, it says.
    The producers might have to repay these costs through
production levies and the proposed special elimination levy,
Czarnikow says, but it would be several months before any costs
could be recovered under EC rules.
    The primary cause of the plan to sell 775,000 tonnes of
sugar into intervention in France is dissatisfaction with the
EC export program as the restitution has increasingly failed to
bridge the gap between the EC price and the world market price,
Czarnikow notes. The French move is thus seen as a form of
protest designed to force the Commission's hand.
    In West Germany, 79,250 tonnes have been tendered for
intervention, but Czarnikow says the motive here is to ensure
that the 1986/87 price is paid for sugar that was produced in
1986. In addition to a two pct cut in the intervention price,
West German producers face a further price reduction in July
with a probable revaluation of the "green" mark.
    Even if the immediate crisis is resolved, the problem is
not expected to disappear permanently. It has appeared to
traders for some years that the EC's export policy is
insufficiently responsive to changing patterns of demand, it
says.
    The weekly tenders should respond to fluctuating demand by
increasing or reducing the tonnage awarded, Czarnikow says,
suggesting that the Commission might also take steps to cut
down the amount of "unnecessary bureaucracy" surrounding the
export tender system.
 Reuter

Household Financial Corp Ltd is issuing
a 75 mln Canadian dlr bond due April 23, 1994, carrying a
coupon of nine pct and priced at 101-3/4, said Orion Royal Bank
    The securities are guaranteed by the parent company,
Household Finance Corp and are available in denominations of
1,000 and 10,000 dlrs each.
    There is a 1-1/4 pct selling concession and a 5/8 pct
combined management and underwriting fee. The company's
outstanding securities are rated AA-minus by Standard and
Poor's corp.
 REUTER

The Association of German Cooperative
Banks said in a financial survey that domestic interest rates
would continue to remain low for the time being.
    It said the Bundesbank could hold them down despite strong
foreign influence and it saw no interest-straining factors in
the economy that could affect the long-term capital market.
    The inflation rate of one pct also gave no occasion for
higher nominal interest rates. But a probable rise in inflation
late this year could give very slight grounds for a rise in
nominal rates at year's end and next year, it said.
    The association said generally low interest rates,
prospects of lower taxes, a stable dollar rate and expected
strong domestic demand led it to believe that the investment
climate would remain friendly and the economy would continue
its slow but very sure growth.
    The Bundesbank had managed successfully to keep interest
rates down on the short-term money market although its policies
had exerted little effect on the long-term capital market,
which was so important for investment financing and thus for
the course of the economy, it said.
    In view of the limits to the possibilities monetary policy
had in influencing the longer-term capital market, the
association saw little sense in wanting to boost the economy
through a short-term and expansionist monetary policy.
    On the other hand it also saw no reason for sticking
dogmatically to the money supply target for the whole of 1987.
    The association said time would show to what extent
speculative foreign money and short-term invested domestic
money would distort money supply developments. The Bundesbank
could hold down money market rates with the highly effective
instrument of sale and repurchase transactions, it said.
 Reuter

The International Cocoa Council, ICCO,
adjourned for the day after a detailed proposal on buffer stock
rules was distributed and executive committee officials were
elected, delegates said.
    Producers, EC consumers and all consumers are scheduled to
hold separate meetings tomorrow to review the proposal, written
by ICCO executive director Kobena Erbynn, they said.
    The buffer stock working group is to meet again on rules
Monday morning, and the full council is to reconvene Tuesday,
    Heinz Hofer of Switzerland was elected executive committee
chairman and Mette Mogstad of Norway vice chairman, they added.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said that the U.S.'s main industrial partners
should expand their domestic growth.
    In a speech to a women's group here, Johnson said, "There is
room for stronger domestic growth in those countries ... strong
enough to absorb growth in U.S. export markets."
    Johnson also said there was a better alignment of exchange
rates now and the Paris agreement to stabilize currencies has
brought western nations a long way towards establishing that
goal.
    Johnson said, "The Fed supports this pattern of exchange
rates ... and we'll see if it leads to a convergence in trade.
Quite possibly it can be achieved."
    Johnson said the Paris agreement achieved a better
alignment of exchange rates in exchange for stimulus by the
major surplus countries.
    He said this was "a major improvement and a step in the
right direction" and added U.S. allies look very strongly to a
U.S. budget deficit cut. "There will always be a potential risk
of breakdown in international cooperation" without a budget
deficit cut.
 Reuter

Slower than expected growth in Britain's
narrow M0 money supply measure in February will help spur a
further cut in U.K. Interest rates if a surge in sterling's
value requires such a move, economic analysts said.
    M0, the only targeted money supply measure left after
Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson scrapped the official
target for the broad sterling M3 measure in his 1987 budget
speech on Tuesday, fell an adjusted 3/4 to one pct in February.
    On an annual basis, this put M0 growth at four to 4-1/2
pct, in the middle of the 1987 target of two to six pct.
    "The M0 data are much better than we expected," said Robert
Thomas, economist at Greenwell Montagu Securities.
    He and other analysts said while the better than expected
M0 figures alone would not be sufficient to trigger a new
interest rate cut, they removed an obstacle to such a move.
    Thomas noted the rise in M0 had been kept in check despite
buoyant retail sales in February, advancing an adjusted 2.2 pct
after a fall of the same size in January.
    Analysts said the M0 measure, reflecting variations in
consumer demand rather than real inflation prospects, was not
an adequate indicator to determine interest rates.
    "The authorities still seem to want to pretend that M0 is
important ... In practice, it is likely to be the exchange rate
and the election which call the tune," Lloyds Merchant bank
chief economist Roger Bootle wrote in a budget comment.
    Richard Jeffrey, economist at stockbrokers Hoare Govett,
said in a comment: "It is unlikely that (Lawson) will respond to
signals from M0 alone ... Reinforcement from exchange rate
trends is necessary before action is taken."
    "With the Chancellor making clear that policy manoeuvres are
made in response to signals from this narrow money variable,
the City has been forced to take it seriously," he added.
    Noting this point, Thomas said market fears at the end of
last year of an M0 overshoot had now disappeared.
    This removed a potential obstacle to a further cut in U.K.
Base lending rates if foreign demand for sterling pushed up the
pound above unofficial targets, analysts said.
    Such targets are believed to have been secretly agreed
between finance ministers of the Group of Five and Canada at
their Paris meeting last month, they added.
  U.K. Base rates have been cut twice by half a point since the
Paris agreement, once on March 11, and again yesterday when
foreign demand for sterling surged in reaction to a sharp cut
in 1987 government borrowing targets contained in the budget.
    They stand at 10 pct now, and foreign exchange dealers and
analysts expect them to shed another half-point in the coming
week.
    Analysts shrugged off as largely irrelevant a higher than
expected increase in February sterling M3, which pushed the
annual growth rate to almost 19 pct, well above the previous
target of 11 to 15 pct.
    Thomas said the February figures seemed to indicate the
improvement in sterling M3 growth witnessed over the past few
months had been reversed, but firm conclusions could only be
drawn after revised data are released on March 31.
    Some analysts said foreign investors had long ceased to
watch the sterling M3 target, and Lawson's move to scrap it
altogether earlier this week removed whatever was left of its
credibility as a key factor in monetary policy.
 REUTER

Manuel Johnson said inflationary pressures are under control
and noted "wage and price pressures are very moderate."
    Johnson told a women's group that the U.S. was not seeing
the kind of cost pressures of the past.
    He said the trade imbalance was a serious trouble spot and
strong protectionist pressures, if translated into policies,
could ultimately lead to higher inflation and a high interest
rate policy by the Fed.
 Reuter

Greyhound Corp said it has
signed a definitive agreement to buy General Motors Corp's U.S.
Transit Bus and Parts business for an undisclosed sum.
    The agreement, tentatively set in January, includes
production tooling, design and equipment for urban transit
buses, inventories and trademark identification.
    The agreement also incudes the right to buy GM's Canadian
Transit Bus and Parts business, contingent on a satisfactory
labor agreement.
    Greyhound said it will relocate the production facilities,
currently in Pontiac, Michigan, to an undetermined location.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co said it feels the
cut in its credit rating by Moody's Investors Service is not
justified in view of the company's improvement in profitability
and increase in equity capital in 1986.
    Moody's earlier today downgraded six billion dlrs of
Merrill debt, citing lagging profitability relative to other
brokerage firms and increased competition.
    Merrill said it was disappointed by Moody's conclusion. It
noted that earnings more than doubled in 1986 to 454 mln dlrs.
Equity capital rose 23 pct to 2.9 billion dlrs and return on
average equity rose to 17.5 pct from 10.2 pct in 1985.
 Reuter

Excel Bancorp Inc said its board
declared an initial dividend of 10 cts per share, payable April
20 to holders of record on April Six.
 Reuter

Champion International Corp, based in
Stamford, Conn., said it will expand its mill in Hinton,
Alberta, at a cost of about 285 mln Canadian dlrs.
    The expansion will double the facility's pulping operation
to 424,000 short tons per year. The mill produces softwood
kraft pulp which is sold to other Champion facilities and on
the open market.
    Champion said it estimates the project will be completed by
the end of 1989.
 Reuter

Mark IV Industries Inc <IV>, which
has said it is mulling a bid to seek control of Baird Corp,
said it has no present plans to acquire more than 25 pct of the
company's total outstanding common stock.
Mark IV said its top officials told Baird executives at a March
17 meeting that while Mark IV may buy more Baird common stock,
it presently intends to hold it to the 25 pct limit.
    Mark IV, which first disclosed its stake and interest in
Baird on March 10, has reported it holds 391,800 Baird common
shares, or 17.6 pct of the total outstanding.
    Mark IV said it also agreed at the meeting that if it
decides to seek control of Baird, it would be through a
negotiated merger or business combination or through a tender
offer in which Baird would have at least 24 hours notice.
    Baird, in turn, agreed not to take any defensive measures
without giving Mark IV at least 24 hours notice, it said.
    Baird also confirmed that a takeover defense plan it
already has which is triggered by the accumulation of more than
25 pct of its stock, would not be triggered by a tender offer,
Mark IV said. Both parties also agreed to adjourn pending
litigation they have against one another, it added.
 Reuter

 Reuter

CANADA 91-DAY T-BILLS AVERAGE 6.89 PCT, MAKING BANK RATE 7.14 PCT

Dresser Industries Inc said it expects
the joint ventures it has entered into and a gradual
improvement in the energy market to allow it to regain
profitability before the end of the current year.
    Dresser earned 9,600,000 dlrs for the year ended October 31
-- after a 95.0 mln dlr gain from a change in accounting and
pension plan curtailment and a 25.3 mln dlr writedown of
oilfield assets.
 Reuter

ministers agreed on a plan for voluntary steel plant closures,
drawn up by industry lobby group Eurofer, and calculated to
lead to the loss of about 22,000 jobs.
    The ministers resolved that the proposed closures, which
should bring production capacity more in line with weak demand,
"remain considerably below the surplus in capacity."
    They asked the EC Executive Commission to consult with
Eurofer, major steel companies and with governments, to
pinpoint scope for further capacity reductions beyond the
annual 15.26 mln tonnes identified by Eurofer.
    The Commission will draw up a new system  of steel
production quotas to protect vulnerable EC firms from the full
rigors of open competition.
    Commission sources said any new system would cover only
heavy products representing about 45 pct of the market, instead
of 65 pct under the present system.
    Ministers hope to approve a closure program when they meet
again in Brussels on June 1, the sources said.
    Industry Commissioner Karl-Heinz Narjes told ministers
capacity was 30 mln tonnes in excess of requirements and that
this excess ought to be eliminated by the end of 1990.
 Reuter

A statement yesterday by Secretary
of State George Shultz after he met with wheat growers that
U.S. agricultural products must be competitively priced was
significant in that he recognized the importance of the Soviet
market and the need for U.S. prices to be at world market
levels, U.S. grain trade industry officials said.
    They said that Shultz's comments, while not explicitly
endorsing subsidized wheat sales to the USSR, were noteworthy
because they were not negative towards such action.
    In response to a query on what the State Department's
position is on selling subsidized wheat to Moscow, Shultz told
the leaders of the National Association of Wheat Growers that
prices must be competitive if the U.S. is going to trade.
    The Soviet Union, the world's largest grain importer, has
bought no U.S. wheat for more than a year, complaining the
price was far above world market levels. A U.S. offer last fall
to sell the Soviets lower-priced wheat through the export
enhancement program, EEP, was also rebuffed due to the price.
    Shultz was said to be adamantly against the U.S. wheat
offer last year and has been reported to be one of the major
obstacles in making another subsidy overture to the Soviet
Union, grain industry sources said.
    Intense speculation the U.S. might make a fresh EEP wheat
offer to the Soviets has boosted grain prices significantly in
recent trading sessions. Kansas City hard wheat futures rose
another 2-1/4 cents by midday at 2.88-1/4 dlrs per bushel,
while CBT March wheat was up 1-1/2 cents at 2.92-1/2 dlrs.
    "I'm not sure this is an about-face, but it's clearly a
recognition that unless we're competitive, we won't sell to the
Soviet Union," said a lobbyst for a major commodity group.
thing at a lower price somewhere else," Shultz told the farm
leaders. "That is our approach in negotiations with the
Soviets," he said.
    If those comments do signal that the State Department is no
longer opposed to the U.S. selling wheat to the USSR under EEP,
it certainly improves the chances for an EEP wheat offer to
Moscow, an industry lobbyst said.
    National Wheat Grower's officials were taking a cautious
attitude towards the secretary's comments.
    "His comments were not discouraging, but they didn't in our
judgment promise any immediate action on EEP," an official with
the wheat group said.
    The Wheat Growers official noted, however, that "there is
significance in that fact that we haven't seen any significant
negative commentary on the idea of EEP wheat to the Soviets."
    In a meeting with exporters this week, Secretary of
Agriculture Richard Lyng refused to comment on their request
that the administration offer subsidized wheat to Moscow, the
    An aide to USDA undersecretary Daniel Amstutz, who is
reported to be strongly opposed to EEP wheat to the Soviets,
said that the Shultz comments "are consistent with what he
(Shultz) has taught for years as an economist," but said they
don't necessarily relate to the Soviet Union.
    Amstutz could not be reached for comment, and an aide to
Lyng said Lyng would not comment on Shultz's statements.
    But trade sources were hopeful that the Shultz comments may
indicate some movement towards EEP wheat to Moscow.
    "If he didn't say no, then there's a chance. This is
potentially a positive development," a commodity source said.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said a resolution of the debt crisis depends on
growth in the industrialized world.
    "We can work our way through as long as we have growth in
industrialized countries to allow indebted countries to get out
of their problems," Johnson told the Women in Housing and
Finance.
    Johnson also underscored the need to continue enforcing
loan conditionality and repeated his opposition to debt relief.
He rejected a "quick fix solution" adding, "There are no free
lunches."
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said the Federal Reserve favored adding
securities powers to banking legislation.
    "We support any willingness to add those powers to the
legislation," Johnson told the Women in Housing and Finance.
    "We would prefer to see those powers in the legislation."
    He was referring to a banking bill introduced by Sen
William Proxmire (D-Wisc) which would impose a moratorium on
extending new securities powers to banks.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss 40 cts
    Net profit 669,000 vs loss 4,256,000
    Revs 46.1 mln vs 43.8 mln
    Avg shrs 13.9 mln vs 10.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 42 cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net profit 5,529,000 vs loss 2,219,000
    Revs 152.2 mln vs 139.6 mln
    Avg shrs 13.3 mln vs 9,489,000
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes 1,800,000 dlr
gain from sale of property.
 Reuter

    Shr 48 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 1,171,000 vs 794,000
    Revs 15.6 mln vs 14.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 85 cts vs eight cts
    Net 1,831,000 vs 266,000
    Revs 50.4 mln vs 46.5 mln
 Reuter

Quaker State Oil Refining Corp
said it signed a 100 mln dlr revolving credit and term loan
agreement with a group of six banks, for which Mellon Bank N.A.
is agent.
    The four-year arrangement has an additional four-year term
loan amortization agreement, Quaker said.
    Quaker said the credit line will be used to finance
expansion plans. Quaker's total capital spending program for
1987 is expected to exceed 125 mln dlrs, it said. In 1986, the
company's capital spending totaled 71.0 mln dlrs.
    Quaker also said costs of new store openings and new
product introductions will depress earnings in the first half.
For the first half of 1986, Quaker reported net income of 26.0
mln dlrs on sales of 473.5 mln dlrs.
    In the first two months, Quaker opened about 25 new stores.
It said it expects to add 150 Minit-Lube fast lubrication
service centers in 1987 at a cost of 75 mln dlrs.
    The company said it is optimistic it will recover in the
second half and report higher earnings for full year fiscal
1987. The company reported net income of 50.3 mln dlrs on sales
of 899.1 mln dlrs for 1986.

 Reuter

MarkitStar Inc said it has filed for
an offering of 1,700,000 common shares through underwriters led
by Woolcott and Co Inc.
    The company said it will sell 1,500,000 shares and
shareholders the rest.  Company proceeds will be used for the
development and expansion of marketing and sales operations and
facilities, for research and for working capital.
 Reuter

Lomas Mortgage Corp said it has filed
for an offering of four mln common shares through underwriters
led by Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>.
    The company said it has granted underwriters an option to
buy up to another 600,000 shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Pharmaceutical Technologies Inc unit has developed a formula
for stimulating immune system function and reparing immune
system damage, thereby protecting vulnerable body structures
against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
    The company said while the product, called IMMUNOL-IM, is
not a cure, treatment or prevention, it repairs, rebuilds and
stimulates the immune system, enabling the body to protect
itself and repair damage.
    Strong Point said it plans to begin studies in Europe
within 45 days and to make IMMUNOL-IM available in the U.S. as
soon as possible, pending appropriate government clearances.
 Reuter

decided to abolish a special tax of eight Ecus per tonne
imposed on exports of Spanish maize, Commission sources said.
    They said the tax, which applies to Spanish sales to EC and
non-EC countries alike, would no longer be required on exports
from Spanish ports south of Valencia.
    The decision was taken at a meeting of the authority's
cereals management committee today.
    The tax had been introduced last September at the same time
as a subsidy of eight Ecus per tonne was brought in for exports
of maize to Spain from other EC member countries.
    The aim of the tax was to prevent the maize imported into
Spain from the other EC states with the help of subsidies from
being reexported back to them.
    The sources added that Spain had received no answer from
the committee to its request that tenders be opened for the
sale to third countries of 450,000 tonnes of maize.
    The request will be considered at the committee's next
meeting, the commission sources said.
    Madrid estimates that it needs to import 1.7 mln tonnes of
maize this year, while an EC-U.S. accord guarantees non-EC
producer sales to Spain of two mln tonnes of maize and 300,000
tonnes of sorghum annually for the next four years.
 Reuter

Great American Management and
Investment Inc said its 80 pct-owned subsidiary agreed to buy
certain assets of two subsidiaries of Standard Oil Co, for 40
mln dlrs and the assumption of certain liabilities.
    Great American Industrial Group Inc agreed to acquire all
the U.S. and United Kingdom assets of Pfaudler Co and the stock
of certain Brazilian, Mexican, and West German subsidiaries of
Kennecott Mining Corp, it said. Pfaudler and Kennecott are
subsidiaries of Standard Oil.
 Reuter

Oper shr three cts vs three cts
    Oper net 511,000 vs 550,000
    Revs 19.7 mln vs 17.7 mln
    Avg shrs 15,777,000 vs 16,074,000
    NOTE: Earnings exclude gains from utilization of tax loss
caryforwards of 398,000 dlrs, or three cts a share vs 455,000
dlrs, or three cts a share
 Reuter

Consolidated Frieghtways Corp
said it has formed a new regional less-than-truckload carrier
called Con-Way Southern Express.
    The company said the new unit will start overnight service
April One in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.
 Reuter

To-Fitness Inc said it
has been named exclusive Florida distributor for the hardpack
version of the frozen dessert Tofutti by Tofutti Brands Inc
<TOF>, replacing Pillsbury Co's <PSY> Haagen Dazs.
 Reuter

First Financial Management corp said it
has offered to acquire Comdata Network Inc for 18 dlrs per
share in cash and stock, or a total of about 342.7 mln dlrs.
    The company said for each Comdata share it would exchange
half a First Data share and enough cash to bring the total
value up to 18 dlrs per share, provided that the market price
of First Financial stock were not less than 28 dlrs per share.
    It said the cash payment would be based on the average
market price of First Financial during a period shortly before
closing.
    First Financial said it would not pursue the offer if
Comdata's board rejected it.  Comdata has already agreed to be
acquired by a partnership for either 15 dlrs a share in cash or
at least 10 dlrs in cash and uniuts of securities.
    The partnership that made the first offer for Comdata was
Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe.  Comdata had previously
entered into an agreement, which collapsed, for a repurchase of
six mln shares at 14.50 dlrs each and for the sale of one mln
shares by a director to <Mason Best Co>. Mason Best already
owns 1,800,000 Comdata shares.
    A group led by <Rosewood Financial Inc> has also disclosed
ownership of 6.2 pct of Comdata's 19.0 mln shares outstanding
and said it might seek to increase its interest to over 15 pct.
    The company said Comdata shareholder approval would also be
required for its proposal.
 Reuter

approved a plan to seek U.S. negotiations with other
industrialized countries for the purchase of developing country
debt from commercial banks.
    The plan is expected to face opposition in the full House
Banking Committee, where approval must be obtained to send it
on to the full House for a vote, congressional sources said.
    Under their plan, Treasury Secretary James Baker would be
directed to consider setting up a public debt authority to
purchase developing country debt at a discount. The debt would
be repackaged for sale to a secondary market.
    The debt plan was offered by International Development
Institutions subcommitte chairman Walter Fauntroy, a non-voting
Democratic delegate from the District of Columbia.
    The negotiations would aim for renegotiation of third world
debt with the new U.S. Public Debt Management Authority. The
new U.S. institution would act as manager for the loans and
oversee economic policies of the developing countries.
    One of its main purposes is the reduction in the debt
service burden of developing countries, Fauntroy said.
    In addition, the bill asks for a study of the issuance of
of Special Drawing Rights to developing countries.
 Reuter

POP Radio Corp said it has signed a
seven-year agreement to provide Rite Aid Corp with in-store
customized disc jocky-hosted radio programs, resulting in an
increase of more than 50 pct in the total number of stores POP
now has under contract.
 Reuter

Biosensor Corp said it signed an
agreement with Del Mar Avionics, Irvine, Calif., to market the
Biosensor Multiday system.
    Multiday monitoring products can analyze patient heart
signals for up to five days in or out of the hospital. Patients
can transmit complex cardiac data over the telephone to their
medical center, allowing physicians to review the information
as necessary.
 Reuter

Qtly div 22 cts vs 22 cts previously
 Reuter

market in Comdata Network at 16-1/2 to 17.
    The stock was halted on the New York Stock Exchange for
dissemination of news at 15-1/8.
 Reuter

agreement with the ACTS Satellite Network to produce a series
of two- and five-minute commercials of its home shopping
service, "Collectible Showcase."
    It said the ACTS Network, with more than six mln cable
television subscribers, will air the commercials approximately
28 times a week for 13 weeks, and as a result Nostalgia
Netowork said it expects a significant increase in sales volume
in April.
    Nostalgia is 29 pct owned by Futuresat Industries Inc.
 Reuter

Nynex Corp said it is raising its
quarterly dividend to 95 cts from 87 cts payable May 1, 1987,
to shareholders of record March 31.
    The company said this was the third consecutive year it has
raised its quarterly cash dividend. It added it had a
two-for-one stock split in May 1986.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah
Ibn Abdulaziz said in remarks published today there would be
important progress in the next few months on Arab and Islamic
efforts to end the Iraq-Iran war.
    Prince Abdullah, in an interview with the Kuwait magazine
Al-Majalis, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA),
said: "Important progress ... Will happen during the coming two
or three months."
    He said, "We have always appealed to the brothers in Iraq
and Iran to stop the bloodshed ... In this meaningless war
between two Islamic countries."
    All international and regional efforts so far to end the
6-1/2-year-old war have failed. Iran says there can be no peace
until Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is ousted.
    Prince Abdullah said Iraq had always responded to Islamic
and Arab peace calls.
 Reuter

The Italian Treasury said it would offer
24,500 billion lire of short-term Treasury bills (BOTs) at net
rates lower than on the preceding issue.
    Three-month bills worth 3,500 billion lire will be offered
for competitive tender at a base price of 97.50 pct, giving an
effective annualised compound yield after tax of 9.87 pct.
    Net rate on the preceding issue end-February was 9.98 pct.
    The Treasury will also offer 9,500 billion lire of
six-month bills at a base price of 95.35 pct for an effective
annualized net yield of 9.24 pct.
    The net rate on the preceding issue was 9.30 pct.
    A total of 11,500 billion lire of 12-month paper will be
offered at a base price of 91.15 pct for an effective
annualized net yield of 9.02 pct.
    Rate on the preceding issue mid-February was 9.05 pct.
    The bills replace maturing paper worth 23,442 billion lire,
of which 20,322 was held by operators.
    Subscriptions to the offer close March 24.
 Reuter

Vulcan Corp said it was
discontinuing its efforts to negotiate a purchase of the common
stock of Jones and Vining Inc.
    On February 6, Vulcan, a Cincinnati maker of shoe lasts and
other products, offered five dlrs a share for all of Jones and
Vining common, subject to certain conditions.
    Vulcan said it is dropping the proposal because it believes
subsequent actions by Jones and Vining are hostile and Vulcan
is only interested in a friendly transaction.
    Jones and Vining makes shoe lasts and shoe components. It
has about 3.7 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Tempo Enterprises Inc said it
signed a letter of intent to sell seven cable television
systems, representing about 5,000 subscribers, to <Eagle
Cable>.
 Reuter

Erbamont N.V. said its major
shareholder <Montedison SpA>, which owns 85 pct of its common,
and Farmitalia Carlo Erba, its 75 pct owned subsidiary, have
acquired <Antibioticos S.A.> and related subsidiaries.
 Reuter

The "cross field allowance" relief on
Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) announced by U.K. Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson this week will favour smaller non-PRT
paying fields, according to stockbrokers Wood Mackenzie and Co.
    The cross field allowance offsets up to 10 pct of
qualifying spending on a new oil field against PRT liability of
other fields. It is restricted to new offshore developments
outside the southern basin and yet to gain Annex B approval.
    A report by the stockbrokers said that on a new field not
paying PRT due to its small size, the relief would directly
benefit in PRT saving on an existing field.
    "The cross field allowance will mainly benefit participators
in those fields which have no PRT liability," the report said,
adding that the timing of development of such fields may be
advanced.
    The government would in effect be subsidising these
developments at 7.5 pct of capital expenditure before
corporation tax, the report said.
    On fields likely to pay PRT in the future, the benefit is
of timing. Although liabilities on other existing fields will
be reduced immediately, liabilities on larger new fields will
rise in the future due to the loss of offsets, it said.
    In a study on probable fields, the report said that when
the rates of return are examined, the rise for a PRT-paying
field such as Miller, the largest undeveloped oil field in the
U.K. North Sea, is from 18.7 to 19 pct, while the rise for a
small non-PRT paying field such as Kittiwake is 15.9 to 17.9
pct.
    The report added that in fields which pay PRT, there will
be a cost in being able to have this early relief. Not only
will these costs be unavailable for offset against the field's
future profits, but uplift of some 35 pct on these costs will
be lost.
    Thus, a saving of PRT of 100 when field development starts
will have to be matched by a rise in PRT of 135 at a later
time.
 Reuter

Several leading farm-state
Congressmen said they will press the U.S. Agriculture
Department to implement some kind of marketing loan to make
soybeans exports competitive while protecting farm income.
    Speaking at a House grains subcommittee hearing, chairman
Dan Glickman, D-Kan., proposed that Congressmen and
representatives of soybean growers meet with USDA on the
subject in the next two weeks.
    "Let's see if we can try to push them (USDA) to do
something without legislation," Glickman told the hearing.
    The current soybean loan rate effectively is 4.56 dlrs per
bushel with no income protection, or marketing loan.
    David Haggard, American Soybean Association, ASA, president
said USDA must make changes in the soybean program.
    The current soybean program "gave us the worst of both
worlds," ASA's Haggard told the hearing. The 1987 loan rate is
too high relative to corn and is encouraging an expansion of
soybean production in South America, he said. At the same time,
the U.S. soybean loan rate is too low to provide any income
support for soybean farmers, Haggard said.
    "We need some kind of market loan," he added.
    The 1985 farm bill provides authority for the Agriculture
Secretary to implement a marketing loan for soybeans but USDA
so far has resisted pressure to use the authority.
    Representatives of ASA met earlier this month with USDA,
but Haggard said USDA officials gave no indication if they
would seriously consider offering a marketing loan.
    USDA undersecretary Daniel Amstutz yesterday said the
soybean situation is a "dilemna" which has been studied
extensively by the department. But he did not say what, if any
changes, are under consideration.
    In his testimony, Haggard indicated there are ways other
than a marketing loan which should be considered to help
soybean growers, such as a so-called producer option payment,
or a direct payment program.
    Haggard said barring any program changes, Commodity Credit
Corporation, CCC, soybean stocks, now at 385 mln bu, will rise
to 500 mln by the end of August. A further 100 mln bu of
soybeans could be forfeited between September and end-year.
    "Thus, CCC could own the equivalent of Brazil's entire
soybean crop by the end of calendar year 1987," Haggard said.
    However, Haggard said that the U.S. should be cautious in
making soybean program changes that might allow the European
Community to challenge the U.S. program under the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT.
    He noted that The EC imports one quarter of U.S. soybean
production and loss of that market would be devastating.
    The Reagan administration has given "mixed signals" on
whether it believes a marketing loan for soybeans could be
successfully challenged in GATT by the EC, Haggard said.
    While the ASA position is to support a 5.02 dlrs per bu
loan rate combined with a marketing loan, Haggard also endorsed
a proposal by Rep. Jerry Huckaby, D-La., which would set a six
dlrs per bu loan rate and apply a marketing loan.
    The Huckaby proposal is also supported by the ranking
Republican on the House Agriculture committee, Rep. Edward
Madigan of Illinois.
    Subcommittee chairman Glickman endorsed the need to take
some action on soybeans, but cautioned that the marketing loan
could mean a substantial increase in budget costs.
    Glickman noted that the Agriculture Committee must cut one
to 1.5 billion dlrs from its fiscal 1988 budget and therefore
must fit any soybean program changes into the overall budget.
    Haggard said at a soybean loan rate of six dlrs per bu
combined with a marketing loan, the U.S. soybean price might
fall to four dlrs per bu initially. This would cost the
government a maximum of two billion dlrs. But he said the costs
would decline as market prices recovered.
 Reuter

There is no confirmation
that Brazil's major processors of Frozen Concentrated Orange
Juice, FCOJ, will raise export prices of the product to 1,375
dlrs per tonne from April 1, a spokesman for the Brazilian
Association of Citrus Juice Industries (Abrassuco) said.
    Asked to comment on a report from New York that Cutrale and
Citrosuco had sent telexes to customers informing of the price
raise, Jose Carlos Goncalves said Abrassuco was not aware of
it.
    "All we know is that Cacex has increased the dollar amount
to translate FOB price to ex-dock New York price to 1,050 dlrs
from 770 dlrs," Goncalves said.
    Citrosuco and Cutrale officials were not available for
comment.
 Reuter

Alden Electronics Inc said
its board declared an annual dividend of 15 cts per share on
Class A and B common stock, down from 25 cts last year due to
an expected drop in earnings for the year ended March 28.
    The dividend is payable April 15 to holders of record on
April 3.
    Alden earned 1,357,000 dlrs last year.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 2,515,000 vs profit 28,569,000
    Sales 1.41 billion vs 885.2 mln
    Avg shrs 239.2 mln vs 104.4 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 33 cts vs profit 47 cts
    Net profit 83,750,000 vs profit 76,130,000
    Sales 4.77 billion vs 2.81 billion
    Avg shrs 198.8 mln vs 98.3 mln
    Note: Current qtr and year figures include gains on
securities sales of 3.9 mln dlrs and 38 mln dlrs, respectively.
    Prior qtr and year figures include gain on securities sales
of 3.9 mln dlrs.
    Current qtr and year figures include extraordinary loss of
6.9 mn dlrs and gain of 9.9 mln dlrs, respectively.
    Prior qtr and year figures include operating loss
carryforward gains of 7.6 mln dlrs and 35.5 mln dlrs,
    Prior qtr and year figures include gains from discontinued
operations of 6.6 mln dlrs and 12.6 mln dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

A U.S. House Banking subcommittee
approved a plan to seek negotiations with other industrialized
countries for the purchase of developing country debt from
Banking Committee where approval must be obtained to send it on
to the full House for a vote, congressional sources said.
Institutions subcommittee chairman Walter Fauntroy, a
non-voting Democratic delegate from the District of Columbia.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc said one
of its key bottling subsidiaries is being investigated by a
grand jury for possible price fixing violations of its soft
drinks.
the company said its Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co
understands a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Va., is probing
the matter and it is "possible" that it will be indicted for
violating anti-trust laws.
    The current probe stems from the conviction last month of
an Allegheny Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co employee, it said.
    In the trial of the Allegheny Pepsi employee, Armand
Gravely on October 28, 1986, Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co
and eight of its employees, including some high ranking
officers, were identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the
price fixing scheme, Coca-Cola Enterprises said.
    Gravely was convicted on February 12, 1987 in a scheme to
fix soft drink prices in Virginia between Allegheny Pepsi and
Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola, the company said.
    While Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola was not named as a defendent
along with Gravely, the company said the probe into the Gravely
case is still under way and could result in indictments.
    Coca-Cola Enterprises has already said Mid-Atlantic
Coca-Cola Bottling Co and some of its officers have been under
investigation by the Norfolk grand jury since September 1984.
    The new disclosure was made in a filing with the SEC for
offerings of 250 mln dlrs of debentures due 2017 and 250 mln
dlrs of notes due 1997.
    Proceeds would be used to refinance outstanding debts, the
company said. Salomon Bros is lead underwriter.
    Coca-Cola Enterprises is 49 pct owned by Coca-Cola Co <KO>.
 Reuter

<Azure Ventures Ltd> said it
signed a letter of intent to acquire John Paul Richards and
Associates Inc.
    The company said if the merger is approved by shareholders
of both companies, the shareholders of John Paul Richards would
become majority shareholders, owning 60 pct of the common
stock, of the new public company.
 Reuter

Scott and Stringfellow Financial
Inc said it declared its first quarterly dividend of three
cents per share payable April 15 to shareholders of record
April one.
 Reuter

Jefferies Group Inc's new chief
executive Frank Baxter said the company intends to review its
operations, following the resignation of founder and chairman
Boyd Jefferies, but he has no immediate plans for changes,    
"We'll be examining all our practices," Baxter said in a
telephone interview, adding, "we do not expect any changes."
    Baxter also said he does not believe that any other
Jefferies employees will be cited for wrongdoing.
    Boyd Jefferies, Jefferies Group's founder, agreed to plead
guilty to two felony counts of violating federal securities
laws, Jefferies Group said in a statement released earlier.
    The statement said the charges against Boyd Jefferies
resulted from a transaction in which he, on behalf of the
company, agreed to purchase certain stocks from entities
controlled by Ivan Boesky and later resell the stock to those
entities.
    "That was Boyd's transaction," Baxter said.
    Baxter said that although Jefferies Group was censured,
there were no fines imposed on the company and no restrictions
placed on its business. He said he believes the news of the
allegations and Boyd Jefferies resignation should not affect
client confidence.
    Michael Klowden, an attorney for Jefferies Group, said that
although investigations are continuing into trading activity in
general, he does not believe any probe is focusing on Jefferies
Group or its employees.
    "We don't anticipate any actions of any consequence,"
Klowden said.
 Reuter

Pacad Inc said it expects to
have a written contract with Okamoto U.S.A. Inc to market
condoms produced by its parent company, <Okamoto Riklen Gomu Co
Ltd>, in the United States within 10 days.
    Yesterday Pacad said it "has reached an agreement to enter
into a contract with Okamoto," adding "we expect our condom
sales to begin within 30 days and grow rapidly in 1987."
    In a clarifying statement, Pacad said it has "an oral
agreement with Okomoto to market condoms, and fully expects to
enter into a written contract with regard thereto within a week
to ten days."
 Reuter

Texas Commerce Bancshares Inc said that
relatively stable oil prices and the bank's planned merger with
Chemical New York Corp <CHL> would help 1987 earnings increase
from last year's profits of 20 mln dlrs.
    Texas Commerce chairman Ben Love, in an interview with
Reuters, did not elaborate on how much the bank expected
earnings to increase.
    "We would anticipate that this year would be an improvement
over last because we are stronger," Love said, referring to
Texas Commerce's pending 1.19 billion dlr merger with Chemical.
The merger, which may be finalized as early as May 1, will
lower Texas Commerce's cost of funding by an estimated 10 to 15
basis points, Love said.
    The Texas Commerce-Chemical merger is the only acquisition
by a major out-of-state bank since Texas lawmakers approved
interstate banking effective January 1.
    Hard-hit by loan losses in energy and real estate in Texas'
struggling economy, the only major Texas banks able to report
profits in 1986 were Texas Commerce and RepublicBank which
earned 54.0 mln dlrs. Allied Bancshares Inc <ALBN> lost 17.6
mln dlrs, MCorp <M> lost 82.1 mln dlrs, InterFirst lost 326.5
mln dlrs and First City Bancorporation <FBT>, which is actively
seeking a merger or other form of new capital, lost 402.0 mln
dlrs.
    Love said Texas Commerce had turned the corner on its
energy loan portfolio problems, but added that the bank's
nonperforming real estate loans may increase during 1987.
    "I think the tidal wave in energy has passed over us," he
said. "The fact that the real estate market is still moving
away suggests there could be some continuing growth of
nonperforming loans."
    In 1986, about 42 pct of Texas Commerce's net loan losses
related to real estate lending and 13 pct was due to energy
loan losses. That compares to 1985 when only 17 pct of the
bank's losses were in real estate and energy accounted for 43
pct.
    More than half of Texas Commerce's nonperforming loans,
which totaled 968 mln dlrs at yearend 1986, up from 840 mln
dlrs the year before, were in real estate.
    Love said he believed the real estate loan problems for
Texas Commerce and other major state banks would peak by the
third or fourth quarter of 1987. Absorption of empty office
buildings in Houston, which has a current vacancy rate of about
30 pct, will be a gradual process that could take up to four
years, he said.
    "I think we may be beginning to stabilize this economy. Oil
at 18 dlrs a barrel brings much more confidence than 10 dlrs a
barrel," he said.
    Texas Commerce will retain its name as a separate
subsidiary of Chemical and plans to aggressively expand its
holdings throughout Texas, offering additional products to
build up its consumer banking business, Love said. "We are
resuming what we did best for years -- an offensive position,"
he said.
    In January, Texas Commerce acquired a failed bank in
Montgomery County, adjacent to the Houston metropolitan area,
and earlier this month opened a new bank in San Antonio. Texas
Commerce plans to add more banks in San Antonio and in the
Dallas-Fort Worth area where it currently has only 16 member
banks, he said.
    One day after the Texas Commerce acquisition was announced
in December, InterFirst Corp <IFC> and RepublicBank Corp <RPT>,
both headquartered in Dallas, agreed to merge in a deal valued
at 570 mln dlrs.
    The combination of former archrivals RepublicBank and
InterFirst, giving the two banks a virtual lock on the Dallas
banking market, has not changed Texas Commerce's expansion
plans for the state's second-largest city, Love said. "We think
we can try to get a little part of their roost," he said.
    The Chemical partnership will also give Texas Commerce an
edge in developing new consumer products, he said.
    "We have always been a wholesale bank but we have more than
one million customers all over the state. Chemical will show us
how to take advantage of enhancing our consumer products," he
said, referring to expansion of such existing products as
credit cards and investment banking.
 Reuter

An additional margin of 1,000 dlrs
will be required on all July 1987 delivery coffee "C" contracts
as of the opening of trade Monday, March 23, the Coffee, Sugar
and Cocoa Exchange, CSCE, said.
    The March contract ends trading this week, making May and
July the two "spot," or unlimited, contract months next week.
    Members will then have to obtain a minimum 3,500 dlrs for
net long or net short positions in the May and July contracts,
including a 2,500 original margin plus the additional 1,000 dlr
spot charge.
 Reuter

U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani said
Boyd Jefferies, former chairman of Jefferies Group Inc <JEFG>,
is cooperating with an investigation into violations of U.S.
    The Jefferies firm said earlier today that Boyd Jefferies
resigned and intends to plead guilty to two felony counts.
    Giuliani's written statement said one count will relate to
a criminal violation of margin requirements and the second will
relate to aiding and abetting the falsification of the records
of a brokerage house controlled by Ivan Boesky.
 Reuters

and Telegraph Co Shares, Series 2, said it has reached its
limit of 10 mln ATT <T> shares and has closed.
    The trust was scheduled to close April One.
    Common stock tendered into an Americus trust is converted
into trust units on a one share for one unit basis. Each unit
may be divided into separately-traded PRIME and SCORE
components.
 Reuter

Odyssey Filmpartners Ltd
said is terminated discussions to acquire <United Color Labs>,
pursuant to a Jan 27 letter of intent for it to buy the company
for stock and cash.
 Reuter

Victory Markets Inc is raising 60 mln
dlrs through an offering of subordinated debentures due 1999
with a 12-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole underwriter
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Non-callable for five years, the debt is rated B-2 by
initial offering of 50 mln dlrs because of investor demand.
 Reuter

North American Philips Corp said Lyman
Beggs has been named president of its Consumer Products
Divisions.
    The company said Beggs, formerly executive vice president
of Tambrands Inc <TMB>, succeeds Richard Kress, who retired.
    The company said approximately 58 pct of the common stock
of North American Philips is owned by N.V. Philips of the
Netherlands.
 Reuter

A 150 mln dlr issue of Mead Corp
30-year debentures was given a nine pct coupon and priced at
par, Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc said as lead
manager.
    The securities, which are not callable for 10 years, carry
a rating of A-3 from Moody's Investors Service Inc and one of
BBB-plus from Standard and Poor's Corp.
    Mead said it will use the proceeds to retire outstanding
short-term debt, a portion of which was incurred to finance
part of recent acquisitions.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said it will
issue 100 mln New Zealand dollar denominated bonds worth
approximately 56 mln U.S. dlrs at current exchange rates.
    It said the two-year bonds will offer a floating interest
rate which will not be less than 17 pct in New Zealand dollars.
    Proceeds from the bonds, issued under the company's shelf
registration, will be swapped for U.S. funds resulting in an
all-in cost to Dow fixed at 15 basis points below the two-year
U.S. Treasury rate.
 Reuter

Beryl Sprinkel, chairman of
the president's council of economic advisors, said stronger
domestic demand growth in Japan and Western Europe is needed to
help stimulate U.S. exports without having to rely on futher
dollar declines.
    "Stronger domestic demand growth in the major foreign
industrial countries is needed to engender the much needed
expansion of U.S. export markets without having to rely on
further dollar depreciation," he told the Futures Industry
    Sprinkel said the recent recovery of domestic demand in
Japan and Europe has been one of the weakest in the post-war
period.
    "Stronger domestic demand growth in the major industrial
countries would help give balance to the current world
recovery," he said.
    Asked if Japan was not living up to commitments made last
month to trading partners, he said recent figures showed
Japan's economy grew by about 0.5 pct in the fourth quarter of
1986, "Not enough to sustain employment growth."
    However, Sprinkel said Japan had not reneged on its pledges
and was moving toward more stimulative policies, including tax
reform. "I suspect there will be further moves," he said.
    Sprinkel repeated his call for further cuts in U.S.
government spending and for resistance to tax increases.
    "Reducing the federal government budget deficit by
expenditure restraint is needed to preserve the low marginal
tax rates achieved by tax reform," he said, adding that "a vote
to increase to government expenditures is a vote against tax
reform."
    Sprinkel said the fall of the dollar had substantially
restored U.S. cost competitiveness and that the deterioration
of the U.S. trade balance appeared to have abated.
    However, he said that "sole reliance on dollar depreciation
to reduce our trade deficit is not desirable," as it risks
inflation in the United States and recession abroad.
    "I am confident that further improvements in our trade
performance will contribute significantly to growth in 1987," he
said. Improvements in the U.S. trade balance, he said, will
come about largely from a swing in manufactures trade and
present "serious adjustment problems for U.S. trading partners."
    Western Europe, where manufactures output and employment
have been weak, promises to be especially hard hit by the
improvement in the U.S. trade balance, Sprinkel said.
    He defended flexible exchange rates saying wide swings in
rates were not a fault of the system but of the undesirable
policies that produced them.
 Reuter

may upgrade Fleet Financial Group's 1.1 billion dlrs of debt.
    Moody's cited Fleet's announced merger with Norstar Bancorp
Inc <NOR>. The rating agency said it will examine the degree to
which the combined entity would have a more diversified
earnings stream, balanced funding structure and enhanced equity
base.
    Fleet Financial has A-1 senior debt and preferred stock,
A-2 subordinated debt and Provisional A-1 shelf registered
securities. Moody's said Norstar's ratings have been under
review for possible downgrade since February 23.
 Reuter

Newly privatised financial services group
Cie Financiere de Paribas <PARI.PA> said it will call an
extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for the
authorisation to issue various share and bond issues over
periods varying between one and five years.
    It said in the Official Bulletin it would seek permission
to increase capital, currently 2.33 billion francs, by up to
two billion francs worth of new ordinary shares.
    It also plans to ask for authorisation to issue up to one
billion francs nominal of shares with share warrants and one
billion francs nominal of warrants giving the right to
subscribe to ordinary shares.
    Paribas will also seek authorisation to issue bonds
convertible at any moment into ordinary shares which would
boost capital by a maximum of five billion francs, and up to
ten billion francs nominal of bonds redeemable into ordinary
shares.
    It will also ask for authorisation to issue a maximum of
ten billion francs nominal of bonds with share warrants, with a
one billion franc nominal ceiling on shares that could be
obtained through the exercise of the warrants.
    The group will also ask for authorisation to issue in any
currency bonds and warrants for a maximum of ten billion francs
and to underwrite the issue of bonds and shares in any currency
for a maximum of ten billion francs.
    Finally it will ask for authorisation to issue certificates
of deposit for a maximum of ten billion francs and to
underwrite a similar maximum amount of certificates of deposit
in all currencies.
    A spokesman said the group had no immediate issue plans.
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc said a
consortium of banks which entered into long term and short term
secured revolving credit agreements with the company last year
has agreed to extend a previously granted waiver of certain
financial net worth covenants to April 29 from March 18.
    The company said last week it was seeking such a waiver.
    AI is currently engaged in discussions with the consortium
to extend the short term agreement beyond April 29 and expects
such an extension will be obtained.
 Reuter

Brown Transport Co said it expects to
report record 1987 results with revenues increasing to 214 mln
dlrs and earnings per share between 1.25 dlrs and 1.30 dlrs.
    Brown reported 1986 net income of 1.05 dlrs per share, or
5.45 mln dlrs, on revenues of 191.7 mln dlrs.
    Last week the company declared an initial quarterly
dividend of four cts.
    the company said it will begin paying a regular quarterly
dividend in the second quarter but the board has not yet
determined the exact amount.
 Reuter

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
Co knows of no reason for the rise in its stock, trading at
129, up 3-1/4 on the New York Stock Exchange, a company
spokeswoman told Reuters.
    She said the company had issued no news today that might
account for the increase.
 Reuter

Bombay Palace Restaurants Inc, with its
emphasis on location and low food costs, expects its 1987 sales
to increase 150 pct to about 22 mln dlrs from about 8.5 mln
dlrs in 1986, according to President Sant S. Chatwal.
     Chatwal told members of the Dallas financial community at
a lunchtime briefing, "we go for prime locations everywhere and
make sure our leases are very favorable."
     As previously announced, the company expects to report
1986 earnings of about 700,000 dlrs, or 31 to 33 cts a share,
on revenues of 8.5 mln dlrs. Chatwal said the final figures
would be released in about two days.
 Reuter

proposed a two-for-one split of its common, subject to
stockholder approval at its May 14 annumal meeting.
    The company also said it intends to recommend an increase
in its annual regular dividend to at least two dlrs per share
before the split, beginning with the May dividend. The current
annual payout is 1.76 dlr per share.
    AmeriTrust currently has about 20.9 mln shares outstanding
with 25 mln authorized shares. It said shareholders will be
asked to approve an increase in authorized common to 100 mln
shares.
    Ameritrust also said it will submit for shareholder
approval an amendment to the company's charter regarding
liability and indemnification of directors and a recommendation
to create a classified board.
    AmeriTrust's total year-end assets were over 11.1 billion
dlrs.
 Reuter

Finance Corp is negotiating with <Airbus Industrie> for
additional orders of A320 and A330 jets, according to ILFC
president Steven Udvar-Hazy.
    ILFC, a commercial aircraft leasing concern, last week set
conditional orders with Airbus, the European consortium, for
three short-haul A320s and three A330s.
    "We're negotiating with Airbus for additional units beyond
those six planes," Udvar-Hazy told Reuters in an interview.
"We're talking mainly about more A320s, but also about more
A330s," he said. He declined to elaborate.
    Reports in the French press today indicated that ILFC was
close to signing an agreement to buy 27 of the A320 jets.
    The total value of the order announced last week is 350 mln
dlrs. The jets are scheduled for delivery beginning in 1991.
However, the order for the A330s is conditional on a decision
by the Airbus board to launch the plane.
    Airbus has said it will decide by the end of this month
whether to launch the medium range A330 and the companion, long
range A340. It says it has 104 orders and options from nine
airlines for the two planes.
    ILFC is one of the launch customers for the A330,
Udvar-Hazy noted.
    Earlier today, Swissair dealt a blow to Airbus by opting to
order six MD-11 long range aircraft from McDonnell Douglas Corp
<MD>, Airbus's rival in the competition to provide a long range
passenger plane alternative to Boeing Co's <BA> new versions of
the 747.
 Reuter

O'Brien Energy Systems Inc is raising
25 mln dlrs through an offering of convertible subordinated
debentures due 2002 with a 7-3/4 pct coupon and par pricing,
stock at 10.925 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 15
    Non-callable for three years, the debt is rated B-3 by
Moody's and CCC-plus by Standard and Poor's. The issue was
increased from an initial offering of 20 mln dlrs because of
investor demand.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12 cts vs 10 cts previously
    Pay May 11
 Reuter

United Jersey Banks said it
plans to merge two of its southern New Jersey member banks into
one 704 mln dlr organization.
    It said United Jersey Bank/Fidelity Bank, based in
Pennsauken, will be merged into United Jersey Bank/South in
order to improve customer service and maximize efficiency
throughout the southern New Jersey markets.
    Raymond Silverstein, currently chairman of the board of
United Jersey Bank/Fidelity, will be chairman of the merged
bank, the company said.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 900,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO THE USSR FOR 1986/87

    Shr loss 38 cts vs loss 60 cts
    Net loss 1,388,000 vs 2,181,000
    Revs 8,199,000 vs 6,668,000
    NOTE: 1987 qtr includes tax gain 964,000 for insurance
claims.
    1987 qtr also includes non-recurring expense 150,000 for
discontinued operations and consolidation of four distribution
service centers.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 350,000 TONNES CORN  SWITCHED FROM UNKNOWN TO USSR FOR 1986/87

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 143,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO TAIWAN FOR 1986/87, 1987/88

American Express Co's plan to sell a
stake in its Shearson Lehman Brothers is believed to be a
prelude to a public offering of shares in the brokerage unit,
    American Express earlier said it has a general
understanding with Nippon Life Insurance Co of Japan to sell a
13 pct interest in Shearson for 530 mln dlrs.
    The statement triggered a rise in other brokerage stocks,
as investors speculated on the possibility of more investment
in the U.S. brokerage industry by Japanese concerns.
    The stocks of brokerage firms also climbed in response to
the relatively high value Nippon put on its stake in the U.S.
firm. Analysts said the 530 mln dlrs for 13 pct represents a
price of 2.7 times book value.
    Perrin Long of Lipper analytical said the brokerage stocks,
depressed somewhat by the dark cloud of the U.S. insider
trading scandal, closed out February at a market value of 1.8
times book value.
    American Express was trading today at 78-1/4, off 3/8. For
the last several weeks, the stock has been strong on rumors of
a spinoff of part of Shearson.
    Analysts said American Express and its Shearson unit will
benefit from the doors Nippon Life can open to the increasingly
important Tokyo financial markets.
    "I think this, in all honesty, is a preliminary step," said
Long.
    "What you will see probably in the future is American
Express selling an additional 17 pct in the public market and
have a public vehicle for Shearson," Long said.
    "Normally, investors do not make a major capital commitment
into an illiquid situation," he said of Nippon.
    Some analysts previously speculated a 20 pct stake in
Shearson might be sold to the public. They said the firm, like
other investment banks, needs capital to expand globally.
    American express has said the total employees of shearson
will expand by 20 pct in 1987 internationally. However, that
number is substantially lower than growth last year, a company
    American Express officials would not comment beyond a
statement made this morning. That statement, however, did not
close off the possibility of a public offering or other option
for Shearson.
    David Anthony, a Smith Barney analyst, said it is possible
Shearson would be partially sold to the public. But he believes
the firm will digest the Nippon investment first.
    "I think they'll figure out what they're going to do with
the money they have," he said.
    Joan Goodman, an analyst with Pershing and Co, also said
American Express could determine to sell shares to the public.
    In its statement, the financial services giant said it is
continuing to study various plans for Shearson in addition to
the investment by Nippon.
    American Express said options under study range from
expanding Shearson's capacity to meet international competition
to broadening its access to capital.
    American Express also said the options reflect the
continuing integral role of Shearson in American Express'
worldwide financial services strategy.
    Shearson follows Goldman, Sachs and Co in finding a
Japanese partner. Goldman last year sold a 12.5 pct stake to
Sumitomo Bank in exchange for a 500 mln dlr capital infusion.
    Analysts speculated there will be more such matches.
    "Those (U.S. brokers) companies have the expertise. They
don't have the money. There's just not enough internal capital
growth," said Wertheim analyst James Hanbury, who follows other
U.S. brokerage companies.
    Hanbury said some Japanese companies, flush with cash, are
interested in the expertise of American brokers. "Those
(Japanese) companies have the capital and our companies have
the capital needs and the growth opportunities to use the
money. That's a nice marriage," he said.
    Morgan Stanley and Co <MS> rose 4-1/4 to 74-7/8. First
Boston Corp <FBC> was up one to 51-1/4. E.F. Hutton Group <EFH>
rose 1-1/4 to 41-1/8, and PaineWebber Group <PWJ> climbed 7/8
to 37-3/4. Merrill Lynch and Co, recommended today by a
PaineWebber analyst, rose 2-5/8 to 45-3/8.
 Reuter

Yamakawa Manufacturing Corp of
America said it began construction of a 17 mln dlrs
manufacturing plant in Portland, Tenn.
    The plant will produce metal parts for automobile
manufacturers, including Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp USA.
    Long-term plans call for the addition of stamping
capabilities and pressed plastic parts to its product line.
    Assembly operations are expected to begin in October 1987.
The plant is being built to employ 150 people.
    Yamakawa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamakawa
Industrial Co Ltd of Japan.
 Reuter

Liberalization of Italy's foreign exchange
controls should be "gradual" but also "reasonably rapid," a report
issued by a study committee nominated by the Italian Treasury
   The report, looking at the country's financial development
prospects, said Italy's large public sector deficit and growing
public debt were among the considerations that made a gradual
liberalization preferable.
    The report also favoured retention of the lira's six pct
oscillation band with the European Monetary System (EMS) during
the liberalization process in order to lessen short-term
domestic interest rate fluctuations which could result from
portfolio adjustments.
    The lira's fluctuation margin is currently significantly
higher than that allowed for other EMS currencies.
    Italy has over recent months announced a series of
deregulation moves in response to a European Community
directive aimed at creating a genuine common market in goods,
services and finance by 1992.
 Reuter

private U.S. exporters reported new sales of 900,000 tonnes of
corn to the Soviet Union and 350,000 tonnes of corn switched
from previously announced unknown destinations to the USSR.
    The corn is for delivery during the 1986/87 marketing year
and under the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR Long Term Grain
Supply Agreement, the USDA said.
    The department said exporters also reported corn sales of
143,000 tonnes for delivery to Taiwan, with 56,000 tonnes for
shipment in the 1986/87 season and the balance for shipment in
the 1987/88 year.
    Sales of corn to the USSR for delivery during the fourth
year of the agreement, which ends this September 30, now total
2.25 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers has set a March
26 strike deadline at General Motors Corp's Pontiac, Mich.,
truck and bus plant, a UAW spokesman said.
    The spokesman said in response to an inquiry that the 9,000
UAW-represented workers at the facility will walk off the job
at noon (EST) next Thursday if an agreement is not reached by
that time.
    "We will be on strike. If the workers are still in there,
they will come out," the spokesman, Reginald McGhee, said.
    The union earlier said it today notified GM of its intent
to authorize a strike at the Pontiac facility.
    The UAW gave GM what it calls a "five-day letter," which
gives the company five days to come to an agreement before
workers go on strike. The letter was effective at noon today.
Weekend days are not included in the five-day period, McGhee
said.
    The spokesman could not say what the chances were for a
settlement. "At this point, it's too early to say" whether the
plant will be struck, McGhee said.
    The UAW earlier said the strike notification is expected to
"trigger an intensive effort to resolve disputed issues."
    Talks between the UAW local at the plant, Local 594, and GM
officials were continuing today over disputed contract issues,
including the main issue of whether the company can subcontract
jobs to non-union workers.
    McGhee said the two sides are also discussing health and
safety matters and relief time.
 Reuter

Caltex Petroleum Corp, a joint venture
between Chevron Corp <CHV> and Texaco Inc <TX>, said it raised
posted prices for several petroleum products in Singapore,
     The company said its naphtha posting is up three cts a
gallon to 43 cts. It said it is raising jet and kerosene
postings 2.5 cts, bringing jet to 52.5 cts and kerosene to 51.5
cts.
    Diesel grades are up two cts, Caltex said, bringing both
diesel gas oil (one pct sulfur) and 52-57 D.I. (55 cetane) to
52 cts a gallon, and diesel gas oil (0.5 pct) to 52 cts.
    The company said it is increasing medium and heavy fuel oil
postings by one dlr a barrel. Medium is now 15.50 dlrs a
barrel, and heavy fuel is 14.75 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs profit two cts
    Net profit 216,000 vs profit 265,000
    Revs 1,661,000 vs 1,376,000
    12 mths
    Shr profit four cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 528,000 vs loss 290,000
    Revs 5,881,000 vs 5,541,000
    NOTE: full name of company is pension insurance group of
america inc.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc said it
nominated J. Paul Sticht to become chairman of the board,
replacing J. Tylee Wilson, who will take early retirement.
    Sticht retired as chairman and chief executive officer of
R.J. Reynolds Industries Inc in 1983.
    Sticht's appointment will be voted on by RJR's board at its
regular meeting on April 22, the company said.
    The company also said F. Ross Johnson, 55, president and
chief executive officer, will assume the additional post of
chairman of the executive committee, succeeding Sticht, who is
69.
    Wilson, 55, had said previously that he planned to take
early retirement.
    A company spokesman said Sticht will serve as chairman
until April 1988, when he will retire. He said the appointment
of Sticht was recommended by Johnson.
    "These key management actions will significantly strengthen
the company's leadership," Johnson said.
    The company said James O. Welch, head of its Nabisco Brands
unit, was named a vice chairman of the parent company.
    It added that Robert J. Carbonell, an executive vice
president, was promoted to the position of senior executive
vice president of the parent.
       
 Reuter

First City Bancorp said two
subsidiaries sold 54 mln dlrs of energy-related loans and loan
participations to <Prudential-Bache Energy Growth Fund LP
G-One>.
    The loans were made by First City National Bank of Houston
and First City Energy Finance Co to energy-related entites that
have had difficulty complying with First City's original loan
provisions, the company said.
    The company said it made the transaction without suffering
a loss.
    It said it has reduced the percentage of its energy related
loans to its total loans to 14.7 pct at the end of 1986 from 26
pct in 1982.
    The Prudential-Bache Energy Growth Fund is a publicly owned
limited partnership formed in February 1987. <Prudential-Bache
Properties Inc> and <Graham Energy Ltd> are general partners.

 Reuter

Council of Economic Advisers
Chairman Beryl Sprinkel called on Latin American governments to
adopt sounder economic policies and said U.S. banks' loans to
those countries had already been written down in an economic
sense.
    "Latin governments will have to adopt policies that promote
growth for their own citizens," he said, adding that the record
has been mixed.
    Brazil, he said, recently has backtracked from better
economic policies and "obviously they have to change."
    Asked if U.S. banks ultimately would be forced to write
down portions of their loans to Latin America, Sprinkel said,
"In any realistic sense, economic sense, those loans have been
written down."
    The banks could not sell the loans at par, he said, and the
price/earnings ratio of major banks' stocks has not been doing
very well.
    "Clearly the lenders have suffered," said Sprinkel.
 Reuter

Transamerica Corp said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to 2.2 mln shares of its
outstanding stock in addition to the 1.5 mln shares previously
authorized.
    The company has 72.7 mln shares outstanding.
    It said the reacquired 2.2 mln shares will be used to meet
excercise requirements for its stock options plans, while the
previously approved 1.5 mln shares may be used for employee
benefit plan or other corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Industrial and financial groups will be
allowed to take a share in stockbrokers' capital when Paris
Bourse regulations are liberalized beginning next year,
Stockbrokers' Association chairman Xavier Dupont told a news
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur announced on March 10
that the monopoly of French stockbrokers to trade on domestic
bourses will be phased out by January 1992, the date for the
creation of a unified European financial market.
    Balladur said that from January 1988, the capital of the
brokerage houses would be opened French and foreign banks.
    The minister did not specify which other institutions would
be allowed to take stakes in the brokers' capital but said that
from January 1, 1992, "access to the Bourse will be open to any
new member under the control of the Bourse authority."
    Dupont said that in opening up the capital of the 45 Paris
brokerage houses, the stockbrokers' association had "killed one
of its sacred cows."
    Association officials said Dupont would meet all the
stockbrokers on March 31 for an exchange of views on the
measures to be taken and future of the Bourse.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.95 dlrs vs loss 75 cts
    Net loss 48.2 mln vs loss 4,644,000
    Revs 133.4 mln vs 135.6 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 6.28 dlrs vs profit 2.48 dlrs
    Net loss 67.6 mln vs profit 25.7 mln
    Revs 638.9 mln vs 573.1 mln
    Avg shrs 10,771,260 vs 10,355,728
    
 Reuter

Mexico's 7.7 billion dlr loan package
will be signed in New York tomorrow amid increasing calls from
both creditors and debtors for a streamlining of the tortuous
process of raising such jumbo loans, bankers said.
    Pressure for change has mounted because the Mexican deal
has been even more difficult to syndicate than bankers feared.
    Several tentative signing dates had to be scrapped and even
now, five months after the loan was agreed with a 13-bank
advisory committee on October 16, dozens of Mexico's some 400
creditor banks worldwide are still refusing to participate.
    The resistance to the deal must be seen alongside the fact
that it is the largest loan for a Latin American debtor since
the region's debt crisis flared up in 1983. Mexico will also
sign agreements to reschedule 52.3 billion dlrs of debt.
    Moreover, as the first major package built on U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker's strategy of offering loans to countries
willing to implement market-oriented, pro-growth policies,
intense market scrutiny was only to be expected.
    Still, the split within the banks' ranks came as a shock.
"This is not an unsuccessful operation, but we've had more
bickering than ever," one senior banker commented.
    Officers at small banks that have sold, swapped or or
written down their Mexican loans say they see no reason why
they should throw good money after bad.
    Major lenders counter that small banks must share the
responsibility of making new loans and cannot expect to keep
receiving interest on old debt unless they join in new ones.
    Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary David Mulford said
recently the reluctance of small banks at one point endangered
the entire Mexican package. Things have improved, but money
center bankers are determined to keep hounding recalcitrant
banks even once the 7.7 billion dlr target has been reached.
    The loan presently is about 98.5 pct committed. "People who
are outside shouldn't think they've been saved once we get over
7.7 (billion dlrs)," one warned.
    But rounding up "free-rider" banks entails such a huge
drain on management resources that more and more bankers are
acknowledging that the syndicates may have to shrink.
    One idea is to levy new loan contributions on the basis of
current exposure instead of outstandings at an earlier "base"
date - August 1982 in the case of Mexico. Another streamlining
idea is to allow small banks to escape by swapping their loans
for "exit bonds" that a debtor would issue at a discount.
    Argentina has pressed for this solution, so far to no
avail, arguing that the smallest 120 of its 360 bank creditors
account for just one pct of its foreign bank debt and that the
next 120 banks account only for a further six pct.
    Central bank president Jose Luis Machinea said Argentina
may not receive the 2.15 billion dlrs in bank loans it is
seeking until September, which would be a year after
negotiations began with the International Monetary Fund.
    The protracted negotiations have damaged the confidence of
investors in Argentina, forcing up interest rates and spurring
capital flight, he said.
    "We have to introduce some common sense into the
discussion," Machinea said this week in Cambridge, Mass.
    He was echoed by Mexico's deputy planning minister, Pedro
Aspe Armella, who said the delay in signing his country's loan
has made it difficult to map economic policy with any
certainty. "It's a sad affair," he told the Cambridge meeting.
    Bankers said Mexico became so frustrated with the delay in
the loan that it suspended its debt-equity swap program last
month to put pressure on the banks. Other strains have
intensified between U.S. and non-U.S. banks, partly because
U.S. regulations and accounting rules discourage writedowns.
    Critics say this prompts U.S. banks to focus too much on
ensuring steady interest payments from debtors in the short
term, possibly to the detriment of longer-term solutions.
    Because more than half of the banks baulking at the Mexican
deal are American, some foreign bankers think other U.S. banks
should make up the difference.
    This issue of "national share" was defused on the Mexican
committee but bankers say it will probably recur in talks with
Argentina and Brazil, whose finance minister Dilson Funaro has
already suggested separate negotiations with regional
committees of creditors.
    Streamlining of the new-money process is running parallel
with efforts to develop a broader "menu" of alternatives to new
loans, such as trade credits or debt-equity conversions.
syndications," Mulford said last week. He told the banks to
stop complaining that there is no leeway in current procedures
and to come up with ideas. Some steps have already been taken -
interest payments for Chile have been stretched out and banks
are debating whether to accept partial interest payments from
the Philippines in paper instead of cash.
    Because the banks want to isolate hard-line Brazil by
clinching a deal with Argentina as soon as practicable, bankers
said the Argentine package is likely to be along the
established lines of the Baker Plan.
    But some bankers are speculating that the Brazilian deal,
when it comes, will be radically different.
    As such, the loan for Mexico could go down in the history
books as the biggest but also the last jumbo. "I'm convinced
it'll be the last one in this form," one banker said.
 Reuter

This weekend's meeting of Latin
American coffee producers here will call for the International
Coffee Organisation (ICO) to start talks aimed at firming
prices, Nicaraguan foreign trade minister Alejandro Martinez
Cuenca said.
    He said those countries which had confirmed their presence
were Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and
Panama. Colombia had been invited but he did not know if it
would attend.
    Martinez Cuenca told reporters central america alone had
lost some 700 mln dlrs through the weakness of world coffee
prices, partially caused by lack of an ICO quota agreement.
 Reuter

Ambassador Financial Group Inc
said its Ambassador Real Estate Equities Corp, agreed to buy
Heritage Quality Construction Co Inc.
    Ambassador said its unit would purchase 100 pct of
Heritage's stock for an initial payment of approximately
500,000 dlrs and subsequent payments in cash over a five-year
period equal to 50 pct of the net after-tax profit of Heritage.
    If the acquisition is consummated, Ambassador said it
agreed to contribute 250,000 dlrs to the existing capital of
Heritage.
 Reuter

Transco Exploration Partners Ltd said
participation in 14 new discoveries increased its proved gas
reserves to 558.1 billion cubic feet in 1986, up from 541.5
billion cubic feet in the previous year.
    Proved reserves of liquids remained about the same at 25.1
mln barrels, the company said in the 1986 annual just released
by Transco Energy Co <E>, the majority owner of the Transco
Exploration partnership.
    Transco said that anticipated oil and gas prices during
1987 would continue to exert pressure on the profitability of
most energy companies.
    The Transco pipeline system reached permanent take-or-pay
settlements on about half its committed gas deliverability and
interim agreements for another 38 pct of its deliverability,
the annual report said. The company said it paid a total of
about 363 mln dlrs to producers through Februry one out of its
550 mln dlr reserve to settle the take-or-pay disputes.
    Transco said its gas pipeline delivered more than 1.2
trillion cubic feet last year and its marketing affiliate sold
an average of 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day.
    The company's exploration partnership received an average
price of 1.84 dlrs per mln cubic feet for gas sales during
1986, down from 3.04 dlrs in 1985.
    Sales of oil and condensate averaged 15.86 dlrs per barrel
last year, down from 27.41 dlrs per barrel in 1985.
 Reuter

Pacificorp is offering 500 shares each
of series A and series B Dutch Auction Rate Transferable
Securities, or DARTS, said underwriting group co-managers
Salomon Bros Inc and Goldman Sachs and Co.
    Each share has a liquidation preference of 100,000 dlrs a
share. The stock is being offered pursuant to a shelf
registration statement filed on March 10.
    The initial dividend rate for the series A DARTS will be
4.70 pct per year, and the B DARTS, 4.75 pct a year. Dividends
on the A and B stock are payable commencing May 18 and June
eight, respectively, the co-managers said.
    Proceeds from the offering will be added to the company's
general funds, used to repay short-term borrowings or applied
to new construction or other purposes, the co-managers of the
underwriting group said.

 Reuter

    Shr profit two cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 130,000 vs loss 46,000
    Sales 5,042,000 vs nil
    Note: 1987 includes gain of 112,000 dlrs from sale.
 Reuter

L. Luria and Son INc said it
reached an agreement in principle to be the exclusive supplier
of merchandise to be sold through a new game and home shopping
television show being considered by a major television network.
    The company declined to elaborate beyond this statement. It
said the arrangement is subject to a formal agreement and board
approval of the network and Luria.
 Reuter

Western Financial Auto Loans 2, a unit
of Westcorp's Western Financial Savings Bank subsidiary, is
offering 125 mln dlrs of bonds that are collateralized by car
loan receivables, said sole underwriter Drexel Burnham.
    A Drexel officer said that while today's issue is
asset-backed, the debt is a bond, not a pass-through
certificate like the so-called "cars" deals First Boston Corp
popularized for General Motors Corp's <GM> GMAC unit.
    The Western Financial unit's securities have an average
life of 1.4 years and mature March 1, 1990. They were priced to
yield 6.86 pct, Drexel said.
    The bonds have a 6-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.938
to yield 60 basis points more than Treasuries.
    The debt has a quarterly payment schedule. Standard and
Poor's rates the issue a top-flight AAA.
    This is Western Financial Auto Loans' third such issue. All
three were underwritten by Drexel, which is part of an elite
group of Wall Street firms that have brought these asset-backed
deals to market since early 1985.
 Reuter

 Reuter

venezuela approved plans to start
negotiating foreign bond issues up to 400 mln dlrs in the
dollar, deutschmark and yen markets, finance minister manuel
azpurua said after an economic cabinet meeting.
    He also said the the cabinet approved negotiations with
foreign bank creditors to refinance 300 mln dlrs in banco de
los trabajadores de venezuela (btv) debt, with a re-lending
clause channeling back repayments through the state-owned banco
industrial de venezuela (biv).
    The btv refinancing carries an interest rate margin of 3/8
pct over eight years.
 Reuter

Budget Rent a Car Corp said it intends
to file a registration for an initial public offering of common
shares.
    It said the offering would solely be comprised of new stock
issued by the company.
    Budget was acquired on September 30, 1986 from Transamerica
Corp <TA> by an investor group led by Gibbons, Green van
Amerongen and members of Budget's senior management.
 Reuter

The OPEC Fund for International
Development approved 100,000 dlrs in aid for Ecuador, which was
struck recently by an earthquake.
    The Fund, which was set up by the 13 OPEC (Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries) member states to help Third
World development, said in a statement the money would be used
to provide medical supplies for the earthquake victims.
    Ecuador, itself a member of OPEC, suffered a major blow to
its economy when the earthquake damaged a pipeline carrying
crude oil, its chief export earner.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it scheduled six of
its seven U.S. car and truck assembly plants to operate the
week of March 23, with four on overtime.
    The company also said it scheduled two of its U.S. assembly
plans to operate Saturday, March 21.
    As previously reported, the Belvidere (Ill.) assembly plant
is not scheduled to operate due to model changeover.
 Reuter

N.Y. BUSINESS LOANS FALL 572 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 11 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. COMMERCIAL PAPER RISES 2.98 BILLION DLRS IN MARCH 11 WEEK, FED SAYS

fell 572 mln dlrs to 64.297 billion in the week ended March 11,
    Including acceptances, loans fell 475 mln dlrs to 65.16
billion.
    Commercial paper outstanding nationally increased 2.98
billion dlrs to 339.00 billion.
Friday.
 Reuter

NYSE SHORT INTEREST UP 11,203,287 SHARES FOR MONTH ENDED MARCH 15

Amoco Corp's petroleum liquids reserves
total 2.42 billion barrels at the end of 1986, down from 2.77
billion a year earlier, but its natural gas reserves increased
to 15.37 trillion cubic feet from 15.14 trillion, the company's
annual report said.
    It said the drop in crude oil and natural gas liquid
reserves reflected downward revisions of previous estimates
caused by the sharp drop in oil prices last year. This
accounted for 178 mln barrels of a worldwide downward revision
of 188 mln barrels, with 158 mln barrels of the total revision
occurring in the United States, the report said.
    Amoco said there were upward revisions in the size of its
worldwide gas reserves totalling 404 billion cubic feet last
year, while it discovered 568 billion cubic feet and purchased
298 billion cubic feet of reserves.
    Production of one trillion cubic feet offset much of these
gains, the report said.
    All of the gas reserve purchases, as well as all of the 14
mln barrels of oil reserves bought in 1986, were in the United
States, Amoco said, noting it has spent 1.1 billion dlrs to
acquire U.S. producing properties over the past three years.
    Commenting on 1987, Amoco said acquisitions "will be an
integral part of our strategy, should reserves become available
at attractive prices."
    The company said it expects "the marketing climate for
natural gas to improve in 1987, which should provide the
opportunity for Amoco to expand sales. As prices and demand
improve, we are poised to accelerate capital spending on our
inventory of attractive opportunities."
    Amoco previously announced a 1987 capital spending budget
of 3.2 billion dlrs. Such spending totaled 3.18 billion dlrs
last year, down from 5.31 billion in 1985.
 Reuter

Caisse de depot et placement du
Quebec, the government agency which manages the province's
pension funds, said its investment portfolio earned a net
profit of almost three billion Canadian dlrs in 1986, an
increase of 300 mln dlrs over 1985.
    The agency said in its annual statement that it had assets
with a total book value of 25 billion dlrs, or a market value
of 28 billion dlrs, at the end of 1986.
    These holdings had a rate of return of 13.5 pct in the
year, which was below the Caisse's average return of 16 pct in
the past four years and 14.2 pct in the past eight years.
    The Caisse said foreign equity investments represented 3.6
pct of total assets, while U.S. government securities accounted
for another 5.2 pct of the overall portfolio.
    The agency's holding of U.S. government securities yielded
a return of 20.7 pct for the year, significantly more than
either the 14.1 pct earned on the total bond portfolio or the
13.5 pct for all funds under management.
    "These high liquidity securities, which are held on a
temporary basis and for purposes of strategy and the protection
of the overall bond portfolio, have been efficient," the agency
said of the U.S. securities.
    The agency said it has 7.9 billion dlrs invested in
Canadian private sector businesses after channeling 965 mln
dlrs of new funds into this area in 1986.
    The Caisse said it acquired 825 mln of new Government of
Quebec bonds and 342 mln dlrs of new securities from other
Quebec government issuers during the year.
   
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 MONEY SUPPLY RISES 500 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 9 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK DISCOUNT BORROWINGS AVERAGE 228 MLN DLRS A DAY IN MARCH 18 WEEK, FED SAYS

Asea Group, the diversified industrial
concern based in Vasteras, Sweden, said it expects 1987
earnings, after financial income and expense, to be flat
compared with 1986, when it earned 2.53 billion Swedish crowns,
or 371.1 mln dlrs.
    A company spokesman said 1986 results were boosted
significantly by the booking of two large orders for nuclear
power plants.
    This gain, he said, will be balanced in 1987 by a return to
profitability by Asea's power transmission segment, which had a
loss of 183 mln crowns, or 26.9 mln dlrs, last year.
    Currency conversions were made at 6.81 crowns to the dlr.
    The spokesman said the company has built up a strong
backlog of orders that will contribute to earnings in 1988 and
beyond.
    At yearend 1986, Asea's order backlog stood at 32.7 billion
crowns, or 4.8 billion dlrs, up from 30.9 billion, or 4.5
billion dlrs, at the end of 1985.
    Asea has operations in power generation and transmission,
transportation equipment, pollution control and robotics.
    Total sales in 1986 were 46 billion crowns, or 6.8 billion
dlrs.
 Reuter

less extended credits averaged 228 mln dlrs in the week to
Wednesday March 18, the Federal Reserve said.
    Total borrowings in the week rose 83 mln dlrs to 502 mln
dlrs, with extended credits up three mln dlrs at 274 mln dlrs.
The week was the first half of a two-week statement period. Net
borrowing in the prior week averaged 148 mln dlrs.
    Commenting on the two-week statement period that ended on
March 11, the Fed estimated that banks had daily average net
free reserves of 759 mln dlrs rather than the 660 mln dlrs
first reported.
    A Fed spokesman told a press briefing that there were no
large single day net misses in the Fed's reserve projections in
the first week of the latest bank statement period.
    None of the 14 large money center banks borrowed from the
discount window during the week and all of the Wednesday
borrowing was made by the smallest banks. For the week as a
whole, the borrowing was split roughly evenly between the large
regionals and the small banks.
    Natural float ranged from a low of near zero on Thursday --
for which the Fed spokesman could give no particular reason --
to a high of nearly 750 mln dlrs on Tuesday.
    The Tuesday peak included about 100 mln dlrs of
transportation float in mid- and south-Atlantic states. Noting
that the weather was "basically good" for March, the spokesman
said that transportation float averaged under 500 mln dlrs a
day for the full week.
    Float related as-ofs were a negative 400 mln dlrs on
Wenesday due to a number of unrelated cash letter error
corrections in five districts.
    As-ofs peaked at just over 500 mln dlrs on Tuesday.
 Reuter

today repeated that he was satisfied with the current level of
sterling, both against the dollar and the West German mark.
    Lawson said in a television interview that he did not
regard the pound's present exchange rate was uncomfortably
high.
    "I think it is round about right," he said.
    "I think there was a time that they (British manufacturers)
thought the (exchange) rate was uncomfortably high. But I think
they are very satisfied with the present level."
    "But I have made it absolutely clear that I don't want to
see the pound go through the roof," he added.
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp said it
was disappointed by the downgrading of its debentures by
Standard and Poor's Investment Service.
    "We believe their action is inappropriate in view of the
stability we are experiencing in the market, the realization of
the anticipated improvements in our steel operations, and our
current liquidity level," the company said.
    It said its position of cash and marketable securities
increased to 463 mln dlrs at year-end 1986 from 99 mln dlrs a
year earlier. "We expect to maintain an adequate level of
liquidity through 1987," it said.
 Reuter

Greyhound Lines said, on its first day
under new management, it slashed fares on 166 of its shorter
routes, many by 50 pct or more.
    On Wednesday, Greyhound Corp <G> completed the sale of its
Greyhound Lines subsidiary to GLI Holdings Inc for 350 mln dlrs
in cash, securities, royalties and other considerations.
    Most of the routes affected are 100 miles or less and
connect cities and towns throughout the country and include
routes serving suburban terminals, colleges, military bases and
resort locations.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss one ct
    Net profit 1,136 vs loss 42,840
    Revs 1,490,718 vs 1,151,176
    Nine mths
    Shr profit three cts vs profit five cts
    Net profit 89,900 vs profit 150,523
    Revs 4,520,393 vs 4,078,441
 Reuter

FCS Laboratories said its
investment banker, Butcher and Singer Inc, received a
preliminary merger proposal from another company in the
healthcare field.
    FCS said that if various aspects of the proposal are better
defined, its board may consider it. FCS said merger
negotiations with this other company have been continuing since
late August.
 Reuter

The initial public offering of 1.1 mln
shares of MMR Holding Corp common stock was priced at 13.50
dlrs a share, said William Blair and Co and Howard, Weil,
Labouisse, Friedrichs Inc, co-managers of the underwriting
group.
    All shares will be sold by the company.
    Based in Baton Rouge, La., MMR is an electrical and
mechanical specialty contractor. Its fiscal 1986 contract
revenues were 135.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said the
merger agreement between Fleet Financial Group and Norstar
Bancorp Inc would not affect the firms' current ratings because
the merger cannot take place until July 1988.
    It said any rating change until then would depend on each
individual bank holding company. S and P noted that the
combined entity would have assets of more than 24 billion dlrs,
making it one of the largest U.S. bankholding companies.
    Fleet has A-plus senior debt, A subordinated debt and A-1
commercial paper. Norstar carries AA senior debt, AA-minus
subordinated debt, A-plus preferred stock and A-1-plus paper.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply rose 500 mln
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 738.7 billion dlrs in the March 9
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 738.2 billion
dlrs from 738.0 billion, while the four-week moving average of
M-1 rose to 738.2 billion dlrs from 737.2 billion.
    Economists polled by Reuters said that M-1 would be
anywhere from unchanged to up five billion dlrs. The average
forecast called for a 2.3 billion dlr increase.
 Reuter

Shr profit 58 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net profit 726,000 vs loss 145,000
    Sales 4,958,000 vs 2,783,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 1.08 dlrs vs loss 80 cts
    Net profit 1,359,000 vs loss 1,013,000
    Sales 12.6 mln vs 7,145,000
    NOTE: Fiscal 1987 net profit includes tax credits of
372,000 dlrs in the quarter and 643,000 dlrs in the nine
months.
    Periods end February 28, 1987 and 1986, respectively.
    Art's-Way Manufacturing Co Inc is full name of company.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 1.5 mln vs profit 868,000
    Revs 29.3 mln vs 41.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 41 cts vs profit five cts
    Net loss 3.1 mln vs profit 409,000
    Revs 99.2 mln vs 231.7 mln
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it will lay
off 3,500 workers temporarily at one of its car assembly plants
on March 23, the same day that 3,500 other workers will return
to work.
    The number one U.S. automaker, in announcing its plant
schedule for the week of March 23, said no further indefinite
layoffs are expected for that week. The number of GM workers
that have been put on indefinite layoff status remains at
37,000, a spokeswoman said.
    GM said it will idle the 3,500 workers at its Lansing,
Mich., Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac plant, which will be shut down
from March 23 until April 6 for inventory adjustment.
    Also on March 23, work will resume at GM's Norwood, Ohio,
Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada plant and 3,500 hourly employees
there will return to work. The plant had been idled due to a
shortage of materials.
    The number of workers on temporary layoff remains at 7,600,
the spokeswoman said.
 Reuter

Shr 12.84 dlrs vs 3.07 dlrs
    Net 46,054,000 vs 11,026,000
    Revs 491.1 mln vs 473.9 mln
    NOTE: Current net includes gain of 8.51 dlrs a share on
disposal of assets.
    M.W. Ward holds 62 pct voting interest.
 Reuter

Sea Containers Ltd predicted
its first quarter fiscal 1987 net earnings would improve by 10
mln dlrs over the same period a year ago.
    The company said 1987 got off on a much better footing than
fiscal 1986, from which the company recorded a loss of 67.6 mln
dlrs, or 6.28 dlrs per share, on revenues of 641.4 mln dlrs.
    James Sherwood, president of the company, said he expects
to record a loss of approximately 12 mln dlrs for the first
quarter, compared to losses of approximately 22 mln dlrs for
first quarter fiscal 1986.
    The company emphasized the first quarter is a traditionally
slow period for the ferry industry, which is  part of Sea
Containers' business.
    Sherwoood said the company's losses were largely
attributable to non-recurring events and provisions. He cited
the default of 15 container leasees and ship charterers,
costing the company approximately 25 mln dlrs.
    He also cited a 23 mln dlr cost as a result of a closing
two of its subsidiary's ferry services, and a 10.3 mln dlr
provision to cover losses on the sale of container assets and
severance pay costs.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bancorp said its
1987 pre-tax income could be reduced by about 33.5 mln dlrs if
it decides to reclassify its 339 mln dlrs in medium- to
long-term loans to Brazil as nonperforming.
    But the company stressed in a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission that it believes it is too soon to
reclassify the debt, despite Brazil's Feb 20 suspension of
direct interest payments on medium- and long-term loans.
    "The corporation believes that it is premature to make a
decsion to classify such medium- and long-term debt as
nonperforming at this time," First Interstate said.
    But First Interstate said that if Brazil's suspension of
interest payments continues, it may have to reclassify its
loans as nonperforming and place them on non-accrual, meaning
that interest previously accrued but not paid would be deducted
from net income and interest would no longer be accrued.
    Besides its medium- and long-term debt, First Interstate
said it also has 165 mln dlrs in short-term loans or trade
lines in Brazil.
    As of Dec 31, 1986, nonperforming Brazilian outstandings
were about 4.1 mln dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 15 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Net profit 1,025,000 vs profit 969,000
    Revs 10.9 mln vs 7.8 mln
    12 mths
    Shr profit 33 cts vs loss one cts
    Net profit 2,375,000 vs profit 90,000
    Revs 38.2 mln vs 20.3 mln
    NOTE: Revenues figure shows contract revenue, not gross
contracts written.
    Fourth quarter and full year 1986 includes extraordinary
gain of 501,000 dlrs and 1,040,000 dlrs, respectively, from tax
loss carryforwards.
    Per share figures come after preferred dividend
requirements.
 Reuter

Securities and commodity
exchanges should consider establishing a mechanism for halting
trading of equities, futures and options when there is unusual
price volatility, a top Securities and exchange, SEC, official
said.
    Richard Ketchum, director of the SEC's division of market
regulation, said a "short, system-wide halt" of trading of
stocks, futures contracts and options on futures contracts
would "let everyone get a breath" in especially volatile
markets.
    Ketchum made his remarks in connection with a Futures
Industry Association panel discussion on stock index futures
and stock market volatility.
    The SEC official did not attempt to define "volatile"
markets.
    Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Susan
Phillips later told reporters that exchanges already have the
authority to halt trading if an emergency is declared.
    But she said Ketchum's proposal was "something to look at"
and that she expected the exchanges to explore procedures for
making order imbalances public.
    William Brodsky, president of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, CME, told Reuters that considering Ketchum's proposal
would be a "worthwhile exercise," but that implementation of a
trading halt mechanism posed "major, philosophical, economic
questions."
    Ketchum said price limits on contracts "are not
particularly useful in dealing with volatility."
    Earlier, Brodsky announced the CME board of directors had
decided last Tuesday to drop a plan to set a 12-point limit on
the daily price movement of its Standard & Poor's 500 contract.
 Reuter

Public Service Co of Indiana Inc said
it acted today to replace 35 mln dlrs in existing debt,
estimating that would save it about 1.8 mln dlrs a year.
    The utility said it plans to issue a 35 mln dlr, 7.6 pct
first mortgage bond, Series NN, due 2012 to the city of
Princeton, Ind. The Series NN bonds will serve as collateral to
Princeton's equal-sized pollution control bond issue that are
expected to have the same interest rate.
    Proceeds from this issue will be used to redeem the
utility's 12-3/4 pct bonds that serve as collateral for
Princeton's same-rate pollution control bonds.
 Reuter

Shipments of major home appliances in
February rose 9.1 pct to 3.5 mln, up from 3.2 mln a year ago,
reported the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
    It said year to date, total major appliance shipments rose
11.4 pct to 7.6 mln from 6.8 mln a year earlier.
    It said strong shipment gains in four of the five appliance
categories resulted in the unprecedented monthly levels, with
records set for shipments of refrigerators, automatic washers,
disposers, dryers and dishwashers.
 Reuter

The federal environment
department said it charged Gulf Canada Corp with eight counts
of waste dumping into the Beaufort Sea.
    The dumping is alleged to have occurred September 23-30,
1986, and Gulf faces a maximum 50,000 dlr fine on each count,
according to the department.
    The department said Gulf allegedly dumped tons of powdered
cement and drilling mud containing mercury and trace metals
into the Beaufort at its Amauligak drilling site.
     Gulf Canada spokesman Ash Bhasin said the company has been
advised of the charges, but cannot comment further.
 Reuter

Shr loss 17 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 213,000 vs loss 217,000
    Sales 6,788,000 vs 6,254,000
    Year
    Shr loss 22 cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 270,000 vs loss 61,000
    Sales 27.0 mln vs 27.0 mln
 Reuter

said the Red River National Bank of Clarksville, Tex., failed
and its assets were taken over by State Bank of DeKalb, Tex.
    The failure was the 45th bank in the nation and 16th in
Texas.  The FDIC has assisted two more banks with funds to
enable them to keep operating.
    Red River bank's two offices will reopen tomorrow as
branches of the assuming bank. It had assets of 22.6 mln dlrs.
    The FDIC was named receiver and will receive a purchase
premium of 251,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The United Steelworkers of America
said that bankruptcy Judge Burton Liflands's refusal to act on
a union lawsuit was "a gross denial of due process for 47,000
retired employees of LTV Steel."
    The union is seeking an injunction that would require LTV
Corp <QLTV> to reinstate 400 dlr monthly supplements to about
7,000 retirees. The union said that the judge, at the request
of the <Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp>, delayed proceedings
until May four. It said the case was originally to have been
heard on February 27.
    The union said LTV stopped making monthly payments in
February after Pension went before Lifland and received
permission to terminate LTV pension plans covering 47,000
retired hourly workers.
 Reuter

Reichhold Chemicals Inc said its
emulsion polymers division increased by nine cts per dry pound
the prices of all styrene-butadiene and polystyrene latexes,
effective May 1.
    It said the increase is in addition to recently announced
increases and applies to carpet, paper, nonwovens, textiles,
adhesives and other specialty end uses.
 Reuter

Tri-Star Pictures Inc said it agreed
to acquire the Roosevelt Field Century Theatre from Canada's
Cineplex Odeon Corp's RKO Century Warner Theatres Inc for 17
mln dlrs.
    The recently refurbished and expanded theater is located in
Garden City, N.Y..
 Reuter

DEP Corp said it agreed to sell the
distribution rights to Doan's Backache Pills to <Ciba-Geigy
Corp> for 34.4. mln dlrs in cash.
    DEP said it acquire the product line when it purchased
Jeffrey Martin Inc earlier this year.
    The company also said it intends to sell the remaining
over-the-counter drug business obtained through the Jeffrey
Martin acquisition, which includes the Bantron Smoking
Deterrent Tablet, Ayds Appetite Supressant and Compoz Sleep Aid
product lines.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 30 cts vs loss 25 cts
    Oper net loss 2,138,000 vs loss 2,312,000
    Revs 99.3 mln vs 89.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 40 cts vs profit 47 cts
    Oper net profit 4,294,000 vs profit 8,793,000
    Revs 390.9 mln vs 360.5 mln
    NOTE: Excludes discontinued operations loss of 1.33 dlrs a
share vs 5.35 dlrs a share in the quarter, and loss 1.52 dlrs a
share vs loss 13.64 dlrs in the full year.
    Fourth quarter 1986 includes reserve of nine mln dlrs for
operations company plans to sell.
 Reuter

is continuing an investigation of the practice of "parking"
stocks, said Richard Murphy, a lawyer with the SEC enforcement
division.
    Earlier, the SEC settled civil charges against Boyd
Jefferies and Jefferies Group Inc, which allege market
manipulation and the parking of stocks, a practice where stock
is held by one person or firm while it is actually under the
control of someone else.
    Murphy told reporters others are being investigated for
parking stocks.
 Reuter

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth
Dole proposed to allow the use of daytime running lights as a
measure to improve safety on the highways.
    Dole said in an announcement that in Sweden and Finland, 
where daytime lights have been in use, the number of crashes
and lives lost has been reduced.
    The transporation department said there might be confusion
in some states whether the lighting device was legal.
    Therefore it proposed an amendment to federal motor vehicle
safety rules to make clear that front-mounted lights could be
installed at the option of the manufacturer.
 Reuter

    Ramada Inc <RAM> - Offering of 100 mln dlrs of subordinated
notes due 1999 through Salomon Brothers Inc.
    Chock Full O'Nuts Corp <CHG> - Offering of 60 mln dlrs of
convertible senior subordinated debentures due April 15, 2012
through a group led by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

 Reuter

Shr 1.09 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 1,193,000 vs 1,361,000
    Revs 18.7 mln vs 17.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.19 dlrs vs 1.52 dlrs
    Net 1,300,000 vs 1,831,000
    Revs 50.6 mln vs 48.8 mln
 Reuter

The Singapore International
Monetary Exchange Ltd, SIMEX, said it would launch at least two
options on futures contracts this year.
    SIMEX said in a press release that the options contracts
would be based on the currency and interest rate futures
currently traded on the exchange and be started "toward the
third quarter."
    SIMEX, which is linked to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
currently trades three currency futures -- on Deutsche marks,
Japanese yen and British pounds -- and two interest rate
futures -- on U.S. Treasury-bonds and three-month Eurodollars.
 Reuter

Ecuador's Minister for Industry and Trade
resigned today, but denied he was responding to recent protests
against a new austerity program that went into effect after a
devastating earthquake.
    Xavier Neira, an economist, told reporters he was stepping
down for personal reasons and would return to his private
business as a foreign trade consultant.
    He defended government austerity measures adopted last
Friday as a "necessary antidote" to the losses from the March
five quake which cost an estimated one billion dlrs in damage
and left 1,000 people dead or missing.
     Ecuadoran unions have called for a general strike next
Wednesday to press for a suspension of the belt-tightening
measures, which include a rise in gasoline prices of up to 80
pct, budget cuts of up 10 pct and a government hiring freeze.
    Ecuador, a member of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), has been forced to halt shipments
of crude, its main export, for about five months until it
repairs a pipeline that ruptured as a result of the quake.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.55 dlrs vs loss 52 cts
    Net loss 13,191,000 vs loss 2,254,000
    Revs 1,179,000 vs 2,003,000
    Avg shrs 8,520,000 vs 4,330,000
    Note: Current year loss includes 11.8 mln dlr writedown of
oil and gas properties under full cost accounting method.
 Reuter

American Can Co filed with the
to 500 mln dlrs of debt securities on terms to be determined at
    Proceeds from the offering will be used for general
corporate purposes, including repayments of outstanding debt,
business acquisitions or investments, American Can said.
    The company did not name an underwriter for the sale.
 Reuter

Dorsey Corp said it
completed the sale of substantially all its Dorsey Trailers Inc
subsidiary assets to <Trailer Acquisition Corp>, whose
stockholders include a former Dorsey vice president and several
executives of the Dorsey Trailers management team.
 Reuter

Oper shr 38 cts vs 5.62 dlrs
    Oper net 400,000 vs 6,173,000
    Revs 1,195,000 vs 392,000
    Year
    Oper shr 94 cts vs 5.65 dlrs
    Oper net 1,006,000 vs 6,257,000
    Revs 2,432,000 vs 1,121,000
    NOTE: 1986 operating net for the quarter and year excludes
a loss on the disposal of certain businesses of 2.15 mln dlrs
and a loss from discontinued operations of 297,000 dlrs in the
quarter and 469,000 dlrs in the year.
    1985 operating net for the quarter and year includes a
pretax gain of nine mln dlrs from the sale of two divisions and
a loss from discontinued operations of 2.85 mn dlrs in the
quarter and 3.7 mln dlrs in the year.
    Napco International Inc is full name of company.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.02 dlr
    Oper loss 631,000 dlrs
    NOTE: Prior year results are not available as company
completed its public offering in April 1986.
 Reuter

Republican members of the House
Budget Committee refused to cast their votes as the committee
began marking up the outlines of next year's federal budget.
    Republicans voted "present" during votes on a ceiling for
fiscal 1988 defense spending, saying they were protesting the
Democrats' failure to present an alternative to President
Reagan's budget, which was completed in January.
    Without the Republicans' votes, the Democratic majority on
the committee voted tentatively 13-8 to cap 1988 defense
spending at 282.6 billion dlrs, three billion dlrs more than
current year defense outlays.
    Rep. William Gray (D-Pa.), the Budget Committee chairman,
decided earlier this week to use current government spending
levels as a starting point for the panel's deliberations.
    In the past, the committee Democrats had always gone behind
closed doors to agree in advance on a draft budget plan.
    But this year, the Democrats could not come to an
agreement, prompting Gray to invite the Republicans to join
them in the drafting process in open session.
    Republicans argued that this maneuver enabled the Democrats
to avoid presenting alternatives to the president's budget.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 497,452 vs loss 1,306,875
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 9.6 mln
 Reuter

New York investor George Soros, and
an investment fund he controls, said they raised their stake in
King World Productions Inc to 2,485,510 shares, or 8.1 pct of
the total outstanding, from 1,986,710 shares, or 6.5 pct.
Soros said his group bought a net 498,800 King World common
shares between Jan 8 and March 6 at prices ranging fropm 18.924
to 21.203 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

<Cineplex Odeon Corp> said it agreed in
principle to acquire the Walter Reade Organization Inc New York
cinema chain from Coca-Cola Co's Entertainment Holdings Inc
unit for 32.5 mln U.S. dlrs.
    Cineplex said the purchase price consisted of 22.5 mln dlrs
cash and 652,742 Cineplex common shares. The transaction is
subject to fulfilment of certain unspecified conditions and
regulatory and board approvals.
    Walter Reade operates 11 screens in eight Manhattan
locations.
 Reuter

Secretary of State George Shultz has
decided not to oppose any U.S. wheat subsidy offer to the
Soviet Union and has left the final decision on whether to sell
subsidized wheat to Moscow up to President Reagan and the
Agriculture Department, a State Department official said.
    "Shultz feels like he fought the battle against a subsidy
last summer, and he's not going to the mat again. It's now
basically the USDA who has to make their decisions as to what
they want to do," the official said.
    If USDA decides to go ahead with a subsidy offer to the
Soviet Union, he said, "Shultz will not wage a vigorous
campaign against it. He might not come out in favor of it, but
he won't go to the President and voice his objections."
    In an official statement clarifying Shultz's remarks
yesterday to leaders of the National Association of Wheat
Growers, the State Department said, "Secretary Shultz expressed
his belief that whenever possible, U.S. grain should be
competitive on world markets, including the Soviet Union.
    The Agriculture Department is in the best position to
determine whether consideration should be given at this time to
extending to the Soviets a subsidy under the Export Enhancement
Program."
    Although Shultz will not oppose a wheat subsidy to the
Soviets, there remain obstacles to another subsidy offer to
Moscow, the State Department official said.
    "Everyone in the government agrees that if there is a
subsidy to be offered, we would not offer it unless we had a
firm commitment from the Soviets that they would buy."
    USDA does not want a repetition of last summer when the
USSR baulked at its offer of four mln tonnes of subsidized
wheat, the official, who asked not to be identified, said.
    The Soviets rejected the U.S. offer then on the grounds
that the 13 dlr per tonne subsidy was insufficient to bring
U.S. prices down to competitive levels.
    The Soviets want a higher subsidy offer this time, the
State Department source said.
    "What the Soviets want is something equivalent to the
lowest price being paid by anyone in the world," he said.
    The Soviets argue that they are the best customer of the
U.S. and that they are entitled to the best price, he said.
    Government and commodity sources also said there are
elements in the USDA, most notably undersecretary Daniel
Amstutz, who remain opposed to a wheat subsidy to the Soviets.
    "Subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union is still not a
foregone conclusion," the State Department official said.
 Reuter

    Net 540,000 vs 1,890,000
    Revs 4.9 mln vs 7.1 mln
 Reuter

Morgan Guaranty Trust Co said it filed
suit against <Metromedia Inc>, seeking a redemption at par of
Metromedia subordinated discount debentures.
    The debentures due 1998, were issued in 1984 and were zero
coupon notes for the first five years. Beginning 1990, they
were to receive semi-annual interest payments at an annual rate
of 16 pct.
    Morgan said the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New York, stems from the recent
voluntary liquidation of Metromedia which has intentionally
created an event of default on the notes. 
    The company said the default amount is 574.24 dlrs for each
1,000 dlrs principal amount of debentures. The figure takes
into account the deep discount the holders received when they
bought the issue.
    Morgan Guaranty said there is about 30 mln dlrs principal

 Reuter

 Reuter

Clorox Co said <Henkel KGaA> of
Dusseldorf, West Germany, agreed to increase its holdings in
Clorox to 30 pct from the current level of 23 pct.
    Henkel, which also holds a subordinated note convertible
into another 1.7 pct of the company's stock, intends to acquire
the additional shares in the open market over an extended
period of time, Clorox said.
    It also said that, for the foreseeable future, Henkel does
not intend to increase its participation in Clorox above the 30
pct level.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs five cts
    Net 1,442,000 vs 393,000
    Revs 9,771,000 vs 8,052,000
    Year
    Shr 74 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 6,076,000 vs 1,875,000
    Revs 34.9 mln vs 30.3 mln
 Reuter

Sir Roy Denman, Head of the EC
Delegation in Washington, said pending U.S. trade legislation
is a misguided attempt to deal with the nation's trade deficit
and will spark retaliation if passed in its present form.
    "To think that you can deal with a trade deficit by
legislation is a mistake," he told the Foreign Trade
Association here.
    Denman told reporters that possible retaliation, which he
warned of in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, would not necessarily be on a
product-for-product basis.
    "Retaliation does not have to be matched product to
product," Denman said.
    He said in the case of textiles import restrictions,
however, retaliation would be against U.S. textile exports.
    "Certainly, if restrictions were imposed on European
exports of textiles to the U.S., the Community would be likely
to retaliate with restrictions on U.S. textile exports to
Europe," Denman said.
    He also took exception to U.S. proposals to require
countries with large current account surpluses with the U.S. to
cut those surpluses or face special tariffs.
    "This would conflict with international obligations, throw
a large wrench into the current round of trade negotiations and
could easily boomerang," he warned of the tariff proposals.
    Denman also took exception to U.S. efforts to seek
reciprocity in specific trade sectors.
    "Forcing reciprocity in one sector by imposing barriers
would simply lead to retaliation from the other party," he
said, adding that overall reciprocity can only be achieved by
trading off disadvantages in one sector for advantages in
another.
 Reuter

The International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said checks
totaling 33 mln dlrs are being mailed to 2,500 of its members
who formerly worked for Republic Airlines and are now employed
by Northwest Airlines (NWA).
    The payoffs result from a trust agreement and employee
stock ownership plan negotiated in early 1984 by the union to
protect Republic workers when the airline was in financial
difficulty, the union said.
    Republic has since merged with Northwest Airlines.
 Reuter

Provincially-owned Hydro-Quebec said
it had no obligation to supply electricity to other Canadian
provinces if it could sell it at a higher price to Americans.
    The utility told a National Energy Board hearing that U.S.
utilities generally offer higher prices for electricity than
those in Canada because the Americans want firm energy
supplies.
    Hydro-Quebec is seeking regulatory approval to sell 70
billion kilowatt hours of firm power a year to the New England
power pool over 10 years starting in 1990. Utilities in
Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland oppose the sale.
 Reuter

Lacana Mining Corp said it plans to
issue five mln common shares at 12 dlrs each to reduce debt
incurred on its recent purchase of a 51 pct stake in <Mascot
Gold Mines Ltd>.
    The company said it will issue 3,750,000 of the shares
through Canadian underwriters Gordon Capital Corp, Loewen
Ondaatje McCutcheon and Co Ltd and Merrill Lynch Canada Inc and
1,250,000 shares through Alexanders, Laing and Cruickshank of
London, England.
    Lacana said it will file a preliminary prospectus dated
March 20 with regulators in each Canadian province.
 Reuter

Frank B. Hall and Co Inc
said its independent accountants will issue a qualified report
on its financial statements.
    The company said the opinion is the result of ongoing
litigation over its discontinued operations. Earlier it said it
lost 2.1 mln dlrs in the fourth quarter against a loss of 2.3
mln dlrs a year ago before discontinued operations.
    It also said it decided to sell its claims adjusting and
admininistrative operations and its automobile dealer insurance
unit, creating a reserve of about nine mln dlrs in the fourth
quarter 1986 for the sale.
    The company said it will vigorously defend the litigation
arising from the discontinued units.
    It also said it will concentrate on its direct brokerage
and service business.
 Reuter

Intermark Inc, which together with
one of its subsidiaries already holds a 43.4 pct stake in Pier
1 Imports Inc, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
plans to acquire a majority of the company's voting stock.
    Intermark said it already holds 6,839,827 Pier 1 common
shares, or 35.66 pct, and its Pier 1 Holdings Inc holds
1,484,516 shares, or 7.74 pct.
    Intermark said it also has 341,991 shares of Pier 1
preferred stock, or 35.2 pct of the outstanding, while Pier 1
Holdings has 74,225 shares, or 7.6 pct.
         
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs nil
    Net loss 877,000 vs profit 22,000
    Sales 13.5 mln vs 18.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 35 cts vs profit 20 cts
    Net loss 2,098,000 vs profit 1,184,000
    Sales 43.5 mln vs 55.9 mln
    (Electro Scientific Industries)
 Reuter

Josten's Corp said it agreed
to sell its proprietary school business to CareerCom Corp, for
20 mln dlrs in cash and about 1.7 mln CareerCom common shares.
    Upon completion of the proposed transaction, Josten's will
own 20 pct of CareerCom's stock, which it intends to hold for
investment purposes, it said.
    Proprietary school sales totaled about 56 mln dlrs and
accounted for less than 10 pct of Josten's total revenue, it
added.
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps said it is upgrading to
Duff 1- (one minus) from Duff 2, its rating on Baxter Travenol
Inc's commercial paper totaling about 541 mln dlrs.
    The upgrading reflects the company's significant
improvement made in reducing debt since its 1985 acquisition of
American Hospital Supply Corp, it said.
 Reuter

Workers at a General Motors Corp
parts plant in Michigan are scheduled to vote tomorrow on a new
contract that would change the way many of the workers do their
job.
    Some 3,000 members of the United Auto Workers at GM's
Livonia, Mich., parts plant will vote in two shifts on a local
contract to replace their current agreement with the company,
according to officials of both the union and the company.
    The proposed accord would initiate the so-called "team
concept" at the plant, which makes seat cushions and is part of
GM's Inland Division.
    Under the proposed contract, workers in one area of the
plant would be responsible for the entire product and would
make some of their own decisions about assembling that product,
said Kevin Woodward, a steward with the UAW local that
represents the workers.
    An Inland division spokesman would not discuss details of
the accord. But he said Inland has a "serious" capacity
problem.
    No wage or benefit issues are in the proposal. Those issues
are covered by a national pact between GM and the UAW. Talks on
a new national accord are expected to begin in July.
    If the contract is ratified, it would go into effect as
soon as the vote count is completed, said Ronald Catcher, a
member of the local's executive board.
    The pact would also stay in place through the next national
contract, he said.
    Catcher said the union members are sharply divided on the
new accord. "It's going to be close either way," he said.
    Many of the workers are afraid that, if the agreement is
not ratified, the plant will be shut down, union officials
said. The GM spokesman said "no decision has been made to that
effect."
 Reuter

Qtly cash distribution five cts vs five cts prior
 Reuter

Qtly cash distribution 30.5 cts vs 18.4 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    Note: Prior-quarter dividend was an initial payout based on
operations for a partial fourth quarter in 1986.
 Reuter

its highest level, Duff 1+ (one plus) from Duff 1, the rating
on about 836 mln dlrs of Philip Morris Companies Inc commercial
paper.
    The change reflects the company's improvement in retiring
debt incurred in the the acquisition of General Foods Corp, and
the ability of both the tobacco and food product lines to
generate cash flow, Duff and Phelps said.
 Reuter

A group led by Halcyon Investments,
a New York securities and risk arbitrage partnership, said it
has acquired 486,400 shares of Atlantic Research Corp, or 6.4
the Halcyon group said it bought the stake for 15.6 mln dlrs
for no specific purpose.
    The group said it has no plans to seek control of Atlantic
Research, which has been sought by Clabir Corp <CLG>, but said
it may buy more stock or sell some or all of what it has.
 Reuter

    Year
    Note: Current year figures include 10.1 mln dlr writedown
of costs and investments associated with ethanol refinery
project.
 Reuter

The Justice Department mishandled an
investigation into alleged fraud on Navy contracts by a unit of
Tenneco Inc <TGT>, two senior senators charged.
    The charges, made jointly by Sens. William Proxmire,
D-Wis., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, were based on a report by
subcommittee staffs of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the
Joint Economic Committee on the Justice Department
    "Serious mistakes were made at every stage of the Newport
News investigation and much time wasted during lengthy periods
of inactivity," the report said.
    The Tenneco unit, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock
Co, asked the Navy in 1976 for reimbursement of 894 mln dlrs in
cost overruns in the construction of 14 nuclear-powered ships.
The Navy settled the claims for 208 mln dlrs in 1978 and then
refered the case to the Justice Department for investigation of
possible fraud.
    In 1983, the Justice Department decided to end the
investigation without prosecuting Newport News.
       
 Reuter

One of the top executives of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has tendered his resignation
charging that the United States has been pressuring the agency
to reduce the conditions it places on some loans, monetary
    C. David Finch, an Australian who heads the IMF's exchange
and trade relations department, told the IMF executive board on
Wednesday that he planned to leave by the end of next month
after 37 years with the agency.
    The sources said that Finch, in a statement considered
unprecedented, told the board that the United States had
brought undue pressure on the IMF to approve funding for Zaire
and Egypt.
    "To resign in this manner is highly unusual, perhaps
unprecedented," a monetary source said.
    Neither Finch nor U.S. IMF Representative Charles Dallara
could be reached for comment.
    The IMF, since the emergence of the debt crisis in 1982,
has pressed many countries to tighten their belts and cut back
on social spending as conditions to granting assistance.
    The United States recently has been taking the position
that countries that take needed economic reform measures
relying more on market forces and private enterprise should be
encouraged by assistance from the IMF and development banks.
    Zaire, under the government of President Mobutu Sese Seko
has recently been taking many reform measures designed to heal
its ailing economy.
    The IMF last year approved a 22-month loan package for
Zaire totaling 270 mln dlrs.
    The United States has been considering the possibility of
seeking access to a military base in Zaire but no decision has
been reached.
    Egypt, for its part, has been holding talks with the IMF
aimed at reaching a final accord on a new one billion dlr loan
package with the United States pressing for a quick deal,
according to the sources.
    However, they said a tentative plan for Egypt that is
currently being reviewed by the management of the Fund prior to
going to the executive board for full approval has raised a
number of questions about the country's ability to repay.
    Egypt is also a linchpin in the broad framework of U.S.
Middle East policy.
    The department headed by Finch, among other
responsibilties, makes certain that IMF policies and loan
conditions are wielded evenly among countries.
    Monetary sources have said that the United States had
brought pressure on the IMF to approve a loan package for
Mexico using economic conditions that have not been broadly
used before, but Finch, according to the sources, made no
reference to this.
    Under the debt initiative announced 18 months ago by
Treasury Secretary James Baker, the United States made the
decision that debtor countries should be encourged to grow out
of their difficulties rather than rely on austerity measures.
     He also recommended that commercial banks provide 20
billion dlrs in new loans for the debtor countries while the
mutilateral banks add some six billion dlrs over three years.
    A key part of the proposal gave the World Bank a much
greater role in dealing with the debt crisis, in part because
of its familiarity with developing countries and their
problems.
    The initiative, while widely heralded as a good first step
toward improving the the growing debt crisis, was viewed by
some at the IMF as a rebuke of previous austerity measures
insisted upon by the Fund in return for loans.
 
 REUTER

An investor group told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it plans to cut its stake in
Valero Energy Corp to 402,925 shares, or 1.6 pct of the total
outstanding, from 1,522,850 shares, or 6.0 pct.
    The group, led by TAG Group S.A. of Luxembourg, said it
filed with the SEC on Feb 20 a notice that it proposes to sell
1,119,925 shares of Valero Energy common stock.
 Reuter

Oper shr 31 cts vs 34 cts
    Oper net 3,005,000 vs 2,835,000
    Revs 13.1 mln vs 9,478,000
    Year
    Oper shr 1.49 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Oper net 28.7 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Revs 47.8 mln vs 32.0 mln
of 726,000 dlrs vs gain of 737,000 dlrs for qtr and gain of
581,000 dlrs vs gain of 2,350,000 dlrs for year.
    Note: Full name is Western Tele-Communications Inc.
 Reuter

The Andean Development Corp (CAF) said
today it is lending 11.7 mln dlrs to Ecuador to help repair 25
miles of oil pipeline destroyed by an earthquake earlier this
month.
    the loan was signed here today in the offices of the
caracas based caf by the corporation's president, galo montano
perez and ecuadorean ambassador antonio parra gil.
    the loan had originally been intended to finance an
expansion of the pipeline, but following the earthquake the
ecuadorean government asked for the terms to be changed so as
to permit their use in reconstruction.
    Ecuador expects oil production to be suspended for four
months as a result of the damage, and has asked Venezuela to
help by supplying 50,000 barrels per day while the pipeline is
repaired.
    The OPEC member has a production quota of 210,000 bpd but
has asked the organization to allow it to produce 310,000 bpd
once the repairs are completed so as to compensate the loss.
 Reuter

Harmon Industries Inc said it
signed a letter of intent to acquire for about 3.5 mln dlrs, a
majority of the stock of SNP Inc, a Portland, Oregon-based
company which has patents to reprocess used railroad ties into
new ties for resale.
 Reuter

Qtly cash distribution 72 cts vs 72 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Latest Federal Reserve data suggest
that the U.S. banking system is flush with reserves going into
a period of traditional tightness and that overall monetary
policy is on hold, economists said.
    "There is ample liquidity.... The Fed is not going to shift
gears at the present time or for at least another month," said
Maria Ramirez of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    "Technical and seasonal considerations aside, there is
nothing for the (credit) market to get excited about," added
Robert di Clemente of Salomon Brothers Inc.
    Adjusted bank borrowings from the Fed's discount window
averaged only 228 mln dlrs a day in the first week of the bank
statement period ending next Wednesday, compared with 233 mln
and 451 mln in the first weeks of the previous two periods.
    Another sign of abundant liquidity was the upward revision
in banks' net free reserves in the two-week period to March 11
to a daily average of 759 mln dlrs from an estimated 660 mln.
    Finally, a Fed spokesman told a press briefing that the 14
money center banks were absent from the Fed's discount window
for the third week running, with the latest week's borrowing
split between the large regional and the smaller banks.
    While modest open market intervention was apparently enough
to defuse any funding pressures in the first week of the latest
statement period, economists predicted that the Fed would have
to be more aggressive in coming weeks.
    The Fed injected temporary reserves directly and indirectly
on four of the five trading days via system and customer
repurchase agreements.
    "Fed funds will be coming under relatively intense
pressure," said Salomon's di Clemente, noting the approaching
month- and quarter-end and the round of holidays and tax dates
in April.
    "The Fed is faced with a large seasonal adding
requirement," said Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch and Co Inc,
who expects a permanent bill purchase next week and a coupon
purchase in early April.
    Economists were also heartened by further signs of a
deceleration in money supply growth, not only in the largely
discredited M-1 gauge but also in the more closely watched M-2
and M-3 aggregates.
    M-1 grew a mere 500 mln dlrs in the week to March nine,
compared with private forecasts of a 2.3 mln dlr rise. Weekly
M-2 and M-3 components also hinted at slower overall growth.
    "The M-1 increase was surprisingly modest and I suspect we
are on our way to another moderate set of M-2 and M-3 figures
for March," said Salomon's di Clemente. Merrill's McCarthy said
they could even come in below the bottom of their respective
target ranges.
    In February, M-2 was 18.2 billion dlrs below its upper
limit and M-3 was 20.8 billion beneath.
    Noting Fed Vice Chairman Johnson's encouraging remarks on
inflation today and recent interest rate cuts overseas, some
economists suggested this slowing in monetary growth could lend
support to calls for further accommodation here.
    "Our belief is that we could still get a move downwards in
rates before anything else," said Salomon's di Clemente, adding
that the key swing factor will continue to be the strength of
the U.S. economy.
    Jeffrey Leeds of Chemical Bank agreed that the economy's
health would remain the main influence on policy but, contrary
to di Clemente, he said that recent signs of faster growth and
inflation could lead to higher rates first.
    Drexel's Ramirez did not commit herself either way, adding
that the next major move may have to wait until April 14 when
February's U.S. trade data are due for release.
 Reuter

A U.S. Navy battle group led by the
U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is in the northern Arabian Sea
amid renewed concern about the safety of shipping off the coast
of Iran, U.S. officials said today.
    But Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffmann said that reports the
naval strike force was in the region did not mean the United
States was sending a new warning to Iran against escalating
attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf.
    "Nothing like that has happened," he said. "No signal is being
sent."
    He said that the Kitty Hawk is operating in an area where
it usually does. "It's normal. It's in the waters where it's
supposed to be. It's been there for over a month."
    The Kitty Hawk and its force of warplanes is the mainstay
of the U.S. Indian Ocean Battle Group which patrols a vast area
extending from the Indian subcontinent through the Arabian Sea.
    With the Kitty Hawk and its group in the Arabian Sea to the
south and the U.S. Mideast Task Force in the Persian Gulf to
the north, the United States has 10 warships on either end of
the strategic Straits of Hormuz.
    The Pentagon, as is its custom, declined to confirm the
exact whereabouts of the ships or what they were up to.
    State Department officials cited concern about the safety
of ships passing through the Straits on the vital oil supply
run to the Gulf.
    Iran has conducted repeated attacks on shipping in the Gulf
and U.S. officials have said that Teheran has recently equipped
itself with powerful Chinese and Italian-made anti-ship
missiles, posing a greater threat.
 Reuter

Costa Rica has agreed to sell more
than 32,000 tonnes of sugar this year to the Soviet Union, a
spokesman for local producers said.
     Miguel Alfaro, president of the agricultural league of the
sugar cane industry, said the sale follows a recent 50 pct cut
in Costa Rica's quota for sugar exports to the U.S.
    Alfaro said up to 45,000 tonnes of sugar could be exported
to the Soviet Union this year under the deal, which is similar
to one the Soviets made recently with the Dominican Republic.
    A Soviet ship will load 25,000 tonnes at the Pacific port
of Punta Morales Monday, Alfaro said, and a second ship will
take an additional 7,107 tonnes two days later.
    Alfaro and other industry sources declined to disclose the
price at which the sugar was sold.
 Reuter

Stock index-related arbitrage
trading did not spark the dramatic drop in the U.S. stock
market last September, nor is a free-fall in stocks and futures
prices due to arbitrage trading a likelihood, a top official
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, said.
    Richard Ketchum, director of SEC's division of market
regulation, told the Futures Industry Association that a
commission study of the circumstances surrounding the plunge in
the Dow Jones Industrial Average last September 11-12 shows
stock index-related arbitrage trading those days was
substantial but did not set off the price fluctuations.
    "While index-related arbitrage trading was a very
substantial part of the trading that day, it was by no means
the predominant part," Ketchum said.
    He said the study would be released next week.
    Index-related arbitrage relates to efforts, primarily by
institutional investors, to profit from price differentials by
shifting funds between stock index futures and their underlying
stocks.
    Some commodity exchange officials fear federal regulators
or Congress might move to restrict trading of stock index
futures in an effort to curb stock price volatility.
    Ketchum said the slide in stock prices was the result of a
"fundamental change in investors' perceptions of economic
conditions," triggered by "incorrect rumors" that West Germany
was set to cut its discount rate.
    The SEC study indicated the seven firms that accounted for
most of the arbitrage trading those days made 127 program
trades on September 11 and 117 trades September 12, accounting
for only 17.5 pct of the "sell side of the New York Stock
Exchange's volume," Ketchum said.
    He also said there was virtually no options index-related
arbitrage activity those days.
    Ketchum called "triple witching days" -- the Fridays each
quarter when stock index futures and options and opions on
individual stocks expire simultaneously - a "relatively minor,
overdone question" that has "relatively easy solutions."
    Moreover, "futures do not appear to have an impact on
long-term or probably even daily volatility," he said.
    Finally, Ketchum said a free-fall in stocks and futures
prices driven by program sell-offs of stock index futures and
individual stocks was unlikely.
    "We believe that the amount of money now available to come
in on the other side of the market by institutions make it
unlikely that that kind of snowballing effect would happen," he
said.
    But he said federal regulators could not discard the
possibility and would continue to be concerned by the issue.
 Reuter

Corning Glass Works is raising 75 mln
dlrs through an issue of 8-1/4 pct, 15-year non-callable
debentures priced at par, underwriters Goldman, Sachs and Co
and Lazard Freres and Co said.
    Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

<Bayou International Ltd> said it
purchased one-third of the outstanding stock of Solmecs Corp
N.V., a Netherlands Antilles corporation, for 1,750,000 dlrs.
    Bayou said it will also receive two seats on Solmecs'
board.
    Bayou Ltd is 55.2 pct owned by Australia Wide Industries
Ltd.
    Solmecs develops technology relating to energy conversion.
 Reuter

Quarter ended Feb 28
    Shr four cts vs seven cts
    Net 500,000 vs 900,000
    Revs 9,200,000 vs 10,500,000
    Year
    Net 600,000 vs 1,500,000
    Revs 17.6 mln vs 20.8 mln
 Reuter

INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL GETS FDA APPROVAL
    COSTA MESA, Calif., March 19 &lt;International Pharmaceutical
Products Inc&gt; said it received Food and Drug Administration
approval to market an injectable drug for treating several
forms of cancer.
    The drug, called Methotrexate Sodium Injection, is commonly
used alone or in combination with other ant-caner agents for
breast, head, neck and lung cancer.
 Reuter

Tofruzen Inc said it received
an exception to the NASD's asset requirement, allowing its
units, common stock and warrants to remain listed on the NASDAQ
system.
 Reuter

<Trans-Canada Resources Ltd>
said an Alberta court on March 6 granted it an extension to
April 6 from March 9 on Trans-Canada's filing of a plan of
arrangement with the court and extended to May 22 a stay of
legal proceedings against the company.
    The court also ruled that shareholders' and creditors's
meetings must occur by May 4, Trans-Canada said.
 Reuter

Dominican Alfredo Ricart will take over
as executive director of the International Sugar Organization
(ISO) in mid-April, ISO officer in charge Constantin Politoff
said.
    Previous ISO chief William Miller retired at end-February
last year.
    Ricart told Reuters his first aim is put the "house in order"
by having a new administrative sugar pact with improved
allocations of voting rights and financial contributions.
    Once this is done, time can be dedicated to working towards
a new International Sugar Agreement (ISA) with economic
clauses, he said.
    Ricart, currently the Dominican Republic's ambassador to
Austria, the Netherlands and the UN in Geneva, said he will
visit the four major exporters - Australia, Brazil, Cuba and
the European Community - to talk to governments and producers
and find out about problems that are preventing these countries
finding common ground for a new sugar pact.
 Reuter

Delmed Inc said it sold sales
and distribution rights of its peritoneal dialysis products to
National Medical Care Inc and entered a five-year agreement to
supply National Medical with dialysis solutions.
    Terms were not disclosed. Half of the proceeds from the
sale went to its principal bank group and unsecured creditors
who had extended payment schedules, Delmed said.
    The remaining proceeds will be used for production
expansion at its Ogden, Utah plant, it said.
    Delmed said future payments from supply agreement were
pledged to its bank group as additional security. If Delmed is
not in default at the time of payment, the banks will release
the payment for Delmed to use for corporate purposes, it said.
    It also said that as soon as it is able to do so, Delmed
plans to pay all interest due on its convertible subordinated
debentures due 2002 on which interest has not been paid since
May 15, 1985.
 Reuter

The International Sugar Agreement (ISA)
will be renegotiated, International Sugar Organization (ISO)
officer in charge Constantin Politoff told Reuters after a
special session of the pact's council.
    A decision on how to renegotiate will be taken at the ISO
six monthly session in May. The alternatives are between an
autumn London conference for another pact without economic
clauses, but a different voting and budgetary structure, or a
Geneva-based conference next year for a new pact with economic
    But delegates said the latter would only be considered if
the world's four major exporters -- Australia, Brazil, Cuba and
the European Community -- can resolve differences over how
prices can best be supported and how to share the world
    Today's special session was called because the U.S. earlier
indicated it would only be able to pay 56 pct of its share of
the ISO budget.
    At today's council session Politoff said the U.S. would try
and find a way to pay the balance of about 50,000 stg later
this year. Currently, about three quarters of this year's ISO
800,000 stg budget has not been paid but delegates said the
U.S. caused controversy as it said it might not pay its full
contribution in the last year of the current pact.
    The Soviet Union has called for changes to the way the ISO
budget is shared out. Currently it is halved between importers
and exporters and the Soviet Union has a 30 pct share of the
importer half. The Soviets want a new sugar pact to have only a
single category of members who would all share the costs pro
rata to their share of world sugar trade.
    The ISO executive committee next meets on April 23 with the
next full council session in the week of May 19.
    There are 12 importing and 44 exporting members of the ISO.
 Reuter

The Gap Inc said it named
Millard Drexler as its president.
    Drexler, 42, had been executive vice preisdent for
merchandising and president of the Gap Stores Division.
    Previously, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald
Fisher also held the position of president as well.
    Drexler retains his position as president and chief
executive officer of the Gap Stores Division.
 Reuter

Laser Corp said that costs associated
with its defense of two shareholder lawsuits could result in a
net loss for 1987.
    Although Laser expects to post earnings from operations for
the year, a spokesman said they might be wiped out by legal
costs, depending on the length of litigation.
    In addition, the company said it will ask shareholders to
approve proposals to merge the company into its main
subsidiary, reincorporate in Delaware and change the company's
name.
 Reuter

Whether the European Community's
Council of Ministers will approve a proposed tax on vegetable
oils that has sparked threats of U.S. retaliation is uncertain,
an EC official said.
    "It is very far from certain that it will go through," Sir
Roy Denman, Head of the EC Delegation in Washington, told
reporters before he addressed the Foreign Trade Association.
    Denman noted Britain remains opposed to the plan and West
Germany has opposed it in the past.
    U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter has threatened
retaliation if the tax is approved, as it would limit U.S.
soybean exports to the EC. Council action is expected soon.
    Denman said while the EC is willing to negotiate about
agriculture in a new round of trade talks, it is unwilling to
single out export subsidies on a negotiating agenda or put
agricultural policy on a special fast track.
    "The key to a solution in this area seems to me not in the
framing of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
wording...but in tackling government subsidies to farmers on
both sides of the Atlantic," he said.
 Reuter

    Net profit 216,000 vs 265,000
    Revs 1.7 mln vs 1.4 mln
    Year
    Revs 5.9 mln vs 5.5 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes realized investment gains of 3,000
dlrs in year. 1985 4th qtr and year includes realized
investment gains of 16,000 and 35,000 dlr respectively.
 Reuter

Qtly div 44 cts vs 44 cts
    Record April 4
 Reuter

Qtly div 57 cts vs 57 cts
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts
    Pay May 21
    Record May 1
 Reuter

Qtly div 12 cts vs 12 cts
    Pay April 8
 Reuter

The U.S. Senate has unanimously
called for President Reagan immediately to force Japan to live
up to a pledge to stop dumping its microchips and open its
markets to U.S. Chipmakers.
    The Senate voted 93 to 0 to urge Reagan to impose penalties
on Japanese high-technology products containing semiconductors
in retaliation for what it sees as Japan's violations of the
semiconductor pact.
    While the measure does not bind Reagan to any action,
Senate leaders said its adoption would warn Japan stiffer
legislation would be considered if the violations continue.
    "We want to send a message to Japan to let it know how the
Senate feels about this matter," Senate Democratic Leader Robert
Byrd told the Senate.
    Senate Finance Committee chairman Lloyd Bentsen told the
Senate the measure was not aimed at retaliation but at
correcting Japan's unfair trade practices.
    A key House trade lawmaker, Representative Richard Gephardt
also announced he would seek to force Japan and other countries
with huge trade surpluses to slash their surplus by 10 pct a
year for three years.
 REUTER

PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS HE WILL VETO ANY TAX INCREASE VOTED BY CONGRESS

President Ronald Reagan said he
would veto any tax increases voted by Congress.
    "My pledge to veto any tax rate increase remains rock solid,"
Reagan said during a televised news conference.
     The president said he opposed efforts by some members of
Congress to back away from deficit reduction targets set by the
Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law. He urged passage of a
constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
    "It's time Congress cut the federal budget and left the
family budget alone," Reagan said.
    He said the congressional budget process was in desperate
need of reform and urged passage of an amendment to the U.S.
constitution that would require a balanced federal budget.
    "This yearly deficit feeding process must stop," he added. "We
must act now to pass a constitutional amendment to balance the
budget."
    In the meantime, he said, Congress cannot back away from
the deficit reduction goals set by federal law he said.
 Reuter

President Reagan denied he had been
told that profits from sales of arms to Iran had been used to
aid the U.S.-backed "contra" rebels in Nicaragua.
    "No, that is not true," he said before a televised news
conference when asked about reports that he had been told about
the money diversion by his former National Security Adviser,
John Poindexter.
    Reagan was giving his first formal White House press
conference in four months since the Iran arms affair burst into
scandal with the disclosure profits from weapons sales had been
diverted, possibly illegally, to the contras.
    He said the secret approach to Iran had resulted in the
release of three American hostages held by pro-Iranian elements
in Lebanon and that it might have freed more if the operation
had not been made public.
    Reagan told reporters -- as he had told a presidential
commission that investigated the scandal -- that he did not
remember when he had approved an August, 1985, shipment of U.S.
arms to Iran through Israel.
    Reagan opened the news conference -- seen as vital in
rebuilding his damaged presidency and restoring his authority
-- with a statement on the yawning U.S. budget deficit.
    He again stated his opposition to tax increases and called
for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
    Asked if in hindsight he would again start a secret program
to sell arms to Iran, Reagan said, "No, I would not go down that
same road again."
    Tonight's news conference was widely seen as an opportunity
for Reagan, 76, to demonstrate he was in command of affairs
despite the crisis.
    Reagan said, referring to the Iran arms program, "If I
hadn't thought it was right in the beginning, I never would
have started it."
    He said he went into the deal because he was persuaded that
he was not dealing directly with the kidnappers.
    "You cannot do business with them," he said.
    But "suddenly you have a third party there (Iran) ... and it
was not trading with the kidnappers," he said.
    The news conference in the White House East Room lasted 32
minutes -- two minutes more than normal -- most of which was
devoted to the Iran affair.
    At the last minute, a reporter asked whether Vice President
George Bush had opposed the arms sales as Secretary of State
George Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger had done.
    Reagan replied, "No," smiled, waved and walked away from the
podium toward the White House residence.
 Reuter

PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS U.S. STILL INVESTIGATING ACID RAIN PROBLEM

President Reagan said the U.S.
government is still looking into the problem of acid rain.
    "We're still investigating this," he told a nationally
televised news conference.
    Reagan added that the government will now work with U.S.
industry to help address the problem.
    However, he declined to endorse the writing of federal
standards for emissions that would help alleviate the problem.
    The Reagan administration yesterday announced a 2.5 billion
dlr, five-year program to deal with acid rain, a problem that
troubles U.S. relations with Canada.
    Reagan was asked by a reporter whether the government
should set emission standards.
    He responded that the deeper that officials went in
examining the acid rain problem, the more complex it appeared.
    He said the government did not want to rush into adopting a
measure that might ultimately prove fruitless.
 Reuter

States must do more to lessen its reliance on imported oil.
    President Reagan said during a nationally televised news
conference that the rising U.S. reliance on foreign oil is a
problem that the administration is studying.
    "We have to study this more," Reagan said. "This is why we
increased the Strategic (Petroleum) Reserve, but we have to do
more," he said.
    Reagan said his administration has already proposed
deregulating natural gas and eliminating the windfall profits
tax on crude oil production.
    However, he complained that Congress had not yet approved
those measures.
    The Department of Energy earlier this week released a
report that warned of rising U.S. reliance on foreign oil
imports at a time when domestic production is declining. It
suggested options for the administration to consider, but made
no specific recommendations.
 Reuter

Belgrade trade union leaders have
joined attacks on a controversial wage freeze in Yugoslavia and
reported strikes spreading to the capital.
    Miodrag Lazarevic, president of the Belgrade trade unions
council, said the government must take responsibility for the
effects of the law imposing the wage freeze.
    Under the law, which was enacted on February 27 and will
remain in force until July 1, wage levels of the last quarter
of 1986 were reimposed and future pay rises were pegged to
productivity. The move has caused resentment and widespread
industrial unrest throughout the country.
    Another Belgrade trade union council leader, Predrag
Petrovic, was quoted as saying hundreds of workers had been on
strike in Belgrade.
    Yugoslav trade unions are an integral part of the communist
political system and their role has traditionally not been to
defend workers from the government. The criticisms by the
Belgrade union leaders indicated wider trade union resentment
of the law than earlier reported.
    The government has officially reported 70 strikes
throughout the country, although Yugoslav newspapers have
indicated there have been more.
 REUTER

Export orders for Taiwanese products
fell 1.37 pct to 3.58 billion U.S. Dlrs in February from 3.63
billion in January, but rose nearly 43 pct from 2.51 billion a
year earlier, an Economic Ministry official said.
    He attributed the fall to the rising Taiwan dollar.
    February orders for electric and electronic goods were 619
mln U.S. Dlrs, up from 574 mln in January and 370 mln in
February 1986. Garment orders were 324 mln dlrs against 383 mln
and 283 mln while footwear orders were 297 mln compared with
333 mln and 200 mln.
 REUTER

Weizsaecker called on creditor banks to ease pressure on
Argentina's foreign debt repayment terms.
    "We cannot remain indifferent to the pressure of creditor
banks, since there is correlation between political stability
and the economic situation," Weizsaecker told reporters.
    Argentina said last month it would suspend debt payments if
creditor banks did not loosen repayment terms and grant a new
2.15 billion dlr loan.
    Argentina's debt is Latin America's third largest at 51
    Weizsaecker, on a four-day official visit to Argentina,
said: "Argentina's problems require joint action from creditor
and debtors countries," and not prepared recipes from creditor
banks.
    A group of ecologists staged a demonstration to protest
Argentina's plans to build a fourth nuclear power plant and a
German company's role in the project as a contractor.
    Earlier, Weizsaecker said that the potential of Patagonia,
the barren tableland covering a third of Argentina, could
assure the economic future of the country.
 REUTER

state corporation, Comibol, declared a general strike as from
midnight (0400 gmt) to press for higher salaries, a statement
by the federation for Bolivian mine workers said.
     It said the strike was called to defend the nationalised
mining industry. The miners were willing to negotiate with the
government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro, but only if it
showed an intention to meet the strikers' demands.
     The government said the strike was designed to cause it
embarrassment during the four-day visit of West German
President Richard Von Weizsaecker, which starts on Friday.
    The miners statement said police had violently evicted
Comibol office workers in the city of Oruro after they began a
hunger strike yesterday.
    The government has sacked about 20,000 miners from its
deficit-ridden corporation since the collapse in the
international price of tin. The lay-offs represent about
two-thirds of the original workforce.
 REUTER

The Chinese port of Ningbo is
working well below capacity despite being only 130 miles from
Shanghai, which is seriously congested, a port official said.
    Jiang Feng Xiang said the port -- the deepest in China --
handled 17.95 mln tonnes of cargo last year, up from 10.44 mln
in 1985, but well below its potential capacity of 32 mln
tonnes. Shanghai handled 100 mln tonnes of cargo in 1986.
    Jiang said Ningbo is under-utilised because of its
inadequate facilities, including a single track rail line
linking it to Hangzhou, where it joins the national network.
    Ningbo handles crude oil exports and transhipments of coal
from north to south China and imports include fertiliser and
soda ash and iron ore from Brazil and Australia. The docks can
handle ships of up to 150,000 tonnes and oil tankers of up to
200,000 tonnes can load and unload in the harbour.
    Most of Ningbo's port infrastructure has been built since
1979, official publications show. A container berth and two
timber and three general cargo berths will be added during the
current 1986-90 five-year plan, Jiang said.
    "The rail line to Hangzhou will be double tracked by 1995.
By 2000, maybe, we will overtake Shanghai," he added.
 REUTER

President Reagan accused the Soviet
Union of exceeding a traditional restrictive reading of the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, but said the U.S. Saw no
reason yet to follow suit.
    "We believe that the Soviet Union has been going even beyond
a liberal interpretation of the treaty," he said at a news
    There has been speculation the U.S. Administration was
moving toward a looser reading of the treaty in order to permit
the development of the "Star Wars" anti-missile system, but
Reagan said no decision has yet been made.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said
Japan plans to announce a package of economic measures
immediately after the 1987/88 budget passes Parliament.
    The passage of the full budget is expected after May 20 as
the government has decided to compile a 50-day stop-gap budget
for the year starting April 1. An opposition boycott over a
proposed sales tax has disrupted parliamentary business.
    Miyazawa told a press conference Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone is unlikely to take the package to Washington.
    Nakasone hopes to meet President Reagan in late April or
early May to prepare for the Venice economic summit in June.
    Asked if he planned to visit the U.S. To attend monetary
conferences including International Monetary Fund meetings in
early April, Miyazawa said he will make a decision carefully on
the matter, taking into account parliament debate.
    The package is likely to include a record amount of public
works spending in the first 1987/88 half, Miyazawa said.
    Miyazawa said the provisional budget will total about 8,800
billion yen and incorporate a little more than 1,800 billion
for public works. Japan expects the stop-gap budget to help
spur the economy, Miyazawa said.
    Miyazawa said the Government and the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party will seek the passage of the bills related to
the controversial sales tax without any revision.
    Japanese press reports had previously interpretated remarks
by a top government official as indicating a revision of the
tax but the official did not mean that, Miyazawa said.
 REUTER

Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Paul Volcker said the U.S. Trade deficit is a
challenge for the U.S. Equal to the Soviet Union launching of
Sputnik.
    "The international challenge implicit in our huge trade
deficit has become the 1980s equivalent to the launch of
Sputnik by the Russians in the 1950s, when we suddenly feared
we were to be left in the wake of Soviet technological
achievement," he said in an address to Florida educators.
     He said the trade problem underscored the need to reform
the U.S. Educational system to improve economic performance.
    The Commerce Department reported last week that the
nation's trade gap, calculated on a balance-of-payments basis,
swelled to a record 38.37 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter,
bringing the 1986 deficit to a record 147.71 billion dlrs.
    Volcker called on educators to stress the development of
basic reading, writing and mathematics skills and urged them to
help students adapt to the fast-changing economic climate.
    Volcker said the challenge was greatest in the education of
low-income minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics.
 REUTER

Japanese short-term interest rates,
buoyed recently by seasonal factors, are likely to fall from
the beginning of April when the new financial year begins,
money traders said.
    The Bank of Japan is expected to encourage the trend
following its attempts to pressure rates to enhance its
discount rate cut on February 23, they said.
    The Bank cut the rate to 2.5 pct from three, and began
actively injecting funds into the money market to offset rate
rises resulting from the end-of-fiscal-year surge in demand for
funds from financial institutions.
    Despite its attempts to dampen rates with measures such as
aggressive commercial bill purchases, the central bank has
failed to remove all upward pressure, money traders said.
    Attractive interest rates offered by domestic banks to
compete for time deposits of more than 600 mln yen has
underpinned short-term rates, they said.
    Interest rates on time deposits of more than 600 mln yen
were decontrolled by the Finance Ministry last September.
    This resulted in such deposits with domestic banks rising
to 17,830 billion yen by the end-December, a three-fold
increase on end-December 1985 levels, bankers said.
    On March 31, the money market expects to see a 2,000
billion yen surplus resulting from government payment of fiscal
funds, money traders said.
    From April 1, they predict the unconditional call rate will
fall to 3.5000 pct from 3.7500 pct today and the one-month
commercial bill discount rate to drop to 3.7500 pct from 4.0635
pct.
    They predict the three-month bill discount rate to slip to
3.875 pct from 4.0000 today and the three-month certificate of
deposit rate to slide to 4.10/4.15 from 4.35/25.
 REUTER

The state-owned Krung Thai Bank Ltd
will start taking over state-owned Sayam Bank Ltd and complete
the process in a year, Finance Minister Suthee Singhasaneh told
a press conference.
    He said the takeover decision was made this week to stem
the current heavy losses of Sayam and to avoid competition
between the two state-owned institutions.
    The minister said some of the existing 30 Sayam Bank
branches will be merged with their Krung Thai counterparts,
while others will continue operating but under Krung Thai's
name.
    Sayam Bank has existed since August 1984 when the Finance
Ministry took over and re-named the Asia Trust Bank Ltd.
    Sayam president Waree Havanonda told reporters last month
her bank posted a loss of more than 400 mln baht in 1986. At
the end of 1985 the bank, with 13.8 billion baht of assets, was
ranked 12th among Thailand's 16 local commercial banks.
    Waree said Sayam Bank was trying to recall about six to
seven billion baht of loans extended by its previous private
management and was taking legal action to collect another four
to five billion baht of doubtful debts.
    Krung Thai is Thailand's third largest bank.
 REUTER

Japanese customs, faced with a flood of
fake Reebok sneakers from South Korea, have turned away some
100,000 pairs since last summer, Rebook officials said.
    A Ministry of Finance spokesman said officials at the ports
of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and Kobe had begun barring
counterfeit footwear but declined to say how many pairs.
    A spokesman for Reebok Japan, the local subsidiary of
Reebok International <RBK> of Avon, Massachussetts, said the
firm had complained of the influx to the Ministry last July.
    "They use our trademark and everything. And it's easy to
fake our trademark," the Reebok spokesman said.
    He said customs had sent back some 100,000 pairs to South
Korea, but the Finance Ministry declined to confirm this.
    "Because of various reasons, we cannot say how many pairs
have been turned away," the ministry spokesman said.
    The Reebok spokesman said an unspecified number of fake
Reeboks have made it into the country, and were being sold at
cut-rate prices in Tokyo and Osaka stores.
    "They go for about 20 to 30 pct less than the price of
genuine Reeboks," the spokesman said. A pair of real Reeboks
sells for about 10,000 yen in Japan.
    The government last summer warned stores not to carry the
shoes and Reebok has sued two for continuing to sell them, he
said. No action has been taken against the South Korean
manufacturers, he said.
    Reebok has also found counterfeits from Taiwan and the
Philippines aimed at the U.S. Market and fakes from Spain
targetted at European markets, he said.
 REUTER

Group shr 17.68 yen vs 26.49
     Net 14.70 billion vs 21.92 billion
     Pretax 35.76 billion vs 48.85 billion
     Operating 32.88 billion vs 51.90 billion
     Sales 788.73 billion vs 796.24 billion
     NOTE - Company forecast for current year is group net
15.50 billion on sales of 800 billion.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it would offer 400
mln dlrs of 13-week treasury notes and 100 mln of 26-week notes
for tender next week
    The bank said it would not take up any stock at next week's
auction.
 REUTER

South Korea's current account surplus
narrowed to 419 mln dlrs in February from 679 mln in January
compared with a deficit of 112 mln dlrs in February last year,
    The current account in the two months of January and
February swung to a surplus of 1.1 billion dlrs from a deficit
of 494 mln dlrs in the same 1986 period.
    The February trade surplus narrowed to 235 mln dlrs from
582 mln in January compared with a deficit of 98 mln dlrs a
year ago.
    The overall balance of payments surplus rose to 840 mln
dlrs in February from 716 mln in January and 76 mln in February
1986.
    Exports were 2.86 billion dlrs in February against 2.83
billion in January and 2.23 billion in February last year.
Imports were 2.63 billion against 2.25 billion and 2.32
billion.
    The February invisible trade surplus rose to 109 mln dlrs
from 24 mln in January and compared with a deficit of 74 mln a
year ago.
    The transfer payments surplus widened to 75 mln dlrs in
February from 73 mln in January and 60 mln a year ago.
    The long-term capital account surplus was 198 mln dlrs in
February against 211 mln in January and 55 mln in February last
year. The short-term capital account surplus was 87 mln dlrs
against 46 mln and 158 mln.
    The errors and omissions account left a surplus of 840 mln
dlrs in February against deficits of 220 mln in January and 25
mln in February 1986.
 REUTER

Parent shr 37.12 yen vs 34.97
    Div 9.50 yen vs 7.50
    Net 33.34 billion vs 31.05 billion
    Current 79.30 billion vs 73.32 billion
    Operating 72.13 billion vs 65.53 billion
    Sales 1,222 billion vs 1,211 billion
    Outstanding shrs 897.96 mln vs 887.76 mln
    NOTE - 1986/87 dividend included two yen bonus dividend to
mark 80th anniversary. Company forecast for current year is
parent shr 37.86 yen, div 7.50 yen, net 34 billion, current 81
billion and sales 1,250 billion.
 REUTER

Three geographically diverse droughts
in Asia are being linked by some scientists to a
reintensification of the complex and little-understood El Nino
weather pattern, <Accu-Weather Inc>, a commercial weather
forecasting service, said.
    Rice and wheat farmers in China, wheat and sugarcane
growers in Australia and tea planters in Sri Lanka all face
serious losses to their respective harvests unless rains arrive
in time to break the droughts, offical reports, government
officials and meteorologists said.
    Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong daily with close Peking links, said
the drought is the worst in over 20 years and some provinces
have been without adequate rainfall for more than seven months.
    Rice planting is threatened in eight provinces, it added.
    Rainfall in the key farming provinces of Henan and Sichuan
was 70 pct below average during February, the lowest figure for
over 20 years, the paper said.
    The dry weather has cut stored water volumes by over 20 pct
compared with last March and lowered the water levels of many
rivers, it added.
    This has resulted in reduced hydro-electric power, causing
shortages to industry and households. The upper reaches of the
Yangtze are at their lowest levels in a century, causing many
ships to run aground, Wen Wei Po said.
    Unusually high temperatures have also been reported across
China, media reports said. The People's Daily said Sichuan has
recorded temperatures three degrees Celsius higher than average
since early February.
    The New China News Agency said the average December
temperature in Harbin in the northeast was six degrees higher
than last December and 14 degrees higher than December 1984.
    Severe drought is affecting about one-third of Sri Lanka
and threatens to reduce the country's tea crop, Ministry of
Plantation Industries officials told Reuters
    In Australia, concern is growing about below-average
rainfall levels in parts of the sugarcane belt along the
Queensland coast and in Western Australia's wheat belt, local
Meteorological Bureau officials said.
    For many farmers and government officials the fear is that
while the present low rainfall does not yet pose a major
threat, the prospect of a dry autumn/winter season when the
wheat crop is in its early stages certainly does, they added.
    Concern is heightened by the memory of the 1982/83 drought
which devastated the wheat crop and coincided with the
occurrence of the barely understood weather phenomenon known as
El Nino, they said.
    Although meteorologists are cautious about linking the
Asia-Pacific region's disrupted weather patterns to any single
cause, El Nino's role is being closely studied, they said.
    Accu-Weather Inc, which specialises in providing data for
agriculture and shipping interests, said each El Nino 'event'
was unique.
    The El Nino does not always produce the same effects and
the present occurrence is much less pronounced than the last
major event in 1982/83, it said.
    El Nino, Spanish for "Christ Child" because it appears around
Christmas, is formed by the action of warm air, bearing clouds
and rain, shifting from the Indonesian archipelago to the coast
of Peru, where it mingles with the cold waters associated with
the Peru current and returns across the Pacific as the trade
winds, meteorologists said.
    The winds, strengthened by El Nino's "pump" effect, raise the
sea level off Australia and Indonesia, they said.
    When the winds drop, the ocean, seeking equilibrium, sends
a surge of warmer water back across the Pacific where it
collides with the cold seas off Peru, they said.
    One effect of this heat exchange is to deflect the
rain-bearing clouds away from Australia and Indonesia into the
Pacific, where they further disrupt other weather patterns.
    The prospects for an end to the droughts vary, Accu-Weather
said.
    China, where the affected areas have received between 40
and 75 pct of normal rainfall, will have to wait for the
May-September rains, it said.
    The May-September rains normally provide the
drought-striken areas with 80 pct of annual rainfall.
    In Australia, areas of Queensland's coastal strip have
received less than half the normal rainfall during the current
wet season, but prospects for increased rains are diminishing
as the rainy season draws to an end.
    In Sri Lanka, the drought has come when rainfall should be
at its maximum for the year. The year's secondary rains usually
occur between April and June, although it is not possible at
this stage to forecast whether they will arrive as usual.
 REUTER

<Morgan Guaranty Australia Ltd> said
it is expanding its 200 mln U.S. Dlr Euro-commercial paper
program to include Australian dollar issues.
    The proportion of the facility to be issued in Australian
dollar paper will depend on investor demand, but the total
outstanding value will still not exceed 200 mln U.S. Dlrs.
    Morgan Guaranty Ltd's Hong Kong office will act as dealer
for the Australian dollar issues.
    Under the program, notes in denominations of one mln dlrs
will be issued, with maturities ranging from seven days to one
year.
 REUTER

Chairman Paul Volcker said the suspension by Brazil of its
foreign debt payments would not undermine U.S. Banks.
    But he told Reuters after a speech to educators that it was
in the interest of U.S. Banks to complete debt financing plans
soon with Brazil and other debtor nations.
    "I don't think it's going to undermine public confidence in
the banking system from Brazil alone," he said. "But I would like
to see further progress made on this whole situation."
    Brazil announced last month it was temporarily suspending
interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of debt owed to private
banks, opening a new round in the five-year-old debt crisis.
    Last week, Ecuador suspended interest payments to private
foreign banks, which hold about two-thirds of its total 8.3
billion dlr foreign debt, citing severe damage to its oil
industry caused by an earthquake.
    Citicorp <CCI> the largest U.S. Bank, said last week that
it might have to reclassify most of its 4.6 billion dlrs in
Brazilian loans as non-performing, thus removing them as part
of the bank's expected income-producing assets.
    Analysts said such a move would sharply reduce Citicorp's
profits and might result in similar measures by Brazil's other
    Volcker said he believed Brazil and Ecuador want to
maintain continuity in their debt service.
    "It's fundamentally in their best interest. If they can get
the financing and refinancing that's necessary, they may be
able to make their economies grow again."
    Asked whether he expected other nations to follow the path
taken by Brazil and Ecuador, he said the two countries were
special cases. He did not elaborate.
 REUTER

New Zealand investment companies
<Rainbow Corp Ltd> and <Equiticorp Holdings Ltd> have placed
the majority of their joint shareholding in oil and gas
conglomerate Ultramar PLC <UMAR.L> at prices up to 2.20 stg per
share, the companies said in a statement.
    The companies said they had bought their 4.9 pct stake in
Ultramar for a total of 50 mln N.Z. Dlrs through a joint
venture company formed for that purpose in October.
    They said the joint venture made a profit of 15 mln N.Z.
Dlrs on the deal, but they did say how many shares they had
sold. No further details of the sale were available.
 REUTER

Hardliners have blocked debate on a key
economic reform in China's parliament, a clear challenge to
reformers among the leadership, western diplomats said.
    The annual session of the National People's Congress next
week was to have discussed a draft law which would bolster the
independence of factory chiefs while eroding the power of local
Communist Party officials.
    The decision not to include the draft law was announced by
the congress's standing committee, the People's Daily said. The
committee's chairman is Peng Zhen, considered one of the more
conservative figures in the Chinese leadership.
    The "factory director responsibility system" covered by the
draft law has already been experimentally introduced in state
firms over the last three years, giving managers greater
freedom from the control of factory party committees.
    Diplomats said the agenda decision appeared to contradict
assurances by top leader Deng Xiaoping that reforms were not
threatened by the current campaign against "bourgeois
liberalisation," or western political ideas.
    Earlier this week Deng raised expectations for the session
by saying plans to reform China's political structure would be
unveiled in 1987, diplomats said.
 REUTER

Communist rebels killed 18 soldiers on
Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, the army said.
    Military officials said about 70 soldiers on foot patrol
were attacked by guerrillas on the border area around Misamis
Occidental and Davao del Sur provinces.
    The state-run Philippine News Agency said at least 18
rebels died in the clash, but the military officials could not
confirm the report.
    On Tuesday, 19 soldiers were killed in Quezon province in
the northern island of Luzon after land mines blew up an
armoured vehicle and a troop-carrying truck.
 REUTER

Two World Bank review teams are in the
Philippines to assess government requests for funding for an
expanded housing plan and an accelerated land reform program,
bank officials said.
    They told Reuters the housing program loan request is for
100 mln to 150 mln dlrs.
    The government has said it will ask for another 500 mln dlr
long-term loan from a World Bank-led consultative group of
multilateral and bilateral aid donors to partially fund its
land reform program.
    The officials said negotiations will start next month on
another 150 mln dlr loan sought by Manila to carry out reforms
in 14 major state-owned corporations.
    On Tuesday, the world bank approved two loans totalling 310
mln dlrs to help the country's economic recovery program.
    The bank was also studying Philippine proposals for loans
to finance geothermal and education projects, sources said.
    World Bank sources said the bank's lending to the
Philippines since 1957, including the latest loan, totalled 4.3
billion dlrs. The money has been spread out over more than 100
loans and about 1.2 billion dlrs remains undisbursed.
    The World Bank sources said the bank cancelled 450 mln dlrs
in loan commitments to the Philippines during the last three
years of President Ferdinand Marcos's rule. Marcos was toppled
by a military-civilian revolt in February 1986.
    "The loans were cancelled because the projects slated for
aid were not implemented properly," they said.
    The sources said the bulk of this week's loan would be used
to rehabilitate the state-owned Development Bank of the
Philippines (DBP) and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) which
are saddled with seven billion dlrs of non-performing assets.
    "At least 300 mln dlrs of previously cancelled loans were
supposed to go to the DBP," the World Bank sources said. "Over
the past three years the bank's disbursement pipeline to the
Philippines almost completely dried up."
    In 1986 alone, the two banks paid out 16 billion pesos in
loan repayments, about 59 pct of the government's budget
deficit of 27 billion pesos for the year, they said.
    Agreement on the latest loan was reached in principle last
September when President Corazon Aquino visited the U.S. The
sources said the loan was held up because of delays by the
government in submitting essential documents.
    The World Bank sources said the request for land reform
funding would be discussed at a meeting of the World Bank-led
consultative group to be held alongside the April 27-29 annual
meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Osaka.
distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land to impoverished peasants.
    The sources said the Philippine government estimated the
entire program would cost 60 billion pesos. "About 27 billion is
long-term and will cover land transfer costs borne mainly by
landowners," they said. "The landowners will be paid in 10-year
bonds redeemable in ten instalments."
    The sources said the bulk of financing would cover
development costs for the land program and help to bridge the
gap between the 10-year spread of payments to landowners and a
proposed 30-year loan repayment period for land buyers.
    "If you include interest, the total amount of external
assistance needed annually should not exceed 200 mln dlrs," the
sources said. "That volume of aid does not appear difficult."
    They said Japan, the World Bank and the ADB are expected to
provide most of the financing while the Philippines' 12
bilateral aid donors would contribute the rest.
    The World Bank sources said lending to the Philippines is
designed to support its balance of payments position while the
government aims for a target of six to seven pct annual gross
national product growth.
    "Brazil did not do this homework," one said. "They pushed
ahead with a recovery program without ensuring backing for
their balance of payments position. Manila is being more
cautious and aims at soft borrowings which, it is hoped, will
be outstripped by annual growth rates and eventually result in
the country emerging from debt in five or six years."
    Philippine foreign debt is currently 27.8 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

Copper shipments are likely to be
delayed because of power problems at <Philippine Associated
Smelting and Refining Corp> (PASAR), the country's only
smelter, a company official said.
    Asked to confirm reports by New York copper trade sources
about PASAR's shipment problems, marketing manager Deogracias
Madrid told Reuters, "They are partly correct. There could be a
probable delay."
    Madrid declined to give more details, or production and
export figures, saying the information could lead to
speculation.
    PASAR's smelter is in the central province of Leyte.
    The New York trade sources said if PASAR's shipments were
delayed, customers might have to turn to the London Metal
Exchange for supply.
    "We have a commitment to our customers and I would not like
to comment on that," Madrid said.
    A spokeswoman for the Chamber of Mines said Philippine
copper production amounted to 222,644 tonnes in 1986, down
slightly from 226,157 tonnes in 1985. She said production in
the first two months of 1987 totalled 34,550 tonnes, compared
with 36,462 tonnes in the same 1986 period.
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The West German federal state of
Schleswig-Holstein is issuing a 400 mln mark domestic bond,
carrying a coupon of six pct and priced at 100.40, lead manager
Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein - Girozentrale said.
    The eight-year offer yields 5.94 pct to retail investors at
issue and will go on sale on March 25.
    Some 300 mln will be offered for immediate sale, and 100
mln will be retained for market regulation.
    The bond matures on April 20, 1995. Listing will be on all
eight West German stock exchanges.
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German M3 rose 2.6 billion marks in February to 1,035.1 billion - Bundesbank

West German M3 money supply rose a
seasonally adjusted 2.6 billion marks in February to 1,035.1
billion, the Bundesbank said.
    The rise compares with a revised 14.8 billion mark increase
in January and a 2.2 billion rise in February 1986.
 REUTER

Steel output in the major
non-Communist producing countries fell sharply in February,
continuing a long-running trend, International Iron and Steel
Institute figures showed.
    Production in the 30 countries which report their figures
to it was 6.9 pct below the February 1986 level at 32.03 mln
tonnes.
    Output in the United States fell 18.5 pct to 5.30 mln
tonnes, that in Japan 7.8 pct to 7.27 mln and that in the
European Community 6.5 pct to 9.91 mln.
    The figures continue to indicate a switch away from these
traditional major producing countries to the more advanced
developing countries.
    Brazilian February output rose 9.2 pct from year-earlier
levels to 1.73 mln tonnes and that in South Korea was up 7.5
pct at 1.17 mln tonnes.
    The 30 countries covered by the figures account for about
97 pct of world non-Communist steel production, the Institute
said.
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Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> said it has
started court proceedings against former chairman and chief
executive Ernest Saunders and non-executive director Thomas
Ward for recovery of 5.2 mln stg.
    The money was paid to Ward via Marketing and Acquisition
Consultants Ltd in Jersey.
    Guinness said earlier it would propose a resolution at the
annual meeting in May to remove Saunders and Ward as directors
of the company.  Earlier this month, lawyers for Ward told a
Jersey court that Ward saw the payment as his reward for
services in last year's takeover battle for <Distillers Co
Plc>.
    Guinness has said that both men breached their fiduciary
duty in authorising the payment.
    Saunders resigned from his executive positions at Guinness
in January in the aftermath of a government enquiry into share
dealings during the battle for Distillers but retained his
position on the board.
    No spokesman for Guinness was immediately available for
comment on the statement.
 REUTER

accepted bids totalling 4.00 billion guilders at tender this
morning for new five-day special advances at 5.3 pct for the
period March 20 to 25.
    Subscriptions to 250 mln guilders were fully met, amounts
above 250 mln at 30 pct.
    The new facility replaces old 11-day advances totalling 6.5
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SAS <Scandinavian Airline Systems>
said it was postponing a decision on a 10-billion crown order
for 12 McDonnell Douglas <MD N> MD-11 airliners following what
it said was an aggressive counter-bid from Airbus Industrie.
    SAS signed a letter of intent for the MD-11s last December,
but a company statement said the decision on whether to harden
this up into a firm order would be linked to the outcome of
negotiations with the United States on deregulating air fares
across the North Atlantic.
    The SAS move, said by analysts to be a big blow to
McDonnell Douglas, came following a Copenhagen board meeting of
the airline in which the governments of Sweden, Denmark and
Norway jointly own a 50 pct stake. The remainder is held by
industry.
    A company statement said SAS would wait to see the outcome
of the government-to-government negotiations with the United
States, in which the three Scandinavian countries have demanded
greater access to the U.S. Domestic market for SAS in exchange
for deregulating prices across the North Atlantic.
    At present SAS is allowed to fly to New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles, Seattle and Anchorage.
    SAS gave no details of the Airbus Industrie counter-offer
for its long-range A340, but said it will study the bid
further.
    Swissair yesterday confirmed an order for the MD-11 long
haul jets worth 1.2 billion Swiss francs and said it had
preferred the McDonnell Douglas planes over the A340, a project
that has not yet been formally launched, as it met the
airline's requirements better and would be able to enter
service in 1990.
    SAS President Jan Carlzon announced the MD-11 order last
December, saying the plane would replace the airline's current
fleet of DC10s. The first of the MD-11s was to be delivered in
1991 for use mainly on its intercontinental routes.
    In January, SAS officials said Airbus had made a revised
offer that included larger, more powerful engines and two
versions of the four-engine plane. One would seat 220
passengers and another 260 against the MD-11's 265-seat
capacity.
    The offer was part of a drive to secure at least five
airline customers for the new aircraft to enable Airbus
Industrie to launch production. Airbus is expected to decide
whether to go ahead with the project next month.
    SAS officials earlier said they did not expect the first
A340 to be delivered before 1992. McDonnell Douglas had given
SAS until March 31 to agree to final terms for the MD-11 deal.
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An official proposal that Finland
scrap price controls and replace them with a system aimed at
promoting competition is expected to go to parliament later
this year, officials said.
    The proposal handed to the government yesterday calls for
parliament to be empowered to order three-month price freezes
in place of the controls.
    It proposes that a new board be set up to ensure large
firms do not abuse their market positions and that monopolies
do not expand beyond their approved sectors.
 REUTER

forecasting a shortage of around 950 mln stg in the money
market today.
around 572 mln stg while a rise in note circulation wil take
out some 280 mlns stg.
    In addition, exchequer transactions and bankers' balances
below target will remove some 85 mln stg and 15 mln stg for the
system respectively.
 REUTER

McCarthy and Stone Plc, a public U.K.
Company which owns and operates retirement homes, has signed a
100 mln stg multi-option facility, National Westminster Bank
Plc said as arranger.
    The facility incorporate a 70 mln stg committed element
from a group of international banks.
    The facility will provide the group with working capital to
meet its planned expansion in the U.K. Over the next three
years.
 REUTER

Abbey National said it cutting U.K. Mortgage rate by 1.125 pct to 11.25 pct

Rain and floods in India last year
damaged about 69,000 tonnes of grain intended for human
consumption during storage and transportation, food and civil
supplies minister H. K. L. Bhagat told Parliament.
    He did not give comparative figures and said the
government-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) had not yet
decided whether these grains could be used as cattle feed.
    Bhagat said the FCI had a total of 16.43 mln tonnes of food
grains in its warehouses at the end of 1986. It had asked state
governments to build more warehouses to avoid damage to grains.
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The death of the world's tropical rain
forests could trigger a new debt crisis and social and
biological disasters, scientists and ecologists involved with
the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) said.
    At stake is the ability of developing nations, including
Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, to service their debts and
the loss of trade worth hundreds of billions of dollars in
important sectors such as agriculture and pharmaceuticals, they
said.
    The experts, gathering ahead of an ITTO meeting of
consumers and producers near Tokyo next week, said the problem
is already acute.
    The Philippines offers a textbook case of the economic
dangers. "For many third world nations, the loss of the forest
is not just a loss of resources," said Delfin Ganapin, a
Philippine government consultant on environmental impact.
    "In the 1960s we had 16 mln hectares of commercial forest,
now we have one mln. We have only around 10 years of profitable
logging left. With a 26 billion dlr debt, the loss of logging
foreign exchange earnings is serious," he said.
    About 14 mln Philippine people depend on upland areas that
are now denuded and farmers cannot grow crops.
    Government security advisers say that as a direct result,
the most likely source of revolution in the Philippines is in
the upland areas, said Ganapin.
    Replanting is uneconomic and replanted tropical hardwoods
have less than a 50 pct chance of survival. There is no known
way to reproduce the wood, or the millions of species within.
    "No replanting programme has been successful," said Almy
Hafild from the Indonesian Network for Forest Conservation.
    Ganapin said three billion dlrs would be needed in the next
two years alone to save five mln hectares of critically denuded
land in the Philippines.
    The experts say that without a major initiative from the
development banks, the vicious circle will continue with
countries cutting more forest to help service short-term debts
at the cost of long-term insolvency.
    Yet timber, a five billion dlr a year industry, is not
necessarily the most direct economic product of the forests,
and nations must be educated in how best to "farm" them, said
Peter Kramer, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation director.
    There is a four billion dlr annual global trade in the end
products of rattan, and Brazil nuts earn Brazil 16 mln dlrs a
year, he said.
    U.S. Pharmacologist Norman Farnsworth has calculated that
25 pct of all U.S. Prescriptions owe their active ingredients
to higher plants growing in the forests.
    Deforestation would wipe out the chance of further
discoveries and force major corporations to research, develop
and produce man-made substitutes, at a cost which scientists
say is incalculable.
    By the year 2000, only 10 developing nations will still be
exporting timber, from 33 currently, and their export earnings
will drop from a 1980 peak of 6.8 billion dlrs to less than two
billion, a World Bank and U.N. Sponsored survey said.
    Of the 20.3 billion dlrs advanced by the World Bank,
Inter-American, African and Asian Development Banks in 1980-84,
only 100 mln dlrs went to forestry projects, it said.
    WWF statistics show half of the world's tropical forests
have vanished since the 1940s. Of 2,000 mln hectares remaining,
up to 16 mln are destroyed each year by destructive logging
practises and by local farmers.
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The Finance Ministry plans to further
ease restrictions on large-denomination bank deposits this year
and is studying several deregulation plans, a ministry official
said, without elaborating.
    Banking sources told Reuters the ministry plans to lower
the minimum denomination of money market certificates (MMCs) to
10 mln yen from 20 mln, the amount slated to be applied from
April 6. The amount is currently 30 mln yen.
    The ministry is also considering shortening the minimum
period of free-interest large-lot time deposits to one month
from the current three months, the sources said.
    The Ministry plans to expand the issue period of
certificates of deposits (CDs) to one week to two years from
the current one month to one year, the sources said.
    They said banks fear the ministry's plans may induce a
shift of funds from bank to other financial instruments.
    One official of a major bank said the planned moves were
unexpected as deregulation on large deposits was previously
expected to have ended with the measures to start in April.
    On April 6, the Ministry is scheduled to lower the minimum
time deposit amount to 100 mln yen from the current 300 mln and
cut the maximum MMC deposit period to two years from one.
 REUTER

The Bank of Finland called a news
conference at 1200 GMT to announce new measures for the
"development of the system of monetary control."
    A spokesman for the Bank declined to give further details.
    Banking sources said they expected the bank to announce it
will actively take part in the interbank market and buy and
sell certificates of deposit.
    The state treasury issues government paper with a maturity
of up to one year. The central bank has so far not issued its
own paper, the sources said.
 REUTER

The Agriculture Ministry said it revised
its April-June sugar consumption estimate down to 623,300
tonnes on a refined basis, from 637,800 estimated at the end of
December.
    It said the estimate for domestically produced sugar supply
for the same period was revised to 190,400 tonnes from the
earlier estimate of 195,100 tonnes, while imports were revised
to 402,000 tonnes from the earlier 435,800 tonnes.
    It did not revise its sugar consumption estimate of 2.53
mln tonnes for the 1986/87 sugar year ending September 30.
    The ministry said the estimate for the 1986/87 year's
supply of domestically produced sugar was revised to 881,000
tonnes, from the earlier estimate of 863,000.
    The estimate for 1986/87 imports was revised to 1.642 mln
tonnes, from an earlier 1.645 mln tonnes.
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The placement of the German federal
government's 25.6 pct stake in utility Veba AG <VEBG.F> would
probably take place early next week, banking sources said.
    Share dealers said speculation had arisen in the early
pre-bourse market that the Veba announcement could come as
early as today. But one banking source, though confirming that
most of the details had been worked out, said the chances of an
announcement today were about nil. He had no price details.
    The 10 mln shares on offer are expected to bring a cash
call in Germany for well over two billion marks. The share was
around 253 marks today after a 6.50 drop to 252 yesterday.
 REUTER

the money market with 728 mln stg assistance in response to an
early round of bill offers from the discount houses.
today at 950 mln stg.
    The central bank purchased 625 mln stg of bills for resale
to the market on April 7 at rates of interest between 9-15/16
pct and 10 pct.
    It also bought 103 mln stg bank bills outright comprising
65 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 38 mln stg in band two
at 9-13/16 pct.
 REUTER

The French farmers' union, FNSEA, hopes
France will resist European Community (EC) pressures over farm
prices and notably those of the European Commission at coming
ministerial negotiations in Brussels, FNSEA Secretary-General
Luc Guyau said.
    He told a press conference the union was concerned about
the future of the EC Common Agricultural Policy.
    France must define its position well before negotiating and
not just adopt a short term policy, he said.
    The FNSEA, with around 700,000 members, holds its annual
congress next week, when over 500 delegates will debate the
theme of "facing up to the future.
    "The period of change we are going through obliges us to
face up to new challenges," Guyau said, referring specifically
to the demographic changes in French agriculture.
    "Forty-five per cent of our farmers are over 55 years old
this year," he said.
 REUTER

Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd <ANZA.S> is planning a 100 mln Australian dlr
Euro-commercial paper program, arranger ANZ Securities Asia Ltd
said.
    Under the program, notes in denominations of 100,000 dlrs
will be issued with maturities ranging from seven to 365 days.
    The four dealers for the program are ANZ Securities Asia,
Barclays Bank Plc, BT Asia Ltd and Morgan Guaranty Ltd.
    ANZ Securities said the program is aimed at investors in
Asia, where there is strong potential for a big market in
short-term Australian dlr paper.
 REUTER

Feb daily ave unwrought aluminium output 33,900 tonnes, up 400 tonnes, IPAI.

Moody's Investors Service said it
assigned the following ratings to new eurobonds.
    AAA ratings were assigned to:
    Eastman Kodak Co's 135 mln U.S. Dlrs of 7-1/8 pct euronotes
due 1987.
    Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York's 100 mln Canadian
dlrs of 8-1/2 pct receipts for Government of Canada bonds due
1994.
    Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG's 100 mln Canadian dlrs of
nine pct guaranteed eurobonds due 1997.
    Swedish Export Credit's 220 mln Australian dlrs of 9-1/2
pct dual currency eurobonds due 1992.
    Moody's said it also assigned AAA ratings to:
    European Coal and Steel Community's 100 mln stg 9-3/8 pct
eurobonds due 1992.
    Nordic Investment Bank's 300 mln Danish crown 11-1/4 pct
eurobonds due 1994.
    The World Bank's one billion Luxembourg francs of seven pct
eurobonds due 1997.
    Credit Foncier's 150 mln European Currency Units (ECUs) of
7-5/8 pct eurobonds due 1994.
    Moody's said it also assigned ratings to euroyen bonds,
with AAA ratings assigned to the following:
    Societe Generale's 19 billion yen zero coupon notes due
1992.
    Export Development Corp's 15 billion yen of 4-1/2 pct
euroyen bonds due 1992.
    Exportfinans' 15 billion yen of five pct eurobonds due
1992.
    Toronto Dominion Bank's 20 billion yen of 4-5/8 pct euroyen
bonds due 1992.
    A AA1 rating was assigned to DNC International Finance AS'
10 billion yen of five pct guaranteed eurobonds due 1994.
    Moody's said it assigned a AA2 rating to Toyota Motor
Credit Co's 23 billion yen of 4-1/2 pct euroyen bonds due 1992.
    Nissan Motor Co Ltd's 35 billion yen of 5-1/8 pct euroyen
bonds due 1992 gained an A2 rating.
    Ford Motor Credit Co's 200 mln marks of 5-3/4 pct eurobonds
due 1992 were assigned an A1 rating.
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Standard Bank Investment Corp Ltd
(SPRJ.J) chairman Henri de Villiers said he could not predict
profits for the bank this year because of South Africa's
continuing political unrest.
    De Villiers also warned in the annual report that "failing
prompt and decisive political action, South Africa faces a
future of violent deadlock between different racial and
political groupings." 
    He said South Africa's future economic prospects are
"clouded by political and social issues and in the absence of
evidence that these are being positively addressed I am unable
to offer an earnings forecast for 1987."
    Standard Bank, 39 pct owned by Standard Chartered PLC
 <STCH.L>, London, previously reported that 1986 net income
rose by 13.8 pct to 209.0 mln rand.
    The bank said its bad debt losses should begin to decline
this year "although it may take some time before they return to
accepted industry norms."
    The annual report showed that the bank's charge for bad and
doubtful debts rose in 1986 to 187.6 mln rand from 162.1 mln
rand in the prior year.
    The bank said net income of its Standard Bank of South
Africa subsidiary declined 8.2 pct in 1986 to 112.3 mln rand in
a difficult banking environment caused mainly by low credit
demand.
    REUTER

Non-Communist daily average unwrought
aluminium production in February was 33,900 tonnes, up 400
tonnes from a downwardly revised 33,500 tonnes in January and
compared with 32,900 tonnes in February 1986, provisional
figures from the International Primary Aluminium Institute
(IPAI) show.
    Total production in February (28 days) was 949,000 tonnes
compared with a downwardly revised 1.038 mln in January (31
days) and 920,000 in February 1986.
    The regional breakdown of unwrought aluminium production
was as follows (in thousands of tonnes) the IPAI said.
    Africa           45       50        41
    North America   354      389       353
    Latin America   115      121        98
    East Asia         7        9        16
    South Asia       72       79        72
    Europe          268      293       256
    Oceania          88       97        84
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NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS.> said it planned to pool
world-wide sales and marketing of electronic test and measuring
equipment with U.S. Firm <John Fluke Mfg Co Inc>.
    It said from this autumn Fluke will sell, service and
distribute Philips test and measuring products in North America
and selected markets including China, Hong Kong and Japan.
Philips will cover mainly European markets for Fluke.
    The Dutch company said it will buy a minority equity stake
in Fluke and name a board member. Its equity holding will not
exceed 10 pct, Philips said.
    The companies will also explore possible new joint ventures
to develop new product lines, Philips said.
    It estimated the world-wide market for test and measuring
equipment at six billion dlrs in 1986.
    Fluke had 1986 sales of 209 mln dlrs last year and Philips'
turnover on test and measuring gear was of comparable size.
    A Philips spokesman said the world leaders in the field
were Hewlett-Packard Co <HWP.AS> and Tekronix Inc <TEK.N>, with
the combined operations of Philips and Fluke third.
 REUTER

The European Community authorised the
export of 25,000 tonnes of barley yesterday, bringing the
cumulative total at weekly tenders since the series started
last June to 3.33 mln tonnes, close to the 3.37 mln under
licence in the same year ago period, traders said.
    All bids for wheat were rejected. However, the total to
date of 5.06 mln tonnes is still substantially more than the
3.03 mln under licence a year ago. The 80,000 tonnes of French
maize granted for export moved the total to 135,000 tonnes
since the tender opened in February this year. There were no
facilities for maize in the previous weekly grain export
series.
 REUTER

U.K. FEB RETAIL PRICES UP 0.4 PCT, BASE REVISED, YEAR-ON-YEAR RISE 3.9 PCT - OFFICIAL

UK AVERAGE GDP RISES PRELIMINARY 2.6 PCT IN 1986, UP 0.7 PCT IN 4TH QTR  - OFFICIAL

A solution to Brazil's debt problems
is unthinkable without the involvement of the International
Monetary Fund, Juergen Sarrazin, management board member of
Dresdner Bank AG responsible for Latin America said.
    Sarrazin told the business daily Handelsblatt that Brazil's
interest payments moratorium had cost it the goodwill of many
banks.
    "Now there will certainly be no solutions without the IMF,"
he said. "Alternatives which could be imagined before, such as
bringing the IMF in with us in a loose form, are over," he said.
    Sarrazin, who through Dresdner represents German banks in
several rescheduling coordinating committees, noted that Brazil
was still prepared to negotiate.
    But he said work in the coordinating committees had already
run into difficulties before Brazil's interest moratorium.
    Justified calls by debtors for more flexibility from the
banks were blocked because U.S. Regulations made solutions such
as capitalising of interest virtually impossible, he said.
    Although many European banks were opposed to the use of
interest capitalisation, "this was an alternative which has to
be brought in," Sarrazin said.
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Britain's gross domestic product (GDP)
on the average basis of output, expenditure and income rose by
2.6 pct in 1986 after a 3.4 pct increase a year earlier,
Central Statistical Office (CSO) preliminary figures show.
    In the fourth quarter, GDP rose 0.7 pct over the previous
quarter and was up 3.3 pct on the same 1985 quarter.
    The average estimate index, seasonally-adjusted and based
1980, was set at 114.3 in the fourth quarter of 1986 against
113.5 in the previous quarter and 110.7 in the final quarter of
1985.
    The CSO said the average GDP estimate index for 1986 as a
whole was 113.1, up 2.6 pct from 110.2 for 1985.
    On the output measure, GDP rose an upward revised
seasonally adjusted 0.3 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986 to
114.9 on the output index from 114.5 in the previous quarter,
giving a 3.2 pct rise over the fourth 1985 quarter, the CSO
    On income-based GDP, the index in the fourth quarter rose
by 0.7 pct from the third quarter and was up 3.8 pct on the
    The indices stood at 115.3, 114.4 and 111.0 respectively.
    Expenditure-based GDP rose 1.2 pct in the fourth quarter of
1986 from the third quarter and was up 2.9 pct from the same
1985 quarter.
    The CSO set the expenditure index at 112.9 from 111.6 in
the third quarter of 1986 and 109.8 in the final 1985 quarter.
    The year-on-year rise for expenditure GDP was 2.3 pct with
the expenditure index for the whole of 1986 set at 111.9
against 109.4 a year earlier.
    For income GDP, the year-on-year rise was 2.6 pct against
against three pct a year earlier. The ouptut GDP measure rose
2.8 pct year-on-year, down from 3.8 pct in 1985.
    The government usually considers the output measure the
most reliable way of measuring short-term GDP changes.
    It is based on output data for production industry and
partial information for the rest of the economy.
    The government had forecast that average measure GDP would
rise 2.5 pct in calendar 1986 after 3.3 pct in 1985. The budget
unveiled on Tuesday foresaw GDP growth in 1987 of three pct.
    The GDP deflator, based on expenditure at market prices,
rose 1.2 pct in the fourth quarter from the third, to give a
2.4 pct rise over fourth quarter 1985. Year-on-year, the
deflator rose 3.7 pct.
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The Retail Price Index (RPI), Britain's
measure of inflation, rose 0.4 pct in February on a revised
basis, to give a year-on-year rise of 3.9 pct, the Employment
    In January, the index rose 0.4 pct for a 3.9 pct
year-on-year rise on both the previous base and the new index.
    The February RPI was set at 100.4, base January 1987. In
February 1986, the RPI rose 0.4 pct, giving a 5.1 pct
year-on-year increase on the old basis.
    The inflation data compares with market forecasts for a
rise of 0.4 - 0.5 pct in February and a yearly rise of about
four pct, economists said.
    The Employment Department said the rise in the index
between January and February was mainly the result of higher
prices for petrol, fresh vegetables, cars and car maintenance.
 REUTER

Denmark's wholesale price index fell
0.5 pct in February, giving a year-on-year fall of 4.9 pct, the
    The index, base 1980, stood at 135 in February, a fall of
one point compared to January, against 142 in February 1986.
 REUTER

The Swiss Finance Ministry said it was
calling two bond issues of a total 550 mln Swiss francs as part
of its effort to retire outstanding high-interest debt.
    The calls, to be made effective June 30 and September 30,
affected respectively the 7-1/4 pct bond of 1975 for 250 mln
francs and the 6-1/2 pct bond of the same year for 300 mln.
    A spokesman said the ministry had not yet decided whether
to convert the issues into new bonds, but it had outlined plans
for two new bonds, each of 250 mln francs. The strong state of
government finances might permit it not to issue one or both of
them, he said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Spain suspended its daily
money market assistance and offered to drain funds with three-
and seven-day repurchase agreements at 12-1/2 pct, money market
    The sources said the measures were a further attempt to
rein in money supply and were likely to force some institutions
to scramble for funds before the 10-day accounting period for
reserve requirements closes on Monday.
    The bank, which raised its rate for ordinary overnight
assistance to 13-3/4 from 13-1/2 pct on Wednesday, opened its
special borrowing facility for overnight funds at 14-1/2 pct.
    Money market sources said institutions in need of funds
were likely to have to return to the bank tomorrow for further
assistance.
    The bank rarely invites applications for ordinary
assistance on a Saturday and the sources said it was more
likely to open its special borrowing facility again.
 REUTER

U.K building society net receipts in
February were 472 mln stg, slightly up on January's 456 mln but
well below the 793 mln stg of February 1986, the Building
Societies' Association (BSA) said.
    BSA Secretary-General Mark Boleat noted that net receipts
were below 500 mln stg for the third month out of the last
four.
    "This was obviously a disappointing performance, especially
in view of the rapid growth of mortgage commitments, to over
2.5 billion stg," he said.
    The BSA said receipts were depressed by the British Airways
flotation, despite the later return of oversubscribed funds.
    Total building society receipts in February were 6.4
billion stg against withdrawals of 5.9 billion.
    Mortgage lending to home buyers during the month fell
slightly to 2.16 billion stg from 2.18 billion stg in January,
the BSA said. Mortgage lending has fallen steadily since last
July's peak of 3.9 billion stg.
    Net new mortgage commitments however rose to 2.5 billion
stg from January's 1.9 billion, bringing the total commitments
outstanding to 6.9 billion after January's 6.6 billion stg.
    Wholesale funding rose to 292 mln stg after January's 29
mln, but was still below each of the last six 1986 months.
 REUTER

Brazil's hard-line debt stance, though
meeting creditor resistance, is boosting political initiatives
in Latin America aimed at broadening the global strategy,
regional debt officials and economic analysts say.
    "Now more than ever it is clear that Latin America cannot
pay, under present conditions, without sacrificing growth,"
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said, referring to Brazil.
    And, as debtors and creditors prepare for their annual
meeting at the Inter-American Development Bank in Miami next
week, the region's debt crisis is clearly coming to a head.
    Around 200 billion dlrs in commercial bank debt have been
rescheduled since 1983, with interest rate margins now below
one pct, multi-year accords a norm and no financial crash in
sight, but a lasting solution seems no nearer.
    Virtually all Latin American leaders backed Brazil's
suspension of interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of private
bank debt last month, though prospects of a chain default are
still remote.
    Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and others rejected such action
and Mexican finance minister Gustavo Petricioli merely said,
"Brazil is having problems we are sure will be temporary."
    But Brazil's action has had an impact on other debt
negotiations, speeding agreement for Chile and Venezuela last
month and influencing current talks with Argentina.
    Pressure for new solutions has built up on several fronts,
with the Philippines joining Brazil in seeking interest relief
and Ecuador announcing force majeure on debt payments following
a serious earthquake.
    Private banks are being increasingly urged to renew lending
and accept innovative repayment schemes, not only by debtors
but also by official agencies which have stepped up their own
credit flows as part of the U.S.-inspired plan.
    One Latin American debt official said he saw the Brazil and
Ecuadorean announcements as spurring moves by other debtors to
link debt service payments to macroeconomic indicators such as
export earnings, GDP or raw materials prices.
    Despite this, debtor countries continue to accept the
case-by-case approach, and Cuba's call for a joint negotiating
front is not being promoted by Brazil or even defended by Peru,
the region's flag-bearer in unilateral payment decisions.
    "Each nation must negotiate its debt independently,
according to its own needs," Brazilian foreign minister Ramiro
de Abreu Sodre said in Caracas at the weekend.
    Venezuela's rapid agreement with its creditors, soon after
Brazil's move, had been seen by the political opposition as a
betrayal of debtor solidarity, but de Abreu praised the
Venezuelan negotiators for achieving a favourable deal.
    Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica and others are also pursuing
normal negotiations with creditor banks, while at the same time
pressing hard for better terms, particularly lower interest
rate spreads. Latin American officials say that while the debt
should be negotiated case-by-case, their governments are
promoting a general framework for talks based on growth and
development priorities, lower interest payments and new
    "The Brazilian and Ecuadorean experience shows orthodox
solutions to debt cases don't work," said a senior Peruvian
government official responsible for debt affairs.
    He saw a growing likelihood that other countries would
follow Peru's action in setting a 10 pct debt payment limit in
the face of trade and other factors beyond debtors' control
such as minimal bank lending.
    These factors have contributed to a 130 billion dlr net
outflow from Latin America in the last five years, and
Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro says Brazil alone paid
back 45 billion dlrs in this time and received just 11 billion
in loans.
    Latin American debtors feel they have complied with their
side of the bargain, slashing public spending, devaluing
currencies, cutting inflation, privatizing state enterprises
and introducing debt equity schemes.
    Brazil, as the region's biggest debtor and its most
diversified economy, has now apparently adopted the principle
that a tough position with its creditors will avoid a more
serious crisis later on.
one of continuous crisis," Funaro told a conference in Rio de
Janeiro this week.
billion dlr debt burden this year are slim, with coffee prices
plunging, oil prices up but still well below 1985 levels and
interest rates beginning to rise.
 Mexico expects one to two pct growth instead of the two to
three pct projected earlier, and inflation near 80 pct after
105 pct last year.
    Brazilian officials expect growth of only two pct after
eight pct last year and a 30 pct drop in the projected trade
surplus, while independent estimates put inflation at 200 pct.
    Political and economic analysts in Brazil believe the
payment suspension will give new impetus to tackling the
regional crisis though they expect protracted negotiations, a
view echoed by senior international bank officials.
    Some banks, including Citibank, Morgan Guaranty and Bank of
America are already preparing to downgrade their Brazil loans.
    Brazil's refusal to accept an IMF program, a condition set
by many banks for new lending, meanwhile reflects the view of
most Latin American governments that equate the Fund with
recession. But Brazil and Venezuela are the only countries in
the region to have rescheduled debt without an IMF program.
 REUTER

CANADA CONSUMER PRICE INDEX ROSE 0.4 PCT IN FEBRUARY, STATISTICS CANADA SAID

The Canadian consumer price index rose
0.4 pct in February, to 135.8, base 1981, compared with a 0.2
pct rise in January and a 0.4 pct rise in February last year,
    The February year-one year rise was 4.0 pct compared with a
3.9 pct rise in January.R
 Reuter

KLM Royal Dutch Airways <KLM.AS> said
it agreed to take full control of a partially owned Dutch-based
parcel delivery service and will offer a minority stake in it
to British and Commonwealth Shipping Plc <BCOM.L>
    KLM, seeking to strengthen its market position in the fast
growing door-to-door delivery market, said it agreed with Dutch
retailer Vendex International <VENN.AS> to take over Vendex's
50-pct in their jointly-owned courier, <XP System VOF>.
    Ownership of XP will now be brought into the talks started
by KLM last week with British and Commonwealth for a one-third
stake in the latter's <IML Air Services Group Ltd> courier.
    When announcing the negotiations with British and
Commonwealth last week, KLM said buying a minority stake in IML
could involve a convertible loan issue.
    A KLM spokeswoman said the Dutch flag carrier would now
offer a minority stake in XP to British and Commonwealth in the
negotiations on IML, but declined to elaborate on financial
aspects of the talks.
    She said KLM would like the two courier services to
cooperate in future and did not exclude a future merger between
them to combine IML's strong world-wide network with XP's
mainly European activities.
    XP System is based in the southern Dutch airport of
Maastricht and has an annual turnover of 100 mln guilders.
    KLM, which is also negotiating with British and
Commonwealth for a 15-pct stake in the latter's regional
airline <Air U.K. Ltd>, says door-to-door delivery courier
services are seeing substantially faster growth than
traditional cargo activities.
 REUTER

 Reuter

<Rainbow Corp Ltd> said <Brierley
Investments Ltd> (BIL) is trying to disrupt Rainbow's planned
merger with <Progressive Enterprises Ltd>.
    Rainbow chairman Allan Hawkins said in a statement, "In our
opinion BIL have deliberately tried to create anomalies in the
market prices of Rainbow and Progressive shares since the
merger was announced."
    The merger, announced in February, involves the formation
of a new company, <Astral Pacific Corp Ltd>, which Rainbow and
Progressive shareholders will enter into on a one-for-one share
basis. Both boards have approved the merger.
    BIL has said it was the mystery bidder behind a recent
stand in the market for three mln Progressive shares.
    "We simply regard Progressive Enterprises shares to be worth
approximately twice as much as Rainbow shares and do not think
the merger, as proposed, is soundly based," BIL chief executive
Paul Collins said in an interview in the weekly National
Business Review newspaper published today.
    Collins was not immediately available to respond directly
to Hawkins' statement.
    Hawkins said the merger has been assessed by independent
consultants and declared fair in all respects, with benefits to
all shareholders.
    "We are not going to stand by while other parties distort
the picture for their own strategic purposes and distract the
market away from the real benefits of the merger," he said.
    "In our opinion, BIL's actions are clearly not designed to
be in the long term interests of either Progressive or Rainbow
shareholders," Hawkins said.
 Reuter

Funds managed by U.K. Unit trusts rose
by 2.3 billion stg in February to stand at a record 37.2
billion, the Unit Trust Association said.
    By comparison, funds under management in January totalled
34.9 billion stg and in February 1986, 22.9 billion.
    The association statement said gross sales for February
rose 1.01 billion stg, the second consecutive month sales
increased over a billion stg. Gross sales in January totalled
1.14 billion and 560.7 mln in February 1986.
    The number of unit holder accounts rose by 93,000 to
3,594,000, a rise of 36 pct during the last 12 months.
 REUTER

India's state-owned National Thermal
Power Corp said it has signed an agreement to borrow 169.1 mln
marks at a fixed annual 6.48 pct interest for 15 years and
eight months, an NTPC official said.
    The agreement signed last Saturday in Hong Kong with a
syndicate of eight Indian and foreign banks including State
Bank of India (London), Bankers Trust Co (Hong Kong) and
Grindlays Bank Plc (London) fixes the draw-down period at 68
months, the official said.
    Repayments are in 20 half-yearly instalments starting from
the 68th month.
 REUTER

money market another 31 mln stg in assistance in the morning
session.
    This brings the Bank's total help today to 759 mln stg and
compares with its estimate of a 1.05 billion stg money market
shortage which it earlier revised up from 950 mln stg.
    The central bank bought 31 mln stg of bank bills outright
in band two at 9-13/16 pct.
 REUTER

Taiwan's leading industrial organisation
said it will send its first buying mission to the U.S. Later
this year in an effort to reduce the country's trade surplus
with Washington.
    A spokesman for the Chinese National Federation of
Industries told Reuters the mission was part of a broader plan
to switch large purchases to the U.S. From Japan.
    The Federation groups all of Taiwan's major industrial
associations. Last year its members purchased about 4.5 billion
U.S. Dlrs worth of industrial products from Japan and about 1.8
billion from the U.S.
    The spokesman said Federation members were now discussing
the volume of business they could transfer to America.
    He said they had drawn up a list of about 80 industrial
products they would be shopping for in the U.S. During the
buying mission in September, but he could give no figure on how
much would be spent.
    A Board of Foreign Trade official told Reuters the
government would send two buying missions to America between
June and July this year and might send others later.
    Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to a record 13.6
billion dlrs last year from 10.2 billion in 1985.
 REUTER

The South Australia Government Financing
Authority is issuing a 25 mln Australian dlr zero coupon bond
priced at 51.75 pct, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
    The bonds, due April 2, 1992, are available in
denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 dlrs and will be listed in
    Fees comprise 1/4 pct selling and 1/4 pct management and
underwriting combined.
    The deal is fully fungible with the 125 mln dlr zero coupon
deal on the same terms issued for the authority early last
month, Hambros said.
 REUTER

CORRECTION - NON-COMMUNIST FEBRUARY ALUMINIUM
    In today's London item +NON-COMMUNIST FEBRUARY ALUMINIUM
OUTPUT UP, IPAI+ please read in first paragraph and throughout
+...Daily average primary aluminium production...+, correcting
from +average unwrought aluminium production+.
 REUTER

<Newman Industries Plc> said it was
discussing the possible merger of its electric motor operations
with Hawker Siddeley Group Plc's <HSID.L> <Brook Crompton
Parkinson Motors Ltd> unit.
    Newman has electric motor operations in the U.K. And
Australia. The company gave no further details but said a
further statement would be made shortly.
    Newman shares eased one penny on the announcement to 43p
while Hawker was unchanged at 528p, three pence higher on last
night's close.
 REUTER

Dutch chemical group Akzo
N.V. <AKZO.AS> said it agreed to take over household product
subsidiaries of French group Rhone-Poulenc <RHON.PA> for an
    Under the agreement, Akzo will acquire the household
product activities of the Lyons-based <Rhodic> and
Remalard-based <Buhler-Fontaine> units of Rhone Poulenc.
Together, these activities account for over 180 mln French
francs in annual sales and employ 170, Akzo said.
    Akzo will integrate the firms, to be partially joined with
its own French activities, in its consumer products division.
 REUTER

A top Swiss banker called for an
obligatory, continuous rating for all Swiss franc bonds and
said he believed anyone buying more than five pct of a company
should be made to declare their share.
    In comments at a news conference of <Vontobel Holding AG>,
chairman Hans Vontobel said he believed it was up to the banks'
own self-regulating bodies, such as the Swiss Admissions Board,
to take such action before governmental bodies stepped in.
    A decline in the average quality of borrowers on the Swiss
franc market and a debate on the use of registered shares to
prevent takeovers have made both major issues among bankers.
    Vontobel noted that many borrowers already came to the
market with ratings from the major U.S. Agencies, which were
readily available to professionals through specialised
information systems.
    "We should make this classification obligatory and publish
it in places that are easily accessible to lay people," he said.
The quick changing nature of the financial market meant these
ratings should also be continually updated, he said.
    Vontobel also noted that recent years had seen companies,
worried about takeovers, increasingly issuing registered shares
and participation certificates rather than bearer shares.
    However, both types of issue had a drawback, he said. The
recent attempt by Jacobs Suchard AG <JACZ.Z> to take over Hero
Conserven Lenzburg <HERZ.Z> had shown the limits of a 1961
pledge by the banks not to sell registered shares to someone
who was not eligible according to the company's statutes.
    Excessive issue of participation certificates, which do not
carry voting rights, would also be contrary to the principle of
greater democracy in the new share law before Parliament.
    "People buying, for example, more than five pct of a
company's shares should be made to declare their purchase," he
said.
 REUTER

Italian industrial production fell 3.4 pct
in January, compared with the same month last year, the
national statistics institute Istat said.
    The rise follows a year-on-year increase in December 1986
of 4.5 pct.
    Istat's industrial production index, base 1980, not
seasonally adjusted, registered 93.3, compared with 96.6 in
    Istat said there were 20 working days in January, the same
as December, but one fewer than January last year.
    Istat said the year-on-year fall reflected poorer
performances in the footwear, clothing, textiles, chemicals and
metals industries.
    It said office machinery and data sectors, wood and
furniture, precision mechanics, oil and electricity showed
improved activity.
    Calculations based on Istat figures showed industrial
production rose 2.4 pct in January, on a month-on-month basis,
after falling 12.0 pct in December over November.
 REUTER

President Reagan, staying cool under
a televised grilling on the Iran-contra scandal, insisted he
has told all he knows about the crippling affair and said he
would do it all differently given a second chance.
    "No, I would not go down that same road again," the president
said last night during a 32-minute news conference, his first
in exactly four months, when asked if he would again sell arms
to Iran in hopes of freeing U.S. hostages in the Middle East.
    But he added, "I'll keep my eye open for an opportunity
again for improving relations. And we will continue to explore
every legitimate means for getting our hostages back."
    As expected, the televised conference was almost completely
dominated by questions about the secret sales of U.S. arms to
Iran and the diversion of funds to "contra" rebels in Nicaragua.
    From an investigators' standpoint, the toughest question
concerned 76-year-old Reagan's knowledge of the contra
    As expected, the president repeatedly stated -- now calmly,
now with some fire -- that he knew nothing about that
scheme, said to have been run by White House National Security
aide Oliver North, since fired, with the knowledge of
presidential adviser John Poindexter, now resigned.
    "No, that is not true at all," the president replied sternly
when asked about a report Poindexter had told him, twice, about
the secret channeling of millions of dollars to the contras.
    "When I went on the air right after the news broke (about
Iran arms deal last November), I did not know at that time
there was any money involved."
    He said he learned of the contra diversion -- which may
have broken U.S. laws and will be the top priority of
congressional investigative hearings on this affair -- only
when Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese told him on November 25.
    Just as important from Reagan's standpoint, however, was
the manner in which he handled his first non-scripted public
accounting of the scandal since the details first began leaking
out last November and plunged his administration into deep
political crisis.
    He appeared to bring it off without major stumbles, abetted
by a press corps that seemed at pains to maintain a civil
manner until the very end when it crowded round him trying to
get in one last question as he was leaving the rostrum in the
White House East Room.
    He often responded slowly and deliberately but never seemed
at a loss for words, or vintage Reagan mannerisms.
    At one point in the contra discussion he furrowed his brow
in puzzlement as he said he was just as mystified as everyone
about where all the unaccounted millions had gone from the Iran
arms sales of 1985 and 1986.
    "I'm still wanting to find out the source of all the extra
money, the bank accounts and where that extra money went," he
said.
    At another point, he laughed off a question on whether he
might have been told about the contra connection and forgotten,
saying, "Oh, no," pausing to chuckle and adding:
    "You'd have heard me without opening the door to my office
if I'd been told that."
 Reuter

<Berliner Bank AG> has suffered
losses of between 10 and 100 mln marks through credits granted
by its Stuttgart branch by officials there exceeding their
powers, a bank spokesman said in answer to queries.
    The spokesman declined to say exactly how large the losses
were. Berliner Bank has suspended the three managers of its
Stuttgart branch and is continuing an investigation into the
case, in which state prosecutors are also participating.
    The fact that powers had been exceeded emerged in a routine
check at the branch. The City of West Berlin owns 74 pct of
Berliner Bank and the rest is held by small shareholders.
 REUTER

The London Commodity Exchange (LCE) and
International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) are to introduce revised
trading slip systems incorporating the time that futures
business is executed, an LCE spokeswoman said.
    The LCE's six week trial system starts on April 1, with
buyers and sellers filling in slips which carry not only the
transaction, but also the date and time of execution.
    These slips will then have to be forwarded to market staff
for entering into International Commodities Clearing House
(ICCH) terminals within 15 minutes of the trade being
transacted, the spokeswoman said.
    The IPE system is similar, although here traders will use
time-stamping machines which automatically enter the date, as
is the practice on futures exchanges in the U.S. And on the
London International Financial Futures Exchange.
    Time-stamping of U.K. Futures business becomes mandatory
later this year under the Financial Services Act, to meet the
Securities and Investments Board's requirement on audit-trails,
the LCE spokewoman said.
 REUTER

PacifiCorp said an offering of
50 mln dlrs of 7.12 pct serial preferred stock is underway at
100 dlrs per share through underwriters led by Salomon Inc
<SB>, Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>, L.F. Rothschild,
Unterberg, Towbin Inc <R> and Printon, Kane and Co.
    The company said its proceeds from the offering were 99.20
dlrs per share.  A sinking fund starting in 1993 will start
retiring the issue, with retirement to be completed in 2027.
    PacifCorp also said James P. Best, senior vice president of
its telecommunications unit, has temporarily switched jobs with
parent company vice president and controller Stan M. Marks to
broaden management experience within the company.
 Reuter

<Cineplex Odeon Corp> said chairman
Garth H. Drabinsky and vice chairman Myron I. Gottlieb have
each purchased from the company's treasury 750,000 common
shares at 17.50 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Weyerhaeuser Co said it has filed
for an offering of four mln shares of convertible exchangeable
preference shares through underwriter Morgan Stanley Group Inc
<MS>.
    The company said the preference shares will be convertible
at any time into common shares, and on any dividend payment
date starting June 15, 1990, the company may exchange all the
preference shares for convertible subordinated debentures due
2017. 
    The company said the preference shares will not be
redeemable before June 15, 1989 unless the closing price equals
or exceeds 150 pct of the then-effective conversion price per
share for at least 20 trading days within a 30 consecutive
trading day period that ends within five trading days before
issuance of a notice of redemption.
    Weyerhaeuser said proceeds will be used to reduce
outstanding commercial paper, although initially they may be
invested in marketable securities.
 Reuter

Trico Industries Inc said it has
received a six mln dlr contract to supply hydraulic lift
equipment for heavy crude oil production for the Chinese
Ministry of Petroleum Industry.
    The company said the equipment is for use in the Laiohe
oilfield 350 miles northeast of Peking and will equip a
140-well program.
 Reuter

Colorado Venture Capital corp
said its net asset value rose 215,239 dlrs or two cts per share
during the fourth quarter and 175,712 dlrs or two cts per share
during the full year 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 46 cts vs loss 51 cts
    Net loss 10.9 mln vs loss 9,782,818
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 9,437,270
    Avg shrs 23.5 mln vs 19.3 mln
    1st half
    Shr loss 90 cts vs loss 1.11 dlrs
    Net loss 20.6 mln vs 21.4 mln
    Revs 38.9 mln vs 14.5 mln
    Avg shrs 22.8 mln vs 19.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net loss 381,000 vs loss 1,071,000
    Sales 4,531,000 vs 4,409,000
    Year
    Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 98 cts
    Net loss 1,098,000 vs loss 4,658,000
    Sales 17.8 mln vs 17.3 mln
 Reuter

 Reuter

Industrial production rose 4.8 pct on
a seasonally-adjusted basis in January compared with December
while rising 2.8 pct from January last year, Central Bureau of
Statistics figures show.
    In December, industrial production fell by 2.8 pct from
November while rising 2.9 pct compared with December 1985.
    The industrial production index, base 1980, stood at 109 in
January compared with a downward revised 104 in December, which
was initially put at 105. In January last year, the index stood
at 106 and in December 1985 at 101.
 REUTER

Israeli jets bombed Palestinian targets
east of the south Lebanese port town of Sidon, in the first
such attack this month, local radio stations said.
    They said the planes attacked Palestinian targets in the
Darb al-Sim area, a few km (miles) east of Sidon, and smoke was
seen billowing over the area.
    Details were not immediately available.
 Reuter

The West German government expressed
support for the U.S. Position in opposing the proposed European
Community tax on vegetable oils and fats, a U.S. Embassy
    The spokesman, speaking from Bonn, said, "We have good
reason to think West Germany holds to its resistance to the
proposed tax."
    Several top government officials told the American Soybean
Association and the National Soybean Processors Association
delegations there was no reason for American producers and
processors to pay for EC agriculture, the spokesman said.
    European agriculture was facing severe problems, but both
the Community and the U.S. Should work closely within the
framework provided by the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade, he said.
    The delegations will continue their top level meetings in
Bonn today but will not issue a statement before returning to
the U.S. At the weekend.
    The EC and the U.S. Realised the tax issue would stay on
the agenda for several months and there were indications that
both sides would have to prepare for some tough negotiations,
 REUTER

Fleet Financial Group said it might
have to sell its First Connecticut Corp subsidiary as a result
of its proposed 1.3 billion dlr acquisition of Norstar Bancorp
<NOR>.
    Under Connecticut banking law, New England based bank
holding companies such as Fleet are not allowed to operate
Connecticut banks if they merge with companies from outside the
region.  Norstar is based in Albany, N.Y.
    First Connecticut has assets of about two billion dlrs. 
Fleet has total assets of about 21 billion dlrs.
    Fleet said it will seek to have the Connecticut law amended
to allow it to retain First Connecticut, which is based in
Hartford.
    Fleet's acquisition of Norstar is now expected to be
completed around July 1, 1988, when a change in laws in Fleet's
home state of Rhode Island allowing interstate banking outside
New England will go into effect.
 Reuter

Japan's economic policies face fierce
international attack as hopes fade of a substantial drop in its
trade surplus, international monetary sources said.
    At a meeting this week in Paris, senior government
officials from major nations are considering an Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) staff report
that forecasts a continuing large Japanese trade surplus, they
said.
    Though Japanese exports have become more expensive with the
yen's sharp rise against the dollar, they still tend to surge
when growth picks up, according to the OECD.
    As a solution, the OECD staff has urged Japan to redirect
its export-driven economy, boosting domestic demand and imports
by adopting a more flexible fiscal policy, they said.
    That recommendation echoes calls made recently at secret
meetings of the International Monetary Fund's executive board.
    The monetary sources said Japan's policy was criticized
when the board met to consider the country's economy under the
annual consultations it holds with each of its members.
    The United States, which until recently has been reluctant
to criticize Japan's fiscal stance, joined in the attack, he
said.
    The IMF staff has also cast doubt on the Japanese
government's forecast of 3.5 pct economic growth in the fiscal
year beginning April 1. Most independent forecasters, including
the IMF, believe that growth in calendar 1987 will be below
three pct, monetary sources said.
    The Finance Ministry has been particularly sensitive to
such criticism because it is already under mounting domestic
pressure to boost an economy hard-hit by the yen's rise. The
yen's climb has lost exporters sales and profits in the huge
    Tokyo is also eager to avoid any suggestion that a further
yen rise might be needed to cut its trade surplus, which last
year amounted to a record 93 billion dlrs.
    Japan cannot tolerate a further rise of the yen, Foreign
Minister Tadashi Kuranari said recently. The yen closed here
today at 151.53 to the dollar. Most Japanese politicians,
including Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, are clearly hoping
the yen will weaken, government officials said.
    At a meeting in Paris last month, Britain, Canada, France,
Japan, the United States and West Germany, agreed to cooperate
to hold currencies at around current levels.
    Officials said that wording represented a compromise.
Miyazawa hopes the agreement will hold the yen stable for a few
months, before it weakens later in the year.
    Japan wanted the Paris communique to imply a higher value
for the dollar, perhaps by substituting the word "recent" for
"current," while the United States wanted it to more clearly
point to the dollar's weaker levels now, perhaps by use of the
word "present," they said.
    In the months leading up the February 22 agreement, the
dollar dropped some 10 yen.
    The officials also sought to discredit suggestions in the
market that recent U.S. Action to prevent the dollar from
rising above 1.87 marks pointed to a 153 to 155 yen ceiling for
the U.S. Currency.
    Japan has also attacked OECD forecasts, which it says do
not take account of the structural changes in the Japanese
economy that will be triggered by the strong yen.
    Officials said there are already signs of that. More and
more companies have announced plans to move production
facilities offshore to take advantage of cheaper costs abroad,
they said.
 REUTER

Geodome Resources Ltd said
following receipt of a feasibility study from Raytheon Co's
<RTN> Stearns Catalytic unit, it will proceed with construction
and pre-production stripping at its Sunbeam Mine in Custer
County, Idaho, as quickly as possible.
    The company said the study found proven ore reserves of
3,302,000 short tons grading 0.077 ounce of gold per ton.  It
said the mine will operate at a rate of 626,000 tons of ore per
year, with higher-grade ore being mined in the first three
years for a rapid payback of capital costs.
    The company said the feasibility study calls for gold
production averaging 41,000 ounces a year for the life of the
mine and 50,000 ounces a year over the first three years, with
99,000 ounces of silver per year being produced over the miune
life.
    Capital costs would be 22.3 mln dlrs with all-new equipment
and 500,000 to one mln dlrs less with used equipment, it said. 
It said the mine would be operated by a contract miner but the
associated mill by Geodome.
    Geodome said a new ore zone discovered last summer is not
included in reserve calculations. It said eight of the nine
holes drilled there have an average grade of 0.046 ounce of
gold and 2.1 ounces of silver per ton. Also excluded are
reserves of 1,400,000 tons of low-grade material that could be
milled profitably at 425 dlrs a ton for gold. The feasibility
study used a 350 dlr gold price.
    Geodome said operating costs of the mine will average 201
dlr per ounce of gold for the mine life and 171 dlrs for the
first three years, in constant dollars.
 Reuter

M.D.C. Asset Investors Inc, which
recently went public, said its board declared an initial
quarterly dividend of 45 cts per share, payable April 15 to
holders of record April One.
 Reuter

Japanese Agriculture Ministry officials
said a study of agriculture subsidies by the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, is still under way
and will be completed sometime next month.
    The officials said the study has been inaccurate so far,
and they said Japan would comment on the final results.
    A Reuter report from Washington yesterday said the study
has found that Japan has the highest agriculture subsidies in
the world and that dairy farmers benefit more than any other
commodity producers from subsidies. The study has not been
officially released due to objections from some countries.
    Japan has withdrawn its objection and decided to accept the
release of the study, the agriculture ministry officials said.
OECD directors are expected to approve the release at a meeting
in mid-May.
    One agriculture ministry source said the study so far was
based on the years 1979-81. Japanese subsidies have dropped
sharply since then, partly because of tight budgetary policy,
and foreign currency factors have also changed, he said.
    "The study is ... Unfair and unacceptable because it does
not take account of various differences in farming conditions
in each country, such as geography," the source said.
    He said it is highly likely that the final study will show
Japan has the highest farm subsidies in the world.
    "This would increase foreign pressure to open Japan's farm
market further, but this would have little impact on Japan's
agriculture policy," he said, without giving further details.
    A main purpose of the study is to clarify export subsidies
by major exporting nations like the United States and the
European Community, but Japan is a major importer, he said.
 Reuter

Sputnik.
           
 Reuter

2nd qtr
    Revs 9,200,000 vs 10.5 mln
    1st half
    NOTE: Period ended February 28.
    Company corrects period in March 19 item
 Reuter

C.O.M.B. Co said its board has
approved a proposal to acquire the 50 pct of Cable Value
Network held by its cable television industry partners in
exchange for warrants for C.O.M.B. common.
    The company, which already owns the other 50 pct of CVN,
said it plans to change its name to CVN.
    C.O.M.B. said the proposal calls for its cable partners to
receive about eight mln five year warrants in exchange for
their 50 pct interest in CVN and commit to a long-term
affiliation agreement to carry CVN programming.
    C.O.M.B. said the proposed warrants would carry an exercise
price of 18.125 dlrs a share.
    It said the 7,869,353 warrants originally offered to cable
partners will continue to vest on the pre-agreed schedule. The
company now has about 18.1 mln shares outstanding.
    C.O.M.B. said the transaction is subject to the parties
entering into an agreement which would be subject to approval
by its shareholders and regulatory agencies.
 Reuter

Home Savings and Loan Association
Inc of Durham, N.C., said its board declared a 20 pct stock
dividend, payable April 28 to holders of record April Three.
 Reuter

<Canada Northwest Energy Ltd>
said it reached agreement in principle to sell one mln
preferred shares by way of private placement to raise 32.5 mln
dlrs for oil and gas exploration.
    The 5.4 pct cumulative redeemable convertible series D
preferred shares will be flow-through shares entitling holders
to tax deductions not claimed by the company.
    The shares will be convertible anytime after issue into
common shares at an equivalent conversion price of 32.50 dlrs a
share. After one year, they will be redeemable at any time by
the company at 25 dlrs a share plus accrued dividends.

 Reuter

Indian and Australian businessmen
signed a memorandum of understanding to boost two-way trade and
joint industrial ventures in both countries, spokesmen of the
Indo-Australia Business Council told reporters.
    The Indian Council said it hoped India's exports to
Australia would improve in the next few months and reduce the
trade balance which is heavily in Australia's favour.
    In 1986 Australia sold 428 mln Australian dlrs' worth of
goods, including steel and coking coal, to India and bought
170.5 mln worth of items, including cotton textiles, from India.
 Reuter

Strong south-easterly winds were
keeping many vessels trapped in the ice off the Finnish and
Swedish coasts in one of the worst icy periods in the Baltic
for many years, the Finnish Board of Navigation said.
    In Finland and Sweden up to 50 vessels were reported to be
stuck in the ice, and even the largest of the assisting
icebreakers were having difficulties in breaking through to the
stranded ships, coastguard officials said.
    However, icy conditions in the southern Baltic at the
Soviet oil ports of Ventspils and Klaipeda had eased, they said.
    Weather officials in neighbouring Sweden said the icy
conditions in the Baltic were the worst for 30 years, with
ships fighting a losing battle to keep moving.
    In the coastal stretches of the Gulf of Bothnia, which
divides Finland and Sweden, the ice is up to one metre thick,
with drifts and currents packing it into almost impenetrable
walls three metres high, Swedish coastguard officials said.
    Weather forecasts say winds may ease during the weekend but
a further drop in temperature could bring shipping to a
standstill, the officials said.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) and
Soviet-led Comecon ended talks here, having made progress on
setting up formal trade relations, but no breakthrough because
of Comecon's refusal to recognise West Berlin as part of the
EC, delegates said.
    Negotiators were trying to reach agreement on the draft of
a joint declaration setting up official relations after 30
years of mutual non-recognition. John Maslen, head of the EC
delegation, told Reuters as he emerged from the final session:
"We made some progress, but we have called for another meeting."
    Officials, who asked not to be named, said the Comecon team
had refused to accept a clause in the draft declaration which
would recognise West Berlin as part of the 12-nation EC.
    Under the 1957 Treaty of Rome all contracts and agreements
signed by the Community must contain this territorial clause
stipulating West Berlin is an integral part of the EC. An EC
negotiator taking part in the three-day talks said: "We wanted
the territorial clause in, but Comecon said no."
    A joint statement issued after the talks said progress was
made towards clarifying positions, but another meeting would be
necessary to complete the work.
    Any decision in principle to set up relations would require
approval by the Community's Council of Ministers and by the
executive committee of Comecon.
    Zdzislaw Kuroski, deputy director of Comecon, who heads the
East bloc delegation, told Reuters ahead of today's session: "We
have narrowed our differences on a range of questions, but not
on all questions."
    Asked whether Comecon would accept EC insistence that any
joint declaration stipulate West Berlin as part of the
Community, he replied: "This question is not contained in the
draft which our side presented."
    West German diplomats said they would insist on including
the clause on West Berlin in any EC-Comecon agreement.
    The talks followed an earlier round between the two trading
blocs here last September and the first-ever direct talks
between the EC and the Soviet Union on establishing diplomatic
relations in January.
    The EC trades with individual Comecon member states despite
non-recognition of Comecon. Last year, the EC had a five
billion dlr trade deficit with East European states, about half
the deficit of the previous year, due to a drop in the price of
Soviet oil imported by the EC.
 REUTER

Ohio Edison Co said it has
completed the sale and leaseback of 30 pct of its 30 pct
interest in Unit One of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant,
receiving 509 mln dlrs for the interest.
    The utility said the share of its interest in the 1,205
megawatt generating plant was sold to a group of institutional
investors which leased it back to the company for a period of
about 29 years at a negotiated lease payment rate.
    Ohio Edison said the proceeds will be used to finance the
rest of its 1987 construction program and repay bank loans
incurred for the retirement of high-interest long-term debt.
    Ohio Edison did not detail the lease payments, but it said
the "payments will reduce the amount of revenue the company
will need to cover our investment in Perry, which translates
into savings for our customers."
    The utility said it projects the financing could reduce the
amount of annual revenue needed by about 20 mln dlrs. It plans
on filing a rate application with the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio to recover the Perry costs later this year.
    It said the sale and leaseback was attractive to the
investors because they could take quicker advantage of tax
benefits than the utility could.
 Reuter

Stearns Catalytic unit it will proceed with construction and
pre-production stripping at its Sunbeam Mine in Custer County,
Idaho, as quickly as possible.
3,302,000 short tons grading 0.077 ounce of gold per ton. It
    It said the feasibility study calls for gold production
averaging 41,000 ounces a year for the life of the mine and
50,000 ounces a year over the first three years, with 99,000
ounces of silver per year being produced over the mine life.
and 500,000 to one mln dlrs less with used equipment, the firm
said. It said the mine would be operated by a contract miner
but the associated mill by Geodome.
gold and 2.1 ounces of silver per ton.
    Also excluded are reserves of 1,400,000 tons of low-grade
material that could be milled profitably at 425 dlrs a ton for
gold. The feasibility study used a 350 dlr gold price.
 Reuter

<Qintex Ltd> of Brisbane said it has
arranged for a leading Australian financial institution it did
not name to provide Princeville Development Corp with the
letter of credit required by the terms of Qintex's proposed
acquisition of Princeville.
    The company also said through yesterday, when its tender
offer for 3,300,000 Princeville shares was to have expired, it
had received over seven mln Princeville shares in the bid,
which has been extended until March 23 at 1800 EST.
    Qintex said the letter of credit is to insure payment of
Princeville's contingent subordinated notes that would be
distributed to shareholders of record on the date immediately
following completion of the tender offer.
    The company said it believes the conditions of the
commitment letter will be satisfactory to Princeville.  It said
Princeville had previously held talks with a financial
institution on obtaining a letter of credit but was unable to
reach mutually acceptable terms.
 Reuter

Stanley Interiors Corp said
its first quarter shipments and operating income were lower
than expected due to snowstorms in January and February that
forced the closing of some of its manufacturing facilities for
up to six days.
    Stanley said, however, that any reduction in first quarter
operating income will be offset by reduced interest expense and
that first quarter net income will be about flat with first
quarter 1986 net income of 14 cts a share, or 286,000 dlrs.
    Stanely also said the first quarter's sales losses would be
made up by shipments in the second quarter.
 Reuter

Wyman-Gordon Inc said it plans
to invest 11.7 mln dlrs in two projects to improve the
company's metals technology capabilities.
    The projects include the installation of a plasma cold
hearth refining system in its Millbury facility for the
production of nickel-base alloy power metal and titanium alloy
electrodes, the company said.
    The other involves the modification of its 35,000-ton
hydraulic forging press, Wyman-Gordon said.
    Both projects are scheduled for completion in 1989, the
 Reuter

<Discovery West Corp> said it plans to
sell convertible subordinated notes in a principal amount of
between four mln and seven mln dlrs by way of a private
placement through First Marathon Securities Ltd.
    Discovery West said the notes will be convertible into
eight pct convertible subordinated debentures, which in turn
will be convertible into common shares at a price of two dlrs a
share.
    It said it expects to complete the note sale on April nine
and plans to use up to five mln dlrs of proceeds to buy
convertible notes of <Rayrock Yellowknife Resources Inc>.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc said it
reached an agreement yesterday in federal court with USAir
Group Inc that prevents TWA from buying additional shares of
USAir.
    Under the agreement, TWA, which holds about 15 pct of USAir
stock, will not buy more USAir shares before April 23 and will
not do so after that date without giving 14 days notice to
USAir.
    TWA also agreed that it would not knowingly and willingly
interfere with the consummation of the merger between USAir and
Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>.
    TWA said the court agreement confirms previous
announcements by the company, in filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, that it does not presently intend to
seek control of USAir or to acquire additional common stock.
    As a result of the agreement, the court removed a previous
temporary restraining order against TWA, the company said.
    TWA and USAir have also agreed that all litigation between
them in Pittsburgh and Delaware will be stayed until April 23.
TWA said the agreement does not prevent it from commenting to
regulatory agencies on the USAir, Piedmont merger.
    In a separate statement, USAir said the agreement also
included a provision that all USAir shares currently owned by
TWA and its chairman, Carl Icahn, will be voted through a
voting trust in proportion to the votes of other shares not
controlled by TWA or Icahn.
 Reuter

that over the long-term the tax reform bill and lower marginal
tax rates should increase compliance with the tax law and bring
in additional revenue.
    In testimony before a senate appropriations subcommittee
Baker said no savings in the Treasury's budgetary requirements
wil be achieved in the short-run by the new tax law.
    "The tax changes occurring in 1987 and 1988 under tax reform
will not directly effect IRS enforcement activities until
financial year 1989 and 1990."
    He told the subcommittee that the Treasury's objective was
to strengthen the capability of the Internal Revenue Service to
promote tax compliance and generate revenue.
    He said they were seeking funds to increase staffing to
reduce the backlog of delinquent tax accounts, reducing pending
tax litigation cases under appeal, and resolving unreported
income cases disclosed through a program that matches third
party documents to returns.
    "This request will continue our effort to build a stronger
and more credible deterrent against non-compliance with tax
laws," he said.
    Baker also told the subcommittee that the administration
would continue the efforts to improve the management of the
government's cash and credit, and its financial information.
     In addition a policy of full reimbursement to Federal
Reserve Banks for the fiscal agent services they provide in
marketing and maintaining Treasury securities will be
continued.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it had given
the money market a further 186 mln stg assistance in the
today to 945 mln stg and compares with its revised forecast of
a one billion stg deficit.
    The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising 51
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 135 mln stg in band two at
 REUTER

<Rayrock Yellowknife Resources Inc>
said it plans to sell 24 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated
notes by way of a private placement through First Marathon
Securities Ltd.
    The notes will be convertible into 7.5 pct convertible
subordinated debentures, which in turn will be convertible into
2.4 mln subordinate voting shares of the company.
    Rayrock said it expects to complete the note sale on April
nine. The sale is subject to regulatory approvals.
             
 Reuter

Stanley Interiors Corp said it filed
statement covering a 30 mln dlr issue of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012, plus an additional 4.5 mln
dlrs of the securities to cover over-allotments.
    Proceeds will be used to repay in full the company's
indebtedness under a revolving credit agreement, and to reduce
other bank debt, Stanley said.
    The company said Salomon Brothers Inc, First Albany Corp
and Wheat, First Securities Inc would underwrite the offering.
 Reuter

Asamera Inc said it has agreed for
Merrill Lynch and Co Inc's <MER> Merrill Lynch Canada Inc
subsidiary to offer three mln Asamera common shares at 13.625
Canadian dlrs each, subject to all necessary U.S. and Canadian
 Reuter

Mthly div 16-1/2 cts vs 16-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

A  teachers' strike has spread
from Lusaka to the whole of Zambia, and a walkout by nurses has
virtually paralyzed hospitals in the northern Copperbelt, the
state-owned Zambia Daily Mail newspaper said today.
    The teachers and nurses are demanding hefty pay raises,
including a 50 pct increase in basic salary. But their strike
action is unofficial, and the government has condemned the
stoppages, warning that they could lead to violence.
    The strikes broke out only three months after food riots in
the Copperbelt last December, which left 15 people dead.
    The stoppages began on Wednesday when 1,000 teachers in
Lusaka and 200 nurses in the northern town of Kitwe decided to
walk out in support of pay demands.
 Reuter

American Motors Corp's board of
directors is meeting this morning in New York to consider
Chrysler Corp's <C> 1.5 billion dlr takeover offer, an American
Motors spokesman said.
    The spokesman reiterated statements made earlier in the
week that the regularly scheduled meeting was being held.
    The spokesman would not comment on recurring speculation
that the board might receive a higher offer from Chrysler.
Analysts have said the fact that American Motors' stock has
remained above the four dlrs a share Chrysler offer could lead
the larger company to raise its bid.
    The American Motors spokesman said he had not seen any
indication that a higher offer would be received from Chrysler,
although he added, "I don't know what the conversation is in
the meeting."
    He repeated statements made earlier in the week by the
automaker that today's meeting will probably not result in a
final decision on the Chrysler bid.
    "The board first apprised the proposal on the 11th (of
March). I suspect there will be several more (meetings) after
this," the spokesman said.
    The meeting is expected to go through early afternoon.
 Reuter

joined attacks on a controversial wage freeze in Yugoslavia.
council, said last night the government would be responsible
for the effects of the law imposing the wage freeze. The law,
enacted February 27 and remaining in force until July 1,
reimposed wage levels of the last quarter of 1986. Future pay
raises were pegged to productivity. The move triggered
resentment and widespread industrial unrest.
strike in Belgrade. The government has officially reported 70
strikes throughout the country, although Yugoslav newspapers
have hinted at more.
 Reuter

Australian Treasurer Paul Keating said
he expects the country's 1986/87 current account deficit to be
one billion dlrs lower than the 14.7 billion forecast in the
August budget. Keating told a financiers' dinner that
February's 750 mln dlr deficit, against January's 1.23 billion,
was "in the groove" of the government's expectations.
    "We will probably bring the current account this year under
14 billion, I think, which will probably be about a billion
dollars less than we forecast in the budget," Keating said. "I am
sure we will see a lower current account deficit for next year
... And a fall as proportion of GDP."
    Australia posted a 13.82 billion dlr current account
deficit in 1985/86 and Keating said the latest monthly figures
showed an encouraging trend.
    Keating said the government would maintain responsible
economic management regardless of whether it was drawn into an
election, because it would take time to stabilise Australia's
80 billion dlr foreign debt.
    "We have to build the import competing sector back," he said.
"We are now trying to rebuild our capital structure. We are
trying to rebuild the culture of productivity and
manufacturing."
    Keating said the foundation for a transition of the economy
had been laid with the floating of the Australian dollar and
continued with wage restraint and deregulation.
    The Government would follow with spending cuts in its
economic statement on May 14, he said.
 REUTER

Sharp price hikes for food and fuel
planned by the government could provoke an open confrontation
with workers and endanger Poland's fragile post-Solidarity
stability, a government trade union leader has warned.
    Romuald Sosnowski, deputy chairman of the national trade
union alliance OPZZ, said the unions' strong rejection of the
increases yesterday was prompted by the hostility of lower-paid
workers.
    The authorities told the OPZZ on Tuesday that food prices
would rise by an average of 13 pct but ncreases for fuels --
including electricity and gas -- would be much higher.
    They said wage increases would be limited to 12 pct in 1987
and that employers who breached the ceiling would be punished
through additional taxes.
 Reuter

Swank Inc said it knows of no
corporate development to account for the volume of activity in
its stock yesterday and can only assume institutional trading
was the cause.
    In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday,
Swank stock rose 7/8 to 15-3/4 on volume of 104,700 shares.
 Reuter

Guilford Mills Inc is raising 75 mln
stock at 44.25 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.08
    Non-callable for two years, the debt is rated Ba-1 by
Moody's and BBB-minus by Standard and Poor's. The issue was
increased from an initial offering of 60 mln dlrs because of
 Reuter

Marine Midland Banks Inc is offering
125 mln dlrs of subordinated capital notes due 1997 yielding
8.66 pct, said lead manager First Boston Corp.
    The notes have an 8-5/8 pct coupon and were priced at 99.80
to yield 145 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated A-3 by Moody's
and A by Standard and Poor's. Merrill Lynch and Salomon
Brothers co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

A Portuguese official today said no more
problems remained in settling the future of Macao, and China's
Foreign Ministry said an "important announcement" would be made
at the end of talks on the tiny territory.
    A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, indicating the two
countries were close to agreement on the handover of Macao to
Peking, told journalists: "The talks are still in progress. When
they end, there will be an important announcement."
    Portuguese Ambassador to China Octavio Valerio said there
would be no formal talks over the weekend, but chief Portuguese
negotiator Rui Medina said earlier he would have contacts later
today with his Chinese counterpart Zhou Nan. Valerio said the
next formal talks would be Monday. "It will be the last one and
we hope there will be a communique."
 Reuter

in a newspaper interview that he supports the current course of
Federal Reserve Board monetary policy.
    "The course of Fed policy is quite adequate as far as we are
concerned," Baker said in an interview with the New York Times.
    In the interview, Baker declined to comment about the
recent Paris accord among the six leading industrialized
democracies when he was asked why the U.S. agreed to stabilize
the dollar at current levels when the trade deficit hit a
record level last year.
    Baker said in the newspaper interview that it was "a subject
I prefer not to talk about."
    He said that if he explained why the U.S. agreed to help
maintain the dollar at current levels "I would of necessity end
up getting into some of the private agreements that support
such and agreement" on the dollar.
    Baker was optimistic about Brazil, which has stopped
interest payments on much of its outstanding debt with foreign
    "They are, after all, paying on time all the debt service
and principal on their official debts, having just rescheduled
with the Paris Club," Baker said in the newspaper interview.
    Baker said that Brazilian repreentatives had explained they
intented to pay their commercial bank debts in full but needed
time.
 Reuter

Universal Resources Corp said it
is holding a special shareholders meeting this morning to vote
on the previously-proposed merger between it and Questar Corp
<STR>.
    Universal, whose stock was delayed this morning on the
American Stock Exchange, said it will release a statement later
in the day on the vote.
 Reuter

Sonex Research Inc said its
modified 1986 British Ford Escort passed the European emissions
test, but reported the engine consumed 35 pct more fuel than
the stock engine.
    Sonex said its engine is not equipped with a catalytic
converter and does not use exhaust gas recirculation or an
emission air pump. It said the company expected to realize a
reduced fuel economy, but is working on improving fuel
    The company said after it installs the new fuel system, it
will retest the automobile.
    In a separate announcement, the company said it received
confirmation from the European Patent Office that Sonex
successfully defended its BETA European Patent from a
competitor.
 Reuter

Louisiana Pacific Corp has
agreed to pay 3,475,000 dlrs for the bankrupt Harris Pine
Sawmill in Pendleton, Ore., the mill's bankruptcy trustee said.
    Louisiana Pacific refused to indicate whether it would
repoen the lumber mill which was closed after the sawmill owned
by the Seventh Day Adventist Church filed a bankruptcy petition
in Portland federal court in December.
    The trustee said the company outbid WTD Industries Inc for
the lumber mill, harvested logs and contracts to harvest timber
in the national forest. It outbidhell bankruptcy trustee said.
   
 Reuter

<International Pagurian Corp Ltd> said
it had net profit of 3.3 mln dlrs or three cts a share for the
period August 15 to December 31, 1986, based on 55.2 mln shares
    Revenues for the full year ended December 31, 1986 were 5.5
mln dlrs and net assets at year end were 317.5 mln dlrs.
    The company did not disclose earnings for the 1986 period
before August 15 or prior year results. A company spokesman
said prior results were not comparable due to its August 15
issue of 30 mln common shares.
 Reuter

South African year-on-year broadly
defined M-3 money supply growth slowed to 8.62 pct in January
from 9.32 pct in December, Reserve Bank figures show.
    M-3 fell to 77.98 billion rand in January from 79.31
billion in December, while preliminary February figures show
M-3 at 79.42 billion rand for a year-on-year rise of 10.63 pct.
    M-2 showed a rise of 5.09 pct for January at 55.68 billion
rand after 4.30 pct in December, M-1 16.72 pct at 5.12 billion
after 12.80 pct and M-1A 22.79 pct at 14.30 billion rand after
20.54 pct.
 REUTER

ERC International Inc said it has
received a three-year 17 mln dlr U.S. Navyt contract to provide
engineering, technical and administrative support sevices on
weapons systems, subsystems and associated management, manpower
and support systems.
 Reuter

    Net loss 469,000 vs loss 1,104,000
    Revs 3,093,000 vs 3,056,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 19 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 1,098,000 vs 1,646,000
    Revs 9,562,000 vs 12.2 mln
 Reuter

<Majestic Electronic Stores Inc> said
it intends to make a normal course issuer bid to purchase up to
five pct of its 5.2 mln outstanding common shares on the open
market during the 12 month period commencing April 13, 1987.
    The company said the purpose of the proposed issuer bid is
to avoid possible dilution of share value under a proposed
employee stock option plan.
    Majestic expects to have its employee stock option plan in
place during the year, it said.
 Reuter

First Federal Bank FSB said it has
entered into a letter of intent to merge into BankEast Corp for
60 dlrs per First Federal share in BankEast common stock.
    First Federal said, subject to certain adjustments,
including First Federal's earnings prior to the close of the
deal, each share of its common stock shall not be converted
into less than 2.9 shares or more than 3.5 shares of BankEast
common.
    First Federal said the proposed move is also subject to
execution of a definitive agreement, regulatory approval and
the approval of First Federal shareholders.
 Reuter

Illinois Tool Works Inc said it
completed the sale of its Drill and End Mill division, Pine
Bluff, Arkansas and Eclipse Counterbore division, Detroit, to
newly-formed Eclipse Industrial Pruducts Inc, based in St.
Louis.  Terms were not disclosed.
    All employees at both locations will be retained, it added.
 Reuter

<KDNY> said holders of 431,093 shares of its callable
cumulative convertible preferred of the 499,500 outstanding
were exercised their conversion right prior to the end of the
company's offer of 2.2 common shares for each preferred.
    It said holders of the remaining preferred have the option
of converting their stock for two common shares until March 5,
1988.
    The company said conversion of the preferred will result in
annual dividend savings of 431,093 dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 2-1/2 cts vs 2-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May One
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding
Corp said its will offer a total of 1.7 billion dlrs worth of
bonds on March 25.
    The package includes 540 mln dlrs of three-month bonds and
1.17 billion dlrs of six-month bonds. The issues will be dated
and delivered on April 1.
     The system has 1.6 billion dlrs of bonds maturing on that
date.
 Reuter

Gulf Canada Corp said a
discharge of material at its Amauligak drilling site in the
Beaufort Sea caused no danger to the environment.
    Yesterday, the federal department of energy charged Gulf
Canada with eight counts of illegal dumping for discharging
powdered cement and drilling mud between September 23 and 30
last year.
    The charges carry a maximum 50,000 dlr fine on each count.
    Gulf said the government's charges relate to discharging
materials without a permit, not to environmental damage
resulting from the action.
    Gulf said it voluntarily informed appropriate government
officials when the material was discharged.
    The company also said none of the material was discharged
within 12 miles of the closest shoreline. It added that one of
the materials cited, barite, is a naturally occurring mineral
routinely discharged into the sea during drilling operations.
 Reuter

will raise income taxes and its small business corporate tax to
reduce the provincial budget deficit while continuing social
programs, finance minister Mel Couvelier said.
     He said the province will reduce its budget deficit to 850
mln Canadian dlrs in 1987-88 from the current year's 1.17
    Total spending is budgeted at 10.22 billion dlrs, a 4.8 pct
rise over the current year, while revenues are expected to
increase by 9.2 pct to 9.37 billion dlrs.

Year to September 30, 1986
    Domestic group net profit 69.9 mln marks vs 61.4 mln.
    Parent net profit 53.6 mln vs 43.8 mln.
    Dividend six marks vs same.
    Parent payment to disclosed reserves 20 mln vs 15 mln.
 REUTER

Pubco Corp said its board declared a
dividend distribution of one common stock purchase right on
each outstanding share of Pubco's common stock.
    It said each right will entitle shareholders to buy one
share of common stock at an exercise price of three dlrs.
    The rights will be exercisable only if a person or group
acquires 20 pct or more of Pubco's common stock or announces a
tender which would result in ownership by a person or group of
20 pct or more of the common stock, the company said.
    Pubco said it will be entitled to redeem the rights at 0.1
cts per right at any time before a 20 pct position has been
acquired and afterward in certain circumstances. It said the
exercise price will be substantially reduced in the event of an
acquisition of 25 pct or more of common stock.
    If Pubco is acquired in a merger or other transaction, each
right will entitle its holder to purchase, at the right's
then-current exercise price, a number of the acquiring
company's common shares having a market value at that time of
twice the right's exercise price, the company said.
    The dividend distribution will be made March 31, 1987,
payable to shareholders of record on that date. The rights will
expire ten years later on March 31, 1987, the company said.
    Pubco said the rights are not being distributed in response
to any specific effort to change control of Pubco, and the
board is not aware of any such effort.
 Reuter

Chicago Pacific Corp said it received
about 40 mln dlrs in cash from a surplus in the pension fund of
Hoover Plc, its U.K. subsidiary.
    As part of an agreement to refund the amount to the
company, Hoover employee and pensioner benefits have been
significantly enhanced, the company's annual report shows.
    In addition, Chicago Pacific said the remaining 110 mln
dlrs surplus funds will be kept in the Hoover pension fund and
will be invested so that the proceeds will eliminate or reduce
required future pension contributions for Hoover and its
employees as of December 31, 1986, it said.
    The 110 mln dlrs remaining surplus is reported as a
"restricted long-term investment" under current purchase
accounting requirements, according to the report.
    The settlement assures employees that their retirement
benefits will be adequately funded and provides for future
funding from the income received on this investment, it said.
 Reuter

Tech Data Corp said its board
declared a three-for-two stock split, payable April 30 to
holders of record April 1.
 Reuter

Comstock Group Inc said John
Halecky Jr resigned his posts of chief financial officer,
executive vice president and director.
    Frank MacInnis, vice president and director, was named as
the new chief financial officer, the company said.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER REITERATES OPPOSITION TO CLOSING NON-BANK BANK LOOPHOLE

Vertex Industries Inc and
<Computer Transceiver Systems Inc> jointly announced an
agreement for Vertex to acquire a 60 pct interest in Computer
after it completes a proposed reorganization.
    Computer has been in reorganization proceedings under
chapter 11 since September 1986.
    The companies said the agreement would allow Computer's
unsecured creditors and debenture holders to receive new stock
in exchange for exsiting debt, and for shareholders to receive
one new share of Computer's stock for each four shares
previously held.
   
    The companies said the United States Bankruptcy court for
the Southern District of New York has given preliminary
approval for the proposal, which is subject to formal approval
by Computer's creditors and the court.
    Under the agreement, Vertex also said it would supply
Computer with 250,000 dlrs of operating funds, and arrange
renegotiation of its secured bank debt, among other things.
 Reuter

Rent-A-Center Inc said its
directors approved a three-for-two stock split payable April
20, record April 3.
 Reuter

the administration still opposes Senate Banking Committee
legislation that would close a key loophole in federal bankinng
law.
    The loophole has spawned a proliferation of limited service
banks known as non-bank banks that can engage in risky
activities barred to traditional banks.
    Baker has been asked to support the legislation by Banking
Chairman William Proxmire (D-Wisc).
    Proxmire's panel approved closing the loophole in a bill
recapitalizing the thrift insurance fund.
    Baker said the administration supports moving a bill
through Congress that would address only the recapitalization
issue, for fear such "collateral provisions" as the
loophole-closing measure would stall the bill.
    Proxmire later told reporters he backs the committee bill
with or without administration support.
    "I'm going to push it through in any event," he said.
    The administration also opposes the committee bill on
grounds it bars new banking powers.
    The administration is a long time backer of banking
 Reuter

USACafes LP said its board declared a
quarterly dividend of 20 cts per unit -- its first since
converting to a limited partnership.
    The company, as USACafes Inc, had paid a quarterly dividend
of nine cts per share.
    It said the restructuring as a partnership has
substantially increased the cash available for distribution to
unitholders, as it had predicted.
 Reuter

Atari Corp said it filed with the
    Proceeds will be used to expand the company's business
through capital expenditures and acquisitions and for general
corporate purposes, Atari said.
    The company named PaineWebber Inc as lead underwriter of
 Reuter

<Cooper Canada Ltd> said it has
received takeover offers from "a number of companies."
    The company also said that "discussions are continuing, but
no definitive arrangements have been made."
 Reuter

BPI Systems Inc said it
introduced an enhanced version of its Entry series general
accounting software, Version C.14,  that includes budgeting,
more printing options and additional features.
    The company also said it introduced an accounting software
package, Entry one, that sells for 89 dlrs.
 Reuter

Grain analysts surveyed by the American
Soybean Association, ASA, projected acreage this year at 59.1
mln acres of soybeans and 64.7 mln acres of corn.
    In 1986, farmers planted 61.5 mln acres of soybeans and
76.7 mln acres of corn, according to the February 9 USDA
supply/demand report. The USDA is to release its 1987 planting
intentions report March 31.
    The survey included 15 soybean estimates and 13 corn
estimates and was released in the March 16 Soybean Update
newsletter sent to members.
    Estimates ranged from 56.0 mln to 63.0 mln acres of
soybeans and 59.5 mln to 68.0 mln acres of corn.
    An ASA spokesman said the association plans no survey of
farmers' planting intentions this year.
 Reuter

<ACS Systems Inc> said it has
completed an initial public offering of 1,722,655 units,
consisting of one common share and one warrant per unit.
    ACS said two warrants entitle a holder to purchase one
share of common stock at 1.50 dlrs a share, exercisable 90 days
from the effective date for a 36 month period.
    The company said total gross proceeds from the offering
were 1,722,655 dlrs and will be used for general corporate
purposes.
    ACS said the units, shares and warrants currently are
traded over-the-counter, but the company will apply to list
them on the NASDAQ system in the next few days.
 Reuter

Mthly div 14.248 cts vs 4.912 cts prior
 Reuter

AMAX Inc said it has filed for
an offering of 15,757,350 common shares, including 757,300 to
be sold by Mitsui and Co Ltd <MITSY>.
    AMAX said it will offer 12,607,350 shares in the U.S.
through underwriters led by First Boston Inc <FBC>, along with
American Express Co's <AXP> Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc
subsidiary, <Goldman, Sachs and Co> and Merrill Lynch and Co
Inc <MER>.
    Remaining shares will be sold outside the U.S. through
underwriters led by First Boston's Credit Suisse First Boston
Ltd affiliate, Shearson, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
    AMAX said it will use its proceeds to reduce revolving
credit debt and repurchase or repay from time to time other
debt.
 Reuter

Illinois Regional Bancorp said
it is evaluating whether to affiliate with a larger bank
holding company or continue to remain independent.
    The 500 mln dlr-asset bank holding company said that in
view of recent investor interest in suburban Chicago banks, it
retained Merrill Lynch Capital markets to advise it on its
    Last year, Illinois Regional had discussions with
Milwaukee-based Marine Corp <MCRP> but no agreement was
reached, a company spokesman said.
 Reuter

Morgan Guaranty Ltd, through a special
financing subsidiary, said it is issuing the first repackaging
of perpetual floating rate notes, consisting of a repackaging
of an outstanding WestPac Banking Corp security.
    Trading in perpetual floating rate notes, about 17 billion
dlrs of which are outstanding, has come to a virtual halt as
prices plunged. Because the securities never mature, there is
no way to price them properly unless there is a liquid two-way
market for them.
    Investors have been stuck with billions of dollars of notes
on their books that no one else will buy.
    Under terms of the offer, Morgan said it has set up a
special-purpose financing company, Pacific Securities Co Ltd,
which will issue two separate securities. The unit becomes the
holder of 200 mln dlrs of Westpac floating rate notes.
    Morgan officials declined to disclose the level at which
Pacific  purchased the Westpac securities, although in late
February, they were quoted at 85 against an issue price of par.
    Pacific Securities will issue two instruments. The first is
a floating rate bond due March 29, 2002. The bond pays interest
at 50 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate.
    While the initial Westpac issue offered investors only 15
basis points over LIBOR, Morgan Guaranty said WestPac has
agreed with Pacific Securities that it will pay investors the
remaining 35 basis points.
    Also, WestPac has agreed to redeem to floating rate notes
after 15 years.
    The other portion of the security consists of a zero-coupon
bond, also maturing at 2002, for which the investor pays 20
cents on the dollar. Morgan officials said that by 2002, the
effective yield will be a 20 pct return.
    However, Morgan officials said, holders of the zero-coupon
bonds will not be paid in cash when the securities mature.
    Instead, they will be paid in an equivalent amount of
zero-coupon Westpac perpetual floating rate notes.
    As part of the agreement, Pacific Securities has agreed to
place proceeds of the sale of the new securities on deposit at
WestPac and earnings from the deposit will be used to subsidise
the payment of the additional interest to investors.
    Also as part of the issue, there is an option for issuance
of a 70 mln dlr tap to be offered the following year.
    The tap will consist of 70 mln dlrs in floating rate notes
paying and an additional equivalent amount of zero coupon bonds
also at a deep discount of 20 cents on the dollar.
    Fees consist of a one pct selling concession and 0.50 pct
combined underwriting and management.
    Westpac itself has agreed to be co-lead manager of both
tranches and two small syndicates are being formed, Morgan
Guaranty said.
 REUTER

Treasury Secretary James Baker told
a Senate Appropriations subcommittee there is still lots of
room for improvement in government programs to crack down on
tax cheating.
    "I think we're far from the point at which we reach
saturation," Baker said when asked at what point additional
efforts to catch cheating become fruitless.
    He said Internal Revenue Service efforts would raise a
projected 41 billion dlrs in fiscal 1988 compared to 18 billion
dlrs in 1981.
    "So we are increasing," Baker said.
 Reuter

Sheldahl Inc said its
directors approved a three-for-two stock split, payable April
24, record April 3.
 Reuter

Hechinger Co is raising 125 mln dlrs
through an offering of convertible subordinated debentures due
2012 with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole
underwriter Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
stock at 27.84 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 28 pct
    Non-callable for two years, the debt is rated Baa-3 by
Moody's and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's. The issue was
increased from an initial offering of 100 mln dlrs. Earlier
this week, Moody's and S and P upgraded the company's debt.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Bank of Finland said it has
started dealings in banks' certificates of deposits (CDs) with
immediate effect and that it was prepared to issue its own
paper to stimulate operations on the domestic money market.
    Bank of Finland Governor Rolf Kullberg told a news
conference the Bank will also limit credits on the call money
market from March 30, 1987, by introducing a maximum credit
amount and a penalty rate if banks exceed this ceiling.
    "The recent introduction of three-month money and these new
regulations are decreasing the role of the call money market
and the discount rate as monetary instruments," Kullberg said.
    Bankers welcomed the central bank measures saying these
were needed to accelerate the domestic money market. The Bank
of Finland had never before been allowed to issue its own CDs,
they said.
    "The central bank for the first time has an instrument with
which it really can influence the price of money in this
country," one banker said.
    Under the new rules banks are limited to call money credits
to a maximum of 7.5 pct of the total of their equity capital
and cash reserves. A penalty rate of interest of 19 pct is now
introduced if the limit is exceeded.
    Director Sixten Korkman at the Bank of Finland's monetary
department said he expected the bank to pursue an active policy
on the interbank market as an issuer of own-CDs.
    "We are free to do it, so maybe on Monday we will issue the
first, just to see how the system functions. Overall I think we
will issue at least a few times a week," Korkman told Reuters.
    He said the bank was likely to aim at CDs with a
three-month maturity at first as the market was best developed
for paper of that maturity.
    The Bank of Finland introduced last December three-month
credits and deposits at rates determined by the central bank
and the commercial banks as a shift away from the traditional
overnight call money market.
    Liquidity on the call credit market has fallen from around
nine billion markka in early December to 167 mln last week,
while three-month credits have risen to three to four billion.
    On the interbank market there has been an increasing trade
in banks' CDs, estimated to be some eight billion markka. In
addition, commercial paper accounts for around five billion
markka and Treasury Bills two billion.
 REUTER

Denmark is issuing a 200 mln ECU
eurobond due April 23, 1992 paying 7-1/4 pct and priced at
101-3/8 pct, lead manager Morgan Stanley International said.
    The bond is available in denominations of 1,000, 10,000 and
250,000 ECU and will be listed in Luxembourg.
management and underwriting. Payment date is April 23.
 REUTER

Japan will liberalize rules
restricting their financial institutions' ability to trade
foreign financial futures contracts within the next two years,
Leo Melamed, director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's,
CME's, executive committee, said.
    Melamed, also the head of Dellsher Investment Co Inc, told
a press conference yesterday at the Futures Industry
Association convention that within the next year or two the
Japanese government is "going to lift the curtain on their
community of users" of futures markets.
    Currently, government restrictions prevent Japanese
citizens from trading futures or options contracts off-shore
and converting the profits back into yen, according to Richard
Heckinger, CME's vice president for international marketing.
    In addition, Japanese are not allowed to convert yen into
dollars for the purpose of trading futures contracts overseas,
he said.
    Melamed predicted the Nikkei stock average index future --
a price-weighted index future based on 225 Tokyo Stock Exchange
issues which is traded on the Singapore International Monetary
Exchange and mutually offset at the CME -- would do much better
if Japanese financial institutions were able to use it.
    CME is waiting for approval from the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission to begin trading the Nikkei stock index
future in Chicago.
    "We will not do as well with that contract until or unless
the Japanese community, financial institutions, can utilize it
in Chicago," Melamed said.
    Melamed and Heckinger said they had no firm evidence that
Tokyo would liberalize futures trading rules, but sensed from
Japanese inquiries and visits a readiness to change.
    Next month, the CME is to open a Tokyo office to strengthen
the exchange's link to Japan.
    The managing director of the office will be Takeo Arakawa,
formerly of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Tokyo.
    Melamed said he hoped Arakawa would help the CME maintain a
competitive edge when Japan launches financial futures trading.
    Next month the Osaka exchange is set to begin trading a
stock index future, Heckinger said.
    "We are not going to let them (the Japanese) do what they
did to the American automobile industry. We want to be partners
with them," Melamed said.
 Reuter

A trading link between the
Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, and the London International
Financial Futures Exchange, LIFFE, should be in operation by
the beginning of next year, CBT Chairman Karsten Mahlmann said.
    "It could be the end of this year or the beginning of next
year that the linkage could become operational," Mahlmann told
the Futures Industry Association.
    The two exchanges signed a memorandum of understanding on
February 9 calling for the eventual establishment of a mutual
offset clearing system that would allow traders to initiate
positions on one exchange and liquidate them on the other.
    Mahlmann said the contracts involved in the link could
include British gilts, Eurobonds, Japanese government bonds,
foreign currencies and the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100
stock index.
 Reuter

February cargo ton miles tose 33.9 pct to 4,419,923 from
3,299,686 a year earlier.
    It said year-to-date cargo ton miles rose 26.5 pct to
8,504,918 from 6,720,440 a year before.
 Reuter

Carteret Savings Bank said it
has completed the previously announced sale of six Virginia
branches to Charter Federal Savings and Loan Association
<CHFD>.
    Carteret said it has opened a retail banking office in
Vienna, Va., as the next step in its move to build a strong
presence in the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Md., area.
    Carteret said the new bank has two offices outside
Baltimore, which were acquired last June when Carteret merged
with Admiral Builders Savings and Loan Association.
    The company said it plans to open a retail banking office
in downtown Washington this summer, plus several more offices
in Baltimore County and others in Fairfax County, Va. Carteret
said it may open more loan offices in Virginia and Maryland.
 Reuter

reserves indirectly via 1.5-2.0 billion dlrs of customer
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.06 pct yesterday, opened at
6-1/16 pct and remained there in early trading.
 Reuter

On-Line Software International Inc is
raising 40 mln dlrs through an offering of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2002 with a 6-1/4 pct coupon and
par pricing, said lead manager Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
stock at 27.61 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.5
Moody's and CCC-plus by Standard and Poor's. Donaldson Lufkin
offering of 30 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER OPPOSES NEW TAX ON SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS

he opposes a new tax on securities transactions.
    "No," he said when asked by a reporter whether he favored
such a tax, which has been advocated by House Speaker James
Wright (D-Tex).
    He added, "Not unless you want to tax a whole bunch of
little security holders, which is not a good idea."
 Reuter

The stock of McDonald's Corp rose
sharply this morning after analyst Daniel Lee of Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc reiterated his recommendation of the stock, traders
said.
    McDonald's, an operator of fast food restaurants, rose
1-5/8 to 77-3/8.
    "Comparable store sales are up 5.6 pct in 1986 vs 1985,"
Lee said, "and the stock is trading below the market multiple."
He said "not many companies have a consistent 15 pct annual
earnings growth rate, return on equity above 20 pct, but trade
at less than the market multiple."
    Analyst Lee said "the introduction of a new line of salads
this spring, at about the time we are all trying to squeeze
into bathing suits, should boost sales."
    He also noted that "the average McDonald's does about 1.369
mln dlrs in revenues a year. That compares with 1.1 mln dlrs a
year for the average Burger King and 800,000 dlrs a year for
the average Wendy's." Since it cost about the same to build a
single store for any one of these chains, he said, "McDonald's
can well justify their expansion."
    Lee expects McDonald's to earn 4.40 dlrs a share in 1986
and 5.15 dlrs in 1988. Last year it earned 3.72 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Oper shr 14 cts vs four cts
    Oper net 2,959,000 vs 1,103,000
    Sales 22.5 mln vs 25.2 mln
    Note: oper data does not include extraordinary gains of
3,686,000 dlrs, or 17 cts per shr, in current quarter and
975,000 dlrs, or eight cts per shr, in year ago quarter from
sales of certain marketable securities.
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> has agreed to cut acid
rain emissions by 50 pct at its Quebec copper smelter by 1990
with the federal and Quebec governments each providing 41.6 mln
dlrs towards the cost, the federal industry department said.
    Under an agreement, Noranda will also be required to 
41.6 mln Canadian dlrs and cover operating costs of the
proposed 125 mln dlr sulphuric acid plant.
    The department said the agreement will allow Noranda to
meet polutions standards in Quebec's new environmental
regulations passed in 1985.
 Reuter

American Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Colorado said its board cut the quarterly
dividend to 7-1/2 cts per share from 15 cts.
    The dividend is payable April 14 to holders of record March
31.
    The company said earnings will continue under pressure this
year due to the weakness of the Colorado economy and a high
level of nonearning assets.
 Reuter

Shr 4.50 dlrs vs 4.30 dlrs
    Net 637.4 mln vs 588.5 mln
    Revs 3.95 billion vs 4.10 billion
    Avg shrs 141.7 mln vs 136.9 mln
 Reuter

Holiday Rambler Corp, a unit of
Harley-Davidson Inc, said it filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission a registration statement covering a 70 mln
dlr issue of subordinated notes due 1997.
    Proceeds will be used to repay 60 mln dlrs of debt. The
remainder will be applied toward reducing any outstanding
borrowings under the company's revolving credit loan agreement
and for working capital, Holiday Rambler said.
    The company named Dean Witter Reynolds Inc as sole
 Reuter

    Net 528,000 vs 374,000
    Year
    Shr 1.25 dlrs vs 42 cts
    Net 2,853,000 vs 1,579,000
    Revs 55.3 mln vs 46.8 mln
 Reuter

Enviropact Inc said it has signed a
letter of intent to acquire Willms Trucking Co Inc for about
12.5 mln dlrs, with completion expected in 45 days.
    In the year ended September 30, Willms had revenues of
about 15 mln dlrs.  It transports hazardous waste, sand and
gravel.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 23 cts vs profit 16 cts
    Oper loss 1,868,000 vs profit 1,293,000
    Revs 183,000 vs 3,400,000
    Note: Oper data does not include year ago extraordinary
gain of 750,000 dlrs, or nine cts per shr.
 Reuter

Mexican officials and representatives
of about 360 creditor banks worldwide started to sign
agreements for 7.7 billion dlrs in new loans, Citibank said as
co-chairman of Mexico's bank advisory committee.
    The package, which was agreed in principle with the
committee last October 16, is built on a core loan of six
billion dlrs, of which five billion dlrs will be lent for 12
years with five years' grace.
    The remaining one billion dlrs is in the form of a
co-financing with the World Bank, which will guarantee 500 mln
dlrs. This loan is for 15 years with nine years' grace.
    The package also includes two contingency facilities
totalling 1.7 billion dlrs.
    One is a growth-contingency co-financing with the World
Bank for 500 mln dlrs, of which half will be guaranteed by the
World Bank.
    The loan may be drawn to fund high-priority investment
projects if Mexican economic growth fails to reach certain
growth targets for the first quarter of 1987.
    Disbursements would be for 12 years with seven years'
grace. Bankers said they expect the loan, which is available
until March 1988, will be drawn down.    
    The second contingency facility, for 1.2 billion dlrs, is
designed to support investment in the public and private
sectors.
    The loan may be drawn down until April 1988 but only if
Mexico experiences a shortfall in public-sector external
receipts and provided that Mexico first qualifies for drawings
under a 600 mln sdr oil-contigency facility from the
    This IMF loan would be triggered if the price of oil falls
below nine dlrs a barrel for three months.
    Because of the level of public sector external receipts in
the fourth quarter of 1986 and the first quarter of 1987,
Mexico will not draw the first two tranches of the continency
facility, totalling 451 mln dlrs, Citibank said.
    As previously reported, bank commitments to the new money
package will also be reduced by 250 mln dlrs, representing the
interest payments that Mexico will save this year, thanks to
the reduced spread on the rescheduling.
    Under the rescheduling, Mexico is restructuring 43.7
billion dlrs of previously rescheduled debt over 20 years with
seven years' grace.
    Maturities on another 8.6 billion dlrs of loans granted in
1983 and 1984 will remain the same. The interest rate will be
at 13/16 pct over Eurodollar deposit rates - the margin that
applies to the entire package.
    Rounding out the deal, the banks have agreed to prolong six
billion dlrs of trade lines and to refinance some 10 billion
dlrs of private-sector debt that comes under the Mexican
government's exchange-guarantee scheme, Ficorca.
    The size of the package thus comes to about 76 billion
dlrs, the largest ever assembled in the international credit
markets, Citibank said.
    The loan is still only 99 pct subscribed and the loan books
will be kept open for several more weeks to round up the final
100 mln dlrs and the approximately 60 banks that have so far
refused to join the deal.
 
 Reuter

    Pay May 20
    Record May Four
 Reuter

Companies will henceforth be able to own
stakes in banks, but these should not constitute a "dominant"
holding, an Italian government committee ruled.
    The Interministerial Committee on Credit and Savings,
headed by Treasury Minister Giovanni Goria, said its decision
reflected the "need to safeguard the principle of separation
between banks and non-financial concerns."
    It did not quantify what might constitute a "dominant"
holding.
    The committee also set conditions for the allocation of
credits by banks to companies or individuals holding stakes in
them, and stipulates conditions under which the Bank of Italy
could exercise its powers of control in the case of stakes held
by banks in companies or other banks.
    Under the ruling, credits given by banks or their
subsidiaries to groups or individuals holding five pct or more
of the bank's capital must not exceed defined limits.
    The value of credits given cannot exceed either one-fifth
of the combined capital and reserves of the bank itself or
two-fifths of the value of the stake owned in the bank by the
group or individual concerned.
    Exceptions to these conditions include credits to concerns
in which the bank itself has a stake and to branches of foreign
banks. Credits made by foreign companies or banks to
subsidiaries which have their legal base in Italy will also be
excluded from the conditions.
    The Bank of Italy will request banks to insert rules in
their statutes to ensure that companies or individuals holding
five pct or more of the bank's capital are not given privileged
treatment with regard to credit allocation and terms.
    With regard to bank holdings in companies, the Bank of
Italy can exercise supervisory controls when information on a
bank's consolidated activities show single shareholdings in a
company or another bank of 25 pct or more, owned directly or
indirectly.
    Such controls can also be exercised even if the stake held
is below 25 pct if it can be considered a controlling interest.
    The controls will not be exercised in cases where the value
of the bank's stake in a concern is below the lesser of two
predefined limits.
    These limits are set at 15 billion lire or two pct of the
total assets of the parent company of the shareholding bank.
 REUTER

Shr 58 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 4,313,000 vs 3,824,000
    Sales 72.8 mln vs 61.5 mln
    Avg shrs 7,492,000 vs 6,740,000
    Year
    Shr 1.33 dlrs vs 1.23 dlrs
    Net 9,592,000 vs 8,257,000
    Sales 226.4 mln vs 184.4 mln
    Avg shrs 7,228,000 vs 6,740,000
 Reuter

    Oper shr 31 cts vs 14 cts
    Oper net 3,203,000 vs 1,357,000
    Revs 13.0 mln vs 15.6 mln
gain of 821,000 dlrs, or eight cts per shr.
 Reuter

<Guardian Trustco Inc>, earlier
reporting a 198 pct increase in full year earnings per share,
said the outlook for 1987 is more modest.
    The company said it has started a number of long-term
growth projects which have a payback period exceeding one year.
Guardian Trustco did not give a specific earnings forecast.
    The company earlier reported 1986 net profit rose to
2,853,000 dlrs or 1.25 dlrs a share, from year-earlier
1,579,000 dlrs or 42 cts a share.
 Reuter

<Cogeco Inc> said it agreed to acquire
100 pct of Quebec City radio station CJMF-FM and will issue
subordinated voting shares of the company to cover a portion of
the purchase price.
    It said the purchase price and other terms of the
transaction have not been disclosed. The transaction is subject
to approval of the Canadian Radio-Television and
Telecommunications Commission.
 Reuter

NESTLE 1986 NET 1.79 BILLION SWISS FRANCS VS 1.75 BILLION, DIV UNCHANGED 145 FRANCS

Shr loss 50 cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 4,419,000 vs profit 276,000
    Sales 126.8 mln vs 151.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 42 cts vs profit 1.27 dlrs
    Net loss 3,160,000 vs profit 11.2 mln
    Sales 429.9 mln vs 477.5 mln
    NOTE: Current year net includes tax credits of 2,164,000
dlrs in quarter and 328,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

General Electric Co said its
researchers will investigate the potential of a gas turbine
powered by the combustion gases of burning coal.
    The company said the research is part of a five-year, 19.1
mln dlr program supported by the U.S. Energy Department's
Morgantown Energy Technology Center. The center is expected to
put up 15 mln dlrs of the cost while GE contributes equipment
and services valued at 2.0 mln dlrs, New York State contributes
1.1 mln dlrs and Norfolk Southern Corp <NSC> adding 1.0 mln
dlrs.
    Rather than using the conventional gas turbine fuels,
distillate oil or natural gas, GE said, the program will look
at the feasability of powering a turbine with coal/water slurry
-- a mixture of water and finely ground coal particles from
which most of the ash has been removed.
    Besides using a cheaper fuel, the company said, such a
system would also be less expensive to build than conventional
coal plants which require a boiler in which coal heats water to
make steam to drive a turbine or a coal gasifier which converts
to coal into gas, which is then burned to power a turbine.
 Reuter

Westcorp's Western Financial
Auto Loans 2 Inc said it has commenced an offering of 125 mln
dlrs of AAA-rated automobile receivable collateralized bonds.
    The bonds will be due March 1, 1990 and are priced at
99.9375 pct to yield 6.86 pct.
    This is the third such offering the company has made and
the second in the past four months.
 Reuter

First City Bancorporation's sale of 54
mln dlrs in oil loans to Prudential-Bache should significantly
reduce its energy problems, but the bank's losses are still
virtually guaranteed to continue, analysts said.
    The package of energy loans was sold at book value, so
First City did not to show a gain or loss, said bank spokesman
James Day. He added it was possible First City would sell more
of the bank's remaining 1.4 billion dlrs in oil-related loans
to raise cash.
    The loans had been made by First City to oil producers and
to oilfield service and supply companies. Day said some had
already been classified as nonperforming, or charged off as a
loss, but he could not identify how many were included in those
categories.
    The loans were purchased by Prudential Bache's Energy
Growth Fund, a limited partnership created last month with 90
mln dlrs in funding to invest in oil and gas properties.
    First City, the big Texas bank hit hardest by the downturn
in oil prices, lost a record 402 mln dlrs in fiscal year 1986
and has said it is seeking a merger partner or some other
capital assistance. The Houston-based bank's nonperforming
assets totaled 897.1 mln dlrs at yearend, up from 563.1 mln
dlrs at the end of 1985
    Analysts have said no buyer is likely to be interested in
the troubled bank unless government assistance is available.
    "Their problems are not just limited to energy. They have a
substantial portfolio in real estate. This sale in and of
itself won't make the company look better to a potential
buyer," said Ray Archibold, a banking analyst with McCarthy,
Crisanti and Maffei Inc.
    "It does reduce the bank's exposure in energy loans and 54
mln dlrs is a substantial amount," Archibold said, "but the
deal represents only about four pct of their energy loans."
    Of First City's total loan portfolio of 9.9 mln dlrs, about
14 pct or 1.4 billion dlrs were made to energy producers or
suppliers, analysts said. Its record losses have been caused by
its past status as one of the nation's top lenders to oil and
gas producers and suppliers during the boom days of the late
1970s and early 1980s.
    First City said about half of the loans sold to Prudential
came from its Energy Finance Co., an entity formed in 1982 to
loan money to "more venturesome" oil borrowers that promised a
higher potential return. The other half of the loans were from
First City's lead bank in Houston.
    Chris Kotowski, an analyst with Oppenheimer and Co., said
the sale of the package of energy loans was the first
encouraging news from First City in months.
    "It's not going to solve all of First City's problems but
it's a good transaction for them. It may be possible for them
to sell additional loans," Kotowski said. "Prudential can fund
these things more cheaply than First City and there's an
incentive to invest in troubled energy companies right now as
values are depressed"
    In a statement, First City chairman J.A. Elkins said the
bank's strategy was to reduce the proportion of energy loans to
total loans. "This move, which we believe is the first
transaction of its kind, helps us further, and we were able to
make it without suffering a loss."
 Reuter

CORRECTION - ROME - ITALIAN JANUARY PRODUCTION
    In story headlined ITALIAN JANUARY INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT FALLS
3.4 PCT, in second paragraph please read,
    ... The fall follows ...
    (changing rise to fall)
 REUTER

Cray Research Inc said
Standard Oil Production Co, a Dallas-based subsidiary of
Standard Oil Co, will lease its CRAY X-MP/28 supercomputer with
an SSD solid state storage device.
    The leased system will be installed in the second quarter
of 1987 and replace a CRAY X-MP/24 computer system in operation
since 1984, it said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts prior qtr
    Pay 6 May
    Record 8 April
 Reuter

Audio/Video Affiliates Inc said it
has filed suit against <Dixons Group PLC>, Cyclops Corp,
Alleghany Corp <Y> and others in connection with Dixons'
recently completed tender offer in which it raised its
ownership of Cyclops to 56 pct.
    The company said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of Ohio, seeks a temporary restraining
order and preliminary injunction requiring Dixons, for 10
business days, to permit any Cyclops shareholder who previously
tendered and now wishes to withdraw to do so.
    The company said the order and injunction would also
prohibit Dixons from exercising a "lockup" option granted it by
Cyclops and prohibit Dixons for 10 business days from
attempting to exercise any control over Cyclops.
    Audio/Video said the suit also requests the court to order
Cyclops to immediately provide to all potential bidders for
Cyclops all information given to Dixons.
    Audio/Video and Citicorp <CCI> have been tendering for all
Cyclops shares in a competing offer at 80.00 dlrs per share but
said it could raise its bid to 92.50 dlrs under certain
circumstances.  Dixons offered 90.25 dlrs in its tender.
    In February Alleghany agreed to buy Cyclops' steel and
nonresidential construction business for 111.6 mln dlrs in cash
and the assumption of liabilities.
 Reuter

to BBB-plus from A-minus Data General Corp's 184 mln dlrs of
    S and P cited expectations of continued profit pressure for
this maker of minicomputer products. The rating agency noted
that incoming orders remain lackluster and will probably
inhibit any significant rebound in profits this year from the
recent near breakeven levels.
    In the longer term, S and P said an adequate generation of
returns on capital would depend on Data General's successful
broadening of its customer base.
 Reuter

<Dixons Group PLC> said the 
Securities and Exchange Commission has authorized, but not
commenced, the filing of an action against it concerning its
waiver of a condition in its tender offer for Cyclops Corp.
    Dixons has offered to buy about 80 pct of Cyclops shares.
The SEC action deals with a waiver by Dixons of a condition in
the tender offer which was made without an appropriate
extension of the offer, Dixons said.
    Dixons also said it is currently discussing the matter with
the SEC. The SEC has a standing policy of never confirming
or denying investigations or upcoming legal action.
 Reuter

Fedders Corp said an offering of
1,500,000 shares of 1.75 dlr convertible exchangeable preferred
stock is under way at 25 dlrs per share through underwriters
led by Bear Stearns Cos Inc <BSC>.
    The preferred is convertible at any time into common stock
at 9.50 dlrs a share and is exchangeable after two years at
Fedders' option for seven pct convertible subordinated
 Reuter

Shr loss 64 cts vs loss 57 cts
    Net loss 34.9 mln vs loss 22.1 mln
    Revs 31.5 mln vs 60.2 mln
    Avg shrs 60.1 mln vs 45.2 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.27 dlrs vs loss 1.66 dlrs
    Net loss 103.2 mln vs loss 57.6 mln
    Revs 129.8 mln vs 169.5 mln
    Avg shrs 51.2 mln vs 38.1 mln
    NOTE: Per share results after preferred dividend
requirements of 3.3 mln dlrs vs 3.5 mln dlrs in quarter and
12.9 mln dlrs vs 5.7 mln dlrs in year
    1986 4th qtr loss includes accruals, writedowns and
non-recurring charges aggregating 13.9 mln dlrs including costs
anticipated in 1987 for the reopening of the Sunshine Mine and
a writedown of the capitalized costs at the Sixteen-to-One Mine
by 4.2 mln dlrs
    1986 year loss includes charges totaling 100 mln dlrs
 Reuter

The Food and Drug Administration has
approved Burroughs Wellcome Co's AZT as a treatment to help
certain AIDS patients, including those with advanced-AIDS
related complex.
    The drug is the first approved treatment for AIDS in the
U.S. AZT or azidothymidine will be marketed as Retrovir by the
company, the U.S. arm of Britain's <Wellcome PLC>.
    Because of its limited supply, the FDA said the drug will
be restricted initially to those patients with AIDS or
AIDS-related complex with severely depressed immunity or a
history of Pnumocystis carinii, pneumonia.
    "Today's approval marks an important step but by no means a
final victory against our ongoing war against AIDS," said Dr
Robert E. Windom, assistant secretary for health at the Public
Health Service.
    He noted that available clinical data were sufficient for
approving the use of Retrovir only for certain indications and
not for all AIDS associated conditions.
    Nevertheless, Windom said today's action means that
significant medical relief will be available to thousands of
those afflicted with the disease.
    "Retrovir is not a cure but it has demonstrated ability to
improve the short-term survival of AIDS patients with recently
diagnosed PCP (Pneumomystis carinii pneumonia) and certain
patients with advanced ARC (AIDS-related complex)," said
Windom.
    Advanced AIDS related complex is a condition that
frequently precedes and develops within a short time into
full-scale acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
    As of March 16, there were 32,825 AIDS cases reported
nationwide, with more than 16,000 deaths.
    The Public Health Agency said advanced ARC patients have
symptoms that include weight loss, persistent fever and
diarrhea, and less severe infections such as oral thrush and
herpes infections.
    The federal agency said that AIDS patients who are expected
to qualify for retrovir treatment are those who have serious
opportunistic infections associated with AIDS and those with
advanced AIDS related complex.
    It is estimated that about two to three times as many
Americans may suffer from advanced ARC as from AIDS.
    Burroughs Wellcome, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., has
scheduled a press conference for Monday in New York where it
will discuss what patients will quality for treatment. The
company has said that a year's treatment with the drug would
cost 8,000 dlrs to 10,000 dlrs.
    Burroughs has also said that it has adequate supplies of
the drug for the most seriously ill patients, and will have
supplies for a minimum of 30,000 patients and probably more by
the end of the year.
    Retrovir's approval was expected as a panel of expert
medical advisers to the FDA recommended in January that the
drug be licensed for sale even though there were gaps in
understanding the drug's effectiveness.
    The panel said the drug could prolong the lives of certain
AIDS patients but it also caused severe side effects such as
anemia and other blood problems.
    Due to the extraordinary situation surrounding AIDS, a
fatal disease reaching what some health officials say is
epidemic proportions, Windom said the FDA has moved in near
record time--four months--to approve the drug.
    AZT, derived from herring sperm, was created in the 1960s
by Jerome P. Horwitz of the Michigan Cancer Foundation as an
anticancer agent.
    Meanwhile in London, dealers said Wellcome shares rose to
497p in response, up from last night's close of 457p.
    But pharmaceutical analyst Mark Clark of Barclays de Zoete
Wedd said the new drug's share of the market may not be as a
high as expected since it had very severe side effects.
    "It is not a cure and the side effects are so bad it is
unlikely that someone could support a full year's treatment," he
said. "There are also a whole host of other drugs likely to come
onto the market quite soon."
    Last week the drug was approved for marketing in the U.K.
 Reuter

Belding Heminway Co Inc said Bruce
Hausman has resigned as senior vice chairman and chairman of
the executive committee to pursue personal interests in real
estate and other investments but will remain on the board.
 Reuter

Shr loss not given
    Net loss 1,300,000
    Sales 3,300,000
    NOTE: Company incorporated in June 1985.
    Fourth quarter loss 895,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

downgraded to CCC-plus from B-minus Hyponex Corp's 30 mln dlrs
of subordinated debt.
    It assigned a CCC-plus rating to Hyponex's 150 mln dlrs of
senior subordinated debentures due 1999 that were priced
Wednesday for offering. The implied senior debt rating is B.
    S and P cited an increase in debt leverage to 86 pct of
capitalization from 56 pct. While the company's operating
record has been successful, S and P said the action also
reflected uncertainties and risks associated with management's
new business and investment strategies.
 Reuter

Div 145 Swiss francs per share and 29 francs per
participation certificate (unchanged)
    Net 1.79 billion vs 1.75 billion
    Shr 526 vs 515
    Turnover 38.05 billion vs 42.23 billion
    Addition to reserves 170 mln vs 95 mln.
 Reuter

President Reagan said he will veto
an 87.5 billion dlr highway and transit bill, citing his
commitment to hold to spending cuts to meet budget deficit
reduction goals.
    "I am adamantly opposed to the excessive spending that is in
the bill as it emerged from a (House-Senate) conference
committee," he said in a statement.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Reagan had
reservations on 152 so-called demonstration highway projects
and on the amount for transit projects.
    The bill called for transit projects totalling 17.8 billion
dlrs, compared to 8.7 billion proposed by the administration.
    Fitzwater said, however, that Reagan supported the right of
states to raise the highway speed limit to 65 mph from 55 mph,
a provision that is also in the legislation.
 Reuter

Automatic Data Processing Inc
said it and Merrill Lynch and Co Inc have reached agreement on
detailed specifications in their previously-announced
development project for a customized quote service system.
    "If the development plans proceed as projected, Automatic
Data Processing will start a rollout to Merrill Lynch's 600
offices at the end of 1987 with a scheduled completion by the
end of 1989," the company said.
 Reuter

The Commodity Exchange Inc,
COMEX, is researching the possibility of offering futures
contracts on foreign currency swaps and Ginnie Mae repurchase
agreements, a COMEX consultant said.
    Kurt Dew, president of Risk Analysis Systems, said the idea
was on the drawing board at the staff level and not near
realization.
    Dew said the contracts would be logical successors to two
contracts already proposed by the exchange -- futures on
interest rate swaps and on Treasury repurchase agreements, or
repos.
    Regulations recently proposed by federal bank regulators
could enhance the attractiveness of futures contracts on
currency swaps, he said.
    Those regulations would require banks to allocate a certain
share of its capital to currency swaps, Dew said. Futures on
currency swaps would not require capital allocation.
    A futures market in Government National Mortgage
Association (Ginnie Mae) repos would help investors outside the
circle of primary dealers get the best possible price, Dew
said.
    Dew emphasized that the COMEX board had not yet considered
the contracts.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs profit five cts
    Net loss 34,496 vs profit 207,165
    Rev 102,691 vs 297,813
    Shr profit one ct vs profit five cts
    Net profit 69,018 vs profit 230,188
    Rev 641,823 vs 666,319
    NOTE: The company was delisted from the NASDAQ in November
1985. Third qtr 1986 net includes extraordinary credit of
76,400 dlrs, or four cts a share.
 Reuter

Analyst Thomas McCrann of Merrill
Lynch said he reiterated a "buy" recommendation of Wang
Laboratories Inc, noting that a successful cost cutting
campaign could reduce the earnings loss expected for the third
quarter ending in March.
    Wang was the most actively traded stock on the American
Stock Exchange, rising 3/4 to 16-5/8.
    McCrann said that "Wang is a little bit ahead of where they
were expected to be in their cost reductions, and as a result,
the odds have increased that the loss for the quarter will be
less than had been expected."
    McCrann said he expects Wang to report break even earnings
per share or only a small loss per share for the third quarter.
    He said for the year, however, the company should report a
loss of about 50 cts a share compared with earnings of about 35
cts a share a year ago.
 Reuter

Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> is
resisting attempts to merge two Japan-based telecommunications
firms in the hope that overseas political pressure will force a
change in those plans, a company executive said.
    Cable and Wireless, which holds a 20 pct stake in one of
the two Japanese firms, is opposed to plans to reduce its share
to three pct in the merged firm, director of corporate strategy
Jonathan Solomon told reporters.
    That plan, put forward by a senior member of the powerful
business organization Keidanren with the tacit backing of the
Post and Telecommunications Ministry, has caused a storm of
protest from abroad that Japan is seeking to exclude foreign
firms from a meaningful position in the market.
    Pacific Telesis Group <PAC.N> of the United States also
holds a 20 pct stake in one of the newly formed consortia,
<International Digital Communications Inc> (IDC).
    Solomon said that both British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher and U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz have
written to the Japanese government about the planned merger.
    A key U.S. Senate committee, Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige and Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter have also
expressed opposition to the merger, he said.
    The Post and Telecomunications Ministry reiterated again
that it sees no need for two competitors to <Kokusai Denshin
Denwa Co Ltd>, which holds a monopoly on international calls
from Japan. The ministry has also suggested that foreign
shareholders not hold managerial positions in the new firm.
    In an attempt to hammer out an agreement, Solomon today met
Fumio Watanabe, the senior Keidanren officer trying to arrange
the merger. But the two sides remained deadlocked.
    At stake is C and W's 400 mln dlr project to lay fibre
optic cables between Japan and Alaska, to form part of its
global network.
    "C and W wants to start right away on the project, such as
application and other procedures," said Watanabe, who is also
chairman of <Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Inc>. The Japanese
side is saying that the decision on such a plan should be left
with the new firm, after the merger.
    "These decisions (on the merger) were made in consideration
of Japan's economic conditions and legal systems. I told him we
are not a colony or something," said Watanabe.
 Reuter

    NOTE: Winthrop Insured Mortgage Investors II.
 Reuter

West Germany's money supply growth
slowed in February after January's sharp rise but the trend is
still definitely upward, the Bundesbank said in a statement.
    Growth in the traditionally broad M3 aggregate was only
moderate in February. While cash in circulation, deposits with
statutory withdrawal notice and sight deposits grew sharply,
short-term time deposits fell after expanding unusually
strongly in January.
    In the six months to February, M3, which excludes holdings
of German non-banks abroad, grew at a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 8.5 pct after 9.8 in the six months to January.
    Compared with February 1986, M3 rose 7-1/2 pct.
    In the six months to February, M2, which excludes time
deposits with statutory withdrawal notice, rose at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 8.8 pct and M1, which consists of cash
and sight deposits, rose seven pct.
    International transactions of non-banks again led to a
significant inflow of funds, the Bundesbank said.
    Net claims of commercial banks and the Bundesbank against
foreigners, refecting these foreign payments, increased by 9.1
billion marks in February, little changed from January's rise.
    But in contrast to January, the dampening effect of the
inflow on domestic credit demand outweighed the expansionary
effect on money growth, the Bundesbank said.
    Outstanding bank credits to companies and private
individuals remained virtually unchanged in February.
    A sharp drop in short-term company credits, which reflected
the foreign funds inflow, was balanced by a moderate rise in
long-term credits and a sharp rise in credits for securities.
    At the end of February total bank credits to the private
sector were 4-1/2 pct above the February 1986 level.
    The effect of public authority cash movements on the money
supply was slightly expansive, the Bundesbank said.
    Although banks acquired large amounts of public authority
paper, public authorities drew down book credits at commercial
banks and the Bundesbank.
    Capital formation strengthened in February and slowed money
supply growth to a larger extent than in January.
    A total of 7.7 billion marks in long-term funds was placed
with banks after 6.6 billion the previous month.
 REUTER

    Pay May 29
                                                    
 Reuter

 Reuter

rating on Delmarva Power and Light Co first mortgage bonds to
DP-3 (middle AA) from DP-2 (high AA) and on preferred stock to
DP-4 (low AA) from DP-3, affecting approximately 646 mln dlrs
in debt securities.
    The rating change reflects expectations of lower fixed
charge coverages and lower internal funding over the next
several years, Duff and Phelps said.
    An interim cut in electric rates in Delaware and Maryland
to reflect a lower allowed return on equity was made in the
second half of 1986. A final decision is expected in April.
 Reuter

charged the United States with breaking international trade
rules by excluding Dutch-made fibres from the U.S. Market and
said it would take the issue to the world trade body GATT.
    In the latest of a series of trade disputes with
Washington, the executive authority alleged that a section of
the U.S. Tariff Act was incompatible with the GATT (General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) because it discriminated
against imported products in favour of domestically-produced
goods.
    The Commission said it would ask Geneva-based GATT to rule
on whether the section in question, which officials said had
proved a barrier to many EC exporters, conformed to its rules.
    Commission officials did not rule out retaliatory measures
if, after a GATT decision against it, Washington failed to
bring the disputed section into line with international rules.
    The executive's decision to go to GATT follows a complaint
to it by the Dutch company Akzo <AKZO.AS>, whose "aramid"
synthetic fibres have been banned from the U.S. Market because
of charges by the U.S. Firm <Dupont> that the fibres violate
the American company's patents.
    Akzo alleged that the ban, imposed by the U.S.
International Trade Commission (ITC), was discriminatory and
incompatible with GATT provisions.
    The dispute centres on the fact that section 337 of the
U.S. Tariff Act gives the ITC jurisdiction  over imported
products. The EC Commission charged that EC producers did not
have the same possibilities for defending themselves before the
ITC as they would have in a normal U.S. Court.
    "Consequently the procedure followed...Is less favourable
than that which takes places in normal courts of law for goods
produced in the United States," it said in a statement.
 Reuter

U.S. AGENCY TO ALLOW U.S. AIR TO BUY 51 PCT OF PIEDMONT PENDING FINAL OKAY OF MERGER

Shr loss six cts vs loss 88 cts
    Net loss 128,141 vs loss 1,298,377
    Sales 1,332,218 vs 385,146
    Year
    Shr profit six cts vs loss 1.47 dlrs
    Net profit 120,571 vs loss 2,171,011
    Sales 4,617,034 vs 2,959,141
 Reuter

<Houston Metals Corp> said the
the first phase of the underground rehabilitation, extensive
drilling and bulk sampling program at its Silver Queen Mine has
yielded positive results.
    Houston said representative assays from the 2,750 ft and
2,600 ft levels at the south end of the mine established ore
deposits in the following ranges: copper, 3.7 pct to 5.08 pct,
lead .99 pct to 1.5 pct, zinc six pct to 9.6 pct, silver 15.63
pct to 79.92 oz per ton, gold .062 to .19 oz per ton, germanium
93 to 103 grams per ton, gallium five to 18 grams per ton.
    In addition, Houston Metals said the weighted average of 25
diamond-drilled holes 375 ft below the 2,600 foot level and 800
ft along the strike assayed gold at .237 oz per ton, silver at
10.91 oz per ton and zinc at 8.99 pct.
    An apparent parallel vein structure at the 2,600 ft level
returned similar values, the company said.
    It added that preliminary metallurgical tests from
representative bulk ore samples indicate the commercial
feasability of producing a zinc and a copper-lead concentrate.
    Houston Metals said gold, silver and the base metals have
recoveries of 90 pct to 95 pct, with 95 pct of gold recovered
from better gold ores, while gallium, germanium and indium have
recoveries of between 66 pct to 82 pct and are included in the
zinc concentrate.
    The company's 1987 program of diamond drilling, underground
drifting and metallurgical evaluation is scheduled to start on
April.
    Houston Metals said it has a 60 pct interest in the Silver
Queen mines.
    It added that funds for the program have been provided by
First Exploration Fund, a Canadian limited partnership
sponsored by Merrill Lynch Canada Inc and Dominion Securities
Inc.
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts prior qtr
    Pay 15 April
    Record 1 April
 Reuter

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
came under fresh pressure for an early election today as
financial indicators bolstered the government's forecasts of a
boom in the economy following the budget earlier this week.
    Two of the country's leading lending institutions announced
cuts in home loans rates following Wednesday's cut in interest
rates by the main banks by half a point to 10 per cent.
    Analysts said today's reduction by Abbey National from
12.75 pct to 11.25, and one by the Halifax Building Society
from 12.25 to 11.25 in lending rates for house buyers would be
followed by other main institutions.
   One financial analyst commented: "I imagine the Abbey
National is being toasted in Downing Street (the prime
minister's residence) but not in the boardrooms of other big
societies."
    Coupled with income tax cuts announced by Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Finance Minister) Nigel Lawson in his budget last
Tuesday as well as recent opinion polls showing Thatcher's
rightwing Conservative Party well ahead of Labour and the
centrist Alliance, they said pressure was now building up on
Thatcher to call a general election as early as June.
    Yesterday there was more good news for Thatcher in the form
of a continuing drop in the number of unemployed, with
government minister predicting that it would fall below the
three million mark before long.
 Reuter

America has completed financing arrangements in the amount of
200,000 dlrs.
    It also announced its president, J.R.Moman, resigned last
Friday. Joshua Graham, chairman and chief executive officer,
will assume the role of president, the company said.
    Electronic said the refinancing was done through a group of
lenders, including PaineWebber Capital Inc and the E.F. Hutton
Group Inc to fund short-term cash requirements.
    Financing terms were not disclosed, the company said.
    Electronic Mail said its revenues for February were 200,000
dlrs as compared to 21,000 dlrs for the same period a year ago.
    For the first eight months of fiscal 1987 through February
28 revenues were 1,100,000 dlrs compared to 300,000 dlrs for
the same period a year ago, the company said.
    The corporation will require additional funding in the near
future, and is currently holding discussions with a number of
other organizations that have expressed interest in investing
in, acquiring, or merging with the company.
 Reuter

<Banque de l'Union Europeenne> said it
signed a cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union's central
bank <Gosbank>, and Foreign Trade Bank <Vneshtorgbank>, with
the aim of creating a joint financial holding under new Soviet
joint venture laws.
    Jean-Paul Dessertine, international director at BUE, said
the function of the proposed joint financial group, would be to
help set up, with consulting and financial services, other
Franco-Soviet, mainly industrial, joint ventures.
    Some protocols of intent have already been signed but no
joint venture contracts have been finalised under the new laws.
    Dessertine said a joint working party would on April 15
begin consulting with companies interested in making joint
ventures, and work to set up the joint financial holding.
    Citing the mixed results of joint ventures set up in the
past between western and East European countries, he said:
    "This is a wager on the evolution of the Soviet Union, and
on how far new reforms will be applied."
    Other parties to the cooperation protocol are <Banque
Commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord>, a French subsidiary of
Gosbank, and <Compagnie Financiere de Credit Industriel et
Commercial>, the parent company of BUE.
 REUTER

Lotus Development Corp and MCI
Communications Corp said they made the first shipment of Lotus
Express for MCI Mail, a communications-software product that
enables personal computer users to exchange messages, send
telexes and transfer files.
    Lotus Express was announced last December and was shipped
on schedule, the companies said.
 Reuter

Commerce Group Corp said its
common stock will begin trading March 23 on NASDAQ under the
symbol "CGCO."
    The company is doing preliminary work necessary to the
actual extraction of gold from the San Sebastian Gold Mine in
El Salvador, Central America.
    Commerce said it and San Sebastian Gold Mines Inc have
concession rights from the government of El Salvador to mine
and extract gold from the San Sebastian Gold Mine.
 Reuter

.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said it has
formed a new Frontier Exploration Department to initiate and
evaluate high-potential frontier opportunities for Texaco
worldwide.
 Reuter

WASTE MANAGEMENT AMENDS CHEMLAWN OFFER, RAISING IT TO 35 DLRS A SHARE FROM 33 DLRS

AMERICAN MOTORS SAID DIRECTORS TOOK NO ACTION ON CHRYSLER PROPOSAL, POSTPONES ANNUAL MEETING

downgraded 1.6 billion dlrs of debt of Standard Chartered PLC
and its units, Standard Chartered Bank and Union Bancorp.
    Moody's cited concerns over the asset quality of Standard
Chartered Bank.
    Cut were the parent's junior subordinated debt to A-3 from
A-2 and Standard Chartered Bank's long-term deposit rating to
Aa-3 from Aa-2. Moody's lowered Union Bancorp's senior debt and
preferred stock to A-1 from Aa-3, subordinated debt to A-2 from
A-1 and long-term deposits to A-1 from Aa-3. Union's commercial
paper and short-term deposits were unchanged.
    Also left unchanged were Standard Chartered Bank's ratings
for short-term deposits.
    Although Moody's cited Standard Chartered Bank's
long-standing position in a number of regional markets and
improved risk control procedures, it pointed out that the bank
still lacks the stabilizing effect of a more significant
presence in the U.K. market.
    The rating agency reiterated that it is concerned about the
relative levels of risk in the bank's widely dispersed asset
portfolio.
 Reuter

The government said it will freeze
prices at end-December levels within five days.
    The announcement followed a wave of strikes that swept the
country in protest against a wages freeze.
    The government, in a statement through the official Tanjug
news agency, said the freeze would affect food, consumer goods,
tools, textiles and furniture and would last 90 days.
 REUTER

amended its offer to buy the outstanding shares of ChemLawn
Corp to 35 dlrs a share.
    On Thursday the company said it was prepared to bid 33 dlrs
a share, up from its original 27 dlrs a share offer.
    As a result of the price increase, made through Waste
Management's wholly owned subsidiary, WMX Acquisition Corp, the
offer has been extended and the withdrawal rights will not
expire at midnight EDT April Two, unless further extended.
    Waste Management also said it amended its offer to provide
that the tender offer price will not be reduced by ChemLawn's
10 cts a share dividend payable to holders of record April 1,
1987.
 Reuter

Unit loss 4.36 dlrs vs loss 4.27 dlrs
    Net loss 37.4 mln vs 32.9 mln
    Revs 19.3 mln vs 30.3 mln
    Avg units 8,413,000 vs 7,557,000
    Note: Net includes writedown of oil and gas properties of
21.0 ln dlrs vs 16.5 mln dlrs and writedown of geothermal
property of 10.4 mln dlrs vs 10.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

said it will allow USAIR Group to acquire up to 51 pct of
Piedmont Aviation <PIE> voting stocks pending final approval of
the proposed merger of the two airlines.
    The agency said the stock would have to be held in a voting
trust controlled by an independent trustee.
    An agency spokesman said that if USAIR, which has proposed
to buy all of Piedmont shares, controls more than 51 pct of the
firm's outstanding stock, it will have one week to sell those
excess shares.
    USAIR asked the Department of Transporation earlier this
month to approve a voting trust.
    An agency spokesman said this is a device that airlines use
to get majority control of a company it is trying to acquire
while their application before the government is pending
approval.
    The spokesman said the firm had asked the transporation
agency permission to buy all of Piedmont's voting stock, the
but agency decided to give approval for 51 pct of shares.
    The spokesman said agency action on the proposed merger
application could take as long as six months.
 Reuter

The Agriculture Department is not
considering any major changes in its pricing system for posted
county prices, an Agriculture Department offical said.
    "We do not have current plans to make any major adjustments
or changes in our pricing," said Bob Sindt, USDA assistant
deputy administrator for commodity operations.
    U.S. grain traders and merchandisers said earlier this week
USDA might act soon to reduce the cash corn price premium at
the Gulf versus interior price levels by dropping ASCS posted
prices to encourage interior PIK and roll movement.
    But Sindt denied USDA is planning any such changes.
    "If people are suggesting that we are going to make
wholesale changes in pricing, we are not considering this," he
said.
    Sindt, however, did not rule out the possiblity of
implementing more minor changes in its pricing system.
    "We are continually monitoring the whole nationwide
structure to maintain its accuracy," he said. "If we become
convinced that we need to make a change, then appropriate
adjustments will be made."
    Sindt acknowledged that concern has been voiced that USDA's
price differentials between the New Orleans Gulf and interior
markets are not accurate because of higher than normal barge
freight rates.
    He said commodity operations deputy administrator Ralph
Klopfenstein is currently in the midwest on a speaking tour and
will meet with ASCS oficials in Kansas City next week.
    Sindt said a number of issues will be discussed at that
meeting, including the current concern over the gulf corn
premiums.
    He defended the USDA differentials, saying that these price
margins reflect an average of prices throughout the year and
that seasonal factors will normally cause prices to increase or
decrease.
    The USDA official also said that only those counties that
use the Gulf to price grain are being currently affected by the
high barge freight tariffs and increased gulf prices.
    When asked if the USDA emergency storage program which
allows grain to be stored in barges was taking up barge space
and accounting for the higher freight rates, Sindt discounted
the idea.
    He said USDA has grain left in only about 250 barges and
that, under provisions of the program, these all have to be
emptied by the end of March.
 Reuter

ratings on Atlantic City Electric Co first mortgage bonds,
collateralized pollution control revenue bonds and debentures
to DP-5 (high A) from DP-4 (low AA) and preferred stock to DP-6
(middle A) from DP-5, affecting about 500 mln dlrs in debt.
    The rating change is a result of a New Jersey Board of
Public Utilities' decision that lowered overall net rates by
15.9 mln dlrs, D and P said. The board disallowed about 22.4
mln dlrs of the utility's 239.8 mln dlrs investment in the Hope
Creek nuclear plant which will have to be written off by 1988.
 Reuter

Chadian troops killed 384 Libyans and
captured 48 in fighting near the key Libyan air base of Ouadi
Doum in northern Chad, a Chadian government statement said.
    The statement issued by Chad's Paris embassy said
government troops had "completely annihilated" a Libyan column
yesterday some 45 km (28 miles) from the Libyan base.
    It was the highest number of Libyan casualties reported
since January 2, when Chadian troops overran an important
garrison at the oasis of Fada with the loss of more than 700
Libyan troops.
    Ouadi Doumi, central northern Chad, is the site of Libya's
main airfield in the country and several clashes have been
reported over the past week in the surrounding desert between
troops loyal to President Hissene Habre and Libyan forces.
 Reuter

AFFILIATED PUBLICATIONS TO BUY BILLBOARD PUBLICATIONS  FOR 100 MLN DLRS

American Motors Corp said its directors
reviewed a Chrysler Corp merger proposal but took no action on
it.
    The company said its directors met in New York today at a
regularly scheduled meeting. The board's review is continuing
with the company's independent legal and financial advisers,
American Motors said in a statement issued from New York.
    American Motors' board voted to postpone its annual
shareholders meeting scheduled for April 29 in Southfield,
Michigan.
    The next regularly scheduled meeting of American Motors
board will be April 29, although it is expected that directors
will meet again prior to that date, according to the statement.
    Early last week, Chrysler said it agreed to buy the 46.1
pct interest owned by Regie Nationale des Usines Renault in
American Motors and acquire the balance of American Motors in a
transaction valued at 1.11 billion dlrs.
    Later that week, AMC said it had retained financial and
legal advisers and expected to meet periodiocally over the next
several weeks to consider the proposal.
 Reuter

Nestle SA <NESZ.Z> said it
would seek shareholder approval to issue participation
certificates up to 20 pct of share capital, instead of the
current limit of 10 pct.
    It said it wanted this authorisation in view of future
certificate issues. Nestle's nominal capital amounts to 330 mln
    Nestle reported net profits of 1.79 billion francs for
1986, up 2.2 pct from 1985, while turnover fell 9.9 pct to
38.05 billion as the Swiss franc strengthened against other
    The parent company's net profit rose to 666.6 mln francs
from 592.9 mln in 1985, and the company planned an unchanged
dividend of 145 francs per share and 29 francs per certificate
after placing 170 mln francs in reserves, against 95 mln last
year.
    The payout represented 27.6 pct of group net profit,
against 28.2 pct last year.
    Nestle said it had also invited Fritz Leutwiler, former
president of the Swiss National Bank and currently chairman of
BBC AG Brown Boveri und Cie <BBCZ.Z>, to join the Nestle board.
 Reuter

Thermo Electron Corp said it filed
statement covering a 75 mln dlr issue of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012.
    Proceeds will be used principally for acquisitions of
companies that complement or expand Thermo's existing line of
business and for general corporate purposes, it said.
    The company said the offering will be sold through Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Tucker,
Anthony and R.L. Day Inc. They have an over-allotment option to
purchase an additional 11.25 mln dlrs of the debt.
 Reuter

Astrocom Corp said it added two new
products aimed at improving on-premise data network efficiency.
    Its ATDM/MS six-port time-division multiplexor is designed
to combine and send data from up to 18 remove terminals on a
single transmission link to the controller in the central
network.
    The other product, the Squeeziplexor 3074 coaxial
multiplexor, is a low-profile version of the company's
Squeeziplexor system that allows one coaxial cable to replace
up to 32 individual cables connecting terminals and printers to
the central controller.
 Reuter

it won a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) that could be worth one billion dlrs if
NASA exercises all its options.
    The contract is for systems engineering and analysis
services for the Mission Operations and Data Systems
Directorate at Goddard Space Flight center in Greenbelt,
Maryland.
    Expected to be efective November 15, the contract will
consist of a 34-1/2 month base performance period, a two-year
priced option and five unpriced annual renewal options.
    The value of the basic and priced-option periods is about
310 mln dlrs. The company estimates the total value of the
award at about one billin dlrs over the full ten-year period.
    The contract will consolidate work currently performed by
Computer Sciences under three separate contract that total
about 40 mln dlrs in annual revenues. The company also expects
a revenue increase of about 25 mln dlrs annually for additional
work to be performed under the contract.
    Computer Sciences said about 25 pct of the contract value
will go to subcontractors, the largest of which is Ford Motor
Co's <F> Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp.
    Computer Sciences' Systems Sciences division in Silver
Spring, Maryland, will perform the work at its facilities at
Beltsville and Greenbelt, Maryland.
    The contract is the largest in the company's history.
 Reuter

The U.S. Will pursue its complaint that
European governments unfairly subsidise the Airbus Industrie
aircraft consortium in proceedings at the GATT civil aircraft
committee, a GATT spokesman said today.
    The U.S. Presented its case for the first time to the
aircraft committee of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) during a special two-day session ending today.
GATT rules cover some 80 pct of world commerce.
    The 20-member committee agreed to open debate on the U.S.
Complaint, starting with informal consultations and then
holding a special session in July, trade officials said.
    "The tension has eased," the permanent trade ambassador of
the 12-member European Community Tran Van Thinh told reporters.
"The U.S. Has decided to go through proper channels."
    U.S. Trade officials again made clear their anger over what
they call unfair government support for Airbus, voiced during a
visit to European capitals in February.
    In a letter calling for the special committee meeting,
Washington charged France, West Germany, the U.K., Spain and
the EC Commission with unfair practices on behalf of Airbus.
    The U.S. Charges that the Europeans are violating rules
laid down in the 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft.
    Washington presented its reading of rules on inducement to
purchase aircraft and support for development of airlines
during the special session and asked the committee to confirm
its view.
    Official sources in the delegations said the U.S. Views
would be considered during the informal consultations but the
Europeans would also be free to bring up any complaints against
American civil aircraft practices.
    Some delegates said the U.S. Position appeared to give such
broad interpretation to the rules as to suggest that the civil
aircraft accord needed re-negotiating. All these matters would
be considered during the informal meetings.
 Reuter

U.K. Minister for Aviation Michael
Spicer said transatlantic traffic should increase at least five
pct this year, after dropping nearly six pct last year.
    "We expect at least a five pct increase and it may exceed
that, reaching at least the peak levels of 1985," Spicer said
at a press conference.
    The figures refer to air traffic between North America and
Europe.
    Spicer also said transport ministers of the European
Community meeting next week are expected to agree on
liberalizing air traffic regulations in Europe.
    Spicer said fears of terrorism dissuaded Americans from
traveling to Europe last year, resulting in pent up demand that
will be released this year.
    He said the ministers, scheduled to meet in Brussels Monday
and Tuesday, should agree on allowing more than one airline to
fly particular routes between European cities, removing some
fare restrictions and easing capacity restrictions.
    Spicer also said he has asked U.S. officials to consider
allowing investment in U.S. carriers, particularly in smaller
commuter airlines, by foreign companies. He also wants U.S.
officials to allow British carriers to fly more freely between
U.S. destinations.
 Reuter

A panel of four leading economists
told a congressional hearing today that foreign economies will
need to expand to avoid recession as the U.S. trade deficit
declines.
    C. Fred Bergsten, a former senior Treasury Department
official, and Robert Solomon of the Brookings Institution told
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the major exporting
countries risk recession if they do not expand because U.S.
demand for imports is expected to fall.
    "They need to beef up domestic demand as their trade
surplus falls," or unemployment will keep growing, Bergsten
said.
    Bergsten predicted the U.S. trade deficit, which hit 169
billion dlrs last year, will fall 30-40 billion dlrs a year for
the next two years as a result of the dollar's 35-40 pct
decline since September 1985.
    The government should intervene to push the dollar down
further if the previous declines do not lead to an improvement
in the trade picture, if the U.S. budget deficit is not reduced
and if foreign expansion does not occur, he added.
    Solomon said the dollar must fall further to compensate for
the huge interest payments required on U.S. foreign debt. The
Paris agreement between the major industrialized countries
provided only for a pause in its decline, he said.
    Rimmer de Vries, senior vice president of Morgan Guaranty
Trust Co., said the U.S. trade deficit problem is a problem of
lagging growth in industrial economies, prolonged currency
misalignment, debt problems of the developing countries, and
unbalanced growth in the Asian industrializing countries.
    John Makin of the American Enterprise Institute, suggested
foreign tax cuts to increase demand and pick up the slack from
the U.S. trade deficit fall.
 Reuter

Rep William Gray (D-Pa), Chairman of
the House Budget Committee, abruptly canceled the committee's
budget writing process when Republican members said they would
continue a vote strike begun yesterday.
    "I'm not going to continue a markup in which my Republican
colleagues won't participate," Gray told reporters.
    He said he asked Republicans to tell him by Monday whether
they would vote in future open sessions.
    If they choose not to, he threatened to again draft a
budget behind closed doors with only Democrats present, as had
been done the previous two years.
    "If they do not want to participate in an open process ...
then I will make a decision as to how the Democrats will
proceed," Gray said.
    "If there is not possibility of Republican participation, I
will go back to what we've done in the past," he said.
    Republicans yesterday had voted "present" in a series of
committee votes on fiscal 1988 defense spending.
    The Republicans had said they were protesting the
Democrats' failure to present alternatives to President
Reagan's budget.
 Reuter

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 FALLS 1.16 BILLION DLRS IN WEEK, BANK OF CANADA SAID

Morrison Knudsen Corp said a unit
was awarded an 11-1/2-year contract totaling about 200 mln dlrs
for the operation of a steam coal mine near Montgomery, W.Va.
    The company said the contract carries an option for an
additional 10 years.
    Of the 200 mln dlrs, the company said that only the first
five years, or about 90 mln dlrs, were included in its first
quarter backlog.
    The contract was awarded by <Cannelton Industries Inc>, the
 Reuter

U.K. Smelter Capper Pass denied rumours
that the company had declared, or was about to declare, force
majeure on lead deliveries.
    This followed trader talk on the London Metal Exchange,
LME, after broker bids were made at increased premiums for
Capper Pass brand material.
    Traders said some slight production problems seem to exist
but are unlikely to have any impact on the market. Lead values
on the LME today were unchanged around 299 stg per tonne for
three months delivery after thin business in a one stg range.
 Reuter

Affiliated Publications Inc said it
agreed to acquire all the outstanding stock of <Billboard
Publications Inc> for 100 mln dlrs in cash from a shareholder
group led by <Boston Ventures Limited Partnership.>
    Affiliated, which owns the company that publishes the
Boston Globe, said the acquisition will give it a strong
position in the growing market for specialty magazines.
    Under a separate agreement, Affiliated said that certain
members of Billboard's management plan to buy up to 10 pct of
the equity in Billboard following Affiliated's acquisition of
    Billboard publishes eight specialty magazines, including
Billboard magazine, and 15 annual directories. It also
publishes and distributes speciality books under four imprints
and operates two book clubs.
    Affiliated is the parent company of Globe Newspaper Co,
publisher of the Boston Globe. It also has interests in
cellular telephone and paging services providers.
 Reuter

A single purpose company, <Italfunding
Ltd>, has been created for the purpose of obtaining funds on
the international capital markets to refinance 44.3 mln dlrs of
Mexico's official debt to Italy at very attractive rates,
Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd said as lead manager and arranger.
    The transaction will be accomplished by Italfunding
obtaining a 44.3 mln dlr euronote facility in the market and
then using the proceeds to provide a loan for the same amount
to Mexico. The loan will be 100 pct guaranteed by SACE, the
official Italian export credit agency.
    Morgan Grenfell has used special purpose vehicles in the
past to help refinance export credits for other indebted
countries, such as Brazil and Ecuador.
    The Brazil financing, for example, involved the use of a
floating rate note. This transaction makes use of another
sector of the capital markets -- that for short-term note
facilities -- to finance a medium term credit.
    The financing is being arranged in connection with a
bilateral agreement between Mexico and SACE earlier this year
to refinance Mexico's official debt to Italy.
    The bilateral accord followed a multilateral rescheduling
agreement reached last September of Mexico's official debt to
the Paris Club of western creditor governments.
    The Paris Club accord, in turn, was part of a broad-based
rescheduling package covering 77 billion dlrs of Mexico's
    That package -- heralded as the first to incorporate all
aspects of U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker's plan to aid
indebted countries -- included a 7.7 billion dlr loan, which
was signed today in New York.
     The new financing for
Italfunding, being syndicated among about five major
international banks, will be a fully underwritten, revolving
facility with an average life of seven years and the facility
will fund the loan.
    All Paris Club agreements contain a generally accepted
outline for a rescheduling, but the specific terms must then be
negotiated on a bilateral basis.
    Banking sources noted that the use of a special-purpose
vehicle will provide Mexico with particularly attractive
financing at a rate of about 1/4 to 1/2 pct over the London
Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
    The cost of the new financing compares with a spread of
13/16 pct on the loans in the new commercial bank package.
    This is because the intermediary providing the funds, in
this case Italfunding, can obtain its funds relatively cheaply
on the international markets. At the same time, the deal
benefits the banks, which will still get a reasonable return on
the note facility, which is pure Italian risk.
    The bankers noted that if the financing had been arranged
in Italy, the cost to Mexico and the Italian banks would have
been higher since the Italian banks would use a different
source of funding.
 REUTER

Duff and Phelps today raised the
ratings on General Public Utilities' Pennsylvania Electric Co.
subsidiary fixed income securities.
    First mortgage bonds and collateralized pollution control
revenue bonds have been raised to D&P-6 (middle A) from D&P-7
(low A), debentures raised to D&P-7 from D&P-8 (high BBB), and
preferred stock raised to D&P-8 from D&P-9 (middle BBB).
    About 766 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    The upgrade reflects general improvement in the company's
financial condition, Duff and Phelps said, citing the partial 
restoration of service, and rates, to Three Mile Island.
 Reuter

Spear, Leeds and Kellogg, a New York
brokerage partnership, said it has acquired 136,300 shares of
Allegheny International Inc's 11.25 dlr convertible preferred
stock, or 7.1 pct of the total outstanding.
Spear Leeds said it bought the stake for 11.7 mln dlrs as part
of its normal trading activities.
 Reuter

WTD Industries Inc said its
offer to buy the bankrupt Harris Pine sawmill in Pendleton,
Oregon was rejected by the bankruptcy court trustee.
    The company said the bid was rjected in favor of a higher
offer.
 Reuter

Proposed federal regulations
governing the sale of foreign futures and options contracts to
U.S. citizens would strap U.S. exchanges, an official of the
Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, said.
    Frederick Grede, CBT vice president of administration and
planning, told the Futures Industry Association that rules
proposed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC,
would "handicap the ability of U.S. exchanges and futures
commission merchants to compete internationally."
    The CFTC rules generally would require additional
registration and disclosure.
    Grede said that speculative positions, hedging and
aggregation do not exist on most overseas exchanges, and that
the regulations would impose onerous requirements relating to
the segregation of customer funds.
    CFTC Chairman Susan Phillips, acknowledging that the
proposal was "controversial," said the commission would
consider revising the proposals.             
 Reuter

Celina Financial Corp said
shareholders at a special meeting approved a transaction in
which the company transferred its interest in three insurance
companies to a wholly owned subsidiary which then sold the
three companies to an affiliated subsidiary.
    It said the company's interests in West Virginia Fire and
Casualty Co, Congregation Insurance co and National Term Life
Insurance Co had been transferred to First National Indemnity
Co, which sold the three to Celina Mutual for cash, an office
building and related real estate.
 Reuter

Two affiliated New York investment
firms and an investment advisor told the Securities and
Exchange Commission they have acquired 555,057 shares of
Unicorp American Corp, or 5.1 pct of the total outstanding.
    The group, which includes Mutual Shares Corp, said it
bought the stake for 5.3 mln dlrs for investment purposes and
has no intention of seeking control of Unicorp American.
 Reuter

M-1 fell 1.16 billion dlrs to 32.94 billion dlrs in week ended
March 11, Bank of Canada said.
non-personal deposits, fell 1.31 billion dlrs to 75.39 billion
dlrs and M-2, which is M-1-A plus other notice and personal
fixed-term deposit fell 1.01 billion dlrs to 177.70 billion
dlrs.
Canada, fell 1.29 billion dlrs to 216.33 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

REVLON BUYS GERMAINE MONTEIL COSMETICS FROM BEECHAM GROUP FOR UNDISCLOSED TERMS

Revlon Group Inc said it bought
Germaine Monteil's cosmetics business in the U.S. from the
Beecham Group PLC.
    The sale includes the rights to Germaine Monteil in North
and South America and in the Far East, as well as the worldwide
rights to the Diane von Furstenberg cosmetics and fragrances
lines and the U.S. distribution rights to Lancaster beauty
products.
    Meanwhile in London a statement from Beecham said the
business was sold to Revlon for 2.5 mln dlrs in cash and a
royalty payment.
 Reuter

    Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 4,385,000 vs 5,792,000
    Revs 474.4 mln vs 381.4 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 2.46 dlrs vs 2.71 dlrs
    Net 10.5 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Revs 906.0 mln vs 757.6 mln
 Reuter

<Quotron Systems Inc> said it signed
a contract to deliver financial information services to more
than 500 Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith offices.
    The agreement provides all the offices served by Quotron be
extended through November 1989, and gives Merrill Lynch the
option to extend the contract through February 1993, the
    The cost of the contract was not disclosed.
    Quotron is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citicorp <CCI>, and
is not traded publicly.
 Reuter

Geodome Resources Ltd
said based on a feasibility study of its Sunbeam Mine it will
proceed with contruction and pre-production stripping as
rapidly as possible.
    The company said eight of nine holes drilled on the new ore
zone have an average grade of 0.046 ounces of gold per ton and
2.1 ounces of silver per ton.
    The deposit is 400 to 500 yards from the newly designed
Sunbeam pits, has large tonnage and will be drilled off this
summer, the company said.
    The study said ore reserves including dillution were
3,302,000 tons at 0.77 ounces of gold per ton at a cut off
grade of 0.026 ounces per ton and stripping ratio of 4.24 to
one.
    It said gold production will average 41,000 ounces per year
for the mine life and 99,000 ounces of silver per year.
    It said gold production in the first three years should
average 50,000 ounces per year.
    Operating costs are expected to average 201 dlrs per ounce
of gold for the mine life and 171 dlrs per ounce in the first
 Reuter

has said it may consider a bid to seek control of Baird Corp,
said Baird has not agreed to hold off on any defensive measures
without giving Mark IV at least 24 hours notice.
Mark IV corrected a statement it made yesterday in another SEC
filing in which it listed several agreements reached with
Baird, including that Baird would not take any anti-takeover
steps without providing at least 24 hours notice.
    Mark IV said it was later told by Baird that Baird had
given no such assurance.
 Reuter

Generale de Banque SA <GENB.BR> and
<Heller Overseas Corp> of Chicago have each taken 50 pct stakes
in factoring company SA Belgo-Factors, Generale de Banque said
    It gave no financial details of the transaction. SA
Belgo-Factors' turnover in 1986 was 17.5 billion Belgian
francs.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 16.5 mln vs 16.2 mln
    Revs 870.2 mln vs 800.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.48 dlrs vs 1.29 dlrs
    Net 47.3 mln vs 41.0 mln
    Revs 3.53 billion vs 3.10 billion
    Avg shrs 31,867,658 vs 31,831,050
 Reuter

Harley-Davidson Inc said its
wholly owned subsidiary, Holiday Rambler Corp, filed a
registration statement covering 70 mln dlrs of subordinated
notes due 1997.
    Holiday-Rambler, which manufactures recreational vehicles,
was acquired by Harley-Davidson in December 1986.
    Proceeds of the offering will be used to repay 60 mln dlrs
of debt, with the balance to reduce any outstanding borrowings
under the company's revolving credit loan agreement and for
working capital purposes.
 Reuter

PAN AM CORP 4TH QTR LOSS 197.5 MLN DLRS VS PROFIT 241.4 MLN DLRS

Morgan Guaranty Ltd's novel and complex
repackaging of Westpac Banking Corp's perpetual floating rate
note (FRN) may attract some investors, but is unlikely to aid
current holders of the Westpac securities or the FRN market,
FRN traders said.
    "It actually does nothing for anyone who has been stuffed
and right now, that's the problem," said a trader at one U.K.
Clearing bank that has also issued its own perpetuals.
    Trading in perpetual issues, which pay interest but never
mature, has come to a virtual halt. Prices have fallen so far
that only about five firms still make markets in them.
    The Westpac perpetual notes are technically now the
property of a newly formed single-purpose finance subsidiary,
Pacific Securities. If Morgan tried to find a home for the
actual Westpac notes, as is, they would be paid no more than 85
cents on the dollar, at most, traders said.
    But the repackaging allows them to target a new class of
investor for the notes and take the old issues off their books
without registering a loss, the traders said.
    "The only one the repackaging favours is Morgan," a trader
said.
    Meanwhile, the end-holders of perpetual notes, most of whom
are Japanese banks, must still find a way to value them by
year-end, now a week away.
    From Morgan's point of view, the repackaging does aid the
present holders of the notes as well as offering value to a new
class of investors.
    "At least we've put a floor under the price of the notes.
We've created a way to set a real value for them," one Morgan
official said. Morgan had earlier attempted, but abandoned,
another plan to repackage the Westpac securities.
    Morgan's holdings of Westpac paper create special problems
for it because of the way U.S. Regulators view bank holdings of
the primary capital of other banks, traders said. Therefore, it
is crucial that a vehicle for selling the paper be found.
    And indeed, note traders said, the FRN portion of the
repackaged securities -- which Westpac has offered to redeem
for cash in 15 years -- does have real value.
    For one thing, traders noted, it pays about the highest
rate over the London Interbank Offered Rate of virtually any
newly issued security. The spread is 50 basis points.
    However, the other portion of the security, in which the
investor pays 20 cents on the dollar for a zero coupon 15-year
bond, is of dubious value unless the Westpac perpetual assumes
a market value near par 15 years from now, traders said.
    The zero-coupon portion could provide value for an account
which for tax purposes, wants to take a large capital loss, the
traders said. In the 15-year period between the time the note
is purchased and the time it is redeemed, no interest is paid.
    When repayment finally occurs, it is not in cash like an
ordinary zero-coupon bond. Instead, the investor receives one
of the Westpac perpetual floaters.
 REUTER

    Shr 67 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 1,525,000 vs 1,570,000
    Revs 41.2 mln vs 40.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.75 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 4,001,000 vs 3,522,000
    Revs 172.3 mln vs 168.7 mln
    Note: figures include losses from discontinued operations
in qtr of 309,000 dlrs, vs 253,000 dlrs a year earlier and for
the year of 309,000 dlrs vs 1,559,000 dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Cooper Industries Inc asked the
Federal Trade Commission to vacate a 1979 order that requires
the company to get FTC approval before making certain
acquisitions, the FTC said.
    The order was issued as part of a settlement of FTC charges
that Cooper's merger with Gardner-Denver Co would lessen
competion and increase concentration in the gas compressor and
industrial air tool industries, the FTC said.
    The order requires that, until 1989, Cooper must get FTC
approval before acquiring companies in the natural gas
compressor or hand-held industrial pneumatic tool businesses.
 Reuter

Switzerland expects to launch
fully computerized trading of financial futures and options in
the near future, a senior Swiss official said.
    Alexis Lautenberg, minister for economic and financial
services at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said a stock
index based on issues traded on the three major Swiss exchanges
is expected to be completed this month, marking "an important
step towards the introduction of an option market and index
futures."
    Trading of options will begin next year "with more than a
dozen of the most actively traded shares ... and non-voting
equities," he told the Futures Industry Association.
    The Swiss envision requiring dealers to handle transactions
on the computerized system and market makers to trade specific
equities, Lautenberg said.
    The Swiss official also said there would be limits on the
positions and exercise of option rights and that firms would
have to comply with minimum capital requirements under Swiss
banking law.
    He also said "intensive consultations" were under way with
a view toward allowing profits earned from traded options and
financial futures to be considered capital gains.
    "It would follow that only when a buyer would exercise his
option right by realizing a physical transaction would the
stamp duty, or securities tax, be levied," Lautenberg said.
 Reuter

The European Investment Bank is
issuing a 300 mln Luxembourg franc, seven-year private
placement with a coupon of 7-3/8 pct and priced at par, lead
manager Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat, Banque de l'Etat said.
    Payment date is April 9 and coupon date April 10 annually,
with final maturity on that date in 1994. The issue can be
redeemed early on April 10, 1991, 1992 or 1993 with 45 days'
notice.
 REUTER

Zuercher Ziegeleien AG plans a 60 mln
Swiss franc, 2-1/4 pct domestic bond with warrants for
participation certificates, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The 10-year par-priced bonds of 5,000 francs' face value
carry two warrants (A and B), each of which entitle holders to
acquire one certificate of 100 francs' nominal value.
    The A warrants may be exercised from June 1, 1987, to March
30, 1990, at 800 francs, and the B warrants from June 1, 1987,
to March 30, 1992, at 820 francs. The exercise prices remain in
force after the dilution through an announced rights issue to
be conducted on May 11.
 REUTER

ended February
    Shr 69 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 37.7 mln vs 34.9 mln
    Revs 255.8 mln vs 288.8 mln
    Avg shrs 54.7 mln vs 53.2 mln
    12 mths ended Feb
    Shr 3.23 dlrs vs 3.17 dlrs
    Net 174.8 mln vs 166.3 mln
    Revs 1.4 billion vs 1.5 billion
    Avg shrs 54.1 mln vs 52.4 mln
 Reuter

    Pay May 1
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.44 dlrs vs profit 1.79 dlrs
    Net loss 197.5 mln dlrs vs profit 241.4 mln
    Revs 797.3 mln vs 906.7 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 3.42 dlrs vs profit 45 cts
    Net loss 462.8 mln vs profit 51.8 mln
    Revs 3.04 billion vs 3.48 billion
    Note: Net includes special charges of 65 mln dlrs vs
special gain of 341 mln dlrs for the qtr and year.
 Reuter

The Federal Trade Commission said it
eased a requirement that Allied-Signal Inc's Allied Corp
subsidiary get prior FTC approval before making certain
acquisitions in the high-purity acid market.
    The FTC said it ended the prior approval requirement
because Allied no longer has businesses covered by the order.
Other restrictions still apply, it said.
    The restrcitions stem from a 1983 order by the FTC settling
charges that Allied's 1981 acquisition of Fisher Scientific Co
reduced competition in three high-purity acid markets.
 Reuter

Cash distribution 4.2621 cts vs 3.2384 cts prior
    NOTE: Company's full name is San Juan Basin Royalty Trust.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs nine cts
    Net 5,700,000 vs 1,920,000
    Revs 35.5 mln vs 19.8 mln
    1st half
    Shr 41 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 10.0 mln vs 3,100,000
    Revs 69.3 mln vs 36.7 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split approved
in December 1986.
    Net includes tax credits of 2,970,000 dlrs vs 980,000 dlrs
in quarter and 5,210,000 dlrs vs 1,590,000 dlrs in half.
    Backlog 230 mln dlrs vs 147 mln dlrs at start of fiscal
year and 148 mln dlrs at the end of the first quarter.
 Reuter

U.K. Consumption of lead and zinc in all
forms during January rose to 26,314 and 18,778 tonnes, from
24,967 and 17,929 tonnes respectively in December, latest
figures by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) show.
    Refined lead consumption rose to 23,992 tonnes from 23,194,
while scrap offtake was 2,322 tonnes against 1,773.
    Slab zinc consumption was 14,257 tonnes against 14,190
during December, while offtake of scrap and re-melted metal was
4,521 tonnes against 3,739.
    Meanwhile production of refined lead in January rose to
28,188 tonnes from 23,693 in December, but slab zinc production
fell to 4,490 tonnes from 5,793, the WBMS figures showed.
    Stocks of slab zinc totalled 14,780 tonnes, down from
December's 15,008.
 Reuter

    Net 249,143 vs 175,476
    Sales 3,034,010 vs 2,745,288
 Reuter

has listed the common stock of Landmark Technology Corp, which
had been traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

Cash distribution 3.9737 cts vs 3.0577 cts
    NOTE: Trust's full name is Permian Basin Royalty Trust.
 Reuter

said it has signed an agreement to provide ITT Corp's <ITT> ITT
Mortgage Corp affiliate with a monthly flow of residential
conventional mortgage loans.
    It said the arrangement is expected to be an "important:
source of revenue.
 Reuter

Universal Resources Corp said its
shareholders approved the merger of the company with Questar
Corp <STR>.
    Separately, Universal said it will redeem its 15.75 pct
debentures due December 15, 1996, on April 19, at 104.8 pct of
face amount plus accrued interest.
    Universal said it will operate as a wholly owned unit of
Questar under its current name. Under terms of the merger,
which took effective today, Universal said its shareholders
will receive three dlrs a share in cash.
    It said its stock will no longer trade on the AMEX.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc, halted at 1-3/4 on
NASDAQ pending release of a news report, on Monday said it was
expecting "substantial losses" for the quarter ending March 31,
1987 and the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 1987.
    The company had cited a dispute over payment by Yamaha Inc,
one of its Japanese distributors, over payment of a promissory
note for 3,686,000 dlrs in overdue accounts.
 Reuter

British Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson pledged to continue making defeat of
inflation a top priority.
    Speaking to the ruling Central Council of the Conservative
Party, Lawson said "We will continue to make defeat of inflation
a top priority until it is eliminated altogether."
    Year on year inflation is running at 3.7 pct.
    Lawson said that under the government's program of selling
off state industries to the private sector the number of share-
holders in the country had trebled since 1979 and now
represented one in five of the adult population.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Swiss banks are holding talks with
Protestant and Roman Catholic officials to hear church
complaints about lending to South Africa, the Swiss Bankers'
    In a statement the Association said the parties had
disagreed over economic sanctions.
    But all participants -- representatives of the three
biggest Swiss banks, the Bankers' Association itself, the
churches and church charities -- agreed to condemn South
Africa's apartheid policy both publicly and in contacts with
business and government offices there.
    After two private sessions last August and on March 10,
they agreed the meetings should continue.
    Swiss banks are criticised by the churches who say they are
in effect lending support to the South African government.
    The banks assured the churchmen that their lending had
declined substantially last year and that they had no intention
of building it up as banks from other countries withdrew.
    Pius Haffner of the Catholic charity Justitia et Pax told
Reuters, "It is at least a small step forward when the banks say
publicly they will not jump in when other banks pull out."
 REUTER

Uniforce Temporary
Personnel Inc said it will file in April a registration
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an
offering of 128,250 shares of common stock issuable upon
exercise of common stock purchase warrants.
    The offering is being made at the request of a holder of
the warrants which were issued in 1984 at the time of
Uniforce's initial public offering.
 Reuter

The Federal Trade Commission said
its staff has urged the governor of Georgia to veto a bill that
would prohibit petroleum refiners from owning and operating
retail gasoline stations.
    The proposed legislation is aimed at preventing large oil
refiners and marketers from using predatory or monopolistic
practices against franchised dealers.
    But the FTC said fears of refiner-owned stations as part of
a scheme of predatory or monopolistic practices are unfounded.
It called the bill anticompetitive and warned that it would
force higher gasoline prices for Georgia motorists.
 Reuter

Armstrong World Industries
Inc said its Gilliam Furniture affiliate has purchased a
130,000 square foot building in Troutman, N.C., for undisclosed
terms.
    It said the new plant is expected to be in operation before
year-end and and will more than double Gilliam's production
capacity for upholstered furniture.
 Reuter

INdustrial Electronic Hardware Corp
said it received a 2.1 mln dlrs order from an undisclosed
leading defense contractor.
    INdustrial Electronic manufactures electronic connectors
for the aerospace market.
 Reuter

HUDSON'S BAY CO HAD 1986 WRITEDOWN OF 40.4 MLN DLRS MAINLY ON STAKE IN DOME PETROLEUM

U.N. Conference formally adopts new International Natural Rubber Agreement - chairman

    Record April 20
 Reuter

Combined International Corp said its
board voted to increase the quarterly dividend  7.1 pct to 60
cts a share from 56 cts payable May 26, record May 12.
    It said directors also approved a two-for-one stock split,
subject to approval by shareholders of a proposed capital stock
amendment at the annual meeting in April. The record and pay
dates would be announced later, it said.
 Reuter

American Cablesystems Corp said
it agreed in principal to buy a cable television system in Los
Angeles County from Heritage Communications Inc <HCI> for 15.5
mln dlrs.
    The company said the system being purchased serves about
12,000 subscribers in the towns of Compton, South El Monte,
Hawaiian Gardens and the communities of Willowbrook, Athens,
Firestone, Florence and East Compton.
    It said the acquisition will bring to seven the number of
cable systems it owns, manages or has agreed to buy in the Los
Angeles area.
 Reuter

York Financial Corp, parent company
of York Federal Savings and Loan Association, said its board of
directors declared a five-for-four stock split in the form of a
25 pct stock dividend.
    The company said it will distribute the split on May 5, to
shareholders of record April 20.
 Reuter

ChemLawn Corp said it had no comment
on a sweetened offer from Waste Management Inc <WMX>.
    Waste Management amended its 27 dlr per share tender offer,
raising it to 35 dlrs per share.
    ChemLawn had rejected Waste Management's earlier 27 dlr per
share offer, saying it was an undervalued bid. ChemLawn earlier
told its shareholders not to tender to Waste Management.
    ChemLawn rose 1-7/8 to 36 in over-the-counter trading.
 Reuter

Toyota Motors Sales U.S.A. Inc said it
will raise the price of its 1987 cars by an average 1.8 pct, or
208 dlrs, effective immediately.
    Toyota cited the higher yen as the reason for the increase.
    Prices on some models will not be increased, Toyota noted.
 Reuter

Net profit 305 mln francs vs 258 mln.
    Net dividend 25 francs vs 20 francs.
    Operating loss 696 mln francs vs 1.46 billion.
    Note - The company, which is the French subsidiary of Exxon
Corp. <XON.N>, said its net profit result included the
reintegration of 1.2 billion francs of provisions for exchange
fluctuations.
 Reuter

Pan Am Corp said its largest division,
the Atlantic, will report a first quarter loss that will be
substantially lower than that reported a year ago.
    In the 1986 1st qtr, Pan Am reported a net loss of 118.4
mln dlrs, which included foreign exchange losses of 19.3 mln.
The company did not say how much the Atlantic division lost.
    Pan Am also said it is encouraged by passenger traffic
results so far this year as well as booking trends.
    In January and February, the airline said total systemwide
revenue passenger miles were up five pct and 11 pct,
respectively, over the same months last year.
    It also said that based on current trends, its largest
division should report vastly improved second-quarter traffic
compared to last year, which resulted in a load factor of 45.7
pct for the second quarter of 1986.
    Pan Am also said its principal subsidiary, Pan American
World Airways, had a 1986 net loss of 469.3 mln dlrs, compared
with a profit of 38.7 mln dlrs in 1985, which included a gain
of 341 mln dlrs for the sale of its Pacific Division. It said
the airline's operating loss for the year was 325.5 mln dlrs
compared with a operating profit of 196.5 mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

Cook United INc said it expects
to report a loss a loss of 16 mln dlrs, before an extraordinary
credit of 44 mln dlrs resulting from its Chapter 11
reorganization, on sales of 217 mln dlrs for the year ended
January 31, 1987.
    For 1986, Cook reported a loss of 30.8 mln dlrs on sales of
257 mln dlrs for the prior year.
    Cook also said it began preliminary talks with private
investors looking to buy a stock position in order to provide
Cook with additional cash and assist its posture in its
negotation with its banks.
    Cook is negotiating with its bank lenders and private
sources for a borrowing facility to relieve its current working
capital requirements.
    Cook said it believes the reasons for its losses since
OCtober have been identified and are mostly non-recurring.
    Shutting down 12 unprofitable stores since November has   
effectuated cost controls and improved merchandising, it said.
    It anticipates the turnaround will contine and that
profitability with be restored. Cook now operates a total of 29
stores.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said it is the
target of a formal private investigation by the Securities and
Exchange Commission as well as the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
    The company also said its independent accounts, Peat,
Marwick, Mitchell and Co, served notice that its report on
Endotronics' financial statements as of Sept 30, 1986 and for
the year then ended should no longer be relied upon.
    Endotronics said the notice from its accountants stated 
"we cannot satisfy ourselves as to the true facts of the
situation to a degree necessary to continue to be associated
with such consolidated financial statements."
    Endotronics recently reported that it was reviewing the
need to establish a reserve for all or a portion of
approximately 3,686,000 dlrs in overdue accounts receivable and
to assess the impact, if any, on prior period financial
statements in light of a dispute with one of its Japanese
distributors over payment of the overdue accounts.
    Endotronics said it was providing documentation to the
Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with that
agency's investigation.
    It also said Michael Gruenberg resigned from the company's
board of directors.

 Reuter

Agreement, INRA, was formally adopted by a United Nations
Conference today.
    The new accord is due to replace the current one, which
expires in October.
    Conference chairman Manaspas Xuto of Thailand said the
formal adoption represented "a historic moment."
    The latest round of talks, which began March 9, represented
the fourth attempt to negotiate a new INRA in nearly two years.
Xuto described the negotiations as "by no means easy, and we
often faced problems."
    The new pact is due to enter into force provisionally when
ratified by countries accounting for 75 pct of world net
exports and 75 pct of net imports.
    The new INRA will enter into force definitively when
governments accounting for at least 80 pct of net exports and
80 pct of net imports have ratified it.
    It will be open for signature from May 1 to December 31
this year.
    It is expected that provisional entry into force will take
at least 12 to 14 months from now, delegates said.
    During the hiatus between the two agreements buffer stock
operations will be suspended, but the International Natural
Rubber Council will remain in place.
    Xuto told the conference both the 1979 agreement and its
successor were aimed at meeting the needs of producers and
consumers of natural rubber over the long term.
    Both had interest in stabilising prices and supplies, Xuto
added. He also praised "the spirit of 'give' and 'take' that
prevailed throughout this session."
    Ahmed Farouk of Malaysia, speaking on behalf of producers,
said the conclusion of the new pact showed that the mutuality
of interests between producers and consumers is now as valid as
it was when negotiations of the first agreement began in the
1970s.
    Farouk said the ability to manage inventories on the basis
of predictable stable prices is "a vital consideration for
multinational tire companies, whether or not consuming
countries as a whole claimed to be no longer so seriously
concerned about security of the rubber supply."
    He said producers considered that the 1979 agreement had
served the purpose for which it was created.
    Farouk urged consuming countries to promote early accession
to the new pact "to avoid an undue gap between the old and the
new.
    Gerard Guillonneau of France, speaking for consumers,
agreed that the 1979 agreement had worked relatively well.
    But as economic conditions had changed, he said, consumers
had been led to make proposals for improving its functioning.
    He added that the adoption of the new agreement "attests to
the importance of rubber and confidence in the rubber industry."
 Reuter

Advanced Institutional Management
Software Inc said it has cut its workforce to 53 from 74 and
closed its Atlanta office to cut expenses and improve
profitability.
    The company said it is also in the process of reducing its
office space in four of its six offices nationwide.
    Advanced also said it has named executive vice president
Steven B. Sheppard chief operating officer.
    The company said president and chief executive officer
Morris Moliver had been chief operating officer as well.
 Reuter

Sun State Savings and Loan
expects to report an earnings increase this year over 1986,
Chairman Edward Janos told shareholders at the company's annual
meeting.
    In a statement, Janos said core earnings are expected to
average 1.5 mln dlrs per quarter, or six mln dlrs for the year,
while sales of real estate joint ventures will add another five
mln during the year.
    In 1986, Sun State reported earnings of 9,427,000 dlrs, or
2.05 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co does
not plan to reduce its regular quarterly dividend of 30 cts a
share on its common stock, said James E. Olson, chairman.
    "It has been the intent to set the dividend at a level so
that it could be sustained through the ups and downs of the
business cycle," Olson told a meeting of securities analysts.
    "We see no reason to change that policy," he said.
    Although ATT will maintain its current dividend, Olson said
the company wants to decrease the percentage of earnings paid
in dividends by increasing earnings.
    Industry analysts had speculated that ATT might cut its
common dividend, especially after the company posted a fourth
quarter net loss of 1.17 billion dlrs and earned only five cts
a share for the full year.
    The loss included a one-time restructuring charge of 1.7
    Olson said he expects ATT's cash flow to remain strong
despite the poor earnings.
 Reuter

A strike by 9,000 miners employed by the
state corporation Comibol has paralysed tin production in the
major centers of Huanuni, Corocoro, Siglo, Catavi and Colquiri,
the Conflicts Secretary of the Bolivian Miners Federation,
Cristobal Aranibar, told Reuters.
     The strike began at midnight to press demands for higher
wages and more funds for the nationalised mining industry.
     The miners federation left the door open to negotiations
with the government but "only if the authorities show their
intention to find solution to our demands", Aranibar said.
    The government of president Victor Paz Estenssoro, faced
with mounting social unrest against its economic policies, has
said the miners strike was part of a campaign to discredit it
during the visit of West German president, Richard von
Weizsaecker, who arrives today for a four-day official visit.
    The government froze salaries as part of its efforts to
pull Bolivia out of a deep economic crisis. According to
central bank forecasts inflation will reach an annual 10 pct
rate versus up to 20,000 pct in 1985.
     In addition to the miners' strike, about 1,000 railway
factory workers of the bolivian labour organization (COB) began
a second day of a hunger strike in the country's main cities to
press for substantial wage increases, a union leader said.
 Reuter

<Allied-Lyons PLC> sees rising profits
from 51-pct-owned liquor producer Hiram Walker-Gooderham and
Worts in the current fiscal year ending in early March, 1988,
chairman Derrick Holden-Brown said in a speech prepared for
delivery to Toronto analysts.
    "We anticipate that Hiram Walker profits will be well above
those of the plateau years," he said, referring to the four
years up to 1985.
    "In other words, we will have regained the 1985 position
and improved on it," Holden-Brown said.
    Allied-Lyons won control of Hiram Walker-Gooderham last
year in a battle against Gulf Canada Corp, which finally got a
49 pct stake after an out-of-court settlement.
    Hiram Walker Resources Ltd, the previous owner, reported
liquor profits of 282 mln Canadian dlrs in the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30, 1985, 278 mln dlrs in 1984, 267 mln in 1983,
294 mln in 1982 and 280 mln in 1981.
    Holden-Brown said Allied-Lyons' financial results for the
fiscal year just ended March seven would include three months
of Hiram Walker-Gooderham profits, but he did not provide
actual figures.
    He said Hiram Walker-Gooderham's profit improvement in the
current year will come from a previously announced
reorganization put into effect March 1, 1987 and a close
partnership with Allied-Lyons' existing Allied Vintners
division.
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 11,784,000 vs 8,302,000
    Rev 269.1 mln vs 211.9 mln
    Six months
    Shr 48 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 23,191,000 vs 16,556,000
    Rev 517.5 mln vs 429.3 mln
   
 Reuter

    Oper shr profit 3.98 dlrs vs profit 4.35 dlrs
    Oper net profit 123.6 mln vs profit 108.3 mln
    Revs 1.88 billion vs 1.76 billion
    Year
    Oper shr profit 32 cts vs loss 1.23 dlrs
    Oper net profit 33.0 mln vs loss 9,055,000
    Revs 5.69 billion vs 5.27 billion
    Note: 1986 excludes writeoff of 40.4 mln dlrs, primarily
due to investment in Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>.
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 9,909,000 vs 11,489,000
    Revs 185.9 mln vs 161.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 1.37 dlrs
    Net 22,522,000 vs 25,667,000
    Revs 588.5 mln vs 521.7 mln
 Reuter

DST Systems Inc said its
president and director, Robert L. Gould, died of an apparent
heart attack.
    It said his duties will be assumed by Thomas McDonnell, the
company's chief executive officer.
    Mr. Gould had served as president and chief operating
officer since October, 1984.
 Reuter

Great American First Savings Bank
Arizona said it has opened four new branches located in Fry's
Food Stores.
    The branches are all in the Tucson area.
    Great American opened nine branches in Fry's Food Stores in
1986 and opened two earlier this year.
    The company said two more will open next week.
 Reuter

    Net profit 24,000 vs loss 66,000
    Revs 235,000 vs 93,000
    Six mths
    Net profit 40,000 vs loss 153,000
    Revs 394,000 vs 99,000
 Reuter

Jorio Dauster, president of the
Brazilian Coffee Institute, IBC, left Brazil early today to
attend a weekend meeting of Latin American coffee producers in
Managua, an IBC official said.
    Carlos Brasil, an adviser to the IBC president, said
Dauster had left Rio de Janeiro for Managua early this morning.
    There were rumours on the London coffee market earlier
today that Dauster would not attend the meeting.
 Reuter

Banco di Roma (London branch) has
arranged a 200 mln dlr nominal Euro-commercial paper program,
Swiss Bank Corporation International Ltd said as sold dealer.
    The borrower will be able to issue paper with maturities of
seven to 365 days in other avialable currencies, such as
European Currency Units. However, it could not issue sterling
commercial paper because Bank of England rules prohibit an
issuer of certificates of deposit to issue paper denominated in
stg. Banco di Roma (London branch) has a certificate of deposit
program in the market under which the securities are traded.
The program will be aimed at end investor placement.
 Reuter

Miners at Spain's state-owned Hulleras
del Norte S.A. (Hunosa) coal company have called a 72-hour
strike starting on Monday to protest against a restructuring
plan that entails layoffs, union sources said.
    They said more stoppages would follow in coming weeks.
    The unions rejected a company compromise proposal to extend
the period of the restructuring plan to four years instead of
two and said there should be no job losses.
    The company wants to shed some 2,000 jobs and start cutting
back on production to help boost productivity by five pct
yearly to the year 2000.

(Mountain View Investment
Corp), Phoenix, Ariz., said it acquired Maratech Communications
Cos Inc.
    Under terms of the transaction, the present directors of
Mountain View have resigned and have elected directors of
Maratech as new directors of Mountain View.
    It said a combined shareholders' meeting will soon be held
to vote on the acquisition.
 Reuter

High interest rates, sluggish global
economic growth and creeping protectionism are deepening the
third world debt crisis, senior Mexican officials said.
    Finance minister Gustavo Petricioli said today's signing of
a 76 billion dlr new-loan and rescheduling package for Mexico
was the most comprehensive and far-reaching effort in debt
management yet achieved for a sovereign borrower.
    But, in remarks prepared for the signing ceremony, he
warned against complacency. "The debt problem is not solved. If
anything, it has been exacerbated by recent events."
    "The inequities of the international economic environment
conspire against the welfare and stability of developing
countries," Petricioli added. The debt problem will not be
solved unless developing countries are allowed to grow, he
argued. "There will be no solution without the further
development of trade throughout the world.".
    Director of public credit Angel Gurria told reporters that
Mexico's economy should resume growth this year, but he said
external conditions are not favorable. Latin America is
grappling with adverse terms of trade, for instance, as
underlined by the recent slide in coffee prices.
    Interest rates remain unacceptably high in real terms,
Gurria added. "Inflation has literally disappeared from the
face of the earth in the industrialized world, but interest
rates are still near seven pct."
    Industrial powers must also improve the coordination of
their economic policies to boost unacceptably low growth rates
and to keep export markets open, said Gurria, who is Mexico's
chief debt negotiator.
    The officials also had a blunt warning for those banks that
refuse to participate in the loan package: Do not expect to get
much business with Mexico in the future.
    About 60 of Mexico's 430 or so creditor banks worldwide
have still to join the loan, but four more acceptances were
received today, according to senior Citibank executive William
Rhodes, who is co-chairman of Mexico's advisory committee.
    "Those who supported us today can be sure that Mexico will
continue to be open and willing to share with them the business
opportunities which its future growth will create.
    "Those few who have denied their responsibility have turned
their backs on this remarkable effort of international
cooperation, on the financial system and on their enlightened
colleagues," Petricioli said.
    One way that Mexico could punish recalcitrant banks would
be to deny, or at least slow down, applications to convert
Mexican debt into equity investments within the country.
    "We will be a lot more expeditious in processing the
requests of banks that have supported us," Gurria said, adding,
"We have long memories."
    Debt-equity conversions are an attractive way for banks to
provide clients with subsidized pesos for investment in Mexico
and to collect handsome brokerage fees or reduce their own
Mexican exposure in the process.    
    The growing popularity of the scheme was underlined this
week when American Express Bank, which has joined the new
Mexican package, said it plans to convert 100 mln dlrs of its
own loans into an equity stake in hotel projects in Mexico.
    Mexico halted the debt-equity program on Feb. 25 to force
banks to concentrate on wrapping up the financing pakcage, and
Gurria said it would resume once the first part of the six
billion dlr loan that forms the core of the deal is disbursed.
    The loan is now 99 pct subscribed. Gurria said Mexico hopes
to close the books by the middle of April in time for a
drawdown by the end of April.
    Although the agreements were signed in the sumptuous
surroundings of a midtown Manhattan hotel, the atmosphere of
the signing ceremony was rather subdued, with bankers and
officials showing little of the elation and relief that
normally follows the conclusion of a mammoth deal.
    After five months of arduous work syndicating the loan,
debt fatigue was apparent and the talk was of ways to make the
financing process less cumbersome.
    "This (package) has been harder than all the others... I
hope we find a way that's not so debilitating for the people
who have to put them together," Gurria said.
 Reuter

American Can Co chairman Gerald Tsai
said the company will record higher earnings in the first
quarter and for the full year.
    Addressing analysts, Tsai said "First quarter results have
been extremely encouraging and results for all of 1987 will
show significant improvement over 1986."
    American Can earned 196.3 mln dlrs, or 3.21 dlrs per share,
adjusted for a two-for-one stock split, in 1986.
    In the 1986 first quarter, the company reported net income
of 67.5 mln dlrs, including one-time gains from sale of assets,
or 2.30 dlrs per share, before the stock adjustment.
    In the 1987 first quarter, American Can will record a
one-time gain of 28 cts per share from the sale of shares in
its Musicland Group subsidiary. The gain is slightly higher
than the expected gain the company predicted in February
because additional shares of the unit were sold.
    In response to a question, Tsai said American Can's
investment in Jefferies and Co is "very small".
    "We treat it as just another passive investment," he said.
According to press reports, American Can owns 20 pct of
Jefferies and is its largest single shareholder.
    Yesterday, Boyd Jefferies, chairman and founder of the
brokerage firm bearing his name, resigned from the firm and
said he would plead guilty to two felony charges for breaking
    Responding to another question, Tsai said AIDS-related
claims were a small portion of claims made with American Can's
insurance subsidiaries in 1986.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Charter-Crellin Inc said it signed a
letter of intent to acquire all outstanding shares of <Sebro
Plastics Inc's> capital stock.
    Charter-Crellin, a molded plastic product maker, said Sebro
is a precision molder of engineered specialty plastic products
for the automotive industry.
    The company said the deal is subject to the execution of a
definitive purchase agreement.
 Reuter

New York State Electric and
Gas Corp said it has terminated its effort to acquire Corning
Natural Gas Corp.
    It cited as reasons the uncertain regulatory climate in New
York State and the depresed price of New York State Electric
stock which has been caused by the delay in the Nine Mile Point
Unit Two nuclear plant.
    The company had said in December that it had been
interested in acquiring Corning Natural Gas.
 Reuter

<Black Hawk Mining Inc> said it knows
of "no major activities" to account for the recent rise in the
company's stock price.
    The shares rose 11 cts to 88 cts on the Toronto Stock
Exchange yesterday.
    The company added that its application for its proposed
acquisition of <Platinova Resources Ltd> and financings are
still before the listing committee of the stock exchange.
 Reuter

Seagram Co Ltd's Joseph E. Seagram and
Sons Inc said it is realigning its Fine Wine operations
following last week's sale of its medium-priced table wines
business.
    Seagram Vintners, the entity under which all fine wine
operations were group, is being dissolved, the company said.
The Seagram Classic Wine Co will move its operations to the
West Coast, the company said.
    Seagram Chateau and Estate Wines Co will continue to be
headquartered in New York, the company said.
 Reuter

The chairman of the Senate antitrust
subcommittee said the Transportation Department was allowing
too many airline mergers and proposed its authority be
transfered to the Justice Department.
    "The Transportation Department's antitrust enforcement has
been disastrous, permitting rampant merger mania," Ohio
Democrat Howard Metzenbaum said in a statement.
    "The nine largest airlines now control 94 per cent of the
market. That's bad for competition and bad for the consumer,"
he said.
    Metzenbaum said he introduced a bill to transfer antitrust
authority over airline mergers to the Justice Department in
hopes it would more restrictive than the Transportation
Department.
 Reuter

Sharper Image Corp said it
1,445,000 shares of its common stock.
    The offering would be comprised of 1.2 mln shares of newly
issued stock and 245,000 shares offered by certain selling
    Net proceeds would be used to finance the opening of new
stores and for working capital.
    The offering is scheduled for April and would be
underwritten by a group managed by L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg,
Towbin Inc and Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
 Reuter

said the water-clarity problem delaying the removal of fuel
from the damaged Unit Two of the Three Mile Island nuclear
power plant appears to have been resolved.
    The company said the slower than expected removal of the
fuel, which has been primarily due to the water-clarity
problems, is now expected to extend fuel removal into 1988.
    A spokesman said the company had previously expected this
to be completed by the end of 1987 and has not estimated how
far into 1988 the process will extend. It still expects to
complete the entire clean-up by the end of 1988, he added.
    GPU said its auditors, Coopers and Lybrand, again qualified
its opinion of GPU's financial statements, adding the recovery
of TMI-2 decommissioning costs to the unresolved issues leading
to the qualified opinion.
    GPU said its operating subsidiaries will seek to recover
the costs of decommissioning TMI-2 in future rate proceedings.
    As in past years, the qualified opinion continues to list
other uncertainties associated with the accident, which damaged
TMI-2 -- the recovery of cleanup costs and any payments for
damages that might exceed available insurance proceeds.
 Reuter

Echlin Inc said it expects
further earnings increases for the second half of fiscal 1987
ending in August due to unit sales growth and improved
    "As expected, market conditions have improved so that
demand for automotive replacement parts is gradually and
steadily expanding," Echlin president Frederick Mancheski said.
    Earlier, Echlin reported first half fiscal 1987, ended Feb
28, earnings of 23.2 mln dlrs, or 48 cts a share, up from 16.6
mln, or 40 cts a share, in the prior year's first half.
    Also, Echlin said it had second quarter net income of 11.8
mln dlrs, or 24 cts per share, compared with net income of 8.3
mln dlrs, or 20 cts a share, in fiscal 1986's second quarter.
 Reuter

chairman James E. Olson said he is very pleased with the
company's efforts so far to cut costs.
    He told a meeting of securities analysts that, although the
company is not yet at point in its cost-cutting drive to
improve profit margins, it is "on the right track."
    Olson said ATT's cash flow was "very strong in the first
two months of the year, better than budgeted."
    While Olson does not know if the company's earnings and
revenues will improve by yearend, he said ATT is "moving in the
proper direction."
    For 1986, ATT's earnings dropped to 139 mln dlrs, or five
cts a share, on revenues of 34.1 billion dlrs, from 1.56
billion dlrs, or 1.37 dlrs a share, on revenues of 34.4 billion
    During 1986 ATT took 3.2 billion dlrs in charges from
expenses related to reducing its work force by 32,000.
 Reuter

<Hudson's Bay Co> said a writeoff of
40.4 mln dlrs, or 1.39 dlrs per share, that it took in 1986 was
mainly due to its investment in Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>.
     The company reported an operating profit of 33.0 mln dlrs,
or 32 cts per share, for fiscal 1986, compared to an operating
loss of 9,055,000 dlrs, or 1.23 dlrs per share, in the previous
year.
     Hudson's Bay holds about four mln shares of Dome's 10 pct
series one cumulative subordinate convertible preferred shares.
    Last March, Dome suspended payment of dividends on all
preferred shares until June 1, 1987. The shares give the holder
the right to convert to Dome common shares at 3.33 dlrs per
share.
    Dome has the right to force conversion if Dome common
reaches 3.885 dlrs per share. Dome is trading at 1.12 dlrs per
share, down one ct, today on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    Hudson's Bay also said it had an increase in 1986 in retail
operating profit to 185.3 mln dlrs from 111.4 mln dlrs, but
that was partially offset by an increase of 14.9 mln dlrs in
interest costs and 25.3 mln dlrs in taxes.
     Hudson's Bay also said its Markborough properties
subsidiary had an operating profit of 108.6 mln dlrs, up from
98.8 mln dlrs the year before.
    Profit from non-Markborough real estate was 23.5 mln dlrs
in 1986, down from 27.6 mln dlrs a year ago.
    Operating profit from natural resources was 4.2 mln dlrs,
up 1.2 mln dlrs from the prior year. Pensions costs were
reduced by 34.9 mln dlrs due to an accounting change. Total
debt declined during the year by 251 mln dlrs to 2.28 billion
dlrs and debt to equity ratio improved to 1.8 to one from 2.1
to one.
 Reuter

French bank Credit Lyonnais said it
signed a protocol of agreement with the Soviet Union to
establish a joint financial group to help set up and finance
joint ventures between the Soviet Union and western firms.
    It said in a statement it signed the agreement here with
the Soviet central bank (Gosbank) and foreign trade bank
(Vneshtorgbank), following the announcement earlier today of a
similar, but wholly separate, agreement between the Soviet
Union and Banque de l'Union Europeenne.
    No joint ventures have yet been finalised under January
1987 Soviet laws enabling joint ventures although some
protocols of intent aiming at their establishment have already
been agreed between western firms and the Soviet Union.
 Reuter

President Reagan is to nominate John
Shad, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC,
as ambassador to the Netherlands, the White House said today.
    Shad, 63, a former executive with the Wall Street firm of
E.F. Hutton and Co., would succeed L. Paul Bremer, now the
State Department's chief counter-terrorism expert.
    The White House also said that Reagan will nominate career
diplomat Sol Polansky, 60, as ambassador to Bulgaria. Polansky
previously served in Moscow, Poland, East Germany, Austria and
other posts.
    The nominations are subject to Senate approval.
 Reuter

Japan has agreed to drop barriers to
American-caught herring and pollock, opening the way for
shipments that could reach 300 mln dlrs annually, U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter announced.
    Yeutter said the accord was reached after extensive
bilateral negotiations that ended earlier today in Tokyo.
    He said the Commerce Department estimated U.S. shipments of
processed pollock products and herring should rise to 85 mln
dlrs this year and to more than 300 mln dlrs annually in later
years.
    There was no immediate assessment of the value of current
U.S. shipments, but officials said the pact would lift quotas
to the point that Americans would be able to ship nearly all
the pollock and herring ordered by Japanese firms.
    At the same time, Yeutter said Washington was temporarily
suspending a complaint with the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) that Japan was unfairly curbing imports of the
two fish.
    He said the complaint would be reviewed later this year
after an assessment to see if Japan lived up to the agreement.
 Reuter

First Union National Bank of
Florida, a unit of First Union Corp, said it has electronically
linked its Florida and North Carolina 24-hour banking machines.
    The bank said the service, which starts April 15, will let
First Union customers make withdrawals and balance inquiries at
any of its locations in Florida and North Carolina.
    "This link-up will give customers immediate access to their
accounts without additional cost whether they are in Florida or
in North Carolina," said B.J. Walker, vice chairman of First
Union Corp and chairman, president and chief executive officer
of First Union National Bank.
 Reuter

REAGAN WILL NOMINATE SEC CHAIRMAN SHAD AS AMBASSADOR TO NETHERLANDS

acquired the data processing contracts and certain related
assets of Tel-A-Data L.P. for about 5.7 mln dlrs cash plus the
assumption of certain liabilities of about 2.5 mln dlrs.
    Tel-A-Data serves about 50 bank and thrift institutions
through a processing center in Lombard, Illinois.
    First Financial offers data processing services to over 800
financial institutions through 35 data processing centers.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Oper shr loss 22 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Oper net profit 1,013,000 vs profit
    2,219,000
    Sales 77.0 mln vs 74.0 mln
    Avg shrs 5,107,401 vs 5,361,793
 Reuter

Genisco Technology Corp's
Genisco Peripheral Systems unit said it set a pact with
Westward Technology Ltd, based in England, to exchange
technology efforts and grant mutual distribution rights to a
variety of computer graphics products.
    Under the pact, Westard and Genisco will sell both
companies' graphics products in Europe and the U.S.
    The two companies will also swap equipment repair
operations and expand their overall sales forces.
 Reuter

There are heightened fears that "El
Nino" may be returning to Peru with an intensity approaching the
1983 disaster, which affected the weather on several continents
and caused widespread damage through floods and drought, the
U.S. Agriculture Department's officer in Lima said in a field
report.
    Continued heavy rains in the northern coastal area,
flooding of several major rivers and mud slides have led to
increased concern, the report, dated March 17, said.
    However, it said official sources still believe that this
year's El Nino will have only weak to moderate intensity.
    EL Nino is a phenomenon involving a shift in winds and
waters in the pacific.
    The USDA report said that so far the El Nino now being
experienced has not had an overall negative impact on
agricultural production.
    Excessive rains in the Piura Pima cotton area may reduce
yields by about 20 pct due to excessive growth too early in the
crop cycle.
    Also insect damage to crops could be more extensive where
excessive moisture exists, it said.
    However, the El Nino has resulted in a much improved supply
of irrigation water in the major dams which will improve
prospects for many crucial crops such as rice and corn, and
slow the decline in sugar production, it said.
    If El Nino picks up momentum, Peru's fishing industry could
receive a setback. But trade sources still believe the fish
catch for industrial processing will reach 5.5 mln tonnes in
1987, almost 20 pct above last year, the report said.
    Water temperatures in the northern fishing areas are three
to four degrees centigrade above normal but still not high
enough to drive the fish to cooler southern waters, it said.
    It said there is still the outside chance that El Nino will
intensify and carry on through late March, April and May
causing problems as crops approach harvest.
    "There appears to be no way to project the course of El Nino
-- only time will tell," the report said.
 Reuter

<Allied-Lyons PLC> will report
substantial growth in the second half of fiscal 1987 ended
March 7, chairman Derrick Holden-Brown said in answer to
reporters' queries.
    "You will certainly see substantial growth in Allied-Lyons
in the second half," Holden-Brown said following a presentation
to Toronto securities analysts.
    Holden-Brown declined to say whether second half growth in
profit before taxes would exceed the 20.7 pct rise reported in
the first half. Allied-Lyons had first half profit of 148.0 mln
stg, up from 122.6 mln stg in the prior year.
    Allied-Lyons will also have a full year extraordinary cost
of slightly more than seven mln stg for defence costs
associated with Elders IXL Ltd's failed take-over bid for the
company, Holden-Brown also said.
    But that cost will be more than offset by an extraordinary
gain of about 60 mln stg on Allied-Lyons' sale of its 24.9 pct
interest in Australian brewers Castlemaine Toohey, he said.
    "So with Australians, you win some and you lose some. But
hopefully you win them all in the end," Holden-Brown said.
    Asked if he thought Allied-Lyons is vulnerable to other
take-over attempts, Holden-Brown replied: "No, I don't."
    "We must never be complacent and we must always be very
watchful, but I think we would be very expensive," he said.
    Holden-Brown said Allied-Lyons' share price to corporate
earnings ratio is now comparable with other leading companies
in the food and beverage industry.
    "That was not the case two years ago. If the Australians had
come a little bit earlier, they might have had more luck, I
think," Holden-Brown said.
    Holden-Brown said Allied-Lyons' move to acquire Hiram
Walker-Gooderham and Worts Ltd in March, 1986 during Elders
take-over bid for the company was "100 pct a growth action."
    "We knew when we did it that it could be misconstrued, and
that people almost inevitably would say (the acquisition was)
defensive, but it never was," Holden-Brown told reporters.
    Asked by securities analysts if Allied-Lyons plans a share
issue in Canada after acquiring a 51 pct interest in Hiram
Walker, Holden-Brown responded: "Plan might be too strong a
word. But I must say I do feel the need for Allied-Lyons to be
better known in Canada."
 Reuter

U.S. FROZEN ORANGE JUICE STOCKS - MARCH 1  102,618,000 GALLONS VS 97,111,000 YEAR AGO

U.S. COLD STORAGE STOCKS - MARCH 1 FROZEN PORK BELLIES - LBS - 34,471,000, VS A REVISED 34,900,000 ON FEB 1 AND 51,218,000 A YEAR AGO.

Shr 82 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 1,661,000 vs 1,251,000
    Revs 14.8 mln vs 11.6 mln
 Reuter

The U.S. budget was in deficit 28.37
billion dlrs in February, up from a deficit of 24.58 billion
dlrs in February, 1986, the Treasury Department said.
    Last month's deficit compared with a January deficit of
2.17 billion dlrs. For the fiscal year to date, the budget was
in deficit by 93.92 billion dlrs, compared with 106.2 billion
dlrs in the previous fiscal year, the Treasury said.
    Outlays last month totaled 83.83 billion dlrs, more than
the 77.95 billion dlrs of outlays in February a year ago but
slightly down from 83.94 billion dlrs in January, the Treasury
said.
    Receipts were 55.46 billion dlrs last month, up from 53.37
billion dlrs in February, 1986, but down from 81.77 billion
dlrs in January.
 Reuter

traders' immediate reaction to the cold storage report for pork
bellies was neutral to slightly negative.
    Frozen pork belly stocks at 34.5 mln lbs on March 1
compared with a revised 34.9 mln lbs on February 1 for a net
out movement of 0.5 mln lbs.
    The number on hand compared with trade guesses of 33.5 to
36 mln lbs and the year ago figure of 51.2 mln lbs.
    Traders said the figure was toward the upper end of
expectations and may provide slight downward pressure because
of recent sharp gains in futures.
 Reuter

American Express Co said it was
subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in
connection with documents on transactions in securities of
American Express and its former unit, Fireman's Fund.
    American Express said its brokerage unit, Shearson Lehman
Brothers Inc was also served with a subpoena. Shearson acted as
co-manager in the underwriting of units of Fireman's common
stock and warrants last May, was also served with a subpoena,
it said.
    American Express said the subpoena to Shearson relates to
transactions with Jefferies and Co and others.
    American Express said it and Shearson intend to comply with
all requests from the SEC and to cooperate fully. American
Express said neither company is aware of any unlawful conduct
with respect to the matters and a thorough investigation is
    American Express said the subpoenas were received
yesterday, and that it and Shearson were unaware of any inquiry
prior to receiving the subpoenas.
    Yesterday, Boyd Jefferies, founder of Jefferies Group, said
he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts of securities
violations.
    Jefferies also settled charges with the Securities and
Exchange Commission of market manipulation and another scheme
with Ivan Boesky, who has settled SEC charges of insider
trading.
    Jefferies' firm was censured by the SEC and ordered to
retain an outside consultant to review its procedures.
    In documents filed on Jefferies yesterday, the SEC did not
identify who was involved in the market manipulation scheme
aside from Jefferies. It said "a certain issuer," which held
controlling interest in a second public company, offered
several mln shares of the company's common stock to the public
in a secondary offering during 1986.
    The SEC alleged that Boyd Jefferies carried out a scheme
with an unidentified person to drive up the price of the second
company's stock prior to the offering by having the Jefferies
firm trade in the stock.
    Jefferies and co was allegedly compensated for the loss
from those trading activities after sending a fake invoice to
another unnamed person, the government charged.
    American Express first offered Fireman's Fund Corp's stock
to the public in 1985. It lowered its holding from 100 pct to
41 pct. In May, 1986, it reduced its ownership interest to 27
pct by completing a public offering of nine mln units.
    Each unit consisted of one share of common and one warrant
to buy Fireman's fund. The warrants are exercisable from the
issue date through March, 1989.
    At the same time, American Express sold warrants directly
to Fireman's Fund to purchase five mln shares. Those warrants
are exercisable between November, 1988 and March 1991.
    American Express said if all warrants were exercised it
would own about 13 pct of Fireman's fund.
    American Express stock fell 1-1/2, to 77-1/4 on volume of
1.9 mln shares. The stock had been strong in the last two days,
first on rumors, then an announcement of an understanding
American Express reached to sell Nippon Life Insurance Co 13
pct of Shearson.
    Wall Street has also been anticipating American Express
will sell a stake in the brokerage unit to the public as well.
    E.F. Hutton analyst Michael Lewis said he does not believe
the subpoenas will affect Nippon's deal with American Express,
but it could result in a delay of the public offering
anticipated for Shearson.

    "If they're forced to keep a bigger percentage of Shearson
a little longer...big deal. They're certainly not going to
throw Shearson away. Shearson is still an attractive asset," he
said.
    American Express has not commented on speculation it would
offer part of Shearson to the public, but it has said it was
continuing to review options for the brokerage.
    Analysts had speculated an offering of a part of Shearson
would be forthcoming shortly.
    "It puts a cloud over it for a while...The market is
anxious to see them consumate whatever they were going to
consumate," Lewis said.
 Reuter

raised to A-1 from A-2 American Security Corp's commercial
paper.
    S and P also upgraded, to A and A-1 from BBB-plus and A-2
respectively, the certificates of deposit of American
Security's lead bank, American Security Bank N.A.
    The rating agency said the actions reflected the firm's
merger with what it termed a stronger Maryland National Corp,
as well as American's improving performance. S and P said the
merger would allow American Security to diversify its wholesale
funding base.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp's proposed
public offering of 24 pct of its Health and Tennis Corp unit is
seen as the first step towards the sale of the entire unit,
    "In the longer-term horizon, Bally wants to concentrate on
its gaming businesses," said analyst Dennis Forst of Seidler
Amdec Securities Inc.
    Last week, Bally said it was considering the sale of
another non-casino unit, its Six Flags amusement park unit,
which analysts said could fetch about 300 mln dlrs.
    Bally spokesman Bill Peltier said "the company currently
has no hard plans to the sell any more of the health club
company, but in the long term we'll wait and see how the
offering goes."
    Once Bally's biggest revenue producer, the health club unit
had 1986 operating income of 60 mln dlrs on revenues of 456.2
mln dlrs, 28 pct of Bally's revenues. Analysts estimate the
unit could be sold for for 300-500 mln dlrs.
    Analysts said Bally's decision to offer shares in the unit
could be the first step to selling it.
    "It would seem obvious that an offering would decrease the
health club unit's debt, increase its cash flow and operating
income, making it an attractive buy to a third party," Steven
Eisenberg of Bear Stearns said.
    On Monday, Bally said it filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for an initial offering of 24 pct, or 5.8
mln shares, of the unit's common stock at 13-15 dlrs a share.
   About half the proceeds, 40 mln dlrs, will be used to reduce
parent Bally Manufacturing's debt which has swelled to 1.6
billion dlrs due to recent hotel acquisitions and the purchase
of shares from Donald Trump who had threatened a hostile
takeover, according to Bally treasurer Paul Johnson.
    Remaining proceeds from the stock offering and from a
separate offering of 50 mln dlrs of 20-year convertible
subordinated debt would be used to repay about 75 mln dlrs of
short term senior bank debt of the health chain unit, a Bally
spokesperson said.
    Analysts said Bally's health club unit's profits have
remained strong, but are skeptical about the industry's long
range prospects.
    "The fitness club industry, over the last 10 years, has
grown tremendously, but the question is whether its a fad or a
permanent part of our lifestyle," said Eisenberg of Bear
Stearns.
    Analysts said fitness clubs will likely flourish if the
public stays at its peak of health consciousness, but that
overcapacity is likely to occur as consumer enthusiasm wanes.
     In addition, "the returns in the fitness club industry are
just not as high as they are in the gaming industry," said one
analyst.
     There are about 6,500 fitness clubs in the U.S., excluding
clubs run by not-for-profit organizations, according to the
Association of Physical Fitness Centers who estimates it to be
an 8.0-billion-dlr-a-year industry.
     Asked if anyone has offered to buy the unit, which is the
nation's largest health club chain, Peltier said, "no one has
the money to offer to buy it."
    "The fitness industry is a fragmented industry with no
leader and there is a great opportunity for growth through
acquisition and then standardization," said Wayne LaChapelle,
chief financial officer of Livingwell INc <WELL>, the nation's
second largest fitness chain operator whih
    LaChapelle said Livingwell is always interested in
acquisition opportunities but "could not afford an acquisition
the size of Bally at this time."
 Reuter

Commercial Credit Co said its
American Health and Life Insurance Co sold its ordinary life
insurance business to American National Insurance Co <ANAT>.
    American National will assume the business no later than
August 31, 1987, Commercial Credit said.
    The sale is part of a restructuring program begun by
Commercial Credit's subsidiary in late 1986, the company said.
 Reuter

Delta Air Lines <DAL> said a court
order requiring Western Air Lines <WAL> to arbitrate with two
of its unions will not delay the April 1 merger between the two
airlines.
    The order, which was issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, requires Western to discuss with its two unions
whether Western's labor contracts will be binding for Delta,
Delta said.
    "Nevertheless, the court order could cause significant
personnel problems, including the possible delay of wage
increases Delta had planned to give the Western personnel on
April 1," Ronald Allen, Delta's president, said.
    Delta said it feels the court has erred and should
reconsider the order.
 Reuter

OKC Limited Partnership said the Fifth
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a partial summary
judgment renedered against it and for Phillips Petroleum Co <P>
by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Louisiana. OKC said it plans to seek a rehearing.
    The company said Phillips is due 21.5 mln dlrs plus
interest to date under the trial court judgment, and OKC has
14.0 mln dlrs in reserves set aside to cover the loss. It said
it has made the necessary financial arrangements to provide for
the total amount of the judgment.
    OKC said the court found no support for OKC's contention
that there was a mutual mistake between it and Phillips'
Aminoil subsidiary that required the reforming of a farmout
 Reuter

Centrust Savings Bank said it will
recapitalize its common stock at the close of business today,
converting each share of outstanding common into 0.5 share of
common and 0.5 share of series one participating stock.
    Centrust said its shareholders previously approved the
recapitalization at a meeting held on February 20, 1987.
    Centrust said the series one stock, a newly created series
of Centrust's capital stock, has enhanced voting rights versus
the common stock. Series one holders generally will vote to
elect 75 pct of the board of directors, while common
shareholders will elect 25 pct, Centrust said.
    CenTrust added that the common stock will have the right to
vote along with the series one as a single class for the
election of 75 pct of the board only if the number of
outstanding "high voting stock," including the series one,
falls below a certain percentage of outstanding shares of all
classes and series of voting stock.
    CenTrust said the common stock gets one vote per share, the
series one gets ten votes per share and there is separate class
voting on some matters.
    CenTrust said series one dividends will be lower than
common stock dividends until April 1, 1992. 
    Also the series one will have limited preferential dividend
and liquidation rights and will be convertible into common
stock.
    Both series one and the recapitalized common stock shares
are scheduled to begin trading on the American Stock Exchange
on March 23, 1987.
 Reuter

A financial newsletter which reported
last November that car maker Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> lost large
sums in currency transactions alleged that unnamed banks had
circumvented banking regulations with help from VW's foreign
exchange department.
    VW had no immediate comment and there was nothing in the
report by the newsletter, the Platow Brief, to link its new
allegations with a suspected currency swindle at VW which is
now being investigated by a prosecutor.
    VW said this month that it had had to make provision for
possible losses up to 480 mln marks in the possible currency
fraud.
    A spokesman for the Federal Banking Supervisory Office in
West Berlin said the office was aware that the newsletter had
made the new allegations and would follow this with interest.
    Platow Brief said around 16 mainly foreign banks based in
West Germany had "parked" excess open positions in currency
trading with VW's foreign exchange department.
    Under West German banking law, banks may not end a trading
day with open positions totalling more than 30 pct of their
capital. During the day banks buy and sell currencies, usually
aiming to match up all deals by the end and balance their
books.
    Some traders who take a view on how currencies will move
may prefer to leave certain positions open, a speculative
situation that the German regulations are designed to limit.
    According to Platow Brief, some traders apparently were
getting round the regulation by getting VW to buy or sell
currencies and hold them temporarily so that their books were
squared. Up to 100 mln dlrs was sometimes involved.
    Non-bank corporations are not covered by the restrictions,
imposed after a bank crash in 1974 to protect bank depositors.
    Breaches of the Banking Law in this way can be punished by
a fine for the dealers involved, and in extreme cases by
removal of the managers, if their active involvement is proved.
    But the Federal Banking Supervisory Office said it first
had to be established how far, if at all, regulations were
breached.
    The suspected VW currency swindle meanwhile involved
operations to protect the company against fluctuations in the
value of the dollar, VW spoksmen have said.
    Some operations to hedge against changes in currency values
were not completed, meaning VW stood to lose money.
    A senior executive has been fired and several other people
suspended, while a prosecutor is looking into the matter.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union's winter grain
crop is likely to have suffered losses due to dry planting
conditions last fall and severe cold this winter, an analyst of
world weather and crop conditions said.
    Grain analyst and meteorologist Gail Martell, author of the
EF Hutton publication "Global Crop News," said in her latest
report that the Soviets may import more grain, possibly wheat,
from the U.S. due to potential crop damage.
    "Compared with last year, the outlook (for the Soviet
winter grain crop) is far more pessimistic," she said. "But
it's still too early to talk about disastrous losses. A lot
will depend on spring weather, not only for the outcome of the
troubled winter grain crop, but also for spring planting."
    Martell said the dry weather conditions last fall probably
prevented optimal seed germination for winter grains. Key wheat
growing areas of the southern Ukraine and North Caucasus
received on 25-35 pct of autumn precipitation, she said.
    The bitter winter cold temperatures -- which broke record
lows that had stood for four decades -- also may have taken its
toll on Soviet winter crops, she said.
    However, she noted that most of the southern grain belt had
ample snow cover, which should have well-insulated the majority
of crop areas from severe frost damage.
    The USSR has already bought 20 to 21 mln tonnes of grains
in the July 1986/June 1987 marketing year, primarily from
Canada, the European Community, Argentina and Australia,
Martell said.
    She cited a number of reasons besides possible crop
problems that might point to additional Soviet import demand.
    Last fall's dry weather may limit livestock grazing on
moisture-depleted pastures, while the cold winter weather
necessitated supplemental feeding to keep livestock healthy.
    Martell was also skeptical of a Soviet claim for a 1986
grain harvest of 210 mln tonnes, and said the Chernobyl
accident may have contaminated more grain than originally
thought and have to be made up with imports.
    However, she said the U.S. remains a supplier of last
resort for the Soviet Union, noting that the Soviets have only
just recently begun their first U.S. grain purchases of the
1986/87 season by buying 2.25 mln tonnes of corn.
    Martell cited USDA statistics showing that since the 1980
grain embargo the U.S. is only a major supplier of grain to the
USSR during years of heavy Soviet demand.
    In 1984/85, the U.S. supplied 41 pct of record Soviet grain
imports of 55.5 mln tonnes. But in 1985/86, the Soviet Union
bought 29.9 mln tonnes of grain and turned to the U.S. for only
24 pct of that total.
    While the USDA Soviet import target for grain for 1986/87
was 22 mln tonnes, many U.S. grain analysts have revised their
estimates of Soviet imports up to 25-28 mln tonnes, she said.
 Reuter

is discussing with an unnamed pharmaceutical distributor the
sale of 10 pct of its A.N.D.A. Development Corp subsidiary for
    Integrated said its subsidiary, Biopharmaceutics, is
negotiating with the same unnamed distributor to sell it five
prescription drugs.
    The company said it can release no other details at this
time.
 Reuter

Morgan Stanley and Co <MS> said it
entered market-on-close orders totaling 1.1 billion dlrs for
stocks in the Major Market Index and Standard and Poor's 500
    Morgan Stanley said its orders were entered in accordance
with Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Stock
Exchange requirements. The firm did not specify the nature of
its orders. Participants in the index futures markets said
investors have been betting all day that the stock market will
finish sharply higher but few were willing to make a firm
prediction.
 Reuter

Additional capital inflows of 1.5
billion dlrs so far this year have boosted Mexico's reserves to
about eight billion dlrs, director of public credit Angel
Gurria told reporters.
    Money has been coming back to Mexico because of improved
investor confidence and because a tight monetray policy has
forced credit-starved industries to repatriate capital. Inflows
totalled a billion dlrs in fourth-quarter 1986.
    Gurria said Mexico is not accumulating reserves for the
sake of it. He said its new loans will increase the pool of
funds available for badly needed investment.
    Once the first tranche of its new six billion dlr loan is
drawn down in the second quarter, Mexico will still only have
enough reserves to pay for imports and debt service for four or
five months, Gurria noted.
    Nevertheless, Gurria said Mexico does not expect to draw on
the commercial banks' 1.2 billion dlr investment-support
contingency facility. That money will be available until April
1988 if Mexico's export receipts and the price of oil fall
below certain levels. But Mexico failed to qualify for the
first two drawings totalling 451 mln dlrs, and Gurria said
today, "We expect we'll never have to use it."
    Gurria said Mexico will know by June whether it can draw on
the second contingency facility included in the bank financing
package - a 500 mln dlr growth co-financing loan with the World
Bank.
    Finance minister Gustavo Petricioli said he had signed
yesterday a 250 mln dlr loan with the World Bank to support the
development of exports of manufactured goods.
    He also said the first 250 mln dlr tranche of a one billion
dlr loan from the Japanese government to support steel, oil and
export promotion will be disbursed at the end of the month.
    Mexico is also due to make the third drawing from its
International Monetary Fund standby credit in the next few days
based on a successful review of end-1986 economic results.
    Petricioli said Mexico is in the final stages of
discussions which will determine quantitative economic targets
for 1987 which will allow it to continue to draw from the IMF
for the rest of 1987.
    Petricioli reported that Mexico has so far concluded eight
bilateral accords with government creditors within the Paris
Club.
    Sixteen governments signed the Paris Club umbrella
agreement last September, which restructured 1.8 billion dlrs
of official debt, and Petricioli said he hopes to finalize
pacts with the remaining eight countries in the next few weeks.
    In keeping with the spirit of the September agreement, he
said all countries from the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development have continued to provide export
credit facilities for Mexico, despite the debt restructuring.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bancorp said it
has filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for up to 1.50 billion dlrs principal amount of its
debt securities.
    The filing consists of 1.00 billion dlrs of senior debt
securities and 500 mln dlrs of subordinated debt securities,
including capital securities.
    The securities may be offered from time to time through
underwriters or by the company directly, or through agents, it
said.
    First Interstate said net proceeds would be used
principally to fund investments in, or extensions of credit to,
the company's subsidiaries, or to repay loans incurred for such
purposes.
    It called the filing part of the company's "regularly
scheduled funding activities."
    First Interstate said the filing brings to 5.45 billion
dlrs the total amount of debt securities covered under this and
eight earlier shelf registrations.
 Reuter

Navistar International Corp's stock
rose after brokerage house Sanford C. Bernstein and Co raised
its earnings estimate of the company based on expectations of
better truck orders and truck tonnage, traders said.
    Navistar led the active list with a gain of 1/4 to 7-1/4 on
volume of 4.2 mln shares.
    Traders familiar with the opinion said that David
Eisenberg, director of Sanford C. Bernstein and Co's
institutional strategy committee, raised his earnings estimates
to 80 cts a share for the current fiscal year ending in
October. He expects Navistar to earn 1.20 dlrs a share next
year. In 1986, the company lost 14 cts a share.
    Eisenberg was unavailable for comment.
 Reuter

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc  has
about 500 mln dlrs in cash and another 1.50 billion dlrs in
available credit, which it intends to use to buy a
pharmaceutical company, Chairman Milan Panic said.
    At the company's annual meeting, he said an acquisition
could take place in the next 24 months.
    "The company has nearly two billion dlrs available for
acquisition today," Panic said, adding, "We are investigating a
number of companies." One company being studied could possibly
be acquired on a friendly basis, he said.
    Panic also said he intends to seek board approval today to
repurchase up to three mln ICN common shares.
    Discussing the possibility of an acquisition, Panic said
the such a purchase is necessary because ICN's current
marketing capability would not be sufficient to support
distribution of the company's products, given ICN's
expectations for market growth worldwide.
    ICN's principal product is ribavirin, also known as
Virazole. The drug is marketed in a number of countries and
described as a broad-based anti-viral.
    The company has said its possible applications include
treatment of some types of hepatitis, herpes, influenza,
childhood diseases and hemorrhagic fevers.
    ICN has been the focus of consirable investor attention in
recent months because of Virazole, which has undergone clinical
trials as a possible treatment of some AIDS-related diseases.
    Panic said today he would not discuss the drug with regard
to AIDS until the Food and Drug Administration completes its
review of data submitted by the company.
    He said an investigation of the drug being conducted by a
House Subcommittee is continuing.
    The subcommittee and the FDA have acknowledged they are
conducting separate investigations to determine whether or not
ICN witheld data from the FDA on adverse reactions to the drug.
    Virazole is approved for marketing in the U.S. in aerosol
form as a treatment for an infection that strikes infants,
called respiratory syncytial virus.
 Reuter

The all-party House of Commons Finance
Committee has unanimously called for a "substantial" cut in
credit card interest rates charged by banks and other financial
    In a report, the committee recommended that if action is
not taken soon, the government should investigate whether there
is "anti-competitive behaviour" among the banks.
    Minister of State for Finance Tom Hockin told the Commons
prior to the release of the report he favored a cut in the
rates and promised to act quickly on its recommendations.
    The committee said interest rates should be lowered to no
more than the 15.9 pct per annum level announced recently by
the Toronto Dominion Bank.
    Rates on other bank cards range from 18 to 21 pct and to 24
to 28 pct on gasoline and department store cards.
    At a news conference, committee members said they would
call for a legislated rate ceiling if the banks do not take
action quickly.
    "I would be unhappy if they didn't make an announcement
next week," said Committee Chairman Don Blenkarn, also a member
of the ruling Progressive Conservative Party.
    New Democratic Party member Michael Cassidy said, "I hope
the banks see the writing on the wall and take appropriate
action."
    The group did recommend legislation be enacted to ensure a
uniform method of calculating interest on unpaid balances and
that a grace period be allowed for new purchases.
 Reuter

 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 150,000 TONNES CORN  CORN SWITCHED FROM UNKNOWN TO USSR FOR 1986/87

Boeing Co said the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration has selected Boeing to
operate its computational mission services at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
    Boeing said it will provide NASA engineers and scientists
with management, personnel, equipment, materials and services
to aid the operations of such projects as Spacelab, the Space
Shuttle and the proposed Space Station.
    It said it will also provide program management support,
mission support, systems engineering, computer systems
services, applications software and hardware maintenance.
    Boeing said the cost-plus-award-fee contract has an initial
performance period of one year beginning in May 1987, with nine
additional one-year options.
     The proposed cost for the first five years is about 114
mln dlrs, Boeing said.
    Boeing said <New Technology Inc> and Unisys Corp <UIS> will
work with Boeing on the contract as major subcontractors.
 Reuter

Security Pacific Corp's Security
Pacific Merchant Bank said acting as lead manager it has
offered 270 mln dlrs in 30-year and 35 mln dlrs in 15-year
mortgage pass-through certificates.
    The offering is the second this year under an 800-mln-dlr
shelf registration. The first was for 310 mln dlrs.
    The mortgages were originated by Security Pacific in
    The offering is co-managed by Kidder, Peabody and Co and
Shearson Lehman Brothers.
 Reuter

Merry Land and Investment Co Inc
said it will offer two million shares of common stock for sale.
    Merry Land said it filed a registration statement with the
Security and Exchange Commission. It also said the sale will be
offered through an underwriting group managed by <Johnson,
Lane, Space, Smith and Co Inc>, and Interstate Securities Corp
<IS>.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce short-term debt, the
 Reuter

Banks of Iowa Inc <biow> said
it has sold 254,608 common shares at 51.50 dlrs each to a group
of institutional investors through a private placement.
    In connection with the stock sale, the company said, it
reserved the right to sell privately up to an additional
133,741 common shares at the same price before March 28.
    It said the Chicago Corp acted as placement agent for this
    Banks of Iowa had 2.2 mln shares outstanding prior to the
sale, a spokesman said.                
 Reuter

Shr 1.55 dlrs vs 70 cts
    Net 3,409,000 vs 1,455,000
    Rev 54.1 mln vs 45.3 mln
    Shr 1.60 dlrs vs 10 cts
    Net 3,517,000 vs 211,000
    Rev 144.4 mln vs 127.0 mln
    NOTE: Qtr net includes extraordinary gain of 1.2 mln dlrs,
versus 155,000 dlrs for fiscal 1986's third quarter, and a
non-recurring pre-tax gain of 720,000 dlrs.

 Reuter

Kleinwort Benson International
Investment Ltd's subsidiary, Kleinwort Benson Australian Income
Fund, a closed end management investment company, declared its
first quarterly dividend of 36.5 cts payable April 16 to
   
 Reuter

Deputy Finance Ministers from the Group
of 10 leading western industrialised countries met here to
discuss the world debt crisis, trade imbalances and currency
stability today following last month's Paris monetary accord,
sources close to the talks said.
    The officials met at the offices of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss broad aspects of world monetary
policy in preparation for the IMF's interim committee meeting
in Washington in April.
    The talks were the first high-level international review of
the monetary situation since the accord last month reached by
the U.S., West Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Canada to
stabilise world currency markets at around present levels
following the 40 pct slide in the dollar since mid-1985.
    Other countries represented at today's talks were Italy,
which refused to attend last month's meeting on the grounds
that it was being excluded from the real discussions, the
Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.
    Many of the officials had met earlier today and yesterday
within the framework of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) to review the slow progress
being made in cutting the record 170 billion dlr U.S. Trade
deficit and persuading West Germany and Japan to open their
economies to more foreign imports.
 Reuter

CCC, has reallocated 15.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees to
Turkey previously earmarked for sales of U.S. oilseeds to
provide coverage for sales of U.S. protein meals in fiscal year
1987, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the action reduces the guarantee line
authorized for sales of oilseeds to 5.0 mln dlrs from 20.0 mln
dlrs and creates the new line for protein meals.
    All sales under the credit lines must be registered and
exports completed by September 30, 1987, it said.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) agreed on
new rules to cut diesel exhaust emissions from trucks and buses
in an attempt to reduce air pollution threatening vast
stretches of the region's forests.
    Diplomats said EC environment ministers meeting here agreed
member states would have to reduce by 20 pct over the next few
years the emission of nitrogen oxide, widely seen as the main
source of acid rain endangering forests and lakes.
    The reduction would be compulsory for heavy vehicles, with
tougher standards imposed for new models from April 1988 and
for all new vehicles from October 1990.
    The EC's executive Commission says the emission level of
nitrogen oxide was expected to drop to 2.4 mln tonnes a year
from three mln tonnes within the 12-nation Community if all
heavy vehicles met the new standards.
    There are an estimated nine mln trucks and buses in use in
the EC, according to Commission figures.
    The ministers also gave West Germany a go-ahead to move
towards a ban on the sale of leaded regular petrol, after Bonn
requested permission to do so to encourage the use of
low-pollution cars, diplomats said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 49 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Oper net loss 3,014,000 vs loss 656,000
    Revs 22.7 mln vs 23.6 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 19 cts vs profit 40 cts
    Oper net loss 1,142,000 vs profit 2,476,000
    Revs 93.3 mln vs 99.0 mln
    NOTE: qtr 1986 and prior qtr excludes loss discontinued
operations 2,441,000 and 4,078,000, respectively.
    Year 1986 and prior excludes loss discontinued operations
3,509,000 and 5,278,000, respectively.
    qtr and year 1986 excludes tax loss 1,557,000 and loss
151,000, respectively.
    qtr and year prior excludes tax gain 833,000 and 3,346,000,
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.21 vs 88 cts
    Oper net 7,767,000 vs 5,494,000
    Revs 163.7 mln vs 133.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 oper net excludes a loss of 1,332,000
dlrs and a profit of 319,000 dlrs, respectively, for
    Earnings per shr are restated to reflect 3-for-2 stock
split effective July one, 1986.
 Reuter

DIst nine cts vs nine cts prior
    Payable May 14
 Reuter

Qtly div 5.5 cts vs 5.5 cts prior
    Pay April 27
    Record April one.
 Reuter

6,000 tonnes of semolina to Egypt, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the semolina is for shipment
April-October, 1987, and the bonus awarded was 224.87 dlrs per
tonne.
    The bonus was made to International Multifoods Corp and
will paid to the exporter in the form of commodities from CCC
stocks, the department said.
    An additional 7,000 tonnes of semolina are still available
announced August 1, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

VMS Mortgage Investors LP II said it
raised its first quarter 1987 cash dividend to 21 cts from 20
cts the prior quarter payable May 14, 1987, to shareholders of
record April One, 1987.
 Reuter

Regency Cruises Inc said it agreed to
sell a 40 pct interest in the corporation that owns the M/V
Regent Sea cruise ship for 2.1 mln dlrs to Monmouth
International SA, which owns the other 60 pct.
    The company said it also extended a 1.7 mln dlr secured
loan to Monmouth to finance completion of the renovation of
another vessel, the M/V Regent Star, which is scheduled to
begin operating in late June.
    Regency Cruises, which operates both ships, received a
five-year extension, to November 1995, to the Regent Sea's
original charter agreement, it said. It also received a
reduction, to 600,000 dlrs from 1.6 mln dlrs, of its total
charter guarantee for the Regent Sea and Regent Star.
    Regency also reported 1986 earnings of 5,695,000 dlrs or 37
cts a share on revenues of 40.9 mln dlrs. It began operations
in November 1985.
    In addition, the company said its bank, Irving Bank Corp
<V>, agreed to waive a one mln dlr counter guarantee for the
bank to provide a 2.6 mln dlrs guarantee for Regency's Federal
Maritime Commission bond.
    The company said after April 3 the exercise price of its
warrants will return to two dlrs until they expire April 21.
The price had been reduced to 1.50 dlrs for the three weeks
ending April 3.
 Reuter

Shipments of products by Canadian
manufacturers declined by 1.5 pct in January to 21.08 billion
dlrs, seasonally adjusted, led by a slowdown in transportation
equipment, Statistics Canada said.
    In December orders rose 2.8 pct.
    The federal agency said new orders fell 4.0 pct following a
4.5 pct increase in December.
    Inventories fell to 33.71 billion dlrs from 34.00 billion
dlrs the previous month.
           
 Reuter

the U.S. Agriculture Department is
proposing to permit coverage of freight cost and marine and war
risk insurance for sales  of all agricultural commodities sold
on credit terms under the Commodity Credit Corporation's, CCC,
credit guarantee programs.
    The proposal only applies to commodities that are sold by
exporters on a cost and freight, C and F, or cost, insurance
and freight, CIF, basis, since these costs would be included in
the exporter's sale price to the foreign buyer, it said.
    Under current programs, freight costs can be covered only
for export sales of U.S. breeding animals.
    It asked for comments on the proposal by April 20.
 Reuter

The U.S. Commodity Credit
Corporation (CCC) has accepted a bid for an export bonus to
cover a sale of 186 head of dairy cattle to Egypt, the U.S.
    The department said the cattle are for delivery May 7-June
7, 1987, and the bonus awarded was 1,888.06 dlrs per head.
    The bonus was made to First Interstate Trading Co and will
be paid to the exporter in the form of commodities from CCC
    An additional 7,959 head of dairy cattle are still
available to Egypt under the Export Enhancement Program
initiative announced September 12, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Clark Equipment Co said it has
purchased 1,339,000 shares of its common stock from an investor
group led by Arthur M. Goldberg for 26.375 dlrs a share.
    It said the purchase reduces the number of shares of Clark
common stock to be purchased under its stock repurchase plan
announced March 10. At the time the company said it would buy
back 3.0 mln shares, or 16 pct of the outstanding stock.
     Clark Equipment also said the investor group agreed to
enter into a standstill agreement which prohibits members of
the group from purchasing shares of voting securities of Clark
for 10 years.
 Reuter

Yankee Cos Inc's Eskey Inc <ESK>
subsidiary said it reached an agreement in principle to sell
its Eskey's Yale E. Key Inc subsidiary to a new concern formed
by Key's management and a private investor for about 15.5 mln
dlrs.
    As part of sale, Eskey said the buyers will assume the 14.5
mln dlrs of publicly held Eskey 10-3/4 pct debentures due 2003.
It said the debentures will continue to be converted into
Yankee preferred. The remainder of the price will be a one mln
dlr note to Eskey. Yankee said the sale will result in a loss
of 1.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

LTV Corp said a credit agreement between
the company and its 22-member bank group has been approved by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New
York.
    The company said the agreement provides an additional 100
mln dlrs of credit that may be borrowed by the company or used
to cover the issuance of new letters of credit.
    Under athe agreement, LTV said, it will convert about 435
mln dlrs of outstanding secured debt of certain subsidiaries
into a new revolving credit facility.
    LTV said the bank credit agreement also provides for the
funding, on a revolving credit basis, of about 160 mln dlrs of
outstanding secured lines of credit in the event such letters
of credit should be drawn in the future.
    The company said it has the option under the agreement to
fund the borrowings at the prime reate or at rates related to
certificates of deposit or London Interbank Borrowing Rates.
    It said outstanding loans, as well as amounts which could
be drawns under issued letters of credit, will be securited by
accounts receivable and inventories of certain LTV subsidiaries.
 Reuter

Wendy's International Inc declined to
comment on vague rumors by traders that it might be a takeover
target.
    Wendy's is currently trading up one at 11-3/4 on turnover
of more than 1.6 mln shares.
    A Wendy's spokesman said it was corporate policy not to
comment on market rumors.
    He further declined to attribute active trading in Wendy's
stock to a published report which stated Wall Street
professionals believe that Wendy's was possibly being studied
by Coca Cola Co (KO) with view to a possible acquisition.
 Reuter

Goody Products Inc said it entered
into an agreement to sell its J. and P.B. Myers packaging
business to Union Camp Corp to focus on its consumer products
and automated distribution system businesses.
 Reuter

said it asked the Federal District Court in Chicago for a
declaratory judgment upholding its recent 5.4 mln dlr sale of
common shares and warrants to Echlin Inc <ECH>.
    Champion said in hearings Thursday morning before the
federal judge on its lawsuit charging federal securities law
violations against Cormier Corp, Odilon Cormier, Morris Navon
and other defendants, the Cormier-Navon defendants indicated
they would challenge the transaction.
    Champion's suit claims that various Champion investors
alligned themselves with Cormier and Navon who failed to
disclose properly under federal laws that they were acting in
concert and they intended to spin off parts of the company and
sell the balance within two years once they got control.
 Reuter

    Shr 53 cts vs N/A
    Net 1,165,000 vs 575,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.54 dlrs vs N/A
    Net 3,363,000 vs 1,535,000
    Assets 375.2 mln vs 320.7 mln
    Deposits 313.8 mln vs 264.2 mln
    Loans 286.3 mln vs 235.9 mln
    NOTE: earnings per share data not presented for 1986 as
Great Country Bank converted from a mutual to a capital stock
savings bank on Jan 14, 1986. Such information is misleading
and inappropriate, the company said.
 Reuter

U.S. BUSINESS LOANS FALL 660 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 11 WEEK, FED SAYS

The European Community (EC) agreed
tough new rules to cut diesel exhaust emissions from trucks and
buses in an attempt to reduce air pollution threatening vast
heavy vehicles applied to the new standards.
    There are an estimated nine mln lorries and buses in use in
    West Germany will still need ministers' final approval for
such a plan. Diplomats said this was expected when EC
environment ministers meet next on May 21.
    But the ministers added that the go-ahead for West Germany
did not mean there would automatically follow a Community-wide
ban on the sale of regular leaded petrol.
    Bonn intends to keep leaded premium petrol pumps, diplomats
said. They added that, of the 97 mln cars in the EC, only 20
mln now ran on regular leaded petrol and these would risk no
damage if they switched over to premium leaded petrol.
    Under EC law, ministers have to give member states special
permission if they wish to be exempt from Community competition
laws. This would be the case if West Germany were to implement
a ban on the sale of leaded regular petrol.
 Reuter

    Weyerhaeuser Co <WY> - Offering of four mln shares of
convertible exchangeable preference shares through Morgan
Stanley and Co Inc.
    Kansas City Power and Light Co <KLT> - Shelf offering of up
to 100 mln dlrs of mortgage bonds.
    J and J Snack Foods Corp - Initial public offering of 25
2012.
    Federal Paper Board Co Inc <FBO> - Offering of 2.8 mln
shares of cumulative convertible preferred stock through an
underwriting group led by First Boston Corp.
    Virginia Electric and Power Co, subsidiary of Dominion
Resources Inc <D> - Shelf offering of up to 1,350,000 shares of
100 dlr preferred stock.
 Reuter

Marcus Corp said its board
voted a 50 pct stock dividend to be distributed May 1, record
April 15.
    It said the dividend applies equally to holders of its
common stock and Class B common.
 Reuter

VMS Mortgage Investors L.P. II said it
declared a first-quarter 1987 cash distribution of 21 cts a
depositary unit, up five pct from the prior quarter.
    It said the distribution will be payable May 14, record
January 1.
 Reuter

Pico Products Inc and <Anixter
Communications> jointly announced that they received a purchase
order from Tele-Communications Inc, for pay TV security
products to be included in Tele-Comm's on-site control systems.
 Reuter

An investment group led by
Audio/Video Affiliates Inc said it raised its tender offer to
acquire Cyclops Corp to 92.50 dlrs a share from 80 dlrs a
share.
    The group, Cyacq Acquisition Corp, also said it extended
the offer until April three, from March 20.
    The group said it added several conditions to its offer,
including receipt of all non-public information about Cyclops
that was provided to <Dixons Group PLC> in connection with
Dixon's competing tender offer for Cyclops.
    Cyacq's sweetened offer, totaling about 398 mln dlrs, tops
Dixon's offer of 92.25 dlrs a share, or about 388 mln dlrs.
    On Wednesday Dixon said it had bought 54 pct of Cyclops'
4.3 mln shares outstanding, boosting its stake in the company
to 56 pct.
    Earlier today, however, the Securities and Exchange
Commisssion ordered Dixons to extended its tender offer until
March 24.
    Cyacq said it hopes Cyclops shareholders "will withdraw
previously tendered shares from Dixons' tender offer to take
advantage of Cyacq's higher offer."
    The SEC's order came after Cyacq filed suit to block Dixons
from taking control of Cyclops and to force an extension of
Dixons' tender offer.
    A Cyclops spokeswoman said the company had no immediate
comment on the sweetened bid from Cyacq.
    Cyacq said its new offer is also subject to Cyclops
rescinding any agreements with Dixons under which the
U.K.-based firm would receive "break-up fees" or expenses from
Cyclops or could buy Cyclops common stock from the
Pittsburgh-based company.
 Reuter

Emerald Homes L.P. said its
general partners declared an initial 30-ct per unit
distribution payable May 15 to unitholders of record March 31.
    Emerald made its initial public offering February 6.
 Reuter

U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, fell 660 mln dlrs to 277.93
billion dlrs in the week ended March 11, the Federal Reserve
declined 492 mln dlrs to 280.56 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

<Texas Capital Bancshares> said its
subsidiary, Texas Capital Bank-Westwood, was the first Texas
bank to file for a statewide branch to be located in Austin.
    The company said it filed with the Comptroller of the
Currency under a 1986 state constitutional amendment allowing
Texas banks to establish a limit of three branches within its
home county.
 Reuter

<Water Sports Network> said it
purchased 750,000 dlrs in convertible debentures from <NTN
Communications Inc>.
    The companies said they are exploring ways to mutually
market the programs and properties of each company.
 Reuter

market in the stock of Cyclops Corp at 92-1/2 to 95.
    Cyclops received a sweetened offer of 92.50 dlrs per share
from Cyacq Acquisition Corp, led by Audio/Video Affiliates Inc
<AVA>.
      
 Reuter

BEI Holdings Ltd said it acquired
Ivey-Rowton and Associates, a Nashville, Tenn.-based bank
marketing firm.
 Reuter

LAC Minerals Ltd said it will suspend
underground mining and exploration at its Lake Shore Mine at
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, on April 30, pending results of a
surface exploration drilling program.
    LAC said it does not expect the decision to affect
earnings, but 44 employees will be affected.
    The company said it has completed mining the crown pillar
which has produced 71,000 ounces of gold since 1983. In 1986,
the mine produced 10,600 ounces. LAC said it will continue
surface drilling in 1987 to determine if further underground
exploration work is warranted.
   
 Reuter

Multi Solutions Inc's Multi Soft
Inc <MSOF> announced Version 3.0 of Super-Link, its application
development system for building cooperative peer-to-peer
applications under CICS, TSO, VM/CMS and IDMS-DC.
    The release adds two new components to the Super-Link
system and provides enhanced features and support for
application connectivity on Digital's VAX computer line running
VMS, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.86 dlrs vs 1.85 dlrs
    Net 1,923,304 vs 1,897,998
 Reuter

Super Valu Stores Inc said its
capital budget for the fiscal year beginning March One is 330
mln dlrs.
    It said it spent 363.7 mln dlrs last year, primarily
because the previous year's budget included funding for such
major projects as completely new distribution centers.
    It said the current budget provides for significant
additions to a number of its new distribution centers, for
upgrades in computer equipment, for 10 new ShopKo stores and 70
mln dlrs in financing for the company's independent retailer
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 25 cts previously
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WEST CO INC &lt;WST&gt; SETS REGULARY PAYOUT
    PHOENIXVILLE, Pa., March 20
    Qtrly div 13 cts vs 13 cts prior
    Pay May 5
    Record April 21
 Reuter

Southeastern Asset Management Inc
and its two controlling shareholders said they sold their
entire 5.6 pct stake in Allegheny International Inc.
Southeastern, a Memphis, Tenn. investment advisor, said it sold
the entire 604,000-share stake between March 13 and 16 at
prices ranging from 24.25 to 24.625 dlrs each.

 Reuter

Sumitomo Bakelite Co Ltd, a Japanese
company, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it has
acquired 325,000 shares of Sheldahl Inc, or 10.7 pct of the
    Sumitomo Bakelite said it bought the stock for 4.9 mln dlrs
for investment purposes.
    Under an between Sumitomo Bakelite and Sheldahl, as long as
its stake is more than five pct, Sumitomo said it has
preemptive rights for 60 days following notice of issuance of
new Sheldahl common stock. As long as its stake is over 10 pct,
it said it is entitled to Sheldahl board representation.
 Reuter

    Shr 4.66 dlrs vs 4.40 dlrs
    Net 1,048,884,000 vs 959,626,000
    Revs 5.43 billion vs 5.04 billion
    Avg shrs 200,242,000 vs 191,840,000
    NOTE: Per-share earnings reflect payment of preferred
dividend requirements
 Reuter

Representatives from 26 Latin American
countries ended a United Nations trade meeting here today with
a call for greater economic integration between developing and
    "(We) urge the international community to recognise the ...
difficulties which confront the region," a statement released by
the group, termed the San Jose Communique, said.
    The meeting was held under the auspices of the Latin
American Economic System, CEPAL, a United Nations affiliate,
and aimed to develop a joint regional position ahead of July's
conference in Geneva of the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development, UNCTAD.
    The communique said Latin America's priority remained the
need for sustained economic growth and for easier terms on its
400 billion dlrs external debt.
    Within that framework the region would be pressing in
Geneva for more access to industrialised markets for its
exports and for compensatory capital inflows when world prices
for its mainly agricultural exports were low, it said.
    The communique also said the group would press for the
generalised system of preferences -- easy entry terms for
developing country exports -- to be expanded.
    UNCTAD was set up in 1964 to promote better international
trading conditions for developing countries and help raise
their standard of living.
 Reuter

downgraded the debt ratings of Baker International Corp and
upgraded Hughes Tool Co's debt.
    The actions affect a combined 662 mln dlrs of securities.
    Moody's said the anticipated merger of Baker and Hughes
Tool into Baker Hughes Inc would result in increased financial
leverage at a time of weak demand for the combined company's
products and services.
    The agency cut the senior debt of Baker and its finance
unit, Baker International Finance N.V., to Baa-1 from A-2. It
affirmed Baker's Prime-2 commercial paper.
    Moody's upgraded Hughes Tool's senior debt to Baa-1 from
B-2 and subordinated debt to Baa-2 from B-3.
    The rating agency said that a poor outlook for the oil
services industry would pressure earnings and cash flow for
Basker Hughes over the intermediate term.
    However, Moody's noted that the combined company would
benefit from cost reductions and consolidations made possible
by the merger. Also, the company's competitive position should
be substantially strengthened by the merger, Moody's said.
 Reuter

Subsidiaries of John Hancock Mutual
Life Insurance Co told the Securities and Exchange Commission
they sold their entire 13.1 pct stake in Price Communications
Corp back to the company.
    The Hancock subsidiaries said they sold their entire
1,627,603-share stake in Price Communications to the company
for 11 dlrs a share on Feb 23.
 Reuter

Ohio Power Co, a unit of American
Electric Power Co, said it will redeem 34.4 mln dlrs of its
first mortgage bonds on June one.
    It will buy back at par 33 mln dlrs of its outstanding 10
pct bonds of 2016 and 1.4 mln dlrs of its outstanding 12-7/8
pct bonds due 2013. Also, the utility will pay accrued interest
for the 10 pct series.
    Transfer books for both series will be closed at the close
of business on April 10 to allow for selection by lot of the
bonds to be redeemed, Ohio Power said. The books will be
reopened around April 24 when redemtion notices are mailed.
 Reuter

Salomon Inc's Salomon Brothers unit
said the Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed its
records with respect to Fireman's Fund Corp, American Express
Co, Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc, Jefferies and Co and others.
    Salomon brothers co-managed a public offering by American
Express of Fireman's Fund securities. Salomon said American
Express' Shearson subsidiary was the lead manager and ran the
books for the offering.
    Shearson and American Express were both subpoenaed for
documents on certain transactions.
    American Express earlier said it was subpoenaed on
transactions involving securities of American Express and
Fireman's Fund, and Shearson was subpoenaed for documents on
    Salomon co-managed the Fireman's Fund offering in 1986.
Salomon said it intends to comply with the subpoena and
cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It said
it was unaware of the SEC investigation prior to yesterday.
    Yesterday, Boyd Jefferies, former chairman of Jefferies and
Co, said he would plead guilty to two felony counts for
    A Salomon Brothers official said no individuals at the firm
were subpoenaed. An American Express spokesman did not return
phone calls.
 Reuter

Niagara Mohawk Corp said it is
"cautiously optimistic" about results improvements for 1987 and
said it is studying measures to cut operating costs.
    These measures include freezing management salaries,
abolishing vacant positions and reducing overtime.
    A spokesman said the company had no current plans to lay
off workers. The company declined to say how much the cost
savings would amount to.
    A five year forecast is expected to be issued in early
summer, a spokesperson said.
    The company said it has redeemed about 273 mln dlrs in high
cost debt during 1986 and hopes to redeem more debt this year.
    For 1986, Niagara Mohawk's earnings per share fell to 2.71
dlrs from 2.88 dlrs in 1985..
    The company said earnings reduced primarily as a result of
a reduction early in 1986 in earnings return on equity allowed
by the N.Y. State Public Service COmmission.
    Niagara said it is concerned about the continued lowering
of authorized return and has reinforced petitions to grant a 
fair return on equity.
 Reuter

    Revs 32.6 mln vs 24.4 mln
    Year
    Revs 101.0 mln vs 76.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,029,000 vs 4,464,000
    NOTE: 1986 fiscal year ended Feb 1, 1986
 Reuter

Total food aid needs in 69 of the
least developed countries declined in 1986/87, as requirments
fell in many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the
    In a summary of its World Agriculture Report, the
department said grain production in sub-Saharan Africa was a
record high in 1986, with gains in almost every country.
    However, food needs in Central America rose, worsened by
drought-reduced crops and civil strife.
    Record wheat production in 1986/87 is pushing global wheat
consumption for food to a new high, and higher yielding
varieties have been particularly effective where spring wheat
is a common crop, it said.
    However, may developing countries in tropical climates,
such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central
America, are not well adapted for wheat production, and
improved varieties are not the answer to rising food needs, the
    World per capita consumption of vegetable oil will rise in
1986/87 for the third straight year.
    Soybean oil constitutes almost 30 pct of vegetable oil
consumption, while palm oil is the most traded, the department
said.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department 
formally transmitted to Congress a long-awaited proposal to
drastically slash the sugar loan rate and compensate growers
for the cut with targeted income payments.
    In a letter to the Congressional leadership accompanying
the "Sugar Program Improvements Act of 1987", Peter Myers,
Deputy Agriculture Secretary, said the Reagan administration
wants the sugar loan rate cut to 12 cents per pound beginning
with the 1987 crop, down from 18 cts now.
    Sugarcane and beet growers would be compensated by the
government for the price support cut with targeted income
payments over the four years 1988 to 1991. The payments would
cost an estimated 1.1 billion dlrs, Myers said.
    The administration sugar proposal is expected to be
introduced in the House of Representatives next week by Rep.
John Porter, R-Ill.
    Congressional sources said the program cut is so drastic it
is unlikely to be adopted in either the House or Senate because
politically-influential sugar and corn growers
and high fructose corn syrup producers will strongly resist.
    The direct payment plan outlined by the administration 
targets subsidies to small cane and beet growers and gradually
lowers payments over four years. It also excludes from payment
any output exceeding 20,000 short tons raw sugar per grower.
    For example, on the first 350 tons of production, a grower
would receive 6 cts per lb in fiscal 1988, 4.5 cts in 1989, 3
cts in 1990 and 1.5 cts in 1991.
    The income payments would be based on the amount of
commercially recoverable sugar produced by a farmer in the 1985
or 1986 crop years, whichever is less, USDA said.
    Myers said the administration is proposing drastic changes
in the sugar program because the current high price support is
causing adverse trends in the sugar industry.
    He said the current program has artificially stimulated
domestic sugar and corn sweetener production which has allowed
corn sweeteners to make market inroads.
    U.S. sugar consumption has declined which has resulted in a
"progressive contraction" of the sugar import quota to only one
mln short tons this year, he said. This has hurt cane sugar
refiners who rely on imported sugar processing.
    Furthermore, USDA said the current sugar program gives
overseas manufacturers of sugar-containing products a
competitive advantage. The result has been higher imports of
sugar-containing products and a flight of U.S. processing
facilities overseas to take advantage of cheaper sugar.
    USDA also said the current program imposes a heavy cost on
U.S. consumers and industrial users. In fiscal 1987, USDA said
consumers are paying nearly two billion dlrs more than
necessary for sugar.
    "Enactment of this bill will reduce the price gap between
sweeteners and help to correct or stabilize the many adverse
impacts and trends which the sugar industry is currently
facing," Myers said.
    The following table lists the rate of payments, in cts per
lb, to growers and the quantity covered, in short tons
recoverable raw sugar, under the administration's proposal to
compensate sugar growers with targeted payments.
    QUANTITY            1988     1989      1990      1991
First 350 tons         6.000    4.500     3.000     1.500
Over 350 to 700        5.750    4.313     2.875     1.438
Over 700 to 1,000      5.500    4.125     2.750     1.375
Over 1,000 to 1,500    5.000    3.750     2.500     1.250
Over 1,500 to 3,000    4.500    3.375     2.250     1.125
Over 3,000 to 6,000    3.500    2.625     1.750     0.875
Over 6,000 to 10,000   2.250    1.688     1.125     0.563
Over 10,000 to 20,000  0.500    0.375     0.250     0.125
Over 20,000 tons        nil      nil       nil       nil 
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 1.5 mln vs 1.3 mln
    Revs 40.5 mln vs 33.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 80 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 4.9 mln vs 4.1 mln
    Revs 143.0 mln vs 121.1 mln
    Avg shrs 6.1 mln vs 5.0 mln
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Inc said construction
will begin in April on a new plant near Denton, Texas, on 193
acres owned by the company.
    It said the plant will initially employ between 1,000 and
1,500 people, and will be used by its Defense Systems and
Electronics Group for producing electronic equipemnt. The plant
is expected to be operational in late 1988.
    Separately, the company said it leased about 185,000 square
feet of a complex in Texas for its Defense Systems group. It
plans to transfer about 700 employees to work at the site by
the third quarter of 1987.
 Reuter

VMS Mortgage L.P. said it declared a
regular monthly cash distribution of nine cts a depositary unit
for the month of March, payable May 14, record April One.
 Reuter

The USDA monthly cold storage report
for meats is expected to have little, if any, effect on
livestock and meat futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Monday and daily fundamentals will likely provide the bulk of
direction, livestock analysts said.
    The increase of 66.4 mln lbs in total poultry offsets the
22.6 mln lbs decline in total red meats. Fundamentals may
provide most of the direction in futures on Monday, they said.
    "I think the market is going to be looking at some other
things and accentuate whatever the action of cash markets might
be early next week," Jerry Gidel, livestock analyst for GH
Miller, said.
    Shearson Lehman livestock analyst Chuck Levitt said futures
will be in the shadow of a little larger seasonal hog
marketings pace next week. Also, Easter ham business was
completed this week and there may be less aggressive interest
for pork in general next week.
    "We needed some help from the cold storage report to avert
a possible setback next week in the pork complex," Levitt said.
    Analysts agreed with CME floor traders and called the belly
figure neutral to slightly negative. Although belly stocks were
down 33 pct from last year, they exceeded the average
expectation and actually showed a lighter than expected decline
from last month due to an adjustment to last month's holdings,
they said.
    However, analysts noted that the amount of bellies put in
storage has been light since the beginning of March and this is
a potentially bullish situation.
    Glenn Grimes, agronomist at the University of Missouri,
said, "I would not look for (belly) storage during the next
month or two to be heavier than a year ago - I think it will be
less."
 Reuter

The St. Lawrence Seaway, set
to reopen March 31 after the winter, faces another tough year
because of depressed traffic levels and the possibility of the
first strike in 20 years on the Great Lakes, seaway officials
said.
    Depressed grain exports, rising costs, and competing modes
of transportation are all expected to result in only a marginal
increase over last year's traffic levels -- and revenues -- on
the 2,300 mile waterway, officials said.
    In 1986, a season that ran from April 3 to December 27, the
seaway moved 37.6 mln metric tons of freight between Montreal
and Lake Ontario and 41.6 mln tons on the Welland Canal,
linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
    By comparison, in 1985 about 37 mln tons of cargo traveled
through the Montreal-Lake Ontario section and 42 mln through
the eight-lock canal.
    The waterway is expected to lose 9-10 mln Canadian dlrs
this year, about the same as the estimated deficit for fiscal
1986-87 ending March 31, said William Blair, an executive
member of Canada's St Lawrence Seaway Authority.
    The seaway moves about one-half of Canada's exported grain.
Those exports of the single most important commodity carried on
the waterway have been depressed by world surpluses.
    The Seafarers' International Union, which represents about
2,300 workers on the Great Lakes and the ocean coasts, has said
it will likely go on strike this spring to protest employers'
demands for wage rollbacks and other concessions.
    "It's 99.9 pct (certain)--I guarantee you a strike," Roman
Gralewicz, head of the Seafarers' Canadian branch, has said.
    The Canadian government has called in a labor conciliator
to try to hammer out a contract agreement between the two
sides. The seaway authority said a walkout tying up ships on
the Great Lakes would badly hurt traffic.
    "We haven't had a strike on the seaway for years...a
prolonged strike would have a disasterous effect," Seaway
Authority spokeswoman Gay Hemsley said.
    "These are the heaviest contract talks in the history of the
St Lawrence Seaway," George Miller, vice-president of the
Canadian Lake Carriers Association, an association of major
Canadian shipping companies, said recently.
    The workers' current contract expires May 31. The
association said it is asking for a five per cent cut in wages
for the next three years, reduced crew levels and the power to
restructure crew dispatching.
    The association said its members recorded about a 6 mln dlrs
(U.S.) loss in each of 1985 and 1986 due to lower traffic and
freight rates and increasing competition. The seaway said 1985
was its worst year in two decades.
    Hemsley said the seaway authority plans to raise tolls on
the Welland Canal by eight pct this year, compared to last
year's 15 pct rise, while maintaining a freeze on tolls
throughout the rest of the waterway.
    Canada is responsible for 13 of the seaway's 15 locks and
about 85 pct of its revenues and maintenance costs.
    "We may see and hope for a steady upward climb...but we
won't see a major increase for a number of years," Hemsley said.
    A Canada-U.S. delegation to promote the seaway to shippers
in Western Europe should result in some increased traffic this
season but the full benefits won't be felt for several years,
Blair said.
 Reuter

Chemlawn Corp and Ecolab Inc
said they signed a definitive merger agreement under which
Ecolab will buy all outstanding Chemlawn common stock for 36.50
dlrs a share in cash, for a total of about 370 mln dlrs.
    Under terms of the agreement, Chemlawn said it rescinded
its previously announced rights dividend plan.
    Chemlawn previously rejected a 27 dlr a share offer from
Waste Management Inc <WMX>.
    Yesterday, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based waste disposal company
said it was prepared to offer 33 dlrs a share, or about 330 mln
dlrs, for Chemlawn, a lawn-care company.
    Chemlawn had said last week that it was negotiating with
other possible suitors, which it did not identify.
    A Chemlawn spokesman said further details on the merger
would be issued later.
    Ecolab is a maker of commercial laundry detergent based in
St. Paul, Minn. For its first six months ended December 31, the
company earned 20.4 mln dlrs, or 76 cts a share, on sales of
421.8 mln dlrs.
    Officials at Waste Management could not be reached for
 Reuter

Falcon Cable Systems Co said
its set an initial quarterly cash distribution of 53.75 cts per
unit, payable May 15 to unitholders of record March 31.
    The partnership made its initial public offering in
December, 1986.
    Falcon said it expects to pay cash distributions to limited
partners at an annual rate of 2.15 dlrs per unit, through
December 31, 1989.
 Reuter

The Electric Boat Division of
General Dynamics Corp is being awarded a 67.9 mln dlr
modification to a Navy contract for architectural, engineering
and hardware development work for a submarine improvement
program, the Defense Department said.
    It said the work is expected to be completed September 30,
1987.
 Reuter

Southern Natural Gas Co, a unit of
Sonat Inc, said it filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission a registration statement covering a 100 mln dlr
issue of debentures due 1999.
    Proceeds will be used, together with funds from the
company's operations, to redeem Southern Natural's 15 pct
sinking fund debentures of 1991.
    The company named Goldman, Sachs and Co, Lazard Freres and
Co and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as managing underwriters
of the offering.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Energy said
it has awarded bids for about 90,000 barrels per day, bpd, of
crude oil from the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve in
California. The contract period runs from April one through
July one, the DOE said.
    Successful bidders, the amount of crude oil and the price
per bbl according to the DOE are as follows - 
    Texaco Inc's <TX> Texaco Trading and Transport 15,000 bpd
at 15.79 dlrs and 2,200 bpd at 15.19 dlrs, Beacon Oil Co 7,000
bpd at 15.66 dlrs and 2,500 bpd at 16.04 dlrs, Golden West
Refining 8,110 bpd at 15.42 dlrs.
    Successful bidders, the amount of oil and price per bbl,
according to the DOE continue as follows -
    Chevron's <CHV> Chevron USA Inc 3,000 bpd at 14.51 dlrs and
4,000 bpd at 14.61 dlrs, Chevron International Oil Co 2,600 bpd
at 14.41 dlrs and 2,800 bpd at 14.51 dlrs, Newhall Refining Co
6,000 bpd at 15.82 dlrs, Caljet Inc 4,000 bpd at 15.32 dlrs,
Casey Co 4,000 bpd at 15.45 dlrs.
    Also, Cryssen Refining Inc 4,000 bpd at 15.47 dlrs,
Edgington Oil Co 4,000 bpd at 15.54 dlrs, Sound Refining Inc
3,100 bpd at 15.51 dlrs, Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> 3,000 bpd
at 15.75 dlrs.
per bbl according to the DOE continue as follows -
    Orkin Inc 2,679 bpd at 15.24 dlrs, Lunday-Thagard Co 2,511
bpd at 15.27 dlrs, Golden Eagle Refining 2,500 bpd at 15.37
dlrs, MacMillan Ring-Free Oil Co 1,000 bpd at 15.81 dlrs, 1,000
bpd at 15.71 dlrs and 230 bpd at 16.02 dlrs, Mock Resources
2,000 bpd at 15.76 dlrs, Petro-Diamond 2,000 bpd at 15.46 dlrs.
 Reuter

Mthly div 15 cts vs 15 cts
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 12 cts vs profit four cts
    Oper loss 1,069,000 vs profit 339,000
    Revs 12.8 mln vs 10.9 mln
382,000 dlrs or four cts share. 1985 shr and net exclude
extraordinary gain of 183,000 dlrs or two cts share
 Reuter

Grumman Aerospace Corp is being
awarded a 109.1 mln dlr increment of funds to a Navy contract
for 12 EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare aircraft, the Defense
    It said the work is expected to be completed in July 1989.
 Reuter

Morton Thiokol Inc's Wasatch
Operations is being awarded a 61.4 mln dlr contract
modification finalizing a previously awarded contract for
missile rocket motors for Terrier, Tarter and Aegis ships, the
    It said the work is expected to be completed in October 
1987.
 Reuter

Halcyon Investments, a New York risk
arbitrage and securities dealing partnership, told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 288,000
shares of Cyclops Corp, or 7.1 pct of the total outstanding.
    Halcyon said it bought the stake for 26.1 mln dlrs as part
of its ordinary risk arbitrage and securities trading business.
Other than that, the firm said there was no specific purpose in
its purchases.
    Halcyon said it might buy more stock or sell some or all of
its current stake. It said it bought the bulk of its stake
between Feb 6 and March 13.
 Reuter

Canadian Bond Rating Service said it
placed Chrysler Credit Canada Ltd, a subsidiary of Chrysler
Corp <C>, on creditwatch until all financial details concerning
the proposed acquisition of American Motors Corp <AMO> are
finalized.
    The creditwatch affects Chrysler Credit Canada's short term
notes, guaranteed notes, debentures and the recently completed
75 mln dlr 9.25 Eurobond issue due April 15, 1993.
    Canadian Bond Rating Service said that, based on facts
currently available on the proposed transaction, it does not
anticipate the necessity of a downgrade.
    Canadian Bond Rating Service said Chrysler Credit Canada
short term notes are now rated A-2 (high) and guaranteed notes
and debentures are rated B plus plus (high).
 Reuter

Long Island Lighting Co said
it revised its preliminary 1986 net income to include a 16 mln
dlrs after tax provision for its investment in the Jamesport
Nuclear units.
    Due to the provision, it said its revised 1986 net income
was 316.7 mln dlrs or 2.13 dlrs per share after deducting for
preferred stock dividend requirements, which were not paid in
either 1986 or 1985.
    It had earlier reported 1986 income of 332.7 mln dlrs or
2.28 dlrs per share.
    LILCO also said its board authorized contracts for its 
corporate officers calling for payment of one year's salary,
and continuation of insurance and retirement benefits if the
company changes hands and these officers lose their jobs.
    LILCO said none of these contracts will result in
additional costs to its customers.
    Lilco said the downward revision in its 1986 earnings is a
reserve established to reflect a settlement agreement with the
staff of New York State's Public Service Commission respecting
the utility's spending on a nuclear power station planned for,
but never built at, Jamestown, N.Y.
    The company declined to detail the settlement, explaining
the settlement has not been approved by the commission. Lilco
was seeking to include costs totaling 118 mln dlrs for the
abandoned nuclear power plant project in its rate base, a
 Reuter

Rogers Corp said its board
approved a shareholder rights plan designed to protect its
shareholders in the event of an attempted hostile takeover.
    Rogers said the plan is not being adopted in response to
any specific takeover attempt.
    Under the plan, shareholders may buy one share of common
stock at 65 dlrs for each share held. The rights will be
exercisable only if a person or group acquires 20 pct or more
of Rogers' shares or announces an offer for 30 pct or more.
    The dividend distribution will be made March 30 to holders
or record on that date.
 Reuter

The four-times-a-year "triple
witching hour" did not jolt Wall Street as much as it has in
the past.
    Market averages finished sharply higher as stock index
futures, index options and options on individual stocks expired
simultaenously. Some analysts warned part of the gain may be
retraced next week. But there were signs Wall Street is getting
used to the phenomeon which causes a huge burst of activity in
the final minutes. Officials of the New York Stock Exchange
said the day went smoothly and efficiently.
    "This has been one of the few times that the consensus has
been right," said Jim Creber, trader at Miller, Tabak, Hirsch
and Co.
    He expects a "follow-through" Monday and Tuesday to the
advance which lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average 34 points
for the day and 75 points for the entire week.
    Creber, whose firm was one of the first to get involved in
arbitrage activity involving index futures and options, said
the general trend of the market has been upward for months.
"Every time the market comes in, somebody comes along with more
money," he said.
    He said investors adding to Individual Retirement Accounts
prior to a mid-April tax deadline and buying from Japanese
investors are apparently helping push stocks higher.
    Ron Feinstein, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc,
said reports of heavy Japanese buying, just prior to the end of
the fiscal year in Japan, fueled bullish sentiment.
    He said investors who had long positions in stocks hedged
with short positions in index futures rolled the expiring March
futures over into June contracts. But he added different
players with other goals also were active and there was no
simple explanation of the market's gyrations.
    For example, Feinstein noted the June contract for the June
Standard and Poor's 500 stock index future hit 300 about 15
minutes prior to the close of NYSE trading. In 12 minutes, the
contracted dipped to 297.50. "That could have been a wave of
selling from institutional people making a roll," he said.
    It was the first time a nearby contract of the S and P 500
hit 300. The cash index closed at a record 298.17. "It looks
like the market is going to continue to go higher," he said.
    "Triple expirations didn't really mean that much, it was a
strong day for stocks," said Steve Chronowitz of Smith Barney,
Harris Upham and Co.
    Chronowitz said the stock market has been underpinned by
"good solid buying interest" which will cushion any pullback.
    Other investors who were long futures and short stocks
bought stocks on the close today instead of rolling over, said
Mark Zurack of Goldman, Sachs and Co. He cautioned against
"over-dramatizing" the day's activity, which said was more a
reflection of fundamental strength in the markets.
    Leigh Stevens of PaineWebber Group Inc said what he saw was
mostly covering of short positions in stocks as index options
and individual options expired. He said there could be a
decline early next week in the stock market.
    "It looked like it worked well today," said Howard Kramer,
asssistant director of market regulation for the Securities and
Exchange Commission. But he said all of the data will have to
be analyzed next week.
    He said there was relatively little commotion at the close,
with about 50 mln shares changing hands in the final minute
compared to 85 mln in the triple expirations three months
earlier. He noted the Dow industrials jumped about 12 points in
the closing minutes, a modest move for a 2333-point index.
    Kramer pointed out an SEC-NYSE measure to curb volatility,
disclosure of "market-on-close" orders in 50 major stocks 30
minutes prior to the end of trading, showed imbalances of
modest proportions. The disclosures are aimed at evening out
volatility by attracting orders on the opposite side of the
    The data showed more buy orders than sell orders for 47
stocks, a preponderance of sell orders for only one stock, and
no significant imbalance for two stocks. The NYSE had tightened
a rule governing what type of market on close orders can be
accepted in the final half hour.
 Reuter

EASTGROUP PROPERTIES &lt;EGP&gt; DIVIDEND
    JACKSON, MISS., May 20
    Qtly div 65 cts vs 65 cts prior
    Payable APril 22
    REcord April 10
    NOTE:Company paid 30 cts special dividend along with prior
quarter's dividend
 Reuter

Shr loss 40 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 1.5 mln vs loss 1.1 mln
    Revs 28.9 mln vs 28.5 mln
    Six months
    Shr loss 99 cts vs loss 69 cts
    Net loss 3.7 mln vs loss 2.6 mln
    Revs 52.5 mln vs 51.7 mln
   
 Reuter

Oper shr loss five cts vs loss six cts
    Oper net loss 157,688 vs loss 96,573
    Revs 1,094,331 vs 1,378,973
    Avg shrs 3,315,654 vs 1,661,023
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss seven cts vs loss 24 cts
    Oper net loss 198,555 vs loss 394,589
    Net 2,243,377 vs 2,440,850
    Avg shrs 2,796,848 vs 1,637,592
    NOTE: Current year 2nd qtr and six mths excludes a loss
10,767 dlrs for discontinued operations.
    Prior year 2nd qtr and six mths excludes a loss of 54,686
dlrs and 112,565 dlrs for discontinued operations.
    Full name of company is Marcom Telecommunications Inc.
 Reuter

Qlty div 25 cts vs 25 cts prior
 Reuter

Trade is the most urgent problem
facing U.S.-Canadian relations because of a pressing need to
reach a new bilateral pact within the coming months, Joe Clark,
Canadian secretary of state for external affairs, said.
    Negotiators for the two countries have been meeting for
more than a year in an effort to work out an agreement.
    "The most urgent problem now is the trade question because
that has to be decided within the next 10 months," Clark told
the Commonwealth Club of California. "We have a fast track
authority from your Congress for approval or rejection of
whatever the negotiators achieve."
    Clark said that, as a practical matter, an initial
agreement must be reached by late September or early October.
    He listed environmental questions, particularly acid rain,
and defense as the second and third most important bilateral
issues facing Ottawa and Washington.
    On Wednesday, President Reagan announced that he will seek
2.5 billion dlrs from Congress to address the acid rain
problem. Some interpreted the move as a goodwill gesture in
advance of his annual meeting, on April 5-6 in Ottawa, with
    In a question-and-answer session with the public affairs
group, Clark said that the two countries must find better
mechanisms for resolving their trade disputes.
    "This rash of countervailing actions, where we acted on
corn and you acted on soft wood and we both said they were
quasijudicial -- the dispute resolution mechanisims in place
now are not working adequately in either of our interests," he
said.
    Ottawa also is seeking to change some of Washington's rules
on government procurement that penalize Canadian businesses, he
said.
    "There are a number of Canadian companies that, in order to
secure substantial contracts in the United States, have had to
move their head offices out of our country into your country
because you have national procurement requirements," he said.
    In turn, he added, the United States would like to change
some of the procurement requirements that exist at the
provincial government level in Canada.
    Clark declined to forecast the outcome of the discussions.
    "What will come out of it remains for the negotiators, in
the first instance, to propose, and then governments and
congresses will have judge," he said.
    In his prepared remarks, Clark said that the United States
has tended to take Canada for granted, although it exports to
its northern neighbor more than twice what it exports to Japan.
"Yet you bought almost 10 per cent more from Japan last year
than you bought from Canada," he said. REUTER
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 11 cts vs profit 33 cts
    Oper net loss 132,000 vs profit 408,000
    Revs 25.2 mln vs 23.0 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 oper net excludes a loss of 636,000
dlrs or 52 cts per share and a loss of 994,000 dlrs or 80 cts
per share for discontinued operations.
 Reuter

NASA launched an Indonesian
communications satellite aboard a Delta rocket, marking the
first international payload to be put into orbit since the
Challenger disaster more than a year ago.
    The 43 mln dlr satellite, the Palapa B2-P, was launched as
the result of an agreement reached last year between President
Ronald Reagan and Indonesia's President Suharto when they met
on Bali.
 
 Reuter

Shr loss 19.22 dlrs vs loss 3.90 dlrs
    Net loss 276.4 mln vs loss 45.6 mln
    Revs 85.4 mln vs 113.3 mln
    NOTE: Shr results after deducting preferred share dividends
of 13.1 mln dlrs in both periods.
    Current loss includes a 125 mln dlr writedown of oil and
gas properties, a 67 mln dlr writeoff of deferred charges, a
22.5 mln dlr loss on disposal of U.K. properties, a 21.2 mln
dlr equity loss from affiliate Sulbath Exploration ltd and a
4.6 mln dlr loss on other investments.
 Reuter

The Alberta provincial
government will increase its general corporate tax rate on
April 1 to 15 pct from 11 pct under its 1987-88 budget
announced today, provincial treasurer Dick Johnston said.
    The budget forecasts the 1987-88 provincial deficit to be
1.90 billion dlrs, compared to a forecast deficit of 3.30
billion dlrs for fiscal 1987, which ends March 31, Johnston
said.
    The budget forecasts fiscal 1988 revenues of 8.63 billion
dlrs and expenditures of 10.42 billion dlrs, Johnston said.
    The provincial budget raises combined personal and
corporate income taxes by about 20 pct, Johnston said.
    Johnston told a news conference taxes were increased after
revenues from oil and gas taxes fell by 64 pct last year and
are not expected to increase sharply in the short term.
    The provincial government expects resource tax revenues for
fiscal 1987 to fall to 1.30 billion dlrs from a previously
estimated 2.20 billion dlrs, compared to 3.60 billion dlrs
collected in fiscal 1986 before the collapse in oil prices.
    Johnston told reporters he needed to raise taxes in order
to begin moving towards a balanced budget in 1990-91.
    Johnston said the personal income tax increase takes three
forms. The basic provincial tax rate rises to 46.5 pct from
43.5 pct of the basic federal income tax rate.
    The provincial budget also imposed a temporary eight pct
surtax on individuals with taxable income of more than 36,000
dlrs, he said.
    In addition, the government levied a flat one pct surtax on
all individuals with taxable income.
    Johnston said overall government spending of 10.42 billion
dlrs represents a cut of 4.4 pct, but various grants and tax
credits for agriculture and energy industries will remain.
 Reuter

Wisconsin Electric Power Co said it
began a public offering of 700,000 shares of serial preferred
stock, 6-3/4 pct series, 100 dlrs par value, at a price of 100
    The shares are being offered pursuant to a shelf
registration covering 700,000 sahres of serial preferred stock
which the company filed on February 19, 1987.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem outstanding preferred stock
or for repayment of short-term indebtedness.
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp, is offering 350 mln dlrs of equipment-backed
debt securities in three tranches and another 150 mln dlrs of
senior notes due 1997, said lead manager Drexel Burnham.
    A 100 mln dlr offering of first priority secured equipment
certificates due 1992 was given a 10 pct coupon and par
pricing. This tranche is non-callable to maturity.
    A 125 mln dlr issue of second priority secured equipment
certificates due 1995 has an 11 pct coupon and par pricing and
an equal-sized offering of third priority certificates due 1999
was given an 11-3/8 pct coupon and par pricing.
    The second two tranches of the equipment-backed deal are
non-callable for five years, Drexel said.
    Continental's 10-year notes were assigned an 11-1/2 pct
coupon and priced at par. They are non-callable for five years.
Texas Air has guaranteed the scheduled payments of interest and
principal for the senior notes.
    The securities are rated B-2 by Moody's and B by Standard
and Poor's. Kidder Peabody, Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney
co-managed the issues. Proceeds, estimated at 486 mln dlrs,
will be used to repay about 254 mln dlrs of bank debt, with the
remainder added to working capital, Continental said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.12 dlrs vs profit one cts
    Net loss 1.7 mln vs profit 8,000 dlrs
    Revs 31.8 mln vs 42.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 51 cts vs profit 57 cts
    NEt loss 780,000 vs profit 876,000
    Revs 117.8 mln vs 117.3 mln
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr includes loss of 911,000 for termination
of licensing agreement and loss of 319,000 dlr for termination
of womens wear operation.
 Reuter

Guest Supply INc said a
shareholder sued it and certain officers and directors,
alleging misrepresentations and omissions in the prospectus for
the company's September 1986 public offering.
    Guest said the complaint is without merit and will defend
the action vigorously.
 Reuter

said he believed Brazil's decision to suspend foreign debt
interest payments is temporary.
    Conable in a wide-ranging television interview to be shown
on public broadcasting tomorrow said Brazil now has the
attention of its creditors and must come up with a plan
designed to reform its economy.
    "I think the Brazilians have the attention of many of their
creditors, but they must come up with a plan that will persuade
people that the Brazilian economy is going to be put on a
course that will result in some growth."
    Turning to Japan, Conable said the role of that country has
been increasing in the World Bank and is expected to continue
to do so.
    He said that Japan had made an additional 450 mln dlr
pledge to the International Development Association, an
indication that it agrees that it must provide more help in
line with its economic position.
    Conable said there was no indication that the Soviet Union
was serious about joining the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank. He said they would have to get convertible currency
and open their books and the Soviets "don't usually do that."
 REUTER

<Sulpetro Ltd> said its 1986
fiscal year net loss of 276.4 mln dlrs, or 19.22 dlrs per
share, was due to several factors, the largest of which was a
writedown of 125.0 mln dlrs of oil and gas properties.
    Sulpetro also recorded a writeoff of deferred charges
amounting to 67.0 mln dlrs, a loss of 22.5 mln dlrs on the
disposal of all properties in the United Kingdom and an equity
loss of 21.2 mln dlrs from affiliate Sulbath Exploration Ltd.
    There was also a loss on other investments of 4.6 mln dlrs
and a loss on operations of 36.1 mln dlrs after interest,
depletion, depreciation and income tax recoveries.
    In the fiscal year ended October 31, 1985, Sulpetro had a
net loss of 45.6 mln dlrs, or 3.90 dlrs per share.
    The company also said its non-recourse project financing
for the Irish-Lindergh heavy oil field remains in default due
to continuing low oil prices.
 Reuter

American Express Co's board of
directors Monday will discuss the company's arrangement to sell
13 pct of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc to Nippon Life Insurance
Co, a company spokesman said.
    The spokesman would not say whether the board is planning
to vote on the understanding between American Express and
Nippon Life. The Shearson stake is to be sold for 530 mln dlrs,
American Express has said.
    The spokesman also would not comment on speculation that
the board was to discuss a sale of securities to the public.
    Monday's board meeting is a regular monthly meeting. The
plan to sell part of Shearson to Nippon Life must be approved
by the American Express board and Japan's Ministry of Finance.
    Earlier, American Express and Shearson said they were
subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. American
Express said it was subpoenaed for documents pertaining to
securities transactions of American Express and Fireman's Fund.
Shearson was subpoenaed for documents related to transactions
with Jefferies and Co and others.
    The American Express spokesman said he could not comment on
whether any officials of the firm were subpoenaed.
 Reuter

Higher crude oil prices will raise
demand for natural gas, helping it to reclaim market share lost
to heavy oil when prices plunged in 1986, analysts said.
    The analysts said that these efforts will be most
successful in the industrial sectors of the economy with large
and growing energy requirements.
    "Natural gas stands a good chance to recapture the share of
oil supplied to electric utilities that it lost to the residual
fuel industry last year," Michael Smolinski, an energy
economist with Data Resources Inc, told Reuters.
    An estimated 200,000 barrels per day of residual fuel went
into the utilities market at the expense of natural gas last
year when world oil prices plunged, Smolinski said. 
    Assuming oil prices hold above 15 dlrs a barrel, national
average gas prices delivered to the utilities at a projected
2.10 to 2.25 dlrs per mln Btu would be very competitive,
Michael German, vice president of economic analysis at American
Gas Association said.
    The average delivered prices at the end of January were
2.10 dlrs per mln Btu, compared with 3.26 dlrs a year ago.
    "We expect natural gas to regain 250 to 400 billion cubic
feet (of demand) in the overall energy market in the second and
third quarter (1987)," he said.
    In addition to price competitiveness, availability will be
an important factor persuading energy users to switch to gas,
Frank Spadine, senior energy economist with Bankers Trust Corp.
in New York noted.
    Spadine said the mild winter in many parts of the North
American continent has led to a build up of gas inventories and
less would be necessary to replenish underground storage this
spring freeing gas for spot sales.
    These forecasts develop a strong counterpoint to the fears
that natural gas suplies would be tight and prices
significantly higher given a sharp decline in drilling last
year.
    AGA's German contended that despite the drilling decline,
much of U.S. proved reserves could be brought to production
quickly through developments such as the infill drilling which
permits more wells to be drilled in proved reserve basins.
    Citing recent EIA statistics, German said, the gas surplus
was likely to contract from three trillion cubic feet in 1986
to two trillion cubic feet in 1987, but the surplus would not
go away until 1990.
    Smolinski of Data Resources agreed that the surplus would
persist until 1990. While gas supplies may tighten in certain
consuming areas, notably in California and in the Northeast
U.S., an overall shortfall appeared remote.
 Reuter

Louisiana Land and Exploration Co
said it assumed the obligation to pay the principal and
interest on the 8-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures
due September 1, 2000 of Inexco Oil Co, a unit of Louisiana
Land.
    Effective March 23, the debentures will be listed as the
debentures of Louisiana Land, LLXOO.
 Reuter

Ltd said it will redeem all outstanding nine pct series J
debentures on April 27, 1987 for 34.9 mln U.S. dlrs, plus a
premium of one pct and accrued and unpaid interest.
    The series J debentures were issued in Europe in 1977 and
were due February 1992, the company said.
 Reuter

The United States will likely impose
sanctions soon on imports of Japanese microchips, senators said
today after a private meeting with Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige.
    Although the senators said Baldrige told them no decision
would be taken until a final determination is made on whether
Japanese microchips were dumped in the United States, they said
they were virtually sure Japan would face penalties.
    President Reagan's trade policy advisory group, of which
Baldrige is a member, will meet on the issue Wednesday.
    "I am confident we will see action taken," Sen. John McCain,
an Arizona Republican, told reporters.
    "I am expecting sanctions at least, and even more than
sanctions," Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, said.
    The senators, several congressmen and U.S. semiconductor
industry representatives met with Baldrige and State Department
officials to discuss Japan's alleged violations of a September
1986 agreement to stop dumping its microchips in the United
States and other countries.
    They recommended Japanese firms be penalized through
tariffs or import duties over the next six to 12 months for
continuing to dump microchips. The violations were worth 100
mln dls to the Japanese semiconductor industry, they said.
    Asked if Baldrige intended to recommend sanctions, Sen.
Pete Wilson told reporters, "The clear import of what he said is
that there will be."
    "Japan can't just say they will comply. We think sanctions
must be applied," for past violations of the agreement, the
California Republican said.
    The semiconductor industry produces microprocessor chips
which are used in high technology products ranging from radios
to defence missile guidance systems.
    Sen. James McClure, an Idaho Republican, said Baldrige told
them the administration had not made a final determination that
Japanese companies had dumped semiconductor microchips below
the cost of production in the United States or other countries.
    But McClure said senators told him, "There is no doubt
dumping is going on," based on evidence such as invoices of
purchases of the Japanese products.
    The two countries signed a pact last September in which
Japan agreed to stop selling its microchips in the United
States and other countries below production costs and to allow
the U.S. semiconductor industry access to the Japanese market.
    In return, the United States waived its right to impose
import duties on the Japanese microchips.
    Japanese officials have said they have lived up to the pact
and have asked Japanese chip-makers to further slash output to
save the pact.
    Japan has frequently been the target of congressional
discouragement over last year's record 169-billion-dlr trade
deficit. Tokyo had a 59-billion-dlr surplus with the United
States last year and had large surpluses with other countries.
    The Senate yesterday unanimously passed a resolution
calling for action against Japan for violations of the pact
since September. The resolution will be introduced in the House
next week by Rep. Bob Matsui, a California Democrat.
 Reuter

Multi-Media Barter Ltd said it expects
to report a net loss of 820,000 dlrs or 17 cts a share for the
year ended December 31, compared to a loss of 553,000 or 11 cts
a share in the prior year.
    The fourth quarter resulted in a net loss of 227,000 or
four cts compared to a loss of 330,000 or six cts a shares last
year.
    It said it is currently in the process of restructuring by
reducing expenses and streamlining operations and has cut
expenses from 50,000 dlrs to less than 15,000 dlrs a month.
 Reuter

Wieboldt's Department Stores, in
Chapter 11 bankruptcy since September 1986, said as part of an
agreement with creditors it will operate its four largest and
most productive stores but close the remaining eight stores.
    It said 341 employees of its remaining 885 employees will
be laid off or terminated as a result.
    The company also said it established a fund of about 12 mln
dlrs to be available for payment of creditors' claims.
    The retailer said it would continue to operate its four
largest and most productive Chicago area outlets - State
Street, Randhurst, Harlem-Irving and Ford City.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 478,000 vs profit 371,000
    Revs 3.4 mln vs 2.6 mln
    Six months
    Net loss 466,000 vs profit 685,000
    Revs 6.2 mln vs 5.0 mln
    NOTE:1987 net loss includes writeoff of deferred start up
costs totaling 490,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 44.0 mln vs 65.0 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes one mln dlr extraordinary gain and
1985 net icludes four mln dlrs extraordinary loss.
 Reuter

committee completed another round of debt rescheduling talks 
and will meet again on Saturday, a senior banker said.
    Although today's negotiations did not produce a final
agreement, the decision to meet at the weekend appears to be a
signal that the two sides are making progress.
    The Philippines seeks to restructure 9.4 billion dlr of its
27.2 billion dlr foreign debt. The interest rate to be charged
on the debt and Manila's proposal to pay interest partly with
investment notes instead of cash have been the main sticking
points in the talks.
 Reuter

Minorco said it expects net
earnings to be substantially stronger than the 44.0 mln dlrs
reported for the first half.
    In reporting that first half results declined from 65.0 mln
dlrs, Minorco said the contributions from its 50 pct investment
in December 1985 in Adobe Resources Corp was negative as a
result of low oil and gas prices.
 Reuter

said state banking regulators closed the Morocco State Bank in
Morrocco, Indiana, bringing the total number of banks to fail
so far this year to 48.
    The failed bank's 14.1 mln dlrs in deposits and 9.9 mln
dlrs of its loans and other assets will be assumed by DeMotte
State Bank in DeMotte, Ind, the FDIC said.
    The FDIC said it will advance 3.7 mln dlrs to help the
transaction and would retain 5.1 mln dlrs in the failed banks
assets.
 Reuter

U.S. arms negotiator Max Kampelman
suffered a mild heart attack, an aide said.
    Nancy Tackett, Kampleman's staff assistant, told Reuters
Kampelman was doing well and was expected to leave George
Washington Hospital in about a week.
    "A full recovery is expected," she said.
    Kampelman did not feel well yesterday and may have
sufffered the heart attack then, Tackett said. He had a
regularly-scheduled physical this morning and entered the
hospital after that, on his doctor's advice, she said.
      A hospital spokesman confirmed that Kampelman was a
patient in the coronary care unit.

 Reuter

said Dallas-based Vernon Savings and Loan Association, the 15th
largest thrift in Texas, was closed by state authorities and
its assets, deposits and liabilities were transfered to a new
federally chartered association.
    Vernon, with 1.35 billion dlrs of assets and nine offices
in Texas and Oklahoma, was closed after state regulators
concluded it was in unsafe and unsound condition.
    The thrift was owned by Texas businessman Donald Dixon, who
bought it in early 1982, when it had only 120 mln dlrs in
assets.
    The bank board said growth was accomplished largely through
the purchase of brokered deposits and the sale of jumbo
certificates of deposit, which totaled 29 pct of total deposits
at the end of 1986.
    The bank board also said that 96 pct of its loan portfolio
was nonperforming as a result of sloppy loan practices.
    It said Vernon also paid excessive salaries and dividends
to officers and directors and bought a beach house and five
airplances for the use of thrift executives and stockholders.
    The bank board ousted the thrift's officers and directors
and hired another Texas association to run it.
    The bank board also said it closed First Federal of
Maryland, a federal savings association that had 115.2 mln dlrs
in assets. It said its 118 mln dlrs in insured deposits were
transferred to Columbia First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Washington, D.C.
    The bank board said First Federal had engaged in unsound
loan underwriting practices and many of the loans are now
deliquent. The institution experienced heavy and continuing
losses and became insolvent, the bank board said.
 Reuter

Bolivia, once Latin America's most
delinquent debtor, is preparing for a second International
Monetary Fund agreement after an economic stabilisation program
has effectively slowed inflation and reduced public spending.
    A fund spokesman said an IMF team would visit La Paz
shortly to discuss terms of the new agreement.
    He said the IMF had disbursed 130 mln dlrs here and 20 mln
dlrs are pending under the one year agreement that ends this
month. The accord provided for a stand-by loan, a compensatory
financing facility and a structural adjustment facility.
    The spokesman said that if the agreement is renewed,
Bolivia can expect a further 60-mln-dlr stand-by loan over the
next 12 months.
    Bolivia's agreement with the IMF, its first since 1980,
opened the door to rescheduling negotiations with the Paris
Club and Argentina and Brazil, which hold 2.5 billion dlrs of
Bolivia's 4.0-billion-dlr foreign debt.
    Central Bank President Javier Nogales told Reuters the
negotiations with the Paris Club, which have yet to be
finalised, had been extremely successful.
    Nogales said the Paris Club had agreed to reschedule
Bolivia's debt over 10 years with five to six years grace and
had waived all interest payments until the end of 1988.
    Bilateral discussions on interest rates continue, he said.
    Nogales said Bolivia was expecting some 400 mln dlrs in
disbursements this year from lender countries and international
agencies, including the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank, although diplomatic and banking sources put
the figure at closer to 300 mln dlrs.
    Nogales said Bolivia's net international reserves are
around 250 mln dlrs, up from one mln dlrs when President Ictor
Paz Estenssoro took office in august 1985. Nogales said the
capital flow on Bolivia's debt servicing versus new credits had
changed from a net outflow of 200 mln dlrs in 1985 to a net
inflow of 130 mln dlrs in 1986.
    Bolivia's return from the financial wilderness follows paz
estenssoro's economic stabilisation program. He inherited
inflation of 23,000 pct a year, state enterprises that were
losing hundreds of mlns of dlrs and a currency that traded on
the black market at up to 16 times its official rate.
    Paz estenssoro froze public sector wages, set a market-
related rate for the peso, introduced tax reforms and laid off
thousands of workers in state corporations.
    Inflation has been running at 10 pct a year for the past
six months, according to the Central Bank, and the government 
expects the economy to grow three pct this year after a 14 pct
contraction over the last six years.
    The government is also proposing a novel solution to its
debt to commercial banks, some 900 mln dlrs, on which interest
has not been paid since March, 1984.
    Nogales said that over the next few months Bolivia would
make a one-time offer to buy back all its commercial debt at
the price it trades on the international secondary market -- 
10-15 cents on the dlr. He said Bolivia's commercial bank
steering committee agreed at a meeting in New York to consider
the proposal, but it is still unclear what proportion of the
country's creditor banks will take up the offer.
    One foreign banker speculated that Bolivia might be able to
buy back up to 30 pct of its commercial debt paper under the
deal, mostly from small banks who have written off their loans
to the country.
    But he said the larger creditors were more interested in a
scheme of debt-equity swaps, similar to that which has operated
in Chile for the past two years.
    The Bolivian government has yet to draw up proposals for
debt-equity swaps, but the banker said it was planning to
privatise more than 100 state companies and these could serve
as a basis for such a scheme.
    Foreign bankers said this type of proposal might prove
attractive to Bolivia in the long run, especially as the
government realises that it will have to attract a large amount
of new capital in order to grow.
    Planning Minister Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada told Reuters
that Bolivia was hoping for five to six billion dlrs in new
investment over the next 10 to 12 years.
    The government realises that in order to remain viable,
Bolivia will need to develop new exports.
    The price of tin, which accounted for some 45 pct of
Bolivia's exports in 1984, has collapsed on the world markets,
and gas, the country's major revenue earner, is in abundant
supply in the region.
 Reuter

Shr loss 13 cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 1.4 mln vs loss 635,000
    Revs 40.3 mln vs 28.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 40 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net profit 4.2 mln vs 2.6 mln
    Revs 166.4 mln vs 94.6 mln
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr and year net reflects dividend
requirements of 1.5 mln dlrs and 3.3 mln dlrs, and charges of
257,000 dlrs and 4.6 mln dlrs respectively which is not
accruable or payable because of pre-reorganization tax loss
    1985 4th qtr and year net reflects dividend requirement of
1.1 mln dlrs and 2.3 mln dlrs, respectively, and charges of
472,000 dlrs and 2.9 mln dlrs respectively which is not
accruable or payable because of pre-organization tax loss
 Reuter

there was a total short interest of 1,413,674 shares of stock
exclusively traded on the Exchange as of March 13, an increase
of 102,486 shares from last month's restated total of
1,311,188.
    The Exchange said the short interest ratio rose to 1.42
from last month's ratio of 1.25.
    The ratio is based on an average daily trading volume of
994,545 shares in the 47 issues included in the report.
 Reuter

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp 
(FDIC) said it transfered the federally insured deposits of
Madill Bank and Trust Co, Madill, Okla, to the healthy First
American National Bank, Tishomingo, Okla., after Madill was
closed by Oklahoma authorities.
    The failed bank had 37.0 mln in assets and two offices.
    Madill was the 49th federally insured bank to fail so far
this year, the FDIC said.
 Reuter

chairman John Shad said the SEC's investigations of
insider-trading on Wall Street will broaden to include other
types of securities law violations.
    Shad, appearing on Cable News Network's Moneyline program,
said the SEC staff will "go down every avenue" in which it
finds violations of securities laws.
    He said the SEC staff will investigate "many more ancillary
areas." These, he said, include stock "parking" to avoid
required SEC filings on stock holdings of more than five pct
and failures by brokerage firms to meet net capital
   
 Reuter

The new International Natural Rubber
Agreement (INRA), like the 1979 pact, will use a buffer stock
as the sole instrument for market intervention -- excluding
export quotas or production controls.
    The new INRA was adopted yesterday at a session held under
the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD).
    In many respects the main features in the new pact resemble
those contained in the present one.
    The reference price, currently 201.66 Malaysian/Singapore
cts per kilo, will be maintained -- unless between now and
October 22, when the 1979 INRA expires, the average of the
daily market indicator price remains above the upper
intervention ("may sell") price (231 cts) or below the lower
intervention ("may buy") price (171 cts) for six months.
    If this happened -- but delegates said it was unlikely
considering that the present indicator price averages 196 cts
-- the price would be revised under the current accord by five
pct or by whatever amount the International Natural Rubber
Council decides.
    The new reference price would then be taken over for the
new agreement.
    Under the same circumstances in the new pact the reference
price would be automatically revised by five pct unless the
Council decides on a higher percentage.
    Similarly, if buffer stock purchases or sales amounting to
300,000 tonnes have been made since the last revision, the
reference price will be lowered or raised by three pct unless
the Council decides on a higher percentage.
    Another change introduced in the new INRA is that price
reviews will be held at 15-month intervals instead of 18.
    Those changes are intended to make the reference price more
responsive to market trends.
    As in the present accord the "may buy" and "may sell" levels
are set at plus or minus 15 pct of the reference price, and the
"must buy" and "must sell" levels at 20 pct of it.
    The lower and upper indicative prices (floor and ceiling
prices) will remain fixed at 150 and 270 cents, unless the
Council decides to revise them at reviews held every 30 months.
    During the negotiations, consumers abandoned a proposal
that the floor price be adjusted downward if the buffer stock,
    The maximum size of the buffer stock in the new pact is the
same as under the present one -- 400,000 tonnes, with provision
for an additional contingency buffer stock of 150,000 tonnes.
    Under the new accord, the contingency buffer stock will be
brought in at 152 cts to defend the floor price.
    At last Friday's session, Ahmed Farouk, speaking for
producers, said producing nations considered that the 1979 pact
had served the purpose for which it had been created.
    Gerard Guillonneau of France, who spoke for consumers,
agreed that the current agreement had worked "relatively well."
    Asked about the chances of success of the new INRA,
delegates noted that for nearly its whole life, the 1979 accord
had maintained the average price above the "must buy" level.
    They said the agreement until now did not appear to have
encouraged excessive production of rubber.
    In addition, provisions for borrowing to finance the buffer
stock have now been eliminated, ruling out speculation. "It is a
sort of middle-of-the-road agreement," one delegate said.
    The new pact will be open for signature at U.N.
Headquarters in New York from May 1 to December 31 this year.
    To become operational, it will require ratification by
countries accounting for 75 pct of world exports and 75 pct of
world imports.
    Delegates estimate that this will take 12 to 14 months from
now. During the hiatus between the two agreements, the
International Natural Rubber Council will remain in place.
    The pact will enter into force definitively when
governments accounting for 80 pct of world exports and 80 pct
of world imports have ratified it.
 REUTER

A prolonged drought is ravaging more
than 13 mln hectares (32 mln acres) of farmland in China and
has cut water levels in major rivers to record lows, the China
Daily said.
    The drought will affect both the summer harvest in the
south and the spring sowing under way in the north.
    It said the most seriously affected areas are Guangdong,
Jiangxi, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangxi.
    It said that, despite bigger snowfalls this year than last
in Hebei and Shanxi and more rainfall forecast for some areas,
the drought will not abate in the near future.
    This is because the drought has lasted so long that slight
increases in rainfall are not enough to alleviate it, the paper
said.
    It said that the water level on the middle reaches of the
Yangtze has fallen to its lowest level in more than 110 years,
so that more than 100 ports along it cannot receive ships.
    Water level of other major rivers, including the Zhujiang,
Qiantangjiang and Minjiang, have also been affected by the
drought, the paper added but gave no more details.
 REUTER

Police fired tear gas to disperse 1,000
unemployed miners blocking the route of West German President
Richard Weizsaecker's motorcade to La Paz, Bolivian Information
Minister Herman Antelo said.
    "They were forced to use tear gas to disperse the miners
because they blocked the West German president's motorcade into
the city," Antelo told journalists last night after the
incident. Weizsaecker began a four-day visit here.
    The demonstrators were part of about 20,000 miners -- about
two-thirds of the total mining workforce -- laid off by the
government to streamline the deficit-ridden state mining firms.
 REUTER

Taiwan's industrial production index,
fell, largely as the result of the rising Taiwan dollar, by
8.18 pct to 140.06 (base 1981) in February from a revised
152.53 in January, the Economy Ministry said.
    It was the second consecutive monthly fall, after dropping
nine pct in January, but it was still 26.49 pct up on February
1986 following a very extended rise last year.
    The January figure was revised from a preliminary 154.82.
    A ministry official attributed the decline to falling
production of non-metal products, textiles and transportation
equipment, and less mining and house construction.
    The official said the decline was also caused by falling
exports in February due to the climb of the Taiwan dollar,
which has made Taiwanese products more expensive.
    He expected the decline to continue in the next few months
because of further appreciation of the local dollar against the
U.S. Currency.
    The Taiwan dollar advanced more than 15 pct against the
U.S. Dollar since September 1985. It closed at 34.40 to the
U.S. Dollar today, and is expected to rise to about 32 to the
dollar by the end of this year, foreign bankers and economists
said.
 REUTER

Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, the nation's
central bank, has denied the Zimbabwe dollar would be devalued.
    Bank Governor Kombo Moyana told The Herald daily newspaper
"unfortunate and completely unfounded speculation that a
depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar was about to occur" had
aggravated a serious foreign exchange shortage.
    "During February and the early part of March this
(speculation) caused importers to bring forward their payments
and exporters to delay as long as possible the inward
remittance of export receipts, resulting in a significant
slowdown in net foreign exchange inflows," he added.
 REUTER

Hong Kong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HK> gave
details of a previously announced spin-off of its 80 pct stake
in <Mandarin Oriental International Ltd> and a 32 pct stake in
<Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd> (JSH).
    An offer document prepared by financial adviser <Jardine
Fleming (Securities) Ltd> said Hong Kong Land offers
shareholders 200 Mandarin shares at 1.54 H.K. Dlrs each and 93
JSH shares at 3.28 dlrs each for every 1,000 Hong Kong Land
shares. But price of Mandarin may be lowered to 1.43 dlrs each,
while shareholders may instead receive 86 JSH shares if all
Hong Kong Land's existing warrants are exercised before April
28.
    Hong Kong Land warrants are worth 725.92 mln dlrs.
    Holders of the firm's 151.89 mln preference shares will
receive a similar offer as ordinary shareholders.
    The company also agreed to sell a 20 pct stake in Mandarin
to Jardine Strategic for some 430 mln dlrs.
    Hong Kong Land said last month it is expected to receive
net proceeds of about 900 mln dlrs from the spin-off and the
sum will be used either for expansion or to reduce its debts.
    Hong Kong Land shares gained 30 cts to close at eight dlrs
each yesterday, while JSH was up 50 cts at 12.90 dlrs.
    Mandarin will commence trading on June 8.
 REUTER

Malawi will impose a 15 pct "border tax" on
some overseas remittances and a five pct profit tax for local
branches of foreign firms to boost revenue and meet a projected
1987/88 budget deficit of 303 mln kwacha, the Malawi news
agency reported.
    Finance Minister Dalton Katopola, presenting the new
budget, said other measures would include raising surtax on
goods and services by five points to 35 pct and imposing duty
on luxury goods and tax on statutory bodies such as the Water
Board.
    Malawi's economy was expected to grow 2.3 pct this year, he
said.
 REUTER

<China Sports Service Corp> of China and
<Seylla Corp> of Hong Kong signed an agreement to borrow five
billion yen from an international syndicate of banks led by the
Bank of China, the New China News Agency said.
    It said the two firms will use the money to construct the
Olympic Hotel, with 14 storeys and 380 rooms, near Peking's
largest indoor stadium, to cater for participants at
international competitions and tourists.
    Construction of the hotel is under way and due to be
completed by June 1988, the agency added but gave no more
details.
 REUTER

World Bank President Barber Conable is
expected to press Indonesia, the Third World's sixth largest
debtor, to maintain the momentum of economic policy changes to
tackle the slump in its oil revenues, western diplomats said.
    Conable, who flew to Indonesia yesterday from Tokyo, will
meet with President Suharto and senior economic ministers.
    He said on arrival that the economy of South-East Asia's
largest nation was being managed well, but the slump in world
oil prices called for major policy adjustments.
    Today the World Bank chief will visit Bank-funded projects
in the eastern section of Java, Indonesia's most populous
island. He will see Suharto on Tuesday after a day of detailed
discussions with ministers tomorrow.
    Indonesia, the only Asian member of OPEC, has been severely
hit by last year's crash in oil prices, which cut its oil and
gas revenues in half.
    Japan's state Export-Import Bank last month agreed to
provide around 900 mln dlrs in untied credits to help Indonesia
pay for its share of 21 World Bank development projects.
    Indonesia, a country of 168 mln people, has responded to
the oil slump by cutting spending, devaluing its currency by 31
pct, and trying to boost exports, while using foreign loans to
bridge its deficit.
    Diplomats said that Conable was expected to press Suharto
and leading economic ministers to maintain the pace of policy
change, particularly in dismantling Indonesia's high-cost
protected economy.
    "Oil prices, the debt crisis, the world recession, all call
for major policy adjustments and external support," Conable said
in his arrival statement.
    But with Indonesia facing parliamentary elections next
month, he is likely to avoid anything which would imply that
the Bank is demanding specific changes.
    "We believe there has been wise leadership here and the
economy is being very well managed," Conable told reporters at
Jakarta airport.
    Indonesia has official and private overseas debts totalling
37 billion dlrs, according to the Bank, which makes it the
Third World's sixth biggest debtor. It has received 10.7
billion dlrs from the World Bank since 1968.
    Conable did not spell out what further changes he would
like to see. Last month the Bank endorsed economic changes
already introduced by Indonesia, but implied it wanted more.
    Giving a 300 mln dlr loan in balance of payments support,
the Bank said it will monitor progress on implementation of the
government's trade reform measures, and supported its
determination to promote efficiency and longer-term growth.
    Indonesia has introduced a series of measures since last
May to boost non-oil exports, liberalise trade and encourage
outside investment.
    Suharto has also ordered a government committee to look
into which of Indonesia's 215 state-run companies could be
sold.
    But in a report last month, the U.S. Embassy said the
government appeared divided over how far to take its reforms.
    Western analysts say that in particular the government is
unsure how far to go with dismantling Indonesia's high-cost
monopolies, which control core areas of the economy.
    Central bank governor Arifin Siregar said this week that
Indonesia faced very limited economic choices.
    It could not spend its way out of trouble because this
would increase the balance of payments deficit and domestic
     He said the main objective was to raise exports outside
the oil and natural gas sector.
    Indonesia's current account deficit is projected by the
government to fall to 2.64 billion dlrs in the coming financial
year which starts on April 1, from an estimated 4.1 billion in
1986/87.
 REUTER

Bundesbank vice-president Helmut
Schlesinger said that although West German economic growth was
not expected to be satisfactory in the first 1987 quarter, two
pct growth was still attainable for the whole of the year.
    A further rise in the value of the mark would worsen export
prospects and have a negative effect on investments, he told
the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview. But if such
an appreciation did not materialize, the economy would expand.
    The federal government has predicted a growth rate of 2-1/2
pct or more in its annual economic report published in January,
but some economists have said the forecast was too optimistic.
    Schlesinger said private consumption was likely to rise
strongly. Government expenditure and construction were also
expected to increase. But there was uncertainty about the
prospects for exports and investment.
    The Bundesbank had viewed with concern the money supply
overshoot in 1986, but the sharp rise was unlikely to have an
effect on inflation in the forseeable future. However, there
were potential dangers in the long run.
    Schlesinger said there was hope that in 1987 the West
German money supply would grow within the three to six pct
target zone set in December.
    Schlesinger said the dampening effect on inflation of the
drop in import prices could continue to a lesser degree for
some time. Prices in West Germany were likely to rise between
one and two pct this year.
    He said 1987 would be the fifth successive growth year for
the West German economy. Although there was a possibility of a
downturn at some stage in the future, there were no signs this
would happen in 1988.
    The main risks for the West German economy stemmed from its
close ties with the rest of the world, Schlesinger added.
 REUTER

U.S. House Ways and Means
chairman Dan Rostenkowski said he questioned whether a U.S. Tax
on securities transactions would be appropriate.
    Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, told Reuters before
addressing the Future Industry Association that such a tax
could impair the international competitiveness of the U.S.
Securities business.
    House Speaker James Wright, a Democrat of Texas, has said a
tax on securities transactions could help reduce the federal
deficit.
    Rostenkowski said he understood that Britain was exploring
the possibility of easing its tax burden on securities firms
and in that context a new U.S. Tax would be especially hard
felt by the domestic industry.
 REUTER

Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski said a tax increase
probably would be needed but that Congress and President Regan
might not approve one.
    Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat, also told the Futures
Industry Association that he did not think congressional tax
writers would approve a tax on stock transfers or ease taxes to
promote U.S. Exports.
    He congratulated House Speaker James Wright for proposing
tax increases to help cut the budget deficit.
    Rostenkowski said he hoped White House Chief of Staff
Howard Baker could persuade President Reagan to support a
package of tax increases and spending cuts.
    He noted that Baker and Treasury Secretary James Baker both
supported tax increases in l982.
    Rostenkowski suggested that about 18 billion dlrs of new
taxes might have to be found, along with nine billion in
defence and spending cuts and another nine billion in domestic
spending reductions. But, he said, proposed tax rises would be
brought to the floor only if House Democratic leaders felt
there was Republican support.
    A string of indictments of Wall Street figures could move
some in Congress to support a tax on stock transfers, he said.
    "But the fact many people don't like what's happening in
financial markets doesn't mean they will be hit with a tax," he
said, noting that Wright's securities tax idea had not been
"fleshed out."
    Efforts by special interests to rewrite provisions of the
tax reform bill will fall on deaf ears, Rostenkowski predicted.
    The chief House tax writer also predicted congress would
approve legislation to reform the welfare system.
 REUTER

Democratic Alliance has crept ahead of the opposition Labour
party to become the country's second political force, according
to a Gallup opinion poll.
    The poll, part of a survey carried out every week by Gallup
on behalf of the ruling Conservative party, showed the
Conservatives with an eight-point lead at 38.5 pct, the
Alliance at 30.5 and Labour at 30 pct.
    It was published in the Sunday Telegraph.
    But two other surveys, the MORI poll conducted for the
Sunday Times and the Harris poll published in the Observer
newspaper, gave Labour a nine-point lead over the Alliance.
    These polls showed 33 pct supported Labour against 26 pct
for the Alliance, a grouping of the Liberal Party and the
Social Democratic Party, while 39 pct backed the Conservatives.
    The Gallup poll results are the latest in a series of
setbacks for the Labour party, in disarray over its non-nuclear
policy and plagued by internal feuding.
 REUTER

Nigeria's Central Bank has changed the
rules governing its foreign exchange auctions in what analysts
see as a means of defending the naira currency, which has
depreciated steadily.
    The bank said in a statement that from April 2, banks
bidding for foreign exchange would have to pay at the rate they
offered and not, as presently, at the rate of the lowest
successful bid made at the auction.
    This should discourage banks from bidding high to ensure
that they were successful while paying the lower "marginal" rate,
    "It should act as a brake because banks will know that if
they bid high they will have to pay what they offered," a
Western diplomat commented.
    The naira has depreciated against the dollar by 62 pct
since the auctions, known as the Second-Tier Foreign Exchange
Market (SFEM), began last September 26.
    At last week's session the Nigerian currency was fixed at
4.0 to the dollar, the third fall in a row.
    "They were clearly worried... And this is the logical way of
trying to stop the trend," the diplomat said.
    The Central Bank also announced the auctions would be
fortnightly, not weekly, beginning on April 2.
    It was not immediately clear whether next Thursday's
scheduled session would still take place, nor if the bank was
planning to double the 50 mln dlrs which are normally on offer
at each auction.
    Demand for foreign exchange has consistently outstripped
supply, encouraging banks to bid high and thus further
weakening the naira.
    If the normal weekly allocation is not doubled at the
fortnightly session, high demand could undermine the objective
of the new system, analysts said.
    Although bidding banks will now pay what they offered, the
official exchange rate for the naira applying to business
transactions will continue to be the marginal rate -- the
lowest successful bid.
    SFEM is a central part of Nigeria's structural adjustment
program, which is considered to be the most ambitious economic
recovery plan in Black Africa.
    The program involves setting a realistic exchange rate for
the naira, which was over-valued for many years, liberalising
imports, boosting agriculture, removing subsidies and reducing
inefficient government participation in the economy.
    The World Bank has played a prominent part in designing
this dramatic blue-print and in selling it to an often
sceptical public which fears inflation and lower living
    Ishrat Husain, the World Bank's representative in Nigeria,
said yesterday he was satisfied both with the adjustment
program as a whole and the foreign exchange auctions.
    "So far so good" he told a meeting of bankers in Lagos,
adding that only members of Nigeria's import-dependent elite
would suffer hardship while the common man would benefit.
    Fears that the program would encourage inflation were
incorrect, he said.
    Bumper harvests had reduced rural inflation and urban
prices had already reflected the naira's black market value
before the currency was allowed to find its true level last
 REUTER

Brazil's attempt to seek better
terms for paying off its 109 billion dlr foreign debt is
responsible and modest, a former chairman of President Reagan's
Council of Economic Advisers said.
    "I think that what Brazil is calling for -- limiting its
debt payments to two and one half pct of GNP -- is a
responsible request on their part," economist Martin Feldstein
said at a news conference.
    "It requires additional money on the part of the banks, but
rather modest additional amounts."
    Feldstein is attending the annual meeting of the Trilateral
Commission, a foreign policy group of more than 300 business
and government leaders from North America, Europe and Japan.
    Feldstein, one of four members of a task force on Third
World debt, said that Brazil's request would mean an additional
credit of three billion to four billion dlrs from banks and
international agencies.
    "Brazil's debt would increase in dollar terms but remain
constant in real terms. The four billion dlr increase in
Brazil's 100 billion dlr debt would represent no increase in
the real inflation-adjusted size of its liability," he said.
    Feldstein said he believed current Third World debt
problems were less serious than those faced by the
international monetary system in 1983 and 1985.
    However, the European representative on the task force,
Herve de Carmoy, chief executive international for Midland Bank
PLC, disagreed.
    He called the present situation more difficult and, in a
draft proposal included in the task force's report, suggested
setting up an institution, possibly within the World Bank, with
a fund that could deal with a future debt crisis.
    Commission discussions were closed to reporters but it was
apparent from the news conference that task force members did
not agree on all points in their report.
    One point of agreement, Feldstein said, was that debtor
countries would need additional credit in the coming years if
they are to enjoy satisfactory growth.
    Feldstein said the task force, which also included Koei
Narusawa, economic adviser to the president of the Bank of
Toyko, and Paul Krugman, professor of economics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did not agree on how
much credit would be needed.
    He said they also did not reach a consensus on how willing
international banks, particularly those in Japan and Europe,
would be to lend the money.
    The Trilateral Commission was set up in 1973 by David
Rockefeller, former head of Chase Manhattan bank, and others to
promote closer cooperation among the three regions.
 REUTER

President Jose Sarney, whose handling
of the economy is under attack at home and abroad, has held
private talks with Brazilian business leaders worried that
government policies are leading to recession.
    Over an informal barbecue at a farm outside Sao Paulo owned
by millionaire entrepreneur Matias Machline, Sarney met more
than 20 businessmen for discussion on Brazil's economic crisis.
    Business leaders said before the meeting they would be
pressing for less government interference in what they describe
as a tightly regulated economy.
    Their concerns include the country's high rates of interest
and tough restrictions on imports.
    Machline, president of the Sharp electronics group and a
personal friend of Sarney's, told television reporters outside
his farm that he wanted "less government participation in the
economy."
    When the government announced a month ago that it was
suspending interest payments on Brazil's 68 billion dlr debt to
commercial banks, it said this was a means of ensuring growth
and avoiding recession.
    But business leaders and economic analysts say there are
growing signs that Brazil's economy, the eighth biggest in the
non-communist world, is heading for a downturn after 8 pct
growth last year.
    Businessmen are deeply concerned about the effect on
industry of import restrictions introduced earlier this year
because of the country's deteriorating trade balance.
    Cacex, the foreign trade department of the federally owned
Banco do Brasil, has told companies they must limit their
imports to 90 pct of what they imported in 1985.
    Business sources say that in practice importing even this
amount is difficult and they have to haggle with Cacex on a
case-by-case basis.
    The business daily Gazeta Mercantil reported that in many
sectors of the economy there was a real fear that production
lines would grind to a halt next month.
    One of those attending the talks was Mario Amato, head of
the powerful Sao Paulo State Industries' Federation (FIESP).
    Business sources said he would argue that unless there were
a relaxation in import controls a sharp downturn in industrial
activity was inevitable.
    Relations between Sarney and the business community have at
times been strained and the existence of these tensions pointed
up the importance of the meeting.
    In one bizarre dispute in January, Sarney surprised
Brazilian business leaders by declaring that they were allies
of the 19th century anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. This outburst
came after Amato warned that companies might start disobeying
government regulations on price controls.
    Brazilian press reports made much of the fact that Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro, chief architect of the government's
economic policy, had not been invited to the gathering.
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The United States and major Latin
American nations agreed to set aside sharp differences over
control of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and
reconsider the issue this summer.
    The bank's policy-making board of governors, meeting here
ahead of this week's IADB annual meetings, put off any
decisions when it became apparent differences between
Washington and the Latin countries ware too great.
    IABD officials said Washington had indicated, however, it
might be prepared to compromise in the future.
    The United States is the principal donor nation and has
pressed the bank, controlled by the Latin American borrowing
nations, to cede virtual veto power over loans to Washington.
    The Reagan administration wants to make the bank part of
its controversial strategy to resolve the debt crisis.
    The U.S. Plan calls for loans from multilateral banks like
the IADB to be tied to economic reforms in debtor nations which
would promote open markets, reduced government intervention and
inflation-free economic growth.
    Brazil, which declared an interest payments moratorium last
month, is leading a challenge to Washington's strategy and
officials here obviously feared any decisions that might deepen
rifts between the United States and Third World nations.
    IADB officials also said Washington hinted at future
compromise. "The U.S. Said it remains hopeful they can reach an
agreement and expressed optimism that such a consensus could be
reached," said an official who asked not to be named.
    Washington has threatened to scuttle a 20-25 billion dlr,
four-year capital replenishment for the bank if the veto issue
is not resolved.
    But it has asked Congress to give it authority to finance
its one-third share in the event agreement on voting power is
reached. The United States controls 34.5 pct of the vote and
wants a loan veto to exist at the 35 pct level.
    Currently, a simple majority can approve or disapprove
loans giving the borrowing nations control of the purse strings
and resulting in loan conditions too lax for Washington's
taste.
    The U.S. Strategy for dealing with the debt crisis is
expected to be repeated by Treasury Secretary James Baker in a
speech to the bank's annual meeting on Monday.
    But monetary sources expect Baker to suggest the United
States has some room for compromise and also to fend off other
challenges to its strategy by signalling Washington is open to
innovative solutions to the debt problem.
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Spain has granted Cuba a 25 mln dlr
credit line for the purchase of Spanish goods and services in
the iron and steel industry, the repair of fishing boats and
development of industrial projects, Prensa Latina said.
    The credit line was agreed by a joint economic/industrial
    The commission also discussed the possible participation of
spanish companies in the Cuban tourist industry.
 REUTER

Bank of Italy governor Carlo Ciampi
appointed three commissioners to take over the temporary
running of the Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria e Lucania
(Carical).
    The announcement, in a Bank of Italy statement, followed
the decision on Friday by Treasury Minister Giovanni Goria to
send in special commissioners after accepting the resignation
of Carical president Francesco Sapio and hearing a report
detailing "serious irregularities" at the bank.
    Goria's decision was taken in line with a provision in
Italy's banking legislation which allows the Treasury to
dissolve administrative bodies in the case of "serious
management irregularities or serious violations of legal and
statutory norms" that regulate credit institutions.
    Senior officials declined to give details of the
irregularities that had come to light at Carical, whose
activities are concentrated in Calabria in the toe of Italy.
    The Bank of Italy statement said the three special
commissioners would work under the control of the Bank of Italy
with the aim of safeguarding the interests of depositors, and
ensuring the normal running of Carical until a solution to its
"present problems" could be found.
    The statement said it was hoped a solution could be found
as soon as possible.
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Ministers from more than 20
nations were told by New Zealand that the next international
negotiations on liberalising trade would be the last this
century and the cost of failure could not be measured.
    Trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues at a
welcoming ceremony before two days of talks here that great
progress had been made in preparing for the negotiations which
must not be sidetracked.
    "We live in troubled and dangerous times for the world
trading system," he said.
    "We have seen that the failure of the world trading system
has caused great depression and conflict in the past. Our
failure to maintain the momentum will be at great cost to us
all," Moore said.
    He added: "The cost of failure is beyond calculation. It is
our last hope and best opportunity this century. We will not
get another chance before the year 2000."
    The ministers are in New Zealand to review world trade
since the "Uruguay round" talks last Sepember. The meeting is
also part of preparations for a full-scale conference of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Venice in
June.
    The Uruguay meeting is considered by most countries to have
been particularly successful, with northern hemisphere
countries managing to have service industries such as banking
and insurance included in the next full round.
    The southerners' goal of including agricultural and
tropical products also was met.
    The meeting at this North Island tourist resort is
described by participants as informal and no declaration is
expected.
    Moore said one aim was to "instil a sense of political
urgency to avert potential economic tragedy."
    Another was to seek ways of popularising freer trade to
people who felt the pain of readjustment but could not see the
benefits, as well as preventing "bush fires of confrontation
while we proceed with orderly negotiations."
    The meeting is being attended by 25 overseas delegations
including representatives of GATT and the Economic Community.
    The delegates include U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter.
    American sources say he is ready to state that the best way
to reverse protectionist sentiment in the United States is to
implement four key Uruguay proposals:
    -- an end to agricultural subsidies;
    -- inclusion of trade in services and investments in GATT
regulations;
    -- tightening of restrictions on pirating of so-called
intellectual property such as trademarks, patents and
copyrights;
    -- new rules to resolve trade disputes among GATT's 92
member states.
    Earlier, New Zealand sources had said French Foreign Trade
Minister Michel Noir had pulled out of the informal GATT talks
for domestic political reasons.
    Cabinet chief Bernard Prauge will lead the French
delegation.
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The French government said it would sign
a contract with <Walt Disney Co> on Tuesday for the
construction of Europe's first Disneyland amusement park.
    A statement from the office of Prime Minister Jacques
Chirac said the project, which will cost some 12 billion
francs, would create up to 30,000 jobs and be built outside
Paris.
    Funding will be provided by a combination of bank loans,
preferential financing by the French state and private
investment. France has also agreed to invest two billion francs
to extend rail and road links.
 REUTER

France and West Germany have reached
broad agreement on design specifications for a joint combat
helicopter for the 1990s, the French Defence Ministry said.
    A ministry spokesman said French Defence Minister Andre
Giraud and his West German counterpart Manfred Woerner had
"agreed in principle" on a common concept for the helicopter
during talks in Bonn on Friday.
    A joint commission will now be formed to work with firms
involved in project and present a final report by July, he
added.
    The project, first drafted in 1984, calls for the French
company <Aerospatiale> and <Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm> of
Munich to develop and build 400 helicopters for the French and
West German armed forces.
    Its development, seen as a test of Europe's ability to
collaborate on arms projects, has been dogged by different
views on what type of helicopter to build and how to equip it.
 REUTER

More than half of Yugoslavia's banks
have broken the law by mishandling millions of dollars worth of
funds, a leading Yugoslav newspaper said.
    The daily Borba, official organ of the Yugoslav Socialist
Alliance, said 88 of Yugoslavia's 174 commercial banks had used
57 billion dinars for illegal purposes.
    Prime Minister Branko Mikulic told Parliament last month
that 75 banks had been found to have misused funds by the end
of 1986, involving 51 billion dinars. He said the offences had
boosted inflation, now running close to an annual 100 pct.
 REUTER

Indonesia will need a new generation of
satellites by 1995 at the latest to link the giant archipelago
of 13,000 islands, Telecommunications minister Achmad Tahir was
    Speaking after the successful launch on Friday of a new
Indonesian communications satellite from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, Tahir said that a new generation of satellites was
very important for Indonesia's domestic communications system.
    He was quoted by Indonesia's official Antara news agency as
saying the government would start work straight away on
preparations and studies for the next generation of satellites.
 REUTER

Diversified investment company, <Ariadne
Australia Ltd>, has offered 3.8 billion pesos for 38 mln shares
in the Philippine brewing firm <San Miguel>, a Manila newspaper
reported.
    The Sunday Times quoted a letter sent yesterday to
President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman, New Zealander
Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent to five pct
of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares from the
    The presidential office and Ariadne representatives in
Manila were not available for comment on the report.
    The shares are the entire block seized by the government
from the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on suspicion that
the real owner was Eduardo Cojuangco, the former chairman of
San Miguel and UCPB and a close associate of deposed president
Ferdinand Marcos.
    The 38 mln shares consist of 24 mln class A stock and 14
mln class B shares.
    Government officials have said earlier that the more
valuable class A shares would not be sold to foreigners.
    The offer values each share at 100 pesos -- the price at
which the Philippine Social Security System suggested it might
buy eight mln class A shares last week.
    "Judge's offer of 3.8 billion pesos is about five pct of the
Philippines' yearly budget," Ariadne's Philippine agent Domingo
Panganiban was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
    "Mr Judge's objective in this investment is to make his
corporation's management expertise available to San Miguel so
that the company's assets can be fully utilised."
    San Miguel, the country's largest brewer, is also one of
the major manufacturers of grocery lines.
    Panganiban is quoted as saying that San Miguel could tap
food and liquor distribution lines in Australia, Britain, the
U.S., New Zealand and Hong Kong through <Barwon Farmlands Ltd>,
a listed Australian firm in which it has 30 pct equity.
    Ariadne, with about one billion dlrs in assets and turnover
of about two billion, has interests also in mining, real estate
and agricultural products.
 REUTER

Indonesia has protested to the European
Community (EC) about its plan to raise import duties on
vegetable oils, which will affect the country's palm oil
exports to the EC, Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh said.
    "Indonesia, both individually and together with other
members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
has protested against the EC plan to increase duties on
vegetable oil imports," he told Indonesian reporters.
    "We very much regret the community's plan," he added.
    He did not say in what form the Indonesian protest was
made.
    Indonesia is a major palm oil producer.
    According to central bank figures, Indonesia exported
362,700 tonnes of crude palm oil to EC countries in calendar
1985 and 301,400 tonnes in the first 10 months of 1986.
Complete 1986 figures are not yet available.
    Finance Minister Radius Prawiro said recently that the
increase in EC duties would add a new burden to ASEAN countries
at a time when they were trying to strengthen their economies
in the face of lower commodity prices.
 REUTER

Provisional net profit 55 billion lire vs 48 billion
    Turnover 3,750 billion vs 3,369 billion.
    NOTE -  Official results for Alitalia, Italy's national
airline which is controlled by the state industrial holding
company (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale -IRI), are
expected to be announced at an annual shareholders meeting in
April.
 REUTER

French Foreign Minister Jean-Bernard
Raimond predicted in a published interview a successful end to
negotiations to admit Gulf petrochemical exports into the
European Community (EC).
    Negotiations have been under way between the Community and
the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for three years.
    Raimond, due here tomorrow from Oman for his first official
visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told the semi-official
daily Al-Ittihad he was confident a solution would soon be
reached.
    "I am confident that problems between the two big partners,
the GCC and the EC, will find a solution. I will work to reach
that solution," he said in the interview conducted in Paris.
    An EC decision to impose tariffs on Gulf petrochemical
exports over a set quota has strained trade relations between
the two sides.
    GCC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE
and Oman are threatening to impose heavy customs duties on
European exports to the Gulf if no solution is reached.
    Raimond said negotiations between the two groups took a
long time because there were 20 countries involved. But added:
"Time is now ripe and all circumstances are appropriate for
making crucial progress."
    Referring to the Iran-Iraq war, he said efforts should
continue to find a solution despite prevailing difficulties.
    He said France was continuing negotiations with Iran. Some
problems were solved as a result of the contacts while others
remained unresolved. He gave no details but said: "France wishes
to have normal relations with Iran."
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An explosion followed by
a fire ripped through a British Petroleum (BP) oil refinery,
killing one man.
    A BP spokesman said the fire was confined to one plant at
the 700-acre refinery at Grangemouth, 25 miles west of
Edinburgh. The cause and extent of the damage had yet to be
determined.
    Two people were killed in a previous explosion and fire at
the plant on March 13. That incident is still being
investigated, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Foreign manufacturers' share of the
West German new car market fell to 30.8 pct in the first two
months of this year from 33.3 pct in January/February 1986, the
    Foreign producers' sales totalled 58,484 in February
compared with 64,967 in February 1986, with sales in the first
two months declining to 103,368 from 132,105 units in the
year-earlier period.
    Japan was the largest exporter to West Germany although its
share fell to 12.8 pct from 13.9 pct, France took 7.7 pct after
8.6 pct, while Italy's share rose to 5.9 pct from 5.5 pct.
 REUTER

The Australia based <Ariadne
Australia Ltd>, plans to set up a branch in the Philippines to
fulfill a prerequisite for the takeover of the Philippine
brewing firm, <San Miguel Corp>, a Hong Kong newspaper said.
    The Hong Kong Economic Journal quoted a spokesman of
Australian stock broker Jacksons Ltd as saying that <Barwon
Farmlands Ltd>, a listed Australian firm of which Ariadne owns
a 30 pct stake, is planning a branch in the Philippines.
    He added Jacksons is arranging an offer by Barwon to pay a
total 3.8 billion pesos in cash for 38 mln San Miguel shares.
    Barwon is offering 100 pesos each for 24 mln class A San
Miguel shares and 14 mln class B stock. But the Jacksons
spokesman noted that the more valuable A stock would only be
sold to Filipinos or companies registered in the Philippines.
    He said Barwon has approached the Philippine government
which seized the block of shares from the United Coconut
Planters Bank, which is believed to be linked with the
country's deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
    He added he expects a deal to be concluded between Barwon
and the Philippine Government in 14 days as it is the only
offer in cash, the newspaper reported.
    Hong Kong Economic Journal also noted stock market rumours
that <Neptunia Corp>, a Hong Kong registered company which
controlled by San Miguel's president Andres Soriano, is the
other party keen on the block of San Miguel shares.
    The Philippine's Commission on Good Government ruled last
May against a move of Neptunia to acquire 33 mln San Miguel
shares controlled by the brewery firm's former chairman Eduardo
Cojuangco, who is also chairman of United Coconut.
    Commissioner Ramon Diaz said at the time the government
would not allow a subsidiary to buy into a parent firm, adding
San Miguel could have offered the shares to other parties.
    The Manila newspaper Sunday Times published a letter sent
yesterday to President Corazon Aquino from Ariadne's chairman,
New Zealander Bruce Judge, that he was offering cash equivalent
to five pct of the nation's yearly budget to buy the shares
from the government.
    Spokesmen of Ariadne, Jacksons and Neptunia were not
available for comment, nor any officials of the Philippines.
    <San Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a Hong Kong listed company which
is 69.65 pct held by Neptunia on behalf of San Miguel Corp,
closed 40 cents higher at 15.50 H.K. Dlrs on Friday.
 REUTER

Workers at <General Motors Espanola
S.A.> have called for five days of strikes next month in a
dispute over this year's wage increase, union sources said.
    They said the unofficial strike calendar had been set for
April 2, 7, 8, 21 and 22.
    The workers are seeking a wage rise above this year's five
pct inflation target set by the government. The government and
employers' organisations have urged companies to hold wage
rises below this level.
    Average wages rose 8.2 pct last year compared with an 8.3
pct increase in the cost of living.
    General Motors Espanalo was the top sales performer last
year among Spain's six car manufacturers.
    The Saragossa-based plant reported a 53.1 pct rise in
domestic sales to 538,654 units.
    Ford Espana S.A. Was second with a 27.8 pct gain over 1985.
    General Motors Espanola is 100 pct owned by General Motors
Corp <GM.N> and Ford Espana is wholly-owned by Ford Motor Co
<F.N>.
 REUTER

President Saddam Hussein said Iraq had
foiled Iran's promise of a decisive victory in their war but
acknowledged the latest fighting cost his nation higher losses
than previous battles.
    Hussein warned his frontline troops to expect further
Iranian attacks to spoil celebrations being organised
throughout Iraq to mark what Baghdad has hailed as the failure
of Iran's so-called year of decisiveness.
    Iran's leadership had pledged a decisive breakthrough in
the 6-1/2-year-long war in the Persian year -- which ended
yesterday -- and mounted a major offensive towards Iraq's
second city of Basra, on the southern front, in January.
    Iraq has never given any casualty figures but Hussein
conceded they were high.
    "It was clear to all of us the fighting this time would be
long and severe with more blood flowing than in previous
battles and that we would lose more of our loved ones than we
have before," he said in a speech read on radio and television.
 REUTER

Italy's national airline, Alitalia Spa
<AZPI.MI>, reporting a 14.6 pct rise in provisional 1986 net
profit, said it carried seven pct more passengers on domestic
routes last year, but 11.5 pct fewer passengers on flights from
North America and Canada.
    Alitalia said the drop in North American traffic had been
due to a general fall in the numbers of American tourists
visiting Europe caused by fears of terrorism.
    The airline reported provisional net profit rose to 55
billion lire from 48 billion in 1985.
    A spokesman said Alitalia was hoping for an increase in
traffic with the U.S. In 1987.
    It planned to increase the number of flights from Italy to
New York to 19 per week, to reinstate flights to Boston and to
re-open the direct Rome-Milan-Los Angeles service.
    The spokesman announced that from March 29, Alitalia would
be starting a new weekly service to Shanghai.
    For its summer 1987 programme, it would be adding 127 extra
flights to European destinations -- an increase of 27 pct.
 REUTER

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia begins a
four-day state visit on Tuesday which will focus on redressing
Britain's large trade surplus with the kingdom and reaffirming
ties between the traditionally close countries.
    British officials said King Fahd may ask Britain to restore
diplomatic relations with Syria, broken off by London last
October after evidence in the trial of Nizar Hindawi showed
Syrian agents were behind a plan to bomb an Israeli airliner.
    But one official said the king would be told Britain still
needs "clear and sustainable evidence that the Syrians have
renounced state-sponsored terrorism. So far they haven't."
    Britain will stress its support for an international peace
conference on the Middle East and its concern over alleged
human rights abuses by Israel in the occupied West Bank and
Gaza, the officials told Reuters.
    The Saudi leader will hold talks with Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher and meet Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip
during the visit, his first to Britain since he assumed power
in June 1982.
    King Fahd will be accompanied by his trade, defence, oil
and health ministers, who will hold talks with their British
counterparts.
    Relations between the two countries have generally been
warm. But they were strained last year by the deportation of 35
British nurses from the kingdom for illegal drinking and the
publication of a letter by a retired British ambassador
describing Saudi Arabians as incompetent and arrogant.
    Saudi Arabia is Britain's largest export market in the
Middle East.
    Britain exported 1.5 billion stg worth of goods to Saudi
Arabia last year while British imports from that country in the
same period totalled 436 mln.
    Trade officials will discuss what countertrade Britain can
offer in return for Riyadh giving London its biggest-ever arms
export order.
    Under the five billion stg deal signed last year, Saudi
Arabia has agreed to buy 132 warplanes including 72 Tornado
fighters.
    Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazer is likely to discuss oil
price stabilisation but Britain would not change its refusal to
limit its North Sea oil production and exports, officials said.
    Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has asked
all oil-producing countries to help stabilise oil prices at 18
dlrs a barrel by curbing output and exports.
    King Fahd's trip follows several visits to Saudi Arabia by
British officials in recent months. Britain's Prince Charles
and Princess Diana went to Saudi Arabia in November.
    There were two previous state tours of Britain by Saudi
monarchs. King Faisal visited in 1967 and King Khaled in 1981.
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The Jordan branch of Iraq's Rafidain Bank
said it will raise paid-up capital to comply with the country's
minimum requirement of five mln dinars by drawing on profits
from its operations in the country.
    Jordan's government asked banks in early 1985 to comply
with the new capital requirement -- raised from three mln
dinars -- by the start of 1986.
    Rafidain's Area Manager Adnan Abdul Karim al-Azzawi told
Reuters the branch had now registered its capital at the higher
level but did not say how long it would take to pay it in. The
bank's 1986 balance shows paid-up capital of 3.1 mln dinars.
    Banks in Jordan have generally complied with the higher
capital requirement except Chase Manhattan which decided
instead to close its operation, banking sources said.
    Local banks floated shares to raise extra capital, while
the branches of foreign banks brought in additional cash.
    Banking sources said it appeared that Jordan had made an
exception in Rafidain's case, allowing it longer to comply.
They said the gesture refelcted close political ties between
Jordan and Iraq as well as Baghdad's financial difficulties.
    The Jordan branch saw pre-tax profit rise 80 pct in 1986 to
550,332 dinars on assets of 12.6 mln dinars.
 REUTER

again said the meeting of six major industrial nations in Paris
last month did not establish a target exchange rate for the
dollar.
    Baker said in a television interview aired here yesterday:
"We don't have a target for the dollar." He declined to comment
on what might be a desired level for the dollar, saying: "We
really don't talk about the dollar."
    He said protectionism was becoming "extremely strong" in the
U.S. In response to widening U.S. Trade deficits and import
barriers in other countries.
    "The mood in the United States is extremely disturbing. It's
extremely strong," he said.
    "As I've said before, we sort of see ourselves as engaged
here in a real struggle to preserve the world's free trading
system, because if the largest market in the world (the U.S.)
goes protectionist we run the risk of moving down the same path
that the world did in the late 1930s," he said.
    While relative exchange rates had a role to play in
defusing the threat of protectionism, it alone did not offer
any solution, he said.
    "You must address this problem on the exchange rate side,
but it cannot be solved on the exchange rate side alone. It's
far more comprehensive and broad than that, and the solution of
it requires a comprehensive approach," Baker said in the
    Baker said it would be necessary for other countries to
adjust their currencies upwards, as well as remove their
barriers to U.S. Imports. But he did not elaborate or name any
 REUTER

A hefty slice of new U.S. Treasury
supply is not the most welcome prospect for a slumbering credit
market, but at least this week's offerings should provide it
with some focus, economists said.
    "Banks and mutual funds have cash that should be put to
work, so the auctions should breathe some life into the market,"
said economists at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc.
    The Treasury will place a 25 billion dlr package of
two-year, four-year and seven-year notes on the sales block
this week.
    The "mini-refunding," which will raise 9.27 billion dlrs in
new cash, comprises 10 billion dlrs of two-year notes for
auction on Tuesday, 7.75 billion dlrs of four-year notes on
Wednesday and 7.25 billion dlrs of seven-year notes on
Thursday. The market also faces the regular weekly three- and
six-month bill auction today, amounting to 12.8 billion dlrs.
    The mini-refunding does not come at a particularly
auspicious time for the market. Bond prices have been drifting
sideways in a narrow range against the backdrop of a cloudy
U.S. Economic outlook, diminished chances of a change in
Federal Reserve Board policy and a stable dollar.
    Moreover, the bond market's inertia has compared
unfavourably with the rash of activity taking place in
high-yield markets overseas, like the U.K., As well as in U.S.
Equities.
    But according to the Merrill Lynch economists, there are
signs the pall hanging over the U.S. Bond market is lifting a
bit.
    "Customer activity has been light, but all on the buy-side,
and there is a marked absence of selling," they said in a weekly
report.
    Philip Braverman of Irving Trust Securities Inc believes
banks will snap up the two- and four-year issues at this week's
sales.
    "The banks are in need of investments that provide earnings.
Though the yield spread to the cost of carrying these
maturities has been wider, it is still positive," he said in a
weekly market review.
    But economists agreed not even the auctions will generate
enough impetus for a major move. This will only come once the
overseas markets have had their run.
    "Based on last week's events, there is little to indicate
that the appetite for yield has begun to wane," said economists
at Salomon Brothers Inc.
    Indeed, talk persisted last week that Japanese investors
are planning to re-weight their portfolios in favour of the
higher-yielding markets at the start of Japan's new fiscal year
on April 1.
    And while traditionally the Japanese have not been big
buyers of the shorter-dated issues on offer at this week's U.S.
Auctions, such reports undermine market confidence.
    Even actions by the British, Australian and Canadian
monetary authorities to curb the rise of their currencies
should also enhance the attractiveness of their respective bond
markets, the Salomon Brothers' economists said.
    Meanwhile, ecomomic releases are unlikely to enliven the
U.S. Market unless they deviate widely from expectations,
    This week's economic calendar begins on Tuesday with
February durable goods orders. Economists expect a rebound from
January's depressed levels.
    Peter Greenbaum of Smith, Barney, Harris Upham and Co said
several areas, including transport equipment, should have
bounced back. But a decline in military capital goods will cap
total new orders. He forecasts a rise of two pct after
January's 6.7 pct slump. Some other economists foresee a gain
as large as five pct.
    Friday's consumer price report for February is expected to
show an increase of about 0.3 pct after a 0.7 pct January gain.
Economists said energy prices -- the driving force behind the
January rise -- rose more moderately last month, while food
prices declined.
    Meanwhile, economists warned that the federal funds rate
will be subject to volatility in the weeks ahead due to the
approach of quarter-end and the mid-April tax date.
    Some economists expect the Fed to execute a bill pass this
week because its adding requirement increases sharply in the
new statement period beginning on Thursday.
    Fed funds traded at 6-1/16 pct late Friday and are expected
to open near that level.
 REUTER

Bankers, concerned about official calls
for curbs on Switzerland's banking secrecy, are likely to
propose a compromise plan when they meet regulators today, the
Bankers Federation Secretary said.
    Andreas Hubschmid confirmed a report in yesterday's
Sonntagsblick the Federation would make proposals to curb the
anonymity given to some bank clients who hide their identities
behind lawyers or fiduciary agents.
    "The Sonntagsblick story goes in the right direction, and I
cannot deny it," Hubschmid told Reuters.
    Hubschmid declined to confirm details, saying nothing had
yet been decided.
    Recent allegations U.S. Officials involved in the
arms-for-Iran scandal took advantage of Swiss discretion to
open accounts here have added fuel to the long-running secrecy
debate, while Manila has said former Philippine President
Ferdinand Marcos put a fortune into banks here.
    While Swiss banks are strictly forbidden to reveal the
names of their clients to the outside world, a self-governing
code of conduct dating from 1977 requires the bankers
themselves know the identities of their clients.
    But the banking code, due for renewal this October, allows
a client to hide his name behind a lawyer provided the latter
signs the so-called "B-form" guaranteeing that his client is not
misusing his anonymity for criminal purposes.
    The Commission said at the end of last year it wanted use
of the form drastically reduced.
    The bankers' compromise plan, Sonntagsblick said, quoting
reliable sources, aims to eliminate abuses by differentiating
between lawyers who just manage portfolios for their clients
and those who do so only as a small part of a wider legal
service.
    Only in the second case, would the use of the B-form still
be allowed, it said. Other clients would have to give up their
anonymity and reveal their identities to the bank.
    Commission President Hermann Bodenmann said the Commission
was likely to discuss the proposal at today's meeting with the
bankers, and during its own council session on Tuesday. He
declined further comment.
 The banks draw up their own rules of conduct. But banking
analysts said the banks cannot afford to ignore the views of
the Commission, which is ultimately responsible for preventing
abuses.
 REUTER

Cooper Basin oil producer Santos Ltd
<STOS.S> said it will bid 4.00 dlrs a share for the 96.03 pct
it does not already hold in diversified oil and gas company
<TMOC Resources Ltd>.
    Santos said the bid values TMOC at 248.5 mln dlrs. It said
it already holds 1.91 mln of TMOC's 25 cent par shares.
    TMOC held interests outside the Cooper Basin region of
South Australia and Queensland and the acquisition would
further the Santos objective of developing as a broadly based
oil and gas company with interests outside its existing base in
the Cooper Basin, the company said in a statement.
    Santos said TMOC holds several important domestic oil and
gas production, exploration and pipeline interests.
    In the Northern Territory it has a 43.75 pct stake in and
operates the Mereenie oil and gas field in the Amadeus Basin
and owns 32 pct of <N.T. Gas Pty Ltd>, owner and operator of
the Alice Springs to Darwin gas pipeline.
    In Queensland, TMOC has extensive interests in the Surat
Basin, including the 100 pct owned and operated Moonie oil
field and 33 pct of the Boxleigh gas field.
    TMOC owns 80 pct of the <Moonie Pipeline Co Pty Ltd> which
owns and operates the Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline.
    TMOC also holds 25 pct of the Jackson to Moonie oil
pipeline, 20 pct owned by Santos. Output from the Naccowlah
block, 40 pct owned by Santos, provides the bulk of the
throughput of both pipelines.
    TMOC has exploration interests in a number of areas in the
Amadeus, Surat, Eromanga and Canning basins.
    It also has oil and gas interests in Britain's North Sea,
Ecuador, and the U.S., Along with gold and base metal
production through its associate <Paringa Mining and
Exploration Co Plc>, Santos said.
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The solution of the world's debt
crisis requires open markets but a possible resurgence of
protectionism is the biggest danger, the president of the
Federal Association of German Banks, Wolfgang Roeller, said.
    Roeller, who is also management board spokesman of Dresdner
Bank AG, said in a radio interview it is unlikely Brazil's
suspension last month of part of its interest payments would
lead to a chain reaction in Latin America.
    It is important to increase the efficiency of debtor
countries to such an extent they earn sufficient currency from
exports to repay foreign debt, he said.
    Brazil had taken a unilateral step, Roeller said, but
Brazil had a strong and broad economic base. With the help of
appropriate economic programmes there should be a way to bring
back financial stability to that country.
    Roeller said action on the debt situation had to be taken
now. It could not be expected debtor countries would be able to
repay debts in the short run, even if economic conditions
improved. Programmes had to be developed which would strengthen
the economic position of these countries, to ensure world
economic growth so they are able to sell their products at
adequate prices.
    Roeller said the debt crisis could only be solved in
coordination with governments, international organisations such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and
creditor banks.
    "This is not a topic which can be solved by creditor banks
alone," he said. One aim had to be to raise the credit standing
of debtor countries to such a degree they are able to raise
funds on international credit markets again. He said a whole
set of new ideas had been developed and he was convinced the
international banking system would provide more funds, but the
problem is not just economic but also political.
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Long term pressure by trade
ministers is necessary if the current Uruguay round of talks on
the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) is to
succeed, New Zealand's Overseas Trade minister Mike Moore said.
    Moore told the opening meeting of trade ministers from 22
nations gathered for informal talks on the GATT that ministers
"need opportunities to keep in touch and to consider how the
political problems inherent in an exercise like this one can be
faced and resolved."
    Moore said the Taupo meeting is one of a series of such
international gatherings, which includes the OECD ministerial
meeting in May and the G-7 meeting in Venice in June, enabling
ministers to maintain contact.
    World trade conditions are getting better not worse, he
said.
    He said New Zealand is "moving rapidly and of our own
initiative in the direction of liberalisation, and I warn you
we shall be looking for partners."
 REUTER

Japan's long-term banks will soon cut
their prime rate, now at a record low 5.5 pct, by 0.2 or 0.3
percentage point in response to falling secondary market yields
on their five-year debentures, long-term bankers said.
    The long-term prime rate is customarily set 0.9 percentage
point above the coupon on five-year bank debentures issued by
the long-term banks every month.
    The latest bank debentures, at 4.6 pct, have met strong
end-investor demand on the prospect of further declines in yen
interest rates, dealers said. The current 5.5 pct prime rate
has been in effect since February 28.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it is
cancelling its regular weekly treasury bill tender scheduled
for tomorrow.
    The Bank said in a statement forecasts indicate a net cash
withdrawal from the system through the week.
    The Bank expects to be conducting open market operations as
usual, and after these operations daily cash balances should
fluctuate around 30 mln dlrs.
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A meeting of eight Latin American
coffee producers ended with a call for continued talks aimed at
arriving at an agreement to stabilize international prices.
    A statement delivered by the conference's president,
Nicaragua's External Trade Minister Alejandro Martinez Cuenca,
said the object of future meetings would be to seek
negotiations leading to basic export quotas.
    The meeting was attended by representatives from Brazil,
Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and
Nicaragua. A Panamanian representative attended the meeting as
an observer.
    Representatives at the meeting said efforts would continue
to be made to reach a regional consensus on export quotas which
could be presented to the International Coffee Organization.
    In opening the meeting, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega
said the lack of an accord on export quotas was behind falling
coffee prices, which he said have caused billions of dollars in
losses to countries in the region.
    Jorio Dauster, president of the Brazilian Coffee Institute,
said his government is committed to working towards an
producers accord in order to bring about higher prices.
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The United States and Japan
are on the brink of serious conflict on trade, especially over
semiconductors, Japanese unwillingness for public bodies to buy
U.S. Super-computers, and barriers to U.S. Firms seeking to
participate in the eight billion dlr Kansai airport project,
U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
    He was talking to reporters yesterday on the eve of a
two-day meeting of trade ministers which will review progress
made by committees set up after the Uruguay meeting last
September launched a new round of GATT (General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade) talks.
    European Community (EC) commissioner Willy de Clercq
meanwhile told reporters conflict between the world's three
major trading and economic powers -- the EC, the U.S. And Japan
-- set a poor example for other members of GATT.
    Australian Trade Minister John Dawkins told the reporters
bilateral retaliation at the enormous expense of the rest of
the world was no way to solve trade disputes.
    New Zealand trade minister Mike Moore told his colleagues
great progress had been made in preparing for the current round
of GATT negotiations which must not be sidetracked.
    The ministers have said they want to maintain the momentum
towards fresh negotiations or avert serious trade conflicts.
    Yeutter said the problem with international trade talks was
that they tended to get bogged down for years. "Countries don't
get very serious about negotiating until the end of the day
which is, maybe, five or six years in the future."
    He also said he did not consider the new U.S. Congress as
protectionist as it was 18 months ago. "That's a very healthy
development," he added."If you asked me about that a year or 18
months ago I would have said that it was terribly
protectionist."
    "Members of Congress, that is the contemplative members of
Congress, have begun to realise protectionism is not the answer
to the 170 billion dlr trade deficit," Yeutter said.
    "They've also begun to realise that you cannot legislate
solutions to a 170 billion dollar trade deficit so they are
more realistic and, in my judgement, more responsible on that
issue than they were 12 or 18 months ago."
    He added, "Whether that will be reflected in the legislation
that eventually emerges is another matter."
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Yugoslavia, whose economic crisis is
under close scrutiny by foreign creditors, will not follow
Brazil by suspending repayments on its large foreign debt,
Prime Minister Branko Mikulic was quoted as saying.
    Mikulic was speaking to West German journalists in an
interview published yesterday by the Tanjug news agency.
    He said Yugoslavia had always paid its debts and would
continue to do so, but he said creditors and international
institutions should show more "understanding" for Yugoslavia's
    Mikulic said Yugoslavia had "understanding" for what Brazil
had done.
    Yugoslavia has almost 100 pct annual inflation, lagging
exports and low productivity. This month Makulic imposed
partial freezes on wages and prices which led to widespread
strikes. Tanjug said in the interview Mikulic warned the army
could be called in if Yugoslavia's political system was
threatened. Official reports show Yugoslavia ended 1986 with
hard currency debt of 19.7 billion dlrs. In 1986 it repaid a
record 5.97 billion in capital and interest, reducing its
overall debt by 996 mln dlrs.
    Government ministers told reporters last week they
regretted Yugoslavia made such an effort in 1986. They said the
cost to the economy had been too great.
    Earlier this month deputy prime minister Janos
Milosavljevic said Yugoslavia needed new credits. Foreign
Minister Raif Dizdarevic said in Caracas, "radical changes" in
interest rates and repayment times were needed.
    Western economists said Mikulic's remarks, taken with those
of his ministers, could be a signal some problems were seen
ahead in financing the debt repayments.
    Yugoslavia's debt refinancing timetable is to be considered
by the Paris club at the end of this month.
    The International Monetary Fund, which recently reviewed
the Yugoslav economy, is said by Western diplomats to be
alarmed at what it sees as a deteriorating economic crisis here
and the possibility of balance of payments problems later this
year.
    Mikulic visits West Germany next week, and debt is expected
to figure high on the agenda of his talks with Chancellor
Helmut Kohl.
 REUTER

<Delhi Petroleum Pty Ltd> said a
second gas flow has been recorded in the Epsilon formation of
the Toolachee Block on PEL five and six signifying a new pool
discovery.
    The Kerna Four appraisal well flowed gas at 235,038 cubic
meters a day with four kiloliters of condensate through a 13mm
surface choke over an interval of 2,374 to 2,399 meters.
    DST 1, in the Epsilon formation, was earlier reported as
flowing gas at 237,862 cm/day, Delhi said in a statement.
    The well is two km south south east of Kerna 3, 15 km south
east of the Dullingari field and 75 km east of Moomba.
    Delhi said the remaining objective of the well is the
Patchawarra formation.
    Other interest holders in the Kerna Four well are: Santos
Ltd <STOS.S> 50 pct, Delhi 30, <Vamgas Ltd> 10, <South
Australian Oil and Gas Corp Pty Ltd> 10 pct.
 REUTER

Iran said reports that it intended to
threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless, and warned the
U.S. And other countries not to interfere in the region.
    Tehran radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted a Foreign
Ministry spokesman as saying any attempt at interference would
be met by "a strong response from Iran and other Moslems in the
world."
     U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger, in remarks
apparently unrelated to the broadcast, said the U.S. Would do
whatever was necessary to keep shipping lanes open in the face
of new Iranian anti-ship missiles in the Gulf.
    The U.S. State Department said two days ago Tehran had been
told of U.S. Concern that Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a
threat to the free flow of oil from the Gulf.
    U.S. Officials have said Iran has new Chinese-made
anti-ship "Silkworm" missiles, which pose a greater threat to
merchant ships than missiles used before.
    The Iranian spokesman said the reports that Iran intended
to attack ships were "misleading propaganda."
    He said Iraq's President Saddam Hussein was the main cause
of tension in the Gulf and said Iran would continue to use "all
its legitimate means to stem the cause of tension."
    Weinberger said in a television interview in the U.S. "We
are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the shipping
going and keep the freedom of navigation available in that very
vital waterway."
    "We aren't going into any disclosures or discussions of what
might happen, but we are certainly very sympathetic to and
listening carefully to any suggestions for our assistance in
keeping navigation free in that area," he said.
    Weinberger said U.S warship movements in the Gulf area were
not unusual.
    A U.S. Navy battle group led by the aircraft carrier Kitty
Hawk is currently in the northern Arabian Sea.
    The Iranian spokesman was quoted by Tehran radio as saying
the U.S. Was trying to build up its military presence in the
region.
 REUTER

Brazilian business leaders attending
a weekend meeting with President Jose Sarney called on the
government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) in resolving its debt problems.
    The government has so far rejected suggestions that it let
the IMF play a role in rescheduling its 109 billion dlr debt,
the biggest in the Third World.
    Finance Minister Dilson Funaro has said an IMF program for
Brazil, adopted four years ago, caused a recession and he
believes another IMF program would stifle growth.
    Sarney last month suspended interest payments on Brazil's
68 billion dlr commercial debt, a move which has found little
favour among the country's business community.
    Several businessmen called for a return to the IMF, arguing
this would give the country access to new funds and allow the
economy to grow. Both sides in the IMF debate say the course
they favour will enable Brazil to avoid recession.
    "We have to discuss the foreign debt like Mexico does, if
necessary going to the IMF," Mario Amato, president of the Sao
Paulo State Industries' Federation, was quoted as saying.
     An about-turn on the IMF issue would be politically very
difficult for the Sarney government and there are no firm
indications such a policy reversal is in the offing.
    The person most closely associated with the anti-IMF stance
is Finance Minister Dilson Funaro, who was not present at
yesterday's meeting. Brazilian newspapers highlighted his
absence and reported that several of the 24 businessmen present
seized the opportunity to tell Sarney they would like to see
Funaro leave his job.
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The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd
(DBS) said Malaysia's real gross domestic product growth (gdp)
in 1987 could be 1.5 to two pct, above a budget target of one
pct.
    It said in a report that because of an economic recovery
and higher foreign exchange reserves, the Malaysian ringgit is
unlikely to face devaluation in the near future.
    The report was presented at a two-day investment conference
organised by the DBS, one of Singapore's four major banks.
    The report said rising commodity prices and the continued
expansion of the manufacturing sector coupled with rigorous
fiscal restraints and a more stable currency are grounds for
cautious optimism about the Malaysian economy.
    It forecast the ringgit will remain stable at between 2.60
and 2.70 Malaysian dlrs to the U.S. Dollar for the rest of the
year.
    But the report said the growth rate of Malaysia's external
debt remains worrying and should be controlled. It said
Malaysia's external debt totals 48 to 49 billion Malaysian dlrs
and its debt service ratio exceeds 20 pct.
 REUTER

Coconut product exports fell to 163,924
copra tonnes in January from 196,610 tonnes in December and
167,747 tonnes in January last year, government figures show.
    Coconut product sales earned 44.54 mln dlrs compared with
45.30 mln in December and 49.09 mln a year earlier.
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Economics Minister Martin Bangemann said
the state could not continue to pour money into West Germany's
ailing steel and coal industries because the subsidies
endangered other parts of the economy.
    "The situation is completely absurd from an economic point
of view," Bangemann told the newspaper Die Welt in an interview
released ahead of publication tomorrow.
    "We are subsidising the production of mineral coal and steel
to an enormous extent and at the same time putting a huge
burden on all other branches of industry and making them
uncompetitive," he said.
    Bangemann said the steel and coal industries were no longer
capable of being competitive. Continued state subsidies would
not save them but would only prolong their lives artifically
for a few years, he said.
    "That is why I have refused to continue subsidising them in
the way that we have done in the past," he said.
    Several steel firms have announced plans to reduce their
workforces, citing weak prices and lower exports due to the
strength of the mark and tough foreign competition.
    Bangemann said everything possible would be done to find
new jobs for the workers affected by the cuts.
 REUTER

A majority of Australian
manufacturers expect a deterioration in the business climate,
according to the March survey of industrial trends by Westpac
Banking Corp and the Confederation of Australian Industry.
    After expecting improvements in two previous quarterly
surveys, 56 pct of respondents reported working at less than
satisfactory levels, with insufficient orders nominated by 70
pct as the major constraint.
    Other constraints were capacity, 11 pct, and labour nine
pct, the survey said.
    Inflationary pressure increased during the quarter and
investment plans for the next year were scaled down, which the
survey said could limit activity in the medium to short term.
    Respondents reporting an increase in orders fell to 22 pct
in March from 30 pct in December, while those with orders
accepted but not yet delivered fell to 14 pct from 21 pct.
    Stocks of finished goods and raw materials fell sharply in
the March quarter and further depletion was forecast for the
June quarter, the survey said.
    Respondents said finance was harder to obtain, which
Westpac chief economist Bob Graham said was probably because of
high interest rates rather than the availability of money.
    Graham said he thought expectations would gradually improve
later this year, when the dollar might consolidate and interest
rates ease slightly.
    He believed some manufacturers were not investing because
they feared the Australian dollar would get stronger.
    "We do not believe the dollar will revalue, the (economic)
fundamentals are for it to slip away if anything," he said.
 REUTER

<Dart Group Corp> said it told
Supermarkets General Corp <SGL> it was flexible on the price it
would pay to acquire the company.
    Dart has said it would offer 41.75 dlrs cash for each SGL
share if the SGL board recommended the offer to shareholders.
    SGL has termed the 1.62 billion dlr offer unsolicited.
    In a letter to SGL dated March 20, Dart also said it was
denied confidential information on SGL that would be given to
other potential bidders.
    SGL officials could not be reached for comment.
    Dart said it was advised that a selling brochure for the
sale of SGL had been distributed to about 20 potential buyers,
but not itself. These purchasers would also be given access to
SGL's books and records and the opportunity to talk with key
    "We suspect that one or more of the 20 are leveraged buyout
firms," said a source close to Dart. Analysts have said SGL
management may be considering a leveraged buyout.
    Dart said it remains interested in acquiring SGL on a
friendly basis and reiterated its willingness to negotiate all
the terms of its offer.
    Dart said SGL representatives said the company has not
received any other offer.
    It said it requested the confidential information to better
understand SGL, but was denied this because it refused to sign
an agreement prohibiting it from making a bid for SGL without
SGL's approval.
    The agreement would also have limited its ability to buy
SGL shares, Dart said. It considered those conditions
unreasonable in the interest of trying to negotiate a friendly
transaction, it said.
    Dart has just under five pct of SGL shares.
    Dart said it requested the information before its meeting
with SGL representatives, but held the meetings in the hope
representatives would reach an agreement.
    It said it indicated it was flexible on price, but was told
there were certain issues important to SGL management and while
they were not conditions to the deal, Dart was expected to take
them into account in putting together its package.
    It said the issues include an immediate payment of 5.7 mln
dlrs to SGL chairman Leonard Lieberman, executive vice
president James Dougherty and financial officer Murray Levine.
    Dart said this payment was intended for the three officers'
severance agreements, although there was an implication that
Lieberman and Dougherty would be leaving the company of their
own volition.
    Dart said under their present agreements, none of these
officers have any right to such accelerated payments. Also,
Dart said Lieberman, Dougherty and Levine are to be paid 2.6
mln dlrs to pay their taxes. It also said top management's
incentive shares were to be accelerated and paid for at a cost
of six mln dlrs although there are restrictions on the shares
unless waived by the company's compensation committee.
    Dart said it was to fund up to five mln dlrs for top
management's supplemental retirement plan.
    Dart said another issue was to agree to future severance
obligations and future salary guarantees for top management,
estimated at more than 15 mln dlrs in excess of obligations
under the company's present policy.
    Dart said despite such management payments, it agreed to
discuss all aspects of its offer and in fact did try to
negotiate a transaction at the March 18 meeting with SGL.
    Supermarkets General owns the Path Mark supermarket chain
and Rickels home centres.
    Dart also released a copy of a lawsuit that was being filed
by an SGL shareholder, seeking to stop SGL from taking such
actions as paying greenmail or enacting a poison pill defence.
    The suit also sought to have directors carry out their
fiduciary duty.
    Greenmail is the payment at a premium for shares held by an
unwanted suitor and a poison pill is typically the issue of
securities to shareholders which make a takeover more
 REUTER

Talks between China and Portugal on the
future of Macao have ended and the two countries will issue a
joint statement at 5 P.M. Peking time (0900 GMT), Portuguese
Ambassador Octavio Valerio said.
    "We are very happy with the results," Valerio told reporters
after four days of discussions on how and when the
Portuguese-run peninsula in southern China will be handed back
to Peking.
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The government's
over-reliance on revenue from crude oil is adversely affecting
Australia's economic performance, Australian Petroleum
Exploration Association (APEA) chairman Dennis Benbow said.
    Over one-third of Australia's indirect tax income is
derived from oil at a time of falling domestic output and weak
crude prices, he told the APEA annual conference here.
    This dependence on oil-generated revenue distorts the
country's economic performance directly by acting as a
disincentive to new exploration and indirectly by affecting
trading competitiveness through high energy costs, he said.
    Australia's medium-term liquid fuel self-sufficiency
position is posing a major economic threat, yet the
government's response has been to load new tax burdens on the
oil industry, Benbow said.
    Domestic oil output from existing fields is expected to
fall to 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) in fiscal 1992/93 from
546,000 bpd in 1985/86, reflecting mainly the decline of the
Bass Strait fields, he said.
    Bass Strait reserves are now two-thirds depleted, with the
three largest fields 80 pct depleted, he said.
    By 1992/93, Bass Strait output is expected to be just over
half the 1985/86 level, assuming a number of so far undeveloped
fields are brought on stream and enhanced recovery from
existing fields goes ahead, Benbow said.
    Government projections of output from as yet undiscovered
fields range from 40,000 to 130,000 bpd, he said.
    Australian liquid fuel demand is forecast to rise to
680,000 bpd in 1992/93 from 565,000 in 1985/86, implying a
crude oil gap of between 270,000 and 360,000 bpd in five years
time, he said.
    At present world oil prices and the current value of the
Australian dollar, annual oil imports in 1992/93 would cost
between 3.2 billion and 3.6 billion dlrs, Benbow said.
    Despite intensive exploration in the early 1980's, the
addition to reserves has been inadequate, he said.
    For example, the 409 mln barrels discovered in the five
years 1980-84 represent about two years' consumption, he said.
    He called on the government to review its tax policies to
restore incentive to exploration.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker said
any attempt to declare blanket debt forgiveness for major Latin
American debtor nations might damage the world economy.
    In an article in Monday's edition of the Miami Herald,
Baker also criticised the concept of short-term debt relief,
calling it a "dramatic, overnight solution."
    "While these ideas may be well-intentioned and have some
political appeal, they are impractical and counterproductive in
the long run," he said.
    The article was published to coincide with a three-day
meeting here of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
    Baker is the chief architect of the U.S. Strategy on Third
World debt.
    Brazil, the Third World's largest debtor, last month
declared a moratorium on interest repayments. It has given no
indication of when it may resume interest payments, prompting
fears that some large U.S. Banks may be forced into substantial
debt writedowns and calling into question the viability of the
U.S. Strategy.
    Baker, defending the strategy, said private commercial
banks have rescheduled nearly 70 billion dlrs in debt since
October 1985 at longer maturities and lower interest rates.
    "Together with expected progress in commercial bank
discussions with Argentina and, we hope, Brazil, this should
add up to substantial new lending for the major Latin debtors
in 1987," Baker wrote.
    He estimated that debt-equity conversion plans accounted
for 2.5 billion dlrs last year in four of the region's major
debtor states. Such plans allow foreign bank creditors to sell
Third World debt at a discount to investors who then become
stockholders in firms in these countries. "These swaps aren't a
panacea, but they do demonstrate how a creative free market can
make progress in reducing the debt burden," he said.
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Singapore will have an inflation rate
of one pct in 1987, up from a negative 1.4 pct in 1986, Trade
and Industry Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Parliament.
    He said the 1986 drop in the inflation rate, the first fall
in a decade, was due largely to lower world prices for oil and
oil-related items.
    But Lee said the negative inflation rate is unlikely to be
repeated this year because of projected higher prices for
primary commodities and oil.
 REUTER

WOOLWORTHS LTD REPORTS 9.27 MLN DLR NET PROFIT YR END FEB 1 VS 63.20 MLN

Brazil wants to resume interest payments
on its medium- and long-term foreign debt as soon as possible
and is willing to discuss ways of softening the impact of the
payments suspension on bank earnings, central bank governor
Francisco Gros said.
    Gros, speaking to reporters yesterday after his first
meeting with Brazil's bank advisory committee since he was
appointed last month, also promised a clear statement of
Brazil's economic policy would be made in the next few days.
    But bankers who attended the meeting with Gros said it was
inconclusive.
    The bankers also expressed disappointment Gros could not
give assurances as to when interest payments on the 68 billion
dlrs of medium- and long-term debt would restart.
    "It was all very tentative. You can't expect to get very far
at the first meeting," one banker said.
    The meeting took place on the eve of the annual meeting
here of the Inter-American Development Bank.
    The most urgent item on yesterday's agenda was the need for
a legal rollover of some 16 billion dlrs in trade and interbank
credit lines extended to Brazilian banks which expire at the
end of March.
    Brazil has already frozen the lines to ensure it has enough
credit to finance its day-to-day trade and commerce, but needs
to request a formal extension of the commitments to head off
possible lawsuits from disgruntled creditors.
    The issue is whether the 14-bank steering committee will
endorse Brazil's request to the 700 creditor banks worldwide or
simply relay it without comment.
    This delicate question was not resolved at yesterday's
meeting, but lawyers from both sides will try to draft suitable
language for a telex by midweek, Gros and the bankers said.
    Gros said he will also formally ask the banks for a 90-day
rollover of some 9.6 billion dlrs of debt which originally
matured in 1986 and is now due to be repaid on April 15.
Bankers said the request is a legal nicety since the money is
subject to the moratorium.
    Once interest on Brazil's debts becomes more than 90 days
overdue, U.S. And Canadian banks must put the loans on
non-performing basis and may book payments only as and when
they are received instead of accruing the interest in advance.
    Citicorp has estimated its profits for the first quarter
would be cut by 50 mln dlrs if it put Brazil on a cash basis.
Other U.S. Banks have also warned of earnings setbacks.
    Gros said he wished the 90-day rule was more flexible and
said he would be willing to sit down with the banks to see if
there was a way round the problem.
    He did not elaborate. But, asked whether a bridge loan
might be arranged to pay the interest, he said, "It could
happen."
    Bankers said this possibility had not been raised at the
committee meeting and dismissed it as inconsistent with
Brazil's determination to find a long-term solution to the
problem of servicing its 110 billion dlr foreign debt.
    Gros himself said pushing the problem away for 90 days at a
time is not very useful. Only if Brazil has access to new loans
can it grow, export and pay its debts over the longer term.
    "If the flow of funds dries up, a country like Brazil can't
meet all its obligations," he said.
    Gros defended Brazil's recent economic record, noting
inflation slowed in February, the trade surplus rose and the
public sector budget was in operational surplus.
    But he said there was a need to spell out government
policy, especially on prices.
    "It's necessary to clarify policy for internal and external
reasons," he said, but declined to say what economic measures
might be introduced.
    Once policy is in place, Gros said financing talks with the
banks are likely to be tough and protracted, a sentiment echoed
by the country's creditors.
 REUTER

Israeli jets bombed Palestinian
targets in south Lebanon for the second time in four days,
Lebanese security sources said.
    They said the planes attacked targets in the Darb al-Sim
area a few kms east of Sidon.
    Israeli planes carried out a similar raid in the same area
on Friday, hitting two buildings used by guerrillas loyal to
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
 REUTER

Bell Resources says it buys 57.6 mln BHP shares, taking holding to 29.93 pct

Taiwan is holding discussions with the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) to try to settle a political
dispute over its representation in the bank, a foreign ministry
    Taiwan, one of the founders of the 47-member ADB, boycotted
the annual meeting last year to protest against a decision to
change its membership name to "Taipei, China" after the admission
of Peking.
    The foreign ministry spokesman said a decision on whether
Taiwan would attend the next meeting in Japan on April 27-29
would depend on the results of the talks.
    "We are looking for a fair and just solution to the question
of representation," he said.
    In Manila, an ADB spokesman declined to comment on the
    "We have no comment at all," he said.
 REUTER

Shr 4.16 cents vs 28.80
    Final Div nil vs 10.5 cents making six for year vs 16.5
    Pre-tax profit 2.68 mln dlrs vs 107.71 mln
    Net 9.27 mln vs 63.20 mln
    Turnover 5.47 billion vs 4.83 billion
    Other income 65.33 mln vs 51.68 mln
    Shrs 222.94 mln vs 219.54 mln.
    NOTE - Net is after tax credit 6.6 mln vs tax paid 43.39
mln, depreciation 41.18 mln vs 34.10 mln, interest 42.42 mln vs
36.23 mln and minorities 11,000 vs 1.12 mln but before
extraordinary net profit 24.98 mln vs loss 51.71 mln
 REUTER

<Bell Resources Ltd> said it has executed
an underwriting agreement with <Equiticorp Tasman Ltd> to
acquire 57.6 mln ordinary shares in The Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd
<BRKN.S> for 540 mln dlrs.
    Bell said in a statement that it now holds 29.93 pct of
BHP's 1.2 billion shares.
 REUTER

Japan's vehicle output in February fell
0.4 pct from a year earlier to 1.03 mln units for the fifth
consecutive monthly year-on-year drop, but February output was
up 10 pct from a month earlier, the Japan Automobile
Manufacturers Association (JAMA) said.
    February car production totalled 651,253 units, up 0.4 pct
from a year earlier, trucks 375,899, down 1.8 pct, and buses
4,230, up 10.3 pct, he said.
    Vehicle exports are expected to show a seven pct
year-on-year drop in February when figures are announced on
March 27, a JAMA spokesman said.
    The JAMA spokesman blamed slow sales to southeast Asia, the
Mideast and other countries except the U.S. And Europe.
    February motorcycle output fell 32.9 pct from a year
earlier to 224,312, the 13th straight year-on-year drop, but
was up 4.2 pct from a month earlier, he added.
    Motorcycle exports are expected to show a 26 pct
year-on-year fall in February, he said.
 REUTER

Controversy surrounding U.S.-backed
reforms in the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
underscores the mounting challenge to Washington's current debt
strategy, according to Latin American officials and delegates
to the IADB meeting that begins here today.
    The bank's policy-making board on Saturday postponed a
decision on the reforms until June in view of strong Latin
American opposition to U.S. Proposals to strengthen its control
over lending to the region.
    Washington wants to involve the IADB in its debt strategy
through increased lending, but as the bank's largest single
shareholder it also wants to require countries to adopt
far-reaching economic reforms to qualify for loans.
    The U.S. Push for IADB reforms, which began at last year's
meeting in Costa Rica, is particularly sensitive in an
institution Latin Americans have traditionally thought of as
their own.
    "It's almost an issue of sovereignty for the Latin
Americans," one IADB official said.
    With a 54.2 per cent voting bloc, Latin American nations
have had relatively easy access to 35 billion dlrs in project
loans since the bank's founding in 1959.
    The bank has also been run for the past 12 years by a
Mexican, Antonio Ortiz Mena, who has been increasingly critical
of U.S. Debt strategy in the last two years.
    Ortiz Mena says commercial banks must renew lending to the
region if debtors are to grow and repay creditors. At a news
conference last week he warned that Latin defaults were a
distinct possibility in the long run.
    Brazil insists its debt service obligations should in no
way interfere with growth priorities, a position putting the
issue of debt relief squarely into focus for the first time,
officials and delegates said.
    They said creditors are not ready to discuss debt
forgiveness and prefer to look at schemes such as debt-equity
swaps in combination with a continuing emphasis on economic
reforms.
    Washington wants the IADB to impose greater conditions on
lending, and has threatened to block increased appropriations
for the bank if it does not get its way.
    Latin America, while retaining reservations, now accepts
the principle of setting greater conditions on loans, but is
unwilling to countenance U.S. Demands for greater veto powers
on lending, officials and delegates said.
    Washington has pushed for veto power to be lowered to 35
pct from a simple majority as at present. Latin Americans are
unwilling to go below 40 pct, which would oblige the U.S. To
line up two other voters or voting blocs on its side.
    This attempt to weaken Latin America's voting power, and
particularly a threat by Washington to reduce funds to the IADB
unless its reforms are accepted, has created considerable
resentment among Latin Americans.
    "Debtors have already shown considerable willingness to
sacrifice over the last five years so economic adjustment is
not at issue," one Latin American official said.
    The region has been hoping for a seventh replenishment of
IADB resources of at least 20 billion dlrs for 1987-90, as
against 15.7 billion for the previous four-year period.
 REUTER

should prod the government of President Suharto towards further
economic change, the Jakarta Post newspaper said.
    "Conable could do Indonesia a great service if he is
straightforward enough to point his finger at shortcomings that
could be corrected," it said in an editorial.
    The English-language paper said the bureacracy was not
aggressive or imaginative in responding to Indonesia's economic
problems, which include fiscal restraints due to drastically
declining oil revenues, increasing unemployment, and marketing
problems for its major export commodities.
    The paper said Indonesia must boost the scope for private
business initiative as well as stepping up its use of aid money
already committed. The World Bank has lent Indonesia 10.7
billion dlrs over the past 20 years.
    Conable arrived here on Saturday and will have talks with
Suharto tomorrow. Today he was returning to Jakarta from a
visit to World Bank-funded projects in eastern Java, and was
scheduled to meet leading economic ministers in the afternoon.
    Western diplomats said they expected Conable to press
Indonesia to maintain the pace of its present economic reforms
to cope with the slump in its oil revenues.
 REUTER

Ariadne group unit <Barwon Farmlands
Ltd> confirmed it offered 3.8 billion pesos in cash for the 38
mln shares of Philippine brewing company <San Miguel Corp>.
    The Australia-based Barwon, 30 pct owned by New Zealander
Bruce Judge's Ariadne group, said in a statement released in
Hong Kong that a formal offer had been made to the Philippines
government, which holds the shares.
    It said it was confident the offer will be reviewed
favourably.
    Newspapers in Manila and Hong Kong reported at the weekend
that an offer had been made.
    Barwon said it was represented by Australian stockbroker
<Jacksons Ltd>, which forwarded a formal offer to Philippine
President Corazon Aquino of 100 pesos for each of the 38.1 mln
A and B shares of San Miguel.
    The Philippine government seized the shares, which
represent a 31 pct stake in the brewery firm, from the <United
Coconut Planters Bank>, alleged by the government to be linked
with the country's deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
    The Barwon statement said a deal is expected to be
concluded between Barwon and the Philippines government in 14
days.
    Barwon also said it made recommendations to the government
on how it could purchase the class A shares, which can only be
held by a Philippine national or a firm which is at least 60
pct held by a member of the country. It did not elaborate.
    The Hong Kong Economical Journal quoted a spokesman of
Jacksons as saying Barwon plans to set up a branch in the
Philippines to meet the criteria.
    <San Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a locally listed firm 69.65 pct
held by San Miguel's <Neptunia Corp> affiliate, was last traded
at 16.30 H.K. Dlrs against 15.50 dlrs on Friday.
 REUTER

World governments
should prepare for an inevitable significant increase in the
price of oil as non-Middle East supplies diminish, Exxon Corp
<XON> director and senior vice-president Donald McIvor said.
    Policymakers must also face up to the reality that the bulk
of world oil reserves lies in the Middle East, he said in a
speech prepared for delivery to the Australian Petroleum
Exploration Association (APEA) annual conference.
    It appears ever more likely that new discoveries elsewhere
will not change this fact, he said.
    McIvor said 37 of the world's 30,000 oil fields contain
about 35 pct of all oil ever discovered.
    Only 11 of these 37 super-giant fields lie outside the
Middle East and only five of the 37 have been discovered in the
last 20 years, three of them in the Middle East, he said.
    He also said that since 1970, the world has been consuming
20 to 25 billion barrels a year while making discoveries at the
rate of only 10 to 15 billion barrels a year.
    More than half of remaining proved reserves are in the
Middle East, he said.
    McIvor said it was important to continue to search for oil
outside the Middle East because each addition contributes to a
diversity of supply desirable for global political and economic
    "It is important to enhance the likelihood of home-country
discoveries with measures such as non-discriminatory and stable
taxation, and minimum regulation, together with opening up of
acreage for exploration," he said.
    Increasing reliance on the Middle East will also boost the
incentive to use natural gas and synthetic sources of
petroleum, he added.
 REUTER

Taiwan is expected to boost agricultural
imports from the U.S. And Europe in calendar 1987 to help
balance trade, the Council of Agriculture said.
    A council official, who declined to be named, told Reuters
the imports, which will include about seven mln tonnes of
oilseeds, grains and dairy products, would be worth some four
billion U.S. Dlrs against 3.72 billion in 1986 and 3.38 billion
in 1985.
    Taiwan's surplus with the U.S. Rose to 13.6 billion dlrs
last year from 10.2 billion in 1985, government figures show.
    Government figures also show Taiwan's surplus with Europe
rose to 1.53 billion dlrs last year from 543 mln in 1985.
    Taiwan's imports of U.S. Farm produce last year amounted to
1.41 billion dlrs against 1.52 billion in 1985.
    Imports from Europe rose to 182 mln U.S. Dlrs from 148 mln,
    He attributed the decline in the value of U.S. Imports to
falling agricultural products prices last year.
 REUTER

Australian opposition leader John Howard
sacked from the shadow cabinet Andrew Peacock, who is a former
foreign minister and Howard's predecessor, party officials
said.
    The officials said the move could lead to the collapse of
the opposition coalition between the Liberal and National
parties, which has been under severe strain in recent weeks.
    In a television interview yesterday prime minister Bob
Hawke said he might call an early election if strife within the
opposition undermined business confidence and hurt Australia's
economic recovery.
    "The opposition have not only destabilised themselves, they
have prostituted the political and economic debate by putting
up economic nostrums and stupidities that are destabilizing
business confidence," Hawke said.
    Howard relegated Peacock to the back benches after the
Melbourne Sun published an alleged telephone conversation
between Peacock and another opposition member in which Peacock
was critical of Howard's leadership. The paper said the call
was recorded by an unidentified man using an electronic radio
scanner. In a statement Howard said the conversation was
damaging to the party and implied disloyalty to him.
    Peacock told reporters he accepted Howard's right to "hire
and fire." He refused to answer questions about any leadership
challenge.
    Liberal party officials said the move against Peacock could
encourage his supporters to mount a challenge to Howard's
leadership. Peacock was ousted as opposition leader by Howard
in September 1985, after losing the 1984 general election to
Hawke.
    Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, a veteran
National Party member, recently campaigned against Howard's
leadership and urged his party to split from the coalition.
 REUTER

A 10 percentage
point reduction in the Australian government's maximum crude
oil levy on old oil would stabilize Bass Straits oil output,
resources analyst Ian Story said here.
    A reduction to 70 pct from 80 pct would enable Bass Strait
output to be maintained at the current rate of 420,000 barrels
per day (BPD) for the next year rather than falling to 380,000
BPD in 1987/88, he told the Australian Petroleum Exploration
Association annual conference.
    Story is an analyst with and a director of Sydney
stockbroker Meares and Philips Ltd.
    Windfall profits taxes on Bass Strait crude are no longer
appropriate in the current economic climate, Story said.
    The maximum 80 pct levy on old oil -- that discovered
before September 1975 -- is now forcing the Broken Hill Pty Co
Ltd <BRKN.S>/Exxon Corp <XON> partnership to shut-in
production, accelerating the decline in output and reducing
government revenue, he said.
    He said the producer return per barrel at a price of 30
Australian dlrs a barrel would rise to 2.07 dlrs from 0.80 dlrs
if the levy was cut to 70 pct.
    "The economics at an 80 pct levy are simply not attractive
at oil prices below 30 dlrs," Story said.
    Cutting the maximum levy rate to 70 pct would create higher
levels of self-sufficiency, increase government revenue, boost
exports and provide incentives for exploration and development,
he said.
    The government is currently reviewing the oil tax
structure.
 REUTER

Debt among African countries
will continue to grow and their economies remain stifled unless
developed countries lower their interest rates, Nigerian Trade
Minister Samaila Mamman said.
    He told an informal General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) meeting the widening gap between developed and
developing countries and an inequitable international economic
system were major impediments to growth in developing
    Delegates from 23 countries are attending the GATT talks in
the New Zealand resort of Taupo.
    "I wish to emphasise that the growth in the volume of the
external indebtedness of African countries reflects the full
effect of the deflationary monetary and trade policies of the
developed market economy countries," Mamman said.
    "The developed market economy countries have slowed down
output growth thereby drying up markets for the commodity
exports of African countries."
    Mamman said the World Bank estimated 35.3 billion dlrs a
year would be needed over the next five years for the African
continent to be able to achieve a gross domestic product growth
(GDP) rate of three to four pct by 1990.
    Yet at the same time Africa's debt service was estimated at
24.5 billion dlrs a year between 1986 and 1990.
    "With the best of intentions Africa cannot attain a three to
four pct GDP growth rate if the current high level of debt
persists," Mamman said. Developed countries must seek
alternatives to policies that resulted in the transfer of
resources and more indebtedness, he said.
    "The international community cannot fail to respond
positively to the collapse of the international market for
commodities ... And act quickly to stabilize demand and prices
of our commodity exports," he added.
 REUTER

Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>
expects to increase its market share in West Germany in the
full year 1987 after registering gains in the first two months
of the year, managing board chairman Carl Hahn said.
    He told Reuters in an interview that incoming orders in
West Germany, VW's largest single market, had been very good in
early 1987. Its share of the domestic car market rose to 29 pct
in January and February from 26 pct in the year-ago period.
    Hahn declined to forecast first quarter 1987 results, or
answer questions about the VW currency scandal.
    Hahn said he did not want to elaborate on statements VW had
already issued on the affair and noted the case was now in the
hands of state prosecutors.
    VW, like other car manufacturers, had encountered difficult
market conditions in the United States in early 1987, Hahn
said, without giving details.
    He declined to predict U.S. Sales for 1987 as a whole,
saying it was particularly difficult this year to forecast
sales trends in North America, VW's second largest regional
market after Western Europe.
    Hahn declined to comment directly on reports that 1986
losses at Spanish subsidiary Sociedad Espanola de Automoviles
de Turismo (SEAT) totalled up to 27 billion pesetas or that
these losses were twice as high as expected.
    But he said SEAT was developing according to plan and added
the introduction of international accounting standards and
changes to VW's own had led to some corrections to SEAT's
figures.
    VW hoped SEAT would reach break-even point in the course of
this year. In 1986 SEAT's volume sales had been better than
expected, Hahn said.
    In January and February, 1987, SEAT's turnover in Europe
rose 40 pct compared with the same months of 1986, Hahn said.
Its European market share rose to 1.9 pct in January and
February from 1.6 pct a year earlier.
    Hahn said VW hoped to sign a contract with Ford Motor Co
<F.N> in the summer on the planned joint venture between the
two companies' loss-making operations in Argentina and Brazil.
    A provisional joint management team was already looking at
ways of synchronising the two operations, he said. VW's
operations in Mexico had made again made a profit in 1986, he
added.
    Hahn, speaking to Reuters in an interview to mark
production of VW's 50 millionth car, said VW had no plans to
make acquisitions outside the automotive sector.
    It also did not expect to raise capital again in the
foreseeable future after increasing capital by 25 pct in 1986
in the biggest rights issue in West German history, Hahn said.
    In a separate interview Karl-Heinz Briam, the management
board member responsible for labour relations, said VW did not
currently plan to increase its workforce further this year.
    All of VW's domestic plants and most of its foreign
production facilities were currently operating at full
capacity, Briam said. The exceptions were VW's Nigerian
operations and its Westmoreland plant in Pennsylvania.
    Hahn said VW had recently taken steps to increase the
flexibility and improve the structure of the Westmoreland
plant. However, VW was not planning to increase production
there at the moment.
    "Most of the VW vehicles (sold in the U.S.) will, as before,
be built in Germany," Hahn said.
    Hahn said there was room for further growth in West
Germany, and predicted that 1987 would be a good year generally
for the industry domestically.
    Wolfgang Lincke, head of car development at VW, said the
increasing environmental awareness of West German consumers
would allow VW to sell more "higher value" cars in future
containing equipment such as catalytic converters, which cut
exhaust emissions.
    Lincke declined to be drawn on when VW may introduce a
successor to its current Golf model, which in 1983 replaced the
original dating from 1974.
    VW would in any case retain the Golf name. Of the 50 mln VW
cars built since VW started commercial production after World
War II, nearly nine mln have been Golfs, Lincke said.
    VW, which traditionally releases its annual results in
April or May, said last week 1986 profit and dividend would
both be unchanged despite the need to make provision to cover
the possible loss of 480 mln marks from allegedly fraudulent
hedging operations.
    VW has also said the currency scandal would not affect the
company's investment spending.
 REUTER

West German bond yields could decline
over the next few months if recent efforts to stabilize
exchange rates, as seen in last month's Paris pact, extend to
keeping down European interest rates, banking economists said.
    But in the longer term domestic yields could rise under
agreements to stimulate West Germany's economy, they said.
    The Paris agreement has so far successfully stabilized
currencies with the threat of central bank intervention,
    Economists speculated that G-7 countries may try to bolster
the pact by uncoupling U.S. and West German interest rates
further when they meet for the IMF Interim Committee in April.
"The recent round of monetary accommodation by the Bundesbank
and the Bank of Japan and the firming of the Federal Funds rate
are significant. They mark an uncoupling of movements in U.S.
and foreign interest rates," Salomon Bros Inc said in a recent
study.
    It said narrowing of international interest rate spreads
was a major factor in the dollar's fall. These spreads will
have to be widened if the dollar is to be stabilized.
    West German Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl encouraged
the U.S. not to cut interest rates in January when the
Bundesbank cut its own rates by half a point, to avoid
weakening the dollar.
    West German economists see room for further cuts in leading
West German rates if the dollar resumes its decline.
    "It's not a taboo," Peter Pietsch, spokesman for Commerzbank
AG said.
    But most economists see room for a cut in West German rates
only in the first half of the year, as re-emerging inflation
will limit room for manoeuvre later in the year.
    The Bundesbank's average yield of public paper is already
nearing last year's low. Last week, yields fell to around 5.50
pct, not far from the 1986 low of 5.35 pct posted in mid-April.
 Economists said the trend may cause domestic investors to
shift some funds from short to longer-term paper. Such a move
would tend to flatten the yield curve between short and
long-term rates, which has become more pronounced since the
Bundesbank lowered its discount rate.
    It might also facilitate a further cut in leading rates, as
the shift out of savings accounts into securities would slow
growth of the Bundesbank's central bank money stock aggregate.
    But conflicting with this trend are plans to increase West
German tax cuts, part of the Paris currency pact designed to
meet U.S. demands for faster West German growth. This move may
force interest rates up by creating a revenue vacuum which must
be filled by higher government borrowing.
    This may not occur if private sector demand for credit
remains weak, but demand could emerge if rates begin rising.
    Economists said it appeared the government had already
stepped up borrowing this year to accomodate revenue loss from
other sources, including tax losses resulting from weaker than
expected economic growth, and higher than expected spending.
    Josef Koerner, chief economist of the West German
Ifo-Institut, said in a newspaper interview he expected 1987
tax revenue to be some 11 billion marks below estimates by the
West German government in November.
    Any tax shortfall in itself is unlikely to push yields up.
But coupled with other factors such as waning foreign
speculative buying of mark bonds on the dollar's decline, long
term yields may to have to rise, economists said.
    Public authority borrowing in 1988 may also rise owing to
increases in the second phase of Bonn's tax reform package.
    The West German government is raising its total tax cuts in
1988 by 5.2 billion marks to 14.4 billion.
    West German chancellor Helmut Kohl said last week increased
borrowing to finance the tax reform is acceptable.
    Finance minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said last Thursday he
was looking for other ways to finance the reform, such as
raising indirect taxes.
    But few economists believe the government will be able to
go through with its tax measures without increasing net
borrowing.
    The Bundesbank said in its February report that it was
wrong to believe that the first stage of the tax reform in 1986
could be managed without increasing deficits.
    The Bundesbank said West German public authorities borrowed
a large 21.9 billion marks in credit markets in the 1986 final
quarter compared with 14.8 billion in fourth quarter 1985.
    The federal government took up nearly 10 billion marks of
the fourth quarter 1986 figures, and also drew on two billion
marks of Bundesbank advances at the end of the year, when it
had not required such a credit in the 1985 quarter.
 Reuter

The Philippines posted a trade deficit
of 68 mln dlrs in January, compared with deficits of 57 mln in
January 1986 and 28 mln in December, government figures show.
    The National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO) said
imports of 436 mln dlrs in January were up from 371 mln in
January 1986 and 393 mln dlrs in December, while exports of 368
mln were up on the 314 mln in January 1986 but lower than
December's 421 mln.
    The country's 1987-92 medium-term development plan targets
a 9.8 pct average annual growth in exports and a 10.7 pct
growth in imports, the NCSO said.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone defended
his tax reform plans from fierce opposition, even within his
own party, as campaigning for local elections began.
    "Our plan to reform the nation's tax system is by no means
wrong. Unless we reform the system now, Japan is bound to
decay, perhaps within the next 10 years," Nakasone told
supporters of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
    The April 12 and 26 elections will be the first nationwide
vote since the LDP's general election victory last July.
    Opposition parties have shown rare unity in joining to
fight a proposed five pct sales tax, one of the main planks in
the tax reform package, and are now challenging the
LDP-dominated local governments and assemblies.
    In Tokyo, incumbent Governor Shunichi Suzuki backed by the
LDP and two centrist parties has said he cannot support the
sales tax as it stands.
    A survey by the National Broadcasting Corporation just over
three weeks ago showed 70 pct of those polled said they would
take the tax, which Nakasone proposes to implement next
January, into consideration when they vote.
    Takako Doi, Chairwoman of the Japan Socialist Party, said
in a speech in central Tokyo where shop-owners are opposing the
tax "The elections are a plebiscite against the sales tax. Your
vote is a vote to force (Nakasone) to retract (it)."
    The LDP is putting up its own candidates only in Iwate and
western Shimane but it is supporting independents jointly with
other parties in other prefectures.
    A close aide to Nakasone, who asked not to be identified,
said he sees the sales tax having little impact on the local
elections since almost all candidates, irrespective of party
affiliation, are opposing it in prefectural assembly polls.
 REUTER

Japanese compound feed output fell to
2.06 mln tonnes in January from 2.57 mln in December, against
2.04 mln a year earlier, Agriculture Ministry statistics show.
    January sales totalled 2.07 mln tonnes against 2.59 mln in
December and 2.04 mln a year earlier, while end-month stocks
were 233,003 tonnes against 230,764 and 241,567.
    Base mixes for the January compound feed output included
corn, sorghum and soybean meal.
    Corn use totalled 993,156 tonnes, against 1.20 mln in
December and 896,718 a year earlier, and its compounding ratio
was 48.1 pct against 46.6 pct and 43.1 pct.
    Sorghum use totalled 339,013 tonnes in January against
459,067 in December and 412,743 a year earlier, and its
compounding ratio was 16.4 pct against 17.8 pct and 19.8 pct,
the ministry's figures shows.
    Soybean meal use amounted to 202,546 tonnes against 253,498
and 213,287 and its compounding ratio was 9.8 pct against 9.8
pct and 10.2 pct.
 REUTER

Japan has assured a meeting
of trade ministers it is making every effort to expand domestic
demand and restructure its economy.
    Japanese trade representative Tsomu Hata told an informal
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) meeting that, in
addition to demand boosting measures adopted last September, a
comprehensive economic program will be prepared after the
1987/88 budget is approved.
    Hata, speaking at the first session of the two-day meeting,
said agriculture is no exception to the goal of restructuring
the economy, but did not elaborate.
    Hata said protectionist pressures in the international
economy are as strong as ever, reflecting financial deficits,
payment imbalances and serious unemployment in many countries.
    Despite great potential, developing economies are still
confronted by grave difficulties, particularly debt, he added.
    The basis for the talks is the GATT ministerial declaration
last September in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and the subsequent
trade negotiating plan agreed in Geneva.
    "It is essential that we first reaffirm here our commitment
to implementing that plan as scheduled," Hata said.
    Hata added it is not constructive to speed up negotiations
in some areas at the expense of others.
    In order to rebuild the free trade system, it is important
for each participant to have domestic policies that will serve
this end.
    As part of its contribution, Japan plans in April to
fundamentally improve its generalised system of preferences for
industrial and mining products to make Japan's domestic market
more open to developing countries, he said.
 REUTER

offered by the United Arab Emirates central bank were mostly
lower than last Monday's offering, the bank said.
    The one-month issue remained at 6-1/8 pct but the two,
three and six-month yields fell 1/16 point to 6-1/16 pct from
6-1/8 pct.
 REUTER

Marubeni Corp <MART.T> said it won a 30
mln dlr contract from China to set up a broiler raising and
slaughtering plant in Tianjin under a countertrade accord in
which payment will be made partly by output from the plant.
    The plant, which will be completed by end-1988, will have a
capacity of five mln broilers a year, most of which will go to
China's domestic market, a company spokesman said without
giving further details.
    The spokesman said Marubeni plans to increase its
countertrade with China by helping China set up farm product
processing plants and improving its food distribution system.
    Marubeni will also help China develop export markets for
farm products, he said.
    The company wants to increase its food trade with China to
around 200 mln dlrs a year within a few years from 70 mln now,
he added.
 REUTER

Bundesbank sets 28-day securities repurchase tender at fixed 3.80 pct

The Bundesbank set a new tender for a
28-day securities repurchase agreement, offering banks
liquidity aid at a fixed rate of 3.80 pct, a central bank
    Banks must make their bids by 1000 GMT tomorrow, and funds
allocated will be credited to accounts on Wednesday. Banks must
repurchase securities pledged on April 22.
 REUTER

LSI Logic Corp is issuing a 100 mln dlr
convertible eurobond due April 14, 2002 with an indicated
coupon of 5-3/4 to 6-1/4 pct and priced at par, Morgan Stanley
International said as lead manager.
    Terms will be fixed within five days and the conversion
premium is expected to be 24 to 26 pct above the share price.
The bonds are non-callable before April 14, 1990 unless the
share price exceeds 130 pct of the conversion price for 20
consecutive trading days.
    Any calls will be at 100 plus the coupon in year one,
declining in equal amounts to 100 in 1997.
    Gross fees are 2-1/2 pct, with one pct for management and
underwriting and 1-1/2 pct for selling, Morgan Stanley said.
    The bonds will be issued in denominations of 1,000 and
10,000 dlrs and listed in Luxembourg.  Pay date is April 14.
 REUTER

around 1.18 billion stg while bankers balances below target
will take out some 20 mln stg.
and exchequer transactions will add some 355 and 55 mln stg to
the system respectively.
 REUTER

Financial holding company Nord-Est is
issuing a 392.9 mln franc, 6.25 pct, five year domestic bond
convertible into shares, an announcement in the Official
Bulletin (BALO) said.
    From March 26 to April 8, subscription for 1.63 mln of the
1.64 mln bonds of 240 francs nominal each will be reserved for
shareholders holding 13.09 mln shares of 50 francs nominal,
representing the company's capital of 654.85 mln francs, on the
basis of one bond for eight shares held.
    The bonds will be exchangeable from July 1 for shares on a
one for one basis.
 REUTER

Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports
fell to 5.79 billion dlrs in calendar 1986 from 5.98 billion in
1985, according to Bank Indonesia figures.
    Coffee exports rose to 753 mln dlrs from 580 mln in 1985,
but rubber shipments fell to 625 mln from 720 mln and tin to
180.6 mln from 246 mln, weekly central bank figures show.
    Indonesia hopes to boost its non-oil exports to make up for
oil revenue lost because of lower prices. But the lower value
of commodities such as timber, rubber, palm oil and tea on
world markets has prevented this, despite a 31 pct devaluation
of the rupiah against the dollar in September.
 REUTER

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.5 on
the Richter scale shook southwestern Japan but caused no
injuries or damage, police said.
    The tremor, recorded at 1358 local time (0458), had its
epicentre about 50 km offshore from the city of Miyazaki on the
western Japanese island of Kyushu, they said.
    It affected almost the same area as last Wednesday's strong
earthquake which killed two people and injured at least three,
they said.
 REUTER

Australian Trade Minister
John Dawkins said if the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) does not give high priority to agricultural trade reform
it will be neglecting the area of greatest crisis.
    In a statement to the informal GATT trade ministers
conference here he said agriculture is a problem which involves
all countries and seriously affects the debt servicing
abilities of a number of developing countries.
     He said major countries should be showing leadership on
this problem.
    "We will be giving close attention to the processes in the
OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) and
elsewhere leading to the Venice economic summit where we will
be looking to the participants to adopt a strong commitment to
agricultural trade reform," Dawkins said.
    The Venice summit is scheduled for June.
    He said Australia's interests in the Uruguay Round, the
eighth under the GATT, are wide ranging. Dawkins said he sees
the round as providing a timely opportunity to secure further
meaningful trade liberalisation in all sectors and to restore
confidence in the multilateral system.
    Dawkins said initial meetings of the negotiating groups
established in Geneva after the GATT declaration last September
in Punta del Este, Uruguay, have made a reasonable start, but
it is vital that trade ministers maintain the pressure on these
    "We must see that the commitments made at Punta del Este on
standstill and rollback are carried into practice."
    The standstill and rollback of protection offers the global
trading system a chance to hold and wind back protection during
the negotiations which are expected to last up to four years,
he said.
 REUTER

The central bank issued 4.03 billion
Taiwan dlrs of certificates of deposit (cds), bringing cd
issues so far this year to 134.5 billion dlrs, a bank official
    The new cds, with maturities of six months, one and two
years, carry interest rates ranging from 4.07 to 5.12 pct, he
said.
    The issues are intended to help curb the growth of M-1b
reserves.
    The reserves are now well over 51 billion U.S. Dlrs.
 REUTER

Japan is expected to post a 3.6 pct rise
in real gross national product in 1987/88, higher than the
official 3.5 pct target, a private economic institute said.
    The Research Institute on National Economy said in a report
the economy will start picking up in the April-June quarter,
partly because of an improvement in earnings performance and
capital spending in manufacturing industries.
    The institute assumed an average exchange rate in the year
starting April 1 of 150 yen to the dollar. It predicted the
Bank of Japan will not change the official discount rate in the
year.
    The institute forecast that Japan's exports will gradually
rise in the year in volume terms as the dollar's fall in the
past 18 months is likely to help prop up the U.S. Economy.
    Japan's trade surplus is expected to narrow slightly to
90.2 billion dlrs in 1987/88 ending March 31 from an estimated
98 billion in the current fiscal year, it said.
 REUTER

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> said it has set up
a design centre for large integrated circuits (LSI) in Hong
Kong.
    The centre, located at its wholly-owned Hong Kong
subsidiary <Toshiba Electronics Asia Ltd>, will start
operations to help create new demand for semi-customized LSI
from April 1.
    Toshiba has nine LSI design centres in the U.S., Europe and
Japan.
 REUETER

Shr 27.89p vs 24.24p
    Div 9.0p vs 7.75p making 13.75p vs 12.0p
    Turnover 1.26 billion stg vs 1.19 billion
    Pretax profit 54.6 mln vs 46.5 mln
    Tax 16.5 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Interest paid 2.2 mln vs 2.4 mln
    Minority interests 2.3 mln debit vs same
    Extraordinary items 42.3 mln profit vs 5.4 mln loss
    Pretax profit includes -
    Agribusiness 28.3 mln vs 22.5 mln
    Health products 6.5 mln vs 5.4 mln
    Wholesale food distribution 8.3 mln vs 7.3 mln
    Retail food distribution 4.2 mln vs 5.9 mln
    U.K. 28.7 mln vs 27.2 mln
    U.S. 21.1 mln vs 16.1 mln
 REUTER

Philippines Trade and
Industry Secretary Jose Concepcion told world trade ministers
he wondered if their agreement was of any real value after the
European Community (EC) imposed a levy on vegetable oils.
    Concepcion, speaking at an informal meeting of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) here, said ministers
declared in Uruguay last September that the trade of
less-developed nations should not be disrupted.
    He said the EC not only ignored Manila's request for lower
tariffs on coconut oil but introduced a levy on vegetable oils
and fats that are vital exports for Southeast Asian countries.
    Concepcion said while the levy might be rejected by the EC
Council of Ministers, he noted that "I cannot help but wonder
whether the agreements we produce in meetings like this are of
any real value."
    He also said industrialised nations saved about 65 billion
U.S. Dlrs in 1985 through low commodity prices, but this had
affected the ability of developing nations to import goods and
services.
    "The health and the growth of world trade requires that the
new development of developing countries losing their share of
world trade be arrested and reversed," he said.
 REUTER

The Somali government has submitted
to parliament a law offering foreign investors generous terms
including customs duty exemption on all capital goods, Minister
of State for Planning Yusuf Ali Osman said.
    Osman told reporters yesterday the new law opened all
sectors of the Somali economy to foreign investment and allowed
unrestricted remittance of profits and repatriation of the
whole value of the investment after five years.
    The law gives investors guarantees against nationalisation
and permits them to retain 50 pct of their export earnings in
external accounts, a privilege available to Somali exporters
since last year, he added.
    Osman described the new terms as very attractive and said
he expected the bill to go through within a week. Details of
the previous investment laws were not immediately available.
    Somalia opened its economy to private investment in the
early 1980s but few foreign firms have put money into the
country. Osman said the two largest private foreign investments
were in a banana exporting venture and in a small boatyard.
 REUTER

Burma's debt service ratio will have
fallen to 48.8 pct in the fiscal year to end-March 1987 from 50
pct in 1985-1986, the official Council of People's Inspectors
(CPI) reported.
    Western diplomats in Rangoon estimate the figure at above
70 pct and say the country can no longer depend on foreign
exchange reserves to cover more than a few weeks' imports.
    The CPI, which oversees government spending, said in its
latest report to parliament that foreign currency reserves fell
to a record low of 407.9 mln kyats in September 1986 from 430.3
mln in March 1986. Earlier figures were not available.
    Debt servicing cost Burma 1.62 billion kyats in 1985-1986
while foreign exchange earnings -- export revenues plus loans
and aid -- totalled 3.23 billion kyats in the same period, the
council said.
    Later figures were not available.
    Burma, which diplomats here say now has foreign debts of up
to 3.4 billion dlrs, has applied to the United Nations to be
reclassified as one of the world's least developed countries in
order to qualify for softer loan and grant aid.
 REUTER

(STC) bought four cargoes of rbd palm olein totalling 24,000
tonnes at its vegetable oil import tender last week, traders
said. Market reports on Friday said the STC had booked two
cargoes.
    The business comprised three 6,000 tonne cargoes for June
at 346 dlrs and 6,000 tonnes for July at 340 dlrs per tonne
cif.
    It also secured a 20,000 tonne cargo of optional origin
rapeseed oil for May 15/Jun 15 shipment at 321 dlrs cif.
 REUTER

The entire British Petroleum Co PLC
refinery at Grangemouth in Scotland has been shut down
following the explosion and fire that severely damaged the
hydrocracker at the site, a refinery spokesman said.
    He said the rest of the 178,500 bpd refinery, including the
19,000 bpd catalytic cracker, was undamaged. The whole refinery
was closed pending enquiries but a decision when to reopen the
main units will be taken in the next couple of days, he said.
    But there was extensive damage to the central part of the
32,000 bpd hydrocracker, which upgrades heavy oil products to
gasoline, and it will be out of operation for some months.
    The spokesman said BP will not suffer supply shortages as a
result of the explosion as it will be able to bring in product
from other sources. BP has a 437,000 bpd refinery in Rotterdam,
a 181,900 bpd unit at Ingolstadt, West Germany, a 181,900 bpd
plant at Lavera in France and a smaller Swedish plant.
    He said the explosion and fire, in which one worker was
killed, occurred when the hydrocracker was not in operation.
    The refinery as a whole had been operating at about half of
its capacity since the end of January while an extensive
overhaul was carried out on the North Side of the complex where
the hydrocracker is sited, he said.
    This work was scheduled to be completed by mid-April, but
this is now being assessed following the hydrocracker accident.
    Two people were killed in an explosion and fire in a flare
line at the Grangemouth refinery on March 13, but the spokesman
said this incident was some 100 yards from the latest accident.
 REUTER

China's top leader Deng Xiaoping said
China must not import more than 10 mln tonnes of grain, Ming
Pao newspaper of Hong Kong said.
    Customs figures show that China imported 7.73 mln tonnes of
grain in 1986, up from 5.97 mln in 1985 but down from a record
16.15 mln in 1982.
    The newspaper quoted Deng as saying that grain output is
one of several key issues that will influence the whole
development of the economy. It did not give the context of his
remarks. The 1987 grain production target is 405 mln, up from
391 mln in 1986.
    The newspaper quoted Deng as saying that the situation has
reached the point where "pigs are not fed, there is not enough
grain and increases in output have slowed."
    "We should in our overall economic planning put agriculture
in its proper place to reach our target of 480 mln tonnes by
the year 2000," he said. "We must avoid the situation in recent
years of importing more than 10 mln tonnes of grain."
    The paper quoted Deng as saying that the State Council has
decided to raise the price of five grains, including corn and
rice, unchanged since 1978, but it gave no details.
 REUTER

Woolworths Ltd <WLWA.S> said policy,
management and financial changes initiated during the 1986/87
business year should cause profits to reach more acceptable
levels in 1987/88 end-February 1.
    Net profit reported earlier fell 85.3 pct in the year ended
February 1.
    Results for the first month of the new year were
encouraging after a period of uncertain consumer confidence and
difficult trading conditions, it said in a statement.
    The Big W discount store division and New South Wales
supermarkets produced very disappointing results, it added.
    Woolworths earlier reported a fall in net profit to 9.27
mln from 63.20 mln on sales of 5.47 billion against 4.83
billion. Capital spending for the year was 119 mln dlrs against
105 mln for the previous year with 50 new stores opened, but
total sales were below target, Woolworths said.
    The company provided 20 mln dlrs against operating profit
for the year to cover mark-downs on stock.
    Extraordinary items included a 53 mln dlr profit on the
sale of properties and investments less a 28 mln provision for
reorganising the Big W chain.
    Woolworths is unrelated to the U.S. Group F.W. Woolworth
<Z.N>. It has been the subject of takeover speculation since
<Industrial Equity Ltd> acquired a 20 pct stake last year.
    New Zealand's diversified investment group <Rainbow Corp
Ltd> bought Safeway Stores Inc's <SA> 20 pct holding in
Woolworths for 190 mln dlrs late last year.
    Safeway put its stake up for tender just in time to take
advantage of changes in U.S. Tax laws effective from the end of
December, informed sources said.
    Woolworths shares closed on Australian stock exchanges
today at 3.50 dlrs, down five cents from Friday.
 REUTER

Booker Plc <BOKL.L> said 1987 had
started well and the group had the resources to invest in its
growth business both organically and by acquisition.
    It was commenting on figures for 1986 which showed pretax
profits rising to 54.6 mln from 46.5 mln previously. Profits
from the U.S. Accounted for 39 pct of the total. The results
were broadly in line with analysts' forecasts and the company's
shares firmed in morning trading to 421p from 413p at Friday's
close.
    The group ended the year with a cash surplus higher at 54
mln stg, compared to 26 mln previously, after capital
expenditure which rose to 54 mln from 43 mln.
    In a statement, the company said the U.K. Agribusiness
group reported excellent profits growth while health products
profits rose to 6.5 mln from 5.4 mln.
 REUTER

Gross domestic product is expected to
grow by 4.4 pct in the year ending June 30, Finance Minister
Mohammad Syeduzzaman told reporters.
    Inflation fell to an estimated 12 pct this fiscal year from
17 pct in 1981/82, he said last night.
    The World Bank and other independent sources have said
inflation would be around 15 pct in 1986/87.
    Syeduzzaman said remittances from expatriates would rise to
600 mln dlrs this year from 425 mln in 1981/82.
    Foreign exchange reserves at end-June are projected at 680
mln dlrs compared with 105 mln in 1981/82, he said.
    Syeduzzaman said the export target has been set at 900 mln
dlrs this year against 626 mln in 1981/82. Commitments for
foreign loans and grants total more than five billion dlrs in
1986/87, against 3.54 billion five years previously, he said.
    The government's liberal industrial policy has attracted
investment commitments totalling 250 mln dlrs, he said
    Foodgrain output is estimated at 16.4 mln tonnes this year,
up from 16.12 mln in 1985/86 and 14.4 mln in 1981/82.
    Government officials have said Bangladesh must import
nearly two mln tonnes of grain annually up to 1990, when the
government expects to attain self-sufficiency in food.
 REUTER

French sugar group Beghin-Say, which is
49.6 pct owned by Italy's Gruppo Ferruzzi, is to raise its
capital to 703 mln francs from 527 mln through a three-for-one
issue of shares and investment certificates to finance
expansion, president Jean-Marc Vernes told analysts.
    For the first stage Beghin-Say will issue some 2.05 mln new
65 franc shares at 500 francs to increase capital to 660 mln
francs. The share currently trades at 734 francs. Then 658,000
new 65 franc investment certificates will be issued at 400
francs, raising capital to 703 mln francs.
    The capital increase will bring the group around 1.2
billion francs in new funds to finance its expansion plans.
These include the possible acquisition of the Corn Products
maize starch plant at Haubourdin in northern France, Vernes
said.
    Ferruzzi is one of several groups bidding to buy all of
Corn Products' installations in Europe. Apart from the French
plant, these include three factories in each of Italy and West
Germany, two in Britain and Spain and one in the Netherlands
and Denmark.
    Corn Products has put a 650 mln dlr price tag on the
installations, and Beghin-Say estimates that acquisition of the
Haubourdin plant would cost between 80 and 100 mln dlrs, Vernes
said.
    If this bid fails, Beghin-Say would consider acquiring and
developing two other French plants, either in the maize or
wheat starch sector.
    Beghin-Say is also planning to finance European expansion
for its Kaysersberg subsidiary, another major reason for its
capital increase.
    Kaysersberg, which was transformed from a division of
Beghin-Say into a fully-fledged chemical subsidiary last year,
has been holding talks with other European companies on
possible accords, Vernes said. He added the company could be
introduced onto the Paris Bourse in the near future.
 REUTER

Iraq said its warplanes launched two
bombing raids on Iran's offshore Nowruz oilfield in the
northern Gulf today.
    A military spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi news
agency, said platforms at the field were reduced "to rubble."
    He said attacks on the field, 55 miles northwest of Iran's
Kharg Island oil terminal, were carried out at 0600 GMT. He
said today's raids "fall within Iraq's policy to deprive Iranian
rulers of oil revenue used to serve their aggressive aims."
    Iraqi planes yesterday raided the nearby Ardeshir oil
field, resuming attacks on Iranian targets after a month-long
lull.
 REUTER

The Bank of France will not hold a money
market intervention tender today, ruling out a further cut in
its 7-3/4 pct intervention rate, central bank sources said.
    At the tenders, depending on market conditions, the Bank
injects liquidity into the market by buying up first category
paper. But market sources said that while the recent franc
performance leaves room for a further quarter point cut in the
intervention rate there was plenty of market liquidity.
    The Bank cut its rate to 7-3/4 pct from eight pct on March
9, the first change since January 2. Interest rates also fell
the same week in Britain, Belgium and Italy.
 REUTER

&lt;ZAMBIA COPPER INVESTMENTS LTD&gt; JOHANNESBURG, March 23
-Halfyear ended december 31
    Shr net 53 U.S. Cents vs loss 3.67
    Pre-tax 677,000 dlrs vs 857,000
    Net earnings 646,000 vs loss 4.50 mln
    Foreign tax gain 31,000 vs 30,000
    Extraordinary items nil vs loss 5.33 mln period
 REUTER

The Tasmanian Public Finance Corp,
guaranteed by the state of Tasmania, is issuing a 46 mln
Australian dlr eurobond due April 23, 1992 paying 14-3/4 pct
and priced at 101-1/8 pct, lead manager Deutsche Bank Capital
Markets said.
10,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg and Frankfurt.
    Fees comprise 1-3/8 pct selling concession and 5/8 pct
 REUTER

Finnish Export Corp is issuing a 20
billion yen bond maturing April 23, 1992 carrying a 4-3/8 pct
coupon and priced at 102-3/4, said Yamaichi Securities
International (Europe) Ltd.
    The bond are payable April 23, 1987 and are available in
denominations of one mln yen. They will be listed on the London
    There is a 1-1/4 pct selling concession and 5/8 pct
 REUTER

French 1987 growth will probably be about
two pct, the same as last year, due to an international
environment that is less favourable than expected, Finance
Minister Edouard Balladur was quoted as saying.
    Treasury director Daniel Lebegue said last month that gross
domestic product is expected to grow by between two and 2.5 pct
this year, against an original target of 2.8 pct.
    Although in line with the latest Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimate of 2.1 pct growth,
the forecast will be balanced by growth in investments and
exports, Balladur said in an interview with the daily Les
Echos.
    Last month Balladur said French GDP had grown by just two
pct last year, compared with an initial 1986 target of 2.5 pct
and 1.1 pct growth in 1985.
    He told Les Echos he aims to reduce the 1988 budget deficit
to 115 billion francs from this year's figure of 129 billion
and compared with a 141 billion deficit in 1985.
    He has already announced his intention of cutting the
deficit to 100 billion francs in 1989.
 REUTER

French gross domestic product should grow
by 2.3 pct in 1988 after two pct growth this year and 2.1 pct
in 1986, the Finance Ministry said.
    The latest forecast, prepared by the National Accounts and
Budget Commission, assumed an exchange rate of 6.20 francs to
the dollar this year and next and an average oil import price
rising to 18.9 dlrs a barrel next year from 17.4 dlrs this year
and 14.7 in 1986.
    The Commission, headed by Finance minister Edouard
Balladur, forecast a fall in consumer price inflation to two
pct year-on-year at end-1988 from 2.4 pct at end 1987 and 2.1
pct last year.
    In annual average terms inflation would fall to two pct in
1988 from 2.5 pct this year and 2.7 pct last year, it said.
    Trade should show a one billion franc annual surplus this
year and next after last year's 0.5 billion surplus, it added.
    Employment should rise by 0.1 pct a year over the next two
years while the state budget deficit should be cut to 2.2 pct
of GDP in 1988 from 2.6 pct this year and 2.9 pct in 1986.
    Other forecasts prepared by the Commission indicated a 1.8
pct 1988 rise in household purchasing power, up from 1.1 pct
this year but less than last year's 2.9 pct, and a 1.6 pct rise
in household consumption, compared with this year's 1.5 pct and
last year's 2.9 pct.
    Business investment is forecast to rise four pct a year
this year and next after 3.7 pct last year, with private sector
productive investment rising 4.9 pct in 1988 after a six pct
rise this year and 5.5 pct in 1986.
    The Ministry said updated forecasts would be prepared
before the autumn to serve as the basis for the 1988 budget,
which the government is now preparing for presentation in
 REUTER

Denmark's balance of payments on
current account was provisionally put at zero in February,
against a 181 mln crown surplus in January and a 1.5 billion
deficit in February 1986, the National Statistics Office said.
    Exports rose to 13.94 billion crowns in February from 12.53
billion in January, against 14.16 billion in February last
year. February imports rose to 13.94 billion from 12.35 billion
in January, against 15.67 billion in February 1986.
    The February figure provisionally gives a trade surplus for
1987 of 180 mln crowns, against a 3.04 billion deficit in the
same 1986 period.
 REUTER

A small Danish private bank, the
6.Juli Banken A/S, stopped payments today following a need for
considerably higher provisions against loan losses, the
Government Bank Inspectorate said in a statement.
    Officials at the 6. Juli Bank were not immediately
available for comment and calls to the Copenhagen head office
were intercepted by an operator who said the office was closed.
    The Inspectorate statement said: "Payments have been stopped
out of regard for the depositors." This would allow closer
investigation with a view to reconstruction and "negotiations on
this have started."
    The statement said: "The inspectors have inquired into
certain financial transactions involving considerable
extraordinary income in the submission of the 1986 balance
sheet. The inspectors have not found themselves able to approve
this book entry.
    "The inspectors have further examined the bank's liquidity
position and its commitments and have established the need for
considerably higher provisions against losses on loans."
    The bank is independent and has four branches in the
Copenhagen area. Details of previous profits were not
immediately available.
    A spokesman for the Danish Banks Association said that the
6.July Bank was one of the smallest of Denmark's 80 banks, with
balance sheet total of 861 mln crowns at end 1985, the latest
year for which figures were available.
    Denmark's banking legislation stipulates that equity
capital and savings must be at least eight pct of debt and
guarantee commitments, higher than for many countries.
     REUTER

A settlement could soon be reached in the
dispute between European sugar producers and the European
Community over EC export licencing policies, Jean-Marc Vernes,
president of French sugar producer Beghin-Say, which is leading
the protest, told journalists today.
    "Our contacts with the EC authorities over the past few days
indicate that we are moving towards a solution," he said, adding
that if this happened the producers would withdraw the 854,000
tonnes of sugar they have offered into intervention.
    Vernes said that the protest, involving 770,000 tonnes of
sugar from French producers alone, was prompted by the EC's
policy since mid-1986 of offering export rebates which failed
to give producers an equivalent price to that they would obtain
by offering sugar into EC intervention.
    At last week's tender the EC Commission made an apparent
concession by offering a maximum rebate only 1.3 European
currency units (Ecus) per 100 kilos below the level producers
say is needed, compared with the previous week's rebate which
was 2.5 Ecus below the necessary level.
    Vernes would not say what form any compromise between the
producers and the EC would take, but he reaffirmed the
long-term desire of producers to export to the world market,
providing they were not losing money by doing so.
    Producers can withdraw their intervention offer after April
1, when the sugar will officially enter intervention stores, or
at any time over the following five weeks before the official
payment date.
    The EC has threatened to put the sugar back on the internal
market if the producers refuse to withdraw their offers.
 REUTER

A Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F> spokesman
said the bank had no comment on newspaper reports that
shareholders would be offered free subscription shares.
    Dresdner shares surged to open 10.50 marks higher at
319.50, before climbing further. Other bank stocks also rose
strongly and dealers cited speculation already in the market
that Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> would make a similar move. Such
"scrip" issues, if they occurred, would mark the first time
German banks had ever issued free shares.
    The varying reports said Dresdner shareholders may be
offered one free share for every 15, 18 or 20 already held.
 REUTER

The U.K. Longer leading cyclical
indicator rose in February by 5.8 pct after January's 1.9 pct
rise, figures from the Central Statistical Office show.
    The indicator, base 1980, which shows trends in the economy
12 months ahead, was put at 108.7 in February compared with
102.7 in January and 99.5 in February 1986.
    The shorter leading indicator, signalling trends six months
ahead, was put at 97.1 for January, the latest month for which
data were available, after December's 96.5. This compared with
98.4 in January 1986.
    The coincident indicator, designed to signal current
turning points in the economy, was put at 91.2 in January, down
from 91.9 in December and 91.6 in january 1986.
    The lagging index, which the CSO says shows a turning point
in the economy about a year after it happens, was at 92.4 in
January, down from 92.5 in December and 93.0 a year earlier.
    The Office said leading indicators still do not show a
consistent picture of the likely future developments of the
business cycle in Britain.
    It said the strong rise in the longer leading index between
December and February was due mainly to rises in share prices.
 REUTER

Australian wheat plantings are
forecast to fall to 10.40 mln hectares in 1987/88 from 11.72
mln sown in 1986/87, Australian Wheat Forecasters Pty Ltd (AWF)
said in its first preliminary crop forecast.
    But there was no reason to expect Australian production in
1987/88 would be less than the 16.5 mln tonnes of last year,
the private forecaster said, as crops in New South Wales and
Queensland suffered from poor yields last season.
    Most of the fall in plantings was expected in Western
Australia while state average yields would be assisted by
growers sowing wheat on fallows and rest paddocks, it said.
    The main reason for a low Western Australia estimate was a
poor profit outlook under cost, credit and yield pressures. But
in the eastern states the wheat area should hold up provided
that rainfall between now and June is not less than average,
AWF said.
    Although some farmers were saying they intended to cut back
wheat area by 20 pct, AWF said this was unlikely since they
needed cash flow and there were problems with alternative
crops.
    "The lack of statutory marketing for oilseeds, pulses and
oats is a cause for concern if those crops are to comprise a
high proportion of growers' income," AWF said.
    AWF's state area forecasts in mln hectares, with 1986/87
production in mln tonnes, are as follows (crop forecasts were
not given for the new wheat year)
                   Area         Crop
             1987/88  1986/87  1986/87
 Queensland    0.82     0.82     0.95
 N.S.W.        3.07     3.17     4.40
 Victoria      1.53     1.63     3.25
 S.Australia   1.45     1.64     2.30
 W.Australia   3.53     4.46     5.60
 REUTER

Military authorities say an unnamed
army captain has been arrested for involvement in last week's
bombing of the Philippine Military Academy.
    They told reporters the arrest of the captain had been
ordered after a search of his home revealed bombs and
ammunition.
    Four people died and 40 were injured in the blast, which
President Aquino said was designed as an attempt on her life.
 Reuter

its forecast of the deficit in the money market today to 750
mln stg from 800 mln.
 REUTER

The business climate in West German
manufacturing industry worsened slightly last month after
deteriorating markedly in January, the IFO economic research
institute said.
    It said its February survey showed firms were also
increasingly pessimistic about the outlook for the coming
months, causing them to cut back production plans.
    IFO blamed the worsening of the business climate and
outlook largely on expectations of further declines in foreign
demand.
    More than a quarter of the firms polled said they thought
orders in hand were insufficient.
    Overall, the business climate in February could be
described as just short of satisfactory, IFO said.
    In a breakdown of responses by industrial sector, the
institute said manufacturers of basic products judged the
business climate to be slightly less favourable in February
than in January. For the coming months they expect export
prospects to dim and production to fall, it added.
    Chemical firms reported a slight improvement in demand but
they increasingly said orders on hand were insufficient.
    The business climate in the capital goods industry was
unchanged in February compared with January, but IFO said this
was due entirely to positive reports from makers of commercial
vehicles.
    Demand in the capital goods sector was generally described
as weak, with the outlook in February cloudier than it had been
in January, the institute said.
    The business climate in the consumer durables sector
remained above the industry average in February. Carmakers were
again positive about current business but forecast a slight
worsening of business conditions in the near future.
    In the consumer goods industry business conditions were
described as favourable in February.
    A small cutback in production meant orders on hand in this
sector rose compared with January, the institute said.
 REUTER

French industrial production fell a
seasonally adjusted 1.98 pct in January after revised unchanged
output in December, the National Statistics Institute (INSEE)
said.
    The figure, which excludes construction and public works,
put the January index, base 1980, at 99 after 101 in December.
January output was 1.98 pct down on January 1986.
    INSEE, which from January changed its base year to 1980
from 1970, originally had December output down 2.2 pct on
November, using the old base year.
    INSEE said production in January was affected by rail
strikes and severely cold weather.
    It said output of gas and electricity was very high but
activity slowed on construction sites, in quarries and in
certain base industries.
 REUTER

Electro-optronic equipment makers
<United Scientific Holdings Plc> said the Advanced Products
Division of its U.S. Subsidiary <OEC Dallas, Texas> has been
awarded a 4.3 mln dlr contract by the U.S. Army.
    The contract is for the production of high energy laser
protection filters for binoculars. The three year contract
already includes options to the value of eight mln dlrs.
    United reported pretax profit of 3.2 mln stg on turnover of
117.9 mln stg in the year ended September 1986. The company's
shares were unchanged on Friday's close of 243p following
today's announcement.
    REUTER

The Bremen green coffee market attracted
good buying interest for Colombian coffee last week, while
Brazils were almost neglected, trade sources said.
    Buyers were awaiting the opening of Brazil's export
registrations for May shipment, which could affect prices for
similar qualities, they said.
    Colombia opened export registrations and good business
developed with both the FNC and private shippers. Prices were
said to have been very attractive, but details were not
    Central Americans were sought for spot and afloat.
    In the robusta sector nearby material was rather scarce,
with turnover limited, the sources said.
    The following offers were in the market at the end of last
week, first or second hand, sellers' ideas for spot, afloat or
prompt shipment in dlrs per 50 kilos fob equivalent, unless
stated (previous week's prices in brackets) -
    Brazil unwashed German quals 100 (102), Colombia Excelso
105 (110), Salvador SHG 110 (108), Nicaragua SHG 109 (same),
Guatemala HB 111 (same), Costa Rica SHB 113 (112), Kenya AB FAQ
142 (134), Tanzania AB FAQ 120 (same), Zaire K-5 105 (unq),
Sumatra robusta EK-1 91 CIF (same).
 REUTER

money market with help of 97 mln stg in the morning session.
    This compares with the Bank's revised estimate of a 750 mln
stg shortage in the system today.
    The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising 12
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 85 mln stg in band two at
 REUTER

The Iranian steam tanker Avaj, 316,379
tonnes dw, was attacked and hit at 1715 hours on March 21,
Lloyds Shipping Intelligence service reported.
    One person was killed. The tanker is owned by the National
Iranian Tanker Co.
 REUTER

   "The cost of failure is beyond calculation. It is our last
hope and best opportunity this century. We will not get another
chance before the year 2000," he added.
since the "Uruguay round" talks last September. The talks are 
also part of preparations for a full-scale June meeting of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Venice.
expected.
Yeutter.
 Reuter

the Swiss National Bank rose 743.7  mln Swiss francs in the
second 10 days of March to 8.40 billion, the National Bank
said.
    Foreign exchange reserves fell 392.1 mln francs to 33.55
billion.
 REUTER

Uganda's state-run Coffee Marketing
Board (CMB) has been suffering a cash crisis for the past two
months due to a bottleneck in export shipments and
administrative delays in handling payments, trade sources said.
    The CMB needs between 10 and 15 billion shillings (the
equivalent of seven to 10 mln dlrs) to pay farmers and
processors for coffee already delivered, but its present export
revenue is insufficient to cover such expenditure, they said.
    The board's cash crisis has serious implications for the
economy as a whole, since coffee accounts for 95 pct of
Uganda's total exports.
    The CMB's financial difficulties first started in January
following delays in rail-freighting export consignments of
coffee to the ports of Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Tanga.
    These delays were caused by a shortage of railway wagons in
Uganda and bottlenecks on the ferries which transport Ugandan
wagons across Lake Victoria to link up with the Kenyan and
Tanzanian railway systems, the sources said
    Marketing Minister John Sebaana-Kizito publicly
acknowledged on February 19 that the CMB had run up arrears to
local suppliers as a result of the shortage of transport for
moving exports.
    Sebaana-Kizito said at the time that the payments squeeze
would be resolved in two weeks.
    However, an accident to the rail ferry which plies between
the Ugandan lake port of Jinja and Kisumu in Kenya put it out
of action between February 21 and March 15, causing fresh
delays in cargo movements.
    Coffee exports are especially sensitive to the disruption
of rail transport since president Yoweri Museveni has banned
their haulage by road in a drive to save transport costs.
    Transport difficulties meant that by early February the CMB
was holding unsold coffee stocks of around 750,000 bags.
    These stocks were equivalent to one quarter of Uganda's
expected three mln 60-kilo bag 1986/87 (October-September)
crop, the sources said.
    According to the sources, the board's financial problems
have been aggravated by long delays in processing export
receipts.
    The coffee board was taking about eight weeks to recycle
export receipts into payments to local producers, whereas
export bills handled by local banks took half that time to
process, they said.
    The sources said the CMB's price structure had been
overtaken by Uganda's high inflation rate, unofficially
estimated at about 200 pct, and that this was a further
disincentive to producers, already owed large arrears.
    "The coffee pricing structure is wrong and three months
behind, the foreign exchange rate is unrealistic, and the
sooner the so-called economic package is put in top gear, the
better for the coffee industry and the economy as a whole," one
of the sources said.
    The government is currently negotiating a package of
economic reforms with the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund aimed at underpinning a renewed inflow of foreign aid to
help Uganda's economic recovery after 15 years of political
strife.
 REUTER

said at a weekend news conference.
 Reuter

    IADB officials said Washington had indicated, however, it
taste.
speech to the bank's annual meeting today (Monday).
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker, facing
the toughest challenge to his Third World debt plan so far, is
expected today to stoutly defend the strategy.
     At an opening address to the annual meeting of the
Inter-American Development Bank here Baker is likely once again
to bluntly reject alternative approaches like wholesale debt
relief.
     The speech comes after Washington delayed its bid to wrest
control of IADB lending from Latin nations.
     The Treasury Secretary is also expected, U.S. officials
say, to portray that attempt as a crucial element in his plan
to promote inflation-free economic growth, open markets, and a
much-reduced government role in the economies of Latin America.
     "We have already seen substantial progress," Baker said in
a Miami Herald article and argued the plan was never meant to
be a "quick fix".
     But Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua and Bolivia have all
ceased servicing some or all of their debt. Brazil's interest
payments moratorium, announced last month, is being seen as a
major challenge to the Baker plan.
     Owing foreigners 109 billion dlrs, Brazil called an
indefinite interest payments moratorium on 68 billion dlrs of
     Brazilian Central Banker Francisco Gros met bankers last
night to begin what U.S. officials predict will be months of
extremely tough negotiations.
     The scale of the problem is immense. Owing some 382
billion dlrs of foreign debt, Latin nations have since the
start of the decade paid out some  200 billion dlrs in interest
and principal and received about 28 billion dlrs in new loans.
     In addition, upwards of 100 billion dlrs in capital flight
is estimated to have left the region during that time.
     The Baker plan, unveiled in October, 1985, calls on
commercial and multilateral banks to increase lending by about
29 billion dlrs in the three subsequent years to the 15 major
debtors engaging in fundamental economic reform.
     The theory runs that once a debtor nation has reformed its
economy, it can service its debt comfortably and without an
atmosphere of crisis.
     U.S. officials emphasize some 8.5 billion dlrs has been
paid out in the first 14 months of the plan, payments of over
70 billion dlrs of debt has been stretched out into the future 
and Washington  is embracing new and innovative ideas to keep
debtor-creditor negotiations afloat.
     Baker is expected to underscore these points in his
address today.
 Reuter

General Partners, the group tendering
for all GenCorp Inc shares at 100 dlrs each, said it has
started soliciting proxies against GenCorp's proposals to
increase its number of authorized shares outstanding, create a
board with staggered election dates and eliminate cumulative
voting.
    The proposals are to be voted on at the March 31 annual
meeting.
    General Partners, a partnership of privately-held <Wagner
and Brown> and AFG Industries Inc <AFG>, made the disclosure in
a newspaper advertisement.
    The partnership has already filed suit in U.S. District
Court in Columbus, Ohio, seeking to block a vote on the
proposals and to invalidate GenCorp's defensive preferred share
purchase rights.
    General Partners asked shareholders to either vote against
the proposals or abstain from voting on them.                  
   
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it has amended
its 69 dlr per share tender offer for shares of Piedmont
Aviation Inc to reduce the maximum number it will accept to
9,309,394. Previously it had sought all shares.
    In a newspaper advertisement, USAir said the offer and
withdrawal rights have not been extended and will still expire
April 3, along with the new proration period.
    On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved
USAir's acquisition of 51 pct of Piedmont. If USAir were to
acquire more than 51 pct in the tender, it would be required to
sell the excess within one week.
    USAir said receipt of the 9,309,394 shares -- which is also
the minimum amount it will accept -- would give it a total of
about 61 pct of Piedmont shares currently outstanding and 50.1
pct on a fully diluted basis.
    The company said even if the purchase of the 9,309,394
Piedmont shares caused it to exceed the 51 pct limit, USAir
would waive the condition to the offer that the Transportation
Department approve a voting trust agreement permitting USAir to
buy and hold shares under the offer pending review of USAir's
application to gain control of Piedmont, subject to the order
not being rescinded or modified in an adverse way.
 Reuter

Producers and consumers representing
most of world trade in natural rubber adopted a new
International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) aimed at
stabilizing world prices over the next five years.
    Negotiations for a new INRA, to succeed the present one
which runs out next October, began nearly two years ago.
    Agreement on the new five-year pact, which uses a buffer
stock to keep prices stable by selling or buying rubber as
rates rise or fall, was reached at a two-week session here
and Development (UNCTAD).
 Reuter

House Ways and Means chairman
Dan Rostenkowski said he questioned whether a U.S. tax on
securities transactions would be appropriate.
    The Illinois Democrat told Reuters before addressing the
Future Industry Association that such a tax may impair the
international competitiveness of the U.S. securities business.
House Speaker James Wright has said a tax on securities
transactions could help reduce the federal deficit.
    Rostenkowski said he understood that the U.K. is exploring
the possibility of easing its tax burden on securities firms.
Thus, a new U.S. tax would be especially hard felt here.
 Reuter

arranged a 200 mln dlr Euro-certificate of deposit program,
Swiss Bank Corporation International Ltd said as sole dealer.
    The borrower also will have the option to issue
certificates in other available currencies, including sterling.
 REUTER

The sharp drop in world oil prices
the past year triggered a 60 pct increase in bankruptcies in
the country's oil states, according to a study released by the
American Petroleum Institute (API).
    API said the Dunn and Bradstreet study found that business
failures rose nationally by 6.9 pct in 1986 over 1985, but in
the "oil patch" of the Southwest the increase was 59.9 pct.
    It said bankruptcies in Texas were up 57.4 pct, Oklahoma,
55.9 pct, Colorado, 55.8 pct and Louisiana, 46.6 pct.
    In Alaska, failures rose by 66.2 per cent, it said.
    API also said that three of the states with the highest
number of bank failures last year were large oil and gas
producers - Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
 Reuter

The world's dependency on the Mideast
as the source for its petroleum is growing and nothing is going
to stop it, Donald K. McIvor, an Exxon Corp <XON> Director and
senior vice president told Reuters in an interview.
    "Non-OPEC production will begin to decline and the gap
between demand and supply will widen so that the trend to
increasing dependence on OPEC and the Middle East is
inevitable," McIvor said.
    Decreased supplies will firm prices for crude oil but are
not likely to change a growing dependence, McIvor said.
    McIvor, Exxon's senior vice president responsible for oil
and gas exploration and production said that dependence would
result from the Mideast's large spare capacity at a time when
the rest of the world consumes more oil than it was finding.
    "Since 1970 we've been consuming oil at rates of 20-25
billion barrels per year while making new discoveries of only
about 10-15 bilion barrels per year," McIvor said.
    "The bulk of the inventory and more than half of the
remaining proved reserves lies in the middle east which is
producing at much less than current capacity," he added.
    McIvor said that of the some 30,000 oil fields discovered
so far only 37 "one-one thousandth of the total number contained
about 35 pct of all the oil ever discovered."
    McIvor said, in response to a question, that he did not
believe there were any more "super giants", or oil fields with
reserves greater than five billion barrels, to be found which
would change the conclusion of the world's growing dependency.
    "Of those 37 super giants only 11 lie outside the Middle
East. Only five of the 37 have been discovered in the past 20
years and only two of these lie outside the middle east
(Cantarell in Mexico and Alaska's North Slope)." McIvor said.
    McIvor said that many of the large fields outside the U.S.
like Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and the North Sea were reaching a
peak and would soon begin to decline.
    But the Exxon executive said that there were still plenty
of opportunities to be explored and developed outside of the
Middle east, particulartly in Canada, the North Sea, and
Australia and Africa.
    McIvor said that decisions to explore and drill in those
areas would be depedent upon both the expectations of a higher
price of oil as well as the legal regime affecting the
    "The ideal regime is a stable one not one where there is a
constant change in policies," McIvor said.
    McIvor said he opposed import subsidies or tariffs used to
increase exploration as these only benefit one part of the
economy at the expense of other parts of the economy.
    Asked about the options offered this week by U.S. Energy
Secretary Herrington to increase U.S. production McIvor said he
could not comment on subjects like the oil depletion allowance
now but "the thrust of his (Herrington) report is valid. It has
highlighted the growing dependency on the Middle east and the
need to increase U.S. production."
    McIvor also said that he expected natural gas to play a
greater role in the future in meeting energy needs.
    "Natural gas will have the opportunity to become an
increasingly important part of the worlkd's energy supply,"
McIvor said.
    "Crude oil will be used more and more as a transportation
fuel and natural gas will be used more to generate heat, as an
industrial fuel," he added.
 Reuter

South African year-on-year consumer
price inflation rose slightly to 16.3 pct in February after
falling sharply to 16.1 pct in January from 18.1 pct in
    The monthly rise in the all items index (base 1980) was
1.09 pct to 251.0 in February after a 1.4 pct increase to 248.3
    A year ago the index stood at 215.8 and year on year
consumer price inflation at 18.05 pct.
 REUTER

Finland had a 641 mln markka trade
surplus in February following an 80 mln markka surplus in
January and a 614 mln surplus in February 1986, Customs Board
preliminary figures showed.
    Exports in February were 6.38 billion markka and imports
5.74 billion compared with exports of 6.72 billion and imports
of 6.64 billion in January and exports of 6.92 billion and
imports of 6.31 billion in February last year.
 REUTER

Winter kill has probably affected West
German winter barley and rapeseed to an above average degree
this season, West German grain trader Alfred C. Toepfer said in
its latest report.
    It is too soon to assess the extent of the damage, but it
is likely that northern West German crops are particularly at
risk because of insufficient snow cover, it said.
    The soil needs to warm up rapidly and moisture content must
improve to avoid further delays to spring field work, it added.
 REUTER

New Zealand ports reopened at 0730
hrs local time (1930 GMT March 22) after being closed since
March 19 because of a strike over pay claims by watersiders, a
Waterside Federation spokesman said.
    But industrial action by other port workers is likely to
cause further disruption, Harbour Workers union secretary Ross
Wilson told Reuters.
    Wilson said his members are holding stopwork meetings this
morning to consider further stoppages over their pay claim.
    The two disputes are not related.
    Harbour Workers around the country went on strike for 24
hours on March 16, but Wilson said any further action will
occur on a port-by-port basis.
 Reuter

Forces loyal to President Joseph Momoh
foiled an attempted coup apparently led by senior police
officers in Sierra Leone, government sources said.
    The revolt included an unsuccessful raid on a Freetown
military arsenal during which a police officer's driver was
shot dead, they said. Police sources said a senior policeman
was arrested on suspicion of leading the coup attempt.
    There were no immediate reports in the official news media.
    Police and troops patrolled the centre of the capital and
there was no sign of further trouble.
 REUTER

A group of limited partners has filed
suit in U.S. District Court in New York against Ivan F. Boesky
and others, alleging that Boesky deceived them into investing
in his partnership Ivan F. Boesky and Co LP through the
preparation of deceptive partnership documents.
    The suit also names as defendants <Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc>, investment banker for the partnership, law firm Fried,
Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson and its attorney Stephen
Fraidin, and financial services company Seligmann Harris and
Co, as well as former Drexel investment bankers Dennis A.
Levine and Martin A. Siegel.                           
    Levine and Siegel have already pleaded guilty to insider
trading violations, as has Boesky.
    The suit alleges that partnership documents prepared by the
law firm were misleading because they failed to disclose the
criminal violations to which Boesky later pleaded guilty.
Seligman helped recruit investors to the partnership, according
to the suit.
    The suit said the papers failed to disclose Drexel's
financial interests in the partnership.  It also said Boesky
failed to meet a pledge to invest at least 20 mln dlrs in the
partnership.
    The suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages from the
partnership and Boesky and damages from Fried, Frank and
Fraidin.
    The plaintiffs include Home Group Inc <HME>, Lincoln
National Corp <LNC>, a number of other institutional investors
and recently-named Morgan Stanley Group Inc <MS> asset
management unit senior advisor Lewis Lehrman.
 Reuter

Microtel Inc said it has
completed the acquisition of <American Teledata Corp> and its
US Dial subsidiary, which provide long distance telephone
service in northeast Florida. Terms were not disclosed.
    Microtel's shareholders include Norfolk Southern Corp
<NSC>, M/A-Com Inc <MAI>, Centel Corp <CNT>, Alltel Corp <AT>
and E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH>.
 Reuter

March 31, 1986 end
    Shr loss seven cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 76,888 vs profit 106,885
    Revs 752,234 vs 922,036
 Reuter

<American Variety International
Inc> said its agreement to acquire <First National
Entertainment Corp> has been terminated because First National
was not able to fulfill terms of the agreement.
    It said due to protracted negotiations with First National,
several American Variety divisions were inoperative in 1986.
    American Variety said it is reevaluating its record and
tape library for possible conversion to compact discs.
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp said its board
declared a two for one stock split and increased the quarterly
cash dividend by 33 pct.
    The company said the dividend on the pre-split shares was
increased to four cts from three cts.
    It said both the split and the dividend are payable May 23
to holders of record April 20, adding the company will have
about 13,860,000 shares outstanding after the split.
 Reuter

special committee of independent directors has received
expressions of interest from a considerable number of domestic
and foreign firms with respect to restructuring or acquisition
transactions with the company.
    Winthrop Knowlton, chairman of special committee said "no
determination has been made by the full board as to any
transaction."
    He said the special committee and Kidder Peabody and Co Inc
intend to engage in discussions with interested parties in an
effort to come to a conclusion in the near future.
    Formation of the special committee was announced early last
week when Harper and Row said its board had taken no action on
two pending acquisition proposals.
    At that time, directors also indefinately postponed a
planned special shareholders vote on a restructuring proposal
which would have created a Class B common with 10 votes a share
and limited transferability.
    The acquisition proposals had come from Theodore L. Cross,
owner of about six pct of the company's stock who offered 34
dlrs a share, and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc <HBJ>, which
offered 50 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Fruit of the Loom Inc said it agreed to
sell its General Battery Corp subsidiary to Exide Corp for
about 145 mln dlrs in cash.
    The proposed sale will complete Fruit of the Loom's
previously announced plan to divest itself of unrelated
    Proceeds from the proposed transaction are more than the
price projected in the company's recent initial public
offering, it said.
    Completion of the transaction is subject to a definitive
agreement, regulatory approvals, financing and certain other
conditions and is expected to close May one, 1987, the company
said.
 Reuter

<Cityquest Plc>, a newly formed company,
is making a recommended 120 mln stg offer for builders
merchants and DIY (do-it-yourself) company <Wickes Plc>, Wickes
    Undertakings to accept what is effectively a management
buyout have been accepted by holders of 88.9 pct of the shares.
    The statement said the offer was due to a decision by
Wickes International Corp, a member of the U.S. Wickes
Companies <WIX.A> Inc group, which holds an 80.5 pct stake, to
realise much of its investment.
    The offer would enable Wickes to become fully independent
and once the bid succeeded all the Wickes directors would
become members of the Cityquest board.
    The offer will be of 345p cash for every Wickes share.
Wickes was last quoted at 345p compared with 275p at Friday's
close.
    Wickes shareholders will also have the option of taking one
Cityquest share or 205p in loan notes for every 205p of the
cash consideration.
    Henry Sweetbaum is chairman and chief executive of both
Cityquest and Wickes, and it was intended that Cityquest's name
would be changed to Wickes in due course.
    Wickes came to the U.K. Unlisted Securities Market in
January, 1986 with a capitalisation of about 96 mln stg.
    Cityquest has a fully paid share capital of one mln stg. S
G Warburg Securities has organised commitments from a group of
investors to subscribe for 65 mln stg in shares and 28.2 mln
stg in subordinated convertible loan stock. Lead investor is
Investors in Industry Plc
    Cityquest also has loan facilities of 30 mln stg.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 42.9 mln vs 53.7 mln
    Revs 983.3 mln vs 858.8 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 85 cts vs 1.11 dlrs
    Net 83.1 mln vs 109.8 mln
    Revs 1.91 billion vs 1.66 billion
 Reuter

Winchell's Donut Houses LP
said it has declared an initial quarterly dividend of 45 cts
per unit on Class A and Class B limited partnership units,
payable May 29 to holders of record March 31.
 Reuter

Tandon Corp said it has
agreed in principle to sell to personal computer maker <Amstrad
PLC> during 1987 about 50 mln dlrs of 20 megabyte Winchester
disk drives.
    It said shipments have already begun and about 30 mln dlrs
of the drives are scheduled for delivery during the first half.
 The drives are in half-height configuration.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit nil vs loss nil
    Oper net profit 671,000 vs loss 138,000
    Sales 104.3 mln vs 70.8 mln
    Avg shrs 101.2 mln vs 66.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit six cts vs profit five cts
    Oper net profit 6,309,000 vs profit
    5,144,000
    Sales 349.8 mln vs 303.4 mln
    Avg shrs 85.0 mln vs 76.3 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations nil vs gain
196,000 dlrs in quarter and loss 293,000 dlrs vs gain 407,000
    Net excludes tax loss carryforward 1,423,000 dlrs vs
reversal of tax credit 625,000 dlrs in quarter and credits
5,437,000 dlrs vs 7,261,000 dlrs in year.
    Results include U.S. Press Inc from November Three
 Reuter

Blockbuster Entertainment Corp said its
Blockbuster Distribution Corp unit granted an exclusive license
agreement to <Video Superstore Management Inc>.
    Blockbuster said the license gives Video the right to own
and operate its Blockbuster Videos Rental Superstores for the
Milwaukee, Wis., area.
 Reuter

Amplicon Inc said it has
filed for an initial public offering of 1,650,000 common shares
through underwriters led by <Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc> and
E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH> at an expected price of 12 to 14
    The company well sell 1,400,000 shares and shareholders the
rest, with company proceeds used to finance growth in its
financing and leasing portfolio and for working capital. 
Amplicon leases and sells business computers and peripherals.
 Reuter

Sun Microsystems Inc said
it has received a one-year 15 mln dlr renewal of its agreement
to provide Interleaf Inc <LEAF> with Sun-3 technical
workstations on an original equipment basis.
 Reuter

Hewlett-Packard Co said it began
limited customer shipments of its HP 3000 Series 930 business
computer and remains on schedule for first commercial shipments
in mid-1987.
    Shipments of the higher-performance series 950 business
computers are scheduled for the second half of this year, it
said.
    In September, the company postponed initial shipments of
the Series 930 computer until mid-1987 because performance of
the operating software system was below target.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Reebok International Ltd said it
named C. Joseph LaBonte, 47, president and chief operating
officer of the company.
    LaBonte, former president and chief operating officer of
20th Century Fox Film Corp, was more recently founder and chief
executive officer of Vantage Group Inc, an investment and
financial company.
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 3,892,000 vs 2,906,000
    Sales 71.8 mln vs 64.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 91 cts
    Net 10,946,000 vs 8,206,000
    Sales 214.1 mln vs 179.4 mln
    Avg Shrs 10.5 mln vs 9.1 mln
 Reuter

Tandem Computers Inc said
Pacific Gas and Electric Co <PCG> installed a Tandem computer
system for on-line information management at the Diablo Canyon
nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo, Calif.
    No value for installation of the Nonstop VLX system was
given.
 Reuter

Pacific Resources Inc said it has been
named in a lawsuit filed in California by Aetna Casualty and
Surety Co <AET> relating to the 1984 Chapter 11 bankruptcy of
Paramount Petroleum Corp (PPC), in which a PRI subsidiary had a
40 pct stake.
    Aetna is claiming up to 17 mln dlrs in compensatory damages
and 30 mln dlrs in punitive damages against the defendants as a
result of alleged acts to fraudulently induce Aetna to issue
surety bonds for the benefit of PPC and its predecessor Pacific
Oassis.
    PRI said that the legal action against it lacks merit.
 Reuter

Representatives from Nigeria are meeting
today and tomorrow with officials of Britain's Export Credits
Guarantee Department (ECGD) in the first of what could be a
series of bilateral talks to reschedule Nigeria's official
debts, banking sources said.
    The talks follow an agreement reached between Nigeria and
the Paris Club of western creditor governments in December to
reschedule some 7.5 billion dlrs of medium and long-term debt
due between September, 1986 and end 1987 over 10 years with
five years grace. Nigeria's official debts to the U.K., Its
major trading partner, are estimated at 2.5 to three billion
dlrs.
    If the talks prove successful, the Nigerian team, headed by
Finance Minister Che Okongwu and Central Bank Governor
Abdulkadir Ahmed, will hold similar talks with French export
credit officials in Paris later this week, the sources said.
    An agreement could pave the way for ECGD to resume
insurance cover for exports to Nigeria, which was suspended in
1983.
    The rescheduling of Nigeria's official debts was one of the
demands required under a rescheduling of part of the country's
estimated 19 billion dlrs of commercial bank debt, for which
agreement also was reached in December between Nigeria and a
steering committee representing the commercial banks.
    The commercial bank rescheduling has yet to be finalised
because of the reluctance of Japanese banks to participate in
the agreement, despite a recent trip to Japan by senior
Nigerian officials and representatives of the steering
    The entire package also is being held up because of the
need to reach an agreement to satisfy arrears due on short-term
insured and uninsured debts. However, bankers are hopeful that
an accord will be struck by May 31.
    The Nigerians also are attempting to reconcile creditors'
claims with their own receipts on some two billion dlrs of
letters of credit contained in the commercial bank
rescheduling.
    Bankers said that it was hoped that the ECGD would resume
cover fairly soon as this could encourage other official
creditors to begin bi-lateral talks as well.
    Under the structural adjustment program supporting the debt
reschedulings Nigeria is due to receive 900 mln dlrs in fresh
export credits this year from official export credit agencies.
    British exports to Nigeria were 565 mln stg in 1986, down
from 960 mln in 1985, while Nigeria's exports to Britain, which
do not include oil, were 328 mln stg and 647 mln, respectively.
 REUTER

Debt among African
countries will continue to grow and their economies will remain
stifled unless developed countries lower their interest rates,
Nigerian Trade Minister Samaila Mamman said today.
    He told an informal meeting of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade the widening gap between industrialized and
developing countries and an unfair international economic
system were major obstacles to growth in developing countries.
    "I wish to emphasize that the growth in the volume of the
    Delegates from 23 countries are attending the talks of the
world trade body in the New Zealand resort of Taupo.
 Reuter

Details of today's agreement to hand
over Portuguese-ruled Macao to China will be released after the
official signing in Peking on Thursday, Portuguese Ambassador
to Peking Octavio Valerio said.
    Valerio earlier told reporters that the tiny territory
would be returned to Chinese rule on December 20, 1999, but
gave no further details.
    A statement issued today did not give details of the
agreement as earlier expected.
    "We are very happy with the results," Valerio said after four
days of negotiations in the Chinese capital.
    The talks were the fourth in a series on the Macao question
and had been expected to focus on the status of the 40,000
Portuguese passport-holders among Macao's 400,000 residents.
    Asked if the issue of nationality after the Chinese
takeover had been a problem in the talks, Valerio replied: "It
was one of them."
    China traditionally opposes granting dual nationality to
its citizens and requires holders of foreign passports to give
up their Chinese citizenship.
    In Taipei, Taiwan said it would not recognise the
agreement. A Foreign Ministry statement said: "We regard the
agreement on the Macao issue as null and void."
    It said: "Macao should be returned to the Republic of China
on Taiwan because communist China, a rebel entity, has no right
to represent China and all the Chinese people.
    "The handover by the Portuguese government is in disregard
of the freedom, welfare and safety of more than 400,000 Chinese
people there. We will try our upmost to help and protect them."
    Taiwan's Kuomintang (Nationalist) government claims to rule
all China. It has no diplomatic relations with Portugal.
 REUTER

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc said
its board approved the purchase of up to three mln shares of
its outstanding common stock.
    ICN also said it plans to buy up to 500,000 more shares
each of Viratek Inc <VIRA> and SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc <SPIP>.
    ICN said the buyback plans were approved because the board
believed that at current prices the investment represented by
the ICN group itself is in the best interests of the
shareholders of the company.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The West German-registered motor
vessel Stefan E. Sank off the West African coast early today
and one of its eight crew members was killed, a Spanish navy
    He said the captain of the Singapore-registered tanker Nord
Pacific reported in a radio message that he had picked up the
remaining seven crewmen of the 2,223 tonnes dw Stefan E.,
Together with the body of the dead man.
 Reuter

the money market a further 485 mln stg assistance in the
afternoon session. This takes the Bank's total help so far
today to 582 mln stg and compares with its forecast of a 750
mln stg shortage in the system today.
    The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising 345
mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 75 mln stg in band two at
9-3/16 pct. It also purchased 65 mln stg of treasury bills in
band one at 9-7/8 pct.
 REUTER

Reynolds Metals Co said it filed
a registration statement with the securities and exchange
commission covering a planned offering of 200 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due April 1, 20012.
    The company said underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs and Co,
will be granted an option to purchase up to an additional 30
mln dlrs of debentures to cover over allotments.
    Reynolds said its proceeds will be used to refinance
certain long-term debt. Application has been made to list the
debentures on the New York Stock Exchange.
    Reynolds said the debentures, which will be offered in
denominations of 1,000 dlrs, may be converted into Reynolds
common and are redeemable in whole or in part at the option of
the company after Apil 1, 1989. They have a sinking fund
requirement starting in 1998 calculated to retire at least 70
pct of the debentures prior to maturity.
 Reuter

will hold a news conference at 1545 CST here today to make a
"major announcement with international business ramifications."
    No other details were immediately available.
 Reuter

Mylex Corp said it has received scheduled
orders to resume shipments under an existing contract with one
of its major customers that it did not name.
    In May it said it did not have product releases from that
customer.
    Mylex also said it has introduced an International Business
Machines Corp <IBM> personal computer compatible system board
using Intel Corp's <INTC> 80386 microprocessor called the Mylex
386-A motherboard.  It said standard configuration includes one
or four megabytes of onboard 32-bit random access memory and 64
kilobytes of cache memory.
    Mylex said it will market the product directly and through
distributors to original equipment manufacturers, value-added
resellers and system integrators, with shipments to start in
 Reuter

Accugraph Corp said it has filed a
Commission relating to 659,800 Class A shares deliverable on
the exercise of outstanding warrants.
    It said following the registration, Accugraph will file
periodic reports with the SEC required to be filed by companies
traded in U.S. markets.
 Reuter

Japan has launched a last-ditch effort to
salvage its computer micro-chip pact with the United States -
sending a letter to top American policy makers setting out its
case and instructing its producers to cut output further.
    "We must make our utmost effort to ward off any catastrophe,"
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Deputy
Director General Masaji Yamamoto told reporters.
    "If hasty action is taken in the United States, it will
create very serious problems."
    The Reagan Administration's Economic Policy is expected to
meet Thursday to review Japanese compliance with the bilateral
agreement hammered out last year. Under the pact, Tokyo agreed
to stop selling cut-price chips in world markets and to
increase its imports of American semiconductors.
    Washington has accused Japan of reneging on the deal by
selling low priced chips in Asia and by failing to boost
American imports, and has threatened to take retaliatory
action.
    In an effort to save the agreement, MITI is asking Japanese
chip makers to limit production in the hope that will boost
domestic demand and reduce the incentive to export.
    Yamamoto said that Japan will slash output of 256 kilobit
dynamic random access and erasable programmable read only
memory chips by 11 pct in the second quarter. This follows a
cutback of more than 20 pct in the first three months of the
year.
    He said the cutbacks were already drying up the supply of
chips available for export through unregulated distributors in
the so-called grey market.
    "We have almost no grey market," he said. "Supply is
diminishing."
    To help ensure that the cutbacks are implemented, MITI
called in the president of Japan's largest semiconductor maker,
NEC Corp <NIPN.T> last week, he said. It is also issuing
specific instructions on production to the Japanese subsidiary
of <Texas Instruments Inc>.
    Trade and Industry Minister Hajime Tamura spelled out the
steps Japan was taking to salvage the pact and appealed for
U.S. Understanding in a letter to top American policy makers.
    The letter was sent today to U.S. Secretary of State George
Schultz, Treasury Secretary James Baker, Commerce Secretary
Malcolm Baldrige and U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter.
    The four, who make up the Economic Policy Council, are
expected to consider evidence presented by U.S. Chip maker
Micron Technology Inc <DRAM.O> of cut-price Japanese sales in
Hong Kong.
    Yamamoto admitted that <Oki Electric Industry Co>'s Hong
Kong subsidiary had sold chips at an inappropriate level but
denied that it was dumping chips at rock-bottom prices.
    "If the United States uses this as proof of dumping...We
will present our rebuttal," he said.
    The sales though were inappropriate in the light of MITI's
advice to semiconductor makers to sell chips at well above
production costs to avoid any hint of dumping, he said.
    He also called the case "strange," but he stopped short of
endorsing Japanese newspaper accusations that Oki had been
trapped into making the sales. He did say though that Micron
publicized the invoice documenting the sales on the same day
they were made and that Oki was unable to locate the person who
had bought the chips when it tried to buy them back last week.
 Reuter

AMERICAN MOTORS CORP GETS QUALIFIED AUDIT ON 1986 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Shr 66 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 2,422,000 vs 1,906,000
    Revs 59.3 mln vs 47.4 mln
 Reuter

Delta Business Systems Inc said
it has completed a previously-announced merger into Alco
Standard Corp.
    Delta said it expects sales of about 30 mln dlrs for the
year ending in April.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Rain over wide areas has raised the
prospect of good food crops throughout Ethiopia, which suffered
a disastrous drought and famine two years ago.
    Aweke Aynalem, head of the government's Agriculture
Development Department, told reporters prospects were good for
attaining the target of 250,000 tonnes of grain in the present
growing season, one of two each year in Ethiopia.
    Normal crop production in Ethiopia is about 648,000 tonnes
a year, of which 250,000 tonnes are produced from the "belg"
(small) rains which fall at this time of year.
    The belg rains are used to plant quick-maturing crops like
maize and barley. Any shortfall during this period affects
production in the main rainy season, because farmers eat their
stocks of seed.
    Aweke said peasants in Wello, Tigre and Hararghe -- regions
which suffered severely from drought -- were now able to sow
their crops because of the favourable rains.
    The government had distributed large quantities of seed and
fertiliser, and the rains should ensure a good crop.
 Reuter

American Motors Corp said its auditors
qualified the company's 1986 financial report.
    The report was qualified due to uncertainties surrounding
the previously announced arbitration award against American
Motors' former subsidiary, AM General Corp. The award is being
contested.
    The report was filed today with the Securities and Exchange
Commission along with a copy of Chrysler Corp's <C> proposal to
take over American Motors.
    American Motors said earlier than an arbitration award,
made to Emerson Electric Co <EMR> in February, amounted to 60
mln dlrs plus legal expenses. American Motors has challenged
the award.
    The automaker sold the AM General unit to LTV Corp <QLTV>
in 1983, the same year it was awarded a five-year, 1.2 billion
dlr procurement contract with the military. LTV and AM General
last year sought protection under Chapter 11.
    The arbitration proceeding was called after Emerson
Electric charged AM General violated an agreement covering the
development of certain components in the contract.
    The components were for the military's "High Mobility
Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle" (HMMWV), American Motors said.
    In selling AM General to LTV, American Motors agreed to
indemnify LTV against losses incurred by LTV resulting from the
Emerson Electric claims.
    AMC also said the award has not been confirmed by a court,
and faces additional legal challenges. It said that, because of
the LTV and Am General reorganizations, the final amount of a
confirmed award and the amount of any loss to LTV is uncertain.
 Reuter

Anacomp Inc said it
finalized the financing of its 128 mln dlrs purchase of
DatagraphiX Inc from General Dynamics Corp <GD>.
    The financing, arranged by Drexel Burnham Lambert, consists
of 90 mln dlrs of bank financing, the private placement of 71
mln dlrs of senior subordinated notes and 25 mln dlrs of
convertible preferred stock, it said.
    DatagraphiX, a manufacturer of microgrpahics equipment has
been merged into Anacomp and will be operated as a separate
division, Anacomp said.  The division is expected to improve
results for Anacomp this year.
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp said it has opened
its 102nd store, a 60,000 square foot unit in Berlin, N.J.
 Reuter

<King Instrument Corp> said it
received 8.5 mln dlrs from <Otari Electric Co> of Tokyo and its
California subsidiaries as a settlement for a patent
infringement suit.
    King said the suit, filed in 1980, covered a tape loading
system for cassettes. King said as part of the settlement,
Otari must pay a royalty to King on future sales of magnetic
tape winding equipment in the U.S.
    In a separate agreement, King said Otari has acquire from
it a non-exclusive license to King's basic patent in the U.S.
 Reuter

Oper shr 50 cts vs 52 cts
    Oper net 19.2 mln vs 18.8 mln
    Sales 1.43 billion vs 1.30 billion
    Avg shrs 38.6 mln vs 36.0 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.65 dlrs vs 1.73 dlrs
    Oper net 62.7 mln vs 61.8 mln
    Sales 5.51 billion vs 4.96 billion
    Avg shrs 38.1 mln vs 35.8 mln
    NOTES: Sales are from continuing operations
    Operating net excludes results from discontinued operations
of nil vs profit 2,815,000 dlrs, or eight cts a share, in
quarter and loss 308,000 dlrs, or one cent a share, vs profit
1,880,000 dlrs, or five cts a share, in year
    Latest year operating net also excludes loss of 1,536,000
dlrs, or four cts a share, on disposal of discontinued
department store segment
    Share data adjusted to reflect two-for-one stock split paid
to holders of record August 1, 1986
    Operating net includes pre-tax LIFO credit 700,000 dlrs vs
credit 2.0 mln dlrs in quarter and charge 2.8 mln dlrs vs
charge 4.9 mln dlrs in year
 Reuter

Energy Factors Inc said it has signed
an agreement to acquire GWF Power Systems Co and Combustion
Power Co Inc from Allied-Signal Inc for undisclosed terms.
    The two Allied units operate and are developing
cogeneration projects and small petroleum-coke fueled power
plants.
 Reuter

Williams Cos said its
telecommunications company is spending 22 mln dlrs to expand
its fiber optic telecommunications system.
    Its subsidiary, known as WilTel, said the expansion stems
from customer demand which has exceeded its expectations.
    It said the expansion will increase from 25,000 to 50,000
voice circuits on the Chicago to Kansas City segment of the
WilTel system, and from 16,0000 to 40,000 on the Kansas City to
Los Angeles segment.
 Reuter

<Core-Mark
International Inc> said chairman David E. Gillespie resigned,
effective March 20, due to health problems.
    No successor was named.

 Reuter

Singer Co said its Dalmo Victor
Division has received an eight mln dlr contract for full-scale
engineering development of a special version of the APR-39A
radar threat warning system.
    It said the contract calls for delivery of 20 development
units and includes an option for an initial production quantity
of 300 units.
 Reuter

said the second phase of a 417-mile fiber optics network in
Michigan will begin operating March 30.
    The first phase was completed in February and connects
Grand Rapids with Detroit via Lansing.
    The 31 mln dlr network will link 14 Michigan cities, the
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 3,649,000 vs 2,789,000
    Sales 137.4 mln vs 119.2 mln
 Reuter

The Inter-American Development Bank
said it intended this year to match the over three billion dlrs
it lent to Latin America in 1986, despite growing pressures on
its capital.
    In its annual report and in a briefing for reporters, the
Bank made it clear, however, that the Latin countries needed
vast amounts of new investment if they are to strengthen their
ailing economies in the period ahead. The report said Latin
America continued to emerge slowly from the deep recession that
began in the early 1980s, with Gross Domestic Product edging up
to nearly four pct from 3.5 pct in 1985.
    The report said the region's improved economic growth last
year was based on a rise in internal demand and fuller
utilization previously underused production capacity.
    "This situation will be difficult to duplicate in 1987 and
beyond because no significant new investments are being made,"
    The Bank's lending last year consisted of 63 loans totaling
3.04 billion dlrs, bringing the agency's cumulative lending to
35.44 billion dlrs.
    Of last year's loans, 2.26 billion dlrs was actually
disbursed, bringing total disbursements to 24.03 billion dlrs.
    To assist in loan activities, the Bank said it borrowed
1.91 billion dlrs in the capital markets in 1986, bringing its
total outstanding borrowings to 12.11 billion dlrs.
    In a briefing for reporters, Bank President Antonio
Ortiz-Mena said that this year lending by the bank "will be at a
similar level to last year."
    He noted that bank lending in 1986 was directed
particularly to projects in energy, agriculture, and
environmental and public health, education and urban
development. The annual report was released as the Bank's
annual meeting is being held in Miami.
    Ortiz-Mena told reporters that the bank's member countries
will discuss a plan by the United States to reduce the loan
veto power from the current majority to 35 pct.
    Such a plan would allow the United States to block any loan
it did not like with the assistance of only one other country.
    The proposal, which is tied to any U.S. backing for a new
financing for the bank, is sure to run into rough going as the
Latin countries view it as a move by the Reagan administration
to control the agency's critical loans.
    The U.S. position is that it is not seeking veto power
although it believes the bank's largest contributors should
have greater influence within the institution.
   
 Reuter

Because its novel financing deal sold
quickly last week, General Motors Corp's <GM> General Motors
Acceptance Corp unit plans to do more multi-tiered financings,
said Michael Mangan of GMAC.
    "We are certainly happy with the transaction. We plan to do
more," said Mangan, director of corporate financing.
    Offered on Wednesday, the 100 mln dlr issue had three price
levels to attract a wide range of retail investors and small
regional institutions, said officers of P.W. Korth and Co Inc
and PaineWebber Inc, which shared bookrunning duties.
    "We will continue to look at multi-tiered financings,"
Mangan said.
    "GMAC plans to talk to Korth and PaineWebber and get their
thoughts on the deal. We want to see how it went and where the
securities were placed," the GMAC officer added.
    Mangan and the co-lead managers said the three different
pricings enabled the finance arm of General Motors to borrow at
attractive rates. "GMAC saved some basis points with this
technique," said an officer on Korth's syndicate desk.
    "Our all-in-cost was comparable. If the deal had not made
sense, obviously we would not have done it," Mangan noted.
    The GMAC seven-year notes were given a coupon of 7.45 pct.
    For investors buying less than 100,000 dlrs of the notes,
the offering was priced at par to yield 45 basis points over
comparable Treasury securities.
    Those buying 100,000 to 250,000 dlrs pay 99.60 for a yield
of 7.52 pct, or 53 basis points over Treasuries. For purchases
of more than 250,000 dlrs, the notes carried a price of 99.20
to yield 7.599 pct, or 61 basis points over Treasuries.
    In contrast, Ford Motor Co's <F> Ford Motor Credit Co unit
last month sold 300 mln dlrs of same-maturity notes priced to
yield 7.62 pct, or 62.5 basis points over Treasuries.
    "Retail investors generally do not see new issue product,"
said an officer on PaineWebber's corporate syndicate desk.
"They have to buy the securities in the secondary market."
    Bond traders said many corporates rose well above par in
the secondary market this year. They attributed this to a huge
number of bond redemptions by the issuing companies.
    "Institutions and mutual funds are seeing some of their
holdings called away. They're scrambling to replace them," said
one trader. As a result, underwriters said retail investors
would gladly sacrifice some of the yield spread over Treasuries
if they could buy debt issues at or below par.
    "The GMAC financing seemed tailor-made for those retail
investors," commented one underwriter away from the syndicate.
    GMAC's Mangan said his firm also wanted to sell securities
that were aimed at the retail sector.
    "Access to retail investors was the driving force behind
the multi-tiered financing. This is a new market for us, so to
speak," Mangan said.
    "There is a lot of GMAC paper out there," the executive
added, referring to the unit's past offerings. "One of our
basic strategies is to target securities to specific investors
and hopefully attain a broader distribution."
    Officers of Korth and PaineWebber said the GMAC notes were
selling quickly last week, although the issue had not sold out
by Friday afternoon.
    "In selling to retail investors or smaller institutions,
you have to make a lot more telephone calls," an investment
banker pointed out.
    Underwriters noted that Korth and PaineWebber, along with
co-managers A.G. Edwards and Thomson McKinnon, have strong
retail bases. "They can carve out a niche here," one said.
    "We plan to underwrite more of these deals," said a Korth
official. An officer with PaineWebber echoed that sentiment.
    Multi-tiered financings are a relatively new wrinkle on
Wall Street. An officer with Korth said he belives his firm
underwrote the first such issue eight or nine months ago for
Citicorp <CCI>.
    GMAC's Mangan said his company issued through Korth in
October 1986 a 50 mln dlr issue that carried two different
price levels.
    "But the price gap between the first and second tier was
large," Mangan said. In our conversations with the
underwriters, we thought three different tiers would make more
sense because the prices would not be far apart."
    Meanwhile, underwriting syndicates are scheduled to bid
competitively tomorrow for 250 mln dlrs of first and refunding
mortgage bonds due 2017 of Philadelphia Electric Co <PE>.
Non-refundable for five years, the debt is rated Baa-3 by
Moody's and BBB-minus by Standard and Poor's.
    Southern Railway Co, a unit of Norfolk Southern Corp <NSC>,
will hold accept bids on Wednesday for 20 mln dlrs of serial
equipment trust certificates. The debt is rated a top-flight
AAA by both Moody's and S and P.
    IDD Information Services said the 30-day corporate visible
supply rose to 3.98 billion dlrs from 3.28 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., said
he was considering amending the Senate Finance Committee's
trade bill with a provision to require a marketing loan for
soybeans, corn and wheat.
    Pryor told the Futures Industry Association that there was
great reluctance among members of the Senate Agriculture
Committee to reopen the 1985 farm bill, and that a marketing
loan might have a better chance in the Finance panel.
    The Arkansas senator said the marketing loan -- which in
effect allows producers to pay back their crop loans at the
world price -- had led to a 300 pct increase in U.S. cotton
exports in 14 months and a 72 pct increase in rice exports.
    Pryor serves on both the Senate Finance and Agriculture
Committees.
 Reuter

Westdeutsche Landesbank
Girozentrale (WestLB said it is raising the amount of a 14-3/8
pct five-year bullet Australian dlr eurobond, priced at
101-1/2, to 75 mln dlrs from 50 mln.
    The bond, for WestLB's WestLB Finance NV subsidiary, also
will have an additional co-manager to the 20 already accepted
into the deal, WestLB said. WestLB is lead manager, with
Hambros Bank Ltd as co-lead.
    Other terms of the bond, launched on March 19, remain the
same, the bank said.
 REUTER

Shr profit seven cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net profit 2,144,000 vs loss 4,110,000
    Sales 121.3 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Avg shrs 29.4 mln vs 25.3 mln
    NOTE: Current year net includes pretax gain on sale of
product line of 11.4 mln dlrs and charge 4,711,000 dlrs posttax
on expensing of a portion of unamorized debt issuance costs of
unit.
    Current year results include Technicon Corp, acquired in
August 1986.
 Reuter

Citizens Growth Properties said
it ommitted its regular quartelry dividend as a result of
decreased earnings, principally attributable to the default by
a borrower of the trust's laargest mortgage loan.
    The trust last paid 12 cts on January 28.
    The trust said it also reaffirmed a limited share
repurchase program subject to available cash flow in light of
the defaulted mortgage.               
 Reuter

said it intended this year to match the over three billion
dollars it lent to Latin America in 1986 despite growing
pressures on its capital.
ailing economies in the period ahead.
    The report said that Latin America continued to emerge
slowly from the deep recession that began in the early 1980s,
with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) edging up to nearly four pct
from 3.5 pct in 1985.
utilization of previously underused production capacity.
 Reuter

Tehran radio said British church envoy
Terry Waite, missing in Beirut since January 20, had been
kidnapped as a spy by a Lebanese group.
    "Terry Waite was taken hostage by an armed Lebanese group,
calling itself the Revolutionary Justice Organisation. He has
been accused of espionage activities," said the radio, monitored
by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
 Reuter

named C..Joseph LaBonte, 47, president and chief operating
    LaBonte, former presidnet and chief operating officer of
20th Century Fox Film Corp, and more recently was founder and
chief executive officer of Vantage Group Inc, an investment and
financial advisement company.
    Reebok said the company formerly did not have a corporate
president, but rather division presidents, nor did it have a
    Reebok said LaBonte will oversee the division presidents.
 Reuter

Airship Industries Ltd of the U.K.
said its American Deporsitary Receipts, or ADRs, will begin to
trade on NASDAQ March 25.
    The company said it was the largest maker of airships in
the world and currently has five airships in the U.S.
    It also said it entered into a joint venture with
Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX>, a stockholder, to pursue
military contracts, including one with the U.S. Navy to build a
prototype airship to protect naval fleets from missle attacks.
 Reuter

Florida Federal Savings
and Loan Association a special review committee has determined
has determined there is no justification for legal action
against the persons responsible for the association's loan an
investment losses in fiscal 1986, ended June 30.
    In August 1986, a shareholder demand Florida Federal's
board take such legal action. In response, the board formed the
special review committee comprised of four outside directors.
    The company said the committee also found legal action
would not be in the best interest of First Federal and its
stockholders, adding the group's findings were ratified by the
remaining disinterested directors.
 Reuter

The Commerce Department published
revisions to monthly data on factory orders indicating some
substantial changes to published figures for recent months.
    The revisions take account of several factors including
adjustments to unfilled orders levels, recalculation of new
orders estimates and updating of seasonal adjustment factors,
    As a result, December factory orders reported as rising 1.6
pct rose on the revised basis by 3.2 pct, while November orders
reported as 3.6 pct were up only 0.8 pct on the revised basis,
    Commerce has already reported January factory orders fell
4.0 pct. The report on February orders is due next week and
that figure will be revised then.
    The revisions, which cover the years 1982-1986, also affect
the key category of durable goods orders. The department said
durables orders reported as 1.5 pct higher in December were up
5.3 pct on the revised basis and November orders reported 5.1
pct higher were up a revised 3.0 pct.
    The department reported January durable goods orders fell
7.5 pct and is scheduled to release February orders on Tuesday
morning.
    The January durable goods orders will be revised and
February orders reported on a basis consistent with the
revisions, Commerce said.
    For all of 1986, factory orders were originally reported as
being unchanged from 1985 levels, but the department said after
revisions orders fell 0.6 pct last year.
    Among changes in the orders survey, the department said it
was changing inventory values to reflect current costs rather
than book value of unsold goods.
 Reuter

Thermo Instrument Systems Inc
said it has received a 550,000 dlr order from the Soviet Union
for plasma spectrometers to be used by the Soviet Bureau of
Standards to help Soviet industries develop quality control
procedures in mining, agriculture and manufacturing.
    It said the instruments will detect the amount of metals in
various products.
 Reuter

<General Systems Research
Inc> said it concluded a 15 mln dlr private placement with the
government of Alberta.
    The provincial government purchased 15 mln dlrs of the
company's class A preferred shares.
    The government of Alberta also converted a 2.5 mln dlr
debenture into common shares and converted about 2.5 mln dlrs
of shareholders' loans into common shares, the company said.
Conversion price for both transactions was 1.75 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Shr profit 0.2 cts vs loss 2.2 cts
    Net profit 2,900 vs loss 43,500
    Sales 1,660,000 vs 950,000
    Year
    Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 37 cts
    Net loss 578,900 vs 713,300
    Sales 5,112,100 vs 3,659,600
 Reuter

Safeguard Scientific Inc
said its subsidiary, Coherent Communications Systems Corp,
purchased a telecommunications equipment business for an
undisclosed amount of cash, notes and Coherent common stock.
    Safeguard said it bought the business unit from Comsat
TeleSystems Inc, a subsidiary of Communications Satellite Corp
<CQ>.
 Reuter

Patrick Petroleum Co said it
signed a definitive agreement to buy Bayou Resources Inc.
    As previously announced, the transaction is valued at about
8.8 mln dlrs, including 2.8 mln dlrs in debt.
    Under the agreement, Patrick will pay six dlrs per share
for each Bayou share, with additional value being given for
Bayou's preferred and options. Bayou has 827,000 shares out.
    Depending upon the results of the re-evaluation of a
significant Bayou well as of Jan. 1, 1988, Bayou stockholders
may receive up to an additional two mln dlrs in stock and cash,
which has not been included in the 8.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 15.23 dlrs vs profit 12 cts
    Net loss 124,634,000 vs profit 882,000
    Revs 38.4 mln vs 41.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 15.46 dlrs vs profit 48 cts
    Net loss 126,434,000 vs profit 3,555,000
    Revs 187.0 mln vs 133.2 mln
    Avg shrs 8,177,000 vs 7,450,000
    Note: Current year results include charges related to
closing or divestitures of facilities and other assets.
    Full name Westworld Community Healthcare Inc.
 Reuter

Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) said Congress
would more readily respond to the needs of the U.S. futures
industry to be internationally competitive if the industry
showed a willingness to do its business honestly.
    Rostenkowski told the Futures Industry Association that if
other countries were relaxing futures regulations "because ours
are being tightened, so that they can take a competitive
advantage, I think we (Congress) have a responsibility to keep
you out in front."
    But he warned the futures leaders that they "have a more
important reponsibility to do your business honestly. You can't
ignore the trader who is improperly using his opportunity."
    There have been reports recently of futures traders placing
their own orders ahead of clients'. The Chicago Mercantile
Exchange is considering curbing the right of traders in the
Standard and Poor's 500 pit to trade for their own and clients'
accounts.
    "If we can see that there is a responsible response from
people in your industry, we will be the first there to help." he
said.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs loss 64 cts
    Net loss 367,000 vs 3,009,000
    Revs 2,516,000 vs 8,787,000
    Avg shrs 4,941,000 vs 4,714,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 73 cts vs loss 1.17 dlrs
    Net loss 3,545,000 vs loss 4,573,000
    Revs 6,788,000 vs 13.3 mln
    Avg shrs 4,856,000 vs 3,908,000
    NOTE: Prior year net includes tax credits of 63,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,395,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 1,109,000 vs 875,000
    Revs 16.6 mln vs 13.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 44 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 3,770,000 vs 2,851,000
    Revs 46.9 mln vs 36.9 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split in June
1986.
 Reuter

IC Industries Inc said its Abex Corp
subsidiary agreed to sell its sintered friction materials
business in Italy to Troy, Michigan-based MLX Corp, for
undisclosed terms.  Completion of the proposed transaction is
subject to approval by the Italian government, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 4.87 dlrs vs 2.21 dlrs
    Net 14.6 mln vs 6,639,540
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain 2,578,887 dlrs from chjange in
accounting for pension plans and investment gaions of over
 Reuter

Prime Computer Inc said it
introduced an interactive three dimensional graphics
workstation.
    Prime said it is its first offering in a new
engineering/scientific product line and employs Prime's
implementation of ATT's <T> UNIX System V.3 operating system, a
program that controls the computer.
    Prime said the new product delivers up to twice the
performance of the IRIS 3120 series, considered the industry's
leading 3-D graphics workstation, and is driven by five times
the performances of a VAX 11/780 system.
    Shipment is scheduled for June, 1987, and the product's
standard configuration is priced at 74,900 dls with a monthly
maintenance fee of 492 dlrs, Prime said.
 Reuter

Shr profit six cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 101,000 vs loss 142,000
    Sales 12.6 mln vs 8,736,000
    Year
    Shr profit 1.34 dlrs vs profit 1.02 dlrs
    Net profit 2,122,000 vs profit 1,611,000
    Sales 52.3 mln vs 41.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs loss 41 cts
    Net loss 148,070 vs loss 251,225
    Sales 1,298,257 vs 319,588
 Reuter

<Deloitte Haskins and Sells>, an
accounting and consulting firm, said it bought a stake in
<Holland Systems Corp>, a software and services company.
    The company also said it set up a venture with Holland
Systems to develop and market an integrated line of information
management products and services.
    It said products from the venture are expected to be
introduced within the next year.
 Reuter

reserves indirectly via 1.5 to 2.5 billion dlrs of customer
    They said that while the Fed has only a moderate add need
over the next few days, it will probably intervene in an
attempt to counteract an elevated federal funds rate.
    Fed funds, which averaged 6.09 pct on Friday, opened at
6-3/16 pct and remained at that level in early trading.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit one ct vs loss six cts
    Oper net profit 148,628 vs loss 249,192
    Revs 3,772,639 vs 1,101,633
    Avg shrs 5,235,233 vs 4,371,795
    Year
    Oper shr loss 10 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Oper net profit 5,760 vs loss 788,042
    Revs 9,899,038 vs 3,819,678
    Avg shrs 4,837,361 vs 4,163,006
    NOTE: Share after poreferred dividends.
    Current year net both periods excludes 15,000 dlr tax loss
 Reuter

CanCapital Corp said it sold
four mln common shares and one mln common share purchase
warrants of <Poco Petroleums Ltd> to Merrill Lynch Canada Inc
and First Marathon Securities Ltd for resale to public
    The common shares will be resold at 15.875 dlrs per share
and the warrants will be resold at 7.25 dlrs per warrant.
    Each warrant may be converted into one common shares of
Poco at 9.50 dlrs per share through January 15, 1989. Gross
proceeds of 70.8 mln dlrs will be added to the working capital
CanCapital Corp.
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS CURRENCIES WITHIN RANGES THAT BETTER REFLECT FUNDAMENTALS

BAKER URGES BANKS TO MULL NEW IDEAS FOR CUTTING 3RD WORLD DEBT BURDEN

BAKER CONFIDENT BANKS WILL MAKE BIG NEW LOANS TO MAJOR DEBTORS IN '87

BAKER SAYS U.S. WILL ADD NINE BILLION DLRS TO IADB IF REFORMS MADE

Greece will hold a buying tender on
April 8, for reply by April 10, for 40,000 tonnes of white
sugar from EC member countries, for delivery in four equal
tranches in May, June, July and August, traders said.
 Reuter

A number of individual zinc producing
companies have approached the European Commission to sound out
its reaction to a possible industry plan for a voluntary
reduction of smelting capacity, Commission sources said.
    The companies have been told that the Commission could not
judge whether a plan would be acceptable under European
Community, EC, competition rules until it had full details,
they said.
    In 1983, the industry drew up a plan envisaging the loss of
about 130,000 tonnes of annual capacity, or about 10 pct of the
total.
    However, the industry did not proceed with this plan as
zinc market conditions improved in 1984, the sources noted.
    They said the companies which approached the Commission
recently -- and which they did not name -- appeared to envisage
a loss of productive capacity similar to that proposed in 1983.
 Reuter

Treasury Secertary James Baker said
currencies were now within ranges that better reflected
economic fundamentals.
    In a speech to the annual meeting of the Inter-American
Development Bank, he said, "Excchange have moved into ranges
that better reflect economic fundamentals."
    He noted that in particular that dollar has fallen from its
high point in early 1985 helping to moderate protectionist
pressures in the U.S.
 Reuter

he was making progress negotiating reform of the Inter-American
Development Bank with other member nations.
    In a speech prepared for delivery to the annual meeting of
the IADB, Baker said, "We are making progress in negotiating
reforms."
    And he added that if succesful, Washington would be ready
to put up an additional nine billion dlrs to the seventh IADB
four-year capital replenishment, an increase of 75 pct.
    It was not immediately clear what the overall size of the
capital replenishment would be if the U.S. went ahead with such
    But Baker's statement that he had made progress in
negotiating reforms came after a weekend meeting of the bank's
policy making board of governors at which the reform issue was
put off until next June because of deep differences between
Washington and Latin borrowing countries.
    Baker said the U.S. increase would account for 70 pct of
the bank's useable financial resources.
    Currently Washington is only allowed to vote 34.5 pct in
IADB board meetings considering loans to Latin American
    But the Latin borrowing nations control 54 pct of the vote
and frequently approve loans to which economic reform
conditions are not tied.
    Baker pointed out that Western nations which provide 95 pct
of the bank's financial resources represent just 46 pct of the
vote.
    Baker said the U.S seeks a greater say in bank decisions
for itself and other creditor countries.
    "In view of this imbalance we don't believe it is
unreasonable to ask for a change," Baker said. He said the
changes sought by the U.S. would require loan approval by a
greater majority of shares than a simple majority.
    But he stopped short of reaffirming the original U.S.
position that veto power should exist with a 35 pct vote.
    Enlarging on reforms Washington would like to see, Baker
said he wanted the IADB to play a much greater role in the U.S.
debt strategy for promoting inflation free economic growth,
open markets and a reduced government role in the economies of
    Under reforms he said the U.S. wants the IADB to adopt a
major program of lending to specific economic sectors in debtor
countries on condition the countries carried out policy reforms
in those areas of their economies.
    Such reforms would include, among other things, more
concern for natural resource management.
    Baker said this lending should help debtors make a
transition to more open economies and freer markets.
    He also said the bank could double its current lending
volume from capital and triple its concessional loans to the
poorest nations.
    The Treasury Secretary also called for the IADB to improve
its analysis of the policies of debtor countries, strengthening
its process for assessing the specific needs of debtor nations.
He urged a wholesale reorganization of bank personnel. Baker
said, "We simply believe that more discretion and policy
influence should lie with the parties which contribute the
lion's share of resources."
    He pointed out that despite tight budget problems the
Reagan administration has asked Congress to finance the IADB
and other multilateral development banks.
    Pointing out that such funding was difficult today in the
best of circumstances, he said it would be impossible if
Congress did not have confidence in bank lending policies.
 Reuter

Tonka Corp said it expects
results for its fiscal first quarter to end April four, to
decline from the record earnings of 3.8 mln dlrs or 57 cts a
share and revenues of 53.2 mln dlrs.
    The toy manufacturer attributed its anticipated lower
financial results to an an expected moderate decline in
shipments of its Pound Puppies product line.
    Tonka also said it expects revenues and earnings to remain
lower through the 1987 first half compared with 1986 record
results of 125.4 mln dlrs in revenues and 10.3 mln dlrs in net
earnings or 1.47 dlrs a share.
    The company said its level of shipments is good despite a
conservative buying pattern on the part of retailers industry
wide. Tonka's first quarter shipments will be down somewhat
from 1986 record levels and gross profit margins will be down
slightly from a year ago, it said.
    Second half sales are expected to be stronger based on a
return to a more traditional seasonal shipping pattern in which
retailers order and stock conservatively early in the year and
time large shipments for the second half, it said.
    Tonka said that while the pace of order writing is trailing
last year's, bookings are "very good" for orders on several of
its new product introductions for 1987.
 Reuter

A senior Brazilian debt negotiator,
Antonio de Padua Seixas, has offered to resign from his post as
Director for External Debt Management at the Central Bank, a
    The spokesman told Reuters by telephone from Brasilia that
Seixas had offered to resign last week but the government had
not yet responded.
    Seixas, who has played a leading role in negotiations with
creditors over Brazil's 109 billion dlr foreign debt, is not
attending current debt discussions in Miami.
    Brazil is talking to bank creditors at Miami during a
meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, its first
discussions with these creditors since it suspended interest
payments last month on its 68 billion dlr debt to commercial
banks.
    The Central Bank spokesman said he did not know why Seixas
wanted to leave his job.
 REUTER

Shr 1.34 dlrs vs 1.09 dlrs
    Net 15.4 mln vs 12.6 mln
    Sales 323.6 mln vs 240.2 mln
    Avg shrs 11.5 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 95 cts vs 91 cts
    Net 10.9 mln vs 9,368,000
    Sales 628.8 mln vs 513.1 mln
    Avg shrs 11.5 mln vs 10.3 mln
    NOTE: Latest year net cut on mln dlrs by investment tax
credit loss.
 Reuter

Bayerische Vereinsbank AG <BVMG.F>
expects to pay an unchanged dividend of 13 marks on 1987
earnings but profits will only barely reach last year's record
levels, management board spokesman Maximilian Hackl said.
    He told the annual news conference that possible credit
risks, especially those associated with foreign nations, had
largely been covered. Risk provisions in 1987 were therefore
unlikely to reach the same high level as in 1986.
    Group bank net profit rose to 275.52 mln marks in 1986 from
222.73 mln the previous year and parent bank net profit
increased to 187.63 mln marks from 161.58 mln.
    Hackl said that interest margins in the banking business
had declined to 2.71 pct last year from 2.78 pct the previous
year. But in the mortgage sector, the margins had increased
slightly and stood around 0.7 pct.
    Parent bank commission surplus in the securities business
had risen almost 15 pct to 358 mln marks in 1986.
    Expenses for personnel had increased 7.5 pct to 782 mln
marks and others costs had increased 9.4 pct to 272 mln marks.
    The parent bank's 1986 partial operating profit, which
excludes earnings from trading on its own account, had climbed
two pct to 671 mln marks.
    The parent bank's balance sheet total rose 5.3 pct to 81.5
billion marks at end-1986 compared with end-1985, Hackl said.
    It was boosted by a three billion mark rise in mortgage
business and a 1.1 billion mark increase in banking business.
    The mortgage sector's share in total parent bank business
volume rose to 46 pct from 45.
    Hackl said that in January and February this year, the
bank's credit business had not livened up. But despite the
sharp downturn on German bourses, profits from trading on own
account had increased in the first two 1987 months compared
with the same year-ago period. He gave no detailed figures.
 REUTER

commercial banks to be open to new ideas for reducing the third
world debt burden.
    "I believe the commercial banks need to be open to creative
ideas for reducing the debt burden," Baker told the annual
meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank.
    But he said that he was confident banks would make
"substantial new lending" to the major debtors this year.
    He pointed out principal debtor nations are expected to
grow an average 3.5 pct this year, the fastest real rate of
growth since 1980.
    Saying the U.S. debt strategy was making "substantial
headway", Baker said import volumes of debtor countries are
forecast to jump over six pct in 1987 and export volumes almost
five pct -- the best performance in three years.
    He also said economic growth has kept pace with or
surpassed the growth in debt for nine of the 15 major debtors
since 1983.
    "This is a start -- and I venture to say a good one," the
Treasury Secretary said, and he urged the audience of Western
and Latin finance officials and bankers to stand fast against
suggestions of solutions like debt relief.
    While such ideas have political appeal, Baker said, they
would mean a drying up of capital flowing to debtors.
    And even if free market reforms followed, debt fogiveness
would frighten away investors who would not "risk their capital
in a country which abandoned its obligations."
    And he said, "A debt forgiveness plan that damages
commercial banks also weakens confidence in world financial
    He cautioned that resolving the debt situation would be a
"gradual and painstaking" process, varying from country to
country.
    Reporting on the U.S. debt strategy, Baker said attitudes
in debtor nations have changed and there is much greater
acceptance of free market reforms than hitherto.
    Some countries like Argentina are pursuing anti-inflation
programs. Others, like the Philippines and Chile, are
privatizing companies and swapping debt for equity.
    The International Monetary Fund and World Bank, meanwhile,
have committed nearly 12 billion dlrs in loans for the 15 major
debtor nations since late 1985, official creditors have
rescheduled 14.5 billion dlrs in outstanding loans through the
Paris club, while commercial banks are making new loans.
    Baker pointed out the banks have rescheduld nearly 70
billion dlrs of debt, reaching agreements recently with Chile,
Venezuela and Mexico.
    Elsewhere in his speech, Baker outlined the progress
industrial nations are making in promoting moderate global
growth, low inflation and efforts to reduce massive trade
imbalances.
    He maintained world economic conditions were "continuuing to
improve" a development that would provide a positive backdrop
for debtor nations.
 Reuter

The Tokai Bank Ltd, London Branch, is
doubling the size of a sterling certificate of deposit issuance
facility established last year to 200 mln stg from the original
100 mln, Chemical Bank International Ltd said as arranger.
    The increase reflects active use of the facility from the
first month after signing and growing international interest
from institutional investors at sub-LIBOR (London Interbank
Offered Rates) levels.
    Barclay's de Zoete Wedd Ltd has been added to the group of
dealers for the program.
 REUTER

Shr nil vs loss two cts
    Revs 1,660,300 vs 950,000
    12 mths
    Net loss 578,900 vs loss 713,300
    Revs 5,112,100 vs 3,659,600
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 727,000 vs 266,000
    Revs 27.8 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 59 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 1,355,000 vs 1,098,000
    Revs 69.4 mln vs 59.1 mln
 Reuter

Graan Elevator Mij (GEM) said its
balance in port of grains, oilseeds and derivatives rose to
70,000 tonnes on March 21 compared with 10,000 a week earlier
after arrivals of 192,000 tonnes and discharges of 132,000
tonnes last week.
    The balance comprised 25,000 tonnes of grains plus oilseeds
and 45,000 tonnes of derivatives.
    This week's estimated arrivals total 487,000 tonnes, of
which 107,000 are grains/oilseeds and 380,000 derivatives.
 Reuter

Public Service Co of North
Carolina Inc said its board raised the quarterly dividend to 23
cts per share from 22-1/2 cts previously, as adjusted for a
two-for-one stock split that takes effect April 27.
    The dividend is payable July One to holders of record June
16.
    The company also said it plans to file soon for an offering
of  up to one mln new shares, which would give it a total of
about 8,850,000 post-split shares.
 Reuter

Wickes Cos Inc said its
board authorized a one-for-five reverse stock split and plans
to call the company's its 12 pct senior subordianted debentures
due 1994.
    The company said it will seek shareholder approval of the
reverse stock split at the annual shareholders meeting
scheduled for June 18.
    At January 31 Wickes had 239 mln shares outstanding, the
company also said.
    Wickes also said it will call the debentures on Dec 1,
1987, assuming market conditions remain essentially the same.
 Reuter

Martens said government austerity programs adopted in the last
six years had resolved some of the economy's urgent problems,
but that unemployment remained a major obstacle.
    Martens told Belgian television the austerity measures had
brought the country's balance of payments from deficit to
surplus, helped reduce inflation and boosted economic growth.
 REUTER

JEFFERIES GROUP SAID IT RESOLVED ITS ACCOUNTING DISPUTE WITH SEC

Argentina expects to reach agreement with
its commercial bank creditors in the near future on a new
financing package including 2.15 billion dlrs in new loans,
Treasury Secretary Mario Brodersohn said.
    Addressing Argentine businessman during the Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB) meeting here, he said the two sides
will meet again next Thursday in New York.
    "We have made significant progress over the last 30 days
and we should have an agreement in a shorter lapse of time than
managed by Mexico, Venezuela or Chile," he said.
    Brodersohn reiterated that Argentina's goal is to reach an
agreement which permits four pct growth this year, following
last year's 5.5 pct and negative growth in 1985.
    He said discussions were still continuing on
debt-capitalization plans and schemes for on-lending, in the
light of certain Argentine concerns.
    The government is anxious that debt that is capitalized
should represent new investment in the country on a dollar
invested per dollar capitalized basis, rather than a simple
transfer of ownership of the debt, he said.
    At the same time, it wants to avoid an expansionary
monetary impact from on-lending schemes, whereby debt
repayments are recycled by banks into new loans.
    Brodersohn said also agreement was close on the proposal
for so-called exit bonds, whereby creditors can sell out their
debt.
    Argentina's 1987 financing needs come to 3.53 billion dlrs,
including the 2.15 billion from banks and a 1.38 billion dlr
IMF loan already agreed. It is projecting a current account
deficit of 2.2 billion dlrs after one of 2.4 billion last year.
    It estimates export earnings will have dropped by 7.1
billion dlrs between 1985-87 as a result of falling commodity
prices.
    Argentina, owing 50 billion dlrs, is Latin America's fourth
biggest debtor.
 Reuter

ICCO PUTS 1986/87 WORLD COCOA SURPLUS  94,000 TONNES VS 118,000 IN 1985/86 - DELEGATES

A joint venture controlled by Dallas
investor Bradbury Dyer said it had acquired 377,000 shares, or
9.9 pct, of the common stock of Munford Inc.
the concern, which comprises Paragon Associates and Paragon
Associates II, said it bought the stake for 7,659,000 dlrs and
may buy more shares.
    Paragon said it bought the shares for investment purposes.
 Reuter

<Costain Ltd>'s shareholders will be
asked at the April 16 annual meeting to approve a change in the
company's name to Coscan Development Ltd, the company said in
the annual report.
    Under terms of the 1984 sale of controlling interest in the
company to <Carena-Bancorp Inc> from Costain Group Plc, the
Costain name was to be changed.
    Costain said a settlement was reached with the Costain
Group concerning a legal action launched before shareholders at
the 1986 annual meeting approved in principle changing the
company's name to Costan. The Costan name was not implemented.
    Costain also said in the annual report that it should
report further growth in earnings due to increased level of
activity in 1987 and expectation of improved margins.
    It said it expects housing revenue will increase by 25 pct
in 1987, supported by an increased number of active projects
and a carry forward of 427 sales. Costain reported housing
revenue in 1986 of 229.6 mln dlrs, up from 159.2 mln dlrs in
1985.
    Costain previously reported 1986 earnings of 12.9 mln dlrs
or 93 cts a share, compared to 6.9 mln dlrs or 63 cts a share
in the prior year.
 Reuter

The New York branch of Mitsubishi Bank
Ltd said it set a one billion dlr U.S. medium-term certificate
of deposit note program.
    The bank said this will be the largest such program ever
established by a U.S. or foreign commercial bank.
    Proceeds of the continuous offering of the medium-term CD
notes will be used for general funding purposes of the New York
bank. The firm named Morgan Stanley and Co Inc as lead agent of
the program, with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Salomon
Brothers Inc as co-agents. The parent company had total assets
of 210 billion dlrs as of September 30, 1986.
 Reuter

Jefferies Group Inc said it
resolved an accounting dispute with the staff of the Securities
and Exchange Commission resulting from a brokerage transaction
in which the company acted as agent for buyer and seller.
    The transaction resulted in a threat of litigation and a
settlement involving a 1.2 mln dlr loss to Jefferies Group and
a personal 3.8 mln dlr loss to former chairman Boyd Jefferies,
    It also said the dispute was not related to the announced
settlement with the SEC and the resignation of Boyd Jefferies.
    Last month the company announced that the SEC had
questioned its fourth quarter and fiscal year earnings because
of the method used by the company to account for the
    In the SEC's view, the 3.8 mln dlr loss incurred by Boyd
Jefferies should have been recorded by the company  as a loss
with a corresponding contribution to capital by Jefferies, the
    Jefferies Group reported fourth quarter earnings of 4.3 mln
dlrs, or 48 cts per share and income of 13.7 mln dlrs, or 1.55
dlrs per share for all of 1986.
 Reuter

Amselco Minerals Inc, a unit of British
Petroleum Co PLC, said it approved construction of a new plant
with Nerco Minerals Co to process carbon ore to recover
microscopic gold reserves.
    The plant, to be located at the Alligator Ridge Mine near
Ely, Nev., will process 1,000 tons a day of carbon-bearing ore
to recover 70,000 ounces of gold over three years, it said.
    The plant will use a chemical process called leaching to
extract the residual gold, which could not otherwise be
economically recovered. Operation of the plant, to be jointly
owned by Amselco and Nerco, is set to start in October.
    The Alligator Ridge Mine is jointly owned by Amselco and
Nerco, a unit of Nerco Inc <NER>, which is 90.5 pct owned by
Pacificorp <PPW>, a Portland, Ore., holding company.
    The mine has produced about 60,000 ounces of gold a year
since 1981 using another leaching process, a BP spokesman said.
The open pit oxide ore reserves of Alligator Ridge will be
exhausted by August 1987, as expected, when the work force will
be reduced to about 72 from 127, the company said.
    The employees remaining after that will operate the new
plant, it said.
 Reuter

<Canada Development Corp> said it
agreed with investment dealers Wood Gundy Inc and Dominion
Securities Inc to sell six mln common shares in Canada for
60,750,000 dlrs at 10.125 dlrs a share.
    The company said it filed a preliminary prospectus for the
offer in Ontario and was filing across the rest of Canada.
 Reuter

Biocraft Laboratories Inc
said it signed a contract with American Cyanamid Co to make
cefixime, a third generation oral cephalosporin.
    It said American Cyanamid's Lederle Laboratories filed a
new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for
the product.
    According to the agreement, Biocraft will manufacture the
product for American Cyanamid for the first three years of
commercial production.
 Reuter

Moto Photo Inc  president, Michael
Adler, said he expects the company's first quarter earnings for
fiscal 1987 to be better than the same quarter a year ago.
    Adler said, however, that the quarter would still be a
loss, primarily because it is the low season for the imaging
business.
    Photo Moto recored a net loss for the first quarter 1986
ending March 31 of 328,889 dlrs.
   
 Reuter

    Shr loss one ct vs profit two cts
    Net loss 52,922 vs profit 220,041
    Revs 481,832 vs 824,554
    Six mths
    Shr loss one ct vs profit four cts
    Net loss 104,129 vs profit 345,515
    Revs 934,685 vs 1,465,153
 Reuter

Zenith Electronics Corp said
ratification of a new union contract on Sunday will enable the
company to bring some jobs back from Mexico to its color
television manufacturing factory in Springfield, Mo.
    The company did not specify the number of jobs.
    It said a new contract ratified by members of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will reduce
wages 8.1 pct in the first three years of the pact. Zenith said
the contract, replacing an earlier one that was to expire in
March 1988, assures it will keep 600 assembly jobs from going
to Mexico.
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net loss 384,000 vs profit 714,000
    Revs 8,367,000 vs 9,909,000
    Year
    Shr profit 19 cts vs profit 57 cts
    Net profit 518,000 vs profit 1,547,000
    Revs 28.7 mln vs 26.7 mln
    NOTE: Includes income tax credits of 302,000 dlrs and 1.3
mln dlrs in 1986 and 1985, respectively, and 602,000 dlrs in
1985 qtr. Current qtr after tax provision of 452,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,898,000 vs 892,000
    Sales 16.8 mln vs 15.3 mln
 Reuter

    Six mths
    Revs 937,685 vs 1,460,000
 Reuter

    Net 102,002 vs 59,396
    Sales 3,024,423 vs 2,437,489
    Avg shrs 1,032,000 vs 746,004
    Year
    Shr 64 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 570,491 vs 340,852
    Sales 11.1 mln vs 10.6 mln
    Avg shrs 1,032,000 vs 753,948
 Reuter

ratings on Beneficial Corp's senior debt to DP-7 (low A) from
DP-6 (middle A) and preferred stock to DP-8 (High BBB) from
DP-7, affecting approximately four billion dlrs in debt.
    The changes reflect the restruction of Beneficial which
include the sale of subsidiaries Western National Life,
American Centennial Insurance Co and Beneficial National Bank
USA. Charges taken last year as a result of reserve
inadequacies in the property and casualty subsidiary sharply
reduced the equity base and increased the financial leverage of
the company, Duff and Phelps said.
 Reuter

The West German Economics Minister today
denied giving a newspaper interview which quoted him as saying
the state could not continue to pour money into the country's
ailing steel and coal industries.
    Economics Ministry spokesman Dieter Vogel said in a
statement Bangemann had contacted him from New Zealand, where
he is attending a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)
ministerial meeting, to deny giving the interview to the
conservative daily Die Welt. The paper quoted Bangemann as
saying that continued subsidies would endanger other parts of
the German economy by making them uncompetitive.
    Vogel said Bangemann had pledged that everything possible
would be done to minimize the effects of reduced coal and steel
production on the workforces and regions concerned.
    Die Welt said the interview with Bangemann had taken place
at a meeting of his Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Darmstadt
last Friday, adding that it had a tape recording of his
comments which it would publish tomorrow.
 Reuter

Hawkeye Bancorp said its exchange
offer to holders of its preferred stock expired, and a total of
14,721 shares of preferred had been tendered.
    Hawekeye said it expects to accept for exchange all shares
tendered. It said the exchange ratio would be 15.8446 shares of
common for each share of preferred stock tendered. As a result,
Hawkeye would have outstanding 6,922,215 shares of common stock
and 155,054 shares of preferred which are convertible into
1,150,005 additional common shares.
    Upon acceptance of the shares, Hawkeye said it would
eliminate outstanding preferred shares having dividend
arrearages totaling 204,499 dlrs and a liquidation preference
of 1,676,599 dlrs.
    It said the exchange offer is a part of Hawkeye's
restructuring in accordance with its previously announced debt
restructuring agreement.
 Reuter

IRT Property Co said it is in talks on
the issucne in Europe of 30 mln dlrs of 15-year two pct
debentures convertible into common stock at 23.50 dlrs per
share.
    It said investors would have the right to require the
company to redeem half of the issue during the 49th month of
the term of the bonds and the remainder during the 73rd month.
    On exercise of the redemption right, the investors would be
entitled to repayment of the bond at a premium to par that
would provide a total rate of return equal to the yield on the
issue date of four or six-year U.S. Treasury bonds.
    IRT said conversion would be permitted at any time after 90
days after completion of the distribution of the debentures. 
It said the conversion price might be adjusted or the offering
discontinued based on fluctuations in the market price of IRT
common before distribution of the debentures.
 Reuter

Sweden's Gross National Product rose
1.3 pct last year against 2.3 pct in 1985, mainly due to a
lower than forecast growth in exports and a sharp fall in total
investments, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported.
    Private consumption rose 4.1 pct during 1986 against 2.7
pct in 1985 whereas the Finance Ministry had expected an
increase of only 3.6 pct. Total investments fell 0.7 pct
against a rise of 6.3 pct in 1985. The Finance Ministry had
forecast a rise of 0.3 pct in 1986.
    Exports rose 2.1 pct last year against 2.3 pct in 1985, but
the Finance Ministry had predicted a growth of 2.8 pct.
 REUTER

McDonald's Corp rose sharply today
after receiving a second recommendation in as many sessions,
    Today, analyst Richard Simon of Goldman Sachs and Co
reaffirmed his recommendation of the stock and put it on his
"focus list," traders familiar with the recommendation said.
    Simon was unavailable for comment.
    The stock jumped 2-3/4 to 79-7/8.
    On Friday, analyst Daniel Lee of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc
reiterated a recommendation of the stock focusing on increased
comparable store sales and consistent annual earnings growth.
Friday, the stock closed 1-5/8 points higher.
    Wendy's, another operator of fast food restaurants, rose
one to 12-3/4 in active trading. Vague rumors that Wendy's is a
takeover candidate continued to circulate Wall Street, traders
said.
 Reuter

Shr 3.36 dlrs vs 3.33 dlrs
    Net 16,173,000 vs 10,603,000
    Sales 420.8 mln vs 276.1 mln
    Avg shrs 4.4 mln vs 3.2 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net includes tax credits of 6.9 mln dlrs or 2.19
 Reuter

American Television and
Communications Corp said it has completed the acquisition of
Manhattan Cable Television Inc from Time Inc for about
9,400,000 Class B common shares.
    American Television was spun off from Time in August 1986.
The company said following this transaction, Time now owns 82
pct of American Television.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court let stand a ruling
that threw out a 36-mln-dlr judgment that Western Union
Telegraph Co had been ordered to pay to a now-defunct
independent teleprinter vendor.
    The justices, without comment, left intact a ruling last
July by a U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago that threw out the
jury's 1985 verdict and judgment in a major antitrust case.
    The case stemmed from a 1977 lawsuit filed by Olympia
Equipment Leasing Co, Alfco Telecommunications Co and the
companies' late founder, Abraham Feldman of San Francisco.
 Reuter

DWG Corp said it has completed the
previously-announced sale of its Texsun Corp subsidiary to
Texsun Corp subsidiary to Sundor Brands Inc for 27.5 mln dlrs
    It said proceeds have been placed in escrow pending the
outcome of talks with lenders.
 Reuter

A man identified as the general manager of
Bank of Tokyo in Peru was wounded in a sub-machine gun attack,
    They said the man, whom they named as Tadao Sawaki, came
under fire by three gunmen near his office this morning. He was
in satisfactory condition in hospital, doctors said.
    Bank of Tokyo officials made no comment. A Japanese embassy
official identified Sawaki as general manager of the bank. No
group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
    The bank has over five mln dlrs in foreign loans
outstanding to Peru, according to economy ministry statistics.
 REUTER

Allied Supermarkets Inc said it entered
into a definitive agreement to sell its Michigan operations for
about 46 mln dlrs in cash and debt plus assumption of
substantially all of Allied's liabilities other than senior
    It said the operations will be sold to Meadowdale Foods
Inc, a corporation formed by members of its existing
management, including Chairman David Page and President Lon
Makanoff.
    The transaction is conditioned on  Allied's pending merger
with the Vons Cos Inc.
 Reuter

The Bank of Finland issued for the
first time a small amount of its own certificates of deposit
following its decision last Friday to enter the interbank
market by buying and selling CDs, a Central Bank official said.
    The official said the volume of the Central Bank CDs, which
had a maturity of three months, was still small as today's
transactions were seen as an exercise for what is still a new
market for the Bank of Finland.
 REUTER

Securities Dealers Inc> said it has taken disciplinary action
against Mark Woltz, a former trader of a major firm, suspending
him from association with any NASD member for 20 business days,
fining him 5,000 dlrs and censuring him.
    NASD did not immediately identify Woltz' former employer.
    The NASD said the disciplinary action was instituted by its
Market Surveillance Committee for alleged violations of
anti-fraud provisions under its Rules of Fair Practice.
    The association said Woltz consented to the sanctions
without admitting or denying allegations and the suspension
will start April 27 and run through May 22.
    It said its complaint alleges that from March 25, 1985 to
April 4, 1985 Woltz engaged in a manipulative and deceptive
practice known as marking the close of the market in a NASDAQ
security. The NASD did not identify the security.
    The NASD said the complaint alleges that Woltz, while his
firm owned a long inventory position in the security, caused
the firm's quotations of the security to rise on five days
within five minutes of the market close, causing the firm's bid
price to be the exclusive high bid at the market close on four
days and the shared high bid on the other day.
    It said the complaint alleges that before the market opened
on each of the following business days, Woltz caused the firm's
quotation to fall below its closing bid of the prior day.  At
no time did the firm execute transactions at the
artificially-raised prices, the NASD said.
    The NASD said the complain also alleges that Woltz violated
Article III, Sections 1, 5 and 18 of the Rules of Fair Practice.
 Reuter

<Summagraphics Corp> said the
patent infringement suit filed by Lockheed Corp's <LK> Sanders
Rogers Associates unit is invalid.
    Summagraphics said it will seek an injunction to stop
Sanders from continuing with its suit.
    The company said prior to Sanders filing a patent for an
electromagnetic digitizing apparatus, it was working with
technology that was patented and subsequently reflected in the
Rogers patent.
 Reuter

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS> is
discussing marketing cooperation with U.S. regional carrier Air
Atlanta Inc but it is not seeking to take a stake in the
airline, a KLM spokesman said.
    "We're not considering taking either a majority or minority
stake in Air Atlanta, but we are thinking of providing them
with a loan," the spokesman told Reuters in a comment on a Wall
Street Journal report saying debt-laden Air Atlanta could sell
as much as 25 pct of its stock to the Dutch airline.
    KLM last week denied a Dutch press report saying it was
discussing a takeover of Air Atlanta.
    The KLM spokesman said Air Atlanta's regional route
network, centred on Atlanta, Ga, could serve as a feeder to
KLM's international network, which includes direct flights
between Atlanta and Amsterdam.
    KLM and Air Atlanta had been talking "for some time," he
said, but declined to elaborate further on the talks or give
details of the loan to Air Atlanta.
 Reuter

The French government will take decisions
shortly to boost the funds available for technological research
by state industry, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said.
    Speaking to a meeting of the National Association for
Technical Research, Chirac said the government had not ruled
out raising the capital of some state groups to make more money
available for their research programs.
    "We will take decisions on this shortly -- and they will be
positive," he said in a departure from a prepared text. He gave
no details and Industry Ministry officials had no immediate
comment.
    Warning that high technology exports were rapidly losing
world market share, Chirac urged private sector industry to
step up its research efforts.
    Private sector research and development spending, at 1.3
pct of Gross Domestic Product, was below the 1.8 to 1.9 pct of
GDP spent in the U.S., West Germany and Japan, he said.
    France awarded only 12,000 registered patents in 1986,
compared with 20,000 in Britain, 30,000 in West Germany, 60,000
in the U.S. And more than 200,000 in Japan, he said. In the
U.S. Market, France was awarded 2,000 patents last year,
against 6,000 awarded to German and 11,000 to Japanese firms.
 REUTER

Gencorp Inc said it filed suit
against the unsolicited 100 dlr-a-share tender offer of Wagner
and Brown and AFG INdustries.
    Gencorp said it is seeking an injunction against the offer
because it is violates federal securities laws and margin
    Gencorp also said its board is carefully studying the offer
and will make a decision on whether or not shareholders should
accept or reject it by March 31.
 Reuter

Biotechnology Development Corp
said its board extended its Class A common stock purchase
warrants by six months.
    The warrants were due to expire June 5 and will now expire
on December 5, 1987.
    
 Reuter

Ireland's industrial production index
stood at 132.8 in December, a year-on-year rise of 6.2 pct, the
Central Statistics Bureau reported.
    In November the index, base 1980, stood at 144.8, showing a
rise of 4.3 pct on a year-on-year basis.
 REUTER

Shr 22 cts vs six cts
    Net 819,000 vs 201,000
    Revs 9.3 mln vs 7.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 40 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1.5 mln vs 728,000
    Revs 31.5 mln vs 26.6 mln
 Reuter

Colorocs Corp said it has been
notified the company's first patent for "Improved Print Engine
for Color Electrophotography" has been granted and will be
issued tomorrow.
    The company said the patent embodies discoveries made that
enabled it to develop its proprietary full color print engine
which will be applied to copiers, computer printers and
facsimile equipment. The first product to embody the technology
is a full color copier which will be manufactured for Colorocs
by <Sharp Corp>.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs nil
    Net 328,112 vs 6,374
    Revs 1,401,155 vs 846,253
    NOTE: Full name is Intelligent Business Communications Corp
 Reuter

<Principal Neo-Tech Inc> said it
completed the sale of its subsidiary, Neo-Tech Inc, to Seismic
Holdings Inc and Energy Holdings Inc, of Denver, Colo.
    As part of the price, Principal Neo-Tech received notes and
preferred shares of Energy Holdings. However, terms were not
 Reuter

The Department of Energy said it is
soliciting companies for innovative clean coal technologies as
part of President Reagan's acid rain initiative.
    Energy Secretary John Herrington said the 850 mln dlr
solicitation is tailored to attract industry proposals for
advanced pollution control devices that can be installed on
existing coal-fired power plants.
    Companies submitting the new technologies would need to at
least match the federal funding share if their concept is
selected, the DOE said. Herrington said he will appoint a
senior panel to advise on the technologies.
 Reuter

PHH Group Inc said it acquired
two design firms for undisclosed terms.
    In 1986, the two firms, Neville Lewis Associates of New
York and Walker Associates Inc of L.A., produced 15.6 mln dlrs
in total fees.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc is offering
in the domestic debt market 75 mln dlrs of New Zealand
dollar-denominated notes due 1988, said sole manager Merrill
    The notes were assigned a 20 pct coupon and priced at par
to yield 150 basis points below comparable New Zealand rates.
and AA by Standard and Poor's Corp. The notes have an annual
interest coupon instead of paying interest semi-annually,
 Reuter

<Mitsubishi Motor Sales
of America Inc> said it is increasing suggested retail prices
of its line of two- and four-wheel drive trucks by an average
1.1 pct, or an average of 74 dlrs, effective immediately.
    It said price increases range from 0.6 pct, or 40 dlrs, on
the Mighty Max two-wheel drive truck to 1.9 pct, or 190 dlrs,
on the four-wheel-drive SPX.
 Reuter

Charter Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Bristol, Va., said it has agreed to acquire
Jefferson Savings and Loan Association of Warrenton, Va.
    Under terms of the transaction, which would result in a 1.3
billion dlr thrift institution, stockholders of Jefferson will
get 30.50 dlrs per share, half in cash and half in shares of
Charter.
    The resulting association will operate under the name of
Charter and will be based in Bristol.
    The transaction is valued at about 16.3 mln dlrs, a
Jefferson spokesman said.
    Charter said the merger is subject to approval of the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board.
    Jefferson reported a 1.5 mln dlrs loss and assets of 360
mln dlrs for the year ended September 30, 1986.
    For the year ended June 30, Charter reported net income of
7.9 mln dlrs. Assets totaled about 844.0 mln dlrs as of
December 31.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) cereals
trade lobby organisation Coceral said it has written to EC Farm
Commissioner Frans Andriessen to propose a new system for sales
into intervention, which it claims could save the EC budget
money.
    It proposes that applications for intervention be made
through a certificate valid for execution three months later.
If during the three months the trader found a market elsewhere,
he could buy back the certificate on payment of a one pct
premium.
    Coceral argues that this would restore the original
function of intervention as a safety net and would end the
present situation in which produce is often sold into
intervention as a precaution.
 Reuter

Communaute Urbaine de Montreal is
issuing a 75 mln Canadian dlr bond due April 22, 1997 carrying
a coupon of 8-7/8 pct and priced at 101-5/8, Banque Nationale
de Paris said as lead manager.
10,000 dlrs and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock
Exchange. Payment date is April 22, 1987. The issuers'
outstanding securities are rated A-plus by Standard and Poor's
Corp.
    There is a 1-1/4 pct selling concession and 5/8 combined
 REUTERS

Lopat Industries Inc said <BKK
Inc>'s Falcon Disposal Service Inc has agreed to become the
exclusive distributor of Lopat's K-20 toxic waste clean up
products in 12 western states.
    Lopat said Falcon's sales specified under the agreement are
targeted at 43 mln dlrs over the next 54 months.
 Reuter

Chronar Corp said it was
awarded a contract from Solar Energy Research INsitute, a U.S.
Department of Energy laboratory, to perform research on
amorphous silicon photvoltaic cells and submodules.
    The three-year research program is valued at 9.4 mln dlrs,
with the costs to be shared equally by Chronar and the
institute.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Kidnappers of four professors, three
American and one Indian, said U.S. Hostage Alann Steen was ill
and offered to free him in exchange for a hundred detainees in
Israel.
    "U.S. Spy Alann Steen began to suffer from illness, his
health might deteriorate and he might die in 10 days," said a
hand-written statement by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of
Palestine delivered to Beirut's independent An-Nahar newspaper.
    "Our humanitarian motives require that we free him for 100
detainees in the occupation jails," said the statement, which
was accompanied by a photograph of Steen.
 REUTER

Toll Brothers Inc said it formed a
New England divisional office, which will be located in
Hopkinton, Mass.
    The office will open April 15. The company said the new
office opening underscores its commitment to establishing a
position throughout the Northeast corridor.
 Reuter

Hartford Fire Insurance Co said
it filed a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission relating to up to 210 mln dlrs aggregate of
Class C and Class D Preferred stock.
    Proceeds from any of the stock will be used towards the
redemption of its Class A preferred Stock, it said.
 Reuter

managing board chairman Carl Hahn said the company was equal to
the challenge of overcoming potential losses from allegedly
fraudulent currency transactions.
    He said the potential losses of 480 mln marks were a
setback for VW but added the company's past conservative
financial management meant VW was up to the challenge.
    VW would not cut back on investment or fringe benefits
because of the possible currency losses, he told workers in a
speech before driving the 50 millionth vehicle produced by VW
off the assembly line.
 Reuter

<Burroughs Wellcome Co> said it has
set up a distribution system to ensure the people in most need
can get Retrovir, the first drug shown to have activity against
AIDS, during an initial period while supplies of the drug are
limited.
    At a press conference here, Paul Dreyer, the company's
product manager for the drug, said physicians must submit an
enrollment application to the company for each new patient who
is a candidate for taking the drug.
    The company is the U.S. arm of Wellcome Plc.
    The application will list several items required to
evaluate a patient. The company will inform doctors within one
week if a patient meets enrollment criteria and whether there
are sufficient amounts of the drug available.
    On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the
drug for wide clinical use. The drug is not a cure for AIDS,
but it does prolong the lives of certain people with AIDS, who
have a history of certain types of pneumonia, and patients with
an advanced form of AIDS-related complex whose immune systems
have declined after infection with the virus.
    The company said it only has enough supply of the drug to
treat 15,000 patients and by the end of the year should have
enough supply to treat 30,000 patients.
    Dreyer said physicians can call 1-800-843-9388 for
information about distribution of the drug, and pharmacists can
call 1-800-322-1887 to place orders for the drug.
    Dreyer added this distribution system will end once an
adequate supply of the drug is available.
    Thomas Kennedy, vice president of corporate affairs,
declined to comment on the cost of developing the drug.
    Some organizations have criticized the high cost of the
drug, which is said to be between 7,000 and 10,000 dlrs per
year for treatment. Dreyer said it took seven months to make
the drug, and the company obtained the principal raw material
from Pfizer Inc <PFE>.
    Dryer said the company is developing other suppliers.
    The company said it spent 80 mln dlrs for the raw materials
for the drug and an undisclosed amount on research, but would
not disclose the total cost of developing Retrovir.
    Burroughs has cited the high cost of making the drug as one
of the reasons for its cost.
 Reuter

Trandy Brands Inc said 8.0
mln dlrs of 8.5 pct, 10-year subordinated convetible notes were
placed with a private institutional investor by Goldman Sachs
and Co.
    Tandy Brands also said it completed a new two year credit
agreement Citicorp's <CCI> Citibank and MCorp's <M> MBank Fort
Worth providing working capital lines and letters of credit of
15 mln dlrs in year one and 21 mln dlrs in year two.
    Tandy Brands said the notes are convertible at 10 dlrs a
share, noting a previous announcement the price was negotiated
when the company's common was trading at 7.75 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

COCA COLA SPOKESMAN SAID RUMORS COKE SEEKING TAKEOVER OF WENDY'S ARE NOT CORRECT

Shr loss one cnt vs profit one cnt
    Net loss 35,000 vs profit 42,000
    Revs 881,000 vs 1.3 mln
    Year
    Shr profit seven cts vs profit nine cts
    Net profit 291,000 vs profit 366,000
    Revs 4.4 mln vs 5.9 mln
    NOTE:1985 4th qtr and year includes gain of 7,000 dlrs and
147,000 dlrs respectivley. 1986 year includes gain of 35,000
dlrs from tax loss carryforwards.
 Reuter

Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) said Congress would more
readily respond to the needs of the U.S. futures industry to be
internationally competitive if the industry showed a
willingness to do its business honestly.
    But he told the futures leaders that they "have a more
 Reuter

Deputy Prime Minister Janez Zemljaric,
speaking before a meeting with the Paris Club of creditor
nations, said Yugoslavia was seeking to refinance two billion
dlrs of debt.
    The official Tanjug news agency quoted Zemljaric as saying
Yugoslavia expected a "definite measure of understanding" from 16
western creditor countries when they meet on March 30.
    Zemljaric was not quoted as saying whether the two billion
dlrs referred to principal or interest or both. Yugoslavia's
hard currency debt stands between 19 and 20 billion dlrs.
    Zemljaric said the International Monetary Fund criticised
Yugoslavia for not regulating consumption, not having real
interest rates or market exchange rates, for its inability to
control monetary policy and slow pace of reform.
    He said the criticisms were in a report by an IMF
commission which visited Yugoslavia last December and January.
    "We cannot accept this assessment because we have made not
inconsiderable progress under difficult conditions, even though
we are aware of our own weaknesses," Zemljaric said.
    He said the report favourably assessed some trends in the
Yugoslav economy but did not say which.
    Milos Milosavljevic, also a Deputy Prime Minister, said
last Friday that Yugoslavia had repaid 640 mln dlrs of
principal and 325 mln dlrs of interest so far in 1987.
    According to official Yugoslav figures, Yugoslavia repaid a
record 5.97 billion dlrs in capital and interest in 1986.
    In an interview with the West German weekly magazine Der
Spiegel, Prime Minister Branko Mikulic said last weekend
Yugoslavia had repaid 28.3 billion dlrs in principal and
interest between 1981 and 1986.
 REUTER

Oper shr loss 5.60 dlrs vs loss 1.10 dlrs
    Oper net loss 18,688,000 vs loss 3,662,000
    Sales 107.3 mln vs 108.7 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 5.76 dlrs vs loss 98 cts
    Oper net loss 19,213,000 vs loss 3,263,000
    Sales 455.2 mln vs 417.0 mln
    Note: Prior qtr and year figures exclude losses from
discontinued operations of 279,000 dlrs and 555,000 dlrs,
respectively and respective losses on sale of discontinued
operations of 14.6 mln dlrs and 15.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A report by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded that index trading was not
to blame for the two-day stock market drop that occurred Sept.
11-12, 1986
    The report, made public today, concluded that index trading
magnified but was not the cause of last fall's two-day
120-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Index.
    The commission staff said it planned to continue to closely
monitor developments in index-related trading but planned no
immediate regulatory action as a result of the precipitous
stock market decline.
    "The magnitude of the September decline was a result of
changes in investors' perceptions of fundamental economic
conditions, rather than artifical forces arising from
index-related trading strategies," the report said.
    "Nevertheless, index-related futures trading was
instrumental in the rapid transmission of these changed
investor perceptions to individual stock prices, and may have
condensed the time period in which the decline occurred."
    The SEC staff concluded its study "does not provide an
independent basis to conclude that radical regulatory or
structural changes are necessary at this time."
    The report said "the dramatic growth in the size and
institutional use of index products requires continued careful
analysis of the potential for disruption of the stock market as
well as manipulative or other inappropriate trading in the
index products and their component stocks."
    It said there "may be merit" to requiring additional
reporting and record keeping procedures for index-related
trading. But it added that the SEC staff has not yet considered
the costs and benefits of the various alternatives.
    The report does not deal with a second precipitous dip in
the market which occurred Jan. 23.
    On that day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 115
points in little more than an hour.
    The SEC said its staff was still analyzing the underlying
causes of that price decline and had not yet made findings.
    The SEC study was made after a number of investors, news
reports and other analysts blamed the Sept. 11-12 drop on
so-called "program trading," in which computers rapidly execute
complex trading strategies designed to profit from minute
changes in the relationship between the price of stock index
futures and the stocks that make up the index.
    The investors and analysts complained that such rapid
movements in the stock market would drive small investors out
of the market and possible even lead to a stock market crash.
    But the SEC report said the possibility of a market
collapse was "remote."
    It said it believed any rapid stock price decline "likely"
would eventually be reversed by renewed buying as prices
reached far lower levels.
    It also argued that index futures and options are important
to traders who use them to hedge their market positions and
lessen risk exposure.
    "While a 'cascade effect' may be possible as a result of
index-related trading, it did not ocur on Sept. 11 and 12," the
report concluded.
 Reuter

will start marketing its Pre-Paid Legal Services contract in
the state of Washington today.
    It said it is now doing business in 23 states.
 Reuter

Oper shr 93 cts vs 32 cts
    Oper net 2,443,810 vs 847,609
    Revs 30.3 mln vs 21.0 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr 1.16 dlrs vs 85 cts
    Oper net 3,066,407 vs 2,250,781
    Revs 70.9 mln vs 61.8 mln
    NOTE: qtr 1985 excludes gain 96,327 dlrs for discontinued
operations of Lebanon Packaging.
    Year 1986 and year prior excludes loss 62,216 dlrs, and
gain 281,367 dlrs, respectively, for discontinued operations on
Lebanon sale.
 Reuter

<Ventra Management Inc> said it
has formed a joint venture that it will manage to provide lease
financing for <Modular Computer Systems Inc>
    Ventra said it will fund leases with the proceeds of a 60
mln dlr leasing equipment receivable bond offering underwritten
by Mabon, Nugent and Co.  It said the venture has already
generated about 10 mln dlrs in computer leases.
 Reuter

A Coca Cola Co spokesman said rumors
the company is interested in acquiring Wendy's International
<WEN> are not true.
    "Those rumors are not correct," said Carlton Curtis, an
assistant vice president at Coke. "We have stated many times
that Coca Cola Co has no interest in an acquisition in the food
service industry and thereby becoming a competitor to our food
service customers."
    Wendy's stock has been flying high on the rumors for two
days. Today, Wendy's hit a high of 13-3/8 before dropping back
to 12-3/8, up 5/8 in heavy trading.
 Reuter

Amalgamated Bank of New York said
three locals of the Iron Workers Union will invest a portion of
their pension funds in below-market, no-points
Amalgamated-written home mortgages for members.
    The bank is owned by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
Workers Union.
    It said about 18 mln dlrs has been set aside for the
program and loans of up to 150,000 dlrs will be offered in
fixed-rate and adjustable form.  The bank said if the program
is successful, there will probably be a substantial increase in
its funding, and it would expect other unions to look into the
possibility of initiating programs for their own members.
 Reuter

Survival Technology Inc said it
has received a U.S. Defense Department contract with a ceiling
price of 14.4 mln dlrs for the produyction of ComboPen
automatic injectors and Mark I Antidote Kits for the
self-administration of antidotes to chemical warfare under
combat conditions.
    It said deliveries are expected to start this month and be
completed by August.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.16 dlrs vs loss 61 cts
    Net loss 3.5 mln vs loss 1.3 mln
    Revs 943,938 dlrs vs 480,333 dlrs
 Reuter

Portugal's Agriculture Minister Alvaro
Barreto said he disagreed with a court order barring the state
grain buying agency EPAC from taking part in cereals import
tenders open to private traders.
    Barreto told reporters his aim was to have EPAC readmitted
to the tenders.
European Community (EC), a grain import monopoly held by EPAC
    Following legal proceedings by private importers, Lisbon's
civil court decided in a preliminary ruling earlier this month
that EPAC should not be allowed to take part, as it had done,
in tenders for the liberalised share of annual grain imports.
    As a result of this ruling, EPAC was excluded from a March
12 tender for the import of 80,000 tonnes of maize.
    Barreto said, "My objective is put EPAC into the tenders
because it has a right to take part." He added the government
would be studying the court order to see whether or not the
ruling could stop EPAC from participating in future tenders.
    Barreto said there was no reason to exclude any operator,
whether public or private, from the tenders. Private traders
had argued that EPAC, given its dominant position in the
Portuguese grain market, had an unfair advantage over them.
    "There is no reason to make EPAC a martyr of the system,"
Barreto said. He said the EC's executive commission had
accepted the government's view that EPAC should be eligible.
    The Lisbon court ruling stated that EPAC's participation in
the public tenders was unfair competition and violated the
clauses of Portugal's EC accession treaty dealing with the
gradual dismantling of the state agency's import monopoly.
 Reuter

Standard Federal Bank said it
introduced a zero-point fixed rate mortgage loan.
    The loan program offers borrowers home mortgage financing
with no discount fees charged.
    Standard said that fees charged will include an application
fee, commitment fee and out-of-pocket expenses such as title
work, survey, recording fees and private mortgage insurance.
    
 Reuter

IRAQ OIL MINISTER QASSEM AHMED TAQI REPLACED, IRAQI NEWS AGENCY REPORTS

Guy F. Atkinson Co of California
said its Commonwealth Construction Co unit received a 110 mln
dlr contract covering construction of a paper machine for St.
Mary's Paper Inc of Ontario, Canada.
    The company said project startup is scheduled for April
1987 with completion expected in December 1988.
 Reuter

Boeing Co (BA)'s wholly owned De
Havilland Aircraft Co of Canada Ltd and <Short Brothers PLC>,
of Northern Ireland said they might decide later this year
whether to launch a joint commuter/regional aircraft program.
    It said a program launch would lead to service entry for
the new aircraft in 1991.
    "Provided the ongoing market and detailing design
configuration studies confirm demand and project viability, a
decision to launch a joint program could be taken later this
year," said the companies, which agreed last autumn to a
12-month assessment of a new generation transport aircraft.
    De Havilland and Short Brothers said they agreed to the
basic parameters of the new aircraft, which they said would be
aimed at the low end of the passenger range.
    They declined to speculate on engine selection for the
plane, but said several competitive powerplants were available.
 Reuter

Iraq's Oil Minister Qassem Ahmed Taqi
has been moved to the Heavy Industries ministry, the official
Iraqi news agcny INA said tonight.
    It quoted a Presidential decree appointing Oil Ministry
undersecretary Isam Abdul-Rahim Al-Chalaby as the new Oil
Minister.
    The Ministers of Industry and Communication and Transport
had both been relieved of their posts, the news agency said.
    No immediate explanation was given for the changes.
    Al-Chalaby is the head of the Iraqi National Oil Company.
    INA said the decree, signed by President Saddam Hussein,
relieved the Minister of Heavy Industries, Subhi Yassin Khadeir
of his post and appointed him a Presidential adviser.
    His ministry was formerly known as the Industry and Mineral
Resources Ministry. The Minister of Communications and
Transport, Abdel-Jabbar Abdel-Rahim al-Asadi was also relieved
of his post and replaced by a member of the ruling Baath party
regional command, Mohammed Hamza al-Zubeidi. Al-Zubedei is also
a Presidential adviser. All three ministers involved in the
reshuffle had spent more than four years in their posts.
 Reuter

and First Boston Inc's <FBC> Sunter Holdings Corp subsidiary
have been named as defendants in a class action filed in the
Court of Common Pleas for Allegheny County, Pa., which seeks an
injunction against Allegheny's proposed merger into Sunter.
    The company said its board and some former directors and
First Boston were also named as defendants.
    It said it and Sunter intend to vigorously oppose the
action.
    Allegheny said the class action suit alleges the price to
be paid in the transaction is grossly unfair. The company said
the suit's allegations are similar to those contained in an
earlier federal court suit.
 Reuter

    Net 19,174 vs 118,671
    Revs 3,127,162 vs 2,936,330
    Year
    Shr eight cts vs 30 cts
    Net 198,290 vs 712,087
    Revs 12.4 mln vs 11.6 mln
    Avg shrs 2,603,588 vs 2,376,604
 Reuter

UNC Inc said it has received a 16 mln
dlr contract from the U.S. Department of Energy for production
of naval propulsion system components.
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 1,991,000 vs 1,485,000
    Sales 11.7 mln vs 9,479,000
 Reuter

Washington Water Power Co said it
requested the Washington Utilities and Transportation
Commission to issue an accounting order which would revise the
current method of accounting for investment tax credits.
    Approval of the order would allow the company to apply tax
credits to earnings in 1987, 1988 and 1989 rather than
spreading those credits over a period of about 30 years under
the current method.
    A similar request was filed with the Idaho Public Utilities
commission in November of 1986 but hearings have been delayed
until later in 1987.
 Reuter

LSI Logic Corp said it intends
to offer 100 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures
due 2002, outside the U.S., through Morgan Stanley
International and Prudential-Bache Capital Funding.
    The company said it is issuing the debentures with an
indicated coupon range of 5-3/4 pct to 6-1/4 pct and an
indicated conversion premium range of 24-26 pct.
    The debentures will be convertible into common stock
through the life of the bonds.
    The company said the debt is expected to be listed on the
Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
 Reuter

The president and five senior
managers of a publicly-owned Italian savings bank and the vice
president of another major Italian bank have been arrested on
embezzlement charges, police said.
    Nicola Calipari, head of Cosenza police investigation
section, told Reuters <Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria e Luciana
- Carical> president Francesco Sapio and five managers were
arrested last night. Three others believed involved had also
been arrested, including Francesco Del Monte, vice president of
(Banca Nazionale del Lavoro), he said. Carical holds deposits
totalling some 6,000 billion lire.
 REUTER

The Senate this week might take up
proposed legislation that could serve as a lightning rod to
expose broad initiatives to change U.S. farm policy.
    The Senate could consider a House-passed bill that would
allow wheat and feedgrains farmers to receive at least 92 pct
of their income support payments if flooding last year
prevented, or will prevent, them from planting their 1987
crops, Senate staff members told Reuters.
    Also pending is a bill extend the life of the National
Commission on Dairy Policy.
    Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., intends to offer an amendment
to one of the bills that would suspend the minimum planting
requirement for all 1987 wheat, feedgrain, cotton and rice
producers, an aide said.
    Under current law, producers must plant at least 50 pct of
their base acreage to be eligible for 92 pct of their
    Most major U.S. farm groups have lobbied hard against
making any fundamental changes in the 1985 farm bill out of
fear a full-scale debate could expose agricultural problems to
budget-cutting pressures.
    Representatives of these farm groups have said they also
fear efforts by Midwestern Democrats to force a floor vote on a
bill that would require large acreage set-asides in return for
sharply higher support prices.
    However, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, sponsor of the bill, told
Reuters he did not intend to offer his measure as a floor
amendment but to bring it through the committee.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said it has filed
a motion with the Texas Court of Appeals to supplement the
court record with new evidence it has just received of alleged
bias by Judge Anthony J.P. Farris against Texaco and its chief
trial lawyer in its litigation with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    The company contended that the alleged bias provides clear
grounds for a new trial. It said the motion was filed in
connection with its appeal of the Pennzoil judgment pending in
that court.
    Texaco said the motion introduces two letters written by
Farris, who has since died, to two Houston lawyers in late
1984, after he had been assigned the case but before the trial
began.
    The company alleged that Farris harbored personal animosity
against Texaco and its chief trial lawyer, Richard B. Miller,
due to an earlier motion to have Farris disqualified from the
case. The motion was filed due to Farris' acceptance of a
10,000 dlr campaign contribution from Pennzoil's chief trial
lawyer, Joseph P. Jamail, shortly after the case was assigned
to him, Texaco said.
    In February the Texas Appellate Court refused to grant
Texaco a new trial, finding no evidence that Farris was biased.
    Texaco said it is preparing its application for a rehearing
on the merits of its case before the Texas Appelate Court, and
the application will be filed on March 30.
    The company said it will ask the court to reconsider its
decision on the issue of due process in light of the Farris
letters.
    In the suit, Pennzoil has been awarded about 10.53 billion
dlrs in damages from Texaco in connection with Pennzoil's
proposed merger with Getty Oil Co, which was later taken over
by Texaco. Texaco is appealing the ruling.
    A Texaco spokeswoman said the company had known of the
letters for some time but were unable to release them until now
due to understandings of confidentiality with the attorneys
from which they were secured.
 Reuter

A further special session of the
International Tin Council, ITC, held here tomorrow, March 24,
will give member countries an update on the latest debate over
the hundreds of millions of sterling lost when its buffer stock
price support scheme failed in October 1985, delegates said.
    But the ITC quarterly session scheduled for April 8-9 will
be important, as the council will by then be wanting to decide
on whether the current pact should be extended beyond June 30
or just allowed to expire, delegates said. A two year extension
is possible.
 Reuter

Amalgamated Metal Trading, AMT, today
lodged an appeal against the ruling which prevented its
petition to wind up the International Tin Council, ITC.
    The verdict was given by Mr Justice Millett on January 22,
when AMT led an effort by ITC creditors to recover sums claimed
by banks and London Metal Exchange brokers as a result of the
collapse of the ITC's buffer stock operations in October 1985.
AMT had until March 26 to lodge its appeal.
    The grounds for the appeal are that the judge erred on
three points when giving his verdict, Michael Arnold, head of
the broker creditors group Tinco Realisations, told Reuters.
    The judge ruled that the U.K. Court had no jurisdiction to
wind up the Tin Council, that the ITC was not an association
within the meaning of the Companies Act, and that the
winding-up petition was not a proceeding in respect of an
arbitration award. AMT will contest all three points.
    The U.K. Companies Act allows the possibility of the
winding-up of what it defines as an association, and AMT will
argue that the Tin Council falls within this definition, Arnold
said.
    The ITC has immunity except for the enforcement of an
arbitration award, and thus it is important for AMT that the
court accepts that the winding-up petition represents a move to
enforce an arbitration ruling.
    The court originally decided that the winding-up petition
went wider than the enforcement of such a debt, an AMT
    The appeal is unlikely to be heard for several months, but
a case brought by fellow ITC creditor Maclaine Watson is to be
heard on April 28. This is a move by the metal broker to have a
receiver appointed over the ITC's assets.
    Since similar arguments will be used in this case, it is
possible that any appeal in the Maclaine Watson case could be
consolidated with AMT's appeal, Arnold said.
    Other ITC creditors have brought direct actions against the
Council's member states and an application by the governments
to strike out the first of these, brought by J.H. Rayner
(Mincing Lane) Ltd, is to be heard on May 11.
    Shearson Lehman Brothers action against the LME's tin
"ring-out" in March 1986 is also scheduled to be heard in the
near future. The hearing date has now been put back slightly to
June 8.
 Reuter

Carling O'Keefe Ltd, 50.1 pct owned by
<Elders IXL Ltd>, said it agreed to contribute 5.0 mln Canadian
dlrs towards the 245 mln dlr cost of building a dome stadium in
Toronto.
    The company also said its wholly owned Toronto Argonauts of
the Canadian Football League signed a 10 year lease, including
an option for an additional five year term, to play its games
at the dome stadium.
    It did not disclose financial terms of the lease, but said
it was a "very competitive lease" compared to an existing
agreement with the Canadian National Exhibition stadium.
    Carling O'Keefe said its 5.0 mln dlr contribution to
Ontario Stadium Corp, which is undertaking construction and
fundraising for the dome stadium, includes a 3.5 mln dlr
donation and a 1.5 mln dlr payment for certain product and
advertising rights.
    Under the rights, the brewery will be able to use
advertising space and feature its products at events that the
company sponsors, Carling O'Keefe said.
 Reuter

Medical Graphics Corp said William
Stubblefield resigned as chairman and chief executive officer,
effective immediately, with President Kye Anderson assuming his
duties.
    It said Stubblefield's leadership abilities and personal
integrity were "unquestioned," but because of "false rumors in
the investment community" he felt he could no longer be
effective as an officer.
    Stubblefield quit as president of Endotronics Inc <ENDO> in
October. On Friday, Endotronics reported that its auditor,
Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co, said it withdrew its approval
of the company's financial data for the fiscal year ended Sept
30, 1986.
    Endotronics also said it was cooperating with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and acknowledged a grand
jury investigation into its operations.
    Medical Graphics said Stubblefield had made "significant
contributions" to the company.
 Reuter

UNC Inc said it has reached agreement
with the U.S. Department of Energy to expand production
facilities at the company's Naval Products Division in
Uncasville, Conn.
    The company said the 55 mln dlr project will start
immediately and is scheduled for completion in 1990.
 Reuter

Centerior Energy Corp said its
construction spending "peaked" in 1986 at 1.1 billion dlrs,
and annual expenses are expected to be substantially lower over
the next several years.
    Last year, the company placed in operation Perry Nuclear
Unit One. In December, its Davis-Beebe Nuclear Power Station
resumed operations after an 18-month outage.
 Reuter

The United States has offered Navy
warships to escort Kuwaiti oil tankers into and out of the 
Gulf where they could be threatened by new Iranian anti-ship
missiles, U.S. defense officials said today.
    "We believe the Kuwaitis have also approached the Soviet
Union about the possibility of using Soviet tankers" to ship
their oil, one of the officials told Reuters. "But if there is
superpower protection, we would rather it come from us," the
    The officials, who asked not to be identified, said Kuwait
had asked about possible protection for a dozen vessels, most
of them oil tankers, which could be supplied by three U.S. Navy
guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates now
in the southern part of the Gulf.
    "We told them we would give them help and we are waiting to
hear the Kuwaiti response to our offer," one official said.
    In addition to a half dozen ships in the U.S. Navy's small
Mideast Task Force near the Straits of Hormuz, the Pentagon has
moved 18 warships -- including the Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk
-- into the northern Indian Ocean in the past month.
    White House and defense officials said today that massing
of the fleet was routine and had nothing to do with the
Iran-Iraq war or Iran's recent stationing of Chinese-made 
anti-ship missiles near the mouth of the Gulf.
    The land-based missiles have increased concern in Kuwait
and other Middle East countries that their oil shipments might
be affected. Several hundred vessels have been confirmed hit in
the  Gulf by Iran and Iraq since early 1984. White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters today that it was in
the U.S. strategic interest to keep the free flow of oil in the
gulf and through the Straits of Hormuz.
    But he said U.S. ships in the region were on routine
maneuvers.
    Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on Sunday declined to
discuss specifics, but said the United States would do whatever
was necessary to keep the Gulf shipping open in the face of new
Iranian anti-ship missiles in the region.
    "We are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the
shipping going and keep the freedom of navigation available in
that very vital waterway of the world," he said on NBC
television's "Meet the Press."
    The State Department said Friday Iran has been informed
about U.S. concern over the threat to oil shipments in the
Gulf. The communciation was sent through Switzerland, which
represents American interests in Iran.
     Iran on Sunday denied as baseless reports that it intended
to threaten shipping in the gulf and warned the United States
that any interference in the region would meet a strong
response from Tehran, Tehran Radio said.
    An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted in a
broadcast monitored by the BBC in London, said reports that
Iran intends to threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless.
    "In conjunction with this misleading propaganda, America has
already paved the ground to achieve its expansionist and
hegemonistic intentions, aiming to build up its military
presence in the region," he was quoted as saying.
 Reuter

Timber Realization Co said it has
agreed to sell its remaining 50,000 acres of timberland
property in Mississippi for about 11.3 mln dlrs in cash.
    Timber Realization, a limited partnership formed to dispose
of timberlands and related properties transferred to it by the
<Masonite Corp>, said that when this sale is completed the
partnership will have received about 15.2 mln dlrs in cash and
notes from the sale of its properties since December 23, 1986.
    The partnership said it will terminate before August 3,
1987.
    Prior to that date, the partnership said it expects to form
a liquidating trust to provide for unresolved claims and
liablities.
    Timber Realization said the amount retained in that trust
will depend on its experience in resolving open items up to the
termination date, but it added it expects to retain a
substantial amount in the trust.
    The partnership said it anticipates making a cash
distribution of an as yet undetermined amount to unitholders at
or before the liquidation trust's funding date.
   
 Reuter

Dominion Resources Inc said it
has reahced an understanding under which the National Coal
Association would withdraw its opposition to the company's
petition for exemptions from the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel
Use Act of 1978.
    The company needs the exemptions from the U.S. Department
of Energy to allow it to build the combined cycle generating
units Chesterfield 7 and 8.  Chesterfield 7, a 210 megawatt
unit planned for service in June 1990 at a cost of about 130
mln dlrs, would initially burn natural gas. Companion unit
Chesterfield 8 would be built by June 1992.
    Dominion said the coal group withdrew its opposition to the
plants after Dominion said it would be willing to pursue
installation of a coal gasifier for Chesterfield under proper
economic conditions, so that the units could burn coal gas.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss five cts vs loss 1.28 dlrs
    Oper net loss 155,000 vs loss 3,982,000
    Sales 37.1 mln vs 34.2 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes losses from discontinued fabric
finishing operations of 3,431,000 dlrs vs 5,910,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

    Shr profit 11 cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net profit 224,271 vs loss 511,349
    Revs 7,258,688 vs 7,200,349
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    Record April 18
 Reuter

Bolivia's top union leader today joined
a hunger strike by 1,300 state employed miners and workers to
press for higher wages he said.
    Juan Lechin Oquendo, the veteran secretary general of the
Bolivian Labour Organization, COB, told reporters: "I am
joining the fast to abide with our call for a hunger strike".
    Lechin, 83, became one of 12 COB leaders to join a hunger
strike to protest against the austerity programme of the
government of president Victor Paz Estenssoro.
    The striking leader began his fast as leaders of 9,000
miners employed by the state corporation COMIBOL were due to
star negotiations on ways to solve their conflict over pay.
    About 1,300 miners and workers entered today their fourth
day of fast in union offices and Roman Catholic churches to
press for a substantial hike in Bolivia's minimum monthly wage,
which is 40 bolivianos (about 20 dlrs), COB leader Walter
Degadillo said.
    "I will take part in the miners' negotiations because that
does not force me to suspend my fast," Lechin told reporters.
    The COMIBOL miners' strike entered its fifth day to press
for higher wages and more funds for the mining nationalised
industry.
    About 20,000 miners, or two-thirds of the working force,
have been laid off through the government's decision to
streamline the deficit-ridden state corporation following a
collapse in the international tin price.
    The government, faced with mounting social unrest against
its economic policies, has called the miners' strike and fasts
part of a campaign aimed at discrediting it during the visit of
West German president Richard von Weizsaecker, who began a
four-day visit last Friday.
    "I regret not being able to attend an invitation by
president Weizsaecker to a dinner tonight because I am on a
hunger strike," Lechin told reporters. "I also have to orga-
nise the strike."
    Weizsaecker is hosting a dinner tonight for Paz Estenssoro
and had invited both Lechin and Victor Lopez, the miners'
federation top leader. Although lopez has not joined the fast,
union sources said its unlikely he would attend the dinner.
 Reuter

U.S. Bancorp's Pacific State
Bank of Lincoln City said it plans to merge with U.S. Bancorp's
U.S. National Bank of Oregon.
    Under the pact, Pacific State will become part of the U.S.
Bank branch system.
    The company said the merger is expected to be completed
after mid-year, following regulatory approval.
    All local staff and management will remain the same, it
said.
 Reuter

Wolverine World Wide Inc said
it signed a letter of intent to sell to an investment group two
subsidiaries, Kaepa Inc, an athletic footwear maker, and its
international marketing arm, Kara International Inc.
    Wolverine said the action continues the restructuring
operation begun last July to make the company more competitive
and profitable. Wolverine said it will concentrate its effort
in the athletic footwear market in its Brooks footwear
division.
    Wolverine said it expects "favorable results in the second
half as a result" of its restructuring. In 1986 it said
restructuring helped improve its financial capabilities.
    The company reported a 12.6 mln dlr loss, or 1.75 dlrs a
share, in 1986 due largely to a 9.0 mln dlr restructuring
charge and a 4.0 mln dlr inventory evaluation readjustment
taken in the second quarter.
    Since that time, it has sold two small retail operations,
closed and consolidated five domestic footwear factories and
closed about 15 retail locations.
 Reuter

said thrift institutions insured by the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corp reduced their liabilities at a 4.1 pct
annual rate during January.
    It was the first drop in liabilities in a year and resulted
from repayments of borrowings, the bank board said.
    Mortgage loans closed by thrifts in January totaled 15.2
billion dlrs, down from 31.6 billion dlrs in December. Net new
deposit withdrawals were up to 2.2 billion dlrs from 1.9
billion dlrs in December.
    Total liabilities in January were 1.108 trillion dlrs,
compared with 1.112 trillion dlrs in December. Capital rose to
53.51 billion dlrs from 53.17 billion dlrs in December.
    The bank board said thrifts were net repayers of 4.4
billion dlrs of borrowings in January, in contrast to their 6.3
billion dlr net increase in borrowings in December.
 Reuter

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc
said it is in negotiations to acquire Capital Health Care, a
40,000 member health maintenance organization servicing Salem
and Corvallis, Ore.
    The company said it will not disclose terms or other
details of the acquisition until negotiations are completed.

 Reuter

MTS ACQUISITION HAD TALKS WITH PRATT HOTEL, SOUTHMARK ON CAESARS WORLD PURCHASE

Duke Power Co said it began its
licensing process for a new hydroelectric power plant on Coley
Creek, near the towns of Cashiers, N.C., and Salem, S.C.
    Duke said it will decide whether to pursue the project once
the licensing process is completed.
    In order to be producing electricity by the turn of the
century, the company said, it needed to start the four to six
year licensing process now.
    If the site is developed to its full potential of 2,100
megawatts, its cost will be slightly greater than three billion
dlrs, including projected effects of inflation.
 Reuter

Initials Plus said it expects sales in
the year ending January 31, 1988 to exceed 10 mln dlrs.
    The company had sales last year of 256,000 dlrs.
    Initials said it expects to turn profitable some time in
1988 and sees sales of 100 mln dlrs annually by the end of
1989.
    The company said it now has over 100 personal retailers
marketing its products and expects to have more than 1,000 by
the end of 1987.
 Reuter

Corp said it will begin shipping its mid-range 9370 Information
System up to two months earlier than previously planned.
    IBM said model 20 and 60 processors with a selected set of
features will be available starting July 1987. Other 9370
processor models will be available starting October 1987, it
said.
    In addition, the company said shipments of the 9370
Information System will begin this month to customers
particiaping int he early support program.

 Reuter

Senegal, Ivory Coast and Ghana are the
biggest recipients among developing nations of a special
European Community (EC) aid program to compensate for lost
export earnings, EC figures published today showed.
    The EC has special trading and aid agreements with 66
countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. This
includes a program called STABEX under which it provides aid to
export-dependent countries if export earnings drop too much.
    Senegal received about 155 mln European Currency Units (176
mln dlrs) between 1975 and 1984 mainly to compensate for a fall
in its peanut export earnings.
    The Ivory Coast received 108 mln ECUs (123 mln dlrs) and
Ghana received 91 mln ECUs (104 mln dlrs) mostly to make up for
a drop in coffee and cocoa export earnings.
    Under the EC's STABEX aid program (export earnings
stabilisation system), the Community provides special financial
assistance to developing countries if export earnings in
certain raw materials fall below an established level.
    The EC provided about 1.06 billion ECUs (1.21 billion dlrs)
in STABEX aid from 1975 to 1984, including 273 mln ECUs (311
mln dlrs) for losses in peanut exports, 261 mln ECUs (298 mln
dlrs) for coffee and 150 mln ECUs (171 mln dlrs) for cocoa.
 Reuter

Martin T. Sosnoff said his <MTS
Acquisition Corp> to date has received only a "negligible"
number of Caesars World Inc shares in response to its 28-dlr-
per-share tender offer for all shares.
    Sosnoff also said he has held preliminary talks with Pratt
Hotel Corp <PRAT> and Southmark Corp <SM> on forming a joint
venture to enter into talks to acquire Caesars in a friendly
transaction in which Sosnoff would have a 50 pct interest and
Pratt and Southmark the remainder.
    Sosnoff said the talks with Pratt and Southmark are not
being actively pursued at the presentand may or may not be
continued in the future.  He said there could be no assurance
that a joint venture would be formed or that Caesars would
agreed to talks.  "Several preliminary contacts with
representatives of Caesars have not resulted in any indication
that it wishes to enter into such negotiations," Sosnoff said.
    He said based on talks with staff members of gaming
authorities, there can be no assurance that the necessary
regulatory review of its bid for Caesars World can be completed
by the original April Three expiration date.
    Sosnoff said it has extended the tender until May 15.  The
bid remains subject to regulatory approvals and the arrangement
of financing.
    Pratt, which owns the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic
City, N.J., where Caesars operates the Boardwalk Regency Hotel
and Casino, recently waged an apparently unsuccessful campaign
to acquire control of Resorts International Inc <RTA> against
New York developer Donald Trump.  Southmark owns about 37 pct
of Pratt Hotel.
    Caesars World's boasrd has urged rejection of the offer on
the grounds that it is inadequate and has said it would
investigate alternative transactions.  Sosnoff currently owns
about 13.3 pct of Caesars World.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co is
another illustration of a maxim already learned by several
other huge corporations - that success in one segment of the
electronics industry is very difficult to translate into
success selling computers.
    ATT is learning the hard way that all the resources and
technological advances in the world can not make up for weak
marketing and sluggish responses to one of the most rapidly
changing and competitive industries.
    Consequently, ATT will try again this week to convince the
world that it is serious about computers, after four years in
the business, by announcing a set of new products and
showcasing its latest computer chief, Vittorio Cassoni,
formerly of ATT's Italian affiliate Ing. C. Olivetti and Co.
    Industry consultants said ATT will announce a faster
addition to its 3B line of minicomputers, improved connectivity
products, a new version of its Unix software operating system
and assortered peripheral equipment, including a laser printer.
    The announcements, however, hold "minimal significance" for
both ATT and the industry, said Forrester Research consultant
John McCarthy. "They are just never going to be a significant
player in this market as long as computers play a subjagated
role to the (telephone) network," he said.
    ATT, the world's largest company before its breakup in 1984
and still the pre-eminent phone company in the United States,
has only been able to carve out a fractional share of the
computer industry.
    Last year was particularly disastrous for the company's
data systems division, which posted a pre-tax operating loss
for the year of 1.2 billion dlrs (ATT as a whole reported a
1986 profit of 139 mln, after a 1.7 billion dlr charge against
earnings, down from 1.56 billion dlrs the prior year).
    Morale is down throughout the company after ATT reduced its
work force by 32,000 people last year, leaving a work force of
290,000, but analysts say the situation in the computer
division is particularly bad, especially since the computer
merged its computer and network sales forces.
    Meanwhile, the company's most successful product, the 6300
personal computer, ran out of steam in the last three months of
the year after gaining some five pct of the market.
    "ATT seemed to lose their focus with the 6300," said
consultant Norman DeWitt, president of Dataquest Inc. "There
were no major product enhancements last year and a perception
developed in the marketplace that the product was tired."
    Meanwhile, the 6300 had to face increasingly aggressive
competition from smaller companies that undercut ATT on price
and offered more technologically advanced machines. "I would
have to say that, after a fast start, ATT just lost momentum on
the pc side," said DeWitt.
    The 3B line of minicomputers has never found great
acceptance in the market and ATT's Unix operating system,
though loved by scientists and engineers, has yet to put a
serious dent in the much more widely used systems adopted by
industry giant International Business Machines Corp <IBM>.
    By last fall, ATT executives found themselves trying to
defuse widespread speculation that ATT was going to abandon or
sell off the computer division and the company turned over all
responsibility for personal computers to Olivetti, in which its
owns a 23.5 pct stake.
    But analysts said the company's image was dealt another
blow last week when ATT senior vice president James Edwards,
who preceded Cassoni as head of the computer division,
announced he was leaving to become president of TelWatch Inc, a
small developer of systems to manage networks.
    Several other executives have also left in recent months,
including John Walsh, head of the 3B minicomputer line. And,
although the 43-year old Cassoni has considerable experience
running Olivetti's successful computer operations, analysts
expressed concern about his approach to ATT's business.
    Cassoni has said he wants to acheive recognizable success
in both within ATT and in the marketplace within two years and
it is widely assumed that he will rapidly abandon any product
that does not meet those profitability goals.
     The problem with such a strategy, analysts said, is that
it may not give certain products enough time to become
established and customers may be reluctant to buy a product
that could be discontinued in a year or two.
    ATT chairman James Olson took a slightly more conservative
view of the computer division recently. He lauded Cassoni's two
year goal but said he expects the data systems division to turn
around within five years.
    Olson denied the perception that ATT was retreating "to the
womb, going back to our old business" of long distance
telephone systems at the expense of the computer division.
 Reuter

Iraq said today its warplnes had
attacked a supertanker and four Iranian oil sites and vowed to
keep up such raids until the Gulf war ends.
    The surprise escalation of attacks on oil installations
broke more than a month-long lull in Iraqi air force action.
    It also followed celebrations yesterday of what Baghdad
hailed as Iran's failure to achieve victory during the Iranian
year which ended on Saturday.
    A high command communique said warplanes hit the western
jetty at Iran's Kharg island oil terminal in the afternoon and
struck a supertanker nearby at the same time.
    The Kharg terminal, attacked about 135 times since August
1985, was last raided in January.
    The communique did not identify the supertanker, but said
columns of smoke were seen billowing from it.
    In London, Lloyds insurance said the 162,046-ton Iranian
tanker Avaj was hit on Saturday, when Iraq reported an earlier
Gulf attack.
    But there has been no independent confirmation of today's
supertanker attack nor of other raids on shipping reported by
Baghdad in the past 24 hours.
    The last confirmed Iraqi attack took place on March eight,
when the Iranian tanker Khark-5 was hit south of Kharg.
    Iraqi warplanes also struck Iran's offshore oilfields at
Nowruz, Cyrus and Ardeshir in northern gulf, some 80 km (50
miles) west of Kharg island, today's communique said.
    The three oilfields have been raided several times in the
past three years. Oil sources said they were not crucially
important to Iran's oil export trade.
    A second high command communique today said Iraqi warplanes
flew 94 sorties against Iranan targets and positions at the war
front.
    It also reported a clash between Iraqi naval units and
several Iranian boats carrying men to attack an Iraqi oil
terminal at the northen tip of the Gulf.
    Two Iranian boats wer destroyed and sunk with their
occupants and the others fled, it said.
 Reuter

Takeover speculation buoyed Wendy's
International Inc's stock, even after Coca Cola Co took the
fizz out of market rumors by denying it was an interested
suitor.
    Wendy's retreated from an earlier high of 13-3/8, and lost
a point when Coca Cola <KO> said the rumors were untrue.
However, Wendy's remained up 5/8 at 12-3/8 on volume of more
than three mln shares.
    Several analysts were skeptical of the rumors, yet they
said they could not conclude a takeover of the fast food
restaurant chain was impossible.
    Wendy's declined comment on takeover rumors of all kinds.
Yet, a Wendy's spokesman said the company was aware of a
Business Week article, which named Coke as a potential suitor
and which market sources said helped ignite the rumor mill.
    Market sources mentioned Anheuser-Busch Inc <BUD> and
Pepsico Inc <PEP> as alternatives to Coke as acquirers. Neither
of those companies would comment, nor would the Wendy's
official.
    "It doesn't happen every day, every week, every month, but
its not unusual for us to be linked with those companies," said
Denny Lynch, Wendy's vice president of communications.
    However, Lynch would not comment specifically on the
current market rumors.
    Even before Coke denied the rumors, analysts had been
skeptical of a takeover since Atlanta-based Coke has stated it
views fast food chains as customers and does not want to become
a competitor to them.
    "I can't put another name on it," said Kidder peabody
analyst Jay Freedman as vaguer rumors continued to hold up
Wendy's stock. "It very well could be someone's interested."
    But Freedman said he doesn't believe now is the right time
for Wendy's to be sold.
    "They're obviously having operational difficulties. I've
always believed at the right price Wendy's would consider (an
offer), but I can't believe this is the right price at the
right time," Freedman said.
    "If a transaction takes place, the buyer's going to control
the situation," Freedman said.
    "I just don't think there's anything going on. I don't
think it's worth much more than where it is," said Joseph Doyle
of Smith Barney.
    Analysts said Wendy's has suffered largely from the "burger
wars" between itself, McDonald's Corp <MCD> and Pillsbury Co's
<PSY> Burger King chain. Wendy's, the third largest fast food
hamburger chain in the U.S., lost about 11 pct in same store
sales last year, analysts said.
    Wendy's also fumbled when it introduced a high-priced
breakfast, which it has since withdrawn, analysts said. Some
analysts said the company should be bringing in new products,
but it is too soon to predict a significant turnaround.
    There are analysts, however, who believe Wendy's may be
vulnerable to a takeover.
    James Murren of C.J. Lawrence said Wendy's could be worth
14 to 15 dlrs on a break-up basis. He said the company has
improved its debt-to-equity ratio and Wendy's owns a high
percent of its own restaurants - 38 pct of 3,500.
    "They also have some attractive leaseholds on their
restaurants," Murren said.
    Murren said that despite the downturn in sales last year,
Wendy's real sales, store for store, turned upwards in the
fourth quarter. "That was about the first time in seven
quarters," he said.
    Caroline Levy of E.F. Hutton also believes something could
be going on with Wendy's. "My gut feeling is something's going
to happen. I don't know what," she said.
    She estimated a takeover price would be at least 15 dlrs
per share.
    One analyst speculated that Coke became the rumored suitor
because Wendy's decided to sell Coke at its fountains instead
of Pepsi.
    Wendy's is currently embroiled in litigation brought by
Pepsi, which holds a contract with the company, analysts said.
Pepsi's soda is still sold in the Wendy's restaurants.
 Reuter

Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole
said he believed the Senate would vote to sustain a
presidential veto of an 88 billion dlr highway and mass transit
bill.
    "I think the veto will be sustained," he told reporters after
he and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole, had
met with President Reagan at the White House.
    Elizabeth Dole said, "We're going to be working on that
(sustaining a veto) and...I'm optimistic that we will sustain
it."
    But she conceded, "It will be tough."
    Reagan has said he will veto the five-year measure because
of objections to so-called highway demonstration projects and
transportation programs that put the bill about 10 billion dlr
over his budget request.
    "He needs to demonstrate that he's in charge and that he's
effective and he can't let these big things slip through,
saying 'I don't want a confrontation'," Sen. Dole said.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS  SOYBEANS 13,417 WHEAT 12,003 CORN 27,623

West Germany's banking authorities
are being drawn into the currency scandal surrounding
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> as the repercussions and allegations in
the financial community widen, banking sources said.
    The Bundesbank has seconded one of its currency experts to
help the state prosecutor investigating the currency fraud at
Volkswagen, VW, in Brunswick, a Bundesbank spokesman said.
    The Federal Banking Supervisory Office in West Berlin also
is considering press allegations that several banks "parked" open
positions with VW, breaching banking regulations.
    Earlier this month Volkswagen said it had incurred
potential losses of 480 mln marks in an alleged fraud involving
the hedging of open currency positions.
    The foreign exchange activities of a large non-bank
corporation would not normally attract the attention of West
German banking regulators.
    Their strict foreign exchange rules, set up after the
Herstatt banking crash in 1974, apply only to banks.
    "This strict banking supervision aims to protect special
interests -- creditors and depositors," the Bundesbank spokesman
said, adding company shareholders were not covered.
    "The Volkswagen case, in so far as it involves Volkswagen's
normal foreign exchange business, lies far outside the area of
the Bundesbank," he said.
    The Bundesbank's decision to send a currency expert to
Brunswick to help investigations into activities involving
Volkswagen's foreign exchange dealing room was part of the
normal assistance rendered by one public authority to another.
    The expert will count as part of the state prosecutor's
staff and not report back to the Bundesbank, he said.
    But the Bundesbank could get more closely involved in
allegations that banks used VW to circumvent regulations.
    Section 1a of the Banking Law requires banks at the close
of business each day to hold no more than 30 pct of their
capital and reserves in open positions.
    The section was introduced after the Herstatt bank crash in
1974 due to currency speculation.
    The Platow Brief financial newsletter said on Friday that
about 16 banks, mainly foreign, had been circumventing section
1a by "parking" such excess open positions with VW.
    This would mean that the bank concerned would sell the
position temporarily to VW, buying it back a day or so later.
    However, such repurchase agreements are expressly included
in section 1a as still counting as open positions.
West Berlin said it was following the allegations but
investigations were difficult because the 16 banks had not been
named. He declined to say what steps were being taken.
    But banking sources said the Supervisory Office as an
initial step had approached the Platow Brief for the identity
of the banks, but this had been refused. The Platow Brief
declined comment.
    If the Supervisory Office ascertains that the banking
regulations have been infringed, it will pursue the case with
the assistance of the Bundesbank.
    The Office, subordinate to the Finance Ministry, does not
have branches outside Berlin.
    The independent Bundesbank however operates 203 branches in
West Germany, closely monitoring local banks.
    Banks deposit statistics, including currency position data,
once a month with the Bundesbank's regional administrations at
federal state level, the Landeszentralbanken (LZBs).
    Currency dealers said parking excess positions with
non-banking corporates was frequent practice.
    Such positions would often be sold for tomorrow/next
delivery, with a verbal agreement to buy it back the next day
at the same rate.
    A VW spokesman said it was company policy not to undertake
currency hedging but he confirmed that arbitrage was allowed.
    He declined to estimate the volume of currency arbitraging.
German press reports have put it at 80 billion marks a year.
    The spokesman declined to comment on how it would have been
possible to carry out a fraud involving currency hedging given
the company's policy not to conduct this kind of business.
    VW finance director Rolf Selowsky accepted responsibility
and resigned. VW has suspended six other officials and fired
its former foreign exchange chief, Burkhard "Bobby" Junger.
    Management board chief Carl Hahn told a ceremony today
marking VW's 50 millionth vehicle that personnel changes did
not mean any of those involved was guilty.
 REUTER

All claims to be settled under a
U.K./Soviet pact agreed last year in connection with
pre-revolutionary Russian bonds and seized assets will be
treated equally, Price Waterhouse and Co (PW) said.
    It said that the treatment for the bonds had not actually
been determined, although it had been estimated that holders
would receive about 10 pct of the nominal value of the bonds,
which was the percentage to be assigned to property claims.
Now, "the face value of the bond will be added to the value of
the property. A dividend will then be calculated and all claims
will be treated equally," PW said.
    PW administers the Russian Compensation Fund, which was set
up by the Foreign Office in 1917 to oversee some 45 mln stg in
pre-revolutionary reserves for claimants of assets seized
during the Revolution.
    PW, which is currently accepting applications for the
claims, said that to date, 2,000 bond application forms and 600
property application forms have been returned.
    Because the number of applications and bonds returned is
increasing rapidly, a special office where the claims are being
processed will remain open beyond the close of business until
midnight on March 31, the deadline for claims to be submitted.
 Reuter

The EC Commission will decide shortly
precisely how to arrange the import of third country maize and
sorghum into the EC in fulfilment of its agreement with the
United States, Commission sources said.
    Under the accord, reached following U.S. complaints about
the impact on its agricultural exports of Spanish EC
membership, the EC will import two mln tonnes of maize and
300,000 tonnes of sorghum a year up to end of 1990.
    All this produce will be imported into Spain at special
levy levels likely to be below those applying for imports into
other EC countries.
    The sources said it was possible that the Spanish
intervention board would be asked to buy the produce directly
this year, as it was rather late to make other arrangements.
    They added that the choice for future years appears to lie
between a system of regular tenders and the setting of a daily
special levy applicable to Spanish imports.
    There will initially be no tax on re-exports of maize and
sorghum from Spain to other EC countries, although such a tax
could be imposed later, the sources added.
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss 63 cts
    Net loss 596,000 vs loss 2,934,000
    Revs 7,261,000 vs 6,600,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss 14 cts vs loss 1.28 dlrs
    Oper net loss 683,000 vs loss 5,824,000
    Revs 29.8 mln vs 22.7 mln
    Avg shrs 4,930,000 vs 4,546,000
    NOTE: Year net excludes losses from discontinued operations
of 764,000 dlrs vs 5,152,000 dlrs.
                        
 Reuter

Shr loss 74 cts
    Net loss 4,192,613
    Revs 2,928,021
    Note: 1986 net includes 3,095,000 dlr write-off tied to
discontinuation of emulator board production.
    Co's 1st fl-yr of operation.
 Reuter

France's Societe Generale <SGEN.PA> bank,
which will be sold to the private sector in the second half of
this year, reported increased profits for last year.
    Societe Generale, one of the three largest state-owned
banking groups, said in a statement that its parent company
profit for 1986 totalled 800 mln francs, up 21.2 pct on 1985's
660 mln profit.
    This was in line with earlier forecasts of profit of
between 770 and 800 mln francs.
    The bank's parent company gross operating profits were up
5.4 pct at 21.34 billion francs against 20.24 billion in 1985.
    The increase in the bank's gross operating profits was
mostly due to a rise in french franc deposits and personal
loans as well as the development of its financial activities,
Societe Generale said.
    Parent company net banking earnings last year were also up
at 13.9 billion francs compared with 13.57 billion in 1985
while operating costs totalled 7.44 billion francs against 6.67
billion the previous year.
    Societe Generale President Marc Vienot said in December he
expected group 1986 consolidated profits to rise to between 2.5
billion and 2.6 billion francs from 1.62 billion in 1985.
 Reuter

Varity Corp said it established a joint
venture company with <Barclays Bank PLC>'s Highland Leasing Ltd
unit, to provide retail credit facilities for Varity farm and
industrial machinery dealers and customers.
    The new finance company, called Barclays Bank Agricultural
Finance Corp, will absorb the 30-member staff of Varity's
former Canadian retail finance operations, said Varity,
formerly Massey-Ferguson Ltd. Other terms were undisclosed.
    It added that the new company would also pursue third party
financing opportunities with other Canadian agricultural
 Reuter

French household consumption of
industrial goods fell 1.1 pct seasonally adjusted to 21.32
billion francs last month from 21.55 billion in January, the
    This brought consumption back down to the December 1986
level, it added.
    INSEE said that the fall was due to a sharp decline in
purchases of clothing, which were high in January due to the
cold weather. The decline was partly compensated by a small
rise in purchases of durable goods.
 Reuter

President Leon Febres Cordero named
Ricardo Noboa as the new minister of industry and trade in
Ecuador to replace Xavier Neira who resigned last week, a
presidential place spokesman said.
    A lawyer by training, Noboa, 34, was deputy secretary of
fisheries between august 1984 and september 1986.
    Neira stepped down last thursday. He then denied he was
responding to recent protests against a new austerity programme
that went into effect after a recent earthquake.
    The march 5 tremor caused an estimated one billion dlrs in
damage and left 1,000 people dead or missing.
 Reuter

France's Economic and Social Council
(CES), an advisory body comprising industrialists, trade
unionists and representatives of other sectors of the French
economy, said the country's annual growth may not reach two pct
in 1987.
    French gross domestic product risks not reaching the two
pct growth registered last year, the Council said in a report
on first quarter 1987 economic activity without giving any
specific forecasts. Finance Minister Edouard Balladur was
quoted today as saying that French 1987 growth will probably be
about two pct.
    Balladur said in an interview with the financial daily Les
Echos that the country's economic growth will probably be about
the same as last year due to a less favourable international
    CES President Philippe Neeser said one of the major fears
for the French economy this year was a resurge in inflation.
    Disinflation was an absolute priority, Neeser told
journalists, adding that a failure to do this would be
extremely serious as if would be very difficult to reverse for
many years.
 Reuter

Personnel Inc said it declared a three-for-two stock split,
payable May 15 to stockholders of record April 14.
 Reuter

said it received 8,300,000 dlrs in contracts from the
Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX> to manufacture super components
for the F-16 fighter jet programs.
    The awards are scheduled for delivery in 1987, 1988 and
early 1989, the company said.
 Reuter

MCA Inc said
shareholders at the annual meeting on May Five will be asked to
approve a change to its certificate of incorporation
eliminating certain liabilities of directors to MCA or its
shareholders under Delaware law.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 20 cts vs loss 81 cts
    Oper net loss 1,042,000 vs loss 4,077,000
    Revs 38.5 mln vs 50.3 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss six cts vs loss 43 cts
    Oper net loss 336,000 vs loss 2,176,000
    Revs 137.8 mln vs 209.1 mln
    NOTE: qtrs 1986 and prior exclude net realized investment
gains of 74,000 dlrs and 644,000 dlrs, respectively, and years
1986 and prior exclude realized investment gains of 642,000
dlrs and 1,979,000 dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

Shr 1.25 dlrs vs 1.14 dlrs
    Net 472,254 vs 446,805
    Revs 21.4 mln vs 19.4 mln
 Reuter

TRINOVA Corp said about 813,000
shares or 95 pct of its 855,255 Series A 4.75 dlr cumulative
convertible preferred shares have been converted to common
stock in response to its call for redemption of the issue at
100 dlrs per share.
    Each preferred share was convertible into 2.25 common
shares.
 Reuter

U.S. Home Corp said it combined two
existing credit and term loan contracts into a new credit
agreement totalling 222.3 mln dlrs with 18 commerical banks.
    The new maturity date is April 30, 1988, it said.

 Reuter

Swiss bankers announced a series of
measures aimed at preventing abuses of the country's tight
banking secrecy laws as part of a revision of a 10-year-old
voluntary code of conduct.
    The measures follow renewed controversy over the limits of
Swiss secrecy, prompted by recent allegations that both former
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and U.S. Officials linked
with the arms-for-Iran scandal had accounts here.
    The Swiss Bankers Association said it wanted to curb the
right of bank clients to hide their identity behind lawyers.
    The association said it would insist that banks identify
anyone doing cash business at the counter worth more than
100,000 francs, down from a current 500,000.
    Banks would continue to be required to identify their
clients in other cases and pledge not actively to help capital
flight, or tax fraud. They would also still face fines of up to
10 mln francs in case of abuse.
    "The Bankers Association is convinced that this new
agreement will give the banks an instrument which will
guarantee banking secrecy and help the standing of Swiss
banking both home and abroad," the statement said.
    The code, once approved by member banks, will go into force
on October 1. The original dates from 1977.
    Controversy surrounding the alleged use and then freezing
of bank accounts here linked with Marcos and with the U.S.
Arms-for-Iran scandal have again directed attention on the
revision of the code.
    The recent busting of a major international drug ring also
gave fresh evidence Swiss banks had been used for "laundering"
drug money.
    The Banking Commission, responsible for overseeing the
banks, said at the end of last year it wanted a drastic
reduction in clients' ability to hide behind lawyers and
fiduciary agents, a proposal criticised by lawyers.
    Steering a middle way, the association said today that
lawyers doing banking business on behalf of clients would in
future have to pledge they were not doing so merely to preserve
the clients' identity nor only for a short period of time.
    Until now, lawyers have only been obliged to sign a form
pledging that their clients are not misusing their anonymity
for illegal purposes.
 REUTER

Sonora Gold Corp said it was
advised by a California agency that the company's common shares
can be solicited for trading by brokers in the state.
    The California Department of Corporations said Sonora
common shares will be included in the Eligible Securities List,
allowing brokers and broker-dealers to solicit orders in
    The company also said it poured a dore gold bar, a gold bar
that needs more refining, at a leaching plant in Nevada using
gold from the Jamestown mine in Tuolumne County. The mining,
milling and leaching operations should reach full commercial
production within 90 days.
 Reuter

Adage Inc said it introduced a new
family of workstations compatible with International Business
Machines Corp's <IBM> 5080 Model 2 graphics.
    The company said prices for the Series 6000-II workstations
start at about 20,030 dlrs.

 Reuter

will establish a joint venture with CSX Corp's CSX
Transportation Inc to develop electric power cogeneration
projects.
    The new venture, to be called Energy Dominion, is being set
up to consider, evaluate and possibly carry out one or more
cogeneration projects outside Dominion's subsidiary, Virginia
Power's, service area, Dominion said.
    Energy Dominion will consider specific projects on a case
by case basis, concentrating on coal- and gas-fired
cogeneration opportunities in the northeastern U.S., it said.
 Reuter

Commission, CFTC, and the White House budget office are
exploring the possibility of transfering the three mln dlr
annual cost of the commission's surveillance functions to the
private sector, CFTC Chairman Susan Phillips said.
    Phillips told the House Appropriations Agriculture
Subcommittee that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, had
asked CFTC to study whether the market surveillance
responsibilities could be paid for with user fees.
    CFTC officials said the two agencies were studying whether
commodity exchanges, futures commission merchants or market
users should bear the cost of the surveillance program.
    Phillips told Reuters that CFTC and OMB were expected to
complete the study by mid-April.
 Reuter

BellSouth Corp said it completed its
previously-announced agreement to acquire <Dataserv Inc> for an
exchange of shares.
    BellSouth said under the Nov 25, 1986, agreement, it
exchanged one of its common shares for every 13.3 Dataserv
common shares. The exchange reflects the Feb 23 three-for-two
BellSouth stock split, the company said.
 Reuter

UAL Inc's United Airlines said it will
offer scheduled service between Burbank, Calif., and Denver,
Colo., starting June five.
    United said it will operate two daily round-trip flights in
the Burbank to Denver market using new Boeing Co <BA> 737-300
aircraft.
    United said as a promotion for its new route it will offer
a bonus of double mileage to all members of its frequent flyer
prgram, Mileage Plus, who fly the Burbank-Denver route during
the first 45 days of service.
 Reuter

downgraded Texas Air Corp's 410 mln dlrs of debt and affirmed
the unit Eastern Air Lines Inc's 703.4 mln dlrs of debt.
    The agency cut Texas Air's senior secured debt to B-3 from
B-2, but affirmed the company's Caa subordinated debt and B-3
junior preferred stock.
    Moody's affirmed Eastern Air's B-3 senior secured debt and
Caa subordinated debt and junior preferred stock.
    The parent's downgrade recognized risks associated with
Texas Air's investment in operating companies that will require
substantial external financing to buy aircraft.
    Moody's also cited Texas Air's secondary position to the
cash flow and assets of its subsidiaries, relative to its
subsidiaries' creditors, and the insufficiency of the holding
company's cash flow to meet fixed charges.
    The agency noted that Texas Air has adequate liquidity to
service its obligations, but cautioned there is no guarantee
that its liquidity will remain stable.
    Moody's said it affirmed Eastern's debt ratings amid
expectations that recent improvements in the unit's operating
measures would be maintained. But it added that a substantial
decline in financial leverage is unlikely.
 Reuter

International Telephone and
Telegraph Corp said its long distance unit lowered rates for
two of its WATS services.
    ITT said it lowered its SMART-WATS rate an average of 9.3
pct, and its preferred WATS rates four pct.
    In addition to the rate reduction, ITT said it also lowered
its monthly preferred WATS service charge for each location to
925 dlrs, a reduction of 75 dlrs.
 Reuter

<Bombardier Inc>'s wholly owned
Canadair Ltd said it was continuing to study stretching its
Challenger business jet into a 48-passenger commuter aircraft
and was receiving a favorable reaction to the concept from
potential airline customers.
    The company, in reply to an inquiry, would not comment on a
published report that sale of 200 of the commuter planes was
imminent. Industry analysts said the potential market in North
America was about 50 units.
   The company estimated it would cost between 50 mln and 100
mln Canadian dlrs to develop the stretched commuter Challenger.
It said it had detailed market studies done by outside
consultants and that its salesmen had visited potential U.S.
    One of its existing short fuselage Challenger jets have
been fitted for 19 passengers for commuter use by Xerox Corp.
<XRX>.
    The stretched commuter version would be suitable for longer
range low-density routes, it said.
    Canadair's parent company, Bombardier Inc, said in response
to an inquiry that no sales of the commuter version were
imminent, but added it was studying markets carefully.
    It also denied reports it may buy an interest in Innotech
Aviation Enterprises Ltd, a Montreal supplier of aircraft
interiors and flilght services, which finished the interiors of
several Challenger jets.
 Reuter

Rexham Corp, a maker of
packaging materials and machinery, said it received an
unsolicited offer of 43 dlrs a share from Nortek Inc <NTK>.
    Nortek, a Providence, R.I., textile manufacturer, has
disclosed it holds 381,050 Rexham shares, or about 9.1 pct of
the outstanding, the company said.
    Rexham said it does not welcome the proposal but added its
board will study the offer and respond in due course.
    Nortek has proposed paying half cash and half Nortek
convertible preferred stock for Rexham, which has about 4.2 mln
    The cash portion would include the amount previously paid
for the Rexham stake and the terms of the convertible preferred
stock would be negotiated, the company said.
    Rexham said it received the takeover offer in a letter from
Nortek.
 Reuter

The Philippines and its commercial bank
advisory committee will resume talks tomorrow on what bankers
hope will be the final leg of negotiations for a 9.4 billion
dlr debt rescheduling package.
    Bankers, attending the Inter-American Development Bank
annual meeting here, said the two sides are still working on a
plan that embraces Manila's proposal to pay interest partly
with Philippine investment notes (PIN) instead of cash.
    One senior banker said he hoped that final agreement would
be reached this week but cautioned that a number of major
issues are still outstanding.
    The senior banker said that the remaining issues include
interest rates and the exact form of the investment notes plan.
    However, bankers did not anticipate any accounting problems
for this novel interest payment method.
    Deputy U.S. Comptoller of the Currency Robert Bench said
last week that U.S. bank regulators also had no objection in
principle to the PINs concept because Manila has guaranteed
their ready conversion into cash.
 Reuter

CCC, had 33.2 billion dlrs invested in commodity loans and
inventories on November 30, 1986, compared to 25.0 billion a
year earlier, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the November 30 loans outstanding
amounted to 20.0 billion dlrs and inventories 13.2 billion. A
year earlier outstanding loans amounted to 17.0 bilion dlrs and
inventories 8.0 billion dlrs, it said.
    The CCC's total net realized loss from operations amounted
to 1,946.32 mln dlrs for the two months ended November 30, 1986
compared to 1,201.6 mln in the same period a year ago.
    As of November 30, CCC's borrowings from the U.S. Treasury
amounted to 13.2 billion dlrs, leaving a statutory borrowing
authority available of 11.8 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Net profits for year ended December 31
1986 1.3 billion lire vs 47.3 billion
    Deposits from clients 3,691.0 billion lire vs 3,419.0
billion
    Loans to clients 2,448.0 billion lire vs 2,181.5 billion
    Note: The bank, sold by Bankamerica Corp <BK.N> last
December to West Germany's Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F>, said the
sharp fall in net profit reflected various factors including
higher set-asides for risk coverage and a high tax burden.
 Reuter

debt ratings of People Express Airlines Inc remain under review
for possible downgrade.
    The agency said that People Express has not legally merged
with Continental Airlines Inc, a unit of Texas Air Corp, even
though the two have integrated their flight operations. Moody's
also cited significant litigation against People.
    Moody's pointed out that neither Texas Air nor Continental
have assumed the debt service obligations of People Express,
which currently carries B-3 senior secured debt and Caa senior
unsecured debt.
 Reuter

Newmont Gold Co's business plan
forecasts a boost in capital spending and gold production this
year, the preliminary prospectus for its planned offering of
five mln common shares said.
    Following the offering, which was announced last week,
Newmont Mining Corp <NEM> will own at least 90 pct of Newmont
Gold's 104.5 mln outstanding shares, the prospectus said.
Newmont gold is now a 95 pct owned subsidiary of Newmont
Mining.
    The prospectus said Newmont Gold plans capital spending
totaling 69 mln dlrs this year, up from 18 mln dlrs last year.
Spending is expected to decline to 48 mln dlrs in 1988, 20 mln
dlrs in 1989 and four mln dlrs in 1990 before rising to 11 mln
dlrs in 1991.
    The company said it expects to sell 577,000 ounces of gold
this year, up from 474,000 ounces last year.
    It said gold sales are expected to increase to 777,000
ounces in 1988, and 890,000 ounces in 1989 before declining to
884,000 ounces in 1990 and 852,000 ounces in 1991.
 Reuter

Energy analyst Edward Krapels said
the United States should consider an oil tariff to keep U.S.
dependence on imports below 50 pct.
    "On the supply side, the argument in favor of a contingent,
variable import tariff is most persuasive," Krapels, president
of Energy Security Analysis, Inc said in a statement at a House
Energy and Power subcommittee hearing.
    "An optimal tariff would be one implemented only if the
international price of crude oil falls below, say, 15 dlrs a
barrel. On the demand side, the obvious policy is an excise tax
on transportation fuels," Krapels said.
    But William Johnson of the Jofree Corp disagreed with the
oil tariff proposal, saying Congress should remove price
controls on natural gas, repeal the windfall profits tax on oil
companies, allow exports of Alaskan oil and provide tax
incentives for U.S. oil production, or, at the least, preserve
exisiting tax incentives for drilling. He also urging filling
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a faster rate.
    Richard Adkerson of Arthur Andersen and Co told the
subcommittee oil imports were expected to increase because
funds for exploration and development of domestic oil sources
cannot now be economically justified due to low oil prices.
 Reuter

Security Capital Corp said it has
suspended quarterly cash dividend payments indefinitely.
    The company also said its board has withdrawn authroization
for the company to buy its stock on the open market. Its
previous dividend payment was five cts on February 24.
    Security Capital said this action was taken in response to
its continuing operating losses, primarily at Benjamin Franklin
Savings Association, a Houston-based subsidiary.
 Reuter

Auditors of Brunswick Corp lifted a
four year qualification on the company's financial statements,
vice president-finance Frederick Florjancic told securities
analysts here.
    The financial results for the diversified leisure and
defense/aerospace company had been qualifed by Arthur Andersen
and Co since 1982.
    The qualification related to certain tax liabilities,
amounting to 65 mln dlrs, associated with a medical division
sold by Brunswick in 1982, he said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.63 vs loss 2.43
    Net loss 60,780,000 vs loss 28,898,000
    Rev 499.7 mln vs 432.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes loss of 49.9 mln dlrs for
   
 Reuter

<Sico Inc> said it changed
its name to Sico Group as part of an administrative
reorganization to decentralize responsibilities based on the
nature of the paint manufacturer's various markets.
    The company said it formed a new subsidiary, Sico
Industries Inc, based in Toronto, to regroup industrial
operations across Canada and those of its own subsidiary
Sterling Inc.
    Sico formed another subsidiary, Sico Canada Inc, to
distribute trade paint products across Canada, except in
Quebec.
    The company said its Sico Quebec Trade Division will be
responsible for all Quebec activities of the company's trade
paints division, whose products are now marketed under the Sico
and Crown Diamond trademarks.
    The Sico Group is the largest Canadian-owned paint and
coatings manufacturer with Canada-wide product distribution, it
said.
 Reuter

Slow progress in talks between Brazil and
its major foreign creditors has increased the likelihood that
U.S. banks will declare their loans to Brazil non-performing at
the end of the quarter, bankers said.
    Several banks, citing Brazil's suspension of interest
payments on 68 billion dlrs of its 108 billion dlr foreign debt
and the absence of a coherent economic plan, have already said
they might take such a step, even though it would cost them
tens of millions of dollars in profits.
    An inconclusive meeting here March 22 between central bank
governor Francisco Gros and Brazil's bank advisory committee
can only have stiffened that resolve.
    A nasty row is also looming over 16 billion dlrs of trade
and money-market lines which Brazil froze last month.
    The legal commitment to maintain these credits runs out on
March 31, and the worried talk at the Inter-American
Development Bank annual meeting here is that some disgruntled
bank will sue for repayment, raising the specter of a cascade
of lawsuits and tit-for-tat asset seizures.
    "My gut feeling is that common sense will prevail. But is
there a risk? Yes, the mood out there is pretty nasty," one New
York banker commented.
    Two or three years ago, a showdown between the world's
largest debtor and its largest creditors would have sent shock
waves through the financial markets. But no longer.
    Some U.S. money-center bank stocks fell by about 10 pct in
the immediate aftermath of Brazil's payments halt. But, in the
Eurodeposit markets, which bankers consider to be the most
sensitive gauge of confidence, there was no discernible flight
out of bank instruments and into safer government bonds.
    In fact, the system has calmly withstood the suspension, in
part or in full, of interest payments by countries owing about
150 billion dlrs of the region's total foreign debt of 380
billion.
    Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and
Nicaragua had all curtailed payments before Brazil.
    The explanation for the fairly relaxed view is that net new
bank lending to Latin America has dried up at the same time as
banks have steadily bolstered their capital base. As a result,
exposure relative to capital has fallen and few now fear for
the collapse of a major bank.
    That is why, banking analysts have said, Citicorp <CCI>
felt emboldened to state early in the day that it might put
Brazil on a cash basis even before interest becomes 90 days
overdue. It would forfeit 190 mln dlrs of profits this year as
a result, but for a company which earned over a billion dlrs in
1986 the setback would be manageable.
    Some other banks are not as strong, however, and a
protracted confrontation with Brazil could still seriously
erode depositor and investor confidence, especially if other
debtors are emboldened to follow suit and press for debt relief.
    Bankers are thus working hard to isolate Brazil. Financing
agreements were reached recently with Chile and Venezuela, an
accord with the Philippines seems to be close at hand, and a
deal with Argentina on new loans and a debt restructuring could
be reached in the next two weeks, bankers say.
    In taking a hard line against wholesale debt relief, the
banks have the clear backing of the Reagan Administration. "All
of us have a stake in the stability of the world banking system
- a debt forgiveness plan that damages commercial banks also
weakens confidence in world financial stability," U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker told the IADB meeting.
    Some European bankers, however, argue that capitalization
of interest is already happening in practice and that the banks
ought to face up to the fact and work with the debtors on
longer-term solutions that recognize that not all the interest
can be paid back right away.
    Rigid accounting rules have prevented U.S. banks from
seriously considering adding interest to the principal of a
loan because they would have to declare the loan
non-performing. But, Brazilian central bank governor Gros said,
if the banks are now volunteering to take that step, they might
be more willing to discuss new ideas for debt relief.
    "It's not necessarily an unfavorable development," Gros
said when asked about the prospect of Brazilian loans being put
on a cash basis.
    "We find more room to discuss these things (innovations)
with European banks which have already bitten the bullet."
     What is clear, however, is that banks are so angry and
frustrated with Brazil that they are in no mood to offer quick
concessions.
    A long war of attrition on the debt front lies ahead.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc is raising
600 mln dlrs through offerings of 10-year notes and debentures
due 2017, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    A 300 mln dlr issue of notes was given a 7-7/8 pct coupon
and priced at 99.65 to yield 7.926 pct, or 70 basis points over
Treasuries. The notes are non-callable for seven years.
    An equal-sized offering of debentures was assigned an 8-3/4
pct coupon and priced at 99.40 to yield 8.807 pct, or 115 basis
Non-refundable for 10 years, the debentures will be subject to
a sinking fund beginning in 1998.
    The sinking fund for the debentures will retire five pct of
them a year. The issuer has an option to increase the sinker by
200 pct, giving the debentures an estimated average life of
21.5 years, Salomon said.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the issue A-2, compared
to a AA-minus rating by Standard and Poor's Corp.
    Allen and Co Inc and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
co-managed the two issues, which were each increased from
initial offerings of 250 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A.H. Robins Co said it filed a
motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond seeking to 
establish an orderly procedure to determine the number of valid
Dalkon Shield claims that must be dealt with in the company's
Chapter 11 case.
    The order would prescribe procedures for the filing and
disposition of objections to certain claims, it said.
    Robins said that 200,000 of the 327,000 claims it has
received should be disallowed.
    Robins said the claims are invalid because they are
duplicates, the claimant is claiming injury from a product
other than the Dalkon shield, claimants did not complete
court-required questionnaires by June 30, 1986, or the claims
were made beyond the April 30, 1986 deadline.
    Robins has sought bankruptcy protection since August 1985
following a flood of lawsuits relating to its intrauterine
Dalkon Shield, alleged to have caused uterine perforations,
sterility, spontaneous abortions and death.
     About 3.3 mln of the shields were sold in over 80
countries between 1971 and 1974, including 2.2 mln in the U.S.
before it was withdrawn from the market.
    A spokesman said Robins has been told to withhold refilng a
reorganization plan pending the determination by a
court-appointed examiner whether other parties are interested
in acquiring Robins.
    It had intended to file a plan in February, but received a
purchase bid which was later withdrawn from American Home
Products Corp.
    American Home products never disclosed details of the
proposed acquisition bid but analysts speculated that American
Home would provide about 1.5 billion dlrs for a separate trust
fund to handle the liability claims.
    Robins said that establishing a procedure for identifying
invalid claims is vital to establishing a plan of
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS LATINS DELAY ACCEPTANCE OF U.S. COMPROMISE ON
 IADB REFORMS

Shr loss 24 cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 982,779 vs profit 104,418
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 12.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 714,905 vs profit 889,679
    Revs 1,091,461 vs 3,156,569
    Year
    Shr loss five cts vs profit 22 cts
    Net loss 422,037 vs profit 1,850,637
    Revs 6,642,490 vs 7,948,312
    Avg shrs 8,808,323 vs 8,412,822
 Reuter

ALC Communications Corp said
that because of strong traffic growth and cost reductions it
anticipates reporting a profit for the first quarter of 1987,
versus a loss of 1.4 mln dlrs, or 15 cts a share, for the first
quarter of 1986.
    Earlier, the company reported a net after-tax loss for 1986
of 60.8 mln dlrs, or 4.63 dlrs a share, compared with a loss of
28.9 mln dlrs, or 2.43 dlrs a share, in 1985.
   
 Reuter

 Reuter

Annual div 11 cts vs 10 cts prior
 Reuter

CORRECTION - MOODY'S CUTS TEXAS AIR
    In New York item headlined "Moody's Cuts Texas Air &lt;TEX&gt;,
Affirms Eastern," Moody's corrects that it lowered Texas Air's
senior unsecured debt to B-3 from B-2, not the company's senior
secured debt.
 Reuter

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein carried
out his first major government shakeup in five years tonight,
naming a new oil minister in shuffling three posts.
    One minister was dropped in the shuffle, announced in a
presidential decree. It gave no reason for the changes in the
government of the Arab Baath Socialist Party which has ruled
Iraq since a revolution in 1968.
    The decree named the head of the Iraqi National Oil Company
(INOC), Isam Abdul-Rahim al-Chalaby, to take over as oil
minister replacing Qassem Ahmed Taqi.
    Taqi, appointed oil minister in the last significant
government reorganization in 1982, was moved to be minister of
heavy industries.
 Reuter

Anchor Savings Bank board of
trustees said a requisite majority of depositors and borrowers,
by a vote of 37,531,576 to 714,490, approved Anchor's plan to
convert from a federally chartered mutual savings bank to a
federally chartered stock savings bank.
    Anchor had assets of 7.3 billion dlrs as of June 30, 1986,
it said.
 Reuter

may downgrade the ratings of Ecolab Inc's 25 mln dlrs of debt
and upgrade ChemLawn Corp's 15 mln dlrs of debt.
    The agency cited Ecolab's definitive agreement to acquire
ChemLawn for 370 mln dlrs.
    "The acquisition should be financed initially with bank
debt that, together with the assumption of ChemLawn's debt,
could raise significantly Ecolab's leverage.
    Under review are Ecolab's A-3 convertible subordinated
debentures and the convertible Eurodebt of its unit, E.L.
International Ltd. ChemLawn has B-1 convertible debt.
 Reuter

Caesars World Inc declined
immediate comment on news that Martin Sosnoff's <MTS
Acquisition Corp> has held preliminary talks with two companies
on the possibility of forming a joint venture to pursue the
acquisition of Caesars.
    Earlier today MTS said it held talks with Pratt Hotel Corp
<PRAT> and Southmark Corp <SM> on forming a venture to acquire
Caesars.
    MTS also reported that it received a "negligible" number of
Caesars World shares in response to its 28 dlr per share tender
offer.
    Earlier this month Caesars World rejected the Sosnoff
takeover bid and said it is considering alternatives that
include a restructuring or sale of the company to another
party.
 Reuter

<Dixons Group PLC> said it received a
letter on March 19 from Citicorp Capital Investors Ltd, part of
the Cyacq investor group making a rival bid for Cyclops Corp
<CYL>, proposing to drop the group's offer if Dixons would sell
Cyclops industrial businesses to Citicorp.
    "Cyacq's main equity investor appears ready to pull out and
deal directly with us for merely part of the company" said
Dixons. "It raises questions as to the strength of their
consortium and the purpose of their offer."
    Dixons also said a U.S. Federal Court had refused a request
by counsel for Cyacq, Audio/Video Affiliates Inc <AVA> and a
shareholder plaintiff to prevent Dixons from
completing its tender offer for Cyclops. It also said the court
refused to require Cyclops to provide Cyacq with confidential
information previously provided to Dixons.
    On Friday Cyacq Corp, an investor group led by Audio/Video
Affiliates and Citicorp, raised their offer for Cyclops to
92.50 dlrs per share from 80 dlrs per share, if certain
conditions were satisfied.
    Last week Dixons said it won out over rival bidders for
Cyclops after getting 54 pct of Cyclop's oustanding with a
90.25 dlr or 384 mln dlr tender offer that expired March 18.
    On Friday, Dixons agreed to reopen its tender offer until
March 25, Wednesday.
    Dixons today called Cyacq's higher 92.50 dlr a share offer
for Cyclops "highly conditional."
 Reuter

Talks have occurred between Britain and
the offshore financial centers of the Channel Islands and the
Isle of Man aimed at reaching a pact to limit insider dealing,
Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard said.
    He told Parliament in a written answer that "there have been
informal talks at official level. I would hope, in due course,
to arrive at arrangements" along the lines of an agreed policy
to curb trading which uses privileged information.
    The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are
constitutionally independent of Britain's parliament, and have
fiscal regimes sympathetic to business and the accumulation of
capital.
 Reuter

Union leaders of 9,000 miners employed
by the state corporation Comibol began talks with the
government today on ways on ways to solve their strike over
pay, a mining ministry spokesman said.
    Labour minister, Alfredo Franco, met with Juan Lechin
Oquendo, the veteran secretary general of the Bolivian Labour
Organization (cob) and Victor Reyes, the miners federation top
leader, at the mining ministry, he said.
    "This time we shall start negotiations but continue with
our moves to press the government until a solution is found for
our demands," Lechin told reporters shortly before the talks.
 Reuter

A federal judge and a former U.S.
senator are among the top contenders to replace John Shad as
chairman of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), government sources said.
    Also on the list of possible replacements are two current
SEC commissioners, said the sources who asked not to be named.
    Last week the White House said it would name Shad U.S.
ambassador to the Netherlands. Among those most frequently
placed on the short list of Shad's possible successors were
Kevin Duffy, a New York federal judge, and Nicholas Brady, who
served about eight months in the Senate in 1981.
    Brady, currently a managing partner with the New York
investment banking firm of Dillon, Read and Co Inc, was an
interim replacement for Sen. Harrison Williams (D-N.J.) after
Williams resigned in a congressional bribery scandal. Duffy was
SEC New York regional administrator during 1969-72.
    However, congressional sources speculated Brady may be
unwilling to take the SEC post because he is active in Vice
President George Bush's presidential campaign.
    The SEC commissioners said to be possible replacements for
Shad are Charles Cox and Edward Fleischman.
    Fleischman was a New York securities lawyer before his SEC
appointment while Cox was the commission's chief economist.
    Sen. William Proxmire, the Wisconsin Democrat whose Senate
Banking Committee would hold confirmation hearings on the new
chairman, said he hoped that Shad's successor "would be very
supportive of the division of enforcement's on-going
investigation of the scandals on Wall Street and would be
someone who did not come directly from the industry."
    The White House said on Friday it would nominate Shad, 63,
to succeed L. Paul Bremer as the U.S. ambassador to the
 Reuter

Qtly div 32.5 cts vs 32.5 cts in prior qtr
    Payable Mary 15
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    NOTE: Full name Saxon Oil Development Partners LP.
 Reuter

West Germany and Bolivia signed two
cooperation treaties today expected to nearly double the amount
of overall aid the south american country receives from its
european trade partner, german officials said.
    Paul Resch, economic attache for the west german embassy,
told reuters that Germany had become the biggest european
community lender to bolivia.
    West german aid to Bolivia last year totalled 50 mln marks
and officials travelling with President Richard Von Weizsaecker
said overall aid to Bolivia is expected to reach 91 mln marks
this year.
    Weizsaecker is expected to announce the figure in a major
speech later today at the bolivian congress, the officials
said.
 Reuter

Security Pacific Corp said it filed
Commission covering 500 mln dlrs of subordinated debt
    Terms of the debt securities will be determined by market
conditions at the time of sale, the company said.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp is raising 450 mln dlrs
through a two-tranche offering of notes, said lead manager
    A 150 mln issue of seven-year notes was given an 8-1/2 pct
coupon and par pricing to yield 145 basis points more than
comparable Treasuries. They are non-callable for life.
    A 300 mln dlr offering of notes due 1997 was assigned an
8-3/4 pct coupon and priced at 99.447 to yield 8.834 pct, or
160 basis points over Treasuries. Non-callable for seven years,
this issue was doubled from an initial offering of 150 mln
dlrs, Merrill said.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the Unocal notes Baa-3
and Standard and Poor's Corp rates them BBB-minus.
    Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc co-managed the two-tranche
deal.
 Reuter

International Business Machines Corp,
hit by a two-year earnings slump, should begin a come-back by
the end of 1987 and post strong growth in 1988, analyst Rick
Martin of Sanford C. Bernstein Co Inc said.
    "There will be increasing momentum in earnings, albeit not
until later this year," Martin said at a technology conference
sponsored by the investment firm.
    Martin said the coming rebound reflects new product
introductions in the mid-range area, rather than any drastic
improvement in economic growth or U.S. capital spending.
    IBM, whose stock hit a 52-week low of 115-3/4 dlrs in
mid-January, has come back lately. IBM was trading up 7/8 at
149-1/2 dlrs.
    Analysts, computer industry executives, and the company
itself, have highlighted the external economic factors
hampering IBM's growth.
    But Martin said the product cycle was key to understanding
the rise and fall of IBM and other computer companies, and
pointed to Digital Equipment Corp <DEC> to support his view.
"By replacing the product line, earnings have soared," he said
of DEC's line of VAX computers.
    In contrast to DEC, IBM faultered with an incompatible
mid-range product line. A new computer code-named "Fort Knox"
was supposed to tie together a number of IBM's mid-range
systems, but the product never got off the ground, he said.
    Instead, aspects of the computer were integrated into the
IBM 9370 machine introduced last year, and other aspects should
be unwrapped by 1988, Martin said. "The major story will be a
rebound in its mid-range business."
    He said sales of IBM's mid-range computers fell about 13
pct in 1986. But the new products will lead to 5.8 pct growth
in mid-range computers this year and 30.7 pct growth in 1988.
    High-end computers, primarily the Sierra line, are coming
to the end of their product life cycle. Although growing 22.5
pct in the midst of IBM's sharply lower 1986 year, growth will
drop to 1.5 pct in 1987 and 1.9 pct in 1988, he said.
    By 1988, overall revenue growth should rise to about 16
pct, against 5.8 pct growth in 1987 and 2.4 pct in 1986, Martin
said. Last year, IBM earned 4.8 billion dlrs on revenues of
51.3 billion dlrs.
    Investors asked what this all meant to DEC, whose earnings
and stock have been propelled by a strong slew of product
introductions in the mid-range area.
    In response, Martin said he did not view IBM as a threat to
DEC, nor DEC as a threat to IBM, because both companies were
catering largely to existing customer bases, rather than
stealing market share from one another.
 
 Reuter

<Advanced Viral Research 
Corp> said its facility to manufacture reticulose, an anti-
viral agent, is ready for FDA inspection.
    The company said it will make a formal request for the
review by the end of March.
    The company said if the facility is approved, initial tests
and trials on AIDS patients will start soon afterward.
 Reuter

Citicorp Capital Investors Ltd, a
unit of Citicorp, said it wants to buy Cyclops Corp's steel
assets from Dixons Group PLC and is willing to pay 124.4 mln
dlrs, nearly 13 mln dlrs more than had been offered for the
assets by Alleghany Corp.
    The disclosure of the Citicorp unit's interest in Cyclops'
Industrial Group came in disclosure documents filed by Dixons
Group with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Alleghany's MSL Industries Inc unit had agreed to buy the
steel assets from Dixons Group for 111.6 mln dlrs.
    Dixons Group has tendered for all outstanding Cyclops
shares at 90.25 dlrs a share in cash.
    The Citicorp unit said its higher offer came to about three
dlrs more for each Cyclops share outstanding.
    As a condition of its offer, it said Dixons would have to
increase the cash price it was to pay for each Cyclops share to
93.25 dlrs in cash.
    Dixons on Friday extended the expiration time of its tender
offer until midnight (EST) March 24.
 Reuter

Brunswick Corp expects 1987 first
quarter sales to be up "dramatically" and profits to "do well,"
chairman and president Jack Reichert said after a securities
analysts meeting.
    He declined to be more specific.
    In the 1986 first quarter, Brunswick reported earnings of
23.8 mln dlrs or 57 cts a share on sales of 396.7 mln dlrs.
    Reichart noted that results of its two newly-acquired boat
manufacturing companies will be included in the company's first
quarter report.
    Brunswick expects its recreation centers to benefit from
increased attention to the sport of bowling resulting from
acceptance in the 1988 Summer Olympics of bowling as an
exhibition sport and as a medal sport in the 1991 Pan American
Games, he said.
    He said field testing of a new bowling concept involving
electronic features is being readied for test marketing this
summer, and if successful, could "materially benefit"
    Brunswick is currently test marketing in California a
health club facility adjoining a bowling center, he said.
    Turning to its defense operations, Reichert said he expects
the division to receive significant contracts in the near
future. At 1986 year end, Brunswick's defense contract backlog
stood at 425 mln dlrs.
    Frederick Florjancic, vice president-finance, told analysts
Brunswick was disappointed two credit rating services recently
downgraded the company's debt which stood at about 665.4 mln
dlrs at 1986 year end.
    "We are confident we can service our debt and bring it down
in the very near term," based on strong cash flow from
Brunswick's expanded boat operations, Florjancic said.
    Shareholders at the company's April 27 annual shareholders
meeting will be asked to approve an increase in the authorized
common shares outstanding to 200 mln from 100 mln shares, a
 Reuter

On thursday some 1,350 inspectors will
check whether merchants in Yugoslavia have fully complied with
government orders to roll back prices, the official Tanjug news
    The government of Prime Minister Branko Mikulic last friday
ordered the roll back of prices to the end of 1986 level on all
products the cost of which has increased over 20.3 pct in the
first two months of 1987, as the country's inflation soared
towards 100 pct.
    Tanjug said over 19,000 products will be affected. It said
that the price of some 4,933 industrial food products has gone
up in January an February from 104 to 775 pct.
 Reuter

Mark IV Industries Inc said it plans
to begin a tender offer at 25 dlrs a share for all outstanding
shares of Conrac Corp <CAX>, a Stamford, Conn., maker of
control instruments and telecommunications products.
    Mark IV said it owns about 670,400 shares or about 9.9 pct
of Conrac's outstanding shares.
    The offer, to be made through Mark IV Acquisition Corp, a
wholly owned subsidiary, will not be conditioned on any minimum
number of shares being tendered, the company said.
    The tender offer will be conditioned upon, among other
things, the completion of financing arrangements.
    The terms and conditions of the offer will be described in
documents to be filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission and mailed to Conrac shareholders as soon as
possible.
    Bear Stearns and Co is expected to act as dealer manager
for the offer, it said.
    A Conrac spokesman declined comment.
    Conrac has about 6.75 mln shares outstanding. Its shares
closed off 1-3/8 at 21-1/8 as about 84,400 shares changed
hands.
    Mark IV is a Williamsville, N.Y., maker of pastic products
and industrial control equipment.
 Reuter

Weatherford International said it
suspended indefinitely payment of its regular quarterly
dividend of 65.6 cts per share on its 2.625 convertible
exchangeable cumulative preferred stock.
    Weatherford said this will be the sixth non-payment of the
dividend on the stock. It said payment would have been on April
15, 1987.
    Weatherford also said the holders of the preferred stock
will have the right to elect two additional directors to the
 Reuter

MHI Group Inc said it is
affiliated with several investors who have entered into a
letter of intent providing for the purchase of Star of David
Memorial Gardens and Cemetery.
    The company said those investors will, under certain
circumstances, cede their rights under the letter of intent and
any definitive agreement to purchase the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
funeral home and cemetery business to MHI.
 Reuter

will extend its Lotus Symphony 1.2 upgrade program
indefinitely.
    The program, which began shipping in September 1986, was
originally expected to run through March 31, 1987.
    Lotus Symphony 1.2 is designed to enhance Lotus' 1-2-3
spreadsheet technology.
 Reuter

Iraq said its warplanes had attacked a
supertanker and four Iranian oil sites and vowed to keep up
such raids until the Gulf war ends.
    The last confirmed Iraqi attack took place on March 8, when
the Iranian tanker Khark-5 was hit south of Kharg.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board Options Exchange,
CBOE, said that due to telecommunications problems, last sale
prices, market quotes and index values are updating
intermittently.
    The exchange said the problem affected prices from 1456 CST
(2056 GMT). Trading in options at the CBOE closes at 1515 CST
(2115 GMT).
 Reuter

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc said it
is disappointed that no negotiations with Harper and Row
Publishers Inc are underway.
    Harcourt made a 50 dlrs a share unsolicited bid on March
11.
    On March 17, Harcourt said three of its officers met with
Harper's financial advisor but has had no discussions since
then.
    Harcourt said it does not plan to increase its bid.
    Harcourt's bid was preceded by an earlier 34 dlrs a share
bid by Theodore Cross.
    Harper had no response to Harcourt's announcement. Earlier
today, Harper said a recently appointed special committee of
independent directors had received expressions of interest from
several domestic and foreign firms with respect to
restructuring or acquisition transactions.
    Harper said no determination had been made as to any
transaction and that its special committee is continuing in
talks with interested parties in an effort to come to a
conclusion in the near future.
 Reuter

Canada plans an auction of three-year
bonds March 31 and an auction of seven-year bonds April 1, the
finance department said.
    Further details would be announced March 25 on the bonds
that will be dated and delivered April 16, 1987.
    The department said the issues are contingent upon final
Parliamentary authority being given to Bill C-40, a previously
announced act to give the government supplementary borrowing
authority for fiscal 1987 (March 31) and borrowing authority
for fiscal 1988.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 5,630,000 vs 5,152,000
    Revs 97.1 mln vs 85.4 mln
    
 Reuter

Shr profit 22 cts vs loss 2.15 dlrs
    Net profit 271,000 vs loss 2,530,000
    Revs 16.3 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Avg shr 1,238,000 and 1,177,000
    12 mths
    Shr profit 82 cts vs loss 2.14 dlrs
    Net profit 982,000 vs loss 2,517,000
    Revs 66.5 mln vs 64.5 mln
    Avg shrs 1,193,000 vs 1,177,000
    NOTE: net loss 1985 yr and qtr includes a charge of
1,042,000, or 89 cts per share, for expenses related to
restructuring of company's domestic alloy business.
 Reuter

Congress should give the U.S.
Agriculture Secretary the authority to keep the 1987 soybean
loan rate at the current effective rate of 4.56 dlrs per bushel
in order to help resolve the problem of soybean export
competitiveness, USDA undersecretary Dan Amstutz said.
    Speaking to reporters following a Senate Agriculture
Appropriations hearing, Amstutz suggested that one way out of
the current soybean program "dilemma" would be for Congress to
allow the loan rate to remain at 4.56 dlrs. He indicated if the
loan rate were 4.56 dlrs, USDA could then consider ways to make
U.S. soybeans more competitive such as using certificates to
further buydown the loan rate.
    Under current law, the 1987 soybean loan rate cannot be
less than 4.77 dlrs per bu.
    Amstutz' suggestion would be for Congress to change the
farm bill to allow USDA to leave the soybean loan rate at 4.56
dlrs in crop year 1987 rather than increase it to 4.77 dlrs.
    The 1986 effective loan rate is 4.56 dlrs because of the
4.3 pct Gramm-Rudman budget cut.
    Amstutz stressed that a major factor in any decision on
soybean program changes will be the budget costs.
    He told the hearing that the problem in soybeans is that
the U.S. loan rate provides an "umbrella" to foreign production
and causes competitive problems for U.S. soybeans.
    Asked about the American Soybean Association's request for
some form of income support, Amstutz said "the competitive
problem is the most severe." He said USDA is still studying the
situation and "no resolution" has yet been found.
 Reuter

Canada's Minister of State for Finance,
Tom Hockin, said substantial progress was made today with his
provincial counterparts on deregulation of the country's
financial system, but stumbling blocks remain.
    "We were able to make considerable headway," Hockin told
reporters following a six-hour meeting with provincial
ministers responsible for financial institutions.
    Hockin said he was optimistic an agreement could be reached
by the June 30 deadline to bring the sweeping new system in
place, but he was willing to extend it if necessary.
    Under the proposed system the traditional barriers
separating the banking, securities and life insurance sectors
will be removed and, for the first time, cross ownership will
be allowed.
    But a jurisdictional dispute over who regulates the new
institutions has broken out between the provinces and Ottawa.
The provinces have traditionally had authority over securities
while Ottawa held sway over banking.
    Hockin, without giving details, said under the new system
the regulatory system would have to be harmonized to "insure
orderly and efficient markets."
    Hockin said he made it clear to the provinces that Ottawa
has jurisdiction in any international accords in the financial
sector and would not allow any intrusion by the provinces in
that area.
    Hockin said the ministers did not have time to go into
detail on all the issues and the talks would continue the rest
of this week at the official level.
                 
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Inc said the 
International Trade Commission approved its previously
disclosed settlement of a patent dispute with a number of
Japanese semiconductor companies.
    According to the settlement, Texas Instruments said it will
receive fixed royalty payments of about 134 mln dlrs through
1990.
    The company said the payments will make a major
contribution to first quarter 1987 net income.
    The company said it will record a pre-tax, pre-profit
sharing, gain of 108 mln dlrs in the first quarter 1987.
    It also said the agreements provide for payment of per unit
royalty payments which may exceed the amount of the fixed
royalty payments, depending on production of the chips by the
licensees. The per unit payments will be made starting in the
    The companies included in the settlement are <Fujitsu Ltd>,
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd <MC>, <Mitsubishi Corp>,
<Oki>, <Sharp Corp> and <Toshiba Corp>.
    The company said the dispute is still continuing with
Hitachi Ltd <HIT>, NEC Corp <NIPNY>, and <Samsung>.
    The company said the presiding judge of the International
Trade Commission decided to terminate the investigation against
NEC, but Texas Instruments will appeal the action to the full
trade commission.
 Reuter

Cooper Development Co said it
revised results for the year ended October 31 to a loss of 61.7
mln dlrs, or 2.33 dlrs per share, down from the
previously-reported loss of 12.1 mln dlrs, or 46 cts per share.
    The restatement was made because of change in the method of
accounting for a combination of several company-controlled
concerns that resulted in a 53.5 mln dlr charge, Cooper
    Last August Cooper Development combined its Cooper
Biomedical Inc unit and its Cooper Laboratories subsidiary with
Technicon Instruments Corp, a company acquired from Revlon Inc
<REV>, a Cooper spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the transaction was accounted for as an
acquisition, but the Securities and Exchange Commission took
issue with the accounting method and said it should be
accounted for as a reorganization of entities under common
control.
    This treatment requires that the costs associated with the
transaction be expanded rather than capitalized as an
intangible asset, the company said.
    It also said that, since the charged required an expensing
of previously accrued liabilities, the company will experience
no resulting material change it its cash flow.
 Reuter

The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency said Borden Inc was fined 545,000 dlrs for the delay of
the installation of pollution controls in its canning plant in
Lyons, N.Y.
    The EPA said the U.S. District Court in Rochester, N.Y.,
assessed the penalty in connection with its failure to comply
with EPA-approved air quality regulations by July 1, 1980.
    After Borden sought relief through the courts, a final
compliance date was set for Dec 1, 1984, the EPA said.
    The EPA said that Borden did not adequately correct the
problems by the date and rejected Borden's argument that it had
made a good faith effort to rectify the problems.
    Borden sold the facility to C-B Foods in January 1986, the
EPA said.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs nil
    Net 3,614,000 vs 7,000
    Revs 37.5 mln vs 7,835,000
    Year
    Shr 13 cts vs nil
    Net 1,601,000 vs 30,000
    Revs 145.5 mln vs 51 mln
    NOTE: Per share amounts are after payment of preferred
 Reuter

downgrade Ecolab Inc's 10 mln dlrs of BBB-plus subordinated
debt.
    The agency cited Ecolab's proposed acquisition of ChemLawn
Corp <CHEM> for 370 mln dlr. S and P said there are uncertain
returns on such a large investment for Ecolab as well as
increased credit risk, with debt leverage rising to more than
60 pct from 25 pct currently.
    But S and P noted that the acquisition would broaden
Ecolab's services. S and P said it would review management's
plans to sell assets and use proceeds to reduce debt.
 Reuter

Shr loss 35 cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 3,555,293 vs profit 649,715
    Revs 4,451,732 vs 3,910,652
    Note: 1986 net includes 3.7 mln dlr writedown of oil and
 Reuter

raised to A-plus from A Weyerhauser Co's 150 mln dlrs of market
auction preferred stock, series A and B.
    S and P assigned an A rating to the company's 200 mln dlrs
of convertible exchangeable preference stock, and affirmed its
A-plus senior debt and A-1 commercial paper. Weyerhauser has
about 1.6 billion dlrs of debt securities outstanding.
    It said the action reflected the preferred's diminished
importance in the capital structure following the recent
conversion of 2.80 dlr convertible cumulative preferred shares,
which had a 200 mln dlr liquidiating value.
 Reuter

Bank of New England said it named Peter
L. Scott, chairman and chief executive officer of Emhart Corp
<EMH>, to its board.
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture undersecretary Dan
Amstutz indicated the United States is willing talk with the
Soviet Union about the competitiveness of U.S. wheat prices but
would not discuss making U.S. wheat prices "cheap."
    "There sometimes is a difference between being competitive
and being cheap," Amstutz told a Senate Agriculture
Appropriations hearing.
    Amstutz said the difference of opinion between Moscow and
Washington last summer on the level of the U.S. subsidy offered
on wheat to the Soviet Union, was over whether the U.S. wheat
price was competitive or cheap.
    "I think there is a (U.S.) willingness to explore this
issue as it pertains to competitiveness," Amstutz said.
    However, Amstutz added that the United States would not be
willing to discuss wheat prices with Moscow "if the issue is
being cheap."
    Asked later by a reporter what he meant by the distinction
between competitive and cheap, Amstutz would not elaborate.
    Amstutz said it is the U.S. judgment that the long-term
grain agreement between the two countries calls for Moscow to
buy at least four mln tonnes each of wheat and corn annually at
"prices in effect in this country."
    Amstutz made the comments in response to a question from
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, about expanding the export
enhancement program to include grain sales to the Soviet Union.
 Reuter

AMERICAN EXPRESS BOARD APPROVED NIPPON LIFE PURCHASE OF SHEARSON INTEREST

BancTexas Group Inc said it received
approval from the Comptroller of the Currency to consolidate
its four banks in Harris County into one bank, which will be
named BancTexas Houston NA.
   The company also said it filed an appliction with the
Comptroller of the Currency for permission to consolidate its
five banks located in Dallas County into one bank under the
name BancTexas Dallas NA.
    In addition, the company said it filed a registration
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating
to its previously announced restructuring plan.
 Reuter

upgraded Federal Paper Board Co Inc's 290 mln dlrs of debt.
    Raised were the company's senior debt to Ba-1 from Ba-2 and
subordinated debt to Ba-3 from B-1. Moody's assigned a Ba-3
rating to its convertible preferred stock.
    Moody's cited reduced leverage, a strengthened equity base
and increased fixed-charge coverage. Federal Paper Board's
outstanding 125 mln dlrs of subordinated debt will be redeemed
with the proceeds from the convertible preferred issue, the
agency noted. Moody's also said it expects the company to have
strong earnings this year.
 Reuter

Shr 1.51 dlr  vs 1.08 dlr
    Net 23.1 mln vs 18.2 mln
    Oper revs 81.1 mln vs 86.5 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 6.41 dlrs vs 5.77 dlrs
    Net 106.5 mln vs 99.2 mln
    Oper revs 465.8 mln vs 509.8 mln
    NOTE: 1987 periods do not reflect the terms of earnings
stipulation agreement among the company and various departments
submitted for approval on March 18.
   
 Reuter

Data Card Corp said it does not
expect to meet its earnings and revenue targets for the fiscal
year ending March 28.
    Earlier, the company said it expected earnings per share
from continuing operations to be 35 to 45 cts a share. Now it
sees that figure at 15 cts a share, or about 1.5 mln dlrs.
    Data Card said it expects revenues for the year in the
range of 170 mln to 175 mln dlrs, down from a previous estimate
of 180 mln to 185 mln dlrs.
    It said integration of Addressograph Farrington Inc, a
private company acquired on Aug 25, 1986, is proving more
difficult than expected. The company reported revenues of 154
mln dlrs and net income of 10.6 mln dlrs in fiscal 1986 ended
March 26, 1986.

 Reuter

Bally Mfg Co said it is reorganizing
executive management of its lottery subsidiary, Scientific
Games Inc, Norcross, Ga.
    Effective April One, it said John Koza, co-founder and
chairman/chief executive officer of Scientific Games, will
become chairman emeritus of the subsidiary. He also will become
a technical consultant to Bally and Scientific Games in gaming
and lottery technology and new product development.
    Bally said Daniel Bower, co-founder and president of
Scientific Games, will assume Koza's former position as
chairman and chief executive officer, while retaining his post
as president.
    Assisting Bower will be a newly formed executive committee,
which will have primary operational responsibility for the
company's day-to-day offairs.
    Separately, it said Tom Little, a vice president, was named
president-International Division.
 Reuter

Du Pont Co has increased its equity
stake in <Perceptive Systems Inc> to 33.5 pct from 20 pct,
Perceptive Systems said.
    Perceptive Systems, a venture capital firm based in
Houston, makes digital imaging equipment.
 Reuter

Quaker Oats Co said Keystone Partners
Inc has purchased Vernell's Fine Candies Inc, previously an
indirect subsidiary of Quaker. The price was not disclosed.
    It said Vernell's, based in Bellevue, Wash., had annual
sales exceeding 30 mln dlrs. Vernell's was acquired by Quaker
in its acquisition of Golden Grain Macaroni Co in August 1986.
 Reuter

Lincoln Savings Bank said its
board declared an initial dividend of 10 cts per share, payable
April 17 to shareholders of record April 10.
 Reuter

Graphics Industries Inc said it
terminated negotiations for the acquisition of <Holladay-Tyler
Printing Corp>, Rockville, Md.
    The companies on March 10 announced that they had signed an
agreement in principle for the acquisition.
    No reason was given termination of the negotiations.
 Reuter

United Illuminating Co said
that if the Department of Utility Controls approves an earnings
stipulation agreement submitted March 18, it will reduce
through accounting procedures its 1987 noncash earnings by 16
mln dlrs or 1.15 dlr per share.
    For the two month period ended February 28, 1987, it said
the amount of the reduction would amount to 19 cts per share.
Earlier, it reported net income for the two-month period of
23.1 mln dlrs of 1.51 dlr a share.
    United said the approval would lead it to an equity return
level comparable with the electric utility industry average.
 Reuter

leading Latin American nations have delayed accepting a U.S.
compromise proposal on major reforms of the Inter-American
Development Bank.
    In an interview with a small group of reporters, Baker said
discussions on far-reaching reforms of the bank would resume
around the fringes of the semiannual meeting of the
International Monetary Fund in two weeks time.
    But Baker said his compromise proposal, which he would not
disclose, was no longer on the table.
    "I made it clear that the proposal was not one that I
expected to leave out there if we could not resolve it at this
meeting," Baker said.
    The U.S. had pressed for virtual veto power over IADB loans
which were made on terms Washington considers far too lax.
    In a bid to integrate the Bank into the U.S. debt strategy,
Washington has suggested it would be ready to subscribe nine
billion dlrs to a new four-year capital replenishment of the
Bank.
    In return Latin nations would have to give up their 54 pct
simple majority voting power over IADB lending.
    Baker said, "In my view, they have not rejected it out of
hand at all and that it will be considered, should we choose to
advance it at the April meeting."
    A U.S. contribution of that size would lead to an effective
four-year lending program by the Bank of 22.9 billion dlrs.
    The actual capital increase would amount to 27 billion
dlrs, but usable resources would be less because the callable
capital of Latin debtors is theoretical and does not take place
in practice, U.S. officials explained.
    Initially, the U.S. wanted 65 pct of votes to proceed with
a loan, a position that would have given the U.S. a virtual
veto since it holds almost 35 pct of the votes.
    But it seemed clear from Baker's remarks he was at one
point ready to concede an increased voting power, such as 62.5
pct or 60 pct as the majority for approving loans, that would
amount to a compromise between the original U.S. and Latin
American positions.
    Baker made clear that since Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and
Argentina, representing the Latins, had declined to accept the
plan today, the U.S. had reverted to its original position, but
he added, "It's possible the proposal could be revived."
    U.S. officials, who asked not to be named, said they
believed a decision was not forthcoming because several top
Latin finance officials were absent from the IADB annual
meetings here.
    And one official added that the key Latin officials would
be present at the semi-annual meetings of the IMF and the World
Bank.
    The Treasury Secretary warned that if the issue is left
unresolved "we can't look towards a greater (capital)
replenishment here."
    That would mean the U.S. would use another multilateral
development bank, like the World Bank, as its principal vehicle
for lending tied to fundamental economic reforms in debtor
nations.
    The IADB has tended to make loans for projects rather than
sectoral loans aimed at reforming Latin economies and hence has
never fully participated in Baker's third world debt plan.
 Reuter

Corp said it will ship its mid-range 9370 computer two months
earlier than it had planned.
 More

Inland Steel Industries said it has
formed a joint venture with Japan's Nippon Steel Corp to build
and operate a cold-rolled steel products plant costing more
than 400 mln dlrs.
    The joint venture, I/N Tek, will be 60 pct owned by Inland
and 40 pct owned by Nippon, it said.
    The plant, scheduled for completion in 1990, will feature a
continuous-process configuration designed to cut normal
production times, to improve product quality and to lower
manufacturing cost of cold-rolled sheet steel, it said.
    Inland Chairman Frank Luerssen said Inland and Nippon will
provide 150 mln dlrs of the venture's "off balance sheet"
financing, with Inland providing 90 mln dlrs and Nippon 60 mln
dlrs.
    The balance, he said, will come from <Mitsui and Co Ltd>,
<Mitsubishi Corp> and <Nissho Iwai Corp>, three Japanese
trading firms.
    Luerssen said the plant will be located in South Bend,
Ind., close to its product's automotive, appliance and office
furniture markets, and near its source of raw materials,
Inland's Indiana Harbor Works hot rolled steel plant.
   
 Reuter

will begin delivering this fall a 25 MHz, 32-bit ZEBRA
multi-user business computer system.
    The company said the new computer will double the terminal
capacity of the current ZEBRA product.
    The new ZEBRA 8820 will accommodate up to 256 concurrent
users and will use up to five Motorola Inc <MOT>
microprocessors when fully configured.
    General Automation said all ZEBRA 7820 computers will be
fully upgradable to ZEBRA 8820.
    First customer deliveries are scheduled for
October-November, 1987.
 Reuter

Steven Roberts, assistant to Federal
Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, has joined the firm of
Peat Marwick Mitchell and Co, the company said.
    Roberts, 42, will be in charge of the firm's institutional
regulatory consulting capability, and will be based in
 REUTER

U.S. drilling activity rose last week
with the number of working rotary rigs up by 23 to 784, against
1,063 working rigs one year ago, Hughes Tool Co. said.
    The improvement was the first increase this year in the
weekly rig count, which had dropped steadily since early
January when a total of 962 rotary rigs were working.
    Among individual states, Texas and Oklahoma reported the
biggest gains in drilling last week with increases of 21 and
11, respectively. California and Louisiana were each up by
three and Wyoming gained two additional working rigs.
    Hughes Tool said it counted a total of 692 rigs drilling on
land, 74 rigs active offshore and 18 drilling in inland waters.
In Canada, the rig count was up by two to 183, against 324 one
year ago.
 Reuter

U.S. Agriculture undersecretary
Daniel Amstutz said it is possible to reach a global agreement
to scale-back agricultural supports in calendar 1988.
    Speaking to a Senate Agriculture Appropriations committee
hearing, Amstutz said "I think we can reach agreement in
calendar 1988."
    Amstutz said the U.S. places a high priority on the Uruguay
round of global trade talks.
    His comments followed a statement by Secretary of State
George Shultz last week urging agriculture be the highest
priority item during the upcoming summit of western heads of
state in Venice, Italy.
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 Canadian cts vs 10 Canadian cts prior
    Pay May 25
 Reuter

Qtly div three cts vs three cts previously
 Reuter

Jill Considine, New York State
Superintendent of Banks, said a federal banking bill proposal
now before the Senate, which includes a moratorium on new
non-bank activities by bank holding companies, would preempt
state banking authority.
    "This bill purports to freeze the 'status quo' of banking
but in fact only magnifies the existing competitive
inequalities and places a strait-jacket on the ability of
states to permit banks to diversify their services and expand
geographically," Considine said in a statement.
    "This bill is antithetical to the concept of the dual
banking system, which encourages states to experiment and
innovate," she added.
 Reuter

<Cooper Canada Ltd> said it told those
who have expressed interest in acquiring control of the company
that it would entertain no offer unless it were made to holders
both of class A non-voting shares and voting common.
 Reuter

    Shr loss seven cts vs loss 64 cts
    Net loss 367,000 vs loss 3,009,000
    Nine mths
    Revs 6,768,000 vs 13.3 mln
 Reuter

Partners of Burnham Sleepy
Hollow Ltd said they voted to convert the limited partnership
to a California corporation, called Burnham Pacific Properties
Inc.
    The new corporation will become a real estate investment
trust, effective March 31.
 Reuter

American Express Co said its board
approved a public offering of about 18 pct of its wholly owned
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc brokerage unit.
    American Express also approved the previously announced
plan to sell about 13 pct, or 13 mln convertible preferred, of
the unit to Nippon Life insurance co for 538 mln dlrs. The
preferred shares are convertible to the same number of common
shares following Hart-Scott-Rodino and FDIC approvals.
    American Express said it will maintain 60 pct, or 60 mln of
the 100 mln shares of Shearson that will be outstanding.
    American Express said it had agreed with Nippon life that
American Express will hold a minimum of 40 pct of Shearson
until January, 1999.
   American Express said 7.5 mln Shearson shares would be held
by certain employees of Shearson and one mln by a Shearson
stock ownership plan to be formed.
    American Express said it anticipates a registration
statement for the public offering will be filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission shortly.
    American Express also declared a two-for-one stock split
and raised its quarterly dividend to 38 cts per share from 36
cts on a pre-split basis. Both dividends are payable May 8, to
shareholders of record April 3. There are currently 215 mln
American Express shares outstanding.
    The transaction with Nippon Life remains subject to
approval by the Japanese ministry of finance, which is expected
in April.
    American Express also said an agreement was reached by
Shearson and Nippon Life providing for a joint venture in
London.
    The venture will focus on investment advisory asset
management, market research and consulting on financing. It
also said it expects the relationship to extend to selected
projects involving American Express, Shearson Lehman and Nippon
Life in key financial centers of Asia and other regions, and to
future personnel exchanges.
    Under the agreement, Nippon will receive 13 mln cumulative
preferred shares with a five pct dividend rate. The cumulative
preferred stock will become convertible with voting powers to
an equal number of common shares following the U.S. government
    American Express said that assuming conversion of the
preferred stock held by Nippon, 100 mln shares of Shearson
Lehman common stock would be outstanding. For the public
offering, it said there will be an underwriters overallotment
option to purchase 1.8 mln shares.
    American Express will also grant Nippon Life a five-year
warrant to purchase one mln American Express common shares at
100 dlrs per share. There are currently 215 mln American
Express shares outstanding.
    Nippon Life would be entitled to nominate two directors to
the Shearson board and one representative to serve as an
adviser to the American Express board of directors.
    "These proposed transactions are yet another signal that
american express intends to stay in the forefront of the
financial services industry worldwide," said American Express
Chairman James D. Robinson. "The implementation of our plans,
moreover, will enable us to maintain a majority interest in
shearson while enhancing the strength of our balance sheet by
tapping additional capital resources for shearson outside
american express."
Reuter...

Sterivet Laboratories Ltd said it
authorized a three-for-one split of its common stock.
    The company said the stock split is subject to approval by
its shareholders at its upcoming annual meeting.
 Reuter

Foreign currency futures
markets would not be harmed if the leading industrial countries
agreed to restrict currency movements to within a narrow band,
said Leo Melamed, chairman of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange's, CME, executive committee.
    "The target zone would not affect our market I think at
all.... A 10 pct range in the Deutsche mark gives us a healthy
market," Melamed told Reuters in an interview.
    "We were willing to live in the old Smithsonian era with a
four pct shift," he said, referring to permitted currency
fluctuations in the early 1970s. "One thing you can adjust is to
make each contract a larger value."
    As chairman of the CME in 1969-71, Melamed was instrumental
in the development of currency futures, which now are crucial
to the Chicago exchange.
    Melamed said capital flows -- which he estimated can
approach 200 billion dlrs a day -- would overwhelm efforts by
governments to control currency fluctuations.
    "They can do it for a day, in terms of intervention, an
hour, a week maybe, but not over a period of time. So it's
unrealistic and it doesn't work and it's unnecessary."
    The CME's top policymaker also said a decision by the
exchange to advance the quarterly settlement time of its stock
index futures contract to the morning from the afternoon would
help eliminate dramatic price gyrations in futures and equity
markets on so-called "triple-witching" day.
    "We think that the settlement in the morning will have a
salutary effect so that over a longer period of time I think
this issue (triple witching) will go away because of the change
in the structure as of next June," when the move is scheduled to
go into effect, he said.
    Melamed said proposed changes in floor practices by traders
of the popular Standard and Poor's 500 stock index future would
address complaints of trading abuses and stimulate trading.
    Two weeks ago, the CME board of directors proposed barring
brokers on the top step of the pit from trading for their own
account. The board also proposed requiring brokers engaged in
dual trading elsewhere in the pit to record personal trades to
the nearest minute and curbing trading between broker groups.
    The changes "will in time have an extremely positive effect
on the marketplace. That's going to prove very, very
instrumental in increasing volume over time," he said,
predicting the increase would come within a year.
    Melamed, also chairman of Dellsher Investment Co Inc, said
the CME last week withdrew a proposal to put a 12-point limit
on the S and P 500 index's daily price movement when the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission told the exchange it could
not be a temporary program.
    The CME also received "many negative comments, many more
than we anticipated," Melamed conceded. Many futures commission
merchants predicted sell orders would accelerate in the event
the price approached the bottom limit.
 Reuter

GTE Corp filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission for a shelf offering of four mln shares
of auction preferred stock on terms to be set at the time of
sale.
    The dividend rate on the shares is reset by auction every
49 days. The shares will be offered in units of 1,000 and each
unit will have a liquidation preference of 100,000 dlrs. An
underwriting group will be led by Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    GTE said proceeds will be used to reduce short-term debt
and to partially fund repurchases of common stock.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs five cts
    Net 1,370,898 vs 823,988
    Sales 7,786,730 vs 4,383,825
    Avg shrs 17,744,333 vs 17,071,236
    NOTE: Per-share amounts adjusted for three-for-two stock
splits in April and July, 1986
 Reuter

Space Microwave Laboratories
Inc said it registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission a secondary offering of 2,200 units of its
securities at 1,000 dlrs per unit.
    Each unit consists of shares of common stock, common stock
purchase warrants and 1,000-dlr principal amount of convertible
    RLR Securities Group Inc will underwrite the offering.
 Reuter

Hecla Mining Co said it agreed to buy a
28 pct stake in the Greens Creek joint venture from Amselco
Minerals Inc, a unit of British Petroleum PLC's <BP> BP North
America Inc unit.
    The Greens Creek venture is engaged in final project
engineering of a gold-silver-lead-zinc ore body on Admiralty
Island, about 15 miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska.
    Hecla said it estimates its total investment in the
project, including its share of production costs, will be about

 Reuter

The Treasury said it was modifying
its computerized Coupons Under Book-Entry Safekeeping (CUBES)
program by permitting on-line transfers of funds against
payment by deposit-taking institutions.
    Each institution will be able to keep a CUBES account at
its local Federal Reserve Bank or a branch and through it
handle trading nationwide, a Treasury release said.
    The new system is expected to be in operation late this
year.
    Currently, CUBES accounts are maintained off-line at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Treasury said.
 Reuter

US Sprint, the 50-50 telephone venture
of GTE Corp <GTE> and United Telecommunications Inc <UT> set up
last June, is optimistic despite expecting to report a net loss
of about 500 mln dlrs this year.
     David M. Holland, president of US Sprint's Dallas-based
Southwest Division, told Reuters in an interview that he did
not know what it would report for the first quarter, but agreed
that for the year the company should have about the same
results as last year when it lost "about 500 mln dlrs."
     He noted the company was slated to spend 2.3 billion dlrs
over "two plus years" to set up its network.

    Holland added that Sprint was still paying almost 500 mln
dlrs a year to American Telephone and Telegraph Co (T) in order
to lease its lines.
     He said 16,000 miles of its 23,000 mile fiber optic
telephone line are now "in the ground," and 7,000 miles are
operable.
     By the end of the year, he said, 90 pct of the company's
subscribers will be carried on its fiber optic lines (instead
of leased ATT lines), compared with 60 pct by the end of the
    Fiber optic lines, which send digital light impulses along
microscopic glass lines, is quicker, more accurate and more
economical than traditional copper cables. A fiber optic line
the diameter of a dime can carry the same amount of information
as a copper cable 20 feet in diameter.
     "By the end of the year, we will have the capacity to
carry 50 pct of all U.S. long distance phone calls," Holland
said.
    He said ATT currently controls about 80 pct of the U.S.
long distance market, with MCI Communications Corp <MCIC> about
10 to 12 pct and Sprint five to seven pct.
     Holland said Sprint's rates, which were 50 pct lower than
ATT when it did not pay to gain access to local telephone
exchanges, were now about 10 to 12 pct lower now that all the
companies have equal access. He said the company was cutting
back its advertising by about 30 pct this year.
     At the same time, he said Sprint had increased its total
number of customers to four mln from two mln from July 1986 to
last January.
    "We've captured the fiber high ground, shown the importance
of it," he said.
     Concerning the deregulation of ATT, Holland said he
believed ATT "should be given some flexibility, but should be
regulated on pricing plans."
     "They're so dominant in the market place," he said, adding
that ATT should be deregulated when "there is true competition
in the marketplace."
     "It takes time to prove ourselves and a lot of money," he
said, adding, "maybe two to four years out, it's hard to say."
    Holland said he was not concerned about talk that Sprint's
two owners might be squabbling or that corporate raiders, such
as the Belzberg family in Canada, might be putting pressure on
them to sell off their loss-making Sprint holdings.
     "They are two excellent partners who have stated time and
time again their support of US Sprint," he said, adding that he
was "amazed" at industry talk that the two companies might be
arguing. "There's no evidence of that," he said.
     He said Sprint's progress in such areas as revenues,
number of customers and construction was on track, even "ahead
in many areas."
    Looking beyond the United States, Holland said Sprint
currently had direct access to 34 countries and aimed to be in
90 pct of the Free World nations by 1988.
    "We want to be in every country that ATT serves," he said.
    He said Sprint currently does not have access to Mexico but
was working on it.
     He noted negotiations between Mexico and GTE Sprint, the
forerunner of US Sprint, had been broken off by the September
1985 earthquake which had devastated the nation's telephone
network.
 Reuter

Geodyne Resources Inc said it will
begin selling immediately 300 mln dlrs worth of limited
partnership interests in PaineWebber/Geodyne Energy Income
Program II.
     The company said a unit will serve as general partner of
the partnership, which will acquire oil and gas producing
properties from third parties.
    PaineWebber <PWJ> will serve as the dealer-manager for the
 Reuter

Avalon Corp said that <Deltec
Panamerica SA> has arranged to sell its 23 pct stake in Avalon
and that Deltec's three representatives on Avalon's board had
resigned.
    An Avalon spokeswoman declined to indentify the buyer of
Deltec's stake or give terms of the sale.
    In addition, Avalon said three other directors resigned. It
said Benjamin W. Macdonald, a director of <TMOC Resources Ltd>,
the principal holder of Avalon stock, and Hardwick Simmons, a
vice chairman of Shearson Lehman Bros Inc, were then named to
the board.
 Reuter

The Quaker Oats Co said it sold
its Vernell's Fine Candies Inc unit to privately-held Keystone
Partners Inc for an undisclosed price.
    The company said Vernells had sales of around 30 mln dlrs
in the year ended in August, 1986.
    Quaker Oats acquired Vernells in August, 1986 when it
purchased Golden Grain Macaroni Co.
   
 Reuter

Republicans apparently have ended
their vote boycott at the budget drafting sessions of the House
Budget Committee.
    House Budget Committee Chairman William Gray, a Democrat,
announced that Republicans now would like to join in the effort
to write a budget, but behind closed doors.
    Last week, Republicans refused to vote on any budget issues
contending they had been left out of the process.
    The committee plans to meet tomorrow on a budget and Gray
said he welcomes the "good faith effort" of the minority
Republicans.
 Reuter

Richard Lyng will ask the Japanese Government to remove all
beef import restrictions when he visits there next month.
    Lyng's remarks came in a speech at Oklahoma State
University today.
    "We think Japanese consumers should have the same freedom
of choice as our consumers. Look at all the Japanese cameras
and tape recorders in this room. We know they'd buy more beef
if they had the opportunity," Lyng said.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has agreed
to meet African National Congress president Oliver Tambo in
Ottawa sometime in late April or early May, a senior official
for the outlawed South African organization said.
    Mac Maharaz said Mulroney and Tambo would discuss more
possible Canadian sanctions against the South African
    Maharaz, visiting Ottawa to speak to a conference on native
Indian rights, said Tambo would urge Mulroney to cut all
diplomatic and economic ties with South Africa.
    He said that Tambo would also ask Mulroney to refuse
diplomatic accreditation to South Africa's newly designated
ambassador to Canada, Johannes de Klerk.
    "I certainly would regard Canada's refusal to accept the
accreditation of any further ambassador as a significant
movement," said Maharaz. "I think in diplomatic protocol, it
would be a major signal."
 Reuter

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called on
Americans to pressure Congress in the fight against acid rain
in what some observers said may represent a shift in Canada's
lobbying strategy with the United States.
    Mulroney told delegates to a North American wildlife
conference that he has not been pleased with the U.S.
administration's lack of speed in acting on the question, which
Canada sees, he said, "as a test of our relationship" with the
U.S.
    Mulroney and President Reagan endorsed a report by
specially appointed acid rain envoys last year. Last week, the
White  House asked Congress for 2.50 billion U.S. dlrs to fund
the acid rain fight.
    Mulroney described the commitment as "significant," but noted
it was a long time in coming.
    "We are geared up, tanked up and raring to go," Mulroney
said. "But I must tell you we were not happy with the pace with
which the U.S. administration moved to implement the
president's acceptance of the envoy report."
    The prime minister urged his mostly American audience to
help Canada take the fight to Congress, saying his government
is determined to fight on more than one front.
    "The campaign does not involve either or choices between the
administration on one hand and Capitol Hill on the other," he
said.
    The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain hailed Mulroney's call
to take the battle to Congress.
    "It is clear that he has an understanding now that Congress
must be emphasized as equally as the administration," said
spokesman Michael Perley.
   
 Reuter

Shr profit 26 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 6,194,000 vs loss 170,000
    Revs 100.0 mln vs 7,854,000
    Avg shrs 10.7 mln vs 8,787,977
    Year
    Shr profit two cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 7,169,000 vs loss 1,461,000
    Revs 421.4 mln vs 51.1 mln
    Avg shrs 9,604,474 vs 8,807,709
   
Reuter...

Britain has reaped profits by using a
stronger pound to buy back dollars used by the government last
autumn to support sterling during a currency crisis, Chancellor
of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson said.
    He said in a parliamentary debate, "I can now tell the House
(of Commons) that the dollars that were sold from the reserves
in September and October (1986) have subsequently all been
repurchased - at a profit of some tens of millions of pounds."
    Hindsight had proved him right to resist market pressures
then for a two percentage point interest rate rise, he said.
The increase in base rates was instead limited then to one
point.
    During a debate on the 1987/88 British budget which Lawson
unveiled last week, he said that "during the period of foreign
exchange market turbulence which followed the somewhat
inconclusive Group of Five and Group of Seven meetings at the
end of September, I authorised the Bank of England to intervene
unusually heavily in order to buy breathing space that would
enable me to confine the interest rate rise to one pct rather
than the two pct the market was then pressing for."
    He said that that one percentage point increase, effected
in October 1986, had been reversed by this month's two half
point cuts in banks' base lending rates. They are now at 10
pct.
    Treasury figures show that the underlying change in British
reserves - seen as a guide to possible Bank of England
intervention on foreign exchange markets - suggest that the
authorities sold around 1.0 billion dlrs during September and
October 1986, government sources said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.34 dlrs vs profit two cts
    Net loss 4.5 mln vs profit 46,000
    Revs 7.6 mln vs 8.9 mln
    Shr loss 1.41 dlrs vs loss two cts
    Net loss 4.7 mln vs loss 76,000
    Revs 30.2 mln vs 23.8 mln
    NOTE:1986 includes gain on disposition of investments of
2,454 dlrs in 3rd qtr and 5,306 dlrs in nine months
respectively. 1987 includes gain on disposition of investments
of five dlrs in 3nd qtr and 7,052 dlrs in nine months.
 Reuter

    12 mths
    Oper shr profit six cts vs loss 43 cts
    Oper net profit 336,000 vs loss 2,176,000
    (Company corrects to show profit rather than a loss for
current 12 mths oper shr and oper net.)
 Reuter

    Net 4,568,000 vs 7,000
    Year
    Net 5,011,000 vs 30,000
    Revs 145.5 mln vs 51.0 mln
    Note: Current year results includes revs of 87.2 mln dlrs
from Chocolate Co Inc, which was acquired in March 1986.
    Note: Shr results after preferred dividend payments of
954,000 dlrs for current qtr and 3,410,000 dlrs for current
year.
    Net includes gains from sale of investment in Sheraton
Securities International of 5,807,000 dlrs vs 928,000 dlrs for
qtr and 8,705,000 dlrs vs 928,000 dlrs for year.
    Net also includes extraordinary loss from early retirement
of debt of 303,000 dlrs for year-ago 12 mths.
 Reuter

Shr loss 33 cts vs loss 48 cts
    Net loss 1.7 mln vs loss 2.5 mln
    Revs 6.3 mln vs 10.2 mln
    Six months
    Shr loss 54 cts vs loss 75 cts
    Net loss 2.8 mln vs loss 3.9 mln
    Revs 15.2 mln vs 23.4 mln
       
 Reuter

A big car bomb exploded at the
headquarters of the British Rhine army near Moenchengladbach in
West Germany tonight, police said.
    A police spokesman said it was not immediately known if
anyone was killed in the blast. He said some people had been
injured but did not know how many.
 Reuter

British manufacturers expect output to
grow rapidly in the four coming months, a Confederation of
British Industry (CBI) survey shows.
    The CBI's monthly trends survey for March shows that 43 pct
of the 1,685 polled U.K. Firms expect to raise output in the
next four months. Only nine pct expect output to fall while 47
pct said production would likely remain unchanged.
    The CBI said the positive balance between firms expecting
production to rise and those forecasting a fall, at 34 pct, was
the highest such figure recorded since 1977.
    In the CBI's February survey, 37 pct of companies expected
a rise in output while 54 pct forecast production would remain
at present levels and eight pct expected production to drop.
    The survey also showed that 23 pct of the polled companies
consider current order books to be above normal while 58 pct
view them as normal and only 19 pct regard them as below
normal.
    This was the highest positive balance since the question
was first asked more than 10 years ago, the CBI said.
    In February, the figures were 24 pct, 22 pct and 54 pct
    Companies also rated their export possibilities higher. Of
all polled companies, 23 pct rated their export order books to
be above normal and 53 pct described them as normal while only
23 pct believed export orders were below normal levels.
    In February, 25 pct thought their export books were below
normal and 50 pct believed them to be about normal. At 23 pct,
the proportion of companies rating their export books above
normal was unchanged between February and March.
    On prices, the survey showed that 62 pct of companies
expect average prices at which domestic orders are booked will
remain unchanged in the coming four months, up from 57 pct in
February.
    From 38 pct in February, only 31 pct of firms now expect
prices to rise before July. Six pct forecast prices will fall,
against four pct a month earlier.
    Commenting on the survey, CBI economic situation committee
chairman David Wigglesworth said sterling's more competitive
level against many European currencies had improved exports.
    "But interest rates are still much higher than in our
competitor countries and British manufacturers will still have
to work hard to win new business both in overseas markets and
in the substitution of British-made goods for imports here at
home," he said.
 REUTER

TOKYO - Bank of Japan buys small amount of dollars, dealers said

Miyazawa says time has come for major nations to act on exchange rates

time has come for major industrialised nations to take action
on exchange rates in line with their agreement last month in
Paris.
    In Paris, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. And West
Germany agreed to coooperate to hold currency rates around
their then current levels.
    Miyazawa would not say what specific measures major nations
would take, but told reporters the measures had been discussed
in Paris. The dollar fell to a record low against the yen this
morning, piercing the 150 yen barrier.
 REUTER

by the state corporation Comibol and government representatives
will resume talks tomorrow in an effort to end a six-day strike
over pay, a spokesman for the miners said.
    A labour ministry spokesman said the talks, which began
today, were suspended when labour minister Alfredo Franco left
to attend a session of Congress also attended by visiting West
German President Richard von Weizsaecker.
    But mining minister Jaime Villalobos told reporters an
agreement in principle on the rehabilitation of Comibol had
been reached. He did not elaborate.
 REUTER

BANK OF JAPAN RE-ENTERS MARKET AND STEPS UP DOLLAR BUYING, DEALERS SAY

The Bank of Japan stepped up its dollar
buying as it re-entered the market after the midday Tokyo lunch
break, dealers said.
    They said the bank seemed more determined to support the
dollar than it did this morning.
    Several dealers said the central bank intervened this
afternoon when the dollar stood around 149 yen.
    One said it purchased 150 to 200 mln dlrs in the half-hour
since the market re-opened after its lunchtime closure. Another
said the bank still has buying orders in the market.
 REUTER

U.S. Trade Representative
Clayton Yeutter said trade ministers meeting here have reached
a general consensus on agricultural trade reform under the
latest Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT).
    Yeutter gave no precise details of the understanding but
told journalists the consensus covers the principles involved
in agricultural trade reform and what needs to be done to
improve the global situation in agriculture.
    Delegates from 22 countries are meeting informally to
discuss progress made since the latest GATT round was launched
in Punta del Este, Uruguay, last September.
    Yeutter said "at least people seem to be going down the same
road...But how that translates ultimately into negotiations is
another matter entirely."
    There seems to be an understanding of the need to deal with
the problem quickly and "a more common understanding of how we
are going to get from here to there," Yeutter said.
    However, the hard work is still to come, with a couple of
years of tough negotiations ahead, he said.
    "It is ludicrous for the nations of the world to plough
immense amounts of financial resources into the production of
items that nobody wants to buy," he said.
    He said the long-term answer is to switch some of the
financial resources now committed to agriculture to other more
productive areas. This would help agriculture because some its
inefficient non-productive segments would stop operating, he
said.
    Individual segments in many countries may lose in the
process, but it should result in a more rational system of
world-wide production within 10 or 15 years, he said.
    It is important that the agriculture negotiations reach a
relatively early conclusion because the U.S. Is spending 26
billion dlrs a year and the European Community probably more
than that, which is an ineffective use of financial resources,
he said.
    Asked about the prospect of a priority for agriculture in
the negotiations, he said "one has to be politically
realistic... If there is any chance of getting it (agricultural
trade reform) done in two to three years it's going to have to
be as part of a larger package."
 REUTER

Former U.S. Secretary of State
Alexander Haig has announced his intention to run for
    Haig, a former general and NATO chief who served seven
presidents but never held elected office, said he will formally
announce his bid to run for the Republican presidential
nomination at a news conference later today.
    Haig's aides say he starts far back in the field of
Republican hopefuls, which is currently dominated by
Vice-President George Bush and Senate Minority Leader Robert
Dole, neither of whom have yet declared their intentions.
 REUTER

West German aid to Bolivia will rise to
91 mln marks in 1987 from 50 mln in 1986, West German President
Richard Von Weizsaecker said.
    Weizsaecker, speaking to the Bolivian Congress yesterday,
said of Latin America's 380 billion dlr foreign debt, "Debtor
countries and creditors must cooperate with the banks and
international financial organizations to find long-term
solutions." Bolivia's debts total 4.4 billion dlrs.
    "We wish to reach a reasonable agreement with Bolivia so
that the country can experience a significant financial
respite," Weizsaecker said.
    The two countries earlier signed two technical and
financial cooperation treaties. West German officials said aid
last year included 35 mln marks in financial cooperation.
    Bolivian Foreign Minister Guillermo Bedregal told reporters
West Germany would provide 300 mln marks to help fight
Bolivia's cocaine trade.
    The illegal trade in cocaine is West Germany's most
worrisome drug problem, West German officials said.
 REUTER

Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HKG> is
likely to show a more than 20 pct rise in 1986 operating
profits when it reports results tomorrow, reflecting gains in
its aviation and property businesses, share analysts said.
    Analysts polled by Reuters estimated after-tax profits from
operations will be between 1.525 billion and 1.8 billion dlrs
compared with 1.23 billion in 1985.
    They also said Swire will have an extraordinary gain of
about 1.38 billion dlrs from the flotation of its Cathay
Pacific Airways Ltd <CAPH.HKG> unit last May.
    Swire had an extraordinary gain of 59.1 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Share analysts said Swire will set a 36 cent final dividend
for its "A" shares, making a total of 54 cents, after 47 cents
adjusted for a two-for-one bonus issue in 1985.
    Aviation and properties together account for 75 pct of the
company's net asset value and about 85 pct of its net profits,
    The company's aviation division consists of its majority
stake in Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and its 25 pct interest in
<Hongkong Aircraft Engineering Co Ltd>, which is also 25 pct
owned by Cathay.
    Cathay last week reported 1986 profits climbed to 1.23
billion dlrs from 777 mln in 1985, partly because of lower fuel
costs and greater traffic.
    Swire's share of Cathay, which stood at 70 pct before the
flotation, fell to 54.25 pct at the end of last year and has
since slipped to 50.23 pct.
    Hongkong Aircraft reported this month its 1986 net profits
rose 29.5 pct to 115.5 mln dlrs.
    Tony Measor, an analyst at Hong Leong Securities Ltd,
estimates Swire's profits will be 1.525 billion dlrs.
    "Much depends on properties," said Measor. "And they did a lot
better in the second half of the year."
    Estimates of profits from the firm's wholly owned Swire
Properties Ltd unit range widely from 500 mln dlrs to 700 mln
compared with 570 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Swire Properties recorded an interim profit of 120 mln dlrs
for the first half of 1986, well below 260 mln dlrs for the
same 1985 period, but analysts said that was due mainly to the
low level of completion of new residential flats. The firm's
properties consist mainly of the Taikoo Shing residential
development and two luxury housing projects.
    Hoare Govett Asia Ltd said the completion of 1,100 flats in
Taikoo Shing will have yielded profits of 300 mln dlrs in
second-half 1986.
    During the year property prices continued to rise as more
people bought real estate, benefiting from low interest rates,
    "At the end of last year, flats in Taikoo Shing were selling
at 1,100 dlrs per square foot, up by about 20 pct from a year
ago," said Frederick Tsang of Mansion House Securities (F.E.)
Ltd.
    Swire is developing a large commercial and hotel complex in
the central business district of Hong Kong but it will not
provide income until the first stage is completed next year.
    The company also sold three properties and a part interest
in a proposed hotel development, which should result in
extraordinary gains of 60 mln dlrs in 1986, according to James
Capel (Far East) Ltd.
    Swire's trading and manufacturing operations are expected
to earn 300 mln dlrs, up 22 pct from 1985 but its shipping and
offshore services are likely to post a small loss of about 10
mln dlrs because of depressed market conditions.
 REUTER

European Community (EC) proposed a levy on vegetable oils.
tariffs on coconut oil but proposed a levy on vegetable oils
services.
 REUTER

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves,
swollen by strong trade surpluses to a record 53 billion U.S.
Dlrs, are becoming a problem, government officials said.
    Official figures show the latest level compares with the
previous record of 51 billion dlrs on March 4 and about 26
billion in late March 1986.
    Central bank Governor Chang Chi-cheng told reporters the
increase in reserves was the result of heavy intervention by
the bank on the local interbank market. It bought nearly two
billion U.S. Dlrs between March 5 and 23, he said.
    Wang Chao-ming, vice chairman of the government's Council
for Economic Planning and Development, told Reuters the rising
reserves were "a big headache for Taiwan."
    He said the government expects heavier pressure from the
U.S., Where protectionist bills are being proposed against
nations such as Taiwan and Japan with large trade surpluses
with the U.S.
    Wang said the government would launch new measures within
the next two months to further reduce import tariffs and open
the market wider to foreign products, especially those from the
U.S.
    Wang said the measures aim at helping reduce Taiwan's trade
surplus, which rose to 2.73 billion U.S. Dlrs in the first two
months of 1987 from 2.02 billion a year earlier. Nearly 90 pct
of the surplus was with the U.S.
    Vice Economic Minister Wang Chien-shien agreed with Wang's
remarks and said efforts to avert U.S. Protectionism were
running out of time. "We must do it quickly or face retaliation
from Washington," he said.
    He said the measures would include removal of trade
barriers on insurance and inland services for U.S. Companies.
    Chang Chi-cheng said the central bank could not stop buying
U.S. Dollars because of heavy sales by local exporters who fear
the strong local dollar will cause them exchange losses.
    He said the bank is studying revision of the foreign
exchange rules in hope of further reducing currency controls,
but declined to give details.
    The Taiwan dollar has risen about 15 pct against the U.S.
Dollar since September 1985. It opened at 34.38 to the U.S.
Dollar today and is expected to rise further to 33 in June and
to 32 by end-year, some foreign bankers said.
 REUTER

Australia's crude
oil tax strategy is probably best tackled in terms of a
targeted rather than broadly-based approach, Federal Resources
and Energy Minister Gareth Evans told a meeting here.
    He told the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association
(APEA) annual conference there was a prospect of developing a
package that would recognise the government's economic
priorities while also meeting some of the industry's concerns.
    Evans was referring to a nearly completed government review
of oil taxation.
    Evans said there were plenty of examples where targeted
approaches to oil industry taxation had produced good results
in recent years.
    These include the reduction in the top marginal crude
excise rate on 'old' Bass Strait oil found before September
1975 to 80 pct from 87 pct, and the waiver of excise on onshore
oil announced last September, he said.
    The industry, through the APEA, has been calling for the
elimination of secondary taxation on oil in order to boost
incentives for prospecting against a background of weak prices
and Australia's relatively low exploration levels.
    "While nobody wants to add further unnecessary complexity to
an already complex taxation regime, I am inclined to favour
these kinds of tailored approaches ahead of sweeping changes,
which leave (government) revenue much reduced and may still
leave a lot of uncertainty as to what individual companies are
going to do in major areas," Evans said.
    He said the government did not intend to change its
resource rent taxation (RRT) legislation, now before
parliament, in response to industry calls to allow all
exploration expenditure in a given area to be deductible.
    As previously reported, RRT is a tax of 40 pct limited to
highly prospective offshore areas, based on profits after a
certain rate of return has been achieved for individual
projects.
    APEA has said it is not a true profit-based tax because
exploration deductibility is limited to successful projects.
    Evans said the decision not to change RRT was based more
than anything on the government's desire to ensure the
certainty and stability of the new regime, adding that major
investments have already been planned on the existing ground
rules.
 REUTER

A successful new GATT
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) round is needed to
halt growing bilateral trade problems between major trading
partners, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
    Yeutter, in New Zealand for informal GATT ministerial
talks, told Reuters bilateral trade disputes are increasing
because the multilateral system is inefficient.
    "That is really a strong rationale why we need a new GATT
round," he said. "The very existence of all these bilateral
irritants clearly emphasises the need to develop multilateral
solutions to some of these problems."
    The eighth GATT round of negotiations was launched at Punta
del Este in Uruguay in September 1986. Agriculture and services
were included in the negotiations for the first time.
    The growing debt burden of Latin American and African
nations will also provide impetus for the GATT round to
succeed, he said.
    "Clearly those countries need to develop their export
endeavours and they need open markets for that to happen and
that's the basic objective of the new GATT round," he said.
    But he said the GATT round is a long term endeavour. It
will not give any short term relief for debt ridden countries,
but it will make a difference in 10 to 15 years.
    "It's a worthwhile activity from their standpoint because
these debts are not going to go away in the next year or two,"
he said.
    "They ought to be very strongly supported in the GATT round
as a mechanism for relieving their debt burdens or making
possible debt amortisation in the future," he said.
 REUTER

Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD.AMS> unit
<Shell Australia Ltd>, said its net profit fell to 45.79 mln
dlrs in 1986 from 66.76 mln in 1985.
    Revenue fell to 4.55 billion dlrs from 4.91 billion, in an
extremely competitive and over-regulated environment, chairman
and chief executive Kevan Gosper said in a statement. A 26.25
mln dlr annual dividend would be paid to the parent after a
very disappointing year.
    "A return of 2.2 pct on funds employed represents a very
meagre return ... In an economy suffering from inflation of
around 10 pct," he said.
    Gosper said the results reflected heavy reliance on
downstream oil and chemicals, poor coal and metal returns and
the financial burden of the North-West Shelf gas project.
    Duties, royalties and taxes rose to 1.37 billion dlrs
against 852.72 mln in 1985 and Gosper urged the government to
move quickly to lift costly and unnecessary regulation.
    "It is just as important for Australia to maintain a
financially healthy, technically advanced refining and
marketing industry as it is to sustain oil exploration and
production," he said.
    "The Australian oil industry has the experience and the
capacity to serve the nation and its shareholders well if the
government would stop putting roadblocks in our way," he said.
    Shell invested 500 mln dlrs over the past five years to
upgrade its oil refining and marketing business, but further
investment required an appropriate rate of return, he said.
    Exploration and evaluation spending in 1986 fell to 18.77
mln dlrs from 26.35 mln, while investment in property and plant
rose to 374.25 mln from 353.94 mln a year earlier.
    Gosper said oil companies would be under intense pressure
in 1987 because of forecast slow economic growth.
 REUTER

Research into materials that conduct
electricity with minimal resistance could lead to further gains
on Tokyo's booming stock market, brokers said.
    They said the share prices of companies likely to benefit
from the so-called 'superconductors' rose sharply last week
after publication of articles about the research in the
economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The companies were in the
non-ferrous metal, electrical and mining sectors.
    But industry analysts said development problems remain and
commercial application is still some years away.
    "The area clearly has significant applications but it won't
be commercially viable for a few years," said Thomas Murtha,
technology analyst with James Capel and Co.
    Industry analysts said the use of superconductors could
bring sharp cuts in electricity costs if present problems can
be overcome.
    Nikko Securities Co Ltd analyst Shinichi Nakayama said
superconductors could have applications in computer circuitry,
electricity generation and storage, and scientific research.
    The superconductors are made of a blend of metals fused in
a heat-firing process similar to that used in ceramics.
    Nakayama said Kawasaki Steel Corp <KAWS.T> predicted in an
in-house study that by 1990 the worldwide market would be worth
150 billion yen for superconductors used in computers, 50
billion for those used in electricity generators and 150
billion for those used in electricity storage.
    The study said that by 1995 there would be trains capable
of 500 km an hour, hovering on a magnetic field and powered
mainly by superconductors. One hundred billion yen worth of
superconducting material would be needed for such a train.
    The Kawasaki study also said superconductors would be used
in nuclear fusion physics, but not until the year 2000.
    Industry analysts said superconductors have no commercial
applications at present. In laboratory tests the conductor must
be cooled by expensive liquid helium or hydrogen before minimum
electrical resistance is achieved, though liquid nitrogen,
which is much less expensive, has recently also been used
successfully, they said.
    Despite this, investors on Tokyo's stock market have
boosted shares of firms related to superconducting materials.
    From the close of trading on March 17 until yesterday's
close, Mitsubishi Mining and Cement Co Ltd's <MIMI.T> share
price rose 140 yen to 485 yen.
    In the same period Mitsubishi Metal Corp <MITM.T>, rose 95
to 745 yen, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd <TOMM.T> rose 200 to
1440 yen, and Kawasaki Steel rose 15 to 260.
    Furukawa Electric Co Ltd shares <URUT.T> jumped 104 yen to
689 yen, and Fuji Electric Co Ltd <FUJE.T> rose 141 to 619.
    Brokers said shares of suppliers of scientific instruments
needed to conduct the superconductor research also rose.
    Industry analysts said the most favoured superconductor,
made from a blend of yttrium, barium and copper, is currently
undergoing laboratory tests under a scheme coordinated by the
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
intervened to try to resolve Japan's escalating dispute with
the U.S. Over semiconductor trade, government officials said.
    At today's Cabinet meeting, Nakasone told Trade and
Industry Minister Hajime Tamura to redouble his efforts to calm
U.S. Anger over what it sees as Japan's unfair trade practices
in semiconductors.
    Nakasone intervened only two days before a scheduled
meeting of the Reagan administration's Economic Policy Council
to consider whether Japan is reneging on its microchip pact
    That pact, agreed last year after months of negotiations,
calls on Japan to stop selling cut-price chips in world markets
and to raise its imports of U.S. Semiconductors.
    Senior U.S. Officials have accused Tokyo of failing to live
up to the accord and have threatened retaliatory action.
    Yesterday, Tamura's Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) launched a last-ditch attempt to salvage the
pact by writing letters to U.S. Policy makers setting out
Japan's case and telling Japanese chip makers to cut output.
    In his letter, the contents of which were released today,
Tamura said a MITI survey carried out at the beginning of March
showed Japanese producers were not selling at cut-rate prices
in Asian markets.
    In a separate letter sent to senior U.S. Officials, MITI
vice minister for international affairs Makoto Kuroda suggested
the two countries could conduct a joint investigation into
allegations of Japanese chip dumping in such markets.
 REUTER

Thirteen provinces, mainly in northeast
and eastern Thailand, have been suffering a worse than average
drought since mid-February and the dry spell is expected to
last until early May, Deputy Interior Minister Santi
Chaiviratana said.
    Santi told reporters the government is launching a drought
relief operation mainly involving the use of water trucks to
send water to affected farming areas.
    He did not say what crops have been damaged in northeast
Thailand but said large durian orchards in eastern Chanthaburi
province have suffered heavy losses.
    The Minister said the affected areas include eight
provinces in the northeast, two in eastern Thailand and three
rubber growing provinces in the south near the Malaysian
border.
 REUTER

Britain and Australia have offered a
total of 129,250 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh as grants to
contain rising cereal prices and help support rural employment
projects, officials said.
    They said 79,250 tonnes of wheat promised by Britain would
be shipped next week and used for the government's "Food for
Work" program in the villages.
    Under the program, workers building roads, digging
irrigation canals and engaged in other rural development
activities get their daily wages in wheat instead of money.
    The 50,000 tonnes of Australian wheat would arrive in
Bangladesh next month and be sold under open-market operations
designed to stop price increases, the officials said.
    Prices of rice and wheat have risen at least 15 pct in the
past month, market sources said. But the government expects
prices to fall after the wheat harvest next month.
 REUTER

pledged the Bank's support to help Indonesia adjust to lower
world oil prices, but said further deregulation of its
protected economy was needed.
    Speaking to reporters after talks with President Suharto,
he said he expected Jakarta to do more to liberalise the
economy and deregulate trade policy.
    Indonesia, hurt by the fall in oil prices last year which
cut the value of its crude exports in half, is the Third
World's sixth largest debtor. It has received 10.7 billion dlrs
from the World Bank in the past 20 years.
    Conable said the World Bank, which granted Indonesia a 300
mln dlr loan last month to help its balance of payments, was
prepared to back Jakarta in taking the right steps to adjust to
lower oil and primary commodity prices.
    "We are prepared to support those steps which we believe are
consistent with the development of the Indonesian economy," he
said.
    He said Jakarta's willingness to move quickly after last
year's collapse in oil price saved Indonesia from some of the
difficulties now faced by other countries.
    Indonesia devalued its currency by 31 pct against the
dollar in September to avoid a balance of payments crisis, and
has announced a series of measures since May intended to
stimulate exports, encourage foreign investment and revitalise
    However, key monopolies in areas like steel and plastics
and high tariff barriers remain in place.
    Conable arrived in Indonesia on Saturday and has since met
14 Indonesian cabinet ministers to review the country's
borrowing needs and the impact of falling oil prices on the
country.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita
said in a statement the central bank will intervene in foreign
exchange markets to stabilise exchange rates if necessary in
close cooperation with other major industrial nations.
    Sumita said the Bank will take adequate measures including
market intervention, if necessary, in line with the February 22
Paris agreement by six major industrial nations.
    Canada, Britain, France, Japan, the U.S. And West Germany
agreed to cooperate in stabilising exchange rates around
current levels. Sumita's statement was issued after the dollar
slipped below 150 yen to hit a record low of 148.40.
    "It is inevitable that exchange rates fluctuate under the
system of floating rates," Sumita said.
    The fact the dollar plunged below 150 yen does not mean
anything significant under the floating system, he said.
    The six nations agreed in Paris exchange rates prevailing
then were broadly consistent with underlying economic
fundamentals and further substantial rate shifts could damage
growth and adjustment prospects in their countries, the Paris
 REUTER

Clayton Yeutter said he was unsure whether some of the trade
issues straining U.S.-Japanese relations would be resolved
before the two countries open trade talks in late April.
    "We are having high level discussions on them (the issues)
within the United States...The relationship on some of those is
very strained between us (Japan) at the moment and we need to
relieve those strains at the earliest possible date," he said.
    "I am not sure we can wait until late April," he added.
    Yeutter is in New Zealand for a two-day informal meeting of
trade ministers who are reviewing the Uruguay round of the
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
    He said he will meet the Japanese delegation over the next
few days but declined to discuss methods of relieving the
strain between the two countries.
    Yeutter said earlier the three most contentious trade
issues were semiconductors, Japanese government unwillingness
to allow public entities to buy U.S. Super-computers and the
barring of U.S. Firms from the eight billion U.S. Dlr Kansai
airport project near Osaka.
    The Japanese delegation to the GATT talks said in a
statement yesterday they are making major efforts to dismantle
trade barriers in their country.
    "I am convinced that they are attempting to move their
policies in the right direction. The question is how far and
how fast," Yeutter said.
 REUTER

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ali
al-Khalifa al-Sabah said OPEC was producing well below its oil
output ceiling and this would help prices move higher,
according to a Kuwaiti newspaper interview.
    The al-Rai al-Aam newspaper quoted him as saying OPEC was
pumping 2.4 mln barrels per day (bpd) less than its 15.8 mln
bpd ceiling, while consumers were drawing down their petroleum
stocks at a rate of 4.5 mln bpd.
    As long as OPEC maintains its output curbs, demand for its
oil will rise in April and May, Sheikh Ali said, adding that
Kuwait was strongly committed to its OPEC quota.
 REUTER

Earnings per one stg of deferred stock 41.7p vs 34.9
    Div 11.5p making 19.0 vs 16.0
    Turnover 1.95 billion stg vs 1.63 billion
    Pretax profit 174.1 mln vs 125.6 mln
    Tax 49.4 mln vs 34.9 mln
    NOTE - Company's full name is Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co Plc <PORL.L>
    Net operating costs 1.77 billion stg vs 1.51 billion
    Share of profits of associates 21.1 mln vs 37.9 mln
    Operating profit 206.3 mln vs 154.2 mln
    Investment income 1.7 mln vs 3.6 mln
    Net interest payable 29.5 mln vs 29.2 mln
    Employee profit sharing 4.4 mln vs 3.0 mln
    Minority interests 2.5 mln debit vs 2.4 mln debit
    Extraordinary items 29.8 mln credit vs 0.1 mln credit
    Group operating profit includes -
    Service industries 40.7 mln vs 34.4 mln
    Passenger shipping 19.5 mln vs 13.1 mln
    Housebuilding, construction/development 50.1 mln vs 30.0
mln
    Container and bulk shipping 43.8 mln vs 34.4 mln
    P and O Australia 6.6 mln vs 9.4 mln
    Banking nil vs 7.7 mln
    Investment property income 45.6 mln vs 25.2 mln
 REUTER

Woolworth Holdings pretax profit 115.3 mln stg vs 81.3 mln, year to end-January

China's summer grain harvest may be good
despite a serious drought because the State Council (cabinet)
has spent one billion yuan on irrigation and other anti-drought
work, a Hong Kong newspaper said.
    Wen Hui Bao said the drought, which has affected Shanxi,
Hebei, Henan and Shandong the most, has eased with March rains
in south China and March snowfall in the north and as some new
irrigation projects have come into use.
    "If the drought does not worsen, there is hope for a bumper
harvest," it quoted experts of the Ministry of Electric Power as
saying. They gave no figures.
    The 1986 summer grain harvest was a record 93 mln tonnes,
up from 92 mln in 1985, out of a total 1986 grain harvest of
391 mln. The 1987 target is 405 mln.
 REUTER

Shr 47.1p vs 37.7
    Shr fully diluted 42.2p vs 33.6
    Div 11p vs 7 making 16 vs 10
    Turnover 1.83 billion stg vs 1.76 billion
    Pretax profit 115.3 mln vs 81.3 mln
    Tax 30.5 mln vs 16.2 mln
    Retail profit -
    B and Q 45.5 mln vs 33.1 mln
    Comet 17.4 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Woolworth 38.7 mln vs 17.6 mln
    Other 4.6 mln loss vs 600,000 loss
    Property income 49.4 mln vs 48.0 mln
    Net interest payable 31.1 mln vs 28.7 mln
    Extraordinary debit 16.0 mln vs 29.1 mln
 REUTER

<TMOC Resources Ltd> told shareholders
not to accept Santos Ltd's <STOS.S> 4.00 dlr a share takeover
bid pending advice from Macquarie Hill Samuel Corporate
Services, its corporate advisor.
    It said in a statement the Santos bid was below the
underlying value of the shares as assessed by Macquarie Hill
Samuel at between 4.08 dlrs and 4.72.
    TMOC, formerly the Moonie Oil Co Ltd, said the valuation
was made in response to an earlier and still current bid of
2.55 dlrs a share by <Elders Resources Ltd>. Elders Resources
holds 19.9 pct of TMOC's 62 mln shares.
    TMOC said it did not know Elders Resources' response to the
bid or that of its other major shareholder the <Australian Gas
Light Co>. The latter has a 10.5 pct stake in TMOC.
    <Avalon Corp> of the U.S. Has a 17 pct stake in TMOC
through an option agreement.
    Santos, which is 15 pct owned by Elders Resources,
yesterday said its bid valued TMOC at 248.5 mln dlrs.
    TMOC said today this was not a premium over the share price
before the bid and that TMOC had traded at up to 4.06 dlrs a
share in the last two weeks.
    TMOC said in the statement that the bid was unsolicited and
that Santos had only a 3.07 pct stake despite paying up to four
dlrs a share on-market.
    TMOC has oil and gas interests and pipelines which
complement the operations of Santos, the major Cooper Basin oil
and gas producer.
    TMOC shares today closed five cents up at 4.15 dlrs on
turnover of 182,000 shares while Santos, due to release its
profit result today, rose eight cents to 4.50 dlrs on volume of
245,000 shares.
 REUTER

SANTOS LTD &lt;STOS.S&gt; YEAR END DEC 31 NET PROFIT 88.67 DLRS VS 144.04 MLN

WILLIAMS HOLDINGS SAYS IT BIDDING 542.2 MLN STG FOR NORCROS ORDINARY SHARES

Industrial holding company Williams
Holdings Plc said it was bidding 542.2 mln stg for the ordinary
shares of building products and packaging group Norcros Plc.
    The offer would be made on the basis of 29 new Williams
shares for every 50 in Norcros, or 432.7p a share
    Norcros shares firmed to 410p at 0914 GMT from a close last
night of 397p.
    A statement by Williams said it was confident of the merits
of the proposed merger and it had therefore taken care to
propose from the outset the right terms, including a full cash
alternative.
    The offer will include a partial convertible alternative
under which shareholders would receive up to a total of 205.69
mln new second convertible shares in Williams instead of their
ordinary share allocations.
    The offer for Norcros preferential shares offers one
Williams preferential share for each one of Norcros, for a
value of 130p each and a total of 2.9 mln stg.
    Last week Williams reported that pretax profits for 1986
rose to 22.9 mln stg from 6.3 mln.
    Speculation about a bid for Norcros had been circulating in
the market for several months, dealers said. Initially it
centred on <Bunzl Plc>, which once held a 2.6 pct stake, then
switched to Williams when it began accumulating shares.
    Earlier this year, Williams suggested holding talks with
Norcros on a possible merger but was rebuffed by Norcros which
replied that any benefits that could be achieved could also
result from normal trading.
    In the six months to end-September, Norcros reported a rise
in pretax profits to 20.14 mln stg from 18.55 mln on turnover
that lifted to 311.82 mln from 303.91 mln
    Williams Holdings began expanding from 1982 when it had a
market capitalisation of around one mln stg. A series of
acquisitions in the next four years has pushed its
capitalisation up to around 380 mln.
    The convertible offer would be on the basis of four
Williams convertibles for every Norcros share, worth 428p a
share. The cash alternative would offer the equivalent of
400.2p a share.
    The announcement of the bid pushed Williams share price
down to 733p from last night's close at 750p.
    Williams said it held a total 850,000 shares in Norcros, or
0.7 pct, while an associate held a further 1.99 mln or 1.6 pct.
    There was no immediate response from Norcros.
 REUTER

Shr 37.0 cents vs 60.0
    Final div deferred vs 11 cents (1985 full year 20.0)
    Pre-tax 171.05 mln vs 239.97 mln
    Net 88.67 mln vs 144.04 mln
    Turnover 400.42 mln vs 506.51 mln
    Other income 85.44 mln vs 71.04 mln
    Shrs 238.99 vs same.
    NOTE - Final div deferred for tax advantage until after
July 1 but not expected to be less than nine cents (interim
seven). Net after tax 82.38 mln vs 95.92 mln, depreciation and
amortisation 93.29 mln vs 76.19 mln, interest 90.94 mln vs
116.49 mln, minorities nil vs loss 10,000 but before
extraordinary loss 6.49 mln vs loss 53.40 mln.
 REUTER

The dollar is expected to decline further
in coming days as scepticism mounts about the effectiveness of
last month's Paris accord to stabilise currency exchange rates,
senior foreign exchange dealers said.
    Following its fall today to a record 148.40 yen, dealers
said they expect the dollar to establish a new trading range of
147 to 150 yen before the market again tries to push it down.
Behind the latest dollar fall lies the belief that last month's
accord was no longer enough to stop operators pushing the
dollar down, the dealers said.
    "The recent remark by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
that the Paris accord did not set any target ranges for major
currencies has cast a shadow on the agreement," said Koji
Kidokoro, general manager of Mitsui Bank Ltd's treasury
division.
    He said the market interpreted this as indicating the U.S.
Would favour a weaker dollar and it had little intention of
intervening to support the currency.
    "This eliminated the widespread market caution against
possible joint central bank intervention," Kidokoro said.
    Dealers said the dollar had gathered renewed downward
momentum and that Bank of Japan intervention alone could hardly
contain a further slide in the currency.
    They said the central bank bought between one to 1.5
billion dlrs today, including direct purchases through brokers,
and yesterday it might have bought a small amount of dollars
through the U.S. Central bank in New York.
    Most dealers said they doubted the U.S. Federal Reserve
would intervene on its own account to support the dollar, but
some said this might occur if the dollar fell much below 148
yen.
    "If the dollar drops to that low level, it could reduce the
flow of foreign capital into U.S. Securities, which the
Americans don't want," said Haruya Uehara, chief money market
manager of Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp.
    He said the dollar may return to around 152 yen next month
when corporations reduce their dollar sales after they close
their books for the 1986/87 business year ending on March 31.
    But dealers said the longer-term outlook for the dollar
remained bearish. This was due to the lacklustre performance of
the U.S. Economy, the continuing U.S. Trade deficit and
Japanese delays in announcing an economic stimulation package.
    "The Americans are getting frustrated at Japan's inertia in
stimulating its economy," said Hirozumi Tanaka, assistant
general manager of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd's international
treasury division.
    In the Paris currency accord Japan promised a package of
economic measures, after the fiscal 1987 budget was passed, to
boost domestic demand, increase imports, and thus reduce its
trade surplus. The package was expected in April, but debate on
the budget has been delayed by an opposition boycott of
parliamentary business over the proposed introduction of a
sales tax.
    In the circumstances the government had only a slim chance
of producing a meaningful economic package in the near future,
Dai-Ichi Kangyo's Tanaka said.
    Dealers said if steps are not taken to stimulate the
Japanese economy protectionist sentiment in the U.S. Congress
would grow and put more downward pressure on the dollar.
 REUTER

American Can Co <AC.N> is issuing a 150
mln dlr convertible eurobond due April 22, 2002 carrying an
indicated coupon of 5-1/2 to 5-7/8 pct priced at par, lead
    Terms will be set this week with a conversion premium of 25
to 28 pct. The bond is available in denominations of 1,000 and
10,000 dlrs and be listed in Luxembourg.
    There is no call for three years, subsequently at par plus
the coupon, declining by equal amounts per annum until 1997.
    Fees comprise 1-1/2 pct selling concession and one pct
 REUTER

The council of the
Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (APEA) said it
will press on with its campaign for major improvements to
Australia's petroleum taxation structure.
    The council said in a statement the industry was bitterly
disappointed by the Australian government's position on
taxation, as presented in a speech by Resources and Energy
Minister Gareth Evans to the APEA conference.
    As earlier reported, Evans said he was inclined to target
any tax changes rather than take a broad-based approach to
secondary taxation of petroleum.
    APEA had expected the government to make positive responses
to detailed industry submissions seeking the removal of
existing secondary tax disincentives to exploration and
development, the council said.
    It said it plans to reply in detail to issues raised by
Evans, but its immediate concern was the decision to proceed
with the current resource rental tax (RRT) legislation.
    Evans told the conference the government did not plan to
accept industry pleas for changes in the legislation to allow
deductibility of unsuccessful exploration expenditure.
    "The government's unwillingness to allow the deduction of
unsuccessful exploration expenditure within the whole offshore
area in which RRT applies negates any claim that the tax is
profit based," the APEA council said.
    The government missed a major opportunity to persuade oil
exploration companies that it had realistic answers to the
industry's concerns, despite its recognition of the industry's
problems, the council said.
    The industry has called for the end of all discriminatory
secondary taxation of petroleum, citing them as major
disincentives at a time of low oil prices.
 REUTER

Import prices in West Germany fell
0.7 pct in February from January to stand 15.6 pct below their
level in February 1986, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    In January the import price index, base 1980, was unchanged
compared with December but 17.8 pct lower against January 1986.
    February export prices, same base as import prices, were
unchanged compared with January and 2.5 pct lower than in
    In January export prices fell 0.3 pct against December to
stand 3.0 pct lower than in January 1986.
 REUTER

French domestic bond issues totalling
4.45 billion francs have been approved by the bond issuing
committee for publication in the Official Bulletin of March 30,
the committee announced.
    The largest of the issues will be a three-billion franc
bond for the Caisse d'Aide a l'Equipement des Collectivites
Locales (CAECL), comprising a two-billion franc fixed-rate
tranche and a one billion franc variable-rate tranche.
    Financement Local et Regional (FLORAL), a finance house
managed by CAECL, will issue an 800 mln franc bond and Caisse
Nationale de l'Energie will issue a 650 mln franc bond, of
which one of the lead-managers will be Banque Nationale de
Paris.
    Details will be released later, the committee said.
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China's fifth securities market will
open on April 1 in the industrial port city of Tianjin, the
People's Daily overseas edition said.
    It said the market will in its first phase trade four
bonds, two issued by banks, one by a well-known city bicycle
factory and one issued by the city government to finance
construction of a road.
    Buyers and sellers can either agree on a price between them
and register the deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank
that will run the new market or entrust the bank to make the
deal, it said.
    The paper said that only financial organisations and not
other firms or individuals could handle such trading.
    China's first securities market opened last year in the
northeast city of Shenyang and, since then, others have opened
in Shanghai, Peking and Harbin.
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China's Finance Minister Wang Bingqian
will report a 1986 budget deficit of up to nine billion yuan
and prescribe austerity measures for 1987 in a budget speech on
Thursday, foreign bankers and diplomats told Reuters.
    Chinese officials have said the 1986 deficit is "several
billion," after a surplus of 2.82 billion in 1985 which followed
six years of deficits, including a record 17 billion yuan
shortfall in 1979. They have not given an exact figure.
    The officials blamed the deficit on excessive investment in
fixed assets and consumer demand, a drop in efficiency in state
firms, a trade deficit and lower income from import duties.
    "China needs a nationwide campaign to increase production
while cutting expenditure," the official Peking Review said in
an editorial yesterday.
    "China should institute means for the effective control of
the macro-economy and the invigoration of enterprises, larger
ones in particular, by emphasising quality, efficiency and
reduced consumption," it said.
    Only by such measures, the magazine said, "can an overall
supply-demand balance in society be secured and the economy
develop steadily over a long period."
    A Western diplomat said major factors for the deficit,
which he estimated at up to nine billion yuan, were a drop in
efficiency and wage rises in state firms, whose profits and
taxes account for a substantial part of national revenue.
    The State Statistical Bureau (SSB) last month said profits
and taxes of state firms in 1986 fell 0.2 pct from 1985 to
119.3 billion yuan, while production costs were over budget,
losses rose and product quality was unstable.
    The SSB said profits in most state firms fell because of
bad management and rapid changes in external conditions.
    "For some materials, state firms have to compete on the free
market, where prices are up to double those for materials they
buy under fixed quota from the state," the diplomat said.
    "The firms are not subject to proper market discipline,
because they cannot go bankrupt, do not have to repay bank
loans and have to employ workers whether or not they need them.
Under these conditions, they cannot properly adjust to the
economic levers the state is introducing," he said.
    Another diplomat said Wang's major problem is excess demand
in the economy, caused by wage increases well ahead of
industrial growth, and excess growth in capital construction.
    "He must dampen this growth through raising taxes or cutting
government expenditure," he said. "China's economy is inherently
unstable, either in a high or a trough."
    He said Wang will reaffirm themes repeated by leaders since
the start of the year -- thrift, improved efficiency, cutting
investment outside the state plan and reducing consumption to
bring demand and supply into balance.
    "There will be no surprises," the diplomat said.
    The first diplomat said one sign of the thrifty times was
the lack of a banquet during a visit he made to a major Chinese
industrial city.
    "Normally, a foreign guest's visit is a chance for the boys
to feast on Mao Tai (a strong liquor), turtle and sea slugs,
with one banquet given by them and one given in return by me.
But there was none on this visit," he said.
    He added economic reforms will slow this year, in
particular price changes and the issuing of shares, which raise
sensitive issues about ownership and ideology. Bond issues
raise no such dilemmas and will continue, he added.
    A North American banker, who estimated the deficit at about
eight billion yuan, said economic policy has been affected by a
national drive against "bourgeois liberalism," a phrase meaning
Western political ideas.
    "In China the political system dictates economic policy," he
said. "The large deficit gives the conservatives a stick to beat
the reformers and demand more economic austerity.
    "One of China's top economic policy makers told me this week
1987 will be a year of consolidation for his firm, with less
overseas investment, lower imports and new funding to be
sourced internally."
    The banker said he is more comfortable about China's
stability now than two months ago, when the drive was launched
after the resignation of Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang.
    "There is no leftist alternative to the reforms," he said.
"There is no going back to the policy of strict central control.
But the reforms will take years. What you have now is a
confused mix of control and market economies."
 REUTER

Nippon Life Insurance Co's 538 mln dlr
purchase of a 13 pct stake in Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc
brokerage unit is a shrewd move that other Japanese insurers
are likely to follow, securities analysts said.
    The investment in one of Wall Street's top brokerage houses
is likely to pay off in dollars and international market
position, they said. "It's part of a trend towards growing
capital participation by Japanese insurance firms in foreign
financial institutions," said Simon Smithson, an analyst with
Kleinwort Benson International Inc in Tokyo.
    The investment in Shearson Lehman, a growing firm described
by some analysts as the top U.S. Retail brokerage, will give
Nippon Life a ringside seat and possibly lower commissions on
Wall Street, where it invests an increasing percentage of its
assets of 90.2 billion dlrs, they said.
    Nippon Life staff will also acquire expertise in business
sectors which have not yet opened up in Japan, they added.
    The agreement between the two companies calls for a 50-50
joint venture in London focussing on investment advisory asset
management, market research, and consulting on financing.
    Nippon Life is Japan's largest insurance company and the
world's biggest institutional investor, analysts said.
    The Japanese finance ministry is expected to approve the
deal in April, making Nippon Life the first Japanese life
insurance firm to take a stake in a U.S. Financial firm.
    The limit on foreign assets as a proportion of Japanese
insurers' assets was increased to 25 pct from 10 pct last year.
Since then, they have stepped up purchases of foreign stocks
and sought to deepen their understandng of foreign markets and
instruments.
    Last year, a Sumitomo Life Insurance Co official was
appointed to E.F. Hutton Group Inc unit E.F. Hutton and Co's
board and Sumitomo Bank Ltd spent 500 mln dlrs to become a
limited partner in Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    Smithson said Japanese banks started buying smaller and
problem-plagued banks in 1984. "But now Japanese are going for
blue-chip organisations," he said.
    "It's a reflection of what has happened in manufacturing
industries," said Brian Waterhouse at James Capel and Co. "With a
historically high yen, and historically low interest rates,
there's an increasing disincentive to invest in Japan."
    Competition in fund management has grown along with greater
Japanese savings. The typical salaried employee has 7.33 mln
yen in savings, reflecting an annual average savings rate of 17
to 18 pct, he said.
    To stay competitive, fund managers must invest overseas and
gain experience with financial instruments which are likely to
spread to Japan with further deregulation. "The high regulatory
environment has delayed (life insurance firms')
diversification. Now there's a growing number of new products
in an environment of increasing competition for performance on
fund management," Smithson said.
 REUTER

shortage of around 300 mln stg in the money market today.
some 338 mln stg while bankers' balances below target will take
out around 25 mln stg.
    Partly offsetting these outflows, a fall in note
circulation and exchequer transactions will add some 45 mln stg
and 25 mln stg to the system respectively.
 REUTER

Leading Australian onshore oil and gas
producer, Santos Ltd <STOS.S>, said its 1986 results were hit
by sharp reductions in prices for crude oil, condensate and
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
    The Cooper Basin producer earlier reported a fall in net
profit to 88.67 mln dlrs from 144.04 mln in 1985.
    Santos chairman Sir Brian Massy-Greene said in a statement
that increased production, particularly of oil and LPG, along
with reduced operating costs and reduced or deferred oil
exploration and development outlays, were helping Santos deal
with an adverse business climate.
    Santos said it remained financially strong with an
injection of 84 mln dlrs from the second instalment of a 1985
rights issue, and had cash reserves of 381.3 mln dlrs at the
end of 1986 against 401.9 mln a year earlier.
    It said it had also made significant progress in repaying
debts and at year end the ratio of debt to shareholders' funds
had fallen to 1.01 from 1.54.
    Santos yesterday announced a 4.00 dlr a share takeover bid
for the 96.93 pct it did not already hold in oil and gas
company <TMOC Resources Ltd> -- valuing the target at 248.5 mln
dlrs.
    Santos said 75 pct of its loans were U.S. Dollar
denominated and significant currency purchases were made during
the year to maintain that natural hedge. At year end it held
145 mln U.S. Dlrs, enough to meet all 1987 repayments.
    Santos said it had a successful gas exploration program,
finding 172 billion cubic feet in South Australia, but oil
exploration was less successful with 1.62 mln barrels added to
reserves -- less than depletion during the year.
    Cooper Basin producers are committed to a two-year scheme
to double gas exploration while Santos said its 1987 budget for
oil exploration had been boosted 20 pct.
    Santos said the outlook for 1987 depended on prices and
production volumes but with extra oil exploration and
encouraging gas finds there were grounds for optimism.
    But it called on the goverment to continue fostering
domestic producers through the Import Parity Price scheme.
    "It makes no sense to abandon this policy now when
exploration is at its lowest level for many years and when
Australia's oil self-sufficency is expected to decline rapidly,"
Massy-Green said.
 REUTER

Sony Corp <SNE.T> said it will set up a
second wholly-owned subsidiary in Malaysia to make headphones,
car stereos, radios and radiocassettes from early 1988.
    <Sony Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd> in Penang will have initial
capital of about 2.5 billion yen, and provide 1,000 jobs.
    Sales worth 10 billion yen are targetted for the year from
April 1, 1988, mainly to the U.S. And Europe.
    Sony's wholly-owned <Toyo Audio (M) Sdn Bhd> in Penang has
made audio products for export to the U.S. And Europe since
1984. Toyo sales were four billion yen in the year to October
31, 1986.
 REUTER

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Co Plc <PORL.L>, P and O, said it plans a free warrant issue on
the basis of 10 warrants for every 150 stg nominal of deferred
stock already held, to mark the 150th anniversary of the
company.
    Each warrant will give the right to subscribe for one stg
nominal of deferred stock at 750p during a specified period in
the five years starting in 1988.
    P and O deferred shares were last quoted at 629p, down 1p
since yesterday, after the company reported 1986 pre-tax profit
of 174.1 mln stg against 125.6 mln for 1985.
    P and O said 1986 produced an acceptable level of growth,
though ground has to be made up in one or two areas.
    The company has a strong balance sheet and considerable
flexibility for 1987, it added. P and O will concentrate on
expanding in its established market sectors.
    Commenting on the recent ferry disaster in the North Sea
off Zeebrugge, the statement said the precise cause is unknown.
The company has instituted an immediate investigation and both
the British and Belgian governments are conducting inquiries.
    The stricken ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise, belongs
to Townsend Thoresen, which became part of P and O in January.
    P and O is considering listing its shares in Japan and
other important overseas financial centres, the statement
added.
 REUTER

Indonesia's September devaluation
helped bank profits to rise by 28.6 pct in calendar 1986, but
despite higher world oil prices, banks are likely to see
profits stabilise or fall in 1987, the head of Indonesia's
Association of Private Banks told Reuters.
    Association chairman Nyoman Muna said in an interview that
most banks made windfall profits from the 31 pct devaluation
against the U.S. Dollar.
    He saw the outlook for 1987 as more favourable for
Indonesia, with oil prices now around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    But he forecast that overall bank profits would probably
fall slightly from 1986 pre-tax levels, which he said were
artificially high due to the devaluation.
    The Association's latest report on the performance of
Indonesia's 112 state, foreign and private banks shows that
overall profits rose in 1986 to 495 billion rupiah from 385
    This was after a fall in first half profits to 202.9
billion rupiah, from 238.1 billion in January-June 1985.
    The report shows foreign bank profits slumped in 1986,
mostly due to a loss by Bank of America NT and SA.
    Bank of America, a branch of BankAmerica Corp <BAC.N>, was
affected by a string of bad debts and other problems during the
year. It showed a loss of 32.03 billion rupiah, against a loss
of 3.48 billion in 1985, and 1984 profit of 7.25 billion.
    A bank spokesman told Reuters he believed Bank of America
in Jakarta was now back on track. "The worst is behind us."
    Its assets have fallen to 194.07 billion rupiah in 1986
from 293 billion in 1985 and 301.5 billion at the end of 1984.
    Indonesian profits of the 11 foreign banks allowed to
operate in Jakarta fell to 6.58 billion rupiah from 39.2
billion in 1985, the report said.
    These profits do not include offshore loans, which are
handled through other centres but which account for most of the
foreign banks' business.
    Profits of Indonesia's seven key state banks, which account
for more than 80 pct of domestic banking assets, rose sharply
to 319.09 billion rupiah in 1986 from 212.0 billion.
    Total assets of the seven rose to 40,232 billion from
31,288 billion rupiah, the report said.
    Profits of BNI 1946, the largest of the seven, rose to
63.28 billion rupiah from 35.9 billion in 1985.
    Its total assets expanded to 12,115 billion from 8,552
billion at the end of December 1985.
    Muna said in the fiscal year starting April 1, budgeted
government spending will fall in real terms. Many ministries
have had budgets cut severely due to declining oil revenues.
    "This will naturally have its impact on the banking sector,"
Muna stated. "But I think that with oil around 18 dlrs, the
general performance of the banking sector will not be too bad."
    Western bankers said the capital market remained sluggish,
but Indonesia was using more foreign loans.
    Bank of Tokyo <BTOK.T>, the only Japanese bank allowed to
operate here, almost doubled its assets in 1986 to 607 billion
rupiah from 335 billion in 1985, the report showed. But its
profit was barely higher at 8.5 billion from 8.4 billion.
    Citicorp's <CCI.N> local unit Citibank, previously listed
as the largest foreign bank, slipped to second place behind
Bank of Tokyo. It recorded a loss of 480 mln rupiah against a
1985 profit of 11.9 billion.
    A Citibank spokesman told Reuters the loss was a
book-keeping issue and did not represent the true picture, but
declined to give further figures.
    One western banker said that "Citibank is still definitely
the largest foreign operation in Jakarta, whether or not its
profit figures show it."
    Bank of Tokyo and Citibank ranked 10th and 11th in terms of
assets of all banks in Indonesia.
    The government allows only 11 foreign banks to conduct full
banking operations, and restricts their business to Jakarta.
 REUTER

KYUSHU ELECTRIC POWER ISSUES YEN BONDS LONDON, March 24 -
Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is issuing a 20 billion yen bond
due April 22, 1994 carrying a coupon of 4-3/4 pct and priced at
101-5/8 pct, said Nomura Securities Co Ltd as lead manager.
    The securities are available in denominations of one mln
yen each and will be listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange.
Payment date is April 22, 1987.
    There is a 1-1/4 pct selling concession and combined
management and underwriting fees total 5/8 pct.
 REUTER

Canadian Trade Minister Pat
Carney said that agricultural policies should not hurt world
international trade and should therefore become more price
responsive over time.
    She told delegates at the informal meeting of trade
ministers that this was one of five principles Canada wanted
adopted in reforming agriculture in the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Secondly, support for agriculture
should avoid production incentives, and thirdly, countries
should freeze and seek to reduce government aid measures that
distorted world prices, Carney said.
    Carney said the fourth principle was that countries should
not introduce new import barriers not mandated by existing
legislation and the fifth was that these basic principles must
be implemented collectively.
    Carney later told Reuters the Canadian guidelines are
basically compatible with the seven point Australian proposals
announced in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
    European trade sources said the conference welcomed the
Canadian initiative but some delegates, and not only the
European Community, voiced reservations about some of the
principles.
    Carney said there was a lot of political will among the
ministers here to complete the Uruguay Round of GATT in under
four years and that there is also a realisation that it has to
be done in a balanced way.
    "The consensus view was to proceed as fast as we can on a
broad front and see what areas emerge where we can get early
conclusion," she said.
    However, the meeting did not identify what those areas are,
Carney said.  She said Canada/U.S. Bilateral trade
negotiations, which must be concluded at least in draft form by
October, are progressing well.
 REUTER

The Central Bank said it issued 4.96
billion dlrs worth of certificates of deposit (CDs) today,
after issuing 4.03 billion of similar CDs yesterday, bringing
the total value of CD issues in 1987 to 139.46 billion.
two years, carry interest rates ranging from 4.07 pct to 5.12
pct, a bank official told Reuters.
    The issues are designed to help curb the growth of m-1b
money supply, which is expanding as a result of large foreign
exchange reserves.
    The reserves hit a record 53 billion U.S. Dlrs yesterday.
 REUTER

Philippine Secretary of
Trade and Industry Jose Concepcion, who two days ago expressed
doubts about agreements produced at international conferences,
said he was pleased with the latest gathering here.
    Concepcion told Reuters in an interview that the informal
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) meeting gave
ministers from more than 20 nations the chance to examine
issues with which GATT did not have the political will to deal.
    "Also, the role of the developing countries has been
emphasised in this particular meeting. Somehow it has been the
perception of developing countries that GATT is a club of rich
countries," he added in an interview with Reuters.
    "In fact many of the issues that have been tabled for
discussion (in the Uruguay round of trade negotiations) will be
of more benefit to the developed countries," he said.
    Concepcion said at the start of the Taupo meeting that the
Uruguay round was meant to be a "shining act of faith" in the
world trade system.
    Concepcion said the Philippines would address the issues of
trade in tropical fruit and the improvement of GATT machinery
to make it more responsive.
    He said tropical fruit came from developing countries but
faced non-tariff barriers, quantitative restrictions or very
high duties in other nations. Concepcion named Japan and South
Korea as examples.
    He said he would go to Wellington for talks with New
Zealand, which had a surplus in trade with the Philippines, to
encourage it to switch imports from other countries. He noted
that New Zealand bought its bananas from Ecuador.
 REUTER

A drought that began seven weeks ago is
hurting orchards and rubber plantations in Thailand and
officials said it could last until May.
    The government is trucking water into parched farms in
parts of northeastern, eastern and southern provinces, but not
enough to satisfy farmers, according to press reports.
    There has been no official estimate of damage.
    Officials of Thailand's rain-making institute said its
airplanes could help little because few clouds were forming for
them to seed with rain-making chemicals. Thailand has a rainy
season that normally starts in May and lasts to October.
 REUTER

Barbados is making its annual trip to
the international capital markets a bit earlier this year and
has mandated Barclays Bank Plc to arrange a 25 mln stg
revolving credit, Barclays said.
    The financing will be for seven years, with four years
grace, and will allow the borrower to make drawings in U.S.
Dollars. The credit will be transferable and carry interest at
1-1/8 pct over the London Interbank Offered Rate. There is a
commitment fee of 1/2 pct.
    Banks are being invited to join at four mln stg for 50
basis points and at 2.5 mln stg for 40 basis points.
    The terms represent an improvement over those obtained last
year, when Barbados tapped the market for a 25 mln dlr
transferable loan facility, which carried the same maturity but
had interest at 1-1/4 pct over Libor. The facility was
subsequently increased to 40 mln dlrs.
    However, the loan was not signed until November 5, and
bankers said that this year Barbados wanted to have the
financing in place early to give it greater flexibility in
drawing the funds over the course of the year.
    Last year Barbados boosted its capital market borrowings
with a small private yen placement in the Japanese market.
    At the signing of the 40 mln dlr facility, Winston Cox,
advisor to the Central Bank of Barbados, said he was looking to
make greater use of the international capital markets to reduce
the country's dependence on multi-national orgainsations.
    However, bankers believe this will be the country's only
major financing for this year, although another small private
placement in Japan could be arranged later in the year.
 REUTER

India launched its first
intercontinental-range rocket, the Press Trust of India
reported.
    The rocket blasted off from Sriharikota near Madras and 406
seconds later placed a 145 kg satellite in a 400 km earth
orbit. The satellite will carry out scientific missions.
    India put its first satellite launch vehicle into space in
1980. But this and a second rocket launched in 1983 were
classed in the below-intermediate range.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told
Parliament's Lower House Finance Committee that the U.S. Is
expected to intervene in the foreign exchange market to
stabilise exchange rates, political sources said.
    Asked if the U.S. Federal Reserve Board agreed in Paris
last month to intervene to stabilise exchange rates, Miyazawa
said yes, the sources said.
    Miyazawa was also quoted as saying that he is sceptical
about the effectiveness of currency reference ranges even if
major nations agree on such an idea as it is extremely
difficult to set such ranges.
 REUTER

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken is issuing
a 10 billion yen bond due October 23, 1992 carrying a coupon of
4-1/2 pct and priced at 101-3/8, lead manager Daiwa Securities
    The securities wil be listed on the London Stock Exchange
and will be available in denominations of one mln yen each.
Payment date is April 23, 1987.
 REUTER

Shr 51.4p vs 56.4p
    Div 11.0p making 17.4p, a 10 pct increase on 1985
    Turnover 3.14 billion stg vs 2.65 billion
    Pretax profit 182.2 mln vs 150.5 mln
    Tax 53.8 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Note - comparisons restated.
    Trading profit 217.2 mln vs 211.1 mln
    Launching costs 47.6 mln vs 51.6 mln
    Share of profit of related companies 3.6 mln vs 3.4 mln
    Net interest receivable 9.0 mln vs 12.4 mln payable
    Extraordinary debit 44.1 mln vs nil
    Trading profit includes  -
    Civil aircraft 7.7 mln loss vs 2.5 mln loss
    Military aircraft and support services 146.0 mln vs 148.3
mln
    Guided weapon and electronic systems 139.7 mln vs 127.8 mln
    Space and communications 1.9 mln vs 2.0 mln loss
    Company funded research and development 62.7 mln loss vs
54.9 mln
    Reorganisation costs nil vs 5.6 mln loss
    Launch costs include -
    BAe 146 17.1 mln vs 27.3 mln
    Airbus 19.4 mln vs 6.9 mln
    BAe 125-800 0.3 mln vs 1.5 mln
    ATP 10.8 mln vs 15.9 mln
 REUTER

State-owned Agricultural Bank of China
is to form a bank with the World Bank to "support China's
agricultural development and speed up its modernisation" in the
special economic zone of Xiamen, the People's Daily overseas
edition said.
    It gave no further details, but a Chinese banker said the
new International Agricultural Development Bank had capital of
less than 100 mln dlrs and would act mostly as an investment
bank, lending to farm processing businesses and rural
    He said the World Bank unit is the International Finance
Corp, which lends to private firms.
  REUTER

Suzuki Motor Co Ltd <SZMT.T> is
negotiating a joint venture with Hungary to assemble compact
cars there following a request from its government, the first
entry by a Japanese car maker into a Communist country, a
Suzuki spokesman said.
    The company, in which General Motors Corp <GM.N> has a 4.9
pct stake, has to set up such projects to avoid cutting
component production in Japan. Existing overseas vehicle
projects are increasing local content and so using fewer
Japanese parts, the spokesman said.
    Its Indian joint venture <Maruti Udyog Ltd>, MUL, 26 pct
owned by Suzuki, will reduce component imports from Japan as it
increases local content to 60 pct from the present 40 pct in
1987, the spokesman said.
    The yen's continued rise against the dollar and Japan's
self-imposed restrictions on exports to the U.S. And Europe
were also to blame for cuts in car component manufacture in
Japan, he said.
 REUTER

Copenhagen Telephone Co Ltd is issuing a
600 mln French franc 15-year retractable adjustable bond, lead
manager Credit Commercial de France (CCF) said.
    The bond will have an issue price of 101-1/8 pct and for
the first five years it will carry a nine pct coupon.
    The final due date will be April 28, 2002 and the issue
will be both puttable and callable on April 28, 1992 and 1997
at par.
    It will be denominated in 10,000 franc units and be listed
in Luxembourg. Co-lead will be Privatbanken.
 REUTER

South Africa will disclose later today
new arrangements for its repayment of foreign debt, the Finance
    Finance Minister Barend du Plessis will announce details at
a news conference at 1500 gmt, a spokesman said.
    Sources close to the ministry said South African
negotiators had worked out a favorable agreement on repayment
of 13 billion dlrs of debt after a standstill agreement expires
on June 30.
    The sources said a South African delegation led by chief
debt negotiator Chris Stals, director-general of finance, was
completing meetings in London today with foreign creditor
banks.
    "As far as South Africa is concerned, it looks like very
good news," one source said.
 REUTER

ASEA Capital Corp BV is issuing a 10
billion yen bond due April 23, 1992 carrying a coupon of 4-1/2
pct and priced at 102-3/8, Mitsui Finance International Ltd
    The securities, which are guaranteed by parent company ASEA
Capital, will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
    There is a put and a call option in 1990 at par. The
securities are available in denominations of one mln yen each
and are payable on April 23, 1987.
    The company's outstanding issues are rated AA-minus by
 REUTER

Alcatel CIT, the French subsidiary of
<Alcatel NV> which groups the worldwide telecommunications
business of ITT Corp <ITT.N> and France's state-owned Cie
Generale d'Electricite <CGE>, has won a 15 mln French franc
contract to supply transmission equipment to the Swedish Armed
Forces, the company said in a communique here.
    The order is for digital multiplexers.
    At the same time French computer services group <Cap Gemini
Sogeti> said it has won a five mln franc contract to develop a
data system for the Swedish aeronautical research institute.
 REUTER

Japanese private sector investment in
plant and equipment is expected to grow a real 0.9 pct in 1987,
after an estimated 5.5 pct rise last year, the Long-Term Credit
Bank of Japan Ltd said.
    It said its survey of 1,169 companies at the end of
February showed that manufacturing industry investment will
decline eight pct this year, while non-manufacturing will
increase 5.7 pct. It did not provide figures for 1986.
    The bank partly blamed the expected deline in manufacturing
investment on the uncertain outlook for demand in those
    The Long-Term Credit Bank also said that steelmaking and
shipbuilding companies are putting a squeeze on maintenance and
repair costs for their facilities and equipment.
    In non-manufacturing industry, growth in investment is
expected to be particularly marked in the wholesale and retail
store area, 12.4 pct, as new department stores and supermarkets
are built and old ones are remodelled.
    The Bank though expressed concern at a slowing of corporate
investment that would help restructure the Japanese economy and
urged government deregulation and other action to offset this.
 REUTER

The Cabinet approved a plan for
state-owned <Thai Airways International Ltd> to buy two new DC
10-30 extended range planes for 126 mln dlrs, a government
    He said Thai International will put the two aircraft on its
Bangkok-Europe service as part of a 1988-1991 expansion plan.
    The purchase of the new 'planes, due to be delivered late
this year, is being partly financed by 62 mln dlrs from the
airline's sale of its two old DC 10-30s to the Scandinavian
Airline System.
    The spokesman said the remaining 64 mln dlr cost of the new
DCs is expected to be met by Thai International's own budget.
    He said the national carrier was told by the Cabinet to
consider seeking a foreign loan to finance the acquisition.
    The government also asked Thai International to cooperate
with the finance and communications ministries in reviving a
Cabinet plan for the airline to raise its capital through a
public flotation, the spokesman said.
    He said a Cabinet decision in February 1986 called on Thai
International to float up to 29 pct of the company, a proposal
aimed at helping the airline meet its four-year expansion plan.
 REUTER

West German sugar stocks rose to 2.60 mln
tonnes, white value, at the end of February from 2.50 mln at
the same time a year earlier, the sugar industry association
WVZ said.
    However, stocks were well below the 2.82 mln held at the
end of January.
    Sugar exports between October 1 and February 28 rose to
449,253 tonnes from 435,727 in the same period of 1985/86.
Sales to non-European Community countries rose to 419,541
tonnes from 349,511, while sales within the EC fell sharply to
29,712 tonnes from 86,216.
    Imports in October-February fell to 59,605 tonnes from
76,044 in the same months a year earlier, the sugar industry
association said.
    Human sugar consumption in October-February rose to 817,856
tonnes from 799,128 in the year-ago period.
 REUTER

Ferranti Plc <FNTI.L> said its Edinburgh
based electro-optics department of Ferranti Defence Systems Ltd
has secured a multi mln dlr contract to supply laser
rangefinders for the Canadian Forces Low Level Air Defense
System.
    The first production order for 38 of the type 629G lasers
has been placed by <Martin Marietta> of the U.S., A
subcontractor to <Orelikon Aerospace Incorporated> of Canada,
the prime contractor for the system. Some 300 further orders
are anticipated as the programme proceeds.
    Ferranti shares were 2p firmer at 134 after the news.
 REUTER

A ban by a Portuguese court on the
state buying agency EPAC taking part in cereals import tenders
open to private traders will remain unless it is reversed in
Portugal or challenged in the European Court of Justice,
European Commission sources said.
    They denied a statement yesterday by Portuguese Agriculture
Minister Alvaro Barreto that the commission had accepted that
EPAC should be eligible, saying it had taken no view in the
matter.
    Under the terms of Portugal's accession to the European
Community, a grain import monopoly held by EPAC is being
reduced by 20 pct annually until all imports are liberalised in
1990.
    Lisbon's civil court decided in a preliminary ruling
earlier this month that EPAC should not be allowed to take
part, as it had done in the past, in tenders for the
liberalised share of annual grain imports.
 REUTER

Afghan warplanes killed 22 people in
a second bombing in as many days of a remote Pakistani village
near the Afghan border, official Radio Pakistan said.
    The radio said the six planes attacked Angur Adar in the
South Waziristan area. Afghanistan has denied previous charges
of bombing Pakistani territory.
    Officials said the death toll from yesterday's Afghan
bombing in Teri Mangal to the north had risen to at least 70 as
more bodies were recovered. Fifty-one people were reported
killed yesterday.
 Reuter

normal.
February.
 Reuter

Shr 34.5p vs 24.5p adjusted
    Div 19p making 29p vs 24.8p adjusted
    Pretax profit 178.1 mln vs 110.1 mln
    Tax and minorities 60.5 mln vs 32.7 mln
    Profit attributable 117.6 mln vs 77.4 mln
    Long term business 145.5 mln vs 137.7 mln
    General insurance business -
    Underwriting loss 99.9 mln vs 131.6 mln
    Investment income 94.8 mln vs 78.2 mln
    Trading loss 5.1 mln vs 53.4 mln
    Investment management, U.K. 6.4 mln vs 1.6 mln
    Shareholders' other income 31.3 mln vs 24.2 mln
    Pretax profit by division includes -
    U.K. Individual division 97.1 mln vs 89.5 mln
    U.K. Group pensions 10.5 mln vs 10.6 mln
    International 13.4 mln vs 12.4 mln
    Mercantile and General 24.5 mln vs 25.2 mln
    Prudential Portfolio managers 6.4 mln vs 1.6 mln
    Prudential Property Services 2.1 mln loss vs nil
 REUTER

Prospects of an agreement on
rescheduling about 9.4 billion dlrs of Philippine foreign debt
have increased following the offer of a higher interest rate by
Manila officials, foreign banking sources said.
    The sources said Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin made the
proposal to a 12-bank advisory committee, chaired by
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co as the talks entered their
fourth week in New York.
    They said the Philippines was now willing to pay a spread
of 7/8 percentage points over London Interbank Offered Rates
(Libor), up from the 5/8 points it originally proposed.
    The sources said the proposal was made in a bid to break a
deadlock with the banks, who were insisting on a minimum
interest spread of one full percentage point over Libor.
    They noted that the latest plan marked a compromise between
the two sides' demands, but fell short of Ongpin's assertion
that the Philippines would insist on a deal better than the
13/16 percentage points offered to Mexico last year by its
    The sources added that two key members of the negotiating
team returned to Manila last night, indicating agreement was
likely to be hammered out by this weekend.
    The sources said Finance Undersecretary Ernest Leung and
Deputy Central Bank Governor Edgardo Zialcita left New York
after Ongpin and Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez started
talks with the banks to put finishing touches to the accord.
    "The talks are now in a make-or-break phase," the sources
said. "All that is left are the wrinkles -- unless some bank
again decides to hang tough."
    They were referring to the last round of negotiations in
November 1986, when one bank, identified as Citibank NA,
refused to endorse the committee's proposal of 1-1/8 points
 REUTER...

Paris.
    Asked if major nations were now negotiating on what
measures to take, Miyazawa said they were not as measures had
already been agreed in Paris.
 REUTER

Japan's economy remains sluggish but is
beginning to show signs it may bottom out soon, the Economic
Planning Agency said in a monthly report submitted to Cabinet
ministers.
    But a bottoming out of the economy depends largely on the
yen's exchange rate trend in the immediate future, Agency
    The officials told reporters industrial production, down
0.5 pct in January from December, is likely to turn positive in
February and to rise thereafter, raising hopes for a brighter
economic outlook.
    The Agency predicted industrial production will grow 2.5
pct in the current January/March quarter after falling 0.7 pct
in the previous quarter.
    A rise of this size would be the largest since the fourth
quarter of 1984 when industrial output rose 2.7 pct, the
    They also said an expected upturn in exports would be a
mixed blessing as it would contribute to economic growth but
would increase the chance of trade friction.
    Japanese exports contracted five pct in February from
January but are likely to grow from March if the yen stabilizes
around current levels, the officials said.
    They predicted exports will increase by 2.3 pct in the
January/March quarter from the October/December quarter.
    "But the problem is imports are not expanding," said one
official. Imports fell by 9.4 pct in February from January.
 REUTER

Bundesbank allocates 6.5 billion marks in 28-day repurchase pact at 3.80 pct

The U.S. Has offered warships to
escort Kuwaiti tankers in the Gulf past Iranian anti-ship
missile batteries, Defence Department officials said.
    The officials told Reuters yesterday the offer was made
last week by Navy Admiral William Crowe, chairman of the
Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a Middle East visit.
    Reagan administration officials said later that Washington
did not seek military confrontation with Tehran, but would not
let Iran use Chinese-made "Silkworm" anti-ship missiles, capable
of covering the narrow entrance to the Gulf, to choke oil
shipments to the West.
    Defence officials said Kuwait had asked if protection for
up to a dozen vessels, most of them tankers, could be provided
by three U.S. Navy destroyers and two frigates now in the
southern Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
moved 18 warships, including the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk,
into the northern Arabian Sea in the past month.
    White House and defence officials said that massing the
fleet was routine and had nothing to do with the Iran-Iraq war
or Iran's stationing of missiles near the mouth of the Gulf.
    The State Department said on Friday that Iran has been told
about U.S. Concern over the threat to oil shipments in the
Gulf. The communication was sent through Switzerland, which
represents U.S. Interests in Iran.
    Iran denied as baseless reports that it intended to
threaten shipping in the Gulf and said any U.S. Interference in
the region would meet a strong response, Tehran Radio said on
Sunday.
    Several hundred vessels have been confirmed hit in the Gulf
by Iran and Iraq since early 1984 in the so-called tanker war,
an offshoot of their 6-1/2-year-old ground conflict.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank accepted bids for 6.5
billion marks at today's tender for a 28-day securities
repurchase pact at a rate of 3.80 pct, a central bank spokesman
said.
    Banks, which bid for a total 8.6 billion marks liquidity,
will be credited with the funds allocated tomorrow and must buy
back securities pledged on April 22.
    The allocation was in line with market expectations the
Bundesbank would provide more than the 3.4 billion marks
draining from this week as an earlier facility expires.
    Call money fell to 3.60/70 pct ahead of the allocation from
3.75/85 pct yesterday, dealers said.
    The excess allocation compensates for public funds leaving
the system which the Bundesbank added last week via
government-owned banks.
    However major tax payments by banks on behalf of customers
drew to a close this week, lessening the need for liquidity.
    The call money declines surprised some dealers, who
speculated it was because the Bundesbank disbursed further
government funds today. However, most said this had not
occurred.
    Banks were well stocked with liquidity, having 47.1 billion
marks in minimum reserves at the Bundesbank on Friday, up from
49.9 billion on Thursday. Average daily reserves over the first
20 days of the month fell to 52.6 billion from 53.1 billion.
For all of March, banks would be required to hold net daily
average reserves of 50.7 billion marks, dealers said.
 REUTER

the money market with 115 mln stg assistance in the morning
session. This compares with the Bank's forecast of a 300 mln
    The central bank bought bills outright in band two at
9-13/16 pct comprising 73 mln stg bank bills and 42 mln stg
local authority bills.
 REUTER

A huge car bomb exploded at the
headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine last night,
injuring about 30 people just hours after British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher left the West German capital.
    A British Army spokeswoman said today that seven people
were still being treated for minor injuries in hospitals in the
Moenchengladbach area, near the Rheindahlen base, after being
being hit by flying shards of glass from the blast.
    The 100-kg bomb went off outside an officers' mess at 10.30
P.M. (2130 GMT), ripping a crater half a meter (1.5 feet) deep
and three meters (nine feet) wide in the ground, and could be
heard several kilometers (miles) away, a police spokesman said.
    An anonymous caller, speaking English, telephoned the West
German domestic news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur just before
the explosion and said a bomb was about to go off at the base.
    Thatcher left Bonn early yesterday evening after talks with
with Chancellor Helmut Kohl ahead of her visit to Moscow next
week. She had flown to West Germany from talks with French
President Francois Mitterrand in Normandy earlier in the day.
    Officers of the Nato Northern Army Group, which is also
based at Rheindahlen, were holding a social dinner attended by
British and West German servicemen and their wives inside the
mess when the bomb went off.
 Reuter

The 1992 deadline for abolishing economic
barriers within the European Community should help French
economic growth and create jobs, president of the French
employers' federation CNPF Francois Perigot said.
    "Having a market at our disposal which is as homogeneous and
accessible as that of Europe is an incredible piece of luck," he
told Le Figaro in an interview.
    He said that the majority of French business leaders were
enthusiastic about the abolition of barriers and saw it as an
opportunity rather than a danger for their companies.
    "It can permit us to return to a growth rate which is much
better than we could achieve in isolation. We know that we have
to reestablish growth at three pct a year to solve the enormous
problems confronting us -- and I am referring mainly to
unemployment," Perigot added.
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said yesterday that
French growth would be just two pct this year, the same as last
year and compared with the government's original 2.8 pct
target.
 REUTER

Eurofima is issuing a 125 mln ECU, 7-3/8
pct bond due March 3, 1997 at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Societe
Generale said.
management and underwriting including a 1/8 pct praecipuum.
    The non-callable deal of unsecured, unsubordinated debt is
in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 ECUs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. Payment date is April 21 giving a short first
coupon. Co-lead managers are DBCM and SBCI.
 REUTER

Soviet sugar imports in October and
November were significantly higher than in the same period of
the year before, according to figures received by the
International Sugar Organization.
    Imports in October totalled 23,803 tonnes, compared with
4,685 tonnes in the same month of 1985, while November imports
were up to 136,029 tonnes from 46,541.
    For the first 11 months of 1986, Soviet imports totalled
5.12 mln tonnes, against 4.30 mln in the same period of 1985.
    The October 1986 import figure consisted entirely of whites
from Cuba, while the November total was made up of 84,037
tonnes Cuban whites and 51,992 tonnes whites from Thailand. Of
the imports in the January/November period, those from Cuba
were up to 3.81 mln tonnes from 3.65 mln and from Thailand to
292,808 tonnes from 22,800.
    Soviet exports also increased in 1986. The January/November
export total of 289,232 compares with 165,859 tonnes in the
first 11 months of 1985. Exports in October 1986 were 20,064,
down from 38,853 a year earlier, while November exports were up
from 32,796 to 50,855 tonnes.
 REUTER

West German sugar production last year
rose 38,000 tonnes to an estimated 3.17 mln tonnes, the
Agricultural Ministry said.
    It said the increase was exclusively due to higher beet
sugar content, which went up to 17.93 pct from 17.3 pct in
1985.
    Last year's beet deliveries totalled 20.22 mln tonnes, down
554,000 tonnes from the previous year.
    The ministry estimates West Germany's sugar
self-sufficiency during the current agricultural year
(July/June) unchanged at 137 pct.
 REUTER

Norcros Plc <NCRO.L> the building
products and packaging group said its board had no hesitation
in unanimously rejecting this morning's 542.2 mln stg bid from
<Williams Holdings Plc>, the industrial holding firm.
    The company said Williams' 432.7p per share offer was
unsolicited and unwelcome and significantly undervalues
Norcros. By 1228 gmt Norcros shares were quoted at 418p, up
from 397p at yesterday's close. Williams was 15p higher at 765.
    The Norcros board's detailed views will be sent to
shareholders when the formal offer document has been issued by
Williams.
 REUTER

Western agricultural attaches in Moscow
said they had no evidence to substantiate rumours that last
April's Chernobyl nuclear disaster had a worse effect on Soviet
grain than first reported.
    Current Soviet interest in chartering ships to carry grain
from the U.S. Helped prompt the rumours on world markets. But
the diplomats said they had seen no reports in the state press
and heard no comments from officials to substantiate them.
    The official media was initially slow in reporting the
accident but, under Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign
for openness, gradually gave more and more details.
    Land around the nuclear plant was contaminated to varying
degrees. Some is now being used to grow industrial crops
instead of grain.
 REUTER

Schleswig-Holstein Landesbank (LB)
Finance BV is issuing a 30 mln Australian dlr bond due April
30, 1990 carrying a coupon of 14-5/8 pct and priced at 101-3/8,
said ANZ Merchant Bank Ltd as lead manager.
    The securities are guaranteed by parent company,
Schleswig-Holstein Landesbank Girozentrale and will be listed
on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. They are available in
    Payment date is April 30. There is a one pct selling
concession and a 1/2 pct combined underwriting and management
fee.
 REUTER

Iran has test-fired its newly acquired
Silkworm anti-shipping missile in the Strait of Hormuz and has
set up at least two land-based launching sites in the area, a
British naval source in the Gulf said.
    The source, who declined to be identified, said Iran had
fired the Chinese-made missile at a hulk off its southern Gulf
naval port of Bandar Abbas and scored a hit.
    "These missiles pack a fairly big punch," he told Reuters.
"There is no doubt they could be used to target (shipping)
across the Strait of Hormuz."
    Tension in the Gulf has risen since U.S. Officials last
week broke the news that Iran had acquired the Silkworm
missiles.
    The U.S. Has said it will not allow Iran to use the
missiles to choke off oil shipments and has offered its
warships to escort Kuwaiti tankers past the missile batteries.
    But Tehran denied last Sunday it intended to threaten Gulf
shipping and warned the U.S. Any interference in the region
would meet a strong response.
    The British naval source said the Silkworms were in place
at at least two sites around the Strait of Hormuz, but would
not give the exact location.
 REUTER

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc is holding
talks on acquiring Canadian brokerage firms, a company
    He said one of the firms with which Merrill Lynch is
negotiating is <Burns Fry Corp> of Toronto, which has already
received an offer from Security Pacific Corp's <SPC> 83 pct
owned <Hoare Govett Ltd> London-based brokerage unit.  The
Hoare Govett bid is valued at about 210.4 mln U.S. dlrs.
    The spokesman said the talks are the result of a change in
Ontario securities laws that takes effect June 30.
    Currently, companies outside the Canadian securities
industry are prohibited from owning more than 10 pct of a
Canadian broker.  On June 30, 1987, foreign brokers will be
allowed to own up to 50 pct of Canadian brokers, and the
percentage will rise to 100 pct a year later.
 Reuter

Mark IV Industries Inc said it has
started the 25 dlr per share tender offer for all shares of
Conrac Corp that it announced yesterday afternoon.
and withdrawal rights expire April 20 unless extended.  The
offer is not conditioned on receipt of any minimum number of
shares but is conditioned on the arrangement of financing.
    Mark IV already owns about 9.9 pct of Conrac's 6.8 mln
 Reuter

Ecolab Inc said it has started its
previously-announced tender offer for all shares of ChemLawn
Corp at 36.50 dlrs each.
ChemLawn board has approved the tender and a merger at the same
price that is to follow.
    Ecolab said the offer is conditioned on receipt of at least
5,325,000 shares.  ChemLawn now has about 10.0 mln shares
    Ecolab said ChemLawn has granted it a conditional option to
buy all authorized but unissued and unreseved ChemLawn shares
at 36.50 dlrs each.  The option is exercisable in the event
that another party were to acquire 20 pct or more of ChemLawn
by means other than a tender offer for all shares at a higher
price than Ecolab is offering.
    The company said if the merger agreement is terminated
under certain circumstasnces, it will be entitled to receive 20
mln dlrs in damages from ChemLawn.
    Ecolab said officers and directors of ChemLawn have granted
it options to acquire an aggregate of 2,535,435 ChemLawn shares
or about 24.8 pct for the tender price, again unless a higher
tender were to be made by another party.
    Waste Management Inc <WMX> had originally made a hostile
tender offer of 27 dlrs per share for ChemLawn which ChemLawn
rejected as inadequate.  On Friday, Waste Management said it
would raise its bid to 35 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Taiwan said it plans another round of
tariff cuts, possibly within a month, to try to narrow its
    Vice Finance Minister Ronald Ho said a high-level economic
committee recommended tariff cuts on 66 products requested by
Washington, including apples, chocolates and fruit juice.
    Ho said the cuts may come into effect by the end of next
month.
    Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Widened in the first
two months of this year to 2.35 billion dlrs from 1.87 billion
dlrs in the same period last year.
 REUTER

Walt Disney Co said it has
signed a definitive agreement with the French government to
build and operate Euro Disneyland on 5,000 acres at
Marne-la-Vallee, a new town 20 miles east of Paris.
    The company said construction is scheduled to start next
year and the theme park portion of the development -- which
will also include a resort and recreation complex -- will take
about four years to build.  The theme park is expected to
attract at least 10 mln visitors a year, Disney said.
    The company said Euro Disneyland will offer a Magic Kingdom
theme park like those at its Anaheim, Calif., Orlando, Fla.,
and Tokyo complexes and peripheral resort and recreation
facilities similar to those at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
    Disney said it will seek other equity investors in Euro
Disneyland from France and elsewhere in the world.
    It said provisions for a second theme park on the property
are included in the understanding with the French government,
which is selling Disney the land.  In Orlando, Disney also
operates EPCOT Center.
    The company said long-term plans include convention
facilities, a business park, an office complex and other
related tourist developments.
    Disney said the French government will extend the Paris
Metro subway system to the park and build interchanges and
raods to provide superhighway access.
    It said it will receive royalties based on gross revenues
from admissions, food and merchandise and will receive a fee to
operate Magic Kingdom and other resort elements under a
management contract.  Disney said Eruo Disneyland will operate
year-round.
 Reuter

Pakistan's consumer price index (base
1975/76) fell to 231.93 in January 1987 from 233.26 in December
1986, and compared with  223.66 a year ago, the federal Bureau
of Statistics said.
    The wholesale price index (same base) rose to 229.83 in
January from 229.06 in December and compared with  217.97 in
 REUTER

L M Ericsson <ERIC ST> said it had
signed a contract worth nearly 400 mln crowns with the Algerian
Ministry of Telecommunications covering the supply of AXE
exchanges as part of an expansion of the country's
telecommunications network.
 REUTER

 Reuter

British services company BET Plc
<BETL.L> said its shareholders had given it approval to raise
up to 170 mln dlrs through a share issue to U.S. Investors.
    A company spokesman told Reuters the issue of up to 44 mln
shares will be in the form of American Depository Receipts
(ADRs) and that the total amount to be raised will probably be
75 to 100 mln dlrs, depending on market conditions.
    The issue is due to be completed in August, he said.
    BET shareholders also approved a one-for-one free share
issue to existing stockholders, the cancellation of preferred
stock and new articles of association, the company said.
 REUTER

said orders worth around 73 mln stg have been awarded to three
British firms following competitive tendering for more than
500,000 lines of advanced digital local exchange equipment.
    The orders have been placed with <GEC Telecommunications>,
<Plessey Major Systems> and <Thorn Ericsson
Telecommunications>.
    Plessey and GEC will between them supply some 455,000 lines
of System X equipment worth a total of more than 64 mln stg
while Thorn Ericsson has received orders for more than 70,000
lines of AXE10 exchanges, valued at around eight mln stg.
 REUTER

Credit Suisse <CRSZ.Z> has been ordered
to freeze accounts thought to have been involved in a U.S.
Insider trading scandal, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.
    Joerg Kistler said the accounts belonged to two individuals
and three companies, including Nahum Vaskevitch, former head of
the London office of Merrill Lynch and Co <MER.N>.
    The accounts were blocked under a treaty on legal
assistance between the United States and Switzerland aimed at
facilitating criminal investigations which might otherwise
remain hidden because of Swiss banking secrecy.
    The order prohibits transactions on the accounts for an
initial period of 30 days, after an emergency request from the
United States arrived last Friday.
    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which
supervises stock market trading, alleged this month that
Vaskevitch and an Israeli associate, Daniel Sofer, were behind
an insider trading ring which netted profits of four mln dlrs.
    The order freezes accounts owned by Vaskevitch and Sofer as
well as those of the companies <Plenmeer Ltd> and <Meda
Establishment>, Kistler said. He declined to name the third
company, since it was not clear what role it played.
    A spokesman for the bank said he was aware of the order.
"Now we have to find out what is on the accounts," he said. He
    The SEC alleged in a New York court last week that Sofer
transferred 1.9 million dollars from a U.S. Bank account of the
company Plenmeer to an account at Credit Suisse.
 REUTER

U.S. FEB DURABLE GOODS ORDERS ROSE 6.0 PCT, NONDEFENSE DURABLES ROSE 3.8 PCT

Shr 97.0p vs 85.3p
    Div 22.5p vs 20.0p making 35.0p vs 30.5p
    Pretax profit 253.9 mln stg vs 267.9 mln
    Tax 96.3 mln vs 125.6 mln
    Operating income 1.15 billion vs 998.8 mln
    Operating expenses 759.3 mln vs 692.7 mln
    Trading profit before charge for bad and doubtful debts
    394.4 mln stg vs 306.1 mln
    Charge for bad and doubtful debts 184.2 mln vs 100.7 mln
    Share of profits of associates 43.7 mln vs 62.5 mln
    Minority interests 6.6 mln debit vs 9.6 mln debit
    Extraordinary items 8.7 mln debit vs 15.7 mln credit
    Operating income includes -
    Interest income 2.49 billion vs 2.33 billion
    Interest expenses 1.77 billion vs 1.64 billion
    Other operating income 428.8 mln vs 313.2 mln
    Operating expenses include -
    Staff 405.9 mln vs 376.0 mln
    Premises and equipment 197.0 mln vs 155.2 mln
    Others 156.4 mln vs 161.5 mln
    Pretax profit includes -  North America 65.8 mln vs 49.6
mln
    Asia Pacific 0.9 mln vs 31.8 mln
    Middle East and south Asia 17.7 mln vs 2.3 mln
    Tropical Africa 47.5 mln vs 44.7 mln
    U.K. 107.6 mln vs 135.7 mln
    South Africa 36.8 mln vs 35.6 mln
 Reuter

 Reuter

KDI Corp said it has agreed
in principle to acquire Triangle Microwave Inc for 6.50 dlrs
plus a contingent payment for each Triangle share.
    It said holders of the contingent payment units will be
entitled to receive annual payments to the extent that the
predepreciation gross profits of Triangle Microwave in each of
the years 1987 through 1991 exceed threshholds ranging from
eight mln dlrs in 1987 to 14 mln dlrs in 1991.
    The company said holders of Triangle Microwave options and
warrants will be entitled to receive the difference between
6.50 dlrs and their exercise price, plus contingent payments.
    KDI said completion of the transaction is subject to
governmental approvals and the approval of Triangle Microwave
shareholders, and the transaction is valued at over 35 mln
dlrs.
    It said shareholders of Triangle Microwave controlling
about 30 pct of the company's stock have agreed to vote in
favor of the deal and to give KDI an option to buy their shares
under certain components.
    Triangle Microwave makes microwave components.  KDI, a
diversified company, produces electronic components, technical
products and swimming pool equipment.                
 Reuter

The National Weather Service said a
powerful winter storm centered over north central Oklahoma was
spreading snow from western and central Kansas across much of
Nebraska to southern and eastern South Dakota.
    Rain was reported across parts of Minnesota, Iowa, eastern
Kansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, with showers and a few
thundershowers extending from Arkansas through the lower
Mississippi Valley to Alabama and northwest Florida.
    Strong winds of 20 to 35 mph with some stronger gusts were
reported across much of the Plains, causing considerable
blowingand drifting snow. A blizzard warning continued this
morning across most of western Kansas. A winter storm warning
was issued this morning over central and northeast Nebraska.
    Weather advisories were posted for this morning over
central Kansas and central and southeast sections of South
Dakota where two to five inches of snow could accumulate.
    Locally heavy rains accompanied the storm over portions of
the central Plains. Flash flood watches were issued for this
morning across the eastern half of Kansas.
    A flood warning continues today for eastern Nebraska.
Widespread lowland and small stream flooding is expected to
continue over most of eastern Nebraska through Wednesday.
    Due to cold, damp and windy conditions, livestock
advisories were posted this morning across central and
southeast portions of South Dakota.
    As the storm moves north across the central Plains, winter
storm watches were issued over south central South Dakota, late
tonight and Wednesday over west central Minnesota.
    Elsewhere, a travelers advisory remains in effect this
morning over northeast New Mexico and the Oklahoma and Tecas
Panhandle for blowing snow and slick roadways and across the
mountains and deserts of southern California for strong gusty
winds of 25 to 40 mph. Gale warnings were issued for today
along the central California Coast.
    Mostly clear skies extended from the Great Lakes and Ohio
Valley through the central Appalachians to the central Atlantic
Coast and New England.
 Reuter

New orders for durable goods
received by U.S. manufacturers rose 5.7 billion dlrs, or 6.0
pct, in February to 101.2 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department
said.
    Excluding defense, orders rose 3.8 pct, compared with a
revised January decline of 7.7 pct.
    In January, durable goods fell a revised 9.9 pct instead of
the previously reported 7.5 pct. Durables excluding defense
were reported originally as having fallen 9.9 pct in January.
    The Commerce Department on Monday revised orders statistics
for 1982 to 1986 to reflect more current inventory valuation
methods, and the February orders statistics are consistent with
the revisions, officials said.
    The February order increase was led by transportation
equipment, up 11.1 pct after an 18.0 pct decline in January.
    Orders for defense capital goods rose 48.9 pct to 6.9
billion dlrs, following a 38.8 pct decline in January.
    Non-defense capital goods orders fell 1.6 pct in February
to 26.3 billion dlrs after falling 8.7 pct in January, the
    Electrical machinery orders rose in February by 8.2 pct to
17.2 billion dlrs after falling 15.4 pct in January.
    Primary metals orders were up 13.9 pct to 8.4 billion dlrs
after a 20 pct decline in January, the department said.
    New orders for non-electrical machinery were up in February
by 3.9 pct to 16.6 billion dlrs after a three pct orders
decline in January.
 Reuter

Woolworth Holdings Plc <WLUK.L> which
earlier announced a 1986 pre-tax profits rise of 42 pct over
1985, said its prospects for growth were very exciting.
    The profit figure of 115.3 mln stg exceeded a forecast by
some 10 pct made during the hostile bid by Dixons Group Plc
<DXNS.L> last year and the company said the results were a
major step towards the aim of making Woolworth the most
profitable retailing group in the U.K.
    It aimed to produce growth from all its businesses and look
for opportunities to acquire specialist retail businesses.
    Earlier this month the group said that tentative merger
talks with the high street pharmacist <Underwoods Plc> had been
called off and recently announced a 19.2 mln stg recommended
offer for <Charlie Browns Car Part Centres Plc>.
    The B and Q Do it Yourself centres raised sales by 31 pct
and retail profit by 37 pct, with its pretax contribution of
45.5 mln making it the largest single component.
    The company said that the improvement had been achieved by
substantial organic growth in existing stores as well as by the
opening of a further 29 new outlets and enhanced margins.
    In other sectors, the Comet electrical chain raised retail
profits by 46 pct to 17.4 mln stg, while the Woolworth chain
reported a 120 pct improvement to 38.7 mln.
    The company said its property operations would increase
substantially following the start of a joint venture deal with
developers <Rosehaugh Plc>.
    The defence costs against the 1.9 billion stg bid from
Dixons resulted in a 16.0 mln stg extraordinary charge.
    The results were 10 mln stg up on most analysts forecasts.
As a result, the group's shares rose strongly, peaking at 865p
from last night's 842p before easing to 860p at 1155 GMT.
 Reuter

March Eight
    Shr loss 31 cts vs loss 47 cts
    Net loss 25.6 mln vs loss 39.4 mln
    Sales 398.1 mln vs 322.3 mln
    Avg shrs 91.6 mln vs 90.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 44 cts vs loss one dlr
    Net loss 32.7 mln vs loss 84.4 mln
    Sales 1.36 billion vs 1.08 billion
    Avg shrs 91.2 mln vs 89.6 mln
    NOTE: Twelve and 40-week periods.
    Prior year results restated for change in method of
recognizing revenue on distributor shipments.  Quarter net loss
originally reported as 32.0 mln dlrs or 38 cts shr on sales of
328.9 mln dlrs and nine mth loss as 120.3 mln dlrs or 1.40 dlrs
shr on sales of 1.11 billion dlrs.
    Prior nine mths net includes 51.2 mln dlr gain from
cumulative effect of accounting change.
    Prior year net includes extraordinary credits of 1,100,000
dlrs in quarter and 3,300,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    Current year net both periods includes 15.0 mln dlr pretax
charge from previously-announced restructuring of Datachecker
Systems and Semiconductor Group manufacturing operations.
     
 Reuter

COMDATA NETWORK AGREES TO HIGHER OFFER FROM WELSH CARSON ANDERSON

 Reuter

Comdata Network Inc said it
has entered into a definitive agreement to merge into a company
formed by <Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe IV> for either
16.50 dlrs in cash or 10.00 dlrs in cash and a unit of
securities per Comdata share.
    The company said each unit of securities would consist of
1.25 common shares in the new company and three dlrs principal
amount of the new company's 11 pct subordinated debentures due
1997.
    It said the 16.50 dlr cash alternative is an improvement
over the 15.00 dlr per share price contemplated under an
agreement in principle with Welsh Carson announced on March
Five.
    Comdata said the cash and securities alternaitcve is
subject to Welsh Carson-affiliated investors owning at least 60
pct of the stock of the new company.
    The company said investment bankers <Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc> and Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> found the proposal to
be fair from a financial point of view.
    It said the transaction is subject to approval by its
shareholders and to Welsh Carson obtaining up to 230 mln dlrs
in debt financing. Comdata said it may terminate the agreement
if financing is not arranged by April Three.
    On Thursday, First Financial Management Corp <FFMC> offered
to acquire Comdata for 18.00 dlrs per share in stock and cash,
subject to approval by the Comdata board.
    Under the First Financial proposal, Comdata holders would
receive no more than four dlrs per share in cash and could
receive all stock.
    Comdata had originally planned a recapitalization under
which it would have repurchased up to six mln common shares at
14.50 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Jefferies Group Inc said it is
making markets in the common stock of Conrac Corp <CAX>,
American Express Co <AXP> and Cyclops Corp <CYL>.
    The company said the present quote on Conrac is 28 dlrs
bid, 29 dlrs offered, on American Express 79 dlrs bid, 80 dlrs
offered and on Cyclops 91 dlrs bid, 92 dlrs offered.
 Reuter

The Irish Agriculture Department issued
a Colorado beetle alert today after three of the beetles were
found in a box of parsley imported from France.
    Officials said a colony of the black and amber coloured
beetles can destroy a potato field in a day. The females lay up
to 2,500 eggs each.
    Some of the 80 boxes in the parsley consignment had already
been distributed to markets and the department called on all
shopkeepers and the catering trade to be on the alert.
 Reuter

The sharp drop in the value of the
dollar against the yen and the mark is the first serious test
of last month's Group of Five (G-5) plus Canada agreement to
stabilise currencies, dealers and bank economists said.
    "The dollar will be pushed down until there is coordinated
central bank intervention," one dealer for a German bank said,
echoing widepread sentiment in the market.
    But opinion was divided on whether the united front forged
in Paris still exists. Some dealers said there were growing
signs the United States wanted the dollar to fall further.
    Despite repeated Bank of Japan intervention, the dollar
plunged to a post-war low in Tokyo today. It was quoted as low
as 148.40 yen in the Far East and dealers here said they
expected the U.S. Currency to decline further.
    "The dollar is now firmly within a broad 140 to 150 yen
range," Chase Bank AG's senior dealer Eckhart Hager said.
    Others said there were technical reasons for the sharp
dollar drop. "Window-dressing" operations by some Japanese
companies who were selling dollars and buying yen before the
end of the Japanese fiscal year on March 31 were undermining
    Dealers said main reason for the sell-off was not
technical. U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker's comment the
Paris accord did not have fixed dollar targets was seen as a
renewed attempt by the U.S. Administration to talk the dollar
down.
    "Suddenly, support levels which had existed for fear of
central bank intervention disappeared," one dealer said.
    The Bank of Japan was believed to have bought some 1.5
billion dlrs, and this with comments by Japanese officials
indicated Tokyo was unhappy about the plunge, dealers said.
Bank of Japan governor Satoshi Sumita threatened central bank
intervention if necessary.
    Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said today the
time had come for the six nations who agreed in Paris last
month to stabilise currencies - Japan, Britain, Canada, France,
the U.S. And West Germany - to take action in line with the
pact.
    But the Bundesbank and other European central banks were
not detected in the open market during the European morning.
Opinion here was divided on when the Bundesbank would act.
    While some said the West German central bank would support
the dollar once it fell below 1.80 marks, others said the
Bundesbank would only intervene after a fall below 1.75 marks
or if the decline accelerated.
    The Bundesbank last intervened on January 27, when the
dollar threatened to fall below 1.81 marks.
    "The Japanese seem to be on their own at the moment," one
dealer said. Others said cooperation between central banks and
governments was easier said than done.
    Some said Baker's remarks and U.S. Trade Representative
Clayton Yeutter's warning that the U.S. And Japan were on the
verge of a serious trade conflict showed there was a rift.
    "It's hard to tell whether the G-6 agreement still stands," a
dealer said. Another added, "If the Americans do not get what
they want, they will push the dollar down, regardless of G-6."
    Citibank AG also cast doubt on the chances of success for
the Paris agreement in its latest investment letter.
    "It is hard to see that Japan and Germany are willing or
able to loosen fiscal policy sufficiently to offset the
necessary U.S. Fiscal contraction," Citibank said.
    It added, "Markets should therefore be aware that 1.80 marks
is not the lower limit for the dollar -- a rate of 1.70 marks
or even less is expected this year."
    And London Broker Hoare Govett said in its March 1987
economic report, "We are looking for a further, more gradual,
fall, possibly to 1.60 marks by the end of the year."
    But opinion about whether the Paris accord was still in
force was not universal. Some dealers said not too much should
be read into Baker's and Yeutter's comments.
    "There is no reason to believe the Paris pact has broken
down," a senior dealer said.
 REUTER

A strong earthquake registering a
preliminary reading of 6.5 on the Richter scale was felt on the
coast northwest of Tokyo today, the Central Meteorological
    There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries but
the agency issued a seismic wave warning on the coast between
Niigata Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, and Noto Peninsula, to
the west. The epicentre of the tremor was located in the Sea of
Japan far off Niigata, it said.
    The tremor was felt as far away as Yokohama, south of
Tokyo, and Hamamatsu on the Pacific coast.
 REUTER

Transnational Industries Inc said due
to continuing manufacturing difficulties at its AlloyTek Inc
jet engine component subsidiary, it expects to report a net
loss of about 300,000 dlrs or 12 cts per share for the fourth
quarter ended January 31.
    It said revenues for the period were about 11.9 mln dlrs,
about even with those of a year earlier.
    For the full fiscal year, the company said it earned about
775,000 dlrs or 34 cts per share, down from 1,402,000 dlrs or
76 cts per share a year before.
    The company said an unexpectedly large volume of customer
inquiries at its Spitz Inc simulation products subsidiary has
caused higher than expected business development outlays.
    The company said it expects significant contract awards to
Spitz later this year.
    It said it has started implementing a plan to progressively
reduce manufacturing costs at AlloyTek over the next several
quarters.  The company said it may move AlloyTek's plant from
Grandville, Mich., to a lower labor cost area.
    The company said it discovered the extent of the AlloyTek
problems during a year-end review of subcontracts and related
work in progress for production of jet engine components for
General Electric Co <GE>.
    It said it will release annual results around April 15.
 Reuter

Corp said it agreed to sell its John Alden Life Insurance Co
and its affiliated operations for 280 mln dlrs to a
newly-formed company onwed by the John Alden Management Group.
    General Electric Credit Corp delivered a commitment letter
arranged by the GECC Capital Markets Group Inc for the
    Great Western said the pre-tax gain on the sale will be
approximately 65 mln dlrs, and after tax gain will be 
approximately 15 mln.
 Reuter

<Central Capital Corp>
said it filed a final prospectus in all provinces for a 100 mln
dlr offering of 7-5/8 pct cumulative redeemable retractable
senior preferred shares, series A.
    Net proceeds will be used to expand financial intermediary
activities of the Central Capital group of companies and for
general corporate purposes, it said.
    Underwriters are Wood Gundy Inc, Dominion Securities Inc
and Midland Doherty Ltd.
 Reuter

<BCE Development
Corp>, 69 pct owned by Bell Canada Enterprises Inc <BCE>, said
it filed a preliminary prospectus for an issue of cumulative
redeemable retractable class A preference shares, series I, and
the offering is expected to be made in early April.
    It did not elaborate on the amount or price of the issue.
    The company said the shares will carry a special dual
currency feature that will provide a hedge against a decline in
value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar.
    Holders will be able to elect receiving dividend payments,
paid at a set rate, in either currency.
 Reuter

<Associated Porcupine Mines Ltd> said
its September 22, 1986 agreement with Quill Resources Ltd, for
Quill to provide certain funding, has been terminated.
    Under the agreement, Quill was to provide funding for a
three phase program to place Associated Porcupine's Paymaster
gold property at Timmins, Ontario into commerical production,
the company said without further elaborating.
 Reuter

said a a district court has decided to grant a motion by
Hybritech Inc, a unit of Eli Lilly and Co <LLY>, preventing the
sale of certain Monoclonal products.
    The products, including Ovustick Self-Test and Advance, a
pregnancy test, account for 80 pct of Monoclonal sales, the
biotechnology company said.
    The products are made by Monoclonal and marketed by Ortho
Pharmaceutical Corp, a unit of Johnson and Johnson <JNJ>.
    The products were named in lawsuits dating back to 1984,
    Documents will be filed within 10 days for the judge to
issue a preliminary injunction, which should become effective
after the filing, the company said.
    The company is evaluating the impact of the injunction on
its operations. "While we're of course extremely disappointed
by the court's decision, we will continue development efforts
on products not subject to a potential infringement ruling,
particularly diagnostic tests for drugs of abuse and sexually
transmitted diseases," the company said in a statement.
    The company hopes to have the new products available for
sale late this year or early next year, it said.
    In the meantime, it will focus efforts on marketing
products not affected by the injunction and designing other
 Reuter

Sterivet Laboratories Ltd said the
board authorized a three-for-one split of its outstanding
common shares, subject shareholder approval at the annual
meeting.
 Reuter

The Bank of Spain raised overnight call
money rates by 1/4 to 14 pct on demand for 746 billion pesetas
in today's auction, which a bank spokesman termed "heavy."
    Rates stood at 12.1 pct at the start of the year and have
been increased to drain liquidity on rising demands for funds,
    He said in reply to Reuters inquiries that rates could rise
further if money supply growth rose above this year's eight pct
target for M-4, defined as liquid assets in public hands.
    Money supply rose at an annualised rate of 16.7 pct last
month against 8.1 pct in January. Growth was 11.4 pct in 1986.
    A leading Spanish broker said the central bank was applying
a more restrictive policy to keep the lid on inflation.
    The consumer price index rose 8.3 pct last year.
    "Money supply control is the government's chief weapon
against inflation," he said. "The problem is higher rates are
attracting liquidity from abroad."
    He said this was why the central bank enacted specific
measures to control the inflow of foreign capital. The Bank of
Spain earlier this month imposed a 19 pct reserve requirement
on new convertible peseta funds held by banks to curb
short-term speculative capital from abroad.
 REUTER

    Pay May 25
    Note: Canadian funds
 Reuter

succeed, he said. "Clearly those countries need to develop their
export endeavours and they need open markets for that to happen
and that's the basic objective of the new GATT round."
he said.
 Reuter

Belgian consumer prices rose 0.11 pct
in March from February to stand 1.27 pct above the level in
March 1986, the Economic Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
    It said the consumer price index, base 1981, rose to 132.83
points from 132.69 in February and 131.17 in March 1985.
    Year-on-year inflation stood at 1.00 pct in February and at
1.53 pct in March 1986.
 REUTER

The Yugoslav government has decided to
amend a wage-freeze law that triggered nationwide strikes and
led the Prime Minister to threaten to use troops if the unrest
threatened the ruling Communist Party.
    The law, which returned wages to the average levels of the
last quarter of 1986, triggered a huge wave of strikes and
labor unrest throughout Yugoslavia and a chorus of disapproval
from company bosses and union officials. Some 70 strikes by
thousands of workers erupted nationwide.
    The official Tanjug news agency reported last night the
government said the law, initially covering all firms in the
country, would be amended for seasonal industries and for
companies which raised wages "rationally" last year. It did not
say what the amendments would be.
 Reuter

money market with assistance of 104 mln stg in the afternoon
session.
    This takes the bank's total help so far today to 219 mln
stg and compares with its estimate of a 300 mln stg shortage.
    The central bank bought outright 104 mln stg in bank bills
 REUTER

Most of Brazil's 700,000 bankworkers
began an indefinite national strike, union leaders said, as the
country's labour troubles showed no signs of easing.
    A national seamen's strike which began on February 27 is
still continuing, despite a partial return to work.
    A spokesman at the bankworkers' national strike
headquarters in Sao Paulo, Lucio Cesar Pires, told Reuters that
about 500,000 of Brazil's 700,000 bankworkers were on strike.
    He said that many private banks were working, particularly
in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.
    The bankworkers, one of the best-organized sectors of
Brazil's labour force, are striking for a 110 pct pay rise.
    Pires said the strike had closed the state-controlled Banco
do Brasil, which has more than 3,000 branches.
    Brazil's current labour troubles stems from the collapse of
the government's price freeze and the return of high inflation.
    According to official figures, prices rose by 33 pct in
just the first two months of the year.
    Other strikes are being threatened, including national
stoppages by 450,000 social workers and 50,000 university
teachers.
 REUTER

<Qintex Ltd> of Brisbane said <Westpac
Banking Corp> of Australia has issued a commitment letter to
provide Princeville Development Corp with the letter of credit
required under Qintex's proposed acquisition of Princeville.
    The letter of credit would ensure payment of Princeville's
contingent subordinated notes to be distributed to shareholders
of record on the day immediately following completion of
Qintex's tender for 3,300,000 Princeville share. It said
issuance of the letter of credit is still subject to conditions
including appropriate documentation, but the letter is expected
to be issued around April Three.
    Qintex said as a result it has extended its tender offer
for Princeville shares until April Three.
    It said through yesterday it had received 7,424,292 shares
under the offer.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 700,000 vs 526,000
    Revs 15.2 mln vs 14.7 mln
 Reuter

News Corp Ltd's Fox Television
Stations Inc subsidiary said it will pay an accrued dividend of
5.44 dlrs per share, not the 5.83 dlrs it reported earlier, in
connection with the April 15 redemption of 230,000 shares of
increasing rate exchangeable guaranteed preferred stock for
1,000 dlrs per share plus accrued dividends.
 Reuter

McCrae Industries Inc said it
raised its preferred dividend on its Class A common stock to 12
cts per share from 11 cts per share.
    It said the dividend was payable April 20, 1987, to
shareholders of record April 6.
 Reuter

Columbia First Federal Savings and
Loan Association said it has acquired the insured deposits of
first Federal of Maryland, based in Hagerstown, from the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp and reopend First
Federal's six former offices as Columbia First branches.
    The Federal Home Loan Bank Board had closed First Federal
on March 20 because it was insolvent.  First Federal had assets
of 115.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve appears to have
intervened in the U.S. foreign exchange market to buy dollars
against yen this morning, currency dealers said.
    They said the intervention occurred near the dollar's early
low of 148.50 yen and the U.S. currency subsequently firmed to
149.05/15. It closed at 150.00/05 on Monday.
    Dealers were uncertain of the amount involved and whether
the Fed's purchases were for its own account or for a customer.
But there was speculation that it may have been done in
conjunction with the Bank of Japan. Tokyo dealers said the
Japanese central bank bought dollars in Tokyo earlier today.

 Reuter

Qtly div three cts vs 2-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

Metropolitan Financial Corp said
its Metropolitan Federal Bank subsidiary will close six North
Dakota branches effective April 17, 1987, in an effort to
streamline its operations.
    Deregulation of the industry has made the bank holding
company's extensive branch network, "somewhat costly and
impractical," it said.
    Metropolitan, with assets of more than two billion dlrs,
said it is confident it can continue to serve the financial
needs of those customers affected by the closings.
 Reuter

    Net 4,399,000 vs 3,768,000
    Sales 76.6 mln vs 68.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.79 dlrs vs 1.84 dlrs
    Net 16,701,000 vs 17,159,000
    Sales 291.7 mln vs 269.1 mln
    NOTE: FiscaL 1987 year based on 53 weeks compared wqith 52
weeks a year earlier.
 Reuter

Charming Shoppes Inc said it
expects to open over 155 new stores -- including its first
stores in Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma -- and remodel or
expand another 80 during 1987.
    The company said it expects to open about 75 new stores by
the end of June, which would bring its total store count at
that time to 753.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 917,000 vs 553,000
    Sales 16.1 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Avg shrs 4,195,000 vs 4,090,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 70 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 2,852,000 vs 1,086,000
    Sales 49.2 mln vs 40.7 mln
    NOTE: Prior nine mths net includes gain 250,000 dlrs from
insurance payment.
 Reuter

    Net 328,000 vs 99,000
    Year
    Net 1,694,000 vs 998,000
    NOTE: Company went public in February 1987.
    Net includes pretax loan loss recovery 41,000 dlrs vs
provision 50,000 dlrs in quarter and provisions 135,000 dlrs vs
50,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

    Shr loss one ct vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 25,800 vs loss 157,100
    Revs 2,323,500 vs 1,930,400
    Year
    Shr profit 19 cts vs profit four cts
    Net profit 401,100 vs profit 93,100
    Revs 10.3 mln vs 8,807,000
 Reuter

Value added tax (VAT) and personal
income tax are to be introduced next year, alongside price
reform and a modified wage system, the official Hungarian news
agency MTI said in its Weekly Bulletin.
    A draft act divides goods into three groups for VAT. Most
will be taxed at 20 pct, although basic foods, urban transport,
fuel, pharmaceuticals and probably homes and building materials
will be zero-rated. Non-basic services will be taxed at 10 pct.
    Several other taxes will be abolished when VAT comes in
next January 1 and the effect will be to cut producer prices by
between five and 10 pct, MTI said.
    Consumer prices will rise by about eight pct as result of
cuts in subsidies, including those on milk and dairy products,
MTI said. It did not say what effect the VAT would have.
    Basic changes in company taxation were necessary as varying
taxes and subsidies gave a confusing picture, and minor steps
taken so far had only improved things temporarily.
    MTI said inefficient firms were still being maintained at
the expense of efficient ones, whose profit incentive was
blunted by an average profit tax of 80 pct. The idea was to
give all ventures equal chances and eliminate distinctions.
    "Valid preferences or supports are to be withdrawn, or at
least reduced," MTI said.
    The tax changes will be a further step in a recent line of
economic reforms designed to boost company efficiency.
    Management of 75 pct of all state enterprises passed from
ministries to elected enterprise councils in 1985 and 1986, and
a bankruptcy law in force since last September limits the duty
of the state to save loss-making firms.
    MTI said yesterday state subsidies to enterprises and
industrial cooperatives rose 16 pct last year, while profits
rose 4.6 pct. It gave no absolute figures.
    The number of small private ventures rose 4,000 to 39,000
in 1986. Their turnover rose 27.5 pct and net income 16.2 pct.
They now employ 443,000, nine pct of the workforce.
    Hungarians now pay no tax on their primary income, and
relaxation of central economic controls has led to large
disparities in earnings, almost entirely in the private sector.
    MTI said the introduction of personal income tax for all
workers would lead to a fairer bearing of the public burden. It
gave no details of the tax structure except to say that it
would be progressive and embrace all legal income.
    All measures are due to go before parliament this summer.
 REUTER

Honduras will tender March 26 under
PL480 for U.S. and non-U.S. flag vessels to import 1,500 tonnes
of tallow in bulk, an agent for the country said.
    The agent said delivery includes laydays of April 5-15.
    Offers are due by 1200 hrs EST, March 26, and will remain
valid until the close of business the following day, the agent
said.
 Reuter

Shr 90 cts vs 97 cts
    Shr diluted 82 cts vs 88 cts
    Net 42.1 mln vs 43.0
    Revs 379.3 mln vs 352.7 mln
    Avg shrs 46.8 mln vs 44.3 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 52.6 mln vs 50.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.58 dlrs vs 1.81 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.50 dlrs vs 1.76 dlrs
    Net 73.7 mln vs 77.9 mln
    Revs 1.20 billion vs 1.16 billion
    Avg shrs 46.8 mln vs 43.0 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 52.6 mln vs 45.6 mln
 Reuter

The U.S. economy is showing some
promising signs of accelerated expansion despite the
sluggishness of the fourth quarter last year, private
    Some of the slowness experienced in the October-December
period had been expected to spill over into the first quarter
this year, as the tax law changes that went into effect in
January slowed business and consumer spending.
    But some of the latest economic data show signs of
surprising strength in the U.S. economy, although some
economists remain cautious about the outlook.
    The Commerce Department reported today that new orders for
durable goods in February jumped by 5.7 billion dlrs, a six pct
rise, to 101.2 billion dlrs. Even excluding volatile defense
goods, durable goods orders rose a healthy 3.8 pct, the agency
said.
    The February numbers surpassed the expectations of many
financial analysts, whose predictions ranged from flat to
increases of up to five pct.
    The January/February employment statistics suggest the
Gross National Product will show a healthy rate of growth for
the first three months of this year, said Lyle Gramley, an
economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association.
    The U.S. jobless rate in February and January was 6.7 pct,
the lowest rate since March 1980. The number of new non-farm
jobs rose by 337,000 in February after a 319,000 gain in
January and a 225,000 December increase, the government said.
    The employment data suggests a GNP annual growth rate of
about three to 3.25 pct in the first quarter, said Gramley.
    Much of that will be attributed to businesses rebuilding
their inventories and is not likely to be sustained in the
second quarter, Gramley said. He expects a slowdown in the
second quarter with smaller increases in personal consumption
and government spending. He also sees residential construction
declining mostly for multi-family housing units.
    Fidelity Bank senior economist Mickey Levy said some of the
fourth quarter slowness will continue.
    Levy predicts GNP will grow at a scant 1.5 pct rate in the
first quarter of 1987, accelerate during the second quarter and
show a brisk 4.5 pct annual rate in the third quarter.
    The key to both forecasts is a marked improvement in the
U.S. trade balance which is expected because of the decline in
the dollar's value over the last year and half.
    "The improvement will be gradual and long lasting," Levy
predicted. Most of it will be through import reduction, but at
least one-third will be due to a rise in product exports as the
prices of U.S. goods become more attractive overseas.
    The Reagan administration has predicted the trade deficit,
which soared to record levels last year, will improve this year
and the U.S. economy will grow by a respectable 3.2 pct for the
year compared with a 2.5 pct rate last year.
    As part of the effort to reduce the trade deficit, the U.S.
has been pressing West Germany and Japan to stimulate their
domestic demand for goods from the U.S. and others.
    U.S. officials believe that would help take some of the
pressure off the United States whose five years of economic
growth has been the mainstay of developing countries.
    The U.S. economy provided them with a giant market for
their goods giving them a way to earn income badly needed to
service their foreign debt.
    The government last week said the U.S. economy grew at a
modest 1.1 pct annual rate during the fourth quarter.
    There were indications of improvement in the huge imbalance
between the volume of goods imported to the United States and
those shipped abroad. The report showed a rising volume of
exports corresponding to a decline in imports despite the fact
that in current dollar terms, the U.S. trade deficit worsened
during the closing three months of 1986.
    While fourth quarter economic growth was weak, corporate
profits jumped a healthy 6.1 pct during the period, the
government said. It also reported that inflation, as measured
by the GNP price deflator, remained in check, growing a
moderate 0.7 pct in the period, the lowest rise in 19 years.
    The government also reported that consumer spending, a key
element of the five year economic recovery, jumped 1.7 pct in
February, after falling two pct in January.
    The Federal Reserve Board also reported that the
manufacturing sector, which had been one of the weaker elements
of the U.S. economy, was showing signs of recovery.
    In its latest report on current economic conditions, the
Fed said that economic activity in the various regions of the
country ranged from uneven or steady to improving.
Manufacturing activity showed signs of improvement in most
regions except Dallas where orders remained sluggish.
    Chase Econometrics Chairman Lawrence Chimerine said the
pick up in the U.S. manufacturing sector is largely due to the
drop in the dollar's value. He said he does not foresee a major
pick up in economic activity, but does not believe the economy
will slip into recession either.
    He said higher prices on imported products and wage cuts
that have helped the manufacturing sector will squeeze
consumers purchasing power.
    "That pattern is starting and will continue for a number of
years," Chimerine said. He sees economic growth hovering around
a modest two pct level for the next few years.
 Reuter

linked increased borrowing by Indonesia, the Third World's
sixth largest debtor, to fresh measures to deregulate trade and
dismantle protectionist barriers.
    "We would like to see the Indonesian government continue the
adjustment process ... To move towards increased deregulation
of the economy," Conable told a press conference at the end of a
three-day visit to Jakarta.
    Conable directly linked further Bank help for Indonesia's
hard-pressed balance of payments to further measures by the
government to reduce protectionism and increase efficiency.
    The World Bank last month granted Indonesia a 300 mln dlr
trade adjustment loan. He said further loans would depend on
the economic policies Indonesia adopted.
    But he said that in meetings with both President Suharto
and leading Indonesian ministers he had not called for specific
policy changes.
    "The initiative will have to rest with the Indonesian
government. We are not here to dictate to them," he stated.
    Indonesia, the only Asian member of Opec, has been badly
hit by last year's slump in oil prices which cut its revenues
from crude exports in half.
    Conable had what he termed a frank meeting this morning
with Suharto.
    He voiced support for measures already taken, including
September's 31 pct devaluation of the rupiah, and efforts to
deregulate imports and stimulate exports.
    "The government can rely on the support of the World Bank in
a continuing program of adjustment to the economic realities of
today's world," he said.
    The Bank has loaned Indonesia 10.7 billion dlrs over the
past 20 years. Lending is now about one billion a year.
    The World Bank would probably like to see further
dismantling of tarrif barriers and measures to reduce
Indonesia's protected monopolies in areas like steel, plastics
and cement, western bankers and diplomats said.
    The government has already said it will announce further
deregulation measures, but has given no timetable. It is also
considering selling off loss-making state companies.
    Conable said the Bank would try to help Indonesia find
funds to cover its share of development projects, which
otherwise would have to be scrapped or postponed. Japan's Ex-Im
bank announced a 900 mln dlr untied credit last month.
 REUTER

Food and drink retailer Argyll Group Plc
<AYLL.L> said it has agreed to sell its U.K. Subsidiary <George
Morton Ltd> to <Seagram United Kingdom Ltd> for about 14 mln
stg in cash.
    The consideration for Morton's fixed assets, stocks,
debtors and goodwill is payable on completion of the sale. The
disposal will bring Argyll an extraordinary credit of some 8.4
mln stg.
    Argyll added the agreements also depend on an indication
from the U.K. Office of Fair Trading by June 23 that the sale
will not be referred to the Monopolies Commission. Argyll
shares were up 12p to 440, firming before the announcement.
 REUTER

The speaker of the Iranian Parliament,
Hojatoleslam Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, warned the U.S. Not to
intervene in the Gulf, a day after Washington said its warships
were available to escort Kuwaiti tankers through the waterway.
    "If U.S. Intervention occurs, the entire world will become
insecure for the Americans and the events of Lebanon could be
repeated for the Americans everywhere," he said.
    U.S. Defence officials disclosed in Washington yesterday
that the U.S. Navy, which has about 24 warships in or near the
Gulf, was prepared to escort Kuwaiti tankers, regular targets
for Iranian attacks in an offshoot of its war with Iraq.
    Rafsanjani, in an interview reported by the Iranian news
agency IRNA, also commented on earlier U.S. Disclosures that
Iran had erected sites for new Chinese-made Silkworm
anti-shipping missiles at the Strait of Hormuz.
    The agency, received in London, quoted him as saying that
Iran did not need missiles to close the strait, 24 miles wide
at its narrowest, because "we can close it with artillery only."
    He added "We have the longest coasts and the highest
interest here and the small southern (Gulf) states have a
lesser interest compared with us and therefore it is natural
for us to protect the security of the Strait of Hormuz more
than others."
 REUTER

Shr 24 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 347,000 vs 469,000
    Sales 16.5 mln vs 14.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 93 cts vs 94 cts
    Oper net 1,327,000 vs 1,342,000
    Sales 48.8 mln vs 34.5 mln
    NOTE: Current nine mths net excludes 756,000 dlr gain from
 Reuter

Control Data Corp said it is offering
its first departmental computer, the CYBER 1809 model 930.
    It also announced enhanced versions of its CDCNET
Communications Network, NOS/VE virtual operating system and
IM/VE information management system.
    Control Data also said all systems operate with the CYBER
930 system.
    The company said the CYBER 930 is available in two models.
Both are said to deliver two to three times the input-output
capability. The 930-11 model is priced at 59,900 dlrs, and the
930-31, is priced at 125,900 dlrs.
 Reuter

Stock, options and futures trading
bodies are to set up the first umbrella watchdog body to
improve self-regulation, officials said at a press conference.
    They said a Coordinating Commission for the Securities
Trade (CCE) will be set up June 1 to coordinate supervision and
improve efficiency in response to legislation and competition
from foreign markets, mainly London.
    "The Dutch exchanges have to speak with one voice," Amsterdam
Stock Exchange spokesman Boudewijn van Ittersum said, noting
self-regulation could prevent harsh government supervision.
    The government plans to beef up supervisory laws of
financial markets during the current cabinet period to 1990, to
fight malpractice like insider trading.
    Under the agreement struck between securities, options and
futures traders, the CCE will coordinate their independent
supervisory bodies in a first step towards a single watchdog.
    "The SEC is a government regulatory body, while we are
developing an institution coming from the market," Westerterp
said.
    Van Ittersum noted despite SEC supervision, U.S. Markets
had seen several bourse scandals and added "The self-regulatory
function of the business is vital."
    Under the markets' agreement, the official price list of
the Amsterdam Stock Exchange will also include comprehensive
price listings of the options exchange and the Amsterdam Gold
Futures market from April 3. The latter two will end their own
price list publications.
 REUTER

Tiffany and Co said it has filed for
an initial public offering of four mln shares, including two
mln to be sold by shareholders, at an expected price of 21 to
23 dlrs per share.
    The company said the offering is expected to be made in
late April or early May, with 3,200,000 shares being sold
domestically through underwriters led by American Express Co's
<AXP> Shearson Lehamn Brothers Inc and <Goldman, Sachs and Co>
and the remainder are to be offered internationally, with the
same lead underwriters.  It said it has applied for New York
Stock Exchange listing.
    Tiffany, a retailer of fine jewelry and gift items, said
proceeds of the offering would be used to repay debt.
    Tiffany had been publicly traded previously until a 1979
acquisition by Avon Products Inc <AVP>.  In October 1984, a
group of investors acquired Tiffany from Avon in a leveraged
buyout.
 Reuter

Hoechst Invest NV, a Dutch finance
subsidiary of Hoechst AG of West Germany, is issuing a 130 mln
Swiss franc five pct bond, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
    The par-priced, 14-year is guaranteed by Hoechst AG.
  REUTER

<A/S Norske Shell>, Royal
Dutch/Shell Group's <RD.AS> Norwegian subsidiary, said it has
nearly concluded a 10 billion crown development scheme for
Norway's Draugen oil field and will declare the field
commercial in the near future.
    Pending government approval of the scheme, the field could
come on stream in 1992, making it Norway's northermost field
development and the first such project on the Haltenbanken
tract off central Norway.
    Work on the project could begin as early as January 1988, a
Shell spokesman said.
    Shell has not released projected output levels for the
field, where water depth is 240-270 meters.
    The spokesman said the field's partners have agreed to
develop Draugen with a 300-meter, single-leg concrete
gravity-base platform.
    The scheme also proposes using remote subsea production
wells to tap the field's reservoir, estimated to contain 375
mln barrels of oil, and an offshore buoy-loading system to
transport oil from the field by ship.
    Partners on Draugen are Shell, the operator, with a 30 pct
stake, British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> unit <BP Petroleum
Development (Norway) Ltd> (20 pct) and state-owned Den Norske
Stats Oljeselskap A/S <STAT.OL> (Statoil) (50 pct).
 REUTER

Bond Corp Holdings Ltd  <BONA.S> of
Australia said it had no comment on an article in a London
evening newspaper speculating on its plans for a bid approach
to U.K. dDrinks and food giant Allied Lyons Plc <ALLD.L>.
    Tony Oates, Bond Corp's Executive Director for Finance and
Administration, said "The company does not comment on market
rumors or press conjecture." He added in all instances of this
kind problems are likely to arise whatever is said.
    Allied's shares were 3p up at 401p, which values the
company at around 2.75 billion stg.
    London stock market analysts specializing in brewery shares
viewed a bid from Bond, which they said has assets of around
two billion stg, as highly unlikely.
    They added that rumours of a possible bid for Allied have
surfaced from time to time in the press and the London equity
market ever since last year's thwarted approach from Elders IXL
Ltd <ELXA.S> of Australia.
 REUTER

The gold mining industry had
another "exceptional year" in 1986 with tonnage milled, revenues
and profits reaching high levels, the Chamber of Mines said.
    Nearly 108 mln tons of ore was milled, three pct higher
than the prior year, while revenues rose 17 pct to 16.5 billion
rand and profits increased 6.5 pct to 8.31 billion rand, the
Chamber reported.
    The profit rise was achieved despite substantial cost
increases and a 26.1 pct rise in capital expenditures to 2.42
billion rand, it said.
    The chamber said that a "comparatively buoyant gold price
allowed mines to continue the practise of mining lower grade
ores which has characterised recent years."
    It said the industry now mines to an average grade of 5.63
grams per ton compared with 6.09 grams per ton in 1985.
    Gold output for the year declined five pct to 638 tons
compared with the previous year's 671 tons.
 REUTER

CLAREMONT TELLS SEC IT SEEKS 15 PCT CHAMPION PRODUCTS STAKE, TWO BOARD SEATS

Rice and corn farmers will receive
the largest payments from the U.S. government during 1987 if
the subsidies are calculated per planted acre, the U.S.
    USDA said government outlays to rice farmers in 1987 are
expected to reach 403 dlrs per acre planted, followed by corn
at 135 dlrs per planted acre. Government outlays include mainly
deficiency payments and price support loans.
    On a per acre basis, cotton payments will reach 73.24 dlrs
in 1987, wheat 60.30 dlrs, sorghum 54.38 dlrs, barley 27.41
dlrs and oats 2.31 dlrs, USDA said.
    USDA estimates farm subsidies will reach 25.3 billion dlrs
in 1987. The figures were given by USDA officials at a Senate
Agriculture Appropriations hearing yesterday.
 Reuter

money market with late help of about 10 mln stg.
    This takes the bank's total help today to some 229 mln stg
and compares with its forecast of a 300 mln stg shortage.
 REUTER

<AB Catena>, in which AB Volvo
<VOLV.ST> has a 48 pct stake, said it was proposing a
two-for-five stock issue that will raise the company's equity
capital to 420 mln crowns from 300 mln.
    Catena reported profits after financial income and costs up
to only 231 mln crowns from 207 mln in 1985, despite an
increase in sales to 8.54 billion crowns from 5.59 billion in
1985.
    The company said that its 1986 performance was best
reflected by earnings after writeoffs, which rose to 310 mln
from 221 mln in 1985.
    Catena's increase in sales was mainly due to the takeover
of Safveans AB in February 1986, which changed the business
profile of Catena. It had principally operated as a Volvo
dealer. With the Safveans acquisition it is now mainly a
trading and industrial company.
    In December 1986 Catena sold its share in the stockbroking
firm Jacobson och Ponsbach Fondkommission AB. This yielded a
profit of 386.7 mln crowns and was reflected in Catena's
pre-tax earnings which rose to 724 mln crowns from 204 mln in
1985.
 REUTER

Brazil's labour force, are striking for a 100 pct pay rise.
stoppages by 450,000 social security workers and 50,000
university teachers.
    In central Sao Paulo dozens of armed military police stood
guard outside branches of the Banco do Brasil to preempt any
move by bankworkers to occupy the buildings.
    A bank official in one foreign bank, which was still open
this morning, said that with the closure of the Banco do Brasil
private banks would not be able to function much longer.
    He said: "If the Banco do Brasil closes it shuts down the
whole system. I think that after lunch we will have to stop."
    Groups of strikers marched in the central commercial
district, waving banners and stopping outside private banks to
chant slogans.
    Pires said the strike call had been largely ignored by
workers in the private banks, with many branches open
particularly in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.
    Television reports said that in the southern state of
Parana farmers protesting against high interest rates supported
the bankworkers.
    As they have done many times over the past few weeks, they
blockaded the entrances of private banks with farm machinery.
 Reuter

Indonesia's foreign debts are a cause
for concern, but remain within manageable limits, World Bank
President Barber Conable said.
    He told a press conference before leaving for Tokyo that
Indonesia's rising debt-service ratio was a problem and cause
for concern. But he said it was not necessarily due to
imprudent borrowing and "it is still within an area of being
manageable."
    The bank estimates Indonesia has total foreign debts of
around 37 billion dlrs. The debt service ratio has risen to a
projected 33 pct for fiscal 1987/88, from 25 pct in 1986/87
    Anything above 20 pct is considered high by bankers.
    Conable said the decline in world oil prices and the rise
in the value of the Japanese yen had increased the ratio by
reducing Indonesian exports and raising its debt repayments.
    Indonesian debt servicing of 6,760 billion rupiah takes up
almost one third of the 1987/88 budget.
    Payment on the principal of government debts is officially
projected at 2.73 billion dlrs in 1987/88 against 2.11 billion
in 1986/87.
    Conable linked an increase in World Bank lending to
Indonesia to implementation of further economic policy reforms.
 REUTER

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary
John Herrington said he was "optimistic" about the chances of
providing a more generous depletion allowance for oil and gas
producers, but added that the plan faces strong opposition from
some members of the Reagan administration.
    Herrington, speaking to Houston oil executives at a
breakfast meeting, said administration debate over his plan for
a 27.5 pct annual depletion allowance was "heavy and strong"
largely because of some fears that the U.S. oil industry could
eventually become as dependent on federal subsidies as the
agriculture industry.
    Herrington's proposed tax incentives for the oil industry
were issued last week after the Department of Energy released a
comprehensive report finding U.S. national security could be
jeopardized by rising oil imports.
    In response to a question from Mitchell Energy and
Development Corp <MND> chairman, George Mitchell, Herrington
said the report did not definitively rule out an oil import
tarrif. "We intend to keep that debate open," Herrington said.
    However, following his speech, Herrington told Reuters that
the new report shows an oil import fee "is not economical."
    Herrington said, for example, a 10 dlr per barrel tariff on
oil imports would cause the nation's gross national product to
drop by as much as 32 billion dlrs.
    Herrington also said he believed President Reagan, who
requested the comprehensive national security study, was
committed to some action to help the ailing U.S. oil industry.
    "I'm quite confident he understands the problems and is
prepared to do something about it," Herrington said.
 Reuter

Digital Equipment Corp announced 18
computer-aided manufacturing products which it said reinforces
its integrated manufacturing offerings. 
    Digital predsident Kenneth Olsen told reporters that the
company now offers a full range of systems, applications and
services for its manufacturing customers based on its popular
VAX computer operating system.
    Among the products announced today are eight industrial
computer systems based on Digital's Microvax II and PDP 11
computers. 
    The company also introduced products that linked its
various measurement and control devices to its computer systems
and a commitment to support the manufacturing automated
protocol standard endorsed by General Motors Corporation.
    GM is attempting to get all computer manufacturing vendors
to support the MAP standard so that equipment for different
manufacturers will work together on the factory floor. 
    The new products will be available immediately with some
beginning first delivery in July.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 2,091,000 vs 3,053,000
    Revs 203.5 mln vs 215.7 mln
    Avg shrs 8,967,719 vs 8,863,945
    1st half
    Shr 40 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 3,616,000 vs 6,111,000
    Revs 411.8 mln vs 418.1 mln
    Avg shrs 8,958,100 vs 8,850,656
 Reuter

Geo. A. Hormel and Co said its
directors voted a two-for-one split, payable June one, record
April 18.
 Reuter

A government-appointed special
prosecutor has ordered the filing of corruption charges over
the closure of a private bank against Philippine central bank
governor Jose Fernandez, who said he would contest the charges.
    Ombudsman Raul Gonzalez told Reuters there was evidence to
indicate that Fernandez had misused his office in ordering the
closure of <Pacific Banking Corp> in July, 1985.
    He said the charges against Fernandez would be filed "within
the week" in a special court for corruption cases, adding that a
defendant could appeal against a ruling in the Supreme Court.
    Fernandez is in New York for talks with the Philippines'
creditor banks on rescheduling about 9.4 billion dlrs of the
country's foreign debt.
    A central bank statement quoted Fernandez as saying Pacific
Bank's closure and sale were in accordance with law.
    "Fernandez said that some points may have been missed in the
appreciation of the case for which reason he will be filing a
motion for reconsideration of the (Ombudsman's) resolution," the
    Central bank sources said the statement was drafted after
Fernandez and senior deputy governor Gabriel Singson, who is in
Manila, conferred on the telephone.
    Gonzalez said his office ordered the charges filed after
hearing submissions by Fernandez and plaintiff Paula Paug, the
president of Pacific Bank's Employees Union.
    In her complaint, Paug said Fernandez had acted arbitrarily
in ordering the closure of Pacific Bank and placing it under
receivership without giving the bank the right to appeal,
throwing hundreds of employees out of work.
    Paug also said Fernandez had not withdrawn his stockholding
in Far East Bank and Trust Company, which took over Pacific
Bank's assets, when he became central bank governor in January,
1984. Fernandez founded Far East in 1960.
    She alleged Fernandez had misused his position by
appointing two Far East bank executives to central bank
consultancies, giving them access to Pacific Bank records. She
also disputed Fernandez' interpretation of Pacific's accounts
from January 1980 to May 1985, claiming the bank had made a
profit, not a loss.
    The central bank statement quoted Fernandez as stressing
that Pacific Bank was "repeatedly given notice of the continuing
losses of the bank and the immediate need of putting up
additional capital to eliminate insolvency."
    It said the central bank tried to assist in a bid by Bank
of Hawaii and Philippine sugar trader Antonio Chan to purchase
Pacific Bank, but the negotiations collapsed "because of certain
legal impediments."
    The statement said the central bank invited several banks
to submit offers for Pacific, and the sale to Far East was
approved by the Monetary Board and not by Fernandez alone.
    Fernandez was also quoted in the statement as saying he had
divested himself of all interests in Far East Bank when he
became central bank governor. A Far East Bank spokesman
declined comment on the charges against Fernandez.
    In a footnote to a 12-page resolution recommending
prosecution against Fernandez, Gonzalez said prima facie
evidence of misuse of power also existed against all the then
members of the country's Monetary Board, as well as the Far
East executives, and ordered their investigation.
    He said Fernandez's action fitted in with the political
climate during former President Ferdinand Marcos's final years.
    "(The) prevailing mood of the day for those in high offices
was either to imitate the penchant of then President Marcos and
his wife, to run roughshod over the human rights of citizens
... Or to follow blindly or with canine devotion any
instructions from above," Gonzalez wrote.
    Gonzalez, named to his post 11 months ago, said his office
had received more than 4,000 complaints of misuse of power. He
said among those facing prosecution were five provincial
governors appointed by President Corazon Aquino.
 REUTER

<Consolidated-Bathurst Inc> said it
proposes to acquire up to five mln of its common shares, or
five pct of the total outstanding on March 2, at prevailing
market prices on the Toronto and Montreal Stock Exchanges
between April 10, 1987 and April 9, 1988.
    <CB Pak Inc>, 80 pct owned by Consolidated-Bathurst, said
it proposes to acquire up to 200,000 of its common shares and
up to 45,000 of its common share purchase warrants at
prevailing market prices on the exchanges between June 1, 1987
and May 31, 1988. The amounts represent one pct of outstanding
common shares and 4.8 pct of outstanding common warrants.
 Reuter

Claremont Group Ltd, a New York
investment banking firm, said it intends to boost its current
10 pct stake in Champion Products Inc to as much as 15 pct of
the total outstanding common stock.
    Claremont added that it asked Champion to put two
representatives on its nine-member board of directors.
    Claremont previously disclosed in December that it had
agreed to act in concert with Walsh, Greenwood and Co, an
affiliated investment firm, to acquire Champion Products.
    Claremont said it made net purchases of 7,800 Champion
Products shares between Jan. 28 and March 18.
    In a March 20 letter to Champion Chairman John Tanis,
Claremont and Walsh representatives Stephen Walsh and John
Cirigliano said they were pleased with the company's
performance but wanted to take an active management role.
    "We believe that Champion Products has just begun to evolve
into the market leader it will eventually become," they said. "As
significant shareholders with mutual interests with the
company, we would like to actively participate in this process."
    Claremont's intentions and the letter were made public in a
filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
 Reuter

Wang Laboratories Inc said it
entered into a development and marketing agreement with
Sterling Software's <SSW> Answer Systems Inc, aimed at
integrating its data base product with Answer's mainframe
database access tool.
    Wang said the purpose of the projects is to offer Wang VS
users direct access to information in DB2, IMS, and WSAM files
residing on IBM (R) and IBM-compatible mainframes.
    Wang said it will integrate its PACE product with Answer's
System's Answer/DB (R).
 Reuter

Household International
Inc said it plans to repurchase up to 100 mln dlrs of its
common stock, continuing the stock buyback program it began
last year.
    Household said it would repurchase the shares in open
market or private transactions at times it deems appropriate.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 12 billion dlrs of debt of Chrysler
Corp and its unit, Chrysler Financial Corp.
    The agency cited potential benefits of Chrysler's proposed
acquisition of American Motors Corp <AMO> to its business
position and marketing and distribution capabilities.
    Moody's said it believes the acquisition will be carried
out substantially as currently structured. Affirmed were
Chrysler's Baa-1 senior debt and Chrysler Financial's Baa-1
senior debt, Baa-2 senior subordinated debt and Baa-3 junior
    Also affirmed were the Prime-2 commercial paper of
Chrysler's finance arm and the Baa-1 guaranteed Eurobonds of
Chrysler Credit Canada Ltd.
    Moody's pointed out the purchase of AMC would undercut some
of the recent progress Chrysler has made in improving its
financial condition and cost structure. The agency noted that
Chrysler would assume substantial debt and unfunded pension
liabilities, as well as two inefficient production facilities.
    But, Moody's said, the negative effect on Chrysler's
profitability and cash flow would be temporary. Meanwhile,
AMC's B-1 preferred stock remains under Moody's review.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - ZURICH - CREDIT SUISSE
    Please read in item "CREDIT SUISSE FREEZES ACCOUNTS IN
INSIDER PROBE" second para reference to position of Nahum
Vaskevitch as "...Former managing director of the mergers and
acquisitions department of the London office of Merrill Lynch
and Co..."  instead of "former head of the london office...."

XOMA Corp said it intends to
file for an offering of 1,300,000 common shares.
    The company now has about 8,721,000 shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Sales proceeds 6.57 billion stg vs 8.81 billion
    Duty and value added tax 1.84 billion vs 1.60 billion
    Net proceeds 4.73 billion vs 7.21 billion
    Net profit 757 mln vs 667 mln
    Average capital employed 3.63 billion vs 3.71 billion
    Capital and exploration expenditure 644 mln vs 618 mln
    Cash surplus 423 mln vs 584 mln.
    NOTE - Company is wholly owned subsidiary of Royal
Dutch/Shell Group <RD.AS>
 REUTER

Cyclops Corp said that as it has
already stated, its agreements with <Dixons Group PLC> are
binding and Dixons will not rescind or waive any provisions of
the agreements.
    The company said its agreement to merge into Dixons does
not permit it to provide nonpublic information to <CYACQ>,
which is making a competing offer for Cyclops, that had been
provided to Dixons.
    It said other provisions Dixons will not waive include its
rights to recover breakup fees or expenses from Cyclops or buy
Cyclops common shares from Cyclops.
    Cyclops noted that Dixons' waiver of rights to breakup fees
or the purchase of common stock directly from Cyclops and the
provision of nonpublic information to CYACQ are conditions to
CYACQ's increased 92.50 dlr per share offer to acquire Cyclops
shares.
    Dixons is tendering for Cyclops shares at 90.25 dlrs a
share.  Yesterday Citicorp <CCI>, with Audio/Video Affiliates
Inc <AVA> an owner of CYACQ, said it had offered to acquire
from Dixons after the merger of Cyclops into Dixons Cyclops'
industrial businesses for 12.8 mln dlrs more than Alleghany
Corp <Y> is currently scheduled to pay for them.
    Citicorp said yesterday that its proposal would allow
Dixons to raise its tender price to 93.25 dlrs per share. 
Citicorp said if Dixons accepted the proposal, CYACQ would
terminate its competing offer for Cyclops.
 Reuter

J.M. Resources Inc said it has acquired
a 90 pct interest in DEI Acquisition Corp from InterFirst
Venture Corp, Sam B. Myers, Neomar Resources Inc and Richard L.
Morgan, all of Dallas, for warrants to acquire 10.1 mln shares
of J.M. stock and three mln dlrs of notes.
    The warrants are exercisable at par value, currently 10 cts
per share, until March 20, 1997.  The company said if the
warrants were exercised in full, they would represent a 40.7
pct interest in J.M. common stock.  It said amounts due under
the notes are payable soleley from proceeds of the sale of
securities by J.M. and non-oil and natural gas revenues of DEI.
    J.M. said DEI provides specialty insulation installation
and asbestos removal services.
    J.M. said all of its directors except Jack E. Manning Jr.
have resigned and Myers and Morgan were named to the board.
    It said Manning has resigned as president in favor of Myers
and will service as vice president in charge of oil and natural
gas operations.
 Reuter

Astrotech International Corp said
its director S. Kent Rockwell, who controls Rockwell Venture
Capital Inc, will buy 27 pct of the company's cumulative
    It said will buy up to 302,300 shares of Astrotech's 1.80
dlrs cumulative preferred stock.
    It said the shares are owned by W.F. Rockwell Jr, chairman
and chief executive officer of Astrotech and S. Kent Rockwell's
father.
 Reuter

Fireman's Fund Corp said it
has been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission
in connection with the previously announced investigation into
the secondary public offering of its stock by American Express
Co on May 9, 1986.
    Fireman's Fund said it is cooperating with the SEC.
    Last week, American Express Co, its Shearson Lehman
Brothers Inc unit, and Salomon Inc's Salomon Brothers unit were
subpoenaed for records pertaining to a secondary offering of
Fireman's Fund stock.
    Fireman's Fund had been a wholly owned subsidiary of
American Express and now is less than 30 pct owned by the
finanancial services giant.
    Shearson, lead manager of the underwriting, and Salomon,
co-manger, were also subpoenaed for documents pertaining to
Jefferies and Co.
    Last week, Boyd Jefferies, former chairman of Jefferies and
Co, settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission
that alleged he violated securities laws, including market
manipulation.
    The transaction described in SEC documents pertaining to 
market manipulation charges mentioned a secondary offering of
the stock of a company, which was held by another company.
    The documents alleged Jefferies, at the request of a second
person, took actions to drive the stock price up before the
offering.
    The losses to the Jefferies firm were allegedly covered, at
the request of the second person, by sending a fake invoice to
a third person.
    An American Express spokesman said James Robinson, American
Express chairman, has said the firm knows of no wrong doing by
anyone at the firm.
    American Express retained two law firms to carry out an
internal investigation.
    American Express, Shearson and Salomon all said they would
cooperate with the investigation.
 Reuter

two-year supply agreement with U S West Materiel Resources Inc
that could lead to up to 300 mln U.S. dlrs of business.
    It said the agreement provided terms under which it can
supply its DMS digital switching systems and related equipment
to U S West's three information distribution companies
consisting of Mountain Bell, Pacific Northwest Bell and
Northwestern Bell.
 Reuter

American Cyanamid Co said subject
to approval by its board it has changed the record date for the
quarterly dividend it will pay on June 26 to May 8 from May 29
to coincide with the record date for a two-for-one stock split
that was declared at the same time.
    The dividend on a post-split basis is 26-1/4 cts per share.
 Reuter

    Pay May 4
 Reuter

Motor Co, is raising 200 mln dlrs via an offering of notes due
1997 yielding 8.13 pct, said sole manager Salomon Brothers.
    The notes have an eight pct coupon and were priced at
99.125 to yield 88 basis points over comparable Treasuries.
    That matches the spread over Treasuries for the finance
unit's equal-sized, same-maturity offering on January 6 that
was priced to yield 7.948 pct. This deal was rated A-2 by
Moody's and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's.
    Non-callable for five years, today's issue is rated A-1 by
Moody's and AA-minus by S and P.
 Reuter

Finland's business group Amer-Yhtyma
Oy <YHTY.HE> said it has signed a 50 mln dlr, six-year
syndicated multicurrency loan with a group of 15 international
and four Finnish banks led by Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd.
    Amer said in a statement the loan would be used mainly to
convert its overseas currency loans and expand business, but
 REUTER

Qtly div 26 cts vs 24 cts prior
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said it agreed to
market an antiseptic transparent wound dressing made by Hercon
Laboratories, a subsidiary of Health-Chem Corp <HCH>.
    The dressing has been approved by the Food and Drug
Administration for use as an intravenous catheter securement
device and as a protective dressing for wounds, it said.
 Reuter

board approved a three-for-two stock split of its common stock
and increased its quarterly cash dividend.
    It said the stock split will occur through a 50 pct stock
distribution on Hydraulic's common stock, payable April 30 to
stockholders of record on April 3.
    The quarterly cash dividend, payable April 15 to
stockholders of record on April 3, is to be paid on Hydraulic's
pre-split shares that are currently outstanding, the company
said.
    The dividend will be 54.75 cts per share, up from 52 cts
per share.It will represent a quarterly common stock cash
dividend of 36.50 cts per share on the share that will be
outstanding after the stock split, the company said.
 Reuter

said it has introduced a variety of new computer hardware,
software and networking products for corporate use.
    The company introduced the 3B2/600 minicomputer, which can
support up to 64 simultaneous users. The computer is the latest
addition to ATT's family of Unix system-based minicomputers, it
said.
    The 3B2/600 costs 46,500 dlrs and will be available in May
1987, ATT said.
    The company also announced a host of peripherals to enhance
the data storage capacity of the minicomputer and other
products.
    In addition, ATT cut prices 17 to 25 pct on its 3B2/310 and
400 computers and 12 to 24 pct on its 3B15 computer model 301
and 401, it said.
    Among the developments announced today is ATT's use of the
Small Computer Systems Interface, SCSI, an emerging industry
standard for communications between computers and peripherals.
    The SCSI-based peripherals introduced include a 3B2 host
adaptor package for 2,000 dlrs, new configurations for the
3B2/400, available for 23,000 to 26,000 dlrs, and expansion
modules priced at 20,700 dlrs. The peripherals will also be
available in May, it said.
    Other products introduced include document exchange
products, printers, and other peripherals.
    Most are to be available beginning this spring and summer,
although some of the document exchange products are available
now, ATT said.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 49 cts
    Shr diluted 1.95 dlrs vs 1.99 dlrs
    Net 1,751,609 vs 1,622,503
    Sales 85.9 mln vs 85.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.10 dlrs vs 1.99 dlrs
    Net 6,822,493 vs 6,601,717
    Sales 347.8 mln vs 324.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 64 cts vs loss 1.29 dlrs
    Net loss 5,732,000 vs loss 4,924,000
    Sales 18.8 mln vs 23.6 mln
    Avg shrs 9.0 mln vs 3.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.82 dlrs vs loss 3.65 dlrs
    Net loss 12,267,000 vs loss 13,911,000
    Sales 112.8 mln vs 129.3 mln
    Avg shrs 6.7 mln vs 3.8 mln
 Reuter

Moore McCormack Resources Inc
said it has completed the previously-announced sale of its
Interlake Steamship Co and Moore McCormack Bulk Transport Inc
Great Lakes and ocean bulk shipping units to James R. Barker.
    The company said president Paul Tregurtha has succeeded
Barker as chairman and chief executive officer of Moore
McCormack.
 Reuter

Sudan has rejected a demand by the
International Monetary Fund for a currency devaluation because
such a move would have a negative impact on its economy, the
official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported.
    Finance Minister Beshir Omer, quoted by SUNA, said his
government also rejected an IMF demand to lift state subsidies
on basic consumer goods.
    SUNA, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation,
said Omer made the remarks after a meeting in Khartoum
yesterday with IMF envoy Abdel-Shakour Shaalan.
    Sudan, burdened by a foreign debt of 10.6 billion dlrs, is
some 500 mln dlrs in arrears to the IMF, which declared it
ineligible for fresh loans in February last year.
    In February 1985, Sudan announced a 48 pct devaluation of
its pound against the dollar, adjusting the official exchange
rate to 2.5 pounds to the U.S. Currency.
    Since then, it has resisted pressure from main creditors
for more currency adjustments, arguing that past devaluations
had failed to boost exports but raised local consumer prices.
Sudan also has an incentive rate of four pounds to the dollar
for foreign visitors and remittances by expatriate workers.
    Dealers in Khartoum's thriving black market said the dollar
was sold at 5.5 pounds today.
    With stringent import regulations and the government
increasingly short of foreign currency, black market dollars
are used to finance smuggled imports from neighbouring
countries, mainly Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zaire.
    Western diplomats in Khartoum say the meetings between IMF
and Sudanese government officials do not amount to formal
talks, but rather an effort by the IMF to monitor Sudan's
economic performance.
    The diplomats said Sudan hoped a planned four-year economic
recovery program would be acceptable to the IMF as a serious
attempt to tackle the country's economic troubles and persuade
its Gulf Arab creditors to pay the IMF arrears.
    This, they said, could provide Sudan with a clean bill of
health from the IMF that it could take to Western government
creditors, grouped informally in the so-called Paris Club, to
reschedule debt payments.
    Twenty-three pct of Sudan's total foreign debt is owed to
members of the Paris Club, the diplomats said.
    Sudan's Finance Minister said last month the country's IMF
representative had told him the fund's executive board was "very
pleased with the 18.5 mln dlrs arrears we have paid in the past
couple of months."
    The representative, Omer Said, said IMF Managing Director
Michel Camdessus said he would ask Saudi Arabia, to which Sudan
owes about 1.4 billion dlrs, to help Khartoum to pay more.
    Sudan has an annual debt liability of nearly 900 mln dlrs
but set aside only some 200 mln dlrs to service debts in the
fiscal year ending next June 30.
 REUTER

Southern National corp said its
board declared a three-for-two stock split, payable to
shareholders of record on May 22.
    A company spokeswoman said the payable date for the split
has not yet been fixed but would be shortly after the record
date.
 Reuter

<Ione Inc>, which buys, sells and
manages retail gift, sundries and smokeshops located in hotels,
said it successfully completed a 1.8 mln share common stock
initial public offering at 25 cts a share.
    Rudy Steury, Ione president, said Ione will use the
proceeds to further develop its retail shop network, as well as
to purchase and resell more shops.
 Reuter

National Semiconductor Corp
said improved results at its Semiconductor Group helped reduce
losses in the third quarter and nine months.
    In the quarter ended March 8, the group had a modest sales
increase and major improvement in operating performance
compared to the year-ago quarter, the company said.
    But results softened from the prior quarter because of low
bookings last fall for third quarter shipment and holiday
shutdowns, it said.
    The semiconductor maker cut net losses to 25.6 mln dlrs or
31 cts a share from 39.4 mln dlrs or 47 cts in the quarter.
    Losses in the nine months were reduced to 32.7 mln dlrs or
44 cts from 84.4 mln dlrs or one dlr. Sales grew 23.5 pct in
the quarter to 398.1 mln dlrs and 25.5 pct in the nine months
to 1.36 billion dlrs.
    Bookings recovered in the latter part of the third quarter,
the company said. Despite the improvement in order rates and
operating results year-to-year, pricing continues to be
"aggressive for many products," it said.
    Nevertheless, it expects the semiconductor business will
continue to improve this year. The Information Systems Group
will continue strong sales growth based on recent order trends
and new product introductions, it said.
 Reuter

Emergency action to distribute
European Community (EC) food surpluses to the poor has proved
so successful that the EC executive Commission may propose a
permanent scheme, a Commission spokesman said.
    Almost 60,000 tonnes of food was taken out of EC stores
between January 20, when Agriculture Ministers approved the
scheme, and March 13, according to latest commission figures.
    The food, including 30,000 tonnes of cereals, 6,000 tonnes
of sugar, 4,000 tonnes of beef and 13,300 tonnes of butter, has
been distributed to the needy through charities.
    The present scheme was approved as an emergency measure to
help poor people affected by this year's unusually cold winter
and will end on March 31.
    But the spokesman said the commission will consider whether
to propose it be replaced by an all-year-round system.
    The commission estimates that up to March 13 the temporary
scheme cost between 63 and 68 mln European currency units
(72/78 mln dlrs). This is above the 50 mln Ecu (57 mln dlr)
ceiling originally envisaged by the Ministers.
    However, commission sources said the real cost was small if
account is taken of the expense of keeping food in store until
its quality and value deteriorates.
    On the other hand, the impact of the temporary scheme on EC
food surpluses has been slight. EC surplus food stocks at
January 31 included 1.28 mln tonnes of butter, 520,000 tonnes
of beef and over 10 mln tonnes of cereals.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve may intervene in
the government securities market to add reserves today, some
economists said, although others felt that the Fed was likely
to refrain from any action.
    Those who believed the Fed will intervene said it would
probably add temporary reserves indirectly via 1.5 to two
    But others noted the Fed's current add-need is not large.
They also expected the federal funds rate to edge lower.
    Fed funds, which averaged 6.21 pct on Monday, opened at
6-1/8 pct and remained at that level in early trading.
 Reuter

Credit National is issuing a 100 mln dlr
eurobond, due April 23, 1992 with a 7-3/8 pct coupon and priced
at 101-5/8 pct, LTCB International said as lead manager.
    The bonds, guaranteed by the French government, will be
issued in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and will be listed in
Luxembourg. Gross fees of 1-7/8 pct comprise 5/8 pct for
management and underwriting combined and 1-1/4 pct for selling.
 REUTER

E-tron Corp said it will submit a
settlement agreement reached with its former president to the
bankruptcy court for approval.
    It said the settlement stems from a suit against the former
company president.
    E-tron, which is in Chapter 11, said the settlement calls
for Irwin Lampert to return 2,350,000 shares of E-tron stock to
its treasury, and prohibits Lampert from starting a business
competive with E-tron, the company said.
    It added Irwin must repay certain debts, also.
    E-tron said it will submit soon a creditor proposal plan to
get out of Chapter 11.
 Reuter

Salomon Brothers Inc, acting as sole
underwriter, said it is publicly offering 50,000 units of Van
Dusen Airport Services Co, L.P.
    The offering consists of 50 mln dlrs of 12 pct senior
subordinated notes due 1997 and 50,000 contingent payment
obligations. The notes are priced at par, or 1,000 dlrs each.
    A unit has one par value note and one contingent payment
obligation. The notes are redeemable by Van Dusen after March
15, 1992, Salomon said.
    A payment obligation entitles the holder to receive a cash
payment under certain events, or to certain repurchase rights.
 Reuter

losses of between 25 mln and 30 mln marks on credits extended
by its Stuttgart branch by bank officials who exceeded their
powers, a bank spokesman said.
    The spokesman, replying to queries about press reports,
said he could not rule out the possibility that the final loss
figure may be slightly above this range.
    Late last week the bank said only that the losses from the
credits in Stuttgart would be in the "double-digit millions."
 Reuter

Alpha Industries Inc said the
U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision
dismissing a class action shareholder suit that had alleged
violations of Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure
requirements and racketeering laws.
 Reuter

    Pay May 22
 Reuter

Freeport-McMoRan Inc said it has
filed for a proposed public offering of 10 mln shares of
convertible exchangeable preferred stock with a liquidation
value of 25 dlrs per share.
    The company said it intends to use the proceeds to repay
debt incurred in connection with the acquisition of Petro-Lewis
Corp and shares of American Royalty Trust <ARI>.
    <Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc> is lead underwriter.
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 359,000 vs 297,000
    Revs 5,724,000 vs 6,430,000
    Avg shrs 1,475,0000 vs 1,668,000
    NOTE: qtrs include tax gain of 147,000 vs 137,000.
    Prior qtr ended March 1, 1986.
 Reuter

<Hoesch AG> said its
<Hoesch Maschinenfabrik Deutschland AG> subsidiary has won a 22
mln mark East German order for equipment to produce steel
rope-reinforced conveyor belts.
    The equipment, to be installed at the VEB Transportgummi
company in the East German town of Bad Blankenburg, will be
used to produce belts of up to three meters wide, a company
 REUTER

U.S. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS OFFSHORE ALASKAN OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION

Great Lakes Chemical Corp
said it agreed to make an ingredient to be used by McNeil
Specialty Products Co, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, in
the manufacture of sucralose, a high intensity sweetener.
    Sucralose is currently under review by the Food and Drug
    Great Lakes Chemical and McNeil Specialty will build the
facilities needed for production, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 397,000 vs profit 76,000
    Revs 3,763,000 vs 6,467,000
    
 Reuter

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that
oil and gas exploration can proceed on two tracts off the
Alaska coast which were leased by the federal government to
eight major oil companies.
    The ruling was an important victory for the oil companies
and the Reagan administration's controversial off-shore leasing
program and a setback for two small Alaskan villages that
challenged the leases by claiming damage to the environment.
    The administration said that the court-ordered halt in
drilling had created uncertainty over the 4.2 billion dlrs paid
for 621 leases off the shores of Alaska since December 1980.
    A federal appeals court ordered the oil companies to halt
all exploration and remove all drilling rigs from two tracts in
the Bering Sea off Alaska because of possible harm to the
subsistence needs and culture of native Eskimos.
    But the Supreme Court said the appeals court was wrong in
issuing an injunction halting exploration.
    "Here, injury to subsistence resources from exploration was
not at all probable," Justice Byron White wrote for the court.
"And on the other side of the balance of harms was the fact
that the oil companies had committed approximately 70 mln dlrs
to exploration to be conducted during the summer of 1985 which
they would have lost without chance of recovery had exploration
been enjoined," he said.
    The oil companies, Amoco Corp <AN>, ARCO, Exxon Corp <XON>,
Mobil Corp <MOB>, Sohio, Shell, Texaco Inc <TX> and Union Oil,
had said that voiding previously granted leases would result in
staggering financial losses.
    The first lease sale in 1983 involved 2.4 mln acres and
generated 318 mln dlrs while the second lease sale in 1984
covered 37 mln acres and produced 516 mln dlrs.
    Administration officials, saying the lease sales were
preceded by an intense environmental impact study, denied that
the oil and gas exploration would hurt subsistence resources.
    The Alaskan villages of Gambell and Stebbins, along with an
organization of Eskimo natives on the Yukon Delta, argued that
the drilling would hurt native hunting and fishing.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said its domestic
passenger car sales for the nine days from March 11 through
March 20 rose to 67,672, up 15.2 pct from the 58,729 cars sold
in the same period last year.
    Ford said sales for the month-to-date rose as well to
118,079, versus 106,321 in the same period last year, an 11.1
pct rise.
    It added, however, that year-to-date sales from January 1
fell to 383,380 from 402,599 last year to date, down 4.8 pct.
    Ford said its truck sales for the nine-day period from
March 11 through March 20 rose to 50,648 from 39,986 in the
    Year-to-date truck sales also climbed to 282,156 from
266,512 last year-to-date.
 Reuter

Representatives of South Africa's
Standstill Coordinating Committee (SCC) and its commercial bank
creditors have agreed new terms covering repayments of 14
billion dlrs of debt, banking sources said.
    The debt is covered by a standstill agreement that expires
June 30.
    Under the new accord, the standstill will be extended for
three years to June 30, 1990.
    There will be an immediate repayment of three pct to all
the banks, to be followed by various payments at six-month
intervals over the life of the agreement totalling some 1.5
    The three pct payment will be due July 15, 1987. Subsequent
repayments will be determined under a complex structure which
will be based on the maturity structure of individual banks'
loans, the bankers said.
    The bankers, who declined to be identified, said the
agreement also will give banks the option to convert their
existing debt into term loans for 10-years, with five years
grace.
    An agreement reached last year allowed for the conversion
of the short-term debt covered by the standstill into
three-year loans.
    Bankers said today's talks concluded months of intense
negotiations.
    They said the South African Finance Ministry is expected to
make a statement on the agreement later today.
    A review of South Africa's economy by the economic
subcommittee of commercial banks is nearing completion and
should be announced shortly, the bankers said.
 REUTER

<Shell U.K. Ltd's> pre-tax profit on
exploration and production operations fell to 869 mln stg in
1986 from 2.12 billion in 1985 due to the fall in oil prices
last year, Shell U.K. Finance director Nigel Haslam said.
    But he told a press conference that due to the high
marginal tax rate on North Sea operations, the main impact of
the drop in profit was absorbed by a fall in taxation to 330
mln stg from 1.45 billion in 1985.
    The bulk of tax last year was Corporation Tax, with
Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) representing only 16 mln stg, he
said.
    As a result, post-tax profit from the exploration and
production sector fell by only 126 mln stg to 539 mln.
    Earlier, Shell U.K., a subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell
Group <RD.AS>, reported an overall net profit of 757 mln stg,
up from 667 mln in 1985, on sales of 6.57 billion stg against
8.81 mln.
    Shell U.K. Chairman Bob Reid said the company's crude oil
output from the North Sea was at a record 373,000 bpd in 1986,
which would almost certainly prove to be a peak for the
company. Shell expects a fall in output of around 10 pct in the
current year to around 340,000 bpd, due mainly to the decline
in output from the major Brent field, he said.
    Gas output of 5.9 billion cubic metres and natural gas
liquids output of around one mln tonnes in 1986 are expected to
be maintained in 1987, he said.
    A final decision on development of the Kittiwake and Osprey
North Sea oil fields will be made in the next 12 to 18 months,
Reid said. The Kittiwake field, originally part of the 2.5
billion stg Gannet project abandoned last year when the oil
price fell, is now estimated to cost around 350 mln stg.
    Economies on development costs for the Tern and Eider North
Sea fields, which were approved last year, have brought the
cost down to 30 to 35 pct below the original budget.
    Day to day operating costs of the exploration and
production sector had been cut 10 pct last year, and the target
is to keep costs per barrel constant.
    The company drilled 17 wells offshore, with 10 leading to
the discovery of hydrocarbons, although it is too early to
gauge the commercial viability of these discoveries, Reid said.
    Restructuring of the downstream oil sector contributed to a
profit rise to 187 mln stg in 1986 from 91 mln stg in 1985.
    Jaap Klootwijk, managing director of downstream unit <Shell
U.K. Oil>, said refining margins in the first quarter of 1987
were a "bit better than the very bad fourth quarter 1986."
    In November and December in particular, refining operations
had shown negative margins following the fall in crude and oil
product prices, he said. He expected margins to continue
generally positive over the summer, although they could dip to
become negative from time to time, depending on price
movements.
    A new catalytic cracker at Shell's Stanlow refinery will
now come on stream by the end of first quarter 1988, about five
months behind schedule, following a crane accident which
severely damaged the plant last year, he said.
    Profits from the chemicals sector rose to 33 mln stg from
11 mln after the rationalisation of the Carrington chemical
site.
    Haslam said the Budget announcement on PRT relief, by which
companies will be allowed to offset up to 10 pct of qualifying
PRT, was "helpful," but rather less than had been hoped for.
    Reid said his estimate of crude oil prices this year was in
the range of 15 to 18 dlrs. If prices went much above that, he
would expect some over-production above OPEC"s official 15.8 mln
bpd output ceiling which would tend to bring prices back down.
    He said it looked as if the December OPEC pact to restrain
output was holding, bringing supply and demand into balance,
but the test will come in summer when demand for OPEC oil will
fall.
 Reuter

Volkswagen U.S. Inc said its mid-March
car sales fell 35 pct from the same period last year.
    Volkswagen said it sold 1,330 cars in the March 11-20
period, down from 2,047 last year.
    For the first two March sales periods, Volkswagen sold
2,179 U.S. cars, down 23.7 pct from 2,856 last year. Year to
date car sales were 8,806, down 41.5 pct from 15,050 last year.
 Reuter

Dixons Group PLC said it does not plan
to extend the expiration date of its tender offer for any and
all common shares of Cyclops Corp beyond tonight.
    Dixons said it would accept shares validly tendered and not
withdrawn by midnight tonight.
    Dixons, which is offering 90.25 dlrs a share for Cyclops,
said last week it had about 54 pct of Cyclops common shares.
Its offer originally was scheduled to expire March 17 but was
extended for one week.
    Yesterday Citicorp <CCI>, with Audio/Video Affiliates Inc
<AVA> an owner of CYACQ, said it had offered to acquire from
Dixons after the merger of Cyclops into Dixons, Cyclops'
Dixons to raise its tender price to 93.25 dlrs per share.
terminate its competing 92.50 dlr offer for Cyclops.
    Citicorp had suggested yesterday that Dixons extend its
tender until March 31 in connection with the price increase.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it upgraded
31 mln dlrs of preferred and preference stock of Iowa-Illinois
Gas and Electric Co.
    It raised the preferred stock to AA-minus from A-plus and
preference stock to A-plus from A and affirmed Iowa-Illinois'
AA senior debt, AA-minus subordinated debt and A-1-plus
commercial paper. The utility has 350 mln dlrs of debt
securities outstanding.
    S and P said the upgrade reflected the firm's overall
strong profile, high quality earnings and cash flow, and
prospects for modest preferred and preference stock usage.
 Reuter

Finnish Export Credit Ltd issued
bonds for 450 mln Danish crowns in three bullet tranches each
of 150 mln crowns, an official at joint lead manager Copenhagen
Handelsbank A/S told Reuters.
    All three tranches bear an 11 pct coupon, with average
issue price of 101-1/8 and average fees of 1-1/2 pct, payment
date May 14, 1987. Denominations are 10,000 crowns and
registration is in Luxembourg.
    The bonds mature respectively in May 1989, 1990 and 1991
and are being syndicated as a package but quoted separately.
Handelsbank is joint lead with Prudential-Bache Securities Int.
 REUTER

Shr nine cts vs seven cts
    Net 676,000 vs 509,000
    Revs 48.5 mln vs 39.9 mln
    1st half
    Shr 12 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 923,000 vs 1,248,000
    Revs 94.1 mln vs 79.5 mln
    NOTE:Current half net includes charge 500,000 dlrs from
 Reuter

Punta Gorda Isles Inc said it
has cancelled a proposed rights offering to its shareholders
due to a previously-announced 7,500,000 dlr private sale of
preferred stock to Love Development and Investment Co, which is
scheduled to close before the end of the second quarter.
    The company said due to the cancellation, conversion prices
for its convertible debentures have returned to their initial
levels.  It said it issued no shares or rightsd in connection
with the proposed rights offering.
 Reuter

The Midamerica Commodity Exchange, an
affiliate of the Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, that offers
smaller versions of several futures contracts traded on other
exchanges, will begin trading in its new quarters within the
CBT complex on March 30, the CBT announced.
    Concurrent with the move from its current site a few blocks
away, the trading hours of the Midam's Treasury bond futures
contract will expand to between 0720 and 1515 local time from
0800 to 1415 currently.
    The Midam's T-bond contract has a face value half the size
of the CBT's 100,000 dlr T-bond contract, the most active
futures contract traded.
    The Midam also offers smaller-sized futures and options on
currencies, precious metals, grains and livestock.
 Reuter

Norway's Central Bank reserves totalled
91.06 billion crowns in January, against 93.07 billion in
December and 105.29 billion in January 1986, the central bank
said in its monthly balance sheet.
    Foreign exchange reserves totalled 83.68 billion crowns,
compared with 85.52 billion in December and 99.19 billion
crowns a year ago. Gold reserves totalled 284.7 mln crowns,
unchanged from the previous month and the year-ago figure.
    Central bank special drawing right holdings were 2.82
billion crowns, compared with 2.89 billion in December and 2.13
 REUTER

<GNB Inc> said it joined
with the management of the French company Compagnie Francaise
d'Electro-Chimie to purchase the company for an undisclosed
amount.
    The French company, which produces lead-acid batteries, had
sales in 1986 of 75 mln dlrs, GNB said.
 Reuter

Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz Finance BV is
issuing a zero coupon 75 mln Australia dlr bond due May 7, 1992
priced at 52-3/4 pct for an effective yield to maturity of
14-1/4 pct, said Orion Royal Bank as lead manager.
    The issue is guaranteed by parent company Landesbank
Rheinland-Pfalz Girozentrale, which is jointly owned by the
West German state of Rheinland-Pfalz and local savings banks.
    Payment is set for May 7 and the securities will be listed
on the Luxembourg stock exchange. Denominations are 1,000 and
10,000 dlrs with a 7/8 pct selling concession and a combined
management and underwriting fee of 1/2 pct.
 REUTER

Control Resource Industries
Inc said it named R. Joseph Clancy as president.
    R. Steven Lutterbach, who previously held the president's
title, continues as chairman and chief executive officer.
    Clancy was a vice president and member of the board of
    The company also named Cody Geddes as vice president and
chief financial officer, succeeding John Wojcik, who remains as
executive vice president.
 Reuter

Hercules Inc said it named
David Hollingsworth as chairman and chief executive, succeeding
Alexander Giacco who is retiring effective April 1.
    Hercules also said it named Fred Buckner as president and
chief operating officer and Arden Engebretsen as vice chairman
and chief financial officer.
    The company also said it expects its new product, Synpulp,
to grow into a 100 mln dlr a year business over the next five
years. Metton, another new product, is expected to yield
300-500 mln dlrs a year by the late 1990s.
 Reuter

A House taxwriter said Energy
Secretary James Herrington's "outrageous" plan to restore an old
tax break for oil companies was both bad tax and energy policy.
    Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat and senior House
Ways and Means Committee member, said Herrington's plan for a
27.5 pct depletion allowance--which in effect is a special 27.5
pct tax deduction --would cost seven billion dlrs a year.
    "He must have missed the last two years of federal tax
reform by sleeping as soundly as Rip Van Winkle," Stark said.
    He said in a statement the oil industry already pays an
effective lower rate of U.S. tax on investment, 15 pct versus
aggregate corporate tax on all investment of 34 pct, according
to a recent Congressional Research Service study.
 Reuter

Calny Inc said its board
rejected as inadequate the unsolicited offer by PepsiCo Inc
<PEP> subsidiary Taco Bell Corp for all Calny's outstanding
common stock at 11.50 dlrs cash per share.
    Taco Bell recently acquired 9.9 pct of Calny's outstanding
stock, Calny said.
    Calny said it retained Oppenheimer and Co Inc to consider
various financial and strategic alternatives available to the
company.
 Reuter

K MART CORP RAISES DIVIDEND 17.6 PCT, VOTES THREE-FOR-TWO STOCK SPLIT

Control Data Corp, the computer
concern, is introducing its first department computer, the
CYBER 180 Model 930, which will integrate a computer network
starting with desktop computers through its mainframe line to
the supercomputer.
    "For Control DATA, it signals our intent to compete in our
marketplace more completely than ever before," said Gil
Williams, Control Data's vice president of Computer Systems, one
of six business units.
    The large Minneapolis-based computer concern, hit hard
after two years of huge losses, has said it anticipates a
profitable year ahead. But Control's computer business has not
been profitable since 1983.
    Last year, the company lost 264.5 mln dlrs, including a
fourth quarter restructuring charge of 139.9 mln dlrs and a
one-time loss of 69 mln dlrs.
    "We will use the 930 strategically not only to solidify and
expand relationships with existing loyal customers...but also
to create new sales opportunities for the corporation with
businesses large and small," said Williams.
 Reuter

Wall Street's biggest brokerage firms,
eager for funds and foreign ties to fuel international
expansion, are expected to find more partnerships among Japan's
cash-rich companies, analysts said.
    Yesterday, American Express Co's <AXP> board formally
approved a linkup with <Nippon Life Insurance Co> for itself
and its <Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc> brokerage unit. Nippon
Life will receive 13 pct of Shearson for 538 mln dlrs.
    Nippon Life's investment in Shearson follows last year's
investment by <Sumitomo Bank Ltd> in <Goldman, Sachs and Co>.
Sumitomo paid 500 mln dlrs for 12.5 pct of the firm.
    "There certainly is potential for additional investment or
further linkups with other Japanese financial institutions. I
think the pattern has established itself here, and it's
reasonable to expect further investment down the road," said
Prudential-Bache Securities analyst Larry Eckenfelder.
    Speculation of such partnerships spread to other brokerage
stocks, resulting in rising stock prices in recent sessions.
    "The brokerage industry needs capital and the evolution of
the value of the yen and the dollar suggests there's going to
be a great deal of investment by Japanese firms in the U.S.,"
said another analyst.
    As globalization of the financial markets accelerates,
Japanese firms are expected to turn their sights on the
expertise of the U.S. brokerage industry.
    Competiton to gain a foothold in the important asian market
and Europe has also created a craving for more capital by U.S
firms.
    "Morgan (Stanley), First Boston, Salomon (Brothers),
Merrill (Lynch). Those would be the firms more likely to
consider hooking up with a Japanese firm, and those would be
the ones the Japanese would be most interested in," Eckenfelder
said.
    All of those firms, he said, have been establishing
themselves in Japan.
    While Wall Street views the investment by Nippon favorably,
there is some underlying concern that Japanese companies may
learn enough from their U.S. partners to ultimately pose the
same type of competitive threat they have
made in electronics and automobiles.
    "The difficult issue is what investment really will lead to
as markets deregulate. Passive investment is an education
gathering period. Obviously, there are regulatory barriers
toward exercising management control," said Samuel Liss, a
brokerage industry analyst with Salomon Brothers.
    The Nippon purchase of a stake in Shearson must be approved
by U.S. regulators and the Japan Finance Ministry. There will
also be a public offering for 18 pct of Shearson.
    Nippon and Shearson have already said they would form a
joint venture company in London to work on investment advisory,
asset management, and consulting on financing.
    Analysts believe Nippon has willingly paid a premium for
its stake, but it will also receive warrants for one mln
American Express shares and the 13 mln shares in Shearson will
be cumulative preferred, convertible to common after U.S.
regulatory approval is granted.
    American Express has also guaranteed it will retain a
minimum of 40 pct of Shearson until 1990.
    American Express and Nippon are also expected to work
closely. For instance, analysts expect it to market the
American Express card more actively in Japan with the help of
Nippon.
    "The key to the deal is not just raising capital for
Shearson, but forming a strategic alliance with Nippon," said
Alan Zimmerman of Kidder, Peabody and Co.
    American Express stock responded favorably to the
announcements, climbing 2-1/8 to 79 in active trading today.
    Some analysts believe Nippon is also interested in gaining
a foothold in the U.S. market with the help of American Express
and Shearson.
    Analysts predicted other Japanese insurers may be eager to
follow Nippon Life. U.S. insurers have found numerous partners
themselves in the brokerage industry.
    For instance, Equitable Life Assurance Co owns Donaldson,
Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp, and Prudential Life
Insurance Co owns Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.
    Eckenfelder said Japanese brokerage firms would not be
likely acquirors of U.S. firms for the time being, although
they have often been rumored suitors in the past. Last year,
when Shearson unsuccessfully courted E.F. Hutton Group <EFH>,
Japanese firms were also rumored to be willing partners.
 Reuter

Ing C. Olivetti EC Spa <OLIV.MI>
said a new computer and software have been added to its 3B Unix
computer line, which is developed by American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <A> and distributed by Olivetti outside the U.S.
    Olivetti said in a statement that the new computer is
equipped with higher storage capacity and can support up to 64
simultaneous users.
    The new software will improve connections between 3B
systems and other manufacturers' systems and simplify display
and printing capabilities in various languages, Olivetti said.
 Reuter

Banca Cattolica del Veneto SpA
said it had signed an accord with Manufacturers Hanover Trust
Co of New York covering a 100 mln dlr certificates of deposit
issue in London.
365 days.
    The bank said the issue would be placed with international
institutional and private investors.
 REUTER

Bayerische Vereinsbank is issuing
100,000 "naked warrants' at 15 dlrs each, which are convertible
for up to one year into a 1,000 Australia dlr bond due April
30, 1992, said Merrill Lynch capital markets as lead manager.
    Payment is due April 30, 1987 and total fees are three pct.
Of that, there is a two pct selling concession with the
remainder a combined management and underwriting fee.
 REUTER

Banco di Sicilia International SA is
issuing a 30 mln U.S. Dlr, zero coupon eurobond due April 15,
1992 and priced at 70.40, Nomura International Ltd said as
joint bookrunner.
    The bonds, which yield an effective 7.66 pct per annum,
will be listed in Luxembourg and will be issued in
denominations of 10,000 dlrs. They are guaranteed by Banco di
Sicilia.
    Gross fees of 1-1/4 pct comprise 1/2 pct for management and
underwriting combined and 3/4 pct for selling. Pay date is
April 15. The other joint bookrunner is Yasuda Trust and Banco
di Sicilia is co-lead.
 REUTER

Robert Heller, a member of the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, said commodity
prices could form a useful guide for setting domestic and
international monetary policy.
    Speaking to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Heller
said, "A broadly based commodity price index may be worth
exploring" as a guide to monetary policy.
    "In times of rising commodity prices, monetary policy might
be tightened and in times of falling commodity prices, monetary
policy might be eased," he said.
    Commodities are also standardized to avoid measurement
problems and occur at the beginning of production so as to give
"early warning" signs of wholesale and retail changes.
    "There is no need to react to every small fluctuation in
commodity prices or to do so on a daily basis," Heller said in a
prepared text.
    "But if commodity prices exhibit a broad trend, a policy
action might be considered," he said.
    Heller said using a broad-based commodity price index as an
indicator for monetary policy would also contribute to
stabilized currency exchange rates.
    Commodity prices are generally uniform worldwide and prices
for them are more consistent than for other types of goods, he
said.
    He said other beneficial effects would be to stabilize
export commodity prices for developing countries by using a
commodity basket as a guidepost for monetary policy.
 Reuter

K mart Corp said its board approved
a 17.6 pct increase in the quarterly dividend and declared a
three-for-two stock split.
    The company raised its dividend to 43.5 cts a presplit
share, up from the previous 37 cts a share. After the split,
the new quarterly dividend rate is equivalent to 29 cts a
share. It is payable June Eight, record May 21.
    It said the additional shares will be distributed June
Five, record May 21.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its U.S. car sales
dipped 3.6 pct in the mid-March sales period.
    Chrysler said it sold 30,909 U.S. cars in the March 11-20
period, down from 32,085 in the same period last year.
    For the March 1-20 period, Chrysler's domestic car sales
were off 1.9 pct at 56,195 compared to 57,276 last year.
    Year-to-date, Chrysler's sales of its domestic cars dropped
12.9 pct to 188,156 from 215,793.
    Chrysler said its sales of trucks in the mid-March period
were 4.8 pct above the 1986 period at 19,020 against 18,145
last year.
    Truck sales for the March 1-20 period rose nine pct to
34,585 from 31,730 last year. Year-to-date truck sales were
121,616, up 8.8 pct from 111,743.
 Reuter

National Heritage Inc, a unit of
Southmark Corp, said it began an initial public offering of two
mln shares of common stock at a price of 9.50 dlrs a share.
    All the shares are being offered by National Heritage,
which will trade under symbol NHER on Nasdaq, through lead
underwriter Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Proceeds will be used to increase working capital, complete
renovations at leased facilities and repay certain debts to
Southmark.
    After the offer, Southmark will retain about 82 pct of the
11 mln outstanding common shares of National Heritage, which
operates 201 long-term nursing care facilities.
 Reuter

456 tonnes of cocoa in the 23rd week, ended March 12, of the
1986/87 main crop season, compared with 684 tonnes the previous
week and 784 tonnes in the 23rd week ended March 20 of the
1985/86 season.
    Cumulative purchases so far this season stand at 217,235
tonnes, ahead of the 203,884 tonnes purchased by the 23rd week
of last season, the board said.
 Reuter

Dutch electronics group
N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> said it will move
its New York share listing, currently over the counter in the
Nasdaq system, to the New York Stock Exchange.
    Philips, listed on 17 European exchanges, said the move is
part of an effort to boost its profile in the U.S., Where 10
pct of all outstanding shares are held. The NASDAQ listing will
end with the start of the NYSE listing, a spokesman said.
    The NYSE told Philips it met conditions for a big board
listing, Philips said, adding it expects the change to be
effected in April, using the symbol PHG.
 Reuter

American Express Overseas Credit Corp is
issuing a 50 mln New Zealand dlr bond due April 27, 1990
carrying a coupon of 18 pct and priced at 101-1/4, said Hambros
Bank Ltd as lead manager.
    The issue is guaranteed by American Express Co. Payment is
set for April 27, 1987 and the securities will be listed on the
Luxembourg stock exchange.
    There is a one pct selling concession and a 1/2 pct
combined underwriting and management fee.
 REUTER

OII HoLdings Corp, a concern formed by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co, said it completed its
previously announced acquisition of Owens-Illinois Inc.
    Under terms of the February 10 agreement, OII paid 60.50
dlrs per common share and 363 dlrs per 4.75 dlrs convertible
    OII said each common share still outstanding at the time of
the merger has been converted into the right to receive 60.50
dlrs per share and all preference shares not converted will be
redeemd on April 22 at a redemption price of 100 dlrs per
preference share plus accrued and unpaid dividends.
    OII said it has assumed Owen's 3-3/4 pct sinking fund
debentures due June 1, 1988, 9.35 pct sinking fund debentures
due November 1, 1999, and 7-5/8 pct debentures due April 1,
2001.
    OII said the New York Stock Exchange said the securities
will be delisted as a result of the merger. OII said it is
anticipated that the securities will be traded in the over-the-
counter market.
    The surviving company will be known as Owen-Illinois Inc,
it said.
 Reuter

Hecla Mining Co said it
has agreed to purchase a 28 pct interest in the Greens Creek
Joint Venture from British Petroleum Co PLC's Amselco Minerals
Inc unit.
    The venture expects to bring into production a
gold-silver-lead-zinc ore body on Admiralty Island, Alaska,
containing about 3,500,000 short tons of ore assaying about
0.18 ounce of gold, 24.0 ounces of silver, 9.7 pct zinc and 3.9
pct zinc per short ton, Hecla said.  It said there is
significant potential for the discovery of additional ore.
    Hecla said initial production from a trackless underground
mine is scheduled for late 1988 at a rate of about 1,000 tons
or ore per day.  "At this rate, the Greens Creek mine will be
the largest domestic silver mine and is expected to be one of
the lowest cost producers."
    The company said it estimates its total investment in the
project, including its share of preproduction costs, at about
45 mln dlrs, to be funded through internally generated cash and
existing lines of credit.  It said Amselco will retain a
majority interest in the project.  Other interest holders are
CSX Corp <CSX> and <Exaias Resources Corp>.
 Reuter

Joint venture talks that could
lead to Chrysler Corp <C> taking a stake in Italian car maker
<Automobili Lamborghini SpA> are continuing, a Lamborghini
    He told Reuters the two companies are discussing a number
of topics ranging from "a joint venture in the production area
to Chrysler becoming a shareholding partner" in the Italian
firm.
    The spokesman declined to comment on whether Chrysler was
interested in acquiring control of Lamborghini or if the two
sides were close to an accord.
    He said the two companies are discussing the possibility of
jointly developing a sports car aimed primarily at the U.S.
Market.
    The spokesman said Chrysler officials in Detroit had
already visited Lamborghini's production plant in Bologna and
another visit may be scheduled.
    Lamborghini, which is controlled by the Mimran Group of
Switzerland, broke even last year on sales of 29 billion lire,
he said.
    Chrysler also holds a 15 pct interest in Italian sports car
producer <Alfieri Maserati Spa>.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union supports the freedom
of navigation in the Gulf and does not support any act which
would cause the deterioration of the situation in the region,
its ambassador to Kuwait, Ernest Zverev, told the Kuwaiti news
agency KUNA.
    "We support the freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf
and the Strait of Hormuz," the agency quoted Zverev as saying.
    KUNA also said the envoy had discussed the deployment of
Iranian missiles near the Strait of Hormuz with Kuwaiti Foreign
Undersecretary Suliman Majed al-Shaheen.
    A British naval source in the Gulf said today Iran had
test-fired its new Silkworm missiles and set up launching sites
in the area.
    The tests had been successful and the missiles could be
used against shipping in the strait, the source added.
    But Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Hojatoleslam Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani said Iran did not need missiles to close the
strait because "we can close it with artillery only."
    The U.S. Has said it will not allow Iran to use missiles to
choke off oil shipments and offered its warships to escort
Kuwaiti tankers past the missile batteries in the strait.
 REUTER

The 50 European Currency Unit gold
coins which go on sale tomorrow in Belgium will be priced at a
premium of seven pct to the value of the gold they contain, a
Finance Ministry spokesman said. The price will be calculated
daily, based on the daily gold fixing in London.
    Belgium is minting an initial 50,000 gold coins to
celebrate the 30th anniversary of the European Community's
founding Treaty of Rome, but final production is expected to be
around 200,000. Each 17.27 gram coin will contain 55 grams of
fine metal.
    Two mln silver coins, face value five Ecus, will be sold at
500 francs each.
 REUTER

Shr 19 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 487,000 vs 344,000
    Revs 7,492,000 vs 5,883,000
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs nil
    Net 20,406 vs 2,348
    Sales 6,191,000 vs 6,249,000
 Reuter

Oper shr 28 cts vs 33 cts
    Oper net 1,647,000 vs 1,910,000
    Revs 19.7 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 82 cts vs 84 cts
    Oper net 4,787,000 vs 8,748,000
    Revs 55.9 mln vs 53.0 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes tax credits of 29,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,761,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    Prior nine mths net includes gain from sale of real estate
of 3,820,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

<Prudential Corporation Plc>, which
earlier announced a 62 pct rise in 1986 pre-tax profits, said
it had recorded its best general insurance result for six years
but had not reached satisfactory levels of profit in other
areas.
    Group Chief Executive Brian Corby told a news conference
that despite returning to trading profits, the International
division and the Mercantile and General division had not
reached satisfactory levels.
    But he said he welcomed Mercantile and General trading
profits in 1986 and was optimistic about both that and the
International division.
    The acquisition of the U.S. Life company <Jackson National>
had a small effect in 1986 but its full effect would be felt in
the 1987 results, Corby said.
    The Group also intended to expand the number of its estate
agency firms bought last year, and hoped they will comprise
between 10 and 15 pct of total company profits in the future.
    "We hope they will be very profitable very shortly. We are
looking for profits from the estate agencies themselves as well
as the insurance products associated with them," Corby said.
    Prudential's pre-tax profits rose from 1985's 110.1 mln stg
to 178.1 mln stg in 1986.
 Reuter

Ltd said its and Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd's directors
approved a previously announced plan to build and operate an
ore bioleach plant at Giant Yellowknife's Salmita Mill in the
Northwest Territories.
    It added that it also received regulatory approval for the
first of the private placements and warrants to be issued under
the pact.
    The program, expected to start operating by the end of
April, will cost about 750,000 dlrs, with Giant Bay's share
expected to total up to 450,000 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

CRS Sirrine Inc said it plans a major
restructuring of its balance sheet that will include a
write-off of between 39 mln and 43 mln dlrs, most of which
would be intangible goodwill from the company's past
    The company said the remainder of its write-off would
include a one-time expense for future costs related to early
retirement programs, office consolidations and an increase in
the general reserve for adjustments and contingencies.
    Bruce Wilkinson, president of the company, said the charges
to the company's third quarter earnings, for the period ending
March 31, would "significantly impact" third quarter results
but would not affect the company's cash position.
    "We expect to have the biggest operating backlog in the
company's history by June 30, 1987, the end of our fiscal
year," Wilkinson said. "We believe the action being proposed
will begin to contribute to improved earnings in the fourth
quarter of our fiscal 1987 and throughout fiscal 1988."
    The company, which is one of the nation's largest
construction firms, also said termination of its defined
benefit retirement plan would produce a pre-tax benefit of
about 10 mln dlrs due to overfunding of the plan.
    In its second quarter ended Dec. 31, CRSS had net earnings
of 800,000 dlrs on revenues of 82.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A Resorts International Inc spokesman
said the company will make a statement later today regarding
its class A and class B <RT.B> common stock.
    The American Stock Exchange halted trading in the shares
this morning because of the pending announcement. The A shares
last traded at 58-3/4 and the B shares at 130-1/2, the exchange
said.
 Reuter

March 7 end
    Shr 17 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 3,998,000 vs 5,317,000
    Sales 189.4 mln vs 159.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 14.9 ln vs 15.9 mln
    Sales 540.9 mln vs 464.7 mln
    NOTE: Twelve and 36-week periods.
 Reuter

Flowers Industries Inc said it
expects lower earnings for the current year due to operating
losses incurred by recent acquisitions and possible
nonrecurring losses resulting from its restructuring efforts.
    For the year ended June 28, Flowers earned 29.5 mln dlrs.
Today it reported nine month earnings of 14.9 mln dlrs, down
from 15.9 mln dlrs a year before.
    Flowers said it expects fiscal 1988, however, to show the
best growth in profits in its history due to the growing
profitability of ongoing businesses, cost control efforts,
higher productvitiy and lower taxes.
    Flowers said losses suffered in its West Texas operations
and in five plants acquired at the start of the third quarter
from <CFS Staley Continental> and <Wolf Baking Co> severely
hurt results.
    It said the CFS and Wolf plants are expected to be
contributing to profit by the end of the fiscal year and it is
seeking to bring the West Texas operations to acceptable levels
of profitability by the end of the fourth quarter as well.
 Reuter

Leeds Permanent Building Society is
issuing a 50 mln stg offering of notes due April 23, 1992
carrying a coupon of 9-1/4 pct and priced at 100-7/8, said
Barings Securities Co as lead manager.
    Bankers Trust International is co-lead manager.
    The issue is partly paid, with only 20 pct of the payment
due on April 23 and the remainder due October 23. The issue is
priced to yield 50 basis points over comparable maturity gilts.
 REUTER

Shr 54 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 1.1 mln vs 941,000
    REvs 8.9 mln vs 10.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.65 dlrs vs 1.64 dlrs
    Net 3.3 mln vs 3.3 mln
    Revs 37.4 mln vs 39.0 mln
    
 Reuter

Medical Action Industries Inc
said it got a contract from Humana Inc <HUM> to supply Humana
with lap sponges, used mainly during surgery to cover exposed
internal organs.
    Medical said the contract could provide reveneus of more
than one mln dlrs over a two-year period. For the fiscal year
ended March 31, Medical reported revenues of 14.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Caisse Nationale de l'Energie is issuing
a 650 mln franc, 8.70 pct bond, due October 13, 1997 at par,
lead managers Banque National de Paris and Union de Garantie et
de Placement said. Societe Marseillaise de Credit is co-lead.
    The issue, announced earlier today by the French bond
issuing committee, is of 5,000 franc nominal bonds. The first
coupon of 213.50 francs will be paid on October 13, 1987 and
thereafter on April 13 each year.
    Each bond is accompanied by a warrant giving the right to
subscribe, from September 1 to 30, 1987, to a new CNE 8.70 pct
bond due October 1997 with a par issue price.
 REUTER

American Motors Corp said
U.S. car sales for the March 11 to 20 period dropped 62 pct to
790 from 2,100 cars in the same period a year ago.
    There were nine selling days in both years.
    Domestic sales for March 1 through 20 declined 60 pct to
1,550 cars from 3,880 cars in the comparable period of 1986,
American Motors said.
    For the calendar year-to-date, American Motors said
domestic car sales decreased 61 pct to 6,472 from 16,741 cars
last year.
    American Motors is 46 pct owned by Renault.
 Reuter

Alcan Aluminium Ltd. in Montreal said
it increased yesterday its prices for unalloyed ingot and
extrusion billet by two cents a lb, effective with shipments
beginning May 1.
    The new price for unalloyed ingot is 64.5 cents a lb while
the new price for extrusion billet is 72.5 cents a lb.
    "We feel very confident about raising our prices because we
see demand over supply as being sustainable for some time,"
said Ian Rugeroni, Alcan's president of metal sales and
recycling - U.S.A.
    Rugeroni said sheet and can bookings for Alcan aluminium
were up at a time when the company's total 1.1 mln tonne North
American smelter system had less than a week's supply.
    "We're short and we're buying," he said.
    Rugeroni added that Alcan expects the International Primary
Aluminum Institute to report a drop in total non-Socialist
stocks in February and March. He estimated supply in the latter
month will have fallen 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes, based in part
on current low inventories of aluminium in Japan and on the
London Metal Exchange.
 reuter

U.S. car sales for the March 11-20 period dropped 62 pct to 790
from 2,100 cars in the same period a year ago.
last year.
 Reuter

March 11 through 20 were off 15.5 pct to 109,174 from 129,242 a
    The company said truck sales were off 8.8 pct to 45,015
from 49,365 a year before.
    For the year to date, GM said car sales were off 25.1 pct
to 738,262 from 986,211 a year before and truck sales were off
9.6 pct to 292,387 from 323,401 a year before.
 Reuter

University Patents Inc said its
University Optical Products Co subsidiary signed an agreement
to supply intraocular lenses to a "major international"
manufacturer and distributor based in the U.S.
    Details of the agreement were not disclosed but University
said its optical unit will now produce about 3,000 intraocular
lenses each month for sale outside the U.S.
    Intraocular lenses are used as a replacement for the eye's
natural lenses which must be removed during cataract surgery.
University said over a million cataract removals occur each
year in the U.S.
 Reuter

Hecla Minging Co said it
Joint Venture from British Petroleum Co PLC's <BP> Amselco
Minerals Inc unit.
pct lead per short ton, Hecla said.  It said there is
    Corrects last assay result to lead from zinc.
 Reuter

    Shr profit eight cts vs loss 38 cts
    Net profit 2,466,000, vs loss 12,691,000
    Revs 111.1 mln vs 106.8 mln
    12 mths
    Shr profit 20 cts vs loss 47 cts
    Net profit 6,591,000 vs loss 15.5 mln
    Revs 342.6 mln vs 370.4 mln
    NOTE: includes provision for store closings of foreign
operations of 3,897,000 for 1986 qtr, and 1,403,000 for qtr
prior.
    includes provision for store closing costs and unproductive
inventory of 1,000,000 for 1986 qtr, and 25.1 mln for qtr
prior.
 Reuter

<Pacific Western Airlines Corp>
said the airline resulting from the previously announced merger
of its Pacific Western Airlines Ltd unit and Canadian Pacific
Air Lines Ltd would be named Canadian Airlines International
Ltd, effective April 26.
    Pacific Western said the two airlines' services and
schedules would also be integrated on April 26. It previously
appointed management for the new airline.
    The new airline, Canada's second largest, will have 81
planes flying to 89 destinations in 13 countries.
    Pacific Western recently acquired Canadian Pacific Airlines
for 300 mln dlrs from Canadian Pacific Ltd <CP>.
 Reuter

Nigeria and Britain signed an agreement
to reschedule Nigeria's official debts in the first of an
expected series of such talks, government sources said.
    The agreement was signed by Nigerian Finance Minister Chu
Okongwu and the Export Credits Guarantee Department's (ECGD)
chief executive Jack Gill.
    The Nigerians will go on to Paris for similar bilateral
talks tomorrow with Coface, the French export credit agency.
    Today's agreement follows an agreement between Nigeria and
reschedule some 7.5 billion dlrs of official debt.
    The Paris Club agreement was for a rescheduling of the 7.5
billion dlrs of medium and long-term debt due between September
1986 and end 1987 over 10 years with five years grace.
    But as with all Paris Club pacts, specific interest rates
and other details have to be negotiated on a bi-lateral basis
with the countries involved. None of the details contained in
today's negotiations was immediately available.
    The Nigerians are hoping that further bilateral accords can
be struck fairly soon as this could encourage official export
credit agencies to renew insurance cover for exports to
Nigeria.
    The ECGD suspended its cover for exports to Nigeria in
1983. Despite the success of the talks over the past two days,
govenment sources said there had not been any discussions on
new credits.
    Nigeria is due to receive 900 mln dlrs in fresh export
credits this year from official agencies under a structrual
adjustment program drawn up by Nigeria and the World Bank to
support a rescheduling of part of the country's 19 billion dlr
    But these credits cannot be approved until the export
credit agencies agree to resume insuring the debts.
 REUTER

Tonight's American Petroleum Institute
oil inventory report is expected to show another drawdown in
distillate stocks of between two and 7.5 mln barrels for the
week ending March 20, oil analysts and traders said.
    They said they expect gasoline inventories to be depleted
by about one to four mln barrels.
    Analysts were divided on the crude stocks. Some saw stocks
unchanged to as much as three mln barrels higher. Others said
stocks could be down one to five mln barrels. Crude throughput
volumes are expected to be unchanged to slightly higher or
lower than the week ended March 13, traders said.
    The API recorded a 7.4 mln barrel stockdraw for U.S.
distillates in the week ended March 13. Analysts see another 
draw reflecting historic seasonal trends.
    For the week ended March 13, API reported gasoline stocks
down 2.9 mln barrels.
    Those expecting a draw of as much as four mln barrels said
they are looking for fairly high consumption rates as the
spring and summer driving season gets underway this year,
because retail prices are still low compared to recent years.
    U.S. crude oil stocks were reported down by 4.4 mln barrels
for the week ended March 13. Analysts are divided over the
outcome for last week because there is uncertainty about
whether throughput levels increased or decreased last week.
    Some see crude stock levels unchanged to three mln barrels
higher, while others think inventories could be as much as five
mln barrels below the previous week.
    The lower estimates are supported by the belief that crude
runs increased and imports fell.
    The API reported crude runs 154,000 b/d higher for the week
ended March 13. Analysts are calling it unchanged to slightly
up or down for the week ended March 20.
    Expectations for product stockdraws are already being
reflected in firmer prices, traders said. But if draws are at
the higher end of the estimated range, they added, the effect
will be bullish. Any stockbuild would be a negative factor,
they said.
    Crude runs normally increase in March, and any decrease in
runs would be friendly to the market, said Peter Beutel of
Elders Energy Futures Inc.
 Reuter

American Honda Motor Corp said
its sales of domestic cars in the March 11 through 20 sales
period increased to 7,447 from 5,031 in the same period last
year.
    The Japanese-based automaker said it sold 11,841 U.S. cars
in the March 1 through 20 period, up from 8,817 in the same
1986 period.
    Year-to-date, Honda said it sold 59,590 U.S. cars compared
to 36,717 last year.
 Reuter

The move by foreign exchange markets to
test the strength of the Paris currency accord has thrown into
question the near-term outlook for sterling, until recently one
of the main beneficiaries of the agreement, analysts said.
    Since the six-nation accord last month, sterling has risen
sharply, adding almost five pct on its trade-weighted index.
    While the accord effectively stifled dollar/yen and
dollar/mark movements, the markets turned their attention to
sterling as foreign investors rushed to take advantage of
relatively high U.K. Interest rates.
    But analysts say the pound has been sidelined by the first
tentative test of the Paris accord seen yesterday.
    The market now looks set sooner or later to push the dollar
down further in a test of the willingness of central banks to
intervene. Analysts say if the banks do not intervene
effectively, the Paris accord could collapse.
    "On balance, sterling would be a net sufferer if G-6
collapses," Phillips and Drew analyst Stephen Lewis said.
    He said sterling would lose out as markets turned their
attention to capital movements whereas previously they had been
restricted to looking only at the interest yield on currencies.
    However, although most analysts and foreign exchange
dealers were forecasting a brief period of consolidation or
even retracement for sterling, none were expecting a very sharp
drop in the U.K. Currency.
    Sterling remained supported by optimism on the U.K.
Political and economic outlook, firmer oil prices and
relatively high interest rates, they said.
    Bullish sentiment on the U.K. Economic outlook has been
running especially high after last week's budget, seen as
popular both with the markets and with British voters.
    Sterling was also supported by signs of a weakening in the
West German and Japanese economies, where growth for 1987 is
trailing behind the three pct forecast for the U.K.
    Recent opinion polls showing Britain's ruling conservative
party ahead of opposition parties in popularity have also
supported the pound.
    In addition, sterling has so far shrugged off two
half-point cuts in U.K. Bank base lending rates in less than
two weeks. A further half-point cut, widely expected in the
next week or so, has already been largely discounted.
    U.K. Base rates, now running at 10 pct, are still
relatively high compared to other western countries, and
analysts said a further base rate cut to 9-1/2 pct was unlikely
to affect sterling.
    Sterling today appeared resilient to the dollar's decline,
dropping only slightly on a cross-rate basis.
    Worries about renewed turbulence in the foreign exchange
markets, however, were reflected in the U.K. Government bond
(gilt) market, where prices dropped by up to 5/16 point.
    Until now foreign investor interest in the gilt market has
been one of the major reasons behind the rise in sterling.
    Dealers said they expected the pound to hold quietly steady
for the next few days while the market awaits further
developments on the dollar and this Thursday's U.K. Current
account figures for February.
    Market forecasts are for a deficit of around 250 mln stg
after January's small surplus.
 REUTER

The president of the Export-Import
Bank said the Bank was changing its lending policies to reflect
changing conditions in export financing.
    President John Bohn told a House Appropriations
subcommittee hearing commercial banks have largely withdrawn
from financing exports and export projects were becoming
smaller.
    "Exporters now need financing in riskier markets and on
deals which are smaller, take longer to put together and
close," Bohn said in his testimony. "Lenders, however, want
less risk, higher profit, transaction-oriented and less
labor-intensive activities.
    "It became clear to us the EXimbank must assume a broader
range of explicitly defined country and transaction risks than
it has previously. Programs and procedures need to be
simplified, streamlined and internally consistent," he said.
    Bohn said the Bank would focus on the needs of the middle
market product or service exporter and would have essentially
one loan program and one guarantee program for both medium-term
and long-term export transactions.
    "Both programs will provide up to 85 pct financing, the
maximum permitted under the OECD consensus. Eximbank loans will
carry the minimum interest rate allowed by the OECD rate
schedule for the market and the term," he said.
    Bohn said the Bank was requesting a limitation of 1 billion
dlrs for regular loan obligations, of which up to 200 mln dlrs
may be available as tied aid credits, and a limitation of 10
billion dlrs for guarantee and insurance commitments.
    He said the Bank would have to come back to Congress later
this year to discuss its capitalization needs.
 Reuter

<Hambrecht and Quist Group> said
Gordon Macklin has resigned as president of the <National
Association of Securities Dealers> to become chairman and
co-chief executive officer of Hambrecht and Quist.
    The San Francisco brokerage firm said Macklin is expected
to join it by July.
    As chairman, he succeeds Hugh T. Wyles.
    The other chief executive officer is founder William R.
Hambrecht.
    In Washington, the NASD said MAcklin has offered to stay on
until a new president is named.  It said it will soon appoint a
committee to begin the search for a successor.
 Reuter

Wedgestone Realty Investors Trust
said it has filed for an offering of 1,250,000 common shares
through underwriters led by Ladenburg, Thalmann and Co and
Moseley Holding Corp <MOSE>.
    It said the offering is expected to be made in mid-April.
 Reuter

New Jersey Resources Corp said an
offering of 1,300,000 common shares is underway at 19.625 dlrs
per share through underwriters led by Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER> and E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH>.
 Reuter

developed a complete panel of monoclonal antibodies to the AIDS
virus that can be used for AIDS research.
    The company said it will begin marketing the panel
    It said the monoclonals recognize different protein
portions of the AIDS viurs and will be used in research for 
AIDS diagnosis and therapy.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 3,623,067 vs 2,607,977
    Gross income 10.1 mln vs 10.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.12 dlrs vs 1.74 dlrs
    Net 12.2 mln vs 10.0 mln
    Gross income 38.1 mln vs 36.8 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five-for-two stock split effective
    Net includes gains on sale of securities pretax of
1,860,213 dlrs vs 392,975 dlrs in quarter 5,023,401 dlrs vs
3,223,008 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Plenum Publishing Corp said it has
reincorporated in Delaware following shareholder approval
    It said in copnnection with the change -- it had been
incorporated in New York -- a five-for-two stock split has gone
 Reuter

Oper shr 11 cts vs five cts
    Oper net 248,000 vs 122,000
    Sales 7,269,000 vs 5,481,000
    Year
    Oper shr 55 cts vs 14 cts
    Oper net 1,288,000 vs 333,000
    Sales 26.2 mln vs 17.6 mln
103,000 dlrs in quarter and losses 82,000 dlrs vs 50,000 dlrs
in year.
    1986 year net excludes 133,000 dlr provision for loss on
disposal of discontinued operations.
 Reuter

2nd qtr Jan 31
    Shr loss three cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 352,000 vs loss 568,000
    Revs 636,000 vs 640,000
    Avg shrs 12.7 mln vs 8,377,000
    1st half
    Shr loss six cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net loss 594,000 vs loss 865,000
    Revs 1,245,000 vs 1,063,000
    Avg shrs 10.5 mln vs 8,333,000
 Reuter

Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc
said Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc's Travenol Laboratories
Inc unit will evaluate whether one of its products can be used
to prevent infectious disease.
    Under an agreement, Ribi said Travenol will conduct studies
with the product, monophosphoryl lipid A, and will have the
option to pursue a woldwide license for the product.
    Ribi said the product is used in combination with other
agents in experimental treatments to boost the function of the
immune system in patients suffering from malignant melanoma and
other cancers.

 Reuter

European Community (EC) member states
have generally given a cool initial reaction to proposals by
the European Commission for cereal price changes and related
measures in the coming season, EC diplomats said.
    They said that in meetings of the EC Special Committee on
Agriculture representatives of most member states had said the
changes, taken together, would have too harsh an impact on
farmers' incomes.
    Only Britain and the Netherlands had shown willingness to
accept the commission's overall package, they said.
    As well as cuts of over two pct in common prices for most
cereals, the commission proposes a limitation of intervention
to the February to March period and reduced monthly increments
in intervention prices.
    EC Farm Ministers will have a first discussion of the
proposals at a meeting beginning next Monday.
 Reuter

said it formed a 600-member sales force dedicated exclusively
to its computers and other data systems products.
    Separately, ATT denied reports that it plans to buy back a
large chunk of its stock. ATT's stock was up 1/4 points at
25-1/8 in heavy trading.
    The company said it also created a separate 600-member team
that will educate the computer sales force and its other sales
groups on ATT's computer products. This group, ATT said,
reports directly to Vittorio Cassoni, senior vice president of
its computer unit, called the Data Systems division.
    Cassoni, speaking at a news conference at which ATT
unveiled its most powerful mid-range computer, said the sales
groups will provide a "sharper focus" to ATT's computer
marketing efforts.
    The executive, hired from Olivetti to bolster ATT's
unsuccessful campaign to become a major vendor of computer
gear, also said the company is committed to its 3B line of
mid-range computers. He said ATT backed the 3B line despite
widespread criticism throughout the industry that it is
inferior to mid-range systems made by International Business
Machines Corp <IBM>, Digital Equipment Corp <DEC> and others.
    Cassoni, however, said ATT would strenghten the 3B line
within the next three or four months. He said ATT will offer
new, more powerful mid-range computers that will protect the
investments of existing 3B users in ATT hardware and software.
    In justifying the company's commitment to the 3B line,
which was originally developed for internal use by ATT and its
former Bell telephone company units, Cassoni pointed to several
recent sales that he said proved the mid-range line's
commercial viability.
    One example he provided was a recent 34 mln dlr deal ATT
signed with the United States Postal Service.
    Cassoni also said ATT will announce a new personal computer
based on the powerful 80386 microprocessor from Intel Corp
<INTC>.
   Compaq Computer Corp <CPQ> is already selling a 386-based PC
and IBM is widely expected to announce a 386 machine sometime
this year.
   Cassoni said the Data Systems division is unprofitable and
that it will take "a couple of years" for the division to meet
its goal of making a "substantial contribution to ATT's
earnings stream." But, he added, the division is "approaching"
the point where it can start making money.
    Cassoni said the new products introduced today are "a very
significant step to foster our efforts in the computer
    Among the new offerings is the 3B2/600 minicomputer, which
ATT said can provide up to four times the processing power of
the 3B2/400, previously its biggest computer.
    But with a top speed of 4.0 mips, or million instructions
per second, the top-of-line 3B cannot match the computing power
of rival systems from IBM and DEC.
 Reuter

said it operned two more Dialysis at Home offices, bringing to
11 the total number of such offices nationwide.
 Reuter

    Pay May One
 Reuter

    12 mths
    NOTE: In item moved March 23, company corrects its error to
show loss for current 12 mths and qtr, not profit.
 Reuter

South Africa will repay 13 pct of its
frozen 13 billion dollar debt to foreign creditors over the
next three years under an agreement reached today in London,
Finance Minister Barend du Plessis said.
    He said South Africa already had repaid five pct of the
debt under the standstill agreement expiring on June 30, 1987.
   "These arrangements confirm South Africa's continued
willingness to maintain good relations with its foreign
creditors and to meet its foreign commitments in a orderly way,"
du Plessis told a news conference.
    Du Plessis said the new interim debt agreement was
"substantially a continuation" of the arrangement ending in June
and calls for South Africa to continue paying all interest on
its total foreign debt of 23 billion dlrs.
    The new debt standstill will extend from July 1, 1987, to
June 30, 1990, with a three pct down payment permitted on July
15, 1987, "provided such debt has already reached maturity," du
Plessis said.
    Finance Minister Barend du Plessis told a new conference
that 34 banks holding more than 70 pct of the frozen debt
agreed to the new arrangement worked out with South African
negotiators in London. About 300 other creditor banks also are
expected to approve the agreement, he said.
    Reserve Bank governor Gerhard de Kock said the agreement
was a "good deal" both for South Africa and the banks and added
that the three-year length of the agreement was of "enormous
significance" to South Africa.
was a "good deal" both for South Africa and the banks.
    Besides the 13-billion-dlr frozen debt, South Africa also
owes ten billion dlrs of debt that includes a significant
amount of medium -term liabilities that will continue to be
repaid on normal maturity dates.
    The 13 pct to be repaid under the standstill amounts to
1.42 billion dollars.
    A total of five pct or 508 mln dlrs will be repaid in the
second half of 1987, with 3.5 pct or 400 mln dlrs in calendar
1988, three pct or 346 mln dlrs in calendar 1989 and 1.5 pct or
166 mln dlrs in the first half of 1990.
    Du Plessis said 34 banks holding more than 70 pct of the
frozen debt agreed to the new arrangement worked out with South
African negotiators in London.
    About 300 other creditor banks also are expected to approve
the agreement, he said.
    De Kock, speaking at the same news conference, said the
three-year length of the agreement was of "enormous significance"
to South Africa.
    De Kock said South Africa had negotiated from a "position of
basic economic financial strength."
    "We were never overborrowed to begin with and we are now
underborrowed by all international criteria that I've ever
heard of," he said.
    Du Plessis said available foreign reserves of the Reserve
Bank, which increased by about 800 mln dlrs in the past two
months, and a continued current account surplus "will be
sufficient" to meet terms of the new interim debt agreement.
    Du Plessis said the banks were showing much more confidence
in the South African economy and country as a whole.
    He attributed this to "restoration of law and order which
has greatly reduced not only the extent of unrest but also the
intensity of unrest."
    South Africa has been under a state of emergency since June
1986 because of black political violence that has claimed over
2,400 lives in the past three years.
    Du Plessis said no political demands were made by the banks
and South Africa was now rapidly returning to very good
relations with its foreign creditors.
    He said there were encouraging signs that some foreign
investors were again "taking a more realistic view" of South
Africa.
    Recent examples were the rise in the financial rand and the
sharp increase in foreign exchange reserves.
    Of the 13 billion dlr frozen debt, 3.5 billion dlrs was
owed by the public sector and 9.5 billion dlrs by private
industry, du Plessis said.
    The remaining 10 billion dlrs consisted of seven billion
dlrs owed by government agencies and three billion dlrs by the
 Reuter

Standard Chartered Plc <STCH.L>, faced
with a recession in the key Singapore and Malaysian markets and
an ongoing depression in the shipping industry, boosted its
bad-debt provisions in 1986, chairman Lord Barber said.
    Barber said in a statement on the bank's 1986 results that
bad and doubtful debt provisions, both general and specific,
stood at 545.6 mln stg against 416.6 mln at end-1985.
    Bank figures showed the increase was almost exclusively in
the specific bad risk provision, which qualifies for U.K. Tax
breaks. New specific provisions rose by 111.5 mln stg while
71.2 mln stg were reallocated from the general risk provision.
    In all, a 184.2 mln stg charge was made against profits for
1986, compared with a 100.7 mln stg charge in 1985. Total
pre-tax profits fell to 254 mln after 268 mln in 1985.
    "The continuing serious recessionary conditions in Singapore
and Malaysia and the depressed condition of the shipping
industry made it necessary to provide heavily against bad and
doubtful debs arising from loans in the Asia Pacific region, on
top of the normal level of provisioning," Barber said.
    He said, "the decision was also taken to build up loan loss
reeserves by making a sizeable increase in the charges for
general provisions for commercial and cross border risks."
    Barber said due to bad-debt provisioning, the Asia Pacific
region made "a negligible contribution to pre-tax profits."
    He said the profits contribution from the U.K. Businesses
was "well maintained, although the reported result was affected
by cross border debt provisioning," while Californian subsidiary
Union Bank "showed continued growth."
    "Tropical Africa, Middle East and South Asia all turned in
excellent performances and the revival in Europe continued," he
said.
    Barber said the group, which succesfully fought off a
takeover bid by Lloyds Bank <LLOY.L> last year, strengthened
its capital resources during that year to just over three
billion stg, while total assets increased to 32.2 billion.
    Capital adequacy ratios remained strong, with the primary
capital ratio standing at 7.5 pct at end 1986, he said.
 Reuter

Colombia's coffee export revenue dropped
97 mln dlrs to 233.6 mln dlrs for the first two months of the
year against 330.9 mln dlrs in the similar period of 1986,
central bank preliminary figures show.
    Experts attributed the fall to lower world market prices
following the failure to re-introduce international coffee
export quotas, but they said Colombia could compensate the drop
with higher exports in calendar 1987.
    Coffee export revenue for 1986 was 2.33 billion dlrs,
according to the bank.
    Jorge Cardenas, manager of the National Coffee Growers'
Federation, last week estimated the recent drop of 30 cents a
lb in coffee prices would mean a net loss revenue of 457 mln
dlrs for Colombia.
    But he stressed that Colombia, with stockpiles of 10 mln
(60-kg) bags, had the capacity to export more and would use a
recently-introduced more flexible marketing policy to do so.
 Reuter

Benihana National Corp said it filed a
Commission for a proposed offering of one mln units.
    It said each unit will contain two shares of new class A
common having limited voting rights and one warrant to purchase
an additional share of class A common. It said the management
underwriter is Sherwood Securities Corp.
    Benihana also said it may sell its frozen food business or
enter into a joint venture with an unaffiliated party, among
other things, to realize the value of the business, which
consists of two lines of frozen oriental entrees.
 Reuter

Net result breakeven (no profit or loss) vs breakeven
    Operating loss 836 mln francs vs 654 mln
    Net turnover 12.70 billion francs vs 24.34 billion
    Sales of petroleum products 9.7 mln tonnes vs 10.6 mln
    Note - Company said in a statement 1986 results were
affected by the sharp fall in crude oil prices. Net result
included an extraordinary recovery of 731 mln francs from
provisions for currency fluctuations and 361 mln francs in
depreciation of fixed assets. Company is a subsidiary of The
British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L>.
 REUTER

Ing C Olivetti EC SpA <OLIV.M> does not
exclude the possibility of investing in a semiconductor venture
currently under discussion between Italy's <STET - Societa
Finanziaria Telefonica P.A.> and France's Thomson-CSF
<TCSF.PA>, an Olivetti spokesman said.
    He said that if Olivetti were approached by the two
partners involved and the financial conditions of any proposal
were considered interesting, the company did not exclude the
possibility of investing in the venture. However, Olivetti had
made no decision on any such investment and did not have at its
disposal information to evaluate such a move.
     Stet and Thomson said last Thursday they were negotiating
an accord involving their respective subsidiaries <SGS
Microelettronica SpA> and <Thomson Semiconducteurs> in the
civil semiconductor field.
    They said the accord, once concluded, would be put for
approval to the French and Italian authorities.
    The Olivetti spokesman was responding to a Reuters query
about Italian press reports today saying that Olivetti might
participate in the venture with a two pct stake.
 REUTER

Fairchild Industries Inc said it
will ask stockholders at its April 22 annual meeting to approve
its reincorporation in Delaware to allow more flexibility to
revise its capital structure, among other things. Fairchild is
now a Maryland corporation.
    Fairchild also cited Delaware's recently enacted statutory
provisions relating to directors' liability, allowing companies
to place limits on liability and expand their ablility to
protect corporate officers.
    William E. Fulwider, company spokesman, said Fairchild has
no specific plans to alter its capital structure.
    Fairchild said that if stockholders approve the
reincorporation, it would merge into a Delaware corporation and
its common and preferred would be automatically converted to 
the new corporation's shares, without any exchange of stock,
along with other assets and liabilities.
    Fairchild also said the new corporation would retain its
fair price charter provision.
    Earlier this month, Fairchild announced that it reached an
agreement with the Air Force to stop production on the T-46A
trainer jet.
    As a result, Fairchild said, it will close its Farmingdale,
N.Y., plant this year and layoff most of the plant's 2,800
employees, about a quarter of its entire workforce.
    Fairchild reported a 73.6 mln dlr fourth quarter loss
mainly due to charges for the plant closing and ending of the
trainer jet program. For the year, it reported a 10 mln dlr
loss, compared with a loss of 167.1 mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Swiss-based <Nestle S.A.>'s Nestle
Enterprises Ltd unit said it signed a letter of intent to
acquire <Nabisco Brands Ltd>'s Club, Melrose, Dickson and Chase
and Sanborn businesses for undisclosed terms.
    Nestle said the final agreement, subject to required
approvals, would be signed shortly.
    The businesses involved in the deal provide products to
hotels, restaurants and other parts of the food and beverage
industry. Nabisco is 80 pct-owned by RJR Nabisco Inc <RJR>.
 Reuter

A top official of a major
association of blood banks said Americans' fears of getting 
AIDS from tainted blood transfusions were greatly exaggerated.
    "The (blood banking) system is strong," Edwin Steane,
president of the American Association of Blood Banks, said at a
news briefing here. "The current fears about AIDS transmission
are largely unfounded."
    Steane made his remarks after the group found in a public
opinion poll that 55 pct of Americans believed it likely that
one could contract AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion.
    The poll, conducted in December, was made public today.
    A year earlier, in a similar survey, 53 pct of Americans
said it was likely that one could contract AIDS from a blood
transfusion, the group reported.
    Steane said the practice of testing donated blood for the
presence of AIDS antibodies, begun in mid-1985, had virtually
eliminated AIDS-infected blood from the U.S. supply system.
    He said the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had
reported only two cases of tainted blood being transfused since
the testing program began.
 Reuter

FED'S HELLER SAYS HE WANTS TO SEE STRONGER JAPANESE DEMAND FOR AMERICAN GOODS

Qtly div 11 cts vs 11 cts prior qtr
    Pay 30 April
    Record 15 April
 Reuter

S-K-I Ltd said its skier visits
for the curret season have exceeded 1,500,000, up from the
record of 1,400,000 set last year.
    The company said its Killington Ski Area in central Vermont
is expected to operate into June and its Mount Snow area in
southern Vermont will close in May.
 Reuter

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co said the All
American Pipeline of its Celeron Corp subsidiary will start
line fill activities on March 30 as it begins operating.
    The company said about five mln barrels of oil will be
required to pack the completed segment of the line, which runs
1,225 miles from near Santa Barbara, Calif., to existing
pipeline connections in West Texas.  Construction has also
staqrted this week on a 43-mile, 16-inch diameter gathering
line to deliver 75,000 to 100,000 barrels a day of oil from the
San Joaquin Valley in California.  The 30-inch main underground
line can transport over 300,000 barrels daily.
 Reuter

Shr profit one cent vs loss 2.6 cts
    Net profit 59,198 vs loss 132,702
    Revs 634,616 vs 485,730
    six mths
    Shr profit one cent vs loss four cts
    Net profit 49,669 vs loss 208,278
    Revs 1,056,452 vs 944,330
 Reuter

Paul's Place Inc said chairman,
president and treasurer Paul D. Lambert has sold 240 mln common
shares to other board members, advisory board members Alan H.
Marcove and Gerald M. Marcove and an unaffiliated purchaser it
    The company said Alan Marvoce has been named to replace
Lambert as chairman and chief executive officer and Michael T.
Fuller has been named president.
    Fuller was formerly president of <Mr. Steak Inc>.
 Reuter

Control Resources
Industries Inc said R. Joseph Clancy was named to the
newly-created position of president.
    It also said Cody Geddes was named vice president and chief
financial officer. Geddes replaces former chief financial
officer John Wojcik, who retains his vice president's post and
assumes the new position of corporate counsel.
    Clancy had been vice president of the company since June
1986, Control Resources said.
 Reuter

CYACQ AMENDS CYCLOPS OFFER CONDITIONS, SAYS CITICORP EXPANDS FINANCING

Gordon Jewelry Corp said it has
completed the previously-announced sale of the assets of its
catalog showroom stores to privately-held Carlisle Capital Corp
for an undisclosed amount of cash and notes in excess of book
value.
 Reuter

Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission for shelf offerings
of up to 1.3 mln shares of cumulative preferred stock and of up
to 200 mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds.
    The utility said terms would be set at the time of sale.
    An underwriting group will be led by Morgan, Stanley and Co
Inc.
including the financing of new construction and refunding of
cumulative preferred stock.
 Reuter

DeRose Industries Inc said Robert
A. DeRose has retired as chairman and chief executive officer
but will remain on the board through 1987 in an advisory
capacity.
    It said president and chief operating officer Victor A.
DeRose, his son, has been named chairman and CEO.
    The company said director Tom Johnson, who is also
president of High Chaparral Inc, has been named president and
 Reuter

A member of the Federal Reserve
Board, Robert Heller, said he wanted to see stronger Japanese
demand for American goods.
    "What I was advocating here was more Japanese purchases of
American goods," Heller said in response to a question about the
dollar's weakness in currency markets.
    He told a Heritage Foundation forum, "I'd be very happy to
see that."
    In his formal remarks, Heller said he supported the idea of
using commodity prices as an indicator for monetary policy.
    Asked if he would raise the issue at the next Federal Open
Market Committee meeting, he said, "Even at previous meetings
commodity prices were raised."
    He added, "I would not expect future meetings to be
different from past meetings in that respect."
 Reuter

BSD Medical Corp said it named
Victor Vaguine as president and chief executive officer.
    He replaces James Skinner, the company said.
    Vaguine was executive vice president of research and
engineering at Clini-Therm Corp <CLIN>, the company said.
    In addition, the company said Alan Himber agreed to buy
400,000 dlrs of equity securities by April 30, and agreed to an
option to purchase another one mln dlrs by the same date.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Co said Eugene V. Amoroso has
resigned as president and chief executive officer of its
Coca-Cola Foods division to pursue other business interests.
    The company said Harry E. Teasley Jr., who had headed its
bottling subsidiary serving southern England, will succeed
Amoroso.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs nine cts
    Net 560,000 vs 1,247,000
    Revs 7,597,000 vs 4,619,000
    Year
    Shr ten cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,225,000 vs 2,161,000
    Revs 26.5 mln vs 23.3 mln
 Reuter

Health Management Associates Inc
said stockholders approved amendments to its restated
certificate of incorporation limiting the personal liability of
directors for monetary damages except in certain circumstances.
    The company said the amendments also authorized the
indemnification, or protection, of directors, officers and
employees for claims made against them in their official
capacity.
    It also said stockholders approved a stock option plan.
 Reuter

Showboat Inc said the play
money opening of gambling at its Atlantic City, N.J., Showboat
Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center has been delayed pending the
receipt of regulatory approvals.
    Gambling with play money was to have started tomorrow. A
company spokesman said Showboat must still receive its
certificate of occupancy, after which the New Jersey Casino
Control Commission needs about 48 hours to set up for the
trial-run gambling. After the trial run, Showboat is required
by commission regulations to run at least one day of low-limit
betting.
    The spokesman said, however, that Showboat still expects to
start normal gaming operations on April 3 as scheduled.
 Reuter

Qtly div 64 cts vs 64 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

France's economic recovery will take
several years, Finance Minister Edouard Balladur told the
Economic and Social Council (CES), an advisory body composed of
industrialists, trade unionists and representatives of other
sectors of the French economy.
    "We will bear for long years to come the weight of the
choices made at the start of the oil crisis about 15 years ago,
unfavorable choices for industries but favorable for
households," he said without elaborating.
    "It is the cost of this choice that our industries are still
having to bear. We must improve their competitivity to regain
growth and employment," Balladur added.
    Balladur said the French budget deficit must be reduced to
below 70 billion francs from 129 billion forecast for 1987 but
he gave no time-scale. He has already announced his intention
of cutting the deficit to 100 billion francs in 1989.
    He said France's public debt, expected to grow by 10 pct
this year compared with 1,300 billion francs in 1986, must not
increase by more than between 60 to 70 billion francs a year.
    He reaffirmed that income from the government's sweeping
privatization program, seen to be at least 30 billion francs
for 1987, must be used mainly to pay off French state debt and
not to finance current needs.
                              
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs three cts prior
 Reuter

Cyacq Corp, an investor group bidding
for Cyclops Corp, said it amended its outstanding 92.50 dlrs a
share tender offer for Cyclops to eliminate two conditions and
modify a third one.
    The group, which includes Audio/Video Affiliates Inc and a
unit of Citicorp <CCI>, said it also obtained additional
financing commitments, including an increased commitment from
Citicorp Capital Investors Ltd.
    The conditions that were eliminated are Cyacq's request for
non-public information about Cyclops that was previously
provided to Dixons Group PLC and Cyacq's being satisified that
the information provides an adequate basis for Cyclop's
published financial projections.
    Cyclops has agreed to be acquired Dixons Group, which has a
90.25 dlrs a share tender offer for Cyclops outstanding. Dixons
said earlier it would allow the offer to expire tonight.
    The condition that was modified, which required Cyacq to be
satisfied that break up fees or other obligations to Dixons
were rescinded or ineffective, now says Cyclops shall not have
paid any such fees or expenses to Dixons prior to the
consummation of Cyacq's offer.
    Cyacq's amended offer expires midnight New York time on
April three, 1987, unless extended.
    Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co and CIT Group/Business
Credit Inc increased its tender offer commitment to 197 mln
dlrs from 166 mln dlrs and its merger commitment to 275 mln
dlrs from 250 mln dlrs.
    Additionally, the Citicorp unit and Audio/Video have
increased their commitments to Cyacq to 185 mln dlrs. Of the
new total, 150 mln dlrs has been committed by Citicorp.
    Cyacq said it estimates that it needs 407.5 mln dlrs to buy
all Cyclops shares that may be tendered and pay related fees
and expenses.
    It said it is seeking to arrange the balance of about 25.5
mln dlrs necessary to complete the offer.
    All previously announced conditions regarding the lending
group led by Manufacturers Hanover remain in effect, except
that the loans are subject to the concurrent receipt by Cyacq
of equity contributions and other financing of not less than
210.5 mln dlrs for the tender offer facility and 213.5 mln dlrs
for the merger facility.
    Cyacq also said the Citicorp unit had received no
indications of interest in an alternative offer it had made
from Dixons, Cyclops or Alleghany Corp <Y>, which has agreed to
acquire Cyclops' industrial group from Dixons.
    Under the alternative offer, the Citicorp unit, with
Cyacq's approval, proposed to acquire the industrial group from
Dixons.
 Reuter

An extension of the sixth International
Tin Agreement, ITA, for one or two years beyond June 30 is
increasingly likely, International Tin Council, ITC, delegates
said following a special council session today.
    A formal decision will be taken at the quarterly council
session on April 8-9 when decisions are needed on the budget
and activities for the year beginning July one, they stated.
    Delegates said most countries now favour a continued legal
ITC presence to answer the still unresolved legal disputes over
the outstanding debts of its buffer stock with court hearings
likely to continue well after the June 30 expiry of the pact.
    The ITC was informally told of the appeal made yesterday by
Amalgamated Metal Trading Ltd, AMT, against the January court
ruling against it in the legal bid it led on behalf of ITC
creditor brokers to have the ITC wound up.
    In January the judge ruled that the U.K. Court had no
jurisdiction to wind up the tin council, the ITC was not an
association within the meaning of the U.K. Companies act, and
the winding-up petition was not a proceeding in respect in
respect of an arbitration award.
    AMT is appealing on all points and has said it is important
for the court to accept that a winding-up petition is a move to
 Reuter

Underwriter Moseley Holding Corp
<MOSE> said an initial public offering of 500,000 common shares
of Candlewood Bank and Trust Co is underway at 10 dlrs per
share.
    It said it has been granted an option to buy up to 75,000
more shares to cover overallotments.  Directors and officers of
the bank are expected to buy about 110,000 common shares at the
public offering price, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 27 cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 532,376 vs profit 15,584
    Revs 1,899,719 vs 2,432,256
    Six mths
    Shr loss 78 cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 1,521,002 vs profit 30,145
    Revs 3,235,907 vs 5,276,119
    Note: year ago net includes gain from tax carryforwards of
5,000 dlrs in quarter and 9,000 dlrs in year.
   
 Reuter

Time Inc said it began a tender offer
for all of its 150 mln dlrs of outstanding 10-5/8 pct notes due
Oct 15, 1992.
    The publishing company also said it filed a shelf
registration with Securities and Exchange Commission covering a
total of 500 mln dlrs of debt securities to be offered and sold
from time to time.
    Under the tender, the company will repurchase the 10-5/8
pct notes at 1,116.50 dlrs per 1,000 dlrs principal amount plus
accrued interest to date of payment. The offer will expire 1700
New York time April 1, 1987, unless extended.
    Payment will be made not later than five business days
following expiration of the tender offer. Salomon Brothers Inc
is exclusive agent for purchase of the notes, Time said.
    Under the shelf registration, Time currently plans to issue
about 250 mln dlrs of 30-year debentures to be used in
connection with the tender offer and its previously announced
plans to redeem its Eurodollar debt issue.
    The debentures will be sold through a syndicate of
underwriters managed by Salomon Brothers Inc and First Boston
Corp.
 Reuter

<Metromedia Co> said Morgan
Guaranty Trust Co of New York filed a complaint against
Metromedia for default under the indenture to which its
subordinated debentures are outstanding.
    The debentures were issued in June 1984 in connection with
Metromedia's leveraged buyout. Morgan Guaranty, the trustee
under the indenture, said Metromedia's liquidation constituted
an event of default.
    It is requesting Metromedia pay 100 pct of the principal
amount plus a default amount equal to 575 dlrs per 1000 dlr
principal amount of the debentures.
    Metromedia said only five pct of the debentures remain
outstanding as a result of a November 1986 purchase offer and
previous offers under which Metromedia bought 103 mln dlrs
principal amount of debentures at 803.70 dlrs per 1,000 dlr
principal amount.
    Notwithstanding such technical default, Metromedia, which
dissolved on December 17, 1986, said it will pay all of its
   
 Reuter

Nissan Motor Corp in U.S.A. said
its domestic car sales for the March 11-20 period rose 10.7 pct
to 3,358 from 3,033 in the same year-ago period.
    For the month, it said car sales increased to 5,495 from
4,827 and for the year they rose to 19,264 from 17,673 a year
earlier.
    Nissan said U.S. truck sales in mid-March declined 29.8 pct
to 2,018 from 2,875 a year ago. For the month, sales declined
to 3,704 from 4,503, and year to date they advanced to 16,831
from 15,338.
 Reuter

reduce capacity and employment levels in two polyester fiber
operations of its Eastman Chemicals division.
    A company spokesman said the company will take "some
writeoff" in connection with the action in the first quarter
and there will probably be a further "carryover" writeoff in
the second quarter.  The writeoffs will cover the costs of
plants and equipment involved, as well as expenses connected
with the staff cuts.
    Kodak said the division will discontinue production of
polyester partially-oriented filament yarn, or POY, at its
Carolina Eastman Co plant in Columbia, S.C., and will idle 100
mln pounds of older polyester staple fiber production capacity,
mostly in Columbia.
    The company said about 350 jobs will be affected in
Columbia, most of which are now performed by contract workers,
and about 225 jobs at its Tennessee Eastman Co plant in
Kingsport, Tenn.
    Kodak said part of the staff reduction will be achieved
through an enhanced voluntary separation and retirement plan
for employees of Carolina Eastman, Eastman Chemical Products
Inc and other Kodak units in Kingsport, except Holsten Defense
Corp. Most of the workforce reduction is expected to be
completed by April 30.
    Kodak said depressed prices and poor financial performance
have led to the decision. It said about 50 mln pounds of POY
production will be shut down as a result of its exit from the
business. All Kodak POY production has been at Carolina Eastman
since last year.
    The company said annual capacity for production of Kodel
polyester staple fiber will be reduced to 400 mln pounds from
500 mln due to lesser demand.
    It said it will proceed with a previous decision to phase
in a new 100 mln pound staple fiber plant at Carolina Eastman.
    Carolina Eastman employs about 1,350 and the Kingsport
units affected about 10,800.
    The company spokesman later said the charges will be
insignificant and will have no impact on earnings estimates.
 Reuter

With less than a week remaining to
enroll in the 1987 feedgrains program, Agriculture Department
officials said that final signup will probably exceed last
year's level of 85 pct.
    Enrollment in USDA's basic acreage reduction program will
likely total close to 90 pct, Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service, ASCS, officials said, with 50 to 70 pct
of the enrolling farmers also expected to sign up for the paid
land diversion program.
    The signup period of the 1987 feedgrains program officially
ends at the close of the business day on March 30.
    USDA will release its official signup report around April
15, an official said.
    USDA personnel in the corn belt states of Iowa, Illinois,
and Indiana have been reporting heavy signup activity, an ASCS
official told Reuters.
    A surge of acitivity is expected during this final week of
signup, the official said.
    "A lot of farmers have been dragging their feet because
they were anticipating some changes in the program, but that
doesn't look very likely now," he said.
    To enroll in the 1987 feedgrains program, farmers have to
set aside 20 pct of the program acreage base, and have the
option to idle an additional 15 pct under a paid land diversion
program.
 Reuter

The shareholders of Illinois
Cooperative Futures Co., the futures trading arm of many
Midwest farm cooperatives for more than 25 years, will vote
Wednesday on its possible dissolution.
    The directors of the company called a special meeting and
recommended its dissolution last month, citing falling volume
and increasing costs.
    Sources close to the organization told Reuters the pullout
of Growmark, Inc., which holds more than 70 pct of the capital
stock, led to the call for dissolution.
    The possible demise of the cooperative has set clearing
houses scrambling for the trading business of the 85 regional
and local cooperatives that comprise its membership.
    Ironically, it was Growmark, at that time a regional farm
cooperative with major river terminal elevators, that founded
Illinois Cooperative Futures on December 1, 1960.
    But Growmark became affiliated last year with Archer
Daniels Midland of Decatur, Ill., and markets its grain through
a joint subsidiary of the two companies, ADM/Growmark.
    With that relationship, Growmark no longer needs to trade
futures through the cooperative, said Tom Mulligan, president
of the co-op.
    Membership in the company, which Mulligan termed a
cooperative of cooperatives, has declined from 99 in 1982. A
notable loss was AgriIndustries of Iowa, which became
affiliated with Cargill, Inc.
    Illinois Co-op's other members include such regional
cooperatives as Indiana Grain, based in Indianapolis, Goldkist,
of Atlanta, Ga., Midstates in Toledo, Ohio, Farmland Industries
in Kansas City, Mo., Farmers Commodities, Des Moines, and
Harvest States in Minneapolis.
    Some observors said the demise of Illinois Cooperative
Futures Co. is a serious blow to the cooperative system.
    Instead of banding together, the individual cooperatives
are forced to go their own ways, said the floor manager of one
cash house at the Chicago Board of Trade.
    Such a move would destroy the cohesiveness that gives farm
cooperatives an advantage in the market at a time that a few
major commercial companies are growing dominant, he said.
    Don Hanes, vice president for communications with the
National Council of Farm Cooperatives, said 5,600 cooperatives
exist today, down from 6,700 five years ago.
    "The period we've gone through in the past five years has
been quite a crunch," he said. "There's been a lot of
consolidation in the marketing co-ops."
    One problem, he said, is the co-ops sell the grain to the
major commercials for export, rather than exporting it
themselves, losing potential profits.
    But exporting grain requires heavy investments, and the
multi-million-dollar loss posted six years ago by Farmers
Export Co., a co-op set up to export grains, served "to make
folks gun-shy," Hanes said.
    Mulligan said he believes the dissolution, if it is
approved, is a result of change in the futures industry rather
than a change in U.S. agricultural economics.
    A grain dealer at one member co-op said the futures arm
"was a convenience, something that saved us a little bit of
money. (Its dissolution) will force us to change our way of
doing business."
    "We're sorry to see the co-op go by the wayside," he said.
"But there are lot of people out there to do business with.
There are plenty of capable firms."
    Steven W. Cavanaugh, vice president for grain marketing
with Indiana Grain, said he would prefer to trade futures
through a Chicago-based cooperative.
    "In terms of clearing our business as a unit as opposed to
individuals, there would be economic savings," he said but
added, "The times change and with changing times, come
different opinions of what businesses ought to be around."
    Cavanaugh said the possible demise of the futures arm had
nothing to do with its profitability. "I would guarantee you
that this company is not in trouble. It is a sound, healthy
organization."
    In the year ended February 28, 1986, the Illinois
Cooperative reported income of 10.2 mln dlrs and members'
equity, or net worth, of 8.3 mln dlrs. The annual report for
the most recent year has not been filed.
    Under the cooperative system, income from operations is
returned as "patronage refunds" to the members.
    Income and refunds in the past five years have been
declining. In the year ended February 28, 1982, the co-op
reported income of 17.4 mln dlrs and patronage refunds of 17.0
mln dlrs. Patronage refunds in the year ended February 28,
1986, totalled 9.5 mln dlrs.
    "You're dealing with substantially lower volume," Mulligan
said. "Lower volume translates into higher costs."
    According to the company's 1986 annual report, Growmark
owns 90 pct of the preferred shares and four pct of the common
shares of Illinois Cooperative Futures Co.
    Mulligan declined to speculate on how much of the capital
Growmark is entitled to. He said he could not determine the
figure unless the shareholders decide in favor of dissolution.
Equity is distributed according to each member's trading volume
and, as a result, changes from year to year.
    However, Mulligan said the company could continue to meet
minimum capital requirements to trade futures even if Growmark
pulled out.
 Reuter

Heavy buying by speculators boosted
Conrac Corp 7-7/8 to 29, higher than a 25-dlr-per-share cash
tender offer announced by Mark IV Industries Inc <IV>.
    "It's a case of ChemLawn euphoria," said one arbitrageur,
referring to a recent hostile tender that began at 27 dlrs per
share and ended when ChemLawn Corp <CHEM> found a white knight
willing to bid 36.50 dlrs.
    For Conrac, the arbitrageur said, 28 dlrs per share seemed
like an "appropriate price." Another said "it's too early to
project the outcome."
    "The market is speaking for itself and saying the 25 dlr
offer is inadequate," the second arbitrageur said. But he added
it was hard to make a case for Conrac being worth much more
than the 29 dlrs where the shares traded today.
    He noted the stock recently sold in the high teens and
there could be a downward risk of 10 dlrs or more if Conrac is
able to thwart Mark IV.
    Conrac urged shareholders to take no action while its board
studies the offer and confers with advisers. Conrac said it
would make a recommendation by April 17.
    A third arbitrageur noted Mark IV had been involved in
several takeovers previously and has proven itself to be a
determined bidder. "They're not beginners," he said.
    Another said Conrac might have trouble if it tried to find
another buyer. "It's a hodge-podge of non-related businesses,"
he said. "There is only a small universe of people who would
want to own the company as it's presently structured."
    Conrac is involved in video displays, computer software,
aircraft instruments, telephone answering machines, welding
equipment and other products.
    "I'm telling retail clients to sell and leave the rest for
those who can take the risk," said Rudolph Hokanson, analyst at
Milwaukee Co.
    He called the 25-dlr offer by Mark IV "fair value but on
the low side." "I don't think management was looking for a
buyer in any way before this offer," he said.
    Hokanson said Conrac has conservative finances and has
developed a reputation for quality products that serve niche
markets. He said management has done a good job of turning
around the telephone answering machine business.
 Reuter

Laser Photonics Inc said it sold
615,385 shares of its common stock to investors for one mln
dlrs under a previously-announced agreement.
    In connection with the investment, the company said it will
restructure its board. There will be eight members, three of
whom were designated by the new investors, the company said.
The group of investors include affiliates of <Radix
Organization Inc>, the company said.
    Richard Gluch Jr resigned from the board. Joining the board
were Leonard Lichter, Pierre Schoenheimer and Roger Kirk, the
investors' designates, the company added.
    Other members of the board are chairman Don Friedkin,
president and chief executive officer Mark Fukuhara, and Jay
Watnick, Ira Goldstein, Thurman Sasser and Michael Clinger.
 Reuter

Shr 4.11 dlrs vs 3.51 dlrs
    Net 2,091,000 vs 1,785,000
    Sales 38.8 mln vs 34.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.42 dlrs vs 3.57 dlrs
    Net 1,740,000 vs 1,815,000
    Sales 113.0 mln vs 104.1 mln
    Qtly div 25 cts vs 25 cts previously
 Reuter

Conrac Corp said it is asking
shareholders to take no action on the 25-dlr-per-share tender
offer for all its shares launched this morning by Mark IV
Industries Inc <IV>.
    The company said its board will study the offer with
financial and legal advisors and make a recommendation to
shareholders by April 17.
 Reuter

D'Or Val Mines Ltd said a recent
drill hole from the surfrace has intersected high-grade ore in
a downdip extension of the Discovery Vein in its D'Or Val Mine
in northern Quebec.
    The company said 42.3 feet of the hole graded 0.92 ounce
per short ton of gold, including a 17.5 foot section grading
2.17 ounces.
    It said the zone is just below the projection of the
seventh level of the mine about 1,450 feet below the surface
and 820 feet west of the shaft.
    D'Or Val said this find and other recent ones will make
substantial contributions to the mine's ore reserves and grade.
 Reuter

The LVI Group Inc said it will file 
statement covering 30 mln dlrs of a new issue of a convertible
exchangeable preferred stock of the company.
    The company said the offering will only be made by means of
a perspectus to be filed as part of the registration statement.
 Reuter

About 14,000 of Brazil's 40,000
seamen are now back at work after pay accords with 21 shipping
companies but the rest are still on strike, a spokesman at
strike headquarters said today.
    The seamen began a national stoppage on February 27.
    The spokesman, talking by telephone from Rio de Janeiro,
said 126 ships were strike-bound.
    He added that because of resignations by many seamen there
were scarcely any crews left on 38 of these ships.
    The seamen have settled in general for pay rises of 120 pct
with the 21 companies. Talks with the shipowners' association
Syndarma have been deadlocked over overtime.
    While exports have been delayed by the strike, exporters
say the problems have been manageable.
    "It hasn't been critical by any means," said a coffee trader
in Santos, who noted that coffee was still moving on foreign
ships.
    Economic analysts added, however, that any delay to exports
served to aggravate Brazil's balance of payments crisis, which
last month prompted the government to suspend interest payments
on 68 billion dlrs of commercial debt.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve purchased about
500 mln dlrs of U.S. Treasury bills for a customer, a
    She said that the Fed bought bills maturing in June and
July, and on August 27 and September 10 for regular delivery
tomorrow.
    Dealers said that Federal funds were trading at 6-1/8 pct
when the Fed announced the operation.
 Reuter

Corp's IBM Credit Corp subsidiary said it is calling for
redemption on May 15 all 250 mln dlrs of its 9-7/8 pct notes
due May 15, 1988 at 101 pct of principal amount.
    It said holders will receive accrued interest through the
redemption date.
 Reuter

Philadelphia Electric Co is raising
250 mln dlrs via an offering of first and refunding mortgage
bonds due 2017 yielding 9.40 pct, said lead manager Morgan
    Morgan led a group that won the bonds in competitive
bidding. It bid them at 98.859 and set a 9-3/8 pct coupon and
reoffering price of 99.75 to yield 170 basis points over the
    Non-refundable for five years, the issue is rated Baa-3 by
Moody's and BBB-minus by S and P. Co-managers are Daiwa, Dillon
Read, Drexel Burnham and Wertheim Schroder.
 Reuter

President Reagan signed a bill
limiting fees that may be charged by the Government National
Mortgage Association (GNMA) for its guarantees of privately
issued mortgage-backed securities but voiced serious
reservations about the measure.
    He said the bill's provision barring GNMA from increasing
its current fee of .06 pct charged to issuers of single-family
mortgage backed securities "is an unnecessary and risky
congressional intrusion into GNMA's ability to respond quickly
and flexibly to changes in financial markets."
    Reagan said his reservations "must be addressed promptly
through remedial amendments."
    Reagan said the provision hampered GNMA's ability to
maintain reserves necessary to meet its obligations,
"particularly in light of a disturbing increase in claims and in
GNMA's contingent liabilities."
    Reagan said the legislative cap on fees "could well call
into question the adequacy of GNMA's  current reserve of 1.4
billion dlrs, given the 250 billion in GNMA-guaranteed
securities presently outstanding and GNMA's monthly contingent
liability of three billion dlrs."
    Reagan said he had instructed Housing Secretary Samuel
Pierce to work with Congress to draft revisions to the
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 1,350,000 vs 1,886,000
    Revs 150.1 mln vs 127.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.76 dlr vs 1.59 dlr
    Net 7,300,000 vs 6,567,000
    Revs 548 mln vs 510.5 mln
    NOTE: First three quarters of 1986 have been restated to
reflect adoption in 4th qtr of new pension accounting procedure
which increased net income in first three qtrs 204,000 dlrs or
five cts per share. Procedure increased fourth qtr income
73,000 dlrs or two cts per share.
 Reuter

Celanese Industrial Fibers, a
division of <Hoechst Celanese Corp's> Celanese Fibers Inc
subsidiary, said it is producing industrial miltifilament yarns
of polyetheretherketone polymer for the first time in the
    Hoechst and Celanese completed their merger last month.
Under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission,
Celanese's domestic fibers businesses are being held and
operated separately from Hoechst Celanese Corp until the parent
company decides on one of two divestment options.
 Reuter

Association said it will announce its coming debenture offering
next Monday instead of this Friday as originally scheduled.
    It said the debentures, which are for settlement April 10,
will be priced next Tuesday and the offering will take place
April 1.
 Reuter

Calumet Industries Inc said it expects
to report a loss from operations for its second quarter ending
March 31, despite a strong unit sales increase.
    In the same year-ago period the company reported net income
of 366,953 dlrs, or 18 cts a share.
    Chairman S. Mark Salvino said the expected loss is
primarily due to depressed product prices not recovering the
increasing cost of crude oil.
    Salvino also said steadier crude prices and the reduced
rate of refinery production should increase product prices and
lead to a return to more normal profit margins.
    He reported that the 23 mln dlr HydroCal II system under
construction at the company's refinery in Princeton, La., is on
schedule and production will begin early in fiscal 1988.
 Reuter

Wainoco Oil Corp said it is undergoing
a recapitalization program with a proposed offering of two mln
units consisting of common shares and warrants, the planned
redemption of its shareholder value rights, and a change in its
corporate structure that substantially reduces futurer income
taxes.
    Wainoco said it had filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering of the two
mln units consisting of two shares of common stock and one
warrrant per unit for a total of four mln shares of common
stock and two mln warrants.
    Included in the two mln units to be offered are 280,000
shares of common stock to be sold by <Waverly Oil Co>,
 a selling shareholder of Wainoco, it said.
    Proceeds of the offering will be used to reduce bank debt,
the company said. It said its outstanding 10-3/4 pct
subordinated debentures may be used at face value to pay the
exercise price of the warrants.
    Wainoco said the offering will be underwritten by  E.F.
Hutton and Co Inc, Kidder Peabody and Co Inc, and Smith Barney
harris Upham Inc.
    Simultaneous with the offering, Wainoco said it intends to
redeem its shareholder value rights attached to each common
share at 10 cts per right. Wainoco said without redemption of
the value rights, the company would not have sufficient
authorized and unissued shares of common stock to complete the
units offering.
    Due to certain covenants under the company's 10-3/4 pct
subordinated debentures, the value rights redemption is
contingent upon the success of the units offering, it said.
    Wainoco's said its shareholders purchase rights distributed
to the shareholders in June 1986 are unaffected and remain
valid.
    It said as a result of the liquidation of its Canadian
subsidiary into the parent company, it will be able to offset
all of its corporate overhead expenses and some of its
debenture interests against Canadian income for tax purposes.
    Wainoco said its pool of future Canadian tax deductions has
been increased by an amount which should generate savings that
will exceed existing deferred income tax liability.
    Existing U.S. tax loss carryforward benefits in the U.S.
are not materially affected, the company said. It added this
will considerably reduce future income taxes in Canada and add
to Wainoco's net income and cash flow for a number of years.
    John Ashmun, chairman of Wainoco, said "as a result of this
recapitalization, Wainoco will be in a strong financial
position.
    "Our net income and cash flow will benefit from lower
interest expense, lower Canadian taxes, and the considerable
savings achieved over the past few years from cost reductions,"
he said.
    Ashmun said the company will be able to "utilize enhanced
cash flow to develop its large resource base and explore for
additional reserves at a time when exploration and development
costs are low and opportunities abound rather than using a
disproportiaonate share of cash flow for debt service."
 Reuter

(ICCO) moved closer to an agreement on buffer stock rules, with
many delegates saying they expect to reach an accord by Friday.
    "Everyone is convinced the buffer stock rules should be in
place by Friday so the buffer stock can be put into operation
Monday," a consumer delegate said. "The atmosphere is excellent."
    Other delegates said the buffer stock might not be
operational by Monday but could be in place by around April 1,
if the rules are agreed by Friday.
    A detailed package on how the buffer stock manager will buy
and sell cocoa was presented to a buffer stock working group
this afternoon -- a big step toward a "very interesting stage of
negotiations," delegates said.
    The package, based on negotiating principles informally
agreed by delegates, has been forged bit by bit during
fortnight-long meetings by ICCO Executive Director Kobena
Erbynn and a small group of other delegates.
    Producers, the European Community (EC) and consumers are
scheduled to consider the paper separately and then jointly
tomorrow.
    Under the proposal, the buffer stock manager would buy
cocoa from origins or the second-hand market on an offer
system. He would alert the market via news agencies as to when
he wanted to buy cocoa and include shipment details and tonnage
desired, delegates said.
    The manager would buy cocoa on a competitive basis, rather
than choosing the cheapest cocoa as before, giving preference
to ICCO member-country exporters. Standard price differentials
would be fixed for each origin, similar to golf handicaps, to
determine the relative competitiveness of offers of various
cocoas from different origins, they said.
    The differentials could be reviewed at the request of a
member country or recommendation of the buffer stock manager,
the delegates said. Revision would be decided by a majority
vote of the ICCO council.
    Buffer stock purchases from non-ICCO member countries would
not be allowed to exceed 10 pct of the total buffer stock, they
said.
    The purchases would be limited to 5,000 tonnes of cocoa per
day and 20,000 tonnes per week, and could be bought in nearby,
intermediate and forward positions, they added.
    One of the underlying ideas of the rules package is
"transparency," meaning virtually all the buffer stock manager's
market activities will be public and he will have as little
discretion as possible, delegates said.
    After the tin market collapse in 1985, when the
International Tin Council buffer stock ran out of funds, cocoa
delegates are anxious to install safeguards in the cocoa market
mechanism, they said.
     Earnest debate on the buffer stock proposal is expected to
begin late tomorrow, as delegations feel the pressure of the
approaching Friday deadline, when the ICCO meeting is due to
adjourn, delegates said.
    The ICCO failed to agree buffer stock rules in January when
the new International Cocoa Agreement came into force. The
existing buffer stock of 100,000 tonnes of cocoa was frozen in
place with its bank balance of 250 mln dlrs -- both untouchable
until rules are agreed.
     Though the current semi-annual council meeting is not the
last chance for delegates to cement buffer stock rules,
producers are keen to get the wheels of the market-stabilizing
mechanism turning to stem the decline in world prices,
 Reuter

Financial Corp of America said
it is not holding discussions with anyone regarding a buyout of
    But a spokeswoman pointed out that Financial Corp has said
publicly for nearly two years that in the company's view a
merger would be one method of increasing the company's capital.
    "If an opportunity arises for us to strengthen our capital
position quickly we would be very open to it," the spokeswoman
said.
    Financial Corp would need over one billion dlrs to bring
its regulatory net worth up to Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp requirements, the spokeswoman said.
    In addition, she said that the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board, in a letter dated January 26, 1987, stated that through
March 31, 1988 it will continue to support the company's
efforts to restructure its balance sheet, maintain profitable
operations and augment net worth.
 Reuter

There is a good chance that the United
States and Latin America will agree reforms in the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) as a result of talks
yesterday with U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, Mexican
Finance Minister Gustavo Petricioli said.
    "This is a complex issue, but I am very optimistic on an
agreement, he told reporters during the IADB's annual meeting
here.
    The U.S., which holds a 34.5 pct stake in the Bank, has
proposed lowering the veto power to 35 pct, a move strongly
opposed by Latin countries which together hold 54.2 pct.
    Petricioli said he saw the basis for a compromise when the
issue comes up again during the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank interim meetings next month in Washington.
    He said Baker had indicated receptivity to Latin America's
position during talks yesterday with the so-called "A"
countries - Brazil, Argentina and Mexico - who stand to suffer
a net deficit of IADB funding unless the Bank votes a
substantial capital increase.
    Proposals are on the table for a seventh replenishment of
funds totalling 20 billion dlrs for the period 1987-90, plus
2.9 billion carried over from the sixth replenishment.
    But Washington has previously said it would not agree to a
nine billion dlr increase in its subscription unless reforms
were agreed, a position described today by Nicaragua's Central
Bank governor Joaquin Cuadra Chamorro as undemocratic.
    Petricioli nevertheless said Baker showed "flexibility in
being prepared to accommodate different proposals" and promised
to look into alternatives.
    He said an alternative now being looked at was for new
procedures for delaying IADB loan approval, to satisfy U.S.
concern that lending is currently too lax, rather than a change
in the basic voting structure.
    There would accordingly be a two-step procedure whereby it
would need just a 35 pct vote to delay loan approval for a
year, after which a second review would require a 40 pct
blocking vote.
    "Any change in the basic voting structure would require a
change in the IADB's charter, and in turn a lengthy process of
prior approval by the Congresses of each country," Petricioli
said. In common with Venezuela, he expressed reservations on
the conditions that might be placed as a result of Washington's
proposals for increased IADB sectoral lending, but welcomed a
bigger role for the Bank in U.S. debt strategy.
 Reuter

The state oil company Petroeleos de
Venezuela ended 1986 with a decrease of 45 pct in income from
oil sales even though it surpassed its own export goal by
almost 100,000 barrels a day, Minister of Energy and Mines
Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said.
    Speaking to a news conference following the PDVSA annual
assembly, Hernandez said PDVSA's income from oil sales had
dropped to 7.2 billion dlrs in 1986, down 45 pct from last
year's 13.3 billion.
    Fiscal revenue from oil sales, which was estimated at 66
billion bolivares for 1986, totalled 43.5 billion, a drop of 34
pct which Hernandez said "had a very serious impact on
Venezuela."
    PDVSA's export volume averaged 1.508 mln barrels a day, of
which 658,000 bpd were crude oil and 850,000 bpd refined
products.
    The figure surpassed PDVSA's stated goal of 1.410 mln bpd
and the 1985 export volume of 1.371 mln bpd. But it was not
enough to cover the losses from a drop in the average price
from 25.88 dlrs per barrel in 1985 to 13.90 dlrs last year.
    The 13.90 per barrel price for 1986 was 1.01 dlrs higher
than the figure originally announced by the Central Bank.
Hernandez said the increase had come from a new accounting
system which included the results of PDVSA's overseas refining
and marketing operations.
    Consumption in Venezuela's internal market increased from
323,000 bpd in 1985 to 342,000 bpd last year. However,
Hernandez stressed that the government had managed to keep
gasoline sales almost constant at 164,000 bpd.
    Exploration by PDVSA led to an increase of 675 mln barrels
in reserves of light and medium crudes, shifting the balance of
Venezuela's reserves away from heavy crude oil. The country's
production capacity at year-end 1986 was 2.562 mln bpd, of
which 1.420 mln are light and medium crudes, Hernandez said.
     Venezuela's total proven reserves as of December 31, 1986
were 55.521 billion barrels, the fourth largest amount in the
world, Hernandez said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 16 cts vs loss 1.40 dlrs
    Net profit 3,000,000 vs loss 6,570,000
    Revs 91.7 mln vs 66.9 mln
    Avg shrs 19,078,072 vs 4,708,896
    Note: Current year net includes nine mln dlr net gain from
settlement of litigation.
 Reuter

<Technimed Corp> said Garid Inc of
Eden Praries, Minn., has cancelled its requirements contract
wih Technimed for the supply of a dry chemistry device for the
Med-Pen system.
    Technimed has commenced arbitration proceeding against
Garid to recover damages associated with the termination of
contract. Technimed said further action maybe required to
protect its proprietary technology.
 Reuter

The following are proposed
securities offerings filed recently with the Securities and
Exchange Commission:
    Outboard Marine Corp - Up to 200 mln dlrs of debt
securities on terms to be set at the time of sale through an
underwriting group that is expected to include Salomon Brothers
Inc and Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    Osborn Communications Corp - Initial offering of one mln
shares of common stock and 30 mln dlrs of senior subordinated
ten-year notes through a group led by E.F. Hutton and Co Inc.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 1.12 dlrs
    Net loss 414,331 vs loss 3.1 mln
    Revs 73.8 mln vs 69.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 99 cts vs loss 1.69 dlr
    Net loss 2.7 mln vs loss 4.7 mln
    Revs 276.9 mln vs 290.1 mnln
 Reuter

Shr 57 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 2.7 mln vs 3.3 mln
    Six months
    Shr 45 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 2.1 mln vs 3.8 mln
    NOTE:1987 six months includes 790,000 dlr charge. 1986 six
months includes 679,000 net gain.
 Reuter

Imperial Oil Ltd, 70 pct owned by Exxon
Corp <XON>, will focus on maintaining its financial strength
and improving near-term earnings performance through operating
expense reductions and selective capital spending, the company
said in the annual report.
    Imperial Oil said it expects to spend about 750 mln dlrs on
capital and exploration expenditures in 1987, compared to 648
mln dlrs in 1986 and 1.16 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Imperial previously reported 1986 operating net profit fell
to 440 mln dlrs or 2.69 dlrs share from 694 mln dlrs or 4.27
dlrs share in the prior year.
    Imperial Oil said the attention to earnings results from
the desire to pursue longer term growth opportunities should
the investment climate improve and the belief that low or
volatile crude oil prices could continue during the next
several years.
    The company also said actions initiated during 1986 to
restructure and improve efficiency should continue to show
benefits in 1987.
    During 1986, the company cut operating, administrative and
marketing expenses by 91 mln dlrs and reduced the number of
workers by 16 pct to 12,500.
    Imperial chairman Arden Haynes said in the annual report
that it is too early to determine whether the recent upward
movement in international oil prices will be sustained.
    "It is still a time for prudence and caution, and the
company's actions will continue to be based on the fundamentals
of market supply and demand," he said.
    Haynes said prospects for the company's petroleum products
division are more promising than before, but are still
uncertain. Imperial's 1986 petroleum earnings rose to 174 mln
dlrs from 102 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Haynes said more satisfactory product margins on its
petroleum products could result if demand recovers as it has in
the United States.
    The company's chemicals business outlook is mixed, Haynes
said. Prospects for growth in petrochemical sales is good as
long as economic growth continues, but future large grain
surpluses could dampen fertilizer demand and maintain pressure
on prices.
    Imperial's chemical business earned 17 mln dlrs in 1986,
compared to three mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr 2.78 dlrs vs 2.55 dlr
    NEt 302.0 mln vs 271.6 mln
    REvs 2.0 billion vs 2.1 billion
 Reuter

Leeco Diagnostics Inc said
the National Institutes of Health have awarded it a two-year,
478,568 dlr federal grant to develop a new medical test kit to
diagnose and monitor diabetes mellitus.
    Leeco said the Institutes made the grant under their small
business innovation research program.
    The company said the research, beginning April 1, will
focus on developing a more effective technique for detecting
hemoglobin A1C in the blood. High levels of hemoglobin A1C can
indicate uncontrolled diabetes.
 Reuter

CPC International Inc said it reached
an agreement in principle to sell its European corn wet milling
business to Agricola Finanziaria SpA, a member of the Ferruzzi
Group, for a price in excess of 600 mln dlrs.
    The transaction is expected to be completed by September
30.
    CPC said it expects no material gain or loss this year from
the transaction. But the effect of the deal on 1987 earnings
can be evaluated in full only when the definitive pacts are
completed, it said.
    The long-term effect of the transaction on CPC's earnings
should be positive, it added, as it will allow capital
expenditures to be cut back and will reduce corporate and
divisional overheads as well as operating expenses in the
European business.
    The sale is an important part of a restructuring announced
in November, CPC said.
    Proceeds of the sale will be used to reduce debt incurred
in the purchase of the Arnold Foods and Old London specialty
baking businesses and the stock repurchase program that was 
part of the restructuring.
    As of December 31, CPC had bought about 15 mln of its
common shares, adjusted for a 2-for-1 split in January, for a
total cost of 621.8 mln dlrs, according to its 1986 annual
report.
    In December, CPC acquired Arnold Foods and Old London for a
total of about 170 mln dlrs.
    CPC had previously said it wanted to sell the European corn
wet milling business and use the proceeds to help reduce debt,
including that incurred under the share buyback.
    In total, CPC has bought back about 16 mln shares of common
stock, adjusted for the split, it said today. In November it
authorized a buyback of 20 mln shares, adjusted for the split.
    The buyback and the restructuring were triggered in
November, after companies controlled by Ronald Perelman,
chairman of Revlon Group Inc <REV>, acquired about 7.6 pct of
CPC's then outstanding stock.
    In 1986, the European corn wet milling business had sales
of 914.1 mln dlrs, operating income before overheads of 68.8
mln dlrs and associated headquarters overhead costs of 19.7 mln
dlrs, according to CPC's 1986 annual report.
    The businesses' assets were 645.7 mln dlrs in 1986, the
 Reuter

Mobex Corp, a private building
product concern, said as of late yesterday it had accepted
about 2.3 mln shares or 98 pct of Grant Industries Inc under a
tender offer.
    The 7.75 dlrs a share cash offer expired at 2000 EST
yesterday. Mobex said its Mobex Acquisition Corp unit accepted
2,316,940 shares of Grant common, or about 98 pct of the
2,369,799 shares presently outstanding, at the tender price.
 
 Reuter

Shr 3.28 dlrs vs 22 cts
    Shr diluted 2.99 dlrs vs 22 cts
    Net 46.0 mln vs 3,328,000
    Avg shrs 14.0 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 5.41 dlrs vs 1.56 dlrs
    Shr diluted 4.94 dlrs vs 1.50 dlrs
    Net 78.2 mln vs 25.9 mln
    Avg shrs 14.5 mln vs 15.1 mln
    NOTE: earnings per share reflect the two-for-one split
effective January 6, 1987.
    per share amounts are calculated after preferred stock
    Loss continuing operations for the qtr 1986, includes gains
of sale of investments in Enron Corp of 14 mln dlrs, and
associated companies of 4,189,000, less writedowns of
investments in National Intergroup Inc of 11.8 mln and BRAE
Corp of 15.6 mln.
 Reuter

Telecom Plus INternational Inc
said it completed the sale of its 65 pct interest in Tel Plus
Communications Inc to Siemens Information Systems INc for about
173 mln dlrs.
    Telecom received 107 mln dlrs at closing with the balance
to be paid in installments. Siemen said it will dispute various
matters in the financial statement issues and other matters, it
said.
 Reuter

Haiti and Czechoslovakia have joined the
International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), bringing membership in
the United Nations charter body to 18 importing countries and
17 exporters, ICCO officials said.
    Haiti has provisionally applied to the ICCO as an exporting
member, and accounts for 0.92 pct of world cocoa exports, they
said. Czechoslovakia joined as an importer.
 Reuter

Oper primary shr 1.03 dlr vs 2.55 dlrs
    Oper diluted shr 94 cts vs 1.76 dlrs
    Oper net 15.2 mln vs 23.4 mln
    Revs 272.0 mln vs 232 mln
    Avg shrs primary 7,625,000 vs 5,534,000
    Avg shrs diluted 12.3 mln vs 10.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.06 dlr vs 3.17 dlrs
    Oper net 39 mln vs 56.1 mln
    Revs 830.2 mln vs 657.9 mln
    Avg shrs 7,490,000 vs 5,557,000
    NOTE: 1986 oper net excludes 10.4 mln dlrs for discontinued
    1985 4th qtr excludes a loss of 4,570,000 dlrs and
6,330,000 dlrs, respectively, for discontinued operations.
    1986 oper net excludes a 10.5 mln dlr or 1.40 dlr per shr
loss from early extinquishment of notes.
    1986 and 1985 oper per share amounts are reported after
paying 31.0 mln dlrs and 38.5 mln dlrs, respectively, for
preferred stock dividends.
    1986 and 1985 4th qtr per share amounts are reported after
paying 7,292,000 dlrs and 9,333,000 dlrs, respectively, for
    1985's discontinued operations are restated.

 Reuter

A new agreement covering the repayment
of part of South Africa's foreign debt represents a compromise
between that country and its commercial bank creditors
following several weeks of intense and difficult negotiations,
senior banking sources said.
    In Pretoria, Reserve Bank Governor Gerhard De Kock termed
the agreement a "good deal" for both South Africa and the banks.
    But as one senior banker noted, "It is probably the best we
could hope for. We (the banks) wanted more money and they (the
South Africans) didn't want to pay."
    The new agreement will extend for three years the
standstill arrangement that has been in place since August 1985
and which was due to expire on June 30.
    Depending on the maturity of the various debts, banks will
receive on July 15 repayments representing three pct of the
arrears and the overdue debt covered by the standstill.
    It also will require the repayment over the life of the
standstill of another 10 pct of the overdue debt spread over
six month invervals and depending on the maturity of the
various debts for a total of slightly more than 1.4 billion
dlrs.
    Last year South Africa repaid about 500 mln dlrs out of the
14 billion dlrs covered by the standstill. At the time, bankers
had argued - unsuccessfully - for a larger repayment given the
country's trade surplus of 2.5 billion dlrs.
    Bankers had hoped that this time they could secure an even
larger repayment of around one billion dlrs. Although there had
been speculation that the standstill would be extended for
three years, many did not believe that a long term pact would
be acceptable to U.S. banks. Those banks have taken a hard line
in the negotiations because of America's strong anti-apartheid
policies.
    The agreement reached today differs very little from the
one reached a little over a year ago. However, it does include
one moderation of an option contained in that pact which
introduces yet another "catchphrase" into the jargon for
reschedulings.
    The new agreement contains an "exit vehicle" under which
banks can convert their debt into 10 year loans. Under the
previous agreement banks were only given options for three year
loans.
    While the option may be unpalatable to the U.S. banks, it
could offer others a potential repayment of slightly more than
half their investment over the next seven years.
    To convert the debts, a bank would have to find a borrower
looking for a loan with a 10-year maturity and then negotiate
individually the interest rates to be charged.
    The loans would not represent any new money and as the loan
would be the obligation of the new borrower there would be a
repayment stream that could give the bank as much as 52 pct of
face value by year seven, one banker said.
    Bankers suggested that depending on a banks' political and
economic forecasts for South Africa, if it decided to take the
option it may not have much difficulty finding such borrowers.
They noted that South Africa's Public Investment Commission is
an active borrower in this area of the market.
    Today's agreement was reached between South Africa's chief
debt negotiator Chris Stals, who chairs its Standstill
Coordinating Commmittee and representatives of the 12 banks on
the commercial bank technical committee.
    The bankers said that telexes will be sent today to the
country's other 330 bank creditors and that documentation
covering the proposal will be mailed out shortly.
    Because of the banks' sensitivity to South Africa's
apartheid regime, the previous negotiations were conducted with
Fritz Leutwiler, the former head of the Swiss National Bank,
acting as mediator.
    Leutwiler was not involved with these talks and has not
involved himself in the negotiations since last year, the
    Last time, the banks sent their responses on the proposal
to Leutwiler who in turn notified the South Africans. This time
the procedure will be less structured and will be up to the
individual banks as to how they wish to handle it.
    Although talks had been held in recent weeks between the
South Africans and the banks, the completion of the agreement
on the repayments took many in the financial community by
surprise.
    A review of South Africa's economy by the technical
committee's economic sub-committee was to be held in February
while the talks for the rescheduling were due to start some
time this month or next month.
    However, the bankers said that because of all the publicity
which surrounds South African debt negotiations, the meetings
were kept secret.
 Reuter

Shr loss one dlr vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 3.0 mln vs profit 349,000
    Revs 35.6 mln vs 49.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.87 dlrs vs loss 2.71 dlrs
    Net loss 8.4 mln vs loss 7.9 mln
    Revs 140.3 mln vs 169.2 mln
    NOTE:earnings reflect preferred dividend requirements, 1986
year includes one-time gain of 1.2 mln dlrs
 Reuter

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs
Committee voted to ease restrictions on exports that are now
kept from shipment to Soviet-bloc countries but are no longer a
threat to U.S. national security.
    The Democratic-controlled committee said the
administration's export control policies, which restrict
shipment of thousands of products, contributed to last year's
record 169 billion dlr U.S. trade deficit.
    The committee said the legislation will cut government red
tape and make it easier for U.S. companies to compete with
foreign producers since many of the goods are readily available
from other countries.
    Rep. Don Bonker, chairman of the International Economic
Policy subcommittee, said the unnecessary restrictions had cost
the U.S. 17 billion dlrs in exports a year.
    "This is Congress' number one opportunity to attack the
trade deficit in a positive way by exporting more," the
Washington Democrat said.
    The legislation would order the Commerce Department to lift
controls on 40 pct of goods on the restricted export list over
the next three years unless other countries agree to comparable
controls.
    Most of these are of the least sophisticated type of
technology such as medical instruments.
    It would also give the Commerce Department primary
authority to decide which exports will be permitted and limit
the Defense Department to an advisory role in reviewing
requests to export highly-sensitive technology.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 200,000 TONNES CORN  SWITCHED FROM UNKNOWN TO USSR FOR 1986/87

BALDRIGE SAYS CHANGES NEEDED IN EXCHANGE RATES OF CURRENCIES PEGGED TO DOLLAR

CHARTER CO 4TH QTR NET PROFIT 118.8 MLN DLRS VS LOSS 13 MLN DLRS

    Shr diluted 57 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 2,699,000 vs 3,250,000
    Revs 190.8 mln vs 195.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr diluted 45 cts vs 79 cts
    Net 2,092,000 vs 3,784,000
    Revs 304.2 mln vs 304.6 mln
    NOTE: includes a change in accounting for investment tax
credit of 1,408,000, or 31 cts per share, in six mths prior.
    first qtr 1987 includes non-recurring charge of 1,488,000
for company's abandoning of its plan to convert to a limited
 Reuter

Stanadyne Inc said it terminated
discussions about its proposed purchase of United Technologies
Corp's Diesel Systems <UTX> unit.
    The reason was not disclosed.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said its Union Oil Co
of California unit is making a public offering of 450 mln dlrs
of long-term notes.
    It said the issues consist of 150 mln dlrs of non-callable
notes due April 1, 1994, which are priced at par with a coupon
rate of 8-1/2 pct and a 300 mln dlr issue of notes due April 1,
1997, with a coupon rate of 8-3/4 pct and priced at 99.447 to
yield 8.83 pct.
    The 300 mln dlr issue is callable at par after seven years,
    It also said the issues are being drawn from Unocal's shelf
registration statement filed in December 1985.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc are lead underwriters, Unocal said.
    It said proceeds will be used to pre-pay a portion of its
existing floating rate bank debt, thereby extending the
maturity of the company's overall debt structure.
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph
Co said it is introducing four new software packages for
graphic designers and those who produce slides who need
advanced but inexpensive software.
    ATT said the new products are the first in its line of
SoftVisions software and are designed for use with its
Truevision videographics boards. It said those boards are
adapted to let its PC 6300s series and compatible personal
computers display television-quality video images.
    Earlier today, ATT introduced a new minicomputer and other
computer peripheral products.
    Among the new software packages ATT is introducing are RIO,
which it said cuts the time and cost involved in producing
high-quality 35-millimeter slides with a mix of still video and
computer-generated images. It costs 1,250 dlrs.
    Another product, ImageMaster, lets PC users reproduce
images created with any of ATT's Truevision boards, said ATT.
That system also costs 1,250 dlrs.
    The two other systems are TARGA CAD Driver, which sells for
225 dlrs, and ImageStation, with a list price of 1,250 dlrs.
   
 Reuter

    "These arrangements confirm South Africa's continued
its total foreign debt of over 23 billion dlrs.
African negotiators in London. About 300 other creditor banks
also are expected to approve the agreement, he said.
    Speaking at the same news conference, de Kock said the
    He said South Africa had negotiated from a "position of
heard of," de Kock said.
sufficient" to meet terms of the new interim debt agreement.    
Du Plessis said the banks were showing much more confidence in
the South African economy and country as a whole.
Africa. Recent examples were the rise in the financial rand and
the sharp increase in foreign exchange reserves, he said.
    Of the 13 billion dlrs frozen debt 3.5 billion was owed by
public sector and 9.5 billion by private industry, du Plessis
said. The remaining 10 billion consists of seven billion owed
by government agencies and three billion by the private sector.
 Reuter

American Express Co's <AXP> recent
launch of a new "OPTIMA" credit card, with relatively low
interest rates and fees, will increase competition with bank
credit-card issuers but will not lead to a pricing war, a
senior Citicorp offical said.
    "Over the next two to three years, a very interesting
marketing battle will be fought ... competition will not be on
price but on product features," Pei-yuan Chia, head of the U.S.
card products group, told a banking analysts meeting.
    Citicorp is the leading U.S. bank credit-card issuer, with
some 10 mln accounts and an 11 pct market share.
    Chia said that Citicorp would focus its credit card
marketing efforts on acceptance, noting that Visa and
Mastercard currently enjoy a two-to-one advantage over American
Express in terms of worldwide acceptance.
    He also doubted the popularity of American Express' plan to
link interest charges on the new OPTIMA card to the bank prime
lending rate. "The consumer likes to have a fixed rate
instrument," he said.
    Richard Braddock, head of the whole individual banking
division, added that when there is increased competition, "it
is not the big people who get crunched but the small ones."
 Reuter

New Process Co said it declared a
quarterly dividend of 12-1/2 cts, the regular dividend it pays
during the first three quarters of the year.
    The dividend is payable May 1 to shareholders of record
April 10.
    Last year, New Process paid an annual dividend of 1.18 dlrs
by paying 12-1/2 cts a share in each of the first three
quarters and a fourth quarter dividend of 80-1/2 cts.
 Reuter

private U.S. exporters reported 200,000 tonnes of corn
previously to unknown destinations have been switched to the
Supply Agreement.
    The marketing year for began September 1.
year of the agreement -- which began October 1, 1986 -- now
total 2,600,000  tonnes, it said.
    In the third agreement year sales totaled 6,960,700 tonnes
-- 152,600 tonnes of wheat and 6,808,100 tonnes of corn.
 Reuter

<Pacific Western Airlines Corp>'s new
Canadian Airlines International Ltd unit said it ordered six
new Jetstream 31 airplanes and took options on six more from
British Aerospace Inc, with delivery starting May 1.
    Cost of the planes totaled about 30 mln Canadian dlrs, said
a Canadian Airlines spokesman in reply to a query.
    The airline said the 19-seat aircraft would be used by a 49
pct-owned commuter airline being formed for service in Ontario.
Canadian International, as earlier reported, was formed from
the merger of Pacific Western's Pacific Western Airlines Ltd
unit and Canadian Pacific Airlines Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr loss 57 cts vs loss 30 cts
    Net loss 5.9 mln vs loss 3.2 mln
    Revs 5.6 mln vs 16.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.11 dlrs vs loss 95 cts
    Net loss 22.0 mln vs loss 9.9 mln
    Revs 29.3 mln vs 66.3 mln
 Reuter

<Sundor Group Inc> said it
purchased DWG Corp's Texun Inc's line of regional juice
products.
    The purchase terms were not disclosed, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 72 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 4.5 mln vs 3.6 mln
    Revs 25.1 mln vs 21.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.47 dlrs vs 1.87 dlr
    Net 15.6 mln vs 11.8 mln
    Revs 89.1 mln vs 73.3 mln
   
 Reuter

Hayes-Albion Corp said its shareholders
approved a plan to merge with and become a wholly onwed
subsidiary of privately held Harvard Industries Inc.
    St. Louis-based Harvard Industries, a manufacturer and
distributor of automobile supplies, held 80 pct of Hayes
following completion of a 13 dlrs a share cash tender offer in
December.
    Under the merger agreement, remaining shareholders of
Hayes, a Jackson, Mich.-based maker of auto supplies, will
receive 13 dlrs cash for their shares.
    Trading in Hayes common will cease at the close of business
today, the company said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss one ct vs loss four cts
    Oper net loss 336,000 vs profit 2,631,000
    Revs 237.2 mln vs 382.3 mln
    Avg shrs 47.4 mln vs 16.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 21 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Oper profit 9,922,000 vs profit 15.1 mln
    Revs 1.1 billion vs 1.6 billion
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a gain of
28.6 mln dlrs and 28.5 mln dlrs or 60 cts per share,
respectively, for discontinued operations.
    1986 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a gain of 90.5 mln
dlrs or 1.91 dlr per share and 114.8 mln dlrs or 2.42 dlrs per
share, respectively, mainly for settlement of dioxin-related
claims in reorganization proceedings.
    1985 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a loss of 41.2 mln
dlrs or 2.51 dlrs per share and a loss of 36.3 mln dlrs or 2.21
dlrs per share, respectively, for discontinued operations.
    1985 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a gain of 25.6 mln
dlrs or 1.56 dlr per share and 29.4 mln dlrs or 1.79 dlrs per
share for settlement of claims and utilization of tax loss
    1985 year oper net also excludes a loss of seven mln dlrs
for change in inventory evaluation method.
 Reuter

downgrade Mark IV Industries Inc's 200 mln dlrs of B-minus
    S and P cited the firm's tender offer to acquire Conrac
Corp <CAX> for 152.5 mln dlrs. Conrac has no rated debt.
    Although Mark IV has an overall favorable business
standing, the acquisition would impair earnings and cash flow
protection, S and P said.
    S and P pointed out that debt leverage would rise to about
90 pct, assuming total debt financing. It said it will review
the company's management strategy and financial plans.
             
 Reuter

Advanced Magnetics Inc said it
reached a four mln dlrs research and development agreement with
ML TEchnolgy Ventures LP, a limited partnership sponsored by
Merrill LYnch Capital Markets.
    Under the agreement, Advanced Magnetics will develop and
conducts clinical trials of its contrast agents for magnetic
resonance imaging.
    The agreement includes a warrant permitting MLTV to buy up
to 380,000 shares of Advanced Magnetics common stock through
February 1994 at 10.50 dlrs per sahre.
 Reuter

<Health Research and
Management Group> said it has filed for protection under
Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.
    The company said it filed the petitions to reorganize debt
and eliminate contingent liabilities it incurred while
attempting to expand nationally.
    Health Research also said it owes about 750,000 dlrs of its
1.1 mln dlrs in debt to <MedPro Group Inc>, a former jont
venture partner.
    The company added it has asked the Minnesota Department of
Commerce to suspend trading of its common stock pending
dissemination of current financial information.
    Also, the company said George Frisch has been elected
chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer,
replacing Daniel Zismer, who resigned as chairman of the board
and  O. Frederick Kiel, who resigned as president and chief
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs profit five cts
    Net loss 149,421 vs profit 103,120
    Sales 1,698,345 vs 1,920,010
    Six Mths
    Shr loss five cts vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 100,472 vs profit 191,614
    Sales 3,836,794 vs 3,650,322
 Reuter

Commodore International Ltd said it
settled and discontinued all pending litigation with Atari
Corp.
    The company issued a statement which said the case had been
settled on terms satisfactory to both sides.
    Company officials were not immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

said he supported efforts to persuade newly-industrialized
countries (NICS) to revalue currencies that are tied to the
dollar in order to help the United States cut its massive trade
deficit.
    "We do need to do something with those currencies or we
will be substituting Japanese products for Taiwanese products,"
or those of other nations with currencies tied to the dollar,
Baldrige told a House banking subcommittee.
    The U.S. dollar has declined in value against the Yen and
European currencies, but has changed very little against the
currencies of some developing countries such as South Korea and
Taiwan because they are linked to the value of the dollar.
    As a result, efforts to reduce the value of the dollar over
the past year and a half have done little to improve the trade
deficits with those countries.
    Baldrige told a House Banking subcommittee that the
Treasury Department was attempting to persuade those countries
to reach agreement with the United States on exchange rates.

 Reuter

Triangle Industries Inc said it began
a previously announced offer to exchange one share of Triangle
common stock for each share of participating preferred stock.
    The offer will expire April 21.
    Triangle said that sales in 1987 will exceed four billion
dlrs.
    For the year ended December 31, 1986, Triangle reported
sales of 2.7 billion dlrs and net income of 47.6 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Southmark Corp's National Heritage Inc
said it has started the initial public offering of 2,000,000
shares of common stock at 9.50 dlrs per share.
    It said all shares are being traded though  NASDAQ under
the symbol <NHER>.
    The lead underwriter for the offering is Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc, with Bear, Stearns and Co Inc., and E.F. Hutton
and Co Inc acting as co-underwriters, the company said.
    Proceeds will be used to augment working capital, complete
scheduled renovations at some National Heritage leased
facilities and repay certain debts to Southmark, it said.
 Reuter

EASTMAN KODAK CO TO SELL HOLDINGS IN ICN PHARMACEUTICALS AND VIRATEK INC

A feud among Democrats and
Republicans persisted at the House Budget Committee, stalling
the writing of a fiscal 1988 U.S. budget plan.
    Republicans failed to appear at a drafting session called
by Democratic committee chairman William Gray as a make-up
meeting to end bickering that has delayed budget activity  for
a week and threatens the ability of Congress meeting an April
15 deadline for completing the deficit-cutting budget.
    Republicans told Gray yesterday they would appear today and
participate if the meeting was held behind closed doors.

    He said the Republicans were prepared to make a "good faith"
effort to cooperate if the budget deliberations were held
behind closed doors and not in public as is the normal
procedure.
    However, they failed to appear today and Gray said he had
been told they wanted House Speaker Jim Wright to answer a
series of budget questions posed by House Republican leader Bob
Michel before they would cooperate in budget matters.
     The budget feuding led the Washington Post today to
editorialize that it was childish, similar to an eraser fight
among fourth grade students.
 Reuter

Reserve rose on March 23 to 3.332 billion dlrs from 3.062
billion dlrs on the previous business day, the Treasury said in
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 15.513
billion dlrs from 17.257 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 18.845
billion dlrs on March 23 compared with 20.318 billion dlrs on
March 20.
 Reuter

regulates the farm credit system said Congress should plan to
provide at least 800 mln dlrs in fiscal 1988 to bailout the
troubled system, but other members of the board differed.
    Jim Billington, Farm Credit Administration (FCA) board
member told a House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee
hearing "I feel your subcommittee should plan on providing at
least 800 mln next year to assist the Farm Credit System."
    However, FCA board member Marvin Duncan differed, saying
"it is premature to talk about the cost of a solution until we
know what kind of solution."
    Chairman of the FCA board, Frank Naylor, said it might be
possible to structure a rescue of the system with government
guarantees or a line of credit which requires little or no
upfront government money.
    However, Billington said Congress must provide help
immediately because "this system needs some assurance that it
will get some help."
    The FCA estimates the system could lose up to 1.4 billion
dlrs in 1987, exhausting the remainder of its working capital,
Naylor said.
    The farm credit system is expected to present its own
proposals for government aid to a Senate Agriculture
subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
    Naylor said the Treasury Department is continuing to refine
Reagan administration ideas on how a rescue should be
structured.
    Congressional sources said they hope to begin drafting a
rescue bill for the farm credit system as early as next week.
 Reuter

USX Corp's USS subsidiary said
that effective with shipments beginning July 1 prices for all
leaded grades and 1200-series grades of hot rolled bar and
semi-finished products from its Lorain, Ohio, facility will be
increased by 15 dlrs a ton over the prices in effect June 1.
    It said the increase is being made to reflect current
market conditions.
 Reuter

William Bywater, president of the
International Union of Electronic Workers, called on President
Reagan to retaliate against Japan for unfair practices in
semiconductor trade.
    He said in a statement a crash program was needed in the
semiconductor industry to prevent the United States from
becoming "one of the world's industrial lightweights."
    Bywater's remarks came as the White House Economic Policy
Council prepared for a Thursday meeting to decide what
sanctions if any should be taken against Japan for alleged 
violations of a U.S.-Japanese semiconductors agreement.
    The pact, agreed to last July, called for Tokyo to end
selling semiconductors at below cost and to open its home
market to U.S. goods. In return, Washington agreed to forego
antidumping duties on Japanese semiconductors.
    But U.S. officials have said that while Japan has stopped
dumping in the U.S. market, it has not ended third country
dumping; nor has it opened its market to U.S. semiconductors.
    Japan yesterday, in an effort to ward off U.S. action,
ordered a cutback in semiconductors production as a way to
force prices up and end the dumping.
    Bywater, in his statement, said he backed a Defense Science
Board task force proposal to set up a consortium to develop new
electronic products and manufacturing processes and make the
U.S. industory more competitive.
    But he added the industry could not wait for legislation to
pass and that action was required now to help the depressed
electronic industry.
    Bywater said, "I urge the Reagan Administration to take full
and severe action immediately against Japan by invoking the
retaliatory steps that are permitted under U.S. law and GATT
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)."
 Reuter

Exxon Co USA of Houston has been
awarded a 99.2 mln dlr contract for jet fuel, the Defense
Logistics Agency said.
 Reuter

Eaton Corp's AIL Division has
received a 53.0 mln dlr contract for jamming system work for
the EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft, the Navy said.
 Reuter

Zaire has been authorized to
purchase about 30,000 tonnes of U.S. rice under an existing PL
    It may buy the rice, valued at 5.5 mln dlrs, between March
31 and August 31, 1987, and ship it from U.S. ports by
September 30, the department said.
    The purchase authorization covers the entire quantity of
rice provided under the agreement.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp (MD) has
received a 30.6 mln dlr contract for work on development of the
standoff land attack missile (SLAM), the Navy said.
 REUTER

<Midivest Inc> said it acquired
all the assets of <Business Aviation Inc> of Sioux Falls, S.D.,
for an undisclosed amount of stock.
    Midivest said it expects to sell 10 to 20 of the renovated
Beechcraft planes next year. It said management will also lease
these airborne intensive care units to hospitals and government
subdivisions through Metropolitan Leasing, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Midivest.
 Reuter

(CCC) has switched 25.0 mln dlrs in wheat credit guarantees to
Jordan under the Export Credit Guarantee Program to the
Intermediate Export Credit Guarantee Program, the U.S.
    The switch reduces the total value of GSM-102 guarantees
for the current fiscal year to 30.0 mln dlrs.
    The credit terms extended for export sales under the
Intermediate Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-103) must be
in excess of three years but not more than seven years.
    All sales must be registered and exports completed by
September 30, 1987, the department said.
 Reuter

Central bank intervention in the
foreign exchange markets succeeded in staunching the dollar's
losses today, but senior dealers here believe the U.S. currency
is headed for a further retreat.
    Although the intervention was widespread, dealers perceive
that the six major industrial nations have differing levels of
commitment to their recent accord to stabilize currencies.
    Moreover, hard economic realities hold greater sway over
the currency market than central bank intervention and these
argue for a further dollar decline, dealers said.
    "The market can be bigger than the central banks. And
economic fundamentals will always come to the fore," said a
dealer at one major U.S. bank.
    As the dollar dropped to post-World War II lows against the
yen today foreign exchange traders said the Bank of Japan,
Federal Reserve Board and Bank of England intervened in the
markets on behalf of the U.S. currency.
    Reports of the authorities' actions helped the dollar
recover to about 149.45 yen in New York this afternoon from
the post-war low of 148.20 yen in the Far East. But it still
failed to regain Monday's U.S. closing level of 150.00/05 yen.
    Tokyo dealers said the Bank of Japan bought one to 1.5
billion dlrs in Tokyo today and may also have purchased dollars
yesterday in the U.S. via the Federal Reserve.
    Meanwhile, there were strong rumors in New York that the
Fed also bought a modest amount of dollars around 148.50 yen
today. Talk also circulated that the Bank of England purchased
a small amount of dollars for yen.
    The Fed's last confirmed intervention was on January 28
when it bought 50 mln dlrs in coordination with the Bank of
Japan. But on March 11 the Fed also was rumored to have
signalled displeasure with a dollar surge above 1.87 marks.
    The authorities' actions appeared to back up the February
22 Paris pact between the U.S., Japan, West Germany, Britain,
France and Canada under which the nations agreed to cooperate
to foster exchange rate stability around prevailing levels.
    But foreign exchange dealers were not overly impressed by
the authorities' intervention which they said can only soften
extreme moves in the market.
    For one thing, some dealers believed that the Fed's
purchases were done on behalf of the Bank of Japan rather than
for the U.S. central bank's own account, suggesting a rather  
watered-down American commitment to the currency accord.
    The Bank of England's action also was thought to be
completed on behalf of the Japanese central bank, reinforcing
the market's view that Japan is the most resolute of the six
nations in its support of the currency pact.
    "No-one doubts the Bank of Japan is serious. But the other
two central banks seem to be making more token gestures than
anything else," said Chris Bourdain of BankAmerica Corp.
    "I'm not convinced the intervention was concerted," said
Earl Johnson of Harris Trust and Savings Bank in Chicago. 
"It's a yen problem more than anything else."
    Some dealers said a rising wave of trade protectionist
sentiment in the U.S. limits the extent to which the American
authorities can endorse a stronger dollar against the yen.
    "The dollar's break below the key 150 yen level ties the
Treasury's hands behind its back. The U.S. cannot intervene on
its own account because of the strength of protectionism here,"
said Albert Soria of Swiss Bank Corp.
    Such comments reflect the view that the currency markets
are becoming increasingly politicized. Despite official
denials, some traders still feel the U.S. would countenance a
lower dollar to help trim the nation's trade deficit.
    The majority of the 170 billion dlr merchandise trade
deficit in 1986 was with Japan.
    Indeed U.S. Treasury secretary James Baker's comment on
Sunday that the February currency pact had not established
dollar targets was read by the market as a signal to sell the
U.S. currency and kicked off the latest retreat.
    "The dollar still has more room on the downside against the
yen based on the frictions in trade and financial services. The
currency market is becoming very political," said Natsuo Okada
of Sumitomo Bank Ltd.
    Okada expects the dollar to trade between 148 and 150 yen
this week but sees the chance of a drop to 140 yen by the end
of April or early May.
    Even if West Germany and Japan succeed in stimulating their
economies, it may not be enough to solve structural economic
imbalances in the near future, dealers said.
    "Even if Japan and West Germany do expand this year, it
won't be enough to help the trade situation much," said
Bourdain of BankAmerica, who also expects the dollar to drop to
148 yen in the next couple of days.
 Reuter

    The March 30 sale, to be evenly divided between the three
and six month issues, will result in a paydown of 1.2 billion
dlrs as maturing bills total 13.99 billion dlrs.
    The bills will be issued April 2.
 Reuter

Inland Steel Industries and
Governor Robert Orr of Indiana said the new joint venture cold-
rolled steel plant between Inland Steel and Nippon Steel Corp
will be built on a site in St. Joseph County Indiana.
    Inland Steel said yesterday that the joint venture, to be
named I/N Tek, will cost more than 400 mln dlrs and will employ
over 200 people by the time the companies complete the project
in 1990.
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said it plans
to sell its 2.3 pct holding in ICN Pharmaceuticals <ICN> and
part of its nine pct holdings in Viratek <VIRA>.
    It said the purpose of the investments had been to lay the
groundwork for the creation of its Nucleic Acid Research
Institute.
    Since that has been achieved, there is no longer any reason
to maintain the equity positions, Kodak said.
    Kodak holds 470,000 sahres of ICN, currently trading at
about 18-3/4 and 700,000 of Viratek, trading at 44.
 Reuter

<Guinness PLC> has joined investors
suing former Wall Street speculator Ivan Boesky, alleging it
was deceived into putting money into his one billion dlr
investment partnership in 1986.
    Guinness, the largest limited partner in Ivan F. Boeksy and
Co. L.P., is the latest to file suit in federal court in
Manhattan against Boesky, court papers show.
    About 40 other investors have also filed suit over similar
allegations, including that Boesky did not reveal his illegal
insider trading activities.
    Guinness is charging it was induced to join in the Boesky
partnership through a prospectus that contained "material untrue
statements and omissions."
    The suit also alleged that the Boesky Corporation, which
became a part in the formation of the investment partnership,
Ivan F. Boesky and Co., L.P., "had achieved its extraordinary
rates of return as a result of trading on inside information
and other violations of the securities laws."
    In addition, the suit charged that Boesky and other
defendants unlawfully "schemed with and provided substantial
assistance to one another to evade the registration provisions"
of securities law.
 Reuter

Montreal-based Noverco Inc told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it reduced its stake in
Sceptre Resources Ltd to 1,232,200 shares or 4.8 pct of the
    Noverco said it sold off 400,500 shares "to reduce the
investment of Noverco in Sceptre."
    "Additional common shares of Sceptre may be sold or
purchased by Noverco, depending upon market conditions," Noverco
said.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs 11 cts
    Net 126,000 vs 434,000
    Revs 84.0 mln vs 80.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,948,731 vs 3,870,511
 Reuter

Bull and Bear Group A said it lowered
its monthly dividends on three of its funds.
    It said it lowered its Tax Free Income Fund <BLTFX> to 10.3
cts from 10.6 cts; its U.S. Government Guaranteed Securities
Fund <BBUSX> to 11.5 cts from 11.8 cts; and its High Yield Fund
<BULHX> to 14 cts from 14.2 cts.
    All dividends are payable March 31 to shareholders of
record March 25, the company said.
 Reuter

Caltex Petroleum Corp said it will
raise
posted prices for naphtha and several grades of residual fuel
in Bahrain, effective March 25.
     Caltex, a joint venture of Chevron Corp <CHV> and Texaco
INC <TX>, said its naphtha posting is up four cts a gallon to
43 cts. It said it is raising its marine diesel oil posting by
30 cts a barrel to 20.24 dlrs a barrel.
    Light, medium, and heavy fuel oil postings are up 1.50 dlrs
a barrel, the company said. This will bring the light fuel oil
price to 16.90 dlrs, medium to 15.50 dlrs, and heavy to 14.60
dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Charter Co, the huge
petrochemical concern in bankruptcy proceedings stemming from
hundreds of dioxin-related claims, said it and all of its
subsidiaries, except the Independent Petrochemical Corp, will
complete their reorganization on March 31.
    It said that on that date, it will deposit with an escrow
agent 288.8 mln dlrs in cash, 66.7 mln dlrs in notes and 31 mln
shares of its common for distribution.
comment.
    As previously reported, Charter settled dioxin-related
claims for about 1,200 individuals and the state of Missouri,
resolving claims against it and all subsidiaries except
Independent Petrochemical.
    Charter said some of the settlements remain subject to
appeals and final court approvals and resolve claims against
charter and its subsidiaries except Independent Petrochemical.
    It said about 500 individual claims against it and certain
of its units remain pending as disputed claims in bankruptcy
court. It said about 300 of these claims have been filed since
confirmation of the joint plan of reorganization.
    Charter said its two creditors, an equity committee in its
bankruptcy proceedings and <American Financial Corp>, which
will own 50.5 pct of its common after the reorganization, have
waived the requirement that Charter resolve all dioxin-related
claims against it prior to completing its reorganization.
    That requirement excludes claims against Independent
Petrochemical. Charter also said a plan for liquidation of
Independent has been approved by the bankruptcy court and will
be completed after March 31.
    Earlier, Charter reported net income for the year of 153.2
mln dlrs, which included a gain of 28.5 mln dlrs for
discontinued operations and 114.8 mln dlrs for the settlement
of claims in its reorganization proceedings.
    In 1985, it reported earnings of 1,274,000 dlrs, which
included a loss of 36.3 mln dlrs for discontinued operations
and 29.4 mln dlrs for extraordinary items.
    For the fourth quarter, it reported earnings of 118.8 mln
dlrs, including a gain of 28.6 mln dlrs for discontinued
operations and 90.5 mln dlrs mainly for claims settlements. In
the year-ago period, Charter reported a loss of 13 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Nashua Corp said it signed a
letter of intent to purchase <Lin Data Corp>, a private
manufacturer of high-capacity rigid discs for storage of
computer data.
    Under the terms of the letter, Nashua said it will acquire
all classes of Lin stock for 24 mln dlrs. In addition, it said
it will loan Lin 1,200,000 dlrs to support its operations.
    The closing of the sale is set for the second quarter of
1987, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 56 cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 1.9 mln vs loss 164,000
    revs 6.9 mln vs 5.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.15 dlrs vs profit 52 cts
    Net loss 3.8 mln vs profit 1.7 mln
    Revs 25.6 mln vs 29.8 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net loss includes loss 6.5 mln dlrs for
nonrecurring reserve for closing costs of facility, writeoffs
and sales of real estate.
    
 Reuter

Collins Foods International Inc
said it moved up the conversion date for its warrants to
purchase common stock to April 24.
    There are currently 2,160,000 warrants outstanding, the
company said. It said each warrant entitles the holder to buy
one Collins common share at 12.11 dlrs per share.
    Collins also said the warrants were originally scheduled to
expire on December 15, 1988.
    But the agreement under which the warrants were issued
permits the company to accelerate the date if the closing price
of its common stock equals or exceeds 21.78 dlrs per share for
10 consecutive trading days, the company said.
    It also pointed out that the stock price closed at 22.75
dlrs per share on March 23.
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc said it withdrew from
consideration at its annual meeting on March 31 proposals aimed
at providing for a stock split and an increased dividend so
that it could focus its energies on responding to the takeover
offer made last week by a partnership of AFG Industries Inc
<AFG> and Wagner and Brown.
    In addition to proposing an increase in the number of its
outstanding common shares, GenCorp had suggested the adoption
of a classified or "staggered" board and the elimination of
cumulative voting.
    GenCorp said these proposals could "distract energy and
attention from the real task at hand -- to respond to the
tender offer in a manner which is in the best interests of the
company, its shareholders and its other constituencies."
    GenCorp said the proposal to increase its outstanding
shares was made with the aim of declaring a stock split and a
dividend increase.
    The other proposals, it said, would provide for greater
long-term stability and cohesiveness for the GenCorp board.
    The company did not indicate when it might resubmit the
proposals for approval by its shareholders.
 Reuter

47.47 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended March 21, up 2.4 pct from 46.36 billion a year earlier,
ended March 14 was 48.31 billion kilowatt-hours.
21 was 2,557.44 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.1 pct from the
    Electric output so far this year was 602.26 billion
kilowatt hours, up 2.2 pct from 589.51 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

Monolithic Memories Inc
said it plans to discontinue marketing its gate array
integrated circuit product line and focus efforts on the market
for field-programmable products.
    It said the current market dynamics will hinder
profitability in the gate array market for some time.
    Monolithic also said it does not expect the move to have a
negative impact on earnings, adding, the company has estimated
that the gate array products would have contributed only one
pct of revenues in fiscal 1987.
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 4.07 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 2.69 MLN, CRUDE UP 8.53 MLN

Vermont Financial Services
Corp said its board approved a regular 20 cts per share cash
dividend payable April 25 to shareholders of record March 26.
 Reuter

<VR Business Brokers> said it sold a
master franchise license to one of the largest independent
groups of management consultants in the Caribbean.
    It said that under the master license the group will
operate under the name VR Caribbean Inc and will cover
countries of the Caribbean basin and Central America and Dade
County, Fla.
 Reuter

large chunk of its stock. ATT's stock is up 1/4 points at
    The company said it also created a separate 500-member team
its computer unit. (Corrects sales support team size to 500)

REUTER

 Reuter

Gartner Group Inc said it
acquired sole ownership of the COMTEC Market Research Program.
    Gartner said its wholly-owned subsidiary purchased the
interests of its former partners for an aggregate price of
1,125,000 plus a percentage of net sales proceeds on future
sales of certain products.
    Prior to the acquisition, Gartner Group owned one-third in
the COMTEC partnership, it said.
 Reuter

Sales of U.S.-made cars during
mid-March, the traditional start of the spring selling season,
dropped 3.9 pct behind last year's level, analysts say.
    Automakers sold about 204,000 cars in the March 11-20
selling period, 10,000 fewer than last year. Analysts said the
decline may auger poorly for the rest of the spring season.
    Buyers shied away from the showrooms of American Motors
Corp <AMO>, the target of a 1.5 billion dlr takeover bid from
Chrysler Corp <C>. Analysts said consumers were anxious about
the whether Chrysler will retain some American Motors models,
causing a 62 pct drop in American Motors sales in mid-March.
    Chrysler's mid-March sales fell 3.6 pct.
    "During the spring selling season, you usually look for
some kind of seasonal uplift in sales. It doesn't look like
it's happening," said Joseph Philippi, analyst with E.F. Hutton
and Co.
    "There may be less bloom to the spring selling season this
year than last," one auto company official conceded.
    General Motors Corp <GM>, still working to regain consumer
interest in its cars, led the drop with a 14.8 pct decline.
    Ford Motor Co's <F> sales increased 15.2 pct for the
period. But analysts said the rise compares to a 1986 period
for Ford, leaving it down 10 pct in two years.
    "The total industry (mid-March sales) was slightly less
than expected," the company official said.
    American Motors' decline caught analysts eye. "American
Motors took it on the chin--big," said Philippi.
    Given the prospective takeover by Chrysler, "people might
be a little leary about going to (American Motors) dealers," he
said.
    American Motors sold 790 domestic cars in the period,
meaning each of American Motors 1,050 dealers "is selling a car
about every other day," Philippi said.
    Potential American Motors buyers are afraid their car
models "might disappear," he said.
    Chrysler, in its purchase agreement with American Motors'
majority stockholder <Renault>, has agreed not to undercut
sales of American Motors' new Medallion and Premier cars, made
by Renault.
    On a company by company basis, sales of U.S. made cars from
the March 11 to 20 period were--GM 105,438, down 14.8 pct, Ford
67,672, up 15.2 pct, Chrysler 30,909, down 3.6 pct, American
Motors 790, down 6.2 pct, American Honda 7,447 compared with
5,031, Nissan Motor Corp, 3,358, up 10.7 pct, Volkswagon U.S.
Inc 1,330, down 35 pct.
 Reuter

Resorts International Inc
said it received a proposal from <KSZ Co Inc> under which
holders of Resorts class B stock would receive 140 dlrs a share
in cash and one share of common stock in a new company to be
formed through the takeover.
    Under the offer, Resorts said holders of its class A shares
would receive 15 dlrs a share in cash and three shares of
common stock in the new company.
    Resorts said the offer from KSZ calls for a merger of
Resorts with RI Acquisition Co Inc, a newly formed Delaware
corporation.
    Resorts said that prior to the merger, RI Acquisition would
be capitalized with about 100 mln dlrs of debt and about 220
mln dlrs of equity.
    It said 200 mln dlrs of the equity would be in the form of
special preferred stock.
    The KSZ offer, Resorts said, indicates that KSZ has a
commitment from <M. Davies Cos> to buy all of the special
    Resorts said the offer will expire at 1700 EST on March 27.
It said it asked its investment advisor, Bear, Stearns and Co,
to advise its board on the offer.
    Earlier this month, the estate of James M. Crosby and
certian members of his family agreed to sell their class B
shares to New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump for 135 dlrs
a share. The estate and family members hold 78 pct of the
752,297 class B shares outstanding.
    Trump also agreed to pay 135 dlrs a share for the remaining
class B shares outstanding.
    Resorts also has about 5,680,000 shares of outstanding
class A stock. These shares carry one one-hundredth the voting
power of the class B shares.
    Trump's offer beat out a rival bid of 135 dlrs a share made
by Pratt Hotel Corp <PRAT>.
    Resorts said that under the proposal made by KSZ, existing
class A and class B shareholders would control about 96 pct of
the outstanding common of the new company formed to acquire
Resorts.
    Resorts said the new company, upon completion of the
merger, would hold the 220 mln dlrs of debt and that the
special preferred stock would immediately be converted into
exchangeable participating preferred of the new company.
    This preferred, Resorts said, would pay a dividend based on
the net cash flows from the new company's Paradise Island
    A Resorts spokesman said the KSZ offer was made in a
two-page letter and that Resorts could not comment on it
because it did not contain enough information. Resorts has
asked Bear, Sterns to obtain complete data, he said.
    The spokesman said Resorts is not familiar with KSZ but
that it believes the company is controlled by Marvin Davis, the
Denver oilman.
    Calls to Davis were referred to Lee Solters, who handles
public relations for Davis. Solters, said to be travelling, was
not immediately available for comment.
    Donald Trump was also unavailable for comment, as was a
spokesman for the Crosby estate.
 Reuter

Citicorp expects net income in its
individual banking sector to top one billion dlrs by 1993,
compared with 462 mln dlrs in 1986, said Richard Braddock, head
of Citicorp's individual banking division.
    "We can double our earnings over the next five to seven
years," he told a banking analysts meeting, adding that this
forecast may be on the conservative side.
    He said that bank card operations and the New York branch
system would continue to turn in hefty profits but also picked
out other developing areas, such as U.S. mortgage and
international consumer, as major potential earners.
    Braddock and his sector heads made the following more
specific predictions:
    - Cost of funds and net credit loss levels in the U.S.
bankcard unit will taper off in coming years from 1986's
relatively inflated levels.
    - Customer net revenue in the mortgage banking area will
rise to 464.7 mln dlrs in 1987 from 374.3 mln in 1986.
    - The international consumer business will show 22 pct
compound annual growth in earnings between 1986 and 1992.
    - Private banking earnings will hit 100 mln dlrs in 1987
and top 200 mln dlrs in 1992.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 2,642,000 vs 3,017,000
    Sales 19.1 mln vs 18.9 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr 69 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 5,178,000 vs 5,299,000
    Sales 35.6 mln vs 33.8 mln
 Reuter

Dealers, which will launch a search for a new president later
this week, will probably concentrate on candidates with an
extensive background in the financial markets, officials of the
organization said today.
    Gordon Macklin, 58, who has served as president for 17
years, today announced his decision to leave the organization
of 6,658 broker-dealers. Macklin will join Hambrecht and Quist
as chairman and co-chief executive officer.
    Association chairman Joseph Hardiman will appoint a search
committee later this week.
    The committee will have its first meeting as early as next
week. The new president is expected to be someone knowledgable
about the over-the-counter markets and committed to the concept
of self-regulation.
    Macklin joined the association as president in 1970,
leaving a position at McDonald and Co.
    The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated
Quotations System, which currently lists 5200 securities of
4400 companies, was ushered in 10 months after Macklin's
arrival.
 Reuter

Brazilian Science and Technology
Minister Renato Archer said Brazil will keep its computer
market closed to foreign goods in order to give its own infant
industry time to develop.
    "Every country establishes laws to protect its interests.
The United States closed their borders at a certain stage to
some foreign goods and therefore protected its industrial
development. Now it is time for Brazil to do likewise," Archer
said at the opening of a national software conference.
    After several meetings, Brazil and the U.S. Have made no
major progress in their computer row, which they have been
trying to resolve for the past 18 months.
    The Reagan administration has objected to Brazil protecting
its computer industry from imports.
 Reuter

Metalbanc Corp said signed a letter of
intent for a proposed public offering of one mln units,
consisting of four shares of common stock and stock purchase
warrants for two additional shares.
    The units are expected to be sold at between five dlrs and
6.50 dlrs per unit.
 Reuter

Northern Indiana Public Service
Company said it again omitted its quarterly common stock
dividend which would have been payable in May.
    NIPSCO said it has not paid a qtly dividend since December
1985 following an adverse decision by the Indiana Supreme Court
denying amortization of about 191 mln dlrs NIPSCO invested in
its Bailly N-1 project.
 Reuter

FED'S JOHNSON SAYS DOLLAR STABILIZED AFTER FED TOOK APPROPRIATE ACTION

The chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board, Paul Volcker, has written to the chairman of the House
Banking Committee to raise concerns about legislative proposals
scheduled for consideration Wednesday.
    Volcker told committee chairman Fernand St. Germain a
proposal to deny primary dealer status to firms from countries
that do not grant U.S. firms equal access to their government
debt markets might invite retaliation against U.S. firms
abroad.
    He added, "even Japan, against whom this proposal seems to
be particularly directed," has started opening its markets.
    In his letter, made available at the Treasury, Volcker also
said a proposal to ease debt problems of developing countries
by setting up a public facility to buy their debts owed to
commercial banks, was a problem.
    "I believe that the prospect of debt relief would undermine
the difficult internal efforts of the borrowing countries to
achieve the structural reform that is needed regardless of the
policies that are followed on servicing external debt," Volcker
said.
    It might also cause private lenders to become reluctant to
extend more credit to the borrowing countries, he said.
    Volcker said he endorsed comments by Treasury Secretary
James Baker "about the inappropriateness of using public
resources for purchasing private commercial bank debt, which we
both see as an inherent aspect of the proposed international
debt facility."
    He also said a proposal for establishing formal procedures
for international negotiations on currency exchange rates "is
unrealistic and could well have damaging effects."
    "For example, the bill's directive to intitiate negotiations
in order to achieve a competitive exchange rate for the dollar
-- a matter upon which there can be considerable difference
among analysts -- runs the risk of building up potentially
destabilizing market expectations," Volcker said.
    He recommended "we should not lock ourselves into formalized
procedures for international negotiations" on exchange rates but
instead use other, more flexible means like the recent mmeting
in Paris between U.S. treasury and central bank representatives
and those of major trade allies.
 Reuter

    Pay June 15
    Record May 18
 Reuter

Interleukin-2 Inc said the
registration of warrants became effective March 20 and that 3.5
mln warrants will be convertible into 1.75 mln shares of the
company's common stock, giving the company a maximum of 2.4 mln
dlrs.
    The warrants must be exercised by June 22.
 Reuter

U.S. corn acreage this year is 
likely to drop to the lowest level since the unsurpassed
acreage reductions of the 1983 PIK year and could rank as one
of the lowest corn plantings in the United States in sixty
years, Agriculture Department officials said.
    USDA releases its official plantings report on March 31.
Agriculture Department analysts said next week's figures will
likely show a sharp drop in acreage to as low as 65 mln acres,
down 22 pct from last year's plantings of 83.3 mln acres.
    Assuming an 18 mln acre drop in plantings, U.S. corn
production will also decrease significantly. Analysts said 1987
corn production could drop by over one billion bushels to
around seven billion bushels.
    Expected signup of up to 90 pct in the 1987 feed grains
program, along with 1.9 mln acres enrolled in the conservation
program, will cause acreage to plummet, Department feedgrain
    "There's no question that there will be a sharp decrease in
corn acreage," one said. "It's difficult for any farmer to not
go along with the program this year."
    Soybean acreage is also expected to decline this year but
at a much slower rate of around four pct, USDA analysts said.
    Soybean plantings could drop to 59 mln acres or below, they
said, compared to last year's level of 61.5 mln acres.
    If analysts' unofficial estimates prove correct then the
drop in u.s. corn acreage will be the largest since 1983 when
farmers idled 22 mln acres in the Payment-In-Kind program.
    Farmers planted only around 60 mln acres of corn in 1983. A
severe drought that summer in major producing states caused
yields to tumble and final crop production to total only 4.2
billion bushels.
    Given normal weather conditions this year, USDA analysts
said the 1987 corn crop could end up around seven billion
bushels, down from last year's crop of 8.3 billion bushels.
    "This kind of acreage reduction will mean a significant
reduction in production," an analyst said.
    A crop of seven billion bushels is close to the annual U.S.
corn usage, so surplus stocks, while not decreasing, would not
increase significantly, a specialist said.
    High producing corn belt states are expected to show the
greatest acreage reductions, based upon historical
participation in government programs, analysts said.
    In contrast, soybean acreage is likely to be cut the most
in marginal producing areas of the southeast and the western
corn belt, a USDA soybean analyst said.
    "Soybean acreage in the eastern corn belt will not budge,"
he said. Neither does he expect any significant acreage cuts in
higher-producing delta areas.
    Soybean production could drop fractionally from last year's
2.0 billion bushels to 1.8 to 1.9 billion, he said.
    U.S. soybean acreage, after soaring to 71.4 mln acres in
1979 from only 52 mln acres five years prior to that, has
steadily declined in the 1980's.
    U.S. corn acreage, with the exception of 1983, has been in
the low to mid 80-mln acre range for the past 10 years. The
highest corn plantings reported in the 60 years that USDA has
kept such records was in 1932 when farmers planted 113 mln
acres and obtained average yields of 26.5 bushels per acre.
    Last year U.S. farmers obtained record corn yields
averaging 119.3 bushels per acre.
    "We have absolutely no trouble producing an eight billion
bushel crop on only 80 mln acres or so," an analyst said.
    Corn acreage will probably level at around 65 mln acres as
long as government program provisions remain the same, analysts
said.
    Currently farmers enrolling in the program are required to
set aside 20 pct of their base acreage and then are eligible
for payments of two dlrs per bushel by idling an additional 15
pct of their acreage.
    "To get to the PIK level of 60 mln acres, we would have to
provide more incentives," an analyst said.
 Reuter

Kirschner Medical corp said it
completed the acquisition of Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing's <MMM> orthopedic metal implant line division.
    The acquisition price is 12.0 mln dlrs in cash, a six mln
dlr three year note and 100,000 shares of Kirschner common
stock.
    The division had sales of 11.3 mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Leading U.S. farm state senators are
seeking to insert into the Senate's omnibus trade bill a
provision that would broaden eligibility requirements under the
U.S. Agriculture Department's export enhancement program, EEP,
to include traditional buyers of U.S. farm products, including
the Soviet Union, Senate staff said.
    Under existing criteria, USDA can offer EEP subsidies to
recoup export markets lost to competing nations' unfair trading
is leading a group of farm state senators in an effort to
broaden the criteria in such a way as to enable Moscow to be
eligible for the subsidies, sources said.
    The senators -- including Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), David Pryor
(D-Ark.), John Melcher (D-Mont.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) --
also may fold into the trade bill a measure to shield pork
producers and processors from Canadian imports.
    The measure, sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa),
would clarify the definition of "industry" in determining whether
or not imports were causing injury to U.S. producers.
    Grassley's bill stems from a 1985 decision by the
International Trade Commission that imports from Canada of live
swine -- but not fresh, chilled and frozen pork -- were harming
U.S. producers.
    The bill's proponents have argued Canada has simply
replaced shipments of live hogs with fresh pork.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said the dollar has stabilized against other
currencies after action taken by the Fed.
    "We have taken the appropriate action and the dollar has
stabilized," Johnson said after testifying to a House Banking
    He did not elaborate on the nature of the action nor when
it was taken, but said that it was in the spirit of the
agreement reached by six industrial nations in Paris recently.
    Johnson said the dollar's decline against other currencies
such as the Japanese yen has been gradual.
    Since the accord by the United States, Britain, West
Germany, Japan, France and Canada, foreign exchange markets
have been closely watching for indications of intervention by
central banks to determine the committment by those nations to
their agreement.
    The nations agreed that currency exchange rates were at
about the correct levels when the pact was signed earlier this
year.
 Reuter

Xoma Corp said it filed a
Commission covering a proposed public offering of 1.3 mln
    Xoma, a biotechnology company which produces monoclonal
antibody-based products to treat some forms of cancer, said
proceeds will be used to fund research and product development,
human clinical trials and the expansion of manufacturing
capacity and working capital.
    It said Dillon Read and Co Inc and Alex Brown and Sons Inc
will manage the underwriting.
 Reuter

Republic American Corp said it
began an offer to exchange a new issue of 9-1/2 pct
subordinated debentures due 2002 for a portion of its common
stock.
    Republic said it is offering to acquire its stock at a rate
of 17.50 dlrs principal amount of debentures per common share.
    The offering, which expires on April 27 unless extended, is
for up to 2,250,000 shares, with the company reserving the
right to accept three mln shares, Republic also said.
 Reuter

Maryland National Corp, the parent of
Maryland National Bank which earlier this month merged with
American Security Bank, said its shareholders will vote on a
new name for the regional bank holding company at its April 29
    It said MNC Financial Inc is the proposed new name for the
parent company. The banks merged on March 16, and have combined
assets of about 14 billion dlrs.
    Maryland said the new name only will be used for the parent
and it does not plan to change the names of Maryland National
Bank, American Security Bank or non-bank affiliates.
 Reuter

Petroleos de Venezuela S.A will
announce within two weeks the name of a foreign consortium it
has chosen to help exploit the coal deposits at Guasare in
western Zulia state, PDVSA president Juan Chacin Guzman said.
    Chacin told reporters the foreign partner will provide
capital as well as technical and marketing expertise to the
Carbozulia project, which the state oil company will manage.
    PDVSA officials said that among those who bid for the
partnership is a consortium between Agip Carbone, a subsidiary
of Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI), and Atlantic
Richfield <ARC> of the United States.
    Minister of Energy and Mines Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said
discussions are currently taking place to finalize the terms of
the contract with the foreign partner.
    PDVSA vice-president Pablo Reimpell said last week the
first shipment of coal from the Carbozulia project should be
made during the final quarter of 1987, and would measure
between 100-150,000 metric tons.
    Plans call for production to eventually reach 500,000 mt
annually. Reimpell said the original investment in the project
will be approximately 8 billion bolivars.
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 2,776,000 vs 2,756,000
    Sales 46.9 mln vs 38.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,508,000 vs 5,550,000
    Year
    Shr 58 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 4,021,000 vs 3,005,000
    Sales 125.9 mln vs 112.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,090,000 vs 5,500,000
 Reuter

BORG-WARNER SAYS IT DISCUSSED POSSIBLE TAKEOVER WITH IRWIN JACOBS

CYCLOPS CORP SAYS CYACQ'S AMENDED OFFER RESTATES ORIGINAL CONDITIONS

The United States may soon ease its
1987 sugar import quota of one mln short tons by bringing
forward to the third quarter some shipments scheduled for the
fourth quarter of 1987, Jerry Huckaby, a leading Congressman
representing sugar growers told Reuters in an interview.
    Huckaby, a Louisiana Democrat and chairman of the House
subcommittee which deals with the sugar program, indicated the
easing of the quota might be a way to calm the concern about
the impact of the severe cut in U.S. sugar imports this year.
    "With imports coming down from 1.8 mln (last year) to one
mln, there is legitimate concern about the impacts on Caribbean
countries and the Philippines," Huckaby said.
    By bringing forward to the third quarter some imports, the
quota would effectively be eased by about 250,000 tons.
    Huckaby said by simply bringing forward to the third
quarter of the year sugar imports scheduled for the September
to December period "we could get away without having to
increase the quota."
    He noted that some in the sugar industry believe an
increase in the quota is justified.
    Earlier this month, representatives of U.S. cane sugar
refiners met with U.S. Agriculture Department officials to
request a quota increase of at least 200,000 tons. The refiners
said the increase is needed because the quota is so restrictive
there could be some spot shortages of sugar in the U.S later
this year, a refiner spokesman said.
    However, the official slaid the USDA replied only that it
would consider the request.
    Following the refiners' request, representatives of the
Florida sugarcane producers met with USDA to express opposition
to any quota expansion, industry sources said.
    The statement by Huckaby, who as a representative from a
sugar growing district in Louisiana is a leading architect of
the current sugar program, indicates at least some grower
officials are concerned enough to support an easing of the
import quota, industry officials said.
    Any final decision on easing the quota must be made by the
Reagan administration's interagency sugar policy group.
    Asked about possible quota changes, A USDA official said
"As far as I know, changing the quota volume or the quota year
is not under active consideration."
 Reuter

Montomgery Ward and Co, a subsidiary of
Mobil Corp, said it named John Weil as president of its Apparel
Group, replacing Richard Bourret, who has resigned.
    It said Weil has been a consultant to the company since
1986.
 Reuter

Sony Corp said it plans to
begin shipping samples in the fall of a 130 millimeter erasable
magneto-optical disk system used for data storage. It said it
estimates the cost of the sample drives will be one mln yen
with sample media costing 30,000 yen.
    Sony said it will ship samples to potential customers in
Japan or overseas depending on demand.
    Sony said the product's development stems from continued
progress in key technologies such as newly structured recording
layers using a polycarbonate base and high power lasers with
high-speed data transfers, among other things.
 Reuter

California Microwave Inc said
it will take non-recurring charges of 9.7 mln dlrs to pre-tax
earnings in the third quarter ended March 31.
    The company said earnings from operations in the second
half, ending June 30, 1987, excluding the charges, are expected
to be in the break-even range.
    In the second half of 1986 net earnings were 2,297,000
dlrs, or 29 cts per share.
    The company said the charges relate to its
telecommunications products area and three other areas.
    California Microwave previously estimated the write-downs
in the six to eight-mln-dlr range. It said it will add to that
a reserve for investment losses in Argo Communications Corp.
    Also to be included in the write-down are charges against
its advances to an Arizona-based communications electronics
firm the company has an option to acquire, it said.
    In addition, accruals are being made for costs associated
with the company's reduction in its Sunnyvale work force.
    California Microwave said the write-downs should have a
nominal cash impact, as the company already has paid for the
assets being written down.
 Reuter

CRS SIRRINE PLANS MAJOR RESTRUCTURING, WRITE OFF OF UP 43 MLN DLRS

Shr 22 cts vs 22 cts prior qtr
 Reuter

Borg-Warner Corp said it has had
discussions with Irwin Jacobs on his interest in the
possibility of Minstar Inc <MNST>, a Jacobs controlled company,
being given access to certain non-public information about
Borg-Warner.
    In late February, an investor group headed by Jacobs
offered 44 dlrs a share, or 3.29 billion dlrs, to take over
    Borg-Warner said it advised Jacobs that before its board
would give Minstar access to company records Minstar would have
to provide satisfactory evidence that sufficient financing was
committed to carry out whatever transaction was proposed.
    A Borg-Warner spokesperson said the discussions with Jacobs
and other Minstar officials focused on terms and conditions
under which the company would consider granting Minstar access
to the information it was seeking.
    The Borg-Warner spokesperson said the company has not been
able to reach an agreement with Minstar, and Borg-Warner has
not granted Minstar access to any records.
    There can be no assurance that there will be further
discussions with Jacobs or that any agreement will be reached,
the company added.
 Reuter

External Affairs Minister Joe Clark
today vowed to do everything possible to fight the U.S. action
against Canadian potash exports, but also warned against
raising the alarm too early in the dispute.
    In the latest flashpoint in Canadian-U.S. trade relations,
the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled unanimously
Monday that Canadian potash shipments valued at 270 million
U.S. dlrs last year were injuring the U.S. industry.
    "We certainly intend to do everything we can to insure that
Canadian interests are well protected," Clark told the House of
Commons in the daily question period.
    But he said the opposition parties should be careful "not
to raise false alarms too early."
    The case now goes before the U.S. Commerce Department's
trade division to determine if a duty should be imposed. Potash
producers from New Mexico, claiming unfair government
subsidies, are seeking a 43 pct tariff on Canada's shipments.
    Canada, the world's largest potash producer, exported 9.8
mln metric tonnes of potash last year, with nearly a third
going to the U.S.
    Most of the potash, used in the production of fertilizer,
comes from provincially owned mines in Saskatchewan.
    In the Commons, Liberal member Lloyd Axworthy branded the
ruling as just another "trade harrassment" from the U.S. and
criticized Clark's assurances the country's interests would be
protected.
    "We received exactly the same kind of assurances in the
softwood lumber case that was totally fumbled and bumbled,"
Axworthy said.
    Canada's Progressive Conservative government agreed to
impose a 15 pct duty on its softwood lumber exports earlier
this year to end a long and bitter bilateral trade dispute with
the U.S.
    Axworthy urged the government to present Canada's case to
world trade authorities under the General Agreement on Tariffs 
and Trade.
    But Clark maintained the potash dispute was another example
of why Canada needs to find a new way to settle bilateral
irritants in the free trade negotiations under way with the
U.S.
    "What we are seeking to do is put in place a better
system," Clark said.
    Meanwhile, Saskatchewan Trade Minister Bob Andrew expressed
confidence Canada would win its case, claiming the problem
stems from low international commodity prices and not
government subsidies.
    "The reality of the problem and the injury is caused
worldwide," he said. "It's caused by a downturn in the
commodity price for fertilizer, whether it's potash fertilizer,
nitrogen fertilizer or whatever."
 Reuter

Trinidad and Tobago is
finalizing arrangements with Union Carbide <UK> of the United
States and Snamprogetti of Italy for the construction of a
1,500 tonnes per day methanol plant, Energy Minister Kelvin
Ramnath said.
    Ramnath said the ministry is now holding talks with Union
Carbide on the price of natural gas to be used in the plant,
which will be constructed near the Trinidad and Tobago oil
company (Trintoc) refinery at Point Fortin on the west coast.
    Snamprogetti built the first methanol refinery on trinidad
five years ago.
    Trintoc is likely to put up land, refinery plant and
machinery as equity. If negotiations go smoothly, ramnath said,
construction could begin by next january.
    The government of prime minister A.N.R. Robinson is hoping
to lue new investors to the twin-island state's petrochemical
industry, in order to make use of new findings of natural gas.
 Reuter

Ormand Industries INc said its
General Can Co Inc unit has finalized all transactions needed
to repay about 3.3 mln dlrs of past-due accounts to its
unsecured lenders.
    The plan calls for payment of about 1.5 mln dlrs in cash
and the issuance of a new class of preferred stock by Ormand
    The company said it anticipates full distribution to the
creditors during March.
 Reuter

Volcker said that the dollar's slide in currency markets has
been enough, a Fed spokesman said.
    The spokesman confirmed that Volcker, who spoke to a group
of financial analysts, said in answer to a question about the
dollar's recent slide that "enough is enough."
    Volcker has often expressed concern about the dollar
falling too rapidly in currency markets.
 Reuter

NASDAQ MARCH SHORT INTEREST WAS 184.9 MLN SHRS VS 215.7 MLN SHARES IN FEBRUARY

RB Industries Inc said it completed
the sale of its W and J SLoane Division to Laurence Crink Jr
and a group of investors.
    The definitive agreement provides for a closing on April 1,
1987. The division consists of four W and J Sloane furniture
store in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
    RB Industries also said it recently secured a five-year
8.573 pct secured 9.9-mln-dlr loan on its Irvine property from
a major institution. Proceeds will be used to retire existing
bank debt, for working capital and to retire a portion of its
outstanding 12 pct debentures.
 Reuter

Travelers Mortgage Services Inc, a
unit of Travelers Corp, is issuing nearly 75.2 mln dlrs of
mortgage pass-through certificates, said sole manager Morgan
Stanely and Co Inc.
    The certificates have a 6-1/2 pct coupon and initial price
of 89.6 for a bond equivalent yield of 8-1/2 pct. Morgan said
the certificates will be reoffered at various prices and have
an average life of 9.6 years.
    Principal and interest will be payed each month beginning
May 25. Standard and Poor's is expected to rate the
certificates AA, Morgan said.
     
 Reuter

NASDAQ said short interest as of
mid-march totaled 184.9 mln shares compared to 215.7 mln shares
    NASDAQ said the mid-March figures are based on 3,983
securities and the February figures are based on 3,842
    
 Reuter

Goldman, Sachs and Co, acting as lead
manager, said it is offering 100 mln dlrs of deposit notes due
1992 that it purchased from Bank of Virginia Co, a unit of
Signet Banking Corp.
    The notes have a 7-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 99.75
to yield 7.56 pct, or 74 basis points more than comparable
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated Aa-2 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc. L.F. Rothschild co-managed the
deal.
 Reuter

NMS Pharmaceuticals Inc
said it has launched a new over-the-counter urinary blood test
that will be sold through drugstores soon.
    The test, called EZ Detect Urinary Blood Test, detects
minute amounts of blood in the urine that cannot be detected by
the naked eye.
    It has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
 Reuter

American Can Co said it is issuing in
the Euromarkets 175 mln dlrs of convertible Eurodollar bonds
due 2002 with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing.
    The Eurobonds are convertible into the company's common
stock at 66.75 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 27.5
pct over today's closing stock price, American Can said.
    Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, which
could include refinancing outstanding debt, business
acquisitions or investments. The debt is being offered via a
syndicate managed by Morgan Stanley International, Credit
Suisse First Boston and Salomon Brothers International.
 Reuter

The investor group seeking to acquire
GenCorp Inc said it agreed to cancel a court hearing after
GenCorp withdrew three proposals that, if approved, would have
made it more costly and difficult to acquire the Akron,
Ohio-based company.
    Earlier today GenCorp said it will not ask shareholders to
approve an increase in the number of its outstanding shares,
the election of a staggered board of directors and the
elimination of cumulative voting.
    However, the group said it will continue to try to block
GenCorp's poison-pill provision.
    The group, a partnership of AFG Industries Inc <AFG> and
<Wagner and Brown>, was to go to court on March 27 to block
GenCorp for having the three proposals voted on by shareholders
at its annual meeting.
    GenCorp said it withdrew the proposals so that it could
focus its attention on the takeover offer.
    The takeover partnership said it has asked to meet with
GenCorp to negotiate a repeal of the company's poison pill
plan.
 Reuter

Gencorp Inc said that because it is
continuing to evaluate General Acquisition Inc's tender offer
it has fixed April 3, subject to further extension, as the date
the rights to purchase preferred shares will trade separately
from the common stock as a result of the tender offer.
    This extension of the expiration date is conditioned on no
person acquiring beneficial ownership of 20 pct or more of
Gencorp's common stock prior to April 3, it said.
    Gencorp said it could distribute the rights certificates to
shareholders 10 to 30 days after the March 18 acquisition offer
was made.
    However, rather than leaving the expiration date in a
range, the board decided to set April 3 as the day it will
distribute the preferred share purchase rights.
   
 Reuter

Canadian Energy Minister Marcel Masse
will hold a news conference at noon est Wednesday, following a
meeting with his Alberta counterpart, Neil Webber, his office
    Published reports in Canada, quoting government sources,
said Masse will announce a major aid package for the province's
struggling energy industry.
    An unidentified Alberta member of Parliament said the plan
will include drilling incentives and tax measures.
 Reuter

American International Group Inc said
it sold its South African subsidiary, American International
Insurance Co Ltd, to Johannesburg Insurance Holdings Ltd, a
holding company owned by a consortium of shareholders led by
Rand Merchant Bank.
    Terms were not disclosed and company officials were
unavailable for comment.
    With the conclusion of the sale, American International has
entirely divested itself of its holdings in South Africa.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 2.8 mln vs 2.3 mln
    Revs 135.0 mln vs 119.0 mln
    Shr 80 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 8.9 mln vs 7.7 mln
    Revs 407.7 mln vs 403.7 mln
 Reuter

The Association of Professional Flight
Attendants announced today that it was seeking a court order
prohibiting any additional actions by AMR Corp's American
Airlines restricting the right of its members to communicate
with the public.
    Patt A. Gibbs, president of the 10,000-member APFA, said
the union took the action following the firing of 17 flight
attendants who had been handing out information brochures at
American's terminals at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
    The union has been negotiating for a new contract with the
American Airlines for the past seven months. The union is
seeking abolishment by the airline of a two-tier wage system
for flight attendants.
    Gibbs said at a press conference today that American had
fired seven flight attendants "on the spot" last Sunday, and by
Monday a total of 17 had been fired.
 Reuter

Portugal may have purchased a 30,000
tonne cargo at its tender today for up to 43,000 tonnes of
number two yellow corn (14.5 pct maximum moisture) for arrival
by April 30, shipment via Gulf ports, U.S. exporters said.
 Reuter

Taiwan will tender Thursday, March 26,
for a total of 356,000 tonnes of U.S. number two yellow corn
(14.5 pct moisture) for various Sept/Dec shipments via Gulf or
Pacific Northwest ports, U.S. exporters said.
 Reuter

Sri lanka will tender overnight for
52,500 tonnes of U.S., Canadian and/or Australian wheats for
April 8/16 shipment, under the Export Enhancement Program if
U.S. origin, U.S. exporters said.
 Reuter

Brazil's new planning minister is
Anibal Teixeira de Souza, the former head of a national welfare
program, the government said.
    Teixeira replaces economist Joao Sayad, who last week
became the latest victim of the turmoil in Brasilia over
government economic policy.
    Sayad disagreed with Finance Minister Dilson Funaro, the
most important minister for economic affairs, on a range of
policy issues and submitted his resignation.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss one ct vs loss seven cts
    Oper net loss 80,640 vs loss 787,738
    Revs 933,183 vs 3,346,627
    Avg shrs 6,122,378 vs 8,451,578
    Year
    Oper shr loss 75 cts vs loss 1.10 dlrs
    Oper net loss 5,120,206 vs loss 9,288,996
    Revs 5,846,962 vs 18,679,090
    Avg shrs 6,805,951 vs 8,387,802
    NOTE: Earnings exclude losses from discontinued operations
of 178,437 dlrs, or three cts a share vs 154,767 dlrs, or two
cts a share in the quarter and losses of 706,984 dlrs, or 10
cts a share vs 572,100 dlrs, or seven cts a share for the year
    1986 year earnings exclude gain from early extinguishment
of debt of 11,318,289 dlrs, or 1.66 dlrs a share
 Reuter

Bayou Resources Inc said it reached an
definite agreement to be acquired by Patrick Petroleum Co
through a stock and cash transaction valued at six dlrs per
Bayou share.
    Bayou also reported net loss of three cts or 23,024 dlrs
for the fourth quarter compared with a net income of 10,128
dlrs or one cts a year. Revenues fell to 532,807 dlrs from
769,465 dlrs a year ago.
    For the year, Bayou reported a net loss of 14 cts or
116,793 dlrs compared to a net income of 23 cts or 203,372
dlrs. Revenues fell to 2.4 mln dlrs from 3.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Apache Corp said it filed with the
Securities Exchange Commission a 100 mln dlr convertible
subordinated debenture offering.
    It said the offering will be underwritten by Smith Barney,
Harris Upham and Co Inc, E.F. Hutton and Co Inc, Morgan Stanley
and Co Inc, Dean Witter Reynolds Inc and Piper, Jaffray and
Hopwood Inc and will provide a security convertible into Apache
at any time prior to maturity in the year 2012 unless redeemed
earlier by the company.
    In connection with the offering, Apache said preliminary
results for the first two months of 1987 reflected a loss of
about 600,000 dlrs, or three cts a share, on consolidated
revenues of 33 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp
said that it is not willing to accept the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission's conditioned approval of its proposed
offer of settlement dated May 13.
    Transco said it filed a revised settlement proposal which
would permit it to become an open access transporter while
restructuring gas sales services.
    The new offer includes a gas supply inventory charge to
customers who fail to buy 60 pct of their annual contract
quantities and 35 pct of their summer contract quantities.
 Reuter

Shr loss 44 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 2.4 mln vs loss 880,000
    Revs 2.4 mln vs 2.6 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 87 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 4.3 mln vs loss 494,000
    Revs 9.0 mln vs 12.0 mln
    NOTE:1986 includes restructuring charges of 2.1 mln dlrs
and loss of foreign affiliates of 2.0 mln dlrs. 1985 includes
loss from foreign affiliates of 173,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

<Fleet Aerospace Corp>
said it agreed in principle to acquire the assets and
operations of the Engineered Magnetics division of Gulton
Industries Inc, a unit of Mark IV Industries Inc.
    Terms were undisclosed.
    Los Angeles-based Engineered Magnetics designs and produces
custom power conversion systems mainly for use in the defense
and aerospace industries. Its revenues for the year ended
February 28 totaled about 20 mln Canadian dlrs.
 Reuter

    Net 30,969 vs 18,230
    Revs 956,971 vs 702,994
 Reuter

Golden North
Resource Corp said said surface and underground drilling on the
Canty project and Mascot fraction at its Nickel Plate Mountain
property in British Columbia returned encouraging gold assays.
    It said one Canty hole encountered several mineralized
intervals including 11 feet grading 0.342 ounce gold a short
ton from 86 to 97 feet and 17 feet grading 0.756 ounce gold ton
from 170.5 feet to 187.5 feet.
    A Mascot fraction hole returned assays including 0.190
ounce gold ton over seven feet between 57 and 64 feet, it said.
 Reuter

Unisys Corp said it received a 4.5 mln
dlrs computer order from Rikskatteverket, the Swedish
equivalent of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
    The computer is planned for delivery in May this year and
will be installed in the agency's Stockholm headquarters.
 Reuter

Hawkeye Bancorp said it issued
2,690,877 shares of preference stock to its institutional
creditors in payment of 32.3 mln dlrs of restructured debt.
    It said the new shares, which are convertible into common
stock on a share-for-share basis at the option of the holders
at any time, represent in the aggregate 25 pct of the equity of
Hawkeye on a fully diluted basis.
    Hawkeye also said it issued 233,983 shares of common stock
in exchange for 14,766 shares of preferred upon completion of a
previously announced exchange offer to holders of preferred.
    As a result, the company said it has 6,922,949 shares of
common, 155,009 shares of preference stock which are
convertible into 1,149,681 shares ov common and 2,690,877
shares of preference stock convertible into a like number of
    Total common stock equivalents are 10,763,507.
 Reuter

The annual growth of Australia's m3
money supply rose by 11.2 pct in the year ended February
compared with January's 10.7 pct, the Reserve Bank said.
    This was down from 14.0 pct in February last year.
    In February m3 rose by 0.6 pct compared with 0.8 in January
and a February 1986 rise of 0.1 pct.
 More

PS Group Inc said it and
USAir Group agreed to move up the completion date of USAir's
acquisition of Pacific Southwest Airlines to April 30 from
September 30 originally.
    If the acquisition does not take place by April 30, either
party may terminate the agreement, the company said.
    The deadline has been moved up because the Department of
Transportation and PS Group shareholders have already approved
the transaction, the company said.
    A Teamsters Union agreement to certain labor contract
conditions remains to be resolved under the pact.
 Reuter

Tandon Corp said Sears
Roebuck, through its Sears Business Centers, continues to be a
customer of Tandon for its products.
    The company said it was issuing the statement in response
to a published report that quoted unidentified industry sources
as saying Sears Business Centers will shortly discontinue
carrying Tandon computer products.
    Tandon noted, however, that while the Sears relationship is
important, in the first quarter of 1987, ended December 28,
1986, sales to Sears accounted for less than two pct of the
company's total revenues of 76.44 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Automobile dealerships have become
large, multi-store operations, and the largest sell more than 1
billion dlrs a year worth of vehicles a year.
    Around the auto industry there is talk of mergers and
buyouts among dealerships, and there are rumors that the
largest are considering offering shares to the public, analysts
say.
    Retail car sales "are at a point of transition. There's not
much that's off the table in terms of creative thinking" about
ways to sell cars, says David Cole, analyst with the University
of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.
    The retail car market is "much more freeform now" than it
was in 1956, the year things began to change, says Detroit
analyst Arvid Jauppi of Arvid Jauppi and Associates.
    Thirty years ago, in 1956, the situation was different.
Dealerships sold one kind of car--a "Chevy" or a Ford or a
Studebaker. The average dealer had 17 employees and sold
738,000 dlrs worth of vehicles, according to the National
Automobile Dealers Association.
    That year a tiny car from overseas--Germany's Volkswagen
Beatle--began to gain popularity. The "Bug" caused "a
rebellion" among dealers, who demanded greater freedom from
restrictions placed on them by the major American automakers,
says Jauppi.
    One of the most visible changes in retail car sales has
been in the size of dealerships, auto analysts say. Last year,
the average dealership had 11.2 mln dlrs in sales--a 15-fold
increase from 1956--and employed 34 workers.
    "I had one of these guys tell me he makes six, seven mln
dlrs a year and didn't know what to do with all his money,"
says Cole.
    "There's a whole lot more rich guys who sell cars than that
make cars," he says.
    With the increase in size, large dealers have been buying
up other dealerships, and auto analysts see few signs the trend
will let up.
    Donald Keithley, vice president, dealer services, for J.D.
Power, a California-based market research firm, says that, by
1990, 12,000 people will own dealerships compared to 16,800
principal owners today.
    Many dealers are experimenting with owning several
franchises, some of which might compete against each other. "It
used to be a Chevrolet dealer was a Chevrolet dealer. Now a
Chevrolet dealer might handle several lines," Jauppi says.
    As dealers get bigger, industry officials are talking about
the possibility that some of them might become publicly-owned
or open international operations.
    Offering shares to the public is an option large dealers,
"are obviously thinking of very seriously," says Cole.
    Although some say the franchise system might get in the way
of a public offering, Jauppi says there are few obstacles to
trading in car dealer shares.
    "Dealers are large enough now to go public. The only thing
the manufacturer cares about is that the dealer sells those
cars. It could happen any time," Jauppi says.
    "If you look at the whole merger mania, and look at the
scale some of these dealers, it's going to be very hard to
resist taking them public," said another analyst.
    And Jauppi says that dealerships can be expected to become
international.
    "We're going to have international dealers--dealer networks
that are worldwide," he says. U.S. dealers will be attracted
particularly to Europe, where the market will expand faster
than the U.S., he says.
    "It's not totally off the wall," says Cole.
 Reuter

    Shr 17 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 2,041,000 vs 3,329,000
    Revs 46.6 mln vs 48.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 65 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 9,290,000 vs 12.7 mln
    Revs 142.7 mln vs 139.8 mln
 Reuter

Chapman Energy INc said it is launching
a major restructuring which, if not approved, it will have no
alternative but to seek protection under Chapter 11.
    Under the plan, Chapman will exchange securities and cash
for all outstanding 12 pct senior subordinated debentures due
2000 and will sell a controlling interest to Troon Partners
Ltd.
   The agreement with Troon requires Troon to advance 6.5 mln
dlrs partially secured by a first mortgage lien on the
company's interest in its natural gas pipeline partnership and
Troon to tender 100,000 principal amount of debentures to
Chapman.
    Proceeds of the loan will be used for the cash portion of
the restructuring. Troon will acquire a majority stock interest
and control of the board.
    In addition, Chapman and Troon will establish a 10 mln dlrs
acquisition joint ventures, it said.
    The plan also contemplates establishing a restructured loan
providing for one master credit agreement having an aggregate
balance of 22.4 mln dlrs.
    The plan also contemplates the recapitalization of
preferred stock whereby each share will be converted into three
    Chapman also said it also plans to negotiate settelment and
discharge of a substantial portion of its accounts payable and
settlement of certain litigation.
    If approved by various creditors and shareholders, the
company expects the plan to be completed by May 29.
    Chapman also repoted a loss of 43.4 mln dlrs for the year,
including asset writedowns of 35.5 mln dlrs, compared to
December 31, compared to a net income of 177,243 in 1985.
    The 1986 loss resulted in shareholders' deficiency of 15
mln dlrs compared to shareholder's equity of 28.9 mln last
year.
    Total assets decreased to 35.6 mln dlrs from 81.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 98 cts vs loss 1.11 dlrs
    Net loss 3,863,000 vs loss 3,483,000
    Revs 1,081,000 vs 799,000
    Note: 4th qtr data not given.
 Reuter

Univation Inc said it has
entered marketing agreements with eight major European
distributors in seven countries.
    The company said the agreements are expected to yield ten
mln dlrs in sales in the next 18 months.
 Reuter

Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 87 cts
    Net 1,064,489 ca 780,712
    Assets 106.8 mln vs 102.5 mln
 Reuter

 Reuter

    Pay July 1
 Reuter

Bank of Japan bought 200 to 300 mln dlrs this morning, dealers said.

MIAMI-Brazil and bank advisory committee agree to 60-day extension on credit lines

The Bank of Japan bought a modest amount
of dollars this morning, possibly around 200 to 300 mln,
    One dealer said the central bank bought about 200 mln dlrs
through brokers and the rest through banks. The buying began
when the dollar was at about 149.60 yen, and helped drive the
U.S. Currency up to around 150, he said.
    Another said the central bank seemed to be trying to push
the dollar up above 150 yen. But heavy selling at around that
level quickly pushed the dollar back down towards 149 yen,
 REUTER

Miami-Brazil says it expects to make no interest payments before March 31

CORRECTED-MIAMI-Brazil, bank committee will transmit request for 60-day credit extension

Brazil and its bank advisory committee
agreed to transmit a request for an extension of short-term
credit lines totalling 16 billion dlrs for 60 days until May
31, Brazilian Central Bank President Francisco Gros said.
    Speaking after talks with the committee here, Gros also
said he did not expect to make interest payment to the banks at
this moment.
    He added that "no one should expect any dramatic
developments before March 31."
    Brazil last month suspended interest payments on its 68
billion dlrs debt to commercial banks and froze short-term
trade and money market lines.
    Bankers said they would relay the Brazilian request for an
extension but declined to say whether they were specifically
endorsing it.
    Gros said the decision, which he called a "standstill"
arrangement, will be communicated to Brazil's 700 bank
creditors by telex tomorrow. Banks had been pressing Brazil to
make at least a token interest payment, but Gros said the
government was unable to comply for the moment.
    He stressed however that Brazil was willing to pay as soon
as it could, but added that a payment of interest was not
connected with the extension of the credit lines.
    "That would not be wise," he said.
    He said that the extension of the short-term lines would
not be carried out through "an official instrument" as there was
not time to complete the legal requirements.
    Gros said Brazil was likely to meet again with the 14-bank
advisory committee once Brazil had information to present on an
economic plan.
 REUTER

An Agriculture Ministry survey has
estimated the nation's 1986/87 crop sugar cane output at 2.14
mln tonnes, down from 2.62 mln a year earlier.
    Ministry officials said the decline was due to bad weather
and a reduction in the land under sugar cane this season, which
totals 34,800 hectares, down from 35,700 in 1985/86, they said.
    Harvesting stretches from December 1986 to April 1987
    Japan's final output will be announced at the beginning of
June, they said.
 REUTER

India's first intercontinental-range
rocket fell into the Bay of Bengal two minutes after launch
    "Disaster struck the Indian space program today," the Press
Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported of the failure of the
rocket at Sriharikota in south India.
    Earlier, the news agency had reported that 460 seconds
after the blast-off the launch vehicle had placed a 145 kg
satellite payload in a 400 km earth orbit.
 REUTER

Australia's opposition coalition of
Liberal and National parties has closed the ruling Labour
party's three percentage point lead in the past month, a public
opinion poll published today said.
    The Morgan Gallup Poll showed both sides were level on 45.5
pct in a nation-wide poll of about 2,000 voters.
    It also showed public support was growing for Andrew
Peacock, who was dismissed as the opposition's foreign affairs
spokesman two days ago, although the poll was conducted a week
before he was removed.
    The survey, published in the Bulletin magazine, said 49 pct
of the voters wanted Peacock while only 18 pct supported
opposition leader John Howard.
    Peacock has said he may challenge Howard for the leadership
before the next elections due before April, 1988.
    Howard sacked Peacock as shadow foreign minister after
accusing him of undermining the leadership during a telephone
conversation with another party member.
    The car-telephone conversation was picked up by an
unidentified man using a radio scanner and published in the
Melbourne Sun newspaper.
 REUTER

Shr 16.7 cents vs 29.4
    Final div nil vs same making nil vs same
    Pre-tax profit 21.31 mln dlrs vs 26.42 mln
    Net 10.84 mln vs 19.15 mln
    Turnover 17.17 mln vs 25.94 mln
    Other income 101.99 mln vs 125.18 mln
    Shrs 65.13 mln vs same.
    NOTE - Net is after tax 10.47 mln vs 7.27 mln, interest
2.58 mln vs 9.55 mln, depreciation 5.06 mln vs 7.61 mln and
minorities nil vs same. Other income: 72.39 mln from sale of
investments (103.04 mln 1985), interest 25.75 mln (21.49 mln),
and dividends 1.64 mln (nil). Co is 93.7 pct owned by <Bell
Resources Ltd>.
    Note - All figures in U.S. Dollars as the company is
registered in Bermuda.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan keeps intervening to hold dollar above 149 yen, brokers

The Bank of Japan is continuing to
intervene in the Tokyo market, buying small amounts of dollars
to hold the unit above 149 yen, brokers said.
    They said the Bank is coming in when the dollar is around
149.05/10 yen, the same levels as New York's close yesterday
and the midday close in Tokyo today.
    Dealers said the Bank of Japan is intervening in the market
through both banks and brokers this afternoon.
    The central bank is checking selling orders through banks
and placing matching buy orders, they said.
    The central bank started to intervene shortly after the
market opened here in the afternoon, the dealers said.
 REUTER

The Bell Group Ltd <BLLA.S> said it will
make two convertible bond issues totalling 200 mln dlrs.
    An issue of about 125 mln in convertible bonds, to be
quoted on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, would be offered in
Europe through a syndicate led by <Banque Paribas Capital
Markets Ltd>, <Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd> and <S.G.
Warburg Securities>, Bell Group said in a statement.
    Subject to shareholder approval, at a meeting on April 22,
a further 75 mln dlrs in convertible bonds would be subscribed
by Bell Group chairman Robert Holmes a Court, it said.
    The funds would provide additional working capital.
    The bonds, maturing 10 years from the date of issue, would
carry a 10 pct per annum interest rate, payable annually in
arrears, Bell Group said.
    The bonds are convertible into ordinary shares of The Bell
Group Ltd at any time, with the issue price a premium in the
range of 20 to 25 pct above the market price of the ordinary
shares at the date of issue of the bonds, it said.
    The bonds also carry the right for the issuer to redeem
them after two years if the share price is above 130 pct of the
conversion price for more than 30 days. Bell Group made a
similar 75 mln dlr bond issue in December 1985.
 REUTER

Current exchange rates almost within levels agreed by major nations - Sumita

Thailand's foreign reserves of gold,
special drawing rights and convertible currencies fell to 3.86
billion dlrs at end-February from 3.95 billion the previous
month, but were above the 3.08 billion held at the same time
last year, the Bank of Thailand said.
    It said the reserves were equal to about five months' worth
of imports.
 REUTER

said that current exchange rates are almost within the levels
agreed to by six major nations last month in Paris.
    Asked whether a dollar/yen rate of 148 or 149 reflected
economic fundamentals, he said current rates almost reflect
    Sumita told reporters major nations have cooperated to
bring about currency stability in line with the Paris
agreement, which stipulated that they would closely cooperate
to that end. He repeated the central bank will intervene if
necessary, adding he did not think a dollar free-fall was
likely.
    But Sumita said he could not say exactly what currency
levels would be considered in line with underlying economic
    In Paris on February 22, Britain, Canada, France, Japan,
the U.S. And West Germany agreed to cooperate to hold
currencies around their then current levels.
    Sumita said he could not find any specific reasons behind
the fall of the dollar to a record low against the yen
yesterday. But he said the market rushed to sell dollars as it
nervously reacted to statements abroad and to developments
surrounding trade tensions.
    U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker said over the weekend
that the Paris pact did not encompass fixed tragets for the
dollar. U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter called
U.S/Japan relations on certain key trade issues very strained.
    The market reacted nervously because the dollar has been
moving narrowly against the yen since mid-January, Sumita said.
He added he does not expect the yen/dollar exchange rate to
remain unstable because the market is concerned about a sharp
rise of the yen.
    The Bank of Japan will keep a close watch on exchange rates
in line with the Paris accord, he added.
 REUTER

Preliminary trade figures for
February show an excess of exports over imports of 119.1 mln
N.Z. Dlrs, a Statistics Department statement said.
    This compares with a 3.3 mln dlr deficit (revised from 1.7
mln) in January and a 36.1 mln dlr deficit in February 1986.
    Exports rose to 998.4 mln dlrs, from 889.2 mln (revised
from 889.5) in January and 903.2 in February 1986. Imports
dropped to an estimated 879.4 mln dlrs from 892.5 (revised from
891.2) in January and 939.3 in February 1986. The deficit for
the eight months to the end of February was 15.3 mln dlrs, as
against 1.057 billion dlrs in the same period a year ago.
 REUTER

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd
<MC.T> said it will issue a 200 billion yen unsecured
convertible bond in the domestic capital market through public
placement with Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd, Nomura Securities Co
Ltd, Nikko Securities Co Ltd, Daiwa Securities Co Ltd and
National Securities Co Ltd as underwriters.
    Coupon and conversion price for the par-priced bond
maturing on September 30, 1996, will be set before payment on
May 2.
    This issue equals in size a record one by Toyota Motor Corp
last December.
    Matsushita's shares closed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at
1,640 yen, down 50 from yesterday.
 REUTER

Sumita says Bank of Japan has no intention of lowering its discount rate

said the central bank has no intention of cutting its discount
rate again as a way of preventing the yen's rise.
    He told a press conference that the growth of Japanese
money supply remains high.
    The bank will have to watch closely various developments
resulting from its already eased monetary stance, such as the
sharp rise in real estate and stock prices, he said.
    Although the yen's rise will have a greater deflationary
impact on the economy, the economy is not likely to slow down
much further, Sumita said.
    "I don't think we should change our economic outlook at the
moment," Sumita said.
    Sumita has said in the past that he expects the economy to
show a gradual upturn in the second half of the year.
    The governor said the six major industrial nations are
expected to review last month's pact on currency stability when
they meet next in April.
    Dealers said they expect the six - Britain, Canada, France,
Japan, the U.S. Amd West Germany - to meet just before the
IMF/World Bank interim committee meeting in Washington starting
on April 9.
 REUTER

A strong performance by its retail
businesses and affiliates will enable Jardine Matheson Holdings
Ltd <JARD.HKG> to report on Friday a big leap in net profit in
1986, stock analysts said.
    They told Reuters they expect the firm to show earnings of
between 420 mln and 450 mln H.K. Dlrs last year against 157 mln
in 1985.
    The analysts also said they expect Jardine Matheson to pay
a total dividend of 15 to 20 cents a share against 10 cents a
share in 1985.
    James Capel (Far East) Ltd estimates Jardine Matheson's
1986 profits at 450 mln dlrs and attributes most of the income
to retail sales.
    Analysts said the group's 7-Eleven retail stores and its
franchises, among them Canon cameras, Christian Dior luxury
goods and Mercedes Benz cars, produced a strong cash flow.
    Alan Hargreaves of Hoare Govett Asia Ltd also put Jardine
Matheson's 1986 net profits at 450 mln dlrs and said he
estimates pre-tax earnings from retail operations at about 465
mln dlrs against 339 mln in 1985.
    But Hargreaves said Jardine Matheson's earnings from its 35
pct stake in Hong Kong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HKG> will fall to
about 230 mln dlrs from 281 mln dlrs in 1985.
    The reduced contribution reflects the spin-off from Hong
Kong Land of <Dairy Farm International Ltd> last September.
    Jardine gained a direct holding of 35 pct of Dairy Farm as
a result of the spin-off. Analysts said Jardine will book
revenues from its Dairy Farm stake for the final months of the
year as part of its retail business, which will increase its
overall retail income figures.
    Analysts said Jardine Matheson will also enjoy sharply
increased revenues from financial services, mainly its 50 pct
share of <Jardine Fleming Holdings Ltd>.
    Jardine Fleming yesterday reported record profits for 1986
of 209.5 mln dlrs against 104.7 mln in 1985.
    Analysts said Jardine Matheson made net interest payments
of about 200 mln dlrs last year, slightly below the 213 mln
dlrs of 1985, while the company's term debt remained at about
the 1985 level of 2.7 billion dlrs.
    But Jardine was also subject to increased taxes of 340 mln
dlrs last year against 292 mln in 1985, they said.
    Jardine Matheson is undergoing a series of reorganisations
that will in effect turn it into a holding company for its
diverse interests.
    It previously announced a plan to sell its stakes in both
Hong Kong Land and Dairy Farm to newly created <Jardine
Strategic Holdings Ltd> in which it has a 41 pct interest.
    A company statement issued last month said the firm will
use the proceeds to repay all debt, leaving it with an
additional 500 mln dlrs in cash on hand.
    Though Jardine Matheson will be deprived of a direct stake
in the high-yield Hong Kong Land and Dairy Farm units, it is
likely to develop its own business, analysts said.
    "The future of the stock will depend on the firm's ability
to creatively structure some new acquisitions," said Hargreaves
of Hoare Govett.
    He noted the firm has suggested financial services as a key
sector, and he said it may add some insurance firms to its
existing business.
 REUTER

Former Chinese Communist Party chief Hu
Yaobang attended a parliamentary session in his first public
appearance since his dismissal in January.
    Hu took his place on the platform of the auditorium of
Peking's Great Hall of the People as 3,000 delegates gathered
for the opening meeting of the National People's Congress
annual session.
    Hu was dismissed from the top Communist Party job after
being accused of "mistakes" including a failure to combat Western
political ideas.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry has accepted a
decision by the securities industry to expand the share of
foreign brokers in the 10-year bond underwriting syndicate to
5.73 pct from 1.19 pct now, a ministry spokesman said.
    Earlier this month, the ministry approved a plan to expand
the securities industry's share in the syndicate to 26.2 pct
from 26 pct from April to allow six foreign securities firms to
participate, he said.
    The banks' share in the syndicate will be cut to 73.8 pct
from 74 pct from April.
    Each of the original 17 foreign brokers had a 0.07 pct
share, but the securities industry said in a report accepted by
the ministry that it decided to raise the share of some foreign
firms due to their commitment to the Japanese market.
    Salomon Brothers Asia Ltd will have one pct, while S.G.
Warburg and Co Ltd, Goldman, Sachs International Corp, Jardine
Fleming (Securities) Ltd, First Boston Corp, Merrill Lynch
Securities Co and Morgan Stanley and Co Inc will each have 0.5
pct.
    Vickers da Costa Ltd and Smith Barney, Harris Upham
International Inc will each have 0.3 pct. Kleinwort, Benson
Ltd, Kidder, Peabody and Co Ltd, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc,
Deutsche Bank AG and W.I. Carr, Sons and Co each get 0.1 pct.
    Bache Securities (Japan) Ltd, Hoare Govett (Far East) Ltd
and J. Henry Schroeder Bank and Trust Co and the six new
syndicate members -- E.F. Hutton International Inc, Shearson
Lehman Brothers Asia Inc, Dresdner Bank AG, Swiss Bank Corp
International Asia Inc, Sogen Security Corp and Swiss Union
Philips and Drew Ltd -- will each have a 0.07 pct share in the
securities industry.
 REUTER

China's first joint venture bank, Xiamen
International Bank (XIB), reported a group net profit of about
14 mln Hong Kong dlrs in 1986, the bank's first full year of
    General manager Liu Shuxun declined to give a 1987 profit
forecast, saying targets were under study.
    Assistant general manager Wang Hongshan said the group's
outstanding loans at end-1986 totalled 620 mln Hong Kong dlrs,
up from 530 mln at end-1985. Deposits and interbank borrowings
rose to 680 mln dlrs from 550 mln, he told Reuters.
    Liu said most of the group's profit came from the parent
company rather than its two wholly-owned subsidiaries <Xiamen
International Finance Co Ltd> in Hong Kong and <Luso
International Bank Ltd> in Macao.
    The joint venture bank began operating in September 1985
but did not officially open until March 1986.
    Liu said the share in the joint venture of the foreign
partner, Hong Kong-listed <Panin Holdings Ltd>, had been cut
last year to 49 pct from 60 pct. This was done because foreign
banks felt the XIB's reputation would be improved if the three
Chinese partners collectively held a majority stake, he said.
    Liu said news reports about problems concerning Panin were
unfounded, but he did not elaborate. Panin Holdings reported a
loss of 1.99 mln Hong Kong dlrs in 1986 after a net profit of
268,000 dlrs in 1985.
    The Chinese partners are Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China, Fujian branch, whose share rose to 23.5 pct from 15,
Fujian Investment and Enterprise Corporation 17.5 pct (15) and
Xiamen Construction and Development Corporation 10 pct (10).
    One foreign banker said Xiamen International Bank faced the
same problems as foreign bank branches in trying to compete on
unequal terms with state-owned banks.
    The foreign banking market in Xiamen is thin and almost
saturated, he added.
    Officials of the joint venture bank said they benefitted
from contacts made through its three Chinese partners. But the
foreign banker, who asked not to be named, said it faced
internal competition from the Industrial and Commercial Bank.
    Apart from Xiamen International Bank and the International
Agricultural Development Bank planned by the World Bank and the
state-owned Agricultural Bank of China, Xiamen has eight
foreign bank branches or representative offices, mostly of Hong
Kong or overseas Chinese banks.
 REUTER

Bangladesh recorded an overall balance of
payments deficit of 8.3 mln U.S. Dlrs in October against a
10.33 mln deficit in September and a 6.67 mln surplus in
October 1985, Central Bank officials said.
    The country's current account deficit narrowed to 10.69 mln
dlrs in October from 79 mln in September and 11.75 mln in
October 1985.
    The October trade deficit narrowed to 36.36 mln dlrs from
160 mln in September and 83.79 mln in October 1985.
 REUTER

Worsening drought conditions in Peking
may force the authorities to ration water for industry and
farming this summer, the New China news Agency said.
    The agency quoted city officials as saying rainfall last
year was 75 millimetres lower than in 1985, and its two main
reservoirs are now only one-quarter full.
    Peking's underground water level is 60 centimetres lower
than last year, reducing daily supplies by 50,000 tons.
    The officials said daily water supplies in urban Peking
will fall 160,000 to 260,000 tons short of demand during the
hottest days this summer.
    They called for stricter control of water consumption and
greater recycling of water, adding that there was no hope of
alleviating the shortage until a new water mill starts up in
one year's time.
 REUTER

Jiangsu Tobacco Corp and <Celanese
Fibres Operations Ltd> yesterday established China's first
cigarette filter joint venture, the Nantong Cellulose Fibres
Co, the China Daily said.
    The joint venture factory, due to start operations in 1989,
will be able to produce up to 10,000 tonnes of cellulose fibre
annually, it said. Cellulose fibre is the main component of
cigarette filters, which China has always imported.
    It said Celanese Fibres owns 30.68 pct of the Jiangsu
province-based joint venture which has a total investment of
35.17 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

Nippon Steel Corp <NSTC.TOK> said it will
cut its capital spending by 36.4 pct to 105 billion yen in the
year starting April 1 from a year earlier due to the
postponement of furnace improvements.
    <Nisshin Steel Co Ltd> said it will spend 10.7 billion yen
in 1987/88 for rationalisation and facility improvements, down
from 32.1 billion a year earlier, after completion of large
construction projects in 1986/87.
    But capital spending by Nippon Kokan K.K. <NKKT.TOK> to
improve and increase its production facilities will rise to
94.90 billion yen from 64 billion, the company said.
 REUTER

<Kokusan Kinzoku Kogyo Co Ltd> (KKK), a
Japanese autoparts maker owned 25 pct by Nissan Motor Co Ltd
<NSAN.T>, has exchanged a memorandum to acquire over 50 pct of
U.S. Autoparts firm <Master-Cast Co> to avoid losses on U.S.
Sales caused by the yen's rise against the dollar, a KKK
    The final agreement should be signed this year when KKK
forms the new company <Alfa K Technology>, he said.
    The new firm should supply all the U.S. Major car makers,
including Ford Motor Co <F>, General Motor Corp <GM> and
Chrysler Corp <C>, he said.
 REUTER

The yen could rise to 140 yen to the
dollar, a leading Japanese businessman said.
    Bumpei Otsuki, president of the influential Japan
Federation of Employers' Associations, (Nikkeiren), told
reporters: "The yen might rise as far as 140 (to the dollar).
The U.S. Economy is not good, and as long as the U.S. Economy
is not good, the U.S. Will put various pressures (on Japan)."
    "The yen's level depends on the condition of the U.S.
Economy rather than Japan's economy, and as long as the
American situation is bad, the yen will continue to rise," he
said.
    To cope with the negative impact of the strong yen,
Japanese enterprises must strive to cut costs by all means,
including holding down wages as much as possible, Otsuki said.
    He rejected recent calls from some government quarters for
wage increases this year as a means of raising private
consumption and thus boosting domestic demand.
    "We have to keep wages as low as possible," he said.
    He also said the yen's large and rapid rise is depressing
the outlook for the Japanese economy, noting that in addition
to hurting exporters it is also damaging domestic market
manufacturers through cheap imports.
    Parts of the service sector are also threatened, Otsuki
said.
    Tertiary industries provide services to manufacturers and a
downturn in manufacturing profits will adversely affect service
industries, he said.
    It is also doubtful whether the tertiary sector can fully
employ those put out of work in the manufacturing sector, he
said.
    Profits of service sector companies are likely to fall in
the business year ending in March 1988, leading to a possible
recession in the Japanese economy, he said.
    Otsuki said economic growth is unlikely to pick up beyond
levels experienced in 1986.
    The government's Economic Planning Agency said last week
the economy grew at 2.5 pct in 1986, the worst performance
since 1974 when the economy shrank 1.4 pct due to the first oil
price crisis.
    In order to stimulate domestic demand and boost the
economy, tax reforms aimed at bringing down the cost of land
and reforming the nation's housing stock are needed, along with
steps to bring down the high cost of commodities, he said.
 REUTER

The Stock Exchange of Singapore Ltd
is looking at a new settlement and clearing system and a
corporate disclosure format that would make financial data more
readily available, George Teo, deputy chairman of the exchange,
said.
    He told a conference organised by the Development Bank of
Singapore Ltd that Singapore wants to develop the fixed rate
securities market. He said a state securities market, along the
same lines as the U.S. Government securities market, will be
developed to provide a benchmark for corporate bonds.
    Teo said the fixed rate securities market will pave the way
for companies to raise fixed rate funds.
    Referring to a proposed change in the broking commission
structure, Teo said the exchange is likely to introduce a
sliding scale structure instead of a negotiated commission
structure. He said the negotiated structure works against small
investors, who play an important role in the market.
    The market capitalisation of the Stock Exchange of
Singapore increased to 42 billion U.S. Dlrs in January 1987
from 32 billion U.S. Dlrs in early 1986, he said.
    Teo said the government has picked 15 companies to
participate in a privatisation program which strives to create
opportunities for investors through the sale of 380 mln dlrs
worth of shares a year. It will try to increase alternative
investment available to investors, he said.
    He cautioned against problems in a more competitive
securities market, adding that the possibility of insider
trading is increased when securities dealing, corporate finance
and investment advisory functions are conducted under one roof.
But he said the future direction of Singapore's securities
industry will be dictated by international trends.
 REUTER

The Dutch Ministry of Finance plans a
new fixed eight-year state loan at an unchanged 6-1/4 pct.
    The amount and issue price will be set at tender next
Tuesday, March 31. Payment is on May 1 and coupon date is May
1.
    No early redemption will be permitted.
    The issue is the fourth for payment this year.
 REUTER

BRUSSELS - Ferruzzi says it will pay 630 mln dlrs to CPC International for European mills.

Vietnam will resettle 300,000 people on
state farms known as new economic zones in 1987, to create jobs
and grow more high-value export crops, the communist party
newspaper Nhan Dan said.
    Yesterday's edition, received here today, said Vietnam
would invest one billion dong, including the costs of
relocation, in 272 new economic zones. About one third of that
sum would be spent on export crops such as coffee, tea, rubber
and pepper in the Central Highlands, it said.
    Since 1975, Vietnam has resettled about three million
people from cities and crowded river deltas to the zones.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) has failed
to agree on a high-technology research program because of
opposition from Britain and West Germany, diplomats said.
    But Belgian Research Minister Guy Verhofstadt told
reporters the two had been given just over a week to end their
opposition or risk plunging EC research into a crisis.
    The so-called "Framework Program" proposed by the EC's
Executive Commission was designed to boost research in areas
such as computers, biotechnology and telecommunications and
combat U.S. And Japanese domination in these fields.
    The five-year program was due to start at the beginning of
this year, but was delayed by calls from Britain, France and
West Germany for cuts in the proposed budget of 7.7 billion
European Currency Units (Ecus), diplomats said.
    The EC Commission had already cut the budget from 10.5
billion Ecus, but under EC law the program needs the approval
of all member states before it can be launched.
    France has withdrawn its objections and backed a new
compromise budget proposed by Verhofstadt to trim spending.
    But Britain is continuing its demands for further, sharp
cuts in the budget.
    West Germany, which yesterday appeared to be ready to
accept the compromise, was also holding back.
    Verhofstadt, who chaired the lengthy meeting, said he had
given the two states until April 3 to withdraw their
    But if one or both failed to do so, the EC would be left
without a research program, leaving no money for schemes such
as the EC's Esprit information technology drive.
    "If that happened ... There would be a grave crisis in
Europe's scientific and research policy," Verhofstadt said,
adding it could mean research teams being disbanded.
    Diplomats said West Germany was close to agreeing to the
compromise, which would limit new spending to 5.4 billion Ecus
by allowing for cash already set aside for future projects.
    The plan would also set aside at least 16 pct of the 5.4
billion Ecus for spending after the end of the five-year
program, they said. But Britain still maintained the
allocations were much too high.
    Britain's Research Minister Geoffrey Pattie faced a tough
fight to convince his government colleagues they should accept
an increase in spending beyond the 4.2 billion Ecu level so far
demanded by Britain, one diplomat added.
 REUTER

Madagascar extended its oil
exploration agreement with the U.S. Firm Amoco Corp <AN> for 17
months to allow for further studies of the Morondava basin on
the southwest coast, a government statement said.
    It said the existing five-year agreement, due to expire
this July 24, was extended until the end of 1988 to allow for
additional geological and geophysical studies.
    Amoco has so far laid 7,100 km of seismic lines and sunk
five exploration wells in the Morondava basin. It may drill a
further three wells before the end of the extended exploration
period, the statement said.
    Madagascar has signed oil exploration agreements with four
foreign oil companies since 1981. But despite promising
indications of large reserves, no commercial production plans
have yet been announced.
    The foreign firms - Amoco, Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY>,
Mobil Corp <MOB> and a unit of <Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi> -
are working in partnership with the National Military Office
for Strategic Industries (OMNIS).
    Roland Ratsimandresy, the director general of OMNIS, said
at a ceremenony to sign the extension of the Amoco agreement
that his department would intensify oil exploration with its
existing partners and would soon offer a new round of
exploration licences.
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The Ferruzzi Group's holding company
Agricola Finanziara SpA will pay 630 mln dlrs for the European
corn wet milling business of CPC International Inc under the
agreement reached in principle between the two companies, a
statement by Ferruzzi released by its Brussels office said.
    When CPC announced the agreement yesterday in New York, it
said only that the price would be in excess of 600 mln dlrs.
    Ferruzzi said the deal is subject to agreement on several
clauses of the contract and needs government authorisations.
    It said the deal would involve 13 starch factories
employing about 5,000 people in eight European Community
countries plus facilities and commercial operations in other EC
states.
    The factories have a capacity to produce the equivalent of
1.6 mln tonnes of starch in starch and by-products a year, or
about one third of EC production, from about 2.7 mln tonnes of
cereals.
    Ferruzzi said the acquisition of these assets would extend
its presence in the European agro-industrial industry both
geographically and in terms of products.
    It said it is already the principal EC producer of sugar
and of soya oil and cake, and the major cereal trader.
    It noted that EC output of isoglucose is subject to maximum
quotas, of which CPC currently holds a 25 pct share, and said
it foresaw an increase in other industrial uses of starch in
the future, notably in the production of ethanol for fuel.
    Raul Gardini, president of the Ferruzzi Group, said the
present management of the CPC milling business will be asked to
remain in their posts.
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State-owned Philippine Airlines Ltd
(PAL) said it has agreed with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd
<CAPH.HKG> to an increase in seat allocations on the busy
Manila-Hong Kong route.
    A spokesman told Reuters a memorandum of understanding
would be signed later this week between the British and
Philippine governments to allow the current total of 32 flights
a week to be increased. "There are no immediate plans for more
flights but it gives us flexibility," he said.
    PAL said an agreement reached with British Airways would
allow each carrier to keep three London-Manila flights weekly.
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Shr "A" 138.9 H.K. Cents vs 97.4 (adjusted)
    Shr "B" 27.8 cents vs 19.5
    Final div "A" 44 cents vs 32.3, making 62 vs 47 (adjusted)
    Final div "B" 8.8 cents vs 6.5, making 12.4 vs 9.4
    Net 1.78 billion dlrs vs 1.23 billion
    Turnover 16.6 billion vs 13.7 billion
    Note - Net profits excluded extraordinary gains of 1.38
billion dlrs vs 59.1 mln. The non-recurrent earnings mainly
derived from the firm's sale of a 15.75 pct stake in Cathay
Pacific Airways Ltd <CAPH.HKG> in April.
    Note - Earnings per share and dividends have been adjusted
for the firm's two-for-one bonus issue made in April.
    Note - Bonus issue one-for-five for both "A" and "B" shares
against two-for-one.
    Note - Dividends payable June 2, books close April 16 to
24.
    Note - Net asset value per "A" share 6.94 dlrs vs 4.81 and
per "B" share 1.39 dlrs vs 0.96.
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BAT Industries 1986 pretax profit 1.39 billion stg vs 1.17 billion

Shr 53.51p vs 45.72p
    Div 8.8p vs 7.35p making 14.3p vs 12.1p
    Turnover 19.17 billion stg vs 17.05 billion
    Operating profit 1.48 billion vs 1.29 billion
    Pretax profit 1.39 billion vs 1.17 billion
    Tax 524 mln vs 430 mln
    NOTE - The company said shareholders would be given the
option of receiving dividend in cash, ordinary shares or
combination of the two.
    Commercial activities 1.08 billion vs 988 mln
    Financial services 263 mln vs 135 mln
    Share of associated companies 139 mln vs 163 mln
    Investment income 150 mln vs 166 mln
    Interest paid 238 mln vs 286 mln
    Minorities 76 mln vs 63 mln
    Extraordinary credit 75 mln vs 34 mln debit
    Transfer to revaluation reserve 85 mln vs 106 mln
    Profit attributable 793 mln vs 673 mln
    Required inflation retention 77 mln vs 147 mln
    Trading profit 1.51 billion vs 1.29 billion
    Tobacco 764 mln vs 738 mln
    Retailing 211 mln vs 186 mln
    Paper 217 mln vs 168 mln
    Financial services 282 mln vs 135 mln
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Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HKG> said it
plans for a one-for-five bonus issue for both its "A" and "B"
shares following an earlier report of a 44.7 pct jump in 1986
net profits to 1.78 billion H.K. Dlrs.
    The company also announced final dividends of 44 cents per
"A" share and 8.8 cents per "B" share against 32.3 and 6.5 cents a
year ago.
    It recorded extraordinary gains of 1.38 billion dlrs which
mainly derived from the sale in April of a 15.75 pct stake in
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd <CAPH.HKG> in line with the
floatation of the airline.
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Japan Trade Ministry asks trade houses, exporters to reduce dlr sales, sources

The Food Department will no longer
import sugar from April 1, senior officials of the Food and
Cooperatives Ministry and the Department told Reuters.
    They said the decision was taken after the Sugar Importers
Association asked that the sugar trade be further liberalised.
    "The Food Department will cease trading in sugar and will no
longer hold a buffer stock," a senior official said.
    He said the government has finalised an agreement with
E.D.F.Man (Sugar) Ltd under which E.D.F.Man will hold a buffer
stock on the government's behalf of 20,000 tonnes, against the
45,000 tonne buffer stock usually held by the Department.
    Officials said the size of the buffer stock has been
reduced because the private sector will hold its own stocks.
    The agreement with E.D.F. Man includes details such as
trigger pricing mechanisms, they said.
    Four months ago the Department allowed the private sector
to import sugar without government clearance. The Department
and the private sector each imported around 115,000 tonnes of
sugar last year, when national consumption was 280,000 tonnes.
    An Importers Association official said that "even if the
Department no longer imports sugar, we would not necessarily
buy more."
    This is because the Association would still have to compete
with the Cooperatives Wholesale Establishment (CWE), he said.
    The CWE is a semi-government body and the official said
arrangements are being made for state cooperatives and holders
of food subsidy stamps to draw their sugar from it, starting
April 1.
    Ministry officials said the CWE can either import sugar or
buy it from a local bonded warehousing scheme run by E.D.F. For
the past two years.
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The Dutch Central Bank said it
allocated 4.183 billion guilders at tender for the new 5.3 pct,
nine-day special advances.
    Bids were fully met for the first 200 mln guilders and for
40 pct above.
    The new advances for the period March 25 to April 4,
replace current 5.3 pct, five day advances totalling 4.003
billion guilders which expire today.
    Money brokers said yesterday they expected the Bank to
allocate about 3.5 billion guilders.
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Consumer prices fell 0.1 pct in
February, after a rise of 0.2 pct in January and no change in
February 1986, the National Statistics Office said.
    The index, base 1980, fell to 154.5 in February from 154.6
in January, against 147.4 in February 1986, giving a
year-on-year increase of 4.8 pct.
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Industry (MITI) has asked about 30 Japanese trading houses and
exporters to refrain from excessive dollar selling, trading
house officials said.
    The officials told Reuters MITI asked them to moderate
their foreign exchange trading because the excessive rise in
the yen will have unfavourable effects on the economy. It made
the request by telephone.
    A MITI official said the ministry has conducted a survey of
foreign exchange trading by trade houses and exporters. But he
said it was not aimed at moderating dollar selling.
    The trading house officials said MITI had asked them to
undertake foreign exchange transactions with due consideration
to the adverse effects excessive exchange rate movements would
have on the economy.
    The MITI official said MITI undertakes such surveys when
exchange rates fluctuate widely. A similiar survey was made
when the currency fell to the previous record low of 149.98 on
January 19. It hit a new record low of 148.20 yen yesterday.
    He said the survey showed currency transactions by trade
houses and exporters contributed little to the dollar fall.
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yen of government financing bills tomorrow under a 29-day
repurchase accord maturing April 24 to soak up a projected
money market surplus, market sources said.
    The surplus is estimated at 350 billion yen, due mainly to
excess bank holdings of yen funds after heavy dollar purchases
in the foreign exchange market yesterday, money traders said.
houses from money houses will be 3.9495 pct against the 3.9375
pct discount rate for one-month commercial bills and the
4.58/42 pct yield on one-month certificates of deposit today.
    The operation will put the outstanding bill supply at about
1,900 billion yen, money traders said.
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Abbey National, the second largest
building society in the U.K., Said it has arranged a one
billion dlr euro-certificate of deposit program.
    It said this is the largest such program to date for a
building society and the first to be denominated in U.S.
Dollars.
    Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd is lead manager and arranger
for the program and will act as a dealer, along with Shearson
Lehman Brothers International, Swiss Bank Corp International
Ltd and S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
    Abbey National has been very active in the international
capital markets ever since building societies were permitted by
law to tap the wholesale markets.
    The building society's general manager, finance, James
Tyrrell, said in a statement the program is part of Abbey's
strategy of spreading its funding option from what has recently
been medium/long term into shorter term instruments.
    He said this also widens Abbey's investor base.
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Enserch Inc is issuing 100 mln dlrs of
convertible debt due October 4, 2002 carrying an indicated
coupon of six to 6-3/8 pct and priced at par, Salomon Brothers
    Enserch's stock closed at 22-1/2 last night on the New York
Stock Exchange. The conversion premium is indicated to be 20 to
23 pct. The securities are non-callable for three years.
    There is a 1-1/2 pct selling concession and two pct
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Middle East currency dealers meet in
Abu Dhabi this weekend at a time of fundamental change in their
business, which has seen a growing volume of trade shift from
the Arab world to London.
    The 14th congress of the Inter-Arab Cambiste Association
also comes at a time when the prospect of a unified Gulf
currency system is more real that at any time this decade.
    Foreign exchange traders and bank treasurers said these
issues, and the slide of the Lebanese pound, can be expected to
be major talking points.
    About 250 traders and treasurers from some 115 banks --
including some in London and other major non-Arab financial
centres -- are expected to attend the conference which begins
on on Saturday.
    Bankers said it is hard to avoid the impression that a
growing proportion of transactions in the Saudi riyal market,
by far the largest in the region, is being carried out in
London.
    The market had been dominated by Saudi Arabia's 11 banks,
foreign exchange houses in the Kingdom and offshore banks in
Bahrain. But bankers said more and more Saudi and Bahrain-based
banks are boosting their treasury operations in London.
    As recession hit the Middle East and the need for trade
finance in the region declined, many offshore banks in Bahrain
ran down their currency operations. None of the four major U.K.
Clearing banks now has a dealing room on the island.
    The two major Bahrain-based international banks, <Arab
Banking Corp> and <Gulf International Bank BSC> have increased
their presence in London and Saudi banks are busy upgrading
representative offices to branch status to allow dealing.
    One economist said: "It is cheaper to run a riyal book in
London than staff an expensive offshore operation in Bahrain...
There is now the nucleus of a two-way market in London."
    Jeddah-based <Riyad Bank> set up as a licensed deposit
taker in London in 1984, while its main rival in Saudi Arabia,
<National Commercial Bank> (NCB) won a licence in November
1986.
    The major market maker has traditionally been London-based
consortium bank <Saudi International Bank> but the kingdom
joint-venture <Saudi American Bank> (SAMBA) also upgraded its
London operation to deposit taker status in mid-February.
    One senior currency trader in Riyadh said: "Inevitably the
volume of business in London has gained pace with the two new
licences for NCB and SAMBA, but there is no question that most
of the liquidity still rests in Saudi Arabia."
    Currency traders said the shift to London in the Saudi
riyal market is difficult to quantify.
    Bahrain Monetary Agency figures show regional currency
deposits held by offshore banks, most in Saudi riyals, dropped
to the equivalent of 12.2 billion dlrs at end-September 1986
from 13.4 billion at end-1985 and a 1983 peak of 15.0 billion.
    The shift has prompted changes in dealing habits. Riyal
trading in the Gulf on Saturdays and Sundays has become very
quiet with London closed while some Saudi and Bahrain banks now
staff offices on Friday, the Gulf weekend. Traders also expect
<Arab National Bank> to step up London operations.
    Traders say it is difficult to foresee the riyal market
moving completely out of the region, partly because of local
demand and partly because of what is seen as the Saudi Arabian
Monetary Agency's (SAMA) desire to moderate
internationalisation of the riyal and protect it from undue
    There have been far fewer signs of the Kuwaiti dinar market
shifting from its natural base of Kuwait and trading in Bahrain
and London is still limited.
    But for the first time since the formation of the six
nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981 there are signs
that a much mooted currency union could come into force soon.
    Currency traders said it remains unclear what form a final
currency union would take for the six states -- Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
    But plans to link the six currencies in a European Monetary
System style with a common peg have been discussed at high
level and could be a topic on the GCC's annual summit expected
to be held in Saudi Arabia late in the year.
    One dealer said: "A lot of exposure is being given to
discussions and plans appear to be quite advanced. But in the
end a political decision has to be taken to give the go-ahead."
    One open question is that of a common peg for currencies.
    The idea of linking the six currencies has been debated
since the start of the GCC. The Kuwaiti dinar is currently
linked to a basket of currencies while the other five
currencies are either officially or in practice linked to the
U.S. Dollar.
    Some traders said a currency union could mean speculation
against the Saudi riyal rubbing off on other Gulf currencies,
but plans call for a permitted divergence in the system of
7-1/4 pct, large enough to avoid sudden strains.
    Another topic for debate is expected to be the continued
slide of the Lebanese pound against the dollar and the
undermining of the effective capital base of Lebanese banks.
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recorded a provisional trade deficit of 9.45 billion francs in
January after a December surplus of 15.32 billion francs,
revised upwards from a provisional surplus of 11.94 billion,
the National Statistics Office said.
    In January 1986, the union recorded a deficit of 23.31
    January imports fell to a provisional 228.86 billion francs
from 240.24 billion in December and 281.65 billion a year
earlier, but exports were also lower, at 219.41 billion francs
against 255.56 billion and 258.34 billion respectively.
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Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> will seek an
injunction in the U.K. High Court today to freeze the assets of
former Chairman Ernest Saunders in its attempts to recover 5.2
mln stg paid to a Jersey company as part of the company's
takeover battle for <Distillers Co Plc>, a spokesman said.
    He said the court move aimed to freeze Saunders' assets up
to the value of the sum it wanted to recover. It was uncertain
whether the court would reach any decision on the request
today. Guinness said last week it planned to take legal action
to recover the funds, paid to non-executive director Thomas
Ward via the Jersey company.
    Lawyers representing Ward have said he saw the funds as his
reward for services performed during the takeover of
Distillers.
    Guinness is also planning a resolution at the annual
meeting in May to remove both Saunders and Ward from the
company's board.
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Citibank NA is issuing up to 50,000
currency warrants which give the holder a call right on U.S.
Dollars from marks or yen, Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd said as
sole manager.
    Each warrant, priced at 47.50 dlrs, gives the holder the
right to purchase a nominal sum of 500 dlrs for either 182.50
marks or 149.50 yen between March 31, 1987 and March 31, 1989.
    The warrants will be listed in Luxembourg and pay date is
March 31. Exercise, requiring one day's notice, must be for a
minimum of 100 warrants through one currency only.
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Malaysia's net external borrowings
for 1987 are expected to be maintained at around last year's
levels of about 1.45 billion ringgit, Zain Azraai, secretary
general to the Finance Ministry, told an investment seminar
here.
    Malaysia's debt service ratio will also be maintained at "a
level no higher than 20 pct," he said. "This is well within the
capacity of the nation to service."
    Azraai said the 1986 foreign borrowing level and projected
estimates of 1987 compared favourably with the peak of around
5.5 billion ringgit in 1982.
    Malaysia's external debts total 48 to 49 billion ringgit
and its debt service ratio exceeds 20 pct, the Development Bank
of Singapore Ltd, one of Singapore's four major local banks,
said in a report released this week.
    Azraai said: "While the growth in debt has been rapid in
recent years, it is still within the limits of prudence and
conscious efforts have been made and will continue to be made
to decelerate and restrain external borrowings."
    He said the Malaysian government is urgently addressing the
twin deficits of the Federal Budget and the balance of payments
which followed two recessions in the 1980s.
    Azraai said Malaysia's public sector deficit had risen due
to the contraction in the government's resources as well as the
rapid growth in public expenditures.
    With declining incomes and export earnings, the bases for
resource generation became limited, and the government will not
raise taxes because current tax margins are high compared to
Malaysia's neighbours, he said.
    "As such the remaining avenue for rationalising and
consolidating the budget is through expenditure reductions," he
said.
    Azraai said the Malaysian government's development
expenditures were cut by about 25 pct in 1987, while those of
state enterprises were reduced by 41 pct.
    He said: "A commitment has been undertaken to reduce the
budget deficit over time and to balance the Federal
government's budget current account deficit by 1989."
    Malaysian Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin presented a
budget for 1987 which foresees a deficit of 9.4 billion
ringgit, down from 11.6 billion in 1986, with federal spending
targetted at 27.4 billion, down from 30.8 billion, and revenue
at 18 billion against 19.2 billion.
    Azraai said the government will cut the size of the public
sector and privatize those operations which may be better run
by the private sector. New measures have been introduced to
boost the private sector and attract foreign investment.
    A higher proportion of foreign ownership, even up to 100
pct, is now possible for new investments in the manufacturing
sector made between October 1986 and December 1990, he said.
    "The long term prospects of the Malaysian economy are bright
... Indications are already available to show that the economy
is recovering and that growth will be positive and stronger
than originally expected," Azraai said.
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BASF AG <BASF.F>
said net profit of its U.S. Operating company, BASF Corp, rose
last calendar year to 105 mln dlrs from 39 mln in 1985.
    Turnover rose by by more than one billion dlrs to 3.6
billion, the parent company said in a statement. The rise,
however, partly reflected the inclusion of the first full
business year of three acquisitions made in 1985. Excluding
these, BASF Corp turnover rose four pct from 1985.
    Acquisitions were the high-performance connecting materials
operations of Celanese Corp, Inmont Corp bought from United
Technologies and American Enka bought from AKZO NV <AKZO.AS>.
    BASF said it expected a U.S. Investment of 240 mln dlrs in
1987, part of a five-year programme totalling one billion.
    U.S. Projects completed in 1986 included the second acrylic
acid plant in Freeport, Texas, a technical centre in
Southfield, Michigan, in which paint lines from automotive
plants can be refitted, and the new agricultural research
centre in Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina.
    BASF said that work this year had begun in Geismar,
Louisiana, on plants for production of special amines and
polytetrahydrofuran, as well as for expansion of capacity for
producing tetrahydrofuran.
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Net foreign assets of Swiss banks rose
by 3.5 billion Swiss francs to 71.2 billion francs in the
fourth quarter of 1986, due to increased interbank business and
purchases of foreign securities, the Swiss National Bank said.
    Assets rose 5.3 billion to 205.0 billion while liabilities
climbed 1.8 billion to 133.8 billion. For 1986 as a whole,
assets rose by 11.9 billion and liabilities by 3.0 billion.
    The level of fiduciary funds invested abroad rose by 3.2
billion to 223.0 billion, the first rise since the third
quarter of 1985. Funds invested in such accounts from abroad
were up by 3.2 billion to 180.7 billion.
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Shr 22.7p vs 20.3p.
    Final div 8.25p, making 11.75p vs 11p.
    Pre-tax profit 101 mln stg vs 92 mln.
    Attributable profit 45 mln vs 39 mln.
    Turnover 2.14 billion stg vs 2.11 billion.
 MORE

Taiwan's M-1B money supply rose a
seasonally adjusted 48.22 pct in the year to end-February,
after rising 54.96 pct in the year to January, a central bank
    Month on month, M1-B fell 5.19 pct from January.
    Unadjusted February M1-B was 1,168 billion dlrs against
1,232 billion in January and 788 billion in February 1986.
    Money supply grew faster in January because the central
bank issued more currency for bonus payments made to workers at
the Lunar New Year, which fell on January 29 this year, banking
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Almost 150 people were killed when
Afghan aircraft raided a number of Pakistani villages on
Monday, Pakistani officials said.
    The toll in Teri Mangal in Kurram Agency rose to 81, about
45 people were killed in Lwarai Mandi in North Waziristan
Tribal Agency and 23 died in Angur Adar, South Waziristan, the
    The Soviet-backed Afghan government has not commented on
the reports.
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China must cut excess demand and capital
investment in the face of budget and foreign exchange deficits
but will press ahead with wide-ranging economic reforms in
1987, Premier Zhao Ziyang told parliament.
    Zhao told the annual meeting of the National People's
Congress that while China cooled its overheated economy, cut
its trade deficit and raised national living standards in 1986,
serious imbalances remain.
    Zhao said total social demand exceeds total supply, and
demand for consumer goods, especially from state firms, is too
high. "(They) squander public funds to a serious extent ... (and
issue) excessive wage and bonus increases," he said.
    Failure to cut this excess will "result in reduced
accumulation of funds...And serve to corrupt social morality,"
Zhao said. He said there was a contradiction between low per
capita incomes and excessively high consumer demand.
    China needs to accumulate enormous funds for construction
in its initial stage of socialist modernisation and consumption
must match the available resources, he said.
    Zhao said there was a deficit in state finances in 1986
because of the sharp fall in world oil prices, the rising cost
of foreign exchange earnings through exports, reduced income
from customs duties and unreasonably heavy spending.
    Local authorities, departments and firms have been able to
retain more revenue since economic reforms in 1979. "(They)
unjustifiably developed processing industries and
non-productive construction," Zhao said.
    He said that unless effective measures are taken to curb
this practice, financial and credit deficits are likely to
increase in the next few years.
    Zhao said that if such deficits become excessive and last
too long, they will cause the over-issue of money, which in
turn will cause "disturbing inflation, a precipitous rise in
commodity prices and chaos in economic life."
    Another serious problem is that too many new construction
projects have been launched. Fixed asset investment outside the
state plan is over-extended and the pattern of such investment
is highly irrational, he said.
    Investment in energy, transport, telecommunications and raw
and semi-finished materials industries is inadequate and
investment in non-productive projects is too large, he said.
     Zhao said some departments and local authorities have
failed to take prompt and effective measures to correct this
investment imbalance, despite instructions to do so from the
State Council earlier this year.
     He said China's per capita output of grain and other farm
and sideline products is still very low and production of
grain, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries rests on a
rather weak foundation.
     China's countryside is still in the development stage and
there is vast potential to be tapped through deep reforms, he
said, but did not elaborate.
    Zhao said the main task for reform in 1987 is to breathe
life into China's large and medium sized state firms, which
still do not have "a satisfactory combination of
responsibilities, powers and benefits."
    "We have yet to create conditions for giving the enterprises
full managerial authority and full responsibility for their own
profits and losses," he said.
    Currently, the firms are not responding rationally to
market changes and doing all the state requires of them, he
said. Their potential is not being fully tapped, he added.
    Zhao said that in 1987, China will speed up the reform of
its financial system, diversify credit services, encourage
competition among different financial institutions and promote
insurance services.
    He said the system of bank interest rates must be reformed,
with differential and floating rates being applied for
different periods of time.
    China must, under proper guidance, develop markets for the
circulation of funds in major cities and exploit the role of
financial markets in pooling and regulating funds, he added.
    Zhao said China must also expand the market for capital
goods such as rolled steel, coal, cement and timber. The lack
of such a market is the main reason why large state firms have
"yet to be fully invigorated," he said.
    He also promised a continuation of the labour contract
system under which all firms hire workers for a fixed period
and pay them according to their own methods, subject only to
state-set ceilings for wages and bonuses.
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Nippon Steel Corp <NSTC.T> plans to
reduce its dividend to three yen in the year ending March 31
1987 from the five yen of 1985/86, a company spokesman said.
    The company estimated parent company current losses at 15
billion yen in 1986/87, including a gain of 95 billion yen from
the sale of securities. This compares with a 36.07 billion yen
profit a year earlier.
    Sales in 1986/87 are seen at 2,150 billion yen, down from
2,685 billion a year ago.
    Poor business prospects were attributed to the yen's rise
and slow world steel demand. Nippon is expected to report
parent company results in late May.
    Total 1986/87 crude steel production is estimated at 25.57
mln tonnes, down from 27.98 mln a year earlier.
    Crude steel production is likely to be below 1986/87 output
but forecasts for profits and sales in the year starting April
1 are unavailable yet, he said.
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A strong performance from all BAT
Industries Plc's <BTI.L> major sectors enabled the group's 1986
pretax profits to pass the one billion stg level for the third
year running, Chairman Patrick Sheehy said in a statement.
    The group earlier reported a 19 pct rise in profits to 1.39
billion, which Sheehy said was achieved without any help from
exchange rate fluctuations or acquisitions.
    Good results were achieved by its Argos and Saks Fifth
Avenue in retailing and by Wiggins Teape and Appleton in paper.
    Tobacco accounted for about 50 pct of profit with a four
pct gain to 764 mln stg and a two pct increase in world volume.
    The results were largely in line with analysts expectations
and BAT shares firmed by two pence to 537p at 0955 GMT.
    BAT said the U.S. Brown and Williamson unit held most of
its 1985 gains and increased profit 18 pct in dollar terms.
    Financial services saw profits double to 282 mln with both
Eagle Star and Allied Dunbar achieving further growth.
    Allied Dunbar reported a 51 pct rise in life annual
premiums to 39 mln stg. BAT said it increased new business by
38 pct in the last nine months after a relatively slow first
quarter. Its permanent health insurance was now the market
leader and its Unit Trust group was now the second largest in
the U.K.
    Eagle Star general premiums rose 32 pct to 1.03 billion.
Its life activities also grew 39 pct with better underwriting
results in the second half.
    Cash flow was strong and the gross debt to equity ratio
dropped to 41 pct from 51 pct. The net ratio, at 26 pct, left
the group strongly placed to pursue its further development.
    Profits from paper and pulp grew 29 pct to 217 mln stg,
nearly three times the 1982 level, with Wiggins Teape's sales
rising 36 pct to pass one billion stg.
    BAT said in 1986 it had sold 88 BATUS stores in the U.S.
For 644 mln dlrs and sold Grovewood Securities for 142 mln stg.
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Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang said the
threat from western political ideas which caused widespread
student demonstrations last December has been curbed.
    In an address at the opening session of China's parliament,
the National People's Congress, he accused unnamed party
leaders of being weak and lax in their supervision of ideology
and of failing to give full support to the promotion of
Marxism.
    "After several months of work since the end of last year we
have curbed bourgeois liberalisation, which was once quite
widespread," he said.
 REUTER

Taiwanese investment in the U.S. Is
expected to nearly double to 80 mln U.S. Dlrs in calendar 1987
and rise to 400 mln dlrs a year by 1991, a five-year forecast
by the Economic Ministry showed.
    Taiwanese investment in the U.S. Last year totalled 46 mln
dlrs, the ministry document said. The investment was mainly in
electronics, trading, food and service industries.
    Lee Ming-Yi, deputy director of the ministry's Industrial
Development and Investment Centre, said the forecast rise is
due to planned government incentives and growing willingness
among Taiwanese to invest abroad.
    Lee told Reuters the incentives, to be introduced in May or
June, include bank loans and a reduction in capitalisation
requirements for businesses seeking to invest in the U.S. To 10
mln Taiwan dlrs from 20 mln.
    He said the moves to encourage investment in the U.S. Are
part of Taiwan's efforts to cut its trade surplus with
Washington, which rose to a record 13.6 billion U.S. Dlrs in
1986 from 1985's 10.2 billion.
    Taiwanese manufacturers can create jobs for Americans and
avoid import quotas if they set up plants in the U.S., He
added.
 REUTER

<DBCG.F> said its wholly-owned Borsig GmbH subsidiary has won a
78 mln mark order to build a conventional power station block
for Venezuela's state-owned electricity company CADAFE.
    It said the installation, which can be powered by oil or
gas, should go on stream at the end of 1988.
 REUTER

The Bermuda registered <Jardine
Matheson and Co Ltd> has indicated it would participate in a
local consortium led by Hopewell Holdings Ltd <HPWH.HK> which
has proposed to build the second airport here, a Hopewell
    Jardine Matheson will take up a five pct stake in the joint
venture which has presented the government with a 25 billion
H.K. Dlr infrastructure development plan for Hong Kong's
offshore island of Lantau.
    The proposal includes an airport, a deep-water port and
highways linking with Southern China.
    Hopewell, which initiated the proposal, owns a 20 pct stake
in the consortium. Chairman of the firm Gordon Wu said recently
he expects the airport to start operation by mid-1992 and the
whole project to be completed by 1993 if an approval for the
project is obtained within a year.
    Other partners of the joint venture comprise a combined 20
pct stake by Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HKG> and
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HKG>, while Wu said at that time
the remaining 60 pct will be taken up by other interested
parties -- the public, and probably the Hong Kong and Chinese
 REUTER

Div 4.7p making 8.7, an increase of 13.9 pct
    Shr 16.3p vs 17.9p adjusted
    Pretax profit 37.09 mln stg vs 34.55 mln
    Net 22.12 mln vs 24.13 mln
    Interest payable 8.10 mln vs 5.35 mln
    Share of associated co's 6.88 mln vs 5.42 mln
    Turnover 1.22 billion stg vs 1.10 billion
 REUTER

The placement of 10.1 mln government
owned shares in Veba AG <VEBG.F> is still open for small
shareholders but lead manager Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> has
already closed its books for institutional investors, a
Deutsche spokesman said in answer to queries.
    Under the terms of the placement which opened on Monday,
small shareholders were given priority for three days so that
this privilege will not lapse until close of business today.
    Consortium banks set aside fixed amounts for small
shareholders. The spokesman could not say how big these were,
or whether other banks had closed books for institutions.
 REUTER

Shr net basis 24.8p vs 24.5p
    Shr nil basis 22.7p vs 20.9p
    Div 5p making 7.6p vs 6.5p
    Pretax profit 57.78 mln stg vs 50.61 mln
    Net after tax 37.47 mln vs 36.49 mln
    Outside shareholders interests 1.75 mln vs 1.32 mln
    Extraordinary debit 370,000 vs 1.93 mln
    Turnover 533.59 mln vs 555.81 mln
    Profit breakdown by activity -
    Electrical equipment 28.59 mln stg vs 27.60 mln
    Engineering 10.75 mln vs 11.13 mln
    Industrial services 18.78 mln vs 16 mln
    Corporate finance 340,000 vs 4.12 mln
    Making total pre-tax profit 57.78 mln vs 50.61 mln.
 REUTER

<Placer Pacific Ltd> said it will
undertake a full feasibility study of Western Australia's Big
Bell gold prospect.
    Results of an economic evaluation of the find, in which
Placer has an option with <Australian Consolidated Minerals
Ltd> (ACM) to earn a 50 pct interest, were encouraging enough
to warrant a full study, Placer said in a statement.
    Big Bell, in the Murchison goldfield 540 km north east of
Perth, was founded in 1904. Between 1937 and 1955 it yielded
22.8 tonnes of gold and 7.8 tonnes of silver while milling
about 30,000 tonnes of ore a month.
    Placer has said the prospect has an estimated 14 mln tonnes
of ore with a three-gram-per-tonne concentration accessible by
open-pit mining and a further 4.5 mln tonnes with a
4.4-gram-a-tonne concentration between 300 and 600 meters
underground.
    It said it was obliged to produce the feasibility study no
later than December 31 this year by which time it would have
spent three mln dlrs on Big Bell.
    If the results are positive and a commitment to develop
made then construction would take about 12 months, Placer said.
 REUTER

Belgian public debt rose a nominal
89.5 billion francs in February to 5,591.1 billion francs, and
compared with 5,074.2 billion in February 1986, the finance
ministry said in its monthly statement.
    It said after taking into account operations with the
International Monetary Fund and foreign exchange fluctuations,
the figure corresponding to the government's net financing
requirement in February was 86.0 billion francs.
    This is below the February 1986 figure of 91.1 billion
francs.
    However in the first two 1987 months, the amount
corresponding to the net financing requirement was 184.2
billion francs against 183.9 billion in the same period of
1986, the Ministry said.
    The Belgian government is aiming to cut the financing
requirement for the whole of 1987 to around 420 billion francs
from 561 billion last year through a major spending cuts
program.
 REUTER

Babcock International Plc <BABK.L> said
in a statement accompanying final results for 1986, showing
pretax profits up to 37.09 mln stg from 34.55 mln in 1985, that
overall further progress is expected in 1987.
    The predicted slowdown of the U.S. Automobile industry is
affecting the North American group although the improved
performance in the FATA European group during 1986 is expected
to continue into this year.
    In the U.K. Overall profitability will improve when the
Central Electricity Generating Board's ordering programme for
both nuclear and fossil-fired fuels starts.
 REUTER

Egypt purchased 46,000 tonnes of
optional origin sunflowerseed oil at its import tender
yesterday, all for May arrival, traders said.
    The business comprised 41,000 tonnes of crude sunflowerseed
oil in bulk at prices ranging from 344.25 to 348 dlrs and 5,000
tonnes of refined oil in drums at from 517.50 to 522.50 dlrs
per tonne, cost and freight Alexandria, delivered quality
terms.
 REUTER

China should tighten imports of ordinary
goods and restrict or even forbid import of goods which can be
made domestically, Premier Zhao Ziyang said.
    He told the National People's Congress, China's parliament,
that the country's foreign exchange is limited and must be used
where it is most needed.
    "We should expand production of import substitutes and
increase their proportion," he said.
    On exports, China should increase its proportion of
manufactured goods, especially textiles, light industrial
goods, electronics and machinery, he said.
    Zhao said China should lower the cost of exports and
control the export of goods that incur too much loss. In 1986
China had a trade deficit of 11.9 billion dlrs, down from a
record 14 billion in 1985.
    Zhao said China should work to provide a more favourable
investment environment for foreign businessmen. It should use
foreign funds for production and construction, with stress on
firms making goods for export or import substitutes.
    China should also earn more foreign exchange from tourists
and contracted labour abroad, he added.
 REUTER

The West German Cabinet approved a plan to
mint a special 10-mark coin commemorating the 30th anniversary
of the European Community this year.
    The silver-copper alloy coin will be minted in an edition
of 8.35 mln, a Finance Ministry statement said.
 REUTER

Singapore's gross domestic product
will grow six pct in the first quarter and five pct in the
second quarter this year, with further growth expected in the
second half, Trade and Industry Minister Lee Hsien Loong told
parliament.
    The figures compared with 3.4 pct contraction and 1.2 pct
growth respectively for the first and second quarters of 1986.
    The estimates were based on a tentative leading indicator
incorporating new business orders, company inventories and
share prices used by his ministry, Lee said, without giving
further details of the new indicator.
    Singapore's economy grew 1.9 pct last year, after shrinking
1.8 pct in 1985. The government has forecast growth rate of
three to four pct for 1987.
 REUTER

Talks between Cargill U.K. Ltd's
management and unions, aimed at ending the prolonged strike at
its Seaforth oilseed processing plant, will resume this
afternoon, a company spokesman said.
    Yesterday's session failed to reach a compromise but some
progress was made, he said.
 REUTER

Norway is issuing a 60 billion yen
eurobond due April 22, 1992 paying 4-1/4 pct and priced at
101-5/8 pct, lead manager Nomura International Ltd said.
    The non-callable issue will be available in denominations
of one mln yen and will be listed in London.
    The fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession with 5/8 pct
 REUTER

The U.S. Airline Brockway Air, a
subsidiary of <Brockway Inc>, has signed an agreement with
Saab-Scania AB <SABS ST> to buy five 34-seater Saab SF340
aircraft for an undisclosed price, with an option on a further
five, Saab said.
     All five will be delivered to the Burlington,
Vermont-based airline this year for use on Brockway's 22-city
service system.
    Saab said it now had 103 firm orders for the regional
SF340, 80 of which had already been delivered.
 REUTER

Saab-Scania AB is establishing a 100 mln
dlr euro-commercial paper issuance program, Enskilda Securities
said as arranger.
    Dealers will be Enskilda and Bankers Trust International
Ltd. Paper will be issued in discounted note form only and will
    Denominations will be 500,000 and one mln dlrs.
    Enskilda Securities said Saab-Scania hopes to activate the
program soon.
 REUTER

Feed compounds, balancers and
concentrates produced in Britain in the five weeks ended
January 31 totalled 973,400 tonnes, against 966,200 tonnes
produced in the same 1986 period, Ministry of Agriculture
    However, cattle/calf feed output, the largest single
component, was 7.2 pct down at 435,900 tonnes against 469,900
tonnes. Pig feed was 170,800 tonnes versus 171,600, and poultry
feed 287,600 compared with 256,600. Other smaller components
included in the total all showed increases.
 REUTER

Kloeckner & Co KGaA, the
international trading group, said its 1986 domestic group net
profit fell by around 20 pct against 1985, adding that the
profit resulted largely from a writing back of reserves.
    The company, which gave no 1986 profit figures, posted a
domestic group net profit of 41 mln marks in 1985.
    It said the 1986 profit was made possible through a 40 mln
mark write-back of reserves that had been created to cover
possible price rises. These reserves were no longer necessary
because of recent declines in raw material prices.
    Kloeckner attributed the profit decline to the fall in
prices as well as the lower value of the dollar.
    It said it would pay an unchanged dividend on its ordinary
share capital, which is entirely in private hands and held
largely by family foundations.
    Kloeckner's nominal 100 mark profit-participation
certificates, issued in October 1986, will pay a likely yield
of around 10 pct. Holders of the certificates are entitled to a
quarter of the 1986 payment, or around 2.50 marks, the company
added.
 REUTER

Governments of major Asian
producing countries have welcomed the conclusion of a new
International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA), but growers and
traders are unhappy with the development, according to views
polled by Reuter correspondents.
    Officials in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, which
produce the bulk of the world's rubber, said they expected the
new pact to continue to stabilise prices and help their rubber
industries remain viable in the long-term.
    But traders and growers said they were against the new pact
because its buffer stock mechanism was likely to interefere
with free market forces and prevent sharp rubber price rises.
    The new INRA, to replace the current one which expires on
October 22, was formally adopted by most of the world's
producers and consumers in Geneva last Friday.
    It will be open for signature at the U.N. Headquarters in
New York from May 1 to December 31 this year and will enter
into force provisionally when ratified by countries accounting
for 75 pct of world rubber exports and 75 pct of world imports.
    Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said
the formal adoption of a new pact had dispelled fears of
liquidation of some 360,000 tonnes of INRA buffer stock rubber
and a possible depression of prices.
    He expressed confidence that the new INRA would continue to
keep prices stable by selling or buying rubber as prices rose
or fell through its buffer stock system.
    Malaysia was also happy that in the new INRA financing of
purchases for the normal buffer stock of 400,000 tonnes and a
contingency buffer stock of 150,000 tonnes would be done
through direct cash contributions from members, he said.
    Under the existing pact, members can borrow from banks to
finance INRA's buffer stock purchases. This has been viewed
with concern by some members who fear the INRA may become
indebted and ultimately face collapse, like the International
Tin Agreement.
    "This will ensure the buffer stock operation is carried out
without any financial encumbrance," Lim said.
     Malaysia, the world's largest producer, was seeking
cabinet approval to join the new INRA and hoped other producers
and consumers would also become members, he said.
    Officials in Jakarta said the new pact would bring benefit
to Indonesia's rubber industry's by stabilising prices.
    It was unlikely to collapse like the tin agreement because
its new financial provisions had been tightened, they said.
    Thai officials told Reuters they were optimistic the new
pact was viable because it strictly limited the extent of debt
the INRA buffer stock manager might commit to his market
     Malaysian growers, however, said they preferred a free
rubber market because an INRA had a tendency to keep prices at
levels that were only acceptable to consumers.
    "With the INRA's ability to keep prices at a certain stable
level, consumers are assured of rubber at almost a fixed price,
while producers may never see sharp price rises," a Malaysian
Rubber Producers Council source told Reuters.
    Producers also wanted a free rubber market without the
overhang of a 360,000 tonne INRA buffer stock which had
psychologically prevented price rises, he said.
    State plantation officials in Sri Lanka said prices had
been depressed since INRA's inception and the creation of a
buffer stock, and they seemed unlikely to rise.
    Sri Lanka should not be a member of the INRA because it was
expensive to maintain a buffer stock, they added.
    Traders in the region, meanwhile, said prices might be
pressured by the new pact in the long term as its potential to
stabilise prices and buffer stock capacity would spur producers
to produce more.
    Most Malaysian and Singapore traders said the new pact's
conclusion had little impact on prices and it was unlikely to
allow sharp price fluctuations in future.
    "The 360,000 tonnes in the INRA buffer stock must be
liquidated and a free market returned," a Malaysian trader said.
    Japanese traders said the new pact had a chance for success
as most world producers and consumers had adopted it, but they
questioned the ability of some financially-strapped producers
to finance buffer stock operations.
 REUTER

Ciba-Geigy AG <CIGZ.Z> said it would
establish a joint venture with Phillips Petroleum Co. In Europe
to manufacture a high performance engineering thermoplastic.
    Initially, the Swiss chemicals firm will manufacture
polyphenylene sulfide compounds using resins from Phillips.
    The two firms will later set up a joint venture to produce
the polyphenylene resins and compounds, which will be marketed
independently under their respective trademarks. A Ciba-Geigy
spokesman declined to say how much the venture would cost.
    Polyphenylene sulfide is widely used in the electronic,
automotive, and petroleum fields.
 REUTER

Fried. Krupp GmbH said its
Krupp Industrietechnik GmbH subsidiary has won a 130 mln marks
joint order with Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industries Co.
Ltd of Seoul for a steel works in Pohang, South Korea.
    It said the order, awarded by the Pohang Iron and Steel Co.
Ltd, involves a works due to go on stream in 1989 producing
250,000 tonnes of non-corrosive quality steels annually.
    The consortium partners will supply the plant, supervise
its construction and advise on product processing, with Krupp
providing a 100-tonne capacity arc furnace and a converter for
steel refining.
    The West German company will supply ladles, vehicles,
electrical and exhaust cooling apparatus and dust filters. It
will also fit out the plant's laboratory.
    Among other things Krupp said it will provide know-how for
all production phases and train the Korean workforce.
    It said Samsung will take care of the Korean part of the
engineering and electrical work, the water treatment and other
mechanical equipment, according to Krupp basic engineering.
    Extruded ingots from the plant will be converted to sheet
in an existing hot rolling mill. The sheet will be processed in
facilities which are to be erected, Krupp said.
 REUTER

Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HKG> expects
continued growth in all divisions this year though it sees
problems in the marine sector, chairman Michael Miles said.
    He told reporters:"1987 has started well for Cathay Pacific
Airways which looks forward to another good year... Swire
Properties expects further good results both from properties
under development for sale and from its investment property
portfolio."
    He did not give any specific projections for earnings. The
company earlier reported 46 pct higher 1986 net profits at 1.78
billion H.K. Dlrs from a year ago.
    Swire also had an extraordinary profit of 1.38 billion dlrs
mainly from the sale of a 15.25 pct interest in Cathay Pacific
Airways Ltd <CAPH.HKG>.
    Miles said the company will use the money to develop its
business, primarily in Hong Kong.
    Swire's stake in Cathay was first reduced to 54.25 pct from
70 pct when Cathay was publicly floated, and then cut to 50.25
pct when Cathay issued new shares amounting to 12 pct of the
enlarged capital to the state-owned <China International Trust
and Investment Corp>. Cathay last week reported its 1986
profits rose to 1.23 billion dlrs from 777 mln a year ago.
    Miles said despite last year's rapid expansion in Cathay's
flights and fleet, load factor is still holding up at 70 pct.
    He said Cathay's growth last year was the result of "a
marginal increase in the revenue load factor coupled with
savings in fuel costs."
    "At present fuel prices are stable and will remain stable
for the rest of this year," he said, "though there might be a bit
of increase later this year.''
    Miles said Swire is not abandoning its offshore oil service
operations, even though the marine sector is generally
depressed. "Obviously the marine industry is not getting any
better," he said.
    The real estate market remained strong and Swire last year
revalued its property portfolio up 634 mln dlrs compared with
an increase of 864.4 mln dlrs the previous year.
    Miles said he expects the property market to remain firm
but said the firm has no available land for a major housing
project such as its Taikoo Shing development on Hong Kong
island now near completion.
    He said the company's 50 pct unit <Hongkong United Dockyard
Ltd> is negotiating with the government for the development of
an existing petroleum storage depot into a major housing
estate. "But it's not as big as Taikoo Shing," he said.
 REUTER

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the
outcome of today's EC white sugar tender, traders here said,
noting it remains overshadowed by European operator threats to
move over 800,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention.
    They said that due to the dispute between the Commission
and producers over the issue, it is not clear whether the
Commission will authorise any exports at all or grant licences
on a large tonnage.
    The subsidy is seen being set above 45.00 Ecus per 100
kilos, although traders are reluctant to predict a precise
level after prices fell yesterday.
    Earlier, traders in Paris said they expected the Commission
to award licences for around 50,000 tonnes of white sugar with
a maximum export rebate of 45.75 to 46.0 Ecus.
    Last week, the Commission granted licences to end August on
60,500 tonnes of whites at a maximum rebate of 44.819.
 REUTER

Abu Dhabi's offshore Abu al-Bukhoosh
oilfield in the Gulf, shut since an aerial attack last
November, will reopen when new anti-aircraft defences are
ready, and this could be in the next two months, oil industry
    They said the Abu Dhabi government and Compagnie Francaise
des Petroles (Total) <TPN.PA>, whose Total Abu al-Bukhoosh
subsidiary owns 51 pct of the field, have agreed on the
reopening, but that a date has not been definitely fixed.
    Unidentified planes hit the field, 100 miles off Abu Dhabi,
last November 25.
    The raid killed eight workers and destroyed the main living
quarters and a bridge linking a wellhead to the main production
platform.
    Western diplomats in the region say Iran was responsible
but Tehran has blamed its Gulf War enemy Iraq.
    Abu al-Bukhoosh was producing 57,000 barrels per day (bpd)
at the time of the attack, but the sources said it would resume
at a maximum of half that level because of reduced staff and
the fact only four of five wellheads were now operable.
    The sources said only 80 personnel can be housed in
remaining accomodations, the sources said.
    Facilities being installed to protect the field include
aircraft detection equipment, anti-aircraft missiles, housing
for military personnel and helicopter landing pads, the sources
said.
    Abu Dhabi is the largest oil producer in the United Arab
Emirates, accounting for about 800,000 bpd of its total 1.15
mln bpd production, the sources said.
    They also said Iran was working to reopen its Sassan field,
part of the same reservoir as Abu al-Bukhoosh and located only
a few miles away. Sassan was heavily damaged by an Iraqi air
raid only 10 days before Abu al-Bukhoosh was attacked.
 REUTER

Chad's military high command said
today troops killed 1,269 Libyan soldiers in routing a
5,000-strong force to capture Tripoli's major air base in
northern Chad on Sunday.
    In its first published casualty list from the fierce battle
for Ouadi Doum air base, the high command said 438 Libyans were
taken prisoner, while 29 Chadian soldiers were killed and 58
wounded.
    It said the prisoners included the regional commander,
Colonel Khalifa Abul-Gassim Hastar, while his deputy, Colonel
Gassim Ali Abu-Nawar, was among the dead.
    The Chadian army also captured substantial amounts of
weaponry, including 11 Czechoslovak-made L-39 bombers, three
Soviet MI-24 fighter helicopters and a large number of tanks,
as well as hundreds of other vehicles armed with guns or
anti-aircraft missiles.
    Following Sunday's battle, French officers said the fall of
Ouadi Doum deprived Libya of its only hard runway air base in
Chad. Its main strongpoint, Faya Largeau some 230 km (150
miles) north of the so-called "red line" along the 16th parallel,
was left increasingly exposed.
    The 16th parallel divides the central African country into
government-held zones in the south and mainly Libyan-controlled
areas in the north.
 Reuter

<Rainbow Corp Ltd> said it has
lifted its stake in supermarket group <Progressive Enterprises
Ltd> to 52 pct from 44 pct.
    It said in a statement it has bought an extra 9.4 mln
shares at prices ranging from 3.80 N.Z. Dlrs to 4.80.
    Progressive is currently the subject of both a proposed
merger with Rainbow and a full takeover bid from <Brierley
Investments Ltd> (BIL). The BIL bid, launched on Monday, is at
4.20 dlrs a share. The Rainbow merger involves shareholders in
both Rainbow and Progressive being issued shares in a new
company, <Astral Pacific Corp Ltd>, on a one-for-one basis.
    Rainbow chief executive Craig Heatley said, "In our opinion
BIL's actions over the last few days have been undertaken for
their own strategic purposes which conflict with the desire of
both companies to merge their interests."
    BIL has said it is against the merger because it sees
Progressive shares as being worth twice as as much as
Rainbow's.
    Progressive traded today at 4.42, Rainbow at 3.66 and BIL
at 4.30 at the end of morning trading on the New Zealand Stock
Exchange.
 REUTER

The Bank of Thailand is seeking Finance
Ministry approval to issue its first bond, central bank sources
said.
    The planned three billion baht issue would carry a term of
six months to one year as a short term move to mop up surplus
funds held by commercial banks.
    The issue would offer a coupon attractive to commercial
banks, which currently have an estimated 30 to 60 billion baht
in funds invested in low-yield securities, the sources said.
    The central bank, charged with supervision of commercial
banks, has previously issued only Finance Ministry bonds.
    Private bankers said they are awaiting a central bank
decision on whether to allow commercial banks to continue
holding up to 40 pct of their capital in foreign exchange or to
return it to 20 pct as scheduled.
    The six month 40 pct ceiling expires April 6 but the banks
want it extended for six more months.
    They said a forced cut in foreign exchange positions would
worsen the local liquidity problem as commercial banks would
have to convert about five billion baht worth of foreign
currencies in their portfolios into baht.
    Senior central bank officials suggested to reporters last
week that the foreign exchange ceiling will be lowered to
discourage banks' use of excess funds for currency speculation.
    Central bank sources said some commercial banks,
anticipating such a central bank decision, have been converting
their foreign currencies into baht this week and lending the
additional funds to the Bank of Thailand's short-term loan
repurchase facility.
    They said the Bank of Thailand's repurchase window
yesterday received offers of about three billion baht of
investment funds from commercial banks, three times its normal
daily amount.
    The repurchase window uses government bonds as an
instrument with which commercial banks can borrow from or lend
to the state bank.
    The facility is sometimes used by the central bank to set a
local short-term interest benchmark through fixing its bond
repurchase rates.
 REUTER

credit lines totaling 16 billion dlrs for 60 days until May 31,
Brazilian Central Bank President Francisco Gros said.
 REUTER

its forecast of the liquidity position in the money market
today to a surplus of 150 mln stg after it estimated a flat
position earlier this morning.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it had not
operated in the money market during the morning session.
    Earlier, the Bank revised its forecast of the liquidity
position in the system today to a surplus of 150 mln stg from
its original estimate of a flat position.
 REUTER

Afghan warplanes killed almost 150
people in bombing raids into Pakistani territory last Monday,
Pakistani officials said.
    The death toll rose from a previously reported 85 as news
emerged that a third village had been hit. About 45 people were
killed in Lwarai Mandi in North Waziristan Tribal Agency,
    The death toll in Angur Adar in South Waziristan rose to 23
and the toll in Teri Mangal in Kurram Agency rose to 81. The
Soviet-backed Afghan government has not commented on the
reports. 
 Reuter

Swire Pacific Ltd <SWPC.HKG> and its
50.25 pct unit Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd <CAPH.HKG> are still
undecided whether they would participate in the proposed new
airport for Hong Kong, chairman of both Michael Miles said.
    "We don't want to jump the fence prematurely. We want to
know the government's position first," he told a press
conference. "The new airport is still a long way away. But if it
does go ahead we will be involved." He declined to elaborate but
noted that no other company has more at stake in a Hong Kong
airport than the Swire group, which controls <Hongkong Aircraft
Engineering Co Ltd>.
    The idea for a second airport has been proposed for more
than a decade but in 1982 the government shelved the plan for
being too expensive. Early this year a consortium led by
<Hopewell Holdings Co Ltd> presented the government with a 25
billion H.K. Dlr scheme of infrastructure development including
an airport, a deep water port and highways to China.
    Hopewell said it will take a 20 pct stake in the project
while Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HKG> and Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HKG> will take a combined 20 pct. Earlier
today Hopewell said <Jardine Matheson and Co Ltd> will take a
five pct interest in the project.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan intervened to stem
strong yen rises against the dollar during London trading this
morning, dealers said.
    The Bank of Japan here declined comment.
    The Bank of England was also rumored to be buying dollars
against the yen this morning but it also declined comment.
    Dealers said the intervention halted a sudden late morning
drop to a low of 148.65 yen, holding the dollar steady until
midsession at about 148.80.
    The Bank of England was strongly rumored to have intervened
on behalf of the dollar against the yen yesterday, but it gave
no confirmation.
    Overnight reports from Tokyo said that the Bank of Japan
was aggressively supporting the dollar, but failed to push it
back to the perceived target level of 150 yen.
    Selling during the London trading morning was largely
attributed to Japanese institutions.
    Dealers here were loath to quantify the scale of Bank of
Japan action this morning. One U.S. Bank trader said it could
have been up to 500 mln dlrs, but said this was largely a
guess.
 REUTER

Brazil and its bank creditors failed to
achieve any breakthrough in debt talks here last night after
Brazil refused to say when it would resume interest payments.
    Central Bank governor Francisco Gros said after a meeting
with a 14-bank advisory committee that Brazil cannot make any
interest payments at this time, though it would do so "as soon
as we can."
    The talks came as the annual meeting of the 44-nation
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), in which both Gros and
the bankers had been taking part, moved toward a close here.
    Bankers leaving the meeting with Gros declined to discuss
details of the talks, though some expressed satisfaction that
Brazil had agreed to continue working with the committee.
    At the same time, Gros told reporters not to expect any
dramatic developments before March 31, the date when some U.S.
banks have said they will take a decision whether to put Brazil
loans on a non-performing basis.
    Brazil suspended interest payments on its 68 billion dlr
foreign debt to commercial banks on February 20 and shortly
after announced it was freezing some 16 billion dlrs in
short-term credit lines.
    Banks are not obliged to declare these loans non-performing
before 90 days have elapsed, but the move to announce a
possible decision in this respect was viewed as a means of
exerting pressure on Brazil.
    The bank committee, headed by Citibank, had been pressing
Brazil to make at least a token payment of interest but Gros
said this was not possible right now.
    "We are not in a position to make a payment at this stage,"
Gros said.
    At the same time, the two sides reached a stopgap
arrangement on the short-term trade and money-market credit
lines, whereby the committee agreed to transmit a Brazilian
request to extend the lines for 60 days until May 31.
    Banks have been indicating they will not renew credit lines
in response to the Brazilian move.
 Reuter

China's Premier Zhao Ziyang said the
country must continue to reform its "irrational" price system
although this will mean price rises and cause living standards
for some people to fall.
    Zhao said China's price system is irrational due to
"prolonged negligence of the law of value and due to the rigid
and excessive state control."
    "The prices of farm products, energy, raw and semi-finished
materials and other primary products have long been too low and
many products have long been in short supply," he said.
    Price reforms are necessary to "establish a new vigorous
socialist economic structure, to effectively promote production
and commodity circulation and provide correct guidance to
consumption," Zhao added.
    Reforms are bound to lead to a rise in the general price
level but will only be implemented after careful studies so as
to keep the increase within the capacity of society and the
people "to withstand the strain."
     He said the general price level will rise in 1987 less
than in 1986, with price increases of a very small number of
products.
 REUTER

A severe drought has affected 170,560
hectares of farmlands in six eastern and northeastern
provinces, Interior Permanent Secretary Pisarn Mulasartsathorn
said.
    He told reporters some 178,790 farming families in 45
districts in Chaiyaphum, Korat, Phrae, Chainat, Rayong and Trat
provinces were seeking relief water from the government.
    The official did not say what crops have been damaged.
    Senior Interior Ministry officials said this week the worse
than average drought this year has affected 14 provinces and
may last until early May.
 REUTER

BICC SEEKS ACCELERATED EARNINGS GROWTH LONDON, March 25 - BICC
Plc &lt;BICC.L&gt;, which earlier announced a 10 pct rise in 1986
pre-tax profits, said it was determined to achieve higher
levels of performance, quality and service to accelerate its
improvement in earnings.
    BICC said in a statement that sales in BICC Cables were
down on 1985 due to a sharp drop in demand for cable in the oil
and chemical industries after the oil price drop. But profits
in Balfour Beatty were substantially improved.
    Profits increased in BICC Technologies and in BICC
International in local currency terms, while Associated British
Cables had another excellent year, the company said.
    BICC shares were last quoted at 357p, up from 344p at
yesterday's close, in buoyant response to results which were
ahead of market expectations, dealers said.
    BICC pre-tax profits rose to 101 mln stg in 1986 from 92
mln in 1985, with turnover rising from 2.11 billion stg in 1985
to 2.14 billion stg in 1986.
 REUTER

Shr net basis 21.4p vs 17.5p
    Div 6.1p making 9p vs 6.5p
    Pretax profit 37.2 mln stg vs 31.9 mln
    Net after tax 25.7 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Minority interest 700,000 vs 1.1 mln
    Extraordinary debit 1.9 mln vs 3.5 mln
    Turnover 827 mln vs 766.9 mln
    Note - The company said the sale of the minority holding in
OCL in 1986 has transformed the balance sheet and enables it to
accelerate development.
 REUTER

<Dart Group Corp> said it has
raised its offer to acquire Supermarkets General Corp to 42.00
dlrs in cash and three dlrs in exchangeable preferred stock per
Supermarkets General share from 41.75 dlrs per share in cash.
    The company said it would also be willing to negotiate a
plan with the Supermarkets General board under which
Supermarkets General shareholders would have a common stock
interest in the combined company.  It said it remains willing
to negotiate all terms of the proposed acquisition.
    The original bid was worth about 1.62 billion dlrs.
    Dart said the preferred stock in the new bid would be
exchangeable for a new class of Supermarkets General debt
securities that would be developed by Dart and Supermarkets.
    The new proposal would be subject to approval by the
Supermarkets General board, it said.  The new bid was contained
in a letter to the Supermarkets General board.
    In Woodbridge, N.J., Supermarkets General -- responding to
a previous letter to its board by Dart -- said "Your conduct
indicates to us that no transaction involving trust and
confidence can be entered into with you.  Your propaganda and
missstatements will not panic our board."
    Dart, in its previous letter, had alleged that Supermarkets
General executives were seeking millions of dollar in severance
and tax payments from Dart.
 Reuter

Oper shr 28 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Oper net 194,000 vs 1,255,000
    Sales 27.5 mln vs 30.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 2.68 dlrs vs 63 cts
    Oper net 1,880,000 vs 684,000
    Sales 100.5 mln vs 115.6 mln
    Avg shrs 700,086 vs 1,079,165
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes tax credits of 1,042,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,603,000 dlrs in year.
    Net excludes discontinued operations gain 330,000 dlrs vs
loss 385,000 dlrs in quarter and gain 485,000 dlrs vs loss
2,692,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Olson Industries Inc said
it is in final negotiations on the sale of its remaining egg
operations and expects the sale to generate a charge of about
two mln dlrs against 1987 net income.
    The company said, however, that the sale will generate
substantial cash flow to pay off bank debt and improve working
capital, eliminate unmanageable effects on profits of the price
instability of the egg business and allow it to concentrate on
its plastics packaging business.
 Reuter

making a market in the stock of Supermarkets General Corp.
    It said the current bid is 45 dlrs bid, 46 dlrs offered.
 Reuter

The U.K. Based commodity house E.D.
And F. Man Ltd and Singapore's Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd jointly
announced that Man will buy a substantial stake in Yeo's 71.1
pct held unit, Yeo Hiap Seng Enterprises Ltd.
    Man will develop the locally listed soft drinks
manufacturer into a securities and commodities brokerage arm
and will rename the firm Man Pacific (Holdings) Ltd.
 REUTER

Shr 16 cts vs eight cts
    Net 4,834,000 vs 2,052,000
    Revs 34.9 mln vs 16.0 mln
    Avg shrs 31.1 mln vs 26.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 26 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 8,006,000 vs 3,310,000
    Revs 80.9 mln vs 34.5 mln
    Avg shrs 30.8 mln vs 26.3 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two for one stock split.
    Current year net includes capitalized software costs of
1,295,000 dlrs in quarter and 3,701,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Walt Disney Co said it will
open its first non-tourist retail operation on March 28 at the
Galleria shopping mall in Glendale, Calif.
    The company said the 2,400 square foot store will test
consumer response to a retail outlet featuring all Disney
character merchandise.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.14 dlrs vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 37.1 mln vs loss 1,712,000
    Revs 27.3 mln vs 33.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 5.51 dlrs vs loss 73 cts
    Net loss 49.3 mln vs loss 6,544,000
    Revs 109.0 mln vs 141.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods includes 34.8 mln dlr
weritedown of assets of services segment and Southeast Asian
 Reuter

4th qtr
    Shr 15 cts vs eight cts
    Net 1,800,000 vs one mln
    Year
    Shr 51 cts vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 6,200,000 vs 13.2 mln
    NOTE: Net includes loan loss provisions of 14 cts shr vs 18
cts in quarter and 24 cts shr vs 36 cts in year.
 Reuter

Duriron Co Inc said it has
completed the acquisition of Valtek Inc for 11.75 dlrs per
share following Valtek shareholder approval yesterday.
 Reuter

Qtly div 17 cts vs 17 cts
    Record April 7
    Note: year ago adjusted to reflect March 19 three-for-two
    (Washington Federal Savings and Loans Association)
 Reuter

Singer Co said it has signed a
12-year contract with Texas Air Corp's Continental Airlines Inc
unit to lease Continental an aircraft simulator for flight crew
training.
    Singer said it will also market training on the simulator
to other airlines.
    The company said initially it will provide a simulator for
McDonnell Douglas Corp's MD-80 but will replace that simulator
in 1988 with one for the MD-82.
 Reuter

Rowley-Scher Reprographics Inc
said it expects to report an operating loss and a loss from the
sale of its Mid South Repro subsidiary for the year ending
MArch 31.
    Last year, the company reported earnings of 977,000 dlrs.
    Rowley-Scher did not disclose details of the sale of Mid
South Repro.
    It said the sale has eliminated an unprofitable operation.
    The company also said it will open two new reprographic
centers in the Washington/Baltimore area within the next three
weeks, brining the total there to 11, and a new downtown Boston
location in the same time period, brining the number in the
Boston area to four.
 Reuter

DIXONS SAID IT GOT AND ACCEPTED ONLY 20 PCT OF CYCLOPS SHARES IN TENDER

London's rise as a trading centre for
U.S. Government debt has been spurred by the increasing use of
interest rate swaps, which are now arranged for most new issues
in the eurobond markets, traders and analysts said.
    Indeed, eurobond traders estimate that about 80 pct of all
new debt issued here last year -- over 186 billion dlrs worth
-- was part of either an interest rate or currency swap.
    "The U.S. Treasuries market here is swap-driven," said David
Jones, vice president at Goldman Sachs and Co international and
head of its U.S. Government bond trading desk.
    "It is commonplace to have trades of 100 mln dlrs or more in
10-years, seven years or five years, all related to an interest
rate swap or hedging of a eurobond deal," Jones said at a recent
conference on the U.S. Treasuries market.
    Just a year or so ago, he said, trades of that size going
through brokers screens in London were unthinkable.
    Traders said that over the past two weeks, while trading in
U.S. Treasuries has been almost frozen by indecision over the
direction of interest rates, swap-related deals have provided
the sole source of new business.
    Dealers said that last week, a 260 mln dlr trade involving
two and 10-year Treasuries was transacted on brokers' screens.
    The trade, they said, was swap related.
    There are no firm figures on exactly how much U.S. Treasury
debt is traded here and estimates vary widely.
    But Wrightson Economics, a U.S.-based research firm which
drew its data from U.S. Treasury reports, estimated that gross
transactions in U.S. Government securities in London rose to
341 billion dlrs in the first nine months of 1986 alone,
against 188 billion in all of 1985.
    Wrightson estimates that about 20 pct of all U.S. Treasury
trading is transacted outside the U.S., With Tokyo forming the
third major centre.
    And while figures are not yet available for the last
quarter, the anecdotal evidence suggests that the trend
continued, traders say.
    Richard Lacy, chief executive at Exco International, put
average daily Treasuries trading volume in London at about 15
billion dlrs. Exco recently purchased an 80 pct interest in RMJ
Securities inc, one of the four major brokers in U.S.
Government bonds which has offices in London, New York and
Tokyo.
    But Dick Van Splinter, president of RMJ's competitor,
Fundamental Brokers Inc's London operations, estimates average
daily turnover is no more than four to five billion dlrs.
    But even at the low range of estimates, Treasuries trading
volume is at least equal to that in the U.K.'s own government
bonds, known as gilts.
     Jeremy Ford, vice president at Bankers Trust International
Ltd, explained that U.S. Treasuries are used by intermediaries
in swap transactions to lock in the "spread," the difference
between the interest rate the borrower has to pay and the rate
that the counterparty is obliged to pay.
    But even beyond swap-related activity, dealers said the
nature of trading in London has changed.
    "The interesting thing our figures show is the transition in
London from a marketing effort to a trading effort," said Louis
Crandall, an economist at Wrightson who has been collecting the
data.
    Crandall said that previously, firms' activities were
limited to trying to sell U.S. Securities to European
investors. Now, however, they appear increasingly willing act
as principal in transactions rather than acting on behalf of
their New York offices.
    Increasingly, traders say, firms maintain separate profit
and loss sheets for their London operations so that trading
decisions can be made independently from the U.S. Headquarters.
    Many of the major U.S. Firms, including Merrill Lynch and
Co, Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and Chemical Bank trade for
their own accounts here.
    Also, traders point out, the number of U.S. Firms operating
in London has increased sharply over the past year, as has the
number of European and Asian banks which trade U.S. Government
    Within the past few months, National
Westminster Bank Plc's County Bank subsidiary and Swiss Bank
Corp have applied to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to
become primary dealers in U.S. Government securities and their
London offices have just recently received direct-dealing
brokers screens.
    And Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, already a primary dealer, is
preparing to open a U.S. Treasuries trading desk in London.
    Dick Van Splinter, president of Fundamental Brokers Inc,
the largest of the four major government bond brokers here,
said he now has 45 firms using direct-dealing screens, up from
35 a year ago.
 REUTER

<Dixons Group PLC> said only about
852,000 shares of Cyclops Corp common stock, or 20 pct on a
fully diluted basis, were tendered and not withdrawn under its
bid for all shares that expired yesterday, but the companmy has
still decided to accept all shares validly tendered.
    The company said it now has about 22 pct ownership of
Cyclops on a fully diluted basis and expects to proceeds toward
completion of its proposed acquisition of Cyclops.
    Last week, before extending its Cyclops offer for one week
at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Dixons had reported that 54 pct of Cyclops' stock had been
tendered in response to its 90.25 dlrs per share offer which
expired at 2400 EST yesterday.
    Yesterday, CAYACQ Corp dropped certain conditions of its
92.50 dlrs a share offer for Cyclops and firmed up the
financing for the proposed transaction. CAYACQ, an investor
group led by Audio/Video Affiliates Inc and Citicorp, raised
the value of its offer from 80 dlrs per Cyclops share on Friday.
 Reuter

A leading member of Britain's opposition
Labour Party said there was strong evidence Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher approved the sale of anti- aircraft missiles
to Nicaraguan Contra rebels during talks last year with U.S.
Officials involved in the Iran arms scandal.
    Labour foreign affairs spokesman George Foulkes told
parliament the U.S. Tower Commission report on the sale of arms
to Iran showed Colonel Oliver North had tried to obtain 20
Blowpipe missiles and 10 launchers through a South American
country from a Belfast-based company, Short Brothers, which
manufactures the missiles.
    Short Brothers is owned by the British Government.
    Junior Foreign Officer Minister Timothy Eggar dismissed the
claims as "wild and fanciful allegations" with no foundation.
    Foulkes said North testified he was seeking the help of "a
head of an allied government" in obtaining the Blowpipes and
suggested the supply of missiles was discussed during two
meetings which he said took place between North, the then head
of the CIA William Casey and Thatcher in 1986.
    "We need to know what happened at those meetings between Mr
Casey, Colonel North and the Prime Minister last year. What
were they talking about if it were not the supply of Blowpipe
missiles to the Contra terrorists?" Foulkes said.
 Reuter

Brazil's new Planning Minister is
    Sayad disagreed with Finance Minister Dilson Funaro on a
range of policy issues and submitted his resignation.
 Reuter

currency warrants that give the holder a call right on U.S.
 REUTER

Shr 17 cts vs seven cts
    Net 4,678,000 vs 1,856,000
    Revs 110.5 mln vs 61.7 mln
    Avg shrs 27.0 mln vs 25.0 mln
 Reuter

Metro Cable Corp said it has
entered into a letter of intent for the sale of limited
partnership Intermountain Cable Associates for about 3,250,000
dlrs.
    Metro and DMN Cable Investors are co-general partners for
Intermountain.  The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
    Metro said it has also transfered its northwest Iowa and
eastern Colorado cablevision systems into a new wholly-owned
subsidiary called MCC Cablevision. 
    Metro said the new unit received 2,700,000 dlrs in
financing from Bank of Boston Corp <BKB> which was used to
retire Metro Cable's outstanding debt to <National Bank of
Canada> and for working capital.
 Reuter

<Renouf Corp International> said it
now owns 93.4 pct of Benequity Holdings a California Limited
Partnership.
    Renouf  said it has accepted for payment all 3,914,968
units of Benequity Holdings tendered in response to its 31 dlrs
per unit offer. Along with the 1,449,550 units already held by
Renouf, it now owns 93.4 pct of the 5,745,706 units outstanding.
 Reuter

Papua New Guinea
(PNG) provides the most exciting new prospect in the
Asia-Pacific region for oil production, energy analyst Fereidun
Fesharaki said here.
    The recent successful find at Iagifu is likely to put PNG
on the list of major oil exporters by the early 1990s, he told
the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association annual
    Fesharaki, leader of the Energy Program at the East-West
Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, was speaking on the Asia-Pacific
petroleum outlook.
    With domestic demand of around 12,000 barrels per day (bpd)
and prospects of production of over 100,000 bpd by late 1991,
PNG would become an Ecuador-level crude exporter, Fesharaki
said.
    The Iagifu wells in the Papuan Basin have recorded the best
oil flows in more than 60 years of exploration in PNG.
    The PNG government's Geological Survey in a paper
distributed at the conference estimates Iagifu reserves at
about 500 mln barrels.
    PNG enjoys the most liberal tax regime in the region with
no secondary taxes, Fesharaki said.
    "We expect a much larger oil search in Papua New Guinea, and
discovery of much larger volumes of oil, similar in quality to
(light) Bass Strait crude," Fesharaki said.
    There are also large pockets of high quality condensates to
be produced, notably in the Juha field near Iagifu which is
capable of producing 30,000 to 40,000 bpd, he said.
    But prices should be somewhat higher than the present
levels to justify development of the Juha field, he said.
    The PNG Geological Survey paper noted there are five large
prospective but little-explored sedimentary basins in PNG.
 REUTER

where it is most needed. "We should expand production of import
substitutes and increase their proportion," he said. On exports,
China should increase its proportion of manufactured goods,
especially textiles, light industrial goods, electronics and
machinery, he said.
control the export of goods that incur too much loss.
investment environment for foreign businessmen.
 Reuter

 Reuter

 Reuter

Yugoslavia is seeking a loan of 600
mln ECUs from the European Community for transport system
modernisation, Deputy Finance Minister Boris Skapin was quoted
by the official Tanjug news agency.
    The community has offered Yugoslavia only 380 mln ECUs, he
said. The loan is to help finance completion of Yugoslavia's
north-south motorway, railway modernisation and export-oriented
industrial projects.
    Skapin told reporters in Brussels yesterday the requested
loan accounted for only 10 pct of total funds needed for these
projects, Tanjug said.
 REUTER

McFarland Energy Inc
said its board and that of Petrominerals Corp have approved a
definitive agreement for McFarland to acquire Petrominerals in
an exchange of stock.
    McFarland said it would exchange one common share for each
5.4 Petrominerals shares.  McFarland said former holders of
Petrominerals will have a 25 pct interest in the combined
company.
    The merger is still subject to approval by shareholders of
 Reuter

<Timminco Ltd> said it acquired
Universal Adhesives Inc, of Memphis, for undisclosed terms, in
a move to expand Timminco's operations into the United States.
    The company said Universal Adhesives, with five U.S.
plants, has annual sales of 12 mln U.S. dlrs, which will double
Timminco's presence in the North American adhesives market.
    Timminco said Universal Adhesives will complement the
company's Canadian-based industrial adhesives division and is a
key step in its long-term goal for expansion in the specialty
chemical field.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 3,320,206 vs 2,990,695
    Revs 13.5 mln vs 14.9 mln
 Reuter

its forecast of today's surplus in the money markets to 250 mln
stg from its earlier estimate of a 150 mln.
    The central bank has not operated in the market today.
 REUTER

Technimed Corp said it has received
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market its
proprietary whole blood glucose test.
    The company said the test is the first home diagnostic
glucose test to be approved by the FDA that uses simpler
no-wipe technology. It is designed for use by diabetics in
managing insulin therapy.
    Technimed said it has entered into talks with "several
major pharmaceutical companies" on the marketing of the test.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs 51 cts
    Net 2,300,000 vs 22,500,000
    Note: Prior shr and net include 20.3 mln U.S. dlr gain on
sale of equity holdings
    Results in U.S. funds
 Reuter

West German gross green coffee imports
in January fell sharply to 38,616 tonnes from 54,576 in January
last year, figures from the Federal Statistics Office show.
    Imports of decaffeinated unroasted coffee were 396 tonnes
against nil a year earlier.
 Reuter

Qtly div 26 cts vs 25 cts prior
    NOTE: One Valley Bancorp of West Virginia Inc.
 Reuter

    Net 3,516,000 vs 2,972,000
    Revs 40.0 mln vs 36.3 mln
    Avg shrs 11.4 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 89 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 10.0 mln vs 8,146,000
    Revs 116.8 mln vs 105.0 mln
    Avg shrs 11.3 mln vs 11.1 mln
 Reuter

NVHomes LP said its board declared
a two-for-one split of Class A units, payable to shareholders
of record on April 20.
    It said certificates will be distributed about two weeks
after the record date.
 Reuter

<American Resource Corp Ltd> said the
board approved a rights offering to class A non-voting
shareholders to be made on a one-for-one basis and expected to
raise between 80 mln and 100 mln dlrs.
    The company said a preliminary prospectus will be filed in
Canada later this week and final terms for the rights offering
will not be set until a final prospectus is filed.
    American Resource intends to use proceeds to expand its
investment and merchant banking activities mainly in the United
States, it said.
    Underwriters for the rights offering are Merrill Lynch
Canada Inc, Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon and Co Ltd, Burns Fry
Ltd and Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd, American
Resource said.
    The company also said Peter Gottsegen, formerly managing
director of international corporate finance activities at
Salomon Brothers Inc, was appointed to the board.
    American Resource said it will invest in a U.S. company to
be owned by it and Gottsegen. Gottsegen will be chief executive
of the new company, which will engage in investment and
merchant banking activities in the United States.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 653,464 vs 287,606
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 7,600,000
    Year
    Shr 68 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 2,309,181 vs 1,408,813
    Revs 38.4 mln vs 26.0 mln
 Reuter

Mthly div 7.3 cts vs 7.5 cts in prior month
    Payable April six
    Record Marcxh 30
 Reuter

Mthly div 8.5 cts vs 9.2 cts in prior month
 Reuter

Shr 48 cts vs four cts
    Net 882,000 vs 82,000
    Sales 968,000 vs 784,000
    Six mths
    Shr 53 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 970,000 vs 202,000
    Sales 2,001,000 vs 1,521,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes a gain of 26 cts a share from the
sale of a funeral home, and tax credits of 20 cts. 1985 net
includes tax credits of one cent in the quarter and 3.7 cts in
the six months period.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 146,000 vs 230,000
    Revs 3,766,000 vs 3,271,000
    Avg shrs 1,458,000 vs 1,125,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 15 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 212,000 vs 653,000
    Revs 10.6 mln vs 9,561,000
 Reuter

The chances of U.K. Stocks continuing
recent rises as budget euphoria gives way to the uncertainties
of a probable election are small, and market analysts say there
will probably be a downwards correction in the next few weeks.
    The U.K. Market has managed a dizzy rise since the New
Year, with the FT-SE index of 100 leading shares lifting 22.5
pct since January 2 to current levels around 2050.
    "Over the next month or two the odds are that the index will
drop back to around 1,900," said John Goldschmidt, head of
equities research at Chase Manhattan Securities.
    "A five to 10 pct drop is likely. There was a six pct fall
before the 1983 election when the Conservatives were further
ahead in the polls and the market was on a multiple of only 14
instead of 18 now," noted Nick Knight of brokers James Capel.
    "The old adage is "sell in May and go away'. That's likely to
apply this year but will probably start in April," he added.
    But few analysts believed a correction would spell the end
of the bull run that has now lasted for some six years.
    "As long as corporate profits and earnings keep on growing
then the pressure for continued rises will be there. There
seems little prospect of the growth stopping in 1987/1988," one
said.
    Much of the recent enthusiasm has stemmed from the belief,
already virtually discounted, that the ruling Conservatives
will call an election in the next few months - probably June -
and sweep home to a third term in office.
    Even if this does happen, however, pre-election nerves are
likely to produce the traditional effect of damping down the
market until the result is clear.
    "It's likely there will be one or two hiccups of confidence
about the Tories winning an overall majority," Goldschmidt said.
    "It would be quite out of character for the market to
continue to sail serenely upwards right through the election
and beyond," added brokers Phillips and Drew in a recent report.
    The belief that the government itself is worried about the
impact of the Alliance party disrupting the usual two-corner
fight of Conservative and Labour with unpredictable results, is
not likely to give reassurance, one analyst noted.
    Other factors also indicate that the market is vulnerable
to a downwards correction. U.K. Stocks had ridden up partly on
the back of record rises in New York and Japan and a pause in
either suggests that London would inevitably follow suit.
    There would also be little new encouragement provided by
general economic factors as much of the recent optimistic news,
including this month's half point cut in base rates to 10 pct,
is already built into prices.
    "The economy is looking okay, but it can't support 20 pct
increases every three months indefinitely," one said.
    Also, market liquidity, a powerful driving force behind the
recent rises, shows signs of drying up under the pressure of
the government's privatisation campaign.
    The next few months will see cash calls for second tranche
payments on British Gas Plc <BRGS.L> and British Airways Plc
<BAB.L> as well as the proposed sale of <Rolls Royce Plc> and
the as-yet untimetabled sale of the government's 31.7 pct stake
in British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L>.
    On top of that, there will be calls from the gilt market
even though last week's budget limited the projected 1987/88
borrowing requirement to four billion stg.
    "We are looking for a squeeze on cash flow, and that's not
including rights issues which have been low so far this year
and may pick up in the second quarter," Knight said.
 Reuter

<Brierley Investments Ltd>, (BIL),
said its offer of 4.20 N.Z. Dlrs per share for supermarket
group <Progressive Enterprises Ltd> still stands, although
<Rainbow Corp Ltd> said today it has 52 pct of Progressive.
    BIL said in a statement it will review events on a daily
basis.
    Rainbow announced earlier that it had increased its stake
in Progressive to 52 pct from 44 pct through the purchase of
9.4 mln shares at between 3.80 and 4.80 N.Z. Dlrs per share.
    BIL chief executive Paul Collins said: "All Rainbow has done
is to outlay a substantial amount of cash to purchase shares
from parties who presumably were supportive of the merger."
    Rainbow has proposed a merger with Progressive to form a
new company, <Astral Pacific Corp Ltd>. Under the merger,
shareholders in both Progressive and Rainbow will be issued
shares in the new company on a one-for-one basis.
    "Quite simply, Rainbow should now bid for the balance of
Progressive Enterprises at 4.80 N.Z. Dlrs per share," Collins
said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 32 cts vs seven cts
    Oper net 2,599,000 vs 550,000
    Revs 94.4 mln vs 69.4 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 1,405,000 dlrs vs
3,538,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Norway has offered 10 new offshore blocks
to foreign and domestic applicants in the first phase of the
country's eleventh concession round, government officials said.
    Company shares in each of the licences proposed by the Oil
and Energy Ministry are not final. The ministry has given the
companies 10 days to accept or decline the proposed shares.
    French companies Ste Nationale Elf Aquitaine <ELFP.PA> and
Total Cie Francaise des Petroles <TPN.PA>, which were expected
to receive operatorships following France's agreement last
autumn to purchase gas from Norway's Troll field, were not
offered operatorships in this round, industry sources said.
    Three eleventh round blocks were awarded in the
Haltenbanken exploration tract off central Norway, including
the Smoerbukk West field where Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S
<STAT.OL> (Statoil) was appointed operator.
    Statoil will share the licence with subsidiaries of U.S.
Oil companies Tenneco Inc <TGT.N> and Texas Eastern Corp
<TET.N> and the Italian oil company <Agip SpA>'s Norwegian
    E.I. Du Pont de Nemours <DD.N> subsidiary Conoco Norway Inc
was named operator on Haltenbanken block 6406/8 and will share
the licence with Statoil.
    Norsk Hydro A/S <NHY.OL> will operate nearby block 6407/10
with partners Statoil, Norsk Agip A/S, Royal Dutch/Shell
Group's <RD.AS> A/S Norske Shell and <Deminex> unit Deminex
(Norge) A/S.
    Statoil has been offered the operatorship on a new block in
the relatively unexplored Moere South exploration area south of
Haltenbanken, with A/S Norske Shell, Texas Eastern and
<Petroleo Brasileiro SA> (Petrobras) also offered stakes in the
block.
    Norwegian companies landed operatorships on all six blocks
opened in the Barents Sea area off northern Norway. The blocks
were awarded in three licenses, each covering two blocks.
    Statoil will head exploration on blocks 7224/7 and 7224/8,
sharing the licence with Exxon Corp's <XON.N> Norwegian
subsidiary Esso Norge A/S, The British Petroleum Co PLC's
<BP.L> BP Petroleum Development (Norway) Ltd, Shell, Norsk
Hydro and Saga Petroleum A/S <SAGP.OL>.
    Blocks 7219/9 and 7220/7 were awarded to Norsk Hydro, the
operator, Statoil, Mobil Corp's <MOB.N> Mobil Exploration
Norway, Petrofina SA's <PETB.BR> Norske Fina A/S and BP.
    The third Barents Sea licence, covering blocks 7124/3 and
7125/1, went to Saga Petroleum A/S, the operator, Statoil,
Atlantic Richfield Co's <ARC.N> Arco Norge A/S, Total Marine
Norge A/S and Amerada Hess Corp <AHC.N>.
    The oil ministry withheld awards on four strategic blocks
included in the eleventh round's second phase.
    The ministry is accepting applications for phase two blocks
until early April and the awards will likely be announced this
summer, officials said.
 REUTER

Perception Technology Corp said
it expects to take a charge of about 686,000 dlrs or 19 cts per
share against earnings for the second quarter ended March 31
due to the bankruptcy proceeding of customer T.C. of New York
Inc.
    Perception said it has outstanding lease receivables from
T.C. of about 2,480,000 dlrs.
    It said the exact amnount of the charge will depend on the
extent of recovery of the leased equipment involved and on
arrangements that might be made with the bankruptcy court on
the equipment.
 Reuter

A unit of Inspectorate International
AG <INSZ.Z> is raising 200 mln marks through an equity warrant
eurobond package with a two pct coupon priced at par, lead
manager Schweizerische Bankverein (Deutschland) AG said.
    The five-year bond, for Inspectorate International Finance
NV, gives investors options on two separate warrant series "A"
and "B" exercisable into participation certificates in parent and
guarantor Inspectorate International AG.
    The first "A" series carries warrants for four participation
certificates. Upon exercising the "A" warrants, investors also
get two warrants for the "B" series.
    The "A" exercise period runs from May 7, 1987, to August 6,
1987. The exercise price is 543 Swiss francs.
    Of the two "B" warrants, one entitles investors to purchase
one participation certificate in Inspectorate International AG
and the other provides seven warrants.
    Investors may pay for "B" participation certificates by
redeeming the bond issued today. In this case, the bond, issued
in denominations of 5,000 marks, will be valued at a fixed
price of 4,200 Swiss francs, or 119.05 francs per 100 marks.
    Participation certificates acquired with "B" warrants will be
priced at 597 francs, equalling the price of the first tranche,
plus a 10 pct premium. The exercise period for the "B" series is
from August 8, 1987 to May 5, 1991.
    Fees for the bond total 2-1/4 pct, with 1-1/2 points for
selling, and 1-3/4 for management and underwriting combined.
    Investors will pay for the bond on April 8, and the bond
pays annual interest on the same day. It matures on April 8,
1992. The bond and warrants will be listed in Frankfurt.
    If all participation share warrants are exercised, the
company will obtain some 300 mln marks in new equity.
    The construction allows Inspectorate to borrow at lower
cost than a comparable convertible bond and will give the
Inspectorate equity through issues of participation
certificates in West Germany, a Swiss Bank Corp spokesman said.
    Inspectorate requires funding to finance its purchase of a
51 pct stake in Harpener AG, a diversified West German group,
and other recent acquisitions.
 REUTER

had agreed in principle to buy <I P Sharp Associates Ltd> of
Toronto for 30.4 mln stg.
    Sharp is a time-sharing network and database company
specialising in finance, economics, energy and aviation. It
operates a global packet-switching network and global limits
systems for foreign exchange trading.
    Sharp shareholders will be offered cash, shares or a
mixture of the two in settlement. The acquisition, which is
subject to Canadian government approval, would be through
amalgamation into a specially-created company.
    Reuters said it had been given options by a number of Sharp
shareholders covering 67 pct of the common stock pending
completion of a Reuters review of the company.
    Sharp operates 38 offices in 20 countries. In 1986 it
reported revenue of 55 mln Canadian dlrs with a pretax loss of
1.6 mln compared with a 1.9 mln profit in 1985.
    However, Sharp said that internal accounts showed the
company was in profit in the first two months of 1987.
    End-1986 net assets totalled 11.85 mln dlrs.
    A Reuters statement said the acquisition would fit
perfectly into its package for the banking and securities
 REUTER

Horizon Bank said its board
declared a three-for-two stock split, payable April 21 to
holders of record April Seven.
 Reuter

Waste Management Inc said its
wholly owned subsidiary, WMX Acquisition Corp, ended its tender
offer to buy shares of ChemLawn Corp at 35 dlrs a share.
    All shares tendered to Waste Management will be returned to
shareholders as soon as practical, it said.
    Earlier this week, ChemLawn agreed to accept a merger
proposal at 36.50 dlrs a share from Ecolab Inc in a transaction
valued at about 370 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Core-Mark
International Inc said vice-chairman Edward Stanton will become
acting chairman until the company's annual meeting following
the previously announced resignation of David Gillespie as
chairman and chief executive.
    Board member Anthony Regensburg will will become acting
chief executive and Daniel Gillespie will continue as president
and chief operating officer.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.44 dlrs vs loss 1.50 dlrs
    Net loss 10.1 mln vs loss 8,866,000
    Revs 122.3 mln vs 112.5 mln
    Avg shrs 7,671,855 vs 6,520,928
 Reuter

has reached a definitive agreement to sell its hospital
distribution unit to <Myriad Group Inc> for undisclosed terms,
with closing expected in the next several weeks.
 Reuter

Rexnord Inc said it will
reduce to 50 from 112 its corporate staff at its headquarters
here by the end of May, 1987.
    The staff reductions are part of the company's announced
restructuring program and planned acquisition by Banner
Industries Inc <BNR>.
    Affected Rexnord employees will receive severance pay based
on length of service, job placement counseling, it said.
   Banner completed a tender offer for Rexnord common shares in
late February. The companies are expected to combine within
about two months, Rexnord said.
 Reuter

accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale of 760
head of dairy cattle to Egypt, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    The delivery period for the cattle is April, 1987-June,
    The bonus of 1,870.00 dlrs per head was made to Esmah
Nevada Inc and will be paid in the form of commodities from the
CCC inventory.
    An additional 7,199 head of dairy cattle are still
initiative announced September 12, 1986, the department said.
 Reuter

Intel Overseas Corp, a unit of Intel
Corp, is raising 110 mln dlrs through an offering of notes due
1997 yielding 8.18 pct, said lead manager Shearson Lehman
    The notes have an 8-1/8 pct and were priced at 99.63 to
yield 93 basis points more than comparable Treasury securities.
    Non-callable for seven years, the issue is rated A-2 by
Corp. Salomon Brothers and L.F. Rothschild co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Spain's General Union of Workers (UGT),
the trade union arm of the Socialist party, will keep pressing
for salary rises of seven pct despite government
recommendations for a five pct ceiling, a UGT spokesman said.
    Trade union sources said coal mines in Asturias remained
closed by protests against planned job cuts. A 24-hour stoppage
at the state railways RENFE, coinciding with strikes at two
airlines next Friday, was virtually certain to be confirmed.
They said construction workers would start a five-day strike
next week.
    Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez last night sought support
for his call to limit wage rises in an effort to cut inflation
to five pct from 8.3 pct last year. He told a press conference
the Socialist government could not meet all demands and would
not yield to demagogy.
    Antonio Hernandez Mancha, leader of the main opposition
right-wing Popular Alliance (AP) party which tabled a motion of
no confidence against the government, said Gonzalez had run out
of imagination. But political sources said the government,
holding an absolute majority in parliament, is sure to survive
the no confidence debate opening tomorrow.
 REUTER

denied in an interview published in Saudi Arabia today that her
government's oil policy contributed to weakness in world oil
prices.
    She said the government was determined not to intervene to
influence production decisions by oil companies operating in
the North Sea.
    "We believe these must be a matter for the commercial
judgment of the oil companies," she told the Arabic language
daily al-Sharq al-Awsat in an interview coinciding with a visit
to London by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
    Thatcher said this policy had not contributed to the fall
in oil prices as North Sea production was now about the same as
in 1984 when prices were close to 30 dlrs a barrel.
    British production was on a plateau and was unlikely to
increase in the future, she said.
    "We naturally share the concern of Saudi Arabia and other
OPEC members about the harmful effects of oil market volatility
for both producer and consumer countries," Thatcher said.
    "On our part, we are careful to avoid any actions which
might add to such volatility."
 REUTER

The cost of living in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, fell 0.1 pct
in the month to mid-March to stand 0.5 pct lower than at the
same time a year earlier, the regional statistics office said.
    Prices had risen 0.3 pct in the month to mid-February but
had fallen 0.7 pct year-on-year.
    The regional figures are considered a good guide to
national inflation trends. The Federal Statistics Office is due
to publish provisional national figures for March by the end of
 REUTER

The Bundesbank bought large amounts
of dollars for yen in an apparent attempt to hold the dollar
above 149 yen, dealers said.
    The dollar intervention was in concert with some other
central banks, they said.
    Dealers said the Bank of Japan and Bank of England
supported the dollar against the yen earlier today and that
these two banks and the U.S. Federal Reserve were also active
    The Bundesbank declined to comment on the dealers' remarks.
    Dealers said the intervention underlined the determination
of central banks to keep currencies within recent ranges
following last month's agreement in Paris by six leading
countries to foster currency stability.
    One dealer said he had been repeatedly in contact with the
Bundesbank during the morning to see if it wanted to buy
dollars after the Japanese and U.K. Central bank moves.
    He said the Bundesbank told him it was observing the
situation to see if it should intervene in consultation with
other central banks.
    Since the Paris agreement on February 22 the dollar had
until yesterday traded in a 1.8150-1.8700 mark range, and above
150 yen, with traders reluctant to push the dollar down to test
central banks' resolve to defend currency stability.
    But the test came this week with the dollar falling below
1.81 marks and 150 yen. Dealers said a reviving trade dispute
between Washington and Tokyo and growing sentiment that the
dollar would have to fall further to narrow the obstinate U.S.
Trade deficit were behind the weakness.
    This week's intervention showed central banks were prepared
to cooperate to defend the Paris pact, dealers said.
    Dealers said it was significant the West German and British
central banks were supporting the dollar against the yen.
    That showed the pact involved multilateral cooperation by
central banks to foster currency stability, they said.
    But it was unclear how such cooperation was being arranged
and how frequent consultations between central banks were.
 REUTER

CrossLand Savings FSB said it has
acquired Western Savings and Loand Co with the assistance of
the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.
    CrossLand said Salt Lake City based Western has been
combined with its two Florida-based thrift subsidiaries. The
parent company contributed 50 mln dlrs in cash to the resulting
1.7 billion dlr asset subsidiary which will operate under the
name CrossLand Savings FSB with headquarters in Salt Lake City.
    CrossLand said Western, with assets of 400 mln dlrs,
operated 13 branch offices in the states of California, Oregon,
Utah and Washington.
    To facilitate the acquisition, CrossLand said, Western was
converted from a mutual to a stock association in a voluntary
supervisory conversion. Crossland and the FSLIC executived an
assistance agreement indemnifying CrossLand from certain losses
that could occur in connection with Western's loan portfolio.
    The company said James J. Heagerty, chairman and chief
executive officer of CrossLand Savings FSLA in Bradenton, Fla.,
will serve in that capacity for the new subsidiary resulting
from the merger.
    Western's president, Christopher J. Sumner, will be
president of the combined unit, CrossLand said.
 Reuter

General Electric Co said <BioReactor
Technology Inc> obtained its rights to an experimental
technique for analyzing blood samples to detect disease
antibodies.
    General Electric said BioReactor will attempt to develop
test market kits from the advances made by General Electric.
    General Electric said it granted the rights to BioReactor
because the innovation, first announced in 1972, did not fit
into the company's long-range product plans.
    In exchange for the patent, GE said it will receive an
unspecified interest in the company.
               
 Reuter

CPC International Inc officials said
the sale of the company's European corn wet milling business
will remove about 700 mln dlrs of debt and liabilities from
CPC's balance sheet.
    They told analysts the deal, expected to close in
September, and cash flow from other operations will reduced
total debt by about one-third this year. At the end of 1986,
CPC's debt totaled about 1.5 billion dlrs.
    The officials also said the company has no current plans to
sell its U.S. or North American corn wet milling businesses.
    CPC's 1987 capital spending is budgeted at about 250 mln
dlrs, down from about 361 mln dlrs last year, the officials
told analysts.
    They said the planned sale of the European corn wet milling
business, which is subject to reaching a definitive agreement,
will not result in much of change in this year's spending
plans.
    CPC is continuing to reduce corporate overhead costs by
streamlining operations in Latin America, its technical
laboratory operations in the U.S., and by completing the start
up of a new plant in Argo, Ill., they added.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it drained
liquidity from the money market when it sold 167 mln stg of
treasury bills due March 27 at rates between 9-9/16 and 10 pct.
    Earlier, the bank estimated a surplus of around 250 mln stg
in the system today.
 REUTER

Hong Kong's Attorney General Michael
Thomas said he decided not to prosecute Alan Bond, chairman of
<Bond Corp International Ltd> (BCIL), for giving misleading
information about the firm because the case was weak.
    He told the Legislative Council there had been widespread
misunderstanding, speculation and unfair distortion of the
reasons for the decision.
    "Even if there is evidence that tends to prove the necessary
ingredients of an offence, a bare prima facie case is,
generally speaking, not enough to warrant a prosecution," added
Thomas.
    The Attorney General's office said last month it will not
prosecute Bond for his statements that the net asset value per
share of properties owned by BCIL should be 2.60 H.K. Dlrs
instead of 1.10 dlrs stated in the firm's prospectus.
    The decision followed a public apology by Bond that his
remarks were misleading about BCIL, owned 66.2 pct by the
Australia based Bond Corp (Holdings) Ltd <BONA.S>.
    Thomas dismissed a suggestion that he had compromised not
to prosecute Bond if an apology was published but added: "its
publication ultimately was a factor I took into account when
subsequently I decided not to prosecute."
 Reuter

Shr profit 1.17 dlrs vs loss 12 cts
    Net profit 11.3 mln vs loss 1,038,000
    Revs 104.6 mln vs 128.7 mln
    NOTE: Current year net includes gain 9,500,000 dlrs from
the sale of its specialty restaurants unit, charge 1,200,000
dlrs from addition to insurance reserves, 4,600,000 dlr tax
credit and 660,000 dlr charge from debt repayment.
 Reuter

Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> said it will
acquire <Linotype GmbH>, Europe's largest manufacturer of
type-setting and printing communications technology from Allied
Signal Inc <ALD.N> and float off the shares in the company.
    Commerzbank declined to say how much it had paid for
Linotype.
    Linotype's group turnover in 1986 rose 15 pct to more than
500 mln marks, the bank said. The group's net return on capital
was seven pct.
 Reuter

VICORP Restaurants Inc said by mutual
agreement with United Trust Fund it has terminated the sale and
leaseback of 29 Bakers Square restaurant properties.
    The company completed a sale/leaseback of 31 Baker Street's
with United Trust in December, raising 26.5 mln dlrs. VICORP
said it does not feel it necessary to proceed with the
remainder of the sale/leasebacks due to improvement in its
financial condition.
 Reuter

EC EXPORT LICENCES FOR 59,000 TONNES WHITE  SUGAR AT REBATE 45.678 ECUS - FRENCH TRADERS

A total 59,000 tonnes of current series
white sugar received export rebates of a maximum 45.678
said.
    Out of this, traders in West Germany received 34,750
tonnes, in the U.K. 13,000, in Denmark 7,250 and in France
4,000 tonnes, it added.
be more than 45.00 Ecus per 100 kilos but Paris traders were
more precise by forecasting a rebate level of 45.75 to 46.0
Ecus.
    London traders were also reluctant earlier to predict the
likely tonnage to be authorised for export in view of the
on-going dispute between the Commission and European producers
over the threatened action by the producers to move over
800,000 tonnes to intervention.
    Last week saw 60,500 tonnes whites athuorised for export at
a maximum rebate of 44.819 Ecus per 100 kilos.
 REUTER

    Pay May One
    Record April Eight
 Reuter

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, engaged
in a reform program to boost competitiveness, said it is
launching a modernisation drive of its operational systems.
    The move, announced one day after news of a first step
toward integration of financial market supervision in the
Netherlands, will involve new transaction and clearing and
settlement systems.
    In addition, the bourse's Amsterdam Interprofessional
Market (AIM) information system will be updated in short term
with software provided by the Chicago Midwest Stock Exchange.
    The Amsterdam bourse is also studying the possible
acquisition of Midwest Exchange software for a new
order-routing system, a statement said, noting the market here
remains firmly committed to the preservation of a trading
floor.
    "The Bourse management feels that, despite the discussions
triggered by the intended closure of the trading floor in
London, preparations for an overhaul of the trading floor in
Amsterdam have to continue," the statement said.
    The operational modernisation of the Amsterdam Stock
Exchange follows several liberalisation measures aimed at
stemming the flow of business to markets abroad.
    The liberalisation, particularly the introduction of
off-floor trading in stocks and bonds on a net-basis under the
AIM system, has been described by bourse officials as
Amsterdam's "little bang," a reference to sweeping reforms last
October on the London Stock Exchange known as Big Bang.
    AIM, started in a trial run early last year and officially
in force from January 1 this year, is already credited with
halting the growth in Dutch stocks traded abroad, mainly
London.
    Amsterdam, which feels an on-floor facility with fees is
vital for smaller investors, said it needs to overhaul the
floor to accommodate new technology and new members.
    A new floor layout and order-routing system should be ready
sometime next year, the statement said.
    It said it was also planning a new on-screen Central
Securities information System with prices from international
exchanges, including the U.S. And Japan, stock information and
company news.
    Yesterday, the bourse announced it would start coordinating
this summer market supervision with the options and futures
trade in the Netherlands as a first step toward a unified
financial markets watchdog. In addition, the bourse, options
and gold futures price lists will be merged this April.
    Transactions in Amsterdam are still processed with a now
outdated punch card system while price information stemming
from the larger off-floor deals done through AIM are not yet
integrated in the bourse's big board.
    A bourse spokesman said the exchange hoped to launch its
screen information service by 1989, but added this service did
not have first priority.
    At present, bourse price information and company
information announced by the bourse are published by a printer
service while a select number of prices is available via
teletext.
 REUTER

HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS CMTE FINISHES WORK ON BILL TO TOUGHEN TRADE LAWS

Cherokee Group said it
has filed for an offering of 2,500,000 common shares, including
700,000 to be sold by shareholders, through underwriters First
Boston Inc <FBC> and American Express Co <AXP> unit Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc.
    It said it will use its proceeds to repay bank debt, for
capital spending and for general corporate purposes including
possible acquisitions.
 Reuter

South Africa's new foreign debt
agreement sparked a rally in local financial markets, but
bankers and economists said the pact only removes one source of
anxiety from a still depressed economy.
    "We have not gone from "no confidence" to "full confidence" yet,"
commented one banker, who saw the agreement as having marginal
influence on fundamental economic problems.
    Money market analysts cited the debt renegotiation as the
main impetus behind increases today in both the commercial and
financial rand.
    The commercial rand, used for current account transactions,
rose 0.5 cts to 49 U.S. Cts while the financial rand jumped
nearly two cts to 33 U.S. Cts.
    All equity and fixed investment flows of foreigners take
place through the financial rand, which is considered the main
barometer of South Africa's attractiveness to overseas
    Analysts predicted the debt arrangement plus further gains
in the gold price could push the commercial rand over 50 U.S.
Cts and the financial rand to 35 cents in the next few weeks.
    They said the financial rand in particular was being driven
by a tentative provision in the new debt agreement that could
favourably affect the currency.
    Foreign creditors may get permission to convert loan
balances and short-term claims into equity investments in South
Africa.
    Finance Minister Barend du Plessis said the Reserve Bank
was "investigating the implications of such conversions in light
of terms and restrictions of the financial rand system."
    Du Plessis in disclosing the new agreement last night said
the recent sharp rise in the financial rand was an example that
"some foreign investors are again taking a more realistic view
of South Africa."
    Terms of the debt agreement call for South Africa to repay
1.42 billion dlrs of 13 billion dlrs of frozen debt over the
next three years. The agreement extends a standstill
arrangement, expiring June 30, that has been in place since
August, 1985.
    Bankers said the repayment amounts essentially confirmed
their private estimates and could be comfortably met by the
    "They (creditors) asked for the maximum amount and we
offered the minimum," said one banking source, reacting to
reports from London that creditors were hoping for larger
    Reserve Bank governor Gerhard de Kock said South Africa
should have "no difficulty whatsoever" with the terms.
    Economists said the debt agreement would have no
significant impact on economic problems continuing to face
South Africa including high rates of inflation and
unemployment, labour unrest and political uncertainty.
    Johannesburg Stock Exchange president Tony Norton, speaking
yesterday before the debt agreement, said the economy was "in
bad shape" and there was "an awful lot of talk but little action"
to cure serious problems.
 REUTER

Shr 40 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 1,979,000 vs 2,101,000
    Revs 67.7 mln vs 63.6 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 36 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1,798,000 vs 1,034,000
    Revs 239.4 mln vs 233.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss nil
    Net profit 200,052 vs loss 56,782
    Revs 2,394,198 vs 706,393
    Avg shrs 17.8 mln vs 19.8 mln
    Year
    Shr profit one ct vs profit one ct
    Net profit 258,125 vs profit 164,553
    Revs 4,225,731 vs 3,027,892
    Avg shrs 17.9 mln vs 19.5 mln
 Reuter

    Pay May 20
 Reuter

About half of Brazil's 40,000 seamen
have returned to work after accords with 22 companies, and the
national strike which began on February 27 looks close to
ending, a union spokesman said.
    The spokesman, speaking from strike headquarters in Rio de
Janeiro, estimated that 80 ships were strike-bound.
    The seamen have settled for 120 pct pay increases with the
individual companies but are still discussing the issue of
overtime payments with the shipowners' association, Syndarma.
 REUTER

completed action on legislation to toughen U.S. trade laws,
chairman Dan Rostenkowski said.
    The committee's consideration of one of the most
controversial provisions, a plan to force major trade surplus
countries to cut their trade imbalance with the United States,
was deferred until the full House considers the trade bill, its
sponsor Rep. Richard Gephardt said.
    Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, told Reuters he was not
certain the exact form his trade surplus reduction proposal
would take. Last year the House approved his plan to force a 10
pct surplus cutback each year for four years, by countries such
as Japan.
    The Ways and Means Committess' trade bill forces President
Reagan to retaliate against unfair trade practices that violate
international trade agreements but it allows him to wave
retaliatory tariffs or quotas if the action would hurt the U.S.
economy.
    The trade bill gives U.S. Trade Representative Clayton
Yeutter more authority in trade negotiations and in decisions
to grant domestic industries import relief.
    It also gives him authority to decide whether foreign trade
practices are unfair and violate U.S. trading rights. These
powers are currently held by President Reagan.
    The administration has strongly objected to this transfer
of authority from Reagan to Yeutter.
    The bill also extends U.S. authority to negotiate
multilateral trade agreements. The bill will be wrapped into
other trade legislation and voted on in the House in April.
 Reuter

Shr 82 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 4,200,000 vs 3,954,000
    Sales 58.7 mln vs 60.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 2.68 dlrs vs 2.47 dlrs
    Oper net 13.8 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Sales 274.3 mln vs 276.8 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes loss 1,120,000 dlrs from
discontinued operations and loss on disposal of 922,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Easco Hand Tools Inc of Hunt Valley,
Md., filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the
sale of 67,275,000 dlrs in common stock, its first public stock
offering.
    It said proceeds would be used to reduce indebtedness.
    PaineWebber Inc was named underwriter.
 Reuter

Keihin Electric Express Railway Co Ltd
is issuing a 150 mln dlr eurobond with equity warrants due
April 22, 1992 with an indicated coupon of 2-3/8 pct and priced
at par, lead manager Yamaichi International (Europe) Ltd said.
    The non-callable bonds are guaranteed by Fuji Bank Ltd.
    Pricing will take place on April 1 and the exercise period
is between May 18, 1987 and April 15, 1992. The indicated
premium is 2-1/2 pct.
    Total fees of 2-1/4 pct comprise 1-1/2 pct for selling and
3/4 pct for management and underwriting. The bonds will be
issued in 5,000 dlr denominations and listed in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

The Bristol and West Building Society is
issuing a 250 mln dlr multi-currency certificate of deposit
facility, said Kleinwort, Benson Ltd, one of the appointed
dealers.
 The other dealers will be Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd and Morgan
Guaranty Ltd.
    The maturities range from 28 to 364 days and denominations
will be 500,000 and one mln dlrs.
 REUTER

The Woolwich and Equitable Building
Society is issuing a 50 mln stg eurobond due April 27, 1992
paying 9-1/2 pct and priced at 101-5/8 pct, lead manager Chase
Investment Bank Ltd said.
    The non-callable issue is available in denominations of
5,000 stg and will be listed in London.
    Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession with 5/8 pct
 REUTER

The Hartford Fire Insurance Co, a
unit of ITT Corp, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for the shelf sale of 210 mln dlrs in class c and d
    It said proceeds would be used to redeem class a stock.
    The First Boston Corp and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
were named underwriters.
 Reuter

September, and cash flow from other operations will reduce
 Reuter

Thermo Process Systems Inc said
its proposed acquisition of the Surface Combustion Division of
privately-held <Midland-Ross Corp> has been terminated because
mutually satisfactory terms could not be established.
 Reuter

Chrysler Financial Corp is issuing a 50
mln stg eurobond due April 30, 1992 paying 9-1/2 pct and priced
at 101-1/8 pct, lead manager Union Bank Of Switzerland
 REUTER

Noranda Aluminum Inc. said it has
increased its primary aluminum prices by two cents a lb,
effective with new orders as of March 25 and all shipments
    The new price for unalloyed ingot will be 64.5 cents a lb
while the new price for extrusion billet will be 72.5 cents a
lb.
 Reuter

Floods and avalanches killed 110 people
and caused around 350 mln roubles worth of damage in the
southern Soviet republic of Georgia earlier this year, the
government daily Izvestia said.
    Some 80,000 hectares of agricultural land and gardens had
been inundated, damaging tea plantations and orange groves, the
newspaper said. It added that spring sowing in southern parts
of the country was some two weeks behind schedule because of
the late thaw but gave no precise crop estimates.
    In the most detailed report to date on the heavy snows in
January and floods in February, Izvestia said 8,200 people had
been evacuated from mountain areas, 4,500 houses had been
damaged and hundreds of kilometres of roads and power lines had
been destroyed.
    A separate article in the daily warned that a sudden thaw
was expected shortly in the Ukraine and southern parts of
Russia, which experienced record snows this winter.
    Preventive measures have already been taken in some areas
including the evacuation of cattle.
 Reuter

Utilicorp United Corp
said it expects to report 1987 first quarter earnings of about
12 mln dlrs or about 1.12 dlrs a share and revenues of about
190 mln dlrs.
    In the comparable quarter a year ago, Utilicorp earned 8.5
mln dlrs or 87 cts on revenues of 203 mln dlrs.
    There are 9.6 mln shares outstanding this year, up from the
8.5 mln shares in 1986, Utilicorp's president Richard Green
told financial analysts here.
    First quarter 1987 results include one month contribution
of West Virginia Power, which became a division on March 1,
1987, Green said in remarks prepared for delivery to analysts.
    Higher earnings for the period reflected reduced operating
and maintenenace expenses and about 10 mln dlrs in rate
increases in Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Colorado, he said.
    However, Utilicorp's Missouri Public Service division is
experiencing the effect of a 5.9 pct rate reduction authorized
in September 1986, he noted.
    Of Utilicorp's total revenues expected for the 1987 first
quarter, about 43 mln dlrs will be derived from electric
operations and about 147 mln dlrs will come from gas
operations, he said.
    Operating income derived from electric operations in the
first three months of 1987 is estimated to be eight mln dlrs,
while the contribution from gas operations will be about 10 mln
dlrs, Green said.
    Green told analysts that Utilicorp received regulatory
approval from various states and the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission to reincorporate in Delaware, effective April one.
    Utilicorp signed an agreement with Cominco Ltd of Vancouver
to extend the deadline to May 31, 1987, for completion of the
company's purchase of West Kootenay Power and Light of British
Columbia, due to a longer than expected regulatory approval
process, he said.
    Hearings were completed in February and a decision by the
British Columbia Utilities Commission on the 60 mln dlrs
purchase by Utilicorp is pending, he said.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters Salomon Inc <SB> and
Cowen anbd Co said an initial public offering of 1,089,300
shares of Xylogics Inc is underway at 16 dlrs per share.
    The company is selling 750,000 shares and shareholders the
rest.  The company has granted underwriters an overallotment
option to buy up to 150,000 more shares.
 Reuter

Tseng Laboratories Inc said it
expects first quarter 1987 sales to exceed total sales for the
entire 1986 year, and said it expects earnings for the quarter
to grow at a faster rate than sales.
    Tseng posted total revenues for 1986 of 4,255,731, and net
income of 258,125, or 14 cts per share.
    Jack Tseng, president of the company, attributed the high
expectations to increased orders from major costomers, as well
as accelerated business from its growing reseller network.
    Tseng posted first quarter 1986 sales of 549,950, and net
income of 19,163, the company said.
 Reuter

Minntech Corp, a medical
device manufacturer, said it has received an additional 175,000
dlrs from C.R. Bard <BCR> to develop and market an advanced
membrane oxygenator for use in open heart surgery.
    Minntech said Bard paid it the money on top of the 825,000
dlrs in non-refundable contract revenues Bard already paid as
part of a development agreement. The company said it received
the money after it delivered oxygenator units for animal
testing to the Utah Biological Testing Laboratories.
    Minntech also said it will receive additional milestone
payments as the project development progresses, adding that
Bard has agreed to buy some oxygenators following project
completion and Food and Drug Administration approval.
    Minntech President Louis Cosentino said the animal testing
was successful and the company can now file for FDA approval
and equip its oxygenator manufacturing facility.
 Reuter

Stockholder Systems Inc said it has
agreed in principle to acquire privately-held Software Concepts
Inc, which provides software for check processing, mortgage
application processing and safe deposit box accounting, for
    Software Concepts had revenues of about 3,200,000 dlrs for
the year ended June 30.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs five cts
    Net 656,000 vs 314,000
    Sales 8,868,000 vs 6,499,000
    Avg shrs 5,823,000 vs 5,705,000
    1st half
    Shr 22 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,296,000 vs 795,000
    Sales 17.3 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Avg shrs 5,809,000 vs 5,973,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five-for-four split in February
1987.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 103,000 vs profit 319,000
    Revs 4,357,000 vs 6,494,000
    Avg shrs 5,415,185 vs 5,646,185
    Year
    Shr profit 22 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net profit 1,236,000 vs profit 570,000
    Revs 22.2 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Avg shrs 5,638,596 vs 5,646,185
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits of 30,400 dlrs in
quartger and 58,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

    NOTE: B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust.
 Reuter

bankers and economists said the pact removes only one source of
    "We have not gone from 'no confidence' to 'full confidence'
yet," commented one banker, who saw the agreement as having
marginal influence on fundamental economic problems.
favorably affect the currency.
Africa.
 REUTER

Maytag Co said it expects capital
spending in 1987 to increase to about 60 mln dlrs from 49 mln
dlrs in 1986.
    Maytag chairman and chief executive officer Daniel Krumm
said the company plans a "significant" investment at its
Admiral refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., as well as
continued spending for product improvement and increased
efficiency at other Maytag facilities.
    Earlier, the company reported 1986 net income of 111.2 mln
dlrs, or 2.57 per share, versus net income of 124.9 mln dlrs,
or 2.89 dlrs a share, in 1985.
 Reuter

The Travelers Corp's Travelers
Mortgage Services said it signed a letter of intent to buy two
subsidiaries of the privately-held <Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the U.S.>
    The company said it plans to acquire the Equitable
Relocation Management Corp and the Equitable Realty Network
Inc.
    The company said the acquisitions will give it broader
distribution of its corporate relocation service and mortgage
programs.
 Reuter

Oper shr seven cts vs loss nil
    Oper net 988,000 vs loss 52,000
    Revs 2,267,000 vs 791,000
    NOTE: Net excludes gains from discontinued operations of
65,000 dlrs vs 75,000 dlrs.
    Current year net includes gain 1,025,000 dlrs from sale of
cellular telephone investment.
    Prior year figures restated for discontinued operations.
 Reuter

trading in the units of BenEquity Holdings, a California
Limited Partnership, was suspended before the opening and an
application will be made to the Securities and Exchange
Commission to delist the issue.
    The Exchange said it normally considers suspending and
removing from its list the securities of a company when fewer
than 600,000 units are held by the public.
    As a result of a tender offer by <Renouf Corp
International>, which expired March 24, 1987, fewer than
600,000 units of BenEquity remained publicly held.
   
 Reuter

Escagen Corp said an initial
offering of two mln common shares is underway at nine dlrs each
through underwriters led by <Prudential-Bache Group Inc>.
    The company is purchasing the assets and business of
International Plant Research Institute and will apply plant
biotechnology to developing food products and planting
materials.
 Reuter

Bristol-Myers Co said it has filed an
investigational new drug application with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration requesting the agency to allow it to begin
testing its AIDS vaccine in humans.
    The company said it filed the application on behalf of its
Oncogen subsidiary, which developed the vaccine. It did not
name the drug.
    Bristol-Myers, the third largest drug company in the U.S.,
said that "considerable work remains to be done before it is
determined whether a new drug application will be develpoed for
submission to FDA."
    An investigational new drug application is the first step
in testing an agent. After clinical studies establish the
safety and efficacy of an agent, a company then submits a new
drug application to the FDA. It may take three to five years
before a new drug application is submitted and another two to
three years before the FDA approves a drug for marketing.
    Earlier this month, Bristol-Myers said the vaccine produced
antibodies to the AIDS virus in mice and monkeys. The vaccine
uses a live smallpox vaccine to carry two protein on the AIDS
virus that may, in theory, prod the immune system to produce
neutralizaing antibodies against AIDS.
    The company is the second U.S. organization that has sought
premission for human testing of an AIDS vaccine. At team headed
by Allan Goldstein of George Washington University in
Washington was the first.
    Repligen Corp <RGEN> has said it plans to seek regulatory
permission to test its AIDS vaccine by the beginning of the
summer. And Genentech Inc <GENE> has also said it plans to ask
the FDA to approve human testing of its AIDS vaccine later this
year.
 Reuter

A group led by Dallas investor
Harold Simmons told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
had reduced its stake in McDermott International Inc by one
pct, to under five pct.
    The group had said in a March 10 filing, announcing
acquisition of 5.4 pct of the firm's stock, that it might
consider seeking control of the company.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve Board
unanimously approved a proposal to allow Federal Reserve banks
to offer a redeposit service for bounced checks.
    The service would allow a commercial bank that sends checks
to a reserve bank for collection to instruct the reserve bank
to redeposit a bounced check rather than return it.
    The reserve banks would be required to charge a fee for the
redeposit service that would cover its costs.
    The plan would leave it to each reserve bank to set a
dollar cutoff for eligible returns.
    The Fed acted after industry studies showed that nearly
two-thirds of bounced checks cleared the second time around.
    The Fed said studies show that fewer than one pct of the
more than 40 billion checks written each year in the United
States are returned unpaid.
    Of those returned, about half are written for less than 100
dlrs.
    The Fed said many commercial banks already routinely
redeposit low-dlr-value checks returned to them for
insufficient funds.
 Reuter

International Platinum Corp said it
signed a letter of intent to enter into further negotiations on
a joint venture exploration agreement with Degussa A.G., of
West Germany, regarding several North American platinum
    Conclusion of the agreement is subject to completion of
further detailed examination by Degussa, as well as board and
    Under terms of the letter of intent, Degussa would
contribute substantially to a three year exploration budget of
4.5 mln dlrs in return for a 50 pct interest in the venture.
    Degussa's contribution to the exploration budget will be
based on it matching International Platinum's past exploration
and acquisition costs, estimated at about two mln dlrs, and
then contributing on a pro rata basis, International Platinum
said.
    Degussa's contribution would provide a major portion of
International Platinum's exploration budget, especially during
the first and second year of the proposed joint venture, the
 Reuter

    Net 1,440,000 vs 830,000
    Revs 15.9 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Avg shrs 12,342,000 vs 10,826,000
 Reuter

President Reagan opposed new taxes
as he urged the Democratic controlled Congress to come up with
a budget that meets the Gramm-Rudman deficit target of 108
billion dlrs for fiscal 1988.
    He told reporters before meeting with House Republicans in
Congress that for six years he had proposed a "a sound, solid
budget" but alleged that Democrats had only come forth with a
so-called continuing resolution, a catch-all spending bill,
each year.
    Asked about taxes, he said "they're not going to get those
either."
    Reagan's appearance with Republicans coincided with a
dispute among House Budget Committee Democrats and Republicans.
Republicans have boycotted budget drafting sessions.
    "I'm still trying to get a budget that meets the
Gramm-Rudman target," Reagan said. "The Democrats have refused to
present a budget of their own."
    House Budget Committee Chairman William Gray told reporters
after Reagan's remarks that "They (Republicans) don't want to
participate. The President is up there bashing our brains while
Republicans won't give us a markup (drafting meeting). It's an
interesting combination."
 Reuter

Iranian Prime Minister Mir-Hossein
Mousavi said Iran had "more effective" missiles at its disposal
than the shore-to-sea missiles which had provoked U.S. Concern,
Tehran Radio reported.
    A U.S. State Department spokesman said last week Iran had
acquired Chinese-made Silkworm missiles which posed a greater
threat to shipping in the Gulf than the weapons previously
used.
    Tehran Radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp,
quoted Mousavi as saying that Tehran officially announced after
its forces overran southern Iraq's Faw peninsula in February
last year that it had shore-to-sea missiles.
    "The fact that the Americans, after so much delay, are now
thinking of expressing their concern with panic is because
Reagan needs this sensation now," said Mousavi, speaking after a
cabinet meeting in Tehran.
    "We also announce today that these missiles are not the
limit of our war capabilities in the Gulf," he added.
    Mousavi said the security of the Gulf region had nothing to
do with the U.S. But Iran would resort to any action to defend
the Gulf, "even those actions which are not thought probable by
Westerners."
 Reuter

The European Community Commission
confirmed it granted export licences for 59,000 tonnes of
current series white sugar at a maximum export rebate of 45.678
European Currency Units (ECUs) per 100 kilos.
tonnes, in the U.K. 13,000, in Denmark 7,250 tonnes and in
France 4,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

Lead underwriters <Goldman, Sachs and
Co> and First Boston Inc <FBC> said an offering of two mln
Series C 3.625 dlr cumulative convertible exchangeable
preferred shares of Inland Steel Industries Inc is underway at
50 dlrs per share.
    The preferred shares are convertible at any time into
common stock at 1.667 common shares per preferred share and are
exchangeable at the company's option on any dividend payment
date starting May 1, 1989 for 7.25 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due May 1, 2012.
    The underwriters said the preferred shares are not
redeemable before May 1, 1989 and thereafter are redeemable for
cash at the company's option at prices declining to par on May
1, 1997.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters <Donaldson, Lufkin
and Jenrette> and Salomon Inc <SB> said an offering of three
mln shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc depositary convertible
exchangeable preferred shares is under way at 50 dlrs per
share.
    Underwriters have been granted an option to buy another
450,000 depositary shares to cover overallotments.
    Each depositary share bears an annual dividend of three
dlrs per share and represents 0.1 30 dlr convertible
exchangeable preferred share.
    The underwriters said the preferred shares are convertible
into common stock at 25.16 dlrs per share initially and are
exchangeable at the company's option for six pct convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012.  The preferred shares are not
redeemable before March 15, 1990 unless the market price of the
common stock equals or exceeds 150 pct of the conversion price
for specified periods.
 Reuter

Tricentrol Plc <TCT.L> said it will
concentrate most of its efforts this year on its proven oil and
gas reserves in order to maximise benefits to shareholders in
the mid to long-term.
    It said in a statement "We are confident that substantial
development funds will be available to Tricentrol and that we
will be able to minimise further disposal of our interests."
    Tricentrol wrote off 57.5 mln stg on the reorganisation of
its North American operations last year, when oil prices
plunged. The group incurred a 1986 net loss of 3.7 mln stg
against a 25.4 mln profit the previous year.
 Reuter

<Rolls-Royce Ltd> said it signed an
agreement with the Boeing Company <BA.N> to install its RB
211-524 D4D engine on the B767 family of aircraft.
    The engine, currently under development, will be ready for
service by early 1990, the company said in a statement.
    Boeing 747s are also powered with the engine, and its use
in B767 craft too could bring significant operating benefits,
Rolls-Royce said.
 Reuter

    Pay May One
    Record April 6
 Reuter

Unisys Corp introduced two new
mainframe computers, new workstations, and other products.
    The company said the V510 and V530 large-scale computers
offer up to a four-fold increase in performance over existing V
series.
    Customer deliveries of the new models, aimed at business,
government and financial markets, are planned for the fourth
quarter of 1987 and the first quarter of 1988.
    Base price of the V510 system is 950,000 dlrs and the V530
system is based priced at 1,775,000 dlrs, the company said.
    Speaking at a press conference, Joseph Kroger, Unisys vice
chairman, said the new product introductions are the first
concrete examples of the increased resources of the merged
Burroughs and Sperry.
    He said the company had exceeded its goal of cutting costs
by 150 mln dlrs in the first year after the merger, and reduced
debt by nearly two billion dlrs, more than the originally
expected 1.5 billion dlrs.
    In addition to the mainframes, Unisys introduced an
addition to its B25 family of desktop computer systems. The new
system, the B38, will make greater use of its Intel Corp <INTC>
microprocessor using available software.
    The B38 is available for immediate delivery with a base
configuration price of 8,375 dlrs.
    The company also introduced new software products,
interconnect capabilities, and a laser printer.
 Reuter

Argentine port workers began an
indefinite protest against safety conditions at the port of
Buenos Aires, stopping work for one hour per shift, a press
    He said three port workers had died over the last month in
accidents. He said the decision to take action was made after a
port worker died yesterday after being electrocuted.
 Reuter

seat on the New York Futures Exchange sold for 200 dlrs,
unchanged from the previous sale on Tuesday.
    The Exchange said the current bid is 100 dlrs and the offer
is 200 dlrs.
 Reuter

NEC Corp is establishing a 150 mln dlr
euro-commercial paper program with a sterling option, Morgan
Guaranty Ltd said as arranger.
    Paper will be issued by NEC Industries Netherlands BV under
the guarantee of NEC Corp.
    Dealers will be Morgan Guaranty, Chase Investment Bank Ltd,
Shearson Lehman Brothers International and Swiss Bank Corp
International Ltd.  Issuing and paying agent will be Chase
Manhattan Bank NA, London.
 REUTER

The Bank of France said it will offer
four billion francs worth of negotiable Treasury bills at its
next weekly tender on March 30.
    The total includes 1.5 billion francs worth of 13-week
bills and 2.5 billion francs of 24-week bills.
    At this week's tender on Monday the Bank sold a total of
2.98 billion francs worth of 13-week bills, 3.19 billion francs
worth of five-year bills and 2.69 billion francs worth of
two-year bills.
 REUTER

The Federal Reserve will probably
today, economists said.
    They expected the Fed will supply temporary reserves
indirectly via 1.5 to two billion dlrs of customer repurchase
agreements.
    Fed funds hovered at a relatively high 6-1/4 pct this
morning after averaging 6.14 pct on Tuesday.
    Early this afternoon the Fed also is expected to supply
reserves permanently, effective Thursday, by offering to buy
all maturities of Treasury bills.
 Reuter

India is reported to have bought two
white sugar cargoes for April/May shipment at its tender today
near 227 dlrs a tonne cost and freight and could be seeking a
third cargo, traders said.
    A British operator is believed to have sold one of the
cargoes, while an Austrian concern is thought to have featured
in the second cargo sale, they said.
 Reuter

<Novamin Inc> said it received a
proposed takeover offer from Breakwater Resources Ltd involving
a swap of one Breakwater share for two Novamin common shares.
    It said the proposal also called for conversion of
outstanding Novamin warrants into Breakwater common shares on
the same basis, provided the exercise price was paid by the
warrant holders.
    Novamin, a mineral exploration company, said directors
would meet next Tuesday to deal with the proposal, which, it
said, was subject to approval by Breakwater directors.
 Reuter

Feb 28 end
    Shr 18 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,541,000 vs 1,122,000
    Sales 36.7 mln vs 33.5 mln
    Avg shrs 8,517,000 vs 8,441,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five pct stock dividend in August
1986.
 Reuter

preliminary merger talks with Bay Financial Corp have been
terminated due to a failure to agree on terms.
 Reuter

    Net 362,692 vs 347,868
    Revs 6,311,808 vs 5,827,538
    12 mths
    Shr 60 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 1,152,746 vs 1,534,503
    Revs 24.7 mln vs 25.2 mln
 Reuter

EDO Corp said its board approved the
repurchase of an additional 500,000 shares of its common on the
open market, or through privately negotiated transactions.
    EDO said the authorization is in addition to the 2,690,000
shares announced previously.
    Since 1983, Edo said it has purchased over 2.1 mln shares
of its common, leaving about 560,000 shares authorized for
purchase prior to today's action.
 Reuter

Vista Organization Ltd said its board
has formed an office of the president.
    The company said the office includes Mark S. Germain, who
is primarily responsible for administration and corporate
policy, Herb Jaffe, who heads motion picture operations, and
Gabriel Katzka, who is in charge of television operations.
 Reuter

 Reuter

some Wall Street firms have limited their commodities trading
business with Drexel.
    Rumors circulated in financial and commodity markets
yesterday that units of <Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc>, Salomon
Inc <SB> and <Goldman, Sachs and Co> had restricted commodities
business with Drexel because of its involvement in the
government's insider trading probe.
    In response to questions, a Drexel spokesman said, "Any
questions raised about our credit conditions are ridiculous as
those few competitors who have instituted restrictions for
whatever their motives well know."
    Securities industry sources said the three firms were
restricting their business with Drexel particularly in oil and
precious metals. The firms have restricted business in some
areas, but not others, the sources said.
    All three firms declined to comment, and the Drexel
spokesman did not identify the companies by name.
    Drexel and some officials, including Michael Milken, head
of its "junk bond" department, were subpoenaed following the
government's settlement of insider trading charges against
arbitrager Ivan Boesky.
    "Our commodity trading group, <DBL Trading Corp>, is
operating normally and very profitably. It has had absolutely
no disruption in its trading and operation," a Drexel spokesman
said.
    He added, "the financial picture of the firm as a whole has
never been healthier. We have capital of 1.9 billion dlrs, the
fourth largest on Wall Street, equity of 1.3 billion dlrs, and
excess net capital of one billion dlrs."
    "People who invent and circulate rumors about any financial
institution, including Drexel Burnham, are doing a serious,
grave disservice to the investing public and marketplace," the
 Reuter

Manny, Moe and Jack Inc
said its board declared a three-for-one stock split and raised
the quarterly dividend to six cts presplit from 5-1/2 cts.
    Both are payable July 27 to holders of record July One and
the
    The split is subject to shareholder approval at the May 18
annual meeting of an increase in authorized common shares to
500 mln from 40 mln, the company said.
 Reuter

Jan 31 end
    Shr 45 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 8,349,000 vs 6,187,000
    Sales 126.7 mln vs 103.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.55 dlrs vs 1.29 dlrs
    Net 28.1 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Sales 485.9 mln vs 388.9 mln
    NOTE: Latest year net includes three cts shr gain from sale
of assets.
 Reuter

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc said the
company's earnings for year would exceed the 1.65 dlrs a share
previously announced and could go as high as 1.75 dlrs for
fiscal year ended  Feb 28, 1987.
    The company posted net earnings of 11.5 mln dlrs, or 1.72
dlrs per share, on revenues of 199.3 mln dlrs for fiscal year
1986. These figures reflect two three-for-two stock splits in
March and August 1986.
    At the Annual Drexel Burnham Lambert Construction
Conference here, Hovnanian executive vice presidnt Ara
Hovnanian said the company expects an earnings range of between
2.35 dlrs and 2.55 dlrs per share for fiscal 1988.
    Total revenues for the year ending Feb 29, 1988, should be
between 320 mln and 350 mln, he said.
 Reuter

Turkey bought an estimated 100,000
tonnes of white sugar from three trade houses today for April
to June shipment, according to trade sources.
    They said a large U.K. trade house sold 50,000 tonnes, a
U.S. house traded 25,000 tonnes, and a Swiss-based dealer house
25,000 tonnes.
    Price details were unclear but reports this morning
suggested that Turkey was offered sugar at prices ranging down
to 212 dlrs a tonne, c and f basis.
 Reuter

Southern Railway Co, a unit of Norfolk
Southern Corp, is raising 20.6 mln dlrs through an offering of
equipment trust certificates due 1988 to 2002, said lead
manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    Morgan headed a syndicate that won the certificates in
competitive bidding. It bid them at 98.252 and set a 7-1/4 pct
coupon and various reoffering prices for the maturities. Yields
range from 6.20 to 7-3/4 pct.
    Non-callable for life, the certificates are rated a
top-flight AAA by both Moody's and Standard and Poor's. Kidder
Peabody is co-managing the issue.
 Reuter

Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc said
Dennis Long, vice president and group executive of the company,
and president of its beer subsidiary, Anheuser-Busch Inc, is
resigning from the company.
    The company said it accepted his resignation at a regular
meeting of the board of directors.
    He will be replaced as president of the unit by August
Busch III, chairman and president of the company, and chairman
and chief executive officer of the unit, the company said.
    Long said in a statement referring to his resignation: "I
have great respect for Anheuser-Busch and its management team.
As president of Anheuser-Busch Inc I assume full responsibility
for the actions if its officers and employees and have chosen
to resign in the best interest of the company."
    Published reports have said Long is under investigation by
the company concerning charges of improper conduct by certain
employees and suppliers. A spokesman for the company would not
comment further about Long's resignation.
    The company's stock was down 1-1/8 to 34-3/4 this morning.
 Reuter

JOHNSON SAYS FED'S ACTIONS YESTERDAY MEANT TO STABILIZE DOLLAR AT CURRENT LEVELS

Shr 23 cts vs not reported
    Net 282,000 vs 1,000
    Sales 18.6 mln vs 18.7 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 48 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 583,000 vs 213,000
    Sales 37.8 mln vs 37.5 mln
   NOTE: 1987 six months net includes a loss from discontinued
operations equal to two cts a share.
    1986 net includes losses from discontinued operations of
four cts in the quarter and six cts in the six months.
 Reuter

Phoenix Re Corp said an initial public
offering of 2,500,000 common shares is under way at 13 dlrs
each through underwriters led by American Express Co's <AXP>
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc subsidiary and Advest Group Inc
<ADV>.
    Phoenix Re was formed by Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co.
 Reuter

Nippon Signal Co Ltd is planning to
issue 50 mln Swiss franc notes with warrants, lead manager
Morgan Stanley and Co Inc said.
    It said details would be released tomorrow.
 REUTER

Hadson Corp said it has signed a
definitive agreement to acquire 85 pct of the outstanding
common stock of Seaxe Energy Corp.
    The company said it will buy the 85 pct interest in Seaxe
from shareholders owning restricted or controlled shares for
less than 200,000 Hadson common shares.
    It said closing is subject to the approval of title
assignments by the French government.  Seaxe is involved in oil
and natural gas exploration and development in the Paris Basin
of France.
 Reuter

 Reuter

TCBY Enterprises Inc said its
board has approved a three-for-two split of its common stock
with a distribution to be made on April 24 to stockholders of
record on April 9.
    The split will increase the number of outstanding shares to
over 26 mln from about 17.3 mln shares now, the company said.
    TCBY Enetrprises is a franchisor and operator of retail
stores specializing in frozen yogurt-related treats.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bancorp is offering
200 mln dlrs of subordinated capital notes due 1999 with an
8-5/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager Goldman,
    That is 140 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Investors Service Inc and A-plus by Standard and Poor's Corp.
First Boston, Salomon Brothers and Shearson Lehman co-managed
the deal.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Fiat Spa <FIAT.MI> is considering
issuing a eurobond of up to 384 mln dlrs, convertible or with
warrants attached for exercise into its shares still with banks
after the placement of the Libyan stake last autumn, the
financial daily Handelsblatt reported, quoting bourse sources.
    The newspaper gave no other details. But dealers said
shares of Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> had been strong in recent
days, partly on hopes that the issue would allow the bank to
place its Fiat quota with investors at a reasonable price.
    Deutsche was lead underwriter for the 2.13 billion dlr Fiat
placement, announced on September 23.
    In Milan, a Fiat spokesman had no comment on the reports.
    A Deutsche Bank spokesman here said he had no knowledge of
a possible equity-linked Fiat bond. But German banking sources
said concern the bank had to take a hefty writedown for its
unplaced Fiat stock had weighed heavily on its share price.
    Milan share dealers also said Fiat stock had been under
pressure since the placement. Ordinary shares rose 20 lire to
12,880 today, but were well down from 16,600 on September 23.
    Sources close to Italian state-owned investment bank IMI
said earlier this month that a convertible issue was being
considered, but gave no details of the amount involved.
 REUTER

State holding company <Societa Finanziaria
Telefonica Spa> (STET) said it was forming a new
telecommunications company, <Teleo Spa> that intends to offer
electronic mail systems among its services.
    Teleo plans initial investments of 18 billion lire and
estimates annual sales could reach 90 billion lire within five
years, STET officials said at a news conference.
   STET will have a 10 pct stake in the new firm, with the
remaining share capital held by two STET subsidiaries.
 Reuter

P.H. Glatfelter said its
board increased its quarterly dividend on its common stock to
14 cts per share, from 12.5 cts per share the prior quarter.
    It said the dividend is payable May 1, 1987, to
shareholders of record April 15, 1987.
    In addition, the company said it authorized the repurchase
of up to an additional one mln shares of its common stock.
    On March 27, 1985, the board had authorized the repurchase
of up to two mln shares, as adjusted for a two-for-one split,
effected in April 1986, the company said.
    The company said 521,508 shares may still be repurchased
under the 1985 authorization. It added any shares repurchased
would be added to the treasury and will be available for future
issuance.
    The company said it has no present plans to issue any of
the shares which may be repurchased. The company said it
presently has 24,614,352 common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr loss 19 cts vs profit 57 cts
    Net loss 103,005 vs profit 319,344
    Year
    Net profit 1,236,347 vs profit 570,222
 Reuter

income of 258,125, or 1.4 cts per share.
income of 19,163, the company said. (corrects cts per share)
 Reuter

A nationwide bank strike launched
yesterday by Brazilian bank workers gained more support today
with the closure of the <Banco do Estado de Sao Paulo>
(Banespa) in Sao Paulo, a union spokesman said.
    The spokesman said about 530,000 of Brazil's 700,000 bank
workers were on strike. He said the chief development since
yesterday was the decision by the city's 20,000 Banespa workers
to come out on strike. Banespa is the Sao Paulo state bank.
    State-controlled <Banco do Brasil SA>, with over 3,000
branches throughout the country, closed down yesterday.
    Bank industry sources say the closure of the Banco do
Brasil will soon force the shutdown of the many private banks
which are not strike-bound.
    The bankworkers are seeking an immediate pay rise of 100
pct and monthly salary adjustments.
    A spokesman for the National Federation of Banks, Adilson
Lorente, said that yesterday only 30 pct of private banks'
branches were strike-bound. He had no estimate of how many
workers were on strike or any information on the percentage of
branches open today.
 REUTER E

<Consolidated Norex Resources
Ltd> said it agreed to acquire all issued and outstanding
shares of Triweb Resources Ltd, a privately held oil and gas
company with land holdings and production base in Alberta and
    The company said specific details relating to purchase
price and other terms will be released on closing of the
transaction, expected by May 15.
 Reuter

Thai sugar production continued at a
high level in February, latest figures received by the
International Sugar Organization (ISO) show.
    The figures show stocks at end-February of 2.49 mln tonnes
raw value against 2.33 mln a year earlier. Analysts said this
was a new peak for the date.
    Production in February was 961,000 tonnes against 888,000
in February 1986 and took the Nov/Feb total for the current
crop to 2.25 mln tonnes. Production normally tails off sharply
after March, but in recent years production from March to the
end of the crop has been over 500,000 tonnes, analysts said.
    Thailand's exports in February were 32,800 tonnes and
consumption 57,800.
    Last month the Thai Agriculture Ministry said 1986/87
production was expected to fall to 2.3 mln tonnes from 2.48 mln
in 1985/86.
 Reuter

Swedish Export Credit is issuing 75 mln
New Zealand dlr eurobonds due April 28, 1989, paying 19 pct and
priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead manager Credit Suisse First Boston
said.
dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. Fees comprise 7/8 pct
selling concession and 3/8 pct management and underwriting.
 REUTER

Apollo Computer Inc said it
entered into a joint marketing agreement with <Palladian
Software Inc> to distribute an artificial intelligence software
package.
    Apollo said it will market the Palladian Management
Advisor, formerly known as the Financial Advisor, on Apollo
    Apollo said the agreement signals the first time a general
business expert system is available for professional
 Reuter

<Accugraph Corp> said it named
Trio-Tech International Pte Ltd, of Singapore, as exclusive
distributor of Accugraph's computer-aided design and
manufacturing software for Singapore, the Philippines,
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
 Reuter

REICHHOLD CHEMICALS INC EXPLORING POSSIBLE SALE OF EUROPEAN SUBSIDIARY

Trade house sources said China is
expected to step up its sugar purchases following yesterday's
steep drop in world sugar prices.
    The consensus is that the Chinese will buy between 200,000
and 400,000 tonnes of raw sugar.
    "China is short of foreign exchange and a drop in prices is
usually taken as a buying opportunity by Peking," one trader
said.
    Yesterday, prices on the New York world sugar market
plummeted by 0.58 to 0.50 cent on heavy liquidation by
speculators, disenchanted over the market's lack of rallying
power.
    Speculation is that China will need the sugar for the
May/July period.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.30 dlrs vs profit 29 cts
    Net loss 33.4 mln vs profit 7,386,000
    Sales 168.2 mln vs 128.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.61 dlrs vs profit 30 cts
    Net loss 41.4 mln vs profit 7,055,000
    Sales 527.5 mln vs 366.7 mln
    NOTE: Latest year net both periods includes 39.4 mln dlr
provision for closing 25 underperforming stores.
 Reuter

Market response to the Treasury's 24,500
billion lire offer of short-term treasury bills was mixed, with
three-month paper in strong demand but six and 12-month bills
undersubscribed, Bank of Italy figures show.
    Rates were unchanged on those indicated at the time the
offer was announced.
    The market was assigned all of the 3,500 billion lire of
three-month bills on offer after requesting a total of 4,695
billion. Effective net annualised compound yield on the bills
is 9.87 pct, down from 9.98 pct on the previous issue of
three-month paper.
    Of the 9,500 billion lire of six-month paper offered,
operators requested and were assigned 7,098 billion lire at a
net annualised compound rate of 9.24 pct, down from 9.30 pct
    The market requested and was assigned 8,584 billion lire of
the 11,500 billion lire of 12-month bills offered at a net
annual rate of 9.02 pct, down from 9.05 pct previously.
    The Bank of Italy took up a total 4,200 billion lire of the
remaining six and 12-month paper, leaving 1,118 billion lire
unassigned.
of which 20,321 billion lire is in the hands of market
operators and the remainder with the Bank of Italy.
 REUTER

AFG Industries Inc said it is
entering the automobile replacement glass market with the
acquisition of A-1 Quality Glass, of Salt Lake City, and Tempo
Auto Glass, of Tacoma, Wash.
    AFG also said that if the offer it has made as part of a
partnership with Wagner and Brown to acquire GenCorp Inc <GY>
is successful, it will consider establishing autoglass stores
in GenCorp's retail tire outlets.
    AFG said that in addition to the two acquisitions, it has
been operating eight stores through its American Slat Glass
distribution group.
    It said a a newly formed subsidiary, AFG Auto Glass Inc,
will be looking for additional acquisitions as well as opening
new outlets.
    A-1 Quality Glass operates a central wholesale autoglass
distribution center and 23 stores in Utah, Arizona, and other
western states. Tempo operates four stores in the Pacific
northwest region.
 Reuter

<Greenwood Resources Inc> 
said if it is unsuccessful in gaining shareholder approval for
a debt refinancing with Colorado National Bankshares Inc
<COLC>, the bank will have the right to foreclose on
Greenwood's assets.
    On January 28, Greenwood's board approved an agreement with
Colorado National calling for the sale of 4,300,000 shares of
New London Oil owned by Greenwood for 1,700,000 dlrs and
calling for a restructuring and recapitalizing of Greenwood,
subject to shareholder approval.
    As a result of declines in the value of oil and natural gas
properties brought on by the fall in prices for those fuels,
Greenwood started facing substantial bank debt prepayment
requirements in 1986.
    The New London shares are to be sold to a party in London.
    On February 1, Colorado National released to the company
all cash flow from oil and natural gas operations and reduced
its debt in return for the payment of 1,700,000 dlrs from the
sale of the New London stock and other considerations.  Eighty
pct of Greenwood's cash flow from oil and gas operations had
been allocated to servicing debt to the bank.
    Under the deal with Colorado National, existing preferred
and common stocks would be converted into a new common stock,
    The company said it expects to file proxy materials for the
special meeting of shareholders at which the matter will be
considered by the first week of April, mail material to
shareholders by early May and schedule the meeting for about 30
days thereafter.
    It said its 1985 audit -- not conducted at the end of that
year due to lack of funds -- is being conducted now, along with
the 1986 audit, by Touche Ross and Co.
    Greenwood said as soon as its 1985 audit is completed, it
will apply for readmission to the NASDAQ system, from which it
was delisted last year.
    It also said it probably plans to change its name to
Greenwood Holdings due to its planned redirection from natural
 Reuter

Navistar International Corp chairman
Donald Lennox repeated that benefits from recapitalization are
likely to boost future earnings for fiscal 1987.
    Lennox told the annual meeting that future quarterly and
full year earnings from ongoing operations should be
"significantly above 1986 results."
    In his remarks, Lennox said management has no plans to
recommend reinstatement of the company's common stock dividend
in the foreseeable future.
    He said the outlook for the medium duty truck market
continues to point to little or no change. But recent order
receipts indicate a "firmer tone in the heavy duty truck
segment," which could result in a five to eight pct increase in
industry shipments for the full year, he said.
    After restructuring under the holding company format, the
company's present truck and engine subsidiary will be known as
Navistar International Transportation Corp. Neil Springer
currently president and chief operating officer of Navistar
International was named chairman of the new subsidiary.
    James Cotting, now vice chairman and chief financial
officer, was named to succeed Lennox as chairman and chief
executive officer of Navistar International Corp. Lennox will
retire March 31.
    Shareholders at the meeting approved a change in the
company's structure to a holding company format, to be
 Reuter

<Hees International Corp> said it filed
a preliminary prospectus in Canada for a 100 mln dlr issue of
1,000 class A preference shares, series G, priced at 100,000
    The preferred shares will carry a floating dividend rate
which will be determined in a monthly auction, it said.
    The issue is being bought by a group of underwriters
consisting of Dominion Securities Inc, Wood Gundy Inc, Merrill
Lynch Canada Inc, Gordon Capital Corp and Burns Fry Ltd.
    The issue raises total outstanding series G preferreds to
200 mln dlrs and total equity to more than 1.30 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

1st qtr Feb 28 end
    Sales 39.7 mln vs 33.5 mln
1986.
    Company corrects current year sales.
 Reuter

The U.S. Senate Agriculture
Committee approved a bill that would establish farm trade and
aid missions to promote the use of U.S. food aid, donation,
credit and export subsidy programs by overseas customers.
    The bill, approved by voice vote, would establish trade
missions made up of representatives of the Departments of
Agriculture and State, the Agency for International
Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corp, market
development cooperatives and private voluntary organizations.
    At least 16 missions would have to be sent within one year
after enactment of the bill. The missions would promote U.S.
programs, including PL480, Section 416 donations, Export
Enhancement Program, the dairy export incentive program, and
export credit guarantee programs (GSM-102, GSM-103).
    The panel agreed to drop a provision in the original bill,
offered by Sen. John Melcher (D-Mont.), that would have
required the U.S. Agriculture Department to donate at least one
mln tonnes of surplus commodities to developing countries.
    Current law requires USDA to donate at least 750,000 tonnes
of surplus grains and dairy products under the Section 416 food
donation program.
    The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the proposed
increase in the minimum tonnage requirement would have cost up
to 50 mln dlrs per year, Senate staff said.
    The committee also dropped a provision identifying which
countries would be the focus of the trade missions' activities.
    Under the bill adopted by the committee, countries "friendly
to the United States" would be eligible to host the trade
missions.
    Melcher originally had proposed sending missions to Mexico,
the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Senegal, Nigeria, Peru,
Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Venezuela,
Tunisia and Morocco.
    The bill also would require the Foreign Agricultural
Service, FAS, to have at least 850 full-time employees during
fiscal years 1987-89. As of February 28, FAS had 790 full-time
employees, a FAS spokesman said.
 Reuter

The U.S. Caterpillar Tractor
Co was granted a court injunction ordering some 300 workers to
end their 10-week occupation of the firm's factory, court
    The workers, staging a sit-in to protest Caterpillar's
decision to close the plant with the loss of 1,221 jobs, are
due to decide on their next step at a mass meeting tonight.
    Yesterday a spokesman for the workers said they would
comply with the law if forced out.
    Caterpillar wants to dismiss the workforce and close the
plant in May.
 Reuter

BAT Industries Plc <BTI.L> 1986 results,
which were at the upper end of market expectations, showed the
company was in a strong position and that its shares were
probably undervalued, share analysts said.
    BAT shares were down at 524p in late afternoon trading
after a previous 535p close. They touched a high of 538p
earlier on news of a 19 pct rise in annual profits to 1.39
billion pre-tax.
    Stock market analysts said today's generally weak stock
market plus unwinding of positions after heavy buying of BAT
shares in the run-up to the results caused the fall in the
share price.
    "In the current market, people almost expect companies to
beat expectations," said one analyst, adding that pretax profits
of 1.35 to 1.40 billion stg had been forecast.
    BAT's 1986 figure of 1.39 billion stg compared with a 1985
pretax profit of 1.17 billion.
    Brokers noted that BAT's shift away from its
underperforming industries and the decreasing share of the
tobacco portion of the group were seen as good signs.
    BAT Chairman Patrick Sheehy told a news conference that the
tobacco sector of the company had declined to 50 pct from 74
pct four years ago.
    Sheehy said he could see the tobacco portion of the company
declining further as other sectors increased in importance.
    He said BAT was looking to expand in the area of financial
services, in particular in the U.S.
    Sheehy also said the group had "no sizeable acquisitions" in
sight in the near future.
    Analysts said BAT's increasingly good performance in the
U.K. Insurance area was encouraging.
    Its declining debt-to-equity ratio of currently about 16
pct also made it likely that BAT would soon be looking to make
major acquisitions, they said.
 Reuter

Reichhold Chemicals Inc said
it is exploring the sale of its stake in its European
subsidiary Reichhold Chemie AG.
    Reichhold Chemie Ag, headquartered in Rausen, Switzerland,
had sales in excess of 75 mln dlrs last year. It is 83 pct
owned by Reichhold. The rest is owned by German and Swiss
    Reichhold said it is seeking the sale to focus on its
adhesives business.
 Reuter

Alex Brown and Sons Inc said an
Americus Trust for Merck and Co Inc shares was declared
    Merck common stock tendered into an Americus Trust is
converted into trust units on a one-share-for-one-unit basis.
    Units may then be broken into their prime and score
components and traded separately.
    The prime entitles the holder to dividend payments and to
any stock price increase up to a limit of 200 dlrs for Merck
shares. The score components entitles holders to profit from
future price increases above 200 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

UAL SAID DONALD TRUMP WAS INTERESTED IN UAL STOCK "AS INVESTMENT"

International Broadcasting
Corp said shareholders at its annual meeting approved a one for
25 reverse stock split.
    The split will be effective after completion of filing
requirements, it said. New certificates will be needed, it
added.
    The media company said it currently has 40,950,000 common
shares issued and outstanding and, upon completion of the
reverse split, will have 1,638,000 shares outstanding.
 Reuter

BI Inc said it is implementing a
one-for-15 reverse split to shareholders of record today.
    It said any fractional shares will be redeemed for cash,
reducing its free-trading stock in public hands to 1,300,000
shares from 20 mln and its total shares outstanding to
1,993,000 from 29.9 mln.
    Shareholders approved the reverse split in October.
 Reuter

said the United States will not stand idly by and let Japan
dominate the world electronics market.
    Baldrige told the Senate Finance Committee the United
States would insist Japan open its markets to U.S. products as
the U.S. market is open to Japanese products.
    Asked after his testimony if this meant the United States
would close its markets to Japan if they did not open theirs,
Baldrige said, "I'm not prepared to say that, but it certainly
would be one of the alternatives studied."
    Baldrige said in his testimony Japan had a closed
supercomputer market and a restricted telecommunications
market.
    "I can only conclude that the common objective of the
Japanese government and industry is to dominate the world
electronics market. Given the importance of this market to U.S.
industry in general and our defense base in particular, we
cannot stand by idly," he said.
    He said it was these concerns about national security which
led him to express reservations over the proposed acquisition
of Fairchild Semiconductor by Fujitsu of Japan.
 Reuter

K Mart Apparel Corp, a unit of K Mart
Corp, said it purchased 35 acres 15 miles east of downtown
Dallas from Baker Associates No. 2 Joint Venture.
    Financial details were not disclosed.
    K Mart said it will construct a 456,000-square-foot
distribution center and 15,000 square feet of office space on
the site.
 Reuter

Net 105 mln dlrs vs 39 mln
    Sales 3.6 billion vs 2.6 billion
    NOTE: Wholly-owned by <BASF AG> of West Germany.
 Reuter

to purchase a seat on the Montreal Stock Exchange for 40,000
dlrs, subject to regulatory and exchange approval.
    The move came two weeks after Toronto Dominion paid 195,000
dlrs for a seat on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which made it
the first bank to apply for membership on a Canadian exchange.
The Toronto and Montreal exchanges are Canada's two biggest
equity markets.
    Proposed Canadian government legislation would allow banks
full participation in the securities business after June 30.
Toronto Dominion has owned a discount brokerage since 1984.
 Reuter

J.A.M. Inc said it won a 1.5 mln dlr
contract to produce and develop a series of courses on computer
and data processing systems for use by colleges and 
    J.A.M. Executive Vice President Anthony Busch said he could
not disclose the name of the firm that awarded J.A.M. the
contract because of a confidentiality agreement. But he
described it as a leading supplier of educational materials.
    J.A.M., headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., develops 
training programs and supplies video production services.
 Reuter

Unisys Corp vice chairman Joseph
Kroger said the company's new series 1100 mainframe computer
products will not be available for at least a year.
    At a press conference introducing new products in the V500
computer series, Kroger said Unisys's new Super 90 and Mercury
computers will not be available until after March 1988. The
products are being developed for addition to the 1100 series.
    No specific time frame had been set for introduction of the
Super 90, which will be based on the existing 1190 mainframe,
or the Mercury, which will be a new computer, a Unisys
    "There is a lot of pent-up customer demand for the
products," Kroger told Reuters. But Unisys has not lost any
customers currently using its 1190 mainframes because of the
wait for the new products, he said.
    At the press conference, Kroger said Unisys is not
developing a one-megabit computer memory chip but will probably
buy them when appropriate from Japanese suppliers.     In
response to a question, Kroger indicated first quarter orders
should be up from a year ago, with international business good
and the U.S. market still "difficult."
 Reuter

Qtly div 67 cts vs 67 cts prior qtr
 Reuter

Real estate magnate Donald Trump told
UAL Inc Chairman Richard Ferris that he was interested in UAL
stock as an investment, according to a UAL executive.
    Trump, who was unavailable for comment, is believed by
market sources to have a sizeable position in UAL, which he
began accumulating several weeks ago. UAL stock today was up
three at 63 in active trading.
    "They (ferris and Trump) talked last week. Apparently,
Trump said he was interested in it as an investment. He didn't
say how much stock he had. He didn't say what he would or
wouldn't do about it," said UAL senior vice president Kurt
Stocker.
    Trump is believed to have close to five pct of UAL's stock,
 Reuter

Moody's Investor Service Inc said it
upgraded Grolier Inc's nearly 116 mln dlrs of debt.
    Raised were the company's senior debentures raised to Ba-3
from B-3 and convertible subordinated debentures to B-2 from
B-3.
    The rating agency cited an improvement in profitabiliy of
Grolier's primary publishing businesses. Moody's said the
company has lowered its financial leverage as well as its
dependence on the retail sale of encyclopedias.
    Grolier has also reduced its exposure to developing
countries, Moody's noted.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net profit 91,000 vs loss 355,000
    Revs 11.5 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit six cts vs loss 1.45 dlrs
    Net profit 127,000 vs loss 2,846,000
    Revs 31.8 mln vs 34.9 mln
 Reuter

TODD SHIPYARDS CORP OMITS QTLY COMMON DIV, SETS PREFERRED PAYOUT

Shr 33 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 2,266,000 vs 849,000
    Revs 24.1 mln vs 16.0 mln
    1st half
    Shr 61 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 4,236,000 vs 1,619,000
    Revs 47.4 mln vs 33.5 mln
    NOTE: Share after stock splits.
    Net includes discontinued operations loss four cts shr vs
nil in quarter and loss seven cts vs gain one ct in half.
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs loss one ct
    Net loss 89,844 vs loss 85,731
    Revs 3,384,726 vs 4,646,285
 Reuter

    Net 380,325 vs 211,183
    Sales 5,046,578 vs 3,941,764
    NOTE: Current year net includes gain from sale of Sterling
Heights, Mich., plant of 174,000 dlrs.  Another 698,000 dlrs of
gain from sale sale has been treated as deferred income.
 Reuter

Synalloy Corp said it has
ended talks on the sale of its Blackman Uhler Chemical Division
to Intex Products Inc because agreement could not be reached.
    The company said it does not intend to seek another buyer.
 Reuter

<C-I-L Inc> said it would exercise its
right to acquire <Trimac Ltd>'s stake in their jointly owned
Tricil Ltd for 91 mln dlrs, with closing expected May 22.
    C-I-L added that the final price could be less, however,
depending on an Ontario court ruling resulting from a
previously reported legal action launched by C-I-L.
    Mississauga, Ontario-based Tricil is a waste management
company with operations in the U.S. and Canada.
 Reuter

Inflation in the European Community,
which fell to its lowest since the 1960s between November and
January, started to take off again last month, figures from the
EC statistics office Eurostat showed.
    Consumer prices were on average three pct higher than in
February 1986, the office said. This compared with a year on
year rise of 2.7 pct in January, the lowest for 25 years, and
was the highest figure since October.
    Prices rose in February by 0.3 pct from January, after
rises of 0.4 pct in January and of 0.2 pct in each of the last
three months of 1986.
 REUTER

Pantera's Corp said it agreed to
buy ten pizza restaurants in southeastern Colorado from
creditors foreclosing on the facilities.
    The purchase price includes 1.25 mln dlrs in cash and
company stock, it said.
    Separately, Pantera's said it issued an area development
agreement with a franchisee group for northeastern Colorado,
including the Denver area, for the opening of about 20
franchised Pantera's pizza restaurants.
 Reuter

ALLIED-SIGNAL INC TO SELL LINOTYPE GROUP TO COMMERZBANK OF WEST GERMANY

Energy Secretary John Herrington has
proposed several ways to boost U.S. oil production, but he said
all would cost the Treasury money and will come under close
White House scrutiny before action is taken.
    One measure he said he favored would raise the depletion
allowance to 27.5 pct on new oil and gas production as well as
production using enhanced extraction methods.
    Herrington said such a plan would cost 200 mln dlrs a year.
The White House, reacting, said it did not favor amending the
tax code, but would look at the proposal.
    Herrington's proposals to spur production were made along
with the release last week of the energy department's report on
energy and the national security.
    The report said U.S. oil imports, rapidly rising, could hit
50 pct by the mid 1990s and have potentially damaging
implications for national security.
    He has said since in speeches and at news conferences that
any plan he would back to spur lagging domestic oil production
would have to meet three criteria--increase production, not
cause economic dislocation, and be low cost to the taxpayer.
    Herrington said an import fee would meet the first test,
spurring production but fail the second and third.
    He said it would raise production and return 120,000 oil 
workers to their jobs, but at the same time it lifted oil
prices, the higher prices would cost 400,000 jobs nationwide
and cut the gross national product by 32 billion dlrs.
    A tax on gasoline, he said, would fail the first criteria
by not increasing domestic production.
    In any case, U.S. officials say, President Reagan remains
firmly opposed to an import fee and a gasoline tax.
    Options which meet Herrington's criteria include:
    - Loan-price guarantees to shield banks from defaults by
borrowers because of lower oil prices. It was estimated that if
oil fell to five dlrs a barrel it could trigger defaults that
could cost the government an estimated 15 billion dlrs.
    - A five pct tax credit for exploration and development. It
would raise oil and gas production the equivalent of 325,000
barrels a day, at a cost of 740 mln dlrs a year.
    - A five pct credit only for geological and geophysical
expenditures. It would increase production by 80,000 barrels a
day, at a cost of 65 mln dlrs.
    - Lower bid minimums on outer continental shelf acreage to
spur exploration. A drop from the present 150 dlrs per acre for
the typical 5,760 acre tract to 25 dlrs per acre would lower
the cost of the standard tract lease to 144,000 dlrs.
    Herrington also pressed anew for existing Administration
proposals to deregulate natural gas, which he said would cut
the need for imported oil by 300,000 barrels daily.
    He also called again for Congressional approval to explore
off the continental shelf, which may hold more than 12 billion
barrels of oil, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which
may hold nine billion barrels.
    Herrington said he understood the Reagan's reluctance to 
amend the newly enacted tax code to fund some of these
proposals, but added he hoped his department's energy/security
study would make a strong case for the need to help the
struggling domestic oil industry.
    Another move Herrington said he will press anew, even
though it had been rejected earlier by the White House, is to
raise the fill-rate for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to
100,000 barrels a day from its planned 1988 rate of 35,000.
    This, he said, would further bolster national security in
case of an oil-supply disruption.
   
 Reuter

Todd Shipyards Corp said it
omitted payment of the quarterly dividend on its common stock
and lowered the dividend on its series A preferred stock to 75
cts from 77 cts a share.
    Todd said the 75 ct preferred dividend will be paid May one
to shareholders of record April 15.
    The company said it omitted the common dividend to cover
both losses from a commercial ship conversion contract and
increased reserves for previously announced discontinued
shipyard operations.
    In addition, the company said its lenders agreed to
temporarily reduce the net worth requirement of its revolving
credit and term-loan pact to 140 mln dlrs from 130 mln.
    The reduction will hold through May 15, it said.
    Todd said the reduction in the net worth requirement
allowed for the payment of the preferred dividend and prevented
it from violating covenants of its credit agreement.
    The company said it is also negotiating with its lenders to
extend the reduced net worth terms beyond May 15.
    Todd added that it has suffered financially because of the
U.S. Navy's unwillingness to release certain retentions under
completed ship construction contracts and a general decrease in
U.S. military spending.
 Reuter

Imo Delaval said its board
declared an initial quarterly dividend of 14 cts per share,
payable April 24 to holders of record on April 6.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve will purchase
approximately one billion dlrs of U.S. Treasury bills for a
customer after the Treasury's auction of four-year notes, a Fed
    The spokesman said the Fed intends to purchase bills
maturing in up to six months.
the Fed announced the operation. Many had expected to Fed to
buy bills for itself, thereby adding permanent reserves to the
banking system. Since it did not do so today, this Fed move is
likely tomorrow.
 Reuter

Gould Inc said it is introducing a new
generation of very high performance mini supercomputers for
intensive engineering applications.
    Called the NPL, the mini supercomputers use Gould's UTX/32
operating system, which is a compatible multi-processor
extension of the UNIX operating system consisting of complete
AT and T System V and Berkeley BSD 4.3 environments, company
officials said at a teleconference.
    "The introduction of the NPL family of mini supercomputers,
is by far Gould's most significant computer line developed to
date," chairman James McDonald said.
    Patrick Rickard, computer systems president, said that he
expects sales of NPL family computers to account for 20 pct of
the division's revenues for the first year after its
introduction, and increase to 80 pct of revenues in five years.
    Computer operations accounted for one third or about 300
mln dlrs of Gould's total revenues for 1986 of 908.8 mln dlrs,
a company spokesman said.
    The NP1, the first series of the new family, uses an open
systems architecture, including parallel and high speed vector
processing and "massive" memory to achieve its supercomputing
capability, Gould officers said.
    The NP1 family will form the foundation for new systems
which are expected to be brought to market through the 1990s,
McDonald said.
    The computers are expected to have applications in science
and engineering, in aerospace and defense and extend into other
areas such as medical sciences, Rick Baron, senior director of
marketing development said.
    Gould said it priced and packaged the NP1 at a cost which
will provide the power and advantages of a traditional
supercomputer at a fraction of the cost.
    The NP1 product line includes several models priced from
395,000 dlrs to 2.9 mln dlrs, Gould officials said adding that
the company has already signed orders for eight NP1 systems.
    The low-end NP1 models will be available in the 1987 third
quarter and the high-end will be available in the 1988 first
quarter, they said.
    According to Gould officials, the NP1 cost 50 mln dlrs to
develop and the company plans to spend between 100 to 150 mln
to develop the rest of the family line. Between now and 1995,
the company expects to ship two to three billion dlrs of NP1
mini supercomputers.
    Offering up to 96 mln Whetstone instructions per second and
320 mln floating point operations per second, the largest of
the new systems, Model 480, incorporates up to four billion
bytes of physical memory, they said.
    The NP1 family has connectability but not compatability
with IBM and Xerox computers, a company spokesman said.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 4,798,000 vs 5,380,000
    Revs 65.3 mln vs 58.2 mln 
    Avg shrs 19.2 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 84 cts vs 89 cts
    Net 15,750,000 vs 15,191,000
    Revs 262.1 mln vs 215.8 mln
    Avg shrs 18.8 mln vs 17.1 mln

 Reuter

Commission sanctioned the national accounting firm KMG Main
Hurdman for improper professional conduct.
    It said the New York firm consented to the entry of the
commission's order without admitting or denying the finding.
    The proceedings arose from a 1982 audit of the financial
statement of the First National Bank of Midland, Texas, and
1983 and 1984 audits of financial statements of Time Energy
Systems, Inc, Houston.
    Midland was declared insolvent in 1983.
    The SEC ordered that any new review of Main Hurdman
procedures to include the adequacy of consultations between the
firm's main office and its local offices and the implementation
of the firm's policies.
    It said the Midland office conducted the Bank audit,
although some senior partners in New York were consulted, and
its Houston office conducted the Time Energy audits.
    The SEC said also that Main Hurdman agreed that if it is
acquired by a larger firm, its practices will be integrated
into the combined firm, including training programs and quality
control reviews.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc said it
agreed to sell its Linotype Group unit to <Commerzbank AG>
of West Germany for an undisclosed amount.
    Allied-Signal said Commerzbank is expected to offer shares
of the unit to the public later this year.
    The company said the agreement is subject to approval by
the government and its shareholders.
    The Linotype unit, based in Eschborn, West Germany, had
revenues in 1986 of more than 200 mln dlrs, the company said.
    The company said top management of Linotype plan to remain
with the unit, which has operations in the United States, West
Germany and the United Kingdom.
    Allied-Signal announced in December that it planned to sell
the Linotype unit as well as six other businesses in its
electronics and instrumentation segment.
    Linotype is a supplier of type and graphics composition
systems.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs five cts
    Net 512,000 vs 230,000
    Revs 16.8 mln vs 9,025,000
    Year
    Shr 55 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 2,662,000 vs 1,541,000
    Revs 57.5 mln vs 32.3 mln
 Reuter

Canada's federal government
will provide a 350 mln dlr oil industry aid package that
includes cash incentives designed to cover one-third of a
company's oil and gas exploration and development costs, Energy
Minister Marcel Masse announced.
    The aid program will inject about 350 mln dlrs a year into
the oil and gas industry and could lead to more than one
billion dlrs in new investment, Masse told a news conference.
    The program will affect drilling done anywhere in Canada on
or after April 1, 1987.
    Masse told reporters that the government's oil industry aid
package is aimed at small and medium sized companies.
    The aid package, called the Canadian Exploration and
Development Incentive Program, will restrict the total payments
that any individual company can claim to 10 mln dlrs a year.
    Masse said the program will probably generate new
employment equivalent to 20,000 people working for a year.
    He said oil industry aid is needed because exploration and
development spending dropped by at least 50 pct since world oil
prices fell during the first half of 1986.
    Energy Minister Masse said the federal government decided
to provide cash incentives so a large number of non-tax paying
companies, mainly small Canadian firms, will receive the full
value of the incentive. Such companies would not immediately
benefit from tax benefits, he said.
    The federal government also wanted to deliver an aid
program outside the tax system. Finance Minister Michael Wilson
is now reviewing Canada's tax system and plans to announce tax
reform proposals later this spring.
    An important feature of the aid program is a decision to
let companies issue flow-through shares, allowing investors to
benefit from the subsidy rather than restricting benefits to
only participating companies, he said.
    Allowing flow-through shares under the program will make it
easier for companies to attract investors in exploration and
development, Masse said.
    He told reporters his department is still considering
whether to allow partnerships and other entities to qualify for
the subsidy.
 Reuter

Affiliates Inc said it repurchased about 30 pct of its June
1985 Swiss franc convertible bond offering at prices below par.
    The company said it continues to hedge the balance and seek
opportunities to repurchase below par an increasing percentage
of the bond issue.
    Continental said it operates and has under development
1,943 nursing home beds and 404 residential health care beds.
It said that by sustaining its growth momentum, these numbers
could more than double by the end of the year.
 Reuter

Atlantis Group Inc said it has filed for
an initial public offering of 1,500,000 common shares and a 50
mln dlr offering of subordinated notes due 1997.
    The company said Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc and Sutro and Co
Inc will manage the share offering and American Express Co's
<AXP> Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and Robinson-Humphrey the
debt offering.  Proceeds will be used to reduce debt and seek
    Atlantis is involved in plastics and furniture
manufacturing and in property-casualty insurance.
 Reuter

<Mountleigh Group Plc>, a U.K. Property
company, is seeking a 100 mln stg multicurrency credit
facility, Union Bank of Switzerland (London branch) said.
    The revolving, evergreen facility will be completely
underwritten and the borrower will be able to issue cash
advances, sterling bankers acceptances and sterling commercial
paper through a tender panel.
    There will be a cap of 50 basis points over the London
Interbank Offered Rate (Libor)on any drawings for advances and
a 50 basis points commission on acceptances. There will be a
facility fee of 3/16 pct.
    Banks are being invited to join at 20 to 25 mln stg for
12-1/2 basis points, at 10 to 15 mln stg for 10 basis points
and at five to 7.5 mln stg for 7.5 basis points.
    The facility, which can only be cancelled after
underwriters provide 61 months notice to the borrower, will
refinance some of Mountleigh's existing debt.
 Reuter

union workers at its Snowflake, Ariz., pulp and paper mill
ratified a new three-year contract, ending a strike that halted
production at the facility on March 17.
    The new contract with the United Paperworkers International
and International Brotherhood of Electrical workers provides
for a wage and benefit increase of about three pct over three
years and increased employee contributions to health care
premiums, Southwest said.
    The mill, which has an annual capacity of some 282,000 tons
of newsprint and 159,000 tons of linerboard, is scheduled to
resume production on March 26, the company also said.
 Reuter

talks on buffer stock rules have slowed during a crucial phase
of negotiations, delegates said, but they remained confident
about prospects for reaching agreement by Friday.
    Cocoa producers, European Community (EC) consumers and all
consumers separately reviewed technical details of a buffer
stock rules package distributed yesterday.
    The buffer stock working group of consumers and producers
was set to meet later today to debate the proposal jointly for
the first time, they said.
    Delegates said major sticking points were likely to be the
amount of non-member cocoa allowed to be bought for the buffer
stock, and the fixed price differentials at which different
origin cocoas will be offered to the buffer stock manager.
    Producers would prefer that non-member cocoa not be
included in the buffer stock because, if it is, countries such
as Malaysia benefit from the cocoa agreement without joining
it, the delegates said.
 Reuter

affirmed Mack Trucks Inc's 40 mln dlrs of BB-plus senior debt.
    The agency cited expectations that Mack's profitability
will improve over the marginal levels of last year. S and P
noted that extensive cost-cutting programs are under way at
Mack, including the relocation of truck assembly operations to
a new plant in South Carolina from Allentown, Pa.
    S and P said that with an improved cost structure, Mack can
compete more vigorously for market share without reverting to a
loss position. In addition, cash flow from operations should
benefit from planned working capital reductions.
 Reuter

Euratom is issuing a 145 mln ECU
eurobond due April 24, 1997, paying 7-3/8 pct and priced at
101-1/8 pct, lead manager Banque Paribas Capital Markets said.
10,000 ECU and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees comprise 1-3/8 selling concession and 5/8 pct
    A Paribas official said Euratom had timed the issue to
coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
 Reuter

Newmont Gold Corp expects gold sales
in 1987 to rise about 22 pct to 577,000 ounces from 1986's
474,000 ounces, the company said in its annual report.
    Newmont Gold, 95 pct owned by Newmont Mining Corp <NEM>,
said it expects significant increases in gold sales in 1988 and
1989 as well.
 Reuter

Messidor Ltd said it signed a letter
of intent to acquire 100 pct of the outstanding shares of
Triton Beleggineng Nederland B.V., a European investment
portfolio management company.
    If approved, two mln shares of stock held by the Messidor
Ltd officers and directors would be issued to Triton
    Triton will become a subsidiary of Messidor, it said.
    If approved, the president of Triton, Hendrik Bokma, will
be nominated as chairman of the combined company.
    There are about 1.5 mln Messidor units issued to the public
consisting of one share of common stock, four Class A common
stock warrants, four class B common stock warrants and four
class C common stock warrants.
    In addition there are four mln restricted shares
    Messidor said the acquisition is expected to be completed
by June three.
 Reuter

ImmunoGenetics Inc said it has
entered the liposome technology field through its majority
owned subsidiary, Molecular Packaging Systems Inc.
    Liposomes are small sacks of lipid, or fat, membranes
arranged in layers like an onion. These sacks can carry a
variety of agents that are released over a period of time into
the body as the onion-like layers break down.
    It said Molecular has developed a versatile low-cost method
for encapsulating a broad range of health care and industrial
products, including human hemoglobin which transports oxygen in
the blood.
    Immunogenetics also said Molecular's liposomes, called
Micropak, can carry more than five times the amount of
particles than conventional liposomes.
    The company also said its technology for encapsulating
hemoglobin may prove helpful in preventing the spread of
hepatitis and the AIDS virus in blood transfusions as all
viruses and foreign agents are moved during preparation of the
hemogloblin.
 Reuter

Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co
analyst James Wilbur removed Hercules Inc from the firm's
recommended list, citing the firm's moves into the aerospace
business, traders said.
    Hercules fell 2-1/4 to 59-1/4 on 595,000 shares. Wilbur was
    Sources said Wilbur believes Hercules will be successful in
its diversification, but he told clients the stock market is
more receptive now to chemical companies than aerospace
 Reuter

Navistar International Corp expects its
fiscal 1987 capital spending to rise to 100 mln dlrs, up from
74 mln dlrs a year ago, Chairman-elect James Cotting told
reporters after the annual meeting.
    Cotting said much of the spending will go toward
modernization of the company''s painting operations at its
Springfield, Ohio truck assembly plant. The balance will be
used to increase productivity at its various facilities.
    In answer to a question, Neil Springer, who on April 1
becomes chairman of the company's new truck and engine holding
company, Navistar International Transportation Corp, said the
company's goal is to reduce costs 25 pct by 1990.
    Noting that purchased material now accounts for 81 pct of
its cost of production, Springer said Navistar intends to enter
similar relationships to one it has with Dana Corp <CDN>, in
which the two companies are coordinating design, manufacture,
distribution and service of components to cut costs.
    Springer said because of overcapacity in some sectors,
price discounting will continue to plague the truck
manufacturing industry.
    He said the heavy truck industry is operating at 65 pct of
capacity, up 10 pct from a year ago with medium truck operating
at 73 pct of capacity, about level with a year ago.
    Springer said Navistar itself is operating at "over 70 pct
of capacity" in heavy trucks and at more than 90 pct in medium
trucks.
    Asked when Navistar would begin making acquisitions,
Springer said "We're ready now, but we have no specific
timetable."
    Earlier, at the annual meeting, stockholders gave a
standing ovation to retiring Chairman Donald Lennox, who during
an eight-year tenure was cited for redirecting the company
toward profitability. Lennox told reporters he was assuming
chairmanship of privately held Schlegel Corp, Rochester, N.Y.
He said he hoped to take the 100-year-old manufacturer with 300
mln dlrs in sales public within two years.
 Reuter

Mohawk Data Sciences Corp's
Momentum Technologies Inc affiliate said it has signed an
agreement to provide support and service for all Fivestar
Electronics Inc branded products nationwide.
 Reuter

raised Consumers Power's senior debt to BBB-minus from BB-plus
and its subordinated debt to BB-plus from BB-minus.
    The rating agency also affirmed Consumers Power's BB-minus
preferred stock and B-rated preference stock. The utility has
about 3.3 billion dlrs of debt outstanding.
    S and P cited rate relief stabilization in 1985, bank debt
restructuring and the implementation of cash conservation
measures.
    Plans to retire or refinance high-cost debt should improve
the company's credit quality, S and P added.
 Reuter

Pacific Gas and Electric Co said
it will ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to change
federal regulations requiring the utility to buy electricity
from unregulated private producers.
    Prices paid for this power under long term contracts signed
before last year's fall in world oil prices now are more than
twice as high as the actual value of the electricity, Pacific
Gas said.
    Under the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act
utilities are required to buy electricity from cogeneration
facilities, which produce both steam and electricity.
    Since 1980, Pacific Gas has signed power purchase
agreements, required by the law, with long-term price
guarantees for more than 8,480 megawatts of capacity from
private producers, the company said.
    About 1,870 MW of that capacity is already on line, and
accounted for about eight pct of the company's total energy
sales in 1986, Pacific Gas said.
    The company said it will ask FERC to amend the rules
requiring purchase of this power so that the price paid for the
electricity reflects current market values, and that utilities
be required to buy only electricity needed in the near term.
    Contracts with cogeneration and other small power projects
could cost Pacific Gas' consumers as much as 857 mln dlrs
annually by 1990, the company said.
    The 857 mln dlrs represents the difference between what
Pacific Gas would pay for power from private producers and the
cost to the company to produce the power on its own or buy it
elsewhere, Pacific Gas said.
 Reuter

Brazil is preparing a new economic
strategy intended to protect domestic growth, Finance Ministry
    A presidential spokesman said President Jose Sarney had
authorised the government's economic team to prepare the new
plan as soon as possible.
    Finance Minister Dilson Funaro said last night the plan
would reflect "an important battle to protect the country's
development and keep it from recession."
    Funaro, who helped lead the anti-inflation Cruzado Plan
launched in February 1986, has come under increasing attack
over the past few days following the resignation of Planning
Minister Joao Sayad on March 17. Observers say the plan has
failed to stabilise the country's economy.
    Sayad submitted a new package calling for a 90-day prices
and a wage freeze, but met opposition from Sarney and Funaro.
    Foreign Ministry sources said the new strategy was being
prepared by economists Persio Arida and Andre Lara Resende,
both former Central Bank officials said to have played leading
roles in the Cruzado Plan.
   The new plan will define the terms on which Brazil will seek
rescheduling of its 109 billion dlr foreign debt.
    On February 20, Brazil suspended servicing of 70 billion
dlrs of debt to private foreign banks.
    Funaro said last night Brazil wants a rescheduling program
spread over four years, and added that it had to include new
loans to keep the domestic economy growing.
    "In the past two years Brazil paid 24 billion dlrs in
servicing of its foreign debt, while only getting two billion
dlrs in new loans," Funaro said.
  REUTER

Middle South Utilities Inc is taking a
conversative approach to formulating a new common stock
dividend policy, chairman Edwin Lupberger said.
    He told securities analysts that when the company's common
dividend is resumed, "the initial rate will appear conservative
to you by industry standards and in relation MSU's net income
and cash flow."
    "Our progress will determine how soon we can reinstate a
dividend to our common stockholders, he said."
    The company last paid a common dividend of 44.5 cts a share
in July 1985.
    Lupberger told the analysts that the company's primary
objective is "to create financial strength, enough strength so
that what happened to us and our stockholders over the past
couple of years never happens again."
    The company has faced regulatory challenges to rates
proposed to cover the cost of its Grand Gulf nuclear plant.
    He said Middle South's net income is expected to post
"modest growth" over the next three years.
    In 1986, the company earned 451.3 mln dlrs or 2.21 dlrs a
share on revenues of 3.49 billion dlrs.
    Lupberger said, "A good portion of the improvement
projected for the next three years comes from keeping the lid
on operating and maintenance expenses."
   
 Reuter

A British voter opinion poll in
tomorrow's Today newspaper shows a surge in support for the
centrist Alliance grouping and a fall for both the ruling
Conservatives and the Labour opposition party.
    The Marplan poll gives the Conservatives 36 pct, the
Liberal/Social Democratic Alliance 31 pct, and Labour 31 pct as
well. A Marplan survey last month gave the Tories 38 pct, the
Alliance 21 pct, and Labour 37 pct.
    The latest poll would, if translated into an election
result, produce a hung parliament, analysts said. That should
dampen speculation of an early June election, they added.
 Reuter

Emerson Radio Corp said it
has sold 33 mln dlrs of 8-3/8 pct senior notes due 1997 to
    The company said prepayment provisions will make the
average life about seven years.  It said funds will be used to
help finance growth.
 Reuter

Solar Systems by Sun Dance said its board
has extended the date until which its 1986 warrants and
redeemable warrants may be exercised at 50 cts each to April 30
from March 31.
    It said it plans no further extension.
 Reuter

TWA SOLD FOUR MLN SHARES OF USAIR BELIEVED TO INSTITUTIONS, WALL STREET SOURCES

A leading U.S. farm-state
Congressman, Jerry Huckaby, D-La., warned he will press next
year for legislation to control domestic production of
sweeteners, perhaps including corn sweeteners, if the industry
fails to voluntarily halt output increases this year.
    "We're moving toward a direction where we could
self-destruct (the U.S. sugar program)," Rep. Huckaby, chairman
of the House agriculture subcommittee dealing with sugar
issues, told Reuters in an interview.
    Huckaby, who told U.S. sugarbeet growers earlier this year
they must halt production increases, said he will deliver the
same message to Louisiana sugarcane growers Friday. He also
said he will soon talk with corn refiners on the subject.
    Huckaby said the campaign to urge a halt to domestic
sweetener output increases is an effort to forestall further
cuts in the sugar import quota, now at one mln short tons.
    "I think if we're talking about dropping (the quota)
another half mln tons, lets say, you're getting to the point
where the program might not work," he said.
    "Ideally, I'd like to freeze things right where we are,"
said Huckaby, leading advocate for sugar growers in Congress.
    A freeze would mean domestic sugar production at about the
current level of 6.5 mln tons, the corn sweetener share of the
U.S. market staying at just over 50 pct, and U.S sugar imports
holding at about 1.2 mln tons, Huckaby said.
    A decision on whether to seek legislation will not be made
until 1987 output numbers are known late this year, he said.
    "I feel like if we didn't expand production, we could
probably hold where we are indefinitely, or at least through
the 1985 farm bill without any changes (in the sugar program),"
Huckaby said.
    However, much depends on whether high-fructose corn syrup
producers continue to expand their share of the U.S. sweetener
market from just over 50 pct, Huckaby said.
    He noted most estimates are that corn sweeteners will
capture at most only another 10 pct of the sweetener market in
the U.S.
    But he said if there were an economic breakthrough in the
production of a new crystalline corn sweetener which further
expanded the corn sweetener share, then U.S. sugar imports
might be eliminated and U.S. sugar output severely reduced.
    Huckaby said he will deliver this message to corn refiner
companies such as A.E. Staley and Archer Daniels Midland soon.
    "This program is advantageous to the corn users. They have
some natural, legitimate self-interest in seeing that the
program is preserved," Huckaby said.
    Huckaby said he has asked sugar industry representatives to
think about how domestic output could be controlled, either
through production allocations, acreage or marketing controls.
    Huckaby also said he would be seeking guidance from the
Justice Department to determine if it would be legal to ask
corn refiners to limit production.
    "I don't know if we will go this route, but if we do
there's a question in my mind at this point in time; can you do
that legally?" he said.
    Asked if he would proceed with production controls without
the support of corn refiners, Huckaby said "You build a fragile
house if you do it that way."
    Huckaby said he understands why U.S. cane and beet farmers
have expanded production, because high sugar price support
means returns from sugar are higher than competing crops such
as soybeans and grain.
    But he said for sugar growers as a whole, expansion would
not be good policy.
    Huckaby said he has tried to stress, in his speeches to
sugar industry groups, that if growers continue to expand, they
may be penalized retroactively under any production control
legislation passed next year.
    Huckaby said Congress is unlikely to approve any changes in
the sugar program this year despite a Reagan administration
proposal to drastically slash the program.
    "The administration proposal is so drastic, that I don't
think it will get up a head of steam," Huckaby said.
    He said even a more moderate proposal to reduce sugar price
support is unlikely to be approved.
    Instead of seeking to slash the domestic sugar program,
Huckaby said the Reagan administration should file a complaint
with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade against the
European Community's sugar policy. He said EC policies are the
major cause of the depressed world sugar market.
 Reuter

Fiat Spa <FIAT.MI> said it had no
plans to issue Eurobonds linked to shares still held by banks
after the placement of the 15 pct Libyan stake in Fiat last
autumn, a company spokesman said.
   "An eventual issue of bonds convertible into Fiat shares is
not our responsibility," the spokesman told Reuters. "In case the
operation should be finalized, the bonds would be issued by
banks and not by Fiat, the spokesman said.
    The spokesman was commenting on West German press reports
that Fiat is considering a Eurobond issue of up to 384 mln
dlrs, convertible or with warrants attached for exercise into
its shares still held by the banks.
 REUTER

One of a pair of private investors
in Frost and Sullivan Inc told the Securities and Exchange
Commission he increased his stake in the firm by about two pct,
to 15.4 pct.
    He is Theodore Cross, Princeton, N.J., editor of Business
and Society Review.
    The other investor is Mason Slaine, Cos Cob, Mass,
president of Dealers' Digest Inc.  He holds a 3.3 pct stake.
    Cross told the SEC he bought the new shares at between 7.75
and 8.0 dlrs.
 Reuter

The Liberian motor bulk carrier, Trave
Ore, 106,490 dwt, loaded with ore, and the 2,852 dwt West
German motor vessel Christa, collided late last night on the
River Elbe near buoy 129, Lloyds Shipping Intelligence said.
    The Trave Ore proceeded by its own means to Hamburg. The
Christa was taken in tow with a damaged bow.
    The Liberian vessel was concluding a trip from Seven
Islands to Hamburg.
 Reuter

AIM Telephones Inc said it has
sold three mln dlrs of nine pct seven-year subordinated notes
to principal shareholder <Quince Associates>.
    The company said it has also issued Quince seven-year
warrants to buy 500,000 common shares at six dlrs each.
 Reuter

Shr loss 19 cts vs loss 2.37 dlrs
    Net loss 1,140,000 vs loss 13,608,000
    Revs 1,069,000 vs 1,940,000
    Year
    Shr loss 53 cts vs loss 2.34 dlrs
    Net loss 3,012,000 vs loss 13,433,000
    Revs 4,945,000 vs 6,705,000
 Reuter

Vista Managemement Inc said it
has obtained notice of the availability of insurance guarantees
on 60 mln dlrs of leasing receivable bonds of its CBS Leasing
subsidiary from Developers Insurance Co, allowing the bonds to
be rated by leading credit rating agencies.
    The company said the guarantees are subject to the
placement of over one mln dlrs of reinsurance and to a pending
change of control of Developers Insurance.
 Reuter

 Reuter

    Net loss 406.6 mln vs profit 35.4 mln
    Revs 138.1 mln vs 211.9 mln
    Note: 1986 net includes 545.7 mln dlr asset writedown
before 139.2 mln dlr recovery of deferred taxes.
    48 pct-owned by Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>.
 Reuter

Brazil's labour unrest is spreading,
with many banks, universities and government statistical
offices on strike and more pay disputes looming.
    Bankworkers' leaders said that a national strike launched
yesterday to press for a 100 pct immediate pay rise and monthly
salary adjustments had the support of most of the 700,000
    The strike today closed the stock exchanges of Sao Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro.
    For the government the one positive development on the
labour front was the gradual return to work of the nation's
40,000 seamen, who began a national strike on February 27.
    A union spokesman in Rio de Janeiro told Reuters about half
the seamen had returned to work after accords with 22 companies
and that the strike looked close to an end.
    Otherwise the labour scene looked bleak, with the bank
strike posing the most serious problems for Brazil's
crisis-laden economy.
    "If this goes on for more than a few days it will have a
serious effect because normal financial operations will grind
to a halt," said a western diplomat in Sao Paulo.
    Today Brazil's 50,000 university teachers in the 42 federal
universities launched a national strike, with a broad political
demand as well as a pay claim.
    David Fleischer, head of the political science department
in Brasilia university, told Reuters the National Association
of Higher Education Teachers wanted a full congressional
inquiry into what had happened to government education funds.
    He said the universities were strapped for cash and that
the association suspected the junior partner in the coalition
government, the Liberal Front Party, PFL, of using education
funds for projects which had helped their candidates in
elections. The PFL holds the Education Ministry.
    Hardly any sectors of the economy are proving immune to the
current labour unrest, caused by the return of high inflation,
officially pegged at 33 pct for January-February.
    Other possible strikes looming include stoppages by oil
industry workers and social security workers.
 Reuter

Oak Industries said it will
commence an exhcange offer for any or all of certain of its
debentures and notes.
    It said it is offering to exchange 660 shares of common
stock for each 1,000-dlr principal amount of its 4,139,000 dlrs
of outstanding 11-5/8 pct notes due September 15, 1990.
    It will also exchange 698 shares of common for each
1,000-dlr principal amount of 5,557,000 dlrs of outstanding
13-1/2 pct senior notes due May 15, 1990 and 612 common shares
for each 1000 dlrs of its 12,788,000 dlrs in 9-5/8 pct
convertible notes due September 15, 1991.
    The company said it is also offering 678 common shares for
each 1,000 dlrs of its 753,000 dlrs of outstanding 11-7/8 pct
subordinated debentures due May 15, 1998 and 595 common shares
for each 1,000 dlrs principal amount of its 6,572,000 dlrs of
10-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures due Feb 1, 2002.
    Oak said it will not make any cash payments to the
tendering holders.
    It said the common stock amounts have taken into account
accrued interest on the notes and debentures.
 Reuter

said that on April 30 it will redeem all of its outstanding 12
pct subordinated debentures due December 15, 2008.
    There are currently 30 mln dlrs principal amount of the
debentures outstanding, the company said.
 Reuter

Veteran politician Giulio Andreotti
abandoned his attempts to form a government, putting Italy on
course for early elections, political sources said.
    Christian Democrat Andreotti told President Francesco
Cossiga he was unable to reconstruct the five-party coalition
after two weeks of negotiations, they said.
 Reuter

Team Inc said it will introduce a line
of repair products for electrical distribution and transmission
equipment for the utility industry in May.
    The new products include a transformer repair service which
will seal oil leaks in transformers. Other products include a
new licensed repair method of electrical porcelain, and a newly
developed concrete repair service.
    Team said it expects to continue to sell equipment and
attempt to reduce losses to generate positive cash flow.
Earlier, Team reported third quarter net income of 91,000 dlrs
on sales of 11.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Asta Group Inc said its 50 pct
owned Liberty Service Corp affiliate has purchased about 50 mln
dlrs face value of credit card installment receivables from a
major financial institution it did not name for a significant
discount from face value.
    It said the portfolio consists mostly of charged off loans.
    The company also said it expects to realize a profit of
about 300,000 dlrs on its 25 pct interest in the Briarcliff
Manor condominium project in New York, with about 140,000 dlrs
of the profit being reflected in the year ending September 30.
 Reuter

<Encor Energy Corp Inc> said
it planned an issue in Canada of 125 mln dlrs of 6.75 pct
subordinated debentures, convertible any time into Encor common
shares for a price of 10 dlrs a share.
    Encor, 48 pct-owned by Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>, said
investment dealers McLeod Young Weir Ltd and Pemberton Houston
Willoughby Bell Gouinlock Inc agreed to purchase the issue for
resale to the public.
    It said the debentures would pay interest semi-annually and
be callable after five years at par plus accrued interest.
    Encor earlier reported a 1986 net loss of 406.6 mln dlrs.
    Encor last year earned 35.4 mln dlrs. The 1986 net loss
included a 545.7 mln dlr asset writedown before a 139.2 mln dlr
recovery of deferred taxes.
    The company said 1986 results were seriously affected by
lower oil and gas prices, but did not reflect its recent
acquisition of <Aberford Resources Ltd>.
    It said that while oil prices had improved in early 1987,
it would remain cautious and base capital spending on
conservative price assumptions.
    Encor will use proceeds from the debenture offer to retire
bank debt incurred in the Aberford deal, it said.
 Reuter

Oper shr one ct vs two cts
    Oper net 30,000 vs 62,000
    Revs 2,315,000 vs 2,355,000
    Year
    Oper shr four cts vs nine cts
    Oper net 95,000 vs 204,000
    Revs 9,214,000 vs 9,950,000
    Avg shrs 2,492,000 vs 2,351,000
    NOTE: Full name is Arden International Kitchens Inc
 More

Trans World Airlines Inc sold four mln
shares it held in USAir Group Inc, Wall Street sources said.
The sources said the buyers are believed to be a group of
    Bear Stearns handled the trade. It crossed the four mln
shares at 45, off 1/8. Bear Stearns would not comment on buyers
or sellers.
    USAir and TWA had no immediate comment.
    USAir later said it did not buy the stock. A company
spokesman would not comment further.
    TWA earlier this month reported holding slightly more than
four mln shares, or about 15 pct of USAir. It had also proposed
a takeover of USAir, which at the time was negotiating its
proposed merger with Piedmont Aviation Inc.
    On March 16, TWA withdrew its bid, saying it did not intend
to seek control of USAir Group or to acquire more of its stock
at the time.
    TWA also said in the filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that its chairman, Carl Icahn is the target
of an SEC probe of alleged violations of securities laws.
    In its filings with the SEC, TWA said it paid 178.2 mln
dlrs for its USAir stock.
    "With this out of the way, if it indeed was bought by
institutions, it paves the way for better value for USAir stock
later," said Janney Montgomery analyst Louis Marckesano of
TWA's sale of its stock.
    "Technically, as long as that block was overhanging the
market you didn't know what was going to happen," he said.
    USAir stock was trading at 44-3/8, off 3/4 on volume of 4.4
mln shares. TWA stock rose one to 28-1/4.
 Reuter

it expects first quarter earnings to be 20 to 25 pct below the
year-ago 13.6 mln dlrs, mainly due to financing costs resulting
from the January 1987 acquisition of AccuRay Corp.
    The company said it has filed for an offering of four mln
common shares and 150 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures due
2017, with proceeds to be used to refinance the short-term bank
debt incurred for the AccuRay acquisition, to finance other
costs of the transaction and for general corporate purposes.
    Combustion said 3,500,000 shares will be sold in the U.S.
and the remainder overseas.
    Combustion paid about 218 mln dlrs for AccuRay, a maker of
computer-based measurement and control systems used in pulp and
paper mills.
    The company said it expects to release first quarter
results in the third week in April.
    Combustion said it expects further restructuring of core
businesses -- particularly Lummus Crest -- this year through
staff reductions downsizings and the consolidation of
    Combustion said the restructuring at Lummus Crest is
expected to substantially reduce but not eliminate this year
losses in the Engineering and Construction segment.
    But it said improvement at Lummus Crest is expected to be
approximately offset by a number of factors, including a
somewhat lower level of earnings in the Power Generation
segment than in 1986, financing costs of the AccuRay
acquisition, costs associated with integrating AccuRay
technology and operations and delays in waste to energy
projects.
 Reuter

    Newmont Gold, 95 pct owned by Newmont Mining Corp, said it
expects significant increases in gold sales in 1988 and 1989 as
well.
 Reuter

Stocks of tobacco companies rose
sharply as investors grew more confident that an excise tax
would not be imposed on tobacco, traders and analysts said.
    They also said the stocks are relatively inexpensive since
fear of the tax and of pending litigation regarding warning
labels for tobacco products have kept many investors away
recently.
    Philip Morris Cos <MO> rose 2-5/8 to 87-3/4, RJR Nabisco
<RJR> 1-1/4 to 57-1/2 and U.S. Tobacco <UBO> 7/8 to 27.
    "The near-term activity of these stocks has been dominated
by external factors such as smoking restriction legislation,
concern over liability suits and the possible imposition of
excise taxes," Dean Witter analyst Lawrence Adelman said. "But
the feeling is that many of those externals have been
discounted in the price of the stocks."
    Adelman, who issued a positive recommendation on Philip
Morris earlier this week, said there have been indications that
the Reagan Administration's staunch opposition to tax hikes
would short-circuit attempts to tax tobacco.
    "The tobaccos do have more risks than regular consumer
stocks because of these external factors," Adelman said. "They
are not for the weak-hearted, but they offer a lot of value for
the aggressive investor."
    In a market where everyone is looking for affordable
stocks, trader Drew Schaefer of Kidder Peabody said, it is not
hard to understand why the tobaccos, which have been depressed
for a while in a positive market, are attracting buyers.
    Adelman believes one of the better buys is Philip Morris.
"It is a powerhouse of potential growth in earnings, dividends
and free cash flow. And the stock is cheap now," he said.
    Adelman expects Morris to earn eight dlrs a share this year
compared to 6.20 dlrs a share earned a year ago. In 1988, the
company should report a profit 10.30 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

ARDEN INTERNATIONAL &lt;AIKI&gt; =2 LARKVILLE
    Earnings exclude losses from discontinued operations of
30,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 71,000 dlrs, or three cts a
share for the year
    Earnings exclude gains from tax loss carryforwards of
13,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 45,000 dlrs, or two cts a
share in the quarter and 28,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs
105,000 dlrs, or four cts a share for the year
 Reuter

Micro Display Systems Inc said it
has written orders exceeding 1.5 mln dlrs in the European
market for its full-page display computer monitor, The Genius.
    The company first began direct marketing The Genius to
Europe in mid-January.
    It forecast that more than 700,000 dlrs of the orders will
be shipped by the end of March, with the balance shipped within
the next three months.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS EXCHANGE RATE CHANGES WILL REDUCE TRADE DEFICIT THIS YEAR

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS "THROWING MONEY" AT DEBTOR NATIONS WON'T WORK

Utah Power and Light Co said it filed
an application with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to
refinance preferred stock that was issued when interest rates
were higher.
    Subject to approval, the utility plans to sell nearly 95
mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds in the second quarter to
redeem all of its outstanding Series F, H and I preferred.
    It will buy back the Series F at 26.61 dlrs per share,
Series H at 27.03 dlrs and Series I at 27.32 dlrs, plus accrued
dividends. Similar applications will be filed with the Utah and
Wyoming public utility commissions, Utah Power said.
 Reuter

Gateway Sporting Goods Co said it
acquired all of the shares of stock of Innovative Dental
Services Inc for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Gateway said the acquired company has contracts with 102
dentists in 144 locations.
 Reuter

the administration is confident the effect of exchange rate
changes will bring about a cut in the trade deficit this year.
    In testimony before the Senate Committee on Governmental
Affairs, Baker conceded that the effect thus far has "not yet
proved as quick or as strong as had been expected from past
experience."
    He told the committee, however, that the "initial signs are
encouraging."
 Reuter

CYCLOPS CORP REFORMS BOARD AFTER DIXONS GROUP FAILS TO GET MAJORITY OF CYCLOPS STOCK

Britain has decided to resist U.S.
pressure and retain powers to withdraw tax credits from U.S.
parent companies based in states which impose unitary taxes on
the worldwide profits of foreign-owned firms, Treasury
Financial Secretary Norman Lamont told Parliament.
    But he added that the eventual use of those powers would
not be backdated if activated before the end of 1988.
    The U.K. Government has consistently opposed the use of
unitary taxation of international business on grounds they are
contrary to internationally accepted principles, laid down by
the United Nations and the OECD, Treasury sources said.
    In a written parliamentary answer, Lamont said "in the
meantime, progress towards a final resolution of the unitary
tax issues will be kept under careful review" by Britain.
    "Should it be necessary to take action ... Before December
31, 1988, it will not apply to dividends paid before the date
of the announcement of such action. If it is necessary to take
action thereafter, it will not apply to dividends on or before
December 31, 1988," Lamont said.
    The Reagan Administratian published draft legislation late
in 1985 to limit states use of unitary taxation to the profits
made inside the U.S., Known as the "water's edge" method.
    In response to that draft legislation, Britain agreed to
defer initiating action under its Finance Act 1985 - but only
on the understanding that legislation to resolve the unitary
tax issue would be made law and take effect from end-December
1986.
    Then the U.S. Administration said in September 1986 that it
had decided not to pursue Federal legislation, in view of the
passing of legislation in California.
    Britain, however, considers the California legislation
unsatisfactory, not least because U.K. Business will have to
pay a fee for the right of not being assessed by the unitary
tax method, government sources said.
 Reuter

the meeting last month in Paris in which finance ministers
agreed to keep the dollar at current levels showed that the
economic cooperation process was working.
    He said that at that meeting the surplus countries
committed themselves to strengthening their growth prospects,
while the deficit countries agreed to reduce their domestic
    For its part, he said the United States must press forward
with reductions in the federal budget deficit and must continue
to oppose protectionist pressures.
 Reuter

Oper shr 15 cts vs 1.07 dlrs
    Oper net 372,000 vs 2,601,000
    Year
    Oper shr 80 cts vs 61 cts
    Oper net 1,952,000 vs 1,491,000
    NOTE: Net excludes realized investment loss 13,000 dlrs vs
gain 986,000 dlrs in quarter and gains 1,047,000 dlrs vs
1,152,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 year net excludes tax credit 919,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Raytheon Co said D. Brainerd
Holmes, who retired as Raytheon president in May 1986, has
resigned from the board effective April One.
    The company said Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfield, chairman of
Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, will succeed Holmes on the board.
 Reuter

Middle South Utilities Inc will not
consider payment of a common stock dividend until there is
another ruling on a Mississippi Supreme Court order rolling
back rates at the company's Mississippi Power and Light Co
subsidiary, chairman Edwin Lupberger said.
    He told security analysts Middle South was close to
recommending resumption of the common stock dividend when the
Mississippi court ordered the rate rollback. Following the
order, he noted, the unit cancelled a planned sale of preferred
stock. Middle South has petitioned the court for a rehearing or
a stay of the order while it is being appealed.

 Reuter

Monarch Capital corp said
its board has called its convertible preferred stock for
redemption on May Eight.
    The company said shareholders may exchange the preferred
shares for shares of new nonconvertible preferred stock with a
dividend of five dlrs to 6.40 dlrs per share, convert them into
common stock at a rate of 0.8 common share for each preferred
share or allow the preferred to be redeemed for 46.51 dlrs per
share.
 Reuter

Cyanotech Corp said it has
developed a new way to extract beta carotene from algae.
    The company said the method reduces energy requirements by
70 pct and produces 90 pct recovery.
    The company has been a commercial producer of beta carotene
since May, 1986.
 Reuter

Scandinavian Airlines Systems, SAS,
said it will improve cabin service for business class
passengers on intra-Scandinavian routes starting next week.
    The company also said it will simplify timetables on routes
in Scandinavia, with many flights departing hourly.
    SAS said it will upgrade meals and between meal
refreshments and relegate the sale of tax-free candy and
cosmetics to airport shops to give cabin attendants more time
to devote to the enhanced service.
 Reuter

A Belgian finance ministry spokesman
said new rules planned on insider trading would enable
offenders to be fined and imprisoned for up to a year, and be
compelled to forfeit gains.
    The new rules require parliamentary approval, and
government sources said it was unclear when they would come
into force. Insider trading is currently not an offence in this
country.
    The cabinet approved a separate bill that analysts said
includes provisions to make more difficult the build-up of
major new stakes in Belgian companies.
    The bill would make obligatory the declaration of major
stakes in companies quoted on the bourse with own resources of
more than 200 mln francs.
    The Minister for Economic Affairs would need to be informed
in advance of deals under which foreign interests planned to
buy a new stake of more than ten pct of the voting shares in a
large Belgian company, or to increase an existing stake to more
than 20 pct.
 REUTER

it sold its controlling interest in its French foam insulation
producing subsidiary to a Lafarege Corp <LAF> subsidiary.
    Owens-Corning said it sold its interest in Sentuc Porxpan
SA for an undisclosed price.
 Reuter

Three men were charged today with
operating a large tax fraud scheme that provided more than 500
mln dlrs in phony tax losses for many prominent people,
including CBS Inc. <CBS> president Laurence Tisch and his
brother Preston, who is President Reagan's postmaster general.
    The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury to
in New York.
    The three indicted were named as Charles Atkins, William
Hack and Ernest Grunebaum, all well-known promoters of tax
shelters. Atkins was well-known as an organizer of tax shelters
in the late 1970s and early 1980.
    The indictment said that between 1978 and 1983, the
defendants conspired to defraud the government by arranging
"rigged and fraudulent" transactions in governmenmt securities
and false tax deductions based on phony trading losses and
interest expenses.
    More than 350 mln dlrs in false deductions were passed on
to partners in three tax shelters.
    In addition, the defendants sold over 200 mln dlrs in phony
trading losses and interest expenses to other entities and
individuals to be used as tax deductions.
    The indictment said that over 1.1 billion dlrs in trading
losses and interest expenses were generated by the scheme but
were off-set by "fictious gains."
    Laurence Tisch was said by the indictment to have reported
a net loss of 1.1 mln dlrs. His brother, Preston Tisch,
reported a loss of 480,000 dlrs.
    None of the three men's clients were charged with any
criminal acts. But should the three be found guilty, their
clients will be required to pay taxes they originally avoided
through the tax shelter scheme, plus interest and possibly
penalties. 
 Reuter

O'Brien Energy Systems Inc said it
has signed a 12-year 12 mln dlr lease with Citicorp covering
its wood gasification project in Quincy, Fla.
    O'Brien said it retains rights to the residual value of the
project and may participate in the development of additional
electric generating facilities as part of a second phase of the
project, which started operating January One.
 Reuter

Quaker Chemical Corp said its
board has authorized the repurchase from time to time of up to
300,000 common shares.
    Quaker now has about 6.6 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

that some of the trade bills proposed by Congress conflict
significantly with certain basic principles the Reagan
administration considers critical.
    Baker told a Senate committee that the administration would
resist such measures as a general import surcharge,
sector-specific protection such as import quotas for individual
products, mandatory retaliation, and limits on presidential
discretion in negotiating more open markets abroad and other
trade steps.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - LONDON - CITIBANK LAUNCHES WARRANTS
    In London item "Citibank Launches Currency Warrants" please
read second paragraph as follows
    "Each warrant, priced at 47.50 dlrs, gives the holder the
right to purchase a nominal sum of 500 dlrs against marks at
1.8250 marks to the dollar or at 149.50 yen to the dollar
between March 31, 1987 and March 31, 1989."
    (Corrects dollar/mark exchange rate to 1.8250 and makes
clear that dollar purchase is against marks or yen.)
 REUTER

The New Jersey Casino Control
Commission said it will put off for one week a decision on
whether to approve a 2.4 billion dollar recapitalization plan
previously announced by Holiday Corp <HIA>.
    Holiday Corp is the licensee of Harrah's Marina Hotel and
Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.
    A spokeswoman for the commission said the commissioners
felt they needed more time to review testimony taken at an
all-day meeting Monday.
    A decision had been expected at the group's regular weekly
meeting today but the vote is now due April one.
    The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement last week
completed a review of the Holiday recapitalization plan and
listed 10 areas of concern.
    The enforcement unit, which did not draw conclusions or
make recommendations, said the Commission had to decide if the
adoption of a leveraged financial structure will leave Holiday
in a financially stable condition which is required by the New
Jersey Casino control Act.
 Reuter

Worthern Banking Corp said it
entered into a formal written agreement with the Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    The corporation said it will submit written plans and
reports on a regular basis to the Reserve Bank on several
matters, including current and future dividend policy for the
corporation and its affiliates.
    It also will inform the Reserve Bank about retaining an
independent management corporation to appoint a chairman of its
board, and it will first get approval from the Reserve Bank
before it takes on any more debt.
    In addition, Worthern said it will report on its
maintenance of adequate capital at the corporation and its 
affiliate banks, its strategic business plan for the remainder
of 1987 and 1988, and its improvement in the corporation's and
certain non-banking affiliates' position with respect to
certain assets previously subject to adverse classification.
    In addition, Worthern will provide the Federal Reserve Ban
with quarterly progress reports specifying the actions taken to
secure compliance with the agreement together with quarterly
balance sheets and income statements.
    Separately, Worthern said its results of oeperations for
the year ended Dec 31, 1986, previously announced Jan 29, 1987,
would be revised to reflect additional loan and lease loss
reserves and loan charge-offs, resulting in additional losses
for that period.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 13.7 mln vs 25.2 mln
    Sales 610.9 mln vs 575.9 mln
    Avg shrs 45.0 mln vs 44.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 57 cts vs 1.46 dlrs
    Net 25.5 mln vs 64.9 mln
    Sales 2.00 billion vs 1.92 billion
    Avg shrs 45.0 mln vs 44.5 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes gain five cts
shr from sale of Just for Kids! and Giggletree mail order
catalogs and charges of 10 cts shr from writedowns of assets
related to the closing of linens and domestics stores and
leased departments and of leased shoe departments.
    Year net includes LIFO inventory charges six cts shr vs two
cts shr.
 Reuter

Nutmeg Industries Inc said it
signed an agreement in principle with (NBA Properties Inc)
to make sportswear bearing the logos of National Basketball
Association teams.
    Under the three-year pact, the company's Nutmeg Mills Inc
unit will design, manufacture and sell apparel for men, women
and children bearing the colors, names and symbols of the 23
basketball teams in the league.
    Nutmeg signed similar pacts in February with (Major League
Baseball Promotion Corp) and last week with (National Hockey
League Service) to make sportswear with the logos of baseball
and hockey teams.
 Reuter

Argentine grain producers again
reduced their estimates for the total yield of the 1986/87
soybean crop, which will begin to be harvested in mid-April,
    They said growers now forecast soybean production this
season at between 7.5 and 7.8 mln tonnes, down from last week's
estimate of 7.7 to eight mln tonnes and the 8.0 to 8.4 mln
tonnes forecast in mid-February.
    The new forecast is still higher than last season's record
total production.
    Private sources put 1985/86 production at a record 7.2 to
7.3 mln tonnes -- 4.2 to 6.4 pct lower than the new forecast
for the current crop. The official figure for 1985/86 is 7.1
mln tonnes, 5.6 to 9.9 pct below this season's new estimates.
    Growers in the past week discovered more empty soybean pods
in the main producing areas of southern Cordoba and Santa Fe
provinces and northern Buenos Aires.
    The crop since January has been hit by high temperatures
and inadequate rainfall. Growers fear they may find more empty
pods and have to further reduce their forecasts of total yield.
    The area sown to soybeans this season was a record 3.7 to
3.8 mln hectares, 10.8 to 13.8 pct higher than the 1985/86
record of 3.34 mln hectares.
    The state of the crop continued to be good in general until
last week but intense, heavy rains since could have caused
damage in areas where rainfall was higher than 100 mm.
    Where the rains were less heavy they were considered
beneficial although too late to improve yield estimates.
    The rains also benefitted maize and sorghum crops in
southern Buenos Aires province but are not expected to
influence production forecasts.
    In other areas, especially western Buenos Aires, where
rainfall was more than 200 mm, parts of the sunflower, maize
and sorghum crops not yet harvested may have been damaged.
    The coarse grain crop harvest was interrupted last week by
rains which also reached over 100 mm in parts of Cordoba, La
Pampa and Santa Fe and almost 90 mm in parts of Entre Rios.
    The area sown with maize this season was between 3.58 and
3.78 mln hectares, two to seven pct less than the 3.85 mln
hectares in 1985/86.
    The yield of 1986/87 maize continued to be forecast at
between 9.9 and 10.1 mln tonnes.
    This estimate is 19.8 to 20.2 pct lower than the 12.4 to
12.6 mln tonnes at which private sources put 1985/86 production
and 21.1 to 22.7 pct lower than the official 12.8 mln tonnes.
    The sunflowerseed harvest has covered 23 to 26 pct of the
area sown and continues in parts of central Buenos Aires
although at a standstill elsewhere due to rain and floods.
    A resumption of full harvesting and assessment of damage is
impossible until rains stop and a spell of a week to 10 days of
sunshine dries the fields.
    The area sown this season was 2.0 to 2.2 mln hectares, down
29.9 to 36.3 pct on last year's record 3.14 mln hectares.
    Sunflowerseed 1986/87 production is still forecast at 2.3
to 2.6 mln tonnes, 34.1 to 41.5 pct below the 1985/86 record of
4.1 mln tonnes.
    The grain sorghum harvest was the least affected by the
rains, advancing steadily in Santa Fe and Cordoba and starting
in La Pampa to cover 14 to 16 pct of the total area sown.
    The area sown was 1.23 to 1.30 mln hectares, 10.3 to 15.2
pct less than the 1.45 mln hectares the previous season.
    Yield estimates remained at 3.2 to 3.5 mln tonnes, 16.7 to
22 pct down on 1985/86 production of 4.1 to 4.2 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

Beta Phase said it has
agreed to sell its shape-memory eyeglass frame manufacturing
technology and equipment to privately-held Universal Optical.
    The company said Universal Optical will also purchase the
existing Beta Phase inventory of raw materials, its work in
progress and its manufacturing equipment and tooling.
    Under the pact, Beta Phase will receive a 20 pct share of
CVI/Beta Ventures, a joint venture owned by Beta Group and
CooperVision Inc <EYE>, which markets worldwide shape memory
eyeglass frames. The venture will then be owned 54 pct by Beta
Group, 26 pct by Coopervision and 20 pct by Beta Phase.
 Reuter

Lyng said agriculture should share spending cuts under the
Gramm-Rudman law and that this would ultimately help exports.
    "There needs to be some reduction of some expenditures to at
least get close to the Gramm-Rudman figure," he said.
"Agriculture would not be independent from that."
    He told a Virginia Farm Bureau lunch, "I don't think anyone
believes we'll meet the 108 billion dlr target."
    Lyng said if the federal deficit came down, this would help
exports. "A failure to get the fiscal deficit under control is
having a harmful effect on agricultural exports."
    He added, however, that U.S. agricultural exports had
increased under the Farm Security Act but so far had not
recovered to what he called the successful levels of 1981.
 Reuter

that massive new lending to the debtor nations could actually
increase their difficulties in the period ahead without
    In testimony before a Senate committee, Baker said that
"throwing money at the debtor nations won't solve their
problems."
    He said it might seem like an easy solution to the debt
problems and might appear a simple way to boost U.S. exports
and growth in the debtor nations.
    Baker told the committee that such an approach could "worsen
their difficulties unless the new financing can be productively
absorbed and is consistent with their ability to grow and
service debt."
    He said that the debt initiative that bears his name is a
long-term approach and that further progress "will be gradual
and will vary among nations, depending upon their own
determination to implement growth-oriented reforms and the
continued active support of the international community."
 Reuter

Oper shr loss three cts vs loss four cts
    Oper loss 40,870 vs loss 39,827
    Revs 584,855 vs 727,432
    Six mths
    Oper loss 24,311 vs loss 26,947
    Revs 1,246,992 vs 1,497,251
    NOTE: Current periods exclude net gain of 150,865 dlrs from
termination of retirement plan for salaried employees. Also
excludes gain of 83,100 dlrs from in current qtr and gain
90,400 dlrs in six mths from benefit of tax loss carryforwards.
    Company went public in September 1986.
 Reuter

Cyclops Corp said the three
members of its board appointed last week by <Dixons Group PLC>
had resigned and that it named three Cyclops executives to
replace them.
    Cyclops said the moves followed the announcement earlier
today by Dixons that it received only 20 pct of Cyclops
outstanding common stock under an extended tender offer that
expired yesterday.
    Dixons initially ended its 90.25 dlr a share tender offer
on March 17 after receiving 54 pct of Cyclops shares.
    However, the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday
pressed Dixons to reopen the offer because the U.K.-based
company had dropped a condition that at least 80 pct of Cyclops
stock be tendered by the close of the offer.
    Dixons then extended the offer until yesterday and earlier
today indicated that a substantial number of tendered Cyclops
shares had been withdrawn, leaving it with only 852,000 shares,
or just over 20 pct of the roughly 4.26 mln Cyclops shares
    Dixons said today that it purchased the tendered shares,
which, when combined with the shares it already holds, gives it
a 21.7 pct stake in Cyclops.
    Cyclops said its reconstituted board includes the three
newly named directors and five outside directors, all of whom
were on the board prior to Dixons tender offer.
    The three Cyclops directors were replaced by Dixons
appointees on March 17 under an agreement reached between the
two companies.
 Reuter

Earthquake-stricken Ecuador is
negotiating with Nigeria to have the African country lend it
10,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude for export, Deputy Energy
Minister Fernando Santos Alvite told Reuters.
    He said Ecuador was negotiating a shipments schedule and
the terms of repaying the loan. Ecuador has suspended crude
exports for about five months until it repairs a pipeline
ruputured by a March five tremor.
    Santos Alvite added Ecuador is finalizing details for a
program under which Venezuela would temporarily lend the
country 50,000 bpd for export.
 Reuter

Computervision Corp said it
introduced additions to its CADDS 4X software line, a new
CADDStation workstation and upgrade kits for existing
CADDStation workstations.
    The company said the new software products include
Autoboard SMT, priced at 35,000 dlrs, which is a microchip
version of its printed circuit board software.
    The new CADDStation, based on Sun Microsystems Inc's <SUNW>
workstation technology, is a 32-bit system, available initially
as a server, with a processing capacity of four mips, or
million instructions per second.
    The new CADDStation, Computervision said, is priced at
90,400 dlrs.
    The company said it is also offering kits to upgrade its
2-mips CADDstation priced at 35,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 47-1/2 cts vs 47-1/2 cts prior qtr
    Record 6 April
 Reuter

Qtrly div 40 cts vs 40 cts prior
    Pay  Aug  14, 1987
    Record April One, 1987
 Reuter

The chairman of the U.S. Senate
committee with jurisdiction over trade said he was concerned
about a resolution on bilateral trade negotiations adopted by
the Canadian House of Commons last week.
    The resolution supports negotiation of a bilateral trading
agreement with the United States while protecting Canadian
political sovereignty, social programs, agricultural marketing
systems, the auto industry and Canada's cultural identity.
    Senate Finance Committee chairman Lloyd Bentsen said the
resolution may jeopardize the viability of the proposed free
trade agreement between the two countries, which are each
other's largest trading partners.
    "We need a truly free trade agreement, which means both
countries have to work toward a deal that is mutually
beneficial and comprehensive, a large agreement," the Texas
Democrat said in a statement.
    "I do not question Canada's right to protect its political
sovereignty or cultural identity. However, if these phrases
mean the government of Canada means to take important economic
issues off the table in these negotiations, I am deeply
concerned," he added.
    Bentsen said Canada restricts trade 15 different ways while
the United States uses only six trade restriction methods. He
said if Canada proposes an agreement where both countries get
rid of six methods of trade restriction, it would not be fair
and might not win Senate approval.
    "I am deeply concerned that when the President visits Prime
Minister (Brian) Mulroney next month, he will be presented with
this kind of argument, and I hope he makes it clear -- as I did
when I was in Canada -- that only a mutually beneficial
agreement will be successful," Bentsen said.
    Reagan and Mulroney are scheduled to meet April 5-6 in
Ottawa.
    Bentsen urged Mulroney to withdraw a proposal that would
ban imports of independently produced films into Canada by
non-Canadians, which the senator called a protectionist
measure.
 Reuter

massive new lending to debtor nations could actually increase
their difficulties in the period ahead without protections.
Affairs, Baker said, "throwing money at the debtor nations won't
solve their problems."
    Baker told the committee such an approach could "worsen
    He said the debt initiative associated with his name is a
long-term approach and further progress "will be gradual and
will vary among nations, depending upon their own determination
to implement growth-oriented reforms and on the continued
active support of the international community."
 Reuter

BAKER SAYS U.S. WILLING TO COOPERATE TO STABILIZE EXCHANGE RATES

the United States and other nations were willing to cooperate
to stabilize foreign exchange rates at the levels that existed
at the time of an international agreement last month.
    "Our position with respect to the dollar goes back to the
Paris Agreement that the currencies were within ranges broadly
consistent with underlying economic conditions," Baker told a
Senate committee.
    Baker continued, "We said further that we and others are
willing to cooperate closely to foster stability in exchange
rates around those levels."
    He referred to a February agreement by six leading
industrial nations to cooperate on monetary matters.
    Baker refused to answer a question whether Japan and
Germany had done enough to stimulate their domestic economies
for the United States to support the dollar.
    "I will not comment because the foreign exchange market
reads more or less than is intended in my statements," Baker
said.
    Baker said that the other signatories recognized that they
must carry their share of the load of correcting external
imbalances that have hindered the world's economy.
    He cited news reports that Germany would increase a
proposed tax cut for 1988 by about five billion marks to
stimulate domestic growth.
    Japan also agreed to consider stimulative measures after
the Japanese budget was made final.
    Baker said those nations were stimulating their economies
in a manner consistent with gains against inflation.
 Reuter

Strong competition remains in the
airline industry despite a recent wave of mergers, a
Transportation Department official said.
    But Assistant Transportation Secretary Matthew Scocozza
said at a Senate antitrust committee hearing he would not
object to a transfer of the department's authority over airline
mergers to the Justice Department.
    Scocozza and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roger
Andewelt said both departments felt airlines should be judged
under the same antitrust standards as all other industries.
    The Transportation Department is due to lose its authority
in 1989, but subcommittee chairman Howard Metzenbaum wants it
shifted now because he feels the Department has approved too
many airline mergers.
    "Airline mergers have proceeded at a breakneck pace with
barely a whimper being uttered by the Department of
Transportation. Nine airlines control 94 per cent of the
market," the Ohio Democrat said.
    Metzenbaum said he was concerned about the effects the
pending U.S.-Air-Piedmont Airlines merger would have on
service, especially at Dayton, Ohio, a major Piedmont hub.
    Scocozza said even with the recent mergers, such as Texas
Air Corp's acquisition of Eastern Air Lines and People Express,
more airlines were flying now in the United States than before
the 1978 airline deregulation act.
    "Airline deregulation has worked, is working, and, given
the department's commitment to preserving a competitive
environment, will continue to work," Scocozza said.
    He said the department considers the effect each merger
will have on competition over all the routes involved and will
not approve a merger which will reduce competition.
    Scocozza said most of the recent mergers involved airlines
in financial difficulty being taken over by other carriers.
     Andewelt said he was optimistic competition would increase
as airlines expanded airport hubs and routes and believed the
industry did not need special treatment under antitrust laws.
    "It is time to treat the airline industry in precisely the
same way as other U.S. industries; any differences are not
significant for the purpose of merger analysis," Andewelt said.
 Reuter

The administration is expanding its
crackdown on bad debts, officials of the White House Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) told reporters.
    OMB Deputy Director Joseph Wright said the administration
this year plans to turn over to private credit rating firms
data on about 3.5 mln "deadbeats" who are seriously behind or in
default in their payments on federal loans.
    Next year, the government will turn over to private
collection bureaus four billion dlrs in bad education loans and
three billion dlrs in other bad government loans, Wright said.
    The government is also considering letting individuals make
payments on their student loans with credit cards, officials
    The Internal Revenue Service is already studying the use of
credit cards to pay income taxes, but this usage would require
a change in federal law while no congressional action would be
needed for credit cards to be used for student loans, the
    The officials disclosed these plans in releasing the third
annual OMB report to Congress on management of the U.S.
    The report details steps to be taken by the administration
to increase federal efficiency and to continue President
Reagan's highly publicized "war on waste, fraud and abuse."
    According to the report, elinquent U.S. debt had soared to
68.3 billion dlrs, or 18.8 pct of total receivables, by the end
of the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30. At the end of
fiscal 1981, when Reagan took office, bad debt stood at 29.8
billion dlrs or 12.3 pct of total debt.
    But OMB officials said other Reagan administration efforts
had already saved taxpayers 84 billion dlrs and would save
another 25 billion dlrs or so by the time Reagan left office.
 Reuter

<First Federal Savings Bank>
of Delaware said its agreement to negotiate exclusively for its
sale with <Oxford Financial Group> has been extended until
April 8 from March 18.
    The company said it is in the final stages of talks with
Oxford over the terms of the proposed acquisition.  Under a
nonbinding letter of intent signed in June 1986, Oxford would
pay 11 dlrs per First Federal share, subject to First Federal
 Reuter

Asher Edelman said Morse Shoe Inc agreed to provide it
confidential company information and that his group would make
an offer to buy Morse only in a friendly, negotiated deal.
    The group also said in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that its members would not, without Morse
approval, buy or offer to buy any company securities giving the
group a 10 pct or more stake in the company.
    Edelman and his group said his terms held until the earlier
of 90 days from March 3 or the date on which Morse announces a
definite agreement for its sale.
    At the same time, the Edelman group said it cut its stake
in Morse to 8.4 pct from 9.7 pct.
 Reuter

Oscar Mayer and Co Inc, a unit of
Philip Morris Cos Inc, said it will redeem all of its
outstanding 7.85 pct debentures due January 15, 1996 on April
30, 1987, at 1,014.50 dlrs plus accrued interest for each 1,000
dlrs prinicpal amount.
    A notice of redemption will be mailed to noteholders March
27, it said.
 Reuter

The National Highway Transportation
Safety Administration said it granted a request by Ford Motor
Co to delay for four years until 1994 a requirement that air
bags or other passive restraint systems be installed on the
passenger side of the front seat of all new autombiles.
    Under the decision announced today by Transportation
Secretary Elizabeth Dole, automakers will be required to meet
federal passive restraint requirements only on the driver's
side. "The action we are taking today will result in the
installation of more air bags, sooner than would have occurred
without this rule," Dole said.
    Under the ruling announced today, 10 pct of model year 1987
cars must have automatic seat belts or air bags on the driver's
side. For the 1988 model year, 25 pct must have passive
restraints, and for 1989, 40 pct must be so equipped.
    By the 1990 model year, all new cars must be equipped with
passive restraint systems on the driver's side.
    For the passenger side of the front seat, ordinary seat
belts will suffice until 1994 under the new ruling. As
previously written, the federal standard required passive
restraint systems such as air bags on both the driver's and
passenger's side of the front seat in all new cars by 1990.
 Reuter

Merck and Co Inc said its
veterinary drug Heartgard-30 for the prevention of heartworm
disease in dogs has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
    The company said the drug will be availiable only through
licensed veterinarians.
 Reuter

<John Labatt Ltd> anticipates a good
fourth quarter and a new peak in sales and earnings for the
fiscal year ending April 30, president Peter Widdrington told
financial analysts.
    He would not make any specific forecast, but said he was
optimistic for further growth in fiscal 1988 in the company's
brewing and food products operations.
    Labatt's earnings rose to 92.8 mln dlrs in the nine months
ended January 31 from year-earlier 78 mln dlrs. Revenue for the
nine months rose to 3.20 billion dlrs from 2.70 billion dlrs.
    Widdrington said Labatt's three-year business plan, now
being updated, targets total sales of about six billion dlrs,
including 2.50 billion dlrs in the U.S.
    Labatt, Canada's leading brewer, has expanded in the U.S.
food products industry by acquisitions.
    Widdrington said Labatt's strategy for U.S. expansion
stemmed partly from its strong market position in the Canadian
food and beverage industry. The U.S. share of revenues for this
year will be about 35 pct, rising to 40 pct in fiscal 1988, he
said.
 Reuter

Husky Oil Ltd said the board
called a special meeting for April 22 for shareholders to vote
on its previously announced agreement for Hong Kong-based
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd to
acquire a 43 pct interest in the company.
    The acquisition requires two-thirds approval by Husky
shareholders other than <Nova, An Alberta Corp>, which owns a
57 pct interest in Husky.
    If approved by shareholders, the amalgamation will take
effect April 30, Husky said.
    Following completion, Oil Term Holdings Ltd, a new company
controlled by Nova, will hold a 43 pct stake in Husky.
Hutchison and Hongkong will indirectly hold 43 pct, Victor T.K.
Li will own nine pct and <Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce>
will have a five pct interest.
    Husky said a special committee of five outside directors
recommended the board approve the transaction after determining
that the deal was in the best interests of Husky and fair to
    Husky previously announced shareholders will have the
option to receive 11.80 Canadian dlrs cash for each common, or
6.726 dlrs cash and one common share of Oil Term Investment
Ltd, which will be controlled by Nova through Oil Term Holdings
and own an insterest in Husky.
    U.S. shareholders will be restricted to the right to
receive 11.80 Canadian dlrs cash per share, which will be paid
in U.S. funds, the company said.
 Reuter

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co said it
filed a registration with the Securities and Exchange
Commission to sell 100 mln dlrs of unsecured debt.
    The debt filing was registered under the SEC's shelf
procedure which gives the utility up to two years to sell its
debt.
    Once the registration becomes effective Baltimore Gas and
Electric will be able to issue debt on short notice as market
or corporate conditions warrant.
   
 Reuter

Merck and Co said a drug to
prevent heartworm disease in dogs, ivermectin, has been
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
    The drug, made by Merck's animal health and agricultural
products division, will be sold under the name Heartgard-30
through licensed veterinarians.
 Reuter

Qtly div 45 cts vs 44 cts prior
    Pay May one
 Reuter

Howard Graham has been named vice president-finance and chief
financial officer, effective April 1.
   
 Reuter

Columbia Gas System Inc said a
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision today on natural
gas cost recovery could reduce its 1987 earnings by about 1.25
    The company said "this could bring earnings for 1987 below
Columbia's stated goal of earning no less than its 3.18 dlrs
per share dividend." It earned 2.12 dlrs a share in 1986.
    It said management expects to recommend to the board that
the dividend rate be maintained in 1987.
    Columbia Gas said the impact of the FERC decision may be
offset by a one-time accounting change rleated to future tax
liabilities under the new federal tax laws.
    The company recorded these liabilities based on older,
higher tax rates, but an action being considered by the
Financial Accounting Standards Board could result in a gain of
about 1.20 dlrs a share in 1987, it explained.
    "Thus there is a good chance that we will attain our 1987
earnings goal -- although not in the way originally planned,"
Columbia Gas said.
    Columbia Gas said the FERC decision would limit the
recovery of certain gas contract costs by Columbia Gas
Transmission Corp, the company's principal pipeline subsidiary.
    It said the decision specifically excluded from a purchased
gas adjustment filing by the pipeline costs related to
amortizing payments made to producers to reform gas purchase
contracts. These were excluded on the grounds the subsidiary
failed to sufficiently support cost recovery.
    The company said its subsidiary is not precluded from
making a new filing to provide sufficient support.
 Reuter

Corporation (CCC) has authorized an additional 10.0 mln dlrs in
credit guarantees to cover sales of U.S. vegetable oils to
North Yemen, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department also said at the request of the North Yemen
Government five mln dlrs in credit guarantees previously
earmarked for sales of wheat have been switched to cover sales
of mixed poultry feed.
    The actions increase the value of credit guarantees for
vegetable oil for the current fiscal year to 38 mln dlrs,
reduce the guarantee coverage for sales of wheat to eight mln
dlrs and increase the coverage for sales of mixed poultry feed
to 10 mln dlrs.
    All exports must be completed by September 30, 1987.
 Reuter

    Pay May 13
    NOTE: Company said up to 20 pct of dividend payment may be
withheld in accordance with Puerto Rico tax law.
 Reuter

U.S. Shoe Corp said it plans
to open 421 stores and close 33 units in 1987, bringing the
total number of its outlets to 2,655.
    Earlier the large retailer reported that its earnings
dropped 61 pct to 25.5 mln dlrs for the year ended January 31.
In the year earlier period it earned 64.9 mln dlrs. Sales rose
four pct to 2.0 billion dlrs from 1.9 billion dlrs.
    U.S. Shoe cited severe merchandising problems in its key
retail divisions and competition in its footwear divisions as
some of the reasons for the earnings decline last year.
    U.S. Shoe also said it expects results for the first
quarter to end May 31 will show an improvement over the 3.2 mln
dlrs it earned in the year-ago quarter.
    It said that initial orders for spring were down
"moderately," but reorder activity was "excellent" within its
women's footwear divisions.
    The company said it "will continue to search for ways to
make its footwear assets more productive and operations more
efficient." It said it expects capital outlays in fiscal 1987
to exceed 165 mln dlrs, a 12 pct increase over 1986 levels.
    It said capital outlays to improve domestic productivity
this year are planned to increase 50 pct over 1986 levels.
    The company also said it plans to increase its presence in
Brazil and to start production in Hong Kong, which along with
other overseas offices, will strenghten its overall import
capability.
 Reuter

Barris Industries Inc
said it agreed to buy back 763,546 shares, or 8.6 pct of its
own common stock from company founder Charles Barris for 12.50
    Barris and the company have also terminated an agreement
which granted Barris Industries the right of first refusal for
a five year period on any project initiated by Barris, the
 Reuter

Canada may begin monitoring steel
flowing in and out of the country to determine if any steel is
being illegally "trans-shipped" to the U.S., senior government
trade officials said.
    The officials, asking not to be identified, said the
government will investigate an industry contention that steel 
imported from countries such as South Korea and Taiwan is being
diverted to the U.S. and ultimately exasperating concerns about
the level of Canadian exports south of the border.
    But the senior officials, asking not to be indentified,
said that despite intense pressure from the Reagan
Administration, Ottawa was not considering any kind of formal
limits on Canadian shipments to the U.S.
    "In a sense what I hope we are doing is buying some time,"
said one official who claimed Canadian companies were "fair
traders" in the big American market.
    If approved by the Canadian cabinet, the officials said a 
monitoring system will be established in the next three or four
months.
    "I guess if we find trans-shipment is a problem, we would
have to do something about it," said a trade official.
    Canadian steel shipments to the U.S. have risen to 5.7 pct
of the U.S. market in recent months, almost double the level
just two years ago.
    The increase in Canadian shipments comes at a time of
growing anger in the U.S. over rising steel imports from
several countries in the face of a decline among domestic steel
    Some U.S. lawmakers have proposed Canada's share of the
American market be limited to 2.4 per cent.
    The Ontario Government has urged Ottawa to require foreign
companies to obtain permits to import steel into the country.
Currently, import licences are required only for carbon or raw
steel, which makes up less than half the steel market.
    Canada exported two billion Canadian dlrs worth of steel in
1986, while importing 944-mln dlrs worth of the product in the
same year.
 Reuter

Mexican officials, led by Finance
Minister Gustavo Petricioli, signed a 100 mln dlr loan with the
Inter-American Development Bank to help finance the promotion
of foreign tourism.
    The loan is for 15 years with 4-1/2 years grace at a
variable interest rate.
    The IADB has approved previous loans totaling 207.5 mln
dlrs to help finance investments of some 580 mln dlrs in
Mexico's tourism sector.
    The total cost of the program announced today is about 334
mln dlrs, of which the IADB loan will cover 29.9 pct.
 Reuter

Shr 79 cts vs 5.05 dlrs
    Net 5,628,000 vs 35,936,000
    Revs 41.8 mln vs 39.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.32 dlrs vs 7.24 dlrs
    Net 16,524,000 vs 51,541,000
    Revs 160.2 mln vs 114.9 mln
    Note:  Current qtr figures include securities gain of 2.1
mln dlrs, or 29 cts per share, vs gain of 34.3 mln dlrs, or
4.81 dlrs per share.
    Current year figures include security gain of 4.6 mln dlrs,
or 64 cts per share, vs gain of 41.5 mln dlrs, or 5.83 dlrs per
share.
 Reuter

Helm Resources Inc said that, pursuant
to the exercise of an overallotment option by underwriters in
Bamberger Polymers INc's initial public offering, it has sold
another 35,000 Bamberger shares and reduced its ownership in
Bamberger to 51 pct from 55 pct.
    To date, Helm has sold 435,000 Bamberger's for 3.5 mln
dlrs.
    Bamberger has sold a total of 600,000 shares and received
net proceeds of about 4.8 mln dlrs since the February 1987
offering.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 6,416,000 vs 5,988,000
    Revs 112.2 mln vs 99.8 mln
    NOTE: 1985 includes extraordinary income of 647,000 dlrs or
three cts/shr. 1985 restated.
 Reuter

International Cocoa Organization, ICCO,
Council chairman, Denis Bra Kanon, said he will attempt to
reach a compromise on buffer stock rules for the International
Cocoa Agreement.
    Bra Kanon called for bilateral consultations among
producers and consumers Thursday morning to resolve outstanding
differences on how much non-member cocoa the buffer stock can
purchase and differentials to be fixed for different origin
cocoa, consumer delegates told reporters.
    Bra Kanon is expected to meet with about eight delegations
individually in attempt to iron out remaining problems.
    Producers and consumers indicated support "in principle" for
the draft buffer stock rules package formulated over the past
week by a small working group, consumer delegates said.
    Despite remaining differences delegates remained confident
a buffer stock accord would be agreed to by Friday when the
council session ends, but certain technical points need further
clarification, the delegates said.
    Certain consumers are concerned that differentials included
in the draft buffer stock package are out of line with market
realities, consumer delegates said.
    Unless these are modified there are fears it would promote
purchases of quality cocoas, such as Ghana origin, which are
normally required by manufacturers, they said.
    Restrictions on buffer stock purchases of non-member cocoa
might lead to a supply overhang in Malaysian cocoa, which would
depress prices, they added.
 Reuter

<SNC Group Inc> expects 1987 earnings
to rise to 1.20-1.40 dlrs a share from 91 cts a share last
year, with revenues climbing to about 430 mln dlrs from last
year's 350 mln dlrs, president Alex Taylor said before the
    SNC, Canada's second biggest engineering and construction
group, became the country's largest ammunition manufacturer
last year with its 90 mln dlr acquisition of Canadian Arsenals
Ltd from the Canadian government.
    The impact of that and several smaller deals will be felt
fully in 1987, Taylor said.
    Defense preoducts and other manufacturing operations will
account for more than half SNC's total 1987 revenues, helping
to counterbalance the more cyclical engineering and
construction acivities, Taylor said.
    Last year, SNC earned 8.7 mln dlrs, including a small
extraordinary gain.
    In 1987, a total manufacturing activities will generate
about 235 mln dlrs in revenues, and engineering and
construction about 200 mln dlrs, he said, adding that defense
products operations should be a major contributor to earnings.
 Reuter

will sell through its German subsidiary, Auergesellschaft, its
controlling interest in MSA (Africa), (PTY) Ltd, of
Johannesburg, South Africa to Boart International, a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Anglo American Corp of South Africa Ltd
<ANGL>.
    The company said the terms of the sale were not disclosed.
    The company will operate as Boart-MSA (PTY) Ltd, it said.
    L.N. Short Jr, president of the company, said it sold the
unit because of slumping profits due to South Africa's economic
decline.
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 558,800 vs loss 469,200
    Sales 5.5 mln vs two mln
    Nine mths ended Dec 31
    Shr profit two cts vs loss four cts
    Net profit 91,045 vs loss 207,000
    Sales 17.3 mln vs 8.4 mln
    Avg shrs 5,465,433 vs 5,037,819
    Year ended March 31
    Shr loss 28 cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net loss 1,356,321 vs profit 818,723
    Sales 10.9 mln vs 12.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,862,499 vs 4,683,591
    Note: Medar changed end of fiscal year to December 31 to be
more in phase with business cycle of its major customers.
 Reuter

Medar Inc said it
changed the end of its fiscal year to December 31 from March
31.
    The company, in reporting its annual results, said the
change was made to bring its financial reporting in phase with
the order cycle of its major customers.
    Medar earlier said it lost 558,800 dlrs in its final 1986
quarter, compared to a loss of 469,200 dlrs in the same 1985
quarter.
 Reuter

Epsilon Data Management Inc
said it had executed a new revolving credit and term loan
agreement with the Shawmut Bank N.A.
    It said the total credit available under the newly-signed
agreement is six mln dlrs.
    It said the new agreement will, at its option, convert to a
four-year term loan in September 1988.
 Reuter

U.S. SECURITIES INDUSTRY ASSN BACKS RESTRAINTS ON TAKEOVERS, INSIDER TRADING

    Shr profit one ct vs loss four cts
    Net profit 53,040 vs loss 255,568
    Revs 2,252,246 vs 755,605
    Six mths
    Shr profit three cts vs loss eight cts
    Net profit 217,884 vs loss 517,538
    Revs 4,895,720 vs 1,569,662
 Reuter

Alabama has advanced from a Class B
to a Class A rating in the eradication of cattle brucellosis
program, thus relieving some restrictions in the interstate
movement of cattle from the state, the U.S. Agriculture
    To qualify for a Class A rating, a state must keep its herd
infection rate at or below 0.25 pct for 12 months.
    The change in Alabama's classification reduces the testing
and identification requirements for cattle moved interstate for
breeding purposes, to immediate slaughter or to quarantined
feedlots, USDA said.
    Brucellosis is an infectious bacterial disease that causes
abortion, reduced fertility and lower milk yields in cattle, it
noted.
 Reuter

Teletrak Advanced Technology Systems
Inc, 35 pct-owned by Helm Resources Inc, said it received a 
contract to provide its Laser Base 400 System to a national
    The system is an optical disk storage and retrieval system
that utilizes commercially accepted computer hardware, it said.
    Teletrak also said a New York law firm has retained it to
develop the laser base software for the firm's word processing
system.

 Reuter

its is offering 2,800,000 shares, or 140 mln dlrs, of its 2.875
cumulative convertible preferred stock at 50 dlrs per share.
    The company said it is applying to list the preferred stock
on the New York Stock Exchange.
    The First Boston Corp, Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and
PaineWebber Inc are underwriting the issues, the company said.
    The preferred stock has a liquidation preference of 50 dlrs
per share and is convertible at any time into common stock at
55 dlrs per share subject to adjustment.
    The preferred stock is redeemable starting at 52.875 dlrs
per share on March 15, 1987, and declining on each March 15 to
50 dlrs on and after March 15, 1997.
    The company said it intends to used the proceeds from the
sale to redeem its entire 125 mln dlrs of its outstanding 13
pct subordinated debentures due 2000, with the balance to be
added to the company's general funds.
 Reuter

Allis-Chalmers Corp said it
has sold its Elex Ag unit in Zurich, Switzerland, to private
investors for an undisclosed amount.
    The company said Elex produces electrostatic precipitators
used in air pollution control.
 Reuter

Monarch Capital Corp Pfd will not resume trading today.
 Reuter

Shr 29 cts vs nine cts
    Net 651,000 vs 214,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes loss of 500,000 dlrs for
 Reuter

Shell Oil Co of Houston has been
awarded a 104.3 mln dlr contract for jet fuel, the Defense
 REUTER

Shr 12 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 4,255,000 vs 11.5 mln
    Revs 199.4 mln vs 258.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 24.4 mln vs 45.5 mln
    Revs 639.7 mln vs 824.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 20 cts prior qtr
    Pay May 14
    Record April 30
    Note: Full name Zenith National Insurance Corp.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs five cts prior qtr
 Reuter

Chemical Corp said its board approved a 50-mln-dlr budget to be
spent over the next several years to build production
facilities for a newly developed product to be used to improve
the lean weight of hogs.
    The new product, porcine somatotropin (PST) is described as
a natural bio-synthetic protein that improves the lean weight
and rate of weight gain, as well as reduces the cost of feed
for market hogs, the company said.
    Specific details of the PST production project, including
sites for the proposed facilities and engineering plans, were
not disclosed.
    International Minerals said it set a completion target for
the spring of 1989, by which time necessary Food and Drug
Administration approvals are expected to be obtained.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 10 cts prior qtr
    Record April 9.

 Reuter

UAL Inc's diversification into hotels
and rental cars may be its downfall, analysts said.
    Digesting its acquisitions of hotels, Pan Am Corp's Pacific
air routes, and Hertz rental cars, combined with stiff air fare
competition has left the company with an undervalued stock
price, analysts said.
    The vulnerability of UAL's stock has fueled takeover
speculation, as have reports that real estate magnate Donald
Trump has bought a large amount of its stock.
    Today, a UAL executive told Reuters its chairman Richard
Ferris spoke with Trump last week. Trump said his interest in
the stock was as an investment, but the executive said the
company does not know how much Trump owns or whether he has any
other plans.
    UAL senior vice president Kurt Stocker said the company
believes its diversification strategy will work since it can
feed customers from one business to another. Several weeks ago,
it announced the new name of Allegis, to be taken in May.
    "The strategy that Dick Ferris was talking about a couple
weeks ago when we announced the Allegis name is that the whole
really ends up to be worth more than the sum of the parts.
Unfortunately, some people haven't really come to this
understanding," Stocker said.
    But those same parts - Westin Hotels, Hertz rental cars,
United Airlines and its reservation system - also has Wall
Street calculating a wide range of breakup values from about
100 dlrs per share to 130 dlrs per share.
    Analysts aren't so sure the strategy is going to work. They
mention Transworld Corp, initially Trans World Airlines,
as an example of an airline diversification gone wrong.
Transworld Corp ended up spinning off its TWA airline.
Transworld, now TW Services, is selling Hilton International to
UAL.
    "If you want to be negatively biased you say it's a stupid
philosophy, and if you're United and you put billions of dlrs
into other acquisitions, this is a good idea. There's not much
evidence one way or the other," said Dean Witter analyst Mark
Daugherty.
    "In the short or long run, they all (UAL's businesses) make
money and perform well," said Stocker. He said the stock price
hasn't caught on since the strategy is relatively new.
    Analysts say it's because earnings are relatively poor.
Earnings last year were 25 cts per share. Louis Marckesano of
Janney Montgomery predicts 1987 net of 3.50 dlrs per share.
    "They're potential is enormous. I think their problem has
been execution. The strike was the single biggest factor that
set them back in 1985. Last year, the whole industry was
involved in fare wars. They were hit harder by the fare wars
than anyone else," said Marckesano.
    Marckesano said United Airlines was particularly hurt by
the fare wars because it shares a Denver hub with Texas Air
Corp's price-slashing Continental Airlines.
    Analysts said the same strategy which has contributed to an
undervalued stock price may also result in a strong takeover
defense. They said UAL paid a lot for some of its assets and
that in itself may make the company undesireable.
    "I think they have a fairly tough management that will at
least be able to do battle with a potential shark and may well
be able to defeat them. These guys aren't pushovers," said
Steve Lewins, an airline analyst at Citicorp.
    Lewins believes the company could ultimately boost the
stock price to a level that would reflect its assets, but it
will take time and improvements in earnings.
    "If they put their nose to the grindstone, we're talking
about years for anyone (in the airline industry)," he said.
"The whole unwinding of the battle of Texas Air is going to
take years, establishing the Pacific in competition with (NWA
Inc <NWA>) Northwest is going to take until 1990," Lewins said.
     UAL today rose 2-1/2 to 62-1/2 on heavy volume of 1.9 mln
shares.
 Reuter

backed a variety of restraints on insider trading and hostile
corporate takeovers and asked Congress to define insider
trading in law.
    The industry trade association called on U.S. securities
firms to take steps to protect sensitive corporate secrets to
guard against illegal trading by employees.
    The association also backed broad federal restrictions on a
variety of tactics used in hostile corporate takeovers.
    But it said investment banking firms should be allowed to
continue to engage in both arbitrage and merger and acquisition
activities so long as those functions were kept separate.
    The SIA, in a report adopted yesterday by its board of
directors, backed a higher enforcement budget for the federal
Securities and Exchange Commission and called on U.S. stock
exchanges to beef up their supervision of member brokerages.
    The report said securities firms "should be more rigorous in
restricting sensitive information on a need-to-know basis."
    It said firms should train their employees to understand
the need for confidentiality of market-sensitive information.
    It said legislation to define insider trading should avoid
expanding current law in a way that would impede the market.
    It said an insider trading definition should exempt a
securities firm from liability for law violations by its
employees unless the firm had participated in or was aware of
the wrongdoing.
    In the mergers and acquisitions area, the association
advocated a ban on greenmail payments or poison pill takeover
protection plans without prior shareholder approval.
    It said a group or individual buying up a company's stock
should be required to file a public disclosure statement before
acquiring more than five pct of the company's shares. Under
current law, disclosure may be made as late as ten days after
exceeding the five pct limit.
    The association said all purchases exceeding 20 pct of a
company's voting stock shouls be made only through a tender
offer open to all shareholders. Under current law there is no
limit on open market purchases.
    The group said the federal government should preempt state
regulation of defensive takeover tactics.
    The group said all tender offers should remain open for at
least 30 calendar days.
    The current requirement is expressed in business days.
    It said so-called "lockup" devices, in which securities are
issued to a friendly investor to seal a takeover deal or fend
off an unfriendly predator should be limited to 18.5 pct of the
target company's total common stock.
    Association president Edward O'Brien said the group acted
out of concern over the ad hoc restructuring of corporate
America on Wall Street and investor fears about insider trading
and fairness in the marketplace.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc's oil and gas reserves
declined in 1986 despite reduced production and upward
revisions in the company's previous reserve estimates, its
    The statement of the report's auditor was qualified -- as
was the previous one -- because of the unkonwn final impact of
the judgement won by Pennzoil Co <PZL> against Texaco on
charges Texaco interfered with Pannzoil's contract to acquire
Getty Oil Co.
    The auditor's point out, as Texaco has in the past, the
company's loss of any of several pending court decisions in
this case could cause it "to face prospects such as having to
seek protection of its assets and business pursuant to the
bankruptcy and reorganization provisions of Chapter 11" of the
federal bankruptcy code.
    Commenting on a Texas Court of Appeals ruling which reduced
Pennzoil's judgement by two billion dlrs, to 9.1 billion dlrs,
Texaco said it will file a motion for a rehearing by the
appeals court no later than March 30.
    Texaco said the proven crude oil reserves of the company
and its consolidated subsidiaries totaled 2.54 billion barrels
at the end of 1986, down from 2.69 billion a year earlier.
    However, inclusion of Texaco's equity in the Eastern
Hemisphere reserves of a nonsubsidiary company limited the
decline to 2.91 billion barrels from 3.00 billion at the end of
1985.
    Worldwide production by the consolidated subsidiaries
declined to 341 mln barrels last year from 362 mln in 1985 and
upward revisions in previous reserve estimates rose to 143 mln
barrels from 117 mln, respectively.
    Texaco said the largest drop in reserves came in the United
States -- where the total dropped to 1.46 billion barrels from
1.55 billion.
    The company said U.S. liquids production averaged 660,000
barrels per day last year, down from 714,000 in 1985, with
about 44 pct of the decline -- some 24,000 barrels per day --
representing high-cost production shut-in or curtailed in
response to the decline in crude oil prices during 1986.
    Texaco said its natural gas reserves totaled 8.16 trillion
cubic feet at year end, down from 8.87 trillion cubic feet at
the end of 1985.
 Reuter

At least six persons, including three
soldiers, were reported wounded at the start of a general
strike in Ecuador called to press the government to suspend an
earthquake-related austerity programme.
    The information ministry said workers had partially
complied with the strike. Witnesses said bus transport ground
to a halt in Quito and schools were closed throughout the
country, but banks and shops remained open.
    Three soldiers on a military truck were burned by a
gasoline bomb, information minister Marco Lara told reuters.
    In the central city of Latacunga, three workers were
wounded in clashes with police, unionists and hospital
authorities said. The strike was called for one day but could
be extended.
 Reuter

Chemical Corp said its board approved a 50 mln dlrs budget over
the next several years to build production facilities for a
newly developed product to be used to improve the lean weight
of hogs.
sites for proposed facilities and engineering plans, were not
disclosed. International Minerals said it set a completion
target for the spring of 1989, by which time necessary Food and
Drug Administration approvals are expected to be obtained.
 Reuter

    Pay May 1
 Reuter

Qtly 29-1/2 cts vs 29-1/2 cts prior
    Payable June 1 
    Record May 1.
 Reuter

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd said it will
redeem all 1.6 mln outstanding cumulative redeemable
retractable first preferred shares, series F on May 1, 1987 at
a price of 52 dlrs a share, or a total of 83.2 mln dlrs.
    The regular quarterly dividend of 1.795 dlrs a share
payable May 1, 1987 to shareholders of record March 31, will be
mailed separately from the notice of redemption, the company
said.
 Reuter

Southwestern Bell Corp said that
its planned acquisitions of cellular telephone and paging
systems, including those of <Metromedia Inc>, will result in
some initial earnings dilution and an increase in debt ratio.
    In a letter to shareholders in its 1986 annual report, the
regional Bell company did not indicate the degree of earnings
dilution it expects from the acquisitions, which total some
1.38 billion dlrs. However, the company said the rise in its
debt ratio will be temporary and will leave its debt level
within an acceptable range.
    In its 1986 yearend financial statement, Southwestern Bell
listed a debt-to-equity ratio of 43.4 pct, down slightly from
43.7 pct in 1985.
    In 1986, the company earned 1.02 billion dlrs, or 10.26
dlrs a share, compared with 996.2 mln dlrs, or 10 dlrs a share
in 1985. Revenues dipped to 7.90 billion dlrs from 7.93 billion
dlrs.
    Southwestern Bell said it expects the new tax law to have a
negative impact on its cash flow, due mainly to the loss of
    By mid-year, however, the company said a reduced corporate
tax rate should have a positive impact on its net income and
cash flow.
    In addition, the company said it is projecting a 1.7 pct
gain in customer telephone lines and a three to four pct
increase in long distance calling volumes.
    Southwestern Bell said 1987 capital expenditures will be
lower that the 1.97 billion dlrs spent in 1986, a year in which
expenditures were held below budget.
 Reuter

Bolivia's proposal to repurchase at a
deep discount the 900 mln dlrs it owes to foreign commercial
banks is likely to be accepted, bolivian central bank governor
Javier Nogales Iturri said.
    Speaking to reporters at the annual meeting of the Inter-
American Development Bank, Nogales said Bolivia's bank advisory
committee, led by Bank of America, is seeking permission from
creditor banks worldwide to go ahead with the scheme.
    More than 50 pct of the banks must approve, and Nogales
said he is confident this threshold will be reached.
    "It's working out very well, and I think we'll get a clear
majority," Nogales said.
    A senior banker working on the deal also said that banks
are responding positively and said all the legal waivers
necessary could be obtained within two months.
    Bolivia halted all payments on its commercial bank debt in
March 1984. Hyperinfltion has been curbed and public spending
trimmed, but the country's debt still trades as low as 10 cts
on the dollar on the secondary market, and many banks have
written off most, if not all, of their loans to the country.
    Few bankers see little chance for a subtantive recovery in
Bolivia's economic fortunes and so are willing to collect what
they can on the loans.
    Nogales said Bolivia would offer to buy back the debt at a
market price. He said some banks might want to hold out for a
higher price, but others would see the repurchase offer as an
opportunity to cut their losses.
    Bolivia intends to pay for the repurchase with aid that
foreign goernments, especially the United States and West
Germany, are providing to help finance the eradication of coca
crops. Cocaine, although illegal, is Bolivia's largest export.
    The campaign to persuade farmers to grow legal crops
instead of coca would be financed instead using local currency,
Nogales said.
    Because the fiscal deficit has been reduced to some four
pct of gross domestic product, money supply could be increased
to pay for the drug-eradication drive without too much of n
impact on inflation, he added.
    Nogales said he does not expect Bolivia's debt repurchase
to become a model for other debtors in dire straits. "We're not
seeking a universal solution," he said."
 Reuter

Brazil wants to increase its
steel exports to the United States, now limited because of
tough import restraints set in 1984 by the Reagan
administration, a spokeswoman for the Brazilian Steel Institute
(IBS) said.
    Brazilian and U.S. Trade officials held the first of a
three-day meeting today in Brasilia to discuss the issue.
    In 1984, after three months of painstaking negotiations,
the U.S. Government reached accords with seven steel-exporting
nations - Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Spain, South Africa
and South Korea - to reduce their shipments to the United
States by about 30 pct in 1985.
    The 1984 restraints established that for 1987 Brazil's
steel exports to the U.S. Could not exceed 632,000 tonnes,
increasing to 640,000 tonnes in 1988 and 670,000 tonnes in
1989, the last of the five-year deadline set by the agreements.
    Brazilian officials are trying to increase Brazil's export
share of non-flat products to the U.S. Market.
    The spokeswoman said there were reports of domestic supply
problems in the United States.
 Reuter

Xylogics Inc is making an initial
public offering of 1,089,300 shares of common stock at 16 dlrs
a share, co-managing underwriters Salomon Brothers Inc and
Cowen and Co said.
    Of the shares being offered, 750,000 are being sold by the
company and the rest by selling shareholders. The company has
granted the underwriters an over-allotment to buy up to 150,000
more shares.
    Proceeds to the company will be used to acquire automated
manufacturing, testing and engineering equipment, to finance
facilities expansion, for working capital and general corporate
purposes.
    The company makes controllers that manage data flow between
computers and peripherals.
 Reuter

Detroit Edison Co said it filed a shelf
registration for the proposed offering of one billion dlrs in
general and refunding mortgage bonds.
    The offering will be underwritten by Morgan Stanley and Co
Inc. Detroit Edison said the bonds will be offered to the
public this year and next, with the first bond sale scheduled
for early next month.
    Net proceeds from the sale will be used to refund
obligations under the company's Belle River Project financing
and to refund or replace funds utilized by the company for the
purpose of meeting debt and equity obligations.
 Reuter

Anchor Savings Bank said its
subscription offering was fully subscribed, precluding an
underwritten public offering of Anchor stock.
    The company, which will be traded on Nasdaq under the
symbol <ABKR>, said final tabulation has not been completed.
    The offering was made in connection with Anchor's
conversion from a federally chartered mutual savings bank to a
federally chartered stock savings bank, it said.
    The bank offered 15.3 mln shares of common stock at 8.50
dlrs to 11.50 dlrs a share, with the possible issuance of up to
an additional 2,295,000 shares, it said.
    The company said trading in the bank stock will not
commence until all regulatory requirements have been completed.
    Anchor said it had total assets of 7.3 billion dlrs as of
June 30, 1986.
    It said shares were offered to bank depositors, borrowers
and through a direct mail campaign.
 Reuter

Nordson Corp said its board
declared a 3-for-2 stock split to be paid as a 50 pct stock
dividend on April 30 to shareholders of record April 10.
    As a result, the number of shares outstanding will increase
to 10.2 mln from 6.8 mln, the maker of industrial equipment
said.
 Reuter

BALDRIGE SEES U.S. TRADE DEFICIT STARTING TO DECLINE IN FEB OR MARCH DATA

upgrade Wainoco Oil Corp's 25 mln dlrs of C-rated subordinated
debentures due 1998.
    S and P cited the company's proposed offering of two mln
units of common stock and warrants, which would raise 25 mln to
30 mln dlrs that would be used to retire bank debt.
    The offering would also result in a significant
strengthening of the company's capital structure, S and P
pointed out. However, the agency said it would also consider
depressed industry conditions and Wainoco's ability to operate
in that environment. Its implied senior debt rating is CCC.
 Reuter

The director of the Office of
Management and Budget James Miller warned that a tax increase
would jeapordise real U.S. economic growth.
    "It's a bad idea. We don't need more money to balance the
budget. We need to reduce spending and avoid things that would
halt economic expansion," Miller told students at the
University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
    "I think economic growth could be threatened mightily if we
have a tax increase or by the perception that we're giving up
on deficit reduction," he said.
    Miller criticised a proposal by House speaker Jim Wright to
put a one pct tax on securities transactions.
    He said the tax would probably be ineffective because
people would avoid by holding their portfolios in other
instruments, like real estate, or simply by not trading as
often.
    Miller said he doubted this proposal would pass.
    "I think it is frankly all but political suicide to
advocate a tax increase unless the president championed it as
well," he said. "And he's not going to do it, in fact he would
veto a tax increase," Miller added.
 Reuter

said the U.S. trade deficit should start to decline soon,
possibly in the figures for February or March.
    "We could see the trade deficit start down in February or
March," Baldrige said in an appearance before the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee.
    He predicted the trade deficit, which was 170 billion dlrs
in 1986, would decline by 30 to 40 billion dlrs in 1987 and in
1988.
    Baldrige said he was making his prediction without having
seen the February trade figures, but he said that the volume of
imports has dropped beginning with the fourth quarter of 1986
and will continue to drop in this quarter.
    The eventual turnaround in the monthly trade figures will
reflect the impact of the decline in the dollar, Baldrige said.
    Ealier, Treasury Secretary James Baker told the committee
that the trade deficit had levelled off, but Baldrige said he
was more optimistic, adding, "I think we turned the corner in
 Reuter

Normal work has resumed at New
Zealand ports as negotiations between harbour board workers and
employers continue.
    Wellington Harbour Board Workers' Union secretary Ross
Wilson told reporters talks late yesterday ended with agreement
to take unresolved issues before an industrial conciliator.
    Wilson said the only remaining issue is the length of the
union award. The dispute originally was about wage rates and
the form of industry negotiations.
    Cook Strait ferry sailings resumed after Marlborough
Harbour Board workers returned to work this morning, ending
their industrial action a day early.
    The Waterside Workers' Federation, which struck for most of
last week and held more than one mln tonnes of shipping in
ports, meets on Monday and Tuesday in conciliation with the
Waterfront Employers' Association.
    Union Secretary Sam Jennings said: "We've got two days of
talks. If it's not all cleaned up by then ... I don't know what
will happen."
 Reuter

Shr loss 13 cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 18,600,000 vs profit 3,300,000
    Revs 394.0 mln vs 351.0 mln
    YEAR
    Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 23,300,000 vs profit 3,900,000
    Revs 1.36 billion vs 1.29 billion
    Note: Current yr loss includes reorganization charge of
15.2 mln dlrs vs yr-ago reorganization charge of 17.6 mln dlrs.
    U.S. dlrs.
 Reuter

Net 492,000 vs 677,000
    Year
    Net 2,650,000 vs 2,566,000
    NOTE: Company's full name is Indiana Federal Savings and
Loan Association. Per share information not available. Bank
went public on February 11, 1987.
 Reuter

Forstmann Little and Co said Lear
Siegler Holding Corp plans to divest its aerospace group
subsidiary, comprised of the Defense Electronics Group and the
Components Group.
    Divestitures had been expected since Lear-Siegler, a
diversified conglomerate, was acquired last December in a 2.1-
billion-dlr-leveraged buyout by the Wall Street firm of
Forstmann Little.
    Lear's aerospace group revenues for fiscal 1987 are
expected to be about 700 mln dlrs, said Forstmann.
    The Defense Electronics Group designs and manufactures
weapons, management systems, flight control systems, remotely
piloted vehicles and reference and navigation systems, mainly
for military markets.
    The Defense Group subsidiaries are Astronics Corp, which is
based in Santa Monica, Calif., and employs 1,076 people;
Instrument and Avionic Systems Corp, based in Grand Rapids,
Mich., and employs 3,479 people; International Corp, based in
Stamford, Conn., and employs 266 people; and Development
Sciences Corp, based in Ontario, Calif., and employs 237
people.
    The Components Group manufactures pumps, bearings, and
other industrial components as well as nuclear control drive
rod mechanisms and valves.
    The Group's subsidiaries include Power Equipment Corp,
based in Cleveland, which employs 880 people; Energy Products
Corp, based in Santa Ana, Calif., which employs 755 people; 
Romek Corp, based in Elyria, Ohio, which employs 262 people;
and Transport Dynamics in Santa Ana, which employs 254 people.
    Overall, Lear's Aerospace Group's eight subsidiaries
employs 7,200 people.
    Lear Siegler said it plans to retain Management Services
Corp, engaged in aircraft maintenance modification for various
Department of Defense agencies.
    Morgan Stanley and Co will act as financial advsiors for
the group's divestitures.
    Last month, Lear Siegler said it planned to sell its Smith
and Wesson handgun business, Starcraft Recreational Products
Ltd, the Peerless truck trailer operations, and other units, as
part of its restructuring plans.
    Lear apparently will retain its Piper Aircraft unit.
     Reuter

Rubbermaid Inc said it completed
the previously announced acquisitions of Viking Brush Ltd, a
Canadian maker of brushes, brooms and other cleaning aids, and
the Little Tikes' manufacturing licensee in Ireland.
    The acquisition of the Tikes' licensee is part of the
expansion of Little Tikes in the European toy market.
 Reuter

Kansas Power and Light Co said it
will name a successor on or before May 5 to its outgoing
chairman and chief executive officer William Wall.
    Wall, who will assume the position of chairman and chief
executive officer at Asbestos Claims Facility, will fill the
positions which have been vacant for several months, the
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 16 cts vs loss 44 cts
    Oper net loss 8,926,000 vs loss 14.4 mln
    Revs 9,920,000 vs 21.2 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 4.30 dlrs vs loss 2.24 dlrs
    Oper net loss 221.8 mln vs loss 53.7 mln
    Revs 51.4 mln vs 94.4 mln
    Note: Oper net excludes losses from discontinued operations
of 228,000 dlrs vs 4,253,000 dlrs for qtr and 10.4 mln dlrs vs
14.2 mln dlrs for year.
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss four cts
    Rev 2,252,246 vs 755,605
    Six months
    Rev 4.9 mln vs 1.6 mln
    NOTE: Company's full name is Chemfix Technologies Inc.
 Reuter

    Pay June 10
    Record May 27
 Reuter

Qtly div 41 cts vs 41 cts prior
    Pay May 1
 Reuter

EIA SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 3.2 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE UP 2.2 MLN, CRUDE UP 7.5 MLN

The National Association of Realtors
said sales of previously owned homes rose six pct during
February from January levels to a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 3.69 mln units.
    The realtors' group said the sales rise was apparent across
the country and reflected lower mortgage interest rates as well
as more housing demand.
    Actual resales of homes during February totaled 241,000, up
11.6 pct from the January total of 216,000, the association
said.
 Reuter

El Paso Electric Co said it plans to
redeem its 40 mln dlrs of 16.35 pct first mortgage bonds of
1991 and 60 mln dlrs of 16.20 pct first mortgage bonds of 2012.
    It will buy back at par plus accrued interest the 16.35 pct
issue in May and the 16.20 pct bonds after August one.
    El Paso Electric will use proceeds of about 684.4 mln dlrs
from sales and leasebacks, completed in 1986, of its entire
ownership interest in Palo Verde nuclear generating station
Unit 2 to redeem the double-digit debt.
 Reuter

U.S. soybean lobbyists and
congressional aides criticized a proposal from a senior
Agriculture Department official that Congress allow the U.S.
soybean loan level to be officially lowered to 4.56 dlrs per
bushel next year.
    "I don't know who in Congress would propose that happening.
Politically it would be totally unacceptable," an aide to a
senior farm-state senator said.
    USDA undersecretary Daniel Amstutz said this week that
Congress should give USDA authority to keep the soybean loan 
at its current effective rate of 4.56 dlrs per bushel rather
than increasing it to its minimum allowed level of 4.77 dlrs.
    "I'm convinced that Congress will not go along with this,"
American Soybean Association President Dave Haggard said.
    Amstutz told reporters following a senate hearing that if
the soybean loan rate were 4.56 dlrs, USDA could then consider
ways to make U.S. soybeans more competitive.
    His comments were seen as possibly indicating what the  the
administration's position is in the debate over what should be
done to make soybeans competitive and at the same time protect
soybean farmers' income.
    Using soybean specific certificates to further buydown the
loan rate or implementation of a marketing loan have been
pointed to as the most effective ways to get soybean prices
competitive. USDA secretary Richard Lyng, however, continues to
maintain his opposition to a marketing loan, saying such a move
would be too costly.
    "There will be alot of other options that will be
considered before Congress looks at that one (the Amstutz
proposal," said Bill O'Conner, aide to Rep. Edward Madigan
(R-Ill), ranking minority leader of the Agriculture Committee.
    "Anybody representing large groups of soybean producers
would not be very excited about supporting a lower soybean
loan," O'Conner said.
    Congress may very likely look at the soybean loan and
decide that they cannot increase it from its current 5.02 dlr
basic rate, but that there has to be something mandated to
increase soybean's competitiveness, David Graves, aide to Sen.
Thad Cochran (R-Miss) said. Cochran, a staunch supporter of a
soybean marketing loan, would support a soybean loan of 5.02 or
4.77 dlrs with a certificate buydown, Graves said.
 Reuter

<Fiduciary Trust Co International>
said its shareholders at the annual meeting approved a
five-for-one stock split effective May 15, 1987, to holders of
record on April 15, 1987.
    The company said the split would increase the number of
authorized common shares from 440,000 to 2,200,000 shares
issued. In addition, the company said it authorized another
800,000 shares, but would not issue them at this time.
    The company also changed the stock's par value from 10 dlrs
a share to 2.50 dlrs a share.
    It explained it transferred 1,100,000 dlrs from its
undivided profits account to its capital account in order to
raise the new par value from two dlrs, under the five-for-one
split, to 2.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

Modulaire Industries said it
acquired the design library and manufacturing rights of
privately-owned Boise Homes for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Boise Homes sold commercial and residential prefabricated
structures, Modulaire said.
 Reuter

Lyng said he believes proposed legislation calling for
mandatory acreage reductions has little support in Congress and
voiced Reagan administration opposition to it.
    "The administration would be very much opposed to that
legislation," he told a Virginia Farm Bureau lunch.
    "But fortunately I don't detect a strong interest in that
legislation." He added, "I doubt there will be (enough) support
to get it out."
    The controversial bill, supported by Representative Richard
Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, calls for a national referendum
to be conducted that could result in mandatory unpaid acreage
cuts of up to 35 pct, paid land diversion beyond that level if
necessary and a marketing quota.
   
 Reuter

UAL Inc, which on May 1 becomes Allegis
Corp, said it established a direct communications link between
its Apollo Services reservations system and Budget Rent a Car,
Hilton Hotels and Hilton International Hotels.
    Under the new system, all Budget, Hilton and Hilton
International hotel reservations made through Apollo, which is
owned by UAL's Covia Corp, will pass the ARINC system and speed
up time it takes to complete a traveler's reservation, the
 Reuter

downgraded Dana Corp's 900 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    Cut were Dana's senior debentures, industrial revenue bonds
and medium-term notes to A-minus from A, and commercial paper
of Dana and its unit Dana Credit Corp to A-2 from A-1.
    S and P said Dana's management plans an aggressive stock
repuchase which would result in a significantly more leveraged
capital structure. The combination of higher debt levels and
ongoing stock repurchases, about 12 mln shares in the past two
years financed mainly with debt, bring debt leverage to 48 pct
as of December 31, 1986 from 30 pct the year earlier.
 Reuter

Minnesota Power and Light Co is
raising 55 mln dlrs through an offering of first and refunding
mortgage bonds due 1994 with a 7-3/4 pct coupon and par
pricing, said sole manager PaineWebber Inc.
    That is 68 basis points more than the yield of comparable
    Non-callable for five years, the issue is rated A-2 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and A-plus by Standard and Poor's
Corp.
 Reuter

Shr profit 25 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 3,433,000 vs loss 1,310,000
    Revs 37.1 mln vs 39.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 28 cts vs profit 27 cts
    Net profit 3,883,000 vs profit 3,908,000
    Revs 133.2 mln vs 132.0 mln
    Avg shrs 13.8 mln vs 14.2 mln
    Note: Current net includes gain on sale of 31 inns of
7,719,000 dlrs for qtr and 7,975,000 dlrs for nine mths.
 Reuter

KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN INDUSTRIES SAYS IT EAGER TO PURCHASE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD

Association said it will begin purchasing 10 and 20-year fixed
rate mortgages in addition to 15 and 30 year mortgages.
    It said the new intermediate term mortgage purchase
programs are designed to offer home buyers more home financing
flexibility.
    Edward J. Pinto, FNMA's Senior Vice President, said
intermediate term mortgages offer "lower interest rates,
substantial interest savings, lower inflation rates and, in
many cases, faster equity build-up" than longer-term mortgages.
 Reuter

Association urged the U.S. government to impose trade sanctions
against Japan for violating the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Trade
Agreement.
    In a letter to Treasury Secretary James Baker the group
said sanctions should be imposed against Japanese chipmakers as
of April 1 and should continue until the United States is
satisfied that there is full compliance with the agreement.
    The group said action by Japan to cut back on semiconductor
exports is not what is required.
    "America's interests require that agreements be honored and
that U.S. industries not bear the burden for the persistent
unwillingness or inability of the government of Japan to
deliver on its commitments," the trade group said.
    The White House Economic Policy Council is expected to
discuss possible sanctions against Japan at a meeting scheduled
for Thursday.
    The trade group said Japan has not lived up to the terms of
the agreement last year which was aimed at ending Japanese
dumping of semiconductors and at opening Japanese markets to
foreign-based manufacturers.
 Reuter

The House Banking Committee approved
legislation to bar foreign securities firms from designation as
primary dealers in U.S. government securities unless the
relevant foreign government allows U.S. securities firms the
same trading rights.
    The impact of the proposed legislation would be on three
Japanese securities firms already doing business in the U.S.,
an aide to the sponsor of the provision Rep. Charles Schumer
said. Japan would have six months to open its government
securities markets to U.S. firms before the ban would start.
Other foreign firms would meet the test of reciprocal access.
    The legislation was approved as part of a major trade bill,
which the House will consider next month. The bill also has to
be considered by the Senate and signed by the president.
    The three Japanese firms are Nomura Securities Co. and
Daiwa Securities Co., which received approval from the U.S.
Federal Reserve Board to serve as primary dealers, and Aubrey
G. Lanston Co., owned by the Industrial Bank of Japan.
    Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the Fed would not be
allowed to designate any new firms as primary dealers unless
their government allows reciprocal access to U.S. companies.
Both the House and Senate Banking Committees opposed the Fed
action on the two Japanese firms.
 Reuter

banks is likely to be accepted, central bank governor Javier
Nogales Iturri said.
    Speaking to reporters at the annual meeting of the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) here, Nogales said
Bolivia's bank advisory committee, led by Bank of America, is
seeking permission from creditor banks worldwide to go ahead
with the scheme. More than 50 pct of the banks must give their
approval, and Nogales said he is confident that this threshold
will be reached.
    "It's working out very well, and I think we'll get clear
March 1984. Hyperinflation has been curbed and public spending
trimmed, but its debt is still trading as low as 10 cts on the
dollar on the secondary market and many banks have written off
most, if not all, of their loans to the country.
    Bankers see little chance for a substantive recovery in
higher price, but others would see the repurchase offer as a
window of opportunity to cut their losses.
foreign governments, especially the United States and West
    Nogales said he did not expect Bolivia's debt repurchase to
become a model for other debtors in dire straits. "We're not
seeking a universal solution," he said."             
 Reuter

Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. chose a
consortium formed by Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> and Italy's
Agip-Carbone to exploit the coal deposits at Guanare in western
Zulia state, PDVSA president Juan Chacin Guzman said.
    Chacin said PDVSA will sign a letter of intent next month
to form a partnership with the consortium, which consists of
Arco's Venezuelan subsidiary ACC Venezuela Inc, and Agip, a
subsidiary of Italy's <Eni>.
    He said the consortium, which will own 48 pct of the joint
venture, may be expanded later to include Carboex of Spain.
PDVSA will have controlling interest of 49 pct in Carbozulia.
 Reuter

ICN Pharmaceutical Inc said
it did not view Eastman Kodak Co's <EK> decision to sell its
2.3 pct share of ICN's common stock as having any effect on the
status of its drug ribavirin or the previously reported ongoing
development of that drug in the antiviral field.
    ICN recently submitted data to the Food and Drug
Administration on studies using its antiviral drug ribavirin
for treating some AIDS-related disorders.
    In a statement, ICN also said the sale will not effect its
previously announced plans to seek an acquisition of a major
pharmaceutical company.
    ICN also said the planned sale will have no effect on its
long-term research partnership with Kodak and Kodak's continued
funding of the Nucleic Acid Research Institute.
    Two years ago Kodak agreed to invest 45 mln dlrs over six
years to form and operate a venture with ICN to explore new
biomedical compounds. It acquired a 2.3 pct stake in ICN as a
result of that agreement.
    ICN said Kodak today confirmed to ICN its continuing
confidence in the progress of the joint project.
    ICN also said although there were discussions today between
ICN and Kodak regarding a private sale of the shares to ICN, no
decision has been made on this matter.
 Reuter

products supplied rose 0.1 pct in the four weeks ended March 20
to 16.16 mln barrels per day from 16.15 mln in the same period
a year ago, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
Department agency said distillate demand was off 0.1 pct in the
period to 3.258 mln bpd from 3.260 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.72 mln bpd, off 1.2 pct from
6.80 mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.38 mln
bpd, off 2.1 pct from 1.41 mln, the EIA said.
    Domestic crude oil production was estimated at 8.35 mln
bpd, down 7.8 pct from 9.06 mln a year ago, and gross daily
crude imports (excluding those for the SPR) averaged 3.44 mln
bpd, up 16.3 pct from 2.95 mln, the EIA said.
    Refinery crude runs in the four weeks were 11.90 mln bpd,
up 1.4 pct from 11.74 mln a year earlier, it said.
    In the first 78 days of the year, refinery runs were up 1.8
pct to an average 12.25 mln bpd from 12.04 mln in the year-ago
period, the EIA said.
    Year-to-date demand for all petroleum products averaged
16.32 mln bpd, up 1.8 pct from 16.04 mln in 1986, it said.
    So far this year, distillate demand rose 0.1 pct to 3.31
mln bpd from 3.30 mln in 1986, gasoline demand was 6.60 mln
bpd, up 0.1 pct from 6.59 mln, and residual fuel demand fell
0.4 pct to 1.42 mln bpd from 1.43 mln, the EIA said.
    Year-to-date domestic crude output was estimated at 8.41
mln bpd, off 7.7 pct from 9.11 mln a year ago, while gross
crude imports averaged 3.96 mln bpd, up 28.1 pct from 3.09 mln,
it said.
 Reuter

FED APPROVES CHEMICAL BANK ACQUISITION OF TEXAS COMMERCE BANCSHARES

downgraded six U.S. money center bank holding companies,
affecting about 13.3 billion dlrs of debt securities.
    They are Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB>, Chemical New York Corp
<CHL>, Irving Bank Corp <V>, Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC>,
Mellon Financial Corp <MEL> and Security Pacific Corp <SPC>.
    S and P said the action on Chase, Chemical, Irving and
Manufacturers primarily reflected continued vulnerability to
lesser developed countries and median financial performance.
    Standard and Poor's said its downgrade of Chemical also
reflected that holding company's acquisition of Texas Commerce
Bancshares <TCB>, which was just now approved by the Federal
Reserve.
    For Mellon and Security Pacific, S and P cited higher
non-performing assets and weaker operating earnings.
    The rating agency said it completed a review, based on 1986
results, of the largest U.S. bank holding companies. It paid
special attention to reassessing the effect of exposures to
lesser developed countries on the holding companies' earnings
and capital.
    "Brazil's unilateral moratorium on debt service payments
underscored the potential for polarization between bankers and
debtor countries," S and P said.
    S and P noted that while Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and
Venezuela each face unique economic problems, the lack of
progress toward moderating their debt service burdens has been
disappointing.
    However, the agency pointed out that a substantive
improvement in the large banks' financial positions has acted
as a counter-balance to the Latin American debt situation.
    Citing increasing financial strength, S and P said it
affirmed the debt ratings of Citicorp <CCI>, Bankers Trust New
York Corp <BT>, Bank of Boston Corp <BKB> and J.P. Morgan and
Co Inc <JPM>.
    S and P noted that most U.S. bank holding companies have
what it termed easily realizable capital resources available to
them, such as undervalued real estate, appreciated portfolio
securities and overfunded pension plans.
    "Most bank managements appear committed to improving the
quality of their balance sheets," S and P said, noting many now
emphasize long-term strategies over short-term earnings.
    Standard and Poor's reduced Chase Manhattan's senior debt
to AA-minus from AA, subordinated debt to A-plus from AA-minus
and preferred stock to A from A-plus. The commercial paper of
the parent and its unit Chase Manhattan Bank of Canada were
affirmed at A-1-plus.
    Chase has 3.2 billion dlrs of debt outstanding. It has 6.4
billion dlrs of loans to Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and
Venezuela - one of the highest exposures to lesser developed
countries among U.S. money centers.
    Chase's underlying profitability remains at median levels
because of its high expense structure, S and P said.
    S and P cut Chemical's and the unit Chemical New York
N.V.'s senior debt to AA-minus from AA and subordinated debt to
A-plus from AA-minus.
    About 1.2 billion dlrs of long-term debt was affected.
    The agency cited Chemical's relatively large exposure to
Latin American borrowers, particulary Brazil and Mexico,
continued high levels of nonperforming assets and the pending
acquisition of Texas Commerce.
    Aggregate exposure to Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and
Venezuela was almost four billion dlrs at year-end 1986, or 105
pct of equity and reserves, S and P pointed out.
    Irving's senior debt was reduced to A-plus from AA-minus,
with subordinated debt and preferred stock lowered to A from
A-plus. Its commercial paper was affirmed at A-111-1plus.
    Irving has about 500 mln dlrs of debt outstanding. Its
approximately 1.4 billion dlrs of loans to the four major Latin
debtor countries account for 110 pct of year-end equity and
reserves.
    S and P downgraded Manufacturers Hanover's senior debt to A
from A-plus, subordinated debt to A-minus from A and preferred
stock to BBB-plus from A-minus but affirmed its A-1 commercial
paper. The bank has 3.8 billion dlrs of debt.
    S and P noted that Manufacturers has about 6.7 billion dlrs
of loans to the major Latin debtor nations and has experienced
weak earnings.
    However, the unit CIT Group Holdings Inc's AA-minus senior
debt and A-1-plus commercial paper were affirmed.
    The rating agency cut Mellon's senior debt to A-plus from
AA and preferred stock to A from AA-minus. It has 1.1 billion
dlrs of debt securities.
    The commercial paper programs of Mellon Bank Canada and
Mellon Australia Ltd, guaranteed by the parent company, were
lowered to A-1 from A-1-plus.
    S and P cited continued lower operating earnings and rising
nonperforming assets and charge-offs for Mellon.
    Security Pacific's 1.7 billion dlrs of debt was downgraded.
Cut were its senior debt to AA from AA-plus, and subordinated
debt and preferred stock to AA-minus from AA.
    Security Pacific Overseas Finance N.V.'s debt issues were
reduced to AA from AA-plus. Affirmed were the parent's A-1-plus
commercial paper and the BBB-rated debt of the unit Security
Pacific Financial Systems.
    These actions reflected Security Pacific's continued high
levels of nonperforming assets and charge-offs, S and P said.
 Reuter

Kansas City Southern Industries Inc
said it is ready to promptly purchase the Southern Pacific
Transportation Co from Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp <SFX> if
the Interstate Commerce Commission rejects Sante Fe's attempt
to reopen the merger of Southern and the Atchison, Tokepa and
Santa Fe Railway.
    In a filing with the ICC late today, the company outlined
four conditions of its offer to acquire Southern Pacific.
    Among the conditions are that Santa Fe enter into an
agreement to indemnify Kansas City for any contigent liabilites
of Southern Pacific existing as of the closing date, and that
the financial condition of Southern remain largely unchanged
from today onward.
    "We are willing, even eager, to make a fair market value
offer in cash for the Southern Pacific," said Kansas City
Southern president and chief executive officer Landon H.
Rowland.
    "This offer disproves the constant derogation of the
Sourthern Pacific by SFSP management, best exemplified by SFSP
Chief Executive John Schmidt's comment in ICC hearings that the
Southern Pacific was 'bankrupt,'" said Rowland.
    He said that merging Southern with Kansas City will achieve
the benefits of an end-to-end merger while preseving the
independece of the Southern Pacific versus its existing prime
competitor, Santa Fe.
    Kansas said that Southern's management had estimated the
value of the railroad in 1983 in the range of 281 mln dlrs to
1.2 billion dlrs.
    It said that Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and Salomon Brothers
Inc, hired in 1983 to advise Southern and Santa Fe in their
merger, appraised Southern as worth between 500 mln dlrs and
800 mln dlrs less than Southern's own internal valuations.
    Kanasa City Southern said it will make an offer for
Southern after its books, records and properties are examined.
    "Once that examination has been completed (and even in the
absence of a willingnes of SFSP to negotiate) KCSI will make an
offer in writing...." said the company.
    Kansas also said it argued in the ICC filing that Santa Fe
had not met the legal requirements justifying the Commission's
reconsideration of the proposed merger of Santa Fe and Southern
Pacific, two railroads that it said basically parallel each
other throughout their routes.
    ICC voted four to one last summer to reject the merger as
inherently anticompetitive. Kansas said Santa Fe in petitioning
for reconsideration now argues that the trackage agreements
with the Union Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande Western and
other railroads, adds to the value of the merger.
 Reuter

An investor group said it might be
willing to raise its 100 dlr per share offer for GenCorp but so
far the company has turned down requests for a meeting.
    "We might be able to see some additional value if we could
meet" and get more financial data, said Joel Reed, speaking for
the investor group.
    Reed told Reuters that GenCorp chairman A. William Reynolds
"was not interested in sitting down and talking with us at this
time." Cyril Wagner sought the meeting in a recent telephone
conversation with Reynolds, Reed said.
    Wagner and Brown, along with AFG Industries Inc <AFG>,
recently launched a surprise tender offer for GenCorp. The
offer is worth 2.23 billion dlrs.
    Reed said under the circumstances the 100 dlr per share
tender offer, which expires April 15, is a fair offer. GenCorp
gained 3-1/2 to 114 today on the NYSE.
    Reed outlined a plan to reshape GenCorp in the event his
group wins control. He said aerospace, soft drink bottling and
entertainment units are potential divestiture candidates. He
said the tire business, which the group wants to keep, may be
more viable if merged with another tire company.
    "One option would be to try to grow the tire business
through combination or an acquisition," Reed said. He said he
believes such a merger could create a stronger force in the
tire industry.
    Gary Miller, chief financial officer of AFG, said his
company has a record of acquiring mature businesses and
boosting productivity. Automation and incentives tied to profit
sharing have been used with success, he said.
    In the case of GenCorp's RKO General broadcasting stations,
Reed said the plan of the partners is to step into GenCorp's
shoes and proceed with plans to  sell the stations.
    The partners said if they succed in acquiring GenCorp they
intend to consummate sale of WOR-TV in New York to MCA Inc
<MCA>. GenCorp last year entered into an agreement to sell the
station for 387 mln dlrs.
    The partners also said if they acquire Gencorp they would
also proceed with the proposed sale of KHJ-TV in Los Angeles to
Walt Disney Co <DIS>. RKO General would receive 217 mln dlrs
and Fidelilty Television, which challenged the license, would
get about 103 mln dlrs.
    The partners also said the Federal Communications
Commission established an expedited schedule for receiving
comments on their request for special temporary authorization
of proposed trust arrangements while the FCC considers a formal
application for transfer of the broadcast unit.
    Reed said he was pleased with the expedited schedule
because it provides time for the agency to act on the request
before the expiration of the tender offer.
    He said it was the aim of the partners to move as quickly
as possible to eliminate uncertainty surrounding the stations.
    Asked about criticism of the takeover attempt voiced by
some municipal officials in Akron, Ohio, where GenCorp is
headquartered, Reed said, "the plan of the partners offers long
term growth for Ohio."
    He noted that the aerospace business, slated for
divestiture under the partners' plan, is located in California.
"Our program is one that overall would provide the greatest
long term growth for all segments," he said.
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said it intends to
increase its spending for capital projects to 929 mln dlrs in
1987, eight pct more than the 862 mln spent in 1986.
    The company said in its annual report that it would
increase spending for exploration and development of petroleum
resources by about three pct to 614 mln dlrs from 1986's 595
mln dlrs, assuming oil prices hold around current levels.
    The planned spending for exploration and production in 1987
remains well below the 1.1 billion dlrs spent in 1985, Unocal
said.
    The company's proved developed and undeveloped reserves of
crude oil rose slightly in 1986, Unocal said. Net crude oil and
condensate reserves were 752 mln bbls as of Dec 31, 1986,
compared to 751 mln bbls at the end of 1985, Unocal said.
    The company said its net crude oil and condensate
production averaged 248,200 barrels per day in 1986 compared to
251,300 bpd in 1985.
    Unocal said its worldwide natural gas reserves were 6.07
billion cubic feet in 1986 compared to 1985's 6.19 billion. Net
natural gas output averaged 976 mln cubic feet per day in 1986,
down 10 pct from 1985's 1,084 mln, the company said.
    Unocal said its average sales prices for crude oil was
12.67 dlrs a barrel worldwide in 1986 compared to 23.81 dlrs in
1985, and its average sales price for natural gas was 2.03 dlrs
per thousand cubic feet in 1986 against 2.24 dlrs in 1985.
    Average production costs for crude oil and natural gas
declined nearly 30 pct to 3.41 dlrs per bbl of oil equivalent
in 1986 from 4.81 dlrs in 1985, Unocal said.
    In the annual report, the company called for imposition of
an oil import fee by the U.S. government to set a floor price
of about 25 dlrs a barrel for crude oil.
    "Simply stabilizing prices at about 18 dlrs per barrel    
will not materialy slow the drop in U.S. production or the rise
in imports," Chairman Fred Hartley said in the annual report.
    "Without decisive action in Washington, this nation will
once again become a hostage to OPEC's plans and policies,"
Hartley said.
 Reuter

Chemical New York Corp and Texas
Bancshares Inc <TCB> said the Federal Reserve Board approved
their proposed 1.19 billion dlr merger.
    The companies also said the Securities and Exchange
Commission declared effective as of March 24 the registration
statement covering the securities Chemical will issue to Texas
Bancshares shareholders as part of the merger.
    The companies said they expect to complete the merger,
which will create a bank with 80 billion dlrs of assets, by the
end of the second quarter. The merger still requires
   
 Reuter

Varity Corp, earlier reporting a full
year loss against a prior year profit, said improvement is
expected in the balance of fiscal 1987 as new products fill the
inventory pipeline, cutbacks in operating costs are realized
and its newly acquired Dayton Walther business is fully
integrated.
    However, operating results are likely to remain under
pressure in the first quarter ending April 30, it said.
    Varity earlier reported a loss for fiscal 1986 ended
January 31 of 23.3 mln U.S. dlrs, compared to a year-earlier
profit of 3.9 mln dlrs.
    Varity said continued deterioration in major markets, a
weakening U.S. dollar and unforeseen delays in launching major
new lines of tractors contributed to the full year loss.
    Industry demand for farm machinery continued to erode
during the latest fiscal year, with worldwide industry retail
sales of tractors sliding more than 10 pct below last year's
depressed levels, the company said.
    However, Varity increased its share of the global tractor
market by more than one pct to 18.2 pct, it said.
    The combined impact of costly sales incentives and foreign
exchange adjustments on margins was substantial, Varity said.
 Reuter

Campbell Resources Inc said it raised
its voting stake in <Meston Lake Resources Inc> to about 64 pct
from 52 pct through acquisition of another 870,000 Meston Lake
shares in its previously reported takeover bid.
    Campbell, in its bid that expired March 23, offered 80 cts
cash and 1.25 "legended" Campbell shares for each Meston share.
The legended shares are not tradeable for one year.
    It said the 3.4 mln Meston shares not tendered in the offer
were held by about 550 stockholders, including Quebec's La
Societe de developpement de la Baie James, with 1.3 mln shares.
 Reuter

FPL Group Inc's Florida Power and Light
Co unit said it filed a shelf registration with the Securities
and Exchange Commission for the future sale, through one or
more offerings, of one mln shares of serial preferred stock.
    It said that these shares, together with 150,000 shares of
preferred stock that are unissued under a previous shelf
registration, should cover the utility's preferred stock
financing needs for the next two years.
 Reuter

Metrobanc, a federal
savings bank, said its shareholders approved the previously
announced merger with Comerica Inc <CMCA>, a bank holding
company.
    Metrobanc said the merger is still subject to regulatory
approval.
 Reuter

Connecticut Energy Corp said
its Southern Connecticut Gas Co unit filed with state
regulators a letter of intent to raise its rates by 2.7 pct, or
about 4.2 mln dlrs, beginning in late 1987.
    The company said it expects to file a formal application
with the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control
within 60 days.
    The company said a rate increase is needed to cover higher
operating and maintenance expenses that have occurred since it
last received a rate hike of three pct, or 4.8 mln dlrs, in
January 1985.
 Reuter

Blizzard conditions in parts of the
west and southwest U.S. severely stressed beef cattle and
Kansas cattlemen are reporting death losses from the storm,
according to livestock associations in the area.
    Talk among futures traders that cattle had died from the
cold and blowing snow accounted for some of the strength in
Live Cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange today.
    "Death (of cattle) can be directly attributed to the storm,
but it's hard to get a handle on a number," Todd Domer,
director of communications for the Kansas Livestock Association
said.
    Domer noted that limited reports have been filtering in of
death losses at feedyards and from grazing and cow/calf
operations. Western Kansas was hardest hit while Eastern Kansas
only had rain, he said.
    Paul Johnston of the Nebraska Livestock Feeders Association
said, "There's no question that baby calves coming in that kind
of blizzard are probably not going to make it."
    We were having such a nice winter and the cows were out
calving before the storm hit, he added.
    The worst part of the storm came through the center of the
state. Precipitation was generally in the form of wet snow and
some feedlots are already like "soup", he said, inhibiting
cattle movements.
    The storm also had an effect on weight gain of larger
animals. Drifting snow caused problems in moving feed and mud
made it hard for cattle to reach the feed once it was
    Domer noted that feedyards sources say a tremendous cutback
has occurred in feed consumption by cattle in the yards, which
may or may not lead to sickness over the next several days.
Cattle reduced daily feed consumption to about 12 lbs from 25
during the worst of the blizzard, he said.
    Mud will be more a problem as the weather breaks and snow
melts. Mud adds to stress on full-grown animals and endangers
smaller ones which can fall and be trampled in pens. The cost
of feeding rises as animals generally consume more in cold
weather, Domer said.
    Domer said it will be at least 10 days before yards get
back to normal.
    Roy Gallant, from Accu Weather Services, said that although
the worst of the storm is over, there are still some strong
gusty winds which will not diminish until tonight.
    The storm started late Sunday night in West Kansas and is
just now winding down. The storm has moved into South Dakota,
parts of Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota, he said.
    Snow accumulations from the storm totaled six to 10 inches
in most sections and 12 to 18 in a few spots before moving
north. This equals 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches of water. Drifts of four
to six feet and up to 12 feet were reported, he said.
    There's a possibility of another storm brushing that region
tomorrow night and Friday, Gallant added.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 31 cts vs profit three cts
    Oper net loss 887,886 vs profit 646,250
    Revs 9,724,418 vs 10.8 mln
    Note: Year-ago oper net excludes tax credit of 230,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Ecuador signed four loans from the
InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB) totaling 280 mln dlrs,
the IADB said.
    Ecuador's finance minister, Domingo Cordovez, and IADB
President Antonio Ortiz Mena, signed the loans after the IADB's
annual meeting here.
    A 57 mln dlr loan is for urban development, 80 mln dlrs for
industrial programs, 96 mln dlrs for highway rehabilitation
and 46 mln for farm research.
 Reuter

Peru's foreign debt obligation this year
totaled 6.3 billion dlrs, including maturities falling due and
overdue payments, equivalent to almost twice its expected
exports of goods and services, Central Bank President Leonel
Figueroa said.
    He told the InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB) annual
meeting here that Peru will have to maintain its 10 pct limit
on debt payments to preserve growth.
    Figueroa said gdp grew by almost nine pct in 1986, while
inflation dropped to 63 pct from an annual rate of 280 pct in
the first half of 1985.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co said it had not yet
received any "meaningful settlement offer" from Texaco Inc but
added that the company remained willing to consider proposals
to settle the 10.2 billion dlr jury judgment it won against
Texaco.
    In its newly-released annual report to shareholders,
Pennzoil said it expected the Texas state court judgment, which
was upheld by a state appeals court on February 12, to be
upheld if appealed again.
    "To date, Pennzoil has yet to receive any meaningful
settlement offer from Texaco, though it remains open to any
realistic effort to settle the matter," Pennzoil chairman Hugh
Liedtke said in the annual report.
    Pennzoil also said it had budgeted 212 mln dlrs for capital
spending in 1987, a drop from the 233 mln dlrs spent last year.
    Proved U.S. and foreign reserves of natural gas declined to
964 billion cubic feet last year, from 1.01 trillion cubic feet
in 1985, because of a virtual halt in its exploration program,
Pennzoil said. Its crude oil reserves dropped to 140 mln
barrels from 158 mln barrels in 1985.
     The Houston-based company said it sold an average of 339
mln cubic feet of domestic natural gas each day last year, a 17
pct drop from 1985. The average sales price for gas dropped by
60 cents per mcf to 2.16 dlrs per mcf, Pennzoil said.
    U.S. crude oil and gas liquids production last year fell to
an average of 33,290 barrels per day from 34,102 barrels per
day in 1985.
    The company's total revenues in 1986 declined to 482.3 mln
dlrs, from 762.5 mln dlrs the previous year. Operating income
in 1986 fell more than 80 pct, to 38.0 mln dlrs.
    Pennzoil said its goals for 1987 included development of
its Point Arguello oilfield off the California coast, to
maintain current production levels in its Bluebell-Altamont
Field in Utah and to drill for prospects in the Gulf of
Mexico's Mobile Bay area.
    "Production should begin late in the year from the Harvest
Platform in the Santa Maria Basin offshore California," the
company said. "Pennzoil's share of this production initially
should be five thousand barrels a day, increasing to a peak of
15 thousand barrels a day, net, by 1989."
    In its sulphur business, Pennzoil said production totaled
2.1 mln long tons last year, a decline of 18 pct from 1985. The
average sales price also declined, to 138.25 dlrs per long ton
from 141.05 dlrs in 1985.
    "The long term outlook for our sulphur operations remains
bright," the company said. "We expect sulphur's pricing
structure to strengthen during the current year, probably in
the third and fourth quarters."
            
 Reuter

A senior representative of the
financially-troubled U.S. farm credit system is expected for
the first time tomorrow to ask Congress to provide assurances
that stock held by system borrowers will be guaranteed.
    Farm credit sources said Brent Beesley, president of the
Farm Credit Corporation which represents the system, will make
the request at a Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing.
    They said Beesley would ask Congress to take some action to
assure borrowers the stock is secure. But Beesley is expected
to stop short of requesting other forms of government aid.
    Borrowers from the farm credit system hold some four
billion dlrs in system stock which could be devalued if the
mounting losses of the system persist, officials said.
    Beesley's request expected tomorrow is seen as the first
official acknowledgment from the system itself that federal aid
will be needed to guarantee the value of the stock.
    Yesterday, Jim Billington, a member of the Farm Credit
Administration board which regulates the system, said Congress
should plan to spend at least 800 mln dlrs beginning late this
year to bail-out the system.
    Congress is moving swiftly toward legislation to aid the
system. Sen. James McClure, R-Idaho, has drafted a resolution
which would put the Senate on record as guaranteeing the value
of farm credit system stock. The resolution may be brought to
the Senate floor soon, Congressional sources said.
    In addition to requesting a guarantee of borrower stock,
Beesley is expected tomorrow to endorse the creation of a
secondary market, called "Aggie-mae" by some proponents, for
the resale of farm real estate loans.
    Sources said the farm credit system will support the idea
if the system is included in the operation of the market.
    Farm credit sources said the system decided to request a
guarantee of borrower stock at a meeting this week in Denver of
the 12 presidents of farm credit system districts.
    Beesley's testimony to the Congressional hearing tomorrow
will not include any new financial forecast of system losses,
    Chairman of the FCA, Frank Naylor, yesterday said the
system may lose as much as 1.4 billion dlrs this year.
 Reuter

Shr loss 20 cts vs loss 26 cts
    Net loss 798,289 vs loss 777,667
    Rev 262,738 vs nil
    Avg shares 3,930,360 vs 2,959,029
    Year
    Shr loss 96 cts vs loss 1.25 dlrs
    Net loss 3,202,355 vs loss 3,060,407
    Rev 676,341 vs nil
    Avg shares 3,339,174 vs 2,445,423
 Reuter

First Federal Savings of
Arkansas FA said a federal district court denied a motion
seeking class-action status for a lawsuit that alleges the bank
violated securities laws in an offering of common stock.
    The lawsuit alleges that First Federal violated securities
laws in connection with its initial public offering.
 Reuter

president Jorio Dauster said he will not attend the ICO
executive board meeting and was surprised to hear that a report
of his absence had a slightly depressing effect on the New York
coffee market today.
    "I have too much work to accomplish here in Brazil at the
moment. Besides the presence of the IBC president at an ICO
executive board meeting is not a tradition," Dauster said.
    Dauster said except in rare cases, Brazil has always sent
its London-based representative to ICO board meetings.
Ambassador Lindenberg Sette will attend the meeting, he said.
 Reuter

Colombia plans to maintain foreign
borrowing at levels similar to the 1982-86 period, during which
it received a net 1.3 billion dlrs net of repayments, Finance
Minister Cesar Gaviria said.
    He told the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) annual
meeting here that despite Latin America's debt crisis, Colombia
continues to achieve positive credit flows reflecting the
strength of its economy that grew five pct last year.
    Public Credit Director Mauricio Cabrera said Colombia plans
to launch a foreign bond issue in the second half of 1987,
possibly for 60 mln dlrs.
    Cabrera said a 50 mln dlr floating rate note (FRN) issue by
Colombia is expected to close next month. It carries a 1-1/8
pct margin over Libor, with a seven year maturity and four
years grace.
    He also told Reuters he did not expect any increase in
Colombia's financing needs as a result of current falling
coffee prices, after a surge last year doubled export income
from this source to around three billion dlrs.
    "The drop will simply bring us back to 1985 levels, with a
loss of no more than about 100 mln dlrs," he said.
    Colombia, with a total foreign debt of around 13 billion
dlrs, has a foreign borrowing programme of around three billion
dlrs this year, of which about one billion is new credits.
    Its foreign reserves ended 1986 at 3.5 billion dlrs,
equivalent to more than nine months of imports and
non-financial services, and GDP growth is again expected to
reach five pct this year, Gaviria said.

 Reuter

The House Banking Committee adopted
legislation to direct the U.S. Treasury to begin negotiations
aimed at seeking regular adjustment of exchange rates by  
countries such as Taiwan and South Korea, whose currencies are
pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar.
    The measure was adopted as part of a wide-ranging trade
bill that will be considered by the full House in April before
it moves on to the Senate.
    The bill's many provisions also set as a priority for the
U.S. the negotiation of stable exchange rates and urge
government intervention as necessary to offset fluctuations.
    In addition, the Banking Committee bill would authorize
U.S. banks to use a variety of means to deal with the debt
problems of developing countries, such as lowering interest
rates on existing debt, renegotiating loans or debt
forgiveness. The bill would give a blanket waiver of any
federal banking regulations that bar such actions.
    The bill would direct Treasury Secretary James Baker to
discuss with debt-ridden developing countries the possibility
of the U.S. setting up a public debt management agency that
would purchase their debt at a discount and negotiate the
restructuring of the debt.
    The Banking bill authorizes U.S. participation in a
multilateral investment guarantee agency (MIGA) as requested by
the administration. Congress would approve an initial U.S.
subscription of 22 mln dlrs.
    And, it sets up a council on industrial competitiveness
composed of industry and administration members to explore ways
to make the U.S. more competitive in world markets.
 Reuter

of April 1 and continue until the U.S. is satisfied there is
full compliance with the agreement.
 Reuter

Lomac Inc, a publicly traded
company, will pay the U.S. and Michigan governments to help
clean up a toxic waste site in the first major settlement under
the 1986 Superfund-Two act, Michigan officials said.
    Lomac will pay 17 mln dlrs to help clean the site, they
said.
    Stewart Freeman, Michigan's chief environmental attorney,
told Reuters that Lomac, a new company, agreed to buy a
chemical site near Muskegon, Mich., formerly operated by Bafors
Nobel Inc, a bankrupt subsidiary of A.B. Nobel of Sweden.
    The settlement was also the largest in history in a
bankruptcy case involving environmental issues, Freeman said.
    Other companies with Superfund disputes are watching the
case closely, he said. "There are a number of very large
corporations talking to the attorney general," Freeman said,
referring to Michigan Atty. Gen. Frank J. Kelley.
    Freeman would not identify the companies involved, saying
he was not sure whether confidentiality agreements had been
made.
    Lomac will pay 25-26 mln dlrs in the settlement. Five mln
dlrs will be paid to the federal and 12 mln dlrs will go to the
Michigan government for cleanup at the site, the Lakeway
Chemical plant.
    The remaining funds will go to medical surveillance of
former workers at the plant.
    Under the agreement, a trust fund will be set up "to
monitor the health of employees who may have been exposed to
dangerous chemicals that were manufactured at the plant before
1971," the Michigan attorney general's office said in a
    Freeman said the medical fund was necessary because of
possible medical problems among workers at the site.
    The Muskegon facility was formerly used to manufacture
dyes. Freeman said Bofors Nobel spent 50 mln dlrs cleaning up
the site, formerly owned by Lakeway Chemical Co, before "the
economic decision was made in Sweden" to place the operation in
    Under the agreement, Bofors Nobel will sell the site, which
still holds an operating chemical plant, to Lomac. Some 150
employees work at the plant, a spokesman for the Michigan
attorney general said.
    The state attorney general said cleanup at the site will
begin "immediately," and will be supervised by federal and
state officials.
    Freeman said the plant site is not presently listed on the
federal superfund list, which qualifies the toxic waste site
for federal cleanup funds.
    He said federal officials will try to get the Muskegon
facility onto the superfund list. If they are unable to do so,
the 5.0 mln dlr federal portion of the settlement will be
turned over to Michigan officials to be used in the cleanup,
Freeman said.
 Reuter

The World Bank today approved a 40
million mln dlr loan to assist an economic reform program under
way in Haiti.
    The bank said the loan is being made through its affiliate,
the International Development Association, and will be used to
restore economic confidence, approve the allocation of
resources, and stimulate economic growth.
    The bank said the the 50-year credit, which is interest
free, comes as there is growing evidence that reforms already
underway have improved the country's economic situation.
 REUTER

Richard Lyng today publicly expressed doubts that the federal
government would meet the fiscal year 1988 deficit reduction
target set by the  Gramm-Rudman law.
    "I don't think anyone believes we'll meet the 108 billion
dlr target," Lyng told the Virginia Farm Bureau.
    Lyng is believed to be the first top administration
official to publicly express doubts the target would be met.
    The remark was quickly disavowed by the White House Office
of Management and Budget (OMB). "His 'no one' does not include
the OMB," said spokesman Edwin Dale.
    Lyng made the remark while describing the need for the
agriculture sector to share the burden of cutbacks under last
year's Gramm-Rudman law.
     Lyng's special assistant, Floyd Gabler, said the remark
was an opinion based on Lyng's discussions with congressmen.
    "If the Secretary said that he's simply expressing an
opinion he's gotten from the progress or lack of progress on
the Hill," he said.
 Reuter

Clabir Corp and AmBrit Corp
said they called off their plans for Clabir to buy the 16 pct
voting interest in AmBrit that it does not already own.
    The companies said they agreed not to pursue the merger
because several actions recently taken by AmBrit would mean
substantial delays in completing the deal.
    They said they might revive merger plans at a later date or
seek other ways for Clabir to increase its holdings in AmBrit.
 Reuter

said it will require cockpit voice recorders to be installed on
all newly made commuter aircraft by May 26 1989.
    The FAA said data from the cockpit voice recorder, which
makes a record of cockpit conversation during flight, was
invaluable to accident investigators.
    The new rule covers newly made jet and turbo prop commuter
aircraft that carry six or more passengers and that must be
flown by two pilots.
 Reuter

The House Energy and Commerce
Committee approved major trade legislation that will give
President Reagan authority to retaliate if negotiations to open
foreign markets to U.S. telecommunications products fail.
    The provision was part of a major trade bill the committee
approved on a vote of 26 to 15. It will be wrapped into a trade
bill being written in several House committees and due to be
considered in the full House in late April.
    The bill also requires foreign investors to file detailed
reports to the Commerce Department on their U.S. holdings in
real estate, securities or U.S. companies.
    In response to congressional concern over the Fujitsu
proposal to take control of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., the
bill would give Reagan the power to bar foreign acquisitions of
U.S. firms if the sale threatened U.S. national security.
    The legislation would bar for one year imports of advanced
audio digital tape machines unless the recording capability is
disabled. The action was taken after the U.S. recording
industry said the new machines would lead to rampant recording
piracy and legislation was needed to protect their rights.
    The bill authorizes government spending of 100 mln dlrs a
year for five years to help pay for research by a consortia of
semiconductor manufacturers.
   
 Reuter

said it took control of the South Florida Banks and transferred
its assets and deposits to a newly chartered federal mutual
    The Bank Board said it approved a new five-member board for
the association. South Florida was a state chartered stock
institution with 175.2 mln dlrs in assets.
    The Bank Board said the savings bank suffered from poorly
underwritten loans and investments plus a high cost of funds
and operating expenses, including excessive compensation of
some former officers.
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Services Inc said it
downgraded 200 mln dlrs of long-term debt of Zenith Electronics
Corp.
    Cut were Zenith's senior debt to Ba-2 from Baa-3,
convertible subordinated debt to B-1 from Ba-2 and commercial
paper to Not-Prime from Prime-3.
    Moody's cited the company's overall losses.
    The agency also said it believes that future profits in the
consumer electronics business will be limited because of
intense competition from international market participants.
    Moody's pointed out that Zenith's total debt increased
sharply over the past year and is being serviced by weak cash
flow.
    A spokesman for Zenith criticized the action.
    "The company believes the downgrade is unwarranted.
Operating results for 1986 improved over 1985 and Zenith was
profitable in the second half of 1986," he said.
 Reuter

<SDC Sydney Development Corp>
said it terminated its service agreement with chairman and
chief executive Walter Steel on March 24, and appointed Donald
Michelin as acting chief executive.
    "The performance of the company since Mr. Steel's
appointment in June, 1985 has not fulfilled either Mr. Steel's
plans or the objectives of Alexis Nihon Investments Inc, the
principal creditor and largest shareholder, and a change in
senior management was viewed as essential to redirecting the
business of the company," SDC Sydney said.
    Michelin is an Alexis Nihon officer and director.
 Reuter

Congress, eager to find budget
savings, launches a review of the U.S. Agriculture Department's
generic commodity certificate program tomorrow, amid signs USDA
and the General Accounting Office, GAO, are at odds over how
much the program has cost U.S. taxpayers.
    The GAO concluded in a preliminary report last week that
payment-in-kind, or PIK, certificates cost between five and 20
pct more than cash outlays, administration officials who asked
not to be identified said.
    USDA officials, however, took issue with the report, saying
it did not take into account storage, handling and transport
savings that accrue to the government. The GAO then decided to
re-examine the costs, sources said.
    The issue is an important one, because congressional budget
committees are known to be considering limiting the use of
certificates as a means of cutting spending.
    Agriculture Under Secretary Daniel Amstutz and GAO Senior
Associate Director Brian Crowley are set to testify before the
Senate Agriculture Committee tomorrow.
    Amstutz is expected to tell the committee that there are
uncertainties in determining the cost of certificates compared
to cash outlays, and that savings to the Commodity Credit Corp,
CCC, almost equal costs, department sources said.
    USDA estimates that it costs the government about 75 cents
to store, handle and transport each bushel of commodity put in
government storage.
    It was unclear whether the GAO, Congress' investigative
arm, would stick by its original analysis that it costs the
government more to use certificates instead of cash in farm
price and income support programs, Reagan administration
    The GAO is expected to point out that use of
payment-in-kind, PIK, certificates has helped relieve tight
storage by moving grain that otherwise might not have been
sold.
    The testimony by Amstutz and GAO Senior Associate Director
Brian Crowley comes as congressional budget committees
intensify their efforts to pinpoint ways to cut the federal
budget deficit -- including considering limits on the use of
PIK certificates.
    The CCC issues dollar-denominated PIK certificates, or
certs, as a partial substitute for direct cash outlays to
farmers or cash subsidies to exporters. Certs can be used to
repay nonrecourse loans or exchanged for CCC commodities or
cash.
    Between April and December 1986, CCC issued 3.8 billion
dlrs worth of certificates, according to USDA. Up to another
6.7 billion dlrs worth could be issued between January and
August 1987, according to USDA.
    Certs can cost the government more than cash primarily
because recipients can use the certificates to pay back
government loans at levels below the loan rate.
    Eliminating this practice, called "PIK and roll," would save
the government 1.4 billion dlrs between 1988-92, according to
the Congressional Budget Office, CBO. That estimate, according
to a CBO official, was based on an assumption that certificates
cost the government about 15 pct more than cash payments.
    The Senate and House Budget Committees are known to be
considering curbs on PIK-and-roll transactions among other
savings alternatives.
    The GAO last week reached the tentative conclusion that the
estimated three billion dlrs of certificates redeemed to date
have cost the federal government between 150 mln and 600 mln
dlrs, or between five and 20 pct, more than cash outlays, one
administration official said.
    However, the GAO has decided to reassess those estimates
based in part on USDA criticism, department officials said.
    The broad range of the cost estimate is partly attributable
to the different effect certificates can have on market prices
over the course of a crop year.
    USDA's Economic Research Service, for example, has found
that between June and August last year, the 215 mln bushels of
corn exchanged for certificates lowered the price of corn by
between 35 and 45 cents per bushel.
    Between September and November, however, certificates had
only a marginal impact on corn prices, according to the ERS
study, obtained by Reuters.
 Reuter

<Hollinger Inc> said 58 pct-owned <The
Daily Telegraph PLC>, of London, agreed to form a joint venture
printing company in Manchester, England with <News
International PLC>. Financial terms were undisclosed.
    It said the deal involved News International's acquisition
of a 50 pct stake in the Telegraph's Trafford Park Printing Ltd
subsidiary. The joint company will continue to print northern
editions of the Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, with spare
capacity used to print The Sun and News of the World.
    The arrangement will significantly cut Telegraph costs,
Hollinger said.
 Reuter

USACafes LP said sales at its Bonanza
Restaurant unit rose 16.6 pct to a record 10.4 mln dlrs for the
week ended March 22.
    That compares with sales of 8,909,000 dlrs for the
comparable week last year, the partnership said.
    USACafes, which said year-to-date sales from the Bonanza
chain were up 13 pct, attributed the increase to the budget
steakhouse chain's decision to add chicken, seafood and salad
entrees to its menu.
    It said the new entrees now account for two-thirds of the
chain's sales.
 Reuter

Portuguese Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco
Silva said Portugal would hand back Macao to China on December
20, 1999, but added the existing political, economic and social
system there would be maintained until the year 2050.
    Cavaco Silva, speaking on national television hours before
the initialling in Peking of an agreement on the handover, said
that under the accord Macao would be a special administrative
region of China and would have a large measure of autonomy.
    Under the accord, Portuguese administration of the
territory would end on December 20, 1999 but the existing
system there would be maintained until the year 2050, Cavaco
Silva said.
    "The existing way of life in Macao, the Portuguese laws,
basically our political, economic and social system, will
remain in force for a further 63 years from now," he said.
    Cavaco Silva said he would go to Peking in the first half
of next month to formally sign the agreement with China, which
would then be submitted to Portugal's parliament for approval.
    Cavaco Silva said that after Portuguese administration of
Macao formally ended in 1999, the future government of the
territory would enjoy complete autonomy except in the areas of
defence and foreign relations. It would however be able to make
economic, trade and finance agreements with other countries.
    The head of government would be named on the basis of
elections held for the post.
    Macao would have an elected legislative assembly and an
independent judiciary. There would be religious freedom, a free
press and freedom of expression. The Portuguese language could
continue to be used in the government, assembly and courts.
    Cavaco Silva said the current financial system would
continue after the year 2000. The existing banks and freedom of
capital movements would be maintained as would the
convertibility of the pataca as the territory's monetary unit
and the legal protection of foreign investment.
    Only the Macao government would be able to collect taxes.
    Cavaco Silva said that those among Macao's 400,000
population who held Portuguese nationality on the date of the
handover would thereafter continue to be able to use their
Portuguese passports and their nationality rights.
    The nationality issue had been one of the points of
disagreement in the complex handover talks.
    The special administrative status to be granted to Macao
after its handover mirrors a similar accord for the nearby
British colony of Hong Kong, which reverts back to Chinese rule
in 1997 under a 1984 Sino-British agreement.
 Reuter

    Record May four
 Reuter

France's right-wing government now
expects to raise about 40 billion francs this year from its
privatisation program, 10 billion more than it targetted, Prime
Minister Jacques Chirac said.
    The success of the program, launched late last year, meant
the government would be able to go beyond the 30 billion franc
figure it estimated in its 1987 budget, he said in a television
    About 75 pct of the additional revenue would be used to cut
state debt and 25 pct to provide additional funds for public
sector investment, he said.
    Chirac said Finance Minister Edouard Balladur proposed to
make two billion francs of supplementary funding available for
a five biillion franc accelerated motorway building program.
    The remaining three billion francs for this would come from
a motorway loan now in the domestic market.
    Balladur also proposed to make some extra cash available to
the French national railways, SNCF, for the construction of
high-speed rail track, and to boost research in the aerospace
industry, he added.
    An estimated 15,000 jobs would be generated by speeding up
motorway construction, Chirac said.
    Reaffirming his long term strategy of cutting the state
sector deficit and easing taxes, Chirac repeated government
pledges to cut the corporate tax rate to 42 pct from 45 pct in
the 1988 budget.
    Personal income tax would also be reduced but details had
still to be worked out, he added.
    The government aimed to make France the leading economic
power in Western Europe within five years, he told his
television interviewer.
 Reuter

The United States remained isolated among
the Inter-American Development Bank's 44 members as the Bank
ended its annual meeting here today without agreement on U.S.
proposals to reform the regional lending institution.
    The three-day meeting was dominated by the dispute and by
the failure of Brazil and its creditor banks to make any
breakthrough on debt talks after Brasilia suspended interest
payments last month.
    Brazil's Central Bank governor Francisco Gros said after
talks with its 14-bank advisory committee here yesterday that
it could not make a token interest payment now, as sought by
banks, but would maintain contact with the banks.
    Delegates agreed to shelve discussion of IADB reforms until
the half-yearly International Monetary Fund and World Bank
meetings in two weeks time in Washington at which a decision
will be urgently sought in order to maintain credit flows to
the recession-hit region.
    "The Bank cannot maintain an adequate lending level unless
it is given increased resources," IADB president Antonio Ortiz
Mena told a press conference.
    Ortiz Mena said 42 countries opposed Washington's proposal
to lower veto power over loans to 35 pct of the Bank's voting
shares from a simple majority as at present.
    U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker said Monday the United
States, as 34.5 pct shareholder and provider of the bulk of the
Bank's resources, should have more say in approving loans and
conditioned a nine billion dlr increase in its contribution on
approving the reforms.
    But Ortiz Mena said Latin America and the non-regional
members including Europe and Japan had all supported a 40 pct
veto level. Canada declined to state a position.
    Behind the dispute was a U.S. attempt to radically change
the direction of the Bank, which has lent 35 billion dlrs to
Latin America in its 28 years, and give it a bigger role in the
current debt strategy with increased lending but more stringent
conditions attached.
    But Ortiz said the Bank cannot divert too much of its
resources to so-called sectoral lending, whereby loans to
specific sectors are tied to economic reforms, because this
could affect the Bank's Triple A rating as a borrower in world
markets.
    "For this reason we have agreed to limit sectoral loans to
25 pct of the total, leaving the rest for investment in
projects," he said.
    Ortiz Mena earlier told the Bank's closing session that as
a result of negotiations here, the Bank can expect a new
injection of about 25 billion dlrs for the period 1987-90.
    The United States has said it will only be able to support
a level close to the sixth replenishment of funds, which came
to 15.7 billion dlrs, unless its proposals are accepted.
    But despite the impasse, some Latin American delegates
including Mexican Finance Minister Gustavo Petricioli said they
were optimistic a compromise agreement could be reached next
month.
 Reuter

Five regional oil producing nations
will gather in Caracas tommorrow for a two-day meeting expected
to center on ways to combat proposals for a U.S. tax on
imported petroleum, the Venezuela's ministry of energy and
mines said.
    Oil ministers from Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador and
Venezuela will be on hand for the fifth meeting of the informal
group of Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Exporters,
formed in 1983, it said. Colombia will also attend for the
first time, as an observer nation, the ministry said.
    Energy and Mines Minister Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said
the conference has no set agenda but one entire session Friday
will be devoted to proposals for a tax on imported oil.
    Two of the group's members, Venezuela and Mexico, are
second and third largest foreign suppliers of oil to the United
States, respectively, following Canada.
    Venezuela, concerned about the effect such a tax would have
on its exports, undertook a diplomatic push to coordinate
strategy against such measures. In February, Canadian Energy
Minister Marcel Masse was invited to Caracas for talks with
Hernandez on proposals for an oil import tax.
 Reuter

The Reserve Bank of Australia this morning
cut the rediscount rate from 17.30 pct to 17.00 pct.
    The rediscount is the rate at which the bank buys back
treasury notes.
    Market sources said the cut reflected the recent easing in
market interest rates. They also pointed to yesterday's
treasury note tender where the 400 mln dlrs of 13-week notes
went at an average yield of 15.473 pct, down from 15.870 last
week. The 100 mln dlrs of 26-week notes went at an average
15.414 from 15.790 last week.
 Reuter

Machinea said Argentina could adopt the same posture as Brazil
and suspend payments on its foreign debt if it failed to meet
creditor bank demands.
    "If Argentina had the same difficulties in being unable to
refinance (its debt) under the desired (creditor) conditions,
that (Brasil's) is a path to take," Machinea said.
    Brasil last month suspended payments on a large part of its
109-billion dlr debt, the highest in the developing world.
    Machinea said Brasil did not suspend payments because it
wanted to but because it lacked reserves.
    Argentina has since last month been negotiating a 2.15
billion dlr loan with the steering committee for its
international creditor banks to meet 1987 growth targets.
    But Machinea said the talks were difficult and Argentina
wanted to conclude them as soon as possible.
    "What the (creditor) banks are demanding is not the same as
what Argentina is prepared to concede," Machinea said.
    Argentina has a global foreign debt of 50 billion dlrs. Its
debt with private banks is about 30 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Genova Inc said it signed a
definitive agreement for the previously announced merger with
<Genova Products Inc>.
    Under the agreement, Genova Products will pay 5-3/8 dlrs a
share for the 29 pct of Genova's outstanding common shares it
does not already own.
    The company said it plans to complete the transaction,
which requires shareholder approval, by the end of March.
 Reuter

Shr 69 cts vs six cts
    Net 421,306 vs 44,132
    Revs 3,721,178 vs 3,125,935
    Note: Current qtr net includes a gain of 281,000 dlrs,
mostly from the sale of securities and property.
 Reuter

Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc said
Wednesday its business is booming, despite its inability to
distance itself from the insider trading scandal that has
spread rumors and doubts through Wall Street.
    "For a company that's supposed to be under siege, we are
doing extremely well. We are exceedingly profitable," a
spokesman for the firm told Reuters.
    The rumors that have swirled around Drexel, more than any
other broker, have involved concerns that its business will be
threatened by the Federal probe, say Wall Street sources. The
firm has long been at the leading edge of the mergers business
and had ties to now-disgraced speculator Ivan Boesky.
    In the latest chapter of the story, Drexel said that some
commodities firms have begun to limit the amount of business
they will do with the firm, citing credit risks. Drexel has
long been a powerful competitor in precious metals markets.
    But Drexel spokesman Steve Anredder told Reuters that
Drexel's overall business is proceeding normally and the
first-quarter profit "could be the strongest of anybody on Wall
Street."
    "I wouldn't say we're not feeling any effect (from the
trading probes)," he said. "But we're doing extremely well."
    The firm was among the first to be subpoenaed in the
government's wide-ranging probe of illegal trading involving
the use of confidential company information on Wall Street.
    Believed to be under particular scrutiny was Drexel's "junk
bond" operation -- the issuance of high-risk speculative debt
that it pioneered for financing corporate takeovers.
    "We have done nothing wrong," said the Drexel spokesman.
"After a thorough investigation, we have found no evidence of
any wrongdoing by the firm or anyone within the firm."
    The spokesman said that in the aftermath of the Boesky
arrest, Drexel had not been charged. Nor had any individual at
the firm been charged with illegal acts while employed by
Drexel. One of its top merger specialists, Martin Siegel, was
charged in connection with a former job.
    Still, more than any other firm on Wall Street, Drexel has
suffered the consequences of the insider trading probe. To
begin with, there have been a series of brief shocks in the
junk bond market, in nervousness linked to rumors that Drexel
might be in trouble.
    At one point, Drexel said Wednesday, a large Midwest bank
refused to allow Drexel-issued bonds as collateral on credit
lines. Two weeks ago, the restriction was withdrawn, it said.
    The company also was notified last month that the outside
insurer of Drexel's individual brokerage accounts had decided
not to renew coverage. Drexel has set up its own subsidiary
handling part of the insurance. American International Group
and a group of British underwriters have handled the rest.
    Drexel also appears to have lost ground to others in the
mergers and acquisition business recently, market sources said.
However, Anredder said that there was no sign that Drexel had
lost any customers at all owing to the insider trading cases.
But in citing results for the quarter, the company points
mostly to other areas of success.
    Corporate financings have totaled 8 billion dlrs, including
3 billion dlrs in new junk bonds in the January-March period,
Drexel said. Drexel maintains the lion's share of this
lucrative business, trade sources noted.
    The market for junk bonds, although jittery, "has rallied
back with a vengeance," Anredder said.
    Although they see new competition in the junk bond arena,
market sources concur that Drexel remains king of the hill.
    While some of the leading Wall Street firms were limiting
head-to-head dealings with Drexel in the commodity markets 
based on worries over the credit of the company, the Drexel
spokesman called this "ridiculous."
 Reuter

Brazil will not announce any
changes to its coffee export policy, Brazilian Coffee Institute
(IBC) president Jorio Dauster said.
    He told Reuters Brazil was not planning to modify the
position it held before the recent International Coffee
Organisation meeting.
    Earlier this month, talks in London to set new ICO export
quotas failed.
    Commenting on the outcome of a coffee producers' meeting in
Managua last weekend, Dauster said that they discussed nothing
involving the market.
    "In the meeting we agreed to work on behalf of the union of
the producers in matters related to an international agreement,"
    The Managua meeting was attended by representatives from
Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica,
Nicaragua and Panama, the latter represented at the meeting
merely as an observer.
 Reuter

countries such as Taiwan and South Korea whose currencies are
it moves onto the Senate.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs nil
    Net 1.2 mln vs 100,000
    Avg shrs 3,692,000 vs 3,148,000
    Year
    Shr 1.02 dlrs vs 54 cts
    Net 3.7 mln vs 800,000
    Avg shrs 3,607,000 vs 1,461,000
    Note: Net is after depreciation.
    Full name is Consolidated Captial Income Opportunity
Trust/2.
 Reuter

President Jose Sarney rejected calls
from foreign creditors and from some Brazilian businessmen that
the government talk to the International Monetary Fund.
    In a speech to about 3,000 mayors and local officials,
Sarney reiterated that the government would not accept any
monitoring of its economy by the IMF.
    He said, "We are going to struggle with courage for Brazil
and its growth. For this reason I have said that Brazil will
accept no monitoring by the IMF."
    In highly-publicized talks with Sarney near Sao Paulo last
Saturday, several Brazilian business leaders said they favoured
a return to the IMF, arguing that it would make debt
negotiations easier and bring new money into the country.
 Reuter

The Glass-Steagall Act separating
banking and securities activities in the U.S. is all but dead
following decisions by federal and state authorities, the
chairman of Bankers Trust Co asserted.
    "There are plainly nails in the coffin of Glass-Steagall,"
Alfred Brittain said in remarks prepared for delivery to a
meeting of bank and financial analysts.
    He noted the Federal Reserve Board is due to decide Bankers
Trust's application for a subsidiary that can underwrite
certain securities.
    Brittain said New York State bank regulators have welcomed
applications for affiliates of New York-chartered banks which
could underwrite corporate securities. And he said a U.S. Court
of Appeals upheld Bankers Trust's commercial paper business.
    He said eventually the financial services industry will see
fewer but bigger companies drawn from the ranks of the present
commercial banks, investment banks and conglomerates.
    On another topic, Britain called for a redefinition of the
role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
    "I think we should return to the original purpose of FDIC
insurance -- to protect small despositors and not depository
institutions themselves," Brittain said.
    He suggested banks be permitted to offer both insured
deposits and uninsured deposits. High quality assets would be
segregated to back up insured deposits.
    He said big banks could then fail without draining the
insurance funds. "Stockholders could be wiped out, management
rmemoved and uninsured creditors could take their fair share of
any losses," he said. But insured deposits under 100,000 dlrs
would be protected.
 Reuter

The United States Nuclear
Regulatory Commission granted a low-power operating license to
Unit 3 of the Palo Verde nuclear plant, plant's owners said.
    Owners of the Palo Verde plant include AZP Group's Arizona
Public Service Co unit, which holds a 29.1 pct interest, and
Southern California Edison <SCE> and El Paso Electric Co, which
each own a 15.8 pct stake.
   The owners said the license will allow for fueling and
testing of up to five pct of the plant's power. Fueling will
begin in a few days, they said.
    The commission must review the results of the low-power
testing before it can approve full-power operation.
    The owners of plant said they expect to begin full-power
operation by the end of 1987.
   
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS HE STANDS BY PARIS PACT TO FOSTER STABLE CURRENCIES

Cooperative Futures Co voted to dissolve the 26-year-old firm,
the futures trading arm of 85 farm cooperatives, its president
said.
    Thomas E. Mulligan, president of the board of directors,
said 87 pct of the 61 members voting favored dissolution.
    The directors recommended the move, citing falling volume
and higher costs, when it called a special shareholders meeting
    Mulligan said the cooperative would continue operating
until April 24, when the member cooperatives will have to begin
clearing their futures trades through other companies.
    Mulligan said one of the members, Farmers Commodities of
Des Moines, Iowa, was attempting to organize a new cooperative
to replace Illinois Coop as a clearing company.
    Sources close to Farmers Commodities confirmed its plans,
but Hal Richards, president, could not be reached immediately
for comment, and it was unknown how many cooperatives might be
willing to band together.
    Industry sources said Farmers Commodities would face a
difficult task in setting up a new clearing organization by
April 24, the day Illinois Cooperative will be dissolved.
    They would have to obtain commitments from a sufficient
number of cooperatives to meet minimum capital requirements,
obtain trading memberships, and set up the office mechanisms to
handle futures trading.
    In the meantime, commercial clearing firms have been
courting the individual coops, trying to obtain their business
with low trading rates.
    If Farmers Commodities is unable to set up a clearing
organization by April 24, individual members will find other
homes, and they're unlikely to change clearing firms a second
time, one industry source said.
    The demise of Illinois Coop was set in motion by the
withdrawl of Growmark, Inc., the largest member with more than
70 pct of the capital stock, according to sources within the
cooperative.
    Mulligan acknowledged prior to the vote that Growmark had
no need to belong to the cooperative since it became affiliated
last year with Archer Daniels Midland.
    But he said Illinois Cooperative would still have been able
to meet minimum capital requirements without Growmark.
    The vote to dissolve the organization was met with "a
certain amount of pang," he said. "But in the final analysis,
the decision has to be economic, not emotional."
 Reuter

The composition of the Senate
Agriculture Committee, in question since the death of Nebraskan
Democratic Sen. Edward Zorinsky, remains in doubt.
    Zorinsky's death earlier this month cut the Democrats'
majority on the committee to 9-8.
    Zorinsky's replacement, Republican David Karnes, has said
he would like a seat on the panel, and Senate Republican Leader
Robert Dole (R-Kan.) is said to have thrown his support behind
Karnes, who would add a Midwestern vote to the panel.
    But Karnes' appointment to the committee would require at
least one Republican to step off the committee.
    Aides to Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Pete
Wilson (Calif.), whose spots on the panel were rumored to be in
jeopardy, said their bosses were categorically opposed to being
pushed off the committee.
    Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told Reuters he
had rejected a suggestion that Democrats and Republicans each
add one member to the committee.
    Leahy said he would be "delighted" to have freshman Sen. John
Breaux (D-La.) join the committee. But Breaux's appointment was
being resisted by Midwestern Democrats, who feel southern
states are adequately represented on the committee.
    An aide to Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) said the senator,
supported by Midwestern Democrats, had not ruled out the
possibility of moving to the committee.
    The inability of the two parties to settle the matter could
increase the possibility that the Democratic majority would be
left untouched at 9-8.
    The issue is expected to be resolved any day, Senate staff
said.
 Reuter

he stood by the Paris agreement among leading industrial
nations to foster exchange rate stability around current
levels.
    "I would refer you to the Paris agreement which was a
recognition the currencies were within ranges broadly
consistent with economic fundamentals," Baker told The Cable
News Network in an interview.
    "We were quite satisfied with the agreement in Paris
otherwise we would not have been a party too it," he said.
    Baker also noted the nations agreed in the accord to
"co-operate to foster greater exchange rate stability around
those levels."
    He refused to comment directly on the current yen/dollar
rate but said flatly that foreign exchange markets recently
tended "to draw unwarranted inferences from what I say."
    Baker was quoted on British Television over the weekend as
saying he has no target for the U.S. currency, a statement that
triggered this week's renewed decline of the dollar.
    "I think the Paris agreement represents evidence that
international economic policy co-ordination is alive and well,"
Baker said.
    The Treasury Secretary stressed however it was very
important for the main surplus countries to grow as fast as
they could consistent with low inflation to resolve trade
    He added that Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker
has also "been very outspoken" in suggesting main trading
partners grow as fast as they can.
    Baker noted that the J-curve, the delayed beneficial effect
of a weakening of a currency on that country's trade balance,
takes 12 to 18 months to work its way through to the trade
deficit and it is now 18 months since the Plaza agreement to
lower the dollar's value.
    He also said improvements in the trade deficit should come
from other sources besides the exchange rate, and pointed out
the administration's package to improve U.S. Competitiveness
was now before Congress.
 REUTER

declined to comment on whether President Reagan would reappoint
Paul Volcker to a third term as chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board.
    "I spent four years and two weeks in the White House job 
refusing to comment on personnel matters," he said in an
interview with the Cable News Network. "I'm not going to change
now."
    But Baker did say Volcker has "done a tremendous job" and
added they get on "extremely well", both when he was White House
chief of staff and during his term at Treasury.
    When asked whether he differed with Volcker on
international economic policy, Baker said "there's really no
difference of opinion between us with respect to these matters."
    In other comments, Baker said he did not think a tax rise
was a good idea and nor did President Reagan. But he believed
Congress would enact some spending cuts. "The minute you say
raise taxes, all restraints on spending go by the board."
    He once again pointed out that taxes were 19 pct of gnp but
spending was at 24 pct, a statistic he used to argue strongly
for spending cuts.
 reuter

China posted a budget deficit of 7.08
billion yuan in 1986, the fourth highest since 1949, after a
surplus of 2.82 billion in 1985, Finance Minister Wang Bingqian
told the National People's Congress.
    He put 1986 revenue at 222.03 billion yuan, against a
budgeted 214.17 billion, and up from 185.41 billion in 1985,
and expenditure at 229.11 billion, against a budgeted 214.17
billion and 182.59 billion in 1985.
    Official figures show the record post-1949 budget deficit
was 17 billion yuan in 1979.
    Wang said the 1986 deficit was due to excess capital
construction and administrative expenses and unjustified and
extravagant investments outside the state plan.
    He also blamed the inefficiency of firms whose production
costs and losses rose. He said subsidising state firms' losses
cost 32.25 billion yuan. The 1985 budget did not give a
separate figure for this.
    He said the processing industry developed too fast and some
projects could not start operations because of power shortages,
while too many non-productive facilities were set up.
    Wang said 1986 and 1985 investment in fixed assets rose
15.3 pct and 41.8 pct respectively year on year and consumption
funds rose 12.5 pct and 23.7 pct, outstripping the growth in
national income.
    Wang said revenues were affected by the steep fall in world
oil prices, the decline in the price of primary products, a
drop in income from customs duties and the rising cost of
earning foreign exchange through exports.
    Revenue also fell because the state raised the rate of
depreciation for fixed assets of certain state firms, reduced
their regulatory tax and made other tax cuts for firms.
    Wang said 1986 tax receipts rose to 206.45 billion yuan
from 201.82 billion in 1985, state treasury bond receipts to
6.2 billion from 6.04 billion and receipts from foreign loans
rose to 7.87 billion from 2.5 billion.
    He said 1986 budgetary spending on capital construction
rose to 65.57 billion yuan from 56.97 billion in 1985, on
technical renovation and new products to 12.62 billion from
10.05 billion, aid to rural production and other farm expenses
to 12.03 billion from 10.16 billion, culture, science,
education and public health to 38 billion from 31.72 billion
and defence to 20.13 billion from 19.15 billion.
     Wang said expenditure for repaying principal and interest
on foreign loans in 1986 was 3.4 billion yuan, up from 3.26
 REUTER

Guyana hopes to overcome its financial
problems within three to five years and is now seeking help
from donor governments, Finance Minister Carl Greenidge said.
    He said Guyana took its problems in January to the
Caribbean Group for Cooperation and Development, which includes
governments and multilateral agencies, with a view to finding a
long-term recovery plan.
    Guyana's arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
are now 70 mln dlrs and it would not be eligible for new loans
in the near future, Greenidge told Reuters during the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) annual meeting here. MORE
    Greenidge also said a World Bank mission would visit
Georgetown this week to assess prospects for a rescue plan that
would enable Guyana to revive its economy. But he said the
government does not expect to be able to reduce its arrears
this year.
    Arrears to the IMF and the World Bank are projected to rise
to 100 mln dlrs by the end of 1987. About 90 mln dlrs of this,
equivalent to nearly half Guyana's annual exports, would be
owed to the IMF.
    "Expecting us to pay arrears is like asking a dying man to
give a pint of blood," Greenidge said.
    But Greenidge said Guyana has taken steps to reduce its
fiscal deficit, which now amounts to 65 pct of GDP. It has
increased taxes, reduced public expenditure and refinanced its
internal debt.
    He said the World Bank would meanwhile look at investment
requirements for potential export-earning projects such as gold
mining, timber, oil and kaolin.
    Because of its arrears, Guyana has been unable to draw down
a 40 mln dlr World Bank loan for a bauxite industry
rehabilitation project. Bauxite accounts for 90 mln dlrs of
exports, or 40 pct of the total.
 REUTER

he opposed a stock transactions tax proposed by House Speaker
Jim Wright, D-Tex, or other special taxes.
    "The stock transfer tax would be a particularly unfortunate
approach to take," Baker said in an interview with Cable News
Network.
    The United States has some of the most efficient capital
markets in the world and new taxes would impair efficiency, he
said.
 REUTER

banks must do more lending to developing countries.
    Baker, in an interview on Cable News Network, was asked
about such loans after Standard and Poor's Corp today
downgraded the debt of six major money centre bank holding
companies, largely because of their heavy loan exposure to
developing nations.
    Baker said developing countries must adopt free market
economic policies such as that of the United States. He said
capital flows will be required to support the needed reforms in
those countries' economic systems.
    The money must come either through equity or debt and Baker
said developing nations' "investment regimes do not support
enough equity investment, so you've got to have some debt
there."
 REUTER

Libyan forces appear to be
withdrawing from their last stronghold in Chad after suffering
defeats at the hands of French-backed government troops,
according to officials in both the U.S. And France.
    In Washington, a State Department spokesman told reporters
"we have no reason to doubt that Libyan forces are leaving Faya
Largeau," Libya's main garrison in Chad.
    The French Defence Ministry said it could not confirm the
departure of the Libyan troops, but an official said "it is
extremely likely. They are deprived of air cover and supplies,
and their morale must be zero."
 REUTER

China and Portugal today initialled a
joint declaration under which the 400-year-old colony of Macao
will be handed over to Peking on December 20, 1999, the
official New China News Agency reported.
    Portuguese Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silve said in
Lisbon yesterday that China had promised that Macao's existing
political, economic and social system will be maintained until
the year 2050.
    Macao, located across the Pearl River estuary from Hong
Kong, has a population of about 400,000 people.
 REUTER

he expected the U.S. Trade deficit to fall by 15 billion to 20
billion dlrs in 1987.
    Commenting on the deficit during an interview on Cable News
Network, Baker said "I think you're going to see a 15 to 20
billion dlr reduction this year." The deficit was 170 billion
    Baker noted that the benefits of a weaker currency take 12
to 18 months to affect the trade balance, and said it is now 18
months since the Plaza agreement to lower the dollar's value.
 REUTER

Sumita says further yen rise would adversely affect Japanese economy

Sumita says major nations will continue to cooperate to stabilize currencies

seasonally adjusted M-3 money supply grew an estimated 2.4 pct
in January against a 3.4 pct (revised from 3.6) rise in
December and a 0.7 pct rise in January 1986.
    It said unadjusted M-3 increased to an estimated 30.13
billion N.Z. Dlrs from 30.08 (revised from 30.06) billion in
December and 25.18 billion in January 1986.
    Year-on-year M-3 rose 19.66 pct in January from 17.80 pct
(revised from 17.77) in December and 20.10 pct in January 1986.
    Narrowly defined year-on-year M-1 growth was 21.94 pct in
January against 15.89 pct in December and 14.10 pct a year
earlier.
    M-1 grew to an estimated 4.72 billion dlrs against 5.03
billion in December and 3.87 billion in January 1986.
    Year-on-year private sector credit, PSC, grew 31.07 pct in
January against 30.64 pct (revised from 30.68) in December and
21.40 pct in January 1986. PSC grew to 22.69 billion dlrs from
22.24 billion in December and 17.31 billion in January 1986.
 REUTER

said a further yen rise would have adverse effects on the
Japanese economy.
    He told Japanese business leaders the Bank of Japan will
continue to take adequate measures, including market
intervention, to stabilize exchange rates if necessary, in
close cooperation with other major industrialized nations. He
said the current instability of exchange rates will not last.
    Six major nations - Britain, Canada, France, Japan, the
U.S. And West Germany - agreed in Paris last month to act
together to hold currencies stable.
    Sumita said the Bank of Japan will continue to pursue
adequate and flexible monetary policies while watching economic
and financial developments in and outside Japan.
    He said the decision to cut the discount rate on February
20 was a hard choice for the Bank because monetary conditions
had already been sufficiently eased.
    To prevent a resurgence of inflation, the Bank will take a
very cautious stance regarding developments stemming from easy
credit conditions, he said.
    He said the latest discount rate cut to 2.5 pct should
stabilize exchange rates and expand domestic demand.
    Commenting on the dollar's fall below 150 yen, Sumita
reiterated he cannot find any specific reason for the
currency's weakness.
    The market undertook speculative dollar selling by reacting
to overseas comments by monetary authorities and trade tension,
he said.
    Sumita repeated that the Japanese economy may gradually
recover in the latter half of the 1987/88 fiscal year ending
April 1, 1988, provided exchange rates stabilize.
 REUTER

Japan's video tape recorder (VTR) exports
fell to 1.73 mln sets in February from 2.01 mln a year earlier
for the fourth successive year-on-year drop, Finance Ministry
customs-cleared export statistics show.
    But February exports were up from 1.34 mln in January.
    Cumulative exports in the first two months of 1987 totalled
3.07 mln sets against 3.73 mln a year earlier.
    Exports to the U.S. Fell to one mln sets in February from
1.26 mln a year earlier, and those to the European Community
(EC) fell to 232,275 from 263,009.
    In the EC total, shipments to West Germany fell to 97,633
from 100,218 a year earlier and those to the U.K. Fell to
32,652 from 53,020.
    Colour television exports fell to 343,315 sets in February
from 416,832 a year earlier for the 16th consecutive
year-on-year drop, bringing cumulative exports so far this year
to 588,720 against 769,874 a year earlier.
    February exports compared with 245,405 in January.
    Exports to the U.S. Fell to 1.01 mln sets from 1.12 mln a
year earlier and those to the EC fell to 33,763 from 67,955.
Shipments to China fell to 39,858 from 53,925.
 REUTER

yesterday failed to win the 60 votes needed to force a Senate
vote on a bill demanding President Reagan account for U.S. Aid
to the Nicaraguan Contras, including millions of dollars
diverted to the rebels from U.S. Arms sales to Iran.
    Following the defeat, Byrd said he would drop his effort,
ending congressional manoeuvring over the 40 million dlr final
instalment of a 100-million-dlr aid package approved last year
for the contras.
    Without congressional action to stop it, the aid became
legally available to the Contras last weekend.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) considers
talks on agricultural trade reform to be inseperable from talks
on other trade reform in the present GATT round, Willy de
Clercq, external relations commissioner of the EC, said.
    He told reporters here the EC would not bow to pressure to
reach an early, seperate agreement on agricultural trade.
    He said the EC wanted to stick to the four-year schedule
agreed by members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) in Punta del Este, Uruguay, last year. That included
agricultural trade liberalisation for the first time in the
lengthy program to re-negotiate the GATT.
    Other trade issues being discussed in the current GATT
round include reform of trade in merchandise and services.
    De Clercq is on his way to China after attending a two-day
conference for 22 GATT trade ministers held in New Zealand.
    Several of those ministers criticised the EC for what they
saw as restrictive agricultural trade practices and called for
urgent reforms. U.S. Trade representative, Clayton Yeutter,
also said it was important agreement on agricultural trade
reform was reached as early as possible.
    But de Clercq said the GATT program had been reached after
long and hard negotiations, and the EC did not want changes.
    "We just want to stick to the agreement which was reached,
and that was very clear -- that the new round would be one
undertaking. It is a global negotiation with no two tracks, no
fast track, no slow track. It has just one track, the track -
and that's all," de Clercq said.
    "If you start selecting priorities, your priority is not my
priority. We say that agriculture is urgent, but it's not the
only urgent thing," he said.
    He said the Punte del Este agreement had taken eight months
to prepare and eight days of negotiations.
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Vietnam has ordered its army to grow
more food to ease shortages and meet economic recovery goals
set for 1990.
    The army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan, monitored here, said
soldiers must work harder to care for rice, vegetables and
other crops endangered by the present unusually hot weather.
    The paper said the 1.6-mln strong regular army contributed
less than one pct to the nation's 18.2 mln tonne food output.
    North Vietnam has set a 1990 food target of 23 to 24 mln
tonnes.
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Engineering group Linde
AG's <LING.F> world group turnover rose to 518.6 mln marks in
the first two months of 1987, 5.2 pct more than in the same
1986 period, management board chairman Hans Meinhardt said.
    But world group incoming orders fell 2.2 pct to 587.3 mln
marks, Meinhardt told the annual news conference. Excluding
exchange rate movements, world group turnover rose 8.9 pct and
incoming orders increased 1.0 pct.
    Linde expects satisfactory results and increased sales this
year but Meinhardt gave no detailed forecast. Domestic group
1986 net profit rose to 105.79 mln marks from 80.71 mln.
    Meinhardt said domestic group turnover rose 6.7 pct to
394.1 mln marks in the first two 1987 months against the same
period last year but incoming orders fell 5.2 pct to 456.6 mln.
    Linde will ask shareholders at the annual meeting on May 13
to raise authorised share capital by a maximum 30 mln marks
nominal for the issue of share warrant bonds with a maximum
issue volume of 200 mln marks. Linde's authorised share capital
currently stands at a nominal 49.6 mln marks.
    Meinhardt said the authorisation would give the company the
necessary flexibility in case Linde needed additional funds for
acquisitions. He declined to give further details.
    While world group turnover rose 7.2 pct to 3.88 billion
marks in 1986, incoming orders were barely changed at 3.91
billion marks. Meinhardt said without the sharp appreciation of
the mark against major trading partner currencies, incoming
orders would have been four pct above the prior year's level.
    World group turnover in heavy plant construction rose 7.4
pct to 777 mln marks, but incoming orders dropped 5.7 pct to
739 mln marks in the wake of the dollar and oil price plunge.
    World sales for technical gases rose 5.1 pct to 1.05
billion marks and incoming orders gained 5.2 pct to 1.05
    Meinhardt said Linde strengthened its market position in
the refrigeration sector, with particularly strong turnover and
order gains in Austria, Italy and Norway. World group sales in
the sector fell 2.5 pct to 493 mln marks, but incoming orders
rose 2.5 pct to 513 mln marks.
    The fork lift truck and hydraulic sector saw world group
sales rising 12.4 pct to 1.52 billion marks and incoming orders
gaining 8.0 pct to 1.57 billion marks.
    Domestic group turnover rose 8.2 pct to 2.93 billion marks
and incoming orders increased 1.9 pct to 2.92 billion marks.
The company was producing at full capacity in 1986.
 REUTER

Domestic group net profit 105.79 mln marks vs 80.71 mln
    Turnover 2.93 billion marks vs 2.71 billion
    Incoming orders 2.92 billion marks vs 2.86 billion
    Order book at end December 2.28 billion vs 2.37 billion
    Tax payments 104.98 mln marks vs 88.67 mln
    Depreciation of fixed assets 107.25 mln marks vs 150.75 mln
    New investment in fixed assets 148.88 mln vs 148.22 mln
    Dividend already announced 12 marks vs 11
    DVFA earnings per share 32.22 marks vs 27.54 marks
    Shareholders annual meeting May 13, dividend date May 14
    World group turnover 3.88 billion marks vs 3.62 billion
    Incoming orders 3.91 billion marks vs 3.91 billion
    New investment in fixed assets 247 mln marks vs 252 mln
    No world group profit figures given
    Parent company net profits 95.04 mln marks vs 74.91 mln
    Turnover 2.28 billion marks vs 2.14 billion
 REUTER

Pacific Dunlop Ltd <PACA.ME> said
studies by its <Ansell International> latex-product unit have
shown a commonly-used spermicidal cream kills the AIDS virus.
    Ansell regional director Chris Humphrey told a news
conference the cream, already used in a condom brand as
additional contraceptive protection, killed on contact the
virus causing AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
    The discovery meant sexually active people could have a
second level of protection against AIDS if a condom ruptured
during sex, Humphrey said. "This is the best available
protection against AIDS next to abstinence," he said.
    But David Pennington, the head of Australia's government
sponsored AIDS taskforce, said the use of the cream provided a
slight safeguard but was no great breakthrough.
    Pennington said that in the event of a condom rupturing
semen was likely to travel beyond the cream's range.
    Humphrey said the studies, commissioned by Ansell from
Nelson Gantz of the University of Massachusetts and Fred Judson
of the University of Colorado, showed nonoxynol-nine destroyed
the AIDS virus present in 100 pct of rupture tests.
    But he said it was not known whether nonoxynol-nine was as
effective in sexual situations.
    He stressed it was neither a cure nor a vaccine for AIDS.
    Humphrey said nonoxynol-nine had been used for about 20
years as a spermicidal cream without side-effects.
    Analysts have attributed much of the rise in Pacific
Dunlop's share price from 3.87 dlrs at the beginning of the
year to a high of 5.36 dlrs to expected growth in its condom
business. It closed today eight cents down at 4.67 dlrs.
 REUTER

<Bank of New Zealand> (BNZ) shares
will be listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange next week,
probably on Tuesday, the BNZ said.
    "We look forward to the challenge of public accountability
through the open market," it said.
    BNZ, previously wholly owned by the state, issued 103 mln
shares to the public in February, or nearly 13 pct of its
capital, to raise 180.25 mln N.Z. Dlrs.
    The publicly held shares will not have voting rights.
    The government will retain 87 pct of the BNZ's capital, a
total of 800 mln ordinary shares.
 REUTER

The underwriting syndicate expects the
Finance Ministry to propose a 0.2 to 0.3 percentage point cut
in the coupon of the 10-year government bond to be issued in
April from the five pct March issue, underwriting sources said.
    The expected proposal is likely to await passage of a
provisional budget for 1987/88 starting April 1 by the Lower
House of Parliament on March 30, the sources said.
    Issue volume is likely to be 1,200 to 1,400 billion yen
against 475 billion in March, they said. Projected issue price
is around par against 99.50 for the March bond, they said.
 REUTER

Revisions to the by-laws of the
Stock Exchange of Singapore to be introduced on April 1 will
have little impact on the market, brokers and analysts said.
    One analyst did say, however, that the removal of fixed
commissions on transactions in government securities and Asian
currency bonds would increase trading volume, because most
deals before were transacted directly between clients.
    One change will allow stockbroking firms to advertise, but
brokers said this would not have much effect because most
corporate clients already know the market well.
    Many remisiers (brokers' agents) and dealers criticised the
exchange for not taking the opportunity to abolish or cut
transfer fees on remisiers moving to other firms.
    One remisier said the transfer fees inhibit an efficient
broking system because they restrict brokers' movements.
    But most remisiers welcomed the amendment to replace cash
deposits with bank guarantees for business transactions. Where
an extra deposit is needed, it can in future be either in cash
or in securities approved by the exchange.
    Other remisiers felt the new rule that they must report all
transactions involving 50,000 dlrs or more to the exchange was
unnecessary.
    Another revision says broking firms are not allowed to
improve a buying and selling quote by more than one bid during
the last five minutes of trading.
 REUTER

said it is in Japan's national interest to make greater efforts
to reduce its trade surplus.
    He told business executives the most important issues for
the world economy are the correction of international trade
imbalances and a solution to the world debt problem.
    To this end, Japan and the U.S. Must make medium- and
long-term efforts to alter economic structures which have
expanded the trade gap between the two nations. World economic
growth and therefore an expansion of debtor countries' export
markets are needed to solve the debt issue, he added.
 REUTER

At least 14 people were injured and many
arrested in clashes during a one-day general strike called by
Ecuadorean workers to protest against austerity measures
imposed after a major earthquake on March 5.
    Interior Minister Luis Robles said the worst violence was
in Quito, where demonstrators threw rocks at a luxury hotel and
a number of banks.
    Over 80 people in eight cities were detained for stoning
police, attacking troops, damaging buildings and setting fire
to cars, he said. The casualty and damage toll is expected to
rise as detailed reports reach the capital from the provinces.
    Labour leaders said they shut down all of Ecuador's
industrial plants, but Labour Minister Jorge Egas said of the
country's 900 largest factories only 86 were closed, 32 were
partially working and the rest operating normally.
    The strike, called by leftist unions and declared illegal
by the government, was aimed at pressing the administration to
scrap an austerity program adopted on March 13 following an
earthquake that killed up to 1,000 people and caused an
estimated billion dlrs in damage.
 REUTER

The latest round of talks between
Philippine officials and the country's commercial bank
creditors on the rescheduling of 9.4 billion dlrs worth of debt
are still proceeding, but with a narrower focus, Philippine
Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin said.
    He told a press briefing Wednesday that Manila has dropped
a two-tier interest payment offer, which would have given banks
a higher return if they took partial payment in new Philippine
investment notes (PINs) instead of in cash.
    "The PINs proposal has been laid aside.... The discussion is
now on pricing (of just the cash payments)," he said.
    Foreign banking sources in Manila said on Tuesday that the
Philippines had raised its basic interest rate offer to 7/8
over the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) but Ongpin would
not discuss details of the pricing negotiations.
    He also refused to speculate on when an overall agreement
might be reached. The talks have been going on for more than
three weeks.
    Manila originally offered to pay interest in cash at 5/8
over LIBOR or in a mixture of cash and PINs -- tradeable,
dollar-denominated, zero coupon notes that could potentially
yield up to one point over LIBOR.
    The PINs option was subsequently modified to guarantee at
least a 7/8 point spread over LIBOR but many bankers still had
grave reservations, seeing it as a possible precedent for other
large debtors to avoid paying interest in cash.
    The PINs proposal has now been left on the table as a
separate option for those banks, which might want to fund their
own investments in the Philippines or sell the notes in the
secondary market, Ongpin said.
    Under Manila's plan, the PINs would be redeemable at full
face value in Philippine pesos to fund local equity investments
at any time prior to their six-year maturity date.
    While the commercial banks had their doubts about the PINs
proposal, Ongpin said there was great interest on the part of
certain investment banks which are already active in the
secondary market for sovereign debt.
    Unlike current debt/equity schemes, Ongpin said, the PINs
would include no government fees and would be free from
"administrative hassles."
    He said about six investment banks had been approached and
four had replied so far. One even showed interest in buying 45
mln dlrs worth of notes, he said.
    Ongpin said that by funding current interest payments in
the secondary market through the PINs scheme, the Philippines
could conserve at least one to 1.5 billion dlrs of foreign
exchange reserves during its planned seven-year restructuring
period.
 REUTER

Peruvian President Alan Garcia said
his government was not trying to convince other nations to
follow its decision to limit foreign debt repayments.
    "We do not want to export a model," Garcia told a press
conference at the end of an official two-day visit to Mexico
yesterday. He was referring to Peru's policy of limiting
payments on its 14 billion dlr debt to 10 pct of its export
earnings.
    Peru's attitude contrasts with that of Mexico, which
followed a more conciliatory route and last week signed a 7.7
billion dlr loan package with its creditor banks.
    Since it decided to put a ceiling on debt payments, Peru
has been barred from International Monetary Fund lending.
    Despite their different approaches to debt, Garcia and
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid issued a joint
declaration yesterday calling the foreign debt problem an
"expression of the present unjust international economic order."
But the declaration said that no Latin American debtors' club
was about to appear.
    "We affirm the sovereignty of our economic decisions and the
capacity for mobilising our own resources," it said.
    The two presidents also signed a variety of agreements
aimed at boosting trade and tourism between their countries as
well a number of technical cooperation pacts.
    Garcia was scheduled to return to Lima tomorrow.
 REUTER

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld
affirmative action programmes designed to promote women in the
workplace yesterday, handing President Reagan's civil rights
policy a major defeat.
    Tn a 6-3 decision, the court held that the civil rights
laws allow employers to take the gender of workers into account
to improve female representation in the workforce.
    The Reagan administration had charged that affirmative
action is reverse discrimination.
    The case involved the 1980 promotion of a female road yard
clerk, Diane Joyce, over a more qualified male, Paul Johnson.
 REUTER

Hong Kong's government has long kept
intervention in the economy to a minimum in the belief that
when it comes to business, businessmen generally know best.
    But the government is slowly being forced to take a more
active economic role, partly to face the challenge from fast
growing economies like South Korea and Taiwan and economic
powerhouse Japan, businessmen said.
    The government announced this month it will spend six mln
H.K. Dlrs over the next two years to encourage electronics
firms to send engineers for training overseas.
    The engineers will learn design of application specific
integrated circuits (ASIC) used in products ranging from
personal computers to high-technology toys that talk.
    The government has funded vocational training before but
this will be its first such program aimed at bringing back
advanced technology from overseas.
    Government officials told Reuters that other areas in the
electronics sector are being considered for similar treatment.
    Hong Kong's key electronics industry last year accounted
for exports of 61 billion H.K. Dlrs, though the total includes
sales of electrical machinery and other items.
    Officials said that this key sector, second only to
textiles in terms of exports, needs high technologies already
available in neighbouring economies if it is to compete.
    "Belatedly, we realize there are some technologies which
can't be taught here," said K.Y. Yeung, Director of Industry.
    A study by U.S. Research firm Dataquest Inc last year
showed that Hong Kong's share of U.S. Consumer electronic
imports had fallen to 3.5 pct in 1985 from 6.4 pct in 1983.
    South Korea, Taiwan and Japan all take a more active role
in guiding economic development and policy makers are worried
that perhaps some assistance -- albeit limited -- is needed.
    "This is perceived to be an area of development for Hong
Kong," said Lawrence Mills, director-general of the Federation
of Hong Kong Industries. "Many industrialists think government
should be more actively concerned with this area."
    Hong Kong likes to call its policy "positive
non-intervention," meaning that it helps industry mainly by
maintaining economic stability and ensuring that needed roads
and harbour facilities are in place.
    It offers no special tax incentives for foreign investors,
believing that its low corporate profits tax of 18 pct and
personal income tax of 16.5 pct are sufficient.
    But the government has been forced to gradually take a more
active role in the economy. In the last three years it has
stepped in to aid seven problem banks, taking over three of
them, to protect depositors whose funds were not insured.
    It has also expanded the powers of its banking and
securities commissions to police these key economic sectors.
    Industry officials said manufacturers need help acquiring
expensive new technology, especially when returns on investment
are years away. "This is only a small start but it will help
make this technology more readily available," said an engineer
with a major U.S. Electronics firm in Hong Kong.
    Texas Instruments Inc <TXN> and Motorola Inc <MOT> of the
U.S. And Japan's Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> already conduct ASIC
design work in Hong Kong, while a handful of firms have
committed funds for capital-intensive production.
    Under the industry department program, companies would be
funded to train engineers overseas but those employees would be
required to apply their new skills locally for an as yet
unspecified period.
    "We want to promote ASIC design and eventually production in
Hong Kong," said Yeung of the Industry Department.
    Some industrialists said it will take more than a training
program to keep electronics manufacturers competitive in the
years ahead. Government officials said most manufacturers in
the industry are small scale, employing fewer than 100 people.
    These firms will not be able to afford expensive technology
development programs, industry officials said.
    The program has raised concerns that government may one day
veer too far from its policy of minimal intervention. "They've
reached the right decision," said Mills of the Federation of
Industries. "But the fear (among some firms) is it might be a
slippery slope towards interference."
 REUTER

No action has been taken yet
on the Reagan Adminstration's offer to escort Kuwaiti oil
tankers through the Gulf, but the issue is being discussed,
U.S. Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger said.
    The offer was made to Kuwait in light of Iran's deployment
of Chinese-built missiles to cover the entrance to the Gulf.
    Weinberger told reporters prior to a speech at Texas
Christian University that he did not think Iran and the United
States were moving towards a potential conflict, adding that
the Straits of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf were still "free
water."
 REUTER

Sri Lanka will appeal to its major aid
donors for at least 21 mln dlrs in financial support to help it
overcome the country's worst drought in 26 years.
    Government officials told Reuters that letters detailing
the extent of the drought would be sent this week to the 14
countries that gave some 700 mln dlrs in development aid to Sri
Lanka last year. These include Australia, Canada, Japan,
Britain, the U.S. And West Germany.
    Officials in the Finance and Planning Ministry coordinating
the aid request said Sri Lanka wanted the money over a
six-month period.
    Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando last week briefed
representatives of aid-donor countries and international relief
agencies on the drought and made a general appeal for help.
    The state had disbursed 800,000 dlrs by February for the
most badly affected districts, but the Finance and Planning
Ministry officials said no further relief was available from
 REUTER

major nations are taking action to stabilise exchange rates in
line with their agreement in Paris last month, government
    Miyazawa told an Upper House session the six nations --
Britain, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. And West Germany --
are abiding by the Paris accord. The six agreed to cooperate to
stabilise exchange rates at around current levels.
    Miyazawa said he wishes to attend a meeting of seven major
nations (G-7) expected just before the IMF/World Bank Interim
Committee meeting in Washington starting on April 9.
    The sources quoted Miyazawa as saying Japan is trying to
prevent a further rise of the yen. Japan is taking the matter
seriously, he added.
    Asked if the six nations had agreed to stabilise the dollar
at about 153 yen, the rate prevailing at the time of the Paris
talks, Miyazawa declined to give specific figures and said any
mention of specific rates would create an "unexpected situation."
 REUTER

Appropriations Committee yesterday approved 300 mln dlrs in
economic aid for four Central American states, 50 mln dlrs to
black-led states neighbouring South Africa and 50 mln dlrs in
military assistance for the Philippines.
    The programmes, part of 1.3 billion dlr supplemental budget
request by the Reagan administration to restore funds cut
earlier by Congress, must be approved by Congress.
    The committee rejected the administration's request for
21.6 mln dlrs as the U.S. Contribution to U.N. Peace-keeping
troops in Lebanon.
    The 300 mln dlrs will go to El Salvador, Honduras,
Guatemala and Costa Rica while another 12 mln dlrs was
allocated to replace the earthquake-damaged U.S. Embassy in San
Salvador.
    The 50 mln dlrs approved for a "Southern Africa" initiative
is part of a larger programme promised by the Reagan
administration last year when it tried unsuccessfully to block
sanctions approved by Congress against South Africa's
white-minority government.
 REUTER

The possibility that a major earthquake
will strike Tokyo, causing corporate and financial ruin, haunts
the worst nightmares of many insurers and bankers polled by
Reuters.
    The Japanese capital is shaken by hundreds of small tremors
every year, but last week's biq quake in western Japan, which
measured 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, was a timely
reminder that the big one could come at any time.
    Another on Tuesday registering a preliminary 6.5 on the
scale struck the Sea of Japan coast northwest of Tokyo.
    A widely accepted theory by the late seismologist Kawasumi
Hiroshi states that major quakes occur in cycles averaging 69
years. Tokyo was last laid flat in 1923 by a tremor reading
7.8, raising the spectre of another within five years.
    Seismic experts at Shizuoka, one of three areas near Tokyo
considered quake-prone, say they expect a major earthquake
within the next few years.
    Added to such fears is the fact that no developed nation
has suffered a major quake since the far-reaching changes in
the last two decades which have bound the global economy into a
complex, fragile, interdependent financial network.
    "We are reaching a dangerous time. Insurance companies are
starting to worry about how to cover the large losses," said
Hatsuho Narita, a manager at the British Insurance Group.
    "It's a theme that has worried a lot of people. It's
difficult to put a figure on it, but the impact on all world
markets would be considerable," Brian Waterhouse, a banking
expert at brokerage James Capel in Tokyo, told Reuters.
    What would happen?
    Consider that Tokyo and its six surrounding prefectures
account for up to 40 pct of Japanese gross national product, or
some six pct of world GNP.
    Some economists believe that in the immediate aftermath of
a Tokyo quake, the yen would rise against sterling because of
the large amount of reinsurance which would fall due in London.
But it would plunge against other currencies.
    This would worsen the dramatic loss of value in land and
assets in the Tokyo area. Banks would be left holding hundreds
of billions of dollars in worthless mortgages and loans.
    Bankers estimate that 50 to 70 pct of city and regional
banks' loan exposure is to smaller business, which would most
likely lose all in a quake. Up to nine pct of their exposure is
in housing and consumer loans, they said.
    Many smaller banks and some larger ones would go to the
wall, bankers polled by Reuters said.
    The government, aware that insurance claims would be huge,
has set a payout ceiling of 10 mln yen per private house. In
Tokyo, 100 mln yen buys only a very modest residence.
    In addition, the insurance industry has formed the Japan
Earthquake Reinsurance Co to cover housing to a total of 10
billion dlrs, 80 pct of it government-guaranteed.
    However, insurers said the industrial sector, which has no
government backing, is a more dangerous risk.
    Japanese insurers said they are finding it increasingly
difficult to find reinsurance abroad.
    "Overseas firms are now very alert to earthquake insurance
risks," said Tahashi Kumakiri, Foreign Department head at the
Japan Non-life Insurance Association.
    Due to limited world insurance capacity, the Finance
Ministry recommends a coverage limit of 15 to 30 pct of
Japanese firms' total insurable value.
    Even so, one insurer believes that local firms reinsure up
to 80 pct of their quake cover overseas, most of it through
Lloyds of London.
    Some of this reinsurance is then reinsured again,
compounding the risks should the money suddenly be called in.
    Foreign entities in Japan are allowed 100 pct quake cover
but foreign insurers now set a limit of 60 pct.
    Industrial cover is confidential but official figures show
that in fiscal 1985/86 ended March 31, Japan did about half a
billion dlrs of overseas reinsurance business in fire cover,
most of which is quake-related.
    Bankers said the destruction of underlying assets and
repatriation of huge amounts of Japanese overseas investment
would seriously affect overseas stock and bond markets.
    Japanese institutions buy a net 10 billion dlrs or so of
foreign bonds a month, much of it U.S. Treasuries, and are
purchasing more and more U.S. And European stocks. The value of
foreign holdings of Japanese securities would nosedive.
    Japan would need huge amounts of money over a long period
to rebuild, which would block out developing nation creditors
from existing capital resources, the bankers said.
    Loss of central computers would mean billions in lost
transactions, bankers noted.
    Oil traders said crude prices would plummet as imports fell
by up to half from some three mln barrels per day now.
 REUTER

Hoechst AG 1986 world group pretax profit 3.21 billion marks vs 3.16 billion

The Australian Industry Development
Corp (AIDC) said it issued 20 mln Australian dlrs of five-year
notes in London.
    The notes, issued in denominations of 50,000 dlrs, were
part of a 10-year, one billion U.S. Dlr multicurrency facility
established last December, it said in a statement.
    Medium-term Euronotes had previously only been issued in
U.S. Dlrs, it said.
    The AIDC last week said it issued under the same facility
the first of several five mln Australian dlr-denominated
Euro-commercial paper tranches in Asia.
    Dealers for the one billion U.S. Dlr borrowing program were
the AIDC, <Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd>, <Merrill Lynch
International and Co>, <Morgan Stanley International>, <Salomon
Brothers International Ltd> and <Swiss Bank Corp International
Ltd>, the AIDC said.
    <Citibank N.A.> was the issuing and paying agent.
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Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> has no plans to
produce sports cars in the U.S., A company spokesman said.
    A Japanese daily paper said Mazda would switch production
of its RX-7 sports car, which is popular in the U.S., To the
U.S. Over the next three years to minimise losses caused by the
yen's rise against the dollar.
    Mazda's wholly owned subsidiary <Mazda Motor Manufacturing
(USA) Corp> (MMUC) in Flatrock, Michigan, is due to start
producing Mazda 626 saloon cars from September at an annual
rate of 240,000, the company said on March 2.
    One of Ford Motor Co's <F> Japanese distributors, <Autorama
Inc>, said recently it was considering importing the
MMUC-manufactured cars. The imported cars will all bear Ford
name plates but those sold in the U.S. Will carry Mazda
insignia.
    Ford will take 60 to 70 pct of the cars produced by MMUC
while the rest will be sold through Mazda's own U.S. Sales
network, the spokesman said.
    Mazda Motor Corp is owned 24 pct by Ford.
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Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd <KAWH.T>
will increase output of motorcycles, dune buggies and jet skis
to 380,000 units in the year starting April 1 from 303,000 a
year earlier, a company spokesman said.
    Exports in 1987/88 are forecast to jump to 335,000 from
271,000 a year earlier, while domestic sales will rise to
around 45,000 from 32,000, he told Reuters. Of these, exports
to the U.S. Will rise to 150,000 from 120,000 a year earlier.
    The company also plans to lift motorcycle production at its
wholly owned U.S. Subsidiary <Kawasaki Motor Manufacturing
Corp> to 1985/86 levels of 75,000 from 67,000 in 1986/87.
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BANK OF FRANCE LAUNCHES MONEY MARKET INTERVENTION TENDER - OFFICIAL

Year ended December 31.
    World group pretax profit 3.21 billion marks vs 3.16
billion.
    Turnover 38.01 billion marks vs 42.72 billion.
    World group turnover comprised domestic sales 10.83 billion
vs 10.80 billion, foreign sales 27.18 billion vs 31.92 billion.
    Parent pretax profit 1.82 billion marks vs 1.62 billion.
    Turnover 14.09 billion vs 15.35 billion.
    Parent turnover comprised domestic sales 6.47 billion vs
6.84 billion, foreign sales 7.62 billion vs 8.51 billion.
    Parent investment in fixed assets 960 mln marks vs 831 mln.
    Depreciation of fixed assets 935 mln marks vs 847 mln.
    Investment in new participations 2.53 billion marks vs 294
mln.
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The Federal Statistics Office will
today publish trade and current account figures for February, a
spokeswoman said in reply to queries.
    In January the current account surplus provisionally
narrowed to 4.9 billion marks from 8.5 billion in December. The
provisional January trade surplus narrowed to 7.2 billion marks
from a record 11.6 billion marks the month before.
    In February 1986 the current account had shown a 6.85
billion mark surplus and the trade account a 6.84 billion
surplus.
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The Bank of France said it set a money
market intervention tender today to inject funds to the market
against first category paper.
    Money market sources said the surprise announcement might
herald a quarter percentage point cut in the central bank
intervention rate from the 7-3/4 pct level set March 10, but
they added such a cut was relatively unlikely.
    The intervention rate was cut from eight pct on March 10
after being raised from 7-1/4 pct on January 2 to head off
speculative pressure against the franc.
    Dealers said market fundamentals could justify a further
easing, but a combination of technical factors and renewed
currency uncertainties surrounding the dollar had put
short-term upside pressure on interest rates in recent
sessions.
    Call money rose yesterday to 7-7/8 eight pct from 7-3/4 7/8
pct. Today it was first indicated at 8-1/8 1/4 before easing on
news of the tender to 7-13/16 7/8 pct.
    Technical factors making for a slight shortage of liquidity
in the market included the settlement yesterday of the latest
monthly treasury tap stock tender, on March 5, market sources
said.
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BP says it will tender for remaining 45 pct of Standard Oil at 70 dlrs a share cash

China will have a budget deficit of
8.017 billion yuan in calendar 1987 compared with a 7.08
billion deficit in 1986, Finance Minister Wang Bingqian said.
    He told the National People's Congress, the State Council
has decided to cut nearly all 1987 budgetary expenditures by 10
pct from the 1986 level. He said expenditures for the past two
years have been inflated.
    Investment by localities in capital construction in 1987
must fall by 50 pct from the 1986 level and state firms must
cut their losses by 30 pct, he said.
    China will use 14.6 billion yuan in foreign loans in 1987,
up from 7.87 billion in 1986, Wang said.
    It must cut back on investment in capital construction,
especially construction outside the state plan, he said. Funds
must go into energy, transport, telecommunications, raw and
semi-finished materials and not into non-production sectors.
    "In view of the country's financial difficulties this year,
it has been decided that seven billion yuan of the budgetary
allocation for capital construction will be raised by the
People's Bank through loans and the issuing of bonds," he said.
    Wang said all localities and departments must strictly
confine their 1987 capital investment to the amount set out in
the state budget, a 50 pct reduction from 1986 levels.
    He said that because of financial difficulties, the state
cannot increase spending on culture, education, science and
public health in 1987 at the same rate as over the past few
years. Expenditure in those sectors will rise by two pct.
    The only allocations not to be affected by the general 10
pct cutback are subsidies for price rises, repayment of
principal and interest on domestic and foreign loans, funds for
the disabled and spending for other social relief.
    Wang said state firms must cut their total losses by 30 pct
from the 1986 level, overhead expenses by 10 pct and raw
material consumption by two pct. Commercial firms must cut
their deficits by 20 pct and running costs by two pct.
    He said violations of financial and economic discipline are
common, including tax evasion, false accounting, embezzlement,
theft, extravagance and accepting and offering bribes. Such
practices "have reached very serious proportions in some areas,
departments and units" and must be dealt with seriously, he
said.
    Wang said 11.4 billion yuan worth of foreign loans have
been arranged according to the 1986-90 plan, with 3.2 billion
going to pay for foreign equipment in the Baoshan steel plant
near Shanghai.
    He said China is running no risk in using more foreign
loans, provided it prepares careful feasibility studies,
borrows only what it can repay and uses the loans only to
develop production in priority sectors.
    Wang said China plans to levy new taxes on the use of
arable land for non-farm purposes starting this year. Half the
revenue generated will go to the state and half to localities
to be used in the development of agriculture.
    The only new spending is 11 billion yuan to be used to
cover tax reductions and increased subsidies for big and
medium-size state firms and textile and other light industries.
The money will also pay for increases in the state purchasing
prices of some grain, cotton and oil-yielding crops, he said.
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British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> said it
intended to make a tender offer for the 45 pct of Standard Oil
Co <SRD.N> it does not already own at 70 dlrs a share cash, for
a total of 7.4 billion if the offer is fully accepted.
    The offer would be made through its <BP North America Inc>
unit and was intended to commence not later than April 1. The
offer would not be conditional on any minimum number of shares
being tendered.
    BP said in a statement the 70 dlr a share price was based
on its own valuation as well as those of its financial
advisers. It took into account reviews of both public and
non-public information.
    Standard closed in New York last night at 64-7/8 dlrs, down
1-3/4 dlrs.
    BP shares dropped on the announcement to 877p from 888p at
last night's close.
    About a third of the cash payable would be met from BP's
own resources.
    The remainder would come from new borrowings, partly from
banks under a four-year committed revolving credit facility and
partly from a a new U.S. Dlr commercial paper programme. The
company said it was in the course of arranging these
    BP Chairman Sir Peter Walters said that the group's
investment in Standard was its largest single asset. Full
ownership would enable investment and operating decisions to be
made without the limitations of a minority interest.
    BP also believed the acquisition represented the optimum
use of its financial resources. It was confident oil prices
were likely to remain within a range sufficient to justify the
    Walters added that it also felt that, due to management
changes in 1986, Standard could now operate successfully even
in a lower oil price environment.
    Standard's net assets at end-1986 were 7.02 billion dlrs
and in the year it reported a loss of 1.08 billion dlrs before
tax and before an extraordinary item of 608 mln dlrs.
    Analysts said that the move by BP had come as a surprise.
One noted that it was not immediately clear why the group
should spend so much money buying a company it already
controlled.
    BP could also have bought up the remainder of Standard
shares considerably cheaper had it moved six months ago.
    It was also unclear what effect the tender would have on
the U.K. Government's recent announcement that it intended to
dispose of its remaining 31.7 pct stake in BP sometime in the
1987/88 financial year, analysts said.
    Analyst Paul Spedding of brokers Kleinwort Grieveson noted
that any effect on the government sale of its stake in BP would
depend on the reaction of the markets.
    The deal would probably push BP's gearing up to around 59
pct from 20 pct currently, he said.
    However, with the likelihood that oil prices would not
repeat last year's rapid drop the prospects for Standard
returning to profitability this year -- and BP benefitting from
its cash flow -- were good.
    Standard was a high cost oil producer, the analysts noted.
    Spedding noted that it needed about 12 dlrs a barrel to
make money, and at about 15 dlrs a barrel revenue from
production and its downstream activities would push it
comfortably into surplus.
    BP initially took a stake in Standard following the
discovery of oil in Alaska's Prudhoe bay in 1969. BP had
inadequate distribution facilities in the U.S. While Standard,
which was strong on marketing and refining, was short on crude
oil.
    The analysts said that BP had promoted a major management
reorganisation of Standard in the past year.
    The probability that much of the shake-up at Standard was
now complete was one possible factor behind the timing of the
tender offer, Spedding said.
    BP's willingness to take hard decisions such as major
balance sheet write offs and the sale of assets had been well
received in the markets.
    The lower costs that should now be possible -- especially
after the rationalisation of the loss making minerals division
-- should allow the benefits of an oil price recovery to come
straight through to 1987 profits without being cut back by
other sectors.
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Hoechst AG <HFAG.F> said in a
statement it increased its pretax profits in 1986 despite a
fall in turnover due to lower foreign sales.
    The lower sales were due to the fall in the dollar and
other currencies against the mark. Other factors were pressure
on selling prices because of a sharp fall in the prices of
crude oil and petrochemical raw materials and the sale of
polystyrene business in the U.S. And Netherlands.
    World group pretax profit rose to 3.21 billion marks in
1986 from 3.16 billion in 1985, with sales falling to 38.01
billion from 42.72 billion.
    Within group turnover, foreign sales fell to 27.18 billion
marks in 1986 from 31.92 billion in 1985, a drop of 14.9 pct.
    The statement made no mention of net profit figures.
Hoechst will announce its dividend proposal on April 23.
    In the first quarter of this year sales were hit by the
cold weather at the start of the year. If the dollar continues
at present low levels, 1987 sales will again be below the
previous year, although in volume terms they are unchanged from
1986, Hoechst said.
    Sales of paints and dyes, fibres, sheeting and information
technology all rose in 1986 but plant construction sales fell.
    Hoechst attributed its good results to the performance of
the parent company, other units in West Germany, and to
<American Hoechst Corp>.
    Improved earnings in the U.S. Largely reflected the
restructuring of styrene and polystyrene activities.
    Roussel Uclaf <RUCF.PA> and most domestic non-consolidated
partners did not perform as well as in 1985.
    Hoechst attributed the 12 pct rise in parent company pretax
profits to 1.82 billion marks above all to a rise in earnings
from interest and holdings in other companies, and a fall in
extraordinary costs.
    The fall in raw material prices was not enough to
compensate for the decline in turnover due to lower prices and
currencies, Hoechst said.
    The bulk of the 2.53 billion marks investment in new
projects, up from 294 mln marks in 1985, went on the capital
increase of Hoechst Capital Corp in connection with the
acquisition of <Celanese Corp>.
    Celanese was merged with American Hoechst in February to
form <Hoechst Celanese Corp>.
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Danish overnight money market rate cut to 10 pct from 10.5 - central bank

Australia's largest company, The Broken
Hill Pty Co Ltd <BRKN.S> (BHP), is expected to report a net
profit of around 600 mln to 620 mln dlrs tomorrow for the first
nine months ended February 28, share analysts polled by Reuters
said.
    This would be well below the 813.0 mln dlrs earned in the
first three quarters of 1985/86. In the full year ended May 31
1986 the group earned a record 988.2 mln dlrs.
    The analysts estimated that the group would report a third
quarter net in the region of 200 mln to 220 mln dlrs, against
238.6 mln a year earlier and 220.3 mln in the second quarter.
    BHP's earnings in the first half ended November 30 amounted
to 397.0 mln dlrs, sharply down from 589.3 mln a year earlier.
    The analysts predicted that BHP will report an upturn in
petroleum earnings compared with the first quarter, reflecting
some improvement in crude oil prices from the Bass Strait
fields, but these gains would be offset by lower mineral and
steel earnings.
    They said the mineral group has been hit by lower coal
prices and shipments to Japan while the steel division has been
affected by industrial and production problems.
    The analysts noted that the third quarter is normally BHP's
lowest-earning period owing to a number of seasonal factors,
and they predicted a sharp rise in fourth quarter net to around
300 mln dlrs.
    One key factor in the fourth quarter is expected to be a
tax break of some 70 mln dlrs for the investment allowance on
capital expenditure in the steel division, they said.
    They said they saw BHP's full year earnings at around 900
mln to 920 mln dlrs. They added that such a decline from
1985/86 would be no surprise, noting BHP has said that it would
be difficult to equal its record 1985/86 net profit.
 REUTER

BP units seek five billion dlr revolving credit to support Standard Oil tender

An unnamed Norwegian firm agreed to
buy 100,000 tonnes of alumina a year from a refinery in eastern
Orissa state due to start operations in the next 12 months, a
Commerce Ministry official told Reuters.
    He said the state-owned National Aluminium Co, which owns
the plant, and the state-owned Mineral and Metals Trading Corp
signed its first long-term export agreement with the company,
    Of the plant's 800,000 tonnes annual capacity, 425,000 will
be smelted into 218,000 tonnes of aluminium and the remaining
375,000 will be exported, the official said.
 REUTER

Provisional world group
1986 third party turnover 15.9 billion marks vs 18.5 billion.
    Third party incoming orders 15.5 billion vs 16.9 billion.
    Orders on hand at end-1986 9.1 billion vs 10.3 billion.
    Workforce at end-1986 68,043 vs 67,402.
 REUTER

The Nordic Investment Bank is issuing a
zero coupon 100 mln Australian dlr bond due April 24, 1992
priced at 53-1/2 pct for an effective yield at launch of 13.33
pct, lead manager Chemical Bank International Ltd said.
10,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

Shr 22.9p vs 26.9p.
    Interim div 2.6p vs same.
    Pre-tax profit 40.0 mln stg vs 38.0 mln.
    Net profit before minorities 29.6 mln vs 30.9 mln.
    Turnover 825.0 mln vs 791.6 mln.
    Trading profit 52.8 mln stg vs 52.5 mln.
    Related companies profit 3.1 mln vs 1.4 mln.
    Interest payable 12.3 mln vs 14.6 mln.
    Reorganisation and redundancy costs 3.6 mln vs 1.3 mln.
    Tax 10.4 mln vs 7.1 mln.
    Minorities 1.5 mln vs 2.4 mln.
    Extraordinary charges 1.3 mln vs 34.2 mln.
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BP International and BP North America
are seeking a five billion dlr, four year syndicated credit
facility in support of British Petroleum Co Plc's tender offer
for the 45 pct of Standard Oil Co it does not already own,
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York said as arranger.
    The facility, to be guaranteed by British Petroleum Co Plc
<BP.L> is probably the largest credit facility ever arranged in
Europe, bond analysts said. Full terms will be announced either
later today or tomorrow morning. BP said earlier it planned a
tender offer for the 45 pct of Standard it does not already own
for 70 dlrs a share cash.
    The financing being arranged by Morgan Guaranty will take
the form of a fully committed revolving credit. As announced
earlier, BP also is arranging a U.S. Commercial paper program
in connection with the tender and part of the revolver will be
used to support that program.
    The exact size of the U.S. Program has not been decided and
the dealers have not yet been chosen.
    The credit facility will also allow the borrower to issue
cash advances with maturities of one, three or six months
through a tender panel, which will be comprised of banks
committed to the facility.
    Despite the unprecedented size of this euromarket facility,
Morgan Guaranty said that it was being syndicated only among
BP's relationship banks.
    As a result, banks were being offered lead manager status
at 200 mln dlrs, co-lead management at 125 mln and manager at
75 mln.
    Although pricing on many credit facilities has become
extremely fine in recent years because of the keen competition
to win mandates, Morgan Guaranty said banks would be
compensated fairly since this is a special purpose facility
which must be completed quickly, with signing expected in about
10 days.
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Eurofima of Basle is launching 40 mln
Swiss francs of six year notes with a 4-3/8 pct coupon and
100.25 issue price, lead manager Zurich Cantonal Bank said.
    Payment is due April 22.
 REUTER

Parent company 1986 net profit 202.55 mln francs vs 171.31
mln
    Dividend 13.02 francs vs same, including 4.34 francs tax
credit.
    (Note -  company earlier reported consolidated net profit
315.9 mln francs vs 302.08 mln and consolidated attributable
profit of 293.3 mln vs 266.6 mln.)
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The Bank of England said it has forecast
a flat position in the money market today.
    Among the main factors, maturing assistance and take-up of
treasury bills will drain 545 mln stg and a rise in note
circulation 35 mln stg but the outflow will be offset by 490
mln stg exchequer transactions and bankers balances above
target 70 mln.
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The rebates granted at yesterday's EC
sugar tender represent a further concession to producers'
bloc, trade sources said.
    They said the maximum rebate of 45.678 European currency
Units (Ecus) per 100 kilos was 0.87 Ecus below what producers
claim is needed to obtain the equivalent price to that offered
for sales into intervention.
    The rebate at last week's tender was 1.3 Ecus short of the
level producers thought necessary and that of the previous week
was 2.5 Ecus below this level.
    But the sources said producers who have offered a total of
854,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention in an apparent
attempt to persuade the Commission to set higher maximum
rebates have given no formal indication to the Commission that
they intend to withdraw these offers.
    The French and German operators involved would be able to
withdraw the offers up to five weeks after April 1 when the
sugar will officially enter intervention stores.
    The five-week period is the normal delay between sugar
going into intervention and payment being made for it.
    EC officials have said that if the Commission has to buy
the sugar, it is determined immediately to resell it, a move
which could drive down market prices further.
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German Feb current account surplus 6.6 billion marks (Jan surplus 4.8 billion) - official

German February trade surplus 10.4 billion marks (Jan surplus 7.2 billion) - official

West Germany's current account
surplus widened to a provisional 6.6 billion marks in February
from a slightly downwards revised 4.8 billion in January, a
spokeswoman for the Federal Statistics Office said.
    The trade surplus in February widened to a provisional 10.4
billion marks from 7.2 billion in January, she added.
    The Statistics Office had originally put the January
current account surplus at 4.9 billion marks.
    The February trade surplus was well up on the 6.84 billion
mark surplus posted in the same month of 1986. But the current
account surplus was down slightly from the 6.85 billion surplus
recorded in February 1986.
    A Statistics Office statement said the widening of the
February current account surplus compared with January was due
to seasonal factors. Neither the trade nor current account
figures are seasonally adjusted.
    February imports, measured in terms of value, totalled
32.11 billion marks, a decline of 10 pct against February 1986
but a rise of 5.5 pct against January.
    Exports in February, also in value terms, totalled 42.56
billion marks, 0.5 pct less than in February 1986 but up 13 pct
compared with January.
    The Statistics Office said it was not yet able to calculate
the real change in exports and imports in February. But for
comparison purposes it noted that in January the average value
of imports had fallen 15 pct year-on-year while the average
value of exports had declined by only 4.4 pct.
    Within the current account, the services account had 300
mln marks deficit, supplementary trade items a 200 mln mark
surplus while transfer payments posted a 3.7 billion mark
deficit.
    Taking the first two months of 1987 together, imports in
value terms fell 14 pct to 62.6 billion marks compared with a
year earlier. The value of exports totalled 80.2 billion marks,
a decline of 7.4 pct against the same months of 1986.
    The resulting trade surplus of 17.6 billion marks for
January/February compares with a cumulative surplus of 14.1
billion marks in the year-ago period.
    The cumulative current account surplus for January and
February 1987 totalled 11.3 billion marks against 11.4 billion
marks a year earlier, the Statistics Office said.
    Bank economists said the rise in the February trade surplus
reflected an improvement in the terms of trade as well as
seasonal factors. The Federal Statistics Office said earlier
this week that February import prices fell 0.7 pct against
January while export prices were unchanged.
    "The rise in the nominal figures masks a lower export trend
that is not expected to change for several months at least,"
said an economist. He said the nominal trade surplus for 1987
as a whole is likely to fall only slightly from the record
112.2 billion marks in 1986 but other economists said the
surplus could fall to around 80 billion marks.
    An economist at the Bank fuer Gemeinwirtschaft (BfG) in
Frankfurt said a two-month comparison of trade figures gave a
more accurate picture of West Germany's trade position.
    He noted the 17.6 billion mark surplus for January and
February together was lower than the 21.6 billion mark surplus
posted in November and December.
    "The trend is clearly lower," he said.
    This economist, who declined to be named, said the February
rise was also partly explained by special factors in January,
when there had been a number of public holidays as well as
extremely cold weather, both of which hindered trade.
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Montreal Trustco Inc is issuing a 100 mln
Canadian dlr, 8-1/2 pct bond due May 6, 1992 at 101 pct, lead
manager Societe Generale said.
    The non-callable issue is of unsecured, unsubordinated
debt. Denominations are of 1,000 and 10,000 Canadian dlrs and
listing is in Luxembourg. Payment date is May 5.
    Fees are 1-1/4 pct for selling, 3/8 pct for underwriting
and 1/4 pct for management including a 1/8 pct praecipuum.
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Treasurer Paul Keating forecast
economic growth at slightly under two pct in the financial year
ending June this year, down from the 2.25 pct forecast
contained in the 1986/87 budget delivered last August.
    Australia's terms of trade also fell, by 18 pct, over the
past two years, he told Parliament. Terms of trade are the
difference between import and export price indexes.
    Despite the figures, the budget forecast of about 1.75 pct
annual growth in employment would be met, Keating said.
    Unemployment is currently at 8.2 pct of the workforce.
    "This government is dragging Australia through a trading
holocaust the kind of which we have not seen since the Second
World War," Keating said.
    "We are not pushing this place into a recession. We are not
only holding our gains on unemployment, we are bringing
unemployment down," he said, adding that the government had help
the country avoid recession.
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Taiwan has over one trillion Taiwan dlrs
in savings, official statistics show.
    Figures released yesterday show all forms of savings by
individuals and public and private firms, including bank
deposits, certificates of deposits and bond's, are running at
about 37 pct of gross national product (GNP).
    GNP rose by 14.35 pct in 1986 to 2.74 trillion dlrs.
    Taiwan's strict foreign exchange controls and lack of
incentives to invest abroad mean its huge export earnings are
mainly deposited in bank savings accounts, earning below four
pct interest each year.
 REUTER

Short-dated Saudi riyal interest rates
firmed but other rates were steady in quiet trading, dealers
said.
    "Day-to-day money is a bit tighter," one trader said.
    Overnight rose two points to six pct, while most quotes for
tomorrow/next and spot/next were 1/2 point higher at around
six, 5-1/2 pct.
    The periods were essentially steady at 5-7/8, 5/8 pct for
one month, 6-1/2, 3/8 pct for three, and 6-7/8, 11/16 for six
months.
    The spot riyal stood at 3.7500/05 to the dollar after
3.7506/09 yesterday.
 REUTER

Japan's plan to cut beef intervention
prices for the fiscal year starting April 1 will not boost
demand because of strict supply controls and a complex
distribution system, Japanese and U.S. Industry sources said.
    "Government beef policy protects farmers rather than meeting
consumers' demands and the cutback ... Is too marginal," a
Housewives Association of Japan official said.
    Despite mounting U.S. Pressure on Japan to open farm
markets, beef is strictly controlled by the government, which
maintains a price stabilisation zone to protect farmers.
    Under the plan, expected to be announced this month, the
standard or bottom price of castrated wagyu -- known as marbled
beef -- will be set at 1,370 yen per kilo for 1987/88 against
1,400 now, and the ceiling at 1,780 yen against 1,820.
dairy steers, is set at 1,020 yen against 1,090 and the ceiling
at 1,325 against 1,420.
    Ministry officials said the semi-government Livestock
Industry Promotion Corp (LIPC) conducts buffer stock operations
to help keep wholesale beef prices within the intervention
price zone.
    The LIPC is allowed to import most beef, with the amount
set by the government under a quota system. When wholesale
prices go above the ceiling, the LIPC releases its beef stocks,
both domestic and imported, and buys locally produced beef when
prices are below.
    But the LIPC has often been criticised for releasing beef
stocks when the prices are higher than the ceiling.
    Phillip Seng, Asian Director of the U.S. Meat Export
Federation, told Reuters the two pct cut in prices is a step
toward closing the gap with European Community prices, about
half those in Japan.
    But Seng said the cut will not benefit consumers or U.S.
Meat exporters because of Japan's rigid and complicated
distribution system and strict supply control by the LIPC.
    The Housewives Association official said retail beef prices
are high mainly because of distribution problems and high
production costs, as well as poor operations by the LIPC.
    American meat packers see Japan as a promising market. F.C.
Beatty, of U.S. Packer John Morrell and Co, told the Japan
Times beef cuts, which sell for 1.20 to 3.00 dlrs a pound in
the U.S., Are sold at 15 to 30 dlrs in Japan.
    But industry sources said it is unclear how much demand
will pick up if retail beef prices drop following any sharp
reduction in intervention prices.
    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng said this week he
will ask Japan to remove all beef import restrictions when he
visits here next month.
    In 1984, Japan decided to increase its beef import quota by
9,000 tonnes a year until March 31, 1988.
    In 1987/88, the quota will rise to 177,000 tonnes from
168,000 in 1986/87, ministry officials said, adding Japan wants
to keep self-sufficiency in beef at around 70 pct.
 REUTER

One of two rival firms seeking to enter
Japan's international telecommunications market said it will
offer a stake in the company to 10 foreign firms.
    President of <International Telecom Japan Inc> (ITJ), Nobuo
Ito, decline to specify what share the firms would take, but
told Reuters they would not participate in its management.
    ITJ and <International Digital Communications Planning Inc>
(IDC), in which both Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> and
Pacific Telesis Group <PAC.N> own 20 pct stakes, are set to
merge into a new entity to compete against <Kokusai Denshin
Denwa Co Ltd> (KDD).
    The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has urged the
two rival firms to merge so KDD would have only a single
competitor. The ministry has also rejected foreign management.
    Japan's law limits foreign ownership of any new
international telecommunications entrant to 33 pct, so C and
W's and Pacific's stakes could be three pct in the merged firm,
sources said. Those seeking to join are General Electric Co
<GE.N>, Ford Motor Co <F.N>, <Citibank NA>, BankAmerica Corp
<BAC.NYSE>, <Shearson Lehman Bros Inc>, <Saloman Brothers>,
<Asia Boeing Computer Service>, Unisys Corp <UIS.N>, <Societe
Generale> and Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.FRA>.
    The merger plan has been criticised for excluding foreign
    The U.K.'s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, U.S. Secretary
of State George Shultz, U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige and U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter have all
expressed such opposition.
    Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will draft a
reply to the criticism following further discussion, a Posts
and Ministry official said.
 REUTER

The U.K. Produced 820,400 tonnes of
oilcake and meal and 431,000 tonnes of crude vegetable oil in
calendar 1986, Ministry of Agriculture figures show.
    They compare with 785,800 tonnes of oilcake and meal and
407,400 tonnes of crude vegetable oil produced in 1985.
    Total oilseeds crushed rose to 1.27 mln tonnes from 1.21
mln in 1985.
 REUTER

Banque Nationale de Paris Hong Kong
branch is planning a 100 mln H.K. Dlr certificate of deposit
issue with BT Asia Ltd as lead manager, banking sources said.
    They said this is the first capped FRCD issue in Hong Kong.
It is in two equal tranches. Tranche A, which matures January
9, 1993, is payable April 9 this year. Tranche B, which matures
September 15, 1992, is payable April 15.
    Interest on both tranches is 1/8 percentage point over
three months Hong Kong interbank offered rate, subject to a
14-3/8 pct ceiling. Management fee is 25 basis points. The CDs
will be issued at par in denominations of 100,000 dlrs each.
 REUTER

with selling the non-performing assets of government financial
institutions said some 100 state-owned companies would also be
put up for privatisation.
    But David SyCip, chief executive trustee of the Asset
Privatisation Trust (APT), told a meeting of financial
executives the APT has not yet received a list of the firms.
    "I believe lead investor groups, people who see long-term
potential, are willing to buy such companies in full and do a
hands-on job of running them," SyCip said.
    SyCip said open bidding would be used to sell all assets
handled by the APT. He said bidding would be either
open-priced, if there were enough serious contenders, or the
APT would set a target price for acquisition. He added that the
target price did not constitute a rigid floor.
    "What we consider an acceptable price is a price at which an
investor will earn an adequate return," he said.
    SyCip said the bulk of the APT's current work relates to
the non-performing assets of the state-owned Development Bank
of the Philippines (DBP) and the Philippine National Bank
(PNB). The APT was set up in January.
    SyCip said about 75 pct of the 400-odd assets that the DBP
and the PNB are handing over to the APT are still in the form
of financial assets.
    "In some cases financial assets have been converted into
physical assets by foreclosures. They are fairly cut and dried
because we are dealing with mostly whole production facilities
like textile or food-processing plants," he said.
    "Financial assets are more complicated. The only recourse is
to foreclose, gain titles, and try to sell the asset, but the
laws here tend to favour the debtors," he added.
    SyCip said although the APT is protected from prosecution
by its charter, many debtors are tying up the panel with
litigation.
    "If you see some of the situations we have to work our way
through you will see that our symbol, a Gordian knot, is an apt
illustration," he said.
    SyCip said the PNB has not succeeded in foreclosing on 16
of the 17 sugar factories it wants to sell because of the high
costs involved. "When you do your arithmetic you realise that if
you did foreclose your recovery would be only a fraction of the
asset's book exposure," he said.
    SyCip said the APT was not worried about whether associates
of former President Ferdinand Marcos, who originally owned many
of the bankrupt companies, would buy them back through the
privatisation scheme.
    "We just look at the bottom line, which is to monetise these
assets to the maximum degree possible," he said. "We are selling
for cash, it is not our concern where it comes from."
    He said he had told cabinet ministers sceptical about the
identities of buyers that "Marcos cronies" could easily put up
legitimate fronts if they were specifically barred from bidding
for assets on the block.
    "I told them if I am paid 20 mln pesos in 100-peso bills,
all with identical serial numbers and they look like genuine
legal currency, then I would accept them'," SyCip said.
    He said some participants in the government's debt-equity
swap scheme were interested in buying non-performing assets
with the pesos they receive from such deals. The problem is
government regulations slow down approval of debt-equity plans
and the APT normally demands full payment within 15 days.
    "The Central Bank and Monetary Board could also look at
investment funds earmarked for non-performing asset purchases,"
he said. "It would greatly facilitate matters."
    SyCip said last month the APT hoped to recover about 24
billion pesos of the assets' total worth of 108 billion.
    President Corazon Aquino announced earlier this month that
proceeds from the sale of APT-controlled assets would be used
to finance the government's land reform program, which aims to
distribute about 9.7 mln hectares of land to poor peasants.
    Asked why the APT did not favour Filipino buyers, SyCip
said: "How much money has the country to lose because of this
'Filipinos first' slogan? How many people have become
millionaires and then forgotten the Philippines and put their
money in the United States or Australia?"
 REUTER

Parliament passed laws increasing the
amounts and frequency of treasury bill issues and allowing the
government to raise up to 35 billion dlrs through issues of
registered stock, bearer bonds and book-entry securities.
    Both steps are aimed at establishing a wider domestic
capital market as part of Singapore's plans to expand its
financial sector, Finance Minister Richard Hu said.
    Banking sources said the new government securities market,
scheduled to have been launched on March 2, had been delayed
pending legislative approval of these bills.
    The 35 billion dlrs maximum which may be raised under the
Development Loan Bill (1987), against a ceiling of 15 billion
under current laws, is expected to satisfy demand for
government securities over the next four years, Hu said.
    He said 6.1 billion dlrs of the 15 billion has so far been
raised as development loans. The rest will be used up when
bonds are issued to absorb advance deposits of 13.9 billion
dlrs from the Central Provident Fund (CPF), a mandatory pension
savings scheme. Workers and employers contribute a respective
25 pct and 10 pct of a worker's salary to the CPF, which had
funds totalling 29.3 billion at end-1986.
    Regular government securities issues are needed to meet the
demand of banks, insurance companies, other financial
institutions and corporate and individual investors, Hu said.
    The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had said it
planned to launch trading by issuing taxable instruments
billion dlrs of paper over the next five years.
    Funds raised in excess of the government's budgetary needs
will not be channelled into increased spending, but will be
recycled back to the financial system, largely through the MAS,
Hu said.
    Hu said the current government securities market is
rudimentary, with the CPF holding three-quarters of the
outstanding debt and banks, discount houses and insurance
companies holding the rest. "The concentration of securities in
the hands of such long-term holders has left little scope for
trading activity," he said.
    "Moreover, the maturity of the bonds, mostly 20 years, was
not attractive to other investors who might have been expected
to deal more actively in the market. The infrequency of bond
issues exacerbated the lack of liquidity necessary for the
development of a market," Hu said.
    Hu said these obstacles have been resolved and regular
issues of government securities will be made, initially
carrying terms of up to five years and market-related yields.
    The minimum denomination is 1,000 dlrs for notes and bonds
-- aimed at individual investors -- and 10,000 dlrs for the
treasury bills, which are directed at corporate investors.
    Eight primary and registered dealers have undertaken to
make markets in order to ensure liquidity, he said.
    Hu said while the new government securities market will be
essentially domestic, non-residents are free to invest, but
interest earned will be subject to withholding tax.
    Hu said under the new Treasury Bills (Amendment) Bill, all
book entries of borrowings through treasury bill issues must be
made in records maintained by MAS.
    Hu said that instead of physical certificates having to
travel back and forth at each transaction, with side trips to
the MAS for registration, the MAS will maintain a computerised
system for updating records in a central register.
    Commercial banks and primary and registered government
securities dealers will each have two securities accounts with
the MAS, one for their own holdings and the other for holdings
on behalf of all their customers, Hu said.
    All trades will be reflected daily in changes in these
accounts, Hu said.
    "These institutions will in turn act as custodians of
government securities for their customers, rendering each an
individual accounting of his holdings."
    Hu said the new system will cut storage and handling costs
and paper work, reduce the danger of loss, theft, destruction
and counterfeiting, and permit greater speed and efficiency in
handling large volumes of transactions.
 REUTER

World group turnover of Siemens AG
<SIEG.F> should rise to 51 or 52 billion marks in the current
year to September 31 after a 19 pct upturn in the first five
months, management board chairman Karlheinz Kaske said.
    Siemens reported world group turnover in 1985/86 of 47.02
    Kaske told the annual shareholders meeting turnover rose to
21.2 billion marks in the first five months of 1986/87, about
19 pct above the same year-ago period. The rise was mainly due
to payment in January for a West German nuclear power station
which led to a jump in domestic sales of 36 pct.
    In the first five 1986/87 months, turnover abroad showed a
three pct increase, Kaske said, without giving figures.
    In the same period incoming orders rose five pct to 21.8
billion marks against the same 1985/86 period.
    For the year as a whole incoming orders should rise between
one and two billion marks to around 51 or 52 billion.
    Apart from payments for the nuclear power station, the
communications and telecommunications sectors in particular
should contribute to growth this year, Kaske said.
    But it was not possible to make a profit forecast for
1986/87 because of uncertainty about the direction of the
dollar, Kaske said.
    Siemens already reported that first quarter 1986/87 group
net profit fell marginally to 296 mln marks from 298 mln in the
same period in the previous year.
    Turnover in the first five months rose particularly
strongly in the installations and automotive technology,
communications and telecommunications sectors, but components
and energy and automation showed a sharp decline.
    Kaske said domestic orders rose to 10.2 billion marks in
the first five months of this year, or nine pct above their
level in the same 1985/86 period, boosted in particular by
orders for the fully owned Kraftwerk Union AG subsidiary.
    Foreign orders grew one pct to 11.6 billion marks. An
increase in orders through newly acquired subsidiaries abroad
was balanced by the decline in the dollar.
    While the installations and automotive technology sector
showed a sharp rise in orders, energy and automation and
communications orders were below the level achieved in the same
period of 1985/86.
    Telecommunications orders remained at roughly the same
level.
    Kaske said investments were expected to remain around six
billion marks in 1986/87 after a 50 pct increase the previous
year. Research and development were likely to rise 13 pct to
6.1 billion marks or around 12 pct of turnover.
 REUTER

The Fried. Krupp GmbH
<KRPG.D> steel and engineering group said it had a satisfactory
1986 despite a provisional 12 pct fall in total group sales to
18.1 billion marks from 20.7 billion the previous year.
    Third party turnover declined to 15.9 billion from 18.5
billion in 1985 while orders slipped to 15.5 billion marks from
16.9 billion, it said in a preliminary statement.
    Despite these figures, which reflected the dollar's
weakness against the mark and oil and raw materials price
falls, it said 1986 was a satisfactory year.
    The reason was the continued expansion of the machinery and
plant sector, which accounted for 42 pct of total sales.
    Krupp added that some areas of the mechanical engineering
business achieved notable growth rates and acquisitions had
underpinned machinery and component activities.
    An orders decline in the steel and, in particular, the
trading and services sectors, affected the group's total order
figures.
    However, "all business sectors contributed to the positive
results achieved in 1986," Krupp added, without giving details.
    Domestic orders decreased by five pct to 9.6 billion marks
from the previous year and foreign orders fell 14 pct to 5.9
billion, it said. Foreign business accounted for 38 pct of
orders against 40 pct in 1985.
    Orders received by the machinery and plant sector, 11
member companies which comprise the core area of the group,
rose by four mln marks last year to 6.9 billion, Krupp said.
    The group's orders in hand amounted to 9.1 billion marks at
end-December 1986 from 10.3 billion at the start of the year.
    Orders received by the steel sector last year decreased by
three pct to 6.2 billion marks from 1985, it said.
    The steel market weakened increasingly over the year,
mainly because of exchange rate movements, the deterioration in
foreign trade and a downturn in a number of customer
    The difficult market for sections and flats of quality
steel depressed order tonnages by around seven pct, Krupp said.
But special steel boosted by strong demand for stainless
cold-rolled flats, grew by five pct in tonnage terms.
 REUTER

Japanese scientists say they have
developed a material which can help detect the killer disease
Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
    Leading Japanese AIDS scientist professor Naoki Yamamoto
told Reuters he and other scientists working at Yamaguchi
University in southern Japan have been testing the material's
ability to filter the AIDS virus from blood since last April
and produced successful results.
    He said the material, a tube made from a cellulose
membrane, could only be used to diagnose AIDS sufferers and not
cure them.
    The share price of Asahi Chemical Company<ASAT.T>, which
plans to market the product in about a year's time, rose
sharply but ended the day only 27 yen higher at 905 yen a
share.
    The cellulose tubes, which Asahi will market under the name
Bemberg Microporous Membrane (BMM), can also separate the virus
of the kidney ailment hepatitis and may be applied to
diagnosing polio sufferers, vice-president of Asahi Chemical,
R. Yumikura said. Ashai will supply BMM for research purposes
soon.
    Shares of companies even remotely related to the fight
against AIDS have risen on the Tokyo stock market since the
first Japanese woman died of the disease in Kobe in January.
 REUTER

Firms need not be pessimistic about export
prospects even though foreign markets have become more
difficult because of the mark's strength the Economics Ministry
said.
     The ministry's parliamentary state secretary Ludolf Georg
von Wartenberg, told a business conference German exports could
start rising again in real terms during 1987, reversing the
lower export trend which emerged in mid-1986.
    But even if the turnaround did not occur, there would be no
need to worry about the economy as long as the weakness of
exports did not affect currently good domestic demand.
    Von Wartenberg said consumer demand remained quite good but
noted there had been a cooling in the investment climate. "This
is certainly a reason for heightened watchfulness but not for
stimulative steps," he said.
    The best way for Bonn to help its exporters is to work
actively to promote free world trade, he added.
    Von Wartenberg said the economy still had good export
opportunities. Price alone was not the only factor in
international competitiveness, he said, adding German firms
have a reputation for high quality standards, prompt delivery
times and good service.
    Von Wartenberg said the government was in a difficult
position on its trade figures.  It faced international pressure
to reduce its trade surplus, but West Germans were worried
about the effect of the mark's strength on the country's
    Reports about the trade surplus, especially overseas,
tended to concentrate on nominal trade figures, which rose to a
record 112.2 billion marks in 1986, he said. But this rise was
due entirely to the lower value of imports caused by the
decline of both the dollar and oil prices. German exports have
in fact been falling in real terms for sometime, he said.
 REUTER

The monetary authorities of the major
industrialised countries lost their credibility this week as
the dollar was sold off despite pleas from ministers and
widespread central bank intervention, dealers said.
    The dollar's fall below 150 yen, which follows last month's
Paris currency stabilisation agreement by the U.S., Japan, West
Germany, Britain, France and Canada, is a dramatic reversal of
the success of the Group of Five (G-5) 1985 New York Plaza
meeting to weaken the dollar, they said.
    The G-5 and the market agreed in 1985 that the dollar was
overvalued but this time the market and the authorities are on
different sides, dealers said.
    Apparent confusion in the ranks of the G-5 nations has
encouraged the market to challenge the authorities despite
concerted intervention by the central banks of the United
States, Japan, Britain and West Germany, they said.
    Pleas by Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa for
action to stabilise the dollar were matched over the weekend by
comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker that there was
no target zone for the dollar. The dollar was sold anyway.
    Yesterday's comment by Baker that he stood by the Paris
accord did nothing to reverse sentiment, dealers said.
    The intervention, backed by remarks by Fed Chairman Paul
Volcker and Japanese central bank governor Satoshi Sumita,
which a few months ago would have brought the dollar fall to a
halt, has done little but slow the rate of its decline, they
noted.
    The situation has again raised the question of whether
intervention can succeed against the trend in today's huge
currency markets. Dealers said the market's cool response to
intervention reflected a basic oversupply of dollars.
    "This means that the current dollar selling is not of a
sheer speculative nature but backed by real demand," said Koichi
Miyazaki, deputy general manager at Sanwa Bank.
    Dealers said the dollar will remain weak despite the
intervention and it is only a matter of time before some
operators try to push it below 148 yen. The dollar closed in
Tokyo today at 149.40 against New York's 149.30/40. Its record
low was 148.40 in Tokyo last Tuesday.
    Dealers said the dollar will gain only temporary support to
rise above 150 yen toward early April when the Group of Seven
industrial nations meets to discuss currencies again.
    The market expects the seven nations (the Paris six plus
Italy) to try to agree on another way to stabilise currencies
apart from intervention, a chief dealer at a U.S. Bank said.
    Dealers said they were unsure what other methods could be
used and they are sceptical anyway about how long the Paris
accord nations, particulary the U.S., Will remain willing to
prevent a further dollar fall given the continuing high U.S.
Trade deficit, especially with Japan.
    Further pressure from a protectionist U.S. Congress for a
lower dollar is also limiting Washington's options, they said.
    The market now thinks the central bank action is to slow
the dollar fall, not to push it back over 150 yen, said
Tadahiko Nashimoto, manager at Long Term Credit Bank of Japan.
    Another bearish factor for the dollar is expected large
forward dollar sales from April to June for export bills
falling due for Japanese exporters from April to September.
    The exporters had delayed in expectation of a further yen
depreciation, dealers said.
    Yesterday's request to 30 trading houses by the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry to restrict dollar sales looks
ineffective in light of this real demand, they said.
    The market is also anticipating active institutional dollar
sales to hedge currency risks on bond holdings from the new
business year starting April 1, dealers said.
    "The market seems to have established a new dollar trading
range between 147 and 149 yen," one dealer said.
    The dollar traded between 151 and 153 yen after the Paris
accord on February 22 and 150 yen was then considered the low
end for the dollar against the yen, he said.
    Some dealers now believe that if the dollar falls below 148
yen, it will pick up renewed downward momentum and slide to
145.
 REUTER

Austria is making a two billion
schilling issue of floating rate treasury notes carrying
interest of 1/8th of a point over the three-month Vienna
Interbank Offered Rate (VIBOR), lead manager Oesterreichische
Laenderbank AG [OLBV.VI] said.
    The issue, to be made at par, carries a placing fee of 20
basis points and will be listed in Vienna, a Laenderbank
    The issue will have an initial three-year life and the
issuer has the right to make two three-year extensions and a
further one-year extension to 1997.
    Payment and closing date is April 23 and redemption will be
on the same date at the end of each of the periods.
    The notes, in one mln schilling denominations, may not be
offered in Austria, Britain or the United States.
 REUTER

Collectivites Locales (CAECL) is issuing a three billion franc
two-tranche domestic bond, the lead managers said.
    The first two billion franc tranche at a fixed rate of 8.90
pct is led by Credit Lyonnais, Banque Indosuez and Union de
Garantie et de Placement, with Credit Lyonnais as book-runner.
    The non-callable, 13 year and 80 days bond is issued at
100.419 pct. Payment date is May 28 with the first coupon
payment in 1988.
    The second one billion franc, variable-rate tranche is led
by Banque Indosuez, Credit Lyonnais and UGP, with Indosuez as
book-runner.
    The 12 year 94 day bond is issued at 98.672 pct. Interest
is based on average state bond yields (TME), with a margin of
less 0.24 pct on the basis of TME at 8.45 pct. Payment date
will be May 28 with the first coupon payment in 1988.
 REUTER

UK FEB TRADE DEFICIT 224 MLN STG VS DEFICIT 527 MLN IN JAN - OFFICIAL.

U.K. FEB CUURENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS 376 MLN STG VS JAN SURPLUS 73 MLN - OFFICIAL.

Gross domestic product (GDP)
growth in 1987 is expected to grow by between 1.5 and two pct,
up from one pct in 1986, the central bank said.
    The forecast compares with the one pct GDP growth forecast
made by the Treasury last October.
    Bank Negara also said in its annual report that gross
national product (GNP) is expected to grow by 3.5 to four pct,
after declining 7.3 pct in 1986.
    It said that a turnaround in investor confidence since last
November had been spurred by a moderate improvement in oil and
commodity prices and a rise in manufacturing exports.
    Growth in 1987 is expected to come from the anticipated
rise in export earnings if the industrialised countries sustain
their average GNP growth at 2.5 to three pct, it added.
    Bank Negara said its forecast assumes that crude oil will
average 15.50 dlrs a barrel, rubber at 210 cents a kilo, palm
oil at 850 ringgit a tonne, tin at 17 ringgit a kilo and a rise
of 12 pct in manufacturing exports.
    It said Malaysia's international terms of trade will turn
around to rise by two pct in 1987 after declining 12 pct in
1986 and five pct in 1985.
    "In 1987, income will be higher, private consumer spending
is likely to recover and expand... The budget will remain under
strict control... The resource gap in the government's finances
on current account will be bridged over the near term," Bank
Governor Jaafar Hussein said in the report.
    The current account deficit is expected to narrow to 1.19
billion ringgit in 1986 or 1.8 pct of GNP from 1.79 billion or
2.5 pct of the GNP the previous year.
    The bank forecasts the inflation rate will increase by 1.5
pct, after its 0.7 pct rise in 1986.
 REUTER

Britain's visible trade deficit narrowed
to a seasonally adjusted provisional 224 mln stg in February
from 527 mln in January, The Trade and Industry Department
said.
    The current account balance of payments in February showed
a seasonally adjusted provisional surplus of 376 mln stg
compared with a surplus of 73 mln in January.
    Invisibles in February were put provisionally at a 600 mln
surplus, the same as in January.
    Seasonally adjusted, imports rose in February to 7.16
billion stg from 6.73 billion in January. Exports rose to a
record 6.93 billion last month from 6.20 billion in January.
    Trade Department officials said the improvement in
Britain's current account contrasted with most private
forecasts and they attributed much of the strength to imports
rising less quickly in February than might otherwise have been
expected.
    The Department said exceptionally cold weather in January
reduced exports that month and that there had been an element
of catching up in the February figures.
    The seasonally adjusted volume index, base 1980, a guide to
underlying non-oil trade, showed exports rising to 131.0 from
114.6 in January and imports rising to 142.2 from 136.5.
    The value of British oil exports in February rose to 751
mln stg from 723 mln in Jnauary while oil imports rose to 425
mln from 352 mln.
    The Department said the upward trend in non-oil export
volume continues and the underlying level of non-oil import
volume seems to have stablised.
    The Departnment said exports to the U.S. May be benefiting
from fluctuations in the mark and yen exchange rates.
 REUTER

Lucas Industries Plc <LUCS.L> said its
underlying performance would continue to improve in the second
half but profits would be restrained by low activity in U.K.
Commercial vehicle and tractor markets as well as in North
American electronics.
    The company earlier reported a two mln stg rise in pretax
profit to 40 mln in the six months to end-January. The figure
was some five mln below forecasts and Lucas shares dropped
sharply to 557.5p at 1130 GMT from last night's close of 590p.
    It said it would continue with plans for all its activities
to be internationally competitive and profitable.
    Costs of restructuring, reorganisation, employee training
and retraining, particularly in the UK automotive businesses,
together with high research and development spending would
affect profits in the short term.
    But Lucas said it was exploiting growth opportunities in
automotive markets, especially in vehicle breaking and engine
management systems. Recent acquisitions in North America had
strengthened Lucas Aerospace and Lucas Industrial systems.
 REUTER

IWC ups Soviet grain 1986/87 import estimate three mln tonnes to 29 mln - official

IWC lifts 1986/87 world wheat, coarse grain estimate one mln tonnes to record 1,377 mln

Swiss lawyers have largely headed off an
attempt to restrict banking secrecy and curb their powers to
act for clients despite the new, revised code of banking
conduct agreed by the Bankers' Association this week, analysts
said.
    The "laundering" of drug and "insider dealing" money and
controversy over accounts of the ousted Philippine and Haitian
Presidents have hurt the standing of Swiss banks recently and
strained international relations, particularly with the United
States.
    Critics said the new code fell well short of demands for
reform, doing little to close a key loophole in the requirement
that banks know the identity of their customers.
    The Social Democratic party, a member of the ruling
four-party coalition, which forced an unsuccesful 1984
referendum to curb banking secrecy, complained the code still
fell short of the legal controls they wanted.
    "It looks a slight improvement on paper, but the same tricks
will still be possible in practice," Felix Meier, a senior party
official, told Reuters.
    In contrast, Swiss lawyers are happy with the new code.
    "Apart from a few nuances, we are very pleased with the
agreement," said Max Oesch, a senior official of the Swiss
Lawyers Federation, which has fought a long campaign to prevent
any curbs on lawyers' ability to act for their clients.
    "It has shown that the 4,000 Swiss lawyers who do a good job
should not be punished for the sake of getting at the one or
two black sheep."
    The role of lawyers has been at the centre of long running
discussions on the renewal of the so-called "convention of
diligence," a voluntary code of banking conduct introduced in
response to a major banking scandal here in 1977.
    With secrecy back in the public eye due to the Ferdinand
Marcos case and a Swiss bank link to the recently busted "Pizza
Connection" international heroin ring, officials at the Banking
Commission said earlier this year they wanted a tightening of
rules on anonymity.
    However, the changes in the new code, which comes into
operation in October, have been minor.
    Clients will still be able to keep their identity secret
from the banks provided their lawyer pledges that the
relationship with his client "is not only of a temporary nature"
and involves provision of other legal services.
    The Lawyers' Association said this part of their business
is very minimal anyway. In the majority of cases, people had
perfectly legal private or commercial reasons for not wanting
the bank to know their identity, Oesch said.
    The Banking Commission, despite its earlier demand for a
virtual abolition of the loophole, also said it was happy with
the new code.
    However, critics complain that the agreement does not go
far enough to restrict the role of lawyers and could still be
circumvented by criminals.
    "No other group in society is allowed to regulate itself as
much as the banks," complained Meier of the Social Democrats. "I
hope that the Banking Commission exercises its proper control
function."
    However, other parts of the agreement won praise.
    In particular, banks will also now be required to demand
the identity anyone doing more than 100,000 Swiss francs worth
of business with them, even if they do not have an account at
the bank. Until now, the threshold was 500,000 francs.
    Peter Kluser, head of the National Bank's legal department,
which had argued for a lower limit, said the move could help
combat the use of banks to "launder" or hide the criminal origin
of money.
    The new code also clarifies the legal status of a tribunal
able to impose heavy fines on banks which do not respect the
code.
 REUTER

French heavy engineering group Alsthom
<ALSF.PA> has won a 900 mln franc contract from Pakistan to
supply four 100 MW gas turbines, the company said in a press
release.
    The turbines are for the electricity generating plant at
Kot-Addu, in central Pakistan and are expected to be
operational at the end of 1988.
 REUTER

The Commerce Commission has approved
a proposed merger between <Progressive Enterprises Ltd> and
<Rainbow Corp Ltd>, Rainbow said in a statement.
    The merger involves the formation of a new company <Astral
Pacific Corp Ltd> which will acquire all shares in both
companies on a one-for-one share exchange basis.
    Rainbow earlier this week lifted its stake in Progressive
to 52 pct from 44 pct. The statement said a new private
company, <Transcapital Corp Ltd>, fully owned by Rainbow
directors Craig Heatley, Gary Lane and Ken Wikeley, will
purchase this stake for an undisclosed cash sum.
    The Commission has also approved Transcapital acquiring up
to 45 pct of Astral Pacific, Rainbow said.
    <Brierley Investments Ltd>, which has been a frequent
critic of the merger, launched a full bid for Progressive at
4.20 N.Z. Dlrs a share last Monday.
 REUTER

estimate of today's money market shortfall to around 350 mln
stg from a flat position.
 REUTER

The International Wheat Council (IWC)
lifted its estimate for 1986/87 world wheat and coarse grain
production by one mln tonnes to a record 1,377 mln, compared
with 1,351 mln tonnes the previous season.
    In its monthly market report, the IWC said it is leaving
unchanged its forecast of world wheat production for the coming
1987/88 season at between 520 and 530 mln tonnes against a
record 534 mln in 1986/87. The one mln tonne upward revision in
1986/87 wheat production reflects several minor adjustments.
The IWC raised the 1986/87 coarse grain trade figure two mln to
87 mln tonnes. It left wheat trade unchanged at 86 mln.
    The IWC 1986/87 estimate for world trade in wheat and
coarse grain is thus estimated two mln tonnes higher at 173 mln
against 169 mln the previous season with the forecast three mln
rise in Soviet imports offset by small reductions elsewhere.
    The IWC said the area harvested for wheat in 1987/88 is
likely to be down from last year as low world prices and
restrictive national policies measures begin to take effect.
    At least four of the five major exporters expect to see a
drop in wheat sowings without offset in other countries. There
is still potential for even higher average wheat yields but the
IWC said there are increasing signs world output may level off.
    Although it is still early to assess the coarse grain
outlook, the IWC said barley acreage is likely to fall in the
European Community but increase in Canada. U.S. Maize area is
expected lower but oat sowings could rise.
    After damage to its maize crop last year, the Soviet Union
plans to expand this area by as much as 50 pct to over six mln
hectares in a year when many frost damaged wheat fields are
likely to be resown to this and other spring crops. Improved
weather and a further increase in the use of intensive
cultivation methods could therefore see a marked rise in Soviet
maize output in 1987, the IWC said.
    Any reduction in world coarse grain output would be
bolstered by the large carryover stocks from 1986/87, the IWC
said.
    It left its estimates of wheat and coarse grain stocks at
endof different marketing years unchanged at 178 and 210 mln
tonnes, respectively, against 160 and 167 mln a year earlier.
    After record world durum wheat production of 218.8 mln
tonnes last season, the IWC said there are already signs of
another large crop this coming season with higher output
expected in the EC, Canada, the U.S. And North Africa.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan was thought to have
bought a small amount of dollars at around 149.30/40 yen,
    The dollar fluctuated marginally after the small-scale
intervention, believed to total several tens of mlns of dlrs,
they said. Large-scale buying by foreign banks or by a life
insurance company earlier pushed the dollar upwards, they said.
    Trading was not very active and dealers were watching for
further central bank intervention to smooth out any sharp
movements, but underlying dollar sentiment is still bearish.
 REUTER

The release of U.K. February trade data
showing that the current account surplus was a provisional 376
mln stg, up from a 73 mln surplus in January, has boosted hopes
of an early cut in interest rates, analysts said.
    Market forecasts had been for a worse outcome, with
expectations of a deficit in visible trade averaging about 750
mln stg, against the official figure of 224 mln stg, sharply
narrower than January's 527 mln deficit.
    "The figures are unreservedly good," Chase Manhattan
Securities economist Andrew Wroblewski said.
    Sterling rebounded on the trade figures, reversing a weaker
morning trend, to stand at 72.1 pct of its trade weighted index
against a basket of currencies at midday, unchanged from
yesterday's close but 0.3 points above the 1100 GMT level.
    The market had feared that a deteriorating non-oil trade
pattern would undermine international support for sterling,
which has been the motor behind the recent fall in U.K.
Interest rates. Money market sources said the market had begun
to doubt that a widely expected drop in bank base lending rates
to 9.5 pct from the present 10.0 pct was really on the cards.
    But sentiment now looks to have turned about again.
    There now looks to be no danger that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson's forecast of a 1987 current account
deficit of 2.5 billion stg will be exceeded, Wroblewski said.
    Seasonally adjusted figures showed imports rose in February
to 7.16 billion stg from 6.73 billion in January.
    Exports rose to a record 6.93 billion from 6.20 billion.
    However, Chris Tinker, U.K. Analyst at brokers Phillips and
Drew said the faster rise in exports than imports would prove
partly aberrational in coming months. He forecast the
Chancellor's Budget tax cuts would increase consumer
expenditure on imported goods.
    However, Warburg Securities economist Ian Harwood said his
firm was sharply revising its 1987 current account deficit
forecast in the light of the latest data, cutting one billion
stg off the expected full year total to about 1.75 billion stg.
    He said news of strong growth in exports of non-oil goods
confirmed recent bullish surveys among members of the
Confederation of British Industry.
    The growth in imports appears to be flattening, even if
January's bad weather had curbed consumer spending on overseas
goods and import-intensive stock building among manufacturers,
Harwood said.
    U.K. Government bonds, or gilts, surged by more than 1/2
point on the better-than-expected news, as earlier worries
about the figures evaporated.
    Sterling peaked at a high of 1.6075 dlrs, before settling
to a steady 1.6050 about 1300 GMT, nearly a cent higher than
the European low of 1.5960.
    However, analysts noted that the turnabout in market
sentiment still looks highly vulnerable to political news.
    Morning weakness in sterling and the gilt market was
largely attributed to a newspaper opinion poll showing that the
Conservative government's support was slipping.
    LONDON, March 26 - The Bank of England said it provided 15
mln stg in assistance to the money market this morning, buying
bank bills in band two at 9-13/16 pct.
    Earlier the Bank revised its money market liquidity
forecast from a flat position to a deficit of around 350 mln
stg.
 REUTER

it had approved the creation of Himont, a company in which
Montedison SpA <MONI.MI> of Italy and Hercules Inc <HPC.N) are
major shareholders, after requesting changes in the two
partners' plans for the venture.
    Twenty pct of the capital of Himont, in which Montedison
and Hercules originally planned to take 50 pct stakes, has been
floated publicly and marketing and production agreements have
been modified on the Commission's advice, it said.
    Himont, which is incorporated in the U.S., Groups the two
firms' assets in the polypropylene sector.
    The modified agreements include the abandoning by Hercules
and Montedison of all their direct activities within the EC in
the downstream market of Himont.
    The EC authority said the modifications meant that the
creation of Himont did not appear to lead to restrictive
coordination of activities between Hercules and Montedison, nor
did their respective market shares give them a dominant
position.
    The Commission must approve such link-ups between
competitors under EC competition rules.
 REUTER

The European Community today sold
181,500 tonnes of ageing butter to the Soviet Union at a
special knockdown price, a spokesman for the EC Commission
said.
    He said the EC's Dairy Management Committee accepted bids
from operators to export the butter, mainly from intervention
stores in Belgium, West Germany and the Netherlands, at a price
of 21.1 European currency units per 100 kilos.
    The butter was bought into Community stores at 313.2 Ecus
per 100 kilos. The sales are part of the EC's process of
attempting to run down its butter surplus.
 REUTER

West German net currency reserves
rose by 300 mln marks in the third week of March to 82.0
billion, following a fall of 5.4 billion marks in the previous
week, the Bundesbank said.
    Non-currency reserves were unchanged at about 2.5 billion
marks, bringing net monetary reserves to 84.5 billion.
 REUTER

World Bank president Barber Conable said
he was concerned about the state of Brazil's economy and urged
the country to come up with a plan soon to put its economic
house in order.
    "I am very concerned about the Brazilian economy," he told
reporters after a news conference in Tokyo.
    He said Brazil had caught the attention of the world with
its decision last month to stop paying interest on its loans
from commercial banks but warned it not to sqaunder the time it
gained by failing to come up with a new economic program.
    Brazil's decision jolted the world's financial community as
the country is 108 billion dlrs in debt, including some 68
billion owed to commercial banks.
    Brazilian Finance Ministry sources said in Brasilia
yesterday that the country was preparing a new economic
strategy designed to ensure domestic economic growth.
    Despite mounting domestic and overseas pressure, Brazil has
said repeatedly that it will not go to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) for help in drawing up a new plan for fear
that will only throw its economy into recession.
    Conable said the country may be able to get away with not
going to the IMF for help, but will need an IMF-type economic
program if it wants to regain the confidence of lenders.
    Outsiders like the World Bank are reluctant to suggest
possible solutions to Brazil's economic problems because of the
delicate political situation there, he added.
    While the World Bank has a role to play in helping Brazil,
it canot replace the IMF as an overseer of the economy,
Conable said. He added that the Fund can be very flexible in
its dealings with developing countries, adjusting its approach
to the political realities.
    Brazil still seems willing to talk to the Fund under the
annual discussions that all IMF members undertake, Conable
said, adding that this could partially solve the current
stalemate.
    During his news conference, Conable said the World Bank
backed U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker's Third World debt
initiative, which calls for stepped up lending to heavily
indebted Third World countries adopting economic policies.
    "The World Bank believes the Baker initiative is the best
approach," he said. "Debt forgiveness is difficult to design in
any fair way and also will tend to discourage further
investment and development."
    He cited the recent multi-billion dollar debt package for
Mexico, the Third World's most indebted country after Brazil.
    "Will it work?" he asked. "We don't know...But we think it
more likely to work than any of the alternatives suggested."
    Conable, who is here to meet government and business
leaders, expressed confidence that Japan will make increasing
use of its huge trade surplus to help developing countries.
    "We are quite confident Japan will make an increasing
investment in development because of their willingness to
support institutions like ours in increasing ways with each
passing year," he said.
 REUTER

an undetermined amount of 10-year variable-coupon certificates
(CCTs) at a rate unchanged on that of the preceding offer in
late February.
    The Treasury said that, unlike the previous offer, the
amount had not been prefixed. It would be in line with market
demand unless this was considered excessive.
    The CCTs will be priced at 99.00 pct for an effective net
annual yield on the first coupon, payable April 1, 1988, of
9.85 pct.
    Subsequent yields on the certificates will be calculated by
adding 0.75 point to average rates on short-term Treasury
bills.
    Subscriptions to the issue open April 1 and are scheduled
to close April 7.
    The Treasury said it reserved the right to close the issue
early.
 REUTER

Guinness Peat Group Plc <GNSP.L> has
arranged to receive a 125 mln dlr five year cash advance
facility, said Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd and Guinness Mahon
and Co Ltd as joint arrangers.
    The two firms said the terms of the facility will be
reviewed after the third year with a view to considering
extension by a further two years.
    The facility will include a tender panel to bid for
multi-currency cash advances at a maximum rate of 0.1875 pct
over the London Interbank Offered Rate.
    The facility will incorporate an underwriting fee of 0.10
pct in addition to a fee of 0.05 to 0.10 pct depending on the
participation amount. In addition, Barclays and Guinness Mahon
have been named joint dealers for a complementary 100 mln dlr
    Funds will be used to refinance the cost of the recent
Forstmann-Leff Associates acquisition as well as for general
 REUTER

Sumitomo Bank Ltd said it established a
500 mln stg certificate of deposit (CD) issuance program,
arranged by Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd.
    Dealers will be Morgan Grenfell, Lloyds Merchant Bank Ltd,
Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd, Salomon Brothers International Ltd,
Sumitomo Finance International and S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd.
    Maturities will be between seven days and five years and
paper will be issued in denominations of 250,000, 500,000 and
one mln stg.
 REUTER

An exchange loss of 7.6 billion
ringgit in 1986 pushed Malaysia's outstanding external debt up
to 50.99 billion ringgit, from 1985's 42.3 billion, the Central
Bank said in its annual report.
    Bank Negara said although Malaysia's net borrowing dropped
in 1986, its external debt rose due to the 30 pct appreciation
of the basket of currencies against which the ringgit is
pegged.
    The basket comprises principally the U.S. Dollar, yen,
mark, Swiss franc, French franc, sterling, guilder, Canadian
and Singapore dollars, it added.
    Bank Negara said growth in external debt, which declined
progressively from a peak of 58 pct in 1982 to 13.6 pct in
1985, rose by 20.2 pct in 1986.
    Malaysia's debt serving ratio of 17.6 pct of its exports in
1986 is within the prudency limit of 20 pct, Bank Negara
Governor Jaafar Hussein told reporters.
 REUTER

Efforts by governments to control wheat
surpluses by cutting support prices have met with only partial
success, the International Wheat Council (IWC) says in its
latest monthly report.
    Faster results could be achieved by a policy of reducing
both price and areas, as employed in the United States, the IWC
says in a survey of support prices in the five main wheat
exporters - Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EC and the U.S.
    In some countries, for example Australia and Argentina,
which are highly dependent on wheat shipments for export
income, there may be problems in reducing production.
    A policy of cutting wheat production could lead to
unemployment, with job prospects outside agriculture limited.
Alternative crops may offer inferior returns which could then
lead to lost export revenue and balance of payments problems.
    The IWC outlines three courses of action open to
governments in wheat exporting countries.
    They could continue to support prices in the hope that when
the world economy improves demand for wheat will rise and
surpluses wil be reduced or eliminated.
    Alternatively, support could be limited to wheat which
could be easily sold, without needing to be stored for a long
period.
    This option may prove to be the most politically
unattractive and would result in many producers abandoning
wheat production, the report said.
    The third option would be for governments to distinguish
between the commercial and social aspects of agriculture,
possibly varying support prices according to farm size or
overall production.
    The IWC review covers support prices in the major exporting
countries since 1982. At some time during that period all the
producers cut support prices in response to growing surpluses.
    These changes did not always result in lower export
subsidies as on several occasions currency fluctuations more
than offset lower prices in the domestic currency.
    For example between 1985/86 and 1986/87 the EC intervention
price for bread wheat fell from 209.30 to 179.44 European
currency units (Ecus). It dollar terms, the currency in which
most export transactions are denominated, the intervention
price however rose to 193 dlrs from 168. The high cost of
supporting farm prices has put a strain on national exchequers
and some governments are now searching for ways to cut
expenditure, the report says.
    The proportion of world wheat output produced by the five
major exporters declined in the period covered by the survey
from 40 pct in 1982 to 35 pct in 1987. This was partly due to
increased production in China and India.
    The period saw an upward trend in yields, although this was
countered in the Argentina, the U.S. And Australia by lower
acreages.
    In Argentina a reduction in the sown area of about 20 per
cent was put down to low prices causing producers to switch to
other enterprises, particularly livestock while lower U.S.
Acreages are attributed to official incentives.
 REUTER

Sandoz Corp, a U.S. Subsidiary of Sandoz
AG, is establishing a 50 mln dlr euro-commercial paper (CP)
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York is issuing and paying
agent.
    Paper will have maturities between seven and 183 days and
will be issued in global and definitive form.
 REUTER

said that he opposes a Federal tax increase to help reduce the
budget deficit and favors spending cuts instead.
    "I don't think it's (a tax increase) is a very good idea
and I'm quite confident that President Reagan doesn't think
it's a very good idea," Baker said in an interview on Cable
News Network's "Moneyline" television program.
    He said U.S. taxpayers are taxed at a rate of 19 pct of GNP
which is traditionally where it has been, but the Federal
Government is spending at a rate of 24 pct of GNP. Baker said
spending cuts are clearly the best way to cut budget deficits.
    Baker said he opposed a stock transactions tax proposed by
House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Tex, or other special taxes.
approach to take," the Treasury Secretary said. He said the
United States has some of the most efficient capital markets in
the world and new taxes would impair efficiency.
    On the international front, Baker said banks must do more
lending to developing countries. He was questioned about this
after the Standard and Poor's Corp downgrading today of the
debt of six major money center bank holding companies, largely
because of their heavy developing nation loan exposure.
    Baker said that developing countries must adopt free market
economic policies such as in the United States. He said capital
flows will be required to support the needed reforms in the
economic systems of those countries.
said that developing nations' "investment regimes do not
support enough equity investment, so you've got to have some
debt there."
    Commenting on the U.S. trade deficit, Baker said "I think
you're going to see a 15 to 20 billion dlr reduction this
year."
 Reuter

levels.
   
 Reuter

The price of gold bullion is likely
to rise in the second half of the year on increased private
investor demand, West German analysts said.
    Gold could rise as high as 500 dlrs per ounce later this
year, said Peter Witte, director of Westdeutsche Landesbank
Girozentrale's trading division, after a presentation by the
U.S. Mint to promote its gold and silver Eagle series coins.
    "A lot will depend on oil prices and developments on stock
exchanges," Witte said, adding he saw gold positioned for
further rises once it breaks out above 450 dlrs.
    Gold was fixed this morning in London at 411.30 dlrs.
    Despite current strong interest in gold mine stocks, many
investors still want to buy physical gold, Witte said.
    Interest in gold mine stocks may also wane if stock
exchange rallies under way in many countries start to waver.
    Hermann Strohmeyer, vice president of Commerzbank AG's
foreign exchange trading and treasury department, said gold is
poised to rise to 460 to 470 dlrs an ounce in the second half
    The price is unlikely to fall much below 380 or 390 dlrs an
ounce, and probably will continue in a range between 380 and
430 dlrs in the first half of this year, he said.
 REUTER

<Cambrian and General Securities Plc>
said the London Stock Exchange has restored the listing of its
50 mln dlrs of secured floating rate notes dated 1992 at the
company's request.
    The notes are fully secured and therefore have a prior
claim over Cambrian's assets in the event of other claims
arising from litigation, it added.
    Dealings in Cambrian's securities have been suspended since
late 1986 following the disclosure of insider trading
activities by former chairman Ivan Boesky. Cambrian officials
were not immediately available for further comment on today's
 REUTER

A floating rate treasury note issue by
the Republic of Austria is likely to be raised to 2.5 billion
schillings from two billion due to heavy demand, lead manager
Oesterreichische Laenderbank AG <OLBV.VI> said.
    Laenderbank managing board member Herbert Cordt told
Reuters that demand had been strong throughout Europe. The
issue, carrying interest of 1/8th of a point over the
three-month Vienna Interbank Offered Rate, is the second of its
kind. The first was made last October 23.
    The issue, made at par, has an initial three-year life and
the borrower has the right to make extensions up to 1997.
 REUTER

First Interstate Bancorp <I> would
benefit from new banking capital adequacy rules proposed by the
Federal Reserve Board, Chairman Joseph Pinola said.
    "We are one of the few banks that would have an improved
position," Pinola said in an interview, noting First Interstate
has fewer off balance sheet liabilities than many other banks.
    Under the proposed rules, a bank's minimum capital
requirement would be determined by the assessed risk of their
assets, including off balance sheet liabilities that are not
currently taken into account.
    Currently, banks must retain a primary capital ratio of 5.5
pct.
    First Interstate reported a primary capital ratio of 6.14
pct at the end of 1986.
    Pinola said First Interstate has since raised that ratio,
however, to about 6.70 pct, through a recent preferred stock
offering and a 200-mln-dlr subordinated capital note offering
    First Interstate reported a relatively average return on
assets ratio of 0.68 at the end of 1986.
    Pinola said First Interstate's return on assets ratio will
improve to the 0.70-0.71 range at the end of the first quarter,
because 1986 year-end assets, at 55.4 billion dlrs, were
overestimated by about two billion dlrs.
    He said he is anxious to improve the return on assets ratio
further, but continued loan losses at First Interstate's Rocky
Mountain state banks continue to hold down profits.
    Pinola said its banks in other states are showing excellent
return on asset ratios, with its Arizona and Washington banks
running at about 1.30, its Oregon bank showing 1.00 and its
California bank at about 0.83.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bancorp Chairman
Joseph Pinola said the bank holding company would lose about 16
mln dlrs per year, after taxes, if it had to put its medium and
long-term debt on non-accrual status.
    In an interview, he said that could result in about a 4.5
pct decline in annual earnings per share.
    Pinola said First Interstate, like other banks, has not yet
decided to put the loans, which Brazil stopped paying interest
on last month, on non-accrual status.
    "None of us really wants to injure negotiations that might
be going on," he said.
    First Interstate reported to the Securities and Exchange
Commission last week that it has about 339 mln dlrs in
medium-to long-term loans to Brazil.
    It said on December 31, 1986 its nonperformind Brazilian
outstanding debt totaled about 4.1 mln dlrs.
    First Interstate also has about 168 mln dlrs in short-term
loans or trade lines to Brazil.
    Pinola said he believes the solution to the Brazilian debt
crisis will be more political than economic, which he said he
finds, "very disquieting and discomforting."
 Reuter

FRENCH UNEMPLOYMENT RISES TO SEASONALLY ADJUSTED 2.65 MLN IN FEBRUARY - OFFICIAL

Lead underwriter <Goldman, Sachs and
Co> said an initial public offering of 58,750,000 shares of
<Consolidated Rail Corp> common stock has been priced at 28.00
    The sale is the largest initial public offering ever.  All
of the shares are being sold by the U.S. government.  They
represent an 85 pct interest in Conrail, the large northeastern
freight-carrying railroad.  Employees of Conrail retain the
other 15 pct.
    The shares will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange
under the ticker symbol <CRR> starting this morning.
    Initially, underwriters had said in proxy materials that
the shares were expected to be priced at 22 to 26 dlrs per
share.  But last week they raised the expected range to 26 to
29 dlrs per share.
    Conrail was formed during the 1970's from Penn Central
Railroad and other financially-distressed northeastern rail
carriers.
    The offering will raise about 1.65 billion dlrs before
underwriting fees.  Previously, the largest initial public
offering in dollar terms had been Henley Group Inc's <HENG> 1.3
billion dlr spinoff from Allied Corp <ALD> last year.
    Other lead underwriters are First Boston Inc <FBC>, Merrill
Lynch and Co Inc <MER>, Salomon Inc <SB> and American Express
Co's <AXP> Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    Fifty-two mln shares are being sold in the U.S. through a
syndicate of 148 underwriters and 6,750,000 overseas through a
27-member syndicate.
 Reuter

Shr profit 61 cts vs loss 45 cts
    Net profit 3,568,000 vs loss 2,598,000
    Revs 34.6 mln vs 31.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,861,000 vs 5,776,000
    Year
    Shr profit 56 cts vs loss 32 cts
    Net profit 3,374,000 vs loss 1,759,000
    Revs 132.0 mln vs 131.6 mln
    NOTE: 1985 quarter net includes 665,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Holiday Corp said the New Jersey
Casino Control Commission will rule April One on the company's
request for approval to proceed with its plan of
recapitalization.
    The Commission ruling is the final regulatory approval
needed.  The company said talks are proceeding smoothly with
its banks, and it plans to finalize the financing for the
recapitalization shortly.  It said assuming Commission
approval, it plans to pay the 65 dlr per share dividend
associated with the plan in April, with the exact timing
depending on the closing of the financing.
 Reuter

Mickelberry Corp said it has completed
the previously-announced sale of the 51 pct of its C and W
Group subsidiary that it had retained to N W Ayer Inc for
    Ayer bought the other 49 pct next year.
    Mickelberry said it will report a gain on the transaction.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 1,144,000 vs 1,063,000
    Sales 23.2 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 93 cts vs 1.40 dlrs
    Net 4,046,000 vs 6,111,000
    Sales 97.8 mln vs 104.0 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net includes gain 286,000 dlrs from
discontinued operations in year and loss 375,000 in quarter and
gain 260,000 dlrs in year from disposal of discontinued.
 Reuter

Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of the
tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee said today President
Reagan must reconsider his consistent opposition to any tax
    The Illinois Democrat, asked on a television interview (on
NBC-Today) about the possibility of tax hikes, said, "I think
the president is going to have to reconsider."
    He added, "I just hope there's enough vision in this
administration to recognize that our deficits are intolerable
and the only way we're going to do it is by raising revenues."
 Reuter

French unemployment rose to a record
seasonally adjusted 2.65 mln in February from 2.61 mln in
January and 2.57 mln at the end of last year, the Labour
    The rise took the percentage of the workforce out of a job
to 11.0 pct last month from 10.9 pct in January and 10.7 pct at
    In unadjusted terms unemployment fell by around 30,000 last
month to 2.70 mln.
 REUTER

Network.
said.
 Reuter

<Philips Electrical (Ireland) Ltd> has
arranged the sale of the one mln ordinary shares it holds in
its subsidiary <Unidare Aluminium Ltd>, Unidare said.
    The placing has been arranged through <Allied Irish
Investment Bank Plc> at an ex-dividend price of 371 Irish pence
per share.
 REUTER

AMERICAN MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL INC 2ND QTR SHR PROFIT 32 CTS VS LOSS 95 CTS

 Reuter

New Generation Foods Inc said 17
warrant holders have exercised 1,032,384 warrants, acquiring
2,064,768 New Generation shares for 1,032,384 dlrs.
    The company said president Jerome S. Flum and Flum
Partners, which he controls, acquired 307,138 and 940,680
shares respectively through the exercise of the warrants.  It
said it also issued another 44,268 common shares on the
exercise of 132,812 warrants in a separate non-cash exchange.
    New Generation now has about 161,000 warrants still
    New Generation also said it has retained Howard Saltzman,
Flum Partners limited partner, to serve as a consultant for one
year.
    It said Saltzer will work closely with Flum and play a
major role in the day-to-day management of New Generation.
 Reuter

2nd qtr
    Shr profit 32 cts vs loss 95 cts
    Net profit 28.0 mln vs loss 82.2 mln
    Revs 950.2 mln vs 862.0 mln
    1st half
    Shr profit 65 cts vs loss 62 cts
    Net profit 56.6 mln vs loss 53.5 mln
    Revs 1.88 billion vs 1.67 billion
    Avg shrs 92.2 mln vs 86.7 mln
    Prior year net both periods includes pretax asset
writedowns of 114.6 mln dlrs and additions to reserves of 60.0
mln dlrs.
    Prior year net includes tax credits of 53.7 mln dlrs in
quarter and 32.9 mln dlrs in half.
 Reuter

Siemens AG <SIEG.F> turnover in the
United States will rise to about 2.6 billion dlrs in the
current year to end September from 2.2 billion in 1985/86,
management board chairman Karlheinz Kaske said.
    He told the annual meeting 80 pct of last year's sales came
from products made in the U.S.. He added Siemens was as
interested as U.S. Authorities in reducing the massive trade
deficit and calming down trade relations.
    "But we would show no understanding if this (trade deficit
reduction) was attempted through means incompatible with the
principle of free world trade," Kaske said.
    Siemens has been the subject of pressure by U.S.
Telecommunications authorities to limit its access to the U.S.
Market for digital telephone switching equipment.
    The Federal Communications Commission announced in December
it was starting an enquiry into the blocking of free access to
the telecommunications market by foreign firms, with officers
saying reciprocal access was not available to U.S. Firms
abroad.
    For years Siemens was the only supplier of public switching
stations to the Bundespost, the German federal post office.
Regulatory authorities in 1982 opened Bundespost contracts to
tenders from other domestic and foreign suppliers.
    But foreign authorities have complained that too many
restrictions to overseas suppliers still remain.
    Kaske said neither Siemens nor the Bundespost could be held
responsible for the U.S. Trade deficit and noted the U.S. Was
still achieving substantial surpluses in trade with West
Germany in the electrical and telecommunications sector.
    The Bundespost is far more open to supplies from abroad
than telephone companies in the U.S. Japan or France, he added.
 Reuter

F.W. Dodge, a division of Mcgraw-Hill
Inc <MPH>, said that contracting for new construction fell four
pct in February to an annualized rate of 227.6 billion dlrs.
    Construction fell three pct in January, Dodge said.
    Dodge reported that nonresidential building declined four
pct to an annualized rate of 74.5 billion dlrs, residential
building rose five pct to an annualized rate of 121.6 billion
dlrs and nonbuilding construction declined 27 pct to an
annualized rate of 31.5 billion dlrs.
     For the year to date, Dodge reported 1987's unadjusted
total of contracting for new construction fell four pct to 30.4
    Nonresidential building declined seven pct to an unadjusted
10.5 billion dlrs, residential building rose two pct to an
unadjusted 14.9 billion dlrs and nonbuilding construction
declined 11 pct to an unadjusted 5.0 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

said.
expected.
 Reuter

French reserves fell in the week ended
March 19 following repayment of the bulk of the debt contracted
during January with the European Monetary Cooperation Fund, the
Bank of France said in its weekly statement.
    The repayment of capital and interest on this loan, taken
out during the strong pressure on the franc which preceded the
European Monetary System (EMS) realignment and the subsequent
Group of Five meeting in Paris, took place on March 13.
    It comprised the repayment of 11.25 billion francs' worth
of European Currency Units (ECUs), 9.72 billion francs' worth
of foreign currency and 1.72 billion francs' worth of special
drawing rights (SDRs), the Bank said.
    As a result foreign currency reserves fell to 114.69
billion francs on March 19 from 120.82 billion on March 12,
while ECU reserves fell to 62.02 billion francs from 73.23
billion.
    Gold reserves remained stable at 218.32 billion francs.
 REUTER

FOOTE MINERAL CO IN LETTER OF INTENT TO MERGE INTO RIO TINTO-ZINC

German March cost of living 0.2 pct below year ago (Feb 0.5 pct below) - official

    Net 19.6 mln vs 17.6 mln
    Revs 276 mln vs 170.4 mln
    Avg shrs 85.3 mln vs 84.8 mln
    NOTE: Company owns 65 pct of <Bramalea Ltd>.
                           
 Reuter

Braniff Inc said a U.S. Department of
Transportation administrative law judge has recommended that a
certificate be granted authorizing Braniff to operate air
service for five years on a temporary and experimental basis
between Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas, and Mexico
City and Acapulco, Mexico.
    The company said the recommendation must still be approved
by Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole and President
Reagan. Braniff has been operating the routes under exemption
authority granted by the Transportation Department in October.
 Reuter

Qtly div 44.5 cts vs 44.5 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

Nippon Signal Co Ltd is issuing 50 mln
Swiss franc of five year notes with warrants, paying an
indicated 1-3/8 pct, lead manager Morgan Stanley said.
    Terms will be fixed on April 2 with payment due April 22.
The notes are guaranteed by Fuji Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

The cost of living in West Germany
was provisionally unchanged in March compared with February but
fell 0.2 pct against March 1986, the Federal Statistics Office
said.
    In February the cost of living rose 0.1 pct from January
but fell 0.5 pct compared with February 1986.
    The office said final figures for March will be released in
about 10 days.
 REUTER

Turkey's European Affairs Minister Ali
Bozer will arrive here on Saturday to set a date for his
country's long-planned application to join the European
Community (EC), expected by early May, diplomats said.
    The Turkish embassy here said an application was expected
"very soon" but gave no date. But sources close to the embassy
said the application for full EC membership would probably be
made in April, or at the latest, by the first week of May.
    Bozer, is due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal in
London today to decide on the date of the application, they
added.
 REUTER

Foote Mineral Co said it has signed
a letter of intent to merge into <Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp PLC> for
cash.
    The company said at the time of the acquisition, its assets
will include only lithium and ferrosilicon operations. Foote,
which is 83 pct owned by Newmont Mining Corp <NEM>, has signed
a letter of intent to sell its Cambridge operations and said it
is in talks on the sale of its manganese operations with
several companies.  Foote said Newmont has informally indicated
it would vote in favor of the Rio Tinto proposal.
    Foote said terms of the agreement, including price for the
proposed cash transaction, have not been released because they
are subject to a continuing due diligence investigation.
    The company said a definitive merger agreement is expected
to be negotiated within six weeks and shareholders are expected
to vote on the deal at a meeting expected to be held in June or
July.
 Reuter

insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 341,000 in the
week ended March 14 from 340,000 in the prior week, the Labor
regular state programs totaled 2,454,000 in the week ended
March 7, the latest period for which that figure was available.
    That was up from 2,507,000 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

British banks are resisting signing a 76
billion dlr rescheduling package for Mexico in a last ditch
effort to get all participants to contribute equally to a new
7.7 billion dlr loan contained in the package.
    Christopher Brougham, regional manager, rescheduling unit,
at Lloyds Bank Plc, said in response to a Reuter enquiry, that
the six major U.K. Clearing banks last week sent a telex to
Citibank saying they would contribute what was requested
provided all other major lenders did the same and that the U.S.
Banks contribute at least 90 pct of the amount required by
them.
    Other bankers, who declined to be identified, said other
groups of banks particularly those in Switzerland, France and
Canada, were equally reluctant to sign, although they had not
sent any telex to Citibank, which chairs Mexico's 13-bank
advisory group.
    However, they said it was likely that if and when the
British banks sign the accord, the others are likely to follow.
    Under the agreement, for which the signing began on Friday,
commercial banks are being asked to contribute 12.9 pct of
their exposure to Mexico as of August 1982. That was the date
of the first Mexican debt crisis.
    After months of haggling, a proposed rescheduling agreement
for Mexico was struck last September during the annual meeting
of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in
    Ever since then the advisory group, of which Lloyds is a
member, has been attempting to round up the needed signatories.
    However, there has been considerable resistance to the
package, partly because of some of the clauses it contains and
partly because many small U.S. Regional banks do not want to
increase their exposure to any Latin American countries.
    Brougham said, "We (British banks) have always played along
for Mexico and will do so as long as others share equally."
    The decision to send the telexes was agreed on by the six
clearers jointly, but each sent its own telex.
    In addition to Lloyds, telexes were sent by National
Westminster Bank Plc, Barclays Bank Plc, Midland Bank Plc,
tandard Chartered Bank Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.
    Brougham noted that so far the U.S. Banks have only reached
83-1/2 pct of the total that is expected from them, while the
level of contributions from the U.K. Banks is well in excess of
90 pct. "The U.S. Figure should be closer to ours," he said.
    Many bankers have been angered by the resistance of the
regional U.S. Banks, noting that even if they don't contribute
to the new loan they still will be receiving interest on the
existing loans.
    The banks still have three weeks to sign the agreement and
bankers are hoping all will go according to plan.
    In the meantime, bankers expect further pressure will be
exercised on the regional banks and the major U.S. Banks to
find a solution to the problem. Many have suggested that the
larger U.S. Banks should take on the additional obligations,
but so far they have resisted this.
    Bankers expect that much of the pressure on the U.S. Banks
will come from U.S. Regulators, notably the Federal Reserve.
    Bankers prefer to view the stance taken by the British
banks and other national groups as "a matter of principal, and
burden sharing" rather than as a "pressure tactic" to force the
U.S. Banks to make up their share.
    The bankers are not the only ones to be upset by the
protracted negotiations surrounding the agreement.
    The Mexicans themselves have been angered by the delays. At
the signing in New York last Friday, Finance Minister Gustavo
Petricioli sounded a warning to the recalcitrant banks.
opportunities which its future growth will create," Petricioli
said.
    Conversion of bank debt into equity investments in Mexico
is one option banks can take advantage of to reduce their
exposure. But Mexico halted its debt for equity program in
February in an effort to concentrate on finalising the package.
    On Friday, Petricioli said "We will be a lot more
expeditious in processing the requests of banks that have
supported us."
    The pressure on the U.S. Banks comes at a time when other
major Latin American debtors are in the process of crucial debt
    Brazil, the third world's largest debtor, has suspended all
interest payments on its 109 billion dlrs of foreign debt. Many
of the major U.S. Banks, including Citibank, have already said
they might have to put their Brazil loans on a cash basis and
take the financial losses, which could total billions of
dollars.
    This would be required by U.S. Banking regulations if the
interest payments are more than 90 days overdue.
    However, the U.S. Banks are not the only ones threatened by
regulations. In the U.K., A proposed Inland Revenue ruling
would affect the tax treatment of certain types of loans, many
of which are made to Latin American countries.
    Basically, the ruling wants to limit the tax credit a bank
can claim for tax withheld by foreign governments on loan
interest payments.
    The British banks are planning to fight the proposals as
their implementation could prove extremely costly, not just in
terms of compliance but in limiting future business.
 REUTER

Hong Kong recorded a 3.51 billion
H.K. Dlr deficit in February after a 2.54 billion dlr surplus
in January as imports climbed and exports slid, the Census and
    The deficit compared with a deficit of 1.76 billion dlrs in
    Imports rose to 24.12 billion dlrs, up 2.6 pct from
January's 23.52 billion dlrs and 42 pct above the 16.98 billion
dlrs recorded in February 1986.
    Total exports for the month fell 20.9 pct to 20.61 billion
dlrs from 26.06 billion in January.
    February exports were still 35.4 pct above the 15.22
billion dlrs recorded in the same month last year.
    Re-exports, the territory's traditional entrepot trade,
outpaced domestically produced exports for the first time since
    Re-exports fell 11.6 pct to 10.62 billion dlrs from 12.0
billion dlrs in January but were 54 pct above February 1986's
6.88 billion dlrs. Domestic exports slid 28.9 pct to 9.99
billion dlrs from January's 14.05 billion dlrs but were up 19.7
pct over the 8.35 billion dlrs recorded in February 1986.
 REUTER

Belgian banks will need greater
flexibility to choose their sphere of operations by 1992, when
the European Community is due to introduce free competition in
banking throughout the bloc, Generale de Banque SA <GENB.BR>
president Eric de Villegas de Clercamp told a news conference.
    He said at present Belgian and Italian banks were the most
restricted in the EC.
    While German banks were free to hold stakes in commercial
companies in which they invested capital, Belgian banks could
do so only in severely limited circumstances for short periods.
    "The authorities concerned should introduce within a
reasonable period major modifications toward greater freedom
and flexibility if we want to retain competitiveness with the
neighbouring countries," de Villegas said.
    He said the EC authorities envisaged that after 1992
financial institutions would be able to start operations
throughout the EC.
    Since the control of each institution would remain in the
hands of the authorities in its country of origin, rules
applied in member states could distort competition unless they
were harmonised.
 REUTER

Shr profit 1.44 dlrs vs profit 83 cts
    Net profit 39.0 mln vs profit 22.5 mln
    Sales 816.1 mln vs 865.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 95 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 25.6 mln vs profit 2,223,000
    Sales 2,142,118 vs 2,234,768
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes prtax
provisions for restructuring operations of 4,868,000 dlrs in
quarter and 38.1 mln dlrs in year.
    Latest year net includes 1,825,000 dlr tax credit and
2,600,000 dlr posttax loss from debt extinguishment.
 Reuter

K mart Corp said it signed an
agreement to supply merchandise for Entertainment Marketing
Inc's <EM> home shopping subsidiary, Consumer Discount Network.
    K mart, through its Ultra Buying Network, will begin
supplying non-electronic goods to Consumer Discount Network as
of April 1.
    It said Entertainment Marketing and K mart agreed to share
in the profits. In addition, K mart will receive warrants to
buy two mln shares of Entertainment Marketing's common stock.
 Reuter

The Bank of Spain provided 1,145 billion
pesetas in assistance funds which bankers said reflected fears
of fresh increases in overnight rates.
    The daily auction was the biggest of the year and comes
after the previous record set last June 6 of 1,240 billion
pesetas.
    A spokesman for one of Spain top five banks said higher
overnight call money rates were expected in the short term in
view of disappointing money supply figures for February.
    The M-4 money supply, measured as liquid assets in public
hands, rose 16.7 pct last month against 8.1 pct in January and
compared with this year's eight pct target. Money supply growth
was 11.4 pct last year.
    The central bank on Tuesday raised overnight rates by a
quarter of a percentage point to 14 pct on demand for 746
billion pesetas. Rates stood at 12.1 pct at the start of the
year and have been increased to drain liquidity on rising
demand for funds. "The policy is proving counter-productive and
rates will have to come down in the long-term," the bank
spokesman said in reply to Reuters enquiries.
    He said higher rates were fuelling an influx of short-term
speculative capital from abroad.
    "At least 800 mln dlrs of current excess liquidity in the
system is convertible pesetas from West Germany and other
countries with much lower rates," he said.
 REUTER

Corp said it has called for redeemption a 150 mln dlr issue of
8.5 pct convertible subordinate debentures due 2010 on May 15.
    The company said each 1,000 dlrs principal amount of the
debentures will be redeemed at 1,068 dlrs plus 7.08 dlrs of
accrude interest.
    It said each 1,000 dlrs principal amount of the debentures
is convertible into about 30.075 common shares at the
conversion price of 33.25 dlrs a share. The stock closed at
53-3/4 yesterday.
 Reuter

    Macao, across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, has a
population of about 400,000.
 Reuter

Ethyl Corp said its subsidiaries
completed the acquisiton of Nelson Research and Development Co
<NELR>.
    The merger was approved following completion on Jan 27 of a
tender offer valued at approximately 55 mln dlrs, the company
said.
    It added that Nelson, based in Irvine, Calif., will be
operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ethyl.
    Nelson designs and develops new drugs, Ethyl said.
 Reuter

making a market in Standard Oil Co at 73 bid offerred at 75 --
has been trading stock at 74.
 Reuter

Colonial American Bankshares Corp
said it met with the dissident shareholder group Colonial
American Shareholders Committee to consider a settlement to
their dispute that would give the group representation on the
Colonial board, but the talks broke down.
    The company said it does not want a proxy contest, but if
the committee presents nominees for election as directors at
the April 27 annual meeting, Colonial will take "all
appropriate steps" to win.
    The company said "There was disagreement on several issues,
including a demand by the committee for reimbursement by the
corporation of approximately 275,000 dlrs in exepnses incurred
by the committee.  The board felt it was inappropriate to
reimburse the committee for any of its expenses."
    The group owns under 15 pct of Colonial stock.  Colonial
has nominated a slate of four directors for election at the
 Reuter

One hundred members of Britain's ruling
Conservative Party have signed a motion calling for trade
sanctions against Japan to force Tokyo to open its domestic
market to British goods.
    The government announced last week that Japan had a 5.9
billion dlr trade surplus with Britain in 1986.
    The Department of Trade and Industry said the government
was drawing up contingency plans to force Japan into opening up
its domestic markets but a spokesman said such moves were very
much a last resort.
    Ideas being considered included blocking Japanese companies
from trading in Britain and revoking licenses of Japanese
operations in the London financial district.
 Reuter

deficit of 2.5 billion stg will be exceeded, said Wroblewski.
    Seasonally adjusted figures showed that imports rose in
February to 7.16 billion stg from 6.73 billion in January.
Drew said that the faster rise in exports than imports would
prove partly aberrational in coming months. He forecast the
Chancellor's Budget tax cuts would increase consumer expediture
on imported goods.
    However, Ian Harwood, economist at Warburg Securities, said
his firm was sharply revising its 1987 current account deficit
goods and import-intensive stock building among manufactureres,
to a steady 1.6050 dlrs about 1300 GMT, nearly a cent higher
than the European low of 1.5960.
    The Marplan poll, published in "Today," showed Conservative
support had fallen to 36 pct, from 38 pct last month, while the
Alliance of Liberals and Social Democrats had rallied to 31
pct, from 21 pct, to run neck and neck with the Labour Party,
whose own support fell from 38 pct.
    The poll was taken after the Budget, which was greeted
enthusiastically by financial markets but seems to have left
the voters indifferent, political observers said.
    Another regular poll is due tomorrow, and eonomists warn
that today's improved sentiment could be dented if support for
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher slips again.
    This upsetting of the markets' political perceptions, which
are all but discounting a Conservative victory in the upcoming
general election, made them more sensitive to the trade data,
Harwood said. "The news did come as a very, very substantial
relief," he said.
    However, on the interest rate front, economists caution
that Lawson might be wary of leaving sterling vulnerable by
encouraging another base rate fall. They noted Lawson had
already got an inflation-reducing cut in mortgage rates in
response to lower base rates, so domestic political reasons for
lower rates have been curtailed.
 REUTER

South Korea is studying a plan to buy
more coal from the United States and to start importing Alaskan
crude oil to help reduce its huge trade surplus with the United
States, Energy Ministry officials said today.
    They said the plan would dominate discussions at two-day
energy talks between officials of the two countries in
Washington from April 1.
    Huh Sun-yong, who will attend the talks with three other
Seoul government officials, told Reuters that Seoul was
"positively considering buying a certain amount of Alaskan oil
beginning this year as part of our government's overall plan to
reduce a widening trade gap between the two countries."
    Huh said however that South Korean refineries considered
the Alaskan oil economically uncompetitive.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co PLC said it has
scheduled a New York press conference for 1300 EST/1800 gmt
today at which senior management will discuss the company's
proposed acquisition of the 45 pct of Standard Oil Co <SRD>
that it does not already own for 70 dlrs per share.
    The offer is worth about 7.4 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S MULFORD REAFFIRMS G-6 PACT TO FOSTER CURRENCY STABILITY AROUND CURRENT LEVELS

TREASURY'S MULFORD SAYS G-6 HAS NO CURRENCY TARGET ZONES, RANGES

 Reuter

Essex Chemical Corp is raising 60 mln
2012 with a six pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc.
stock at 40 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 23.6 pct
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated B-1 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and B by Standard and Poor's
Corp. PaineWebber Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

The Bank of England said it operated in
the money market this afternoon, buying 226 mln stg in bills.
    In band one, the central bank bought 37 mln stg treasury
bills and 72 mln stg bank bills at 9-7/8 pct together with 117
mln stg band two bank bills at 9-13/16 pct.
    This brings total money market help so far today to 241 mln
stg and compares with the Bank's revised estimate of a 350 mln
stg shortfall.
 REUTER

Sweden's state-run Institute of
Economic Research released its forecast of economic indicators
during 1987 upon which revisions to the state budget, due to be
put forward at the end of next month, will be based.
    The institute predicted an increase in exports by 2.2 pct
to 277.72 billion crowns, with imports up 2.9 pct on 1986 to
247.51 billion.
    The balance of payments current account, which showed a
1986 surplus of 7.6 billion crowns, will be reduced to a
surplus of no more than 1.5 billion, according to the
    The state-run institute's forecast will be used as a basis
for revisions which the Finance Ministry is due to make to the
state budget, which was published in January.
 REUTER

MCO Holdings Inc said its
shareholders and those of MAXXAM Group Inc have approved the
proposed merger of the two companies.
    MCO said one MAXXAM shareholder has filed an objection to
the proposed settlement of shareholder actions related to the
merger in the Delaware Court of Chancery. A hearing on the
settlement proposal is scheduled for March 27... The merger is
subject to court approval of the settlement as well as to other
 Reuter

The finance department said it will sell
500 mln dlrs of three-year 3-1/2 month bonds to primary
distributors in a previously announced auction March 31.
    It said another 400 mln dlrs of seven-year 3 month bonds
will be auctioned April 1.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 16.7 mln vs 13.3 mln
    Sales 678.7 mln vs 531.0 mln
    Avg shrs 48.9 mln vs 45.8 mln
    1st half
    Shr 81 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 39.5 mln vs 31.7 mln
    Sales 1.71 billion vs 1.35 billion
    NOTE: Twelve and 28-week periods.
 Reuter

<Carolian Systems International Inc>
said it anticipates profit for fiscal 1987 ending June 30 will
be lower than fiscal 1986 earnings of 410,000 dlrs, despite an
expected revenue increase of 37 pct to more than 3.5 mln dlrs.
    After an extraordinary expense associated with the
December, 1986 withdrawal of a planned common share offering,
"we expect to be modestly profitable for the year, but below the
410,000 dlrs earned in fiscal 1986," the company said.
    Carolian previously reported fiscal six month profit of
12,933 dlrs, excluding an extraordinary loss of 17,210 dlrs,
compared to earnings of 69,829 dlrs in the prior year.
    The company said it anticipated fiscal 1987 earnings to be
lower due to withdrawal of its share offering, computer
equipment shipment delays and costs associated with sales staff
    A strengthening Canadian dollar against U.S. currency will
also adversely affect revenues and earnings, since 85 pct of
revenues are generated by sales outside Canada, said Carolian,
a leading supplier of utility software for Hewlett-Packard
 Reuter

Tunisia has decided to break diplomatic
relations with Iran, the foreign ministry said.
    A communique published by the official TAP news agency said
the Iranian embassy in Tunis had been engaged in activities
liable to disturb public order.
    These included acts aimed at sowing ideological confusion
and anarchy, the communique said.
 Reuter

Treasury Assistant Secretary David
Mulford reaffirmed U.S. backing for the Paris Agreement among
six industrial nations to cooperate closely to foster exchange
rate stability around current levels.
    In testimony prepared for delivery before a Senate banking
subcommittee, Mulford said there was broad recognition in Paris
that "further substantial exchange rate shifts could damage
growth and adjustment prospects."
    But he also said while there are clear understandings among
the countries regarding cooperation, "We have refrained from
establishing a system of target zones or ranges."
    Mulford also said the six nations have not spelled out the
way in which they intend to deal with possible market
developments.
    He said governments must retain flexibility in dealing with
exchange market pressures and efforts to establish rigid
exchange rate objectives "or to specify too precisely the goals
of intervention" would hurt official attempts to react to
market pressures, he said.
    Accordingly, Mulford said setting specific currency
objectives and intervention to achieve those objectives would
be counterproductive.
    Commenting on the trade deficit, Mulford reiterated the
Treasury position that the current account deficit will decline
from 148 billion dlrs last year to around 130 billion dlrs this
year, due to the exchange rate adjustments of the past 18
months.
    But he added trade imbalances would also be corrected by
commitments from West Germany and Japan to stimulate their
economies and by U.S. efforts to cut the budget deficit and
enhance U.S. competitiveness.
    He also said some newly industrialized countries should let
their currencies appreciate.
 Reuter

to export 675,500 tonnes of maize, 245,000 tonnes of barley,
22,000 tonnes of soft bread wheat and 20,000 tonnes of feed
wheat at today's European Community tender, traders said.
    Rebates requested ranged from 127.75 to 132.50 European
Currency Units a tonne for maize, 136.00 to 141.00 Ecus a tonne
for barley and 134.25 to 141.81 Ecus for bread wheat, while
rebates requested for feed wheat were 137.65 Ecus, they said.
 Reuter

American Eagle gold bullion coin
sales are projected at 3.1 mln troy ounces in their first year
on the market, well above the target of 2.2 mln, Donna Pope,
director of the U.S. Mint, told journalists.
    World sales, which began on October 20, 1986, reached 2.193
mln ounces in less than six months of sales. This made it world
market leader with a share of 37 pct in 1986, Pope said.
    Pope said that in volume terms, nearly half of all gold
Eagle sales were within North America, roughly 40 pct were in
Europe and about eight pct in Asia.
    She said despite introduction of several new gold bullion
coins on the market recently, the Mint is aiming to preserve
the Eagle's strong market share with extensive publicity.
    The Mint uses mainly newly mined U.S. Gold for the coins,
as long as this is available at market prices. The remaining
gold is taken either from U.S. Treasury stocks, or from the
open market, Pope said.
    Gold analysts said the Eagle is facing competition here
from the Canadian Maple Leaf, and also to a lesser extent from
the South African Krugerrand. Some estimated the Maple Leaf's
West German market share at 60 pct.
    The figures may be distorted, as many German investors buy
gold bullion in Switzerland or Luxembourg to escape the 14 pct
value-added tax imposed here. Including the tax, the one-ounce
coins traded today at 906 marks, they said.
    Competition may also come from new gold coins, including
Belgium's ECU, which began sales today. Britain and Australia
also have plans to mint gold bullion coins, the analysts said.
 REUTER

Neoax Inc said it has
agreed to sell the assets and business of its Novatronics
Division to Veeco Instruments Inc <VEE> for 20 mln dlrs.
    Neoax said it expects a gain of about nine mln dlrs on the
transaction which is expected to becomleted during the second
quarter, adding the gain will be sheltered by its tax loss
    Novatronics makes military-specification power supplies and
avionics components for various prime government defense
contractors. It had 1986 sales of 21 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs 7.5 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

Don Gevirtz, chairman of The Foothill
Group Inc, told Reuters the company's first quarter results
will be up sharply over last year's eight cents a share.
    "First quarter results will be dramatically better," he
said following a presentation to analysts. He cited a sharp
drop in non-earning assets, healthy asset growth and lower
expenses.
    He declined to predict specific results for the first
quarter. In the 1986 first quarter, the commerical finance
company earned 606,000 dlrs, or eight cts per share.
    Gevirtz also declined to predict full year results, but
said, "We expect an excellent year." In 1986 Foothill earned
3,239,000 dlrs, or 41 cts per share.
    Analysts expect Foothill to record earnings of 65 cts to 85
cts a share in 1987.
    During the presentation Gevirtz said Foothill has reduced
to less than five pct the company's level of non-performing
assets, which was as high as eight pct in previous years.
    David Hilton, chief financial officer, said the company's
general and administrative expenses in 1987 will be reduced to
about 3.0 to 3.5 pct of average assets from 4.3 pct in 1986.
    The company had average assets of 399.8 mln dlrs from
continuing operations and 29.8 mln dlrs from discontinued
operations in 1986, according to its annual report.
 Reuter

Commodore International Corp
said it entered into two agreements to provide Amiga computer
graphics technology to the coin-operated amusement industry.
    The agreements are with London-based <Mastertronic Ltd> and
<Grand Products> of Elk Grove, Ill., and they join a similar
previously-announced agreement with Bally Manufacturing Corp
<BLY>, the company said.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Commodore said it will
supply the companies with Amiga printed circuit board and
Commodore technical knowhow and will obtain software licensing
rights to video games developed for the Amiga hardware.

The Bank of France intervened on the
market to buy dollars and sell yen to support the U.S.
Currency, dealers said.
    A major French bank said it acted for the central bank in
buying between five and 15 mln dlrs against yen.
    A dealer at another bank said his bank had been asked to
publicise the intervention, to send a clear signal to the
markets that central banks were acting in concert to maintain
the exchange rates agreed to be appropriate at last month's
meeting of the Group of Five and Canada in Paris.
    The dollar was being quoted at 6.0950/70 francs in early
afternoon dealings after a fix of 6.09425 francs.
    The major French bank said it sold yen at a rate of 149.28
against the dollar.
    The U.S. Currency was subsequently being quoted at
149.25/35.
    The Bank of Japan was reported in the market overnight to
bolster the credibility of the Paris accord following several
days of pressure against the dollar.
    Pressure developed after U.S. Treasury Secretary James
Baker repeated earlier statements that the Reagan
administration had no targets for the dollar, apparently
undermining the assumption that the agreement in Paris had
fixed broad fluctuation ranges for major currencies.
    Baker later said his remark had been misinterpreted.
 REUTER

Standard Oil Co said British
Petroleum Co Plc's proposed offer of 70 dlrs a share for the 45
pct of Standard's stock not held by BP is being referred to a
special committee of the company's board.
    This committee, which is composed of the independent,
non-exective directors of the company, was formed in April 1986
for the purpose of monitoring the relationship between Standard
Oil and BP.
    Standard said the group will consider BP's offer in due
course noting the committee has retained the First Boston Corp
and Cravath Swaine and Moore as advisers.               
 Reuter

U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary
David Mulford said he foresaw substantial net new commercial
loans to the major debtor countries in 1987.
    In testimony before a Senate banking subcommittee, Mulford
said he based this prediction on progress in talks between
banks and Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela, as well as progress in
negotiations with the Philippines.
    "These agreements, together with others for Argentina and
we hope Brazil," should assure substantial new loans this year,
    Mulford defended the U.S. strategy for handling the debt
crisis and added additional steps, like development by
commercial banks of a menu of options to support debtor reform,
can be undertaken.
    That particular development would maintain broad bank
participation in new financing packages to debtors.
    Mulford stessed that greater flexibility in devising new
money packages may be essential for future bank syndications.
    "The commercial banks have much to gain from taking the
lead themselves to develop the kinds of ideas that help assure
the concerted lending process works," he said.
    In particular, Mulford said banks and debtor nations will
increasingly move toward repricing, retiming or rescheduling
agreements as an alternative to new loans.
    "The benefits of such approaches may be substantial and
may, in the right circumstances, be easier to achieve than new
money packages," he said.
    But for debtors with substantial financing needs, new
lending will still be necessary, he said.
    Mulford rejected congressional ideas for a debt facility as
being far too costly to creditor governments, and ultimately
taxpayers.
    Mulford urged further development of debt-equity swaps as
well as broader mutual funds for conversion into equity.
    As in the past, Mulford said progress must be founded on
economic reforms and sufficient new financing for debtors both
to support those reforms and generate new growth.
 Reuter

Anchor Glass Container Corp said
first quarter net income is now expected to exceed the 3.1 mln
dlrs earned before extraordinary items in the year earlier
quarter.
    Previously, the company had said first quarter results
would likely be lower than for the 1986 period due to
production disruptions caused by the large number of production
line changes scheduled during the first quarter, its statement
pointed out.
    While the disruptive effects of the production line changes
had occurred in line with expectations, Anchor Glass said,
first quarter operating results were helped by lower than
anticipated operating costs and improved margins on sales as a
result of a more favorable product mix.
    The company said its income performance for the full year
remains very good.
    It also said Anchor Hocking Corp <ARH> has converted the
entire principal balance of its Anchor Glass convertible
subordinated note to 576,694 Anchor Glass common shares.
    Anchor Glass said the conversion decreased its total debt
and increased stockholders' equity by about 9.4 mln dlrs and
increased common shares outstanding to 13,902,716.
    It said the conversion will also reduce its annualized net
interest expense by about 1.1 mln dlrs, or 600,000 dlrs after
taxes.
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs 2-1/2 cts prior
    Pay June 10
    NOTE: Prior payment adjusted for two-for-one stock split
declared recently.
 Reuter

has received a total of 2,362,616 common shares in response to
its offer to exchange Class B shares for common shares, and all
common shares received were accepted.
    Vishay said about 737,500 shares were tendered by chairman
Alfred Slaner and 1,164,607 by president Felix Zandman, with
other executives tendering another 223,387 shares.
    Vishay said it now has 4,675,435 common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Credit Lyonnais Australia is issuing a
40 mln Australian dlr eurobond paying 14-1/2 pct and priced at
101-1/8 pct, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
    The bond is due April 24, 1990 and is guaranteed by Credit
Lyonnais. It will be available in denominations of 1,000 dlrs
and will listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees comprise one pct selling concession with 1/2 pct
 REUTER

 Reuter

Walt Disney Co Ltd is issuing a 60 mln
Australian dlr eurobond due May 7, 1990 with a 14-1/2 pct
coupon and priced at 101-3/8 pct, Warburg Securities said as
1,000 Australian dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    Gross fees of 1-1/2 pct comprise one pct for selling and
1/2 pct for management and underwriting combined.
 REUTER

about 25 mln stg in late help to the money market, bringing the
total assistance today to 266 mln stg.
    This compares with the bank's revised estimate of a 350 mln
stg money market shortfall.
 REUTER

Iomega Corp said it has signed a
four-year agreement to supply Beta-20 disk drives with
removable cartridges to <Leading Edge Hardware Products Inc>.
    The company said shipments will stgart in the second
quarter of 1987.
 Reuter

Libyan troops are hastily evacuating
their last important stronghold in northern Chad, leaving the
key desert oasis undefended against advancing Chad government
troops, military and diplomatic sources said.
    They said a Libyan force of some 3,000 men was abandoning
the oasis of Faya-Largeau but added that severe sand storms
across Chad could be delaying the pull out and an expected
government strike on the town.
    Swirling clouds of sand, which have closed the capital of
N'Djamena to commercial flights for two days, have sharply
reduced visibility and made it difficult to determine the exact
situation around Faya, French military officials said.
    The hurried Libyan evacuation, which started yesterday
morning, follows the capture on Sunday of Libya's best-defended
and vitally important air base at Ouadi Doum, 145 kms (90
miles) northeast of Faya.
    The fall of Ouadi Doum, which Chad said cost 1,269 Libyan
lives, deprived Libya of its only hard surface runway in Chad
capable of taking Soviet-made bombers and transport planes and
left Faya-Largeau isolated and encircled by government troops.
    Libyan forces are reported to have blown up stocks of fuel
and ammunition on Tuesday night before starting to flee
northwards towards the Tibesti mountain region, which adjoins
Libya's southern border.
 Reuter

Roy F. Weston Inc expects to
distribute a statement shortly, a spokesman said.
    NASDAQ has halted trading in the stock until the
announcement is distributed, saying it last traded at 20-3/4.
 Reuter

PHLCORP Inc said for November 14
through December 31, its first reporting period after emerging
from reorganization proceedings, it earned 86,000 dlrs on
revenues of 47 mln dlrs, excluding 2,300,000 dlrs in gains on
the sale of real estate and 800,000 dlrs in tax credits.
    The company is the successor to Baldwin-United Corp.
 Reuter

Marsam Pharmaceuticals Inc
said an initial public offering of 800,000 common shares is
underway at 15 dlrs per share through sole underwriter <Smith
Barney, Harris Upham and Co>.
 Reuter

Stone Container Corp said it has
elected to redeem 200 mln dlrs of convertible debt.
    The paperboard and packaging producer said the debt
consists of the entire outstanding principal amount of its
6-3/4 pct convertible subordinated debentures due April 15,
2011, and all of its outstanding series C cumulative
convertible exchangeable preferred shares, both issued in the
principal amount of 100 mln dlrs each.
    Stone said April 10 is the redemption date for the
convertible debentures and April 27 is the redemption date for
the series C preferred.
    Stone Container said the convertible debentures' redemption
price is 1067.50 dlrs plus accrued interest of 32.81 dlrs for a
total of 1100.31 dlrs for each 1,000 dlrs prinicipal amount of
the debentures. Interest on the debentures will stop accruing
on and after its redemption date, the company said.
    Stone Container added that the series C preferred's
redemption price is 53.15 dlrs plus accrued and unpaid
dividends of 12 cts for a total of 53.27 dlrs a share.
Dividends on the shares will stop accruing on and after their
redemption date as well, Stone Container said.
    Stone Container said shareholders also have the right to
convert any or all of the debt into common shares at the
conversion price of 56 dlrs a common share, or about 17.857
shares for each 1,000 dlrs of debentures ,and .893 shares for
each series C share.
    The company said the conversion right will terminate after
1700 EST April 9 for the debentures and 1700 EST April 13 for
the series C.
    Stone said that those electing to convert their holdings to
common shares, becoming holders of record by May 22, will be
entitled to the 20 cts per share quarterly cash dividend
payable June 12, as well as the additional shares from the
previously announced two-for-one stock split to be issued on
June 12.
 Reuter

The financially-troubled Farm Credit
System today formally asked that the Treasury Department
provide a line of credit to the system and that Congress take
steps to guarantee stock held by borrowers.
    In testimony prepared for delivery to a Senate agriculture
subcommittee hearing, Brent Beesley, president of the Farm
Credit Corp, said "In order to avoid the need for continued
appropriations, the Farm Credit System Capital Corp should have
a line of credit from the Treasury."
    Beesley said in April the system would recommend a dollar
amount of aid needed.
    In addition, Beesley urged Congress to immediately take
steps to reassure borrowers from the system that their stock is
secure.
    We urged the Congress to go on record through a resolution
stating its commitment to protect the stock," Beesley said.
    Borrowers from the system own some four billion dlrs in
stock that could be jeopardized by the mounting losses of the
Farm Credit System.
    Beesley also said that if Congress takes action to reduce
interest rates offered to farmers to below-market levels, "The
government should provide this interest rate relief.
 Reuter

Oakwood Homes Corp is raising 25 mln
2012 with a 6-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
stock at 21.25 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 23.19
    Non-callable for three years, the issue is rated B-2 by
Moody's Investors and B by Standard and Poor's. J.C. Bradford
and Legg Mason co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

<Emco Ltd> said the board approved a
public offering of 75.0 mln dlrs principal amount of 7-1/4 pct
convertible subordinated debentures, maturing April 30, 2002,
subject to regulatory approvals.
    The debentures will be convertible into common shares at
any time up to April 30, 1992 at a price of 17.50 dlrs a share,
and then up to April 30, 1997 at 18.50 dlrs a share.
    Masco Corp <MAS>, holding 44 pct of Emco, has agreed to
purchase 33.0 mln dlrs of the debentures. Underwriters are
Gordon Capital Corp, Midland Doherty Ltd, Merrill Lynch Canada
Inc and Levesque Beaubien Inc.
 Reuter

<Fischer-Watt Gold Co Inc> said it
intends to raise about five mln dlrs from the private sale of
    The company said based on successful completion of the
placement, proceeds of which will be used to expand gold and
silver recovery, it hopes to produce 14,000 ounces of gold and
210,000 ounces of silver this year, up from 2,500 and 15,000
respectively last year.
 Reuter

letter of intent to merge into Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp PLC for
cash.
    Foote, 83 pct owned by Newmont Mining Corp, said Newmont
has informally indicated it would vote in favor of the Rio
Tinto proposal.
July.
 Reuter

Aluminium scrap recovery and usage and
output of secondary metal will continue to rise, said Shearson
Lehman Brothers in a review of the secondary aluminium market
which details cost and demand factors.
    Although primary smelting costs have declined generally in
recent years, the still substantial energy cost savings offered
by secondary smelters will continue to make re-melted material
increasingly attractive.
    It takes around 15,000 kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity
to produce one tonne of primary aluminium compared with around
550 kwh for one tonne of secondary metal, Shearson said.
    On the demand side, developments in automobiles and
packaging bode well for secondary aluminium consumption.
    Automobile production, although expected to fall this year,
is still on an upward trend and will continue to be so for the
foreseeable future and, in addition, use of aluminium castings
is gaining wider acceptance in the automobile industry,
particularly in the U.S.
    In packaging, Shearson does not expect aluminium to
dominate the beverage can market in any of the other major
economies to the extent it does in the U.S., But says there is
evidence recycling is on the increase in other countries.
    In addition to the cost savings involved, technology
advances now enable alloys of higher purity to be produced by
the secondary aluminium industry, Shearson said.
    There is not likely to be a problem of availability as the
U.S. Has a huge scrap reservoir and this is also true of
several European countries, albeit on a smaller scale.
 Reuter

Cross and Trecker said it
agreed to acquire the Alliance Automation Systems division of
Gleason Corp <GLE> for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    It said the Gleason division manufactures automated
assembly and test systems used in the production of small to
medium size components for a number of industries, including
automotive, electronic and appliance.
    Alliance Automation had 1986 sales of about 35 mln dlrs and
employs 200.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit seven cts vs loss 12 cts
    Oper net profit 216,000 vs loss 401,000
    Sales 21.4 mln vs 24.9 mln
    NOTE: Current year net excludes 142,000 dlr tax credit.
    Company operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
 Reuter

Cray Research Inc said Los Alamos
National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. installed a Cray
X-MP/416 supercomputer valued at about 22 mln dlrs.
    It said the system was installed in the fourth quarter of
1986 as a lease and converted to a purchase in the first
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 473,784 vs loss 489,257
    Revs 268.8 mln vs 81.7 mln
    Avg shrs 9,245,247 vs 8,035,326
    Year
    Shr loss 17 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net 1,512,534 vs loss 1,553,592
    Revs 1,448,310 vs 515,225
    Avg shrs 8,745,132 vs 7,619,863
 Reuter

Vicon Industries Inc said its
shareholders approved an amendment to divide its nine-member
board into three classes with staggered tenures.
    It also said shareholders expanded the indemnification
rights of the company's directors and officers.
    Both actions were taken at the company's annual
shareholders meeting, Vicon said.
 Reuter

The French government will present to
parliament a major bill within two months to overhaul the Paris
stock market, economics and finance minister Edouard Balladur
said.
    Balladur told an Economist conference that on the product
side, a series of new contracts, including share options and
forward contracts in European Currency Units (ECUs), would be
introduced shortly for trading on the Paris bourse.
    The scope of the new bill, however, was to transform the
organisation of equity trading, allowing participants both to
perform a banking role and to trade in equities, he said.
    "Currently, the French market is based on the Napoleonic
principle of separation of equity trading and banking. This
principle has become a dividing, and therefore a weakening,
factor for the market," Balladur said.
    He said under the planned new rules, stock brokers,
currently very specialised and undercapitalised, would be free
to link up with powerful financial institutions after a
five-year transition period.
    Stock brokerages would be subject to legislation similar to
that in the U.K. And U.S., He said, adding the Paris market
would actively attempt to attract foreign securities houses.
    Balladur said the French securities market had enjoyed
strong growth in the past 10 years, with new share and bond
issues totalling 430 billion French francs in 1986, compared
with 53 billion in 1976.
    New share issues alone totalled 63 billion francs in 1986,
up 230 pct from the 1985 level of 19 billion francs, he said.
    Total market capitalisation stood at 3,200 billion francs
at end-1986, compared with 400 billion 10 years earlier, while
stock and bond trades were valued at 2,200 billion francs last
year against 56 billion in 1976, he said.
    Balladur, who also had private talks with U.K. Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson, said his government was also preparing a bill to
liberalise the French insurance sector.
    Under the proposed rules, an independent regulatory
insurance commission will be set up. The commission will be
endowed with powers similar to those of a body set up earlier
to monitor the banking sector, Balladur said.
    He said the new bill would also aim to adapt insurance
regulation to take account of the ever-closer integration of
all areas of finance.
 REUTER

The West German Finance Ministry said the
cabinet will discuss a bill on Wednesday to increase tax cuts
by an extra 5.2 billion marks next year to a total of 13.7
    The additional tax cuts were agreed within the government
coalition in early March after Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg pledged at the six-nation monetary conference in
Paris in February to increase the size of the 1988 tax cuts.
    The bill will be presented in parliament at a later,
unspecified date after the cabinet's deliberations.
 REUTER

    Pay April Eight
 Reuter

Qtrly div 25 cts vs 25 cts
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Madagascar's cocoa production is
estimated 13 pct higher this year at 2,720 tonnes, up from
2,400 in 1986, Agriculture Ministry officials said.
    This improvement reflects the government's efforts over the
last seven years to extend existing cocoa plantations and plant
new higher yielding varieties, particularly at the northern tip
of the island, they said.
    Last year, Madagascar exported 2,189 tonnes of high quality
cocoa, up from 1,624 in 1985, the Trade Ministry said.
    This year's exports are estimated at 2,400 tonnes.
 Reuter

Computer Associates
International Inc said its board has declared a two-for-one
stock split, payable May Seven, record April Seven.
 Reuter

Increased activity by Switzerland's
banks pushed net capital exports to a provisional 11.7 billion
francs last year from 10.0 billion in 1985, the National Bank
said in a pre-publication copy of its annual report.
    It also said the current account surplus of the Swiss
balance of payments reached a provisional 13.5 billion francs
last year, from 12.8 billion in 1985.
    The National Bank's currency reserves rose by 1.8 billion
francs, against a 2.8 billion rise in 1985. However, taking
into accounts effects of the shift in exchange rates, reserves
actually fell in value by 1.9 billion.
    The banks' net capital exports climbed to 5.4 billion
francs, from 5.1 billion in 1985, while capital exports by
domestic non-banks fell to 5.0 billion from 9.1 billion.
    The National Bank gave the following figures (1985 in
brackets)
    Current Account +13.5 billion (+12.8 in 1985), made up of:
    Goods                     -7.1 (-8.7)
    Services                  +10.1 (+9.8)
    Factor Income             +12.5 (+13.7)
    Transfers                 -2.0 (-2.0)
 Capital Account -11.7 billion (-10.0 in 1985) made up of
    Direct Investment                          N/A  (-6.3)
    Portfolio Investment                       N/A  (-2.8)
    Capital Traffic of Banks                  -10.4 (-14.2)
    Other Capital Traffic Included             N/A  (+5.6)
    Traffic not Included and Statistical Error N/A  (+7.7)
    Change in Currency Reserves of the National Bank +1.8
(+2.8)
    Interest Income on Foreign Currency        +2.4 (+3.4)
    Foreign Currency Transactions              -0.6 (-0.6)
 REUTER

The St Lawrence Seaway between Lake
Ontario and Montreal is still scheduled to open for the
shipping season on March 31, a Seaway official said.
    The Great Lakes could have been open for traffic earlier
this month due to the mild Winter, but scheduled repairs to the
Welland Canal joining Lake Erie with Lake Ontario will keep
that section closed until the April 1 opening, she said.
    One lock system in the four-lock Soo Canal joining Lake
Superior with Huron was opened on the morning of March 22, but
only three commercial vessels have been locked through so far,
according to an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official.
    The Soo Canal is currently only open for daylight vessel
movement, with 24 hour movement allowed beginning March 29, she
added.
 Reuter

A large Dutch animal feed compounder
will begin formal legal proceedings early next month as a test
case on the way the EC grain co-responsibility levy is applied,
a spokesman for Dutch grain and feed trade association, Het
Comite, told Reuters.
    Het Comite has been co-ordinating national actions against
alleged distortions caused by currency factors in the levy and,
since December, has lodged more than 80 individual cases with
the Business Appeal Court in The Hague.
    The basic complaint is that the levy does not take account
of currency cross-rates of exchange and therefore compounders
in countries with strong currencies may have to pay more in
their own currency than is paid to them by producers in another
country.
    Het Comite has obtained a temporary agreement that
companies can pay the amount they receive toward the levy
rather than paying a full guilder amount to the Dutch grain
commodity board.
    The spokesman said Het Comite will provide financial and
legal backing to the test case in the Business Administration
Court in the Hague. Oral proceedings are to begin on April 10.
    The spokesman said Het Comite finally selected the company
for the test case from among the 80 lodged "because the bill
(the firm) received from the commodity board for payment of the
levy contained significant currency distortions and involved
grain from a wide variety of origins." The name of the company
is not being made public.
    The Administration Court is not expected to make a final
ruling on the case in the near future. The Het Comite spokesman
said it was very likely it would refer questions to the Appeal
Court in Luxembourg, and "as a result it could easily be another
nine to 12 months before the matter is finally resolved."
    Meanwhile, the actions by Dutch animal feed compounders are
putting pressure on the commodity board to urge the Dutch
government to follow through on earlier statements and seek a
complete review in Brussels of the way in which the levy is
collected, the spokesman said.
    Het Comite, as a member of FEFAC, the association of
European animal feed manufacturers, is also a party to actions
protesting the whole levy in the Luxembourg appeal court.
 Reuter

The Executive Directors of the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB) approved a total of 115 mln dlrs of
trade and project financing loans to its member countries in
the first two days of its meetings here, a bank statement said.
    Two Turkish iron and steel companies were lent a total of
14.5 mln dlrs for modernisation projects to be paid over 10
years with a two-year grace period.
    Libya is to receive 8.9 mln dlrs for a plant to produce
concrete blocks, North Yemen 5.5 mln dlrs for roads and
Maldives 1.8 mln dlrs for school construction.
    The board approved a 4.2 mln dlrs loan to Benin for the
construction of the Cotonou port, to be repaid in 25 years with
a five year grace period, the statement said.
    The directors also approved 15 mln dlrs of loans each for
Turkey, Morocco and Jordan, 16 mln dlrs for Algeria, 10 mln
dlrs for South Yemen, six mln dlrs for Tunisia and 3.1 mln dlrs
for Malaysia to finance the import of commodities including
crude oil, petroleum products and basic computer components.
    The directors are expected to end their meetings later
today and the IBD Governors will start a two-day annual meeting
in Istanbul on Saturday.
 REUTER

<Z-Seven Fund Inc> said it expects to
earn six dlrs a share in 1987, up from 4.20 dlrs a share in
1986.
    The company said the 1986 net earnings were up 30 pct from
3.22 dlrs in 1985. Net asset value in 1986 rose 35 pct to 16.09
dlrs a share from 11.89 a year earlier, adjusted for a
 Reuter

said.
 Reuter

Jaguar Cars Inc, a subsidiary of Jaguar
PLC, said it introduced its new 1988 XJ6 luxury sedan to
replace its Series III XJ6 sedan.
    The 40,500-dlr car will be available in showrooms starting
May four, the company said.
    Many parts of the XJ6 and the 44,500 dlr Vanden Plas have
been changed, adding high-tech features. The car has seven
micro-processors that control its major electrical functions.
The in-car computer offers a wide array of trip information.
    The Vanden Plas offers more features than the basic XJ6.
    Jaguar said it has a "substantial waiting list" for the
cars in Europe, where it was introduced last October.
 Reuter

Spain's state refiner Empresa Nacional
de Petroleo S.A. (EMP) plans to build its second unit for
production of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline
additive replacing lead, company sources said.
    The Coruna-based plant, with an annual capacity of 27,000
tonnes, and a 55,000-tonnes-per-year facility that EMP will
start up in Tarragona next year, will make the state refiner
Spain's biggest producer of MTBE.
    Petroleos del Norte S.A. (Petronor) runs a 45,000 tonne a
year plant in Bilbao and Cia Espanola de Petroleos S.A. (Cepsa)
plans to put a similar unit onstream next year in Algeciras.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co PLC's
announcement that its U.S. subsidiary intends to tender for the
45 pct of Standard Oil Co <SRD> it does not already own,
catapulted U.S. oil stocks sharply higher this morning, traders
and analysts said.
    "It raises the specter of additional consolidation in the
industry and that is what is boosting the other oils," analyst
Rosario Ilacqua of L.F. Rothschild said.
    Sanford Margoshes of Shearson Lehman Brothers said "this
deal shows that British Petroleum, a conservative investor that
knows the oil business, is clearly confident in the U.S. oil
industry, and that shines well on the U.S. companies."
 More

Shr 15 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 900,334 vs 482,705
    Revs 28.7 mln vs 18.8 mln
    Avg shrs 6,195,527 vs 4,551,105
    Shr 51 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 2,713,912 vs 1,402,696
    Revs 98.7 mln vs 67.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,369,833 vs 4,551,105
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-two stock split
effecitive March 2, 1987.
    Weston said earnings for the firstg quarter will be about
flat due to the recent substantial addition of management and
technical staff and an expansion in the Southeastern and
Northwestern U.S.
    The company said full-year earnings and revenues are
expected to be higher.  The company today reported 1986
earnings of 2,713,912 dlrs, up from 1,402,696 dlrs in 1985, and
revenues of 98.7 mln dlrs, up from 67.9 mln dlrs.
    Weston earned 492,000 dlrs in last year's first quarter.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp said it will spend over 30
mln dlrs to upgrade a gasoline-producing unit at its Beaumont,
Texas, refinery.
    It said the unit is a catalytic reformer, which converts
low-octane components of gasoline into high-octane components
for use in Super Unleaded gasoline.
    The company said the modernization will allow the unit to
regenerate catalysts on a continuous basis without shutdown.
Currently, it must be shut twice a year.  The unit produces
46,000 barrels of gasoline components a year.  Construction
will start late this year, with completion set for mid-1989.
 Reuter

Warner-Lambert Co said it
has filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey against
<Mason Distributors Inc>, alleging unfair competition.
    It said the suit results from Mason's distribution of
children's allergy medicine in packages allegedly resembling
those of Warner-Lambert's Benadryl capsules and elixir.
 Reuter

Nova Pharmaceutical Corp said the
U.S. Patent Office has allowed its patent for bradykinin
antagonist drugs. Nova said patents have also been filed in
other countries worldwide.
    It said it has the exclusive worldwide rights to these
patents for the first bradykinin blocking drugs being developed
as topical pain relievers and in nasal spry form for treating
common cold symptoms.
    Nova said Bradykinin is the most powerful paing-producing
substance in the body and is considered, based on scientific
evidence, to be the initial stimulus of pain.
 Reuter

agreed to buy <Southern Video>, a Blockbuster licensee in San
Antonio.
    Blockbuster said it will issue 80,460 shares of its common
stock for all the net assets of Southern Video.
    The company said after the acquisition is complete, it
intends to open additional Blockbuster Video Superstores in the
San Antonio market.
 Reuter

Brazil's soybean harvest was 13
pct complete by March 20, the Safras e Mercado newsletter said.
    This compares with an historic average for this time of
year of 20 pct.
    The newsletter gave the following figures for the progress
of the harvest in the main producer states:
    Parana: 40 pct
    Mato Grosso do Sul: 15 pct
    Mato Grosso: five pct
    Rio Grande do Sul: two pct
 Reuter

Contel Corp said it has agreed in
principle to acquire <Walker County Telephone Co> of LaFayette,
Ga., for an undisclosed amount of common stock.
    Walker has 7,600 customers in northeast Georgia.
regulatory agencies, both boards and Walker shareholders.
 Reuter

CompuDyne Corp said its
Robintech Inc unit expects to spend 300,000 to 350,000 dlrs on
a study of a former plant site requested by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, EPA.
    The company said another potentially responsible party was
also asked to share in the study. The plant, in Vestal, N.Y.,
has been designated as a Superfund site by the EPA.
    While its responsibility has not been established, it said
the study will determine what remedial action may be needed at
the site.
 Reuter

had reached agreement with the London-based International Stock
Exchange on the distribution of two-way British domestic share
quotations from the Stock Exchange Automated Quotation System
(SEAQ) via the Reuter worldwide information network.
    The company said in a statement the agreement covered SEAQ
Level-2, which provides buy and sell price quotations from 31
individual market makers in domestic U.K. Equities.
    Reuters said it will begin carrying the quotes for all 101
Alpha stocks, leading U.K. Shares, within the next few weeks.
    The SEAQ investor service, which displays indications of
market prices for U.K. Shares without identifying market
makers, has been available on the Reuter network since the "Big
Bang" deregulation of the London stock market last October.
    The SEAQ level-2 service will be available on one-month
trial to subscribers to the Reuter International Equities
Service and to the Reuter U.K. Investment Service, prior to the
imposition of Stock Exchange fees, the company said.
 REUTER

Mulford said the Paris agreement among leading industrial
nations is intended to produce "reasonable stability" in exchange
markets over the next few months.
    He told a Senate Banking subcommittee the Group of Five
nations and Canada agreed in Paris to "see if there can't be a
period of reasonable stability instead of volatility" to give
time for the committments in Paris to take place.
    Asked by Sen Phil Gramm (R-Tex) whether U.S. intervention
was not in fact overvaluing the dollar, Mulford replied that
the administration judged that after economic adjustments,
current exchange rates reflect underlying economic
    In particular, the stability sought by the nations would
allow West Germany and Japan to stimulate their economies
domestically and the U.S. to cut its budget deficit, Mulford
said in his testimony.
    He stressed that a further sharp fall in the dollar would
hurt the ability of Germany and Japan to boost growth.
    Mulford noted that half of West Germany's economy was
affected by international developments.
    He also said increased Japanese domestic growth would
result in more U.S. exports to Japan and would not necessarily
lead to greater Japanese capital flows to the U.S., as Gramm
asserted, if Japan reformed its domestic capital market.
    Commenting on the Paris agreement, Mulford said, "I think
exchange rates ought to be stabilized so (Germany's and
Japan's) efforts can be carried out.
    Mulford rejected Gramm's argument that faster domestic
growth in Germany and Japan would result in an even lower
dollar.
    Mulford said the administration wanted to achieve a pattern
of higher growth overseas as a way of improving the U.S. trade
deficit.
    Otherwise, he said, the trade deficit would be resolved
either through a much lower dollar or a U.S. recession, both
alternatives he termed unacceptable and undesirable.
 Reuter

has received an order worth over five mln dlrs to install its
LS-7000 hand-held laser scanners and related equipment in all
271 U.S. Toys "R" Us Inc <TOY> stores by the end of calendar
1987.
 Reuter

it completed its purchase of Thermo Process Services Inc, a
subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corp <TMO>.
    Thermo Process Systems said it issued 2,590,000 shares of
its common stock to Thermo Electron in connection with the
sale.
 Reuter

Siemens AG's <SIEG.F>
fully-owned subsidiary Siemens Informations Systems Inc. Has
raised its stake in Telecom Plus Communications Inc. By 65 pct
to 100 pct, a Siemens spokesman said.
    He added that Telecom Plus Communications was the largest
independent supplier of telephone exchange systems in the U.S.
And had achieved a turnover of 234 mln dlrs in 1986.
   The stake had been acquired from Telecom Plus International
Inc. The spokesman declined to comment on U.S. Newspaper
reports that the purchase price of the remaining stake totalled
 Reuter

Fruehauf Corp, which went private in
December through a leveraged buyout, said the predecessor
company had a 1986 loss of 60.9 mln dlrs compared to earnings
of 70.5 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Sales of the predecessor company were 2.68 billion dlrs
compared to 2.56 billion dlrs in 1985, including the sales by
the operations which are divestiture candidates.
    Fruehauf said in connection with the buyout acquisition,
the predecessor company incurred about 97 mln dlrs in expenses
charged against 1986 operations.
    In addition to the direct expenses, Fruehauf said operating
results were adversely affected by an unquantifiable amount due
to the disruption related to a proxy contest and attempted
hostile takeover which started in early 1986.
    Fruehauf said its board rescheduled the annual meeting to
June 18 from May 7 to allow for completion and distribution of
the 1986 results to shareholders.
 Reuter

it agreed to sell substantially all of the assets and certain
liabilities of its Krestmark subsidiaries to LCB Holdings Inc
for 6.5 mln dlrs cash.
    Sale of Texas-based Krestmark, a maker of doors, door
frames and other products, will allow Michigan General to
concentrate on retailing through its Diamond Lumber and
Savannah Wholesale units.
    Proceeds of the sale will be used to reduce debt. The deal
is subject to execution of a definitive agreement.
    Krestmark had revenues of about 40 mln dlrs and operating
losses of three mln dlrs in 1986, the company said. It has been
accounted for as a discontinued operation since last September.
    Dallas-based LCB is a privately-held maker of structural
steel joists and rack and storage handling systems.
    Michigan General also said its Diamond Lumber homebuilding
products retail unit closed nine unprofitable stores in the
first quarter and reduced its headquarters staff by 10 pct. The
nine closed stores, which had pretax operating losses of 1.7
mln dlrs in 1986, are being sold to provide cash for
    About 4.5 mln dlrs of inventory from the stores is being
transferred to other locations, the company said.
 Reuter

Rabbit Software Corp said it
agreed in principle to merge with <CTI Data Inc>, a privately
owned communications company.
    According to terms, CTI holders and employees will receive
200,000 shares of Rabbit stock and royalties on sales of CTI
Products. CTI will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Rabbit.
    The deal is subject to completion of a definitive merger
agreement, receipt of third party approvals and other
conditions, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 60 cts vs loss 43 cts
    Net loss 3,012,000 vs loss 2,114,000
    Revs 102.8 mln vs 134.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.48 dlr vs loss four cts
    Net loss 7,338,000 vs loss 180,000
    Revs 354.9 mln vs 469.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year net includes a loss of 623,000
dlrs and a gain 1,910,000 dlrs or 39 cts per share for an

 Reuter

Time Inc is raising 250 mln dlrs via
an offering of sinking fund debentures due 2017 yielding 8.84
pct, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
99.055 to yield 115 basis points over the off-the-run 9-1/4 pct
Treasury bonds of 2016. First Boston co-managed the deal.
starting in 1998 to retire annually five pct of the debentures
can be upped by 200 pct at the company's option, giving them an
estimated minimum life of 13.85 years and maximum of 20.5
years. The debt is rated Aa-3 by Moody's and A-plus by S/P.
 Reuter

ASTRONET Corp, which is jointly
owned by <Mitsubishi Corp> and <Stromberg-Carlson Corp>  said
it entered into three separate agreements to supply cellular
telephone systems in Roanoke, Va.; Montgomery, Ala.; and San
Angelo, Texas.
 Reuter

The Senate voted to condemn the
proposed European common market tax on vegetable and marine
fats and oils and said it would result in retaliation.
    The non-binding Senate resolution, a sense of Senate
sentiment, was approved on a 99 to 0 vote.
    "The administration should communicate to the European
Community the message that the United States will view the
establishment of such a tax as inconsistent with the European
Community's obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade that will result in the adoption of strong and
immediate countermeasures," the resolution stated.
    The resolution said the European Community Commission has
proposed establishing a consumption tax on vegetable and fish
oils and fats in conjunction with the setting of farm prices
for the 1987/1988 EC marketing year.
    The Senate said the tax would amount to almost 90 pct of
the current price of soyoil and "have a restrictive effect" on
U.S. exports of soybeans and vegetable oils to the EC.
    It would be "blatantly inconsistent" with obligations of the
EC under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT, the
resolution said, and "constitute another egregious attempt" to
impose EC agricultural costs on trading partners.
 Reuter

HEALTHMATE INC SAYS AUDITORS INTEND TO QUALIFY ITS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Sweden's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken
said it will set up a joint venture in London with U.S.
brokerage firm Equitable Securities Corp of Nashville, Tenn.,
for the sale of U.S. equities in Europe.
    S-E Bank's managing director Jacob Palmstierna told a press
briefing that the joint venture, called Equitable Enskilda
Securities Ltd, will be established next month.
    S-E Bank bought a 4.9 pct stake in Equitable Securities
about two weeks ago. Equitable's role in the joint venture will
include provision of research on firms in the south-east United
States.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs loss four cts
    Net loss 44,000 vs loss 85,000
    Sales 370,000 vs 299,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss seven cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 134,000 vs loss 56,000
    Sales 1,211,000 vs 1,069,000
    NOTE: Prior nine mths net includes 10,000 dlr loss on sale
of marketable securities.
    Prior quarter net includes 1,000 dlr tax credit.
    Current year net includes provisions for loss on investment
in preferred stock of 4,000 dlrs in quarter and 15,000 dlrs in
nine mths.
 Reuter

received a U.S. Army contract with a base year value of
1,400,000 dlrs to support the plans and operations staff of the
U.S. Army Joint Readiness Training Center, based at Little Rock
Air Force Base.
    The company said with three option years, total value would
be about 7,200,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

BANK OF BOSTON EXPECTS 1ST QTR EARNINGS FROM 90 CTS TO 1.00 DLRS/SHR VS 79 CTS

Bank of Boston Corp expects first
quarter earnings will range between 90 cts and one dlr a share,
up from 79 cts a share last year, Chairman William Brown said.
    He told shareholders the company has a 190 mln dlr exposure
in loans to Brazil if that country defaults on its debt
payments. If a default does occur, it would first quarter
earnings by about five cts a share, which would bring the
bank's in the lower level of the estimated range, he added.
    Brown noted the 1986 first quarter net included a 17 cts
gain from loan restructurings which will not appear this year.
    Brown said the bank's other nonperforming assets, not
including its Brazilian exposure, could rise to over 700 mln
dlrs at the end of this quarter compared with 669 mln dlrs a
year earlier and 614 mln dlrs at the end of 1986.
    He said the increase includes all of its Equadorian loans
which he expects will be ultimately repaid after the company
recovers from an earthquake earlier this year.
    Brown said the increase also includes some Mexican and
Venezuelan loans as those nations are also facing credit
problems.
    Brown said the Bank of Boston remains "cautiously optimitic
about the full year even if our Brazilian exposure were to be
on nonaccural all year." In 1986, the bank earned 3.69 dlrs a
share, or 232.8 mln dlrs on net interest revenues of 1.08
    President Ira Stepanian told the shareholders's meeting the
bank's total loans to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico totaled 875
mln dlrs at the end of 1986, 37 pct of its primary capital.
Brazil loans total 300 mln dlrs, of which about two-thirds are
affected by its suspension of interest payments on its medium
and long term foreign debt.
 Reuter

Libya is reported to have recently
bought two cargoes of white sugar from operators at around
229/230 dlrs a tonne cost and freight, traders said.
    The shipment period required was not specified.
 Reuter

enter the U.S. government securities market to add reserves
during its usual intervention period today, economists said.
    With federal funds trading at a steady 6-3/16 pct, most
economists expect an indirect injection of temporary reserves
via a medium-sized round of customer repurchase agreements.
    However, some economists said the Fed may arrange more
aggressive system repurchase agreements.
    Economists would also not rule out an outright bill pass
early this afternoon. Such action had been widely anticipated
yesterday but failed to materialize.
 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas,
said House Budget Committee Democrats were on target to reach
budget deficit reduction goals with a plan for 18 billion dlrs
in new revenues and 18 billion dlrs in additional budget cuts.
    "We're right on target," Wright told reporters. "The cuts are
real cuts. The revenues would be real revenues."
    Wright said it would be up to Congress to come up with the
new revenues. President Reagan says he will veto any
legislation which raises taxes.
    Wright said the budget plan may come up in the House next
week. Republicans are expected to offer an alternative budget.
 Reuter

Phoenix Financial Corp said it
was sued by General Electric Credit Corp, a unit of General
Electric Co, for breach of warranties and representations.
    The warranties are connected with leases the company said
it sold to GE Credit in June 1985. GE is asking the company to
buy back leases totaling 829,000 dlrs.
    The company said there were no breach of warranties, but it
added it is in the process of reviewing the complaint and
preparing an answer.
 Reuter

The Bank of France intervened to buy
small amounts of dollars and sell yen in Paris today to
stabilise the exchange rates agreed at last month's meeting of
Finance Ministers of the Group of Five and Canada, foreign
exchange dealers said.
    But they said recent central bank intervention in the
foreign exchange markets appeared to be a limited reaction to
temporary pressures rather than a major defence operation.
    A Bank of France spokesman declined all comment but sources
close to the central bank said it had also intervened
    Dealers said the earlier intervention was in concert with
the Bundesbank and Bank of Japan.
    The sources said the French central bank could have been in
the market again today in two-way operations, not necessarily
on its own account, but to counter short-term pressures arising
from the end of the Japanese financial year on March 31.
    One major French bank said it bought between five and 15
mln dlrs for the central bank and sold yen at 149.28 to the
dollar.
    Another bank said it had been asked by the Bank of France
to say it was in the market, a departure from the central
bank's usual insistence on confidentiality.
    But other banks said they had seen no sign of intervention,
which they said appeared to be on a very limited scale.
    "Even if 10 banks were buying five to 15 mln dlrs, you would
still be talking of a small overall amount," said one dealer.
    Recent intervention by the Bank of Japan appeared mainly to
have been required to meet year-end window dressing demand for
yen. "This is a specific short term phenomenon rather than a
wider trend," the dealer said.
    Operators have been extremely cautious about testing the
dollar's trading ranges against the West German mark and
Japanese yen.
    These ranges were set in February's stabilisation agreement
reached here by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker and the
Finance Ministers of Japan, Germany, France, Britain and
Canada.
    But speculative pressures started to build again this week
after Baker was quoted on British television at the weekend as
repeating earlier statements that Washington had no target for
the dollar.
    Baker yesterday moved to defuse speculation he was talking
the dollar down, telling a Cable News Network interviewer and a
Senate committee he stood by the Paris agreement. Foreign
exchange markets had been misreading his comments, he said.
 REUTER

    Philips Petroleum <P> gained 3/4 to 15-7/8, Occidental
Petroleum <OXY> one to 34-5/8, USX Corp <X>, with its Marathon
Oil Co unit, rose 1/2 to 28-3/8. Exxon <XON> climbed one to
88-3/8, Mobil <MOB> one to 50-1/4, Atlantic Richfield <ARC>
3-1/8 to 80-1/2, Amoco <AN> 1-7/8 to 84-1/8, and Amerada Hess
one to 33-5/8. BP gained 2-3/8 to 59-3/4.
    Both analysts said the rise in Standard's price this
morning to above the proposed tender price of 70 dlrs a share,
is an indication that investors expect the bid to be sweetened.
Standard gained 6-3/4 to 71-5/8.
    The analysts cited Royal Dutch/Shell Group's <RD> <SC> bid
for Shell Oil Co, which was sweetened before its successful
conclusion.
    Margoshes said the BP action "is an articulation of the
underlying value of oil companies in the marketplace." But he
expressed skepticism that this will necessarily lead to
heightened merger or buyout activity in the oil group.
 Reuter

Oriental Federal Savings Bank of
Humacao, Puerto Rico, said an initial public offering of
656,819 common shares is under way at 11.50 dlrs per share.
    The company issued a total of 1,075,000 shares in
converting from mutual form, with other shares sold in a
subscription offering.  Lead underwriter is <Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc>.
 Reuter

Farmers Commodities of Des Moines,
Iowa, has taken steps to become a clearing member of the
Chicago Board of Trade for farm cooperatives that currently
trade through Illnois Cooperative Futures Co.
    Hal Richards, president of Farmers Commodities, said the
company already has bought a membership at the futures exchange
and has applied for clearing status.
    He said the company is attempting to become the clearing
company for the members of Illinois Coop after they voted to
dissolve the company Wednesday.
    Illinois Coop will cease operating April 24.
    Richards declined to say how many of the Illinois Coop
members were considering joining Farmers, but he said the
number was "significant."
    He said he was recruiting the staff of Illinois Coop,
including Al Evans, back office manager.
    Richards said Farmers Commodities was the largest member of
Illinois Coop, and its 700 members felt that the coop should
retain a clearing membership at the board.
    "It allows us to get better quality execution," he said.
    "Anyone who wants to join our clearing corporation in the
cooperative system, we'll invite them to join us.
    "I think we'll attract others to us because it's our intent
to pass the profit back on to the individual members," he said.
 Reuter

may downgrade about 65 mln dlrs of Frank B. Hall and Co Inc's
B-1 subordinated notes.
    Moody's said its focus will be on Hall's brokerage business
and contingent liabilities associated with the unit Union
Indemnity Insurance Co.
    The agency cited a 140 mln dlr lawsuit by the New York
State Insurance Department against Hall in connection with the
insolvency of the Union Indemnity subsidiary, which was
liquidated by New York Insurance in 1985.
 Reuter

<Norcen Energy Resources Ltd>,
41 pct owned by <Hees International Corp>, said earnings and
cash flow will improve in 1987, even if oil and gas prices
remain at 1986 levels.
    The improvement will result from production increases,
lower taxes and royalties, reduced financing costs and from
operating efficiencies and downsizing put into place during
1986, the company said in the annual report.
    Norcen previously reported 1986 earnings, excluding a 20.1
mln dlr writeoff, declined by 58 pct to 50.0 mln dlrs from
119.7 mln dlrs in in 1985.
    Norcen's 1986 cash flow fell 10 pct to 204.9 mln dlrs from
228.9 mln dlrs in the prior year.
    It said the sharp decline in oil prices during 1986 was the
most significant factor for Norcen's reduced performance.
    "While financial results are far from the previous year's
record levels, it is clear that Norcen has withstood declining
prices and remains financially and operationally strong," Norcen
said. It did not give a specific 1987 profit forecast.
    The company said it is well positioned to capitalize on
profitable opportunities in its core business areas, and will
continue to invest to increase revenue and asset values.
 Reuter

council chairman Denis Bra Kanon will present a compromise
proposal on buffer stock rules to producer and consumer
delegates either later today or tomorrow morning, delegates
said.
    Bra Kanon held private bilateral consultations with major
producers and consumers this morning to resolve outstanding
differences, mostly on the issues of how much non-member cocoa
the buffer stock can purchase and price differentials for
different varieties.
    Delegates were fairly confident the differences could be
worked out in time to reach agreement tomorrow.
    Some consuming member nations, including Britain and
Belgium, favour the buffer stock buying more than 10 pct
non-member cocoa, delegates have said.
    The consumers argue that buying cheaper, lower quality
non-member cocoas, particularly Malaysian, will most
effectively support prices because that low quality cocoa is
currently pressuring the market.
    Producers, meanwhile, say non-member cocoa should make up
at most a very small percentage of the buffer. They say
Malaysia should not be able to benefit from the ICCO unless it
is a member, and if the buffer stock bought Malaysian cocoa
Malaysia would have no incentive to join, delegates said.
    As to differentials, Ghana apparently wanted a higher
differential for its cocoa than is outlined in the most recent
proposal, so it would have a better chance of having its cocoa
bought for the buffer stock, producer delegates said.
    Some consumers wanted differentials to be adjusted in a way
that would not promote buffer stock purchases of the more
expensive cocoas, such as Ghanaian and Brazilian, they said.
    Other technical points need to be sorted out, including
limits on how much cocoa the buffer stock manager can buy in
nearby, intermediate and forward positions and the consequent
effect on prices in the various deliveries, delegates said.
 Reuter

Siemens AG <SIEG.F> rebutted U.S.
Criticism it is blocking American Telephone and Telegraph
Corp's <T.N>, AT and T, entry into French telecommunications
firm <Compagnie Generale Constructions Telephoniques>, CGCT.
    Management board member Hans Baur told journalists that the
acquisition of a joint 20 pct stake in CGCT by AT and T and
Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken NV <PGLO.AS> had not been decided
on two years ago as claimed by AT and T.
    The French government, which owns CGCT, had asked Siemens
at the start of 1986 to submit an offer for the stake in CGCT.
The result of the negotiations was still open.
    Baur said Siemens had first made an offer last summer.
    The Handelsblatt newspaper today quoted AT and T chairman
James E. Olson as saying that Siemens' attempt to stop AT and T
and Philips could lead to a resurgence of protectionism in the
U.S.
    Baur said he expected the French government to decide on
the winning bid by the end of April. CGCT's share of the French
switchboard market amounts to around 16 pct.
    The French government has limited CGCT participation by
foreign companies to 20 pct and set a price of 500 mln francs
for the whole company.
    Bauer said the 20 pct limitation would only apply to the
initial stake. He did not rule out a stake increase later but
said Siemens' aim was to introduce its technology.
    Bauer said Siemens and French telecommunications firm
<Jeumont-Schneider SA> submitted a joint offer at the start of
March because of the 20 pct limitation. Both companies will
form a joint venture to take over the whole of CGCT.
   Siemens will have a 20 pct stake in the new company while
Jeumont-Schneider will own 80 pct. Apart from investing 100 mln
francs for the modernisation of CGCT, a new research centre
with was also being planned.
 REUTER

MULFORD DISAPPOINTED IN NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED (NICS) EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN CURRENCIES

Ford Motor Co neared General Motors
Corp last year in executive bonuses, while it topped the larger
automaker in profit sharing payments to workers.
    Ford, which outstripped GM in earnings last year, said its
1986 incentive bonuses totaled 167 mln dlrs, slightly behind
General Motors' 169.1 mln.
    General Motors, however, did not make any profit-sharing
payments to its workers, while Ford made a profit-sharing
distribution of 372 mln dlrs, or 2,100 dlrs per worker.
    General Motors, which saw its earnings drop to 2.94 billion
dlrs from 1985's 3.99 billion, said the 1986 profit was "not
sufficient to generate a payout under the profit-sharing
formula."
    Ford, which earned 3.28 billion dlrs in 1986, up from 2.51
billion in 1985, said it "recognizes employees' efforts and
fulfills its commitment to them in many ways, including
profit-sharing."
 Reuter

Mulford said he did not believe that West Germany and Japan
have yet carried out their international responsibilities.
    "I do not believe they have up to this time," Mulford told
a Senate banking subcommittee.
    He said that for the U.S. trade deficit to continue
improving in the next two years, "We need more policy actions"
across the entire front of U.S. trade relations, including
Canada and the newly-industrialized countries (NICS).
    In particular, he said, efforts by South Korea and Taiwan
to strengthen their currencies were still disappointing.
    Mulford also said that OECD nations need to grow an average
three pct to help resolve the international debt crisis.
    He noted that Japanese and European imports from Latin
nations were significantly smaller than imports into the U.S.
    He stressed both Germany and Japan must continue to take
economic and structural measures to ensure stronger sustained
economic growth.
 Reuter

EC GRANTS EXPORT LICENCES 197,000 TONNES  FREE MARKET MAIZE, ZERO BARLEY - PARIS TRADERS

Pier 1 Imports Inc said its
board declared a three-for-two split of its common stock and
its 25 cents preferred stock, and declared a regular quarterly
dividend of two cents per share on the pre-split shares of
common stock outstanding.
    Pier 1 also declared a 12.5 pct annual dividend increase
for the post-split common shares. The split will be effected in
the form of a 50 pct stock dividend on both classes.
    The company said shareholder approval is required for an
increase in authorized shares of common stock to 100 mln from
25 mln.
    It said approval is also needed for an increase in
authorized shares of preferred stock from one million to five
million. It said voting will be conducted at its annual
shareholder meeting on June 24.
    Pier 1 said there are currently 19.1 million shares of
common stock and 960,000 shares of 25 cts preferred stock
    The split shares will be distributed on June 29 to
shareholders of record May 13. The two cts per share quarterly
cash dividend will be payable May 29 to shareholders of record
May 13.
    "The increase in shares outstanding will broaden the base
of stock ownership in the company, and the dividend increase
reflects the directors' positive outlook for the future
prospects of Pier 1 Imports," said Clark Johnson, president and
 Reuter

RCM Technologies Inc said its
contract to provide engineering personnel to the Sikorsky
Aircraft division of United Technologies Corp <UTX> has been
increased by 4,300,000 dlrs to 11.0 mln dlrs.
    It said the contract runs through the end of 1987.   
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 282,000 vs 360,000
    Revs 5,261,000 vs 5,348,000
    Avg shrs 2,336,000 vs 2,335,000
    Year
    Shr 91 cts vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 2,149,000 vs 2,075,000
    Revs 28.2 mln vs 28.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,356,000 vs 2,001,000
    NOTE: 1986 quarter net includes 72,000 dlr charge from
repal of investment tax credit.
 Reuter

it won a 1.5 mln dlr contract from Avtopromimport, a trading
company in the Soviet Union.
    The company said it will supply a fully automated,
rotary-hearth furnace system to treat automobile transmission
gears.

 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 1,888,000 vs 1,307,000
    Revs 7,365,000 vs 5,877,000
    Year
    Oper shr 58 cts vs 40 cts
    Oper net 7,005,000 vs 4,866,000
    Revs 27.1 mln vs 21.1 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes 263,000 dlr loss from
discontinued operations and 2,073,000 dlrs on disposal.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs one ct
    Net 83,000 vs 32,000
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 7,625,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 97 cts
    Net loss 1,364,453
    Sales 737,971
    NOTE: Company in development stage.
 Reuter

First Medical Devices Corp said
it has received a contract to sell EMT-defibrillation equipment
to Lane County, Ore., for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

HealthMate Inc said its
auditors, Laventhol and Horwath, indicated they will issue a
qualified opinion on the company's financial statements.
    The company, which went public in March 1985, earlier
reported losses for the fourth quarter.
    It said the auditor's statement, known as a "subject to"
opinion, cautions that, because of continuing operating losses
and negative cash flow, it must achieve profitable operations
or acquire additional equity capital or other financing to
continue in existence.
    HealthMate reported a loss for the year of 1,512,534 dlrs,
or 17 cts a share on revenues of 1.4 mln dlrs. A year ago, it
had a loss of 1,553,592 dlrs, or 20 cts a share on revenues of
515,225 dlrs.
    It said the increased sales reflect initial shipments of
its FluoroScan Imaging Systems, low radiation X-ray imaging
devices that recently were classified by Underwriters
Laboratories Inc.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it has
elected Paul Johnson a vice president and named him chief
financial officer, replacing Donald Romans, who took early
retirement.
    Bally also said it has appointed Jerry Blumenshine,
formerly a vice president, treasurer to fill the position left
vacant by Johnson.
 Reuter

Brazil today suggested to its foreign
bank creditors an extension of short-term credit lines for 60
days until May 31, a spokesman for the Central Bank said.
    He said that with the move, called a "standstill"
arrangement, Brazil was only trying to avoid difficulties to
pay its 109 billion dlrs debt in the future.
    The spokesman told Reuters that Brazil's suggestion will be
communicated by telex to Brazil's 700 bank creditors.
    The spokesman declined to give details of what was included
in the statement, but said Central Bank president Francisco
Gros was seeking a 60-day extension of the short-term credit
lines from its commercial bank creditors.
    The amount of these credit lines totals 15 billion dollars,
and deadline for payment is set for March 31.
    Finance Minister Dilson Funaro said in a television
interview it was "absolutely important" for Brazil and its
creditors to renew the short-term credit lines, as Brazil must
finance its exports.
    "If these credit lines were cut, we would face difficulties
to honour our foreign debt in the future," Funaro said.
    "There is evidently a common interest in the matter," he said.
    Funaro said, however, he was told creditors understand
Brazil's position and do not wish to turn the negotiation for
the renewal of the credit lines more difficult.
    Brazil last month suspended interest payments on its 68-
    He said Brazil's suggestion is part of its demands "before
the need to renew the mechanisms of loans in the world."
    Funaro said currently debt negotiations are "very complex
and complicated," mentioning cases of countries which had to
wait some 10 months before getting a reply from creditors.
    "We are not interested in confrontation, but we would like
the loan mechanisms to show that the crisis belongs to both
sides," Funaro said.
    Funaro denied rumours that he had offered his resignation
to President Jose Sarney.
    "Who decides whether to keep or dismiss his ministers is the
president. Everything else is nothing but speculation," he said.
 Reuter

    Revs 268,797 vs 81,725
    Year
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said the U.S.
Department of Transportation has issued an order allowing it to
purchase and hold in a voting trust the 9,309,394 Piedmont
Aviation Inc shares USAir is seeking in its current 69 dlr per
share tender offer.
    The company said the new order supersedes an order issued
by the department last Friday that would have required USAir to
sell within one week of expiration of the tender any Piedmont
shares it held in excess of 51 pct of the Piedmont stock then
    The company said the 9,309,394 Piedmont shares, together
with the 2,292,599 Piedmont shares already owned by USAir,
constitute about 50.1 pct of Piedmont's shares on a
fully-diluted basius but about 61.0 pct of shares currently
    The shares are to be held in a voting trust pending the
department's review of USAir's application to obtain control of
Piedmont.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 2,253,000 vs 1,332,000
    Sales 89.7 mln vs 85.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 94 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 6,191,000 vs 4,257,000
    Sales 316.4 mln vs 286.7 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net both periods includes 2,100,000 dlr
charge from sale of Craft Showcase stores.
 Reuter

West German retailers expect another good
year in 1987 even though they will not be able to repeat the
sharp increase in turnover they enjoyed in 1986, the General
Association of the German Retail Trade (HDE) said.
    HDE President Wolfgang Hinrichs said retailers would be
satisfied with a real turnover increase of between 2.5 pct to
three pct in 1987 after last year's steep 3.7 pct rise.
    Hinrichs said the 1986 turnover increase had brought the
first hesitant signs of improvement in earnings in the West
German retail sector.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank's options for West
Germany monetary policy are limited for the foreseeable future
by the delicate stage of wage negotiations between unions and
employers, economists and money market dealers said.
    Call money fell in quite active trading today, dropping to
3.40/50 pct from 3.55/65 pct yesterday, and below the 3.50 pct
treasury bill rate as a difficult month-end approached.
    But dealers and economists said the Bundesbank was unlikely
to encourage lower rates in the foreseeable future largely for
fear of upsetting the current wage round.
    One money market dealer for a major foreign bank said, "I
don't think the Bundesbank wants rates to go up whatever
happens. But it also does not want them to fall. Above all it
wants to wait to see how the unions wage round goes."
    In West Germany, unions and employers prepare the ground
for triennial wage negotiations based on detailed assessments
of growth and inflation, economists said.
    Ute Geipel, economist with Citibank AG, said if the
Bundesbank became more accommodating in monetary policy,
raising fears in some quarters of a return in inflation in the
medium term, unions would be obliged to curtail wage demands.
    As a result the Bundesbank was concerned to make no move
that would interfere in the negotiating process, Geipel said.
    In the current round, the country's most powerful union,
the IG Metall representing metalworkers and engineers, is
demanding a shortening of the working week to 35 hours from the
present 38-1/2 and an accompanying five pct increase in wages.
    The engineering employers' association, Gesamtmetall, is
offering to bring in a 38-hour-week from July 1, 1988, and give
a two stage wage increase -- a 2.7 pct rise from April 1 this
year and another 1.5 pct from July 1, 1988.
    The agreement forged by IG Metall -- Europe's largest
union, with 2.5 mln members -- and the employers would set the
benchmark for settlements in other industries such as the
public sector, banks and federal post office. Negotiations
began in December and unions are hopeful they may conclude by
early April, ahead of the traditional holiday period in June.
    Though many economists said the unions' current warning
strikes and rhetoric were part of the negotiating strategy and
would not lead to a repeat of 1984's damaging seven-week
strikes, others said unions would not compromise greatly on
their positions and there could still be conflict.
    This could extend the length of time in which the
Bundesbank would keep its activity low-key, economists said.
    The money market head said the unions' humiliation by the
protracted financial problems of the Neue Heimat cooperative
housing venture would contribute to union obstinacy.
    "The unions haven't forgotten that and they will put this
squarely onto the account in the negotiations," he said.
    In addition, the newly-elected chairman of the IG Metall
union, Franz Steinkuehler, was more radical and determined than
his predecessor Hans Meyer and may be set for a longer battle
to achieve the best possible settlement for his membership.
    More than 16,000 engineering workers at 45 firms, mainly in
south Germany, held warning strikes lasting up to two hours
yesterday. Firms hit included Zahnradfabrik Passau GmbH and
aerospace group Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm GmbH.
    Today, 28,000 employees from 110 companies came out in
warning strikes, a statement from IG Metall said.
    Money market dealers said that overnight call money rates
would rise in the near future in any case and did not depend on
a politically-inhibited Bundesbank.
    About eight billion marks were coming into the market
tomorrow from salary payments by the federal government.
    As a result, some banks fell back on the Bundesbank's offer
to mop up liquidity via the sale of three-day treasury bills,
anticipating still lower rates before the month-end.
    But a pension payment date by banks on behalf of customers
was due on Monday, other dealers noted. If banks were short of
liquidity until the bills matured on Tuesday, rates could soar,
perhaps to the 5.50 pct Lombard ceiling.
    Banks were well stocked up with funds, having an average
52.1 billion marks in Bundesbank minimum reserves in the first
24 days of March, well above the 50.7 billion requirement.
 REUTER

President Nobuo Ito of International
Telecom Japan Inc (ITJ), one of two rival firms seeking to
enter Japan's international telecommunications market, said it
will offer a stake in the company to 10 foreign firms.
      But he declined to specify what share the firms would
take, and told Reuters they would not participate in its
    ITJ and International Digital Communications Planning Inc
(IDC), in which both Cable and Wireless Plc and Pacific Telesis
Group own 20 pct stakes, are set to merge into a new entity to
compete against Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd.
 Reuter

raised its stake in <Telecom Plus Communications Inc.> by 65
pct to 100 pct, a Siemens spokesman said.
And had turnover of 234 mln dlrs in 1986.
reports that the purchase price totalled 173 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Less than two months after First
Interstate Bancorp withdrew its bold attempt to buy BankAmerica
Corp, Chairman Joseph Pinola is still looking for a good buy,
but he is also looking at ways to avoid being bought.
    In a wide-ranging interview, Pinola said he's looking for
ways to improve profitability and capital between now and 1991,
"so as to resist any potential look at us...to maintain our
independence, if possible."
    In 1991 federal regulatory changes will allow the major
East Coast banks to buy banks in California.
    First Interstate, the fourth largest California bank, and
the nineth largest nationwide, owns 24 banks in 12 western
states and has franchise operations in four additional states.
    Bank industry sources say it is an attractive target for
large U.S. or foreign banks, looking to quickly move into the 
lucrative California market and the West Coast region.
    While declining specifics on his corporate strategy, when
asked if acquisitions will be part of the plan, Pinola replied,
"That's undoubtedly a fair statement...it would be almost naive
not to think that."
    Pinola characterized his acquisition strategy as
"opportunistic".
    He said he will look for banks in management trouble that
he can get at a bargain, then add management to restore
profitability, or for banks in states where First Interstate
already operates, then cut costs by combining resources.
    The exception, he said, would be Texas, where he said most
of the banks are already well managed, but might be purchased
at a discount because of the depressed regional economy.
    Pinola declined comment on what circumstances might move
him to rekindle his bid for BankAmerica, saying only, "We
continue to monitor and look at a lot of things and a lot of
people continue to monitor and look at us."
    Banking analysts, however, consider another First
Interstate bid at BankAmerica a long shot, not likely to happen
any time soon.
    Pinola called his decision last month to withdraw his 3.25
billion dlr bid at the nation's second largest bank, "a very,
very difficult decision."
    With that decision made, however, he acknowledged First
Interstate may now have a difficult time keeping its number
four position in the California banking community.
    "The competition in this state is tough," he said, noting
CityBank's recent purchase of 50 financial service branches
from Sears Roebuck company. "CityBank is moving rapidly to move
us down to fifth and Wells Fargo down to fourth," he said.
    Outside California, Pinola acknowledged that Security
Pacific Corp, with its recent acquisitions in Arizona,
Washington and Oregon, is quickly becoming a regional
competitor in areas where First Interstate has long dominated.
    "Security is, has been and continues to be a highly
profitable and obviously well managed company," he said.
    He added, however, First Interstate, at the moment, has the
advantages of having owned and managed regional banks longer
and has the recognition advantage of having given its regional
banks a common name.
    Pinola said while its coastal state banks are in good
financial condition, First Interstate continues to sustain
serious loan losses in its Rocky Mountain states, where energy,
real estate and agriculture dominate the economy.
    Asked if he thought loan losses in those areas had peaked,
he said, "I don't think it has bottomed out, because I think
most of the problems are real estate-related and the real
estate problems are going to be with us for several years."
    Pinola said another failing economic sector, agriculture in
the Midwest, has slowed expansion of First Interstate's
franchise operation.
    First Interstate has 42 franchise banks that offer First
Interstate financial services in ten states.
    While a year ago he was considering taking his franchise
operation east of the Mississippi River, Pinola said because
most of the franchise banks are now in the West, expansion into
the Midwest must come first.
    Calling the franchise system, "moderately profitable,"
Pinola said, "It is going to take a rejuvenation of the
agriculture sector for us to commence franchising at the speed
we were generating before the last year or two."
    On the banking industry in general, Pinola said he thinks
1987 will be another bad year for loan losses, with only banks
with minimal holdings in real estate able to improve profits.
 Reuter

Atlantic Research Corp said its
propulsion division won a contract valued at 54 mln dlrs from
the missiles unit of LTV Corp's <QLTV> LTV Missiles and
Electronics Group.
    The contract authorizes the fifth year increment of a
multiyear contract to make solid-propellant rocket motors for
the U.S. Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System, the company
said.
 Reuter

Thomas and Betts Corp said it
filed a patent infringement suit against three companies in
connection with the manufacture and sale of its 50 Position
Transition "D" Subminiature IDC electronic connectors.
    The company said the suit was filed in U.S. District Court
for the District of Delaware. Named in the suit were <Carrot
Components Corp>, <ODU-Kontact GmbH and Co> and <KG and G and H
Technologies Inc>, it said.
    Thomas and Betts said it is seeking an injunction to
prevent the future sale of the connectors, as well as damages.
 Reuter

House of Fabrics Inc said
it expects growth in earnings and revenues as the current
fiscal year progresses.
    It said it will open about 50 super stores this year. 
House of Fabrics now operates 703 stores.
January 31 of 6,191,000 dlrs on sales of 316.4 mln dlrs, up
from prior year earnings of 4,257,000 dlrs on sales of 286.7
mln dlrs.  The prior year earnings included a 2,100,000 dlr
charge for the disposition of Craft Showcase stores.
 Reuter

proposed European common market tax on vegetable and fish fats
and oils and said it would result in retaliation.
    The non binding Senate resolution, a sense of Senate
    "The administration should communciate to the European
 Reuter

<Crop Genetics International Corp>
said an initial public offering of 1,600,000 common shares is
underway at 14.50 dlrs per share through underwriters led by
<Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc>.
 Reuter

reached an agreement to acquire new stock representing a 16 pct
interest in industrial biotechnology company <Genencor Inc> for
    Other Genencor shareholders include Staley Continental Inc
<STA>, Corning Glass Works <GLW> and Genentech Inc <GENE>.
    The company said it has been granted options to increase
its equity stake during 1987.  It said it has agreed to make a
multiyear, multimillion dollar commitment to Genecor research
products related to food additivies and pharmaceutical
intermediates.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 13.0 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Sales 330.8 mln vs 249.7 mln
 Reuter

Motor Co, is offering in the domestic debt market 100 mln New
Zealand dlrs of floating-rate notes due 1990, said sole manager
    The initial rate for the notes will be set on April 15 at
200 basis points below the 90-day New Zealand bank bill rate.
After that, the rate will be reset quarterly.
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue pays quarterly and is
rated A-1 by Moody's and AA-minus by S and P. Underwriters said
floaters denominated in a foreign currency are a new wrinkle on
Wall Street.
 Reuter

Ionics Inc said it received a
20-year seawater desalination contract valued at more than 50
mln dlrs over the life of the contract from (Electrica
Maspalomas SA), a water utility in Grand Canary Island, Spain.
    The contract supplements a previously announced 15-year
contract to supply desalted brackish water in the same
geographical area. That contract is currently valued at 60 mln
dlrs.
    The stated value of the new contract excludes escalation
and possible future increases in capacity, Ionics said. It
calls for the supply of 1.7 mln gallons a day of drinking water
on Grand Canary Island in Spain.
 Reuter

government securities market to arrange two billion dlrs of
customer repurchase agreements, a spokeswoman for the New York
Fed said.
    Federal funds were trading at 6-3/16 pct at the time of the
indirect injection of temporary reserves.
 Reuter

The Senate voted unanimously to seek
an expedited U.S. probe of Canadian tariffs on corn imports to
determine if the United States should retaliate.
    By 99 to 0, the Senate went on record against the 84.9
cents per bushel tariff approved by the Canadian Import
Tribunal.
    The non binding measure asked for a probe by the U.S. Trade
Representative to determine within 30 days whether the tariff
violates the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and if so
recommend within 60 days to President Reagan retaliatory action
against Canada.
 Reuter

Ricoh Corp, the U.S. unit
of Japan-based <Ricoh Ltd>, said it merged Ricoh Systems Inc
into Ricoh Corp.
    The U.S. unit also purchased Ricoh Electronics Inc from the
parent company.
    The company said the reorganization unites the sales,
research and development, and manufacturing operations of all
the U.S. units.
 Reuter

United Water Resources
Inc said it formed a venture with Base Ten Systems Inc's Base
Ten Telecom Inc to sell a telephone-based automatic meter
reading system to the utility industry.
    United Water Resources, parent of Hackensack and Spring
Valley Water Cos, said it will provide marketing and customer
support for Base Ten's automatic meter reading system.
    The company said it will install the system for 168,000
commercial and residential customers this spring.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 12 cts vs 12 cts prior
 Reuter

    Net loss 89,478 vs loss 178,507
    Revs 3,894,844 vs 1,964,141
    Avg shrs 1,582,790 vs one mln
    Year
    Shr loss 43 cts vs loss 81 cts
    Net loss 534,099 vs loss 811,836
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 5,167,573
    Avg shrs 1,251,337 vs one mln
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 52 cts
    Shr diluted 41 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 1,916,000 vs 2,281,000
    Revs 32.6 mln vs 22.6 mln
 Reuter

arrangement, Brazil was only trying to avoid difficulties in
paying its 109 billion dlrs of debt in the future.
communicated by telex to Brazil's 700 bank creditors. He
declined to give details of the statement, but said Central
Bank president Francisco Gros was seeking a 60-day extension of
short-term credit lines from its commercial bank creditors.
    The amount of these credit lines totals 15 billion dlrs,
interview that it was "absolutely important" for Brazil and its
    "There is evidently a common interest in the matter," he
said.
Brazil's position and do not wish to make the negotiation for
    Funaro explained that Brazil's suggestion is part of its
demands "before the need to renew the mechanisms of loans in the
world."
    He said that the current negotiating process is "very
complex and complicated," mentioning cases of countries which
had to wait some 10 months before getting a reply from
billion dlrs of debt to commercial banks and froze short-term
 REUTER

Emhart Corp said it received
four contracts valued at a total of seven mln dlrs to design,
develop and install data communications and automated
dispatching systems.
    The company said its Planning Research Corp unit, which
received the contracts, will do the work for the city of Grand
Rapids, Mich., the New Jersey Transit Authority, the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's office and the city of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada.
 Reuter

downgraded 360 mln dlrs of debt of Fluor Corp and its units
Fluor Finance N.V. and St. Joe Minerals Corp.
    Cut were the firms' senior debt to BB from BBB and the
parent's commercial paper to B from A-2.
    S and P cited industry overcapacity and weak pricing
conditions in Fluor's core businesses. It said profitability
and cash flow protection are not expected to rebound in the
foreseeable future to levels that would support the former
ratings. Restructuring has not compensated for a greater than
anticipated deterioration in market conditions, S and P said.
 Reuter

Brunswick Corp is raising 100 mln dlrs
through an offering of notes due 1997 yielding 8.199 pct, lead
manager Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc said.
    The notes have an 8-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 99.50
to yield 96 basis points over comparable Treasury securities.
    The issue is non-callable for life and rated Baa-1 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and BBB-plus by Standard and
    Salomon Brothers co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Rogers Corp said first quarter
earnings will be up significantly from earnings of 114,000 dlrs
or four cts share for the same quarter last year.
    The company said it expects revenues for the first quarter
to be "somewhat higher" than revenues of 32.9 mln dlrs posted
for the year-ago quarter.
    Rogers said it reached an agreement for the sale of its
molded switch circuit product line to a major supplier.
    The sale, terms of which were not disclosed, will be
completed early in the second quarter, Rogers said.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp said its Amoco Fabrics Co
will expand the capacity of its polypropylene carpet face yarn
facility by 55 pct to support its successful penetration of the
commercial and residential carpet markets.
    It said the expansion of the plant in Andalusia, Ala., will
bring Amoco's total face yarn capacity to nearly 140 mln pounds
a year, with Andalusia capacity at 85 mln pounds.
    Amoco Fabrics is part of Amoco Chemicals Co, the chemical
manufacturing and marketing subsidiary of Amoco Corp.
 Reuter

<Island
Telephone Co Ltd> said the previously announced two-for-one
common share split was approved by shareholders at the annual
meeting.
 Reuter

Biogen Inc said the European
Patent Office granted it a patent covering certain proteins
used to produce a hepatitis B vaccine through genetic
engineering techniques.
    Robert Gottlieb, Biogen spokesman, said the company has
licensed the vaccine on a nonexclusive basis to <Wellcome PLC>,
the British pharmaceutical firm, and is discussing licensing
with other companies.
    Biogen said the patent gives it the right to exclude others
from marketing hepatitis B vaccine in the 11 member countries
of the European Patent Convention.
    Gottlieb said the company has also filed a patent in other
markets, including the U.S. The vaccine is in clinical tests.
    Patents in the biotechnology field are particularly
important as the company with an exclusive patent can reap
large rewards. Recently many of the products of genetic
engineering have become the target of patent lawsuits.
    Merck and Co Inc <MRK> already sells a genetically
engineered hepatitis B vaccine in the U.S. called Recombivax
HB. A subsidiary of <SmithKline Beckman Corp>, SmithKline
Biologicals, based in Belgium, is selling a hepatitis B
vaccine, called Engerix-B, in Belgium.
    A SmithKline spokesman said the vaccine has also been
formally approved in Switzerland and Luxembourg and has been
authorized for market in a number of Far East countries.
    Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection common in many
parts of Africa and southeast Asia where about five pct to 15
pct of the population carry the virus. In the U.S. about
200,000 new cases occur each year.
    Last December the European Patent Ofice rejected Biogen's
patent for alpha-interferon, which Biogen said it will appeal
once it receives a formal written opinion from the office.
   
 Reuter

A key U.S. House member said he
opposed a Reagan administration plan to shift the cost of
surveillance of futures exchanges to the private sector.
    "I just think user fees are the wrong way to attack a
problem of this sort," said Rep. Ed Jones (D-Tenn.), chairman
of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit
and Rural Development.
    The White House budget office has asked the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, to draw up a plan for
transferring the three-mln dlr cost of monitoring futures
trading to either exchanges, futures commission merchants or
users of the markets.
    CFTC Commissioner William Seale said the proposal was a
move in the wrong direction. "I would prefer to see
(surveillance) paid for through the appropriations process
rather than through taxation of market participants," he said.
    CFTC Chairman Susan Phillips told the panel the commission
was preparing the proposal, due to be completed April 15, at
the request of the Office of Management and Budget.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said
the U.K. Was growing more impatient with Japanese trade
barriers and warned that it would soon have new powers against
countries not offering reciprocal access to their markets.
    She told Parliament that the bid by the U.K.'s Cable and
Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> to enter the Japanese telecommunications
market was being regarded by her government as a test case.
    "I wrote to the prime minister of Japan, Mr Nakasone, on the
fourth of March to express our interest on the Cable and
Wireless bid. I have not yet had a reply. We see this as a test
on how open the Japanese market really is," Thatcher said.
    Thatcher told Parliament that "shortly ... We shall have
more powers than we have now, when, for example the powers
under the Financial Services Act and the Banking Act become
available, then we shall be able to take action in cases where
other countries do not offer the same full access to financial
services as we do."
    Cable and Wireless is seeking a stake in the proposed
Japanese telecommunications rival to Kokusai Denshin Denwa.
    But the Japanese minister for post and telecommunications
was reported as saying that he opposed Cable and Wireless
having a managerial role in the new company.
 REUTER

GenCorp said it plans to build a 50
mln dlr manufacturing facility in Shelbyville, Ind.
    The company said it will begin building the plant, where it
will produce reinforced plastic components for cars and trucks,
this May with an expected completion date in mid-1988.
    GenCorp said its DiversiTech General unit will operate the
plant through its reinforced plastics division.
    "We believe the use of reinforced plastics in cars and
trucks will grow," A. William Reynolds, GenCorp chairman and
chief executive officer said as the reason for building the
plant.
    "Our investment in the Shelbyville plant reflects the
confidence we have in the future of this product line,"
Reynolds added.
    GenCorp said the plant will create 500 new jobs.
 Reuter

<Jones International Ltd> said
it realigned several subsidiaries to accommodate corporate
strategy.
    Jones said ultimate control of the subsidiaries will remain
unchanged under the realignment.
    Jones said it will exchange approximately 97 pct of its
holdings of the common stock of Jones Intercable Inc <JOIN> for
Class A common stock of Jones Spacelink Ltd <SPLK>. The company
said the move will enable Spacelink to elect 75 pct of
Intercable's directors.
    In addition, Jones said 60 pct of the common stock of its
subsidiary, <The Jones Group Ltd>, will be exchanged for Class
A common stock of Jones Spacelink Ltd.
    Following the exchange, Jones International's ownership of
Spacelink Class A voting stock will increase to approximately
89 pct.
    Jones International said it will retain approximately two
pct of the common stock and approximately four pct of the Class
A common stock of Jones Intercable as well as the remaining 40
pct of the Jones Group stock.
 Reuter

Shr loss nil vs profit 19 cts
    Net loss 3,175 vs profit 284,945
    Revs 13.6 mln vs 10.6 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 13 cts vs profit 56 cts
    Net profit 195,202 vs profit 857,006
    Revs 47.5 mln vs 42.9 mln
    Note: Current year net includes charge against discontinued
operations of 1,060,848 dlrs.
 Reuter

ASLK-CGER Finance NV is issuing a 10
billion yen eurobond due April 10, 1994 with a 5-1/2 pct coupon
and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager IBJ International Ltd
said.
    The bonds are guaranteed by Belgian savings bank ASLK-CGER
Bank and have all been pre-placed. They will be issued in
denominations of one mln yen and listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees comprise 5/8 pct for management and underwriting
combined, with a 1/8 pct praecipuum, and 1-1/4 pct for selling.
Pay date is April 10.
 REUTER

Canadian oil exports rose 20 pct in 1986
over the previous year to 33.96 mln cubic meters, while oil
imports soared 25.2 pct to 20.58 mln cubic meters, Statistics
    Production, meanwhile, was unchanged from the previous year
at 91.09 mln cubic feet.
    Natural gas exports plunged 19.4 pct to 21.09 billion cubic
meters, while Canadian sales slipped 4.1 pct to 48.09 billion
cubic meters.
    The federal agency said that in December oil production
fell 4.0 pct to 7.73 mln cubic meters, while exports rose 5.2
pct to 2.84 mln cubic meters and imports rose 12.3 pct to 2.1
mln cubic meters.
    Natural gas exports fell 16.3 pct in the month 2.51 billion
cubic meters and Canadian sales eased 10.2 pct to 5.25 billion
 Reuter

Joseph Feshbach, chief market analyst
at Prudential-Bache Securities, said the stock market is poised
to climb above Dow Jones Industrial 2500 level by June.
    The Dow average is around 2380 today.
    "Liquidity is the biggest fundamental factor in the market
and money coming out of fixed income funds and flowing into
equities will propel the market sharply higher," Feshbach said,
noting that the market's peak will occur in June.
    Feshbach said that in early January he predicted that the
Dow Jones Industrial average, the most closely watched market
barometer, would reach the 2400 level by April and the 2500
level by June. He said he is now even more optimistic, saying
"the market is ready for a 150 point rise from current levels
any day now."
 Reuter

Four new outsiders were appointed to the
policy-making Council of the Lloyd's of London insurance
market, shifting the voting balance on the Council away from
Lloyd's professionals, Lloyd's said.
    It said in a statement the appointments of the new members,
none of them previously involved in the insurance market, were
made to comply with the core recommendation in the Neill report
into regulation at Lloyd's, which was published on January 22.
    The recommendation, one of 70 to improve investor
protection in the Lloyd's market, was to reduce the number of
elected working members, Lloyd's professionals, from 16 to 12.
    Simultaneously, the number of outsiders would be increased
by four while the number of external Council members, usually
Lloyd's investors without an active role in the market, would
remain unchanged at eight.
 Lloyd's said the four newly-appointed Council members were
barrister Elizabeth Mary Freeman, Sir Maurice Hodgson,
non-executive chairman of British Home Stores Plc, Lloyd's Bank
Plc chairman Sir Jeremy Morse, and Brian Pomeroy, an accountant
who sat on the three-member Neill enquiry panel.
    They replace the four Lloyd's professionals who resigned on
April 4 after Lloyd's agreed to implement the recommendation.
 REUTER

The New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa
Exchange (CSCE) elected former first vice chairman Gerald
Clancy to a two-year term as chairman of the board of managers,
replacing previous chairman Howard Katz.
    Katz, chairman since 1985, will remain a board member.
    Clancy currently serves on the Exchange board of managers
as chairman of its appeals, executive, pension and political
action committees.
    The CSCE also elected Charles Nastro, executive vice
president of Shearson Lehman Bros, as first vice chairman.
Anthony Maccia, vice president of Woodhouse, Drake and Carey,
was named second vice chairman, and Clifford Evans, president
of Demico Futures, was elected treasurer.
 Reuter

A majority of European Community (EC)
member states are either against or have strong reservations
over a tax on both imported and domestically-produced oils and
fats proposed by the European Commission, senior diplomats
said.
    They said a special committee of agricultural experts from
EC member states had voiced strong objections over the measure
during a meeting charged with preparing the ground for the
annual EC farm price-fixing which begins next Monday.
    They added that only France and Italy had indicated they
would support the Commission proposal which would lead to a tax
initially of 330 Ecus per tonne during the 1987/88 price round.
 Reuter

Rowntree Mackintosh Plc is seeking a 200
mln stg, five year multiple option facility, of which 150 mln
stg will be committed, and a 200 mln stg commercial paper
program, County Natwest Capital Markets Ltd said as arranger.
    The facility includes options for sterling acceptances,
multi-currency advances, sterling and dollar notes via tender
panels and there is also a sterling swingline.
    The committed portion carries a facility fee of five basis
points and a margin of ten.  A 2-1/2 basis point utilisation
fee is payable on drawings of more than half the committed
portion.
    The 200 mln stg commercial paper program will include a
dollar option, County Natwest said.
    A County Natwest official said the facility, launched
earlier this week, seemed to be progressing well in
syndication.
 REUTER

Private investors eagerly snapped up
shares of Consolidated Rail Corp, the biggest initial stock
offering in U.S. history, but some analysts warned they could
be in a for a bumpy ride at least in the near term.
    Analyst James Voytko of PaineWebber Group Inc believes some
investors who bought at the offering price of 28 dlrs will be
tempted to sell. The shares climbed 3-3/8 to 31-3/8 by midday.
Voytko said profit-taking pressure could become severe at the
35 dlr level. Others say Conrail, a combination of previously
bankrupt railroads, has good long term potential.
    "Conrail is in the best position to weather the current
tremendous price competition in the transportation industry in
general," said Drew Robertson, analyst at Atlantic Systems Inc,
a research firm.
    "It will survive and do damn well," said another analyst
who declined to be identified. He noted that Conrail's freight
trains serve heavy industry including steel and autos in major
U.S. cities in the northeast U.S. and midwest.
    Robertson noted that Conrail's traffic is less dependent on
coal than other railroads based in the east. He expects Conrail
to earn 2.85 dlrs per share in 1987.
    Voytko of PaineWebber sees another problem six months down
the road when more than 10 mln Conrail shares will be
distributed to current and former employees. He believes many
of these indivdiuals will be inclined to sell the stock.
    Robertson says it's hard to determine the psychology of the
average employe, but even if a lot of stock is sold, it would
would not hit the market as one big block. He doubts it would
create a big downward push on the price.
    "It's hard to call," said the analyst who requested
anonymity. In some cases employe loyalty may motivate
individuals to keep their shares, he said.
    Steven Lewins, analyst for Citicorp Investment Management,
believes the key to Conrail's long term outlook is how it is
able to invest surplus cash. He expects Conrail to earn 3.00
dlrs per share this year, flat in comparison with 1986, but by
1991 the picture could change dramatically if money not needed
for rail operations is invested wisely.
    By 1991, earnings could reach 4.30 dlrs per share, Lewins
said, factoring in reinvestment of free cash flow at
conservative rates.
    He believes motor freight will be one area of
diversification Conrail will explore.
    Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, whose
department was responsible for the sale of Conrail, noted that
Conrail is required to reinvest in its rail system and cannot
defer necessary maintenance.
    For the historic offering of Conrail shares, Dole visited
the New York Stock Exchange and was photographed on the floor
wearing a locomotive engineer's cap, which she presented to
Stanley Crane, Conrail chairman and chief executive.
    The U.S. government is expected to receive about 1.88
billion dlrs for Conrail after factoring in underwriting fees
and other adjustments.
    The possibility of a recession at some time in the next
five years is another issue troubling some investors.
    Lewins says revenue-ton-miles, which he believes will climb
from 68.7 mln miles last year to 69.5 mln this year and 70.5
mln in 1988, will grow to 71.5 mln in 1991, but in a recession
year, perhaps 1989, the figure could dip to 64.2 mln.
    On the revenue side, he believes revenue per ton-mile will
be 4.7 cts in 1991, little changed from present levels and
exactly the same as in 1981.
    "Their basic business isn't going anywhere," he says,
explaining why emphasizes investment of cash flow.
    Voytko thinks Conrail can remain profitable in a recession
year. He points out his firm, PaineWebber, is not forecasting a
recession in any specific year, but as an example a 1990
recession of modest degree could knock earnings down to 2.20
dlrs per share. He estimated 3.00 dlrs per share this year and
3.35 dlrs next year. His 1988 figure reflects mostly a lowering
of the tax rate to 34 pct from 40 pct this year.
    Voytko believes the Conrail shares merit purchase at the 26
dlr level.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co was lead manager for the offering. A
total of 148 firms took part in the U.S. syndicate.
 Reuter

Gould Inc said it has
completed the sale of its French battery business, Compagnie
Francaise D'Electro Chimie, to a group of investors including
the unit's employees and <GNB Inc> of Minnesota.
    Gould did not disclose terms of the deal.
    Gould said the move is part of its previously announced
plan to divest assets unrelated to its computer and electronics
 Reuter

CMS Enhancements Inc said it has
obtained a ten mln dlr line of credit from Bank of the West,
    The credit line will be used in part to fund additional
growth, including research and development of new products, the
 Reuter

Exovir Inc said the European
Patent Office notified it that its application covering
combinations of nonionic surfactants and all forms of
interferon has been approved and a patent will be issued in
about six months.
    Exovir is completing trials of a gel combining alpha
interferon and nonoxynol-9, an antiviral surfactant, as a
treatment for genital and oral herpes and genital warts. The
gel was given a U.S. patent in 1985.
    It said clinical tests will begin shortly to test whether
the gel is effective in preventing transmission of the AIDS
virus when used with a condom.
 Reuter

U.S. automakers are expected to build
167,236 cars this week, up from 133,067 in the same year-ago
period, said the trade publication Ward's Automotive Reports.
    It said year-to-date car production would reach 2,012,093
compared to 2,126,954 in the 1986 period.
    Domestic truck production for the week was seen as rising
to 70,033 from 58,506. Year to date, it was projected at
937,163 compared to 882,230 in the 1986 period.
 Reuter

Circle K Corp said its chairman,
Karl Eller, will buy 750,000 shares of Circle K common stock
from the company's founder and Vice Chairman, Fred Hervey, in a
private transaction.
    After the sale, Hervey will directly or beneficially own
6,764,004 shares, or 13.61 pct of Circle K stock and Eller will
hold 2,873,300 shares, of 5.78 pct of the stock.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 5,524,000 vs 8,094,000
    Revs 142.4 mln vs 137.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 year net includes loss 785,000 dlrs or
eight cts a share and 59,000 dlrs or one ct a share,
    1985 year ended December 28, 1985.
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp's Eastern Airlines Inc
said it asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve
an increase in the number of its weekly roundtrip flights to
Buenos Aires to 11 from five.
    It said if several of Pan Am Corp's <PN> one-stop flights
to Buenos Aires were terminated in Rio de Janeiro, Eastern
could add four non-stop flights from the U.S.
    The expanded weekly schedule would include seven nonstop
flights from Miami, two from New York, and two one-stop flights
from Los Angeles via Lima. It asked for the change by June 12.
 Reuter

First Wisconsin Corp said it
plans to acquire Shelard Bancshares Inc for about 25 mln dlrs
in cash, its first acquisition of a Minnesota-based bank.
    First Wisconsin said Shelard is the holding company for two
banks with total assets of 168 mln dlrs.
    First Wisconsin, which had assets at yearend of 7.1 billion
dlrs, said the Shelard purchase price is about 12 times the
1986 earnings of the bank.
    It said the two Shelard banks have a total of five offices
in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
 Reuter

IMRE Corp said it completed a private
placement of about 400,000 shares of its securities with a
group of European institutions for 2.5 mln dlrs.
    The company said proceeds will be used for working capital
and to implement the company's business plan.
    IMRE also said it has established a light manufacturing
facility in Richmond, Washington that makes raw material
components for Prosorba column, a medical device that removes
disease-related immune components from the human bloodstream.
    The company is awaiting Food and Drug Administration
approval on the device.
 Reuter

    Shr profit five cts vs profit four cts
    Net profit 191,000 vs profit 108,000
    Sales 6,561,000 vs 5,896,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 28 cts vs loss 40 cts
    Net loss 871,000 vs loss 990,000
    Sales 9,310,000 vs 8,894,000
    Avg shrs 3,086,386 vs 2,465,996
    NOTE: Full name is American Nursery Products Inc
 Reuter

Clinical Data Inc said it has contracts
with four major pharmaceutical firms to analyze certain data in
research studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of new
cardiovascular drugs.
    It said the contracts exceed 500,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

The United Auto Workers struck
General Motors Corp's truck and bus plants at Pontiac, Mich,
General Motors said.
    General Motors' truck and bus group failed to reach an
agreement on local issues with UAW Local 594 by the union's
deadline of noon today, causing a strike by 9,000 hourly
workers at the facility, the company said.
    General Motors said it was "eager" to continue meeting with
union officials on the dispute. It was not immediately clear
whether contract talks were continuing at the facility.
    General Motors spokesman Frank Cronin said the three plants
at Pontiac stopped working "as of noon today."
    He said talks will resume Friday at 1000 EST in Pontiac.
"We're hoping (the strike) will be of very brief duration,"
Cronin said.
    Bus-manufacturing operations at one of the three
plants--the Pontiac Central facility--are being sold to
Greyhound Corp <G>, although GM will retain the facility.
    Cronin said about 400 workers on the bus line will be laid
off "whenever we fulfill production commitments" on the buses,
"possibly in May."
    The Pontiac Central plant also makes medium- and heavy-duty
trucks. Assembly of the medium trucks is scheduled to move to
Janesville, Wis., in 1990, Chronin said.
    Heavy truck operations at the plant will be taken over by
GM's joint venture with Volvo AB, and all vehicle assembly
operations at the facility will eventually be ended, Chronin
said. The plant also has sheet metal operations, which are so
far unaffected, he said.
    The other two plants at Pontiac--Pontiac East and Pontiac
West--make full-size pickups and sport utility vehicles.
 Reuter

S.P.I. Suspension and Parts Industries
Ltd said it won four multi-year contracts from the U.S. Army
worth 34.5 mln dlrs.
    The contracts, for wheels on U.S. Army vehicles, will run
for five years beginning 1987.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 125,000 vs loss 140,000
    Rev 2.4 mln vs 2.2 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 13 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 271,000 vs loss 211,000
    Rev 10.1 mln vs 8.2 mln
 Reuter

Officials of the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) said merging the agency with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would not help
regulation of commodities and securities markets.
    "I don't think that a merger would solve regulatory
problems," CFTC chairman Susan Phillips told the House
Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit and Rural Development.
    "I think what does solve our problems would be working with
other agencies in a strong capacity," she said in response to a
question. "We don't want agencies to trample on our
jurisdiction either."
    CFTC Commissioner Fowler West said, "We ... do not have the
expertise to regulate securities markets. I don't think the SEC
has the expertise to regulate the futures markets."
    Increased attention to price volatility in stock index
futures markets and reports of alleged futures trading abuses
have raised concerns Congress may adopt a radically different
regulatory structure for securities and futures markets.
    Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over securities
regulation, has said he will hold hearings on the questions of
market volatility and alleged trading abuses.
 Reuter

ENTERTAINMENT PUBLICATIONS SEES 31 CTS/SHR 3RD QTR LOSS ON UNITS DISPOSAL

The Polish government has backed down
from some proposed price rises in the face of strong opposition
from trade unions, but has restated its commitment to economic
reforms entailing tougher discipline and austerity measures.
    Following a warning from the officially-backed OPZZ unions
that sharp price hikes could spark confrontation, the
government has agreed that food prices this year will rise an
average 9.6 pct instead of the planned 13 pct.
    A statement last night said the government had "partially
accepted" demands for the protection of the low-paid and agreed
to extend some social benefits.
    But Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski, at a separate
meeting yesterday, sharply criticised the slow pace of reforms.
    He told an economic commission that tougher discipline and
austerity measures, greater efficiency and initiative should
replace waste, red tape and inertia. He announced cost-cutting
measures affecting central administrative bodies.
    OPZZ economic expert Zbigniew Kochan welcomed the move on
food prices. "This decrease was considerable," Kochan told
Reuters today. "Also important is the fact that the government
admitted we were right and agreed to consult us over prices
from now on," he added.
    The communique made no mention of curbs on wage increases,
or price rises in sectors including transport and energy.
    The authorities have said prices could go up by as much as
26 pct as state subsidies are sharply reduced in an effort to
make the market more free and to improve efficiency.
    The OPZZ unions are officially recognised by the government
and replaced the Solidarity movement suppressed under martial
law. They claim a membership of seven million.
    Western diplomats said today the climb-down on food prices
was a limited concession. "This is a small price to pay if they
can push through the other price rises," one said, adding that
fuel and energy rises would have a more significant effect.
    He noted that there had been a concerted media campaign to
prepare people for price rises, including a major article in a
mass-circulation women's magazine, "clearly aimed at those who
do the shopping," he said.
    Other articles in the official press this week have focused
on coal, which sells to both industrial and private consumers
at far less than either the production or export costs.
    Countering scepticism from opposition sources and former
Solidarity activists as to OPZZ's role, Kochan said "It was
definitely not a question of gaining credibility, but true
concern for people's living standards."
    Deputy Prime Minister Jozef Koziol said the authorities'
main aim was not to harm workers' living standards. But he was
also quoted by the official PAP news agency as saying the
government had to take current economic realities into account.
 REUTER

    Net 1,129,000 vs 1,301,000
    Revs 83.2 mln vs 74.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 57 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 5,686,000 vs 8,168,000
    Revs 398.4 mln vs 333.8 mln
 Reuter

46,000 barrels of gasoline components a day.  Construction will
start late this year, with completion set for mid-1989.
    (Correcting unit's output to barrels/day from barrels/year)
 Reuter

A proposal by the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, CFTC, to raise federal limits on futures
speculative positions for certain agricultural commodity
contracts would not reverse a decline in liquidity in those
markets that started in 1981, two CFTC commissioners said.
    Commissioners William Seale and Kalo Hineman told a House
Agriculture subcommittee a recent proposal that would have the
effect of raising deferred month speculative position limits on
several agricultural commodity contracts would not
substantially increase liquidity in those months.
    "I seriously doubt that increasing speculative limits will
create a great deal of liquidity in the back months," Seale
told the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit
    Analysts have attributed much of the liquidity squeeze to a
1981 tax law change, which by changing the treatment of
so-called straddles limited the ability of futures commission
merchants to roll positions forward for tax purposes.
    CFTC Chairman Susan Phillips said only that the commission
would take into account Congress' recommendation that federal
speculative limits be raised.
    The Chicago Board of Trade and the MidAmerica Commodity
Exchange have expressed concern that the CFTC plan would
decrease spot month limits for certain of their contracts.
 Reuter

    Revs 6,561,000 vs 5,896,000
    Avg shrs 3.6 mln vs 2.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Revs 9,310,000 vs 8,894,000
    NOTE: Full name American Nursery Products Inc.
 Reuter

AB Volvo <VOLV.ST> said the weakening
dollar caused the drop in its 1986 profits, but company chief
executive Pehr Gyllenhammar said 1986 was one of Volvo's best
years ever.
    In its final report released earlier, the company said the
group's 1986 profits before allocations and taxes was 7.53
billion crowns  compared with 1985's 7.60 billion.
    Despite the fall, Gyllenhammar said, "Sales of industrial
products have never been higher, and Volvo Cars and Volvo
Trucks were both completely sold out at year-end. Operating
income was slightly higher than a year earlier."
    He said the company's financial strength gave it
exceptional opportunities to invest for the future.
    Although industrial sales were up, the company's yearend
report said total sales were 84.09 billion crowns against
1985's 86.19 billion.
 Reuter

<Meridian Energy Inc> and Castone
Development Corp, a privately-held company, jointly announced
that they have decided to terminate the letter of intent under
which Meridian would have acquired Castone.
 Reuter

World seaborne iron ore imports will
fall sharply by the year 2000 with declining imports to the EC
and Japan only partially offset by increased demand from South
East Asia, a report by Ocean Shipping Consultants said.
    The report predicts annual world seaborne iron ore imports
of 267.7 mln tonnes by 2000 versus 312.4 mln tonnes in 1985.
    It estimates that total bulk shipping demand from the iron
ore sector will fall by almost 10 pct, or 200 billion tonne
miles, with shipping demand associated with the coking trade
down about 17 pct or 130 billion tonne miles.
    The report sees EC imports falling to 91.7 mln tonnes in
2000 from 123.6 mln in 1985 with Japanese imports falling to 89
mln from 124.6 mln tonnes. Imports to South East Asia are seen
rising to 58.6 mln from 32.6 mln tonnes in 1985.
    It predicts that EC steel production will fall to 109 mln
tonnes in 2000 from 135.7 mln in 1985 with Japanese production
falling to 92 mln from 105.3 mln.
    South Korea and Taiwan are expected to double their output
to 40 mln tonnes with Chinese production increasing by 25 mln
tonnes to 80 mln, it added.
 Reuter

Royce Laboratories Inc said it is calling
for redemption its redeemable common purchase warrants on April
30 at 2.5 cts per warrant.
    It said warrant holders retain the right to purchase one
share of its common at an exercise price of three dlrs per
share until 1700 EST April 29.
 Reuter

Dun and Bradstreet Corp said business
failures in February increased 10.8 pct, to 5,390, from 4,864
in February 1986.
    "The national level of business failures continues to be
driven upward by substantial increases in the oil and
agricultural states," Dun said.
    Dun said that of the nine U.S. Bureau of the Census
regions, three reported a decrease in the number of failures
and two had gains of less than 3.0 pct.
    The largest increase was reported in the West South Central
states, Dun said, with business failures rising 47.8 pct, to
1,218.
    The East South Central states posted a 44 pct rise, to 298,
Dun said, while the West North Central states recorded a 27.3
pct gain, to 489.
    The greatest decline, Dun reported, was registered by the
Middle Atlantic states, down 8.2 pct in February, to 324.
    The Pacific states also reported a large decline in failing
businesses, off 6.8 pct, to 1,028, Dun said.
    In the smokestack region of the East North Central states,
there was a negligible decline of 0.6 pct, to 794, Dun said.
    Dun said the Mountain states recorded a gain in business
failures of 1.5 pct, to 530.
    Business failures in the New England states rose 23.5 pct,
to 105.
    By industry segment, Dun said the largest gain was recorded
by the agricultural, forestry and fishing sector, up 62.7 pct,
to 345.
    Year to date, Dun said business failures rose to 11,004, an
increase of 5.3 pct over 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 527,065 vs loss 1,204,080
    Revs 622,470 vs 613,205
    Year
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 13 cts
    Net profit 1,099,778 vs loss 3,282,478
    Revs 7,579,547 vs 6,068,254
    NOTE: 1985 excludes loss from discontinued operations of
four cts per share in the quarter and loss 10 cts in the year.
1986 year excludes extraordinary gain of two cts a share.

 Reuter

French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur
discussed the need to control public spending in talks here
today with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, a
    The spokesman said the ministers reviewed their economies,
and public spending, domestic and European Community-wide.
    He declined to comment on whether the subject of concerted
action to shore up the dollar had arisen. The U.S. Currency
dipped sharply earlier this week after a month of relative
stability after an agreement by six major industrialised
nations in Paris on February 22 to stabilise their currencies.
REUTER

Federal Reserve Board Governor
Robert Heller said the banking system could be strengthened by
permitting formation of financial services holding companies
involved in areas like banking, insurance, real estate and
    In a speech prepared for delivery in New York to the Bank
and Financial Analysts' Association, Heller said, "I believe
that increased diversification along geographic and product
lines is the key to strengthening the American banking system."
    He said he supported the idea of financial services holding
companies advocated by the Association of Bank Holding
Companies in which regulation of various bank, thrift,
insurance, investment, securities and real estate subsidiaries
would be handled on functional lines.
    "Limits would be placed on the extension of credit by the
bank to the associated institutions, and all transactions would
have to be on an arms-length basis," Heller said.
    Measures would be necessary to avoid abuse of the banks'
special position by such holding companies or subsidiaries.
    Heller said he "would require the holding company to serve
as a 'source of strength' to the bank by making a commitment to
maintain the bank's capital.
    "In other words, the bank would not be allowed to fail as
long as the holding company has a positive net worth."
    Heller also said commercial enterprises should be permitted
to own a financial services holding company, again with the
provision that capital would flow to the financial enterprise
if necessary.
    Heller said the effects of these actions "would be banks
that are at least as strong as the corporations holding them" in
which customer deposits were assured while any incentive to
"loot the bank" was removed.
    Such diversification would give access to national and
international financial services to corporations across the
    Heller said that would mean "the steady decline of America's
banks in the world financial league tables would be arrested" by
permitting them to become more competitive.
 Reuter

FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES INC UPS QTLY DIV BY 10.5 PCT, SETS 2-FOR-1 STOCK SPLIT

Outboard Marine Corp is raising 100
mln dlrs via an offering of sinking fund debentures due 2017
yielding 9.15 pct, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    The debentures have a 9-1/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.75 to yield 146 basis points over comparable Treasury bonds.
Morgan Stanley co-managed the deal.
    The issue is non-refundable for 10 years.  A sinking fund
beginning in 1998 to retire annually five pct of the debt may
be increased by 200 pct at the company's option, giving it an
years. The debt is rated Baa-2 by Moody's and BBB-plus by S/P.
 Reuter

Gould Inc said it sold its
French Battery unit, Cie Francaise d'Electro Chimie, to a group
of investors including the unit's employees and <GNB Inc> of
Minnesota.
    Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The unit had 1986
sales of 65 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 73 cts
    Net loss 3,895,267 vs loss 8,250,222
    Revs 3,237,235 vs 234,745
 Reuter

it raised its quarterly common stock dividend to 74 cts a
share, from 67 cts, an increase of 10.5 pct.
    The company said it also approved a two-for-one stock split
in the form of a 100 pct stock dividend.
    At the same time, Federated said it will ask shareholders
to approve an increase in the number of authorized shares to
400 mln, from 200 mln.
    Federated said the dividend is payable on a pre-split basis
on April 24 to shareholders of record April 10.
    New shares from the stock split will be distributed May 11,
it said.
   
 Reuter

The chairman of the CFTC, Susan
Phillips, said she does not expect the CFTC to restrict dual
trading or to intervene in the quarterly expiration of stock
index futures and their options.
     "At this time we have no plans to reexamine our policy (on
dual trading)," she told the House Subcommittee on
Conservation, Credit and Rural Development.
    She said it would not be appropriate to ban dual trading
because it would decrease market liquidity.
    Dual trading refers to the ability of futures commission
merchants to trade for their own as well as their clients'
accounts. Exchange rules prohibit a broker from attempting to
benefit from the market impact of a client's order by trading
on his own account before placing the client's order.
    CFTC has required all futures exchanges by July 1 to have
implemented audit trails permitting the reconstruction of all
trades to the nearest minute. The move was designed in part to
discourage abuse of dual trading.
    The board of directors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
has proposed limiting but not banning dual trading in the
Standard and Poor's 500 stock index future pit.
    Phillips indicated the CFTC would not move beyond requiring
improved audit trails in its effort to allay concerns about
dual trading abuses.
    "It would be inappropriate at this point until we see how
the audit trail will work," she said in response to a question.
    On triple-witching, Phillips said recent experiments by
markets to quell price fluctuations have been quite successful
and that users of securities and derivative instruments were
still learning how to deal with the quarterly phenomenon.
    Triple-witching refers to the simultaneous expiration of
stock index futures, options on those futures and options on
certain individual stocks.
    The CFTC chairman noted the commission has heightened
surveillance of markets on triple-witching day.
    "We aren't sure any other regulatory changes are needed at
this point," Phillips said.
 Reuter

to BB-minus from BB-plus Trinity Industries Inc's 275 mln dlrs
of liquid yield option notes.
    Also downgraded were the unit Trinity Industries Leasing
Co's 60 mln dlrs of convertible debentures due 2006 to BB-plus
from BBB-minus.
    S and P said the actions reflected Trinity's weakened
earnings due to depressed demand in several key markets, the
likelihood that a significant sustained improvement would not
occur in the near-term, as well as heightened financial risk
from a series of debt-financed acquisitions.
 Reuter

Danzar Investment Group Inc said it 
received 60 mln shares of <Commonwealth Capital Ltd> in
settlement of a debt and that it will distribute the shares to
its stockholders as a dividend.
    Danzar said the dividend will also include 18,750,000
Commonwealth shares it already holds.
    The dividend of 39.9 shares per Danzar share held will be
paid to shareholders of record April 15, the company said.
 Reuter

Fidelity National Financial
Inc said its Fidelity National Title Insurance Co subsidiary
acquired the operations of Safeco Title Insurance Co in the
northern California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa and San
Mateo.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration said the
national crisis in liability insurance eased during the past
year as the insurance industry's profits more than doubled to
11.5 billion dlrs, but some problems still persist.
    An administration working group, in an update of its report
a year ago, found that insurance premiums generally have
stabilized, but at high levels, as the crisis has abated.
    After severe financial difficulties in 1984 and 1985, the
insurance industry's rate of return last year recovered to the
same level as the performace of U.S. corporations in general,
the group said in a 98-page study.
    While the crisis has eased, the study found that liability
insurance will likely remain expensive and continue to be
difficult to obtain for some lines of coverage and for some
sectors of the American economy.
    Some types of insurance, especially associated with
environmental liability, remain unavailable for many companies
at any price, it said.
    The increased availability and the price stability for
insurance the past year has been accompanied by higher
deductibles, lower coverage limits and additional policy
restrictions, the study said.
    The administration last year unveiled a wide range of
recommendations aimed at dealing with the crisis, including 
limits on punitive damages and awards for pain, suffering and
mental anguish at 100,000 dlrs.
    Attorney General Edwin Meese told a news conference today
that the administration still supports state efforts to place
limits on damage awards and to enact other reforms of the tort
laws.
    Assistant Attorney General Richard Willard denied charges
by consumer groups that the insurance crisis was caused by
industry collusion to raise rates in violation of the antitrust
laws. Willard, the head of the working group, said excessive
jury damage awards was the main reason for the insurance
liability problem.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts
    Record April six
 Reuter

Final 1986 crop U.S. cotton ginnings
totaled 9,438,425 running bales, vs 12,987,834 bales at the end
of the 1985 season and 12,544,866 bales at end-1984 season, the
U.S. Census Bureau said.
    The bureau said upland cotton ginnings from the final 1986
crop totaled 9,237,296 bales, vs 12,837,088 bales in 1985 and
12,418,749 bales in 1984.
    American Pima ginnings from the final 1986 crop totaled
201,129 bales, vs 150,746 bales in the 1985 crop and 126,117
bales in 1984, the bureau said.
 REUTER

Former Secretary of the Treasury
Robert Anderson, whom Dwight Eisenhower once said deserved to
be president, pleaded guilty to income tax evason charges and
illegally running an offshore bank.
    Anderson, declaring that he was "deeply regretful," admitted
to evading tax on 127,500 dlrs in undeclared income.   Much of
the money was paid to him for lobbying for controversial South
Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.
    The 77-year-old Anderson was President Eisenhower's
treasury secretary from 1957 to 1961 and a prominent
businessman afterwards. In his memoirs, Eisenhower said
Anderson deserved to be president.
    Standing before Federal Court Judge Edmund Palmieri,
Anderson, who faces up to 10 years in jail, said he had
recently undergone two operations and treatment for alcoholism.
    The judge set May 7 for sentencing and U.S. Attorney
Rudolph Giuliani declared the government would ask that
Anderson be sent to jail.
    According to the indictment, Anderson was a prinicipal  of
the Commercial Exchange Bank and Trust Ltd of Anguilla in the
British West Indies for two years ending in 1985.
    During that time, government prosecutors said the bank
conducted operations in New York city but failed to register
with state and federal banking authorities. Depositors have
lost at least 4 mln dlrs.
    Anderson pleaded gulity only for the tax year 1984 but
admitted other tax transgressions for the previous year and
faces civil fines for both years.
    Among other things, he said he received 80,000 dlrs in 1983
from a shell corporation for lobbying for the Unification
Church. The money was given to him as a no-interest loan
repayable in 1990 but the government said it should have been
reported as income.
 Reuter

BP MANAGING DIRECTOR SAYS COMPANY DOES NOT PLAN TO HIKE 70 DLRS STANDARD OFFER

Security Pacific Corp and
<Users Inc>, a credit union data processing concern, said they
have mutually agreed to withdraw from further merger
    Users said that since it signed a letter of intent to merge
with Security in November, it has received a strong show of
support for continuing the credit union ownership of the
company with credit unions committing themselves to purchase
additional Users common.
    Users also said it is in the strongest financial position
in its 24-year history.
 Reuter

Entertainment Publications
Inc said it expects an after-tax loss of 31 cts a share in its
third quarter from the disposal of three units it closed.
    The company said its board approved a plan to discontinue
the operations of three subsidiaries, which are primarily
involved in direct mail marketing.
    "The discontinued units were not likely to meet the growth
and profit goals of the company in the future," Entertainment
Publications said.
    The three units lost 900,000 dlrs, or 19 cts a share in the
six months ended December 31.
 Reuter

Chris-Craft Industies Inc said it
declared a regular two pct stock dividend on both its common
stock and class B common stock, which is equal the two pct
stock dividends the company paid for the prior quarter.
    The dividends are payable on April 20 to shareholders of
record April six.
 Reuter

First National
Supermarkets said its annual sales are running at a rate of
1.58 billion dlrs, compared with 1.39 billion dlrs 18 months
ago, when the company was taken private by its management.
    The company said it is commencing a four-year capital
program that will include the opening 20 new stores as well as
the enlargement and remodeling of selected existing stores.
    It said it will continue its practice of closing some
smaller, less productive stores, converting those assets into
larger stores in its core market areas.
 Reuter

Several U.S. House members urged
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, to strengthen
its proposed rules governing the sale of foreign futures and
options in the U.S.
      "I'm from the state of Illinois, and we don't want to see
Chicago's futures markets become the automobile or textile
industry of the 1980s," Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) told a hearing
      U.S. exchanges have complained that the proposed
regulations would give sellers of foreign futures an edge over
domestic futures sellers because they would be subject to less
rigorous requirements, especially in the area of capital.
      Phillips said the commission has no way of requiring
foreign markets to implement the same regulatory safeguards as
in the U.S., but that the proposed rules would ensure marketing
of foreign futures and options conform to U.S. requirements.
     "If people want to enter into these (foreign) markets,
they know they will not have the same regulations," she said.
      Phillips said the commission would consider changes in
its proposal to require segregation of customer accounts and
clarify the treatment of contracts not traded on foreign
 Reuter

Dennison Manufacturing Co
said it has signed a letter of intent to sell its Dunn Paper Co
subsidiary to James River Corp <JR> for an undisclosed amount
of cash, resulting in a first quarter charge against earnings.
    The company saiud the loss on the sale may be partly
reduced by contingent payments over the next five years and
will in the first quarter be more than offset by the gain from
the previously-announced sale of its Hygeia Sciences Inc
shares.
    Dunn had sales last year of about 65 mln dlrs.
    In Richmond, Va., James River said closing is expected by
the end of April, subject to approval by both boards and on the
reaching of satisfactory labor agreements.
 Reuter

The Pillsbury Co said it
Commission for the sale of limited partnership interests in a
second master limited partnership of its Burger King unit's
restaurant properties.
    Pillsbury said it expects the offering to yield 73-82 mln
dlrs, resulting in an after-tax gain of 20-23 mln dlrs.
    A spokesman for Pillsbury said the company is aiming to get
this after-tax gain in the fourth fiscal quarter ending in May.
    Pillsbury said the sale will occur as soon as practicable,
considering the business and legal contigencies.
    The company said Burger King and another Pillsbury unit,
QSV Properties, will be the master limited partnership's
general partner.
    Pillsbury said it expects the interests to be sold to
public investors and listed for trading on the New York Stock
Exchange.
    Merrill Lynch will lead the underwriting, Pillsbury said.
    Pillsbury first sold limited partnership interests in
Burger King Investors L.P. in February 1986.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 19-1/2 cts prior
    Pay June 20
 Reuter

    Pay June 5
 Reuter

Brazilian President Jose Sarney will
reshuffle part of his cabinet next month but will preserve his
finance minister, a presidential source said.
    The cabinet reshuffle, expected since the resignation of
Minister of Planning Joao Sayad eight days ago, is due to take
place within two to three weeks, the source said.
    The source, who asked not to be identified, said that "in
principle, the reshuffle would not affect Finance Minister
Dilson Funaro."
    Rumours circulating here yesterday said Funaro was on his
way out of the cabinet, but both he and Sarney denied this.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co Plc does not
intend to raise the price of its planned 70 dlr per share offer
for the publicly held 45 pct of Standard Oil Co, BP Managing
Director David Simon said.
    "We don't seen this as any progressive bidding game," he
told reporters at a news conference. BP now owns 55 pct of
Standard's stock.
    Simon said BP had carefully considered the amount of its
planned bid and he quoted an oil analyst, whom he would not
identify, as saying BP's careful evaluation means the company
is not going to raise its offer.
    "I think that (an increase) would be totally wrong. I think
the price is very fair and it is much to early to speculate
about ligigation," he said. "Let's wait and see how the offer
runs."
    Another official declined to speculate under what
circumstances BP might raise its bid.
    The BP official said the 70 dlrs a share offer is 7.2 times
Standard's 1986 cash flow and 56 pct above an independent
evaluation of the company's assets, including the value of its
oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas reserves.
    He said the price Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <SC> paid
for publicly held Shell Oil Co shares in 1985 was 5.1 times
cash flow.
    The BP official also said the 70 dlr bid is a 40 pct
premium over Standard's stock price over the past year.
    BP Group Treasurer Rodney Chase said more than half to as
much as two-third's of the 7.4 billion dlrs BP needs for its
offer will come from existing sources. The rest will be
financed by new debt.
    BP will draw in cash from its operating companies around
the world and is also arranging a five billion dlr line of
credit, he explained.
    The company's debt to equity ratio will rise 11 or 12
percentage points from the current 33 pct if the offer is
completed, Chase said. But the ratio will be back below 40 pct
within 12 months, he added.
    Chase also said 50 to 60 pct of Standard Oil's publicly
held shares are held by financial institutions.
    Simon said Standard's board was informed of the offer on
March nine and has been considering it since that time.
    He said BP does not expect any regulatory problems that
would delay completion of the acquisition. "We have informed
Washington of our intentions and we've already been an integral
part of ownership of U.S. oil reserves," he pointed out.
    Simon said there is a good chance that current world oil
prices of about 18 dlrs a barrel could be maintained, and that
the more stable market is due mostly to changes in policy in
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to control oil production.
    "We think there are signals that current conditions are
more favorable than they have been for sometime," Simon said.
    "We have hopes for greater stability, but we do not see
prices going much higher," he added.
 Reuter

MONEY MARKET MUTUAL FUNDS FALL 1.19 BILLION DLRS IN LATEST WEEK, ICI SAYS

British Petroleum Plc's plan to pay
7.4 billion dlrs for less than half of Standard Oil Co has
signalled higher values in the U.S. oil patch, analysts said.
    "I think that BP's bid is a very strong affirmation and
clear signal that they have confidence in the U.S., and they
think the barrel of oil in the ground is going to go higher,"
said Sanford Margoshes of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    BP earlier today said its U.S. unit planned to tender at 70
dlrs per share for the 45 pct of Standard it does not already
own.
    "It's a 7.4 billion dlr price that (shows) OPEC has won the
war and oil prices are not going to crack," said Prescott, Ball
and Turben analyst Bruce Lazier.
    "Behind that is a huge implication for the rest of the
energy issues out there in the stock market, particularly those
that are acquisition targets," Lazier said.
    One of those mentioned by Lazier was USX Corp, an
energy-steel concern which had been courted by investor Carl
Icahn and drew the attention of Australian Robert Holmes a
Court last year. Rumors continue to swirl around its stock.
    Margoshes said he does not foresee major U.S. oil firms
falling into takeover situations for several years, with the
exception of possibly Amerada Hess Corp <AHC>. He said most of
the majors found partners in the last round of matchmaking
which ended two years ago, and others restructured to the point
that they have become unattractive.
    U.S. oil stocks rallied in response to the offer. Exxon
Corp <XON> rose 1-1/8 to 88-1/2. Chevron Corp <CHV> jumped
1-1/8 to 58-7/8, and Texaco <TX> climbed 1/4 to 37-3/4. Unocal
Corp <UCL> rose 1-3/4, while Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY>
climbed 1-1/8 to 34-3/4. Amoco Corp <AN> rose 1-3/8 to 83-3/4.
    Standard Oil's stock was up 6-1/4 in heavy trading to
71-1/8. Earlier in the session it had been at a high of 72-1/4.
Wall Street has speculated British Petroleum may boost its
offer by several dlrs per share, but the company maintained it
would not raise the 70 dlr bid.
    British Petroleum stock rose 2-1/4 to 59-5/8.
    Analysts said the fact British Petroleum made such a bid in
the first place indicates that the British oil giant has
changed its outlook for the oil industry.
    Analysts said last year British Petroleum held one of the
more bearish positions on oil prices.
    "They said the real price of oil would stay at 15 dlrs (a
barrel) for several years, and I think they beat a hasty
retreat from that point of view," Margoshes said.
    "They are more appropriately today looking more
optimistically. I believe they are looking at 18 dlrs
(long-term)...also in their heart of hearts they believe that
will be exceeded," Margoshes said.
    The U.S. benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate was
trading today around 18.60 dlrs per barrel.
    Analysts said British Petroleum might have been able to buy
up the rest of Standard Oil for about 50 dlrs per share when
oil prices were falling last year.
    They said Standard Oil's brightest asset is its slightly
more than 50 pct ownership of the Alaskan Prudhoe Bay oil
field. Analysts also said the company has other interests in
the Alaskan North Slope.
    Analysts said the Standard investment is extremely
attractive to BP because the U.S. is the largest oil market and
has hard-to-replace reserves.
    "I think it just fits in with their long-range plans to
increase their position in the U.S. market," Dean Witter
analyst Eugene Nowak said.
    Analysts said it also raises BP's visibility ahead of the
British government's announced disposal of 31.7 pct of BP
stock. The U.K. government said it would dispose of the holding
sometime in the year beginning April one.
    After acquiring all of Standard, most of BP's reserves
would be in the U.S., but only about six pct of its stock is
held in the U.S.
    "The only way they can sell all that stock is to move it
into the United States. No other market can handle all that
stock," said L.F. rothschild analyst Rosario Ilacqua.
    In 1986, Standard Oil had net losses of 345 mln dlrs on
revenues of 10.02 billion dlrs, compared to a profit the year
earlier of 308 mln dlrs on revenues of 13.82 billion dlrs.
    
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board governor Robert
Heller said that the dollar's current level is appropriate but
declined to comment on widespread market reports of concerted
central bank intervention this week.
    "The dollar is stable again... The current level is the
appropriate level," Heller told reporters after a speech to a
meeting of financial services analysts.
    He said last month's six-nation currency accord in Paris
did not include target ranges for the dollar in an "academic
way."
    Heller also said that it was too early to determine whether
the parties to the six-nation accord were taking appropriate
steps to carry out the longer-term economic adjustments agreed
to in Paris.
    "Clearly, they've not been implemented yet... No one
expects implementation within a week or two," he said.
    Earlier today, U.S. Treasury assistant secretary told a
Senate banking subcommittee that he did not believe that West
Germany and Japan have yet carried out their international
responsibilities.
 Reuter

The U.S. General Accounting Office
said generic commodities certificates cost the U.S. government
in total Commodity Credit Corp outlays 107 mln to 653 mln dlrs
more than cash payments through February, 1987.
    However, GAO Senior Associate Director Brian Crowley, in
testimony prepared for delivery to the Senate Agriculture
Committee, said short-term commodity storage cost savings
related to the use of payment-in-kind certificates could be
from about 169 mln 253 mln dlrs.
    U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Daniel Amstutz said the
issuance of 8.5 billion dlrs of certificates in fiscal years
1986-88 could cost as much as 550 mln dlrs more than cash
outlays.
    In his prepared remarks to the Senate panel, Amstutz
stressed that USDA was "very pleased with the success of using
commodity certificates" and looked forward to their continued
use.
    He said the cost of using certificates must be weighed
against immediate benefits, including greater market liquidity,
improved market price competitiveness, higher farm income,
improved debt situation and decreased carrying charges,
especially pertaining to 1985 crop loans.
    Crowley said future government storage costs would be
reduced only if in the long run certificates led to a decrease
in CCC-owned inventory.
    "We believe that such a reduction, if it occurs, will not
be large," Crowley said.
    Crowley also said that because certificate amounts are not
included in the federal budget's outlay totals at the time of
issuance, they could "lessen the usefulness of the budget."
    Crowley conceded that certificates help farmers avoid
storage costs, give them marketing flexibility and enhance
    He also said certificates have benefited the grain industry
by giving it easier access to CCC-owned grain at market prices.
 Reuter

Shr loss 3.49 dlrs vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 10.8 mln vs loss 459,000
    Revs 4,384,000 vs 2,542,000
    Year
    Shr loss 4.41 dlrs vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 13.7 mln vs loss 218,000
    Revs 13.9 mln vs 8,864,000
    Note: net losses included extraordinary losses of 4,904,000
in 4th qtr vs 232,000 year ago and extraordinary losses for
year of 2,056,000 vs 460,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said the
units of Americus Trust for Merck Shares and an equal number of
prime and score components of the units, began trading today on
a "when issued" basis.
    The trust is a unit investment trust sponsored by Americus
Shareowner Service Corp and is issuing the units in exchange
for shares of Merck and Co <MRK> stock tendered to the trust.
    The units opened on a bid and offer of 165 to 166, and the
prime components, trading under ticker symbol <MKPWI>, opened
on 100 primes at 119-1/2, the Exchange said. Also, the score
components opened on 1,000 scores at 48, it said.
 Reuter

Home Savings Bank said its board
declared an initial quarterly dividend of nine cts per share,
payable April 30, record April Six.
 Reuter

Louisiana-Pacific Corp said it
plans to sell its sawmill in Lakeview, Oregon and 18,000 acres
of timberland to Ostrander Construction Co.
    The company said the transaciton shoould be finalized in
early April. Terms were not disclosed.
 Reuter

<United Savings and Loan
Association> said an initial public offering of 537,609 common
shares is underway at 8.75 dlrs a share through underwriters
led by Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc and Interstate Securities Corp.
254,285 more shares to cover overallotments.
    United Savings issued a total of 1,780,000 shares in
converting from mutual form.
 Reuter

Suburban Bancorp Inc said it
received approval from the Federal Reserve Board to acquire
<Valley National Bank of Aurora> for an undisclosed price.
    Suburban said it has received shareholder tenders for 100
pct of Valley National's stock.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs profit nine cts
    Net profit 2,000 vs profit 195,000
    Revs 2,623,000 vs 2,577,000
    Year
    Shr loss 21 cts vs profit 13 cts
    Net loss 425,000 vs profit 278,000
    Revs 15.4 mln vs 8,637,000
    Note: Net includes capital gains of 63,000 vs 211,000 for
qtr and 304,000 vs 292,000 for year. Current year net includes
charge of 716,000 from contract obligation to former chairman.
 Reuter

said it will recognize in its first-quarter earnings a
previously deferred 1.5 mln dlr gain which resulted from the
sale of an apartment complex in 1983.
    It said the recognition comes as a result of repayment of a
loan which was granted when the complex was sold.
 Reuter

Bank of England Governor Robin
Leigh-Pemberton said the Paris pact agreed between six leading
industrialised nations set no nominal exchange rate targets.
    Leigh-Pemberton said in oral evidence to a select committee
that "we did not swap numbers - we reached an understanding" on
how to cooperate towards stabilizing currencies at around their
current levels.
    He said the accord had brought Britain into a form of joint
currency float - but one which let it still purse an
independent monetary policy. "I would concede that, since the
Louvre Accord, we are acting as if we are in something,"
Leigh-Pemberton said.
    "The Louvre and Plaza accords show there is a very effective
role for the (Group of) seven central banks to operate together"
towards stabilising exchange rates," Leigh-Pemberton said.
    He did not mention this week's intervention by central
banks to support the dollar, after markets decided to test the
accord.
     Leigh-Pemberton said that "the effectiveness of this
(cooperation) is actually larger than many of us had thought in
the pre-Plaza days" before September 1985.
    He did not indicate what exchange rate levels were broadly
sought by the six nations, and noted that "we are more effective
in our agreement if we can leave the markets guessing."
    Leigh-Pemberton said that, in principle, the Bank of
England favoured full EMS membership for sterling, provided
such a move did not endanger U.K. Anti-inflation monetary
policy. Asked whether he wanted to see U.K. Interest rates
lower, he said "the two half point cuts (this month in banks'
base lending rates) have been appropriate up until now."
    Leigh-Pemberton said he preferred a "cautious step-by-step
approach" to reducing short term interest rates, not least
because "we have a potential problem with inflation."
    Underlying U.K. Inflation was currently around 4.0 pct, "one
of the highest" among industrialised nations, he added.
    Leigh-Pemberton said the Bank of England had not wanted
base rates to fall before the unveiling of the 1987/88 budget
on March 17, but he said pressure from financial markets for
such a move had proved irresistible. Base rates are now at 10
pct.
    Regarding sterling's relationship with oil, Leigh-Pemberton
said that the pound could be seen being undervalued overall.
    He said the current oil price of some 18 dlrs a barrel
might suggest a level of 74 on the Bank of England's sterling
index, when compared with the index's level before oil prices
dropped from around the 30 dlr level. The index, base 1975,
closed here today at 72.1, unchanged from the previous close.
 Reuter

Qtly div 32 cts vs 30 cts prior
    Pay April 29
 Reuter

Dexter Corp's Hysol Aerospace
and Industrial Products Division said it agreed to license its
engineering adhesives to Toyota Motor Co's Toyoda Gosei unit.
    The two units will jointly develop a line of structural
adhesive and application techniques for the automotive and
certain other industries.
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 561,029 vs loss 114,712
    Revs 3,464,269 vs 4,083,833
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 56 cts vs loss 13 cts
    Net loss 1,104,472 vs loss 261,791
    NOTE: Prior year net includes losses from discontinued
operations of 99,209 dlrs in quarter and 202,097 dlrs in nine
mths. 
 Reuter

Quantech Electronics Corp said
it is investigating available means of raising additional funds
needed to finance continuing operations, but there is no
assurance that it will succeed.
    The company said it continues to experience negative cash
flow.  Today it reported a loss for the third quarter ended
December 31 of 561,029 dlrs, compared with a 114,712 dlr loss a
    Quantech said it has received waivers from Marine Midland
Banks Inc <MM> through May 26 on covenants in its loan
    The company said Marine Midland has agreed to advance it an
additional working capital loan that will be personally
guaranteed by chairman Henry Ginsburg.  Loans from Marine
Midland are secured by substantially all company assets.
    Quantech also said Bernard Weinblatt has rsigned as
president and a director, and until a replacement is found,
Ginsberg will act as chief executive and Leonard N. Hecht,
formerly chief executive, will act as chief operating officer.
 Reuter

PDA Engineering said it has
temporarily deferred shipmetns of its PATRAN software for IBM
computers, due to a technical problem with the program.
    The company said the deferral will reduce its thrid quarter
revenues and earnings.
    PDA said it anticipates resuming shipments in the fourth
quarter.
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 453,924 vs 726,816
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,695,206 vs 2,562,160
    Year
    Oper shr 50 cts vs 50 cts
    Oper net 1,365,655 vs 1,268,847
    Revs 40.1 mln vs 33.1 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 571,000 dlrs vs 496,000
dlrs in quarter and 1,347,000 dlrs vs 1,107,000 dlrs in year.
    Share adjusted for one-for-five reverse split in October
1986.
 Reuter

Fair Lanes Inc said its shareholders
approved the previously announced merger with Maricorp Inc, a
unit of <Northern Pacific Corp>.
    Under terms of the merger, Fair Lanes said each of its
shares of common stock will be converted into the right to
receive 1.3043 shares of <BTR Realty Inc>, which is owned by
Fair Lines.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 2,463,214 vs 2,509,832
    Sales 34.4 mln vs 30.6 mln
    NOTE: Backlog as of February 28 47.4 mln dlrs vs 34.9 mln
 Reuter

Jorge Cardenas, manager of Colombia's
coffee growers' federation, said he did not believe any
important decisions would emerge from an upcoming meeting of
the International Coffee Organization (ICO).
    The ICO executive board is set to meet in London from March
31 and could decide to call a special council session by the
end of April to discuss export quotas.
    "It's going to be a routine meeting, an update of what has
been happening in the market, but it's unlikely any major
decisions are taken," Cardenas told journalists.
    Earlier this month, talks in London to re-introduce export
quotas, suspended in February 1986, ended in failure.
    Colombian finance minister Cesar Gaviria, also talking to
reporters at the end of the weekly National Coffee Committee
meeting, said the positions of Brazil and of the United States
were too far apart to allow a prompt agreement on quotas.
    Brazil's coffee chief Jorio Dauster said yesterday Brazil
would not change its coffee policies.
    Cardenas said the market situation was getting clearer
because the trade knew the projected output and stockpile
levels of producers.
    He said according to ICO statistics there was a shortfall
of nine mln (60-kg) bags on the world market between October,
the start of the coffee year, and February.
 Reuter

Volcker said he opposes legislation to deny primary dealer
status to firms from countries that do not grant U.S. firms
equal access to their government debt markets.
    In a letter to House Banking Committee chairman Fernand St.
Germain, Volcker warned that it could lead to retaliation
against U.S. firms already operating in other countries.
    The committee approved the legislation yesterday. They said
its impact would be felt only by Japanese firms designated as
primary dealers in U.S. government securities since other
countries would meet the equal access rule.
    "Even Japan, at which the proposal seems to be particularly
aimed, has made a number of advances in opening its market to
U.S. firms," Volcker said.
    The legislation gives the administration six months to
negotiate equal access for U.S. firms in the foreign government
securities markets before the ban on foreign dealers in the
U.S. would take effect.
    Volcker said more progress could be made by continuing
negotiations without adopting the bill's more rigid approach.
    An aide to Rep. Charles Schumer, the New York Democratic
sponsor, said it is expected to pass in the House trade bill.
 Reuter

CB and T Bancshares Inc said the
board of Carrolton State Bank of Carrolton, Ga., has approved a
merger into CB and T for an undisclosed amount of stock,
subject to approval by regulatory agencies and Carrolton
    Carrolton has 26 mln dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

<Bank of Montreal> is confident a
solution will be found to Brazil's foreign debt problem and is
not considering declaring its Brazilian loans non-performing,
president Grant Reuber said.
    Speaking to reporters after a speech to a Toronto business
group, Reuber said: "I think at this stage it is really too
early to say very much about (the Brazilian debt situation) but
we're pretty confident that things will work out."
    He declined to comment on when such a settlement was
likely. Bank of Montreal had 1.98 billion dlrs in loans to
Brazil as of last September 30, the most of any Canadian bank.
     Brazil last month suspended interest payments on its 68
billion U.S. dlr foreign bank debt.
     Asked if Bank of Montreal were considering declaring its
Brazil loans non-performing, Reuber replied: "We haven't really
got to that point because we don't think we will have to face
that issue."
    Some bankers in the U.S. said earlier this week that slow
progress in talks between Brazil and its major foreign lenders
has increased the likelihood that U.S. banks will declare their
Brazil loans non-performing at the end of the quarter.
     Reuber told reporters the bank was still pondering its
strategy regarding possible entry into the securities business
after June 30 when banks and other financial institutions will
be allowed full participation in the Ontario securities
industry.
    He said price would help determine if the bank formed its
own securities unit or acquired an existing investment dealer,
adding that asking prices for some dealers seem "fairly high."
    Asked about plans for wholly owned Harris Bankcorp Inc, of
Chicago, Reuber said Harris might consider acquiring more small
community banks around Chicago.
    "In addition, I think we are giving some consideration to
the possibility of extension into other states," Reuber said of
Harris, although he added that any such move was unlikely this
year.
    In his speech, focusing on current free trade talks between
the U.S. and Canada, Reuber said failure to reach a deal would
not represent a calamity for Canada but could lower Canada's
standard of living, raise unemployment and reduce the country's
world trading influence.
 Reuter

American Brands Inc said it expects
first quarter net earnings to exceed the record 118.7 mln dlrs
or 1.05 dlrs a share it earned for the year-ago quarter.
    The company also said it believes sales in the first
quarter will surpass record sales of 2.1 billion dlrs last
year.
    The company said unit sales of American Tobacco's Lucky
Strike Filter line rose 20 pct last year, which led to a gain
for he Lucky franchise.
    American Brands said it will introduce a new low-priced
brand of cigarettes called Malibu.
    The company's U.K.-based Gallaher Ltd unit had a strong
performance in 1986 and became the second-largest contributor
to operating earnings, American Brands said.
 Reuter

USX Corp chairman David Roderick said
the company had ended talks with British Petroleum Co Plc <BP>
about the possible sale of some energy assets and said USX has
no immediate restructuring plans for its oil businesses.
    "We have terminated our discussions," Roderick told Reuters
after a speech to the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association
here. He said USX was not conducting talks with any other
possible buyer of its energy assets.
    Earlier today, BP said it planned to offer 70 dlrs per
share for the Standard Oil Co's <SRD> publicly held stock.
    USX said in December the company had held formal
discussions with BP about the potential sale of some of its
overseas oil assets and USX had received expressions of
interest from a half dozen other oil companies.
    Roderick, in response to a question, said USX had no
immediate plans to restructure its Marathon Oil Co, or Texas
Oil and Gas Corp. He said USX also did not plan to sell any of
its 49 pct interest in the giant Yates Field in west Texas.
    "We want to maintain our production in the Yates Field
during these difficult times," Roderick added.
    In response to a question, Roderick also said he did not
know whether Australian investor Robert Holmes a Court was
accumulating USX stock. In recent days, traders have suggested
Holmes a Court was buying additional shares.
    Roderick said Carl Ichan, who terminated an eight billion
dlr hostile takeover plan for USX in January, continued to hold
a sizable interest in the company. "Mr. Ichan still apparently
has 11.4 pct. He hasn't bought any more stock or sold any,"
Roderick said. "He's a very satisfied shareholder right now. I
talk with him monthly."
    In his speech, Roderick predicted the fall in the value of
the dollar would set the stage for the U.S. to solve its trade
deficit problem which totaled 170 billion dlrs in 1986.
    "I expect by the early 1990s the U.S. will be running a net
trade surplus," Roderick said. "I think the worst is over and
we can look forward to stability and upward movement ahead."
    However, the USX chairman warned that European trading
partners may resist the turn in the U.S. trade deficit. "Some
economic discomfort must be transferred from the United States
to our friends, trading partners and allies."
 Reuter

The Soviet Union bought almost 90,000
tonnes of raw sugar from international trade houses last night,
with some of the sugar changing hands at discounts to the spot
May world sugar contract, according to trade sources.
    They said Japanese trade houses sold up to three cargoes of
Thai sugar for relatively nearby delivery.
    British and European-based trade houses sold the remaining
six cargoes for shipment between April/May/July, they said.
    Traders said this week's sharp fall in world sugar prices
helped to provoke the Soviet Union into covering nearby needs.
    Yesterday, spot May sugar closed at 7.18 cents a pound.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs six cts
    Net 861,000 vs 266,000
    Revs 10.2 mln vs 6,036,000
 Reuter

Qtly div 68 cts vs 68 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

Transworld Liquidating Trust said it
will distribute proceeds from the sale of Hilton International
Co to UAL Inc <UAL> to its holders on April 8.
    The deal is expected to close March 31, the day trading
ceases in the Liquidating Trust shares.
    UAL will pay 632.5 mln dlrs cash, 2,564,000 shares of UAL
common stock and 200 mln dlrs worth of UAL debentures to
Transworld, but it may substitute cash for the securities. The
initial distribution will include all the cash, stock and
debentures received in connection with the sale, the company
said.
    The shares in the Trust formerly represented shares of
Transworld Corp common stock.
    The company said the balance of cash in the Trust will be
used to satisfy all liabilities and obligations of the Trust.
After satisfaction of the payments, the company will make a
second distribution around April 29, it said.
 Reuter

The Federal Communications
Commission voted at a meeting to ease a requirement that cable
television firms must provide a signal-selector switch free of
charge to all customers.
    The so-called A/B switch is attached to a television set
and permits a viewer to turn from cable programs to
over-the-air broadcast stations which cable companies must
carry.
    After the rule was criticized the FCC changed it so that
cable firms would have to provide the switch only if a customer
requested it and could charge a fee.
 Reuter

Electro-Sensors Inc said its board
voted an extraordinary cash dividend on its common stock of 10
cts a share payable May 15, record April 30.
    The company paid an extraordinary dividend of 10 cts in May
1986.

 Reuter

The United Auto Workers confirmed an
earlier company statement that contract talks between striking
workers at a General Motors Corp's Michigan plant and the union
will resume at 1000 EST tomorrow.
    A UAW spokesman, in confirming a GM statement that talks
will restart, said it "remains to be seen whether the talks
will be successful."
    The union, in a statement, said it was unable to reach a
comprehensive settlement with GM on the issue of the company's
subcontracting work to non-union labor, although tentative
agreement was reached "on many matters." A UAW spokesman would
not discuss the issues involved.
    The union's 9,000 workers walked off the job at GM's
Pontiac, Mich., truck and bus works earlier today.
 Reuter

U.S. Home Corp said its first quarter
ending March 31, 1987, will be its most profitable first
quarter since 1983.
    The company said in 1983, it recorded a profit of 8,600,000
dlrs for its first quarter. The three following first quarters
resulted in losses of 3,200,000 dlrs, 3,500,000 dlrs and
1,800,000 dlrs, respectively, the company said.
    U.S. Home declined to put a specific figure on what its net
earnings would be for the coming first quarter, but said it
would definitely record a profit.
    In other news, U.S. Home said its shareholders approved an
amendment to its company's certificate of incorporation
relating to the liability of the company's directors.
 Reuter

Rockefeller Center Properties Inc said
it raised its quarterly dividend to 45 cts from 44 cts a share.
    The dividend is payable April 27 to shareholders of record
April 7.
 Reuter

analyst Edward Atorino lowered his rating on McGraw-Hill Inc
from a strong buy to a buy, saying earnings this year will be a
little less than he previously expected.
    McGraw Hill fell 2-1/4 to 68-1/4 on 223,000 shares.
    Atorino said his decision reflected mainly non-operating
factors and a recent gain in the share price. He said after
several acquisitions last year good will charges are up. Also,
the company faces a higher tax rate.
    Atorino expects earnings of 3.55 dlrs per share this year,
up from 3.04 dlrs last year.
 Reuter

downgraded BankAmerica Corp and the unit BankAmerica Overseas
Finance Corp but affirmed ratings of the units Bank of America
N.T. and S.A., Seafirst Corp and Seattle-First National Bank.
    The actions affect 5.5 billion dlrs of debt.
    Moody's said the downgrade reflected its concern over
prospects for material improvement in the holding company's
operating profitability in the medium term.
    Cut were BankAmerica's senior debt to Ba-1 from Baa-3,
subordinated debt to Ba-3 from Ba-1, preferred stock to B-1
from Ba-3 and commercial paper to Not-Prime from Prime-3.
    BankAmerica is the second-largest bank holding company in
the U.S.
    Moody's reduced the subsidiary BankAmerica Overseas
Finance's senior debt to Ba-1 from Baa-3 and subordinated debt
to Ba-3 from Ba-1. That debt is guaranteed by the parent.
    The rating agency also cited the holding company's
continuing high level of problem assets, including significant
exposure to Latin American debtor countries, that will continue
to pressure profitability.
    However, Moody's noted that BankAmerica Corp remains liquid
and owns considerable marketable assets.
    Moody's said it affirmed the ratings of the Bank of America
unit because of that bank's franchise value, significant core
deposit base and an expectation of regulatory support if
further stresses develop.
    The agency confirmed Bank of America's Baa-1 long-term
rating and Prime-2 short-term rating, as well as Seafirst's
Ba-1 senior debt and Seattle-First's short and long-term
ratings of Baa-1 and Prime-2 respectively.
 Reuter

Debt securities of major U.S. banks
came under light selling pressure in secondary trading on the
heels of Standard and Poor's Corp's downgrade of six money
center banks late yesterday, analysts and traders said.
    But they described market response as muted because the S
and P action came as no surprise. Besides, many participants
had already shied away from bank issues following Brazil's
suspension of interest payments last month, traders added.
    "The downgrades were expected for some time. In fact, you
can argue that S and P is lagging the market," commented one
trader.
payments on about 68 billion dlrs owed to foreign commercial
banks. No date was established for the renewal of payments.
    In its action, Standard and Poor's cited the exposure to
major Latin American debtor countries of Chase Manhattan Corp
<CMB>, Chemical New York Corp <CHL>, Irving Bank Corp <V> and
Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC>.
    The rating agency also downgraded Mellon Financial Corp
<MEL> and Security Pacific  Corp <SPC>, but said this reflected
higher non-performing assets and weaker operating results
rather than the international debt problem.
    "The S and P downgrades were a non-event," a trader said.
"Anyone who was caught unaware was not on top of the situation
anyway."
    Said another trader, "People talked about this before and
after S and P's announcement. There was not much reaction among
bank issues today, though prices are still below par."
    Still, market watchers said the action further undermined
sentiment for bank paper.
    Because of Brazil's suspension of interest payments, U.S.
bank paper has underperformed such other sectors as utilities,
telephones and industrials, analysts pointed out.
    Even though Standard and Poor's affirmed the debt ratings
of Citicorp <CCI>, Bankers Trust New York <BT>, Bank of Boston
Corp <BKB> and J.P. Morgan and Co Inc <JPM>, few buyers can be
found for securities issued by those banks, traders said.
    "Let's face it. Investors believe these banks are also
exposed to Latin and other debtor countries. And investors buy
on perceptions," said one broker.
    About the only bright spots in an otherwise dull banking
sector of the secondary corporate market are U.S. regional
banks and Japanese banks because investors perceive them as
less exposed to the debtor nations, analysts pointed out.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs 26 cts
    Net 200,000 vs 450,000
    Revs 7,291,000 vs 1,177,000
    12 mths
    Shr 37 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 801,000 vs 1,329,000
    Revs 26 mln vs 28.6 mln
    NOTE: 1985 year includes extraordinary gain of 10 cts per
share.
 Reuter

China has switched purchases of U.S.
wheat totaling 60,000 tonnes from the 1986/87 season, which
began June 1, to 1987/88 season delivery, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said outstanding wheat sales to China for
the current season amount to 90,000 tonnes and sales for
delivery in the 1987/88 season amount to 910,000 tonnes.
    Total corn commitments for the 1986/87 season total
1,015,800 tonnes, the department said.
 Reuter

Royal Bank of Canada Chairman Allan
Taylor said Ottawa and the provinces risk weakening the
country's financial system if they do not agree on a harmonized
regulatory regime for financial institutions.
    Taylor also said it was vital that the federal government 
retain its existing powers under Ottawa's major new proposals
to revamp the country's financial system.
    "Unless great care is taken now, in the detailed drafting
and implementation of regulatory change, we could actually end
up weakening our financial system," Taylor told a business
luncheon.
    "Also, we must avoid costly and inefficient duplication of
regulation and supervision between federal and provincial
authorities," Taylor continued.
    Earlier this week Federal Minister of State for Finance,
Tom Hockin, said progress was being made with his provincial
counterparts on the proposals that involve removing the
traditional barriers separating the banking, securities and 
insurance sectors.
    The governments are attempting to resolve a jurisdictional
dispute over who regulates what under the new system. The
provinces have traditionally had authority in the securities
field while Ottawa oversaw the banking sector.
    But the Chairman of Canada's largest bank stressed that 
Ottawa should retain its regulatory powers to "preserve an
efficient, competitive, national financial system."
    On the free trade talks under way with the U.S., Taylor
said Canadian negotiators must insure banks have as much access
to the American market as U.S. institutions are granted here.
    He told a new conference later he was "reasonably
confident" the Canadian side was making reciprocity in
financial services an issue at the negotiating table.
 Reuter

International Cocoa Organization's,
ICCO, council chairman Denis Bra Kanon continued work towards a
compromise plan on how the ICCO buffer stock should buy cocoa,
consumer delegates said.
    Consumer delegates said Bra Kanon had not formally
presented the compromise plan to producers and consumers, and
it was unlikely he would do so before Friday, they said.
    There was widespread confidence a result on the outstanding
items could be reached by Friday, when the council session is
due to end, consumers said.
    Bra Kanon completed bilateral consultations with several
delegations today on the main sticking points in the draft
buffer stock rules package, they said.
    Certain delegations wanted further discussion on the amount
of non-member cocoa the buffer stock will be permitted to buy,
differentials for different origin cocoas and limits on buffer
stock purchases of nearby, and forward material, the delegates
said.
    The buffer stock working group finalized the remaining
buffer stock rules, with only minor modifications to the
original draft buffer stock package produced last week, the
    The ICCO council is due to elect a new executive director
when it reconvenes Friday, producer delegates said.
    Producers intend to present a single candidate for the
post, and this is most likely to be Edouard Kouame from Ivory
Coast, they said.
    Earlier, the existing executive director, Kobena Erbynn
from Ghana, was expected to re-nominated, but he is now likely
to withdraw, the delegates said.
    The executive committee is due to meet Friday at 1100 GMT,
with the council unlikely to reconvene until late Friday,
consumers said.
 Reuter

Many London equity dealers doubt whether
the much publicised flood of Japanese investment into the U.K.
Equity market will be as large as some analysts have forecast.
    There has recently been much speculation that the Japanese
would look towards the U.K. Stock market for investment
opportunities on a much larger scale when the new fiscal year
begins next month. Last October's reorganisation of the stock
market, known as 'Big Bang', paved the way for greater
participation by overseas investors.
    Some analysts believe the Japanese have earmarked massive
sums for investment in Europe.
    Both the London and Tokyo markets have moved ahead strongly
since the start of this year. But London has lagged behind in
real terms and therefore is now beginning to look like giving a
better return on any funds that are reserved for equity
investment. Sterling's firmness also means there are profits to
be made from the currency turn. However, many equity dealers
polled by Reuters think that the Japanese will shy away from
London and continue to invest in instruments such as U.S.
Government securities.
    Even if they do diversify from their old stamping grounds
they will head for the U.S. Equity market before they come to
the European stock markets, one dealer predicted.
    "The Japanese, although very aggressive in markets that they
know, tend to be more conservative in those they don't...Even
if they do come to London in a big way they would tend to go
more for the fixed interest gilt edged market rather than the
more volatile equities," he added.
    He also cited the forthcoming U.K. General election as
another factor in keeping Far Eastern money out of the London
stock market.
    "The Japanese do not like too much uncertainty and a general
election creates just the kind that will keep them on the
sidelines," one trader said.
    There are also doubts whether the Japanese would find the
track records of U.K. Companies strong enough to make them
willing to invest heavily. "Our industrial and manufacturing
output may be looking better, but it must still look pretty
uninspiring to the Japanese," one broker said.
    Some market participants, however, are a little more
bullish and do expect more, although not a massive amount, of
Far Eastern funds to come to London in the short term.
    They point out that capital gains on U.S. Bonds, a market
in which the Japanese are traditionally heavy players, have
been eroded because of the fall in the U.S. Dollar and this
could prompt them to move funds out of the U.S. But even those
who are mildly bullish concede that Japanese investors on the
London exchange would almost certainly confine themselves to
longer term investment in 10 or 15 leading 'blue chip' issues,
which may include industrial giants such as ICI, Hanson Trust,
British Petroleum, Glaxo and Unilever.
    One analyst said he believed if there was such investment
in blue chip issues, recently privatised companies such as
British Gas and British Telecom could be left out in the cold.
    He said that with an election coming up, overseas investors
would be worried that a Labour victory would bring a policy of
re-nationalisation of such companies. The Labour party has in
the past said it would do this.
    Some of the recent rise in U.K. Equities has anticipated an
increase in Japanese buying in the near future.
 Reuter

French Agricultural Minister
Francois Guillaume warned that France would flatly reject
proposed reforms of the European Community, EC, cereals, sugar
and oilseeds sectors, which he said would disrupt these
markets.
    The EC Commission's proposals to shorten the intervention
period and lower monthly premiums for cereals and increase the
financial burden on the sugar producers will also result in
lower real prices for producers, he told farmers here.
    "I give you my word that France, while it will not reject
technical adjustments or serious discussion, will simply reply
in the negative to these bad reforms," Guillaume told the annual
conference of the country's major farm union, FNSEA 
(Federation Nationale des Syndicats Dexploitants Agricoles).
    Community agricultural ministers are due to meet again
Monday to try and agree a package of reforms to curb spiralling
EC output and fix farm prices for 1987/88.
    Relations between the government and farmers have become
strained in France in recent months.
    There have been sporadic but frequent demonstrations by
farmers protesting over sharp falls in meat and pork prices and
further cutbacks in Community milk output.
    But Guillaume's warning that he would reject reorganisation
of the EC cereal and sugar markets -- France being a major
producer of both crops -- won him warm applause from the
FNSEA's farmers.
    His pledge to fight the EC proposals and push for the
complete dismantling of the system of cross border taxes
designed to smooth out currency differences known as Monetary
Compensatory Amounts, MCA's, however, are unlikely to avoid
further protests by producers.
    Farm leader Raymond Lacombe said the union planned to go
ahead with a series of major protests both in France and abroad
against the EC Commission's proposals to overhaul the farm
sector.
    "The Minister's proposals back up our determination to
organise union action in the coming weeks," he told reporters,
adding that this could also act in Guillaume's favour on a
ministerial level.
    Guillaume was head of the FNSEA for many years before being
appointed farm minister last spring.
    Lacombe refused to say whether the farmers felt that
Guillaume was doing a good job as farm minister.
    There have been certain advances on cutting production
costs, reducing fiscal costs and awarding drought aid, but
there are still areas where more could be done such as on
farmers' indebtedness, he said.
    Guillaume told the conference the government will make
available 2.4 billion francs (396 mln dlrs) to help producers
reduce milk output and to encourage older farmers to retire.
    The government has already announced financial aid for the
milk sector and it was not clear how much of the package
announced today was new aid, Lacombe said.
 Reuter

billion-dlr package of budget deficit reductions, half through
unspecificed new revenues, to cut the 1988 deficit with a goal
of balancing the budget in 1991 under a new law's target.
    The committee went over a package of deficit reductions
proposed by its chairman, Democrat Lawton Chiles of Florida,
which he said would reach the 108-billion-dlr deficit in 1988
under the Gramm-Rudman budget law -- using President Reagan's
economic estimates.
    Using the Congressional Budget Office estimates, which
Congress usually relies on, would produce a deficit of 134
billion dlrs, Chiles said.
    Under the Chiles plan, deficits would be cut from
anticipated levels by nearly 110 billion dlrs over four years
to produce a 1991 balanced budget--the target of the Gramm
Rudman law.
    For 1988, the Chiles formula would cut the deficit by 37
billion dlrs, half through defence and non defence savings,m
the rest through revenues.
    Defence would be cut nearly 6.9 billion dlrs. Reagan
proposed hiking outlays by some 8 billion dlrs.
    His non defence budget savings, including health, welfare,
agricultural, government services and reduced interest
payments, amount to 11.6 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

place within the next two to three weeks, the source said.
 Reuter

<IMS International Inc> said its
Applied Bioscience International Inc <APBI> unit is making an
initial public offering of three mln shares of common stock at
15 dlrs a share.
    The offering, through a syndicate managed by Shearson
Lehman Bros Inc and L.F. Rothschild Unterberg Towbin Inc,
consists of IMS's entire holdings.
    The unit is a toxicological testing company that has
laboratories in the U.S. and U.K. It is parent to Bio/dynamics
Inc and Life Science Research Ltd, which were previously the
Life Sciences division of IMS International.
 Reuter

acquired Confidata Corp, a unit of <North Ridge Bank>, paying
500,000 dlrs in cash and pledging a guarantee on a 500,000 dlr
Confidata note held by North Ridge.
    First Financial, which provides data processing services to
community banks and other financial institutions, said the
acquisition will expand its customer base.
 Reuter

its C-E Environmental Systems and Services Inc unit agreed in
principle to acquire <E.C. Jordan and Co>, a privately held
firm based in Portland, Me.
    Terms of the acquisition were mot disclosed.
    Combustion Engineering said C-E Environmental, which
provides environmental sciences and management services, had
1986 sales of about 24 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 49 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 25.1 mln vs 28.9 mln
    Revs 202.8 mln vs 220.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 4.05 dlrs vs 3.66 dlrs
    Net 223.9 mln vs 186.4 mln
    Revs 1.35 billion vs 1.34 billion
    NOTE: Full name Potomac Electric Power Co
    1987 year includes extraordinary gain of 21.7 mln, or 46
cts per share, for the June 1986 sale of the company's Virginia
service territory to Virginia Power.
 Reuter

Japanese-owned Honda American
Manufacturing Co has exported the first U.S.-built cars ever
sold overseas by a foreign-owned auto company, a Honda
    The subsidiary of Honda Motor Co Ltd <HMC.T> of Japan
shipped 200 of its popular Accord cars to Taiwan earlier this
month, the spokesman said. The company might also eventually
send U.S.-made cars to Japan, he said.
    The automaker said it would not boost its U.S. imports of
cars from Japan, but instead make up demand for its cars in the
U.S. by increasing U.S. production.
    The shipment to Taiwan was part of planned shipments to
San-Yan Industries of Taiwan of about 2,000 Accords a year.
    Honda said it does not make Accords in Taiwan, and is
prevented by Taiwanese import restrictions from shipping them
there from Japan.
    Those restrictions were loosened this year to allow imports
from the United States. Previously no imports of foreign-built
cars were allowed, the spokesman said.
    The Accords were built at Honda's U.S. car and motorcycle
production facility at Marysville, Ohio. Honda in the past has
sent motorcycles from Marysville to Europe and Australia, and
has sent cars to Canada.
    Honda's U.S. output would have to be adjusted to meet
changing U.S. demand, the spokesman said. He quoted American
Honda president Tetsuo Chino as saying, "Honda will not
increase U.S. imports beyond the current level even if
voluntary export restrictions on Japanese cars are lifted."    
 Analysts say there are few signs Japan's restrictions will be
lifted.
    Honda might decide by the end of this year whether to
expand its U.S. production, the spokesman said.
    Honda said it is considering building either of its two new
luxury models--the "Legend" or "Integra"--in the United States.
    The Legend and Integra, two models of the company's Acura
line, were introduced last March. If the cars prove popular
enough, one of them could be built at the Ohio plant, or at a
new factory, the spokesman said.
    The spokesman said it is possible Acuras built in the
United States could be shipped back to Japan. However, he said
that decision has not yet been made, and would follow the
decision to build the cars in the United States.
    If demand for either one of the two cars reaches 100,000
vehicles a year, Honda could decide to build the cars in the
U.S., the company said.
    Sales of the Integra through February have outpaced the
Legend--35,768 against 29,824--but the spokesman said Honda
expects sales to "lean more heavily toward Legend" this year
because a two-door Legend has been added to the line.
   
 Reuter

No negotiated solution is in
sight to a three-day-old national strike by the majority of
Brazil's 700,000 bankworkers, a spokesman for the National
Federation of Banks said.
    The private bankers would rather wait until next Monday,
when a labour court is due to judge the legality of the
stoppage, the spokesman said. The bankworkers are demanding a
100 pct pay rise.
    "The workers are breaking an agreement signed six months
ago. If the banks agreed to grant them 100 pct now, soon
workers would have to be laid off and in some cases even banks
would run out of business," the spokesman told Reuters.
    He said only the state-controlled Banco do Brasil was on
the verge of negotiating an accord with its workers.
 Reuter

A huge five billion dlr credit facility
being syndicated for two subsidiaries of British Petroleum Co
Plc <BP.L> should be well received in the market, given the
relatively generous terms it carries, banking sources said.
    The sources said they believe the committed four year
revolving credit - the largest of its kind in the euromarkets -
carries a facility fee of 1/8 pct and that drawings will be at
1/8 pct over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
    Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York, which is arranging
the financing in conjunction with its London operation, was not
available to commment on the terms.
    BP announced it was arranging the financing earlier today
as part of its planned tender offer for the 45 pct of Standard
Oil Co that it does not own already.
    In addition to the revolving credit, BP also is arranging a
U.S. commercial paper program for an as yet undetermined
amount, which will be supported by the revolver.
    Bankers noted that the terms on the new facility compare
extremely favourably to those on other short-term facilities
for which pricing has turned extremely fine due to competition
for the mandates. It also contrasts with the 1/16 pct fee BP
paid on a recent 1.5 billion dlr refinancing of some existing
debt.
    Earlier today a Morgan Guaranty official, while declining
to reveal the pricing on the facility said that banks would be
"compensated fairly" since this is a special purpose facility
which must be completed quickly, with the signing expected in
    The facility is only being syndicated among BP's
relationship banks and therefore has large individual
commitments from the banks. Lead managers are being recruited
at the 200 mln dlr level, co-lead managers at 125 mln and
managers at 75 mln.
    However, bankers said that despite the size it is likely
the financing will get done quickly since banks will want to be
seen as supporting the relationship.
    The financing is being arranged in the name of BP
International and BP North America.
 Reuter

Bolivia's government, faced with a
mounting social unrest, opened talks today with the country's
top union leaders on ways to settle a series of pay demands.
    Foreign minister Guillermo Bedregal led a team of
government officials to the talks, held with the mediation of
the Roman Catholic church, sources said.
    The secretary general of Bolivia's labour organization COB,
Juan Lechin Oquendo, headed a group of four COB leaders to the
meeting at the archbishopric of La Paz, they said.
    Thousands of peasants, university students ann workers
marched today through the streets of La Paz to protest against
the government's economic policies.
    A hunger strike to press for higher wages spread today to
about 4,000 union leaders, workers, and university students in
the country's major cities, said COB press secretary Gonzalo
Vizcarra.
    Simultaneonsly, about 9,000 miners employed by the state
corporation COMIBOL continued their production strike begun
last Friday to press for higher wages and more funds in the
nationalised mining industry.
 Reuter

Extracts from a report by Italy's Budget
Ministry on the country's economic development in 1986 showed
gross domestic product (GDP) 2.7 pct higher in real terms than
in 1985 but a rise in unemployment.
    GDP calculated at 1980 prices rose to 434,682 billion lire
last year from 423,064 billion in 1985. On a current prices
basis, GDP was up 11 pct, totalling 894,362 billion lire in
1986 against 805,754 billion in 1985.
     But growth was insufficient to prevent a rise in
unemployment to 11.1 pct last year from 10.3 pct in 1985, the
ministry said.
    The report said falling oil prices and the depreciation of
the dollar during 1986 had favoured oil-importing countries
such as Italy.
    These factors helped Italy cut inflation to an average 6.3
pct in 1986, down from 9.3 pct in 1985.
    They also helped a major improvement in the trade balance.
    On the basis of data recently recalculated by the national
statistics institute Istat, Italy had a trade deficit in 1986
of 3,722 billion lire, the report said. This slightly revises a
previous deficit figure of 3,717 billion issued by Istat and
compares with a negative balance of 23,085 billion for 1985.
 Reuter

VOLCKER REAFFIRMS G
-6 NEGOTIATING PROCESS
    WASHINGTON, March 26 - Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker urged Congress to allow the government to continue its
flexible negotiations on exchange rates through procedures such
as the recent Paris meeting of industrialized countries.
Germain, Volcker said he opposed legislation to formalize
international negotiations on exchange rates and to require
Treasury Secretary James Baker to disclose plans for currency
    Volcker's letter was written March 24 in advance of the
committee's March 25 approval of the proposed legislation.
    "The fundamental policy objectives of the United States can
best be implemented in a more flexible framework, such as
through the recent meeting in Paris of Finance Ministers and
Central Bank governors," Volcker said.
    He recommended Congress not lock the administration into
formal procedures for international exchange rate negotiations
to achieve specific exchange rate goals.
    "The achievement of a sustainable pattern of U.S.
international transactions and more stability in exchange rates
are ones with which I remain sympathetic," he said.
    The Banking Committee's bill directs the administration to
to start negotiations to reach a competitive exchange rate for
the U.S. dollar "runs the risk of build up potentially
    A requirement that Baker disclose his intervention policy
could reduce the usefulness of intervention as a tool to deal
with exchange rate volatility, Volcker added.
    Baker has also opposed the legislation which will be
wrapped into a major trade bill for consideration in the House
in late April. The Senate will consider its version of the
trade bill in May.
 Reuter

Farm-state Senators indicated they
may broaden a Farm Credit System rescue package to include aid
for borrowers from private lenders such as commercial banks, as
well as the farm credit system.
    Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., chairman of the Senate
Agriculture subcommittee responsible for farm credit, said
legislation to rescue the financially-troubled system should
provide help to borrowers from all lenders to agriculture.
    "We must provide some form of interest rate buydown,
principal reduction relief for all eligible farmers and
ranchers regardless of their lending institution," Boren said.
    Boren's statement received bipartisan support from Sen.
James McClure, R-Idaho, who agreed that the aid package should
cover all lenders to agriculture.
    The comments by Senators of both parties, plus endorsements
for the across-the-board approach from the nation's largest
farm organization, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and
from the system itself, appeared to significantly broaden the
focus of the rescue legislation for the farm credit system.
Until now, agriculture officials had focused exclusively on how
to resurrect the failing system.
    Boren said borrowers from private lenders such as
commercial banks and life insurance companies must be included
in the aid package because "it would not be fair to address
only the problems of Farm Credit System borrowers."
    However, Boren and other proponents of an across-the-board
interest rate or principal buydown did not say how much the
broad approcah would cost.
    But Neil Harl, professor of economics at Iowa State
University told the hearing the cost could be in the range of
3.5 billion dlrs annually.
 Reuter

Sources close to Italy's <Gruppo
Ferruzzi> said <European Sugar (France)>, a French company
owned by Ferruzzi, would take over control of <CPC Industrial
Division>, the corn wet milling business acquired by the
Italian group earlier this week from CPC International Inc
<CPC>.
    The sources told Reuters that European Sugar, owned by
Ferruzzi subsidiary Eridania Zuccherifici Nazionali SpA
<ERDI.MI>, planned to seek a listing on the Paris bourse and
make a share offering there.
    CPC International announced Tuesday it had agreed in
principle to sell its European corn wet millng business to
Ferruzzi. The deal is worth 630 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Decision Industries Corp said it
expects to report an operating loss of 19-24 cts a share for
the first quarter ending March 31 mainly due to lower profit
margins and higher sales and marketing costs.
    In the 1st quarter of last year, when the company's quarter
ended Feb 28, 1986, it earned 957,000 dlrs or 10 cts a share on
revenues of 45 mln dlrs.
    Decision also said it entered into an agreement to sell its
International Computerized Telemarketing Inc subsidiary to an
investor group headed by the unit's senior management. Terms
    Decision also said it consolidated its Decision Development
Corp subsidiary into Decision Data Computer Corp, the unit
which designs, manufactures and sells its System/3X peripheral
products.
    It said this restructuring will adversely affect its first
quarter earnings, but it said it expects to realize a
"significant savings" in operating expenses through the
 Reuter

Commission (SEC) proposed new rules that would require
accounting firms that audit public companies to submit to a
periodic outside review of their operations.
    The SEC voted unanimously to seek public comment on the
plan, under which an accounting firm would have to hire another
firm to conduct a so-called "peer review" every three years or
lose the right to audit public companies.
    SEC officials conceded peer review would not end all
audit failures but said they hoped it would eliminate audits by
clearly unqualified firms and individuals.
    "Peer review will not stop all bad audits; we recognize
that," SEC Chief Accountant Clarence Sampson told the five SEC
commissioners.
    "But we hope the rule will go far to eliminate audits
performed by individuals without the necessary skills to
conduct a proper audit," Sampson said.
    The move is largely symbolic, since firms and individuals
responsible for auditing 84 pct of all public companies already
voluntarily undergo peer review every three years, under an
accounting industry self-regulatory plan.
    But the SEC has been under pressure for years from some
federal lawmakers to make the accounting industry more open and
accountable to the public.
    Agency officials estimated that a peer review would cost
the average accounting firm between 1,500 and 2,500 dlrs, or
500 to 750 dlrs a year.
    "I don't think that (cost) is a dispositive issue," SEC
Chairman John Shad said. "It's within a reasonable range of
cost."
    The proposal would exempt foreign auditors of non-U.S.
companies required to file financial reports with the SEC.
 Reuter

Potomac Electric and Power Co said
it will redeem on May 1, 1987, all of the shares of its
outstanding 4.04 dlrs series of 1971 serial preferred stock at
51.83 dlrs per share, plus accrued dividends.
    PEPCO also said it will redeem all of the shares of its
outstanding 4.23 dlr series of 1979 serial preferred stock, at
52.82 dlrs per share, plus accrued dividends.
    In addition, the company said it was selling one mln shares
of a new series of the company's 50 dlr par value serial
preferred stock. The annual dividend rate for the new stock
will be 3.37 dlrs per share, the company said.
 Reuter

Lomak Petroleum Inc and Strata
Corp, based in Columbus, Ohio, jointly said they entered into a
merger agreement for Strata to become a wholly owned subsidiary
of Lomak.
    Under the merger's terms, Strata shareholders will receive
5.7 cts per share of Strata common and warrants to buy about
.06 shares of Lomak common at 37.5 cts per share on or before
December 31, 1990, for each Strata common share.
    The merger is subject to approval by the companies' boards
and shareholders and agreement of certain Strata creditors,
among other things, said the companies.
 Reuter

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said it filed
    Proceeds will be used for the partial repayment of
outstanding indebtedness, Anadarko said.
    The company named Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc as underwriter
 Reuter

Motorolo Inc's Microcomputer
Division said it has reduced the price on 28 of its computer
board products based on the VMEbus architecture.
    The company said it was decreasing the price to consumers
because falling component prices, increased volumes and
manfucturing efficiency have achieved savings of 700 dlrs per
board.
 Reuter

Sealed Power Corp, an automotive parts
producer and distributor, said its Kent-Moore Group has signed
a memorandum of understanding with General Motors which would
allow the group to distribute and market GM's Dealer Equipment
service.
    Sealed Power said the GM Dealer Equipment service evaluates
various types of equipment for GM dealerships, authorizes
suppliers to produce certain GM-branded items, merchandises GM
and other selected equipment to dealers and consults with
dealers on their service systems requirements.
    "Kent-Moore will assume responsibility for the advertised
dealer contact number...providing 'one stop shopping' for both
special tools and state-of-the-art service equipment," Robert
Bishop, Sealed Power group vice president, said.
    GM Dealer Equipment will continue to evaluate and select
the major service equipment items and the "GM Dealer Equipment"
logo will still be used on specified service equipment, Sealed
Power said.
 Reuter

may downgrade British Petroleum Co PLC's 3.5 billion dlrs of
debt and Standard Oil Co's 3.8 billion dlrs of debt.
    The agency cited British Petroleum's 7.4 billion dlr tender
offer today for the remaining 45 pct of Standard Oil shares it
    Moody's said that while British Petroleum has greatly
strengthened its capital structure over the past few years,
this acquisition would seriously affect the company's
liquidity, leverage and interest coverage.
    Moody's noted that British Petroleum would use more than
two billion dlrs of excess cash and marketables and about five
billion dlrs of new acquisition debt to fund the transaction.
    In addition, the minority interest and deferred income
taxes attributable to Standard Oil would be excluded from
British Petroleum's capitalization. That would result in a
total debt to capital ratio of nearly 50 pct, Moody's said.
    The rating agency said it would study B.P.'s strategy to
restore financial flexibility after the acquisition. Moody's
said that may include divestiture of various petroleum and
non-petroleum assets and operations of B.P. and Standard.
    But Moody's noted that after the major asset writedown and
divestiture progress achieved by Standard Oil in 1985, fewer
non-petroleum assets are available for sale.
    Under review are the A-1 senior debt of issues guaranteed
by British Petroleum, including Eurobonds of BP Capital B.V.,
debentures of BP North America Finance Corp, Eurodebt of
British Petroleum B.V., BPCA Finance Ltd and BP Canadian
Holdings Ltd, debentures and medium-term notes of BP North
America Inc. Also, the A-1 debt of Standard Oil and Sohio
Pipeline, and debentures of Sohio/BP Trans-Alaska Pipeline
guaranteed severally and not jointly by B.P. and Standard.
 Reuter

said it has signed an agreement with Grumman Corp's Tachonics
Corp unit to develop and product gallium arsenide
seminconductor chips.
    Under the pact, California Micro Devices will design the
chips and Tachonics will manufacture them.
    Initial products to be developed will be gate arrays with
500 to 2,500 gate complexity and radiation hardening
capabilities, the company said.
 Reuter

International Mobile Machines Corp
said it filed for a public offering of one mln shares of
Securities and Exchange Commission, and Drexel Burnham Inc and
Butcher and Singer Inc will co-manage the offering.
 Reuter

N.Y. BUSINESS LOANS FALL 222 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 18 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. COMMERCIAL PAPER RISES 35 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 18 WEEK, FED SAYS

fell 222 mln dlrs to 64.05 billion in the week ended March 18,
    Including acceptances, loans fell 390 mln dlrs to 64.74
billion.
    Commercial paper outstanding nationally rose 35 mln dlrs to
339.04 billion.
Friday.
 Reuter

The eight major New York City banks
did not borrow from the Federal Reserve in the week ended
Wednesday March 25, a Fed spokesman said.
    It was the second half of a two-week bank statement period
that ended on Wednesday. The banks did not borrow in the first
week of the period.
 Reuter

Hertz Corp, a unit of UAL Inc, is
raising 100 mln dlrs through an offering of notes due 1995
yielding 8.06 pct, said lead manager Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc.
    The notes have an eight pct coupon and were priced at 99.65
to yield 102 basis points more than comparable Treasury
Investors and A-minus by Standard and Poor's. Merrill Lynch and
 Reuter

Americanture Inc said it has
purchased American Adventure Inc <GOAQC> for cash, the
assumption of liabilities and the issuance of American
Adventure Inc common and preferred stock to creditors,
shareholders and members.
    The acquisition was pursuant of a Chapter 11 reorganization
plan of American Adventure.
    The company said the transaction involved assets valued at
more than 83 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Ameritech Publishing, a unit of
Ameritech, the midwest-based telephone services company, said
it has named Barry Allen president effective April.
    Ameritech Publishing said Allen will succeed Leo Egan, who
will become chairman and chief executive officer until he
retires on June 1.
 Reuter

BancTec Inc said it received an order
for image processing equipment valued at six mln dlrs, its
largest order ever.
    BancTec said the order, expected to be shipped during the
current fiscal year, was placed by a major international
company, which it did not name.
 Reuter

Norstar Bancorp said it is
combining its banks on Long Island and New York City into one
institution to be called Norstar Bank.
    The combined bank, with headquarters on Long Island, will
have assets of two billion dlrs and 80 branches, Norstar said.
    It added that the combination will provide important
administrative and operating efficiencies to its customers.
    Norstar said the combination will also make it easier to
manage its bank network as it prepares to merge with Fleet
Financial Group <FLT> through a 1.3 billion dlr stock
   
 Reuter

Qtly div 36 cts vs 36 cts
 Reuter

    NOTE: Current dividend is equivalent to previous quarterly
dividend of 45 cts per share, after giving effect to 3-for-2
stock split effective March 3, 1987.
 Reuter

week of March 30, with four on overtime.
     It also said one plant will operate Saturday, March 28.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss one cts vs loss five cts
    Oper net loss 15,000 vs loss 79,000
    Revs 6,244,000 vs 8,148,000
    Avg shrs 1,912,000 vs 1,537,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 19 cts vs profit 22 cts
    Oper net profit 347,000 vs profit 341,000
    Revs 22.6 mln vs 28.5 mln
    Avg shrs 1,840,000 vs 1,537,000
   
    Note: Oper excludes tax losses of 13,000 vs 85,000 for qtr
and tax credits of 258,000 vs 235,000 for nine mths.
 Reuter

RCA Inc of Moorestown, N.J., a
division of General Electric, has been awarded a 133.0 mln dlr
contract for work on the Aegis weapons system, the Navy said.
 REUTER

<THL Holdings Inc> said a purpose
of its planned common stock offering would be to redeem its
Series B preferred stock of its subsidiary, SCOA Industries Inc
<SCOA>.
    THL said if the public offering is successful, it plans to
redeem the preferred stock at 25 dlrs per share, plus accrued
    The company said it planned to use the proceeds from the
public offering to finance the redemption of the preferred
stock.
    It said the company plans to seek approval of the holders
of the Series B preferred stock to redeem the Series B shares
without at the same time redeeming another series of SCOA's
    The company said if the approval is not obtained, SCOA has
the right to redeem both series simultaneously.
    THL said it announced on February 25, 1987, its intention
to make a public offering of common stock.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co PLC may have to
raise its planned 70 dlrs a share tender offer for the publicly
traded shares of Standard Oil Co <SRD>, analysts said.
    "There's a lot of speculation here that someway or other
they would be forced to come up with another bid," said Rosario
Ilaqua of L.F. Rothschild.
    And despite BP managing director David Simon's denial today
that BP would raise the offer, the analysts said that remained
a distinct possibility.
    Analysts said they base their thinking on Royal Dutch/Shell
Group's <RD> <SC> bid to buy the outstanding stake of Shell Oil
Co in 1984 and 1985. Royal Dutch/Shell eventually raised its
initial 55 dlrs a share offer to 60 dlrs a share, after
lawsuits by minority shareholders.
    "I think they're going to have to go a little higher
eventually, just as Royal Dutch/Shell had to go a little higher
for the Shell Oil minority shares," Bruce Lazier of Prescott
Ball and Turben said. He estimated a price of 75 dlrs a share.
    Royal Dutch/Shell offered 55 dlrs a share for the 30.5 pct
of Shell Oil it did not already own in January of 1984. After
objections from minority shareholders about the price, Royal
Dutch/Shell raised its bid and began a 58 dlrs a share tender
offer in April 1984.
    But shareholders sued and a court blocked completion of the
offer. After months of wrangling over the worth of Shell Oil,
Royal Dutch/Shell agreed to another two dlrs increase.
    It ended up paying 5.67 billion dlrs for the outstanding
Shell Oil stake, a significant premium to its original bid of
about 5.2 billion dlrs.
    The analysts made their comments before Simon's remarks at
a BP press conference in New York this afternoon.
    Sanford Margoshes of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc told
clients this morning that a sweetened offer was possible. The
analyst said the bid could be raised by two dlrs a share.
    Analysts do not expect regulatory hurdles because of the
Royal Dutch/Shell group precedent. But there may be shareholder
lawsuits for the same reason, they said.
    Goldman Sachs and Co, BP's investment advisor, advised the
Shell Oil board in 1984 and 1985.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it will put
1,000 workers at one of its car assembly plants on temporary
layoff.
    The giant automaker also said 2,000 workers who had been
idled will return to work.
    General Motors, in announcing its weekly plant schedule,
said the number of workers on indefinite layoff will remain
unchanged at 37,000.
    The 1,000 workers will be laid off temporarly at the
Pontiac, Mich., Fiero assembly plant, which will be down from
March 30 through April 13 for inventory adjustment.
    Some 2,000 General Motors workers will return March 30 at
the Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada plant at Arlington, Tex.,
which was shut March 16 for inventory adjustment.
    Some 5,600 workers remain on temporary layoff at two
plants.
 Reuter

MidCon Corp, a unit of Occidental
Petroleum Corp, said that effective May 1,
Dan Grubb will be the unit's president and chief operating
officer, taking over the title of president from O.C. Davis,
who will remain chairman and chief executive officer.
    MidCon said Robert Hodge, Midcon senior vice president for
planning and administration, will take over for Grubb as
president of Midcon Services when he assumes his new duties.
    Also, Midcon said that Philip Gasparac, Midcon senior vice
president and chief financial officer, will take on the
additional responsibilities of planning, rates and joint
ventures.
 Reuter

Viacom International Inc said it set
April 6 as the record date for shareholders entitled to vote at
a special meeting to be held to vote on the proposed merger of
Arsenal Acquiring Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of <Arsenal
Holdings Inc> into Viacom.
    It said the date of the special meeting has not yet been
 Reuter

19, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's latest
     The USSR has purchased 2.40 mln tonnes of U.S. corn for
soybeans.
 Reuter

Courier Corp said it expects to
report a small loss for the second fiscal quarter against a
profit of 828,000 dlrs a year ago.
    The company attributed the loss to competitive pressures
which have cut gross margins. In addition, it said it is
incurring significant expenses from management programs aimed
at reducing costs and boosting productivity.
    It said its Murray Printing Co unit has undertaken a
program of extended work hours, and salary and job cuts which
will save more than 1.5 mln dlrs annually.
 Reuter

    Net 59,700 vs 27,300
    Revs 3,123,900 vs 1,911,900
    12 mths
    Shr six cts vs nine cts
    Net 94,100 vs 81,600
    Revs 9,802,000 vs 5,922,000
    NOTE: qtr 1986 and qtr prior includes tax gain 9,000 and
1,900, respectively; and year 1986 and year prior includes tax
gain 18,000 and 21,000, respectively.
 Reuter

Corn sales of 2,806,300 tonnes in
the week ended March 19 were the highest level since
mid-November, 1979, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the USSR dominated the week's activity
with purchases of 1.4 mln tonnes (which were earlier reported
under the daily reporting system). Other large increaes were
posted for Japan and unknown destinations, it said.
    Taiwan purchased 296,300 tonnes for the 1986/87 season and
170,000 tonnes for the 1987/88 season, it said.
    Wheat sales of 317,200 tonnes for the current season and
125,000 tonnes for the 1987/88 season were down about one-third
from the preceding week and the four-week average.
    Wheat sales to China of 60,000 tonnes were switched from
1986/87 to the 1987/88 season, it noted.
    Soybean sales of 483,100 tonnes were 11 pct above the prior
week and two-thirds above the four-week average.
    Japan, the Netherlands, Mexico and Portugal were the main
buyers, the department said.
    Soybean cake and meal sales of 289,400 tonnes were
two-thirds above the previous week and the largest of the
marketing year, with Venezuela the dominant purchaser.
    Sales activity in soybean oil resulted in decreases of
4,400 tonnes, as reductions for unknown destinations more than
offset increases for Canada, the Dominican Republic and Panama,
    Cotton sales of 57,900 running bales -- 43,800 bales for
the current year and 14,200 bales for the 1987/88 season --
were off 25 pct from the previous week and 50 pct from the
four-week average.
    Turkey, Thailand, South Korea and Canada were the major
buyers for the current season, while Thailand, Britain and
Japan were the major purchasers from the upcoming season, the
     Sorghum sales of 178,800 tonnes were two-thirds above the
prior week and 75 pct over the four-week average.
    Venezuela was the leading buyer it said.
    Sales of 41,800 tonnes of barley were 10 times the previous
week and 10 pct greater than  the four-week average. Israel,
Cyprus and Saudi Arabia were the main buyers, it said.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 MONEY SUPPLY RISES 1.2 BILLION  DLRS IN MARCH 16 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK DISCOUNT BORROWINGS AVERAGE 302 MLN DLRS A DAY IN MARCH 25 WEEK, FED SAYS

U.S. BANK NET FREE RESERVES 603 MLN DLRS IN TWO WEEKS TO MARCH 25, FED SAYS

Eduardo Lizano, President of Costa
Rica's central bank and the country's chief debt negotiator,
has tendered his resignation and will be leaving the government
next month, a central bank spokesman said.
    Spokesman Manuel Melendez said Lizano announced his
decision to leave the bank late yesterday during a meeting of
its board of directors.
    "Lizano has always been an educator and he intends to
dedicate himself to teaching at the university of Costa Rica,"
Melendez said.
 Reuter

Valley Federal Savings and
Loan Association said its board declared a two-for-one stock
split for its common stock.
    The split will be effected in the form of a 100 pct stock
dividend, to be issued April 30 to stockholders of record March
31.
 Reuter

Atcor Inc said it cut its
quarterly dividend to three cts per share from 12 cts because
of depressed earnings.
    The dividend is payable April 15 to holders of record April
6.
    It said it will continue to review the dividend on a
quarterly basis.
 Reuter

Boston Edison Co chairman Stephen
Sweeney said two of the company's senior officers will take
early retirements, and the company is looking for a new
president and chief financial officer.
    Sweeney, who also holds the titles of president and chief
executive officer, said James Lydon, executive vice president
and chief operating officer, Joseph Tyrrell, executive vice
president and chief financial officer, have asked to take early
retirements following a transition period.
    Lydon and Tyrrell have each been with the company more than
35 years, Sweeney said.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply rose 1.2 billion
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 740.2 billion dlrs in the March
16 week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 739.0 billion
dlrs from 738.7 billion, while the four-week moving average of
M-1 rose to 739.1 billion dlrs from 738.3 billion.
    Economists polled by Reuters said that M-1 would rise
anywhere from 700 mln dlrs to three billion dlrs. The average
forecast called for a 1.8 billion dlr increase.
 Reuter

CPI Corp said American Telephone and
Telegraph has authorized its Business Telephone Systems
division to represent its computer product line to the St.
Louis and Chicago business markets.
    CPI said the products included in the agreement are
computers, printers, telephone modems and fax machines.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 12 cts vs loss 1.15 dlrs
    Oper net profit 300,286 vs loss 2,855,887
    Revs 2,456,616 mln vs 2,979,206
    Avg shrs 2,527,720 vs 2,482,197
    NOTE: 1986 earnings exclude extraordinary gain from
forgiveness of debt through reorganization under Chapter 11 of
280,505 dlrs, or 11 cts a share
 Reuter

Qtly div three cts vs 12 cts prior
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 19 billion dlrs of debt of Chrysler
Corp and related entities.
    S and P cited the acquisition of AMC as strongly negative.
It questioned the long-term srategic value, as well as a high
price of about two billion dlrs.
    Affirmed were the BBB senior debt of Chrysler and its unit
Chrysler Financial, Chrysler Financial's A-2 domestic and
Eurocommercial paper, Chrysler Capital Realty Inc's A-2
commercial paper and Chrysler Financial's BBB-minus
    The BBB senior debt of two international units, Chrysler
Credit Canada Ltd and Chrysler Overseas Capital Corp, was also
affirmed.
    Chrysler's debt issues were put on creditwatch on March
nine after the automaker announced plans to acquire American
Motors Corp <AMO>. AMC's debt is still on creditwatch with
positive implications pending the deal's outcome.
    The AMC purchase shows a strongly aggressive move on
Chrysler's part to increase market share at a time when
industry competition is intensely competitive, S and P said.
This is a change in the company's previous strategy.
 Reuter

Hawaiian Airlines Inc said it will
continue to expand services to Pacific Islands this year.
    The company said it will increase its South Pacific
services to daily service, from the current four flights per
week, and beginning May 21 it will fly twice a week to the
Western Pacific to Guam.
    Hawaiian Airlines also said it has applied with the
Department of Transportation for an emergency exemption to
provide service to Tahiti, with connecting services to American
Samoa, New Zealand and Cooke Islands.
 Reuter

An Atlas Centaur rocket
launching a military communications satellite went out of
control a minute after launch and was destroyed, a NASA
    The Atlas Centaur blasted off in rainy and overcast
conditions. Within seconds controllers reported it was out of
control and the order to blow it up was given.
    NASA spokesperson Lisa Malone said the rocket may have been
struck by lightening.
    The failure is the first for NASA since May 1986, when a
Delta rocket failed.
 Reuter

Standard Oil Co expects the sale of
assets and federal tax refunds resulting from last year's loss
to add about one billion dlrs to its normal cash flows from
operations in 1987, its annual report said.
    Last year, the report noted, the cash flow from operations
dropped to 1.8 billion dlrs from 3.5 billion dlrs in 1985 and
3.2 billion dlrs in 1984 due principally to lower oil prices.
    The report, prepared before British Petroleum Co Plc <BP>
disclosed plans to seek the rest of Standard's stock, put 1987
capital spending at 1.6 billion dlrs, down from the 1.7 billion
dlrs projected in January.
    Standard's capital spending totaled 1.77 billion dlrs in
1986.
    The report showed a decline in proven oil reserves to 2.41
billion barrels at the end of 1986 from 2.65 billion barrels a
year earlier as discoveries and other additions dropped to 11.4
mln barrels last year from 23.2 mln in 1985.
    But it said gas reeserves rose to 7.31 trillion cubic feet
from 7.22 trillion at the end of 1985 despite a 30.9 mln cubic
feet downward revision in previous reserve estimates during
1986. Discoveries and other additions totaled 200.5 billion
cubic feet last year, up from 175.9 billion in 1985, it added.
    Standard said both oil and gas production increased last
year -- to 726,600 barrels per day from 719,700 barrels the
previous day and to 154.4 mln cubic feet daily from 10.1 mln in
1985.
    But the average sales price of both dropped -- to 13.83
dlrs per barrel from 26.43 dlrs for oil in 1985 and to 1.49
dlrs per thousand cubic feet from 2.18 dlrs a year earlier.
    Standard said its refined product sales also rose last
year, to 644,500 barrels per day from 604,200 barrels daily in
1985.
 Reuter

The former chief currency
dealer of Herstatt Bank, which collapsed in 1974 on foreign
exchange speculation in West Germany's biggest banking crash,
can stand trial for damages, a court ruled.
    The court overturned a claim by Danny Dattel that a case
for damages should not be allowed after such a long interval.
    Herstatt creditors are seeking 12.5 mln marks from Dattel,
whom they accuse of causing losses at the bank of over 500 mln
marks by manipulating forward foreign exchange contracts.
    The crash of the private Herstatt bank with losses of over
one billion marks stunned West Germany's business community,
and led to a tightening of banking regulations.
    The losses were even greater than the 480 mln marks
announced recently by Volkswagen as a result of fraud in
currency transactions.
    Ivan Herstatt, managing director of the bank when it
collapsed, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in
1984 but appealed. Six other people associated with the bank
were jailed in 1983.
    But Dattel was freed from prosecution after he produced
medical evidence of paranoia caused by Nazi persecution during
his childhood, which might have led him to take his own life.
 Reuter

Energy and Mines Minister Arturo
Hernandez Grisanti today told a meeting of regional oil
exporters the next few months will be critical to efforts to
achieve price recovery and stabilize the market.
     Hernandez said while OPEC and non-OPEC nations have
already made some strides in their efforts to strengthen the
market, the danger of a reversal is always present.
    "March and the next two or three months will be a really
critical period," Hernandez said. He said, "We will be able to
define a movement, either towards market stability and price
recovery or, depending on the market, a reversal."
    Earlier this week, Hernandez said Venezuela's oil price has
averaged just above 16 dlrs a barrel for the year to date. If
OPEC achieves its stated goal of an 18 dlrs a barrel average
price, he said, Venezuela's should move up to 16.50 dlrs.
    Hernandez spoke today at the opening of the fifth
ministerial meeting of the informal group of Latin American and
Caribbean oil exporters, formed in 1983.
    Ministers from member states Ecuador, Mexico,
Trinidad-Tobago and Venezuela are attending the two day
conference, while Colombia is present for the first time as an
observer.
    Hernandez defined the meeting as an informal exchange of
ideas about the oil market. However, the members will also
discuss ways to combat proposals for a tax on imported oil
currently before the U.S. Congress.
    Following the opening session, the group of ministers met
with President Jaime Lusinchi at Miraflores, the presidential
palace. The delegations to the conference are headed by
Hernandez of Venezuela, Energy Minister Javier Espinosa of
Ecuador, Energy Minister Kelvin Ramnath of Trinidad-Tobago,
Jose Luis Alcudiai, assistant energy secretary of Mexico and
Energy Minister Guilermno Perry Rubio of Colombia.
 Reuter

said scientists at its Zurich research laboratory have taken a
key step toward developing a method of testing computer chips
with a laser.
    The technique is important, IBM said, because it could lead
to the development of tools that can determine the quality of
microscopic-sized computer chips without damaging them.
    IBM said chip makers will need such advanced testing
methods to aid them in developing the next generation of
semiconductors.
    These chips will be smaller than today's chips but will be
able to store vastly greater amounts of information.
    IBM said its technique uses a laser light for "contactless"
measuring of electrical signals on metal lines similar to the
kind found in computer chip circuitry.
    It said that using commercially available lasers, the
method should permit measurements of circuits with a width of
one micrometer or less.
    A micrometer is about 80 times smaller than the thickness
of a sheet of paper.
 Reuter

Tround International Inc
said it entered into a joint agreement with <Lucas Aerospace
Ltd>.
    The company said the agreement calls for the selection of
certain Tround products for use both with the Lucas 50 caliber
gun turret on helicopters and other vehicles and to establish a
sales effort for these products.
    The two companies are negotiating with the U.S. Navy to
flight-qualify the joint system, which will be adapted to a
helicopter provided by the Navy.
    Tround said the system has the potential for revenues in
excess of 300 mln dlrs over a six-to-eight-year production time
span, assuming the project is a success.
 Reuter

Farm-state senators indicated they
broad approach would cost.
    By trying to draw into the farm credit rescue package all
farm borrowers, Boren and other Senators appeared to be
reacting to pressure from private lenders and their borrowers,
who fear they will be put at a competitive disadvantage by the
government rescue of the farm credit system and its borrowers.
    The farm credit system is the nation's largest lender to
agriculture with 39 pct of all farm real estate loans, but
private lenders account for nearly a quarter of loans on
farmland and 34 pct of farm operating loans, official figures
show.
    The American Bankers Association, in testimony to the
hearing, warned the farm credit rescue should not be structured
to favor the system over other lenders.
    As one way to meet the concern of private lenders, several
Senators, the farm credit system, and farm organizations
endorsed creation of a secondary market on farm real estate
loans, called "aggie mae", which is sought by private lenders.
    "We are also exploring the possibility of including in the
farm credit bill, the establishment of a secondary market for
agricultural loans that would be available to all lenders,"
Sen. Boren said.
 Reuter

    Net 21,080 vs 35,393
    Revs 2,026,017 vs 2,476,068
    Nine mths
    Net 48,567 vs 59,527
    Revs 6,231,242 vs 6,519,473
 Reuter

Burr-Brown Corp said its first
quarter 1987 results will show profits significantly below the
1,058,000 dlrs, or 11 cts per share, earned in the first
quarter last year.
    The company said the profit decline will be the result of
an increase in reserves for inventory valuation. The increase
will be to cover potential write-downs of certain inventories
or products used in compact-disc stereo systems.
    Burr-Brown said the possible write-down is being
precipitated by a shift in market demand toward higher
performance products.
 Reuter

B. Charles Ames, chairman of
Acme-Cleveland Corp, said he will step down as chief executive
    He will be replaced by David Swift, who was elected to
serve as president and chief executive officer, effective April
1, the company said.
 Reuter

Eduardo Lizano, president of Costa
    The spokesman said Lizano, 56, announced his decision to
leave the bank late yesterday during a meeting of its board of
directors. "He intends to dedicate himself to teaching at the
university of costa rica," he said.
    Lizano could not be reached immediately for comment on his
decision to leave the central bank.
    Well-placed sources said his departure follows months of
bitter infighting over government economic policy and the
handling of this nation's foreign debt, which is among the
highest per capita in the world.
 Reuter

Brazilian crude oil and
liquefied natural gas production fell to an average 583,747
barrels per day in February from 596,740 in the same 1986
month, the state oil company Petrobras said.
    The drop was due to operating problems in the Campos Basin,
the country's main producing area, where output was down to
346,011 bpd from 357,420, a Petrobras statement said.
    Consumption of oil derivatives totalled 1.14 mln bpd in
February, 16.7 pct up on February last year but down from the
record 1.22 mln bpd used in October last year. Use of alcohol
fuel in February was 208,600 bpd, 42 pct above February, 1986.
 Reuter

MEDIA GENERAL INC UPS QTLY DIV TO 68 CTS/SHR FROM 64 CTS, SETS STOCK SPLIT

Hawkeye Entertainment Inc said it
completed its initial public offering at the maximum
subscription level of 14 mln shares at 25 cts per share, for
proceeds of 3.5 mln dlrs.
    The company said the proceeds will be used to create,
acquire, develop, produce and package entertainment properties,
primarily in film and television and secondarily in music.
 Reuter

Bomed Medical Manufacturing Ltd
said it signed three foreign contracts for the sale of its
noninvasive continuous cardiac output monitor.
    The contracts, valued together at over one mln dlrs, are
with Sino-US Medical Specialties Ltd in Hong Kong and China,
Kimal Scientific Products Ltd, in the United Kingdom and
Hemoportugal, LDA, in Portugal.
    Bomed said it is also in the process of negotiating other
foreign contracts.
 Reuter

Dexter Corp said its Hysol
Aerospace and Industrial Products division signed an agreement
to license its engineering adhesives to Toyoda Gosei, an
affiliate of <Toyota Motor Co> of Japan.
    Dexter said technology exchanges will begin within the next
three months and both partners will work together to develop a
complete line of structural adhesive and application techniques
for the automotive and other industries.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp said its plans to erect a
72-story office building in downtown Chicago at the site once
occupied by a Montgomery Ward department store have been
postponed.
    A spokesman for Dearborn Land Co, a unit of Mobil Land
Development Corp, said the current office market in the area is
overbuilt.
 Reuter

<Glenwood Inc> said it is
recalling lot number 54238 of its potaba tablet (aminobenzoate
potassium), a prescription drug used mainly to treat
scleroderma, a painful skin thickening condition.
    It said 5,474 bottles of 100 tablets were distributed
nationwide. The product is made by Vitarine Pharmaceuticals of
Springfield Gardens, N.Y, exclusively under the Glenwood label.
    Glenwood said the recall is due to the pacakging of a
non-prescription tablet containing ammonium chloride and
caffeine with the potaba tablets.
    Only one lot number is involved, but the company said it
urges all potaba tablets purchased since January 1987 be 
discontinued if a lot number cannot be identified.
    It said potaba therapy requires about 24 tablets a day, and
in the mispackaged bottles patients could take excessively
large doses of caffeine and chloride which could produce rapid
heart beats, anxiety, and other ill health effects.
 Reuter

CORRECTED - MEDIA GENERAL INC UPS ANNUAL DIV TO 68 CTS/SHR FROM 64 CTS, SETS STOCK SPLIT (CORRECTS TO SHOW RAISE IN ANNUAL DIV, NOT QTLY)

<Central Capital Corp> said it planned
a three-for-two split of its common and class A subordinate
voting shares, subject to shareholder approval at the April 23
    It said the split would raise the amount of common shares
to about 25.2 mln from 16.8 mln and subordinate voting shares
to about 23.9 mln from 15.9 mln.
 Reuter

The White House Economic Policy
Council made a recommendation to President Reagan whether to
retaliate against Japan for alleged unfair practices in
semiconductor trade, U.S. officials said.
    They would not disclose the council's recommendation, but
the officials said earlier it was likely the council would call
for retaliation and urge that curbs be imposed on Japanese
exports to the United States.
    The officials said it might be several days before Reagan
would act and his moves made public.
    The Senate last week unanimously called on Reagan to impose
penalities on Japanese exports. Retaliation was also called for
by the semiconductor industry and its chief trade union, both
hard hit by Japanese semiconductor trade.
    In a pact last summer, Japan summer agreed to stop dumping
its semiconductors at less than cost in the United States and
other nations and to open its own market to the U.S. products.
    In return, the United States agreed to hold up imposing
anti-dumping duties on Japanese semiconductor shipments.
    U.S. officials say that while Japan has stopped dumping
semiconductors on the American market, they have continued to
dump them in third countries and that the Japanese market has
remained all but closed to the U.S. semiconductors.
 reuter

Britain's centrist Alliance has gained
further ground and now stands second to the ruling
Conservatives according to a new public opinion poll, leaving
the main opposition Labour Party trailing in third place.
    The Gallup survey to be published in tomorrow's Daily
Telegraph newspaper shows the Conservatives with a popularity
rating of 37.5 pct, followed by the Social Democrat/Liberal
Alliance with 31.5 pct and Labour with 29.5 pct.
    A Marplan poll published in this morning's edition of the
Today newspaper gave the Conservatives 36 pct against a tied
figure of 31 pct each for Labour and the Alliance.
    Last month a Marplan poll gave the Tories 38 pct, the
Alliance 21 pct and Labour 37 pct.
    The latest poll findings would, if translated into an
election result, produce a hung parliament where no single
party enjoyed an overall majority, analysts said.
    That should dampen speculation of an early June election,
 Reuter

Shr loss 66 cts vs profit 1.07 dlrs
    Net loss 20,957,000 vs profit 11,041,000
    Revs 1.54 billion vs 1.85 billion
    Avg shrs 73.2 mln vs 71.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes charge of 94.8 mln dlrs or 1.32
dlrs a share from abandonment of Bailly nuclear plant.
    Northern Indiana Public Service Co is full name of company.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Governor Robert Heller
said that there should be something approaching full nationwide
banking in the U.S. by 1990 or 1991.
    While much of the basic reform in anachronistic interstate
banking laws may come on the state level, he told a financial
analysts' meeting here that he also hoped for some concrete
action on a federal level to address geographic and other
issues.
    "A crisis will bring it about very quickly...but that is
not the way I would like to see it happen," he said, adding,
"there needs to be continued pressure on Congress (to act)."
    Heller said that it is very difficult to visualize the
final version of plans to reform the U.S. financial services
industry, which are currently being discussed on Capitol Hill.
"In the conference committee, anything can happen," he said.
    He said that he hoped that his personal vision of banking
reform, which he outlined earlier in a formal speech, would
serve as a blueprint for Congressional debate.
    In his speech, Heller called for a broad restructuing of
the domestic financial services industry, which would allow
commercial banks to diversify along wider geographic and
 Reuter

Chicago real estate developer
Leonard Chavin told the Securities and Exchange Commission he
had raised his stake in the L.E. Meyers Co Group to 11 pct from
9.7 pct.
    He also said an investment banker repesenting him met with
Myers' officers, telling them of his plans for a takeover and
that he may solicit proxies for a seat on Myers' board.
    Chavin also said if he takes control of the firm, it could
result in delisting Meyers' from the New York Stock Exchange.
    He told the SEC that while he is trying to buy or acquire
the firm, he still may only hold the shares for an investment.
 reuter

<Canamax Resources Inc> and <Pacific
Trans-Ocean Resources Ltd> said they conditionally approved
starting production at their jointly owned Ketza River gold
deposit in the Yukon after a study recommended the move.
    They said production was conditional on approval of a water
license and arrangement of appropriate financing. They
estimated development costs for the mine and mill would total
21.1 mln dlrs, including three mln dlrs of working capital.
    The feasibility study anticipated gold production of 49,600
ounces a year at a cost of 129 Canadian dlrs a short ton, they
said.
    Canamax and Pacific Trans-Ocean said the project would
yield a 40 pct after-tax real rate of return at a gold price of
400 U.S. dlrs an ounce.
    They said they would mine 460,000 tonnes of proven and
probable mineable reserves of oxide ore grading 0.45 ounce gold
ton at a yearly rate of 112,000 tonnes for a mine life of 4.25
years.
    Possible reserves of 75,000 tonnes grading 0.38 ounce gold
ton at the break zone would extend mine life by a year, with
considerable potential for development of further oxide ore
reserves at the deposit, they said.
 Reuter

Canamax Resources Inc and Pacific
Trans-Ocean Resources Ltd said they conditionally approved
said.
per ton at a yearly rate of 112,000 tonnes for a mine life of
4.25 years.
per ton at the break zone would extend mine life by a year,
with considerable potential for development of further oxide
ore reserves at the deposit, they said.
 Reuter

<The Ceco Corp> said it
repurchased the 20 mln dlr 13-1/4 pct senior subordinate notes
due November 30, 1996 issued last December nine as part of the
financing for its leveraged buyout.
    Ceco said it financed the purchase through an increase in
its existing credit line.
    Ceco said Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc acted as Ceco's agent
in this transaction.
 Reuter

Honeywell Inc said its total debt
rose by more than 85 pct in 1986, mainly due to its 1.02
billion dlr acquisition of the Sperry Aerospace Group.
    At yearend, according to the company's 1986 annual report,
Honeywell's total debt stood at 1.44 billion dlrs, compared
with 776.6 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Honeywell said that if it had acquired the Sperry unit at
the beginning of 1986, its loss for the full year would have
been 9.88 dlrs a share.
    Honeywell's actual loss in 1986 was 8.33 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

McIntyre Mines Ltd said it completed
the previously announced sale of all shares of wholly owned
Smoky River Coal Ltd and certain related assets to Smoky River
Holdings Ltd for a nominal cash consideration.
    McIntyre did not specify the cash amount of the sale.
    Smoky River Holdings is an Alberta company controlled by
Michael Henson, former president and chief executive of
McIntyre, the company said.
    McIntyre said it retained an unspecified royalty interest
in Smoky River Coal based on net operating cash flows from the
company's coal properties.
    McIntyre also said it provided a three mln dlr last
recourse letter of credit to the Alberta government for Smoky
River Coal's reclamation obligations.
    The credit letter expires either when Smoky River completes
three mln dlrs of reclaiming activities or December 31, 1992,
which ever occurs first.
    McIntyre said it also remains contingently liable for
certain obligations now totalling about seven mln dlrs, which
will reduce over time as Smoky River continues to operate.
    McIntyre's principal asset continues to be its 14 pct
interest in Falconbridge Ltd <FALCF>.
 Reuter

A national strike by the
majority of Brazil's 700,000 bankworkers completed three days
and no negotiated solution was immediately expected, a
spokesman for the National Federation of Banks said today.
    While bankworkers are demanding a 100 per cent pay rise,
the private bankers would rather wait until next Monday, when a
labour court is due to judge the legality of the stoppage, the
 Reuter

Shareholders of PHLCORP Inc, formerly
Baldwin-United Corp, nominated Leucadia National Corp's slate
of directors and adopted a proposal to reincorporate the
company in Pennsylvania, according to PHLCORP's secretary and
general counsel Bob Beber.
    Elected to the board were Leucadia Chairman Ian Cumming,
Leucadia President Joseph Steinberg, James Kimball and Michael
Lynch.
    PHLCORP previously said the planned reincorporation to
Pennsylvania from Delaware results in certain limited
restrictions on the transfer of company's shares, which are
intended to minimize the likelihood of loss of significant tax
benefits.
    PHLCORP earlier said that on November 14, 1986, Leucadia
acquired claims in Baldwin-United's bankruptcy proceedings
entitling it to about 39 pct of the outstanding common of
PHLCORP. Cumming and Steinberg were elected to the board in
November.
    Leucadia's candidates were the only nominated for the
board. PHLCORP had said if the candidates did not win
shareholder approval at the meeting in Philadelphia today, the
former directors would continue in office.
    PHLCORP has been managed by Palmieri Co, which was retained
to assume management control of the company by Baldwin's former
board of directors in May, 1983.
    Leucadia had previously said if its directors won approval,
the agreement with Palmieri would be terminated and Cumming and
Steinberg would step in as chairman and president,
PHLCORP will merge into a newly formed Pennsylvania company.
Shares will be exchanged on a one-for-one basis.
 Reuter

Media General Inc said it raised
the annual dividend on its class A and class B common stock to
68 cts a share from 64 cts.
    The company said it also declared a two-for-one stock split
of both stock issues, which is subject to shareholder approval
of an increase in the number of authorized class A shares.
    Media General said the increased dividend is payable June
12 to shareholders of record May 29.
    The proposed stock split will be paid May 29 in shares of
class A shares, the company said.
    The company said it also approved an amendment to its
articles of incorporation allowing class B shares to be
coverted into class A shares at the option of the holder.
    Media General said the moves should broaden investor
interest in its class A stock.
 Reuter

said the First State Bank in Billings, Okla, was closed by
banking regulators, bringing the total number of bank failures
this year to 51.
    FDIC said 9.4 mln dlrs of First State's deposits were
assumed by First National Trust Co of Perry, in Perry Oklahoma.
    First National also will assume eight mln dlrs in assets.
The FDIC said it will advance 1.5 mln dlrs to facilitate the
transaction and retain 2.1 mln dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

A multinational shareholder group
told the Securities and Exchange Commission it increased its
stake in Scandinavia Fund Inc to 35.5 pct, from 30.5 pct.
    The investors include Ingemar Rydin Industritillbehor AB,
of Sweden, and VBI Corp, of the West Indies.
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 10,798,000 vs 4,704,000
    Revs 47.4 mln vs 32.9 mln
    YEAR
    Shr 58 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 29.1 mln vs 25.8 mln
    Revs 187.7 mln vs 134.7 mln
    Note: 1986 net includes 2.8 mln dlr extraordinary gain in
4th qtr and 6.5 mln dlr fl-yr extraordinary loss involving
provision for decline in market value of marketable securities
partly offset by gain from sale of stake in Dome Petroleum Ltd
<DMP>.
   
 Reuter

load factor, or percentage of seats filled, totaled 66.8 pct in
February, up from 53.4 pct for the same month last year.
    The airline said its traffic for the month rose to 49.1 mln
revenue passenger miles, from 33.9 mln last year. A revenue
passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile.
    The carrier said its capacity increased to 73.5 mln
available seat miles from 63.5 mln.
 Reuter

Shr loss seven cts vs profit 11 cts
    (corrects year ago per share to profit, instead of loss in
item that ran on March 23)
 Reuter

Top executives with Tenneco Corp <TGT>
and Sabine Corp <SAB> said they expected world oil prices to
gradually increase over the next two years as U.S. reliance on
imports of oil from the Middle East grows.
     "I believe we have bottomed out and can look forward to a
trend of gradually increasing prices," C.W. Nance, president of
Tenneco Oil Exploration and Production, told a meeting of the
Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association.
     Nance predicted that by 1990, the Organization of
Producing and Exporting Countries would be producing at the
rate of 80 pct of capacity.
    The gain will come largely through increased imports to the
United States, he said.
    "They will be able to raise the price again but I do not
think they will raise it as much as they did in 1979," Nance
said. He did not say how much of a price hike he expected.
     Andrew Shoup, chairman of Dallas-based Sabine, predicted
that world oil prices would increase from a range of 15 to 20
dlrs a barrel in 1987 to a range of 17 to 22 dlrs a barrel in
1988. Natural gas prices, Shoup said, should similarly climb
from a range of 1.30 to 1.70 dlrs per mcf this year to between
1.50 and 1.90 dlrs per mcf in 1988.
     "Fuel switching could help us as much as five pct in
increased demand," Shoup said, referring to the gas industry's
outlook for 1987. Repeal of the Fuel Use Act, a federal law
prohibiting the use of natural gas in new manufacturing plants
and utilities, could increase demand for gas by as much as 15
     Tenneco's Nance also said that some U.S. cities may
experience peak day shortages in natural gas supplies next
winter because of the industry's reduced deliverability.
     Tenneco's gas deliverability, for example, dropped by 20
pct during 1986, he said.
     "This does not mean the gas bubble is gone," Nance said.
"We believe gas prices have bottomed out. The real question is
how broad the valley is -- is it one year, two years or three
years before we start to climb out?"
      J.C. Walter of <Walter Oil and Gas Corp>, said the recent
improvement in oil prices was not enough for independent
producers to begin new onshore drilling projects.
     "If crude oil stays below 20 dlrs a barrel and 1.50 dlr
per mcf for natural gas prevails, the prospects for onshore
exploration at deeper depths in the Texas Gulf Coast by
independents in the 1990s are pretty dismal," Walter said.
     He suggested that some independents may instead turn to
exploration in shallow federal offshore leases. Farm-out
agreements, cheap rig rates and less competition have held
finding costs in those areas to five or six dlrs a barrel,
Walter said.
 Reuter

White House Budget Director James
Miller said a budget plan drafted by Senate Budget Chairman
Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.) was "seriously deficient."
    In a statement, Miller called the senator's proposal for
the government's fiscal 1988 budget would cut U.S. defense
spending authority by more than 25 billion dlrs from President
Reagan's request, resulting in a real reduction of military
spending authority for the third year in a row.
    While the plan would allow actual 1988 defense spending to
rise by 5.6 billion dlrs, domestic spending would be increased
by a disprportionate 42.7 billion dlrs, he said.
    Miller also criticized the Chiles plan's call for a 13.6
billion dlr tax increase.
    "The president has said repeatedly that he would veto any
tax increase," Miller said.
 Reuter

The Soviet economy has grown at an
increased rate under Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, but his
goals may be too ambitious, according to a report from U.S.
intelligence agencies.
    The report was prepared jointly by the Central Intelligence
Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency for the
Congressional Joint Economic committee, which released it.
    It said the Soviet economy grew by 4.2 pct in 1986,
Gorbachev's first full year in power, twice the average rate of
growth over the previous 10 years.
    Gorbachev's policies to improve worker attitudes, remove
incompetent officials, reduce corruption and alcoholism and
modernize the country's industrial equipment accounted for some
of the gains, the report said.
    "Although many of the specific policies Gorbachev has
adopted are not new, the intensity Gorbachev has brought to his
efforts and his apparent commitment to finding long-term
solutions are attributes that his immediate predecessors
lacked. Nonetheless, Gorbachev's program appears too ambitious
on a number of counts," the report said.
    Earlier this week, two U.S. experts on the Soviet Union
said Gorbachev was likely to be ousted in three to four years
if he continues his reform policies.
    "I don't think he can last four years," Marshall Goldman of
Harvard University told a Congressional hearing. "He's moving so
fast, he's stepping on so many toes."
    A similar comment came from Peter Reddaway of the
Smithsonian Institution's Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian
studies.
    The economic report said meeting targets for commodity
output would require unrealistic gains in productivity and
industrial output targets appear too high to allow time to
install more advanced equipment.
    None of Gorbachev's proposals would change the system of
economic incentives that has discouraged innovation and
technological change, the report added.
    "The first significant resistance to specific policies,
although not overall goals, surfaced (in 1986) in both the
massive government and party bureaucracy, particularly among
enterprise managers who complained that they were being asked
to carry out conflicting goals -- such as to raise quality
standards and output targets simultaneously," the report said.
    The CIA-DIA report predicted two to three pct growth in the
Soviet economy over the next several years. It said the Soviet
Union trailed the U.S. by seven to 12 years in advanced
manufacturing technologies, such as computers and
microprocessors.
 Reuter

GREAT AMERICAN CORP SEES 1ST QTR CHARGE OF 14.1 MLN DLRS AGAINST LOAN LOSS ALLOWANCE

<Cineplex Odeon Corp> said it proposed
to sell 3,650,000 shares of common stock in the United States
in late April, its first U.S. public stock offering.
Exchange commission, Cineplex said it plans to offer the shares
through an underwriting group managed by Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets and Allen and Co.
    Cineplex also said that MCA Inc <MCA>, which holds a 50 pct
stake in company, will buy one mln subordinated restricted
voting shares. These shares, will be bought at the closing of
the public offering with existing purchase rights, it said.
  
 Reuter

Great American Corp said
preliminary findings by regulatory examiners of its AMBANK
subsidiary will result in a first quarter charge of 14.1 mln
dlrs and a writedown of 1.4 mln dlrs.
    The charge will be made against the allowance for possible
loan losses, and the writedown is of other real estate.
    Great American said the examiners were conducting a regular
examination and a final report is not expected for several
weeks. Management intends to include the charge and writedown
in response to the preliminary findings.
    Great American said regulatory authorities are not
requiring an adjustment of the previously reported financial
results for Great American for 1986.
    However, Great American has revised its previous estimates
of provisions for possible losses and has added 9.9 mln dlrs to
the allowance account as of December 31, 1986. It said it took
the action since the charge-offs will significantly deplete its
allowance for possible loan losses and the economic environment
does not show signs for significant improvement in the near
future.
    It said the additional provision increases the allowance to
26.4 mln dlrs, representing 6.63 pct of the outstanding loan
portfolio and 83.2 pct of non-performing loans at year-end.
    Great American said its revised net loss for the fourth
quarter is 14.1 mln dlrs, or 6.36 dlrs per share, compared to a
net loss of 2.4 mln dlrs or 1.06 dlrs per share the year
earlier.
 Reuter

Western Tele-Communications
Inc said it plans to periodically repurchase shares of its
class A and class B stock.
    The company said it will repurchase an indeterminate amount
of shares from institutional investors on the open market.
    It said it expects to buy the shares using available funds
when it believes the market prices of the stock issues are too
low.
    Western said it plans to continue the program indefinitely.
 Reuter

Shr 78 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 725,000 vs 451,000
    Assets 98.5 mln vs 85.9 mln
    Loans 40.5 mln vs 28.8 mln
    Deposits 90.4 mln vs 78.7 mln
 Reuter

Technology Marketing Inc said it
signed a new production contract worth about one mln dlrs with
what it called, a substantial U.S. electronics equipment
company.
    The company said it would not comment further on the
 Reuter

Ltd said shareholders approved the company's previously
reported proposed three-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

CTC Dealer Holdings Ltd said it would
appeal a previously reported Ontario court ruling upholding an
Ontario Securities Commission decision to block CTC's bid for
49 pct of <Canadian Tire Corp Ltd> common shares.
    CTC, a group of Canadian Tire dealers, added that it also
extended its tender offer to March 31 and was seeking approval
to extend its bid while the appeal court heard the case.
    It said Alfred and David Billes, two of Canadian Tire's
controlling shareholders, backed the appeal and would seek
leave to appeal while third controlling shareholder Martha
Billes supported the appeal but would not join an appeal
motion.
 Reuter

Senate Agriculture Committee
Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Congress would consider
limiting the use of generic commodity certificates as a means
of cutting government spending.
     "I suspect that as we go into some of the budget debates
we're going to have on the floor, this is going to be part of
it," Leahy said, referring to proposals that the U.S.
Agriculture Department save money by substituting cash outlays
for payment-in-kind, or PIK, certificates in price and income
support programs.
     "I have a feeling that the PIK program, however the cost
is defined, is going to be one of the top number of areas that
people are going to be looking for savings," Leahy told a
hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
     The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the
government could save 1.4 billion dlrs during fiscal years
1988-92 if it curbed the use of generic certificates by banning
so-called "PIK and roll" transactions.
     Several Democratic senators had harsh comments for generic
     "We're trying to take care of a bad situation --
surpluses--by depressing the price. I don't see any benefits,"
said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). "I don't see any benefit in
driving their prices lower, lower, lower all the time."
     But Sen. Rudy Boschwitz said he supported use of
certificates. "By and large I'm favorably impressed by PIK
certificates. I feel they have been helpful," said Boschwitz.
     As expected, officials from the General Accounting Office
and the U.S. Agriculture Department indicated their estimates
of the cost of PIK certificates compared to cash outlays were
far apart.
     The General Accounting Office, GAO, told the committee
that PIK certificates increased total Commodity Credit Corp
outlays through 1987 by between 107 mln and 653 mln dlrs. GAO
said that increase was offset by commodity storage cost savings
of beween 169 mln and 253 mln dlrs.
     Pressed by the committee, GAO Senior Associate Director
Brian Crowley said government spending probably was about 450
mln dlrs above what it would have been had all program payments
been made in cash, not counting storage savings.
     Crowley also said he thought PIK certificates had lowered
the price of corn and boosted domestic consumption of corn.
     Agriculture Undersecretary Daniel Amstutz told the
committee that the additional costs of using PIK certificates
and storage, handling and transportation costs "balance off
very closely."
     Amstutz said he estimated the net cost of using
certificates was about one pct higher than using only cash to
make program payments.
     William Bailey, USDA deputy administrator for program
planning, said there were "one hundred issues I find either
incorrect (in the GAO report), disagree with or where their
(GAO) facts are inconsistent with what's going on."
     Amstutz said GAO had not given USDA the option of
"providing input" into the preparation of their report "as they
frequently do."
     The USDA undersecretary also conceded that certificates
and marketing loans had the similar effect of "putting more
goods into the market," but that while the department supported
certificates, it would continue to oppose a marketing loan for
wheat and feedgrains because it would cost too much.
 Reuter

Qtly div five pct stock vs five pct stock
 Reuter

American Ecology Corp said
its National Ecology Inc unit has executed contracts
valued at 142 mln dlrs with the Babcock and Wilcox Co.
    Under the contracts, American Ecology will design, supply,
start-up and support 20-year operations and maintenance of the
refuse derived fuel receiving and processing part of the Palm
Beach County, Florida Solid Waste Authority resource recovery
facility.
    Construction of the facility has begun. Operations are
scheduled to start by 1990, the company said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 15 cts
    Pay May 4
    Note: previous dividend restated to reflect January 26
two-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

Angola's U.S.-backed UNITA rebel
group has offered to reopen the Benguela railroad that runs
through UNITA-held territory and links landlocked Zaire and
Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito.
    UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, in a statement made in his
Jamba headquarters in southern Angola and released by UNITA's 
Washington office, said he was prepared to guarantee safe
passage for non-military freight as a gesture of "peace and
reconciliation."
    Savimbi challenged the Cuban-backed Angolan government,
which controls the port, to match his offer and allow goods to
pass through. There was no immediate response from Luanda.
    UNITA has been fighting the Cuban-backed Angolan government
since 1976.
    The offer of a rail route to the Atlantic would help South
Africa's black neighbors reduce their economic dependence on
South Africa.
    The U.S. Congress is currently considering a proposal to
spend some 500 mln dlrs to build another railroad to help these
states become less dependent on South Africa.
    The Beira corridor runs through Mozambique to Tanzania's
Indian ocean ports but Savimbi suggested the Benguela route as
an alternative.
    "The Benguela route can safely open immediately," he said. "It
will provide the transportation our neighbors need, and it will
not cost the Americans the money they say it will cost to open
the Beira corridor."
 Reuter

McM Corp said it has been forced
to delay the release of its fourth quarter and yearend results
until it can determine the effects on its balance sheet of a
possible increase in liabilities at a unit.
    Earlier this month, the company's Occidental Fire and
Casualty Co unit paid 26 mln dlrs to a unit of <Mutual of
Omaha> under a commutation agreement.
    However, McM said it now believes it is possible that the
unit's liabilities may exceed 26 mln dlrs.
    It said a finding on any possible increase should be
completed by April 15.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve data released today
indicate that there has been no policy change in recent weeks
and that none is likely at next week's Federal Open Market
Committee (FOMC) meeting, economists said.
    "The Fed continues to be accommodative in its provision of
reserves, indicating that there has been no policy shift since
the beginning of this year," said Harold Nathan, economist at
Wells Fargo Bank.
    "These numbers and other things suggest the FOMC will not
change policy," said Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co.
    "The Fed is sitting fairly pretty now. There's no real
reason for it to change policy," said Joseph Liro of S.G.
Warburg and Co Inc.
    Liro said the economy is showing moderate growth and does
not require immediate policy easing and the money aggregates
may well end March at the bottom of their target ranges.
    All of the economists agreed that the Fed's major concern
now is recent weakness in the dollar which early this week was
heavily supported by central banks. They said fear of hurting
the dollar will cause the Fed to be cautious in lowering
interest rates further.
    Numbers released by the Fed today were all in line with
expectations and similar to the data for most of this year.
    The Fed said that banks' net free reserves averaged 603 mln
dlrs in the two-week statement period that ended on Wednesday
versus 749 mln dlrs in the previous period.
    In the single week to Wednesday, banks' borrowings at the
discount window, less extended credits, averaged 302 mln dlrs
compared with 228 mln dlrs in the first week of the statement
period. Meanwhile the Federal funds rate average edged up to
6.14 pct from 6.08 pct.
    The Fed's failure to add reserves in the market on Tuesday
and Wednesday surprised some, but economists said the data
released today suggest it had no real need to add reserves.
    The Fed's absence may be explained by the lack of any
pressing need for it to supply reserves and by a desire to
boost borrowings in the second week of the statement period to
meet its borrowings target, said Liro of Warburg.
    Liro said the Fed probably is shooting for a two-week
borrowings average of 300-325 mln dlrs. The borrowings actually
averaged 265 mln dlrs in the latest statement period and that
was up from 191 mln dlrs in the prior period.
    Brusca of Nikko agreed that the Fed probably is aiming for
two-week average discount window borrowings of around 300 mln
dlrs. He said that would correspond to a Federal funds rate of
around 6.10 pct.
    It is nearly impossible for the Fed to hit any borrowings
target since the demand for excess reserves is erratic, said
Wells Fargo's Nathan. He said the Fed is focusing instead on
the funds rate and is trying to keep it roughly within a six to
6-1/4 pct band.
    Upward funds rate pressure and a big reserve-adding need
are anticipated for the statement period that began today.
 More
    Brusca believes the Fed will have to add 3.5 to four
billion dlrs a day in reserves in this statement period. Liro
puts the add need at around 3.9 billion dlrs.
    To partly address this requirement, many expect the Fed to
add permanent reserves with effect next Thursday by offering to
buy all maturities of Treasury bills on Wednesday. A similar
coupon "pass" may be required later.
    There will be a greater demand for funds in this statement
period because it includes the close of the quarter. Further
upward pressure on the Federal funds rate may come from window
dressing demand as the Japanese fiscal year ends on March 31.
 Reuter

Substantial difficulties faced by the
U.S. farm credit system can be solved with a business-like
approach to the problems, a Farm Credit Admimistration official
said.
    Marvin R. Duncan, a member of the administration board,
said the farm credit system faces unprecedented difficulties in
its 70-year history.
    Addressing Chicago business and agricultural economists,
Duncan outlined three basic problems of the farm credit system.
Those include the high cost of its debt, the quality of its
assets, and the management of its credit delivery system.
    He said some of the system's debt carries interest rates as
high as 15.65 pct and will not mature until the year 2007.
    Of its 54.6 mln dlrs in assets, 24.1 pct are non-accrual,
high risk or already forfeited property, which led to losses in
1986 of 1.9 billion dlrs and in 1985 of 2.7 billion dlrs.
    Problems with credit delivery have been somewhat resolved,
he said.
    "The system is still plagued with duplication in layers of
management and decision-making, inadequate tailoring of credit
services to fit the emerging market, a large investment in
bricks and mortar, and a management and directorate more
insular to the marketplace than that of its competitors," he
said.
    He said solutions to the problems should -
 - provide assurances to farmers on borrowers stock and the
stability of the farm credit system.
 - maintain confidence of investors who buy system securities.
 - address the high cost of the system's existing debt.
 - enable the Farm Credit System Capital Corporation to carry
out its role as a workout bank.
said this week that the system may lose as much as 1.4 billion
dlrs this year, and another board member, Jim Billington, said
Congress should plan to spend at least 800 mln dlrs beginning
late this year to bail out the system.
    Duncan noted that the system has about 70 billion dlrs in
assets, serves about 800,000 individual borrowers and 3,000
cooperatives, and has 62.5 billion dlrs in securities
    "With a business-like solution to its problems, it can
continue that role for generations into the future," he said.
 Reuter

Corp> said its BCE Development Properties Inc U.S. unit agreed
with Saks Fifth Avenue and the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota
to build a four-level Saks store in downtown Minneapolis.
    The city will acquire the mall site from BCE Development,
which will then lease it back from the city. The city will also
subsidize an adjoining five-level 125,000 square foot retail
development, said BCE Development Corp, 68 pct-owned by Bell
Canada Enterprises Inc <BCE>.
    Other financial terms were undisclosed.
 Reuter

Scott Instruments Inc said two
members of its board resigned.
    The company did not give a reason for the departure of the
directors, David M. Jacobs and Frederick Brodsky.
    Scott said it does not plan to fill the vacancies left by
their resignations.
 Reuter

The International Development
Association said it approved a 114 mln dlr credit for India to
support several water irrigation projects.
    IDA, the World Bank arm which lends to the poorest
countries, said the projects are designed to increase
agricultural productivity and farm incomes.
    Irrigation development has been a major factor in improving
agricultural performance and yields in many areas but fall
short of their potential due to unreliable water supply and
often inequitable distribution, it noted.
    IDA said the credit supports a 7-year program to plan,
implement and monitor improved operation of selected projects. 
   In addition to the 50-year credit, the Indian government and
participating states will provide 43 mln dlrs to the plan.
 Reuter

Healthcare Inc said it is extending its exchange offer to April
8 at 1700 EST.
    The offer is for Westworld 30 mln dlr principal amount of
14-1/2 pct subordinated notes due 2000 and its 35 mln dlrs
principal amount 14-3/8 pct subordinated debt due 1995.
    It said to date, 7,380,000 dlrs principal amount of
securities have been tendered under the offers.
 Reuter

Flight Dynamics Inc said Robert
L. Carter has stepped down as chairman but will continue as a
director.
    The company said Carter has been succeeded by John H.
Geiger, who had been president and chief executive officer
since 1985.
    Geiger's post, in turn, has been filled by John P. Desmond,
previously executive vice president and chief operating
 Reuter

    Oper shr loss one ct vs profit 12 cts
    Oper net profit 3,000 vs profit 218,000
    Avg shrs 2,421,000 vs 1,602,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 28 cts vs profit 24 cts
    Oper net profit 639,000 vs profit 500,000
    Revs 34.6 mln vs 31.2 mln
    Avg shrs 1,928,000 vs 1,620,000
    Note: Oper excludes tax credits of 180,000 and 415,000 for
year-ago qtr and nine mths.
    Oper includes writeoff related to subordinated note
exchange of 185,000 for current qtr and nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr nil vs four cts
    Net 12,000 vs 140,000
    Revs 4,446,000 vs 3,998,000
    Avg shrs 4,364,000 vs 3,461,000
    Year
    Shr 60 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 2,257,000 vs 774,000
    Revs 18.3 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,788,000 vs 3,461,000
   
    Note: Net includes realized gains on investments of 50,000
vs 105,000 for qtr and 174,000 vs 202,000 for year.
    Net also includes tax credit of 64,000 for year-ago 12
mths.
 Reuter

The United States' emphasis on its
foreign trade deficit is misplaced and the country's real
problem lies in its large federal budget deficit, the General
Agreeement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) said.
     By stressing its record trade deficit of 169.8 billion
dlrs last year, the U.S. Was fuelling protectionist pressure
which threatens the world trading system, it said in an annual
report.
    The fundamental problem, the size of the U.S. Federal
budget deficit, could be remedied only by cutting government
spending or encouraging personal savings to finance the debt,
it said.
    GATT also predicted world trade would grow by only 2.5 pct
in 1987 -- a full percentage point lower than in each of the
previous two years.
    GATT experts urged Washington to resist protectionism and
instead seek macroeconomic changes to reduce the current
account payments deficit -- higher private savings, lower
investment and a smaller federal budget deficit.
    Raising U.S. Trade barriers "would result in little or no
reduction in the current account deficit. It would, however,
increase inflation and reduce world trade," it said.
    "The basic cause -- some combination of insufficient
domestic savings and an excessive budget deficit -- would
remain," the report said.
    GATT economists said trade expansion would slow this year
because of slower growth forecasts in Japan and some West
European nations as they adjust production and workforces to a
low dollar, risk of higher U.S. Inflation, concerns over Third
World debt management and looming protectionism.
    The report also said imbalances in the current accounts of
Japan, West Germany and the U.S. Had increased in 1986.
    The most likely explanation was that exchange rate changes
were not backed by changes in macroeconomic policies, it added.
    "Thus the prediction that these imbalances would be reduced
as a result of the major realignment of exchange rates was not
borne out last year," the report said.
    GATT warned there was a risk of a sizeable increase in the
U.S. Inflation rate under the combined impact of a rapidly
expanding money supply and low dollar.
    "Such a development could worsen the business climate by
increasing uncertainty and pushing up interest rates, which, in
turn, would adversely affect world trade."
    But the report noted a surprising rise in imports to the
United States, despite the dollar's depreciation which makes
foreign products more expensive.
    It suggested that resources idle in the U.S., Both human
and in underutilised factories, were not geared to produce the
goods and services sought from abroad.
    World trade in manufactures grew by only three pct in 1986,
about half of the rate of the previous year.
    Trade in agricultural goods expanded by just one pct,
continuing a stagnant pattern in that sector this decade, GATT
said.
    Developing countries' exports declined significantly, while
their imports increased moderately, although full statistics
are not available yet, GATT said.
    The combined export earnings of 16 major indebted nations
were sharply lower, and only five of them (Chile, Colombia,
Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand) had higher exports.
 REUTER

Bolivian president Victor Paz
Estenssoro will propose to Andean Pact countries a summit
meeting with U.S. President Reagan to take place in Venezuela
in May, foreign minister Guillermo Bedregal announced.
     He told reporters that the summit "if everything goes
well" will possibly take place in one or two months.
     "We are coordinating an eventual meeting of the Andean
Pact presidents and President Reagan, which could take place in
Venezuela in May", he said. The proposal is part of Bolivia's
intention to relaunch the Andean Pact, he added.
     The Andean Pact, formed by Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and
Ecuador, is a sub-regional economic group set up in 1969 to
counteract economic progress of other more developed South
American countries, such as Argentina and Brazil.
 Reuter

New Zealand's budget deficit for
fiscal 1986/87 ending March 31 is expected to be around the
budget forecast of 2.45 billion N.Z. Dlrs but below a December
forecast of 2.91 billion, Finance Minister Roger Douglas said.
    The 1985/86 budget deficit was 1.87 billion dlrs.
    "It is clear now that the March tax flow has been
considerably stronger than expected in some areas, particularly
provisional and terminal tax..," Douglas said in a statement.
    Overall tax revenue is now expected to be around 600 mln
dlrs above forecast, though there is some uncertainty about
revenue from the final goods and services tax and March income
tax payments, he added.
    "Net expenditure also appears to be tracking to end-of-year
forecast with the expectation that over-expenditure in some
areas will be offset by under-expenditure in others," he added.
 REUTER

Northwest Aluminum Co said it
will open a second pot line in mid-May, bringing the smelter
here to 80 pct of its production capacity.
    Northwest Aluminum President Brett Wilcox, who leased the
30-year-old smelter from Martin Marietta Corp., said production
would increase from around 45 tons a year at present to just
over 70 tons.
    Martin Marietta closed and mothballed the smelter in 1984.
Northwest Aluminum reopened it last December.
    Wilcox said a good aluminum market and several months of
successful operation led to the decision to expand production.

 Reuter

The Bank of Japan will sell today 400
billion yen of government financing bills in a 24-day
repurchase agreement due April 20 to soak up a projected money
market surplus, money traders said.
    The yield on the bills for sale to banks and securities
houses from money houses will be 3.9505 pct against the 3.9375
pct discount rate on one-month commercial bills and the 4.50/37
pct yield on one-month certificates of deposit today.
    Today's surplus is seen at 480 billion yen, mainly excess
bank holdings due to big Bank of Japan dollar purchases on
March 25. Outstanding bills will total some 2,300 billion yen.
 REUTER

Japan February consumer prices unchanged (0.4 pct January drop) - official

Japan's consumer price index (base 1985)
was unchanged at 99.7 in February from a month earlier, the
government's Management and Coodination Agency said.
    The index showed a 0.4 pct drop in January.
    The February index was down one pct from a year earlier for
the third consecutive year-on-year drop.
    In January, the index fell 1.1 pct from a year earlier, the
first drop of over one pct since a 1.3 pct drop in September
1958.
    In February petrol prices increased but winter clothing
prices stayed low and vegetable prices fell.
    The February year on year fall was due to lower vegetable,
fuel oil, petrol, electricity and gas prices, and despite
higher housing, education, footwear and clothing costs.
(base 1985) in mid-March rose 0.4 pct from a month earlier to
100.6, reflecting higher vegetable prices.
    The index fell 0.3 pct year on year, the third consecutive
yearly drop, reflecting lower food and utility costs.
 REUTER

reserves fell slightly to 7.13 billion N.Z. Dlrs in February
from 7.15 billion in January but were sharply above 2.85
billion in February 1986, the Reserve Bank said in its weekly
statistical release.
 REUTER

Council decided to recommend trade sanctions against Japan for
violations of the U.S.-Japanese semiconductor agreement,
    They would give no details, noting that the White House had
not commented on the decision. The administration has been
under pressure to retaliate.
    There was no immediate announcement on the council's
decision, but U.S. Officials said it was likely the senior
policy group's move on curbs reflected growing American
frustration over alleged unfair Japanese trade practices.
    U.S. Officials said President Reagan would probably act on
the recommendations in a day or so, after consulting with aides
on the foreign policy implications of retaliation.
    The officials said Reagan might delay retaliation for a
last try to persuade Japan to abide by the agreement reached
last July governing trade in semiconductors.
    Under a pact reached last July, Japan was to stop dumping
semiconductors in world markets and to open its own market to
U.S.-made semiconductors.
    In return, the U.S. Agreed to hold up imposing anti-dumping
duties on Japanese semiconductor shipments.
    The United States said that dumping has stopped in the U.S.
Market but has continued in third countries, and that the
Japanese market remains closed.
    The pressure on Reagan to retaliate included a unanimous
call by the Senate last week to impose penalties on Japanese
high technology products containing semiconductors.
    A call for retaliation also came from the semiconductor
industry and from its chief trade union.
    U.S. Officials said the most likely move against Japan
would involve duties on semiconductor-based goods, such as
televisions, video cassette recorders and computers.
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make an official week-long visit to the United States from
April 29 and hold talks in Washington with President Reagan,
Chief Cabinet Secretary Masaharu Gotoda told reporters.
    Government sources said Nakasone would try to resolve
growing bilateral trade friction and discuss the June Venice
summit of Western industrial democracies.
    Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari will accompany Nakasone,
ministry officials said.
    U.S. Industry sources in Washington said the White House
Economic Policy Council was recommending trade sanctions
against Japan for violating the two countries' agreement on
    Under the pact, Japan pledged to stop dumping microchips in
the U.S. And Asia and open its domestic market to U.S.
Semiconductors.
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Mexico denied reports that British
banks are resisting signing a 76 billion dlr new loan and
rescheduling package.
    In a statement, the Finance Ministry said the process for
formalizing the package was going as planned.
    Banking sources in London had been quoted earlier as saying
the British banks were balking at signing the package in an
7.7 billion dlr loan contained in the deal.
    However, the Finance Ministry statement said all the
British banks had promised their participation in the loan.
    "The contribution of each one of them corresponds exactly to
the request of the Mexican government," the statememt said.
    The ministry said Citibank, which chairs Mexico's bank
advisory committee, has received cables from the British banks
"confirming said commitment."
    The ministry said the books on the package would be closed
by mid-April and the first 3.5 billion dlrs of the new money
should arrive by the end of the month.
    It also said French, Swiss and "some" Canadian banks had
subscribed to the package and that the remaining Canadian banks
would sign the accord in the next few days.
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Taiwan's Central Bank will issue 12
billion Taiwan dlrs worth of savings bonds on April 13 to help
curb M-1b money supply, which rose by a seasonally adjusted
48.22 pct in the year to end-February, a bank spokesman told
Reuters.
    He said the new bonds, repayable in one to two years, carry
interest rates ranging from five to 5.25 pct.
    The bank issued 20 billion dlrs of similar bonds between
February 16 and March 9.
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India is searching for non-communist
countertrade partners to help it cut its trade deficit and
conserve foreign exchange.
    Wheat, tobacco, tea, coffee, jute, engineering and
electronic goods, as well as minerals including iron ore, are
all on offer in return for crude oil, petroleum products,
chemicals, steel and machinery, trade sources told Reuters.
    Most of the impetus behind countertrade, which began in
1984, comes from two state trading firms -- the State Trading
Corp (STC) and the Minerals and Metals Trading Corp (MMTC).
    "The two state trading corporations are free to use their
buying power in respect to bulk commodities to promote Indian
exports," a commerce ministry spokeswoman said, adding that
private firms are excluded from countertrading.
    One trade source said India has targetted countries that
depend on an Indian domestic market recently opened to foreign
imports.
    However, countertrade deals still make up only a small part
of India's total trading and are likely to account for less
than eight pct of the estimated 18.53 billion dlrs in trade
during the nine months ended December, the sources said.
    Countertrade accounted for just five pct of India's 25.65
billion dlrs in trade during fiscal 1985/86 ended March,
against almost nothing in 1984/85, official figures show.
    However, the figures exclude exchanges with the Eastern
Bloc paid in non-convertible Indian rupees, the sources said.
    Total trade with the Soviet Union, involving swaps of
agricultural produce and textiles for Soviet arms and crude
oil, is estimated at 3.04 billion dlrs in fiscal 1986/87,
against three billion in 1985/86.
    Indian countertrade, which is being promoted mainly to help
narrow the country's large trade deficit, is still
insignificant compared with agreements reached by Indonesia,
Venezuela and Brazil, the trade sources said.
    The trade deficit, which hit an estimated record 6.96
billion dlrs in 1985/86, is expected to decline to 5.6 billion
in the current fiscal year.
    But the push to include non-communist countries in
countertrade is also due to other factors, including the slow
growth of foreign reserves, a tight debt repayment schedule,
shrinking aid and trade protectionism, businessmen said.
    One source said India is showing more dynamism in promoting
countertrade deals than in the past, when the deals were made
discreetly because they break GATT rules. As a member of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), India cannot
officially support bartering.
    The MMTC's recent countertrade deals include iron ore
exports to Yugoslavia for steel structures and rails.
    "MMTC's recent global tenders now include a clause that
preference will be given to parties who accept payment in kind
for goods and services sold to India," a trade official said,
adding that the policy remains flexible.
    "We also take into account other factors such as prices at
which the goods and services are offered to India," the trade
    Early this year the commerce ministry quietly told foreign
companies interested in selling aircraft, ships, drilling rigs
and railway equipment to India that they stood a better chance
if they bought Indian goods or services in return, the trade
    Illustrating the point, the official said a South Korean
firm recently agreed to sell a drilling platform worth 40 mln
dlrs to the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Commission.
    In return, the South Koreans gave a verbal assurance to buy
Indian goods worth 10 pct of the contract, against the 25 pct
sought by New Delhi, the trade official said.
    "We selected the Korean firm because its bid was the lowest,"
he added.
    Countertrade is helping African countries short of foreign
currency to import goods. India has signed a trade protocol to
buy up to 15,000 tonnes of asbestos fibre from Zimbabwe in
exchange for Indian goods, including jute bags and cars.
    But despite India's new drive, countertrade has some
inherent problems, they added.
    "It is not always easy to meet the basic requirement that
the trade should always be balanced," one trade source said. "The
other problem is it is often difficult to supply or buy
commodities which the other party wants."
    Another added, "Barter is also restrictive. We look upon it
as a temporary measure to get over the current balance of
payments difficulty.
    "This is why countertrade has not been made a law in India.
It does not even figure in the country's foreign trade policy."
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<Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co> (NTT)
is considering buying a Cray II supercomputer worth some three
billion yen from Cray Research Inc <CYR>, and a decision is
expected in early April, an NTT official said.
    He told Reuters NTT was considering the Cray machine
because of its superior operational speed and memory capacity,
and not because of any pressure to buy foreign hardware.
    Industry sources said foreign frustration was growing over
lack of access to Japan's semiconductor and telecommunications
markets, and Washington had criticised Japanese government
agencies for not buying U.S. Supercomputers.
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The finance ministry appears ready to
allow Japanese financial institutions to use overseas financial
futures markets, a ministry official said.
    He declined to say when, but banking sources expect
approval as early as April. Banks, securities houses and
insurance companies are expected to become eligible to deal in
deposit, interest rate, bond and stock index futures.
    Ministry officials said they are wary of giving permission
to individuals or corporations because of their relative
inexperience.
    Broking for Japanese residents by financial institutions
would be prohibited as securities exchange laws bar banks from
doing this, the banking sources said.
    Overseas subsidiaries and branches of Japanese banks and
securities houses have already been allowed to use the overseas
futures markets on their own accounts.
    The Finance Ministry Ordinance based on Foreign Exchange
Administration Law will have to be revised to allow local
institutions to join the overseas markets, a ministry official
said.
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Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone has told
his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to come up with a
draft economic package in early April in time for his visit to
Washington starting on April 29, government officials said.
    Nakasone also instructed the government's Economic Planning
Agency (EPA) to work closer with the LDP to work out a
full-fledged economic plan to boost domestic demand as pledged
at last month's Paris currency stability accord by six
industrial countries, the officials told Reuters.
    The date for the government to announce its package, based
on the LDP's suggested measures, is not yet known but it may be
before the fiscal 1987 budget passes the Parliament around late
May, the officials said.
    The government has said in the past the package should come
after the passage of the budget.
    But calls have grown at home and abroad for the government
to announce it earlier as budget debates have been stalled by
an opposition boycott of parliamentary business in protest at a
planned five pct sales tax.
    EPA chief Tetsuo Kondo told a press conference he sees a
need to work on the economic plan early although the
government's stance on the date for the plan remains the same,
an EPA spokesman said.
    Projected measures include promoting house construction,
infrastructure and urban development, he quoted Kondo as
saying.
    Under last month's Paris currency agreement, Japan promised
to work out a comprehensive economic plan to stimulate domestic
demand, increase imports and so help reduce its huge trade
surplus.
    The government announced today Nakasone will visit
Washington on April 29 for a week to discuss bilateral issues,
including the trade imbalance, with President Reagan and other
 REUTER

The <British Petroleum Co of
Australia Ltd> reported a 16.15 mln dlr net loss for 1986
against a 73.38 mln dlr profit in 1985 after sales fell to 2.27
billion dlrs from 2.94 billion.
    The British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> unit attributed the
deficit to stock losses arising from the drop in crude prices
in the first half, when it made a 119.93 mln dlr loss.
    It said government compensation, in the form of subsidies
to refiners to partially cover stock losses, together with
improved crude prices in the second half, enabled the group's
oil business to make a modest pre-tax profit.
    BP Australia said it had not recommended a dividend.
    Commenting on the year's performance, the company said it
suspended operations at the 60 pct-owned Agnew Nickel mine
because of losses sustained from declining nickel prices.
    The results also included an 11.3 mln dlr extraordinary
writedown on the value of the laid-up oil exploration drillship
Regional Endeavour.
    BP Australia said it had sold its 33-1/3 stake in chemical
maker <CSBP and Farmers Ltd> yielding an extraordinary profit
of 18.9 mln dlrs and expected to finalise the sale of the 80
pct-owned <Kwinana Nitrogen Co> in the first half of 1987.
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Japan's Nissan Motor Co Ltd said it and
<Lancer Boss Group Ltd> of the U.K. Have agreed to cooperate on
the design and manufacture of forklift trucks.
    Under the accord, Lancer will start making jointly designed
trucks at its plant in Moosburg, West Germany, from July with
production reaching 300 three-wheeled and 100 four-wheeled
trucks by end-March 1988. Output will be doubled from April 1,
1988, a Nissan spokeswoman said.
    Nissan will start selling the three-wheelers under its
brand-name later this year and the four-wheelers from the end
of 1987, the company said.
    The equipment manufacturing agreement with Lancer is a
precaution against the European Community's (EC) January 1987
restriction on forklift truck exports to the EC, industry
    Nissan exports 70 pct of its annual output of 16,000
forklift trucks, shipping 2,548 units to the EC in 1986, the
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry is expected to
introduce yen commercial paper, CP, from October 1 in response
to growing calls from corporations, ministry sources said.
    Around 200 corporations satisfy financial standards set by
securities houses for non-collateral straight bond issues,
including electric power companies, <Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone Corp> and Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd, securities
    Most eligible firms would have to set up special reserves
for CP issues called backup lines, or be guaranteed by
financial institutions to protect investors, they said.
    The legal status of yen CP would be the same as yen
commercial bills and it would be placed by an intermediary bank
or securities house, securities managers said.
    The minimum issue unit will be 100 mln yen, and maturities
will be from 30 days and six months, they said.
    Securities houses, banks, insurance companies and consumer
credit companies are barred from CP issues, they said.
    Only banks may be commissioned to handle the clerical
business of principle payments, they added.
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Four major Japanese steelmakers plan to
form a seamless pipe export cartel for markets other than the
U.S. And the European Community for a year from April to keep
prices above output costs, company officials involved said.
    The companies are Nippon steel Corp <NSTC.T>, Sumitomo
Metal Industries Ltd <SMIT.T>, Nippon Kokan KK <NKKT.T> and
Kawasaki Steel Corp <KAWS.T>, which together account for some
95 pct of Japan's total seamless pipe exports.
    The firms will apply to form the cartel to the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry today and approval is expected
later this month, the officials said.
    Under the plan, the four companies will set floor prices
for exports as prices have fallen sharply due to the yen's
appreciation against the dollar, reduced world demand caused by
lower oil prices and excess domestic capacity which resulted in
price-cutting competition, the officials said.
    In calendar 1986, seamless pipe exports fell to 2.34 mln
tonnes from 2.99 mln in 1985 and 3.12 mln in 1981.
    The officials declined to give any idea of floor prices,
saying it depends partly on volume, but industry sources
estimate average export prices would rise by around 20 pct to
some 800 dlrs a tonne.
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ANZ BANK SAYS IT WILL CUT AUSTRALIAN PRIME TO 18.25 PCT FROM 18.5 ON MARCH 30

The president of Japan's biggest high
technology firm, NEC Corp <NIPN.T>, is anything but worried,
despite growing anti-Japanese protectionism, a soaring yen, and
a stagnant world electronics market.
    "The company's structure was developed by looking ahead,"
Tadahiro Sekimoto told Reuters in an interview.
    "We assumed the era of a strong yen, trade friction and
globalisation would arrive, and we moved ahead on that basis.
There's no need to change our strategy now."
    However, the world's largest manufacturer of microchips,
the tiny silicon wafers which are the brains of most high
technology products, knows it must keep looking ahead if it is
to survive.
    Hoping to build on existing strengths, NEC is now turning
its focus on home electronics, an area of past weakness,
Sekimoto said.
    NEC wants to follow its corporate slogan "C and C" (Computers
and Communications) to create high level home electronics that
go beyond mere televisions and video tape recorders, Sekimoto
said.
    Home electronics accounted for only eight pct of NEC's
total 2,334.67 billion yen sales on a consolidated basis in the
year ended March 31, 1986.
    Industry analysts say NEC is wise to target what will be a
major growth market in the future, but some warn the company
faces some stiff competition.
    "This is where the market is going to be for a long time --
in products that combine personal computers, video display and
telecommunications networks," said Salomon Brothers (Asia) Ltd
analyst Carole Ryavec. "But Matsushita (Electric Industrial Co
Ltd) may be there first."
    But Sekimoto argues that NEC's overall strengths will carry
the day.
    "Many companies are in the top 10 in computers or microchips
or telecommunications, but none is in the top 10 in all three.
NEC is unique in that respect," he said.
    To help its already high rankings, NEC will further
increase the high level of offshore production which makes it
one of the most multinational of Japan's electronics firms.
    The company will increase offshore output of all goods it
sells overseas to 50 pct from a current 25 pct over the next
several years, Sekimoto said.
    But the firm plans to go it alone in expanding overseas,
despite moving last year to become joint owner, along with
France's Cie des Machines Bull <BULP.P>, of U.S. Firm Honeywell
Inc's <HON> Information Systems unit.
    "We hope to increase our share in the U.S. Market through
the Honeywell tie-up. But our basic strategy is to take an
independent and autonomous route," said Sekimoto.
    The company also plans to maintain its independent line by
continuing to make computers which are not compatible with
those of International Business Machines Corp <IBM>, he said.
    "Among the Japanese competitors, only NEC hasn't been caught
in software copyright disputes with IBM and our profits and
market share have gradually expanded," Sekimoto said.
    Once new ways of linking non-compatible computers are
perfected, IBM compatibility will be irrelevant. "What will
matter is the best hardware, the best software and the best
ability to meet customers needs," Sekimoto said.
    In fact, NEC, which has over half of Japan's personal
computer market, may go to court to stop competitors selling
cheaper machines which can run NEC software but infringe
copyright on its operating system, an NEC spokesman said.
    While industry analysts give NEC high marks for looking
ahead, they note that it failed in forecasting microchip
demand. Like other Japanese chipmakers, the firm was left with
serious excess capacity when lean years followed the boom
times.
    But after two years of cutbacks in capital investment in
the sector, Sekimoto thinks the time has come to boost spending
again, if only slightly.
    "We're not going to increase production. But we are going to
invest in new product development and upgrade existing plant,"
he said.
    Despite NEC's admitted strengths, analysts note the company
faces tough times due to stagnant markets.
    "NEC has excellent worldwide capacity and technology, but
they are caught in a downturn which may last a long time," said
Salamon's Ryavec.
    The company forecasts such troubles will slash parent net
profits to 30 billion yen in the year ending March 31, 1987,
down 43 pct from the previous year, although sales are expected
to rise eight pct to 2,130 billion yen.
    Profits will improve only slightly next year, rising to 38
billion yen on sales of 2,350 billion, it said.
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The government adopted an 8,829 billion
yen stop-gap budget for fiscal 1987 starting April 1 to
compensate for the delay in the passage through the Parliament
of the full 1987/88 budget.
    The provisional budget includes 1,862 billion yen in public
works spending to help stimulate the economy and meet overseas
demand for Japan to import more and reduce its huge trade
surplus, officials said.
    They said the stop-gap budget will be in effect for 50 days
through May 20 and is the largest ever.
    The budget includes 1,580 billion yen in new government
bond issues.
    Officials said the spending on public works accounts for
about two-sevenths of the 6,017 billion yen in public works
outlay set aside in the pending formal 1987/88 budget.
    The planned full budget totals 54,101 billion yen.
    The government had to work out the stop-gap budget because
budget debates have been delayed by an opposition boycott of
Parliamentary business in protest against a planned five pct
sales tax.
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Shr 126 H.K. Cents vs 42 (adjusted)
    Final div 30 cents vs 10, making 40 vs 10
    Net 479 mln dlrs vs 157 mln
    Turnover 10.4 billion vs 10.5 billion
    Note - Profits excluded extraordinary items 52 mln dlrs vs
losses 426 mln. Dividend payable after general meeting on June
4, books close April 22 to May 5.
    Note - Bonus issue of four new "B" shares of par value 20
cents each for every one share of par value two dlrs each,
books close August 3 to 10.
 REUTER N

BHP CO LTD NET PROFIT 603.0 MLN DLRS FIRST THREE QTRS VS 813.0 MLN

 REUTER

Japan February industrial production rose 0.3 pct (0.5 pct January drop) - official

First nine months ended Feb 28
    Shr 47.4 cents vs 65.2
    Net 603.0 mln dlrs vs 813.0 mln
    Sales 6.52 billion vs 6.53 billion
    Other income 454.9 mln vs 160.2 mln
    Shrs 1.27 billion vs 1.03 billion.
    Final div 20 cents vs same, making 37.5 vs same.
    One-for-five bonus issue
    Third qtr net 206.0 mln dlrs vs 238.6 mln
    Third qtr sales 2.11 billion vs 2.10 billion.
    NOTE - Div pay May 27. Div and bonus reg May 1. Nine months
net is after tax 499.1 mln dlrs vs 722.6 mln, depreciation
509.5 mln vs 427.3 mln, interest 366.8 mln vs 215.8 mln and
minorities 15.3 mln vs 15.7 mln but before net extraordinary
profit 60.7 mln vs profit 43.2 mln.
    Nine month divisional net earnings before minorities were.
    Petroleum 184.9 mln dlrs vs 472.4 mln
    Minerals 254.6 mln vs 241.0 mln
    Steel 148.2 mln vs 191.1 mln
    Corporate items and investments profit 30.6 mln vs loss
75.8 mln.
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Japan's industrial production index (base
1980) rose 0.3 pct to a seasonally adjusted 122.7 in February
from the previous month, the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry said.
    Output fell 0.5 pct in January from a month earlier.
    The preliminary, unadjusted February index rose 0.6 pct
from a year earlier after a 0.5 pct year-on-year rise in
January
    The adjusted February producers' shipment index (base 1980)
rose 0.7 pct to 118.5 from January when it fell 0.7 pct from
December.
    The unadjusted shipment index rose 1.4 pct from a year
earlier after a 1.0 pct year-on-year January gain.
    The adjusted February index of producers' finished goods
(base 1980) fell 1.3 pct to 104.5 from January when it fell 0.3
pct from December.
    The unadjusted index fell 3.5 pct from a year earlier after
a 2.3 pct year-on-year drop in January.
    A 2.7 pct rise by the electronics industry on higher output
of facsimile machines and video tape recorders was a major
contributor to the rise in February industrial output, though
car production fell from January.
    The official said industrial production is expected to rise
3.2 pct in March on higher production by machinery, steel and
chemical makers but will drop 3.4 pct in April on a downturn in
the output of those industries. He gave no further details.
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A Tokyo Medical College group said it had
developed a five-minute method that may be the world's fastest
way of screening people for the AIDS virus.
    Lecturer Junko Renard told a meeting of the Japan Blood
Transfusion Society new Latex Particle Agglutination Test used
a light meter to identify acquired immune deficiency syndrome
in blood mixed with a reagent and a latex rubber compound.
    State officials said Japan will step up its anti-AIDS
campaign with 340,000 posters and a telephone counselling
service in 21 cities this month. It will also hand out 90,000
books on AIDS diagnosis to hospitals and clinics.
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Orders received in February by 50 major
Japanese construction firms rose 2.7 pct to 841.68 billion yen
from a year earlier for the third successive year-on-year gain,
the construction ministry said.
    Orders rose 1.7 pct from an upward revised 827.25 billion
yen in January.
    Orders in February from the private sector rose 17.0 pct
from a year earlier to 614.26 billion yen, for the fourth
consecutive year-on-year rise. This comes after a 37.3 pct rise
in January from a year earlier, to a downward revised 598.09
billion.
    The February increase over a year earlier reflected a 23.9
pct rise in orders from non-manufacturing industries, absorbing
a 10.8 pct drop in those from manufacturers.
    Public sector orders fell 17.8 pct from a year earlier to
183.54 billion yen. There was an 11.4 pct year-on-year rise to
160.74 billion in January.
    Foreign orders were 20.08 billion yen, down 47.7 pct from a
year before, after a 69.9 pct drop to an upward revised 43.61
billion in January. Orders below 10 mln yen fell 27.7 pct from
a year earlier to 23.80 billion yen. This was after a 5.9 pct
decline to an upward revised 24.81 billion in January.
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The Australian government
telecommunications authority, Telecom Australia, said it will
offer two bond maturities totalling 40 mln Australian dlrs for
tender next week.
    Telecom said in a statement that it will offer 12.5 pct
March 1990 bonds and 13.0 pct February 1993 stock.
    Bids close mid-morning local time on Monday.
    Telecom said 52 mln dlrs of 1990 bonds and 10 mln dlrs of
1993 bonds are already on issue.
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South Korea plans to increase the size of
its budget in 1988 by 11 to 12 pct from this year's 15,596
billion won, Economic Planning Board officials said.
    The proposed boost is based on a government forecast that
gross national product (gnp) will grow by more than 7.5 pct and
the gnp deflator by 3.5 pct in 1988, against targets of 8.0 pct
and 3.5 pct respectively this year, they said.
    Details of the 1988 budget, in which spending will match
revenue, have yet to be worked out, the officials said.
    The balanced budget in 1986 totalled 13,800.5 billion won.
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Australia's ruling Labour Party is
seriously considering a snap poll in May with the opposition in
disarray after a leadership crisis, party officials said.
    The election was discussed at a meeting of senior
government advisers and leaders in Canberra last night, but a
final decision is pending, the officials said.
    Prime Minister Bob Hawke has said he prefers to wait until
his term ends in early 1988, but the officials said he might be
persuaded to call a poll as early as May 9, a week before a
promised tough mini-budget. Public opinion polls give Labour a
clear edge over the opposition Liberal-National coalition.
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Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd
<JARD.HKG> said it planned a bonus issue of four new "B" shares
of 20 H.K. Cents each for every ordinary share of par value two
dlrs.
    A company statement said the firm expects to pay a total
1987 dividend of four cents per "B" share, while the "A" share
dividend will be maintained at last year's level of 40 cents a
share.
    Jardine Matheson announced earlier a 205 pct jump in 1986
net profits to 479 mln dlrs from 157 mln in 1985.
    Shareholders' funds increased to 5.02 billion dlrs from
4.77 billion in 1985, the statement said.
    It quoted chairman Simon Keswick as saying Jardine Matheson
achieved the good performance through satisfactory results in
most sections, especially Hong Kong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HKG>,
Jardine Fleming Co Ltd, and its business in Japan.
    He said the group's stake of about 35 pct in Hong Kong
Land, which will be lowered to 26 pct after the completion of a
reorganisation, is "a long term investment and now stands at a
level which causes us no financial strain or problems of asset
imbalance."
    Keswick said the issue of new "B" shares will give the group
"the flexibility in the future to issue ordinary shares for
expansion without jeopardising the shareholding stability which
has been brought about through the group's recent
restructuring."
    He said the new issue is pending approval from both the
firm's shareholders and warrant holders, adding an appropriate
adjustment will be made to the warrant exercise price.
    The Jardine group has nearly completed its reorganisation,
with Jardine Matheson transferring its control of Hk Land to
the new unit <Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd>.
    Jardine Strategic will also hold majority stakes in the two
companies spun off from Hk Land -- <Mandarin Oriental
International Ltd> and <Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd>
-- plus cross holdings with Jardine Matheson.
    Jardine Matheson, which had debts of about 2.7 billion dlrs
last year, will become debt free after the restructuring.
    "A positive cash flow from operations and disposals,
continuing into 1987, has transformed our balance sheet,"
Keswick said. He noted the firm last year sold interests in
airfreight operations, Australian properties and trucking
business, and its remaining U.S. Oil and gas activities.
    Jardine Matheson decided to make a provision against its
general trading business in the Middle East in view of the
continuing weakness of oil prices, Keswick said. But he said
the operations would be profitable in the longer term.
    He said the firm's function "has evolved into one primarily
of strategy, structure and financial and personnel policy."
    He said Jardine Matheson will reduce the size of the board
of directors but will simultaneously create a new Pacific
regional board. He gave no further details of the change.
    Jardine Matheson shares rose 20 cents to 24.90 dlrs at
midday on the Hong Kong stock market. In early trading it had
fallen to 24.30 dlrs because of rumours yesterday that the firm
planned a rights issue.
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said it expects a strong full year result, helped by sigificant
investment allowance credits in the fourth quarter, but net
will fall short of the record 988.2 mln dlrs earned in 1985/86
ended May 31.
    The group earlier reported its net earnings dropped to
603.0 mln dlrs in the first three quarters ended February 28
from 813.0 mln a year earlier.
    Third quarter net fell to 206.0 mln dlrs from 238.6 mln a
year earlier and 220.3 mln in the second quarter ended November
31, BHP said in a statement.
    Earnings in the first nine months were at the lower end of
share analysts' forecasts yesterday of a range of 600 mln to
620 mln dlrs.
    BHP held its annual dividend unchanged at 37.5 cents after
declaring a steady final dividend of 20 cents and announced a
one-for-five bonus issue to shareholders registered May 1.
    The bonus is being made from reserves which will not
qualify for tax-free distribution after the introduction of
dividend imputation next July 1.
    The bonus shares will not rank for the final dividend, BHP
said.
    BHP said it should not be expected that the present rate of
dividend will be maintained on the increased capital.
    The level of future dividends will be influenced by the
implications of the proposed dividend imputation legislation,
it said.
    As previously reported, dividends will become tax-free in
shareholders' hands provided they are paid out of profits that
have borne the full 49 pct company tax rate.
    BHP, which confined comment to the third quarter, said
petroleum net earnings dropped to 98.8 mln dlrs from 139.6 mln
a year earlier, and steel profit to 27.0 mln from 48.8 mln.
    BHP said the petroleum division earnings fall reflected
generally lower oil prices and sales volumes from Bass Strait
while the steel decline was due to a five pct fall in domestic
sales and higher costs associated with the commissioning of new
plant and some operational difficulties.
    The rise in third quarter minerals net to 95.7 mln dlrs
from 81.5 mln a year earlier largely reflected the increase in
ownership of the Mt Newman iron ore project, it said.
    The 60.7 mln dlr extraordinary gain, all in the third term,
reflected a 240.7 mln profit on the sale of <Blue Circle
Southern Cement Ltd> offset by a U.S. Oil acreage writedown.
 REUTER

Japan Feb current account surplus 7.38 billion dlrs (Jan 4.95 billion surplus)

Japan February trade surplus 8.14 billion dlrs (January 5.70 billion surplus)

The Reserve Bank said it will not offer
any treasury notes for tender next week.
    Last week the Bank offered 400 mln dlrs of 13-week notes
and 100 mln dlrs of 26-week notes.
    Analysts said the Bank's decision not to offer stock next
week reflects the higher demand for funds at the start of the
system of provisional tax payments.
 REUTER

Japan's current account surplus rose to
7.38 billion dlrs in February from 3.89 billion a year ago and
from 4.95 billion in January, the Finance Ministry said.
    The trade surplus rose to 8.14 billion dlrs in February
from 4.77 billion a year earlier and 5.70 billion in January.
    The long-term capital account deficit widened to 11.40
billion dlrs from 8.06 billion a year ago, but it narrowed from
12.32 billion in January, the Ministry said.
    Japan's February exports rose to 16.74 billion dlrs from
14.89 billion in February 1986 and from 14.65 billion in
January, the Ministry said. Imports fell to 8.61 billion from
10.12 billion a year earlier and 8.94 billion in January.
    The invisible trade deficit fell to 617 mln dlrs in
February from 693 mln a year earlier, but was up from a 527 mln
deficit in January.
    Figures do not tally exactly because of rounding.
    Transfer payments narrowed to a 140 mln dlr deficit last
month from a 185 mln deficit a year earlier and a 225 mln
    The basic balance of payments deficit in February fell to
4.02 billion dlrs from 4.17 billion in February 1986 and 7.37
billion in January. Short-term capital account payments swung
to a 1.28 billion dlr deficit in February from a 1.60 billion
surplus a year earlier and a 1.44 billion dlr surplus in
January.
    Errors and omissions were 2.65 billion dlrs in surplus,
compared with a 1.27 billion surplus a year earlier and a 1.10
billion deficit in January. The overall balance of payments
deficit rose to 2.65 billion dlrs from 1.30 billion a year
earlier but was down from 7.04 billion in January.
    The seasonally adjusted trade surplus fell to 9.16 billion
dlrs in February from the record 9.58 billion in January, the
    The seasonally adjusted current account surplus also
dropped to 8.4 billion dlrs in February from the record 8.83
billion set in January.
 REUTER

Department store and supermarket sales in
February rose 3.7 pct from a year earlier to 1,080 billion yen,
after a 2.6 pct year-on-year gain in January, boosted by higher
sales of clothes and food at department stores, the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry said.
    The unadjusted total included department store sales of 559
billion yen, up 5.1 pct from a year earlier, and supermarket
sales of 521 billion, up 2.4 pct.
    The seasonally adjusted store sales index (base 1985) fell
1.5 pct to a preliminary 106.7 in February from 108.3 in
January compared with 102.9 a year earlier.
 REUTER

The Philippines will ask the U.S.
Agriculture Department (USDA) to increase its 1987 sugar import
quota following market reports that Taiwan will not be able to
fulfil its quota, Sugar Regulation Administration (SRA)
chairman Arsenim Yulo said.
    Yulo told Reuters the SRA would also protest a USDA move to
award Taiwan's shortfall to the Dominican Republic.
    The Dominican Republic already has a larger sugar quota,
Yulo said. "Any Taiwanese shortfall should be awarded to the
Philippines or at the least we should share a hike with the
Dominican Republic."
    The USDA last December listed 1987 sugar import quota
allocations for the Dominican Republic at 160,160 short tons
and for Taiwan at 10,920 short tons.
    The Philippines has said it was badly hit by a cut in its
quota to 143,780 short tons from 231,660 in 1986.
 REUTER

India's castor oil exports are
provisionally estimated at 30,000 tonnes in fiscal 1986/87,
ending March 31, against 54,000 tonnes in 1985/86 due to a
shortfall in the domestic castorseed crop, private traders
said.
    Drought in parts of the country is expected to reduce the
castorseed crop to a provisionally estimated 350,000 tonnes in
1986/87 from 550,000 tonnes in 1985/86, they told Reuters.
 REUTER

The U.S. Has approved the sale of a
U.S.-made supercomputer to India while rejecting its request
for a more powerful model, the New York Times reported.
    India wanted to buy a powerful supercomputer, such as the
Cray X-MP with two processors running in tandem, but the Times
said U.S. Officials offered a choice of machines with a single
processor, several generations behind the Cray X-MP.
    The paper, citing unnamed U.S. Officials, said the Indian
government was told of the decision last week, but has so far
given no formal indication that it is interested in the type
offered.
    India had asked the U.S. For an modern supercomputer which
it indicated would be used for scientific purposes, notably
sophisticated weather forecasting.
    However, India's close ties with the Soviet Union remains
the main reason why the U.S. Has restricted the sale of its
state-of-the-art computer technology to India, the Times said.
    U.S. Defence officials are particulalry concerned the
Soviet Union could gain access to the supercomputer and use it
to decipher high-level U.S. Codes, while others say the
computer could be very useful in designing nuclear weapons.
 REUTER

<United States Lines Inc> has laid
off 260 employees, almost its entire Far East staff, its Hong
Kong office general manager Elliott Burnside told Reuters.
    He also said calls by two of its container ships to Busan,
South Korea and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, had been cancelled.
    He declined comment on local press reports that U.S. Lines
planned to suspend operations because of failure to restructure
its 1.27 billion U.S. Dlr debt, but said the firm would make an
announcement later today.
    U.S. Lines filed for protection from its creditors under
Chapter Eleven of the U.S. Federal law last November.
    The English-language South China Morning Post said U.S.
Lines decided yesterday to sell its two remaining transpacific
service fleets and assets and those of its U.S.-South America
    It quoted a letter by company's chief executive Charles
Hiltzheimer that said the ships and assets will be bought by
rival U.S. Shipping companies, subject to approval by their
boards.
    U.S. Lines' Far East operations comprise offices in Hong
Kong, Singapore, Manila, Busan, Seoul, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe
and Osaka, Burnside said.
 REUTER

Fisons Plc <FISN.L> said it planned to
raise about 110 mln stg through an international placing of up
to 18 mln new shares, mainly in Europe and the Far East.
    The operation would be conducted by a syndicate of
international banks led by <County Securities Ltd>.
    The issue would not be underwritten and shares would only
be allocated to syndicate banks to meet true demand from
end-investors. The share price would be determined according to
market conditions, but its expected that it would be at the
middle market price.
    A Fisons statement said that although the pharmaceutical
group achieved more than 80 pct of its sales outside the U.K.,
With rapidly increasing interest from international investors,
less than two pct of its shares were held overseas.
    The issue would help meet this interest, enhance the
group's standing in the capital markets and increase demand for
its shares. The issue would also be a cost effective way of
raising new equity, it said.
    The new funds would be used for the developing of existing
operations and also for acquisitions if suitable opportunities
arose.
    The issue, which represents 5.5 pct of the company's
authorised capital, requires shareholder approval. A meeting
has been arranged for April 21.
    Fisons shares eased one penny on the announcement by 0830
GMT to 657p.
 REUTER

Outgoing United States Ambassador
Stephen Bosworth told a news conference he did not think the
Philippines would follow Brazil's example and suspend interest
payments on foreign loans from commercial banks.
    "I see no evidence that the Philippine government even
contemplates doing that. It has said at the outset that it
accepts the legitimacy of these debts and it is determined over
time to meet its obligations fully," he said.
    Philippine officials and a 12-bank committee have been
meeting for the past four weeks in New York in a bid to
reschedule 9.4 billion dlrs of foreign debt.
    Bosworth said the United States strongly supports Manila's
bid to put its international financial situation in order and
that the private bank creditors were aware of that.
    "I think there is no question that the private banks are
aware of the views of the U.S. Government ... I am confident
they will take those views into account when they make their
own decisions," Bosworth said.
    He added: "These are private banks. They are responsible to
their shareholders and they have to make their decisions on
their own. But I am confident they understand the views of the
United States and our strong support."
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Sri Lankan Food Department officials
said the U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected a U.S. Firm's
offer of 80 U.S. Dlrs per tonne CAF to supply 52,500 tonnes of
soft wheat to Colombo from the Pacific Northwest.
    They said Sri Lanka's Food Department subsequently made a
counter-offer to five U.S. Firms to buy wheat at 85 U.S. Dlrs
CAF for April 8-16 delivery.
    The company which obtains USDA approval for the proposed
price must inform the Department before 1330 gmt, they said.
 REUTER

Philippine sugar production in the
1987/88 crop year ending August has been set at 1.6 mln tonnes,
up from a provisional 1.3 mln tonnes this year, Sugar
Regulatory Administration (SRA) chairman Arsenio Yulo said.
    Yulo told Reuters a survey during the current milling
season, which ends next month, showed the 1986/87 estimate
would almost certainly be met.
    He said at least 1.2 mln tonnes of the 1987/88 crop would
be earmarked for domestic consumption.
    Yulo said about 130,000 tonnes would be set aside for the
U.S. Sugar quota, 150,000 tonnes for strategic reserves and
50,000 tonnes would be sold on the world market.
    He said if the government approved a long-standing SRA
recommendation to manufacture ethanol, the project would take
up another 150,000 tonnes, slightly raising the target.
    "The government, for its own reasons, has been delaying
approval of the project, but we expect it to come through by
July," Yulo said.
    Ethanol could make up five pct of gasoline, cutting the oil
import bill by about 300 mln pesos.
    Yulo said three major Philippine distilleries were ready to
start manufacturing ethanol if the project was approved.
    The ethanol project would result in employment for about
100,000 people, sharply reducing those thrown out of work by
depressed world sugar prices and a moribund domestic industry.
    Production quotas, set for the first time in 1987/88, had
been submitted to President Corazon Aquino.
    "I think the President would rather wait till the new
Congress convenes after the May elections," he said. "But there
is really no need for such quotas. We are right now producing
just slightly over our own consumption level."
    "The producers have never enjoyed such high prices," Yulo
said, adding sugar was currently selling locally for 320 pesos
per picul, up from 190 pesos last August.
    Yulo said prices were driven up because of speculation
following the SRA's bid to control production.
    "We are no longer concerned so much with the world market,"
he said, adding producers in the Negros region had learned from
their mistakes and diversified into corn and prawn farming and
cloth production.
    He said diversification into products other than ethanol
was also possible within the sugar industry.
    "The Brazilians long ago learnt their lessons," Yulo said.
"They have 300 sugar mills, compared with our 41, but they
relocated many of them and diversified production. We want to
call this a 'sugarcane industry' instead of the sugar industry."
    He said sugarcane could be fed to pigs and livestock, used
for thatching roofs, or used in room panelling.
    "When you cut sugarcane you don't even have to produce
sugar," he said.
    Yulo said the Philippines was lobbying for a renewal of the
International Sugar Agreement, which expired in 1984.
    "As a major sugar producer we are urging them to write a new
agreement which would revive world prices," Yulo said.
    "If there is no agreement world prices will always be
depressed, particularly because the European Community is
subsidising its producers and dumping sugar on the markets."
    He said current world prices, holding steady at about 7.60
cents per pound, were uneconomical for the Philippines, where
production costs ranged from 12 to 14 cents a pound.
    "If the price holds steady for a while at 7.60 cents I
expect the level to rise to about 11 cents a pound by the end
of this year," he said.
    Yulo said economists forecast a bullish sugar market by
1990, with world consumption outstripping production.
    He said sugar markets were holding up despite encroachments
from artificial sweeteners and high-fructose corn syrup.
    "But we are not happy with the Reagan Administration," he
said. "Since 1935 we have been regular suppliers of sugar to the
U.S. In 1982, when they restored the quota system, they cut
ours in half without any justification."
    Manila was keenly watching Washington's moves to cut
domestic support prices to 12 cents a pound from 18 cents.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department last December slashed its
12 month 1987 sugar import quota from the Philippines to
143,780 short tons from 231,660 short tons in 1986.
    Yulo said despite next year's increased production target,
some Philippine mills were expected to shut down.
    "At least four of the 41 mills were not working during the
1986/87 season," he said. "We expect two or three more to follow
suit during the next season."
 REUTER

Metallgesellschaft AG <METG.F> said
it is founding a company to work in commodities futures and
options trading and financial services linked to these.
    The new company, to be called <MG Commodity Corp>, will be
based in Zug, Switzerland, and operate from a branch in
Hamburg.
    Metallgesellschaft will hold 80 pct of the company, and the
other 20 pct will be held by Dieter Worms.
 REUTER

The 50-day provisional 1987/88 budget,
adopted today by the government, allows the Finance Ministry to
issue up to 14,600 billion yen worth of foreign exchange fund
financing bills, government sources said.
    Foreign exchange dealers said the yen funds would be used
to buy dollars, to prevent a further dollar fall.
    The government sources said the amount, covering the first
50 days of the year starting April 1, accounts for more than 90
pct of the 16,000 billion yen in bills incorporated in the full
budget.
 REUTER

Japanese net purchases of foreign stocks
jumped to a near-record 1.52 billion dlrs in February from 113
mln in January, the Finance Ministry said.
    Net buying hit a record 1.55 billion dlrs last December.
    Gross purchases of foreign stocks rose to 4.48 billion dlrs
in February from 2.67 billion in January, while gross sales
were 2.96 billion against 2.56 billion.
    All figures are subject to rounding.
    Japanese net purchases of foreign bonds, excluding bills,
dropped to 9.41 billion dlrs in February from 10.46 billion in
January, the ministry said.
    The ministry said gross purchases of foreign bonds were
115.53 billion dlrs in February, down from 118.04 billion in
January, while foreign bond sales fell to 106.12 billion from
107.58 billion.
    Foreign investors sold a net 427 mln dlrs of Japanese
bonds, excluding bills, after buying 227 mln dlrs in January.
    They took a gross 26.59 billion dlrs of Japanese bonds, up
from 14.16 billion in January, and sold 27.02 billion, up from
13.94 billion.
    They sold a net 153 mln dlrs of stocks, down from 681 mln
in the previous month.
    Gross foreign purchases of Japanese shares rose to 13.64
billion dlrs in February from 9.54 billion in January, while
gross sales rose to 13.76 billion from 10.22 billion.
 REUTER

Mitsubishi Corp <MITT.TOK> said it has
taken a 25 pct stake worth five mln krone in <Danish Dairy
Farms Ltd> and will jointly market its produce from April.
    The company was set up last year by three major Danish
livestock cooperative federations to expand markets for their
dairy products, a Mitsubishi official said.
    This is the first time a Japanese trading house has traded
non-Japanese dairy products in the world market, he said.
    He said Mitsubishi expects the Danish company's annual
sales to be 10 billion yen in its first year, from April 1.
 REUTER

Japan has sought to assure the U.S. It is
not trying to keep foreign equity in a new Japanese
international telecommunications company below the legal limit
of 33 pct, a Post and Telecommunications ministry official
said.
    In a letter sent yesterday, Postal Minister Shunjiro
Karasawa told U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige that the
ministry does not object to foreign participation by those U.S.
Firms that have expressed interest.
    But it does oppose any foreign international
telecommunications carrier having a management role, he said.
    The move appears to be an effort to dampen U.S. Opposition
to the planned merger of two rival firms seeking to compete
with the current monopoly <Kokusai Denwa Denshin Co Ltd>, and
to reduce the share held in any KDD rival by U.K.'s Cable and
Wireless Plc <CAWL.L>, industry analysts and diplomats said.
    One of the rival firms, <International Telecom Japan Inc>
(ITJ) has offered a stake in the company to eight U.S. Firms
including General Electric Co <GE>, Ford Motor Co <F> and
Citibank NA <CCI), and two European companies, ITJ president
Nobuo Ito said yesterday.
    Cable and Wireless holds a 20 pct share in a second
potential KDD rival, <International Digital Communications
Planning Inc>, along with <C Itoh and Co>. Merrill Lynch and Co
Inc <MER> and Pacific Telesis International Inc <PAC>, both of
the U.S., Hold three and 10 pct shares respectively.
    The Post and Telecommunications Ministry has urged the
merger of the two firms because it says the market can only
support a single KDD competitor.
    It has also rejected management participation by an
international common carrier, such as Cable and Wireless,
arguing no international precedent for such a stake exists.
    Cable and Wireless Director of Corporate Strategy, Jonathan
Solomon, yesterday again told ministry officials he opposes a
merger proposal that would limit Cable and Wireless' share to
less than three pct and total foreign participation to about 20
pct, the ministry official said.
    Channeling the U.S. Firms into a single merged competitor
would most probably result in diluting Cable and Wireless'
share, industry analysts said.
    "Eventually the ministry will get what it wants -- one
combined competitor," Bache Securities (Japan) Ltd analyst
Darrell Whitten said.
    "Political ... Leverage may get the total foreign share up
to a certain amount, but you won't find any one company with an
extraordinarily large holding," Whitten said.
    Western diplomatic sources were more blunt.
    "They (the ministry) don't want to see Cable and Wireless
with a reasonable share and they think of all sorts of
strategies to reduce that share," one said.
    Fumio Watanabe, a senior Keidanren (a leading business
organization) official who has been trying to arrange the
merger, will present a new outline of his proposal on Thursday,
the ministry official said.
 REUTER

IBM Australia Credit Ltd is issuing a 75
mln Australian dlr eurobond due April 24, 1990 with a 14-1/8
pct coupon and priced at 101-1/4, Salomon Brothers
1,000 and 10,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. Gross
fees of 1-1/2 pct comprise 1/2 pct for management and
underwriting combined and one pct for selling.
    There will be co-leads. The borrower is wholly owned by
International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N>.
 REUTER

<Northern Star Holdings Ltd> said
Britain's <Associated Newspapers Holdings Plc> will hold 9.99
pct of its enlarged issued capital after applying to acquire
15.9 mln shares in its recently announced placement.
    Associated was one of the major investors participating in
the previously reported placement of 128.9 mln shares at 3.75
dlrs each, Northern Star said in a statement.
    The northern New South Wales regional group is emerging as
a national media force in the wake of the industry
restructuring sparked by the News Corp Ltd <NCPA.S> takeover of
the Herald and Weekly Times Ltd <HWTA.S> group.
    Associated now holds 3.3 pct of Northern Star's current
issued capital, a company official said.
    As previously reported, Northern Star is raising 623 mln
dlrs through placements and a subsequent one-for-four rights
issue at 2.95 dlrs a share.
    Of the placements, 56.9 mln shares will go to a number of
investors and 72 mln to investment group <Westfield Capital
Corp Ltd>, which arranged Northern Star's purchase of News
Corp's television assets, three newspapers and three radio
stations for 842 mln dlrs. Westfield will increase its stake in
Northern Star to about 45 pct from 20 as a result.
 REUTER

Industrial production, excluding
construction and adjusted for the number of working days, fell
1.5 pct in December from year earlier levels, the National
Statistics Office said.
    It was also a sharp 16.8 pct below the November level, it
said.
    The office said the production index, base 1980, stood at
97.3 in December against an adjusted 116.9 in November and 98.8
 REUTER

Kawasaki Steel Corp <KAWS.T> said its
parent company's capital spending in the year from April 1 will
fall to 75 billion yen from 110 billion in the current year,
and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd <SMIT.T> said its capital
spending will drop to 70 billion yen from 85 billion.
    Both companies said they do not plan to start new large
construction projects linked to production increases in the
coming year, because of the yen's appreciation and slow world
steel demand.
 REUTER

The Hong Kong branch of <Mitsubishi
Bank Ltd> is planning a 300 mln H.K. Dlr revolving certificate
of deposit (CD) issuance facility, banking sources said.
    The facility is 200 mln dlrs underwritten at a maximum of
five basis points over the Hong Kong interbank offered rate.
The underwritten portion allows CDs to be issued in tenures of
one, three and six months. The non-underwritten portion allows
the issuance of one-year CDs as well. Denominations are one mln
dlrs.
    The underwriting fee is five basis points.
    The facility is being syndicated by the arranger,
Mitsubishi Finance (Hong Kong) Ltd. Lead managers underwriting
20 to 25 mln dlrs will receive a five basis point management
fee. Managers underwriting 10 to 15 mln dlrs will receive three
basis points. There will be no management fee for participants.
    Mitsubishi Finance is also dealer of the facility, which is
the first of its kind for a Japanese bank in Hong Kong.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said it expected to
make an announcement next week which would have a significant
and beneficial impact on the future of the company.
    It said the statement was prompted by heavy turnover in CSR
shares. Brokers said Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> today sold
24.2 mln CSR shares representing almost five pct of the
company. CSR closed 20 cents higher at 4.20 dlrs on a national
turnover of 31.39 mln shares.
    Share analysts said the CSR announcement could be about the
expected flotation of its <Delhi Petroleum Pty Ltd> unit,
releasing cash for a major building products aquisition.
    CSR forecast in January it would float Delhi and said it
expected to invest close to 100 mln dlrs on acquisitions in
building materials both in Australia and offshore.
    One analyst, who asked not to be named, said about 25 pct
of Delhi could be offered to CSR shareholders in an arrangement
which would preserve the tax position of the Cooper Basin oil
and gas producer, which is held in a trust.
    CSR had now finished paying for Delhi, after last year
writing down large foreign exchange losses on loans to buy the
company and selling such investments as its share of the Mount
Newman iron ore project, the analyst said.
    CSR had restructured its management in recent months and
was redirecting its efforts into industrial divisions from its
resources business, analysts told Reuters. It could be expected
to also float its coal interests, they said.
    The company earlier this month said it would sell its five
Sydney head office buildings.
    Stuart McKibbin of Melbourne broker <A.C. Goode and Co Ltd>
said CSR had till now been overlooked by many of the offshore
investors now heavily buying Australian gold and resource
stocks. That climate could prove an ideal time to float the CSR
petroleum division, he said.
 REUTER

<Avana Group Plc>, defending itself
against a bid from Ranks Hovis McDougall Plc <RHML.L>, RHM,
forecast a 3.4 mln stg rise in profits in the 1986/87 year.
    It said pretax profit should rise to 23.0 mln stg in the
year to April 2, 1987 from 19.6 mln previously, and reach 27.5
mln in 1987/88. It expects share earnings to rise to 46.9p from
38.7p and to 51.2p in 1987/88, and the 1986/87 dividend to be
17.0p net, a 41.6 pct increase.
    The bid from RHM, rejected by the food and bakery group, is
worth about 270 mln stg. RHM currently has a 22.9 pct stake in
purchases and acceptances.
 REUTER

importers awarded contracts to five U.S. Companies for seven
shipments totalling 340,000 tonnes of maize for delivery
between September 1 and December 20, a committee official said.
    United Grain Corp of Oregon won two contracts for the
supply of 110,000 tonnes, priced between 92.44 and 96.00 dlrs
per tonne, for September 1-15 and November 5-20 delivery.
    Cargill Inc of Minnesota also took two shipments totalling
110,000 tonnes, priced between 93.45 and 94.65 dlrs per tonne,
for October 1-15 and December 5-20 delivery.
    ADM Export Co of Minnesota received a 54,000 tonne cargo,
at 93.75 dlrs per tonne, for November 1-15 delivery.
    Cigra Inc of Chicago won a contract to supply 33,000
tonnes, at 96.89 dlrs per tonne, for November 25-December 10
delivery.
    Elders Grain Inc of Kansas took a 33,000 tonne shipment, at
96.06 dlrs per tonne, for December 1-15 delivery.
    All shipments are c and f Taiwan.
 REUTER

<Sunyou Intercontinental (H.K.) Ltd>
has finalised the one billion H.K. Dlr loan for its hotel and
office complex in the Kowloon tourist district, lead manager
Standard Chartered Asia Ltd said.
    Standard Chartered and co-lead Mitsui Trust Finance (Hong
Kong) Ltd will take up some 60 pct of the loan. There are seven
co-managers for the remainder: Bank of Communications, Bank of
East Asia, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Daiwa Bank, Hang Seng Bank,
Sumitomo Bank and Wing Lung Bank.
    The 12-year loan, guaranteed by parent company <Sun's
Enterprise Ltd> of Japan, is to be signed by mid-April.
 REUTER

shortage of around 700 mln stg in the money market today.
in official hands will drain some 501 mln stg while a rise in
note circulation and bankers' balances below target will take
out around 285 mln stg and 45 mln stg respectively.
will add some 120 mln stg to the system today.
 REUTER

Japanese aluminium output fell to 5,298
tonnes in February from 7,472 in January and 14,280 a year
earlier, preliminary International Trade and Industry Ministry
    Output fell sharply from a year ago as most aluminium firms
stopped smelting in the past year due to cheap imports,
    Sales and end-month stocks in tonnes were:
            Feb 87   Jan 87   Feb 86
    Sales   36,557   38,678   75,687
    Stocks  53,248   56,620  127,083
 REUTER

Japanese primary aluminium imports rose
to 98,170 tonnes in February from 91,157 in January and 94,926
a year earlier, the Japan Aluminium Federation said.
    This brought total imports in 1986/87, ending March 31, to
1.09 mln tonnes against 1.25 mln a year earlier.
    The February total included 19,102 tonnes from the U.S.
Against 16,577 in January and 9,933 a year ago, 24,391 from
Australia against 19,585 and 21,208, and 12,611 from Indonesia
against 5,891 and 16,601.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said it will
shorten the trading session for stocks and convertible bonds by
30 minutes from March 30 to cope with high volume and will
maintain the cut as long as excessive trading continues.
    Stock turnover hit a record 2.6 billion shares today,
exceeding the previous peak of 2.4 billion set on March 18.
    Afternoon trading will start at 1330 local time (0430 GMT)
instead of the current 1300. (0400).
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The Central Bank issued 2.47 billion
Taiwan dlrs worth of certificates of deposit (CDs), raising CD
issues so far this year to 141.93 billion, a bank spokesman
    The new CDs, repayable from six months to one year, carry
interest rates ranging from 4.07 pct to five pct, he said.
    The issues are intended to help curb the growth of the M-1b
money supply, which has expanded as a result of large foreign
    The reserves hit a record 53 billion U.S. Dlrs this week.
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Nixdorf Computer AG <NIXG.F> said it
won an order worth about 300 mln marks from the West German
Federal Labour Office to computerise 90 local labour exchanges.
    The contract is the largest single order in Nixdorf's
history, the company said in a statement.
    A total of 12,000 counsellors will be equipped with
computers to support their job placement and counselling
activities. Installation is to be completed by early 1990.
    The computer systems are models from the Nixdorf Targon /32
product family, designed to run under UNIX, the international
standard operating system.
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<Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd>
(MMAL) reported a 19.64 mln dlr net loss in calendar 1986 from
a 5.80 mln dlr profit in 1985 on turnover of 837.79 mln dlrs
from 942.89 mln.
    MMAL, 99 pct-owned by Mitsubishi Motors Corp <MIMT.T> and
Mitsubishi Corp <MITT.T>,  said a tight market meant it had
failed to recover 19 mln dlrs in costs sustained because of a
weak Australian dollar.
    The company said its Magna car dominated its market segment
with sales of 30,500 units against 26,900 in 1985. Total sales
were 64,100, down 15,900.
    In addition, export of components to Japan increased with
15 mln dlrs invested in 1986 to expand output of aluminium
cylinder heads to 26,000 per month from 6,000, MMAL said.
    Imported passenger car, light commercial and heavy vehicle
sales suffered while local-manufacturing profitability was
eroded by sales substantially below production capacity, it
said.
    Australian car sales fell to 530,000 in 1985 from 696,000
in 1985, although MMAL said it lifted its market penetration to
12.1 pct from 11.5 pct.
    No dividend was recommended.
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Shares of about 1,700 firms are expected
to be traded in South Korea's first over-the-counter market due
to open next month, finance ministry officials said.
    Companies which have been operating for more than two years
with paid-in capital of 200 mln won or more will be allowed to
join the market, they said citing a guideline prepared by the
ministry.
    Firms using venture capital can take part in the market
regardless of their size, according to the guideline. The
officials said the over-the-counter market was aimed at helping
small companies diversify their fund-raising sources.
    The guideline requires companies wishing to take part in
the market to register with the National Securities
Association. Shares of registered firms will be traded through
    Companies with paid-in capital of 500 mln won or more can
be listed on the Korea Stock Exchange three years after they
are established, the officials said.
    At the end of 1986, 355 companies were listed on the
exchange.
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(STC) bought a 20,000 tonne cargo of optional origin rapeseed
oil at its vegetable oil import tender yesterday, traders said.
The oil was for June 20/July 20 shipment at 321 dlrs per tonne
cif.
    Traders said the STC attempted to buy eight cargoes of
processed palm oil but its price ideas were too low for
exporters. It also failed to secure soyoil for the same reason,
they said.
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Bangkok airport will drop
customslndling for transit cargo next week in a bid to
challenge Singapore and Hong Kong as regional air transport
hI.<@VAkyg[gyl said.
    The transit free zone will end the paperwork that slows
trans-shipment of freight through Thailand, Bangkok airport
customs director Somchainuk Engtrakul told journalists.
    The zone, to be opened on Thursday, will complement a major
expansion of Bangkok's Don Muang airport now underway and plans
by Thai International airlines to almost double its fleet for
passenger and cargo flights over the next 10 years.
 REUTER

Thailand exported 1,120 tonnes of tin
metal in February, down from 1,816 tonnes the previous month
and 2,140 tonnes a year ago, the Mineral Resources Department
said.
    It said major buyers last month were Britain, Japan, the
Netherlands, West Germany and the U.S.
 REUTER

Syndication for Elders IXL Ltd's
<ELXA.S> 100 mln Australian dlr note issuance facility has been
completed, arranger Westpac Finance Asia Ltd said.
    It said the facility, which is half underwritten and half
non-underwritten, has been over-subscribed and underwriters'
allocations are reduced from the original commitments.
    The managers of the facility are Westpac, Bank of Montreal
Asia Ltd, BOT International (HK) Ltd, Commonwealth Bank of
Australia and Credit Industriel et Commercial de Paris. They
will be underwriting six mln dlrs each instead of 10 mln dlrs.
    Co-managers are Banque Bruxelles Lambert, Ka Wah Bank,
Kyowa Bank, Saitama Bank, Sanwa Bank and Yasuda Trust and
Banking Co Ltd. They will be underwriting three mln dlrs each
instead of five mln dlrs. BT Asia Ltd is junior co-manager with
a two mln dlr commitment.
    Westpac launched the facility early this month at 200 mln
dlrs but soon reduced it to 100 mln dlrs and amended the terms
due to the market's cool response. The underwriting margin was
raised to 10 basis points over the Australian dlr bank bill
rate. Originally the margin was set at 6.25 basis points for up
to 50 mln dlrs and at 2.5 basis points for the remainder.
 REUTER

Botswana has stopped importing almost
all meat products from Zimbabwe after reports of a suspected
outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the neighbouring country.
    Botswana's official news agency, BOPA, announcing the ban
last night, quoted Agriculture Minister Daniel Kwelagobe as
saying only sterilised and canned animal products would be
allowed into the country, with immediate effect.
    He said Zimbabwean veterinary officials had notified him
that they suspected foot and mouth disease had broken out at
Insiza, 100 km northeast of Bulawayo, capital of the mainly
cattle-ranching southwestern province of Matabeleland.
    Zimbabwean officials were not immediately available for
comment.
    The ban will affect products such as uncanned meat, milk,
ham, butter and bacon, BOPA reported.
    Botswana exports much of its high-grade beef to the
European Community and augments its local supplies with meat
imports from Zimbabwe.
 REUTER

Alcan Australia Ltd <AL.S> said it will
make a 39.3 mln N.Z. Dlr cash bid for all the issued shares of
<Alcan New Zealand Ltd> at 1.80 N.Z. Dlrs each with a
four-for-three share alternative.
    Both are 70 pct owned by Canada's Alcan Aluminium Ltd <AL>
which will take the share swap option, Alcan Australia deputy
chairman Jeremy Davis said in a statement. The remainder of
Alcan New Zealand's totalled issued 21.84 mln shares are
broadly held while Alcan Australia's are primarily held by
institutions. Alcan NZ last traded at 1.55 NZ dlrs, while Alcan
Australia today ended four cents down at 1.15 dlrs.
    Davis said the offer, which is subject to approval by the
New Zealand Overseas Investment Commission, was a response to
the integration of the two countries' markets under the
Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations treaty.
    Alcan New Zealand shareholders who accept the offer would
also receive the final dividend of 10 cents a share normally
payable on May 27.
    Alcan Australia would invite New Zealand representation to
its board and would apply to list its shares on the New Zealand
Stock exchange, Davis said.
 REUTER

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is
issuing a 15 billion yen dual currency bond due April 24, 1992
with an eight pct coupon and priced at 101-3/4 pct, Salomon
Brothers International said as lead manager.
    The issue is payable and redeemable in Australian dollars
although coupon payments will be in yen.
    Upon redemption, holders will be repaid at a rate of 83.91
yen per Australian dollar. Salomon said that the current
exchange rate is 103.62 yen to the Australian dollar.
    Payment date is April 25, and the securities are available
in denominations of five mln yen. They will be listed on the
London Stock Exchange.
    There is a 1/14 pct selling concession and a 5/8 pct
 REUTER

Provisional consolidated net attributable profit 242.1 mln
francs vs 240.1 mln.
    Investments 318 mln vs 317 mln.
    Dividend on ordinary shares 45 francs vs 42 francs.
    Dividend on priority shares 51 francs vs 48 francs.
 REUTER

The South African government's
maize production estimate of 7.8 mln tonnes for the current
year is "rather too conservative," leading grain and produce
merchants Kahn and Kahn Pty Ltd said.
    The company, in a detailed report, estimated the harvest as
high as 8.3 mln tonnes and said if this forecast is met the
ostensible surplus for export will be approximately 2.25 mln
tonnes.
    "This paradoxically is creating a problem for the Maize
Board," Kahn and Kahn said.
    It said the maize export price currently is depressed and
the board is "probably confronted with the necessity to maintain
or slightly increase the internal price of maize again...To
offset the ostensible loss which must be faced" on exporting
surplus amounts.
 REUTER

Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) will
grow three pct in real terms this year and 2.7 pct in 1988,
said economic information company Data Resources Europe Inc
(DRI).
    Michel Girardin, DRI Europe's senior economist, said at a
conference that Italian GDP growth this year "will be mainly
driven by consumption and especially investment."
    Girardin said the driving force behind GDP growth next year
will shift from domestic demand to exports as a result of
expected depreciation of the lira against the major currencies.
    Italy's budget ministry said yesterday that GDP rose 2.7
pct in real terms in 1986.
    DRI forecast that inflation, which was an average 6.3 pct
in 1986, will be under five pct this year and that interest
rates should drop two pct.
    Girardin said the lira is expected to appreciate 14 pct
against the dollar this year following last year's 22 pct
appreciation. An expected German mark appreciation against the
dollar means that the lira should lose about six pct of its
value relative to the German currency, he said.
    DRI estimates that foreign demand for Italian products
should grow by a 3.2 pct this year following last year's 6.2
pct increase.
 REUTER

Japan today announced another mammoth
monthly trade surplus that economists said would be sure to
intensify already mounting pressure on the country for action.
    "The world has every reason to be furious with Japan for not
moving more quickly," Jardine Fleming (Securities) Ltd economist
Eric Rasmussen said.
    The Finance Ministry said today that the trade surplus
soared to 8.14 billion dlrs in February from 5.7 billion in
January and 4.77 billion a year ago.
    The current account surplus, which includes trade in
services as well as goods, climbed to 7.38 billion dlrs last
month from 4.95 billion in January and 3.89 billion a year ago.
    After being adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, the figures
look a bit better, but not much. On that basis, the trade
surplus declined slightly in February to 9.16 billion dlrs from
a record 9.58 billion in January.
    "In the medium term we expect this modest improvement to
continue but the pace of progress may be too slow to ward off
further protectionism or further yen strength," said William
Stirling, economist at Merrill Lynch Japan Inc.
    A strong yen would make Japanese goods more expensive on
world markets while making imports into the country cheaper.
    "On a seasonally adjusted basis, we appear to be making some
progress on getting exports down," Jardine's Rasmussen said.
    But imports do not seem to be picking up much because the
Japanese economy remains sluggish, he said.
    Finance Ministry officials blamed last month's slower
import growth on a decline in oil imports as refiners worked
off stocks they had built up in January.
    The officials took comfort from a decline in the volume of
exports last month, after an unexpected year-on-year increase
    This means the effects of the two-year rise of the yen
against the U.S. Dollar are finally beginning to have an impact
on exports, they said.
    But economists warned that may not be soon enough for
Japan's trading partners.
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Thyssen AG <THYH.F> said
it expects to post a good profit in 1987 despite anticipated
losses in its mass steel-making operations this year.
    Managing board chairman Dieter Spethmann told the annual
meeting the group was satisfied with profit developments in the
first half of the 1986/87 financial year to September 30.
    The group's other three divisions -- specialty steel,
capital goods and trading -- had made a profit so far in
1986/87, he added.
    Spethmann said income from associate companies had also
been good in early 1986/87.
    In 1985/86 Thyssen's world group profit fell to 370.1 mln
marks from 472.4 mln in 1984/85, reflecting costs linked to its
steel operations. The company's dividend was an unchanged five
marks.
    A Thyssen spokesman told Reuters that planned job cuts at
subsidiary Thyssen Stahl AG would be higher than announced
earlier. Total job losses by 1989 were now expected to total up
to 7,800 against original projections of 5,900. Thyssen Stahl
employs some 40,000 people.
 REUTER

The amount of a eurobond issued
yesterday by Walt Disney Co Ltd has been raised to 75 mln
Australian dlrs from an original 60 mln, lead manager Warburg
    The issue, which matures on May 7, 1990, has a 14-1/2 pct
coupon and is priced at 101-3/8 pct.
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Recent slackness on Dutch capital
markets has led some bankers to question the Central Bank's
policy of pegging the guilder firmly to the West German mark
and to ask for more flexiblility in exchange rate policy.
    While agreeing with the Bank's commitment to defend the
guilder strongly, some bankers want the Bank to make more use
of the range within which the guilder and the mark can
fluctuate against each other in the European Monetary System
(EMS).
    Roelof Nelissen, chairman of Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV
(Amro) said the Central Bank's policy was overcautious.
    "I would like to suggest that the Bank use more freely the
range given to the guilder in the EMS," Nelissen said at the
presentation of Amro's 1986 annual report last week.
    Within the EMS, the mark is allowed to fluctuate against
the guilder between 110.1675 and 115.235 guilders per 100.
    The Central Bank maintains a stricter policy and tries to
keep the mark below the 113.00 guilders per 100. It regards a
stable exchange rate as its main target, using interest rate
policies to influence the exchange rate.
    The preference of exchange rate goals above interest rate
aims goes almost undisputed in the Netherlands.
    Critics say the Bank keeps the reins unnecessarily short.
    Rabobank Nederland said in its latest economic bulletin: "By
maintaining the 113.00 limit, the Central Bank raises the
expectation it will always intervene above that level. If it
suddenly needs more flexibility it will find it very hard to
obtain."
    Amro's Nelissen said relatively small changes in interest
rates and exchange rates could cause substantial flows of
securities business and sharp fluctuations on the Dutch capital
market. Large interest rate changes were often needed to bring
about small changes in the guilder/mark exchange rate, he
added.
    Unlike Amro, Algemene Bank Nederland NV (ABN) says this is
a price the Dutch have to pay. It fully agrees with the Central
Bank's policy, director-general Julien Geertsema told Reuters,
noting a 1983 decision not to revalue the guilder fully with
the mark in the EMS hurt confidence in the Dutch currency.
    "It is a pity we need such a wide interest rate difference
between West Germany to maintain the exchange rate," he added.
    Interest rate differentials between West Germany and the
Netherlands are the main factors that trigger capital flows
between the two countries, as the economic performance of the
two does not differ much, economists said.
    Data on 1986 capital flows between West Germany and the
Netherlands have not yet been released, but in 1985 they
accounted for only 10 pct of total trade flows between the two
countries, put at 110 billion guilders for 1986 by the
Dutch-German Chamber of Commerce earlier this month.
    Economists say capital flows are more sensitive to interest
and exchange rates.
    West Germany is the Netherlands' largest single trading
partner, taking 28 pct of Dutch exports and providing 26 pct of
imports in the last quarter of 1986, Central Bureau of
    At the moment, the rates for three month euromark deposits
trade around 4.0 pct while the same deposits in guilders have a
rate of around 5-7/16 pct.
    Amro bank argues that the Dutch real interest rate will
even rise further because of expectations of deflation here in
1987, contrasting with slight inflation in West Germany.
    In the Netherlands, the cost of living is expected to
decrease by 1.5 pct at a GNP growth rate of two pct, the Dutch
Central Planning Agency said in its 1987 forecast last month.
German GNP is seen rising by two to 2.5 pct, but with inflation
between zero and 1.0 pct, according to most German forecasts.
    But despite this upward push on real Dutch rates, money
dealers do not expect the Central Bank to cut official rates
independently without prior moves by the Bundesbank.
    Following the West German interest rate cuts on January 22,
the Dutch Central Bank did not lower its rates but set a 0.5
pct lower tariff for special advances and abandoned its credit
surcharge. Most traders were surprised by this move as they had
expected the Bank to follow suit unconditionally, they said.
    The Bank said it lowered the rate with the largest impact
on the money market as far as the exchange rate permitted.
    While not entirely unsympathetic to critics of its
policies, the Central Bank keeps its grip firm and the range
narrow.
    "The European Monetary System is not only a relationship
between the guilder and the mark. Many times widening of the
margin between the two would implicate we have to buy or sell
large amounts of a third currency," Central Bank vice-director
Jan-Hendrik Du Marchie Sarvaas said.
    "If we allowed the guilder to become a little cheaper, the
markets would start to believe it was weak. We don't want that.
We want to make clear that the guilder is just as strong as the
mark," he said.
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The German auction system of shares
trading, retaining the business floor, can develop in parallel
to off-floor computer trading introduced in London in the "Big
Bang," Frankfurt stock exchange president Michael Hauck said.
    Hauck told a conference that it was unclear if the
Frankfurt floor would become superfluous. The Frankfurt
exchange did 55 pct of all German securities trading and was
investing 86 mln marks in renovating its building. A
screen-delivered in-house quotation system would soon be in
place too.
    The nature of the auction system limited how far trading
hours could be extended from the present two-hour session.
    Other practical problems inhibited the German ability to
follow London's moves. Official brokers, who set the prices,
were under the control of the Finance Ministry. This meant
transfer of securities control to an independent body, if
desired, would need legislative changes, Hauck said.
    "Shorting" stocks in Germany was also prohibited by the rules
for pension and insurance funds. They could thus not be lent
out for the kind of speculative positions taken by London
market makers.
    But Hauck said the system in London could be criticised for
being too distant from those it should serve.
 REUTER

Spain's air and rail transport was at a
virtual standstill as airline ground staff and railway workers
joined university students and health workers in strikes
against the Socialist government.
    Railway workers and staff at the state airlines Iberia and
Aviaco want pay rises of seven to eight pct but the government
has imposed a ceiling of five pct to control inflation.
    Under a government decree ordering the strikers to maintain
minimum services Iberia was due to operate 32 of its 330
flights and Aviaco 10 out of 82. Flights to and from Spain by
other airlines were not affected.
    Student demonstrations in several cities last night led to
clashes with riot police in Madrid, Cadiz and Saragossa.
    The state railway network operated some commuter services
but passengers who tried to use the few sleeper trains running
last night were met by angry pickets and found compartments
without light or heating.
 REUTER

called on Japan to boost investment in developing nations, for
its own sake as well as that of the world economy.
    "Japan has the means to make a major contribution to
development in the Third World," he told about 500 Japanese
businessmen and academics. "I would be pleased with additional
support."
    With 25 pct of the world's total banking assets, Japan
could do more to help assist indebted Third World countries
develop roads, bridges and other infrastructure, he said.
    Conable said additional commercial bank investment would
also be to Japan's advantage.
    It would profit from rechannelling its huge trade surplus
into Third World economies -- notably those in South America,
China and India -- that are likely to expand faster than those
in the developed world, he said.
    Japan is now the second largest shareholder in the Bank's
concessionary lending affiliate, the International Development
Association (IDA). It has also agreed recently to expand its
contribution to another affiliate, the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), Conable noted.
    Conable said the World Bank was expanding its structural
adjustment loans, designed to encourage developing countries to
open their economies more to free competition and trade.
    "Adjustment loans could rise to 30 pct (of total World Bank
loans) in the near future, though maybe not this year," Conable
told Reuters after his speech.
    Such loans currently account for slightly over 20 pct.
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Applied chemicals group Henkel KGaA
<HNKG.F> said it is selling its Hamburg vegetable oil and fats
subsidiary Noblee und Thoerl GmbH to Oelmuehle Hamburg AG.
    A company spokesman declined to give the purchase price.
Noblee, a supplier of specialised refined oils and fats to the
food processing industry, had turnover of 161 mln marks last
year.
    A Henkel statement said the divestment was part of the
company's strategy of concentrating on its core businesses. For
Oelmuehle, the acquisition of Noblee means access to new
markets, the statement added.
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Net shr 7.6 cents vs 3.0
    Int div 3.0 cents vs nil
    Net 16.93 mln vs 5.47 mln
    Sales 160.14 mln vs 2.35 mln.
    Other income 6.29 mln vs 10.05 mln
    Shrs 223.16 mln vs 183.68 mln.
    NOTE - Two-for-seven non-renounceable rights issue of 8.0
pct five-year subordinated convertible redeemable unsecured
notes at 2.50 dlrs each. Each note is convertible into one
share. Div pay May 1. Div and issue reg April 16.
    Net is after tax 7.04 mln dlrs vs 3.82 mln, interest 2.52
mln vs 1.14 mln, depreciation 2.43 mln vs 123,000 and
minorities 3.41 mln vs 2.91 mln but before net extraordinary
loss 821,000 vs nil.
    Company is owned 46.99 pct by Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S>.
 REUTER

Soviet officials said foreign
businessmen are expressing strong interest in establishing
joint enterprises in the Soviet Union and already 30
preliminary agreements had been signed with Western firms.
    But Western economic experts described foreign business
interest as cautious and noted that no final contracts had been
sealed to set up joint ventures on Soviet territory.
    Moscow last year invited companies in socialist, developing
and capitalist countries to start joint ventures as part of a
programme to open up the Soviet Union's foreign trade ties.
    At the same time, a number of Soviet ministries and
enterprises received the right to deal directly on world
markets. Previously the Ministry of Foreign Trade monopolised
all import and export business.
    Explaining the changes at a news conference today, Deputy
Prime Minister Vladimir Kamentsev said they had received a
mixed reaction in the foreign press but a warm response from
businessmen.
    Over 200 proposals for establishing joint ventures had been
received from foreign firms, 121 of which had been judged of
mutual interest, he said.
    Thirty protocols had been signed and 12 projects were
"practically implemented," including ventures with Finnish,
Japanese, West German and American firms, he added.
    But Western diplomats specialising in Soviet economic
affairs said the protocols were not legally binding and not a
single contract had been finalised.
    "The Soviet Union is selling the joint venture idea very
hard because it wants to obtain new technology cheaply, but I
would say business reaction in the West has been cool so far,"
commented one diplomat.
    Asked why this was so, he said the rules for running joint
ventures were still unclear and no Western firm wanted to be
the first to take a major financial risk.
    Kamentsev, flanked by Foreign Trade Minister Boris Aristov,
Foreign Trade Bank Chairman Yuri Ivanov and other officials,
repeated terms for the establishment of joint ventures,
including the ground-rule that the Soviet side must have a
stake of at least 51 pct in any enterprise.
    He said some businessmen had the mistaken impression that
foreign partners could only take profits from the products
which their enterprises exported.
    "I would like to stress that the foreign partner can take
profits from all the products which his venture produces
according to his share of the capital," Kamentsev said.
    He added that the Soviet Union was interested in "long-term
and stable contacts" with foreign firms and was offering a
number of tax breaks to companies which invested here.
    Speaking about the reform giving individual Soviet trading
organisations more autonomy, Kamentsev said 21 ministries and
75 enterprises now had the right to deal for themselves on
    Organisations enjoying this right handled 25 pct of total
Soviet trade including 40 pct of trade in machines and tools,
he said.
    The Ministry of Foreign Trade continued to conduct business
for the remaining ministries and state enterprises and
supervised trade in essential products such as food.
 REUTER

money market assistance obliging borrowers to take funds from
the second window, where on Wednesday rates were raised to 16
pct compared with 14 pct for normal overnight funds.
    Money market sources said in view of high borrower demand
the suspension was likely to remain in effect until April 3,
the start of the next 10-day accounting period for reserve
requirements. The suspension comes after the Bank yesterday
gave 1,145 billion pesetas assistance, a record high for this
year.
    It said 90 billion pesetas was provided at the second
window.
 REUTER

visit Washington next month in a bid to defuse mounting U.S.
Anger over Japanese trade policies, but Western diplomats said
they believed his chances of success were slim.
    Boxed in by powerful political pressure groups and
widespread opposition to his tax reform plans, Nakasone will be
hard-pressed to come up with anything new to tell U.S.
President Ronald Reagan and key U.S. Congressmen, they said.
    News of the week-long visit starting April 29 coincided
with news that Japan recorded a 8.14 billion dlr trade surplus
last month, more than 70 pct higher than a year earlier.
    It also came one day after the Reagan Administration's
Economic Policy Council decided to take retaliatory action
against Japan for its alleged failure to live up to a joint
trade agreement on computer microchips.
    Nakasone wants to go armed with two separate packages - one
designed to pep up Japan's sagging economy and imports in the
short-term, the other to redirect the country in the medium
term away from its over-dependence on exports for growth.
    But government officials said political infighting could
rob both packages of much of their punch and might even prevent
one from seeing the light of day.
    Nakasone has insisted that the government would not draw up
a package of short-term economic measures until after its
1987/88 budget passed parliament because he feared that would
amount to a tacit admission that the budget was inadequate.
    But his hopes for quick passage of the budget in time for
his trip have been shattered by a parliamentary boycott by
opposition parties protesting over the sales tax plan.
    Faced with the possibility that he might have to go to the
U.S. Virtually empty-handed, Nakasone today ordered his ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to come up with its own
measures.
    He can then tell Reagan the LDP package will form the basis
of the government's plans, without losing face in parliament
over the budget, political analysts said.
    Officials working on the government's short-term economic
package said it would probably include interest rate cuts on
loans by government corporations, deregulation, measures to
pass on some of the benefits of the strong yen to consumers in
the form of lower prices, and accelerated public investment.
    They said a record portion of state investment planned for
the entire 1987/88 fiscal year will take place in the first
half, probably over 80 pct.
    Diplomats said that was unlikely to be enough to satisfy
Reagan, who is under pressure from the Democrat-controlled U.S.
Congress to take greater action to cut the huge American trade
deficit.
    To complement the short-term measures, Nakasone is also
likely to present Reagan with details of Japan's longer-term
economic plans.
    A high-ranking advisory body headed by former Bank of Japan
governor Haruo Maekawa is expected to come up with a final
report outlining concrete steps to redirect the economy days
before Nakasone is scheduled to leave for Washington.
    Its recommendations are designed as a follow-up to
Maekawa's report last year on economic restructuring and are
likely to cover such potentially politically explosive areas as
agricultural reform and land policy, officials said.
    While wanting to make the report as explicit and detailed
as possible, they said the political realities might force them
to water down some of the committee's recommendations.
    A subcommittee is considering what the Japanese economy
might look like in the medium to longer term after it undergoes
massive restructuring, officials said. The subcommittee
projects that the current account surplus will fall to less
than two pct of Japan's total output, or gross national
product, around 1993 or 1995. Last year the surplus, which
measures trade in goods and services, amounted to over four pct
of gnp.
    The subcommittee also projects annual economic growth for
Japan of nearly four pct over that period and a very gradual
appreciation of the yen, to about 130 to the dollar by around
1993, from 150 now.
 REUTER

money market with 265 mln stg in assistance this morning.
    This compares with the bank's estimate of the shortage in
the system of 750 mln stg, earlier revised up from 700 mln.
119 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 144 mln stg in band two
at 9-13/16 pct and two mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan intervened in the
market to keep the dollar above 149 yen but the unit was under
strong selling pressure by an investment trust, dealers said.
    The central bank stepped into the market when the dollar
fell towards 149.00 yen, but a trust bank aggressively sold
dollars to hedge currency risks, and the Bank intervened again
at 149.00, they said.
    The trust bank apparently changed its earlier view that the
dollar would rise and started selling relatively large amounts
of dollars, pushing the unit down to 148.80 at one point,
    One dealer estimated that the Bank bought 400 mln to 500
mln dlrs as it tried to keep the U.S. Currency above 149 yen.
 REUTER

The Bank of France intervened in the
Paris foreign exchange market this morning for the third
successive day, banking sources said.
    Like yesterday, it bought dollars and sold yen in small
amounts, they said.
    One dealer said it was seen in the market twice in early
dealing, buying five mln dlrs each time.
    Other dealers also reported small-scale intervention to
stabilise the dollar after aggressive selling overnight in
Tokyo, where the Bank of Japan also intervened again.
    The dollar steadied at around 6.0650/0700 francs after
easing in early trading to 6.0615/35 from an opening 6.0700/50.
It closed yesterday at 6.0800/30.
    One major french bank said it bought 10 mln dlrs for the
central bank, selling yen, within a trading range of 148.20/30
yen to the dollar, compared with yesterday's 149.28 rate at
which intervention was carried out here.
    The yen later firmed to around 147.90/148.00.
 Reuter

The Bundesbank entered the open
market in the late morning to buy dollars against yen in
concert with the Bank of France, dealers said.
    The Bundesbank came into the market when the dollar was
around 148.10 yen just after it had fallen below 148 to touch
147.80 at 1027 GMT. The move had little effect, with the dollar
still testing 148 yen ahead of the official fixing.
    Dealers said the intervention was for fairly small amounts,
in contrast to the Bundesbank's activity on Wednesday when
dealers reported it bought about 100 mln dlrs.
    The Bundesbank had no comment.
 REUTER

<Brierley Investments Ltd> (BIL)
launched a full takeover bid for the supermarket group
<Progressive Enterprises Ltd> at 4.35 dlrs a share.
    BIL said in a statement the offer is conditional on minimum
acceptances totalling 30 mln shares, just under 25 pct of the
120.4 mln Progressive shares on issue.
    Progressive is currently involved in a proposed merger with
<Rainbow Corp Ltd>. Rainbow earlier this week raised its stake
in Progressive to 52 pct. BIL opposes the Rainbow merger and
analysts say BIL needs a 25 pct stake in Progressive to prevent
it occurring.
    The merger involves shareholders in Progressive and Rainbow
both receiving shares in a new company <Astral Pacific Corp
Ltd> on a one-for-one exchange basis.
    The BIL bid is higher than the 4.20 dlrs BIL said it would
offer when it first announced on Monday it would make a full
bid for Progressive, and it follows much public debate between
BIL and Rainbow.
    BIL Chief Executive Paul Collins said last week that he
opposes the Rainbow/Progressive merger because BIL sees
Progressive shares as being worth twice as much as Rainbow's.
BIL has not disclosed how many Progressive shares it holds.
    Rainbow has said the merger is soundly based. Chairman
Allan Hawkins said last week that BIL's actions were aimed only
at dirsrupting the merger and were not in the interests of
Progressive shareholders.
    Both Rainbow's and Progressive's boards have approved the
merger proposal. It has also been approved by the Commerce
Commission, but BIL's bid is still subject to the Commission's
scrutiny.
    Progressive shares ended at 4.35 dlrs, Rainbow at 3.42 and
BIL at 4.17 at the close of New Zealand Stock Exchange trading
today.
 REUTER

S. African Feb trade surplus 1.62 billion rand vs Jan surplus 906.2 mln - official

<Helikopter Service A/S>, Norway's
biggest helicopter operator, will assemble 18 Bell 412 SP
helicopters for Norwegian Defence under license from <Bell
Helicopters Textron> of the U.S., The company said.
    The 18 medium-range helicopters, worth 540 mln crowns, will
be assembled at the company's facilities at Sola airport in
Stavanger. Helikopter Service technical director Trygve Eidem
said the 25-mln crown assembly contract will help the company
diversify its operations. Helikopter Service's main income is
from chartered flights between Norway's North Sea oil fields
and mainland heliports.
 REUTER

<Fletcher Challenge Ltd> (FCL)
chairman Ron Trotter will step aside as chief executive in
October on reaching 60 and will be replaced by group managing
director Hugh Fletcher, FCL said in a statement.
    Fletcher, 39, whose grandfather James Fletcher was the
founder of <Fletcher Industries> from which FCL partly takes
its name, joined the group in 1969.
    He holds master of commerce, bachelor of science and MBA
degrees from Harvard University and is also chairman of Air New
Zealand. No new managing director has been named yet to replace
him.
 REUTER

Reports the Soviet Union has lately
extended its recent buying programme by taking five to eight
raws cargoes from the free market at around 30/40 points under
New York May futures highlight recent worldwide demand for
sugar for a variety of destinations, traders said.
    The Soviet buying follows recent whites buying by India,
Turkey and Libya, as well as possible raws offtake by China.
    Some 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes could have changed hands in
current activity, which is encouraging for a sugar trade which
previously saw little worthwhile end-buyer enquiry, they added.
    Dealers said a large proportion of the sales to the Soviet
Union in the past few days involved Japanese operators selling
Thai origin sugar.
    Prices for nearby shipment Thai sugars have tightened
considerably recently due to good Far Eastern demand, possibly
for sales to the Soviet Union or to pre-empt any large block
enquiries by China, they said.
    Thai prices for March/May 15 shipments have hardened to
around 13/14 points under May New York from larger discounts
previously, they added.
    Traders said the Soviet Union might be looking to buy more
sugar in the near term, possibly towards an overall requirement
this year of around two mln tonnes. It is probable that some
1.8 mln tonnes have already been taken up, they said.
    Turkey was reported this week to have bought around 100,000
tonnes of whites while India had further whites purchases of
two to three cargoes for Mar/Apr at near 227 dlrs a tonne cost
and freight and could be seeking more. Libya was also a buyer
this week, taking two cargoes of whites which, for an
undisclosed shipment period, were reported priced around
229/230 dlrs a tonne cost and freight, they added.
    Futures prices reacted upwards to the news of end-buyer
physicals offtake, although much of the enquiry emerged
recently when prices took an interim technical dip, traders
said.
    Pakistan is lined up shortly to buy 100,000 tonnes of
whites although traders said the tender, originally scheduled
for tomorrow, might not take place until a week later.
    Egypt will be seeking 20,000 tonnes of May arrival white
sugar next week, while Greece has called an internal EC tender
for 40,000 tonnes of whites to be held in early April, for
arrival in four equal parts in May, June, July and August.
 REUTER

Three Dutch computer leasing firms
are charging the Dutch unit of International Business Machines
Corp <IBM.N> with unfair trading practices, saying its prices
undercut the leasing market, a court spokesman said.
    He said the three firms started summary proceedings in the
Amsterdam district court yesterday against IBM Nederland NV and
its leasing finance subsidiary IBM Nederland Financieringen BV.
A verdict is expected on April 16.
    The three firms suing IBM here are IBL Holland BV, ICA
Europe BV and Econocom Nederland BV. An IBM Nederland spokesman
said the firm denied the charges but declined further comment.
 REUTER

<Union Miniere SA> said in a statement
that it has acquired an eight pct interest in Pancontinental
Mining Ltd <PANA.S> for a sum equivalent to 1.2 billion Belgian
francs.
    Pancontinental operates gold and coal mines in Australia
and natural gas and oil fields in Canada.
    Union Miniere said the location of its interest within the
Pancontinental group will be decided later. It did not
    Union Miniere is a wholly owned subsidiary of Societe
Generale de Belgique <BELB.BR>.
 REUTER

South Africa's trade surplus rose
to 1.62 billion rand in February after falling to 906.2 mln in
January, Customs and Excise figures show.
    This compares with a year earlier surplus of 958.9 mln
rand.
    Exports rose slightly to 3.36 billion rand in February from
3.31 billion in January but imports fell to 1.74 billion from
2.41 billion.
    This brought total exports for the first two months of 1987
to 6.67 billion rand and imports to 4.15 billion for a total
surplus of 2.52 billion rand against 1.71 billion a year
earlier.
 REUTER

A scheme to distribute surplus food
free to the poor in the European Community (EC), which was due
to expire next Tuesday, will be partially extended for a
further month, an EC Commission spokesman said.
    He added the executive Commission has not yet decided
whether the scheme should become a permanent feature of the
EC's struggle to find a use for its massive stocks of farm
produce.
    Almost 60,000 tonnes of cereals, sugar, beef, butter and
other food have been authorised for distribution under an
operation sanctioned by EC farm ministers on January 20 in
which charities act as executive Commission agents.
    The original idea was to help the needy survive this year's
unusually cold European winter.
    The spokesman said the Commission was extending the scheme
fully in Greece, which has recently been hit by unseasonal
snowstorms, for the month of April.
    Other EC countries would be authorised to use stocks of
food for which they have already applied under the scheme up to
April 30. The spokesman said this would enable distribution of
flour, semolina, sugar and olive oil at a relatively high rate
    He said the Commission, which has powers to continue most
aspects of the scheme without consulting ministers further,
will be considering soon whether it should be made permanent.
    Cost, which has already reached around 65 mln European
currency units, would be a major consideration.
    End-January stocks included 1.28 mln tonnes of butter,
520,000 tonnes of beef and over 10 mln tonnes of cereals.
 REUTER

imports.
 Reuter

January.
 REUTER

1958.
 Reuter

South Africa's inflation rate,
currently at 16.3 pct, should decline further during 1987, the
Reserve Bank said in its latest quarterly review.
    Although the recent fall in inflation was "largely
attributable to purely statistical factors," the decline had
clearly been aided by a recovery in the rand's exchange rate,
    "The inflation rate stands to benefit further from the more
recent advances in the exchange rate in the third quarter of
1986 and in the first few months of 1987," it said.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Indian officials responded coolly  to
a reported U.S. Offer to sell India a supercomputer less
powerful than it sought, saying it showed Washington's lack of
sensitivity to Indian concerns.
    Asked about a New York Times report that the United States
had offered New Delhi a supercomputer generations behind the
type it requested, an official told Reuters, "If the U.S. is
doing that they have not been sensitive to Indian concerns."
    He declined to confirm the report directly but said India
had received an offer of a supercomputer from the United States
"and we are considering it."
    Sounding disappointed and dismayed he added, "We do not wish
at this stage to say whether it is the computer we were looking
for, or a more or less powerful model."
    The official, who asked to remain anonymous, added: "An
announcement will be made in 10 days to two weeks time."
    India has sought for more than two years to buy an advanced
supercomputer primarily for monsoon forecasting. But the sale
has been held up by U.S. Security concerns prompted by India's
closeness to the Soviet Union, its chief arms supplier.
 Reuter

Oper shr five cts vs six cts
    Oper net 1,100,000 vs 1,463,000
    Revs 177.8 mln vs 331.5 mln
    Avg shrs 21.9 mn vs 25.7 mln
    First half
    Oper shr six cts vs five cts
    Oper net 1,121,000 vs 1.090,000
    Revs 315.3 mln vs 567.4 mln
    Avg shrs 20.6 mln vs 25.6 mln
    NOTE: Operating net excludes gains of 659,000 dlrs, or
three cts a share, vs 599 dlrs, or two cts a share, in quarter
and 676,000 dlrs, or three cts a share, vs 599,000 dlrs, or two
cts a share, in year from tax loss carryforward.
 Reuter

The Swiss National Bank bought dollars
against yen today, a spokesman for the bank said.
    He declined to say how many dollars the bank bought or when
precisely it intervened.
    Swiss foreign exchange dealers described the National
Bank's purchases as modest, perhaps amounting to no more than
20 or 30 mln dlrs.
    The Bank of France, which was reported buying dollars
against the yen in Paris, had made inquiries with Swiss banks
as well, and the Bundesbank had also intervened. Bank of Japan
dollar purchases today were perhaps 1.2 to 1.5 billion dlrs.
    Dealers said this tended to confirm the market's impression
that major industrial countries had agreed at the Paris meeting
on an effective floor for the dollar of 148 yen, and the market
seemed ready to test it.
    Commercial clients were also selling dollars against the
yen as the end of the Japanese fiscal year on March 31 drew
closer. Today's dealings in spot currencies are booked for
March 31.
    One dealer said he had the feeling Japanese companies had
been asked by the Bank of Japan not to sell dollars at this
point, but some, while sticking to the letter of that request,
were offering dollars forward today, rather than lose out if
the dollar fell further.
    The run on the dollar against the yen came in a market
thinned by the absence of many dealers for a Forex Club meeting
in Hamburg.
    Trading was, in fact, rather light against currencies other
than the yen, the dollar holding little changed through the
day.
    The market now expected the U.S. Federal Reserve to
intervene in support of the dollar. "But they will probably do
it only half-heartedly, so I don't think it will matter too
much on rates," one dealer said.
 REUTER

The government welcomed a wage settlement
for public sector workers which was agreed late last night as a
fair compromise for both sides, government spokesman Friedhelm
Ost told reporters.
    The wage settlement gives 2.3 mln workers in federal, state
and local governments a 3.4 pct wage increase for 1987,
retroactive from January 1.
    The public sector union OeTV had originally sought a six
pct increase, while the government's initial offer was 2.7 pct.
 REUTER

U.S. FEBRUARY CONSUMER PRICES ROSE 0.4 PCT AFTER 0.7 PCT RISE IN JANUARY

U.S. consumer prices, as measured by
the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U), rose
a seasonally adjusted 0.4 pct in February after a 0.7 pct
January gain, the Labor Department said.
    The CPI for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W)
rose to 329.0 in February, the department said.
    Prices for petroleum-based energy rose sharply for a second
consecutive month during February but by less than in January,
    Energy prices rose 1.9 pct last month after a 3.0 pct rise
in January, accounting for one-third of the overall CPI rise.
    For the 12 months ended in February, the CPI rose an
unadjusted 2.1 pct.
    Transportation prices rose 0.5 pct in February after a 1.5
pct increase in January. Smaller price rises for motor fuels
and declines in new car prices and finance charges were
responsible for the moderation.
    Gasoline prices rose 4.2 pct last month after increasing
6.6 pct in January, but were still 18 pct below levels of a
year ago, the department said.
    Housing prices rose 0.4 pct in February after a 0.5 pct
January increase, largely due to a rise in fuel oil prices.
    Fuel oil prices were up 4.4 pct in February after
increasing 9.8 pct in January, but were still 15 pct below
price levels of February 1986.
    Food prices rose 0.2 pct last month after a 0.5 pct January
increase. Grocery store food prices were up 0.4 pct, the same
as in January, but meat, poultry, fish and eggs cost less for a
third consecutive month, the department said.
    Medical care rose 0.3 pct in February to a level 7.1 pct
above one year ago, because of higher costs for prescription
and non-prescription drugs and medical supplies, the department
said.
    The index for apparel and upkeep rose 0.7 pct in February
after a 0.4 pct increase in January. The department said the
introduction of higher priced spring merchandise, particularly
men's clothing, was responsible for the advance.
    Prices for other goods and services rose 0.7 pct in
February following a 1.1 pct increase in January. Tobacco
prices, up 0.9 pct after a 2.0 pct January increase, accounted
for 30 pct of the index rise, the department said.
 Reuter

Ltd said shareholders authorized a previously announced
three-for-one stock split, applicable to holders of record
April nine.
    The company said its stock will begin trading on a split
basis on April 3, subject to regulatory approvals.
 Reuter

Very stormy weather is
likely in the North Sea through Saturday, disrupting shipping
in the region, private forecaster Accu-Weather Inc said.
    Rain will accompany the strong winds that are expected over
the North Sea today into tonight. Saturday will also be very
windy and cooler with frequent showers.
    Winds today will be southwest at 30 to 60 mph, but will
become west to northwest tonight and Saturday at 25 to 50 mph.
    Waves will build to 20 to 30 feet today and tonight and
continue Saturday. Wind and waves will not diminish until late
in the weekend.
 Reuter

NATIOONAL MEDICAL ENTERPRISES INC 3RD QTR OPER SHR 46 CTS VS 51 CTS

A Liberian motor bulk carrier, the
72,203 dw tonnes Nikitas Roussos, which was grounded in the
Suez canal yesterday, has been refloated and is now proceeding
through the the canal, Lloyds Shipping Intelligence said.
 Reuter

said.
 Reuter

Periods ended Feb 28
    Oper shr 46 cts vs 51 cts
    Oper shr diluted 43 cts vs 50 cts
    Oper net 34.2 mln vs 39.8 mln
    Revs 823.3 mln vs 794.3 mln
    Avg shrs 74.9 mln vs 78.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.29 dlrs vs 1.46 dlrs
    Oper shr diluted 1.20 dlrs vs 1.43 dlrs
    Oper net 99.4 mln vs 114.5 mln
    Revs 2.50 billion vs 2.22 billion
    Avg shrs 77.0 mln vs 78.3 mln
    NOTE: Year ago nine months operating net excludes loss of
2.0 mln dlrs, or two cts a share, from discontinued operations
 Reuter

The tonnage of goods passing through
Ivory Coast's main port of Abidjan rose 2.3 pct last year,
according to the Ivorian Chamber of Commerce.
    Its monthly report said 9.47 mln tonnes of goods passed
through the port last year compared with 9.26 mln the year
before. Exports fell to 3.75 mln from 3.89 mln tonnes while
imports rose to 5.72 mln from 5.37 mln.
 Reuter

Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou
said today that the Greek armed froces were ready to tackle any
aggressors following the sailing of a Turkish research vessel
and warships towards disputed waters in the Aegean Sea.
    Papandreou told an emergency cabinet meeting in Athens "the
military readiness of our country is able now to give a very
hard lesson if our neighbours (Turkey) were to carry out
military actions."
    He said the activities of the research vessel could be
aimed at partitioning the Aegean.
    "The air force, navy and army are in a state of alert,"
General Guven Ergenc, Secretary General of the Turkish General
Staff, told a news conference.
    He said the Turkish research ship Sismik 1, escorted by an
unspecified number of warships, would sail into disputed waters
in the Aegean Sea tomorrow morning.
    Ergenc told Reuters later that all leave had been cancelled
for members of the armed forces in the Aegean coast area.
    The Turkish government said yesterday it had licensed the
state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corp to explore for oil in
international waters around three Greek islands off Turkey.
     Greece and Turkey have long-standing disputes over areas
of the Aegean and the presence of Turkish troops in Cyprus.
    The latest row erupted when the Greek government said last
month that it was taking control of a Canadian-led consortium
which was already producing oil off the Greek island of Thassos
and would drill in the same area after the takeover.
    Ergenc told the news conference the alert followed a
government decision that Turkey should protect its interests
"because of measures Greece has been taking in the Aegean in
violation of international agreements."
    Asked how Turkey would react if Greece attacked any of the
vessels, he said "If there is an attack, it is clear what has to
be done. An attack on a warship is a cause for war." But he
added "We are not in a state of war. The measures taken by the
military are directed towards protecting our rights."
    Greece said yesterday it would defend its national rights
in the Aegean and urged Turkey to accept reference of the
dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
    Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Yalim Eralp told
reporters today this was unacceptable because of preconditions
Athens had attached.
    In Athens, Greek Prime Minister Papandreou said that if the
Turkish vessel Sismik 1 began research operations "we will
hinder it, of course not with words, as it cannot be stopped
with words."
    Greek newspapers said the armed forces were on alert and
navy ships had gone to the Aegean. But government spokesman
Yannis Roubatis did not confirm the move, saying only "The Greek
fleet is not at its naval base."
    Papandreou said that a map issued in Turkey showed 95 pct
of the areas proposed for research were on the Greek
continental shelf.
    Papandreou told the U.S. And NATO that if they had a part
in orchestrating the present crisis in order to force Greece to
negotiate with Turkey, the Greek government would not accept
it.
    Papandreou has maintained in the past that he will not
negotiate with Ankara until Turkey recognises Greek rights in
the Aegean and withdraws its troops from Cyprus.
    He said that in the case of war with Turkey it would not be
possible for Greece to discuss the future of American military
bases here. Asked by reporters if he would close the U.S. Bases
in Greece in the event of war, Papandreou replied "Obviously,
and perhaps even before the war."
 REUTER

Electricite de France is issuing 100 mln
Swiss francs of 3-3/8 pct notes with warrants issued by Credit
Suisse attached to buy gold, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
    Each eight-year note of a 50,000-franc face value has 15
warrants, two of which entitle the holder to acquire 100 grams
of gold at a price of 2,350 francs. The strike price represents
a premium of about 15 pct over the current market price of
gold.
    The warrants may be exercised from April 30, 1987, to April
30, 1990. The notes, callable starting 1992 at 101.50, have a
final maturity on April 30, 1995.
 REUTER

Sports carmaker Dr. Ing. H.C.F.
Porsche AG <PSHG.F> said it expects to post a satisfactory
profit in 1986/87, with domestic volume sales seen lower but
U.S. Sales anticipated higher.
    Managing board chairman Peter Schutz said domestic sales
were expected to fall to 9,000 in the year ending July 31 from
11,340 in 1985/86. U.S. Sales should rise to more than 30,000
from 28,670 last year.
    Schutz made no specific profit or sales forecasts. Last
month the company said it expected net profit to fall below 70
mln marks this year from 75.3 mln marks in 1985/86.
    For sales, Porsche expects its overall world volume this
year to be above 50,000. Sales last year stood at 53,254,
Schutz said. His expectations of a satisfactory profit were
based on a combination of price rises and cost-cutting, he
added.
    The expected drop in West German sales this year would be
the result of the so-called "grey market" for Porsche cars, he
said. When the dollar was strong against the mark, many
Porsches had been bought locally in West Germany for illegal
export to the U.S.
    Porsche has previously said domestic sales in the 1986/87
first half fell to 3,267 from 5,387 in the same 1985/86 period.
    The fact that U.S. Sales will account for a larger
percentage of overall sales this year than before does not pose
problems for profit, the Porsche board said.
    In the last 12 months it has raised U.S. Prices by around
20 pct without suffering any decline in sales. At the same time
Porsche has hedged its dollar-denominated business for the
1986/87 business year, finance director Heinz Branitzki.
    Branitzki put Porsche's hedging costs in 1985/86 at 28 mln
marks.
    In a speech to the annual meeting, Schutz said third-party
orders placed with Porsche's engineering research centre in
Weissach were rising and should top 100 mln marks this year for
the first time.
    Porsche's net profit dropped sharply to 75.3 mln marks in
1985/86 from 120.4 mln marks in 1984/85.
 REUTER

FCS Laboratories Inc said
George D. Fowle Jr has resigned as president of the company and
Garu Griffin resigned as treasurer, both effective March 31.
    The company said directors elected Chairman Nicholas A.
Gallo III to the additional title of president and Chief
Financial Officer Richard D. Mayo was elected treasurer.
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 18 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

A final compromise proposal on cocoa
buffer stock rules presented by International Cocoa
Organization, ICCO, council chairman Denis Bra Kanon is swiftly
gaining acceptance by consumer and producer members, delegates
said.
    "We are close, nearer than ever to accepting it, but we
still have some work to do," producer spokesman Mama Mohammed of
Ghana told Reuters after a producers' meeting.
    European Community, EC, delegates said EC consumers
accepted the package in a morning meeting and predicted "no
problems" in getting full consumer acceptance.
    Delegates on both sides are keen to come to some agreement
today, the last day of the fortnight-long council meeting, they
said.
    The compromise requires that buffer stock purchases from
non-ICCO member countries cannot exceed 15 pct of total buffer
stock purchases, delegates said. The non-member cocoa issue has
been among the most contentious in the rules negotiations.
    The 15 pct figure, up five percentage points from earlier
proposals, represents a concession to consumers, delegates
said. They have demanded a larger allowance for non-member
cocoa in the buffer stock than producers have wanted.
    Another problem area, delegates said, was the question of
price differentials for different origins of cocoa bought into
the buffer stock, by which the buffer stock manager could
fairly compare relative prices of different cocoas offered to
him.
    The compromise narrowed the range of differentials between
the origins from what previous proposals had detailed -- a move
some delegates described as "just fiddling."
    But the adjustments may prove significant enough to appease
some countries that were not satisfied with the original
proposed differentials assigned to them, delegates said.
    The compromise also stated buffer stock purchases on any
day would be limited to 40 pct each in nearby, intermediate or
forward positions, delegates said.
    If the compromise is accepted by the council, most
consumers and producers want buffer stock rules to take effect
next week, or as soon as practically possible.
    The full council is scheduled to meet around 1500 GMT to
discuss the compromise, and could agree on it then if all
parties are satisfied, they said. Consumers are due to meet
before the council.
 Reuter

<Dixons Group Plc> said it bought
about 2,445,000 Cyclops Corp common shares, boosting its
holdings of the company's stock to about 83 pct of those now
outstanding and 79 pct on a fully diluted basis.
    Dixons said the stock was purchased in a single block
transaction at 95 dlrs per share.
    The company said it expects to proceed with a merger and
has advised Cyclops it intends to increas the per-share amount
to be paid in the merger to 95 dlrs, form 90.25 dlrs, for each
of the about 880,000 remaining Cyclops shares outstanding on a
fully diluted basis.
 Reuter

One Luxembourg and three Danish
banks are tapping the Euro-Danish crown market in a three
tranche zero coupon eurobond deal of 600 mln Danish crowns
nominal for Denmark, senior vice-president Lars Thuesen of
Privatbanken, which is the lead manager, told Reuters.
    The three 200 mln crown tranches are tranche A, due May 16,
1989 priced at 82 1/8, tranche B, due May 15, 1990 priced at 73
7/8 and tranche C, due May 15, 1991, priced 66 1/2.
    Fees are 3/4 pct for selling and 5/8 pct for management and
underwriting combined with 1/8 pct praecipium.
    The payment date was given as April 24, 1987 with
denominations at 10,000 crowns and listing in Luxembourg.
    The co-leaders in the new Danish eurobond deal are
Copenhagen Handelsbank, Den Danske Bank and Kredietbank
Luxembourg, Thuesen added.
 REUTER

imports. But countertrade deals still make up only a small part
oil, is estimated at 3.04 billion dlrs in fiscal 1986/87.
 Reuter

<Elders Resources Ltd> said its
two-for-seven convertible unsecured notes issue will raise
161.32 mln dlrs for group expansion and development.
    The 46.99 pct-owned Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> offshoot
announced the issue at 2.50 dlrs each with its first-half
results statement.
    The group lifted net earnings to 16.93 mln dlrs in the half
ended December 31 from 5.47 mln a year earlier when it was
still in its formative stages.
    The 8.0 pct notes are convertible to one share on May 1 and
November 1 of each year from next November.
 Reuter

Venezuela will shortly send creditor
banks a term sheet specifying the changes agreed last month in
the country's 20.3 billion dlr public sector debt rescheduling,
finance minister Manuel Azpurua said.
    Azpurua told reporters yesterday the document is in its
"final phase' of preparation, and will be soon be sent to banks
for approval.
    "We expect that once the term sheet is received and analysed
by the banks, it will be approved in a relatively short time,'
    Under the new rescheduling agreement reached February 27,
payments on Venezuela's public debt were extended from 12 to 14
years and the interest rate dropped from 1 and 1/8 to 7/8 of a
pct above LIBOR.
    In addition, payments for the 1987-1989 period were lowered
from 3.82 billion dlrs to 1.350 billion dlrs. Venezuelan
officials said this amounted to an effective grace period,
something the banks had refused to grant.
    The agreement replaced a February, 1986 rescheduling accord
which Venezuela asked banks to revise, citing a 40 pct drop in
oil revenues last year.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Qtr ends March 7
    Shr 48 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 18.7 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Revs 415.4 mln vs 384.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.31 dlrs vs 78 cts
    Net 50.7 mln vs 31.8 mln
    Revs 1.04 billion vs 1.01 billion
    NOTE: per share for yr and qtr prior restated to reflect
two-for-one stock split in Jan 1987.
 Reuter

WESTINGHOUSE SAYS IT EXPECTS AT LEAST 10 PCT EARNINGS/SHR GROWTH THROUGH 89

<Country Wide Transport Services Inc>
said it is holding an initial offering of 2.2 mln shares of
common stock at 15 dlrs per share.
    Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc is the manager of the underwriting
group, which has been granted an option to purchase up to an
additional 330,000 shares to cover over-allotments, the company
said.
    Of the total shares to be sold, 1,500,000 will be sold by
the company and 700,000 will be sold by stockholders, the
company said. Proceeds will be used to reduce indebtedness and
to purchase equipment, the company added.
 Reuter

Metropolitan Financial Corp said it
signed an agreement to acquire the stock of closely held
Rothschild Financial Corp, St. Paul, Minn.
    Details of the purchase were withheld.
    It said Rothschild in 1986 originated 500 mln dlrs of
mortgage loans, and its loan servicing portfolio stands at 1.4
billion dlrs. Officials of both companies estimated their
combined efforts could produce originations of 800 mln dlrs and
a loan servicing portfolio "well over 2.0 billion dlrs by
yearend."
 Reuter

money market a further 663 mln stg assistance in the afternoon
session. This takes the Bank's total assistance so far today to
928 mln stg and compares with its forecast shortage which it
earlier revised up to 850 mln stg from 750 mln.
    The central bank purchased bills in band one at 9-7/8 pct
comprising 267 mln stg bank bills, four mln stg local authority
bills and one mln stg treasury bills. It also bought 378 mln
stg bank bills and 13 mln stg of treasury bills in band two at
 REUTER

A French government team has
arrived in Antananarivo to negotiate a new 180 mln franc
structural adjustment credit for the Madagascar government,
diplomatic sources said.
    Officials of the French treasury and Caisse Centrale de
Cooperation Economique aid agency will remain in Madagascar
until Tuesday, they added.
    Last year, France provided its former Indian Ocean colony
with a structural adjustment loan of 160 mln francs.
 REUTER

The Austrian National Bank did not
intervene on the foreign exchange markets today to support the
dollar, deputy banking department chief Herbert Danzinger told
Reuters.
    He denied a suggestion by a dealer at one Vienna bank that
the National Bank had sold marks to support the U.S. Currency.
    Senior dealers at Creditanstalt and Girozentrale, Austria's
two largest banks, said they would have been aware of any
National Bank intervention. Any dollar purchases by the Bank
today were for purely day-to-day purposes, they said.
 REUTER

Hanson Trust Plc <HAN> said its U.S.
subsidiary, Hanson Industries, sold PCR Inc, a specialty
chemicals unit, for 6.25 mln dlrs in cash to <Chemical Partners
Inc>.
    Hanson Industries said it acquired PCR Inc in 1986 as part
of its purchase of <SCM Corp>.
    PCR Inc posted an operating loss in 1986 of 381,000 dlrs on
sales of 13.2 mln dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Plenum Publishing Corp <plen> said it
registration covering the planned offering of 50 mln dlrs
principal amount of convertible subordinated debentures due
April 15, 2007.
    The company said it will grant the underwriter, Bear
Stearns and Co Inc, a  30 day option to buy up to 7.5 mln dlrs
principal amount of additional debentures to cover
overallotment.
    It said proceeds will be used for acquisitions.
 Reuter

Senate majority leader Robert Byrd
said President Reagan may win his latest veto battle with
Congress over a nearly 88 billion highway construction bill.
    The West Virginia Democrat said it would be "tough" for the
Senate to override the veto. Reagan is expected to announce he
is rejecting the measure later today.
    Byrd said it would be difficult for the Senate to overcome
a White House public relations campaign against the bill.
    The House, voting first, is expected to override it, House
Republican Leader Bob Michel has said. It requires two houses
to override a veto by two-thirds majorities.
 Reuter

Commercial Union Assurance <CUAC.L>, a
composite insurance company in the U.K., Said it is arranging a
financing facility totalling 750 mln European Currency Units
(ECUs) which will now include a medium term note program.
    Barry Cameron-Smail, Commercial Union's treasurer, said the
new financing will not increase its debt outstanding but rather
act as an umbrella for all its financing needs.
     Commercial Union has had a Euro-commercial paper program
since the autumn of 1985 and a guilder commercial paper program
since January 1986.
    Cameron-Smail said Commercial Union decided on having the
financing denominated in ECUs because it is more stable than
most major currencies, and because it would give greater
flexibility in its financings as it expands operations abroad.
    Although banks are anxious to develop a market for medium
term notes, only a few companies such as Electrolux AB and
Pepsico Inc have gone so far as to arrange one. Commercial
Union is the first U.K. Company to set up such a program.
    Cameron-Smail said the company seeks to help the
development of such a market as it would provide a new funding
base for its medium term assets.
     Cameron-Smail said that aside from traditional lines of
business, Commercial Union would like to move into other areas
where it may not be able to fund the assets itself. "This (the
medium term note program) will be the platform for developing
those assets," he said.
    He said Commercial Union will work closely with dealers for
the note program to find the right pricing level to satisfy
investor demands. The program will be investor driven, he
noted, adding that the company wants the notes placed with end
investors and not traded in the secondary market.
    Commercial Union will be able to issue medium term notes in
U.S. Dollars or sterling, with the dollar notes listed in
Luxembourg, while the sterling notes will be listed in London.
    Bankers expect that the maturities will be concentrated in
the one to five year area.
    The dealers for the program are Barclays de Zoete Wedd,
Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd, Goldman Sachs International,
Swiss Bank Corporation International Ltd and S.G. Warburg and
Co Ltd.
 REUTER

<Elders IXL Ltd>, of Australia, said
wholly owned IXL Holdings Canada Inc extended its previously
announced offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Carling
O'Keefe Ltd to midnight April 23, 1987, from March 25.
    The 18-dlr-a-share offer is being extended for Elders to
obtain Canadian federal government approval for the acquisition
of control of Carling. Elders said its application to
Investment Canada is still being processed under normal review
procedures.
    Up to March 26, 19,962,000 shares or 92 pct of Carling's
stock has been deposited under the offer, Elders said.
    Elders also said it arranged for a credit facility of up to
390 mln dlrs, shared equally between two Canadian banks, which
would be available to acquire shares under the offer.
 Reuter

IC Industries Inc rose 2-3/4 to 33-1/4
following a favorable comment by analyst Gary Schneider of Bear
Stearns and Co, traders said.
    Schneider was not immediately available for comment.
    IC Industries also was the subject of a favorable report
earlier in the week from First Boston Corp, traders said.
    Sources said Schneider's report concluded IC Industries
shares are undervalued and will eventually trade in the
mid-40's.
 Reuter

The Missouri-based energy service
company, Union Electric Co, is seeking a 150 mln dlr, four-year
euro-term loan facility, Swiss Bank Corporation International
Ltd said as arranger.
    The loan will carry a margin of 20 basis points over London
Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
    Amounts pre-paid under the loan may, at the option of the
borrower, be converted into a revolving credit commitment with
an equivalent maturity to the original maturity on the loan.
    There will be a 12.5 basis point commitment fee on the
 REUTER

Shr loss 35 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 718,269 vs loss 145,216
    Revs 1,394,080 vs 2,608,083
    NOTE: full name of company is standard bred pacers and
trotters Inc.
 Reuter

Morgan Guaranty Ltd said it has been
added to the group of dealers for the euro-commercial paper
program for BASF Corp that was launched last year.
    The program is for an unspecified amount and is guaranteed
by the parent BASF Ag.
    The other dealers are Union Bank of Switzerland and Morgan
Stanley International.
 REUTER

Multivest Corp said it has ended talks
on <Oryx Capital Corp>'s possible acqusition of Multivest and
is starting an offer of 1.51 dlrs a share for all the
oustanding shares of <T.B.C. Industries Inc>.
    Multivest said its T.B.C. tender offer is scheduled to
 Reuter

Shr 77 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 13.5 mln vs 4.8 mln
    Revs 70.8 mln vs 60.8 mln
    Avg shrs 17.5 mln vs 12.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain of 18 mln dlrs from sale in
Dec 1986 of a 50 pct interest in its cellular telephone
operations to BellSouth Corp.
    Net income also reflects non-recurring charges of 8,400,000
dlrs recorded in the fourth qtr 1986, primarily reflecting
revaluation of assets.
    Full name of company is mobile communications corp of
america.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,535,000 vs 783,000
    Rev 40.0 mln vs 28.7 mln
 Reuter

Spartech Corp said it plans a one for
five reverse stock split and has filed a registration statement
with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering a planned
25 mln dlr offering of convertible subordinated debentures due
1999.
    Spartech said the debenture offering will be underwritten
by Kidder Peabody and Co.
    The company said the split will be effective on stock of
record April eight.
 Reuter

Motor Wheel Corp is raising 100 mln
dlrs through an offering of senior subordinated notes due 1997
with an 11-3/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
PaineWebber Inc.
    Proceeds will be used to finance the company's
management-led buyout from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co <GT>,
the underwriter said.
    Non-callable for five years, the issue is rated B-3 by
Moody's Investors and B by Standard and Poor's. Prescott, Ball
and Turben co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Restaurant Associates Industries Inc
said it expects to record a pretax gain of 3.3 mln dlrs in the
first quarter from the sale and lease of real estate.
    The company said it received a 2.5 mln dlrs partial payment
in connection with the sale of property in Manhattan and an
additional one mln dlrs for early termination of the lease for
its headquarters, which was relocated in February.
    The outstanding balance of about 8.5 mln dlrs on the sale
of the property will be paid at closing scheduled for Sept 28,
    In the first quarter ended March 31, 1986, Restaurant
Associates reported net income of 313,000 dlrs or seven cts a
share on sales of 40.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

<Hudson's Bay Co> said it signed a
letter of intent to sell its Hudson's Bay Wholesale unit to a
private investment group. Terms were not disclosed.
    The company said Normal Paul, a member of the private
investment group, will head Hudson's Bay Wholesale management.
    The unit's existing management group, headed by Ron
McArthur, will also participate in ownership, the company said
    The wholesale unit is a major distributor of tobacco,
confectionary and other products through 34 wholesale and 28
vending branches in Canada. 1986 sales were 798 mln dlrs.
    Hudson's Bay said the sale of its wholesaling unit is part
of a program to concentrate financial and management resources
on its core business of department stores and real estate.
 Reuter

Shr loss 3.41 dlrs
    Net loss 354 mln vs loss 53 mln
    Revs 825 mln vs 830 mln
    Avg shrs 103.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 5.33 dlrs
    Net loss 426 mlnm vs loss 66 mln
    Revs 3.17 billion vs 1.83 billion
    Avg shrs 80 mln
    NOTE: The company had no shares outstanding in 1985. On
March 16, it had 109,244,315 shares oustanding.
    Losses include pre-tax restructuring charges of 286 mln
dlrs in both 1986 periods vs 47 mln dlrs in both 1985 periods
    1986 year loss also includes charge of about 100 mln dlrs
for amortization of good will
 Reuter

Lone Star Industries Inc said it has
arranged 150 mln dlrs of financing through the issuance of
promisary notes to a consortium of 22 lenders.
    Lone Star said the 8.75 pct notes will mature on March 26,
1992. The proceeds will be used to refinance and retire debt,
and other general corporate purposes, the company said.
 Reuter

Enterprises Inc said it will release news concerning an appeals
court decision within the hour.
    Blinder said the news concerns its subsidiary, Blinder
Robinson and Co Inc.
   
 Reuter

Qtly div 36 cts vs 33 cts prior
    Pay May one
 Reuter

Tokheim Corp, manufacturer of
electronic petroleum marketing systems, said it expects
shipments of Tokheim Convenience Systems (TCS), its new family
of dispensers, to improve its sales trend throughout 1987.
    Tokheim said shipments of TCS will begin in the second
quarter.
    Earlier, the company reported first quarter, ended February
28, earnings of 1.5 mln dlrs, or 23 cts a share, up from
783,000 dlrs, or 12 cts a share, in last year's first quarter.
Sales rose as well, it said, to 40.0 mln dlrs, from 28.7 mln
dlrs in the prior first quarter.
 Reuter

<Mining Technology and Resources
Inc> said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Mine Support Systems
Inc, entered into a sales agreement with <R.M. Wilson Co Inc>
of Wheeling, W. Va.
    R.M. Wilson will serve as Mine Support's exclusive sales
agent for the company's Mine Roof Support System in the U.S.,
 Reuter

Safety-Kleen Corp said it agreed in
principle to acquire McKesson Envirosystems Co, a subsidiary of
McKesson Corp.
    It said McKesson Envirosystems' current annual gross
revenues are about 14 mln dlrs.
    The company collects flammable solvents from its industrial
customers for a fee, after which it analyzes and processes the
solvents before they are burned.
 Reuter

CCC, has accepted bids for export bonuses on 36,000 tonnes of
durum wheat to Algeria, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the bonuses awarded averaged 40.42 dlrs
per tonne and will be paid to exporters in the form of
commodities from CCC inventories.
    The bonuses were made to Cam USA, Inc, the department said.
    The wheat is for shipment May 1-10, 1987.
    An additional 264,000 tonnes of durum wheat are still
avaiable to Algeria under the Export Enhancement program
initiative announced on March 16.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp said
earnings per share growth will exceed sales growth and will be
in the double digit range through 1989.
    In 1986, the company earned 4.42 dlrs a share on revenues
of 10.7 billion dlrs.
    Speaking at a meeting for securities analysts, Douglas
Danforth, Westinghouse's chairman, said the company's sales
growth target is about 8.5 pct a year for 1988 and 1989, "given
an economic environment that remains on a moderate growth
course." He also said the company will make acquisitions, but
he did not specify particular targets.
    Paul E. Lego, senior executive vice president told the
analysts "our plans do not call for a multibillion dlr
acquisition, even though our balance sheet can handle one.
Despite this disclaimer, if we identify a major acquisition
that has significnt value-creating for Westinghouse...we will
consider it." He said the company would consider an acquisition
candidate that is in an area compatable with Westinghouse's
primiary businesses.
    Danforth said the corportation was focused in several key
areas including defense electronics, financial services,
broadcasting, electrical products and services for construction
and industrial and utility markets.
    Danforth added that he expects Westinghouse's sales to grow
faster than the markets the corportation serves and "surely
faster than GNP."
    He said earnings per share growth is expected to
consistently exceed the Standard and Poor's 500 index and
return on equity will remain in the 18 to 21 pct range.
    Leo W. Yochum, senior executive vice president for finance,
told the analysts "we will consider buying back stock" but
there are no current plans for such a buyback.
    Yochum said that at the company's current level of earnings
it could comfortably maintain higher debt levels and that
Westinghouse will use its debt capacity to improve shareholder
value.
    Last year, Westinghouse established a 790 mln dlrs
restructuring reserve to be used for plant consolodation,
assett writedowns and other items. Yochum said, the company
spent 306 mln dlrs of that reserve in 1986 and will spend 344
mln dlrs of the reserves in 1987. The balance will be used in
1988. He also said, capital expenditures should be about 400
mln dlrs in 1987.
 Reuter

Clearwater Fine Foods Inc, a Canadian
company minority owned by Hillsdown Holdings PLC of London, has
acquired Channel Foods Ltd, a Cornwall, England producer of
chilled smoke fish and pate products, Hillsdown said.
    Privately held Clearwater was sold for three mln stg, the
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.30 dlrs
    Net loss 25.6 mln
    Revs 20.5 mln
    Note: Prior results not given.
    Shr and net include change in accounting policy, resulting
in loss of 22.8 mln dlrs or 1.16 dlrs share.
 Reuter

Seven-Up Cos, a unit of Philip Morris
Cos Inc, is raising 155.78 mln dlrs via an offering of senior
subordinated notes due 1997 yielding 12-1/8 pct, said lead
underwriter Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    The notes have a 7-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 89.87.
Moody's Investors Service Inc and CCC-plus by Standard and
Poor's Corp.  The issue was raised from an initial offering of
140 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Consumer members of the International
Cocoa Organization, ICCO, accepted a final buffer stock rules
compromise, "on the condition that producers also agree,"
consumer spokesman Peter Baron said.
    The full council was meeting at 1530 GMT to discuss the
compromise, which was put together yesterday by ICCO chairman
Denis Bra Kanon.
    Consumer delegates said they were optimistic the council
could reach agreement on the rules fairly quickly.
 Reuter

A new Rabobank mortgage bond, whose
terms dealers considered extremely generous, was in heavy
demand on the Amsterdam bourse today, bond dealers said.
    Rabobank, not anticipating a strong two-day rally in Dutch
bonds, on Wednesday set an issue price of 99.50 pct for a 6.25
pct eight-year open mortgage bond, giving it a yield about 1/4
pct higher than the market average.
    Rabobank stopped trading in the bond five minutes after the
bourse opened, but already between 200 and 300 mln guilders
worth had been sold, a Rabobank spokesman said. One Japanese
investor took 50 mln guilders alone, a dealer said.
    Later, the bank proposed to allot only 30 pct of
subscriptions, causing a general outcry among traders. Rabobank
finally gave in to bourse demands to honour all subscriptions.
    "We simply did not expect prices to rise so much," a Rabobank
spokesman said." Since the pricing, the bond price index has
risen 0.9 to 117.3, and the average state loan yield has fallen
accordingly to 6.04 pct.
    Two weeks ago, Rabobank issued a 250 mln guilder 6.75 pct
bond at par, giving it a yield 0.40 above the average bank loan
yields that day of 6.35 pct. The issue was heavily
over-subscribed.
 REUTER

Homac Inc said the U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District of Michigan issued a preliminary
injunction against Tangent Inc of Dallas from appointing
directors to Homac's board without written consent of a
majority of shareholders.
    It said the court also prohibited Tangent from acquiring or
attempting to acquire any additional Homac shares pending
filing of an amendment to Tangent's Schedule 13D.
    Homac said the court declined to issue a preliminary
injunction to prohibit transfer of approximately 800,000 shares
of common stock by DSA Financial Corp to Tangent. Homac claims
it had the first right to purchase.
    Homac said it would appeal this aspect of the court's
decision.
 Reuter

NATO ambassadors met in emergency
session today to discuss tension between members Greece and
Turkey over a disputed area of the Aegean Sea on the Western
Alliance's southern flank, Greek diplomatic sources said.
    They said no information had yet emerged from the meeting,
called after statements from both countries that they were
prepared to back rival oil exploration teams with warships.
    General Guven Ergenc, Secretary General of the Turkish
General Staff, said today the Turkish research ship Sismik 1,
escorted by an unspecified number of warships, would sail into
disputed waters in the Aegean Sea tomorrow morning.
    Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou said "The military
readiness of our country is able now to give a very hard lesson
if our neighbours (Turkey) were to carry out military actions."
    The row erupted when the Greek government said last month
that it was taking control of a Canadian-led consortium which
was already producing oil off the Greek island of Thassos and
would drill in the same area after the takeover.
 REUTER

Hanson Trust Plc <HNSN.L> said its U.S.
Subsidiary, Hanson Industries Inc, is to sell PCR Inc, a
speciality chemicals unit, for 6.25 mln dlrs cash to <Chemical
Partners Inc>.
    PCR had sales of 13.2 mln dlrs in fiscal 1986 and an
operating loss of 381,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

INVESTOR PAUL BILZERIAN HAS 7.2 PCT PAY 'N PAK STAKE, MAY SEEK CONTROL

The British government may revoke the
licences of selected Japanese banks and securities companies
operating in London's financial City when they come up for
renewal next summer if progress is not made towards opening up
Japan's markets to foreign competition, government sources
said.
    "We can't say "yes, we are going to do it (revoke licences)"
but this is definitely being considered," an official said.
    His comments came after the government was formally urged
today by a cross-section of influential MPs to take joint
retaliatory action with the United States against Japan.
    Britain has grown increasingly impatient with Japanese
trade practices. "There's a sense of urgency here now, but the
emphasis is on securing - not undermining - our interests in
Japan," another government official told Reuters.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said on Thursday that
Britain would not hesitate to use new powers contained in the
Financial Services Act 1986 and the Banking Bill to retaliate
against countries that do not offer reciprocal market access.
    She clearly had Japan in mind, government sources said.
    The U.K. Last year showed a trade defict with Japan of 3.7
billion stg, official figures show.
    A parliamentary motion, signed by 98 MPs, today urged the
U.K. Government to "coordinate action with the President of the
United States, and through the Department of Trade and
Industry, to suspend all further applications from Japanese
communications companies for equipment approval by the British
Approvals Board for Telecommunications, and all further
applications from Japanese financial institutions for licences"
until authorities in Japan stopped imposing what the MPs called
"restrictive conditions" on the bid by (Cable and Wireless PLC)
(cawl.L) and its U.S. And Japanese partners for a stake in
Japan's international telecommunications market.
    The motion for retaliatory steps came from a cross-section
of MPs, reflecting the strength of feeling inside Parliament.
Parliamentarians said their action would increase pressure on
the Conservative government to take firm action.
    Officials said another option now being considered by the
U.K. Is to refuse issuing new banking licences to Japanese
institutions. That could be done under the government's
proposed Banking Bill now moving through parliament.
    58 Japanese financial institutions are authorised to deal
in London, of which 29 are banks. In Tokyo, 14 London-based
firms are authorised to do financial business, officials said.
    The new financial services and banking acts offer Britain
an alternative for retaliation which would be otherwise denied
under legally-binding international trade agreements.
    "The Financial Services Act gives (Trade and Industry
Secretary Paul) Channon power to stop firms from engaging in
investment, banking and insurance," one official said.
    "This point has been made to the Japanese at official level
a number times," the official added.
    Britain and France are now working together to urge that
the European Community take collective action against Japan,
but by working within EC treaties, another official said.
    British Trade Minister Alan Clark said this week in a radio
interview that the European Community should build barriers
against Japanese imports through certification procedures
similar to those facing European exporters in Japan.
    "There comes a point where you cannot resist any longer," he
said, adding "(such barriers) can't be put in place overnight."
Clark said the issue of reciprocity regarding visible trade
"strikes at the basis of whether British industry is to have a
fair access to an extremely large market (Japan) which is
itself in a very dominant position (in) certain aspects of our
own domestic market ... It is really a question of fairness."
    The situation is only likely to worsen following news that
Japan's trade surplus with the rest of the world rose by more
than 70 pct in February, year-on-year, to 8.14 billion dlrs
from 5.7 billion in January, political sources said.
    But Clark said in his interview that the issues of visible
trade and access to financial markets should be kept separate.
    Should Britain decide to act against Japanese financial
institutions, it would most likely focus on the smaller, rather
than larger ones, to minimise any risks to its role as a global
business centre, government sources said. Japan's four largest
securities houses are members of the London Stock Exchange.
    In Washington, White House officials said President Reagan
was ready to impose retaliatory trade action against Japan for
breaking its semiconductor agreement with the United States.
    There was no immediate indication when Reagan might act on
the recommendations of his Economic Policy Council to curb
Japanese exports to the United States but officials said the
move could come today or early next week.
    Trade sources said the actions being weighed by Reagan
included tariffs on a wide variety of Japanese exports which
use semiconductors.
 REUTER

Negotiators for General Motors
Corp and the United Auto Workers union, which yesterday shut
down the automaker's Pontiac, Mich., truck plant, resumed talks
in search of a local contract for the facility.
    Ron Miller, vice president for UAW local 594, said
negotiations resumed at 1000 EST, as expected.
    Miller said the two sides seemed to be getting closer to an
agreement when the union's noon deadline yesterday was reached.
    He said he hoped an accord could be reached by Monday.
    Miller said negotiators for the union, which represents
9,000 workers at Pontiac, and General Motors have still not
been able to agree on the main issue--the company's use of
non-UAW labor for some jobs.
    Workers on the picket line were determined to stay on
strike for as long as necessary to reach a new agreement.
"We'll stay out here as long as it takes," said one.
    Picketing was peaceful and friendly, with no signs of
violence.
 Reuter

Bell Canada Enterprises Inc said it
acquired 150 mln dlrs of common shares issued by its wholly
owned telephone unit, Bell Canada.
    Bell said the transaction is expected to be completed on
April 15, 1987, and proceeds to the telephone business will be
used in part for capital expenditures and to provide additional
working funds.
 Reuter

LSB Industries Inc said it agreed
to acquire Northwest Federal Savings and Loan Association for
1,500,000 dlrs.
    As part of the agreement, LSB said it also would transfer
assets valued of not less than 30 mln dlrs to Northwest
Federal, which is located in Woodward, Okla.
 Reuter

Shr NA
    Year
    Shr NA
 Reuter

NWA Inc's Northwest Airlines
said it is cutting fares to Hawaii from its 40-state U.S. route
system, to save passengers between 30 dlrs and 100 dlrs off
Northwest's lowest published roundtrip prices.
    The service, named "Lei-zy Day Fares," will have roundtrip
airfares from New York of as low as 518 dlrs roundtrip, or from
San Francisco for 298 dlrs roundtrip, for example, the airline
said.
    It added that the service's ticketholders can begin their
trips anytime from April 20 through May 31 and travel must be
completed by June 12.
    Northwest said tickets must be purchased at least 14 days
before departure, or within 14 days of making reservations,
 Reuter

The U.K. Treasury issued to the Bank of
England 250 mln stg in two tranches of existing index-linked
stocks, for first dealings on Monday, the Bank said.
    The issues are 150 mln stg of 2-1/2 pct index-linked
Treasury stock due 2011 and 100 mln of 2-1/2 pct index-linked
Treasury due 2024. The latter stock is free of tax to residents
abroad (FOTRA).
    The bonds will be available to the U.K. Government bond
market from Monday at certified prices of 113.00 stg pct for
the 2-1/2s of 2011 and 85-24/32 stg pct for the 2-1/2s of 2024.
    Several dealers had expected the Bank of England to
announce further issues of index-linked bonds today in the
light of strength seen in this sector of the market over the
past few days. Some prices advanced by as much as 1-1/2 points
yesterday as the rest of the market eased back further.
    However, one or two traders expressed surprise that the
authorities had issued further bonds of any kind in the light
of the nervous conditions prevailing in the market.
    In such relatively small amounts, the new issues were
unlikely to have a significantly harmful effect on Government
bond prices in general, dealers said.
    Prices of index-linked bonds fell back slightly after the
stock tranches were announced, with the 2-1/2 pct index-linked
stock due 2016 quoted at 102-25/32 stg pct after 102-29/32
shortly before the announcement.
 REUTER

Investor Paul Bilzerian disclosed he
holds a 7.2 pct stake in Pay 'N Pak Stores Inc common stock and
is considering seeking control of the retail building material
firm.
    Bilzerian said he and a Tampa, Fla., investment firm he
controls called Bicoastal Financial Corp "may acquire additional
shares, or they may seek to acquire one or more positions on
(Pay 'N Pak's) Board of directors or to acquire a controlling
interest in the (company's) shares, by tender offer or
otherwise." The statement was made in a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Bilzerian said his course of action would depend on the
company's prospects, market conditions and other factors.
    Bilzerian said he and Bicoastal made net purchases of
515,600 shares on the New York Stock Exchange Jan 26-March 25.
    His 7.2 pct stake makes up a total of 722,000 shares.
 Reuter

    They said the Fed would probably supply temporary reserves
indirectly by arranging one to two billion dlrs of customer
    After averaging 6.21 pct yesterday, federal funds were
opened at 6-1/8 pct and remained at that level.
 Reuter

Canadian wholesale merchant sales rose
8.9 pct in January over the same month in 1986 with all but one
of the major trade groups posting increases, Statistics Canada
said.
    In December sales rose 13.7 pct.
    The federal agency said wholesalers of tobacco, drugs and
toilet preparations posted a 0.9 pct decline in sales.
Inventories were 5.3 pct higher than in January 1986.
 Reuter

Societe Generale is issuing a 15 billion
yen bond due April 21, 1992 carrying a coupon of 4-1/2 pct for
the first four years and priced at 102, Mitsui Trust
International Ltd said as joint book runner.
    In the fifth year, the coupon rises to 7-1/2 pct but the
bond is callable after four years.
    Japan's Ministry of Finance does not permit the issuance of
euroyen bonds with maturities shorter than five years.
    Daiwa International (Europe) Ltd is the other joint book
runner. Payment is due April 21.
    The securities are available in denoninations of 10 mln yen
each and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
 REUTER

Allegheny International Inc
said it sold three overseas subsidiaries to Reil Corp Ltd, a
North Sydney, Australia, investment group.
    The units sold were Sunbeam Corp Ltd Australia, Sunbeam New
Zealand Ltd and Victa (U.K.) Ltd. The units make and distribute
various products, including lawn mowers, small appliances and
sheep shearing equipment. They employ a total of about 1,750.
 Reuter

Weyerhaeuser Co is offering 200 mln
dlrs of convertible exchangeable preferred stock at 50 dlrs a
share, said Morgan Stanley and Co, underwriter.
    Morgan Stanley said each share of preferred may be
converted at any time into 0.6944 share of the company's common
stock.
    Morgan Stanley said Weyerhaeuser may exchange the
preferred, on any dividend date beginning June 15, 1990, for
its 5-1/4 pct convertible subordinated debentures due 2017.
    Weyerhaeuser will use proceeds from the offering to reduce
outstanding commercial paper.
    Morgan Stanley said the Weyerhaeuser preferred stock will
not be redeemable prior to June 15, 1989, unless the closing
price of the common stock reaches or exceeds 150 pct of the
then effective conversion price for at least 20 trading days  
within 30 consecutive trading days that end within five trading
days prior to the notice of redemption.
    The redemption price will be 52.63 dlrs a share, declining
to 50 dlrs a share on or after June 15, 1997, plus accrued and
unpaid dividends, the underwriter said.
/
 Reuter

downgraded 1.7 billion dlrs of debt of United Technologies Corp
and subsidiaries.
    S and P cut to AA-minus from AA the senior debt, and to
A-plus from AA-minus the subordinated debt, of the parent and
units UT Financial Services Corp, UT Credit Corp, UT Finance
N.V. and Carrier Corp. A-1-plus commercial paper was affirmed.
    The agency said new management would be challenged to
reverse operational problems that hurt profitability and cash
flow in the past two years. And business risk will be greater
because of stricter government procurement practices.
 Reuter

Galactic Resources
Ltd, earlier reporting a 1986 loss of 25.6 mln U.S. dlrs, said
it adopted a more conservative accounting policy, similar to
other gold producers' accounting for exploration costs.
    As a result, the company retroactively charged all past
exploration and related administration costs incurred on its
properties against expenses in 1986, 1985 and 1984.
    Under the new policy, all future exploration and related
administration costs will be written off to expenses rather
than capitalized as an intangible asset, it said.
    Galactic said the accounting change resulted in a 22.8 mln
U.S. dlr charge against 1986 earnings. It did not immediately
disclose the affect of the change on prior years' results.
    The new accounting policy is not expected to adversely
affect working capital position, future cash flows or the
company's ability to conduct ongoing business operations, it
said.
    Galactic said the charge includes 9.9 mln U.S. dlrs of
costs concerning its Summitville Mine leach pad and 8.9 mln
U.S. dlrs in waste removal costs, dyke construction and other
mine developments.
    Galactic said under the prior accounting policy, the
Summitville mine expenses would have been amortized over the
life of the mine and charged against future earnings.
    The change will also result in lower depreciation and
amortization charges against income of about 52 U.S. dlrs an
ounce of gold produced in future periods, based on total
estimated reserves of 617,000 ounces.
    Galactic said March leaching production at Summitville is
expected to exceed 2,500 ounces, raising gold equivalent
production since the June 5, 1986 start of leaching to 65,000
ounces.
 Reuter

Mars Store Inc said it
expects to report a loss of about 800,000 dlrs for the fourth
quarter and about 1.1 mln dlrs for the fiscal year ended
January 31.
    As a result of the loss, the company said it has decided to
discontinue the operations of its Big Value Outlets division,
which will result in a yet undisclosed one time charge against
earnings for the year.
    The estimated 1.1 mln dlrs year loss or about 50 cts a
share, compares with earnings of 871,000 dlrs or 42 cts a share
recorded last year.
    "The fourth quarter loss was affected by an abnormally high
inventory shrinkage, lower than planned sales and higher
markdowns related to increased promotional activity, all of
which reduced fourth quarter gross margins," the company said.
    In order to concentrate on the company's core business, the
operation of discount and promotional department stores, Mars
said, it has decided to close the Big Value division.
 Reuter

Honeywell Inc said it has
completed the sale of 57.5 pct of its Honeywell Information
Systems <HIS> computer business to <Compagnie des Machines
Bull> of France and <NEC Corp> of Japan for 527 mln dlrs in
cash.
    Honeywell said it will use much of the money to reduce
short-term debt incurred last December when the company
purchased the Sperry Aerospace Group.
    Honeywell said the sale of HIS has created a new dedicated
computer company jointly owned by Bull, NEC and Honeywell.
    The new privately held company, named Honeywell Bull, is
42.5 pct owned by Honeywell Inc, 42.5 pct by Bull and 15 pct by
NEC, the new company said.
    Honeywell added that terms of the agreement with NEC and
Bull allow it to reduce its current 42.5 pct stake in the new
company to 19.9 pct at the end of 1988 by selling just over
half its shares to Bull. Book value at the time will determine
the move's pricing, Honeywell said.
    Honeywell chairman and chief executive officer, Edson
Spencer, said the move is the last major step in Honeywell's
    "As the leading worldwide supplier of of automation and
controls for buildings, industry, aerospace and defense,
Honeywell is now focusing its management, technical and
financial resources on high market share business," Spencer
said.
    Honeywell said it expects to be Honeywell Bull's largest
customer, purchasing computers for its own internal data
processing, for integration into Honeywell buidling and
industrial automation systems and for resale to the U.S.
governement.
    Honeywell said HIS's Federal Systems Division is now a
wholly owned unit of Honeywell Inc, and has been named
Honeywell Federal Systems Inc.
    Honeywell said it accounted for HIS as a discontinued
operation in 1986, and will account for its future interest on
a cost basis, recording any dividends as received.
    Honeywell Bull said it will continue to develop its product
line and build its business in integrated systems for
networking, database management and transaction processing.
    The new company said its board will have nine members,
including the chairman and chief executive officer.
    Bull will have four members, Honeywell two and NEC one, the
new company, which began worldwide operations today, said.
    It added that Jacques Stern, Bull's chairman and chief
executive officer, will serve as Honeywell Bull's chairman of
the board, while Jerome Meyer, formerly executive vice
president of Honeywell Information Systems, was named president
and chief executive officer.
 Reuter

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange will
start an official inquiry into dealings in shares and share
certificates of Dutch construction company <Bredero Vast Goed
N.V.> earlier this week, amid suspicions of insider trading, a
bourse spokesman said.
    Bredero shares fell 14.50 guilders to close at 58.00
guilders during the official bourse session last Tuesday.
Bredero announced several hours after Tuesday's close it would
postpone the publication of its 1986 figures, scheduled for the
following day. "The price trend indicates not all investors
shared the same information," the spokesman said.
    He said the bourse would publish the results of its inquest
but declined to say when this could be expected.
    The bourse said earlier today trading in Bredero shares,
suspended on Wednesday, will be resumed on Monday. The bourse
has cancelled all dealings in Bredero paper done on Tuesday
when prices crashed.
    Bredero shares, quoted on the domestic section of the
Amsterdam Stock Exchange, where trading starts 1-1/2 hours
after the main market, closed at 72.50 guilders on Monday.
 Certificates closed at 68.00 guilders.
    Insider trading is not a criminal offence here.
 Reuter

U.S. dealers said the New York Federal
Reserve Bank has intervened in the foreign exchange market
today buying dollars against yen.
    Fed officials do not comment on such intervention, but
dealers said it appeared that the Fed had intervened when the
dollar reached 147.50 yen in New York.
    The dollar subsequently hovered at 147.55/65 yen.
    Dealers said they were uncertain about the size of the
intervention, but some said it was only for a small amount.
They were also uncertain whether the Fed intervened on its own
account, or if it executed orders for the Bank of Japan.
 Reuter

President Reagan vetoed an 87.5
billion dlrs highway and mass transit bill calling it a budget
buster.
    The bill, which also contains a provision allowing states
to raise highway speed limits, now goes back to Congress where
the White House faces an uphill battle to sustain the veto.
    Reagan in a message to Congress said he had an alternative
proposal that would authorize 66 billion dlrs over five years,
the same levels as in the Senate-passed version of the bill.
    He said he recognized the states were rapidly running out
of highway funds and the legislation needed to make funds
available for the 1987 construction season. He said was no
reason why Congress could not send a new bill that he could
sign before the spring construction season was any further
along. Reagan supports raising the speed limit to 65 mph from
55 mph on rural interstate highways.
 Reuter

The Limited Inc said it applied
to list its common stock on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
    The company said the review process will take four months
and the company expects trading to begin in July.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 3,100,000 vs 5,100,000
    Revs 103.4 mln vs 98.2 mln
 Reuter

Jackpot Enterprises Inc said it will
buy up to 50,000 of its own common shares from time to time in
market transactions.
    The amusement and recreation services company recently
completed buying 107,000 of its shares.
 Reuter

Chock Full O'Nuts Corp is raising 60
debentures due 2012 with a seven pct coupon and par pricing,
said lead manager Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
stock at 10.75 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 24.6
Moody's Investors and B-minus by Standard and Poor's. Bear
Stearns and Ladenburg Thalmann co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Byers Inc said it extended the
expiration date of its class A warrants to June 11, from March
31.
    Byers said each class A warrant entitles the holder to buy
one common share or one share of its preferred stock at 50 cts
a share.
 Reuter

said it extended the expiration date of its warrants to June 15
and temporarily reduced the warrant conversion price to 2.25
dlrs, from 2.50 dlrs.
    The company said it made the extension to permit a
re-registration of the common stock underlying the warrants.
    Synergetics said the reduced conversion price will remain
effective until May 29, when it will return to 2.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

Advanced Tobacco Products
Inc said it signed a letter of intent to license a smoking
deterrent product to a unit of Pharmacia AB <PHABY> of Sweden.
    Under terms of the agreement, the company said Pharmacia's
AB Leo unit will pay an undisclosed sum, including
non-refundable royalties, for exclusive rights to evaluate
Advanced Tobacco's nicotine technology through July.
    The company said the unit will also have an option to buy
exclusive worldwide licensing rights for the technology for
additional cash and royalties.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Pegasus Gold Inc said
milling operations have started at its Montana Tunnels open-pit
gold, silver, zinc and lead mine near Helena.
    The start-up is three months ahead of schedule and six mln
dlrs under budget, the company said. Original capital cost of
the mine was 57.5 mln dlrs, but came in at 51.5 mln dlrs, the
    After a start-up period, the mill is expected to produce 
106,000 ounces of gold, 1,700,000 ounces of silver, 26,000 tons
of zinc and 5,700 tons of lead on an annual basis from
4,300,000 tons of ore, the company said.
 Reuter

New Irish Prime Minister Charles
Haughey, faced with a debt-ridden economy, will have to produce
a harsh budget next week to impress financial markets, appease
political opponents and maintain his tenuous hold on power,
    For Haughey, who failed to win an overall majority in last
month's election, only scraped back into power when the speaker
in parliament stepped in with his casting vote to decide a tied
vote on who would be the next Prime Minister.
    Heading a minority government and faced with a stagnant
economy weighed down by debt, he has little room for manoeuvre.
    The national debt has now reached 24.3 billion punts --
10,000 dlrs for every man, woman and child on the island and
per capita three times the size of Mexico's.
    Its 19 pct unemployment rate is one of the highest in the
European Community and 30,000 youngsters emigrate every year.
The 58 pct income tax level could hardly be raised again.
    Haughey, declining to be tied down on specifics, promised
on the election trail to get Ireland out of the debt trap with
an annual growth rate of 2.5 pct, compared to central bank
predictions of 1.5 pct. Jobs were his top priority, he said.
    For his crucial first budget, Haughey has ruled out any
increase in the level of government borrowing and forecast
"widespread cutbacks with severe restrictions right across the
board."
    Finance Minister Ray MacSharry also stressed that some of
the 187,000 civil service jobs must go to trim Ireland's annual
public wages bill of 2.84 billion punts.
    "The big question now is to what extent he will grasp the
nettle and cut in next Tuesday's budget," said Kevin Barry,
economist with National and City Brokers.
    "You have to cut the Exchequer Borrowing Recquirement (EBR)
substantially and swiftly. He has to do it now," Barry said.
    Noting that last year's EBR was 2.145 billion punts, he
said "Two billion would be good news. The markets are already
taking the view it is going to be tough."
    "He has absolutely no room to maneouvre. He cannot spend to
stimulate the economy. I don't see any good news in the
short-term."
    But he, like other analysts, rules out a debt-servicing
crisis that would mean calling in the International Monetary
Fund (IMF). "It's too easy to borrow aboard," he added.
    The steady rise of sterling, the currency of one of
Ireland's main trading partners, has been a boost to Irish
exporters with the country recording a 31 mln punt trade
surplus in February, the 10th surplus in a row.
    Political uncertainty is not a major factor for the punt
because the main political parties are all essentially
conservative with no major economic policy switches expected.
    New Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes, who replaced ousted Prime
Minister Garret Fitzgerald at the head of the main opposition
party, has pledged to back Haughey's budget if, as expected, he
gets tough.
    Haughey is four short of an overall majority and would have
to rely on the support of independent deputies if all four
opposition parties united to vote against him.
    But in today's climate of economic austerity, few
politicians would risk returning to the polls so soon and
Haughey could cling to power for at least another two years if
he brings in a belt-tightening budget next week, political
commentators say.
    The debt-laden economy is the great national preoccupation,
pushing firmly into the background for now Haughey's ultimate
dream of a united Ireland with the British out of the north.
    H.J. Heinz chairman Tony O'Reilly, one of the most
successful Irishmen in international business, stressed the
need for a frontal attack on the national debt, arguing "many of
our children have lost faith in the future."
    "Were there to be an uptick in world interest rates or a
precipitous decline in our parities, the effect on our economy
and on the provision of services by our government would be
catastrophic," he said.
    This island of 3.5 mln people has been living beyond its
means with a state spending spree on welfare benefits that
could not be financed by economic growth.
 REUTER

The Agriculture Department's
widening of Louisiana gulf differentials will affect county
posted prices for number two yellow corn in ten states, a USDA
    All counties in Iowa will be affected, as will counties
which use the gulf to price corn in Illinois, Indiana,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama
and Louisiana, said Ron Burgess, Deputy Director of Commodity
Operations Division for the USDA.
    USDA last night notified the grain industry that effective
immediately, all gulf differentials used to price interior corn
would be widened on a sliding scale basis of four to eight cts,
depending on what the differential is.
    USDA's action was taken to lower excessively high posted
county prices for corn caused by high gulf prices.
    "We've been following this Louisiana gulf situation for a
month, and we don't think it's going to get back in line in any
nearby time," Burgess said.
    Burgess said USDA will probably narrow back the gulf
differentials when and if Gulf prices recede. "If we're off the
mark now because we're too high, wouldn't we be as much off the
mark if we're too low?" he said.
    While forecasting more adjustments if Gulf prices fall,
Burgess said no other changes in USDA's price system are being
planned right now.
    "We don't tinker. We don't make changes lightly, and we
don't make changes often," he said.
 Reuter

Greece bought a total of 55,000 tonnes of
French maize when it tendered yesterday, initially for 30,000
tonnes of April delivery, trade sources said.
    They said 25,000 tonnes, to be shipped from Bordeaux, were
sold at 1,603 francs per tonne fob, 15,000 tonnes from Rouen at
1,596 francs fob and 15,000 tonnes from Sete at 1,607 francs
fob.
 Reuter

PicTel Corp said it began a
public offering of 1,050,000 units priced at six dlrs a unit
through managing underwriters F.N. Wolf and Co and Sherwood
Capital Inc.
    Each unit consists of five shrs of common stock and three
redeemable common stock purchase warrants exercisable at 1.25
dlrs a share for five years.
    The company said it granted F.N. Wolf an option to buy up
to 157,500 additional units to cover over-allotments.
    Proceeds will be used for product development, marketing,
capital equipment and working capital, the telecommunications
products company said.
 Reuter

COCOA BUFFER STOCK RULES TO TAKE EFFECT  IMMEDIATELY - DELEGATES

C.O.M.B Inc commenced trading put and
call options on the American Stock Exchange, according to the
Exchange.
    The company's options will trade with initial expiration
months of April, May, July and October, with position and
exercise limits at 5,500 contracts on the same side of the
market, according to the Exchange.
 Reuter

Sen. Phil Gramm, a co-author of the
Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law, said he will insist Congress
pass a 1988 budget abiding by the law's 1988 deficit target.
    The Texas Republican told a news conference he will block
Senate action on any budget bill failing to hit the 108 billion
target by raising a parliamentary point of order against it. He
doubted there were 60 votes needed to overrule him.
    Senate and House budget committees are working on budget
plans which will fall short of the 108 billion dlr goal using
Congressional Budget Office estimates. Gramm favors a spending
freeze to reach the law's goal.
 Reuter

Drought has resulted in a reduction
in China's estimated wheat crop this year to 87.0 mln tonnes,
2.0 mln below last year's harvest, the U.S. Agriculture
Department's officer in Peking said in a field report.
    The report, dated March 25, said imports in the 1987/88
season are projected at 8.0 mln tonnes, 1.0 mln tonnes above
the the current season's estimate.
    Imports from the United States are estimated at 1.5 mln
tonnes compared to only 150,000 tonnes estimated for the
1986/87 year, it said.
    After travelling to major wheat producing areas and
obtaining more information on the planted area, the total
planted area was estimated down 290,000 hectares due to the dry
fall, it said.
    The report said to compensate for the below normal
precipitation irrigation has increased as has the use of
fertilizer.
    While there are pockets where irrigation is not possible,
most of the wheat crop has access to some water and therefore
has emerged from dormancy and is doing well, the report said.
    It said scattered rain in many parts of China in the past
10 days has improved the situation but information on hail
damage in Anhui is incomplete.
 Reuter

Rent-A-Center Inc said it filed a
Commission covering a 35 mln dlr offering of 25-year
    Proceeds will be used to finance a business expansion over
the next one or two years by opening or acquiring additional
stores, Rent-A-Center said.
    The company named Morgan Stanley and Co Inc as lead
 Reuter

Telephone and Data Systems Inc said it
filed a shelf registration statement covering securities to be
used in connection with acquisitions.
    It said the shelf covers 2,500,000 common shares and
250,000 preferred shares which will not be sold for cash in a
public offering.
    Telephone and Data said the filing updates information
contained in registration statements which it files annually.
 Reuter

Cistron Biotechnology Inc said
it will pay a stock dividend declared prior to the initial
public offering of its common stock in August 1986 to
stockholders of record prior to the common offering.
    Payment of the dividend was contingent on the closing bid
price of the common stock averaging two dlrs or more per shares
for the trading days within any consecutive ten day period
ending before February 29, 1988. The company said that the
contingency has been fulfilled.
    Payment of the stock dividend increases Cistron's
outstanding common stock to 21,390,190 shares from 16,185,354
shares.
 Reuter

    Shr 18 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 2,051,000 vs 901,000
    Revs 25.8 mln vs 19.2 mln
    Avg shrs 10.7 mln vs 9,059,600
    12 mths
    Shr 87 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 9,020,000 vs 5,680,000
    Revs 94.4 mln vs 73.7 mln
    Avg shrs 10.3 mln vs 9,059,600
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net loss 1,150,000 vs loss 3,450,000
    Revs 55.7 mln vs 78.1 mln
 Reuter

The United States told India it
could purchase a supercomputer because U.S. concerns over a
possible security breach had been removed.
    U.S. officials said the United States did not specify which
supercomputer it was willing to sell but had offered India a
choice.
    They declined to comment on a newspaper report that the
United States wanted to sell India a computer less powerful
than the Indians had sought.
    They said the United States was awaiting a response from
New Delhi.
    The New York Times, quoting unnamed government and industry
officials, said the United States wanted to sell a weaker-model
supercomputer to India.
    U.S. and Indian negotiatiors reached a tentative agreement
in December on security precautions for the sale of the
computer, which has a wide variety of military applications.
    "We have told the Indians that we ratify the tentative
agreement reached in December," a U.S. official said.
    India proposed to use the supercomputer to analyze weather
patterns to forecast monsoons.
    The sale of a U.S. supercomputer to a non-Western nation is
rare. This transaction was seen as a test of a
technology-sharing agreement signed by Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi and President Reagan in 1985.
    The American concern was that the advanced technology might
fall into the hands of the Soviet Union, which is India's main
weapons supplier.
    One condition calls for U.S. personnel to service the
computer in India for three years, a Pentagon spokesman said.
    The spokesman predicted the negotiations, which also
involved the State Department, could be quickly resolved.
    The only countries which make the supercomputer are the
United States and Japan.
    In New Delhi, Indian officials told Reuters that a U.S.
offer had been made.
    "An announcement will be made in 10 days to two weeks time,"
an official said.
 Reuter

Deere and Co said it agreed with
General Motors Corp to discontinue negotiations on the
formation of a joint venture company to design, manufacture and
market diesel engines.
    However, the company said it will continue a marketing
arrangement with GM established in 1985 under which John Deere
diesel engines are distributed worldwide through GM's Detroit
Diesel Allison Division.
    Deere said it and GM began studying the feasibility of
forming a diesel engine joint venture in March, 1985. They
signed a memorandum of understanding to combine the diesel
engine operations of Deere and Detroit Diesel Allison in July
1986 subject to final negotiations and government clearances.
    It said the companies' exploration of the potential joint
venture made it clear there were more effective means to serve
the interests of their engine customers than by combining
manufacturing assets.
 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange one billion dlrs of
 Reuter

A manager with steel
producer Krupp Stahl AG <KRPG.F> was arrested yesterday for
fraud and falsifying documents, the state prosecutor's office
    Two executives of steel trading companies in North Rhine
Westphalia and Hanover were also arrested for aiding the Krupp
manager, a spokesman for the office said. The office identified
the manager only as Alex I.
    He said the manager is charged with faking signatures on
forms ordering large shipments of heavy steel plate from one of
the trading companies for which Krupp AG paid.
    The spokesman said the manager ordered the shipments, which
on paper were for Krupp Stahl AG in Bochum but were delivered
to the trade house near Hanover.
    The three men are also accused of pocketing profits from
the sale of the steel plates, but both Krupp and the
prosecutor's office declined comment on how much money was
involved.
    The Hanover daily Hannoversche Allgemeine said in an
article today the shipments' order value totalled 100 million
marks, while another local daily, the Neue Presse, put the
value at 50 million marks.
 REUTER

(ICCO) Council reached agreement on rules to govern its buffer
stock, the device it uses to keep cocoa off the market to
stabilise prices, ICCO delegates said.
    The date on which the new rules will take effect has not
been decided but delegates said they expected them to come into
force early next week, after which the buffer stock manager can
begin buying or selling cocoa.
    Since prices are below the "may-buy" level of 1,655 Special
Drawing Rights a tonne set in the cocoa pact, the manager is
likely to buy cocoa sooon to support the market, they said.
    Delegates and traders said they expected the manager,
Juergen Plambeck, to intervene in the market within three weeks
of the pact coming into force.
    The rules permit him to buy and sell cocoa from origins or
the second hand market on an offer system, not by means of a
posted price as in the previous cocoa accord.
    The cocoa will be priced according to a fixed set of
differentials, ranging from 137 stg for most expensive Ghana
cocoa to zero for Malaysian cocoa.
    Purchases from non-members, such as Malaysia, will be
limited to 15 pct of the total stock and those on any one day
should be limited to 40 pct each in nearby, intermediate and
forward positions.
    The council meeting, which is expected to conclude two
weeks of sessions involving various working groups and the
council itself, was continuing, the delegates said.
    The current cocoa agreement came into force on January 20
during a previous meeting of the council which was unable to
agree on the rules to implement buffer stock operations.
 REUTER

The cocoa buffer stock rules just
decided by the International Cocoa Organization, ICCO, council
will take effect immediately, delegates said.
    That means the buffer stock manager is likely to begin
buying cocoa within two or three weeks, after organizing
communication systems and assessing the market, they said.
 Reuter

Werner Enterprises Inc said it
Commission covering a public offering of two million shares of
    The underwriters will be led by Alex, Brown and Sons Inc,
along with the Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc, the company said.
    The company said it will sell 800,000 shares, while
1,200,000 shares will be sold by five selling stockholders.
 Reuter

<Southam Inc> said it agreed to sell
its 49 pct interest in Sun Publishing Co Ltd, which publishes
The Brandon Sun, to majority shareholder publisher Lewis D.
Whitehead.
    Southam said the proposed sale resulted from an offer made
by Whitehead, whose family has had majority control of the
newspaper since 1905.
    The Brandon Sun has daily circulation of 19,100.
 Reuter

Glamis Gold Ltd
said it will ask shareholders at an April 1 extraordinary
general meeting to approve a one-and-one-half for one common
share split.
    Record date for the split will be set in the near future,
 Reuter

Knight-Ridder Inc said total revenues for
February rose 12 pct, to 108.8 mln dlrs, from 97.1 mln dlrs for
    Year to date, Knight-Ridder said total revenues increased
10.6 pct, to 213.9 mln dlrs, from 193.5 mln last year.
 Reuter

Greece and Turkey's NATO
allies called on both countries to avoid any action that could
aggravate an explosive situation in the Aegean and "avoid
recourse to force at all costs."
    After an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors , a
statement was issued saying: "the present situation damages the
interests of Greece and Turkey, and of the Alliance as a whole."
     Secretary-General Lord Carrington also offered himself as
a mediator in the dispute on the Western Alliance's southern
flank.
 Reuter

Marine Midland Banks Inc said in a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may
reclassify as "nonperforming" 359 mln dlrs of medium- and
long-term loans to Brazil.
    The company added that it expects first quarter 1987
earnings to be "down moderately" from year-earlier levels.
    "Continued suspension of interest payments on the medium-
and long-term debt could result in such loans being classified
as nonperforming and placed on nonaccrual," it said.
    However, it added its belief that it was "premature to
decide at this time" whether to reclassify the loans.
    Brazil announced Feb. 20 that it was temporarily suspending
interest payments on all its medium- and long-term foreign bank
debt.
    Marine Midland said its total Brazil outstandings as of the
end of 1986 were 653 mln dlrs, including 359 mln dlrs of
medium- and long-term loans and 294 mln dlrs of short-term
outstandings.
    As of Dec. 31, it had interest receivable of about five mln
dlrs on its medium- and long-term Brazil outstandings.
    If debt restructuring talks between Brazil and its creditor
banks are not completed by the end of the third quarter, the
company estimated Brazil's action would reduce its net income
for the year by about 22 mln dlrs.
    In the first quarter of 1986, Marine Midland reported 
record earnings of 38.2 mln dlrs, bolstered by certain
non-recurring securities gains.
    It said it expected lower first quarter 1987 earnings
because the money market cost of funds had increased, "narrowing
net interest spreads somewhat." It said the earnings projection
was based on "preliminary" 1987 data.
 Reuter

Allstar Inns LP said it
began a public offering of 5,832,037 depositary units priced at
12.50 dlrs a unit through lead underwriter Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc and co-managing underwriters Dean Witter Reynolds
Inc and Bateman Eichler Hill Richards.
    The units represent limited partners' interest in the
company.
    Proceeds will be used to repay debt.
 Reuter

Oakite Products Inc said
it intends to sell its personal care and beauty product
business, Paula Payne Inc.
    Oakite said it plans to retain Paula Payne's warehousing
and production facilities in Charlotte, N.C., for use by its
Mlaire Manufacturing subsidiary. Paula Payne was acquired from
Riegel Textile in 1985 to expand Oakite's aerosol manufacturing
and warehousing capabilities into the Southeast.
 Reuter

Nuclear Metals Inc said a delay
in receiving certain new orders will result in negligible
earnings per share for its fiscal second quarter.
    However, the company said it has been assured that the
orders will be placed beginning in its fiscal third quarter and
that it expects a strong rebound in earnings for the third and
fourth quarters.
 Reuter

Roy F. Weston Inc said it was
awarded a three-year contract valued at three mln dlrs to
provide technical assistance to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
    The company said it is a subcontractor to Sanford Cohen and
Associates of McLean, Va.
 Reuter

Consumers Power Co said it
intends to restart the the Palisades Nuclear Plant within the
next several days.
    Consumers Power said it shut the plant down last May 19
because of problems with a regulating steam valve.
    The utility said the problem has been corrected and Region
III of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave it the go-ahead
to restart the plant.
 Reuter

First Sarasota Bancorp said
its shareholders approved the acquisition of its City
Commercial Bank subsidiary by First Union Corp's <FUNC> First
Union National Bank of Florida.
    The purchase price of the outstanding shares is about 8.6
mln dlrs.
    The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is
expected to be completed during the second quarter of 1987.
    After completing the City Commercial acquisition and four
other acquisitions having combined assets of 248 mln dlrs,
First Union will have assets of 28.6 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Jamaica bought U.S. corn, wheat and
rice at its tender earlier this week using PL-480 funds, a U.S.
Department of Agriculture official said.
    The purchase consisted of the following cargoes -
 - Cargill sold 1,503.5 tonnes of number two soft red winter
(SRW) wheat for May 5/30 shipment at 117.44 dlrs per tonne FOB
Gulf ports.
 - Continental Grain 8,250 tonnes of number two northern
spring/dark northern spring (NS/DNS) wheat (14.5 pct protein)
for April 15/May 10 at 123.97 dlrs FOB Gulf, excluding
Brownsville.
 - Nichemen 10,000 tonnes number two SRW wheat for June 12/July
7 at 103.43 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Nichemen 10,000 tonnes number two NS/DNS wheat (14.0 pct
protein) for May 25/June 20 at 121.89 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Cargill 10,000 tonnes number two SRW wheat for April 10/May
5 at 120.88 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Cargill 8,469.5 tonnes number two SRW wheat for May 5/30 at
117.44 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Louis Dreyfus 4,500 tonnes number three yellow corn (15.0
pct maximum moisture) for April 10/May 5 at 76.09 dlrs FOB
Gulf.
 - Louis Dreyfus 5,300 tonnes same corn April 20/May 15 at
75.89 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Louis Dreyfus 5,300 tonnes same corn May 10/June 5 at 75.49
dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Louis Dreyfus 5,300 tonnes same corn June 1/25 at 75.49 dlrs
FOB Gulf.
 - Loius Dreyfus 3,700 tonnes number two yellow corn (14.5 pct
maximum moisture) for Apirl 10/May 5 at 76.29 dlrs FOB Gulf.
 - Louis Dreyfus 3,700 tonnes same corn for May 10/June 5 at
75.68 dlrs FOB Gulf.
    Exporters have not received final PL-480 approval on their
sale of a total of 9,500 tonnes of U.S. number five or better
long grain brown rice (10 pct maximum broken) for April 10/May
25 shipments.
    But the USDA official said he saw no hold-up in obtaining
that approval.
 Reuter

Hungary's economy and hard currency
trade have failed so far this year to reverse a two-year
unfavourable trend, the official Hungarian news agency MTI
said.
    Industrial production in January and February was only 1.3
pct up on the same 1986 period, MTI said, while hard currency
exports fell six pct as imports rose 10 pct.
    Hungary's hard currency trade fell into a deficit of 539.4
mln dlrs last year from a surplus of 295.3 mln in 1985 and 1.2
billion in 1984.
    MTI quoted a government spokesman saying last December's
wage freeze decree would expire on April 1 as envisaged.
    Gross domestic product grew a sluggish one pct in 1986
after stagnating in 1985 and growing 2.6 pct in 1984.
 REUTER

Noble Affiliates Inc said it
found natural gas on Ship Shoal 80, located about 10 miles
offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.
    The discovery well, Samedan Oil Corp's OCS-G 5537 Well
Number One, was drilled in 25 feet of water to a total depth of
7,500 feet and found 38 feet of net gas pay in a 48-foot gross
sand interval, the company said.
    The well tested gas at a rate of 6.2 mln cubic feet a day
through a 26/64-inch choke with 1,548 pounds flowing tubing
pressure. Gas sales should begin in the first quarter of 1988,
it said.
    Samedan, a Noble unit, is operator and owns a 60 pct
working interest in the well. Other owners are a New England
Electric System <NES> unit, with a 25 pct stake, and
Southwestern Energy Production Co, with 15 pct.
 Reuter

Cyprus has protested to the United
Nations over alleged airspace violations by the Turkish air
force, an official statement said.
    "On behalf of my government I wish to protest strongly the
above aggression and provocative actions of Turkey ..." Cyprus'
permanent representative at U.N. Headquarters said in a letter
to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
    The protest came as NATO ambassadors met in emergency
session in Brussels to discuss rising tensions between Greece
and Turkey over a disputed area of the Aegean sea.
    The protest said Turkish jets flew over Cyprus yesterday
during an exercise of Turkish forces occupying north Cyprus.
    There was no immediate indication whether the alleged
overflight was connected with the Aegean crisis.
 REUTER

North Hills Electronics Inc
said its North Hills Israel Ltd unit received a commitment for
1,500,000 dlrs in financing from the <Overseas Private
Placement Corp>.
    The company said the money will be used to construct and
equip a 14,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Israel.
    North Hills said construction of the plant, which will make
electronic power supplies and interconnect devices for computer
local area networks, will be completed by the second quarter of
its current fiscal year.
 Reuter

    Net profit 68,895 vs loss 160,893
    Revs 3.3 mln vs 104,801
 Reuter

Nigeria and France have signed a
bilateral agreement to reschedule Nigeria's
official debt to France, government sources said.
    The accord was signed here yesterday by Nigerian Finance
Minister Chu Okongwu and senior French Treasury officials after
talks with CoFACE, the French export credit agency, they said.
    The agreement came after a similar agreement with Britain
this week and follows an accord between Nigeria and the Paris
Club of western creditor governments in December to reschedule
some 7.5 billion dlrs of official debt.
    The Paris Club multilateral agreement concerned medium and
long-term debt due between September 1986 and end-1987 over 10
years with five years grace.
    As with all Paris Club rescheduling accords, specific
interest rates and other details have to be negotiated on a
bilateral basis with the creditor countries involved. No
details of the discussions here were immediately available.
    The agreement signed on Tuesday with Britain's Export
Credits Guarantee Department was the first in Nigeria's tour of
creditor nations. Okongwu left Paris today for London and is
due back in Nigeria on Monday, diplomatic sources said.
    Nigeria is hoping that further bilateral accords can be
concluded soon as this could encourage official export credit
agencies to renew insurance cover for exports to Nigeria.
    CoFACE suspended its cover for medium and long-term export
contracts with Nigeria in 1983, but maintained its cover for
current trade deals involving consumer goods with six-month
credit periods, CoFACE sources said.
    "We have an open position regarding Nigeria," the sources
said, adding that it was for French Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur to decide whether to renew full insurance cover.
credits this year from official agencies under a structural
reschedule part of the country's 19 billion dlr foreign debt.
credit agencies agree to resume insuring the credits.
    French exports to Nigeria were 3.42 billion francs in 1986,
down from 4.94 billion in 1985, while Nigeria's exports to
France were 5.63 billion francs in 1986, down from 15.33
billion in 1985. Details of Nigeria's official debts to France
were not immediately available.
 REUTER

Synergy Group is offering 85 mln dlrs
of senior subordinated notes due 1997 with an 11-5/8 coupon and
par pricing, said sole manager L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg,
Towbin Inc.
    Non-redeemable for five years, the notes are rated B-3 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and B-plus by Standard and Poor's
Corp.  The issue was increased from an initial offering of 75
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

LSB Industries Inc said it
entered into an agreement to acquire Northwest Federal Savings
and Loan Association of Woodward, Oklahoma.
    Upon completion of the acquisition, LSB would pay about 1.5
mln dlrs to the shareholders of Northwest and transfer to
Northwest Federal certain assets having a net current appraised
value of not less than 30 mln dlrs.
    At completion of this transaction, Northwest Federal would
be a subsidiary of LSB's non-consolidated wholly-owned
financial subsidiary.
    The acquisition is subject to obtaining approvals, waivers
and forbearances from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and
other government approvals.
 Reuter

Praxis Biologics Inc said it
began its initial public common stock offering of 1,750,000
shares at 15.50 dlrs a share.
    The company said proceeds of the offering will be used to
fund product research and development, including clinical
testing.
    It said the money will also be used to cover acquisition,
construction and equipment costs and for working capital.
    The offering is being managed by Shearson Lehman Bros Inc
and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, the company said.
 Reuter

    Net 26.0 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Revs 673.3 mln vs 394.5 mln
    Avg shrs 29.3 mln vs 22.4 mln
 Reuter

President Reagan was ready to impose
retaliatory trade action against Japan for breaking its
semiconductor agreement with the United States, White House
Japanese exports to the United States, but officials said the
include tariffs on a wide variety of Japanese exports which use
    The sources said the tariffs could be slapped on personal
computers, television receivers and laser-printers, with the
aim of penalizing Japan's major electronic firms, including NEC
Corp, Hitachi Ltd, Toshiba Corp and Fujitsu Ltd.
    They said Reaan could also delay invoking sanctions for a
week or two, giving Japan a final opportunity to end the
dumping practice, but added that negotiators had already held
extensive talks with the Japanese to no avail.
 Reuter

The South African Reserve Bank,
confirming previous estimates, said real gross domestic product
in the 1986 fourth quarter grew at a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 4.7 pct versus 4.6 pct in the third quarter and 1.3 pct
in the 1985 final quarter.
    The bank, in its latest quarterly review, said the nominal
growth rate for the year did not quite reach one pct after a
1.5 pct contraction in 1985.
    But it said when the strengthening of the terms of trade is
taken into account, the real GNP in 1986 advanced by 1.5 pct
compared with a decrease of 0.5 pct in 1985.
    GDP is the total value of goods and services produced by an
economy but omits income from abroad.  GNP includes such
payments or outflows.
    The bank also said there were indications the country's
economic recovery was becoming more broadly based.
    With the exception of commerce all major sectors of the
economy contributed to the fourth quarter rise in domestic
    The bank said major increases in foreign reserves were
recorded in January, February and the first half of March 1987.
Reserves rose by 1.70 billion rand during January and February.
    Total reserves in 1986 declined by 189 mln rand to 5.70
billion rand and were equivalent to about 14.5 pct of the total
annual value of import payments.
    The current account surplus amounted to 7.20 billion rand
in 1986 versus 5.90 mln the previous year.
    The bank said continuing strength of the current account
has allowed foreign reserves to be "rebuilt to more comfortable
levels."
    "This has strengthened the authorities' hands in lending
support to the exchange rate of the rand if such action were to
be called for," the bank said.
 REUTER

Shr 42 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 19.1 mln vs 19.5 mln
    Revs 184.9 mln vs 185.1 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.17 dlrs vs 2.53 dlrs
    Net 97.0 mln vs 111.8 mln
    Revs 793.3 mln vs 828.8 mln
    Avg shrs 40.9 mln vs 40.5 mln
    NOTE: Year-ago restated.
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc said it changed the
location for its March 31 annual meeting to the Quaker Sqaure
Hilton, Akron.
    The company said it changed the location of the meeting
because of an expected increase in attendance.
    A partnership of AFG Industries Inc <AFG> and <Wagner and
Brown> have made a 100 dlr a share tender offer for GenCorp.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs loss 1.38 dlrs
    Net profit 34,000 vs loss 3,296,000
    Revs 3,121,000 vs 1,546,000
    Year
    Shr profit 28 cts vs loss 1.61 dlrs
    Net profit 1,088,000 vs loss 3,546,000
    Revs 5,266,000 vs 4,169,000
    Note: Current qtr per share figure adjusted to reflect
provision for preferred stock dividends.
 Reuter

A 100 mln dlr euro-commercial paper
program has been arranged for Svenska Finans International BV,
Manufacturers Hanover Ltd said as one of two arranger/dealers.
    The other arranger/dealer is Svenska Handelsbanken Plc.
    The borrower is the wholly owned international holding
company subsidiary of Svenska Finans AB, a subsidiary of
Svenska Handelsbanken, Sweden.
    In connection with the program, the parent has issued a
letter of intent, which is not a guarantee but states the
parent's intention to make sure a subsidiary meets its
financial obligations.
 REUTER

SOUTHWESTERN BELL VOTES THREE-FOR-ONE STOCK SPLIT, 8.8 PCT DIVIDEND INCREASE

U.S. cotton farmers are likely to
plant about 10.6 mln acres in the coming season, based on an
average of estimates offered by cotton market analysts gearing
up for the U.S. Agriculture Department's 1987 planting
intentions report next Tuesday.
    The annual report gives cotton traders their first glimpse
of what U.S. production might be in the 1987/88 season, which
begins August 1.
    Trade and commission house forecasts ranged from 10.2 to
10.9 mln acres.
    On March 18 of last year, the USDA reported that cotton
farmers in 1986 intended to plant 9.71 mln acres.
    Four months later, the USDA estimated that 9.67 mln acres
had been planted as of June 1. By January, its estimate of 1986
planted acreage nationwide was 10.06 mln.
    Analysts said their forecasts for even greater acreage in
1987 were spurred in part by belief that this year's good
demand and firm prices will be repeated next year. Analysts
said those factors make cotton a profitable crop.
    "With cotton more attractive price-wise, I think there is
going to be a switch in acreage from soybeans to cotton.
Soybeans are dirt cheap," said Lisbeth Keefe of Cargill
Investor Services, whose comments were echoed by other cotton
market specialists.
    Changes in the U.S. cotton program also could lead to
increased acreage, analysts said.
    They recalled that under the 1986 program, cotton farmers
who used part of their crop as collateral for government loans
were not responsible for the cost of storing that cotton in
government warehouses. But under the 1987 plan, the government
will not pick up the tab for storage.
    Analysts said the change will discourage some farmers from
participating in the program, which could result in more
cotton. "The cotton program stipulates a mandatory set-aside of
25 pct of a farmer's base acreage," noted Judy Weissman of
Shearson Lehman Brothers. But farmers who elect not to
participate in the program are free to plant all the acreage 
they have.
    Some analysts said cotton farmers in the high-yielding
Western states would be most likely to steer clear of the
program. "Western acreage should be up at least 20 pct," said
one commission house analyst, whose estimate was based in part
on forecasts made by the National Cotton Council during its
annual meeting in late January.
    But others disagreed. "I think some Western growers have
decided they should be in the program for security reasons.
There's a lot of comfort in knowing you'll be guaranteed the
government's loan price of 52.25 cents a lb. Anyone outside the
program is subject to the wiles of the market," said Walter
Brown, market analyst for a major California cotton producer.
    Some cotton specialists said their expectations for
increased acreage might not be verified in Tuesday's planting
intentions report. "Anything the USDA is announcing now is
based on information they gathered before their cotton program
was announced (on March 20)," one analyst cautioned. She said
traders will get a better idea of next year's cotton output
when the USDA's planted acreage report is released on July 9.
    Brown took that opinion a step further. "I don't think
planted acreage is important. What counts is the abandonment
rate," the difference between acreage planted and acreage
harvested.
    Brown said the abandonment rate this year was "pretty high"
at 15.5 pct because of weather problems in key producing
states. "More normal would be about six pct," he said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 16 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 3,450,000 vs loss 1,508,000
    Sales 56,000 vs 1,187,000
    Avg shrs 22,568,000 vs 20,591,000
    Year
    Shr loss 38 cts vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 7,977,000 vs loss 6,005,000
    Sales 3,699,000 vs 2,391,000
    Avg shrs 21,111,000 vs 20,578,000
 Reuter

Greece and Turkey's NATO allies today
called on both countries to avoid any action that could
    After an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors, a statement
was issued saying "the present situation damages the interests
of Greece and Turkey, and of the Alliance as a whole."
    Secretary-General Lord Carrington also offered himself as a
mediator in the dispute on the Western Alliance's southern
flank.
    The meeting was called after reports that warships of both
countries were sailing towards a disputed oil exploration zone
of the Aegean.
    The statement said the tensions in the area had reached a
serious level and called on both countries to begin immediate
discussions. "Any intensification would make things worse," it
added.
    No attempt was made at the meeting to resolve the complex
dispute which was aimed at damage-limitation. Carrington said,
"I am of course anxious to help in any way I can, provided that
both Greece and Turkey, and the other allies, wish me to do so."
 REUTER

Honeywell Bull Inc, the newly formed
company jointly owned by Honeywell Inc, <NEC Corp> of Japan and
<Compagnie des Machines Bull> of France, received four
contracts for mainframe computers and related equipment.
    Honeywell Bull said it received separate contracts from
Coleco Industries <CLO>; <North West Securities>, a
British-based financial institution; the DeKalb Country School
System of Georgia, and Banca Popolare De Vicenza, an Italian
regional bank.
 Reuter

<Plaza Group> said it completed a
transaction in which it merged its wholly owned subsidiary,
Flyfaire International Inc, into Shefra Inc, a public company,
in return for a controlling interest in Shefra.
    With completion of the merger, Shefra changed its name to
Flyfaire International Inc.
    Flyfaire, with annual sales of 100 mln dlrs, is engaged in
the wholesale vacation travel business.
 Reuter

Qtly div 14-1/2 cts vs 14-1/2 cts prior
 Reuter

Harnischfeger Industries Inc
said it is offering 3.5 mln shares of common stock at 17 dlrs
per share, starting today.
    The crane and material handling equipment maker said 2.5
mln shares are being offered in the U.S. through an
underwriting group led by Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets <MER>.
    The rest, it said, is being offered through an
international underwriting group led by Shearson Lehman
Brothers International Inc and Merrill Lynch International and
Co.
    Harnischfeger said it will use the offering's approximately
56.7 mln dlrs in proceeds to reduce the debt it incurred by
acquiring Syscon Corp.
    The company added it granted the underwriters the option to
acquire an additional 525,000 shares the cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Valhi Inc reported earnings of LLC Corp
and the Amalgamated Sugar Co for the six month period ended
    Effective March 10, Amalgamated merged into LLC, which
changed its name to Valhi. The following results reflect the
operations of the companies prior to the merger.
    LLC Corp reported net income of 18.4 mln dlrs or 60 cts a
share on revenues of 55.6 mln dlrs compared to 23.2 mln dlrs or
75 cts a share on revenues of 79.3 mln dlrs a year ago.
   This year's net includes an extraordinary loss of 201,000
dlrs and a gain of 4.7 mln dlrs. 1985's net included an
extraordinary gain of 6.3 mln dlrs, Valhi said.
    Amalgamated reported net income of 10.65 dlrs per share or
69.7 mln dlrs on revenues of 371.3 mln dlrs compared to a net
loss of 700,000 dlrs or 10 cts a share on revenues of 254.7 mln
dlrs last year.
    Valhi said effective December 31, it changed its fiscal
year-end from June 30 to December 31.

 Reuter

Central Bank president Francisco Gros
denied rumours that foreign creditors had filed court actions
against Brazil to seek payment of its 109-billion dlr debt.
    "There is no court action against Brazil," Gros said in a
television interview.
billion dlr debt to commercial banks and yesterday suggested an
extension of short-term credit lines for 60 days until May 31.
    Media reports said some banks rated as small among Brazil's
700 creditors had filed lawsuits against the decision to
suspend interest payments.
    Gros said negotiations with the commercial creditors would
start within two weeks, when he and Finance Minister Dilson
Funaro attend council meetings of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in Washington.
    "Brazil is facing the issue very carefully. We are seeking a
negotiation that will give the country space to grow, because
only with growth will we be able to meet our commitments," Gros
said.
 REUTER

The price of gold bullion and share
prices of North American gold stocks are benefiting from
continued weakness in the U.S. dollar, analysts said.
    "There's been a tug of war between the (currency)
speculators and the central banks over the U.S. dollar and it
looks like the game has gone to the speculators," said John Ing
at Maison Placements Canada Inc.
    The dollar remained close to post-World War II lows today
against the Japanese yen despite buying by several central
banks, including the Federal Reserve, dealers said.
    A drop in the dollar means uncertainty and gold is the
traditional hedge against uncertainty, Ing noted.
    Another analyst, Richard Cohen at Brown Baldwin Nisker Ltd,
noted that "a lot of foreign investors are holding U.S. dollars.
If they see they are losing money, they move back into gold."
    A dollar decline also has inflationary implications, Ing
said, adding that Maison Placements sees inflation rising to a
four pct annual rate from the current level of about three pct.
    Ing predicts gold will peak at 510 dlrs this year from its
current level of about 416 dlrs per ounce. Cohen sees an
average price of 425 dlrs, and another analyst, Michael
Pickens, at Yorkton Securities, puts the average at 450 dlrs,
with a possible spike above 500 dlrs.
    However, gold stocks in the U.S. and Canada have risen far
faster in recent months than the price of the metal itself,
causing concern among analysts that a correction lies somewhere
in the future. But for now, all analysts say there is no sign
the buying pressure is slowing down. "The stocks have run an
incredible way," Cohen said.
    On U.S. markets today, ASA Ltd <ASA> rose 4-1/8 to 61-1/2,
Campbell Red Lake Mines <CRK> was up 1-3/8 and Newmont Gold
<NGC> increased 1-1/2 to 31-1/4.
    The Toronto Stock Exchange gold index today was up 268
points at 8067.90. Hemlo Gold gained 1-1/4 at 26-3/4, LAC
Minerals was up 1-5/8 at 41, Placer Development rose 1-1/4 at
43-3/8 and Lacana Mining gained 1 at 18.
    Ing pointed out that the TSE gold index has gained 51 pct
since December 31, 1986, while the price of bullion has
increased six pct. "Canadian golds have been the top performing
index this year," he noted.
    In the U.S., there is "too much money chasing too few
stocks," Pickens said. And many investing institutions such as
pension funds and insurance companies still have excess cash,
he added.
    Cohen also noted that today's silver price break through
six dlrs an ounce indicates small investors are entering the
precious metals market and he expects the ratio between gold
and silver prices to narrow.
 Reuter

Southwestern Bell Corp said its board
voted a three-for-one stock split and increased the dividend
8.8 pct to 1.60 dlrs a share.
    On a post-split basis, the increased dividend will be 58
cts a share, payable May One to holders of record April 10.
    Southwestern Bell said the stock split is
its first. It said shares will be mailed May 22, record May
Four.
 Reuter

Honeywell Bull Inc, owned by Honeywell
Inc <HON>, <Cie des Machines Bull> and <NEC Corp>, said it
expects its 1987 revenues to increase 15 to 20 pct over its
current level of about 1.9 billion dlrs.
    Honeywell Bull president Jerome Meyer also told the press
conference the company was profitable, adding the company aimed
to improve profits over time.
    Honeywell Inc earlier today received 527 mln dlrs in cash
for the sale of 57.5 pct of its computer business to Bull and
NEC. Honeywell will retain a 42.5 pct interest in Honeywell
Bull and Bull will own an equal amount.
    NEC owns 15 pct of the company.
    Meyer, who had been executive vice president of Honeywell
Information Systems, said Honeywell Bull would work closely
with NEC and Bull in both developing new products and marketing
computers to multi-national companies.
    "We haven't been growing as fast as we'd like, but we are
going to turn that around," Meyer said. He said business was 
soft in the U.S.
    He said the company was reorganizing its distribution
programs and its staff, reassigning and laying off selected
employees. He also said the company was hiring new workers.
    Honeywell Bull chairman Jacques Stern, who is also chairman
of Bull, said he believed the computer industry could be a fast
growing market for companies that provide the type of computers
customers want. "I don't believe in the slump of the market,"
he said.
    The computer company would offer open systems so that
customers would not be tied to a specific vendor or
architecture, and it will also focus on tying computers
together through communications networks.
 Reuter

it awarded two contract totaling 284 mln dlrs for landing gear
for its new MD-11 jetliner.
    The company said IC Industries Inc's <ICX> Pneumo Abex Corp
unit was given a 214 mln dlr contract to make main landing
gear, while <AP Precision Hydraulics> was awarded a 70 mln dlr
contract to build centerline and nose gear.
    The company said Pneumo's Cleveland Pneumatic unit will
build 300 shipsets.
    AP Hydraulics' contract calls for 200 shipsets and options
for an additional 100, the company said.
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service Inc said
that it downgraded Gelco Corp's variable rate notes and
convertible debentures to Ba-3 from Ba-2.
    It also lowered the ratings of Gelco unit CTI International
Inc's senior debt to Ba-3 from Ba-2 and CTI's
subordinated debt to B-2 from B-1. About 486 mln dlrs if
affected.
    Moody's said the changes reflect the reduced levels of debt
protection resulting from Gelco's restructuring efforts.
Moody's said it is not adjusting Gelco's B-2 subordinated debt
rating because it remains an appropriate assessment of risk.
 Reuter

Hanson Trust PLC, said contracts have been exchanged in London
for the sale of Bond's Delivery Service to Rockwood Holdings
PLC for about 6.0 mln dlrs in cash.
    Completion is subject to Rockwood shareholder approval.
    In its most recent financial year, Bond's which was
purchased
by Hanson Trust Plc in its acquisition of Imperial Group PLC in
April 1986, made 960,000 dlrs pre-tax profit on sales of 13.6
mln dlrs.
    Net tangible assets are 5.2 mln dlrs, Hanson said.
 Reuter

French state computer group Cie des
Machines Bull <BULP.PA> will issue 800 mln French francs worth
of stock option bonds, the Finance Ministry said.
    Each bond of 1,000 francs nominal and six pct interest,
will carry three "A" warrants and three "B" warrants giving the
right to subscribe to Bull shares.
    Bull is on the government's list of companies scheduled to
be privatised over the next five years but no date has been
set.
    This operation will reinforce Bull's capital and reduce the
state's stake, prior to privatisation, the Ministry said in a
press release.
    The three "A" warrants will give the right to subscribe to
five Bull shares at a price of 46 francs until November 30,
1988 and the three "B" warrants the right to subscribe to five
shares at a price of 52 francs until November 30, 1989.
    The eight-year bond, which will be issued at par, will have
a payment date of April 28 and will increase Bull's capital by
1.2 billion francs in 1989.
    Bull shares were quoted at a close of 55.45 francs on the
Paris stock exchange today.
    The privatisation commission values Bull at a minimum of
six billion francs, the press release said.
 REUTER

Latest consumer price data indicate
U.S. inflation will be moderate in 1987 even though it will be
above last year's pace, economists said.
    "Inflation is not such a constructive factor as this time
last year, but it's not building up a large head of steam,"
said Allan Leslie of Discount Corp.
    U.S. consumer prices, as measured by the consumer price
index for all urban consumers, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4
pct in February after a 0.7 pct January gain. Energy prices,
which fired January's data with a three pct rise, advanced a
more moderate 1.9 pct last month.
    The CPI came within the range of economists' expectations
and had little direct impact on U.S. financial markets.
    Among the key components of the report, transportation
prices rose 0.5 pct in February after a 1.5 pct January gain
reflecting smaller price appreciation for motor fuels and
declines in new car prices and finance charges.
    "There are no pronounced pressures at the retail level,"
said William Sullivan of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
    Economists said the latest CPI supports existing
expectations for an inflation rate of 3.5 to four pct in 1987.
    The CPI rose 1.1 pct from December 1985 to December 1986.
Without last year's energy price drop, it rose 3.8 pct.
    Economists said that upward pressure on import prices as a
result of the dollar's drop as well as the volatile energy
component warrant attention in case gains in these areas become
factored into the wider economic picture.
    "As long as those price rises do not become entrenched in
cost of living adjustments contained in labor contracts, thus
reducing international competitiveness, then the Federal
Reserve would probably be willing to tolerate four pct
inflation," said Larry Leuzzi of S.G. Warburg and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Administration (FDA) is expected to announce soon that it will
require an additional review of Genentech Inc's TPA heart drug,
a move that likely will delay the company's plans to
market the drug this spring, government and Wall Street sources
said.
    TPA, a bio-engineered blood-clot dissolving drug which
Genentech hopes to market under the name Activase, will be
reviewed by the FDA's cardiorenal advisory committee during the
panel's May 28-29 meeting, the sources said.
    Neither Genentech nor the FDA would confirm that a second
review of the drug had been set.
    "It's under consideration for the May 28-29 meeting," an FDA
official said. "It's on a draft agenda."
    Similarly, a Genentech spokeswoman said the FDA had not yet
notified it of the second advisory committee review.
    "We know it's a possibility, but as of this minute, we can't
confirm that we are on the agenda," she said.
    The spokeswoman said a second review had "always been a
possibility." But she declined to say how the review would
affect marketing plans before receiving official FDA word.
    The spokeswoman acknowledged that rumors of a second FDA
committee review had buffeted Genentech's stock yesterday on
Wall Street. The stock fell 2.75 dlrs a share to clsoe at 61.75
dlrs.
    TPA stands for tissue plasminogen activator, and would be
used on heart attack victims to clear blockage in a vein or
artery. Though other blood clot dissolvers are on the market,
TPA is said to be more effective and with fewer side effects.
    Analysts have projected the worldwide market for the drug
at as high as 1.5 billion dlrs a year.
    Stuart Weisbrod, a biotechnology analyst with Prudential
Bache Securities Inc., told Reuters the additional FDA review
likely would keep TPA off the market until at least November.
    Approval had been expected this spring.
    He said the FDA action prompted him to cut his estimate of
Genentech's 1987 earnings to about 40 cents a share from his
earlier projection of 67 cents a share.
    He said the delay would lower Genentech's 1987 revenues
from TPA to about five to six mln dlrs compared to an earlier
projection of 50 to 60 mln dlrs of 1987 revenues.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX> said
it is still open to a merger of its radio operations with
General Electrics Co's <GE> NBC radio operations.
    "We have left the door open and GE is reassessing the
merger and so are we," Westinghouse chairman Douglas Danforth
told Reuters at the conclusion of a meeting before analysts.
    Danforth said he continues to see value in a merger between
Westinghouse's radio operation and those of NBC. 
    Discussions with NBC on the merger of the two companies'
radio units were suspended in December.
    Danforth reaffirmed that Westinghouse is interested in
acquisitions, saying the company is leaning toward acquisitions
in the 300 mln to 500 mln dlr range. He said, however, that
larger acquisitions are possible if they are the right fit.
    Danforth, who earlier today said he expects earnings growth
in the double-digit range through 1989, said he is comfortable
with analysts' predictions of 4.80 dlrs to 5.30 dlrs a share
this year. In 1986 the company earned 4.42 dlrs a share.
    He said the company has targeted waste energy systems and
hazardous waste removal, as some of the emerging growth areas
 Reuter

    Net loss 655,457 vs loss 566,429
    Rev 258,712 vs nil
    Year
    Shr loss 31 cts vs loss 26 cts
    Net loss 2,725,882 vs loss 1,759,675
    Rev 349,070 vs nil
    NOTE: Company's full name is Computer Network Technology
Corp. 1985 revenues n.a. because 1986 was initial year of
product revenue.
 Reuter

said it has signed an OEM agreement with Cray Research Inc,
allowing Cray to resell Computer Network's CHANNELink 5000
Series Channel processor.
    In connection with this, Computer Network said Cray also
made an order for CHANNELink Model 5312 processors valued at
421,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Sweden's <AB Leo>, manufacturer of
the anti-smoking chewing gum Nicorette, said it had signed a
letter of intent to study the nicotine technology of <Advanced
Tobacco Products Inc> (ATPI) of San Antonio, Texas.
    Leo, a subsidiary of Pharmacia AB <PHAB ST>, said the
agreement gives it the option of acquiring worldwide licences
and rights to ATPI at the end of its period of study.
    No cash details of the deal were given and Leo said no
further details would be given until a definite agreement had
been signed.
 Reuter

The Baltic International Freight Futures
Exchange (BIFFEX) said it agreed to pursue negotiations with
other futures markets on the Baltic Exchange with a view to
merging into a new futures exchange.
    Legal advisers have already been instructed to implement
amalgamation of the London Potato Futures Association, the Soya
Bean Meal Futures Exchange and the London Meat Futures
Exchange.
    The London Grain Futures Market has also discussed merging
with the other markets.
    The aim of the merger is to seek Recognised Investment
Exchange status as required by the 1986 Financial Services Act.
 Reuter

Instinet Corp said the special meeting
at which shareholders will vote on its proposed merger with
Reuters Holdings PLC <RTRSY> will be held May 12.
    Instinet said it had previously scheduled the meeting for
May 21.
    It said the record date for the meeting remains April 10.
 Reuter

    Oper shr profit six cts vs loss 15 cts
    Oper profit 474,000 vs loss 1,175,000
    Revs 17,946,000 vs 9,271,000
    Note: Current shr and net exclude tax gain of 513,000  dlrs
or five cts share
    full name <Canadian Satellite Communications Inc>
 Reuter

Cabot Corp said it called for
redemption its outstanding 12-1/4 pct notes due November 1,
1994 and 10-3/4 pct notes due September 1, 1995, aggregating 89
mln dlrs at face amount.
    It said the redemption is part of a restructuring in which
it has said it would divest itself of certain discontinued
businesses, repurchase shares and reduce long-term debt.
    The 12-1/4 pct notes will be redeemed at 108.47 pct plus
interest from November 1, 1986. The 10-3/4 pct notes will be
redeemed at 108.96 pct plus accrued interest from March 1,
1987.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Edouard Balladur,
Industry Minister Alain Madelin and Telecommunications Minister
Gerard Longuet met for more than an hour today to discuss the
imminent sale of the French telephone switching group <Cie
Generale de Constructions Telephoniques>, a spokesman for
Longuet said.
    No decision was announced as a result of the meeting, and
the French government has given itself until the end of next
month to choose between the candidates.
    The sale of CGCT, which controls 16 pct of France's
telephone market, has been priced at 500 mln francs, and three
international consortia are battling for the right to buy it.
    West Germany's Siemens AG <SIEG.F> has teamed up with the
French group Jeumont-Schneider, in opposition to a bid from the
U.S. Group ATT <T.N> and the Dutch Philips Telecommunications
BV <PGLO.AS> in association with the French telecommunications
firm SAT <Societe Anonyme de Telecommunications>.
    A third bid has been lodged by Sweden's AB LM Ericsson
<ERIC.ST>, allied with French defence electronics group Matra
<MATR.PA> and Bouygues SA <BOUY.PA>.
 Reuter

    Net 9,246,000 vs 10,719,000
    Sales 367.9 mln vs 315.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 1.13 dlrs
    Net 27,490,000 vs 30,160,000
    Sales 1.06 billion vs 915.3 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 13-1/2 cts vs 11-1/2 cts prior
    Pay June 15

 Reuter

Doskocil Cos Inc said its
shareholders approved a one-for-10 reverse stock split, which
is expected to become effective by April 30.
    The company said the reverse split will reduce the its
outstanding shares to about six mln from 60 mln.
 Reuter

Consumer energy costs rose 1.9 pct
in February following a sharp rise last month, the Labor
    The February increase in the overall energy costs,
including petroleum, coal and natural gas, followed a 0.2 pct
drop in December and a 3.0 pct rise in January, it said.
    Energy prices were 12.2 pct below year-ago levels.
    The department's Consumer Price Index showed that the cost
of gasoline rose in February by 4.2 pct, after a 6.6 pct rise
    Gasoline prices were nonetheless 18.0 pct below their
levels as of February 1986.
    Also, the category including fuel oil, coal and bottled gas
rose in February by 3.8 pct, putting it 14.9 pct under the
year-ago figure.
    The index also showed that natural gas and electricity were
unchanged last month, but down 3.5 pct from the February 1986
figure, the department said.
    The index has been updated  o reflect 1982-84 consumption
patterns; previously, the index was based on 1972-73 patterns.
 Reuter

The Philippines has reached agreement
with its bank advisory committee on a debt-rescheduling
agreement after four weeks of talks, a source close to the
Philippine delegation said.
    No details were available and bankers were not available to
comment because meetings with the Philippine negotiators were
still in progress.
    But a spokesman for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co, which
chairs the 12-bank Philippine advisory committee, said a press
conference with finance minister Jaime Ongpin will begin at the
bank's headquarters at 1430 EST/1930 GMT.
    "There is an agreement," the source close to the Philippine
delegation said, adding that details would be announced at the
press conference.
    Manila wants to reschedule about 3.6 billion dlrs of debt
that falls due between 1987 and 1992 and to obtain easier terms
on 5.8 billion dlrs of previously restructured debt.
    The talks have dragged on because of the banks' reluctance
to accept interest payments partly in Philippine Investment
Notes, PINs, instead of cash and because of Manila's insistence
on an interest rate margin close to the 5/8 pct spread over
Eurocurrency rates that it initially demanded.
 Reuter

A cold air mass working its way
south from Canada may pose a threat to developing hard red
winter wheat in Oklahoma, according to Eugene Krenzler, wheat
specialist for the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension.
    "There is some threat. Some of the crop is far enough along
so that it's probably vulnerable," Krenzler said.
    Accu Weather meteorologist Dale Mohler said cold air moving
from the north could put temperatures in the middle 20's
fahrenheit as early as tonight, depending on development of a
low pressure area over southeast Colorado which could stall the
system.
    If impeded by the low-pressure area, the cold air could hit
Oklahoma and Texas as late as Monday morning. Temperatures
could stay in the mid-20's for up to eight hours, Mohler said.
    Krenzler said less than 10 pct of the Oklahoma wheat crop
has advanced to boot stage. The closer to that stage the more
vulnerable the head of the wheat is to cold weather, he said.
    "We can handle probably an hour or so down to 25 or 26
degrees (fahrenheit)," Krenzler said, "as long as we don't have
a lot of wind."
    "If we do get six hours down below 25 degrees I'd say we
have a good chance of significant damage to the heads," he
said.
    Krenzler said early planted stands in the north-central and
southwestern parts of the state are probably most vulnerable.
Crops in the panhandle of Oklahoma and Texas are less developed
and have some snow cover protection from the cold, he noted.
 Reuter

<Bando McGlocklin Capital
Corp> said it filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission coverig a proposed initial
public offering of 750,000 shares of common stock.
    The closed end investment company estimated the offering's
price at between seven dlr and eight dlrs a share.
    The company said it is selling all the shares under the
underwriting group management of The Milwaukee Co.
    Bando said it will use the net proceeds to repay loans and
reduce debt.
 Reuter

Exchange.
    The company's options will trade with a ticker symbol of
<COQ> with initial expiration months of April, May, July and
October, with position and exercise limits at 5,500 contracts
on the same side of the market, according to the Exchange.
(corrects ticker symbol in headline, which is symbol of
company's options)
   
 Reuter

<Allegheny Ludlum Corp> said it
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an
initial public offering of 6,265,000 common shares.
    The company said it is offering 4.4 mln primary shares and
765,000 secondary shares in the U.S., and 1.1 mln primary
shares overseas. Goldman Sachs and Co will manage the U.S.
offering and Goldman Sachs International Corp will manage the
international side of the offering.
    Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce debt. The
company makes specialty steel and metels and said it is one of
the largest U.S. makers of stainless steel.

 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 174,390 vs 222,720
    Revs 4,948,622 vs 4,516,042
    Note: Current net includes non-recurring loss on
investments of 82,034.
    Full name is Education Systems and Publications Corp.
 Reuter

US West Inc said its Directory
Publishing Corp unit has been renamed US West Marketing
Resources.
    The regional Bell company said the unit's new name better
reflects its evolution to a full service provider of marketing
services.
 Reuter

Chadian troops have recaptured the
northern oasis of Faya Largeau, which was the main base of
Libyan troops in northern Chad, sources close to the government
said.
    There was no official confirmation, but Chadian radio
played martial music and asked listeners to stay tuned.
 Reuter

BORG-WARNER UP AMID RUMORS IRWIN JACOBS SOLD STOCK, ARBITRAGEURS SAY

Gulf and Western Inc's Simon and
Schuster Inc unit said it will become the exclusive worldwide
distributor for Walt Disney Co's educational films, videos and
filmstrips.
    The company said the agreement covers more than 300 films
and videos and 500 filmstrips for schools, colleges and other
 Reuter

Millipore Corp said it agreed to pay a
192,500 dlrs penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the State of New Hampshire for discharging
pollutants from 1972 and 1985 from its Jaffrey, N.H. plant to
navigable waters without a permit.
    As part of the settlement, Millipore will undertake a study
to see if groundwater contamination exists in the waters. It
also is prohibited from discharging pollutants except in
accordance with wastewater discharge permits which were issued
after the lawsuit was filed.
    Millipore officials were not available for comment.
 Reuter

State-owned aerospace group Aerospatiale
said it will make an issue of Euro-commercial paper next month,
backed by a 400 mln dlr seven-year revolving credit facility
granted by 44 banks in December 1986.
    The company said in a statement that Societe Generale,
Bankers Trust, Chase Investment Bank and Credit Suisse First
Boston would place the paper.
    Aerospatiale gave no details of the amount of paper to be
issued but said the offering had been rated A1 by Standard and
Poors and /P1 by Moodys, reserved for the best investment
risks.
 Reuter

Salomon SA, the French maker of ski
bindings and boots, said it is seeking a 75 mln dlr
euro-commercial paper program that will be supported by a 75
mln dlr committed syndicated revolving credit.
    The launch of the program is still subject to final
approval of the French authorities.
    Morgan Guaranty Ltd is the arranger for the program and the
revolving credit and will act as one of the dealers for the
commercial paper along with Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd.
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York, London branch, will be
issuing and paying agent. None of the terms were disclosed.
 REUTER

Henley Group Inc's M.W. Kellogg Co unit
said it was selected by <Chinese Petroleum Corp> to design,
engineer and build a ethylene plant at Chinese
Petroleum's Kaohsiung refinery in Taiwan.
    Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but Kellogg said
the total cost of the plant will be 300 mln dlrs.
    Kellogg said engineering of the plant, which will have a
capacity of 400,000 tonnes a year, is already underway and
construction will begin in 1988.
    The plant will go into operation in 1990, Kellogg said.
 Reuter

two shipping subsidiaries -- UNITED States Lines Inc and United
States Lines (S.A.) Inc -- have agreed in principle to dispose
of substantially all their remaining operating shipping assets.
    The units have been operating under protection of Chapter
11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code since last November.
    McLean said U.S. Lines has a letter of intent with CSX
Corp's <CSX> Sea-Land Corp subsidiary to transfer assets of its
Transpacific/Hawaii/Guam Service to Sea-Land.
    McLean said Sea-Land has tentatively agreed to pay 125 mln
dlrs for six vessels, certain port facilities, and various
other equipment used in U.S. Lines' Transpacific service and
theree Lancer class vessels and subsidy rights owned by the two
McLean subsidiaries.
    As previously announced, U.S. Lines (S.A.) will transfer
its South American Service to <Crowley Maritime Corp>'s
American Transport Lines Inc subsidiary in return for a fixed
lease payment for the four Lancer class vessels and a
participation based on American Transport's South American
revenues.
    McLean said the agreement also calls for Crowley to release
U.S. Lines (S.A.) for any damages and unpaid charter hire for
three vessels leased to U.S. Lines (S.A.) by Crowley which have
been returned to Crowley.
    McLean said the minimum lease payments will be seven mln
dlrs and estimated revenue participation during the first four
years at about 16 mln dlrs. In addition, U.S. Lines (S.A.)
subsidiaries in Brazil and Argentina will be sold to American
Transport.
    The company said both agreements in principle have been
approved by directors of the companies involved, but still need
court, regulatory and lender approval.
    McLean said it is requesting the bankruptcy court to
schedule a hearing on its motion to approve the agreements,
adding that the court has granted the company's request to
extend for 90 days the period for the shipping companies to
file a proposed plan of reorganization.
    It said the planned transactions will leave McLean with no
significant shipping assets except 12 New York class vessels,
which are not in operation and are expected to be sold.
    McLean said its shipping units are returning the vessels
operating in foreign commerce to United States ports to permit
the planned transfer to purchasers.
    The company said U.S. Lines will maintain its weekly
service from the U.S. West Coast to Hawaii and Guam until the
vessels are transferred and the transaction is completed.
 Reuter

has proposed stringent limits on the portion of futures trading
that can be conducted between "trading rings," or  affiliated
groups of floor brokers, according to a CME spokesman.
    Violators would be subject to fines of as much as 50,000
dlrs, the exchange said in a letter distributed to its members
earlier this week.
    The proposal is one of the reforms the exchange's Board of
Governors suggested to curb practices that have come under fire
for unfairly limiting competition on the floor. Local traders
claim that trading among broker "rings" violates the
open-outcry system prevailing in the futures markets.
    Limits on ring trading would be applied floor-wide under
the proposal. The other reforms, which address dual trading,
would apply only to the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index
futures pit.
    A debate over dual trading, the practice of trading for
one's own account and filling customer orders, has arisen
because many traders believe it can create a climate for
trading abuses, especially in the extremely volatile stock
index futures pit.
    Adoption of the Board of Governors' reforms hinges on an
April 13 vote of CME members on a membership petition, signed
by several hundred members in February, that would bar all dual
trading at the exchange.
    Defeat of the petition is likely, according to a floor
broker contacted by Reuters, who also said he welcomed the
limits on the "ring" traders. If members reject the petition,
that would open up the way for the Board of Governors' reforms.
    CME President William Brodsky said the need to curb broker
group trading has grown "as the groups have gotten larger." "A
lot of the individuals were losing business because they were
faced with a large-scale competition. The Board began studying
the problem about six months ago.
    Under the proposed reforms, members of a broker rings --
defined as brokers who share brokerage fees, revenues,
expenses, a deck of customer orders or employee salary expenses
-- would be barred from trading more than 15 pct of their
personal trades with each other. Those found in violation would
be subject to fines of up to 50,000 dlrs.
    Broker ring members would also be prohibited from trading
more than 25 pct of customer orders with each other. Fines of
up to 10,000 dlrs would be levied on violators.
    More stringent limits were proposed on individual trading
than customer orders because "we don't want to negatively
impact customer orders," Brodsky said. "On the other hand, the
need to do a personal order is very different."
    Broker associations would also be limited to having no more
than one member serving on an exchange disciplinary or pit
 Reuter

(ICCO) council agreed standard price differentials for
different origin cocoas to form part of the buffer stock buying
and selling procedure, consumer delegates said.
    The buffer stock manager will accept offers for different
origin cocoas according to a sliding scale of price
differentials, under which Ghana cocoa will be pegged at a 137
stg premium to Malaysian.
    Thus, if the buffer stock manager was buying cocoa based on
a Malaysian price of 1,200 stg a tonne, he would accept Ghana
offers up to 1,337 stg.
    Differentials were fixed as follows,
 Country       Differential stg/tonne
 Malaysia           0
 Brazil            55
 Ivory Coast       67
 Cameroun          77
 Nigeria          120
 Togo             130
 Ghana            137
    Nigeria's differential is on "landed weight" terms. Shipping
weight terms will be accepted at a 15 stg discount to this
rate.
 Reuter

(ICCO) council adjourned after agreeing buffer stock rules for
the 1986 International Cocoa Agreement, an ICCO spokesman said.
    The buffer stock will begin operations immediately, he
said.
    He confirmed delegate reports that the buffer stock manager
will trade cocoa by means of an offer system, and according to
fixed differentials for cocoa from different origins.
    Purchases from non-members will be limited to 15 pct of the
total and buying or selling operations in any one day will be
restricted to a maximum of 40 pct each for nearby, intermediate
and forward positions, he said.
 Reuter

MINSTAR INC SAID IT IS STILL INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING BORG-WARNER

The United States said it was doing
what it could to ease tension in the Aegean as Greek and
Turkish warships headed for a possible clash over oil drilling
rights on the sea's continental shelf.
    State Department spokesman Charles Redman told reporters,
"We have urged both sides to exercise restraint and avoid any
actions which might exacerbate the situation."
    "In the light of the most recent developments, we are
consulting with the parties and with other interested allies on
means to reduce tensions," he added.
    Redman declined to elaborate on what Washington was doing,
but he said an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors in
Brussels on the subject was only one path it was pursuing.
    He also refused to say which side was to blame for the
renewed confrontation, saying Washington was still trying to
ascertain all the facts, as Prime minister Andreas Papanderou
said Greece was prepared to tackle any aggressor.
    "The crucial point here is that these are two friends and
allies. We don't want to see tension rise and we are doing what
we can to see if we can help here," Redman said.
 Reuter

A U.K. Financial services company,
<Quadrex Securities Ltd>, is planning a joint venture with the
American Stock Exchange for a new U.S. Dealer market in
non-U.S. Securities, Quadrex chairman Gary Klesch said.
    He said the new exchange is aimed at facilitating U.S.
Institutions' trade in foreign debt and equity securities. It
is planned to provide a central depositary for stocks and
bonds, the lack of which has hitherto inhibited such trading,
he said. Klesh said the new market would come under SEC
jurisdiction, and that while the SEC is considering the plans,
he could not estimate when it might get an official go ahead.
    However, Klesch added that he hoped the exchange could open
in the autumn.
    He said Quadrex is a five-year-old securities business,
based in London and backed by about 40 mln dlrs capital, which
owns companies operating in a range of financial markets,
including foreign exchanges and Eurobonds.
    Klesch said further details would be available nearer to
the planned opening.
 REUTER

Cargill U.K. Ltd's oilseed processing plant at Seaforth
adjourned today without a solution to the three month old
strike, a company spokesman said.
    Negotiations will resume next Tuesday, he said.
 Reuter

A textile mill with an annual production
capacity of 52 mln square metres of knitted fabric has been
opened officially near Havana, Granma, the official Cuban
newspaper, said.
    The mill, inaugurated yesterday, is equipped with looms and
other machinery from East Germany. A single production line, in
operation since last year, has already produced over seven mln
square metres of fabric.
    President Fidel Castro and vice-president Carlos Rafael
Rodriguez were present at the ceremony.
 Reuter

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 FALLS 555 MLN DLRS IN WEEK, BANK OF CANADA SAID

The London Metal Exchange's, LME,
decision to introduce a dollar-denominated aluminium contract,
with the Port of Singapore listed as a delivery point, is a
positive move, physical traders and LME dealers said.
    Earlier this week the LME declared that a 99.70 pct minimum
purity aluminium contract would commence trading on June 1,
1987, alongside its long-established sterling-based 99.50 pct
contract.
    This is the LME's first dollar contract and non-European
delivery point, and the Board and Committee are looking at
Singapore as a delivery point for other contracts.
    Trade sources said the LME's new contract will conform with
existing industry practice, where 99.70 standard re-melt
material, priced in dollars, is most commonly traded.
    The location of a warehouse in Singapore is also a positive
move by the LME, given its ideal location for Australian and
Japanese traders, who would be able to place metal on to
warrant speedily and relatively inexpensively, they said.
    Hedging during the LME ring sessions becomes much simpler
with a dollar contract. At present pre-market trading is almost
exclusively dollar-based, but currency conversions have to be
done during the sterling rings, they added.
    LME ring dealers said the new contract would match more
closely trade requirements and possibly alleviate some of the
recent wide backwardations.
    Very little physical business is now done in 99.50 pct
purity metal, nearly all of which is produced in Eastern Bloc
countries, such as Romania.
    The Soviet Union also produces 99.50 pct, but has declined
as an exporter recently, they said.
    Some dealers said the new 99.70 contract may suffer from
liquidity problems initially, as business may continue to
centre on the present good ordinary brand (gob) contract, where
there are many holders of large short positions on the LME.
    But others said the new contract would soon attract trading
interest, given that much 99.70 metal has already been
attracted to the LME's warehouses by backwardations.
    The LME also has a much more viable liquidity base for a
new contract, compared to the Comex market in New York, where
high grade aluminium futures are not particularly active, they
said.
    Thus, it seems likely that the sterling contract will
eventually lose trading interest and volumes will decline. Like
standard zinc, which was superseded by a high grade contract,
gob aluminium will probably be replaced, although the process
in this case may take longer, they added.
    Forming a new contract and establishing a Singapore
warehouse are constructive moves by the LME but backwardations,
which make physical trading difficult, would not totally
disappear as a result, the trade sources said.
    These premiums for prompt metal have become a
semi-permanent feature over the last year, due to increased
business and volatility in traded options, and are presently
around 50 stg.
    Increasingly large granting of option positions has been
taking place. When some of these are declared and exercised at
the end of the relevant month, physical tightness and squeezes
around these dates are commonplace, they said.
    Listing Singapore as a delivery point allows Far Eastern
operators to deliver aluminium into a LME warehouse instead of
having to cover.
    But tightness and backwardations are seen continuing, even
though the LME's new option contracts widen the gap between the
declaration and prompt dates.
    These will be due on the first and third Wednesday of the
month, whereas at present most fall on the 20th and 25th.
    Backwardations will remain while operators continue to
grant options where potential tonnage to be delivered exceeds
aluminium stock levels, an LME option trader said.
 Reuter

Canadian narrowly defined money supply
M-1 fell 555 mln dlrs to 32.42 billion dlrs in week ended March
18, Bank of Canada said.
non-personal deposits, fell 559 mln dlrs to 74.86 billion dlrs
fixed-term deposit fell 439 mln dlrs to 177.30 billion dlrs.
Canada, fell 696 mln dlrs to 215.74 billion dlrs. MORE
 More

Sterling Inc said it filed a
registration statement for the proposed offering of 1.5 mln
    Sterling said one mln shares will be sold by the company
and 500,000 shares will be sold by shareholders.
    Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce bank debt,
Sterling said.
    Alex. Brown and Sons Inc, Bear, Stearns and Co Inc and
Prescott, Ball and Turben Inc will manage the offering,
Sterling added.
 Reuter

Corning Glass Works said it
bought a 50 pct interest in Technology Dynamics Inc, a
Woodinville, Wash., company involved in research and
development of fiber-optic sensors.
    The purchase price was not disclosed.
    Privately held Technology Dynamics plans to introduce its
first line of fiber-optic sensors later this year, Corning
Glass said.
  
 Reuter

Shr loss 29 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 513,542 vs loss 263,708
    Revs 38,000 vs nil
    Year
    Shr loss 24 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Net loss 417,552 vs loss 142,010
    Revs 171,000 vs nil
 Reuter

Shr loss 57 cts vs profit 3.02 dlrs
    Net loss 3,606,000 vs profit 8,294,000
    Revs 15.3 mln vs 23.9 mln
    Note: Net includes gains from sale of USPCI Inc <UPC> stock
of 1.5 mln vs 20.5 mln
    Year-ago net includes loss from discontinued operations of
10.3 mln.
 Reuter

Shr loss 47 cts vs loss 63 cts
    Net loss 1,450,000 vs loss 1,930,000
    Revs 14.7 mln vs 13.3 mln
    Note: Year-ago resulted restated to exclude Michigan cable
systems sold in 1985.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts loss 12 cts
    Net loss 585,866 vs loss 455,866
    Avg shrs 6,841,638 vs 3,651,505
    Year
    Shr loss 34 cts vs loss 54 cts
    Net loss 2,158,709 vs loss 1,931,397
    Avg shrs 6,296,701 vs 3,586,914
    Note: Company has no revs as it is in product development
stage. Shr and avg shrs data reflect 1-for-25 reverse split in
November 1986.
 Reuter

Oper shr two cts vs 10 cts
    Oper net 162,300 vs 773,400
    Revs 16.6 mln vs 16.5 mln
    Avg shrs 8,282,480 vs 8,045,493
    NOTE: Excludes gains of 138,000 dlrs or two cts/shr vs
733,000 dlrs or nine cts from benefit of tax loss
 Reuter

LABOR DEPT REPORTS U.S. REAL EARNINGS ROSE 0.6 PCT IN FEB AFTER BEING UNCHANGED IN JAN

The main road between landlocked
Zambia and the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam is to be
rehabilitated at a cost of 109 mln dlrs, starting in December,
Willie Lyatu, the project coordinator in the Tanzanian Ministry
of Communications, said.
    The road runs parallel to the Chinese-built Tazara,
(Tanzania-Zambia) railway and is in bad condition.
    Lyatu said the government was currently evaluating 52 bids
by international contractors to rehabilitate 293.5 km of the
asphalt highway and 800 km of other trunk roads with a gravel
surface.
    The final list of contractors would be issued by the World
Bank, the project's main sponsor, at the end of April, he
added.
    The World Bank is contributing 50 mln dlrs to the project,
which is also being financed by the African Development Bank,
Norway and Denmark.
 Reuter

The average weekly earnings of U.S.
workers after adjustment for inflation and seasonal changes
rose 0.6 pct in February after being unchanged in January, the
Labor department said.
    The department had earlier reported that real earnings fell
0.3 pct in January but revised the figure to show earnings
unchanged.
    Between February this year and February, 1986, real
earnings rose 0.5 pct, the department said.
    The rise in February real earnings resulted from a 0.5 pct
increase in average hourly earnings and a 0.6 pct increase in
average weekly hours. That was partly offset by a 0.4 pct rise
in the consumer price index, which measures inflation, the
    Before seasonal adjustment, weekly earnings last month
averaged 307.59 dlrs, up from 305.13 dlrs in January and up
from 300.66 dlrs in February, 1986.
 Reuter...

Fueled by an earnings-driven bull
market, food stocks are emerging as the big winners, analysts
say.
    "This is an earnings-driven market, and the investor is
homing in on stocks that have visible and predictable earnings
growth," E.F. Hutton food analyst June Page said.
    The food group, whose stocks have underperformed since the
beginning of the year after about five years of growth, seems
to have turned around, DLJ Securities analyst William Leach
agreed.
    The fundamentals remain favorable and may even be enhanced
by the effects of tax reform for companies such as Sara Lee
Corp <SLE>, Quaker Oats Co <OAT>, and General Mills Inc <GIS>,
Page said. These and other food companies are recommended as
aggressive buys on a selective basis by most brokerage houses
surveyed.
    The current economy provides an environment of stable
inflation, interest rates and energy costs, which gives food
companies the flexibility to expand profit margins over a
period of time, Page said. Lower commodity costs allow for
further price flexibility, she added.
    Another plus is that increases in labor and packaging in
the food industry have been minimal, she noted.
    For 1987, Page said E.F. Hutton sees inflation holding
under four pct, oil prices stabilizing at 17 to 18 dlrs a
barrel and interest rates remaining at current levels.
    As a result of new production facilities featuring
sophisticated technology "companies now have a lower breakeven
point because they have enhanced productivity and lower
overhead costs," she said.
    Unit volume growth has accelerated in the past several
years in the food industry due to product segmentation, that
is, iintends to
days.
 Reuter

Premier Yu Kuo-Hua ordered financial
officials to quicken the pace of relaxing foreign exchange
controls and study the possibility of suspending the controls,
a cabinet statement said.
    The statement quoted Yu as telling Finance Ministy and
Central Bank officials the relaxation was needed to help reduce
Taiwan's surging foreign exchange reserves, which reached a
record 53 billion U.S. Dollars this month.
    Finance Minister Robert Chien told reporters his ministry
and the Central Bank would work jointly on new measures to ease
the controls, but he did not give details.
    Yu said the government could maintain the framework of the
foreign exchange controls while finding ways to ease them. The
controls would be used during emergency.
    Taiwan's reserves have resulted largely from its trade
surplus, which hit 15.6 billion dlrs in 1986 and 10.6 billion
in 1985. About 95 pct of the surplus was from Taiwan's trade
with the United States, according to official figures.
    But he said that while easing the controls would help
reduce the reserves, it would not do so substantially in a
short time.
    Economists and bankers said the new decision resulted from
growing pressure from the United States, Taiwan's largest
trading partner, which buys almost half the island's exports.
    Lu Ming-Jen, economic professor at Soochow University, told
Reuters: "The decision came a little bit late. But it was better
than never."
    Ko Fei-Lo, Vice President at First Commercial Bank, said
the government should rapidly relax its foreign exchange
controls and open its market wider to help balance trade with
its trading partners, especially the United States.
    "The liberalisation in both imports and foreign exchange
controls will not only help our trading partners, but also help
our own economic problems," he said.
    He said the mounting foreign exchange reserveshelped boost
Taiwan's money supply by 48.22 pct in the year to end-February.
 REUTER

An error interrupted testing of an Ariane
rocket third stage starter motor on Monday but there should be
little or no delay in the launch program, Arianespace said.
    A joint statement from the European Arianespace consortium
and the motor manufacturer Societe Europeenne de Propulsion
(SEP) said that to avoid any risk, the motor had been
dismantled and could not be used in the next launch.
    It had immediately been replaced by another motor and new
tests had begun today.
    "In these conditions, the flight V19 remains scheduled
before the end of June," the statement said.
    Ariane launches have been suspended since an ignition
failure in the third stage motor last May forced controllers to
blow up a rocket in flight.
    SEP has been carrying out a series of nearly 50
simulated-altitude tests on the redesigned starter at its
tightly guarded plant in the town of Vernon, 80 km northwest of
Paris.
    The Arianespace-SEP statement said that during a test on
March 23, a fault in the preparation of the altitude simulation
chamber meant a component of the motor came under abnormal
pressure.
    Arianespace originally hoped to resume launches by February
this year, but a longer-than-expected test program on the new
starter motor forced postponement of the next launch.
    The total orderbook of outstanding launches for the
13-member European Space Agency's Ariane rockets runs to more
than 40 satellites and is worth more than two billion dlrs.
    The Ariane program is the main rival to the United States'
NASA agency in the lucrative satellite launch market. Its
orders have sharply increased largely as a result of the U.S.
Space shuttle disaster in January 1986.
 REUTER

Japanese computer chip makers reacted
angrily to news the United States plans to take retaliatory
action against them for allegedly failing to live up to an
agreement on trade in computer microchips.
    Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ) Chairman
Shoichi Saba stated: "EIAJ believes that it is premature and
even irrational to attempt an assessment of the impact of the
agreement and our efforts to comply with it only six months
after concluding the agreement."
    "We urge U.S. Governmental authorities to reconsider the
decision made, to evaluate fairly the results of Japanese
efforts in implementing the objectives of the agreement, and to
resist emotional biases," he said.
    Yesterday, Washington announced plans to slap as much as
300 mln dlrs in tariffs on Japanese imports in retaliation for
what is sees as Japan's failure to comply with the terms of the
pact.
    The agreement, struck late last year after months of heated
negotiations, called on Japan to stop selling cut-price chips
on world markets and to buy more American-made semiconductors.
    To salvage the pact, Tokyo has instructed its chip makers
to slash production and has helped establish a multi-lateral
organisation designed to promote chip imports.
    Saba said that Japanese chip companies have pledged three
mln dlrs over the next five years to the new organisation and
expressed regret that no American company has seen fit to join.
    "This suggests that American semiconductor manufacturers may
not be really interested in participating in the Japanese
 REUTER

Shr 21 cts vs 20 cts
    Fin Div 8.0 cts gross vs 9.0 cts
    Group net 104.8 mln dlrs vs 100.9 mln
    Note - Fin div pay June 6, record May 19.
 REUTER

Shr 26.9 cts vs 25.1 cts
    Fin Div 8.0 pct gross vs 8.0 pct
    Group net 106.1 mln dlrs vs 99.0 mln
    Note - Fin div pay May 25, record April 18.
 REUTER

Shr 8.7 cts vs 7.7 cts
    Fin div 9.0 cts vs 9.0 cts
    Group net 23.5 mln dlrs vs 20.8 mln
    Turnover 212.7 mln dlrs vs 595.4 mln
    Note - Fin div pay May 27, record May 23. REUTER

Shr 8.43 cts vs 9.61 cts
    Int div nil vs nil
    Group net 7.8 mln dlrs vs 8.9 mln
    Turnover 30.6 mln dlrs vs 33.5 mln
    Note - The company said group net profits for the year
ending this Aug 31 should amount to 13.5 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

Edouard Kouame, Ivorian delegate to the
International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), was chosen Executive
Director of the ICCO, effective October 1, ICCO officials said.
    Kouame will succeed Dr. Kobena Erbynn of Ghana in the post.
 REUTER

South Korea signed with Japan for a 44.6
billion yen credit facility, part of a four billion dlr aid
package for South Korea's economic development plan to 1988,
Foreign Ministry officials here said.
    The facility, to be used mostly for building a
multi-purpose dam and modernising educational and medical
facilities and for sewer projects, bears interest of 4.25 pct
per year and is repayable over 18 years after a grace period of
seven years.
 REUTER

Malaysia said it expects a natural
rubber shortage in April and May because of the effects of
current wintering on rubber trees.
    The expected shortage and stronger demand for rubber goods,
especially condoms and surgical gloves by consumers, is likely
to push up prices, the Malaysian Rubber Exchange and Licensing
Board said in its latest monthly bulletin.
    During the annual wintering period from February to April
rubber trees shed their leaves and latex output is very low.
 REUTER

Zimbabwe has confirmed an outbreak of
the animal-borne hoof-and-mouth disease, which prompted
Botswana on Thursday to stop imports of almost all Zimbabwean
meat products.
    Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary Robbie Mupawose
said it had been found at a ranch in southwestern Matabeleland
province and that all measures were being taken to contain it
from spreading. "The effect of this outbreak on Zimbabwe's beef
exports is being examined," he added in a statement.
    Zimbabwe exports a wide range of meat products to
neighbouring states and some 8,000 tonnes of high-grade beef to
the European Community annually worth about 48 mln U.S. Dlrs.
 REUTER

A leading U.S. Banker said the dollar
was likely to fall another five to 10 pct this year and an
improvement in the huge American trade deficit would be only
temporary at current world exchange rate levels.
    Kurt Viermetz, Worldwide Treasurer of <Morgan Guaranty
Trust Co>, told Arab currency traders meeting here that the
steady depreciation of the dollar had not gone far enough to
rein in U.S. Deficits on a lasting basis.
    Speaking at the 14th annual congress of the Interarab
Cambist Association, Viermetz said an agreement reached last
month among major industrial nations to steady the dollar
around current levels left many questions unanswered.
    "I cannot see any chance for a real turnaround (rise) in the
dollar," Viermetz said. "I believe there is room for a further
fall of five to 10 per cent in 1987."
    The United States, West Germany, Japan, France, Great
Britain and Canada -- G-6 -- agreed in Paris in late February
to stabilise major currencies around current levels.
    The accord came after months of transatlantic argument,
with Tokyo and Bonn claiming Washington's policy of talking the
dollar lower had made life impossible for West German and
Japanese exporters.
    The Paris accord also brought a pause to the continued
slide of the dollar engineered by a meeting in New York in
September 1985 when industrial nations agreed to depress the
value of the currency to help redress global trade imbalances.
    But Viermetz said Morgan Guaranty's economic models showed
that with no further change in exchange rates -- and continued
sluggish growth in West Germany and Japan -- the U.S. Trade
deficit would improve only temporarily.
    He said the deficit might fall to 145 billion dlrs this
year from 165 billion in 1986 and further improve to 120
billion in 1988 but by 1990, it would be back around 160
    "This is clearly unacceptable for the monetary authorities
and politicians in Washington," he said.
    Viermetz said it was only natural that markets should
attempt to test the credibility of the Paris accord, struck
when the dollar was trading at about 1.83 marks and 152.50 yen.
    Immediately before the historic 1985 New York agreement or
"Plaza Accord," the dollar had been trading at 2.84 marks and 240
yen.
    Viermetz said he believed major nations in Paris wanted to
see the dollar hold within a "loose range" of 1.75 to 1.90 marks
and 145 to 155 yen, with any attempt to push the U.S. Currency
lower being countered by central bank intervention.
    The dollar ended in New York yesterday at 147.15/25 yen --
its lowest level against the Japanese currency in roughly 40
years. It closed at 1.8160/70 marks.
    Viermetz also said he did not see the U.S. Federal funds
rate falling below six pct for fear of provoking an
uncontrolled fall in the dollar.
    But at the same time, worries about the international debt
crisis would mean there was little chance of a rise above 6-3/4
pct since this would increase loan costs to the third world.
    The Middle East foreign exchange conference brings together
more than 200 traders and bank treasury chiefs from the Arab
world and Arab banks in European and U.S. Financial centres.
    Formal discussions, which end today, have also centred on
the role of Arab banks in world financial markets, with bankers
urging them to adapt to a new global trend towards
securitisation of  business.
    Hikmat Nashashibi, President of the Arab Bankers
Association, said Arab banks have to shake off their old
mentality of commercial banking and concentrate more on
investment banking.
 REUTER

Lebanese central bank Vice Governor
Meguerditch Bouldikian called for the establishment of an Arab
fund to assist the Lebanese pound, which has lost more than 80
pct of its value against the dollar since January 1986.
    Bouldikian told an Arab exchange dealers conference the
bank would continue to take measures to defend the currency.
    But he said Lebanon needed foreign support for its
war-battered economy now more than ever before. "We expect a
common effort between the central bank and Arab central banks
and monetary authorities to create an Arab fund to support and
preserve the value of the currency when needed," he said.
    Twelve years of civil war have devastated productive
sectors of the Lebanese economy and created gaping trade and
budget deficits.
    Bouldikian said recent government measures had succeeded in
reducing demand for imports and increasing exports. "These are
encouraging factors, but the war has not ended yet," he said.
    "We believe that with a just political solution acceptable
to all sides, confidence will return and this will benefit the
Lebanese pound and Lebanon."
    In the meantime, he said the central bank had four main
goals:
    1) to use surplus liquidity to finance the budget deficit
    2) to increase the role of commercial banks and non-bank
financing institutions in financing the deficit
    3) to limit the transfer of Lebanese pounds into foreign
currency deposits
    4) to protect the financial health of commercial banks.
 REUTER

Japan is in the process of joining the
International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), which will bring the
number of members in the body to 36, ICCO officials said.
    Japan is completing constitutional procedures necessary to
its accession to the ICCO and is expected to become an
importing member in three to four months, they said.
 REUTER

A Turkish research ship, escorted by
warships and air force planes, left for the Aegean to press
Ankara's case in an escalating row with Greece over oil rights,
the semi-official Anatolian News Agency said.
    The ship set off this morning from the Dardanelles port of
Canakkale with flags flying and watched by sightseers, the
    Prime Minister Turgut Ozal said last night the ship would
not go into international waters unless Greece did the same.
    "We are waiting for the first move from them," he told
Turkish Radio in London.
 REUTER

expressed "restricted optimism" about a crisis with Turkey over
disputed oil rights in the Aegean Sea.
    Papandreou was speaking to reporters after briefing
opposition political leaders on the latest developments in the
row as a Turkish research ship escorted by warships and combat
aircraft headed for the Aegean.
    He and other political leaders spoke of qualified optimism
following a statement by Turkish Premier Turgut Ozal last night
that the research vessel would not enter disputed waters as
previously annnounced unless Greek vessels did so.
    The Prime Minister declined to answer reporters' questions
about an announcement last night that Greece had asked the
United States to suspend operations at one of the American
military bases here due to the crisis.
    But Opposition leader Constantine Mitsotakis told reporters
he thought the suspension would be temporary until the crisis
is resolved. A U.S. Defence Department official in Washington
said the station was still functioning.
    Communist Party leader Harilaos Florakis said here "the
climate is calmer today."
    Greek newspapers reported that the Greek army, navy and air
force had been moved to strategic Greek islands in the Aegean
and to the land border with Turkey at the Evros River.
    But there was no official word on military movements apart
from a comment by the government spokesman that the Greek navy
was no longer in port.
    The United States, NATO and the United Nations all called
on Greece and Turkey to exercise restraint.
    Greek U.N. Representative Mihalis Dounas said in a letter
to the secretary-general that the dispute was of a legal nature
and could be settled in the International Court in the Hague.
 REUTER

Chinese Vice-Premier Tian Jiyun said
plans to scrap the country's parallel currency, Foreign
Exchange Certificates (FECs), had been postponed due to
objections from foreign businessmen and others.
    But Tian told a news conference the Chinese government
still considered FECs unsatisfactory.
    Asked about the current state of plans to abolish the FECs,
Tian said: "We have decided to postpone the question. As to
whether it will be done in the future, it will be done
according to the evolution of the situation."
    He said many people, including foreign businessmen, had
raised objections to the plan to abolish the certificates, and
added: "It is rather complicated."
    The FECs were introduced in 1980 for use by foreigners in
China. But they now circulate widely among local residents and
there is a big black market in the currency, though it is
theoretically at par with the ordinary Chinese currency,
renminbi.
    Tian said the government still considered that the FECs had
"many demerits and negative influences."
    Bank of China President Wang Deyan told Reuters earlier
this month that he thought it unlikely that the certificates
would be scrapped this year.
    Western diplomats and economists have said the Chinese
authorities are having trouble finding a suitable alternative.
    Vice-Premier Yao Yilin announced at a similar press
conference last year that the FECs would be abolished, saying
the government had decided it was ideologically unacceptable to
have two currencies circulating in China at the same time.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone sounded
a conciliatory note in Japan's increasingly bitter row with the
United States over trade in computer microchips.
    "Japan wants to resolve the issue through consultations by
explaining its stance thoroughly and correcting the points that
need to be corrected," he was quoted by Kyodo News Service as
saying.
    While expressing regret over America's decision to impose
tariffs on imports of Japanese electrical goods, Nakasone said
Tokyo was willing to send a high-level official to Washington
to help settle the dispute.
    Government officials said Japan would make a formal request
next week for emergency talks and that the two sides would
probably meet the week after, just days before the April 17
deadline set by Washington for the tariffs to take effect.
    Tokyo is expected to propose a joint U.S./Japan
investigation of American claims that Japanese companies are
dumping cut-price chips in Asian markets.
    Yesterday, Washington announced plans to put as much as 300
mln dlrs in tariffs on imports of certain Japanese electronic
goods in retaliation for what it sees as Tokyo's failure to
live up to their bilateral chip pact.
    That agreement, hammered out late last year after months of
heated negotiations, called on Japan to stop selling cut-price
chips in world markets and to buy more American-made chips.
    Nakasone's comments seemed distinctly more conciliatory
than those of his Trade and Industry Minister, Hajime Tamura,
who earlier today said Japan was ready to take "appropriate
measures" if Washington went ahead with the sanctions.
    Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
officials later sought to downplay the significance of Tamura's
remark and said that his main message was that the two sides
need to talk urgently about the issue.
    But they admitted that Japan was considering taking the
United States to GATT, the Geneva-based international
organization which polices world trade, if Washington imposed
the tariffs.
    Any Japanese action would probably be taken under Article
23 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), they
said. If that article were invoked, GATT would set up a panel
to consider the legality of the U.S. Action.
    But officials here said they hope that can be avoided. "It
may be wishful thinking but there is a possibility the United
States may lift its decision at an early date," Tamura said.
    In announcing the U.S. Sanctions yesterday, President
Ronald Reagan said he was prepared to lift them once he had
evidence that Japan was no longer dumping chips in world
markets and had opened up its own market to imports.
    Japanese government officials said they are confident they
can make the pact work.
    They said that the export of cut-price Japanese chips
through unregulated distributors has all but dried up after
MITI instructed domestic makers to cut output.
    While acknowledging that it is harder to increase Japanese
imports of American chips, MITI officials said that the
ministry is doing all it can to ensure that happens.
    The Ministry recently called on Japan's major chip users,
some of whom are also leading producers, to step up their
purchases of foreign semiconductors.
    A spokesman for one of the companies, Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T>
said his firm would do just that and could announce its plans
in the next week or so. He expects other Japanese companies to
do likewise.
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The Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
approved a total of 12.3 mln dlrs of project loans and
technical assistace to member countries, a bank statement said.
    It said Senegal was given a 5.5 mln dlrs loan for a rice
cultivation project, Guinea 4.6 mln dlrs for construction of
schools and 1.2 mln dlrs for Comoros for petroleum facilities.
    Sudan, Sierra Leone and Gabon were given a total of 980,000
dlrs of technical assistance. The bank also extended a 10 mln
dlrs line of leasing to a Malaysian Bank and 1.9 mln dlrs to a
Tunisian-Saudi Investment Company, the statement said.
 REUTER

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and
20 Islamic Banks signed an agreement to establish a 50 mln dlr
trade portfolio to finance trade among Islamic countries, IDB
    They said IDB's share in the portfolio, which will only
finance exports and imports of the private sector, was limited
to up to 25 mln dlrs.
    The sources said shares in the porfolio could be traded or
redeemed by the IDB, adding that this was a major step in
establishing an Islamic financial market.
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U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar
Weinberger said the Soviet Union continues to grow in military
strength and has tested its SS-18 intermediate-range missile.
    It was a "successful test so far as we know, and the next
one of course is the follow-on to the SS-20," Weinberger told
interviewers on the CNN television network.
    "They finished deploying the SS-20 some time last year. They
are all ready well advanced on its follow-on. They never stop.
That"s the lesson."
    "They continue to grow in all aspects: conventional, land,
sea, air and nuclear," he said of Soviet military strength.
 REUTER

Turkey"s standoff with Greece over Aegean
oil rights appeared at an end after the government said it had
been assured Athens would not start prospecting in disputed
waters.
    A Foreign Ministry statement last night hinted Turkey was
claiming victory. A Greek-based international consortium, North
Aegean Petroleum Co., Had given up plans to start searching for
oil in international waters east of Thasos island, it said.
    "In the same way it has been understood that Greece will
also not undertake oil activities outside its territorial
waters," the statement added.
    An Ankara Radio report monitored in London said Foreign
Minister Vahit Halefolu had called on Greece to engage in
dialogue over the dispute. It was impossible to resolve the
dispute by crises, he was quoted as saying.
    "We call on Greece to come and engage in a dialogue with us
- let us find a solution as two neighbours and allies should,"
he said.
    The radio said Halefoglu had briefed the leaders of a
number of the country"s political parties on the latest
    Turkey sent the survey ship Sismik 1 into the Aegean
yesterday, flanked by warships, to press its case but having
earlier said it would go into disputed waters, declared the
vessel would stay in Turkish areas.
    Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, in London on his way home after
heart surgery in the United States, is expected to receive an
ecstatic welcome from thousands of Turks when he returns today.
    He was in defiant mood last night, telling Turkish radio:
"We can never accept that Greece should confine us to the
Anatolian continent. If there are riches under the sea, they
are for mankind."
    Despite the end of the crisis, Turkish officials
acknowledged that the underlying dispute over delimiting the
continental shelf in the Aegean remained unsolved.
    Turkey alleged that the consortium"s plans would have
infringed the 1976 Berne agreement between the two countries,
which called for a moratorium on any activities until the
delimitation was agreed. Greece earlier this month declared it
considers the accord inoperative.
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Iran has produced a short-range
surface-to-surface missile with technological help from China
and is working with Peking on a longer-range missile capable of
hitting most areas of Iraq, the Observer newspaper said.
    The British Sunday paper, quoting Iranian sources, said the
shorter-range missile was based on a Chinese version of the
Soviet-made Frog and had been fired at the Iraqi port of Basra.
The missile has a range of 40 miles.
    The other type, similar to the Soviet army"s Scud B with a
range of 180 miles, is at an advanced stage of development,
according to the Observer.
    The development of a longer-range weapon would enable Iran
to strike at many towns and cities on the territory of its
relatively small neighbour.
    Earlier this month, Iran acknowledged it had acquired
Chinese-made Silkworm missiles capable of hitting tankers
carrying crude oil from Arab countries to the West.
    Iran said it would use its Silkworm anti-ship missile
against shipping in the waterway only if Iraqi air and missile
raids prevented it from exporting oil.
    The Silkworms are large mobile missiles with a range of 60
miles, which can carry a warhead of 1,000 pounds.
 REUTER

China and Israel, which have no
diplomatic relations, discussed Middle East peace prospects and
related matters at a meeting in New York city, an Israeli
    Taking part in the talks at an undisclosed location were
China's U.N. Representative, Ambassador Li Luye, and the
director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Abraham
Tamir.
    "It was in a U.N. Context rather than a bilateral context,
and one of a series of meetings being held with members of the
Security Council," Israeli U.N. Spokesman Eyal Arad said.
    The meeting, which dealt with "the peace process and related
matters," was held at Israel's initiative and was arranged by
the two countries' U.N. Missions, he added.
    While in New York, Tamir has conferred with a number of
U.N. Diplomats, including the representative of the Soviet
Union, with which Israel also has no diplomatic relations.
    Increasing attention has been focused in recent months on
prospects for a U.N.-sponsored Middle East peace conference
that would include the five permanent members of the Security
Council -- China, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain
and France.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou has
withdrawn a request to Washington to suspend operations at an
American army base near Athens as a Greek-Turkish row over oil
rights in the Aegean eased.
    A Turkish research ship which Greece had threatened to
tackle if it sailed into disputed waters in the Aegean Sea kept
to Turkish territorial waters yesterday, avoiding a potential
clash.
    Papandreou expressed qualified optimism after briefing
opposition leaders on Aegean developments early yesterday.
    The Greek government later withdrew Friday's request to
Washington to close down its telecommunications base at Nea
Makri, north of Athens, saying that the reasons which had
prompted it to make the request were no longer valid.
    Under the terms of the U.S.-Greek bases accord, Greece has
the right to ask for suspension of operations at times when its
national interests are threatened.
    The row in the Aegean erupted after Turkey said it would
search for oil round three Greek islands off its coast
following an announcement from Greece that it planned to drill
east of Thassos island after taking control of a Canadian-led
oil consortium operating in the northern Aegean.
    Turkey accused Greece of breaching the 1976 Berne Agreement
under which both sides agreed to preserve the status quo in the
Aegean until their continental shelf dispute was settled.
Athens says it considers the accord inactive.
    The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had
received an assurance from Greece that it would not carry out
oil activities outside its territorial waters. Greece declined
    Papandreou repeated an invitation to Turkey to take the
long-standing continental shelf dispute to the International
Court of Justice at The Hague.
    Conservative opposition leader Constantine Mitsotakis said
he had urged Papandreou to accept an offer from NATO General
Secretary Lord Carrington to help resolve the row.
 REUTER

A tentative settlement has been
reached in a three-day strike by 9,000 workers at a General
Motors <GM.N> truck and bus complex, a union spokesman said.
    United Auto Workers (UAW) spokesman Don Hooper told Reuters
in a telephone interview a settlement had been reached and a
ratification vote was expected today. He had no further
details.
    GM officials were unavailable for comment, but the head of
security at one of the struck plants confirmed a tentative
settlement of the dispute.
    The UAW struck at three GM factories on Thursday as labor
contract talks broke down on the issue of using non-union
labour on subcontracting jobs.
    About 9,000 hourly workers walked off the job after the UAW
and management failed to come to an agreement by Thursday noon,
a deadline set last week by the union.
 REUTER

The Emirates Industrial Bank has
predicted a modest economic recovery in the Gulf Arab states
following higher oil revenues.
    A bank study, carried by the Emirates news agency WAM, said
total oil revenues of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
countries were likely to reach 39 billion dlrs this year from
33.5 billion in 1986.
    The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
    The bank said the improvement would result from higher oil
prices made possible by last December's OPEC accord to restrain
overall group production.
    These curbs have pushed up oil prices from around eight
dollars a barrel in mid-1986 to around 18 dlrs.
    "All signs point to the possibility of a modest recovery in
the economies of these (GCC) countries, although this expected
growth will not be similar to that of the (1970s) boom years,"
the study said.
    It added, however, that GCC states would experience higher
budget deficits this year because of needs arising from past
recession and the difficulty of making fresh spending cuts.
    The study said the combined GCC bugdet deficits would rise
to 23.2 billion dlrs from 17.9 billion last year.
    It said lower oil exports cut the GCC states' combined
trade surplus to 18 billion dlrs in 1986 from 21.5 billion in
1985.
    The UAE suffered a 19.5 pct drop in gross domestic product
to 77.6 billion dirhams last year from 96.4 billion in 1985, it
added.
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Gulf Arab states must coordinate
economic policies more closely before moving towards their goal
of a unified currency system, the President of the Arab Bankers
    Hikmat Nashashibi told a news conference at the end of an
Arab currency traders meeting: "We have to start with
coordination of fiscal policies as a prerequisite for a common
system of currencies ... There is quite a substantial way to go
yet."
    He said only then would a unified Gulf currency system be a
plausible project.
    The six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates --  have held a series of meetings this year to
examine linking their currencies to a single peg in a system
which bankers say could be modelled on the European Monetary
System (EMS).
    At present, five currencies are linked either officially or
in practice to the U.S. Dollar, while the Kuwaiti dinar is
pegged to a trade-weighted basket of currencies.
    A common currency system or EMS-style "grid" would, in
theory, foster regional trade by providing a basis for stable
exchange rates, but Nashashibi said inter-Arab trade is at a
very low ebb and capital flows between Gulf states remain
small. "Capital markets in the Arab world are still in their
infancy," he said.
    Nashashibi said lack of experience among Arab banks, a
paucity of financial instruments and a legal framework that
often does not recognise the western banking concept of
interest have hampered the growth of Arab markets.
 REUTER

China's foreign exchange reserves are
more than 10 billion dlrs, enough to cover import payments for
three to four months, Vice Premier Tian Jiyun said.
    He told a news conference that China also has considerable
reserves of gold. He gave no figure.
    The last published figure for foreign exchange reserves was
10.37 billion dlrs at end-September 1986, down from 10.47
billion at end-June and 12.59 billion at end-September 1985.
 REUTER

A Chinese leader said the country's
foreign debt was rising but the level was not dangerous and
China valued its good credit rating in the world.
    Vice-Premier Tian Jiyun told a news conference for foreign
journalists the debt, including foreign investment, was 20.6
billion dlrs at end-1986, of which 7.6 billion were in
long-term, low-interest loans.
    "Considering the national economic strength of China and the
scale of its imports and exports, this level of foreign debt
can be sustained by China now and has not developed to a
dangerous point," he said.
    Finance Minister Wang Bingqian said in the budget speech on
Thursday that foreign borrowings in 1987 would be almost double
the 1986 level and nearly six times the 1985 amount.
    Under Chairman Mao Tse-tung's rule from 1949-1976, China
borrowed very little abroad, insisting that nearly all
development be financed from the country's own resources.
    Tian took the opposite view. "It is not enough for us to
rely totally on our own funds and capital (to achieve its
modernisation). We have to have the courageous spirit to borrow
a certain amount of foreign loans," he said.
    He said China must not borrow too much and no more than it
can repay. "China has good credit in terms of foreign borrowing
and we value this good credit," he said.
    Vice Premier Yao Yilin, a former Commerce Minister, told
the same news conference some people said China's foreign debt
was already too much and others said China could increase the
amount.
    "They proceed from their own perspectives to make such
remarks. We must always be clear-headed when we analyse the
situation," he said.
 REUTER

Italy is to modify restrictions limiting
the amount of lira cash that can be brought in and out of the
country, the Foreign Trade Ministry said.
    A statement said Foreign Trade Minister Rino Formica has
signed a measure lifting currency regulations that currently
impose a 400,000 lire limit on the value of lira bank notes
that can be brought into Italy. It did not say when the new
measure would come into force.
    In future, there will be no limit to the amount of lira
bank notes both residents and non-residents can bring into
Italy.
    The statement said the 400,000 lire limit would remain for
Italian residents wishing to take cash out of the country, but
non-residents could re-export lira cash if they made
appropriate declarations at customs points.
    It said the lifting of the restrictions "reinforces the
international status of the lira and meets the requirements
expressed several times by foreign exchange dealers."
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The French public sector will get a total
of five billion francs of investment from the 41 billion francs
which the government expects to raise through its privatisation
program, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
    Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said in a televised interview
on Wednesday the successful program would net the government 10
billion francs, more than the 30 billion orignally estimated.
    Around 75 pct of the additional revenue will be used to cut
state debt and 25 pct for public sector investment.
    Of this investment envelope, a total of 800,000 francs will
go towards industrial modernisation, especially of the chemical
sector and and a further 800,000 francs for high-tech
industries such as the aeronautical and electronic sectors, the
Finance Ministry said.
    France's state railways, the SNCF, will receive 1.4 billion
francs to speed up financing of the high-speed TGV rail link to
the Atlantic coast.
    A total of two billion francs will go towards improving
motorways around the country, the ministry said.
 REUTER

The Inter-Arab Cambist Association
(ICA) elected Abdullah al-Dakhil of Kuwait's Burgan Bank its
new chairman, succeeding Hani Ramadan of Beirut Riyad Bank for
a three-year term, ICA officials said
    The annual meeting elected three Vice-Chairmen -- Ezzedine
Saidane of Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunis, Mohammed Osman
of Societe Bancaire du Liban and Walid Nasouli of Morgan
Guaranty Trust Co of New York.
    Ibrahim Buhindi of the Saudi National Commercial Bank in
Bahrain and Imad Bata of Finance and Credit Corp of Jordan were
elected Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.
 REUTER

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said
confrontation would continue in Chad unless French forces leave
the country and rebel leaders share political power there.
    "Any anti-Libyan regime in N'djamena can rest assured that
it will never have a single comfortable night's sleep," he said
in a speech carried by Libyan television and monitored by the
British Broadcasting Corporation.
    Gaddafi repeated his stand that no Libyan forces are in
Chad, saying he stood by Chad rebel forces of GUNT -- the
Transitional Government of National Unity -- fighting the
forces of President Hissene Habre, supported logistically by
2,400 French troops.
    "As long as this movement (GUNT) continues to fight for the
liberation of Chad we will continue to stand by its side with
all force and firmness ... Whatever the battles, however long
the conflict and whatever the alliance between the
colonialists, the reactionaries and their agents," Gaddafi said.
 REUTER

A senior Nicaraguan official said a
recent plunge in coffee prices was economically and politically
disastrous for Latin American coffee-producing countries.
    Nicaraguan Foreign Trade Minister Alejandro Martinez Cuenca
was in London to brief International Coffee Organisation (ICO)
executive board producer members after a meeting last weekend
in Managua attended by eight Latin American coffee producers to
discuss the fall in coffee prices.
    London coffee prices slid 300 stg per tonne in March, to
1,279 stg from 1,580 stg at end-February.
    Martinez told reporters the price fall since the ICO failed
to agree export quotas on March 1 has had disastrous results on
Latin America, both economically and politically.
    He urged continued negotiations among coffee producers to
pave the way for a coffee export quota agreement by September.
    Coffee export quotas, used to regulate coffee prices under
an International Coffee Agreement, were suspended a year ago
when prices soared in response to a drought in Brazil.
    Central American economic ministers have estimated the
region will lose 720 mln dlrs in foreign exchange earnings in
1987 if coffee prices are not rescued by a quota arrangement,
Martinez said.
    He said ICO quota talks broke down last month because
consumer members lack the political will to fully support
commodity agreements, and because consumers tried to dictate to
 REUTER

Turkey pulled warships back from close
escort of its Sismik 1 survey ship as the threat of conflict
with Greece over oil rights in the Aegean Sea abated.
    The semi-official Anatolian Agency said naval vessels ended
their close protection of the ship as it continued work in
Turkish waters but were following it at a distance.
    Popular newspapers headlined what they saw as Turkish
resolve and international pressure forcing Greece to pull back
from planned exploration in disputed international waters.
    "Intense United States and NATO efforts bore fruit: Greece
will stay in its national waters," said the daily Gunes. The
top-selling Hurriyet topped its front page with: "Our resolute
stand made Greece see reason."
    But two newspapers, Cumhuriyet and Milliyet, noted in
identical headlines -- "Crisis Frozen" -- that the basic
disagreement over exploration rights remained unsolved.
    The confrontation eased after the Turkish government said
it had been assured Athens would not begin prospecting in
disputed waters.
 REUTER

Japan is seeking to prevent its computer
chips dispute with the U.S. From erupting into a full-scale
trade war, government officials said.
    "We hope that the dispute on this specific issue won't have
an adverse effect on our overall relationship with the United
States," a Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
     On Friday, Washington announced plans for as much as 300
mln dlrs in tariffs on Japanese electronic goods for Tokyo's
alleged failure to live up to a bilateral computer chip pact.
    That agreement, reached last year after heated
in world markets and to buy more American-made semiconductors.
    Foreign Ministry officials immediately tried to isolate the
fall-out from the dispute by seeking to separate it from Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's planned trip to Washington at the
end of April.
    While Japan has already done about all it can to make sure
the chip pact is working, the government is studying measures
it can take in other fields to defuse American anger and ensure
the trip's success, they said.
    "The perception of Japan in the (U.S.) Congress is very bad,"
one official told Reuters. "We would very much like to do
something to respond to that."
    In an apparent effort to prevent the chip dispute from
spreading to other areas, MITI officials sought to depict the
U.S. Action as a severe warning to Japanese semiconductor
makers, not to the government.
    Faced with a belligerent domestic chip industry and an
angry American Congress, the Japanese government has been
forced to walk an increasingly fine line in the semiconductor
dispute, trade analysts said.
    They said that it was an open secret that Japan's largest
chip maker, NEC Corp, was not happy with what it viewed as the
draconian measures MITI was taking to implement the pact,
included enforced production cuts.
    The angry response of Japanese chip makers yesterday to the
announcement of the U.S. Tariffs highlighted the difficulties
the government faces in taking further action.
    "Japanese semiconductor manufacturers have complied with the
U.S./Japan agreement," said Shoichi Saba, Chairman of the
Electronic Industries Association of Japan.
    He accused the U.S. Of being "irrational." He said the U.S.
Action had made the bilateral chip pact "meaningless."
    Saba's comments contrasted with those of Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone, who said Tokyo wanted to solve the dispute
through consultations.
    Japan is expected to send a high-level official to
Washington early next month to try to convince the U.S. Not to
go ahead with the tariffs on April 17.
    Trade analysts say Tokyo is likely to outline industry
plans to step up purchases of U.S. Chips and to propose a joint
investigation into Washington's allegations of chip dumping.
 REUTER

The U.S. Expects more harmonious
talks than usual during French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac's
first official visit this week as frequently rancorous disputes
between the two countries begin to fade.
    "The Libyan bombing is a thing of the past, the trade war
didn't happen and we have reached reasonably good cooperation
on terrorism," one U.S. Official told Reuters.
    "It looks like a reasonably harmonious visit in prospect,
more harmonious than usual."
    Since taking office a year ago, Chirac has been obliged to
deal with a series of potentially serious disputes with the
    During the U.S. Bombing of alleged terrorist targets in
Libya last April, France refused to allow British-based U.S.
Planes to overfly its territory, forcing them to take a
circuitous route. That angered Washington.
    The U.S. Officials, who asked not to be identified, said a
year ago Washington felt the French were not taking strong
enough action against terrorism. "Now they are. We're pleased
and they are pleased that we are pleased," one said.
    More recently, a dispute over U.S. Access to the grain
markets of Spain and Portugal after they joined the European
Community  threatened to become a trade war.
    In retaliation for what Washington saw as deliberate
Community moves to exclude U.S. Grain, the United States was
poised to impose swingeing tariffs on European Community food
imports and a major trade war was averted at the last minute.
    Last week, the forces of President Hissene Habre of Chad,
supported, trained and armed by Paris and Washington, scored a
major success by pushing Libyan troops out of their last bases
in northern Chad.
    A French official added: "There is also a common interest in
getting Japan to cut its trade surplus with the rest of the
world by opening up its markets."
    Although relations have improved markedly between the two
countries, many irritants remain. At the top of the list is the
Community's common agricultural policy (CAP).
    To Washington, as one official put it, "CAP is the root of
all evil" in international food trade because it subsidises
farmers and sells vast amounts of excess produce at below world
prices, thereby eating into U.S. Markets.
 REUTER

Year ended December 31, 1986.
    Group net profit 30 mln marks vs 35 mln.
    Balance sheet total 61.50 billion marks vs 63.67 billion.
    Credit volume 42.00 billion marks vs 43.15 billion.
    Parent bank net profit 20 mln marks vs 20 mln.
    Transfer to trades union holding co 80 mln marks vs 80 mln.
    Payment to open reserves 20 mln marks vs 20 mln.
    Balance sheet total 48.67 billion marks vs 49.01 billion.
    Partial operating profit 182.6 mln marks vs 313.7 mln.
    Interest surplus 897.9 mln marks vs 981.1 mln.
    Surplus on commission 208.8 mln marks 188.1 mln.
    Ordinary expenditure 969.7 mln marks vs 909.7 mln.
    Earnings from subsidiaries through profit transfer
agreements 494.2 mln marks vs 54.2 mln.
    Earnings from writing back provisions 326.5 mln marks vs
65.6 mln.
    Published risk provisions 736.3 mln marks vs 224.0 mln.
    Credit volume 32.63 billion marks vs 33.51 billion.
    Group figures for 1986 exclude <BSV Bank fueer Sparanlagen
und Vermoegensbildung AG> which no longer consolidated.
 REUTER

South Africa's Environmental Affairs
Minister John Wiley has been injured in a shooting incident at
his home, police said
    A police spokesman said the matter was still being
investigated and refused to give further details.
    The South African Press Association said no crime was
suspected. The minister's condition was not known.
 REUTER

South Africa's Environmental
Affairs Minister John Wiley died today in an apparent suicide
attempt, police said.
    His wife found him lying on his bed at home this morning
with a bullet wound in his head, police said. A pistol lay by
his side.
    The police said no crime was suspected and they were
treating it as an apparent suicide.
    The spokesman said Wiley's wife returned to the family home
near Cape Town to find the door locked. She found help to break
into the house and found her husband dead.
    Wiley, 60, had been member of parliament for Simonstown,
near Cape Town, since 1966, representing several parties.
    Local reporters said he had been fighting a very active
campaign to retain the seat for the National Party (NP) in the
May 6 whites-only general election.
    They said he won the seat comfortably for the NP in the
1981 poll, but was facing a strong challenge this year from
John Scott, candidate for the centrist Progressive Federal
Party.
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Iraqi Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz was
quoted as saying Iran has attacked several ships with
land-based missiles sited at the Strait of Hormuz.
    The U.S. Announced recently Iran had emplaced Chinese-made
"Silkworm" anti-ship missiles with the range to cover the entire
width of the 24-mile-wide strait at the Gulf's mouth.
    Aziz said in an interview with al-Thawra newspaper that
leaders of Gulf Arab states had told him of the existence of
the missiles, which he said had been in place for many months.
    "They briefed me with their details and we know that the
Iranians used them several times to attack ships belonging to
Arab states in the Gulf, sailing in the waterway," he said.
    This is the first time any person of authority has said
Iran, Iraq's enemy in the 6-1/2-year-old Gulf war, had fired
the missiles in anger.
    A British naval source in the Gulf said last week Iran had
fired one test missile against a hulk in the strait.
    About 120 ships have been attacked in the Gulf by both
belligerents since January last year.
    Aziz said the U.S. Had announced the existence of the
missiles so late after their arrival as part of its efforts to
neutralise the effects of the secret U.S. Arms sale to Iran.
    "The missiles existed in the Gulf for many months ... But
they became a serious topic for America and the West only after
the failure of the Iranian invasion plan (against the south
Iraqi city of Basra) and as a balloon to cover up the Irangate
story," Aziz said.
 REUTER

Bank fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG
<BKFG.F>, BfG, partial operating profits fell to 182.6 mln
marks in 1986 from 313.7 mln in 1985, new majority shareholder
Aachener und Muenchener Beteiligungs-AG <AMVG.F>, AMB, said.
    But total operating and extraordinary profits, including
earnings from currency and securities trading on the bank's own
account and earnings from the sale of holdings in other firms,
were more than double the previous year's level, AMB said.
    BfG's 1986 accounts were included in a prospectus for AMB's
capital increase, which is to finance the insurance company's
acquisition of 50 pct plus one share of BfG.
    Despite the fall in partial operating profits, BfG paid an
unchanged 20 mln marks into open reserves and transferred an
unchanged 80 mln marks to its trade union holding company,
<Beteiligungsgesellschaft fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG>, from which
AMB has acquired the majority stake.
    The bank has said its business last year suffered from the
turbulence around the troubled trade-union-owned housing
concern Neue Heimat.
    AMB said the 500 mln mark drop in BfG's business volume to
50.1 billion marks affected the interest surplus.
    The interest surplus, which fell to 897.9 mln marks from
981.1 mln, was also depressed by the 0.1 point fall in the
interest margin to 1.9 pct.
    A rise in the surplus on commission to 208.8 mln marks from
188.1 mln was not enough to compensate for this.
    The rise in total operating profits enabled BfG to step up
risk provisions, with country risks particularly emphasised
because of the continuing difficulties of some countries.
    Disclosed risk provisions, which under West German
accounting rules do not necessarily reflect the full amount,
rose to 736.3 mln marks from 224.0 mln.
    BfG's parent credit volume eased to 32.63 billion marks in
1986 from 33.51 billion. Foreign debtors accounted for 24 pct
of this credit volume, and Latin American debtors accounted for
14.7 pct of total lending to foreigners.
    BfG posted extraordinary earnings from the sale of 25.01
pct of <Volksfuersorge Deutsche Lebensversicherung AG>, 74.9
pct of <BSV Bank fuer Sparanlagen und Vermoegensbildung AG> and
five pct of <Allgemeine Hypothekenbank AG>. The sale was linked
to AMB's acquisition of a majority of BfG.
    These sales show up as 494.2 mln marks from profit transfer
agreements and 326.5 mln from writing back risk provisions.
 REUTER

The Jeddah-based Islamic Development
Bank (IDB) said in an annual report its loans during the last
Islamic year fell 24 pct due to world economic recession.
    Total financing approved by the bank for projects, trade,
and technical and special assistance fell to 756.9 mln Islamic
dinars in the year ended September 4, 1986, from 1,001.4 mln
    "Due to a general recession in the world economy, the demand
for development funds was low and there was a scarcity of
processable projects in most member countries during 1406
(September 1985-86)," the report said.
    It said a steep decline in oil prices had led to a major
transfer of resources from oil-producing countries to
industrial nations.
    "The oil exporting member nations of the IDB faced a major
adjustment problem arising from a sizable decline in oil prices
and loss of export earnings, affecting their position as
potential suppliers of capital," the report said.
    Project financing and technical assistance loans fell to
175.7 mln Islamic dinars in the year ended last September from
269.4 mln the previous year.
    The report said although there was a reduction in foreign
trade financing loans in the past year due to a sharp decline
in the price of oil and various primary commodities, the
quantity financed in physical terms of imports was higher.
    Foreign Trade financing declined to 572.8 mln dinars from
668.2 million dinars the previous year. Disbursements of loans,
including previously-approved loans, fell to 557.2 mln dinars
from 783.9 mln.
    The Bank in 1986 decided to establish a fund under the name
"IDB Unit Trust" to introduce and market financial instruments in
line with the principles of Islam, the report said.
    "This experience will provide a foundation for the floating
of other financial instruments in the near future through which
the bank expects to mobilise even larger resources," the report
said.
    The IDB was established by the 46-member Islamic Conference
Organisation and opened in October 1975.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan intervenes, buys dollars around 145.90-95 yen -- Tokyo dealers

BANK OF JAPAN ALREADY PURCHASED ONE BILLION DLRS IN MORNING INTERVENTION - DEALERS

The Bank of Japan has already purchased
more than one billion dlrs in intervention since the opening
and continues to buy the U.S. Currency, dealers said.
    The central bank was supporting the dollar against the yen
amid heavy selling pressure from investment trusts and
securities houses which had pushed the dollar as low as 144.75
yen earlier this morning, they said.
    The dollar recovered slightly from the intervention and was
trading around 145.00, they added.
    It had opened in Tokyo at 145.80 yen.
 REUTER

TOKYO STOCK MARKET AVERAGE PLUNGES 372.73 POINTS TO 21,805.29 -- BROKERS

New Zealand's Reserve Bank said it
has cancelled the regular weekly Treasury bill tender scheduled
    The bank said in a statement that it forecasts a small net
cash injection into the system over the settlement week.
    However, it said it will conduct open market operations
during the week. After these the cash balance should fluctuate
 REUTER

Sumita says he does not repeat not expect dollar to fall further.

Japan will continue to cooperate with other nations to stabilize dlr, Sumita

said he does not expect the dollar to remain unstable and fall
further.
    He told a Lower House Budget Committee in Parliament that
the Bank of Japan would continue to cooperate closely with
other major nations to stabilize exchange rates.
    The central bank has been keeping extremely careful watch
on exchange rate movements since last week, he said.
    He said the dollar would not continue to fall because of
underlying market concern about the rapid rise of the yen.
    Sumita said the currency market has been reacting to
overseas statements and to trade tension between Japan and the
U.S. Over semiconductors.
    The yen's tendency to rise will prevent Japan from
expanding domestic demand and undertaking necessary economic
restructuring, he said.
 REUTER

that the dollar's drop today to 145 yen is partly attributable
to the perception inside and outside Japan that the country has
failed to fulfill its promise to expand domestic demand.
    He told a Lower House budget committee in Parliament that
it was natural for other nations to think that Japan is not
doing enough because of the delay in the passage of the 1987/88
budget.
    The budget has been delayed by opposition boycotts of
Parliament to protest government plans for a new sales tax.
 REUTER

said the central bank will carefully consider its monetary
policy in light of the recent sharp fall of the dollar.
    Asked if the Bank of Japan will consider a further cut in
its discount rate, he said he now thinks the bank will have to
carefully consider its future money policy.
credit conditions have been eased by the five discount rate
cuts by Japan since the beginning of last year.
    Japan must now be especially careful about a flare-up in
inflation, with money supply growth accelerating, he said.
    Sumita said the central bank would continue to make a
judgement on monetary policies while watching consumer prices,
exchange rates and economic and financial conditions both in
and outside Japan.
    Asked if the September 1985 Plaza agreement was a failure
because the dollar had fallen too far, Sumita said he still
thought the pact was a good one in the sense that it had
corrected the overvaluation of the dollar. But the Plaza accord
did not set any target for the dollar's fall, he said.
    The dollar's steep fall stems from the market's belief that
the trade imbalance will continue to expand, he said.
 REUTER

President Alan Garcia said Peru has found
gold deposits worth an estimated 1.3 billion dlrs in a jungle
region near the Ecuadorean border about 1,000 km north of here.
    He told reporters the deposits, located at four sites near
the town of San Ignasio, contained the equivalent of 100 tonnes
of gold.
    Garcia said the government would soon install a two mln dlr
treatment plant at Tomaque. It will extract enough ore to
provide an estimated 25 mln dlr profit by the end of this year,
he added.
    Garcia said the other gold-bearing deposits are located at
Tamborapa, Pachapidiana and a zone between the Cenepa and
Santiago rivers.
 REUTER

Iran's non-oil exports were worth at
least 750 mln dlrs in the year ended March 20, a 35 pct
increase from the previous year, the national Iranian news
agency IRNA reported.
    IRNA, monitored in London, quoted a senior Industry
Ministry official as saying non-oil exports included carpets,
animal skins, pistachios, fruit and industrial goods.
 REUTER

The USSR will hold local council
elections on June 21 at which voters in some districts will
have a choice of candidates as part of an experiment in
electoral reform, the Tass News Agency said.
    The official agency said yesterday the selected districts,
still to be chosen, would have a slate of several candidates,
not all of whom could be elected, and voters would strike out
the names of those they did not support.
    Tass said candidates would have to win support from more
than 50 pct of registered constituents to win seats.
    Voting is compulsory in the Soviet Union.
    In the past, official returns for elections at most levels
in the Soviet government system have recorded 99 to 100 pct
support for all candidates. Voters simply dropped the official
ballot paper with the single candidate's name into an urn.
    Tass said districts chosen for the experiment would return
several deputies rather than a single representative to local
council bodies.
    The announcement followed pledges on electoral reform by
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, campaigning to revitalise
confidence in the communist system after what he has described
as a period of stagnation.
 REUTER

The United States and Japan will
soon settle their trade dispute over semiconductors, U.S.
Commerce secretary Malcolm Baldrige said on television.
    Baldrige, referring to the U.S.-Japan trade agreement on
semiconductors, said: "Their government wants to live up to it.
Their industries haven't been doing it, and I think we'll have
a good settlement to spare both sides."
    "I think the Japanese understand full well that they haven't
lived up to this commitment," he said.
    He added: "I do not think there will be a trade war at all."
    On Friday, Washington announced plans to put as much as 300
mln dlrs in tariffs on Japanese electronic goods from April 17,
because of Tokyo's failure to observe the agreement.
    The officials said the tariffs would be ended as soon as
Japan started adhering to the agreement. But they said there
was little chance Japan could react quickly enough to avert the
higher tariffs.
    Baldrige said the Reagan administration hoped the strong
U.S. Action against Japan would convince Congress to tone down
protectionist trade legislation now being drafted.
    He denied the action had been taken for that reason.
 REUTER

A top level political reshuffle
following the January removal of Communist Party chief Hu
Yaobang will take place at a party conference later this year,
Vice-Premier Yao Yilin said Saturday.
    Yao told a news conference Zhao Ziyang would go on holding
the jobs of Premier and acting Communist Party chief until the
13th party congress, due to be held by October.
    Yao gave the news conference in the Great Hall of the
People along with Vice-Premiers Li Peng and Tian Jiyun, the two
main contenders to succeed Zhao as Premier.
    Western diplomats say Li, a technocrat who studied in the
Soviet Union, is the most likely successor.
    Li appeared to go out of his way to deny any special
sympathy with Moscow. In answer to questions, he said he had
never met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev when both studied in
the Soviet Union in the 1950s and had since met him on only two
occasions, both of which had been reported in the news media.
    Asked what China could learn fromn the Soviet economic
system, Li said the main lesson was to avoid excessive
centralism and rigid control over economic activities.
    "We do not totally reject the planned economy, but we are
opposed to rigid control in the planned economy which hampers
initiative and enthusiasm of the grassroots enterprise," Li
said.
    On Taiwan, Yao repeated Chinese policy of not ruling out
force to regain the nationalist-ruled island, but did not
repeat an official statement earlier this week that the goal
was to achieve reunification by the year 2000. "As for
reunification, it is our hope that it will be achieved through
peaceful means, but we have not eliminated the possibility of
taking non-peaceful means to achieve that process," he said.
 REUTER

China has set up a new nationwide
financial institution which will handle foreign exchange and
renminbi deposits and loans, leasing, investment, guarantees
and bond issues, the People's Daily overseas edition said.
    The new institution, <Everbright Financial Co>, is a unit
of state-owned <Everbright Holding Co> of Peking, which has had
a turnover of 500 mln dlrs since it was set up three years ago
under the chairmanship of Wang Guangying, the paper said.
    A Western banker said the creation of the new firm is a
further step in making China's banking more competitive and
breaking down the monopolies that existed previously.
    He said the scope of the new firm will be similar to that
of state-owned <China International Trust and Investment Corp>
(CITIC), which has been active in raising foreign funds and
bringing foreign investment and technology to China.
    CITIC is better known inside China, because most of
Everbright's activities up to now have been abroad, the banker
said. "The heads of both enjoy excellent relations with China's
top leaders," he added.
    The paper said Chen Muhua, president of the People's Bank
of China, and Vice Premier Yao Yilin attended the firm's
founding ceremony, an indication of highest-level approval.
    The paper quoted Chen as saying at the ceremony that in
1987 China will continue to deepen its economic reforms by such
means as further reforming its financial system, enlivening
currency markets and speeding up the circulation of funds.
 REUTER

State-owned JAT-Jugoslav Airlines has
signed a contract to buy five McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD.N>
MD-11 wide-bodied airliners for its longhaul routes, Tanjug
news agency reported.
    JAT will take delivery of the aircraft between 1991 and
1994, the agency said.
    The airline will also add two turboprop aircraft to its
fleet in June and lease two McDonnell Douglas DC-10s by the
beginning of the summer tourist season, it said.
 REUTER

IRAQ SAYS IRANIAN OIL NETWORK ATTACKED
    BAGHDAD, MarcKraq said its warplanes attacked the pipeline
network through which oil is pumped to Iran's main oil terminal
at Kharg Island in the northern Gulf.
    "Large numbers of our warplanes attacked the installations
where the pipelines .... Pump oil from Ganaveh to Kharg island,
turning them into rubble and setting them ablaze ...," a
military spokesman said.
    He did not give the exact location of the area attacked but
Ganaveh terminal is on the Iranian Gulf coast some 30 miles
northeast of Kharg Island, which itself has been attacked at
least 135 times since August 1985.
 REUTER

Poland's communist government raised
food, fuel and energy prices but said it had taken an economic
risk by reducing the scale of the increases under pressure from
the country's official trade unions.
    A communique broadcast on Saturday evening said food prices
would rise on average by 9.3 pct, petrol, gas and electricity
by 25 pct and coal by 50 pct.
    The immediate increases will be followed by a rise of 10
pct in the cost of meat from April 1. Some postal charges will
go up 100 pct next month and rail and bus fares by 30 pct in
October.
    The government said its annual plan for the economy had
specified a 13 pct increase in food prices this year.
    "Economic reasoning calls for greater price rises than those
which have been announced ... The government has taken an
economic risk in accepting a portion of the trades unions'
demands," the communique said.
    The National Trade Union Alliance (OPZZ), which claims
seven million members, warned earlier this month it would fight
efforts to impose the original range of price rises. It said
the rises would badly affect the lower paid and the old,
despite government pledges to protect their purchasing power.
    Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, whose banned organisation
has been replaced by the OPZZ, condemned the increases in front
of a crowd of 1,500 cheering supporters at St Brygida's Roman
Catholic Church in the Baltic port of Gdansk.
    "For the first time in six years (since Solidarity was
banned), I say enough. For the first time, I am decidedly
against. I am against price rises as being the only sign of
reform," Walesa said.
    "I am for reforms. I favour the reforms which (Soviet leader
Mikhail) Gorbachev is carrying out  ... But I am not in favour
of make-believe reforms," he said.
 REUTER

Former National Security Adviser John
Poindexter told President Reagan on two occasions in 1986 that
profits from arms sales to Iran were being diverted to
Nicaraguan rebels, according to a Time magazine report.
    Poindexter resigned as head of the National Security
Council (NSC) last November when the Reagan administration
disclosed he was aware part of the profits from the arms sales
were diverted to contra rebels in Nicaragua.
    The report in Time quoted unnamed friends of Poindexter's
as saying he felt he was following Reagan's orders and that he
kept the president adequately informed.
    "Indeed, he is likely to testify that on at least two
occasions in 1986, he told Reagan in general terms that the
contras were being helped as an ancillary or side benefit of
the arms deal with Iran," Time said.
    Reagan has repeatedly denied he knew anything about the
diversion of arms sales profits to the contras.
    In his nationally televised March 19 news conference Reagan
told reporters Poindexter and fired NSC aide Oliver North "just
didn't tell me what was going on."
    Poindexter has been granted limited immunity so he can
testify in congressional hearings on the affair.
 REUTER

Japan's video tape recorder (VTR)
production fell 10.4 pct from a year earlier to 2.18 mln sets
in February for the third successive year-on-year drop,
reflecting slow exports, the Electronic Industries Association
    But February output was up 27.2 pct from a month earlier.
    Colour television production rose 5.7 pct from a year
earlier to 1.20 mln sets in February after 15 consecutive
year-on-year drops. The February increase over a year ago
reflected higher domestic sales. The production was up 38.5 pct
from a month earlier.
 REUTER

U.S. machine tool orders fell 1.1
pct in February to 145.1 mln dlrs from a revised 146.7 mln dlrs
in January, the National Machine Tool Builders Association
said.
    Last month the association reported the January total tool
orders at 147.8 mln dlrs.
    In its monthly statistical report, the tool industry trade
association also said that February orders were off 31.0 pct
from orders of 210.4 mln dlrs in February last year.
    The association said metal-forming tool orders fell 13.3
pct last month to 41.4 mln dlrs from a revised 47.7 mln dlrs in
January, and were off 1.1 pct from 41.8 mln dlrs in February
1986. Metal-cutting tool orders totaled 103.8 mln dlrs in
February, up 4.9 pct from a revised 99.0 mln dlrs in January
and 38.5 pct below the 168.6 mln dlrs in new orders for
    The association said the backlog of orders in February was
1,210.7 mln dlrs, up 0.6 pct from the revised January backlog
of 1,203.3 and 29.2 pct below the backlog in February last
year.
    The association said total shipments of machine tools fell
6.8 pct last month to 137.7 mln dlrs from a revised 147.7 mln
dlrs in January and were off 32.1 pct from the 202.7 mln dlrs
in orders in February last year.
    Last month the association reported the January total
shipments of machine tools at 148.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

<BTR Nylex Ltd> said it will increase
its takeover offer for Borg-Warner Corp's <BOR> listed unit,
<Borg-Warner (Australia) Ltd> (BWA) to five dlrs each from four
dlrs for all issued ordinary and preference shares.
    The new offer values the diversified auto parts
manufacturer's 27.22 mln ordinary shares and 13.22 mln first
participating preference shares at 202.2 mln dlrs.
    Formal documents will be sent to shareholders as soon as
possible, it said in a brief statement.
    BTR Nylex, which manufactures rubber and plastic products,
first bid for BWA in late January.
    As previously reported, Borg-Warner Corp, which owns 65 pct
of BWA's ordinary shares and 100 pct of the preferences,
advised a month ago that it would not accept the offer.
    This meant BTR Nylex's 50.1 pct acceptance condition could
not be met, BWA said in a statement reporting its parent's
decision.
    BWA advised shareholders to ignore the offer and said other
parties had expressed interest in bidding for it.
    But no other bid has yet emerged.
    BTR Nylex is a 59.5 pct-owned listed subsidiary of
Britain's BTR Plc <BTRX.LON>.
 REUTER

The dollar's tumble to a record low of
144.70 yen in Tokyo today motivated some major Japanese
investors to lighten their U.S. Bond inventory further and is
expected to spur diversification into investment assets
including foreign and domestic shares, dealers said.
    The key U.S. 7-1/2 pct Treasury bond due 2016 fell to a low
of 96.08-12 in early Tokyo trade against the 98.05-06 New York
finish, then recovered to 96.20-22.
    Some trust bank pension fund acccounts and investment
trusts were seen selling several hundred million dollars on the
foreign exchange market here today, accentuating the unit's
tumble, securities house dealers said.
    They seem undecided on what to do with the fresh yen cash
positions resulting from their dollar sales today, and are
sidelined until the currency market stabilises and the interest
rates outlook clarifies, a Nikko Securities Co Ltd currency
    The dollar's plunge and low yields on U.S. Bonds will
further promote diversification into other foreign investments,
as well as call back funds into the domestic bond and stock
markets from overseas bond markets, securities bond managers
said.
    They said major Japanese investors in the past two years
are estimated to have held 50 to 80 pct of their foreign
portfolios in U.S. Bonds but many have lightened their U.S.
Bond inventory to as low as 40 pct.
REUTER...

An investor group trying to acquire
GenCorp Inc said it would move to unseat the board of directors
and take other action if GenCorp refuses to discuss a 2.3
billion dlr takeover bid.
    General Acquisition Co, a partnership of Wagner and Brown
and AFG Industries Inc <AFG>, reiterated in a statement sent to
GenCorp on Friday that it was willing to negotiate its earlier
offer of 100 dlrs a share for the tire, broadcasting, plastics
and aerospace conglomerate.
    Analysts have speculated GenCorp could fetch at least 110
to 120 dlrs per share if broken up.
    GenCorp officials declined to comment on the statement, but
a spokesman reiterated a request to shareholders to wait until
the board renders an opinion before making a decision on the
offer. GenCorp has said a statement would be made on or before
the company's annual meeting on Tuesday.
    General Acquisition said the board could not carry out its
duties to shareholders and make an informed decision until it
has, "... Explored with us the ways in which our offer can be
revised to provide greater value to your shareholders."
    General Acquisition added it was aware the board may be
reviewing alternative transactions, which might provide GenCorp
shareholders with a payment other than cash.
    "If that is the case, you should recognise that our
additional equity capital may very well enable us to offer cash
and securities having greater value than GenCorp could provide
in any similarly structured transaction," it said.
    It added GenCorp's board had an obligation to present any
alternative proposal to shareholders in a way that allowed
competing offers.
    General Acquisition requested it be given a chance to bid
on a competitive and fair basis before any final decision was
made on any other buyout proposal.
    The statement repeated the request GenCorp remove a "poison
pill" preferred share purchase rights to shareholders, making
any takeover more expensive.
    It said it might take legal action, or seek the support of
shareholders in calling a special meeting to replace the board
and consider other proposals.
    GenCorp should not accept any other proposal containing
defensive features, it said.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry is trying to
eliminate technical obstacles so as to encourage purchases of
Japanese Treasury bills by foreign governments and central
banks, in order to increase overseas holdings of yen assets, a
senior Finance Ministry official said.
    The official declined to give details but securities
sources said they expect the 16 pct withholding tax on T-bills
to be repaid immediately when governments and central banks buy
bills. The current practice of filing tax redemption claims is
time consuming, they said.
    Securities houses here have had difficulty selling
six-month debt-financing paper, called tankoku, to overseas
governments and central banks because of the tax system and the
Bank of Japan's book entry system, which demands the accounts
be kept with the houses rather than by the Bank.
    Tankoku, introduced in February 1986, were designed as a
key short-term instrument to promote internationalization of
the yen. But since the introduction of a complicated book-entry
system for bill purchases in January 1986, foreign governments
and central banks have shied away from buying the bills, the
    Foreign governments and central banks are therefore
expected to be allowed to hold their accounts at the Bank of
Japan, the securities sources said.
    Relevant measures are likely to be announced at the next
U.S.-Japan yen-dollar committee meeting on the deregulation of
Tokyo's financial market, expected in May, they said.
 REUTER

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co said it will
raise its monthly nickel output to around 1,750 tonnes from
April 1 from 1,650 now because of increased domestic demand,
mainly from stainless steel makers.
    Sumitomo produced 1,800 tonnes of a nickel a month until
end-1986, but cut output in January because of stagnant demand,
a company official said.
    Calendar 1987 production is likely to fall to around 20,000
tonnes from 22,000 in 1986 as a result of the first quarter
reduction, he said.
    Sumitomo is Japan's only nickel producer.
 REUTER

Nakasone says major nations committed in Paris to stable dlr above 150 yen

Japanese vehicle exports fell 8.2 pct in
February from January to 530,066, the Japan Automobile
Manufacturers Association said.
    February exports fell 6.8 pct from a year earlier after a
6.8 pct year-on-year rise in January, the first growth since
June 1986, when they rose 4.4 pct from a year earlier.
    February exports included 361,285 cars, down 6.3 pct from a
year earlier, 165,770 trucks, down 8.6 pct, and 3,011 buses, up
51.4 pct.
    Exports to the U.S. Fell to 226,942 in February from
259,272 a year earlier, while those to the European Community
rose to 141,095 from 121,050.
    The EC figure included 63,387 vehicles to West Germany, up
from 41,821, but exports to Britain fell to 20,554 from 28,536.
    Shipments to South-east Asia fell to 33,957 from 41,960 and
those to the Middle East fell to 15,828 from 25,278.
    Japan's motorcycle exports rose 18 pct from January to
177,115 in February, but fell 25.9 pct from a year earlier, the
12th consecutive year-on-year drop.
 REUTER

Miyazawa says major nations have intervened aggressively since dlr fell below 150 yen

week ended March 21 were about 250,000 (60-kilo) bags,
including that used for soluble production, compared with
195,000 bags in the corresponding week of last year and about
300,000 bags in the week ended March 14, George Gordon Paton
and Co Inc reported.
    It said cumulative roastings for calendar 1987 now total
3,845,000 bags, compared with 4,070,000 bags by this time last
year.
 Reuter

TOKYO STOCKS PLUNGE 502.98 TO 21,675.04 DUE TO YEN RISE AGAINST DOLLAR -- BROKERS

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said
that Japan and other industrialized nations committed
themselves in Paris last month to stabilize the dollar above
150 yen.
the six nations have taken measures, including market
intervention, to support the dollar above that level.
    Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told the same committee
that the six - Britain, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. And
West Germany - had intervened aggressively since the dollar
fell below 150 yen.
    Miyazawa said major nations are trying hard to stabilize
    Asked if there had been any change in the fundamentals of
each nation since the February 22 Paris accord, he said he did
not think the fundamentals themselves had changed
substantially.
    But he said the market is sensitively looking at what is
happening in major nations. He did not elaborate.
    Miyazawa added that it was difficult to say why there has
been such speculative dollar selling in the market.
 REUTER

BASF 1986 world group pre-tax profit 2.63 billion marks vs 3.04 billion

Stocks plunged sharply just before the
close of trade as the yen's continued rise against the dollar
and Friday's order by President Reagan to impose weighty duties
on key Japanese export sectors prompted investors to evacuate
their stock holdings, brokers said.
    At 1456 local time the index had slumped 502.98 to
21,675.04, the day's low. On Saturday the index rose 151.36 to
a record high of 22,178.02.
    Brokers said today's decline was led by selling of
multinational export companies' shares.
 REUTER

Dry areas of the Australian sugar cane
belt along the Queensland coast have been receiving just enough
rain to sustain the 1987 crop, an Australian Sugar Producers
Association spokesman said.
    The industry is not as worried as it was two weeks ago, but
rainfall is still below normal and good soaking rains are
needed in some areas, notably in the Burdekin and Mackay
regions, he said from Brisbane.
    Elsewhere, in the far north and the far south of the state
and in northern New South Wales, the cane crop is looking very
good after heavy falls this month, he said.
    The spokesman said it is still too early to tell what
effect the dry weather will have on the size of the crop, which
is harvested from around June to December.
    He said frequent but light falls in the areas that are
short of moisture, such as Mackay, mean they really only need
about three days of the region's heavy tropical rains to
restore normal moisture to the cane.
    But rainfall in the next two or three weeks will be crucial
to the size of the crop in the dry areas, he said.
    "It's certainly not a disastrous crop at this stage but it
might be in a month without some good falls," he said.
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Year to December 31.
    World group pre-tax profit 2.63 billion marks vs 3.04
billion.
    World group turnover 40.47 billion vs 44.38 billion.
    World group investment in fixed assets 2.66 billion vs 2.46
billion.
    Parent company pre-tax profit 1.97 billion vs 1.91 billion.
    Parent turnover 18.72 billion vs 20.46 billion.
    Parent domestic turnover 7.10 billion vs 8.14 billion.
    Parent foreign turnover 11.62 billion vs 12.32 billion.
    Parent investment in fixed assets 1.14 billion vs 884 mln.
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Japan is becoming dangerously isolated
again as the U.S. And Europe feel they have been cheated by
Japanese promises to switch from export to domestic-led growth,
officials and businessmen from around the world said.
    As the dollar today slipped to a record low below 145 yen,
making Japanese exporters and holders of dollar investments
grit their teeth harder, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said
there was a perception Japan had reneged on its promise.
    The problem goes deep and centres on misunderstandings by
both sides over the key Maekawa report of April, last year.
    The document was prepared by a private committee formed by
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and led by former Bank of
Japan head Haruo Maekawa. It recommended that to stop friction
due to its large trade surpluses, Japan must "make a historical
transformation in its traditional policies on economic
management and the nation's lifestyle. There can be no further
development for Japan without this transformation."
    Americans and Europeans took the report to heart and have
looked in vain for clear signs of this historic change. But the
Japanese remain doubtful about the short, or even medium term
prospects of totally transforming their economic habits.
    The bubble of frustration against what appears as Japanese
prevarication burst last week. The U.S. Said it intended to
raise tariffs of as much as 300 mln dlrs on Japanese exports to
the U.S. On the grounds Japan had abrogated a bilateral
    British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher threatened to
block Japanese financial firms from London after the Japanese
placed what the British say are restrictive conditions on a bid
by British firm Cable and Wireless to join a domestic
telecommunications joint venture.
    On Friday, European currency dealers said European central
banks, annoyed at restrictive Japanese trade practises, might
leave Japan alone to intervene to staunch the rise of the yen.
    Eishiro Saito, head of top Japanese business group
Keidanren, spotted the dangers inherent in such contradictory
views last November when he visited the European Community.
"Related to this matter of (trade) imbalance, the point that I
found to be of great cause for alarm during this trip to Europe
was the excessive degree of hope placed by the Europeans in the
results of the Maekawa report," he said.
    "We explained that the process of restructuring the economy
away from its dependence on exports toward a balance between
domestic and external demand...Would take time," Saito said.
    Saito's words were ignored. In February, EC Industrial
Policy Director Heinrich von Moltke came to Japan and said "I
only know that your government, under the leadership of
Maekawa, points to restructuring your economy into a less
outward looking, more inward looking one. It is the Maekawa
report which has attracted the most attention in Europe."
    And Europeans and Americans want quick action. "A far better
answer than protectionism would be structural change within the
Japanese economy, the kind suggested by the Maekawa report. And
we hope to see changes occur in the near future," visiting
Chairman of General Motors Roger Smith said in March.
    Such expectations are now ingrained, which was partly the
fault of Nakasone, who heralded Maekawa's report as a sea of
change in Japanese affairs, said U.S. Officials.
    Months before the report was issued, U.S. And EC business
leaders met their Japanese colleagues to discuss the trade
problem.
    "We are more anxious than ever that the new approach of the
Maekawa committee does lead to speedy and effective action,"
said EC Industrial Union leader Lord Ray Pennock.
    "The important implication of the Maekawa report is that it
is finally looking to let Japanese enjoy the fruits of their
labour," said Philip Caldwell, Senior Managing Director of
    Contents of the report were leaded well ahead of issuance.
    Japanese officials say they are implementing the report as
fast as they can, said a European ambassador who has travelled
the country asking about this issue.
    He said People mentioned many things in line with the
spirit of the report, including restructuring of the coal and
steel industries.
    A major misunderstanding is that the private report was
government policy. Europeans are confused about this,
underlined by von Moltke's reference to the "leadership" of the
Maekawa report. Even so, Japanese officials point to last
September's government programme of new economic measures.
"Without endorsing the report as policy, officials point out
that the government has put its signature to a programme
designed to implement the report," the ambassador said.
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The Finance Ministry said it proposed to
the underwriting syndicate a record low 4.7 pct coupon on the
10-year government bond to be issued in April, down from the
previous record low five pct March issue.
    The bond would be priced at 99.75 to yield 4.736 pct
compared with 99.50 and 5.075 pct in March, and proposed issue
volume is 1,400 billion yen against 475 billion, it said.
    The syndicate is expected to accept the terms immediately,
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<Ssangyong Construction Co Ltd> of
South Korea has signed a 48.3 mln U.S. Dlr financing package to
fund the construction of a hotel and commercial complex in
Jakarta, the agent, Wardley Ltd, said.
    The package, guaranteed by the parent firm, <Ssangyong
Cement Industrial Co Ltd>, includes a 25 mln dlr medium term
loan, a five mln dlr revolving letter of credit facility and an
18.3 mln dlr bonding facility. The three year loan carries
interest at 1/2 point over three or six month Singapore
interbank offered rate (Sibor). The LC facility costs 10 basis
points over Sibor and the bonding facility 50 basis points.
    The facility is being lead managed by Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corp. Managers are Arab Banking Corp, Bank of Nova
Scotia, Gulf International Bank, Istituto Bancario San Paolo di
Torino, National Bank of Kuwait, Standard Chartered Asia Ltd
and Sumitomo Finance (Asia) Ltd. Co-managers are Australian
European Finance Corp Ltd and Cho Heung Bank.
    A Wardley spokesman said the loan was well received by
international banks which have a keen appetite for increasingly
scarce Korean assets. The loan was approved by the Korean
Finance Ministry because it is for use outside Korea and will
not raise the country's indebtedness, he said.
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Woolworth Holdings says it bidding 244 mln stg for Superdrug stores

Indonesia has minimised the economic
impact of falling oil prices, kept inflation within limits and
boosted exports, Finance Minister Radius Prawiro said.
    Indonesia was badly hit by last year's steep plunge in
crude prices, which cut revenue from oil exports by half.
    But Prawiro was quoted by Indonesian newspapers as telling
President Suharto that inflation was kept to around nine pct in
the financial year ending tomorrow, against around 4.3 pct the
    Exports were estimated to have risen by seven pct, he said,
although he did not give complete figures.
    The depressed economy forms the main backdrop to general
elections next month in Indonesia, a major producer of rubber,
palm oil, tin, timber and coffee.
    Prawiro said 1986/87 had also been difficult because of the
appreciation of currencies like the yen and the mark against
the dollar, which increased Indonesia's debt repayments.
    He said the economy would have suffered more from the world
economic recession if the government had not devalued the
rupiah by 31 pct last September.
    In an editorial on the economic outlook, the Jakarta Post
said the government must press ahead with measures to
deregulate the economy to help boost non-oil exports.
    The English-language daily said bigger export earnings were
needed to finance not only imports but also the country's
growing foreign debt, estimated at around 37 billion dlrs.
    "About 50 pct of our foreign debt obligations fall due
within the next three to five years and will steadily increase
the debt servicing burden," the paper said.
    However, end-investors were seen bargain hunting in
expectation of a further yen interest rate decline, dealers
said.
    Most dealers were cautious in the face of the dollar's
nosedive today and the possibility of a U.S. Interest rate
rebound to halt further dollar depreciation.
    A 4.7 pct coupon and volume of 1,400 billion yen for the
April 10-year bond proposed by the Finance Ministry this
afternoon were taken favourably by the market.
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Woolworth Holdings Plc <WLUK.L> said it
would make a 244 mln stg agreed bid for <Superdrug Stores Plc>
valuing the company's shares at about 696p each.
    The offer would be made on the basis of 17 new Woolworth
ordinary shares for every 20 in Superdrug.
    Woolworth said it had received acceptances from the holders
of 61 pct of Superdrug shares.
    The bid is Woolworth's second attempt in recent months to
acquire a retail chemist chain. Earlier this year it negotiated
a possible bid for <Underwoods Plc> buit the talks were broken
off two weeks ago.
    Full acceptance of the offer would involve the issue of
about 29.8 mln new Woolworth shares, or 14 pct of the enlarged
share capital. A cash alternative would offer 646p for each
share in Superdrug. Members of the Goldstein family have
accepted the offer for 11.7 mln shares, which have not been
underwritten.
    Another major shareholder, Rite Aid Corp's Rite Investments
Corp unit, had accepted the offer for 9.9 mln shares, and would
take the cash alternative for 9.0 mln of these.
    In the year to end-January, Woolworth reported pretax
profits sharply higher at 115.3 mln stg after 81.3 mln
    In the year to end-February, Superdrug reported pretax
profits of 12.26 mln after 10.36 mln previously on turnover
that rose to 202.9 mln from 164.3 mln. Superdrug shares firmed
to 670p from 480p on Friday. Woolworth eased to 813p from 830p.
 REUTER

The Japanese government appears to have
little new to offer to settle a dispute with the U.S. Over
computer chips, trade analysts and government officials said.
    The U.S. Has threatened to impose tariffs worth up to 300
mln dlrs on Japanese electronics exports to the U.S., In
retaliation for Japan's alleged failure to keep a pact on the
microchip trade signed last September.
    A Foreign Ministry official told Reuters "Japan has done
what it can, and now we must persuade the United States to wait
for those steps to take effect."
    The U.S. Alleges that, in defiance of the September
agreement, Japan is still selling microchips at below cost in
non-U.S. Markets and refusing to open Japan further to U.S.
Chip sales. U.S. Tariffs are due to take effect on April 17.
     Analysts noted Japan's Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) has already ordered chipmakers to cut
production in order to dry up the source of cheap chips sold in
third countries at non-regulated prices.
    "I'm not sure MITI can do much more than it has," said
Jardine Fleming (Securities) Ltd analyst Nick Edwards.
    A MITI official said the Ministry was not planning to call
for production cuts beyond those already sought, although it
would continue to press chip users to buy more foreign goods.
    Spokesmen for some Japanese electronics firms said they
would consider buying more U.S. Chips. But a Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co spokesman said a rapid increase in
imports was not likely.
    Most analysts said Japanese exporters would be hard hit if
the United States did implement the tariffs, which would be
levied on consumer electronics products rather than on
microchips themselves.
    "If the tariffs remain in place for any length of time,
there will be complete erosion of exports to the United States,"
said Tom Murtha, analyst at James Capel and Co.
    "The Japanese electronics industry is too powerful to be
stopped altogether, but recovery for the industry will be
delayed for another year," he said.
    Some analysts said tariffs would also harm U.S. Industry by
stepping up offshore production and by reducing demand in Japan
for semiconductors U.S. Firms are trying to sell here.
    "The American approach is full of contradictions," Jardine
Fleming's Edwards said.
    "If they want to expand (U.S.) exports, the last thing they
want to do is hit the makers of the final products because that
hurts the final market," Edwards said.
    But other analysts said the dispute reflects not just U.S.
Concern over what it sees as a strategic industry, but also
frustration with Japan's vast trade surplus. Some analysts
argued that to solve the semiconductor problem Japan may have
to take action beyond that pledged in the semiconductor pact.
    Carole Ryavec, an analyst at Salomon Brothers Asia Ltd,
said "The major overall issue is to stimulate the domestic
economy and move away from an export-dependent economy."
 REUTER

Remarks by Japan's Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone that last month's G-6 meeting agreed to
stabilize the dollar above 150 yen have come too late to
influence currency trading, dealers said.
    After Nakasone's statement the dollar rose to 146.40/50 yen
from an initial low of 144.20/40 and New York's Friday finish
of 147.15/25. But the rebound was largely on short-covering,
they said.
    "I think (Nakasone's) desperate," said a U.S. Bank foreign
exchange manager.
    Nakasone told a Lower House Budget Committee in Parliament
150 yen.
    "His (Nakasone) remarks should have been made and should
have had a bigger influence when the dollar was still above 150
yen," said P.S. Tam of Morgan Guaranty Trust.
    Tam said the dollar has hit short-term chart targets  and
is likely to rebound. But he warned of another dip to below 145
yen.
    Dealers said the worsening trade relations between the U.S.
And Japan will continue to depress the dollar.
    The trade issue has now become a political issue since the
Reagan Administration is facing uproar in Congress over
th3pYgks in cutting the country's 169.8 billion dlr trade
deficit, they said.
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Japanese securities houses and banks
are eager to enter the market for lead-management of mark
eurobonds when the ban on Japanese institutions is lifted, but
the entry may be difficult, Japanese bankers said.
    Most Japanese securities houses and banks established here
said they have concrete plans to enter lead-management
business, as soon as terms are cleared, probably this year.
    Japan's largest bank, The Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd, is also
considering expanding its business here, bankers said.
    Japanese banks were excluded from lead management of mark
eurobonds when the Bundesbank opened that market to foreign
banks in May 1985, due to the lack of reciprocity for German
banks in the Japanese market.
    Last year, the Japanese began a slow opening by granting
West German banks investment licences.
    Pressure on Tokyo stepped up last week when U.K. Government
sources said Britain may revoke the licences of some Japanese
banks and securities firms operating in London when they come
up for renewal if progress is not made towards opening Japan's
markets to foreign competition.
    A spokesman for the Dai-Ichi Kangyo representative office
here said the bank was naturally considering options such as
expanding its mark securities trading operations to Frankfurt.
    Sources at the bank's London branch said the bank was
already seriously planning such a move.
    Expanding secondary operations would also improve the
placement capacity of Japanese houses intending to move into
lead management of mark eurobonds.
    But even Japanese banks already established in secondary
markets here face a host of problems in lead management. One is
finding borrowers.
    One banker at Nikko Securities Co Ltd's The Nikko
Securities Co (Deutschland) GmbH said the cost of mark issues
may be too high for some Japanese firms.
    "For the moment, for Japanese borrowers, marks are
expensive," he said. Many prefer Swiss francs or eurodollars.
    A Japanese borrower with a five-year equity warrant
eurodollar bond issued at 2-1/2 pct can now swap into domestic
yen rates of one pct. But mark swap opportunities are limited.
    In addition, many Japanese companies are committed already
to large German banks.
    To avoid souring relations with German banks they now
cooperate with, Japanese houses may prefer finding borrowers so
far not seen in the mark sector.
    Names may include Sanyo Electric Co Ltd and Nishimatsu
Construction Co Ltd, which both count Yamaichi Securities Co
Ltd as their house bank, or Hokkaido Electric Power Co Inc,
which recently gave a presentation here with the Industrial
Bank of Japan's unit here.
    Japanese banks are also faced with finding local personnel,
which is not easy. "They are definitely going to have a manpower
problem," one Swiss banker said.
    Swiss and American banks had no trouble attracting top
German managers. But Japanese cultural differences will be
harder for Germans to overcome. Success may depend on whether
Japanese parents allow German subsidiaries independence to
operate without interference.
    Once established, more problems are expected if extra
competition shaves margins.
    Extra competition could cut management fees in the mark
sector. Separate management and underwriting fees common here
may also be eroded, which now make German underwriting business
profitable compared with other centres.
    A few banks are unsure if they really want to get involved
in the business. "I don't think Sumitomo has 100-pct concrete
plans at this moment unless there is a new development," a
banker at the West German commercial branch of Sumito Bank Ltd
in Duesseldorf said.
    Apart from the commercial branch in Duesseldorf Sumitomo
has a rep office in Frankfurt, but both are primarily engaged
in commercial banking. If Sumitomo were to set up a securities
operation, it would have to set up a full subsidiary, he said.
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North Korea said it agreed to a South
Korean proposal for talks between the prime ministers of the
two countries, and proposed a preparatory meeting on April 23.
    The state-run North Korean Central News Agency, monitored
here, said Pyongyang signalled its agreement in a letter sent
by North Korean prime minister Li Gun-Mo to his southern
counterpart Lho Shin-Yong.
    Lho proposed that the two prime ministers meet for talks in
a letter on March 17.
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Net profit 890 mln Luxembourg francs
vs 1.12 billion.
    Turnover 57.8 billion francs vs 65.3 billion.
    Cash flow 5.72 billion francs vs 6.70 billion.
    Steel production 3.74 mln tonnes, down seven pct.
    Board will decide on April 24 whether to pay a dividend. No
dividend has been paid since 1984.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said it cut
trading time from today by 30 minutes to inhibit volume after
recent trade turnover records.
    The cut extends the lunch break to 1115 to 1330 local time
(0315 to 0530 GMT) from 1115 to 1300 local time (0315 to 0500
GMT) and follows record turnover of 2.6 billion shares on
Friday.
 REUTER

Japanese feed and starch makers actively
bought U.S. Corn last week, C and F basis, for July/September
shipment in view of bullish freight rates following active
inquiries by the Soviet Union, trade sources said.
    Some said the makers were seen buying some 30 pct of their
requirements, estimated at about three mln tonnes for the
three-month shipment period.
    "Belief is growing that freight rates will not decline
sharply from current high levels even in the usually sluggish
summer season because the Soviet Union's chartering is seen
continuing five to seven months from April," one source said.
    The sources said Japanese trading houses were seen covering
a total of 500,000 tonnes of Chinese corn for shipment in May
to October. But they are believed to have not yet sold most of
the corn to end-users in anticipation of further corn price
rises in the world market.
    Supply from Argentina and South Africa for July/September
is still uncertain. But the sources forecast supplies from
Argentina may fall to 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes from an
anticipated 800,000 in calendar 1987 and from South Africa to
700,000 to 800,000 tonnes from an estimated one mln in light of
tighter export availability.
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The recent deterioration in the
steel market makes it important for Arbed SA <ARBB.BR> to
maintain efforts to reduce costs, the company said in a
    It reported that its competitive position had weakened
considerably in the second half of 1986, leading to a seven pct
cut in steel output over the whole of the year to 3.74 mln
tonnes.
    Arbed had managed to make a 890 mln franc net profit,
slightly down from the 1.12 billion profit in 1985, thanks to
lower raw material costs and prudent management, the company
said.
    Arbed said the early months of 1987 had seen the market
deteriorate further, but the decision of the European Community
to maintain anti-crisis measures, at least provisionally,
should under normal circumstances have a beneficial effect.
    EC ministers have agreed to extend a quota production
system while discussions continue on an industry plan for
capacity reductions.
    Arbed said in current conditions, cost cutting efforts
remain necessary to avoid any weakening of resources which have
been built up over the last three years.
 REUTER

BASF AG said
the volatile currency situation last year, particularly the
fall of the dollar, led to sharp drops in turnover denominated
in marks and to price reductions for exports from domestic
    But in a statement accompanying year-end figures, the group
said it expected satisfactory business development over the
next months. "At the moment we do not expect any extraordinary
influences such as there were last year," it said. Orders in
hand and incoming orders were steady at a high level.
    BASF reported 13.6 pct lower 1986 world group pre-tax
profit at 2.63 billion marks compared to 1985.
    The unusual situation on the crude oil market last year
also produced a clear sales slide in the oil and gas sector and
forced price declines for petrochemical products, BASF said.
    The fall in pre-tax profit corresponded to the losses on
stocks in the oil and gas sector at the beginning of 1986. In
the parent company, the positive earnings development
continued, it said, where pre-tax profit rose by 3.2 pct to
1.97 billion marks. The decline in parent company turnover was
balanced out by increased capacity use and price declines in
raw materials. 
    In 1986, world group turnover was off 8.8 pct at 40.47
billion marks compared to 1985, BASF said. Parent turnover fell
8.5 pct to 18.72 billion.
    Turnover increases, with the exceptions of the sectors fine
chemicals and informations systems, had only been achieved in
those areas widened last year through acquisition in 1985.
    Results from these had been taken only partly into the
fourth quarter of that year but fully included in 1986 data.
    So far in the current year, the investment volume of the
parent company and the world group is exceeding that in 1986,
BASF said, without giving concrete figures.
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Bahrain is introducing a new domestic
money market regime to provide dinar liquidity aid centred on
the island's newly launched treasury bill programme.
    The Bahrain Monetary Agency has issued a circular to all
commercial banks outlining a new policy from April 1 which
gives liquidity aid through sale and repurchase agreements in
treasury bills, or through discounting them.
    The circular, released officially to Reuters, said current
arrangements for providing liquidity aid will no longer be
valid except "in quite exceptional circumstances."
    Under the current system, the agency provides the island's
20 commercial banks with dinar liquidity by means of short-term
swaps against U.S. Dollars and, less frequently, by short-term
loans secured against government development bonds.
    "The agency considers that it is now appropriate to replace
these operations with short-term assistance based on Government
of Bahrain treasury bills," the circular to banks states.
    The agency said it will repurchase treasury bills with a
simultaneous agreement to resell them to the same bank at a
higher price which will reflect an interest charge.
    The agency said it envisages the repurchase agreements will
normally be for a period of seven days.
    Bahrain launched a weekly tender for two mln dinars of
91-day treasury bills in mid-December last year and has since
raised a total of 26 mln dinars through the programme.
    Bahrain's commercial banks are currently liquid and have
been making little use of the traditional dollar swaps offered
by the agency. But banking sources said the new regime from
April 1 will mean banks cannot afford not to hold treasury
bills in case they need funds from the central bank.
    Banking sources said more than half of the 20 banks hold
treasury bills, although the need by others to take up paper
could increase demand at weekly tenders and push down allotted
yields slightly.
    Last week's yield was six pct, although the programme had
started at the end of last year with rates as low as 5.60 pct.
    Banking sources said the cost of liquidity through
repurchase accords will not differ much from that on dollar
swaps. But a bank using dollars to obtain liquidity would
foresake interest on the U.S. Currency while the underlying
treasury bill investment is unaffected in a repurchase accord.
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Japanese crushers have bought some
214,000 tonnes of Brazilian soybeans for late April/early July
shipment and may buy up to 140,000 to 190,000 tonnes more for
June to August shipment, trade sources said.
    Japan imported 128,089 tonnes of Brazilian beans in
calendar 1986, Finance Ministry customs-cleared statistics
show.
    The sources said Brazilian beans were cheaper than U.S.
Origin which may account for the heavy purchases, but added
there were concerns about deliveries from Brazil in the near
term due to labour problems there.
    The Japanese purchases comprise 30,000 tonnes for April
20/May 10 shipment, 102,000 for May, 15,000 for late May/early
June, 36,000 for June, and 31,000 for late June/early July
shipment, the sources said.
    As a result of the large volumes of Brazilian beans
purchased, Japanese crushers will buy a total of only 150,000
tonnes of U.S. Beans for May shipment. Some 100,000 of this
shipment has already been purchased, the sources added.
    They said crushers bought some 270,000 to 280,000 tonnes of
U.S. Beans for April shipment.
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A maximum budget deficit of 2.5 billion
dlrs for fiscal 1987/88 ending June 30 is needed if financial
markets are to be impressed with the government's resolve to
tackle Australia's economic problems, Westpac Banking Corp
<WSTP.S> said.
    This compares with the budgeted deficit of 3.5 billion dlrs
for the current 1986/87 year although the market expects the
actual shortfall to be some 500 mln dlrs higher.
    In its latest Economic Review, Westpac said powerful
arguments could be advanced for eliminating the deficit
altogether next year or even budgeting for a modest surplus.
    Westpac said such a policy would deliver the message the
government was determined to face deep-seated economic
problems. But it said it would be a great deal to expect of a
government in what was probably an election year.
    It said even a relatively minor cut in the deficit would
require some unpleasant decisions, noting a repeat of the
1986/87 budget's zero real growth in spending would only bring
the deficit to about 4.3 billion dlrs.
    A cut of greater than two pct in real terms was needed if a
2.5 billion dlr deficit was to be achieved and this required
some radical surgery to existing programs, the bank said.
    Westpac said the government's mid-May mini-budget provided
an opportunity for bold measures, both in relation to the size
of the government's role in the economy and the principles
governing that activity, notably indexation of outlays.
    It said official figures show 93 pct of outlays in some way
indexed, hard to justify when living standards outside the
public sector were being eroded.
    In current circumstances, the alternative to fiscal
discipline is the sure road to bigger external debts, further
currency depreciation, a boost to inflation and, ultimately,
capital flight, the bank said.
 REUTER

Dutch seasonally adjusted M2 money
supply was hardly changed in December at 169.49 billion
guilders compared to 169.56 billion in November, Central Bank
data show.
    The figure was 2.6 pct higher than in December 1985.
    In November, M2 fell 1.9 pct from its level in October and
was 3.9 pct above its level a year before.
    Seasonally adjusted M1 money supply was also hardly changed
at 97.21 billion guilders in December, compared to 97.05
billion guilders in November. It was up 9.4 pct on its level a
 REUTER

Singapore welcomed the London Metal
Exchange's (LME) decision to list Singapore as a delivery point
for the LME's new dollar-denominated aluminium contract.
    Tay Thiam Peng, manager for international trading at the
Trade Development Board, said the decision would boost
Singapore's image as a major delivery port.
    "We hope this will encourage more metal traders to set up
shop here and that Singapore can become a delivery port for
other metals as well," he said.
    The new contract, to start trading on June 1, is LME's
first dollar-contract.
 REUTER

liquidity surplus of around 100 mln stg in the money market
today.
    Among the main factors affecting liquidity, exchequer
transactions will add some 985 mln stg to the system today
while a fall in note circulation and bankers' balances above
target will add around 360 mln stg and 110 mln stg
    Partly offsetting these inflows, bills for repurchase by
the market will drain some 785 mln stg while bills maturing in
official hands and the treasury bill take-up will remove about
546 mln stg.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell 500 billion
yen of financing bills via a 32-day repurchase agreement to
help mop up a money market surplus of around 1,750 billion yen
tomorrow, short-term money houses said.
    The bill, to mature on May 2, will produce a 3.8995 pct
yield on the sales, made by the Bank of Japan to banks and
seucurities houses through money houses, they said.
    The repurchase agreement yield compares with the 3.9375 pct
one-month commercial bill discount rate today and the 4.40 pct
rate on one-month certificates of deposit.
    The surplus is due largely to government tax allocations to
local governments and public entities at the end of fiscal
1986/87 tomorrow.
    The operation will put outstanding bill supplies at about
2,500 billion yen.
 REUTER

Newly-installed Philippine Coconut
Authority Chairman Jose Romero has announced the appointment of
lawyer Leandro Garcia as administrator, replacing Colonel Felix
Duenas who is returning to military duty.
    The new constitution does not allow military men to hold
positions in civilian agencies.
    Duenas and four other military men who were assigned to the
authority in 1978, will return to the ministry of defence where
they worked prior to their appointments at the coconut agency.
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CORRECTION - TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE CUTS HOURS
    In the Tokyo story headlined "TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE CUTS
TRADING HOURS" please read in the second paragraph " ... From
1100 to 1300 ... " instead of " ... From 1115 to 1300 ... "
correcting closing time.
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Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> said <County Bank
Ltd> had bought 165,000 shares in <Hillards Plc> on its behalf,
increasing its stake to 5.4 pct. The shares were bought at
313.25p each.
    Tesco is making an opposed 151 mln stg bid for Hillards.
    Hillards shares at 0900 GMT were quoted one penny firmer at
317p while Tesco was one penny easier at 479p.
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Non-consolidated net profit 3.435
billion francs vs 2.330 billion.
    Turnover 39.3 billion francs (no direct comparison)
    Own funds 20 billion francs vs 9.2 billion after transfer
of 1.28 billion francs from profits and 8.5 billion from sale
    Note - company said the figure is slightly lower because
French branches have become group subsidiaries).
    Proposed net dividend on ordinary shares 100 francs,
including 20 franc supplement due to the exceptional character
of results, vs 71.9 francs.
    Note - Company was created in May 1986 by the merger of
(Royale Belge Vie-Accidents) and (Royale Belge
Incendie-Reassurance).
    Vie-Accidents shareholders received eight new shares and
Incendie-Reassurance shareholders six for every share held in
the old companies.
    Comparisons are therefore company calculations.
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Finance and Planning Minister Ronnie De
Mel has left for Washington to discuss Sri Lanka's request for
an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan facility of up to 6.5
billion rupees, ministry officials told Reuters.
    They said De Mel will propose to IMF officials that Sri
Lanka trim its budget deficit and control its balance of
payments by cutting back on development projects and other
government spending. He hopes to get approval for a structural
adjustment facility and compensatory financing facility
starting in June. De Mel will also attend a Washington meeting
of the Group of 24 from April 5 to 8.
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Japan's ailing shipyards have won
approval from the Fair Trade Commission to form a cartel to
slash production to about half of total capacity for one year,
effective April 1, industry sources said.
    The approval follows an act of parliament passed last week
designed to help the industry regroup and shed 20 pct of
capacity by March 31, 1988, Transport Ministry officials said.
    The cartel, comprising 33 yards capable of constructing
ships of more than 10,000 gross tonnes, will limit newbuilding
output to a maximum of three mln compensated gross registered
tonnes in 1987/88, the Shipbuilders Association of Japan said.
    Industry sources said the 33 will seek to renew the cartel
in 1988/89 in the belief demand will remain sluggish.
    Last week's temporary act of parliament also allows
shipbuilders to receive favourable taxation terms plus up to 50
billion yen in compensation for liabilities incurred through
job losses and the sale of excess capacity.
    Up to 30 billion yen has been allocated for purchasing
redundant land and equipment from shipbuilders.
    The Ministry will start drawing up its restructuring
guidelines from April 1 and the yards will implement the
guidelines from September, industry sources said.
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The Indonesian rupiah has held steady
since its 31 pct devaluation against the dollar six months ago,
but has slipped against the mark and to a lesser extent against
the yen, according to central bank figures.
    In the past month, the rupiah has fallen five pct against
the yen. Today's middle rate per 100 yen was 1,129.78 against
1,075.20 at end-February and 1,058.6 at devaluation in
    Bank Indonesia's quoted rate for the dollar, the main
currency for Indonesia's oil and gas exports, was 1,644.0
today, the same rate fixed at the time of devaluation.
    The rate for the West German mark was 913.28 today, a sharp
drop from September when it was 786.06.
    The British pound has risen to 2,657.93 against 2,429.83.
   The value of the rupiah is set daily against a basket of
currencies by the central bank.
    The rise in the value of the mark and the yen has hit
Indonesia by increasing its debt servicing levels. Its total
disbursed foreign debt is estimated by the World Bank at 37
    Japan is one of Indonesia's key trading partners, taking
half its oil exports.
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Gillette Canada Inc is launching a 500
mln French franc bond, due April 30, 1992, paying nine pct and
priced at 101-5/8, Banque Paribas said on behalf of Banque
Paribas Paris, the lead manager.
    Morgan Guaranty Ltd will co-lead manage the issue, which
will be sole in denominations of 10,000 francs and be listed in
and underwriting combined. The bonds are non-callable and
payment is April 29.
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Philippine coconut oil exports to Europe
would be virtually wiped out if the European Community (EC)
implements a new tax on vegetable oils, Philippine Coconut
Authority (PCA) chairman Jose Romero said.
    But he told reporters he did not think the EC would impose
the tax because of objections from the U.S.
    "There's just so much flak coming from many countries,
spearheaded by the United States, whose soybean exports would
be adversely affected. This would spark a trade war," he said.
    The tax, to be imposed from July, would add about 375 dlrs
a tonne to vegetable oils entering the EC.
    The Philippines exported 43,540 tonnes of coconut oil worth
11.7 mln dlrs to Europe in January, against total exports of
86,959 tonnes worth 23.8 mln. It also exports copra and copra
meal.
    Agriculture Secretary Carlos Dominguez has also raised
objections to the proposed EC tax.
    He said it could cause the collapse of world demand and
prices and destroy the domestic industry.
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Sweden's Wallenberg group said it
raised its holding in telecommunications maker Telefon AB L.M.
Ericsson <eric.St.> to 37.5 of the voting rights from 28.9 pct.
    The move by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, one
of the institutions at the core of the group of companies
formed by the late industrialist Marcus Wallenberg, further
consolidated group control over one of its key firms, analysts
said.
    The foundation now controls 14.1 pct of Ericsson's voting
rights with 22.3 pct held by the group's investment companies
<AB Investor> and <Forvaltnings AB Providentia>.
    The move comes after the Wallenberg group fought off a
hostile takeover bid earlier this month for match and packaging
conglomerate Swedish Match AB <smbs.St> from arms and chemical
concern Nobel Industrier AB <NOBL.ST> by increasing its stake
in Swedish Match to 85 pct from 33 pct.
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<GKN Plc> said it and <Zahnradfabrik
Friedrichshafen AG> would reorganise the ownership structure of
their <Viscodrive GmbH> joint venture.
    Under the agreement, GKN's Uni-Cardan AG unit would
increase its stake in Viscodrive to 75 pct from 50 pct, while
ZF's stake would drop to 25 pct.
     At the same time ZF would take an 80 pct stake in a new
company, <Steertec Lenkungen GmbH> leaving Uni-Cardan with 20
pct.
    Viscodrive manufactures viscous control units while
Steertec will develop power steering systems.
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Yugoslavia said it has been asked to
participate in the production of a new Soviet airliner -- the
Ilyushin 114.
    The official Tanjug news agency said this was decided at a
meeting in Havana of officials of the Soviet-led trade group
Comecon. Yugoslavia is a communist nonaligned state, belonging
neither to the Warsaw Pact or the Western alliance, Nato, but
it enjoys preferential trading status in Comecon.  Under the
deal, Yugoslavia will produce several major parts, including
the landing gear, for the new medium-range 80-passenger
Ilyushin airliner, Tanjug said. No financial details were
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French retail prices rose a confirmed 0.2
pct in February, in line with provisional figures released two
weeks ago showing a rise of between 0.1 and 0.2 pct, the
    The rise compared with a 0.9 pct rise in January.
    Year-on-year retail price inflation was confirmed at 3.4
pct for February compared with a three pct rise year-on-year in
January.
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The Philippines' restructuring of 13.2
billion dlrs of foreign debt will provide a welcome boost for
the economy, but last Friday's accord with the country's
12-bank advisory committee does not imply an overnight boom,
bankers and businessmen polled by Reuters said.
    "The successful negotiations form an important piece in the
mosaic," Christian Roeher, Secretary-General of the European
Chamber of Commerce, said. "Now is really the time for the
government to start implementing its ideas. There has been a
lot of talking and loud thinking."
    Business leaders said the 17-year rescheduling of
commercial bank debt would give President Corazon Aquino some
badly-needed breathing space, but warned her government was
still in the midst of political consolidation.
    "There is a lot of interest among foreign investors in the
country, but now they are waiting to see what happens in the
congressional and local elections later this year," said
American Chamber of Commerce president George Drysdale.
    The government is serious about getting down to work, but
there are many individual agendas for growth and no consensus.
But each step brings a unanimity of opinion closer, he said.
    Aurelio Periquet, President of the Philippine Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, told Reuters the debt accord had
positively translated the international banking community's
confidence in the country's economy and Aquino's government.
    "This government needs less pressure and more time and
happily our creditors seem to see it that way," he said. "This
accord may not result in an immediate boom, but at least it
enhances the image of the country for foreign investors."
    But Periquet said domestic and foreign investments fell
short of targets in 1986. "The accord does not solve all our
problems," he added.
    Periquet said the question of political stability no longer
worried Filipino businessmen, who had already started expanding
existing businesses or investing in new areas.
    "A number of us have already put in new money and there are
plans for the export market," he said. "President Aquino has
shown her ability to pull the nation out of one crisis after
another."
    Roeher said foreign investment would probably be held back
until after the congressional polls in May and the local
elections in August. "The two elections will probably have a
more decisive effect on the way business reacts," he said.
    "Some foreign companies are not waiting, but they are more
the exception than the rule," Roeher said.
    He said it was important the government ensure the creation
of more jobs was not just a transitory development.
    "The absorption of enormous aid given to the Philippines is
also poor. A lot of it has not been put to use. The government
should act without further delay to absorb the 1.7 billion dlrs
of development aid it will receive in 1987," he said.
    A foreign banker close to the debt negotiations said he did
not foresee any real boom until 1989.
    "The problem is that Aquino has inherited her political
system from (former President Ferdinand) Marcos," the banker
said. "There is still a clamour for the sharing of benefits,
different sectors claiming their rights and duties. If they go
too fast there could be another bust two years down the road."
    Businessman Raul Concepcion, whose brother Jose is the
country's trade and industry minister, said everyone could
heave a sigh of relief. "Now that the debt agreement is out of
the way, our economic and financial officials can concentrate
on their work, like increasing government revenue and
efficiency," he said.
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Toray Industries Inc <TORT.T>, Japan's
top synthetic fibre maker, named managing director Katsunosuke
Maeda as president, effective April 16.
    Current president Yoshikazu Ito will become chairman.
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offered by the United Arab Emirates central bank were higher
than last Monday's offering, the bank said.
    One-month maturity rose 1/16 point to 6-3/16 pct, two-month
1/8 point to the same level, and three- and six-month issues
3/16 point to 6-1/4 pct each.
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Credit Agricole announced an offer to
swap the 1,889,000 francs of bonds outstanding on its original
4.25 mln franc, 10-year, 14 pct July 1980 issue for its new
four billion franc, two tranche, 8.30 pct, 1987 issue.
    The swap will be on the basis of two 2,000 franc nominal
1980 bonds for one 5,000 franc nominal bond of the 1987 issue.
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Sri Lanka will uproot rubber trees that
are more than two years old and affected by the leaf disease
corynespora, the head of the government's Rubber Research
Institute told Reuters.
    Rodney De Mel said affected trees less than two years old
would undergo base-budding -- attaching a clone as close as
possible to the trunk's base and cutting off the top of the
tree once the bud has taken. Uprooted or base-budded trees
mature later, causing an output loss estimated at 350 kilos per
hectare from the sixth year when they begin producing.
    About 7,000 acres are planted with the high yielding RIC
103 variety, the clone afflicted by corynespora.
    Only about 2,000 acres are affected by the disease, which
causes leaves to fall off, De Mel said.
    Sri Lanka has 508,000 acres planted with rubber trees.
    De Mel said the disease was detected in nurseries as early
as in middle 1985, but it was only in August-September 1986
that it became widespread.
    The Institute is conducting a survey to determine how many
trees will be uprooted or base-budded. Healthy trees will be
sprayed and remain under observation.
    T.P. Lilaratne, head of the government's Rubber Controller
Department, which monitors the industry, told Reuters
replanting and base-budding would have to be undertaken before
late May when the monsoon rains begin.
    De Mel said clones in the nurseries which are susceptible
to corynespora, identified as RIC 103, RIC 52, RIC 104, RIC
106, RIC 107 and RIC 118, will be uprooted and burned.
    The same procedures will be undertaken for the foreign
clones indentified as NAB 12, RRIM 725, FX25, PPN 2444, PPN
2447, KRS 21 and PPN 2058.
    Lilaratne said the susceptible clones would be replaced by
PB 86, RRIM 600, RRIC 110, RRIC 121, RIC 100 and RIC 102.
    These six varieties would also be used to replace trees
uprooted or base-budded, De Mel said.
    Lilaratne said planters would receive 10,000 rupees per
hectare for replanting and plants would be free of charge.
    "But no compensation is contemplated at the moment," he
added.
    De Mel said a drought in Sri Lanka has helped control the
spread of the disease.
    "The drought has not stopped the disease, but probably
helped in some way because trees have not been affected in
areas that are dry," he said.
    Brokers said the disease had not affected prices because it
has not caused a drop in production.
    Prices for the best latex crepe at the Colombo auction last
week firmed to 20.19 rupees per kilo from 20.05 rupees at the
previous sale.
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Finland's <Kansallis-Osake-Pankki>
said in a statement it is issuing 100 mln dlrs subordinated
bonds due 1994 with equity warrants in international markets
with maximum interest rate of 4-5/8 pct.
    Pricing will probably be April 7, the statement said.
    The new issue could raise the bank's share capital by 200
mln Finnish marks from the present 2.26 billion, it said.
    The statement said the issue followed up the 1986 tender
issuance involving the first non-restricted or free shares,
which can be held by aliens.
    The warrants entitle holders to subscribe for a maximum of
10 mln free shares. Eight mln of the Bank's current 113 mln
shares are free shares, a spokeswoman said.
    The float follows the signing by Finnish President Mauno
Koivisto last Friday of legislation entitling aliens with
effect from next June 1 to own up to two fifths of the shares
in Finnish companies, with consent of the Council of State, as
against one fifth although voting rights will be restricted.
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Quebecor Inc <PQB.A>, the Canadian
publishing concern, is issuing a 60 mln dlr convertible bond
due May 14, 1997 bearing an indicated coupon of 5-3/4 to six
pct, said Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as lead manager.
    The issue will be priced to have a conversion premium of 22
to 25 pct, with final terms to be set on Monday, April 6. The
company's stock last traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange at
19-3/8. The securities will be listed in Luxembourg and are
available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs.
    Fees include a one pct combined management and underwriting
and a one pct selling concession.
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Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin said
Philippine Investment Notes (PINs), to be offered to commercial
bank creditors as part of the country's 13.2 billion dlr debt
rescheduling, would revive the Baker Plan.
    PINs are tradable, foreign currency-denominated financial
instruments with a six-year maturity, designed for conversion
into pesos to fund government-approved equity investments
within the Philippines.
    Ongpin told reporters after a meeting with businessmen the
government was planning to issue between 100 and 150 mln dlrs
worth of PINs at a discount of about 12.5 pct this year.
    The plan, outlined by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
18 months ago, stalled because commercial banks balked at the
idea of lending additional money, Ongpin said. It had called
for substantial new commercial bank lending and development
bank aid in order to help debtor countries grow out of their
economic troubles.
    The PINs provide a mechanism to finance the growth needed
by these debtor nations, provided they are willing to welcome
foreign equity investment into their economies, Ongpin told a
businessmen's meeting. "And this can now be achieved without
forcing commercial banks into involuntary new money lending."
    Bankers in New York said given the booming market in
debt-equity swaps, PINs ought to work if Manila issues the
notes at an appropriate discount.
    Ongpin said the use of PINs would result in anticipated
savings of one billion pesos over the debt agreement's 17-year
life.
    The accord restructured 5.8 billion dlrs of previously
rescheduled debt, 3.5 billion dlrs of debt falling due between
January 1987 and December 1992, and 925 mln dlrs of new money
lent by the banks in 1985 at a spread of 7/8 percentage points
over London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR).
    It also rolled over trade credits worth 2.9 billion dlrs.
    Ongpin said the Philippines' 7-1/2 year grace period was
better than Mexico's seven-year grace period, while the PINs
proposal would result in savings of foreign exchange and
generate pesos which would be reinvested in domestic
enterprises.
    Ongpin said the restructuring of commercial bank debt, as
well as of 870 mln dlrs of debt by the Paris Club of Western
creditor governments in January, was expected to reduce the
country's debt-service ratio to between 25 and 30 pct from its
current level of 40 to 45 pct.
    He said the country's balance of payments was now projected
at a surplus of about 1.2 billion dlrs in 1987, compared with a
surplus of about 1.1 billion dlrs in 1986 and a previous
projected deficit of 1.2 billion dlrs this year.
    The Philippine negotiating team refined the PINs idea three
times before the final agreement was struck last Friday, Ongpin
said. "What we have now is PINs IV," he said.
    Ongpin told the meeting he had kept his promise to gain
terms better than those granted last year to Mexico, which won
a 20-year repayment at 13/16 points over LIBOR.
    "And they (Mexico) are a long way from seeing any money
cross the table even as of today," Ongpin said, adding he
expected much quicker approval from all the Philippines' 483
creditor banks worldwide.
    He said he had been in almost daily telephone contact with
President Corazon Aquino, particularly when the banks began to
take a very tough stance on pricing.
    "But the President's instructions were unequivocal and
unwavering, 'Do not yield one more millimetre and I don't care
how long it takes. Get a green card if you have to, but don't
come home without a deal we can all be proud of'," he said.
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The Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX),
a leading trader of currency options, plans to extend its
trading hours to serve Australasian and Far Eastern markets,
exchange president Nicholas Giordano said.
    He told reporters the PHLX will open a new session between
1900 and 2300 hours U.S. EST from the beginning of the third
quarter this year.
    The PHLX is also opening an office in Hong Kong to serve
clients in the region and educate financial markets about the
advantages of currency options, Giordano said.
    Giordano was in Sydney to start an Asian-Pacific tour by
exchange executives promoting the hedging benefits of the
exchange-trade currency option market against existing
over-the-counter option trading during the local working day.
    Currency options pioneered by the PHLX in 1982 had become
an accepted means of hedging against foreign exchange risk and
had grown in popularity, he said.
    The PHLX now offered options in eight currencies, including
a new Australian dollar option, and traded an average 42,000
contracts daily with underlying open interest of more than 30
billion U.S. Dlrs.
    Giordano said the exchange had been impressed with the
performance of its Australian dollar contract, which since its
introduction last year had regularly topped the French franc as
the third most popular traded option, with up to 8,000
contracts traded daily.
    Having the Philadelphia exchange open during the
Asia-Pacific market day would open new hedging opportunities,
set a truer level for over-the-counter option trading, increase
arbitraging opportunities and give corporations and treasuries
access to a currency option market of much greater depth and
liquidity with the security of a clearing house, he said.
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The yield on 91-day bankers security
Agency, SAMA, fell to 6.18376 pct from 6.34322 a week ago,
    SAMA increased the offer price on the 500 mln riyal issue
to 98.46094 from 98.42188 last Monday. Three month interbank
riyal deposits were quoted today at 6-1/2, 3/8 pct.
    SAMA offers a total 1.9 billion riyals in 30, 91 and
180-day agreements to banks in the Kingdom each week.
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Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
expects the dollar to rebound soon, a Ministry spokesman said.
    He quoted Miyazawa as telling Japanese reporters that major
industrial nations are aggressively intervening in currency
markets worldwide to prevent a dollar free-fall.
    The minister believes that market forces will push the
dollar back up from its record low of 144.70 yen today,
according to the spokesman.
    Miyazawa told the Japanese reporters the U.S. Unit fell
because Japanese investors sold dollars to hedge currency risks
before the close of the 1986/87 fiscal year on March 31.
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adjusted 2.2 pct in February after a 1.1 pct rise in January.
    The unadjusted year on year rise was 18.9 pct after 17.6
pct in the year to January, the Bank said.
seasonally adjusted 0.8 pct in February, and rose by a
non-adjusted 4.1 pct year on year. In January, M0 fell by an
adjusted 0.6 pct, and rose by a non-adjusted 4.1 pct year on
year.
    The figures confirm provisional data issued by the Bank on
March 19.
    The Bank said sterling bank lending grew by a seasonally
adjusted 2.91 billion stg in February, after a 1.70 billion stg
adjusted rise in January.
    The measure of private sector liquidity, PSL2, rose an
unadjusted 0.9 pct in February, making a year-on-year
unadjusted 13.1 pct rise. Adjusted, PSL2 rose by 1.2 pct in
February, against a 0.6 pct rise in January, the Bank said.
    It said the public sector contribution to the growth in
Sterling M3 was contractionary by about 40 mln stg after a
contractionary contribution of 2.3 billion stg in January.
    Within this, the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement showed
a repayment of 380 mln stg after a 3.7 billion stg repayment in
January, while the non-bank private sector's holdings of
government debt fell by about 260 mln stg after a 1.1 billion
stg fall in January.
    There was a 50 mln stg rise in notes and coins in
circulation in February after a 290 mln stg fall in January,
    Non-interest bearing sight deposits rose by 460 mln stg
after a 1.5 billion stg fall in January and interest-bearing
deposits fell 200 mln stg after a 1.6 billion rise in January.
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Slough Estates Plc <SLOU.L> said it
views the prospects during 1987 with confidence.
    In a statement accompanying its 1986 results, it reported a
rise of over 10 mln stg in 1986 pretax profit to 49.6 mln stg
and said there are signs that the existing threat of excess
supply may be lessened in 1987. There has also been a return of
interest in industrial investment.
    An external appraisal of the group's investment properties
was carried out last year which found their gross value to be
851.3 mln stg as at Dec 31.
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West German wholesale turnover
provisionally totalled about 58 billion marks in February, a
rise of a real one pct compared with the same month last year,
the Federal Statistics Office said.
    Turnover fell a nominal seven pct from February last year,
down by around four billion marks, it added. Turnover of about
114 billion marks in the first two months of 1987 represented a
real decline of two pct from the same 1986 period.
    According to final figures, wholesale turnover had fallen
by a real 5.7 pct in January, an office spokeswoman said.
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<Nissan Mexicana SA de CV>, owned 96.4
pct by Nissan Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> and the rest by Marubeni
Corp <MART.T>, will supply all engines for manual transmission
"Sentra" cars produced by Nissan Motor's wholly-owned subsidiary
<Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp USA> (NMMC), a Nissan
    Nissan's shift to Mexican production from Japan is due to
improved quality there and the yen's rise against the dollar.
    From July 1987, all car engines for NMMC will be supplied
by Nissan Mexicana. As a start, Nissan Mexicana shipped a total
of 17,000 car engines to NMMC last summer, the spokeswoman
said.
    NMMC in Smyrna, Tennessee, which has produced Sentras since
March 1985, made 65,000 cars.
    NMMC will more than double Sentra production to 140,000
this year including 80,000 to 90,000 manuals, she said.
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Call money rose to 3.70/80 pct from
3.50/60 pct in moderate business as liquidity drained from the
system on pension payments by insurance firms, dealers said.
    But the market was relatively liquid for the month's end,
when rates usually tighten, dealers said. Call money was still
at or slightly below the 3.80 pct rate set on the most recent
Bundesbank securities repurchase offer last week.
    The insurances would probably draw down some 11 billion
marks for pension payments. But part of this would be offset by
an estimated five to six billion marks flowing in from treasury
bills bought from the Bundesbank on Thursday, dealers said. 
    Rates could ease later in the week as bank customers
deposit part of their pension payments back with the banks
tomorrow and Wednesday, and banks face reserve requirements for
a new month, dealers said.
    On Thursday, banks' actual daily reserve holdings fell to
43.3 billion marks, down substantially from 49.1 billion on
Wednesday. But the daily average holdings for the first 25 days
of the month stood at 51.8 billion marks, well above the
required daily average net reserve holdings of 50.7 billion.    
The Bundesbank has not scheduled a securities repurchase
tender this week, since there is no expiring prior pact. 
dealers said liquidity was adequate without the addition of new
repo funding.
    If tightness does occur the Bundesbank may add short-term
temporary federal government funds to counteract this. The last
such liquidity injection was carried out as call money rates
rose above 4.00 pct earlier this month, dealers said.
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The new International Cocoa Agreement
should lead to a stabilisation of prices, both benefitting
producer countries and promoting an equilibrium in
international economic relations, European Community
Development Commissioner Lorenzo Natali said.
    He said in a statement welcoming the agreement on buffer
stock rules reached last week in London that it resulted in
large part from initiatives taken by the EC Commission after
consumers and producers had reached deadlock in initial
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Rugby Portland Cement Plc <RBYL.L> said
it was well placed to operate in the new circumstances
following the ending in February of the 53-year old cement
manufacturers common price and marketing arrangements.
    In a statement following the release of its 1986 results,
IT stated that the current year had started well. It reported
that pretax profits in the year rose to 35.46 mln stg from
21.84 mln previously on turnover higher at 313.3 mln after
252.2 mln.
    The strong recovery of the first six months continued into
the second half, although U.K. Cement demand rose only
modestly. Results benefitted from cost cutting and higher
volumes.
    The decision by the Cement Makers Federation to end the
pricing agreement reflected pressure from higher competition
due to growing imports and the possibility that the system
would be taken to the Restrictive Practices Court by the U.K.
Government. It stated that its John Carr unit benefitted from
strong organic growth, although overseas its Cockburn operation
had a difficult period with high maintenance costs and
increased depreciation charges.
    The company is proposing to change its name at the next
annual meeting to <Rugby Group Plc>.
    Rugby said it spent 27 mln stg on acquisitions in 1986. It
noted that its Western Australia hotels company had agreed to
sell the Parmelia hotel for 31.5 mln Australian dlrs, some
seven mln stg above end-1986 book value.
    The results were largely in line with forecasts and Rugby
shares were little changed at 242p after 241 at Friday's close.
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Mannesmann AG <MMWG.F> said it has
reached a series of agreements giving it an indirect majority
stake in the <Fichtel und Sachs AG> car parts group.
    The takeover is contingent on approval from the Federal
Cartel Office in West Berlin, a spokesman said, adding that
Mannesmann was confident the authorities would not block the
purchase.
    Mannesmann is buying 75 pct of <MEC Sachs
Vermoegensholding> which owns 37.5 pct of Sachs AG, which in
turn holds 96.5 pct of Fichtel und Sachs. The MEC shares will
be bought from the granddaughters of the firm's founder.
    Mannesmann is also purchasing a 25.01 pct stake in Fichtel
und Sachs from Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> and has an option to buy
the bank's remaining 10 pct stake, a company statement said.
    In addition to these firm agreements, Mannesmann is also
talking with the state-owned steel group Salzgitter AG
 <SALG.H> on buying its 24.98 pct stake in Fichtel und Sachs.
 This would give Mannesmann around 75 pct of Fichtel und Sachs.
    Salzgitter said it decided to give up its own original
plans to seek a majority stake in Sachs after holding talks
with the government in Bonn.
    Earlier this month Mannesmann disclosed that it might want
a majority stake in Sachs after previously saying it was
seeking to buy only a minority holding in the company, which
has annual turnover of 2.2 billion marks and employs 17,000.
    The acquisition is part of Mannesmann's efforts to
diversify into high-technology areas and away from its previous
reliance on steel and pipe-making. More
    A spokesman for the Federal Statistics Office later said
the anti-cartel authorities would probably rule on the takeover
in the new few weeks.
 REUTER

A chemical plant in the south China
province of Guangdong will raise 30 mln yuan by a domestic bond
issue, the China News Service, monitored here, said.
    It said the Shantou Photosensitive Chemicals Plant will
issue three-year bonds of fixed interest at 11 pct a year in
denominations of 50, 100 and 500 yuan.
    A subsidiary of the China Commercial and Industrial Bank is
arranger for the issue.
    The plant will use the proceeds to finance its expansion.
 REUTER

Singapore's M-1 money supply  rose
2.7 pct in January to 10.09 billion Singapore dlrs after a 3.7
pct increase in December, the Monetary Authority of Singapore
said.
    Year on year, M-1 grew by 15.6 pct in January compared with
an 11.8 pct growth in December.
    The January rise was largely seasonal, reflecting an
increase in currency in active circulation prior to the Lunar
New Year. Currency in active circulation rose to 5.42 billion
dlrs from 5.03 billion in December and 4.84 billion a year ago.
    The demand deposit component of M-1 dropped in January by
4.67 billion dlrs from 4.79 billion in December and compared
with 3.89 billion in January, 1986.
    Broadly-based M-2 money supply rose 1.1 pct to 31.30
billion dlrs in January, after a 1.6 pct rise in December,
bringing year on year growth to 12.1 pct in January against
10.0 pct in the previous month.
 REUTER

BBC Brown Boveri und Cie
<BBCZ.Z> said it won a major order to supply its "Comprex"
pressure-wave supercharger for use in a new car diesel engine
to be produced by Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> of Hiroshima,
Japan.
    It gave no financial details.
    BBC said the supercharger enables diesel engine cars to
match the performance of petrol engine vehicles without losing
the fuel economy and emission advantages of diesel.
    Mazda is the first international carmaker to use the
supercharger in mass production of diesel engines.
 REUTER

British and Commonwealth Shipping Co Plc
<BCOM.L> said that it would reorganise its commercial and
service operations into a single public grouping with
autonomous management.
    The group has expanded rapidly in the past year through the
672.5 mln stg acquisition of <Exco International Plc> and 90
mln bid for <Steel Brothers Holdings Plc>.
    It noted that its operations were now divided between
financial services, including money broking, investment
management and forfaiting, and more traditional areas such as
aviation, hotels, commodity trading and office equipment.
    It said that each sector had exciting prospects but
required different methods of management and financing.
    B and C planned to form a new public company to hold the
commercial operations and envisaged it operating with a capital
of between 400 mln and 600 mln stg.
    It has retained Barclays de Zoete Wedd to advise on the
introduction of independent investors to subscribe for
additional capital, and believes that the proportion of equity
capital held by outside investors would not exceed 20 pct of
the total.
    The statement said that with the continued support of B and
C, together with outside capital, the new grouping would emerge
as a major group in its own right with the ability to take
advantages of opportunities as they arose. However, the group
would not seek a listing for the time being.
    B and C also said that its chairman, Lord Cayzer, planned
to retire in June. The company proposed that he be appointed
life president and that current chief executive John Gunn
should take over as chairman.
    B and C shares eased 11p to 459p at 1040 GMT.
 REUTER

A Finance Ministry official said the
ministry has recently conducted a survey on foreign exchange
transactions by institutional investors but declined to say if
it was aimed at moderating their dollar sales.
    However, financial market sources said they had heard the
ministry has asked life insurance and securities firms to
refrain from selling dollars, but they were unable to confirm
this directly.
    Dealers said life insurance firms were not major sellers of
dollars in recent trading sessions because they had already
sold them to hedge risks.
    Dealers said securities houses and trust banks on the other
hand have aggressively sold the dollar.
 REUTER

The British Petroleum Co PLC (BP.L) oil
refinery at Grangemouth, closed after an explosion and fire
eight days ago, is expected to partially reopen next week, a
refinery spokesman said.
    He said the entire 178,500 bpd refinery has been shut since
the accident which killed one person and damaged the site's
hydrocracker. The main units will resume operation next week
but the hydrocracker will be closed for an unspecified period.
The spokesman said the refinery had been operating at about
half its capacity since end-January due to overhaul work on
part of the complex. The overhaul is expected to end by late
April.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank did not intervene as
the dollar was fixed lower at 1.8063 marks after 1.8231 on
Friday, dealers said.
    Business calmed down after a hectic start, with European
operators sidelined because of uncertainty about the short-term
direction of the dollar, dealers said. "At the moment, all the
action is taking place in New York and Tokyo," one said.
    The U.S. Currency traded within a 145 basis point range in
Europe, touching a low of 1.7940 and a high of 1.8085 marks.
But it remained within a narrow 40 basis point span around
1.8050 marks after the first hour of European trading.
    Comments by Japanese officials and Bank of Japan dollar
support had pushed it above 145 yen and 1.80 marks after
falling as low as 144.50 and 1.7860 respectively in Tokyo.
 REUTER

The green coffee market saw some demand
for high quality coffees in the past week, but business was
described as generally unsatisfactory, trade sources said.
    Especially sought were spot East African and Ethiopian and
some Brazils, they said, adding that some high grade robustas
also met some demand.
    Sporadic business was noted in the second hand which
offered Kenya coffee for May/June shipment up to 25 dlrs below
origin levels.
    Roasters are said to be well covered and are not expected
to enter the market for larger purchases in the near term.
 REUTER

CertainTeed Corp is seeking a 150 mln
dlr multiple facility, which will incorporate a revolving
credit and allow the borrower to issue short-term advances,
euronotes and euro-commercial paper on an uncommitted basis,
Chemical Bank International said as arranger.
    The revolving credit will be for five years and drawings
will be at 10 basis points over the London Interbank Offered
Rate (Libor). There also will be a 150 mln dlr swingline option
available under which drawings will be at 10 basis points over
the U.S. Prime rate.
    The euronotes will have maturities of one, three and six
months and be sold in denominations of 500,000 and one mln
dlrs, while the commercial paper will have maturities of up to
183 days.
    There will be a facility fee of 10 basis points and
utilisation fees of five basis points for up to 33 pct, 7.5
basis points for between 34 and 66 pct and 10 basis points for
the remainder.
    CertainTeed, a U.S. Building products company, is 57 pct
owned by Cie de Saint-Gobain <SGEP.PA>, the recently privatised
French glass and materials group.
 REUTER

Total loans and advances extended by
banks in Singapore rose in January to 36.01 billion Singapore
dlrs from 35.79 billion in December but fell from 36.93 billion
a year ago, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said.
    It said the increase was concentrated in loans to the
manufacturing and real estate sectors, while loans to the
commerce sector declined.
    Deposits of non-bank customers also fell in January to
30.44 billion dlrs from 30.61 billion in December but rose from
28.33 billion in January, 1986.
    Total assets and liabilities of banks rose to 77.60 billion
dlrs in January from 76.83 billion in the previous month and
69.45 billion a year ago.
    Assets and liabilities of finance companies fell to 6.87
billion dlrs from 6.95 billion and compared with 6.85 billion,
    Loans extended by finance companies rose to 4.77 billion
dlrs from 4.74 billion in December and against 5.34 billion in
January last year, while deposits placed with them dropped to
4.68 billion against 4.89 and 4.79 billion.
 REUTER

position to flat from its original estimate of a 100 mln stg
surplus.
 REUTER

The gross size of the Asian dollar
market contracted to 197.2 billion U.S. Dlrs in January, down
3.4 billion dlrs from December, reflecting a decline in
interbank activity, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
said in its latest monthly bulletin.
    The assets stood at 151.7 billion dlrs in January last
year.
    MAS said interbank lending fell in January to 140.9 billion
dlrs from 146.6 billion in December but rose from 102.0 billion
in january 1986 and interbank deposits to 154.0 billion against
159.4 and 117.1 billion, respectively.
    Loans to non-bank customers increased to 40.1 billion dlrs
in January from 38.7 billion in December and 36.9 billion in
    Deposits of non-bank customers also increased in January to
34.9 billion from 33.8 billion a month ago and 27.7 billion a
year ago. REUTER

Hong Kong's broadly defined M-3 money
supply rose 1.4 pct in February to 615.59 billion H.K. Dlrs
from January when it rose 2.2 pct, the government said.
    Total M3 rose 22.4 pct from February, 1984. Local currency
M3 rose 0.6 pct to 282.11 billion dlrs from January, and 16.8
pct on the year.
    Total M2 rose 2.0 pct to 545.71 billion dlrs in February
from January, when it increased by 3.3 pct.
    Local currency M2 rose 1.0 pct to 251.49 billion dlrs last
month after it rose 4.7 pct in January. Total M2 and local M2
rose 32.0 pct and 24.9 pct respectively from February, 1984.
    Total M1 fell 5.3 pct to 59.52 billion dlrs in February
after a 12 pct rise in the previous month. Local M1 dropped 6.0
pct to  54.47 billion dlrs after January's rise of 12.3 pct.
    Year on year growth in total M1 and local M1 was 26.3 pct
and 27.6 pct, respectively.
    Total loans and advances rose 1.3 pct to 523.74 billion
dlrs from January, when they were up 3.3 pct. However, loans
for financing Hong Kong's visible trade fell 1.3 pct to 36.23
billion dlrs after a 3.4 pct rise in the previous month.
 REUTER

Algeria will tender on April 3 for
20,000 tonnes of optional origin sunflowerseed oil/rapeseed oil
for Apr/May loading, traders said.
    Meanwhile, the market is awaiting results of an Algerian
import tender which took place over the weekend for about
10,000 tonnes of refined vegetable oils in drums, traders
added.
 REUTER

Plans by the U.S.-based ICN
Pharmaceuticals Inc <ICN.N> to issue a mark eurobond soon are
in doubt owing to uncertainties about future expansion, Arab
Banking Corp - Daus and Co GmbH (ABC DAUS) said.
    During a presentation in February ICN had said it would
issue its first mark eurobond sometime this spring
    ICN planned to issue a bond to provide funds to acquire
pharmaceuticals firms and expand its marketing base, Daus said
in a statement. But uncertainty about an acquisition, coupled
with Eastman Kodak Co's <EK.N> announcement it plans to sell
its 2.3 pct stake in ICN, had made a launch date uncertain.
 REUTER

The buffer stock rules agreement reached
on Friday by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is an
improvement on previous arrangements but the price-support
mechanism is unlikely to do more than stem the decline in cocoa
prices, many ICCO delegates and trade sources said.
    The accord was reached between producers and consumers of
the 35-member ICCO council after two weeks of talks.
    European chocolate manufacturers and delegates said the
accord may boost cocoa prices immediately, but world surpluses
overhanging the market will pull prices down again before long.
    "If the buffer stock operation is successful, I doubt it
will do anything more than stop the price from falling further,
and it will have no relevance at all to retail chocolate
prices," a European dealer said.
    And if the buffer stock manager delays too long in buying,
or is not seen to be using his purchasing power when the market
is relying on him to do so, the bearish trade reaction could
pressure prices dramatically, dealers said.
    The buffer stock is the market-regulating tool of the ICCO,
into which cocoa can be bought or from which it can be sold to
manoeuvre prices into a pre-set stabilization range.
    A new cocoa agreement came into force in January but
delegates could not agree buffer stock rules at that time.
    The new rules take effect immediately. The buffer stock
manager is expected to begin buying cocoa within the next three
weeks, after organizing communications with cocoa producing
countries and assessing the market, since prices are below the
"must-buy" level of 1,600 Special Drawing Rights per tonne
specified in the agreement, the sources said.
    The buffer stock theoretically has funds to buy a maximum
100,000 tonnes within a five week period, but its approach will
be more cautious, buffer stock manager Juergen Plambeck said.
    The buffer stock has around 250 mln dlrs in funds and a
buying limit of 250,000 tonnes of cocoa, 100,000 tonnes of
which are already in the buffer stock.
    ICCO council chairman and Ivorian Agriculture Minister
Denis Bra Kanon said the new rules have a good chance of
stabilizing prices. Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa
producer.
    "We have established rules which will permit us to withdraw
immediately the surplus of cocoa on the world market," Bra Kanon
told reporters after the council adjourned. Bra Kanon reckoned
the world cocoa surplus could be less than half the 94,000
tonnes estimated by the ICCO statistics committee.
    However, some producer and consumer members emerged from
the final ICCO council meeting with reservations about the
pact.
    Ghana, whose high-quality cocoa is the world's most
expensive and provides 60 pct of the country's export earnings,
made a formal protest to the council about the price
differentials assigned to its cocoa, saying they were too high
for Ghanaian cocoa to be bought for the buffer stock.
    According to consumer spokesman Peter Baron of West
Germany, "Consumers weren't perfectly happy with the buffer
stock rules. We reached a very sensitive compromise...There
were no real winners or losers."
    Some European Community delegates were not satisfied that
important points were fully discussed during the talks, and as
a result, doubted the rules can deal with world surpluses as
effectively as they could have, delegates said.
    Under the new rules, the buffer stock manager would seek
offers of different origin cocoas, using price differentials to
reflect different qualities. Non-ICCO member cocoa can comprise
up to 15 pct of the total buffer stock.
    London cocoa prices traded today around 1,300 stg per
tonne, down from around 1,450 stg in January 1987 and 1,750 stg
in January 1986.
    A cocoa withholding scheme can take a further 120,000
tonnes of cocoa off the market if a special council session
decides market conditions warrant it, according to the
    The withholding scheme can only be used if prices fall
below the 1,600 SDR lower intervention price for more than five
days and if 80 pct of the maximum buffer stock capacity has
been filled, or if the buffer stock runs low on funds, it says.
    The ICCO will discuss withholding scheme rules at an
executive committee meeting on June 9/12, ICCO officials said.
 REUTER

When the largest German "universal"
banks begin announcing 1986 results this week they should
report the third consecutive record year. But prospects for
1987 and beyond would be distinctly cloudier, bank analysts
said.
    Results should show the trend which began this decade was
unbroken. The proportion of earnings gleaned from commission
business should be higher, while the role played by the more
traditional credit lending business would show further erosion.
    Stock exchange volumes remained high last year, depite only
modest share index rises in the year.
 In addition, major banks last year were very active in new
bourse flotations and primary and secondary bond market
business, banking analysts said.
    Despite last week's quite strong rally, the depressed stock
market and forecasts that it would probably not attract
sustained interest from the global investment community made a
downturn in commission business most likely.
    Pressure on the interest rate margin and the increasing
competition posed not only by foreign banks in Germany but by
foreign stock exchanges, particularly London, would also bring
more guarded prognoses for the future from board members.
    But one banking analyst said, "There's obviously no reason
to paint too dark a picture. In this decade so far, the banks
have posted practically only record profits, with increases of
50 pct and more. This cycle must clearly end sometime."
    One problem more psychological than real was West German
banks' exposure to Latin American debtor nations. Bank
officials have said that a good 70 pct of the exposure has been
written off on balance sheets.
    Some analysts consider that the conservative accounting of
German banks may in some cases have prompted the writedown of
80 or even 100 pct of several exposures there.
    With almost all Latin American exposure denominated in dlrs
and written down two or three years ago, the U.S. Currency's
fall has made further allocations to country risk reserves for
the region virtually unnecessary.
    "German bank earnings have become much more dependent on
developments on the stock exchange than on the debt question," a
second analyst said.
    It is precisely because of bank reporting rules that allow
the build up of "hidden" reserves known only to the Bundesbank,
that few analysts produced precise earnings forecasts as they
did for corporate non-banks.
    But Alastair France, of London brokers Alexanders, Laing &
Cruickshank, said his clculations showed that Deutsche Bank AG
<DBKG.F> would report a very strong 1986, boosted&by
herMdbsoa Z the FriedrichFlick ndstievewaltung KGAA
industrial empire, followed by a fairly strong drop back this
year and flat earnings in 1988.
    This contrasted with Dresdner Bank AG <DRSD.F> and
Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> whose earnings would drift fractionally
lower this year and then rise modestly in 1988. On the German
DVFA basis, Deutsche should report 59 marks per share in 1986
and 49 marks in both ensuing years, France said.

saying.
 Reuter

Belgian starch manufacturer <Amylum NV>
is surprised and disappointed that its 675 mln dlr offer for
the European business of CPC International Inc <CPC.N> was
apparently rejected in favour of a lower 630 mln dlr bid by
Italy's <Gruppo Ferruzzi>, chairman Pierre Callebaut said.
    Callebaut told Reuters that Amylum, a leading starch and
isoglucose manufacturer in which Britain's Tate and Lyle Plc
<TATL.L> holds a 33.3 pct stake, had made an undisclosed
initial takeover offer for CPC's European corn wet milling
business by the close of CPC's tender on March 17.
    The offer was raised on March 24 to a final 675 mln dlrs in
cash after CPC told Amylum its initial bid was below Ferruzzi's
630 mln stg offer, Callebaut said.
    On the same day, CPC announced it had agreed in principle
to sell its European business to Ferruzzi in a 630 mln dlr
deal.
    Noting that Ferruzzi was studying a public offering of
shares in its unit <European Sugar (France)> to fund the CPC
takeover, Callebaut said Amylum may still succeed in its bid.
    "For the time being we just await developments. But I note
that whereas our higher offer was in cash, Ferruzzi apparently
is still organising finance," Callebaut said.
 REUTER

further.
U.S. over semiconductors.
 Reuter

budget.
 Reuter

Alitalia <AZPI.MI> pilots started five
days of industrial action today causing cancellations to dozens
of domestic flights and chaos to several international
services, Italian airport officials said.
    Pilots working for the national airline are striking for
four hours during the busy morning period every day until
Saturday in protest at working conditions. Almost all of
Italy's airports are affected by the action.
    Alitalia said it had cancelled 96 domestic flights and
warned of severe disruption to other services.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Yugoslav banks said they will raise
interest rates sharply on savings accounts from April 1.
    The Association of Yugoslav Banks said interest rates on
six month deposit accounts will be raised to 81 pct from 51
pct, 12 month deposits to 84 pct from 61 pct, two year deposits
to 86 from 64 pct and three years to 88 from 66 pct.
    The increase is in line with Prime Minister Branko
Mikulic's policy of bringing interest rates closer to the rate
of inflation which is approaching 100 pct.
 REUTER

Budget director James Miller said
President Reagan will not compromise on his vow not to raise
taxes despite pressure from Congress.
    "No, the President has been very clear about that," Miller
said on NBC's "Today" program. "The President's not going to give
in."
    When asked if Reagan's pledge not to raise tax rates meant
he might go along with some tax increase not affecting rates,
Miller replied, "No, I wouldn't read anything into the word tax
rate. Of course that's the most important thing. But the
President's not going to go along with a tax increase."
 REUTER

Automobiles Citroen, a division of
private car group Peugeot SA <PEUP.PA>, plans to close its
Levallois plant outside Paris in the first half of 1988,
halting production of the 2-CV small car in France, a
    The 2-CV, France's oldest popular car, was introduced in
1949. It will continue to be produced at Citroen's Portuguese
plant at Mangualde, the spokeswoman said.
    Measures for the 1,090 workers employed at the plant will
include offers of other jobs in the company, help in finding
jobs outside it and financial incentives to return home for
North African workers who make up about half of the workforce.
    "We have always said that when the Levallois plant, which
was built in 1893, could no longer produce cars profitably, we
would close it," the spokeswoman said.
    Sales in France dropped to about 14,008 last year from
26,221 in 1983.
 REUTER

A further rally in Dutch bonds is
likely this week, due to a lower dollar and a slightly firmer
guilder against the mark attracting investors back to guilders
from marks, bond analysts said.
    The rally began last week, as proceeds from a sell-off in
dollar paper flooded into stronger currencies.
    The state tender of a new 6.25 pct eight-year bullet
indicates a week of active trading, dealers said.
    "We've not had trade like this since last year's boom around
the May elections," said Wim Moret of Banque Paribas.
    Moret was referring to the strong demand for Dutch bonds up
to and following last year's election of Prime Minister Ruud
Lubbers, whose centre-right coalition government was pledged to
a tight economic programme which bolstered the guilder.
    Last week, a wide sell-off of dollar and sterling boosted
demand for mark and guilder paper. Japanese corporate investors
were active buyers as the end of their accounting year, March
31, approached.
    Dutch prices and trade volume reached their highest level
this year. Total turnover topped four billion guilders, after
3.5 billion in the previous active trading week.
    While volume was considerable, prices rose more moderately.
The bourse bond index rose to 117.3 last Friday, a rise of 1.9
against its level two week's earlier.
    Foreign investors took the lion's share of trade last week,
but dealers noted considerable switching by domestic investors
as the yield differential between mark and guilder issues
enticed arbitrage activity.
    The dollar, mark and sterling started this week even lower,
heightening the chances of lively foreign demand for
guilder-denominated paper, dealers said.
    Today's declines could also be partly attributed to
investors selling in a bid to force down prices ahead of the
state loan tender tomorrow.
    "This is quite a normal situation. It's natural for
investors to want the highest yield for the lowest price. It
ensures firm demand at tomorrow's tender," one dealer said.
     The terms of the new issue are seen drawing firm domestic
and foreign demand, especially since the yield premium on Dutch
long maturities has grown to 0.45 pct over similar mark issues.
    The loan will be the fourth state issue for payment this
year, and also the fourth with a 6.25 pct coupon, since Dutch
interest rates have changed little this year.
    Bond analysts said that in view of the state's practice of
weighting the bulk of its capital market borrowing in the first
half of the year, it would be likely to raise at least four
billion guilders.
    Dutch merchant bank Pierson, Heldring en Pierson, said the
state has raised about 15.3 billion of its 1987 capital market
requirement of an estimated 32 billion guilders. Of this total,
7.3 billion was raised on the public capital market.
    Basing their judgement on today's market conditions,
dealers expected the loan to be priced at 101.00 pct for a
yield of 6.09 pct.
    "But everything hinges on tomorrow. If prices decline and
yields rise, it may be priced at a fraction below that," one
    On the domestic front, dealers say investors are amply
covered by a 4.2 billion guilder nine-day special advance by
the Dutch central bank, which has given the money market
sufficient liquidity until Friday, when the provision expires.
 REUTER

    He accused the U.S. of being "irrational." He said the U.S.
action had made the bilateral chip pact "meaningless."
plans to step up purchases of U.S. chips and to propose a joint
investigation into U.S. allegations of chip dumping.
 Reuter

In a bid to hasten Japan's promise
to speed up its economic growth and open markets to foreign
trade, top U.S. officials appear once again to have signaled
their tolerance of a lower dollar.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker and one of his top aides,
Assistant Secretary David Mulford, said last week there was no
target for the dollar, a statement that sent the yen soaring
against the dollar, despite massive central bank intervention.
    "That was no slip of the tongue," said one western monetary
official, who asked not to be identified.
    For now, the strategy appears to be working. Japanese
officials said late last week a package to bolster domestic
demand will be ready in early April. Until last week, there
were few indications the package would be ready anytime soon.
    The Reagan administration, facing an uproar in Congress
over the apparent lack of progress in cutting the 169.8 billion
dlr trade deficit, is learning now that to extract results from
Japan, dramatic action is required.
    Last week the White House imposed unprecedented tariffs on
certain Japanese electronic goods after Tokyo failed to adhere
to a semi-conductor pricing accord between the two countries.
    The shift in U.S. strategy, in part designed to appease
mounting Congressional anger over Japanese policies, comes just
two weeks before industrial nations reconvene here to review
the Paris agreement to stabilize currencies.
    And news that Japan earned a record 18 billion dlr trade
surplus in the first two months this year just underscored the
need for urgent action, in the view of U.S. officials.
    Nonetheless, U.S. officials see signs of improvement in the
deficit. "I'd be stunned if we were not going to derive some
benefits (from the lower dollar) soon," said one.
    In Paris, leading industrial nations agreed to cooperate
closely to foster currency stability within ranges reflecting
"underlying economic fundamentals" or economic reality.
    The agreement envisages those fundamentals to include Japan
and West Germany stimulating their economies and the United
States cutting its budget deficit.
    The three nations, joined by France, Britain and Canada,
agree these policies are essential to redress huge global trade
    But analysts say markets have signalled the underlying
fundamentals imply a lower dollar, rather than a stable one.
    Markets, in effect, are less confident than governments
that these measures -- including U.S. budget deficit cuts
agreed by Congress and the White House --will be carried out.
    Nonetheless, the dollar's sharp fall has not undermined 
cooperation. A U.S. economic policymaker said the accord was on
track and Tokyo and Bonn seem "to want more stimulative measures
which is what the Paris accord calls for."
    International monetary sources said exchange market
developments generally have not unsettled policymakers,
although Japan is an obvious exception. "Everybody feels it can
still be managed," one source said of market developments.
    But last week, the Bank of Japan spent an estimated five
billion dlrs intervening to halt the rise in the yen, and other
central banks about one billion dlrs.
    Another monetary source said Japan was upset with America's
half-hearted attempt to halt the falling dollar, flouting the
Paris accord outright.
    The source, close to the top levels of Japanese economic
policymaking, said Japan's understanding of the accord was that
the yen would be kept at around 154 to the dollar, the level it
stood at when the accord was struck.
    The source said Tokyo was extremely worried by Washington's
use of the exchange rate to change Japanese policies. It was a
"pointed reminder" to Japan to do something about the trade
issues, the source said of the dollar's fall against the yen.
    By departing last Sunday from the language of the Paris
accord -- that nations agreed to foster currency stability
around current levels -- Baker triggered a run on the dollar.
    Later in the week, Mulford too said there was no target for
the dollar and called on Japan and West Germany to live up to
their international responsibilities and stimulate growth.
    But U.S. officials said recent market developments will not
unravel the spirit of the Paris agreement.
    "There's a realisation now that you cannot leave things
alone, everyone agrees that the external (trade) imbalances
ought to be adjusted," one official said.
    "While no-one is going to cede national sovereignty, we
certainly seem to be moving towards much closer co-operation,"
another U.S. official said.
    The officials said the meeting here, where the six will be
joined by Italy, will be a status report.
    "Japan will have to explain what the state of their program
is and Germany will report on its plans. Maybe there's a need
to move faster," one source said.
    Mulford told Congress last week the Paris accord called, in
effect, for currency stability for several months. This would
buy time for Japan and West Germany to speed up their economic
growth and help bring down the U.S. trade deficit.
    His comments appeared to serve notice on other major
nations that Washington cannot wait too long for action to
reduce the gap between the Japanese and German trade surpluses
and the U.S. trade deficit.
 Reuter

    Kurt Viermetz, worldwide treasurer of Morgan Guaranty Trust
Co, told Arab currency traders meeting here that the steady
depreciation of the dollar had not gone far enough to rein in
U.S. deficits on a lasting basis.
 Reuter

said that it closed Equitable Savings and Loan Association of
Fountain Valley, California, on Friday due to insolvency,
amongst other complaints.
    The bank board said in a statement that Equitable's insured
deposits have been transfered to a unit of Buffalo-based Empire
of America Federal Savings Bank <EOA> in Woodland Hills,
    Consequently, Equitable's offices will open as Empire
branches today.
    Equitable had assets of 59.12 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

An investor partnership, seeking to
acquire GenCorp Inc, said it would attempt to unseat the
company's board of directors and take other hostile actions if
the firm refuses to discuss its 2.3 billion dlr takeover bid.
    General Acquisition Co, comprising investors Wagner and
Brown and glass-maker AFG Industries, also reiterated its
willingness to negotiate with Gencorp.
    The partnership has earlier offered 100 dlrs per share for
GenCorp -- a tire, broadcasting, plastics and aerospace
conglommerate.
    Analysts have speculated that GenCorp, on a break-up basis,
could fetch more than 110 to 120 dlrs per share.
    GenCorp officials had no comment on General Acquisition's
statement but a spokesman reiterated an earlier request to
shareholders to wait until its board renders an opinion before
making a decision on the General Acquisition tender.
    Gencorp said its statement would be made on or before the
company's annual meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
    General Acquisition made its statement in a letter sent to
the GenCorp board on Friday.
    The partnership said it was willing to negotiate all points
of its offer, including price.
    The group the board cannot fully carry out its fiduciary
duties to GenCorp shareholders and make a fully informed
decision about its offer until it has "thoroughly explored with
us the ways in which our offer can be revised to provide
greater value to your shareholders."
    General Acquisition said it is aware the board may be
reviewing alternative transactions which might provide GenCorp
    "If that is the case, you should recognize that our
in any similarly structured transaction," the partnership said.
    General Acquisition also said it believes that GenCorp's
board has an obligation to present any alternative transaction
it may propose to shareholders in a manner that would allow for
    The partnership requested that if any other proposal is
under consideration that it be given the same information
available to GenCorp's managers and advisers in constructing a
proposal.
     General Acquisition said that if GenCorp agrees to accept
another buyout proposal that it also be given an opportunity to
bid on a competitive and fair basis before any final decision
is made.
    General Acquisition repeated its request that GenCorp
remove its "poison pill" or shareholders rights plan.
    General Acquisition said if GenCorp does not allow an
"environment for fair competition," it will take all steps
necessary to create such an enviroment.
    It said it may take legal action or seek the support of
and to consider other proposals it might develop.
    General Acquisition also said if the board decides to
accept an alternate proposal it asked that it not accept a plan
that would include defensive features.
 Reuter

State-run carmaker Regie Nationale des
Usines Renault <RENA.PA> said it plans to cut 1,300 jobs at its
Boulogne-Billancourt centre in Paris by this summer which will
reduce its workforce there to 5,500 by June from a current
6,810.
    Renault said that in an overall plan to improve
productivity it planned to reduce the workforce to 5,100 at the
end of this year.
    The car firm has already announced its intention to reduce
its total workforce to 73,000 by end-1987 from 79,000 at the
 REUTER

United Banks of Colorado Inc said it has
received Federal Reserve Board approval to acquire IntraWest
Financial Corp <INTW> in an exhcnmage of 0.7234 United share
for each IntraWest share.
    The company said the acquisition is still subject to 30-day
review by the U.S. Justice Department and is expected to be
completed in the second quarter.
 Reuter

Suffield Financial Corp said it
has received approvcal from the Maine Bureau of Banking for its
proposed acquisition of Coastal Bancorp of Portland, Maine, and
the acquisition is expected to close around April One.
    The approval was the last regulatory clearance required for
the transaction.
 Reuter

Marketing Systems of America Inc
said it has retained Richter, Cohen and Co to assist in efforts
to redirect its business through merger or acquisition.
    The company said as consideration for services to be
renedered, it has agreed to grant Richter five-year warrants to
buy 231,000 common shares at 32 cts each, exercisable starting
in March 1988, and a negotiated fee on completion of any
transaction.  It said it has the right to cancel the warrants
after one year if no transaction has been completed.
 Reuter

Chantal Pharmaceutical Corp said a
registration statement covering an offering of 1,943,850 of its
common shares by shareholders has become effective.
    The registration includes 1,650,000 shares sold in a
September 1986 private placement.
 Reuter

Oracle Systems Corp said it has
filed for an offering of 2,300,000 common shares, after
adjustment for a recent two-for-one stock split, including
800,000 to be sold by shareholders.
    The company said lead underwriters are Alex. Brown and Sons
Inc <ABSB> and <Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities
Corp>.  The offering is expected to be made in early April,
with company proceeds used to repay all short-term debt, for
working capital and for possible acquisitions.
    Oracle said after the offering it will have about 28.5 mln
 Reuter

York Research Corp said it has
completed the arrangement of 11 mln dlrs of common stock to
European investors.
    York said it will use the 11 mln dlrs as a construction
pool to initially fund a series of cogeneration projects which
it willk design, build, partially own and operate, with six
projects already committed.  Gross revenues from the first six
projects are expected to exceed 500 mln dlrs over their life
cycle, York said, with revenue and income expected to start
flowing in 1988.  Each project consists of a 20-year energy
sale agreement, it said.
 Reuter

Underwriter <Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc> said a 50 mln dlr issue of sinking fund preferred stock of
Pomotac Electric Power Co which it won at competitive bidding
has sold out.
    The shares were priced at 50 dlrs each with a 3.37 dlr
annual dividend for a dividend yield of 6.74 pct.  It said the
preferred carried the lowest long-term fixed rate dividend
yield in almost 20 years for an investment grade preferred
issue.
 Reuter

has filed to offer 2,500,000 common shares through underwriters
<Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc> and Morgan Keegan Inc
<MOR>.
purposes.
 Reuter

Swedish construction and real estate
company Skanska AB <skbs.St.> said it will sell its 49 pct
holding in Canadian building firm <Canadian Foundation Company
Ltd> to rival <Banister Continental Ltd>.
    A company spokeswoman told Reuters Skanska will receive
Banister shares as payment, giving the Swedish group 15 pct of
the stock in the expanded Banister firm.
    She said Skanska will also be appointing two board members
to the Canadian company.
 REUTER

British Gas Plc <BRGS.L> said it repaid
750 mln stg debt to the government, the first tranche of 2.5
billion stg unsecured debentures issued as part of the process
of privatisation last year.
    The repayment of the funds for the year to end-March was in
line with details given in the prospectus last year.
    Before the sale, the government added the debt onto the
British Gas balance sheet. In the year to end-March 1988 BGC
will pay back a further 250 mln stg, followed by 400 mln in
both 1988/89 and 1989/90 and the remainder in equal instalments
of 350 mln over the next two years.
 REUTER

the money market with assistance worth 129 mln stg in the
afternoon session. This compares with the Bank's forecast of a
shortage in the system today of around 100 mln stg.
    The central bank purchased 129 mln stg bank bills in band
one at 9-7/8 pct.
 REUTER

United Auto Workers members
voted overwhelmingly to ratify a settlement in a four-day
strike against General Motors Corp's <GM> truck and bus complex
here, a UAW official said.
    Workers agreed to a settlement that provided for a 1.3 mln
dlrs payment to workers by the No. 1 carmaker for an alleged
violation of a 1984 contract and for the rehiring of about 20
workers who were idled when their jobs went to subcontractors.
    Some 9,000 workers walked off their jobs at the bus and
truck plant on Thursday.
    Members of UAW Local 594 voted 1314 to 25 to accept the
settlement.
    Local president Donny Douglas said of the settlement, "We
got compensation for everything that went out."
    Workers alleged GM violated their contract by assigning
work traditionally done by the union to outside companies.
Local officials also said GM violated contract provisions on
health and safety issues, work rules, seniority and job
classifications.
    The local also said that GM had violated contract language
on work rules, seniority, job classification and health and
safety issues.
    A spokesman for GM's Truck and Bus Group said there would
be no company comment on the settlement's details, but said GM
was pleased that workers would be back on the job.
 Reuter

European Community agriculture
ministers are today taking their first serious look at farm
price proposals for the coming season, but diplomats expect no
agreement at the two days of talks.
    Experts say the proposals put forward last month by the
European Commission could lead to a double-digit percentage
fall in guaranteed prices for the 1987/88 crop year.
    Consideration of the price measures comes as farm surpluses
and subsidies are set to dominate forthcoming talks under the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT.
    The talks signal the official start of months of annual
wrangling over subsidy levels paid to the EC's 12 mln farmers.
    Agriculture worldwide is plagued by surplus production and
depressed prices, with domestic economic policies largely
blamed for the crisis. The U.S. Has signaled it wants the issue
of world over-supply pushed to the top of the list of
international economic issues to be negotiated this year.
    EC diplomats say that to a large extent this view is shared
in Europe, but the political strength of well-organised farm
lobbies leaves ministers with little room for manoeuvre.
 Reuter

has asked the Virginia Corporation commission to approve fuel
cost and base rate adjustments that would raise typical
residential bills 1.4 pct, effective May One.
    It said it is seeking a one-year base rate reduction of
26.7 mln dlrs due to tax savings and a 67.5 mln dlr increase in
fuel charges, for a net increase of 40.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Wedgestone Realty Investors Trust said
it has issued institutional investors 10-year warrants to buy
575,000 shares at 16.50 dlrs each in connection with the
previously-announced sale of 10-year promissory notes to the
    It said the exercise price of the warrants may be reduced
and the number of shares increased in certain circumstances.
 Reuter

The Panamanian motor vessel Northern 1,
4,217 dwt, was safely towed into Greenock over the weekend
after having its crankshaft broken off the Scottish coast
during severe weather, Lloyds Shipping Intelligence said.
    Northern 1 was loaded with 3,000 tons of sugar from
Demerara.
 Reuter

The government is determined to ride out
the latest sharp rise of the yen without taking panic measures
because it expects the currency's appreciation to prove
temporary, senior officials said.
    "The market has already located a ceiling (for the yen) and
market forces are pushing the dollar back up a bit," one senior
    He attributed the dollar's fall in recent days to special
factors, in particular, selling by Japanese investors ahead of
the March 31 end to their fiscal year.
    That selling largely came to an end this morning after
about one hour of trading here, the senior official said. "They
(the investors) became more or less quiet after 10 o'clock
(0100 GMT)," he said.
    After falling to a record low of 144.70 yen this morning,
the dollar edged back up in late trading to end at 146.20.
Dealers attributed the late rise to remarks by Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone that major nations had agreed to stabilise
the dollar above 150 yen.
    Several officials said they did not see any fundamental
reason for the dollar's recent sharp fall.
    One official even called the market's recent actions
irrational. If anything, the U.S. Decision to slap tariffs on
Japanese electronics goods should support the dollar against
the yen because it will cut Japanese exports to the U.S., He
said.
    As a result, several officials said they saw no reason to
alter the broad thrust of government policy agreed to at last
month's meeting of major nations in Paris.
    "We don't see any substantial reason to change our policy
stance," one senior official said.

Sage Analytics International Inc
said its board has declared a three-for-two stock split,
payable June 22 to holders of record on June Eight.
    The company also said it will redeem warrants till
outstanding on June Two at 10 cts each.  Each two warrants
allow the purchase of one common share at six dlrs through June
One.  There are presently 800,000 warrants outstanding.
 Reuter

said.
    Since late last year, Japanese investors, seeking
substantial liquidity and attractive yields, have used fresh
funds to buy mark and Canadian dollar bonds and, after the
Paris currency pact, actively bought French franc bonds and
gilts while gradually lightening U.S. Bond inventories, the
    Dealers said funds tied up in foreign assets had flowed
into local bond and stock markets as well.
    The yield of the key 5.1 pct 89th bond dropped to a record
low of 4.080 pct today from the 4.140 Saturday finish and
compared with 4.25 pct on three-month certificates of deposit.
    The key bond has fluctuated less than five basis points for
more than a month here, suggesting most dealers could not
satisfy their needs for capital gains, dealers said.
    A market survey by Reuters showed some active accounts in
U.S. Treasuries are currently dealing on Tokyo's stock market.
The stock market's bullishness late last week was partly due to
funds transferred from U.S. Treasuries, dealers said.
    Japanese net purchases of foreign securities in the first
half of March fell an estimated one billion dlrs compared with
average monthly net purchases of 7.7 billion for the whole of
1986, Finance Ministry sources said.
    The steep fall is due to Japanese investors' cool attitude
towards U.S. Bonds, which had amounted to more than 80 pct of
total foreign securities purchased, securities houses managers
said.
    Foreign stock buying in March is expected to exceed the
record high of 1.5 billion dlrs seen in December, they said.
    "Diversification of foreign portfolios is underway and we
have bought bonds in currencies such as marks, the Canadian
dollar, the ECU and French franc," a fund manager at <Yasuda
Trust and Banking Co Ltd> said.
 REUTER

Idec Izumi Corp is issuing a 35 mln dlr
Eurobond with equity warrants, due April 23, 1992 with an
indicated coupon of 2-3/8 pct and priced at par, lead manager
Daiwa Europe Ltd said.
    The non-callable bonds are guaranteed by Fuji Bank Ltd and
final terms will be set on April 6. The warrants will be
exercisable between June 1, 1987 and April 2, 1992.
    Gross fees of 2-1/4 pct comprise 3/4 pct for management and
underwriting and 1-1/2 pct for selling. Listing will be in
 REUTER

    He told reporters yesterday the deposits, located at four
sites near the town of San Ignasio, contained the equivalent of
100 tonnes of gold.
he added.
Tamborapa, Pachapidiana, and a zone between the Cenepa and
 Reuter

 Reuter

Magma Power Co said director Arnold
L. Johnson has been named president and chief executive
officer.
    He succeeds Andrew W. Hoch, who moved to chairman in
February following the resignation of B.C. McCabe Sr.
    The company said Johnson has also been named president and
chief executive officer of Magma Energy Inc <MAGE>, which Magma
Power controls, succeeding Hoch, who becomes Magma Energy
chairman as well. McCabe, whom Hoch also succeeds there, has
been named chairman emeritus.
 Reuter

NEWS CORP LTD TO ACQUIRE HARPER AND ROW PUBLISHERS INC FOR 65 DLRS/SHARE

<Canadian Worldwide Energy
Ltd> said it acquired Triton Energy Corp's wholly owned
Canadian subsidiary, Triton Petroleum Ltd, for the issue of
3.75 mln common shares of Canadian Worldwide, subject to
    The company said the transaction will increase Triton
Energy's holding in Canadian Worldwide to 13.25 mln shrs or a
60 pct fully diluted interest from 9.5 mln shares.
    Triton Petroleum's assets consist of proven oil reserves of
1.3 mln barrels, exploratory acreage, and unspecified working
capital and a significant tax loss carryforward.
    Canadian Worldwide said it is optimistic the Triton
Petroleum Ltd acquisition will strengthen its financial and
production base and permit acceleration of its conventional oil
exploration program.
 Reuter

Clabir Corp said it has
determined all dividends paid on its Class A common in 1986 are
not taxable as dividend income.
    While this is a preliminary estimate, the company said, it
may be used by shareholders when preparing 1986 income tax
returns.
 Reuter

RLI Corp, a specialty insurance
company, said the New York Stock Exchange has cleared it to
begin trading its common stock on the exchange effective May 8.
    RLI said it is currently trading on the National
Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System
(NASDAQ) under the symbol <RLIC>.
    RLI's new symbol will be <RLI>, the company said.
 Reuter

Texscan Corp said it has agreed
in principle with its lending banks -- United Bank of Arizona
and Security Pacific Bank -- on a joint plan of reorganization.
    Subject to documentation, the plan will be filed within the
next 10 days, Texscan said without providing further details.
 Reuter

Micro-Membranes Inc said it
started marketing its second product, Co-Bind Plates, which are
used as part of diagnostic kits for sexually transmitted
diseases, drugs, and in immunological testing.
    The company said the product is its second since becoming
public ten months ago.
 Reuter

The Philippines and the World Bank have
signed a 300 mln dlr loan and 10 mln dlr worth of technical
assistance to help Manila in its economic recovery efforts,
bank officials said .
    The loan, to be disbursed in three equal tranches, is
repayable over 20 years, including a five-year grace period,
with a variable interest rate, currently at 7.92 pct.
    The loan was signed by Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin and A.
Karasmasoglu, World Bank vice-president for East Asia and the
Pacific. Ongpin said the first tranche of 100 mln dlrs was
expected within a month.
 REUTER

Lennar Corp chairman and president,
Leonard Miller, said the current backlog of orders and the
strong economy point to strong revenues and earnings for the
balance of fiscal 1987.
    He said the company's backlog of sales deposits on Feb 28
was 2,416, an increase of 976 units over the previous year.
    Lennar recorded net earnings for the first quarter 1987 of
4,403,000, or 51 cts per share, compared to 1,775,000, or 20
cts per share the prior first quarter. It recorded net earnings
of 12.5 mln dlrs, or 1.43 dlrs per share, for fiscal 1986.
    The company also said that at its April 29 annual meeting,
shareholders will vote on increasing the company's authorized
common stock to 45 mln shares from 15 mln. This will include 30
mln shares of common stock and 15 mln shares of class B common
stock, it added.
    Those shareholders who elect to convert their shares into
class B stock will be entitled to 10 votes per share while
other shareholders will retain one vote per share, Lennar said.
    The company said if this is approved, it intneds to pay
holders of Class B stock a quarterly cash dividend of five cts
per share and holders of the other common stock a quarterly
cash dividend of six cts per share.
 Reuter

Securities Dealers Inc> said it has named a search committee to
seek a replacement for outgoing president Gordon S. Macklin,
who recently announced plans to become chairman of <Hambrecht
and Quist>.
 Reuter

Yugoslav trade is declining rapidly
this year in hard currency terms, according to the latest
Federal Statistics Office (FSO) figures.
    The FSO figures showed total exports from January 1 to
March 23 valued at 875.59 billion dinars, compared with 667.18
billion dinars in the same period last year.
    These figures were down by 12.5 pct on last year in dollar
terms due to exchange rate fluctuations and changes in how the
figures were calculated, FSO sources said.
    This year current exchange rates were used for the first
time instead of a fixed rate of 24.53 dinars to the dollar.
    BELGRADE, March 30 - Yugoslav trade is declining rapidly

Walbro Corp said it expects
its first-quarter results to reach "all-time highs."
    It projected sales exceeding 32 mln dlrs, or up 21 pct from
the 26,488,000 dlrs reported for the 1986 first quarter. It
said the previous high for a single quarter was 27,179,000 dlrs
for the 1986 fourth quarter.
    Walbro estimated income for the quarter will exceed
first-quarter 1986 income, which was 1,953,000 dlrs, or 66 cts
a share, by at least 40 pct. It said the first quarter of 1986
had been the previous income record for a single quarter.
    Walbro cited strong demand for its fuel systems products,
especially automotive electronic fuel injection components and
carburetors for lawn and garden applications.
    However, it said it is unlikely the company will sustain
the same record pace of sales and income throughout 1987, due
to an expected reduction in throttle body sales.
    "It now appears likely that the company's throttle body
business with General Motors Corp <GM> will peak in the first
six months of 1987, continue at reduced levels to July 1988 and
suffer an interruption for the period from July 1988 to July
1989," Walbro added.
 Reuter

Canada's gross domestic product rose 0.1
pct, seasonally adjusted, in January after gaining 1.0 pct in
December but falling 0.1 pct and 0.3 pct in November and
October, Statistics Canada said.
    January's rise, in 1981 prices, was fueled largely by a 0.5
pct gain in the goods producing sector. Output in
services-producing industries declined 0.1 pct from December's
level.
    January's level was 1.29 pct higher than the same month a
year ago.
    The federal agency said it was the second straight gain for
goods producing industries. Most of the growth occurred in
manufacturing and construction.
    Within manufacturing, strong gains were posted in the wood,
machinery, non-metallic mineral and food product groups.
Significant declines were recorded in the output of automobiles
and parts, however.
    In the services sector, increases in finance, insurance and
communication were more than offset by declines in
transportation, storage and the retail trade.
 Reuter

<IBM> is widely expected to deeply affect the personal computer
industry this week when it announces a long awaited new
generation of desktop machines.
     The four new computers, expected to be called the Personal
System 2 family, are almost sure to veer away from industrywide
standards for personal computers that were first established by
IBM six years ago.
     The result id the new computers will be harder to copy and
less likely to work with software and attachments designed for
existing standards. Some market researchers are already
predicting slower growth as customers adjust to the change.
    A proprietary IBM pc will cause the pc market's growth to
be flat or even negative in 1988 as vendors and users delay
purchases to gauge the importance of the new machine,'' said
John McCarthy, consultant with Forrester Research Inc.
     IBM is traditionally very close-mouthed about unannounced
products, but so intense is the interest in these machines that
some details have leaked out and consultants, dealers and the
trade press are rife with information, both factual or
supposed.
    The four computers expected to be announced April 2 will
reportedly include one low end, low cost computer, two models
that will resemble IBM's current high-end AT, and, most
importantly, a computer incorporating Intel Corp's <INTC> 80386
microprocessor, the powerhouse chip that is revolutionizing the
    The microprocessor is the brains of a computer and Intel
microprocessors are the ones used in all IBM and IBM-compatible
personal computers, by far the largest segment of the desktop
market.
     The 80386, more commonly called the 386, processes
computer instructions twice as fast as the chips used in
existing IBM computers and 386-based desktop computers are as
powerful as the much larger minicomputers of a few years ago.
     Although IBM will not be the first company to introduce a
386 personal computer - Compaq Corp <CPQ> was - most industry
consultants believe that customers will not rush to embrace the
new generation until they see what the world's largest computer
company is going to do.
    What IBM will apparently do is introduce a computer that
is, at least temporarily, copy-proof. That is a far different
situation than exists with IBM's current family of personal
computers, which are cloned widely.
     With the Personal System, IBM will reportedly build as
many features as possible directly into the computers'
motherboards, including graphics capabilities, a non-standard
bus for add-on equipment and a new version of the operating
system used on all IBM compatible computers.
     The word in (Silicon) Valley is that it will take two mln
dlrs and 18 months before the machines can be copied,'' said
Michael Murphy, publisher of the newsletter California
Technology Stock Letter.
      At the same time as Personal System is unveiled,
Microsoft Corp <MSFT> is expected to unveil a new version of
its MS/DOS operating system, DOS 3.3, that will correct many of
the programming problems encountered on earlier versions of the
software. MS/DOS is used with all IBM personal computers.
      Consultants said that most existing IBM-compatible
software will run on the new computers but software written
specifically for the Personal System will not run on older
models.
     The industry will be looking closely at the delivery dates
for the new computers, particularly the 386, because if IBM
does not start shipping its entry in this important new market
soon, Compaq will continue to gain larger and larger market
share.
    Market researcher Future Computing Inc estimated that
Compaq's Deskpro 386, which started shipping last October, is
generating sales of between 3.5 mln and and four mln dlrs a
month. In the first six months of availability between 21 and
24 mln dlrs worth of Deskpro 386s were sold.
    Said Future Computing analyst Joe Cross, "That's some
indication of the kind of money IBM is leaving on the table."
 Reuter

Sri Lanka has appealed to 24 countries
for emergency aid to help 2.4 mln villagers affected by the
country's worst drought in 36 years, government officials said.
    Embassies received letters over the weekend outlining aid
needed for a sixth of Sri Lanka's population in 13 districts.
    The letter said the government had to step in "to avert
serious economic hardship" and because the Social Services
Ministry had already used up its entire 1987 budget provision
of 23 mln rupees by distributing help to the worst hit areas.
    The letter said 548.76 mln rupees were needed for a six
month period, at least until the May-September (Yala) rice crop
was harvested. Over 25,000 tonnes of wheat, rice, flour and
other cereals were required, it said, along with supplies of
sugar, lentils, dried or canned fish and milk.
    In some of the most seriously affected districts, the Maha
(October 1986-April 1987) crop had been "almost completely
devastated," the letter said. Maha paddy output was now
estimated at 70 mln bushels, 20 mln less than originally
expected.
    There were two scenarios for the Yala crop, with a high
forecast of around 40 mln bushels conditional on adequate
rainfall within the next three to four weeks.
    "Should the present drought continue, however, production is
estimated at around 20 mln bushels," the letter added.
    Total estimated paddy output for 1987 would be between 90
and 110 mln bushels, or 1.35 to 1.65 mln tonnes of rice. Last
year's output was 124 mln bushels, down from 127 mln in 1985.
    The letter said villagers in most seriously affected
districts had been deprived of any means of subsistence because
subsidiary crops had also failed.
    It said the government's current budget did not permit it
to provide sustained and adequate relief to those affected.
"Revenue has been adversely affected by depressed commodity
prices and slowing of the economy. Defence commitments continue
to exert pressure on the expenditure side."
    The 548.76 mln cash would cover payments of 150 rupees per
month for each family, as well as handling, transport and
distribution of emergency food. But such an outlay of funds by
the government would not be possible without seriously
impairing development projects, or "greatly fuelling inflation"
in the economy, the letter said.
    The letter said the Food Department would be able to
release wheat and rice from the buffer stock to meet the
immediate cereal requirements "provided such stocks are replaced
subsequently."
    The Meteorological Department said the country was
experiencing its worst drought since 1951 and the four-month
dry spell prevailing in most of the areas would only break when
the monsoon rains fell in late May.
    The letter said some areas had been experiencing the
drought since August, and in the rice growing district of
Kurunegala there had been no effective rainfall since June
1986.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp's <MOB> Mobil Oil Francaise
unit said it will take a stake of about 10 pct in the French
butane and propane gas distribution company <Primagaz> in
exchange for the transfer to Primagaz of Mobil's small and
medium bulk propane activity.
    Small and medium bulk propane sales totalled 55,000 tonnes
in 1986 and the transfer will increase total business of
Primagaz by about 12 pct, equal to 32,000 extra customers.
    A Primagas spokesman said Mobil will take the stake by
means of a capital increase, terms of which have not yet been
established.

Metromail Corp said it expects
earnings for the year to be about flat due to higher expenses
caused by an expansion of data processing capabilities and
startup costs associated with new cooperative programs that
will continue into the fourth quarter.
    The company today reported earnings for the nine months
ended March One of 7,214,900 dlrs, down from 7,752,800 dlrs a
year before.  For all of last year it earned 10.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Regency Cruises Inc said its earnings
per share for the year 1986 were 36 cts per share, not the 37
cts it reported on March 11.
    The company lost 10 cts per share in 1985.
 Reuter

Morrison Inc, a diversified food
service company, said it acquired Custom Management Corp, based
in Kingston, Penn., for an undisclosed amount.
    Custom manages some 215 food contract management operations
and about 65 environmental service accounts, producing about
100 mln dlrs in annual revenues.
 Reuter

A Chinese company has won a 3.5 mln dlr
contract to supply pumping stations for the biggest irrigation
project ever undertaken in Cyprus, an official announcement
said.
    The Southern Conveyor project, to be completed in two
years, aims to conserve over 90 pct of the island's water
resources by 1990 with a network of huge dams. It will raise
water storage capacity from six mln cubic meters in 1961 to 290
 Reuter

<Peter Miller Apparel Group Inc> said
it signed a letter of intent to issue 2.16 mln dlrs of
convertible debentures, subject to regulatory and board
    The company said a newly incorporated merchant banking
subsidiary of Greyvest Financial Corp has agreed to purchase
the debenture issue and closing is expected in April.
    The debenture carries a three year term and is convertible
from April 1, 1987 to March 31, 1989 at 1.35 dlrs a share, and
from April 1, 1989 to March 30, 1990 at 1.50 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

GTE Corp's GTE EFT Services Inc
unit and Indiana National Corp said they have signed an
agreement where GTE will provide electronic funds transfer
switching services for Indiana National's MoneyMover 24-Hour
Teller and Plus System networks.
    The companies said GTE EFT Service will make an initial
hookup with CommerceAmerica Banking Company, an affiliate of
Indiana National.
    The MoneyMover and Plus System networks support about 400
24-hour automated teller machines in more than 80 cities in
Indiana and Kentucky, the companies said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 80 cts vs loss 1.60 dlrs
    Net profit 1,673,960 vs loss 3,292,663
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain on bond portfolio of 1,160,000
dlrs and 5,600,000 dlr provision for losses on discontinued
liability and multi-peril lines of reinsurance.
 Reuter

Shr loss 36 cts vs loss 36 cts
    Net loss 20.1 mln vs loss 12.6 mln
    Revs 12.5 mln vs 24.9 mln
    Avg shrs 55.8 mln vs 34.7 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.11 dlrs vs loss 1.05 dlrs
    Net loss 50.8 ln vs loss 31.9 mln
    Revs 63.7 mln vs 106.9 mln
    Avg shrs 45.8 mln vs 30.2 mln
    NOTE: Net includes extraordinary gains of 247,0000 dlrs vs
nil in quarter and 809,000 dlrs vs 425,000 dlrs in year.
    1985 year net includes 6,700,000 dlr credit for previous
overpayments of windfall profits taxes.
 Reuter

Scientific Micro Systems
Inc said it expects first quarter revenues to rise by about 60
pct to 24 mln dlrs, compared with the 15 mln reported for the
first quarter last year.
    The company said it experienced revenue growth across all
product lines during the quarter.
    It also said revenue growth should continue during the year
and the company should experience improved profitability in the
second half when acquisition and new product introduction costs
will not have a significant impact on earnings.
 Reuter

New York Telephone Co, a unit of NYNEX
Corp, said it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
a shelf registration statement covering up to 500 mln dlrs of
    Proceeds will be to refinance outstanding debt or for
 Reuter

Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc said it
registration statement covering a 75 mln dlr issue of
    A portion of the proceeds will be used to acquire all of
the outstanding capital stock of Network Switching Systems Inc.
 Another part will allow Bolt to exercise its option to
purchase all of the limited partnership interests in BBN
RS/Expert Limited Partnership, with the rest used for general
corporate purposes. The company named PaineWebber, Merrill
Lynch and Montgomery Securities as underwriters.
 Reuter

HENLEY GROUP SAID HAS CLOSE TO FIVE PCT OR 7.9 MLN SHARES OF SANTA FE SOUTHERN PACIFIC AS INVESTMENT

The average price of mexico's crude
oil exports in first quarter 1987 will be 15.25 dlrs per
barrel, according to preliminary figures issued in a press
release by the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX).
    It gave no direct comparison with the year-ago figure but
said crude and products sales were expected to rise to 1.99
billion dlrs this quarter, 420 mln dlrs higher than expected
and 22 pct better than the year-ago quarter.
    Prospects for the second quarter were relatively favourable
with crude exports seen at 1.320 mln bpd after an expected
1.324 mln this month, 1.323 in February and 1.395 mln in
January.
 REUTER

The London Stock Exchange announced
three changes to stocks included in the FT-SE 100 share index
after a regular quarterly revision of its constituents.
    Recently privatised British Airways Plc, the 70th of the
top 100 U.K. Companies by market capitalisation, is included
from next quarter, while Argyll Group Plc and British and
Commonwealth Holdings Plc return to the index after
acquisitions, and rate 44th and 66th respectively.
    A statement said Imperial Continental Gas Association may
be among three firms excluded if a proposed split in its
operations goes through.
 Reuter

Texas International Inc said it
has received an unqualified audit opinion from auditor Arthur
Andersen and Co.
    The company had received a qualified opinion on 1985
financial statements subject to its ability to resolve
negotiations with its U.S. bank group.  Subsequently, it sold
almost all its domestic oil and natural gas properties and
retired all U.S. bank debt in March 1987 with part of the
proceeds.
 Reuter

Tenneco Inc said its Newport
News Shipbuilding subsidiary has completed the purchase of the
Sperry Marine Systems division of Unisys Corp for about 70 mln
dlrs.
    Sperry Marine has annual revenues of about 100 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Biogen NV said as part of a
program to reduce expenses, it is in talks on the sale of its
Geneva, Switzerland operations.
    The company gave no details.
 Reuter

<Texscan Corp>, which filed for
bankruptcy in November 1985, said it reached an agreement in
principle with its lending bank group on a joint reorganization
plan.
    The company said it expects to file the plan within the
next 10 days.
    Additional detail was not provided.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 584,000 vs 1,688,000
    Sales 19.8 mln vs 16.9 mln
    Avg shrs 5,959,000 vs 5,762,000
    Year
    Shr 68 cts vs 96 cts
    Net 4,013,000 vs 5,430,000
    Sales 68.1 mln vs 61.3 mln
    Avg shrs 5,934,000 vs 5,679,000
    Backlog 67.9 mln vs 60.6 mln
 Reuter

<Spectrum Concepts Inc> said it
unveiled a new software product called XCOM 6.2 that links
various computer systems together.
    The company said the software can transfer data between
International Business Machine Corp's <IBM> mainframe
computers, System/38 minicomputers, Digital Equipment Corp
<DEC> Vax minicomputers, IBM personal computers and Token Ring
local area networks.
    It said prices range from 26,000 dlrs for a mainframe
license to 200 dlrs for each personal computer.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 337,000 vs 235,000
    Revs 3,350,000 vs 1,642,000
    Avg shrs 2,935,734 vs 2,000,000
    Year
    Net 1,815,000 vs 1,112,000
    Revs 12.1 mln vs 7,709,000
    Avg shrs 2,648,257 vs 2,000,000
 Reuter

The International Primary Market Makers
Association, a trade organisation, said its board last week
adopted new rules recommending lead managers of eurodollar bond
issues make a market in that security for 12 months.
    Currently, while there is an implied obligation on the part
of firms to make markets in issues they underwrite, there is no
formal obligation to do so.
    Christopher Sibson, secretary general of IPMA, in
explaining why the recommendation was adopted, said "It is aimed
at the problem of the lead manager who does a deal and
disappears."
    Sibson said the organization cannot force its members to
adhere to the rule. "We're under no illusions about the legal
binding force of these recommendations," he said.
    Lead managers have occasionally abandoned efforts to
support an unprofitable issue just a short while after it has
been offered, leaving investors and smaller firms with no one
to buy it back from them.
    Most recently, when prices of perpetual floating rates
notes (FRNs) suddenly plunged, most market makers abandoned the
securities altogether, leaving investors stuck with about 17
billion dlrs worth of unmarketable securities on their books.
     Sibson noted that the recommendation adopted by the board
only applies  to fixed-rate dollar issues and would not have
helped the floating rate sector out of its current crisis.
    Among other measures, the IPMA also decided that the
criteria for membership should be tightened to exclude some of
the smaller firms.
    Under the new rules, a firm must be the book running lead
manager during the two preceding years of 12 internationally
distributed debt issues denominated in U.S. Dlrs or in one of
eight other major currencies.
    The former requirement called for three lead-managed
issues. Sibson said he expects the tighter entrance
requirements to pare 3he current list of 67 members down by six
to 10 members.
    Smaller firms have criticized IPMA's efforts to restrict
membership to the larger firms, saying it is anti-competitive
and that it reinforces the big firms' already large market
share.
    "Belonging to IPMA carries a certain amount of prestige with
borrowers," said a dealer at a small foreign bank. "The borrower
says to himself, "Well I can travel economy or I can travel
first class,'" he said.
    Sibson defended the new rules saying "We have to steer a
course between representing the interests of the major market
makers and the less desirable goal of representing everybody."
    In any event, he said, the size of the market has expanded
to the point where the former minimum size requirements were
just too small.
    Also, IPMA members will be required to register with the
Association of International Bond Dealers as reporting dealers,
submitting daily information on prices on issues in which they
are market makers. The effective date of the rule has yet to be
    Dealers said that the rule would enable investors and
secondary market makers to better evaluate the appropriate
market price for their securities. Such a rule would make
investors more confident of trading in the eurobond market and
would increase liquidity, they said.
    Dealers said that the form of the reporting has not yet
been spelled out. But previous discussion of the reporting
requirement considered firms listing the closing price of a
given security as well as the high and low for the day.
     Members also agreed at the IPMA meeting on the
implementation of a new communications system which enables a
lead manager to invite all potential management group members
in to a deal at the same time.
 REUTER

Oper shr 49 cts vs 22 cts
    Oper net 1,018,000 vs 468,000
    Sales 95.0 mln vs 98.3 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 284,000 dlrs vs 310,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 20 cts vs profit 24 cts
    Net loss 173,578 vs profit 211,324
    Revs 4,558,244 vs 5,595,644
    NOTE: Earnings per share restated retroactively for all
periods to reflect 20 pct stock dividend in April 1984 and 25
pct stock split September 1985.
    Revenues include progress receivables on long-term
contracts not billed to customers, and reflect the
proportionate elements of profit as revenues based on stage of
completion of long term contracts.
 Reuter

Ia-So Minn direct hogs estimated rcpts 95,000 vs actual week ago 93,000 and actual year ago 93,000.

Baxter Travenol Laboratories
said its Hyland Therapeutics unit has started the first human
clinical trials on genetically engineered Factor VIII, the
clotting agent missing from the blood of most hemophiliacs.
    It said unlike Factor VIII concentrates currently in use,
genetically engineered Factor VIII would not be limited by the
availability of human plasma and will be completely free from
blood-borne viruses, including AIDS and all forms of hepatitis,
Baxter said.
    Baxter also said it is in the final states of U.S. clinical
trials on a highly purified form of Factor VIII derived from
human plasma that is produced using an advanced process
incorporating monoclonal antibody purification.
    It said Genetics Institute, a publicly held biotechnology
company in which Baxter is a shareholder, will supply the
protein used for human clinical testing, as well as a
substantial portion of ongoing production requirements.
 Reuter

Global Petroleum Corp said today it
raised its posted prices for numbers six fuel cargoes in the
new york harbor 70 cts to 1.60 dlrs per barrel, depending on
grade.
    Effective today, the new prices are: 0.3 pct sulphur 22.50
dlrs, up 1.25; 0.5 pct sulphur 21.85 dlrs, up 1.60; one pct
sulphur 20.10 dlrs, up 70 cts; two pct sulphur 19.85, up 75
cts; 2.2 pct sulphur 19.25 dlrs, up 90 cts; 2.5 pct sulphur
18.80 dlrs, up 1.20, the company said.
 Reuter

The Financial Times/Stock Exchange index
of Britain's 100 leading shares fell by its largest ever margin
in points terms during a single session, dropping 46.1 to close
at 2,002.5. The index earlier today touched a low of 1,993.7.
    Before today the largest one day points decline was a 35.8
point drop on February 9.
    The index fall was triggered by fears a trade war could
break out with Japan following news the U.S. Increased tariffs
on Japanese imports after the breakdown of a 1986 semiconductor
pact. Today's sharp sell off at the Wall Street opening gave
selling momentum to a market which was already at its lows.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Turgut Ozal said Turkey's
latest row with Greece over oil rights in the Aegean Sea showed
the need for talks and "an opportunity has emerged for this."
    He spoke to reporters after talks with Turkey's ambassador
to Athens who arrived last night from a meeting with Greek
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. A reply would be made to
Greece shortly, Ozal said.
    He did not say whether he was taking up Papandreou's
renewed offer to go to the International Court of Justice in
The Hague but said such a move was not the only way to a
solution
 Reuter

The U.K. Government bond market closed
showing severe losses ranging to almost 1-1/2 points as sharp
falls for U.S Treasury bonds resulting from pronounced dollar
weakness exacerbated existing uncertainty, dealers said.
    Selling was described as relatively modest, although very
few buyers appeared to take up the slack. Much of the momentum
was derived from the futures market, where a high 33,074 lots
were traded in the long gilt June contract.
    The Treasury 13-1/2 pct stock due 2004/08 closed 1-7/16
point lower at 135-20/32 stg pct while the Treasury 10 pct due
1991 ended at 105-12/32 for a fall of 1-3/16.
    Dealers noted that market confidence had already been at a
low ebb, with much of the recent impressive rise whittled away
last week as investors reacted nervously to opinion polls
showing unexpectedly strong gains for the centrist
Liberal/Social Democratic alliance.
    The market had been sustained in large part during its
recent rally by a virtual conviction that the ruling
Conservative party would first call and then win a general
election early this summer.
    However, advances credited to the alliance last week have
cast doubt on both assumptions.
    "Turnover in the cash market has actually been quite small,"
one dealer said, adding that price movements had been very
volatile at times.
    After losing ground heavily in the Far East in tandem with
the flagging dollar, U.S. Bonds fell further in London trading
but showed some signs of recovery late in the U.S. Morning as
the dollar steadied a little against the yen. The latest period
of weakness for the dollar has accentuated fears that currency
risk might induce Japanese investors in particular to undertake
dramatic reductions in their portfolios of U.S. Treasury
issues.
    Dealers noted that early strength in the index-linked
sector of the market, which had enabled the Government broker
to supply some of both index-linked stock tranches announced on
Friday, had soon fallen prey to the general depression
affecting gilts.
    The Treasury 2-1/2 pct index-linked stock due 2020 closed
just under one point lower at 100-11/32 stg pct.
 REUTER

    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-3/8 pct when
 Reuter

Centronics Corp said its chairman,
Stephen Weinroth, resigned his post to devote more time to his
duties as managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    The company said Thomas Kamp, formerly vice chairman, was
named to replace Weinroth.
 Reuter

The <Philadelphia Stock Exchange>
said it has established a Far East marketing division based in
Hong Kong to try to broaden participation among international
banks, multinational corporations and trading firms in its
foreign currency options market.
    The exchange said the new division will shortly open a
representative office in Tokyo.
 
 Reuter

Bow Valley Industries Ltd said
it filed a preliminary short form prospectus in Canada and the
United States for a secondary offering of 22.8 pct of
outstanding common stock, or 9,362,197 common shares, being
sold by certain shareholders.
    The company said Bowcan Holdings Inc, a holding company
principally owned by the Seaman brothers of Calgary and Charles
Rosner Bronfman Trust of Montreal, is offering to sell all of
its holding of 8,279,665 Bow Valley common shares.
    The balance of the offering is owned directly and
indirectly by various trusts of Jean and Charles deGunzberg.
    Proceeds and expenses from the secondary offering of Bow
Valley Industries common shares are for the account of the
selling shareholders, the company said.
    The shareholders will engage Salomon Brothers Inc for
distribution of the shares in the United States and McLeod
Young Weir Ltd for distribution in Canada.
 Reuter

Cornucopia Resources Ltd said an
extensive drill and sampling program will begin in mid-April at
its Ivanhoe gold property in north central Nevada.
    It said it will seek to increase the present reserves of
eight mln short tons grading 0.045 ounce of gold per ton that
had been found by USX Corp <X> on a small portion of the
13,.000 acre property, determine the location of possible
high-grade ore zones at depth and test other targets.
 Reuter

has relocated its power generation service division
headquarters to locations of existing Westinghouse operations
in Monroeville, Pa., and Orlando, Fla.
    The company said about 25 of the 135 employees at the
Broomall site will be moved to Monroeville and 45 to Orlando,
with the remaining 65 having their employment terminated.
    It said terminated employees will receive enhanced
separation benefits.
 Reuter

Shr loss 78 cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net loss 1,671,000 vs loss 382,000
    Revs 3,261,000 vs 4,427,000
    Year
    Shr loss 1.35 dlr vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 2,902,000 vs loss 331,000
    Revs 13.5 mln vs 16.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 4th qtr net includes charges of 867,000
dlrs or 40 cts a share and 222,000 or 10 cts a share,
 Reuter

ALLEGHENY INTERNATIONAL SELLS WILKINSON SWORD GROUP FOR 230 MLN DLRS

Henley Group said in a 10-K filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has 7.9 mln
shares or close to five pct of Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp,
    In response to questions from Reuters, the Henley spokesman
said the filing was as of December 31, 1986, but that the
company still holds the shares.
    "It's an investment and we're very happy with it. Beyond
that, I have no comment," the spokesman said.
   
 Reuter

it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of
AccuRay Corp in a merger trasaction that closed Friday at 45
 Reuter

<Advanced Voice Technologies Inc> said
it has filed a suit against Reynolds and Reynolds Co <REYNA>,
charging the company with pirating a computer-based voice
messaging system for auto dealer service departments (CASI),
using confidential information it received while test marketing
the system for Advanced Voice.
    Advanced Voice said the suit also charges that Reynolds and
Reynolds advised present and potential customers of Advanced
Voice not to use or buy its CASI system in an attempt to drive
the Nashville, Tenn.-based company out of interstate sales to
auto dealerships.
    The lawsuit, filed in a Detroit U.S. District Court, seeks
preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop Reynolds and
Reynolds from using or disclosing information it gained from
Advanced Voice, as well as punitive and compensatory damages,
Advnaced Voice said.
    The company also said in its suit it had signed a
confidentiality agreement with Reynolds and Reynolds before
giving it business and technical information about the CASI
system. Afterwards, Reynolds and Reynolds told Advanced Voice
it would not distribute the CASI system, but would develop its
own instead, Advanced Voice said.
    "We held virtually nothing back from Reynolds and Reynolds
because of our confidential relationship and the reputation of
the company," Michael Frank, president of Advanced Voice, said.
"They went from no backround and experience in telecommuncation
equipment utilizing voice messaging technology, to their own
system a year later, just two months after severing ties with
us."
 Reuter

The United States does not expect
the executive board meeting of the International Coffee
Organization, ICO, to call for a new round of negotiations on
reinstating coffee quotas, a U.S. government official said.
    The official, a member of the U.S. delegation to ICO talks
earlier this year, said no new coffee agreement talks are
expected because there is no indication the negotiating
positions of major producers and consumers have changed.
    The U.S. still demands, as a condition of reimposition of
coffee quotas, that "objective criteria" be set for
establishing quotas, said the U.S. official, who asked not to
be identified. Brazil, the major producer, insists on quotas
based on a traditional formula.
    The U.S. remains open to a negotiating meeting but only if
some new flexibility is apparent from major countries, the
    The ICO executive board meets tomorrow in London.
 Reuter

Limited Partnership said its board declared an initial
quarterly dividend of 25 cts per unit, payable April 10 to
    The partnership, formed at year-end by the conversion of
Intelligent Systems Corp from corporate form, said its board
has approved in principle quarterly dividend of 15 to 25 cts
per quarter for calendar 1987.
    It said as part of its restructuring it may sell some of
its assets this year, with unitholders receiving either cash
from the sale or stock in the acquiring company.
 Reuter

Great Country Bank said william
McDougall has resigned as executive vice president and
secretary, and his reponsibilities have been assumed by other
officers.
 Reuter

    Net loss 463,473 vs profit 126,835
    Revs 3,506,066 vs 3,082,499
    Year
    Shr loss four cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 323,214 vs profit 187,893
    Revs 13.8 mln vs 10.8 mln
 Reuter

Creditanstalt-Bankverein <CABV.VI>, the
largest commercial bank in Austria, has arranged a 100 mln stg
certificate of deposit program, banking sources said.
    The dealers for the program will be S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd
and County NatWest Capital Markets Ltd.
 REUTER

Grain traders and analysts expect lower
wheat and soybean exports and higher corn exports than a year
ago in the USDA's export inspection report today.
    Corn export guesses ranged from 27.0 mln to 32.0 mln
bushels, compared with the 27.6 mln inspected last week and
20.5 mln a year ago.
    Soybean export guesses ranged from 14.0 mln to 16.0 mln, up
from the 13.4 mln inspected last week but below the 25.5 mln
reported a year ago.
    Wheat estimates ranged from 11.0 mln to 14.0 mln bushels,
compared with 12.0 mln reported last week and 18.3 mln a year
ago.
 Reuter

Oppenheimer, the brokerage and
investment subsidiary of Oppenheimer Group Inc, told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 243,400
shares of Cyclops Corp, or 6.0 pct of the total outstanding.
    Oppenheimer said it bought the stake in connection with
risk arbitrage and other investment activities in the ordinary
course of its business. It said it has no plans to seek control
    As of Friday, <Dixons Group PLC> had acquired 2,455,000
Cyclops shares, giving it 83 pct of the total.
 Reuter

    Net profit 27,000 vs loss 69,000
    Revs 295,000 vs 264,000
    Year
    Shr loss eight cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 262,000 vs loss 88,000
    Revs 1,004,000 vs 1,248,000
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 584,493 vs 540,977
    Revs 4,685,930 vs 4,524,315
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said it
increased prices by nine cts a pound (solids) for
styrene-butadiene latex and plastic pigments, effective May
One. Dow did not release the percentage increase.
    It said the increase will affect the floor covering
markets, paper, paperboard and specialty markets.
    It said the increase is in addition to a previously
announced seven cts a pound (solids) increase, effective March
One.
 Reuter

sold its Wilkinson Sword Consumer Group to the <Swedish Match
Co> of Stockholm for for 230 mln dlrs.
    After settlement of intercompany transactions between the
Wilkinson Sword groups and Allegheny, the net payment by
Swedish Match will amount to about 160 mln dlrs.
    The Wilkinson Sword Group was transferred to the Swedish
Match Co today except for companies in certain countries where
approval from government authorities is required, the company
said.
    Allegheny said it acquired a 44 pct interest in Wilkinson,
then known as Wilkinson Match Ltd, in 1978, and the remaining 
share in 1980.
    This divestiture is part of Allegheny's overall
restructuring program and strategy to concentrate primarily on
its North American consumer products business, the company
said.
 Reuter

El-De Electro-Optic Developments Ltd
said all one mln common shares it offered in its initial public
offering at three dlrs each have been sold.
    Underwriters was Brown, Knapp and Co Inc.
 Reuter

may downgrade 2.2 billion crowns of debt of <Gotabanken> and
its unit, Gotabanken Inc.
    The rating agency cited concerns over the company's asset
quality. Gotabanken was Sweden's fourth-largest commercial bank
in 1985 based on consolidated assets of 45.4 billion crowns.
    Under review for possible downgrade are Gotabanken's
Prime-1 short-term deposits and the unit's same-rated
commercial paper.
 Reuter

Punta Gorda Isles Inc PGA
said it completed the sale of 1,875,000 shares of its Class A
cumulative convertible preferred stock for 7,500,000 dlrs in
cash at four dlrs per share.
    The sale was private to Love - PGI Partnerships, a
subsidiary of <The Love Companies> of St. Louis.
    In connection with the sale, Punta Gorda said it converted
500,000 dlr of debt owed to a corporation controlled by Alfred
Johns, PGI's chairman, into 125,000 shares of the preferred
stock.
    The preferred stock is convertible into Punta Gorda's
common stock at 2.41 dlrs per share, and holders are entitled
to one vote per share and to vote as one class with holders of
the common stock.
    The company said Johns entered into voting trust agreements
giving an unnamed individual affilated with the Love Partners
control over the 125,000 shares of preferred stock, as well as
280,600 shares of common stock owned by Johns.
    Punta Gorda also said it increased its board to seven
members from three in connection with the private sale.
    Named to the board were Andrew Love, Laurence Schiffer,
David Kirkland, and Daniel Baty, the company said.
    Also in connection with the private sale, Punta Gorda said
its primary lender, Naples Federal Savings and Loan
Association, granted an extension of the maturing date of its
indebtedness to April 15, 1988, from April 10, 1987.
 Reuter

    Net 166,000 vs 118,000
    Rev 3.2 mln vs 2.5 mln
    Year
    Shr 34 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 303,000 vs 269,000
    Rev 10.8 mln vs 10.2 mln
 Reuter

C.O.M.B. Co said it sold three of
its retail stores in Omaha to Bob Cummins Enterprises Inc, a
retail closeout merchandiser.
    It said the sale is consistent with its previously
announced Retail Division restructuring plans.

 Reuter

Centronics Corp said its board
declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share
purchase right on each outstanding common share payable to
holders of record April 9.
    The rights, which will expire 10 years later, will entitle
shareholders to buy one-hundredth of a share of a new series of
preferred at an exercise price of 20 dlrs.
    The rights will be exercisable only if some one acquires 30
pct or more of Centronic's common or announces an offer which
would result in ownership of 30 pct or more of the stock.
    Centronics said its board will be entitled to redeem the
rights at two cts per right at any time before a 30 pct
position has been acquired.
    If the rights become exercisable, the company said, those
held by shareholders other than the owner of 30 pct or more of
the stock will entitle the holder to purchase a number of
common shares having a market value twice the right's exercise
price.
 Reuter

McClain Industries Inc
said its board declared a four-for-three stock split, payable
30, record April 15.
    The company also said it plans to open within the next 90
days a 114,000 square foot plant in Macon, Ga., that will allow
it to expand production of transfer trailers and other
products.
 Reuter

Heritage Communications Inc
said it expects to hold a special shareholder meeting in May to
consider its proposed acquisition by an investor group
including members of senior management and Tele-communications
Inc <TELE>.
    The company said it is seeking to obtain all regulatory
approvals needed to complete the transaction before or shortly
after the special meeting.  Heritage said it has filed
preliminary proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange
Commission and has applied for a change of control of its
broadcast licenses with the Federal Communications Commission.
    Heritage it and Tele-Communications made required
Hart-Scott-Rodino filings with the Federal Trade Commission and
Justice Department on March 11 and 12, respectively.
 Reuter

Westar Corp said it is
negotiating with Noranda Exploration Inc, a unit of Noranda Inc
<NOR>.
    Westar said Noranda is interested in earning a percentage
interest in approximately 800 acres of Westar's 10,000 acre
Lordsburg, N.M., prospect.
    Westar also said it is completing a gold and silver
leaching facility at the Lordsburg mine. The company said it
expects the facility to be in production during April.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 2,460,000 vs 1,730,000
    Sales 37.0 mln vs 27.3 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split in
February 1987.
 Reuter

Vitramon Inc said it intends to
file for an offering of 600,000 common shares, which would give
it about 2,560,000 common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Louisiana Pacific Corp said it
reached a non-binding agreement in principle to buy a gypsum
wallboard plant in Seattle from Norwest Gypsum.
    Purchase price and other details of the agreement were not
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said Santa
Fe Southern Pacific Corp has not yet responded to the
Exchange's inquiries about the unusual activity in the
company's stock.
    The stock was trading at 38-1/2, up 2-3/8 on volume of
848,200 shares.
    The Exchange said it contacted the company to request that
it issue a public statement as to whether any corporate
developments could explain the activity in its stock.
 Reuter

Nobel Industries Sweden SA <NOBL.ST>
said its arms subsidiary, <AB Bofors>, plans to sell its 40 pct
stake in <Allied Ordnance Co of Singapore Ltd> because of its
part in weapons exports which contravene Swedish law.
    "The events we have uncovered are unacceptable and highly
regrettable incidents in our company's history," Nobel chairman
Lars-Erik Thunholm told a news conference.
    Nobel managing director Anders Carlberg said an internal
inquiry has revealed an extensive network of international arms
smuggling.
 Reuter

Chances that the International Coffee
Organization, ICO, executive board meeting this week will agree
to resume negotiations on export quotas soon look remote, ICO
delegates and trade sources said.
    ICO observers doubted Brazil or key consuming countries are
ready to give sufficient ground to convince the other side that
reopening negotiations again would be worthwhile, they said.
    ICO talks on quotas last month broke down after eight days
when producers and consumers failed to reach agreement.
     "Since we have not seen signs of change in other positions,
it's difficult to see a positive outcome at this stage,"
Brazilian delegate Lindenberg Sette said. But quotas must be
negotiated sometime, he said.
     The U.S. has indicated it is open to dialogue on quotas
but that Brazil must be flexible, rather than refuse to lower
its export share as it did in the last negotiations, delegates
said.
     At this week's March 31-April 2 meeting, the 16-member ICO
board is scheduled to discuss the current market situation, the
reintroduction of quotas, verification of stocks and some
administrative matters, according to a draft agenda.
    The fact that Brazilian Coffee Institute president Jorio
Dauster, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Jon Rosenbaum and
chief Colombian delegate Jorge Cardenas are not attending the
meeting has signalled to most market watchers that it will be a
non-event as far as negotiating quotas is concerned.
    "I would imagine there will be a lot of politicking among
producers behind closed doors to work up some kind of proposal
by September (the next scheduled council meeting)," Bronwyn
Curtis of Landell Mills Commodities Studies said.
    Traders and delegates said they have seen no sign that a
date will be set for an earlier council meeting.
    If the stalemate continues much longer, analysts expect the
coffee agreement will end up operating without quotas for the
remainder of its life, to September 30, 1989.
    When talks broke down, the U.S. and Brazil, the largest
coffee consumer and producer respectively, blamed one another
for sabotaging negotiations by refusing to compromise.
    Brazil wanted to maintain the previous export quota shares,
under which it was allocated 30 pct of world coffee exports,
but consumers and a small group of producers pressed for shares
to be redistributed using "objective criteria," which would have
threatened Brazil's share.
    At a recent meeting in Managua of Latin American producers,
Costa Rica and Honduras said they were willing to put their
objections as members of the group of eight ICO "dissident"
producers aside, in order to stem the damaging decline in
prices, Nicaraguan External Trade Minister Alejandro Martinez
Cuenca told reporters Saturday. He was in London to brief
producers on the Managua meeting.
    However, other producers said they were not aware of this
move toward producer solidarity.
    London coffee prices closed at 1,276 stg a tonne today,
down from around 1,550 at the beginning of March.
 Reuter

Enough European Community (EC) states
appear to be opposed to the proposals by the EC Commission for
a 330 European currency unit (Ecu) a tonne tax on vegetable
oils, fats and marine oils to block adoption by EC ministers,
British Farm Minister Michael Jopling said.
    He told a news conference held during a meeting here of EC
agriculture ministers that Britain, West Germany, the
Netherlands, Denmark, and Portugal were all against the tax.
    Between them, these five countries had more than enough
votes in the weighted voting system used in EC ministers'
meetings to block a decision, Jopling said.
 Reuter

Dravo Corp said it expects a first
quarter loss of about 30 cts per share, compared with a
year-earlier profit of one ct, and said operating earnings for
all of 1987 may not match 1986's earnings of 61 cts per share
from continuing operations.
    Dravo saidperformance so far this year in its engineering
and construction segment has not met earlier expectations.
    It said the first quarter will be impacted by writedowns
resulting fromn revised estimates of costs required to complete
projects and by delays in starting work on jobs originally
forecasted to contribute to first quarter earnings.
    Dravo further said it has given the investor group buying
Dravo's river transportation, stevedoring and pipe frabrication
businesses additional time to structure the necessary
permanenty financing, and closing is now expected in the third
quarter.
 Reuter

The U.S. Congress is making Japan,
with its enormous worldwide trade surplus, the symbol of the
U.S. trade crisis and the focus of its efforts to turn around
America's record trade deficit.
    "Japan has come to symbolize what we fear most in trade: the
challenge to our high technology industries, the threat of
government nutured competition, and the multitude of barriers
to our exports," Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd said.
    "If we can find a way to come to terms with Japan over trade
problems, we can manage our difficulties with other countries,"
the West Virginia Democrat said at a Senate Finance Committee
hearing on the trade bill.
    Byrd and House Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat, have
made trade legislation a priority this year and a wide-ranging
bill is being readied for probable House approval next month.
    Japan's bilateral trade surplus jumped from 12 billion dlrs
in 1980 to 62 billion dlrs last year. Its surplus rose to 8.14
billion dlrs in February from 5.7 billion dlrs in January.
    Congress points to the record 169 billion dlrs U.S. trade
deficit in 1986 and the slow response in the trade imbalance to
the dollar's decline in world currency markets as a reason to
press Japan to buy more U.S. goods.
    They are particularly dismayed by the rapid deterioration
in U.S. exports of sophisticated computer technology.
    In response to the growing anger and pressure by the U.S.
semiconductor industry, President Reagan Friday announced he
intended to raise tariffs as much as 300 mln dlrs on Japanese
electronic goods in retaliation for Japan's failure to abide by
a 1986 U.S.-Japanese semiconductor agreement.
    Congress also has been been angered by the administration's
lack of success with Japan on a host of other trade issues
including beef, citrus, automobile parts, telecommunications
goods, and financial services.
    The bulk of the House trade bill was written last week in
four committees. It is a package of trade sanctions and
measures to force the administration take tough action against
foreign trade barriers and unfair competition.
    Although most provisions do not single out Japan, in many
cases their impact would be to restrict imports of Japanese
products or make them more expensive with higher duties.
    The cornerstone of the trade legislation passed the House
Ways and Means Committee by a vote of 34 to 2. Its focus is to
force President Reagan to retaliate against unfair foreign
competition and to make it easier for U.S. industries to win
temporary relief from surges in imports.
    The most controversial issue, an amendment to restrict
imports if countries such as Japan with large surpluses do not
buy more U.S. goods was left for an April vote by the House.
    Rep. Richard Gephardt, a Democratic presidential aspirant
from Missouri, has the support of Wright and other key
Democrats to press for passage of the amendment.
    The measure would have the most impact on Japan, West
Germany, Taiwan and South Korea. If Japan, for example, does
not reduce its barriers by mid-1988, the United States would
set import quotas or tariffs to cut Japanese surplus by ten per
cent a year for three years.
    "I'm tired of going into companies and having managers say
to me, 'We're not over competing in Japan because we can't
compete in the marketplace.' That argument needs to be taken
away from American business," Gephardt said.
    The administration has said it could not support a trade
bill containing such a provision.
    
<Midland Montagu> investment banking arm has set up a
subsidiary in Finland, <Midland Montagu Osakepankki>.
    It said in a statement the new unit, the first Finnish
subsidiary of a U.K. Bank, is a member of the Helsinki Stock
Exchange. As such, it will be active in equity trading and will
advise on new issues, listings, mergers and acquisitions.
    It will also help raising equity and debt capital and
provide a full range of foreign exchange and treasury products.
In the domestic money market, it will manage commercial paper
issues and will trade in CD's and Treasury Bills.
 Reuter

Shr 97 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 60.8 mln vs 51.1 mln
    Revs 487.4 mln vs 529.7 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 3.42 dlrs vs 2.18 dlrs
    Net 215.0 mln vs 137.2 mln
    Revs 2.74 billion vs 2.88 billion
    NOTE: 1986 results restated for change in accounting.
 Reuter

Kaufman and Board Inc and its
insurance subsidiaries said they lowered their stake in Quaker
State Oil Refining Corp to 1,795,908 shares, or 6.9 pct of the
total outstanding, from 2,120,908 shares, or 8.1 pct.
the Kaufman and Board group, which includes Sun Life Group,
said it sold 325,000 Quaker State common shares between Feb 27
and March 23 at prices ranging from 28.00 to 31.00 dlrs each.

 Reuter

Saul Brandman, a California business
executive, told the Securities and Exchange Commission he has
acquired 118,714 shares of Arden Group Inc, or 5.7 pct of the
    Brandman, chairman of Domino of California Inc, a Los
Angeles garment maker, said he bought the stake for 3.1 mln
dlrs for investment purposes.
    He said he may buy more Arden Group shares, or he may sell
some or all of his current stake. He also said he has no plans
 Reuter

Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal said
Turkey and Greece were moving towards talks in their row over
oil rights in the Aegean Sea.
    He was speaking to reporters after talks with Turkish
Ambassador to Athens Nazmi Akiman, who arrived last night from
a meeting with Greek Premier Andreas Papandreou.
    "Both sides are now moving towards starting discussions. In
order not to jeopardise these, it would be improper to give
details," he said.
    Ozal told reporters Akiman came to Turkey to brief the
government "on efforts aimed at starting discussions between
Turkey and Greece" and a reply would be made to Athens soon.
renewed offer today that the two countries meet to discuss how
to refer the issue to the International Court of Justice at The
Hague, but said the court was not the only way to a solution.
    Turkey has in the past rejected the basis for Greece's
proposal to go to the court, a 1956 Geneva Convention and the
Law of the Sea, which it says support Athens' arguments.
 REUTER

The U.S. Senate has approved a
measure that would allow an estimated 4,200 agricultural banks
to write off loan losses over 10 years.
    The measure, offered by Sen. Alan Dixon (D-Ill.), was
attached to a bill to recapitalize the Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp that the Senate approved March 27.
    Dixon's amendment would permit agricultural banks -- banks
with assets of 100 mln dlrs or less and at least 25 pct of
total loans in farm loans -- to write down over 10 years
agricultural loan losses incurred between 1984 and 1992.
    Dixon said current law, which requires losses to be
deducted immediately from bank capital, "forces banks to try not
to acknowledge the extent of their problems."
    Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) said farm banks have been
concerned that write-downs might reduce their capitalization
below the six pct regulatory requirement.
    Last year Congress urged federal regulators to use
forbearance in the assessment of agricultural loans. However,
Kassebaum said "only a miniscule number of banks" have qualified
for the capital forbearance provisions.
    Dixon's measure also would allow agricultural banks to
amortize losses on the reduced value of farmland acquired in
the handling of agricultural loans.
 Reuter

CIR (Comagnie Riunite Industriali SpA)
<IRRI.MI> said it will ask shareholders to approve two
five-year bond issues carrying warrants convertible into shares
of its subsidiaries <Buitoni SpA> and <Sasib SpA>.
    Neither the value nor the terms of the planned issues was
released.
    Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the bond issues at an
extraordinary meeting called for April 27.
 REUTER

The Federal Reserve said it will enter
the U.S. Government securities market after the 1300 EST weekly
bill auction to purchase around 900 mln dlrs of Treasury bills
for customers, a spokesman said.
    He said the Fed will purchase bills with maturities from
May through September 10.
the Fed announced the operation.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said the
budget deficit next year will be reduced by about 15 billion
francs, and the government's planned programme of 50 billion
francs' tax cuts for 1987/88 will be implemented, a statement
from the Prime Minister's office said.
    The forecasts were contained in a letter of guidance to
ministries to prepare for the 1988 budget to be voted by
Parliament in autumn.
    Finance Minister Edouard Balladur plans to cut the 1988
budget deficit to around 115 billion francs from the forecast
1987 deficit of 129 billion, and to 100 billion francs in 1989.
    Chirac's statement said that to achieve the twin aims of
reducing the deficit and granting tax relief "a vigourous effort
to contain spending will have to be made."
    As in his letter to ministries last year, Chirac repeated
the aim to reduce by 1.5 pct the number of civil servants
except those in teaching or the security services.
    Budgetary adjustments made by the various government
ministries will collated by Balladur in mid-July, who will then
present them to the Prime Minister.
 REUTER

Fe Southern Pacific Corp declined to comment on inquiries
regarding the unusual activity in its stock.
    Earlier, analysts and traders said the stock rose sharply
after Henley Group <HENG> disclosed in a securities and
Exchange Commission filing that it holds almost eight mln
shares in the railroad and real estate conglomerate.
    The stock was trading at 38-3/4, up 2-5/8 on early
afternoon turnover of over one million shares.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp has cut 100,000
cars from its second quarter production schedule, according to
Automotive News.
    The trade paper, citing "sources both within GM and on the
outside," said GM plans to build 1,042,708 cars in the quarter,
a nine pct reduction from its earlier estimate. The cut could
lead to further layoffs at GM, it said.
    A GM spokesman said the company does not disclose future 
production schedules.
    Auto analysts said the cut would make sense for GM, which
has high car inventories.
    A 100,000-car reduction in output would only take GM part
of the way toward reducing high inventories, said Ron Glantz,
analyst with Montgomery Securities.
    "They should be cutting a lot more than they are," Shearson
Lehman analyst Michael Lucky said. He estimated that, even if
GM cut an additional 100,000 cars from its second quarter
production, it would still have a 75-day supply of cars.
    Normal inventory level is 50 to 65 days supply. At the end
of March, the automaker had 95 days supply, Lucky said.
    Glantz said that at the end of February GM had 361,000
excess vehicles, including both cars and trucks.
    The production cuts could lead to increased layoffs,
although those would likely be temporary rather than indefinite
layoffs, said Lucky.
    He said the automaker might also use this as an opportunity
to close some plants. Lucky estimates that GM needs to shut two
or three more assembly plants to bring its capacity more in
line with demand.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,414,500 vs 3,027,500
    Rev 26.2 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Shr 76 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 7,214,900 vs 7,752,800
    Rev 69.2 mln vs 64.9 mln
 Reuter

Orange Julius International Inc said
it entered into a definitive agreement to sell Orange Julius of
America and Orange Julius Canada Limited to H.C. Holdings Inc,
owned by Branford Castle Inc, a merchant banker, members of its
management and certain of its shareholders.
    Orange said the purchase price will consist of 19 mln dlrs
in cash and 10 pct redeemable preferred, 10 pct of HC's common
equity, and the right for it to prospectively receive 20 pct of
certain royalties under a proposed licensing program.
    It said HC also agreed to lend up to 600,000 dlrs to it in
advance of closing and it had already received 300,000 dlrs.
    Orange Julius announced the proposed sale of the units when
a letter of intent was signed February 17.
    The company said it is reviewing other offers to buy the
units and if it decides to accept another offer it will pay HC
an agreed upon amount and reimburse HC for its expenses.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit nine cts vs loss 26 cts
    Oper net profit 313,000 vs loss 860,000
    Revs 18.8 mln vs 16.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 45 cts vs loss 47 cts
    Oper net profit 1,543,000 vs loss 1,582,000
    Revs 72.7 mln vs 61.4 mln
discontinued operations of 179,000 dlrs, or five cts per share
and 901,000 dlrs, or 27 cts per share, respectively.
operations of 600,000 dlrs, or 17 cts per share and 1.1 mln
dlrs, or 33 cts per share, respectively.

 Reuter

NIGERIA TO ISSUE 1.5 BILLION DLRS IN PROMISSORY NOTES APRIL 7 FOR UNINSURED TRADE DEBT - TRUSTEE

Shr 23 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 439,100 vs 259,948
    Revs 9,918,413 vs 9,683,392
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five pct stock dividend.
 Reuter

Computer Microfilm corp said it expects
revenues of over 12.5 mln dlrs and higher earnings in 1987.
    The company today reported 1986 earnings of 439,100 dlrs on
revenues of 9,918,413 dlrs, up from earnings of 259,948 dlrs
and revenues of 9,683,392 dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs profit five cts
    Net profit 9,879 vs profit 118,852
    Revs 1,581,894 vs 1,878,052
    Avg shrs 2,627,952 vs 2,617,090
    Nine mths
    Shr loss two cts vs profit 24 cts
    Net loss 51,001 vs profit 619,860
    Revs 4,006,024 vs 6,646,587
    Avg shrs 2,532,959 vs 2,621,397
    NOTE: Nine mth orders 4,601,463 dlrs, up 39 pct, and
backlog at end of period 4,906,670 dlrs, up 83 pct from a year
before.
 Reuter

Shr 62 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 961,826 vs 226,429
    Sales 22.8 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Avg shrs 1,543,230 vs 1,172,039
 Reuter

Shr loss 77 cts vs loss 1.49 dlrs
    Net loss 3,860,000 vs loss 7,541,000
    Sales 2,538,000 vs 3,648,000
    Year
    Shr loss 78 cts vs loss 1.58 dlrs
    Net loss 3,935,000 vs loss 7,999,000
    Sales 10.5 mln vs 16.3 mln
    NOTE: Dividend pay April 24, record April 10.
    1986 net both periods includes pretax charge 2,944,000 dlrs
from writedown of assets and provision 726,000 dlrs for
obsolete and nonproductive inventory and other items.
 Reuter

Shr 1.05 dlrs vs 27 cts
    Net 4,193,000 vs 1,070,000
    Revs 9,377,000 vs 9,444,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain two mln dlrs from reduction of
loss allowance on undeveloped land.
 Reuter

Nigeria plans to issue on April 7 a
further 1.5 billion dlrs in short-term promissory notes to its
uninsured trade creditors in connection with existing arrears
on those debts, Law Debenture Trust Corp Plc said as trustee
for the notes.
    It said Nigeria also plans to hold talks with a newly
appointed representative for those creditors fairly soon, and
that Nigeria also will call "at an early date" an extraordinary
meeting of noteholders, including holders of the new notes. The
purpose of that meeting will be to consider a resolution to the
arrears on the trade debt and the promissory notes.
    Nigeria missed the first principal payment due on the notes
last autumn and another payment of about 30 mln dlrs that was
due in early January because of a cash shortage, which stemmed
partly from the drop in oil prices last year.
    An official of the Law Debenture Trust said he did not know
when the new representative for the noteholders, David Murison,
would meet the Nigerians. He noted the Nigerians currently are
attempting to negotiate bilateral agreements with members of
the Paris Club of western creditor governments under a
multilateral pact on these debts reached in December. So far,
bilateral accords have been reached with the U.K. And France.
    Law Debenture Trust, as trustee for the notes, has been
attempting to organise a meeting between the note holders and
Nigeria for the last coupole of months. The appointment of
Murison, chairman of Westpac Banking Corp's Mase Westpac Ltd
unit in London, was made in an effort to better coordinate
these efforts.
    The Law Debenture official said Murison will begin talks
with Nigeria as soon as they return to London. And although it
is hoped that a meeting of all note holders could be held by
end-May, he said this may not be possible since four weeks
notice of the meeting is required by law.
    The discussions with the note holders are being held in
conjunction with proposals to rescheduling Nigeria's debt to
commercial banks and official credit agencies.
    When talks began last April on rescheduling part of the
country's approximate 19 billion dlrs of foreign debt, the
commercial banks insisted that it be contingent on Nigeria
obtaining a rescheduling of its official debts as well. The
Nigerians then extended this to include all uninsured trade
debt.
    The commercial bank package has yet to be signed due in
part to the reluctance of Japanese banks, which have a
relatively small exposure, to participate.
 REUTER

A group of firms and funds
controlled by New York investor Mario Gabelli said it has
acquired the equivalent of 882,507 shares of Allegheny
International, or 8.0 pct of the total outstanding.
the Gabelli group said it bought the stake as part of its 
business and not in an effort to seek control of the company.
    It said it may by more shares or sell some or all of its
current stake. The stake includes 782,000 common shares and
cumulative convertible preferred stock which could be converted
into 100,507 common shares.
 Reuter

McDonald's Corp said it is
offering to buy the 25 mln dlrs in its outstanding 10-7/8 pct
debentures due July 15, 2015.
    It said debentures will be purchased at 1,118.30 dlrs per
1,000 dlrs principal amount, plus accrued interest. The
original debenture issue was for 100 mln dlrs.
    It said the buyback offer expires April Eight, unless
extended.
 Reuter

Sierracin Corp said it completed
the repayment of its entire 14 mln dlr bank debt and entered a
new, unsecured revolving credit term loan agreement.
    The new arrangement provides for borrowings of up to 10 mln
dlrs at the bank's prime rate and replaces a secured credit
line which expired in February, Sierracin also said.
 Reuter

Floating-rate notes denominated in a
foreign currency, a relatively new wrinkle on Wall Street, will
probably be issued infrequently because the so-called "window
of opportunity" opens and closes quickly, traders say.
    "In just two days we had as many issues. As a result, the
market became glutted," said one trader.
    He said the window depends more on supply than on foreign
exchange or interest rate risk, at least for the moment.
"Obviously, currency risk is important. But there is a limited
number of investors right now for the paper," he said.
    On Thursday, Bear, Stearns and Co sole-managed a 100 mln
New Zealand dlr offering of three-year floating-rate notes
issued by Ford Motor Credit Co, a unit of Ford Motor Co <F>.
    The initial rate for the notes will be set on April 15, and
quarterly after that, at 200 basis points below the 90-day New
Zealand bank bill rate. They are non-callable for life.
    This followed by a week another Bear Stearns-led offering
of the same amount of New Zealand dollar notes for Dow Chemical
Co <DOW>. The initial rate was also to be initially set on
April 15, and quarterly after that, at 340 basis points below
the same 90-day New Zealand rate.
    Because the Dow Chemical notes carried an interest rate
floor of 17 pct, the issue saw strong investor demand,
    But the Ford Credit notes and Friday's offering of 130 mln
New Zealand dlrs of floating-rate notes due 1990 issued by
General Electric Co's <GE> General Electric Credit Corp via
Prudential-Bache Securities Inc, did not have such a floor.
    "Obviously, the two firms did not want to issue floaters
and face the risk of New Zealand rates falling sharply," an
underwriter away from the syndicates said. He and others noted
that the New Zealand 90-day rate was 27 pct late last week.
    An underwriter familiar with the Dow Chemical deal pointed
out that because of the interest rate and currency swaps Dow
did, the issuer felt comfortable setting a rate floor.
    Domestic offerings of foreign currency denominated date
first surfaced in Fall 1985. By using currency and rate swaps,
companies can sell debt that pays a high interest rate in a
foreign currency like Australian or New Zealand dollars. But
the issuers actually realize savings on borrowing costs.
    "I would say that every company which issued foreign
currency debt saved some basis points when compared to
same-maturity plain vanilla U.S. issues," an analyst said.
    Investors, mainly institutions, were attracted to the early
issues because of the high interest rates. They were willing to
absorb foreign currency risk until mid-1986, when sharp slides
posted by the Australian and New Zealand dollars brought such
issuance to a quick halt.
    It was not until late last year, after the currencies
stabilized, that companies again started issuing debt
denominated in Australian and New Zealand dollars.
    But many investors have still shied away from the debt,
remembering the mid-1986 downturn of the Australian and New
Zealand dollars, analysts noted.
    To attract some of those investors back to the fold,
underwriters like Bear Stearns decided to structure the foreign
currency issues as floating rate debt, sources said.
    This occurred against a backdrop of uncertainty over the
course of U.S. interest rates for the intermediate term, and
predictions by a number of economists that Treasury yields
would rise in the second half of the year, the sources noted.
    A Bear Stearns officer said more than half of the Ford
Credit notes were sold by late Friday afternoon, the second day
of offering. "That is quicker than some recent fixed-rate New
Zealand dollar note issues," he said.
    However, underwriters away from the Bear Stearns syndicate
said the issue may have sold even faster if Prudential-Bache
did not offer the General Electric Credit notes on Friday.
    They pointed out that the Ford notes were rated A-1 by
Moody's Investors and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's, while
the General Electric notes, which had the same interest rate
terms and were also non-callable to maturity, carried
top-flight AAA ratings by both agencies.
    "We have sold 20 to 25 pct of the GE notes. For first-day
sales on a Friday afternoon, I'm happy with the results," an
officer on Prudential-Bache's syndicate desk said.
    Investors pay the U.S. dollar equivalent of the foreign
currency-denominated notes, underwriters said.
    Investment bankers said the next floating-rate issue of New
Zealand or Australian dollar-denominated debt is probably a few
weeks away.
    "I would like to underwrite a deal a day. But with the Dow,
Ford and GE offerings, the marketplace has had enough for the
time being," the Prudential-Bache officer admitted.
    Meanwhile, IDD Information Services said the 30-day
corporate visible supply fell to 3.29 billion dlrs last week
from 3.98 billion dlrs in the previous week.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury's regular weekly
bill auction is expected to produce an average yield of about
5.74/72 pct for the three-month maturities and 5.82/81 pct for
the six-month, dealers said.
    The current issues were yielding 5.71/70 and 5.76/75 pct
respectively in early afternoon trading.
 Reuter

market conditions at its next monthly tender on Thursday,
    The planned issue will be of two fixed rate tranches, of
the 8.50 pct 1997 and the 8.50 pct 2002 stock, and one tranche
of the 1999 variable-rate stock. The minimum amount of each
tranche to be sold will be one billion francs.
    At its last tender on March 4, the Bank of France sold
11.05 billion francs of tap stock.
 REUTER

Four international banks have filed
claims for 131.2 mln riyals against the owners of Saudi
construction and trading group Abdulla Fouad and Sons Co,
bankers and lawyers in the Kingdom said.
    Bankers said the suit may prove to be a test case for banks
which have so far been largely frustrated in their attempts to
reclaim loans through the Saudi Arabian legal system.
    Citibank N.A., Bank of America NT and SA, Arab Banking Corp
(ABC) and the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) filed claims
with a special Saudi court under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Commerce on March 7.
    A hearing at the Dammam court, the Negotiable Instruments
Committee, has been set for April 19.
    A company spokesman declined comment.
    The company was hit by the decline in Saudi Arabia's
economy but chairman Abdulla Fouad arranged to settle debts
with Saudi bank creditors by ceding them a hospital, shares and
an office building, bankers said.
    The four non-Saudi banks, however, decided to press their
claims in the court.
    The bankers and lawyers said claims are based on promissory
notes signed by the limited liability company and backed by
personal guarantees signed by Abdulla Fouad, his two wives and
his sons and daughters.
    The claims are for a 34.2 mln riyal loan from ABC, a 42 mln
riyal syndicated loan led by Bank of America and including BBK
and two loans of 15 mln riyals and 40 mln signed from Citibank.
    The loans were signed between july 1984 and january 1985.
  REUTER

USLICO Corp said its common
stock has started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
    The stock was formerly traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

The Governor of the Central Bank of
West African CFA franc zone countries (UMOA) today urged that
the bank should be involved in all negotiations with the
International Monetary Fund but said the zone's seven member
countries were not thinking of ditching the fund.
    Abdoulaye Fadiga told reporters after a regular one-day
meeting of UMOA finance ministers here that the bank's
participation in future credit talks with the IMF would promote
a greater coherence in Fund aid granted to the region.
    But he stresed that UMOA, which last month called for a new
relationship with the IMF, was not contemplating a break with
the fund.
    "Member states (of UMOA) never envisaged breaking with the
Fund," he said.
    Fadiga said an extraordinary UMOA meeting held in Ivory
Coast's inland capital, Yamoussoukro, last month, stresssed the
need for growth-oriented IMF adjustment policies.
    "Borrowing to pay off debts cannot be a solution," he added.
    UMOA members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali,
Niger, Senegal and Togo. The zone's common-curreny, the CFA
franc, is pegged to the French franc at the rate of 50 CFA
francs to one French franc.
    Fadiga said many of the region's problems stem from low
commodity prices and a weak dollar.
    He applauded last week's agreement between producers and
consumers on the functioning of a new international cocoa pact,
saying negotiation of other commodity accords would benefit
UMOA countries.
    He also urged action to persuade West Africans to transfer
more money through the regular banking system rather than using
non-official channels.
 Reuter

GAC Liquidating Trust said
it has completed the sale of its Rio Rico 16,653 acre
undeveloped land tract in Nogales, Ariz., for about 4,725,000
dlrs.
    It said it received about one mln dlrs in cash at closing,
less costs and expenses, and a 3,725,000 dlr promissory note
secured by irrevocable bank letters of credit and a first deed
of trust on substantially all the property sold.  The
promissory note is payable in cash without interest one year
after closing.
 Reuter

Martin Marietta Corp said it
signed an exclusive agreement with McDonnell Douglas Corp's
Tymnet Co for Tymnet to provide data communications services as
a member of its team bidding on the federal government's FTS
2000 telecommunications system.
    Tymnet is a unit of McDonnell's Information Systems Group.
    The government's FTS 2000 system will replace the current
one operated for federal agencies by the General Services
Administration. The GSA issued a request for proposals in
January, with responses due in June and selection of a
contractor scheduled by year end.
 Reuter

Executive Telecommunications Inc said its
board has extended the exercise date of its warrants to
December 31 from March 31.
    Each allows the purchase of one common share at 1.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

Centronics Corp said it has named
Salomon Inc financial advisor to help it identify acquisition
candidates.
    Centronics sold its computer business in February and
substantially all of its assets now consist of cash.  It said
it intends to acquire at least one business.
 Reuter

Privately-held Clayton and Dubilier
Inc said it has sold W. Atlee Burpee Co to a new company formed
by Wicks Capital Corp, Bankers Trust New York Corp <BT> aND
Burpee management for undisclosed terms.
    The garden supply company was acquired from ITT Corp <ITT>
in December along with O.M. Scott and Sons Co.
 Reuter

Commission, CFTC, said that on April 15 it will consider the
Chicago Board of Trade's proposal to establish night trading.
    The Chicago exchange hopes to begin night trading at the
end of the month. The proposed trading session -- which would
be the first in the United States -- would extend from 1700 to
2100 local time (2300 to 0300 GMT).
    CFTC also said that on April 22 it will consider the
Philadelphia Board of Trade's application to trade futures on
the Australian dollar and the New York Cotton Exchange's
application to trade the five-year U.S. Treasury Index.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.77 dlrs vs loss 10.47 dlrs
    Net loss 24.9 mln vs loss 123.1 mln
    Revs 123.1 mln vs 156.5 mln
    NOTE:1985 loss includes loss of 51.2 mln dlrs from
discontinued operations. 1986 loss includes gain of 6.8 mln
dlrs from discontinued operations.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co believes strong margins
for chemical products could result in record earnings this
year, Chairman Paul Oreffice said.
    "I'm hoping we will have the best year in our history
profit-wise," he told reporters following a speech at The
American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting.
    "I believe the entire chemical industry is headed for a
record year, or close to it," Oreffice said.
    In 1986, Dow earned 741 mln dlrs an increase from 1985's 58
mln dlrs brought about by falling oil prices and resulting
cheaper feedstock costs.
    Oreffice also said Dow's profit margins on chemical
products would improve this year over last year.
    He said reduced capacity in the chemical industry and the
weakened U.S. dollar would also contribute to the company's
improved performance.
    Dow will spending about 650 mln dlrs on research and
development in 1987 with an emphasis on new specialty
chemicals, Oreffice said.
 Reuter

Gannett Co's USA Today said it
carried a total of 957 paid advertising pages through the end
of its first quarter, compared to 769 paid pages a year ago.
    USA Today said it has averaged just under 15 advertising
pages per day in 1987, up from 12 per day in the first quarter
of 1986.
    Gannett also said that effective March 30, USA Today will
have a new circulation rate base of 1.50 mln up from its
previous base of 1.45 mln.
 Reuter

    Per share figures adjusted for two-for-one stock split of
 Reuter

Crude oil netback values in complex
refineries rose slightly in the U.S. and the Mediterranean 
last Friday from the previous week but were lower elsewhere,
according to calculations by Reuters Pipeline.
    The soft tone to refining margins reflects large worldwide
stocks of petroleum products and thin trading activity, traders
said.
    In the U.S. Gulf, sweet crudes rose in value by as much as
26 cts a barrel for West Texas Intermediate, an increase of 1.4
pct from the previous Friday, while sour crudes, such as
Alaska North Slope, were up one pct.
    In the Mediterranean, netback values were up 17 cts to 22
cts a barrel, with Arab Light up 17 cts a barrel to 18.62 dlrs,
a 0.9 pct increase from the previous Friday and Urals were up
22 cts a barrel to 19.16 dlrs, a 1.2 pct increase.
    But netbacks for crude oil refined in Northern Europe was
generally lower with Brent valued at 18.89 dlrs, off 30 cts
from the previous friday, and Bonny Light was off 17 cts to
19.58 dlrs a barrel.
    Refinery netbacks in Singapore were also lower, with
heavier and sour crudes weakest. Arab Heavy dropped 10 cts to
16.63 dlrs a barrel and Dubai was off 12 cts to 18.09 dlrs.
    On the U.S. West Coast, however, netback values for ANS CIF
L.A. were weaker with weak gasoline prices sending the yield at
cracking plants down 68 cts to 18.42 dlrs from the previous
Friday, as shown below in dlrs a barrel.
TOPPING.........15.63......16.10......14.30
CRACKING........18.42......19.10......16.86
    The Mediterranean region also showed netback values rising
last Friday over the previous week with the largest gains shown
by Es Sider and the heavier Urals crude oil, which were each up
22 cts a barrel last Friday to 19.40 dlrs and 19.16 dlrs a
barrel, respectively.
    Netback values for the mediterranean region are shown below
in dlrs a barrel.
GRADE...........MAR 27.....MAR 20.....FEB 27
ES SIDER........19.40......19.18......16.44
ARAB LIGHT......18.61......18.44......15.52
IRAN LT.........19.25......19.08......16.16
KUWAIT..........18.51......18.33......15.42
URALS cif.......19.16......18.94......16.07
    Netbacks in Northern Europe's refinery region were lower
last friday from the previous week with Brent falling 1.6 pct
to 18.89 dlrs a barrel.
     Netbacks for other grades of oil refined in Northern
Europe are shown below in dlrs a barrel.
................MAR 27.....MAR 20.....FEB 27
BRENT...........18.89......19.19......16.77
BONNY LIGHT.....19.58......19.75......17.15
ARAB LIGHT......18.49......18.52......16.07
URALS CIF.......19.02......18.98......16.54
    Refinery netbacks in Singapore were also lower with heavier
and sour crudes weakest.
    Arab Heavy dropped 10 cts to 16.63 dlrs a barrel and Dubai
was off 12 cts to 18.09 dlrs.
     Netbacks for other grades of oil refined in Singapore  are
shown below in dlrs a barrel.
ATTAKA..........19.23......19.24......16.72
ARAB LIGHT......18.00......18.10......15.55
OMAN............18.21......18.25......16.31
DUBAI...........18.09......18.21......15.86
ARAB HEAVY......16.63......16.73......14.24
 Reuter

 Reuter

Fuel loading of the Palo
Verde Unit 3 nuclear power plant began Saturday, the Arizona
Nuclear Power Project said.
    The plant, rated at 1,270 megawatts, is expected to enter
commercial service by the end of this year, the company said.
Palo Verde Units 1 and 2 are already in commercial operation
and also are rated at 1,270 MW each, the company said.
    The Arizona Nuclear Power Project is a consortium of
southwest U.S. utilities including AZP Group's <AZP> Arizona
Public Service Co, Southern California Edison <SCE>, El Paso
Electric Co <ELPA>, and Public Service Co of New Mexico <PNM>.
 Reuter

An investor group controlled by New
York Investor David Rocker told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it has acquired 291,400 shares of Circle Express
Inc, or 6.1 pct of the total outstanding common stock.
    The group, Rocker Partners Ltd and Compass Investments Ltd,
said it bought the stake for investment purposes and not as
part of an effort to seek control of the company.

 Reuter

Paradyne Corp said it introduced a
new 3400 series of high-speed network diagnostic modems that
provide an open-ended, modular approach to telecommunications
    It said one modem, the 3450, costs 8,900 dlrs and the
other, the 3470, costs 11,500 dlrs.
    It also said it introduced the ANALYSIS 6510, a new
generation of advanced and automated network management and
control systems. It said the price of an entry level
configuration is 21,250 dls.
 Reuter

Nigeria will issue April 7 1.5 billion
dlrs in short-term promissory notes to its uninsured trade
creditors in connection with existing arrears on those debts,
Law Debenture Trust Corp Plc said as trustee for the notes.
that Nigeria will call "at an early date" an extraordinary
 Reuter

said it had closed Equitable Savings and Loan Association of 
Fountain Valley, Calif., and transferred its insured deposits
to Empire of America-California, FSB, a federal savings bank in
Woodland Hills, Calif.
    Equitable had assets of 59.12 mln dlrs. Empire is a
subsidiary of Empire of America, FSB, Buffalo, N.Y., which has
9.1 billion dlrs in assets and 143 offices in five states.
    The former offices of Equitable will open as branches of
Empire and Equitable's depositors will have immediate access to
their insured funds.
    Equitable was insolvent and had substantially dissipated
assets and earnings, resulting in an unsafe and unsound
condition to transact business, the bank board said.
    It was the seventh closing of a thrift in the nation this
year and the first liquidation in California.
    The FHLBB said Equitable had deposits of 79.2 mln dlrs, all
of which was insured except for about 300,000 dlrs.
    A spokeswoman for the board said information on the cost of
the transfer to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.
was unavailable.
 Reuter

Central and South West Corp said its
Southwestern Electric Power Co subsidiary has sold at
competitive bidding to underwriters 40 mln dlrs of 6.95 pct
sinking fund preferred stock.
    It said winning underwriter Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc,
an American Express Co <AXP> subsidiary, is offering the shares
to the public at a price of 100 dlrs per share to yield 6.95
pct.  It said net proceeds to Central and South West were 99.25
dlrs for each of the 400,000 shares.  The issue is
nonrefundable for five years and a sinking fund starting in
1992 will retire three pct of the issue a year.
    The company has the option to repurchase another three pct
annually.
 Reuter

Vestron Inc said it is seeking
an order in California Superior court for Los Angeles County to
restrain Hemdale Film Corp and its Hemdale Video corp affiliate
from distributing or relasing the films "Platoon" and
"Hoosiers" in all ancillary markets.
    The company said its suit seeks to order Hemdale to live up
to commitments under its exclusive home video distributrion
agreements with Vestron for the films and seeks damages for
lost profits as well.
    Vestron said the suit alleges that Hemdale was to deliver
each film to Vestron within 30 days after theatrical release.
    The company alleged Hemdale has refused to deliver the
films in an attempt to renegotiate the agreements with Vestron.
    It said the dispute appears to make a significant delay of
the videocassette release of Platoon inevitable.
 Reuter

Exports of French soft wheat for the
period July 1, 1986, to March 1, 1987, fell 27.6 pct to 8.21
mln tonnes from 11.34 mln tonnes in the same 1985/86 period,
the national cereals office ONIC said quoting customs figures.
    Of this total, exports to non-EC countries totalled 3.76
mln tonnes, 34 pct down on 5.70 mln, and exports to EC nations
4.45 mln tonnes, 21.1 pct down on a previous 5.64 mln.
    Main EC destinations were Italy with two mln tonnes versus
1.9 mln, Belgium 500,000 tonnes (one mln), Netherlands 500,000
(600,000), West Germany 500,000 (800,000), Spain 300,000
(zero), Britain 300,000 (700,000), Greece 200,000 (300,000),
and Ireland 100,000 (200,000).
    In flour, exports totalled 980,000 tonnes, up 6.5 pct on a
previous 920,000 tonnes.
    Exports of maize totalled 4.11 mln tonnes, 37.4 pct up on a
previous 2.99 mln. Exports to non-EC countries were 190,000
tonnes against 140,000 and to EC countries 3.92 mln tonnes
against 2.84 mln.
    Main EC desinations were Netherlands 900,000 (600,000),
Belgium 800,000 (one mln), Britain 700,000 (500,000), West
Germany 400,000 (same), Italy 300,000 (200,000) and Greece
300,000 (zero).
 Reuter

completed a private placement of three mln units, consisting of
three mln common shares and warrants to purchase another 1.5
mln shares.
    The units were placed among institutional investors outside
the United States and Canada through lead agent Shearson Lehman
Brothers International Inc, Stan West said.
    It said the transaction will raise over 13 mln dlrs before
fees and expenses.
    Trading in Stan West was halted earlier, news pending. It
last traded at 4-11/16.
 Reuter

IBC, is expected to maintain its previous pricing system when
it reopens export registrations, probably later this week,
exporters said.
    They said IBC President Jorio Dauster is likely to leave
the basic formula for the minimum registration price unchanged
but raise the contribution quota to partially offset the
effects of cruzado devaluation since April registrations were
closed in mid-February.
    To fully compensate for devaluation the quota would have to
be around 28 dlrs per bag against 7.0 when registrations closed.
    However, even a 21 dlr per bag rise in the contribution
quota would make Brazil coffees uncompetitive on world markets,
and an increase to around 15 dlrs a bag is more likely, the
    They added that Dauster is keen to raise the contribution
quota as the Institute needs money to repay Central Governmnet
funds released to finance IBC purchases at the guaranteed
producer price.
    Although a vote in the Monetary Council to provide more
funds for such purchases was deferred on technical grounds last
week, funds are still being released for subsequent approval.
    The sources said it is still unclear when registrations
will be reopened, although most expect it to be by the end of
this week.
    "Brazil owes it to its customers to make its intentions
know. A country like Brazil cannot afford to be permanently
closed down," one exporter said.
    However, before announcing its export policy the IBC is
likely to wait to see if tomorrow's meeting of the
International Coffee Organisation, ICO, executive board in
London decides to call a full council meeting to discuss
reintroduction of export quotas, sources said.
    There is also talk of the announcement this week of new
measures to adjust the Brazilian economy, and the IBC could be
awaiting clarification before making any move, the exporters
said.
    Another factor which could be delaying the opening of
registrations is the current strike by bank workers which,
while not affecting current shipments, could affect
documentation and currency operations for new sales.
    This would certainly be the case if the IBC was considering
obliging exporters to pay the contribution quota within two or
three days of registering a sale.

Vista Management Inc said it has
agreed to acquire General Energy Development Inc for over
2,200,000 dlrs in cash, with financing to come from mortgage
loans on the National Auto Service Centers General Energy
operates.
 Reuter

golden Poultry Co Inc said it has
signed a letter of intent to purchase privately-held food
distributor Don Lowe Foods Inc of Pompano Beach, Fla., for
undisclosed terms, subject to approval by both boards.
    It said Tampa operations of Lowe are not involved in the
sale.
 Reuter

Willcox and Gibbs Inc said it has
agreed to acquire Atlantia electric parts distributor B and W
Electric Supply Co for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    B and W had sales of about eight mln dlrs in its most
recent year.
    Willcox said it plans further expansion in the Atlanta area.
 Reuter

Shr loss 67 cts vs profit 60 cts
    Net loss 1,398,000 vs profit 1,250,000
    Revs 8,834,000 vs 20.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.81 dlrs vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 5,864,000 vs loss 310,000
    Revs 52.1 mln vs 82.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit 32 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net profit 936,000 vs profit 249,000
    Revs 348,000 vs 1,150,000
    Year
    Shr loss 2.15 dlrs vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 6,095,000 vs loss 469,000
    Revs 1,554,000 vs 4,254,000
    NOTE: Results include credits of 556,000 and 1,141,000 for
the latest qtr and yr vs 112,000 and 656,000 for prior periods
from tax loss carryforwards.
    Results include after-tax gains of 567,000 for both 1986
periods vs loss of 45,000 for prior periods on disposal of
    Prior periods restated to reflect sale of discontinued
 Reuter

Yellow Freight System Inc
said it filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission a rate
increase of 2.9 pct in Rocky Mountain territory,
    It said the increase would offset labor and other cost
increases and not make a contribution to operating margins.
    The company said it took the independent action of filing
for the rate increase following suspension by the commission of
a general rate increase published by the Rocky Mountain Motor
Tariff Bureau. It noted that at the same time the commission
allowed similar increases published by the other regional rate
bureaus.
 Reuter

Shr profit 20 cts vs loss 33 cts
    Net profit 376,470 vs loss 1,555,469
    Revs 3,615,550 vs 2,896,000
    Year
    Shr profit 14 cts vs loss 66 cts
    Net profit 382,014 vs loss 1,128,160
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 11.0 mln
 Reuter

replacing all 28 Marine security guards at its embassy in
Moscow after two who were stationed there were arrested on
spying charges.
    Deputy State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said the
Marines would be rotated back to the United States by the end
of April to facilitate a three-pronged government investigation
now underway.
    She told reporters the move -- replacing an entire marine
security guard contingent -- was unprecedented.
 Reuter

Sports News Network
International Inc said it signed an exclusive agreement to
distribute its electronic news service, Sportswatch, through
Cybernetic Data Products.
    The agreement calls for Sports News Network to provide its
sports news service to more than 1,300 existing electronic
board owned by Cybernetic Data Products and operated under the
name, SilentRadio.
 Reuter

City Resources Ltd said it has agreed
in principle to sell a 50 pct interest in a group of mineral
properties in the southwest Pacific to a buyer it did not name
for 30 mln Canadian dlrs.
    The company said a preliminary estimate of the geological
resources of one of the properties to a depth of 200 meters
indicates a potential of 1.2 mln ounces of gold, and by the
middle of 1987 it expects to establish proven ore reserves
containing at least 500,000 ounces of gold.  It said mining
could start in 1988, subject to a satisfactory prefeasibility
study.
    The company said completion of the transaction is subject
to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
    City Resources is controlled by City Resources Ltd of
Australia.
 Reuter

GenRad Inc said it introduced a
software product that allows for development of test programs
for its 227X line of in-circuit/functional test systems on
Digital Equipment Corp's <DEC> VAX-based computers.
    GenRad said the product, named ATG-32, provides for
off-line development of test systems at four- to eight-times
the speed of its current 227X test program.
    It said ATG-32 is priced at 30,000 dlrs and is available
 Reuter

Hughes Supply Inc said it has
signed a letter of intent to acquire most of the assets of Tri
State Supply Inc, a wholesale distributor of electrinical
fixtures and supplies with sales for the year ending tomorrow
of about 13 mln dlrs.
    It said clopsing is expected around April 30, subject to
approval by Tri State's board and shareholders.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 436,981 vs 583,715
    Six months
    Shr 63 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 901,648 vs 1,160,178
 Reuter

Oper shr loss two cts vs profit eight cts
    Oper net loss 77,000 vs profit 285,000
    Revs 3,781,000 vs 4,721,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 23 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Oper net profit 904,00 vs profit 952,000
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 15.1 mln
discontinued operations of 303,000 dlrs, or seven cts per share
and 354,000 dlrs, or nine cts per share, respectively.
    Net earnings for first three months of 1986 restated to
reflect reduction of 148,000 dlrs resulting from increase in
effvective income tax rate.
 Reuter

Oper shr seven cts vs four cts
    Oper net 159,000 vs 94,000
    Sales 4,528,000 vs 3,683,000
    Avg shrs 2,376,000 vs 2,189,000
    Year
    Oper shr 19 cts vs 15 cts
    Oper net 435,000 vs 339,000
    Sales 15.7 mln vs 14.4 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes tax credits of 17,000 dlrs vs 39,000
dlrs in quarter and 268,000 dlrs vs 294,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Ashland Oil Inc is actively seeking a
chemical acquisition and is willing to spend between 100 to 200
mln dlrs, Chairman John Hall said.
    "We're looking for privately held companies or units of
other companies. We think it's too dificult to go (shopping) on
the stock market where premiums are so high," Hall told
Reuters. He was in Houston to address the annual meeting of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
    "We're trying to grow in that area to cushion the oil price
volatility," Hall said.
    Hall said Ashland is seeking a chemical company acquisition
which would complement its existing chemical businesses which
manufacture adhesives, polyester resins and other products.
    When asked if Ashland is considering divesting its
money-losing oil exploration and production unit, he said "we
do not have any spin-offs planned at this time."
    Hall said the Ashland, Ky., based oil company would have
strong margins on its chemical products throughout 1987, adding
"right now we're struggling a bid" with the company's refining
and marketing margins.
    The Ashland chairman also said he hoped the U.S. government
would consider some form of tax incentive to help develop
costly synthetic fuels such as oil shales and coal
liquification. "The lead time on that (kind of project) is so
long, it's difficult for a private company or a company with
shareholders to pay for reseach," he explained.
 Reuter

French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
called on leading Western nations to set up a mechanism which
would put a stop to volatile foreign exchange rates.
    In a speech prepared for delivery to businessmen and
bankers in New York, Chirac said said monetary stablility was a
key element in bringing the world financial system back to
health.
    "The industrialized states should agree to set up a monetary
framework which would provide the necessary stability as well
as sufficient flexibility to allow ajustments when needed,"
Chirac said.
    "This requires a monitoring and alert mechanism which would
permit a timely and concerted reaction," he said.
    The prime minister, on the first day of a three-day visit
to the United States, said the February 22 Paris accords agreed
by the "Group of Five" industrial nations should serve as a basis
for the new mechanism.
     Under the Paris accords, the United States, Britain,
France, West Germany, and Japan agreed to stabilize exchange
rates around existing parities. But, only five weeks after they
were signed, they have failed to stop the dollar tumbling to
record lows against the yen.
    Chirac said the means to monitor exchange rate movements
were readily available. "What is needed is the political will to
use these more completely, in the spirit of the Paris
accords... "
    In other points of his speech, Chirac called on countries
with high trade surpluses -- an apparent reference to Japan --
to open up their markets and stimulate demand.
    He warned the United States that protectionist measures as
debated in the U.S. Congress would bring a tough  response from
the 12-nation European Community.
    "Europe is very sensitive to every rumour of protectionism.
It will react with energy and solidarity because it does not
want to ruin its chances of recovery."
    The Reagan administration is seeking to tone down a tough
trade bill which if passed would require the president to
retaliate against countries deemed to discriminate against U.S.
Goods.
    Chirac also appealed for an effort from developed countries
to help the Third World by reducing interest rates and
stimulating commodity prices.
    "No stock-pile mechanism can run counter to the underlying
trend of the market. These agreements must be complemented by
financial aid to the developing countries hardest hit by the
decline."
    Chirac said he hoped concrete steps could be reached on
these issues at forthcoming international meetings -- the
International Monetary Fund/World Bank session in Washington
and the June summit of seven leading western nations in Venice.
 Reuter

Cermetek Microelectronics Inc
said it will return to a full 40 hour work week, efective at
the end of this month, as a result of increased business.
    Last October Cermetek, a maker of modems, data base access
and communications terminals, reduced its work week to 36 hours
to reduce costs.
 Reuter

Ohio Mattress Co said itr has
executed a definitive agreement to acquire Sealy Mattress Co of
Michigan Inc, the Detroit licensee of Ohio Mattress's 82 pct
owned Sealy Inc subsidiary in a transaction that also involves
a settlement between Sealy and Michigan Sealy.
    The company said on completion of the acquisition, the
Sealy stock owned by Michigan Sealy will be redeemed, raising
Ohio Mattress' interest in Sealy to 93 pct.  Michigan Sealy has
been in litigation against Sealy, alleging violations of
antitrust laws, and Sealy was recently found liable for 45 mln
dlrs in damages to Michigan Sealy.
    Under the acquisition agreement, the company said Sealy
will enter into a cash settlement of its litigation with
Michigan Sealy.
    The company said shareholders of Michigan Sealy will
receive a total of 48.6 mln dlrs, subject to adjustment, from
the acquisition and the settlement, both of which are subject
to regulatory approvals.
    Michigan Sealy had sales of about 12.5 mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

    Wells Fargo and Co <WFC> - Shelf offering of up to 250 mln
dlrs of subordinated capital notes.
    Chicago Pacific Corp <CPAC> - Offering of 150 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due April 1, 2012, through
an underwriting group led by Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    Integrated Genetics Inc <INGN> - Offering of two mln shares
of convertible exchangeable preferred stock through Alex. Brown
and Sons Inc and PaineWebber Inc.
    Allegheny Ludlum Corp - Initial public offering of
5,165,000 shares of common stock, including 765,000 by current
holders, at an estimated 21 to 24 dlrs a share through Goldman,
     Michael Foods Inc - Initial public offering of two mln
shares of common stock at an estimated 13 to 15 dlrs a share
through an underwriting group led by William Blair and Co.
    Plenum Publishing Corp <PLEN> - Offering of 50 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due April 15, 2007 through
Bear, Stearns and Co Inc.
    International Mobile Machines Corp <IMMC> - Offering of one
mln shars of cumulative convertible preferred stock through
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Butcher and Singer Inc.
    Stage II Apparel Corp - Initial public offering of one mln
shares of common stock at an estimated 10 to 12 dlrs a share.
    AmVestors Financial Corp <AVFC> - Offering of 2.5 mln
shares of common stock through Smith Barney, Harris Upham and
Co Inc and Morgan Keegan and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Oper shr 49 cts vs 47 cts
    Oper net 1,475,000 vs 1,474,000
    Revs 85.8 mln vs 90.6 mln
    Note: Current shr and net exclude extraordinary loss of
3,413,000 dlrs or 1.13 dlrs shares, versus extraordinary loss
of 63,000 dlrs or two cts share in prior year
 Reuter

a motion with the Texas Court of Appeals in Houston seeking a
rehearing of the court's decision to uphold most of Pennzoil
Co's 11.12 billion dlr judgment against Texaco.
    The company said its motion cites over 200 errors contained
in the February 12 appeals court decision, adding its "brief
simply 'rubberstamps' the original trial court judgment which
the company has said 'riddled with errors'."
    In support of its argument, Texaco's motion emphasized a
recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit in Chicago in Skycom Corp v. Telstar Corp as
"unequivocal confirmation that the Texas Court's opinion is
wrong," according to Gibson Gayle, a Texaco attorney with the
Houston firm of Fulbright and Jaworski.
    "The United States Court of Appeals in Chicago issued the
ruling based on facts strikingly similar to the facts in the
Texaco-Pennzoil litigation," he said.
    "The question before the (federal appeals) court was
whether an "agreement in principle' subject to execution of
'formal documents' is a contract according to New York law.
    "The answer by the court was a resounding 'No' -- precisely
opposite the answer given by the Appellate Court in Texas,"
Gayle said.
    "The United States Court of appeals reached this decision
for the identical reasons that Texas and the Attorney General
of New York have cited in their briefs before the Texas
appellate court," he pointed out.
    "Texaco has consistently maintained that Pennzoil did not
have a binding contract to Buy Getty Oil shares, since a press
release announced only an 'agreement in principle' which was
'subject to the execution of a definitive merger agreement',"
according to Gayle.
 Reuter

Sabena Belgian World Airlines said it
began today three-times-weekly service between Brussels and
Toronto.
    Sabena said it will fly combined passenger-freight flights
non-stop into Toronto on Mondays and Thursdays. Sunday flights
will stop in Montreal.
 Reuter

    Net loss 515,000 vs profit 294,000
    Sales 62.8 mln vs 65.4 mln
 Reuter

Texscan Corp said it has reached
agreement in principle with bank lenders United Bancorp of
Arizona <UBAZ> and Security Pacific Corp <SPC> on a plan of
reorganization from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
    It said a plan is expected to be filed within 10 days.
 Reuter

York International Corp said it has
agreed to acquire Frick Co and Frigid Coil/Frick Inc for
    The company said Frick makes refrigeration equipment and
compressors and Frigid Coil also makes refrigeration equipment.
 Together the two had revenues of about 50 mln dlrs in 1986.
    The company said it hopes to complete the acquisition in
May, subject to its review of Frick and Frigid and regulatory
 Reuter

San/Bar Corp said it appointed
Charles von Urff as president, chief operating officer and a
director of the company to succeed Robert Johnson, who retired
last year.
    Prior to joining San/Bar von Urff had been president and
chief executive of Microelectric Packaging Inc, the company
also said.
 Reuter

<Carter-Day Industries Inc>
said its Hart-Carter Co subsidizary has sold substantially all
of its assets used in the production and sale of farm
machinery for 500,000 dlrs below book value in cash and notes.
    It said substantially all of the proceeds from the
transaction are committed to application against advances from
secured lenders, accounts payable and accrued liabilities.
    The company said for the nine months ended December 31, the
operations being sold had revenues of 8,105,000 dlrs and lost
146,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Nuclear Support Services Inc
said it agreed in principle to buy the business and assets of
ITT Henze Service from ITT Corp for an undisclosed amount.
    Henze, which is engaged in performing nuclear plant repair
work, had revenues of 12.7 mln dlrs for the year ended December
31, 1986.
    For 1986, Nuclear Support, a supplier of support personnel
and services to the nuclear power industry, had net income of
2.4 mln dlrs on sales of 30.6 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Colonial BancGroup said it
acquired Farmers and Merchants Bank, a Baldwin County bank with
assets of 103 mln dlrs, through an exchange of stock valued at
about 12 mln dlrs.
    Colonial said it also signed letters of intent to acquire
First Federal Bank in Opelika, Athens-Limestone Bank in Athens,
Jackson County Bank in Scottsboro and Commercial National Bank
in Demopolis, with aggregate assets totaling 130 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Ltd said it signed a five-year revision agreement to reschedule
the net smelter royalty payments of the Summitville project
mining lease, reducing production costs by 17 U.S. dlrs an
ounce at gold prices of 425 U.S. dlrs an ounce.
    For gold prices less than 475 dlrs an ounce the revised
royalty schedule falls to one pct from five pct, and rises to
seven pct from five pct for prices above 750 dlrs an ounce.
    The royalty cost cut combined with Galactic's previously
announced conservative accounting change will lower charges
against earnings by about 69 dlrs per ounce of gold produced.
 Reuter

PHLCorp said its shareholders
elected Ian M. Cumming as chairman, succeeding Victor H.
Palmieri, and Joseph S. Steinberg as president, succeeding
Peter A. Martosella.
    PHLCorp, formerly Baldwin-United Corp, said Cumming and
Steinberg were also elected to the board of directors, as were
James N. Kimball and Michael T. Lynch.
    Cumming is chairman of <Lucadia National Corp>, which
bought a 39 pct stake of Baldwin-United during the bankruptcy
reorganization that led to the formation of PHLCorp. Steinberg
is president of Lucadia.
 Reuter

it completed its acquisition of the Enterprise Telephone Co,
based in New Holland, Pa., in exchange for stock valued at 26.3
mln dlrs.
    Enterprises serves about 16,000 access lines in Lancaster
County. Enterprise becomes the third operating telephone
subsidiary of Rochester Telephone in Pennsylvania and its sixth
largest overall, the company said.
 Reuter

America> said it has obtained a 35 mln dlr line of credit from
a group of minority-owned banks led by Freedom National Bank of
New York.
    It said funds will be used for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

containing at least 500,000 ounces of gold. Mining could start
in 1988, subject to a satisfactory feasibility study.
 Reuter

the fund.
    He said an extraordinary UMOA meeting held in Ivory Coast's
inland capital, Yamoussoukro, last month, stresssed the need
for growth-oriented IMF adjustment policies.
    "Borrowing to pay off debts cannot be a solution," Fadiga
added.
 Reuter

Investors who have been riding the
bull market in U.S. stocks got a stinging reminder today of how
unexpected news can trigger sharp reversals.
    "The market was ripe for some type of pullback," said Frank
Korth, analyst at Shearson Lehman Brothers. He said over the
weekend, investors pondered President Reagan's decision to
impose tariffs on Japanese electronic goods and some concluded
the step could signal the beginning of a trade war.
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 79 points in 30
minutes before stabilizing and making a partial recovery.
    Korth believes there has been an over-reaction and
near-term traders might want to step in and buy one-half or
one-quarter of new investments they have been considering.
    "We're still in a bull market," said William Raftery of
Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co. He thinks history has shown
such sharp pullbacks are a natural part of bull markets. "The
bear usually strikes slowly," he said.
    Raftery noted that blue chips have been forefront of the
rally that took the market to record highs last week. In
today's decline, he said, the big name stocks were coming more
into a more normal alignment with the general market.
    Charles Comer of Moseley Securities Corp said ultimately
the pullback could prove to be a pre-shock to the long awaited
correction. But for now he believes the bull market remains
intact. However, it could take several weeks for the market to
complete a "distribution process" and along the way there will
be rallies.
    Comer thinks it is premature to conclude that today's
action signaled formation of a market top. He thinks the market
can hold in the low to mid 2200 area on the Dow index.
    "This probably is the correction that has been expected,"
said Crandall Hays of Robert W. Baird Co.
    Hays noted that market breadth began to deteriorate last
week. He said this morning investors saw the dollar down
further, interest rates up and gold up. "The trade problem got
people spooked and and all the bad things were happening at
once," he said.
    "This correction could take us down 150 points and we're
half-way there now," he said early today.
    He thinks the downward move in stock prices could be over
in a couple of weeks. Business conditions seem to be getting
better according to what he hears from a broad cross-section of
companies, from retailers to machinery manufacturers.
    "The market was high and people were looking for a
correction, so this was an excuse for the market to go down,"
said Alan Ackerman of Gruntal and Co.
    He believes investors will be in a mood of extreme caution
or slightly negative for the near term.
    Ackerman thinks the U.S. is attempting to "fire a shot
across Japan's bow and let them know we're serious about having
closer trade ties." But nevertheless investors have been
rattled by "a perception that a full scale trade war is
possible." Ultimately, unless there is an accord, the effects
could be higher interest rates and unemployment, he said.
    "I anticipate a further correction later this week," said
Harry Laubscher of Tucker Anthony, R.L. Day. He thinks the
pullback was "the start of an overdue correction of between six
and 10 pct from the market highs."
    Although investors now have new reason to worry about
higher interests rate and a return of inflation, Laubscher
says, "it is not the end of the bull market."
    "The market was looking for a reason to knock itself down a
little bit, and with the trade sanctions coming largely as a
surprise, this was the think the market attached itself to,"
said Gary Ciminero of Fleet Financial Group.

Mayfair Industries Inc said it has
entered into a licensing agreement under which it will use
logos of Hershey Foods Inc candy products on a variety of
garments, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Home Shopping NEtwork Inc said
its Silver King Broadcasting Co INc unit entered a definitive
contract to buy the broadcasting assets of TV station KWVT,
Channel 22 in the Portland/Salem, Ore. area for undisclosed
terms.
    Additionally, the company said KWVT, which serves 785,000
homes, began broadcasting Home Shopping Network full time this
morning under an affiliation agreement.
    Home Shopping also said it entered a definitive contract to
buy TV Station KPST, Channel 66 in San Francisco and KLTJ,
Channel 49 in Dallas.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit eight cts vs loss 20 cts
    Oper net profit 1,115,000 vs loss 2,729,000
    Revs 83.0 mln vs 37.9 mln
    Note: Current year figures exclude operating loss
carryforward gain of 888,000 dlrs and loss from discontinued
operations of 73,000 dlrs.
    Prior year figures exclude loss from discontinued
operations of 3.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Lawson said the meeting of six major industrial nations in
Paris last month agreed not to publish any bands in connection
with their pact to stabilise currencies.
    Questioned by a parliamentary select committee about why
the participating countries had not announced any bands, Lawson
replied, "we all agreed it would be much more sensible not to."
When asked whether that meant an informal joint currency float
with set ranges was arranged in Paris, Lawson said "I do not
want to reveal the precise nature of the agreement, so as not
to make it easy for" speculation against the accord.
    Lawson said the Paris accord presumed that individual
countries would take corrective action if their currency began
reacting significantly to domestic macroeconomic factors.
    But if such movements were due to extraneous factors,
Lawson said the other pact countries would come to its aid
through concerted intervention on the foreign exchanges.
    "It is clear that both Germany and Japan are having
difficulty adjusting to their very large exchange rate
appreciations and making their economies more domestically
oriented, just as it is taking time for the United States to
make its own economy more export oriented," Lawson said.
    In his oral evidence to Parliament's Select Treasury
Committee, Lawson repeated that he was happy with the pound's
current level, adding that "It is an objective ... To try to
keep it around that level."
    He said the perception of sterling on foreign exchanges had
changed since the steep drop in oil prices, largely because the
pound had weathered that period so successfully. "There has been
a reassessment of sterling's fundamentals," Lawson said.  He
disagreed with what he termed "the grossly exaggerated claim"
that real U.K. Interest rates were much higher than those of
other major industrialsed countries.
    Using as a reference the key three-month sterling interbank
rate as quoted in London, Lawson said Britain now had a real
interest rate level of 5.75 pct - the same as Japan did and
only a 0.75 percentaage point above the Group of Five average.
    Lawson confirmed that "over the medium and longer term, the
government's objective is zero inflation."
    He said the government's intention of its PSBR constant at
1.0 pct of GDP "is the modern equivalent of the balanced budget
doctrine."  He added that "to allow the debt/GDP ratio to remain
constant on anything other than zero inflation basis is simply
a recipe for accelerating inflation."
 Reuter

Fidata Corp <FID> and its subsidiary,
Fidata Trust Company New York <FTCNY>, announced that they have
reached a preliminary settlement agreement in principle in the
lawsuits filed by major parties arising out of the E.S.M.
Government Securities, Inc bankruptcy.
    Fidata Corp said that it anticipates that the cost of the
proposed settlement, after anticipated recoveries, will be less
than 4 mln dlrs, and possibly significantly less.
    The major terms of the settlement agreement, applicable to
Fidata and FTCNY, provide for the release by Fidata of its
claims to 1.125 mln dlrs held by the ESM estate, and the
further payment of 8.425 mln dlrs for distribution to the
public body plaintiffs and Home State Savings Bank.
    Fidata said it expects to recover along with its subsidiary
at least half of the sums to be paid under the terms of the
agreement, and potentially amounts substantially in excess of
that.
 Reuter

Louisville Gas and Electric Co
said it will ask stockholders at its May 12 annual meeting to
approve several anti-takeover proposals.
    It said the measures include staggered terms for directors
and a fair price provision that would require a potential
purchaser to make the same offer to all stockholders.
    Louisville Gas said the amendments are not in response to
any specific effort to obtain control of the company.
 Reuter

Tracor Inc said its Tracor Applied
Sciences unit was awarded a 1.9 mln dlr contract by the U.S.
Navy's Naval Underwater Systems Center.
    Under the contract, Tracor said the unit will provide
analytical, experimental, engineering and technical services to
the Navy's Surface Ships Antisubmarine Warefare Development
Program.
 Reuter

Campbell Soup co said it will sell
its W.L. Wheatley ingredients plant in Clayton, Del., as a
going operation.
    It said it will continue to operate the plant until a buyer
is found.  The sale is aimed at improving Campbell's return on
assets, the company said.
 Reuter

Video Display Corp said it
signed agreements with <Glowtronics <Ltd> to jointly build a
manufacturing plant in the state of Karnatake, India.
    Video Display said the plant, in which it will own a 40 pct
equity interest, will make cathodes, filament heatrers and
electron gun assembles for television sets.
 Reuter

BASS GROUP SAYS IT HAS HAD TALKS ON SEEKING CONTROL OF TAFT BROADCASTING

U.S. refiners will have to
reduce operations if they want to be profitable this year, said
industry officials attending the National Petroleum Refiners
Association meeting here.
     "If the refining sector can discipline itself to refine
about 12 mln barrels of crude oil a day, we have a chance to
pull down inventories to acceptable levels by the second
quarter, said Archie Dunham, executive vice president of
petroluem products at Conoco Inc
    "If not, the industry will have a tough 1987," he added.
     Last week's American Petroleum Institute report said that
U.S. refining capacity rose three pct to 78.7 pct of capacity,
with crude oil runs at 12.2 mln barrels per day for the week
ended March 20.
     The API said that with the higher crude oil runs, 
distillate and gasoline inventories were sharply above year-ago
levels. Gasoline stocks were at 245.6 mln barrels, some 17.2
mln barrels above year-ago levels. Distillate stocks, at 108.7
mln barrels, are 10.9 mln barrels above last year's level, the
API said.
     Henry Rosenberg, chairman of Crown Central Petroleum Corp
<CNP> told Reuters that unless refining and marketing return to
profitability, oil companies will have to rely on downstream
operations to produce an acceptable level of earnings.
     "The jump in refining capacity is a concern if it
continues," said Kenneth Buckler, executive vice president of
refining and marketing at <Total Petroleum Co>, a U.S.
subsidiary of Cie Francaise Des Petroles of France.
     Refineries should operate near 75 pct of capacity given
the current level of demand but the operating level should
increase as gasoline demand picks up in the next quarter,
Buckler said.
     Dunham said the potential operable capacity of U.S.
refineries should also be cut about 500,000 barrels of crude
per day. "I expect to see the shutdown of more small refineries
over the next five years," he said, adding that these
facilities refine between 10,000 and 30,000 barrels of crude
oil per day. The API said U.S. operations have the capacity to
refine 15.6 mln bpd of crude.
 Reuter

New York Telephone Co, a subsidiary
of NYNEX Corp, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for a shelf offering of up to 500 mln dlrs of debt
securities on terms to be determined at the time of the sale.
    Proceeds from the offering, which is in addition to 50 mln
dlrs of debt securities already registered with the SEC but
unsold, will be used to refinance outstanding long-term debt,
to repay short-term debt and for other general corporate
 Reuter

Halifax Engineering Inc said it
has received a fixed-price contract woirth 6,700,000 dlrs for
one year, plus two option years, to provide security services
for the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
    The company said it has also received a three-year U.S.
Army contract, including two option years, for
telecommunications installation support.  The contract is worth
a total of 7,500,000 dlrs, it said.
    Halifax said its backlog as of tomorrow, the end of its
fiscal year, will be about 53 mln dlrs, up from 27 mln dlrs a
 Reuter

The North Carolina Department
of Commerce said Electrolux AB of Sweden's White Consolidated
Industries subsidiary will locate a new 15 mln dlr 352,000
square foot national appliance parts distribution center at
Asheville, N.C.
    It said the center will handle parts for Frigidaire,
Tappan, Kelvinator, Gibson, Vesta and White-Westinghouse
product lines.  Each now has a separate distribution center.
    The department said construction will start immediately and
should be finished in late 1987.
 Reuter

A seven-year credit facility for Salomon
SA, the French ski bindings and boots maker, will have a
facility fee of 7.5 basis point, banking sources said.
    The financing involves a 75 mln dlr euro-commercial paper
program which will be supported by a 75 mln dlr committed
syndicated revolving credit. Morgan Guaranty Ltd is the
arranger.
    Drawings on the revolving credit will be at a margin of 10
basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
Banks are being invited to join at 7.5 mln dlrs for 10 basis
points and at five mln dlrs for eight basis points.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS  SOYBEANS 17,683 WHEAT 20,717 CORN 36,581

Sony Corp <SNE.T> will increase production
abroad to overcome falling profits caused by the yen's rise
against the dollar, managing board chairman Akio Morita told
the West German newspaper Die Welt.
    He was quoted as saying that Sony, whose latest profit
figures had been affected strongly by dollar fluctuations,
would increase production in the U.S. And Europe.
    Several production facilities were being built, he added.
"At the same time we are also investing capital in order to
modernise our locations and raise our productivity."
    Morita said that to overcome the same currency problems,
Japan needs to restructure its economy in order to live less
from exports and more from domestic demand.
    He said U.S. And European companies had made the mistake of
not investing enough in the future, which was why they had lost
their lead in consumer electronics.
    "They may spend a lot of money on research and development,"
he said. "But planning and marketing are very important sectors
in developing a marketable product."
    "If they don't spend money on these, they can't build up new
business lines."
    Speaking of difficulties foreign firms experience in
penetrating the Japanese market, Morita said "Naturally, I have
to admit that there are still many obstacles in Japan."
    On the other hand, many foreign firms were too interested
in short-term success, he said.
    "If, therefore, a company comes to Japan and wants to make a
profit at once on this market, it is not so simple."
    "These people then complain, while the successful firms keep
their mouths shut," Morita said.
 Reuter

Newmont Mining Corp's board has
proposed a two-for-one stock split subject to shareholder
approval of an increase to 120 mln from 60 mln in authorized
common shares, the proxy for the company's annual meeting said.
    If holdings voting at the May six meeting in Wilmington,
Del., approve the increase in authorized shares the split will
be paid in the form of a stock dividend on June 10 to holders
of record May 20, the proxy said.
    Newmont said it will also ask shareholders to approve
amendments to its certificate of incorporation limiting certain
liabilities of its directors.
 Reuter

The Mexico Fund Inc said its board
authorized an offer to purchase two mln shares, or about 10.2
pct, of its common stock at 6.75 dlrs a share cash.
    The fund, at a special board meeting, said the offer is not
conditioned on any minimum number of shares being tendered.
    The fund has issued and outstanding 19,513,200 shares of
common stock, it said. As of March 26, 1987, the fund said the
net asset value of its shares was 8.13 dlrs.
    The fund said it intends to commence the offer by a mailing
to its shareholders as soon as possible.
    It said it purchased shares of its stock in open market
transactions prior to the proposed cash tender and intends to
purchase additional shares at prevailing market prices after
completion of the offer.
    The fund's last price per share on the New York Stock
Exchange at the halt was 5-3/4.
 Reuter

Quartz Engineering and Materials
Inc said it has received a 500,000 dlr order from <Siemens AG>
of West Germany for its ATMOSCAN automated environmentally
controlled semiconductor wafer processing system.
 Reuter

    Net loss 483,518 vs loss 220,582
    Sales 381,841 vs 400,518
    NOTE: 1985 net includes 196,868 dlr gain from forgiveness o
accrued interest due to affiliates.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs profit 22 cts
    Net loss 133,119 vs profit 496,391
    Revs 136,918 vs 737,917
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 21 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Net loss 478,991 vs profit 340,210
    Revs 324,011 vs 841,908
 Reuter

Warner-Lambert Co said a
federal court judgment resulted in <My-K Laboratories Inc>
agreeing to discontinue the sale of cough syrup and a
children's allergy elixir because it imitates Warner-Lambert 
packaging.
    Warner-Lambert said the final consent judgment was entered
in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of
Illinois. It also said the packaging in question imitated its
own packaging of Benylin and Benadryl products.
    My-K agreed to adopt different packaging, Warner-Lambert
said.
 Reuter

Hartmarx Corp said Geoffrey Bloom
Jaymar-Ruby Inc subsidiary to accept the position of president
and chief operating officer of Wolverine World Wide Inc <WWW>.
    It said Elbert Hand, president and chief operating officer
of Hartmarx, and president and chief executive officer of the
Hartmarx Men's Apparel Group, was named chief executive officer
of Jaymar-Ruby Inc. Burton Ruby, son of the Jaymar-Ruby
founder, remains as chairman.
          
 Reuter

to write off loan losses over ten years.
total loans in farm loans -- to write down over ten years
 Reuter

U.S. Senate Budget Committee
Chairman Lawton Chiles' (D-Fla.) fiscal 1988 budget plan would
cut farm spending by about two billion dlrs, primarily by
making unspecified changes in price and income support
programs, Senate staff members said.
    Chiles presented his budget blueprint late last week and
said he would like to begin voting on it this week.
    Senate Republican staff members said Chiles was
recommending that policy changes be adopted for 1988 crops.
    While savings from the changes would accrue mainly in
fiscal 1989, Chiles said his income and price support proposals
would trim about two billion dlrs from advance deficiency
payments, most of which would be made in the spring of next
year.
    It was not clear how the Senate Budget panel head would
achieve the savings in Commodity Credit Corp outlays. Aides to
Chiles would not comment on how the CCC savings would be made.
    Recently the Congressional Budget Office released a report
listing possible price and income support program savings.
    The options included lowering target prices, increasing
unpaid acreage reduction programs, targeting income support
payments to specific groups of producers, limiting the use of
generic commodity certificates, raising loan rates and
"decoupling" income support payments from production decisions.
    Chiles proposed saving about 100 mln dlrs by freezing the
U.S. Agriculture Department's discretionary spending functions
which include research and credit programs, Senate staff said.
    The Florida senator's plan also would provide 30 mln dlrs
for organic farming research and 20 mln dlrs for homeless aid.
 Reuter

Newmont Mining Corp will seek
favorable terms for sale of its South African investments, the
proxy statement for its annual meeting said.
    Recommending that shareholders vote against a proposal
calling expeditious withdrawal from South Africa, the proxy
said "a quick sale could be akin to abandonment" because of the
depressed state of metal mining stocks and exchange rates on
capital withdrawals from South Africa.
    The proxy said the company gave close consideration to
alternatives to the continued holdings of four existing South
African metal mining investments during the past year.
    Pointing out "a measurable number of investors incline to
support" resolutions calling for South African divestment as
part of their effort to avoid pressure to sell a given stock,
the company said "this largely unspoken agenda of many
supporters of disinvestment does receive attention by the
corporation."
    Because of this, Newmont Mining said it "is prepared to
consider, and will seek, favorable terms for sale of its South
African investments," but asked stockholders to reject the
resolution calling for withdrawal and leave the matter to the
continuing judgment of management.
 Reuter

Venezuela's state oil
company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. wants to raise its
worldwide refining capacity by 150,000 barrels of per day, a
company official attending the National Petroleum Refiners
Association meeting here said.
    He declined to be identified but said PdVSA has the
capacity to refine about 650,000 bpd of crude oil from refining
centers
in Venezuela, Sweden, West Germany, Belgium, and the United
States. The company recently purchased a 50 pct stake in the
Corpus Christi, Texas refinery of Champlin Petroleum Co, a
subsidiary of Union Pacific Corp <UNP>.
    Earlier it bought a similar stake in the Lake Charles, La
refinery owned by Citgo Petroleum Corp, a unit of Southland
Corp <SLC>.
     According to the official, Venezuela is searching
worldwide for the additional refining capacity but he did not
mention where the company was looking. 
    Refineries abroad, he said, guarantee a refining outlet for
Venezuelan crude oil while ensuring stability of supply to
refiners.
    He said Venezuela currently  produces about 1.4 mln bpd of
crude oil, which is in line with its 1.495 bpd OPEC ceiling.
 Reuter

Audi of America Inc said it
introduced the "Audi Private Purchase Plan" in which it will
offer 5,000 dlr purchase certificates exclusively to current
owners of 1984-86 Audi 5000 vehicles.
    It said owners must apply the certificates toward purchase
or lease of any new 1987 Audi 5000 series vehicle.
    The program will run between April 1 and June 30, and more
than 150,000 certificates will be mailed.
    A company spokesman said eligible owners need not trade in
their old cars to take advantage of the offer.
    He also said the scheme was not prompted by the fact that
Audi had to recall thousands of its cars earlier this year to
correct a possible defect that caused some of the cars to
accelerate suddenly.
 Reuter

PrimeBank Federal Savings
Bank said its board declared a 10 pct stock dividend to be
distributed about April 15 to holders or record March 31.
 Reuter

Shr profit 23 cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 319,564 vs loss 84,203
    Sales 6,419,230 vs 5,583,560
    Year
    Shr profit 1.11 dlrs vs profit 43 cts
    Net profit 1,582,125 vs profit 654,083
    Sales 26.2 mln vs 22.6 mln
    NOTE: Full year 1985 includes gains of two cts per share
from discontinued operations and four cts per share from
 Reuter

A group led by members of the
wealthy Bass family of Fort Worth, Texas, which holds a 24.9
pct stake in Taft Broadcasting Co, said it has had talks about
taking part in a move to take control of the company.
the group said it has had discussions with other Taft
stockholders and some company managers and directors
"concerning participation in a group to acquire control" of the
company.
    The Bass group, which did not identify any of the other
people with whom it said it has had talks, said it plans to
continue evaluating Taft and "will be involved in further
discussions relating to the future control and direction" of
    The group, which holds 2,291,210 Taft common shares, said
its members may buy more shares of Taft common stock, or may
decide to sell some or all of its stake.
    On Friday Taft said it would negotiate with a group led by
its vice chairman, Dudley Taft, and a Rhode Island investment
firm, which had offered 150 dlrs a share for the company.
    The Dudley Taft group, Theta Corp, which also includes
Narragansett Capital Corp, a Providence, R.I., investment firm,
is seeking to take the company private in a leveraged buyout
valued at 1.38 billion dlrs.
    Besides the Bass group, another major Taft shareholder,
Cincinnati, Ohio, financier Carl Lindner, has also said he has
had talks about increasing his stake in the company, taking
part in a takeover effort, or launching one himself.
    Lindner controls 1,489,298 shares of Taft common stock, or
16.2 pct of the total.
 Reuter

Steel production rose
1.3 pct to 1,696,000 short tons in the
week ended March 28 from 1,675,000 short
tons, the American Iron and Steel Institute
reported
   Production so far this year was 18,810,000 tons adjusted off
14.6 pct from 22,016,000 tons
produced by the nations mills a year ago.
    Utilization for the week of March 28 was   78.7 pct and for
the week of March 21 was      was 77.8 pct.      
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 12 cts vs loss 10 cts
    Oper net loss 474,270 vs loss 369,848
    Revs 202,500 vs 111,210
    Avg shrs 3,904,373 vs 3,495,579
    Year
    Oper shr loss 28 cts vs loss 46 cts
    Oper net loss 1,069,550 vs loss 893,612
    Revs 408,031 vs 438,933
    Avg shrs 3,785,607 vs 1,944,627
    NOTE: Full name is North American Group Ltd
    Earnings exclude losses on reorganization expenses of
33,453 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 59,520 dlrs, or two cts a sh
are in the quarter and losses of 237,859 dlrs, or six cts a
share vs 413,444 dlrs, or 21 cts a share for the year
    Earnings exclude gains on discontinued operations of
147,671, or four cts a share in the 1985 quarter and gains of
760,603 dlrs, or 20 cts a share vs 520,200 dlrs, or 27 cts a
 Reuter

Pay 'N Pak Stores Inc said it
intends to explore all alternatives for the purpose of
maximizing its value to stockholders.
    The company said it also retained Salomon Brothers Inc as
its financial advisor to assist it in this regard.
    Last week investor Paul Bilzerian reported that he holds a
7.2 pct stake in Pay 'N Pak and is considering seeking control
of the retail building materials firm.
Bilzerian said he and a Tampa, Fla., investment firm he
controls called Bicoastal Financial Corp, may acquire
additional Pay 'N Pak shares, or they may seek to acquire one
or more positions on the company's board.
    He also said in the filing that he may attempt to obtain  a
controlling interest through a tender offer or otherwise.
 Reuter

Society for Savings said it will offer
up to 100 mln dlrs of medium-term notes with maturites of one
to five years through Goldman, Sachs and Co and Shearson Lehman
    The notes will be supported by an irrevocable letter of
credit by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. Each note will
bear interest at a fixed-rate or variable rate formula
established at the time of issuance, Society for Savings said.
    Bankers Trust Co will act as fiscal and paying agent.
Non-redeemable to maturity, the notes will be issued only in
registered form and in minimum denomiations of 100,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 6.68 dlrs vs loss 9.95 dlrs
    Oper net loss 53.9 mln vs loss 69.8 mln
    Revs 16.5 mln vs 33.2 mln
    Avg shrs 8,329,492 vs 7,271,668
    NOTE: 1986 excludes loss 12.9 mln for discontinued
compressor operations vs loss 14.9 mln year prior.
    1986 excludes gain of 98.7 mln for extinguishment of debt
from company's chapter 11 filing and subsequent reorganization.
 Reuter

<Teeco Properties L.P.> said the
partnership recorded income from operations for 1986 of 140,000
dlrs, or two cts a unit.
    The partnerhsip said this compared to 1985 figures of
660,000 dlrs, or 10 cts a unit.
    Results of operations between both years is not comparable
since the partnership's principle objective is to sell or
dispose of its assets and distribute proceeds to unit holders,
according to the partnership.
    It said the number of units outstanding for both years is
6,479,516.

 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs profit 20 cts
    Net loss 257,157 vs profit 414,890
    Year
    Shr profit 54 cts vs profit 1.05 dlrs
    Net profit 1,295,104 vs profit 2,140,673
 Reuter

The Supreme Court declined to review
a federal regulation requiring automobile manufacturers to
phase in automatic seat belts or air bags for new cars sold in
    The Department of Transportation (DOT) rule required that
the safety devices be installed, for the first time, on 10 pct
of this year's model cars. All new cars must have the devices
by the 1990-model year.
    The regulation, however, can be rescinded if states with
two-thirds of the U.S. population adopt mandatory seat belt-use
laws by 1989.
 Reuter

share.
 Reuter

Copperweld Steel Co <CPSL>, a
subsidiary of CSC Industries Inc., said it will increase from
market price levels its bar, semi-finished and leaded products
effective July One.
    Hot rolled and cold finished bar wil be increase 25 dlrs
per net ton, while semi-finished products will be increased 15
dlrs per net ton, the company said.
    Anticipated higher energy and raw material costs, combined
with current market trends, were cited by the company as
reasons for the increases.
 Reuter

it will update its estimate of winter wheat seeded acreage in
the prospective planting report, scheduled for release at 1500
est (2100 gmt) tomorrow, March 31.
    The original estimate of seedings of winter wheat was
published in January.
    It said the new survey is possible because of the new
integrated nationwide survey program that uses probability
sampling procedures that combine information from farmers
operating in selected areas and farmers identified on special
lists.
 Reuter

has discussed with Henley Group that company's almost five pct
stake and was told the holdings are for investment purposes.
    "We have confirmed with the Henley Group that they own
approximately 7.9 mln shares of Santa Fe Southern Pacific
common stock. They have informed me that they like our company
and purchased the stock last year for investment purposes,"
Santa Fe chairman John Schmidt said in a statement.
    Henley late Friday filed a 10-K report with the Securities
and Exchange Commission concerning the Santa Fe stake.
    Earlier Santa Fe's stock was up 4-7/8 to 41 before slipping
to be up 1-7/8 at 38.
 Reuter

Oxoco Inc said it concluded the private
placement of 3,906,250 shares of its new common stock at an
average purchase price of 1.28 dlrs per share for a cash
payment of five mln dlrs.
    Oxoco said the sale was to a group of venture capital
investors led by Hambrecht and Quist of San Francisco.
    It said the venture capitalists now own 71.6 pct of the
outstanding stock of the company.
    In addition, Andrew Loomis and Michael McGovern were
elected chairman and co-chairman, respectively, of the company,
it said.
 Reuter

sugar import quota during the week ended March 6 totaled 25,192
short tons versus 29,043 tons the previous week, the
    Cumulative imports now total 130,804 tons, it said.
    The department said the Customs Service reported that
 Reuter

TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp, which
has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since
January 1983, said it filed an amended and restated negotiated
plan of reorganization.
    A hearing on the adequacy of the disclosure statement is
scheduled for April 29 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of Texas.
    Basic terms of the amended and restated negotiated plan
have not changed from the original plan filed last October, the
     The amended filing reflects adding ancillary documents to
the plan filed in October, it said.
    Assuming the plan is found adequate on April 29,
TransAmerican would then seek acceptance from creditors which
is relatively assured since they participated in the
negotiations, the company said.
    Liabilities in excess of one billion dlrs are being
reorganized under the amended plan which provides for full
debt-repayment to secured bank lenders.
    Unsecured creditors would receive either 100 pct repayment,
secured by liens on assets, or one-time lump sum payments of 25
to 35 cts on the dollar, in cash, shortly after confirmation of
the plan by the court.
    TransAmerican is vigorously resisting efforts by Coastal
Corp <CGP> to acquire its assets through a subsequent plan of
liquidation.
    The spokesman said the company is confident its plan will
be confirmed and is optimistic that it will emerge from Chapter
11 as early ninety days after the April 29 confirmation.
    A Coastal spokesman said it will file a plan in April with
the court and will request the court to review its plan.
    On March 17, the company said that as a creditor, which is
owed 625,000 dlrs, it has a right to file its own plan which
will better serve the other creditors in a shorter time.
    A TransAmerican spokesman said the net worth of Coastal's
offer is less than 25 pct of the fair market value of
Transamerican's assets which are in excess of one billion dlrs.
     
 Reuter

Texton Inc said it intends to
repay a substantial portion of the debt generated to acquire
Ex-Cell-O Corp last year through internally generated cash and
proceeds from the sale of assets.
    Textron financed the acquisition by borrowing about one
billion dlrs under promissory notes, subsequently refinanced
through the sale of commercial paper and bank borrowings.
    The large diversified conglomerate with operations ranging
from defense to consumer and financial services, said in its
annual report that it has not yet identified the units, other
than its Gorham division, it expects to sell.
    Textron said it did expect to identify the units it intends
to sell during the next year. It said the sales are expected to
reduce income from continuing operations as the units' earnings
will exceed the interest on the debt retired with the proceeds
of the sales.
    It also said it plans to "return to a more conservative
balance sheet ratio of debt-to-capital," through asset sales
and increasing cash flow from continuing operations.
    It also said it will continue to examine "large acquisition
opportunities," while "pruning" operations no longer expected
to meet its strategic requirements.
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 967,000 vs loss 1,219,000
    Revs 10.1 mln vs 4.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit three cts vs loss five cts
    Net profit 688,000 vs 982,000
    Revs 24.6 mln vs 16.3 mln
    NOTE: 1986 includes results of Louisiana Energy and
Development Corp acquired in November 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 66 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 2,955,000 vs 1,563,000
    Revs 26.1 mln vs 23.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 74 cts vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net 3,321,000 vs 4,739,000
    Revs 108.4 mln vs 104.9 mln
    NOTE: year 1987 includes charge of 818,000 dlrs, or 18 cts
per share, for sale of Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd.
 Reuter

Amoskeag Bank Shares Inc said
the New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned its proposed
acquisition of Portsmouth Savings Bank in a three-two vote.
    The acquisition had been opposed by some depositors, who
filed an action to block the takeover.
    "We will respond to this news as soon as we have had an
opportunity to analyze the decision, and any and all options
available to us," chairman William Bushnell said in a
 Reuter

flat operating profits for its 1987 fiscal year ending May 31
with last fiscal year's earnings from operations of 9,943,000
dlrs, or 1.05 dlrs a share.
    The company said the flat results will be due to higher
than normal expenditures during the fourth quarter for
expansion of its data processing capabilities.
    Earlier, Metromail reported fiscal 1987 third quarter
earnings of 2.4 mln dlrs, or 25 cts a share, versus three mln
dlrs, or 32 cts a share, the prior third quarter, and nine
months net of 7.2 mln dlrs, or 76 cts a share, versus 7.8 mln
dlrs, or 82 cts a share the prior nine months.
 Reuter

Apple Computer Inc said it
has extended the ability of the Apple MacIntosh personal
computer family to commmunicate over <Northern Telecom Ltd's>
Meridian SL-1 integrated services network.
    The new capabilities include linking separate AppleTalk
networks, dial-up remote use of LaserWriter printers, one step
file transfer and conversion and Memorybank 485, a new 485
megabyte storage subsystem for use with MacIntosh personal
computers, Apple said.
 Reuter

Ball Corp said it was unable to
complete negotiations to acquire the plastic container business
of Monsanto Co.
    It said the two companies had entered into exclusive
negotiations last October.
    Neither company provided details on why the talks were
terminated.
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 2,000 tonnes
of Canadian rapeseed in export business overnight for May
 Reuter

Newmont Mining Corp estimates its 1987
capital spending at 137 mln dlrs, its annual report said.
    A company spokesman said this figure excludes <Magma Copper
Co> and compares to spending of about 80 mln dlrs in 1986
excluding the 45 mln dlrs spent on Magma operations. As
previously announced, Newmont is distributing 80 pct of Magma's
stock to its shareholders in the form of a dividend.
    The report also said Newmont Mining increased its ownership
of Du Pont Co <DD> stock during 1986 to 5,970,141 shares at
year end from 5,250,376 shares a year earlier.
    Newmont's annual report said the company held 2.5 pct of Du
Pont's stock at the end of 1986, up from 2.2 pct a year
earlier.
    The report also said Newmont's proven oil reserves declined
to 7,970,000 barrels at the end of 1986 from 8,530,000 barrels
a year earlier and its natural gas reserves declined to 271.48
billion cubic feet from 274.82 billion at the end of 1985.
 Reuter

3Com Corp said it
introduced a new network workstation for business applications.
    The product, called 3Station, is the first in a family of
network workstations, which will later include a Token Ring
version, the company said.
    It said the 3Station is an IBM-compatible 80286-based
Ethernet product which can be integrated with personal
computers on a network.
    The company also said it plans to begin shipments on May
15.
 Reuter

affirmed Banner Industries Inc's 135 mln dlrs of B-minus
subordinated debt following its purchase of Rexnord Inc. 
    Rexnord's 50 mln dlrs of 12-3/4 pct debentures of 1994 were
cut to B from A-minus to reflect the merger with Banner.
    While increasing Banner's size and diversity, S and P said
the transaction heightens financial risk, with debt to capital
rising to more than 90 pct.
    Near-term earnings and cash flow protection will weaken
from the acquisition, though Banner's plans to sell some
Rexnord assets will reduce debt for the medium term.
 Reuter

Reef Energy Corp said its
board entered into agreements with Penteco Corp, a private
Tulsa-based company, to buy a 12-pct interest in the general
partnership of Penteco East Central Pipeline and a 10-pct
interest in Lincoln Gas and Marketing Corp.
    Penteco East is a gas gathering and transmission system in
southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma.
    It said Penteco in turn has purchased one mln shares of
Reef common and taken options for the purchase of another two
mln shares over the next 36 months.
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 24 cts prior qtr
    Pay May 15
            
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 35,000 vs profit 128,000
    Revs 1,133,000 vs 1,528,000
    Year
    Shr profit four cts vs profit 21 cts
    Net profit 72,000 vs profit 339,000
    Revs 4,837,000 vs 4,500,000
    NOTE: 1985 net income included an after tax gain of 195,000
or 12 cts per share on sale of real property.
 Reuter

Reserve fell on March 27 to 2.424 billion dlrs from 2.508
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 9.706
billion dlrs from 10.786 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 12.131
billion dlrs on March 27 compared with 13.283 billion dlrs on
March 26.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 29 cts
    Qtly div 12 cts vs 12 cts prior qtr
    Net 5,036,000 vs 4,165,000
    Revs 147.6 mln vs 132.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.12 dlrs vs one dlr
    Net 16.1 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Revs 433.4 mln vs 385 mln
    NOTE: Per share data reflect March 1986 five pct stock
distribution. Cash dividend is payable April 30 to holders of
record April 15.
 Reuter

Non-U.S. citizens held 12.4 mln
acres of privately owned U.S. agricultural land as of December
31, slightly less than one pct of the total agricultural land,
but 369,000 acres above the foreign ownership at the end of
1985, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said forest land accounted for 52 pct of all
foreign-owned acreage, cropland 17 pct, pastures and other
agricultural land 26 pct and non-agricultural and unreported
uses, five pct.
    Corporations owned 79 pct of the foreign-held acreage,
parternships 11 pct, and individuals eight pct, the department
said. The remaining two pct was held by estates, trusts,
associations, institutions and others, it said.
 Reuter

A group of U.S. investors opposed to
Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum Co's South African policies plans
to seek a special shareholders meeting to discuss their
complaints.
    Representatives of the American Baptist Churches and the
New York City Teachers Retirement System said the company has
refused to include their proposals in proxy material prepared
for the annual meeting in May.
    The group said its proposals call for an end to sales by
Royal Dutch to the South African police and military and
withdrawal from South Africa.
  
 Reuter

Vanderbilt Gold Corp said
shareholders at a special meeting approved its reincorporation
in Delaware, an increase in authorized common to 25 mln shares
from 12 mln shares, and a non-qualified stock option plan.
    It also said shareholders approved the merger of Morning
Star Mine interests held by six corporations in exchange for
issuing 2,098,602 shares of its common. It said the acquisition
brings its ownership in Morning to over 94 pct and it intends
to acquire the remaining interests before mid year.
    It said its plans call for 1987 production of 30,000 ounces
of gold with product costs per ounce at about 200 dlrs.
 Reuter

Texas' cotton crop stands little
chance of damage from frigid temperatures expected tonight in
that state, as very little cotton has been planted, according
to Texas agricultural sources and cotton market analysts.
    "It's still pretty early for cotton planting. Only six pct
of the crop was planted as of last week," said Doug Stillmann,
a statistician at the Texas Agricultural Statistic Service in
Austin, a division of the U.S. Agriculture Department.
    Stillmann and other cotton market sources said planting had
begun in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas areas only, with
planting in the crucial high and low plains areas not slated to
begin until next month. The high and low plains accounted for
60 pct of the 2.5 mln bales produced in Texas last year,
Stillmann said.
    Temperatures tonight in most of Texas are expected to drop
to freezing to the low 20s, although the lower Rio Grande
Valley may see more moderate readings in the middle 30s,
according to meteorologists at Accu-Weather Inc.
    The price of new-crop cotton on the New York cotton futures
market rallied today on weather-related fears.
 Reuter

report on Export Markets for U.S. Grain, scheudled for release
today, has been delayed until Wednesday, April 1, a department
    No reason was given for the delay in releasing the monthly
report.
 Reuter

Allied Corp, a division of
Allied-Signal Inc, has received a 38.6 mln dlr contract for
work on F-15 aircraft avionics maintenance, the Air Force said.
 reuter

Morrison Inc said its board
adopted a shareholder rights plan to deter any possible hostile
takeover of the company.
    It said details of the plan will be released shortly. A
record date of April 10 was set for the distribution of the
rights to shareholders.
 Reuter

Scallop Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary
of Royal Dutch/Shell group, said today it raised contract
prices for heavy fuel 25 cts to 1.75 dlrs a barrel, effective
today.
    The increase brings the price for 0.3 pct sulphur to 22.50
dlrs, up 1.75, 0.5 pct sulphur to 21.50 dlrs, up 1.50, 0.7 pct
sulphur to 20.25 dlrs, up 75 cts, one pct sulphur to 19.50
dlrs, up 25 cts, two pct sulphur to 18.75 dlrs, up 75 cts, 2.2
pct sulphur to 18.50 dlrs, up 75 cts, 2.8 pct sulphur to 18.00
dlrs, up 75 cts.
 Reuter

Florida's citrus groves continue
in very good condition, acccording to the latest report by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Florida Agricultural
Statistics Service. Late-week rains and thunderstorms came at
an opportune time. Warm daytime temperatures and good soil
moisture have produced an abundance of new growth and bloom.
    Most trees are in some stage of bloom development with
petal drop already taking place in many south Florida groves.
    Harvest of late-type valencia oranges is increasing rapidly
with the near completion of the early and midseason varieties.
Rain during the week caused some delay in picking.
    For the week ended March 29, there were an estimated 77,000
boxes of early and midseason and 945,000 boxes of late season
oranges harvested, the USDA said.
 Reuter

U.S. SELLS 3-MO BILLS AT 5.72 PCT, STOP 5.74 PCT, 6-MO 5.80 PCT, STOP 5.80 PCT

The Bass Group, once thought by
analysts to be eager to sell its holdings in Taft Broadcasting
Co, emerged as another potential bidder for the Ohio
broadcasting company.
    The Bass Group, which holds 24.9 pct of Taft, said it had
talked with other taft stockholders and some company managers
and directors "concerning participation in a group to acquire
control" of the company.
    The Bass group said it had talks with other Taft
stockholders and members of Taft management about participating
in a group to acquire control. The group, which is led by the
wealthy bass brothers of Fort Worth, Texas, did not identify
any of the other people with whom it had talks.
    Taft said Friday it would negotiate with its vice Chairman
Dudley Taft on his group's 150 dlr per share or 1.38 billion
dlr offer for the company.
    At the time, the company said it authorized its adviser,
Goldman, Sachs and Co, to explore other takeover proposals and
to supply financial data to other interested bidders.
    "If indeed, the reason Dudley Taft is no longer president
is because the bass group tossed him out, I couldn't see them
backing him on any deal," said one analyst, who asked not to be
    "I think they wanted a way out. Now, this sounds like
they're going to join the group and buy themselves out," said
Edward Atorino, media analyst with Smith Barney, Harris Upham
and Co.
    Analysts have speculated that Carl Lindner may be
interested in acquiring the company. they speculated he may be
one of the shareholders in talks with the bass group.
    Lindner, chairman of American Financial Corp, holds 16.2
pct of Taft. He was not immediately available for comment.
    Analysts have said they are baffled by the strength of
Taft's stock price compared to what they see as breakup values
    Several analysts had estimated a break up value of less
than 150. One analyst said he believes it has a breakup value
of 160 to 165 dlrs per share.
    Taft stock closed at 156-1/2, up 1-3/4.
    "They (investors) are saying here's another one - another
family dispute," said Dennis McAlpine of Oppenheimer.
 Reuter

Sharp cutbacks in drilling in Oklahoma
and Kansas pushed the U.S. drilling rig count down by 36 to a
total of 748, against 1,034 working rigs one year ago, Hughes
    The latest weekly count of rig activity reversed last
week's gain of 23 rigs for a total of 784, which had been the
first improvement in the drilling rig count this year.
    "I have no explanation for the decline," said Hughes
economist Ike Kerridge. "I think we're near the bottom of this
year's rig count but the wet ground in northern and
midcontinent states could affect the count in the next few
weeks."
    Among individual states, Oklahoma and Kansas reported
declines of 16 and 11 working rigs last week. Texas lost seven
and Michigan and Wyoming were each down by three rigs. Gains
were reported in Louisiana and California, which increased by
seven and six, respectively.
    In Canada, the rig count dropped by 52 to a total of 131
working rigs, against 222 one year ago. Kerridge attributed the
steep drop to the government's annual springtime ban against
rigs and other heavy equipment being transported over
rain-softened highways.
 Reuter

A high level U.S. trade official
said it would be foolish for Japan to strike back against the
United States for its sanctions on Japanese semiconductor
electronics products.
    Asked by reporters if Japan was expected to retaliate
against U.S. exports, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce Bruce
Smart replied, "That would be the height of foolishness."
    In addition, he doubted Japan could show enough progress in
meeting the conditions of the agreement to avoid the actual
imposition of the 300 mln dlrs in tariffs on April 17.
    Japan's 58.6 billion dlr trade surplus with the United
States last year has come under fire in Congress concerned
about the loss of jobs to foreign competition and with the
record 169 billion dlrs U.S. trade deficit in 1986.
    President Reagan's sanctions decision won praise today from
the two Democratic leaders of Congress.
    "I think it's about time," Senate Democratic Leader Robert
Byrd of West Virginia told reporters. House Speaker Jim Wright
of Texas told reporters before the opening of the House
session, "It just shows we were right all along when we said
something needs doing."
    Smart testified before a Senate Labor Committee hearing
that last Friday's U.S. trade action would help U.S.
negotiations on access to Japan for U.S. auto parts.
    Since last August Smart has been leading talks to open up
Japan to purchases of more U.S.-made automotive parts. Last
year, Japan racked up a 3.6 billion dlr trade surplus with the
United States in these products.
    Both countries expect to conclude the talks by August 1987.
    "It's amazing to me that the Japanese were surprised. I
hope it will persuade them we're serious," Smart said of the
White House trade sanctions.
    The United States has tried to convince Japanese car
companies of the quality of American-made parts and to draw
them away from their traditional Japanese suppliers.
    "All we ask is a chance. We have a job to do persuading them
we can do better than our reputation seems to be," he said.
    Measured per car, each American-made car contained about
700 dlrs in Japanese auto parts while each Japanese-made car
contained about 26 dlrs in U.S. auto parts, Smart said.
 Reuter

U.S. TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT APPROVES AMERICAN AIRLINES-AIRCAL MERGER

Investor Paul Bilzerian, who has
said he may seek control of Pay 'n Pak Stores Inc, said he
raised his stake in the company to one mln shares, or 9.9 pct
of the total, from 721,900 shares, or 7.2 pct.
Bilzerian and Bicoastal Financial Corp, a Tampa, Fla.,
investment firm he controls, said they bought 278,000 shares of
Pay 'n Pak common stock on March 26 and 27 at prices ranging
from 13.29 to 17.04 dlrs a share.
    Bilzerian last week said he was considering raising his
stake in the company, seeking a board seat or control.
 Reuter

auction of bills produced an average rate of 5.72 pct for the
three-month and 5.80 pct for six-month bills.
    These rates compared with averages of 5.55 pct for each of
the three- and six-month bills sold last week.
    The bond-equivalent yield on three-month bills was 5.90
pct. Accepted bids ranges from 5.70 pct to 5.74 pct and 14 pct
months, the yield was 6.07 pct and the bids were at 5.80 pct.
    The Treasury said it received 24.9 billion dlrs of bids for
non-competitive bids from the public. It accepted 6.4 billion
dlrs of bids, including 2.0 billion dlrs from the Federal
Reserve and 161 mln dlrs from foreign and international
    Some 28.0 billion dlrs in bids for six-month bills were
received, including 780 mln dlrs in non-competitives. The
Treasury accepted 6.4 billion dlrs, including 1.8 billion dlrs
from the Fed and 1.1 billion dlrs from foreign and
international authorities.
    The average price for the three-month bills was 98.554 and
prices ranged from 98.559 to 98.549.  The average price for the
six-months bills was 97.068.
since February 9, when it was also 5.72 pct. The average yield
on the six-month bills was the highest since 5.89 pct on July
28 last year.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc said it is
unlikely that it will spin off any of its tobacco operations
into a master limited partnership in the "immediately
foreseeable future."
    But the company, which has said was studying proposals to
transfer at least a portion of its tobacco business to a master
limited partnership, said in a 10-K filing that it will
continue "on an ongoing basis to study all aspects of the
business, including the role, if any, of an MLP, with a view
toward maximizing shareholder value."
    F. Ross Johnson, president and chief operating officer,
said in a statement, "After careful study, we concluded that
the possible benefits of an MLP do not at this time justify the
management time and attention that would have to be devoted to
the transfer to a new and difficult operating structure."
    In February, RJR Nabisco said it was studying a possible
spinoff of its tobacco business to a master limited
partnership. At that time, the company, which also has a large
food business, said at that the tobacco business was not
posting the same level of profits as its food operations.
    A company spokesman said RJR Nabisco will evaluate  a range
of options for the tobacco business other than the formation of
a master limited partnership. He declined, however, to say what
those options might be.
    The spokesman also refused to elaborate on what factors
went into the company's decision not to spinoff the tobacco
 Reuter

Senators are considering offering a
host of amendments to a farm disaster assistance bill which
could come up soon on the Senate floor, staff members said.
    The bill, already passed by the House, would enable 1987
winter wheat and feedgrains farmers hit by Midwestern flooding
last year to receive at least 92 pct of their federal income
support payments even if they did not plant.
    Amendments considered by Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.)
would apply the so-called "0/92" option to all 1987 program crops
or, if that failed, to spring wheat, Senate staff said.
    Sens. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)
were considering an amendment that would allow feedgrains
producers to receive final deficiency payments in March instead
of in October.
    Earlier this year Dole said advancing the final deficiency
payments would provide feedgrains producers with approximately
three billion dlrs in income payments prior to spring planting
instead of in the fall.
    Dole and Grassley are also considering an amendment that
would offer a two dlr per bushel bonus payment to corn farmers
for any erodible cropland they enrolled in the conservation
reserve program last year.
    The bonus payment has been offered to farmers signing up
for the corn program this spring. The U.S. Agriculture
Department has indicated it would oppose broadening the corn
bonus offer.
    Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) was said to be contemplating
an amendment that would offer the 0/92 option to spring wheat
producers who were prevented from planting this spring because
of flooding last year.
    Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.) was eyeing a measure that would
allow cotton producers to receive disaster aid if the quality
of their crop was hurt by flooding last year.
    Democrats and Republicans today were still trying to arrive
at an agreement governing time to be devoted to amendments.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve's move to easier
monetary policy, begun with four quick half-point discount rate
cuts in 1986, will likely end with a final rate drop in the
second quarter, analysts said.
    A poll of 10 economists shows most expect interest rates to
edge lower, with the Fed likely to drop its basic lending rate
from 5-1/2 pct late next quarter to help the economy.
    "The Fed is not likely to ease policy much further without
a full-blown recession," said Raymond Stone, chief financial
economist at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    Stone said economic data available by late June may be just
weak enough to prompt one more discount rate cut. But he said
it may only be a quarter-point drop instead of the usual half
point, to avoid hurting the dollar further.
    All of the economists agreed that the Federal Open Market
Committee tomorrow will leave Fed policy unchanged.
    The average forecast of those surveyed projects roughly
quarter-point drops by the end of June in both the Treasury
bond yield, to 7-1/2 pct, and the Federal funds rate at which
banks lend to one another, to 5-7/8 pct. Most expect the prime
lending rate at major banks to remain at 7-1/2 pct.
    Other broad predictions of the survey, relating mainly to
the April-June quarter, follow:
    - The dollar is likely to decline five to 10 pct further
against other major currencies because of a large U.S. budget
deficit and a wide, but narrowing, trade gap. Contacted after
the dollar's steep drop in the last two business days, the
economists reaffirmed this view but stressed the risk is that
the dollar will fall more, rather than less, than they expect.
    - Oil prices in the second quarter are likely to continue
trading roughly between 16 and 19 dlrs a barrel and could well
test the lower end of that range.
    - Stocks will continue to outperform bonds next quarter and
probably for all of 1987. Stocks should gain on strong
foreign demand and a modest second-half economic rise. The
outlook for bonds also is less favorable later in the year
since both inflation and interest rates may be edging up.
    - Inflation as measured by the GNP implicit price deflator
will rise to around 3.3 pct this year from 2.7 pct in 1986. The
sharp fall in the dollar to date will add to inflation, as will
a mild economic pickup in the second half of this year.
    - U.S. real gross national product, which grew at a two pct
annual rate in the 1986 second half, should expand at
respective rates of about 2.3 pct and 2.5 pct in the 1987 first
and second halves. First-quarter growth is put at a 2.4 pct
annual
rate, slowing to 2.1 pct next quarter.
    Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co International sees
both the strongest economy and the highest interest rates among
those surveyed. He expects real GNP, which grew at a 1.1 pct
rate in fourth-quarter 1986, to expand at a 3.3 pct rate this
quarter and 3.5 pct next quarter.
    "The economy will bounce back more strongly than many
expect," Brusca said. He said an involuntary buildup in
inventories, largely in autos, will add to first-quarter
economic growth, with consumer spending helping later.
    "We're running out of special factors to keep the economy
afloat," said Philip Braverman of Irving Securities Corp. His
interest rate and economic forecasts were among the lowest.
    Braverman said tax law changes and inventory accumulation
helped lift fourth and first quarter GNP growth, respectively.
He expects 2.5 pct first quarter growth but said that second
quarter growth could be zero or negative.
    Braverman said economic activity next quarter will suffer
from a paring of inventories, lower capital investment, slow 
government spending and less construction. Only a marginally
narrower trade deficit will add to growth.
    He sees a 7.10 pct end-of-June yield on Treasury bonds,
with Federal funds and prime rates at 5.50 and seven pct,
respectively. Nikko's Brusca projects rates of 8.25 pct for
bonds, 6.15 pct for funds and 7.75 pct for the prime rate.
    Two of the 10 economists revised rate forecasts up mildly
after the dollar's fall to 40-year lows versus the yen in past
days and news of pending U.S. trade sanctions against Japan.
    David Resler of Nomura Securities Co International Inc
raised his end-June bond yield forecast to 7.50 pct from 7.20
pct and a Fed funds rate estimate to six pct from 5.80 pct.
    Raul Nicho, president of Money Market Services Inc, lifted
his forecast of bond and Fed funds rates an eighth of a point
to eight pct for bonds and 6-1/4 pct for funds. Both Nicho and
Resler left their end-June prime rate forecast at 7-1/2 pct.
    The higher rate forecasts reflected a belief that Japanese
investors will be less eager to buy U.S. bonds because of fear
about further dollar erosion and perhaps in response to U.S.
trade sanctions. Yields may have to rise to lure other buyers.
......END-JUNE U.S. INTEREST RATE FORECASTS....
....................T-bonds..Fed funds..Prime..
Nikko Securities.....8.25......6.15......7.75..
Money Mkt Services...8.00......6.25......7.50..
Discount Corp........7.75......6.25......7.50..
Merrill Lynch........7.30......5.75......7.50..
Bankers Trust........7.25......5.50......7.50..
Wells Fargo Bank.....7.30......5.60......7.00..
Irving Securities....7.10......5.50......7.00..
Dean Witter..........7.00......5.50......7.00..
.FORECAST AVERAGE....7.50......5.875.....7.50..
.CURRENT LEVELS......7.80......6.125.....7.50..
 Reuter

ministers gave widely diverging reactions to EC executive
Commission proposals for a radical reduction of guaranteed
prices for the EC's 12 mln farmers.
    The plans, which could cut the price received by farmers by
over 10 pct in many cases, were dismissed by West German
minister Ignaz Kiechle as in part unacceptable and in part not
even a basis for negotiation, diplomatic sources said.
    At the other end of the scale, Britain's Michael Jopling
said for some products they did not go far enough to reduce the
massive spending on the EC's farm policy, the major factor
which has brought the Community close to a budget crisis.
    Ministers discussed the Commission's 1987-88 farm price
proposals for the first time and the sources said negotiations
could last several months yet.
    Belgian minister Paul de Keersmaeker, who is chairing the
meeting, told his colleagues he would not even attempt to reach
agreement at the current meeting which is due to end Tuesday
although prices are supposed to be agreed by April 1.
    The disagreement among ministers reflects deep divisions
among member states about the future of the EC's farm policy
which swallows about two-thirds of the annual 36 billion
European Currency Unit (41 billion dollar) budget.
    Kiechle, backed generally by his French, Italian and
several other colleagues, believes sacrifices by traditional
family farmers must be kept to a minimum in order to maintain
viable rural communities in Europe.
    Jopling, with some support from the Netherlands and
Denmark, on the whole backs proposals by EC farm commissioner
Frans Andriessen to cut guaranteed prices and reduce the
opportunities for sales of surplus products into EC stores.
    He believes the system which allows such sales nominally as
a last resort has become abused, resulting in huge stocks and
damaging trade tensions with other major world food exporters.
    Jopling told journalists it was now costing the EC 2,000
Ecus a hectare (920 dlrs an acre) to subsidise cotton
production and double that figure for the growing of certain
types of tobacco.
    Opening yesterday's debate, Andriessen accused officials of
some EC states of ignoring realities. "They give the impression
of living on another planet where there are no surpluses, no
budgetary deficits and no budgetary discipline for farm
spending," he said.
    One Andriessen scheme for closing the budget gap could
already be doomed, diplomats said.
    He wants to raise two billion Ecus (2.28 billion dlrs)
through a tax on EC produced and imported oilseeds which has
already raised hackles in Washington because of fears of the
impact on U.S. soybean exports.
    Jopling said earlier enough EC states appear opposed to
this scheme to block its adoption provided they all stand firm
in the lengthy negotiations ahead on the Commission proposals.
 Reuter

The Louisiana weekly USDA state crop
report said there were 2.4 days suitable for fieldwork.
    Soil moisture supplies rated 41 pct adequate and 59 pct
surplus.
    Winter Wheat - fair to good condition. eight pct headed vs
27 pct a year ago and 17 pct average.
    Corn - eight pct planted vs 64 pct a year ago and 51 pct
average. two pct emerged vs 45 y/a and 23 avg.
    Spring Plowing - seventeen pct completed vs 66 pct a year
ago and 48 pct avg.
 Reuter

Service Resources Corp's Chas. P.
Young Co subsidiary said it agreed to acquire Atwell Fleming
Printing Ltd, a Canadian financial printer, for about 3.2 mln
dlrs.
    Young said the acquisition, which is expected to close in
April, is subject to due dilligence review.
 Reuter

LL and E Royalty Trust said its monthly
dividend, for January, to unitholders will be 8.37 cts per unit
payable April 15 to holders of record April six.
    As previously reported, pending a ruling from the Internal
Revenues Service, the trust's distribution may be reduced by
1.09 dlr per unit, plus interest, spread out over the life of
the productive properties in which the trust has an interest.
    LLE said the working interest owner, to which the IRS sent
a notice about a deficiency in the owner's 1983 tax return, is
evaluating the necessity of escrowing some funds, which would
significantly reduce royalties paid to the trust.
 Reuter

Genova Inc said its shareholders
approved a merger into <Genova Products Inc>, which will be
consumated within a few days. Under the agreement, Genova said
each of its shareholders will receive 5.375 dlrs per share in
cash.
 Reuter

Columbia Gas System INc said
that on June 1 it will redeem 1.4 mln dlrs principal amount of
its 9-7/8 pct debentures, series due June 1999, to meet
    The debentures w, issued in 1974, will be redeemed at a
price equal to 100 pct of the principal amount plus accrued
interest.
    Following redemption, 27.4 mln dlrs of the debentures will
be outstanding.
 Reuter

Imperial Bancorp said it declared a
five pct stock dividend, payable May 29 to shareholders of
record April 17.
 Reuter

The Texas weekly USDA state crop report
said stormy winter weather limited fieldwork before conditions
improved later in the week.
    A snowstorm caused some cattle deaths in the Panhandle, and
cold, wet weather covered many areas. Windy weather followed to
dry fields and limit planting delays.
    Small grains made good progress despite cool temperatures
which slowed growth. Additional moisture was needed in some
areas. Many fields were booting and some were beginning to
head. Wheat was rated 16 pct fair, 56 pct good and 28 pct
excellent.
    Corn and sorghum planting progressed, and land preparation
was ahead of schedule in the Plains despite snowy weather.
Cotton planting progressed in the Lower Valley.
 Reuter

The 102 owners of Straw Hat
Pizza Restaurant franchises said in a joint statement that they
are forming a management corporation to assume complete control
of their own operations.
    The group said terms of an arrangement with the francisor,
Marriott Corp, call for Marriott to pay the new cooperative 
corporation 3.5 mln dlrs to fund initial operations.
 Reuter

Arkla Inc said it and
International Paper Co <IP> filed a proposal with the Arkansas
Public Service Commission designed to resolve the dispute
between the two over IP's plan to build natural gas pipelines
for its paper mill facilities at Pine Bluff and Camden.
    Arkla's pipeline division, Arkla Energy Resources,
currently delivers all of the natural gas consumed at the two
mills.
    Under the proposal, Arkla will support IP's plan to build
the alternate pipelines, while IP will allow Arkla's pipeline
division to deliver an equal quantity of competitively priced
supplies to other IP facilities.
 Reuter

Basic American Medical Inc said a
proposed 82 mln dlr note issue will not take place "at this
time."
    The company announced on Jan 5, 1987 that it received a
proposal from Irving Trust Co under which Irving would issue
its direct pay letter of credit for up to 83.5 mln dlrs to
secure the proposed note.
    Basic American also said it engaged the Health Care Capital
Market Groups of Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc to act as
investment banker in placement of its proposed notes. The
company said it will continue to pursue actively the proposed
note issue and will seek alternative financing in place of the
note issue.
 Reuter

Chas. P. Young Co, a subsidiary of
Service Resources Corp, said it signed a definitive agreement
to acquire Atwell Fleming Printing Ltd, of Canada, for about
    The transaction is expected to close in April.
    ON February 23, Chas. P. Young said it had aquired 19.05
pct of the shares of Sorg INc <SRG> to facilitate a newgotiated
business combination.
 Reuter

Hybritech Inc said the U.S.
Supreme Court denied a petition by Monoclonal Antibodies Inc
asking the court to review the validity of a Hybritech patent.
    The patent covers a method of using monoclonal antibodies
in certain immunoassay tests to detect and monitor conditions
such as pregnancy, cancer and infectious disease.
    Hybritech sued Monoclonal in March 1984 for infringement of
its patent.
 Reuter

SunGard Data Systems INc said its
Investment Systems division received a 4.8 mn dlrs software
development contract from Bankers Trust Co.
    The contract calls for two-year development of a
comprehensive employee benefit plan administration system.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Time Inc said its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Time-Life Overseas Finance Corp, NV, has called for
redemption of all 100 mln dlrs in principal amount of its
10-3/4 pct guaranteed notes due January 26, 1990.
    The redemption date is May 5, 1987, it said. The notes will
be redeemed at 101.5 pct of their principal amount, plus
accrued interest through the redemption date.
    Time said after the redemption date, interest on the notes
will cease to accrue and any coupons attached to the notes
maturing subsequent to the redemption date will be void.
    The company said it is redeeming these notes as part of its
continuing effort to reduce the average cost of its debt.
 Reuter

Shell Canada Ltd, 72 pct owned
by Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <ST>, scheduled its annual
maintenance refinery shutdowns during the next two months,
company spokeswoman Judy Wish said.
    Wish said refineries will stockpile production before the
shutdowns to maintain normal supply while maintenance is
    Production at Shell's major refinery at Strathcona Alberta,
will be closed for about one month, Wish said.
    There will be no layoffs associated with the refinery
maintenance, she added.
 Reuter

Dixons Group PLC said that pursuant to
an agreement with Audio/Video Affiliates Inc, part of an
investor group that made a rival bid for Cyclops Corp <CYL>,
all litigation between them has been dismissed.
    As part of the agreement, Dixons said Cyacq Corp, the
Audio/Video investor group that includes Citicorp Capital
Investors Ltd, agreed to "promptly" terminate its existing
tender offer for all outstanding Cyclops common at 92.50 dlrs
per share.
    Dixons said it agreed to pay an additional 4.75 dlrs per
share, or 95 dlrs per share, to each shareholder whose shares
were purchased under its offer for Cyclops at 90.25 dlrs per
share.
    On Friday, Dixons announced that it had increased its
holdings in Cyclops Corp to about 83 pct of the currently
outstanding shares and that it intended to increase to 95 dlrs
from 90.25 dlrs the amount per share paid in the merger of a
Dixons subsidiary with Cyclops.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT) said it gave final clearance to the
proposed 225 mln dlr acquisition of AirCal Inc by American
Airlines Inc.
    "The acquisition is not likely to substantially lessen
competition or to be inconsistent with the public interest," the
DOT said in a statement.
    AirCal is a unit of ACI Holdings Inc while American is a
unit of AMR Corp.
    The DOT had given tentative approval to the merger plan
Feb. 20.
    American is the third largest U.S. airline in terms of
revenue passenger miles while AirCal--a relatively small
carrier that primarily serves West Coast cities--is the
nation's 17th largest passenger carrier. Their merger would not
alter American's third-place ranking, according to data
compiled by Aviation Daily, a leading industry trade magazine.
    The combination would incrase American's share of the U.S.
market to 15.4 pct from its current 14.7 pct, the DOT said.
    The DOT said the merger was unlikely to substantially
reduce competition on the four routes on which both carriers
provide either nonstop or single-plane service.
    At 13 of the 14 terminals served by both carriers, the DOT
said it found no evidence that other carriers could not
increase or begin service that competed with a merged
American-AirCal.
    Concerning the 14th, "While entry may not be possible at the
Orange County Airport in the near future, DOT found that the
service provided at other airports in the Los Angeles area,
especially at the Los Angeles International Airport, will
provide effective competition for Orange County travelers in
long-haul markets," the DOT said.
    The merger would give American control of 37 pct of the
authorized takeoff and landing slots at the Orange County
terminal, where environmental concerns and a small terminal
building limit future opportunities for expansion.
    The DOT said the Air Line Pilots Association filed comments
opposing the merger but "raised no new facts or arguments."
    Under the merger terms, announced Nov. 17, American will
pay 15 dlrs a share for the outstanding stock of ACI Holdings.
 Reuter

The U.S. credit market ended under
extreme pressure as the dollar's continued slide on the
currency markets triggered an avalanche of U.S. securities
sales, pushing prices to 1987 lows, dealers and analysts said.
    "This was a bloodbath," said one money market economist.
"We've been trading in a state of total panic at times today,"
said another.
    Mirroring the dollar's fall to a 40-year low against the
yen, the key 7-1/2 pct 30-year Treasury bond price fell nearly
two points to close at 96-7/32, compared with 98-5/32 on
Friday. The corresponding yield jumped to 7.83 pct from 7.66.
 Reuter

Steel Technologies Inc said it
agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture with <Mitsui and Co Ltd>
to make steel products.
    The venture, called Mi-Tech Steel Inc, will be set up to
serve Japanese and domestic automobile and appliance parts
makers in the U.S.
    A plant will be located near Murfreesboro, Tenn., and
production is expected to begin in the fall 1987, the company
said.

 Reuter

Inland Vacuum Inc said is
board proposed a two-for-one stock split payable to
shareholders of record April 30.
    The board also elected Phillip Frost chairman, succeeding
John Durkin, who remains president and chief executive officer.
Frost in early February bought 49 pct of the company, Durkin
said.
    Stockholders at the annual meeting approved a measure to
change the company's name to IVACO Industries Inc. Five new
directors were also elected to the company's board. Durkin was
re-elected to the board, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs loss 39 cts
    Net loss 115,000 vs loss 1,544,000
    Rev 6.9 mln vs 7.3 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 44 cts
    Net profit 141,000 vs loss 1,772,000
    Rev 13.9 mln vs 14.5 mln
    NOTE: Net includes loss from discontinued operations of
78,000 dlrs, or two cts a share, versus 597,000, or 15 cts a
share in the prior 2nd qtr.
    Six months net includes gain from discontinued operations
of 104,000 dlrs, or three cts a share, versus a loss of 588,000
dlrs, or 15 cts a share, in the prior six months.
 Reuter

signed an agreement with Mitsui and Co Ltd <MITSY> and its
subsidiaries to establish a joint venture corporation to be
called Mi-Tech Steel Inc.
    Mitsui, through its subsidiaries, Mitsui and Co USA Inc and
Mitsui Steel Development Co Inc, and Steel Technologies each
will own 50 pct of the new company, the company said.
    Mi-tech Steel will construct, own and operate steel service
centers. The facilities will be established to serve Japanese
and domestic automobile and appliance parts manufactures in the
    The initial processing center will be located near
Murfreesboro, Tenn., and is expected to begin operations in the
fall of 1987, Steel Technologies said.
    Daryl Elser, president of Steel Technologies, will be
president of the new company, it said.
 Reuter

Association announced an offering of Australian 100 mln dlrs
(approx. U.S. 70 mln) in two-year fixed rate notes priced at
par and bearing interest at 14 pct per annum.
    Sallie Mae said semiannual interest payments and principal
at maturity will be paid in Australian dollars, adding it will
enter into a separate currency and interest exchange agreement
to convert its payment obligations to U.S. dollars.
    The notes, offered in U.S. capital markets by Salomon
Brothers Inc, are due April 14, 1989, and are for settlement
April 14 with the first interest payment being made Oct 14.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 44 cts vs profit 58 cts
    Oper net loss 2.7 mln vs profit four mln
    Revs 13.3 mln vs 28.4 mln
    Avg shrs 6.1 mln vs seven mln
    NOTE: Prior year excludes extraordinary gain of 21 cts per
share.
 Reuter

Security Tag Systems Inc
said its British-based affiliate received a three mln dlr order
of electronic article surveillance equipment, the largest in
the company's history.
    It said it received the order from a British chain of
speciality clothing stores.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 5 cts
    Net 5,568,319 vs 2,968,437
    Rev 36.5 mln vs 34.0 mln
    12 months
    Shr 1.60 dlrs vs 1.79 dlrs
    Net 72,865,101 vs 85,198,853
    Rev 521.3 mln vs 420.3 mln
    NOTE: Twelve months includes the cumulative effect of a
change in accounting methods for accruing unbilled revenues of
11.4 mln dlrs, or 28 cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 1,329,000 vs 1,054,000
    Revs 20.7 mln vs 11.4 mln
    Avg shrs 10,100,000 vs 7,500,000
 Reuter

Neoax Inc said it bought
Rexnord Inc's Fairfield Manufacturing Co for 70.5 mln dlrs
cash.
    The unit makes custom gears for industrial use and had
sales of 84 mln dlrs in its Oct. 31, 1986 fiscal year.
 Reuter

Marvin Warner, a former U.S.
ambassador to Switzerland, was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in jail
for his role in a bank failure that led to the worst banking
crisis in Ohio's history.
    He owned the Home State Savings Bank of Cincinnati at the
time of its March 9, 1985, collapse following more than 143 mln
dlrs in loses.
    Warner and two other bank officials were charged with 82
counts of misapplying the bank's funds by transferring them to
ESM Government Securities Inc., of Florida without the
authorization of the bank's board.
    ESM collapsed in March of 1985, taking Home State -- its
biggest investor -- down with it.
    Home State's failure wiped out the reserves of its insurer,
the Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund, a state regulated institution
that was not federally insured. That prompted a run on dozens
of other savings and loan associations across the state which
were insured by the same fund, forcing some of them to close
until they obtained federal deposit insurance.
    Warner was ambassador to Switzerland during the Carter
administration.
 Reuter

Shr 80 cts vs 79 cts
    Net 4,212,000 vs 4,142,000
    Sales 111.1 mln vs 107.1 mln
 Reuter

The MidAmerica Commodity Exchange
(MIDAM) moved from the former Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor
to a room off the main trading floors of the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBT) today and expanded trading hours for Treasury-bond
futures to 0720 to 1515 CST.
    CBT bond futures continue to trade from 0800 to 1400 CST.
    The MIDAM was founded last century as the Chicago Open
Board of Trade as a grain exchange and has since expanded to
include smaller contracts of livestock, currencies, metals and
financial futures.
    MIDAM traders said the new CBT facilities worked well
today, offering more inter-market spread opportunities in two
trading pits than on the old floor which they believed was too
large for the volume of trade.
   
 Reuter

Times Mirror Co said it completed
the sale of 26,000 acres of timberlands located in Washington
and Oregon to <Fibre Co>.
    The company said the sale was part of its ongoing program
to divest its timberland holdings in the Pacific Northwest.
 Reuter

Development of costly shale oil,
liquified coal and other kinds of synthetic fuels, halted in
recent years because of cheap and abundant petroleum supplies,
will become economic again when world oil prices top 30 dlrs a
barrel, an Exxon Co USA executive said.
    Joe McMillan, a senior vice president, told Reuters after
addressing a Houston meeting of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers, "By early in the next century, synthetics
should play a significant role in this country's energy
supply."
    McMillan also told reporters at a news conference that he
believed synthetic fuels would become economic to develop when
world oil prices reached a 30 to 40 dlr a barrel price range.
    "You're talking about a 50 pct increase in crude oil
prices, but I think that time is coming and we've got to be
prepared," McMillan said.
    He predicted U.S. oil demand would rise by about one pct
annually in the next few years while the nation fails to
replace its oil reserves through exploration. By the turn of
the century, world oil prices will be significantly higher
because of declining supplies, McMillan said.
    Ashland Oil, Inc. chairman John Hall, who also spoke at the
meeting, advocated some form of federal tax incentives to help
spur development of synthetic fuels.
    The United States, Hall said, has nearly 500 billion tons
of demonstrated coal reserves, an amount more than triple that
of all the world's known oil reserves.
    "We must encourage research now in order to make synfuels
competitive later," Hall said. The average lead time for
development of a shale oil or liquified coal project is between
five and ten years.
    Until last year, the federal government had subsidized
synfuels development through the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corp., a
research program created during the Carter Administration with
the goal of developing replacements for up to two mln barrels
of oil.
    The corporation was shut down last April when Congress
refused to continue funding its eight billion dlr budget
because of uneconomic projects based on forecasts of 50 dlrs a
barrel oil and 10 dlr per mcf natural gas during this decade.
 Reuter

The Oklahoma weekly USDA crop
report said cold weather slowed crop development and caused
some cattle deaths.
    Wheat growth was halted by cold weather, and rain early in
the week prevented fertilizer application and weed spraying.
Fields in the west were short of nitrogen, and moderate insect
activity was noted in the southwest region.
    Wheat condition was rated 15 pct fair, 84 pct good and one
pct excellent.
    Row crop activity was very slow amid wet conditions.
Topsoil moisture was rated 30 pct adequate and 70 pct surplus,
and subsoil moisture was rated 100 pct adequate. Only two days
were suitable for fieldwork.
 Reuter

Brazilian President Jose Sarney
announced a move which temporarily legalises the purchase of
U.S. dollars in the parallel currency market, aimed at
promoting imports of foreign goods.
    In a speech, Sarney justified his measure as a need to face
"current well known difficulties to obtain foreign loans for the
purchase of goods."
    The parallel market, although officially tolerated, is
technically illegal in Brazil. For the past year, the dollar in
the parallel market has sold at between 25 and 100 pct above
the official rate.
    Sarney's decision means Brazilian importers of machinery
and industrial equipment can buy dollar currency in the
parallel market without having to wait for an official order
from the Banco do Brasil's Foreign Trade Department (Cacex).
    Sarney also announced measures to boost exports in an
effort to strengthen the country's trade balance and alleviate
the risk of a reduction of foreign loans for this sector of the
economy.
    The president authorised the National Foreign Trade Council
(CONEX) to resume operating as the ruling body of Brazil's
trade policy, with participation of the private sector.
    The Council had been closed three years ago by the military
government of former President Joao Figueiredo.
 Reuter

USX Corp said its USS steelmaking
division increased prices on plate and H-pile products.
    Effective with May three shipments, it said the price base
on carbon and high-strength low-alloy, or HSLA, H-piles will
increase by 1-1/2 cts per pound.
    Effective with shipments beginning June 28, the price on
carbon, HSLA, and alloy plates will increase by 1-1/4 cts per
pound. Strip mill plate prices will rise by 3/4 cts per pound.
    It said the price increases on plate and H-pile products
will apply to all shipments from USS plants.
 Reuter

Anglo American Gold Investment Co
chairman Julian Thompson urged the South African government to
repeal legislation preventing black advancement in the mining
industry.
    Thompson, commenting in the annual report, said the mining
industry remained "cynical" about whether Pretoria really intends
to remove barriers which prevent blacks from holding skilled
jobs.
    He urged the government to back up pledges by introducing a
bill when parliament reconvenes later this year.
    The vast majority of South Africa's 600,000 miners are
black but whites perform most supervisory jobs.
    The government has vowed to open all mining jobs to all
races this year but the mining industry fears clauses inserted
in an abolition bill could be used to make it difficult for
blacks to qualify for skilled positions.
    "The reluctance of the government to repeal (discriminatory
provisions) obstructs the advancement of blacks and denies them
opportunities for taking increasing responsibilities," Thompson
said.
 Reuter

Canada's major banks will likely face
stiff pressure to declare their Brazilian loans non-performing
if, as expected, major U.S. banks take similar action after the
end of their first quarter tomorrow, analysts said.
    American bankers said last week that slow progress in debt
talks with Brazil increased the likelihood that U.S. banks
would soon declare their Brazilian loans non-performing.
    Such action "would put a lot of pressure on the Canadian
banks to do the same," Levesque, Beaubien Inc Toronto-based bank
analyst Donna Pulcine told Reuters.
    "They (banks) like to appear to be conservative," said
Pulcine, "and if a major bank puts loans on a non-performing
basis and the Canadian banks don't, there is going to be a lot
of pressure from shareholders as to why one bank is considering
the loans non-performing and another bank is not."
    Wood Gundy Inc bank analyst Patricia Meredith said any
willingness by a major Brazilian bank creditor such as Citicorp
<CCI> to declare its Brazilian loans non-performing rather than
let Brazil dictate settlement terms would provide a compelling
example for other creditor banks.
    "In order to make that strategy work, they (Citicorp) have
to have the support of the other banks," said Meredith.
    Bank analyst Michael Walsh at First Marathon Securities Ltd
said at least one Canadian bank, which he declined to identify,
"wants to put (the Brazilian loans) on a non-performing basis
and is trying to encourage the others to take that position."
    Canadian banks are owed about seven billion Canadian dlrs
by Brazil, which late last month suspended interest payments on
its 68 billion U.S. dlr foreign bank debt.
    Banks in Canada, although allowed to wait up to 180 days
before declaring loans on which they are receiving no interest
as non-performing, usually move on such loans within 90 days.
They could therefore delay action on the Brazilian loans until
late May, which falls in Canadian banks' third quarter ending
July 31.
    <Bank of Montreal>, Brazil's largest Canadian bank
creditor, said last week it was not currently considering
declaring its 1.98 billion dlrs of Brazilian loans as
non-performing.
    "I think that is just for the benefit of the public," Walsh
said of Bank of Montreal's statement. 
    Some analysts predicted minimal earnings impact on Canadian
banks from a move to declare the Brazilian loans
    They said Brazil would likely resume interest payments by
the banks' fiscal year-end on October 31, thus allowing banks
to recoup their lost interest income.
    "From what Brazil has said, it is quite likely the banks
will get the money," said Meredith. "My outlook at this point is
optimistic that there will be no adjustment for the full-year's
earnings."
    Meredith forecast 1987 fully diluted per share earnings of
3.80 dlrs for <Royal Bank of Canada> compared with 3.74 in
1986; 4.30 dlrs for <Bank of Montreal> compared with 3.59; 2.25
dlrs for <Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce> compared with
2.23;  2.15 dlrs for <Bank of Nova Scotia> compared with 1.94,
and 2.85 dlrs for <Toronto Dominion Bank> against 2.74.
    She forecast 1.90 dlrs for <National Bank of Canada>
against 3.30 dlrs before a two for one stock split.
    Analyst Pulcine said she might lower full-year earnings
estimates for the banks by between two cts and 10 cts a share,
assuming a possible settlement reduced Brazil's interest costs.
    "If the banks didn't receive anything for the rest of the
fiscal year, the impact could range from 16 cts to 70 cts a
share. But I don't see that as a likely scenario," Pulcine said.
    Walsh at First Marathon suggested, however, that the
Brazilian debt situation was so complex that "it could drag on
beyond one full fiscal year."
    He said he foresaw having to lower his 1987 fiscal earnings
forecasts for the banks. He estimated that Brazil's yearly
interest payments to Canadian banks totaled about 575 mln dlrs
or about 10 pct of their total 1986 pre-tax earnings.
 Reuter

The Venezuela Guayana Corporation, CVG,
which oversees the state steel, iron, aluminum and other
industries, will invest 75 billion bolivars in new projects
during 1987-89, CVG president Leopoldo Sucre Figarella
    The investments will go to plant expansion, infrastructure
and the extension of hydroelectric facilities in the
mineral-rich Guayana region, south of the Orinoco river.
    Sucre Figarella told a news conference the CVG's 12
companies showed an overall increase of 120 pct in profits,
which rose from 1.732 billion bolivars in 1985 to 3.926 billion
bolivars last year.
    Among the best performers was steel company Sidor which
earned 1.019 billion bolivars, the first time since 1978 Sidor
turned a profit.
    The gain was made possible in part by the refinancing of
1.619 mln dollars of foreign debt.
    CVG's three aluminum companies also showed substantial
gains. Interalumina, which makes the intermediate material
alumina, had an increase in profits from 116 to 217 mln
bolivars, Alcasa earned 487 mln bolivars, as compared to 1985's
412 mln and Venalum's profits rose by around half, from 1.042
to 1.504 bln bolivars.
    Meanwhile, the state iron company Ferrominera saw its
profits rise from 156 mln bolivars in 1985 to 204 mln bolivars
last year.
 Reuter

Andover Group said it filed
Commission to elect a slate of directors to HBO and Co's board
at its April 30 annual meeting.
    Andover Group said it owns seven pct of HBO, a hospital
information systems company.

Infinity Broadcasting Corp said it
entered an agreement to acquire radio stations KVIL AM/FM from
Sconninx Broadcasting Co for 82 mln dlrs.
    Upon completion of the transaction, Infinity will own nine
FM and four AM stations in 10 major markets.
    The transaction is subject to FCC approval.
 Reuter

N.Z. FEBRUARY CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT 78 MLN V 93 MLN JAN - GOVT

Shr loss 45 cts vs profit 25 cts
    Net loss 641,000 vs profit 352,000
    Revs 5,747,000 vs 3,038,000
 Reuter

    Bank of New England <BKNE> - Offering of 200 mln dlrs of
subordinated capital notes due 1999 through an underwriting
group led by Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said it has cut
about 70 employees, or 42 pct of its worforce.
    It said the action is necessary to successfully reorganize
the company under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, for
which it filed last week.
    A company spokesman also said Eugene Gruenberg, Michael
Gruenberg and Jeffrey Ringhofer have severed all ties from the
company.
    Last week these men resigned from executive posts - Eugene
Gruenberg had been chairman and chief executive, Michael
Gruenberg had been president and chief operating officer, and
Ringhofer had been vice president of marketing. But they had
retained other duties until Monday, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

NAFCO Financial Group Inc's Naples
Federal Savings and Loan Association said it revised a loan
agreement with Punta Gorda Isles.
    Naples agreed to extend the maturity and increase 20.7 mln
dlrs in PUnta's outstanding loans by nine mln dlrs.
    The new loan will enable Punta to pay off 10.4 mln dlrs of
indebtedness to another lender and provide it with working
capital.
    As a result of the payoff of the other loan, Naples will
have a first lien position on all of Punta's holdings.
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs profit 36 cts
    Net loss 784,000 vs profit 4,793,000
    Revs 90 mln vs 79 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 27 cts vs profit 65 cts
    Net profit 4,010,000 vs profit 8,539,000
    Revs 273 mln vs 214 mln
 Reuter

Amfac Inc said it entered an
agreement to sell the last remaining store of its original
Liberty House of California operation to H and S - San Mateo
Inc.
 Reuter

Harper International Inc
said it intends to buy the major asset, patents and trade name
of Demarkus Corp, a designer and installer of process gas
systems for the soft drink and brewing industries.
    The purchase price is about 125,000 dlrs.
    Demarkus' sales were 470,000 dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. Dollar currency in the parallel market, aimed at promoting
imports of foreign goods.
    The parallel market, although tolerated, is technically
illegal. For the past year, the dollar in the parallel market
is being sold at 25 to 100 pct above the official rate.
    Sarney's decision means that Brazilian importers of
machinery and industrial equipment can buy dollar currency in
the parallel market without having to wait for the issuing of
an official order from the Banco do Brasil's Foreign Trade
Department (Cacex).
economy.
    Tomorrow, Brazil was due to fulfill payment of 15 billion
dollars in short range credit lines, but its economic officials
have suggested a 60-day extension in the deadline in order to
seek a renegotiation with its creditors.
    Sarney told members of the Council that for Brazil it is a
must to recover its annual trade balance surplus to the 12
billion dollars average recorded in 1984 and 1985, and which
dropped sharply last year to 8 billion dollars.
    He attributed the poor performance of Brazil's trade
balance in 1986 to protectionist moves by industrialised
countries, the fall in the prices of basic goods and the crisis
faced by several of Brazil's Third World trade partners.
 Reuter

it signed a letter of intent to sell substantially all of its
remaining egg operations to Sunny Fresh Foods inc.
    Olson said it expects to receive about nine mln dlrs from a
combination of a sale of tangible assets to Sunny Fresh and
realization of intangible and other assets by Olson.
    The transaction is expected to result in a charge for
discontinued operations of about two mln dlrs but is also
expected to generate substantial cash flow to pay off
egg-related indebtedness of about 7.5 mln dlrs and to further
improve working capital.
 Reuter

New Zealand's current account
deficit narrowed to 78 mln dlrs in February from 93 mln in
January and 233 mln in February 1986, in a smoothed seasonally
adjusted measurement, the statistics department said.
    This is the first time current account figures have
appeared in a seasonally adjusted form.
    Non-seasonally adjusted but smoothed figures show a deficit
of 112 mln dlrs against 144 mln in January and 281 mln in
    Totally unadjusted figures show a deficit of 47 mln dlrs
against 168 mln in January and 227 mln in February 1986.
    The smoothed seasonally adjusted series shows a surplus on
merchandise trade of 174 mln dlrs after 161 mln in January and
33 mln in February 1986.
    Smoothed but non-seasonally adjusted figures show a
merchandise trade surplus of 114 mln dlrs against 81 mln in
January and a 47 mln dlr deficit in February 1986.
    Unadjusted merchandise figures show a surplus of 168 mln
against 36 mln in January and 22 mln in February 1986.
    The deficit on invisibles was 241 mln dlrs against 242 mln
in January and 250 mln in February 1986.
    The smoothed but not seasonally adjusted deficit on
invisibles was 226 mln dlrs against 225 mln in January and 234
    The unadjusted deficit on invisibles was 215 mln dlrs
against 204 mln in January and 249 mln in February 1986.
    Seasonally adjusted export and import figures were not
available but the department said they will be included in
future current account data.
    Smoothed but non-seasonally adjusted exports were 924 mln
dlrs, unchanged from January, against 843 mln in February 1986.
    Smoothed but non-seasonally adjusted imports were 810 mln
dlrs against 843 mln in January and 890 mln in February 1986.
 Reuter

the Gulf of Mexico was steady at 35.6 pct last week, the same
rate as one month ago, Offshore Data Services said.
    The total number of working rigs in the Gulf was 83 for the
week, compared to 100 a year ago. Offshore Data Services said
the worldwide utilization rate rose to 53.9 pct, reflecting
three more rigs with contracts for a total of 391 working rigs.
    One year ago, 492 rigs were active out of a fleet of 746
rigs.
    In the European-Mediterranean area, rig utilization
increased by two percentage points to 44.2 pct as three
additional rigs found work during the week. A total of 68 rigs
out of a fleet of 154 were working.
 Reuter

GENCORP REJECTS UNSOLICITED TAKEOVER BID FROM AFG INDUSTRIES/WAGNER AND BROWN

U.S. District Court Judge Robert
Sweet granted requests by federal authorities for court orders
freezing the assets of former Merrill Lynch executive Nahum
Vaskevitch, who has been charged with insider trading.
    Acting on arguments by the Securities and Exchange
Commission, Sweet issued a preliminary injunction barring
Vaskevitch and other defendants in the case from committing
further violations of U.S. securities law.
    He also issued orders freezing the defendants' U.S. assets,
forcing them to give a full accounting of their assets and
preventing any alteration or destruction of documents.
    The orders merely extend indefinitely the effectiveness of
temporary restraining orders the SEC obtained against
Vaskevitch on March 11, when it charged him with masterminding
an insider trading scheme that netted him and his associates
more than four mln dlrs in illegal profits.
    Vaskevitch, who headed the mergers and acquisitions
department of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Ltd, the
London branch of the brokerage giant, leaked inside information
about 12 companies to his associates, the SEC charged.
    Also charged were David Sofer, an Israeli, and two firms he
and Vaskevitch used. All reside outside U.S. territory.
 Reuter

Society for Savings said it will
offer up to 100 mln dlrs aggregate principal amount of its
medium-term notes, with maturities from one year up to five
years from the date of issue.
    Each note will bear interest at a fixed rate or variable
rate formula established at the time of issuance, it said.
 Reuter

A group of investment firms which
had once sought control of Comdata Network Inc, told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it sold its remaining
1,113,500-share, or 5.9 pct, stake in the company.
    The group, which had owned as much as 9.5 pct of the total,
said it sold the stake on March 27 at 15-3/4 dlrs a share. Last
week it sold 455,000 Comdata shares.
    Group members are CNI Partners, an investment partnership,
Mason Best Co, a Texas investment partnership, and Houston
Imperial Corp, a real estate development firm.
 Reuter

Gencorp Inc said its board urged
shareholders to reject the hostile unsolicited 100 dlr a share
tender offer made March 18 by General Acquisition Inc, an
affiliate of Wagner and Brown and AFG Industries INc.
    Gencorp also said it is developing a financially superior
alternative that would enable shareholders to benefit from the
full value of the company.
    In a letter to shareholders, Chairman A. William Reynolds 
said the offer is a "highly conditional, contingently financed
bust-up offer" that seeks to deny shareholders the true value
of their investment in Gencorp.
    Reynolds said the board reached its decision to reject the
offer after careful study with legal and financial advisers. He
said the board has authorized management to explore
alternatives aimed at providing shareholders with a
"financially superior" alternative to the general acquisition
offer.
    A Gencorp spokesman, in response to questions, would not
comment on market speculation that the company's management may
develop a leveraged buyout offer of its own. He would also not
comment on when a better alternative might be developed.
    Gencorp's stock has traded well above the 100 dlr offer
price since the tender was made. Today, Gencorp closed at
114-1/4, up 1-5/8.
    Reynolds said in the letter that for the last few years,
Gencorp management has taken action to enhance shareholder
value, and the stock price and earnings have improved since he
joined the company.
    Gencorp said the partnership's offer is a "bargain price"
acquisition that was "using financing from a syndicate of banks
that does not yet exist and a bridge loan from Shearson Lehman
brothers that shearson is not obligated to provide."
    Reynolds also said the offer would result in a radical
alteration and selloff of Gencorp's assets, including Aerojet
General to refinance General Acquisition's borrowings with the
profits going to Wagner and Brown and AFG instead of
    The letter also said the General Acquisition offer
"jeopardizes the security and interests" of its shareholders,
employees, customers, suppliers and the communities throughout
the country where the company's facilities are located.
 Reuter

Shr profit 17 cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 14,918,000 vs loss 2,732,000
    Revs 74.8 mln vs 54.7 mln
    YEAR
    Shr profit 80 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Net profit 71.6 mln vs profit 12.2 mln
    Revs 293.4 mln vs 222.8 mln
    Note: 1986 fl-yr net includes extraordinary gain of 56.3
mln dlrs from investment sales, gain on share issue by 57
pct-owned Campbell Red Lake Mines Ltd <CRK> and provision for
decline in value of marketable securities. 1985 fl-yr net
includes gain of 10.1 mln dlrs.
    1985 revs restated to exclude revenues from discontinued
coal mining operations.
    Under U.S. accounting practises, Dome Mines would have
reported 1986 loss of 192.9 mln dlrs or 2.17 dlrs shr vs yr-ago
loss of 24.9 mln dlrs or 32 cts shr, reflecting different
principles in accounting for 22 pct stake in Dome Petroleum Ltd
<DMP> and 1986 oil and gas writedown.
 Reuter

Baldwin INdustrial
Properties Ltd said five new buildings valued at 9.5 mln dlrs
will be built as Phase IV of the Baldwin Commerce Center in
baldwin Park, calif.
    Baldwin INdustrial Properties is a joint venture of Santa
Anita Realty Enterprises Inc, Grant General Contractors Inc,
Baldwin Associates and Wm. P. Willman and Assocates.
 Reuter

A.H. Belo Corp said it will
submit to its shareholders at its May six annual meeting a
proposal to reincorporate the company in Delaware.
    The company said the reincorporation would enable Belo to
take advantage of Delaware's flexible corporate laws.
 Reuter

The Philippine government has quietly
agreed to make token payments of principal in each of the next
three years as part of its 10.3 billion dlr commercial bank
debt rescheduling package finalized last Friday, bankers said.
    Manila will pay foreign banks 37 mln dlrs a year in 1987,
1988 and 1989, representing four pct of a 925 mln dlr loan
signed in 1985. Amortizations on the loan were not due to begin
until 1990, but the Philippines agreed to make the extra 111
mln dlr prepayment in order to win a relatively low interest
margin of 7/8 pct over Eurodollar rates, bankers said.
    Bankers said they insisted on the principal repayments so
that they could justify a margin of 7/8 pct by drawing a direct
parallel between the Philippines and Venezuela, which won a 7/8
pct spread on a 21 billion dlr debt rescheduling package last
month.
    After the Venezuelan deal was clinched, leading New York
bankers hurried to argue that 7/8 pct was the new benchmark
spread for a debtor nation that was current on interest, was
not seeking new money and was amortizing loan principal.
    Previously, the 13/16 pct margin granted to Mexico was seen
by debtors as the margin to strive for.
    The Philippines, which met the first two Venezuelan
criteria but not the third, was adamant that it could not
accept a spread higher than 7/8 pct.
    Bankers could not back down either because they would have
had to sacrifice millions of dollars in profits and may have
thrown the door open to other debtors, notably Argentina and
Brazil, to claim even finer spreads than Mexico's.
    In the end, the compromise saved face for the banks. "The
banks were agonizing how to reconcile this package with
Venezuela's. This allowed them to walk out and say, We've kept
faith with the Venezuelan precedent," one source said.
    The prepayments, although modest, were not apparently
something that the Philippine negotiators wanted to dwell upon
as they sought to portray their 17-year rescheduling agreement
as better than Mexico's.
    Finance minister Jaime Ongpin did not refer to the
prepayments at a news conference he held in New York on Friday
to announce the rescheduling agreement.
    And an accompanying press release referred only obliquely
to the fact that the 7/8 pct margin will increase to one pct
"as long as the Philippines pays amortizations as agreed with
the banks."
    The threat of a higher margin gives the Philippines every
incentive to make the extra payments, and the government has
indicated that it will in fact do so, bankers said.
    Furthermore, by paying back ahead of schedule some of the
last loan it raised, the Philippines will be hoping to make a
good impression on the international banking community.
    Ongpin said the country should not have a financing gap
before the end of next year at the earliest, depending on the
success of the Philippine Investment Note issues which are
planned, but some bankers say they are already braced for new
loan requests for 1988 and 1989.
 Reuter

The U.S. should reassess
its Mideast policy in light of its rising dependence on
imported oil, according to Charles Ebinger of the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
     "The prospect of rising dependence on oil imports from the
Gulf, and the recent revelations of the Tower Commission
report, mandate more than ever before the need for a
fundamental reassessment of U.S. interests in the Middle East,"
Ebinger said.
     He remarks were made in an address to the National
Petroleum Refiners Association meeting.
     "Although in the short run it is difficult to see a direct
link between Arab anger and threats to oil supplies, in the
current environment it will be increasingly difficult for
moderate Arab leaders to be seen as friendly to U.S.
interests," Ebinger said.
     Oil traders said threats to oil supplies has kept crude
oil prices strong recently although some believe prices will be
weaker if demand falls in the spring.
    But William Randol, analyst at First Boston Corp, said
crude oil prices will hold  near current levels this spring.
    There will be no spring downturn, said Randol, speaking at
the annual refiner meeting. He said there is a 40 pct chance
that crude oil prices could move higher in the second half of
the year, following an OPEC meeting scheduled for late June.
    He said he expects OPEC will extend its current agreement
to restrict production.
    OPEC will renew its production pricing agreement in June
because the value of the oil exports of the OPEC producers  has
declined along with the U.S. dollar, Randol said.
    OPEC oil exports are priced in U.S. dollars, and the dollar
has fallen about 30 pct in the last 18 months.
    Randol said U.S. crude oil imports will increase 3.5 to
four mln barrels per day by 1990 as consumption rises 1.5 to
two mln bpd, and supplies decline two mln bpd.
 Reuter

Commission is investigating possible market manipulation of
securities in which Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc was market
maker, the brokerage firm said.
    The SEC has obtained a "formal order of investigation"
relating to possible manipulation of the Securities of Hammer
Technologies Inc <HAMM> and related companies, Shearson said.
    While the firm did not say whether it was a target of the
probe, it said some of its employees will testify before the
SEC in the matter.
    Hammer Technologies is a Larkspur, Calif., holding company
dealing in sales and rentals of video tapes, recorders,
televisions, computer products and related equipment.
    The disclosure was made in documents detailing a planned
public offering of 20.5 mln shares of Shearson Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc common stock by American Express Co <AXP>, which
currently owns the brokerage firm and would continue to hold a
controlling interest in it after the stock offering.
    The company did not not elaborate on the SEC probe.
    An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment on the case, noting
the agency's policy against confirming or denying any probes.
 Reuter

Smithfield Foods Inc said that on
March 27 the National Labor Relations Board issued a
consolidated complaint against its Patrick Cudahy Inc unit.
    The complaint charges that Cudahy engaged in unfair labor
practices in connection with collective bargaining negotiations
with the United Food and Commercial Workers international union
and a strike by certain Cudahy's employees. The complaint is
seeking relief as may be just and proper to remedy the unfair
labor practices.
    Cudahy denies the allegation and plans to contest the
matter vigorously at a hearing on May 11.
         
 Reuter

President Reagan, moving to add a
prominent conservative to his top White House management team,
named Kenneth Cribb to be his domestic affairs adviser.
    Cribb, a former counselor to Attorney General Edwin Meese,
has served on the transition team assembled by new White House
chief of staff Howard Baker since early March.
    Baker, who replaced Donald Regan as the president's top
aide, is considered a moderate Republican as is his deputy,
Kenneth Duberstein.
    Reagan also announced that Edwin Feulner, another leading
conservative activist, would serve as a consultant to the White
House. However, Feulner will remain president of the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
   
 REUTER

Qtr ended Nov 30
    Shr loss nil vs profit nil
    Net loss 1,321,940 vs profit 128,164
    Revs 4,582,260 vs 5,115,456
 Reuter

 Reuter

Financing talks here between the
Argentine government and its bank advisory committee are finely
poised, with the two sides still separated on the critical
question of interest-rate spreads, bankers said.
    Argentina is pressing for a margin of 13/16 pct over the
London Interbank Offered Rate, the same rate as on Mexico's
recent new-loan and rescheduling package, but the banks are
refusing, they said.
    Negotiations continued in New York today, even though
Finance Secretary Mario Brodersohn has returned to Argentina to
consult president Raul Alfonsin on the proposed terms.
    After the difficulty of syndicating Mexico's 7.7 billion
dlr loan, bankers feel that they could not sell a package for
Argentina with a margin of 13/16 pct. They are holding out for
a spread close to one pct, with 7/8 pct - the rate won by
Venezuela and the Philippines - as their rock-bottom offer.
    "What they're looking at and what we've got on the table
are not that far apart," one banker said.
    Bankers said that Argentina is seeking to stretch out
principal repayments on upcoming public-sector debt maturities
for 19 years and is looking for a 13-year loan from the banks
to cover the bulk of its 2.15 billion dlr new-money need.
 Reuter

Imperial Corp of America said
it declared a 10 cts dividend and four pct stock dividend on
APril 25 to holders of record April 10.
    This is the first dividend payment since 1981, the company
said.
 Reuter

(John Labatt Ltd)'s Labatt Breweries
Ltd unit has the right to stage this year's Formula One Grand
Prix race in Montreal, Quebec's Superior Court ruled.
    The court ruled that Labatt's contract with the city of
Montreal granting it control over the race track is binding and
granted the company an injunction preventing the city from
finding another sponser.
    The city has been negotiating with an American promoter
backed by (Molson Companies Ltd), which wants to stage the
race.
    Labatt has been losing money on the race on the race since
it started sponsering the event eight years ago.             
 Reuter

SMITH INTERNATIONAL INC &lt;SII&gt; 4TH QTR LOSS
    NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.
    Shr loss 1.95 dlrs vs loss 9.10 dlrs
    Net loss 44.4 mln vs 206.8 mln
    Revs 84.1 mln vs 172.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 6.56 dlrs vs loss 11.66 dlrs
    Net loss 149.0 mln vs loss 265.1 mln
    Revs 415.2 mln vs 697.3 mln
    Note: Current qtr net includes pretax charges of 10.7 mln
dlrs against inventory adjustments and currency costs related
to fluctuations of Italian lira.
    Current year net includes pretax charges of 46.6 mln dlrs
for provision to reduce carrying value of excess capital assets
and to writedown certain inventories and other assets. Also
includes charges of 18 mln dlrs covering costs of workforce
reductions, relocation and Chapter 11.
     Year-ago net includes pretax charges related to judgment
against company in litigation with Hughes Tool Co of 189.1 mln
for qtr and 216.9 mln dlrs for 12 mths.
 Reuter

Japan February unemployment falls to 2.9 pct (3.0 pct in January) - official

rate fell to 2.9 pct in February from the record 3.0 pct in
January, the government's Management and Coordination Agency
said.
    The January level was the worst since the Goverment started
compiling unemployment statistics under the current system in
1953.
    Unadjusted February unemployment totalled 1.86 mln people,
up from 1.82 mln in January and 1.64 mln a year earlier.
    Male unemployment in February remained at 2.9 pct, equal to
the second-highest level set in January and December. Record
male unemployment of 3.1 pct was set in July 1986.
    Female unemployment rose to a record 3.1 pct in February
from the previous record 3.0 pct marked in January 1987 and in
April, August, September and December last year.
    "Japan's employment condition was still severe in February
as the non-rounded rate of unemployment in February fell only
0.03 percentage points to 2.93 pct from 2.96 pct in January," an
agency official said.
    Employment in manufacturing industries fell 430,000 from a
year earlier to 14.22 mln people in February due to the yen's
continued appreciation, while employment in non-manufacturing
industries rose 380,000 to 12.11 mln.
    In manufacturing industries, employment in the textile
industry fell 180,000 to 1.94 mln in February, while in
ordinary and precision machinery industries it fell 160,000 to
1.50 mln.
 REUTER

General Acquisition Co said it was
disappointed by Gencorp's response to its tender offer and
questioned how the company might give better value to
    Gencorp earlier urged shareholders to reject a 100 dlr per
share tender offer from the partnership, which includes Wagner
and Brown and AFG Industries Inc. The company said it was
studying financially superior alternatives.
   The partnership called the response inflammatory and
unproductive, particularly since it had attempted to discuss
the offer with Gencorp.
     The partnership said Gencorp failed to say how it would
provide a "superior value yet they continue their attempt to
prevent a satisfactory offer by failing to redeem their poison
pill." Poison pills are shareholder rights plan that make
takeovers more expensive.
    Gencorp said in its statement earlier that the date its
rights will trade separately from the common stock was extended
to April six from April three. It said the extension was
subject to further extensions by the board and is conditioned
on no person aquiring beneficial ownership of 20 pct or more of
Gencorp prior to April six.
    General Acquisition said it is confident its offer can be
completed in a timely manner using its financial arrangements.
    The partnership in its statement again urged management to
work with it to facilitate a transaction.
   
 Reuter

regards a U.S. Dollar below 150 yen as counter to the agreement
struck by major nations in Paris last month.
    He told the Upper House Budget Committee in Parliament that
Japan intervened in the market when the dollar went below 150
yen, as it considered the dollar's fall below that level
counter to the spirit of the Paris accord.
    Commenting on current foreign exchange movements, Miyazawa
said Japan would watch developments for another couple of days.
    Institutional investors appeared to have sold dollars to
hedge currency risks ahead of the end of the financial year
today, Miyazawa said.
    Behind the recent dollar fall lies the market perception
that major nations were not doing enough to implement their
policies under the Paris pact, he said, noting that passage of
Japan's 1987/88 budget has been delayed.
    He said that now was the time for major nations to act
under the Paris accord. The U.S., West Germany, France,
Switzerland and Britain have intervened on their own account to
prop up the dollar, he said. This was a concerted action.
 REUTER

banking units (OBU) rose to 6.62 billion U.S. Dlrs at
end-February from 6.28 billion in January and compared with
7.12 billion in February 1986, the central bank said.
    A bank official said the increase came mainly from growing
OBU borrowings by Taiwanese operators from their Asian
were mainly in U.S. Dollars, with the rest in certificates of
deposit and bonds. About 90 pct of the assets came from Asia
 REUTER

Trading Corp of Pakistan Ltd said it
had invited tenders up to April 11, 1987 for the import of
100,000 tonnes of white refined crystal sugar up to June.
    It said each cargo should consist of 15,000 tonnes. Four
cargoes should reach Port Bin Qasim or Karachi Port (buyers
option) by May 31 and the balance by June 30, 1987, it added.
 REUTER

The U.S. Is willing to drop tariffs on
Japanese electronic imports if Japan shows it will abide by an
agreement opening its markets to American goods, U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter said in a TV interview.
    "But there has to be a clear indication that they are
willing to act," he said.
    Yeutter said difficulties in the Japanese economy caused by
the U.S. Tariffs and the yen's rise against the dollar are
problems "they have brought on themselves."
    The dollar fell to 40-year lows against the yen today.
    "Certainly the movement of the yen is causing some economic
turmoil in Japan," he said. "My only response is that we have
gone through about five years with the dollar going in just the
opposite direction. Although I can sympathise, it's occurred
for only a few weeks or months in Japan."
    The tariffs, announced on Friday by President Reagan, will
affect about 300 million dlrs worth of products, only a tiny
fraction of Japan's total exports to the U.S.
    Even so, Reagan's decision "doesn't give us any joy. We
don't want to take retaliatory action here if we don't have to,"
    Yeutter said the meetings scheduled next month in
Washington between Reagan and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
will include "some difficult items on the agenda."
    Japan has failed to implement two parts of a three-part
semiconductor agreement, Yeutter said.
    Japan has stopped dumping chips in the U.S. But it has
failed to open its domestic markets to U.S.-made chips and has
failed to end predatory pricing in Third World countries,
undercutting U.S. Products, he said.
 REUTER

Shr nil vs same
    Final and yr div nil vs same
    Pre-tax, pre-minorities loss 3.53 mln dlrs vs profit 17.40
mln.
    Net attributable loss 17.14 mln dlrs vs loss 8.73 mln
    Sales 220.84 mln vs 173.50 mln
    Other income 17.77 mln vs 12.02 mln
    Shrs 666.67 mln vs same.
    NOTE - Attributable net loss is after tax 10.04 mln dlrs vs
18.59 mln, interest 82.36 mln vs 65.94 mln, depreciation 64.77
mln vs 35.74 mln and minorities 3.57 mln vs 7.55 mln but before
net extraordinary loss 1.22 mln vs loss 3.91 mln.
 REUTER

Japan has decided to cooperate with the
U.S. To develop a new generation of fighter planes, Defence
Minister Yuko Kurihara said.
    Japan is now in a major trade dispute with Washington, but
Kurihara told reporters the decision was not made in response
to outside pressure and described the project as a Japanese-led
program with U.S. Cooperation.
    President Ronald Reagan said last week that the U.S. Would
impose high tariffs on Japanese imports to retaliate against
alleged Japanese violation of a computer chip trade pact.
    The plane, codenamed the FSX, has been the focus of
competition between Japanese and U.S. Defence contractors. At
stake is an estimated 6.5 billion dlrs worth of contracts which
the Japanese government had previously intended to award to
domestic firms.
    The Ministry has said the plane, part of Japan's self
defence forces, will be equipped with high technology radar
dodging equipment, and will be able to fly at very low
altitudes. It will have a combat radius of 830 kms.
    The ministry plans to build 100 FSX fighters to replace all
77 of Japan's Mitsubishi-made F-1 planes by the 1990s.
    A defence ministry spokesman said the timing of the
announcement had nothing to do with escalating trade friction
between Japan and the U.S., Its largest trading partner.
    "This is an objective decision, made after discussions with
U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger," he said.
    However, with two weeks to go before the U.S. Imposes
tariffs, Japan's ambassador to the U.S., Nobuo Matsunaga, told
Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari that Japan must address
individual market-opening issues, such as the FSX, defence
 REUTER

Japan's housing starts in February rose
13.4 pct from a year earlier to 109,254, the 10th successive
year-on-year gain, the Construction Ministry said.
    February housing starts were up 16.8 pct from 93,554 in
January when they fell 27.4 pct from a month earlier but rose
10.3 pct from a year earlier.
    Higher housing starts were mainly due to a 26.8 pct
year-on-year rise in apartment building starts to 51,829 for
the 56th consecutive gain, spurred primarily by lower domestic
 RUTER

Woodside Petroleum Ltd <WPLA.S> said
its 1986 net loss largely reflected the drop in oil prices
combined with a large tax provision.
    Woodside earlier reported attributable net loss rose to
17.14 mln dlrs in 1986 from 8.73 mln in 1985, although group
revenue rose to 220.84 mln from 173.50 mln.
    It said it should have received a 1.7 mln dlr tax credit
but instead made a 10.04 mln dlr tax provision. This largely
related to its <Vamgas Ltd> unit, non-allowable exchange losses
and tax benefits from the North-West Shelf project not
recognised in the accounts.
    Woodside said the rise in revenue largely reflected full
year sales of gas and condensate from the domestic phase of the
Shelf project, against six month sales in 1985.
    Offsetting this was a 23 pct fall in the Cooper Basin gas
and liquids revenue of its 50.6 pct-owned Vamgas unit.
    Since the balance date Woodside has accepted a Santos Ltd
<STOS.S> takeover offer for Vamgas.
    Woodside said a 92.8 mln dlr capital profit on the sale
would be included in the 1987 accounts.
    It said it lifted capital spending on fixed assets to 269.6
mln dlrs from 178.3 mln, mostly on the Shelf project.
 REUTER

Charges of public sector waste,
corruption and neglect of agriculture have surfaced amid the
compliments in debates at the annual session of China's
parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC).
    China's top entrepreneur Rong Yiren, chairman of the China
International Investment and Trust Corporation (CITIC), who
also represents Shanghai in the NPC, attacked the "profit before
everything" mentality which he said led to theft, embezzlement
and extravagant gifts and banquets.
    Public criticism of policy is rare in China.
    The New China News Agency quoted comments by NPC members on
Premier Zhao Ziyang's draft work program for the year ahead.
    The rural lobby was active. Deputies from three provinces
said Zhao was not forceful enough in tackling their problems.
One said the state had cut spending on agriculture from 11 pct
of total capital investment in 1979 to three or four pct today.
"This is incompatible with the important place occupied by
agriculture," he said.
    Other deputies said the state had broken promises to
improve fertiliser, oil and seed supplies to their provinces.
    Although another congress member was quoted by the agency
as saying Zhao's opening speech last week was "discreet,
appropriate, comprehensive and assuring," others said the
government had spent too much or too little.
    One member, described as a person with no party
affiliation, said people were worried about the state's budget
deficit, projected to reach more than two billion dlrs this
year.
    "The deficit is due not only to the sharp drop in oil price,
but also to lavishness and waste of funds, which should be
stopped," he said.
    "The National People's Congress used to be a rubber stamp,
but now it is a little bit more than that," said a western
diplomat, referring to the range of debate.
    Another western diplomat said the Communist Party had
granted a slightly greater role to the Congress in the last two
or three years and some of its members were testing out their
influence.
    The committee's decision to strike from the agenda a
controversial plan to give greater power to management of state
enterprises and less to local party committees caused raised
eyebrows, the diplomat added.
    One diplomat said Zhao's keynote speech could emerge in
slightly amended form at the end of the 2-1/2 week session in
the Great Hall of the People.
    She said there had been similar changes one year ago, when
the Congress added words about the importance of ideological
education and the need to help poorer provinces left behind in
China's uneven march to greater prosperity.
 REUTER

Thailand's sugarcane output will fall
to about 23.55 mln tonnes in the 1986/87 (November-October)
season from 24.09 mln in 1985/86, the Agriculture Ministry
said.
    It said a January survey put the total area under sugarcane
at 545,528 hectares, down from 556,860 hectares the previous
year.
    The national average yield is expected to fall to 43.17
tonnes/hectare from 43.22 tonnes in 1985/86, it said.
 REUTER

China and the European Community (EC)
signed an agreement on the establishment of an EC office here.
    Chinese vice-foreign minister Zhou Nan and the EC's
external relations commissioner, Willy De Clercq, signed the
accord. EC sources said the office was likely to open in the
second half of this year.
    In 1986 the EC was China's third largest trading partner,
with Chinese imports from the EC worth 5.7 billion dlrs and
exports worth 2.6 billion dlrs.
    De Clercq told the official China Daily that more joint
ventures should be set up in China as a way of reducing China's
trade deficit with the EC.
    The EC's affairs in China are currently looked after by
whichever country holds the group's six-monthly rotating
presidency, now held by the Belgians until the Danes take over
in July.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone may have
been dealt a fatal political blow by the yen's renewed rapid
rise and the threat of a trade war with the United States,
political analysts said.
    Nakasone, already under fire over an unpopular tax reform
plan, may now be forced to resign before the June economic
summit of seven industrialised nations if local elections later
next month go against candidates from his ruling Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), they said.
    "The close relationship between Nakasone and President
Reagan was an important element of Nakasone's power base,"
Waseda University Political Science Professor Mitsuru Uchida
told Reuters. "So the emergence of U.S. Criticism damages
Nakasone."
    Even before the latest trade friction flared, Nakasone was
encountering criticism not only from opposition parties but
also within his own LDP over his proposal to levy a sales tax.
    "Many factions within the LDP are distancing themselves from
Nakasone," Uchida said. "His position within the LDP itself is
not so strongly established today."
    Nakasone, who has been more popular with the general public
than with many LDP members, is now seeing his public support
eroded, the analysts said.
    The yen's rise to record highs and the U.S. Threat on
Friday to impose tariffs on Japanese electronics goods in
retaliation for Japan's alleged violation of a microchip trade
pact are now giving Nakasone's critics fresh ammunition, the
    "Apparently the special relationship between Reagan and
Nakasone hasn't worked effectively," Rei Shiratori, director of
the Institute for Political Studies in Japan, said.
    This is making the Japanese people doubt Nakasone's
credibility, Shiratori told Reuters.
    The cumulative impact of the sales tax issue, the yen's
rise and mounting trade friction could mean serious LDP losses
in the April 11 and 26 local elections, analysts said.
    "If the elections go against the LDP, Nakasone may have to
resign early," Shiratori said.
    But Nakasone still has a chance to soothe U.S. Tempers
before or during his week-long Washington visit from April 29,
some analysts said.
    However, "unless the Japanese political system can move more
quickly to give Nakasone some nice present to take to
Washington on smouldering trade issues, he will face a very
hostile audience," said Merrill Lynch Securities economist
William Sterling.
    "If the trip is a major disaster, it would seem to put the
final nail in his coffin," he said.
    Reagan's own weakened domestic position, and growing
Republican as well as Democratic anger with Japan, argue
against a quick settlement to the trade dispute, the analysts
said.
    But a desire on both sides to find some solution, coupled
with uncertainty at home and abroad over likely successors to
Nakasone, could still lead to an attempt to paper over the
differences and aid Nakasone, they said.
    "One factor against a trade war may be that Washington is
not anxious to push Nakasone into his grave," Sterling said.
 REUTER

Japan plans to work out a drastic set of pump-priming measures
immediately after Parliament passes the 1987/88 budget.
    He told a Lower House budget committee the government is
likely to consider a supplementary budget for fiscal 1987 and a
new policy for the ceiling on budgetary requests by government
agencies and ministries for 1988/89.
    The government had cut budgetary requests in the past five
years in line with Nakasone's fiscal reconstruction policy of
stopping the issue of deficit-covering bonds by fiscal 1990.
    The passage of the budget is expected in late May.
    Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said in the same session
Japan should use fiscal funds as much as possible to meet
domestic and foreign demands for greater domestic growth.
    Miyazawa said it appears difficult for the government to
stop the deficit-financing bond issues by the targetted time.
    Nakasone said he had instructed his Liberal Democratic
Party to prepare its own economic package in time for his
one-week visit to Washington starting on April 29.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> and Exxon Corp <XON>
unit <Esso Exploration and Production Australia Inc> said CSR
has agreed to sell its <Delhi Australia Fund> (DAF) to Esso for
985 mln Australian dlrs.
    The sale is effective from tomorrow, they said in a joint
    The previously announced float of part of its Delhi
interest will not now proceed, CSR said in the statement.
    Delhi Australia Fund owns <Delhi Petroleum Pty Ltd>, which
holds an average of 25 pct in the Santos Ltd <STOS.S>-led
Cooper and Eromanga Basin gas and liquids projects.
    In addition to the purchase price, CSR will share equally
in any returns due to increases in crude oil and condensate
prices over certain levels for liquids produced from Delhi's
interests in the next two years, the statement said.
    "The Esso proposal to purchase all the Delhi interest will
be more beneficial to our shareholders than proceeding with the
float," CSR chief executive Bryan Kelman said in the statement.
    Kelman said the sale of Delhi would enable CSR to focus
efforts on expanding business areas such as sugar and building
materials in which CSR has had long and successful management
experience and strong market leadership.
    With the sale, CSR will be able to expand those businesses
more aggressively and earlier, he said.
    As reported separately, soon after announcing the Delhi
sale CSR launched a takeover bid for the 68.26 pct of <Pioneer
Sugar Mills Ltd> that it does not already hold, valuing its
entire issued capital at 219.6 mln dlrs.
    After Bass Strait, the onshore Cooper and Eromanga Basin is
Australia's largest oil and gas producing area with current
gross oil production of 45,000 barrels per day (BDP), gas
liquids output of 30,000 BPD and gas sales of 480 mln cubic
feet a day, the CSR-Esso statement said.
    The purchase gives Esso, a 50/50 partner with The Broken
Hill Pty Co Ltd <BRKN.S> in the Bass Strait, its first onshore
production in Australia, they said.
    Esso's chairman Stuart McGill said he hoped Esso can assist
in maintaining the high rate of oil and gas discoveries in the
Cooper-Eromanga area.
    "These discoveries will help Australia's self-sufficiency in
oil reserves thereby offsetting in part the decline in Bass
Strait production now under way," McGill said.
    In a separately released letter to CSR shareholders, Kelman
said CSR was within days of completing plans for the float of
CSR Petroleum when it received an offer from Esso.
    He said CSR is convinced the sale was the correct decision
in view of the risks associated with the oil business.
    The price-sharing arrangement provides for CSR to share
equally with Esso in higher returns if oil prices average more
than 20 U.S. Dlrs a barrel in the next two years, he said.
    Kelman said a revaluation of CSR's investment in Delhi to
net realisable value as of today, CSR's annual balance-date,
will result in an extraordinary loss of 97 mln dlrs.
    However, revaluations and profits on sales of other assets
will significantly reduce this loss, he said.
    He also said that CSR is sufficiently encouraged by future
prospects and the opportunity to reposition the group in core
businesses to foreshadow an increase in final dividend payable
in July to 10 cents from nine to make an annual 19 cents
against 18 in 1985/86.
 REUTER

Workers in China's rural
factories are struggling against a variety of problems to
maintain the momentum of progress since industrialisation of
the countryside began in the 1970s.
    "When I was a child, we had no bicycles. We went everywhere
on foot. The land here is salty, so the harvests were not good.
Money and food were inadequate. When it rained, the water
leaked through the grass roof," said Li Wenxian, 31, of Hongshan
in Zhejiang. Now he and other villagers live in large
two-storey concrete homes with balconies and courtyards.
    But still they face formidable difficulties. Many rural
factories are unable to get the raw materials they need, or
else they find they have become too expensive.
    Gao Jianming, an official of Zhejiang's Rural Industry
department, said Zhejiang firms scour China for raw materials,
which sometimes they barter for finished goods.
    The People's Daily this month reported about 60 pct of
China's rural factories operate below capacity because of power
shortages. It said many rural factories lose money because of
these problems and difficulties in getting credit, poor quality
of goods and competition from larger state firms.
    "Electricity is short. In the busiest periods on the farms
the factories work three to four days a week so that
agriculture can have all the power it needs. But more power is
available at night or on Sundays," Gao said.
    Rural factories mostly operate outside official plans,
which allocate raw materials under quota at cheap prices to
state firms. They have to compete on the open market for raw
materials whose prices are driven up by demand.
    Li said Hongshan does not suffer from power shortages only
because its cement factory provides cheap cement to the
electricity supply department.
    The raw materials of Hongshan's cement have to come
hundreds of miles from central China by rail or canal, while
its textile factories buy fabric from the far northeast.
    The industrialisation of rural China began in the late
1970s, a key part of top leader Deng Xiaoping's economic
reforms. Deng wanted to harness the manpower of the
countryside, but keep it there and not draw it to the cities.
    Hongshan set up factories and businesses because there was
not enough work on the land for its 3,700 people. Now just 120
of its workers work full-time on the land. The rest work in 23
factories making cement, plastics and textiles.
    The transformation of the rural economy is most noticeable
along the eastern seaboard where communications are good,
labour plentiful, land fertile and large markets nearby.
    Gao said rural factories in Zhejiang now employ 25 pct of
the province's labour force. In 1985 such factories, for the
first time, produced more in value than the province's farms.
    "The industrialising process is not over. When our farms are
more mechanised, and not many are now, more labour will become
available. There is a very big potential," Gao said.
    Rural industry in Zhejiang has grown by more than 20 pct a
year since 1980, faster than any other sector of the economy.
    Goods from Hongshan's factories are sold all over China.
    Villager Li said when Hongshan started building factories
in 1975 it was illegal, but local leaders approved it on
condition no state money was invested.
    "We borrowed money to start our cement factory and have
relied on our own resources since then," he said.
    Another worker in a Hongshan tea-growing collective said
before rural industrialisation there was no point in working
hard, because most people earned the same.
    "The laziest in the commune used to laugh at those of us who
worked more, but got the same," she said.
 REUTER

Japan will pay five pct less for the
Indian iron ore it imports in fiscal 1987/88 starting April 1
than the average 18 dlrs a tonne it paid in 1986/87, a
government trade official told Reuters.
    He said India had agreed to export to Japan about 23 mln
tonnes of iron ore in 1987/88, about the same as in the current
year.
    The official described the agreement as satisfactory
overall. He said it was signed by an official Indian trade
delegation and Japanese businessmen in Tokyo last week.
    The official said it was encouraging that Japan had agreed
not to reduce ore imports from India although Japan's total
iron ore imports would be lower in the coming year because of
the recession in the Japanese steel industry.
    He said Japanese ore imports in calendar 1987 would total
96 mln tonnes, compared with 103.5 mln in 1986.
    Government officials said India's total ore exports are
likely to rise to between 33 and 34 mln tonnes in 1987/88,
against a provisionally estimated 31 mln in 1986/87.
 REUTER

The new state-owned Post Office Bank
Ltd (POB) will receive 135 mln dlrs from the government to
boost its assets and will be capitalised at 300 mln dlrs of
which 250 mln will be provided immediately, according to the
agreement establishing the POB.
    The agreement is the first to be finalised between the
government and nine new state-owned corporations which start
business at midnight.
    It was announced in a joint statement by Finance Minister
Roger Douglas, Postmaster General Jonathan Hunt and POB
chairman Robin Congreve.
    The POB will take over the former Post Office Savings Bank
and the 135 mln dlr cash injection will match assets with
    POB director Bill Birnie told reporters that assets
totalled 2.7 billion dlrs before the injection.
    The ministers said the government will continue to
guarantee existing liabilities and will extend its guarantee to
new liabilities assumed before June 30, 1988.
    Congreve said the POB will operate as a retail bank and
most of its lending will be for housing.
 REUTER

Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> said a
dividend of nine marks would be proposed for ordinary
shareholders on 1986 earnings after eight in 1985.
    It added in a statement that parent net profit rose to
288.2 mln marks in 1986 from 221.7 mln the prior year.
    A Commerzbank spokesman noted the figures were,however,
preliminary and required approval of the bank's supervisory
board which meets today.
    The Commerzbank statement added the distributable profit
last year rose to 228.2 mln marks from 161.7 mln in 1985.
    With inclusion of the corporate tax allowance, qualifying
domestic shareholders would receive an effective dividend of
14.06 marks per share.
    Total dividend payout would rise to 186.8 mln marks from
142.0 mln on 1985 earnings due to the increase in the dividend
and in equity capital, it added.
    From the parent net profit, 60 mln marks would be placed in
published reserves, unchanged from the two prior years.
    The shareholders' meeting take place on May 22 in Hamburg.
    The statement said holders of Commerzbank participation
certificates in a total nominal value of 425 mln marks would
receive the remaining 41.4 mln marks of the distributable
profit. Aside from the basic payment of 8.25 pct of nominal
value, certificate holders would receive an additional 1.5 pct.
    The management board of the bank would also propose two
capital measures to shareholders in order to be able to react
quickly to new challenges.
    It would ask for authorised capital of a nominal 200 mln
marks for the issue of new shares and for 300 mln for the issue
of warrant bonds, both for the period until April 30, 1992.
 REUTER

Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd will set up a
wholly-owned subsidiary in Kleve, West Germany, to produce
video cassette tapes, a spokesman said.
    The company, <Fuji Magnetics GmbH>, will be capitalised at
25 mln marks and produce two mln tapes a month for the European
market from early 1988, he said.
    Total investment will be about 100 mln marks and the plant
will create 200 jobs, including about 190 for local workers.
    Fuji Photo plans to make the Kleve plant its European
production centre for magnetic products, and may make audio
cassette tapes and floppy discs later, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

India cut the export duty on coffee
to 330 rupees per 100 kg from 600 rupees, effective March 23, a
Coffee Board official said.
    The reduction should help India reach its coffee export
target of 90,000 tonnes in fiscal 1987/88 ending March 31,
against provisionally estimated exports of 75,000 tonnes in
1986/87 and an actual 99,254 tonnes in 1985/86, he said.
    India is likely to press for international export quotas at
a meeting of coffee producers in London this week because of
depressed prices, he added.
    The International Coffee Organisation, which represents
both consumers and producers, has so far failed to reach
agreement on quotas.
    India feels it will be useful to have quotas now because
the slide in prices is unlikely to be halted immediately, he
said.
prices surged after a drought devastated Brazil's coffee crop.
 REUTER

Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin has
confirmed the Philippines agreed to make token prepayments of
principal to foreign banks as part of a 10.3 billion dlr debt
restructuring package.
    A Reuters report from New York yesterday quoted bankers as
saying Manila will pay 111 mln dlrs over 1987, 1988 and 1989.
    But Ogpin denied Manila was playing down the prepayment
aspect of the restructuring.
    "They are public documents and there is nothing secret about
it," he told Reuters.
    The debt accord, announced last Friday, stretched
repayments of 10.3 billion dlrs over a 17-year period with a
seven and a half year grace period and an interest rate margin
of 7/8 percentage points over Eurodollar rates.
    Ongpin said the prepayments were part of "seven different
scenarios" Philippine negotiators prepared before the talks.
    "It was one of the many options we offered the banks in
order to win an attractive pricing," he said.
    The prepayments were on a 925 mln dlr nine-year loan signed
in 1985, which carried a four-year grace period. Principal
repayments were not due until 1990.
    Ongpin said the prepayments would hardly affect the
Philippines' balance of payments position.
    "There is no problem in financing it -- the prepayments
constitute about 1.5 pct of current international reserves of
2.5 billion dlrs," he said.
    "We do plan to cover the costs by selling Philippine
Investment Notes (PINs) worth about 150 mln dlrs a year."
    PINs are negotiable, foreign-currency denominated
instruments that will be offered to creditor banks and are
designed for conversion into pesos to fund government-approved
equity investments within the Philippines.
    Ongpin said Manila would have to repay about 200 mln dlrs a
year when amortisations on the 925 mln dlr loan came up.
    He said the 12-bank advisory committee sent telexes of the
accord to the country's 483 creditor banks and he expected
documentation and agreement from all of them by July.
    Foreign bankers here said the pact gave Manila the largest
interest rate cut among major debtor nations.
    They said Mexico's new debt package last October marked a
1/16 point drop from its 1985 debt agreement, while Manila's
new pact slashed its 1985 agreement by up to 3/4 percentage
points.
    Venezuela's new margin last month was only a 1/4 point drop
from the rate agreed in a rescheduling accord in 1986, the
    "Add to this the fact that Manila has frozen principal
repayents since 1983, while Venezuela has amortised six billion
dlrs in foreign debt since 1984 and will have paid back more
than eight billion dlrs by the end of this year," one added.
    Ongpin said Manila's 7/8 margin meant the Philippines would
pay about 100 mln dlrs a year in interest when its grace period
ended.
 REUTER

Sweden's balance of payments on
current account showed a deficit of 500 mln crowns in January
after a shortfall of 100 mln in December, Central Bank figures
showed.
    This compared with a deficit of 1.3 billion in January
1986, the Bank said.
 REUTER

Japanese investors are reluctant to buy
West German stocks, now considered one of the most attractive
buys around after having taken a beating for the past two
years, investment managers said.
    Although the Frankfurt stock market is one of the world's
largest in capitalisation, wealthy Japanese institutions view
it as too small. They also worry about venturing into a market
from which British investors have recently bailed out, they
said.
    "There's not enough turnover there to absorb the amount of
buying Japanese want to do," one West German investment manager
said. There is a danger Japanese institutions may be unable to
liquidate their holdings quickly if the market takes a sudden
downturn, he added.
    "Japanese familiarity with West German stocks is also
limited," another investment manager said. "They know the blue
chips, but there are too many other names they don't know."
    The recent rapid advance of the Tokyo stock market has also
deterred Japanese from wandering off to markets abroad,
investment managers said.
    Japanese fund managers are afraid of criticism if they buy
into unsure overseas markets while the market at home continues
to advance, said Seiji Yamamoto, senior manager at Dresdner ABD
Securities Ltd's Tokyo branch.
    If gains from investments abroad lag behind those possible
from the Tokyo market, they could face difficulty explaining
their funds' performance, he added.
    The Frankfurt market's 15 pct depreciation just since the
beginning of this year has also been causing Japanese investors
to turn away, one investment manager said.
    The Frankfurt slump stems from expectations of slow
corporate growth due to the mark's strength against the dollar
and a withdrawal of funds by British institutions just before
the London market's liberalisation last year, the investment
manager said. "Right now Japanese investors are taking a
wait-and-see attitude while the condition of the market remains
unfavourable," he said.
    Although there has been some nibbling of West German
stocks, particularly last week, most of the buys were for
short-term trades rather than long-term investments, an
investment advisor at a West German firm said.
    Investment managers believe, however, that genuine interest
in West German stocks could develop within the next three to
six months.
    Japanese fund managers still favour the New York and the
London markets over the Frankfurt market but they are
interested in diversifying some of their funds, they said.
    Some managers have been travelling in Europe, looking for
new opportunities, and are unlikely to ignore West German
stocks, especially with the average price/earnings ratio at
about 11, they said.
    The Frankfurt ratio compares with about 16 for the U.S. And
London markets and 52 for the Japanese market, Guenter
Kirchhain, first vice president for Deutsche Bank AG said.
    "This mismatching will sooner or later generate an enormous
alignment potential," he said. The West German market could
reasonably have an average price/earnings ratio of around 16,
he added.
    Japanese investment plans may soon become clearer as many
institutions begin their new business years in April, he said.
    However, one fund manager does not agree that new
investment in West Germany will come that soon.
    "Japanese do not buy into a market with declining
fundamentals," he said. When West Germany's fundamental economic
indicators appear to have bottomed out, that will be the
turning point for their investments, he added.
    Another manager said the Japanese are waiting to see the
investment trends set by U.S. And British investors in the West
German market.
    "They are waiting for someone to make the first move," he
said.
 REUTER

Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T> expects to achieve
its parent company sales estimate of 2,900 billion yen in the
year ending March 31, helped by high general-use ultra-large
computer sales and despite the higher-than-expected yen.
    Current profits are unlikely to reach the estimated 90
billion yen as the currency's rise has reduced the value of
foreign bond holdings, but the company will retain a nine yen
dividend for 1986/87, a spokesman said.
    Current profits in the year to end-March 1986 fell 38.2 pct
from a year before to 158.04 billion yen on sales of 3,003
billion, down 0.8 pct, mainly due to the yen's appreciation.
 REUTER

Lloyds Bank Plc <LLOY.LON> and the
Royal Bank of Canada <RY.TOR> are winding down the primary side
of their capital markets activities in Hong Kong, the chief
executives of the two banks said.
    "We are withdrawing from the primary market in Asia," said
Barry Maddams, Lloyds' general manager here. "It is basically
unprofitable."
    The bank's treasury and capital markets activites,
previously conducted separately at the commercial bank branch
and its merchant banking arm Lloyds Asia Ltd, are now being
consolidated within the commercial bank, he said.
    Maddams said the bank has not decided whether it will
surrender Lloyds Asia's registration as a deposit taking
company (DTC), but it will keep another DTC registration for
LBI Finance (HK) Ltd as a booking vehicle. He did not say how
many jobs will be affected.
    Royal Canada has surrendered the licence of its DTC unit
Orion Royal Pacific Ltd, though it still has some assets and
uses the name, said Vincent Fan, bank chief executive here.
    He said 16 jobs will be lost due to the phase-out of
merchant banking, while syndication and other banking
activities will be continued by the commercial bank.
 REUTER

The West German
federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia will issue a domestic
mark bond this afternoon, a syndicate manager for the
Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, WestLB, said.
    The most recent issue for the state traded today at a yield
of 6.24 pct, one bank dealer said.
    Dealers expect today's issue to have a coupon of 6-1/8 pct.
The volume of the issue is expected to be one billion marks.
    The last issue for one billion marks carried a 6-1/4 pct
coupon for 10 years with a price of 99.65 for an issue yield of
6.30 pct.
 REUTER

World closing stocks of primary zinc
at smelters, excluding Eastern Bloc countries, fell 7,700
tonnes in February to 459,100 tonnes from 466,800 (revised from
449,600) in January, compared with 403,700 in February 1986,
provisional European Zinc Institute figures show.
    February closing stocks of primary zinc at European
smelters, excluding Yugoslavia, fell 4,500 tonnes to 160,000
from 164,500 (revised from 164,300) in January, compared with
126,700 in February 1986.
    Total world zinc production, excluding Eastern Bloc
countries, fell to 390,800 tonnes in February from 419,900
(revised from 419,600) in January. February 1986 production was
378,600 tonnes.
    European zinc production, including estimates for
Yugoslavia, fell to 152,900 tonnes in February from 164,200 in
January, compared with 156,400 in February 1986.
 REUTER

Finland's gross national product is
expected to rise by three pct in 1987 against two pct in 1986
and inflation will be unchanged at about 3.5 pct, the private
business survey office ETLA predicted.
    Unemployment in 1987 is put at 5.5 pct, in line with last
year, the office predicted in its regular review.
    The balance of payments would show a five billion markka
deficit in 1987, against a 4.2 billion deficit in 1986.
 REUTER

Public Relations consultancy <Shandwick
Plc> said it had agreed to buy the Los Angeles-based <Rogers
and Cowan Inc> which specialises in the entertainment industry.
    A total of 2.25 mln dlrs is payable on completion, 1.5 mln
will be injected into the business through an interest free
loan and the expenses of the acquisition amount to 660,000 stg.
    Shandwick said it would raise 5.1 mln stg through the
placing of 1.16 mln shares to finance the deal, with the
balance of 2.04 mln stg used to strengthen the balance sheet
and in anticipation of future performance-related payments.
    In the year to end-September Rogers' operating income was
more than 10 mln dlrs. After the acquisition Shandwick's U.S.
Operating income will be comparable to that it earns in the
U.K.
    Rogers' estimated that pretax profit in the year to
end-1987 would exceed 900,000 dlrs. An extraordinary loss of
504,000 dlrs in 1986 resulted from the write off of assets.
    Net tangible assets at end-September were 363,000 dlrs.
    Shandwick shares were unchanged at 460p.
 REUTER

forecasting a very large shortage of around 1.75 billion stg in
the money market today.
 MORE

Smith and Nephew Associated Companies
Plc is issuing an 85 mln stg convertible eurobond due May 7,
2002 paying a fixed coupon of four pct and priced at par, lead
    The issue is callable at 106 pct declining by one pct per
annum to par thereafter but is not callable until May 7, 1993
unless the share price exceeds the conversion price by 130 pct
or the issue is more than 95 pct converted.
    There is a put option on May 7, 1993 which will give the
investor an indicated annual yield to the put of 8-1/2 to 8-3/4
pct. Final terms will be fixed on, or before, April 8.
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct. The payment date is May 7.
    The expected conversion premium is eight to 12 pct and the
issue is convertible into Smith and Nephew ordinary shares.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell tomorrow a
total of 800 billion yen worth of financing bills from its
holdings to help absorb a projected money market surplus of
1,700 billion yen, money traders said.
    Of the total, 300 billion yen will yield 3.8992 pct on
sales from money houses to banks and securities houses in a
23-day repurchase accord maturing on April 24.
    The remaining 500 billion yen will yield 3.8990 pct in a
31-day repurchase pact maturing on May 2, they said.
    The repurchase agreement yields compare with the 3.8750 pct
one-month commercial bill discount rate today and the 4.28/11
    Tomorrow's surplus is attributable to excess bank holdings
from sales of yen to buy dollars and to huge cash amounts to be
redeposited at banks after the current financial year-end
today, the traders said.
3,200 billion yen.
 REUTER

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.H>
announced a bonus issue of one new "B" share of 2.5 H.K. Cents
each for every two existing ordinary shares of 25 cents a share
par value.
    A company statement said Hutchison forecast 1987 dividends
for existing shares of not less than 32.5 cents a share and not
less than 3.25 cents for each "B" share.
    Hutchison said the new issue will help increase flexibility
when it is planning future expansion moves or making
acquisitions without affecting the existing control structure
of the group.
    "The move will provide long term stability to ensure
continuity of overall control of the Hutchison group in that it
provides Hutchison with a stable framework within which
management, development and the planned growth of the group's
businesses can take place," it added.
    Hutchison shares lost one dlr to end at 53 dlrs each today.
 REUTER

in March compared with February after an identical increase in
February over January, the national statistics institute Istat
said.
    The year-on-year rise in March was 4.2 pct, unchanged on
February and compared with 7.2 pct in March 1986.
    Istat said its consumer price index for the families of
workers and employees, base year 1985 equals 100, registered
109.5 in March 1987 compared with 109.1 in February this year
and 105.1 in March 1986.
 REUTER

Rising imports of Japanese-made cars and
electronic goods may upset West European officials, but they
generally seem prepared to stay on the sidelines in the latest
trade row between the United States and Japan.
    Japan's huge trade surplus is a sore point in West Europe,
as it is in the United States. But U.S. Charges of unfair trade
practices involving computer microchips leave Europeans cold.
    The European Community ran a 18.2 billion dlr trade deficit
with Japan last year, and seeks redress when it feels Japanese
trade policy hurts Europeans, diplomats and economists said.
    But only in Britain has there been any suggestion of acting
with the U.S. To do something about Japan's huge trade surplus.
    "The EC is no more illiberal on trade issues than is the
U.S.," said Martin Wolf, director of studies at the Trade Policy
Research Centre in London. "Basically, their policies are pretty
much the same."
    But that did not mean Europe would support the U.S., Or
that the EC would climb on the bandwagon to take advantage of
the U.S. Dispute to press its own claims, Wolf said.Basically,
Europeans have a different approach to trade problems, he said.
    "In the U.S., People talk about fair trade, but not here," he
added. "In the U.S., It all has to do with the general ethic of
free competition, while in Europe, the general approach is that
liberal trade is good because it makes countries rich."
    Wolf said this basic U.S. Attitude explains Washington's
tendency to impose so-called "countervailing duties" - an import
tax designed to offset advantages alleged to be unfair.
    In Western Europe, the approach to trade disputes tends to
be to try to reach a settlement through negotiation, Wolf said.
    In the latest U.S.-Japan trade row, President Reagan has
threatened to raise tariffs on selected Japanese electronic
goods by as much as 300 mln dlrs, alleging that Japan has
failed to abide by a 1986 U.S.-Japan pact on microchip trade.
    But the European Community has challenged the agreement as
a violation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
practices that discriminates against its microchip producers.
    "It follows that they're not likely to rally to the side of
the United States in defence of the agreement," said Wolf.
    Although British parliamentarians are pushing for a tough
line on Japanese trade issues, government officials in the rest
of Europe told Reuter correspondents they would let the EC take
the lead in any response to the U.S.-Japan trade row.
    A spokeswoman for the EC Commission in Brussels told
Reuters there has been no change in the Community's position
since a March 16 meeting of foreign ministers which sent a
strong warning to Tokyo on trade imbalances.
    In a statement issued after that meeting, EC foreign
ministers deplored Japan's continued trade imbalance and
appealed for a greater Japanese effort to open up its markets.
    EC External Trade Commissioner Willy De Clercq said after
the talks there was a growing impatience with Japan in the EC.
    Diplomats accredited to the EC in Brussels said they saw no
signs of any immediate intention to impose any broad-ranging
sanctions against Japan. The EC is anxious to avoid provoking a
trade war, they said.
    Instead, the Community is trying to target problem areas in
European trade with Japan, including wines and spirits,
cosmetics, and financial services, and will continue talking to
try to improve the situation, the diplomats said.
    In Britain, where the government is angered over the
difficulties telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless has
faced in its bid to crack the Japanese market, officials said
last week that retaliatory action is being considered.
    But government officials said last night, "We are not
talking about days or weeks. This is going to take time."
    They said the government would consider its options at a
cabinet meeting on Thursday, but added that no final decisions
were expected. The main thing the British would threaten the
Japan with is denial of access to London's booming financial
markets, government officials said.
 REUTER

About 40,000 passengers were stranded as
Spanish airlines ground staff staged their second 24-hour
strike for wage rises in five days, the airlines spokesmen
said.
    They said the state-owned airline Iberia cancelled 300
domestic and international flights, and Aviaco maintained 10 of
about 80 scheduled flights.
    A spokesman for Madrid's Barajas airport said foreign
airlines were operating normally.
    Airlines ground staff have announced more strikes for April
10 and 15 to coincide with stoppages by railways workers and
drivers of petrol tankers.
 REUTER

the money market with 1.143 billion mln stg assistance in
response to an early round of bill offers from the discount
houses.
    Earlier, the Bank forecast the system would face a very
large deficit today of around 1.75 billion stg.
393 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 649 mln stg in band two
at 9-13/16 pct and 85 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
    In addition it bought 16 mln stg of local authority bills
 REUTER

London International Group Plc <LONL.L>
said it had agreed to sell its <Haffenden Moulding Co Ltd> unit
to <Melton Medes Ltd> for 2.1 mln stg.
    Haffenden is a moulder of hot water bottles and also
produces a variety of rubber and plastic mouldings. The book
value of its assets is 4.4 mln stg.
    LIG said the disposal was part of its strategy of
concentrating on its core activities.
    LIG shares were one penny firmer at 277p.
 REUTER

Shares in Cable and Wireless Plc
<CAWL.L> firmed in morning trading on market speculation that
its participation in a joint telecommunications venture in
Japan would not be curtailed, dealers said.
    The company's shares were quoted at 372p at 0915 GMT
compared with 364p last night.
    The dealers said the speculation appeared to originate in
Japan. Cable has said it is resisting attempts by the
Federation of Economic Organisations to merge two Japan-based
telecommunications firms, a move which would have cut Cable's
stake from 20 pct in one to three pct in the merged unit.
    However, the dealers were uncertain exactly how the dispute
over the shareholdings had been resolved.
    British prime minister MargaretThatcher said in parliament
last week that she regarded Cable and Wireless's participation
in the Japanese venture as a test case of how open the Japanese
telecommunications market really was.
    A spokesman for Cable said he was unaware if the
speculation had any foundation. Cable itself had issued no
statement today on the issue.
 REUTER

Today's liberalised financial markets are
making it extremely difficult for Japan's monetary authorities
to prevent the yen's rise against the dollar, but they have
several options other than normal intervention, Bank of Japan
    A senior central bank official said that such methods as
controlling foreign exchange deals and invoking currency swap
agreements with other central banks, which have not been
invoked since 1978, are all being considered.
    "But the time may not be ripe," he said.
    "In this era of financial liberalisation, it's almost
impossible to control the flow of capital in and out of Japan,"
said another senior bank official.
    But the first official said: "From a technical viewpoint,
the Bank of Japan could activate swap agreements immediately
after other central banks involved agreed to do so."
    A swap agreement, an exchange of currency between two
nations, allows both sides to acquire a ready source of the
other's currency in case of need.
    "If the Bank invokes such swaps, both parties would announce
the decision jointly," said the first official.
    The sources said they believed the limit of currency market
intervention may be being reached after they saw recent
concerted market action by central banks of major industrial
nations was increasingly ineffective in propping up the
battered dollar.
    But intervention is at least an option, they said. Further
easing of monetary policy will be very difficult with an
official discount rate already at a record low of 2.5 pct, they
said.
    Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita has repeatedly ruled
out another rate cut due to fears it could revive inflation.
    One bank official said he could not deny the possibilty of
the Bank of Japan activating currency swap agreements with the
U.S. And other central banks, if these banks continue
intervening to sell the yen in support of the dollar and run
out of their yen cash positions.
    "But we don't think they have become short of yen quite yet,"
he said.
    The bank has established a five billion dlr swap limit with
the U.S. Federal Reserve and another 2.5 billion mark and 200
billion yen limit with the West German and Swiss central banks,
    Foreign exchange dealers estimate the Fed had sold two
billion dlrs worth of yen from its own account to support the
dollar in New York last week.
    The central bank sources also said Japan may arrange other
currency swap agreements with Britain and France if they find
it necessary, but added they are not actually talking with each
other towards that end.
 REUTER

China's economic reforms will take
decades to fulfill and will outlast the life of any leader
because they are the only way to save the country from poverty,
an economist in one of the country's top think tanks told
Reuters.
    But He Weiling, Washington representative of the China
Economic System Reform Institute, said China's economic reforms
definitely are not at risk from the nationwide drive since
January against "bourgeois liberalism," a phrase meaning Western
    He said "bourgeois liberalism" is not affecting departments
dealing with economics.
    His is one of a small number of key institutes, set up in
the early 1980s, which formulate economic reform policies and
advise the top leadership on them.
    Discussing subjects raised in the budget speech last week,
which put the 1986 and 1987 deficits at more than 15 billion
yuan because of excessive consumer demand and capital
construction plus falling efficiency in state firms, He said
reform of state firms and the financial system is the key goal
for 1987.
    "The most difficult thing is to strike the balance between
making them independent units and the need for central control,"
He said.
    "We are exploring ways of doing this, through joint stock
ownership, leasing, factory management responsibility systems
or in other ways," he added.
    One of the most serious problems facing China's leaders is
how to curb excess investment in capital construction,
especially in projects outside the state plan.
    He said this problem is chronic in all socialist economies.
    This is because firms are judged on output, not
profitability or efficiency.
    "Firms use every excuse to get money and materials. They say
they want money to build offices but in fact use it to build
apartments, which is unauthorised," He said.
    "Also, it is not good to report profits, which would mean
higher tax payments. It is better to report a loss," he added.
    He said China's state firms are continuing a 5,000-year-old
tradition when they under-report their assets in order to
reduce claims on them by higher authority.
    He said China will have to improve auditing, economic
regulations and the tax system, which he described as "chaotic,"
especially at the lower levels, in order to deal with
under-reporting.
    "Another important step is to further develop the money
markets to give firms an opportunity to invest. They need
channels for this which they do not have now. Without this,
there will be no genuine supply and demand for money," he said.
    As a reform to encourage efficiency, China now supplies
state firms with loans instead of grants as in the past.
    But He said the reforms have not resulted in much real
change because the loans carry low-interest. "So some efficient
firms have not been able to get money from banks."
    Price reform has been one of the most sensitive aspects of
the reform programme. Widespread discontent over price rises
forced the government to promise in January that there will be
no major increases in 1987.
    He said the price of steel, timber and cement and other
industrial raw materials only will "rise gradually" this year.
    Large-scale price adjustments would have an adverse
psychological impact and create social discontent.
    "We must preserve unity and popular support," he said, but
"sometimes, the common people must make a sacrifice, like those
of Germany and Japan after 1945."
    He said restrictions on a wide range of prices, including
most farm and light industrial products, have been lifted and
many intermediate pricing schemes scrapped over the last eight
years.
    "It will take at least 15 to 20 years to complete an
overhaul of the price system. We must move carefully. We have
no model to work from and have only ourselves to rely on," He
said.
    He said the greatest fear expressed by foreigners is that
reform and open-door policies will not survive the death of
certain elderly leaders.
    He did not name top leader Deng Xiaoping, 82, the chief
architect of both policies since 1979.
    "These fears are unfounded. The two policies have already
become the basic national policy of China. The reforms are
irreversible. China is one of the poorest 25 countries in the
world. Without the reforms, how are we to escape from this
poverty?"
 REUTER

Dutch chemicals group
Akzo NV <AKZO.AS> said in its annual report it had revised its
1986 net profit figure up to 842 mln guilders from a
provisional 840 mln guilders announced in January.
    The turnover figure was unchanged at 15.62 billion
guilders.
    Akzo said it would be difficult to maintain this profit
level in 1987 but it expected positive developments "in the
longer term."
    Profits in 1985 totalled 843 mln guilders on a turnover of
18.01 billion.
 REUTER

<DPCE Holdings Plc> said it planned to
raise 14.6 mln stg net through an underwritten rights issue of
4.7 mln shares at 320p issued on a one-for-six basis.
    The funds would be used to expand the computer maintenance
company's presence in major centres where computer technology
is developed. The company planned to make acquisitions, extend
the range of services it offered and buy capital equipment to
support major new contracts.
    DPCE shares were unchanged at 365p.
 REUTER

The eurofranc issuing committee, which
groups major French banks and the Treasury, has approved three
bonds for issue in April, bond market sources said.
    The first is likely to be for Cie Generale des
Etablissements Michelin possibly led by Credit Lyonnais.
Mcdonalds Corp will be coming to the eurofranc market for the
first time with an issue likely to be led by Societe Generale
and a third will be for an unidentified international borrower.
    The sources said the 500 mln franc, nine pct, five-year
bond for Gillette Canada led by Banque Paribas announced
yesterday had been on the April calendar and was brought
forward.
 REUTER

The U.K. Exported 612,000 tonnes of
wheat and 498,800 tonnes of barley in February, the Home Grown
Cereals Authority (HGCA) said.
    Based on the previous provisional figures issued for
February, wheat exports were increased by 480,200 tonnes and
barley by 283,800 tonnes.
period July 1-March 13 to 3.66 mln tonnes and barley to 3.50
mln, compared with 1.47 and 2.09 mln tonnes respectively last
season.
 REUTER

South Korea's Finance Minister Chung
In-yong will visit U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker next
week to discuss U.S. Requests for an appreciation of South
Korea's won against the dollar, finance ministry officials
said.
    They said Chung would leave for Washington on Monday to
attend the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Interim
Committee meeting and for talks with U.S. Officials on ways of
reducing Seoul's trade surplus with Washington.
    The dates for the Baker-Chung meeting have yet to be set.
    The IMF committee meeting, scheduled for April 9, is
expected to review the resolution reached by the six top
industrialised nations in Paris last month calling for newly
industrialised countries, such as South Korea and Taiwan, to
allow their currencies to rise.
    The official said Chung is expected to outline Seoul's
efforts to increase imports of U.S. Goods and to stress the
need for South Korea to maintain a trade surplus in the next
few years in order to cut foreign debts totalling some 44.5
    South Korea has ruled out a major revaluation of the won,
but is allowing its currency to appreciate slowly.
    Trade Minister Rha Woong-bae told the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce earlier this month a sudden won revaluation could
result in South Korea running a large trade deficit and being
forced to renege on its international debt repayments.
    The Bank of Korea, the central bank, today fixed the won at
a two-year high of 846.90. The won has gained 5.1 pct since the
beginning of 1986.
    South Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to 7.1
billion dlrs last year from 4.3 billion in 1985.
 REUTER

(Adsteam) said it will subscribe to 30 mln shares in listed
British property developer, <Markheath Securities Plc>, at 60p
each, subject to shareholder approval.
    The subscription, expected to take place in May, will give
Adsteam 49 pct of Markheath, Adsteam said in a statement.
    Adsteam's managing director John Spalvins will become
chairman of Markheath and two other Adsteam nominees will join
its board. "We hope that in time Markheath will become a
significant property and industrial company in the same style
as Adsteam," Spalvins said in the statement.
 REUTER

Nippon Columbia Co Ltd <NCOL.T> will make
a one-for-20 bonus stock issue on July 14 to pay back remaining
premiums accumulated by 4.5 mln shares issued at market price
through public placement in September 1980, a spokesman said.
    The bonus issue will bring its outstanding capital shares
to 65.02 mln from 61.92 mln as at March 31 1987. It is open to
shareholders registered on May 31.
    Nippon Columbia's share price fell 20 to 1,260 yen on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange today.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank declined to comment on
rumours in Tokyo that it was intervening heavily to support the
dollar, but dealers here said they had not seen the German
central bank in the market all morning.
    The dollar was quoted at around 1.8040 marks shortly after
midday in nervous but quiet trading, up from its 1.7975/85
opening.
    Spreads against the mark remained around 10 basis points,
with some banks quoting only five point spreads. Dealers said
spreads would widen and the dollar would move more sharply if
the Bundesbank did intervene.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> has made a bold move in
selling its oil and gas interests for almost a billion dlrs and
ploughing 150 mln into its traditional sugar business, share
    "It sounds like a good deal," Stuart McKibbin of <A.C. Goode
and Co> told Reuters.
    CSR said it had dropped plans to float its oil and gas
interests held in the <Delhi Australia Fund> and would instead
sell it to Exxon Corp <XON> unit <Esso Exploration and
Production Australia Inc> for 985 mln dlrs.
    In a twin announcement CSR, already Australia's largest
sugar refiner, made a 2.20 dlr a share bid for the 70 pct it
does not already hold in <Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd>.
    "This will be a big shock to the market, which was under the
impression that CSR was well down the road to floating Delhi,"
McKibbin said.
    A float of part of Delhi would have raised between 200 and
300 mln dlrs, but in opting to sell outright, CSR had given
itself the cash to practically eliminate its debt and embark on
an ambitious expansion programme in its best-performing
divisions of sugar and building products, analysts said.
    CSR not only gets the 985 mln dlrs but also has the right
to share equally with Esso any higher returns resulting from an
oil price over 20 U.S. Dlrs a barrel in the next two years.
    Delhi is one of Australia's largest onshore oil producers
yielding about six mln barrels a year from the Cooper Basin.
Analysts said the deal could net CSR as much as three mln dlrs
for every dollar rise in the oil price above 20 dlrs.
    Neale Goldston-Morris of Sydney broker <Bain and Co Ltd>
said the move out of Delhi and investment in the sugar industry
was a sensible one but added that it represented the loss of
Australian-owned assets to a foreign company.
    "The farm they bought back a few years ago is being sold
back to the Americans," Goldston-Morris said.
    The Pioneer Sugar investment would make CSR by far the
largest player in Australia's 850 mln dlr a year sugar industry
and would give it access to some of the best sugar properties
and mills in the country, analysts said.
    They said Pioneer Sugar was expected to recommend
acceptance of the bid through which CSR would benefit from the
bottom out of a cyclical downturn in sugar prices.
    Sugar prices are forecast to rise to 340 dlrs a tonne next
season from an estimated 270 dlrs this year, they said.
    Selling Delhi meant CSR has finally quit a damaging
investment, made in 1981, which has dragged down the company's
overall performance, analysts said.
    CSR last year wrote off more than 550 mln dlrs in losses on
what had been a 591 mln U.S. Dlr investment financed entirely
from U.S. Dollar debt, they said.
    "It was a bad investment for them. They financed it entirely
with debt, the currency collapsed on them and then the oil
price collapsed on them," Owen Evans of Sydney broker <Meares
and Philips Ltd> said.
    Esso not only picked up Delhi's oil and gas output but also
gained as much as 300 mln dlrs in transferable tax losses
accumulated in exploration allowances and other concessions.
    Analysts said Esso also gained its first real onshore stake
in Australia in its first major diversification from the 50/50
Bass Strait partnership with The Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd
<BRKN.S>.
    "Esso has been very keen to diversify from the Gippsland
Basin. They haven't found too much oil in Bass Strait lately
and Esso needed a large pool of ongoing production,"
Goldston-Morris said.
 REUTER

Taiwan is planning to significantly
relax foreign exchange controls within the next few months, but
there is little prospect of a sudden outflow of capital,
bankers and economists polled by Reuters said.
    They said a statement by Premier Yu Kuo-Hua last Friday
that Taiwan might suspend the controls indicated the government
was ready to allow Taiwanese firms and individuals to hold and
invest foreign currency for the first time.
    "There has been a major shift in government policy," said
Liang Kuo-Shu, chairman of the Chang Hwa Commercial Bank.
    Yu said foreign exchange controls, under which all foreign
currency must be converted into Taiwan dollars, might be
suspended if Taiwan's trade surplus grows too large. He said
controls could be retained for use in an emergency.
    Yu said the aim was to reduce Taiwan's foreign exchange
reserves and ease pressure on the money supply.
    The reserves have grown to a record 53 billion U.S. Dlrs,
compared with about 26 billion in late March last year, due to
Taiwan's widening trade surplus. The surplus hit a record 15.6
billion dlrs last year against 10.6 billion in 1985.
    Approximately 95 pct of the surplus was with the U.S.
    The surplus in the first two months of this year rose to
2.73 billion dlrs from 2.02 billion in the same 1986 period.
    Money supply grew by a seasonally adjusted 48.22 pct in the
year to end-february.
    Bankers and economists said they did not believe the
government intended to drop all foreign exchange controls and
allow the Taiwan dollar to be freely traded.
    But they said over the next few months certain restrictions
will probably be eased to allow Taiwanese firms and individuals
to hold part of their foreign exchange earnings for overseas
    Bankers and economists also said it was likely the
government would lift a ban on investment in foreign stocks.
They said it was uncertain, however, whether investment would
be direct or channeled through government-approved funds.
    Taiwan allowed firms and individuals to invest in overseas
government bonds, treasury bills and certificates of deposit
for the first time last year.
    Bankers said Yu's statment was an indication the government
is becoming increasingly concerned about the threat of
inflation posed by the growing foreign exchange reserves.
    Inflation is now running at about three pct.
    Mounting reserves are also seen as giving Washington
leverage in its efforts to force Taiwan to boost the value of
its currency to reduce the trade imbalance.
    Bankers said dropping foreign exchange restrictions was
unlikely to lead to significant capital outflows because of the
rising value of the Taiwan dollar.
    "All the signs are that capital would move in," said John
Brinsden, manager of Standard Chartered Bank in Taipei.
    The Taiwan dollar has risen by about 16 pct against the
U.S. Dollar since September 1985. It opened today at 34.26
against the American currency.
    Most economists believe the Taiwan dollar will continue to
rise this year on strong U.S. Pressure for appreciation.
    Economists estimate up to five billion U.S. Dlrs of
speculative money flowed into Taiwan last year.
    Yu's statement surprised most local and foreign bankers,
who regard the former central bank governor as a fiscal
arch-conservative. They said it shows Taiwan is determined to
go ahead with wide-ranging financial liberalisation.
    "It's more than a straw in the wind," said Brinsden. "It
indicates that something dramatic will happen."
 REUTER

The Tokyo stock market is likely to
recover from its recent nervousness, caused by the rise of the
yen and the threat of a trade war with the U.S., And resume its
upward climb, brokers polled by Reuters said.
    President Reagan's threat to impose tariffs on Japanese
electronics exports because of Japan's alleged refusal to abide
by a bilateral agreement on computer chips, was unlikely to
cause the market to crash, the brokers said on the eve of the
new fiscal year starting April 1.
    The market today fell 60.91 points to 21,566.66.
    Most brokers said Tokyo stocks should rise 10 to 15 pct in
the coming fiscal year, provided the yen does not rise too far
against the dollar and U.S. Sanctions do not escalate into an
all-out trade war.
    "The market will continue to rise in the new fiscal year, so
long as we can avoid a free-fall in the dollar against the yen,"
Nikko Securities' top analyst Kasuhiza Okamoto said.
    However, brokers said the market was unlikely to perform
better than it has in the past year.
    "It will be very difficult to repeat last year's
performance. Last year was a bumper year that will live in the
annals of the market," said Kleinwort and Benson Ltd's
securities analyst, Peter Tasker.
    The market rose 37 pct in the fiscal year just ending.
    Tasker said Japan's discount rate, which was cut five times
this past fiscal year, was so low that it forced funds from
bank accounts into stocks, buoying the market.
    Nomura Securities Company brokers said that in the coming
year the discount rate would probably be cut only once or twice
and the inflow of funds would be slower.
    Brokers said their optimism about the market was based on
the current low interest rates, the increasing propensity of
the Japanese to save as the economy stagnates, the imminent
introduction of taxes on traditionally untaxed post office
savings and the allure of quick and easy profits from stocks.
    They said Japanese with money to spare, and companies
unwilling to invest in real plant and machinery in the present
climate of stagnant growth, would keep on snapping up stocks.
    "You just have to jump on the back of the winners and jump
off quick if they start to lose," one broker said.
    Currently the Japanese discount rate is 2.5 pct.
    Brokers predicted that among this year's winners would be
shares which will benefit from domestic expansion.
    Other winners would be stocks related to the fight against
AIDS, financial stocks in general, food shares likely to gain
from a government-initiated agricultural deregulation
programme, and issues supported by Japan's increased defense
spending budget.
    "The themes this year are very clear," said Nikko Securities'
Okamoto. He said Japan had to respond to international pressure
to stimulate its domestic demand, buy more imports and
establish itself as a supply base of capital.
    Brokers said banks and other financial institutions would
be among the most popular shares this year.
    "We will have to consolidate our position as the capital
supply base to the world," said Okamoto, noting Japan is the
world's largest creditor nation.
    Brokers said they expect the government this year to permit
Japanese banks to start full-scale equity brokerage overseas.
They also expect it to relax financial practice laws in Japan.
    Brokers said they expect subsidies to Japan's farmers to be
slashed this year, cutting the price of food. Beneficiaries of
such a move would include food processors and suppliers.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone has set the expansion of
domestic demand as a top priority this year, and brokers said
they envisaged higher profits for real estate and construction
companies, as well as many domestic manufacturers.
    Brokers denied a suggestion that the market might be
over-extended because the amount now invested, 334,000 billion
yen, was about the same as Japan's gross national product.
    Barclays De Zoette and Wedd financial analyst, Peter
Morgan, said the 20 pct tax on post office and bank deposits
due to be levied this autumn would channel at least 2,000
billion more yen into the stock market.
    Brokers said they believe there would be more reports in
the coming year of scientific discoveries to combat or diagnose
Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and these would
propel related companies' shares even higher than they had
risen already.
    "AIDS stories suck individuals' money into the market.
Japanese people are paranoid about AIDS," said one broker.
 REUTER

Rainfall in the past few days has eased
the threat of drought in the south China province of Guangdong,
the New China News Agency said.
    It said 75 pct of early rice fields are ready to be planted
and seedlings have already been transplanted on 90 pct of rice
fields in Hainan island. Some 840,000 hectares of farmland have
been planted with cash crops including sugar cane, peanuts and
soybeans, 67,000 ha more than in 1986.
    The provincial government has increased investment in grain
and taken effective measures to combat natural disasters this
year, the agency said, but gave no further details.
 REUTER

India today signed an agreement to
sell 500 mini passenger cars to Hungary, its first export
contract for cars, an industry ministry spokesman told Reuters.
    Under the agreement signed between Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) -
an Indo-Japanese car maker - and Hungary's state-owned Mogurt
trading company - the cars, valued about two mln dlrs, will be
delivered in 1987, he said.
    "We expect Hungary will buy up to 5,000 Maruti cars per year
from next year if the first batch proves popular in that
country," he said without elaborating.
    The launching of 800 cc Maruti cars in 1983 revolutionised
the country's dormant automobile industry, which until then had
marketed models which were at least 30 years old.
    The Indian government owns 74 pct stake in MUL, and the
balance of 26 pct is held by Suzuki Motor Co Ltd of Japan.
    The Japanese-style Maruti, costing about 81,000 rupees, is
the cheapest car on the Indian market and has proved a popular
model, with order books full for the next three years, industry
    MUL and India's three private companies have a combined
production capacity of 206,000 passenger cars a year.
 REUTER

<Chuan Hup Holdings Ltd> said it has
signed a 28 mln U.S. Dlr guaranteed floating rate note due 1990
with a group of banks to refinance the company's existing
borrowings and to provide medium term funds.
    Chuan Hup said the issue has been arranged and managed by
Singapore International Merchant Bankers Ltd (SIMBL).
    SIMBL has invited Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National
Australia Merchant Bank (Singapore) Ltd, Bank of China, the
Bank of Comunications Co Ltd, DG Bank-GZB (Asia) Ltd, Kleinwort
Benson (Singapore) Ltd, Malayan Banking Bhd and N.M. Rothschild
and Sons (Singapore) Ltd to subscribe at a price of 100 pct.
    The notes will be guaranteed by the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia and will be placed with investors in the Asian Dollar
Market.
    The interest rate will be 1/10 point above the Singapore
inter-bank offered rate for six month U.S. Dlr deposits.
    The notes will be in bearer form in denominations of
100,000 dlrs and will be listed on the Stock Exchange of
Singapore Ltd, Chuan Hup said.
 REUTER

General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC),
the financing arm of General Motors Corp of the U.S., Will
launch its planned one billion U.S. Dlr medium term note
program in the international capital markets on April 7, said
Wendy Dietz, a vice-president at Salomon Brothers Inc, New
York.
    She told a conference here on medium term notes that GMAC
is looking to obtain as fine pricing on the paper as it does
with its program in the U.S.
    The notes will be sold on a continuously offered basis, the
most popular structure so far in the U.S.
 REUTER

Shr 53.05p vs 45.79p adjusted
    Div 8.7p making 14p vs 12p adjusted
    Pretax profit 78.84 mln stg vs 60.31 mln
    Net after tax 50.71 mln vs 40.54 mln
    Extraordinary credit after tax 43.19 mln vs nil
    Note - The extraordinary credit represents substantitally
the after tax profit on sale of company's interest in M and G
Group Plc. After providing for the final dividend, retained
earnings were 80.07 mln vs 29.90 mln in 1985.
    Merchant and investment banking 81.47 mln vs 63.22 mln
    Bullion broking 4.75 mln vs 3.02 mln
    U.S. Government security dealing 2.94 mln vs loss 329,000
    Investment management and unit trusts 10.62 mln vs 7.88 mln
    Other activities loss 3.12 mln vs profit 1.42  mln
    Interest on loan capital 17.82 mln vs 14.90 mln.
    Disclosed shareholders funds 365 mln vs 286 mln
    Disclosed capital resources available 626 mln vs 467 mln.
 REUTER

Dividend 24 francs vs 30
    Consolidated net profit 115.7 mln francs vs 108.3 mln of
which attributable to group 110.8 mln vs 102.5 mln
    Consolidated net turnover 11.16 billion francs vs 11.42
billion
    Parent company net profit 115.5 mln vs 95.0 mln
    Parent co net turnover 9.99 billion vs 9.91 billion
    Note - The electrical contracting company is 99.9 pct owned
by the state-run Compagnie Generale d'Electricite <CGE>.
 REUTER

said she and Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov had set targets for
increased trade between the two countries during talks earlier
today.
    She said she hoped more economic exchanges between Britain
and the Soviet Union "will also lead to increased friendship and
increased understanding."
    Earlier, she told a meeting of Soviet and British
businessmen that she had agreed with Ryzhkov that they would
work to achieve a total volume of 2.5 billion roubles in
bilateral trade by 1990.
    This would entail an increase by each side of 350 to 400
mln stg over their present export levels.
    "Mr Ryzhkov handed me a list of import and export
opportunities which I hope you will all jump at," she told the
meeting to mark the opening of new offices of the British-
Soviet Chamber of Commerce.
    After her talks with Ryzhkov, Thatcher and the Soviet
Premier were joined for the signing of agreements covering new
scientific and cultural exchanges by Kremlin leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, who had nine hours of talks with her yesterday.
 REUTER

Ricoh Co Ltd <RICT.T> said it will set up
a wholly-owned French subsidiary to produce plain paper copiers
(PPC) from June 1988. Its UK subsidiary will also build a new
PPC plant to start operations in September 1987, Ricoh said.
    The French company, <Ricoh Industry France SA>, in
Wettolsheim, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, will produce PPCs at an initial
monthly rate of about 2,000, rising to between 4,000 and 5,000
units in a couple of years, with initial investment of one
billion yen, Ricoh said.
    The new company will create 100 jobs.
    The company said its wholly-owned U.K. Subsidiary <Ricoh
U.K. Products Ltd> in Telford, which has produced office
automation equipment such as PPCs, sorters and facsimiles since
April 1985, will invest 1.7 billion yen to build a new PPC
plant. It is due to start operation in September 1987 and
increase output to 7,000 per month from the present 2,500.
    The new U.K. Plant will create 100 jobs to give a total of
360 jobs at the U.K. Subsidiary.
    After both new plants reach full production, 70 pct of
Ricoh's total PPC to be sold in Europe will be supplied by
those European units.
 REUTER

Consuming countries, chastened by the
collapse of International Tin Council (ITC) price support
operations in 1985, are insisting more than ever before that
commodity pacts reflect the reality of the markets they are
serving, a Reuter survey showed.
    They want price ranges to be more responsive to market
trends - to avoid overstimulating output and straining the
accords' support operations - and intervention rules that avoid
the risk of exports by non-members undermining the pacts.
Consumers and producers, mindful of ITC buffer stock losses,
have also sought strict conditions for buffer operations.
    Importers and some key exporting countries have shunned a
generalised approach to commodity price stabilisation and
prefer to assess each commodity case by case, the survey
showed.
    The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) last week set
precise limits on what the Buffer Stock Manager (BSM) could do
under the new agreement. It imposed daily and weekly purchase
limits, prohibited the BSM from operating on futures markets
and stipulated, after consumer insistence, that up to 15 pct of
total buffer stock purchases could be of non-member cocoa. This
will help prevent lower quality cocoa from Malaysia, the
world's fourth largest producer, undermining the market.
    The cocoa pact establishes precise differentials the Buffer
Stock Manager must use when purchasing varying grades.
    A new International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) was
adopted earlier this month in Geneva. Importing and exporting
countries agreed several changes to make the reference price
more responsive to market trends and they eliminated provisions
under which the buffer stock could borrow from banks to finance
operations. Direct cash contributions from members will fund
buffer stock purchases. Bank financing was a particular feature
of the failed ITC buffer stock which suffered losses running
into hundreds of millions of sterling. Legal wrangles continue.
    Recent International Coffee Organization (ICO) negotiations
in London exemplified the degree to which consumers insist that
agreements reflect market reality, commodity analysts said.
    Consumers and a small group of producers argued that
"objective criteria" should be used to define export quota
shares, which would have meant a reduction in the share of
Brazil, the world's leading producer. Brazil wanted to maintain
its previous quota share of 30 pct. The talks broke down and,
although an ICO executive board meeting starts in London today,
delegates and trade sources see chances of any near term
negotiations on export quota distribution as remote.
    International agreements exist for sugar and wheat. These
do not have any economic clauses but provide a forum for
discussions on possible future economic agreements, collect
statistics and draw up market analyses. Analysts said
differences between sugar exporting countries have held up any
progress towards an accord with economic teeth, while sheer
competition between major exporters amid a world grain glut
militate against any pact with economic provisions for wheat.
    An alternative focus for commodity discussions are
international study groups, made up of governments with advice
from industry, such as those for lead and zinc and rubber.
    The U.N. Common fund for commodities, with a planned
directly contributed capital of 470 mln dlrs, has failed to
become operational because neither the U.S. Nor the Soviet
Union has ratified it. U.S. Officials in Washington said the
U.S. Doubts the fund would be able to fulfil its objectives,
citing the lack of widespread support.
    U.S. Officials in Washington and Malaysian officials in
Kuala Lumpur expressed a policy of looking at each commodity
pact case by case. U.S. Officials said it has been willing to
study individual cases for economically sound, market-oriented
commodity accords balancing producer and consumer interests.
    "We see little to be gained by attempting to increase the
price of a commodity whose long-term trend is downward,"
official Administration policy states. The U.S. Currently
belongs to only two international commodity agreements that
have economic clauses - the International Coffee Agreement
(ICA) and INRA - but it is also a member of the sugar and wheat
pacts.
    The U.S. Did not join the International Cocoa Agreement
because it considered its proposed price ranges unrealistic and
not designed to protect the interests of consuming countries,
the State Department said. U.S. Officials singled out the INRA
as the one commodity agreement that seems to be working.
    U.S. Negotiators were successful in getting other members
of the pact to agree that the price review and adjustment
mechanism of the rubber agreement would accurately reflect
market trends and also to continue the accord as a market
oriented agreement, U.S. Officials said.
    Canadian officials in Ottawa also said they have
consistently tried to look at membership of commodity pacts on
the merits of each case. Malaysian Primary Industries Minister
Lim Keng Yaik told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur his country, the
world's top producer of rubber, tin and palm oil, decides its
participation in international commodity pacts case by case.
    Malaysia is a member of the Association of Tin Producing
Countries (ATPC) which produce 65 pct of world tin. The ATPC
launched a plan to limit member tin exports to 96,000 tonnes
for a year from March to cut the tin surplus to 50,000 from
70,000.
    Economist in the West German Ministry of Agriculture and
delegate to cocoa, wheat and sugar agreements Peter Baron told
Reuters in London, "Agreements with economic clauses to
stabilise prices could function if fixed price ranges were
close to market reality, if there was full participation by
producers and consumers, and if participants were prepared to
take their obligations in the framework of the agreement
seriously."
    But Baron added, "No real sanctions are available for a
country that doesn't stick to its obligations...The German
approach is sceptical. We don't think agreements are the best
instrument to help developing countries. They were never meant
to be a vehicle for the transfer of resources and that is how
developing countries often interpret them."
    Traditionally Britain has always been supportive of
commodity agreements, reflecting its strong links with Third
World producing countries. But recently demands for more
stringent and justifiable pacts with emphasis placed on the
need for "intellectual honesty" and "objective criteria" have
grown.
    British officials stress the need for commodity pacts to be
a two way partnership in trade rather than a disguise for aid.
    It is now seen as essential that any pacts involving direct
market participation through a buffer stock have a high degree
of transparency and do not contain the risk of open-ended
borrowing that occurred in the tin pact, they said. U.K.
Delegates talk of stabilisation and the need for prices to
reflect changes in market structure and price trends rather
than dictate what prices should be.
    A Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo said Japan urges price
realism in commodity pacts, adding high prices inflate supply.
    A government spokesman in Paris said France is favourable
to commodity pacts. France, a large consumer and producer of
sugar, favours a sugar pact as long as it reflects the real
market situation, particularly regarding stocks.
    Indonesia's Foreign Minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja told
Reuters in Jakarta: "These agreements can work as long as the
problems are cyclical..But it's another matter when there are
structural problems..But we are still committed to commodity
agreements as an act of faith." Nicaraguan External Trade
Minister Alejandro Martinez Cuenca said in London producers
cannot afford not to give their backing to commodity
    "The political will is not there on the part of some
consumers to make agreements work," Martinez Cuenca said.
    The head of the economics department in the Brazilian
Foreign Ministry, Sebastiao do Rego Barros, told Reuters an
agreement can be successful if it keeps a link with market
reality. If you have an agreement such as coffee with a system
of quotas, with a link between prices practised inside the pact
and actual market prices, it can work. UNCTAD spokesman Graham
Shanley said consuming countries realise steady export earnings
enhance developing countries' ability to service debt and mean
greater demand for industrialised nations' capital goods.
 REUTER

Leading domestic semiconductor makers
will boost imports and cut production of key memory microchips
from next month in line with government attempts to ward off
U.S. Trade sanctions, company spokesmen said.
    The moves might persuade the U.S. To call off the
sanctions, despite obstacles to full implementation of the
plans, analysts said.
    The tariffs will affect about 300 mln dlrs worth of
products and are in retaliation for Japan's alleged failure to
honour a semiconductor trade pact.
    In announcing the sanctions last Friday, President Reagan
said Japan had not fulfilled its promise to halt predatory
pricing and open Japan's market to foreign products.
    But U.S. Trade representative Clayton Yeutter said
yesterday on U.S. Television that the U.S. Is willing to drop
the tariffs if Japan shows a "clear indication" that it will open
its markets to U.S. Goods.
    The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has
urged producers to slash output of the chips by 11 pct in the
second quarter, following a call to reduce production by more
than 20 pct the previous quarter.
    MITI also urged makers to boost chip imports.
    Analysts said the moves could encourage Washington to
cancel the tariffs ahead of next month's meeting between Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and President Reagan.
    "The U.S. Wants to be satisfied. It has rattled its sword
and shown that it can and will do business," said analyst Nick
Edwards at Jardine Fleming Securities Ltd in Tokyo.
    But analysts cautioned that although Japanese producers can
cut output, boosting imports -- the key to U.S. Withdrawal of
the sanctions -- is more difficult.
    "The U.S. Does not have the low-end consumer IC's
(integrated circuits) that the Japanese need for consumer
products. They're well supplied here," said Richard May, senior
analyst at Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd in Tokyo.
    The U.S. Leads in production of medium and high-end IC's,
but Japanese makers are keen to develop their own high-end
production skills, the analysts said.
    "The Japanese must be prepared to trade some losses on
semiconductors in return for free access to other areas," said
Edwards.
    A spokesman for Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T>, said the firm's
reduced output of 256 kilobit dynamic random access memory
(256K DRAM) was unrelated to MITI's efforts to ward off the
trade sanctions. Decreased production was a natural result of
the company increasing output of one-mln bit DRAM's, he said.
    Company officials unveiled the following plans -
    - NEC Corp <NESI.T>, Japan's largest chipmaker, plans to
slash production of 256K DRAM semiconductors by 29.41 pct to
six mln per month from a monthly average of 8.5 mln last
quarter.
     In the year beginning April 1, NEC will boost chip
imports, which comprised some 20 pct of all NEC chip
consumption the year before.
    - Hitachi Ltd's <HIT.T> April output of 256K DRAM's will
fall by 25.93 pct to four mln compared to 5.4 mln in March. The
company is trying to boost imports but has not set a specific
target. Imports are currently very low.
    - Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> will reduce April 256K DRAM
production by 16.67 pct to just over four mln and is
considering ways to boost imports, a company official said.
    Toshiba has an agreement with Motorola Inc (MOT.N) to sell
the U.S. Firm's chips in Japan. The firms are planning a
joint-venture production of memory chips in Sendai, northern
Japan.
    - Mitsubishi Electric Corp (MIET.T) will trim second
quarter output by about 10 pct to between 5.5 mln to 5.6 mln
chips compared to the first quarter. Plans call for increased
imports but an official said "boosting imports will be difficult
as it depends on sales demand."
    - Fujitsu Ltd (ITSU.T) will cut production in accord with
MITI guidelines and boost imports from currently low levels.
    - Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd (OKIE.T) will reduce April
production by 10 pct from March's 3.2 mln. Oki is studying ways
to increase imports by 10 pct in the fiscal year beginning
April 1 from the previous year's total of more than five
billion yen, a company official said.
 REUTER

The proceeds from yesterday's 100 mln
dlr equity warrant for Kansallis-Osake-Pankki (K-O-P) will
probably be swapped into floating rate dollars once the final
terms have been set for the deal, executive vice-president
Erkki Karmila told a press conference.
    The seven-year issue has an indicated coupon of 4-1/8 to
4-5/8 pct and is priced at par. Final terms will be set on
April 7.
    Karmila said that in the short term K-O-P did not need
additional capital funds but the issue "gives us access to
attractive funds."
 REUTER

Year 1986
    Div 7.0p vs 12.2p
    Shr 9.6p vs 31.3p
    Pretax profit 4.4 mln stg vs 118.0 mln
    Net 17.6 mln vs 37.7 mln
    Total turnover 183.8 mln vs 348.0
    Amortisation 71.4 mln vs 86.3
    Traded oil purchases 41.2 mln vs 44.5 mln Administration
expenses 6.2 mln vs 8.0 mln
    Net interest payable 6.4 mln vs 4.8 mln
    Related company's credit 6.1 mln vs nil
 REUTER

market with a further 570 mln stg assistance during the morning
after revising its estimate of the liquidity shortage to 1.85
billion stg, before taking account of its early round of bill
    Initially, the Bank put the likely shortage at some 1.75
billion and to help offset this gave early assistance of 1.143
billion.
    Its total help so far today amounts to 1.713 billion stg.
 MORE

(CORRECTION) - MARCH 30 - YUGOSLAV TRADE FALLS
    In Belgrade item  of yesterday "Yugoslav trade falls in 1st
qtr on year ago" please read on page one "This year current
exchange rates were used for the first time instead of a fixed
rate of 264.53 dinars to the dollar."
    (corrects from 24.53).
 REUTER

Mauritius exported 47,144 tonnes of
sugar (tel quel) in February, down from 57,911 tonnes (tel
quel) shipped in January and 89,351 in February 1986, the
Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture's Sugar News Bulletin said.
    Opening stocks at the beginning of last month totalled
320,057 tonnes, against 288,406 tonnes at the start of February
last year. Closing stocks at the end of February were 270,212
tonnes, up from 196,309 tonnes at end-February 1986.
    The estimate for 1986 sugar production was unchanged from
last month at 748,472 tonnes, raw value, the Chamber said.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd has made a bold move in selling
its oil and gas interests for almost a billion dlrs and
interests held in the Delhi Australia Fund and would instead
sell them to Exxon Corp unit Esso Exploration and Production
Australia Inc for 985 mln dlrs.
does not already hold in Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd.
300 mln dlrs, but in opting to sell outright CSR had given
itself the cash to all but eliminate its debt and embark on an
ambitious expansion programme in its best-performing divisions
of sugar and building products, analysts said.
    The Pioneer Sugar investment would give CSR by far the
largest stake in Australia's 850 mln dlr a year sugar industry
and access to some of the best sugar properties and mills in
the country, they said. Pioneer Sugar was expected to recommend
acceptance of the bid, through which CSR would benefit from the
bottoming out of a cyclical downturn in sugar prices.
 REUTER

London and Scottish Marine Oil Plc
(Lasmo) <LASL.L> will have an advantage when oil prices rise
again and it is confident this will happen early in the next
decade, the company said in a statement accompanying results.
    Lasmo said its advantage comes from its reserves of oil and
gas which at the end of 1986 stood at 210 mln barrels of oil
equivalent, a group record. Reserves have increased every year
since 1983 at a compounded rate of 10 pct a year.
    The company reported a 1986 pretax profit of 4.4 mln stg,
down from 118 mln in 1985.
    It said falling oil prices caused the downturn.
    The company said it reacted swiftly to the sharp drop in
oil prices which began over a year ago. Capital expenditure,
which had been budgeted at over 150 mln stg, was cut to 51 mln
stg net of disposals. Managers responded well to the demand for
lower operating costs and this has been achieved worldwide.
    The company said had very few exploration wells committed
for 1987 and therefore retains maximum flexibility in its
exploration program. Even without further success, the existing
fields and recent discoveries will contribute significantly to
profit and cash flow for some years to come, it said.
    Lasmo shares were down 2p at 251 after the announcement.
 REUTER

China bought 6,000 tonnes of Malaysian
refined bleached deodorised palm stearine today for May
shipment at prices equivalent to around 270 to 275 dlrs per
tonne fob, traders said.
 REUTER

One or two large West German banks
effectively drained the domestic money market of liquidity at
the end of the month in order to achieve higher rates from
their overnight deposits, money dealers said.
    As a result, call money soared in active trading to around
the Lombard rate of five pct from 3.70/80 pct yesterday as
banks found themselves short of minimum reserve funds.
    Bundesbank figures showed that banks held an average daily
51 billion marks in interest-free minimum reserve assets at the
central bank over the first 29 days of the month.
    Though this was above the March requirement of 50.7
billion, actual holdings at the weekend were 44.2 billion.
    To meet the daily average, dealers said, banks must raise
holdings by two billion marks to 46.3 billion today and
tomorrow. But liquidity was tight in early business because
banks excessively took up the Bundesbank's offer for sale of
Treasury bills on Friday. This provides a rate of 3.50 pct for
three-day deposits and is an effective floor to the market.
    Though some liquidity, from bills bought on Thursday,
flowed back into the market today, the bulk would not return
until tomorrow, the start of the new month, dealers said.
    Dealers said the large banks, which they did not name,
commanded short-term money requirements of as much as five
billion marks or so.
    With a knowledge of their own needs until the end of the
month, the banks bought excessive amounts of treasury bills,
draining liquidity for three days. When other banks sought
funds, rates rose and large banks were able to place excess
funds on deposit at a considerably higher average return.
    One senior dealer said the Bundesbank, with advanced
knowledge of the market's needs, should have curtailed its
sales of treasury bills on Friday.
    Though dealers only late in the day learn of the total
minimum reserve holdings of the previous day, the Bundesbank
has an immediate overview of the situation and could anticipate
the strength of demand for funds the following day, he said.
    "(Bundesbank dealers) could easily have said we are not
selling any treasury bills or we're not selling them in this
amount," he said. "If the Bundesbank wants to finely steer the
market then they should avoid such excesses. Tomorrow it will
be different. Call money will fall back to 4.0 pct or so."
    But the Bundesbank would not approve of the sharp jump in
rates, given the delicate state of currency markets.
    International central banks have been at pains to prevent a
dollar fall against major currencies, including the mark.
Dealers said a rise in call money gives the mark a firmer
undertone, contributing to downward pressure on the dollar.
    "The whole tender policy is to have a call money of between
three and four pct. In that case the excesses as we have today
cannot be very popular," the senior dealer said.
    Dealers said the large banks probably achieved average
rates of return on their excess funds of between 3.75 pct or
four pct. This is a higher return than they would have earned
without the excessive draining through the treasury bill
mechanism.
    Because of the currency situation and the wage negotiations
between Germany's major employers and the unions, the
Bundesbank would be very unlikely to make any changes to
monetary policy at its council meeting on Thursday, they said.
    Bundesbank figures showed that banks fell back on the
Lombard emergency funding facility to draw down 1.5 billion
marks yesterday as rates began to tighten in late business.
 REUTER

Siemens AG <SIEG.F> said it won a major
order from Jydisk Telfon Aktieselskab (JTAG), Denmark's second
largest telephone company, for its EWSD digital dialing system.
    A Siemens statement gave no financial details. But it said
the JTAG order, together with an order received in 1985 from
the largest Danish telephone firm, Kjobenhavn Telefon
Aktieselskab (KTAS), brought Siemens' order volume in Denmark
to around 100 mln marks over the next 10 years.
    The JTAG order is for at least 125,000 telephone
connections with an option to double this amount later.
    Siemens said the order meant that it, like Sweden's L.M.
Ericsson <ERIC.ST>, now supply both of Denmark's largest
telephone companies.
    Together Siemens and Ericsson have 90 pct of the Danish
long-distance dialing system market, it added.
 REUTER

 Reuter

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said it will offer 2.20
dlrs cash each for the shares it does not already hold in
<Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd>.
    CSR already holds 31.74 pct of Pioneer's 99.80 mln issued
shares, it said in a statement.
    The offer price values the entire Pioneer Sugar share
capital at 219.6 mln dlrs and compares with today's closing
market level of 1.85 dlrs a share.
    CSR said it will announce further details of the offer
soon, including an alternative offer of CSR shares for Pioneer
Sugar stock.
    It said the offer is generous since it will give Pioneer
Sugar shareholders a price equivalent to 29 times Pioneer's net
earnings last financial year and a premium of 22 pct over
yesterday's market price which CSR said it believed already
contained an element of takeover speculation.
    It also gives a premium of 91 pct over Pioneer's last
reported net tangible assets per share, CSR said.
    CSR said the generous offer price reflects the cost savings
which will flow from integrated management of CSR's and
Pioneer's raw sugar mills and building materials businesses.
    These economies can only be achieved through CSR control
and management of Pioneer Sugar, it added.
    The takeover announcement came soon after CSR's earlier
reported statement that it will sell its <Delhi Petroleum Pty
Ltd> unit to an Exxon Corp <XON> unit for 985 mln dlrs and not
proceed with the previously announced float of part of Delhi.
 REUTER

Managing Director Hugh Fletcher said he was disappointed that
<Rada Corp Ltd> had decided to sell its shares in <N.Z. Forest
Products Ltd> (NZFP) to Australia's <Amcor Ltd>.
    He said in a statement that FCL had made an offer for the
24 pct of NZFP held by Rada. He said the FCL offer was better
than Amcor's because it would have been made to all NZFP
shareholders, but he gave no further details.
    Amcor and NZFP said earlier today they were merging their
pulp and paper interests in a joint partnership and were
increasing their existing cross-shareholdings.
    The plan involves NZFP increasing its current holding in
Amcor to about 20 pct from four pct. Amcor will acquire Rada's
NZFP stake to add to its existing 11 pct and will seek
statutory approval to increase its holding to 50 pct.
    Rada bought its stake for 505.5 mln dlrs from <Wattie
Industries Ltd> last year, but it has not disclosed the price
to be paid by Amcor.
    FCL originally launched a takeover bid for NZFP late last
year with a scrip and/or cash offer at 3.90 dlrs a share,
valuing the company at 1.3 billion dlrs. NZFP shares ended at
3.88 dlrs today.
 REUTER

Group shr 4.91 yen vs 6.59
    Net 7.72 billion vs 10.38 billion
    Current 16.81 billion vs 20.84 billion
    Operating 45.56 billion vs 52.02 billion
    Sales 734.50 billion vs 996.15 billion
    NOTE - Company forecast for current year is group net 14
billion, current 30 billion and sales 740 billion based on
rationalisation efforts and expected market price increases in
agricultural chemicals and petrochemical products following the
recovery in world oil prices.
 REUTER

The Peking-owned China International
Trust and Investment Corp (Citic) bought the unfinished City
Garden Hotel in Hong Kong from a subsidiary of Cheung Kong
(Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HKG> for 235 mln H.K. Dlrs, Cheung Kong
director Albert Chow said.
    Cheung Kong's subsidiary <International City Holdings Ltd>
will complete work on the hotel by the end of 1988, when it
will be handed over to Citic. The deal does not include the
decoration or fitting out of the interior of the hotel.
    The 600-room hotel stands on a 26,700 sq ft site on the
eastern side of Hong Kong island.
 REUTER

Mannesmann AG <MMWG.F> expects a
difficult year for the capital goods industry in 1987, chief
executive Werner Dieter told a news conference.
    Dieter said West German producers would see a downturn in
foreign business because of lower energy prices and the higher
mark, as well as a deterioration of the economies of customer
nations.
    Domestic business was also declining and orders for West
German engineering goods have been falling since July 1986,
Dieter said.
    Mannesmann's profit fell by an undisclosed amount in 1986.
    Dieter said Mannesmann's pipe activities would suffer a
set- back, although measures to cut costs, which were started
last year, were now having an effect.
    Dieter noted, however, that pipes and related products
accounted for less than 30 pct of Mannesmann's turnover. The
company saw good chances in the automation sector, which Dieter
said had become one of Mannesmann's "strategic aims."
    He said the company's drive to combine activities in
mechanical and electronic engineering was a particular "plus
point" for Mannesmann.
    Mannesmann, which yesterday announced it had agreed to take
a majority stake in the Fichtel und Sachs AG car parts group
for an undisclosed sum, saw third party group turnover fall
nine pct in 1986 to 16.60 billion marks. Its world group net
profit in 1985 was 255.9 mln marks.
    It has blamed the fall in 1986 profits on the weaker dollar
and lack of demand for steel pipe.
    Dieter said there were signs that prices for steel pipe
were bottoming out and would slowly start to rise, but he added
the company would continue to cut personnel in this sector this
year.
 REUTER

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said it will buy Pratt
and Whitney PW 4000 engines to power six newly-ordered
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 long haul jets due to enter service
from 1990.
    The engine is a newly developed one which will enter
operation in Summer 1987.
    Swissair announced on March 19 that it was placing a firm
order for six of the planes, with an option for another 12. It
said at the time that it was not sure whether to equip them
with General Electric, Rolls Royce or Pratt and Whitney
engines.
    Pratt and Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp
<UTX.N>.
    A Swissair spokesman declined to say how much the engine
order was worth. The total order, including six planes, engines
and parts, is worth 1.2 billion Swiss francs.
    If Swissair decides to exercise its option for the further
12 MD-11s these too would have Pratt and Whitney engines, the
    He said the fact the airline's Boeing 747s, McDonnell
Douglas DC-9s and Airbuses all have Pratt and Whitney engines
played a major part in the decision.
 REUTER

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> has found cracks in
the tails of two of its own DC-10 aircraft made by McDonnell
Douglas Corp <MD.N> and a third belonging to the Dutch airline
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines <KLM.AS>, a Swissair spokesman said.
    A Swissair spokesman said the cracks, in the horizontal
tail surface, came to light during routine maintenance of the
Dutch aircraft here on March 18.
    Subsequent checks on Swissair's 11 DC-10s showed similar
problems, thought to be due to material fatigue, he said.
    The spokesman said the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority
(FAA) and McDonnell Douglas have ordered checks of all 400
DC-10s in use by airlines worldwide.
    Swissair said both the FAA and Swiss aviation authorities
had allowed it to continue to fly its DC-10s on condition the
damage was repaired and planes were checked after each landing.
    Several days ago, Swissair announced a firm order for six
McDonnell Douglas's MD-11s, with an option for 12 more, to
replace its DC-10s. The MD-11 is a development of the DC-10.
 REUTER

<British Caledonian Group>, Britain's
second largest airline, has announced a 19.3 mln stg pretax
loss for the financial year ending last October, compared with
a record pre-tax profit of 21.7 mln stg in 1985, chairman Sir
Adam Thomson told reporters.
    A decline in U.S. Transatlantic traffic following terrorist
attacks in Europe, the U.S. Bombing of the Libya, the Chernobyl
disaster and a slump in the oil industry which affected Middle
East traffic were the main causes of the loss, Thomson said.
    He said the poor results were caused by "a range of
exceptional circumstances wholly outside our direct control" and
predicted a return to profitability this year.
    Last year, the airline was forced to axe 1,000 jobs, sell
some of its assets and cut the number of its flights across the
Atlantic and to the Middle East following the fall in business
.
 REUTER

Brazil will be producing 2.8 mln
vehicles a year by the end of this century and it could become
the world's third largest national market for motor vehicles,
according to a report by the Economist magazine's Economist
Intelligence Unit.
    The report stated that Brazil already offered a huge
national market for the vehicle producers and offered potential
access to other large Latin American markets. "Development of a
fully integrated motor industry in Brazil may not be far away,"
it said. Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford and Fiat are all
operating modern car plants in Brazil now, it added. 
 "Multinationals will want to consolidate and then expand in
Brazil because of the enormous sourcing opportunities that such
a relatively low cost producer offers," the report said.
    It pointed out, however, that corporate life in Brazil was
complicated by its economic situation. "At present Brazil is
suffering from a debt crisis, rampant inflation and exchange
rate fluctuations," the Intelligence Unit said.
    "In spite of this, Brazil's resilience is maintained by the
potential created by its still under-exploited natural and
human resources. The reward for holding out in the present
economic climate could be huge," it added.
 REUTER

<Hapag Lloyd AG> said it ordered a new
container vessel from China for its Australia service.
    The order was given to the <Hudong shipyards> in Shanghai
after lengthy negotiations with West German shipbuilders, the
    The Chinese firm offered to build the vessel at over 30 mln
marks less than West German yards, despite government subsidies
which Bonn pays its ailing shipbuilding industry, Hapag said. A
company spokesman would not comment on the total order value
but said the new vessel would replace the 33,333 dwt Sydney
Express in 1989 and would carry 2,700 container units.
 REUTER

State-owned <Cie Generale
d'Electricite>'s electrical contracting unit <CGEE ALSTHOM> has
taken a 34 stake in the U.S. Computer firm <ESCA Corp>, CGEE
ALSTHOM chairman Philippe Boisseau told a press conference.
    According to an agreement in principle between the two
companies CGEE ALSTHOM could take a majority stake in the
future but no time-scale has been set, he added.
    ESCA, which had a turnover of 13.6 mln dlrs in 1986 and is
expected to see this rise to 20 mln this year, is one of the
leading U.S. Suppliers of electric despatching and telecontrol
systems.
 REUTER

asked how the company might give better value to shareholders.
    Gencorp had earlier urged shareholders to reject a 100 dlr
per share tender offer from General Acquisition, an affiliate
of Wagner and Brown and AFG Industries Inc, and said it was
    The General Acquisition partnership called the response
inflammatory and unproductive, particularly since it had tried
to discuss the offer with Gencorp.
    The partnership said Gencorp failed to say how it would
pill." Poison pills are shareholder rights plans that make
    Gencorp said in its statement earlier that it planned to
put off the date its rights will trade separately from the
common stock to April 6 from April 3. It said the extension was
subject to further extensions by the board and is conditional
on no person acquiring beneficial ownership of 20 pct or more
of Gencorp before April 6.
    The partnership in its statement again urged Gencorp
management to work with it to facilitate a transaction.
 REUTER

agreemement opening its markets to American goods, U.S. Trade
    The tarriffs, announced on Friday by President Reagan, will
 REUTER

Sedgwick Group Plc <SDWK.L> said its
wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary Sedgwick Tomenson Inc had
acquired BSi Incorp for a maximum eight mln Canadian dlrs.
    The funds will be raised through the issue of up to 1.16
mln ordinary Sedgwick shares to the vendors of BSi by no later
than 31 January 1991. Some 427,054 shares already have been
issued.
    BSi is a privately-held Canadian company involved in
actuarial, employee and executive benefits consulting and
administration. Its 1986 pretax profits excluding extraordinary
items totalled 1.14 mln Canadian dlrs.
 Reuter

its estimate of the deficit in the money market today up to a
record two billion stg, before taking account of its morning
operations, from 1.85 billion at midday.
    The Bank has provided the system with around 1.71 billion
stg assistance so far today.
 REUTER

Rexnord Inc, 96 pct owned by Banner
Industries Inc <BNR> following a recent tender offer, said it
has completed the sale of its Fairfield Manufacturing Co
subsidiary to NEOAX Inc for 70.5 mln dlrs in cash.
    Rexnord said it still plans to sell its Process Machinery
Division and Mathews Conveyor Co as part of its planned program
to divest five businesses with 200 mln dlrs in assets.
Bellofram Corp and Railway Maintenance Equipment Co have
already been sold.
 Reuter

Orion Pictures Corp's film
"Platoon" was awarded four Oscars by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences last night, including best picture,
best director for Oliver Stone and for sound and film editing.
    Another Orion film, "Hannah anbd Her Sisters," won three
Academy Awards -- for Woody Allen's original screenplay, Dianne
Wiest as best supporting actress and Michael Caine as best
supporting actor.
    Also winning three awards was Cinecom International Films
Inc's "Room with a View," for best screenplay adaptation,
costume design and art direction.
    Paul Newman, nominated for the seventh time, won the best
actor Oscar for "The Color of Money," distributed by Walt
Disney Co's Buena Vista, and deaf actress Marlee Martin was
named best actress for "Children of a Lesser God," released by
Gulf and Western Inc's <GW> Paramount Pictures.
 Reuter

U.S. LEADING INDICATORS ROSE 0.7 PCT IN FEB AFTER REVISED 0.5 PCT JAN FALL

Japan's Minister of International Trade
and Industry, Hajime Tamura, will meet representatives from 151
of the nation's largest companies next week and appeal to them
to do their best to increase imports, ministry officials said.
    The meeting was unveiled as part of a plan to boost imports
and help head off protectionist legislation in the U.S.
    Senior officials from the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry told reporters that such personal appeals appeared
to have paid off in the past, as Japanese imports of
manufactured goods have climbed.
    Leading domestic semiconductor makers will boost imports
and cut production of key memory microchips next month in an
attempt to help ward off U.S. Trade sanctions, company
spokesmen said.
    The officials also said they expect the government's new
trade insurance law to boost imports and encourage Japanese
companies to set up production facilities overseas.
    Under the new law, the government will insure Japanese
companies who pre-pay for imports against loss arising from
everything from war to bankruptcy of the foreign firm they are
dealing with. MITI estimated that it would help solve Japan's
trade problem to the tune of about $10 billion dlrs a year.
 REUTER

rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7 pct in February after a revised
0.5 pct January fall, the Commerce Department said.
    The department previously said the index fell 1.0 pct in
January.
    The February increase left the index at 187.1 over its 1967
base of 100, and was led by a rise in stock prices.
    A total of four of nine indicators available for February
contributed to the increase in the index.
    Besides stock prices, they were manufacturers' new orders
for consumer goods and materials, average work week and
building permits.
    Five of nine indicators were negative. They were change in
sensitive materials prices, money supply, vendor performance,
average weekly initial claims for state unemployment insurance,
and contracts and orders for plant and equipment.
    The main factor in the January revision was contracts and
orders for plant and equipment, the department said.
    December also was revised to a 2.4 pct rise from an earlier
2.3 pct rise due to a change in outstanding credit.
current economy, rose 0.9 pct in February after a decline of
1.3 pct in January and a rise of 0.9 pct in December.
economic activity, decreased 0.3 pct in February after
increasing 1.7 pct in January and falling by 0.5 pct in
December.
    The department said it has suspended net business formation
from the leading indicators index because it has deteriorated
as a measure of change in the business population.
 Reuter

said its year-end audit has revealed an extraordinary inventory
shortage at its Secaucus, N.J., distribution center and an
investigation is in progress.
    The company said it expects to report earnings for the year
ended January 31 in about two weeks and estimates that net
income will be 27 to 29 mln dlrs, or 72 to 77 cts per share,
down from earnings of 40.4 mln dlrs or 1.19 dlrs per share
earned the previous year.
    Ames said the net income for the year just ended will
reflect a decline in the gross margin percentage, an increase
in the effective tax rate and the effect of the inventory
shortage.
    A company spokesman said most of the decline in earnings
results from the inventory shortage.
 Reuter

the money market with a further 168 mln stg assistance in the
today to 1.88 billion stg and compares with its estimate of a
record two billon stg shortage in the system.
25 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 138 mln stg in band two at
9-13/16 pct and three mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
    It also bought two mln stg of treasury bills in band two at
 REUTER

A.H. Belo Corp said it will ask
shareholders at the May Six annual meeting to approve a change
of state of incorporation to Delaware from Texas.
    It said it wants to take advantage of Delaware's more
flexible corporation laws and laws allowing the limitation of
directors' liability.
    Belo said two thirds approval is required.
 Reuter

Executive board members of the
International Coffee Organization, ICO, passed over the issue
of export quota negotiations at its regular meeting here,
    No move was made to reopen dialogue on export quotas and no
further discussion on the issue is likely during the three-day
talks, they said.
    Producer and consumer members of the ICO council failed to
agree export quota shares in early March.
    Neither Brazil, the largest producer, nor the U.S., the
largest consumer, are ready to be flexible, delegates said.
    "The situation is unchanged," consumer spokesman Abraham Van
Overbeeke told reporters. "As long as Brazil sticks to its
position there will not be quotas -- there is no point in
meeting."
    At the last council meeting, Brazil wanted to maintain its
previous quota share of around 30 pct of the market. Consumers
and a splinter group of eight producers favoured redistribution
of export shares using "objective criteria," which would likely
have reduced Brazil's share.
    Brazilian delegate Lindenberg Sette said that, if quota
negotiations were to resume, the 1.0 mln bag shortfall Brazil
was willing to give up in early March if the producer proposal
was accepted would no longer be on the table.
    "As we said from the start...No agreement, no one million
bags," he told Reuters.
    Shortfalls of 200,000 bags offered by OAMCAF, the African
and Malagasy Coffee Organization, and 20,000 bags offered by
Angola, are also no longer valid, delegates said.
    The closest the board came to discussing quotas was a
briefing by the Guatemalan ICO delegate Rene Montes on a recent
Latin American producers meeting in Managua, delegates said.
    There, the producers expressed their political will to
negotiate basic quotas, particularly in the face of the
damaging drop in coffee prices after the council failed to
agree quotas, Montes said.
    The ICO board also reviewed export statistics and stock
verification. They expected talks on stock verification to take
up the remainder of today's session, delegates said.
 Reuter

Citicorp's Citicorp Global Payment
Products subsidiary said it has started nationwide operation of
its new rapid public money transfer service, Citicorp Express
Money Service.
    It said consumers can now send up to 10,000 dlrs across the
country within 15 minutes, 24 hours a day.
 Reuter

Oxford Energy Co said it expects to
file later today for an offering of 1,200,000 common shares
through underwriters led by Bear Stearns Cos Inc <BSC>.
    The company said proceeds will be used for waste tire
incineration projects and other corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Hudson Foods Inc said it has
agreed in principle to acquire Thies Cos Inc, a poultry, beef
and pork products provider to midwest supermarkets and food
distributors with sales of about 69 mln dlrs for the year ended
November One.
    The company said a definitive agreement is expected to be
signed in April.  Terms were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Ivory Coast maize output has risen
steadily during the last two decades and the country aims to
produce two mln tonnes annually "very rapidly," the official
daily Fraternite Matin reported.
    It said the country reached self-sufficiency in maize three
years ago and harvested a record 530,000 tonnes in 1985
compared with only 200,000 tonnes 20 years earlier.
    The daily did not detail 1986 output but said further
production increases are anticipated in the years ahead as part
of a policy of boosting domestic output to cut grain imports.
 Reuter

Esso Malaysia Bhd, a unit of Exxon
Corp of the U.S., Reported net profit of 70 mln ringgit from
its petroleum and ammonia operations in 1986 compared with 48.7
mln in 1985. Chairman Gerald F Cox said the improved
performance was mainly due to product prices falling more
slowly than crude prices during the year.
    He added that total sales volume increased as a result of
higher offtake by affiliated companies, while inland market
sales were maintained at around the previous year's levels.
    But growth prospects in 1987 remained weak and 1986 results
are unlikely to be repeated in the current financial year.
 REUTER

The Cabinet approved a plan for the
Port Authority of Thailand to buy six gantry cranes from
Metalna Co of Yugoslavia for about 13.4 mln dlrs, a government
    He said Thailand will pay for 25 pct of the cost of the
cranes in U.S. Dlrs and the rest by sales of rice, textiles and
other commodities to Yugoslavia.
    The Bangkok Shipowners and Agents Association has appealed
to the government to scrap the purchase plan. It said it would
be an unnecessary expense as most vessels calling at the port
already have their own cargo handling equipment.
 Reuter

Jewelmasters Inc said it expects to
report net income for the year ended January 31 20 to 25 pct
below analysts' estimates of 1,750,000 dlrs or 95 cts per share.
    Jewelmasters sales sales for the year just ended were about
52.5 mln dlrs. In the prior year it earned 1,650,000 dlrs on
sales of 45.1 mln dlrs.
    Jewelmasters said net income for the year was hurt by
disappointing sales in December and January, a high level of
advertising spending in the fourth quarter, higher than
expected opening expenses for 34 additional units and an
adjustment to inventory associated with a shift to a more
comprehensive inventory system.
    Jewelmasters said it expects to report audited results for
the fourth quarter and year in about three weeks.
 Reuter

Aluminium capacity expansion planned for
the period after 1990 will be insufficient to supply any
acceleration in demand growth, let alone an increase on the
scale which seems likely, according to analyst Anthony Bird
Associates' 1987 Aluminium Review.
    By 1995 non-socialist world primary capacity will need to
be around 18 mln tonnes, whereas on current plans only 15 mln
tonnes are scheduled, Bird said.
    Bird forecast higher economic growth after 1990 and
increased imports by less developed countries.
    Aluminium consumption growth is not expected to accelerate
by as much as general growth, but non-socialist world
consumption is nevertheless forecast to increase sharply from
13.77 mln tonnes in 1990 to 17.25 mln tonnes in 1995, Bird
said.
    Aluminium companies were slow to adjust to the pace of
change after 1973, the review said, and now they have completed
this transition they may be in danger of remaining preoccupied
with the strategies of retrenchment and survival which have
served them well in recent years.
    In order to encourage the construction of additional
smelters aluminium prices will need to settle at a higher
level.
    Production costs are likely to rise again in the years
ahead as the glut of alumina capacity vanishes and electricity
suppliers take a more aggressive line with aluminium companies,
according to the review.
    At March 1987 prices the three most likely cost-price
scenarios call for a long-run aluminium price of between 73 and
89.5 cents a lb, depending on exchange rates, Bird said.
    Such a price development is not expected to cause any
marked competitive problems for the metal because of the likely
rise in commodity prices as a whole and cost pressures in the
pipeline for steel and copper.
    In the short term, however, the outlook is dull, Bird said,
as the world economy has not responded well to the
opportunities offered by cheap oil.
    Its 1987 consumption forecast of 13.01 mln tonnes is 0.4
pct down on 1986, while production is forecast six pct higher
in 1987 at 12.67 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

Alpha Industries Inc said it has
sold its Microelectronics Division to Triax Corp for
undisclosed terms, retroactive to February One.
    It said the division has yearly revenues of about 12 mln
dlrs and makes RF microwave components for the defense
electronics industry.
    Alpha said it plans to concentrate on the high frequency
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 Reuter

government had spent too much or too little. One member said
people were worried about the state's budget deficit, projected
at more than two billion dlrs this year.
 Reuter

Unemployment fell in March to 36,510, or
1.7 pct of the workforce, compared with 39,700 (1.9 pct) in
February and 38,839 (2.2 pct) in March 1986, the Labour
Directorate said.
 REUTER

Pigmeat and beef futures, which have
been thinly traded on the London Meat Futures Exchange, LMFE,
despite lower physical prices and the introduction of new
contracts, need more effective marketing, LMFE chairman Pat
Elmer said in his annual report.
    In 1986 the Exchange introduced live cattle and pig cash
settlement contracts, representing a move away from the
problems of cash distortions and squeezes, which initial
deliverable "buyers option" contracts created, he said.
    Although the physical industry is aware of the market and
follows its prices keenly, this has not been reflected in
market volume, Elmer said.
    "If we are to achieve our true potential the floor members
must give the market much more time and attention," he added.
 Reuter

British package courier <Interlink
Express Plc> does not plan to bid for the whole or part of  
Purolator Courier Corp <PCC.N>, a spokesman said.
    "There is no intention of making any sort of approach to
Purolator," the spokesman told Reuters, adding, "it would be a
case of David versus Goliath."
    Interlink shares started trading in the U.K. Unlisted
Securities Market in October 1986. It posted pre-tax profits of
2.13 mln stg on turnover of 9.6 mln stg in the six months to
December 31, 1986. Purolator last year topped turnover of 465
mln dollars, the spokesman said.
between Purolator and Interlink in view of a takeover or
participation. He categorically denied press reports suggesting
Interlink was developing a buyout bid.
    The reports said the proposed bid would be a price above
the 35 dlrs per share offered by <E.F. Hutton LBO Inc>. The
Hutton offer expires tomorrow.
    The spokesman said Interlink was seeking to expand
business, first in continental Europe and later in the U.S. But
the company did not expect to gain foothold in the U.S. Market
until 1989 at the earliest, he said.
 Reuter

The West German economy is expected to
continue to grow at low levels despite a marked slowing of
expansive forces in early 1987, the German Industry Association
(BDI) said.
    A BDI statement warned, however, that a sense of proportion
in 1987 wage settlements was necessary to ensure that growth
was preserved.
    Union representatives and employers in the key engineering
industry are currently negotiating on 1987's and union claims
for a shorter working week. Last week public sector employees
received a 3.4 pct wage rise retroactive from January 1.
 REUTER

South Korean Finance Minister Chung
In-yong will resist pressure for a currency revaluation to cut
South Korea's trade surplus with the United States when he
meets Treasury Secretary James Baker next week, Finance
    They said Chung would leave Monday to attend the
International Monetary Fund's Interim Committee meeting and to
hold talks with Baker and other U.S. officials on ways to
reduce the surplus.
    The April 9 committee meeting is expected to review the
agreement by six industrialized nations in Paris last month
that newly-industrialized countries, such as South Korea and
Taiwan, should allow their currencies to increase in value.
 Reuter

J.C. Penney Co Inc said its board
declared a two-for-one stock split and raised the quarterly
dividend 12 cts per share on a presplit basis to 74 cts.
    Both are payable May One to holders of record April 10.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Revs 167.2 mln vs 154.0 mln
 Reuter

the money market with late assistance of around 215 mln stg.
This takes the bank's total help today to some 2.096 billion
stg and compares with its forecast of a two billion stg
 REUTER

Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> said
proposals to resolve a dispute over entry to Japan's
telecommunications market were not acceptable.
    A company spokesman said the proposals appear to have been
made in today's edition of the Japanese daily Asahi by Fumio
Watanabe, head of a telecommunications committee with the
Federation of Economic Organisations.
    However, the suggestion still recommended a merger between
the two consortia tendering for contracts and would give Cable
a five pct stake, more than the three pct originally proposed
but less than the 20 pct it holds in its original venture, he
said.
    The proposal would also offer a Cable nominee a seat on the
board of the merged company.
    The spokesman said he believed Japan should accept
applications from the two rivals for fair review.
    Earlier today Cable shares firmed on market speculation
that the dispute -- which is being treated by Britain's
government as a test case of how open the Japanese
telecommunications market is -- was near settlement.
    Cable shares at 1350 GMT were quoted at 375p compared with
a close last night at 364p.
 REUTER

Lawson said the United States and Japan must work to avert a
possible trade war, and he added that a trade war would not be
in the interests of Britain.
    Lawson told journalists that "the prospects for the (U.K.)
economy look very very good - providing we can avoid a trade
war." He stressed that "a heavy responsiblity in different ways
lies on Japan and the United States to ensure that we do avoid
such a trade war."
    Asked whether he believed such a trade war could be
averted, Lawson replied, "I very much hope so."
    Britain last week warned that it would retaliate if Japan
did not move soon to open its markets to outside competition.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave notice that the U.K.
Would fight the Japanese government's attempt to prevent (Cable
and Wireless Plc) (CAWL.L) from taking a significant position
in a new Japanese international telecommunications venture.
    But British officials are now trying to dampen
anti-Japanese rhetoric, to try to keep developments under
control.
    The British Conservative government will on Thursday
consider what legal options are available to it to try to
increase U.K. Access to Japanese markets, officials said.
 REUTER

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS PARIS ACCORD SHOULD FOSTER RATE STABILITY "AROUND CURRENT LEVELS"

TREASURY'S BAKER SEES CURRENT EXPANSION CONTINUING THROUGH THIS YEAR AND BEYOND

The Institute for Economic Research
(WIFO) said it has cut its forecast for Austria's 1987 gross
domestic product growth to a real one pct from a two pct
forecast made last December.
    WIFO chief Helmut Kramer told a new conference that he saw
the one pct figure, which compares with 1.8 pct last year, as
the upper limit of growth. The institute had made the revision
due to poor prospects for Austrian exports, he added.
    A collapse in sales to the Eastern European and oil
producing states, combined with the effects of the dollar's
fall, mean exports overall are unlikely to rise this year.
    Kramer said domestic demand alone would fuel growth this
year. After last year's 2.8 pct rise in real incomes, private
consumption was likely to rise 2.25 pct in 1987 after 1.9 pct
in 1986, despite a present trend towards higher savings.
    Unemployment was likely to rise to almost six pct from 5.2
pct last year due to the slack economic activity.
    Kramer said the current account was likely to run a deficit
of about four billion schillings compared with a 2.6 billion
surplus recorded last year. The National Bank, Austria's
central bank, last month forecast the current account would be
roughly in balance this year.
    However, Kramer said the lower economic growth should have
no notable effect on the government's attempts to cut the
budget deficit. This year's aim of reducing the deficit to 4.9
pct of GDP from 5.1 pct in 1986 could still be achieved, he
said.
 REUTER

<Gruppo Ferruzzi> is studying a
project which could result in a public share offer of up to 49
pct of its French unit <European Sugar (France)> and could
raise around 400 mln dlrs, Ferruzzi chairman Raul Gardini said.
    Gardini told Reuters the operation under consideration was
aimed at "international markets" and that the figure of 400 mln
dlrs given in some press reports "was probably about right."
    European Sugar, wholly-owned by Ferruzzi unit Eridania
Zuccherifici Nazionali SpA <ERDI.M>, is expected to absorb the
European corn wet milling business of CPC International Inc
<CPC.N> which Ferruzzi recently agreed to buy.
    Ferruzzi announced last week it had agreed in principle to
buy the CPC operation for 630 mln dlrs.
    A Ferruzzi spokesman later confirmed that the group was
studying the transfer of the CPC business to European Sugar
along with a possible share offering in the Paris unit, but
gave no details.
    The flotation plan has been interpreted by financial
analysts as a means of helping finance the acquisition of the
CPC business.
    In London yesterday, chairman of Belgian starch producer
<Amylum NV> Pierre Callebaut told Reuters that since Ferruzzi
was "apparently still organising finance," his company might
still succeed with its rival bid for the CPC business.
    Gardini, commenting on Callebaut's remarks, said the 630
mln dlrs agreed for the CPC acquisition would be paid "at the
date foreseen in the preliminary contract."
    Gardini could not reveal the date in question nor give any
indication of the likely timing of an offering of shares in
European Sugar, but it was announced last week that Ferruzzi's
purchase of the CPC business was expected to be completed by
    Callebaut said yesterday that Amylum was surprised and
disappointed that its 675 mln dlr bid cash offer for CPC's
European business was apparently rejected in favour of
Ferruzzi's lower bid.
    Gardini, commenting on Callebaut's remarks, said "Amylum
should know that one succeeds in a bid by making the right
offer at the right moment - exactly as Ferruzzi did in the case
of the acquisition of CPC's European business."
    Gardini said it was not Callebaut's business to concern
himself with the European Sugar capital raising operation under
study, he added.
    Asked about press reports that Ferruzzi might follow up the
European Sugar flotation with the sale of 49 pct of the CPC
business, Gardini said: "We do not exclude having minority
partners in the CPC business." He declined to elaborate.
 REUTER

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS INDUSTRIAL COUNTRY ECONOMIC COOPERATION IS WORKING

Dixons Group Plc <DXNS.L> said that
following an agreement with <Audio/Video Af~filiates Inc>, AVA,
all litigation between the companies has been dismissed.
    AVA filed suit against Dixons, Cyclops Corp, Allegheny Corp
and others in connection with Dixons' recent tender offer for
Cyclops on March 20.
    Dixons also said in today's statement that Cyacq Corp
agreed to end its competing tender offer of 92.50 dlrs per
share for all outstanding Cyclops common stock, which total
some 5.4 mln shares.
    In line with Cyacq's decision, Dixons said it would now pay
an additional 4.75 dlrs per share to each shareholder whose
shares were purchased following its offer for Cyclops at 90.25
    It said the additional amount, when added to the original
tender offer, totalled 95 dlrs per share.
    Dixons said on March 27 that it had raised its stake in
Cyclops Corp to about 83 pct, and that it intended to increase
from 90.25 dlrs to 95 dlrs the amount per share paid in the
merger of a Dixons subsidiary with Cyclops.
 REUTER

CORRECTED - GAF CORP OFFERS 46 DLRS A SHARE CASH FOR BORG-WARNER (CORRECTING AMOUNT)

General Motors Corp's <GM>
Hughes Aircraft Co subsidiary and Raytheon Co said they formed
a joint-venture partnership to compete for the U.S. Navy's
Advanced Air-to-Air Missile program.
    The two contractors said their teaming is in response to
the Navy's March 20 request for proposals for the
demonstration-validation phase of the program that called for
contractor teaming.
    The Hughes-Raytheon partnership is called H and R Co.
    The Hughes-Raytheon statement said McDonnell Douglas Corp's
<MD> McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co subsidiary will be the
principal subcontractor to the partnership and will be
responsible for the missile airframe design and propulsion.
    Under the partnership, it said, Raytheon and Hughes will
have equal responsibility for defining the overall missile
system design and development.
    Raytheon will have responsibility for the design of the
radar guidance sybsystem and target detection device.
    While Hughes will be responsible for overall guidance and
missile integration, both companies will assume key roles in
the integration of the overall missile with the Navy's many
aircraft and weapons systems, the statement said.
 Reuter

the agreement among the industrial countries reached in Paris
last month should foster stability of exchange rates at around
    In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee,
Baker outlined many of the measures taken designed to achieve
more balanced growth and a reduction of trade imbalances during
the Paris meeting.
    "These measures should also foster greater stability of
exchange rates around current levels," he said.
    Baker reiterated that the ministers at the Paris meeting
agreed that their currencies were within ranges "broadly
consistent with underlying economic fundamentals and that
further substantial exchange rate shifts could damage growth
and adjustment prospects."
    He added: "In these circumstances, we agreed to cooperate
closely to foster stability of exchange rates around current
levels."
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it entered into
a credit agreement with a group of commercial banks to provide,
on a secured basis, up to two billion dlrs to finance its
pending acquisitions of Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE> and
<Pacific Southwest Airlines> .
 Reuter

GAF Corp said it has made an all
cash merger proposal to Borg-Warner Corp at 46 dlrs per share
for all the company's common stock.
    Following a meeting yesterday with Borg-Warner officials
and investment bankers, GAF said, it is today delivering a
letter to the Borg-Warner board outling the terms of the
proposal that would be made by tender offer, pursuant to a
mutually acceptable merger agreement to be approved by the
Borg-Warner board and conditioned on that board's
recommendation of the tender offer and merger.
    GAF, in its letter, stated it intends to finance the
proposed acquisition entirely with its own funds and bank
borrowings under a syndicated bank loan from a group of banks
led by Chase Manhattan Corp's <CMB> Chase Manhattan Bank.
    Last week, GAF increased its ownership of Borg-Warner
shares to 19.9 pct of those outstanding Minstar Inc <MNST> sold
its 12.4 pct holding.
    GAF emphasized "the amicable nature of the proposed
transaction," which it characterized as a partnership.
    GAF said it wanted to discuss with the Borg-Warner board 
key roles for Borg-Warner's senior management in the new
organization, board representation for Borg-Warner directors on
a newly constituted board, and a company name change.
    GAF said it will be filing an amendment to its 13-D with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Borg-Warner has about 85.6 mln common shares outstanding.
    Minstar chairman Irwin L. Jacobs sold his stake after
Borg-Warner after the company failed to respond to his
mid-February offer for a negotiated agreement at a minimum
price of 44 dlrs a share.
    In November, Jacobs had offered to enter into acquisition
talks with Borg-Warner based on a price of between 43 and 48
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 500,000 vs loss 500,000
    Sales 47.4 mln vs 37.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 70 cts vs profit 89 cts
    Net profit 4.4 mln vs profit 5.3 mln
    Sales 195.5 mln vs 148.3 mln
 Reuter

Year
    Oper shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.85 dlrs
    Oper shr diluted 1.23 dlrs vs 1.79 dlrs
    Oper net 6,799,000 vs 9,321,000
    Revs 7,474,000 vs 12.4 mln
    Avg shrs 4,503,000 vs 4,350,000
    Avg shrs diluted 4,508,000 vs 5,206,000
386,000 dlrs vs 903,000 dlrs.
    1986 year net excludes gain 1,910,000 dlrs from sale of
    Net includes tax credits of 9,450,000 dlrs vs 11.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Opoer shr profit 17 cts vs loss 96 cts
    Oper net profit 2,293,000 vs loss 7,110,000
    Sales 116.0 mln vs 108.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 2.03 dlrs vs loss 2.12 dlrs
    Oper net loss 13.8 mln vs loss 11.6 mln
    Sales 454.0 mln vs 446.4 mln
10.2 mln dlrs vs 1,985,000 dlrs in quarter and 4,262,000 dlrs
vs 1,320,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Corvus Systems Inc said it has
rached an agreement to sell networking products for personal
computers to Bell Canada Enterprises Inc.
    It said Bell Canada will remarket the products as part of
its LANSCAPE line throughout Ontario and Quebec.
    Corvus said it expects the agreement to have a major impact
on its sales of networking products for years.
    It said products involved include its Omninet interface
boards for networking International Business Machines Corp
<IBM> and compatible computers on Omninet networks, the HUB
controller, network operating software and cabling components.
 Reuter

starts trading today on the <New York Stock Exchange>.
    The stock had been traded on the <American Stock Exchange>.
 Reuter

Shr loss nil vs profit nil
    Net loss 90,656 vs profit 892
    Revs 2,194,242 vs 2,481,784
    Avg shrs 19.5 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit nil vs loss one ct
    Net profit 42,824 vs loss 149,150
    Revs 6,364,992 vs 6,503,811
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 98,338 dlrs vs 81,492
dlrs in quartrer and 193,193 dlrs vs 226,560 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr loss 89 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net loss 13.9 mln vs loss 1,996,000
    Revs 204,000 vs 2,087,000
    Note: 1986 includes writedown of 12.5 mln dlrs for the
costs of mineral properties and deferred exploration and
development Bullmoose Lake in the Northwest Territories.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 777,000 vs 595,000
    Revs 12.9 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 68 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 2,957,000 vs 1,614,000
    Revs 49.4 mln vs 38.6 mln
    Avg shrs 4,344,204 vs 3,337,284
 Reuter

Shr loss 11 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net loss 286,817 vs profit 292,014
    Revs 9,972,379 vs 9,413,304
    Year
    Shr profit 63 cts vs profit 57 cts
    Net profit 1,547,893 vs profit 1,481,703
    Revs 43.9 mln vs 41.0 mln
    Avg shrs 2,474,820 vs 2,617,768
 Reuter

Nord Resources Corp said Kleinwort
Grieveson and Co, a U.K. investment banking firm, has agreed to
privately place 600,000 Nord common shares with institutional
investors outside of the U.S., primarily in the U.K.
    Nord said the placement was priced at 17.50 dlrs a share,
90 pct of the stock's closing price yesterday, and is scheduled
to close April 10.
    The company said it will raise about 10 mln dlrs which will
be used for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc's Metglas
Products said it and <Vacuumschmelze GmbH> signed a licensing
agreement whereby each may practice the other's technology for
amorphous metals in magnetic applications.
    Amorphous metal products are used in such devices as
switch-mode power supplies and other electronic components.
They are based on a proprietary rapid solidification process
that gives metals a glasslike molecular structure, making them
stronger, more ductile and corrosion-resistant, with unusual
magnetic charateristics.
 Reuter

<Metropolitan Life Insurance Co of New
York's> Compris Hotel Corp said it singed a letter of intent to
develop 33 Compri hotels by 1991.
    The hotels are to be built in the U.S. and Canada, the
company said. Compris said it signed the pact with Accor North
American Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of <Accor S.A.>, a
Paris-based firm.
    In the U.S., Accor will primarily develop Compri hotels on
the East Coast, with specific emphasis on the Tri-State area of
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Compris said.
    Accor will gain licensing rights to Canada, Compris said.
 Reuter

VLI Corp said it is in the final
planning stages for the introduction of a line of condoms that
it would introduce in the second half.
    It said it is in the process of selecting a supplier.
    In addition, the company said in the third quarter it will
start marketing in the U.S. the Clearplan ovulation test kit,
made by Unilever PLC <UL>.
 Reuter

<Diapulse Corp of America>
said it has received permission to resume marketing its
Diapulse pulsed high peak power electromagnetic energy medical
device for treatment of postoperative edema and pain in
superficial soft tissues.
    The company said it had been enjoined from marketing the
product in the U.S. since 1972 due to a labeling impasse with
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
    It said the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
New York modified an injunction against sale of the product
following a motion filed jointly by the company and the FDA.
 Reuter

that the current expansion, which he noted was in its fifth
year, will continue in the period ahead.
    He told the House Appropriations Committee that "there is
every prospect that the current expansion will continue
unabated through 1987 and the years beyond."
    Baker said interest rates over the period have continued to
decline and that "policies of the Federal Reserve assure that
ample credit was available.
    He said that the administration's longer term forecast
envisioned that "we will maintain and improve upon our progress
in bringing down the rate of inflation."
 Reuter

EC ministers have approved financial
packages for several Mediterranean states totalling 1.6 billion
European currency units, an EC official said.
    The packages, part of special EC trade agreements with
Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Algeria, Morocco and Jordan
until 1992, include 615 mln Ecus in grants, he said.
    They include one billion Ecus in loans from the European
Investment Bank, the EC long-term financing arm. The framework
for the transfers was signed yesterday by EC farm ministers
after being agreed in principle by foreign ministers earlier.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union featured prominently in
U.K. Grain exports outside the EC for the period July 1/March
13, taking a combined total of 1.10 mln tonnes of wheat and
barley out of all-destination U.K. Exports of 7.16 mln tonnes,
the Home Grown Cereals Authority said, quoting provisional
Customs and Excise figures.
    The Soviet total comprises 634,000 tonnes of wheat and
472,000 tonnes of barley. Grain traders said the figures
understate shipments already made by several thousand tonnes
and they expect total U.K. Grain exports to the USSR this
season to reach 2.5 mln tonnes, comprising 1.5 mln wheat/1.0
mln barley.
 Reuter

Shr loss 23 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 1,128,412 vs loss 548,054
    Sales 9,827,784 vs 12.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 19 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Net loss 926,924 vs profit 527,004
    Sales 32.3 mln vs 37.5 mln
 Reuter

M/A-Com Inc said it has
received a U.S. Army contract for the production and support of
terminals capable of receiving messages from the Defense
Satellite Communications System.
    The company said the contract has an initial value of
3,700,000 dlrs and a potential value of 17.0 mln dlrs.
Production will start in March 1989, it said.
 Reuter

North-Rhine
Westphalia is raising 1.2 billion marks through a 10-year
domestic bond with a coupon of 6-1/8 pct and priced at 100.20,
lead manager Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, WestLB,
said.
    The bonds yield 6.10 pct at issue, and will be sold from
April 2 to 7. Payment date is April 17, and the bond matures on
the same date in 1997. Some one billion marks will be issued
for immediate sale, and the remaining 200 mln marks will be set
aside for market regulation.
    Listing will be on all eight West German exchanges.
 REUTER

Oper shr 89 cts vs 1.31 dlrs
    Oper net 3,345,000 vs 4,885,000
    Sales 126.8 mln vs 120.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.67 dlrs vs 2.15 dlrs
    Oper net 6,299,000 vs 8,013,000
    Sales 380.9 mln vs 352.1 mln
    Prior year net both periods excludes gain 1,998,000 dlrs
from reversion of overfunded pension plans.
    Year net includes pretax LIFO inventory charge 600,000 dlrs
vs credit 900,000 dlrs.*Tax rate 40.6 pct vs 32.0 pct due to
impact of Tax Reform Act of 1986.
    Bad debt writeoffs for year up one mln dlrs pretax from the
 Reuter

Twin City Barge Inc said
it proposed a plan of reorganization to several of its largest
    The company also said it expects to file a Chapter 11
petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the near future.
    If these creditors agree to the plan, Twin City Barge said
it would propose it to its other creditors and to its
shareholders. Under the plan, the company would issue new
common stock to unsecured creditors and to a group of investors
who would fund the reorganization.
    Twin City also said as a result of a judgment entered March
Three in Dakota County, Minnesota District Court, John Lambert,
its former chairman and chief executive officer, started
actions to draw against bank accounts and other assets of the
company for 409,000 dlrs in severence benefits.
 Reuter

that the agreement in Paris to cooperate in exchange rate
changes showed that the process of coordination agreed to at
the Tokyo summit was working.
    He told the House Appropriations Committee the meeting
"demonstrated that the process is working."
    He noted that the industrial surplus countries committed
themselves to strengthen their growth prospects while the
deficit countries agreed to reduce their domestic imbalances.

    Baker said that for its part, Japan announced a cut in its
discount rate to 2.5 pct and committed itself to prepare a
comprehensive economic program to stimulate domestic demand
after the Diet completes action on the current budget.
    He said the United States must also do its share pressing
for reductions in the federal budget deficit through spending
cuts.
    "And we must continue to oppose protectionist pressures,"
he added.
 Reuter

French channel
tunnel consortium, needs to launch its planned 7.7-billion
franc third stage capital increase by end July to cover ongoing
project costs, French co-chairman Andre Benard said today.
    If the proposed public share offering was delayed beyond
then, Eurotunnel would have to find bridging finance, he told
reporters during a visit by French parliamentarians to the
construction site of the French tunnel terminal.
    Early elections in Britain could cause such a delay, he
noted.
    Britain's lower house of Parliament last month passed a
bill endorsing the construction of the 50-km (31-mile) tunnel.
The bill still needs approval of the upper house of Lords.
    Benard said the consortium had decided after lengthy
discussion to issue an identical mix of securities in the
London and Paris markets, but details of the precise package
had still to be decided.
    The offering would comprise approximately three billion
francs in each market with another 1.5 billion offered in the
United States, Japan and other European markets. Timing will be
set to take account of the French privatisation program.
   Earlier this month a Eurotunnel official said the
ratification bill should go before the National Assembly (lower
house) early next month before passing to the Senate (upper
house) at the end of May.
    Eurotunnel officials expect work on the sites to start in
December or January. The tunnel should be completed by 1993 for
an overall cost of 50 billion francs.
 REUTER

Dutch chemicals group Akzo
NV <AKZO.AS> said it hoped to consolidate its core activities
this year by making small acquisitions in the US.
   Akzo chairman Aarnoud Loudon told a news conference on its
1986 report that the company wanted to achieve the same level
of US investments it had before it divested its fibre firm
American Enka in December 1985, when US investments represented
20 pct of Akzo's total capital.
   The US expansion plans were not an attempt to compensate for
losses in guilder income through the lower dollar, Loudon said.
    He said a more important factor was the speed of growth in
the US, adding "It's the largest industrial market in the world."
But he said the company would also be looking at possible
acquisitions in Europe.
    Despite its highly liquid cash flow, Akzo did not plan
acquisitions on a scale that would negatively influence the
company's debt/equity ratio, Loudon said.
   The chairman said in the past two years Akzo had spent 1.1
billion guilders on acquisitions, of which nearly two thirds
were in the United States.
REUTER...

NL Industries Inc said it would seek
an alternative to current plans to spin off its chemical
operations if an affiliate tries to block the plan.
    The company said the lessor of an NL Chemicals pigment
making plant in Leverkusen, West Germany, has indicated the
plan, without the lessors consent, would allow the lessor
 to buy the plant and terminate a
supplies and services agreement.
    NL said it disagrees with the lessor's position and will
seek its consent to the spin-off. If the lessor does not
consent, NL will pursue an alternative that will result in the
separation of its chemicals and petroleum services businesses.
    NL said it believes the alternative form of the separation
would not require the lessor's consent, which would not be
sought. The alternative would require approval by NL
shareholders and other parties, which should be attainable, it
said.
    As previously announced, NL plans to distribute shares of
NL Chemicals Inc common stock as a spin-off, through redemption
of NL's Series C preferred stock depositary receipts, when the
redemption is not likely to result in significant tax liability
to either NL or NL Chemicals.
    NL also said it may consider paying the redemption value of
the Series C preferred stock in cash instead of implementing
the spin-off or the alternative for separating the two
    Under terms of the Series C preferred, NL at any time may
redeem the stock for cash. At Feb 28, 1987, the redemption
value was about 15 dlrs per depositary receipt, it said.
 Reuter

U.S. FEB FACTORY ORDERS ROSE 4.3 PCT, EXCLUDING DEFENCE ORDERS ROSE 3.2 PCT

Australia faces a major medium term
adjustment to reduce debt and improve its economic performance,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said
in its latest annual review of the Australian economy.
    It said Australia had a current external deficit of 5-3/4
pct of gross domestic product, high and rapidly rising external
debt equal to 30 pct of GDP, growing servicing costs and
inflation above nine pct, far higher than that of other OECD
    A major policy change in early 1985 helped lay the basis
for sustained non-inflationary growth and external
competitiveness had improved, but economic performance overall
had sharply deteriorated since June 1985.
    A major shift of real resources to the external sector --
about 4-1/2 pct of GDP by 1990-91 -- was required for the
economy to expand in line with potential, for employment to
grow, and for the debt/GDP ratio to stabilize, it said.
    Success depended on the setting of right policies including
tighter fiscal policy, a reduction in the public sector
borrowing requirement and on private sector behaviour.
    Looking ahead over the next 18 months, the OECD expected
economic performance to improve, partly as a result of tighter
fiscal and monetary policy, and a substantial improvement in
trade volumes.
    It said positive GDP growth of three pct might be restored,
the current external deficit could fall to some 4-1/2 pct of
GDP by the first half of next year, while inflation was
projected to decelerate to around five to 5-1/2 pct by
mid-1988.
    Continued real wage moderation was essential to maintain
the competitive edge created by the Australian dollar's
depreciation, and to maintain if not boost profit shares in
order to encourage business investment.
    The report urged Australia to broaden its export base by
developing viable and competitive service and manufacturing
industries, and not count on a recovery of commodity markets to
correct its external imbalances.
    It added Australia should reduce protection levels in
manufacturing, even though faster trade liberalisation would no
doubt hurt the most protected sectors of industry.
 REUTER

Radiation Disposal System Inc
said tests have been successful in using radioactive materials
to reduce the volume of low-level organic radioactive waste.
    The company said the tests were completed at North Carolina
State University in Raleigh. The tests showed the process
reduced the volume of radioactive waste without any
environmental release of radioactive solids or gases, the
 Reuter

Investors Savings Bank said it
will redeem on May 8 its 95 ct Series A cumulative convertible
preferred stock at 10.72 dlrs plus accrued interst of 10 cts
per share.
    The company said each share may be converted instead into
1.333 common shares through May 1.  Investors have outstanding
1,166,857 preferred shares convertible into 1,555,420 common
shares.
 Reuter

Representatives of U.S. sugar grower
organizations said they expect some increase the area planted
to sugarbeets this year and said the prospects for the 1987
cane sugar crop also are good.
    Dave Carter, president of the U.S. beet sugar association,
said plantings may be up in two major beet growing states,
California and Michigan, while sowings could be down slightly
in the largest producing state of Minnesota.
    Overall, Carter predicted beet plantings would rise in the
midwest, and this coupled with increases in California would
increase U.S. sugarbeet plantings slightly from the 1.232 mln
acres sown last year.
    USDA later today releases its first estimate of 1987 U.S.
sugarbeet plantings in the prospective plantings report.
    The main reason for the expected increase in beet sowings
is that returns from competing crops such as soybeans and
grains are "just awful," said Carter.
    In the midwest, bankers are strongly encouraging farmers to
plant sugarbeets because the U.S. sugar program offers a loan
rate of 18 cents per pound and because payments to farmers from
beet processors are spread evenly over the growing season, said
Luther Markwart, executive vice president of the American
sugarbeet growers association.
    "The banks are putting a lot of pressure on these guys,"
Markwart said.
    In some areas there are waiting lists of farmers seeking a
contract with processors to plant beets, Markwart said.
    USDA's report today will not include any harvested area
estimates for sugarcane, but representatives of Florida, Hawaii
and Louisiana growers said crop prospects are good.
    Horis Godfrey, a consultant representing Florida and Texas
cane growers, said Florida cane is off to a good start  because
for the first time in several years there was no winter freeze.
Although area to be harvesteed is about the same as last year,
cane production may be up in Florida this year, he said.
    In Hawaii, area harvested may decline slightly this year,
but likely will be offset again in 1987 by increased yields,
said Eiler Ravnholt, vice president of the Hawaiian Sugar
Planters Association.
    The acreage planted to sugarbeets will receive more than
the usual amount of attention this year because of mounting
concern that continued increases in domestic sugar production
threaten the U.S. sugar program, industry sources said.
    The increases in beet plantings have especially caused
concern among cane growers who have not expanded plantings,
particularly in Hawaii, industry officials said.
    "We haven't had a good weather year throughout the beet and
cane areas in more than five years," said Godfrey, adding that
the U.S. may be due for a good weather year.
    Rep. Jerry Huckaby, D-La., chairman of the House
agriculture subcommittee responsible for the sugar program, has
threatened to offer legislation next year to curb domestic
sweetener output if growers fail to restrain output in 1987.
 Reuter

rose 8.0 billion dlrs, or 4.3 pct, in February to a seasonally
adjusted 194.6 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    It was the largest one month rise in orders since a 4.8 pct
increase in September 1986, the department said.
    The February gain followed a revised orders drop in January
of 5.3 pct, the largest drop on record since the department
revised the statistics in 1982.
    The January decline was originally reported as 4.0 pct.
    Excluding defense orders factory orders rose 3.2 pct in
February after a 3.9 pct January decline.
    The new orders rise in February included an increase in
durable goods orders of 6.4 billion dlrs, or 6.7 pct, to 101.9
billion dlrs. The department had estimated on March 24 that
February durable goods orders rose 6.0 pct.
    New orders for nondurable goods  were up 1.6 billion dlrs,
or 1.8 pct, in February to 92.7 billion dlrs, the department
said.
    These figures compared with a January decline of 9.8 pct in
durables orders and no change in nondurables orders in January.
    Defense orders rose 2.2 billion dlrs, or 47.8 pct, in
February after falling 38.5 pct in January.
    Orders for nondefense capital goods gained a slight 0.1 pct
in February after falling 8.6 pct in January.
    Within major industry categories, orders increases were
widespread. Transportation equipment was up 12.5 pct after
falling by 17.9 pct in January.
    Primary metals orders rose 12.7 pct in February after
dropping by 20.1 pct in January.
    Electrical machinery orders rose 6.9 pct in February after
dropping 15.4 pct in January.
    February shipments were up 5.8 billion dlrs, or 3.0 pct to
195.7 billion dlrs after falling 3.9 pct in January.
    Unfilled orders declined 1.1 billion dlrs, or 0.3 pct, to
369.4 billion dlrs.  It was the third consecutive monthly
decline in unfilled orders, the department said.
    Manufacturers' inventories were down slightly in February
to 320.4 billion dlrs after rising in January by 0.8 pct.
 Reuter

New Plan Realty Trust said it plans to
redeem on April 30 all of its outstanding 8-3/8 pct convertible
subordinated debentures due Nov 15, 2000.
    As of March 30, there were 55.6 mln dlrs of debentures
outstanding. The redemption price will be 107.179 pct of the
principal amount plus accrued interest, the company said.
    Holders will have the right to convert the notes up to the
close of business on April 30. The current adjusted conversion
price is 11.49 dlrs a share.
    Of the total original issue of 66.7 mln dlrs, 50 mln dlrs
of notes were sold to the public and 16.7 mln dlrs were sold to
the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund of Great Britian.
    Bankers Trust is the trustee for the debentures.
 Reuter

Shr losses not given
    Net loss 7,800,000 vs loss 5,400,000
    Sales 181.2 mln vs 182.0 mln
    Year
    Shr losses not given
    Net loss 17.8 mln vs loss 4,900,000
    Sales 566.3 mln vs 523.3 mln
    NOTE: Company operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
    1986 year net includes four mln dlr LIFO charge and
3,400,000 dlr credit from pension plan termination.
 Reuter

Nord Resources Corp said it has
agreed to make a private placement of 600,000 common shares to
institutional investors in Britain and elsewhere outside the
U.S. priced at 17.50 dlrs per share.
    Closing of the placement is scheduled for April 10, Nord
said.
 Reuter

Capitol Bancorp said it has sold its 80
pct interest in CAP Mortgage Co Inc for 3.1 mln dlrs, adding
this is expected to result in an after tax gain of about
900,000 dlrs to be reported in the first quarter.
    Capitol Bancorp said the CAP Mortgage interest was sold to
Michael M. Bronstein, president of CAP Mortgage, and Robert
Fox, president of Fox Properties Inc. Bronstein already held
the other 20 pct of CAP Mortgage's stock.
 Reuter

qtr ends Jan 31
    Net 2,213 vs 16,288
    Revs 1,418,019 vs 795,522
    Avg shrs 6,650,000 vs 4,150,000
    Nine mths
    Shr two cts vs three cts
    Net 118,984 vs 103,384
    Revs 4,066,605 vs 2,741,241
    Avg shrs 6,650,000 vs 3,969,444
 Reuter

<Carr-Gottstein Co Inc>, a grocery and commercial real estate
concern, installed a Tandem NonStop EXT10 computer system to
provide check authorization for its statewide chain of
supermarkets.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 18 cts vs loss 38 cts
    Oper net profit 577,000 vs loss 1,147,000
    Revs 16.3 mln vs 19.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,227,625 vs 3,057,206
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes 485,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Old Dominion Systems Inc said
it has received a contract to provide multi-line voice
messaging systems to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service.
    It said the contract is to provide 280,000 dlrs of
equipment immediately and contains options for the purchase of
another 800,000 dlrs worth through May 30.
 Reuter

    Net loss 2,086,477 vs loss 1,466,907
    Revs 218,864 vs 60,000
    Avg shrs 7,510,781 vs 4,990,168
 Reuter

The Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange
has expanded the normal daily trading limit in Coffee "C"
contracts to 6.0 cents a lb, from the previous 4.0 cents,
effective today, the CSCE said.
    The new daily limits apply to all but the two nearby
positions, currently May and July, which trade without limits.
    In addition, the 6.0 cent limit can be increased to 9.0
cents a lb if the first two limited months both make limit
moves in the same direction for two consecutive sessions,
according to the CSCE announcement.
    Before the rule change today, the CSCE required two days of
limit moves in the first three restricted contracts before
expanding the daily trading limit.
    Under new guidelines, if the first two restricted
deliveries move the 6.0 cent limit for two days the Exchange
will expand the limit. The expanded 9.0 cent limit will remain
in effect until the settling prices on both of the first two
limited months has not moved by more than the normal 6.0 cent
limit for other contracts in two successive trading sessions,
the CSCE said.
 Reuter

General Electric
Co said the U.S. Defense Electronics Supply Center has awarded
its Research Triangle Park, N.C., facility a generic
certification for the production of two-micro gate arrays for
military use.
    The company said after it qualifies three generic test
circuits using the newly-certified two-micro process -- a
standard evaluation chip, micro test chip and JEDEC benchmark
chip -- the facility will require greatly simplified testing to
comply with military standards.  That qualification is expected
by the fourth quarter, the company said.
 Reuter

The Kansas City Board of Trade,
KCBT, has asked federal futures regulators to modify a proposal
to raise the Chicago Board of Trade's, CBT, speculative
position limits on wheat futures contracts, saying the plan
would put the the Kansas exchange "at a serious competitive
disadvantage."
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, last month
proposed raising CBT wheat speculative limits to 1,200
contracts all months net from 600 contracts, and to 900
contracts for any single month from 600 contracts.
    At the same time, CFTC proposed leaving KCBT's wheat
speculative position limits unchanged.
    "Higher limits for CBT wheat than for KCBT wheat would
significantly impair the KCBT's ability to compete with the CBT
for speculative interest," Michael Braude, president of the
Kansas exchange, said in a letter to CFTC.
    A CFTC spokesman said the commission took into account open
interest affected by existing speculative limits in proposing
to raise CBT's limits.
    KCBT said the CFTC proposal would reduce hedging
efficiency, constrain growth of intermarket spreading and of
the exchange's wheat options contract and impair its ability to
attract large speculators.
    The Kansas City exchange asked the commission to amend its
proposal to change the limits for KCBT wheat to the exact same
bushel amount as specified for CBT wheat.
    CFTC will consider public comments on the proposal until
June 3.
 Reuter

Gruppo Ferruzzi is studying a
pct of its French unit European Sugar (France) and could raise
around 400 mln dlrs, Ferruzzi chairman Raul Gardini said.
Zuccherifici Nazionali SpA, is expected to absorb the European
corn wet milling business of CPC International Inc which
Ferruzzi recently agreed to buy.
 Reuter

Heck's Inc said it has named
Touche Ross and Co to replace KMG Main Hurdman as auditor.
    A company spokesman said the change was made in connection
with Heck's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on March 5.
    The company said Touche Ross will complete work on 1986
financial statements that had been begun by KMG Main Hurdman.
    Heck's also said Bernard H. Frank has resigned from the
board for health reasons but remains the senior officer of its
wholesale division.
 Reuter

Silicon Graphics Inc is raising 35 mln
2012 with a 5-3/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
stock at 30.35 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.15
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated B-2 by
Poor's Corp. Alex Brown and Sons Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Tamura Corp is issuing 70 mln Swiss
francs of five-year straight notes with a 4-3/4 pct coupon and
par issue price, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    Payment is due April 15.
    The notes are guaranteed by the Sumitomo Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

acquired a significant minority equity interest in privately
held Data/Voice Solutions Corp, of Newport Beach, Calif., for
    Gandalf did not specify the size of the interest.
    Data/Voice is a three-year-old designer and manufacturer of
a multiprocessor, multiuser MS-DOS computing system that
Gandalf plans to integrate with its private automatic computer
exchange information system, Gandalf said.
 Reuter

Keycorp said it has signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Commercial Security Bancorp
<CSEC> by exchanging Keycorp common valued at 63 dlrs for each
Commercial Securities share.
    Keycorp said this gives the transaction an indicated value
of 102 mln dlrs.
    Keycorp said the amount of its stock to be exchanged will
be based on the daily average closing price of the shares for
an unspecified period prior to the closing of the acquisition.
    Based on a maximum of about 2.75 Keycorp shares and a
minimum of about 1.8 Keycorp to be exchanged, the agreement
provides that if the average price of Keycorp common is less
than 21.50 dlrs a share during the pricing period, the
agreement will terminate unless a new conversion ratio can be
negotiated.
    Keycorp said the transaction is designed to be tax free to
Commercial Security shareholders. The company said it will
treat the merger as a pooling of interests.
    It said the proposal is subject to approval by Commercial
Security shareholders and various regulators.
    Keycorp said the merger is expected to become effective as
soon as possible after December 31, 1987, the date Utah's
interstate banking law becomes operational.
    Keycorp said Richard K. Hemingway and certain members of
the Hemingway family who own about 30 pct of Commercial
Security's outstanding shares have agreed to vote in favor of
the transaction and not dispose of their stock.
     Based in Salt Lake City, Commercial Security ended 1986
with assets of 830.3 mln dlrs, net loans of 496.6 mln dlrs and
deposits of 707.9 mln dlrs. It had net income of 5.1 mln dlrs
or 3.16 dlrs a share on 1.6 mln average shares outstanding last
year.                        
 Reuter

Exxon Corp said in its annual report
that it raised production in 1986 although it did not replace
all oil and gas produced.
    The company said that it added about four pct to production
bringing it to 1.8 mln bpd, the highest level since 1979, based
largely on increased production of oil overseas but additions
to its reserves from new discoveries and reserve acquisitions
did not replace all of the oil and gas produced.
    The company said that the average price for oil and gas
declined 41 pct in 1986 from the previous year sparking a 38
pct decline in its earnings from exploration and production.
    Exxon's earnings from exploration and production in 1986
fell to 3.1 billion dlrs from 4.9 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Exxon said that its principal gains in production came from
the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, the North Sea, Malaysia and from
oil sands in Canada.
    Exxon also said that it acquired 11.2 mln acres for
expoloration spread over 10 countries including the U.S, Europe
and the Far East.
    But capital expenditures for exploration and production
were cut to 4.6 billion dlrs from 7.6 billion the previous year
and further reductions were expected in 1987.
    Exxon said that its net share of crude oil and natural gas
liquids produced from offshore fields in the North Sea reached
a new high of 422,000 bpd.
    The light, sweet crudes produced from these North Sea
fields also gave the company trading gains as Exxon was able to
sell much of this crude and replace it with cheaper, lower
quality crude oil for its refineries which have been upgraded
over the past several years.
    The trading gains and lower acquisition costs gave Exxon
more of a spread in its refinery operations and added to
earnings gains from refining and marketing.
    Exxon said earnings from refining and marketing operations
rose to nearly two billion dlrs in 1986, up from 872 mln dlrs
in 1985.
    The company said petroleum sales slipped slightly to 4.043
mln barrels per day from 4.082 mln bpd in 1985 while crude runs
rose to 3.0 mln bpd from 2.9 mln bpd the previous year.
    Exxon's refinery operations benefited from a three year 500
mln dlr upgrading program to its Baytown, Texas refinery
completed last October and an 850 mln dlr upgrading project in
Rotterdam both of which emphasize utilizing lower grade crudes
to extract higher proportions of light products.
 Reuter

The Nigerian government will carry out a
major review of import tariffs by the end of July, said member
of the ruling council and chief of general staff Rear-Admiral
Augustus Aikhomu, seen as the government's number two.
    "The comprehensive review will take care of items like spare
parts for vehicle assembly plants and machinery" he said.
    The government last reviewed tariffs in February following
the depreciation of the Nigerian naira by over 60 pct since the
currency was allowed to float last September.
    Aikhomu said the review was only an interim measure.
    Manufacturers saw the tariffs unfavourable to local
    Aikhomu repeated the government had not decided to remove
the remaining petroleum subsidies.
    He dismissed arguments that the move would increase
hardships faced by the poor due to the government's tough
economic adjustment programme as "sentimental and baseless."
    Last year, the government cut fuel subsidies by 80 pct but
this has since been lost to the naira's depreciation which has
made oil products cheap and a target of smuggling to
neighbouring countries.
 REUTER

China's application to join the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is seen as a test case by
the Soviet Union, which will probably demand to follow China, a
top European Community official said.
    Willy de Clercq, External Relations Commissioner of the
European Communities, told a news conference that China's
application would involve long and difficult negotiations.
    China formally applied to join GATT in July 1986 and in
February presented a memorandum backing its application, which
De Clercq said was now being studied. Questions would then be
presented to China.
    "After China, other important state-trading countries
including the Soviet Union, will probably demand accession.
China's application could be considered a test case," he said.
    He said the EC strongly backed China's application, but
others among GATT's 92 contracting parties took a tougher line.
    Among the numerous problems of a huge centrally-run economy
entering a free trade system are tariffs and reciprocity and
the expectation that China will practice an open-trade policy
without trade discrimination, de Clercq added.
    De Clercq noted the different dimensions of the Chinese
economy and those of Hungary and Yugoslavia, the two current
Socialist GATT members.
    On China's import potential, he said a foreign exchange
shortage would force China to import less this year and next
than in the past, with an emphasis on technological equipment
    During his visit, De Clercq has met top Chinese leaders and
today signed an agreement to open a European Community
Commission office in Peking.
 REUTER

Shr loss 53 cts vs loss 32 cts
    Net loss 1,548,000 vs loss 929,000
    Revs 9,362,000 vs 11.3 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 82 cts vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 2,408,000 vs profit 452,000
    Revs 40.9 mln vs 39.5 mln
    NOTE: full name of company is Rocky Mount Undergarment Co
Inc.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it has
awarded <Cimarron Express Inc>, an Ohio-based minority owned
and operated trucking company, a 2.3 mln dlr regional
transportation contract.
    Ford said that under the contract Cimarron will transport
automotive parts from more than 50 supplier firms in eight
southern states to Ford's Wixom Assembly Plant in Michigan.
 Reuter

said a 0.7 pct rise in February's index of leading indicators
pointed to stronger economic growth in the first half of 1987.
    In a statement commenting on the rise last month after a
0.5 pct January decline, Baldrige noted the leading index was
rising at an 8.0 pct annual rate in the six months to the end
of February.
    "Based on past relationships, that gain is consistent with
stepped up growth in real GNP during the first half of 1987,"
Baldrige said.
 Reuter

The Senate's Democratic and 
Republican leaders praised President Reagan for retaliating
against Japan for violating a semiconducter accord but dashed
cold water on ideas it was the first shot in a trade war.
    Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd and Republican leader
Bob Dole both told the Senate Reagan's decision was long
overdue and urged Japan to open its markets to U.S. goods and
stop dumping on world markets.
    Each noted in separate speeches that they saw no trade war
over the issue, despite concerns in financial markets.
    "That fear has no basis in fact," Byrd said.
 Reuter

DYR Liquidating Corp,
formerly Dyneer Corp, said its board declared a third
liquidating dividend of one dlr per share payable to
shareholders of record on April 14 and said it will file a
certificate of dissolution on that date.
    The company said shareholders of record on that date will
acquire beneficial interests in the liquidating trust that will
be formed to hold all of the company's assets.
    It said it has asked the American Stock Exchange to suspend
trading in its common stock at the close on April 6 to ensure
settlement of all traded by April 14.
    DYR said it expects its stock to be withdrawn from
registration under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 shortly
after April 14.
    DYR said the pay date for the dividend will be April 28.
 Reuter

Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 19 cts
    Shr diluted 1.11 dlrs vs 19 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 1,830,000
    Revs 79.3 mln vs 46.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes pretax charge 8,300,000 dlrs from
increases and reserves and writeoffs of low-yielding assets and
pretax gain 20.8 mln dlrs from sale of Multi-Family subsidiary.
 Another 3,800,000 dlrs of gain from the Multi-Family sale will
be recognized in 1987 if Multi-Family meets targeted operating
results.
 Reuter

Fiat SpA <FIAT.MI> expects its
consolidated group sales to reach 37,000 to 38,000 billion lire
in 1987 against a provisional 29,020 billion lire announced for
1986, managing director Cesare Romiti said.
    Romiti, speaking at a meeting of industrial managers and
engineering students, said the expected sales growth partly
reflected recent acqusitions such as that of <Alfa-Romeo SpA>.
    Alfa Romeo was acquired late last year and merged with
Fiat's Lancia unit to form a new company, Alfa-Lancia
Industriale Spa <ALFI.MI>.
 Reuter

Du Pont De Nemours Nederland BV, a
unit of U.S. Chemical firm E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co
<DD.N>, plans to dismiss 140 of its workforce, Dutch labour
federation FNV spokesman Frank Koolen said.
    A company spokesman confirmed the dismissal plans and added
the firm, which produces plugs and contact systems for the
electronics industry, needs to be restructured to cut losses.
    He declined to give financial details regarding the losses.
    The FNV spokesman also could not give exact sums, but said
from 1984 the unit had lost some tens of millions of guilders.
 REUTER

Peat Marwick and KMG Main Hurdman said
their merger will be completed tomorrow.
    The new firm, to be known as KPMG Peat Marwick, will rank
among the largest public account and consulting firms in the
U.S. based on combined 1986 revenues of 1.35 billion dlrs,
1,825 partners and a total staff of 16,500 in 136 offices.
    KPMG was created as part of the merger announced last
September of Peat Marwick International Klynveld Main Goerdeler
to form Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler.
 Reuter

The Dutch Finance Ministry said it is
discussing with foreign fiscal authorities, primarily West
German and Belgian, possible means to combat evasion of tax on
interest payments received abroad.
    Finance Minister Onno Ruding told parliament yesterday he
aimed in 1988 to recoup about 100 mln guilders in tax revenue
on interest income both at home and abroad, and a further 300
mln by the end of 1990.
    He expected Dutch banks soon to start automatically
reporting interest payments they make, but this could prompt
more investors to open foreign accounts, Ruding said.
    There are no restrictions on Dutch capital flows, and the
ministry was therefore seeking co-operation from fiscal
authorities abroad to monitor interest paid on accounts held by
Dutch citizens, said spokesman Jaap Weeda.
    Ruding was largely motivated by guidelines laid down in the
centre-right government's policy plan which calls for the
ministry to boost its income by one billion guilders by 1990.
    Weeda said it was difficult to estimate taxation lost
through undeclared interest income, but Ministry figures
indicated that about 20 pct of such income was not declared.
    Ruding told parliament Dutch banks seemed willing to
co-operate in plans to report on interest payments, but they
foresaw practical problems.
    There was no firm target date for introducing reporting
procedures, but Ruding was adamant it must happen soon.
    "I cannot and will not accept any delay," he said.
 REUTER

CORRECTION - DUESSELDORF - NORTH-RHINE WESTPHALIA
    In Duesseldorf item "North-Rhine Westphalia issues 1.2
billion mark bond" please read in second paragraph ".... Payment
date is April 7, and the bond matures ..."
    (Corrects payment date from April 17).
 REUTER

Central Bank to the commercial banks fell 1.01 billion guilders
to 9.5 billion guilders in the week ending March 30, the Bank's
weekly return showed.
    Dealers said payments by the Dutch state, partly in the
form of civil service wages, had outweighed payments to the
State, causing the money market deficit to ease.
    The Treasury's account with the Bank dropped 960 mln
guilders to 6.5 billion guilders.
    Liabilities in gold or foreign currency rose 200 mln to
11.9 billion guilders.
    Dealers said it was more likely that the alteration in this
item on the weekly return indicated normal commercial foreign
exchange business rather than intervention by the Central Bank.
     The Bank itself does not disclose information on
    Seasonal variation brought bank notes in circulation up 190
mln guilders to 29.7 billion guilders.
    Total gold and currency reserves rose 173 mln guilders to
56.4 billion guilders.
    Call money and period rates were barely changed in the
week. Today all were traded at 5-3/8 to 5-1/2 pct.
 REUTER

Italian automotive group Fiat SpA
<FIAT.MI> plans greater involvement in emerging high-technology
sectors which it believes will represent an increasing share of
advanced economies, a group executive said.
    Francesco Gallo, senior vice-president of international
activities, told a conference that Fiat was "fully aware that in
the years to come, the automotive industry will not be among
the fastest growing businesses."
    The group, with estimated revenue last year of 29,020
billion lire, would develop further in space and defence,
telecommunications, bioengineering, and aviation, he said.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it is extending its
low annual percentage rate (APR) financing, sales-incentive
program on some 1986 and 1987 model cars and trucks until April
10 from March 31.
    Chrysler said the program offers customers the choice
between Chrysler's low APR financing of 3.7 pct for 24 months,
5.9 pct for 36 months, 6.9 pct for 48 months or 9.9 pct for 60
months and a cash incentive, or a combination of low rate
financing through Chrysler Credit Corp plus a cash incentive.
 Reuter

launched today a new index of investment grade U.S. corporate
bonds based on 100 issues.
    The rating agency noted that Commodity Exchange Inc, Comex,
filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in October
1986 a proposal to list a futures contract based on the index.
Trading is expected to start later this year.
    Moody's said it calculated end-of-month index values back
to December 1979. Corporate bond prices closed on Friday at
274.01, up from the index's initial value of 100.00 on December
31, 1979, the agency said.
    The Moody's index includes a sample of liquid bonds Moody's
chose to mirror the credit quality, maturity, duration and
coupon distribution of bonds in the industrial, utility and
financial sectors of the U.S. secondary market.
    However, it excludes convertible subordinated debenture
issues and tax-exempt bonds, as well as bonds with maturities
under five years or with variable-rate coupons.
    The rating agency said the index has been designed to
reflect changes in corporate bond prices as they occur
throughout the trading day.
 Reuter

Borg-Warner Corp in a statement said it
has received GAF Corp's 46 dlrs a share acquisition proposal
and will have no comment until its board of directors has had a
chance to examine it thoroughly.
 Reuter

II Inc said it expects to distribute about 1.55 to 1.65 dlrs
per share from operations for all of 1987 and about 1.68 to
1.75 dlrs including the proceeds of the gain from the sale of
the Brighton Meadows mortgage through January 31.
    The company today paid a dividend of 1.1646 dlrs per share.
 Its first two quarterly payments, in September and December,
were 42.5 cts each.
    CRI said it has not yet declared a distribution on the Park
Meadows loan disposition.
 Reuter

The London Metal Exchange (LME) has
listed the aluminium brand "CBA' produced by Cia Brasileira de
Aluminio at its Mairinque, Sao Paulo, plant.
    The brand will constitute good delivery from April 1, the
LME said.
 Reuter

Guatemala will host a meeting of other
milds coffee producers probably in May to discuss basic export
quotas, the Guatemalan delegate to the International Coffee
Organization, ICO, said.
    No firm date has been set for the talks, Ambassador Rene
Montes told reporters at the ICO executive board meeting here.
    Producer countries Brazil, Colombia, and a member of
OAMCAF, the African and Malagasy Coffee Organization, may also
be invited for consultation, he said.
    ICO producers and consumers could not agree on how to
calculate export quota shares at a recent council meeting here.
    Other milds coffee producers include Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, and Peru.
 Reuter

will receive an undisclosed amount from <Dixons Group PLC> in
connection with the termination of Cyacq Corp's 92.50 dlr per
share tender offer for Cyclops Corp <CYL>.
    The company said the amount from Dixons is in lieu of
reimbursement expenses for the Cyacq tender.  Citicorp <CCI>
was the other partner in Cyacq.
    The payment was in connection with Dixons' previously
-announced agreement to increase its tender price for Cyclops
to 95.00 dlrs per share, Cycacq's ending of its competing bid
and the ending of litigation between the parties.
 Reuter

Republic Savings and Loan
Association and <Pioneer Savings> of Racine, Wis., said they
have signed a definitive agreement to combine the two
associations into a publicly held holding company to be called
Republic Capital Group Inc.
    The associations said they would form the company by
exchanging Republic's stock for shares in the holding company,
which Pioneer savers could purchase when Pioneer converts from
mutual to stock ownership.
    The associations added that they would remain independent,
but wholly owned, units of the holding company.
    The associations said they would continue to do business
using their present names and management.
    The combination of Republic's 459 mln dlrs in assets with
Pioneer's 125 mln dlrs would make the new holding company the
fifth largest savings and loan organization in Wisconsin, they
said.
    The associations said the move is subject to approval by
the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Wisconsin Commissioner
of Savings and Loan, as well as Republic's shareholders and
Pioneer's depositors.
 Reuter

National Gypsum Co, a unit of Aancor
Holdings Inc, said it filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission an amended registration statement covering up to 300
mln dlrs of 10-year priority senior subordinated notes.
    It previously filed a statement covering up to 600 mln dlrs
of such notes, National Gypsum said. The notes are part of a
refinancing plan that includes a new credit agreement with
domestic and foreign banks for 300 mln dlrs.
    Proceeds from the new notes and bank facility will be used
to terminate the company's current revolving credit facility by
repaying the approximate 400 mln dlr balance, it said.
    A total of 620 mln dlrs was originally drawn down under the
revolving credit facility on April 29, 1986, when National
Gypsum was acquired by a management-led investors group in a
leveraged buyout, the company said.
    National Gypsum said that the new credit agreement will
convert in 1990 to a term loan that will be amortized over four
years.
    It said the new notes will rank senior to the company's
existing 14-1/2 pct senior subordinated debentures of 2001 and
15-1/2 pct discount debentures due 2004.
 Reuter

Poland met the Paris Club of western
creditor nations for renewed talks on rescheduling its debt
repayments but no conclusive result was expected, diplomatic
    They said the discussions, led on the Polish side by deputy
Finance Minister Andrzej Doroscz, were to renew contacts agreed
after an inconclusive meeting in January and the talks were
described as a "technical meeting."
    The January talks focussed on the rescheduling of about 500
mln dlrs of interest and principal due by end-1986 and also
touched upon delays in debt repayments recheduled previously.
    Poland has a 33.5 billion dollar debt to western creditor
countries and commercial banks and has already indicated it
will not be able to meet interest payments this year after
falling behind for the past two years.
    "The Paris Club is demanding repayment but Poland needs new
credits and has made certain supplementary proposals, but it is
up to the Club to show an initiative," one of the diplomatic
sources said without elaborating.
    Poland is still continuing a dialogue with the
International Monetary Fund but this is progressing slowly, the
    One diplomatic source said the key to Poland's debt problem
lay in London, saying that the commercial bank creditors there
must take a practical position before a Paris Club decision.
    "But their position seems to be hardening," the source said.
"One really cannot expect a positive conclusion to today's
talks," the source added.
 REUTER

Shr 19 cts
    Net 653,000
    Revs 45.6 mln
    Note: Prior results not given due to November, 1986
acquisition of 56 pct stake in Continuous Colour Coat Ltd
 Reuter

Brougher Insurance Group Inc
said it plans to sell 40 pct of the stock of its subsidiary,
Intercontinental Corp, for one mln dlrs to three European
insurance companies.
    The parent company said it signed a letter of intent to
sell the stock to <WASA Europeiska Forsakrings AB> of Sweden,
<Europeiske Reiseforsikring A/S> of Norway, and <Europeiska
Rejseforsikrings A/S> of Denmark.
    Brougher said it expects to realize a net after-tax gain of
approximately 330,000 dlrs, or 12 cts per share, from issuing
stock of Intercontinental.
 Reuter

The Canadian industrial product price
index, base 1981, fell 0.2 pct in February after rising 0.2 pct
in January, Statistics Canada said.
    "A significant part of this monthly decrease was
attributable to the impact of the increase of the Canadian
dollar on prices for wood pulps, newspaper, aluminum, nickel
and motor vehicles," the federal agency said.
    On a year-over-year basis, the index was down 0.8 pct,
little change from the 0.9 pct decline posted in January.
 Reuter

Rep. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., predicted
the Reagan administration within the next ten days to two weeks
will offer subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union under the
Export Enhancement Program, EEP.
    Roberts made the comment at a press conference held by
Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee.
    He did not say on what he based the comment, but an aide
said Roberts had been in touch with top Republican officials
recently.
    The possibility of an expansion of EEP to include wheat to
Moscow has been rumored for some time, and some industry
sources believe a decision on the issue will be made by the
Reagan administration before Secretary of State George Shultz
goes to Moscow in April.
 Reuter

Sun City Industries Inc said preliminary
unaudited results of ongoing operations for the fiscal year
ended January 31, 1987 are expected to rise over 580 pct to
700,000 dlrs or 70 cts per share from the 125,313 dlrs or 12
cts reported last year.
    Total net income is expected to reach 2.4 mln dlrs, which
includes 1.7 mln dlrs of net income realized from sale of
property. The combination will result in record earnings of
2.40 dlrs a share, the wholesale distributor and processor of
eggs said.
 Reuter

enter the U.S. government securities market to add temporary
    They said the Fed probably will add the reserves indirectly
by arranging around two billion dlrs of customer repurchase
agreements. A direct reserve supply through System repurchase
agreements is possible instead.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.33 pct yesterday, opened at
6-3/4 pct and traded between there and 6-3/8 pct. End of
quarter demand pressures are pushing up the funds rate.
 Reuter

said President Reagan's veto of an 88 billion dlr highway
construction bill does not show leadership.
    "Government by veto is not leadership," the West Virginia
Democrat told reporters. "It's confrontation."
    He said Reagan "is attempting to show he's back and
rehabilitated by vetoing a very important bill."
    The House is expected to override the veto today, but the
outcome is uncertain in the Senate. Byrd said he is not sure
when the bill would go before the Senate if the House
overrides, but anticipated action this week.
 Reuter

The St Lawrence Seaway said the first
ship of the season passed through the St Lambert lock here this
morning, officially opening the 2,300-mile-long waterway's 1987
shipping season.
    The seaway has said it expects little increase in freight
levels this year from last year when it moved 37.6 mln tonnes
of freight between Montreal and Lake Ontario and 41.6 mln
tonnes on the Welland Canal, which links Lake Erie and Lake
Ontario. The canal is scheduled to open tomorrow.
    Officials expect the waterway to lose nine to ten mln
Canadian dlrs this year, about the same as the estimated
deficit for fiscal 1986-87, which ends today.
 Reuter

Acton Corp said it has agreed to
sell its five Michigan cable television systems to Wisconsin
Cablevision Inc for about 9,500,000 dlrs, resulting in a gain
of about six mln dlrs.
    The company said the sale is subject to review by local
authorities.  The systems have about 7,500 subscribers.
    Acton said proceeds will be used to retire bank debt.
    The company said it has also entered into a 15.5 mln dlr
bank credit agreement that will allow it to complete the
prepayment of all its obligations to members of its present
bank syndicate.
    The company said the new credit will also allow it to
prepay some other debt and redeem its Class C Series Two
    It said the new facility has allowed it to take full
advantage of an early payment discount of about 13 mln dlrs in
principal and interest which was negotiated with its banking
syndicate in connection with an April 1986 financial
 Reuter

A plan by European producers to sell
854,000 tonnes of sugar to European Community intervention
stocks still stands, Andrea Minguzzi, an official at French
sugar producer Beghin-Say, said.
    Last week Beghin-Say president Jean-Marc Vernes said a
possible settlement of a row with the EC would lead producers
to withdraw their offer, which was made as a protest against EC
export licensing policies.
    The EC policy is to offer export rebates, which fail to
give producers an equivalent price to that which they would get
by offering sugar into intervention stocks, Vernes said.
    But Minguzzi said the offer was a commercial affair and
that producers had no intention of withdrawing the sugar offer
already lodged with intervention boards of different European
countries. He said final quality approval for all the sugar
offered could come later this week. Some 95 pct had already
cleared quality specifications.
    The EC can only reject an offer to sell into intervention
stocks on quality grounds. Minguzzi added that under EC
regulations, the Community has until early May to pay for the
sugar. He declined to put an exact figure on the amount of
sugar offered by Beghin-Say, but said it was below 500,000
tonnes.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp said that 1986's 15 pct
increase in earnings per share to 7.42 dlrs a share were
partially based on its streamlined operations which compensated
for the weakness in its exploration earnings and the lowest
crude oil prices in a decade.
    Exxon said economies introduced in its operations from
reductions in personnel and other savings, such as reductions
in exploration expenses, were reflected in an 880 mln dlr
reduction in consolidated operating costs from 1985.
    The company said its more efficient operations would be
necessary to offset more adverse oil market conditions ahead.
    The company also said that its share repurchase plan
contributed to the per share gains over 1985.
    In a breakdown of costs, Exxon said that operating expenses
slipped to 9.2 billion dlrs in 1986 from 9.7 billion dlrs the
previous year and exploration expenses, including dry holes,
slipped back to 1.2 billion dlrs from 1.5 billion dlrs over the
same period as the number of wells drilled was lower.
    The company was also able to use lower interest rates to
reduce its interest expenses to 614 mln dlrs in 1986 from 627
mln dlrs the previous year.
    Exxon said that the ratio of debt to capital was cut by 1.6
pct in 1986 from the previous year to 19 pct.
    On December 31, 1986 Exxon's total debt of 7.87 billion
dlrs was down slightly from the previous year's 7.9 billion
dlrs and long term debt stood at 4.3 billion dlrs, down from
4.8 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Exxon's policy of repurchasing shares on the market for its
treasury also contributed to earnings results by a reduction of
shares to 722.6 mln shares from 754.1 mln shares the previous
year.
 Reuter

At least 40 soldiers and
guerrillas including a U.S. military adviser died today in a
major battle in northern El Salvador, military sources said.
    The sources said 30 guerrillas and 12 government soldiers
were killed when up to 800 leftwing guerrillas attacked the El
Paraiso base of the Fourth Infantry Brigade in the province of
Chalatenango, about 35 miles north of San Salvador.
    A U.S. embassy spokesman confirmed that a U.S. adviser was
among the dead. 
    The one-hour battle involved some of the heaviest fighting
for several years, the sources said.

 Reuter

Yeutter said the stock market overreacted to a U.S. decision
last week to proceed with tariffs on some Japanese computer
products.
    Speaking to reporters prior to testifying at a House
Agriculture Committee hearing, Yeutter said it is "difficult to
comprehend" that a trade decision affecting only 300 mln dlrs
in goods caused the stock market collapse yesterday.
    "I have a hunch a lot of other things were involved in that
(stock market fall), including simple profit-taking," Yeutter
said.
    Yeutter said Japan would be sending a senior official from
its trade ministry to Washington next week for talks on the
computer chip dispute.
    "We will be glad to have him here, but that's not going to
affect a decision that's already been made," Yeutter said.
    The decision announced last week would apply higher tariffs
on a range of Japanese products in retaliation for the alleged
failure of Tokyo to honor an agreement with the U.S. on
 Reuter

European countries
must cooperate closely if they want to save their electronics
industry from dropping to a third-rate global position, NV
Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PLGO.AS> chairman Cor van der
Klugt told a congress here.
    Noting that Europe was now a net importer of Integrated
Circuits, Van der Klugt said that in information technology,
the European Community had posted a trade deficit in 1984 of
five billion ecus compared with a 1975 surplus of 1.7 billion
ecus.
    Such factors were forcing European electronics companies to
seek cooperation with others both inside and outside Europe.
    Van der Klugt cited Western Europe's joint high-technology
research programme ESPRIT, sponsored by the European Community,
as a useful programme for what he called "pre-competitive
cooperation" with other companies in the same or related fields.
    The Philips president said companies should join such
efforts in an attempt to gain a foothold in markets of
strategic importance such as the U.S. And Japan.
    Working together, firms could produce on a larger scale and
more cheaply by sharing business risks and pooling together
development, marketing and production activities, he said.
    As an example, Van der Klugt pointed to Philips'
telecommunications joint venture with AT and T <T.N> of the
U.S. To form <APT>, working on digital telephone exchange
projects.
    "Only the largest companies can recoup the billions of
dollars involved in development in this area," he said, adding
that the world market offered room for no more than seven or
eight manufacturers of such products.
 Reuter

Unfavorable late winter weather
conditions in the main wheat growing areas of Yugoslavia
indicate dimmed prospects for the emerging winter wheat crop,
the U.S. embassy's agricultural officer in Belgrade said.
    The officer, who travelled through an area from Belgrade to
Subotica, said in a field report dated March 27 the wheat crop
had been set back at least three weeks because of a cold spell
that followed a period of warm weather.
    He said unseasonably warm weather in late February that
brought the wheat crop out of winter dormancy early was
followed by three weeks of unusually cold weather.
    Damaging effects were seen in the fields, most of which
show stands with a yellow-brown cast indicating extensive leaf
and possible root damage from repeated freezings, he said.
    The report said that since much of the early growth in
February was from late seeding rather than from normal
development, his view was that the damage may be more extensive
than some local observers say.
    The most seriously affected fields were late-seeded fields
on normal maize soils. Stands in these fields were thin and
chances of recovery appeared less favorable, he said.
    However, he said soil moisture conditions were favorable
and many of the fields had already been top-dressed, which
would aid recovery.
 Reuter

USX Corp's Texas Oil and Gas Corp
subsidiary and Consolidated Natural Gas Co have mutually agreed
not to pursue further their talks on Consolidated's possible
purchase of Apollo Gas Co from Texas Oil.
    No details were given.
 Reuter

ARVIN INDUSTRIES SEES FLAT 1ST QTR PER SHARE NET COMPARED WITH 59 CTS LAST YEAR

Hal Weiss, chairman,
president and chief executive officer, of Rocky Mount
Undergarment Co Inc, said he expects the company to show a
profit for the first quarter fiscal 1987.
    Weiss said sales for 1987 have been strong following a net
loss of 1,548,000 dlrs, or 53 cts a share, for the fourth
quarter of fiscal 1986. The company reported a net loss for the
year of 2,408,000 dlrs, or 82 cts a share.
    Rocky Mount recorded net income of 248,000 dlrs, or eight
cts per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 1986.
    Weiss attributed the poor year to problems involving
management, manufacturing operations, financial condition and
credibility among its suppliers.
    Weiss predicted the pattern of quarterly lossses which
characterized 1986 will be reversed and 1987 will see the
company return to profitability.
 Reuter

The Chubb Corp said it completed the
previously-announced merger of its subsidiary with and into
Sovereign Corp <SOVR>, a life insurance holding company.
    Under the terms of the merger, Sovereign stockholders
wil receive, in a tax free exchange, 0.1365 of a share of Chubb
common stock for each share of Sovereign held, the company
said. 
    This equals 9.11 dlrs per share of Sovereign stock based on
the closing price of Chubb common stock on March 30.
   
 Reuter

The Japanese ambassador to the U.S.
Suggested that Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone make efforts to
present "advanced' proposals on trade issues when he visits
Washington next month.
    Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga made the recommendation at a
meeting with Nakasone, Kyodo News Service said.
    Matsunaga also advised that the prime minister should be
prepared to discuss U.S.-Japan economic issues.
    Matsunaga cited issues such as a U.S.-Japan micro chip
trade pact, foreign access to the Kansai international airport
project, and a new international telecommunications firm.
    Matsunaga returned on Sunday to report to Japanese leaders
on recent U.S. Developments over trade, in preparation for
Nakasone's visit to Washington, April 29 to May 5.
    Kyodo quoted Nakasone as telling reporters after meeting
the envoy, "I entirely accept what ambassador Matsunaga
recommended." Nakasone did not elaborate.
    The U.S.-Japan trade dispute intensified last week when
President Ronald Reagan said the U.S. Would impose heavy
tariffs on Japanese imports in retaliation against alleged
Japanese breach of the computer chip trade pact.
    Meanwhile, Nakasone's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
is to consider measures to boost imports and open up the
Japanese market, such as government purchase of supercomputers
and expanding foreign access to the Kansai airport project,
party sources said.
    The LDP international economic affairs council was
responding to Nakasone's request for measures to reduce Japan's
increasing trade surpluses with the U.S. And Europe, they said.
 REUTER

Roy F Weston Inc said it filed with
the Securitites and Exchange Commission a registration
    Plans for the proceeds include capital expenditures such as
new office buildings, equipment and facilities, the company
said.  Weston also anticipates using the proceeds for possible
acquisitions of related businesses as well as for general
    Weston named Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc as sole manager of
 Reuter

Lyng declined to confirm statements made today by a farm state
congressman that the United States will offer subsidized wheat
to the Soviet Union within the next 10 days to two weeks.
    When asked to clarify comments by Rep. Pat Roberts of
Kansas that the administration would soon offer Export
Enhancement wheat to the Soviet Union Lyng said, "well it won't
be today," and then added, "we have no official comment one way
or the other."
    Lyng would not comment on whether a wheat subsidy offer to
the USSR is under more active consideration at the USDA, saying
that any remarks by him would be tantamount to an official
announcement and could be construed inappropriately.
 Reuter

<New Harding Group Inc>,
formerly Harding Carpets Ltd, said it declared its first
dividend since fiscal 1978 of 10 cts per subordinate voting
share and multiple voting share, pay April 15, record April 8.
    The company said the dividend establishes a new policy for
the payment of quarterly dividends.
    New Harding earlier reported profit of 653,000 dlrs or 19
cts a share for first quarter ended January 31. It said prior
results were not comparable due to the company's November, 1986
acquisition of a 57 pct stake in Continuous Colour Coat Ltd.
 Reuter

Stewart Information Services Inc said a
Riverside, Calif., jury has awarded 2,295,000 dlrs in punitive
damages against its Stewart Title Guaranty Co subsidiary in
connection with a 37,000 dlr title insurance policy.
    The company said it has filed a motion with the trail court
judge to reduce the amount of damages, eliminate the punitive
damage award or grant a new trial, and it intends to appeal if
the motion is denied.  It said it expects a substantial
reduction in the award.
 Reuter

Investor David F. Laroche said he has
decided to drop the condition to his tender offer for 170,000
shares of NECO Enterprises Inc at 26 dlrs each that at least
170,000 shares be tendered.
    He said he has extended the expiration of the offer until
April 14.
    Thorugh March 27, he said 45,696 NECO shares had been
tendered.
    Laroche said he may obtain a short-term loan of up to one
mln dlrs from Amoskeag Bank to help finance the purchase of
shares under the offer, bearing interest of up to nine pct.
 Reuter

Chevron Corp said its Chevron
U.S.A. Inc unit and Tokyo-based Nippon Oil Co Ltd agreed to
conduct a joint-venture oil exploration and development program
on selected Chevron leaseholds in the United States.
    About 50 onshore and offshore exploratory wells will be
drilled under the agreement and Chevron will be the operator of
the project and pay some costs, the company said.
    It said Nippon will contribute an initial investment of
more than 100 mln dlrs.
    The Japanese government will also participate in the
venture by providing financing to Nippon through the Japanese
Oil Corp, Chevron said.
    It said drilling will begin during the second quarter.
    Properties to be evaluated are located in California,
Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota,
Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, along with Federal Outer Continental
Shelf leases offshore Southern California and in the Gulf of
Mexico, Chevron said.
 Reuter

Pratt and Whitney, a unit
of United Technologies Corp, said a Swissair order for PW4000
turbofan engines could be worth more than 470 mln dlrs.
    Earlier, Swissair said it selected Pratt and Whitney's
PW4000 for its new fleet of McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> MD-11
aircraft but gave no value for the engine order.
    Pratt and Whitney said the order could include up to 69
engines, including options and spares, and parts, making the
order potentially worth 470 mln dlrs.
    Swissair's order is for six MD-11 aircraft with an option
for another 12 planes.
    Pratt and Whitney said Swissair becomes the fifth major
carrier to select the PW4000.
    The new turbofan engine is scheduled to enter service this
summer with Pan American World Airways, a unit of Pan Am Corp
<PN> and Singapore Airlines.
 Reuter

Telecast Inc said it closed on
the financing portion of its previously-announced acquisition
of approximately 14,600 hotel rooms from <Dynavision Inc>.
    The three mln dlr financing package was provided by Sanwa
Business Credit Corp, a subsidiary of <Sanwa Bank Ltd> of
Japan, the company said.
 Reuter

A new grade of unleaded gasoline
now being test marketed will increase refining costs when
refiners can least afford it, according to officials attending
the National Petroleum Refiners Association conference here.
    The new grade of unleaded gasoline has an octane level of
89 compared with over 90 for super unleaded and 87 for regular
unleaded gasoline.
     Amoco Corp <AN> has test-marketed the new mid-grade
gasoline and hopes to sell it on a regular basis in the South,
East and Midwest by the beginning of June, according to Paul
Collier, executive vice president of marketing.
    Phillips Petroleum <P> expects to begin marketing the new
89 octane unleaded gasoline in May, sources said.
    Converting current refinery operations to produce the 89
octane unleaded gsoline could cost hundreds of millions of
dollars per refinery but that depends on the present capacity
and intensity of the refinery, said Amoco's Collier.
    But not all oil company's welcome the introduction of
another grade of unleaded gasoline.
    "Three grades are not warranted," said Henry Rosenberg,
chairman of Crown Central Petroleum <CNP>. "Refiners will have
to upgrade again," he added.
    "An investment will have to be made," said Archie Dunham,
executive vice president of petroleum products at Conoco, an
operating subsidiary of DuPont Corp <DD> in order to upgrade
refinery operations.
 Reuter

Shr profit 18 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net profit 766,000 vs loss 510,000
    Sales 32.4 mln vs 25.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 71 cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net profit 2,337,000 vs loss 747,000
    Sales 132.1 mln vs 119.6 mln
    NOTE: Prior year results pro forma for acquisition of C and
D Power Systems divisions of Allied-Signal Inc <ALD>.
 Reuter

Western Investment Real Estate
Trust said an offering of 3,500,000 shares is underway at
19.875 dlrs each through underwriters led by Merrill Lynch and
Co Inc <MER>, <Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp>
and A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc <AGE>.
 Reuter

Underwriter Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER> said an initial public offering of 1,216,700 common
shares of Seacoast Savings Bank of New Hampshire is underway at
10 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Loan Association said its board has decided to change the
company's name to Altus Bank, subject to shareholder approval
at the April 29 annual meeting.
 Reuter

Circle Fine Art Corp said its common
stock will be included in the next expansion of the NASDAQ
National Market System to take place April 7.
    Circle Fine Art said its quotation symbol will be <CFNE>.
 Reuter

I.R.E. Financial Corp said
it has filed suit against CenTrust Savings Bank <CTSTP> seeking
to compel CenTrust to sell I.R.E. the 289,700 shares of
Atlantic Federal Savings and Loan Association <ASAL> that are
the subject of an option agreement between the parties.
    The company alleged CenTrust has refused to deliver the
shares, claiming that the option had expired.
 Reuter

Consolidated net loss 5.54 billion francs vs loss 10.93
billion.
    Consolidated net turnover 131.06 billion francs vs 122.14
billion.
    Consolidated debt 54.3 billion francs vs 61.9 billion.
    Net loss car making 4.14 billion francs vs loss 10.99
billion.
    Net loss industrial vehicles 990 mln vs loss 1.54 billion.
    Note - The company said the consolidated net loss was after
costs and provisions for restructuring of 3.90 billion francs,
which includes exceptional items arising from the planned sale
of its stake in American Motors Corp <AMO> to Chrysler Corp
<C>.
    Full company name is Regie Nationale des Usines Renault.
 Reuter

Canadian Pacific Ltd's principal aim
over the next few years will be to significantly increase the
company's return on equity, it said in the annual report.
    Canadian Pacific's return on average capital employed fell
to 4.7 pct in 1986 from 5.9 pct in the prior year. Return on
average shareholders' equity declined to 2.5 pct from 4.8 pct
in 1985.
    "To achieve this goal will require that the businesses
comprising Canadian Pacific are leaders in their respective
fields," the company said in the report to shareholders.
    "Although the steps already taken to reposition and solidify
Canadian Pacific point to a better financial performance in
1987, more remains to be accomplished if the company is to
produce returns that meet shareholder expectations," it said.
    Canadian Pacific previously reported 1986 operating net
profit fell to 150.1 mln dlrs from 252.7 mln dlrs in the prior
year. Revenues were 15.02 billion dlrs compared to 15.04
    It said emphasis will continue on reducing dependence on
cyclical industries and strengthening the asset mix.
    Canadian Pacific said 1986 results were disappointing, but
the company took several steps towards reviewing assets and
operations and rationalizing its asset base.
    As previously reported, it sold its 52.5 pct interest in
Cominco Ltd <CLT> for 472 mln dlrs in October, 1986 and
Canadian Pacific Airlines Ltd for 300 mln dlrs in January,
1987.
    Including other asset sales, Canadian Pacific's
consolidated assets fell to 17.70 billion dlrs at year end from
21.3 billion dlrs at the end of 1985, it said.
    The company also took extraordinary charges of 230.4 mln
dlrs in 1986, resulting in a loss of 80.3 mln dlrs for the
year.
    The charges consisted of a 362.5 mln dlr writedown
representing permanent impairment in asset values, partially
offset by a gain of 102.6 mln dlrs on sale of its interest in
Cominco and a gain of 29.5 mln dlrs on sale of CP Hotels'
flight kitchens.
    Canadian Pacific said a further extraordinary net gain of
172.5 mln dlrs from the airline unit sale will be included in
first quarter results.
    Canadian Pacific said despite lower earnings and
extraordinary charges, its overall cash position strengthened
in 1986 as cash generated from operations and asset sales was
more than sufficient to finance capital expenditures of 1.80
    Long term debt fell to 4.50 billion dlrs from 6.22 billion
    Consolidated 1987 capital spending will be reduced
considerably from 1986 levels, mainly due to the Cominco and
air line unit sales, it said. Spending commitments totalled 239
mln dlrs at the end of 1986.

The company also took extraordinary charges of 230.4 mln dlrs
in 1986, resulting in a loss of 80.3 mln dlrs for the year.
 Reuter

Tunisia is expected to tender shortly for
100,000 tonnes of soft wheat for shipment between April and
June, covered by COFACE export credits, trade sources said.
    Over 300,000 tonnes of French soft wheat have been sold to
Tunisia since the beginning of the 1986/87 campaign, of which
225,000 to 250,000 tonnes have already been shipped, they said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 48 cts vs loss 35 cts
    Net loss 1,587,000 vs loss 1,063,000
    Revs 45.3 mln vs 50.9 mln
    Avg shrs 3,322,032 vs 3,054,457
    Year
    Shr profit three cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net profit 112,000 vs loss 587,000
    Revs 211.2 mln vs 199.3 mln
    Avg shrs 3,220,163 vs 3,038,361
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits 1,411,000 dlrs vs 929,000
dlrs in quarter and tax provision 689,000 dlrs vs credit
1,288,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 year revenues include 18.7 mln dlrs from gain on sale
of Quality Sausage Co Inc.
    1986 net includes costs of 900,000 dlrs in quarter and
1,200,000 dlrs in year from proposed merger.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS U.S. REMAINS PREPARED TO FOSTER EXCHANGE RATE STABILITY

Arvin Industries Inc said higher
interest costs from borrowings to make acquisitions will
produce earnings flat with last year's 59 cts a share results.
    Arvin said it might earn 57 cts to 60 cts a share in the
quarter.
    These results also reflect the seasonally low sales pattern
of automotive replacement parts in that period.
    Arvin forecast about 85 cts a share net in the second
quarter compared with 68 cts in last year's period.
    The company said revenues for full year 1987 it will exceed
1.4 billion dlrs, net earnings will increase more than 30 pct,
while per share earnings should increase 12 to 18 pct.
    Arvin's 1986 revenues were 995.6 mln, net reached 41.2 mln
and earnings per share 2.46 dlrs.
    It based these forecasts due to the addition of Schrader
Automotive Inc and Maremont Corp, both acquired last year.
    Chairman James Baker said 1987 quarterly comparisons will
not conform to historical patterns for the year because the
acquisitions of Schrader and Maremond occurred in different
quarters.
    He said Arvin will complete the purchase of Systems
Research Laboratories in the second quarter of 1987. This will
also increase revenues.
 Reuter

W.R. Grace and Co said its European
Darex division has started constuction to double capacity at
its fluid cracking catalyst plant in Worms, West Germany.
    The expansion is expected to cost approximately 20 mln
dlrs, it said.
    The expansion is in response to demand for these catalysts
in Europe and the Middle East. Completion of the project is
scheduled for the middle of 1988, the company said.

TREASURY'S BAKER SEES 15-20 BILLION DLR U.S. TRADE DEFICIT REDUCTION THIS YEAR

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS REAGAN UNLIKELY TO ALTER OPPOSITION TO OIL IMPORT FEE

Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX>,
which designed Brazil's only nuclear plant, has agreed to pay
50 mln dlrs compensation for errors made during the project,
the plant's operators said.
    A spokesman for <Furnas Centrais Eletricas>, a state
utility which runs the Angra One power station, confirmed a
statement made in Washington last week by company president
Camilo Penna.
    Penna did not say what errors had been made and the utility
spokesman said he could not add to Penna's statement.
    The 636-megawatt plant, dogged by technical problems,
started operating in January 1985, but since January 1986 has
not worked at all due to a variety of problems, the utility
    The country originally intended to have eight more power
stations after Angra One, using West German technology.
    Work on one plant, Angra Two, began and then stopped when
funding ran out. Penna told the Jornal do Brasil that the state
utility was receiving money from the government to finish Angra
Two and build another plant, Angra Three.
 REUTER

Shr loss 23 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net loss 1,121,664 vs loss 640,862
    Sales 37,485 vs nil
 Reuter

 Reuter

Mozambique appealed for an additional
160 mln dlrs in emergency humanitarian aid to help the country
through a severe economic crisis.
    Prime Minister Mario Machungo told a news conference
several countries -- notably the U.S., Britain and Italy -- had
already made pledges towards this new appeal.
    The U.S. offered grain amounting to a third of the nation's
annual consumption, Britain offered eight mln stg and Italy was
expected to offer 30 to 35 mln dlrs, he said.
    The country's "extremely severe economic crisis" stemmed from
continued fighting with "armed bandits" -- a euphemism for
anti-government guerrillas -- and a series of floods which have
destroyed crops, Machungo said.
    An estimated four million people require emergency care.
 Reuter

Shifts from mild to very cold
weather in East Germany damaged winter barley and late sown
winter wheat in central regions and barley north of Berlin, the
U.S. agricultural officer in East Berlin said.
    In a field report, the officer said indications were that
winter kill might well be more than 100,000 hectares compared
with 38,000 last year.
    He said the damage was probably more limited in southern
and central regions and most widespread in the north.
    Damage was most severe on plants above the ground where
little or no snow cover was present, he added.
    The officer said heavy frosts at night followed by sunshine
during the day led to some heaving, particularly for well
developed plants and for winter barley.
    Furthermore, as the ground surface thawed, some standing
water occurred in the fields.
    The officer said repairing damage will probably call for
special measures this spring in fields with damaged plants and
where stands are thin. Harrowing, as well as well-timed
applications of nitrogen, will be necessary, he added.
 Reuter

Qtrly Class A div five cts vs five cts prior
    Qtrly Class B div four cts vs four cts prior
    Pay May 29
    NOTE: company changed date for its annual shareholders'
meeting to June 24 from June 15 due to a scheduling conflict.
 Reuter

Shr profit 10 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 140,332 vs loss 21,290
    Revs 4,202,305 vs 1,692,976
    Avg shrs 1,400,945 vs 1,106,500
 Reuter

the United States and the five other industrialized nations
signing the recent Paris Accord remain committed to fostering
the exchange rate at around current levels.
    But he declined to comment on what he believed to be an
appropriate level of the dollar in world markets.
    "I'm not going to comment on that because invariably the
exchange markets read either more or less into my remarks than
I might intend," he said in response to a question from the
House Appropriations Committee.
    Baker said the six nations participating in the Paris
meeting in February had "acknowledged that the currencies are
within ranges that are broadly consistent with the economic
fundamentals and we and the others as well remain prepared to
cooperate closely to foster stability in exchange rates around
 Reuter

The May Department Stores Co said it
has signed an agreement to sell its Sycamore Specialty Store
Division to an investment group that includes Syacmore senior
    May said it expects to close the deal, which includes the
entire division and its 1,000 employees, in April.
    Sycamore has 111 women's apparel stores in Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan, May said.
    May added that the Indiana National Bank of Indianapolis
provided a portion of the deal's financing.
 Reuter

Congress Video Group Inc said Lawrence
Kieves has been appointed president and chief executive
officer, replacing Morton Fry, who has left the company.
    Kieves was formerly chief financial officer and senior vice
president, the company said.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 26 cts vs 27 cts prior
    Payable April 27
    NOTE: full name of company is cpl real estate trust
 
 Reuter

LyphoMed Inc said it is forming
a new division, called IPHARM, to develop a full line of
generic and proprietary ophthalmic pharmaceuticals.
    Lyphomed said in its initial phase the division will
produce products exclusively for the 200 mln dlr hospital use
only market.
    The company said that in its next phase IPHARM will extend
its market to include both hospital and non-hospital customers
which it estimates to be valued at 800 mln dlrs to 1 billion
dlrs in total.
    Ultimately, Lyphomed said IPHARM will concentrate on
developing new proprietary ophthalmic dosage forms.
    Lyphomed said the division has already submitted
Abbreviated New Drug Applications to the Food and Drug
Administration and will submit several more within the next six
months.
    Lyphomed said the division will operate out of its Melrose
Park manufacturing facility and will be headed by Ramesh
Acharya, Lyphomed vice president and general manager.
 Reuter

National Bancshares Corp of Texas
said it has completed the previously-announced sale of 90,000
credit card accounts of to Lomas and Nettleton Financial Corp
<LNF> for 45.6 mln dlrs, resulting in a gain of 5,800,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Grain trade analysts expect a sharp
drop in corn acreage, with most expecting a more modest decline
in soybeans, in the U.S. Agriculture Department, USDA,
plantings intentions report due out at 1500 est (2100 gmt).
    The average trade guess for 1987 planted corn acreage was
66.06 mln acres, ranging from 60.7 to 69.0 mln, all well below
the 76.67 mln planted last year due to improved incentives by
the USDA for farmers to retire acres. Corn acres totalled only
60.22 mln in 1983, when the PIK program was introduced.
    The average soybean planted acreage quesstimate was 59.49
mln, ranging from 58.0 to 63.0 mln and compared with the 61.48
mln planted in 1986
    With substantial grain stocks, less interest was expressed
among analysts in the USDA stocks report also scheduled today.
 Reuter

Daniel Amstutz said he was confident that a European Community,
EC, proposal to tax vegetable and marine oils and fats would
not be approved by the Community.
    Asked by Reuters if he was confident the plan eventually
would be defeated, Amstutz said, "Yes, I am, but I also know
that things like this take constant vigilance."
    The USDA official said the EC Council of Ministers held an
ad hoc meeting yesterday.
    Commenting on that meeting, he said, "So far, so good."
    Yesterday British Farm Minister Michael Jopling said enough
EC states appeared to be opposed to the proposals by the
commission for a 330 European Currency Unit a tonne tax on
vegetable oils, fats and marine oils for the moves to be
defeated.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp said that it will move to
protect its directors from liabilities arising from lawsuits
charging gross negligence.
    Exxon said directors' liabilities will be limited and they
will be indemnified for actions taken in pursuit of duties.
    The company said it was taking the opportunity to change
its bylaws and incoroporation certificate following changes in
the law of New Jersey, where the company is incoporated.
    The measures are being submitted to shareholders and will
be voted on at Exxon's annual meeting to be held May 21 in New
Orleans the company said in proxy material sent to
    Shareholders are being asked to approve an amendment to the
company's certificate to eliminate directors' maximum personal
monetary liability to the limit New Jersey allows.
    New Jersey recently permitted corporations to eliminate
monetary liability directors and owners may incur for breach of
duty care owed by them to corporations and shareholders.
    The company said that the principal effect of the measure
"will be to eliminate potential monetary damage actions against
    But the amendment will only limit liability in the event of
unintentional errors.
    It does not limit their liability for actions taken in
knowing violation of the law, nor will it limit potential
liabilities from violations of federal securities laws, the
company said in its proxy statemernt.
    A second measure proposed to shareholders is an amendment
to bylaws already voted on by the directors at their January
Board meeting making indeminifiacation of directors mandatory.
    Exxon said that it had currently purchased such insurance
from a captive insurance copany in the amount of 50 mln dlrs in
excess of 50 mln dlrs issued by independent companies to Exxon
to indemnify its directors.
 Reuter

has started trading the common stock of Oxford Energy Co, which
had traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

CPL Real Estate Trust
Investment said its regular quarterly dividend distribution
will be lower than its present 26 cts per share, and could be
significantly lower starting with the third quarter of 1987.
    The company, which lowered the payout from 27 cts to 26 cts
this current quarter, said it did not know how low the payout
would go.
    The company said the reason for the cutbacks was because it
would not be purchasing a property it had anticipated, and
alternative investments will produce significantly lower yields
than anticipated.

 Reuter

it is part of a group that has purchased PCR Inc from Hanson
Trust PLC's SCM Corp subsidiary.
    It said other group members include Jacksonville, Fla.,
businessman Jack C. Demetree and managers of PCR.
    Reichhold said it made a "modest" cash investment.  PCR
makes high-performance materials for a variety of industries.
 Reuter

Portugal's minority centre-right
government, which faces a crucial censure vote in parliament on
Friday, unveiled an eight-year economic plan aimed at reducing
foreign debt and boosting jobs and investment.
    Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva told reporters the plan
was a blueprint for modernisation focusing on cutting
Portugal's 9.6 pct unemployment, or 400,000 people.
    The program was approved at a cabinet meeting of the
16-month-old Social Democratic Party (PSD) government.
    The censure motion has been proposed by a centre-left party
which says the government has failed to tackle economic ills.
    Left-wing opposition parties, who together hold a majority
in parliament, have indicated they intend to vote against the
minority government, which would automatically fall if
defeated.
    A first phase of the government plan foresees annual growth
in investment of between eight and 10 pct over the next four
years. Government figures show investment grew 10 pct last year
compared with a fall of three pct in 1985.
    The plan foresees this leading to creation of 32,000 new
jobs a year.
    The program also foresees government spending cuts,
particularly in the public sector, reducing the state budget
deficit to around five pct of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
1990 from nearly 11 pct in 1986.
    Portugal's foreign debt, which totals more than 16 billion
dlrs, was forecast to be reduced to the equivalent of 24 pct of
GDP in 1990 from around 55 pct at end-1986.
    Detailed forecasts were not released for beyond 1990.
 REUTER

Shr 13 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 553,000 vs 728,000
    Revs 6.9 mln vs 7.5 mln
    Shr 17 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 732,000 vs 776,000
    Revs 18.5 mln vs 18.2 mln
    NOTE:Share earnings reflect 5-for-4 stock split effective
July 31.
 Reuter

the House Appropriations Committee that he believes the
president remains opposed to an oil import fee.
    He said Reagan last year rejected the idea and he added:
    "In my personal view he is not likely to change his thinking
on that."
    He said Reagan last year opposed the idea because the
energy industry was divided on the issue, a tax would require a
new bureacracy to administer and the resulting higher energy
prices would harm U.S. competitiveness.
 Reuter

Syria may have bought 80,000 tonnes of
French soft wheat, some traders here said.
    But others said it may instead have given payment
guarantees to allow for the shipping of an old contract to go
ahead.
    Syria has bought around 320,000 tonnes of soft French wheat
since the beginning of the 1986/87 campaign, of which only
121,000 tonnes had been exported by the end of last month.
    The country also bought around 30,000 tonnes of EC soft
wheat 12 days ago at 80 to 81 dlrs a tonne, fob, they said.
 Reuter

Treasury secretary James Baker
predicted the U.S. trade deficit would decline 15-20 billion
dlrs this year.
    However, he acknowledged signs were still lacking on such a
decline.
    "We think we are beginning to see changes," he told the House
Appropriations Committee.
    "It has begun to level off (but) we don't see it beginning
to go down yet," he told the panel.
 Reuter

West German Economics Minister Martin
Bangemann urged a halt to the talking down of the dollar by
both official and private institutions in the U.S., Saying calm
was needed on the foreign exchanges.
    Speaking at the opening of the 40th Hanover Industry Fair,
Bangemann said radical changes in foreign exchange parities had
left their mark on exports and investments. He added that
without these external difficulties, West Germany's economy
would have grown by 3.5 pct last year instead of the 2.5 pct
reported.
    Bangemann said he could not deny that the economic climate
in West Germany had cooled, but he stressed the country was not
in a downtrend.
    The minister also criticised state subsidies, which he said
mainly favoured large companies and created a tax burden for
smaller and medium sized firms.
    Bangemann referred specifically to subsidies in the steel
industry, which he said had to be fought with all legal means
when they did not correspond to European Community guidelines
on grants.
    He added that in light of the declining demand for steel
capacities had to be adjusted, saying the Bonn government would
not successfully be able to stand in the way of any change in
this industry.
    Bangemann also spoke out against protectionism and called
for more competition, citing as an example the Federal Post
Office.
    The Post Office enjoys a monopoly in West Germany,
especially as far as deciding who is able to provide
 REUTER

The Dutch Finance Ministry said it
accepted bids totalling 3.25 billion guilders on its 6.25 pct
bullet bond due 1995, which it priced at 100.8 pct at tender
today for an effective yield of 6.12 pct.
    The ministry accepted 50 pct of bids at the issue price.
Higher bids were met in full.
    The loan, which has a May 1 coupon and paydate, will go
towards the government's financing of an estimated 1987
borrowing requirement of about 42 billion guilders.
    The 1987 budget deficit is some 29 billion guilders and
early repayments on state loans are estimated at 13 billion.
    Because of projected early redemptions to the state of
loans by building corporations, analysts predict the state has
to raise 32 billion guilders on the capital markets this year,
of which it has found 4.5 billion guilders on the private
placement market.
   The finance ministry described today's tender as successful
and said the amount raised reflected a change in market
circumstances since the last loan issue together with
international demand for guilder-denominated paper.
    Following today's tender, the fourth state loan for payment
in 1987, a nominal 10.55 billion guilders has been raised by
public issues, bringing the total raised this year to 18.55
billion guilders, or some 44.2 pct of the state's 1987
borrowing requirement.
    The previous state loan, a 6.25 pct issue due 1998/2002
last month, raised a mere 300 mln guilders.
    Analysts said the small amount raised on the last issue was
because it was a return to a split maturity issue, seen as only
attractive to domestic institutions, from bullet loans.
    The finance ministry said then the amount was low but noted
a number of unfavourable market conditions at the time.
    Bullet loans have only been permitted in the Dutch market
since January, 1986, as part of a financial liberalization
plan.
    Bullet loans have attracted considerable foreign demand but
have also given rise to worries their fixed repayment date
might interfere with intricate redemption schemes built up
around previously issued split maturity bonds, dealers said.
 REUTER

Investor David LaRoche said he has
extended his cash offer to buy 170,000 shares of NECO
Enterprises Inc at 26 dlrs each until April 14. The tender
offer was to have expired yesterday.
LaRoche, a North Kingstown, R.I., investor who already holds
nearly one-third of NECO's total outstanding commonstock, also
waived a condition of his offer that a minimum of 170,000
shares actually be tendered.
    NECO has 957,000 shares outstanding.
 Reuter

the House Appropriations Committee the United States is still
pressing newly industrialized south Asian nations that have
tied their currencies to the dollar to let those currencies
strengthen against the dollar.
    "We have seen some strengthening of those currencies (but)
not as much as we would like," he said.
    "We have been somewhat disappointed in the results so far,
but we intend to continue these discussions," he said.
 Reuter

Pier 1 Imports Inc said it
amended its record and distribution dates for its previously-
announced three-for two common and 25 cts preferred stock
split.
    The split common and 25 cts preferred shares will be
distributed on July 2, 1987, to shareholders of record June 24,
1987.
    The stock split requires shareholder approval of an
25 mln and an increase of authorized shares of preferred stock
to five mln from one mln, the company said.
    The change in the dates was based on the company's desire
to have the additional common and 25 cts preferred shares trade
for the shortest practical period of time on a "when issued"
basis following a favorable shareholder vote at the annual
meeting June 24, it said.
    The previously announced record and distribution dates were
May 13, 1987, and June 29, 1987, respectively, the company
said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 34 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 798,000 vs loss 213,000
    Revs 1.5 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 61 cts vs loss 2.08 dlrs
    Net loss 1.4 mln vs 1.0 mln
    Revs 6.8 mln vs 6.0 mln
    NOTE:1986 net loss includes non-recurring charges of
132,000 dlrs and 270,000 dlrs. Full name is INternational
Biotechnologies Inc.
 Reuter

Northrop Corp plans to spend 70 mln
dlrs this year for company-funded research and development on
aircraft programs, including the Advanced Tactical Fighter
(ATF) program, compared with 32 mln dlrs of expenditures in
1986, the company said in its annual report.
    The 1986 expenditures excluded a 236 mln dlr writeoff to
cover the termination of the company-funded F-20 development
project.
    Last year one team headed by Northrop and another led by
Lockheed Corp <LK> won contracts valued at 691 mln dlrs to
build ATF prototypes.
    The contractors have agreed to a cost sharing plan on the
development phase of the project.
    The Air Force plans to select the winning team in 1991,
which will then produce some 750 aircraft with a total contract
value of an estimated 45 billion dlrs.
    In addition, Northrop said it expects 1987 expenditures for
plant and equipment to be about the same as the 364 mln dlrs
spent in 1986.
    The funding will be devoted principally to new equipment
for research and development and high efficiency production,
    The company also said it plans to construct a new
manufacturing facility in Perry, Ga., where it will conduct
work on a tactical missile system program called Tacit Rainbow,
which is intended for use by all three armed services and
foreign nations.
 Reuter

General Motors of Canada Ltd said it
will hold a news conference at its Ste-Therese, Quebec assembly
plant at 1315 est today.
the company will reveal details of a 220 mln Canadian dlr
interest-free loan offered by Ottawa and the Quebec provincial
government to modernize the aging plant.
    Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa and Federal Industry
Minister Michel Cote will also be at the plant.
 Reuter

Office of Management and Budget chief James Miller defended an
administration plan to sell the U.S. Naval Petroleum Reserves.
    In response to hostile questioning from a member of the
House Appropriations Committee, the officials said the plan was
justified to help bring the fiscal 1988 budget deficit and to
get the government out of the oil business.
    Miller acknowleged the estimated sale proceeds at 3.3
billion dlrs would actually bring down the deficit by about 2.2
billion dlrs because of the loss of revenues from the sale of
oil from the reserves.
    Miller said the sale price may end up higher.
    "We'd sell it to the highest bidder," Miller said.
    "If we can get more we'll take it."
 Reuter

The House should override President
Reagan's veto of the 88 billion dlr highway construction bill
today by a comfortable margin, House Speaker Jim Wright said.
    "We have counted and feel comfortable," Wright said. And he
added, there may be 100 Republicans joining most Democrats in
the Democratic-controlled House to override by the necessary
two-thirds margin.  "If that's the case it'll be a very
comfortable override," he told reporters.
    The outlook in the Senate is less certain and Wright said
that it will depend on whether senators "stay true to their
convictions or cave in to White House pressure."
 Reuter

U.S. OIL &lt;USOL&gt; TO SELL SHARES
    NEW YORK, March 31 - U.S. Oil Co said V. di Guevara Suardo
Fabbri, chairman, chief executive and controlling shareholder
signed an agreement to buy up to 50,000 shares of a new series
C preferred stock at 1,000 dlrs per share.
    Under terms of the agreement, the board can by unanimous
consent call for payment on any portion of the 50,000 shares at
any time with payment to be made within 15 days.
    U.S. Oil said the financing structure was established to
facilitate additional capital contribution by Fabbri.
    The shares, which have no voting or conversion rights, are
redeemable at the option of U.S. Oil and pay a 10 pct accruing
dividend payable upon redemption.
    The agreement remains in effect until December 31, 1992,
unless terminated under certain conditions.
    It is not anticipated that U.S. Oil will call shares for
payment unless the proceeds are needed for a specific
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAID HE IS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT DECLINE IN BOND MARKET

Trade estimates of the coming
May/September temporao harvest in Brazil's main cocoa growing
state of Bahia are now in the 1.5 mln to 2.0 mln 60-kilo bag
range against 2.0 mln to 2.5 mln two weeks ago.
    Traders in the state capital Salvador told Reuters the
effects of a dry period in the first six weeks of the year had
been harsher than thought earlier.
    Although good flowering had followed the onset of rains in
mid-February subsequent pod setting was dissappointing.
    Last year's temporao, also hit by a dry spell, was 2.77 mln
bags. In 1984 severe drought cut the crop to 1.79 mln bags.
    The traders said another factor leading to lower crop
predictions is that many farmers are not caring properly for
plantations because of low returns on their investment.
    Manpower, fertiliser and other costs have been cut back as
farmers feel the pinch of the rise in interest rates over the
past six months coupled with low bean prices.
    If such economies continue into the winter months both the
temporao and the developing October/April main crop could face
serious damage from pod rot attacks on trees which would
normally be treated against the disease.
    Recent very wet weather has already caused some isolated
incidences of pod rot but reports from the growing regions say
these are not yet significant.
    The traders said they expect very low deliveries of
temporao beans in the first three months of the harvest and the
bulk will not appear until the last month, September.
    Despite the low loads, trees are said to be in excellent
condition and recent flowering and pod setting - which will
lead to late temporao/early main crop beans - has been good.
 Reuter

asked whether he was concerned about yesterdays precipitous
decline in bond prices, said he was not.
    Questioned by reporters as he left a House committee
hearing, Baker said "no," when asked about the bond decline,
adding that it was a reflection of concern about the
possibility of a trade war.
    "It is what the markets think would be the adverse
consequences of a trade war."
    He said the administration was concerned that protectionism
would lead to international trade problems adding that he
thought the action against the Japanese was still consistent
with this policy.
 Reuter

The United States and Japan are not
involved in a trade war, despite U.S. sanctions announced last
week against Japanese semiconductors, U.S. Trade Representative
Clayton Yeutter said.
    "In my judgement, we're not even close to a trade war,"
Yeutter told a House Agriculture Committee hearing.
    Yeutter said if Japan takes action to honor its agreement
with the U.S. on semiconductor trade, "Then the retaliatory
response will last a relatively short period."
    Yeutter said Japan must stop dumping chips in third
countries and buy more American computer chips.
 Reuter

amended regulations governing expanded trading limits on
coffee, cocoa and sugar contracts to provide uniformity.
    Effective today, the exchange will permit normal daily
price limits in those commodities to expand whenever the first
two limited contract months move the limit in the same
direction for two consecutive sessions.
    The normal daily limits will be reinstated once the first
two limited deliveries close by less than the normal limit for
two successive trading days.
    Previously exchange rules required the first three limited
months to move the limit in coffee and cocoa. It had required
the first two limited sugar deliveries to make such moves for
three consecutive sessions.
 reuter

Ireland's new minority government
presented a tough budget that trimmed public spending across
the board. The current budget deficit target was set at 1.20
billion punts, which is 6.9 pct of GNP. This compared with the
1986 figure of 1.395 billion punts, 8.5 pct of GNP.
    Finance Minister Ray MacSharry told parliament "Conditions
are extremely difficult and there is no room at all for soft
options." The Exchequer Borrowing Requirement was 1.85 billion
punts, 10.7 pct of GNP, compared with 2.145 billion punts or
13.0 pct of GNP last year.
    MacSharry announced a wage freeze for Ireland's 187,000
civil servants and said all new civil service jobs had to be
approved by him. Mortgage interest relief was cut, some housing
grants axed and social welfare and health costs trimmed. Income
tax and excise duties were left unchanged.
    Eager to stop the outflow of funds from Ireland, he said "We
must do more to encourage non-residents, and especially
expatriates, to invest in the Irish economy."
    Without giving details, he also said Ireland wished to
provide the right conditions and a favourable taxation climate
for developing the international fnnancial services sector.
 REUTER

UAL Inc said it completed the
acquisition of Hilton International from Transworld Corp <TWT>,
paying 982.5 mln dlrs in cash and securities.
    Hilton International will add 90 hotels to UAL's Westin
hotel unit, which operates 61 hotels. The two chains will have
a total of 151 hotels with 67,000 rooms and 71,000 employees,
it said.
    Harry Mullikin, chairman and chief executive of UAL's
Westin Hotel unit, has been elected to the additional post of
chairman and chief executive of Hilton International.
    UAL will change its name to Allegis at its annual meeting.
 Reuter

Henkel KGaA of Dusseldorf, West
Germany, said it has completed the acquisition of the Process
Chemicals Division of Occidental Petroleum Corp's <OXY>
Occidental Chemical Corp subsidiary for undisclosed terms.
    Process Chemicals, acquired from Diamond Shamrock Corp
<DIA> in September, makes specialty chemicals for a variety of
industrial markets and has annual sales of about 160 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Southwestern Energy Co said
it reached an agreement with Arkla Energy Resources for Arkla
to carry gas owned by Southwestern subsidiaries.
    Under the agreement, the interstate pipeline division of
Arkla Inc will carry up to 25 mln cubic feet of gas a day until
Dec 31, 1987, and, subject to capacity, up to 50 mln cubic feet
a day in 1988 and 75 mln feet a day for the rest of the pact.
    Payment terms vary depending on the type of service
provided, a Southwestern spokesman said.
    The deal is effective March one, 1987, expires July one,
1997, and is renewable yearly thereafter, he said.
    The pact calls for transmission of gas owned by Arkansas
Western Gas Co, Seeco Inc, Arkansas Gas Gathering Co and
Southwestern Energy Production Co, Southwestern Energy said.
 Reuter

White House budget chief James
Miller told the House Appropriations Committee the Reagan
administration has "serious objections" to a supplemental
spending bill for the current fiscal year that is about to come
to a House vote.
    Miller said the bill, which as written by the
Appropriations Committee, would approve 2.7 billion dlrs in
additional 1987 spending, cut defense too harshly and gave too
much to domestic programs.
    The administration had only asked for an additional 1.1
billion dlrs in 1987 spending.
 Reuter

AMR Corp's American Airlines unit said
it plans to complete the integration of AirCal into its
operations within four to five months.
    American's merger with AirCal, announced last November,
received final approval from the Department of Transportation
    American said Richard D. Pearson, coordinator of the
airline's merger activities, will become chairman and chief
executive officer of AirCal during the period up to completion
of the merger.
    American said Pearson succeeds William Lyon, who has been
elected to AMR's board.
    It added that David A. Banmiller will continue as AirCal's
 Reuter

GENCORP SAYS IT EXPECTS TO COMPLETE SALE OF WOR TV THIS WEEK, ALL CHALLENGES RESOLVED

Shr 43 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 7.6 mln vs 4.4 mln
    Revs 72.0 mln vs 66.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 84 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 14.8 mln vs 12.7 mln
    Revs 223.1 mln vs 215.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr inludes gain of 2.6 mln dlrs on sale of
real estate.
 Reuter

A House Banking subcommittee voted
to authorize a 25 billion dlr recapitalization of the Federal
Savings and Loan Insurance Corp and allow forebearance of some
bad loans by savings associations.
    The Financial Institutions subcommittee approved the 25
billion dlr recapitalization plan proposed by Rep. Thomas
Carper, D-Del, on a 23-20 vote in place of a five billion dlr
plan offered by Committee chairman Fernand St Germain, D-R.I.
The Senate last week approved a 7.5 billion dlr FSLIC
refinancing.
    The subcommittee also voted to make associations which
leave FSLIC pay twice the regular annual premium and twice the
special assessment as exit fees. The bill will go to the full
committee for further action.
 Reuter

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
said it was stepping up compliance efforts by its international
staff to recover some of the billions of dollars lost each year
in unpaid taxes.
    The agency was shifting emphasis by its international
branch to increase compliance by the 47,000 foreign-owned
American companies and foreign firms operating in the United
States, IRS officials said at a news conference.
    The IRS also was taking a closer look at compliance by
Americans living abroad and by taxpayers in the United States
with income from overseas investments.
    Percy Woodard, assistant IRS commissioner, international,
denied that the agency was picking on foreign companies, but he
said fewer of them pay taxes than comparable U.S. firms.
    In some industries, one pct of foreign firms paid U.S.
taxes, he said. Other IRS staff said the taxes paid by foreign
companies ranged from 16 to 19 pct less than taxes paid by U.S.
firms.
    "If our taxpayers in another country are expected to fulfill
their tax-paying responsibilities in that country, then
foreigners in our country can be expected to do the same thing,"
Woodard said.
    In addition, as many as 61 pct of the 2.5 mln Americans who
live abroad do not file tax returns, costing the government 2.3
billion dlrs a year, Woodard said.
    The total tax gap -- the difference between taxes owed and
actually paid to the government -- is about 90 billion dlrs.
    Millions of dollars are lost because Americans fail to
report foreign income and because U.S. businesses with foreign
operations can underreport income, Woodard said.
    The IRS will increase compliance by reassigning 100    
examiners to international tax returns, a 25-pct increase,
which should lead to more tax return audits.
    The IRS will study entire industries to spot trends or
practices by foreign-owned companies in their compliance with
tax laws, Woodard said.
    The IRS looked at the electronics industry first, but
Woodard denied it was because of the trade dispute over
semiconductors between the United States and Japan.
    The agency next will turn its attention to the automobile,
computer and motorcycle industries.
    The IRS will also receive information on anyone who applies
for a U.S. passport or permanent residence in the United States
to help indentify those who do not file returns.
 Reuter

said Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc is highly confident it can
provide the company with 160 mln dlrs of private financing,
subject to certain conditions.
    California Energy said that as part of the financing, it
received a letter of commitment for 133 mln dlrs of project
funding from Credit Suisse.
    The company said proceeds of the financing will be used by
its China Lake joint venture for the purchase of equipment and
construction of an 80-megawatt power plant at a
company-developed geothermal site at China Lake, Calif.
 Reuter

Hercules Inc and Collagen
Corp said they formed an equally-owned joint venture to
develop, make and market products for the treatment of dermal
wounds caused by surgery, trauma or disease.
    The joint venture will focus on development of products to
heal dermal wounds that are resistant to currently available
treatment, the companies said.
    They said clinical studies will focus initially on treating
wounds such as decubitus ulcers or bedsores caused by prolonged
pressure and underlying diseases such as diabetes, which
compromises the blood supply.
 Reuter

Shr N.A. vs N.A.
    Net 46,000 vs 106,000
    Revs 19.8 mln vs 19.0 mln
    YEar
    Shr 26 cts vs 26 cts
    NEt 1.3 mln vs 1.3 mln
    Revs 82.1 mln vs 105.3 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes 870,000 dlrs charge. 1985 net
includes 788,000 credit. No share amounts provided for 4th qtr
as NPS completed initial offering in August.
 Reuter

Qtly cash distribution 60 cts vs 60 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    Note: Full name is Freeport-McMoRan Resources Partners LP.
 Reuter

Butler Mfg Co said it signed a
memorandum of intent to acquire Naturalite Inc, a manufacturer
of skylights.
    It said Garland, Texas-based Naturalite had sales in 1986
of about 20 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 83 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 516,063 vs 328,468
    Revs 8.3 mln vs 5.7 mln
    NOTE:Shrs reflect 3-for-2 stock split.
 Reuter

Oper shr 12 cts vs nine cts
    Oper net 4,027,852 vs 3,200,837
    Revs 100.2 mln vs 46.0 mln
    Note: Oper net excludes tax credits of 517,916 vs 198,000
    Current year results include proceeds from termination of a
pension plan.
 Reuter

belgrade - tanjug says yugoslavia reaches paris pact on refinancing part of debt

Shr 94 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 27.0 mln vs 18.4 mln
    Revs 631.6 mln vs 409.5 mln
    Avg shrs 27.1 mln vs 22.6 mln
 Reuter

Clini-Therm Corp said a Dallas court
granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting a former
officer and director from using or disclosing priveleged
information obtained during employment at the company.
    The 95th Judicial District Court of Dallas County set a
hearing on April 8 to consider a preliminary injunction, the
    The court ordered the former officer, Victor Vaguine, to
appear at the hearing and show cause why he should not be
enjoined from working for BSD Medical Corp, the company said.
 Reuter

Gull Inc said it sold 20 mln
dlrs of senior notes due March 31, 1999, to two institutional
investors through Oppenheimer and Co.
    Proceeds will be used to reduce long term debt and to
convert other debt to fixed from floating rates, the maker of
high technology instruments and other products said.
 Reuter

Tradestar Corp said it acquired
<Image Video Inc> for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said Image Video produces and distributes
videos for the home market.
    Image Video is scheduled to release 20 video projects in
 Reuter

University Federal Savings Bank said
its board authorized the bank to apply to change its present
federal charter to a Washington state charter.
    The company said it also will seek to change its depositor
insurance coverage from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corp to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
    Its board believes the broader banking powers available to
state-chartered institutions will better serve the long-term
objectives of the bank and will be in the best interest of
shareholders, University Federal also said.
 Reuter

Yugoslavia has reached an agreement
with Western creditors on refinancing a portion of its 19.7
billion dollar hard currency debt.
    The official Tanjug news agency said the agreement was
reached in Paris today in talks between Yugoslav delegation
headed by Finance Minister Svetozar Rikanovic and 16 Western
creditor countries, but it gave no precise figures for the
amount to be rescheduled.
    However, before the talks began, Tanjug said the agreement
should cover 1.6 billion dollars of debt due this year and 3.5
billion due in 1988.
    The agreement covered a second phase of multi-year
refinancing of Yugoslavia's debt, based on a protocol signed in
May last year, which provided for the enhanced monitoring of
economic trends in Yugoslavia by International Monetary Fund.
    Tanjug said the agreement was reached after hearing the
IMF's report on the state of Yugoslav economy and a +long and
lively debate between creditors and members of the Yugoslav
delegation.+
    It said the talks with commercial bank creditors on
realisation of the second phase of Yugoslavia's multi-year debt
refinancing will follow in April this year.
 REUTER

opened talks with President Ronald Reagan expected to focus on
superpower arms control moves and trade issues.
    French officials said a major aim of Chirac's visit was to
present France's concern that the United States might ignore
European security interests in any accord with Moscow on
removing medium-range nuclear missiles from the continent.
    But Reagan was expected to assure Chirac that he will not
agree to a deal at the Geneva superpower talks that would give
the Russians superiority in shorter-range systems, diplomats
said.
    France has expressed doubts about removing U.S. missiles
from Europe so long as the Soviet Union maintains an edge in
other weaponry, particularly shorter-range rockets,
conventional forces and chemical weapons.
    Speaking last night, Chirac set out the French position
saying: "Any agreement on intermediate nuclear forces should
mention how equality can be achieved in short-range missiles."
    Reagan and Chirac meanwhile signed an agreement ending a
dispute between two leading research institutes over patent
rights to a blood screening test for the deadly disease AIDS.
    In a joint statement, Chirac and Reagan said the Pasteur
Institute in Paris and the National Cancer Institute, of
Bethesda, Maryland, agreed to give part of the royalties from
the test to a new foundation dedicated to the wordwide fight
against AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
    "This agreement opens a new era in Franco-American
cooperation, allowing France and the United States to join
their efforts to control this terrible disease in the hopes of
speeding the development of an AIDS vaccine and cure," Reagan
said at the signing ceremony. 
    He said the two parties would share the patent and give 80
per cent of the royalties received to the new foundation.
    The foundation would also raise private funds and would
donate 25 per cent of its money to combat AIDS in less
developed countries. 
    Both leaders stressed the long ties between France and the
United States during a welcoming ceremony in the White House
East Room, with Reagan describing France as "America's oldest
ally in war and peace." 
    "I have come to tell you that we are remain motivated by the
same ideals of freedom, by the same will to face the dangers
which we both confront -- terrorism, war, hunger, poverty, new
diseases and drugs," Chirac replied.
    But the two countries are likely to have less to agree on
over the issue of trade, where Chirac is worried about a rise
in protectionism in the U.S. Congress. 
    A senior U.S. official yesterday dismissed a French idea to
sell cut-price grain to poor countries in Africa as a way of
lessening surplus stocks.
    Chirac is expected to canvass support for the idea, first
proposed by French Agriculture Minister Francois Guillaume,
during his two-day visit to Washington.
    The U.S. official described the idea as a "grain producers'
OPEC" -- a reference to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries -- and said it went against the Reagan
administration's desire to lessen government intervention in
trade.
 Reuter

GENCORP SAYS ALTERNATIVE TO HOSTILE TENDER TO BE ANNOUNCED WITHIN A WEEK

Carter-Day INdustries Inc said
it reached an eight mln dlrs settlement in a suit filed in the
Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of N.Y. against five
power companies.
    The suit was filed against Montana Power Co <MTP>, Puget
Sound Power and Light Co <PSD>, Portland General Electric Co
<PGN>, Washington Water Power Co <WWP> and PacifiCorp's <PPW>
Pacific Power and Light Co.
    Carter-Day said proceeds from the settlement will be used
to restore the company's liquidity, working capital and net
worth.
 Reuter

Canada's airline industry, shaken up by
a recent merger that creates a powerful new competitor for
government-owned Air Canada, has begun its first serious drive
for profitability in 50 years, industry analysts said.
    "Now we've got a company that can compete with Air Canada,"
said Thomas Bradley of Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd.
"Clearly, it can go head-to-head in any market."
    The new airline, which arose from the 300-mln-Canadian-dlr
takeover of Canadian Pacific Air Lines Ltd by the small but
cash-rich Pacific Western Airlines Corp, was launched last week
as Canadian Airlines International Ltd.
    Canadian Airlines will have 35-40 pct of the
6-billion-Canadian-dlr domestic market, against Air Canada's
50-55 pct. Wardair International Ltd is third with about nine
pct.
    Analysts believe Pacific Western's aggressive and
cost-conscious chairman Rhys Eyton will develop the true
potential of the former CP Air, which floundered for four
decades inside the bureaucracy of conglomerate Canadian Pacific
Ltd.
    They said CP Air's management style had been not much
different from that of Air Canada, formed 50 years ago, because
neither airline was held accountable to its owners.
    "Not that long ago, maybe even just six months ago, these
two airlines were totally fiscally irresponsible. Neither
seemed that concerned about the bottom line," said Bradley.
    "But with CP Air being run by Eyton, it will be very
conscious of profitability and shareholder return. And Air
Canada is on the verge of going that way," he said.
    CP Air, always fighting for market share rather than
profits, was "a perennial money-loser," analyst Wilfred Hahn of
Bache Securities Inc said in a recent report.
    Prior to its takeover in December, it had accumulated
long-term debt of 600 mln Canadian dlrs. From 1981 to 1985, its
losses totaled 87 mln Canadian dlrs.
    Air Canada, widely expected to be privatized later this
year in a public share offering, lost 14.8 mln Canadian dlrs on
revenues of 2.72 billion dlrs in 1985. It has a debt of more
than 2 billion dlrs.
    Although only a minority interest is likely to be sold to
the public, the prospect of privatization at a time of
increased competition is forcing Air Canada to pay more
attention to finances, analysts said.
    It recently disclosed that it expects to report a profit "in
excess of 35 mln to 40 mln dlrs" for 1986. However, this profit
recovery was due less to management skill than the fact that
all Canadian airlines had a good year in 1986, analysts said.
    Tourists came to Canada in record numbers last year,
attracted by the relatively weak Canadian dollar and Expo 86 in
Vancouver, which alone had more than 22 mln visitors.
    For the next few years, most analysts see three-six pct air
traffic growth, and they expect profits will come from
cost-cutting and careful spending.
    Peter Friend of Walywn Stodgell Cochran Murray Ltd said
institutional buyers will be eager to add Air Canada to their
portfolios as a blue-chip investment, but warned that new
competition makes profit growth less certain.
    "The airline with something to lose will be Air Canada. At
one time, it had a fixed system which was theirs and nobody
else's," Friend said.
    Many analysts recommend that investors buy and hold airline
shares for at least a year.
    Analysts said Air Canada's immediate concern ahead of a
public stock offering will be unloading unprofitable air routes
without setting off a political storm.
    It also will be faced with an expensive but necessary
updating of its aging fleet of 111 aircraft.
    Wardair, preferring strong medicine now instead of later,
already has embarked on a one-billion-Canadian-dlr purchase of
a dozen aircraft from Europe's Airbus Industrie.
    Canadian Airlines, which has 81 aircraft, last week ordered
six commuter planes from British Aerospace and said it would
soon buy as many as six wide-bodied aircraft from Airbus or the
Boeing Co.
    Analysts said Canadian Airlines, with its newer fleet,
needs to make fewer replacements and can afford these without
hurting profits.
    Steven Garmaise of Wood Gundy Inc expects Canadian
Airlines' profit in 1988 will more than double last year's 29.8
mln Canadian dlrs by Pacific Western.
 Reuter

weekly inventory report is expected to show moderate drawdowns
in distillates and gasoline stocks for the week ended March 27,
analysts and traders said.
    They said they expect gasoline stocks to fall three mln
barrels or less and heating oil inventories to drop between 1.3
and four mln barrels.
    Some analysts see crude stocks falling by as much as six
mln barrels, while others think they could go up as much as 3.5
mln barrels. Crude oil runs are expected to be unchanged from
the previous week or slightly higher or lower.
    For the week ended March 20, the API said gasoline stocks
fell 2.7 mln barrels. Mosts analysts expect a modest draw for
the week ended March 27. They said stocks could fall between
700,000 and three mln barrels. Some said there is also a chance
gasoline stocks will be unchanged.
    API said distillate stocks dropped four mln barrels for the
week ended March 20. Analysts and traders generally predict a
similar or smaller depletion for last week. They said stock
levels could drop 1.3 to four mln barrels.
    The analysts attribute product stockdraws to seasonal
factors but they said crude direction is harder to call.
    Crude inventories rose 8.5 mln barrels in the week ended
March 20, API said. Analysts are looking for build of between
3.5 mln barrels to a six mln barrel draw for the week ended
March 27.
    API reported the amount of refinery capacity utilized up
three pct for the week ended March 20. Analysts said
utilization could have remained unchanged, or rose or fell by
less than one pct for the week ended March 27.
    Moderate product stockdraws would strengthen the market
slightly, analysts said. But bullish expectations are already
partially reflected in today's gains, they added.
 Reuter

A. William Reynolds, chairman and
chief executive of GenCorp Inc, told shareholders he expects to
announce a company alternative to a 100-dlr-per-share hostile
tender within a week.
    Last night the company urged shareholders to reject the
tender. Reynolds urged shareholders to be patient, saying the
group sponsoring the tender offer had months to evaluate
GenCorp while "we have had only 10 days to respond."
    Reynolds also disclosed the company has resolved legal
challenges to its planned sale of WOR TV, serving the New York
City market, and expects to complete the sale by Friday.
    Reynolds said the company expects to book an after tax gain
of 250 mln dlrs from the sale of WOR TV. The company plans to
sell the station to MCA Inc <MCA> for 387 mln dlrs.
    Reynolds did not specify whether the legal challenges were
dropped or dismissed. The Federal Communications Commission has
already approved the station's sale.
    Money from the sale of the station will play a role in
helping develop an alternative to the tender offer co-sponsored
by AFG Industries Inc <AFG> and Wagner and Brown, Reynolds
said. He provided no other details.
    Randall Hubbard, chairman of AFG, and Joel Reed, chief
financial officer of Wagner and Brown, attended the meeting,
which was shifted from a tire plant to a downtown hotel. About
300 people were present despite an overnight snowstorm.
    Hubbard and Reed chatted briefly with Reynolds after the
meeting but declined to discuss their proposal with reporters.
    Reynolds told the shareholders friends and family members
have been telling him "Bill, just don't pay greenmail" to end
the takeover threat. Greenmail describes a buyout of a minority
shareholder at a price not available to other holders. Reynolds
said he considers it a "repugnant device."
    Shareholders elected management's slate of 11 directors.
Mario Gabelli, head of a New York investment firm which owns a
large block of stock, proposed one nominee for the board.
Gabelli said the unsuccessful attempt was designed to "stiffen
the backbone of the board to discourage greenmail."
    Hubbard and Reed reiterated previous statements that they
are open to negotiations with GenCorp.
    Asked about severance contracts for key executives in the
event of a shift in control of the company, Reynolds asserted
"we're developing alternatives that would not result in a
change in control."
    Asked whether the company's plan would be superior to any
proposal of AFG and Wagner and Brown, Reynolds commented, "We
know the company, we know the values and we know the
opportunities better than any outside group."
    In response to a question about whether any units are up
for sale, he said only that GenCorp is evaluating alternatives.
 Reuter

Computer Products Inc said it signed a
letter of intent for an underwritten public offering of 30 mln
dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures.
    It plans to file by mid-May with the Securities and
Exchange Commission a registration statement covering the
securities, Computer Products said.
    Proceeds will be used primarily to retire bank debt.
    The offering will include an underwriters' over-allotment
option of up to 15 pct of the principal amount, the company
said.
 Reuter

Shr 65 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 49,517,000 vs 47,732,000
    Revs 229.2 mln vs 245.7 mln
    Avg shrs 65,994,142 vs 63,293,867
    NOTE: Per-share results reflect payment of preferred
 Reuter

REAGAN RENEWS ANTI-PROTECTIONISM STAND, WHITE HOUSE SAYS TRADE WAR UNLIKELY

Avery Inc said the company will not
show a profit in the next quarter and will probably not show a
profit in 1987.
    Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting, chairman
Nelson Peltz declined to estimate when the company would become
    Peltz said Uniroyal Chemical Co, acquired last year, would
increase Avery's operating earnings but that associated
acquisition costs would prevent Avery from posting net profits
for some time.
    At the meeting, stockholders approved an increase in the
authorized number of common shares to 200 mln from 15 mln.
    In the fiscal year ended May 30, 1986, Avery reported a
loss of 489,000 dlrs. The company has changed its fiscal year
to end Sept 30.
    The increase in common shares would cover, among other
things, the exercise of Triangle Industries Inc's <TRI> and
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc's warrants issued in relation to
Avery's 710 mln dlr acquisition of Uniroyal Chemical late last
year.
 Reuter

The threatened trade war between the
United States and Japan is just the kind of shock that
economists say could send world stock markets into a tailspin.
    But they are not so sure if that would be a brief
corrective dip, or whether this week's falling share prices
mark the start of a "bear" market.
    "It's the billion dollar question," said Richard O'Brien,
economist at American Express International Bank in London.
    Japan's trade surplus -- 92.7 billion dlrs last year -- has
poured into share and bond markets around the world, and funded
a good chunk of the huge U.S. Budget deficit. Around a third of
any new sale of U.S. Treasury bonds has been bought by the
Japanese. However, Japanese investors have lost money as the
dollar falls and will lose more if the United States lets it
fall further to cut the trade deficit. The counterpart of
improving the trade deficit either through a lower dollar or
because the U.S. Increases duties on Japanese electronic goods,
may be to hit the capital inflow which has financed the budget
deficit.
   And if the U.S. Trade deficit does fall, the Japanese will
have less money to invest. To entice U.S. Investors to fill the
gap that would be left if the Japanese stopped buying U.S.
Bonds, interest rates would have to soar, O'Brien said. The
subsequent shift from shares to bonds could cause major falls
on the world stock markets.
    "A year ago, we could be pretty confident about the markets,"
said O'Brien. "Now, it is much less certain."
    Buoyant share prices are supposed to reflect a booming
economy. But the world economy, with sluggish growth at best in
the industrial nations, a massive load of Third World debt and
huge trade imbalances is not in good shape, said O'Brien.
    Nevertheless, New York analyst William Raferty, of Smith
Barney Harris Upham said  "We're still in a bull market," adding
that corrections are a normal part of a rising market and "The
bear usually strikes slowly."
    Economist Evelyn Brody, at Morgan Grenfell and Co in
London, said the huge sums of money going through the world
financial system will keep a floor under share and bond prices.
    Although interest by the Japanese in putting their money in
non-dollar denominated bonds and stocks has increased it's very
difficult to see where else they can put their money than in
U.S. Dollars and especially the U.S. Treasury (bond) market,
according to David Butcher, a senior executive at Yamaichi
Securities Co Ltd's bond operation in London.
    He said the Japanese are paying much closer attention now
to the French franc and West German mark.
    In the longer run, he worries about what trade tensions and
the dollar's slide will mean for securities markets.
 REUTER

Shr 46 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 3,608,000 vs 2,448,000
    Revs 223.5 mln vs 218.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 87 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 6,788,000 vs 4,992,000
    Revs 441.5 mln vs 439.5 mln
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 966,000 vs 1,470,000
    Revs 39.8 mln vs 41.3 mln
 Reuter

PENNZOIL SEES LOWER 1ST QTR NET BEFORE UNUSUAL ITEM AGAINST YEAR AGO LOSS 49 CTS

Presidential spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater shrugged off yesterday's sharp decline on Wall
Street, saying the administration believes the stock market is
"fundamentally sound."
    Fitzwater attributed Monday's 57 point drop in the Dow
Jones industrial average at the closing bell to "technical
decisions" and said President Reagan's decision to impose trade
sanctions against Japan might have also contributed.
    "There are a lot of reasons that can cause this, but the
underlying fact is that we believe the market is very strong
and sound," he said.
    Fitzwater said the stock market had risen 239 pct since
Reagan took office on January 20, 1981.
    "The market, we believe, is fundamentally sound," he said.
    The presidential spokesman noted that at mid-day, the
market had recovered some of the losses that occurred on
Monday, when the third-worst one-day slump in Wall Street
history occurred.
 REUTER

Shr seven cts vs two cts
    Net 5,500,000 vs 4,300,000
    Revs 69.1 mln vs 115.3 mln
    Note: Shr after preferred divs.
 Reuter

Borg-Warner Corp will vigorously
resist GAF Corp's 46-dlr-per-share takeover offer, but the
Midwest conglomerate may fall prey to another offer,
either from GAF or its own management, analysts believe.
    Analysts also said Borg-Warner may attempt to escape GAF
through a restructuring. The speculation pushed Borg-Warner's
stock up 1-3/8 to 48-1/2 in heavy trading.
    Analysts predicted feisty GAF Chairman Samuel Heyman will
stage a tough campaign to gain control of Borg-Warner so he can
add its profitable plastics and chemical business to GAF.
    "It seems from at least their dealing with (raider Irwin)
Jacobs that they don't want to be taken over. The question is
now do they acquiesce to GAF. I think instinctively, they want
to remain independent," said Dudley Heer of Duff and Phelps.
    Borg-Warner has been under siege by takeover speculation
for almost a year. Last week, Jacobs' investment vehicle,
Minstar Inc, and an investor group sold its 10.1 mln
Borg-Warner shares. The same day, GAF Corp raised its stake by
9.1 mln shares to 19.9 pct of the outstanding.
    Jacobs was interested in buying the company, but took no
steps toward a transaction.
    "Their (Borg-Warner) policy has been to stonewall them for
the last nine months. It's been one of the dullest corporate
battles I've seen," said one analyst.
    The battle, however, has heated up, and the range of
breakup values on Wall Street span from the current market
price to almost 60 dlrs per share. Most analysts said they
think a price in the low 50s would be appropriate.
    Arbitragers speculate that GAF will not give up easily on
its 3.16 billion dlr offer to buy the balance of Borg-Warner.
    Analysts who know GAF predict Heyman will either end up
with Borg-Warner or enrich his chemicals and building materials
company in some other way. Heyman two years ago attempted an
unsuccessful takeover of Union Carbide Corp, but GAF benefited
from that company's restructuring.
    "Borg Warner can't quibble that it's not a legitimate
offer. It seems to me the short of it is Borg Warner is kind of
between a rock and a hard place. They either have to accept a
46 dlr proposal or perhaps work a deal where it's sweetened. I
personally think the company is (worth) around 55 dlrs per
share," said Pershing analyst Richard Henderson.
    Henderson also speculated the company might attempt a
restructuring such as the one carried out by Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Co last year when it was being courted by Sir James
Goldsmith. The company bought back the financier's stock and
carried out a wider share repurchase.
    Arbitragers, however, said they do not believe Heyman is
seeking "greenmail," or the repurchase of his stock by the
company at a premium.
    Analysts noted that Heyman seems to have no problems with
financing the transaction.
    Previously associated with "junk bond" experts, Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc, GAf said it would finance its Borg-Warner
takeover with bank financing. GAF said it would make a tender
offer following a merger agreement approved by the Borg-WArner
board and conditioned on the board's recommendation of the
tender offer and merger.
    Heyman said in a letter to Borg-Warner that he expects a
merger would provide job security for Borg-Warner employees
since the two companies businesses overlap. Analysts, however,
believe Heyman would sell off assets he did not want to repay
debt from the transaction.
    GAF's stock rose 1-5/8 today, to 48-5/8.
   "I believe, obviously, if GAF takes over Borg-Warner at the
level it is proposing it would enhance GAF share values
substantially," said Oppenheimer analyst Charles Rose.
    He said at 46 dlrs per share, Heyman's average cost for the
company's stock would be 44 dlrs per share based on GAF's
current holdings.
    Rose said the Borg-Warner plastics and chemical business,
which makes thermo-plastics is the asset attracting Heyman.
Analysts said it accounts for a third of Borg's earnings.
    The plastics are used in telephone equipment, office
equipment and appliances. "Borg has half the market in the U.S.
and is the leading technical player and the leading innovator,"
Rose said. Its competitors are Dow Chemical Co <DOW> and
Monsanto Corp <MTC>, he said.
    Borg-Warner also has an automotive parts business, and a
protective systems business, which includes Wells Fargo
security guards. It also has an information services business,
and is trying to sell its financial services business.
    Borg-Warner earned 206.1 mln dlrs or 2.35 dlrs per share on
revenues of 3.62 billion dlrs in 1986. Smaller GAF, in 1986,
earned on an operating basis 80.7 mln dlrs or 2.22 dlrs per
share on sales of 753.8 mln dlrs.
    GAF's net earnings included an after tax gain of 201.4 mln
from its participation in a Union Carbide exchange offer, a
special union carbide dividend, and the sale of its Union
Carbide shares.
 Reuter

Manhattan National Corp said its
shareholders overwhelmingly approved a proprosal through which
<Union Central Life Insurance Co> took control of the company
by acquiring about 3.6 mln shares of newly issued Manhattan
National common stock for 43.2 mln dlrs.
    The company said the transaction gives Union Central, a
Cincinnati-based mutual insurance company, a total of 8,804,397
shares of Manhattan National stock, or 52.2 pct of the total
    Manhattan National said about three mln dlrs of the
invested funds will be used to repay short-term debt and two
mln dlrs has been earmarked for other short-term needs.
    The remainder will be available for the company's insurance
units, or for other business purposes, it said.
    Charles C. Hinkley, president and chief executive officer
of Union Central, is expected to be named chairman, president
and chief executive of Manhattan National, the company said.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co Chairman J. Hugh Liedtke
told a meeting of analysts that the company expects its first
quarter net to be down considerably, before an unusual item,
from the loss of 49 cts a share reported a year ago.
    Liedtke did not say how large the unusual item would be.
"We're still closing our books on the first quarter, so I don't
have final numbers for you," he said.
 Reuter

Cotton planting began in California
and was expected to proceed rapidly in the week ended March 28,
the Joint Agriculture Weather Facility of the U.S. Agriculture
and Commerce Departments said.
    In a summary of its Weather and Crops Bulletin, the agency
said winds and low soil temperature retarded growth and
hampered seeding in Arizona.
    Planting moved into Mohave and Pinal Counties.
    Cotton planting progressed well in the Lower Valley,
Coastal Bend and along the Upper Coast of Texas.
    However, bad weather continued hampering cotton seedbed
preparations in Oklahoma.
 Reuter

(CNT) said that <Quantum Venture Partners LP>, a private
investment limited partnership, has acquired an additional
600,000 shares of CNT common stock, raising its stake in CNT to
15.3 pct from 9.6 pct of the currently outstanding shares.
    CNT said Quantum bought the shares by exercising 1.5 mln
dlrs in warrants, bringing its total investment in CNT to 2.5
mln dlrs.
    CNT also said <Sand Technology Systems Inc> of Canada
bought two of its CHANNELink networking units for a data
processing service for major health care facilities in Canada.
 Reuter

Group Group Inc said it has delayed
the distribution of the common shares of its Grow Ventures Corp
subsidiary scheduled for today.
    The company said the spinoff, which is subject to required
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other
conditions, has been delayed due to the commission's heavy
workload, which has not permitted a review of Grow Group's
filings.
    As soon as these filings are processed by the SEC a new
distribution date will be announced, the company said.
 Reuter

Elcor Corp said it raised its
quarterly common stock dividend to 11 cts a share from nine cts
and declared a two-for-one common stock split.
    The company said the increased dividend will be paid on May
13 to shareholders of record April 16.
    The stock split, Elcor said, will paid in the form of a 100
pct stock dividend on May 28 to shareholders of record may 14.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department will
be forced to close 13 foreign posts and reduce personnel in
five others unless Congress approves two mln dlrs in
supplemental appropriations for fiscal 1987 to cover increased
overseas costs due to changes in the value of currencies, a
senior department official said.
    Thomas Kay, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural
Service, FAS, told the Senate Appropriations Agriculture
Subcommittee that the devaluation of the U.S. dollar since 1985
has raised USDA's costs in many of its 75 offices overseas.
    Kay declined to say which posts were jeopardized by rising
foreign costs.
    In Europe and Japan, the dollar's decline is expected to
raise the costs of running offices staffed by agricultural
attaches and trade officers by 2.5 mln dlrs in the current
fiscal year compared with 1985 estimates, according to FAS
projections.
    Favorable exchange rate changes are expected to cut FAS
spending by about 510,000 dlrs elsewhere, FAS said.
    The House Appropriations Committee has approved one mln
dlrs in supplemental funds to cover FAS losses. The full House
may take up the measure, folded into a government-wide
supplemental appropriations bill, next week.
    Staff on the House panel said the committee balked at
appropriating two mln dlrs because the White House budget
office turned down FAS's request for the supplemental.
 Reuter

Quest Biotechnology Inc said its Quest
Blood Substitute Inc subsidiary executed an agreement with Alza
Corp <AZA> which will make Alza a preferred shareholder of its
    Quest said the agreement also offers Alza the right to
acquire up to 25 pct of the unit's equity in exchange for the
acquisition of patent rights to Alza technology in an area
where Quest has an interest.
    Quest also said its signed a merger agreement with <Hunt
Research Corp> and its affiliate <ICAS Corp>. Quest said it
expects to complete the merger within the next several weeks.
 Reuter

Chubb Corp said it completed the
previously announced acquisition of Sovereign Corp.
    Under terms of the acquisition, Sovereign shareholders will
receive, in a tax-free exchange, 0.1365 share of Chubb common
for each Sovereign share held.
    Chubb said the transaction was valued at 9.11 dlrs a share
based on the closing price of its stock on March 30.
 Reuter

Snow and cold weather stressed
livestock in the northern and Central plains and Rocky Mountain
States in the week ended March 29, the Joint Agricultural
    In a summary of its weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin, the
agency said in Colorado, calving and lambing continued, but
young animals were under stress.
    Ranchers were busy digging out and locating stray livestock
in Kansas and North Dakota, it said.
    Heavy snowfall and cold gusty wind caused some cattle
deaths in the Panhandle area of Oklahoma.
    The cold weather slowed pasture growth from Texas to North
Dakota, the agency said.
    Pastures continued responding to moisture and warm
temperatures in most other areas, it said.
 Reuter

<TCW Convertible Securities Fund
Inc> said it sold one mln common shares to a group of
underwriters to cover over-allotments following a March five
public offering of 10 mln shares at 10 dlrs each.
    The underwriting group is led by led by Bear Stearns and Co
Inc, E.F. Hutton and Co Inc, Advest Inc, Blunt Ellus and Loewi
Inc, Piper Jaffray and Hopwood Inc and Sutro and Co Inc, the
    It said total proceeds to the fund from the 21 mln shares
was195.3 mn dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is offering to buy
all maturities of Treasury notes and bonds for its own account
for regular delivery, a spokeswoman for the New York Fed said.
    Fed funds were trading at 6-1/8 pct at the time of the
"coupon pass," which adds permanent reserves to the banking
system.  Economists had predicted an outright purchase of
securities this week to counteract a seasonal drain of
reserves, but many had expected the Fed to buy bills instead of
coupon issues. Bond prices jumped as much as 1/4 point in the
initial reaction to the news.
 Reuter

Daniel Amstutz said he was "totally sympathetic" with U.S. wood
producers' desire to have their exports eligible for government
    But he told the Senate Appropriations Agriculture
subcommittee that including wood products in the department's
short- or intermediate-term export guarantee programs would
conflict with U.S. multilateral trade obligations.
    Currently, U.S. wood products are not eligible for
government export credit guarantee because they are considered
"manufactured products," Amstutz said.
    He said USDA had devoted an "enormous amount" of time to
considering making wood products eligible for the guarantees
and that Congress was considering a measure to do so.
 Reuter

told a meeting of securities analysts that the company will
consider any realistic settlement offer in its 11.0 billion dlr
ongoing litigation with Texaco Inc <TX>.
    "I wish I could tell you that I am optimistic about the
chances (of a settlement), but I am not," Liedtke said. "I
assure you, however, that we will continue to try."
    He said that Pennzoil has made a number of settlement
offers to Texaco both before the litigation commenced and
after, but the offers were repeatedly rejected. He said Texaco
has made no realistic offers.
    Earlier this year, a Texas court of appeals upheld
Pennzoil's claim against Texaco, ruling that Texaco unlawfully
interfered with Pennzoil's merger agreement with Getty Oil.
Texaco subsequently acquired Getty.
    Liedtke said it has become more difficult to settle the
case because the courts continually rule in its favor, raising
the stakes of any agreement.
    "Each time this goes up (to a higher court), the
expectations of our shareholders goes up and it puts us in an
increasingly difficult positon," he said.
    "We cannot afford to settle this case for a pittance,"
Liedtke told the meeting of analysts.
    "We don't want to get sued for not fulfilling our fiduciary
responsibilities," he said.
    Liedtke also said that the company would not settle for
less than two billion dlrs, which has been suggested by a
number of Wall Street analysts.
    He did say, however, that Pennzoil would entertain any
proposal from Texaco including a possible preferred stock
position in TExaco.
    "I won't assume we'll take it," he said. "But we'd consider
it." But he added that he thought it would be extremely
difficult to work out a settlement made up of stocks, bonds and
cash.
    Liedtke, who earlier said the company would have a lower
first quarter, also told reporters that the company expected
lower earnings this year.
    "We think earnings will probably be down this year," he
said. Last year the company earned 1.28 dlrs a share from
continuing operations or 68.5 mln dlrs on revenues of 1.9
    The earnings figure comes before an extraordinary loss of
56 cts a share or 23.1 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Home Federal Savings and Loan
Association said it filed an application with the California
State Banking Department for permission to convert to a state
bank charter.
    As part of the conversion process it also filed an
application for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Insurance, Home
Federal said.
    It said the application for a bank charter is a natural
progression consistent with its plan to become a regional
banking force.
 Reuter

<Inverness Petroleum Ltd> said
it acquired the oil and gas assets of its controlling
shareholder <Silverton Resources Ltd> for 26.4 mln dlrs,
effective March 3, 1987.
    Inverness said it issued 2,640,000 class A convertible
retractable redeemable preferred shares in exchange for the
assets, which include all Silverton's oil and gas properties,
undeveloped acreage and its shares of Australian subsidiary
S.R.L. Exploration Pty Ltd.
    The preferred shares were immediately retracted for cash,
    The transaction resulted in a discharge of Silverton's bank
debt of 21.0 mln dlrs and a three mln dlr loan to Inverness
from Silverton, Inverness said.
    As a result of the acquisition, Inverness has bank debt of
18.0 mln dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

<Americus Shareowner Service Corp>
said the Americus Trust for Bristol-Myers will continue to
accept tendered Bristol-Meyers Co <BMY> shares until December
one, extending the original expiration date of April one for
eight months.
    If the common stock price exceeds the trust's termination
price of 110 dlrs, Americus Shareowner Service said, the trust
will be temporarily closed until the price of the underlying
stock falls below the termination price.
 Reuter

Digital Equipment Corp and
Systems Industries Inc <SYSM> said they settled all pending
litigation between the two companies.
    They said Digital's 1980 patent infringement suit against
Systems Industries was dismissed, as was Systems Industries'
1986 antitrust suit against Digital.
    The companies said Systems Industries will be licensed to
manufacture computer mass storage devices that use Digital
    They also said the company will pay Digital royalties in
settlement of Digital's patent infringement claims.
 Reuter

Immunex Corp said it received Food and
Drug Administration approval to begin human clinical testing of
a protein as a possible treatment for cancer.
    The company said the protein, granulocyte-macrophage colony
stimulating factor, stimulates production of white blood cells
essential to the body's immune function. It said it is
developing the compound with <Behringwerke AG>, a subsidiary of
Hoechst AG.
    Immunex said the drug's potential applications include
restoration of white blood cell function, destruction of tumor
cells, and as an AIDS treatment.
 Reuter

Quest Biotechnology Inc said its new
subsidiary, Quest Blood Substitute Inc, signed the agreement
and plan of merger with Hunt Research Corp and its affiliate,
ICAS Corp.
    It said Quest Blood expects to complete the merger within
the next several weeks. Terms were not disclosed.
    In a related transaction, Quest Blood said it executed an
agreement with Alza Corp, which will make Alza a preferred
shareholder of Quest Blood and offer Alza the right to acquire
a total equity position of up to 25 pct of Quest Blood in
exchange for acquisition of patent rights to Alza technology.
 Reuter

Lincoln Foodservice Products
Inc said it completed purchasing certain assets of Redco
product line of food slicers, cutters and wedgers from the
Dean/Alco Food Prep division of <Alco Foodservice Equipment
Co.>
 Reuter

Shr 94 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 2.1 mln vs 1.7 mln
    Revs 7.8 mln vs 8.8 mln
    NOTE:Per share data reflects elimination of 500,000 shares
owned by 50 pct owned subsidiary and reflect one-for-three
reverse stock split effective march 5, 1986.
 Reuter

Net profit 510,000 vs loss 5,700,000
    Revs 875,000 vs 4,100,000
    Year
    Net profit 871,000 vs loss 4,100,000
    Revs 4,700,000 vs 14.1 mln
 Reuter

the peruvian government announced it would
assume 1.36 billion dlrs of foreign medium- and long- term debt
of the state electrical power firm electroperu sa and its nine
regional subsidiaries.
    An economy ministry decree published in the official
gazette said that the amount comprised 472 mln drs in arrears
in principal which matured between 1982 and 1986 inclusive and
and 888 mln dlrs in principal which were to mature between 1987
and 1996 inclusive.
    Electroperu sa would repay the government the amount over
20 years, with one year grace, at zero pct interest.
    The government would require electroperu, which has often
run losses since its creation in 1972, to generate a profit of
four pct annually beginning next year.  The decree did not say
specify if this was net or gross profits.
    Electroperu would also to submit a plan within 60 days to
reduce its costs.
    Peru's total foreign debt on december 31, 1986 was 14.46
billion dollars, the central bank said. Out of the total, 11.04
billion dlrs correspnds to the medium-and-long-term debt owed
by the public sector to foreign creditors.
 Reuter

NRC SAYS IT ORDERS PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC TO SHUT DOWN PEACH BOTTOM PLANT

Widespread rain interfered with
summer crop harvesting in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul and
southern Mato Grosso do Sul in the week ended March 28, the
Joint Agricultural weather Facility of the U.S. Agriculture and
said some rain fell in Parana, providing beneficial moisture to
immature soybeans and corn following a long hot, dry spell.
    Mostly dry weather prevailed in western Sao Paulo,
southwestern Minas Gerais, southern Goias and extreme eastern
Mato Grosso do Sul, it said.
    The agency said weekly temperatures again averaged near to
slightly above normal.
    In general, harvest progress likely was slowed by wet field
conditions over much of the region, it said.
 Reuter

Roger Hemminghaus, chairman of the
refining and marketing company that is to spin off from Diamond
Shamrock Corp told Reuters that the new company will have a
debt to equity ratio of 60/40.
    Hemminghaus said cash flow between 80 and 120 mln dlrs per
year will reverse the ratio to 40/60 within two years.
    He said the spinoff, to be called Diamond Shamrock R and M
Inc, will probably occur just before the annual meeting of 
Diamond Shamrock Corp. The annual meeting is scheduled for
April 30 in Dallas, he said. Hemminghaus was in San Antonio for
the National Petroleum Refiners Association meeting.
    An effort by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to take over
Diamond Shamrock was a reason behind the company's decision to
spinoff, although a spinoff may have occurred anyway,
Hemminghaus said.
    He said that investment advisors told the company Pickens'
offer was inadequate and suggested the company split up into a
pure exploration and production upstream operation and a pure
play downstream refining and marketing company.
    He said he is hopes to raise 400 mln dlrs in financing for
the new company.
    Hemminghaus said 65 to 75 pct of the new company's earnings
will come from wholesale refining, 20 to 30 pct will come from
the retail sale of gasoline and other items at gasoline
convenience store locations, and five to 10 pct from natural
gas liquids and storage and marketing.
    "Growth will be defined in building retail volumes, jobber
volumes and refining capacity after that," Hemminghaus told
Reuters. He said the new company will have a capital spending
budget of 35 to 55 mln dlrs a year.
   
 Reuter

The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said its staff has ordered Philadelphia Electric Co
to shut down the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant at Delta, Pa.
    The NRC noted that one Peach Bottom unit is shut down for
refuling and said the other must be brought to cold shutdown
within 36 hours. Neither unit may be restarted without the
commission's approval, the regulatory body said.
    The NRC said it received information on March 24 that
control room operators at Peach Bottom had been observed
sleeping while on duty in the control room.
    It said the information indicated this conduct was
pervasive and has been occurring for some time, and that shift
supervision had knowledge of this situation.
    In response to this information, the regulators said, they
initiated 24-hour inspection coverage of the plant's control
room, which is ongoing.
    To date, the NRC said, its inspection has established
operations control room staff has at times during various
shifts, particularly the 2300 to 0700 shift, slept or otherwise
been inattentive to duties over the past five months.
    The commission said it also found management either knew
and condoned the sleeping and inattention, or should have known
about it, and either took no action or inadequate action to
correct this situation.
 Reuter

venezuela will shortly announce a new
plan to allow private companies to repay their foreign debts
with equity and for public debt to be converted into private
sector investments, cntral bank president hernan anzola said.
    Anzola told a meeting of the banking association yesterday
the new plan, to be called exchange agreement no. 4, will be
announced in mid-april.
    He said it will allow foreign creditors to convert unpaid
private sector debts into bolivar-denominated shares of stock
in the debtor companies. the plan would be similar to those
already in effect in other latin american nations, he said.
    at least a half dozen such debt-equity swaps have already
taken place in venezuela. In 1984, a group of 17 U.S. Banks led
by citibank converted 18.3 mln dlrs of debt from the cervecera
nacional, into 30 pct of the beer company'stock.
    Anzola said exchange agreement no. 4 will also allow for
conversion of public sector debt into investments in venezuelan
private industry.
    Holders of venezuelan public debt bonds would be able to
exchange them for bolivar-denominated bonds at up to 100 pct of
their nominal value, which could be turned into private
investment in priority areas.
    This, anzola said, would mean a reduction in the amount of
the public sector debt and an increase in foreign investment.
He stressed that the public sector debt bonds will not be
exchanged for shares of stock in state-owned companies.
    Anzola said exchange rates for these transactions will
depend the type of investment the creditor intends to make,
with export-oriented companies to be favored.
    Venezuela issued a new plan in december for the repayment
of 7.8 billion dlrs in private sector foreign debt. Under the
scheme, debtors are able to buy dollars at the preferential
7.50 bolivars rate, but must also pay a premium.
 Reuter

Moderate to heavy rain continued
over early double-crop rice areas in eastern Guangxi,
Guanghdong, eastern Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang in the
week ended March 28, the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility of
the U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments said.
said The moisture lessened the need for irrigation. Moisture
for early rice planting is adequate to abundant in most areas,
and inundative rain in Guangdong and southern Jiangxi may have
washed out some rice fields requiring replanting.
     Light showers in southern Sichuan increased topsoil
moisture for corn planting, which likely is off to a slow start
due to earlier dryness, it said.
    In the North China Plain, dry weather covered winter wheat
in the vegetative stage, and rain is needed to meet increasing
crop moisture requirements, it said.
    Weekly temperatures in the North China Plain were near
normal, the agency noted.
 Reuter

E-Systems Inc said it received during
the first quarter 5.7 mln dlrs of follow-on orders from Boeing
Co's Boeing Commercial Airplane Co unit.
    E-Systems said that under the new orders it will produce
several different hydraulic and electrohydraulic components
that are used with Boeing 737, 747, 757 and 767 aircraft.
 Reuter

Wilson Brothers said it completed
the sale of most of the assets of its Enro Shirt Co Inc,
Enro-At-Ease Inc and Foxcroft Shirt Ltd subsidiaries to Enro
Acquisition Corp for about 24.2 mln dlrs, half in cash and half
in subordinated promissory notes.
    Enro Acquisition is a newly formed corporation and owns
Ramar Intercapital Corp and Wilson's chief operating officer,
V. Jerome Kaplan, and other managers.
    Enro Acquisition also assumed most of the units'
liabilities including a 6.2 mln dlrs term loan.
    Completion of the sale and recent sales of substantially
all the assets of the company's 50 pct owned affiliate GMW
Industries INc, are expected to result in a net gain of about
nine mln dlrs in the first quarter of 1987.
    For the year ago first quarter, Wilson reported net income
of 28,000 dlrs, including a 103,000 dlrs credit, on sales of
15.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.05 dlrs vs loss 2.47 dlrs
    Net loss 39,598,000 vs loss 24,152,000
    Revs 96.0 mln vs 87.9 mln
    Note: Current year figures include 7.2 mln dlr provision
for anticipated loss on note receivable, 25.4 mln dlr writedown
on asset carrying value and 8.5 mln dlr provision for future
operating losses at Elsinore Shore Associates.
    Prior year figures include 10.5 mln dlr provision for
future losses at Elsinore Shore Associates.
 Reuter

The outcome of negotiations on
proposals by the European Commission for a 330 Ecus a tonne tax
on EC-produced and imported oilseeds and marine oils remains
difficult to predict, Belgian agriculture minister Paul de
Keersmaeker told a news conference.
    De Keersmaeker, who chaired a meeting of EC farm ministers
which ended today, was asked about reports enough countries
were against the tax to ensure that it would be defeated in
negotiations on the EC farm price package for 1987/88.
    He said it was true some countries were strongly opposed,
but others were less so and others basically in favour.
    "I think there is room for negotiations, and I would not
want to make any predictions at this stage," de Keersmaeker
said.
    Yesterday, British minister Michael Jopling said Britain,
West Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark were
opposed to the measure. Between them these countries have more
than enough voting power to block it.
    Diplomatic sources said at today's meeting the Spanish
delegation also expressed strong reservations about the idea.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co <PZL> Chairman J. Hugh
Liedtke told a meeting of securities analysts that any
settlement of the ongoing litigation would have to be above two
    "If anyone thinks this could be settled in the two billion
dlrs range, they're not being realistic," he said.
 Reuter

Shr primary 33 cts vs 33 cts
    Shr diluted 27 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 3,669,000 vs 3,556,000
    Revs 58.2 mln vs 56.6 mln
    Avg shrs primary 11.2 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 15.1 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr primary 43 cts vs 46 cts
    Shr diluted 37 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 4,711,000 vs 4,879,000
    Revs 101.9 mln vs 95.7 mln
    Avg shrs primary 11.2 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 15.1 mln vs 10.9 mln
 Reuter

ministers agreed to extend the 1986/87 milk and beef marketing
years to the end of May, Belgian minister Paul de Keersmaeker
    He said the reason for the two-month extension of the only
EC farm product marketing years which end during the spring
months was that it would be impossible for ministers formally
to agree 1987/88 farm price arrangements before May 12.
    This is when the European Parliament is due to deliver its
opinion on price proposals from the EC Commission.
 Reuter

President Reagan has reaffirmed his
opposition to protectionism and his chief spokesman said trade
sanctions imposed on Japan were unlikely to start a trade war.
    "We don't want to go down that road," Reagan was quoted as
telling Prime Minister Jacques Chirac after the visiting French
official expressed concern about the rising tide of
protectionist sentiment in the United States.
    Later, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater defended the
new sanctions against Japan and said administration officials
"do not believe this will result in a trade war."
    "It is the first time that the United States has taken an
action of this type and it is significant but it is nothing to
be alarmed about," the presidential spokesman added.
    "We do not want protectionism ... We do not want a trade
war," he said.
    Fitzwater said the president was forced to act in the
Japanese microchip case because Tokyo had failed to fulfill "an
agreement to make some corrections."
    Noting that there are "enormous pressures in the Congress
and the land" for the United States to take a tough stand, he
said, "This was a case where we felt we simply had to act."
    Fitzwater said the decision to impose sanctions was "well
considered by this administration and not taken lightly."
    While the White House official held open the possibility
that Washington and Tokyo will settle their trade dispute, he
indicated a settlement probably would not come in time to head
off the sanctions.
    "We are always open to negotations ... Whether it (a
settlement) could occur in time to prevent this (the sanctions)
from going into effect is questionable at this point," the
    The sanctions take effect in mid-April.
 REUTER

The White House welcomed last
month's 0.7 pct increase in the Index of Leading Economic
Indicators, the government's key barometer of future economic
growth.
    The increase reversed a decline in January of 0.5 pct.
    Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the new
figures signalling more economic growth in coming months showed
that the index was "back on track" after its downturn at the
first of the year.
 REUTER

FNMA SETS 7.20, 7.65 PCT COUPONS, PAR, 99.875 PRICES ON 1.5 BILLION DLR OFFER

The Farm Credit Funding Corp said it
will not issue bonds as scheduled on April 21 because of a
decline in borrower needs for term credit.
    A total of 1.461 billion dlrs of bonds maturing on April 20
will be retired with excess cash and internally generated
funds.
    The next term debt offering is scheduled for June 1, with
an announcement covering the terms due on May 21.
    The farm credit system's reduced need for medium- to
long-term financing also enabled it to cancel bond issues
scheduled for January 20 and last October 20.
 Reuter

Oper shr 13 cts vs six cts
    Oper net 2,124,013 vs 909,158
    Revs 168.6 mln vs 157.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 years exclude loss discontinued
operations 6,974,554 dlrs, and 268,000 dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

Standex International Corp said it
acquired <Alan Duffy Engineering Ltd> of Blackburn, Lancashire,
England, for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    The newly-acquired company will operate as part of
Standex's Perkins division, the company said.
 Reuter

strengthen against the U.S. currency.
 Reuter

Americus Trust for Amoco Corp shares
said its registration has been delcared effective, and shares
of Amoco Corp <AN> may now be exchanged for Americus units on a
one-for-one basis.
    Each unit may be broken into PRIME and SCORE components and
traded separately.  The PRIME entitles the holder to dividend
payments and any stock price increase to a limit of 105 dlrs
for Amoco shares and the SCORE to profits from future price
increases above 105 dlrs.
    Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> is dealer-manager for the
trust.
 Reuter

Sterling Drug Inc said it sold the
assets of its subsidiary Greene Dental Products Inc to Rinn
Corp, of Elgin, Ill.
    The cash purchase price was not disclosed.
    Greene produces and sells dental X-ray tabs, mount products
and record systems.
 Reuter

said the United States would go ahead with planned 300 mln dlr
sanctions against Japanese semiconductor exports, despite any
U.S. Japanese talks to avert the trade curbs.
    He said in a speech to an export-import group that he was
sure the United States and Japan could work out their dispute
over unfair Japanese trade practices in semiconductor trade,
but "I am sure the sanctions will go in before we work it out."
    Sanctions are to be imposed on April 17.
    He also said he did not think there would be a trade war
with Japan, because Japan had too much value in exports to the
United States to risk such a war.
    "Those fears are unfounded," he said.
    He told reporters later that the sharp drop in the
securities market was not due to fears of a trade war, but fear
of inflation and that the Federal Reserve may act on that fact.
    Market reaction was also due, he said, to the drop in the
value of the dollar, although trade issues did have some
effect.
    Baldrige said that observers who were attributing the drop
in the market to trade sanctions were "barking up the wrong
tree."
    He said the market observers will realize this shortly.
    Baldrige said his remarks did not mean to suggest anything
about the market or the exchange rate of the dollar.
 Reuter

Royal Dutch/Shell said two groups of
U.S. investors have requested a special shareholders meeting to
discuss the company's presence in South Africa.
    But it said that a special meeting could only be held under
Dutch law if 10 pct of its shareholders agree.
    Two groups of U.S. investors, it said, have less than one
pct of the outstanding shares in the company.
    The groups are seeking a special meeting to call for an end
to sales to the South African police and military, and
withdrawal from South Africa, it said.
    Royal Dutch spokesman Eric Steneker told Reuters
shareholders were entitled to discuss any matter relating to
Shell at May's annual general meeting. "In fact, Shell in South
Africa has been discussed at every meeting of shareholders for
more than 10 years," Steneker said.
    Representatives of American Baptist Churches and the New
York City Teachers Retirement System said Shell refused to
discuss their proposals at the next meeting.
    Steneker said investors had ample opportunity to express 
views and a majority supported the board's view that it should
stay in South Africa to act as a force for change.
 Reuter

Undersecretary of State Michael
Armacost will visit Tokyo next week for meetings with
high-level officials that will include discussions of a growing
trade row over Japanese semiconductor electronics products.
    He is the first high-level U.S. official to visit Japan
since President Reagan announced last week plans to impose
tariffs worth up to 30 mln dls on Japanese electronic goods on
April 17 in retaliation for Tokyo's alleged failure to live up
to a pact on microchip trade signed last September.
    The trip is set for April 6-8, the state department said.
   
 Reuter

Union Pacific Corp said it has closed
the previously announced 50-50 partnership with Petroleos de
Venezuela SA, Venezuela's national oil company, to own a
160,000 barrel per day refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.
    Union Pacific said the partnership, called Champlin
Refining Co, will acquire the refining and distribution system
owned and operated by Union Pacific's Champlin Petroleum Co
subsidiary. The Venezuelan company also signed a 25-year
feedstock agreement with the partnership to supply at least
140,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude oil and naphtha at
market related prices.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said that it had no comment
in response to a statement by Pennzoil Co <PZL> chairman J.
Hugh Liedtke that any settlement with Texaco must be above the
two billion dlrs range.
    "We have no commment at this time. We have said in the past
that we were willing to discuss a reasonable and economic
settlement but have no comment now," a Texaco spokeswoman said
in response to a Reuter inquiry.
    Liedtke told a group of security analysts in New york, "if
anyone thinks this (litigation) could be setled in the two
billion dlrs range, they're not being realistic."
    Liedtke also told analysts Pennzoil would consider any
reasonable settlement in its ongoing 11.0-billion-dlr suit with
Texaco.
    Neither Pennzoil nor Texaco has said that any talks were
presently underway to resolve the dispute that arose when
Pennzoil charged Texaco had improperly wrested control of Getty
Corp from Pennzoil.
 Reuter

Healthsouth Rehabilitation
Corp said it has filed for an offering of 2,303,936 common
shares, including 303,936 to be sold by shareholdrs, through
underwriters led by <Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc> and
Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB>.
 Reuter

Windmere Corp said it will form a
joint venture with <Paragon Sales Inc>, and will be called 
Paragon Industries.
    The equally-owned joint venture will merchandise and
distribute electric heaters, humidifiers and other electric
seasonal consumer products in the U.S., according to the
company.
    The two companies, which have approximately 15 pct of the
electric fan market in the U.S., will attempt to expand that
market and introduce new products, Windmere said.
 Reuter

<Scan-Graphics Inc> said it has
completed a merger with <Captive Venture Capital Inc> in which
former shareholders of Scan-Graphics have beome majority
shareholders of the merged company and the Scan-Graphics board
has been named the board of the merged company.
    It said the merged company is now known as Scan-Graphics
Inc and expects to be listed on the NASDAQ system soon.
    It said Captive Venture issued 1,600,000 restricted
preferred shares convertible into 16 mln common shares for
Scan-Graphics.  Captive had 2,649,500 common shares outstanding
before the merger.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 385,747 vs 549,928
    Revs 10.5 mln vs 9,037,596
    Year
    Shr 40 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 946,024 vs 1,352,709
    Revs 36.2 mln vs 30.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 92,917 vs loss 104,038
    Revs 21.9 mln vs 5,091,000
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 41 cts vs loss 1.13 dlrs
    Oper net profit 3,093,000 vs loss 7,000,000
    Revs 35.9 mln vs 31.1 mln
    Avg shrs 7,508,096 vs 6,207,723
    NOTE: Current year excludes gain of about 2.5 mln dlrs or
33 cts/shr from benefit of tax loss carryforward and includes
pretax gain of about 1.2 mln dlrs from sale of export quota
rights.
    Year-ago includes charge of five mln dlrs from discontinued
    1985 is for eight mths ended Dec 31, 1985. In that year,
company changed to calendar year from previous fiscal year
ended April 27, 1985.
 Reuter

Dec 31 end
    Shr loss 1.26 dlrs vs loss six cts
    Net loss 11.4 mln vs loss 400,000
    Revs 12.5 mln vs 4,049,000
    NOTEL Company changed fiscal year to December 31 end.
    Prior year net includes gain 4,454,031 dlrs from sale of
minority interests in Connecticut partnerships.
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 31 cts
    Net loss 1.0 mln vs loss 1.0 mln
    Revs 2.3 mln vs 1.7 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 0 10 cts vs loss 45 cts
    Net profit 508,000 vs loss 1.5 mln
    Revs 5.8 mln vs 6.7 mln
    NOTE:1986 year and qtr net includes loss of 37,000 dlrs and
538,000 dlrs, respectively from from discontinued operations.
1986 net includes 1.7 mln dlr credit. 1985 year and qtr
includes gain of 1.0 mln dlrs and loss of 190,000, respectively
from discontinued operations.

 Reuter

Oper shr 26 cts vs 16 cts
    Oper net 948,000 vs 480,000
    Revs 25.4 mln vs 19.9 mln
    NOTE: Excludes loss of 6.7 mln dlrs or 1.82 dlrs/shr vs
gain of 453,000 dlrs or 15 cts from discontinued operations.
1985 also excludes extraordinary gain equal to 34 cts/shr.
    1986 ended Dec 31 and 1985 ended Nov 30. In 1986, company
changed fiscal year end to Dec 31.
 Reuter

Shr loss 94 cts vs loss 1.25 dlrs
    Net loss 12.1 mln vs loss 15.9 mln
    Revs 3,307,000 vs 16.2 mln
    NOTE: Current year includes writedown of 8.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

    Pay May 26
 Reuter

Agriculture Committee said they will propose amendments
tomorrow to a pending trade bill increasing funding for the
export enhancement program, EEP, and significantly expanding
the scope of the program.
    At a press conference, Republican lawmakers said they would
propose expanding EEP to include all countries "willing to
purchase additional commodities at reasonable prices."
    In addition, the Congressmen said they would propose
extending the life of EEP to five years from the current three
years and increasing the EEP funding ceiling to 2.5 billion
dlrs from 1.5 billion at present.
    The Agriculture committee tomorrow will begin drafting
amendments to an omnibus trade bill now before the House.
    Responding to the Republican plan, Agriculture Secretary
Richard Lyng and Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said they
favor a flexible, targeted use of EEP instead of an
across-the-board program which they termed too costly.
    The Republican Congressmen also said they will offer an
amendment to the trade bill instructing the U.S. Agriculture
Department to value the bonus commodities used for EEP at the
market value, rather than the cost of acquisition.
    But Lyng said USDA already plans to change to market value
accounting rather than acquisition value, in order to avoid
hitting a funding ceiling for eep of 1.5 billion dlrs.
    Lyng said under market value accounting only about 700 mln
dlrs of EEP commodities have been used to date. Using
acquisition value, USDA officials said the value is higher.
 Reuter

Ames Department Stores Inc fell 1-7/8
to 23 in what analysts said was a reaction to a surprise
announcement earlier today by the company that earnings in the
fiscal year ended January 31 will decline sharply.
    Ames said it expects to report earnings of between 72 and
77 cts per share compared with 1.19 dlrs per share in the
    "We were looking for 1.15 dlrs," said an analyst at a major
Wall Street firm who declined to be identified. Ames said most
of the decline resulted from an inventory shortage at its
Secaucus, N.J. distribution center.
    "The obvious suspicion is that there has been some kind of
fraud or theft," said Ralph Shulansky, senior vice president of
Ames. "We do not have hard evidence we are still putting things
together."
    He said it would take several weeks for the company to
complete an investigation. He said there are no law enforcement
officials involved at this time.
    He declined to quantify the inventory shortage but said it
was the major reason for the decline in earnings. A decline in
gross margin percentage and an increase in the effective tax
rate also contributed to the downturn, Ames said.
 Reuter

Anchor Hocking Corp said it
postponed its annual meeting of stockholders previously
scheduled for May 6 pending completion of a review of proxy
materials by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    The date and record date for the rescheduled meeting will
be set later, the company said.
    At the meeting, stockholders will be asked to approve a
merger with Newell Co, to elect directors and decide related
matters.
 Reuter

ITT Corp's Sheraton Corp subsidiary said
during 1987 it plans to add 34 properties, down from 40 in
1986.
    It said revenues of owned, leased, managed and franchised
properties in 1987 were 3.6 billion dlrs, up from 3.3 billion
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs profit nil
    Net loss 488,759 vs profit 14,289
    Sales 6,067,676 vs 5,047,383
 Reuter

Tribune Co said it exchanged cash and
the assets of eight of its Sunbelt Publishing Co community
publications circulated in the Naples and Fort Myers, Fla.,
area for assets of nine community papers in suburban Tampa and
St. Petersburg published by Gulf Coast Newspapers Inc.
    Gulf Coast is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Co (doing
business as Scripps Howard).
    No additional financial details were disclosed.
 Reuter

high-level officials that will include talks on the growing
tariffs worth up to 30 mln dlrs on Japanese electronic goods on
trip is set for April 6 to 8.
    U.S.-Japanese talks of this kind are regularly held each
year at this time, she told reporters.
    The Armacost discussions with Deputy Foreign Minister
Ryohei Murata and other senior Japanese officials will focus on
U.S.-Japanese foreign aid programs and political security
issues of mutual concern, she added.
    "Although an exchange of views on bilateral relations is
expected, the talks are not directly related to U.S.-Japanese
trade relations," she insisted.
    But, in response to questions, Oakley acknowledged that
trade will be discussed.
   Japan's 58.6 billion dlrs trade surplus with the United
States last year has come under fire in Congress, which is
concerned about the loss of jobs to foreign competition and
with the record 169 billion dlrs U.S. Trade deficit in 1986.
 Reuter

<Cardinal Technologies Inc> said
it spun off its former parent company, General Electric Co,
when the company put the division up for sale.
    Cardinal Technologies said it was started by seven former
managers of RCA Corp's new products division after General
Electric took over RCA. The new company said it purchased the
assets of RCA's new product development group, and most of the
product and manufacturing assets of the RCA display systems
division.
    Harold Krall, president and chief executive officer of
Cardinal Technologies, said this is the first RCA electronics
operations to be sold to former management since General
Electric bought RCA last year.
    The company said is expects first year sales to exceed six 
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

said it negotiated a 160 mln dlr private financing with Drexel
    As part of the financing, it received a commitment letter,
subject to standard conditions, for 133 mln dlrs of project
financing from Credit Suisse.
    Proceeds from the financing will be used for equipment
procurement and construction of an 80-megawatt power plant by
its China Lake Joint Venture, the company said. It said the
plant will be built on a geothermal site at China Lake, Calif.,
on property leased from the federal government.
 Reuter

United Telecommunications Inc
said it has named Robert Benders president and chief executive
officer of its Megatek Corp unit.
    Benders succeeds Paul Huber at those positions, the company
said.
 Reuter

ROYEX OFFERS 50 DLRS/SHR AND 40 DLRS/WARRANT FOR INTERNATIONAL CORONA

assets of its Greene Dental Products Inc subsidiary to Rinn
Corp, an Elgin, Ill., maker of dental x-ray film, supplies and
    The company did not disclose the cash purchase price.
    Greene Dental makes dental x-ray tabs, mount products and
record systems. No indication of its size was given.
 Reuter

Spectrum 2000 Inc said the U.S.
Army/Air Force Exchange Serivce will begin test marketing its
Telvonic stero sound syntehsizer and has placed an initial
order for the product for marketing atg the McChord Air Force
Base in Washington state.
    It said the test markjet is expected to be expanded to
eight to 10 more base PX's and following the market test is
expects an order to supply the product to 5,700 PX's worldwide.
 Reuter

it will begin charging interest tomorrow on the over 12 mln
dlrs the Department of Transportation, DOT, owes USDA to pay
for its share of the cost of shipping food aid on U.S. vessels.
    USDA General Sales Manager Melvin Sims told the Senate
Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee his department had
billed DOT 12 mln dlrs, and that interest on that amount and an
additional charge would begin accruing April 1.
    USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator Thomas
Kay told Reuters DOT could owe USDA as much as 20 mln dlrs.
    The two departments are trying to hammer out an accord on
how to fund the increasing share of food aid required to be
shipped on U.S. flag vessels under a 1985 farm bill provision
on cargo preference.
    Sims said the agencies were near to reaching a memorandum
of understanding governing how DOT would pay for its share of
the cargo preference costs.
    Under the 1985 bill, the percentage of food aid shipments
carried on U.S. vessels was to increase gradually over three
years to 75 pct in 1988 from 50 pct.
    Although the increased cost was to be funded by DOT, Sims
said that department to date has contributed no money.
 Reuter

Shr loss 92 cts vs profit one ct
    Net loss 2,487,439 vs profit 48,709
    Revs 1,788,141 vs 4,167,070
    Year
    Shr loss 1.50 dlrs vs profit 48 cts
    Net loss 4,073,724 vs profit 1,309,412
    Revs 8,193,455 vs 15.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes 3,095,305 dlr writedown of oil
properties and reserves.
 Reuter

Peugeot Motors of America Inc
said it is offering 3.9 pct financing on all 1987 models,
    It said the rate applies to two-year loans.
    Other terms are available, including 5.9 pct interest on
three-year contracts. Peugeot cars range in price from 14,160
dlrs for the 505 GL to 23,750 dlrs for the 505 STX V6.
 Reuter

Burlington Industries Inc said it
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission registration
statements covering two offerings of debt securities.
    One issue will be 100 mln dlrs of sinking fund debentures
due 2017. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes,
including the reduction of short-term borrowings, acquisitions,
stock repurchases and capital expenditures.
    The other offering will be 75 mln dlrs of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012. Proceeds will be used to
redeem the company's outstanding 8-3/4 pct convertible
subordinated debentures of 2008, Burlington said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Dutch Agriculture Minister Gerrit
Braks said today the Netherlands deeply regretted West German
opposition to radical reforms aimed at halting unwanted
European Community (EC) food production.
    Braks told journalists he had rounded on his West German
counter-part Ignaz Kiechle and accused Bonn of "lacking the
courage to tell farmers their methods were outdated" during a
private meeting of Christian Democrat politicians on Sunday.
    Braks said he told Kiechle: "You (Bonn) have had years to
put your house in order and failed to do so."
    His comments came shortly before EC ministers failed to
reach agreement at two days of talks on prices to be paid to EC
farmers from the start of the new crop year on April 1.
    The ministers agreed to roll over the present year for two
months and resume negotiations in Luxembourg next month.
    The proposals from the EC's Brussels headquarters would
slash guaranteed prices paid to producers and seek to peg farm
spending at its current two-thirds share of a total budget of
36.2 billion European Currency Units (41 billion dlrs).
    The attack from Braks comes at a time when relations
between the EC's Executive Commission, which has proposed the
reform measures, and Bonn are at an all-time low.
    The entire 17-man Commission is today visiting Bonn, once
the most enthusiastic EC member, in an attempt to overcome
differences largely resulting from bids to rein in out of
control agricultural expenditure.
    Kiechle, who yesterday denounced as totally unacceptable
new limits on producers' rights to sell unlimited amounts of
excess products into Community warehouses, warned the meeting
the measures lead to political instability in his country.
    He said they did not even form the basis of negotiation and
stressed they were opposed by all political parties in the
country.
    The issue of farm reform has been pushed to the top of the
Community's agenda by the group's protracted financial crises
and by growing international tension over farm surpluses and
 Reuter

HOUSE VOTES TO OVERRIDE PRESIDENT REAGAN'S VETO OF 88 BILLION DLR HIGHWAY FUNDING BILL

Corp said Paul J. Rizzo will retire as vice chairman on August
31.
    The company said effective immediately, Kaspar V. Cassani
has been named an executive vice president and will assume most
of Rizzo's responsibilities.  It said Cassani will be the
corporate executive responsible for IBM World Trade Europe,
Middle East, Africa Corp, IBM World Trade Americas Group, IBM
World Trade Asia/Pacific Group and IBM's Information Systems
Group, as well as chairm,an and president of IBM World Trade
Corp.               
    IBM said Cassani remains chairman of IBM World Trade
Europe, Middle East, Africa, and a member of the IBM Corporate
Management Group. He becomes a member of the IBM Management
    The company said Jack D. Kuehler has also been named
executive vice president and becomes the corporate executive
responsible for the Federal Systems Division.  He continues as
the corporate executive responsible for the Information Systems
and Storage Group and Information Systems Technology Group, an
IBM director and a member of the IBM Management committee and
Corporate Management Board.
 Reuter

Gould Inc's systems protection
division said it selected Merrill Lynch Interfunding INc to
provide financing for the purchase of the division from the
    Terms were not disclosed. The agreement was announced in
February and Gould expects the transaction to be completed by
the end of April.
    The agreement assures the retention of more than 600 jobs
at a northeast Philadelphia plant which had been in jeapardy
when Gould had accepted a tentative offer from Westinghouse INc
which was later terminated.
 Reuter

Welbilt Corp said it
completed the previously announced acquisitions of the assets
of L and M Manufacturing Co and Food Machinery Engineering Co,
two manufacturers of automated bakery production equipment
headquartered in Toronto.
 Reuter

Charles Schwab announced the
completion of the 280-mln-dlr purchase from BankAmerica Co of
Charles Schwab and Co Inc and its holding company Charles
Schwab Corp.
    The leveraged buyout is being financed by a syndicate of
seven banks led by the Security Pacific National Bank unit of
Security Pacific Corp <SPC>, the announcement said.
    Charles Schwab and Co is the nation's largest discount
    The Schwab announcement said BankAmerica received 175 mln
dlrs in cash, 50 mln of 10 pct senior subordinated debentures,
55 mln dlrs of nine pct junior subordinated debentures and the
right to receive 15 pct of the appreciated value of the common
equity of the new company over a maximum period of eight years.
    Security Pacific also acquired a stock appreciation right,
equal to 1.8 pct of the value of the new company's fully
diluted common stock, Schwab said.
    The right is exchangeable into warrants upon transfer to a
Security Pacific non-affiliate, Schwab said.
    BankAmerica originally acquired Schwab in 1983 for 57 mln
dlrs worth of BankAmerica common stock.
    The sale of the profitable discount brokerage firm back to
Charles Schwab was aimed at raising capital and was seen by
banking analysts as a means of heading off a hostile takeover
attempt by First Interstate Bancorp <I>.
 Reuter

Sponsors of a campaign to pressure
Royal Dutch Petroleum Co to suspend operations in South Africa
claimed the backing of church groups and other institutions who
collectively own 4.8 mln of the the company's approximately
268.0 mln shares.
    "We're seeking to have the company disinvest in South
Africa - that means get out," Harrison Goldin, comptroller of
New York City told a news conference.
    The immediate goal of the campaign is to enlist the support
of owners of 27 mln shares to force an unprecedented special
meeting of shareholders, Goldin said.
    Goldin appeared at the news conference with Gordon Smith,
treasurer of the ministers and missionaries benefit board of
the American Baptist Churches.
    The 4.8 mln shares represented by the group includes four
retirement funds covering various groups of New York City
workers, the California State Teachers Retirement System and
seven church-related groups.
    Goldin said the ultimate aim of the group is to "tighten
the noose of economic pressure on South Africa" until the
government changes its apartheid policies.
    A reprsentative of Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal
Dutch, distributed a statement after the news conference
explaining that the company supports a program of power sharing
by all South Africans.
    The statement said senior officials of the company have
stated publicly that they regard apartheid as "a system wholly
at variance with the principles on which our group of companies
has operated all over the world for many years."
    Goldin said the group seeks a special meeting because the
company has rejected efforts to have South African issues
placed on a ballot for the annual meeting in May.
    Goldin said the shareholders have no particular timetable
for the special meeting. "We are dealing with an effort to
arouse public opinion," he said, asserting that it is not
necessary to have a majority of the votes. "Large companies
respond when they see which way the wind is blowing."
    An immediate goal is to get Shell to stop selling fuel to
South Afria's military and police, he said.
    Smith said the campaign against Shell breaks new ground in
the cooperation of institutional investors on social issues. An
official of the United Mine Workers outlined a previously
announced boycott of Royal Dutch/Shell products.
 Reuter

Britain has granted Mozambique about
eight mln sterling for food aid and emergency relief for famine
victims, the British High Commission announced.
    A high commission (embassy) statement said about 30,000
tonnes of cereals worth six mln sterling would be shipped to
Mozambique, and the first load of 20,000 tonnes was due soon.
    Britain will give one mln sterling for other disaster
relief programs and 1.3 mln sterling to relieve the plight of
Mozambican refugees, it added.
    The statement said Britain would also contribute 1.3 mln
sterling to the U.N. Refugee agency, UNHCR, for refugees in
neighbouring countries, and give 750,000 sterling to relief
agencies for food transport and distribution in Mozambique. The
British public has also raised more than one mln sterling.
 Reuter

<Royex Gold Mining Corp> said it is
making an offer for <International Corona Resources Ltd> of 50
dlrs per share and 40 dlrs per warrant.
    The offer covers four mln Corona common shares and all
outstanding 9.50 dlr Corona share purchase warrants expiring
August 31, 1987, Royex said.
    Royex said that if it gains four mln Corona common shares,
its interest in Corona will increase to 50 pct from 38 pct. It
also said that if more than four mln shares are tendered, it
will pay for them on a pro rata basis.
    Royex said the purchase price for each Corona share
consists of one Royex convertible retractable zero coupon
Series B first preference share at 20 dlrs nominal value, one
Royex convertible 6-1/2 pct Series C first preference share at
20 dlrs nominal value, one five-year 7.50 dlr Royex share
purchase warrant and four dlrs in cash.
    The price for each Corona warrant consists of 1.75
convertible retractable zero coupon Series B first preference
share at 35 dlrs nominal value and one five-year 7.50 Royex
share purchase warrant.
     Royex said both series of preference shares will be
convertible into Royex common shares, initially on a basis of
3.33 common shares for each preference share converted.
 Reuter

Manufacturers Hanover Corp filed
offering of up to 822.25 mln dlrs of debt securities on terms
to be determined at the time of the sale.
    Proceeds from the offering, which will be combined with the
sale of another 177.75 mln dlrs of debt securities already
registered with the SEC but unsold, will be used for general
corporate purposes, including repayment of debt and loans or
investments to its subsidiaries, the company said.
    Manufacturers Hanover did not name an underwriter for the
offering.
 Reuter

350 to 73 to override President Reagan's veto of an 88 billion
dlr highway and mass transit funding bill.
    The bill now goes to the Senate, which must also pass the
bill by a two-thirds majority to override the veto.
    Reagan vetoed the bill Friday, saying it was a budget
buster and loaded with special interest projects.
 Reuter

A national bank strike which began a
week ago continued today with most of Brazil's 700,000
bankworkers on strike, union officials said.
    The stock markets of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were
closed for the fifth consecutive working day.
 Reuter

The Treasury said it would expand on
May 1 its computerized program for separate trading of
registered interest and principal securities, called STRIPS, to
permit reconstituting of securities.
    Reconstitution is the term used to describe reassembling a
treasury security into a book-entry security after it has been
separated into its principal and interest components.
    In order to reconstitute a treasury security, a
deposit-taking institution will have to obtain the appropriate
principal component and all unmatured interest components, the
Treasury said.
    The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will act as the
central processing site for reconstituting securities, the
    It said reconstitution would enhance the flexibility,
liquidity and marketability of treasury securities.
 Reuter

U.S. 1987 CORN, SOYBEAN ACREAGE ESTIMATES  CORN 67,556,000 ACRES, BEANS 56,885,000 - USDA

U.S. 87 WINTER WHEAT PLANTINGS 48,195,000  ACRES, DURUM 3,137,000, OTHER SPRING 13,515,000

U.S. 1987 COTTON, SORGHUM ACRES ESTIMATED ALL COTTON 10,353,700, SORGHUM 11,844,000 USDA

U.S. 1987 SUGARBEET ACREAGE ESTIMATED BY  USDA AT 1,249,000 ACRES VS 1,232,500 IN 1986

USDA PUTS MARCH 1 U.S. CORN STOCKS AT  8,246,849,000 BU, SOYBEANS - 1,384,208,000

Intergrated Generics Inc said
its Biopharmaceutics Inc subsidiary is in negotiations with a
manufacturer and distributor of generic equivalents of brand
name prescription drugs.
    The company said a successful agreement would allow it to
distribute chlorazepate dipotasssium, an anti-anxiety drug with
a market potential of 80 mln dlrs.
    Integrated said the licensor has asked for anonymity at
this time. Finalization of the agreement is expected within two
or three weeks, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 9.31 dlrs vs loss 1.62 dlrs
    Net loss 16.2 mln vs loss 2,770,243
    Revs 99.4 mln vs 96.2 mln
 Reuter

Laurence A. Tisch said CBS Inc is a
stronger company now than when he took control six months ago.
    Tisch, in a speech before the National Association of
Broadcasters, said his cost-cutting efforts have made CBS a
"better-managed company, with a stronger financial base, that
is better prepared to deal with the challenges of the future."
    Tisch has been criticized for his aggressive attempts to
slash CBS' costs, especially at the company's network news
division.
    Earlier this month he ordered up to 200 jobs trimmed from
CBS News, which he hopes will save at least 30 mln dlrs.
    In his speech, Tisch said, "While this has been an
extremely painful period at CBS and particularly for the
individuals whose jobs have been eliminated, it has been
necessary to deal with the changing economics of our business."
    He added, "We have had to establish a realistic cost
structure and assert firm control over our expenses."
    He said the cost cutting has not compromised the quality of
CBS programming or the creativity and professionalism of its
staff.
    Tisch also said he remains "firmly committed to ensuring
that our crown jewel - the CBS News Division - maintains its
position as the premier source of television news in America."
 Reuter

A.H. Robins Co said it filed its
consolidated net earnings report for February, which amounted
to 6,720,000 dlrs, compared to 4,646,000 for the comparable
month the year prior.
    Consolidated net earnings for the two months ended Feb 28,
1987, amounted to 23.9 mln dlrs, compared to 15.4 mln dlrs for
the comparable period a year earlier, it said.
    A.H. Robbins, which is in Chapter 11, said it filed the
report with the U.S. trustee overseeing its case.
 Reuter

Mediq Inc said its Computer
Health Corp unit has contracted with the Florida State
Employees Health Insurance Plan to provide mobile health exams
to about 100,000 employees and their spouses.
    Mediq also said it acquired Hexam Inc a unit of Kraft Inc
<KRA> for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

signed a letter of intent to purchase <Naturalite Inc>, a
designer of skylights.
    Naturalite had sales of about 20 mln dlrs in 1986. The
transaction is expected to be completed in May and subject to
both boards' approvals.
 Reuter

Calstar INc said it entered a new
term loan agreement with national City Bank of Minneapolis.
    The new long term note for 1.9 mln dlrs was primarily the
balloon portion of a 4.1 mln dlrs loan agreement signed in
February 1985 as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
    calstar also obtained a 500,000 dlr revolving line of
credit.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs 80 cts
    Net 46,000 vs 1,220,000
    Revs 11.5 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Avg shrs 1,608,000 vs 1,530,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs profit 23 cts
    Net loss 835,000 vs profit 950,000
    Revs 8,617,000 vs 11.8 mln
 Reuter

completed the acquisition of McKesson Envirosystems Co, a unit
of McKesson Corp <MCK> for an undisclosed amount.
    Safety-Kleen, an industrial, automotive parts cleaning
service, said McKesson Envirosystems has solvent recycling
plants in Illinois, Kentucky and Puerto Rico.
 Reuter

General Motors of Canada
Ltd, wholly owned by General Motors Corp, said it is planning a
450 mln Canadian dlr retooling and modernization of its
21-year-old Ste. Therese, Quebec, plant and has received 220
mln dlrs in interest-free government loans for the project.
    GM Canada said the Canadian and Quebec governments are each
providing a 110 mln dlr loan for the upgrading.
    The company said much of the investment will be used to
build a paint complex, which will make the plant competitive
with other GM plants in the U.S. and Canada.
    The 450-mln-dlr investment includes the cost of retooling
the plant to assemble front-wheel drive Chevrolet Celebrity
cars, which will be produced at Ste. Therese, beginning in May,
GM Canada said.
    "With the new paint complex and tooling, our plant will be
fully modernized to be world competitive," GM Canada president
George Peapples told a news conference.
    He said construction will begin this year on the modern
base coat/clear coat paint complex, which will provide enhanced
color standards and improved paint quality, he said.
    The Canadian government said the modernization will
guarantee continued long-term employment for about 3,500
assembly line workers at the Ste. Therese plant and for about
4,300 people employed in supply jobs in Ontario and Quebec.
    "Without our participation...we faced the prospect of
losing this plant," said Michel Cote, Canadian minister of
regional industrial expansion.
    Cote said he expected 3,100 new supplier jobs will be
created by the increased production in Ste. Therese.
    The project will transfer the company's front-wheel drive
"A" car production to Ste. Therese from Oshawa, Ontario and
will not increase the Ste Therese plant's capacity, GM Canada
said.
    It said it has produced 2.5 mln vehicles at the Ste.
Therese plant since 1965.
    The paint plant is expected to cost 200 to 250 mln dlrs and
begin operation in two years, Peapples told reporters after the
    The retooling included in the project had been announced in
December but the company had not put a value on the retooling
costs, he said.
    Peapples estimated the interest-free loans could save GM
Canada about 60 mln dlrs at a 10 pct interest rate.
    He said the loans are repayable in full in 30 years if GM
keeps the plant open. If the company closes the plant in the
1990s, it will have to pay the federal and provincial
governments a total 75 mln dlrs of the loan by 1991.
    Peapples said GM Canada asked for the government loans
because, due to an expected overcapacity in the auto industry
in the 1990s, the company was not prepared to take the risks
involved in the investment by itself.
    GM Canada said the level of support offered by the
governments is consistent with aid provided to auto assemblers
in the U.S.
    Peapples said the company expects very strong demand in the
next decade for the type of mid-size, front wheel drive car
that will be produced at Ste. Therese.
    Cote added that GM Canada's 1985 sales of 18.5 billion dlrs
represented four pct of Canada's gross domestic product.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co's Thermoplastic
Resin Department said it is amending a recent price increase
for Magnum ABS (A) resins announced March 3 for an effective
date of April 1.
    Dow said that effective April 15 the selling prices for
most grades of Magnum ABS resins for the injection molding,
custom sheet and automotive markets will rise six cts a pound,
instead of the three cts a pound announced previously.
    Dow also said that the selling prices for performance
grades of the resins to the same markets will increase eight
cts a pound, rather than five cts as announced before.
    The company said that Magnum ABS resins for pipe extension
will increase three cts a pound, effective April 9, as
previously reported.
    Dow said it altered the increase to reflect changes in the
industry over the past month.
 Reuter

Echo Bay Mines Ltd said it
discovered a gold deposit in the Cove area near its McCoy gold
mine in Nevada.
    Echo Bay said it encountered gold in 39 of 42 drill holes
at Cove. It said seven holes averaged 0.185 ounce gold a short
ton and 1.8 ounces of silver, with the seven intersections
averaging 118 feet in thickness beneath 25 feet of overburden.
    The discovery is on the McCoy property, one mile northeast
of the McCoy open pit, heap leach gold mine, which is expected
to produce about 85,000 ounces of gold this year, Echo Bay
said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 11 cts vs 10 cts prior
    Pay May 14
 Reuter

Shr 62 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 1,110,484 vs 677,192
    Revs 36.6 mln vs 31.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 92 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 1,649,453 vs 1,211,597
    Revs 68.2 mln vs 58.5 mln
    
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 92 cts vs loss six cts
    Oper net profit 1,351,000 vs loss 112,000
    Revs 22.8 mln vs 28.7 mln
    Avg shrs 1,465,926 vs 1,968,601
    Year
    Oper shr profit 1.81 dlrs vs profit three cts
    Oper net profit 2,837,000 vs profit 59,000
    Revs 84.8 mln vs 69.9 mln
    Avg shrs 1,569,287 vs 1,980,432
    Note: Current qtr figures exclude gain from discontinued
operations of 533,000 dlrs, or 37 cts per share vs loss of
480,000 dlrs, or 24 cts per share.
    Current year figures exclude gain from discontinued
operations of 752,000 dlrs, or 48 cts per share vs loss of
452,000 dlrs, or 23 cts per share.
 Reuter

Mechton International Corp said
its board authorized the company to buy its outstanding stock
in the open market at prices deemed appropriate by management.
    No amount of shares were specified.
    The company also said it expects 1987 results to exceed
1986 net income of 46,000 dlrs or three cts a share. It cited
recent acquisitions and establishment of operations in France.
 Reuter

Devon Resource Investors said as
of January one, its estimated proven reserves increased
by 443,000 net equivalent barrels to 32.4 billion cubic feet of
natural gas and 660,000 barrels of oil, compared with 29.5 bcf
of gas and 700,500 barrels of oil as of Jan one, 1986.
    Devon said that its estimated future net revenues
attributable to reserves is about 58 mln dlrs with a present
value, discounted at 10 pct, of 38 mln dlrs.
    It also said that it expects to have sufficient cash flow
to cover its annual payout of 60 ct per unit and expand its
drilling budget in 1987.
 Reuter

Feb One end
    Oper shr 89 cts vs 1.31 dlrs
    Oper net 3,348,000 vs 4,885,000
    Year
    Oper net 6,302,000 vs 8,013,000
    NOTE: Prior year net both periods excludes gain 1,998,000
dlrs from reversion of overfunded pension plans.
    Corrects current year operating net.
 Reuter

CORRECTION  - SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL
    In WASHINGTON story headlined "SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL TO VISIT
JAPAN AS TRADE ROW GROWS" please read in 2nd graf ... tariffs
worth up to 300 mln dlrs ... correcting amount
 Reuter

Shr 1.54 dlrs vs 1.09 dlrs
    Net 17.1 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Revs 953.2 mln vs 1.33 billion
    Avg shrs 11.1 mln vs 10.5 mln
    NOTE: Cash dividend payable April 21 to holders of record
April 10. Shr figures adjusted for five pct stock dividend
declared March 31.
 Reuter

Getty Petroleum Corp said its
board declared a five pct stock dividend payable on April 21 to
shareholders of record April 10.
    The company also declared a regular cash dividend of four
cts a share and reported 1986 net income rose to 17.1 mln dlrs
from 11.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

First Central Financial Corp said it
expects earnings to rise significantly in 1987 and said it is
actively seeking an acquisition.
    The property and casualty insurance company's chairman and
chief executive officer, Martin J. Simon, told Reuters in an
interview that he expects earnings of 33 cts a share in 1987
compared with 25 cts a year ago.
    He said, "the company currently has the sufficient momentum
to achieve those earnings and the successful completion of
licensing applications to operate in Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Connecticut and Ohio should fuel our earnings."
    The company is currently licenced to operate only in New
York state.
    Simon estimated that the company would earn seven cts a
share in the first quarter compared to three cts in the same
quarter a year ago, and eight cts a share in the second quarter
compared to five cts earned in 1986. He expects the company to
earn nine cts a share for each of the final two quarters of
1987.
    In addition, Simon said, First Central Financial "is
actively looking for, and has several acquisition brokers
looking for a small life insurance company to acquire."
    He said the acquisition should be in the 10 mln dlr range
and will be part of a strategy of expanding the company into a
"wide spectrum of insurance services." No specific company has
been targeted as yet, "but I would like to make my first
acquisition in 1987," he said.
    He said First Central Financial would not itself be an easy
takeover target. It wants to remain independent, he said, and
has implemented a staggered board of directors system. In
addition, Simon, the company's biggest shareholder, holds about
960,000 of the 6.2 mln ouitstanding shares.
 Reuter

Imperial Oil Ltd, 70 pct-owned by Exxon
Corp <XON>, is negotiating with it major crude oil suppliers
concerning the effects of a trial deregulation of Alberta's
shut-in crude oil production, scheduled to be implemented on
June 1, a company spokesman said.
    "From our point of view, it's a question of entering into
negotiations or discussions to make appropriate changes to
contracts to reflect the changes that are going to take place
on June 1," spokesman John Cote told Reuters in reply to a
query.
    Commenting on published reports that Imperial had suspended
its oil supply contracts, Cote said: "It's not a question of
cancelling or suspending any of the agreements at this point."
    On June 1, Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board
will lift its crude oil marketing prorationing system,
regulating shut-in light and medium crude production, on a
trial basis to the end of 1987.
    Under the new system, producers and refiners will be
allowed to negotiate volumes of shut-in oil to be delivered
under purchase contracts.
    Shut-in crude is the surplus between the total amount of
oil being produced and the amount being purchased by refiners.
    "We have talked to a number of our major suppliers, and
we've discussed the upcoming change with them, but nothing has
been finalized," Imperial's manager of western crude supply Gary
Strong said.
    Under Alberta's trial system, Imperial wants to match a
reasonable supply of crude against the company's forecast
demand for its refineries, Strong said.
    "We have to know what they have and how that relates to what
we need in total," he said.
    Strong said figures on the amount of crude production
Imperial purchases from outside suppliers were not immediately
 Reuter

it has extended until April 17 the date by which Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation county offices must determine
eligibility of individuals or other entities for payments under
1987 farm programs.
    Jerome Sitter, director of ASCS's Cotton, Grain and Rice
Price Support Division, said the decision meant farmers have
until April 17 to file a farm operating plan indicating how
many persons would be involved in their farming operations.
    Earlier this year USDA extended the deadline to April 1
from March 1, Sitter said.
    ASCA Administrator Milton Hertz said in a statement that
the extension was necessary because of heavy workloads at
county ASCS offices.
    Hertz said ASCS county officials "have had to make a large
number of eligibility determinations for individuals and other
entities, such as corporations and partnerships, in preparation
for imposing the 50,000-dlr-per-entity cap."
    "These offices already had a very heavy workload due to the
large number of applications for both the 1987 farm programs
and the Conservation Reserve Program," Hertz said.
 Reuter

Concord Fabrics Inc said it has
restructered its long-term debt with an institutional lender.
    The company said it extended its debt by borrowing 15 mln
dlrs and paying off its existing term loan of 3,100,000 dlrs,
resulting in a new debt of 11.9 mln dlrs.
    The company said the remaining funds will be used to equip
a prooduction facility in Chino, Calif., and provide working
capital.
 Reuter

Lucky Stores Inc said its
planned distribution of Hancock Fabrics shares to Lucky
stockholders will qualify as a tax-free spinoff under the
Internal Revenue Code.
    The company also said it still must wait for completion of
a pending Securities and Exchange Commission review of an
information statement related to the spinoff before it can
carry out the transaction.
    Subject to completion of the review, it expects to make the
distribution in early May, Lucky Stores also said.
 Reuter

Harvard Industries Inc said its board
approved a two-for-one stock split in the form of a special
stock dividend of its outstanding common stock.
    The special dividend is payable May 28, 1987, to
stockholders of record April 24, 1987.
    The split will be effected by one additional share for each
common share held, the company said.
 Reuter

    Net loss 16.2 mln vs loss 2.8 mln
    Revs 99.4 mln vs 96.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 includes loss of 3.9 mln dlrs from
    NOTE: loss 1986 includes 3.9 mln dlrs for restructuring
costs associated with disposal of property.
    Loss also includes the sale-at-a-loss of the company's
aircraft.
 Reuter

it had accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover a sale of
durum wheat to Algeria.
    USDA General Sales Manager Melvin Sims said the Commodity
Credit Corp accepted one bid from Cam USA Inc on a sale of
18,000 tonnes of durum wheat.
    Sims said the bonus was 42.44 dlrs per tonne and shipment
was scheduled for June 20-30, 1987.
    An additional 246,000 tonnes of durum wheat are still
available to Algeria under the export enhancement program.
 Reuter

International Proteins Corp
said it replaced its existing credit line with a new 10 mln dlr
facility consisting of a three mln dlr term loan and a
revolving credit line provided by Citicorp <CCI>.
    The company said the new credit line significantly improves
the company's working capital position and provides the company
with additional funds to finance growth of its domestic
 Reuter

The recently passed Senate bank bill,
which called for a one-year freeze on new bank services and
barred the creation of limited service banks, could hamper
foreign banks' operations here, said Lawrence Uhlick, incoming
executive director of the Institute of Foreign Bankers Inc.
    "The language is very unclear and very troublesome," he
told a press briefing.
    He said the institute, which represents 230 international
banks operating in the U.S., would lobby for changes in the
final version of the bank bill, which still has to go through
the House and the conference process before becoming law.
 Reuter

Banner Industries Inc said a judge of
the U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled that Banner must
resolve its pension fund dispute in arbitration rather than in
federal court.
    The court's ruling stems from a lawsuit Banner filed in
federal court last May seeking a ruling that it is not liable
to the Central States Fund for about 20 mln dlrs in pension
withdrawal liability payments.
    Banner said the district court reserved ruling on whether
it must pay about five mln dlrs that the Central Fund claims is
owed in back-due interim payments.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.60 dlrs vs loss 1.17 dlrs
    Oper net loss 4,261,000 vs loss 2,816,000
    Revs 28.9 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,817,616 vs 2,685,592
    Year
    Oper shr profit 23 cts vs loss 1.10 dlrs
    Oper net profit 863,000 vs loss 2,390,000
    Revs 85.9 mln vs 60.4 mln
    Avg shrs 2,754,258 vs 2,541,967
    NOTE: Excludes loss of 1.9 mln dlrs vs loss 3.5 mln dlrs in
qtr and gain 46,000 dlrs vs loss 3.9 mln dlrs in year from
    Also excludes loss of 1.7 mln dlrs in current qtr from
reversal of tax loss carryforwards.
    Includes gain of 6.6 mln dlrs in current year from purchase
of Envirodyne Industries Inc shares and charge of 1.4 mln dlrs
in current qtr from research and development costs.
    1986 both periods includes operations of Sargent-Welch
Scientific Co, acquired on Nov 30, 1986 and interest in
Rosecraft Inc since June 4 and Lawrence Jewelry Corp since Oct
22.
    1985 both periods includes interest in R.N. Koch Inc since
Feb 8, 1985.
 Reuter

Chemical Corp said it is offering 1,500,000 shares of 3.25 dlr
Convertible Exchangeable Preferred Stock, Series B.
    It said each share of Series B Preferred will be
convertible at any time at the holder's option into the 1.266
shares of the company's common and will be exchangeable at the
company's option on any dividend payment date beginning April
15, 1990 for 6-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures due
2017.
    The offering is through Merrill Lynch Capital Markets,
Lazard Freres and Co and Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    
 Reuter

Ducommun Inc said W. Donald
Bell resigned as president and a director of the company and
president of Kierulff, Ducommun's largest division.
    Chairman Wallace Booth will re-assume the duties of
president, a role he relinquished in 1985, the company also
said.
 Reuter

affirmed Home Shopping Network Inc's 350 mln dlrs of Ba-3
senior notes and B-2 convertible subordinated Eurodebentures.
    Moody's said Home Shopping leads the shop-at-home industry
and is profitable, but noted that a newly emerging industry is
associated with risk. A proposed 300 mln dlr debt offering will
increase leverage, though proceeds will be used to redeem high
interest cost debt.
     It also cited Home's plans to expand its customer base,
product line and pending plans to acquire Baltimore Federal
Financial FSA as factors that would increase financial risk.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its St. Louis
assembly plant Number Two (Fenton, Mo.) has begun production of
the Dodge Grand Caravan and Plymouth Grand Voyager minivans.
    It said the plant recently underwent a 16-week 370 mln dlr
conversion.
    With two plants - Windsor and St. Louis Number Two -
Chrysler said it now has the capability of annually producing
more than 370,000 minivans.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's relationship with
its hourly employees has turned ugly, and security analysts say
the discord forebodes tough talks this fall on a new national
labor contract at General Motors.
    General Motors' dealings with the United Auto Workers,
marred in recent months by strikes and a contract rejections,
shows few signs of improving as it tries to regain the lead
from Ford Motor Co <F> as the richest U.S. auto company.
    Analysts say the automaker might have to endure a major
strike this fall before the situation is resolved.
    "There is a lot of tension between the workers and GM,"
says Michael Luckey, analyst with Shearson Lehman Brothers.
    Last week's four-day walkout by 9,000 UAW workers at
Pontiac, Mich., follows longer strikes at two General Motors
parts plants in the past year and rejection of proposed
contracts at other facilities.
    Analysts say the Pontiac strike will not be the last to hit
    Other plant strikes are likely, and chances are high that
the UAW will call a company-wide walkout against GM this fall,
says Luckey.
    "There is a good chance there will be a strike," says
Salomon Brothers analyst Jean-Claude Gruet.
    "GM is acting as if they would welcome a strike," said Ron
Glantz, analyst with Montgomery Securities.
    "It has been my experience the UAW strikes people they
don't like. They don't like GM," says Glantz.
    General Motors might also be faced with wildcat strikes, or
walkouts by local union units that are not endorsed by the
union's central committee, analysts said.
    General Motors will not comment on the talks, saying only
it is seeking to become a "world-class competitor."
    Elements for a tough set of labor talks are in place.
"There is a lot of pressure on both sides. (General Motors
chairman Roger) Smith is under pressure from stockholders. The
union is fighting to protect its members. Something has got to
give," Luckey says.
    The consensus on Wall Street is that General Motors will be
chosen as the "strike target", or the main company with which
it will negotiate in the fall talks to decide the next
three-year national contract.
    "You get a feeling from talking with GM that they want to
be the strike target because (they feel) Ford might capitulate
too easily," says Glantz.
    The negotiations, expected to begin in late July, will
decide the major wage, benefit and job security issues that
will cover most U.S. autoworkers. The current contract expires
September 15.
    Job security and "outsourcing", the  subcontracting of jobs
to non-UAW labor, are expected to be the main issues.
    "You're going to see a rough set of negotiations,
particularly if they can't get the outsourcing issue decided,"
says one former General Motors human relations executive.
    Some analysts point out that if the UAW decides to focus on
wages, it might pick Ford as the strike target because of
Ford's higher earnings last year.
    "You may see a situation where the UAW bargains with the
two separately," breaking its historical pattern, says Luckey.
    The number of cars building up in dealer showrooms might
indicate General Motors is preparing for a confrontation with
the union, analysts say.
    The company will have 95 days' supply of cars in dealer
showrooms at the end of March, Lucky estimates. Analysts say 50
to 65-days' supply is normal.
   General Motors wants to enter the negotiations "with enough
inventory that it won't feel a six-week strike," says Glantz.
    Some in the industry say that, despite the closing of 11
plants and indefinite layoff of 37,000 workers, further
closings and layoffs might be coming.
    A General Motors spokesman says it is "too early" to know
whether plant closures will become an issue in the talks.
    The former General Motors executive says more closures are
likely after a new UAW agreement is reached, but he adds,
"you're not going to see it before the contract," he says.
    Lucky says 10 pct of General Motors's components plants are
on the "red list" of companies likely to be shut. "It would
take a miracle for them to survive," he says.
 Reuter

(CCC) has switched 10 mln dlrs in credit guarantees to Mexico
to cover purchases of U.S. wheat, the U.S. Agriculture
    The credit guarantees were previously earmarked for sales
of U.S. dry edible beans and rice, it said.
    The action reduces the guarantee lines previously
authorized of dry edible beans to by five mln dlrs to 45 mln
dlrs and for rice from five mln to zero and increases coverage
for wheat sales from five mln to 15 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Reserve rose on March 30 to 3.254 billion dlrs from 2.424
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 7.291
billion dlrs from 9.706 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 10.544
billion dlrs on March 30 compared with 12.131 billion dlrs on
March 27.
 Reuter

completed the previously announced sale of its Linotype Group
to Commerzbank AG of West Germany.
    Eschborn, West Germany-based Linotype had 1986 sales of
more than 200 mln dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Beryl Sprinkel, chairman of the
White House Council of Economic Advisers, said he sees "growing
but incomplete evidence that (U.S.) export volumes are finally
strengthening."
    In remarks prepared for a speech today in Los Angeles,
Sprinkel said the decline in the dollar's value since 1985 had
"largely" restored U.S. cost competitiveness in world markets and
appeared to signal an end to U.S. trade imbalances.
performance will contribute significantly to U.S. growth in
1987," he said.
 Reuter

A third former official of the Home
State Savings Bank was ordered sent to prison for his part in
the bank's 1985 collapse.
    Burton Bongard, 46, was sentenced to 15 years in prison,
five years of which were suspended, and ordered to pay 114 MLN
dlrs in restitution for mishandling the bank's money. He was
also ordered to pay 800,000 dlrs in court costs.
    Bongard quit as Home State president 10 months before the
bank collapsed after suffering more than 143 mln dlrs in
losses.
   
    Bongard, a second former president and the bank's owner
were charged with 82 counts of misapplying the bank's funds by
transferring them to ESM Government Securities Inc., of Florida
without the authorization of the bank's board.
    ESM folded in March of 1985, taking its biggest investor,
Home State, along with it.
   
 Reuter

GAF Corp chairman Samuel Heyman told
Reuters he did not foresee major changes in Borg-Warner <BOR>
if GAF's 46 dlr-per-share offer to acquire Borg-Warner is
    "We have great respect for Borg-Warner mangagement," Heyman
said, following a speech at the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers annual meeting. "We don't have any particular changes
in mind."
    Earlier today, GAF announced that a 3.16-billion-dlr-offer
was presented to the board of directors of the Chicago-based
company.
    Last week, GAF had purchased additional shares of the
company for 40-1/8 dlrs, increasing its stake in Borg-Warner to
19.9 pct.
    In 1985, GAF made an unsuccessful effort to acquire Union
Carbide Corp for five billion dlrs, and has since expressed an
interest in acquiring a chemical company that would complement
its own chemical business.
    When asked whether GAF would consider selling the
non-chemical assets of Borg-Warner if its takeover offer is
accepted, Heyman declined to comment.
    He also refused to say whether GAF would consider
increasing its the dollar value of its takeover offer if the
initial proposal is rejected.
    Heyman emphasized that he considered the GAF offer to
Borg-Warner to be a friendly one.
    "We think we made a fair offer that is good for Borg-Warner
management and good for its shareholders," Heyman said.
     In his speech, Heyman said he feared too many chemical
companies were attempting to specialize in the same high margin
niche products.
    He said they were turning their backs on core commodity
chemical businesses. 
    Heyman said the chemical industry has taken a total of
seven billion dlrs in pre-tax writeoffs during the past two
years to trim balance sheets.
    He predicted that the U.S. chemical industry, which
reported a total of 13 billion dlrs in 1986 profits, would see
a 20 pct gain in earnings this year because of increasing
exports, cheaper feedstock costs and the weakened U.S. dlr.
 Reuter

Transworld Corp Liquidating Trust said
it expects to make an initial distribution to beneficiaries
valued at 20.10 dlrs per unit from the proceeds of the sale of
Hilton International Co.
    The value of the distribution assumes yesterday's closing
price of UAL's common stock of 56.50 dlrs per share.
    Earlier, UAL announced that it completed the purchase of
Hilton International Co for 835.7 mln dlrs in cash and 2.5 mln
shares of UAL Inc common stock.
    Total value of the sale is about 977.2 mln dlrs, Transworld
said.
    Pursuant to the sale, UAL exercised its option to
substitute cash for 200 mln dlrs of debentures and 55,493
shares of common stock, Transworld Liquidating said.
    Each unit of beneficial interest in the trust will be
allocated 0.051675 shares of UAL common stock.
    The aggregate value of the distribution is 975.8 mln dlrs.
The balance of the cash in the trust will be held by the Trust
until April 29 and will be used to satisfy all ouststanding
liabilities and obligations of the trust.
    After satisfaction of its liabilities and obligations, the
trust would make a second distribution to its beneficiaries of
any remaining cash on or about April 29.
    Trading in the beneficial interests, which are listed on
the New York Stock Exchange, will cease after today. In order
to receive the distribution, beneficiaries must surrender the
certificates representing their beneficial interests.
    The trust was formed at year end 1986 to facilitate the
sale of Hilton International.
 Reuter

Shr 2.25 dlrs vs 1.35 dlr
    Net 1,199,791 vs 724,755
    Revs 11.7 mln vs 9,105,952
 Reuter

The Senate passed a two year
extension of federal housing programs, including 15 billion
dlrs for lower income housing assistance over two years. The
vote was 71 to 27.
    Total value of the bill was estimated at 31 billion dlrs.
The bill permanently extended the authorization for Federal
Housing Authority mortgage insurnce.
    The bill also extended the urban development grant program,
the national flood insurance act, the rural housing program as 
well as several other housing programs. The bill now goes to
the House.
 Reuter

Ended February 28.
    Net 1,706,601 vs 1,226,609
    Rev 42.7 mln vs 36.3 mln
    Avg shares 9,695,444 vs 9,537,043
    NOTE: Company's full name is International Dairy Queen Inc.
 Reuter

Shr 2.90 dlrs vs 1.44 dlrs
    Net 8,862,000 vs 4,391,000
    Revs 221.6 mln vs 265.3 mln
    NOTE: Translated from Italian lire in U.S. dollar
equivalents at the exchange rate prevailing at Dec 31, 1986.
 Reuter

COLEMAN SEES 23 CTS A SHR 1ST QTR CHARGE FROM HEAT EXCHANGER REPLACEMENT PROGRAM

Fernand St Germain, D-R.I., said he would ask the General
Accounting Office to make a study of the feasibility of merging
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corp.
    St Germain made the comment during subcommittee action on a
bill to authorize 25 billion dlrs in refinancing for the FSLIC,
which says it needs more money to close financially troubled
thrift institutions.
    The General Accounting Office is the investigating agency
 Reuter

Commercial Credit Co, a unit of
Control Data Corp, is raising 150 mln dlrs through an offering
of notes due 1992 with an eight pct coupon and par pricing,
said lead manager First Boston Corp.
    That is 97 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Treasury securities. Non-callable to maturity, the issue is
rated Baa-2 by Moody's and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's.
    Morgan Stanley and Shearson Lehman co-managed the deal.
    On January 9 the company sold 100 mln dlrs of same-rated,
same-maturity notes yielding 7-3/4 pct, or 115 basis points
over Treasuries, via a Shearson Lehman-led syndicate.
 Reuter

(CCC) switched five mln dlrs in credit guarantees to Ecuador to
provide for more sales of U.S. vegetable oil, the U.S.
of U.S. cotton, feedgrains and wheat.
authorized for sales of cotton from 1.5 mln dlrs to 500,000
dlrs, for feedgrains from four mln to two mln and for wheat
from 45 mln dlrs to 43 mln dlrs and increases coverage for
vegetable oil sales from two mln to seven mln dlrs, the
 Reuter

Raytheon Co has been awarded a 3.53
billion dlr military procurement contract for Patriot
air-defense missiles, the Army said.
    The contract is for five years and was awarded to the
company's Missiles Systems Division at Andover, Mass.
    The first annual increment will be for 948.8 mln dlrs for
810 missiles. The Army said that the firm will produce 4,491
missiles and 45 firing units during the life of the contract.
    The Army said that the multi-year contract would result in
savings in excess of 12 pct over the continued award of annual
    Raytheon, in a separate release, said its Missile Systems
Division is prime contractor for the Patriot air-defense
system. Martin Marietta Corp <ML> is a major subcontractor
along with Raytheon's Equipment Division.
    The company also said more than 4500 vendors and
subcontrators in 34 U.S. states, the Netherlands and West
Germany are participating in the contract.
    The company said the agreement will generate cost savings
thorugh volume purchase discounts and efficient manufacturing.
"The contract will stabilize the production work forces at
Raytheon and its subcontractors," it said.
    The company said the defense system uses digital
electronics with a mulifunction phased array radar to locate
targets and control firing. It also uses launching stations for
supersonic missles.
    The weapons are designed to defend against advanced
aircraft and cruise missles. They are also being modified to
defend against tactical ballistic missles, the company said.
    West Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Japan have
choosen the weapons for their air defense systems. A
co-production program with the Japanese is currently underway,
 Reuter

45.56 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended March 28, up 3.2 pct from 44.17 billion a year earlier,
ended March 21 was 47.47 billion kilowatt-hours.
28 was 2,558.83 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.2 pct from the
    Electric output so far this year was 647.82 billion
kilowatt hours, up 2.2 pct from 633.68 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

Coleman Co said it expects a
first-quarter charge against earnings of 1.6 mln dlrs, or 23
cts a share, as a result of its voluntary program to replace
condensing heat exchangers in its early Model 90 series
high-efficiency residential gas furnaces.
    The company said extensive testing indicates a problem
found in the furnaces is not safety related. Coleman said it
noted an increasing number of heat exchangers in certain
furnaces made from March 1984 through December 1985 were
returned because of corrosion.
 Reuter

William Proxmire says the U.S. banking system is sound despite
a rate of failures that could reach 200 this year.
    In a statement in the Congressional Record, the Wisconsin
Democrat said that as of March 19, 50 banks had failed. "At
that pace, some 200 banks will go bankrupt before the year is
out," he said, compared to 144 last year--worst since the
depression.
    Despite the statistics, he said, "American banking today
remains overall remarkably safe and prudent."
 Reuter

A family court judge ruled
that Mary Beth Whitehead cannot have custody of Baby M, the
daughter she bore a childless couple in a surrogate agreement
that stirred international controversy.
    Judge Harvey Surkow ruled that the one-year old baby
belongs solely to William and Elizabeth Stern, who paid
Whitehead 10,000 dollars to bear Mr Stern's child.
 Reuter

Overland Express Inc said it
negotiated a restated debt moratorium agreement with its
principal secured lender banks.
    The company said the new agreement extends a prior debt
moratorium on principal and interest payments on approximately
30 mln dlrs of long-term debt to June one, 1987.
    It is subject to repayment of the debt on or before that
date at a discount of approximately 8,600,000 dlrs in principal
and cancellation of approximately 1,800,000 dlrs of current and
deferred interest, the company said.
    Overland also said it negotiated a 3,000,000 dlr interim
credit agreement with its majority owner, <Continental Training
Services Inc>.

 Reuter

(CCC) has extended the export period for Yugoslavia to ship
U.S. hides and skins under a line of credit from the Export
Credit Guarantee Program, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The shipping period has been extended from September 30,
1987 to December 31, 1987, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
 Reuter

Philadelphia Suburban Corp said
it acquired Mentor Systems Inc, a Lexington, Ky., computer
software company, for common stock.
    Detailed terms were not disclosed.
    Mentor specializes in public sector accounting systems. It
has 73 employees at its Lexington facility, four branch offices
in the Midwest and one in New York.
 Reuter

Charter Co said its
previously announced joint plan of reorganization has been
completed, which resulted in <American Financial Corp> owning
50.5 pct of Charter's common.
    The company said three American Financial executives have
been elected to its board, replacing three directors who
resigned, and American Financial Chairman Carl H. Lindner has
been elected Charter's chairman, succeeding Raymond K. Mason,
who continues as a director.
    The company said there were no changes in its management.
    In consummating the reorganization plan, Charter said, it
oissued 66.7 mln dlrs principal amount of 12 pct subordinated
sinking fund debentures due 1999, 60 mln dlrs principal amount
of 10.25 pct increasing rate senior notes due 1994 and
30,963,598 additional common shares.
    The company said American Financial also owns 9,000 Charter
preferred shares, 60.0 mln dlrs of its new senior notes.
    Additionally, American Financial has offered to buy up to
24.7 mln dlrs principal amount of Charter's new debentures from
creditors who received the debentures in payment of debt.
 Reuter

proposed for comment a rule setting minimum capital
requirements for banks based on assessment of the risks of
their assets.
    The proposed rule, if adopted, would carry out a
U.S.-British agreement announced in January for a uniform
system to gauge the capital banks must maintain that accounts
for the riskiness of loans and other assets.
    The regulatory agency's staff said at a meeting the
proposal was in line with those of the Federal Reserve Board
and the Comptroller of the Currency.
    The three U.S. agencies and the Bank of England agreed in
early January on the outlines of a uniform system for capital
standards designed for the increasingly international banking
industry that operates beyond national boundaries.
    The FDIC, which regulates state-chartered banks, sought
public comment for 60 days, after which it will adopt a rule to
conform with those of the Fed and the Comptroller.
    The FDIC said the proposal rule redefines primary capital,
assigns risk weights to assets not kept on a bank's balance
sheet, and lays the groundwork for establishing a minimum
risk-based capital ratio.
 Reuter

PACIFIC GAS SAID ACCOUNTING CHANGE WILL REDUCE 1987 NET BY 470 MLN DLRS

    Net loss 4,356,285 vs profit 300,000
    Year
    Shr loss 12 cts vs profit five cts
    Net loss 2,744,826 vs profit 2,490,262
    NOTE: 1985 earnings restated for discontinued operations
    Per-share results reflect payment of preferred dividends
    Company did not release revenues
 Reuter

Shr profit 70 cts vs loss 33 cts
    Net profit 2,598,000 vs loss 687,000
    Revs 7,438,000 vs 6,467,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 2,168,000 dlrs or 61 cts a share
for gain on cancellation of long-term debt through a debenture
offer.
 Reuter

Ended March one
    Oper shr 47 cts vs 41 cts
    Oper net 840,484 vs 732,000
    Six mths
    Oper shr 77 cts vs 75 cts
    Oper net 1,379,453 vs 1,338,346
    NOTE: Excludes net gain of 27,000 dlrs or 15 cts/shr in
current qtr and six mths from disposal of discontinued
    Year-ago excludes loss of 54,808 dlrs or three cts in qtr
and 126,749 dlrs or seven cts in six mths from discontinued
 Reuter

Shr loss 30 cts vs loss 44 cts
    Net loss 1,135,805 vs loss 1,461,792
    Sales 3,398,893 vs 2,075,260
 Reuter

<Onex Packaging Inc>
said it closed a small metal can manufacturing plant at St.
Andrew's employing eight people that has been inactive since
late 1985.
    Onex said the plant, producing six-ounce, two-piece metal
cans for the fish industry, shut down when its major customer
suddenly ceased canning operations.
    Onex has not been able to find sufficient demand to support
this type of can manufacturing in the region, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 26 cts vs loss six cts
    Net loss 535,110 vs loss 129,433
    Revs 787,000 vs 622,130
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 14 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Oper net loss 22,000 vs loss 441,000
    Revs 22.6 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 14 cts vs profit 47 cts
    Oper net profit 1,952,000 vs profit 2,794,000
    Revs 76.2 mln vs 56.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a loss of
54,000 dlrs for discontinued operations, and a a gain of
218,000 dlrs and 2,393,000 dlrs, respecitvely, for
    1985 4th qtr and year oper net excludes a loss of 77,000
dlrs and about 54,000 dlrs, respectively, for discontinued
operations and a loss of 285,000 dlrs and a gain of 2,757,000
dlrs, respectively, for extraordinary item.
 Reuter

<Ralph Andrews Productions> and <CCR 
Productions> said their new game show, "Lingo", was purchased
for the fall season by CBS Inc for broadcast on its O and O
network.
    The show will be hosted by Michael Reagan, son of President
Reagan by his marriage to Jane Wyman, the production companies
said.
 Reuter

Honduras will tender April 2 for
U.S. and non-U.S. flag vessels to import 19,369 tonnes of wheat
in bulk, an agent for the country said.
    The agent said Honduras is seeking vessels to deliver 
7,369 tonnes during a period that includes laydays of April
15-30, and 12,000 tonnes with laydays of May 15-30.
    Offers are due no later than 1200 hrs EST, April 2, and
will remain valid through the close of business the following
day, the agent said.
 Reuter

American Pre-Paid Legal
Services Inc, which signed a letter of intent last week to
merge with <Falcon Capital and Ventures Inc>, said it has
agreed to market its pre-paid legal services through two
distributors.
    It said the distributors are United States Consumer Club of
Dallas and Prestige III of Washington, D.C.
 Reuter

Shr profit 28 cts vs loss 32 cts
    Net profit 1,190,000 vs loss 686,000
    Revs 40.8 mln vs 2.2 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 20 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net profit 2,021,000 vs loss 1,162,000
    Revs 103 mln vs 9.5 mln
    Avg shrs 4,206,371 vs 2,124,967
   
REUTER

Integrated Resources Inc said it filed
statement covering 150 mln dlrs of senior notes.
    The notes are to be sold in three equal-sized issues of 50
mln dlrs. The maturities will be 1990, 1992 and 1994.
    Proceeds will be used to repay short-term debt incurred
primarily for working capital, Integrated Resources said.
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS OFF 2.52 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 260,000, CRUDE OFF 4.23 MLN

Shr loss 1.82 dlrs vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 2,285,000 vs loss 264,000
    Revs 23.0 mln vs 14.6 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.59 dlrs vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 2,467,000 vs profit 112,000
    Revs 77.3 mln vs 75.8 mln
    NOTE: Includes loss of 1.1 mln dlrs or 70 cts/shr from
asset writedowns and cost reductions.
 Reuter

CONSUMERS POWER SEES ONE-TIME 1ST QTR LOSS OF SEVEN CTS/SHR FROM SUIT

DOME PETROLEUM TAKES 1986 WRITEDOWNS TOTALLING 2.08 BILLION DLRS

auction 17 billion dlrs of 9-day and 20-day cash management
bills on April 2.
    The auction will consist of 11 billion dlrs in 9-day bills
and six billion dlrs in 20-day bills.
    Bids for the bills will be received at all Federal Reserve
Banks and branches. Tenders must be for a minimum of one mln
dlrs, and non-competitive tenders from the public will not be
accepted. Bids will not be received at the Treasury Department.
The 9-day bills will be issued April 7 and mature April 16,
while the 20-day bills will be issued April 3 and mature April
23.
 Reuter

    The April 6 sale, to be evenly divided between the three
and six month issues, will result in a paydown of 1.65 billion
dlrs as maturing bills total 14.85 billion dlrs.
    The bills will be issued April 9.
 Reuter

Shr loss 6.94 dlrs vs loss two cts
    Net loss 2.20 billion vs profit 7.0 mln
    Revs 1.55 billion vs 2.44 billion
    Note: 1986 shr and net include writedowns totalling 2.08
billion dlrs before a reduction in deferred income taxes of 571
mln dlrs. Net also includes 214 mln dlrs in accumulated foreign
exchange losses
    Canadian funds
    Note continued: shr after preferred dividends
 Reuter

The U.S. specialty steel industry
and its union said they will seek a three-year extension of
President Reagan's import restraint program to give the
industry more time to restore competitiveness.
    They said they will tell the U.S. International Trade
Commission (ITC) Thursday that "termination will have disastrous
consequences for American companies and workers."
    The current four-year voluntary program reached with
foreign exporters ends this summer and the ITC must advise
President Reagan on the economic effect of its termination.
    The Specialty Steel Industry of the United States and the
United Steelworkers Union said in statement that imported steel
was still flooding the domestic market and continued curbs were
needed to restore the industry's health.
    Reagan is to decide by July 19 whether to renew the
restraint program.
 Reuter

Holder Communications Corp said it
agreed to buy five privately held companies with combined 1987
revenues expected to be about 25 mln dlrs.
    Holder plans to issue 32 mln common shares to buy the
Nashville-based companies, all of which are owned by Jack
Norman and Joe Shaw, their families and employees.
    The companies include radio stations WKXC-AM and WWKZ-FM,
which operate in the New Albany/Tupelo, Miss., market, and
General Masonry Inc, a contractor in the Southeast.
    The acquisitions are subject to approval by Holder
shareholders and the Federal Communications Commission.
 Reuter

Chelsea Industries Inc said earnings for
its fiscal second quarter ended March 30 will be "sharply
lower" than the 1,414,000 dlrs or 55 cts a share it earned for
the same quarter last year.
    It also said it lowered its earnings forecasts for the
remainder of the fiscal year. In fiscal 1986, the company
earned 7,206,000 dlrs or 2.78 dlrs a share.
    The company cited intensely competitive market conditions
in its polyethelyne trash liner business and startup costs
related to its acquisition of Artisan Plastic for the reduced
earnings outlook.
   
 Reuter

downgraded 700 mln dlrs of debt of Dana Corp and its unit Dana
Credit Corp.
    Cut were the parent's senior debt and industrial revenue
bonds to A-3 from A-2. Moody's reduced to Prime-2 from Prime-1
the commercial paper of Dana and its credit unit.
    Moody's cited deterioration in capital structure and debt
protection measurements due to aggressive balance sheet
management.  Moreover, Dana's financial leverage rose to
43 pct from 22 pct in 1984 and may climb even more after
completing its ongoing stock repurchase program, Moody's said.
 Reuter

pay Union Carbide Corp 39.2 mln dlrs in settlement of a suit
that began in July 1982.
    Consumers Power said the settlement will cause it to take a
one-time loss of six mln dlrs, or seven cts a share, in its
    The impact will be less than the payment to Union Carbide
because Consumers Power set up a reserve to account for the
settlement, the tax effect of the settlement, and "some
book-keeping," a spokesman said.
    Union Carbide had sought 162.5 mln dlrs in damages from
Consumers Power.
    Half of the settlement will be paid immediately in cash.
The remainder will be paid in real estate.
    The dispute involved a long-term contract which Consumers
Power entered into in 1980 to buy residual fuel from Union
Carbide. In 1982 Consumers Power stopped taking oil under the
contract, claiming it was excused from buying more oil under
certain provisions of the accord.
    Union Carbide said it plans to resell the real estate,
located in northern Michigan, according to Consumers Power.
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd, earlier
reporting a 2.20 billion dlr 1986 loss compared to year-earlier
profit of 7.0 mln dlrs, said the loss was mainly due to write
downs totalling 2.084 billion dlrs before a reduction in
deferred income taxes of 571 mln dlrs.
    The loss also includes 214 mln dlrs in accumulated foreign
exchange losses, the company said.
    "The dramatic drop in energy prices in early 1986 reverses
much of the progress the company has made in the two previous
years," Dome chairman J. Howard Macdonald said in a statement.
    "But even a net loss of this magnitude has very little
bearing on the day-to-day operations of Dome," chairman
Macdonald said.
    "It merely reflects the realistic carrying value of the
company's assets in today's economic environment, and the
absolute need for reaching a timely agreement with our lenders
on a debt restructuring plan to assure the company's continued
existence," he added.
    Dome is now trying to reach agreement on a complex plan for
restructuring debt of more than 6.10 billion dlrs.
    Dome said it charged the 214 mln dlrs in accumulated
foreign exchange losses to current expenses because of the
uncertainty arising from its proposed restructuring plan.
    Normally the expenses would be amortized over the remaining
period of the loans to which they apply, it said.
    Dome also said the write downs included a fourth quarter
reduction in the value of its oil and gas properties of 1.20
billion dlrs, before a reduction in deferred income taxes of
305 mln dlrs. The fourth quarter writedown was in addition to a
charge of 880 mln dlrs on certain other assets, taken mainly in
    Dome said the 1.20 billion dlr fourth quarter charge
resulted from a year-end accounting change made under new full
cost accounting guidelines by the Canadian Institute of
Chartered Accountants.
    The company said it previously determined a write down of
conventional oil and gas properties was not required at
September 30, under the previous method of calculating the
limitation of oil and gas values.
    Dome said the most significant accounting change under the
new guidelines is using current oil and gas prices in
calculations instead of escalating price forecasts.
    Terms of Dome's proposed debt restructuring plan preclude
the company from making an accurate estimate of future
financing costs, which are used in the new accounting
calculations, it said.
    As a result, Dome adopted current prices and costs and a 10
pct discount factor in the calculations, which substantially
conform with accounting rules prescribed by the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, the company said.
    Dome said operating income from its crude oil and natural
gas segments fell by 2.50 billion dlrs to a 1986 loss of 1.71
billion dlrs from prior year earnings of 737.0 mln dlrs.
    Dome said the steep drop in crude oil and natural gas
operating income was due to write downs totalling 1.93 billion
dlrs and lower energy prices that sharply reduced revenue.
    Reduced production of natural gas and lower utilization of
Dome's offshore drilling fleet in the Beaufort Sea also
contributed to the decline, it said.
    Earnings from its natural gas liquids business fell by 79
pct to 42.0 mln dlrs from 199 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Cash from operations dropped to 5.0 mln dlrs from year-ago
542.0 mln dlrs and unrestricted cash balance declined to 202.0
mln dlrs from 466.0 mln dlrs.
    Dome said 1986 crude oil production in 1986 was maintained
at prior year's levels through new drilling activity and
improvements in productivity.
    Natural gas production fell by nine pct as a result of
lower domestic and export sales, it said.
    Oil and field natural gas liquids production totalled
86,000 barrels a day, compared to 87,000 bpd in the prior year.
    Natural gas production fell to 536.0 mln cubic feet a day
from 591.0 mcf a day.
 Reuter

ITT Corp said it received a final 400
mln dlr payment for its telecommunications joint venture with
<Alcatel NV>, settling all accounts in the venture.
    The company had previously said it was due to receive the
400 mln dlr payment.
    Alcatel NV was formed last year when ITT and <Cie Generale
d'Electricite> of France merged their telecommunications
business. ITT received a 37 pct interest in Alcatel and 1.3
billion dlrs in cash, including today's payment.
 Reuter

Shr loss 9.42 dlrs vs loss 3.85 dlrs
    Net loss 55.5 mln vs loss 21.4 mln
    Revs 114.9 mln vs 120.0 mln
    Avg shrs 6,460,000 vs 5,719,000
    Year
    Shr loss 6.80 dlrs vs loss 4.77 dlrs
    Net loss 36.0 mln vs loss 26.2 mln
    Revs 478.9 mln vs 437.9 mln
    Avg shrs 6,016,000 vs 5,713,000
    Note: Net includes realized capital gains of 2,610,000 vs
2,442,000 for qtr and 18.1 mln vs 13.6 mln for year.
    1986 net also includes gain on termination of pension plan
of 2,614,000 for qtr and year, and tax loss of 3,605,000 for
qtr. Includes pretax gain from sale of common stock in Guaranty
National Corp of 5,722,000 for year.
    Revised estimated calculation of workers compensation
earned premiums decreased 1986 earned premiums by 10 mln.
    Year-ago results restated to reflect deconsolidation of
Guaranty National.
 Reuter

Avon Products Inc, the diversifed
conglomerate that had a strong turn around in 1986, said it
expects sales and earnings to climb higher this year.
    In its annual report, the company also said it expects to
maintain its current annual two dlr dividend on the basis of
continued upward earnings.
    In 1986, Avon's operational earnings rose 24 pct to 158.7
mln dlrs from 128.2 mln dlrs a year earlier, and sales rose 17
pct to 2.88 billion dlrs. It said the 2.23 dlrs a share earned
last year was the highest in five years, but still well below
the company's all-time high of 4.06 dlrs a share in 1979.
 Reuter

International Paper Co said spending
for 1987 is forecast to be about 550 mln dlrs compared to 567
mln dlrs in 1986, excluding the 1.1 billion dlrs acquisition of
Hamermill Paper Co, according to the company's annual report.
    The focus of spending will be on continued plant
modernization and maintenance.
    The company said the new federal tax law will increase its
tax burden and have a negative impact on capital investment.
    In the report, International Paper chairman John Georges
predicts the company will have modest growth and continued
improvement in its operating results due to favorable product
demand and pricing environment.
    Start-up of a 250 mln dlr coated publications paper machine
at an Arkansas mill, other mill enhancements and the Hammermill
acquisition are expected to contribute to future earnings
growth, the company said.
    For 1986, International Paper reported net income of 284.0
mln dlrs compared to 107 mln dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

CHASE MANHATTAN RAISES PRIME RATE TO 7-3/4 PCT FROM 7-1/2, EFFECTIVE TODAY

it expects to record a 470 mln dlr, or 1.25 dlr per share,
reduction in 1987 earnings because of the company's decision to
change the method used to record Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power
Plant revenues.
    The accounting change will not affect the company's cash
position and the company intends to continue paying its
dividend at the annual rate of 1.92 dlrs per share.
    Last year Pacific Gas reported earnings of 925 mln dlrs, or
2.60 dlrs per share.
    Pacific Gas said the accounting change was prompted by
delays in the receipt of a California Public Utilities
Commission decision on the company's 1984 application for rate
relief to recover the 5.8 billion dlr cost of constructing
units one and two of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Project.
    It said the commission is currently allowing the company to
recover 40 pct of the cost of owning and operating the plants.
    As a result, 63 mln dlrs has been accumulating each month
as deferred non-cash account receivable, which has been
included in current income.
    But the accounting change, effective January 1, will
reflect only cash received through interim rates approved by
the commission, Pacific Gas and Electric said.
    It also said the commission is now awaiting its Public
Staff Division's report which will recommend how much of the
5.8 billion dlr investment Pacific Gas should be allowed to
recover in rates.
    The company further stated that it is confident it will
receive an objective review of the facts.
    It also said it intends to seek additional interim rates.
    Pacific Gas began construction of the two nuclear power
units in 1969. After a number of construction delays, unit one
went into operation in May 1985 and unit two went on line in
March last year.
 Reuter

Avco Lycoming, a division of Textron
Inc, has been awarded a 420.2 mln dlr contract for work on 810
engines and spare parts for the M-1A1 tank, the Army said.
 REUTER

Black and Decker Corp is raising 100
mln dlrs via an offering of notes due 1997 yielding 8.40 pct,
    The notes have an 8-3/8 pct coupon and were priced at 99.83
to yield 86 basis points over comparable Treasury securities.
    Non-callable for seven years, the issue is rated Baa-2 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and A-minus by Standard and
Poor's Corp.  Salomon Brothers Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

proposed to ease its regulations on operations of securities
subsidiaries of banks.
    The FDIC proposed for comment for 30 days amendments to end
a ban on the sharing of a corporate name and logo by a bank and
its security unit.
    It also said the securities subsidiary was no longer
required to have an entrance separate from the bank's, but the
bank's and subsidiary's separate office space must be marked.
    The bank must inform customers that securities purchased
from the subsidiary were not covered by FDIC deposit insurance.
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 15.0 mln vs 20.0 mln
    Revs 861.2 mln vs 725.9 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.55 dlrs vsd 1.90 dlrs
    Net 46.5 mln vs 57.0 mln
    Revs 2.53 billion vs 2.25 billion
    Note: 1986 had 53 weeks vs 52 weeks in 1985. 4th qtr 1986
had 17 weeks vs 16 weeks in 1985.
 Reuter

Innovex  Inc said it has completed
the purchase of substantially of the interest in Lucht
Engineering Inc that it did not already own.
    Prior to this move Innovex owned 79 pct of Lucht, the
    Innovex said it bought the shares by exchanging 293,101
shares of unregistered Innovex common stock. Innovex president,
Thomas Haley, said the exchange is non-dilutive and will cause
a slight increase in Innovex's fully diluted earnings per share
during the last half of fiscal 1987.
    Lucht will continue to function as a unit of Innovex,
Innovex said.
 Reuter

Energy futures now set the
standard for oil pricing, said Arnold Safer, president of The
Energy Futures Group Inc, a consulting firm.
     "Petroleum futures trading at the New York Mercantile
Exchange literally set spot market prices in the U.S.," he
said, adding that some oil products sellers now offer contracts
based on a daily average of NYMEX prices.
     He also said that petroleum futures are a major market for
oil companies as well as for commodity traders. His remarks
were made at the National Petroleum Refiners Association.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.37 dlrs vs 1.59 dlrs
    Net loss 38.6 mln vs 42.5 mln
    Revs 31.4 mln vs 59.4 mln
    Note: 1986 net includes pretax writedown of 23 mln on oil
and gas properties and a 30.3 mln non-cash provision for
impairment of geothermal property.
 Reuter

Linear Films Inc said it sees lower
earnings in the fourth quarter ending March 31 compared with a
year ago due to lower profit margins on stretch film from price
increases of polyethelene resin, a key raw material.
    In last year's fourth quarter it earned 1,235,000 dlrs or
19 cts a share, a spokesman said.
    The company said it is raising its stretch film prices by
six pct as of April 15 to reflect the higher costs of
polyethelene resin. It also said sale volume of stretch film in
the fourth quarter was lower than anticipated, although it has
returned to normal in recent weeks.
 Reuter

MCO Resources Inc said its independent
auditors have qualified their opinion on the company financial
statements for 1986, in which it posted a net loss of 38.6 mln
dlrs or 1.37 dlrs a share on revenues of 31.4 mln.
    MCO said the qualfied opinion related to its realization of
the carrying amount of its geothermal property and its ability
to continue as an ongoing concern, which is dependent upon the
restructuring of the company's bank debt and other obligations,
resolution of the uncertainties surrounding its geothermal
operations and the success of future operations.
    The company said its capital spending for 1987 has been
virtually eliminated and that an additional staff reduction of
about 20 pct is being implemented today.
 Reuter

    Net 7,121,000 vs 4,481,000
    Revs 37.4 mln vs 22.8 mln
    Avg shrs primary 30,067,000 vs 29,735,000
 Reuter

Atlantic Richfield Oil Co said it
expects first quarter net income to cover its dividend
requirements in the quarter.
    The company paid a quarterly dividend of one dlr a share
earlier this month.
 Reuter

Egypt will tender Thursday for
200,000 tonnes of optional origin corn, U.S. number two or
equivalent, 14.5 pct moisture, for late April shipment, private
    Shipment will be from the Gulf or Great Lakes if U.S.
origin, they said.
 Reuter

Servotronics Inc said it declared
a 10 pct stock dividend, payable May 15 to shareholders of
record April 21.
    The company last declared a stock dividend, also 10 pct, in
March 1986.
 Reuter

STANDARD OIL RAISES ALASKA NORTH SLOPE BY 1.50 DLRS, effective APRIL ONE

The International Monetary Fund
predicts that the industrial world will grow a sluggish 2.5 pct
in 1987, a sharp drop from the more than three pct forecast six
months ago, monetary sources said.
    The forecasts, prepared by the IMF staff, will form the
basis of a debate on economic policy coordination by officials
of top industrial nations at high-level meetings next week.
    The sources said the IMF predicts an expansion of just 2.5
pct in the U.S., shaving a full one point off its original 1987
forecast, released last fall.
    The figures will be discussed by the IMF's executive board
before going to the IMF's policy-making Interim Committee here
next week and may be subject to slight revision, they said.
    The Reagan administration has forecast 3.2 pct U.S.
economic growth this year while more pessimistic Fed officials
are predicting 2.5 to three pct.
    The sources said the IMF also predicts growth of around 
2.5 pct in West Germany, and 2.8 pct in Japan.
    Washington has extracted promises from both West Germany
and Japan that they will take measures to bolster their
domestic economic growth, to help reduce the massive gap
between their huge trade surpluses and the record American
trade deficit.
    Poor economic growth figures in these two nations and the
U.S. are likely to do little to reassure currency markets.
    In recent days, the dollar has come under heavy selling
pressure as markets have grown cynical that Bonn and Tokyo will
take early action.
    With no economic stimulus in sight, financial markets have
reduced the dollar's value to levels that are more likely to
balance U.S. trade, monetary analysts say.
    Monetary sources also said the IMF forecasts overall growth
in developing nations of around three pct this year, with
developing countries in the western hemisphere -- the
Caribbean, Central and South America -- expanding 3.3 pct.
    In its recent annual report, the Inter-American Development
Bank said Latin American nations need to expand between four
and five pct this year to service their 382 billion dlrs of
    Non-oil exporting Third World nations should achieve an
expansion of around four per cent while oil exporting nations
will average almost no growth at all, the sources said.
    Also short of the mark is the level of industrial country
growth. Western officials maintain the industrial world needs
to expand at least three per cent annually -- against this
year's initial IMF prediction of 2.5 pct -- in order to support
the export drive of debtor nations.
    Exports provide the indebted world, which owes western
creditors some 900 billion dlrs, with its principal source of
foreign exchange for debt repayments.
    In other forecasts, the IMF put overall global growth at
about 2.8 pct and output in the seven leading industrial
nations at around 2.5 pct.
    The seven -- the United States, Japan, West Germany,
Britain, France, Italy and Canada -- have become the main forum
for coordination of medium-term economic policies in the
industrial world. The prediction for the seven is also around
2.5 pct growth in 1987.
    The Fund put Canadian growth at about 2.7 pct, the French
expansion at 2.9 pct and Britain at 2.8 pct.
    The figures will be discussed as part of an overall debate
on the World Economic Outlook and the U.S. debt strategy by the
Interim Committee.
    Those talks are one of several meetings between top
economic officials of industrial and developing nations during
the semi-annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
 Reuter

Oper shr 50.4 cts vs 48.7 cts
    Oper net 688,000 vs 665,000
    Revs 12.3 mln vs 10.7 mln
    Note: Oper excludes tax credits of 559,000 vs 537,000
 Reuter

The surge in currency futures since
Friday on the heels of the Reagan administration's proposed
tariffs on Japanese imports is likely to be curtailed in the
coming week, financial analysts said.
    "The market is taking a breather now, and I would expect it
to last a little longer," said Craig Sloane, a currency analyst
with Smith Barney, Harris, Upham and Co.
    Profit-taking, which robbed the currency futures of some
momentum today, is likely to continue, he said.
    Central banks are likely to play a role in halting the
advance in currencies through intervention, the analysts said,
even though the dollar fell to a 40-year low against the
Japanese yen on Monday despite Bank of Japan intervention.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker's comments that the G-6
nations remain committed to the Paris accord, coupled with his
refusal to give any targets for exchange rates, provided a note
of stability to the market Tuesday, the analysts said.
    Furthermore, Merrill Lynch Economics analyst David Horner
said G-6 central banks haven't yet shown the full force of
their commitment to the Paris accord.
    "I'm among those who believe the G-6 have a plan behind the
scenes," Horner said.
    Horner said more forceful central bank intervention will
firm the dollar and cap the rise in currency futures.
    "Coordinated, punishing intervention" by the central banks
-- in contrast to the recent rolling intervention which has
only smoothed out the market -- is in the offing, according to
Horner.
    "I think we're near the top of the range in the Europeans
(currencies)," he said.
     On the other hand, the upside target for the yen, which
set a new contract high today at 0.006916 in the June contract,
is at 0.007050, Horner said.
    Still, other analysts believe currency futures have yet to
peak.
    "The basic trend in the currencies is higher," said Anne
Parker Mills, currency analyst with Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc. "The market wants to take the dollar lower."
    Uncertainty over central bank action and nervousness over a
G-5 meeting next week in advance of a meeting of the
International Monetary Fund could make for choppy price
activity the remainder of the week, Mills said.
    In addition, although the market shrugged off relatively
healthy gains in February U.S. leading economic indicators and
factory orders Tuesday, economic data could play a larger role
in coming sessions, the analysts said.
    Friday's employment statistics in particular will be
closely watched, Sloane said, adding that a forecast rise of
250,000 in non-farm payroll jobs should underpin the dollar.
 Reuter

Sky Express Inc said its
president and chief operating officer, John Cerrito Sr, pleaded
guilty to one charge of evading his personal income taxes in
1983.
    The company said a sentencing date has not yet been set.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs 30 cts
    Net 1,100,000 vs 3,900,000
    Revs 14.9 mln vs 20.7 mln
 Reuter

Taco Villa Inc said it is holding talks
with RepublicBank Corp <RPT> to restructure its loan payments
and waive some financial convenants on its debt.
    It also said it may sell certain assets to repay the bank
borrowings, and is holding talks with interested parties. It
expects to write down some previously acquired assets, but the
company did not say by how much.
    At the end of 1986 it had 11 mln dlrs in bank debt
outstanding with a 1.7 mln dlr payment due May one. It is also
seeking to extend 1.2 mln dlrs of mortgage payments due this
year, and is in talks to extend other debt payments.
    The company said it previously reported special charges of
nine mln dlrs in the fourth quarter from losses on restaurant
closings, lease termination costs, contract settlements and
severance arrangements.
    Since it has not yet decided how to treat the additional
writedowns and debt, it has delayed its 1986 financial
statement. It said it expects to file an amendment to its form
10-K but did not say when the amended filing would be made.
    The company said it hoped to resolve its debt problems in
the near future.
 Reuter

Eli Lilly and Co told the Securities
and Exchange Commission it cut its stake in Liposome Co Inc to
500,000 shares, or 4.0 pct of the total outstanding common
stock, from 900,000 shares or 7.3 pct.
    Lilly said it sold 400,000 Liposome common shares on March
17 at eight dlrs each.
    As long as Lilly's stake in Liposome is below five pct, it
is not required to report any further dealings it has in the
 Reuter

The U.S. grain planting intentions and
stocks reports bear optimistic news for U.S agriculture, a
grain analyst on a Chicago Board of Trade panel said.
    The decline in intended soybean acreage and lower stocks
are "the first report we've had for a long time that shows any
optimism for anybody," said John "Bud" Frazier, grain analyst
and executive vice president for Balfour MacLaine, Inc.
    "I'm really excited about it," Frazier said.
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture said farmers intend to
plant 67.6 mln acres of corn, down from 76.7 mln planted last
year, and 56.8 mln acres of soybeans, down from 61.5 mln.
    The report showed March 1 stocks of 1.4 billion bushels of
soybeans, 8.3 billion bushels of corn, and 2.3 billion bushels
of wheat, all below trade guesses.
    Frazier was joined by Susan Hackmann, senior grain analyst
with AgriAnalysis, and Mark Meyer, a grain analyst with
Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc., on a Chicago Board of Trade
panel to discuss the reports.
    Frazier said the stocks reports in particular were friendly
for the market, and soybean prices would jump three to five
cents a bushel "if the bell rang right now."
    "We're getting our disappearance up. We have less (corn and
soybeans) than we thought we had," he said, noting that hog and
poultry production is up.
    "We're seeing low prices generate some interest in demand,"
said Meyer, adding that feed use was up 13 pct last quarter and
15 pct in the preceding quarter.
    However, Hackmann said production could continue to exceed
    She noted that most of the reductions in soybean acres came
in southeastern states, where yields are usually low.
    "We have the potential for record breaking soybean yields
this year, (which) will temper the enthusiasm on tomorrow's
opening," she said.
    Hackmann said record corn yields also are possible, and the
crop could reach 7.1 billion bushels, which would be down from
last year's 8.25 billion bushels.
    "We'll need very good disappearance next year to reduce
stocks," she said. The USDA estimated disappearance last year
at 6.7 billion bushels.
    Hackmann said the stocks report was positive for the long
term, "But we still have a long way to go to bring stocks down
to where we could start rebuilding prices."
    Frazier also cautioned that the soybean acreage report
could prompt farmers to change their plans and plant more
soybeans.
    The panelists agreed that the reports should discourage
talk of revising the 1985 farm bill.
    "There seems to be no desire ... to change the farm law
we're working under today, and this report should reinforce
that," Frazier said.
    "We are seeing the program beginning to work," said Meyer.
 Reuter

Israel's parliament passed a 25
billion dollar state budget that lowers the taxes of highest
wage earners in an effort to stimulate worker productivity,
State Radio said.
    Israelis are one of the most heavily taxed people in the
world. Under the new budget, about a quarter of which will go
to defence, highest wage earners will pay income tax of 48 per
cent instead of the current 60 per cent.
    The bill passed less than an hour before the start of the
new fiscal year on April 1. It was held up by debates over
specific programs such as education fees and social benefits
for low wage earners.
    The radio said the budget passed by a wide majority. Last
year's budget was about 19 billion dollars.
    In January, Israel devalued its shekel currency by 9.75 per
cent against the U.S. Dollar and the government agreed to lower
taxes of high wage-earners in an effort to stimulate exports
and productivity.
    The government, trade unions and industrialists in January
also agreed to extend 18-month-old price controls until March
1988 in an effort to avert labour unrest and a return to hyper-
inflation. Because of the controls, inflation dropped to 20 per
cent in 1986 from more than 400 per cent in 1985.
 Reuter

<Sharon Steel Corp> said it extended to
April 30 the expiration date of the offers to exchange its
outstanding 13.5 pct subordinated sinking fund debentures due
2000 and outstanding 14.25 pct subordinated sinking fund
debentures due 1999.
    The company said it extended the offers to allow more time
to complete the previously announced sale of its Mueller Brass
Co unit, to conclude a definitive agreement with the United
Steel Workers Union and to meet the conditions of the Mueller
sale and exchange offers.
 Reuter

Brazil's leading political party has
expressed full support to President Jose Sarney's decision
suspending interest payment of 68 billion dollars owed to
private foreign banks.
    Besides expressing its support, the government's Brazilian
Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) urged Sarney to keep on with
his decision "up to the last consequences."
    Conducted by veteran party leader Ulysses Guimaraes, head
of Brazil's Constituent Assembly, the PMDB praised Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro for his courage to propose suspension of
interest payment of the debt for an indefinite period.
    The Brazilian government announced suspension of interest
payment on part of its 109-billion dlrs foreign debt on
February 20.
    "The road to dignity has no return," said a document issued
by the PMDB.
    The party said the government's decision also had the
support of all sectors of society, including the governors of
22 Brazilian states.
    The statement said Brazil had two ways to take: "A return,
by way of submission to manoeuvres and outside pressure... Or
the way which leads the country to its independence."
 Reuter

Acceleration Corp said it sold a
24.9 pct stake in the common stock of <United Coasts Corp> to
the <Sheet Metal Workers' National Pension Fund>.
    The company said it agreed to sell the fund an additional
5.1 pct of Hartford, Conn.-based United when the fund receives
approval from the director of insurance of the state of
Arizona.
   The company said today's sale reduced its holdings in United
to 25 pct. The second sale, when completed, will lower its
stake to 19.9 pct, Acceleration said.
    The company said the proceeds from both sales will be
roughly equal to the 3,330,000 dlrs it originally invested in
United Coasts in late 1985 even though it will retain a 19.9
pct stake.
    Acceleration said it plans to include gains from the stock
sales in its results for the first and second quarters of 1987.
 Reuter

Securities and Exchange Commission it sold its entire 6.0 pct,
stake of Cyclops Corp.
    Oppenheimer said it sold the 243,400-share stake on March
27 at 95.00 dlrs a share.
    It said it initially bought the stock in connection with
course of its business.
 Reuter

filed a 266 mln dlr financing plan with Texas regulators and
asked for quick approval so that it can implement a previously
approved 39.9 mln dlr interim rate increase.
    In the filing with the Texas Public Utilities Commission,
Gulf States said it listed six sources of funding that it
believes meet the commission's requirement that it obtain 250
mln dlrs in credit and other financing before it can institute
the interim rate hike.
 Reuter

Quarter-point prime rate increases to
7-3/4 pct by Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank today will be
followed by other banks only after they see clearer signs of
the Federal Reserve's policy intentions, economists said.
    "Based on the spread between banks' cost of funds and the
prime rate, it probably makes sense for others to follow, but
no rush is likely," said Paul McCulley of E.F. Hutton and Co.
    Citibank's surprise base rate increase, quickly followed by
Chase, sent U.S. bond prices lower and the dollar higher.
    McCulley said that once the spread between three-month
certificates of deposit and the prime rate narrows to less than
1-1/2 percentage points, there is a strong chance of a prime
rate increase. It has been under 1-1/4 points recently.
    However, banks are likely to hold rate increases until they
see what the Fed intends to do about interest rates in the near
term, analysts said. They noted that banks historically like to
follow Fed rate movements, rather than lead them. For example,
the last prime rate increase occurred in June 1984 when banks
lifted the rate to 13 pct from 12-1/2 pct after a Fed discount
rate increase in April of that year.
    Major banks had been posting a 7-1/2 pct prime rate since
last August 26/27, when they lowered the rate from eight pct
shortly after the Fed's half-point discount rate cut to the
current 5-1/2 pct level on August 20.
    "The banks will not rush to raise their prime rates. There
should be a split prime for a while with some posting a 7-1/2
pct rate and others 7-3/4 pct," said David Jones of Aubrey G.
Lanston and Co.
    Jones said the Federal Open Market Committee at today's
meeting voted no change in Fed policy. But he said the Fed may
well foster higher interest rates soon.
    Jones said that, while the FOMC probably voted no policy
change today, it may have decided to apply slight upward rate
pressure later if the dollar weakens, inflation pressures heat
up or the economy shows sign of strong recovery.
    "The Fed clearly indicated that they did not intend to
tighten policy when they did today's coupon pass," said Joseph
Liro of S.G. Warburg and Co.
    In a move that came a day earlier than most expected, the
Fed today supplied permanent reserves to the banking system by
offering to buy all maturities of Treasury notes and bonds for
its own account. This seasonal reserve add is called a "pass."
    "The Fed demonstrated that there has been no policy
change," said Elizabeth Reiners, economist at Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc. 
    She said the spread between banks' cost of funds and the
prime rate is now around 137 basis points compared with a 153
basis point average in 1986. Reiners said the spread is not
really narrow enough to present a clear need for a prime rate
increase.
    The Dean Witter economist said that today's prime rate rise
"may have been less a response to interest rates than an
attempt to enhance the (balance sheet) bottom line."
    Reiners said that, given recent problems with loans to
developing countries, large money center banks with heavy
exposures might be the first to match the higher prime rate in
an effort to get more profitable spreads on other loans.
    The Federal funds rate at which banks lend overnight money
to one another could help determine how many banks match the
higher prime rate and also how quickly they move.
    In raising their prime rates, banks cited a higher cost of
funds. In the three business days through Monday, the Federal
funds rate at which banks lend to one another averaged nearly
6-1/4 pct. But quarter end pressures helped push up funds.  
    The Fed funds rate was extremely volatile today, reflecting
demand pressure associated with the end of the quarter and the
close of the Japanese fiscal year. Funds traded between five
and 6-3/4 pct.
    Once the special distortions end, analysts said the funds
rate probably will return to its recent trading level in the
6-1/8 pct area. They said that, if it stabilizes near there,
banks may not quickly boost their prime rates.
    But a consistently higher funds rates would suggest to many
that the Fed was fostering somewhat higher interest rates to
help the dollar. Then banks would lift prime rates quickly.
 Reuter

Computer Aided Time Share
Inc said it has signed an agreement with McDonnell Douglas
Corp's manufacturing and engineering systems unit under which
it will market McDonnell's crossroads software package to
dealers in 11 states in the upper Midwest.
    Crossroads is McDonnell Douglas' personal computer-based
computer aided design/drafting software package, it said.
    Terms call for Computer Aided to buy a minimum of 500,000
dlrs in software over the first 12 months beginning April one.
If Computer meets the commitment, McDonnell will not set up
other regional distributors in the 12 months, it said.
 Reuter

An investment partnership led by
four sons of Loews Corp <LTR> Chairman Lawrence Tisch said it
cut its Tosco Corp stake to the equivalent of 1,499,985 shares,
or 4.95 pct of the total, from 1,666,650 shares, or 5.5 pct.
the partnership, FLF Associates, said it sold 10,000 shares of
Serier E convertible preferred stock on March 26 for 34.125
dlrs each and 5,000 shares of preferred stock on March 27 at
35.25 dlrs each. The sales leave the Tisch brothers with
135,000 shares of preferred stock which can be converted into
1,499,985 shares of common stock.
 Reuter

House Democratic budget writers hope
to win budget committee approval of a budget package to cut the
deficit more than 36 billion dlrs perhaps as early as tomorrow,
committee sources said.
    After several weeks of closed sessions, Democrats are ready
to present to the full committee tomorrow a package to cut the
congressionally estimated 171 billion dlr deficit in 1988 by
about 36 billion dlrs, half through revenues.
    The plan could cut 9 billion dlrs from defence spending
levels of 290.5 billion and 9 billion dlrs from many domestic
programs, excluding Social Security.
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 38 cts
    Net loss 393,241 vs loss 1,384,334
    Revs 43.6 mln vs 40.3 mln
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd said it
sold its 50 pct stake in Canada Metal Co Ltd to Canada Metal
senior management for an undisclosed sum.
    Cominco said the sale was part of its previously announced
policy of divesting non-core businesses.
    Canada Metal is a Toronto-based producer of lead alloys and
engineered lead products.
    Canada Metal production figures were not immediately
 Reuter

First City Bancorp of Texas, which lost
a record 402 mln dlrs in 1986, said in its annual report it
expected operating losses to continue "for the foreseeable
future" as it continues to search for additional capital or a
merger partner.
    The Houston-based bank's 1986 financial statements received
a qualified opinion from its auditors, Arthur Andersen and Co.
The auditors said their opinion was subject to First City
eventually obtaining additional capital.
    "The company believes that in order to address its
long-term needs and return to a satisfactory level of
operations, it will ultimately need several hundred million
dollars of additional capital, or a combination with a more
strongly capitalized entity," First City said in a note to its
financial statements included in the annual report.
    "Management believes that sufficient resources should be
available to cover interim capital concerns while additional
capital is being sought," the bank said.
    To raise cash in the near-term, First City said it may sell
or mortgage non-strategic assets, recover excess contributions
to its pension plan and obtain special dividends from some of
its member banks.
    "The losses for 1987 are expected to be substantially less
than in 1986," First City chairman J.A. Elkins said in a letter
included in the annual report. "However, the ultimate return to
satisfactory operating conditions is dependent on the
successful resolution of the related problems of credit
quality, funding and the eventual need for substantial
additional capital."
    First City said it anticipated that certain covenants of a
credit agreement with unaffiliated banks requiring most of
First City's excess cash to be applied to debt repayments would
be modified by the end of the first quarter in order to avoid
default.
    The banks agreed to similar amendments to the covenants
last year and First City has reduced its borrowings from 120
mln dlrs at 1986 yearend to 68.5 mln dlrs in recent weeks.
    Although the parent company's capital adequacy ratios
exceeded regulatory minimum requirements at the end of 1986,
First City said its two largest subsidiaries did not. First
City National Bank of Houston had a primary capital ratio of
5.34 pct and First City Bank of Dallas had a 4.75 pct ratio.
    Hard-hit by the collapse in oil and Texas real estate
prices, First City's net loan chargeoffs totaled 366 mln dlrs
last year, up from 261 mln dlrs in 1985. The bank more than
doubled its loan loss provision to 497 mln dlrs at the end of
1986.
    First City said chargeoffs and paydowns reduced its total
energy loan portfolio by 32 pct during 1986, to 1.4 billion
dlrs at year-end, adding that future energy chargeoffs "should
be more modest." The amount represented 15 pct of First City's
total loans.
    In real estate, First City said its nonperforming assets
nearly doubled last year to 347 mln dlrs at year-end.
Chargeoffs of real estate loans rose to 32 mln dlrs, or nine
pct of total loan chargeoffs, and the bank said the amount
could go higher.
    "The company still faces uncertainties in the real estate
market and anticipates further deterioration in the pportfolio
so long as the regional recession persists," First City said.
"Because the carrying value of many of these loans is
collateral dependent, a further decline in the overall value of
the collateral base could cause an increase in the level of
real estate-related chargeoffs."
 Reuter

The complex task of wielding control
over monetary policy in an increasingly fast-moving global
economy could be aided by tying policy to commodity prices, the
newest member of the Federal Reserve Board says.
    Commodity prices are already considered by the Fed in the
making of monetary policy. But they would be given a much
greater role under an idea being floated by Governor Robert
Heller, who joined the board last August.
    He conceeds that much more study of the idea is needed, but
argues that such an arrangement, particularly if it were
adopted by other major industrial countries, could reduce the
volatility of exchange rates.
    Moreover, it could help stabilize of the prices of
commodities themselves, slowing changes in inflation.
    His idea, which many conservative economists find
appealing, has some backing among board members appointed in
recent years by President Reagan.
    It would complement the present system of opening or
closing the monetary screws based on the pattern of inflation,
key indicators such as unemployment, and the rise or fall of
the money supply. Changes in the money supply can lead to
changes in interest rates and affect economic activity
directly.
    Discussed on and off for a long time, the commodity concept
is part of a growing search for a system that anchors monetary
policy and widely-fluxtuating currency prices to a more solid
base.
    "What is needed is an anchor or reference point that can
serve as a guide for both domestic and international monetary
purposes," says Heller.
    In the past, this anchor was gold but the United States
went off the gold standard because the global economy had
vastly outstripped gold supplies.
    A return to the gold standard is generally dismissed out of
hand by most policymakers on the grounds that the largest
producers of gold are the Soviet Union and South Africa.
    The so-called fixed rate system, scuttled in the early
1970s, is still considered unworkable in the present world.
    But the current system of floating currencies in which
currencies can fluxtuate widely, adding vast pressures to the
monetary system, is also being widely questioned.
    Some have suggested that the system might benefit from a
formal approach that mandates intervention by countries when
currencies wander above or below agreed to levels but there are
major problems with this also.
    For one thing, there is justifiable concern that countries
might be relunctant to intervene if they felt it might be
detrimental to their own domestic economy.
    Moreover, some question whether concerted intervention can
make much of an inpact if the overall market does not agree
with the fundamental judgement.
    The poorest countries have called for a monetary conference
to work out a new system that, not surprisingly, helps them
cope with their overpowering debt problems.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker, the Reagan administration's
chief economic architect, has preferred to use the so-called
Group of Five industrial countries or sometimes, Seven, as a
forum to work out cooperative agreements on currency and other
economic matters.
   He appears convinced that officials from West Germany,
France, Britain, Japan, Italy and Canada talking quietly behind
closed doors can reached reasoned decisions away from public
posturing.
   The Heller approach, while extremely complex, could have a
profound impact on the system, ideally stabalizing prices and
international exchange rates.
    As envisioned by Heller, a basket of say, 30 major
commodities ranging from wheat to oil, would be put together
and prices would be measured on a regular basis.
be tightened and in times of falling commodity prices, montary
policy might be eased," he says.
    He notes that commodity prices are traded daily in auction
markets, and a commodity price index can be calculated on a
virtually continuous basis.
    Moreover, most commodity prices are produced, consumed and
traded on a world-wide basis, so "that an index has a relevance
for the entire world," he says.
    In addition, commodity prices are at the beginning of the
production chain and serve as an imput into virtually all
production processes.
    "Focusing on commodity prices as an early and sensitive
indicator of current and perhaps also future prices pressures,
the monetary authorities may take such an index into account in
making their monetary policy decisions," he says.
    However, he says that any major change in a basic commodity
such as occurred in oil during the 1970s because of action by
the OPEC cartel, would have to be discounted in such a system.
    He says the worst thing that could happen is to allow
monetary policy to spread a freakish increase in one commodity
to the rest of the system and to other commodities.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 10 cts vs profit nine cts
    Oper net loss 387,000 vs profit 313,000
    Revs 6,486,000 vs 5,613,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss two cts vs profit four cts
    Oper net loss 96,000 vs profit 120,000
    Revs 23.8 mln vs 21.3 mln
    Note: 1986 oper excludes extraordinary gains of 299,000 for
qtr and year.
 Reuter

A group led by New York investors
David Bellet and Chester Siuda said it lowered its stake in DBA
Systems Inc to 100,000 shares, or 3.7 pct of the total
outstanding, from 170,000 shares, or 6.3 pct.
the group said it sold 70,000 DBA common shares between Feb 13
and March 23 at prices ranging from 18.25 to 20.00 dlrs a
share.
    So long as the group's stake in DBA is below five pct, it
is no longer required to report its further dealings in the
 Reuter

Qtly div 7.5 cts vs 7.5 cts prior
    Pay May 19
 Reuter

    Mississippi Power Co, subsidiary of Southern Co <SO> -
Shelf offering of up to 200,000 shares of 100-dlr preferred
stock.
    Roy F. Weston Inc <WSTNA> - Offering of 30 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due April 15, 2002 through
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 11 cts vs profit two cts
    Oper net loss 1,058,585 vs profit 282,998
    Revs 24.4 mln vs 23.7 mln
    Note: 1986 oper includes accrued interest of 686,914 from
financing of capital goods transaction with Prudential Bache
Trade Corp.
    Year-ago oper excludes extraordinary gain of 121,000.
 
 Reuter

Sentex Sensing Technology Inc
said it extended to April 9, 1988, from April 9, 1987, the
expiration date of the warrants issued in connection with its
public stock offering in April 1984.
    The company said that it will voluntarily withdraw the
warrants from the NASDAQ system on April six, 1987, to
forestall speculation on their price.
 Reuter

Atlanta Gas Light Co said it filed
proposed new rates and charges with the Georgia PUblic SErvice
Commission to increase annual revenues by 9.9 mln dlrs, an
increase of less than one pct of total company revenues.
    The proposal would raise average monthly residential bills
by 24 cts to 52.84 dlrs.
    Atlanta Gas also requested approval of a new policy on
residential customer deposits. If approved, it would return
about 10 mln dlrs of customer deposits it holds to an estimated
210,000 residential customers. If approved the new rates would
go into effect October 1987.
 Reuter

A Brazilian delegation, led by central
bank president Francisco Gros, will meet Brazil's bank advisory
committee here on April 10, said Citibank's William Rhodes as
Chairman of the 14-bank committee.
    Rhodes said in a statement that the parties are expected to
discuss Brazil's economic plans and "interim arrangements." He
    This meeting will be the first here since Brazil's
of commercial bank debt on February 20. The two sides held
inconclusive talks in Miami on March 22, bankers said.
 Reuter

EMERY AIR FREIGHT CORP TO OFFER 40 DLRS/SHR FOR PUROLATOR COURIER CORP

Emery Air Freight Corp said it
plans to begin tomorrow a 40 dlr a share tender offer for 83
pct of the outstanding common stock of Purolator Courier Corp.
    The company said the tender offer is the first step in a
plan to buy 100 pct of the Purolator shares.
    Following the tender offer, Emery said it would offer 40
dlrs of junior subordinated debentures for each remaining
Purolator share outstanding.
    On March one, Purolator agreed to a 35 dlr a share
leveraged buyout by eight Purolator executives and EF Hutton
LBO Inc, a unit of EF Hutton Group Inc.
    Emery said it had tried unsuccessfully to open merger
discussions with Purolator before the company accepted the
management-led buyout offer.
    In a letter to Purolator's chairman, Nicholas F. Brady,
Emery's chairman, John C. Emery, said the company would still
prefer to negotiate with Purolator.
    But he said the imminent expiration of the leveraged buyout
group's offer has forced the company to make an unsolicited
tender offer of its own.
    Emery said its offer is scheduled to expire at 2400 EST on
April 28, unless extended.
    The company said conditions of the offer include the
receipt of at least two-thirds of Purolator's shares
outstanding, on a fully diluted basis, and the repeal of its
share purchase rights plan.
    Emery said the offer is also subject to completion of the
previously announced sale of Purolator's Canadian operations.
    Emery said Chemical Bank, Bankers Trust, Morgan Guaranty
Trust Co and Salomon Bros had agreed to provide financing for
the tender offer.
    It said the junior subordinated debentures to be issued in
the subsequent merger will carry a 13 pct annual interest rate,
payable twice a year.
    For the first three years after the notes are issued,
interest will be paid, at Emery's option, in cash or in
additional notes, Emery said.
    It added that the notes will not be subject to redemption
for one year after they are issued.
    Emery said Purolator would operate as a wholly owned unit
of the company after the merger. It said it hoped Purolator's
management would continue with the company.
    "We believe that our two companies provide an excellent fit
with each other and that the combination will enable each of us
to better serve our existing customers and meet the challenges
of the future," Emery's chairman said in his letter.
    He said a merger would significantly enhance the financial
turnaround that Purolator's management had previously forecast.
    Officials at Purolator could not immediately be reached for
comment on the offer, which was released several hours after
the stock market had closed.
    Emery's stock closed up 1/2 at 12-5/8.
    Purolator closed at 34-7/8, off 5/8.
 Reuter

Australian annual broad money growth rose
10.3 pct in February, unchanged from January, but down from the
corresponding February growth rate of 13.9 pct, the Reserve
Bank said.
    February broad money growth was steady at 0.7 pct from the
previous month and unchanged from February last year.
    Borrowings from the private sector by non-bank financial
intermediaries rose by 8.8 pct in the February year from
January's 9.5 pct rise, compared with a 13.6 pct increase in
the previous February year.
    In February, borrowings from the private sector by non-bank
financial intermediaries rose by 1.0 pct compared with
January's 0.2 pct increase and the previous February rise of
1.7 pct.
    At the end of February, broad money stood at 177.1 billion
dlrs up from January's 175.84 billion and compared with the
previous February level of 160.60 billion.
    The Reserve Bank last week reported a February M3 growth
rate of 11.2 pct from January's 10.7 pct rise and a previous
annual February increase of 14.0 pct.
 REUTER

Brazilian farmers, angry about high
interest rates, staged fresh protests yesterday in the southern
state of Rio Grande do Sul and three people died when a lorry
careered into one of the farmers' roadblocks, police said.
    A series of protests involving hundreds of thousands of
farmers has disrupted rural towns since January as the growers
blockade roads and bank offices with farm machinery.
    The Estado de Sao Paulo news agency said about 300,000 of
the 500,000 small farmers in Rio Grande do Sul took part in
yesterday's protests. The state is a leading producer of grains
and soybeans.
    The Estado de Sao Paulo agency quoted Finance Minister
Dilson Funaro as saying the government was very concerned about
the farmers' situation and particularly about their credit
problems.
    The government provides limited cheap credits at 10 pct
annual interest, but farmers are repaying bank loans at more
than 400 pct since the recent surge in inflation.
    Brazilian press reports say financial pressures have driven
some farmers to suicide in recent weeks.
 REUTER

Alcan Australia Ltd said it increased the
list price of 99.5 pct purity aluminium ingot to 2,050 dlrs a
tonne from 1,950 dlrs, effective immediately.
 REUTER

"If we go on using up
farmland as we have done since 1980, there will be none left in
20 years to grow grain on."
    Xu Jinfeng, a middle-aged official in Fengbang village on
the edge of Shanghai, sums up the dilemma China faces as it
tries to feed its more than one billion people and at the same
time let them get richer by building factories and new homes.
    China has to feed one quarter of the world's population,
but only one seventh of its land is arable.
    Sharp increases in farm output since 1979 turned China into
a net grain exporter for the first time in 1985, and again in
1986.
    But the rapid industrialisation of the countryside which
has occurred at the same time, has gobbled up arable land for
factories and homes for peasants who can now afford them.
    Official figures show that China lost just under one pct of
its arable land to other uses in 1985 and a slightly smaller
amount last year. It gained 26 mln new mouths to feed during
the two years.
    "We lost very little land prior to 1980 when the
industrialisation began," official Xu said. "Since then, nearly
all the families in the county have built new homes and many
factories have gone up."
    "Last year we lost land to a new railway line," Xu said. But
land losses in future should fall because nearly all families
already have new houses, she added.
    The issue of land loss is a matter of major concern to the
Peking leadership, which announced earlier this month that
China will issue nationwide quotas for conversion of grain land
for the first time this year.
    "The present situation of abusing, occupying unlawfully,
wasting and destroying land and land resources is serious," said
an article in the official press explaining the new measures.
    "It has resulted in great losses of cultivated farmland," it
said. "China has a large population and its land resources are
badly deficient."
    An official of the Shanghai city government said county
authorities could approve conversion of only 0.3 hectares of
arable land to other uses, while anything more than that must
be approved by the city government.
   The Peking government faces another major obstacle in its
efforts to ensure China's people get enough grain to eat. The
prices the state pays to farmers for grain are too low, making
it more profitable for them to grow other crops.
    To offset this, the state offers farmers cheap fertiliser
and diesel oil and payment in advance for grain it contracts to
buy. The state then sells the grain at subsidised prices to
China's 200 mln city residents. Rural factories also subsidise
grain output, paying farmers bonuses to grow it.
    Some officials argue that the simplest solution to the
problem would be for the state to raise city grain prices.
    Chen Zuyuan, Communist Party secretary of a village in the
eastern province of Zhejiang, said the government listened too
much to the demands of "selfish city people" and could raise city
grain prices without any problem.
    But the government has ruled out a price rise. "Raising the
price of grain would directly conflict with the goal of social
stability," said a China Daily editorial this month.
    The Shanghai official said prices must be reformed over the
long term. "We must be very careful. We have a very large
population which is used to price stability and will object to
price rises," he said. "The problem is how to do it."
    The Shanghai official said a rise in grain prices might
also affect the prices of hundreds of food products made with
grain and consumed by city residents.
    In addition, the state faces the problem of inadequate
investment by farmers in land and in grain in particular.
    The official press has reported that farmers fear farm
policy may change and they are putting their new wealth into
building graves, memorial halls for ancestors and homes.
    Under reforms introduced in the late 1970s, farmers sign
contracts with the state requiring them to grow certain crops,
but they have considerable freedom in how to use their land.
    "As the expiration date of the 15-year contract is almost at
the halfway mark, farmers are beginning to worry about the
future," the China Daily said in an editorial last month.
    Their anxieties stem from the fact that they are allowed to
use the land but not own it. For most of the period of
Communist rule, the land was organised into collectives where
there was little room for individual initiative.
    "New measures are needed to reassure them of the consistency
of government policies and make them interested in long-term
investment," the newspaper said.
 REUTER

The grain output of a major Chinese
grain-producing province is not increasing, because farmers
lack incentives, production costs are rising, storage
facilities are poor and there is not enough state investment in
grain, the province's vice-governor said.
    The China Daily quoted Yang Jike, vice-governor of Anhui,
as saying farmers could earn twice as much growing cotton as
they could growing grain, and three times as much growing cash
crops like flax. He said production costs had risen to 40 pct
of farmers' earnings, from 20 pct in 1982, and lower investment
had caused the area of irrigated land to fall.
    Yang said investment in agriculture fell in 1985 to 9.9 pct
of the province's total investment, from 26 pct in 1978.
    He said an estimated 1.5 billion yuan worth of grain was
hit by mildew or rot in state granaries every year, and a
further 1.5 mln tonnes was eaten annually by rats.
    He said government measures to deal with the problem dealt
with trifles, rather than the essentials. He called for more
investment in grain production, an immediate ban on illegal use
of or damage to farmland and a reversal of what he called the
tendency to rely on grain imports.
    The New China News Agency quoted Zhang Yan, a delegate to
the National People's Congress, attacking grain policy. He said
the government had cut agricultural investment to three to four
pct from 11 pct.
    "With the abundance of grain and cotton in the past few
years, some people got carried away, relaxing their attention
to grain and cotton production," he said.
    On Saturday, vice-premier Tian Jiyun said China aimed to be
self-sufficient in grain. Now it exports corn from the
northeast, but it imports wheat.
    "Grain consumption is rising every year. Even if we reach
the 1987 target of (405 mln tonnes), it cannot be considered
adequate," Tian said.
 REUTER

President Reagan made public a
detailed set of orders to his national security staff designed
to prevent scandals similar to the Iran arms affair.
    In a message to Congress accompanying National Security
Decision Directive (NSDD) 266, Reagan said: "(The reforms) are
evidence of my determination to return to proper procedures,
including consultation with the Congress."
    NSDDs are normally classified. Officials said this was the
first time the duties of the national security staff had been
spelled out in such a document since the National Security
Council (NSC) was set up by Congress 40 years ago.
    The orders implement the recommendations of the Tower
Commission, named by the president to investigate the secret
U.S. Arms sales to Iran and led by former Senator John Tower.
    In a scathing report on February 26, the panel blasted the
conduct of the NSC staff and criticised the president for being
unaware of many of the activities of his subordinates.
    Reagan accepted the report's conclusions in a speech on
March 4 and said he had barred NSC staff from conducting covert
operations. The prohibition is laid out in NSDD 266 which calls
for a "small, highly competent (NSC staff) broadly experienced
in the making of national security policy."
    NSDD 266 said the organization should impose "clear vertical
lines of control and accountability."
    The eight page document said the NSC's use of private
individuals and organisations as intermediaries to conduct
covert activities would be "appropriately limited and subject to
close observation."
    It said the NSC staff should include a legal adviser who
would have access to all information. The national security
adviser should initiate periodic reassessments of policies and
operations and ensure that consultations and presidential
decisions are adequately recorded, it said.
 REUTER

Taiwan's imports in the second quarter of
1987 are expected to rise to 7.75 billion U.S. Dlrs from 5.82
billion a year earlier and from 6.95 billion in the first
quarter of this year, the statistics department said.
    A department official attributed the increase to growing
domestic investment by the private and public sectors. It is
expected to rise to 4.68 billion U.S. Dlrs from 3.79 billion a
year earlier and 3.41 billion during the first quarter.
    Taiwan's exports in the April-June quarter are expected to
rise to 12.03 billion U.S. Dlrs from 9.63 billion a year
earlier and 11.28 billion in the first quarter.
    The official said Taiwan's trade surplus is expected to
climb to 4.28 billion U.S. Dlrs in the second quarter of 1987
from 3.81 billion a year earlier. It was 4.33 billion in the
first quarter of this year.
    Most of the surplus is expected to come from trade with the
U.S., Taiwan's largest trading partner and importer of nearly
50 pct of Taiwan's total exports, he said.
    He said he expected Taiwan's imports, including grains,
machinery and power plant equipment, from the U.S. To rise
sharply because of government efforts to balance trade with
Washington. He declined to give figures.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan intervenes buying dollars at around 147.30 yen - dealers

Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> management
board chairman Walter Seipp said that from the present
viewpoint the bank must expect 1987 full operating profit to be
lower than in 1986.
    In the first two months of the year, partial operating
profit -- excluding trading on the bank's own account -
declined, he said, without giving details.
    The interest surplus fell 2.8 pct compared with 2/12ths of
1986 results, while the commission surplus, because of the
quiet stock exchange business, fell back still more strongly.
By contrast the personnel and fixed asset expenses increased.
    German banks do not report full operating profit. But Seipp
said last year the figure for the first time had topped one
billion marks for the parent bank, and the group result was
around 50 pct higher than this.
    Commenting on 1986, Seipp said, "we were able to raise the
full operating profit...Slightly above the record result of
1985 because own account profits increased slightly."
    He gave no concrete details but added that in January and
February, good own account trading profits meant that the drop
in full operating earnings was more modest than that in the
partial operating figure.
    The bank would, as a result, be more profit-oriented in
future, developing, for example, more into investment banking,
keeping a tight rein on personnel costs and dampening
expenditures on fixed assets.
    Turning to 1986 results, Seipp said by year end there had
been a strong growth in business volume.
    Over the year business volume rose by 9.9 pct to 93.2
billion marks compared with 1985, Seipp added.
    Group balance sheet volume rose by 8.0 pct to 148.15
billion. It would have been around five billion marks higher
still if currency relationships had remained unchanged.
    In the parent bank, the interest surplus rose nine pct in
the year, while the interest margin held roughly at 1985's 2.56
pct despite pressure on credit rates.
    The surplus on commission business, which had soared by a
quarter in 1985, rose by 11.6 pct last year thanks almost
exclusively to growth in securities commissions, Seipp said.
    Personnel expenditure was up 11.9 pct last year, at more
than 1.5 billion marks. Fixed asset expenditure rose by 9.6 pct
to more than 650 mln.
    As a result, the parent bank partial operating profit rose
by 3.2 pct to 752 mln marks.
    Parent bank tax payment rose to 244 mln marks last year
from 233 mln in 1985.
    Seipp said extraordinary earnings included a "high
two-figure million" in profit from the sale of the bank's AEG AG
<AEGG.F> shares to Daimler-Benz AG <DAIG.F> during the latter's
majority stake purchase booked last year.
    The ability of the bank to write off depreciations in
credit business against profits from securities trading and
earnings on the sale of stakes had been utilised, as in prior
years, to its full extent.
    Because of numerous insolvencies at home, by far the
largest part of the provisions were set aside for individual
write-downs from domestic business. Abroad, the circle of
problem debtor countries rose last year, although the ratio of
credit exposure to provisions improved further.
    Seipp said that because about half the group's exposure to
problem nations was in dollars, the bank had swapped into
dollars individual provisions hitherto held primarily in marks.
    "This means that no open currency positions exist any longer
on the amount of the provision that is made against an actual
default," he added.
    Despite the increase in concern over debtor nations in the
last few weeks, he said, the international banking community is
better armed than it was against payment problems.
    All banks had significantly strengthened their capital
base, most European banks had made considerable provisions
against bad debts while goverments and central banks were
better prepared for unforseen difficulties.
    He described debt-equity swaps as a very interesting new
approach to indebted nations' problems. There was a lot of
interest in direct investment via an equity participation in
Latin America, particularly from West German firms.
 Reuter

The Bank of Japan intervened in the market
in the early afternoon, buying dollars around 147.30 yen and
continuing to buy them as high as 147.50 yen, dealers said.
    The Bank intervened just after the dollar started rising on
buying by securities houses at around 147.05 yen, and hoped to
accelerate the dollar's advance, they said.
    The dollar rose as high as 147.50 yen.
  REUTER

Malaysia said it cut the gazetted
price of rubber to 202-7/8 cents per kg from 213-1/2 cents in
March, effective immediately.
    No export duty is applicable at this level, against 3/8
cent per kg last month, because the government raised the
export duty threshold price to 210 cents per kg in early 1985.
    The cess for rubber research and replanting remained
unchanged at 3.85 and 9.92 cents per kg respectively.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank should take further
steps to reduce German interest rates to protect the mark from
further appreciation and to persuade investors to bring
long-term yields lower, Commerzbank AG <CBKG.F> management
board chairman Walter Seipp said.
    But he told the bank's annual news conference this did not
mean a cut in leading interest rates, rather a reduction in
money market rates through bringing the allocation rates down
for Bundesbank securities repurchase agreements.
    "Leading interest rates are not the decisive rates," he said.
"The money market rates are the important ones."
    Seipp said the Bundesbank should move away from allocating
money market liquidity at a fixed 3.8 pct as it has in recent
tender allocations.
    An easier monetary policy would not mean a loss of
credibility for the Bundesbank in its containment of monetary
growth. A fall in short rates would make the public aware of
the high yields in bonds and lead to a longer-term capital
formation, braking the expansion of money supply.
    "Thus, you can have lower rates and also a normalisation of
monetary growth both at the same time," he added.
    Seipp said there were no grounds to paint too black a
picture of the German economy, since company profitability had
improved over recent years and domestic oriented firms were
profiting from cheaper imports because of the rise in the mark.
    Growth this year should be at least one pct, he said,
describing the downturn in production in the first months as a
false start, unrepresentative of the rest of the year.
    After an economic contraction in the first quarter, the
economy should show an uptrend in the last three. "We don't
believe that the economy has tipped over, but see it more as a
'growth dip,'" Seipp said.
    But Seipp also called for support for growth from fiscal
policy, saying the top rate of income and corporate tax should
be brought down to 49 pct. The current peak rate is 56 pct.
    The additional tax cuts brought forward to next January
were no substitute for support for growth.
    Seipp added the federal government should make "further
courageous steps to decrease the state's proportion of the
German economy and to increase its flexibility."
 Reuter

board chairman Walter Seipp said he hoped the bank would this
year found a 100 pct investment bank subsidiary in New York.
    He told the annual news conference that the move would be
an important and necessary widening of business activities in
the U.S.. This is now mainly represented by a 40 pct stake in
EuroPartners Securities Corp, New York, owned along with other
European banks in a consortium.
    It would also be a further step in Commerzbank's full entry
into global investment banking around the clock.
    Seipp also said securities trading activities had been
considerably strengthened in London. The founding of Commerz
Securities (Japan) Co. Ltd, which would begin business in the
first half of 1987, widened the bank's activity in Tokyo.
    In 1987 also, Commerzbank planned to open a representative
office in Istanbul. Currency trading had begun in the Los
Angeles branch, he added.
    At home, Commerzbank would probably bring the automotive
supply group Boge and clothing manufacturer Ahlers to a stock
exchange flotation in the first half of this year.
    But the placement of shares in the print communications
technology group <Linotype GmbH>, to be bought from Allied
Signal Inc <ALD.N> would likely come later since several parts
of the business had to be consolidated first.
    Seipp said the purchase price had been "several hundred
million dollars." But he gave no further details.
 Reuter

raised the export duty on processed palm oil (ppo) to 70.90
ringgit per tonne from 64.06 in March, effective today.
    Export duty on crude palm oil (cpo) rose to 38.30 ringgit
per tonne from 16.06 last month.
    The gazetted price for ppo rose to 819.6600 ringgit per
tonne from 796.8604 a month earlier and that on cpo to 711.0037
ringgit from 617.8238.
    The export duty and gazetted price of palm kernel stood
 REUTER

Prime Minister Bob Hawke has decided
against an early election despite a leadership crisis in the
opposition coalition, Australian government officials said.
    They said Hawke made the decision after meeting senior
advisers and high-ranking members of the ruling Labour Party in
Canberra last night.
    An expected improvement in the economy predicted by an
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report
was a major factor in Hawke's deciding against calling an
election now, they said.
    The officials picked March 5 next year as the most likely
election date, which would allow the government to complete its
full five-year term of office and ensure that Hawke becomes the
longest-serving Labour Prime Minister in Australian history.
    Hawke, however, has not withdrawn his earlier threat to
consider dissolving both houses of parliament if the opposition
National-Liberal Party coalition blocked legislation to
introduce identity cards for Australians.
 REUTER

Israel's Ambassador to Washington said
Israel and the Soviet Union have agreed to exchange visits by
delegations in a move each hoped would lead to a renewal of
ties after a 20-year break.
    Ambassador Meir Rosenne told Israel Radio: "A Soviet
delegation will come to Israel and an Israeli delegation to the
Soviet Union, there is no doubt about that."
    Rosenne said both countries had an interest in restoring
ties severed by Moscow during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
 REUTER

Thai stocks have broken all expectations
and brokers and securities analysts said the nine-month bull
market on the Securities Exchange of Thailand (SET) should last
through 1987.
    Most had earlier dismissed a forecast by a local newspaper
last December that the SET Index would rise 50 points to 250 by
mid-1987. They said the figure is now within easy reach.
    The index, an average of the 93 registered stocks listed on
the market, gained 9.7 pct this month to finish the first
quarter at 228.97.
    The index has gained 74 pct since last July after declines
of two pct in the first half of 1986 and five pct in 1985.
    Yothin Aree, assistant managing director of Bangkok First
Investment and Trust Ltd (BFIT) echoed most analysts in saying
that, barring dramatic increases in oil prices and world
interest rates, the market will sustain its rally for the rest
of the year, punctuated by periodic corrections.
    Securities analysts said stocks are the best investment
because of excess liquidity, which has forced interest rates to
10-year lows. Bankers expect deposit rates, which have fallen
six times since January 1986, to stabilise this year.
    Central bank governor Kamchorn Sathirakul told commercial
banks last week they should spur loan demand by cutting lending
rates without a matching reduction in deposit rates.
    SET statistics show daily trading in listed corporate
stocks and government bonds averaged 217 mln baht during the
first quarter, about 4.5 times higher than a year ago.
    Robert Chan, deputy managing director of Wardley Thailand
Ltd, said foreign interest in Thai equities is strong and a few
Japanese fund managers recently approached him for the first
time to seek advice on investing in the market.
    Wardley Thailand, affiliated with The Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corp, handles stocks acquired by many foreign fund
managers investing in SET.
    "We thought six months ago that Thai stocks might have been
overpriced after a significant 23.5 pct rise of the SET Index
during the third quarter," Chan said, adding it has since gained
41 pct.
    He forecast the index could advance 30 to 40 points more by
year-end given the improving Thai economy, foreign interest in
Thai stocks and SET's average 12 pct price/earnings ratio,
which is relatively low by world standards.
    Foreign investment accounted for 1.22 billion baht, or 7.8
pct of total turnover, in the January/February period, up from
347 mln baht, or 5.8 pct, for the whole first quarter of 1986.
    Foreigners can invest in the market directly, or through
the Bangkok Fund or Thailand Fund, unit trusts set up as a
portfolio investment vehicles for foreigners.
    Bangkok Fund was set up by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
and Cazenove and Co in 1985, while the Thailand Fund was set up
last December by Vickers da Costa International Ltd, Morgan
Stanley and Co Inc, Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, BIL
(Asia) Ltd and the World Bank's International Finance Corp.
    Each trust is capitalised at 30 mln dlrs and has invested
more than 70 pct of its funds in equities.
    Brokers said demand for Thai stocks has strengthened
criticism the market, with 2.9 billion dlrs capitalisation, is
too small and its trading narrowly based.
    Although an average 50 issues are now traded a session,
against 30 a year ago, most foreign fund managers focus on less
than 10 easily tradeable blue chips. Yothin said investors do
not seem interested in smaller or speculative issues.
    Long-term investment in SET is also restricted by laws
limiting foreign-held equity in most listed companies.
    Foreign equity is limited to a maximum 25 pct in banks and
is also the self-imposed limit in popular Siam Cement. Most
other businesses have a 49 pct limit.
    SET officials said foreign investment in blue chips has
reached a limit and the barrier will likely slow investment as
fund managers are reluctant to buy smaller issues.
    SET President Maruay Phadungsith said his priority is to
list more stocks this year and is waiting for government
approval to launch a second trading board, where less
diversified companies with short track records can be listed.
    SET hopes to list 10 new issues this year against only one
in 1986.
    SET officials added state enterprises that have delayed
plans to go public are missing a golden opportunity to attract
capital through the exchange as their shares would be popular.
    A plan for state-owned Thai Airways International Ltd and
Bangchak Petroleum Co Ltd to go public this year appears less
certain because of opposition from their administrations.
    The privatisation of Krung Thai Bank Ltd has also been put
in doubt by a Finance Ministry decision this month to merge it
with ailing government-owned Sayam Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

Investors are unloading holdings of
Hong Kong stocks following a spate of new share issues by
leading local firms, analysts said.
    The Hang Seng index fell 61.07 to 2,713.81 yesterday on
speculation that Hutchison Whampoa Ltd planned a bonus issue of
new "B" shares.
    After yesterday's market close Hutchison and its parent
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd both announced one-for-two bonus
issues of "B" shares. The news sent the index down 63.51 points
to 2,650.30 in today's morning session.
    The Cheung Kong companies' issues  followed Jardine
Matheson Holdings Ltd's announcement on Friday of a
four-for-one bonus issue of new "B" shares.
    There is also market speculation that Evergo Industrial
Enterprise Ltd will make a similar move, following a request
for suspension in share trading by the firm today.
    Analysts said these new issues will have an adverse impact
on trading.
    James Miller-Day, director of County Securities Asia Ltd,
said: "I don't like the concept of "B" shares because it will
create inequality among equities."
    He said the issue of "B" shares could create a conflict of
interest with holders of other classes of shares, noting most "B"
shares are issued at a par value equivalent to one-tenth of the
"A" shares, but enjoy similar voting rights.
    Other analysts said the new issues also renewed concern
over local corporate attitudes towards political changes in
Hong Kong after the British colony reverts to China in 1997.
    Controlling shareholders can maintain control of local
firms by issuing cheaper shares, with much of the new stock
being distributed to themselves, analysts said.
    Those shareholders can reduce their investment exposure
here by selling some of their "A" shares and using the funds for
new investment, possibly overseas.
    An analyst at a major brokerage house said Li Ka-shing,
chairman of both Cheung Kong and Hutchison, might be planning
to fund future expansion by switching "A" shares for "B" shares.
    Other analysts noted that the Cheung Kong group has already
taken a major stake in Husky Oil Ltd of Canada and a minority
share in Pearson Plc of Britain.
    Hutchison has begun a major project to expand berthing
facilities at its Hong Kong International Terminal Ltd and
Cheung Kong will bid for a big land reclamation development at
Hong Kong harbour.
    The analysts said timing of the new issues was wrong
because the local market had already been hit by declines on
Wall Street and London since the beginning of the week.
    "(The issues) came at a time when world stock markets are
reeling from tensions between the U.S. And Japan over their
trade relations," said Barry Yates, director of Hoare Govett
Asia Ltd.    Jardine Matheson's shares enjoyed a brief rally after the
announcement of the new issue, though they have lost 2.50 H.K.
Dlrs since last Friday to stand at 22.30 dlrs today.
    Cheung Kong was down two dlrs from yesterday's close at
41.25 dlrs and Hutchison fell 3.25 dlrs to 49.75 dlrs.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita said
the present foreign exchange market instability will not last
long as there is caution in the market regarding the rapid
decline of the U.S. Unit.
    He told reporters the major currency nations are determined
to continue their concerted intervention whenever necessary to
stave off speculative dollar selling in line with their
February 22 currency stability agreement in Paris.
    Sumita also said he did not see the recent dollar drop as
anything like a free-fall.
 REUTER

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange said it
will not accept further proposals by listed firms to issue new
shares with reduced par value but equal voting rights.
    It said in a statement the exchange will review the
previously announced proposals of bonus issues of "B" shares by
Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd <JARD.HK>, Cheung Kong (Holdings)
Ltd <CKGH.HK> and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK>.
    It added the exchange's Listing Committee will meet later
today to consider these proposals.
    The Exchange statement said: "Any such proposals (other than
the three) will not be considered until a general principle has
been established by the Stock Exchange after consultation with
the Securities Commission."
    An official of the Securities Commissioner's office told
Reuters the decision to bar the new share issues was made by
the Exchange, adding the Commissioner is closely watching
    The Hong Kong market fell sharply yesterday and today as
both Cheung Kong and Hutchison announced a one-for-two bonus
issue of "B" shares.
    The Cheung Kong companies' move followed Friday's
announcement by Jardine Matheson of a four-for-one bonus issue
of similar "B" shares with a reduced par value and equal voting
rights.
    Brokers also noted market speculation that <Evergo
Industrial Enterprise Ltd> will make a similar move after the
firm requested to suspend share trading this morning. Evergo
    Analysts said controlling shareholders might use the "B"
shares to retain corporate control while selling some of their
existing holdings to finance new investments.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Bob Hawke said he would
not call snap elections although disarray within the opposition
was a strong temptation to do so.
    Confirming earlier comments by government officials, Hawke
told reporters in Canberra: "I am confident that Labour would
win an early election. I have decided, however, that the
election will be held towards the end of this year or early
next year.
    "The Australian people want continued strong leadership and
a government that will continue to guide them through difficult
economic times into renewed prosperity."
 REUTER

Plc's 15-year convertible eurobond has been increased to 90 mln
stg from the initial 85 mln and the final terms have been set,
    The conversion price was set at 177-1/2 pence representing
a premium of 11.99 pct over yesterday's closing price of Smith
and Nephew shares of 158-1/2 pence. The investor put option on
May 7, 1993 has been fixed at 133-1/2 pct to give the investor
an annual yield to the put of 8-1/2 pct.
    The issue pays four pct and is priced at par. Yesterday on
the grey market it was quoted at around 102-1/2 103-1/2 pct.
 REUTER

Group shr 65.44 yen vs 73.30
    Net 4.48 billion vs 4.19 billion
    Current 10.85 billion vs 9.77 billion
    Operating 9.65 billion vs 9.54 billion
    Sales 103.53 billion vs 94.39 billion
    NOTE - Company forecast for current year is group shr 70.05
yen, net 4.80 billion, current 11.20 billion and sales 113
billion.
 REUTER

<Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd> has set up
two finance firms, one in Osaka and one in London, a company
    <Sumitomo Metal International Finance Plc> in London is
wholly-owned. <Fuso Finance Co Ltd> in Osaka, is owned 50 pct
by Sumitomo with the rest equally shared by two small Sumitomo
Metal subsidiaries.
    The two new companies will work for the Sumitomo Metal
group on fund raising and investment in financial markets.
 REUTER

The economy will grow by an average
rate of 2.2 pct a year in real terms between now and the end of
1991, Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (WestLB) said in an
annual report.
    A year ago WestLB had forecast average growth of just under
three pct for 1986-1990.
    The 1987 report said gross national product would only
expand a real 1.7 pct this year -- below previous expectations
-- because of weaker exports. Growth rates will pick up later,
however, producing a 2.2 pct increase on average for the
five-year period.
 MORE

SWEDEN'S BOLIDEN TO ANNOUNCE MAJOR CORPORATE TAKEOVER
TODAY - OFFICIAL.

A U.S. Appeals court last night
blocked the 860 mln dlr merger of Delta Airlines Inc <DAL.N>
and <Western Airlines> just hours before it was to go into
effect because of a dispute over union representation.
    The ruling came in a lawsuit in which the Air Transport
Employees union said Western's management should fulfil a
promise to honour union contracts if a merger took place.
    The airlines argued that Western's promise could not be
enforced in a takeover by a larger company. Airlines officials
could not be reached for comment on the ruling, which halts the
merger until arbitration on the dispute is completed.
 REUTER

The <Alcoa of Australia Ltd> is
planning a 100 mln Australian dlr note issuance facility, lead
manager Westpac Finance Asia Ltd said.
    The three year facility is half underwritten and half
non-underwritten. The underwriting margin is 10 basis points
over Australian dlr bank bill rate and the underwriting fee is
7.5 basis points. There is an issuance fee of 2.5 basis points
and an utilisation fee of 7.5 basis points if the underwriters
are required to pick up 51 pct or more of the notes issued.
    The notes, in denominations of 100,000 dlrs, will have
maturities ranging from one to six months.
 REUTER

Boliden AB <BLDS ST> mining and metals
group said it will announce a major foreign corporate takeover
today involving a company with an annual turnover of two
billion crowns.
    A Boliden spokesman told Reuters details of the
announcement would be given at a news conference by chairman
Rune Andersson at 1030 gmt today. He said the company involved
employed 4,000 people, but declined to name the takeover price
or say what field the firm operated in.
    Share analysts said they expected Boliden to announce it
will be taking over the U.S. Allis-Chalmers Corp <AH.O> but
company officials refused to confirm the reports ahead of the
news conference.
 REUTER

forecasting a shortage of around 1.2 billion stg in the money
    Among the main factors affecting liquidity, bills for
repurchase by the market will drain some 526 mln stg while
bills maturing in official hands and the take-up of treasury
bills will remove around 1.79 billion stg. A rise in note
circulation will take out a further 105 mln stg.
will add around 1.01 billion stg and bankers' balances above
target some 185 mln stg.
 REUTER

Turkey's Gross National Product grew an
estimated 8.0 pct in 1986 at fixed 1968 prices, compared with
5.1 pct in 1985, the State Statistics Institute said.
    Reporting full-year data, it also said Gross Domestic
Product rose 8.3 pct compared with 5.1 pct in 1985. An earlier
estimate from nine-month data put full-year GNP and GDP growth
both at 7.9 pct.
    The government's GNP growth target for 1987 is five pct,
the same level it had set for 1986.
    The institute estimated per capita GNP for 1986 at 1,116.6
dlrs, up from 1,045.3 dlrs in 1985.
    Officials blame the high 1986 GNP growth on a surge in
domestic demand stemming partly from poorly controlled
municipal expenditures in the early part of the year.
    Industry grew at 11.1 pct in real terms in 1986 compared
with 6.6 pct in 1985 while agriculture expanded 7.4 pct
compared with 2.8 pct.
 REUTER

Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG is
raising 150 mln marks through a private placement for five
years with a 5-1/2 pct coupon and priced at 100-1/4 pct, lead
manager Deutsche Girozentrale - Deutsche Kommunalbank said.
    The bond, guaranteed by Austria, will be issued in
denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 marks. No fees were
disclosed. Investors pay for the bond on May 21. The bond pays
yearly interest on that day, and expires on that day in 1992.
    The bond is callable for tax reasons only, with a premium
of one pct on May 21, 1988 and 1989, with a premium of 1/2 pct
on May 21, 1990, and at par on May 21, 1991.
 REUTER

The Australian Stock
 Exchange Ltd (ASX)
today took up the responsibility for administering a new
coordinated market made up of Australia's six former exchanges,
now operating as subsidiary trading floors.
    At the same time, rules prohibiting corporations and
non-stock-exchange members from holding more than 50 pct of
Australia's 101 brokerage firms were abolished, leaving brokers
exposed to greater deregulation.
    Industry sources said the moves will smooth the changeover
to screen-based trading and give the equities market one voice.
    Westpac Banking Corp <WSTP.S> was one of the first to take
advantage of the changes by announcing today it would double
its stake in the Sydney firm <Ord Minnett Ltd> to 100 pct.
    Brokers have been introduced to creeping deregulation over
the past three years after legislation passed in 1984 to end
restrictive trade practices forced the traditional partnerships
to open themselves at first to partial ownership by outside
institutions, and eventually to full ownership.
    The phase-in period has ended, and several major banks and
offshore financial institutions are investigating taking larger
stakes in Australian broking houses, industry sources said.
    Though deregulation was all but forced on brokers, most now
acknowledge that the influx of capital and contacts from
non-member shareholders has benefited the industry, they said.
    "Deregulation has brought an infusion of additional capital
and a broader base of products," ASX chairman Ian Roach told
Reuters.
    Roach said fears that major bank shareholders would impose
a restrictive and conservative "bank culture" on the dynamic
sharebroking industry were unfounded.
    "So far the banks have been mindful of the importance of
preserving the entrepreneurial aspect of sharebroking," he said.
    But some brokers said others are sceptical and expect that
the expiration of "golden handcuff" pacts, which tied partners to
their firms for a period after incorporation, could cause a
massive talent drain.
    Several leading brokers have already announced plans to
leave their firms and establish new private client businesses,
while others plan public floats.
    While bank shareholders have enjoyed dabbling in broking
during Australia's record two-and-a-half year bull run, they
could find themselves without the expertise they need during
more difficult times, some brokers said.
    Rene Rivkin, head of Sydney brokerage house <Rivkin James
Capel Ltd>, said many brokers will resist anything that
restricts their individuality and entrepreneurial spirit, and
this could leave new entrants into the business short-staffed.
    "If I were a bank I'm not sure I would have gone into
broking.... What's going to happen when a lot of these golden
handcuffs come to an end?" Rivkin said.
    "Only then will the banks know what they've got," he said.
    Rivkin's firm is 50 pct owned by Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corp <HKBH.HK> unit <Wardley Australia Ltd> and plans a
public float of between 25 and 30 pct.
    "My relationship with the Hong Kong bank is wonderful. They
leave me alone and give me all the support I need.... Maybe if
we weren't doing so well there wouldn't be that support, but
that hasn't happened," he said.
    Other firms might not be so lucky, he said, and they could
find it difficult to preserve their independence when the bull
market ends.
    In the last two years, the value of the Australian
sharemarket has leapt 118 pct with turnover value up 152 pct to
31.24 billion dlrs in the year to June 30, 1986.
    That growth put existing trading systems and clearing
houses under pressure, and unification of the six sovereign
exchanges should accelerate the development of screen-based
trading and a single clearing house, industry sources said.
    From July this year 30 leading stocks will be traded in a
pilot of the ASX's screen trading system which, depending on
its reception by brokers, is expected to replace trading floors
over the next four years, industry sources said.
 REUTER

the money market with early assistance of 689 mln stg in
houses. This compares with the Bank's estimate that the system
would face a shortage of around 1.2 billion stg today.
    The central bank made outright purchases of bank bills
comprising 347 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 207 mln stg in
band two at 9-13/16 pct and 135 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4
pct.
 REUTER

planning a 300 mln guilder 6.25 pct bullet bond due 1995, lead
    The issue will be priced April 7 and subscriptions close
April 9. The payment date is May 14 and the coupon date May 15,
Amro Bank said.
 REUTER

GMAC (Australia) Finance Ltd is issuing a
50 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 6, 1991 paying 14-1/4
pct and priced at 101 pct, sole lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd
said.
    The issue is guaranteed by General Motors Acceptance Corp.
The non-callable bond is available in denominations of 1,000
Australian dlrs and will be listed in London.
    The selling concession is 1-1/8 pct while management and
underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct. The payment date is May 6.
 REUTER

Malaysian miners criticised the
U.S. For violating an agreement with Southeast Asian producers
by selling more stockpiled tin in 1986 than agreed.
    The U.S. General Services Administration sold 5,490 tonnes
of tin in 1986, well above an agreed upon annual limit of 3,000
tonnes, the States of Malaya Chamber of Mines said.
    In its latest annual report, it said the U.S. Had promised
to limit sales of tin in a memorandum of understanding signed
with the six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in December 1983.
    "The U.S. Appears to have lost sight of the U.S./ASEAN
Memorandum of Understanding," the Chamber said.
    The Chamber estimated the U.S. Strategic stockpile held
180,444 tonnes of tin in December 1986, 137,744 tonnes in
excess of of its original stockpile goal of 42,700.
    The main ASEAN tin producers are Malaysia, Indonesia and
Thailand, which produce the bulk of the world's tin.
 REUTER

Net consolidated profit after deduction
for minorities 6.52 billion francs vs 5.40 billion.
    Non-consolidated net profit 3.46 billion francs vs 3.05
billion.
    Note - Results for year 1986. Company's full name is Groupe
Bruxelles Lambert SA <LAMB.BR>.
    Proposed net final dividend on ordinary shares 70 francs vs
65 to take total net payment for year to 120 francs vs 110.
 REUTER

The balance sheet total of all
Luxembourg-based banks fell in January to 7,888 billion
luxembourg francs, a decline of 1.49 pct on the previous month,
the Institut Monetaire Luxembourgeois (IML) said.
    The IML, Luxembourg's monetary authority, said this was
partly due to the seasonal decline following the closure of
bank accounts in December and partly to the dollar's fall.
    But the end-January total represented a 5.10 pct rise on
end-January 1986, the IML said.
    The balance sheet total was also affected by currency
fluctuations, and allowing for this, the January total
represented a 0.3 pct rise on the previous month and a 13.6 pct
rise on January 1986, the IML said.
    There were 123 banks in Luxembourg at the end of January, a
rise of one on the month before and of five on January 1986,
the IML said.
 REUTER

The Yugoslav power industry yesterday
floated its second issue of domestic bonds in three months,
after an experimental issue in January, official sources said.
    Associated Electric Power Enterprises in the Yugoslav
republic of Serbia issued the bonds to raise eight billion
dinars for the construction of new power facilities.
    The sources said the bonds mature in eight months with 55
pct interest but no further details were available.
    January's bonds were oversubscribed as their interest rate
was two points above savings deposit rates and were the first
bonds that could be exchanged or converted before maturity.
 REUTER

Swiss capital exports notifed to the
National Bank fell to 3.62 billion francs in February from 4.64
billion in January and 5.44 billion in February 1986, the
    This took the total for the first two months to 8.26
billion francs, down from the previous 9.07 billion.
    Of the total, 2.64 billion were in the form of bonds and
notes, down from January's 4.12 billion and 4.84 billion in
February 1986,  Some 980.6 mln were in the form of credits, up
from 525.1 mln in January and 600.5 mln in February 1986.
 REUTER

Caisse Nationale des Telecommunications
is issuing a 20 billion yen eurobond due May 29, 1992 paying
4-3/8 pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager IBJ
mln yen and is guaranteed by France. The selling concession is
1-1/4 pct while management and underwriting combined pays 5/8
pct.
    The payment date is May 29 and the issue will be listed in
 REUTER

The East Asiatic Company Ltd A/S is
raising 150 mln marks through a 5-1/2 pct bullet eurobond
priced at 100-1/4, lead manager Commerzbank AG said.
    Investors will pay for the bond on May 6, and the bond pays
annual interest on the same day. The bond matures on May 6,
1992. The bond will be issued in denominations of 1,000 and
10,000 marks. Fees total two pct, with 1-1/4 points for selling
and 3/4 for management and underwriting combined. Listing will
be in Frankfurt.
 REUTER

Ajinomoto Co Inc <AJIN.T> said it will
sign around end-April to buy the 50 pct of <Knorr Foods Co
Ltd>, capitalised at four billion yen, that it does not already
own from its U.S. Partner <CPC International Inc>.
    Ajinomoto will also acquire 50 pct each of CPC's two sales
subsidiaries and six production units in Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, he said.
    The total cost of the acquisition is 340 mln dlrs, the
 REUTER

The Rural Banking and Finance Corporation
of New Zealand is issuing a zero coupon eurobond with a total
redemption amount of 19 billion yen, lead manager Nomura
    The issue matures on April 15, 1992 and is priced at 81.22
pct. The deal is being sold through the Bank of New Zealand and
is guaranteed by New Zealand. The selling concession is 85
basis points while management pays 70 basis points.
    The payment date is April 15 while listing will be in
 REUTER

<Toshiba Information Systems (U.K.) Ltd>,
a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> said it planned to
enter the U.K. Business facsimile and key telephone market, and
forecast a turnover of 100 mln stg by 1990 for its full range
of office automation equipment.
    The announcement comes in the middle of a dispute between
the U.K. And Japan over the entry of Cable and Wireless Plc
<CAWL.L> into the Japanese market.
    Toshiba said the introduction of the products indicated its
commitment to the U.K. Although the market was competitive, the
facsimile segement was showing excellent growth.
    In Japan, Cable is battling against proposals to merge a
consortium in which it has a 20 pct stake with another group
seeking telecommunications contracts.
    Initial proposals would have given Cable a three pct stake.
A later suggestion increased this to five pct, but Cable said
yesterday the idea was still unacceptable.  The dispute is
being treated by the U.K. Government as a test case of the
openness of the Japanese telecommunications market.
    Analysts said the coincidence of the timing of the
announcement by Toshiba with Cable's dispute could increase
pressure from the U.K. On Japan.
    However, they noted that it was not a major move. Toshiba
already has a sizeable presence in the U.K. While other
Japanese companies, such as NEC Corp <NIPN.T> has a presence in
the key telephone -- telephone systems for businesses --
market.
    Cable shares were quoted seven pence lower in morning
trading at 367p.
 REUTER

214 tonnes of cocoa in the 24th week, ended March 19, of the
1986/87 main crop season, compared with 456 tonnes the previous
week and 372 tonnes in the 24th week ended March 27 of the
    Cumulative purchases so far this season stand at 217,449
tonnes, ahead of the 204,256 tonnes purchased by the 24th week
of last season.
 REUTER

The Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry said he had decided not to refer the proposed
acquisition by Reed International Plc <REED.L> of <Technical
Publishing Company Inc> to the Monopolies and Mergers
    The proposed acquisition by <Rosehaugh Plc> of <The General
Funds Investment Trust Plc> was also cleared.
 REUTER

Taiwan's shipbreaking industry is
expected to decline sharply this year despite the boom in 1986
because of keener competition from South Korea and China, the
rising Taiwan dollar and U.S. Import curbs on steel products,
    Last year, Taiwanese breakers demolished a record 344
vessels totalling 3.69 million light displacement tons (ldt),
up on 165 of 2.97 million ldt in 1985, Lin Chung-jung, a Taiwan
Shipbreaking Industry Association (TSIA) spokesman, told
Reuters.
    China scrapped vessels of some 1.1 mln ldt last year while
South Korea demolished ships of 910,000 ldt, he said.
    Yao Liu, president of Chi Shun Hwa Steel Co, a leading
shipbreaker and steel producer in Kaohsiung, told Reuters, "We
expect to scrap fewer ships this year because of an expected
decline in our steel product exports."
    Lin said many breakers predicted a 20 pct decline in
scrapping operations this year due to falling demand from the
U.S., Japan and Southeast Asia for Taiwanese steel.
    Taiwan agreed last year to voluntarily limit its steel
product exports to the U.S. To 120,000 tonnes in the first half
of 1987 from about 260,000 tonnes in the first half of 1986, a
Taiwan Steel and Iron Association official said.
    Yao said the rising Taiwan dollar means Taiwan's steel
exports are more expensive than South Korea's and China's.
    The Taiwan dollar has strengthened by some 16 pct against
the U.S. Unit since September 1985 and some bankers and
economists said it could appreciate to 32 to the U.S. Dollar by
the end of the year from 34.23 today, Yao said.
    In comparison, the won rose by about five pct and yuan
remained stable during the same period, he added.
    "We have lost some orders to South Korea and mainland China
because foreign importers have switched their purchases," he
said.
    Taiwan's steel exports to the U.S., Japan and Southeast
Asia slipped to 148,000 tonnes in the first two months of 1987
from about 220,000 tonnes a year earlier, the Taiwan Steel and
Iron Association official said.
    He said he expected further declines in later months but
did not give figures.
 REUTER

Nixdorf Computer AG
<NIXG.F> said its supervisory board has appointed Sven Kado to
the new position of deputy member of the managing board,
increasing the number of board members to seven.
    Kado, 42, will be responsible for finance and purchasing.
Until now finance has been the responsibility of Klaus Luft,
who was named chairman of the board following the death of
company founder Heinz Nixdorf in March 1986.
    Kado, whose appointment takes effect from today, joined
Nixdorf in 1984 and was previously the company's head of
controlling and purchasing.
 REUTER

Grain traders said they were still
awaiting results of yesterday's U.K. Intervention feed wheat
tender for the home market.
    The market sought to buy 340,000 tonnes, more than double
the remaining 150,000 tonnes available under the current
tender. However, some of the tonnage included duplicate bids
for supplies in the same stores.
    Since the tenders started last July 861,000 tonnes of
British feed wheat have been sold back to the home market.
 REUTER

Singapore's United Industrial Corp Ltd
(UIC) has agreed in principle to inject 16 mln dlrs in
convertible loan stock into <Teck Hock and Co (Pte) Ltd>, a
creditor bank official said.
    UIC is likely to take a controlling stake in the troubled
international coffee trading firm, but plans are not finalised
and negotiations will continue for another two weeks, he said.
    Teck Hock's nine creditor banks have agreed to extend the
company's loan repayment period for 10 years although a
percentage of the new capital injection will be used to pay off
part of the debt.
    Teck Hock owes more than 100 mln Singapore dlrs and since
last December the banks have been allowing the company to
postpone loan repayments while they try to find an investor.
Overseas Bank Ltd, Banque Paribas, Bangkok Bank Ltd, Citibank
N.A., Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, Algemene Bank Nederland NV,
Banque Nationale de Paris and Chase Manhattan Bank NA.
 REUTER

Banks in Hong Kong are likely to raise
prime rates by half a percentage point to 6-1/2 pct following a
one-quarter point prime rate increase by two major U.S. Banks
yesterday, dealers said.
    They told Reuters local banks may decide on the increase at
this weekend's routine meeting of the Hong Kong Association of
Banks.
    G.C. Goh, chief dealer of the Standard Chartered Bank, said
prime rate increases by Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank to
7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 may prompt Hong Kong banks to follow suit.
    Goh said local banks want to restore the prime to 6-1/2
pct, the level at beginning of 1987.
    The banks raised the prime to the current six pct from five
pct on February 28 after cutting it 1-1/2 points from 6-1/2 on
January 15 in response to upside pressure on the Hong Kong
dollar, he said.
    The medium and longer term interbank rates firmed today,
with three months ending at 5-1/16 to 4-7/8 pct against
yesterday's five to 4-13/16 close. The overnight rate, however,
fell to 3-1/2 to three pct from 4-1/2 to four because of
increased liquidity for a local stock issue.
 REUTER

The volume of mark eurobond issues
fell in the period March 16 to 31 to 900 mln marks from 1.37
billion in the period March 1 to 15, the Bundesbank said.
    Issues comprised three bonds, including two fixed-interest
bonds totaling 700 mln marks and one equity warrant bond
totaling 200 mln marks. In addition, one Australian dollar bond
was issued totaling 220 mln dlrs, with a portion of interest
and principal payments to be met in marks.
 REUTER

Nationwide Building Society said it is
issuing 30 mln stg of index-linked loan stock due 2021 by way
of a placing on a yield basis in the domestic sterling market.
    The issue's real rate of return, price and the amount of
the first interest payment will be fixed at 1400 gmt today. The
real rate of return will be the sum of 0.60 pct plus the gross
real rate of return on the 2-1/2 pct index-linked Treasury
stock due 2020.
    The issue will be partly paid with 25 stg pct payable on
acceptance and the balance on July 1, 1987.
 REUTER

Call money rates fell to 3.85/95 pct
from five pct yesterday in moderate trading as month end
tightness disappeared and operators took positions for April.
    Dealers said they expected rates to remain within a 3.70 to
four pct range this month. A minor tax payment period on behalf
of customers mid-month, the long Easter weekend and pension
payments were unlikely to tighten rates significantly.
    Next Wednesday, 14.9 billion marks are leaving the system
on the expiry of a securities repurchase pact. But dealers said
they expected the Bundesbank to fully replace the outflow with
a new tender at a fixed rate of 3.80 pct.
    Commerzbank AG's management board chairman Walter Seipp
called on the Bundesbank to reduce interest rates to protect
the mark through bringing the allocation rate for securities
repurchase agreements down.
    But dealers said the Bundesbank was unlikely to ease credit
policies at the moment. There was little domestic and foreign
pressure for lower rates and no signs of a change.
    Yesterday one or two large West German banks effectively
drained the domestic money market of liquidity in order to
achieve higher rates from their overnight deposits, dealers
said.
    Bundesbank figures showed banks held an average daily 50.7
billion marks in minimum reserves at the central bank over the
first 30 days of March, the exact requirement needed just one
day before the end of the month.
    Actual holdings on Monday were 42.0 billion marks.
    Because rates soared to the level of the Lombard emergency
funding rate yesterday, banks fell back on the loan facility to
draw down a high 5.3 billion marks in an attempt to meet
Bundesbank needs, the data showed.
 REUTER

SWEDEN'S BOLIDEN AB TAKES OVER U.S. ALLIS-CHALMERS CORP FOR
600 MLN CROWNS - OFFICIAL

(MHI) and C. Itoh and Co Ltd <CITT.T> have decided to sell
their combined 65 pct stake in Indonesia's <Pt Triguna Utama
Machinery Industries> to <Caterpillar Tractor Co>,  spokesmen
for the two Japanese companies said.
   Triguna, set up in 1982, is owned 40 pct by MHI and 25 pct
by C. Itoh and 35 pct by an Indonesian company. It makes about
10 forklift trucks and a similar number of excavators each
month in technological cooperation with MHI.
    The spokesmen said the sale results from an expected
restructuring later this year of the 50/50 Caterpillar/MHI
joint venture Japanese company <Caterpillar Mitsubishi Ltd>,
formed in 1963.
    They said the venture will be renamed <Shin Caterpillar
Mitsubishi Ltd> and capitalised at 23 billion yen. It will
still be owned equally by MHI and Caterpillar and will be set
up with the aim of centralising MHI's excavator business.
 REUTER

Turkey's banks are reporting a strong
recovery in 1986 profits, but a government drive to liberalise
capital markets poses new challenges to a banking industry
seeking to broaden its earnings base.
    A dozen of Turkey's 55 banks have announced higher 1986
profits so far, a trend bankers in the financial capital of
Istanbul expect to be reflected through most of the industry.
    But while Ankara's policy of liberalising markets offers
new opportunites to expand operations, some bankers see dangers
attached to a related drive to push down Turkish interest
rates.
    Bankers said the government's policy of fostering lower
interest rates could lead to a consumer boom and reignite
inflation, currently running at about 30 pct. They worry that
this could further reduce the industry's shrinking deposit
base.
    This has given added urgency to bank moves to build up
their capital market operations as Turkey's market-oriented
Prime Minister Turgut Ozal liberalises the financial system.
    Bankers said the 1986 recovery in earnings stemmed partly
from foreign exchange operations and trade finance. But a
growing volume of trading in government securities is now also
a major source of revenue for banks.
    Bankers said the proportion of bank profits generated from
the traditional financing of commerce and industry is falling,
and some have even been making a loss on these operations.
    The major challenge to bank profits in Turkey came in 1980
when the government, faced with its worst financial crisis in
50 years, raised domestic interest rates sharply to fight an
inflation rate of over 100 pct and launched an export drive.
    Deniz Gokce, associate professor of economics at the
Bosphorus University, told Reuters that banks were forced to
pay depositors real interest rates for the first time and
profits started to fall. Previously, rates had been below
    Turkey's domestic banks also partly missed out on the
export drive as foreign banks moved into Istanbul and reaped
the benefits of trade finance with their added expertise. The
number of foreign banks has risen to 16 from just two in 1981.
    Although local banks tried to follow suit, Turkey's exports
declined last year to 7.4 billion dlrs from 7.9 billion in 1985
and bankers doubt there is enough business to go round.
    As a result banks, including a few foreign operations, have
started moving into capital market operations to broaden their
earnings base and take advantage of the relaunch just over a
year ago of the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
    "When we saw that there was a demand and supply of money
outside the banking system, we could not envisage ourselves
excluded from these transactions," said Osman Erk, deputy
general manager of the private bank Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi AS.
    The number of banks active at the exchange, mainly trading
government securities, went up to 28 this year from 23 when the
market was revived in December 1985.
    Liberalisation went one step further last week when
parliament passed a law encouraging companies to go public.
Last month, Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi launched the country's first
commercial paper programme, for a joint-venture chemical firm.
    Medium-sized private Pamukbank AS announced a strong
recovery in 1986 pre-tax profit to 12.9 billion lira from 603
mln in 1985, while Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi profits increased to
30.6 billion lira from 6.1 billion. Bankers said both benefited
from trade finance and increased capital market operations.
    Turkey's second biggest bank, the private Turkiye Is
Bankasi, announced a profit rise to 35 billion from 32.3
    However, bankers said some banks have been "window dressing"
their balance sheets to mask non-performing loans which are
variously estimated by bankers at between 20 to 50 pct of the
industry's 9,026 billion lira in total credits.
    Non-performing loans began to mount in the early 1980s as
industry failed to cope with higher interest rates and started
to default. Some banks continued to count loans as performing.
    "After 1984 all banks started to be more careful in giving
credits, so the non-performing loans is a problem of the period
between 1980 to 1984," Erk said.
    But the problem of bad loans led to a rescue by three state
banks of medium-sized Turkiye Ogretmenler Bankasi AS earlier
this year when the Treasury, which acts as a watchdog body over
banks, discovered that the its assets were to a large extent
made up of non-performing loans.
    Some 51 billion lira out of the bank's 69 billion lira loan
portfolio was non-performing. But the bank had reported a 1986
pre-tax profit of 65 mln lira.
    Bankers cited this as a typical example of how balance
sheets could hide problems despite a drive by the central bank
to standardise accounting.
    Gokce said the only solution would be for compulsory
auditing by international accounting companies.
 REUTER

The public offer by Glaverbel SA,
Europe's third biggest glassmaker, of 755,000 shares was more
than 100 times oversubscribed, a statement by banks and share
dealers responsible for the issue said.
    Glaverbel offered the shares at 1,850 francs in an
operation under which its parent company, Asahi Glass Ltd
<ASGL.T> will reduce its participation to 56.7 pct from 73.6
pct previously.
    Asahi is selling 500,000 shares in Glaverbel while the
company itself is issuing 340,000 new shares. Over 10 pct of
the total available shares has been reserved for staff.
    The statement said applicants for over 5,000 shares will
receive 30. There is a sliding scale which gives relatively
modest applications a higher proportion and those who sought
between 101 and 500 shares will receive five. No shares will be
given to applicants for fewer than 100 shares.
    Glaverbel's net consolidated profit rose to 542 mln francs
last year from 137 mln in 1985 and the group is to pay a 29
franc gross dividend, its first for over 10 years.
    As a result of the offer, some 45 pct of Glaverbel's
capital, or two mln shares, will be listed on the Brussels
bourse.
    Share dealers said some of the weakness on the bourse
recently probably has been due to the amount of money tied up
in Glaverbel applications.
 REUTER

SWEDEN'S BOLIDEN AB TAKES OVER MINING GEAR UNITS OF
ALLIS-CHALMERS CORP FOR 600 MLN CROWNS

London traders say the European Community
is likely to award a maximum rebate of 46.80 European currency
units per 100 kilos at today's tender, while traders in Paris
predict a maximum award of 46.40 Ecus.
    Last week the EC awarded licences for 59,000 tonnes at a
rebate of 45.678 Ecus.
    Trade views differed on the amount of sugar likely to be
released today.
    London traders said the EC Commission will probably
endeavour to release a large tonnage, and as much as  100,000
tonnes may be authorised for export under licences up to
end-September.
    Paris traders put the likely tonnage at around 60,000.
  REUTER

Dutch paper, packaging and graphical
equipment group Buehrmann-Tetterode NV <BVTN.AS> said its
policy in this and coming years will be aimed at further
expansion by autonomous growth and takeovers at home and
abroad.
    In the statement on its official results for 1986 it also
confirmed provisional results given on March 2, stating a 1986
net profit of 93.2 mln guilders against 57.3 mln in 1985.
Turnover rose by 4.4 pct to 3.25 billon guilders.
    Net profit per share, corrected for a share issue and stock
split, was 3.92 guilders in 1986 against 3.28, and dividend
1.55 guilders per nominal five guilder share against 1.30
guilders.
    Buehrmann-Tetterode said its international expansion will
be aimed at the United States in particular, adding that the
company was pursuing wider geographical spread of assets and
profits.
    Joint-ventures might in some cases be preferable to
starting new activities on their own, the statement said.
    The firm said its financial position enables it to achieve
its goals and it has confidence for 1987.
    Buehrmann's board chairman, Adriaan Overwater, told
reporters he expected 1987 turnover to grow more rapidly than
in 1986 when net sales posted only a 4.4 pct rise to 3.4
billion guilders while profits were up 63 pct to 93.2 mln.
    He said 1986 profits surged mainly after acquisitions and
reorganisations aimed at reducing costs and solving operational
problems, such as unsatisfactory management in the firm's
stationary, office equipment and leisure articles division.
    Overwater said he was optimistic about 1987 prospects but
said he would await first quarter results before quantifying
growth expectations.
 REUTER

The Bank of Tokyo Ltd is issuing a 100
mln dlr convertible eurobond due March 31, 2002 paying an
indicated coupon of two pct and priced at par, lead manager
Bank of Tokyo International Ltd said.
    The coupon will be fixed on April 8 while the conversion
price and foreign exchange rate will be set on April 9. The
selling concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct.
    The issue is available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and
is convertible from May 20, 1987 until March 20, 2002. The
payment date is April 30 and there will be a short first coupon
period.
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Boliden AB <BLDS ST> said it would buy the mining equipment
operations of the U.S. Allis-Chalmers Corp <AH.O>, amounting to
more than 50 pct of group sales, for 600 mln crowns.
    Boliden president Kjell Nilsson told a news conference the
acquisition of the Allis-Chalmers unit, which he described as
the world's leading producer of equipment for the mineral
processing industry, would yield positive synergy effects for
Boliden mining, metals and engineering operations.
    Nilsson said the takeover also will provide opportunities
to cooperate with the mining and materials handling operations
of Boliden's parent company, <Trelleborg AB>.
    He said Allis-Chalmers was selling out because it needed
new cash after suffering big losses in its farm equipment
    The deal is subject to approval by Allis-Chalmers' annual
meeting, company officials said.
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A proposed sales tax on gold transactions
could put a damper on the Tokyo market and encourage a shift of
trading to Hong Kong and Singapore, senior vice president and
Tokyo branch manager of Credit Suisse Paul Hofer told a press
    "If you impose five pct on both buy and sell transactions,
Tokyo participants in the gold market could be out of business,"
he said. The tax would create such a spread that Japanese would
be unable to compete in the international market, he added.
    "How can the government really raise taxes if the system
they impose is prohibitive of generating business?" he said.
    The government now imposes a 15 pct tax on physical trades
exceeding 37,500 yen for gold jewellery and coins and a 2.5 yen
tax per 10,000 yen on futures transactions, gold dealers said.
    The new five pct tax would be imposed on companies trading
more than 100 mln yen a year and apply to paper gold trades,
gold deposits with banks and trading of gold bars as well as
that of jewellery and coins, dealers said.
    However, the tax would lower the rate on jewellery and
coins to only five pct from the current 15 pct, they said.
    Hofer said in 1982 Switzerland had imposed a 5.6 pct gold
turnover tax on Jan 1, 1980, but abolished it on Oct 1, 1986.
    A study by one of the Swiss banks showed that in early
1980, the first year of the tax, the volume for all Swiss banks
fell by up to 25 pct compared with 1978 and 1979, Hofer said.
    Transactions of paper gold also fell up to 75 pct of the
volume prior to imposition of the tax, he said.
    While gold transactions in Switzerland decreased, the
volume of trades outside the country, particularly in London
and Luxembourg, increased between 10-25 pct, Hofer said.
    Japan is a major importer of gold, buying a yearly average
just under 200 tonnes, gold dealers said.
    Last year Japan imported about 600 tonnes of gold, but the
government had bought about 300 tonnes for minting coins to
commemorate the 60th year of Emperor Hirohito's reign, dealers
said.
    Gold trading in Tokyo is dominated mainly by Japanese
trading companies, while Credit Suisse is the major foreign
participant.
    Daily turnover in the Tokyo spot market ranges between one
and 10 tonnes with the average around three tonnes, while
futures turnover amounts to about four tonnes, gold dealers
said.
    "All of us are concerned daily with the fact that the Tokyo
market is growing, that Japan is becoming one of the three
major financial markets in the world ... And in my personal
opinion I think it would be a very big mistake to put a damper
on this positive growth or developments by imposing such a tax,"
Hofer said.
    "I don't think it fits the philosophy of an
internationalising market," he added.
    Officials of several major Japanese trading houses,
attending the press conference, said they supported Credit
Suisse's call for the government not to impose the gold tax.
 REUTER

The Indian Finance Ministry's
announcement in Parliament yesterday, changing the nation's
interest rate structure, will benefit industry and agriculture
by providing loans at lower interest, bankers and brokers said.
    The changes, effective today, included reducing commercial
bank lending rates that have ranged between 15 pct and 17.5 pct
by one percentage point.
    New rates, which affect both Indian and foreign banks, also
include a one percentage point gain, to an annual 10 pct, on
deposits of two years or more but less than five.
    Bank deposits of five years or more carrying 11 pct
interest have been abolished.
    Bankers said the interest rate modifications reflect the
government's concern to reduce the costs of borrowing and help
improve world competitiveness of Indian goods.
    There is likely to be a shift to short-term bank deposits
by long-term depositors, bankers predicted. This will create
the flexibility to draw and re-invest funds in either equity
shares or short-term bank deposits, they said.
    A merchant banker also said reduced manufacturing costs due
to lower lending rates are likely to boost the share market.
    Tata Steel, a trend setter on the Bombay Stock Exchange,
opened today higher at 1,040 rupees against yesterday's closing
of 1,012.50 rupees.
    A stockbroker said investors may be less enthusiastic now
to buy convertible and non-convertible debentures because the
Finance Ministry has reduced the annual interest rate to 12.5
pct and 14 pct respectively from 13.5 and 15 pct respectively.
    "But overall debenture prospects remain bright because the
rates of interest on them will still be higher than what banks
pay for deposits of similar maturity," a merchant banker said.
 REUTER

its estimate of the shortage in the money market up to 1.3
billion stg from 1.2 billion before taking account of its early
    The Bank has provided 689 mln stg assistance so far today.
 REUTER

Internatio-Mueller NV <INTN.AS> said it
will acquire <Promac Controls Inc> of Canada but declined to
comment on the amount of the payment, which will be in cash.
    Promac, which produces measurement and regulating
equipment, has a work force of 50 and had 1986 turnover of five
mln guilders, an Internatio spokesman said.
    He said the takeover fits into the company's drive for
expansion in the U.S and Canada and further acquisitions are
possible.
    Promac Controls will be part of Internatio's
electrotechnical sector.
 REUTER

A total of 126,031 tonnes of U.K.
Intervention feed wheat was sold to the home market at this
week's tender, provisional results show, the Home Grown Cereals
Authority (HGCA), said.
    Actual prices were not reported but the wheat was sold at,
or above, the March intervention price of 119.17 stg per tonne.
    Grain traders sought to buy about 340,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

The U.S. Dollar convertible eurobond for
Keppel Corp has been increased to 75 mln dlrs from the initial
60 mln, bookrunner Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd said.
    The coupon was set at four pct compared with an indication
of four to 4-1/4 pct. The conversion price was set at 3.12
Singapore dlrs per share, a premium of 5.05 pct. The foreign
exchange rate was set at 2.1381 Singapore dlrs to the U.S.
Dollar.
 REUTER

The Sri Lankan cabinet approved
recommendations to upgrade the quality of coconut fibre
products, the government said.
    It said the recommendations also suggested that
encouragement be given for the manufacture of value-added
products from coconut fibre and a market development programme
be launched for traditional and value-added products.
    It also suggested the setting up of a marketing mission on
coconut fibre to be sent this month to principal target
markets.
    Sri Lanka is the world's second largest exporter of
dessicated coconut after the Philippines.
 REUTER

Dutch steel concern
<Hoogovens Groep BV> said it had reached agreement with NV
Philips Gloeielampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> on its takeover of
Cirex, a specialised Philips precision wax moulding unit.
    Neither party would reveal financial details of the deal,
initially announced in October.
    Hoogovens said Cirex turnover had grown in recent years to
30 mln guilders in 1986 and it expected further expansion.
    The unit delivers mainly to the car industry.
    Hoogovens said the acquisition would strengthen its
position as a supplier to industry of high-value metal
products.
 REUTER

Bahrain is the first Gulf Arab country
to introduce an obligatory five-day working week for its
commercial banks ending a traditional six-day week.
    The Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) said the regulation
applied only to the domestic sector comprising about 20
commercial banks and was not obligatory for the island's
approximately 70  offshore banks.
    BMA Banking Services Director, Sulman Bin Khalifa Al
Khalifa, said commercial banks will now open from Sunday to
Thursday and added that twenty-one offshore banking units had
also requested and been given permission for a five-day week.
 REUTER

The climate for precious metals is
improving with prices benefiting from renewed inflation fears
and the switching of funds from dollar and stock markets,
brokers Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd said.
    Silver prices in March gained some 15 pct in dlr terms due
to a weak dollar and silver is felt to be fairly cheap relative
to gold, Montagu said in its monthly silver newsletter. In
March the gold/silver ratio narrowed from 74 to less than 67.
    The supply/demand position has improved in the past year,
and despite a silver market surplus, the quantity of silver is
modest enough to be absorbed by investors, it added.
    The report said the firmness in oil prices was likely to
continue in the short term.
    A period of consolidation might be necessary before prices
attempted to move significantly higher,it said, but so long as
the dollar remains under pressure then the outlook for silver
was positive.
    However silver was less likely to continue to outpace the
other metals by such a margin, Montagu said.
 REUTER

Lightning strikes hit the grain sector
of the port of Rotterdam today after employers turned down
union demands for shorter working hours in a new labour
agreement, transport union FNV spokesman Bert Duim said.
    Around 140 grain handlers stopped work, 125 of them at the
two Europoort locations of Graan Elevator Mij (GEM), which
handles about 95 pct of grain, oilseeds and derivatives passing
through Rotterdam.
    GEM managing director Pieter van der Vorm said the
facilities were 40 pct operational.
    The employers had invited the unions for talks later today,
but details of the labour agreement would not be on the agenda,
Van der Vorm said.
    It is barely one month since the end of an eight-week
campaign of lightning strikes against redundancies in
Rotterdam's general cargo sector, which stevedoring companies
said cost them millions of guilders.
 REUTER

Boliden AB said it would buy the mining equipment operations of
the U.S. Allis-Chalmers Corp, amounting to more than 50 pct of
group sales, for 600 mln crowns.
    Nilsson said the takeover will provide opportunities to
cooperate with the mining and materials handling operations of
Boliden's parent company, Trelleborg AB.
 REUTER

Kidnapped Japanese businessman
Nobuyuki Wakaoji has been released after four months in
captivity, Presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno said.
    Benigno told reporters the 53-year-old Mitsui and Co Ltd
executive was freed yesterday and is being held in an
undisclosed hospital.
    He gave no further details on the release, which was
confirmed minutes earlier by a Mitsui spokesman in Tokyo.
 Reuter

Government officials in Malaysia, a
major cocoa producer, have declined to say whether it will join
the International Cocoa Agreement (ICCA) for which buffer stock
rules were agreed in London last week.
    Ministry of Primary Industries officials said in January
the cabinet would decide on Malaysia's participation, but so
far a decision has not been announced. The government is said
to be in favour of joining the pact, but local cocoa growers
and traders told Reuters they are against the idea because
certain provisions in it may be to their disadvantage.
    Malaysia is the world's fourth largest cocoa producer. The
government feels that the pact, through its buffer stock
mechanism, can help stabilise prices in a market which is
labouring under surpluses, officials said.
    But growers and traders are concerned Malaysia's
participation in the pact will require them to pay a levy for
exports of cocoa to non-member countries of the ICCA.
    They estimate the levy at around 100 ringgit a tonne at
current prices and said they are not prepared to accept it
because a big portion of Malaysia's cocoa exports, officially
estimated at 112,000 tonnes in 1986, goes to non-members.
    Most growers and traders added they are also against a
buffer stock measure under the agreement which requires
withholding of cocoa stocks when prices slump.
    Malaysia, which produced 117,000 tonnes of cocoa last year,
might be forced to withhold up to 70,000 tonnes worth some 30
mln ringgit under such a measure in the long-term, and this
might affect their economic viability, they said.
    "The cost of maintaining such a stock can be high and it
will be a real messy business for the government and the trade
if it ever occurs," an industry source said.
    The growers and traders also said that under new buffer
stock rules Malaysia can continue to benefit even if it is not
a member of the pact, as the buffer stock manager is also
allowed to buy from non-members for the stockpile.
    Under the new rules purchases from non-members, such as
Malaysia, will be limited to 15 pct of the total stock.
    Malaysia has come under pressure from some producers to
join the pact soon, officials said, but they noted that it need
not rush to do so as there are provisions which allow countries
to join the agreement even at a later date.
 REUTER

Hong Kong's budget surplus for the
1986/1987 fiscal year has been revised to 3.7 billion H.K. Dlrs
from a 3.1 billion dlr estimate made in February, Financial
Secretary Piers Jacobs said.
    He told the Legislative Council that the revision for the
year ended March 31, 1987 reflected higher than anticipated
stamp tax revenues due to an active stock market.
    The surplus for the fiscal year was initially estimated at
348 mln dlrs and was revised to 3.1 billion in Jacobs' budget
presentation in February. The 1987/1988 budget surplus is
estimated at 1.8 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> said it
has completed the 1.05 billion dlr purchase of the electronic
media interests of unlisted <Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd>.
    The new company <Bond Media Ltd> now holds the television,
broadcasting and associated businesses previously held by Kerry
Packer's Consolidated, Bond Corp said in a statement.
    Packer, who made the sale in January, will be a director of
Bond Media. As previously reported, Bond Media will be publicly
floated with a rights issue to Bond Corp shareholders. Bond
Media will be 50 pct owned by Bond Corp and is expected to be
listed by the end of May, it said.
 REUTER

The Canadian federal government is
backing down on its plans to give Vancouver and Montreal
special status as international banking centres, Ontario's
minister of financial institutions Monte Kwinter said.
    He told journalists that little concrete activity had taken
place since the announcement in February 1986 that the two
cities would gain a special status, while Toronto, despite its
position as Canada's main financial centre, would not.
    "They (the federal government) have sent a confusing signal
to world financial markets," Kwinter said. "It was done for
political reasons and it's going to backfire on them."
 REUTER

Year to Dec 31
    Shr profit 63.6p vs loss 8.7p
    Final div 24p making 34p vs total 28.75p
    Pretax profit 143.8 mln stg vs 3.5 mln
    General underwriting loss on short-term business 79.8 vs
154.3
    NOTE - Company's full name is Guardian Royal Assuance Plc
<GREX.L>
    Underwriting profit on long-term insurance business 21.6
mln stg vs 19.1 mln
    Loss on discontinued international professional indemnity
business nil vs 40.6 mln stg
    Investment income 213.8 mln stg vs 193.6 mln
    Less interest payable 11.8 mln stg vs 14.3 mln
    Tax 38.8 mln stg vs 15.0 mln Minorities 3.3 mln stg vs 2.3
mln
    Extraordinary item - contingency claims provisions on
discontinued international business nil vs 55.0 mln stg
 REUTER

The Luxembourg-based European
Investment Bank issued a 300 mln Danish crown bullet Eurobond,
an official at lead manager Den Danske Bank af 1871 A/S told
Reuters.
    The seven-year bond pays 11 pct and is being issued at 101
of par, payment date is May 20.
    Denominations are 20,000 crowns, the bond is registered in
Luxembourg and total fees are 1 7/8 pct.
 REUTER

The Bank of Tokyo Ltd is issuing 100 mln
Swiss francs of convertible notes due September 30, 1992,
paying an indicated 1-1/4 pct, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp
said.
    Terms will be set on April 9 with payment due April 30.
    The conversion period is from May 20, 1987 until September
20, 1992.
 REUTER

Swedish Match AB <SMBS.ST> said it was
selling one of its Portuguese subsidiaries, <Sociedade de
Iniciativa e Aproveitamentos Florestais Sarl> (SIAF), to the
Porto-based <Sonae Group> for an undisclosed price.
    SIAF, a subsidiary of Swedish Match since 1946, had a
turnover last year of 62 mln crowns, the Swedish group said in
 REUTER

Year 1986
    DIV 18.1p making 28.5p vs 23.74p
    PROFIT AFTER TAX 17.4 mln stg vs 14.1 mln
    TAX 0.7 mln stg vs 0.2 mln
    Bonus distribution rose to new record level of 125.1 mln
stg vs 114.9 mln in 1985
    Full name of company is Sun Life Assurance Society Plc
<SULL.L>.
    REUTER

Deutsche Lufthansa AG <LHAG.F> said it
launched today regular scheduled services from Frankfurt to
Washington D.C. And Riyadh.
    The four weekly flights to Washington will be increased to
five at the end of the month, a statement said.
    The twice weekly flights to the Saudi capital will fill a
hole in its Middle East network, it said.
    Lufthansa said it carried 1.3 mln passengers on North
Atlantic routes in 1986, a rise of 14 pct over 1985. Freight
transported westward over the Atlantic rose seven pct to 94,300
tonnes while eastbound volume rose 31 pct to 74,600 tonnes.
 REUTER

Financial markets welcomed public
spending cuts announced by Ireland's new minority government in
its budget, saying the move would lead to lower interest rates.
    Finance Minister Ray MacSharry, making cuts across the
board, reduced the Exchequer Borrowing Requirement to 1.85
billion punts, 10.7 pct of GNP, compared with 2.15 billion
punts or 13 pct of GNP last year.
    Allied Irish Banks foreign exchange dealer John Kearney
commented: "I would see interest rates coming down by two to 2.5
pct in the next three months."
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Year 1986
    Shr 64.2p vs 14p
    Div 16p making 23.5p vs 17.5p
    Pretax profit 180.4 mln stg vs 37.7 mln
    Net after tax 137.1 mln vs 34.9 mln
    Minorities 10.5 mln vs 7.2 mln
    General premium income 1.99 billion stg vs 1.78 billion
    Long term premium income 704.5 mln vs 576.6 mln
    General insurance underwritng loss 78.3 mln vs 183.4 mln
    Long term insurance profits 27.3 mln vs 20.9 mln
    Investment and other income 231.4 mln vs 200.2 mln.
    Company's full name is Sun Alliance and London Insurance
Plc <SUNL.L>.

Boliden AB <BLDS.ST> said the takeover of the U.S.
Allis-Chalmers Corp's <AH.O> mining machinery division made it
the world's leading maker of such equipment.
    President Kjell Nilsson, announcing the 600 mln crown deal,
told a news conference Boliden would now become a truly
international concern with operations in Brazil, Chile and
other big minerals-producing nations.
    He said the Allis-Chalmers' division, accounting for some
50 pct of the U.S. Group's sales, would fit in well into
Boliden.
 REUTER

The prospect that other banks will
follow industry leaders Citibank and Chase Manhattan in raising
their prime rate is likely to cast a pall over the credit
markets today, economists said.
    Bond prices had been making a smart recovery from two days
of heavy selling when Citibank surprised the market by
announcing a quarter-point increase in its prime rate to 7-3/4
pct. Chase Manhattan quickly followed.
    Prices quickly fell by a full point, even though the dollar
- the market's overriding concern of late - rose sharply on the
news.
    Citibank cited the higher cost of money, especially in the
Euromarket, as the reason for raising its prime rate.
    Part of this rise in market rates has been caused by fears
of a tighter Federal Reserve policy to defend the dollar, but
economists said it is too early to tell whether the Fed, whose
policy-making federal open market committee, FOMC, meets this
week, is already tightening its grip on credit.
    "The Fed seems to have been a bit slow in meeting the
banking system's reserve needs this statement period, but I
wouldn't conclude anything until I've seen the Fed data," said
Jeffrey Leeds of Chemical Bank.
 REUTER^M

Monetary compensatory amounts, MCA's,
will be unchanged for the week starting April 6, EC Commission
    Cereals MCA's are plus 2.4 points for West Germany and the
for France, minus nine for Ireland, minus 5.7 for Italy, minus
25.7 for Britain, minus 44.1 for Greece and minus 10.5 for
Spain.
 Reuter

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor early this morning lifted an Appeals Court injunction
blocking the planned merger of Delta <DAL> Airlines
Inc and Western Airlines <WAL>, the Court said.
    O'Connor's action came hours after a three-judge panel of
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had
blocked the merger until a dispute over union representation
had been settled by arbitration.
    A Supreme Court spokesman said O'Connor granted a stay of
the injuction, allowing the merger, worth nearly 860 mln dlrs,
to go through as planned later today.
    The Supreme Court spokesman provided no other details. Each
of the nine Supreme Court justices has jurisdiction over a
particular regional Appellate circuit and has the power to
provisionally overturn its rulings without comment.
    The Appeals Court ruling surprised officials of
Atlanta-based Delta, which had been preparing for the merger
for months and had already painted Delta logos on airplanes
belonging to Western, which has headquartera in Los Angeles.
    "Our plans were to finalize the merger at midnight tonight,"
Delta spokesman Bill Berry told the Atlanta Constitution late
last night. "There was really very little that remained to be
done."
    The ruling in San Francisco came in a lawsuit that had been
filed in a Los Angeles federal court in which the Air Transport
Employees union sought to force Western's management to fulfill
a promise that it would honor union contracts if a merger took
place.
enforced in a takeover by a larger company.
    After learning of the appeals court ruling, Delta officials
last night spread the word by telephone that Western employees
should report for work today in their old uniforms, not in new
Delta outfits.
    Delta announced last September that it was purchasing
Western. The merger took place in December, and Western has
been operated as a Delta subsidiary since then. The Western
name was to have disappeared at midnight last night.
    At issue is whether the Western unions would continue to
represent Western employees after the integration of the two
airlines.
    While all but eight pct of Western's 11,000 employees are
unionized, only Delta's pilots are union members.
    Delta had maintained that the three unions having contracts
with Western -- The Association of Flight Attendants and the
Teamsters, as well as the Air Transport Employees -- would be
"extinguished" after today.
 Reuter

its estimate of today's shortfall to around 1.25 billion stg
from 1.3 billion before taking account of 775 mln stg morning
 REUTER

A second U.S. Marine has been charged
with spying and a third arrested on suspicion of lying about
contacts with Soviet women in a growing scandal involving the
American Embassy in Moscow.
    The Pentagon made the announcements yesterday and the State
Department said U.S. Ambassador to Thailand William Brown had
been called home to supervise a security review of the embassy,
which is alleged to have been penetrated by Soviet KGB agents
helped by Marine guards.
    Brown is an ex-Marine who once was an economic officer at
the Moscow mission.
    Marine Cpl. Arnold Bracy, 21, was charged yesterday with
espionage, conspiracy and failure to follow lawful orders in a
case which U.S. officials have said involved sex with Soviet
women. Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, whose arrest triggered the
spy-sex scandal, has already been charged with espionage.
    Pentagon spokesman Bob Sims told reporters a third Marine,
Staff Sgt. Robert Stanley Stufflebeam, 24, who served in Moscow
between 1985 and 1986 at the same time as Lonetree and Bracy,
was being held on suspicion of lying to investigators about
contacts with foreign nationals.
    Stufflebeam, who was second in command of the embassy
guard, is suspected of failure to report all contacts with
foreigners and making false official statements in his
debriefing when he left the embassy.
 REUTER

producers will meet at 1500 GMT (0900 est) for a general
discussion of the market situation, producer spokesman
Lindenberg Sette said.
    The Brazilian delegate said several producers requested the
meeting but Brazil was not among them. The ICO executive
board's regular session this week has so far been confined to
routine matters, with no attempt by producers or consumers to
revive export quota negotiations, delegates said.
    Talks to restore quotas collapsed early last month when
producers and consumers failed to resolve differences on how
quotas should be allocated.
    Producer delegates said there was no sense of urgency among
producers to reopen quota talks with consumers, with most
countries now prepared to wait for the ICO's annual September
council session to restart negotiations.
    Members of the Inter-African Coffee Organization called for
today's producer meeting to exchange views on the market
situation, the producer delegates said.
    The lack of a new debate on export quotas here this week
was cited as the reason for renewed weakness in coffee prices
in London and New York futures, traders said.
    Near May in London hit a five-year low this morning at
1,220 stg, about 50 stg below last night's close, they said.
    The executive board session looks set to end today,
following a final session at 1600 GMT (1000 est) when a
consultancy report of the operation of the ICO will be
presented to producers and consumers, delegates added.
 Reuter

Citadel Holding Corp said it
has settled its litigation with Great Western Financial corp.
    The company said under the terms, Great Western has agreed
not to acquire or seek to acquire any voting securities of
Citadel or propose a merger with Citadel for five years, and
Citadel has paid Great Western six mln dlrs.
    Citadel said it is continuing to pursue its claims against
Salomon Inc <SB>, which represented it in connection with the
disputed proposed merger with Great Western that was the
subject of the litigation.
 Reuter

Eight banking officials
arrested on embezzlement charges nine days ago have been
released from jail on provisional liberty, pending a hearing of
charges in court, judicial sources said.
    The president, vice-president, former president,
director-general and four other managers at the southern
Italian <Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria e Lucania - Carical>
had been released but were still under investigation for an
alleged embezzlement conspiracy. Three other bank officials are
still being held in custody.
    Those released include former Carical president Francesco
Del Monte, who was vice-president of one of Italy's largest
state banks <BNL - Banca Nazionale del Lavoro> at the time of
his arrest. BNL said last week it had appointed another member
of the board to take on the role of vice-president temporarily.
    The arrests followed the appointment by the Bank of Italy
of three commissioners to run Carical temporarily following
investigations revealing serious irregularities at the bank.
    Police sources say the embezzlement charges relate to loans
given by the bank to the southern Italian-based food processing
firm Jonicagrumi.
 REUTER

special status as international banking centers, Ontario's
    Kwinter said rules for the equity requirements for foreign
banks coming in under Ontario's financial deregulation had also
not yet been agreed between federal and provincial governments.
    While the federal government wanted to set up a regulatory
authority for banks, Ontario was pushing to regulate according
to function, arguing that those in the securities industry, no
matter if bank or broker, should be regulated in the same way.
    On June 30, Ontario is to introduce rules to allow banks,
insurances and trust companies, as well as non-securities
investors, to buy dealers. Non-residents will be allowed to own
up to 50 pct of market makers, rising to 100 pct after a year.
 Reuter

V.A.G. Kredit Bank GmbH,
the credit bank subsidiary of Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, said it
was optimistic for 1987 after raising turnover and balance
sheet total in 1986.
    V.A.G., Which finances the purchase of new and used cars
for VW customers, said 1986 profits met expectations but gave
no details.
    Financing turnover rose by 4.2 billion marks to 24.4
billion in 1986. Balance sheet total increased by 228 mln marks
to 2.84 billion.
 REUTER

SOSNOFF ENDS DEAL WITH PRATT, SOUTHMARK ON POSSIBLE
VENTURE FOR CAESARS BID

started its previously announced 7.4 billion dlr offer to
purchase the 45 pct interest in Standard Oil Co that it does
not already own for 70 dlrs per share.
which is not conditioned on receipt of any minimum number of
shares, and associated withdrawal rights will expire April 28
unless extended.
    BP said it is asking Standard Oil for the use of its
shareholder list in disseminating the offer, on which the
Standard board has not yet taken a position.
 Reuter

Visual Technology Inc said a group
led by <Hambrecht and Quist Group> has acquired majority
ownership of Visual for 9,250,000 dlrs in equity financing.
    The company said Hambrecht and Quist president William R.
Hambrecht and three other Hambrecht and Quist representatives
have been named to the Visual board, with Robert M. Morrill,
managing partner of the Boston office of Hambrecht's Hambrecht
and Quist Venture Partners unit named chairman.  Clifford G.
Zimmer Jr. remains president and chief executive officer.
    Visual also said about nine mln dlrs of its debt has been
converted to equity.
 Reuter

C.H. Beazer Holdings PLC said it has
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an
offering of 6,250,000 American Depositary Shares representing
25.0 mln ordinary shares, or a 9.5 pct interest in Beazer,
through underwriters led by American Express Co's <AXP>
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc.
    The company said the ADS's are expected to be traded on the
NASDAQ system.  Beazer will grant underwriters an option to
purchase another 937,500 ADS's to cover overallotments.
    Beazer said it will use proceeds initially to reduce debt
and then for acquisitions and capital spending.
 Reuter

Antonovich Inc said an initial offering
of 750,000 Class A common shares is under way at 9.625 dlrs
each through underwriters led by Evans and Co Inc.
    It said it is selling 500,000 shares and shareholders the
rest.
 Reuter

CPC INTERNATIONAL TO SELL STAKES IN ASIAN UNITS FOR 340
MLN DLRS TO AJINOMOTO

    Net loss 17,000 vs profit 31,000
    Revs 5,429,000 up 27 pct
    Year
    Shr profit four cts vs profit five cts
    Net profit 523,000 vs profit 421,000
    Revs 18.3 mln vs 11.6 mln
    Avg shrs 15.2 mln vs 8,941,000
    NOTE: Year net includes tax credits of 131,000 dlrs vs
194,000 dlrs.
    1986 net both periods includes charge 264,000 dlrs from
settlement of overtime wage dispute and addition to provision
for uncollectible accounts.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 24 cts vs profit 24 cts
    Oper net loss 716,000 vs profit 729,000
    Revs 3,673,000 vs 7,826,000
    Avg shrs 2,930,000 vs 2,930,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit nil vs profit 1.31 dlrs
    Oper net profit 10,000 vs profit 3,200,000
    Revs 12.9 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,930,000 vs 2,454,521
    NOTE: Net excludes realized investment gains of 2,000 dlrs
vs 13,000 dlrs quarter and 104,000 dlrs vs 6,000 dlrs year.
    1985 net both periods excludes 57,000 dlr extraordinary
gain.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 2,309,000 vs 2,076,000
    Revs 28.2 mln vs 30.4 mln
 Reuter

Sweden announced tax increases on
petrol and heating oil from July 1, 1987 to help finance a 1.7
pct rise in defence spending over the next five years.
    A Finance Ministry statement said the increase should boost
the price of petrol by 0.13 crowns to an average of 4.21 crowns
per litre while light-grade heating oil would go up by 30
crowns per cubic metre to an average of 1,665 crowns.
    It said oil companies should absorb part of the tax rise
internally and not pass it on to consumers as compensation for
a reduction in the stocks that the industry is required to keep
for Sweden's national petroleum reserve.
 REUTER

Tanzania will need about 1.2
billion dlrs of hard currency investment to support its
1987-1992 five-year plan which begins in July, Minister of
State for Finance Damas Mbogoro said.
    He told an economic planning seminar in the northern town
of Arusha yesterday that the new plan would concentrate on
rehabilitating Tanzania's existing infrastructure, with a
minimum of investment in new development projects.
    The aim is to boost agricultural production by five pct a
year and industrial output by 6.4 pct, he said.
    In 1985, before president Ali Hassan Mwinyi began
dismantling Tanzania's doctrinaire socialist policies to
implement his current economic recovery program, agricultural
production grew by only 0.6 pct, while industrial output
declined by 5.2 pct.
    Mbogoro said the success of the new five-year plan would
depend greatly on the ability to exercise self-discipline and
make best use of limited resources. Prime Minister Joseph
Warioba and Finance Minister Cleopa Msuya have both stressed
that government departments must exercise financial discipline
and live within their budgets.
 REUTER

Kenya's economy will continue to expand
this year and the government will do more to encourage
investment by foreign firms and the local private sector,
Planning Minister Robert Ouko said.
    He told a news conference that the government would soon
create a special bureau to expedite processing of investment
applications by local and foreign investors.
    Praising the role of multinational companies and local
entrepreneurs in Kenya's economy, the minister promised to
maintain a close working contact with the private sector.
    The economy grew by 5.3 pct last year, up from 4.1 pct in
1985, Ouko said.
    This was owing to high prices for the country's coffee
exports, low oil prices, low inflation and rising real incomes,
he added.
    "Despite rising petroleum prices and falling coffee prices,
Kenya's economy is still expected to improve in 1987," the
planning minister said.
    "High aggregate demand arising from low inflation, trade
liberalisation and disciplined financial management are
expected to increase output in the manufacturing sector," he
said.
    Agriculture would expand significantly if favourable
weather continued and farmers responded to producer price rises
announced in February, the minister added.
    Kenyan farmers are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the
long rainy season, which is due to start about now.
    Ouko said the production of Kenya's main cash crops
increased during the second half of last year.
    Coffee deliveries to the state-run Coffee Board of Kenya
rose 17 pct and tea deliveries rose four pct during the period,
he said.
    Ouko paid tribute to the private sector for its
contribution to the economy and promised to improve government
cooperation with businessmen by maintaining regular contact
with them.
    "I wish to pay tribute to the private sector for its
contribution to the economy in 1986 and challenge it to
maintain the same spirit this year ... The manufacturing sector
grew by an estimated 5.8 pct in 1986, in line with the same
period the previous year," he said.
    Ouko said the "one stop" bureau was intended to stimulate
investment and cut the time and bureacracy currently involved
in processing applications.
    The planning minister presented a review of the Kenyan
economy during the second half of 1986 which showed inflation
falling to 4.3 pct from 10.2 a year earlier.
    This was owing to higher agricultural production and the
Kenyan shilling's relative strength against other major
currencies, the report said.
    The average exchange rate was 16.23 shillings per U.S. Dlr
last year, a fall of only 1.2 pct from 16.432 in 1985. The half
yearly report said exports increased about 30 pct in
July-December 1986, while imports rose by only six pct during
the period.
    This gave Kenya an overall balance of payments surplus of
780 mln Kenya shillings (48 mln dlrs) during the period,
compared with a 1.4 billion shilling (87 mln dlr) deficit in
the second half of 1985, it said.
 REUTER

Peoples Ban Corp said it expects to
report first quarter earnings of over six mln dlrs, including a
gain of 1,600,000 dlrs from the settlement of a dispute with
the Internal Revenue Service and the sale of four banking
offices in Vancouver, Wash.
    The company said it expects to report "normal" earnings for
the rest ofd the year of 4,500,000 to five mln dlrs per
quarter.
    Peoples earned 105,000 dlrs in last year's first quarter
and in all of 1986 lost 1,768,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.61 dlrs vs loss 47 cts
    Net loss 19.2 mln vs loss 5,716,000
    Revs 46.4 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.01 dlrs vs loss 29 cts
    Net loss 24.5 mln vs loss 3,548,000
    Revs 150.2 mln vs 24.4 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net includes tax credits of 7,336,000 dlrs in
quarter and 10.2 mln dlrs in year.
    Results include 64.7 pct stake in Pacific Lumber Co from
December 1985 through February 1987 and 100 pct thereafter.
 Reuter

French cereals exports through Rouen port
rose to 751,563 tonnes between March 1 and March 25 from
603,413 tonnes in the same 1986 period, freight sources said.
    The Soviet Union took 263,051 tonnes of wheat and barley,
Saudi Arabia 90,944 tonnes barley, China 87,259 wheat, Algeria
64,896 wheat, Bangladesh 30,000 wheat, Morocco 27,500 maize,
Greece 26,700 wheat and barley, Spain 25,124 wheat, Poland
24,683 wheat, Brazil 24,082 wheat, Italy 21,659 wheat, Cyprus
20,700 wheat and maize, Israel 16,500 maize and the U.K. 8,797
tonnes wheat.
    Six ships are loading 120,000 tonnes of wheat, the sources
said. They include 30,000 tonnes for China, 31,000 for the
Soviet Union, 25,000 for Turkey, and 35,000 for Italy. Another
ship is loading 17,000 tonnes of colza for the Soviet Union.
    Another 12 ships should arrive to load 344,000 tonnes of
cereals by the end of the week. Six are to load 186,000 tonnes
of wheat for the Soviet Union. Two will load 60,000 tonnes of
barley for Saudi Arabia, one 28,000 tonnes of wheat for China,
two 25,000 tonnes of wheat each for Algeria and Turkey and one
20,000 tonnes of wheat for Italy. Another is expected to load
20,000 tonnes of colza for the Soviet Union.
    Flour exports through Rouen rose to 23,457 tonnes in the 25
day period from 5,500 in the equivalent 1986 period, the
    Sudan took 19,327 tonnes and west coast Africa 4,130.
    Four ships are currently loading 32,000 tonnes, including
24,000 for Egypt, 6,000 for Tanzania and 2,000 for Mauritania.
    A ship is expected later this week to load 12,000 tonnes
for China.
 Reuter

The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, FAO, said it approved emergency food aid worth
more than 14.3 mln dlrs for drought victims in Ethiopia.
    The aid will include 30,000 tonnes of wheat and 1,200
tonnes of vegetable oil for farmers in the Wollo and Illubabor
regions.
    FAO said it has also approved more than 1.4 mln dlrs of
food aid for 8,000 families in Sri Lanka. In addition, 583,225
dlrs of aid will be made available to Malawi to feed 96,700
people displaced from Mozambique and a further 340,200 dlrs for
cyclone victims in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
 Reuter

The restructured London Stock Exchange
has proved itself an unqualified success in less than
six months of operation, according to exchange chairman Sir
Nicholas Goodison.
    More than 95 pct of the business has left the trading floor
and is now conducted in the offices of member firms, Goodison
said in remarks prepared for delivery in New York.
    "Competitive bids and offers can now be seen on screens all
over the country and business done is displayed on those same
screens," he said, reaching more investors than before.
    Goodison said the new system has helped investors by
promoting greater competition that in turn has led to reduced
commissions and spread.
    He said the exchange is now working on a small order
automated execution system and a system to transfer securities
without certificates.
    New laws to be enacted in full later this year will help
the Securities and Investments Board investigate suspected
abuses and punish wrongdoing, Goodison said. He believes it is
a misconception to say that the U.K. system of self-regulation
is not as good as the U.S. system.
    He noted that any violations of the rules are a criminal
offense. "There is no fifth amendment plea to offer a U.K.
inspector hot on the trial of an insider dealer," Goodison
said, in a reference to the U.S. legal system which allows
individuals to remain silent on the grounds that they may
incriminate themselves.
    Goodison said a major goal of the London exchange is to
persuade multinational corporations to seek a listing in
London. He said about 200 U.S. companies are now listed in
London, enhancing their ability to raise capital.
   
 Reuter

Investor Martin T. Sosnoff said
Southmark Corp and affiliate Pratt Hotels Corp have ended talks
with his MTS Acquisition Corp on a possible joint venture for
the acquisition of Caesars World Inc.
    Sosnoff said the talks had not been actively pursued since
they were announced March 20, but it had been agreed that
unless the discussions were formally terminated, Pratt and
Southmark would not initiate a competing tender offer for
Caesars World or take any other action that would hamper
Sosnoff's current offer to acquire all Caesars shares he does
not now own for 28 dlrs each.
    Sosnoff said his 28 dlr per share bid for Caesars, which is
scheduled to expire May 15, still stands, and he remains
receptive to negotiating a transaction to buy Caesars on
friendly terms.
    Pratt recently made an apparently unsuccessful bid to
acquire control of Resorts International Inc <RTB>, seeming to
lose out to Donald Trump.
 Reuter

Japan has reiterated it has no plans to
bow to pressure to give foreign telecommunications companies a
major role in a planned new firm.
    An official at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
told Reuters the ministry's position is unchanged despite
mounting pressure from London and Washington. He declined
comment on local press reports which said the ministry would
back a plan aimed at cooling British anger on the issue.
    The press reports said Fumio Watanabe, head of the
Federation of Economic Organisations, would propose that
Britain's Cable and Wireless Plc be given a five pct stake in a
telecommunications firm and a seat on the board.
    Watanabe was unavailable for comment. He has the tacit
backing of the government in his efforts to merge two
telecommunications companies into one competitor to Kokusai
Denwa Denshin (KDD), which has a monopoly on international
telephone services here, industry analysts said.
    In London yesterday, a Cable and Wireless spokesman said
the latest reported proposals are unacceptable.
    Cable and Wireless has a 20 pct stake in one of the two
companies involved in the mooted merger.
    British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has personally
taken up the company's cause, charging that Japan is
discriminating against foreigners.
    The United States also has vented its anger at what it sees
as Japanese attempts to limit foreign participation.
    Watanabe originally proposed Cable and Wireless be given up
to 3.0 pct of the merged firm. The press reports said this
could be raised to 5.0 pct, equal to the largest share of any
Japanese firm. Britain opposes the proposed merger. REUTER

An eight-day-old national bank strike
started to crumble following a warning from the federally-owned
Banco do Brasil that it could dismiss employees who did not
return to work, a union spokesman said.
    Banco do Brasil's staff in several major cities, including
Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba, had decided to return to
work. Probably about half of the country's bank staff would be
working, he added.
 Reuter

said said it has agreed in principle to sell interests in its
grocery products operations in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand to <Ajinomoto Co
Inc> of Japan for 340 mln dlrs.
    The company said the move will reduce Asian overhead and a
substantial part of the proceeds will be used to reduce debt.
    It said as part of the agreement, its current direct
investment in its existing non-consolidated joint venture with
Ajinomoto will be converted into a cooperative arrangement for
the long-term utilization of technology and trademarks.
    The company said the change in the Japanese arrangement
will give Ajinomoto full equity ownership while leaving CPC a
continuing earnings stream and cash flow.
    The transactions are subject to definitive agreements and
government approvals.
    CPC said not included in the 340 mln dlr consideration are
proceeds from the sale of some smaller Asian investments,
including a 51 pct equity interest in an oat-based food venture
to an Australian partner.
    The company said the actions being taken under its
restructuring program, including the sale of its European corn
wet milling business and other assets, overhead reductions and
other expense items and the Asian transactions, will have a
one-time positive effect on 1987 earnings.
    CPC said "Although the extent cannot yet be determined, the
company expects that 1987 earnings per share will increase by
substantially more than the previously estimated 20 pct
increase over 1986."  In 1986 CPC earned 2.30 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Energy Development Partners Ltd said
it has completed the acquisition of May Energy Partners Ltd for
1,817,697 depositary units following approval yesterday by May
Energy unitholders.
    Energy Development said May Petroleum Inc <MAYP>, general
partner of May Energy, will distribute about 35 Energy
Development units for each 100 May Energy Partners units to
holders of 100 May Energy Partnners units or more and cash to
others.
    Energy Development said the transaction increases its units
outstanding to 12.6 mln and raises total proved reserves as of
the end of 1986 27 pct.  Angeles Corp <ANG> is general partner
of Energy Development.
 Reuter

A total 102,350 tonnes of current series
white sugar received export rebates of a maximum 46.864
said.
    Out of this, traders in France received 31,000 tonnes, in
West Germany 21,000, in Belgium 19,050, in the U.K. 15,800, in
Denmark 8,500, in the Netherlands 6,000 and in Spain 1,000
tonnes, it added.
the current season whites campaign for licences to end-Sep to
be around 46.80 Ecus per 100 kilos while French traders had put
the rebate at around 46.40 Ecus.
    Traders here had also forecast today's total authorised
sugar tonnage export awards up to 100,000 tonnes versus 59,000
last week when the restitution was 45.678 Ecus.
    Total export authorisations for the 1985/86 campaign (42
 weeks) now stand at 2,076,620 tonnes.
 REUTER

Inflation in Turkey was 3.7 pct in March
compared with 1.7 pct in February and 1.3 pct in March 1986,
    The annual rate rose to 34.7 pct in March compared with
31.7 pct in February and 34.2 pct in March 1986. The
government's target is to reduce inflation this year to an
annual 20 pct.
    The consumer price index, base 1978/79, was 1,957.3
compared with 1,886.8 in February and 1,452.7 in March, 1986.
 REUTER

Schering-Plough corp said it is
considering the sale of its Dr. Scholl's businesses in Europe,
Latin America and the Far East, which had sales of about 150
    The company said the transaction is not expected to have a
material impact on earnings.  It said it has engaged Merrill
Lynch and Co Inc <MER> to assist in the sale process.
    Schering said it will retain Dr. Scholl's businesses in the
U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, which had sales of about 135 mln
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 8,117,095 vs 8,954,904
    Sales 146.7 mln vs 133.0 mln
    Avg shares 29.0 mln vs 28.9 mln
    First half
    Shr 48 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 13.8 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Sales 273.0 mln vs 242.1 mln
    Avg shrs 29.0 mln vs 28.9 mln
 Reuter

Union Carbide Overseas Finance Corp
N.V., a unit of Union Carbide Corp, said it plans to redeem on
May one all outstanding 14-3/4 pct notes due May 1, 1989.
    The notes will be bought back at par. Interest will cease
to accrue on May one, the unit said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 2.27 dlrs vs loss 1.62 dlrs
    Oper net loss 12.7 mln vs loss 12.1 mln
    Revs 60.0 mln vs 26.2 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 5.16 dlrs vs loss 1.56 dlrs
    dOper net loss 29.0 mln vs loss 12.4 mln
    Revs 139.3 mln vs 110.0 mln
    NOTE: 1985 operating losses exclude profits of 19.5 mln
dlrs, or 2.64 dlrs a share, in quarter and 20.6 mln dlrs, or
2.74 dlrs a share, in year from discontinued operations
    1985 loss in both periods includes pre-tax charge of 16.9
mln dlrs on write down of oil properties.
    1986 year loss includes pre-tax charge of 23.0 mln dlrs for
write down of oil and gas properties.
 Reuter

Anchor Savings Bank said it expects to
start trading on the NASDAQ system on a when-issued basis on
April Seven under the ticker symbol <ABKR>.
    Anchor recently went public in a subscription offering of
17,595,000 shares that was oversubscribed and increased by
2,295,000 shares from the number originally planned.
 Reuter

tomorrow, a spokesman said in answer to enquiries.
    Bundesbank vice-president Helmut Schlesinger will chair the
meeting, as president Karl Otto Poehl has a private engagement.
    The next meeting is scheduled for April 16.
 REUTER

McDonalds Corporation is issuing a 75 mln
Canadian dlr eurobond due May 14, 1992 paying 8-1/2 pct and
priced at 101-5/8 pct, lead manager Morgan Guaranty Ltd said.
Luxembourg. The selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while
    The payment date is May 14.
 REUTER

Nederlandsche Middenstandsbank NV said
it planned a 50 mln Australian dollar 14.5 pct three-year
bullet eurobond issue at 101.5 pct.
    Lead manager is Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd, heading
a syndicate with co-lead managers NMB, Hambros Bank Limited,
Morgan Guaranty Limited and S.G. Warburg Securities.
    An Amsterdam Bourse listing will be requested for the
bonds.
 REUTER

MANUFACTURERS HANOVER RAISES PRIME RATE TO 7-3/4 PCT FROM
7-1/2, EFFECTIVE TODAY

Oper shr loss 19 cts vs profit one ct
    Oper net loss 1,495,000 vs profit 50,000
    Revs 52.3 mln vs 48.9 mln
carryforwards of 82,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 300,000
 Reuter

CONRAC CORP REJECTS MARK IV INDUSTRIES TENDER OFFER,
EXPLORES ALTERNATIVES

National Intergrup Inc said its
Permian Partners LP subsidiary, recently formed to take over
the business of its Permian Corp unit, plans to make a public
offering of cumulative convertible preferred partnership units.
    Permian buys, transports and resells crude oil.
    Lead underwriters are American Express Co's <AXP> Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc and <Donaldson, Lufin and Jenrette
Securities Corp> will be lead underwriters.
 Reuter

Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co became
the third major U.S. bank to increase its prime rate to 7-3/4
pct from 7-1/2, matching a move initiated yesterday by Citibank
and Chase Manhattan.
    The bank, the main subsidiary of Manufacturers Hanover
Corp, said the new rate is effective today.
 Reuter

 Reuter

acquired Automatic Inspection Devices Inc, a subsidiary of
Owens-Illinois Inc, Toledo, Ohio, through an exchange of stock
for 80 pct of the company.
    Automatic Designs and manufactures a line of machine vision
systems for the packaging, pharmaceutical, electronics and
consumer goods industries.
 Reuter

expects cash proceeds from the proposed sale of its solids
processing equipment and minerals systems businesses to exceed
90 mln dlrs, with no material gain or loss anticipated from the
planned sale.
    Closing of the sale to Boliden AB of Sweden would be part
of the overall restructure of Allis-Chalmers, which was
announced on March Four, the company said.
    Allis-Chalmers said the business entities included in the
transaction had total sales of about 250 mln dlrs in 1986, with
total employment of about 4,300.
    The solids processing equipment business involves
manufacture of crushing and related equipment for mining. It
consists of operations in Sweden, Australia, Brazil, France,
Great Britain, Spain and Appleton, Wis.
    The minerals systems business has operations in West Allis,
Wis., and Lachine, Quebec, Canada.
 Reuter

One grain vessel was awaiting berth
at Bahia Blanca, four at Buenos Aires and five at Rosario, on
March 31, National Grain Board figures show.
    The situation at these ports was as follows, giving the
number of ships loading, awaiting berth and expected
    Bahia Blanca - 4, 1, 1
    Buenos Aires - 1, 4, 9
    Rosario -      6, 5, 7
    The tonnage of grain and oilseeds to be loaded onto ships
loading, awaiting berth and expected at each port was as
follows.
    Bahia Blanca - Wheat 161,360.
    Buenos Aires - Maize 104,304, Wheat 14,330.
    Rosario - Wheat 50,400, maize 157,040, subproducts 50,100,
sunflowerseed 1,000 and millet 3,100.
 REUTER

billion dlrs, or 1.0 pct, in February to a seasonally adjusted
rate of 378.4 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    Spending in January fell a revised 3.7 billion dlrs, or 1.0
pct, to 374.8 billion dlrs, the department said.
    Previously, it said spending rose 1.0 pct in January.
    February construction spending was 4.5 billion dlrs, or 1.2
pct above the February 1986, total of 373.9 billion dlrs.
    Residential construction spending fell in February to an
annual rate of 179.4 billion dlrs from 181.5 billion dlrs in
January.
    Public construction outlays rose for a fourth successive
month to 78 billion dlrs in February from 75.1 billion dlrs in
January and were 9.7 billion dlrs, or 14.2 pct, higher than the
February, 1986, estimate of 68.3 billion dlrs, the department
said.
    Public spending on highways was up in February to 23.3
billion dlrs from an annual rate in January of 22.7 billion
dlrs.
    In constant dollars, February construction outlays rose 2.3
billion dlrs from January levels to an annual rate of 341.3
 Reuter

Irving Trust Co said it is raising its
prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2, effective immediately.
    It becomes the fourth U.S. bank to raise the rate,
following Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Manufacturers Hanover
Trust.
 Reuter

The USDA quarterly hogs and pig report
yesterday showed more hogs on U.S. farms compared to last year
as profitability resulting from low grain prices encouraged
producers to step up production, analysts said.
    Most analysts seemed to agree with Chicago Mercantile
Exchange floor traders that the report will be viewed as
bearish to pork futures and futures prices may open sharply
lower today. Some traders and analysts expect limit declines in
nearby contracts, with spillover selling likely in cattle.
    University of Missouri agronomist Glen Grimes said,"The
report shows that hog producers have responded to a very
desirable feeding ratio that they enjoyed for the past 10
months."
    Shearson Lehman analyst Chuck Levitt said hog futures
prices are above producers' break even points. Even if futures
fell the daily limit of 1.50 cents today, producers could still
lock in a profit, which increases the likelihood of heavy
selling pressure today.
    "We have not had a period of profitability of this
magnitude since last summer," Levitt said. "In fact, hog
operations on many mixed livestock/grain enterprises have been
so profitable that it actually enabled some farmers to get back
on their feet and refinance their loans just based on the hog
operation alone."
    Levitt said the weight breakdown in the report also was
negative, in that some lead time was anticipated before the
slaughter increased from the previous year.
    We expected farmers to increase hog operations, but we
didn't expect this degree of expansion to show up in a 10-state
spring report, Levitt added.
    High hog corn ratios (the number of bushels of corn that
could be bought for 100 lbs of hog) and the resulting increased
profits, encouraged farmers and confinement operations to
increase production starting late last year.
    Analysts also noted that part of the increase in the hog
herd resulted from a revision of the December report and
without the revision, the March report might have been very
close to average expectations.
    Robin Fuller of Agri Analysis said the USDA made a major
upward revision of 105,000 head in the size of the breeding
herd in the December 1 report. So the December report was more
bearish than initially indicated.
    But Fuller, as well as other analysts, expected the report
to be less negative on deferred futures contracts. Distant
contracts are already at a sharp discount to cash because
traders anticipated high farrowing intentions, she noted.
    Discounts in the October and December contracts take into
consideration a six to seven pct increase in March/May
farrowing intentions, which was borne out in the March 1
report, Fuller said.
    Grimes said, "As far as the distant months are concerned,
if our first quarter pig crop is up only six pct and under 60
lb inventories actually up only five pct, it would take a
tremendous discount in price for each percent increase for us
to push down to the prices that the current futures show for
the July and August period."
    Jerry Abbenhaus, analyst for AGE Clearing noted that
distant futures prices are already 15 to 20 dlrs lower than
they were last summer.
    "If cash hogs at the 7-markets last year averaged 61 dlrs
during July, that doesn't mean hogs have to be 15 dlrs cheaper
this year because we have six pct more numbers," he said.
 Reuter

Conrac Corp said its board has
rejected MArk IV Industries Inc's tender offer for all Conract
shares at 25 dlrs each, and no Conract director of officer
plans to tender any shares.
    The company said financial advisor <Goldman, Sachs and Co>
determined the price to be inadequate.
    It said its board has instructed management to explore and
develop with financial and legal advisors alternative courses
of action to maximize shareholder values.
 Reuter

Taft Broadcasting Co said the
sale of its independent television stations to TVX Broadcast
Group, which had been set for yesterday, did not occur.
    TVX and its investment bankers, Salomon Inc's <SB> Salomon
Brothers, advised Taft the closing would not be consumated as
scheduled, the company said.
    TVX and Salomon also advised Taft they hope to be able to
close in near future, the company said, adding it is prepared
to close at any time.
    A Taft spokeswoman referred all questions to TVX and
Salomon.
    Taft agreed in November to sell the stations in
Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, Fort Worth-Dallas and Houston
TVX Broadcast for 240 mln dlrs.
    At the time, Taft said the transaction would result in an
after tax charge of 45 to 50 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

said the vote today to override President Reagan's veto of a
major highway bill was very close.
    The Democratic leader told reporters he could not tell them
whether the Senate would override or sustain the veto. The
House voted to override yesterday.
    "If the veto is sustained, it won't be because of pork, it
will be because of politics," Byrd said.
    He has contended the White House was applying pressure on
Republicans to vote with Reagan.

 Reuter

Thyssen AG <THYH.F> expects a fall of
between 15 and 20 pct in consolidated turnover in 1986/87,
chief executive Dieter Spethmann said.
    He told journalists the exact decline would depend on
dollar developments. The Thyssen group did over 50 pct of its
business outside West Germany.
    Spethmann made no comment on 1986/87 group earnings. World
group net profit fell to 370.1 mln marks in the year ended
September 1986 from 472.4 mln a year earlier on group sales
which fell to 40.00 billion marks from a previous 44.32
billion.
    Last week Spethmann told the annual meeting Thyssen
expected to post a good profit in 1986/87 despite expected
losses in the mass steel-making operations this year.
    Spethmann said engineering turnover would not be lower this
year, but lower steel prices would result in a drop in steel
turnover and sales volume. This would also affect Thyssen's
trading operations, he said.
    Spethmann also categorically denied a magazine article
published this week which spoke of a dispute between him and
Heinz Kriwet, management board chairman of Thyssen Stahl AG,
over planned job cuts in steel plants in the Ruhr area.
 Reuter

Groupement pour le financement des
Ouvrages de Batiment, Travaux Publics et activites annexes
(GOBTP) plans to launch two variable-rate domestic bonds
totalling 700 mln francs, lead managers Credit Commercial de
France (CCF) and Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaires (CCBP)
said.
    The first 500 mln franc 12-year bond, led by CCF, will be
issued at 99 pct with interest based on the annualised money
market rate (TAM) and payable on April 21 every year with the
first coupon paid next year.
    The second 200 mln franc 12-year bond, led by CCBP, will be
issued at 99 pct with interest also based on TAM with the same
coupon payment date.
    Both bonds will in principle be redeemable at par on April
21, 1999.
 REUTER

Cyclops corp said it has
reconstituted its board to include three <Dixons Group PLC>
executives following Dixons' acquisition of 83 pct of Cyclops'
4,061,000 shares in a 95 dlr per share tender offer.
    Cyclops said remaining on the six-member board are chairman
and chief executive W.H. Knoell, president and chief operating
officer James F. Will and senior vice president William D.
Dickey.
 Reuter

The Kuwaiti government and private sector
will study investments in Egyptian projects worth more than
four billion dlrs, said the deputy-director for Egypt's Public
Authority for Investment, Mohye al-Deen Gharib.
    The chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Abdul-Aziz al-Saqr, said the visitors had submitted
40 proposals for study.
    These included "economic, industrial and real estate
projects, in addition to the investment field," he said, adding
that a holding company may be established to oversee
 REUTER

Bank of New England Corp said it filed
statement covering a 200 mln dlr issue of subordinated capital
notes due 1999.
    Proceeds will be used primarily to retire short-term debt,
finance possible acquisitions and fund investments in or
extensions of credit to its subsidiaries, the company said.
    Bank of New England said Morgan Stanley, Keefe Bruyette,
Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch will underwrite the issue.
 Reuter

Southmark Corp said it has completed the
purchase of Georgia International Life Insurance Co from
Capital Holding Corp <CPH> for cash and Southmark securities
worth over 85 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Biotherapeutics Inc said its
common stock will be included in the NASDAQ National Market
System starting April Seven.
    As a result, it said the stock will become marginable.
 Reuter

Valhi Inc, formed by the March 10 merger
of Amalgamated Sugar Co into LLC Corp, said it had unaudited
pro-forma earnings of 72 mln dlrs, or 61 cts a share, for the
    Valhi said these results were prepared as if the merger had
occurred July 1, 1986, and on substantially the same basis as
the pro-forma financial information in LLC's and Amalgamated's
joint proxy statement dated February 10.
    Valhi said it has about 117 mln common shares outstanding
with about 85 pct held by <Contran Corp>.
 Reuter

Patten Corp said it called for
redemption on May one its outstanding 23 mln dlrs of 7-1/4 pct
convertible subordinated debentures of 2001.
    It will buy back the debt at 1,105.93 dlrs per 1,000 dlr
face amount, including accrued interest.
    Debenture holders can convert the securities into the
company's common stock at 12.976 dlrs per share until the close
of business on April 17, Patten said.
    The company's common is currently trading at 25 dlrs a
share on the New York Stock Exchange, down 3/4.
 Reuter

Showboat Inc said the New
Jersey Casino control commission has directed its new Altnatic
City Showboat Casino, Hotel and Bowling Center to conduct a
limited bet day today, in accordance with commission
    Each new casino must conduct a limited bet day before
opening for regular gaming.  Showboat has saiud it expects to
open for regular gaming on Friday.
 Reuter

Divi Hotels NV of Aruba said the
exercise price of its warrants has been cut to 11 dlrs per
share from 12 dlrs until September 17 and to 13 dlrs from 14
dlrs thereafter due to the impact of a recent 1,500,000 share
offering.
 Reuter

First National Bank in
Mount Clemens, Mich., said it is seeking final regulatory
approval to form First National Bank Corp, a bank holding
company, following shareholder approval Tuesday.
    It said formation of First National Bank Corp will result
in a one-for-one stock exchange for shareholders of First
National Bank in Mount Clemens.
    First National Bank Corp is the parent company of First
National Bank in Mount Clemens and Bankers Life Insurance Co, a
newly created insurance subsidiary.
    At the shareholders' meeting, the bank also reported 1986
First National Bank earnings of 2,008,000 dlrs, or 2.22 dlrs a
share, up 11 pct from 1985's earnings of 1,811,000 dlrs, or
2.00 dlrs a share.
    Bank assets climbed to 276 mln dlrs from 240 mln dlrs in
 Reuter

    Pay May 13
    Record April 29
 Reuter

today opened put and call options trading in the common stock
of Harcourt Brace Jovanovice Inc.
    The exchange said Harcourt Brace is a replacement selection
for LTV Corp.
    The Amex said the initial expiration months for HBJ options
are April, May, July and October.
 Reuter

U.S. Census Bureau figures released
here showed factory and warehouse stocks on Feb 28 included the
following, with comparisons, in mln lbs --
          02/28/87    01/31/87  02/28/86
 Soybean Oils --
   Crude  1,663.3-x  1,542.6      893.7
 Refined    300.5-x    294.7-r    287.4
   Total  1,963.8-x  1,837.3-r  1,181.1
Cotton Oils --
   Crude     65.7       55.8-r     64.5
 Refined    122.3      109.6-r    119.6
   Total    188.0      165.4-r    184.1
 X-Revised from preliminary data released in the bureau's
oilseeds report of March 23. R-Revised.

     Factory and Warehouse Stocks, continued -
         02/28/87  01/31/87   02/28/86
 Corn Oils --
     Crude   32.5    32.3-r   44.2
   Refined   65.8    54.4-r   39.9
     Total   98.3    86.7-r   84.1
      Lard   31.4    31.5-r   36.4
  R-Revised.
 reuter

VMS Strategic Land Trust declared an
initial dividend of 30 cts a share payable May 15 to
    The dividend represents a 12 pct annual return based on the
company's original offering price in December of 10 dlrs a
share. The return is guaranteed through December 31, 1988, the
    The trust invests in short term junior preconstruction
mortgage loans and has total principal amount of investments of
approximately 105.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Chemical Bank, the main bank subsidiary
of Chemical New York Corp, said it is raising its prime lending
rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd said its
Cominco metals division lowered the price for lead metal sold
in Canada by 1/2 Canadian cts per pound to 34 Canadian cts per
pound.
   
 Reuter

Cash grain dealers reported slow country
movement of corn and soybeans across the Midwest, with even
corn sales from PIK-and-roll activity seen earlier this week
drying up.
    Some dealers said the USDA may further adjust the posted
county price at the Gulf to take into account high barge
freight rates as a way to keep corn sales flowing, but added
the current plan probably will be given a few weeks to see if
it will work as hoped.
    Corn and soybean basis values continued to drop on the
Illinois and MidMississippi River due to the strong barge
freight rates. Toledo and Chicago elevators were finishing
loading the first corn boats of the new shipping season,
supporting spot basis values at those terminal points.

                  CORN             SOYBEANS
 TOLEDO         5 UND MAY UNC   1 UND MAY UNC
 CINCINNATI     1 UND MAY UNC   1 OVR MAY UP 2
 NEW HAVEN     12 UND MAY UNC   2 UND MAY DN 1
 N.E. INDIANA  10 UND MAY UNC   2 OVR MAY DN 1
 CHICAGO      1/2 OVR MAY UNC   5 UND MAY UNC
 SENECA       51/2 UND MAY DN 1 7 UND MAY UNC
 DAVENPORT 61/2UND MAY DN61/2 61/2UND MAY DN11/2
 CLINTON        5 UND MAY DN 3       UA
 CEDAR RAPIDS  11 UND MAY DN 3 13 UND MAY DN 2
                  HRW WHEAT
 TOLEDO  58 LB 35 OVR MAY UP 1
 CHICAGO 57 LB 25 OVR MAY UNC
 CINCINNATI DP 10 OVR MAY UNC
 NE INDIANA DP  8 OVR MAY UNC
 PIK CERTIFICATES - 103/104 PCT - UNC/ DN 2
 NC - NO COMPARISON  UA - UNAVAILABLE
 UNC - UNCHANGED DP - DELAYED PRICING

 Reuter

OMB'S MILLER SAYS REAGAN OPPOSES EXCISE TAX HIKES TO
BALANCE U.S. BUDGET

FED BUYING ONE BILLION DLRS OF BILLS FOR CUSTOMER
ACCOUNT, FED SAYS

drying up.

 Reuter

Marine Midland Banks Inc said it is
raising its prime lending rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct,
 Reuter

adjusted the rates on its short-term discount notes as follows:
    MATURITY   NEW RATE  OLD RATE  MATURITY
   30-69 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct   30-124 days
   70-88 days  5.92 pct  5.90 pct  125-150 days
  89-123 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  151-173 days
 124-150 days  5.93 pct  5.92 pct  174-182 days
 151-349 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  183-349 days
 350-360 days  5.98 pct  5.94 pct  350-360 days
 Reuter

Southeast Banking Corp said it filed
statement covering a 50 mln dlr issue of convertible
subordinated capital notes due 1999.
    The notes are designed to qualify as primary capital for
Federal Reserve Board regulatory purposes, the bank said.  It
will apply to list the notes on the New York Stock Exchange.
    The company named Lazard Freres and Co as lead manager of
the deal.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said its board will be
asked to approve the company's plan to reorganize
<Transamerican Natural Gas Corp> at its April 14 meeting.
    Coastal said the plan is expected to be filed with the
federal Bankruptcy Court on April 15.
    Transamerican has been operating under Chapter 11 of the
federal bankruptcy code since January 1983. Owned by John R.
Stanley, it was formerly known as GHR Energy Corp. The
bankruptcy arose from the collapse of GHR's Good Hope
Refineries Inc, which operated a refinery at Good Hope, La.
    Coastal also said it will file detailed objections to the
disclosure statement filed earlier by Transamerican.
    Coastal has requested its plan and disclosure statement be
set for hearing in Bankruptcy Court Judge Manuel Leal's court
on April 28 and 29 along with the Transamerican plan.
    Coast said a ruling this week by Judge Leal freed the
company to work with Transamerican's creditors and other
interested parties in developing a reorganization plan.
 Reuter

lira/dollar rate for April 2 of 780.00/783.90 to the dollar,
down from the previous 777.00/780.89. The Bank also set a
lira/mark rate of 429.15/431.30 to the mark, up from the
previous 430.50/432.65.
 REUTER

Asarco Inc said it is decreasing its
domestic delivered copper cathode price by 1.50 cents to 67.0
cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is buying one
billion dlrs of Treasury bills for customer account for
delivery today, a spokesman for the bank said.
    Fed funds were trading at 6-3/16 pct at the time of the
purchase, which came several hours before the Fed normally
transacts business for its customers.
    Economists said the purchase was almost certainly related
to the investment of proceeds from recent central bank
intervention in the foreign exchanges.
    The Bank of Japan alone is estimated to have bought about
six billion dlrs in March in a bid to prop up the dollar.
 Reuter

GEORGIA-PACIFIC TO HAVE 60 MLN DLR PRETAX GAIN FROM SALE
OF GEORGIA GULF STAKE

seven billion francs' worth of negotiable Treasury bills at its
next weekly tender on April 6.
    The total includes 3.5 billion francs' worth of 13-week
bills and 3.5 billion francs of 26-week bills.
4.84 billion francs' worth of 13- and 24-week bills against an
original offer of four billion francs' worth and demand for
14.14 billion francs.
 REUTER

1985, Ouko said. This was owing to high prices for the
country's coffee exports, low oil prices, low inflation and
rising real incomes, he added.
he said.
 Reuter

director James Miller said President Reagan opposes increases
in the federal excise taxes on gas, cigarettes or alcohol to
help reduce the federal budget deficit.
    In an address before a group of House Republicans, Miller
reiterated Reagan's opposition to an oil import duty. "I think
also he would opose an increase in the gas tax."
    He said there was no reason to think Reagan had changed his
opposition to a cigarette tax hike. "In the case of the
cigarette tax, we have no evidence the appropriate tax is
higher than now, and the same on wine and spirits."
    Miller urged the Republicans to hold firm against a tax
hike to reduce the estimated 174 billion dlr deficit for the
1988 financial year.
    House Democratic budget writers are expected to recommend
an 18 to 20 billion dlr revenue increase as part of the 1988
budget. However, the composition of the taxes would be left to
the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee to decide.
    Reagan's 1988 budget proposed 22 billion in revenue
increases from sales of federal assets such as the Amtrak
railroad, higher federal fees for services and larger
individual payments for social programs.
    "It's so essential to us to hold on that point of no tax
increase," Miller said.
    He added that House Speaker Jim Wright's proposal to set a
new tax on security transactions was "a nonstarter" with the
White House. The tax would be a tax on capital which would
discourage all but the most profitable short-term transactions
and could lead to creation of a duty-free market abroad.
    "Control spending, get the deficit down and oppose any tax
increase," Miller urged the Republicans.
    Congress has set 108 billion dlrs as its deficit target for
1988.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The Finnish national airline <Finnair>
said in a statement today it ordered two McDonnell Douglas Corp
<MD.N> MD-11 passenger planes for delivery in October 1990 and
May 1991 and had taken an option to buy on two more.
    Finnair chief Gunnar Korhonen would not discuss the price
further than telling reporters the planes were "inexpensive,"
though market sources said the airline could expect a price cut
as an earlier customer.
   Korhonen said Finnair had not opted for Europe's A-340 plane
because of uncertainty about the manufacturing of its engines,
which may have delayed production of the jet.
 Reuter

U.S. factories used 1,053.0 mln lbs
of various vegetable oils in the production of edible products
during February, the Census Bureau reported.
    That compared with a revised usage of 1,075.0 mln lbs in
January and 1,084.2 mln lbs in February, 1986.
    February production of selected products included the
                 Feb 87    Jan 87    Feb 86
     Baking or
   Frying Fats -- 355.5    387.6-r   427.4
 Soybean Salad and
   Cooking Oil -- 388.1    373.3-r   351.7
 R-Revised.

    Production, continued (in mln lbs --)
                   Feb 87    Jan 87   Feb 86
 Other Salad and
    Cooking Oils   111.2    111.4-r   114.3
       Margarine   218.8    216.9-r   214.4
       Glycerine --
           Crude    21.5     25.9      31.3
         Refined    23.5     23.6-r    25.4
     Fatty Acids   102.9    112.5-r   113.1
       Meat/Meal
         Tankage   410.2    458.2-r   446.2
REUTER^M

Privately-held investment firm
<Dubin Clark and Co> said it has signed a definitive agreement
for an investment group it heads to acquire Roberts
Consolidated Industries from <Beecham Group PLC> for 45 mln
dlrs.
    Roberts makes and distributes accessories, adhesives and
tools used in carpet installation.
    Dubin Clark said its group includes Roberts management and
London investment company <J. Rothschild Holdings PLC>.  It
said Ronald J. Dubin will become vice chairman of Roberts and
J. Thomas Clark chairman.
REUTER^M

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee
chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said three senators probably
would be added to the panel in the next week.
    Sen. David Karnes, the Nebraska Republican recently
appointed to replace the deceased Democrat Edward Zorinsky,
probably will join the minority side, Leahy told the National
Cattlemen's Association.
    The committee chairman said he would like to have Sen. John
Breaux (D-La.) join the majority.
    Leahy would not say who would be the other Democrat to join
the committee, which with the new members would be split 11
Democrats to nine Republicans. Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) is
known to have expressed an interest in joining the panel.
 Reuter

chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said it would be impossible to
cut two billion dlrs from the fiscal 1988 agriculture budget as
proposed by Senate Budget Committee chairman Lawton Chiles
(D-Fla.)
    "I don't know how we could possibly absorb two billion dlrs
of cuts without enormous disruptions," Leahy told the National
    Chiles has proposed making unspecified policy changes that
would trim two billion dlrs from farm income and price support
programs in the fiscal year beginning next October.
    Leahy said such cuts would be impossible, that one billion
dlrs in cuts would be "darn near impossible" and that a spending
freeze would be difficult.
    Leahy said Congress would have to provide "some money" for
the Farm Credit System, but that a "wholesale bailout" would not
be forthcoming.
    "We may need changes in (the system's) procedures but we
will not let the system go belly up or simply become another
bank," he said.
    A task force composed of Leahy and Sens. David Boren
(D-Okla.), Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)
is working on a proposal for assisting the Farm Credit System
that Leahy said should be ready shortly after Congress's Easter
recess, set for April 13 through 20.
    Leahy said his panel would consider changes in the wheat
and feedgrains programs this year, including a proposal to
establish mandatory production controls.
    However, he said a bill offered by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) would probably not pass
Congress as presently written.
    A bill to provide emergency disaster assistance to
midwestern grain producers, already passed by the House, may
not be considered by the Senate for another 10 days because
members have lined up as many as two dozen amendments costing
billions of dollars, he said.
 Reuter

U.S. factory production of inedible
tallow and grease amounted to 421.5 mln lbs in February, vs a
revised 471.5 mln lbs the previous month and 419.2 mln lbs in
the year-ago period, the Census Bureau said.
    The bureau placed February factory production of edible
tallow at 96.9 mln lbs, vs a revised 111.4 mln lbs the previous
month and 122.7 mln lbs in February a year earlier.
    It estimated factory and warehouse stocks of inedible
tallow on February 28 at 410.7 mln lbs, vs a revised 351.6 mln
the previous month and 361.9 mln in February, 1986.
    End-Feb stocks of edible tallow amounted to 41.9 mln lbs,
vs a revised 40.1 mln lbs and 48.6 mln lbs in their respective
periods.
    Factory consumption of inedible tallow and grease in
February was assessed at 238.3 mln lbs, vs a revised 250.4 mln
lbs a month earlier and 220.5 mln lbs in the year-ago period.
    During February, factories used 65.3 mln lbs of edible
tallow, vs a revised 71.8 mln and 84.6 mln, respectively.
    Total factory production and consumption of tallow in the
1987 marketing season, which began Jan 1, vs the 1986 season,
were as follows, in mln lbs -- 
  Production -- 1987     1986
    Inedible    893.0    920.1
      Edible    208.3    274.7
 Consumption --
    Inedible    488.7    473.7
      Edible    137.1    176.4
 Reuter

pound.
 Reuter

Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) charged Japan with lying and
cheating in its trade practices.
     "The Japanese, not to put too fine a point on it, have
lied, cheated and otherwise misused tariff legislation, theirs
and ours. And that's to give them the benefit of the doubt,"
Leahy said.
     The senator's remarks to the National Cattlemen's
Association provoked laughter, followed by applause.
     Leahy said the Reagan administration's plan to raise
tariffs on a variety of Japanese imports in retaliation against
Tokyo's violation of a bilateral semiconducter pact was "long
overdue."
 Reuter

Mercantile Bancorp said its Mercantile
Bank N.A. raised its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct,
 Reuter

production of both edible and inedible products during February
totaled 22.0 mln lbs, vs a revised 20.2 mln lbs in January,
process, amounted to 31.4 mln lbs.
    Usage in February comprised 16.6 mln lbs of edible products
and 5.4 mln lbs of inedible products.
began October 1, amounted to 125.2 mln lbs, vs 185.6 mln lbs in
 Reuter

Autospa Corp said it has signed an
agreement to purchase 2,400,000 shares of eight pct convertible
preferred stock of Cardis Corp -- representing voting control
-- for 15 mln dlrs.
    The company said the preferred purchase will be financed by
an investment group led by Autospa.
    It said it will also receive from Cardis five-year options
to buy 2,400,000 Cardis common shares at 6.25 to seven dlrs
each, depending on the time of exercise, and warrants to
purchase about 3,200,000 shares at 6.60 to 7.60 dlrs each.
    The company said the exercise of all options and warrants
by Autospa would result in a tital investment of 50 to 55 mln
dlrs.  Execution of a definitive agreement is expected by April
22, it said, subject to the completion of financing
arrangements, and closing is expected by May 15.
 Reuter

Century Business Credit Corp said it
will make an announcement concerning its delay on the American
Stock Exchange this morning.
    President Andrew Tananbaum said the announcement will
follow a regularly-scheduled board meeting.
   
 Reuter

French farmers are planning to cut their
maize sowings by between 100,000 and 150,000 hectares this year
from the 1.87 mln ha harvested in 1986, the French Maize
Producers' Association, AGPM, said.
    It said its first estimate of planting intentions indicated
cuts of 15 to 20 pct in plantings in the northern region of
Picardy and the Paris Basin, which harvested 192,000 ha last
year.
    In the centre-west region of Poitou-Charentes, plantings
were estimated four to seven pct up on last year's harvested
244,000 ha.
    Planting intentions in the south-east ranged between nine
pct less and two pct more than last year's 125,000 ha. In the
south-west the AGPM said producers intended to plant a similar
area to last year's 671,100 harvested hectares, provided water
supplies are adequate in the Midi-Pyrenees region after the
last two years of drought.
    Meanwhile, the oilseed plant breeding association, AMSOL,
said sunflower plantings in France this year are indicated at
between 900,000 and 950,000 ha against 829,000 harvested last
year, while soya plantings are indicated at 80,000 ha against
last year's harvested 48,000.
 Reuter

The U.K. Export Credit Guarantee
Department (ECGD) said it would change the system of premiums
it levies from British exporters, reducing their costs when
they tender for a contract abroad.
    It said in a statement that the changes involved halving
the rate of non-refundable premiums levied by the ECGD from
exporters before the contract they tender for is allocated. The
rates of additional premium paid by successful tenderers will
rise.
 The last overhaul in premiums was in 1984 when charges for
cover rose sharply after several years of heavy losses.
 REUTER

Shr loss 40 cts vs loss 1.30 dlrs
    Net loss 3,619,000 vs loss 11.3 mln
    Revs 24.1 mln vs 34.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 4.36 dlrs vs loss 2.09 dlrs
    Net loss 38.7 mln vs loss 16.8 mln
    Revs 104.6 mln vs 133.9 mln
              
 REUTER

Shr loss 1.05 dlrs vs profit three cts
    Net loss 4,477,000 vs profit 107,818
    Revs 10.9 mln vs 13.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 79 cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 3,364,058 vs profit 123,880
    Revs 50.9 mln vs 57.2 mln
    Note: Full name Progressive Savings and Loan Association.
    Current year figures include 5.1 mln dlr incrase to
reserves for estimated real estate and loan losses.
 Reuter

Allied Supermarkets Inc said it filed a
Commission for a proposed merger with <The Vons Companies>, a
supermarket, combination store operator.
    Allied said the statement covers 140 mln dlrs of senior
subordinated discount debentures and 100 mln dlrs of
subordinated debentures, principal amounts, with a proposed
aggregate offering price of about 100 mln dlrs for each issue.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Donaldson, Lufkin and
Jenrette Securities Inc are co-underwriters of both issues,
which Allied expects to offer in early June, Allied said.
 Reuter

Dole said she was cautiously optimistic the Senate would
sustain President Reagan's veto of an 88 billion dlr highway
bill today.
    "I believe that there will be the votes to sustain the
president's veto," she said on NBC's "Today" program.
    But she added, "Whether or not the president wins on this
particular issue he is a winner because he has stood up for
fiscal responsibility."
    The House voted 350-73 yesterday to override Reagan's veto
but the bill dies unless the Senate also votes by more than
two-thirds to override the veto and enact the bill into law.
 Reuter

Certificated cotton stocks deliverable
on the New York Cotton Exchange No 2 cotton futures contract as
of March 31 were reported at 36,659 bales, unchanged from the
previous day's figure. There were no bales awaiting review and
985 bales awaiting decertification.
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Inc, one of the few
U.S. semiconductor producers expected to benefit directly from
the Reagan Administration's actions to curtail Japanese dumping
of chips, received a reaffirmed buy recommendation from Smith
Barney today.
    The stock rose four points to 189.
    Traders said the recommendation by Smith Barney analyst
James Barlage, which focused on the relief the company will get
from the dumping situation and the subsequent earnings momentum
as a result of that action, helped to propel the stock higher
today.
REUTER^M

The Bank of Finland said it has revised
the weightings in its currency basket with effect from today.
Weightings  match the respective country's share in Finland's
foreign trade.
    Weights in percentages compared with former weights.
    Dollar  9.0 (8.8)
    Sterling 14.3 (13.8)
    Swedish crown 20.4 (20.6)
    Norwegian crown 5.2 (5.2)
    Danish crown 5.2 (5.3)
    German mark 19.3 (19.6)
REUTER^M

said Duane Wolter has been named executive vice president and
chiedf financial officer, succeeding as chief financial officer
Ralph M. Shulansky.
    The company said Shulansky remains senior vice
president-administration and investor relations.
    Ames said yesterday that inventory shortages found at its
Secaucus, N.J., distribution center would hurt results for the
year ended January 31.
    Wolter had been senior vice president, finance, and chief
financial officer of <Rapid-American Corp's> McCrory Corp unit.
 Reuter

Baldwin Piano and Organ Co said it
filed a registration statement covering a proposed public
offering of 630,000 common shares.
    Of the shares being offered, 490,000 shares will be sold by
General Electric Credit Corp and 140,000 by other shareholders.
    William Blair and Co and McDonald and Co will manage the
underwriting group, Baldwin said.
 Reuter

A spokesman for Jardine Matheson Holdings
Ltd <JARD.HK> said he could neither confirm nor deny a
newspaper report which said Jardine was thinking of moving its
listed property subsidiary <Hongkong Land Ltd> to Bermuda.
    "I don't know how the report was originated ... I cannot
comment," the spokesman at Jardine's London office said when
asked to react to a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
    The report said Jardine, which moved its place of domicile
from Hong Kong to Bermuda in the wake of the agreement to
transfer the British colony back to China in 1997, was
contemplating a similar move for Hongkong Land.
    The Daily Telegraph quoted Jardine chairman Simon Keswick
as saying Hongkong Land was at a crossroads now that all its
non-property assets as well as its major residential properties
in Hong Kong are being sold off.
    This left the company to focus its attention on prime site
commercial property in Hong Kong's city centre only, it said.
    "If we can't find any opportunities here we may have to look
abroad ... If we look abroad the structure of the company
becomes very important," Keswick was quoted as saying.
 REUTER

    Net 1,230,041 vs 1,153,280
    Sales 10,909,729 vs 9,675,355
    Six mths
    Shr 31 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 2,019,930 vs 1,857,357
    Sales 21.0 mln vs 17.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 2,543,285 vs 1,686,559
    Sales 153.2 mln vs 120.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs loss 2.16 dlrs
    Net loss 30,000 vs loss 12.4 mln
    Revs 27.4 mln vs 38.3 mln
 Reuter

Linear Films Inc said its fourth
quarter earnings for the period ended March 31, will be lower
than the 1,235,000 dlrs or 19 cts a share reported in the
year-ago quarter on sales of 11.8 mln dlrs.
    The company attributed the lower earnings to narrowing
profit margins on stretch film.
    Linear also said it is increasing its stretch film prices
by six pct effective April 15.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs six cts
    Net 54,965 vs 106,147
    Revs 2,124,983 vs 1,915,928
    Avg shrs 2,206,017 vs 1,878,438
    Year
    Shr 14 cts vs eight cts
    Net 302,388 vs 157,690
    Revs 7,952,360 vs 7,495,936
    Avg shrs 2,139,991 vs 2,051,178
 Reuter

1st Source Bank said it
completed its merger with <Community State Bank> of North
Liberty, Ind.
    The bank said Community State Bank's shareholders approved
the merger at a meeting last Saturday, while Monday the
directors of 1st Source also approved the move.
    The merger would add Community Bank's 20 mln dlrs in assets
to 1st Source's more than one billion dlrs in assets, 1st
Source said.
 Reuter

First National Bank Corp,
the newly formed parent of First National Bank in Mount
Clemens, Mich., and Bankers Fund Life Insurance Co, said it
reached an agreement to buy a branch in Clinton Township from a
nonrelated financial institution.
    It said the acquisition brings to 10 the number of bank
branches in Macomb County. Terms were not disclosed.
    Separately, the newly formed holding company also said it
named Arie Guldemond as chairman and Harold Allmacher as
 Reuter

Georgia-Pacific Corp said its second
quarter results will include a gain of 60 mln dlrs pre-tax, or
34 cts per share after-tax, from the sale of its interest in
<Georgia Gulf Corp>.
    The company said it is selling warrants for about 1.8 mln
shares of Georgia Gulf common stock to Goldman Sachs and Co in
connection with the 4.8 mln share offering of Georgia Gulf.
    It said it received the warrants when it agreed to sell its
commmodity chemical operations to Georgia Gulf in 1984.
 Reuter

Yeutter said the United States and Argentina have settled a 
case brought by the U.S. soybean crushing industry alleging
unfair subsidies to Argentina's crushing industry.
    Speaking to an Agribusiness Education forum here late
yesterday, Yeutter said the case was resolved at a meeting with
Argentine Agriculture Secretary Ernesto Figuerras during a
trade ministers' meeting in New Zealand last week.
    Under a verbal understanding between the two ministers,
Argentina will soon abolish export taxes on soybeans and
products, U.S. and Argentine officials said.
    The U.S. case brought by the U.S. National Soybean
Processors Association alleged Argentina, through differential
export taxes, implicitly subsidized domestic soybean crushers.
    The U.S. crushing industry, in its complaint under Section
301 of trade law, said higher Argentine export taxes on
soybeans than on products encourage the export of products and
represented an unfair trade practice.
    Yeutter told Figuerras that all agencies of the U.S.
government supported the U.S. complaint and unless Argentina
took steps to eliminate the taxes, the United States would
consider taking further action in the case, U.S. and Argentine
    An Argentine official here said no timetable was given for
removal of the Argentine export taxes.
 Reuter

M/A-Com Inc said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to five mln of the company's
common shares from time to time in the open market or private 
    The company also said its board named Thomas Burke
    The buyback authorization is in addition to a previous
approval last September to repurchase 12 mln shares.
    The company currently has about 32.2 mln shares
outstanding, after completion of the buyback of nearly all of
the 12 mln shares, a spokesman said.
    The repurchase of the additional five mln shares will
depend on market conditions, the telecommunications and
microwave components company said.
    Burke, 57, has been chief operating officer of M/A-Com
since last November. Before that he was executive vice
president, finance and administration.
    In February 1986, M/A-Com's former chairman, president and
chief executive, Richard DiBona, suffered a stroke. After that,
director Frank Brand, who had been executive vice president,
was named acting chief executive and director Irving Hellman
was named acting chairman.
    Brand and Hellman gave up their interim posts yesterday,
the spokesman said, adding the company will have no chairman
for the time being.
    In a statement, Burke said he plans to announce a major
change in the company's organization in the next few days. The
spokesman declined to elaborate.
 Reuter

<Ciba-Geigy Ltd> announced the
formation of its Ciba Vision Group, becoming the first group
within the corporate structure to carry the Ciba name.
    The Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant said the new group,
which formerly operated under its U.S. pharmaceutical division,
represents the first time Ciba has developed an operating group
from within its corporate structure.
    It said other operating groups have been established
through acquisitions.
    Ciba's Vision Group will be headed by James MacDonald,
    MacDonald said the group will be based outside of
Frankfurt, W. Germany, near its research and development
facility.
    Sales from the group in 1986 were approximately 160 mln
    "The designation of Ciba Vision as an independent operating
group underscores Ciba-Geigy's anticipation of continued
growth," MacDonald told a group of reporters. 
    Silvano Ghirardi, head of the group's international
marketing operations, said he expects Ciba Vision to become
possibly the second leading vision care products company in the
industry by the end of the year. Bausch and Lomb <BOL>, he
said, was the industry leader.
    "Right now we are trying to solidify the group and bring it
together under one group," Ghirardi said.
    Ghiirardi told Reuters the group considered Japan one of
the prime markets in which it intends to expand.
    MacDonald told reporters the group planned to expand
through acquisition and internal growth.
    He said Ciba Vision's sales have grown an average of more
than 200 pct a year since 1981, the year after the group was
formed.
 Reuter

Share and bond turnover on all eight
West German bourses in the first 1987 quarter was valued at
483.4 billion marks, according to the new method of calculating
turnover, the Association of German bourses said in a
    The statement, however, did not give figures on the total
number of share and bond units transacted.
    While shares posted a turnover worth 187.9 billion marks,
bond turnover was 295.4 billion marks. No comparative figures
were available because of the new method of calculation.
    In March, share and bond turnover rose 28 pct to 181.1
billion marks from the previous month, reversing the sharp
turnover drop in February. Average daily turnover rose to 8.2
billion marks against 7.0 billion in February.
    Bond turnover jumped 33 pct to 113.3 billion marks in
March, giving an average transaction value of 455,000 marks
each on the total 249,000 transactions. More than 90 pct of the
turnover was in public authority bonds.
    Share turnover rose 22 pct to 67.8 billion marks. With 1.5
mln deals, share transactions averaged 45,000 marks each.
    German shares accounted for Nearly 80 pct of share
turnover. Foreign shares took up over eight pct and domestic
and foreign options, about 12 pct. Deutsche Bank <DBKG.F> was
the most traded share in March, with 4.7 billion marks worth
changing hands. Siemens <SIEG.F> was next with 4.5 billion
marks, Bayer <BAYG.F> 4.0 billion, Volkswagen <VOWG.F> 3.4
billion, Daimler-Benz <DAIG.F> 3.4 billion, Veba <VEBG.F> 2.4
billion, Dresdner Bank <DRSD.F> 2.0 billion, Hoechst <HFAG.F>
2.0 billion, BASF <BASF.F> 1.8 billion and AEG AG <AEGG.F> 1.5
billion. Trading in these 10 shares accounted for 44 pct of
total share turnover.
 REUTER

Asarco Inc said it made a public
offering of 3,500,000 shares of its common stock today through
an underwriting group led by The First Boston Corp.
    This is an increase of 500,000 shares from the
previously-announced registration, the company said.
    The stock is being offered at 22.50 dlrs per share, the
company said. The proceeds will be used to reduce the company's
outstanding indebtedness, it added.
   
 Reuter

Continental Illinois Corp said it has
raised its prime rate to 7-3/4 from 7-1/2.
 Reuter

Shr loss 4.87 dlrs vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 50,422,000 vs profit 1,788,000
    Revs 113.4 mln vs 173.7 mln
    Note: Current year figures include 33.3 mln dlr after-tax
writedown of land and improvements, a 5.6 mln dlr increase in
allowance for doubtful accounts and after-tax gain of three mln
dlrs on debt retirement.
 Reuter

Genetics Institute Inc and
Wellcome PLC, a British-based pharmaceutical company, jointly
announced the selection of a site for their joint venture,
WelGen Manufacturing Inc, formed last September.
    The companies said they choose a 77-acre site in West
Greenwich R.I. for the venture's manufacturing facility, which
will make biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals. The plant should
be completed in 1989, and will employ about 200 people.
 Reuter

The White House is expected today to
name Thomas Griscom, a longtime aide to chief of staff Howard
Baker, as President Reagan's communications director.
    Officials said an announcement was expected to be made
during Reagan's trip to Philadelphia where the president is to
make a speech to a group of doctors on the deadly disease AIDS
(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
    Griscom, 37, was brought into the White House by former
Senator Baker to help with the transition after Baker was named
chief of staff following the resignation of Donald Regan in the
wake of the Iran arms scandal.
    He will take the job vacated by Patrick Buchanan, a
high-profile conservative, who served two years as
communications director.
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 177,061 vs loss 1,364,878
    Revs 5,913,334 vs 487,121
    Avg shrs 18.6 mln vs 15.9 mln
 Reuter

 Reuter

Four mln common shares of <Georgia Gulf
Corp> common stock are being sold at 34.25 dlrs a share, said
sole manager of the underwriting, Goldman Sachs and Co.
    In addition, 800,000 shares will be offered overseas in an
offering managed by Goldman Sachs International Corp.
    It said General Electric Co's <GE> General Electric Credit
Corp and Georgia-Pacific Corp <GP> are selling the shares.
 Reuter

said its Medicontrol Corp subsidiary received a 500,000 dlr
investment by Monsanto Co's G.D. Searle and Co subsidiary.
    The company said the investment was made pursuant to an
option Searle held, and increases Searle's stake in Medicontrol
to 19.8 pct with a total investment of one mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Chase Manhattan Corp said Chase
Trans-Info, a subsidiary of its Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. unit,
has bought Borg-Warner Corp's Traffic Services business,
including an Illinois processing center, for an undisclosed
sum.
    Borg Warner Traffic Services provides freight bill
pre-audit, payment and information services to industry through
Borg-Warner Acceptance Corp.
    Chase Trans-Info, which offers similar services, is now the
largest provider of information services for the transportation
industry.
 Reuter

his department needs additional funds next year to ensure a
smooth transition to the new tax code and to strengthen
enforcement of the tax laws.
    In testimony prepared for a House Appropriations
subcommittee, Baker said the Treasury expects the lower
marginal tax rates in last year's tax reform law to themselves
promote taxpayer compliance and bring in additional revenue.
    The Treasury is requesting 7.2 billion dlrs for the fiscal
year beginning Oct. 1. Its current year budget is 6.5 billion
dlrs.
 Reuter

Mountain States Resources Corp
said it acquired two properties to its strategic minerals
holdings.
    The acquisitions bring to its land position a total of
5,100 acres of titanium, zirconium and rare earth resources,
    Both properties, located in southern Utah, consist of
approximately 1,430 acres of unpatented mining claims and one
state lease, it said.
    The company also announced the formation of Rare Tech
Minerals Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary.
 Reuter

Borden Inc said it called for
redemption on May one its outstanding 605,000 dlrs of 4-3/8 pct
sinking fund debentures due 1991.
    It will buy back the debentures at par plus accrued
interest of 18.23 dlrs for each 1,000 dlr debenture.
    The trustee is Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. and the paying
agency is Chemical Bank, the company said.
 Reuter

    Record April 13
    NOTE: Company's full name is Republic Savings and Loan
Association of Wisconsin.
 Reuter

Speculation the United States will
offer subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union appears to have
reached a new level of intensity in the run-up to Secretary of
State George Shultz' visit later this month to Moscow.
    Rumors of an impending deal have coursed through wheat
markets since officials from the two countries held their
customary, semi-annual grain talks in February. Moscow's
decision at that time to reenter the U.S. corn market
strengthened the perception of warming farm trade prospects.
    Shultz is set to arrive in Moscow April 13.
    Shultz' statement two weeks ago that he would not stand in
the way of a wheat subsidy offer under the Export Enhancement
Program, EEP, coupled with the announcement of his visit to
Moscow, was interpreted by many grain trade representatives
here as a clear signal that the Reagan administration was
preparing an offer.
    Administration officials -- in and out of the U.S.
Agriculture Department -- have been extremely tight-lipped
about the prospects of a subsidy offer.
    But USDA officials for the most part have abandoned the
contention the proposal is dormant, suggesting that an offer,
while not a "done deal," is a live possibility.
    Prominent U.S. grain trade representatives -- many of whom
asked not to be identified -- continue to maintain that an
offer to subsidize four mln tonnes of wheat is imminent.
    Others, who one month ago claimed a deal was not possible,
are saying they would not rule one out.
    Rep. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., yesterday went so far as to
predict a subsidy offer would be made within the next ten days
to two weeks.
    Aides to Roberts said he had spoken to Republican leaders
who had been in contact with administration officials.
    Richard Fritz, director of international marketing at U.S.
Wheat Associates, said he was confident an export enhancement
offer would be made by the middle of this month.
    Fritz also said he thought the value of the bonus would end
up being close to the offer Washington made Peking earlier this
year when USDA approved subsidies to China of around 36 dlrs
per tonne on one mln tonnes of wheat.
    Some grain trade representatives say a four-mln-tonne wheat
subsidy offer might help stimulate more Soviet purchases of
U.S. corn and open the door to U.S. sales of soybeans.
    As ever, one of the crucial sticking points in a wheat deal
would appear to be price.
    Last summer the administration took the controversial step
of offering the Soviets subsidized wheat -- but were
embarrassed when Moscow spurned the proposal on the grounds
that the 15-dlr-per-tonne subsidy still left U.S. wheat prices
far above world market prices.
    The administration's decision to set the subsidy level up
front instead of accepting bids from exporters appeared to be a
means of controlling the price while attempting to dampen
criticism, grain trade sources said.
    Nonetheless, the pricing procedure did not prevent Shultz
from saying the Soviets were "chortling" because Washington was
offering Soviet housewives cheaper grain than that available to
U.S. housewives.
    The conventional wisdom among grain trade representatives
here is that a general warming of relations between the two
countries since last summer, combined with continued hard times
in the U.S. grain belt, would favor a subsidy offer.
    In addition, the USSR has made it clear it would consider
buying U.S. wheat if it were priced more competitively.
    However, observers have not forgotten the circumstances
surrounding the administration's announcement of the wheat
subsidy offer last summer.
    Up until the time of the announcment, congressional and
industry leaders were led to believe the White House had
decided to expand the Export Enhancement Program to include not
only the Soviets, but also a much broader list of countries.
    Instead, the administration scaled back the offer to
include only the Soviets.
    That last-minute change of heart adds a measure of
uncertainty even to the predictions of those most convinced
that the administration will not now pass up the opportunity to
sell four mln tonnes of wheat to the Soviet Union.
 Reuter

London-based sugar operator Kaines Ltd
confirmed it sold two cargoes of white sugar to India out of an
estimated overall sales total of four or five cargoes in which
other brokers participated.
    The sugar, for April/May and April/June shipment, was sold
at between 214 and 218 dlrs a tonne cif, it said.
 Reuter

Luxtec Corp said it has
reduced the exercise price of its Class B common stock purchase
warrants to one dlr from two dlrs from today through June 30.
 Reuter

Oper net 94.4 mln vs 74.1 mln
    Revs 1.3 bilion vs 1.2 billion
    NOTE: THL is parent to SCOA Industries Inc, acquired in a
leveraged buyout in December 1985.
 Reuter

Insurance group Guardian Royal Exchange
Plc <GREX.L> said it would expand its life assurance business
and push further into European markets, but that U.K.
Underwriting losses remained a heavy drag on profits.
    Earlier, the group had announced sharply increased pre-tax
profits of 143.8 mln stg for calendar 1986, versus 3.5 mln the
    "We are anxious to develop our life assurance business,"
group managing director Peter Dugdale told a news conference.
"If we have a thrust for the coming years, it is probably best
to spend more time on life in the U.K. And abroad," he said.
 Reuter

said it acquired two properties to add to its strategic
minerals holdings.
    The acquisitions include a total of 5,100 acres of
titanium, zirconium and rare earth resources, the company said.
 Reuter

RESTORATION OF COFFEE EXPORT QUOTAS BEFORE
 OCTOBER SEEMS UNLIKELY - ICO PRODUCER DELEGATES

 Reuter

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp
   MATURITY   RATE       OLD RATE  MATURITY
    32 days   6.00 pct   6.10 pct   1 day
  
 Reuter

The restoration of coffee export quotas
before the end of the current 1986/87 coffee year (Oct 1/Sept
30) now seems unlikely, given reluctance by International
Coffee Organization, ICO, producers and consumers to resume
negotiations on an interim quota accord, producer delegates
    Consumers and most producers see no point in reopening the
quota dialogue while Brazil's position remains unchanged, they
said.
    Brazil's refusal to accept a reduction in its previous 30
pct share of the ICO's global export quota effectively
torpedoed talks here last month aimed at restoring quotas
before October, the delegates noted.
    Disappointment at the lack of progress on quotas forced
coffee futures in London and New York to new lows today,
traders here said. Near May in New York fell below one dlr in
early trading at around 99.10 cents per pound, traders said.
    Producer delegates said that while the possibility of
reimposing quotas before October remained on the ICO agenda, in
practice the idea had effectively been discarded.
    The ICO's executive board session here this week has so far
barely touched on the quota debate, demonstrating general
unwillingness to revive talks while chances of success are
still remote, producer delegates said.
    Some producers are in no hurry to see quotas restored,
despite the price collapse seen since the failure of last
month's negotiations, they said.
    "With Brazil's frost season approaching, who wants to
negotiate quotas," one leading producer delegate said.
    Coffee prices normally rise during Brazil's frost season
(mainly June-August) as dealers and roasters build up stocks as
insurance against possible severe frost damage to Brazil's
crop.
    Many producers are more interested in working towards
reimposing quotas from October 1, based on a new system of
quota allocations valid until the International Coffee
Agreement expires in 1989, they said.
    Guatemala has already proposed the "other oilds" producer
group should meet in the next two months to begin talks on how
to allocate quota shares.
    Producers still seem divided on how to overhaul the quota
distribution system, with some producer delegates reporting
growing support for a radical reallocation, based on the
principle of "objective criteria" favoured by consumers.
    At last month's council session a splinter group of small
producers backed consumer demands for new quota shares based on
exportable production and stocks, while Brazil, Colombia and
the rest of the producers favoured leaving quota allocations
unchanged, except for some temporary adjustments.
    A delegate from one of the eight said more producers now
supported their cause.
    The delegate said unless major producers like Brazil showed
readiness to negotiate new quota shares, prospects for a quota
accord in October also looked bleak.
    The U.S. and most other consumers are still determined to
make reimposition of quotas conditional on a redistribution of
quota shares based on "objective criteria."
    ICO observers remained sceptical that Brazil would be
prepared to accept a quota reduction when the ICO council meets
    Brazil has adopted a tough stance with banks on external
debt negotiations and is likely to be just as tough on coffee,
they said.
    They said Brazil's reluctance to open coffee export
registrations might reflect fears this would provoke another
price slide and force an emergency ICO council session, which
would most likely end in failure.
    Producers met this afternoon to review the market situation
but had only a general discussion about how further
negotiations should proceed, a producer delegate said.
    Producers plan to hold consultations on quotas, and then
may set a date for a formal producer meeting, but plans are not
fixed, he said.
    The ICO executive board reconvened at 1650 hours local time
to hear a report from consultants on ICO operations. The board
meeting looks set to end today, a day earlier than scheduled,
 Reuter

Yugoslavia has won breathing space from
its major official creditors through yesterday's Paris Club
refinancing agreement but it will take time for it to resolve
its economic crisis, economists at western embassies said.
    Yugoslav delegation chief Finance Minister Svetozar
Rikanovic said a refinancing was agreed for 475 mln dlrs of
debt falling due between May 16 this year and May 31, 1988.
    The agreement was the second multi-year Yugoslav debt
refinancing, based on a protocol signed last May which ushered
in "enhanced monitoring" of Yugoslavia's economy by the IMF.
    Western economists who follow Yugoslav financial affairs
said a similar deal would probably emerge from talks with
commercial creditors at the end of this month. But they said
the refinancings would only provide a breathing space, because
Yugoslavia has to repay 5.5 billion dlrs in 1987.
    And the country is still struggling to reverse a dramatic
decline in export earnings, which have fallen 12.5 pct so far
this year, continuing a downward spiral of the past 18 months.
    The Yugoslav hard currency debt has grown from 1.2 billion
dlrs in 1965 to stand at 19.7 billion dlrs at the end of 1986
and is one of the country's most dire economic problems.
    The debt began to snowball in the 1960s and 1970s due to an
excessive investment rate exceeding the growth of the Gross
Social Product and necessitating additional foreign borrowing.
    Rising international oil prices in the 1970s proved to be a
serious blow to the country's balance of payments.
    Deputy Prime Minister Milos Milosavljevic said this month
that Yugoslavia had repaid 640 mln dlrs of principal and 325
mln dlrs of interest so far this year.
record 5.97 billion dlrs in capital and interest in 1986,
reducing overall indebtedness by 996 mln dlrs.
    Mikulic is trying to rein in rampant retail inflation of
almost 100 pct a year through price and incomes controls.
    Janez Zemljaric, also a Deputy Prime Minister, said
recently Yugoslavia expected a "definite measure of
understanding" from its 16 major western creditor nations.
    Western economists said Yugoslavia has had its way with the
Paris Club creditors but that not all creditors were satisfied
with its economic performance last year. They said the Paris
discussions were heated and emotional.
    "Economic factors were balanced by political realities," an
economist at one of the main embassies here said, but added
that creditors had no complaints regarding Yugoslavia's
repayment record because it had so far always repaid debts on
time.
    Yugoslavia has refinanced its debt regularly since 1983.
    In December 1985, it signed a deal with the International
Coordinating Committee of 600 commercial banks to refinance
maturities arising between January 1, 1985 and end-1988.
    It had signed bilateral refinancing agreements in March of
that year for maturities arising from January 1, 1985 to March
25, 1986, following an agreement in Paris on March 25, 1985.
    Government ministers told Reuters this month that
Yugoslavia had made too great an effort to repay its debts in
1986, at great cost to the economy, and that this was
regretted.
    Mikulic has said Yugoslavia is unlikely to follow Brazil's
lead and suspend its debt repayments "but we have understanding
for what that country did."
    Western economists said, however, that Mikulic's remarks,
taken with those of his ministers, could be a signal that some
problems were seen ahead in refinancing debt repayments.
    Before the Paris talks, some Yugoslav officials had hinted
that Yugoslavia could start to look to the Soviet Bloc for
financial support if Belgrade failed to secure the necessary
refinancing from western creditors.
    Sources close to the western creditors, however, said they
did not view the threat as serious.
 REUTER

Shr 39 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 3,466,000 vs 1,913,000
    Revs 27.7 mln vs 19.4 mln
    Note: period ended February 28. REUTER
 Reuter

Allied Supermarkets Inc said it filed
statement covering 240 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    The company plans to offer 140 mln dlrs of senior
    Proceeds will be used to finance Allied's acquisition of
Vons Cos Inc.
    Allied named Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Donaldson,
Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp as co-underwriters of both
offerings.
 Reuter

                         5.00 pct    30-69 days
                         5.92 pct    70-88 days
  30-123 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct   89-123 days
 124-150 days  5.93 pct  5.93 pct  124-150 days
 151-349 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  151-349 days
 350-360 days  5.98 pct  5.98 pct  350-360 days
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 4.71 dlrs vs loss 14.09 dlrs
    Oper loss 22 mln vs loss 67.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 loss excludes gain on the sale of Gold Lance
Corp of 12.1 mln dlrs. Company is operating under chapter 11.
 Reuter

Le Matin, the French-language tabloid
launched here in February, said it is shutting down its
operations because it can no longer get financing.
    The paper, launched by private investors, was Montreal's
fourth French-language newspaper and was aimed at readers with
above average incomes and educations. It had a daily
circulation of about 20,000 copies.
    Le Matin was printed and distributed by (Southam Inc)'s
Montreal Gazette newspaper. A Gazette spokesman said his
newspaper is Le Matin's biggest creditor but he declined to
reveal the amount of debt
    Acting publisher Jean-Pierre Bordua said the newspaper's
bank blocked its lines of credit after three of the paper's
senior managers resigned Friday.
 Reuter

Towle Manufacturing Co, in Chapter
11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, said any plan of reorganization
would likely lead to a dilution or cancellation of its common
    The company also said claims for subordinated debentures
would likely be paid at less than their 100 pct of their face
value, and general unsecured claims would likely be paid
without interest. The company has not yet filed a plan of
    The company said it lost 22 mln dlrs from operations in
1986 against a loss of 67.2 mln dlrs a year ago.
    The company also said its independent accountants
disclaimed an opinion on the financial statements for 1986
because of questions about its contination as a going concern.
    The company said, however, it substantially restructured
its business, reducing borrowings on an outstanding credit line
to 16.5 mln dlrs in 1986 from 57 mln dlrs a year ago. The
company also cut its staff to 820 employees at the end of 1986
from 2,500 a year earlier.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 699,037 vs 1,349,077
    Year
    Shr 54 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 2,748,280 vs 1,833,766
    NOTE: Per shr amounts reported after preferred stock
 Reuter

produced 2,578 U.S. cars in March, down from 5,922 in the same
1986 month.
    The automaker's March U.S. Jeep output was 21,390, up from
16,215 in the same month last year.
    Year-to-date U.S. car production by American Motors through
the end of March was 8,647 vehicles compared to 12,553 in the
same 1986 period. Year-to-date Jeep output was 58,597 compared
to 56,801.
                                     
 Reuter

Cyprus Minerals Company said it is
decreasing its electrolytic copper cathode price by 1.25 cents
to 67.0 cents a pound, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T>, the Japanese
electronics group which plans to enter Britain's liberalised
telecommunications equipment market, risks becoming the first
casualty in the current war of words over trade between Japan
and the U.K., Government and industry sources said.
    U.K. Authorities have lost patience with Japanese trading
practices and said they are seeking ways to retaliate without
unleashing a damaging trade war. "Toshiba's timing seems most
unfortunate for the company, as it comes exactly when we are
looking for someone to punch," one official told Reuters.
    Earlier, <Toshiba Information Systems (U.K.) Ltd> said it
wanted to enter the British business facsimile and key
telephone market. A facsimile machine sends printed data over
telephone lines, while a key telephone system is used for
switching calls within a business, industry sources said.
    The move by Toshiba comes in the middle of a dispute over
Japan's refusal to open up its telecommunications market to
foreign companies. "Toshiba's timing is most extraordinary," one
official at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.
    Tomorrow, the U.K. Government will consider what legal
action it can possible take to press for Japanese reform.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has given notice that the
U.K. Would fight the Japanese government's attempt to prevent
Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> from taking a significant
position in a new Japanese international telecommunications
venture. "We regard this as a test case," she told Parliament.
    But while the U.K. Is keen to see some movement on the
issue by Japan, it is also worried that recent anti-Japanese
rhetoric may cause developments to get out of hand, officials
said.
    Japanese officials in Tokyo today reiterated that Japan had
no plans to bow to U.K. And U.S. Pressure to give foreign
telecommunications firms a bigger role there.
    The government, for which competition and the deregulation
of markets are major political themes, is unlikely to make
final decisions tomorrow on how to act against Japan, officials
said.
    Detailed consideration of the issue has been shelved during
Thatcher's official visit to the Soviet Union, which ends
today.
    "We are waiting for the Prime Minister to decide what to do.
The DTI will pass the ball to her as soon as she returns
tonight," a DTI official said.
    He said Toshiba's application would be considered by the
Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL). An OFTEL spokeswoman said
"a decision on this application will take weeks, maybe months."
    Asked whether Toshiba's bid would fall victim to British
retaliation, the OFTEL spokeswoman said: "Who knows what's going
to happen given the current situation!"
    A Toshiba executive, who asked not to be named, told
Reuters: "We do not anticipate any special problems."
    Some analysts queried by Reuters questioned the basis of
Britain's strong stand on the Cable and Wireless bid. One said
that the company's proposal was equivalent to a Japanese
company wanting to take a stake in Mercury International, the
subsidiary of Cable and Wireless that is the only real
competitor of British Telecommunications Plc <BTY.L>.
    British Corporate Affairs minister Michael Howard leaves
for Japan on Saturday.
    The minister will seek a clear timetable from Japan for
easier access for British institutions to Japanese financial
markets, reciprocating the easy access Japanese securities
houses and banks have to the City of London.
    Britain has threatened to use its new Financial Services
Act to revoke or deny licences to Japanese brokerage houses if
it does not get satisfaction.
    But British authorities would be far from happy if forced
to use that weapon, government sources said.
    Sir Nicholas Goodison, Chairman of the London Stock
Exchange, said in New York yesterday that sanctions against
Japanese financial institutions operating in the U.K. Would set
back London's ambition to become a leading centre for corporate
financing and securities trading.
    Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson also warned
yesterday of the negative effects that a trade war could have
on the British economy. Such a development could hit U.K.
Exports and sharply alter the outlook for the next general
election in which economic recovery will be one of the
government's main themes, political analysts said.
 REUTER

The dollar straight sector of the
eurobond market ended easier after a subdued day's trading as
U.S. Banks began to match yesterday's surprise 1/4 point prime
rate hikes by Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank, dealers said.
    The prime rates were raised to 7-3/4 from 7-1/2 pct and the
timing of the moves puzzled many dealers. However, reaction
here was limited, with shorter dated paper ending steady to 1/4
point easier, while longer dates dipped by 1/4 to 1/2 point.
    In the primary market, activity again centred on currencies
other than the U.S. Dollar, dealers noted.
    One dollar straight dealer at a U.S. Securities house
commented "There was, in fact, the odd retail buyer today, but
only in small sizes." He added that, ironically, the prime rate
rises may help the market to stabilise since the dollar rose on
the back of the news.
    The only U.S. Dollar deal launched during the day was, as
has been the case recently, equity linked. The 15-year
convertible bond was for the Bank of Tokyo Ltd and has an
indicated coupon of two pct. One source at a house involved in
the deal said, "It's got to be a blow-out. With a name like this
you're talking about Japan Inc."
    The lead manager was the Bank of Tokyo International (BOTI)
and the deal ended far above the par issue price at 108 109
pct. A BOTI official said "We've had worldwide interest in the
deal."
    She noted the Tokyo stock market had experienced a mild
correction at the beginning of the week but that bank stocks
were hardly affected.
    The yen sector edged slightly firmer and one new straight
deal was launched, a 20 billion yen bond for France's Caisse
Nationale des Telecommunications. The state guaranteed five
year bond pays 4-3/8 pct and was priced at 101-1/2 pct.
    The issue was lead managed by IBJ International Ltd and was
quoted on the grey market at less 1-7/8 less 1-3/4 pct compared
with the total fees of 1-7/8 pct. One syndicate official at a
firm not involved in the deal said "It's tight, but overall I
would say its fairly priced."
    Also launched was a five-year zero coupon bond with a total
redemption amount of 19 billion yen for Rural Banking and
Finance Corp of New Zealand. It was priced at 81.22 pct and
lead managed by Nomura International.
    In the Australian dollar sector, GMAC (Australia) Finance
Ltd issued a 50 mln Australian dlr bond.
    Hambros Bank Ltd was lead manager for the four-year deal
which pays 14-1/4 pct and was priced at 101 pct. It was
guranteed by General Motors Acceptance Corp and was quoted on
the 1-3/4 pct fees at less 1-3/4 pct bid.
    McDonalds Corp issued a 75 mln Canadian dlr bond paying
8-1/2 pct over five years and priced at 101-5/8 pct. It was
quoted around the 1-7/8 pct fees at less two less 1-3/4 and was
led by Morgan Guaranty Ltd.
    The European Investment Bank launched a 300 mln Danish
Crown, seven-year, bond withan 11 pct coupon and pricing of 101
pct. It was lead managed by Den Danske Bank.
    The floating rate note sector basically ended easier
following the increase in period eurodollar deposit rates
prompted by the prime rate increases, dealers said. But they
noted that mis-match deals - issues whereby the coupon is
re-fixed on a monthly basis - were firmer.
 REUTER

he hopes yesterday's small increase in two major money center
banks' prime rate was a temporary phenomenon.
    "I hope it was a temporary blip upward," he told a House
Appropriations subcommittee.
    He said the decline in interest rates since President
Reagan took office remains "one of the significant
accomplishments, in the economic area, of this administration."
 Reuter

Delta Air Lines Inc said it completed
the acquisition of Western Air Lines Inc this morning.
    The action follows U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor's overnight granting of Delta and Western's request to
stay an earlier injunction against the deal issued by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
 More

said its board approved a modernization and expansion program
from its petrochemical division, USI Chemical Co, its
polyethylene producer.
    The program will add 600 mln pounds per year to USI's
existing capacity of 3.2 billion pounds, the company said. The
increase will result from the addition of two linear reactors
based on fluid bed gas phase technology for the production of
linear low density or high density polyethylene at locations in
the Midwest and Gulf Coast, it said.
    Plans are in the engineering stage with completion expected
in mid 1989, the company said. In addition, USI is presently
constructing a 300 mln pound linear low density polyethylene
facility, scheduled to come on stream in early 1988 at its Port
Author, Texas, plant.
 Reuter

has filed for a secondary offering of 630,000 common shares,
including 490,000 to be sold by General Electric Co <GE> and
140,000 by other shareholders.
    Lead underwriters are William Blair and Co and McDonald and
Co Investments <MDD>.
 Reuter

Shr loss 34 cts vs loss 2.14 dlrs
    Net loss 2,275,000 vs loss 9,560,000
    Revs 17.0 mln vs 19.9 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 49 cts vs loss 2.11 dlrs
    Net loss 2,661,000 vs loss 9,283,000
    Revs 73.5 mln vs 93.6 mln

    NOTE: Results have been restated to reflects equity
investment in WellTech Inc for one month ended Dec 31, 1986 and
its investment in American Well Servicing for the 11 months
ended Nov 30, 1986 and full year 1985.
    1986 and 1985 net include loss of 3,512,000 dlrs and
5,944,000 dlrs, respectively, for equity in WellTech and
predecessor operations.
 Reuter

MACANDREWS/FORBES UNIT BEGINS OFFER TO BUY ALL REVLON
GROUP NOT ALREADY OWNED

Oper shr loss 1.99 dlr vs loss 4.88 dlrs
    Oper net loss 29.1 mln vs 70.8 mln
    Revs 34.8 mln vs 84.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 oper net excludes a loss of 5.5 mln
dlrs or 37 cts a share and 64.6 mln dlrs or 4.43 dlrs a share,
    1986 net also excludes a gain of 66.4 mln dlrs or 4.50 dlrs
a share for credit on debt restructuring.
 Reuter

Cardis Corp said it
anticipates reporting a loss from continuing operations of
approximately 17.7 mln dlrs on revenues of 228 mln dlrs for
fiscal year 1986.
    In addition, the company said it expects to report a
year-end loss on the discontinued operations of its engine
rebuilding divisions of approximately 1,100,000 mln dlrs.
    Cardis also said it expects to report a loss in excess of
five mln dlrs for its first fiscal quarter ended Jan 31, 1987,
on approximate revenues of 58 mlns dlrs.
    For fiscal 1985 Cardis reported operating income of
8,680,000 and net income of 1,150,000 dlrs, and in the first
quarter of fiscal 1986, it reported a 495,000 dlr loss from
continuing operations.
    The company said its auditor, Touche Ross and Co, has
indicated to it that any opinion it issues on the company's
soon-to-be completed year-end audit will be qualified.
    The company also said it expects to conclude soon its
current negotiations with its primary lenders for extension of
its loan agreements and expansion of its credit lines.
 Reuter

Shr loss 72 cts vs loss 1.57 dlr
    Net loss 1,526,359 vs loss 3,315,834
    Revs 8,032,798 vs 7,276,517
 Reuter

Semi div three cts vs three cts prior
    Pay June 12
 Reuter

U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS JAPAN TARIFF ACTION NOT START
OF TRADE WAR

Brazilian economic officials confirmed
a renewal of short-range credit lines by commercial creditors,
bringing optimism that renegotiation of the 109 billion dlrs
foreign debt is possible.
    Finance Ministry sources said a "large majority" of foreign
banks had accepted to extend Brazil's credit lines before the
midnight deadline of March 31 for payment of 15 billion dlrs
servicing expired.
    Finance Minister Dilson Funaro told reporters all short
range credit lines were renewed, "without exception."
    Central Bank sources, although incapable of confirming that
100 pct of the banks had renewed the credit lines, said that
there was a massive affirmative reply.
    The credit lines were extended in their majority by 30
days, but there were banks which renewed the deadline by 90
days and, sometimes, by 180 days, Funaro told reporters.
    Brazil is pledging for an extension of the deadlines for an
indefinite period, until its economic officials seek a global
renegotiation of the debt.
    Last week Brazil had suggested to creditors an extension of
the deadline for another two months, until May 31.
 REUTER

    Tommorrow, the U.K. Government will consider what legal
said.
reuter^M

                              30-123 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  
30-123 days
 124-150 days  5.90 pct  5.93 pct  124-150 days
 350-360 days  5.96 pct  5.98 pct  350-360 days
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr two cts vs 29 cts
    Net 23,000 vs 338,000
    Revs 20.2 mln vs 21.5 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 97 cts
    Net 741,000 vs 1,113,000
    Revs 43.2 mln vs 44.3 mln
    NOTE: 1986 2nd qtr and six mths ended March one.
 Reuter

has been granted a patent for a new imaging technology it has
developed that uses electrmagnetic radiation.
    It said it sees applications in airport security screening
devices, medical diagnostic imaging systems and quality control
devices.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Corp, which will split
this month into two separate companies, expects to show
improved earnings in 1987 over last year, executives of the new
company told Reuters.
    Charles Blackburn, president and chief executive officer of
Diamond Shamrock and the new company, which will emphasize
exploration and production, said, "Earnings wil be better than
in 1986." He declined to say how much better.
    In 1986 Diamond Shamrock reported a loss of 115.6 mln dlrs
on total revenues of 2.543 billion dlrs. Exploration and
production lost 18.5 mln dlrs on revenues of 593.5 mln dlrs.
    Roger Hemminghaus, Diamond Shamrock vice president and
soon-to-be chief executive of the spin-off Diamond Shamrock
Refining and Marketing Co, said, "Refining and marketing is a
margin business. The margins will return and this will be a
better year than 1986."
    In 1986, refining and marketing showed operating profits of
40.1 mln dlrs on revenues of 1.636 billion dlrs.
    "We are also expecting to be in the black in the first
quarter (1987)," Heminghaus added. In the first quarter of 1986,
the refining and marketing segment showed a loss of 27.1 mln
dlrs on revenues of 492.1 mln dlrs.
   
    The executives were in New york for meetings with
institutional investors aimed at increasing interest in the
    On the New York Stock Exchange, Diamond Shamrock was
trading at 16-1/4, down 1/4.
    Earlier this year, T. Boone Pickens offered 15 dlrs a share
for Diamond Shamrock, and management countered with an offer at
17 dlrs and a decision to split off the refining and marketing
operation to its shareholders.
    "Our advisors convinced us the market would give higher
multiples for pure plays," Blackburn said.
 Reuter

VMS Strategic Land Trust said it
delcared an initial quarterly cash dividend of 30 cts a share,
payable May 15 to shareholders of record April 20.
    The company also said that effective today it will be
trading on the NASDAQ system under the symbol <VLANS>.
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp said its
base price for carbon plates and high-strength and low-alloy
plates will be increased by 25 dlrs to 405 dlrs a short ton,
effective July one.
    The company said its composite prices for alloy plates will
also be increased 25 dlrs per ton on the same date, adding it
does not publish its prices for this product.
    Bethlehem Steel said its composite prices for strip mill
plates will be increased 15 dlrs a ton.
 Reuter

the U.S. imposition of tariffs on Japanese goods over
semiconductor trade does not signal the start of a trade war.
    He also played down the significance of the precipitous
stock market decline earlier this week.
    "I don't think this action should be interpreted in any way
as the start of a trade war," he said in response to a question
from a House Appropriations subcommittee.
    He said a drop in stock market prices of the magnitude
experienced Monday was not so unusual.
    "I don't think it is particularly unusual to see those kinds
of days" on Wall Street, Baker said.
    Since Monday, he added, "The stock market has rebounded
rather vigorously."
    He urged lawmakers to move cautiously on trade legislation
to avoid overly protectionist moves which might aggravate world
trade tensions.
    "You're not going to legislate this (trade) deficit away," he
told the panel.

 Reuter

Equicor, Equitable HCA Corp,
said that the company will likely attain revenues in excess of
two billion dlrs in its first year of operations.
    The company, created last October with initial equity of
400 mln dlrs, is owned equally by the Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the U.S. and Hospital Corp of America <HCA>.
    Financial results for the first six months of the company's
operations were not disclosed. Equicor provides employee group
plans to 1,500 corporations nationwide. It said it aims to
double its marketshare in five years from the about 3.5 pct of
the employee benefits industry it controls.
 Reuter

MacAndrews and Forbes Group Inc said it
began an 18.50-dlr-a-share cash offer for all common stock of
Revlon Group Inc it does not already own.
    The offer, which is being made by a wholly owned
subsidiary, Revmac Acquisition Corp, is subject to financing
and at least 28.5 mln shares being tendered, the company said.
    MacAndrews and Forbes, wholly owned by Ronald Perelman,
chairman of Revlon Group, held about 31.8 pct of the voting
power of Revlon as of March 27, a spokesman said. The stake
includes about 15.1 pct of Revlon common and 95 pct of its
series A preferred stock, he said.
 More

Atlantic Richfield Co's stock rose
sharply after analyst Eugene Nowak of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc
raised his earnings estmates of the company, traders said.
    ARCO jumped 1-3/4 to 81-3/4.
    Nowak said that based on an average oil price of 17 dlrs a
barrel in 1987, the company should earn about 4.50 dlrs a
share. Next year, based on an average oil price of 18 dlrs a
barrel, ARCO should earn about five dlrs a share. The company
earned 3.38 dlrs a share in 1986. "If oil prices should rise to
an average of 20 dlrs a barrel," he said, "ARCO could record
earnings of 6.50 dlrs a share.
    Nowak said his increased estimates come after the company
told analysts yesterday that its first quarter earnings will
comfortably cover its quarterly dividend requirement of one dlr
a share.
    Nowak said, "The company has done an outstanding job
reducing expenses, and ARCO is poised to generate greater
earnings power." He said first quarter earnings will likely
exceed the company's expectations stated yesterday and be in
the 1.15-1.20 dlr-a-share range.
 Reuter

The Senate voted to sustain President
Reagan's veto of an 88 billion dlr highway and mass transit
funding bill, but Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd of West
Virginia called for a second vote to reconsider the outcome.
    The first vote ended with 65 Senators voting for the bill
and 35 voting to sustain the veto, two short of the two-thirds
majority needed to override. One of those voting to sustain the
veto was North Carolina Democrat Terry Sanford.
 Reuter

The U.S. Has been promised a near
monopoly of maize exports to Spain from third countries
guaranteed under an agreement with the European Community, an
EC official said.
    The official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that
the guarantee was given in an unpublished clause of the
    Under the accord, which began in January, third countries
were guaranteed access for the next four years for two mln
tonnes a year of maize to the Spanish market, as well as
300,000 tonnes of sorghum.
    However, the official said the U.S. Had been assured that
almost all the exports would be reserved for its traders.
    The EC Commission is to ask member states to agree either a
tender system to fix reduced import levies for the maize or to
authorise direct imports by the Spanish intervention board.
    EC sources noted that under a tender system maize from
outside the U.S. Would sometimes be offered on more favourable
terms than that from the U.S.
    No Commission spokesman was immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

Deak International, a foreign currency
and precious metals firm, announced the acquisition of Johnson
Matthey Commodities of New York from Minories Finance Limited,
a unit of the Bank of England.
    The purchase valued at 14.8 mln dlrs follows the recent
acquisition of London's Johnson Matthey Commodities Limited,
Deak said.
    The New York firm will be known as Deak International
Trading Ltd, the company said.
    Arkadi Kuhlmann, president and chief executive officer of
Deak International said the purchase will expand Deak's
operations into the precious metals and wholesale non-ferrous
metals trading arenas.
 Reuter

Purolator Courier Corp stock jumped
5-3/8 on a 40 dlr per share takeover offer from Emery Air
Freight Corp <EAF>, traders said.
    Purolator was trading at 40-1/4, 1/4 above the offer price.
The Emery offer tops a 35 dlr per share buyout agreement E.F.
Hutton LBO Inc reached with Purolator February 27.
    That offer was to have expired today. Neither Hutton nor
Purolator had any immediate comment.
    "There's probably some speculation out there that there
might be another offer," said one analyst.
 Reuter

Total corn sales by Argentina to the
Soviet Union are only 1.5 to 1.8 mln tonnes, with delivery
spread out from March to June, the U.S. Agriculture
Department's Counselor in Buenos Aires said in a field report.
    The report, dated March 27, said many sources have stated
that the Soviet Union was initially interested in purchasing
2.3 mln tonnes lof corn from Argentina.
    However, Soviet purchases from the United States have
tended to displace additional Argentine purchases, the report
said.
    The USDA has to date reported USSR purchases of 2.6 mln
tonnes of U.S. corn for delivery in the current U.S.-USSR grain
agreement year, which ends this September 30, it said.
 Reuter

General Public Utilities corp
said its Three Mile Island Unit One's power output has been cut
to 81 pct of reactor power, or 730 megawatts of electricity,
due to mineral deposits on the secondary or non-nuclear side of
its two steam generators.
    The company said the deposits do not affect the safe
operation of the plant but interfere with the production of
steam.
    It said the unit was similarly limited in power in late
1985. 
 Reuter

Cyprus Minerals Co said it was awarded a
five year contract to supply 360,000 tons of steam coal to
Niagara Mohawk Power Co <NMK>.
    The company is currently shipping 240,000 tons of steam
coal a year to Niagara Mohawk under a contract signed in 1985.
The coal comes from the Emerald mine in Southwestern
Pennsylvania.

 Reuter

QUANTECH &lt;QANT&gt; SAYS THREE DIRECTORS RESIGN
    LEVITTOWN, N.Y., April 1, Quantech Electronics Corp said
Leonard N. Hecht, Jack Goldfarb and Harold V. Wallace resigned
as directors.
    On March 26, the company announced the resignations of 
Bernard Weinblatt as president and a director, and Hecht as
chief executive officer. It said Hecht will serve as a
consultant for an interim period.
    Quantech said its remaining directors are Henry Ginsberg
and David Siegel. Ginsberg, who is chairman, has been named
president and chief executive officer, and Siegel has been
named chief operating officer, the company said.
 Reuter

Barnes Group said it expects
sales and net income for 1987 will be up slightly over 1986.
    Without supplying specific figures, Barnes told
shareholders at its annual meeting it expected net income to
improve at a rate exceeding its growth in sales, which was two
pct higher than 1985.
    The company said it recorded income from continuing
operations of 16.6 mln dlrs, or 2.57 dlrs per share, on sales
of 440 mln dlrs in 1986. It said it recorded income from
continuing operations of 16.4 mln dlrs, or 2.27 dlrs per share,
in the previous year.
 Reuter

United Cities Gas Co said it placed
privately on March 18 20 mln dlrs of 8.69 pct first mortgage
bonds.
    Proceeds will be used to retire short-term debt and fund
the company's current construction program, United Cities said.
    The company said more than 30 lending institutions
participated in the bidding for the bonds and that 25 pct of
the issue was placed with the U.S. unit of a Canadian firm.
 Reuter

SHr two cts vs one cts
    Net 116,843 vs 41,400
    Revs 17.3 mln vs 12.3 mln
    SHr 15 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 639,448 vs 301,000
    REvs 37.6 mln vs 35.8 mln
 Reuter

Enka BV, a subsidiary of
Akzo NV <AKZO.AS> said it has concluded a licence agreement
with the fibres division of <BASF Corp> of Delaware, a unit of
BASF AG <BASF.F> of West Germany in the U.S. On the Colback
industrial non-woven fibres.
    Enka will supply know-how on the production of non-woven
fibres and Basf will also purchase the right for production and
sale of the Colback products. BASF will start non-woven fibre
production in the U.S. In 1988, Enka said.
    A spokesman for Enka declined to comment on the financial
details of the deal.
 REUTER

Shr seven cts vs 10 cts
    Net 127,000 vs 168,100
    Revs 2,807,400 vs 3,042,900
 Reuter

Mthly div 15 cts vs 15 cts prior
    Pay April 30, May 29, June 24
    Record April 15, May 15, June 10
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS FOREIGN DEBT SITUATION HAS IMPROVED
SINCE 1982

Alaska Housing Finance Corp signed a 150
mln dlr revolving credit facility and a 150 mln dlr
euro-commercial paper program, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
said.
    The borrower is a state backed, public corporation which
provides 70 to 85 pct of the single-family residential
mortgages in Alaska. It is the first U.S. Municipality to
arrange these types of facilities in the international capital
markets.
    The seven-year revolving credit has a commitment fee of
0.10 pct per annum, under which drawings will be at 5/16 pct
over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
    The facility also incorporates a swing-line facility, which
would allow for same day drawings in the U.S. Market for up to
three business days at the floating U.S. Prime rate. Credit
Lyonnais is acting as coordinator for this facility.
    Merrill Lynch is agent for the revolving facility, which
was lead managed by Swiss Bank Corporation (San Francisco
branch).
    The facility will allow the borrower to issue direct
unsecured advances in U.S. Dlrs with maturities of up to six
months. It also will be able to issue on an uncommitted basis
euronotes with maturities of up to six months, which will be
priced under the issuer-set margin system.
    Although Alaska Housing Finance will set the interest rates
relative to Libor for the euronotes, Merrill Lynch noted that
it would not seek to issue the notes with a margin in excess of
0.2125 pct per annum.
    The euro-commercial paper program allows for the issuance
of notes with maturities of up to 183 days. Merrill was the
arranger for that program and will act as one of the dealers
along with Salomon Brothers International Ltd and Swiss Bank
Corporation International Ltd.
 REUTER

Qtly div class A two cts vs two cts prior
    Qtly div class B one ct vs one ct prior
 Reuter

Deak said.
Deak International, said the purchase will expand Deak's
operations in the precious metals and wholesale non-ferrous
 Reuter

<Societe Miniere Louvem Inc> said its
board of directors has offered to buy an option to buy back its
owns shares from provincially-owned SOQUEM, its major
    Louvem said the option to buy the 3.1 mln shares would be
valid until December 15 at a purchase price of 3.15 dlrs a
share. Louvem said it could exercise the option for itself or 
for a third party.
    The company said SOQUEM is considering the offer.
 Reuter

he did not believe Brazil was currently in a crisis because of
its debt situation and hoped the country would resolve its
differences with commerical banks through direct negotiations.
    Answering questions before a House appropriations
subcommittee, Baker told a questioner, "I disagree with your
crisis characterization" regarding Brazil.
    He said that while the U.S. Treasury regretted Brazil's
interest payment moratorium on commercial bank debt, "We hope
and believe they'll resolve this through direct negotiations
(with the banks)."
    Baker said the financial community around the world
believes it imperative that Brazil come up with a comprehensive
program to adjust its economy.
    In other comments on foreign debt, Baker said the situation
has improved since mid-1982 because the banks are in much
better shape and have rebuilt reserves.
    He also noted interest rates are considerably lower today
than they were when the crisis broke out and the rate of
increase in debt has slowed considerably.
    In addition, Baker noted a number of debtors are making
reasonably good economic progress, and he cited Mexico in
particular.
    He pointed out that Venezuela, Chile and the Philippines
have all reached agreement with commercial banks on debt
rescheduling and Argentina was in the midst of negotiations.
    But he rejected calls for "overnight solutions" to the debt
crisis. "There is no chance they can get out (of the debt
crisis)," Baker said, unless debtor countries generate economic
growth.
    Baker said the U.S. initiative to shore up debtor nations
depends on that concept, and he rejected calls for debt
forgiveness, which, he said, would cut debtor nations off from
access to private credit.
    Baker noted that even though Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) was
urging debt relief in his strategy for dealing with the debt
situation, "More and more now, he bases this on the concept of
growth."
    Other indicators of progress include, Baker said, debtor
nations negotiating better and better terms with commercial
banks. "The points over LIBOR are much less," he said.
 Reuter

said.
markets.
branch).
 Reuter

Institute of International Finance
Managing Director Horst Schulmann said that his orgnaization
has been forecasting further declines of interest rates in the
first half this year and then a levelling off and there is no
reason to change that.
    Speaking to reporters, the bank research group said that
the increase in interest rates announced yesterday and other
activity in the foreign exchange markets did not indicate a
fundamental change in the outlook.
    Schulmann, speaking broadly about the global debt problem,
said that the International Monetary Fund should increase its
assistance to third world countries.
    The remarks come just before next week's meeting of the
IMF's Interim Committee and the Joint Development Committee of
the IMF and World Bank.
    In a letter to the committee's, the bank group said,
"Commercial banks cannot be the dominant supplier of balance of
payments finance."
    Schulmann said that IMF exposure peaked in 1985 and has
declined a bit since then.
 Reuter

lowered 128 mln dlrs of Brown Group Inc's senior debt to
A-minus from A and commercial paper to A-2 from A-1.
    The agency said a decline in sales and profits were little
offset from the company's retail business. Also, foreign
producers eroded Brown's assets by gaining market share.
    Brown's debt ratio increased to 49.8 pct by year-end 1986
as higher inventories, and a four-year stock repurchase program
has required additional financing, S and P said.
    Restructuring efforts should improve productivity but not
in the forseeable future, the agency added.
 Reuter

A euro-commercial paper program for
Provinsbanken A/S of Denmark has been increased to 250 mln dlrs
from the original 100 mln, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets said.
    The program allows the Danish bank to issue
euro-certificates of deposit with maturities of up to 365 days.
    Merrill Lynch will continuue to act as dealer for the
program, with Shearson Lehman Brothers International and S.G.
Warburg and Co Ltd as co-dealers.
 REUTER

Japanese crushers bought 5,000 to 6,000
tonnes of Canadian rapeseed for May shipment in export business
overnight, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 58 cts vs loss nil
    Net loss 2.9 mln vs loss 17,818
    Revs 5.0 mln vs 7.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 45 cts vs profit four cts
    Net loss 2.0 mln vs profit 174,562
    REvs 28.5 mln vs 25.2 mln
   
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr loss includes loss of 2.2 mln dlrs from
discontinuance of operations. 1985 4th qtr includes loss of
79,395 dlrs from discontinued operations.
    1986 4th qtr includes 3.5 mln dlr provision for costs
anticipated in connection with disposal of division and 500,000
dlrs in adjustments related to write-downs. 1985 4th qtr
includes gain of 178,000 dlrs for exchange of telephone
inventory for barter credits.
 Reuter

Shr loss 16 cts vs profit 23 cts
    Net loss 97,600 vs profit 91,980
    Revs 302,745 vs 359,699
    Avg shrs 621,036 vs 388,536
    Year
    Shr profit seven cts vs profit 36 cts
    Net profit 36,400 vs profit 140,980
    Revs 1,610,286 vs 763,071
    Avg shrs 512,235 vs 388,536
   
    Note: Year-ago net includes extraordinary gains of 33,654
for qtr and 42,654 for the year.
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs profit nil
    Net loss 392,428 vs profit 1,255
    Revs 6,371,092 vs 3,031,091
    Avg shrs 2,544,000 vs 1,440,000
    Year
    Shr loss 13 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 274,951 vs profit 100,534
    Revs 18.1 mln vs 10.8 mln
    Avg shrs 2,072,153 vs 1,440,000
 Reuter

Yugoslav retail prices in March rose
7.0 pct from February, to stand 93.2 pct higher than in March
1986, Federal Statistics Office (FSO) figures show.
    In February, retail prices rose 7.2 pct from January to
stand 91.6 pct higher than in February 1986.
    The cost of living, which includes rents and costs such as
utilities and transport, was up 7.8 pct in March from February
to stand 94.8 pct higher than in March 1986, the FSO said.
    In February the cost of living increased 7.3 pct from
January and stood 93.6 pct higher than in February 1986.
 REUTER

Ten grain ships were loading and 18
were waiting to load at New Orleans elevators, trade sources
said.
 ELEVATOR                     LOADING  WAITING
 Continental Grain, Westwego     1      3
 Mississippi River, Myrtle Grove 2      0
 ADM Growmark                    1      4
 Bunge Grain, Destrehan          1      0
    ELEVATOR                LOADING  WAITING
 ST CHARLES DESTREHAN         1      3
 RESERVE ELEVATOR CORP        0      1
 PEAVEY CO, ST ELMO           1      2
 CARGILL GRAIN, TERRE HAUTE   1      4
 CARGILL GRAIN, PORT ALLEN    1      0
 ZEN-NOH                      1      1
 reuter

UAL Inc said it is offering 5.5 mln
shares of its common stock at 56.50 dlrs a share for a total
aggregate value of 310.8 mln dlrs.
    UAL said it made the move principally to broaden its equity
base, thereby making additional borrowing for ongoing capital
requirements easier.
    UAL said it will add the offering's net proceeds to general
corporate funds, adding that it expects to invest the money in
short term cash instruments initially.
    UAL said Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets have underwritten the issue in the U.S., where
four mln shares are being offered.
    The remaining one mln shares is being offered overseas
through underwriters Morgan Stanley International and Merrill
Lynch Capital Markets, UAL said.
    It added that an additional 500,000 shares is for
overallotments.
 Reuter

J.C. PEnney Co Inc said it signed a
letter of intent to acquire one mln shares, or a 20 pct equity
interest, of Beeba's Creations Inc <BEBA> for 18.75 dlrs a
share.
    Penney said the agreement also calls for Beeba's, a major
supplier of junior sportswear, to work with Penny in the
establishment of junior specialty shops to be created in about
100 Penney stores in early 1988.
    Freestanding stores are also being planned, the company
said. Beeba's will be the principal source of merchandise to
the shops, it said.
    For the six months ended February 28, Beeba's reported net
income of 1.2 mln dlrs on sales of 39.4 mln dlrs.
    Penney said it will establish an independent merchandising
and marketing organization to manage and support the shops
which will be staffed by personnel both from within and outside
    The company said the new agreement would have no impact on
its current supplier base and it will continue to work with as
braod base of suppliers of junior sportswear as it does in its
other merchandise areas.
 Reuter

Calls for a cut in Austrian interest
rates have grown in recent days but bank chiefs are divided
over the issue.
    Karl Vak, General Director of the Zentralsparkasse und
Kommerzialbank, Wien, called today for a cut of up to half a
percentage point in interest rates across the board. But Hannes
Androsch, head of Creditanstalt-Bankverein <CABV.VI> told
Reuters he opposed a cut because it would hurt small savers.
    Vak told a news conference that last January's cut in
lending rates for commercial customers and for all depositors
by a quarter point had been insufficient.
    The January cut followed the National Bank's lowering of
its discount and Lombard rates by half a point in line with a
similar Bundesbank move. Prime lending rate is now 8.75 pct and
deposit rates vary between 3.25 and 5.75 pct.
    Yesterday Hellmuth Klauhs, head of the Genossenschaftliche
Zentralbank AG, said rates could fall at least a quarter of a
point, or even half a point if German rates dropped further.
    Vak noted that inflation had fallen below one pct. A
widening gap between Austrian rates and cheaper West German
credit along with forecasts of slow Austrian economic growth
this year also justified a further interest drop, he said.
    Karl Pale, head of Girozentrale und Bank der
oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG [GIRV.VI] has also called for
lower deposit rates but said lending rates should remain
unchanged at the moment. Interest margins were too small,
particularly when compared with other West European countries.
    But Hans Haumer, head of the Erste Oesterreichische
Spar-Casse-Bank told Reuters that no cut should be made unless
West German rates came down first.
    Banking sources said no bank seemed ready to lower rates
alone and supporters of a cut would have difficulty overcoming
opposition from Creditanstalt, Austria's biggest bank.
 REUTER

Shr 81 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 16,900,000 vs 13,100,000
    Revs 152.5 mln vs 118.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.59 dlrs vs 1.85 dlrs
    Net 53,700,000 vs 38,100,000
    Revs 526.3 mln vs 404.3 mln
    NOTE: Prior year earnings reflect a three-for-two stock
split distributed in May, 1986
 Reuter

Grumman Corp said it was awarded
a 28 mln dlr contract by McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> to develop
flight control surfaces for the United States Air Force's new
C-17 transport aircraft.
    Grumman said it will design, develop and build the 
ailerons, rudders and elevators for the transport.
    The company said the production phase of the contract has a
potential value of about 300 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Peripheral Systems Inc said it
agreed in principle to acquire the outstanding shares of
<Nucell Inc>.
    The agreement calls for an exchange of one share of
Peripheral for each share of Nucell, subject to approval by
both companies' boards, it said.
    Peripheral said its increased involvement in the
development of Nucell's nuclear battery technology made the
merger practical.
 Reuter

Texas Eastern Transmission Corp, a unit
of Texas Eastern Corp, said it plans to redeem on April 30 its
outstanding 100 mln dlrs of 13 pct debentures due 2009 and 100
mln dlrs of 12-3/4 pct debentures of 2008.
    It will buy back the 13 pct issue at 111.70 pct of the
principal amount, plus accrued interest. It will redeem the
12-3/4s at 110.52 pct of principal plus accrued interest.
    The unit will use part of the proceeds from the recent sale
of units of Petrolane Partners L.P. to finance the early
redemptions.
 Reuter

U.S. and Japanese negotiators will
hold emergency meetings next week to try to resolve their row
over semiconductors, but a U.S. official said it was not likely
the talks would delay the planned American sanctions.
    Officials said the talks, which were announced yesterday by
U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter, were being held
under the emergency provisions of the U.S.-Japanese
semiconductor agreement.
    A spokesman for Yeutter said officials of the Japanese
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) would hold
technical talks with U.S. officials next Monday and Tuesday.
    The spokesman, Gary Holmes, said that on Thursday and
Friday Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael Smith would
meet with MITI vice president Makoto Kuroda.
    But Holmes added "do not expect the problem to be resolved
or the sanctions not to go into effect."
    The 300 mln dlrs in tariffs on Japanese exports is set to
go into effect on April, following public hearings which begin
in Washington on April 13.
 reuter

Hewlett-Packard Co said it
reduced prices by up to 15 pct on two models of its HP Vectra
PC, an International Business Machines Corp PC/AT-compatible
    The company said the move reflects lower material costs,
streamlined production processes and reduced manufacturing
costs.
    Hewlett-Packard said it cut the price for its Vectra PC
Model 50 to 3,995 dlrs from 4,695 dlrs and lowered the price
for its Model 60 to 4,795 dlrs from 5,495 dlrs.
    In addition, the company said it reduced prices by up to 29
pct for pre-configured HP Vectra systems used in specific
 Reuter

Manufacturers National Corp's
Manufacturers Bank-Wilmington said it increased the interest
rate on its no-fee variable rate MasterCard to 13.6 pct from
13.3 pct.
    The new interest rate applies to the second quarter. The
rate on the card is set quarterly.
 Reuter

said he did not believe Brazil was currently in a crisis
because of its debt situation and hoped the country would
resolve its differences with commerical banks through direct
subcommittee, Baker told a questioner "I disagree with your
believes it is imperative that Brazil comes up with a
comprehensive program to adjust its economy.
    In other comments on foreign debt, Baker said that the
situation has improved since mid-1982 because the banks are in
much better shape and have rebuilt reserves.
 Reuter

First Chicago Corp's American National
Bank unit said it completed the acquisition of four suburban
Chicago banks with combined assets of about 231 mln dlrs.
    The banks are National Bank of North Evanston, Elgin
National bank, First National Bank of Schiller Park and
Merchants and Manufacturers State Bank in Melrose Park.
    American National now owns nine banks.
 Reuter

Centerre Bancorp said it completed the
acquisition of Benefit Plan Services Inc, Maryland Heights,
Mo., which specializes in designing and administering small and
moderately sized pension plans.
 Reuter

Motors, named additional production suppliers for the new
vehicle to be produced at the company's plant under
construction in Bloomington, Ill.
    It said Amtex Inc, Sidney, Ohio, was selected to supply
trunk floor carpets and Bluewater Plastics Inc, Marysville,
Mich., duct assemblies and column covers.
 Reuter

LAWSON TELLS PANEL  HE WANTS STERLING TO STAY AROUND 1.60
DLRS, 2.90 MARKS.

Securities Dealers Inc. denied Kirk Knapp's application to
become a registered member of the firm.
    NASD's board of governors said it denied the application of
Knapp to become registered with K.A. Knapp and Co, located in
Grand Rapids, Mich. The board said it based its decision on two
statutory disqualifications.
    In the first case, the board said it found Knapp failed to
maintain rquired net capital, filed inaccurate Focus Part 1
reports and inaccurately calculated the amount required to be
on deposit in the Special Reserve Account.
    The second case involved Knapp being enjoined from
violations of sections of the Securities Exchange Act, the NASD
said.
 Reuter

    Net 69,831 vs 107,773
    Revs 1,068,905 vs 2,401,518
    Six mths
    Shr three cts vs three cts
    Net 129,649 vs 155,089
    Revs 2,673,141 vs 4,666,104
 Reuter

First of America Bank Corp said
it completed its affiliation with Lewiston State Bank of
Lewiston, Mich.
    The Lewiston bank, which has been renamed First of America
Bank-Lewiston, has assets of 54.9 mln dlrs. First of America
has assets of more than 7.9 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

The Reynolds and Reynolds Co said
it will fight a suit filed against it by <Advanced Voice
Technologies> alleging misappropriation of trade secrets.
    The company reiterated its denial of the charges, stating
there was no merit for the suit. The company said it will file
a response to the suit with Federal court in Detroit by April
7.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust Co said it has raised its
prime lending rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2, effective
    This move is the latest in a series of similar actions by
leading U.S. money center banks, including Citibank NA and
Chase Manhattan Bank NA, over the last 24 hours.
    AmeriTrust Corp of Ohio also raised its prime lending rate
to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2, effective tomorrow.     
 Reuter

Boatmen's Bancshares said its
Boatmen's National Bank raised the prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from
7-1/2 pct, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Homestead Financial Corp said
it began a public offering of 3,500,000 shares of its class A
common at 10.875 dlrs per share, through an underwriting group
managed by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets.
 Reuter

to B from CCC 268.9 mln dlrs of equipment trust certificates of
Texas Air Corp's Eastern Air Lines Inc unit.
    S and P cited its new policy on rating secured airline debt
with special protection under Section 1110 of the Bankruptcy
Code. But the agency cautioned this did not reflect a change in
the unit's underlying credit strength.
    The certificates and 225.9 mln dlrs of CC subordinated debt
remain on S/P creditwatch with positive implications. Eastern
lost 130.8 mln dlrs in 1986 because of competition and customer
uncertainty over its future, S and P noted.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD>
said Finnair, the national airline of Finland, will purchase
two McDonnell Douglas MD-11 advanced long-range tri-jets with
options for two more.
    Terms were not immediately disclosed.
    The first of the aircraft will be delivered in October 1990
and the second in May 1991.
 Reuter

<Union Enterprises Ltd> said holders of
7.2 mln or 80 pct of its class A series one preferred shares
requested to retract their shares under terms of the issue,
thus raising <Unicorp Canada Corp>'s voting stake in Union to
58 pct from 50.
    Union said it paid about 90 mln dlrs on April 1 for the
retraction, using existing credit lines.
 Reuter

    The spokesman said that on Thursday and Friday Deputy U.S.
Trade Representative Michael Smith would meet with MITI vice
president Makoto Kuroda.
 Reuter

    Southeast Banking Corp <STB> - Offering of 50 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated capital notes due 1999 through Lazard
    Burlington Industries Inc <BUR> - Offering of 100 mln dlrs
of sinking fund debentures due 2017 through Kidder, Peabody and
Co Inc and an offering of 75 mln dlrs of convertible
subordinated debentures due 2012 through an underwriting group
led by Kidder, Peabody.
 Reuter

is extending and enhancing its buyer-incentive programs on
Renault Alliance, Encore and GTA models and Jeep Comanche,
Cherokee and Wagoneer to April 10. The incentives were to have
expired March 31.
    New to the April program is the combination of a
low-interest annual percentage financing program and 1986 and
1987 Renault vehicles and a 500 dlr rebate.
    It said buyers of 1986 and 1987 Jeep Cherokee, Wagoneer and
Comanche vehicles have a choice of the financing program or a
rebate.

 Reuter

Oper shr 20 cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 1,869,000 vs 957,000
    Revs 41.0 mln vs 22.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 52 cts vs 53 cts
    Oper net 5,386,000 vs 5,147,000
    Revs 116.8 mln vs 98.3 mln
    Note: Oper excludes extraordinary reserves related to
arbitration of Iranian claims of 2,062,000 vs 3,200,000 for qtr
and year.
 Reuter

Damson Oil Corp said that beginning
today any holder of its 15 pct dual convertible mortgage bonds
due 1997 has the right to convert up to one half of the
principal amount into common stock during a 30-day special
conversion period.
    The holder may convert the remaining half of the principal
amount beginning May one at a conversion price calculated
according to terms of the indenture, Damson said.
    The company added that any holder choosing not to convert
the bonds during either of the two special conversion periods
will receive no interest on bonds still held after May one.
 Reuter

First Wisconsin National Bank said it
has raised its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct,
 Reuter

Central and South West Corp said it
Southwestern Electric Power Co subsidiary will redeem all
300,000 shares outstanding of its 8.16 pct preferred stock, par
value 100 dlrs per share, on May one.
    It said the redemption price is 103.72 dlrs a share plus
accrued and unpaid dividends from April one to May one of 68
cts per share for a total of 194.40 dlrs a share paid to
 Reuter

Unit distribution one dlr vs 1.75 dlrs prior
    pay June one
    Note: Prior distribution declared in April 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 53 cts vs loss 55 cts
    Net loss 3,865,000 vs 3,963,000
    Revs 24.2 mln vs 26.8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.21 dlrs vs profit 56 cts
    Net loss 8,758,000 vs profit 4,040,000
    Revs 108.5 mln vs 113.8 mln

    Note: Prior qtr figures include income from discontinued
operations of 10,000 dlrs, gain on disposal of discontinued
operations of 269,000 dlrs, or four cts per share, and
operating loss carryforward gain of 936,000 dlrs, or 13 cts per
share.
    Prior year figures include income from discontinued
operations of 164,000 dlrs, or two cts per share, gain on
disposal of discontinued operation of 3.9 mln dlrs, or 54 cts
per share, and operating loss carryforward gain of 3.7 mln
dlrs, or 48 cts per share.
 Reuter

Kraft Inc said in its annual
report it expects 1987 capital expenditures to be between 250
mln dlrs and 300 mln dlrs.
    The company said it invested 209 mln dlrs in property,
plant and equipment in 1986, up from 181 mln dlrs in 1985.
    Kraft also said its advertising expenditures for 1987 are
expected to match the five-year compounded 15 pct rate of
increase recorded in 1986, when such expenditures totaled 433
mln dlrs.
    Kraft said research and development expenditures rose 12
pct in 1986 to 66.7 mln dlrs, and a greater increase in seen in
1987.
    It cited a continued emphasis on new product development,
advances in cheese and edible-oil technologies, further
adaptation of tamper-evident packaging and continued
development of consumer battery technologies.
 Reuter

    White sugar, denatured and non-denatured 51.94 versus 51.36
    Raw sugar, denatured and non-denatured 44.05 versus 43.69
 Reuter

Weatherford International Inc said it
reached an agreement to restructure about 41 mln dlrs of debt
held by bank and insurance company lenders.
    Under the agreement, the oil drilling equipment and oil
services company will pay reduced quarterly interest payments
on part of its bank revolving credit loans and industrial
revenue bonds. Remaining interest will be deferred until Jan 1,
1991.
    Principal payments will be deferred, with semi-annual
payments of 1.75 mln dlrs to start on Dec 31, 1989 and all
remaining principal due Jan 1, 1991.
    Additional interest and principal payments may be due on
the bank revolving credit lines if the company generates more
cash than it needs for operations.
    Term of the debt held by insurance company lenders will be
extended by one year until December 1990 by reducing the
principal due last year and this year. Otherwise, interest and
principal payments will continue to be made as scheduled in the
existing agreements.
    The proposed restructuring will reduce Weatherford's cash
requirements by about three mln dlrs in 1987 and 2.5 mln dlrs
in 1988, it said.
    The company, which is still in default, said it expects to
completed amended loan agreements during the next few months.
    The company also said the recently announced sale of a
non-core production equipment unit and a Mexican subsidiary
will not have a material impact on future revenues and will
eliminate exposure to future losses.
    It has consolidated other U.S. and foreign manufacturing
operations to reduce costs and written down certain inventories
to better reflect their value, it added.
 Reuter

 Reuter

the administration backs the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corp (FSLIC) recapitalization bill approved by the House
Banking Committee and opposes the Senate-passed version.
    Baker told a House Appropriations Subcommittee the 15
billion dlr recapitalization plan approved by the House panel
was sufficient while the 7.5 billion dlr plan in the
Senate-passed bill was "inadequate."
    He also urged the House to reject loophole-closing
provisions in the Senate bill that would restrict banking
 Reuter

Lawson said he wanted sterling to stay roughly where it was,
specifying a rate of around 2.90 marks and 1.60 dlrs.
    He told the National Economic Development Council that the
recent Paris meeting of major industrialised nations had agreed
on the need for exchange rate stability. There was now a
"reasonable alignment of currencies" and the U.K. Government
intended to keep sterling at about its present level, he said.
    That meant around 2.90 marks, which is the single most
important rate to concentrate on, and 1.60 dlrs, Lawson said.
    His disclosure of two of the key targets for sterling was
highly unusual, foreign exchange market analysts said.
    In the past he has preferred to be less definite about the
Government's exchange rate policy, lest it give foreign
exchange markets set limits to test.
    Lawson told the committee, which is a tripartite forum of
government, unions and industry, that the pound would be kept
near its present level by a mixture of interest rates and
intervention in the foreign exchange markets.
    The pound finished trading here today at 1.6040/50 dlrs and
2.9210/45 marks.
 Reuter

The new interest rate of 7/8 pct over
Libor on Venezuelan public sector debt payments goes into
effect today, Finance Minister Manuel Azpurua said .
    Azpurua told reporters yesterday the reduction from the
previous margin of 1-1/8 pct above Libor will save the country
some 50 mln dollars in debt servicing.
    The new rate is among changes agreed last month to the 20.3
billion dlr public sector debt rescheduling. Under the new
agreement, Venezula was also able to extend the term from 12 to
14 years and to lower debt payments in the 1987-89 period by 64
pct.
    Azpurua said that according to the agreement, the new
interest rate will be retroactive to April 1, provided the
accord is approved before October 1.
    He told reporters the term sheet detailing the changes in
the rescheduling has already been endorsed by the 13-member
debt steering committee and is now being sent to the country's
460 creditor banks for their approval.
    The new agreement replaces a rescheduling accord signed in
February 1986, which Venezuela asked to revise to reflect a 45
pct drop in oil revenues.
 REUTER

Textron Inc's Avco Lycoming Textron
subsidiary said it finalized a 1.4 billion dlr five-year
contract with the U.S. Army for M1 Abrams main battle tank gas
turbine engines.
    Under the contract, Avco said the army will procure 3,299
installed engines plus spare engines and a combination of
modules and gear boxes.
    It also said the agreement includes an initial purchase of
173 engines by the U.S. Marines under a program that will
result in a fleet of 560 M1 tanks.
 Reuter

SunTrust Banks said that Sun Banks in
Florida and Trust Co banks in Georgia have raised their prime
rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct.
    The company said the action is effective immediately.
 Reuter

Telegraph Co said it has a new version of docuFORUM, a software
product used to review, revise and transfer documents
electronically.
    The software if being offered for a one-time setup charge
of 1,000 dlrs. ATT also charges 40 dlrs per hour for on-line
usage fees, with a monthly minimum of 250 dlrs.
 More

Horn and Hardart Co said it
disposed of 33 Bojangles' Chicken 'N Biscuits restaurants in
Florida as part of its previously announced retrenchment of its
Bojangles' subsidiary.
    The company said the restaurants in Orlando, Tampa and
Jacksonville markets have incurred the majority of Bojangles'
operating losses over the last two years.
    Due to the transaction, Horn and Hardart is projecting a
positive cash flow for the unit for the remainder of fiscal
1987.
    A spokesman said the disposition consists of a combination
of sale, lease and re-franchise agreements.
    The transaction involves one-quarter of the company-owned
Bojangles' restaurants and is in accordance with its
restructuring program announced in October 1986.
    A spokesman said the company is considering the sale or
spinoff of the 91-company owned additional restaurants, which
are profitable.
    The company said the disposition will result in no profit
or loss for the company because the costs were anticipated in a
34-mln-dlr reserve taken in the third quarter of 1986.
    The foodservice division, which includes Burger King,
Arby's and Tony Roma's, had a pre-tax operating loss of 29.6
mln dlrs in 1986, including the 34.0 mln dlr charge to
restructure Bojangles. Excluding Bojangles', the group had
revenues of 43.8 mln dlrs.
    The company said that, pursuant to the restructuring, it
has cut general and administrative expenses attributable to
Bojangle' by 35 pct.
    
 Reuter

 Reuter

Frances  Finance Ministry said it named
Credit Commercial de France, CCF, and Goldman Sachs as its
advisers in the privatisation of Societe Generale <SGEN.PA>.
    A Ministry statement said accountants Guy Barbier had been
chosen to audit the Societe Generale accounts ahead of the
privatision share offering later this year.
    State-owned Societe Generale, one of the three leading
french banks, with a share capital of 1.375 billion francs and
consolidated assets of 738 billion, was added to the list of
this years privatisations in February. CCF, one of the top
seven banks, is also being sold by the government this year.
 Reuter

Ehrlich Bober Financial Corp said its
common stock has started trading on the <American Stock
    The stock had been traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

First Bank Minneaplois and First
Bank Saint Paul, both units of First Bank Systems Inc, said
they raised their reference rates to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct.
 Reuter

Chemical Fabrics Corp said an
agreement in principle under which OC Birdair Inc would have
purchased assets related to the architectural structures
business of Dow Corning corp's ODC Inc division has been
    Under that agreement, Chemical Fabrics would also have
become distributor of Dow Corning's Vestar silicone-coated
fiberglass architecural fabrics.
    OC Birdair is a joint venture of Chemical Fabrics and Owens
Corning Fiberglas Corp <OCF> and Down Corning a venture of Dow
Chemical Co <DOW> and Corning Glass Works <GLW>.
    Chemical Fabrics said once the current project backlog of
Dow Corning's ODC division is completed, Dow Corning plans to
discontinue its design-engineering, fabrication and
installation services.
    Chemical Fabrics said the companies will cooperate on the
development of new products for architectural and industrial
applications and may supply architectural materials to each
other.
 Reuter

SIS Corp said it has completed
the acquisition of its franchisor Sisters International Inc
from Wendy's International Inc for 14.5 mln dlrs in stock.
    It said the purchase includes 35 restaurants in Ohio
operates by Sisters, giving SIS a total of 55 restaurants, and
franchise relationships in six Midwestern and Southern states.
 Reuter

downgraded Niagara Mohawk Power Corp's 2.2 billion dlrs of debt
securities and preferred stock.
    Moody's cited cost increases at the utility's Nine Mile
Nuclear Unit 2 and an unfavorable rate decision by the New York
Public Service Commission.
    Cut were the company's first mortgage bonds and secured
pollution control issues to Baa-2 from Baa-1, and Eurobonds,
unsecured pollution control debt, unsecured medium-term notes
and preferred stock to Baa-3 from Baa-2. Niagara Mohawk's
Prime-2 commercial paper was left unchanged.
    Moody's said the rate decision last month by the Public
Service Commission would significantly pressure Niagara
Mohawk's coverage of fixed charges.
    Moreover, cost increases associated with the in-service
delay of the 41 pct owned Nine Mile Unit 2 from September 1987
to early 1988, along with prospective delays, are unlikely to
be recovered under the cost-settlement agreement for the
nuclear unit, Moody's noted.
    The potential write-off would sharply reduce Niagara
Mohawk's common equity and may impair financial flexibility,
 Reuter

Drilling of this year's British sugar
beet crop got off to a slow start due to poor weather
conditions with only around one pct sown so far, a spokesman
for British Sugar Plc said.
    This compares with two pct at the same stage last year,
three pct in 1985 and 38 to 39 pct in 1984.
    There is little cause for concern with better weather
forecast and the capacity available to drill the contracted
area of around 200,000 hectares in about 10 days. Seed beds
look good and farmers are advised to wait for soil temperatures
to rise, the spokesman said.
    "If the crop can be drilled by the third week in April we
will be delighted," he said. Last year a large proportion of the
crop was not drilled until May but it still turned out to be
the equal second largest on record.
 Reuter

The dollar's recent decline, despite
massive central bank purchases, is a forceful reminder that
official intervention in the foreign exchanges can work only if
it is well-timed to coincide with shifts in market fundamentals
or sentiment, dealers and analysts said.
    Central banks may succeed in slowing a trend, but, without
accompanying policy changes, they stand little chance of
reversing the direction of an ever-growing global market in
which more than 200 billion dlrs is traded every day, the
    "Timing and psychology are the key to successful
intervention," said Jim O'Neill, a financial markets economist
with Marine Midland Banks Inc. The importance of complementary
changes in economic fundamentals was underlined yesterday when
a change in interest rates boosted the dollar, instantly
achieving what the central banks had tried in vain to do for a
week through open market intervention.
    After Citibank raised its prime rate by a quarter-point to
7-3/4 pct, the first change in the rate since last August, the
dollar started to advance and reached a high in Tokyo of 147.50
yen, up two yen from Tuesday's New York low.
    By contrast, monetary authorities spearheaded by the Bank
of Japan are estimated to have bought as much as 10 billion
dlrs in the last 10 days of March but could not prevent the
dollar from skidding through 150 yen and plumbing a 40-year low
Monday of 144.70 yen. Some experts worry the central banks have
lost more than just a temporary battle to prop up the dollar.
The market is wary of being caught wrong-footed by a central
bank foray, but is no longer mesmerized.
    "They've lost their credibility. The market feels it can
take on the central banks and win," said Michael Snow, head of
treasury operations at Union Bank of Switzerland in New York.
    The relative failure of recent intervention stands in sharp
contrast to the success that central banks scored when they
joined forces to drive the dollar down following the September
22, 1985, Plaza accord.
    Then, however, central banks had an easy time of it,
because the markets and the Treasuries of the major industrial
powers were agreed that the dollar needed to head lower to
redress massive worldwide trade imbalances.
    Now, there is no such consensus. The market is saying that
the dollar must fall further because the U.S. trade deficit is
showing little sign of improvement, while Japan is resisting in
a bid to protect its export industries.
    For its part, the United States is apparently content to
let the dollar fall gradually further and is paying little more
than lip service to the February Paris agreement of the Group
of Five plus Canada to foster stability, dealers say.
    Specifically, they said the Fed's dollar-buying
intervention has been half-hearted, designed more as a
political gesture to Japan than to strike fear into the
markets. "It's been pro-forma intervention," said Francoise
Soares-Kemp, chief corporate trader at Credit Lyonnais.
    Because of this discord and the market's momentum for a
lower dollar, analysts said intervention looks doomed to fail.
    "It's going to take a lot more than the central banks to
hold the dollar (at these levels)," said Snow, who predicts
another 10 to 15 pct depreciation.
    "There have to be structural changes that occur to make the
market stop selling dollars," added "Buying six billion dollars
in three weeks is not going to do it."
    Late last decade during the presidency of Jimmy Carter,
when the dollar was last under heavy speculative attack,
central banks sometimes intervened to the tune of six billion
dlrs in a single day but still failed to stop the dollar
falling to a record low of 1.70 marks, analysts said.
    Snow said purchases on that scale now are unlikely. "I
don't think anybody has the stomach for it, because they saw
the futility of it in the seventies."
    Indeed, because the market has grown in leaps and bound
since then, intervention on an even greater scale would
probably be needed to impress the market.
    Trading volume in London, New York and Tokyo alone last
year averaged nearly 188 billion dlrs a day, according to a
joint central bank study, about double the previous estimate
made just two years earlier by the Group of Thirty private
research group.
    There are signs that central banks, too, realize the
futility of swimming against the tide.
    Bank of Japan sources told Reuters in Tokyo earlier this
week that they believed the limits of currency market
intervention are perhaps being reached and that other methods
for bolstering the dollar, such as invoking currency swap
agreements with other central banks, are being considered.
    "In this era of financial liberalization, it's almost
one senior official in Tokyo said.
 Reuter

Michaels Stores Inc said March
sales were up 19.2 pct to 7,823,000 dlrs from 6,564,000 dlrs a
year earlier, with same-store sales up 2.7 pct.
    The company noted that Easter sales fell in March last year
and are falling in April this year.
 Reuter

CTC Dealer Holdings Ltd said <Canadian
Tire Corp Ltd> controlling shareholders Alfred, David and
Martha Billes did not extend an agreement expiring yesterday to
tender their shares only to CTC's previously reported offer for
49 pct of Canadian Tire common shares.
    CTC, which already holds 17.4 pct of Canadian Tire common,
said it would therefore not take up any shares tendered under
its offer unless they totaled at least 1.1 mln or another 32.7
pct of Canadian Tire common. The Billes control 60 pct of
Canadian Tire common. It added that it extended its offer to
May 11 at a fixed price of 165.36 dlrs a share.
    CTC, a group of Canadian Tire dealers, said it expected to
know by May 11 if it would obtain approval to appeal a
previously reported Ontario court ruling upholding a regulatory
decision to block CTC's offer.
    The dealers' bid was previously blocked by the Ontario
Securities Commission because the offer excluded holders of
Canadian Tire class A non-voting shares, which make up about 96
pct of company equity.
 Reuter

HUTTON LBO EXTENDS EXPIRATION FOR 35 DLR/SHR OFFER FOR
PUROLATOR TO APRIL 6 FROM TODAY

CONRAC SAYS IT IS MULLING RESTRUCTURING OR BUYOUT AS
ALTERNATIVES

General Hydrocarbons Inc said
claims aggregating over one mln dlrs related to liens and
alleging title deficiencies have been made against the escrow
fund holding its assets for distribution.
    It said the record date for the distribution will be
delayed until the claims are resolved.
    The company said it believes many of the claims are
overstated or without merit. It said the resolution may not
occur before April 30.
    General Hydrocarbons' assets now consist of cash and
Montana Power Co <MTP> shares.
 Reuter

Morrison-Knudsen Corp said Black
River Constructors, a joint venture with Martin Eby and a
subsidiary of Hunt Corp, has received a 517-mln-dlr
construction contract from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
    The work includes the construction of more than 70
buildings and associated infrastructure to accommodate the
Army's new 10th Mountain Division.
    In a press release, Rep. David O'B. Martin, N.Y., said the
awarding of the contract is subject to Congressional review.
Morrison-Knudsen said the contract represents the largest Army
construction in this country since World War II.
    Congress has authorized and appropriated 610 mln dlrs for
the project, the company said.
    If everything continues on schedule, work on the Ft. Drum,
N.Y. site is expected to begin later this month and is
scheduled for completion by early 1991, the company said.
    Martin said that an additional 50 mln dlrs in contracts to
small and disadvantaged businesses will be announced later.

 Reuter

President Reagan's move to impose
stiff tariffs on Japanese goods stems from deep U.S.
frustration over Japan's trade policy, and he has no intention
of calling off the sanctions, trade analysts said.
    U.S. officials put down any idea of delaying imposing the
300 mln dlrs in tariffs, despite seemingly contradictory
comments by some Administration aides.
    And, they add, a visit here next week by Japanese trade
officials and a visit to Tokyo by a senior State Department
official will likely do nothing to change U.S. minds.
    "Do not expect the problem to be resolved or the sanctions
not to go into effect," said a senior U.S. trade official.
    Reagan last Friday announced that on April 17 he would
raise tariffs on certain Japanese exports to penalize Japan for
breaking a 1986 pact governing trade in semiconductors.
    The United States says the Japanese have not lived up to
their pledge to stop dumping semiconductors in third country
markets at less than production costs or to open their home
market to U.S. semiconductors. Semiconductors - tiny silicon
memory chips - are integral components of modern electronic
goods ranging from television sets and personal computers to
guidance systems on aircraft.
    Some U.S. officials had hinted that the United States and
Japan might come to terms on their semiconductor dispute in
time to cancel the planned tariffs, but this has now been
dismissed by other senior officials.
    They noted that negotiations over compliance with the pact
had been going on for several months, with little success.
    Japanese firms this week announced plans to cut chip output
and increase U.S. chip imports, but U.S. officials said Japan's
move was too late to stave off the American tariffs.
    The tariffs are to be imposed after a period of public
comment, but Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige and other
officials have said neither the comment period or the U.S. and
Japanese trade talks will serve to delay the tariffs.
    Baldrige predicted the dispute would be resolved, but said
"I'm sure the sanctions will go in before we work it out."
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that while he
hoped something could be done to hold off the sanctions, "it
probably is not likely."
    And U.S. Trade Represenative Clayton Yeutter predicted that
Japan would not be able to comply with the pact in time to hold
off the new tariffs on goods including personal computers,
television sets, power tools and electric motors.
    Trade analysts said that in any case, the U.S.-Japanese
semiconductor dispute was only one of many and trade frictions
that will continue until Japan ended a policy of predatory
pricing and opened its home market to foreign goods.
    Other disputes include Japanese prevention of U.S. firms
from taking part in building a new eight billion dlr airport
near Osaka and selling a wide variety of goods in Japan,
including many agriculture products.
    A new trade row has now arisen over a Japanese decision to
limit foreign participation in its telecommunication market.
    U.S. officials have said the American telecommunications
market is open to foreign firms and it was only fair trade to
open the Japanese market to 33 per cent foreign participation,
as Japan had previously agreed.
    Britain has also protested the Japanese limitations.
    American and Japanese negotiators are meeting to try to
resolve the issue, officials said, but there was no sign of any
early settlement.
 Reuter

A and W Brands Inc said it
Commission for a proposed public offering of 3,400,000 shares
of common.
    The company anticipates that the price of the offering will
range between 13 dlrs and 15 dlrs a share.
    It said the offering is expected in mid May through a group
of underwriters managed by First Boston Corp and Montgomery
Securities.
    It said it will use the proceeds to repay its debt.
 Reuter

said that on financial issues, the United States and France had
"very close" views, and he said Treasury Secretary James Baker
was determined to support the February 22 Paris agreement on
stabilizing foreign exchange parities.
    "I was very reassured by the determination of Mr. Baker to
support this agreement," he said.
    He described the dollar's sharp fall against the yen at the
start of the week as a "passing incident" and added, "Everyone is
resolved to support the Paris accord."
    Questioned about his plan to help the world's poorest
countries, Chirac said he did not envisage any large-scale debt
write-offs.
    "I don't think we can talk of write-offs - even the poorest
countries have not asked for that," he said.
    Chirac said he wanted commercial banks to give third world
countries better terms in rescheduling their debts, and for the
International Monetary Fund to soften its conditions.
    "One cannot pity the banks - they bear a lot of
responsibility due to the encouragement they gave to these
countries to take on debts. Now the banks are complaining but I
do not weep for them."
 Reuter

Conrac Corp, whose board has
rejected a 25 dlr a share tender offer from Mark IV Industries
Inc <IV>, said it is exploring alternatives such as a
restructuring, leveraged buyout or takeover of the company.
     In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Conrac said its board of directors authorized its financial and
legal advisors to explore a several alternatives to the Mark IV
offer, which it said it considers inadequate.
    The alternatives being explored include a restructuring,
leveraged buyout or a takeover of the company by another
company, Conrac said.
    Conrac, which said its board discussed the alternatives at
special meetings on March 26 and 30, said that its decision on
whether to adopt any of the alternatives would hinge on "the
future actions of Mark IV" and its unsolicitied tender offer.
    Putting into effect any of the alternatives being explored
could hurt or defeat the Mark IV offer, it said.
    Board members were also instructed to keep confidential the
terms of any transaction that might be entered into until it
becomes final, the company said.
    The board also took other defensive steps, including
granting severance agreements to some officers, it said.
    At a board meeting yesterday, Concac's directors deleted a
provision allowing the holder of at least one-third of of all
classes of its voting stock to call a special shareholders
meeting and deleted another provision allowing shareholders to
remove directors without cause, the company said.
    The defensive moves were taken because Mark IV had said it
planned to elect a majority of its designees as directors at a
special holders meeting if it succeeded in acquring a majority
of the company's common stock in the offer, Conrac said.
    Conrac's president, vice president and treasurer were given
severance agreements, or "golden parachutes," it said.
    Under the agreements, Conrac President Paul Graf would get
a cash payment of twice his annual salary, which was 209,906
dlrs last year, if there were a change of control in the
company, including acquisition of 30 pct or more of the
company's voting stock, Conrac said.
    Treasurer Joseph Smorada and Vice President Joseph
O'Donnell, who made 143,325 dlrs last year, would get
one-and-a-half times his salary if there were a change in
control. Smorada's salary was not listed in the SEC filing.
    The executives would also get cash settlements of options
plans and continuation of insurance and other benefits.
 Reuter

of Chemical New York Corp, and Marine Midland Banks Inc said
they were raising the prime lending rate to 7-3/4 pct from
    In St Louis, Mercantile Bancorp said its Mercantile Bank
N.A. was also raising its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2
pct, effective immediately.
    The changes follow similar cuts yesterday by Citicorp and
Chase Manhattan.
 Reuter

Webcor Electronics Inc said
its principal creditor, its bank, has demanded payment of all
Webcor obligations to it.
    Webcor said as previously announced it has failed to make
payments to the bank and is also in technical default of loan
agreement covenants.
    It said to date it has been unable to restructure its
obligations to the bank and is now evaluating its options.
    Webcor said the <American Stock Exchange> is evaluating
Webcor's continued listing eligibility.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.65 dlrs vs loss 2.31 dlrs
    Net loss 14.3 mln vs loss 12.5 mln
    Revs 2,887,000 vs 5,321,000
    Year
    Shr loss 4.38 dlrs vs loss 2.50 dlrs
    Net loss 23.7 mln vs loss 13.5 mln
    Revs 13.2 mln vs 22.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes oil and natural gas writedowns of
12.1 mln dlrs in quarter and 19.0 mln dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs one dlr
    Net 25.1 mln vs 46.8 mln
    Sales 1.21 billion vs 1.08 billion
    Note: 1986 excludes extraordinary gain of 1.1 mln dlrs, or
two cts per share, from public issue of affiliate's shares.
 Reuter

Callon Petroleum Co said its
auditors will qualify their opinion on 1986 financial
statements due to questions about Callon's ability to continue
as a going concern.
    The company said negotiations to restructure its debt and
allow for continued operations are proceeding.
    Today it reported a loss for 1986 of 4.20 dlrs per share,
compared with a year earlier loss of 4.71 dlrs.
 Reuter

executive board meeting will end tomorrow without any move to
reopen the debate on restoring coffee export quotas, delegates
said.
    Talks have focused on administrative matters and
verification of stocks in producer countries, they said.
    Producers met briefly today to exchange views on the market
situation but there seems little chance discussion on quotas
will begin much before the ICO's annual council session in
September, they said.
    Delegates earlier thought the meeting would end tonight,
but a further session is scheduled tomorrow at 1030 GMT to
complete reports on stock verification.
    Meantime, the executive board will meet May 12 to discuss
possible action on the consultancy report on the ICO presented
today to the board, consumer delegates said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 64 cts vs 97 cts
    Oper net 845,000 vs 1,285,000
    Revs 20.0 mln vs 23 mln
    NOTE: 1986 and 1985 oper net excludes gain of 315,000 dlrs
and 585,000 dlrs, respectively, for extraordinary item.
 Reuter

Shr loss 40 cts vs loss 4.72 dlrs
    Net loss 3,321,000 vs loss 42.0 mln
    Revs 4,002,000 vs 7,788,000
    Avg shrs 9,168,522 vs 8,974,355
    Year
    Shr loss 4.20 dlrs vs loss 4.71 dlrs
    Net loss 37.2 mln vs loss 41.1 mln
    Revs 18.4 mln vs 34.1 mln
    Avg shrs 9,168,522 vs 8,991,184
 Reuter

County Savings Bank said
its board declared a five pct stock dividend, payable April 10
to shareholders of record today.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group's E.F. Hutton LBO Inc
unit said it extended the expiration date for its 35 dlr per
share tender offer for Purolator Courier corp to midnight EST
April six from midnight April one.
    E.F. Hutton lbo inc said its wholly owned PC Acquisition
Inc subsidiary, which is the entity making the offer, extended
both expiration date and the withdrawal rights period for its
pending tender for 6.3 mln shares or 83 pct of Purolator
common.
    Hutton's offer was topped today by a 40 dlr per share bid
for 83 pct of the stock from Emery Air Frieght Corp <EAF.>
    Both offers would pay shareholders a package of securities
for the balance of their shares, valued at the respective
tender offer prices.
    Hutton said as of the end of the day yesterday, about
880,000 shares of Purolator common stock repesenting 11.5 pct
of outstanding shares had been validly tendered and not
    Manhattan supreme court justice Lewis Grossman today
adjourned until Monday a hearing on a stockholder suit seeking
to block the Hutton LBO transaction. The judge told attorneys
he needed time to hear other cases.
    Plaintiffs cited their belief that a superior offer would
be forthcoming, however one company mentioned in an affadavit,
Interlink Express plc, denied that it was interested.
    Yesterday, Frank Hoenemeyer, a retired vice chairman of
Prudential Insurance Co and currently a Purolator board member,
said an initial offer from Hutton was rejected by the board of
directors February third.
    Hoenemeyer testified that by the next meeting of the board,
February 17, Hutton submitted a revised proposal which was
accepted.
    He also testified a committee of directors had hired
Goldman Sachs and Co to consider alternatives to the Hutton
offer and also to consider a discussion of possible mergers
with other companies including Emery and Federal Express Corp
<FDX>.
 Reuter

<Bank of Nova Scotia> said it would
apply for a common share listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
    The bank, Canada's fourth largest, said it expected its
listing to occur later this year. It said Nomura Securities Co
Ltd, of Tokyo, would sponsor its application.

 Reuter

U.S. farmers who reorganize their
operations to circumvent a cap on federal payments could add
2.3 billion dlrs to the cost of the government's agricultural
programs by 1989, the General Accounting Office, GAO, said.
    "We estimate that should the trend in farm reorganizations
continue, reorganizations since 1984 could be adding almost 900
mln dlrs annually to program costs by 1989," GAO Senior
Associate Director Brian Crowley said.
    "Cumulative costs for the six-year period, 1984 to 1989,
could approach 2.3 billion dlrs," he said.
    Between 1984 and 1986, reorganizations added almost 9,000
new persons to U.S. Agriculture Department payment rolls,
Crowley told the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Wheat,
Soybeans and Feedgrains.
    The GAO said at least part of the recent proliferation of
reorganizations was attributable to farmers' efforts to avoid
payment limits, although exactly how many subdivisions were
prompted by that concern were impossible to determine.
    Crowley said the two areas of primary concern were the
formation of corporations and the renting of farmland for cash
by individuals, partnerships or joint ventures with a large
number of participants.
    Subcommittee Chairman Dan Glickman, D-Kan., said evidence
that a "few bad apples" were using imaginative techniques to
skirt the payment limit jeopardized the "political credibility"
of U.S. farm programs.
    Without elaborating, Glickman said the committee would
consider legislation to "ensure than no one is tarnishing the
good name and the political support and popular support which
American agriculture so richly deserves."
    To improve the effectiveness of payment caps, Congress
could require that payments made to corporations, limited
partnerships or trusts be attributed to the individual payment
limitation of persons who are shareholders, members or
beneficiaries of those entities, Crowley said.
    "Attribution could be made at some specified level of
ownership interest such as five or ten pct," Crowley said.
    Currently, such entities qualify for an individual 50,000
dlr payment as long as no stockholder owns or controls more
than 50 pct of the stock.
    Crowley also suggested that payments could be restricted to
persons actively engaged in farming in some manner other than
just supplying financing.
    The Reagan administration proposed similar changes in
legislation it sent to Congress last month.
    Crowley said the GAO investigation uncovered problems with
USDA's administration of the payment limitation that
contributed to "the creation of new persons through
reorganization that are of questionable validity."
    Specifically, USDA county offices have inconsistently
applied a regulation requiring a reorganization to involve a
"substantive" change in the farming operation in order for any
new persons to qualify for payments.
    In addition, GAO found USDA officials in California were
incorrectly interpreting regulations relating to financing of
general partnership operations.
    Crowley also reported that in 401 U.S. counties having
about 90 pct of all foreign-owned cropland for all major crops,
total farm payments to foreign owners were 6.2 mln dlrs in 1984
and 7.7 mln in 1985.
    However, payments in 1985 represented only about 0.4 pct of
all payments made in the 401 counties, he said.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp said it completed
the sale of its Consumer Trust Services division to Well Fargo
and Co <WFC>, a transaction that will result in a second
quarter pre-tax gain of more than 75 mln dlrs.
    The sale will not affect the services the bank will
continue providing to institutional customers through its
Employee Benefit Trust Services Division, BankAmerica also
said.
    In a separate announcement, Wells Fargo said the
acquisition will increase the amount of personal trust assets
it administers to 25 billion dlrs.
    Last December BankAmerica and Wells Fargo announced a
definitive agreement on the sale at a price of about 100 mln
dlrs, subject to adjustment.
 Reuter

Fresh, heavy rains caused further
damage to the Argentine 1986/87 coarse grains crop in the week
to yesterday, particularly in Buenos Aires province, trade
    They said the sunflower, maize, soybean and sorghum crops
were damaged and yield estimates affected. New production
forecasts were made for all these crops.
    The rains over the weekend and up to yesterday registered
more than 200 mm on average in western Buenos Aires and
worsened the flooding in various parts of the province.
    The weather bureau said the rains, which in Buenos Aires
have surpassed 750 mm in the last 30 days, could continue.
    The northeast of the country was also hit by heavy rains.
    In Corrientes province the rains also passed an average of
200 mm in some parts, notably the Paso de los Libres area
bordering on Uruguay.
    In Santa Fe and Entre Rios provinces they were over 100 mm
in places, in Misiones and San Luis 90 mm and in Cordoba 80 mm.
    The rains were less intense in Chaco and Formosa.
    Harvesting in areas not actually under water could also be
further delayed due to dampness in the earth, the sources said.
    The excessive humidity might also produce rotting of the
crops, further dimishing the yield, the sources added.
    Sunflower harvesting before the weekend rains reached 26 to
30 pct of the area sown in Santa Fe, Cordoba, La Pampa and
Buenos Aires provinces.
    The production forecast for 1986/87 sunflowerseed has been
lowered to between 2.2 and 2.4 mln tonnes, against 2.3 to 2.6
mln tonnes the previous week, making it 41.5 to 46.3 pct lower
than the record 4.1 mln tonnes produced last season.
    The area sown was two to 2.2 mln hectares, down 29.9 to
36.3 pct on the record 3.14 mln hectares in 1985/86.
    The maize harvest advanced to within 26 to 28 pct of the
area sown in Cordoba, Santa Fe and northern Buenos Aires. It
will begin in La Pampa within about 10 days, weather
permitting.
    Maize yield this season is now estimated at 9.6 to 9.9 mln
tonnes, against last week's 9.9 to 10.1 mln tonnes, down 21.4
to 22.6 pct on the 12.4 to 12.6 mln tonnes at which private
producers put 1985/86 production.
    The new forecast is 22.7 to 25 pct down on the official
figure of 12.8 mln tonnes for last season's production.
    The grain sorghum harvest reached 17 to 19 pct of growers'
targets, against 14 to 16 pct the previous week.
    The production forecast was reduced to between three and
3.3 mln tonnes, against 3.2 to 3.5 mln tonnes last week, 21.4
to 26.8 pct down on last season's 4.1 to 4.2 mln tonnes.
    The area sown with sorghum in 1986/87 was 1.23 to 1.30 mln
hectares, down 10.3 to 15.2 pct on the 1.45 mln in 1985/86.
    The forecast for soybean yield this season was the least
changed in relation to last week. It was put at a record 7.5 to
7.7 mln tonnes, against the previous 7.5 to 7.8 mln tonnes.
    These figures are 4.2 to 5.5 pct higher than last season's
record of 7.2 to 7.3 mln tonnes, according to private sources,
and 5.6 to 8.5 pct up on the official 7.1 mln tonnes.
    The adjustment to the production forecast is due to the
rains and overcast conditions which have greatly reduced the
sunlight needed for this crop, sources said.
    Producers fear estimates may yet have to be adjusted down
further.
    The humidity could induce rotting and growers are still
finding more empty pods due to excessively dry weather earlier
in the season.
    Soybean harvesting is due to start in mid-April in southern
Cordoba and Santa Fe and northern Buenos Aires.
 Reuter

Rio Grande/Azores and Leixoes 26,000 mt
hss 14 dlrs basis one to two 4,000/1,500 Azores and 3,500
Leixoes 25/4-5/5.
    Paranagua/one-two ports Spanish Med 35,000 mt hss 11.50
dlrs basis one to one 10 days all purposes 20-30/4.
    USG/Taiwan 54,000 mt hss 10,000 shex/4,000 shex 20/4-5/5.
    USG/ARA-Ghent option Seaforth 40,000/45,000 long tons hss
10 days all purposes 9-15/4 try later.
    Dieppe/one-two ports Italian Adriatic 9,500/11,000 mt bulk
wheat 3,000/2,000 6-12/4.
    St Lawrence/one-three ports Marseilles-Manfredonia range
20,000/35,000 mt bulk wheat 5,000/222,500 10-15/4.
    Chimbote/Kaohsiung 9,500 mt bulk/bagged fishmeal 250 ph/200
ph 20/4-5/5.
    Immingham or Foynes/Red Sea 25,000 mt bulk barley
4,000/3,000 10-15/4 alternatively try t/c.
    USG/Maracaibo 10,000 mt wheat (three grades) three
days/1,000 1-15/4.
 Reuter

Rotterdam/Karachi
20,000/21,000 mt shredded scrap 7,000/1,100 15-30/4.
    Bin Qasim/Shanghai 25,000 mt pig iron 1,500 fhex/1,200 shex
1-10/4.
    Chungjin/Manila 4,200 mt steel coils 800/liner discharge
23-30/4.
    Bilbao/one port Vietnam 5,000 mt steels fio 1,000/500 end
April
    Singapore/Mizushima 6,000/10,000 mt steel scrap fiot
1,200/3,00 2-12/4.
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 119,000 vs profit 637,000
    Revs 17.5 mln vs 15.8 mln
 Reuter

South Africa/Salvador, Brazil
15,000 long tons manganese ore 2,500/1,500 end April.
    Callao/Crotone 5,000 mt minerals 4,000/2,000 spot.
    Geraldton/Tampico 13,500 mt bulk mineral sands fio
10,000/2,000 1-10/5.
    Itea/Dunkirk 20,000 mt bauxite seven days all purposes
10-13/4.
    Tampico/North Spain 15,000 mt ore two days shinc/3,000 shex
5-25/4.
    One port German North Sea/USG 10,500 mt bulk ore
2,500/4,000 7-13/4.
 Reuter

NP Energy Corp said its bankruptcy
court will appoint a trustee to oversee the company's
two-year-old bankruptcy proceedings.
    A spokesman for the company said the trustee, who has yet
to be named, will also look into the conflict of interest
problems that have arisen during the proceedings.
    He said both NP Energy and its unsecured creditors had
request that a trustee be appointed.
    In addition, the spokesman said the company had put into
production an oil well in the Altamont Bluebell Field, Utah.
The well is producing 300 barrels a day, he said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss two cts vs loss 13 cts
    Oper net loss 236,000 vs loss 1,131,000
    Revs 26.6 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit two cts vs loss 15 cts
    Oper net profit 286,000 vs loss 1,292,000
    Revs 105.3 mln vs 95.3 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes discontinued operations gain 20,000 dlrs
vs loss 1,291,000 dlrs in quarter and gain 60,000 dlrs vs loss
1,590,000 dlrs in year.
    Net excludes extraordinary loss 38,000 dlrs vs gain
1,941,000 dlrs in quarter and gains 162,000 dlrs vs 1,941,000
    1986 net both periods includes writedowns of 290,000 dlrs
of oil-related seismic data.
 Reuter

Aydin Corp said it has received a
five-year 54 mln dlr contract from the U.S. Air Force for
production of nine An/MST-T1A Multiple Threat Emitter System
ground-based emitter simulators.
    It said if all options are exercised, the contract will be
worth a total of 78 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Sarlen and Associates Inc
said it completed its private placement of 12.5 mln dlrs of
five-year eight pct senior subordinated notes with warrants to
purchase common and 2.5 mln dlrs of 12 pct series A preferred
with warrants to purchase common.
    It said a portion of the proceeds was used to finance its
acquisition of Gleason Security Services Inc and Gleason Plant
Security Inc.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs profit four cts
    Net loss 365,430 vs profit 165,508
    Revs 5,577,244 vs 4,643,803
    NOTE: 1986 net includes nonrecurring expenses of 408,518
dlrs.
 Reuter

Nuclear Metals Inc said it has
received a 6,300,000 dlr U.S. Army contract for 105 millimeter
depleted uranium penetrators used as ammunition for the M-1
tank.
 Reuter

Ausimont Compo NV said it has
sold the assets of its Equipment and Machinery Division for
about six mln dlrs to an investment group including the unit's
management, resulting in a modest pretax gain that will be
included in first quarter results.
    The unit had sales of five mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Atlantic Research corp said it
has completed the acquisition of professional services firm ORI
Group for 1,414,313 common shares on a pooling of interests
basis.
 Reuter

<Peabody Holding Co Inc> said it has
completed its acquisition of substantially all Eastern Gas and
Fuel Associate's <EFU> coal properties for 15.01 pct of Peabody
Holding's stock.
    Peabody said the purchase includes seven underground mines
and seven coal preparation plants currently operated by
Eastern, as well as coal properties being mined by several
contractors in West Virginia.
    The acquisition also involves about 800 mln tons of coal
reserves, mostly in West Va., and includes Eastern's coal
reserves and inactive Powderhorn operations near Palisade,
Colo, Peabody said.
    Peabody added that it expects to announce within the next
week how it will staff and operate the properties and offices
it has acquired from Eastern.
 Reuter

Delfzyl/India 14,700 mt
bagged sugar about 30 dlrs 750/1,000 ppt a/c Benham.
    Antwerp/Lagos 12,000 mt bagged sugar 750/750 try liner
discharge 5-20/4 a/c E D and F Man.
    T/C single or tweendecker 16,000/19,000 tonnes dw del
Queensland mid-April/early-May for trip with bulk sugar redel
China duration about 30 to 40 days a/c Kawasaki.
    One port A-H range/Dubai 6,800 mt bagged sugar 750/750
10-15/4 a/c unnamed charterer.
    enquiries - Rouen-Hamburg/India 14,000 mt bagged sugar
750/1,000 15-25/4 a/c Woodhouse, Drake and Carey.
    Flushing/Hodeidah and Mokha 16,800 mt bagged sugar 750/750
9-15/4 Genoc.
    Santos/Hodeidah 10,000 mt bagged sugar about 30 dlrs
750/750 20-30/4 a/c Dutch charterer.
    Cargill is reported to have withdrawn its enquiries for
cargoes from South Korea to India, from Constanza to India and
from Buenaventura to the U.S.
 Reuter

U.S. Labor Secretary William Brock said he
expects to see healthy employment growth through the beginning
of next year.
    "I expect we'll have continued strong job creation through
1987 and into early 1988," Brock told reporters prior to a
speech here.
    Brock cited yesterday's strong rise in the February index
of leading economic indicators as a signal for further strong
employment gains.
    January non-farm payroll jobs grew by 319,000 and February
was up 337,000 jobs. March data will be released Friday.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs loss 76 cts
    Net loss 343,748 vs loss 4.0 mln
    Revs 5.1 mln vs 4.8 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 12 cts vs loss 1.45 dlr
    Net profit 611,784 vs loss 7.7 mln
    Revs 21.6 mln vs 19.7 mln
 Reuter

FED SAYS IT BUYS 550 MLN DLRS OF BILLS FOR CUSTOMER, MAY
THROUGH SEPT 24 MATURITY

told U.S. congressmen France would announce a decision in two
to three weeks on which group is to control its second largest
communications firm, Compagnie Generale de Construction
Telphoniques, French sources said.
    They said Chirac promised that France's decision would be
based on financial, economic and technical criteria, and not on
political grounds.
    U.S. and German companies are the leading contenders to
take control of CGCT.
    The Reagan administration has warned France and Germany
that it may retaliate if control of the company is awarded on
    Jacques Delors, President of the European Community's
Executive Commission, called last month for control to go to
West Germany's Siemens AG in order to strengthen European
industry.
    The other leading contender is a consortium of American
Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> with Philips NV of the
    Chirac said France would make public its reasons for
awarding control, the sources said. He was asked about the
company's fate on two occasions, in meetings with leaders of
the Senate and House of Representatives.
 Reuter

there was a backlog of 41 ships waiting to enter the canal
             4/01  4/02
                       Due: 34    34
      Scheduled to Transit: 41    39
           End-Day Backlog: 34    29

 North End:  25 hrs      11 hrs
 South End:  24 hrs      31 hrs
 Reuter

The Australian Stock Exchange Ltd (ASX)
Reuters.
 REUTER

Pacific Gas and Electric Co's plan
to change its accounting methods for nuclear plant revenues,
together with the prospect of higher higher domestic interest
rates, helped push the company's stock price down 2-1/8 to 22,
utility analysts and company executives said.
    Pacific Gas said yesterday that a change in the method for
accounting for its Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant revenues
will result in a 470 mln dlr reduction in 1987 earnings.
    The company also said it intends to continue paying its
common stock dividend at the current annual rate of 1.92 dlrs
per share.
    But the move also means that the company is not likely to
increase its dividend for perhaps as long as three years, said
Mark Luftig, an analyst at Salomon Brothers Inc.
    "Anybody looking for a dividend increase has been
dissapointed (by the announcement)," Luftig said.
    Pacific Gas has raised its common stock dividend on a
regular basis for the past 10 years, a company spokeswoman
said.
    In addition, she also pointed out that prospects for higher
interest rates may also be affecting Pacific Gas trading
activity.
    Citicorp <CCI> and Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> yesterday
increased their prime lending rates to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2
pct. It was the first rate increase by the big banks in nearly
    Utility earnings are sensitive to interest rate increases
because of the high levels of borrowings needed to finance
ongoing construction projects.
    Despite the market reaction, First Boston Corp analyst
Arlene Barnes applauded the Pacific Gas decision.
    "This is a very prudent move on management's part," said
Barnes.
    Rather than using accounting tools to reflect income it is
not taking in, the company will now account for only the 40 pct
of the cost of owning and operating the plant that regulators
are allowing in the form of interim rate relief, Barnes said.
    Pacific Gas had been carrying the other 60 pct as a
deferred cash receivable and accounted for the non-cash item as
income.
    "They'll take the hit this year, but at least we'll be
looking at an honest earnings picture," Barnes also said.
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 152,000 vs profit 214,000
    Revs 6.2 mln vs 2.4 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 22 cts vs profit 33 cts
    Net profit 809,000 vs 853,000
    Revs 22.4 mln vs 7.9 mln
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve bought about 550
mln dlrs of U.S. Treasury bills for a customer, a spokeswoman
said.
    She said the Fed bought bills maturing from May through
September 24 for regular delivery tomorrow.
    Federal funds were trading at 6-3/16 pct when the Fed
announced the operation.
 Reuter

Qtly div 32 cts vs 32 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Qtrly div 11 cts vs 11 cts
 Reuter

Itel Corp said it has completed the
previously-announced acquisition of the container fleet and
related assets of Castle and Cooke Inc's Flexi-Van Leasing Inc
subsidiary for about 130 mln dlrs in cash and marketable
securities, 30 mln dlrs in notes, three mln common shares and
the assumption of liabilities.
    The company said it has obtained 150 mln dlrs in financing
from a bank group for the deal, and the common shares are
subject to a 10-year restriction on their sale and voting.
 Reuter

4th qtr
    Shr 14 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 210,000 vs 211,000
    Revs 230,000 vs 229,000
    Year
    Shr 56 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 838,000 vs 841,000
    Revs 919,000 vs 919,000
 Reuter

    A visit here next week by Japanese trade officials and a
visit to Tokyo by a senior State Department official will
likely do nothing to change the U.S. decision, they added.
    Some U.S. officials had hinted the United States and Japan
might settle their dispute in time to hold off the tariffs, but
this has now been dismissed by other senior officials.
comment, but Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said any
settlement would probably come too late to delay the tariffs.
    U.S. Trade Represenative Clayton Yeutter predicted Japan
would not be able to comply with the pact in time to hold off
the new tariffs on goods including personal computers,
    Trade analysts said that in any case the U.S.-Japanese
semiconductor dispute was only one of many, and trade frictions
will continue until Japan ended a policy of predatory pricing
and opened its home market to foreign goods.
including an array of agricultural products.
    A new row has now arisen over Japan's decision to severely
open the Japanese market to 33 pct foreign participation, as
Japan had previously agreed.
 Reuter

Topps Co Inc said it has filed for an
initial public offering of 4,500,000 common shares, including
3,500,000 shares to be sold by shareholders.
    It said lead underwriters are <Goldman, Sachs and Co> and
Alex. Brown and Sons Inc <ABSB> and the underwriting group has
been granted an option to buy up to 675,000 more shares to
cover overallotments.  The initial offering price is expected
to be 15 to 18 dlrs a share, and proceeds will be used for debt
reduction, it said.
    Topps had been public once before but went private in a
leveraged buyout in 1984.
 Reuter

Digital Communications Associates Inc
said the U.S. District Court issued a ruling prohibiting
<Softklone Distributing Corp> from selling a software product
that Digital claimed violates one of its copyrights.
    The company said no damages were set in the court's ruling.
    "The court has validated our contention that the user
interface and the appearnace of a product is a vital element of
the product and is protectable by U.S. copyright law," the
    Digital said the ruling involved a copyright infringement
suit filed against Softklone by Microstuf Inc, which Digital
acquired in October 1986.
    The suit charged that Softklone's Mirror software product
violated the copyright of Microstuf's CrossTalk program,
Digital said.
 Reuter

Dynalectron Corp said it purchased
certain assets of Standard Aero Inc including leasehold rights
to its aircraft modification and maintenance facility in
Phoenix, Ariz.
    Terms were not released.
    The facility consists of 285,000 square feet of hangar and
shop space. Dynalectron will operate the plan as Dynair Tech
Inc and is offering continued employment to about 460 former
standard Aero employees.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Chevron Corp's domestic oil and
gas unit, Chevron USA, said it will honor American Express
cards at all of the company's Chevron outlets but only some of
its Gulf branded outlets.
    Chevron USA, with more than 15,000 Chevron and Gulf outlets
nationwide, predicted all of its independent dealers will elect
to honor the cards. Because of recent divestitures, Chevron USA
said the agreement does not cover Gulf brand outlets in
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Delaware,
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and New England.
 Reuter

U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Rudolph
Giuliani, who has been leading a major probe into government
corruption and the Mafia, said he was offered a top job at the
    But added he had no plans to take that job.
    Newspaper reports have said Giuliani was offered the
chairmanship of the SEC, but he declined to say what position
he was offered at the federal agency.
    Speaking to reporters after a press conference called to
announce the corruption indictment of a former city official,
Giuliani said he had talks at the White House with chief of
staff Howard Baker last month about the SEC.
    "Right now I am still here. I have no intention of
leaving....This is not a good time for me to leave. I have a
few more months of work to do and I don't think they should
hold a job open for me," Giuliani said in a reference to the
ongoing probes his office is conducting into New York city
corruption and the Mafia.
    He added that he also had feelers from two people as to
whether he would be interested in the FBI director's post and
said he informed them that he was not interested.
 Reuter

Emery Air Freight Corp topped a
leveraged buyout offer for Purolator Courier Corp by about 40
mln dlrs, but Wall Street is reacting as though another offer
may surface.
    Purolator's stock climbed 5-3/8 today, to 40-1/8, 1/4 over
Emery's 40 dlr per share offer. Emery topped a 35 dlr per share
or 268 mln dlr offer from E.F. Hutton LBO Inc.
    Some analysts said the latest, 306 mln dlr offer for
Purolator exceeded their expectations.
    Several analysts previously had said they saw takeover
values for the package delivery company in the 35 dlr per share
range. At least one, however, estimated the company could be
taken over in a range of 38 to 42 dlrs per share.
    Analysts today would not venture to say whether another
offer could be made, but some arbitragers still held to the
belief that the bidding could go higher.
    "They have no choice to seek out the best possible offer.
Emery has shown the courage to go forth," said one arbitrager,
who speculated other courier companies may also emerge as
bidders.
    "It makes sense," said James Parker of Robinson Humphrey.
But "It won't make out as well as they think. They won't get a
100 pct of the synergies."
    Analysts said the acquisition could cost Emery earnings in
the short term, but long term, after eliminating redundancies
and selling other Purolator assets, it should boost Emery's
    Parker said a combined Purolator and Emery would rival
United Parcel Service as the second largest U.S. package
delivery company after Federal Express Corp <FDX>, which has 47
pct of the market.
    Parker speculated that the combined Emery-Purolator would
have about 24 pct of the six to seven billion dlr delivery
business.
    "This will make Emery a bigger factor in the light weight
(delivery) business, but it will not make them a power house,"
said Douglas Arthur of Kidder, Peabody and Co.
    Purolator today declined comment on the Emery offer, and
its chairman Nicholas Brady did not return a phone call.
    E.F.Hutton LBO also declined comment on the Emery offer,
but said it extended the expiration and withdrawal period on
its offer to April six at midnight from today at midnight EST.
    One analyst speculated the extension makes it more likely
Hutton will attempt another offer. However, he was skeptical a
company outside the package delivery industry would want to
outbid 40 dlrs per share because it would not have the same 
synergies as a courier company.
    Since Purolator agreed in late February to a buyout by some
of its management and the E.F. Hutton Group <EFH> subsidiary,
speculation has arisen that more bidding was to come.
    The buyout was surrounded by controversy since a Purolator
board member, Doresy Gardner resigned in March. Gardner said he
believed a better offer could be made by another entity.
    A spokesman for Gardner today said the former director had
no contact with Emery, nor did he have any other buyers lined
up for Purolator.
    Purolator's deal with Hutton was also called into question
by a shareholder suit filed earlier this week, which attempted
to stop the tender offer to allow another bidder to come forth.
Hearings in a New York state court were delayed until Monday.
    Arbitragers had said they believed the Hutton offer could
be bettered because the Wall Street firm was not planning to
keep its cash tied up in Purolator. Hutton is providing a 279
mln dlr "bridge" loan that would later be replaced with other
debt. Hutton would maintain a majority interest in Purolator.
    Hutton sources have said the firm was in fact facing risk n
its investment since it did not know when it could reclaim its
279 mln dlr loan.
    Emery last year lost 5.4 mln dlrs on revenues of 887.5 mln
dlrs. Purolator lost 57.6 mln dlrs on 841.4 mln dlrs in
revenues.
 Reuter

Aid donors have promised Senegal 1.8
billion dlrs in soft loans over the next three years, to be
split between project investment and balance of payment
requirements, the World Bank said in a statement.
    The aid was to support the second phase, running to
mid-1990, of Senegal's "courageous and far-reaching" medium and
long-term adjustment programme.
    Senegal's Plan and Cooperation Minister Cheikh Hamidou Kane
said the country achieved positive growth of 4.2 pct over the
last two years, against negative growth of four pct in 1984,
liquidated its debt arrears and laid the basis of a sound
recovery strategy.
    Aims over the coming years include giving the private
sector a more dynamic role in the economy and rationalising
public sector enterprises.
    He said Senegalese businessmen would make three "regional
trips" to Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Paris, to discuss
the Senegal's "new environment" with western investors.
    Finance Minister Mamoudou Toure said Senegal's global
foreign debt excluding short-term commercial debt came to 800
billion francs cfa (2.67 billion dlrs).
    Citing figures for the budgetary year ending mid-1987 he
deplored the fact debt servicing absorbed 50 pct of Senegal's
budgetary resources, and 27 pct of export revenues.
 Reuter

<Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce>
said it was lowering the interest rate on its Visa credit card
to 15.9 pct from 18.6 pct, effective with the May billing
    The bank said it was also halving its yearly Visa card user
fee to six dlrs, but would retain its 15 ct fee for each
    A bank spokesman said the previously reported call by the
Canadian Parliament's finance committee on March 20 for a
substantial cut in credit card rates "was a factor" in the
move, but he would not elaborate.
    Canada's minister of state for finance Thomas Hockin had
threatened legislation to reduce the rates, which apply to
unpaid balances, if the financial institutions did not
voluntarily act.
    The Canadian Imperial Bank spokesman said "the bank card
market is a very competitive one and we have to move to stay
competitive."
    Canadian Imperial's new rates match those of <Toronto
Dominion Bank>, which lowered its rates before the finance
committee report.
    Canadian Imperial Bank added that cardholders will be
allowed to choose between the 15 ct transaction fee or the six
dlr yearly card fee.
    It will also eliminate the 50 ct minimum monthly
transaction fee, it said.
    Minister of State for Finance, Tom Hockin, said in the
House of Commons today he was "delighted" with the bank's cut
in its credit card rate.
    "I would hope retail stores and other financial
institutions will look to their rates as well," Hockin said
during the daily question period.
 Reuter

First Boston Corp, acting as sole
manager, said it placed 29.4 mln dlrs of taxable power revenue
bonds due 2005 of Platte River Power Authority of Colorado.
    First Boston won the bonds in competitive bidding. It bid
them at an 8-3/8 pct coupon. As the bonds will not be publicly
offered, First Boston declined to give their price and yield.
    The bonds have an average life of 11.5 years and are rated
A-1 by Moody's and A by S/P. Underwriters said 22 firms bid for
them, far more than the number of managers who typically bid
for corporate debt as Wall Street houses are trying to boost
their share of the young taxable municipal debt market.
        
 Reuter

This week's Quebec government auction
of 85 mln dlrs worth of 91-day treasury bills yielded an
average 7.03 pct, up from 6.85 pct last week, a finance
department spokesman said.
    The average price was 98.277.
    This month's government auction of 50 mln dlrs worth of
six-month treasury bills yielded an average 7.32 pct, down from
7.56 pct last month, the spokesman said. The average price was
97.480.
 Reuter

said it has received all regulatory approvals needed to change
its name to TPI Enterprises Inc.
 Reuter

Nissan Motor Co Ltd of Japan said it
expects that it was profitable in the second half ended
yesterday after a first half operating loss of 17 billion yen.
    Nissan chief financial officer Atsushi Muramatsu, in a
speech before an automotive seminar, said he attributed the
improvement to cost reductions and rationalizations of
    He said if exchange rates stabilize, Nissan will have a
strong profit recovery in fiscal 1988 and profits for fiscal
1989 better than those before the yen started advancing.
    Muramatsu said Nissan is studying the possibility of
setting up its own finance company to improve access to U.S.
and European capital markets.
 Reuter

(Geoffrion Leclerc Inc), in reporting
sharply higher earnings for the six months ended February 28,
said it expects third quarter results to continue at a strong
pace and approximate the preceding quarters.
    The brokerage firm earlier reported six month profit rose
to 3.5 mln dlrs from 1.9 mln dlrs last year. It did not detail
second quarter profit.
 Reuter

Rumors that New York investor Asher
Edelman has acquired a stake in Polaroid Corp and optimism
about tomorrow's status hearing on the patent infringement suit
pending with Eastman Kodak Co <EK> sent Polaroid's stock
higher, traders said.
    Polaroid rose 1-1/8 to 74-1/2.
    "Speculation that Edelman was going to take a stake in
Polaroid was kicking around a few months ago, and resurfaced
today," one trader said.
    Edelman had no comment on the rumors.
    A spokesman for Polaroid said the company had not been
contacted by Edelman and no filing had been made with the
Securities and Exchange Commission about a stake in the
company.
    "There is some hope among investors that there will some
progress in the status hearing tomorrow on the patent
infringement suit with Kodak," analyst Michael Ellmann of
Wertheim and Co said.
    Traders said it is conceivable that a trial date could be
set or some progress made on an out-of-court settlement.
    The suit, filed by Polaroid in April 1976, charges that
Kodak infringed upon Polaroid's instant camera patent. In
October 1985, the court barred Kodak from selling cameras or
film that infringe upon the patent, the Polaroid spokesman
said.
    Ellmann said he feels it is highly unlikely that any
progress will be made in tomorrow's hearing.
    Ellmann said the stock may have also gotten a boost today
from some optimism concerning new products the company is
currently working on.
    "Polaroid's announcement that a particularly senior company
executive had been chosen to work on a major unidentified new
product spurred some speculation about their products," he
said. "I am speculating that the new product could be an
electronic still camera," referring to a camera that records
its images on magnetic disks as opposed to conventional film.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 8,824,000 vs 4,555,000
    Revs 301.9 mln vs 196.4 mln
    Avg shrs 17,644,000 vs 16,085,000
 Reuter

Itel Corp said it completed the
previously announced purchase of the container fleet and
certain related assets of Flexi-Van Leasing Inc for about 130
mln dlrs cash and marketable securities, 30 mln dlrs in notes,
three mln shares of newly issued Itel common and assumption of
certain liabilities.
    The company said it obtained financing from a syndicate of
major banks for 150 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

billion dollars in soft loan aid over the next three years, to
be split between project investment and balance of payment
    It said after a two-day meeting of the Consultative Group
for Senegal held here under its auspices the aid was to support
the second phase, running to mid-1990, of Senegal's "courageous
and far-reaching" medium and long-term adjustment programme.
   
 Reuter

    NOTE: Housing backlog 135 mln dlrs, up over 33 pct from a
 Reuter

New York coffee futures prices will
probably fall to about 85 cents a lb in the next month before a
consolidation trend sets in, according to market analysts.
    Yesterday, prices for the spot May contract fell below 1.00
dlr a lb for the first time since August 1981 after the
International Coffee Organization did not place new export
quota discussions on its current agenda.
    Talks aimed at renegotiating ICO export quotas, after five
years of price-supporting agreements, broke down in February.
    "Short-term, it looks like a definite test of 90 cents,
perhaps 85 cents," said William O'Neill, coffee analyst with
Elders Futures. "But the additional downside may not be all
that great from current levels."
    "At this price level the market is very vulnerable to
bullish developments," O'Neill added. "Rather than us having a
market that will plummet we'll kind of see prices erode --
probably to around 85 cents."
    "I definitely see 90 cents and would not rule out a brief
drop to 85 cents," said Debra Tropp, a coffee analyst with
Prudential Bache. But she said by June worries about a freeze
in Brazil growing areas will become more of a market factor,
with prices likely to consolidate ahead of that time.
    A trader at a major international trade house, who asked
not to be named, said he expects a 10 cent drop near term but
believes if Brazil opens May registrations at a relatively high
export price and requires a high contribution quota from
exporters the market could steady at the lower levels.
    Longer term, he added, producer pressure will mount on
Brazil to agree to consumers' export quota terms, and a new
international agreement could come into force next fall.
    Since the February talks broke down, the market has fallen
from about 130.00 cents a lb to a low of 98.10 cents a lb
today, as buyers and sellers sought to reassess supply and
demand.
    Generally, analysts say, producers have a large buildup of
stocks, but U.S. roasters have drawn down supplies and will
need to do some buying soon.
    "Most producing nations have just completed or are about to
complete their annual harvests and exportable supplies are at
their seasonal peak. Exports remain behind year ago and
warehouses in producer nations are becoming increasingly
overburdened," said Sandra Kaul, coffee analyst for Shearson
Lehman, in that firm's forthcoming quarterly coffee report.
    Kaul said producers' need to procure hard currency to
service foreign debt will put further pressure on them to sell,
and "this should keep substantial pressure on exporters to
undertake sales despite the drop in prices to six year lows."
    Kaul believes the market will drop to 80 cents a lb before
Brazil's frost season begins in June.
    Accurate assessments of roaster demand are hard to come by,
though analysts note the peak winter consumption period is
passed and demand usually slows this time of year.
    Shearson's Kaul estimated U.S. roaster ending stocks as of
January 31, including soluble and roasted, at 6.3 mln bags
compared with 6.9 mln at end-September 1986, a small drawdown
for the usually busy winter roasting season.
    But Elders O'Neill said, "The roasters are not overstocked
by any means."
    Analysts said picking a bottom to the market is difficult,
given the fact prices have fallen into uncharted territory
below the long-term support at 1.00 dlr per lb, and several
traders said the sidelines might be preferable for the short
term.
 Reuter

U.S. refiners said they are worried
that growing supplies of imports, proposed federal
environmental regulations, and the marketing of a third grade
of unleaded gasoline would cost them dearly and at a time when
the industry is recovering from a recent slump.
     "We have to look at national security and cut the amount
of products and crude coming into the country if it hurts the
industry," said Archie Dunham, vice president of petroleum
products at Conoco, subsidiary of DuPont Corp (DD).
    U.S. oil imports account for about 38 pct of U.S.
consumption but are expected to rise to 50 pct by the mid
1990s, according to the Department of Energy.
    "Can we afford to import 60 or 70 pct of our oil
requirements 15 or so years from now?" asked John Swearingen,
chairman of the board of Continental Illinois Corp <CIL> and
former chief executive of Amoco Corp <AN>. "If your answer to
that question raises doubt, then it behooves us to do all that
we can now to cope with this situation and improve our
position."
    But Swearingen said he opposed the idea of an import fee, a
view echoed by others attending this week's National Petroleum
Refiners Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
    "Talk of an import surcharge or controls is not encouraging
because those things won't solve our problems and could well
compound them," said Swearingen. "Once the government affects
values, once an import quota or license has value, it's going
to be subverted by government," he added.
     William Martin, deputy Energy Secretary, said the costs of
an import fee outweigh its benefits and suggested, as Energy
Secretary John Herrington has, depletion tax credits to
encourage domestic production and limit oil imports. He also
said altnerative energy sources should be encouraged.
     Restoration of the depletion allowance for a 27 pct
deduction from the taxable income of oil companies is 
controversal but might work, said Dunham.
    Dunham and other officials opposed the idea of a fee on oil
imports but said if one is enacted it must tax crude and
product imports.
    "Why would companies import crude when they could import
products for a smaller cost if there were only a fee on crude?"
asked Henry Rosenberg, chairman of Crown Central Petroleum
<CNP>.
     An import fee would raise the costs of U.S. petrochemical
products and make them noncompetive on the world market, Dunham
said.
     "The energy security issue should be considered when
environmental issues are considered," Martin said.
    "The level of investment for the proposed lowering of
sulfur level of diesel to 0.05 pct by weight, for example, is
unacceptable," Dunham said. "Most companies cannot afford it."
    George Unzelman, president of HyOx, Inc., said these
proposals "will place pressure on small refining operations and
promote further industry consolidation."
     An NPRA survey of of 139 refineries, which was released at
the conference, said reducing sulphur content to 0.05 pct
weight and aromatics to 20 volume pct aromatics in highway
diesel fuel would cost refiners 6.65 billion dlrs.
     The national average diesel fuel sulfur content in 1986
for the survey respondents was 0.27 weight pct while the
average aromatics content was 32 pct.
     Another possible cost to refiners is the upgrading of
facilities to produce a third grade of unleaded gasoline which
is beginning to be marketed by some companies.
    "What will be the standard octane level in various grades
of unleaded gasoline?" asked Dunham. "A midlevel grade of
unleaded gasoline with an octane level of 89 means an
investment has to be made," Dunham said.
     This grade is not warranted, said Crown's Rosenberg.
     Despite these concerns, refiners are expecting margins to
move higher in the next few months.
     "We are beginning to see a return in wholesale margins,"
said Roger Hemminghaus, chairman of the refining and marketing
company that is to spin off from Diamond Shamrock Corp <DIA>.
     Margins are higher because the OPEC pact is holding, U.S.
stocks of gasoline and heating oil are declining, and gasoline
demand is rising as the driving season approaches, he said.
     "This summer could be a good season for selling gasoline,"
Hemminghaus said, adding that the new company will be primarily
a gasoline producer.
 Reuter

The Canadian government's auction of 400
mln dlrs of 7-year and 3-month bonds yielded an average 7.97
pct and were priced at an average 98.787 dlrs, the finance
    The coupon rate was 7.75 pct on the issue.
 Reuter

Shr 47 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 73.0 mln vs 85.0 mln
    Revs 1.89 billion vs 1.69 billion
    NOTE: figures reflect the merger of Sea-Land Corp completed
Feb 11, 1987.
 Reuter

Rio Grande Drilling Co said
its subsidiary, Rio Grande Video, entered into a limited
partnership agreement with a group of private investors to
develop and operate five Blockbuster Video Superstores in
Florida.
    Blockbuster Video Superstores are franchises of Blockbuster
Entertainment Corp <BBEC>.
    Rio Grande Video will act as general partner, owning 50 pct
of the partnership, it said. The company must open 10 stores
within the next two years to maintain exclusive license rights
in the territory, it said.
 Reuter

Loral Corp climbed 3-3/4 to 48-3/4 amid
rumors the company might be a takeover target of General
Electric Co <GE>. However, analysts said they were skeptical.
    "Jack Welch doesn't want any more exposure to defense
markets," said one analyst who heard the rumors but doubted
their accuracy. The reference was to GE's chairman.
    The analyst, who requested anonymity, said, "I wouldn't
believe this one unless there's a deal on the table."
    Loral Corp officials were not immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

Morgan Grenfell Group PLC's Morgan
Grenfell Capital Management unit said it plans to offer in late
April 7,500,000 shares of closed-end fund Morgan Grenfell
SMALLCap Fund at 10 dlrs each.
    It said the fund will seek long-term capital appreciation,
mostly by investing in U.S. companies with market
capitalizations between 50 and 500 mln dlrs.
    Underwriters are Wedbush Securities Inc, Morgan Grenfell,
Blunt Ellis and Loewi Inc, Butcher and Singer Inc, Raymond
James and Associates and Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc.
                     
 Reuter

Magma Copper Co, a subsidiary of
Newmont Mining Corp, said it is lowering its copper cathode
price by 0.25 cent to 65.50 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Southern New England Telecommunications
Corp, SNET, said it expects to have good earnings in 1987
against 4.46 dlrs per share or 139.2 mln dlrs in 1986.
    The company also said it expects capital spending to rise
to about 355 mln dlrs in 1987, up from 289 mln dlrs a year ago.
    However, senior vice president of finance Daniel Miglio
told a meeting of analysts that there was some uncertainty in
its earnings outlook because SNET is currently involved in
negotiations with state regulators on its rate of return on
equity which currently stands at 16.2 pct.
    The company also said it expects its SNET Systems business,
which is composed of some of its non-regulated businesses, to
be profitable by the end of the year.

 Reuter

Escagen Corp said it has
completed an initial offering of common stock, raising 18 mln
dlrs, and has completed its previously announced purchase of
the assets and business of International Plant Research
 Reuter

Association of Charleston said executive vice president A.L.
Hutchinson Jr. has been named to succeed Robert L. Cale as
president and chief executive officer when he retires on April
1, 1988.
 Reuter

Stryker Corp said it acquired
Hexcel Medical Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexcel Corp.
    The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
    The sale completes Hexcel's plan to sell all its medical
products businesses, Hexcel said.
 Reuter

said it awarded a contract valued at 28 mln dlrs to a unit of
Grumman Corp to develop flight control surfaces for the new
U.S. Air Force C-17 transport.
    Grumman Aerostructures of Bethpage, N.Y., will design,
develop and build the rudders, elevators and other parts for
the transports.
 Reuter

Old Stone Corp said it
completed the previously announced acquisition of First Federal
Savings Bank of North Carolina, a Shelby, N.C., savings bank,
for common stock.
    The final purchase price, expected to be between seven mln
and 7.5 mln dlrs, will be based on an exchange of common stock
valued at 1.5 times the book value of First Federal as of the
March 31 closing date, the company said.
    At February  28, First Federal had 129 mln dlrs in assets
and 120 mln dlrs in deposits. Old Stone is a Rhode Island-based
financial services company with assets of 3.9 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Moore Medical Corp said it
plans to acquire privately-held Penta Products, a wholesale
distributor of generic durgs, for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co, a
subsidiary of Inspiration Resources Corp, said it is lowering
its base price for full-plate copper cathodes one-half cent to
66.50 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Argentine vegetable oils shipments
during January/December 1986 totalled 1,796,121 tonnes, against
1,577,722 tonnes in the same period of 1985, the Argentine
Grain Board said.
    Breakdown was as follows: cotton 9,000 (27,900), sunflower
954,303 (840,440), linseed 119,954 (138,944), groundnutseed
26,248 (26,246), soybean 669,094 (524,715), tung 9,047
(11,363), olive 2,417 (4,125), maize 6,058 (3,989), rape nil
(nil) , grape nil (nil), the board added.
    Shipments during December 1986 amounted to 102,870 tonnes,
against 108,514 tonnes in the same month of 1985.
    The breakdown, was as follows, in tonnes:
    Cotton 5,000 (nil), sunflower 25,156 (23,713), linseed
6,127 (5,990), groundnutseed nil (738), soybean 65,759
(76,371), tung 645 (730), olive 183 (660), maize nil (312),
rape nil (nil), grape nil (nil), the board said.    
    The ten principal destinations during January/December
1986, with comparative figures for the same period of 1985 in
brackets, were as follows, in tonnes:
    Iran 212,043 (209,177), Holland 204,558 (215,784), Soviet
Union 173,060 (266,389), Egypt 163,119 (164,252), Algeria
116,330 (11,492), South Africa 105,230 (110,064), Brazil
101,599 (103,142), Cuba 89,957 (98,740), United States 80,109
(44,826), India 67,182 (17,403), the board said.
 REUTER

Upland Minerals and Chemicals Corp said
it agreed to acquire Consolidated Brazilian Mines International
Inc, a public company with one mln acres of diamond and gold
properties in Brazil.
    Consolidated owns 42 mining concessions in three regions of
eastern and northern Brazil -- Gammara, Santo Antonio and
Diamazon, the company said.
    Upland also said the previously announced acquisition of
Aslaminas Aslambeck Mining Corp, a Minas Gerais, Brazil, mining
concern, will produce revenues of 9.6 mln dlrs a year for the
next 25 years.
    New York-based Upland is traded over-the-counter.
 Reuter

Inspeech Inc said it acquired
Norma Bork Associates Inc and Bork Medical Services Inc for
    These firms, with combined revenues of about one mln dlrs,
are providers of speech pathology, physical therapy and
occupational therapy services.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp said it is calling
for redemption on May One all of its five dlr convertible
exchangeable preference shares at 53.50 dlrs per share.
    The company said the shares may be converted into common
stock through April 30 at 1.818 common shares per preference
share.  It said holders converting will not receive the 1.25
dlr per share dividend on the preference shares payable May One
to holders of record on that date.
    Phelps Dodge also said it is calling for redemption on the
same date its privately-held Series A preferred stock.
 Reuter

Bank of New York said it raised its
prime lending rate a quarter point to 7-3/4 pct.
    It said the move is effective immediately.
 Reuter

North Central Laboratories Inc said
it has had preliminary discussions with MikroMed Inc about
providing laboratory testing services to screen the presence of
the AIDS virus.
    It said MikroMed is developing a kit which it would
distribute to its customers and which would be used by its
customers to draw samples of their own blood. These samples
would be mailed to a laboratory facility for AIDS screening.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 11,105,000 vs 8,310,000
    Sales 282.7 mln vs 290.3 mln
    Avg shrs 20,599,000 vs 20,760,000
    NOTE: Per-share results restated for May 1986 three-for-two
 Reuter

Elxsi Ltd said it sold three
computer systems worth four mln dlrs to Douglas Aircraft Co, a
unit of McDonnell Douglas Corp.
    The company said the systems will be used in the C-17
military transport program. One was shipped last month and two
others will be shipped in June, it said.
 Reuter

Most Americans feel that hostile
corporate takeovers do more harm than good, according to a
public opinion poll by Louis Harris and Assoc Inc.
    The poll of 1,751 U.S. adults and 682 top business
executives found that 58 pct believe hostile takeovers do more
harm than good, while only eight pct say they do more good than
harm.
    Among those holding stock, a 60 pct majority find takeovers
harmful, the poll found. Shareholder benefit is the most
commonly cited advantage of such takeovers.
    "People are saying that (those engineering hostile
takeovers) might talk about getting the stockholders a better
break, but they are really not interested in that as much as
they are realizing gains for themselves," concluded the poll,
conducted for the University of North Carolina's Institute of
Private Enterprise.
    The poll said 78 pct believe most takeovers are engineered
by groups interested only in making a profit for themselves and
who don't care about the impact on employees or the economy as
a whole.
 Reuter

Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit
said it increased its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct,
 Reuter

 Reuter

Toll Brothers Inc said it
declared a two-for-one split of its common stock and said it
Commission for a proposed public offering of 5,700,000 shares
of common as adjusted for the split.
    The record date for the split is April 10, and certificates
representing the additional shares will be mailed April 20.
    The company said its stock price will be adjusted to
reflect the split on April 21.
 Reuter

Quaker Oats Co said its Stokely-Van Camp
Inc subsidiary will retire on May 15 its 10-1/4 pct Sinking
Fund Debentures due May 15, 2000.
    The company said it will retire 2.6 mln dlrs at par through
operation of the debenture's sinking fund. The remaining
outstanding balance, currently 11,812,000 dlrs, will be retired
at a price of 1,041 dlrs a bond.
    Interest will be payable May 15, record May One.
 Reuter

Shr loss 22 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 2,127,334 vs loss 1,629,432
    Revs 1,306,658 vs 1,091,023
    Avg shrs 9.7 mln vs 8 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 36 cts vs loss 35 cts
    Net loss 3,519,251 vs loss 2,805,569
    Revs 5,081,953 vs 4,410,954
    Avg shrs 9.8 mln vs 8.1 mln
 Reuter

Oper shr 29 cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 222,143 vs 76,605
    Revs 4,872,279 vs 3,276,404
    12 mths
    Oper shr 17 cts vs 28 cts
    Oper net 111,280 vs 301,623
    Revs 13.9 mln vs 11.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 yr figures excludes extraordinary item of
574,363 dlrs, or 60 cts per share, for termination of its non
contributory pension plan.
    1985 yr figures excludes 537,950 dlrs, or 42 cts per share,
representing insurance proceeds from a fire that occurrred in
1983.

 Reuter

The french government formally abolished
rules suspended since last September setting limits on the
import and sale of refined oil products from outside the
    The rules, introduced in 1979, required importers to buy at
least 80 pct of their refined products from European refiners,
while at least 90 pct of refined products sold in France were
required to come from French or European refiners.
    The abolition of the rules, together with a number of
relaxations in administrative procedures, was published in the
official journal today.
    French oil industry officials immediately criticised the
move as encouraging imports at a time when french refiners are
making heavy losses.
    Industry figures published in February showed industrywide
losses of three billion francs last year after taking into
account extraordinary losses on stock depreciation.
 Reuter

Genentech Inc said Activase,
its tissue plasminogen activator, will be reviewed at the a
regularly scheduled May 29 meeting of the Food and Drug
Administration's cardiorenal advisory committee.
 Reuter

The Commodity Exchange Inc said it is
increasing the minimum margins for silver futures contracts,
effective at the opening of business Thursday, April 2.
    The margins for speculative trading will be increased to
2,000 dlrs per contract from 1,300 dlrs and trade hedge margins
will rise to 1,400 dlrs from 900 dlrs, the Comex said.
    Margins are unchanged for gold, copper, and aluminum
contracts, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 33 cts vs nil
    Net loss 603,430 vs profit 4,295
    Revs 748,628 vs 5,730
    NOTE: Per-share results give retroactive effect to
one-for-50 reverse stock split in March 1987
    1986 loss includes recurring expenses of 317,062 dlrs
related to acquisitions and initial advertising campaigns
 Reuter

Neti Technologies Inc said
American Telephone and Telegraph Co agreed to sell Neti's
document transfer software.
    Neti chairman Lawrence Brilliant said in response to an
inquiry that the software, called "docuFORUM", transfers
documents between separate locations over telephone lines. It
is designed to work with most personal computers, including
those made by International Business Machines Co <IBM>.
    Brilliant said there will be a one-time set-up charge of
1,000 dlrs for the software, which will cost 40 dlrs per hour
to use. There will be a 250 dlr monthly minimum use charge.
 Reuter

Mellon Bank NA of Pittsburgh and
Republic Bank of Dallas have both raised their prime lending
rates to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2, effective immediately.
 Reuter

may downgrade the debt ratings of GAF Corp because of its 3.1
billion dlr acquisition offer for Borg-Warner Corp.
    In a related action, the agency changed to possible
downgrade from uncertain the direction of its current review of
Borg-Warner's 1.2 billion dlrs of debt.
    GAF has 416 mln dlrs of debt outstanding.
    Moody's said it would study the degree of financial risk
the acquisition offer represents for GAF. The agency will also
consider the possibility of future asset sales to reduce
acquisition-related debt.
    However, Moody's noted that GAF has demonstrated an ability
to profit from takeover attempts.
    GAF currently carries Ba-2 sinking fund debentures and B-1
senior subordinated notes and debentures.
    Moody's said its review of Borg-Warner and the unit
Borg-Warner Acceptance Corp would focus on the effects of the
proposed acquisition on Borg-Warner's cash flow and debt
protection measurements.
    Moody's will also consider the implications of possible
defensive measures that Borg-Warner may undertake. The parent
has A-1 senior debt and the unit carries A-2 senior debt.
 Reuter

The House Banking Committee voted
45-5 in favor of a bill to raise five billion dlrs over two
years to assist the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.
    The Federal Home Loan Banks would borrow the five billion
dlrs in financial markets to assist the FSLIC, which government
auditors have said is approaching  bankruptcy.
    The committee narrowly rejected a version of the
legislation that would have permitted 15 billion dlrs in
borrowing authority over a longer time and was the version
favored by the administration.
    The committee, backed by committee chariman Fernand St
Germain (D-RI) and House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex), voted
25-24 to change the amount of borrowing authority.
    In addition to the funds raised in capital markets, the
FSLIC would receive another five billion dlrs in assessments on
financial institutions belonging the fund.
    The bill also requires regulators to apply more liberal
standards when deciding whether to close ailing thrifts in
depressed regions.
    The bill now goes to the full house.
    The Senate has passed a bill providing for a 7.5 billion
dlr recapitalization for FSLIC.
 Reuter

Gulf barge freight rates continued to
show a firmer tone in the nearbys on the assumption that
changes in the Gulf posted prices will encourage increases in
both PIK-and-roll activity and barges shipments, with a total
of 21 barges traded this morning on the ST Louis Merchants'
Exchange call session, versus nine yesterday, dealers said.
 - This week Mississippi River (Granite City, MLA if P/O)
traded at 175 pct of tariff, five percentage points above
yesterday's bid.
 - Next week Mississippi (Alton/Granite City, MLA if P/O) bid
five points higher at 175 pct, offered at 190.
 - Five barges each week April MidMississippi River
(Dubuque/south) traded at yesterday's bid of 170 pct.
 - April Illinois River (ex Chicago) 160 pct bid, offered 10
points higher at 170.
 - May same section 140 pct bid, offered five lower at 145.
 - May MidMississippi River (Dubuque/south) bid 2-1/2 points
higher at 142-1/2 pct, offered at 145.
 - June/July lower Mississippi River (Memphis/Cairo) offered at
120 pct, no bids.
 - June/Aug upper Mississippi River (Lacrosse/Savage) offered
at 150 pct, no bids.
 - Oct/Nov MidMississippi (Dubuque/south, L/H Nov
Clinton/south) 170 pct bid/177-1/2 offered - no comparison.
 - December Illinois River (ex Chicago) 122-1/2 pct bid/127-1/2
offered - down 2-1/2 points on offer.
 Reuter

Crime Control Inc said it reached a
definitive agreement under which a subsidiary of Hawley Group
Ltd will buy assets and assume certain liabilities of Crime
Control for 51.3 mln dlrs.
    Of this amount, it said about 47 mln dlrs would be
available for distribution to the company's banks, debenture
holders and shareholders. The balance would be used to pay
various state taxes and other expenses relating to the
transaction, and to establish reserves to provide for certain
unassumed obligations of the company.
    Crime Control said it would use proceeds to pay its bank
lenders approximately 28.6 mln dlrs, representing about 87 pct
of the principal amount of all its indebtedness to bank
lenders.
    It also said it would propose to acquire all of its 20 mln
dlrs worth of outstanding 10 pct convertible subordinated
debentures for an aggregate of approximately 15.4 mln dlrs and
propose liquidation of the company with shareholders receiving
an estimated 54 cts a share.
    As reported earlier, Crime Control is in default on
approximately 33 mln dlrs of bank debt and in default under the
indenture governing its convertible subordinated debentures.
    On January 19, 1987, Crime Control, which installs,
services and monitors electronic surveillance systems, said it
retained Rothschild Inc to arrange for the sale of the company.
 Reuter

The Democratic-controlled House
Budget Committee neared approval, over Republican objections,
of a trillion dlr budget plan for 1988.
    Committee Chairman William Gray said he wanted approval
later today of the Democratic-written document, which would
produce a deficit of about 133 billion dlrs using Congressional
Budget Office estimates.
    However, Gray said using President Reagan's economic
assumptions, the plan would show a deficit of 108 billion dlrs
to meet the Gramm-Rudman budget law target. Republicans
protested they had not seen the plan until today.
 Reuter

Argentine subproducts shipments
during January/December 1986 totalled 5,618,315 tonnes, against
4,815,188 tonnes in the same period of 1985, the Argentine
    Breakdown was as follows: cotton 26,992 (41,933), sunflower
1,403,230 (1,190,862), linseed 261,600 (309,191), groundnutseed
23,595 (22,809), soybean 3,275,225 (2,415,492), bran/pollards
wheat 606,352 (659,271), fiber cotton 3,256 (107,752), wheat
flour 18,065 (67,878), rape nil (nil), the board added.
    Shipments during December 1986 amounted to 418,755 tonnes,
against 257,844 tonnes in the same month of 1985.
    Cotton 3,002 (6,234), sunflower 86,612 (38,347), linseed
23,954 (38,290), groundnutseed nil (nil), soybean 264,650
(104,571), bran/polards wheat 37,724 (49,946), fiber cotton 987
(2,121), wheat flour 1,826 (18,335), rapeseed nil (nil), the
    Holland 2,444,260 (2,234,049), Belgium 546,423 (595,635),
Italy 430,029 (338,766), Czechoslovakia 365,897 (236,836), Cuba
253,067 (222,842), Iran 250,646 (192,430), West Germany
232,049) (158,491), Bulgaria 207,030 (300,488), Spain and
Canary Islands 176,287 (113,751), Corea 163,304 (37,416), the
board added.
 REUTER

Shr loss 27 cts vs loss 81 cts
    Net loss 998,764 vs loss 1,491,590
    Revs 2,712,614 vs 1,237,850
    Avg shrs 3,727,063 vs 1,838,294
    Year
    Shr loss 1.79 dlr vs loss 2.11 dlrs
    Net loss 4,559,004 vs loss 3,882,235
    Revs 8,510,004 vs 3,720,640
    Avg shrs 2,544,271 vs 1,838,294
 Reuter

Reynolds Metals Co is raising 200 mln
dlrs through an offering of convertible subordinated debentures
due 2012 with a six pct coupon and par pricing, said sole
manager Goldman, Sachs and Co.
stock at 76.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 21.91
    Non-callable for two years, the issue is rated Ba-3 by
Moody's Investors and B-minus by Standard and Poor's.
    Proceeds will be used to refinance certain long-term debt,
Reynolds Metals said.
 Reuter

The United States department of
agriculture estimated live poultry slaughter for the week
ending April 1  as follows, in thousands -
            Current      Previous
 Class      week         week
 Bro/Fry      92,552      95,563 
 Lt Fowl       2,840       3,354 
 Hvy Fowl        651         789 
 Check Total  96,043      99,706 
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.10 dlrs vs loss 8.63 dlrs
    Oper net loss 5.1 mln vs loss 42.1 mln
    Revs 23.1 mln vs 63.3 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 4.71 dlrs vs loss 14.09 dlrs
    Oper net loss 22.0 mln vs loss 67.2 mln
    Revs 114.6 mln vs 221.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4,910,330 vs 4,851,650
    NOTE: Current year excludes gain of 12.1 mln dlrs from
    Shr figures after preferred dividend requirements.
 Reuter

<Royal Bank of Canada> said it is
raising its U.S. base lending rate by 1/4 pct to 8-1/4 pct,
    The move is the first change in the bank's U.S. dollar base
lending rate since last August, when it lowered the rate 1/2
point.
    It follows the announcement yesterday of a 1/4 point rise
to 7-3/4 pct of two of the largest U.S. banks' prime rates.
 Reuter

<The Harris Trust and Savings Bank> said
it has increased its prime rate to 7-3/4 from 7-1/2 effective
 Reuter

The Soviet Union would likely be more
interested in purchasing new crop wheat than in booking any
grain for immediate shipment if offered a subsidy on U.S.
wheat, an executive with a major grain export company said.
    Lower prices and the desire to delay any big purchases
until the condition of winter and spring crops is better known
make new crop wheat more attractive, said George Hoffman,
director of commodity analysis for The Pillsbury Company.
    "Pillsbury is assuming that they (Soviets) will be offered
a subsidy and that it will be a subsidy that they can respond
to," Hoffman told Reuters in an interview at an agribusiness
education conference here. But if there are too many
constraints placed on a subsidy offer, the USSR will take less
than an anticipated four mln tonnes, he said.
    Hoffman said Pillsbury's internal statistics put Soviet
Union wheat purchases at only two mln tonnes under a subsidy
offer. However, if a subsidy is offered at competitive levels,
Moscow would likely buy more, he said.
    "If we give the Soviets the same deal as the Chinese, I
expect they'll take it," said Vernon McMinimy, director of
commodity research for A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co.
    McMinimy told Reuters spring weather and its impact on
crops will determine how much wheat Moscow would buy under a
subsidy offer.
    Soviet winter crops did not get off to a good start because
of a dry autumn last year, and because of the severe winter
"they probably have had more damage due to winter weather than
normal," McMinimy said.
 Reuter

Braniff Inc said March load factor fell
to 59.1 pct from 65.5 pct in March 1986.
    Revenue passenger miles rose 16.5 pct in March to 274.3 mln
from 235.3 mln and 33.8 pct year-to-date to 710.3 mln from
530.7 mln.
    Available seat miles rose 29.1 pct in March to 464.2 mln
from 359.5 mln and 36.8 pct in the three months to 1.33 billion
from 970.9 mln.
    Year-to-date load factor fell to 53.5 pct from 54.7 pct,
the carrier said.
 Reuter

U.S. HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE APPROVES TRILLION DLR BUDGET
PLAN FOR 1988

The New York Stock Exchange said  Loral
Corp told the exchange its policy is not to comment on unusual
market activity in its stock.
    The exchange said it contacted the company and requested
that Loral issue a public statement indicating whether any
corporate developments would explain the unusual activity in
its stock.
    The stock was trading at 47-1/2, up 2-1/2 points.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it produced
395,294 cars in the U.S. in March, up from 366,671 in March
1986.
    The automaker said it made 144,959 trucks last month, an
increase from 131,640 produced in the same month last year.
    Year-to-date U.S. car output through the end of March was
1,064,141 vehicles, down from last year's 1,205,768.
Year-to-date truck production was 395,967, down from 410,821.
 Reuter

Shr 2.02 dlrs vs 1.94 dlrs
    Net 14.7 mln vs 13.9 mln
    Revs 265.6 mln vs 235.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.83 dlrs vs 3.36 dlrs
    Net 20.7 mln vs 24.1 mln
    Revs 739.1 mln vs 686.9 mln
    NOTE: Current year includes loss equal to 12 cts/shr from
takeover defense and loss of 13 cts from loss of investment tax
credits.
 Reuter

MOBIL RAISES WEST COAST CRUDE PRICES BETWEEN ONE DLR AND
1.75 DLRS/BBL TODAY

The Energy Department issued an
invitation for site proposals from states or others for its 4.4
billion dlr Super Conducting Supercollider atom smasher.
    Department officials said there is expected to be tough
competition for the planned facility, which is being considered
a major scientific plum for the winning community.
    The department said proposals must be in by August three,
under guidelines published in the Federal Register, including
the provision of 16,000 acres of land without charge.
    Among the states already waging campaigns are California,
Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Washington.
    A "preferred" site will be selected by July 1988 and the
final site decision made in January 1989.
    Congress has not yet appropriated money for the project,
but if it accepts President Reagan's plan, construction would
begin later in 1989 at a spending rate of about 600 mln dlrs a
year.
    The project is expected to be completed in seven years.
    Department officials said the Supercollider would help man
understand the fundamental nature of matter and energy.
 reuter

Egypt has been authorized to purchase
about 125,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat flour under an existing PL
    It may buy the wheat flour, valued at 23.0 mln dlrs between
April 8 and August 31, 1987 and ship it by September 30, the
 Reuter

Seven tugs will attempt to refloat the
South Korean motor bulk carrier Hyundai New World tonight,
Lloyds shipping intelligence service said in its latest update.
    The vessel grounded close to Itaqui port in Brazil last
night after undocking from Ponta da Madeira terminal.
    Lloyds said the 200,000 dwt vessel is carrying about
180,000 tons of ore.
    Five holds are partially flooded and there is some leakage
of bunkers from double bottom tanks. At low water tide the
vessel has a list of five degrees to port and the list
increases as the tide rises.
   
 Reuter

Shr loss 3.31 dlrs vs profit 94 cts
    Net loss 6,073,000 vs profit 1,823,000
    Revs 58.9 mln vs 69.2 mln
 Reuter

The National Energy Board said hearings
into Hydro-Quebec's request to sell power to the United States
will reopen in Ottawa April nine.
    The board heard nine days of testimony in Montreal after it
opened the hearings March 16.
    Hydro-Quebec is seeking an export license to sell 70
terawatt hours of electricity to the New England Power Pool, a
group of about 90 utilities, from the year 1990 to 2000. The
contract is valued at three billion Canadian dlrs. A terawatt
hour is the power consumed by a city of 100,000 people in one
year, or 70 billion kilowatt hours.
    The hearings are scheduled to last two days in Ottawa.
    After that, the board will begin its deliberations, which
could take as long as two months before a decision is reached.
 Reuter

Budget Committee, over Republican protests, approved and sent
to the House a trillion dlr spending budget for 1988 that would
cut the anticipated federal deficit by about 38 billion dlrs.
    The Democratic-written budget would produce about a 133
billion dlr deficit using the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office economic assumptions.
    Using President Reagan's more optimistic assumptions the
deficit would be about 108 billion dlrs -- which would reach a
new budget law's goal.
 Reuter

TCF Banking and Savings FA said it
is raising its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct effective
today.
 Reuter

The U.S. Commodity Credit Corporation
(CCC) sold 6,034 short tons of 1986-crop farmers stock peanuts
for domestic crushing, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The peanuts were from the Southwest area and were sold at
between 8.05 cts per lb (total kernel content), and 11.7225 cts
per lb, the department said.
    The CCC will offering additional 1986-peanuts for sale at a
later date, the department said.
 Reuter

<Campeau Corp> and the <Edward J.
DeBartolo Corp> have closed on their previously-announced 
purchase of five of the regional shopping centers of Allied
Stores Corp.
    Campeau said it and the DeBartolo Association will each
hold a 50 pct ownership interest in the shopping centers.
    Campeau separately announced that, as required by a bank
agreement, it has contributed an additional 50 mln dlrs of
capital to Allied.
    Campeau acquired Allied Stores Corp earlier this year, the
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock executives said that
to reduce the vulnerability to takeover pressures, they want to
raise the value of the two companies to be formed by splitting
Diamond Shamrock.
    "If we can get the price up to the value of the company, we
will not be vulnerable to takeover pressure," said Charles
Blackburn, Diamond Shamrock's president and soon to be chief
executive officer of the new exploration and producing company
whose name has not yet been decided. He was visiting New York
for talks with investors.
    After successfully countering a takeover bid launched by T.
Boone pickens in January, Diamond Shamrock said it would
spinoff its refining and marketing operation into Diamond
Shamrock Refining and Marketing Co before its April 30 annual
meeting.
    Blackburn told Reuters, "Our advisors told us that a split
would give a better share value to investors and that the
market would give better multiples for pure refining and
marketing and exploration and production plays."
    The two companies are now in the process of organizing
themselves to become "pure plays," the executives said.
    Blackburn said the new company would be a pure exploration
and production operation and that he was looking to divest
non-oil and gas operations, particularly Diamond Shamrock's
coal operations.
    Blackburn said that "we are in talks about coal operations
but I cannot discuss this further at this time."
    He said the company would have a debt-to-capital ratio of
about 38 pct, which could be paid down over time.
    Blackburn said the company would seek to generate further
internal savings from rationalizing operations and personnel
reductions. He has set a goal of 73 mln dlrs in internal
savings and "we need to get at least 20 mln dlrs of that savings
in 1987," Blackburn said.
    "I would rather describe this as savings coming from
eliminating non-essential activities as we purify the
exploration and production business."
    "There are some people associated with those activities but
it is more a matter of cutting and trimming rather than
wholesale changes," Blackburn said.
    Blackburn intends to run a tight ship in which dividends
will not initially be paid and the resultant savings invested
into exploration and production.
    "Our goal is to find 20 mln barrels a year in the U.S. to
replace our production and I think that we can do this at the
level we intend to spend," Blackburn said.
    "It might be more difficult to find more oil and more oil
internationally at these levels," he added.
    Blackburn said that his new company would spend 75 mln dlrs
in North America and 90 mln dlrs overseas, mainly Indonesia, in
the search for oil and gas reserves.
    In 1986 Diamond Shamrock produced 82,473 mln barrels a day
of oil with 83 pct of that from Indonesia, while gas output was
265.6 mln cubic feet a day of which 98 pct was in the U.S.
    Blackburn said that he believed he could find oil to
replace this production at low costs which were 4.97 dlrs a
barrel worldwide and 3.88 dlrs a barrel in the U.S..
    Blackburn also said that the company would be willing to
buy reserves, "if we can find the right producing properties at
the right price".
    Blackburn estimated that oil prices will average about 18
dlrs a barrel this year with average prices received for
natural gas at 1.57 dlrs per thousand cubic feet.
    Blackburn said he currently estimates that at thee prices
for its products the company will have a cash flow of about 280
mln dlrs.
    "This will mean a net negative cash flow as we pretty much
spend our cash flow to find more oil and gas."
    Blackburn said the company will search for both oil and gas
"almost exclusively in estasblished basins".
    Roger Hemminghaus, who will be chairman of the new Diamond
Shamrock Refining and Marketing Co, which last year had sales
of approximately 1.6 billion dlrs, told Reuters his company was
taking on some debt.
    "We are taking on some 400 mln dlrs new debt with three tier
financing emphasizing a revolving loan, some term loans and
some unsecured private placement and are now in the latter
stages of signing an agreement."
    Chemical New York Corp <CHL> is the company's lead banker
on the loan, Hemminghaus said.
    That debt will set the company off at a 60 pct debt-to-
capital-ratio, which Hemminghaus said "is too much. To
alleviate that we will hold our capital expenditures down and
pay down debt so that at the end of two years that ratio will
be reduced to mid 40 pct range."
    Hemminghhaus said that cash flow will be "plus or minus
about 100 mln dlrs a year from earnings and depreciation."
    In terms of major projects, Hemminghaus said that capital
expenditures will be 35 mln dlrs to 50 mln dlrs spread over all
of the company's projects.
    Its major project will be a two year upgrading project on
its McKee reinery in the Panhandle at 90,000 bpd rated
capacity.
    The company also has a refinery south of San Antonio where
it will be headquartered with a capacity of 35,000 bpd.
 Reuter

(CCC) interest rate on loans disbursed in April will carry a
six pct ionterest rate, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The April rate is up from March's 5-7/8 pct and reflects
the interest rate charged CCC by the U.S. Treasury, the
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd's loss of 2.20
billion dlrs, believed to be the biggest ever by a Canadian
company, will have little impact on daily operations but will
pressure creditors to accept a proposal to restructure Dome's
debt of more than 6.10 billion dlrs, industry analysts said.
    "Essentially what it (Dome's loss) does is put more focus on
the importance of the restructuring and puts more pressure on
creditors to agree to the debt rescheduling," said an oil
analyst who asked that he not be identified.
    Dome reported earnings yesterday.
    Analysts said the huge loss improves the appeal of a debt
accord by underlining company statements that creditors would
receive little or nothing under a forced liquidation that could
take several years to complete.
    After several months of negotiations with a group of 56
major creditors and other unsecured public debt holders, Dome
submitted a complex proposal earlier this month that includes
converting debt to equity and extending repayment time.
    "They've had their talks and now they have the proposal, so
the banks have to decide whether to accept the restructuring or
pull the plug," the analyst said.
    He and others said the huge loss, including writedowns
totalling 2.08 billion dlrs before a 571 mln dlr reduction in
deferred income taxes, dramatically enforces the company's
claim that a 50 pct drop in world oil prices has crippled its
financial position.
    But analysts said the writedown only impacts Dome's balance
sheet and does not hurt the company's cash position.
    "To a large extent, these writeoffs of the carrying value of
assets is really just the bookkeepers catching up to what the
stock market has been telling us for a long time, reflecting
the collapse in oil prices," Peters and Co Ltd analyst Wilf
Gobert said.
    Dome reported it took a 1.20 billion charge in the fourth
quarter, before a 305 mln dlr reduction in deferred income
taxes, for the decline in value of Dome's oil and gas
    The extraordinary loss conformed with new Canadian
Institute of Chartered Accountants guidelines that require Dome
to use average 1986 oil prices to value its holdings, instead
of an escalating price method used in prior years.
    Analysts said six individual Swiss noteholders, who
initiated legal action against Dome to recover debt of 408,500
dlrs, will also be pressed to adopt a more lenient stand by the
1986 results.
    "To the extent that individuals were not fully accepting or
cognizant of the seriousness of Dome's financial position, the
financial statements reflecting this writedown of the value of
assets is certainly going to indicate the depth of the
hemorrhaging that has taken place," Gobert said.
    The legal action now before Swiss courts threatens to
trigger cross-defaults on all of Dome's debt, toppling the
delicate debt negotiations. Dome is next scheduled to appear
April six to defend against the action.
    First Marathon Securities Ltd analyst Rick Hallisey said
the size of the loss was slightly larger than industry
estimates of Dome's negative net worth, ranging between 1.50
billion and two billion dlrs.
    "What this writedown says is that a lot of the money that
was spent in the past is unrecoverable, but the shareholders
have already recognized that through the writedown in the stock
price," Gobert said, adding, "The financial statements have come
out and said that what has happened in the past has been a
disaster for Dome," Gobert added.
    The price of Dome common shares fell five cts to 1.05 dlrs
in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today. At the height
of Dome's success in 1981, common traded at about 25 dlrs a
share.
 Reuter

BANKAMERICA CORP SAYS IT PLACES 1.9 BILLION DLRS OF
BRAZILIAN LOANS ON NONACCRUAL STATUS

A committee of independent directors of
the Standard Oil Co unsuccessfully sought a delay in a tender
offer for Standard shares by British Petroleum Co plc,
according to offering documents.
    BP's offering document for its 70 dlr per share offer
describes discussions with Douglas Danforth, who chairs a
special committee of independent directors responsible for
monitoring relations with BP. BP has been owner of a 55 pct
stake in Standard for several years.
    According to the document, the committee's counsel said it
needed one to two months to evaluate the offering price.
    Danforth, who is chairman of the Westinghouse Electric Co
<WX>, first learned of BP's interest in acquiring the rest of
Standard in a telephone call March five from Sir Peter Walters,
chairman of BP.
    At a meeting march nine, Danforth informed BP that the
special committee had hired First Boston Corp <FBC> as its
financial adviser and also retained independent counsel.
    Danforth's concerns that the special committee did not have
sufficient time were expressed to Walters in a telephone
conversation and reiterated in a letter from counsel on Monday
of this week.
 Reuter

<American Quasar Petroleum Co>
said it completed its previously-announced plan of
    The company said it accepted subordinated notes and
debentures in the aggregate principal amount of 95.2 mln dlrs,
which were tendered in exchange for 589.7 mln shares of
American Quasar common stock and Class A warrants to acquire
234.0 mln additional shares of American Quasar common stock for
five cts per share.
    The principal amount of the subordinated debt remaining
outstanding is 4,644,080 dlrs, most of which is now held
subject to indentures which were amended in certain respects in
connection with the exchange offers, the company said.
    Outstanding bank debt of 11.7 mln dlrs, plus an additional
300,000 dlrs in borrowings for working capital, has been
financed with RepublicBank in Dallas.
   
 Reuter

BANKAMERICA SAYS 1ST QTR NET TO BE CUT BY 40 MLN DLRS DUE
TO BRAZILIAN LOANS

Towle Manufacturing Co, operating
under Chapter 11, said that based on a reorganization plan it
is likely that its outstanding common and preferred will be
substantially diluted or cancelled.
    Towle also said that it is likely that general unsecured
claims, including claims of subordinated debenture holders,
will be paid at less than 100 pct of their face value and
without interest.
    Towle has not yet submitted a reorganization plan under
Chapter 11. It based its predictions on its liabilities and on
the resources which would be available under such a plan.
on the company's reorganization plan.
    Towle also said that as a result of its restructuring, its
sales for 1987 will not exceed 100 mln dlrs.
    Earlier it reported a loss from operations of 22 mln dlrs
or 4.71 dlrs a share on revenues of 114.6 mln dlrs for 1986. In
1985, the company reported a loss of 67.2 mln dlrs or 14.09
dlrs a share on sales of 221.8 mln dlrs.
    As a results of its restructuring, the number of employees
the company had at year end were 820, compared with 1,300 on
June 30, 1986 and 2,500 on January 1, 1985.
 Reuter

BANKAMERICA SAYS IT EXPECTS TO REPORT A PROFIT FOR
FIRST-QUARTER 1987

Mobil Corp said it raised its west
coast crude postings, effective today.
    The Buena Vista light grade, at 26 degrees api gravity, was
raised 1.35 dlrs a barrel to 15.55 dlrs/bbl, while the
Huntington Beach light grade, at 16 degrees, was raised about
1.75 dlrs/bbl to 14.10 dlrs/bbl.
    The heavier Wilmington grade, at 17 degrees, was increased
1.20 dlrs to 14.30 dlrs/bbl. Kern River crude, at 13 degrees,
was increased 1.00 dlr to 13.00 dlrs/bbl.
     Mobil also said that effective today it changed its
gravity adjustment scale as follows: From 20 degrees to 34
degrees API, Mobil will adjust its price 0.015 of a ct per
one-tenth of an API degree. Below 20 degrees API, the company
will adjust its price 0.020 ct per one-tenth of a degree. Crude
grades from 34 degrees API to above 40 degrees are unaffected.
 Reuter

Lockheed Corp has been awarded 165.7
mln dlrs in military contracts, including a 102.4 mln dlr
contract for eight C-130 aircraft for the Air Force Reserve,
 reuter

Strawbridge and Clothier said its
board declared a seven pct stock dividend, payable May 14 to
holders of record April 14.
    Earlier, the company reported net income of 20.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

American Petrofina Inc said its auditor,
Peat Marwick Mitchell and Co, has qualified its opinion of the
company's annual report because of the unknown impact of the
U.S. Energy Department's investigation into crude oil trading
activities which occurred during the 1979-1981 period.
    American Petrofina, which is controled by <Petrofina SA>,
said it believes it has good and meritorious defenses to any
possible claim resulting from the ongoing investigation.
 Reuter

LTV Corp's LTV Missiles and Electronics
Group said it received a 28.3 mln dlr contract from the U.S.
Air Force for continued design and development of an
anti-satellite weapon system.
    The company said the contract work will be performed at its
facilities in Grand Prairie, Texas, and is expected to be
completed by September.
 Reuter

Hercules Inc has been awarded a 131.5
mln dlr contract for stage three follow-on production work on
the MX missile program, the Air Force said.
 reuter

BankAmerica Corp said it placed
its 1.9 billion dlrs in medium- and long-term term loans to the
Brazilian public and private sectors on non-accrual status as
of March 31.
    As a result, the bank's net income for the first quarter
will be reduced by about 40 mln dlrs. If Brazil's suspension of
interest payments remains in effect, earnings for the whole
year will be reduced by a further 100 mln dlrs.
    BankAmerica said, however, that it expects to report a
profit for the first quarter of 1987.
    BankAmerica also said that it had placed 180 mln dlrs of
loans to Ecuador on non-accrual, which will reduce
first-quarter earnings by about five mln dlrs.
    If no interest payments are received for the rest of the
year from Ecuador, which is recovering from a severe
earthquake, 1987 earnings will be cut by a further 10 mln dlrs.
    But, "barring substantialy increased instabilities in
developing countries," BankAmerica said it continues to
anticipate an operating profit in 1987.
    In the first quarter of 1986 BankAmerica earned a profit of
63 mln dlrs but turned in a loss of 518 mln dlrs for the year
as a whole.
    BankAmerica also said it completed yesterday the previously
announced sale of its discount brokerage subsidiary, Charles
Schwab Corp. The sale was part of a program of asset disposals
undertaken to staunch losses at the nation's second largest
bank holding company.
    BankAmerica stressed that it expects Brazil will eventually
reach a debt rescheduling agreement which will provide for the
payment of interest being deferred in 1987.
    "Negotiations will be complicated and lengthy, but we
continue to expect that a rescheduling agreement will be
completed this year," said A.W. Clausen, BankAmerica's chairman
    "For the interim period, however, we concluded that the
responsible procedure would be to record income only as we
receive payments on the loans," he added in a statement.
    U.S. banks are not legally required to place loans on
non-accrual until interest becomes more than 90 days overdue.
    By striking accrued, but unpaid, interest from their
accounts earlier than necessary, the banks are signalling to
Brazil their readiness to dig in for a long fight over the
terms of the rescheduling agreement regardless of the
short-term earnings impact, banking analysts said.
    Brazil suspended interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of
its 109 billion dlr foreign debt in February, citing a drop in
official reserves, and said interest payments would be held on
deposit at the central bank pending a rescheduling.
    It also froze some 16 billion dlrs of short term credit
lines which banks were committed to provide until March 31.
 Reuter

LAIDLAW DECLARES THREE FOR TWO SPLIT, BOOSTS PAYOUT to
5-1/4 CTS/SHR FROM FOUR CTS

Shr profit 12 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net profit 117,000 vs loss 506,000
    Revs 1.1 mln vs 1.2 mln
    Year
    Shr profit seven cts vs loss 89 cts
    Net profit 66,000 vs loss 921,000
    Revs 4.4 mln vs 3.9 mln
    NOTE:1986 reflects tax benefit of 24,000. 1985 reflects tax
benefit of 186,000 for quarter and 573,000 for year.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp has received a
60.0 mln dlr contract for long lead advance work on F-15E
aircraft, the Air Force said.
 reuter

period ended February 28
    Shr 26 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 28.4 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Revs 305.7 mln vs 179.6 mln
    Six mths
    Net 54.6 mln vs 30.3 mln
    Revs 586.2 mln vs 359.8 mln
    Avg shrs 100,362,000 vs 91,360,000
 Reuter

Northern Trust Co said it is raising its
prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct effective April 2.
 Reuter

received an offer from Stanley Tananbaum, chairman and chief
executive officer, to take the company private in a transaction
giveing shareholders 24.40 dlrs per share in cash.
    There were 603,106 shares outstanding as of December 31.
    The independent directors said they will engage an expert
to evaluate the fairness of the offer.
 Reuter

J.P. MORGAN PLACES 1.3 BILLION DLRS OF MEDIUM- AND
LONG-TERM BRAZIL LOANS ON NON-ACCRUAL

Procter and Gamble Co said it
appointed the New York ad agency of Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc to
handle its Duncan Hines Ready-to-Serve Cookies, effective
    The account was previously handled by Grey Advertising Inc
of New York.
    The company declined to discuss the reason for the change
in accounts, nor would it dislose its advertising expenditures
for the brand.
    Procter and Gamble said Grey will continue to handle many
of its brands, including Crisco, Bold, Joy, Downy and Puritan
Oil, Monchel and Jif.
    Wells, Rich, Green handles Procter's Pringle's, Gain,
Safeguard, Spic and Span, Prell, Sure Banner, and Oil of Olay
brands.
 Reuter

Three for two stock split
    Pay and record date subject to shareholder confirmation May
four
    Qtly dividend 5-1/4 cts vs four cts
    Pay May 15
    Note: dividends declared on pre-split shares.
    Laidlaw Transportation Ltd
 Reuter

Security Pacific National Bank and
Provident National Bank said they increased their prime lending
rates a quarter point to 7-3/4 pct.
    They said the move is effective immediately.
 Reuter

J.P. MORGAN SAYS BRAZIL ACTION WILL REDUCE FIRST QUARTER
NET BY ABOUT 20 MLN DLRS

Qtly div 72 cts vs 70 cts prior
    Payable June 10
 Reuter

Emery Air Frieght Corp, which has
launched a 40 dlr a share tender offer for 83 pct of Purolator
Courier Corp, said it would sell some Purolator assets to help
pay the estimated 265 mln dlr cost of the stock purchase deal.
Emery said it would sell or lease Purolator's air hub in
Indianapolis, Ind., which is currently under construction, and
would divest Purolator's Stant Inc subsidiary.
    No indications of interest for the assets have been
received so far, Emery said.
    Emery said it would operate Purolator as a subsidiary if it
succeeded in the takever, but would integrate its air hub.
    It said it plans to finance its stock purchases with
borrowings from Chemical Bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New
York, Bankers Trust Co and Salomon Brothers Holding Co Inc, the
parent of Salmon Brothers Inc, Emery's financial advisor.
    Emery said it already has a commitment letter from its
banks for up to 129.9 mln dlrs for the stock purchases. An
unspecified amount of internally generated funds would also be
used for the stock purchases, it added.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 232,991 vs 198,185
    Revs 2.9 mln vs 2.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.20 dlrs vs 1.12 dlrs
    Net 1.3 mln vs 715,113
    Revs 11.3 mln vs 10.1 mln
    NOTE:1986 revs includes 260,000 dlr finder's fee , net
includes 112,000 gain from sale of securities, 115,000
dividends, 78,000 dlrs from lease recalculations.
    1985 revs includes 700,000 finder's fee and 75,000 gain
from sale of asset.

 Reuter

Reserve rose on March 31 to 3.576 billion dlrs from 3.254
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 5.394
billion dlrs from 7.291 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 8.969 billion
dlrs on March 31 compared with 10.544 billion dlrs on March 30.
 Reuter

Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, a
subsidiary of IC Industries Inc, said it will complete the sale
to the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway of its 631-mile
line from Joliet, Ill., to St. Louis by April 30.
    The Chicago, Missouri is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Venango River Corp, a transportation holding company.
    It said the purchase price of the line is 81 mln dlrs.
    The Chicago, Missouri will employ 625 workers and start
operation immediately upon closing of the transaction.
 Reuter

Johnstown American Cos said it began a
tender offer for the 500,000 outstanding shares of its 1985
    Under the offer, the company said holders of the preferred
would receive one share of a new issue of convertible
redeemable preferred stock for each share of their 1985
preferred.
    The company said terms of the new preferred will permit it
to redeem and retire the 1985 preferred shares at a discount
from their current liquidation value of 50 mln dlrs, or 100
    The company said that if all the 1985 preferred shares are
tendered, it will issue 500,000 1987 preferred shares, disburse
250,000 dlrs and cancel all 1985 preferred shares that are
tendered.
    The company said that if it elects to redeem the 1987
preferred, it must pay holders 12.3 mln dlrs in cash.
    It said it must also issue warrants for the purchase of
three mln common shares at a price of 4.50 dlrs a share or 33
pct over the market price on the day before the notice of
redemption, whichever is greater.
    The company said the exchange offer is conditioned on
tendering shareholders releasing certain rights to contingent
payouts and profit-share interests that were given in
connection with its 1985 acquisition of Consolidated Capital
Equities Corp and Johnstown Management Co.
    The offer, it said, is also conditioned on the tender of at
least two-thirds of the outstanding preferred shares. The
company said the exchange offer will expire at 1500 EST on May
one, unless extended.
 Reuter

Japan appears to be relying less on
corn from China, Argentina and South Africa and more on
supplies from the United States, the U.S. Agriculture
    In its World Production and Trade report, the department
said in the past seven weeks reported U.S. corn sales of nearly
three mln tonnes to Japan are about three times the level
during this period last year.
    Reports of short Argentine supplies and the apparent
unwillingness of the Chinese to sell at current world prices
may have caused Japanese buyers to turn to the United States
for corn supplies, the department said.
 Reuter

BRITISH PETROLEUM RAISES NORTH SEA BUTANE PRICES BY 15.50
DLRS A TONNE TODAY

British Petroleum Co plc said it raised
its posted butane prices by 15.50 dlrs per tonne to 123 dlrs,
fob north sea, effective today.
    Posted propane prices were unchanged at 110 dlrs per tonne,
   
 Reuter

Allis-Chalmers Corp said it is
deferring approximately three mln dlrs of interest payments due
March 31 and April 1.
    The company said it is actively negotiating with lenders
for concessions on a restructuring plan proposed March Four
calling for Allis-Chalmers to divest itself of all businesses
except the American Air Filter Co.
    Allis-Chalmers said it is "building a consensus among its
shareholders, retired employees and creditors" regarding the
consents that will be required for it to complete its
    To provide health care protection for its retired
employees, Allis-Chalmers said it proposed setting up a secure
75 mln dlr fund. It said about 4,400 current U.S. employees and
12,000 U.S. retirees are presently supported by Allis-Chalmers
health care plans.
    Allis-Chalmers in a statement said it planned to continue
payments to its vendors in the ordinary course of business
while the restructuring is being negotiated.
    Earlier, Allis-Chalmers said it executed a letter of intent
to sell its solids processing equipment and minerals systems
businesses to Boliden AB of Sweden for about 90 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Atlantic Fuels Marketing Corp said
today it will raise the posted cargo prices for high sulphur
fuels in New York Harbor 50 to 75 cts per barrel, effective
April two.
    The increase brings the prices for two pct sulphur to 19.25
dlrs, up 50 cts, 2.2 pct sulphur to 18.75 dlrs, up 50 cts, 2.5
pct sulphur to 18.50 dlrs, up 50 cts, 2.8 pct sulphur to 18.25
dlrs, up 75 cts, the company said.
    Posted prices for 0.3 pct and one pct low sulphur fuels
were unchanged at 22 and 20 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

The First National Bank of Boston, the
main banking unit of Bank of Boston, said it is raising its
prime lending rate to 7.75 pct from 7.50 pct, effective
 Reuter

Gencorp Inc said its board took no
action with respect to a two pct stock dividend at its annual
meeting yesterday due to the press of other business,
specifically the company's pending takeover offer by General
Acquisition Corp, formed by AFG industries inc and Wagner and
brown.
    A spokesman said the two pct stock dividend, normally
issued everly year, was not issued in February because the
company was examining other dividend alternatives. Management
said it would give consideration to this matter at a later
time.
   Yesterday, the company's chairman, A. William Reynolds, told
shareholders he would be presenting an alternative to the 100
dlrs a share takeover offer within a week.

 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co Inc, parent of
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York, said that it will place
1.3 billion dlrs of medium- and long-term loans to Brazil on a
non-accrual basis, matching similar action by BankAmerica Corp
<BAC> earlier today.
    The move, which follows Brazil's suspension of interest
payments on 68 billion dlrs of commercial bank debt on February
20, is expected to reduce first quarter net income by about 20
mln dlrs, of which four mln dlrs represents interest accrued
prior to 1987 but still uncollected, the bank said.
    Morgan earned 233.9 mln dlrs in the first quarter of 1986.
    Morgan also said that, based on current interest rates and
assuming cash interest payments are not received for the rest
of the year, 1987 net income would be reduced by about 72 mln
dlrs. 1986 net income was 872.5 mln dlrs.
    Although U.S. banks do not have to put loans on nonaccrual
until they are over 90 days past due, Morgan said some of the
loans affected by the Brazil payment freeze may reach the
90-day limit during the second and third quarters.
    Morgan said it assumes talks between Brazil and commercial
bank lenders will proceed "expeditiously" and interest payments
will resume at the earliest practicable date.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp will idle six of its
car assembly plants next week, temporarily laying off 21,600
workers, according to spokespersons for the company's groups.
    The automaker will shut three plants each in its two
groups--the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac group and the
Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada group.
    The plants will be closed for a week starting August six
for inventory adjustment.
    Five of the plants are located in the United States. The
sixth is in Canada.
    The three Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac plants that will be
idled are located at Wentsville, Mo. (4,900 workers), the
Hamtramck plant in Detroit (3,000 workers) and the body
assembly plant in Flint, Mich. (2,500 workers).
    The Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada facilities to be shut
temporarily are located in North Tarrytown, N.Y. (3,500
workers), Pontiac, Mich. (1,600 workers) and Oshawa, Ont.
(6,100 workers).
    All of General Motors' truck and bus plants will be
operating next week, a spokesman for the truck and bus group
said.
 Reuter

The downturn in the Texas economy has
bottomed out and growth should return at a slow rate in the
second or third quarter, said Coyle Kelly, executive assistant
to the chairman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission.
    "Indicators are pointing to a turnaround ... but
uncertainty still remains," he said at a meeting of utilities
analysts.
    The state's economy will begin to expand by the end of the
year, he said, but growth will be flat when averaged over the
full 12 months.
    Kelly said his projection assumes oil prices in the range
of 15 dlrs to 19 dlrs a barrel.
    He added that the oil and agriculture sectors were still
severely depressed but that there are scattered signs of
improvement in the industrial sectors.
 Reuter

completed the sale of its Systems and Simulations Division to
the unit's management for an undisclosed price.
    Gould said the move is part of its plan to divest its
defense systems businesses and focus on its computer and
electronics sectors.
    Gould added that it accounted for the division as a
discontinued operation.
 Reuter

Morrison Inc said its board adopted
a shareholder rights plan designed to fend off unwanted
takeovers.
    Morrison said that it was not aware of any party interested
in acquiring the company.
    It said it declared a dividend on its outstanding common
stock of stock purchase rights which have a term of 10 years,
and will be issued April 10 to holders of record April 10.
    It said each right entitles shareholders to buy one
one-thousandth of a share of newly authorized preferred at a
purchase price of 75 dlrs. It said the rights will be
distributed as a dividend and will become exercisable if a
party acquires 20 pct or more of its common or begins a tender
offer for 30 pct or more of its stock, among other things.
    It said the rights are redeemable by its board at one-half
ct per right.
 Reuter

U.S. corn sales to Tunisia, Morocco
and other North African countries may face increased
competition from European Community (EC) corn sales, the U.S.
    In its World Production and Trade report, the USDA said
sales of French corn for nearby delivery have been confirmed
with an export subsidy of about 145 dlrs per tonne, bringing
the French price to about 72 dlrs per tonne, FOB.
    While this is about the same price as U.S. corn, EC corn
has lower transport costs, the department noted.
    The French sales mark the beginning of commercial EC corn
exports which could reach 750,000 tonnes to North Africa and
the Middle East, areas which have traditionally purchased their
corn needs from the United States, the department said.
    Department officials said the 750,000 tonnes of exports are
for the year up to September 30 1987.
    They said export licenses for about 500,000 tonnes have
been issued so far.
 Reuter

CHRYSLER MADE 98,648 U.S. CARS IN MARCH, DOWN FROM
115,540 LAST YEAR

New Zealand may need about 100,000
tonnes of wheat this year, which would normally come from
Australia, but may be from the United States, the U.S.
department said with the deregulation of the New Zealand Wheat
Board, which normally imports wheat from Australia, there is
the possibility of wheat purchases from the united states since
the shipping cost between New Zealand and the Eastern Coast of
Australia and the West Coast of the United States are about
equal.
 Reuter

Democrats rammed through the House
Budget Committee a trillion dollar U.S. spending budget for
1988 over Republican protests.
    After a brief partisan debate in which Republicans said
they were kept in the dark about the plan, the committee
approved the budget by voice vote and sent it to the full
House. 
    It was the first major congressional action on a U.S.
budget for the government year starting October 1 this year.
    President Reagan has had his own budget virtually ignored
by Democrats and fellow Republicans alike.
    The House budget would cut the deficit about 38 billion
dlrs off an estimated 171-billion-dlr deficit for a 133-
billion-dlr deficit, using Congressional Budget Office
    Using President Reagan's more optimistic economic
assumptions, committee Democrats said the deficit would be 107
billion -- the goal of a new budget law designed to gradually
end deficits by 1991.
    The estimated deficit for this year is about 175 billion
dlrs.
 Reuter

There were five grain ships loading and
three ships were waiting to load at Portland, according to the
 Reuter

The National Broadcasting Co delivered
its "final offer" for a new contract to representatives of
2,800 writers, editors and technicians early today and waited
for a response.
    A committee of the National Association of Broadcast
Employees and Technicians discussed the offer but after three
hours they had not come to any decision.
    If the union walks out it would mean simultaneous strikes
against all three major U.S. television networks. A different
union struck CBS Inc <CBS> and Capital Cities/ABC Inc <CCB> a
month ago. NBC is owned by the General Electric Co <GE>.
    "We're instructing all our members to continue working
without a contract," said John Krieger, a union official. The
contract expired at midnight March 31.
    Krieger said the committee is empowered to call a strike if
it sees fit but he added, "we're not gun shy and we're not
strike-happy, we don't take it lightly." He said the union
needed time to draft a formal response to the NBC proposal,
which the network billed as its "best and final offer."
    A spokeswoman for NBC said management personnel were
prepared to take assume technical duties if its radio and
television facilities are struck.
    "If there were a strike, we would not expect any
interruption in our service," the NBC spokeswoman said. At CBS
and ABC, where the Writers Guild of America has been on strike
since early March, viewers have noticed little difference in
the programs. However technicians are not involved in the
walkout at CBS and ABC.
    Krieger said the "major stumbling block" in the talks with
NBC was the network's insistence on having the right to hire
engineers and writers on a daily basis. "In a broad sense this
would decimate the union," he said, with temporary workers
jeopardizing the jobs of staff employees.
    NBC said its proposal "contains assurances that there is no
intention to replace regular employees with daily hires." NBC
said regular employees who may be on layoff would be offered
employment first.
    NBC also said any daily hires would be represented by the
union and would be phased in at four pct of regular staff in
the first year of a contract and six percent afterward.
    Top scale wages would increase to 855 dlrs per week in the
first year of the two-year contract and 895 dlrs in the second
year, under the NBC proposal. Krieger said the network's wage
proposals were "disappointing" but not the main issue.
    NBC said its proposals would give it greater flexibility in
sports and news coverage. It said its proposals would permit
limited access to news materials from affiliates and
subscription services and allow Cable News Network to join
network pool facilities. Cable News Network is owned by Turner
Broadcasting System <TBS>.
    Material from subscription servoces would be limited to an
average of about one minute in a half-hour program, NBC said.
The network said the changes it seeks "would reduce costly
duplication and are vital to NBC's long term health."
    The major U.S. networks have experienced cost cutting
campaigns following a series of ownership changes that affected
the parent companies of all three in the past two years.
    Laurence Tisch became the largest shareholder in CBS, NBC's
former parent RCA was acquired by General Electric and ABC was
merged into Capital Cities Broadcasting.
    The broadcast operations have been hit with layoffs and
other belt-tightening measures. Network executives cited cable
television services and video cassette players which compete
for viewers.
 Reuter

Moore Corp Ltd said it proposed
amendments to a special resolution seeking shareholder approval
for authority to issue preference shares, so that the shares
will be non-voting except in the event of dividend non-payment.
    It said it proposed the amendments in response to
shareholder concerns that under the existing resolution, voting
rights could be attached to the preference shares that are
disproportionate to common share voting rights.
    Moore Corp said it has no immediate plans to issue
preference shares under the proposed resolution.
    The resolutions will be considered at the April 9 annual
and special meeting, the company said.
 Reuter

U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani,
clarifying earlier remarks about being offered a top job at the
Securities and Exchange Commission, said he had no intention
about commenting on whether the offer was made.
    A spokeswoman for Giuliani said the problems arose because
he thought he was responding to questions about newspaper
speculation and not about an actual offer.
    In a brief morning press conference, Giuliani said he had
received feelers about becoming head of the FBI and had turned
that down. He then mentioned the SEC and said he had not made
up his mind but could not leave New York for several months.
    In a later clarification of his remarks, Giuliani told
reporters, "I can't comment. I am not able to confirm that. This
is not a good time to leave New York. I have important work to
do here."
    He did not deny that an offer had been made.
    Earlier Reuters reported that Giuliani confirmed that he
had been offered a top post at the SEC but would not say what
that position was.

 Reuter

Compagnie Generale Des Eaux
<EAUG.PA>, a French water, waste treatment and disposal,
heating, ventilation and air conditioning concern said it has a
5.0 pct stake in California Water Service Co.
Compagnie Generale said it bought its 139,200 California Water
shares for a total of 7.0 mln dlrs for investment purposes.
    While it said it might acquire more shares in the company,
it said it has no plans to seek control of it.
 Reuter

an estimated 8,700 head of dairy cattle were slaughtered during
the week ending March 13 as a result of the Whole Herd Dairy
Buyout program.
    The cumulative total of cattle slaughtered under the
program from April 1 through March 13 is estimated at 1,032,300
head, it said.
    Cumulative meat purchases through March 27 total
376,897,330 lbs, the department said.
    Dairy cattle reported for export under the program for the
period April 1 through March 27 totaled an estimated 55,055
head, the department said.
    Live cattle exports are in addition to the meat purchase
requirements, the department said.
 Reuter

Most major U.S. banks today matched
Tuesday's quarter-point prime rate cuts by Citibank and Chase
Manhattan Bank, the first prime rate boosts since mid-1984.
    Most cited narrower spreads between the prime and funding
costs as justification. Analysts said the prime rate rises may
have been triggered partly by a desire by banks to enhance
profit margins given problems with developing country loans. 
    Commenting on the prime rate increases, U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker told a House Appropriations Committee
that "I hope it was a temporary blip upward."
    Among the major banks which today announced prime rate
increases to 7-3/4 pct were Bankers Trust, Chemical Bank,
Continental Illinois National Bank, Harris Trust and Savings
Bank, Irving Trust, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co, Marine
Midland, and Security Pacific National Bank.
    Other banking companies announcing prime rate rises
included Pittsburgh National Bank, Texas Commerce Bank-Houston,
Provident National Bank, First National Bank of Boston, Florida
Federal Savings and Loan Association, and SunTrust Banks.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs seven cts
    Net 52.1 mln vs 112,713
    Revs 5.1 mln vs 4.4 mln
    Six months
    Shr five cts vs 15 cts
    Net 75,605 vs 244,119
    Revs 9.5 mln vs 9.5 mln
   
 Reuter

AMR Corp's American Airlines and
Citibank are expected to announce a joint marketing program at
a press conference tomorrow, analysts said.
    The program will probably allow consumers using a credit
card issued by Citibank to pay for flights on American and earn
frequent flyer miles, they said.
    "It's an incentive to use the card and it potentially
builds traffic for the carrier," said one analyst, who asked
    One analyst noted that Texas Air Corp's <TEX> Continental
Airlines has a similar agreement with a bank issuing
Mastercard.
    Texas Air officials were not immediately available.
    American Airlines and Citibank scheduled a press conference
at 1030 EST in New York tomorrow to announce a "major new
credit card alliance marketing program."
    Spokesmen for Citibank declined additional comment.
American Airlines spokesmen were not available.
 Reuter

The Union Bank subsidiary of
Standard Chartered PLC said today it was raising its prime
lending rate to 7.75 pct from 7.50 pct, effective immediately.
 Reuter

After an already steep fall in the past
week, U.S. interest rate futures may be in for further declines
in the near term, financial analysts said.
    However, some analysts said recent sharp losses in bond
futures have left the bond market somewhat oversold, and the
contracts on long-term debt could stage a recovery before
resuming their decline.
    Key to the near-term direction of futures will be the
course of the dollar, they said.
    "As the dollar goes, so goes the bond market," said Dean
Witter analyst Karen Gibbs.
    The recent decline in the dollar, which hit a 40-year low
against the Japanese yen Monday, was reversed Wednesday when
several large U.S. money center banks unexpectedly raised their
prime lending rates by a quarter point, to 7-3/4 pct.
    "Even though the prime rate cut was good for the dollar,
foreign exchange traders are not convinced the dollar decline
is over," Gibbs said.
    The dollar decline was key in recent weakness in debt
futures as it rekindled concern about a pickup in inflation.
    Indeed, the falling dollar may have been a key topic at the
meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy making arm, the Federal
Open Market Committee, this week, analysts said.
    "To the Fed, the combination of a falling dollar, a
steepening yield curve, and rising commodity prices look
suspiciously like the traces of expectations of accelerating
inflation," said Denis Karnosky, analyst at Carroll, McEntee
and McGinley Inc.
    Such expectations could mean that "a shift in policy toward
restriction of bank reserves is likely to get very serious
consideration," at the FOMC meeting, he said.
    Any such restriction of reserves will not be a highly
visible form of monetary tightening, Karnosky said.
    Rather, the key to detecting a change will be found in
seasonal and adjustment borrowing at the discount window, he
said. Borrowings have held near a weekly average of 300 mln
dlrs over the past several months, he said.
    In the meantime, however, "the market looks a bit
oversold," said Jim Wysoglad, analyst at Golden Gate Futures.
    Wysoglad said a recovery from the oversold condition could
drive June bonds to a high near 99 before falling back to test
chart support near the recent low of 97-13/32.
    Technician Leslie Keefe of Technical Data Corp of Boston
said that the key test for June bonds will be whether the
nearby contract holds above chart support at 96-24/32.
    "All previous selloffs since mid-November have stopped and
buyers have surfaced at that level," Keefe said.
    If that level is broken, and the dollar continues to
decline, Keefe said she expects the June bond contract to
decline to test support between 92 and 93, the primary uptrend
line dating back to 1984.
 Reuter

The Federal Grain Inspection Service
Advisory Committee will meet here Monday, April 13, the U.S.
    Items on the agenda for the meeting, which is scheduled to
begin at 0830 edt, are grain-quality issues, status of proposed
regulations, financial matters and safety matters, the
    The Federal Grain Inspection Service Advisory Committee is
composed of 12 members representing the grain industry who
provide advice to the administrator of the Federal Grain
Inspection Service.
 Reuter

Deak said. The New York firm will be known as Deak
International Trading Ltd, the company said. Arkadi Kuhlmann,
president and chief executive officer of Deak International,
said the purchase will expand Deak's operations in precious
metals and wholesale non-ferrous metals trading.
 Reuter

Coffee futures dipped further today and
closed below 1 dlr a pound for the first time in six years.
    Coffee for delivery in May ended at 99.28 cents a pound on
the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, down 0.76 cent and the
lowest price since August, 1981.
     Prices have been falling steadily since the International
Coffee Organization failed in February to reach an agreement
controlling exports by its members, and pressure was renewed
this week as the executive board of the organization met in
London without reopening debate on its export quotas.
    The executive board has limited its current discussions to
administrative matters and is set to adourn Thursday.
    Burdensome supplies have pressed the market down from 1.30
dlr a pound in February, when the organization's discussions
aimed at re-establishing export quotas broke down.
    Sandra Kaul, a coffee analyst in New York with Shearson
Lehman Brothers, said supplies currently are at their high
point for the year because most producing nations have just
completed their harvests.
    In addition, she said, many of those nations are faced with
serious debt and need to sell coffee to raise capital.
    "This should keep substantial pressure on exporters to
undertake sales despite the drop in prices," she said.
    Further, U.S. demand could be sluggish because winter, the
period of greatest consumption, is ending. Prices could fall
another 10 cents to 15 cnts a pound, analysts said.
    Gold futures retreated from modest early gains and closed
steady while silver prices rallied on the Commodity Exchange in
New York.
    The increase in U.S. banks' prime rates prompted concern
about renewed inflation, but the strength of the U.S. dollar
discouraged new buying.
    "The market is getting mixed signals and it doesn't know
which way to go," one analyst said.
New York.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.92 dlrs vs profit five cts
    Net loss 5.6 mln vs profit 136,598
    Revs 1.4 mln vs. 2.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 3.81 dlrs vs profit 21 cts
    Net loss 10.8 mln vs profit 435,176
    Revs 7.6 mln vs 9.4 mln
    NOTE:1986 4th qtr includes write-off of about 373,000 dlrs
or 13 cts and writdown of assets of 4.0 mln dlrs. 1986 year
includes 4.1 mln dlrs 1st qtr writedown.
 Reuter

Masstor Systems Corp said it
it signed a volume purchase agreement with National Westminster
Bank PLC worth up to 7.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Tenera LP said it plans to
periodically repurchase up to 200,000 limited partnership units
in the open market.
    The timing and amount of the proposed purchases will depend
on the prevailing market price and trading volumes in the units
to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission regulators,
Tenera said.
 Reuter

Crown Resources Corp said it plans to
sell its Oklahoma-based oil and gas unit as part of its
strategy to focus on developing precious metals properties.
    The company said it bought the Wyona Water Flood Oil and
Gas unit in 1984 for 650,000 dlrs.
    Crown said the Wyona field is fully developed with 28
producing wells.
    Current oil production is 80 barrels a day, it said, adding
that no gas was produced for sale in 1986.
 Reuter

M.D.C. Holdings Inc said it sold
substantially all the assets of its oil and gas unit, Mizel
Petro Resources Inc, and affiliated partnerships, for 38 mln
dlrs in cash to <Parker and Parsley Petroleum Co>, Midland,
Texas.
    The company said that, subject to certain post-closing
adjustments, it expects to post a small profit on the sale.
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs three cts
    Net 1.7 mln vs 3.1 mln
    Revs 187.3 mln vs 129.7 mln
    NOTE:Increase in earnings due to elimination of preferred
 Reuter

Peoples Telephone Co, the third
largest private pay phone firm in the U.S., said it signed an
exclusive five-year, 25 mln dlr contract with the Southland
Corp.
    Under the contract, Peoples said it will provide telephone
service to Southland's 7-Eleven Stores in Florida, and install
and maintain telephone circuitry for 7-Eleven's MovieQuick and
computerized lottery systems.
 Reuter

Mexico bought 51,000 tonnes of U.S.
number two yellow soybeans in an overnight tender, for various
ocean and rail shipments in May, private export sources said.
    About 40,000 tonnes sold for ocean shipment at prices
ranging from 199.67 to 210.17 dlrs per tonne, c and f, and
about 11,000 tonnes sold for rail shipment at prices from
205.50 to 217.88 dlrs per tonne, they said.
 Reuter

SciMed Life Systems Inc said
<Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc> is suing it for patent
infringement.
    The company said the suit involves a patent for a vascular
guiding catheter assembly and a vascular dilating catheter
assembly.
    SciMed said the suit is without merit and it has turned the
matter over to its attorneys.
    It added that the lawsuit will not affect the negotiations
on the merger transaction with Bristol-Meyers Co <BMY>,
announced Monday.
 Reuter

Fidelcor Inc's Fidelcor Business Credit
Corp subsidiary said it reached a definitive agreement to
acquire a substantial portion of the Bank of New England Corp's
<BKNE> Lazere Financial Corp's assets.
    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The
acquisition is subject to approval of the Federal Reserve
Board.
    Fidelcor said it would acquire most of Lazere's loan
portfolio and other assets, including its Miami office. It said
it plans to hire the majority of Lazere's 100 employees.
 Reuter

Shr loss 3.51 dlrs vs loss 6.14 dlrs
    Net loss 3.2 mln vs loss 6.6 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.38 dlrs vs loss 5.17 dlrs
    Net loss 692,872 vs loss 4.5 mln
    NOTE:1986 loss includes loss of 301,000 for discontinued
oeprations vs a loss of 5.5 mln dlrs net of a 1.4 mln credit in
1985. 1985 4th qtr includes loss of 3.5 mln dlrs for
discontinued operations. share amts relfect dividend
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 79 cts
    Net 4,042,000 vs 3,549,000
    Revs 59.7 mln vs 47.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 27 cts vs loss 2.27 dlrs
    Net profit 2,150,000 vs loss 14,700,000
    Revs 121.3 mln vs 69.8 mln
    Note: shr after payment of preferred stock dividends
 Reuter

Bangor Hydro-Electric Co said the
Maine PUblic Utilities Commission approved changes in rates
effective today that will decrease revenues by about 412,000
dlrs or 0.5 pct.
    The decrease results from changes in the base rates and in
the fuel cost adjustment rate charged by the company.
    Base rates will decrease by 6.25 mln dlrs due largely to
its sale in the Seabrook nuclear power project, a reduction in
federal income taxes and lower costs of capital.
    The base rate assumes a rate of return of 11.57 pct, down
from 13.1 pct. Offsetting the decrease, however, is an
authorization to increase fuel rates by 5.84 mln dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

Coffee futures dipped further and closed
below one dlr a pound for the first time in six years.
the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, down 0.76 cent
and the lowest price since August, 1981.
     Prices have fallen steadily since the International Coffee
Organization failed in February to reach an agreement
dlrs a pound in February, when the organization's discussions
another 10 to 15 cents a pound, analysts said.
New York.
about renewed inflation but the strength of the U.S. dollar
    Cattle futures posted new highs on the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, while live hogs rallied from early losses and frozen
pork bellies finished sharply lower.
    Cattle prices continued to draw support from the winter
storm that swept the Plains states, leaving animals stranded in
snowbound fields and feed lots in miserable condition.
    Live hogs were pressured early by the Agriculture
Department's report Tuesday that producers expanded their
breeding herds more than the market expected last quarter.
Prices recovered to keep pace with higher cash prices.
    Frozen pork bellies fell sharply on the outlook for greater
production and closed with limit losses.
    Soybean futures posted sharp gains on the Chicago Board of
Trade, while corn and wheat were lower.
    Soybeans rallied in response to Tuesday's USDA report that
farmers intend to plant 56.9 mln acres this year, down from
61.5 mln planted last year.
    Corn prices were pressured by the outlook for 67.6 mln
acres of corn, which is down from last year's 76.7 mln acres,
but was larger than analysts expected.
 Reuter

Two executives of a Memphis, Tenn.,
investment advisory firm told the Securities and Exchange
Commission they have acquired 132,000 shares of Killearn
Properties Inc, or 10.4 pct of the total outstanding.
    The executives, O. Mason Hawkins and William Reid, who work
for Southeastern Asset Management Inc, said they bought their
Killearn stock with personal funds as an investment.
    While they said they might increase their stake Killearn
Properties, they said they have no plans to seek control of it.
 Reuter

Western Carolina Savings and Loan
Association said the Federal Home Loan Bank Board approved the
completion of its conversion to a state chartered stock savings
and loan from a state chartered mutual bank.
    Carolina said 575,000 shares were subscribed for at 10 dlrs
per share during its initial offering.
    It said trading will begin in its stock April eight on
NASDAQ under the sumbol WCAR.
 Reuter

Selas Corp of America said the U.S.
District Court in Tacoma, Wash., issued a judgment against the
company in a lawsuit filed by <Milgard Tempering Co>.
    The company said the suit, filed by Milgard in 1983 in
connection with a contract dispute, seeks 3.7 mln dlrs in
damages as well as legal fees.
    While the court has not issued a final judgment, Selas said
it indicated that Milgard will be awarded about one mln dlrs in
damages. Selas said it has not decided whether it will appeal
the ruling.
   
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it made 189,610 U.S.
cars in March, up from 150,520 in the same period last year.
    Ford said it made 143,949 trucks during the month, compared
to 116,727 in the 1986 period.
    Year-to-date, Ford said it produced 534,209 U.S. cars, up
from 446,505 last year-to-date.
    Truck production through the end of March was 403,836
vehicles, up from 362,986 vehicles, Ford said.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it made 98,648 cars
in the U.S. in March, down from the 115,540 cars it produced in
    The company said it produced 23,961 trucks in the U.S.
during the month, compared to 134 in the same month last year,
when most of Chrysler's truck operations were temporarily
closed down for model changovers.
    Year to date, Chrysler made 315,635 U.S. cars and 63,795
U.S. trucks, compared to 373,481 and 134 in the 1986 period,
 Reuter

The Argentine grain board adjusted
minimum export prices of grain and oilseed products in dlrs per
tonne FOB, previous in brackets, as follows:
    Sunflowerseed cake and expellers 99 (97), pellets 97 (95)
and meal 95 (93).                               
    Sunflowerseed oil for shipments through May 308 (300) and
June onwards 314 (307).                         
    Linseed cake and expellers 137 (136), pellets 115 (114) and
meal 105 (104), all for shipments through June. 
    Linseed cake and expellers 146 (145), pellets 124 (123) and
meal 114 (113), all for shipments July onwards.
    Soybean cake and expellers 169 (167), pellets 162 (160) and
meal 152 (150), all for shipments through May.  
    Soybean cake and expellers 166 (164), pellets 159 (157) and
meal 149 (147), all for shipments June onwards.
 REUTER

Shr loss 42 cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 4.0 mln vs loss 446,000
    Revs 58.9 mln vs 70.3 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes gain of 40 cts from discontinued
operations. 1985 net includes gain of 22 cts from discontinued
 Reuter

The federal government and the Japanese
trading company, C. Itoh and Co Ltd, have signed a letter of
understanding to try and boost trade ties between the two
countries, the Industry department said.
    The two parties have agreed to encourage direct Japanese
investment in Canada, bilateral trade, and more joint ventures
and licensing accords between Canadian and Japanese companies.
    C. Itoh has just begun a trade mission in Canada to
investigate trading opportunities in the aerospace, autoparts
electronics and other sectors and will visit some 30 leading
companies across Canada. 
 Reuter

Qtr ended March 14.
    Shr profit 32 cts vs loss 1.30 dlrs
    Net profit 2,704,000 vs loss 7,589,000
    Rev 105.2 mln vs 82.3 mln
    NOTE: Qtr net includes extraordinary gain of 1.1 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Stanley Simon was charged with
extorting 50,000 dlrs from a defense contractor in the first
indictment in a corruption probe involving two Congressmen, a
former aide to President Reagan and other government officials.
    Simon, who resigned last month as Bronx Borough President,
was accused of extorting the money and forcing the now bankrupt
contractor, the Wedtech Corp., to hire his brother-in-law and
then give him raises.
    Simon is also accused of perjury and forcing one of his
employees to pay him 14,000 dlrs in salary kickbacks.
    He is the first public official to be indicted for
demanding money from Wedtech, a minority-owned company that
builds pontoon bridges for the Defense Department.
    "Wedtech was one of the success stories in the Bronx, but
the company was manipulated and raped," Thomas Scheer, the head
of the FBI's New York office, said of the payoffs the company
allegedly made to win contracts.
    Wedtech executives have said they paid bribes to about 20
government officials.
    Law enforcement sources say two Bronx congressmen, Mario
Biaggi and Robert Garcia, are under investigation.
    A special federal prosecutor has been appointed to
determine whether former Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger acted
improperly when he became a Wedtech consultant four months
after leaving the White House.
    Nofziger was given up to 1 mln dlrs in Wedtech stock.

 Reuter

N.Y. GRAIN FREIGHTS - April 1
    Tradax took Y.S. Tonnage 52,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to Japan
early May dates 16.00 dlrs 11 days all purposes
    Tradax took Dimitrios 76,000 tonnes any grains 4,952,000
grain cubics U.S. Gulf to Holland May 1-10 8.50 dlrs 12 days
all purposes
    ADM took Ymuiden Maru 93,500 tonnes DWCC 4,726,937 grain
cubics U.S. Gulf to Holland April 20-30 lumpsum 675,000 dlrs 11
days all purposes
    Dreyfus took Golden Crown 20,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to East
Coast Mexico April 6-10 10.00 dlrs 1,500 discharge
    Marubeni took NYK TBNs 52,000 tonnes HSS seven times U.S.
Gulf to Japan July 1987-January 1988 dates 14.25 dlrs 9,000
load 6,500 discharge
 reuter

    Allied Supermarkets Inc <ASU> - Offering of 140 mln dlrs of
senior subordinated discount debentures due 1999 and 100 mln
dlrs of subordinated debentures due 2001 through Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    Integrated Resources Inc <IRE> - Offering of 150 mln dlrs
of senior notes, with 50 mln dlrs due April 15, 1990, 50 mln
dlrs due April 15, 1992 and 50 mln dlrs due April 15, 1995, all
 Reuter

American Barrick Resources Corp said it
sold two coal supply agreements and certain mining equipment,
representing substantially all of the assets of its two Ohio
coal mines, to Peabody Coal Co, of Kentucky.
    Proceeds from the sale combined with the sale of the
company's remaining coal assets should result in full recovery
of its investments in the operations, the company said without
further elaborating.
    The sale will complete the planned disposition by American
Barrick of all its non-gold assets, it said.
 Reuter

mexico today received the first 250
mln dlrs of a 500 mln dlr credit from japan's eximbank aimed at
financing a mexican oil pipeline project, the finance ministry
    The funds will be used in the 700 mln dlr pacific petroleum
project, which includes the construction of a 267-klm
(160.2-mile) pipeline connecting nuevo teapa in the oil-rich
state of veracruz and salina cruz, oaxaca on the pacific coast.
The project aims to facilitate mexican oil exports to japan and
the far east and is expected to be completed in three years.
 Reuter

United Press International  announced
that Milton Benjamin had resigned as company president and the
news agency's chairman, Mario Vazquez-Rana, a Mexican newspaper
owner, would take over his duties.
    The agency, which emerged from bankruptcy court protection
when Vazquez-Rana bought it for 41 mln dlrs last June, has had
four presidents over the past year.
    Benjamin, who had served in the post since last November,
said he was stepping down because restoring UPI would take a
greater financial investment than he had envisaged and
Vasquez-Rana thus wished to take direct control.
    "In recent weeks, Mario (Vazquez-Rana) has indicated that in
light of the increased investment, he wants to devote even more
time to UPI and to play a more direct role in managing its
financial affairs," Benjamin said in a statement.
    Benjamin said he would return to his consulting firm of
Anderson, Benjamin, Read and Haney Inc., which he founded in
1984. He left the firm on November six last year to take over
as president of UPI.
    Besides Benjamin and Vazquez-Rana, the other presidents
have been Luis Nogales, a California businessman who helped
steer the agency through bankruptcy proceedings, and Maxwell
McCrohon, former editor and managing editor of the Chicago
Tribune.
    Vazquez-Rana, who is both chairman and chief executive
officer of UPI, is the publisher of a successful chain of 62
newspapers in Mexico, chairman of the Mexican Olympics
Committee and chairman of the worldwide Association of National
Olymnpics committees.
 Reuter

N.Y. TANKERS - April 1
    Citgo took West Virginia 62,000 tons dirty April 9
Caribbean to U.S. Gulf worldscale 63
 reuter

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee
approved proposals to extend the life of the Export Enhancement
Program, EEP, through fiscal 1990 and urged the Reagan
administration offer EEP wheat to the Soviet Union.
    The proposals were approved as amendments to a
comprehensive trade bill moving through Congress this year.
    In addition to the amendments on EEP, the committee
approved several proposals which could restrict imports of
lamb, casein, sugar-containing products and tobacco. Those
amendments affecting imports face an uncertain future because
the House Ways and Means Committee, which has overall
jurisdiction over trade legislation, will oppose them,
    The effect of the EEP amendments would be to extend the
life of the program five years through fiscal 1990 rather than
the current three years through fiscal 1988.
    The amendments, offered by Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan., also
would increase funding for the program to 2.5 billion dlrs from
1.5 billion now.
    Furthermore, the committee passed an amendment offered by
Rep. Glickman which instructs the U.S. Agriculture Department
to value EEP bonus commodities at market value, not acquisition
value. Glickman said the change would make the program 30 pct
less expensive to operate.
    The provision on EEP wheat to the Soviet Union, offered by
Rep. Bob Smith, R-Ore., does not require the administration
make an offer, but urges such action.
    The committee approved an amendment, offered by Rep. Glenn
English, D-Okla., requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to
begin discussions with other major grain producing countries
aimed at jointly reducing world grain production.
    Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter yesterday opposed the
amendment, saying such commodity agreements do not work.
    Among the host of amendments to restrict imports approved
by the panel, the most significant would require quotas on
imports of goods containing more than 25 pct of a bulk farm
product that is subject to U.S. quotas. The amendment, offered
by Rep. Arlan Stangeland, R-Minn., is aimed primarily at
curbing imports from Canada of products containing sugar and
foreign foods containing dairy products. It also may affect
peanut, cotton and tobacco imports, Committee sources said.
    Another amendment would place a quota on U.S. imports of
casein, a dairy product shipped to the U.S. primarily by New
Zealand and Ireland.
    The panel also voted to apply to lamb imports the same
countercyclical import quota law which is operating for U.S.
beef imports.
    Other miscellaneous amendments included:
    -- Urging the administration consider retaliating against
Japan and South Korea if those countries do not remove
restrictions on beef imports.
    -- Boosting the amount of U.S. grain which must be shipped
each year under a food aid program called Section 416 to
800,000 tonnes from 500,000 tonnes now.
    -- Requiring the Agriculture Secretary conduct a study of
the Canadian Wheat Board import licensing system for wheat to
determine if it is a non-tariff trade barrier.
    -- Requiring the Agriculture Secretary reimburse the
National Corn Growers Association up to 500,000 dlrs for the
costs of defending the U.S. feedgrains program against a
Canadian countervailing duty case this year.
    -- Urging the administration oppose the Canadian decision
to apply a duty on U.S. corn imports, and a proposal by the
European Community to apply a vegetable oils tax.
    -- USDA conduct a study of the findings of a National
Commission on Agricultural Export Policy, which recommended a
reorganization of USDA's trade policy apparatus.
 Reuter

    The plants will be closed for a week starting April six for
inventory adjustment.
sixth is in Canada. - corrects the date of the plant closings.

<Novamin Inc> said
its board will recommend to shareholders the takeover offer
made by Breakwater Resources Ltd.
    Breakwater is offering to exchange one Breakwater share for
each two shares of Novamin, the company said.
    Breakwater will issue about 3.7 mln shares for all Novamin
shares presently issued and outstanding. Additional shraes of
Breakwater will be issued if warrants and options of Novamin
are exercised.
 Reuter

its summary report on the Feed Situation and Outlook, scheduled
for release April 24, has been delayed until May 15.
    The department said the delay will enable analysts to
incorporate into the report USDA's first supply and demand
estimates for the 1987/88 marketing year and data on farm
program participation.
 Reuter

Exotic Newcastle, a highly contagious
disease of pet birds and poultry, has been confirmed in two
pet-bird dealer facilities in Maryland, and New York, the U.S.
    The department said no domestic poultry are involved in the
outbreak.
    State quarantines have been placed on the two facilities,
in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and Schenectady, New York.
    The most serious U.S. outbreak of the disease occurred in
1971-73 in southern California, where the disease spread from
infected pet birds to a dense poultry population and nearly 12
mln birds, mostly laying hens, were destroyed at a cost of 56
mln dlrs, the department said.
 Reuter

Beryl Sprinkel, Chairman of
President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors, denounced
protectionism as a means of addressing the U.S.s' mounting
trade imbalance and said stepped-up ecomonic growth would be a
more effective means of reducing the deficit.
    "Rather than risking the outbreak of protectionism we
should strive to reduce trade restrictions and to promote a
more open system of international trade," Sprinkel said.
    Sprinkel, in a speech delivered to the Los Angeles Chamber
of Commerce, also said the budget deficit must be reduced
through lower government spending in order to promote growth.
 Reuter

Newmont Mining Corp said it completed
the previously announced reduction of its share in <Peabody
Holding Co Inc> to 49.97 pct from 61.47 pct.
    Newmont realized 116.8 mln dlrs in the transaction.
    For 1986, Newmont reported net income of 74.2 mln dlrs.
Peabody, the largest coal producer in the U.S., had net income
of 100.8 mln dlrs on sales of 1.4 billion dlrs in 1986.
    Newmont doubled its ownership in Peabody in January by
purchasing 30.74 pct interest held by the Williams Cos for 320
mln dlrs.
    The reduction resulted from completion of an earlier
announced agreement by Peabody to sell a 15.01 pct interest in
the company to Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates in exchange for
all the coal properties owned by Eastern.
 Reuter

Shr loss 26 cts vs profit eight cts
    net loss 2.8 mln vs profit 897,000
    Revs 27.0 mln vs 30.0 mln
    Shr loss 51 cts vs profit 46 cts
    Net loss 5.4 mln vs profit 4.9 mln
    Revs 88.4 mln vs 99.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 64 cts vs loss 1.70 dlrs
    Net loss 13.4 mln vs loss 35.6 mln
    REvs 47.9 mln vs 72.1 mln
    NOTE:1985 includes loss of 941,000 from discontinued
operations and 5.8 mln dlrs from disposal of net asset solds.
 Reuter

traded a record 19,656,498 contracts in the first quarter of
1987, up 17 pct from 16,768,145 in the same quarter last year.
    The previous record for quarterly volume total was
established in the third quarter of 1986, when 18,106,452
futures and options were traded at the CME.
    The record volume for January through March of 1987
included 16.7 mln futures contracts -- up 12 pct compared to
14,918,036 in the 1986 quarter -- and three mln options
contracts, up 61 pct over 1,850,109 in the 1986 quarter.
    Total trading volume for March reached 6,750,431 contracts,
up from 5,522,932 in March 1986 for a 22 pct increase and the
highest March total ever. Trading in options on futures in
March exceeded previous records, with 1,015,327 contracts
traded compared to 586,471 in March 1986. The previous record
was established in January with 990,010 options contracts
traded.
    March volume included a record 2,247,513 currency futures
and options contracts, compared to 2,040,642 a year ago. The
previous single-month high of 2,216,682 currency futures and
options traded was in September 1986.
    In currency futures, Canadian dollar futures soared to a
record 147,010 contracts traded in March, up 83.2 pct over the
80,256 contracts traded in March 1986. West German mark
futures, however, slipped 15.8 pct in March with 561,830
contracts traded compared to 667,041 traded in March 1986.
    Among interest rate futures, Eurodollar futures contracts
increased 90.6 pct to 1,196,731 compared to 627,895 in March
1986.
    The Standard and Poor's 500, the second most actively
traded futures contract anywhere, traded 1,780,538 contracts in
March, up 4.9 pct from 1,696,912 in March 1986.
    Major gains in agricultural futures were posted in March by
live hog contracts, up 52 pct to 172,710 contracts from 113,660
a year ago. Live cattle contracts reached 474,156 in March, up
16.2 pct from 408,170 a year ago.
    Trading in options on futures also was up strongly.
Agricultural options on futures soared 142.7 pct in March to
123,643 contracts, up from 50,938 a year ago. Currency options
were up 69.2 pct to 469,695 contracts from 277,627 a year ago.
Interest rate options climbed 81.3 pct to 217,127 from 119,738
a year ago. And equity options rose 48.3 pct to 204,862
contracts from 138,168 a year ago.
    In addition, March trading included two single-day volume
records: British pound futures traded 35,960 contracts March 9
compared to 33,269 February 19, and Canadian dollar futures
traded 20,905 contracts March 11 compared to the previous
record of 12,456 set May 12, 1982.
 Reuter

Shr loss 56 cts vs loss 71 cts
    Net loss 809,000 vs loss 1.0 mln
    Revs 5.3 mln vs 5.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.51 dlrs vs profit 61 cts
    Net loss 2.2 mln vs loss 2.3 mln
    Revs 26.5 mln vs 29.1 mln
 Reuter

Revlon Group Inc told the Securities
and Exchange Commission it had net profits of 16,465,000 on
sales of 1.61 billion dlrs for the year ended Dec. 31, 1986.
    Revlon in a filing with the SEC compared the results to the
five months ending Dec. 31, 1985. In that period, it lost 28.4
mln dlrs on sales of 262.4 mln dlrs.
    Earlier today, MacAndrews and Forbes Group Inc began an
18.50 dlr a share cash offer for all common stock of Revlon it
does not own. Revlon today rose 3/8 to 19-1/4 in active
trading. MacAndrews controls 31.8 pct of the voting power.

    For 1986, Revlon said the loss applicable to common stock
after preferred dividends is 9.5 mln dlrs. The net loss per
share was 24 cts, compared to a net loss of 99 cts per share
last year.
    Revlon said it had a 1986 operating profit of 64.3 mln
dlrs, compared to a loss of 13.3 mln dlrs in the year earlier
period.
    The 1986 net includes a provision for estimated loss on
dispositions of 57.0 mln dlrs, compared to 15.1 mln dlrs the
year earlier. Earnings in 1986 before extraordinary items were
7.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

General Motors of Canada Ltd, a
unit of General Motors Corp, said about 1,600 hourly-rated
employees at the Oshawa plant will be laid off for one week due
to high inventories.
    The workers affected produce the Oldsmobile Ciera and
Pontiac 6000 models, a spokesman said.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's Hughes
Aircraft Co said it named Albert Wheelon as chairman and chief
executive officer, succeeding Allen Puckett who retired after
more than 38 years with the company.
    Wheelon has served in key management positions at Hughes
since joining in 1966.
 Reuter

LIfetime Corp said Retirement Housing
Corp has accepted its previously announced acquisition offer.
    Retirement will operate autonomously as a separate
 Reuter

downgrade GAF Corp's 415 mln dlrs of BB-minus senior debt and
B-rated subordinated debt.
    S and P cited GAF's 3.2 billion dlr acquisition offer for
Borg-Warner Corp <BOR>. Pro forma, debt leverage would rise to
nearly 90 pct, assuming total financing. But proceeds from
asset sales would probably pay down debt, the agency noted.
    Borg-Warner's 420 mln dlr A-plus senior debt and A-1
commercial paper were placed on creditwatch December one. S and
P said it will review the timing and extent of asset sales,
debt reduction and strategic benefits of the purchase.
 Reuter

System Energy Resources Inc, a unit of
Middle South Utilities Inc, said it plans to file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission a request for authorization
to retire a number of outstanding first mortgage bonds.
    It plans to buy back up to 300 mln dlrs of 16 pct first
mortgage bonds due 2000 and up to 100 mln dlrs of 15-3/8 pct
mortgage bonds of 2000.
    To refinance the redemptions, System Energy said it would
ask the SEC for approval to issue up to 300 mln dlrs of new
first mortgage bonds.
 Reuter

Manufacturers Hanover Corp said it
placed 1.4 billion dlrs of medium- and long-term loans to
Brazilian borrowers on non-accrual as of yesterday, meaning
that income will be recorded only when actual cash payments are
received.
    As a result, net income for the first quarter will be
reduced by 18 mln dlrs.
    If Brazil, which suspended interest payments on its term
debt on February 20, continues to defer interest payments for
the rest of the year, net income for the whole of 1987 would be
reduced by a total of 72 mln dlrs.
    U.S. bank accounting guidelines do not require loans to be
placed on nonaccrual unless interest payments are past due 90
days or more.  However, Manufacturers Hanover said that, in
light of current circumstances, it was more appropriate to
record income on its Brazilian loans only when cash payments
    It added that it believes Brazil will reach agreement with
its banks on a debt restructuring and that all interest
payments will be received later in 1987.
    The company earned 102.1 mln dlrs in first-quarter 1986 and
410.7 mln dlrs for the whole of the year.
 Reuter

<Galveston Resources Ltd> said it agreed
in principle for an option to earn up to a 50 pct interest from
<Hemlo Gold Mines Inc> in certain mining properties known as
the Interlake Property, subject to regulatory approvals.
    Galveston said it will earn up to a 50 pct interest by
spending a minimum of one mln dlrs in exploration and
development work by December 31, 1989.
    It expects work will commence shortly and continue during
the 1987 exploration season.
    Galveston also said it granted Hemlo Gold options to
acquire up to two mln Galveston shares.
    It said the options can be exercised at 10 dlrs a share up
to December 31, 1987, then at 12.50 dlrs a share until December
31, 1988, and then at 15 dlrs a share until December 31, 1989.
    Separately, Galveston said it agreed in principle with
<Noranda Inc> unit Noranda Explorations Ltd for an option to
earn up to a 50 pct interest in a major mineral property
located at the Baie Verte Peninsula, Newfoundland.
    Galveston can earn a 50 pct interest by spending six mln
dlrs in exploration and development work on the property by
    The company also said it granted Noranda an option to
purchase two mln Galveston shares.
    The options can be exercised at 10 dlrs a share until
December 31, 1987, then at 12.50 dlrs a share until December
 Reuter

Shr loss 15.29 dlrs vs loss 2.80 dlrs
    Net loss 221.3 mln vs loss 40.4 mln
    Revs 146.3 mln vs 260.7 mln
    Note: 1986 loss includes extraordinary loss of 171.6 mln
dlrs or 11.85 dlrs shr related to writedown of certain
petrochemical assets and reduced by tax gain of 4.2 mln dlrs or
28 cts shr.
    1985 results restated.
 Reuter

mexico received the first 250 mln
dlrs of a 500 mln dlr credit from japan's eximbank to finance a
mexican oil pipeline, the finance ministry announced.
project, which includes the construction of a 267-km pipeline
connecting nuevo teapa in the oil-rich state of veracruz and
salina cruz, oaxaca, on the pacific coast.
    The project aims to facilitate mexican oil exports to japan
and the far east and is expected to be completed in three years.
REUTER^M

Brentwood Instruments Inc said
it filed a lawsuit against the University of Utah for
publishing evaluations of its Spiorscan 1000 pulmonary function
testing instrument. Brentwood said in the suit the evaluations
were misleading and has damaged its reputation.
    The suit, which asks damages in excess of 90 mln dlrs,
seeks an injunction against further publishing or distribution
of evaluations.

Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> has seen a
slow start to 1987 after posting record profits in 1986,
management board joint spokesman F. Wilhelm Christians said.
    Credit business declined in the first few weeks of the
year, and the interest margin was squeezed further. The weak
German bourse saw earnings on commission fall sharply, and
trading in securities also fell. But earnings from currency
dealing were still satisfactory, he told a news conference.
    Deutsche group partial operating profits rose to 3.78
billion marks in 1986 from 2.92 billion in 1985 on a balance
sheet of 257.22 billion marks after 237.23 billion.
    Profits were swollen by earnings from the placement of the
former Flick group, which have been estimated at some one
billion marks, and from record profits in trading on the bank's
own account, not included in partial operating profits.
    Earnings from the Flick transaction were booked through a
subsidiary, and therefore showed up as part of the interest
surplus in a section current earnings from securities and
participations.
    In the group this nearly doubled to 2.64 billion marks from
1.45 billion.
    As usual the bank did not detail total operating profits.
    But it said that total operating profits, including own
account trading, rose 24.9 pct or 4.5 pct without the Flick
transaction in the group, and 35.1 pct or seven pct in the
parent bank.
    Banking analysts said this put group total operating
profits at some 6-1/2 to seven billion marks, and parent bank
operating profits at over five billion marks.
    Christians said Deutsche used the extraordinary earnings
from Flick to pay a record five mark bonus on top of its
unchanged 12 mark dividend.
    The bank had decided against raising the dividend itself
because of the uncertain business outlook at the end of 1986,
and developments so far this year showed that was correct,
Christians said.
    West German banks rarely raise dividends unless they are
sure they can maintain the increased payout in subsequent
years, preferring to use bonuses for one-of profits.
    The bank also used its extraordinary earnings to continue a
high level of risk provision, Christians said.
    Disclosed group risk provisions rose to 867 mln marks in
1986 from 765 mln in 1985.
    Under German law, disclosed provisions do not necessarily
reflect the full amount of risk provisions.
    Management board joint spokesman Alfred Herrhausen said
Deutsche's total debt exposure to problem countries had fallen
to over six billion marks in 1986 from 7.4 billion in 1985
because of the fall in the dollar.
    He agreed with a questioner who asked if over two thirds of
such problem country debt had been written off.
    Deutsche Bank posted a sharp rise in holdings of "other
securities," to 4.64 billion marks from 2.71 billion in the
    Christians said this 1.93-billion-mark rise was partly due
to its increased activity in international share placements,
with some shares such as those from Fiat SpA's international
placement last year remaining on its books.
    Herrhausen said that no concrete measures were planned to
place these shares and conclude the original placement.
 Reuter

Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> has agreed
to take over the outstanding 25 pct in <Deutsche Bank (Asia)
AG>, the former <European Asian Bank AG>, from
Creditanstalt-Bankverein <CABV.VI>, Deutsche management board
joint spokesman Alfred Herrhausen told a news conference.
    Euras broke even in 1986 and required no funding from
Deutsche, he said. He gave no details of the deal with
Creditanstalt.
    Press reports that Deutsche was planning a takeover of
Lloyds Bank plc <LLOY.L> were without foundation, he said.
    Herrhausen said Deutsche had taken part in the recent
capital increase of <Morgan Grenfell Group plc>, but had no
plans to raise its 4.4 pct share in Morgan Grenfell.
    <Banca d'America e d'Italia SpA>, in which 98.3 pct was
acquired from Bankamerica Corp <BAC.N> late last year, would be
consolidated this year, and contribute to further expansion of
Deutsche's business, management board joint spokesman F.
Wilhelm Christians said.
    Following a ruling earlier this year from the Federal High
Court, Deutsche had included its non-bank holdings in the
balance sheet section "participations," Christians said.
    But Christians said the bank still regarded shares in these
non-bank companies as an investment rather than an active
    Parent bank total participations rose to 6.45 billion marks
in 1986 from a comparable 4.57 billion in 1985 including a rise
to 3.79 billion from 2.34 billion in bank participations.
    Herrhausen said the grouping of holdings in the balance
sheet in this was was not a first step to floating them off in
a separate holding company.
 Reuter

A world recession is unlikely this
year as fiscal and monetary policy in most industrialized
countries is supporting the economy, Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F>
management board joint spokesman Alfred Herrhausen said.
    But growth rates will be smaller than last year, with 1.5
to 2.5 pct likely in most industrialized countries, he told a
    Herrhausen said he was confident private consumption would
support economic growth in West Germany this year, with net
income increases turning into purchasing power as long as
inflation did not revive.
    Herrhausen said he did not expect interest rates to rise in
West Germany this year, but there was little room for further
falls. Rates in the U.S. were however rising, as evidenced by
the latest prime rate moves, but this rise would be moderate.
    Herrhausen said he did not expect any major narrowing of
the U.S. Trade and budget deficits in the next few months.
    One success of the Paris agreement in February to foster
currency stability was that U.S. Officials have stopped talking
down the dollar, he noted.
    The recent stability would last until markets decided to
test the resolve of central banks, he said.
    He noted that central banks had spent some 10 billion dlrs
this week to stabilize the dollar against the yen in the first
such test.
    "A massive attack on the mark, which could come if we get
bad news out of the U.S., Would require a much higher
intervention amount, raising the danger of inflation," he said.
    Turning to the international debt problem, Herrhausen said
Brazil's unilateral debt moratorium had surprised banks.
    But the move showed that a real solution to debt problems
was only possible with the involvement of all parties.
 Reuter

Singapore's major banks are
diversifying and gradually shifting their asset holdings from
loans to debt instruments, banking sources said.
    The banks following the trend are the <Overseas Union Bank
Ltd>, <United Overseas Bank Ltd>, <Oversea-Chinese Banking
Corporation> and the <Development Bank of Singapore Ltd>.
    The shift towards securitisation has been helped by
volatile financial markets which have developed hedging
facilities such as floating rate notes and bonds for risk
management, said Overseas Union General Manager Loh Hoon Sun.
    Loh told Reuters in an interview that Singapore banks see
limited growth in credit risk. More and more of them are
switching from term lending to major growth areas such as
stockbroking and fee based income, he said.
    Major local banks ventured into stockbroking after being
granted seats on the stock exchange. Bankers said they are now
moving into the new government securities market and the Stock
Exchange of Singapore Dealing and Quotation System.
    One foreign banker said the Development Bank and the
Overseas Union Bank Ltd have become major players in the equity
market in Singapore.
    Loh said the banks' participation in the stock market has
increased business transactions and provided long term growth
for the market. The banks are not competition for individual
stockbroking firms because of the increased business they
generate, he added.
    Loh said the Stock Exchange of Singapore might expand
equity issues by as much as one billion dlrs this year because
of the increasing ability of foreign and local market
participants to absorb new issues.
    Loh said <OUB Investment management Ltd>, a subsidiary of
the Overseas Union Bank Ltd, has teamed up with a U.K. Firm to
launch the Union Global Fund. The fund is for local investors
seeking capital growth through a diversified international
portfolio. It will invest in international shares with the
emphasis on U.S. And Japanese markets, he said.
    <DBS Securities Singapore Pte Ltd>, a subsidiary of the
Development Bank of Singapore, has applied to the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange to set up a Hong Kong stockbroking firm.
    Loh predicted fixed deposit and prime interest rates in
Singapore will stay low this year. As a result, banks will be
forced to provide fund management services for major clients
seeking better returns, he said.
    Economic analysts and bankers are optimistic the major
banks will show profits in 1987, helped by higher income from
treasury and investment banking activities.
    They expect the 1987 after-tax profits of Oversea-Chinese
and United Overseas to show stable growth of four to eight pct
against respective gains of four and seven pct in 1986.
    Overseas Union's profits are expected to jump to over 40
mln dlrs from seven mln dlrs in 1986, economists said.
    The Development Bank's after-tax profits rose 39.2 pct in
1986 mainly due to a dividend of 20.4 mln dlrs paid by
<National Discount Company Ltd> before it became a subsidiary
of the bank, they said.
 REUTER

Westpac Banking Corp in New Zealand
said it will increase its indicator lending rate by 1.5
percentage points to 22.5 pct from April 7.
    Westpac said in a statement the increase reflects high
costs of funding.
    The bank said nervousness in the wholesale deposit market
is creating uncertainty about the immediate outlook for
interest rates. Liquidity is expected to remain tight over the
next month and this will put upward pressure on interest rates.
Base lending indicator rates of the other three trading banks
range between 21.0 pct and 21.5 pct.
 REUTER

Thai coffee exporters said they hoped
the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) would not reimpose
export quotas even though this may lead to a further slump in
world prices.
    Susin Suratanakaweekul, president of the Thai Coffee
Exporters Association, told Reuters that Thailand obtained
little benefit from previous ICO quotas which represented only
about 30 pct of its total annual exports.
    Thailand expects increased overall coffee export revenue if
there are no restrictions on sales to current ICO members who
offer higher prices than non-members, he said.
    The Customs Department said Thailand exported 21,404 tonnes
of coffee last year, up from 20,602 in 1985.
    Thai coffee production is projected to fall to about 25,000
tonnes in the 1986/87 (Oct/Sept) season from 28,000 the
    However, a senior Commerce Ministry official said the Thai
government supports coffee producers' lobbying for reimposed
ICO quotas which, he said, would help lift world prices.
    Somphol Kiatpaiboon, director general of the Commercial
Economics Department, said an absence of ICO quotas would
encourage producers to rapidly release coffee on to the market,
further depressing prices.
    He said Indonesia is expected to export a substantial
amount of coffee this month without such restrictions.
 REUTER

The <Sanwa Bank Ltd's> three-year business
plan foresees securities and international operations making a
greater contribution to operating profits, a bank official
said.
    The bank's plan also emphasises retail and medium and
small-sized business operations, he told Reuters.
    Officials at <Fuji Bank Ltd> and <Mitsubishi Bank Ltd>
outlined similar three-year plans.
    They said lower interest rates and financial liberalisation
have cut profits from dealings with big firms to nearly
nothing.
    "They don't need us, they can do their own financing," one
    Sanwa Bank's plan forecasts that securities and
international operations will contribute 40 pct of total
operating profits by the end of the fiscal year ending March,
1990, compared with 30 pct in fiscal 1985, the Sanwa official
said.
 REUTER

Agriculture Ministry officials said they
are not considering cuts in import duties on chocolate to help
ease friction with the United States over agricultural trade.
    Japan has already lowered the duties sharply and we must
consider domestic market conditions, an official said.
    Duties on chocolate were cut to 20 pct from 31.9 pct in
April 1983.
    Washington has been demanding a cut to seven pct,
equivalent to its own duties, ministry sources said.
    Japanese chocolate imports rose to 8,285 tonnes in calendar
1986 from 5,908 in 1985, official statistics show.
    However, the ministry sources added it is possible the
government may make further cuts in response to strong U.S. And
European demand.
    "Due to concern about the farm trade row with the U.S.,
Top-level government officials may press the ministry to cut
the duties," one said.
    But he said it would be difficult for Japan to resolve its
overall trade row with Washington and reduce its trade surplus,
which reached 58.6 billion dlrs in 1986.
    Agricultural trade issues between Japan and the U.S.
Include Japanese import restrictions on 12 farm products.
 REUTER

India's state-owned Oil India Ltd
(OIL) said it received a 3.5 billion yen credit under an
agreement signed with Dai Ichi Kangyo Bank of Tokyo last week.
    A statement from OIL said the 10-year loan carries a rate
of interest 0.5 pct below Japanese long term prime. The loan,
to finance imports of plant, machinery and raw materials, will
be repaid in nine equal instalments from the seventh year.
    The credit is the first foreign commercial loan raised by
OIL. It was arranged under a bilateral treaty to avoid double
taxation, it said.
 REUTER

German February industrial output rises 3.2 pct (January fall 3.4 pct) - official

An international protocol to severely
limit the use of industrial chemicals which are believed to
damage the earth's protective ozone layer could be signed this
year, officials and scientists here said.
    "By the end of this year, we should have an international
protocol in place we can all be proud of," U.S. Environmental
protection agency officer Bill Long told reporters.
    The chemicals are chiefly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which
are used in refrigeration and making foam plastics, solvents
and aerosols. The earth's upper ozone layer absorbs most of the
harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun.
    The officials and scientists were meeting in Tokyo, ahead
of an international conference on the problem later this month
in either Vienna, or Geneva, Long said.
    Robert Watson, a program manager for atmospheric problems
at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said
a protocol should demand an initial freeze on the use of CFCs
by industry. This should be followed by a gradual reduction in
CFC volume until no CFC gases are released into the air, he
said. The U.S. Has already banned use of use CFCs in aerosols
and Japan has asked for voluntary restraint, but both still use
CFCs in industrial processes.
 REUTER

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will
open an office in Jakarta later this year to speed up work on
Indonesian projects, bank Vice-President S. Stanley Katz said.
    "We have very large projects in Indonesia and we would like
to accelerate their implementation," Katz told Reuters.
    Indonesia is the largest recipient of ADB lending. It
received 118 loans worth 3.7 billion dlrs for 112 projects
between 1968 and 1986, 19.0 pct of the ADB's total lending.
Ordinary capital resources (OCR) lending to Indonesia was 3.6
billion dlrs, 27.1 pct of OCR loans at end-December 1986.
    Jakarta has also received loans worth 162 mln dlrs from the
bank's Asian Development Fund.
    ADB sources said Indonesia's cumulative disbursements at
end-1986 amounted to only 1.1 billion dlrs or 30 pct of loans
received. "Project implementation is very slow in Indonesia and
we are not very satisfied with the pace. We hope the new office
might help," Gunther Schulz, ADB Vice-President in charge of
projects, said.
    Planned projects were further slowed down in 1986 because
of the country's budgetary problems, he added. Indonesia's
revenue from oil exports was cut in half last year.
    "Decision making is quite slow, complicated and very
centralised," Schulz told Reuters.
    Indonesian President Suharto set up a high-level team in
July last year to speed up projects using ADB funds. ADB
sources said bank staff have been stationed intermittently in
Jakarta in response to government requests.
    The Jakarta office will be the third ADB office outside its
Manila headquarters. The bank has a resident office in Dhaka
and a South Pacific regional office in Vanuatu.
 REUTER

Money market rates rates showed a harder
edge after news U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
has set a target for the pound against the mark and dollar, to
be maintained by a mixture of interest rates and intervention
in the foreign exchange markets.
    Dealers said the market was surprised by the Chancellor's
disclosure of sterling target rates, around 2.90 marks and 1.60
dlrs, and nervous over the implications for domestic interest
rates, further reducing the propects for a near term cut in
U.K. Bank base rates. The key three months interbank sterling
rate gained 1/16 point at 10 9-7/8 pct.
    The pound opened three basis points lower at 71.3 in trade
weighted terms, at around 1.59 dlrs and 2.91 marks.
 REUTER

West German industrial production,
seasonally adjusted, rose a provisional 3.2 pct in February
after a downwards revised decline of 3.4 pct in January, the
Economics Ministry said.
    The ministry had originally estimated that industrial
production fell 3.0 pct in January.
    The February figure is likely to be revised upwards by just
under one percentage point next month when the March figure is
released, a ministry statement said.
    The industrial production index, base 1980, stood at a
provisional 104.1 in February against 100.9 in January and
104.5 in December. The ministry had previously put the January
and December indices at 101.6 and 104.7 respectively.
    In February 1986 the output index had stood at 103.7,
producing a year-on-year rise for February 1987 of 0.4 pct.
    The February rise in production was aided by a sharp 19 pct
increase in construction output compared with January, when
production in many industrial sectors was depressed by
unusually severe winter weather.
    Manufacturing industry registered a 3-1/2 pct rise in
production in February compared with January. But energy sector
output fell nine pct and mining production declined seven pct.
    The ministry, which considers two-monthly comparisons to be
a better guide to trends, said output in January and February
together fell around two pct against November and December.
    The ministry said construction output fell 13-1/2 pct in
January/February against November/December due to the cold
January weather. Output in the energy sector rose four pct and
mining output 10 pct.
    Manufacturing industry's production fell 1-1/2 pct in
January/February compared with November/December.
    Within this sector, the output of both basic products and
of food, tobacco and alcohol fell 1-1/2 pct. Production of
capital goods fell 2-1/2 pct while output of consumer goods was
    Compared with the same months of 1986, industrial
production in January and February 1987 fell 1-1/2 pct, the
    Manufacturing industry output fell one pct, with output of
basic products down three pct, capital goods down one pct and
food, tobacco and alcohol production 1-1/2 pct lower. Makers of
consumer goods posted a 1-1/2 pct year-on-year rise in the
two-month period.
    In other industrial sectors, mining production fell four
pct and construction output 4-1/2 pct. The energy sector saw a
slight 1/2 pct rise, the ministry added.
 REUTER

Reckitt and Colman plc pretax profits 1986 yr 145.11 mln stg vs 123.39 mln

A Japanese businessman announced plans for
a new telecommunications firm in which Britain's Cable and
Wireless Plc would be a core company.
    However, the plan, unveiled by senior Federation of
Economic Organizations official Fumio Watanabe, does not
specify what stake Cable and Wireless would have.
    "The share holdings of the core companies should be equal,"
Watanabe said in a statement. "The actual percentage of
shareholdings should be agreed by the core companies."
    He said the eight core companies will provide directors for
the firm.
    "The new company shall immediately set to work on the
feasibility study of constructing a new cable for itself,"
Watanabe said.
    Watanabe has acted as mediator between two rival groups,
one of which included C and W, seeking to compete against
<Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd>, which now monopolizes Japan's
overseas telephone business.
    The Post and Telecommunications Ministry has said it wants
only one competitor to KDD and has backed Watanabe's efforts.
    A British source, who declined to be identified further,
said the proposals could open the door to further talks between
C and W <CAWL.L> and the other firms involved.
    C and W had earlier rejected a reported proposal which
would have given it a five pct share in the new
telecommunications firm, compared to the less than three pct
stake Watanabe originally proposed. C and W has a 20 pct stake
in one of the two firms Watanabe has proposed should merge.
    The British source said the decision not to specify the
exact shareholdings of the core companies could leave the door
open for further discussion.
    "It's probably a sensible approach on their part," the
British source told reuters.
    C and W has also been pushing hard for permission to lay a
new cable between Japan and the U.S.
    The proposed merger has sparked an international row, with
British government sources threatening retaliatory action
against Japan for what they see as discriminatory practices
against foreign firms.
    The sources said last Friday that one option for Britain
would be to revoke licenses of Japanese banks and securities
companies operating in London.
    The U.S. Has also attacked the original merger plans,
saying that both rival consortia should be licensed.
    Asked about participation by other U.S. And European firms,
Watanabe said, "They will not be core companies but if they wish
they could participate." Under the Japanese law, total foreign
participation would be limited to one-third.
    "It might be wise for C and W to join the new firm which has
the support of many influential backers and work within this
for the realization of their ideas," Watanabe told reporters.
    The other core firms are Mitsubishi Corp <MITT.T>, Mitsui
and Co <MITS.T>, Sumitomo Corp <SUMT.T>, Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co <MC.T>, Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T>, C Itoh and Co
<CITT.T>, and <Pacific Telesis International Inc>.
    Watanabe said that his latest proposal represented his
final effort.
    If it fails to satisfy the British government, it will be
up to the Japanese government to explain its position, he said.
 REUTER

The Bank of France is to inject liquidity
against first category paper at a tender this afternoon, a Bank
    Money market sources were divided as to whether they
thought the Bank of France would use the occasion to cut its
intervention rate, which has stood at 7 3/4 pct since it was
cut from eight pct on March 9.
    Some thought a rate cut unlikely given foreign exchange
turbulence and the U.S. Prime rate rise to 7 3/4 pct, while
others still counted on a 1/4 point cut by the Bank of France.
 REUTER

FIRS 87/88 EC BEET SUGAR ESTIMATE UNCHANGED 12.63 MLN TONNES WHITE EQUIVALENT

Hertz Realty Corp is issuing a 75 mln
Canadian dlr bond due April 30, 1993 paying nine pct and priced
at 100-3/4 pct, syndicate sources said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by Hertz Corp. It is
available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 Canadian dlrs
and will be listed in Luxembourg. The selling concession is
pct.
    The payment date is April 30.
 REUTER

repurchase by the market will drain some 664 mln stg while
bills will take out around 508 mln stg and a rise in note
circulation some 45 mln stg.
and bankers' balances above target will add some 380 mln stg
and 35 mln stg to the system respectively.
 REUTER

Soviet deputy prime minister Alexei Antonov
begins two days of economic talks in Bonn that will include
discussions on Soviet-West German joint ventures.
    Antonov and West German Economics Minister Martin Bangemann
are heading their respective delegations to the joint
commission on economic, scientific and technical cooperation.
    "The main point of the round will be Soviet economic
reforms, new forms of economic cooperation, joint ventures, and
cooperation in construction," government spokesman Friedhelm Ost
said.
 REUTER

The 2,500 tonnes of sugar offered to
intervention in the Netherlands has been refused by the
intervention board because of wrong packaging, a spokeswoman
for the Ministry of Agriculture said.
    She said the sugar could be offered again to intervention.
    EC producers have threatened to sell over 800,000 tonnes of
sugar to intervention stocks as a protest against EC export
licensing policies.
    Last month Dutch traders said the sugar on offer in the
Netherlands was Belgian, but the ministry could not confirm
this.
 REUTER

Taiwan said its foreign reserves suffered
about 3.4 billion U.S. Dlrs in exchange rate losses from July
1986 to February 1987 as a result of the rise of the Taiwan
dollar against the U.S. Currency.
    Yu Chien-ming, head of the government statistics
department, told parliament yesterday he expected the losses to
increase as the Taiwan dollar continues to strengthen.
    The Taiwan dollar, which opened at 34.24 to the U.S. Dollar
today, has risen about 16 pct against the U.S. Unit since
September 1985. Some bankers expect it to rise to 33 by June
and to 32 by the end of this year.
    Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves now total 53 billion
dlrs. At end-February they were 52.1 billion dlrs, the world's
third largest after West Germany and Japan.
    Yu said the interest earned from the reserves totalled
about 1.68 billion U.S. Dlrs from July 1986 to February 1987.
The reserves are managed by the central bank and deposited at
about 170 leading banks in the U.S., Japan, Britain, Canada and
Singapore.
    About 75 pct of the reserves are in the form of cash,
mostly in U.S. Dollars. The rest are in government treasury
bills, certificates of deposit and bonds.
 REUTER

The agreement between the U.S. And the
European Community (EC) on special imports of maize and sorghum
provides an equal chance for all non-EC countries to supply the
Spanish market, an EC Commission spokeswoman said.
    She denied that any unpublished clause of the agreement
guaranteed the bulk of the maize export business would go to
the U.S., As one EC official told Reuters yesterday.
    Under the agreement, the EC will import two mln tonnes of
maize and 300,000 tonnes of sorghum a year into Spain at
specially reduced levy rates for the next four years.
    The Commission has yet to decide whether the maize will
come in through direct purchases by the Spanish intervention
board or by a tender system.
 REUTER

Interest rates on the London money market
were slightly firmer on news U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson had stated target rates for sterling against the
dollar and mark, dealers said.
    They said this had come as a surprise and expected the
targets, 2.90 marks and 1.60 dlrs, to be promptly tested in the
foreign exchange markets. Sterling opened 0.3 points lower in
trade weighted terms at 71.3.
    Dealers noted the chancellor said he would achieve his
goals on sterling by a combination of intervention in currency
markets and interest rates.
    Operators feel the foreign exchanges are likely to test
sterling on the downside and that this seems to make a fall in
U.K. Base lending rates even less likely in the near term,
    The feeling remains in the market, however, that
fundamental factors have not really changed and that a rise in
U.K. Interest rates is not very likely. The market is expected
to continue at around these levels, reflecting the current 10
pct base rate level, for some time.
    The key three months interbank rate was 1/16 point firmer
at 10 9-7/8 pct.

The Danish Banks Association
announced a plan to help depositors in the small Sixth of July
Bank (6. Juli Banken A/S), which ceased payments on March 23
after the Government Bank Inspectorate said provisions were too
low.
    The Association said in a statement that its 80 members
would give full cover for private deposits up to 50,000 Danish
crowns, with 80 pct cover for deposits between 50,000 and
100,000 crowns and for special pension savings accounts up to
500,000 crowns.
    Non-pension deposits over 100,000 crowns and business
customers are not covered by the plan, the statement added.
 REUTER

Australia is risking wheat export
sales by not providing enough specific quality grades to meet
buyer requirements, the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) said.
    "Many AWB customers are becoming increasingly quality
conscious, demanding strict adherence to contractual quality
specifications," the board said in a submission to the Royal
Commission into Grain Storage, Handling and Transport.
    "Many of the specifications are more specific than the
current categories used in Australia," it said.
    The commission is trying to identify ways of saving costs
and boosting efficiency of the grain handling system.
    Australia must rely on quality to retain its wheat market
share because its competitors are supplying cheaper but
lower-quality grades, the AWB submission said.
    It stressed the need to segregate wheat categories at every
stage from receival to shipping.
    Better industrial relations at grain terminals, more
uniform transport systems across the states and extensive stock
control were vital to improved marketing, it said.
    The submission also said Australia's federal system impeded
the AWB's role of coordinating and managing the marketing of
wheat.
    The AWB called for an end to physical and legislative
constraints at state borders that prevent the efficient
transport of grains to other states for shipment.
    "It is essential that wheat moves by the most economic mode
to the nearest efficient port, irrespective of the state in
which the wheat is grown or stored," it said.
    For example, wheat grown in northern New South Wales (NSW)
might move more efficiently to Brisbane, in Queensland, than to
Sydney or Newcastle in New South Wales, it said. Similarly,
southern NSW wheat might better be shipped to Portland or
Geelong, in Victoria.
    Legislation giving state rail authorities a monopoly over
grain shipments was one notable impediment, it said.
    The AWB said the current approach of state-based bulk
handling authorities is not essential, although it said it
favoured the authorities maintaining at least their current
level of control of storage and transport as long as quality
was maintained.
    An appendix on port loading costs showed it cost between
26,500 and 34,700 U.S. Dlrs to load a 50,000-tonne vessel at
various Australian ports compared with 21,200 dlrs at Houston
and 16,300 at Port Cartier, Quebec, for a 60,000-tonner.
 REUTER

Bayer world group 1986 pre-tax profit 3.30 billion marks (3.15 billion) - official

The Finance Ministry has asked trust banks
to moderate their dollar selling, trust banking sources said.
    A Ministry official told Reuters earlier this week the
Ministry had recently surveyed foreign exchange transactions by
institutional investors, but he declined to say whether this
was aimed at moderating the dollar sales.
    Dealers said institutional investors were reluctant to sell
dollars aggressively today partly because of the Ministry
monitoring.
    One senior trust bank source said that while sympathizing
with the Ministry position, the trust banks had to conduct
their foreign exchange operations according to the dictates of
the market.
    A Bank of Japan official said the central bank approved of
the survey as long it was not used too forcefully.
    But another official denied local press reports that the
central bank itself had asked investors to moderate their
dollar sales. "We are not legally authorized to do that," he
said.
    A Bank of Japan official also said the central bank will
renew its call on financial institutions to moderate excessive
loans for the purpose of land and securities investment as such
investments threaten to cause inflation.
    Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita had previously
expressed concern about excessive investment in land and
securities resulting partly from eased credit conditions.
 REUTER

The maximum rebate granted at
yesterday's European Community (EC) sugar tender marked no
change in policy towards producers' complaints that they are
losing money on exports outside the EC, EC commission sources
said.
    They said this was despite the fact that the commission
accepted over 785,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention
yesterday from traders protesting that rebates are being set
too low.
    The maximum rebate at yesterday's tender was 46.864 Ecus
per 100 kilos, up from 45.678 Ecus the previous week.
    London traders said yesterday the rebate was the largest
ever granted. The commission sources said today the increase
was entirely explained by world market conditions. The amount
by which the rebate fell short of what producers claim is
needed to obtain an equivalent price to that for sales into
intervention remained at 0.87 Ecus per 100 kilos, they said.
    Operators offered a total of 854,000 tonnes of sugar into
intervention last month to protest at rebates which they said
were too low. The sources said about 706,470 tonnes of French
sugar and 79,000 tonnes of German sugar had been accepted, the
remainder being rejected as of too low quality.
    The sources noted the operators could withdraw their offers
in the five week period between the acceptance of the sugar and
payment for it.
    They said they saw no sign of planned withdrawals as yet,
adding that they would expect operators to wait another week or
two to review commission policy before making up their minds.
    The sources said the commission felt entitled to offer
rebates at slightly below the level theoretically justifiable
in the light of its 1987/88 farm price package proposal to
reduce guaranteed prices for sugar by two pct from the start of
the new season in July.
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Kenya's late coffee crop is flowering
well, but the main coffee areas were generally dry and hot in
the week ended Wednesday, trade sources said.
    "Machakos, Embu, Meru and Kirinyaga in eastern Kenya, and
Nyeri and Thika in central, have been dry in the past week. The
farmers expect rain this week. If it does not fall output of
the late (October-November-December) crop will decline sharply,"
one source said.
    He said that since most growers did not irrigate their crop
they could do nothing but wait for rain, the main factor which
determines Kenyan coffee production.
    Two months ago the International Coffee Organization issued
a forecast of Kenyan exportable coffee production in the
1986/87 (Oct-Sept) season at 1.82 mln bags.
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Two days of talks between management and
unions to try to end the 3-1/2 month labour dispute at Cargill
U.K. Ltd's oilseed crushing plant at Seaforth ended yesterday
without resolving the situation, a company spokesman said.
    Fresh talks are expected to be held early next week but the
actual date has not yet been fixed, he added.
since December 19 and the company has declared force majeure
for deliveries of soymeal and soyoil ahead to May.
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Prices rose at the fortnightly
export auction here on March 25 for sales of 1,907.1 tonnes of
coffee from the 1986/87 and 1985/86 crops out of a total
offering of 1,940.7 tonnes, the Coffee Board said.
    Withdrawals amounted to 33.6 tonnes. The type and grade,
quantity sold, average prices in rupees per 50 kilos, exclusive
of sales tax, with previous prices at the March 11 auction in
brackets -
    1986/87 crop
    Plantation "A" 592.2   1,284.50 (1,223.50)
    Plantation "B" 74.1    1,095.50 (1,122.00)
    Plantation "C"        208.2    1,019.00 (1,017.50)
    Arabica Cherry "AB"    33.3      976.50  (NA)
    Arabica Cherry "PB"    22.5      949.00  (NA)
    Arabica Cherry "C"     58.2      889.50  (NA)
    Robusta Cherry "AB"    90.9    1,256.00  (NA)
    Robusta Cherry "PB"    43.8    1,039.50  (NA)
    Robusta "PMT AB"       49.2    1,255.50  (NA)
    Robusta "PMT PB"       13.5    1,200.00  (NA)
    REP Bulk "A"           93.9    1,057.50 (908.50)
    REP Bulk "B"          256.5    1,079.00 (930.00)
    Robusta Cherry Bulk    40.2   1,082.50  (NA)
    Robusta Cherry "C"      9.0     997.00  (NA)
    Robusta Cherry "BBB"    9.6     700.00  (NA)
    1985/86 crop
    Arabica Cherry "AB"   123.3     961.00  (951.50)
    Arabica Cherry "BBB"  160.8     635.50  (613.50)
    Robusta Cherry "BBB"    4.2     735.00  (704.50)
    Monsooned coffee
    Monsooned Robusta "AA" 23.7   1,265.50  (NA)
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Hong Kong Land Co Ltd <HKLD.HK> said
it might look for overseas investments and that could lead it
to consider re-registering in Bermuda.
    Asked if Hong Kong Land had any plans for investment
overseas a spokesman said "Not at the moment. It's a long-term
concept."
    The London newspaper Daily Telegraph yesterday quoted Simon
Keswick, chairman of Hong Kong Land's parent company, Jardine
Matheson Holdings Ltd <JARD.HK>, as saying the company was at a
crossroads because the last of its non-property assets will
soon be spun off.
    Hongkong Land's residential properties have also been sold,
leaving the firm largely with commercial property in the main
business district of the British colony.
    "If we can't find any opportunities we might have to look
abroad," Keswick was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
    A re-registration in Bermuda would be largely to shelter
overseas income from Hong Kong taxes, analysts said.
    Jardine Matheson reincorporated in Bermuda in 1984 in a
move that raised fears over the colony's political future and
stunned the local stock market.
    That response was not repeated when <Dairy Farm
International Holdings Ltd> then a Hongkong Land subsidiary,
and <Mandarin Oriental International Ltd>, soon to be spun off
from Land, announced plans for similar re-registrations.
    Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd <JSH.HK>, another Jardine
subsdidiary, is also registered in Bermuda.
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The U.K. Exported 517,600 tonnes of wheat
and 315,800 tonnes of barley in the first 25 days of March, the
Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) said, quoting provisional
    This brought combined wheat and barley exports since the
season started on July 1 to 7.60 mln tonnes, substantially up
on the 4.02 mln exported in the same 1985/86 period.
    This season's total comprises 3.94 mln tonnes of wheat and
3.66 mln barley, compared with 1.63 mln and 2.39 mln,
respectively, a year ago.
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India's credit policy package for
fiscal 1987/88 (April-March) will help ease inflationary
pressures and control the growth of overall liqudity, the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement.
    The package, announced earlier this week, will raise
commercial bank statutory liquidity ratios to 37.5 pct from 37
pct, effective April 25, and will increase cash reserve ratios
on foreign currency (non-resident) accounts to 9.5 pct from
three pct, effective May 23, it said.
    Excess liquidity pushed wholesale and consumer retail
prices higher in 1986/87 on previous year levels, RBI governor
R. N. Malhotra said in a statement.
    Malhotra said India's M-3 money supply grew 209.24 billion
rupees in the fiscal year to March 13, compared to a growth of
155.38 billion in the same period the year before.
    Commercial bank aggregate deposits rose to 164.10 billion
in the same period, against 120.66 billion in the corresponding
months of fiscal 1986/87, he said.
    The Finance Ministry in a report issued in February
predicted India's fiscal 1986/87 wholesale price-linked
inflation rate at about 6.5 pct against 3.8 pct in 1985/86.
 REUTER

BANK OF FRANCE SELLS 8.45 BILLION FRANCS OF TREASURY TAP STOCKS - OFFICIAL

China opened its fifth securities market
yesterday, in Tianjin, but share issues and share trading are
no longer on the agenda of economic reform, official newspapers
and Western diplomats said.
    One Western diplomat said share issues are on the
backburner because they are ideologically too sensitive.
    The People's Daily said last month that trading shares is
"not compatible with socialist materialist civilisation."
    The newly opened market traded bonds in four state-owned
firms and buyers outnumbered sellers, the China Daily said.
    China's first securities market since 1949 opened last
August in Shenyang, followed by markets in Shanghai in
September and in Peking and Harbin this year. They trade mostly
bonds.
    "Bonds are all right. There is no risk to the holder and
there is no question of his having any ownership stake in the
firm," the diplomat said.
    The People's Daily article said joint stock companies might
not be the way to reform large and medium-size state firms nor
the model for reforming China's ownership system.
    Share issues would make the workers owning them think only
of the economic advantage of their own firms, rather than the
nation as a whole, the People's Daily said.
    As late as December, officials were pushing the idea of
share issues as a way to channel excess cash in the economy
into production, reduce the state's investment burden and
motivate share-owning employees to work harder.
    In November, Liu Hongru, deputy governor of the People's
Bank of China, told a delegation from the New York Stock
Exchange that a long-term funds market should be built up, "with
stocks and bonds issuance as the main form."
    "Stocks and bonds should be issued through banks, trust and
investment companies ... The transfer of securities should be
conducted through financial institutions ... The opening up of
secondary markets should be studied after trials and
experiments," Liu said.
    The subject of share issues and trading was widely covered
in the official press last year, usually in a positive way.
    One of the most far-reaching proposals came from a Peking
university professor. He said all but essential state firms
should become joint stock holding companies, with the state
holding a controlling share that could be as low as 33 pct.
    The professor argued this would separate government
administrators from managers of the firms, a key goal of
China's reforms. He said his plan would make the companies
independent units under a board of directors.
    The diplomat said the dropping of share issues may be the
result of conservative backlash since the January resignation
of reformist Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang. He said share
issues raise sensitive questions: "What happens if the value
falls? People are not used to this and may be dissatisfied.
What happens if a person gets very rich through share
ownership? The government does not want disparity in income."
    One Chinese journalist said conditions are not ripe for
widespread share issues. "In China, the success or failure of a
firm does not entirely lie within its own hands. There are many
external factors beyond its control," he said. "To make share
purchasing attractive, you need a secondary market and perhaps
speculators," he said. "But speculation is not acceptable in
China."
    Asked if there are political reasons for putting aside
share issues, he said that in China economics and politics
cannot be separated.
    "There is a very major review of the economic reforms going
on. There are political factors involved," the journalist said.
"If the economy runs well this year, the political pressure will
be less."
    Comments by officials of the new Tianjin market echoed his
caution. The China Daily quoted one official as saying China
does not intend to develop stock exchanges equivalent to those
in the West while it has a socialist economic system. "Given the
special circumstances of our country, we must approach the new
phenomenon in a contemplative and comprehensive way so as to
guide trading onto a healthy track," he said.
 REUTER

Chemicals group Bayer
AG <BAYG.F> said it expects to post another good result in 1987
after raising pre-tax profit to a new record high in 1986.
    The company said that this was despite the mark's further
strengthening against the dollar and other currencies and
despite an increase in competitive pressure.
    "The further progress of our business will depend largely on
the extent to which threats to free trade materialise and on
the developments of exchange rates, raw material and energy
costs.
    Bayer said world group pre-tax profit rose to 3.30 billion
marks in 1986, exceeding the previous year's record of 3.15
billion. Parent company pre-tax profit increased to 1.72
billion from 1.62 billion.
    The company gave no net profit figures or any indication of
the likely 1986 dividend. Bayer paid a 10-mark dividend on 1985
results, up one mark from a year earlier.
    Bayer said that world group operating profit declined
slightly in 1986 against 1985 but non-operating results showed
a further improvement.
    Bayer said that the decline in world group turnover to
40.75 billion marks from 45.93 billion in 1985 reflected mainly
the sharp fall in the dollar against the mark.
    Lower prices on the raw material side had also brought
pressure on selling prices, it added.
    In volume terms, however, 1986 sales rose slightly against
1985, the company said without giving details.
    "The western Europe, North America and Far East regions
developed well in local currency, but here too the translation
of local currency sales into marks distorted the picture,
especially in the case of North America," it said.
    Bayer said parent company volume sales were also higher in
1986, although turnover fell 4.3 pct to 16.77 billion marks.
    Capacity use was high at the parent company in 1986,
resulting in a decline in marginal unit costs. This, combined
with savings in raw material and energy costs, helped offset
falling prices and cost increases in other areas.
    The rise in pre-tax parent company profit was due to lower
extraordinary expenses and higher net interest income.
Plastics, organic chemicals, polyurethanes and coating raw
materials all developed well, it said.
    Turning to the 1986 fourth quarter, Bayer said that world
group turnover fell to 9.67 billion marks in the last three
months of 1986 from 10.43 billion in the same 1985 period.
    Parent company turnover in the fourth quarter fell 7.1 pct
to 3.69 billion marks, with domestic turnover 4.1 pct lower and
foreign turnover 8.6 pct lower.
    Exports accounted for 65.3 pct of turnover in the quarter
against 66.4 pct in the same quarter of 1985.
 REUTER

UK reserves rise underlying 1.785 billion dlrs in March - official

The new Singapore government
securities market will start trading in late April or early May
after President Wee Kim Wee signs the Development Loan Bill
approved by parliament last week, bankers said.
    But the new market is unlikely to attract many overseas
investors, particularly as non-residents will be subject to a
withholding tax on interest earned, Loh Hoon Sun, general
manager of <Overseas Union Bank Ltd>, said.
    Overseas Union Bank Ltd is one of the five primary dealers
approved to underwrite the auctions and ensure liquidity.
    The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which approved
the five underwriters, aims to issue seven billion dlrs of
treasury bills, notes and bond issues in the first year.
    A MAS spokesman said a steering committee has yet to
determine details, but most of the new government securities
will have a maturity of up to five years and 10-year paper may
be issued if demand emerges. Bonds and treasury bills will be
issued in denominations of 1,000 dlrs and treasury bills in a
minimum denomination of 10,000 dlrs.
    Bankers said these rates will put the securities within
reach of almost everyone and will create a more active market.
    Allocations will be made first for non-competitive bids
from primary dealers prepared to accept average yields on up to
500,000 dlrs worth of notes and bonds and an unlimited volume
of treasury bills. The remainder will be awarded to competitive
bidders offering the lowest yields.
    The new market should stimulate the local economy. Funds
will come from savings and fixed deposit accounts, "but just how
much will depend on the bond yields," Loh told Reuters.
    Loh said bank interest rates currently stand at 3.0 to 3.5
pct for fixed deposits and the prime rate is 5.5 pct, and these
rates are expected to remain fairly steady this year.
    An act of parliament passed last week granted the Singapore
authorities permission to raise 35 billion dlrs in the new
market over the next four years.
    Trading will be computerised and scripless.
 REUTER

showed an underlying rise of 1.785 billion dlrs in March after
a 287 mln dlr rise in January, the Treasury said.
    This was considerably above market expectations for a 650
mln dlr rise.
    The Treasury declined comment on the figures. Last month it
said the Bank of England took the opportunity of strong demand
to rebuild reserves after losses last autumn.
    Actual reserves rose by 1.89 billion dlrs, after rising 305
mln in February, to 22.26 billion. Total reserves were revalued
to 27.04 billion dlrs, but would have totalled 24.15 billion
under the previous valuation, the Treasury said. Gold reserves
were revalued by 895 mln dlrs, while SDRs, ECU and convertible
currency holdings were revalued by 1.995 billion.
361 mln dlrs last month, after 36 mln in February. Repayments
were 240 mln dlrs after the previous 16 mln. Capital repayments
totalled 14 mln dlrs, after February's two mln dlrs repayment.
 REUTER

Zambia's marketed maize production will
probably fall to less than 630,000 tonnes in 1986/87 (May-Apr),
from 918,000 last year, because of poor rainfall in major
producing areas, Agriculture Minister Kingsley Chinkuli said.
    He told Parliament that in the southern provinces the
harvest would be over 50 pct down on the level in the previous
marketing year.
    "The nation would be lucky to produce over seven mln bags
(630,000 tonnes) of maize this year," he stated.
    Chinkuli added that Zambia was setting up an irrigation
fund with Canadian aid to lessen the effects of poor rainfall.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry has asked commercial
banks to moderate their dollar sales, JiJi News Agency
reported, quoting financial sources.
    Finance Ministry officials were unavailable for comment.
The report also could not be confirmed by several bank dealers.
    Earlier, Japanese trust banking sources said the Ministry
had asked them to moderate their dollar sales.
    A Ministry official said earlier this week the ministry had
recently surveyed currency transactions by investors, but
declined to say whether this aimed at reducing their dollar
sales.
 REUTER

Bank of Zambia general manager Michael
Mwape has accused the International Monetary Fund of ignoring
social conditions when drawing up its economic reform
programmes for African countries.
    Mwape said in a speech to businessmen in the southern town
of Livingstone yesterday that the IMF's approach had caused
social and political unrest across the continent.
    There was widespread rioting and looting in Zambia last
December after the government abolished subsidies on refined
maize meal in line with IMF recommendations.
    Mwape said told businessmen "The question which should be
asked and answered when designing programmes is who is going to
bear the brunt of adjustment ... And what cushion is available
to minimise the burden ?"
    Zambia has had five IMF adjustment programmes since 1976,
the last of which was cancelled in February last year, he said.
"In spite of these, the economy has shown signs of stress, with
no significant improvement in a number of areas," he added.
    Zambia has just completed a new round of IMF talks on its
foreign exchange system and has obtained enough commercial
loans to pay off its IMF arrears for 1985 and 1986, paving the
way for a new stand-by credit.
    Zambian politicians have frequently criticised the fund,
however, and diplomats say President Kenneth Kaunda faces
consistent opposition inside the ruling party's central
committee over dealings with the IMF.
 REUTER

Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board has
banned the packing of oilseeds in locally-made polypropylene
bags and will supply jute bags instead, board officials said.
    It said the quality of oilseeds such as soybeans,
groundnuts and sunflower seed packed in polypropylene bags
deteriorated after two weeks.
    Zimbabwe began producing 10 mln polypropylene grain bags
this year to replace jute bags imported mainly from Bangladesh.
 REUTER

Japanese press reports said Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone has said he may compromise on his
controversial sales tax plan, bowing to widespread opposition
even within his own party.
    The reports said he told a meeting of supporters of his
ruling Liberal Democratic Party today the proposed five pct tax
should be amended if there was anything wrong with it.
    Officials were not immediately available for comment.
    Until now, Nakasone had vowed to press on with the tax as
part of his plan to reform Japan's 36-year-old tax system.
    But most Japanese newspapers and news agencies quoted him
as saying today he would not foist the tax on the Japanese
people if they hated it.
    Opposition parties and some industry groups say the tax
breaks Nakasone general election campaign promises last July
and would discourage consumer spending, needed to meet
government pledges to try to stimulate economic growth.
    Pressure for the tax to be amended or shelved is likely to
increase soon, before a first round of local elections due on
April 12, political analysts said. Resistance has spread from
opposition parties and affected industries to the LDP.
    Some 36 of Japan's 47 provincial governments have called
for the plan to be scrapped or handled carefully, government
    Some leading LDP candidates for the local polls have not
asked Nakasone to make a campaign speech for them as they fear
his presence would weaken their position in the elections.
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Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> said that as part
of a new strategy for the company it will be selling its retail
interests to concentrate resources on developing its
international beverage businesses.
    Among the firms to be sold are Martin's and Gordon Drummond
pharmacies, the 7-Eleven convenience stores, speciality U.S.
Food importer Richter Brothers and the health products company
Nature's Best/DSL.
    Guinness said in a statement that the company's strength
was in its well known beer and spirits brands.
    Several had good brand development potential, including
Gleneagles, Champneys, Cranks, Hediard and and Guinness
publications.
    Guinness shares were trading at 323p after the announcement
after closing yesterday at 317p.
 REUTER

About 8,000 black miners returned
to work after a week-long industrial action at South Africa's
largest gold mine, mine owner Anglo American Corp of South
Africa Ltd <ANGL.J> said.
    A spokesman for the mining house said the action started on
Wednesday last week when thousands of miners staged a go-slow
at One underground shaft of the Free State Geduld division of
Free State Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd <FSCN.J>.
    The action later escalated into an underground sit-in at
the mine over the weekend, prompting management to close the
affected shaft because of what the company described as "the
creation of unsafe working conditions."
    Anglo American spokesman John Kingsley-Jones said the
company held talks with the National Union of Mineworkers
(NUM), South Africa's biggest trade union which claims a
membership of 360,000 black workers, but failed to establish
the cause of worker dissatisfaction. He acknowledged that the
mine suffered a loss of production, but declined to give
    Free State Consolidated last year produced 104 tonnes of
gold from 28 underground shafts.
    The NUM was not immediately available for comment on the
action. But a spokesman for the union earlier told the South
African Press Association that miners had been locked out of
the mine at the weekend after staging a strike in protest
against being ordered to carry bags containing explosives as
well as food for white miners.
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<San Miguel Corp>, SMC, and <United
Coconut Planters Bank>, UCPB, have reached a compromise on a
disputed block of 38.1 mln shares of SMC, the head of a
government panel that controls the sequestered shares said.
Government (PCGG) told Reuters SMC had offered a price of 126
pesos per share for the block, held in trust by the UCPB.
    "It looks good," Diaz said. But he added several issues,
including the identity of the ultimate buyers of the shares,
had to be resolved before the PCGG gave its approval to the
sale.
    The PCGG's sequestration last year of 33 mln shares aborted
SMC's bid to buy them back from 14 trading companies in the
UCPB group. The commission said it suspected the shares were
actually controlled by Eduardo Cojuangco, an associate of
former President Ferdinand Marcos.
    Cojuango, who headed the boards of both SMC and UCPB when
he fled last year after Marcos was toppled, personally owned 24
mln shares in SMC. His holdings are also under sequestration.
    "The shares that SMC now proposes to buy from the UCPB are
owned by 1.4 mln coconut farmers," Diaz said. "Naturally we do
not want them to go back into the hands of Marcos cronies."
    PCGG sources said a compromise would end a row over a down
payment of 500 mln pesos made by SMC's Hong Kong subsidiary
Neptunia Corp Ltd in a bid to buy back the shares last year.
    The UCPB had said the 500 mln peso payment would be
forfeited because SMC Chairman Andres Soriano III had failed to
fulfil his commitment to buy back the shares at an originally
negotiated price of 3.3 billion pesos.
    PCGG sources said SMC, the Philippines' largest food and
beverage manufacturer, has agreed to sell 14 mln "B" class shares
from the 38.1 mln shares to Australian brewer Alan Bond at a
price of 150 pesos per share.
    The PCGG sources said of the proposed 4.79 billion peso
transaction, 1.6 billion pesos would be offset against the 500
mln peso down payment, the 500 mln pesos worth of preferred
shares in UCPB held by SMC, 210 mln pesos in uncollected
dividends on the UCPB shares and 400 mln pesos advanced to
UCPB-controlled trading companies.
    The UCPB rejected an original offer of 100 pesos per share
made by SMC for 33 mln shares, which grew to 38 mln after a 15
pct stock dividend declared in June last year.
    A spokesman for SMC said the company's 15-member board met
today to discuss the proposed compromise.
    The spokesman declined comment on the outcome of the board
meeting, saying the dispute was under arbitration.
    President Corazon Aquino last month asked SMC and UCPB to
set up a three-man arbitration panel to resolve the ownership
issue. The panel is due to submit its report by April 15.
    Eduardo de Los Angeles, a government nominee in the SMC
board, filed a formal complaint before the Securities and
Exchange Commission last week, accusing Soriano and eight other
directors of violating "fiduciary duty."
    De Los Angeles was said to have opposed a decision by SMC's
board last December to assume the 500 mln peso Neptunia loan.
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The Bank of France said it sold a total
8.45 billion francs worth of treasury tap stocks through its
latest monthly tender, at which it offered a choice of one
floating rate and two fixed rate tranches.
    It sold 3.6 billion francs worth of the treasury's 8.50 pct
June 1997 tap at an average price of 96.86 pct giving an
average yield of 8.78 pct, up from 8.72 pct at its last tender
of the same tap a month ago.
    It also sold 3.15 billion worth of 8.50 pct November 2002
stock at an average price of 97.24 pct and average yield of
8.83 pct, against 8.98 pct when it was last sold on January 8.
    The bank sold 1.7 billion francs of floating rate 1999 tap
stock at an average price of 97.06 pct, giving an average
spread of 0.39 percentage points above the 13-week treasury
bill reference rate, little changed from the 0.40 point spread
at the last offering a month ago.
    Total demand at today's auction was 28.7 billion francs,
including 5.1 billion for the 8.50 pct 2002 tranche, 13.95
billion for the 8.50 pct 1997 tranche and 9.65 billion for the
1999 floating rate tranche.
 REUTER

Tokyo Optical Co Ltd is issuing a 40 mln
dlr equity warrant eurobond due April 27, 1992 paying an
indicated coupon of 2-1/4 pct and priced at par, lead manager
    The issue is guaranteed by Mitsui Bank Ltd and final terms
will be set on April 9. The issue is available in denominations
of 5,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The selling
concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and underwriting
combined pays 3/4 pct.
    The warrants are exercisable from May 19, 1987 until April
9, 1992. The payment date is April 27.
 REUTER

Keihanshin Real Estate Co Ltd is issuing
a 25 mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due April 27, 1992 paying
an indicated coupon of 2-1/4 pct and priced at par, lead
manager Daiwa Europe Ltd said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Sumitomo Bank Ltd and final
terms will be set on April 8. The issue is available in
denominations of 5,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
The selling concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and
underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct.
    The warrants are exercisable from May 18, 1987 until April
13, 1992. The payment date is April 27.
 REUTER

Lawson's remarks yesterday suggesting there are precise
exchange rate targets for the pound undermined sterling,
dashing hopes for an early cut in U.K. Base rates, analysts
said.
    But the market's reaction, testing exchange rate levels
indicated by Lawson, was probably overdone and the longer term
outlook for sterling remained bullish, they agreed.
    In an apparent break with the previous policy of secrecy,
Lawson told a National Economic Development Council meeting he
was comfortable with sterling exchange rates around current
levels, specifying rates of around 1.90 marks and 1.60 dlrs.
    Lawson added the U.K. Government intended to keep sterling
at about present levels, using currency intervention and
interest rates to achieve this.
    The February 22 Paris agreement of the Group of Five and
Canada to stabilise exchange rates is widely believed to
include target ranges, but all participants to the meeting had
so far refused to specify these.
    Markets were quick to react to the statement, chopping
about one U.S. Cent and over one pfennig off the pound to match
the levels mentioned by Lawson.
    But most analysts polled said they did not believe Lawson's
statement signalled a change in U.K. Policy.
    Keith Skeoch, chief economist at stockbrokers James Capel
and Co, said, "the remarks have been blown out of proportion.
Lawson is paying now for a little bit of a slip of the tongue."
    Barclays de Zoete Wedd economist Mark Brett said, "there is
nothing great and fantastic in the Chancellor's statement."
    He said he did not believe the rates indicated by the
Chancellor were precise targets, but merely represented central
rates around which sterling would be allowed to fluctuate,
perhaps by as much as 10 pct.
    "It would be insane to pinpoint an exchange rate ahead of an
election ... I don't believe Lawson is mad enough to tie
himself to a fixed rate," Brett said.
    Currency markets were keen for official statements to
clarify the scope of the Paris accord and reactivate currency
trading. This mood easily led to over-reaction, analysts said.
    "Making similar statements when the market is high strung
and ready to bounce is perhaps a mistake," one senior dealer
with a U.S. Bank said.
    Capel's Skeoch said, "it gives the foreign exchange markets
something to shoot at."
    "It is obvious that the government, as a member of the Group
of Six, has agreed exchange rate bands. But they are not cut in
stone, they can change with time," Skeoch said.
    Brett said, "we think the 2.90 marks level is a central
rate. Give or take 10 pfennigs and all is fine."
    Not all analysts played down the significance of the
remarks, however. Chris Dunn, economist at Royal Bank of
Canada, said the remarks may signal a decisive move to insulate
sterling from the fortunes of the dollar.
    Although about two-thirds of Britain's trade is conducted
with European countries, sterling has traditionally shadowed
the dollar rather than the mark, analysts noted.
    "Britain must decide whether it wants to follow the U.S. Or
throw in its lot with Europe," Dunn said.
    "It suggests that while the U.K. Is not actually applying to
join the European Monetary System, it is seeking protection by
shadowing it ... The Bundesbank has made it clear that it wants
the U.K. To clarify its position relative to the mark," he said.
    Analysts said sterling's dip on currency markets following
Lawson's remarks made an early half-point cut in U.K. Base
rates from current 10 pct levels unlikely in the short term.
    "Over the next three weeks, a cut is out, unless we get some
extremely good economic indicators," Capel's Skeoch said.
    Base rates have been cut twice by one-half point in March,
the last after the March 17 budget presentation, and analysts
had been expecting another half point cut shortly afterwards.
 REUTER

NV HOOGOVENS 1986 NET PROFIT 154.6 MLN GUILDERS VS 278.8 MLN -- OFFICIAL

Ranks Hovis McDougall Plc <RHML.L> said
it was making an increased and final offer for the Avana Group
Plc <AVNA.L>. The company already holds about 22.9 pct or 7.1
mln Avana ordinary shares.
    It said in a statement the terms of the offer will be 13
new Rank Hovis shares for every five Avana ordinary shares,
valuing each Avana share at 829p.
    Avana shareholders will be entitled to receive and retain
the net interim dividend of 5.25p per Avana share for the year
ending 28 March 1987.
    Accepting Avana shareholders will also be entitled to
receive Ranks Hovis's forecast net interim dividend of 2.65p
for the financial year ending 5 September 1987.
    Ranks Hovis said that full acceptance of the increased
offer would result in the issue of a maximum of 72.3 mln new
Ranks Hovis shares or about 20 pct of the enlarged issued
ordinary share capital of the company.
    The latest offer will lapse on 17 April. Ordinary
shareholders in Avana who accept the increased offer will have
the opportunity to elect for cash for all or part of their
holdings on the basis of 800p cash for each Avana share.
    Ranks Hovis said the cash required for the cash alternative
would be met by one of several methods.
    For the first 10 mln Avana shares received opting for the
cash alternative, Ranks Hovis would make a cash payment from
its own resources.
    For cash alternatives of more than 10 mln Avana shares,
Morgan Grenfell, as agent for participants, will make a
separate offer to purchase at 300p per share, net of expenses,
up to 46.3 mln Ranks Hovis new shares to which such
shareholders will be entitled under the increased offer. This
is equivalent to 780p per Avana ordinary.
    In addition, Ranks Hovis will make a further cash payment
of 20p per Avana ordinary. Avana shares traded at 800p after
the announcement, 32p up from last night's close of 768p. REUTER

has ordered two Airbus A-310-300s from the Airbus Industrie
<ainp.Pa> consortium.
    The planes will be delivered at the end of 1988 or
beginning of 1989, a company statement said.
    There was no Lufthansa spokesman immediately available to
comment on the purchase price or give details about the engines
that will power the planes.
    One of the new A-310s will be used by Lufthansa itself and
the other by its <Condor Flugdienst GmbH> charter travel
subsidiary, the statement said.
    The orders bring Lufthansa's purchases of Airbus A-300s and
A-310s to a total of 34.
 REUTER

Lucas Industries Inc unit is issuing a 75 mln dlr convertible
eurobond due April 28, 2002 paying an indicated coupon of 5-1/4
to 5-1/2 pct and priced at par.
annum to par thereafter but is not callable until 1994 unless
the share price reaches 130 pct of the conversion price.
    There is a put option after seven years which will be
priced to give the investor a yield to the put of 7-1/4 to
7-3/4 pct. The issue is guaranteed as to interest and the put
premium by Lucas Industries Plc.
    The issue is being lead managed by J. Henry Schroder Wagg
Ltd, which has already formed a group of 19 co-managers. The
    The issue is available in denominations of 1,000 dlrs,
while the payment is April 27.
    Lucas said it intended to use the proceeds of the issue for
general corporate purposes.
 REUTER

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is
considering new rules governing different classes of shares
following a spate of new "B" share issues by leading local firms,
exchange chairman Ronald Li said.
    He told reporters the rules will allow settlement of "A"
share transactions with cheaper "B" shares at a ratio equivalent
to their par values. But "A" shares cannot be used to settle
transactions of "B" shares.
    Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd <JARD.HK>, Cheung Kong
(Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HK> and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK>
have all announced proposals for issuing "B" shares.
    These would have substantially reduced par values but would
have voting rights equal to the existing shares or "A" shares.
    Li said the exchange does not want to restrict the issue of
"B" shares but it is concerned about huge discrepancies between
market prices of existing "A" and "B" stocks.
    The exchange said yesterday it will not accept further
proposals by listed firms to issue such new shares.
    Li said that if the exchange did not take action numerous
other companies would make similar issues. <Evergo Industrial
Enterprise Ltd>, now suspended from trading, has already made
such a proposal, he added.
    Li said the exchange will consult legal advisers in Britain
for the proposals from Cheung Kong, Hutchison and Jardine
Matheson. If the rules of settlement cannot be implemented, the
three firms must present alternative methods to guarantee
reasonable price differentials between the "A" and "B" shares.
    Both Jardine and Hutchison declined comment. But local
newspapers quoted Cheung Kong's director Albert Chow as saying
the firm will withdraw its issue if the new rule is approved.
    Analysts have said the "B" shares are designed largely to
protect the interests of majority shareholders. There is little
liquidity in them and they trade at big discounts.
    Stock brokers noted the "A" shares of Swire Pacific Ltd
<SWPC.HK> closed at 22 H.K. Dlrs today while the "B" shares ended
at 3.95 dlrs. The stocks have a par value of 60 and 12 cents
respectively, or a one-to-five ratio. At those levels that
represents an "A" share premium of about 11.4 pct over the "B"
shares.
    Li said the exchange has not considered any measures
against existing "B" stocks. Other existing "B" stocks are all
issued by units of Wharf (Holdings) Ltd <KOWL.HK>, including
<Hong Kong Realty and Trust Co Ltd>, <Lane Crawford Holdings
Ltd> and <Realty Development Corp Ltd>.
  REUTER

the money market with 345 mln stg help in the morning session.
This compares with its forecast of a shortage of around 800 mln
stg in the system today.
comprising 58 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 227 mln stg in
band two at 9-13/16 pct, 56 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct
and four mln stg in band four at 9-11/16 pct.
    Dealers noted that this was the first time bills in band
four, which have a maturity of between two and three months,
have been dealt in the market since mid-February.
 REUTER

Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> said new
proposals unveiled by Japan for it to become a core member of a
merged telecommunications firm to compete for
telecommunications contracts did not remove the group's
objections.
    The suggestions by Federation of Economic Organisations
official Fumio Watanabe was a formal announcement of proposals
made earlier this week and reported in the Japanese press.
    Cable has a 20 pct stake in one of the two groups trying to
compete against Japan's <Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd> which
monopolises Japan's overseas telephone business.
    But a Cable spokesman said it still believed a merger of
the two consortia would be impracticable. "They are like oil and
water," he said.
    The Japanese authorities want only one competitor and have
proposed that the two consortia band together. The issue has
been taken up by the British government as a test case on the
openness of Japanese markets. Watanabe's latest proposals said
that the eight core companies of the new group should have
equal share holdings but added that they could work out the
precise percentages amongst themselves.
    The reports earlier this week said that Cable would be
offered a five pct stake, up from an originally proposed three
pct.
    Despite the apparent differences in stakes offered, the
Cable spokesman said the two offers appeared to be essentially
the same.
    Cable shares at 1100 GMT were quoted nine pence firmer at
374p.
 REUTER

Japan is doing all it can to solve its
trade problems with the United States but the two nations will
remain at odds as long as the trade account is lopsided in
Japan's favour, a senior official said.
    "So long as there is an external imbalance there will be
trade friction and ...Harsh words between the two governments,"
the Foreign Ministry official told reporters.
    Last year, Japan racked up a 51.5 billion dlr surplus with
the United States and economists said they do not see it
falling significantly any time soon.
    Washington announced plans last week to slap up to 300 mln
dlrs in tariffs on Japanese electronic goods, raising the
spectre of a trade war between the two countries.
    "We take the current situation very seriously," said the
official, who declined to be identified. "The basic stance of
the Japanese government is to tackle the issues with all
available resources."
    The United States has accused Japan of reneging on an
agreement that called on it to stop selling cut-price computer
microchips in world markets and to try to import more American
semiconductors. Tokyo has denied the charges.
    The Foreign Ministry official refused to rule out Japanese
retaliation if America went ahead with its threatened tariffs
in the middle of this month. But he said that any response
would be in accordance with international law and Japan's
international obligations.
    He added that both Japan and the United States must take
account of the impact of their dispute on their own and the
world economy.
 REUTER

France has sold between 50,000 to 100,000
tonnes of wheat flour to China, the Director General of
France's Cereal Intervention Board (ONIC) Bernard Vieux said.
    He gave no further details of the sale, but added French
millers were worried about the unfair competition facing French
flour due the lack of end-of-season storage premiums for wheat.
    ONIC raised its estimate of 1986/87 flour exports to 1.70
mln tonnes compared 1.65 mln forecast in March and the 1.87 mln
exported in 1985/86.
 REUTER

Malaysia's telecommunication
authority has entered into a deal with a British firm to instal
a 100 mln dlrs fibre optic submarine cable to link Peninsula
Malaysia with eastern Sabah and Sarawak states, the national
news agency Bernama reported.
    <Syarikat Telekom Malaysia Bhd> (STM) signed an agreement
to set up a joint venture company with Britain's Cable and
Wireless PLC <CAWL.L> to instal, maintain and operate the 1,500
kms-long cable by 1989, it said.
    STM Chairman Mohamed Rashdan Baba and Cable and Wireless
Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Sharp signed the agreement.
    The joint venture company will be 51 pct owned by STM and
49 pct by Cable and Wireless, the news agency said. It gave no
details on equity or when the project will be started.
    Mohamed Rashdan said the cable link will carry domestic and
international telecommunication traffic and added that STM
planned to ask other telecommunication administrations in
Southeast Asia to use the cable.
    Sharp said the cable could make Malaysia a major
telecommunications centre in the region.
    STM, which used to be the government's telecommunication
department previously, was privatised in January 1987.
 REUTER

U.K. Defence secretary George Younger is
expected to announce the government's decision on the sale of
state-owned arms manufacturer <Royal Ordnance> today,
parliamentary sources said.
    The government originally intended to float the munitions
and explosives concern on the stock market, but last July said
a private sale was a more appropriate way to dispose of the
firm.
    The bidders for the company were British Aerospace Plc
<BAEL.L> and engineering group GKN Plc <GKN.L>. Royal Ordnance
sold its Leeds tank factory last summer to Vickers Plc
<VICK.L>.
    Defence electronics manufacturer Ferranti Plc <FNTI.L> and
shipping and property group Trafalgar House Plc <THSL.L> both
pulled out of the bidding shortly before last month's deadline.
    Royal Ordnance made pre-tax profits of 26 mln stg on sales
of 487 mln stg in calendar 1985, its first full year of
commercial operation. The company has assets of around 240 mln
stg and employs 17,000 at 15 sites in Britain.
    Other state-held companies earmarked for privatisation this
year include engine maker <Rolls Royce Plc> and the <British
Airports Authorities Plc>.
 REUTER

Japan's leading economic organisations
urged the Government to prepare drastic pump-priming measures
even at the cost of shelving Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's
planned tax reforms, officials involved said.
    Officials of the Federation of Economic Organisations
(Keidanren) said in a meeting with government officials the
Government should issue construction bonds as an emergency
measure to prop up the economy.
    Keidanren suggested that proceeds from sales of stocks in
the newly-privatised Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp should
also be used to stimulate the economy.
    Keidanren Chairman Eishiro Saito said the dollar's fall
below 150 yen would create huge unemployment and bankruptcies
that could shake the foundation of the Japanese economy.
    The Keidanren meeting coincided with a written request for
drastic reflationary measures sent to the Government by the
Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
    Both organisations called for stepped-up Bank of Japan
intervention to stabilise exchange rates.
    Chamber head Noboru Gotoh told a press conference the
awaited economic package should be powerful enough to push up
Japan's Gross National Product (GNP) by about two pct.
    Gotoh said the Government could cope with the present
critical economic condition even if it put off its plan to stop
the issue of deficit-covering bonds by fiscal 1990.
    The plan to reduce the fiscal budget is a pillar of
Nakasone's fiscal reconstruction program.
  REUTER

Syria will hold a buying tender on April
8 for 36,000 tonnes of white sugar for shipment in June, July
and August at a rate of 12,000 tonnes a month, traders said.
 REUTER

<Koninklijke
Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken NV> said it expected
a "clear loss" for 1987.
     The company reported its 1986 profits were 44 pct lower at
154.6 mln guilders than in the year before.
     Turnover was 18 pct lower than in 1985.
     The main reason fo the fall in turnover was the lower rate
of the dollar, the company said. The lower costs for raw
materials and energy, resulting from the lower dollar, could
not compensate the fall in revenues.
     Costs 5.61 billion guilders vs 6.66 billion
     Depreciation 457 mln vs 493 mln
     Operating profit 375 mln vs 598 mln
     Financial charges 155.1 mln vs 169.4 mln
     Extraordinary loss 12 rpt 12 mln vs 138 mln
     Crude steel production five mln tonnes vs 5.3 mln
     Aluminium production 96,000 tonnes vs same.
 REUTER

The cost of living was unchanged in
March compared with February but stood 0.2 pct lower than in
the same month in 1986, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    This confirms provisional figures released at the end of
    In February the cost of living in West Germany rose 0.1 pct
from January to stand 0.5 pct lower than in February 1986.
 REUTER

The onset of cooler weather in Brazil
during the southern hemisphere winter is expected to have a
stabilising effect on a weak coffee market, West German trade
    "The annual fear of frost in Brazil will probably grip the
market sometime this month until June or early July," one trader
said.
    The trade believes the International Coffee Organization
(ICO) is unlikely to tackle the re-introduction of quotas
before its September meeting and until then the market will not
see any unexpected sharp moves in either direction.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> said it regrets its
plan to enter the U.K. Business facsimile and telephone market
may be caught up in a diplomatic row over the position of Cable
and Wireless Plc's <CAWL.L> in the Japanese market.
    Britain is considering how to retaliate against Japan's
attempt to prevent Cable and Wireless from taking a major
position in a Japanese international telecommunications
venture.
    "As a matter of timing it is regrettable that this has been
linked with the question of market access in Japan," a Toshiba
    <Toshiba Information Systems (U.K.) Ltd>, a Toshiba
subsidiary, said yesterday it planned to enter the U.K. Market
under the Toshiba own brand name and had applied for government
approval to do so.
    Toshiba has supplied equipment to U.K. Manufacturers for
sale under their brand names since last year.
    The Toshiba spokesman said the sale of such equipment was
not comparable to Cable and Wireless' efforts to take a stake
in the new Japanese telecommunications firm.
    "They are matters of a different category," he said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan intervened just after
the Tokyo market opened, buying dollars at around 147.65 yen,
    They were unsure of the amount of the central bank's
purchasing, but it seemed to prevent the dollar from weakening
against the yen amid bearish sentiment for the U.S. Currency,
they said.
    The dollar opened at 147.65 yen against 147.20/30 in New
York and 146.90 at the close here yesterday.
 REUTER

Japan is sending a three-man team to
Washington to try to halt threatened trade sanctions that
officials warn could spark a wave of anti-U.S. Sentiment here.
    The team will lay the groundwork for high-level emergency
talks next week aimed at defusing an increasingly bitter row
over trade in computer microchips, officials said.
    "The sanctions are against the free trade system," Ministry
of International Trade and Industry (MITI) director general
Noboru Hatakeyama told reporters, adding: "If these measures are
taken, the atmosphere in Japan against the United States would
become not so good as before."
    Other officials were more blunt. "The U.S. Action will have
a significant impact on the growing anti-U.S. Feeling (here),"
another MITI official said.
    A senior Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be
identified, told Reuters the U.S. Threats have undercut those
in the government who argue for conciliation.
    "There is a very strong argument in Japan that since the
United States is imposing tariffs unilaterally, why should we
bother doing anything," he said. "Anything we do, we will be
bashed."
    The senior official sounded pessimistic about the
likelihood of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone defusing U.S.
Anger over Japanese trade practices when he visits Washington
on April 29.
    "I don't think trade friction will be solved all of a sudden
(by the visit)," he said.
    Nakasone is widely expected to present a package of
measures to President Reagan to help contain U.S. Frustration
over Japan's large trade surplus.
    But the senior official played down those expectations.
 REUTER

und
Frankfurter Bank (BHF) is raising 30 mln Australian dollars
through a five-year bullet eurobond with a 14-1/4 pct coupon
and priced at 101-1/4, sole manager BHF said.
    The bond, for BHF Finance Jersey Ltd, pays annual interest
on April 28, and investors pay for the bond on the same day. It
will mature on that day in 1992.
    The bond is guaranteed by the parent. Listing is in
Luxembourg. Denominations are 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs. Yield at
issue is 13.89 pct. No fees were stated.
 REUTER

French medium and long-term debt fell to
398.2 billion francs at end-1986 from 419.6 billion at
end-September and 464.7 billion at end-1985, the Finance
    The 66.5 billion franc reduction over the full year mainly
reflected a 44.8 billion difference between debt redemption and
new foreign borrowings, it said.
    The 21.4 billion franc reduction in the fourth quarter
mainly reflected an 11.4 billion franc difference between
redemptions and new borrowing, the ministry added.
    The balance reflected revisions to the previous figures,
and the impact of the currency fluctuations on the French franc
value of foreign currency denominated borrowings, it said.
    Expressed in dollar terms, medium and long-term debt fell
to 62.7 billion dlrs at end-1986 from 63.4 billion at
    The ministry said although the dollar's depreciation
favoured a reduction in foreign debt, this was largely offset
by the appreciation of other currencies in which 63 pct of
French medium and long term debts were denominated at end-1986.
    While the dollar remained the main borrowing currency,
accounting for 37 pct of medium and long-term debt, the mark
accounted for 11.5 pct, the European Currency Unit 10.8 pct,
the yen 9.4 pct, the Eurofranc 8.7 pct, the Swiss franc 7.3
pct, the Guilder 4.6 pct, sterling 3.7 pct and seven pct
others.
    Taking into account external lending, net foreign debt fell
to 81.5 billion francs at end-1986 from 106.7 billion at
end-September and 153.7 billion at end-1985.
    External lending, comprising export credits of more than
one year maturity, and public sector foreign loans, were
estimated at about 316.7 billion francs at end-1986 against
312.9 mln at end-September.
    Total foreign medium and long-term debt included seven
billion francs of direct state debt at end 1986, reduced from
15.6 billion three months earlier, the ministry said.
 REUTER

Britain will arm itself earlier than
hitherto planned with statutory powers to retaliate if decided
necessary against Japanese banking and insurance companies, on
grounds that similar U.K. Based financial institutions do not
enjoy the same market access in Japan, government sources said.
    The provisions being brought forward under the new
Financial Services Act are reciprocity clauses 183 to 186. The
powers will allow Britain to revoke or deny licences to
Japanese banking and insurance businesses, but will not affect
licensed dealers in securities, the sources said. The news
follows a cabinet meeting during which U.K./Japanese trade
problems were discussed.
    The government decided on the steps at its cabinet meeting
this morning and aims to maintain pressure to ensure that U.K.
Firms be allowed the same access to Japanese markets as
Japanese banking and insurance firms enjoy in London's
financial areas, government sources said.
    One source said "we want reciprocity in those fields. And
what we are saying is that, if not, then we can pull the plug
and stop you from having an unfair and uncompetitive advantage."
    The provisions being brought forward under the Financial
Services Act will take effect after Easter, or in around 21
days, the sources said.
 MORE

Turnover on the Amsterdam Bourse rose
38 pct in March to 25.8 billion guilders from 18.7 billion in
February compared with 27.6 billion in March last year, the
Bourse said in its monthly review.
    Sentiment improved last month after a weak performance in
January and lacklustre trading in February, helped by good
corporate results and falling interest rates, the Bourse said.
    However, sentiment was dampened by reports of declining
exports, a drop in trade with West Germany, a slower world
economic growth rate and trade tensions.
    Share turnover was up 5.1 billion guilders last month at
14.4 billion from 9.3 billion in February.
    Bond turnover rose to 11.4 billion guilders in March from
9.4 billion in February.
    On the second tier parallel market, March turnover rose 62
pct to 267 mln guilders from 165 mln in February.
 REUTER

Weekly figures published by the Bank of
France showed its gross foreign assets rose by about two
billion francs last week, when it was reported by banks to have
intervened on the foreign exchange markets to support the
dollar against the yen.
    The figures showed its gold, foreign currency and other
external assets rose to 415.1 billion francs from 413 billion,
mainly reflecting a rise to 116.7 billion from 114.7 billion in
foreign exchange holdings.
 REUTER

Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd is launching
100 mln Swiss francs of convertible notes due September 30,
1992, indicated at 1-1/4 pct and par, lead manager Swiss Bank
Corp said.
    Pricing and conversion terms will be fixed on April 19 and
payment date is April 30. Interest is payable half-yearly.
    Early redemption is possible from March 31, 1990 at 104
pct, declining by one point per half-year thereafter, and for
tax reasons from 1988 at 102 pct, declining by 1/2 point
annually thereafter.
 REUTER

Nitto Boseki Co Ltd of Tokyo is launching
a 60 mln Swiss franc 4-7/8 pct bond due April 27, 1995 at
    Subscriptions close April 8 and payment date is April 27.
 REUTER

BankAmerica Corp, following moves
by other major banks, said it has raised its prime rate to 7.75
pct from 7.50 pct, effective today.
 Reuter

The London Metal Exchange, LME, issued
turnovers for March 1987, with figures for corresponding period
1986 in brackets.
    All in tonnes except Silver which in troy ounces.
    Copper higher grade nil (2,526,425), Standard cathodes nil
(6,325), Grade A 2,429,200 (nil), Standard Copper 17,050 (nil),
Lead 443,850 (538,750), Zinc High grade 598,550 (304,825),
Silver large 10,350,000 (17,400,000), Small nil (2,000),
Aluminium 1,693,375 (1,301,850), Nickel 62,004 (65,040).
    Cumulative figures for January-March were as follows -
Copper higher grade nil (7,703,625), Standard cathodes nil
(24,700), Grade A 6,455,525 (nil), Standard Copper 62,075
(nil), Lead 1,567,000 (1,979,750), Zinc High grade 1,746,675
(1,356,400), Silver large 41,770,000 (65,620,000), Small nil
(8,000), Aluminium 4,984,650 (4,974,950), Nickel 199,944
(179,328).
 Reuter

News Corp Ltd of Australia said it has
started its previously announced tender offer for all shares of
Harper and Row Publishers Inc at 65 dlrs per share.
    In a newspaper advertisement, the company said the offer is
conditioned on received of at least 51 pct of Harper and Row's
shares.  The offering and withdrawal rights expire April 29
    A merger at the tender price is to follow the offer, which
has been approved by the Harper and Row board.  Harper and Row
has granted NEw Corp an option to buy up to 800,000 new shares
or a 15.4 pct interest at 65 dlrs each.
    News Corp said if the merger agreement were terminated
under certain circumstances, News would be entitled to a 16 mln
dlr cash payment.
    Last month, Theodore Cross offered to acquire Harper and
Row for 34 dlrs per share but was soon outbid by Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich Inc, which offered 50 dlrs per share.  Late in the
month, Harper and Row said its board had received expressions
of interest from a number of domestic and foreign companies.
 Reuter

(BFCE) is issuing a 17 billion yen eurobond due May 11, 1992
with a 4-3/8 pct coupon and priced at 102-3/8 pct, lead manager
Nippon Credit International Ltd said.
    The bonds, guaranteed by the Republic of France, carry a
put and call option at par on the interest payment date in
1990. Listing will be in Luxembourg and the bonds will be
issued in denominations of one mln yen. Payment date is May 11.
    Gross fees of 1-7/8 pct comprise 5/8 pct for management and
 REUTER

International Technology corp
said it expects to report a loss for the fourth quarter ended
March 31 of about 20 cts per share, compared with a
year-earlier profit of 11 cts.
    The company blamed the expected loss on regulatory and
permitting issues that limited the full utilization of
hazardous waste treatment cites in Califoirnia, continued
startup delays for major remediation projects, the writeoff of
an investment in a subsidiary and a settlem,ent with the
California Attorney General's Office and Department of Health
Services.
    The company said the settlement relates to regulatory
violations alleged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agengy
and the California Health Services department at the company's
Vine Hill and Panoche treatment facilities in Northern
    It said under the agreement, it will pay the state
2,100,000 dlrs in civil penalties over a two-year period and
pay 500,000 dlrs over five years to local medical facilities as
part of a community awareness and emergency response program
developed by local communities.  The expenses will be charged
against fourth quarter results, it said.
    The company said it has agreed as well to make compliance
and public safety capital expenditures of about 600,000 dlrs.
    It said it has now received an operating permit for a new
250,000 cubic yard landfill cell at its Imperial County,
Calif., from the Health Services department.
    The company said the Panoche facility remains closed but is
expected to reopen for liquid and sludge receipts in the near
future.  But it said receipts of solid material, which had
accounted for the majority of the revenue at the site, could be
restricted until 1988 pending resolution of capacity issues in
the Panoche site permit.
 Reuter

Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale
<WELG.F> said its wholly-owned Luxembourg subsidiary WestLB
International SA posted a decline in 1986 net profit to 12.6
mln marks from 48.5 mln a year earlier.
    WestLB International will pay a 12.5 mln mark dividend to
WestLB, down from 47.7 mln a year earlier.
    The dividend was lower than in 1985 because the record
profit of the previous year could not be repeated, due to
changed market conditions, it said. Increased funds were also
allocated for provisions. Business in the first three months of
1987 developed positively, it added.
    WestLB International set aside 115.3 mln marks for
international credit risks in 1986, up from 97.4 mln marks in
1985, bringing the total amount of provisions shown in the
balance sheet to 580.3 mln marks.
    Operating profit fell to 122 mln marks in 1986 from 150 mln
in 1985. Balance sheet total fell to 9.7 billion marks from
10.8 billion, reflecting the lower dollar and the fact that
credit business redemptions were not fully offset by new
lending.
    The statement said WestLB International's business with
private customers showed a pleasing expansion last year.
    This development was aided by cooperation between the bank
and the savings banks in the West German state of North
Rhine-Westphalia, where parent bank WestLB is based.
    Deposits by non-banks rose more than 40 pct to a total of
1.1 billion.
    WestLB International said it plans to expand its range of
services for private clients.
 REUTER

Some 40 miners were trapped
underground today by a fire in a copper mine in the Gaspe area
of eastern Quebec, officials said.
    There were no reports of any deaths.
    A mine official said that the fire broke out last night and
about 25 of the miners made it to safety.
    He said telephone contact had been established with the
trapped miners but they could not be brought to the surface
until the fire was extinguished.
    The cause of the fire was not known.
 Reuter

Coffee producers belonging to the "Other
Milds" group will meet May 4 in Guatemala to discuss the
possibility of restoring export quotas, producer delegates told
reporters after the closing session of the International Coffee
Organization, ICO, executive board meeting.
    The "Other Milds" group, comprising Costa Rica, Dominican
Mexico, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea and Peru, might consult
with Brazil and Colombia on this meeting, but it was not
certain whether these two countries would attend, they said.
    The ICO board meeting ended without moves to restart
negotiations on quotas, which broke down last month, producer
    Producers are expected to hold other consultations in the
coming months on how to proceed with quota negotiations, but no
date for a full producer meeting has been mentioned, they said.
    The board completed reports on stock verification and the
next regular board session will be in Indonesia June 1-5,
 Reuter

Nippon Signal Co Ltd's 50 mln Swiss franc
five-year notes issue with warrants has been priced at 1-1/4
pct compared with the originally indicated 1-3/8 pct, lead
manager Morgan Stanley SA said.
    Each 50,000-franc bond carries 81 warrants entitling the
holder to buy 100 Nippon Signal shares for 594 yen each. The
shares last traded at 579 yen.
    The Swiss franc/yen exchange rate was fixed at 97.27.
 REUTER

Aloha Inc said its leveraged buyout by
AQ Corp, which acquired 91 pct of Aloha common and 82 pct of
Aloha preferred in a tender offer that concluded December 26,
has been completed for 28.50 dlrs per common or preferred
share.
    AQ is controlled by Aloha chairman Hung Wo Ching, vice
chairman Sheridan C.F. Ing and president A. Maurice Myers.
 Reuter

money market a further 152 mln stg assistance in the afternoon
session.
    This takes the Bank's total help so far today to 497 mln
stg and compares with its forecast of a shortage in the system
of around 700 mln stg which it earlier revised down from 800
mln.
comprising 34 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 39 mln stg in
band two at 9-13/16 pct, 51 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct
and 28 mln stg in band four at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

BANK OF FRANCE LEAVES INTERVENTION RATE UNCHANGED AT 7-3/4 PCT - OFFICIAL

said it introduced four new personal computers, including a top
of the line unit based on the powerful Intel Corp <INTC> 80386
chip.
    The company said the new PC's are compatible with most
existing IBM PC applications.          
    The new computers, which mark the first major overhaul of
the IBM PC line since the company entered the business in 1981,
include a PC based on the Intel Corp <INTC> 80386
microprocessor, making it the most powerful IBM PC to date.
    Also included is an Intel 8086 based system which IBM said
is up to two and a half times as fast as its IBM PC XT model.
    IBM also introduced two new versions of its PC AT system.
These use an Intel 80286 chip running at 50 pct faster than the
existing IBM PC AT.
    The new line of PC's, which IBM calls the Personal
System/2, uses 3.5 inch diskettes instead of the conventional
5.25 inch diskettes.
    The company said the smaller diskettes store from two to
four times more data than larger diskette, which typically
handle 360 kilobytes of data.
    IBM said the new PC AT's and the 80386-based PC use a new
IBM-designed 32-bit data bus. This carries data internally
within the PC.
    The company said the new bus offers processing power up to
two to three-and-a-half times the existing IBM PC AT.
    IBM said the new PC's can run a new operating system,
called IBM DOS Version 3.3, which is now available.
    The company also said it will offer a second operating
system, called IBM Operating System/2, developed jointly with
Microsoft Corp <MSFT>. This will be available in stages,
beginning in the first quarter of 1988.
    IBM said Operating System/2 will for the first time give
IBM PC users the ability to access multiple applications and
very large programs and amounts of data.
    IBM said said its Personal System/2 Model 30, which is an
Intel 8-megahertz (MHz) 8086-based system, is now available at
a list price of 1,695 dlrs each with two diskette drives and
for 2,295 dlrs with one diskette and one 20-megabyte fixed disk
drive. The unit weighs 17 pounds.
    It said an 8087 math coprocessor that runs at the same
eight MHz rate as the 8086 is available.
    The company said the Personal System/2 Model 50, an Intel
10 MHz 80286-based desktop system, is now available at a cost
of 3,595 dlrs.
    IBM said said its Personal System/2 Model 60, which is also
an Intel 10 MHz 80286-based system, is a floor-standing system
available in two configurations. This system, which is
scheduled for availability in the second quarter, lists at
5,295 dlrs with a 44MB fixed disk drive and 6,295 dlrs on the
70MB fixed disk drive.
    The company said the Personal System/2 80 is the most
powerful member of the new family of PC's, using an Intel
80386-based mocroprocessor. The floor-standing machine will be
available in three configurations.
    IBM said one Model 80 configuration, scheduled for July
availability at a cost of 6,995 dlrs, runs at 16 MHz, contains
1MB of memory and features a 44MB fixed disk drive.
    A second configuration, also scheduled for July at 8,495
dlrs each, runs at 16 MHz and has 2MB of memory and a 70MB
fixed disk drive.
    The company said the third Model 80 is scheduled for the
fourth quarter and features IBM-designed one-megabit memory
technology. Expected to cost 10,995 dlrs, it runs at 20 MHz and
features 2MB of memory and a 115 MB fixed disk drive.
   
    IBM said its Personal System/2 incorporates enhanced
integrated graphics functions including significantly improved
text, expanded colors up to 256 out of a palette of more than
256,000, and sharper business graphics.
    The company said the Models 50, 60 and 80 Video Graphics
Array supports 640 x 480 x 16 colors in graphics mode and 720 x
400 x 16 colors in text mode. It will also support the new 320
x 200 x 256 color mode.
    With the addition of the new advanced graphics feature, IBM
said, 1024 x 768 addressability also can be obtained.
 Reuter

A partisan battle over President
Reagan's veto of an 88-billion dlr highway bill resumes in the
Senate today after an apparent victory for the White House was
left in doubt when a key Democrat switched his vote 
    The Senate yesterday had voted to sustain Reagan's veto by
a narrow margin, but Democrats moved to reconsider the vote.
Terry Sanford of North Carolina, the only Democrat to support
Reagan, later said he had decided to vote to override when the
bill is reconsidered.
    If no other votes switch, the Senate would override the
veto on reconsideration, Senate Republican leader Robert Dole
of Kansas said. He said Reagan and Administration officials
would continue to lobby for votes to sustain the veto.
    "As of right now, the vote would be 67 to 33 (in favor of
the bill) and the veto would be overriden," Dole said. 
    After several hours of delay, Senate leaders were unable to
agree on a time for a second vote and the Senate recessed until
this morning with the issue unresolved.
    Sanford denied he had been pressured to change his vote,
but told the Senate, "I have talked to and have been talked to
by a number of senators. I have thought a little more deeply
about this vote."
    The first Senate vote put Reagan on the verge of a
political triumph he had sought to show he is rebounding
strongly from the Iran arms scandal.

About 10,000 workers have gone on
strike in eastern Yugoslavia during the past few days demanding
higher wages, the official Tanjug news agency said.
    It said about 20 strikes broke out in the Yugoslav republic
of Montenegro, triggered by falling incomes and minimum wages.
More than 600 workers in the Visokogradnja construction firm at
Titograd left their jobs because they had not been paid for
three months, Tanjug said.
    Yugoslavia has been hit by a wave of strikes after the
government introduced a pay freeze in February to try to stem
wage rises and almost 100 pct inflation.
    Tanjug said the majority of the strikes in Montenegro were
in loss making companies whose weaknesses would have led to
unrest even if a wages freeze had not been implemented.
 Reuter

Ireland is raising 300 mln marks
through a 10-year eurobond with a 6-1/2 pct coupon priced at
100-1/2, lead manager Commerzbank AG said.
    The bond, with a yield at issue of 6.43 pct, will pay
annual interest on April 29. Listing is in Frankfurt, the bank
said.
    Investors will pay for the bond on April 29, and the bond
matures on the same day in 1997. The bond will be issued in
    Fees total 2-1/2 pct, with 1-1/2 points for selling and 1/2
 REUTER

to export 422,000 tonnes of free market maize, 212,000 tonnes
of barley and 20,000 tonnes of feed wheat at today's EC tender,
    For the maize, rebates requested range between 129.25 and
138.74 European currency units per tonne, for the barley
between 138.94 and 145 Ecus and for feed wheat 141.75 Ecus.
 Reuter

The Bank of France said it left its
intervention rate unchanged at 7-3/4 pct when it injected funds
to the market against first category paper in todays money
market intervention tender.
    Money market dealers had earlier expressed mixed views on a
possible quarter point cut.
    The rate was last adjusted on March 9, when it was reduced
to 7-3/4 pct from the eight pct rate set in January.
 REUTER

Mauritius has lifted import duties on
textiles and other goods connected with the textile industry as
part of its economic liberalisation programme, Finance Minister
Vishnu Lutchmeenaraido said.
    Lutchmeenaraido said the move was aimed at boosting the
local textiles industry and making this Indian Ocean island a
shopping paradise for textile goods. He said all types of
textiles, textile machinery and associated goods such as sewing
thread, buttons and collar supports would be placed on the
duty-free list, effective from April 1.
    Official sources said the government was also planning to
abolish import duties on fertiliser and agricultural equipment,
with the liberalisation measures would be extended to other
areas of industry later.
    The textiles industry dominates Mauritius's Export
Processing Zone, and the island has become a major exporter of
woollen knitwear.
 Reuter

NP Energy Corp said the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court has indicated it will appoint a trustee to
oversee the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
    It said it hopes the appointment will thwart "hostile"
actions being pursued by two unsecured creditors to whose
claims the company objects.
    NP further said the Nielsen 1-20 well in Duchesne County,
Utah, has tested 300 barrels of oil per day.  NP owns a 61 pct
working interest.
 Reuter

said it has completed the sale of its South African subsidiary
Robertsons Pty Ltd to a consortium of European and South
African investors for an undisclosed amount in excess of book
value due to the increasing difficulty of operating there.
    It said the operation accounted for less than two pct of
worldwide sales of 4.5 billion dlrs in 1986.
    The company said small royalties expected to result from
use of CPC trademarks by the new owners will be utilized for
social programs in south Africa."  It said no significant
impact on earnings is expected from the sale.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 987,000 vs 1,990,000
    Revs 14.6 mln vs 15.0 mln
    Year
    Shr 89 cts vs 1.32 dlrs
    Net 3,846,000 vs 5,690,000
    Revs 58.1 mln vs 56.6 mln
    
 Reuter

Shr loss 85 cts vs loss 1.36 dlrs
    Net loss 1,653,386 vs loss 2,646,876
    Year
    Shr loss 12 cts vs loss 1.30 dlrs
    Net loss 236,469 vs loss 2,522,293
    NOTE: Year net includes realized investment gains of
734,609 dlrs vs 645,438 dlrs.
 Reuter

insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 355,000 in the
week ended March 21 from 341,000 in the prior week, the Labor
regular state programs totaled 2,480,000 in the week ended
March 14, the latest period for which that figure was
    That was up from 2,454,000 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

MELLON BANK EXPECTS TO REPORT A FIRST QUARTER LOSS OF 55 MLN TO 65 MLN DLRS

First Chicago Corp said its First
National Bank of Chicago raised its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct
from 7-1/2 pct, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd is issuing a
100 mln dlr convertible eurobond due March 31, 2002 paying an
indicated coupon of two pct lead managed by Takugin
International, bookrunner Yamaichi International Ltd said.
    The par-priced issue is callable from 1990 at 104 pct
declining by 1/2 pct per annum to par thereafter but is not
callable until 1991 unless the share price exceeds the
conversion price by 150 pct.
    Final terms will be fixed on April 9. The selling
concession is 1-1/2 pct while management and underwriting each
pay 1/2 pct. The payment date is April 30 and there is a short
first coupon.
 REUTER

MELLON BANK SAYS IT WILL CUT DIVIDEND TO 35 CTS A SHR FROM 69 CTS

sold two coal supply agreements and substantially all assets at
its two coal mines in Ohio to <Peabody Coal Co> of Henderson,
Kentucky, for an undisclosed price.
    The company said proceeds from this sale, together with the
sale of the remaining coal assets, should allow it to fully
recover its investment in the operations.
    It said the transactions will complete its previously
announced plan to sell all non-gold assets.
 Reuter

Officials at Toshiba <TSBA.T> told
reporters they have developed a kind of wire which can conduct
electricity with no resistance and therefore no loss of power.
    Although other firms have developed such superconductive
materials, Toshiba scientists said their discovery is the first
that allows the material to be formed into a pliable wire.
    Developing a superconducting material that works at room
temperature with no resistance is the object of a frenetic
worldwide scientific race. The main applications would be in
super powerful magnets, small computers of immense power and
speed, electric transmission lines which use negligible power,
and electric generators which consume no power.
    Toshiba said that it will probably be five years before it
can incorporate superconductors in marketable machines.
    But problems still have to be surmounted. Present
superconductors, including Toshiba's, need to be cooled to very
low temperatures before they can pass electricity with no
resistance. This requires costly liguid gas coolants.
    Superconductors developed to date transmit only small
currents and cannot conduct alternating current, only direct
current, government scientists said.
    Toshiba, which spent 190.3 billion yen on research and
development in the year ended March 31 1986, counts itself
among the leading superconductor research companies in Japan,
manager of Toshiba's public relations Yuji Wakayama said..
    The wires the company uses are a blend of yttrium, barium
and copper oxide and can conduct with no resistance at minus
179.5 degrees centigrade.
 REUTER

Comerica Inc said it raised its prime
interest rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective April 1.
 Reuter

North East Insurance Co said due
to the magnitude of its losses in 1986 and 1985, it may be
found in violation of minimum capital and surplus requirements
by officials in Maine and New York and be subject to sanctions
and administrative actions in those and other states.
    The company today reported a 1986 loss of 236,469 dlrs,
after realized investment gains of 734,609 dlrs, compared with
a 1985 loss of 2,522,293 dlrs, after investment gains of
645,438 dlrs.  Its fourth quarter net loss was 1,653,386 dlrs,
compared with 2,646,876 dlrs.
    The company said its fourth quarter and year losses
resulted from additions to loss reserves.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss three cts
    Net profit 140,022 vs loss 882,869
    Revs 13.3 mln vs 8,870,035
    Avg shrs 45.0 mln vs 35.0 mln
    Backlog 1,683,000 vs 978,000
    NOTE: Current year net includes tax credit of 51,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Electromedics Inc said it
expects to take a 150,000 dlr charge against first quarter
results due to the conversion of debentures.
    The company said, however, it expects "positive" operating
comparisons for the period.  Electromedics lost 6,000 dlrs in
last year's first quarter.
 Reuter

will market electronic data transmission equipment of its own
design in North America, a spokesman said.
    The spokesman told Reuters the equipment, known as
fourth-generation modems, will be sold by <Mitel Datacom Inc>,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada's Mitel Corp <MLT.TO>, in
which British Telecom has a controlling stake.
    He declined to comment on the volume of projected sales. He
said the modems, already available in Europe where they hold a
majority share of the market, were the first of their kind to
comply with the latest international standards.
 Reuter

South Africa's largest labour
federation has issued a broad call to the country's trade union
movement to support thousands of striking black railway workers
and criticised the state-owned rail company for threatening to
replace the strikers with whites.
    Jay Naidoo, general secretary of the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU), which claims a membership of
over 600,000 workers, most of whom are black, urged labour
unions to show solidarity with the striking railwaymen, adding
that a key issue in the strike was the freedom of workers to
join trade unions of their choice.
    Naidoo criticised the government-run South African
Transport Services (SATS) for refusing to recognise the South
African Railway and Harbours Workers Union, which represents
most of the strikers.
    He also accused SATS of applying "racist labour policies," by
threatening to replace the strikers and added that the
corporation's decision had further "inflamed the dispute."
    The strike began on March 14 when workers walked out
following the railway company's refusal to go to formal
arbitration talks over the dismissal of a train driver.
    SATS says that some 13,000 workers are involved in the
stoppage, but union leaders put the number of strikers closer
to 18,000.
    The Cosatu official said a number of its affiliate unions
had resolved to "take solidarity action" and would inform South
Africa's Labour Minister of their decision. He also urged the
country's two largest employer groups, the Association of
Chambers of Commerce and the Federated Chamber of Industries,
to intervene to resolve the strike.
 REUTER

Shr 24 cts vs four cts
    Net 663,000 vs 109,000
    Sales 20.5 mln vs 13.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 48 cts vs nine cts
    Net 1,311,000 vs 255,000
    Sales 43.2 mln vs 30.0 mln
    Avg shrs 2,719,205 vs 2,804,048
 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp said it expects
to report a loss for the first quarter in the range of 55 mln
to 65 mln dlrs or 2.13 to 2.15 dlrs a share.
    The company also said it intends to reduce its second
quarter common stock dividend to 35 cts a share from 69 cts.
    Mellon said it will make a provision for loan losses in the
first quarter of 175 mln dlrs, reflecting about 95 mln dlrs in
charge-offs and 80 mln dlrs in additions to the loan-loss
reserve.
    It will also put 310 mln dlrs in Brazilian loans on a cash
basis, resulting in interest reversals of 10 mln dlrs.
    In the first quarter of 1986, Mellon earned 60.4 mln dlrs
or 2.13 dlrs a share.
    Chairman David Barnes said the loan charge-offs and
increased provisions address four areas of concern in the
bank's wholesale lending portfolio - the energy sector,
developing countries, some basic industrial companies and
several commercial real estate businesses.
    Mellon said the loan loss reserve at the end of the first
quarter is estimated to be 575 mln dlrs, or about 2.5 pct of
the loan book, compared with 493.8 mln dlrs or 2.17 pct of
total loans at the end of 1986.
    Mellon said its primary capital ratio at the end of the
first quarter will be in line with the end-1986 figure of 7.23
pct, well in excess of regulatory guidelines.
    Non-performing loans at quarter-end are estimated at 1.45
billion dlrs, or 6.5 pct of the loan portfolio, compared with
928 mln dlrs or 3.94 pct at the end of 1986.
    Barnes noted that Mellon has a bigger involvement in
energy-based lending than many other banks. Because of the lack
of a substantial recovery in energy prices this year,
especially in natural gas prices, it was felt prudent to
increase reserves and take losses on loans in this sector.
    "This action relates both to loans to companies directly
involved in energy, as well as loans to real estate developers,
home builders and financial institutions in the Southwestern
United States," Barnes said.
    As for LDC loans, he said Mellon had removed about 80 mln
dlrs in fully current Argentine loans from cash basis but had
charged off about 20 mln dlrs in private-sector Mexican debt.
    He said Mellon, which was ordered in December to quit
Brazil because of its refusal to renew some short-term credit
lines, expects to participate in efforts to helpt Brazil and
other sovereign borrowers to reschedule their debts.
    Loans to basic industries were not major contributors to
the increase in non-performing assets or to first-quarter
charge offs, but Mellon said it remains concerned about the
absence of a strong recovery in steel and related industries.
    The increase in reserves, the dividend cut and continued
management cost-cutting are aimed at ensuring that Mellon has
the financial strength to deal with current uncertainties,
Barnes said.
    "We cannot predict when the uncertainties that presently
trouble us will end, but we are confident we are managing them
aggressively," he added.
 Reuter

Turkey's Central Bank set a lira/dollar
rate for April 3 of 782.50/786.41 to the dollar, down from
780.00/783.90. It set a lira/D-mark rate of 428.30/430.44 to
the mark, up from 429.15/431.30.
 REUTER

the money market with around 40 mln stg late assistance. This
takes the Bank's total help today to some 537 mln stg and
compares with its estimate of a 700 mln stg shortage.
 REUTER

Kloeckner-Werke AG
<KLKG.F> should have turnover this year around 1985/86's 2.4
billion marks though more growth is likely in engineering in
coming years, management board chairman Herbert Gienow said.
    He told a news conference at the trade fair here that by
the mid-1990s turnover should reach between six and seven
billion marks, mainly through acquisitions totalling "several
hundred million marks."
    Kloeckner reported in March higher profits in its
engineering sector which enabled it to raise profits by nearly
a third in the 1985/86 year to 45.2 mln marks from 33.8 mln.
 Reuter

Citicorp said that on behalf of its
Citibank N.A. Subsidiary, it is issuing 100,000 naked currency
warrants priced at 67-1/2 marks each to purchase Australian
dlrs for marks at a rate of 1.1825 marks per Australian dlr.
    The current rate is 1.2850 marks per Australian dlr. Each
warrant is for a nominal amount of 1,000 marks and the minimum
purchase will be for 100 warrants.
    The warrants expire on January 8, 1988. Payment is due on
April 8 and the warrants will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock
Exchange.
 REUTER

Pier One Imports Inc <PIR>
said its board has accelerated the expiration date of the
company's warrants to May 11, 1987, from July 15, 1988.
    To the extent any warrants remain outstanding after May 11,
they will automatically convert into common shares at the rate
of one share for each 100 warrants.
    Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase 3.46 common
shares and 0.17 of its 25 cts preferred for 22 dlrs, the
company noted.
 Reuter

Thermo Electron Corp is raising 75 mln
    The debentures are convertible into the company's stock at
30.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.77 pct over
Moody's Investors and BB by Standard and Poor's. Drexel Burnham
and Tucker Anthony co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Landmark Savings Association said its
board has authorized the repurchase of up to 100,000 shares,
or four pct of its outstanding stock, from time to time over the
    It said purchases are expected to start around May Four.
 Reuter

Association of Fort Myers said its board has executed a letter
of intent to acquire First Presidential Savings and Loan
Association of Sarasota, Fla., for 8,500,000 dlrs in cash.
executed by May 15 and the transaction is expected to be
completed by year-end.
    The purchase price is subject to an increase on a dollar
for dollar basis to the extent that the net worth of First
Presidentail exceeds 4,100,000 dlrs at the time of closing, the

San Diego Gas and Electric Co said a
California Public Utilities Commission decision to reconsider
allowing only 20 mln dlrs of the 69 mln dlrs in San Onofre
nuclear station costs it disallowed makes it likely that
earnings in 1987 will be reduced at least 36 cts per share.
    The company said if the decision to disallow the other 20
mln dlrs is not changed, earnings would be penalized by another
19 cts.
 Reuter

Eli Lilly and Co said its board
decided to sell Elizabeth Arden Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary
that manufactures and markets cosmetics and fine fragrance
products.
    It said the business, which had sales of 67 mln dlrs when
it was acquired in 1971, had sales last year of 398 mln dlrs,
up 12 pct from 1985. It had operating profits of about 33 mln
    Lilly said it retained Morgan Stanley and Co to help
evaluate offers.
    Lilly said it expects to use the after-tax proceeds from
the sale of its cosmetics business for general corporate
purposes, including the repurchase from time to time of its
common stock or warrants on the open market.
    In a statement, Lilly Chairman Richard Wood said "This
strategic decision was reached on the basis of our belief that
in the future the corporation's resources, including its
research activities, should be focused on its other business
which have a high technology, life sciences orientation."
 Reuter

An estimated 1.2 mln metro users in
Madrid were stranded today as striking railway workers halted
the underground transport system, industry sources said. The
strikers joined coal miners, steel and oil refinery workers in
Spain's latest wave of stoppages over wage demands.
    Some 10,000 pitmen in the northern province of Leon entered
the second day of an indefinite stoppage to demand wage rises
and a five-day working week, the sources said.
    Oil refinery workers picketed the state-owned Empresa
Nacional de Petroleo SA (EMP) to prevent fuel lorries leaving
the company's largest plant in Puertollano, central Spain.
    Paramilitary police were guarding steel mills at Reinosa,
in northern Spain, from the daily protests against planned job
cuts. A local government official said the police force would
remain in place until tempers had cooled down.
    More than 60 people were injured in pitched battles between
police and steel foundry workers in Reinosa last month.
 REUTER

number of jobless drawing unemployment benefit, fell to 11.8
pct of the working population at the end of March from 12.1 pct
at end of February, the National Statistics Office said.
    The rate compares with 12.0 pct at the end of March, 1986.
    The total number of jobless stood at 495,208, compared with
508,392 in February and 504,652 in March last year.
 REUTER

<BCE Development Corp>, about 69 pct
owned by Bell Canada Enterprises Inc, said its previously
announced offering of preferred shares will total 90 mln dlrs,
with shares priced at 25 dlrs each.
    It also said it will redeem its 75-cent class A shares at
six dlrs a share plus accrued dividends on closing of the
preferred share issue, expected April 22.
    BCE Development said the cumulative redeemable retractable
class A preferred shares will pay dividends at an annual rate
equal to the higher of 2.25 Canadian dlrs a share or the
Canadian dollar equivalent of 1.7186 U.S. dlrs.

Tidewater Inc said it completed
agreements to restructure about 125 mln dlrs in debt that call
for payment of interest only through March 1989.
    The deferral of all principal payments until April 1989
will save the company 12 mln dlrs in cash flow in each of the
next two years, it said.
    The restructured agreements call for suspending dividend
payment on Tidewater's common and convertible adjustable
preferred stock and contain other restrictive covenants,
including a requirement to maintain minimum tangible net worth.
    <Prudential Insurance Co> and Manufacturers Hanover Corp
<MHC>, the company's principle lenders, will receive as
collateral a pledge of stock in Tidewater subsidiaries that own
interests in oil and gas ventures offshore Indonesia.
    Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, an Italian bank, will obtain a
security interest in Tidewater's assets in Italy.
 Reuter

Stanley Interiors Corp is raising 25
stock at 14.06 dlrs per share, representing a 25 pct premium
Moody's and B-minus by Standard and Poor's. First Albany and
Wheat First co-managed the deal, which was reduced from an
initial offering of 30 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Key Centurion Bancshares Inc
said it has completed the previously-announced acquisitions of
Union Bancorp of West Virginia Inc and Wayne Bancorp Inc.
 Reuter

MerchantsBank said it has formed a new
subsidiary, Merchants Title Corp, to provide settlement
services for MerchantsBank subsidiaires.
 Reuter

CB and T Bancshares Inc said it
has completed the acquisition of First Community Bancshares Inc
Of Tifton, Ga., which as assets of 62 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said that its traffic
 volume rose six pct in February compared with a year earlier
but revenues were down seven pct because of currency movements.
    Cargo traffic rose 11 pct and passenger traffic was up six
pct compared with February 1986.
    The overall load factor slipped to 60 pct from 61 pct and
the seat load factor fell to 56 pct from 58 pct in February
1986.
    Costs before depreciation were eight pct lower.
 REUTER

Colombia recently bought 25,000 tonnes of
French soft wheat at 108 dlrs per tonne, c and f, for end-April
    This follows the country's tender for 25,000 tonnes of
optional origin wheat for shipment April 20-30, they said.
    France had not sold wheat to Colombia for several years.
 Reuter

A spokesman for General Public
Utilities Corp said the company would have a statement later
this morning.
    Trading in the company's stock was delayed at the opening
by the New York Stock Exchange, which indicated the company
would make an announcement.
    The spokesman would not elaborate on today's news.
    Yesterday, the company said power output at its Three Mile
Island unit one was cut to 81 pct of reactor power because of
mineral deposits on the non-nuclear side of two steam
generators.
 Reuter

GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES RESUMES DIVIDENDS ON COMMON STOCK, PAYS 15 CTS

The Zimbabwe government has bought 85 pct
of the equity in <Astra Corporation> for 25.5 mln dlrs from
Netherlands-based <Bommenede Houdstermaatschappij (Nederland
BV)>, Astra announced.
    Astra owns five companies with interests in engineering,
paint manufacture and the distribution of farm machinery and
equipment, motor vehicles and earthmoving equipment.
    The company is now locally controlled with 80 pct of its
equity owned by the government, 14 pct by the Dutch firm. A six
pct stake was donated to the Astra Corporation Workers' Trust
by the government and the Dutch company.
 Reuter

approved a plan to buy up to 2.3 mln shares of its common stock
to offset dilution from conversion of its 10-year notes issued
in connection with the acquisition of Hybritech Inc in March
1986.
    The non-transferable notes pay interest at an annual rate
of 6.75 pct. The notes, which mature on March 31, 1996, became
convertible into 2.3 mln shares of Lilly stock at 66.31 dlrs a
share beginning March 18, 1987.
    Lilly said it will buy shares of stock from time to time in
the open market at prevailing prices or in privately negotiated
    The newly announced purchase plan is in addition to its
existing anti-dilutive stock repurchase programs. Under these
programs, the company systematically buys back shares in the
open market to replace shares issued under its stock plan and
acquisition earnout agreements.
    Currently the only other potentially diluting instruments
are the warrants that the company also issued in connection
with the Hybritech acquisition.
    Lilly issued 17.1 mln warrants with an expiration of March
31, 1991. A warrant gives the holder the right to purchase one
share of Lilly common at 75.98 dlrs. Since the acquisition,
Lilly has repurchased 2.0 mln warrants, so there are currently
15.1 mln outstanding.
    The warrants are publicly traded on the New York Stock
Exchange.
    Because of the theoretical size of the dilution resulting
from the outstanding warrants, warrants convertible notes,
stock plan and acquisition earnout agreements, the company said
it will be required to report earnings per share on a fully
diluted basis beginnng with the first quarter of 1987.
    At the end of February, Lilly had 139.6 mln shares
 Reuter

UTILICORP RECOMMENDS THREE-FOR-TWO SPLIT, DIVIDEND INCREASE AND ADDITIONAL CLASS OF STOCK

said its board declared a dividend of 15 cts per share on
common stock, its first dividend since it omitted payment in
February 1980 as a result of the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident in 1979.
    The company said it was able to declare the dividend due to
progress in the cleanup of Three Mile Island Unit Two.
    A company spokesman said GPU expects to continue declaring
dividends on a quarterly basis, with the rate depending on the
progress of the cleanup and on other company operations.
    GPU said the dividend is of "modest size," representing
less than a third of the amount paid as a dividend by the
average electric utility.
    "As the operating companies need to return to the capital
markets for debt and preferred stock, this should tend to
produce lower cost and better terms," the company said.
    The dividend is payable May 29 to holders of record April
24.
 Reuter

Britton Lee Inc said it
expects to report a loss on lower sales than it had anticipated
for the first quarter.
    The company earned 119,000 dlrs before a 70,000 dlr tax
credit on sales of 7,227,000 dlrs in the year-ago period.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
has left Soviet plans to extend nuclear power stations
unchanged, but will in the long run cause major problems for
the electricity industry, a Western expert said.
    West German economics researcher Jochen Bethkenhagen, in a
report presented to a NATO economics seminar, said increased
targets for Soviet nuclear energy output showed the April,
1986, disaster had not caused any change in Moscow's energy
policy.
    But the accident was expected to prompt design changes in
future Soviet power stations to "exclude manipulations of safety
equipment" of the sort that occurred at Chernobyl, he said.
    This will presumably result in substantial delays in the
completion of reactor blocks and in stricter quality controls
during the construction of nuclear power stations, he said.
    Bethkenhagen said the Chernobyl accident was also likely to
have frustrated for a long time Soviet hopes of exports of
nuclear power stations to countries outside the Comecon bloc.
    "It is also doubtful that the talks with China, Syria, Libya
and Iraq with regard to Soviet deliveries in the next few years
will have positive results," he said.
    The meeting heard views of academics and Kremlin-watchers
on the impact of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on energy
policy.
    Several participants today argued that Gorbachev was
unlikely to extend his internal economic policies to the energy
sector, at least for now.
    Bethkenhagen said high energy growth targets set by the
Soviet Union up to the end of the decade showed Moscow intended
to stick to a rigid supply-, rather than demand-oriented
policy.
    Norwegian academics Arild Moe and Helge Ole Bergesen said
that the Soviet fuel industries represented such a pillar of
the economy that immediate reform was tricky. "Any 'experiment'
on a large scale cannot be allowed, because the negative
consequences if a reform backfires will be too great," they
said.
 REUTER

Fleet Financial Group's First
Connecticut Bancorp subsidiary said it has combined its four
banking subsidiaries into one operating entity called United
Bank.
    
 Reuter

12-day special advances at an unchanged rate of 5.3 pct to
cover money market tightness for the period April 3 to 15.
     The amount will be set at tender on April 3 between 0700
and 0730 hours GMT.
    The new facility replaces the current 4.2 billion guilders
of nine-day advances which expire tomorrow.
    Money market dealers said the rate for the new advances was
in line with expectations. They added they expect the Bank to
allocate between 4.0 and 4.5 billion guilders.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) is to boost
spending to help the jobless this year.
    The EC's executive commission said in a statement spending
on its so-called social fund would rise to 3.1 billion European
Currency Units from 2.5 billion ECUs in 1986. The fund is
designed to help boost job creation and improve worker
mobility, and supplement national schemes in the EC's 12 member
states.
    Another 60 mln ECUs could be added if EC ministers switch
unused project credits to other programs, the Commission said.
    Italy is the largest net beneficiary in 1987, getting 635
mln ECUs, with Britain in second place with 580 mln.
 REUTER

Bacob Finance NV is issuing a 50 mln
Australian dlr eurobond due July 5, 1990 paying 14-3/4 pct and
priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead manager Goldman Sachs International
Corp said.
Luxembourg. The selling concession is one pct while management
and underwriting combined pays 1/2 pct.
    The payment date is May 5 and there will be a long first
coupon. The issue is guaranteed by Bacob Savings Bank.
 REUTER

Jacobs Suchard AG said it acquired a
"comfortable majority" interest in its takeover bid for Cote d'Or
SA, Belgium's leading producer of chocolate.
    In a statement, Jacobs said it had acquired all the shares
tendered by the time its offer expired on March 30. The offer,
for 100 pct of Cote d'Or at 8,050 Belgian francs per ordinary
share, was agreed with the Belgian firm's board.
    A Jacobs spokesman declined to specify the size of the
majority stake and said Jacobs had not decided what it would do
about acquiring the outstanding shares.
 Reuter

YEUTTER SAYS U.S. SHOULD STRESS TRADE NEGOTIATIONS AS LONG-TERM U.S. TRADE POLICY

Casino Control Commission has approved its recapitalization
plan, providing the final regulatory approval needed.
    The company said it expects to announce next week the
record date for the special 65 dlr per share dividend
shareholders will receive under the plan and to pay the
dividend during the month of April, with the exact timing
depending on the closing of financing arrangements.
    Holiday operates Harrah's Marina Hotel and Casino in
Atlantic City, N.J.
 Reuter

Istituto
Mobiliare Italiano> said it was not in a position at present to
formulate proposals on an IMI bond issue convertible into Fiat
SpA <FIAT.MI> shares or carrying warrants for exercise into
these shares.
    The IMI statement, which referred to recent press reports
that such an issue was imminent or possible, said IMI was still
examining the problems involved, but gave no further details.
 Reuter

for the four weeks ended March 27 were up seven pct to 183.9
mlnm dlrs from 171.1 mln dlrs a year earlier, with same-store
sales up one pct to 172.5 mln dlrs from 170.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

January 31 end
    Oper shr profit 16 cts vs loss six cts
    Oper net profit 2,879,000 vs loss 958,000
    Revs 41.9 mln vs 24.1 mln
    Avg shrs 18.2 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 49 cts vs profit 18 cts
    Oper net profit 8,660,000 vs profit 2,832,000
    Revs 141.8 mln vs 87.5 mln
    Avg shrs 17.8 mln vs 15.8 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes extraordinary tax charge 156,000 dlrs vs
credit 2,257,000 dlrs in quarter and credits 1,041,000 dlrs vs
3,589,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Yeutter stressed the importance of trade negotiations to open
foreign markets rather than trade restrictions in a statement
to the Senate Finance Committee.
    "In the long term we cannot repeatedly bludgeon other
nations into opening their markets with threats of U.S.
restrictions. Rather, we must be able to negotiate credibly for
global liberalization," Yeutter said.
    Yeutter did not mention the recent U.S. trade sanctions
against Japanese semiconductors in his testimony on the pending
trade bill.
    Yeutter said the trade bill should increase U.S.
competitiveness, aid U.S. trade negotiating leverage, and avoid
provoking foreign retaliation.
    He urged Congress to reject provisions that would mandate
U.S. retaliation against foreign unfair trade practices.
    Yeutter emphasized the importance of the new multilateral
trade negotiating round and called on Congress to quickly
approve an extension of U.S. negotiating authority.
    "We want to open foreign markets and establish and enforce
rules of international competition, not foster dependence on
protection and subsidies," he said.
 Reuter

The U.S. and the European Community could
enter into a new trade dispute unless urgent action is taken to
explain EC farm policy to the U.S. Congress, French official
    They said Prime Minister Jacques Chirac planned to urge EC
Commission president Jacques Delors to send a team of experts
to Washington as soon as possible.
    Chirac returned to Paris this morning after three days of
talks in New York and Washington in which trade and
protectionism featured prominently.
    At the centre of the new trade tension is an EC Commission
proposal to tax vegetable oils, the sources said.
 Reuter

Aldo Mazzaferro, analyst at C.J.
Lawrence Inc, issued an agressive buy opinion on Bethlehem
Steel Corp, traders said.
    Bethlehem rose 7/8 to 10-3/4, the first time in several
months the stock has been over 10 dlrs.
    Mazzaferro was not immediately available for comment.
 Reuter

it filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for the issue of 200 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    Managers of the offering have not been selected. Terms of
the securities will be based on market conditions, the company
said.
    Proceeds will be added to general funds and used to support
Aetna's basic insurance and financial services businesses.
 Reuter

assigned a preliminary AAA rating to 150 mln dlrs of 7-1/4 pct
guaranteed subordinated bonds due 1992 of Nomura International
Finance PLC, the U.K. unit of Nomura Securities Co Ltd.
    S and P cited the guarantee, which is a senior obligation
of the parent company, the largest of the Big Four securities
houses in Japan.
    The rating agency noted that Nomura Securities has by far
the largest capital base in nominal terms of any securities
firm in the world and is conservatively leveraged.
 Reuter

Status Game Corp said it will
immediately start selling condoms through the 500 cigarette
machines it owns and operates in Las Vegas.
    The company said it is negotiating a contract with one of
the world's largest condom maker, which it did not identify,
for the production of specially-packaged condoms for the
cigarette machine sales.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 11 cts vs loss 36 cts
    Oper net loss 2,383,000 vs loss 4,285,000
    Total income 2,194,000 vs nil
    NOTE: Resultes restated for discontinued operations and
exclude discontinued operations loss 5,755,000 dlrs vs gain
4,933,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Feb 28 end
    Net 132,804 vs 53,510
    Revs 2,001,107 vs 1,467,742
    Avg shrs 73.9 mln vs 56.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Net 302,316 vs 171,034
    Revs 5,230,014 vs 4,112,562
    Avg shrs 74.4 mln vs 56.7 mln
 Reuter

North Carolina Federal Savings
and Loan Association said it has raised its prime rate to 7-3/4
pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective yesterday, following moves by
major banks.
 Reuter

Shr loss one ct vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 108,419 vs loss 241,192
    Revs 2,044,882 vs 317,266
    Year
    Shr loss 18 cts vs loss 23 cts
    Net loss 430,027 vs loss 432,982
    Revs 5,088,065 vs 416,777
 Reuter

<Shell Canada Ltd>, 72 pct
owned by Royal Dutch/Shell Group, anticipates an improved level
of earnings in 1987, assuming a continuation of prices and
margins that existed at the end of 1986 and early 1987, the
company said in the annual report.
    Shell previously reported 1986 operating profit fell to 130
mln dlrs, excluding a 24 mln dlr unusual gain, from 146 mln
dlrs in the prior year.
    The company also said 1987 capital and exploration spending
of 420 mln dlrs will be 160 mln dlrs lower than last year, due
to the uncertain short-term outlook.

Utilicorp United Inc said its
management is recommending to the board of directors a
three-for-two stock split and an increase in the quarterly cash
dividend rate, currently at 37 cts per common share.
    The company said it is also submitting to shareholders at
its May 21 annual meeting a proposal authorizing an additional
class of common stock.
    Utilicorp said the board of directors will vote on the
split at its next regularly scheduled board meeting on May 6.
    It added that its semi-annual four pct stock dividend will
not change.
    Utilicorp said the proposal to create a new class of stock,
if approved, will authorize 20 mln shares of Class A common
stock with a par value of one dlr.
    The stock could be issued in various series with terms,
rights and preferences designated by the board in each
instance, Utilicorp said.
    The company said the new stock is intended to enhance
Utilicorp's ability to carry out future financings,
investments, acquisitions or for other corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Cherokee Group said an
offering of 2,500,000 common shares is underway at 22 dlrs each
through underwriters First Boston Inc <FBC> and American
Express Co's <AXP> Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    The company is selling 1,800,000 shares and shareholders
700,000.
 Reuter

Bank of Spain governor Mariano Rubio said
the central bank was worried that money supply was growing too
fast, reflecting excessive internal demand in the Spanish
economy, but added that he was confident recent measures would
succeed in restricting money growth.
    In testimony to the economic commission of Congress, Rubio
said the main measure of money supply, the broad-based Liquid
Assets in Public Hands, grew at an estimated annualised rate of
17 pct in March, the same as in February.
    The bank's target range for growth in this measure in 1987
is 6.5 to 9.5 pct, compared with 11.4 pct last year.
    Rubio said he was aiming for the lower end of the range.
    He added that real GDP growth of three pct in 1986 was due
to a six pct increase in real internal demand and a three pct
real drop in the contribution of the external sector.
    The aim for 1987 was for the same real growth in GDP but a
drop in the internal contribution to 4.5 pct with the negative
component of the external sector trimmed to 1.5 pct, he said.
 REUTER

PRESIDENT REAGAN COMING TO CAPITOL TO LOBBY SENATORS ON HIGHWAY BILL VETO

to A from BBB-plus the preferred stock of MDU Resources Group
Inc.
    S and P affirmed the company's A-rated first mortgage bonds
and A-minus unsecured industrial revenue bonds. About 300 mln
dlrs of debt and preferred were outstanding at December 31,
1986.
    The rating agency cited recent redemptions that reduced the
layer of preferred in the company's capital structure. S and P
expects fundamentals to remain strong for electric utility and
natural gas pipeline and distribution units.
 Reuter

American Realty Trust said its board has
set April 3 as the record date for its previously announced
rights offering, and the rights will be issued on April 6 and
expire May 22.
    Shareholders will be able to subscribe for 1.25 shares for
each share held, at a price of 3.75 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

    Pay June 1
 Reuter

President Reagan is going to the U.S.
Capitol to personally urge senators to support his veto of an
88 billion dlr highway and mass transit funding bill,
Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas said.
    Reagan will meet with senators at 1115 est/1615 gmt Dole
told the senate.
   
 Reuter

Software Publishing Corp said it has
converted all of its programs to the three and a half inch disk
format required to run on International Business Machines
Corp's <IBM> new Personal System/2 computers.
 Reuter

The European Community Commission awarded
export licences for 20,000 tonnes free market French maize at a
maximum export rebate of 129.40 European currency units (Ecus)
per tonne, trade sources said here.
    All requests for export licences for free market feed wheat
and barley were rejected, they said.
 Reuter

France's major farm union, the FNSEA,
criticised the recent European Community farm ministers'
meeting for failing to come to any agreement on 1987/88 farm
prices before the start of the crop year on April 1.
    It was damaging that no important decision was taken and
that there will be no further meeting of EC agricultural
ministers before the end of this month when the meat and milk
campaigns started on April 1, the union said in a statement.
    The FNSEA also criticised the failure of the ministers to
uphold their intention to suspend monetary compensatory
amounts, mcas, in the pork sector.
 Reuter

Pakistan will tender tomorrow for 12,000
tonnes of refined bleached deodorised palm olein tomorrow,
split in two equal cargo lots for first and second half April
shipments, traders said.
    The tender will be financed with Islamic Development Bank
credit.
 Reuter

(SEC) had Elliott Enterprises, an investment firm in Naples,
Fla., shut down, accusing it of defrauding investors and
misusing funds.
    An SEC spokesman in Miami said the agency closed the
investment holding company and two related firms, Elliott
Securities and Elliott Mortgage Co.
    In a complaint filed in federal court in Miami, the SEC
said the firms had at least 1,000 customers who invested around
50 mln dlrs.
    U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ordered the company
closed, appointed a receiver and froze the assets of the firm's
executives.
 Reuter

No changes have been made or are
being planned in the Agriculture Department's calculation of
price differentials between interior grain locations and the
Texas Gulf, a senior USDA official said.
    Ralph Klopfenstein, USDA deputy administrator for commodity
operations, told Reuters, "We do not anticipate any changes to
be made" in the Texas Gulf differentials used to calculate
posted county prices for corn.
    "We do not relate the Texas Gulf structure with the
Louisiana Gulf structure at all. It's a totally different
    Rumors had circulated through the market this morning that
USDA had widened Texas Gulf differentials in a similar manner
to last weekend's adjustments with the Louisiana Gulf.
 Reuter

Lawson says his sterling target comments were misunderstood, and insignificant

The stock of International Business
Machine Corp declined slightly today and shares of Digital
Equipment Corp <DEC> rose after brokerage house Morgan Stanley
and Co reiterated a negative opinion on IBM and a buy on
Digital, traders said.
    IBM, which this morning introduced four new personal
computers, the first major overhaul of its PC line since it
entered the business in 1981, fell 1-3/4 to 149-3/8.
    Digital Equipment rose 1-3/8 to 163-5/8.
    Analyst Carol Muratore of Morgan Stanley was unavailable

it formed a joint venture with Monier Ltd of Australia to make
and sell concrete railroad ties in North America.
    The equally owned venture, Lone Star Monier Concrete Tie
Co, initially will operate a new Denver, Colo., plant that will
make 1.75 mln ties ordered by Burlington Northern Inc <BNI>.
    In addition, the venture will market ties made at Lone
Star's existing Massachusetts facilities.
    Based in Chatswood, New South Wales, Monier is a
manufacturer of building and construction products and concrete
ties.
 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co Inc said it is
    Most major U.S. banks are now posting a 7-3/4 pct rate.
Citibank was the first to announce an increase on Tuesday.
 Reuter

LAWSON SAYS HIS STERLING-TARGET COMMENTS WERE MISUNDERSTOOD AND INSIGNIFICANT

Lyng said he would not agree to an extension of the 18-month
whole dairy herd buyout program set to expire later this year.
    Speaking at the Agriculture Department to representatives
of the U.S. National Cattlemen's Association, Lyng said some
dairymen asked the program be extended.
    But he said the Reagan administration, which opposed the
whole herd buyout program in the 1985 farm bill, would not
agree to an extension.
    The program begun in early 1986, is to be completed this
summer. U.S. cattlemen bitterly opposed the scheme, complaining
that increased dairy cow slaughter drove cattle prices down
last year.
 Reuter

Brazil will export 6,000 tonnes
of poultry and 10,000 tonnes of frozen meat to Iraq in exchange
for oil, Petrobras Commercial Director Carlos Sant'Anna said.
    Brazil has a barter deal with Iraq and currently imports
215,000 barrels per day of oil, of which 170,000 bpd are paid
for with exports of Brazilian goods to that country.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 3,336,000 vs 1,484,000
    Sales 115.9 mln vs 76.2 mln
    Avg shrs 9,461,000 vs 7,897,000
    NOTE: Prior year ended December 29, 1985.
 Reuter

The World Bank will prepay on July 9,
1987 and July 17, 1987 the total amount outstanding of two
Swiss franc public issues, in the first of what could be a
series of similar moves in other capital markets, a spokesman
for the Bank said in a telephone call from Washington.
    The prepayments cover 96 mln Swiss francs of 6-1/2 pct
Swiss franc bonds of 1976 and due 1991, lead managed by Swiss
Bank Corporation and 100 mln Swiss francs of 7-3/8 pct bonds of
1981 and due 1991, lead managed by Credit Suisse.
    Eugene Rotberg, World Bank vice president-treasurer, said
in a prepared statement that the prepayments are being made
because of the substantial decline in interest rates over the
past two years, the spokesman said.
    The World Bank intends to exercise early redemption on
selected public issues of its securities in Switzerland and
other capital markets if the exercise is financially beneficial
and consistent with the Bank's overall funding strategy.
    Last month, Rotberg said that the World Bank planned to
bring forward to the first half of 1987 its borrowing plans for
the year because of its expectations that world interest rates
will rise by the year end.
 REUTER

Several industrial nations are
pressing the United States to consider whether its debt
strategy, under increasing fire in the developing world, needs
to be strengthened, monetary sources say.
    While few nations are ready to pour vast sums of money into
radical "debt relief" style solutions to the debt crisis,
pressure is building for a greater International Monetary Fund
role in the plan.
    But U.S. officials, who are fighting off demands for change
by Congress, are confident they will retain support for their
strategy which will probably be endorsed in a communique
issued by the IMF's policy-making Interim Committee.
    One Reagan administration official said a recent discussion
among leading industrial countries showed there was "very broad
and strong support for continuing the strategy".
    The official said in an interview, "I don't sense that
there's a strong desire to revise the debt strategy, except of
course here on (Capitol) Hill."
    But monetary sources said some industrial nations, like
France and Italy, are troubled by signs the strategy is
increasingly strained. Britain too is said to be concerned.
    In late 1985, Washington called on multilateral development
banks, like the World Bank, and commercial banks to increase
loans to the 15 major debtors by 29 billion dlrs over three
years.
    In return, the major debtors were expected to undertake
reforms promoting inflation-free economic growth, more open
markets and a reduced government role in the economy.
    The IMF was to retain a "central role" in the strategy,
shifting its economic reform programs from emphasizing
austerity to stressing growth, freer trade policies and foreign
investment in debtor nations.
    But monetary sources said some nations want even more
flexibility from the IMF when it sets economic programs tied to
loans for debtor nations.
    Such flexibility would include less rigid economic targets
-- which often lead to artificial crises when they are not met
-- and more reliance on ranges and benchmarks to monitor
    There is also concern that the level of IMF lending is too
low and the commercial banks, themselves under attack for
tawdry loan levels to debtors, want to see it increased.
    The IMF, which holds its semi-annual meetings with the
World Bank next week, will only be a small net lender this
year. Much of its loan disbursements are offset by repayments.
    Meanwhile, most countries, including the United States,
acknowledge the banks have not lived up to their commitments.
    Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, is 
particularly irritated with the reluctance of commercial banks
to lend more to reforming debtors, monetary sources say.
    New IMF managing director Michel Camdessus is understood to
be worried about the Fund's image in the developing world,
where it is often depicted as the source of economic ills.
    Camdessus' experience as former chairman of the so-called
"Paris Club" of western creditor governments, has given him
extensive first-hand experience of the debt crisis.
    Brazil, which in February declared an interest paymernts
moratorium on 67 billion dlrs of commercial bank debt, has
flatly ruled out adopting a program of IMF-sponsored economic
reforms. Peru too has rejected an IMF program, curbing debt
repayments to 10 pct of exports.
    But the administration official said Brazil's strategy of
using a moratorium as a negotiating tool might backfire. "It's
probably turning out to be more complicated than they thought.
It underlines the extreme risk that a debtor country takes on
itself when it begins down that road," the official said.
    Indeed, U.S. banks are laying the groundwork for writing
down their Brazilian loans.
    U.S. officials have generally praised most debtors for
adopting genuine economic reforms and the multilateral
institutions for stepping up their lending.
    And they point out that Venezuela, Chile and the
Philippines have struck agreement with commercial banks
stretching out debt repayments.
    But problems still dog assembly of a 7.7 billion dlrs bank
loan for Mexico, which many officials acknowledge may be the
last major cash loan for a debtor country.
    Instead, banks are being pressed to come up with more novel
ways of easing the liquidity squeeze in debtor nations.
    The prospect of greater official involvement in the debt
strategy depends chiefly on the ability of western nations to
come up with more finance.
    While there is sympathy in Congress for various forms of
debt relief, more U.S. funds for the World Bank or the IMF are
a virtual impossibility in today's era of budget restraint.
    That leaves rich surplus nations like Japan and West
Germany, but neither country favors generalized debt relief.
    And the Reagan administration is not inclined to bow to
Congressional pressure for changes in regulations governing
foreign loans, to make it easier for banks to account for
delays in interest and principal repayments.
 Reuter

Morton Thiokol Inc said its Morton
Chemical Division entered into an agreement with <Mitsubishi
Chemical Industries Ltd>, Japan, to market extrudable adhesive
resins based on Mitsubishi's Novatec AP product line
    It said the resins are used in a broad range of
applications, including barrier co-extrusion with nylon and
Ethylene-Vinylalcohol Copolymer for film, sheet and bottles.
 Reuter

<Hawley Group Ltd> said it has agreed to
buy <Crime Control Inc> of Indiana for 51.3 mln dlrs cash.
    Crime control is a security service group that sells,
installs and services electronic security systems which would
expand the coverage of Hawley's <Electro-Protective Corp> unit.
    Hawley said the acquisition moved it into 12 new market
areas including the West and South-West and would create the
fourth largest provider of security systems in the U.S.
    Hawley is a Bermuda-based holding company whose main
subsidiary is the U.K. Security, home improvements and cleaning
operation <Hawley Group Plc>.
    Earlier this week, Hawley launched a 196 mln stg
recommended offer for <British Car Auction Group Plc> and last
month it said it planned to issue 150 mln dlrs in 15 year
convertible redeemable preference shares.
    It said in a statement that Crime Control reported
operating profit of 4.0 mln dlrs in 1986 and had end-year net
tangible assets of 4.5 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

criticised media coverage of comments he made yesterday, when
he was reported as saying he wanted sterling to stay roughly
where it was, specifying a rate of around 2.90 marks and 1.60
dlrs to the pound.
    Holding up a newspaper report on his comments headed
"Exchange Rate Targets Set" Lawson told journalists "This story is
a complete non-event."
    He criticised the report, which said he was now targetting
sterling against the dollar and mark. "Nothing of the sort
occurred," Lawson said.
    Lawson said he had only told National Economic Development
Council panel members what the pound's current dollar/mark
rates were that day, after saying he was happy with current
sterling levels. He said he had told the NEDC, a tripartite
forum of government, unions and industry, that the pound would
be kept near its present level by a mixture of interest rates
and intervention on foreign exchange markets.
    He then repeated to the panel that he remained satisfed
with sterling at around its current levels following the Paris
accord in February on currency stabilisation.
 REUTER

The European Community responded to
widespread U.S. criticism of its trade policies by publishing
an extensive list of U.S. actions which pose obstacles to EC
exports.
    A spokeswoman for the EC Commission said the detailed
25-page report of alleged malpractices was in response to a
similar document issued by U.S. Administration officials in
November, and updated a previous EC list.
    EC External Trade Relations Commissioner Willy De Clercq
said its object was to show such actions were not solely taken
by trading partners of the U.S. And that "the U.S. Were not
innocents in the matter."
    The report covers the entire field of EC-U.S. Commercial
relations and lists more than 30 obstacles ranging from tariff
measures, import quotas, customs duties, anti-dumping
procedures, fiscal barriers and export subsidies.
    The Commission said not all the barriers mentioned were
necessarily inconsistent with U.S. International obligations,
and emphasised many of them could be removed at upcoming
international trade talks. "The purpose of the report is to make
clear that trade practices which impede exports are not a
unique problem only faced by U.S. Exporters. Europeans face
similar problems in the U.S.," it said.
    Among the obstacles detailed in the report are import
restrictions on food products, such as cheese, sugar and syrup,
certain wines, beers and juices, as well as on firearms and
machine tools.
    It also criticises programs to boost U.S. Cereals exports.
The document said the U.S.'s three-year export enhancement
program (EEP), which began in 1985, had subsidised exports of
9.7 mln tonnes of wheat, two mln tonnes of wheat flour and 2.8
mln tonnes of barley up to mid-March this year. The subsidies
granted so far were worth about 620 mln dlrs, it added.
    "The Community has already reacted where necessary to U.S.
EEP subsidies by increasing its exports refunds, and will
continue to do so," it said, adding the current GATT round would
also provide an opportunity to address the subject.
    The document also says import quotas maintained by the U.S.
On a range of farm products, including sugar, peanuts and
certain cottons, restrict EC exports.
    In addition, the report deplores a recent U.S.-Japan accord
on semi-conductors, export controls on technology transfers,
standards tests in the telecommunications arena and the U.S.
Administration's "buy American" public procurement policy.
 Reuter

Lyng warned Japan that the failure to remove a longstanding 
import quota on Japanese beef might spark a protectionist
response in the United States.
    "Given the protectionist mood in the Congress and the
country, if I were a leader in Japan I would certainly be very
concerned...and the failure to remove it (the beef quota) might
be very serious," Lyng told a group of U.S cattlemen.
    Lyng said he and Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter,
during a visit to Japan later this month, will demand "total
elimination" of the beef import quota by April 1988.
    The current dispute with Japan over semiconductor may
strengthen the U.S. stance in farm trade negotiations, Lyng
said, because Japan does not want a trade war with the U.S.
    Lyng dismissed recent statements in Tokyo that Japan might
retaliate against U.S. products as a result of the
semiconductor dispute.
    "They (Japan) aren't going to pick a fight with us," Lyng
said, adding that with its huge bilateral trade surplus Japan
has more to lose in a trade war than the United States.
    Lyng told the U.S. cattlemen that the quota on Japanese
beef imports does not allow consumers there an adequate choice
in food purchases.
    He said in addition to beef, the U.S. will press for
eliminiation of import barriers on Japan's citrus and rice as
well.
    Lyng noted that Japan is the largest buyer of U.S. farm
products, principally grains and soybeans.
 Reuter

Yeutter said he doubted Japan could avoid the April 17
imposition of U.S. tariffs on its semiconductor products.
    The three high-level Japanese government representatives
who would be coming here in the next few days to discuss the
issue would probably be unable to show evidence of continued
compliance with the semiconductor trade agreement, Yeutter told
    "It would be impossible to provide evidence of compliance
with the agreement" based on sales of only a few days time, he
said.
    Asked by reporters if the sanctions were 100 pct certain
for April 17, he said, "One could never foreclose all options.
We have an obligation to listen to the arguments our trading
partners make."
    He said the length of the sanctions will be determined by
Japan and Japanese semiconductor firms.
    "They would be lifted only when persuasive evidence provided
demonstrates compliance," he said.
    "Whether a few weeks or a few months depends on their
actions," Yeutter added.
 Reuter

U.K. Defence Minister George Younger said
he had accepted an offer from British Aerospace Plc <BAEL.L> to
buy state-owned armaments manufacturer <Royal Ordnance> for 190
mln stg.
    The British Aerospace bid had been competing against a
rival offer from engineering group GKN Plc <GKN.L>.
    Younger told Parliament the sale was conditional on
consideration by the Office of Fair Trading.
    He said its recommendation should be available next week
and, subject to approval by the Secretary of State for Trade
and Industry, should be completed before Easter.
    The decision marks the end of a period of uncertainty about
ownership of the company, Younger said.
    "But, equally important, it opens up the full range of
opportunities for development and growth of business which are
only really available under good private sector management," he
said.
 Reuter

affirmed Freeport McMoRan Inc's 265 mln dlrs BB-minus
subordinated debt. The implied senior debt rating is BB-plus.
    S and P cited a decline in debt leverage to a pro forma 50
pct from 66 pct at year-end 1986.  Equity and gas and oil
property sales reduced debt incurred in acquiring Petro-Lewis
Corp, American Royalty Trust and Agrico Chemical Co.
    The doubling of oil and gas reserves from a year earlier 
and synergies between the firm's agricultural operations and
Agrico strengthen its competitive position, but a rise in
financial risk slows the improvement, S and P pointed out.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Sun Co's Sun Refining and Marketing Co
subsidiary said it raised the price it charges contract barge
customers for heating oil in ny harbor by 0.50 cent a gallon,
    The 0.50 cent price hike brings Sun's heating oil price to
50.75 cts a gallon, the company said.
 Reuter

Helga Steeg, executive director of
the International Energy Agency, said a U.S. oil import fee
would disrupt world markets and could prompt trade retaliation
against the United States.
    She told the U.S. chapter of the World Energy Conference 
she believed "an oil import fee would be difficult to operate,
would generate unacceptable economic costs and that it would
gravely hamper and distort international trade in energy."
    Steeg also said it would violate the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by imposing a discriminatory tariff,
permitting retaliation by oil exporting countries.
    Steeg praised President Reagan's opposition to a tax, which
would be aimed at helping the U.S. oil industry.
 Reuter

Hong Kong investment firm, said it raised its stake in Oglebay
Norton Co to 351,500 shares, or 10.6 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 286,500 shares, or 8.6 pct.
bought 65,000 Ogelbay shares on March 27 at 27.00 dlrs each.
    It also said the Federal Trade Commission had no objection
to its notification that it may buy between 15 and 24.9 pct of
Ogelbay's common stock.
 Reuter

Utilicorp United said the Iowa
Utilities Board has ordered its Peoples Natural Gas division to
reduce its rates to customers by 313,937 dlrs.
    Utilicorp said it will request a reconsideration of the
order within 20 days and the Board will have 20 days to act
upon the request.
    The company said the reduction was the result of a rate
request filed by Peoples in May 1986 for an 8.6 mln dlr
increase. The Board granted Peoples an interim increase of 4.2
mln dlrs in August 1986, Utilicorp said.
 Reuter

    Net profit 19,000 vs loss 1,825,000
    Revs 2,611,000 vs 610,000
    Avg shrs 19.3 mln vs 18.0 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 4,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
 Reuter

The European Community Commission decided
today to make available a further 70,000 tonnes of British
intervention feed wheat for sale on to the British domestic
market, trade sources said here.
    This will be additional to the 31,000 tonnes remaining
after this week's sale of 126,031 tonnes of domestic feed wheat
to the home market, British officials said in London.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs 47 cts
    Net 652,000 vs 11.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.77 dlrs vs 73 cts
    Net 77.6 mln vs 16.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes gain 51.0 mln dlrs from sale
of American Cellular Telephone Corp shares.
    1985 net both periods includes 15.2 mln dlr gain from sale
of Washington office building.
 Reuter

In a fresh sign of the strains caused
by Brazil's suspension of interest payments on its medium-and
long-term debt, U.S. bank regulators have lowered their rating
of the country's creditworthiness to "substandard," bankers
said.
    Brazil was previously ranked as an "other transfer risk
problem." Reserves would have to be set aside for loans to
Brazil only if its credit rating were lowered by another notch
to "value impaired," but bankers said the regulators' decision
should be read as a sign of official concern about the
deterioration in Brazil's finances.
    The downgrading was decided by the Interagency Country
Valuation Review Committee, which groups regulators from
the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
    The downgrading coincides with the move by several major
U.S. banks to place their loans to Brazil on non-accrual status
because of the February 20 suspension of interest on 68 billion
dlrs of term debt.
    By declaring the loans non-performing, the banks wipe out
tens of millions of dollars of accrued, but uncollected,
interest payments from their first-quarter accounts.
 Reuter

Lyng, reacting to recent criticism of U.S. meat inspection,
defended the program saying the United States has the best
inspection system in the world.
    Speaking to representatives of the U.S. National
Cattlemen's Association, NCA, Lyng attacked what he called
recent "terribly biased" press reports critical of USDA poultry
inspection. He cited a report on CBS "60 Minutes" which
criticized USDA salmonella detection in poultry.
    "I know we have the finest meat and poultry inspection
system in the world," Lyng told the cattlemen.
    Lyng said USDA makes every effort to minimize the levels of
salmonella in poultry, but added "the total elimination of
harmful bacteria is virtually impossible in this world."
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs not given
    Net 1.6 mln vs 1.4 mln
    Revs 35 mln vs 14 mln
    NOTE: 1985 results restated from originally reported loss
of 1.6 mln dlrs or 28 cts a share.
    1986 figures reflect reverse takeover accounting to include
12-month results of the Rose Group, but only three months for
Tele-Radio Systems Ltd and Ens Bio Logicals.
 Reuter

Vernitron Corp said it
anticipates that a special shareholders meeting will be held in
June to vote on a proposed merger with SB Holding Corp.
    Vernitron said the record date for the meeting has been
tentatively set for May 15.
    The company said it filed preliminary proxy materials with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for the special
shareholders meeting.
    Following its tender offer in November 1986, SB Holding
owns 54.7 pct of Vernitron.
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp said
effective with shipments of May 3 transaction prices for all
H-piles will be increased by 30 dlrs per short ton.
    The company said a new base price, coupled with revised
size extras, will result in a published price of 446 dlrs per
ton HP14 and 420 dlrs for all other H-pile sizes.
 Reuter

has changed the terms of a proposed five mln unit offering
expected to be made at 1,000 dlrs per unit through underwriter
Eastlake Securities Inc.
    The company said now each unit will consist of 100
redeemable cumulative preferred shares and a number of common
shares to be determined at the time of the offering.
Previously, the units were to consist entirely of preferred.
 Reuter

Yeutter said a possible recession in western Europe or Japan
was possible as a result of the U.S. dollar's decline and the
resulting drop in the U.S. trade deficit.
    Yeutter told the Senate Finance Committee, "They certainly
have the macroeconomic policy tools to adjust" to the U.S.
reduction in imports.
    Asked if the U.S. trade deficit was preventing them from
going into a recession, Yeutter replied that result was
"certainly possible" and was the reason why they should adjust
their monetary, fiscal and tax policies.
    Asked by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) whether the U.S. trade
deficit would improve more if the value of the dollar dropped
further, Yeutter replied, "That should be a mathematical truism."
But he added that markets are more complicated than that.
    He said he expected the current decline in the dollar to
show up soon in the decline in the value of imports.
    He expected the U.S. would soon start importing less from
Japan and Europe and would start exporting more to Europe where
there's less rigidity on imports.
 Reuter

Oper shr 15 cts vs 32 cts
    Oper net 656,927 vs 1,388,765
    Revs 15.4 mln vs 11.3 mln
    NOTE: 1985 net includes pretax gain 1,880,056 dlrs on sale
of stock in subsidiary.
    Net excludes discontinued operations loss 641,001 dlrs vs
profit 281,818 dlrs.
 Reuter

completed its previously announced acquisition of Parallel
Computers Inc, of Santa Clara, Calif.
    The company said the purchase price consisted of 615,000
General Automation restricted shares together with 5-year
warrants to buy an aggregate 445,000 additional shares at 5.25
dlrs each.
 Reuter

Comdisco Inc expects record
earnings for the second quarter ended March 31 in the range of
65 to 75 cts a share, Chairman Kenneth Pontikes said in remarks
prepared for delivery to a group of Los Angeles financial
    In the year-earlier second quarter, Comdisco reported
earnings of 40 cts a share.
    Pontikes reiterated that earnings for the full fiscal year
should be "at record levels of 2.10 dlrs to 2.25 dlrs a share
compared with 1.91 dlrs a share a year ago."
    Comdisco said the anticipated higher earnings are the
result of strong performance by its risk arbitrage subsidiary
and increased profitability from the marketing of its lease
portfolio and its disaster recovery services.
    It said the loss incurred from risk arbitrage activities in
the first fiscal quarter of 1987 has been completely recovered.
 Reuter

<Royal Bank of Canada> said it would
lower its Visa credit card interest rate to 15.9 pct from 18.6
pct, effective with the May billing statement.
    The bank said it would retain the credit card user fee of
12 dlrs yearly or 15 cts a transaction.
    Its move came one day after <Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce> lowered its credit card interest rate to the same
level. The Canadian government last month threatened to
legislate lower credit card rates if financial institutions did
not voluntarily do so. <Toronto Dominion Bank> lowered its rate
to 15.9 pct before the government warning.
 Reuter

to 49.49 billion crowns in March from 36.34 billion in
February, against 43.13 billion in March 1986, the central bank
said in its monthly balance sheet report.
and major savings banks and corrected for exchange rate
adjustments, rose to 45.263 billion crowns from 37.26 billion
in February, compared with 35.31 billion in March 1986.
    "The increase must be seen against the background of a
considerable inflow of foreign exchange after the outflow up to
the EMS realignment in January," the bank said in a statement.
 REUTER

A group led by Leading Edge Hardware
Products Inc, a Massachusetts computer firm, told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it sold its entire 5.4 pct
stake in Xyvision Inc.
    The group, which includes Leading Edge and companies
affiliated with it, said it sold the 324,200 Xyvision common
shares between February 27 and April 1 for a total of 5.0 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Parent company net profit 965 mln francs vs 442 mln.
    Dividend 22.50 francs vs 6.32.
    Net banking income 22.23 billion francs vs 20.33 billion.
    Net operating provisions 5.50 billion francs vs 5.19
billion, with most of increase going to cover loans to
heavily-indebted countries.
 Reuter

Shr 29 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 4,411,000 vs 4,210,000
    Revs 185.5 mln vs 159.4 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 58 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 8,821,000 vs 8,603,000
    Revs 362.6 mln vs 331.4 mln
 Reuter

Michigan National Corp
said it raised the prime rate for its subsidiary Michigan
National Bank to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective yesterday.
    The move follows similar increases earlier in the week by
other banks.
 Reuter

One miner has died and 44
miners remain trapped a half mile underground in a fire at a
Noranda Inc copper mine, officials said.
    Noranda said 26 miners had made it to a lunch room, where
they had air and water, but 18 others were unaccounted for.
    Two rescue teams were searching for the missing men.
    Noranda spokesman Lionel Gleeton said miner Ange-Marie
Kenney, in his 30s, died when he was caught in thick smoke
about 1,000 feet from the lunch room. His body was found by
rescuers.
 Reuter

The World Bank over the last month repaid
and refinanced 500 billion yen in loans at more favourable
interest rates in what was the first step in a plan to
refinance its existing debt, Eugene Rotberg, World Bank
vice-president/treasurer said.
    He told Reuters in a telephone interview from Washington
that the moves are consistent with, but not driven by, the
Bank's view that interest rates have essentially bottomed out
and will move higher by year-end.
    Rotberg was responding to a question following news the
Bank would exercise its option to prepay early some 196 mln
Swiss francs of existing bonds in the Swiss franc market.
    The bond redemptions are the first in the public market and
may be followed by similar moves in other capital markets if
the Bank considers the exercise financially beneficial and
consistent with its overall funding strategy.
    Rotberg noted that the World Bank is very liquid right now,
with some 18 billion dlrs in cash available. The Bank will be
looking at various instruments and the levels they are trading
at in determining what issues will be repaid, he said.
    However, Rotberg said that unlike the yen loans, there was
no immediate plan to refinance the Swiss franc bonds, although
the Bank could possibly issue new debt in that market over the
    He said that the yen loans, which were the equivalent of
some three billion dlrs principal amount, had been from the
Japanese long-term credit banks, trust banks and insurance
companies and had interest rates of between seven and nine pct.
    All the borrowings were refinanced as traditional
syndicated loans with the same parities at the Japanese
long-term prime rate, currently 5.8 pct.
    The World Bank borrows in excess of 10 billion dlrs a year,
with almost all its borrowings in medium and long-term fixed
rate markets.
    Rotberg declined to say whether the 1/4 point rise in U.S.
Prime rates yesterday to 7-3/4 pct signalled a reversal in the
trend in interest rates. "Over the short term, rates could go up
or they could go down," he said, adding that the bank takes a
longer view on interest rates when deciding its financing
strategy. However, given the current level of interest rates,
it would not be wise to take short-term money on to the
liability side of the Bank's balance sheet, he said.
 REUTER

British Telecommunications PLC has
transferred the information systems division of its wholly
owned Canadian subsidiary, CTG Inc, to 51-pct-owned Mitel Corp,
Mitel said.
    It said the transfer was designed to strengthen Mitel's
position in the Canadian market.
    British Telecom acquired 51 pct of Mitel in March, 1986,
while CTG became a wholly owned British Telecom subsidiary in
May, 1985.
    Mitel said the transfer of holdings represents a
restructuring of British Telecom's private branch exchange
(PBX) interests in Canada.
    It said the CTG unit will become the center of a newly
formed Mitel direct sales division, which will sell SX-2000
products to major Canadian business customers.
 Reuter

Polysar Ltd said Alberta Natural
Gas Co Ltd completed its purchase of Canstates Energy's shares
held by Rankin Holdings Ltd for undisclosed terms.
    Polysar said its previous partnerships with Rankin in
Canstates Energy, a natural gas liquid company, will continue
with Alberta. Polysar, an international petrochemical company,
said the new partnership will be beneficial to putting together
a natural gas liquid system to serve the petrochemical
feedstock requirements of its business.
 Reuter

upgraded 924 mln dlrs of debt of Warner Communications Inc.
    Raised to Baa-1 from Ba-1 were the company's subordinated
debt and Series A convertible exchangeable preferred stock.
Moody's also affirmed Warner's Prime-2 commercial paper.
    The agency cited substantial improvements in Warner's
operating performance, a stronger balance sheet and favorable
long-term prospects for its core business.
    Warner's increased earnings and selective asset sales
significantly reduced leverage and strengthened its equity
base, Moody's said. Fixed-charge coverages have also improved.
 Reuter

The EC Cereals Management Committee
agreed in Brussels today that 300,000 tonnes of U.K.
Intervention wheat would be made available for sale on the U.K.
Home market over the next three months, the Ministry of
Agriculture said.
    The committee agreed that 70,000 tonnes of wheat would be
made available on April 14 followed by a further 30,000 tonnes
later in the month.
    It also gave an assurance that a further 100,000 tonnes
would be allocated for both May and June, which would complete
the 300,000 tonnes originally requested by the U.K..
    The ministry said sales out of intervention for July and
August would be discussed later.
    Earlier, Paris trade sources said the EC Commission made
available a further 70,000 tonnes of British intervention feed
wheat for sale to the domestic market.
 Reuter

Heightened concern over renewed
inflation is feeding the rally in silver and the upward move
could drive the inflation hedge metal this year to as much as
9.00 dlrs per troy ounce, Mike Boswell chairman of Sunshine
Mining Co told Reuters in an interview.
    "The anticipated higher inflation is being manifested in
silver rather than in gold which is the traditional choice of
inflation hedgers," said Boswell.
    The strength could put silver in a range of "8.00 to 9.00
dlrs even without any material swings in supply/demand,"
Boswell said.
    The buying interest for silver on the New York Commodity
Exchange (Comex) continued strong, with prices rising today to
a September 1986 high of 6.465 dlrs per ounce. However gold
lagged at 426.30 dlrs, the strongest price since late January
this year.
    Boswell said silver has been "under-valued for so long
relative to gold but it's closing up the price gap."
    He noted that silver last year held at the depressed level
of 5.00 dlrs while gold was soaring to more than 400.00 dlrs on
concern over the heated political unrest in South Africa. "The
strength was not filtering down to silver last year. Now
we're seeing a delayed reaction," the Sunshine Mining official
said.
    Almost a year ago, U.S. producers shut down two of their
largest silver properties, Sunshine and Hecla mining companies,
both located in Idaho.
    Boswell estimated that the closings slashed U.S. silver
production by 10 mln ounces last year to less than 40 mln
ounces.
    "Low silver prices and high labor costs made it
uneconomical to keep the mines opened," he said.
    Increased imports from Mexico and Peru have made up for the
loss of production in the United States which consumes 160 to
170 mln ounces annually, Boswell said.
 Reuter

Belgian Finance Minister Mark Eyskens
said he will announce measures in the next few days making it
easier for non-residents to recoup the 25 pct withholding tax
levied on investment income in Belgium.
    In an interview with Reuters, Eyskens also said he hoped
the cabinet would tomorrow approve the abolition of bourse
transaction taxes for non-residents, making Brussels one of the
few stock exchanges in the world where foreign investors were
not subjected to such a tax.
    He said both measures were aimed at attracting capital
imports, reducing Belgium's heavy net capital outflows.
    Under the present system, non-residents pay withholding tax
on their income from Belgian investments and can then reclaim
it from Belgian authorities.
    But financial analysts said the procedure for recouping the
tax is so bureaucratic and slow that it effectively acts as a
barrier to foreign investment in Belgium, especially in the
secondary bond market.
    Eyskens said he was ready to "simplify and eventually
suppress" the procedure for non-residents and would announce
details in the next few days.
    Financial analysts said the move would be far more
significant than the imminent abolition for non-residents of
the minimal bourse transaction taxes. These are set at three
rates - 0.07 pct, 0.14 pct and 0.35 pct - according to the type
of paper transacted.
    Eyskens said he hoped later to be able to abolish the
transaction taxes for residents as well, but this would depend
on progress in cutting the government's high budget deficit.
    He called the current 25 pct level of witholding tax "much
too high" and said he hoped to reduce it in the longer term,
perhaps as part of an overall reform of Belgian tax.
    But he added this would have to be done progressively
because of its budgetary impact. The tax raises 170 billion
francs a year in revenues, he said.
    Eyskens envisaged a cut to a basic 15 pct, after which a
rate could be set for each new security issued.
    He said that as well as aggravating net capital outflows,
the high rate of withholding tax also meant the treasury was
forced to borrow at higher interest rates.
    But he said it was politically impossible to reduce taxes
on investment income before those on earned income had been cut
as part of the tax reform, planned for late 1980s.
 REUTER

<Noranda Inc> said production at its
Murdochville, Quebec, copper mine was shut down by the fire
that trapped 44 miners and killed at least one.
    Noranda spokesman Denis Morin said it was impossible to
judge right now how long the shutdown might last, but said he
thought it could be at least one week.
    The mine produced 1,792,000 metric tons of ore in 1986,
Morin said. It has a mineral inventory of 35,065,000 tons.
    In the mine's three zones last year, copper grade was 1.10
pct at Needle Mountain, 0.30 pct at Copper Mountain Oxide and
1.32 pct at Murdochville, Morin said.
    Another Noranda spokesman said the smelter at Murdochville,
which has not been shut down, has the capacity to treat 218,000
tons of mineral concentrate per year.
    The smelter treats ore from other mines as well as product
from the Murdochville facility, he said.
 Reuter

The Group of Seven industrialised
countries will make use of next week's International Monetary
Fund meetings in Washington to evaluate the Paris accord on
currency stabilisation, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson told reporters.
    "On Tuesday I shall be going to Washington for meetings of
the (IMF) Interim Committee and Development Committee, and we
shall of course be having a meeting of the G-7," Lawson said.
    "And on the G-7, although there is no formal agenda, I would
imagine that the first thing we do would be to review how the
Paris accord has gone since it was agreed in February."
    Lawson said G-7 finance ministers will be reviewing
medium-term economic objectives and projections involving
domestic and external variables. Also examined will be
performance indicators for each country.
    The Paris accord set objectives for such sectors as growth,
inflation, current account and trade balances, budget
performances, monetary conditions and exchange rates.
    Lawson said "At both the G-7 and the Interim Committee we
will undoubtedly be discussing the debt problem. Clearly the
debt problem is still with us, and still with us in quite a big
way."
    "In many ways the problems of the big debtor countries, and
indeed the poorest countries, are every bit as acute as they
were when they began. It will be with us for a very long time."
    Lawson said he knew of no new debt initiative which might
be presented and discussed next week in Washington. "We've got
to go on a case-by-case basis," Lawson said.  Possibilities for
a coordinated approach to the problem would be something he
would raise within the IMF, Lawson said.
    He noted the rise this week in U.S. Short-term interest
rates, and said that a significant rise in borrowing costs
would make the debt problem more acute.
    Special attention would go to Brazil next week, but Lawson
added, "I do not expect anything to come to a head on that."
    Lawson said he told Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson
Funaro here in February that Britain would not intervene and
press British commercial banks into giving Brazil easier
borrowing conditions. "I told him it was a matter for the banks,
not governments," Lawson said.
    The IMF Interim Committee is to meet formally in Washington
next Thursday, while the Development Committee was set to
convene on Friday, Treasury officials said.
 REUTER

    Pay June 1
 Reuter

National Video Inc said it entered an
agreement with Univisa Inc for the development of 600 National
Video franchised stores in Hispanic communities by 1992.
    Univisa, a Spanish-language group with interests in
television, cable, program distribution, news services and
records, will translate the National Video System into Spanish
and market the franchises.
    National Video currently operates 700 stores. Franchises
sell for 14,900 dlrs to 29,900 dlrs and require an initial
investment of 100,000-389,000 dlrs, it said.
     Under terms of the agreement, Univisa is to sell not less
than 600 National Video franchises to open by December 31,
1992. Subject to board approval, National Video will grant
options to Univisa to buy up to 200,000 shares at six dlrs per
share by April 1, 1990 and an additional 160,000 shares at nine
dlrs per share by April 1992.
    In related agreements, National Video agreed to distribute
Univisa Spanish video tapes and promotional materials
distributed by of such video cassettes and will buy advertising
on Univisa's national television network and on local Spanish
language television stations.
 Reuter

Period ended March 15.
    Shr 28 cts vs five cts
    Net 6,203,000 vs 1,030,000
    Sales 52.6 mln vs 42.7 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr 34 cts vs seven cts
    Net 7,543,000 vs 1,376,000
    Sales 100.1 mln vs 82.0 mln
 Reuter

expects to hold a special meeting in June for a vote on its
proposed merger into SB Holding Corp, which acquired 54.7 pct
of Vernitron in a tender offer last November.
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps put the outstanding
fixed income securities of of Standard Oil Co on its watch list
following the tentative offer by British Petroleum of North
America <BP> to buy the company.
    Standard Oil's nearly three billion dlrs of long-term debt
is currently rated DP-5 (high A) by the ratings agency.
    British Petroleum currently owns about 55 pct of Standard
Oil's outstanding common stock and to acquire the remainder at
the tender offer price of 70 dlrs per share would cost 7.4
    British Petroleum intends to fund two-thirds of that
purchase with borrowed funds and the rest with cash.
    The additional debt will raise the fixed obligation ratio
of British Petroleum from under 30 pct to perhaps 45 pct and
increase its debt service requirements, Duff and Phelps said.
    However, putting Standard Oil's debt on its watch list,
which Duff and Phelps said had "potentially negative
implications," may eventually result in an upgrade depending on
how British Petroleum restructures the company, Howard Mount of
the ratings agency said.
    Mount said that acquiring Standard Oil's substantial cash
flows and eliminating the annual dividend, which totaled 305
mln dlrs to common shareholders in 1986, would help satisfy
British Petroleum's higher debt service.
 Reuter

CytRx Corp said the Swedish authorites
and the Bank of Sweden approved its acquisition of Biopool AB
of Sweden through a 60 pct owned Delaware corporate subsidiary,
CytRx Biopool Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 1.5 mln vs profit 442,000
    Revs 2.6 mln vs 6.5 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 54 cts vs loss 77 cts
    Net loss 7.9 mln vs loss 11.3 mln
    Revs 14.2 mln vs 23.0 mln
 Reuter

warmly welcomed this week's increase in U.S. Prime rates,
calling it a move that went beyond the Group of Five and Canada
Paris accord on stabilising currencies.
    The rate rise would underpin economic and financial policy
convergence among major countries, he added.
    In an interview with Reuters, Eyskens also made clear he
believed the countries involved in the accord - the U.S.,
Japan, West Germany, France, Britain and Canada - had agreed
"tentative" fluctuation ranges for exchange rates.
    Eyskens was speaking before hosting an informal meeting of
European Community finance ministers and central bank chiefs in
Belgium this weekend focusing on the international monetary
situation and proposals for strengthening the European Monetary
    Asked about the dollar's recent fall on currency markets,
Eyskens said he believed the Paris agreement was proving "more
or less workable" despite what he called evident disagreements
over U.S. Economic and monetary policy between Treasury
Secretary James Baker and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker.
    Besides Baker's public statements that had dramatically
influenced exchange markets, trade tensions between the U.S.And
Japan had also caused the dollar's fall, expecially against the
yen, he said.
    But he expressed optimism that Washington and Tokyo could
reach a compromise in their row over semi-conductor trade. "I
think agreement is quite possible," he said.
     Eyskens said he was "very agreeably surprised" by this
week's quarter-point increase in U.S. Prime rates despite the
obvious negative consequences for debtor countries.
    "It is a positive element which goes further than the
(Paris) Louvre agreement ...It is the market taking account of
its content," he said.
    He added that coordination of interest rates was a
fundamental element of economic and monetary convergence
between leading industrialised economies.
    "A policy of maintaining exchange rates within fluctuation
ranges is not possible if it is not accompanied at least by a
more coordinated policy of interest rates," he said.
    Eyskens made clear he believed the G-6 countries had agreed
in Paris on ranges in which to hold their currencies.
    He said the end of the February 22 Louvre accord, in which
the partners agreed to cooperate closely to foster exchange
rate stability around current levels, clearly alluded to a
"system of tentative (fluctuation) margins."
    He added the meeting and the statement would have been
meaningless if the G-6 had not discussed the technicalities of
implementing it.
    Eyskens said there was growing economic convergence among
leading industrialised countries pointing towards greater order
in the international monetary system.
    "That doesn't mean we are ready to restore Bretton Woods
(the post-World War Two system of fixed exchange rates), but
within the (International Monetary Fund) Interim Committee we
are thinking in terms of target zones, fluctuation ranges to be
implemented and defended," he said.
    The Interim Committee meets next week in Washington ahead
of the IMF's Spring meetings, and Eyskens said the EC ministers
would prepare for the gatherings at this weekend's talks.
    He said he hoped for wide-ranging talks on the future of
the EMS at the weekend meeting, based on proposals from the
EC's Monetary Committee and Committee of Central Bank Governors
for strengthening the system through technical and
institutional changes.
    Eyskens said he expected EC Commission President Jacques
Delors to submit proposals for fully liberalising capital
movements within the 12-nation bloc and made clear he shared
Delors' view that this must be accompanied by a reinforcement
of the EMS. "Both are totally linked. Liberalisation without
strengthening the EMS would destabilise the Community," he said.
 REUTER

Noranda Inc said production at its
Murdochville, Quebec copper mine was shut down by the fire that
broke out last night, trapping 44 miners and killing one.
judge how long the shutdown might last but said he thought it
could be at least one week.
    The mine produced 1,792,000 tonnes of ore in 1986, Morin
said. It has a mineral inventory of 35,065,000 tonnes.
tonnes of mineral concentrate per year.
    The fire broke out last night in the mine which is situated
in the Gaspe district of eastern Quebec.
 Reuter

Chemfix Technologies Inc said it
acquired the remaining 50 pct of its California affiliate,
VenVirotek, previously owned by a Ventura, Calif. businessman.
    VenVirotek proved the Chemfix Process could be successfully
applied to convert spent drilling fluids into a reusable
clay-like product that is suitable for use as landfill cover.
 Reuter

believed the countries involved in the accord -- the U.S.,
Japan, West Germany, France, Britain and Canada -- had agreed
Volcker.
 Reuter

The Nigerian naira firmed  against the
dollar, banking sources said, after the rules governing foreign
exchange auctions at the central bank were changed.
    The marginal rate set at today's auction, from which
reporters were barred for the first time since the sessions
began last September, was 3.7001 to the dollar compared with
4.0002 at the last session on March 19, the sources said.
    Under the new system unveiled on March 20 and in operation
for the first time today, bidding banks must pay for foreign
exchange at the rate they bid, rather than as previously at the
rate of the lowest successful bid.
    The measure was aimed at discouraging banks from bidding
high and thus driving down the naira's value. But banking
sources and other analysts said demand for foreign exchange
remained sharply higher than the available funds.
    Henceforth the sessions will be held every fortnight,
instead of weekly, and today only 80 mln dlrs was on offer
compared with the 50 mln dlrs usually on sale each week.
    The rule change appeared to have an immediate impact on
bids. Today's highest bid was 4.06 to the dollar, compared with
a top bid of 4.25 two weeks ago.
    Banks who bid higher than the marginal rate will be able to
pass on their rate to their customers, while the marginal rate
will only act as a marker for transactions.
 REUTER

Coffee prices look set to continue
sliding in the near term, given the lack of progress towards a
new International Coffee Organization (ICO) export quota
accord, according to coffee traders and analysts.
    Robusta coffee futures dipped sharply to 4-1/2 year lows
yesterday at 1,220 stg per tonne, basis the May position, when
the lack of new debate on quotas at ICO talks here confirmed
expectations that efforts to restore quotas would not be
revived at this stage, they said.
    The 15-day ICO average composite price fell to 99.69 cents
a lb for April 1, the lowest for 5-1/2 years.
    Quotas will not now be renegotiated before the ICO's annual
September council session, and in the interim the Brazilian
frost season from June to August may prove the only bullish
factor to stem further price weakness, they said. Futures
bounced back from the lows today towards the previous trading
range around 1,260/1,270 stg per tonne on May as the market
recovered from yesterday's "confidence blip," one trader
    But despite today's upturn, the overall trend is for lower
prices in the near future, one trade source said.
    The market had become increasingly vulnerable to
yesterday's shakeout, having held within a 1,250/1,350 stg
second position trading range for 22 successive sessions, he
said.
    Technically the market is more likely to decline further as
it absorbs today's brief rally. Steep declines towards the
1,100/1,050 stg area could foster a "three figure mentality," and
speculators may elect to push for coffee prices below the
psychological 1,000 stg level, he added.
    Some traders said today's upturn was in part due to
Brazil's opening last night of May green coffee export
registrations.
     This had been widely anticipated by the market and came as
no surprise, but it did remove some prevailing uncertainty and
light trade buying was seen this morning as a consequence.
    However, the overall trend remains downwards and a test of
support at 1,200 stg should be expected soon, with the only
possible supportive influence on the horizon being the approach
of Brazil's frost season, they said.
    Roasters are believed to be well covered, limiting
activities to modest hand-to-mouth purchases and generally not
taking up producer offers, they added.
    Central American producers have sold the bulk of their
current crops, but robusta producers in West Africa and
Indonesia need to sell coffee for April through July shipment,
and this could pressure prices further, traders said.
    However, one dealer, although seeing no reason to be
bullish, advised caution. "Everybody's bearish now, just as they
were bullish when the market was at 3,100 stg," he said.
    Arthur Cherry, coffee analyst at E.D. and F. Man, expressed
doubts the price spiral would continue much below current
levels. "One dlr coffee is catastrophic for many producers --
there must be a minimum below which prices cannot fall."
    While prices dropped to the lowest levels since September
1982 yesterday, manufacturers have no plans to cut their retail
prices.
    "Its impossible to say, we can't predict anything like that
at this stage," a General Foods spokesman said.
    Manufacturers have lowered prices recently anyway in
response to market weakness. At the beginning of March the
price of a 100 gram jar of coffee was cut to 1.55 stg from 1.65
stg in Britain. But should coffee market prices continue to
fall, the situation would be reviewed, the spokesman added.
    Nestle also has no plans to make additional price cuts in
    "The market seems to have established some equilibrium and
doesn't look set to go much lower," a Nestle spokesman
    Coffee's plunge this week has been mirrored by tea, which
fell to a 5-1/2 year low at today's auction at 1.18 stg per
kilo for medium quality, traders added.
 Reuter

way."
 Reuter

The First Interstate Bank of
California subsidiary of First Interstate Bancorp said it is
 Reuter

    Year
    Shr loss 1.51 dlrs vs loss 1.59 cts
    (Company corrects 1985 year per share figure)
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 219,000 vs loss 84,000
    Revs 11.7 mln vs 11.8 mln
    1st half
    Shr profit 11 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Net profit 467,000 vs profit 555,000
    Revs 21.2 mln vs 21.0 mln
    NOTE: Half net includes 93,000 dlrs vs 300,000 dlrs from
litigation gains.
 Reuter

Union Carbide France, a unit of Union
Carbide Corp <UK>, has launched a bid to buy shares of French
chemical group <Duffour et Igon> at 2,100 francs a share until
May 4, the stockbrokers' association CSAC said in a statement.
    Duffour et Igon has capital of 13.3 mln francs, divided
into 133,100 shares with a nominal value of 100 francs. They
were last traded on January 9 at 856 francs.
    <Rothschild et Associes Banque> is acting for Union
Carbide.
 Reuter

has completed the acquisition of Coastal Bancorp of Portland,
Maine, in an exchange of 2.05655 Suffield shares for each
Coastal share.
 Reuter

Bank of Montreal <BMO.M> Chairman
William Mulholland said he was reasonably optimistic that debt
negotiations between Brazil and its commercial bank creditors
can be accomplished satisfactorily in the long run.
    "It's going to be a bit rocky short term ... a couple of
months ... but I am reasonably optimistic longer term," he told
a press briefing here.
    Earlier, Mulholland announced that Bank of Montreal has
formally applied to swap up to 100 mln dlrs of its roughly one
billion dlr cross border exposure to Brazil into local equity
investments under a novel conversion scheme.
    Tensions have been running high between Brazil and its bank
creditors since President Jose Sarney imposed a unilateral
suspension of interest payments on some 68 billion dlrs of
commercial bank debt on February 20, bankers said.
    Only yesterday, three leading U.S. banks voluntarily put
their Brazilian loans on non-accrual status and took a hefty
cut in net income for the first quarter ended March 31.
    Bankers saw this as a clear refusal to be intimidated into
granting major concessions as forthcoming refinancing talks.
    Bank of Montreal's Mulholland regretted Brazil's action but
declined to discuss what action his bank might take.
    Mulholland merely said that Bank of Montreal had not
canceled any of its short-term credit lines that came up for
renewal on March 31.
    However, John Bradlow, senior vice president of the
corporate and goverment banking division, said that it was
possible that Bank of Montreal might follow the U.S. banks'
lead in its second quarter results accounting.
    "A decision will be made at April 30 or in the first weeks
of May," he told reporters after the briefing. Unlike most
major U.S. banks, whose reporting year ends on December 31,
Canadian banks operate on a November through October basis.
    At the press briefing, Mulholland detailed the proposed
debt/equity conversion scheme, which is aimed at boosting
investment capital and conserving foreign exchange reserves.
    Unlike many existing programs, Bank of Montreal intends to
sell its own dollar-denominated debt at par to either the
obligor or local investors for cruzados, which would then be
ploughed into Brazilian assets.
    Mulholland said current debt/equity schemes, in which bank
debt is often sold to foreign third parties at a discount, were
like "peddling off debt at fire sale prices". He added that
they could do pyschological harm to investor confidence.
    While acknowledging that Brazil has yet to give its
official blessing to the plan, Mulholland predicted, "if it is
supported, we are going to see more of this."
    Sources at other large banks with sizeable exposure to
Brazil were not so sure about the scheme's success.
    "I don't think it's going to fly because of the impact it
would have on money supply and other political reasons," said
one banker, noting that earlier informal proposals along the
same lines received "fairly neutral responses."
    "And is there a market for such investment in a time of
great uncertainty," he added.
    Mulholland admitted, "it is something of an experiment....
some one has to screw up the courage and do something."
    "It is very important that avenues (to reversing net
capital outflows) are broadened," he added, noting that in
recent years the options have in fact been narrowing.
    Another senior banker agreed that debt/equity swap
proposals, such as Bank of Montreal's, should be explored and
developed but warned that Brasilia has been "very ambivalent"
about debt/equity schemes thus far.
    The banker added, "debt/equity conversion should happen but
it is not a major instrument for solving debt problems."
 Reuter

it has completed the acquisition of 80 pct of privately-held
Interpharm Inc, a maker of generic pharmaceuticals, for 488,000
common shares, plus another 521,000 to be issued on approval by
McDowell shareholders.
    It said subject to future sales and profit levels, McDowell
could over a four-year period acquire the remaining 20 pct of
Interpharm for another 1,543,000 shares.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 4.1 mln vs 4.0 mln
    Qtly div five cts vs five cts prior
    Revs 118.0 mln vs 45.2 mln
    Six months
    Shr 40 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 8.1 mln vs 6.9 mln
    Revs 215.6 mln vs 90.3 mln
    NOTE:Dividend payable July 31 to holders of record July 15.
 Reuter

(CNT) said it signed an equipment maintenance agreement with
Storage Technology Corp <QSTK> that would allow Storage to
provide field support and maintenance in the U.S. for Computer
Network Technology products.
    CNT designs, manufactures and markets products for high
speed networking systems.
 Reuter

its auditors have decided to qualify their opinion on 1986
financial statements due to questions about the company's
ability to continue as a going concern.
    McDowell said it will file its annual report for 1986 by
April 15, after applying for an extension, and will report a
loss for the year of about six mln dlrs after a substantial
writedown of assets and an increase in costs associated with
its withdrawal from the construction business.
    In 1985, McDowell lost 2,152,000 dlrs before a 1,240,000
dlr loss from discontinued operations.
 Reuter

McKesson Corp said it sold the
California Culinary Academy of San Francisco to an investor
group headed by the academy's president, Fred Seymour, for
    The 400-student academy was founded nine years ago and was
acquired in 1982 by McKesson. The company said it sold it
because it no longer fits with its business direction.
 Reuter

Vanguard Technologies International Inc
said it acquired 100 pct of the stock of <Diversified Data
Corp>.
    Diversified, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TECHPRO Corp,
have current revenues from operations of approximately four mln
dlrs, Vanguard said.
    The acquisition was for cash, but the amount was not
 Reuter

listed the common shares of Portage Industres Corp, which went
public today.
 Reuter

options on heating oil futures will begin trading June 26.
    This would be the second options contract to trade at the
exchange. NYMEX introduced crude oil options last November.
    "Heating oil options are a logical complement to our
existing energy complex," said NYMEX Chairman William Bradt.
    "From our experience in crude, we fully expect heating oil
options to offer significant new trading opportunities to
current market participants and also draw additional users into
this marketplace," he said.
    Six consecutive trading months in heating oil options will
be introduced on June 26, led by the September 1987 contract,
    Strike prices wil be in increments of two cts per gallon
and seven strike prices for puts and for calls will be
available, the exchange said. The middle strike price will
correspond closely to the settlement price of the previous
day's futures close, it said.
    Expiration will be on the second Friday of the month
preceding delivery of the underlying futures contract, it said,
meaning that the September options contract would expire August
14.
    Prices for heating oil options will be quoted in cts per
gallon with a minimum fluctuation of 0.01 cent per gallon,
NYMEX said.
    The options will be based on the underlying futures
contract of 42,000 gallons each. Trading hours will be the same
as heating oil futures, beginning at 0950 EST and ending 1505
EST.
    NYMEX received approval for heating oil options from the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission on September 16, 1986, the
exchange said.
 Reuter

Ark Restaurants Corp's 3,333,333 shares
of common stock began trading today on the American Stock
Exchange, the exchange said.
    The common opened on 100 shares at 4-3/8, the exchange
said.
    The company, which is a holding company for 12 restaurants
in New York City and New Jersey, formerly traded on NASDAQ, the
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts
    Net 1,906,850
    12 mths
    Shr 60 cts
    Net 5,871,258
    NOTE: company began trading Jan 17, 1986.
 Reuter

Sterling made a sharp recovery when U.K.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson described remarks he
made yesterday on targets for the pound as "insignificant,"
rallying back up almost exactly to the levels it had fetched
before Lawson spoke yesterday, dealers and analysts said.
    They said sterling would likely leave the limelight once
again to trade quietly around current levels, as the markets
set their sights on the dollar, yen and mark again ahead of key
international monetary talks in Washington next week.
    Sterling ended its European day at 1.6020/30 dlrs,
virtually unchanged from yesterday's last 1.6040/50 dlrs,
fetched before Lawson's first comment. But it was well up on
levels just above 1.59 dlrs which it had held until the second
comment came.
    Against the mark, sterling recovered to close at
2.9190/9240 marks after today's opening 2.9040/90 and last
night's 2.9210/45.
    "On balance, it is as if nothing happened ... We are back to
where we were before," Mark Brett, economist at securities house
Barclays de Zoete Wedd said.
    "This whole story is like a storm in a teacup," a dealer with
a U.K. Bank commented.
    The pound's recovery was triggered when Lawson criticised
media coverage of comments he made yesterday, when he told a
conference he wanted sterling to stay roughly where it was.
    In this context, Lawson was reported to have specified
rates of around 2.90 marks and 1.60 dlrs to the pound in
remarks which markets were quick to interpret as a signal to
sell sterling.
    Lawson said today he had merely stated yesterday's
approximate value of the pound.
    "The wrong end of the stick was picked up," he told
reporters, adding his comments did in no way signal a change in
British exchange rate policies.
    Dealers and analysts said the reactions to both statements
were clear evidence that the market, frustrated by the relative
currency stability after the February 22 Paris agreement, was
desperate to reactivate trading and would react to any clues
offered about the contents of the currency accord.
    In Paris, finance ministers of the Group of Five and Canada
are widely believed to have agreed exchange rate targets,
although no participant has specified these in an apparent bid
to foster stability by keeping markets guessing.
    "The markets are absolutely desperate to get clues on Group
of Six (countries that are part to the Paris agreement) targets
... The number of rumours flying around is bigger than ever
before," said Barclays de Zoete Wedd's Brett.
    Analysts said neither yesterday's remarks nor today's had
changed their impression that after Paris, sterling was
targeted to trade in broad ranges against major currencies.
     All polled analysts said if anything, the 2.90 marks level
mentioned by Lawson was probably the centre of a wide
20-pfennig range which sterling would easily hold, helped by
good economic indicators and relatively high interest rates.
himself to a fixed rate," Brett said. He expected sterling to
firm over the next few weeks, to around 2.95 marks and 1.63
dlrs, as overseas investors reappraised high-yielding
investments here.
Securities, said he was not surprised to see Lawson qualify his
sterling target comments so quickly.
    "His remarks gave markets a target to aim at," he said,
adding, "He (Lawson) talked himself into a bit of a corner on
this ... It made him a hostage to fortune."
    Marshall and other analysts dismissed a theory, that by
quoting target rates Lawson had attempted to put pressure on
prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to agree to British membership
of the European Monetary System (EMS), as implausible.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,328,515 vs 2,175,046
    12 mths
    Shr 1.14 dlrs vs 1.25 dlrs
    Net 7,857,997 vs 8,615,439
    NOTE company attributed decrease to significant drop in
prime lending rate as its principal business is pegged to the
interest rate.
 Reuter

said President Reagan changed no minds in a meeting with
Republican senators to seek support for his veto of an 88
billion dlr highway bill.
    "I think it's safe to say no minds were changed," Dole said
before the Senate began a final vote on the veto.
 Reuter

Investor Paul Bilzerian said he has
offered to buy all of the Pay 'N Pak Stores Inc stock he does
not already own in a proposed 19 dlr a share cash merger.
Bilzerian said he made the proposal in a letter to Pay 'N Pak
Chairman David Heerensperger.
    Bilzerian said he proposed buying the Kent, Wash.-based
retailing company through a new company he would set up which
would buy up all the Pay 'N Pak common shares at 19 dlrs each.
    The Florida investor reported Monday that he has 1,000,000
mln Pay 'N Pak common shares, or 9.9 pct of the total
    He initially disclosed last Friday that he had bought 7.2
pct of the company's stock for investment purposes, but said he
might increase his stake, seek representation on the company's
board or launch a tender offer.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc's RJ Reynolds Tobacco
USA unit said it sold four of its smoking tobacco brands to
<John Middleton Inc> for undisclosed terms.
    The brands sold were Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Apple and
Royal Comfort. The terms were not dislcosed.
    The company said these brands represent less than one pct
of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco's USA total sales which amounted to
4.7 bilion dlrs in 1986.
     John Middleton is a family-owned tobacco business in King
of Prussia, Pa which has manufactured and marketed pipe tobacco
for 131 years.
    In January, the company said it was holding talks with
potential buyers for the sale of the businesses but then said
in February it was studying the transfer of the businesses
to a master limited partnership.
    R.J. Reynolds said it will continue to sell the brands
until July three.
    On March six, RJR completd the sale of its Heublein Inc
unit to Grand Metropolitan PLC for 1.2 billion dlrs. It said it
would use proceeds from that sale to redeem its 11.20 pct notes
due Aug 1, 1997.
 Reuter

<Alcatel NV>, the telecommunications
venture set up by ITT Corp <ITT> and France's <Cie Generale
d'Electricite>, has accepted a proposal from the Industry
Ministry to restructure ITT's former Spanish subsidiary,
<Standard Electrica SA>, a Standard spokesman said.
    He said Alcatel also has agreed to sell <Marconi Espanola
SA>, owned 80 pct by Standard and 20 pct by Alcatel.
    Negotiations to put Standard on a sounder financial footing
have involved the government, Alcatel and Spain's telephone
company, Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana SA <TELF.MA>,
which has a small stake in Standard and is its main customer.
 Reuter

Acme Steel Co said it has agreed
in principle to acquire <Universal Tool and Stamping Inc> for
an undisclosed price.
    The agreement is subject to approval by Acme's board and
execution of a definitive purchase agreement, the companies
said.
    Universal Tool makes and distributes automotive jacks and
related equipment for the domestic auto industry.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp first quarter profits are
expected to exceed the 165 mln dlrs, or 65 cts per share,
reported for 1986's fourth quarter, chairman Richard Morrow
said.
    Speaking to reporters after a security analyst meeting, he
said the gain was expected because of higher oil and gas
prices, but declined to compare his expectations with the 331
mln dlrs, or 1.28 dlrs per share, the company earned in 1986's
    Earlier, Morrow told the analysts that Amoco's first
quarter refining and marketing results "will look pretty poor,"
because of low margins in January and February. The margins
began to improve last month and look pretty good now, he added.
    Morrow said he expects oil product margins to remain good
for the rest of the year, "but it remains to be seen if they
will match 1986 levels." The Amoco chairman said he expects
crude oil prices to remain in the 17 to 20 dlr barrel range for
the rest of 1988 based on his belief that OPEC's agreement will
hold.
    Morrow said his best estimate for 1989 crude oil prices is
21 dlrs per barrel, adding he believes this price level would
result in a 40 pct increase in oil company exploration
spending.
    President H. Lawrance Fuller told the analysts Amoco
reduced its estimates of worldwide oil and gas reserves by a
total of 201 mln equivalent barrels last year because of a drop
in oil and gas prices.
    Noting the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that
reserves be estimated on the assumption that year-end prices
will remain fixed for the life of the properties, he said the
drop in oil prices to 16 dlrs a barrel at the end of 1986 from
27 dlrs a year earlier forced the company to reduce its reserve
estimate by four pct.
    Fuller said Amoco expects its U.S. oil and natural gas
liquids production to decline about five pct this year from
last year's 121 mln barrels because of drilling deferrals made
last year when oil prices were falling.
    He said the full impact of the deferrals was off-set by the
purchase of properties which will add about 5,000 barrels per
day to the company's 1987 U.S. production.
    Fuller said U.S. refining capacity is expected to be
increasingly strained by the rising demand for lead-free
gasoline, especially the higher octane grades.
    He said expected federal regulations on gasoline vapor
pressure will further tighten the industry's gasoline
production capacity.
 Reuter

Shr profit 1.49 dlrs vs loss 8.96 dlrs
    Net profit 2,461,906 vs loss 14,676,385
    Rev 7.2 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 2.12 dlrs vs loss 6.41 dlrs
    Net profit 3,506,112 vs loss 10,508,083
    Revs 34.2 mln vs 50.7 mln
    NOTE: Realized investment gains for the qtr were 96,000
dlrs vs nil for 1985's 4th qtr.
    1986 losses from investments were 203,000 dlrs, or 12 cts a
share, vs losses of 354,000 dlrs, or 21 cts a share, in 1985.
    Qtr net includes extraordinary gain of 1.7 mln dlrs, vs
extraordinary loss of 512,000 in the prior year's 4th qtr. 1985
net includes extraordinary gain of 2.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Pacific First Financial Corp said
it expects to report a sharp increase in first quarter earnings
as compared to the 4.1 mln dlrs, or 54 cts per share, reported
a year earlier.
    The company also said earnings for the quarter should
exceed the record 7.9 mln dlrs, or 1.05 dlrs per share,
reported in last year's final quarter.
    The gains will be due to strong net interest income and
profits on the sale of certain mortgage loans and mortgage
backed securities, Pacific First said. The company expects to
report first quarter results the week of April 13.
 Reuter

Seventeen miners who were
missing in a copper mine fire were found today and efforts were
underway to rescue them and 29 others who were trapped but safe
in an underground lunch room, officials said.
    The mine's owner, Noranda Inc. <NOR>, said one miner died
in the fire, six miners escaped unharmed, 29 made it to an
underground lunch room, where they had air and water, and 17
were later found safe in other lunch rooms.
 Reuter

The Senate overrode President
Reagan's veto of an 88 billion dlr highway funding bill, 67-33.
    The measure now becomes law. It was a major personal loss
for Reagan, who came to the Capitol earlier in the day to
campaign for support.
 Reuter

has acquired the 50 pct of its VenVirotek unit that it did not
already own from Ventura, Calif., businessmen for undisclosed
terms.
 Reuter

Sun Co Inc said the O.M. Steel Federal
Number One well in Williams County, N.D., flowed 660 barrels of
oil and 581,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day through a
13/64 inch choke from depths of 13,188 to 13,204 feet.
    Sun said it has a 50 pct interest and Comdisco Resources
Inc the remainder.  An offset well is under consideration, it said.
 Reuter

Meridian Bancorp Inc said it has
raised its prime rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective
 Reuter

Minnesota Mining and Mfg Co said it
completed the acquisition of Unitek Corp, a supplier of
orthodontic products, from Bristol-Myers Co <BMY>.  The
purchase agreement was announced February 12.
    It said Unitek, based in Monrovia, Calif., will operate as
an independent subsidiary of 3M.
 Reuter

Coffee Growers' Federation, welcomed Brazil's export measures
and said they clarified the market situation.
    He told journalists the measures "set the rules clearly" and
helped dissipate whatever doubts the market might have had
about the world's biggest exporter's policies.
    Brazil's coffee institute, IBC, today opened export
registrations for May with no quantity limit set. The
contribution quota will be 15 pct of the minimum registration
price, which will vary daily.
 Reuter

An amendment approved by the House
Agriculture Committee yesterday requiring quotas on U.S.
imports of products containing sugar is unlikely to remain in a
comprehensive trade bill, Congressional sources said.
    The amendment, offered by Rep. Arlan Stangeland, R-Minn.,
would require quotas on the import of any merchandise
containing over 25 pct sugar or other farm products which are
now subject to U.S. quotas.
    Supporters of the amendment said it is aimed at curbing
shipments of food products containing sugar from Canada.
However, the Ways and Means committee, which has overall
jurisdiction on trade legislation, will try to kill the
amendment as protectionist, a committee aide said.
    An Agriculture committee aide acknowledged the proposal
probably will not survive scrutiny by other House committees.
But he said the amendment was introduced in part to send a
warning to U.S. companies considering moving food processing
plants to Canada to avoid the restrictive U.S. sugar quota.
    In debate on the amendment yesterday, Rep. Stangeland and
other supporters said the proposal would have no effect on the
status of foreign trade zones.
    Sugar producer groups pushed for the amendment on
sugar-containing products because they believe sugar is being
shipped to the United States in food products as a way to
circumvent the quota on raw sugar.
    The sugar quota is only one mln short tons this year.
 Reuter

The Environmental Protection Agency
proposed rules to shield water supplies from potential leaks
from 1.4 mln underground storage tanks, nearly half of which
are used to store gasoline at service stations.
    It said the rules would require owners and operators of the
tanks containing petroleum products or certain hazardous
chemicals to monitor the tanks for leaks and, in case of leaks,
to notify appropriate authorities.
    The owners and operators of petroleum tanks would also be
financially responsible for any contamination, the EPA said.
    It said financial requirements for chemical tanks will be
proposed later.
    Hazardous tanks are regulated separately.
    EPA Administrator Lee Thomas said "Thousands of underground
storage tanks are currently leaking and, without adequate
controls, many more can be expected to leak in the future,
endangering our nation's drinking-water supplies."
    He added in a statement "We intend to ensure that each
underground tank is either upgraded or closed down and that
safe operating and cleanup procedures are following to provide
maximum protection from any future leaks."
 reuter

    The mine's owner, Noranda Inc., said one miner died in the
fire, six miners escaped unharmed, 29 made it to an underground
lunch room, where they had air and water, and 17 were later
found safe in other lunch rooms.
 Reuter

Fitzwater said that comments made in congressional testimony by
Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter do not reflect the
government's position.
    Yeutter was questioned about the dollar during testimony to
the Senate Finance Committee. 
    Fitzwater said in a statement Yeutter's comments were in
response to a hypothetical question "and do not reflect the
government's position."
    "I want to emphasize that only the president and the
secretray of the treasury are authorized to comment on the
dollar," the spokesman said.
    Yeutter, asked whether the U.S. trade deficit would improve
more if the value of the dollar dropped further, replied, "That
should be a mathematical truism." But he added that markets are
more complicated than that.
 Reuter

<Bank of Nova Scotia> said it raised its
U.S. dlr base lending rate in Canada to 8-1/4 pct from eight
 Reuter

The Soviet Union has added 50,000
tonnes to its previous purchases of U.S. corn purchases, the
    In its Export Sales Report covering transactions in the
week ended March 26, the department said changes in
destinations of 250,000 tonnes of corn to the Soviet Union were
reported. However, 200,000 tonnes of the transaction was
reported under the daily reporting system.
    Total corn commitments for delivery in the fourth year of
the U.S.-USSR Grain Supply Agreement amount to 2,650,000 tonnes.
 Reuter

There is little scope for a substantial
increase in U.S. interest rates during 1987, said Federal
National Mortgage Association chairman David Maxwell.
    Speaking to the New York Financial Writers' Association,
Maxwell said he viewed this week's rise in U.S. banks' prime 
rates to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct as a temporary phenomenon.
    "I don't see a substantial rise in rates this year. If
anything, the Federal Reserve is more likely to ease than to
tighten (monetary policy) because so many sectors of the
economy are showing weakness," Maxwell said. Fannie Mae buys
mortgages from lenders and issues mortgage-backed securities.
    Maxwell said restructuring of Fannie Mae over the last two
years had limited its exposure to interest rate fluctuations. A
one pct rise in rates in 1987 would cost shareholders about 18
cts a share versus one dlr a share in 1981, he said.
    Maxwell also questioned the view that housing crowds out
other sectors of the economy from obtaining needed capital.
    "There's no evidence that housing is crowding firms out of
the long-term debt market," he said. Both home mortgage debt
and long-term corporate debt grew at about equal annual rates
of about 13 pct in 1986 -- a year when mortgage originations of
442 billion dlrs needed record housing capital, he said.
 Reuter

Corning Glass Works and Hazleton
Laboratories Corp jointly said they completed a merger of the
two companies in a deal valued at about 120 mln dlrs.
    A joint statement said Hazleton stockholders will receive
.5165 shares of Corning common for each Hazleton share.
    Hazleton, a supplier of biological and chemical services
and products, will operate as a Corning subsidiary under its
current management team, the statement said.
 Reuter

Lane Co said its baord
unanimously reaffirmed its support for a proposed merger with
Interco Inc, following a Lane board meeting.
    Lane said its board recommends that shareholders vote for
adoption of the merger at a special meeting of shareholders on
April 13.

 Reuter

Pay 'N Pak Stores, which previously
announced plans to explore all alternatives for maximizing
shareholder values, said it intends to consider investor Paul
Bilzerian's offer for the company in due course as part of that
process.
    Pay 'N Pak has already retained Salomon Brothers Inc to
assist it in exploring its alternatives.
    Retail analysts have stated that Pay' N Pak's alternatives
could include downsizing its operations, a leveraged buyout or
a combination with a friendly merger partner.
    Bilzerian, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, said he is offering to buy all of the Pay 'N Pak
stock he does not already own for 19 dlrs per share.
    The Florida investor currently controls 9.9 pct of Pay 'N
Pak's stock.
 Reuter

A judge hearing the Bhopal gas
disaster case asked Union Carbide Corp <UK> and the Indian
government to agree on interim compensation for the victims.
    Judge M.W. Deo said he had made the appeal because the
court case was likely to be a long struggle for the disaster
victims.
    The Indian government is demanding more than three billion
dlrs from Union Carbide on behalf of some 526,000 claimants
following the world's worst industrial disaster in December
1984.
    According to official Indian figures, 2,413 people were
killed and more than 200,000 injured when a cloud of methyl
isocyanate gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant enveloped
Bhopal.
 Reuter

Shoppers who buy Haagen-Daas ice cream,
Dijon mustard or Tuborg beer on their weekly trip to the
supermarket are soon to be the target of a promotional blitz
for national-brand "gourmet" coffees.
    General Foods, the largest U.S. coffee roaster, and A and
P, which shares the third place in the U.S. market, are the
only two national brand roasters so far to introduce the
higher-quality coffees into selected supermarkets.
    But industry insiders believe there is substantial growth
potential in upscale coffee, despite years of flat sales in
regular ground roast types.
    "I would suspect General Foods will make a name for
themselves with their gourmet line," said a coffee trade
source. "What it could do is really dent the small-store,
whole-bean business," the trade source added.
    The new lines are designed to appeal to a classic
advertising composite--the "yuppie" consumer.
    They buy fresh pasta, subscribe to Bon Appetit magazine and
were "first on their block with a wok," as described by Karin
Brown, General Foods senior product manager for its new coffee,
called Private Collection out of GF's Maxwell House division.
    Paul Gallant, president of A and P's Compass Foods
subsidiary that makes the new A and P gourmet line, described
its potential appeal as "a status thing."
    At an initial price of 4.99 dlrs for 12 ounces it is
expensive, though not more so than high quality coffee sold in
small specialty stores. General Foods' Maxwell House Div. has
just cut the price on its new offering by 50 cents to 4.49 dlrs
for 12 ounces--a move competitor A and P is bound to imitate,
according to an A and P executive.
    Number two U.S. roaster Folgers has "nothing to announce at
this point" in the gourmet line, a spokesman said. Neither does
Hills Bros., a subsidiary of Nestle that shares the third and
fourth size market spot by volume with A and P.
    Competitors believe Folgers will watch the progress of
General Foods' offering, prepared to jump in if the market
takes off.
    General Foods and A and P hope their new products will help
push coffee sales out of the doldrums. Coffee consumption in
the United States has fallen 44 pct since 1962, according to a
1986 study by the International Coffee Organization. Sales show
no signs of picking up.
    Compass's Gallant blames the falloff on declines in coffee
quality since the 1960's and aggressive soft drink marketing.
    "The national brands began to cheapen the blend in the name
of profit but spent 100 mln dlrs a year telling consumers this
was quality coffee," Gallant said.
    As a result, first time consumers never got a taste for the
brew. The first time a young consumer tries coffee, "they turn
around and say 'My God this is awful, I think I'll have a
Coke'," he said.
    Having now mostly written off the 16-25 age group, who have
confirmed their loyalty to soft drinks, coffee marketers are
aiming at the high income, free-spending, self-treating crowd
-- the yuppie composite.
    "Where else are you going to go?," an industry source said.
"Kids aren't going to drink coffee, that's apparent. There are
no other markets. The only area that's not been promoted is
gourmet," he said.
    In addition to perking up sales, success in the gourmet
line could provide much higher margins to roasters than regular
ground roast coffees produce.
    Generally, retail prices are about twice the price of
green, unroasted coffee beans, taking into account the costs of
roasting, packaging and distribution, and then deducting
often-generous trade discounts. Supermarkets tend to sell
coffee near the trade price as a "loss leader," a product
designed to draw shoppers into the store.
    But with the new gourmet lines, a different pricing
structure prevails, industry sources said. There is no trade
discounting and an emphasis on expensive packaging, including a
special valve designed to keep the beans fresher.
    Dealers said roasters were buying the higher quality green
beans at about 1.60 dlrs a lb. Thus, retail prices on gourmet
coffee are now almost three times the price of green.
    Targetted consumers seem willing to pay the difference.
General Foods claims 80 pct of consumers in their test market
surveys for Private Collection came back for more.
    And product manager Brown points to the success of more
expensive beers, mustard and ice cream, that began selling in
restricted high income areas and are now available in almost
every supermarket in the country.
    A and P is similarly optimistic. "We think we'll do
extremely well in the gourmet market," Gallant said.
    Maxwell House is marketing its eight types of Private
Collection in selected high income areas, while A and P offers
its 14 different whole bean gourmet coffees, called 8 O'Clock
Royale, only in their own stores in Philadelphia, Baltimore,
New York, Atlanta and some other metropolitan areas.
 Reuter

completed the previously announced acquisition of <Avia Group
International Inc> for about 180 mln dlrs or 16.35 dlrs a
share.
    It said litigation begun by certain Avia stockholders
challenging the transaction and seeking damages is in the
pretrial discovery process. Reebok announced the acquisition
agreement on March 10.
    Reebok said Avia will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary
with Dean Croft continuing as Avia's president.
 Reuter

decreased 833 mln dlrs in the week ended yesterday to 235.40
    Assets of 197 general purpose funds rose 1.10 billion dlrs
to 63.21 billion dlrs, 92 broker-dealer funds fell 1.59 billion
dlrs to 107.02 billion dlrs and 91 institutional funds fell 341
mln dlrs to 65.17 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 430,364 vs 265,672
    Revs 8,846,627 vs 5,644,160
    Six mths
    Shr 26 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 737,283 vs 526,071
    Revs 17.6 mln vs 11.4 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit 15 cts vs profit six cts
    Net profit 471,000 vs profit 193,000
    Sales 14 mln vs 9,795,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 77 cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 2,324,000 vs loss 183,000
    Sales 41.9 mln vs 30.3 mln
 Reuter

Reserve rose on April 1 to 4.602 billion dlrs from 3.576
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts rose to 6.495
billion dlrs from 5.394 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 11.097
billion dlrs on April 1 compared with 8.969 billion dlrs on
March 31.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Co said
its Phillips 66 Co subsidiary is expanding its aviation fuel
and lubricants marketing activities into Southern California.
    The company said it bagan selling aviation products on the
West Coast today at Combs Gates Palm Springs, which serves most
of Southern California.
 Reuter

The New York Mercantile Exchange,
NYMEX, has adequate trade practice surveillance and
disciplinary programs, but could take steps to improve them,
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, said.
    In a rule enforcement review, CFTC said NYMEX was able to
identify possible "violative market activity" and that
investigations were generally thorough.
    However, the commission faulted the exchange for limiting
access to its computer-assisted trade practice surveillance
system and recommended NYMEX enhance its computerized
surveillance system.
    CFTC also found NYMEX had an adequate disciplinary program,
but noted that the disciplinary process sometimes was delayed
because of failure to promptly schedule hearings.
 Reuter

Sharp cuts this year in U.S. planted
acreage may not make a big dent in the U.S. grain stockpile but
will at least keep grain surpluses from increasing, Agriculture
Department and industry commodity analysts said.
    "The scenario is turning around on stocks. The whole
supply/demand picture could finally be getting more in
balance," a USDA analyst said.
    The USDA prospective plantings report this week indicated
that U.S. farmers will idle 52 to 55 mln acres in annual
acreage reduction programs this year. An additional 20 mln
acres have been enrolled in the conservation reserve program,
bringing total idled acreage in the U.S. to 72-75 mln acres,
almost a third of the nation's total 235 mln acre crop base.
    Production of wheat, corn and soybeans in 1986/87 will
probably closely match annual usage, limiting any buildup in
stocks, analysts said.
    "It's a substantially different story from last year when
we added 1.5 billion bushels of corn to the stockpile," Vernon
McMinimy, director of commodity research for Staley Co. said.
    Interviewed at an agribusiness education conference here,
McMinimy said that 67.6 mln planted acres of corn will likely
translate into 60 mln harvested acres, and with normal yields,
final production of 6.9 to 7.0 billion bushels.
    McMinimy estimated that total U.S. corn disappearance in
1986/87 could end up at 7.1 billion bushels, possibly resulting
in a 200-million bushel reduction in the current corn stockpile
of 5.45 billion bushels.
    "To say this represents a turn-around is wrong, but we're
at least in a holding pattern," George Hoffman, director of
commodity analysis for Pillsbury said.
    Hoffman said wheat stocks could rise slightly by the end of
1986/87 to 1.9 billion bushels due to "significantly less"
domestic feed use for wheat because of lower corn prices.
    USDA analysts, however, project slightly higher usage and
said wheat stocks will either decrease slightly or at least not
increase. With yearly use at around two billion bushels, next
year's projected crop could be used up, an analyst said.
    "We won't be adding to stocks. Stocks are at a record now,
so if we can begin to touch them even minutely through acreage
reductions, that would be an improvement," an Agriculture
Department wheat analyst said.
    Soybean planted acreage, at 56.9 mln acres, would be the
smallest planted soybean acreage since 1976 and could lower
final production by 150 mln bushels and ending stocks by 50 to
100 mln bushels, analysts said.
    As more marginal, erodable acreage is enrolled in the
conservation reserve program, annual acreage reduction programs
will be more effective because they will force more high
producing land out of production, a USDA analyst said.
    "We can now maybe see the light at the end of a very long
tunnel," the analyst said.
 Reuter

    They also reported rumors that Mexico may have purchased a
sizeable quantity of Canadian flaxseed, although no price or
shipment details were available.
 Reuter

There were 106,200 tonnes of U.S.
corn shipped to the Soviet Union in the week ended March 26,
according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's latest Export
Sales report.
    There were no wheat or soybean shipments during the week.
    The USSR has purchased 2.65 mln tonnes of U.S. corn, as of
March 26, for delivery in the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR
grain agreement.
    Total shipments in the third year of the U.S.-USSR grains
soybeans.
 Reuter

Mexico bought 11,000 to 14,000 tonnes
of Canadian rapeseed, as rumored earlier this week, with price
and shipment period details unavailable, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Changes by the USDA in its posted county
prices have successfully increased PIK-and-roll activity as a
way to pull corn out of government stockpiles, with the
resulting jump in free supplies pressuring terminal corn basis
values, cash grain dealers said.
    Processors dropped spot Chicago corn basis bids three cents
after covering most of the April needs this week, with river
corn basis bids following CIF Gulf corn values lower.
    The surge in PIK-and-roll also pressured corn futures, with
May settling today down three cents per bushel at 1.58-1/2
dlrs, near the contract low of 1.49-1/4 dlrs. But unlike in the
past when lower prices slowed country movement, now lower
county prices widen the differentials with the corn loan and
make PIK-and-roll even more attractive, they noted.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply rose 1.0 billion
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 741.0 billion dlrs in the March
23 week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 740.0 billion
dlrs from 740.2 billion, while the four-week moving average of
M-1 rise to 739.7 billion dlrs from 739.1 billion.
anywhere from down 2.1 billion dlrs to up two billion dlrs. The
average forecast called for an 800 mln dlr increase.
 Reuter

Oper shr 27 cts vs 37 cts
    Oper net 2,211,000 vs 2,907,000
    Revs 84.5 mln vs 74.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.15 dlrs vs 59 cts
    Oper net 9,161,000 vs 4,690,000
    Revs 251.4 mln vs 230.0 mln
294,000 vs gain of 294,000 for qtr and gain of 279,000 vs gain
of 979,000 for year.
 Reuter

Caremark Corp said it
completed the sale of its America's Pharmacy Inc unit to
Newport Pharmaceuticals International Inc for 12 mln dlrs.
    America's Pharmacy, based in Des Moines, Iowa, provides
prescription drugs and other health care products.
 Reuter

Bell Petroleum Services Inc said it will
continue to talk with Regal International Inc <RGL> about being
acquired, but maintained it will pursue alternatives as part of
    Any plan of reorganization Bell arrives at would be subject
to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Midland, Texas,
Bell said.
    The agreement also terminates all current litigation
between Regal and Bell involving previous reorganization plans,
in which Regal attempted to acquire Bell, the company said.
 Reuter

An estimated 500 million people,
or about 10 pct of the world's population, are living in
critical condition, starving, Food and Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) director Edouard Saouma said.
    Saouma, in Brazil for talks with agriculture officials,
said he invited President Jose Sarney to make the opening
speech at the International Day of Food in Rome October 16.
    He also said he offered to send a technical mission to
Brazil to help the government's land reform campaign.
    During his stay at the federal capital, Saouma said he
signed three accords for development of technical projects by
the FAO in Brazil, the largest of which calls for a 57 mln dlrs
investment for irrigation of areas in the drought- stricken
Brazilian northeast.
 Reuter

Decision/Capital Fund Inc said
entities associated with Mario Gabelli, an arbitrager, have
acquired 9.98 pct of the shares in a friendly transaction.
    In a 13D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
The Gabelli Group Inc of New York, said it acquired 200,000
shares of the fund in stock exchange transactions on March 25
"in the ordinary course of business and not to acquire control"
of the fund.
    Decision has said it will seek shareholder approval to
convert to an operating company. It also plans to acquire
Hopper, Soliday and Co Inc, a regional stock brokerage.
 Reuter

that U.S. farmers will idle 52-55 mln acres in annual acreage
reduction programs this year. An additional 20 mln acres have
been enrolled in the conservation reserve program, bringing
total idled acreage in the U.S. to 72-75 mln acres, almost a
third of the nation's total 235 mln acre crop base.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs 16 cts
    Net 70,000 vs 153,000
    Revs 4.0 mln vs 3.1 mln
    Year
    Net 520,000 vs 473,000
    Revs 15.0 mln vs 12.1 mln
    NOTE:Above results pro forma because company went public in
 Reuter

Entwistle Co, a Hudson, Mass.,-based
defense contractor, said it raised its stake in Bird Inc to the
equivalent of 572,100 shares, or 13.9 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 470,100 shares, or 11.4 pct.
    Entwistle, a privately held company, said it bought 102,000
Bird common shares on April 1 at 9.625 dlrs a share.
    It said it may buy up to 24 pct of the total outstanding
for investment purposes. Entwistle also said it has met with
Bird representatives on its request for board representation,
but the talks were inconclusive. Its stake includes 562,000
common shares, with the rest in convertible preferred stock.
 Reuter

Jordan will tender Monday for
225,000 tonnes of U.S. hard and soft wheat under the USDA's
Export Bonus program for April through November shipment,
 Reuter

Thai Airways International
Ltd said it purchased two McDonnell Douglas Corp's DC-10
extended range wide-body jets for over 125 mln dlrs.
    The jets will be delivered at year end.
    Thai Airways said the jets will operate flights between
Thailand, northern Europe and New Zealand.
 Reuter

Rescue workers are bringing
out miners who have been trapped in a <Noranda Inc>
copper mine for almost 24 hours by fire which has so far killed
one and sent 17 to hospital, company officials said.
    "We're working to take the men out - everybody that's
underground is safe, we're established contact with them and
now it's really just finding out how to take them out," Andre
Fortier, a vice president with Noranda Minerals, which owns the
mine said.
    Ange-Aime Kenny died after being trapped by smoke from the
fire, company officials said. Fortier said he believed all the
workers would be rescued by the end of the night. He said he
did not believe any of the 17 men taken to hospital were
seriously injured.
 Reuter

Brazil bought 75,000 tonnes of
French wheat at tonight's tender, a Brazilian Wheat Board
    For May shipment, it accepted offers from J. Souflet for
50,000 tonnes of wheat at 83.49 dlrs Fob per tonne.
    For June shipment, Brazil bought 25,000 tonnes from J.
Souflet also at 83.49 dlrs Fob per tonne.
    The next tender is set for April 9, for May, June and July
shipment, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

<Canuc Resources Inc> said it completed
the previously announced sale of its 80 uranium mining claims
in Elliot Lake, Ontario to <Denison Mines Ltd> for an initial
payment of 150,000 dlrs and certain royalties.
    Canuc said it anticipated that Denison would start mining
the property in 1989, with production reaching a yearly peak of
between one mln and 1.5 mln pounds uranium oxide in 1992.
    It said it would receive production royalties of about
1.025 dlrs for each pound of uranium oxide contained in ore
broken during mine development and a minimum advance of 25,000
dlrs a quarter until production starts.
 Reuter

Remaining recoverable gas reserves in
the areas held by the Santos Ltd <STOS.S>-led Cooper Basin
joint ventures have been upgraded to 2,721.7 billion cubic feet
(bcf) from the 2,466 estimated last May, Santos said.
    The upgrading followed a re-review by consultant <Coles
Nikiforuk Pennell Associates> in light of the large number of
gas finds since May 1986, Santos said in a statement.
    This means that total contractual commitments of 2,455.5
bcf to <The Australian Gas Light Co> of New South Wales and the
Pipeline Authority of South Australia can be met with spare gas
available for sale in South Australia, it said.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union conducted an underground
nuclear test aimed at perfecting military technology, the
official news agency Tass reported.
    Tass said the test was carried out at 0120 gmt at the
Semipalatinsk testing ground in Kazakhstan, Soviet Central
Asia.
    It was the third Soviet underground blast since Moscow
halted an 18-month nuclear test moratorium last February,
saying Washington's refusal to join the ban had forced it to
resume testing.
 REUTER

At a time when Britain is threatening
to revoke the license of Japanese banks in retaliation for
restrictive trade practices, Hong Kong is rolling out the
welcome mat to Japan.
    The British colony last week issued a banking licence to
the Bank of Fukuoka Ltd, making it the 24th Japanese bank here.
    Japan has the largest banking contingent in Hong Kong,
followed by the U.S. With 22 banks. Eleven Japanese banks have
representative offices here and Japanese institutions operate
34 deposit-taking companies (DTCs).
    Assistant banking commissioner K.K Wong told Reuters: "There
are no special favours towards the Japanese...But because of
Japan's strong economy and currency, they easily meet our
requirement on assets (14 billion U.S. Dlrs)."
    The Japanese control the largest share of assets of the
financial institutions here but incorporated elsewhere, with
980.5 billion H.K. Dlrs at end-1986, or 57.5 pct of the total.
    "Hong Kong authorities welcome Japanese banks," said Haruo
Kimura, assistant general manager of the Bank of Tokyo. "But the
U.S. And Britain are unhappy with the slow liberalisation of
the Tokyo financial market."
    Japanese bankers said Hong Kong offers good business
opportunities, especially in China trade, to Japanese banks who
are following their clients' international expansion.
    "As their clients become more international, they have to
keep up and follow them," said Yutaka Toda, Dai-Ichi Kangyo
Bank's general manager here.
    "We can have access to local traders and regional
corporations," said Bank of Tokyo's Kimura. "We can also pick up
business with China."
    Bankers said more Japanese banks are on the way. An influx
of Japanese banks began in the late 1970s when the government
lifted a moratorium on new licences. But newcomers are allowed
one branch each and only the Bank of Tokyo, Sanwa Bank and
Sumitomo Bank have more than one branch.
    Because of this limitation, Japanese banks have mostly
concentrated on wholesale business.
    "It is very difficult to compete with those giants such as
the Hongkong Bank and the Bank of China," said Kimura of the
Bank of Tokyo.
    Bank of Tokyo has the largest Japanese bank network here
with seven branches, while Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp
and the Bank of China groups each have hundreds of branches.
    To broaden their client and deposit base, some Japanese
banks have taken equity in local banks. The latest such move
was Dai-Ichi Kangyo's increase of its stake in Chekiang First
Bank last year to 95 pct from 33 pct.
    Tokai Bank, Fuji Bank and Mitsubishi Bank also have
interests in small local banks.
    But Mitsubishi, not content with its single-branch licence
and a 25 pct stake in the small Liu Chong Hing Bank, bought
Mercantile Bank Ltd's multi-branch licence early this year.
    "We will open one more branch in (Hong Kong's district of)
Kowloon soon, to better serve our clients on the other side of
the harbour," said Mitsubishi Bank general manager Takeshi
Tange.
    Their weakness in the retail market forces Japanese banks
to rely on the interbank market for funding.
    Government data show that despite their large share of
total assets, Japanese banks had only 54.4 billion dlrs in
deposits at end-1986, or 17.1 pct of deposits of banks in Hong
Kong incorporated elsewhere.
    "Most Japanese banks' international lendings in the region
are booked in Hong Kong," said a Japanese banker who declined to
be named.
    He said it is mainly for tax reasons, adding that assets
such as loans booked in Hong Kong are not subject to Japanese
tax.
    Japanese banks are barred by the Tokyo government from
issuing Eurobonds, but their Hong Kong subsidiaries can tap the
Euromarket and lend the funds to the parent.
    Bankers said this role could be undermined by a five pct
capital adequacy ratio that goes into effect next year,
requiring many DTC's to increase their capital. Many Japanese
banks are seeking special treatment for their largely offshore
operations or a different risk calculation for their assets.
    "I don't think this will stop them from coming here," said a
banker. "But it may mean they have to conduct some of their
offshore funding operations elsewhere."
 REUTER

Group Ltd <ANZA.S> said it will lower its Australian prime
lending rate to 18 pct from 18.25, effective April 6.
    The cut is the second announced by the bank in the last
week, following a cut from 18.5 pct effective last Monday.
    The ANZ's new rate will be the lowest prime set by the four
major trading banks and matches the rate set by one of the
smaller foreign banks in January and left unchanged during the
rise in primes over the last three months.
    Other primes range from 18.25 to 18.5 pct, including those
of the other three majors.
 REUTER

The Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd in New Zealand said it will raise its indicator
lending rate to 23 pct from 21.5 pct on April 7.
    A bank statement said the continuing rise in the cost of
funds had to be passed on to the lending customers.
    ANZ managing director Brian Weeks said: "Recent developments
in the money markets are of deep concern to all participants
... Market participants are understandably nervous and cautious
about future developments.
    These include flows to and from the government relating to
the privatisation of seven government departments on April 1.
    "We welcome the flexibility evident in the Reserve Bank's
move to raise the system cash target yesterday, but feel that
to reduce the present nervousness the cash target and primary
liquidity level need to be raised further...," he said.
    The Reserve Bank has raised its daily cash target to 45 mln
N.Z. Dlrs from its normal 30 mln dlrs.
    Call rates have traded as high as 65 pct this week because
of business year-end March 31 balance date book squaring.
    Westpac Banking Corp in New Zealand announced yesterday it
would increase its indicator lending rate by 1.5 percentage
points to 22.5 pct on April 7.
 REUTER

Tokyo stockmarket index rises 43.13 to record 22,410.85 closing high

The China International Trust and
Investment Corp (CITIC) will issue a 30 billion yen, 10-year
bond on April 23, Daiwa Securities said as lead manager.
    The samurai bond, to be signed on on April 14, will be the
first since an Asian Development Bank issue in February.
    The coupon is expected to be around five pct, Daiwa said.
    The April Japanese government 10-year bond coupon has been
set at 4.7 pct against five pct on the March bond.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it would offer for
tender 200 mln dlrs of 13-week treasury notes next week.
    The Bank added it would take up 300 mln dlrs of 13-week
notes at the average yield.
    The bank will not offer any 26-week notes for tender next
week.
 REUTER

Libyan forces are still bombing the key
Ouadi Doum airstrip in northern Chad captured by Chadian troops
on March 22, French Defence Minister Andre Giraud said.
    The bombing was still going on even though Libyan troops
had been driven out of most of northern Chad, Giraud told Radio
France Internationale in an interview monitored by the British
Broadcasting Corporation. He added Chad had not asked France to
help drive the Libyans out of the north.
    Chad said yesterday its troops had captured the Libyan
outpost of Gouro, some 150 km south of the disputed Aouzou
strip in the far north of the central African country.
 REUTER

Agriculture Minister Mutsuki Kato said he
will meet U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng here on April
17 and 20 to discuss bilateral farm trade issues. Lyng will
visit Tokyo from April 16 to 27.
    Kato told reporters after a cabinet meeting all topics ofconcern to the U.S. Will be discussed, such as trade in beef

and oranges and import controls on farm products. He said
Shintaro Abe, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's executive
council chairman, would propose some unspecified measures in
response to demands to ease import controls on U.S. Farm
products. Kato declined to give any details.
 REUTER

Lucas Industries Inc's convertible
eurobond has been increased to 83 mln dlrs from the initial 75
mln dlrs due to strong demand for the deal, lead manager J.
Henry Schroder Wagg and Co Ltd said.
    The coupon has been set at 5-1/4 pct. The conversion price
is fixed at 640 pence per share, representing a premium of
11-1/2 pct over yesterday's mid-price close of 574 pence.
    The seven year put option was priced at 118 pct to give the
investor a yield to the put of 7.31 pct. The foreign exchange
rate was fixed at 1.6030 U.S. Dlrs to one stg. The borrower is
a unit of Lucas Industries Plc <LUCS.L>.

 REUTER

is proposing a capitalisation share issue of two new ordinary
shares for each ordinary share held at the close of business on
April 15.
    The move is subject to the approval of shareholders at an
extraordinary general meeting to be held on April 30, it said
    The new shares will not participate in the proposed final
dividend for 1986, expected to be paid on May 7.
 REUTER

Sweden's National Debt Office said it
was issuing a four billion crown, seven-year domestic
government bond with a coupon of 10.75 pct.
    It invited bids by April 6 and payment date for the loan is
April 10.
    The issue, like all Swedish domestic paper, is closed to
non-residents.
 REUTER

The Duth Central bank said it accepted
bids totalling 4.086 billion guilders at tender for the new
twelve-day special advances at an unchanged 5.3 pct.
    Bids up to 30 mln guilders were met in full, amounts above
at 40 pct.
    The new advances, covering the period April 3 to 15,
replace the current 4.2 billion guilder nine-day facility at
5.3 pct, which expires today.
    Money market dealers said the total amount allocated was in
line with expectations and would be sufficient to cover the
money market shortage for the duration of the facility.
 REUTER

Toyo Trust and Banking Co Ltd is issuing
a 100 mln dlr convertible eurobond due March 31, 2002 paying an
indicated two pct and priced at par, lead manager Toyo Trust
    The issue is callable after three years at 104 pct
declining by 1/2 pct per annum to par thereafter. It is not
callable unless the share price exceeds the conversion price by
150 pct.
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct. Final terms will be fixed on
April 10. The payment date is April 30 and there will be a
short first coupon period. The issue will be listed in
 REUTER

West German unemployment, unadjusted
for seasonal factors, fell to 2.41 mln in March from 2.49 mln
in February, the Federal Labour Office said.
    The total represents 9.6 pct of the workforce compared with
10.0 pct in February.
    The seasonally adjusted jobless total rose, however, in
March to 2.23 mln from 2.18 mln in February, it added.
    In March last year the unadjusted unemployment total stood
at 2.45 mln and represented 9.8 pct of the workforce.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment was 2.29 mln.
    The Federal Labour Office said the number of workers on
short time rose by 80,629 to 462,802 and the number of
vacancies increased by 15,263 to 180,047.
    Labour Office President Heinrich Franke, announcing the
figures, said the hesitant decline in the unadjusted jobless
total reflected continuing bad weather, slack activity in the
capital goods sector and structural changes in the coal and
steel industry.
    In a separate statement, the Federal Statistics Office said
the rise in the overall number of people in employment had
slowed in February.
    The Office said that, according to estimates for February,
25.7 mln people were in work, a rise of around 240,000 or 0.9
pct compared with the same month in 1986.
    It noted that in January the year-on-year rise was 250,000
or 1.0 pct and the number in work stood at 25.78 mln. The
decline in February compared with January reflected seasonal
factors, it added.
 REUTER

has improved her standing with voters, according to the first
opinion poll published since her return from the Soviet Union.
    Thatcher is seeking re-election for a third term and the
newspaper said there would now be pressure on her to go for a
June or even a May election to capitalise on her Soviet trip.
    The survey, by the Harris Research Centre for today's
London Daily News, said more than half of the 767 voters polled
by telephone believed she had improved the prospects of arms
reductions and peace while 22 pct said they were more likely to
vote for her now than before her visit.
    The poll was bad news for Labour opposition leader Neil
Kinnock. It showed that his popularity had slumped following
his trip to Washington last week to explain his anti-nuclear
policies. Thirty five pct of those polled said their opinion of
him had gone down since the trip and only 13 pct were more in
favour of him.
    In contrast, 46 pct said they were more impressed with
Thatcher after her trip to the Soviet Union. Only 14 pct rated
her less highly. REUTER

a shortage of around 700 mln stg in the system today.
treasury bills will drain 546 mln stg, bills for repurchase by
the market 76 mln, a rise in note circulation 310 mln and
bankers balances below target 105 mln.
    The outflow will be partly offset by 340 mln stg exchequer
 REUTER

The Palm Oil Registration and
Licensing Authority (PORLA) reports trade in crude palm oil
(cpo) on April 2 as follows in ringgit per tonne delivered
unless stated.
    April 752.50 south and central 751 north average 752.50
down 6.50. May 750 south down 11.
    Refined palm oil traded in bulk US dlrs per tonne fob. RBD
palm oil May 320. RBD palm olein April 336 May 337.50 June 337.
RBD palm stearin May 275.
    The cpo market was lower in light trading, with April
traded between 747.50 and 755 ringgit per tonne.
    The refined palm oil market was slightly easier and April
delivery of RBD palm olein to Singapore traded at 856.50
 REUTER

Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc will no
longer be working as financial advisers for financier Khoo Teck
Puat, Shearson said in a statement.
    Acting as Khoo's advisers, Shearson formulated a repayment
proposal to the National Bank of Brunei Bhd (NBB). Brunei
authorities closed the bank last November, alleging 90 pct of
its loans of 1.3 billion Brunei dlrs had been extended, without
documentation or guarantee, to firms controlled by Khoo's
family and friends.
    Sources close to Khoo said creditor banks and the NBB are
still studying the proposal submitted in February.
 REUTER

The Central Bank issued 5.65 billion dlrs
worth of certificates of deposit (CDs), boosting CD issues so
far this year to 147.58 billion, a bank spokesman told Reuters.
money supply which has grown as a result of increasing foreign
    The reserves hit a record 53 billion U.S. Dlrs last month.
 REUTER

<Toyo Umpanki Co Ltd> said it is
considering setting up a European unit to produce forklifts, in
view of the yen's rise and Japan's self-imposed restriction on
forklift exports to the European Community (EC).
    Belgium, Britain and France are candidates for the plant.
The company is negotiating with unspecified European makers and
a decision is expected in August, a spokesman said.
    Toyo currently exports 40 pct of its annual production of
14,000 to 15,000 units. Some 40 pct of exports go to the EC.
    Overall Japanese forklift exports in calendar 1986 fell to
14,005 from 15,991 a year earlier.
 REUTER

Fear of social instability and inflation
has forced China to curtail a major economic reform --
overhauling a pricing system in which prices bear no relation
to production costs.
    Despite pledges last year that price changes were needed to
get the economy on the right track, Peking has repeatedly said
no major change will happen this year. The backtracking has
occurred during a conservative backlash following the
resignation in January of reformist Communist Party leader Hu
Yaobang, western diplomats and Chinese sources say.
    "Price changes in the last two years have aroused great
public discontent, especially in the cities," one western
diplomat said.
    "Chinese were used to stable prices for 30 years from 1949
when the communists took over. On a recent visit to two major
cities, the refrain from all the officials was the need to
preserve social stability."
    A Chinese journalist said the reformers under-estimated the
potential public resistance to price increases.
    "A major review of all economic reforms is under way, the
biggest since the reforms began in 1979, because many things
are not going well -- a large budget deficit, too rapid price
increases and no major improvement in productivity of state
firms," the Chinese journalist said.
    This view was reflected by the official People's Daily in a
major article this week. The daily said price increases had
been taking place too quickly in recent years.
    "In future, price changes should be only in small steps," it
said, adding that wage increases and lax monetary policies had
resulted in too much money chasing too few goods.
    The Chinese journalist said the review was in part due to
political factors.
    "Economics and politics are inseparable in China. But the
western media are wrong to classify the leadership into
reformers and conservatives. All the leaders agree on the main
direction -- economic reform and the open-door," he said.
    "But there are differences of opinion on the pace of reform
and on specific policies. No one is advocating a return to how
things were before 1979."
    Those who say prices should reflect production costs
believe the issue is vital to China's economy.
    Sugar is an example. An official newspaper said earlier
this year that over 40 pct of the country's sugar mills were
losing money, or had closed because the price of sugar had not
changed for 20 years, while the production costs have risen
sharply over the same period.
    The western diplomat said Chinese leaders did not fear a
backlash against rising prices would result in rioting in the
streets, which they had the means to control.
    "The bottom line is how such protests would be used by those
in the power struggle (inside the Communist Party)," he said.
    Said a foreign lawyer, referring to the crisis sparked by
student demonstrations which led to Hu's replacement, "The
leadership here is a self-perpetuating oligarchy. There is no
way that it is going to give up power."
    The Chinese journalist added that China appears to have
reached a crossroads.
    "There is no clear proposal as to what to do next," he said.
"Premier Zhao (Ziyang) has instructed his think-tanks to come up
with how to continue the reforms in 1988."
    But for the time being at least, the path leading to price
reforms is out of favour.
 REUTER

MIM Holdings Ltd <MIMA.S> said it has
issued 23.33 mln shares to Preussag AG <PRSG.F> to complete the
previously announced purchase of 20 pct of <Norddeutsche
Affinerie AG> from Preussag.
    Terms of the acquisition of 10 pct of Norddeutsche
Affinerie from Degussa AG <DGSG.F> are currently being
resolved, MIM said in a statement.
    Norddeutsche Affinerie will then be owned 40 pct by
Metallgesellschaft AG <METG.F> and 30 pct each by MIM and
Degussa, but MIM said it and Metallgesellschaft are proposing a
further arrangement to give them 35 pct each.
 REUTER

unemployment rate fell to 7.8 pct of the workforce in February
from 7.9 pct in January, against 7.9 pct in February 1986, the
    The total number of unemployed in February was 213,200
against 215,700 in January and 216,600 in February, 1986.
 REUTER

Meals and feed on a cif Rotterdam
basis opened quietly this morning with mixed to slighlty firmer
seller indications compared with yesterday's midday levels,
    Early buying interest was low despite a weaker dollar
against European currencies, they added. No trades were
reported so far.
    US soymeal indicated between unchanged and one dlr a tonne
lower compared with yesterday. Brazilian soymeal pellets were
offered between one dlr lower and one higher, while Argentines
indicated up to two dlrs a tonne higher than yesterday.
    Cornglutenfeed pellets were indicated between unchanged and
one dlr lower, while citruspulp pellets were offered at
slightly firmer levels compared with yesterday midday.
    Seller indications for sunmeal pellets were between one dlr
higher and 0.50 dlrs lower than yesterday, while linseed
expellers were up to two dlrs above yesterday's midday levels.
 REUTER

Pakistan's decision to suspend tea
import licences will hurt Kenyan tea exports in the short term
while exporters seek new markets, sources close to Nairobi
broking houses and exporters said.
    Broking house officials in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo
yesterday told Reuters Pakistan had suspended the licences in
order to link tea imports to Pakistani exports.
    The latest available figures show that Kenyan exports to
Pakistan, mainly tea, were worth 75 mln dlrs in 1985, while
imports from Pakistan amounted to only 4.8 mln dlrs. Kenya
provides over 50 pct of Pakistan's tea imports.
    The Nairobi sources said the Pakistani decision did not
come as a surprise as Pakistan had been complaining of the
trade imbalance for some time.
    "We are very disappointed that Pakistan took such action ...
(it) will certainly hurt Kenya's tea industry in the short term
as Pakistan is Kenya's second largest market," a source at one
broking house told Reuters.
    One tea broker said Pakistan's move had already affected
Kenya's tea trade and was largely responsible for an average
fall of two shillings a kilo at the export auction in Mombasa
last Monday.
    "The trend is likely to continue until other countries
replace Pakistan, which usually buys all qualities of our tea,"
he added.
    Kenya has for a long time relied on Britain, Pakistan,
Egypt and, to a lesser extent the United States, as major
markets for its tea, the sources added.
    Small-scale exporters who export mainly to Pakistan would
be worst hit by the Pakistani move as it would take them longer
to find new outlets, they said.
 REUTER

An big expansion in bilateral trade is
expected as a result of Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar
Carlsson's visit to China, a official of China's Foreign
Economic Relations and Trade Ministry official said.
    He told the China Daily that petroleum, coal, cotton,
non-ferrous metals and electric engines could help balance the
trade running at over three-to-one in Sweden's favour.
    Total trade reached 290 mln dlrs last year, up 32 pct on
1985, according to Chinese statistics. Swedish sources said
major paper mill projects and an aviation agreement would be
discussed during Carlsson's one week visit.
 REUTER

The United States is stepping up its bid
to win a share of a multi-billion dollar project to build
Japan's next jet fighter, the FSX, as the country's Defence
Agency nears a decision, agency sources said.
    General Dynamics Corp <GD.N> and McDonnell Douglas Corp
<MD.N> of the U.S. Have separately suggested joint development
of the FSX with Japanese firms.
    Officials said the Agency was still studying the project,
but agency sources said the assessment was in the final stages.
    The officials said the agency had received a briefing on a
development proposal from General Dynamics to modify its F-16
jet. The firm's team arrived here on March 30. They declined to
elaborate on the briefing.
    A team from McDonnell is arriving next Monday with a
similar proposal based on its F/A-18 Hornet, the Agency said.
    A Pentagon team of about 10 experts will follow up with a
one-week visit starting on April 11 to discuss the projected
plane with the Agency, the officials said.
      Five major Japanese makers will also present briefings
this month, they said. A spokesman for the group including
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries <MITH.T> and Kawasaki Heavy
Industries <KAWH.T> declined to disclose details.
    The agency has been studying three possibilities:
development of a new fighter-bomber by Japanese makers with or
without foreign participation, modifying F-4EJ Phantoms the
Agency now uses or purchase of a foreign aircraft.
    The contract will be worth an estimated 1,000 billion yen
for 100 FSXs. The agency plans to decide by June and seek
initial research funds in the 1988 budget, press reports said.
 REUTER

The joint committee of Taiwan soybean
importers awarded a contract to Cigra Inc of Chicago to supply
a 54,000 tonne cargo of U.S. Soybeans, a committee spokesman
    The cargo, priced at 213.87 U.S. Dlrs per tonne c and f
Taiwan, is for delivery between April 20 and May 5.
 REUTER

South Korea's M-2 money supply fell two
pct to 33,463.4 billion won in March from 34,030.3 billion in
February, provisional Bank of Korea figures show.
    It rose a revised 0.5 pct in February and was up 14.7 pct
from a year earlier.
    M-1 money supply fell 8.7 pct to 7,767.8 billion won in
March against a revised rise of 4.3 pct in February. It has
increased 8.3 pct since March last year.
    Bank officials said the March falls were due mainly to
various measures by the bank to absorb excess money.
 REUTER

<Skandia International Holding AB>,
the overseas offshoot of Swedish insurance group Forsakrings AB
Skandia <SKDS.ST> said it was buying a 29.9 pct share in the
London-quoted property and financial services company <Nevi
Baltic Plc>. No financial details were given.
    Nevi Baltic, with a 1986 turnover of 20 mln stg and total
assets of 70 mln stg, is controlled by Norwegian finance
company <Nevi AS> which will retain a 30.1 pct stake in the
British unit, Skandia said in a statement.
    The deal is subject to formal approval from the Swedish
central bank, the statement added.
 REUTER

Raw sugar futures had a quiet opening
call of 38 lots with prices holding steady from last night with
gains of 20 to 80 cents a tonne, dealers said.
    Aug was trading at 157.60 dlrs from 157.40 asked yesterday.
    The modest rise continued the recent rally from an oversold
situation but, dealers noted, there was little fresh physicals
news to stimulate activity.
    Whites tenders are scheduled for next Wednesday by Syria
for 36,000 tonnes and Greece for 40,000 tonnes while Pakistan
is due to tender on April 11 for 100,000 tonnes whites, they
said.
    This week has seen whites buying by India and Egypt.
 REUTER

Tug crews are preventing the movement of
foreign-flag container vessels in and out of the ports of
Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle, shipping sources said.
    They said maritime unions imposed bans on late Wednesday
for reasons that are obscure but seem to be linked with claims
for a pay rise above the 10 dlrs a week awarded by the
Arbitration Commission nationally to all workers recently.
    Only about 10 vessels are being delayed but the bans will
affect container terminal movements and will disrupt liner
schedules, they said.
    The dispute goes to the Commission on Monday, they said.
 REUTER

U.K. Domestic wheat markets dropped about
one stg per tonne early this morning following overnight news
that the EC is releasing a further 300,000 tonnes of wheat from
British intervention stores for the home market over a three
month period.
    April deliveries of denaturable wheat were offered in East
Anglia at 124 stg and May at 125 stg per tonne, both one stg
down on yesterday's traded rates.
    The market is expecting U.K. Wheat futures to show a
similar loss at today's opening.
 REUTER

Cocoa futures fell to session lows by
midmorning, posting losses from last night of six to two stg a
tonne in 1987 deliveries, dealers said.
    Weekend profittaking by jobbers and general book-squaring
featured the fall which was aided by steady sterling versus the
dollar and lack of offtake in the physicals market.
    Dealers said the market was switch and straddle-bound, in
that any pressure on one particular month was certain to be
reflected in adjacent deliveries.
    The undertone, however, remained cautious as operators
await an eventual start to ICCO buffer stock buying, dealers
said.
    The market was originally forecast to open with average
five stg gains from last night following New York's firmer
close yesterday, dealers said.
    But this was largely counter-balanced by currency factors.
    Near July traded at its session low of 1,327 stg after one
hour versus 1,333 bid last night and an early high of 1,335.
    Volume midmorning was 730 lots including 350 lots crossed
and 108 switches.
    There was no sign of any origin activity.
 REUTER

Japan should increase foreign access to
its farm products market, while encouraging further development
of domestic agriculture, a government report said.
    The white paper on agriculture for the year ended March 31
said active participation in writing world farm trade rules at
the next round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
talks will help prepare Japan to improve access.
    Agriculture Ministry sources said the paper marked an
easing in Japan's tough position on agricultural imports which
stressed the need for strict controls on some products to
maintain self-sufficiency in food.
    Japan now produces only 30 pct of its annual grain needs,
down from 61 pct some 20 years ago, official figures show.
    The paper said Japanese agriculture has been slow to
improve productivity and demand/supply imbalances.
    The relative shortage of farmland in Japan is mainly
responsible for higher domestic prices, it said.
    The strong yen has meant lower input material prices but
has also resulted in higher agricultural imports which has
worsened working conditions among part-time farmers, the paper
said.
    This could make it difficult to improve the industry's
structure, the paper said.
    To solve these problems and to reduce farm product prices
to more reasonable levels, Japan should try to restructure the
the agricultural sector to improve productivity and make it
self-supporting, it said.
 REUTER

South Korea will press institutional
investors to sell shares they are holding and oblige them to
buy monetary stabilisation bonds if they want to make further
stock investments, a finance ministry spokesman said.
    He said Finance Minister Chung In-yong, Bank of Korea
Governor Park Sung-sang and officials of the Securities
Supervisory Board agreed that the stock market was over-heated
and decided to take measures to cool it down.
    Ministry officials said the recent market boom was fuelled
mainly by ample liquidity and excessive demand from
institutions and speculative investors.
    The spokesman said industrial firms with bank loans worth
50 billion won or more should either issue convertible bonds or
offer new shares in order to raise funds to help repay their
loans.
    Securities houses will not be allowed to hold shares worth
more than 40 pct of their paid-in capital and investment trust
firms 50 pct, the spokesman said. But he did not give a
deadline for compliance. Other insitutitions should also reduce
the volume of their share-holdings, he added.
    The composite index, a weighted average of 355 listed
firms, closed at 398.72 yesterday. It started 1987 at 264.82.
loans.
 REUTER

Suzuki Motor Co Ltd <SZMT> said it is
recalling about 63,000 of its compact 1,300-cc SA-413 cars.
    The cars, produced between May 1984 and January 1987, need
modifications because insufficient space between the fuel tube
and the cooling fan switching coupler could cause them to catch
fire under ordinary driving conditions, the spokesman said.
    Some 53,100 of the cars affected were sold abroad.
 REUTER

Bass Plc <BASS.L> and <Horizon Travel
Plc> said terms have been agreed for an offer worth around 94.8
mln stg for Horizon by Bass.
    The offer values each Horizon share at some 0.213 of a Bass
ordinary share, or 190p. This is based on a price of 892p, the
Bass share quotation at 1630 gmt on April 2.
    Horizon said its board and financial advisers consider the
offer to be fair and reasonable and the board will unanimously
recommend acceptance to its shareholders.
    Horizon shares jumped 23p to 188 after the announcement
while Bass shares dipped 13p to 879.
    Bass has for some time regarded overseas holidays as an
area for expansion and in pursuit of this objective, acquired a
25.6 pct holding in Horizon in 1985 when it set up the jointly
owned hotel company.
    Both Bass and Horizon said that Bass's resources will
enable Horizon's businesses to expand strongly this year.
    On March 30 Bass said it had agreed to sell its Pontins
U.K. Holiday camps to a newly formed private company, Pontins
Ltd, for some 57.5 mln stg.
 REUTER

Grain handling at Rotterdam port's
main grain terminal was at a standstill today as members of the
largest Dutch transport union FNV staged a lightning strike for
the third day running.
    Pieter van der Vorm, managing director of Graan Elevator
Mij (GEM), which handles 95 pct of grain passing through the
port, said their main Europoort terminal was out of action
because of a strike by technical staff.
    The actions, in support of union demands in negotiations
over a new labour agreement, began on Wednesday when grain
handlers stopped work.
    Van der Vorm said that if strikes continued on today's
scale for some time vessels coming to unload grain in Rotterdam
would face delays, but this was not happening yet.
    Wednesday's actions left GEM's facilities 40 pct
operational, and there were only limited strikes yesterday.
    Talks between unions and employers yesterday and today
produced no result, but FNV spokesman Bert Duim said the union
was prepared to put their key demand, for a 36 hour working
week, at the bottom of the agenda.
    Van der Vorm said, however, the union's demands on a range
of issues were far in excess of the management's final offer.
 REUTER

<Citibank NA> and <Tokyo Sogo Bank Ltd>,
the largest mutual loan and savings bank in the Tokyo area,
have signed an agreement to cooperate on retail banking, a
Tokyo Sogo spokesman said.
    Citibank, a subsidiary of Citicorp <CCI>, plans to start
retail banking in Japan and is expected to provide Tokyo Sogo
with help in this area, he told Reuters.
    The two banks will exchange customer information and
cooperate on credit card and foreign exchange business, he
said.
 REUTER

South Korea will pay about 20 pct more for
ethylene imported from Japan in the second quarter of the year
because increased plastic production in both countries has
boosted demand and tightened supplies, chemical industry
    South Korea has agreed to pay Japanese trading houses just
over 400 dlrs C and F per tonne, up from an average of 350 dlrs
in the first quarter and throughout 1986, they said.
    South Korean demand for imported ethylene this month has
risen to 17,000 tonnes from 10,000 last month, and the country
may face difficulties covering the extra volume, they said.
    <Korea Petrochemical Industries Corp>, a producer of high
density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene, will more than
double its ethylene requirements to 9,000 tonnes a month from
4,000 when it completes a plant expansion at the end of this
month, the sources said.
    <Honan Ethylene Corp's> import requirements have risen to
8,000 tonnes a month from 6,000 tonnes last year to meet strong
demand from <Honan Petrochemical Co>, which makes HDPE and
ethylene glycol, and <Hangyang Chemical>, which produces
low-density polyethylene and vinyl chloride monomer, they said.
    But Japan's ethylene plants are already operating at almost
full capacity of 4.5 mln tonnes a year just to fulfill domestic
demand, the sources said.
    "And even if Japan had the additional ethylene, there is a
logistical problem of finding extra appropriate-sized vessels
to ship it to Korea," said one trading house source.
    Japanese trading companies are looking to alternative
sources to supply South Korea's needs, including Saudi Arabia,
Qatar and Mexico, they said.
    But long-haul voyages are expensive as the product has to
be shipped at a temperature of minus 103 degrees centigrade to
keep it in a liquid form, they said.
    Japan has no plans to invest further in the ethylene
industry in order to cope with the additional demand, despite
rising prices, trading house sources said.
    South Korea has two projects in hand which will increase
its ethylene production capacity by 500,000 tonnes a year by
the end of 1989, so the strong demand surge for imports is only
a medium-term trend, they said.
 REUTER

Swiss inflation is likely to rise in 1987
and 1988 because of inflationary tendencies in the domestic
economy, the Centre for Economic Research of the Federal
Institute of Technology said in its spring review.
    It forecast a rise in consumer prices of two pct in 1988
compared with 1.3 pct in 1987. Low import prices in 1986 helped
to keep annual inflation down to 0.8 pct.
    The centre said that in general the outlook for the Swiss
economy in 1987 and 1988 remained favourable, despite the more
difficult international economic climate facing export
industry.
    The centre repeated its previous forecast that growth in
Swiss domestic product would slow to 2.2 pct in 1987 from 2.5
pct in 1986. It revised its forecast for 1988 GDP growth to 1.7
pct from 1.6 pct in its last autumn review.
    Domestic demand will continue to replace exports as the
motor of economic growth. Private consumption will grow by
three pct in 1987 and two pct in 1988 against 3.75 pct in 1986.
    Growth in goods exports will slow to 1.75 pct in 1987 from
2.1 pct in 1986 but pick up slightly to 2.5 pct in 1988. All
three figures are well below the Swiss average for recent
years. In 1985, for example, exports increased by 9.1 pct.
    The centre said the strength of the Swiss franc, which has
firmed sharply in recent months, would continue to put pressure
on Swiss exporters.
    It forecast that imports of goods would grow by a more
modest 4.5 pct in 1987 and 3.25 pct in 1988 than in 1986, when
import prices fell substantially and imports rose by 8.2 pct.
    Industrial production will grow by 1.6 pct in 1987 and 1.2
pct in 1988 compared with 4.2 pct in 1986.
 REUTER

Raw sugar futures firmed to session highs
by midmorning, securing gains from last night's basically
steady close of 1.00 to 1.80 dlrs a tonne in a 166 lot volume.
    Shortcovering against an oversold situation continued to
play a part in the extended rally with unsettled dollar rates
versus sterling providing additional support.
    Recent and prospective whites buying in the world market
was supportive but the raws section lacked feature, dealers
said.
    India and Egypt bought white sugar this week while next
week sees tenders by Pakistan, Greece and Syria, they said.
    May was at 154 dlrs from 152.80 asked last night.
    All London Daily prices rose two dlrs a tonne on tone.
    The Raws price was set at 150 dlrs Fob and 173 dlrs (107.50
stg) Cif.
    The Whites price was at 192 dlrs from 190 yesterday.
 REUTER

President Reagan's reduced strength
in Congress has been demonstrated by the U.S. Senate's decision
to approve a highway spending bill despite his attempts to veto
it, political analysts said.
    "He's very weakened," said William Schneider of the private
American Enterprise public policy group after the Senate voted
67-33 yesterday to ignore Reagan's veto of the road bill.
    Schneider contrasted Reagan's failure with his previous
ability to win clear majorities on major issues.
    Sustaining his veto required him to win just one-third of
the votes in either house of Congress.
    It was the third consecutive fight over a presidential veto
on which Congress had defied Reagan, whose clout with the
legislature has been greatly diminished by the arms-for-Iran
scandal and the capture of a majority in the Senate by the
opposition Democratic party in the November 1986 election.
    Congress overrode Reagan's veto of a popular water projects
bill in January and last autumn Congress rejected his veto of
economic sanctions against South Africa.
    But this time the president laid his full authority on the
line, even making a rare journey to Capitol Hill to plead for
support in person.
    With both the House and Senate in Democratic hands,
analysts say Reagan is swiftly becoming a lame duck, facing
difficulties in enacting his own legislative agenda, especially
given the furore over the Iran arms deal.
    The situation contrasts with Reagan's first six years in
office when a Republican-controlled Senate and the backing of
conservative Democrats in the House enabled Reagan to win
passage of most of his legislative priorities.
    Reagan's ability to veto legislation he dislikes had been
his strongest weapon in dealing with Congress, but his defeat
on the highway bill was expected to reduce the credibility of
his veto power.
    Senator John Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, told the
New York Times earlier this week that if Reagan lost "there will
be no brake on -- if you suggest a presidential veto you will
be laughed away."
    Yesterday's defeat came two days after the House of
Representatives' overwhelming rejection of a presidential veto
on the highways bill by 350 votes to 73.
    White House strategists had presented the veto fight as a
test of Reagan's strength as he attempted to recover from the
scandal over secret arms sales to Iran.
    Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas pleaded with
fellow party members to back Reagan because "this may determine
the strength of the presidency for the next 21 months."
    The defeat showed the problems facing any president in his
final years in office. Reagan's term expires in January 1989.
    A majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives
and 13 in the Senate apparently decided their own political
concerns have become more important than the president's.
    "President Reagan, he ain't going to be running in 1988, but
I am," Congressman Arthur Ravenel, a South Carolina Republican,
said on Tuesday of his decision to back a bill that means money
and jobs for his home district in new highway construction.
    The defeat interrupted a good streak for Reagan, who won
applause for his selection in February of former Senate
majority leader Howard Baker to replace Donald Regan as White
House chief of staff, and was believed by most political
analysts to have benefitted from a televised speech and a news
conference on the Iran affair last month.
    A steady drop in Reagan's job approval ratings appeared to
level off in recent weeks. The president slumped from about 65
pct last autumn to about 42 pct after the Tower Commission
report in February said he had failed to exercise proper
control over the dealings with Iran.
    His approval rating hovers at 50 pct.
    Reagan said he was deeply disappointed by the Senate defeat
but "my efforts to control spending are not diminished."
    Democratic leader Robert Byrd said "this isn't going to make
or break the president."
 REUTER

The Belgian National Bank cut interest
rates on one, two and three-month treasury certificates to 7.30
pct from 7.40 pct effective immediately, the bank said in a
telex message.
    The Bank last adjusted its short-term treasury certificate
rates on March 23, when it also reduced rates for all three
periods by 0.10 points.
    A National Bank spokesman said the latest adjustment would
bring the rates closer in line with currently prevailing
interbank interest rates.
    The spokesman said it was too early to predict whether the
move would herald a reduction in discount rate, which currently
stands at eight pct, when the Bank holds its regular weekly
meeting at which the rate is discussed next Wednesday.
    The discount rate generally moves in tandem with the
three-month treasury certificate rate. However, there is no
formal link and the discount rate was not adjusted following
the March 23 changes.
 REUTER

A Swedish Finance Ministry committee
forecast that British Petroleum Plc <BP.L> may have to close
its refinery in Gothenburg because of an anticipated worsening
of the Swedish petroleum industry's competitiveness.
    It said in a report that the future of the Swedish refining
business was bleak due to the steady drop in domestic oil
consumption since the mid-1970s, a possible tightening of rules
on sulphur content and competition from Norway's Mongstad
facility of <Den Norske Stats Olieselskab> (Statoil) <STAT.OL>
when its expansion is completed in the 1990s.
    The committee said the BP refinery, which lacks a
de-sulphurisation plant, was likely to be closed or sold unless
costly investments were made to enhance the facility's capacity
to refine a broader range of products.
    But the committee noted that capacity utilisation had in
recent years been above that of the European refining industry
on average. The BP plant, in which Sweden's state-owned <OK
Petroleum AB> has a 22 pct, started up in 1967 and has an
annual capacity of 4.7 mln tonnes.
    There was nobody at British Petroleum immediately available

A top Japanese official has insisted that
the country was living up to its microchip pact with the US.
    "It cannot be thought, nor should it be thought, we are
trying to dominate semiconductors," Ministry of International
Trade and Industry (MITI) vice minister Makoto Kuroda said in a
newspaper interview.
    Kuroda, who will head a Japanese team going to Washington
next week for emergency talks on semiconductors, told the Tokyo
Shimbun that he would try his best to convince the United
States of Japan's case. 
    Washington last week announced an imposition of tariffs on
Japanese electronic products in retaliation for what it sees as
Tokyo's failure to abide by the pact. Under the agreement Japan
would stop selling cut-price chips in world markets and try to
buy more American chips.
    Kuroda told the newspaper that Tokyo has already taken
measures to back up the pact, including production cutbacks.
    While Japanese users are trying to increase chip imports,
Tokyo cannot guarantee the United States a specified share of
what in Japan is a free market, he said.
 REUTER

Investors on the Brussels bourse who
flocked to participate in the flotation of shares in glassmaker
<Glaverbel SA> may be rather more cautious when the offer of
three million new shares in Belgian sugar refiner <La
Raffinerie Tirlemontoise SA> takes place next month, analysts
said.
    This is mainly because Raffinerie Tirlemontoise is in the
relatively static sugar market, they added. The Glaverbel issue
of 755,000 shares at 1,850 francs each was more than 100 times
oversubscribed and analysts said this showed that there will be
no lack of liquidity for the sugar refiner's offer. 
    He declined to say at what price the new shares will be
offered when they are floated between May 5 and 15, saying
Belgium's Banking Commission has yet to approve arrangements.
    However, analysts said local press speculation that the
price would be between 1,500 and 1,800 francs appeared not too
far from the mark.
    Although the bourse saw some selling recently because of
international factors, the key Belgian cash market index closed
yesterday at 4,436.05 against 3,582.17 a year ago, a rise which
has been fuelled in part by increasing international interest.
REUTER

The recent fall in world sugar prices,
due to increased producer pricing sales and evidence of export
availability, has encouraged renewed buying interest from China
and the Soviet Union, London trade house E.D.And F. Man said.
    Further purchases are expected by the Peoples Republic of
China at the lower end of the recent price range, which should
limit the downside movement, it said in its latest monthly
market report.
   "And it is believed that the Soviet Union will need to return
to the market to take a further 250,000/350,000 tonnes for
May/June shipment, Man added.
    The Soviets purchased five cargoes of raws for April/May
shipment towards the end of last month, which brings its total
purchases to around 1.65 mln tonnes, Man said.
    Production estimates for the Thai crop now exceed 2.3 mln
tonnes and the final outturn appears set to reach around 2.5
mln tonnes. However, this upturn in the Thai crop is being
countered by a reduction in China's production forecast to 5.3
mln tonnes from 5.5 mln estimated earlier.
    Market participation by Cuba suggests that its crop could
be close to last year's 7.3 mln tonnes. But even with similar
production Man expects Cuban exports to be significantly down.
    Cuba was reported to be carrying 1.3 mln tonnes of stocks
in September 1985, of which some 440,000 tonnes were used to
boost its 1985/86 exports to about 6.9 mln. But as it will not
be able to draw on surplus stocks this year, Man estimates
Cuba's export availabilty will be reduced to 6.4 to 6.5 mln
tonnes.
    However, Cuba is only one of a large number of exporters
with reduced availability, Man said.
    Since 1980 the total free market export supply has fallen
to 18 mln from about 22 mln tonnes. But at the same time free
market demand has also fallen by almost the same amount, which
has left exporters chasing falling import requirements.
    A fairly tight balance now appears to have emerged. But the
difficult task of keeping production advances at bay still
remains, as at least one more season of production deficit is
needed to eliminate some of the remaining surplus stocks still
overhanging the market, Man said.
    The increasing cases of record production as a result of
record yields and better husbandry have forced sugar producers
to strive for greater efficiency.
    As this increase in efficiency reduces the marginal cost of
production, sugar exporters may become more responsive to
prices and in particular to upward price movements, Man said.
    Commenting on the current row between the EC Commission and
sugar producers, Man said despite the recent improvement in the
level of restitutions, they are still insufficient to fully
compensate producers when exporting on the world market.
    Unless there are further improvements, at least some sugar
is expected to remain in intervention, it added.
 REUTER

AEG AG <AEGG.F> said it
will cooperate with Californian-based INTEL Corp <INTC> on the
development of automation systems.
    The cooperation will centre on a new real-time operation
system with 32-bit microprocessors for the solution of
automation problems in production and processing technology as
well as energy supply, AEG said at the Hanover trade fair.
    AEG will restructure its hardware division from July 1,
calling it <MODCOMP GmbH>. It is expected to have sales of 200
mln marks in 1987 and will include AEG's 100 pct takeover of
<Modular Computer Systems Inc> and <ATM Computer GmbH>.
 REUTER

the dollar was fixed lower at 1.8162 marks after 1.8270
    The dollar firmed slightly from its opening 1.8135/45 marks
in very quiet pre-weekend trading and dealers said they
expected business to remain thin this afternoon.
    "Trading is at an absolute nil, nobody wants to get involved
ahead of next week's meetings," one dealer with a U.S. Bank
said, referring to the Group of Seven industrial nations and
the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington.
    Dealers saw the dollar staying at current levels but
possibly rising above 1.83 marks on any supporting remarks
emerging from the meetings. "But the dollar's medium-term
direction is soft," one dealer said.
    The dollar could well come under renewed pressure after the
international forums as attention returned to the U.S. And the
U.K.'s trade dispute with Japan, dealers said.
    Cross currency trading was also subdued though sterling's
rise above 1.60 dlrs helped it to firm against the mark. It was
fixed higher at 2.924 marks after yesterday's 2.910.
    The pound was seen staying between 2.90 and 2.93 marks for
the next days, dealers said.
    Eurodollar deposit rates were steady from this morning,
with six month funds unchanged at midpoint 6-11/16 pct. Six
month euromarks stayed at midpoint 3-7/8 pct.
    The Swiss franc firmed to 119.86 marks per 100 at the fix
from 119.71 yesterday and the yen rose to 1.244 marks per 100
from 1.243.
    The French franc was little changed at 30.050 marks per 100
after 30.055 yesterday.
 REUTER

The General Electric Co Plc <GECL.L> said
its Electrical Projects division had won an initial 2.5 mln stg
order to supply robots to the Soviet motor industry.
    Eighteen paint-spraying robots will be installed at the Gaz
truck and car plant in Gorky, GEC said in a statement. If the
factory standardised on the GEC product, further orders for up
to 80 more robots could be expected, it added.
    Division engineering director Alan Davies said he expects
further agreements soon with the Soviet machine tool and
chemical equipment industries. These would cover the part
manufacture of 100 to 200 GEC robots per year in the USSR.
 REUTER

Keppel Corp Ltd <KPLM.SI> said it has
decided to increase its convertible bond issue to 75 mln U.S.
Dlrs from 60 mln following overwhelming response since its
launch on March 24.
    "This clearly reflects the confidence investors have in the
Keppel group. The bond will improve the group's debt structure
significantly," Keppel chairman Sim Kee Boon said.
    When the bonds are converted, Keppel's debt and interest
expense will be further reduced and place the group in a much
better financial position to expand and diversify its
activities, Sim said.
    The 10-year bonds, issued at par, will carry a four pct
annual interest and will be convertible at 3.12 Singapore dlrs
per one-dlr share in Keppel.
    The issue is lead-managed by <Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd>
with <Daiwa Singapore Co Ltd> and <Morgan Grenfell (Asia) Ltd>,
and is syndicated among leading domestic and international
banks and securities houses.
    Last month, Keppel reported a group net profit of 5.1 mln
Singapore dlrs for the year ended December 31, 1986 against a
loss of 129.6 mln dlrs in 1985.
 REUTER

Shr 8.4 rupees vs seven
    Pretax profit 650.7 mln vs 555.6 mln
    Net profit 390.7 mln vs 325.6 mln
    Sales 8.24 billion vs 7.07 billion
    Div 34 pct vs 30 pct
    Tax 260 mln vs 230 mln
    Dividend payable on June 3
    The company is 51 pct subsidiary of Unilever Plc.The full
name of the company is HINDUSTAN LEVER LTD <HINU.BO>.
 REUTER

Central bank governor Jose Fernandez said
the 10.3 billion dlr debt restructuring package he and Finance
Secretary Jaime Ongpin negotiated with the Philippines'
commercial creditors was better than Mexico's.
    "I think we got a better deal. It was really an enormous
drop, a reduction in rates and that to me is the critical
element," he told Reuters.
    He was reacting to comments by local economists who said
Manila's debt accord was no better than Mexico's, which had won
a 20-year repayment, including a seven-year grace last year at
13/16 points over London interbank offered rates (Libor).
    The Philippines clinched a repayment of 17 years, including
a grace period of 7-1/2 years on 10.3 billion dlrs of its total
debt of 27.8 billion.
    But Fernandez said what was more significant was that
Manila came down from 1-7/8 on the new money and 1-5/8 on the
restructured debt to 7/8 points. Mexico, on the other hand
dropped to 13/16 from 14/16.
    "They got a 1/16 reduction. We got almost a one percentage
point reduction," he said.
    Asked why some features of the debt agreement such as the
token prepayments of principal were not made public
immediately, he said "These are very long documents and in a
press statement you can only cover the key points. But these
will be made available to you."
    Ongpin confirmed on Tuesday that a Reuter report from New
York that Manila will pay its commercial creditors 111 mln dlrs
over 1987-1989 was accurate.
    He omitted the token prepayments in previous announcements
but said there was nothing secret about them.
 REUTER

its estimate of today's shortfall to 750 mln stg from 700 mln.
 REUTER

(STC) bought 20,000 tonnes of optional origin soybean oil and
6,000 tonnes of rbd palm olein at its import tender yesterday,
    Pakistan, however, rejected offers at its tender for 12,000
tonnes of rbd palm oil, but is expected to reenter the market
next week, they said.
    The STC soyoil purchase was for May 20/Jun 20 shipment at
319 dlrs per tonne cif and the palm olein for Apr 25/May 25
shipment at 355 dlrs per tonne.
 REUTER

Dutch soymeal imports fell
to 75,500 tonnes in January from 97,070 in December and 120,228
in January 1986, Central Bureau of Statistics figures show.
    The U.S. Was the largest supplier in January with 38,760
tonnes, down from 46,899 in December and 63,111 in January
1986.
    Brazil supplied 1,263 tonnes in January, down from 7,411 in
December and 27,088 in January 1986.
    Dutch imports of Argentine soymeal in January were 34,663
tonnes, down from 41,365 tonnes in December but above the
13,375 tonnes in the year ago month.
    Total Dutch exports of soymeal in January were 128,015
tonnes, down from 133,559 tonnes in December and 155,050
exported in January 1986.
    European Community countries were the main destinations for
Dutch soymeal exports with 102,355 tonnes compared with 124,026
in December and 116,080 in January 1986.
    Among third country destinations, the Soviet Union was the
largest costumer in January, taking 11,985 tonnes compared with
nil in December and 26,074 tonnes in January 1986.
 REUTER

Spain has revised some of its main
economic targets for 1987 after studying the performance of the
economy in the first quarter, the economy ministry said in its
monthly bulletin.
    Internal demand is now forecast to rise four pct against a
previous target of 3.5 pct.
    Mariano Rubio, governor of the Bank of Spain, the central
bank, yesterday said internal demand was currently growing at
an annual rate of six pct and it had to be brought down to four
pct if the government were to meet its five pct inflation
target this year. Inflation was 8.3 pct in 1986.
    The forecast for private consumption growth remains
unchanged at three pct, although public consumption is revised
upwards to 2.5 pct from 2.0 pct.
    Growth in domestic demand will fuel imports, expected to
increase by 8.6 pct against an originally estimated 7.1 pct.
    Export growth has been revised downwards to 3.7 pct from
5.2 pct due to the peseta's continuing strength against the
dollar and slack external demand.
    Slow growth of exports and a tight rein on state spending
has lowered estimated GDP growth to three pct in 1987 from an
earlier forecast 3.5 pct. GDP grew by three pct last year.
    The economy ministry is holding its inflation forecast to
five pct, in spite of minister Carlos Solchaga's doubts last
week on whether this target could be maintained if wage
settlements continue to rise above the government's recommended
five pct ceiling.
    Unions and employers dispute the average wage increases
agreed so far this year. Trade unions calculate wage
settlements have produced average rises of 7.3 pct against 5.5
pct estimated by the employers' federation CEOE.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it has operated
in the money market this morning, purchasing 170 mln stg bank
bills. This compares with the Bank's revised estimate of a 750
mln stg shortfall. In band two the Bank bought 72 mln stg at
9-13/16 pct, in band three 52 mln at 9-3/4 pct and in band four
46 mln at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

French sugar producer Beghin-Say is not
currently planning to withdraw the sugar it has placed into
intervention, despite the exceptionally high rebate awarded at
this week's European Community (EC) sugar tender, Beghin-Say
President Jean-Marc Vernes told Reuters.
    The maximum rebate of 46.864 Ecus per 100 kilos on
Wednesday was the largest ever granted, according to traders.
    Vernes said he was satisfied the European Commission has
started to move in the right direction, but said his company
had no plans to change its decision to put sugar into
    But Vernes said he hoped that in the next few weeks a final
agreement would be reached with the commission which would
allow operators to withdraw the sugar from intervention.
    European operators offered 854,000 tonnes of sugar into
intervention to protest about export rebates which they say are
too low. Over 785,000 tonnes of this sugar was accepted by the
commission on Wednesday, according to commission sources.
    Under EC regulations, however, operators have another four
to five weeks to withdraw the sugar from intervention before
payment is made for it.
    A total of 706,470 tonnes of French sugar and 79,000 tonnes
of West German sugar has been accepted into intervention, trade
sources said here. This amount represents about a third of
annual EC exports to non-EC countries.
    Beghin-Say declined to specify the amount of sugar it had
offered into intervention, but said it was below 500,000
tonnes.
    Producers say they have been losing 2.5 to 3.0 Ecus on
every 100 kilos exported due to the failure of rebates to fully
bridge the gap between EC and world prices. Wednesday's rebate
was 0.87 Ecus short of what producers say is needed to get an
equivalent price to that for sales into intervention, traders
said.
    Vernes said operators hope to get a rebate which equates to
the full intervention price and said Wednesday's tender was a
step in the right direction.
    Sugar producers here said the volume of sugar authorised
for export since the begining of the current campaign had been
inadequate and that more should be exported now to compensate.
    Trade sources said new regulations governing export
rebates, which are due to be adopted shortly, may smooth the
path for the commission to award larger export rebates in
future.
    One source at a leading French sugar house said it seemed
the commission had understood the protest action and was now
moving towards adapting the situation accordingly, thereby
allowing the operators to withdraw their sugar from
intervention once they got satisfaction.
 REUTER

Stoltenberg said the currency agreement reached in Paris in
February had been successful and would be continued.
    Stoltenberg told journalists before he attends next week's
International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington that: "The ...
Strategy to stabilise currencies around current levels has
proven its worth and will also determine future developments."
    Stoltenberg declined to comment specifically on what he
would consider to be an undervalued dollar but said a dollar
around 1.80 marks created problems for West Germany's exports.
    Stoltenberg said studies by international organisations had
made it clear that especially in the U.S. And in Japan major
efforts remained necessary to support adjustments in foreign
trade balances via necessary corrections to economic policy.
    "No-one would benefit if, after years of over-valuation, the
U.S. Dollar fell into the other extreme, that is, strong
under-valuation," he said.
    Stoltenberg said West Germany had a keen interest in a
swift agreement between the U.S. And Japan concerning the
current trade dispute over semi-conductors.
    Asked whether he believed the markets would test the Paris
currency accord, Stoltenberg did not comment specifically but
noted that much of what had been discussed in Paris had not
been published.
    The Paris declaration did not state the levels at which
central banks of the major industrialised countries would
intervene.
    Stoltenberg said that everything had been carefully
considered. He said he had nothing further to add.
    Stoltenberg also appeared to suggest that West Germany was
now no longer under any pressure from the U.S. Government to
stimulate its economy.
    He declined to respond specifically to a question on this
subject but said, "You must attach particular importance to the
consensus which was reached in Paris."
    The minister nevertheless added that he would make clear
during his trip to Washington that West Germany's nominal trade
figures gave a false impression about actual trade flows.
    Stoltenberg noted that in 1986 Bonn's exports fell by a
nominal two pct while its nominal imports fell by 10.7 pct.
West Germany's imports dropped largely because of foreign
currency developments and the cheaper price of oil and led to a
record trade surplus last year.
    However, Stoltenberg said that in real terms West Germany's
exports by volume had increased by 1.5 pct while real imports
had risen by a much stronger 6.2 pct.
    In this way West Germany had made its contribution to
economic stability, Stoltenberg added.
    Stoltenberg noted the government expected imports to rise
by a real four to five pct in 1987 with exports stagnating.
    He said it was too early to revise official forecasts for
West Germany's economic growth this year. The government has
forecast an unchanged 2.5 pct rise in Gross National Product.
    The Kiel Institute, a leading research body, is still
expecting growth of three pct but some other research
institutes have revised forecasts down to below two pct.
Stoltenberg said the wide range of predictions showed how many
imponderables had to be taken into account and said no drastic
changes in official forecasts were needed.
 REUTER

recently talked with U.S. Treasury James Baker over the
telephone, but declined to say what was discussed.
    Miyazawa told reporters he talks with the U.S. Treasury
Secretary from time to time on economic issues.
    The Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper reported Baker called
Miyazawa early this week to warn him next week's Group of Seven
talks would not be a success unless Japan expands domestic
demand. The newspaper quoted ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) sources.
    Miyazawa told reporters the LDP will come up with a draft
economic package to stimulate the economy before he leaves next
week for Washington.
    The Finance Minister leaves on April 7 to attend the IMF
and World bank meetings.
    Miyazawa did not say what would be in the LDP package.
 REUTER

nuclear test aimed at perfecting military techology, the
Asia.
    Moscow began its unilateral nuclear test moratorium in
August 1985, calling on the United States to agree to a total
ban on testing as the first step to nuclear disarmament.
    Last December it announced that it would end the freeze
after the first U.S. Test this year.
    Washington had continued testing, saying the blasts were
necessary to maintain its nuclear deterrent and that problems
remained concerning the monitoring of a test freeze.
    The United States staged one test on February 3 and another
on February 11. Moscow responded with a blast on February 26
and a second on March 12.
    Soviet officials and the state media blamed the resumption
of testing on the U.S. Decision not to join the freeze.
 Reuter

The Finance Ministry has asked Japanese
commercial banks to moderate their dollar sales, bank dealers
said.
    They said the Ministry had telephoned city and long-term
banks earlier this week to make the request.
    One dealer said this was the first time the Ministry had
made such a request to commercial banks.
    Finance Ministry officials were unavailable for immediate
comment. Dealers said the Ministry has already asked
institutional investors to reduce their sales of the dollar.
   REUTER

The following deliveries are scheduled
for April 6 against Chicago Baord of Trade Futures -
    Silver - 392 lots at Chicago, Illinois.
    Kilo Gold - 21 lots. 16 at Chicago, Illinois, 5 at New
York, New York.
 Reuter

<Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd> said it
considered the proposed 2.20 dlrs a share cash takeover offer
announced by CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> on March 31 to be too low in view
of the group*hK!UiIe and prospects.
    CSR's bid for the 68.26 pct of Pioneer's 99.80 mln issued
shares it does not already hold values the entire grop_j9culd
make an alternative share offer but has not yet announced
terms.
    Pioneer recommended in a statement that shareholders retain
their stock, pending the board's response once it receives full
details of the CSR offer.
 REUTER

The composite index plunged by 15.24
points, the biggest daily drop in seven years, on news of
government measures to cool down the heated stock market,
    The composite index closed at 383.48 with declines leading
advances by 328 to 23. Today's fall was the biggest since the
coutry started using the index in 1980.
    Volume shrank to 47.6 billion won from yesterday's 93.3
billion after the finance ministry said it would limit
share-holdings of institutional investors.
    Dealers said the market was depressed throughout the day on
widespread heavy selling.
    New buying immediately stopped after the government
announced it would increase share supply by obliging financial
institutions to sell off their holdings, but the market is
expected to recover before long, one dealer said.
    Samsung Electronics fell 1,500 won to 38,600, Samsung
Semiconductor 1,000 to 24,890, Hanyang Chemical 600 to 11,700,
Hyundai Motor 100 to 2,577 and Kia Motor 70 to 1,730.
    Against the trend, construction shares rose slightly rose
on rumours of imminent government support for the industry.
 REUTER

West Germany's chemical
industry fears mounting risks will hurt earnings but hopes 1987
turnover will stabilize around 1986's 140 billion marks, Josef
Strenger, a board member of the industry association VCI, said.
    Strenger, management board chairman of Bayer AG <BAYG.F>,
told a news conference at the Hanover trade fair the main
dangers were stagnation in world trade, the lower dollar as
well as crude oil and commodity prices.
    Prospects of higher operating costs were also seen harming
earnings, he said. Turnover took a considerable downturn at the
start of 1987 after falling 5.9 pct in 1986.
    The chemical industry, which relies heavily on exports, was
badly hit by mark appreciation in 1986 and lower turnover was
mainly due to foreign exchange losses, Strenger said.
    Exports fell 6.4 pct to 72 billion marks in 1986 and
competition from U.S. And British firms increased. Savings from
lower oil and commodity prices were eaten up by price
competition and increased costs.
    Strenger said 1986 operating profits of German chemical
firms were slightly worse than the year before but the improved
financial and balance sheet structure, after three good years,
neutralized the negative impact.
    Strenger said the industry would try to increase production
in the U.S. To make up for lost export possibilities out of
West Germany.
    The lower dollar was the main reason for an 8.3 pct fall in
exports to North America, an 11.4 pct drop to Latin America and
22.6 pct plunge to the Middle East.
    Exports to Western Europe eased 3.5 pct and Far East
exports, due to an economic revival in Japan, dropped 5.2 pct.
    Strenger noted that the industry had lost public confidence
following several cases of chemical pollution of the Rhine late
last year.
 REUTER

West German net currency reserves rose
by 200 mln marks in the fourth week of March to 82.2 billion,
following a rise of 300 mln marks in the previous week, the
marks, bringing net monetary reserves to 84.7 billion.
 REUTER

U.K. Physical wheat values recovered from
initial losses of one to two stg per tonne caused by overnight
news of the release of an additional 300,000 tonnes of
intervention feed wheat for U.K. Weekly home market tenders.
    Consumer buyers were attracted by the cheaper offers,
traders said, and by early afternoon the market had recovered
to one stg down to unchanged.
    U.K. Wheat futures also rallied to end the morning
unchanged to 0.05 stg easier.
    In East Anglia, April deliveries of feed wheat traded at
123 and May at 124 but were subsequently bid one stg a tonne
    The market for denaturable wheat in Liverpool held
comparatively steady with sellers holding back due to uncertain
    April deliveries made 127.50 and June 129.50 stg per tonne,
basis Liverpool.
    The fob market for wheat started easier but here again
selling pressure lifted around midday. Apr/Jun shipments traded
fob east coast at 123 stg per tonne. This compared with 124
paid for April yesterday and 125 for May/June.
 REUTER

Norwegian oil companies Norsk Hydro A/S
<NHY.OL> and Saga Petroleum A/S <SAGO.OL> said they have
applied for offshore exploration drilling licenses in Gabon on
Africa's west coast.
    Saga Petroleum said it has applied for a 35 pct share and
operatorship on one block, adding Finnish oil company Neste
<NEOY.HE>(25 pct), Spain's Hispanoil (25 pct), and the World
Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFS) (15 pct) have
joined Saga to fill remaining shares in the application.
    Saga spokesman Roy Halvorsen told Reuters he expected
Gabonese officials would reply to the application by Easter.
    Halvorsen said this is the first time Saga has applied to
operate on OPEC-member Gabon's continental shelf, adding that
Italian oil company Agip is heading a group of applicants in a
separate bid for the same license.
    Norsk Hydro has also applied for an undisclosed share in a
single exploration license in which U.S. Oil company Tenneco
has already been assigned operatorship, company spokesman
Bjoern Tretvoll said.
 REUTER

States of Japan's case.
 REUTER

The departure of James Baker's
closest aide, Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman, will
not change the course of Washington's domestic and
international economic policies, U.S. officials said.
    Darman, who has worked alongside Baker for six years, was
widely credited with helping him mastermind initiatives on
currency management and international economic cooperation.
    U.S. Officials said Darman also played a key role in
shepherding President Reagan's sweeping tax reform plan through
the U.S. Congress.
    But they flatly dismissed suggestions that his departure,
to the investment banking firm of Shearson Lehman Brothers,
signaled the Baker team was breaking up, or that the Treasury
Secretary himself might leave soon.
    "It really does not mean that, he took the opportunity as it
came up," one official said.
    Another commented, "Baker will miss him, but he's not going
to stand in his way."
    There has been widespread speculation since last autumn
that Darman sought a Wall Street job.
    Officials said Darman felt the passage of tax reform late
last year marked an appropriate moment to bow out.
    Baker acknowledged Darman would be sorely missed.
    "Dick Darman has contributed mightily to the success of this
administration over the past six years and his departure
represents a substantial loss," he said.
    U.S. Officials admitted Darman's absence would be an
undoubted blow to Baker, who has relied on him for policy
advice, both at the White House and, in Reagan's second term,
at the Treasury. One aide once described Darman as
"indispensable" to Baker.
    Baker is widely thought to want a more stable currency
system and Darman is generally credited by officials of other
nations as Baker's leading theorist on this issue, favouring
target zones to limit currency fluctuations.
    Earlier this year, monetary sources said the U.S. Treasury
unsuccessfully sounded out allies on a target zone system.
    But a U.S. Official disputed the assessment that, with
Darman gone, Baker would abandon international initiatives.
    Baker's work as head of Reagan's Economic Policy Council,
spearheading trade policy, and his skills in negotiating with
the Democrat-controlled Congress will go on as before.
    Darman's strength was not as an economist, but as a
political strategist "and that's Baker's strength too," the
    There were already indications that Baker, who throughout
his time in government has relied on a closely-knit circle of
advisers, has moved swiftly to find a successor.
    One possibility is that Baker might turn to George Gould,
who holds the number three Treasury position of
Under-Secretary.
    Gould, another close confidante, has known Baker for years.
    Before joining the Treasury in November 1985, Gould was a
partner at the Wall Steet firm of Wertheim and Co and formerly
headed Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    The Darman announcement came on the eve of the semi-annual
meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,
where many policies Darman helped shape will be debated.
    He helped Baker devise the September, 1985 Plaza Agreement,
when the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain
curbed the dollar's strength. The pact was a major turning
point in U.S. Policy, ending a period of disdain for economic
cooperation and intervention in currency markets.
    Darman also worked on some other Baker initiatives, like
the Tokyo Summit agreement to intensify coordination of
economic policies among the leading industrial countries and
the recent Paris Agreement to stabilise currencies and
stimulate global growth.
    These policies are collectively aimed at redressing the
huge gap between Japan and West Germany's trade surpluses and
the United State's massive trade deficit.
    That policy goal still remains a prime objective of the
Reagan Administration and will not change with Darman's
departure.
 REUTER

U.S. SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS - APRIL 3
 Burlington Northern Inc
 Wedgestone Realty Investors
 Reuter

U.S. DIVIDEND MEETINGS - APRIL 3
 Flowers Indus
 Providence Energy
 Sterling Drug
 Reuter

U.S. STOCKS EX-DIVIDEND - APRIL 3
    NYSE STOCKS...
 czm 2-for-1 stock split
 eye              10 cts
 gcn              15 cts
 gcn pr a     16-1/2 cts
 ihs              09 cts
 nbd              30 cts
 psn 2-for-1 stock split
 AMEX...
 wbp 10 cts
 Reuter

The top accepted rate of discount at the
weekly U.K. Treasury bill tender rose to 9.5261 pct  from
9.3456 pct last week.
    Applications at the lowest accepted price of 97.625 stg
 were allotted around 81 pct of the amount applied for, and
 applications above that price were allotted in full, the Bank
 of England said.
    A total of 100 mln stg of Treasury bills was offered for
sale this week.
    Last week, the average rate of discount was 9.3157 pct.
 REUTER

South Africa's Electricity Supply
Commission (Escom), which last year launched a massive
restructuring programme after the ending of foreign loans to
the country in 1985, said it met its budget targets in 1986
without foreign finance.
    The electricity company, which supplies about 90 pct of
South Africa's power, said in its annual report that it failed
to attract any foreign loans in 1986, but it was confident of
meeting its funding requirements this year, despite available
finance from abroad remaining restricted.
    The utility, which once was South Africa's largest borrower
of foreign funds, said prearranged import financing facilities
are expected to provide foreign funds of only about 300 mln
rand this year. A further 550 mln rand will be borrowed from a
blocked account administered by the South African government
for the eventual repayment of about 13 billion rand in
short-term loans.
    These are currently frozen by an effective moratorium on
repayments. The blocked account is part of a debt accord
recently reached with South Africa's foreign creditor banks.
    South Africa declared a moratorium on repayments of about
14 billion dlrs of its original 24 billion dlr total foreign
debt in September 1985 after foreign bankers abruptly cut off
credit lines to the country because of concern over its
deteriorating political and economic climate.
    Pretoria last week announced that it had reached a
three-year rescheduling agreement with the major international
creditors that will effectively extend a moratorium on most
repayments of the short-term portion of the debt until
mid-1990.
    Escom said it plans to meet the bulk of its funding
requirements this year by raising 2.2 billion rand in the South
African financial markets against a total of 1.75 billion rand
raised last year.
    "The borrowing programme for 1987 is well within the
capacity of the (domestic) financial markets, without pressure
being placed on interest rates," the corporation said.
    "Last year we embarked on the most dramatic restructuring
programme ever attempted by a major South African business, and
we have largely achieved what we set out to do," Escom chairman,
John Maree, told a news conference.
 MORE

its estimate of today's shortfall to 800 mln stg from 750 mln,
before taking account of 170 mln stg morning assistance.
 REUTER

Total Dutch imports of cocoa beans
rose to 17,978 tonnes in January from 13,961 in January 1986,
while exports fell to 1,852 tonnes from 3,111, the Central
Bureau of Statistics said.
    Cocoa butter imports rose slightly to 1,699 tonnes from
1,507, while exports fell slightly to 6,211 from 6,293 tonnes.
    Imports of cocoa powder fell to 316 tonnes from 469 and
exports to 5,944 from 6,106 tonnes.
 Reuter

Dutch green coffee imports fell to
10,430 tonnes in January from 13,506 tonnes in January 1986,
and exports fell to 366 tonnes from 615, the Central Bureau of
Statistics said.
    Imports of Colombian coffee were 2,169 tonnes (3,025 in
January 1986), Brazilian 483 (3,715), Indonesian 455 (145),
Guatemalan 196 (126), Cameroun 464 (560) and Ivory Coast 353
(839).
 Reuter

and central bankers meet in Belgium this weekend to discuss
strengthening Europe's joint currency float amid continuing
worries about turbulence on foreign exchanges.
    Belgian Finance Minister Mark Eyskens, who will host the
informal talks, told Reuters the ministers and central bank
chiefs would discuss the situation on currency markets in the
light of the February agreement among leading industrialised
countries to stabilise exchange rates around present levels.
    In an interview, Eyskens said he felt the Paris accord
between the United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain
and Canada had proved itself "more or less workable."
    But doubts over its effectiveness and durability have been
growing since fears of a trade war between the United States
and Japan over computer microchips pushed the dollar to a
record low against the surging yen early this week.
    The talks, at the Belgian resort of Knokke, are being held
to coordinate the EC's positions on monetary issues and Third
World debt ahead of the Spring meetings of the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington next week.
    The EC gathering begins tonight with a dinner but the main
discussions will take place tomorrow.
    Continued international currency turbulence could undermine
plans for reinforcing the European Monetary System, the joint
float holding eight EC currencies within narrow fluctuation
bands, which will feature high on the weekend agenda.
    Eyskens has repeatedly said that Europe needs a period of
calm on world currency markets, and in particular a more stable
dollar, before it can set about strengthening the EMS to make
it more resilient against exchange rate swings.
    The EMS has been taking a battering over the last year as
the falling dollar has sent funds surging into the dominant EMS
currency, the West German mark, forcing ministers to undertake
two major realignments of parities within nine months.
    In the interview, Eyskens made clear he was hoping for a
wide-ranging discussion on the future of the eight-year-old EMS
on the basis of proposals for bolstering it drawn up by the
EC's Monetary Committee and the Committee of Central Bank
Governors.
    The committees were asked to come up with the proposals
after the last reshuffle of EMS exchange rates in January.
    Eyskens repeated calls for the European Currency Unit, the
fledgling EC currency at the core of the system, to take over
the mark's dominant role in the EMS - a proposal that has met
with a cool response in West Germany.
    He said EC Commission President Jacques Delors would report
to the meeting on problems raised by plans to liberalise
capital movements fully within the 12-nation bloc by 1992, such
as the need for harmonising taxes and banking controls.
    Eyskens said liberalisation of capital movements without
strengthening the EMS would be an element of destabilisation in
the Community. 
    He said the crucial issue in the debate was whether member
states were willing to push further towards the EC's goal of
monetary integration on the basis of an EMS that included
management of exchange rates by some kind of common
institution, instead of by national central banks as at
present.
    Plans for the creation of such an institution, foreseen by
the EMS's founding fathers, have been thwarted by the
reluctance of some countries, notably West Germany, to gove up
their sovereignty in the monetary field.
    EMS development has also been held up by Britain's refusal
so far to join the system's core exchange rate mechanism.
 REUTER

Japan Air Lines ordered checks on its
fleet of Boeing Co. <BA> 747-SR jumbo jets after a major defect
was found in one of them last month, an airline spokesman said.
    Inspectors running a routine check found that one of three
diagonal braces attaching an engine to the wing had snapped due
to metal fatigue, he said.
    He described the defect as "major" but said it was the first
time such a fault had been found in the JAL fleet.
    He said the part was sent to Boeing for examination but
nothing had been heard from them yet. A Boeing spokesman was
    JAL's entire fleet of eleven 747-SRs had been inspected but
no similar defect was found, the airline spokesman said.
 Reuter

CANADA MARCH FOREIGN RESERVES RISE 1.23 BILLION U.S. DLRS - OFFICIAL

The U.S. civilian unemployment rate
fell to 6.6 pct in March from 6.7 pct in February, the Labor
    The number of non-farm payroll jobs rose 164,000 last month
after rising a revised 236,000 in February. That was down from
the previously reported 337,000 rise in February.
    The March unemployment rate was the lowest since March,
1980. It had remained unchanged at 6.7 pct for three straight
months before the March decline.
    The rise in non-farm payrolls was the smallest since a
decline last June of 75,000, the department said.
    Last month's unemployment rate was down from the 7.2 pct
level in March, 1986.
    Growth in jobs continued in March but was slower than in
recent months, with the gains concentrated in service
    The number of goods-producing jobs fell 68,000 in March,
while service-producing jobs rose 232,000 to bring the total
jobs in the department's survey of businesses to 102.03 mln in
March.
    Business and health services showed the largest gains in
jobs, while manufacturing employment fell by 25,000.
    The average work week fell to 34.8 hours in March from 35.0
hours in February, the department said.
    Manufacturing hours fell to 40.9 per week from 41.2 hours
in February, but overtime hours increased to 3.7 from 3.6.
    The department's survey of households showed the number of
unemployed stood at 7.85 mln out of a work force of 119.2 mln.
    The number of persons working part time for economic
reasons fell in March to 5.46 mln from 5.78 mln in February.
    The loss of factory jobs brought the March total to 19.19
mln jobs and was concentrated in automobile, electrical and
electronic manufacturing.
    Construction employment also lowered the number of jobs in
the goods-producing sector, falling by 45,000 after seasonal
adjustment, the department said.
    Mining employment was little changed in March and has not
experienced any substantial erosion since the rapid job losses
in oil and gas drilling in the first two-thirds of 1986.
    Other service industries that increased jobs last month
were finance, insurance, and real estate.
 Reuter

in the money market this afternoon, buying back bills totalling
347 mln stg. This brings the total help so far today to 517 mln
stg and compares with the Bank's revised estimate of an 800 mln
    The central bank purchased in band one 20 mln stg at 9-7/8
pct, in band two 254 mln at 9-13/16 pct, in band three 66 mln
at 9-3/4 pct and in band four seven mln stg at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

Times Mirror Co said its Newspaper
Publishing group's advertising revenues increased 12.8 pct to
121.2 mln dlrs in the four weeks ended March one from 107.5 mln
dlrs a year earlier.
    For the nine weeks, January one through March one,
advertising revenues were 245.7 mln dlrs, up 10.7 pct from the
222.1 mln dlrs in the January one through March 2, 1986, period.
 Reuter

Unions are planning a week of state-wide
strikes in New South Wales, starting midnight next Tuesday, to
protest against a state move to cut workers' compensation.
    NSW Labour Council secretary John MacBean, who is also an
executive member of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
(ACTU), said the council has authorised the strikes and other
industrial action.
    The NSW government has introduced in the state parliament a
new Workers' Compensation Act which would cut by up to one
third the cash benefits paid to injured workers.
    MacBean said almost every business sector would be hit and
the unions would extend their action for two or three more
weeks if the state government went ahead with its plan.
 Reuter

Altex Industries Inc said it has agreed
in principle to buy 82 pct of two privately-held affiliated
computer retail companies for an undisclosed amount.
    Altex said the Denver-based companies had revenues of over
seven mln dlrs last year. They are Integrated Management Data
Systems Inc, which sells accounting software systems to the oil
and gas industry, and Integrated Management Systems Micro
Distribution Division Inc, which distributes micro-computer
products.
    Altex said it expects to close the transaction, which is
subject to financing, in July.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs eight cts in prior qtr
    Company said its board intends to declare cash dividends
quarterly and plans to pay a five pct stock dividend annually
following the close of each fiscal year. The initial five pct
stock dividend was paid December 22 to holders of record
 Reuter

After years of refusal, Moscow has agreed
to discuss the problems of Afghanistan and Kampuchea in its
talks with Peking on normalising relations, Chinese
Vice-Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said.
   He told a news conference: "Recently the Soviet Union
expressed agreement to discuss this question."
    China has long referred to three obstacles to better
relations -- Soviet troops in Afghanistan, Moscow's support for
Vietnamese troops in Kampuchea and Soviet troop concentrations
along the Chinese border.
 Reuter

The finance ministry has proposed a
change in rules affecting ownership of commercial banks by
non-banking financial groups, a ministry statement said.
    The proposals aim to block loopholes open to financial
groups with banking subsidiaries. According to current rules
these groups are not bound by the same regulations prevailing
in the traditional banking sector.
    The finance ministry proposals follow a recent bid by the
Proventus financial group to create a new holding company that
would control the third-largest commercial bank Gotabanken and
Wermlandsbanken, a small regional bank.
    The proposal suggests that a holding company with a banking
unit must be subject to the same rules which currently apply to
the commercial banking operations, the finance ministry said in
    It added that July 1 this year was the proposed date of
implementation for the measures, which will almost certainly be
rubber-stamped by parliament.
 REUTER

Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp may have
more difficulty combining its two railroads than fending off a
possible takeover by Henley Group <HENG>, which has accumulated
almost a five pct stake in the real estate and railroad
conglomerate, analysts said.
    Takeover speculation has surrounded Santa Fe since Henley
disclosed its stake in the company earlier this week, but
analysts and a Santa Fe official were skeptical a takeover is
its intention.
    Analysts also said the company has strong defenses that
would easily deter any suitor - one of those being its problems
combining its two railroad properties, which hang in regulatory
limbo.
    Richard Fischer of Merrill Lynch and Co Inc said that Santa
Fe at December 31 had 580 mln dlrs in cash and cash
equivalents, while its long-term debt to capital was just over
25 pct. "This gives them plenty of borrowing power," he said,
which could be used against an unwanted suitor.
    Henley Group's Chairman Michael Dingman has said he wants
to take major positions in undervalued natural resource
companies. He also told Reuters in an interview he is seeking
an acquisition of from two billion to eight billion dlrs.
    Santa Fe officials don't appear concerned that Henley might
launch a takeover. "I would not characterize the atmosphere
around here as one of concern," one Santa Fe executive said
about Henley.
    "I think it's wrong to assume Dingman has formed a firm
strategy with Santa Fe," said Mark Hassenberg, who covers
Henley for DLJ Securities.
    Analysts say the potential of Santa Fe's land assets are
likely to be realized slowly. They add that Santa Fe's efforts
to merge its two railroads remain in regulatory limbo,
sidetracking many of its strategic plans for the foreseeable
future.
    These realities, they said, support the Henley Group's
statement that its Santa Fe stake is only an investment.
    The more pressing problem facing Santa Fe is overcoming
difficulties in merging its two railroads, the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway Co and Southern Pacific Transportation Co.
The merger would create the nation's second-longest railroad.
    Last July the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) denied
the merger on anticompetitive grounds.
    The company since has granted trackage-sharing rights to
four western railroads to meet the ICC's concerns and persuade
it to reopen the hearings in its three-year-old struggle to
merge the lines.
    "My guess is the commission will decide in three to six
weeks whether to reopen hearings," Fischer said.
    "I believe they've made an effort to satisfy the ICC's
objections," he said. "But in doing so they haven't pleased
everyone. Before they had Burlington Northern on their side,
now Burlington is opposed to the way trackage rights are set
up."
    If the hearings are reopened, analysts predicted it will
take six to nine months for everyone to have their say, and up
to another year for the ICC to decide.
    Santa Fe is in the midst of a 50-mln-share stock buyback
program begun in 1984. It has bought back 33.7 mln shares as of
February 1, when it had 154.7 mln shares outstanding, a
    Among the shares repurchased were two stakes owned by
Norfolk Southern, one of 3.4 mln shares bought in 1986 and
another of 1.7 mln shares in 1985, one analyst said.
    James Voytko at Paine Webber believes Santa Fe could fight
off the Henley Group with its cash and credit. Citing the share
buybacks from Norfolk Southern, he said one of Santa Fe's
options, if threatened, could be to buy the Henley stake.
    "It is indeed possible that Dingman sees this as a
low-risk, opportunistic investment," Voytko said.
    "People who follow Santa Fe have given me values of 45 dlrs
to 50 dlrs a share," said DLJ Securities' Hassenberg. "But I'm
certain that in Dingman's mind, the company is worth more than
that in breakup value."
 Reuter

he will advise Brazil to take up discussions with its
commercial bank creditors when he is in Washington for the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting next week.
    He told a news conference ahead of the IMF talks that
discussions about developing country debt problems would play
an important role on the agenda in Washington.
    Stoltenberg noted that Brazil had agreed in January to work
together with the banks but said this pledge had not yet been
fulfilled.
    After Brazil imposed a moratorium on interest payments on
68 billion dlrs worth of debt in February, Brazilian Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro sought to involve foreign governments in
rescheduling talks with banks.
    But British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
rebuffed Funaro's bid and said commercial bank loans were a
matter for banks and not governments. West German bankers also
said then that Brazil should seek an understanding with the
IMF.
    Stoltenberg said in Bonn today that he had already told
Funaro that the unilateral moratorium was a mistake.
    Stoltenberg said that despite progress in some areas, the
debt problems of a whole range of countries had recently become
more difficult.
    He said flows from commercial banks had decreased markedly
and that the refusal of some highly indebted countries to
fulfil their commitments to private creditors or with the IMF
was one reason for this.
    He also said that when debtor countries came up with good,
confidence-inspiring policies, commercial banks should react
with more flexibility in interest structures, maturities and
rescheduling.    Many debtor countries had realised that it was not possible
to mobilise capital flows, and especially direct investments,
without such policies, Stoltenberg said.
 REUTER

Canadian foreign reserve holdings rose
1.23 billion U.S. dlrs in March to 7.77 billion dlrs, the
Finance Department said.
    The department said the change from February included a
decrease of 258.1 mln dlrs from the repayment, at maturity, of
a 1982 Swiss Franc 400 mln issue.
    Also included was also a 112.8 mln dlr decline from a net
redemption of Canada bills. The par value of bills outstanding
was 800.7 mln dlrs at March 31.
    This month's reserves were 4.49 billion dlrs above March,
1986's total of 3.28 billion dlrs.
    Reserve holdings in U.S. dlrs at end of March versus end of
February were as follows.
    - U.S. dlrs 5.98 billion vs 4.47 billion,
    - other foreign currencies 37.1 mln vs 319.9 mln,
    - gold 874.0 mln vs 864.1 mln
    - special drawing rights 191.8 mln vs 188.6 mln,
    - IMF Reserves 689.7 mln vs 705.7 mln.
 Reuter

said.
 Reuter

Hilton Hotels Corp said
its first quarter net income rose 37 pct, paced by strength in
both hotels and gaming.
    Based on preliminary results, the company said, net income
rose to about 24 mln dlrs, or 96 cts a share, from 17.4 mln
dlrs, or 70 cts a share, in 1986's initial three months.
 Reuter

said it received an additional 3.2 mln dlr contract from
General Dynamics Corp <GD> to supply electronic components
contained in the guidance control for Defense Electronics
Systems.
 Reuter

 Reuter

 REUTER

Manila's debt accord was no better than Mexico's, which was a
20-year repayment, including a seven-year grace last year at
 Reuter

The U.S.-owned <Surinam Aluminum
Company> (SURALCO) offered workers a lump sum and up to five
months' wages to quit the firm because jungle-based rebels have
disrupted bauxite mining and alumina smelting, ANP said.
    The Dutch news agency said SURALCO, a subsidiary of the
Aluminum Company of America(ALCOA) wanted to reduce its work
force because it had been hard hit by guerrilla attacks that
cut power lines to the area in January.
    All bauxite mining at Moengo ceased four months ago and
SURALCO's Paranam alumina smelter is using imported bauxite.
 Reuter

U.S. T-bond futures gained half a point
in the few minutes after news that the U.S. Non-farm payroll
rose more slowly than earlier believed over the last two
months, dealers said.
    June T-bonds were trading at 97-2/32, or 31/32 down on the
day, immediately before the figures. When the news came out,
they made session highs of 97-17/32 before slipping to 97-
12/32.
    The payroll rose by 164,000 in March, against analysts'
expectations of a 225,000 gain, while the Labour Department
revised the February increase down to 236,000 from 337,000.
 REUTER

The Bank of England said it has provided
around 205 mln stg late assistance to the market, bringing the
total help today to 722 mln which compares with the Bank's
revised deficit forecast of 800 mln stg.
 REUTER

Belgian total money stock rose to
1,140.4 billion francs at the end of 1986 from 1,115.4 billion
at the end of the third quarter of last year and 1,055.0
billion at the end of 1985, Belgian National Bank figures
showed.
    Paper money rose to 404.1 billion francs from 394.1 billion
and 383.5 billion respectively, other forms of privately held
money to 679.5 billion from 652.7 billion and 616.0 billion.
    Money held by the public authorities fell to 56.8 billion
francs from 68.6 billion at the end of the previous quarter but
was above the 55.5 billion at the end of 1985, the bank said.
    The government does not set money supply targets, arguing
they are inappropriate to a small economy with major trading
and monetary links with much larger trading countries.
 REUTER

    He said studies by international organisations had made it
clear that especially in the U.S. And in Japan major efforts
remained necessary to support adjustments in foreign trade
balances via necessary corrections to economic policy.
intervene. Stoltenberg said that everything had been carefully
 Reuter

THE FOLLOWING RAINFALL WAS RECORDDD IN
THE AREAS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS
     PARANA STATE UMUARAMA 10.6 MILLIMETRES, PARANAVAI 12.2 MM,
LONDRINA 6.0 MM, MARINGA 8.0 MM.
    SAO PAULO STATE: PRESIDENZE PRUDENTE 1.0 MM, VOTUPORANGA
26.0 MM, FRANCA NIL, CATANDUVA 0.1 MM, SAO CARLOS NIL, SAO
SIMAO NIL. REUTER

Stoltenberg said international coordination of economic and
financial policies as well as of economic indicators will be
discussed at next week's meeting of the International Monetary
Fund in Washington.
    Stoltenberg told a news conference it had been decided at
last year's Tokyo summit of seven leading industrialised
nations that the possibility of such coordination would be
reviewed.
    Progress made by senior government officials in this sphere
would be discussed at the IMF meeting and results would later
be presented at this year's economic summit in Venice.
 REUTER

The conversion price on the 175 mln
Australian dlr convertible eurobond for Bell Group NV has been
set at 13.37 Australian dlrs per share, lead manager Banque
Paribas Capital Markets said.
    The 10-year bond, which pays 10 pct and is priced at par,
is guaranteed by the parent company Bell Group Ltd whose shares
closed in Australia today at 10.70 Australian dlrs. The
conversion premium is 24.95 pct.
 REUTER

The average rate of discount at today's
U.K. Treasury bill tender rose to 9.5195 pct from 9.3157 pct
last week, the Bank of England said.
    This week's 100 mln stg offer of 91-day bills met
applications of 327 mln stg, the bank said.
    Applications for bills dated Monday to Friday at the top
accepted rate of discount of 9.5261 pct were allotted about 81
pct.
    Next week 100 mln stg of Treasury bills will be offered,
replacing 100 mln stg of maturities.
 REUTER

Finance Ministry proposals for
abolishing bourse transaction taxes for non-residents have been
blocked in cabinet and will not be re-submitted for several
weeks, a Finance Ministry spokesman said.
    Government sources said the blockage would also delay an
announcement of measures that would simplify the procedure for
non-residents to recoup the 25 pct withholding tax levied on
investment income in Belgium.
    Finance Minister Mark Eyskens told Reuters yesterday that
he hoped the cabinet would approve the bourse transaction tax
proposals today.
    Eyskens also said he would in the next few days announce
plans to simplify and eventually stop the procedure for foreign
investors to reclaim witholding tax.
    Financial analysts said the current procedure is so slow
that it effectively acts as a barrier to foreign investment in
Belgium, especially in the bond market.
    They said the move to simplify it would be far more
significant than the abolition for non-residents of the bourse
transaction taxes. These are set at three rates -- 0.07 pct,
0.14 pct and 0.35 pct -- according to the security transacted.
    Government sources said abolition of the bourse taxes for
foreign investors had been held up by concern in the cabinet
over the budgetary impact of the move, put by the ministry
spokesman at 125 mln francs a year.
    The sources said it was likely that this proposal and plans
to simplify the witholding tax procedure would now be submitted
together to the cabinet in several weeks.
    Eyskens said abolition of the transaction taxes for
non-residents would make Brussels one of the few stock
exchanges in the world where foreign investors were not
subjected to such a tax.
 REUTER

Amid new concerns about inflation,
interest rate increases and trade confrontations,
finance ministers and central bankers meet next week to discuss
a deteriorating global debt and economic situation.
    The meetings, under the auspices of the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank, come as interest rates are
turning higher and the already-weak dollar has sunk further,
upsetting bond and stock markets.
    Uncertainty is growing about the vitality of the global
economy and whether the heavily-indebted countries can continue
to carry the burden of their growing debt without vast new
    Monetary and diplomatic sources said there are no signs
any new debt initiative of the sort that Treasury Secretary
James Baker unveiled 18 months ago in Seoul is in the works.
    The strategy has drawn a serious challenge from Brazil,
which suspended interest payments on 67 billion dlrs of
commercial bank debt last month. The Banks have responded by
laying the groundwork for writing down Brazilian loans.
    Separately, French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, in a
visit earlier this week with President Reagan, sounded out the
administration on a plan to funnel worldwide grain surpluses to
the very poorest states.
    The French plan is certain to be discussed by the ministers
in detail during next week's meetings and will undoubtedly be
embraced by the developing countries.
    "There's interest on the part of some countries for looking
at the support of the special problems of the very poorest
countries, because their position is so extreme," a Reagan
    He suggested Washington was open to disussing the issue.
    The meetings will also assess the success of the Baker debt
initiative, which called for new funding to help debtor
countries grow out of their problems.
    The largest industrial countries have been attempting to
coordinate economic policy in the hope of controlling the
decline of the dollar, U.S. trade and budget deficits and other
problems.
    At the same time, the industrial countries see little
evidence of a strengthening of economic activity and the Fund
forecasts they will grow 2.5 pct.
    The United States sees 3.2 pct growth for itself, 
continuing its expansion for a fifth year, and has asked other
industrial countries to stimulate their economies.
    These issues directly affect the debt problem and the
ability of the debtor countries to grow out of their
    In recent years, U.S. markets have absorbed the exports of
developing country, allowing them to earn critical foreign
exchange. But the United States wants to cut its trade deficit,
running at a record 169.8 billion dlrs, and is pressing others
to import more from developing countries.
    The discussions, from April six to 10, will be
wide-ranging, touching everything from interest rates to the
impact of development loans on the environment, according to
monetary sources.
    The talks will include an examination of trade
protectionist pressures in the wake of a decision by the Reagan
administration to place some 300 mln dlrs in tariffs on
microchip products from Japan, the sources said.
    The move accelerated the dollar's decline as financial
markets grew alarmed that trade war was in the offing.
    There is concern that the action, prompted by U.S. charges
that Japan has been selling computer chip products below fair
market value and has kept its own market closed to imports,
further undermining the international trading system.
    At the same time, the ministers will discuss the
fundamental price weakness in basic commodities, the export
mainstay of many developing countries.
    The so-called Group of Five industrial countries -- the
United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain -- will
gather for the first time since their February talks in Paris,
where they agreed to keep the dollar from sliding further.
    The Five will be joined later by Italy and Canada for
further debate on economic policy coordination.
    As part of the Paris accord, surplus countries such as
Japan agreed to stimulate their economies, while America
said it would reduce its federal budget deficit.
    Other major issues of the meetings include a U.S. bid to to
have a larger say in approving loans of the Inter-American
Development Bank, strengthening the link between loans and
economic policy changes in debtor nations.
    Washington is also pressing the World Bank to take more
account of the environment when making loan for dams and other
projects.
    The new head of the Bank, Barber Conable, has said this
issue is being reviewed and will be part of a reorganization
plan for the Bank, now being prepared.
 Reuter

Active timecharter fixing by Soviet
operators to cover USSR grain imports featured the freight
market, ship brokers said.
    At least two fixtures were reported on Soviet account to
lift EC grain, with a 22,000 tonner booked from Tilbury for a
voyage via lower Baltic Sea and redelivery passing Skaw at
4,000 dlrs daily and a 27,000 tonner from Ceuta for a voyage
via the U.K. And redelivery Skaw-Cape Passero at 4,500 dlrs
daily.
    The Soviets also secured a 34,000 tonner from Gibraltar for
a trans-Atlantic round trip at 4,500 dlrs daily and a 61,000
tonner for similar business at 6,750 dlrs daily.
    Brokers said several other fixtures were also thought to be
connected with Soviet grain, including a 69,000 tonner from
Taranto for five to seven months at 6,500 dlrs daily. Similar
fixing was reported yesterday at 6,000 dlrs.
    Other timecharter fixing included a 14,000 tonner from
Indonesia to the U.S. Gulf at 2,800 dlrs daily and a combined
carrier of 75,000 tonnes dw from the U.S. Gulf to Italy at
9,000 dlrs daily.
    Severel vessels were booked from Antwerp-Hamburg range,
including a 61,000 tonner bound for Singapore-Japan at 7,500
dlrs daily and a 16,000 tonner destined for west coast India at
5,000 dlrs.
    Grain fixing was much quieter out of the U.S. Gulf, with no
fresh business seen on the significant routes to the Continent
or Japan, although tonnage was secured for at least five small
corn cargoes from the Gulf to Jamaica at between 21 and 25
dlrs. Wheat from the River Plate and Buenos Aires to Sri Lanka
received 26 dlrs.
    Market talk suggested 11 dlrs had been paid for grain from
the U.S. North Pacific to Japan but no confirmation was
    Fairly active grain fixing emerged out of the Continent,
however, with maize covered from Nantes to Egypt at 15 dlrs,
and bagged flour from Greece to China at 27 dlrs.
    Barley cargoes were arranged from Immingham to the Red Sea
at 17.25 dlrs and from Foynes to Jeddah at 17.25 dlrs.
 Reuter

The Swiss canton of St Gallen is
launching a 50 to 60 mln Swiss franc 4-1/4 pct maximum 12-year
bond at 100-1/4 pct, lead manager St Gallen Kantonalbank said.
    Subscriptions close April 15 and payment date is April 30.
 REUTER

Nerco Inc said it has agreed to
acquire a 47 pct working interest in the Broussard Gas Field in
southern Louisiana from privately-owned <Davis Oil Co> for
about 22.5 mln dlrs in cash.
    Nerco said the interest being purchased will give it
estimated proven oil and gas reserves equal to six billion
cubic feet of natural gas. The property includes six gas wells,
one oil well two undeveloped drilling locations, a central
production facility and a gas gathering system.
    Nerco is 90 pct owned by PacifiCorp <PPW>.
 Reuter

Canrad Inc said it acquired the
Measurement Systems Division of <Page-Wilson Corp> for an
    Canrad said the acquisition is expected to increase its
annual revenues by about 10 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Pantera's Corp said it closed on its
agreement to acquire ten pizza restaurant locations in
southeastern Colorado.
    It said the purchase price was 1,250,000 dlrs, which was
paid by cash and stock.
 Reuter

Harlyn Products Inc said its
Paramount Wedding Ring division has received an order of more
than one mln dlrs from a major department store chain.
    The company did not identify the department store.
 Reuter

Stoltenberg said he foresaw no problem about Italian
participation in talks held by Group of Seven (G-7) Finance
Ministers and central bankers ahead of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting next week.
    Italy refused to join a G-7 meeting in Paris in February,
angered at not being invited to a prior working dinner of the
G-5 countries - U.S., U.K., West Germany, France and Japan.
    Stoltenberg told a news conference he saw no difficulties
about Italy joining the G-7 Washington talks, which he said
would be preceded by other informal and bilateral talks.
 REUTER

reviewed.
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said a copper
mine fire that killed one miner and trapped 44 others for
nearly a day caused an estimated 10 mln Canadian dlrs in
damage.
    The fire, which started Wednesday and burned for more than
24 hours, destroyed the mine's three-year-old conveyor system,
    Michel Lefebvre, vice president of operations, said Noranda
will operate the mine at about one third of its normal 72,000
short ton annual finished capacity, using above ground
reserves, until it decides whether to keep the mine open.
    "The events we sustained yesterday and the day before are a
very serious setback for Gaspe Mines operations," Lefebvre said.
Gaspe Mines is the name of the Noranda division that operates
the Murdochville mine.
    He said it would take four or five months to bring
operations up to full capacity if the company decides to do so,
adding that he believes there is a good chance Noranda will
fully reopen the mine.
 Reuter

<General Partners> said it was
prepared to raise its bid for GenCorp Inc to 110 dlrs cash per
share from 100 dlrs per share.
    In a letter from General Partners to A. William Reynolds,
chairman and chief executive officer of GenCorp, the company
stated that if GenCorp could prove the company was worth more,
General Partners would be willing to consider an even higher
price.
    General Partners also left open the possibility of an
alternative to an all-cash offer.
    General Partners told GenCorp if it believed shareholders
would be better served by a smaller cash price with a security
representing a continuing long-term interest in GenCorp's
prospects, it would be willing to discuss an alternative.
    Specifically, General Partners said it was prepared to
discuss an acquisition giving shareholders a continuing
interest in Aerojet General, a valued business of GenCorp.
 Reuter

Black miners, rebelling against the
loneliness of men-only hostels, have brought wives and children
to live with them at seven South African coal mines, a union
leader said today.
    Cyril Ramaphosa told a news conference about 600 wives and
children moved into the hostels last weekend, in defiance of
single-sex regulations. About 350 left after the weekend but
the others stayed on.
    "The time has come for them (miners and families) to start
living naturally," said Ramaphosa, who is president of the
    A spokesman for Anglo-American, the giant corporation which
owns the mines affected, said negotiations were being held with
the NUM on the issue.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 6.07 vs loss 7.64 dlrs
    Oper net loss 6,235,000 vs loss 4,801,000
    Sales 70.1 mln vs 60.6 mln
    Avg shrs 1,028,000 vs 629,000
    NOTE: 1986 earnings exclude a gain on restructuring of
3,143,000 dlrs, or 3.01 dlrs a share
 Reuter

damage.
will operate the mine at about one-third of its normal 72,000
metric ton annual finished capacity, using above ground
 Reuter

Net 90,501 vs 56,960
    Assets 42.0 mln vs 34.9 mln
    Deposits 35.9 mln
    Loans 27.6 mln vs 23.9 mln
    NOTE: earnings per share and 1985 deposits figure  not
supplied by company.
 Reuter

<Belmoral Mines Ltd> said it agreed to
sell 5,250,000 common shares and 2,625,000 purchase warrants
for 24.9 mln dlrs to McCarthy Securities Ltd for private
placements to European and Canadian investors.
    The agreement provides for the sale of preferred and common
shares of Belmoral held by Continental Illinois Bank (Canada)
according to a prior agreement which gave Belmoral the right to
designate a purchaser for the bank's stock. Belmoral said it
will redeem the first preferred shares.
    The transactions are subject to regulatoral approvals.
 Reuter

Bell South Corp's South Central Bell
operating company plans to purchase 600,000 lines of digital
central office equipment by the end of the decade from a
subsidiary of <Plessey Co Ltd>, Plessey said.
    Plessey's subsidiary, Stromberg-Carlson, said the value of
the purchase will be between 100 mln dlrs and 200 mln dlrs. It
said it received the notification of the purchase following the
conclusion of a digital switch study performed by BellSouth
Services.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Co Plc's proposed
capitalization share issue, announced earlier today in London,
will result in each of the company's ADRs representing 12
ordinary shares, up from the current four, a BP North America
Inc spokesman said.
    He explained that the proposed capitalization share issue,
which is subject to the approval of shareholders at an
extraordinary general meeting to be held April 30, immediately
following the annual general meeting, is effectively a
three-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

R.R. Donnelly and Sons Co said it
reached an agreement with Adams-Russell Co Inc <AAR> to sell
Adams its Rockford, Ill., cable system for an undisclosed
price.
    R.R. Donnelly said it expects the deal to close in about
120 days, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
    The cable system serves about 51,000 subscribers in the
communities of Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Cherry
Valley, Morristown and Winnebago County, Ill., R.R. Donnelly
said.
 Reuter

Digital Communications Associates said
the new personal computers announced yesterday by International
Business Machines Corp <IBM> are expected to have little
near-term effect on Digital Communications.
    The company said some product modifications will be
required, but they appear to be straight forward and do not
represent major development challenges.
    The company said it will pursue two prime areas -- the
configuration of its products for use with Mocrosoft Corp's
<MSFT> new operating system which has been adopted for use in
the IBM products, and changes requried by the use of a new bus
architecture in certain IBM products.
 Reuter

American Precision Industries Inc
said members of United Auto Workers Local 1416 and the
company's Delevan and Deltran divisions reached agreement on a
three-year contract.
    The company provided no details other than the contract is
effective from March 29, 1987, through March 31, 1990.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 2,133,000 vs 1,384,000
    Revs 14.1 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Net 5,657,000 vs 3,728,000
    Revs 39.7 mln vs 31.8 mln
 Reuter

EAC Industries Inc said it entered a new
loan and security agreement with its banks, raising sufficient
funds to completely retire its existing bank debt.
    It said the loan agreement provides for up to 30 mln dlrs
of borrowing power.
    After repayment of existing bank debt and providing for
certain letters of credit, 4.3 mln dlrs remains for future
needs, the company said.
    EAC said the new lending arrangement will allow it to focus
attention on improving the company's basic business. It added
that it anticipates the fiscal year that began Feb 1, 1987,
will be a "significant improvement" over the year ended January
31.
    It said the loans mature in March 1990.
 Reuter

Nynex Corp said its Nynex
Business Centers on Monday will start marketing International
Business Machine Corp's new line of personal computers.
    The company said the computers will be available for
businesses to test.
    Nynex Business Centers, a unit of the Nynex Business
Information Systems Co, operates nearly 100 centers in 33
states. The centers market computers from IBM, Apple Computer
Inc <AAPL> and Compaq Computer Corp <CPQ>, as well as software,
peripherals, telephone systems and typewriters.
 Reuter

Greece has agreed to buy between 27,000
and 33,000 tonnes of Spanish corn, a spokesman for Cargill's
Spanish unit Compania Industrial y de Abastecimiento S.A.
(CINDASA) said.
    He told Reuters the sale price was around 28.95 pesetas per
kilo but that the final quantity and delivery date has not yet
been set. The corn will be shipped in the coming days from
Valencia.
    He said CINDASA will also ship 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes of
Spanish corn to Italy in the second half of this month.
    The CINDASA spokesman said other corn shipments this month
will include between 15,000 and 30,000 tonnes bound initially
for Rotterdam and Ghent and destined for unspecified northern
European countries. He said shipments of 35,000 to 50,000
tonnes of low specific gravity barley were also expected this
month and added that Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland and
Belgium were considering imports of Spanish flour for milling.
    Market sources said the corn exports, the absence of
imports from the rest of the EC and the delay in shipments of
corn from the U.S. Had pushed domestic corn prices up by around
0.25 pesetas a kilo today compared with yesterday.
 Reuter

Newmont Gold Co is offering five mln
common shares at 31 dlrs apiece, co-managing underwriters
Kidder, Peabody and Co, Lazard Freres and Co and Salomon
Brothers Inc said.
    All shares are being issued and offered by the company. The
underwriters have been granted an option to buy up to 500,000
more shares to cover over-allotments.
    Proceeds will be used to repay long-term debt owed to
Newmont Mining Corp <NEM>, which will own over 90 pct of
Newmont Gold after the offer. Proceeds will also be used for
general purposes, the gold production company said.
 Reuter

    Oper shr loss 66 cts vs loss 1.29 dlrs
    Oper net loss 1,309,000 vs loss 2,522,000
    Sales 25.1 mln vs 19.9 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 65 cts vs loss 97 cts
    Oper net loss 1,287,000 vs loss 1,882,000
    Sales 113.4 mln vs 76.6 mln
    NOTE: Earnings exclude a loss on sale of discontinued
operations of 17,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs a gain of
1,383,000 dlrs, or 70 cts a share in the quarter and gains of
300,000 dlrs, or 15 cts a share vs 1,941,000 dlrs, or 1.00 dlr
a share for the year
 Reuter

The Bundesbank's gross currency
reserves rose 300 mln marks in the last week of March to 104.9
billion marks, the Bundesbank said in a statement.
    At the same time its foreign liabilities rose 100 mln to
22.8 billion, producing a rise in net reserves of 200 mln to
82.2 billion on March 31.
    The Bundesbank provided banks with liquidity in the fourth
March week by disbursing funds in the money market via
government-owned banks. Banks took up the Bundesbank's standing
offer of treasury bills to place excess liquidity.
    Banks received more liquidity through routine month-end
payments by public authorities as well as expansionary market
factors than was lost through the 2.3 billion mark rise in cash
in circulation to 122.3 billion, the Bundesbank said.
    But banks had to draw heavily on the Lombard emergency
financing facility due to month-end tightness, borrowing 5.3
    Overall, banks' holdings at the Bundesbank rose 10.2
billion marks to 58.5 billion at the end of the month,
averaging 50.9 billion in the whole of March.
    The minimum reserve requirement for March, before deduction
of banks' cash holdings, was set at 61 billion marks.
    Public authorities' net holdings at the Bundesbank fell to
2.2 billion marks in the last March week from 4.4 billion the
week before. The federal states' holdings fell 2.6 billion to
2.4 billion.
    The federal government's holdings rose 700 mln marks to 5.1
billion.
 REUTER

Overseas securities firms are spending
millions of dollars to set up operations in Tokyo, but many
will end up losing money, industry sources said.
    For banks and securities firms eager to establish
themselves as international players, building a presence in
Japan has become an imperative. Thirty-six are already licensed
to trade securities on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the world's
second largest. More than 50 are expected by year-end.
    But, as deregulation erodes brokers' profits and the global
share-buying spree is predicted to subside, only those
securities traders with first-class financial muscle will
survive, the sources said.
    "There will be foreigners' fallout. They come in here with
too glib ideas about how they can survive," said David Miller,
director and general manager of Jardine Fleming (Securities)
Ltd's Tokyo branch.
    Despite soaring share prices, sharp falls in commissions on
stock transactions have hurt even brokerages that came to Tokyo
early.
    "Japanese equities are no longer a very profitable business.
The margins are nothing like they were two or three years ago.
Things are not as rosy as they may seem," Miller said.
    Publicly reported earnings of foreign securities houses in
Japan for the half-year ended September 30, 1986, showed
Salomon Brothers Asia Ltd on top with profits of 1.7 billion
yen. Most other firms reported hefty gains over the year
before. But industry sources say the figures do not fully
reveal the costs of running an international brokerage in the
world's most expensive city.
    Salary packages with free housing for novice analysts
routinely run more than 100,000 dlrs a year. Miller, whose firm
had earnings of 1.4 billion yen for the half-year to September
1986, said costs for an operation strong enough to endure are
10 to 15 mln dlrs a year. "I'd be surprised if more than two or
three were making money if they honestly accounted for their
costs," he said.
    To bring commissions closer to world rates, the Finance
Ministry slashed fixed brokerage fees last year, especially on
large-lot deals. In a few years, all rates may be negotiated as
they are in New York and London, industry sources said.
    Since last October's Big Bang deregulation of London's
financial markets, at least half the equity trading deals there
have generated no commission income at all. Stockbroking firms
are unlikely to make money until some are forced out of
business, analysts said.
    The first foreign firms to set up here, especially the six
admitted as members in February 1986, have an advantage over
the latecomers, they said. The six are <Merrill Lynch Japan
Inc>, <Goldman Sachs International Corp>, <Morgan Stanley
International Inc>, <Vickers Da Costa Ltd>, <Jardine Fleming
Securities Ltd> and <S.G. Warburg and Co (Japan) Ltd>.
    The memberships, which cost about five mln dlrs, allow
firms to execute their own trades and, unlike houses with
branch status, avoid paying away 27 pct of their commissions to
have member firms place trades.
    Members can also communicate instantly with the exchange
floor, a vital source of information in a market that tends to
follow the leader. Sources said seven to 10 more seats on the
exchange are likely to open up sometime in 1988.
    For non-member firms, wrestling away market share from
tenacious Japanese and foreign firms is costly and intangibles
sometimes prove even more important than exchange membership.
    "Your name is better known if you're a member of the right
club," Miller said. "It's easier to hire ... New people."
    To inaugurate its Japan operation, <SBCI Securities (Asia)
Ltd> flew out the Basel Ballet last January for receptions in
Tokyo and Osaka. The firm, 50 pct owned by <Swiss Bank Corp>,
gave guests gifts of Swiss chocolates and Swatch watches.
    "It's expensive, but a party like that is a token of the
serious way we regard our development in Tokyo," SBCI's Tokyo
branch manager Gregory Shenkman said.
    To establish its position quickly, SBCI hired a 26-strong
research unit from <W.I. Carr (Overseas) Ltd>'s Tokyo office.
    "I was very lucky," Shenkman said. "I was anticipating a
considerable struggle to organically develop a research team.
    "I am not particularly optimistic for the prospects in the
Japanese equity market for continental European banks who have
little experience in equities outside their domestic equity
    But the prospect of closing down operations may be worse.
    "One would be ill-advised to open here and close, and then
decide to open again two or three years later. I'm not sure the
Japansese community would respond well to that sort of
attitude," he said.
 REUTER

rate for April 6 of 781.95/785.86 to the dollar, up from
782.50/786.41. It set a lira/D-mark rate of 430.15/432.30 to
the mark, down from 428.30/430.44.
 REUTER

Dutch dairy and general foods
manufacturer Koninklijke Wessanen NV <WESS.AS>, said it is
planning further world-wide acquisitions and forsees strong
profit growth over the next 10 years.
     Company chairman Gerrit van Driel told journalists at the
presentation of Wessanen's 1986 report he already expected 1987
first quarter profits to show an increase.
    The company last month reported a 16 pct increase in 1986
net profits to 72.7 mln guilders, after 62.3 mln in 1985.
    This was achieved despite a 25 pct drop in the dollar's
guilder value, van Driel said.
    Van Driel said profits would have been nine mln guilders
higher if the US currency had remained at its average 1985
level of 3.20 guilders.
    Turnover, at 3.7 billion guilders in 1986, was 450 mln
guilders down because of the lower dollar and lower raw
material prices. Total 1985 turnover was 4.2 billion guilders.
    US activities accounted for 34 pct of 1986 turnover,
compared with 22 pct in 1982. Wessanen now has 15 separate
businesses in the US out of a total of 62 world-wide.
    Van Driel said the company would continue an active
takeover policy in the US, but would be wary about paying more
than its current price/earnings ratio of 17 times net profit.
    He added that Wessanen teams were seeking acquisition
possibilities in Brazil, Taiwan, Thailand and China.
    He said the company had an ample cashflow of 100 mln
guilders and would if necessary make new share issues.
    Van Driel said he expected a 1987 US turnover of 700 mln
dlrs. He said <Balanced Foods> and <Green's Dairy>, taken over
late last year, have a combined annual turnover of 126 mln dlrs
which was not included in the 1986 account.
    All sectors saw strong growth in 1986, resulting in a 13
pct increase in operating income to 120 mln guilders. Key to
this growth was the successful introduction of new products,
which were greatly enhanced by a number of consumer-oriented US
acquisitions, van Driel said.
    Consumer products represented 50 pct of total 1986
turnover, compared with 35 pct in 1982, van Driel said.
    The company, which is already listed on the London, Zurich,
Basle and Geneva stock exchanges as well as Amsterdam, aims to
be quoted in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf in May, van Driel said.
    Van Driel stressed that while these listings would not be
accompanied by new share issues, they provided easy vehicles
for the company to raise capital for future expansion.
    He estimated that 33 pct of the company's shares were in
foreign hands.
    The company's 1986 US turnover of about 750 mln dlrs made a
listing on one of the New York exchanges a logical next step,
van Driel said without elaborating.
    Despite EC dairy restrictions Wessanen, which produces
around 10 pct of all Dutch cheese, saw good growth prospects
for its dairy sector within Europe, van Driel said.
 REUTER

has forced China to put the brakes on one of its most important
economic reforms -- overhauling a pricing system which often
bears no relation to production costs.
    The price clampdown has occurred during a conservative
backlash following the resignation in January of reformist
Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, Western diplomats and
Chinese sources say.
    "In recent years, prices have not only been rising, but the
rate of increase is getting faster and faster," the People's
Daily said in a major article this week. "In future, price
changes should be only in small steps."
    Despite pledges last year that price changes were essential
to get the economy on the right track, the government has
repeatedly said no major change will happen this year.
public discontent, especially in the cities," a Western diplomat
said.
when the Communists took over. On a recent visit to two major
preserve social stability," he said.
    A Chinese journalist said the reformers had underestimated
the extent to which the public would tolerate price changes.
firms," he said.
    The reformers think it vital to change a system under which
prices often bear no relation to production costs.
this year that more than 40 pct of China's sugar mills were
losing money or had closed because producing sugar was so
unprofitable.
    This was because the selling price of sugar has not changed
for 20 years, while the mills' production costs have risen
sharply over the period.
    The economic masterplan for the 1986-90 period, published
in April last year, said China would "work steadily to establish
a pricing system which better reflects value and the relation
between supply and demand."
    The People's Daily said that in recent years wage increases
had been too high and too much currency printed, resulting in
too much money chasing too few goods and causing price hikes
and inflation.
    The review of the reforms coincides with a national
campaign against "bourgeois liberalism," meaning Western
political ideas blamed for causing student protests last
December.
    The journalist said the review was in part due to political
factors.
Western media is wrong to classify the leadership into
    The diplomat said what China feared as a backlash against
price rises was not so much rioting in the streets, which he
said it had the means to control. "The bottom line is how such
protests would be used by those in the power struggle."
    A foreign lawyer said he believed the cause of the crisis
earlier this year was that the Communist Party leadership had
feared, due to the student demonstrations, that it was losing
control.
    "The leadership here is a self-perpetuating oligarchy. There
is no way that it is going to give up power," he said.
 Reuter

  30-273 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct    30-89 days
 274-294 days  5.92 pct  5.83 pct   90-100 days
 295-344 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  101-181 days
 345-360 days  5.93 pct  5.82 pct  182-195 days
                         5.00 pct  196-274 days
                         5.90 pct  275-295 days
                         5.00 pct  296-360 days
 Reuter

<Algoma Steel Corp Ltd>
said there were no specific developments to explain the recent
increase in its share price and there were no announcements
planned or anticipated.
    The company said it made the statement at the request of
    Algoma said it continues to achieve cost reductions and
there is a limited improvement in market demand for the
company's steel products.
    Algoma common closed yesterday in Toronto at 18-1/2, up
2-3/4, and was trading today at 18-1/4, down 1/4.
 Reuter

MONEY RATES - INTERNATIONAL SUMMARY - APR 3
    U.S.
Fed funds               5-15/16
Broker loan             7.50-7.25
                  30        60        90
T-bills        5.40/38   5.40/38   5.44/43
Cds dir         5.95       6.00       6.00
Comm paper dir  6.15       6.15       6.09
    INTERNATIONAL
         CALL       1 MONTH          3 MONTH
Ldn  10    9-7/8     10   9-15/16   10    9-7/8Fft  3.60/70    
    3.80/90         3.85/95
Par     unav            unav            unav
Zur  7/8   1-1/8   3-1/8   1/4    3-1/2   5/8
Ams  5-5/16  7/16  5-3/8   1/2    5-3/8   1/2
Tok  3.7500  8125  3.8750  9375   4.0000   0625

K mart Corp said it agreed to sell
most of the U.S. Kresge and Jupiter stores to McCrory Corp, a
subsidiary of privately held Rapid American Corp.
    It said the agreement covers 76 stores in 21 states
including inventory and fixtures. The price depends on the
amount of the inventory that will be in the stores on the
closing date.
    K mart said it will continue to operate the stores until
early June, when McCrory will take over with no interruption of
service.
    The newly acquired Kresge and Jupiter stores will be
renamed McCrory 5 and 10. McCrory currently operates 1,250
stores in 38 states.

 Reuter

The latest Belgian state loan,
subscriptions for which closed today, raised a total of 168.8
billion francs, a finance ministry spokesman said.
    The eight-year, eight pct domestic loan which was priced at
par was originally expected by the ministry to raise 150
 REUTER

Tandy Corp said consolidated
sales and operating revenues for the third quarter, ended March
31, totaled nearly 776.0 mln dlrs, up 12 pct from 693.4 mln
    The company said third quarter earnings will be released in
the latter part of April.
    Tandy said March sales and oprating revenues totaled 164.4
mln dlrs, up 11 pct from March 1986's 238.8 mln dlrs.
    It said U.S. retail operations revenues rose to 225.8 mln
dlrs last month from 202.7 mln dlrs a year earlier. Sales of
U.S. stores in existence more than one year increased 10 pct.
 Reuter

The stock of Philip Morris Cos rose
today following recommendations by First Boston Corp and Morgan
Stanley and Co, traders said.
    Philip Morris gained 1-3/4 to 88-1/4.
    First Boston's analyst was unavailable for comment.
    Morgan Stanley's David Hill said he just assumed coverage
of Philip Morris and placed it on his recommended list becasue
of its attractive earnings growth and because the stock is
selling at a discount to the market based on Morgan's figures.
Hill expects Morris to earn 7.75 dlrs a share this year and
9.50 dlrs in 1988. In 1986, Morris earned 6.20 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Pakistan is not emerging as a major
wheat exporter as world market prospects are not good enough,
Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant on Food and Agriculture to the
Pakistani Prime Minister, said in an interview.
    No exports are planned for the next 12 months or so and
plans last year to sell one mln tonnes to Iran came to nothing
because they could not agree a price, he said.
    Aziz forecast that Pakistan may have exportable surpluses
of one mln tonnes or a half mln tonnes over the next few
harvests in years when the weather is favourable.
    The government does not wish to increase output much above
this because of low world prices, and the land would be better
used for other crops.
    Aziz said the Pakistani government does not want area sown
to wheat to increase from the current seven mln hectares. Some
10 pct of that area which gives low yields could be switched to
more profitable crops such as oilseeds.
    The aim is to concentrate on raising yields from the
current 1.8 to 1.9 tonnes per ha to at least 2.5 tonnes per ha
over the next five to seven years, he said.
    Aziz said the current 1986/87 crop, harvesting of which is
just beginning, is expected to yield around a record 14.5 mln
tonnes. This compares with a target of 14.7 mln and last year's
yield of 14.0 mln.
    He said rains some six weeks ago helped the crop but more
recent rains reduced prospects slightly.
    The long-term wheat production target is for some 17 mln
tonnes by mid-1993, taking into account Pakistan's annual
population growth rate of more than three pct. Current
consumption is some 12.5 mln tonnes.
    The current wheat reserve is 2.5 mln tonnes, Aziz said.
This compares with a minimum reserve commitment of one mln
tonnes, which Pakistan will maintain at all costs, and a
"strategic reserve" target of two mln tonnes.
    Despite the fact that stocks are a half-mln tonnes over
target, the surplus will not be exported at present, he said.
    The government wants to keep an extra "safety margin" until
it sees what effect the abolition of a 44-year-old wheat
rationing system will have on domestic consumption. New exports
will be considered only in about a year's time when the 1987/88
crop can be gauged as well, he said.
    The new domestic policy, introduced on March 15, is for the
government to supply unlimited quantities of wheat at two
rupees per kilo. With other costs this means a price in
Pakistani markets of between 2.30 and 2.50 rupees per kilo.
    Under the old system, introduced during World War Two and
due to be phased out by April 15, some 50 mln ration cards were
issued enabling poor people to buy wheat cheaply.
    Aziz said following the introduction of a government
support price in the 1970s the system become so corrupted that
only 20 to 25 pct of subsidised wheat was actually reaching the
consumer, the rest being diverted illicitly to the mills.
    The ration system had also not had the stabilising effect
on the internal wheat market that was intended, Aziz said.
    Prices have already begun to fall with the introduction of
the new system. The wheat price in Karachi, the most expensive
Pakistani city, had dropped from 3.11 rupees per kilo on March
1 to 2.85 rupees on March 30.
    Aziz said he does not expect the change in system to have a
major effect on total consumption, but it may encourage better
use of side-products such as bran.
 Reuter

<Kleer-Vu Industries> said the
company's board authorized the sale of its Neslemur Co, its
cosmetic and toiletries company.
    The company said it is evaluating two separate proposals
and will complete the sale within 10 days.
 Reuter

completed its acquisition of the assets and liabilities of
Bogen, a division of <Lear/Siegler>, for 9,200,000 dlrs in
cash.
    Under the newly-structured company, Memory said it expects
to report consolidated sales of 18 mln dlrs to 20 mln dlrs and
should be profitable before allowing for extraordinary items
related to the acquisition.
 Reuter

Du Pont Co said it agreed to
sell its Cleveland chemical plant, the oldest site currently
operated by the company, to two employees.
    Closing is expected in the second quarter, following
approval of definitive agreements.
    Products made at the plant represent less than 1/10 of one
pct of Du Pont's annual sales, it said. Quilon chrome complexes
and Volan bonding agents will be supplied by the plant to Du
Pont under contract.
    Established in 1866, the plant was acquired by Du Pont in
1928. The plant no longer fits the company's long-term
strategy, Du Pont said
 Reuter

The Bank of Spain said it raised its rate
for overnight call money to 14.5 pct from 14 pct with immediate
effect at today's daily auction for assistance funds.
    The move followed comments yesterday by central bank
governor Mariano Rubio, who said money supply growth was too
fast.
    The bank said later that it was leaving its rate for
special assistance funds from its second window unchanged at 16
pct, surprising operators who had expected an increase there
too.
 REUTER

Volkswagen of America Inc, the U.S.
arm of Volkswagen AG, said its domestic car sales for late
March fell to 2,145 vehicles, from 3,342 vehicles for the same
period in 1986.
    Volkswagen added that for the month of March it sold 4,324
vehicles, down from 6,198 last year.
    For the year-to-date, Volkswagen said it sold 10,951
vehicles, versus 18,392 last year-to-date.
 Reuter

Shr 1.00 dlr vs 34 cts
    Net 16.9 mln vs 5,696,000
    Revs 371.3 mln vs 303.2 mln
    Avg shrs 16.9 mln vs 16.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.55 dlrs vs 1.66 dlrs
    Net 59.3 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Revs 1.02 billion vs 912.8 mln
    Avg shrs 16.7 mln vs 16.3 mln
 Reuter

will ask Jeep dealers to inspect about 20,000 Cherokee,
Wagoneer and Comanche vehicles equipped with 4.0-liter,
6-cylinder engines to determine whether the air control valve
for the fuel injection system is out of design tolerance.
    The company said it will seek about 5,000 affected
vehicles, all 1987 models, manufactured between Jan 15 and
March 3, 1987. It said the out-of-tolerance air valves may
prevent the engine speed from returning to idle when the
accelerator pedal is released, the company said.
 Reuter

<DBCG.F> said it agreed to cooperate with BASF AG <BASF.F> and
the Japanese firm Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd <KAWH.T>, KHI,
in the field of technology designed to protect the environment.
    Deutsche Babcock Anlagen AG would work with BASF to develop
plants which would treat and burn industrial waste.
    Another Babcock subsidary, Vereinigte Kesselwerke AG, VKW,
had struck an accord with KHI which would later be transformed
into a licencing agreement.
    The agreement with KHI involves construction and marketing
by the Japanese company of an environmentally-safe system
developed by VKW for burners in power station boilers, Deutsche
Babcock said.
    No financial details of the cooperation were released.
 REUTER

Synthetic Industries is offering 110
mln dlrs of senior subordinated debentures due 1999 yielding
11-5/8 pct, said sole manager Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    The debentures have an 11-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at
99.
    The issue was increased from an initial offering of 100 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 14-1/2 cts vs 14 cts prior
    Pay May 4
 Reuter

    Net 141,224 vs 118,192
    Sales 5,849,695 vs 3,717,794
    Avg shrs 4,975,000 vs 4,925,000
    Year
    Shr 15 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 720,126 vs 474,879
    Sales 18.2 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Avg shrs 4,959,932 vs 4,902,778
    NOTE: 1985 year net includes gain of 58,000 dlrs, or one
cent a share, from tax loss carryforward
 Reuter

Damon Corp said its Damon
Clinical Laboratories division has agreed to manage theday-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory at Suburban

Hospital in Hinsdale, Ill.
 Reuter

Gerber Products Co said it has
given management of its CWT Inc trucking subsidiary 60 days to
pursue a leveraged buyout of the subsidiary.
    It said CWT Inc, which has operations in the Midwest and
Southeast, has annual revenues of approximately 135 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 226,000 vs 173,000
    Assets 73.1 mln vs 62.5 mln
    Deposits 54.6 mln vs 51.5 mln
    NOTE: earnings per share for 1987 affected by issuance of
166,750 shares of common stock in December 1986.
 Reuter

Deluxe Check Printers Inc said
that due to increased manufacturing costs it is hiking the
prices on most of its product lines, effective June 1.
    The company estimates that the net effect of the price
increases equals a 3.5 pct increase in total sales.
 Reuter

Praxis Pharmaceuticals Inc, which owns
worldwide licensing rights to the promising AIDS treatment
AL721, said large scale tests of the drug are planned for this
summer in the United States.
    Arnold Lippa, Praxis' president, said Praxis will test the
drug in a few hundred patients with full-blown AIDS, in those
with AIDS-related complex, a precursor to AIDS, and in more
patients with swollen lymph glands but no other AIDS symptoms.
    Praxis reported a net loss of 2,186,000 dlrs for the year
ended June 30, 1986. Lippa said the firm has about two mln dlrs
left from its public offering in January 1985.
    But Lippa expects to "easily spend" five to 10 mln dlrs in
these new clinical trials. He said the Beverly-Hills,
Calif.-based company is preparing a private offering and
discussing ventures with other pharmaceutical firms to help
finance the cost of the trials.
    As another mark of the interest in AL721, Anthony S. Fauci,
who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Disease, said the government will begin testing AL721 in its
AIDS treatment evaluation units in June.
    A spokeswoman said the study will be "small" and will
establish the drug's toxicity. She said the study will be
"expedited" to allow the next phase of testing to proceed
rapidly.
    These plans follow the completion of a small-scale test of
the drug's effectiveness in eight patients with AIDS-related
lymphadenopathy--swollen lymph glands, at St. Lukes/Roosevelt
Hospital in New York, and another study of 14 AIDS patients in
Israel, where the drug was developed.
   
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs four cts
    Net 161,000 vs 107,000
    Revs 5,852,000 vs 4,794,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 23 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 553,000 vs 610,000
    Revs 18.2 mln vs 14.2 mln
 Reuter

N.J. Nicholas Jr., president and chief
operating officer of Time Inc, told security analysts the
company is now engaged in talks to join a consortium of cable
companies that will invest in Cable News Network.
    Nicholas declined to give any details, but said an
announcement might be ready in a few days. He also declined to
say whether the investment would be made by Time Inc or
American Television and Communications Corp, a public company
in which Time owns a majority stake.
    Cable News Network is owned by Turner Broadcasting System
<TBS>.
 Reuter

<Roy F. Weston Inc> said it
received a 9.9 mln dlr contract from the U.S. Air Force for
assistance with site investigations and remedial studies at Air
Force bases throughout the nation.
    The contract covers four years and its Weston's fourth
major contract with the Air Force's occupational environmental
health laboratory.
    The company said it will test air, soils, ground and
surface waters site assessments and other areas.
 Reuter

Abnormally high levels of radiation were
found in Soviet tea and hazelnuts more than nine months after
the Chernobyl nuclear accident, West German residents in Moscow
were advised this week.
    In a letter to the West German community here, Ambassador
Joerg Kastl said laboratory tests on food samples bought in
Moscow in February had shown elevated levels of caesium-134 and
-137 in tea from Azerbaijan and Ukrainian hazelnuts.
    Other food samples sent for testing at Cologne University,
including honey, fruit, vegetables, pork, milk and butter, were
found to be free of radiation, it said.
    Data in the letter showed the tea and hazelnuts contained
caesium levels far in excess of ceilings recommended by the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
    The letter said people who had consumed the tea faced no
particular health danger as most of the caesium remained in the
tea leaves, but it warned against eating the hazelnuts.
    The products sent for testing were bought in state shops
and private farmers' markets in Moscow, it added. Other Western
embassies in Moscow said they had discontinued laboratory
testing of Soviet food late last year because no abnormal
radiation levels were detected.
    "We didn't find anything so we stopped doing it," a U.S.
Embassy spokesman said.
    A British spokesman said radiation-monitoring equipment
remained in the embassy waiting room for British residents in
Moscow who wanted to check their food, but laboratory tests had
not been conducted for several months.
    "Earlier we sent some food back to Britain as a
precautionary measure, but we stopped in the absence of any
alarming signals," he said. "If the tests had shown abnormal
readings, they would have been resumed."
 Reuter

Association said its rates on short-term discount notes were as
follows:
    MATURITY   NEW RATE    OLD RATE  MATURITY
    5-14 days  5.65 pct    5.60 pct     5-14 days
   15-78 days  5.00 pct    5.00 pct    15-81 days
   79-85 days  5.83 pct    5.75 pct    82-88 days
  89-360 days  5.00 pct    5.00 pct   89-174 days
                           5.85 pct  175-180 days
                           5.00 pct  181-360 days
 Reuter

The European Community wants to eliminate
all obstacles to free movement of goods, services and people by
1992, a laudable goal that has sent shivers down the spines of
its closest trading neighbours.
    Europe's outsiders -- the six members of the European Free
Trade Association (EFTA), and other small states -- fear the
growing power of the 12 EC member countries, a market of 320
mln people, one and a half times as big as the whole U.S.
    And as the Community celebrates its 30th anniversary, in
non-EC countries from Ankara to Oslo, an attitude is emerging
which says, "If you can't beat them, join them."
    In June 1985, the Community adopted a plan to create an
"internal market" without restrictions, which included new goals
on everything from tourism to the rules of bank accounting.
    The plan is so extensive that even the EFTA countries --
Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland --
with decades of close trade ties, find it hard to adopt a joint
position.
    Last month Turkey formally requested EC membership,
receiving a polite reply from Brussels that the time was not
ripe.
    In Austria, where its 1955 charter of neutrality forbids
joining political alliances, the government is looking for ways
to become a "de facto" EC member.
    And in Norway, where membership was rejected in a 1972
referendum, government officials are wondering whether the
political climate has changed.
    But nowhere has the debate been more existential than in
Switzerland, which has resisted all alliances for 700 years.
    The Swiss are a microcosm of Europe, living geographically
in the very heart of Europe and speaking the languages of the
three big economies -- Germany, France and Italy.
    Swiss neutrality, which has kept the country out of the
United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, would seem
to preclude membership in the Community, given the EC's loose
link with the Western defence alliance NATO.
    But an opinion poll late last year, held in the
French-speaking part of the country, showed a majority favoured
joining the Community.
    Since then, government officials have stressed that, while
membership was impossible, Switzerland should do everything
possible not to be locked out when the trade barriers inside
the EC come down.
    State secretary for foreign trade Franz Blankart, said it
is inconceivable the whole Swiss nation -- including the more
conservative German-speaking majority -- would vote for
membership.
    But Switzerland must be more than just a "satellite," he
said, now that the enlarged Community is extending itself into
areas omitted by the founding Treaty of Rome.
    These areas, including pharmaceutical research and
technological development, are the key to the economic future
of Switzerland and the Community alike, he adds.
    "We cannot permit ourselves the luxury of passively
following the Community's new dynamic of integration," he says.
    The Swiss economy ministry has drawn up a detailed analysis
of the EC White Paper on the internal market, outlining the
Swiss response to each point. While some refer to a collective
EFTA stance, officials admit that on many issues Switzerland
may have act alone.
    The new EC plans on transport, for example, would have a
severe impact on Switzerland and Austria, whose roads carry
most of the traffic between Italy and its EC partners.
    But rules such as the volume of petrol buses are allowed to
carry across a border have much less importance to Sweden or
Finland.
    Switzerland wants to work out ways to help people crossing
its borders with West Germany, France and Italy. But it is
afraid the liberal border controls Denmark, an EC member, has
with the non-EC Nordic countries might pose a threat to
security.
   And pin the fields of banking and insurance -- the very
lifeblood of Switzerland's service sector -- Swiss interests
could prove directly opposite to its EFTA partners with their
pppppppnarrow and tightly protected financial markets.
    The biggest danger ahead, EFTA members have said, would be
that their divided interests might leave the EC free to set
whatever guidelines and standards it wanted and force them on
other European states that wanted to trade.
 REUTER

decreasing its electrolytic copper cathode price by one cent  
to 66.0 cents a pound, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Enserch Corp said that it has called for
redemption on May four all its outstanding 16-3/8 pct sinking
fund debentures due 2007, pursuant to the optional redemption
provision of the indenture at 111.981 pct of par.
 Reuter

    31 days   5.95 pct   6.00 pct  32 days
  
 Reuter

The Trans World Corp Liquidating Trust
said it will permanently close its books of record and transfer
on April seven.
    Beneficial interest in the trust ceased trading on the New
York Stock Exchange on March 31, it noted.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 50 cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 2,475,739 vs loss 68,691
    Revs 3,689,770 vs 3,292,733
    Year
    Shr loss 50 cts vs loss two cts
    net loss 2,472,582 vs loss 112,936
    Revs 14.8 mln vs 13.2 mln
    NOTE: Current periods include charge of 2.25 mln dlrs or 45
cts for restaurant closings.
 Reuter

    Shr nine cts vs eight cts
    Net 246,000 vs 369,000
    Revs 20.4 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,123,000 vs 1,882,000
    NOTE: 1985 restated.
 Reuter

White House Budget Chief James Miller
said he was irritated by the Senate Budget Committee's failure
to meet an April 1 deadline for completing action on its budget
blueprint for the coming fiscal year.
    "I'm terribly upset that they've missed their deadline," he
told reporters after a speech commemorating the 100th
anniversary of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).
    Senate Budget Chairman Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.) "is obviously
having trouble getting a majority (of his committee) to agree
to his budget," Miller said. The panel late Wednesday defeated
Chiles' budget plan and will try again next week.
    The House Budget Committee, meanwhile, approved Wednesday a
trillion-dlr spending plan for the government's year beginning
Oct. 1, paving the way for a House vote.
    Miller also told reporters President Regan remains opposed
to any tax increases other than those he himself has proposed.
"We're not going to go along with a tax increase," he said.
    Miller told a few hundred current and former ICC officials
attending the birthday party that he was an unusual choice to
speak at the event as he favored the agency's abolition.
    "Let it die with dignity--and then we'll all get together
again for a fantastic wake," he said to mild applause.
 Reuter

Time Inc's chief financial officer,
Thayer Bigelow, told security analysts the company is
"comfortable" with Wall Street estimates that 1987 earnings
will be in a range of 3.75 dlrs to 4.25 dlrs per share.
    In 1986, Time reported earnings of 5.95 dlrs per share,
including a number of special items.
    Bigelow said in adjusting the 1986 results for the special
items and also removing the earnings of American Television and
Communications Corp <ATCMA>, Time earned 2.35 dlrs per share in
1986.
    Turner Broadcasting System Inc said the investment by the
cable consortium would be in Turner Broadcasting, not directly
in CNN. The consortium would infuse up to 550 mln dlrs in
Turner Broadcasting in return for a 35 pct equity interest.
    Ted Turner, Chairman, would retain a 51 pct interest, a
Turner Broadcasting spokesman said.
    Bigelow said the company is continuing its previously
announced 10 mln share repurchase program and has bought back
4.1 mln of its own shares. He said 700,000 shares were
purchased in the first quarter of 1987 at an average price of
81 dlrs per share.
    Bigelow said the company will always have a share buyback
program in place whenever it believes it is a better long-term
investment than starting or acquring a business. But he did not
give any specifics on further repurchases beyond the 10 mln
shares already announced.
   
    On the subject of acquisitions, Richard Munro, chairman and
chief executive said the company is not interested in investing
in over-the-air broadcasting, but continues to look at all
areas in which it is currently engaged.
    Munro said book publishing is an area that interested Time.
In 1986 the company purchased Scott and Foresman, its biggest
acquisition ever.
    N.J. Nicholas, president and chief operating officer, said
the company might be interested in a relatively small book
business.
    He said following the recent agreement for the sale of
Harper and Row to the News Corp Ltd <NWS>, "there may be pieces
that Murdoch doesn't want," referring to News Corp chairman
Rupert Murdoch.
    Asked if the company's SAMI business is for sale, Munro
said it is a "delicate subject", and "we're looking at all the
options." SAMI is a marketing information service for the food
industry. Published reports have stated it could be worth as
much as 500 mln dlrs.
   
    Bigelow said that Time's Home Box Office added  subscribers
last year and the trend is continuing in the first quarter of
1987. However, he said, HBO's results in the quarter will be
down slightly, but in the first quarter of 1986 there was a
special gain in the HBO unit.
    Nicholas said that HBO and Cinemax had combined subscriber
growth of 800,000 for last year.
    He also said the tax rate in 1987 will remain at just under
50 pct because of the repeal of investment tax credits and
higher state and local taxes. He said he sees a decrease in the
tax rate in 1988 of five or six percentage points.
    Munro said the company does not plan to increase its
dividend.
    Trygve Myhren, chairman and chief executive of American
Television and Communications, said the unit is looking at
getting involved in the home shopping video area. "It would be
foolish not to be a player there," he said.
    He said the company had talks with Home Shopping Network
Inc <HSN> prior to that company's public offering last year,
but nothing came of the talks.
 Reuter

  30-273 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct   30-273 days
 274-294 days  5.90 pct  5.92 pct  274-294 days
 295-344 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  295-344 days
 345-360 days  5.93 pct  5.93 pct  345-360 days
                        
 Reuter

AEL Industires Inc, a major
supplier of defense electronic systems, said it projects a 15
pct hike in sales for the fiscal year ended Feb 27, 1988, based
on its current backlog of 169 mln dlrs and new contracts
awarded in the first quarter.
    For the year ended Feb 27, 1987, AEL reported net income of
3,321,000, or 74 cts a share, including an aftertax charge of
818,000, on revenues of 108 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

FRENCH GOVERNMENT SETS SHARE PRICE OF BANQUE DU BATIMENT ET DES TRAVAUX PUBLICS AT 130 FRANCS - OFFICIAL

Ford Motor Co said domestic car
sales rose 29.5 pct in the March 20 to March 31 period compared
with the late-March period a year ago.
    There were nine selling days in both periods.
    The nation's second largest auto maker said it sold 79,249
vehicles compared with 61,169 a year ago.
    For the month of March sales rose 17.8 pct to 197,328
vehicles verses 167,490 in March 1986. Year-to-date sales
declined 0.2 pct to 462,629 units compared with 463,768 for the
first three months of 1986, it said.
    Ford said sales of trucks for the late-March period were up
28.1 pct to 50,305 vehicles verses 39,269 a year ago. Truck
sales for all of last month increased 23.1 pct to 136,767
compared to 111,066 last year. Year-to-date sales rose 8.7 pct
to 332,461 verses 305,781 for the first three months of 1986.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is expected to take
no reserve-management action in the U.S. Government securities
market during its usual intervention period, economists said.
    They said that, if the Fed does act, it will likely add
temporary reserves indirectly by arranging one to 1.5 billion
dlrs of customer repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.14 pct yesterday, opened at
5-15/16 pct and remained there in early trading. Analysts
believe this probably is about where the Fed wants the funds
rate to be.
 Reuter

there was a backlog of 30 ships waiting to enter the canal
             4/03  4/04
                       Due: 36    28
      Scheduled to Transit: 38    38
           End-Day Backlog: 28    18
 North End:  19 hrs       8 hrs
 South End:  20 hrs      16 hrs
 Reuter

Ownes-Illinois Holdings Corp filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission for debt offerings
with principal amounts totalling 2.05 billion dlrs.
    The company, which is the successor to Ownens-Illinois Inc,
said it plans to offer 250 mln dlrs of senior subordinated
notes due 1996, 500 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures due
1999 and 1.3 billion dlrs of junior subordinated discount
debentures due 2003.
    Proceeds from the offering, together with about 50 mln dlrs
in bank borrowings, will be used to repay or redeem financing
incurred in connection with the takeover, it said.
    Owens-Illinois, which was taken over by a group led by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co, said financing incurred in the
takeover includes a 550 mln dlr bridge loan provided by a bank
group, 200 mln dlrs provided by two common stock partnerships
and 600 mln dlrs of junior subordinated notes due Sept 17, 1988
which were sold to an affiliated of Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    Other proceeds will be used to pay underwriting costs, the
company said. Morgan Stanley is the underwriter, it said.
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said a total
of 57 miners were trapped in a copper mine yesterday by a fire
that burned for 24 hours and killed one miner.
    Earlier, the company had said 44 miners were trapped.
    Some of the miners suffered smoke inhalation but the 56 who
emerged safely are out of danger, the company said. Noranda
estimated that the fire caused 10 mln Canadian dlrs in damage.
 Reuter

Piedmont Aviation Group
Inc's Piedmont Airlines said its load factor rose to 63.40 pct
last month from 61.12 pct in March 1986.
    The airline said it flew 987.7 mln revenue passenger miles
last month, up 15.6 pct from 854.0 mln a year earlier while its
available seat miles rose 11.5 pct to 1.56 billion from 1.40
billion in March 1986.
    Piedmont said its first quarter load factor was 57.33 pct
up from 54.89 pct a year earlier. First quarter revenue
passenger miles rose 16.3 pct to 2.66 billion and available
seat miles were up 11.4 pct to 4.46 billion.
 Reuter

<Range Rover of North America Inc>
said that for the month of March it sold 79 vehicles versus nil
for March 1986.
    The company said that year to date it sold 79 vehicles
versus nil year-to-date last year.
    The British luxury sport-utility vehicle officially went on
sale March 16, Range Rover said.
 Reuter

Land's End Inc said its board
declared a dividend of 10 cts a share payable April 30, record
April 13.
    It is the company's first dividend since it became a public
entity last October.
 Reuter

Hadson Corp said it is offering
four mln new shares of its common, par value 10 cts a share, at
8-1/2 dlrs a shares.
    It had previously announced it would offer 3,750,000 shares
    Hadson said proceeds will be used for expansion of its
existing businesses and energy-related acquisitions, and for
    Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and Painwebber Inc are the
managing underwriters.
 Reuter

California Energy Co said it
received 3.5 mln dlrs in private financing from a European
investment group to support further development by China Lake
Joint Venture of geothermal energy resources located on lands
at China Lake, Calif.
   
 Reuter

Aequitron Medical Inc said that
<Vantage Properties Inc> has exercised its option to buy 15.3
acres of land from Aequitron for 1.8 mln dlrs.
    Aequitron orginally gave Vantage the option in May 1986 in
exchange for a 100,000 dlr letter of credit, which will be
forfeit if Vantage does not close the deal by April 30,
Aequitron said.
    Aequitron added it expects the deal to close on or before
April 30, its fiscal year-end.
    The company said it could realize a gain of about 300,000
dlrs on the sale, which will be used to reduce short term debt.
 Reuter

Allwaste Inc said it agreed in principle
to acquire all outstanding stock of a company in the industrial
service business for 1.98 mln dlrs in common stock.
    It did not identify the company to be acquired.
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said March load
factor rose to 66.5 pct from 62.9 pct in March 1986.
    Revenue passenger miles rose 17.2 pct in March to 1.10
billion from 942.6 mln and 18 pct year-to-date to 2.90 billion
from 2.46 billion, the company said.
    Available seat miles grew 10.8 pct in March to 1.66 billion
from 1.50 billion and 10 pct in the three months to 4.72
billion from 4.29 billion.
    Year-to-date load factor rose to 61.5 pct from 57.4 pct.
 Reuter

global petroleum corp said today it
raised the posted cargo prices for number six fuel in the new
york harbor 20 cts to 1.45 dlrs a barrel, effective today.
    the increase brings the prices for one pct sulphur to 21.30
dlrs, up 20 cts; two pct sulphur 20.85 dlrs, up one dlr; 2.2
pct sulphur 20.50, up 1.25 dlrs, and 2.5 pct sulphur 20.25
dlrs, up 1.45 dlrs, it said.
    prices for 0.3 pct and 0.5 pct sulphur fuels were unchanged
at 22.50 and 21.85 dlrs respectively, the company said.
 Reuter

The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate
sided with President Reagan and defeated an attempt to cut U.S.
aid to Mexico as a protest it is failing to cooperate fully
with the American war against drugs.
    A day after the Senate trounced Reagan's attempt to sustain
a veto of a major highway bill, a bipartisan majority gave him
a victory by shelving on a 49 to 38 vote a measure to halve
assistance given Mexico.
    Two companion measures also were expected to be defeated,
to halve aid to Panama and the Bahamas.
    The fight was considered more symbolic than having
significant impact, since Mexico this year is receiving a
relatively small 15.7 mln dlrs in assistance. But critics said
cutting the aid would hurt U.S.-Mexico relations.
 Reuter

Soo Line Corp said it agreed to sell
its Lake States Transportation Division to the newly formed
Wisconsin Central Ltd.
    The division conducts rail operations over about 2,000
miles of railroad in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and
Illinois. Soo Line said in January it was seeking bids for the
property.
    Terms were withheld, but Soo has estimated that the
transaction will result in a one-time after-tax loss of 8.0 to
15.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The French government has set the public
offer price of shares for the state-owned <Banque du Batiment
et des Travaux Publics> at 130 francs, valuing the bank at 416
mln francs, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
    This follows an analysis by the privatisation commission
putting the bank's value at at least 400 mln francs.
    The public share offer will open on April 6 and close on
April 10.
    The share capital of the bank comprises 3.2 mln shares, of
which the state will keep 200,000 to permit it to proceed with
free share issues to small shareholders later, the ministry
said.
    A total of 51 pct of the capital, corresponding to 1.63 mln
shares, will be allocated directly to various investor groups
who responded to invitations for tenders.
    A further 1.07 mln shares will be sold to the public
through the Paris Bourse and 300,000 shares, or 10 pct of
shares on offer, will be reserved for employees and former
employees of the bank.
    The group comprising Federation Nationale du Batiment,
Caisse Nationale de Surcompensation du Batiment et des Travaux
Publics, Societe Mutuelle d'Assurance du Batiment et des
Travaux Publics and Societe Mutuelle d'Assurance sur la Vie du
Batiment et des Travaux Publics received 20.5 pct of capital.
    Another group comprising Federation Nationale des Travaux
Publics (FNTP), Syndicat Professionel des Entrepreneurs de
Travaux Publics de France et d'Outre-Mer and Caisse Nationale
des Entrepreneurs de Travaux Publics de France et d'Outre-Mer
received 11.5 pct of the capital.
    A third group comprising Credit Commercial de France (CCF),
<Banque Hervet>, Comptoir des Entrepreneurs and Comptoir
Central de Materiel d'Entreprise received eight pct of capital.
    Credit Foncier de France (CFF) and Credit Lyonnais were
each allocated 5.5 pct of the bank's capital.
    Private individuals investing in the public share offer
will receive a one-for-10 free share issue if they hold the
shares for at least 18 months, up to a limit of five free
shares, while employees and former employees will be entitled
to discounts of between five and 20 pct on the issue price.
 REUTER

upgraded the ratings on four billion dlrs of debt of Coastal
Corp and its subsidiaries.
    S and P cited Coastal's success in reducing debt and
preferred stock by 390 mln dlrs last year, despite weak energy
prices. As debt is repaid, pretax interest coverage should rise
gradually from the current depressed 1.4 times level.
    Raised were Coastal's notes, debentures and Eurobonds to
BB-minus from B-plus and subordinated debt and preferred to
B-plus from B-minus. S and P upgraded the units Wycon Chemical
Corp and ANR Finance N.V./B.V.
    Wycon Chemical's industrial revenue bonds, guaranteed by
the parent, were raised to BB-minus from B-plus.
    S and P upgraded ANR Finance's Euronotes to BB-minus from
B-plus, ANR Pipeline Co's first mortgage bonds to BB-plus from
BB, debentures and Eurobonds to BB-minus from B-plus and
preferred to BB from B-plus.
    Also, Colorado Interstate Gas Co's first mortgage bonds
were raised to BB-plus from BB and debentures to BB-minus from
B-plus, while the unit's preferred was affirmed at BB.
    A manageable debt maturity schedule for the next few years
mitigates concern over Coastal's capital structure, S/P said.
 Reuter

The British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> said
it had no plans to close its refinery in Gothenburg, despite
forecasts by a Swedish finance ministry committee that it might
be planning such a move.
    The committee said the refinery's future looked bleak
because the Swedish petroleum industry's competitiveness was
expected to worsen unless it invested, and because of the
effects of a possible tightening of rules on sulphur content.
    But BP said the unit, in which Sweden's <OK Petroleum AB>
has a 22 pct stake, had performed well both technically and
financially up to and including the first quarter of 1987.
    Current restrictions on sulphur emissions and known future
plans for both Sweden and export markets did not cause it any
serious problems, it said in a statement.
    The refinery started up in 1967 and has an annual capacity
of 4.7 mln tonnes.
 REUTER

The Bank of Italy issued details of new
bank capital adequacy requirements due to come into force in
June, in a central bank circular.
    The Bank of Italy circular follows an interministerial
committee decision last December to introduce minimum capital
adequacy requirements for banks.
    The requirements, which formalise criteria already in use,
comprise a risk-asset ratio applicable to banking operations
including foreign branches, and a gearing ratio which excludes
business of foreign branches.
     The risk-asset ratio measures solvency, defined as a
bank's ability to meet all its liabilities through the
realisation of its assets, while the second establishes the
minimum capital a bank must hold relative to its size.
    Specifically, total credits and off balance sheet items of
domestic and foreign branches must not exceed an amount
equivalent to 12.5 times the bank's capital, net of stakes held
in Italian banks. The gearing ratio limits total financial
assets of domestic branches to 22.5 times capital, net of
stakes held in Italian banks.
   The Bank of Italy said the requirements corresponded to a
risk-asset ratio of eight pct and a gearing ratio of 4.4 pct.
    For both ratios, the value of equity investments and stakes
other than those in Italian banks will be deducted from the
capital multiple.
    The total credit risk of an individual bank will be
calcluated by assigning specific weights to the various
categories of financial assets and off balance sheet assets.
The weighting will be based essentially on credit risk and will
not take into account guarantees, other forms of risk transfer
or potential losses linked to exchange or interest rates.
    The definition of capital on which the ratios will be
calculated comprises shareholders' equity and disclosed legal
reserves plus "general provisions having the character of
reserves." Own shares held in portfolio will be excluded.
    The Bank of Italy said it would set more stringent
individual ratios for those banks running greater risks
regarding items such as the quality, mobility and concentration
of assets, and to liquidity and management adequacy.
    The new ratios will be applied to all banks operating in
Italy.
    Banks which are not in line with the requirements by June
1987 "must correct their position in the shortest time possible,"
the Bank of Italy said. A transition period would be allowed
but would not be more than four years.
    Italian branches of foreign banks will be exempted from the
risk ratio when the parent banks are already subject to similar
ratios but must comply with the gearing ratio.
    The Bank of Italy said the introduction of capital ratios
aimed to further enhance capital adequacy at a time of
increasing competitiveness and was a further step in bringing
Italy into line with supervisory norms in other countries.
 REUTER

Britain and Japan remained deadlocked
today over trade policies, and political sources said the U.K.
Government was pinning hopes for a breakthrough on the trip to
Tokyo next week by Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard.
    Howard told Reuters he would try to "promote understanding
on trade issues" during his trip, which starts tomorrow.
    Meanwhile, Britain will re-examine a letter from Japan's
prime minister promising his personal help for a solution to
the row over a U.K. Firm's bid to win a significant role in
Japan's liberalised telecommunications market, government
    Tensions have risen following the decision by Britain to
arm itself early with new statutory powers which it says could
be used against certain Japanese financial insitutions.
    Britain had reacted optimistically at first to the letter
from Japanese leader Yasuhiro Nakasone to U.K. Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. It had been seen as a signal that he would
work towards ensuring a satisfactory outcome to the bid
launched by Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L>, officials said.
    But this view has been clouded by reports from Tokyo that
Nakasone's assurances really constituted little more than
politeness in the face of loud British anger, they added.
    Howard said he would use his trip to push for a bigger role
in Japan's telecommunications industry for Cable and Wireless
Plc. The U.K. Government has made the issue a test case for
Japan's willingness to open its markets adequately to outside
    Asked whether the letter from Nakasone was a rejection of
attempts by Britain to achieve that, Howard said "I am not sure
it is correct to regard Mr Nakasone's letter as a rejection of
Mrs Thatcher's request of him - and it says he is taking a
personal interest in this problem."
    "I don't understand it to be closed at all."
    During his visit to Tokyo, Howard said "I shall be talking
to them about it (the letter), finding out exactly what they do
mean about it, and making it plain that we take a very serious
view of the fact that access to Japanese markets is not as free
as we allow acces to our markets to be."
    He noted that under the new Financial Services Act, Britain
could revoke or deny licences to Japanese banking and insurance
institutions in London if U.K. Firms fail to get receive
similar treatment in financial markets in Japan soon.
    "I hope it won't come to that, and I don't think it will,"
Howard added.
    Officials involved in Howard's Tokyo itinerary said they
had tried to arrange meetings with Japanese officials who were
least likely to see trade issues in too a parochial a light.
 Reuter

an announcement by the department yesterday concerning 15.0 mln
dlrs in additional credit guarantees for exports of U.S.
commodities to Turkey contained two inaccuracies.
    First, the USDA said its announcement should not have said
that plywood was excluded from the additional three mln dlrs in
GSM-102 credit guarantees for lumber.
    The original announcement said the guarantees included
three mln dlrs for lumber, except plywood.
    Melvin Sims, USDA general sales manager, told Reuters he
did not anticipate any plywood would be included in the sales,
but that "it's possible it would be."
    Plywood in the past has not been eligible for GSM-102
credit guarantees because it is considered by some to be a
manufactured product. Members states of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development have pledged not to offer
concessional credits on manufactured products, Sims said.
    However, the Reagan administration is considering whether
to allow plywood sales to be covered by the credit guarantee
program, Sims said.
    Second, the USDA announcement said 6.0 mln dlrs of a
previously announced 6.0-mln dlr line for tallow under GSM-102
was available for both public and private sector importers.
    In fact, the line of credit guarantees for tallow is
available only for public sector importers, Walter Stern,
Foreign Agricultural Service Turkey analyst, said.
 Reuter

Dataflex Corp said it named Richard
Rose president, succeeding Jeffrey Lamm, who continues as
chairman and chief executive officer.
    Rose has been executive vice president of the desktop
computer marketing company since joining it in 1984.
 Reuter

Olin Corp said it was conducting
an organizational restructuring of its defense systems group to
meet growth plans.
    The corporation said the restructuring creates several
divisions within the group, including a new aerospace division
that brings togehter Olin's Rocket Research Company and Pacific
Electro Dynamics unit.
 Reuter

raised to B-1 from B-2 Chicago Pacific Corp's 315 mln dlrs of
subordinated notes.
    The agency said the rating recognizes risks in Chicago
Pacific's highly leveraged balance sheet, uncertainty arising
from its consideration of another sizable acquisition and
exposure to the European appliance industry.
    Moody's said the units Hoover and Rowenta have leading
market positions. Debt to capital will be slightly more than 60
pct pro forma, but since Chicago Pacific's plant is modern,
capital spending is considered largely discretionary, it said.
 Reuter

W.W. Grainger Inc said it is asking
shareholders to approve an increase in the number of its common
shares, one dlr par value, to 75 mln shares from 35 mln shares
currently.
    In addition, W.W. Grainger said it is asking shareholders
to approve an increase in the number of authorized preferred
stock to three mln shares, with one dlr par value, from 600,000
shares, without par value.
    W.W. Grainger said its shareholders will vote on the
proposals, outlined in its proxy statement, at its annual
meeting on April 29.
    Also, in its annual report, W.W. Grainger, an electric
motor distributor, said it plans to open 16 branches in the New
York area and five in Detroit in the next eleven months.
    Grainger added it expects to open 15 of the branches this
year.
    The company said market research and start-up costs for the
New York and Detroit branches will run at about eight mln dlrs,
1.5 mln dlrs of which was charged against 1986 earnings, while
the rest will be charged against earnings as incurred.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration is debating
whether to provide government credit guarantees for the export
of plywood, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said.
    As a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, OECD, the United States has agreed not to
provide any concessional credits on the export of manufactured
products.
    However, USDA General Sales Manager Melvin Sims told
Reuters the administration is considering allowing USDA to
provide its first export credit guarantees for plywood on the
grounds it is not a manufactured product.
    Sims said it was clear that wood products such as
furniture, tables and window frames would be considered
manufactured goods and therefore ineligible for export credit
guarantees. However, the case of plywood was less clear.
    "As long as it's a basic material, we consider it still just
a processed version of the basic agricultural commodity," Sims
said in a telephone interview.
    Earlier today, USDA said that plywood was eligible under an
export credit guarantee offer for Turkey announced yesterday.
In its original announcement yesterday, USDA had said the offer
included three mln dlrs for the export of lumber, excluding
plywood. However, Sims said he did not expect any plywood
exports to be including under the lumber guarantee offer.
 Reuter

Pope and Talbot Inc said it
expects first quarter earnings to total about one dlr per
share, compared with a year-earlier loss of nine cts per share.
    Each of the company's business segments contributed to the
sharp improvement, Pope and Talbot said.
    The wood products company also said it expects to release
first quarter results later this month.
 Reuter

domestic car sales for March 21-31 fell 50 pct, to 1,198 cars,
2,420 cars over the same period last year.
    For March, AMC's domestic car sales dropped 56 pct, to
2,748 cars, from 6,300 cars in March 1986, AMC said.
    AMC added that year-to-date its domestic cars sales
retreated 60 pct, to 7,670 cars, from 19,161 cars last
year-to-date.
    AMC said its Jeep sales for the March 21-31 period,
however, rose 25 pct, to 6,873 Jeeps, from 5,506 Jeeps in the
    For the month, Jeep sales rose 15 pct to 15,873 Jeeps, from
13,806 Jeeps in March 1986, AMC said.
    Year-to-date Jeep sales climbed two pct to 46,896 Jeeps,
from 46,056 Jeeps last year-to-date, AMC added.
 Reuter

The Italian Treasury said it had closed its
latest offer of 10-year variable coupon certificates (CCTs)
early after receiving subscriptions totalling 11,500 billion
lire. The amount of the offer, scheduled to close April 7, had
not been prefixed.
    The Treasury said it had closed the offer early in view of
the market's response and having taken into account the
estimated state borrowing requirement for the current month.
    The CCTs were priced at 99.00 pct for an effective net
annual yield on the first coupon, payable April 1 1988, of 9.85
pct. Terms were identical to those on the preceding offer.
 REUTER

Presidio Oil Co said it began an offer to
exchange shares of its recently created class A common stock
for shares of its class B common stock on a share-for-share
basis.
    The oil and gas company also said it plans to declare an
annual cash dividend of 10 cts a share, payable quarterly, on
the class A stock. Though not restricted from doing so, it does
not plan to pay cash dividends on the class B common.
    The exchange offer is on a one-time only basis and will be
open for 90 days, it said.
 Reuter

Association said it plans to price 300 mln dlrs of short-term
floating rate notes due Oct 8, 1987, on Monday.
    The notes are for settlement April 9 and when-issued
trading is expected to begin at 0930 hrs EST April 7, it said.
    Sallie Mae said the notes will be priced at a spread to the
bond equivalent rate of the 91-day Treasury bill with the
interest being reset the day after each weekly T-bill auction.
    It said the notes will be offered in book entry form by a
selling group managed by Sallie Mae in denominations of 10,000
dlrs and 5,000 dlrs increments thereafter.
    Sallie Mae, a federally chartered, stockholder-owned
corporation, is the nation's major financial intermediary
serving the education credit market.
 Reuter

Southwest Airlines said it will begin
service to Detroit, Michigan on June 4, 1987.
    It said that with the new service, it will serve 27 cities
in 13 states across the U.S.
    It also said that delivery of six new 737-300 aircraft will
enable it to expand its route system in June.
 Reuter

Stars to Go Inc said it completed
its acquisition of 650 video centers previously owned by CVS
International Inc and located in Circle K Corp <CKP> stores.
    In conjunction with the acquistion, Circle K also granted
it the exclusive right to install video cassette rental centers
in all existing 3,500 Circle K stores, as well as in future
stores, for a period of seven years, Stars to Go said.
    The company also said it currently has a total of 4,650
centers in operation and expects to increase the total to 6,000
by June 30.
 Reuter

Mesa Offshore Trust said it received its
first cash distribution from the Mesa Limited Partnership and
expects dividends to its unitholders to begin in July.
    It said the cash distribution for March totaled 2,484,000
dlrs, which will be used to repay a portion of the Trust's
outstanding 3.2 mln dlr line of credit with Texas Commerce Bank
National Association. Mesa said the line of credit must be
repaid before distributions to unit holders may begin.
    Mesa Offshore Trust previously owed Mesa Limited Partnship
for expenses related to exploration and development of the
Trust's properties.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Inc said it
withdrew the ratings on Lear Siegler Inc's A-rated senior debt
and preferred stock, A-minus subordinated debt and A-1
    S and P also withdrew the A rating on the outstanding
non-callable 11-3/4 pct Lear senior notes of 1991.
    Lear redeemed all of its and Bangor Punta's outstanding
debt after undergoing a leveraged buyout which closed in
January and was led by Forstmann Little. S and P added that
Lear applied to delist its outstanding senior notes.
                
 Reuter

Polysar Ltd, wholly owned by
<Canada Development Corp>, said it agreed to form a joint
venture with Raision Tehtaat, of Finland, to build a synthetic
rubber latex plant in southern Finland.
    Project cost and plant capacity were not disclosed.
    The joint venture, to be 51 pct owned by Raision Tehtaat
and 49 pct by Polysar, will build a plant at Anjalankoski, east
of Helsinki, to produce carboxylated styrene-butadiene latex.
    The plant's production will be used by Finland's paper
industry for making coated paper and paper board products.
 Reuter

Finnish Social Democrat Prime Minister
Kalevi Sorsa and his centre-left majority government resigned
formally, clearing the way for the Conservatives to re-enter
government after 21 years in opposition.
    The resignation was in line with tradition following the
March 15-16 general election which gave the Conservatives nine
more seats and a current total of 53 in the 200-seat chamber.
    President Mauno Koivisto asked the outgoing coalition of
Social Democrats, Centrists, Ruralists and Swedish members
government to stay on in caretaker capacity, officials said.
 REUTER

Qtrly div 38 cts vs 33 cts
    Pay June 1
    Record May 7
    NOTE: company said this is the largest dividend increase in
15 years.
 Reuter

<Meston Lake Resources Inc>, 65.3 pct
owned by Campbell Resources Inc, said it will begin commercial
output at its Joe Mann mine in the Chibougamu area of Quebec at
an initial daily rate of 500 short tons of ore grading 0.15
ounce of gold per ton.
    It said it will improve throughput to 700 tons a day at
0.221 ounce of gold per ton.
    Meston said current ore reserves at the property total
910,000 tons grading 0.211 ounces of gold per ton and 0.3 pct
copper, but it may be able to develop "substantially greater
tonnage."
  
    Meston said underground drilling below current developed
reserves has intersected the main zone 200 feet below the
bottom level, with the average grade assayed at 0.530 ounce of
gold per ton over true width of 17 feet.
    A recent drillhole, east of the current shaft and 600 feet
from the reserve boundary, intersected three zones grading,
respectively, 0.708 ounce per ton over 5.4 feet at depth of 650
feet, 0.706 ounce over seven feet at depth of 765 feet and
0.418 ounce over one foot at depth of 1,000 feet. A second
surface hole, 500 feet farther east, intersected 1.068 ounce
per ton over 5.3 feet.
 Reuter

may upgrade the ratings on Upjohn Co's 400 mln dlrs of debt.
    The agency said it will study the effect new products may
have on Upjohn's earnings potential. Moody's will also assess
the effects that growth and a broader diversification of
pharmaceutical cash flow will have on operating performance.
    Moody's noted that pharmaceuticals and other health-care
markets are characterized by a greater stability of cash flow.
    Upjohn currently carries Aa-3 senior unsecured long-term
debt and industrial revenue bonds. The company's Prime-1
commercial paper is not under review.
 Reuter

Warburg, Pincus Capital Co L.P., an
investment partnership, said it told representatives of Symbion
Inc it would not increase the 3.50-dlr-per-share cash price it
has offered for the company.
Warburg Pincus said one of its top executives, Rodman Moorhead,
who is also a Symbion director, met April 1 with Symbion's
financial advisor, L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin Inc.
    In a discussion of the offer, Warburg Pincus said Moorhead
told the meeting there are no plans to raise the 3.50 dlr bid.
    Moorhead told the Rothschild officials that Warburg Pincus
considers the offered price to be a fair one, Warburg Pincus
said.
    Last Month Warburg Pincus launched a tender offer to buy up
to 2.5 mln Symbion common shares.
 Reuter

Enserch Corp said it called for
redemption on May 4, 1987, all of its outstanding 16-3/4 pct
sinking fund debentures due 2007.
   The redemption is pursuant to the optional redemption
provisions of the indenture at a price of 111.981 pct of part.
 Reuter

The Stock Exchange is virtually certain
to agree to change its regulations in order to permit "when
issued" trading of U.K. Government bonds (gilts) as part of an
experimental series of bond auctions later this year, market
    "The principle that this "when issued' trading should take
place has been accepted by the Executive Committee of the
International Stock Exchange," said George Nissen, chairman of
the Gilt Edged Market Makers' Association (GEMMA). "It's a
question of how, rather than whether," he told Reuters.
    The Bank of England announced in February that it planned a
possible series of experimental auctions for gilts, similar to
the system used to market U.S. Treasury issues, with the first
auction possibly in April or May.
     The Bank said at that stage that it was not opposed in
principle to "when issued" trading developing in bonds in the
period between the announcement of full details of the auction
and the auction itself, as in the U.S.
    However, "when issued" trading is prohibited under the rules
of the International Stock Exchange, formerly the London Stock
Exchange, and would require an amendment in order to proceed.
    Nissen said discussions on the technical details of a rule
change to allow "when issued" trading were still taking place
between the Government broker at the Bank of England and the
Quotations Department of the Stock Exchange.
    The 27 gilt-edged primary dealers regard the introduction
of grey market trading as an essential feature of an auction
system covering part of the Government's funding needs.
    "If we are going into an auction system, we need to have
some form of market test of the stock we're bidding for," said
Simon Hartnell, Head Trader at primary dealer Alexanders Laing
and Cruickshank Gilts Ltd.
    "The American WI (when issued) market certainly functions
very efficiently," he said.
    Nissen said he believed that if "when issued" trading were
not allowed, market-makers "would be extremely unhappy about the
whole auction."
    Gilt dealers noted that it was a basic provision of Stock
Exchange rules that dealing could not take place in a stock
until it was listed by the Quotations Department. However, this
was mainly designed to prevent a grey market springing up in
equities prior to listing.
    They pointed out that in contrast to the many uncertainties
connected with an issue of equity securities, there would be
few imponderables relating to bonds just about to be issued by
the Bank of England.
    Senior market sources noted that in any case "when issued"
trading would be supervised by the Stock Exchange and would be
subject to Bank of England supervisory guidelines.
    Since the Bank of England and market-makers themselves are
known to be in favour of the idea, the sources said, there was
now a presumption that there would be scope for "when issued"
trading to take place.
    Gilt sales now are effected by means of large-scale stock
tenders or by tap issues of stock tranches direct to the
market. But greater market capitalisation following the "Big
Bang" restructuring last year provided an opportunity for
change.
    A combination of both systems would enable the Bank to
benefit from both the flexibility offered by traditional
marketing methods and the guarantee of a steady supply of funds
implied by auctions.
    The Bank said in a consultative document published in
February that possibly two or three experimental auctions might
each raise between one to 1-1/2 billion stg.
    The remainder of the funding would be conducted by
traditional tender and tap issue means. Total gross official
sales of gilt-edged stock were 11.9 billion stg in 1985/86.
    Nissen said that market-makers had agreed unanimously with
the bank's view that auctions would be more easily conducted on
a price basis, rather than based on yield.
    He said that the odds were also in favour of adoption of a
bid price form of auction, where successful bidders were
allotted stock at the various prices at which they bid, rather
than a common price allotment whereby stock was allocated at
the lowest accepted price.
    Hartnell said that while a "when issued" facility was crucial
to market-makers' adaptation to the new system, he would also
have liked to see an extension to the "fallow" period proposal
made by the Bank of England.
    The Bank said that it would not sell by any method stock of
the same type as that to be auctioned between the time of the
announcement of auction details and a period ending 28 days
after the auction itself.
    Noting that in the case of long bond auctions, U.S. Primary
dealers have as much as three months between successive sales
of stock, Hartnell said the Bank's proposal was "very tight."
    Nissen said that following a meeting between GEMMA and the
Bank of England on March 3, which he described as "very helpful,"
GEMMA submitted a note making several further residual points.
    Market-makers are now awaiting a further, fairly
definitive, paper from the Bank which would contain details of
auction procedures. Although the Bank has not yet formally
announced a definite intention to proceed with the auctions,
most market participants assume that they will go ahead.
    "My own view is that we are on course and the first
indications from the original paper - an auction at the end of
April or in May - must be the best assumption," he said.
 REUTER

voted to slash foreign aid to Panama because of drug
trafficking, but sided with President Reagan by refusing to cut
U.S. aid to Mexico as a protest it is failing to cooperate
fully with the American war against drugs.
    In what Senate opponents of a cutoff said was a surprise,
the Senate voted 58 to 31 to halve aid to Panama.
    The measure, which the administration opposes, would need
House approval before any aid would be stopped.
    Panama is due to receive 28.5 mln dlrs in U.S. aid this
year. A spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations committee
said if the House approves the measure too, half of this aid
would be stopped.
 Reuter

Lewis Horowitz, president of the New
York Futures Exchange, said the New York Stock Exchange board
yesterday approved in principle an agreement to relocate the
futures exchange at the New York Cotton Exchange.
    The agreement is subject to the approval of the Cotton
Exchange board, which meets Tuesday, April 7.
 Reuter

 Reuter

The European Commission's decision to
release an additional 300,000 tonnes of British intervention
feed wheat for the home market will provide only moderate
relief in an increasingly tight market, traders said.
    Some operators had been anticipating a larger tonnage,
pointing out that at this week's U.K. Intervention tender the
market sought to buy 340,000 tonnes but only 126,000 tonnes
were granted.
    The new tranche of intervention grain is unlikely to
satisfy demand, they said, and keen buying competition for
supplies in stores is expected to keep prices firm.
    The release of the feed wheat followed recent strong
representations by the U.K. Grain trade to the Commission.
There has been growing concern that rising internal prices,
triggered by heavy exports, were creating areas of shortage in
interior markets.
    The latest EC authorisation will add 70,000 tonnes at the
April 14 tender and a further 30,000 tonnes later in the month.
The remaining 200,000 tonnes will be made available in May and
June.
    News of the release produced an early downward reaction in
local physical markets, but by midday some sections had halved
early two stg losses while others were unchanged.
    Ministry of Agriculture figures for March indicate 1.85 mln
tonnes of wheat and 1.74 mln tonnes of barley remain in the
free market. However, some traders believe these figures are
overstated and, while some may still be held on the farm, the
bulk of wheat is already sold. Some of the grain is also off
the market in futures stores.
    A total of 2.10 mln tonnes of intervention wheat has been
sold for export or to the home market since the season started
July 1, leaving an unsold balance in intervention of about 1.59
    Intervention barley sales have reached just over 1.0 mln
tonnes, leaving about 753,000 tonnes, traders said.
    This season's U.K. Export performance has surpassed all
early expectations and has created the present nervous
situation in domestic markets where the fear now is free market
supplies may not last out until new crop becomes available in
August.
    The market is sticking to its recent prediction of total
barley and wheat exports of around 10.5 mln tonnes, a new
record and nearly double the previous record of 5.9 mln tonnes
achieved in the 1984/85 season.
    Traders expect U.K. Wheat exports to reach 6.0 mln and
barley around 4.50 mln tonnes.
    The Soviet Union has booked a record total of 2.5 mln
tonnes of British wheat and barley this season, but only 1.28
mln had surfaced in Customs export figures by March 25, traders
said.
    Other EC countries have bought large amounts of British
grain and for the July 1/March 25 period had taken 2.59 mln
tonnes of wheat and 2.06 mln tonnes of barley. This compares
with 1.28 mln and 868,700 tonnes last season.
    The market is expecting prices, particularly wheat, to stay
buoyant for the remaining few months of the season. If supplies
become more difficult and prices strengthen further, feed
compounders may increase cereal substitute usage, traders said.
 Reuter

PBS Building Systems of America Inc,
an Anaheim, Calif., company, told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it has acquired 150,000 shares of Modulaire
Industries, or 5.0 pct of the total outstanding common stock.
    PBS, whose subsidiaries design, make, sell and lease
nonresidential relocatable modular buildings, said it bought
the stake for 855,768.75 dlrs "to acquire an equity interest in
Modulaire, while it evaluates Modulaire."
    Depending on several factors, PBS said it may decide to buy
additional Modulaire common shares.
                                
 Reuter

Boise Cascade Corp said it
completed the previously announced sale of its Consumer
Packaging Division to Sonoco Products Co <SONO> for
approximately 175 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

USPCI Inc said it filed a
Commission for a public offering of one share of common stock
in the U.S. and 372,500 shares in a concurrent international
offering.
    Of the one mln being offered in the U.S., 227,500 will be
issued and sold by the company, 600,000 by the Beard Co,
100,000 by Beard Oil Co and 72,500 by shareholders.
    After completion of the offering, Beard will own about 25
pct of the stock.
    Proceeds will be used to fund capital expenditures.

 Reuter

The Customs Bureau has begun to levy
on bond on certain Japanese goods pending a final decision by
President Reagan on April 17 on imposing the planned 100 pct
tariff on the shipments, the bureau said.
    A bureau official said bonding began on March 31 and if the
penalties are imposed as expected after a period of comment,
they will retroactive to that date.
    The penalties are to be levied on variety of electronic
items in retaliation for Japan's failure to comply with a July
1986 agreement to end dumping semiconductors in third nations
and to open its home market to U.S. goods.
 reuter

Coastal Corp said it will file an
alternate proposal to reorganize TransAmerican Natural Gas
Corp, the privately-owned Texas firm in bankruptcy, on April
15.
    Coastal said the proposal will be filed with the bankruptcy
court and is expected to be heard on April 29 and 30, along
with TransAmerican's separately filed reorganization plan.
    In a letter to shareholders indicting TransAmerican's
campaign to thwart a takeover, Coastal said TransAmerican "has
mounted a campaign in Texas to smear Coastal and misrepresent
its intentions."
    The letter, written by Coastal Chairman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr
and President James R. Paul, exhorted shareholders to "consider
TransAmerican's smear campgian for what it is--a misguided
attempt to bias the outcome of the bankruptcy proceedings by a
company with an unsavory business reputation and a history of
being in bankruptcy for nine of the past 12 years."
    TransAmerican said it had not seen the letter, and could
not comment. TransAmerican's lawyer, John Nabors, was not
immediately available for comment.
    The letter sent to all Coastal employees and stockholders
in Texas also accused John R. Stanley, TransAmerican's owner,
of prospering by the companies' bankruptcy by drawing a salary
of 300,000 dlrs a year from his bankrupt companies.
    It also said that at the end of July 1986, Stanley owed his
bankrupt companies 874,000 dlrs in unpaid interest-free loans.
"His creditors may suffer but Mr. Stanley does quite well in
bankruptcy," said the letter.
 Reuter

Kentucky Central Life INsurance Co
said the company said it will declare a 200 pct stock dividend
on Monday.
    Accordingly, it said it filed a registration statement with
the Securities and Exchange COmmission for a proposed offering
of three mln shares of its class a non-voting common stock,
which reflects the anticipated dividend.
 Reuter

Porsche Cars of North America Inc, a
unit of Porsche Ag of Germany <PSHG.F>, said sales of its cars
fell slightly to 2,394 cars in March compared to 2,545 for
    Year-to-date sales were 5,863 compared to 6,407 for the
 Reuter

The Chilean state copper corporation,
Codelco, the privately-owned Chilean copper fabricator Madeco
and Chinese interests are to establish a copper tube plant in
Peking, Codelco's U.K. Subsidiary Chile Copper Ltd said.
    The plant is designed to produce 5,000 tonnes in the first
five years and 8,000 tonnes as from year six. Total investment
is estimated at 10 mln dlrs, of which the Chileans will
contribute two mln.
    Codelco and Madeco have formed the Chilean Wrought Copper
Company to take a 50 pct stake in a new company called Peking
Santiago Tube Company with the Chinese holding the other half.
 Reuter

agreed to sell its Amphenol Products unit to a subsidiary of
LPL Investments Group <LPLI>, a Wallingford, Conn., investment
company, for 430 mln dlrs cash.
    Closing is expected soon, pending appropriate approvals,
the company said. LPL indicated that at closing, warrants will
be sold which, when exercised, will reduce its stake in the
subsidiary, Amphenol Acquisition Co, to 60 pct, the company
said.
    Lisle, Ill.-based Amphenol had 1986 sales of about 500 mln
dlrs. It makes brand name interconnection products.
    LPL also said Merrill Lynch and Co has committed to buy 175
mln dlrs of subordinated and preferred debt in the new LPL
unit, according to Allied-Signal. Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce has committed up to 340 mln dlrs in senior debt
financing, it said.
    Allied-Signal said in December it was offering for sale
Amphenol and six other operating units in its electronics and
instrumentation sector.
    Merrill Lynch, Needham and Co and Lazard Freres served as
financial advisors, it said.
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 4,000 to 5,000
tonnes of Canadian rapeseed in export business overnight for
May shipment, trade sources said.
 Reuter

The United States switches to
daylight saving time on Sunday, April 5, when clocks will be
turned ahead one hour at 0200 in all time zones.
    The states of Arizona and Hawaii and parts of Indiana,
including Indianapolis, remain on standard time by local
choice.
    Congress voted last year to move the start of daylight time
from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. The
return to standard time remains the last Sunday in October
(October 25 this year).
    Canada also switches to daylight time on Sunday.
 Reuter

ALLTEL Corp chairman and chief
executive officer Weldon Case said he will recommend Joe Ford,
who now is president, be elected chief executive officer of the
company, also.
    Case, who said he will remain as chairman, said he will
recommend the election to the board on April 22.
    Ford was named president and chief operating officer in
1983 when ALLTEL was formed, Case said.
 Reuter

U.S.-based Northwest Airlines, a unit of
NWA Inc <NWA>, has ordered up to 20 of the European Airbus
Industrie <AINP.PA> consortium's planned A340 long-range jets,
with an option on a further 10 A330 medium-range jets, in a
deal worth more than 2.5 billion dlrs, Airbus said in a
    The contract gives Airbus its first launch customer in the
lucrative U.S. Market for its long-range jet programme.
    Last month Airbus announced it had a total of 104
commitments from nine customers for the planes. A spokeswoman
confirmed today's order was in addition to those commitments.
    Airbus has been competing with McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD>
in the long-range jet market since the U.S. Group formally
launched its MD-11 plane program at the end of 1986. McDonnell
Douglas has won over 100 orders and options for the aircraft.
    The Northwest order comes after the airline ordered 10
short-range A320 Airbus jets, with options on a further 90,
last October, giving Airbus a foothold in the U.S. Market.
    European governments, asked to fund 2.5 to three billion
dlrs of the Airbus A330/340 programs, have said there may not
be room in the world aircraft market for Airbus's jets.
 Reuter

Portugal's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
will grow around four pct this year, the same rate as in 1986,
according to a Bank of Portugal forecast.
    Total investment this year, the country's second as a
member of the European Community (EC), will rise nearly 10 pct,
again the same rate as last year, the central bank study said.
    It added that Portugal's current account was forecast to
show a surplus of 400 mln dlrs this year compared with 1.13
billion in 1986 and 369 mln the previous year.
    Last year's high surplus was attributed to cheaper oil and
raw materials, lower world interest rates and a weaker dollar.
    Imports by volume were forecast to grow 10 pct this year
and exports four pct compared with increases of 16.5 pct and
6.6 pct respectively in 1986, the bank said.
    The forecasts were calculated on the assumption that the
non-expansionary monetary policy carried out by the current
government would be maintained, particularly in budget spending
and income and in wage policy.
    The bank added that the 1987 forecasts were also based on
the assumption that the international economic situation and
Portugal's world trade relations would remain more or less the
same as in 1986.
    The central bank said the high rate of investment estimated
for 1986 was due to government policies and to increasing
optimism among firms whose financial situation had improved
since 1985. This tendency was expected to continue this year,
especially in the construction and public works sectors.
    Financial aid from the EC had also helped to boost
investment last year, the bank said.
 REUTER

Asamera Inc said it will
transfer all its mineral interests into a new wholly owned
subsidiary, Asamera Minerals Inc, which will later issue up to
15 pct of its shares to the public.
    The mineral interests will include Asamera's 51 pct
interest in the Cannon gold mine in Wenatchee, Wash. Asamera
said the mine produced 116,514 ounces of gold in 1986 and is
expected to produce 130,000 to 140,000 ounces this year.
    Asamera said its talks with Breakwater Resources Ltd
<BWRLF> on a possible merger of mining interests, including the
Cannon mine, have been terminated. It did not elaborate.
     
    Asamera said holding all its mineral properties in a
separate company will give better and more direct recognition
to the value of the assets.
    Its other mining interests include gold exploration
prospects on 13,000 acres in Inyo County, Calif., and 500,000
acres in Canada's Northwest Territories, the Gooseberry gold
and silver mine in Nevada, chromite properties in northern
California and Newfoundland, and a platinum prospect in the
Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories.
                                                               
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp's
Occidental Chemcial Corp said it sold the Process chemicals
division it acquired as part of the September 1986  purchase of
Diamond Shamrock Chemicals to Henkel KGAA of Dusseldorf, West
Germany.
    The division makes specialty industrial chemicals, it said.
    Later, industry sources said the division, which had
worldwide sales of some 160 mln dlrs last year, was sold for
just under 200 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Rohm and Haas Co said health
studies on workers at its Philadelphia plant showed higher
death rates from four kinds of cancer compared with mortality
rates among the general public.
    The studies covered a total of about 6,000 workers employed
at the plant from 1948 through 1981.
    Mortality rates from two other types of cancer, respiratory
cancer and leukemia, had declined compared to earlier studies,
the plastics and chemicals company said.
    Potential causes and incidence of pancreatic, colon/rectal,
prostate and bladder cancer will be studied further, a company
    The studies found elevated mortality rates from the four
cancer types. But the finding does not appear to be linked with
products or processes at the plant, Rohm and Haas said.
    The reports revealed no new evidence of health risk from
operations at the plant, it added.
    Respiratory cancer deaths among workers exposed to certain
chemical operations before 1971 remain elevated but have
declined from levels reported in 1974. And deaths from leukemia
have fallen to near normal levels from those reported in 1975.
    A study completed in 1974 after an outbreak of respiratory
cancer among employees linked the disease to exposure to a
carcinogen, bischloromethyl ether, which is made at the plant.
    The production of the chemical, an intermediary used in
making industrial fluid cleaners, was isolated in 1971 so
workers were no longer exposed to it, the spokesman said.
    Last summer, Rohm and Haas settled 22 individual lawsuits
and one class action suit related to deaths from exposure to
the chemical.
 Reuter

CANADA GOVERNMENT JANUARY BUDGET DEFICIT RISES TO 1.78 BILLION DLRS FROM 1.67 BILLION - OFFICIAL

General Motors Corp said late March car
sales rose 6.2 pct.
    Total passenger car sales for the period March 21 to 31
were 140,522 compared to 132,298 in the year-ago period, the
    Truck sales rose 18.1 pct to 55,054 from 46,632.
    There were nine selling days both period.
    The figures include sales of Sprint and Spectrum, the
carmaker said.
    For the full month passengers cars sales dropped 5.6 pct to
349,578 from 370,390.
    Truck sales in March rose 7.0 pct to 140,200 from 131,078.
    Year-to-date sales of passenger cars fell 25.9 pct to
828,784 from 1,118,509, GM said. Truck sales were off 6.1 pct
to 347,441 from 370,033.
 Reuter

Noranda Inc said production
will remain shut down at its fire-damaged copper mine here
until it can completely examine the mine.
    If it decides to keep the mine open it would take four or
five months before it could resume full production.
    Company spokesman Dale Coffin said the investigation could
take from a few days to several weeks but would not be more
specific.
    Noranda said when it resumes production it plans to operate
the mine at about one-third of the normal 72,000 tonnes annual
finished capacity.
    The fire, which started Wednesday and burned itself out
late yesterday weakened part of the mine's support structure,
Coffin said.
    One miner was killed and 56 others were trapped underground
for about 24 hours before being brought safely out.
 Reuter

9.75 billion dlrs of one-year bills at auction.
    The April 9 sale will pay down about 25 mln dlrs as 9.763
billion dlrs in bills are maturing.
    The bills will be issued April 16 in minimum amounts of
10,000 dlrs and mature April 14, 1988.
 Reuter

European options exchanges will see
spectacular growth over the next five years as more and more
professional investors discover the options markets, Bernard
Reed, manager of the London options exchange said.
    At an options outlook seminar to mark tomorrow's official
opening of a new Amsterdam options exchange (EOE) building, he
forecast increasing interest from banks and institutional
investors, using options for portfolio insurance.
    "But the dominance by the professionals should not make us
neglect private clients," he noted. "Successful exploitation of
retail business has been one of the keys to success."
    Reed said that derived option products in particular will
become a popular instrument for managing equity risks. On the
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the cash-settled S&P 100
index option is the most traded in the world.
    Dutch Stock Index Fund options to be relaunched on May 18
and the upcoming options on London's FTSE 100 index will see a
30 pct yearly turnover growth until 1990, Reed estimated.
    The CBOE and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have agreed
with Morgan Stanley to trade options and futures on the capital
international EAFE index which will let investors participate
in worldwide market moves.
    Reed said he did not believe in globalising the option
business by introducing international products, because this
would intensify competition among the exchanges, but he did see
a future for global rules and regulations.
 REUTER

Lloyds Investment Managers Ltd, a
London-based investment firm, said it raised it stake in Italy
Fund to 760,500 shares, or 12.0 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 466,000 shares, or 7.4 pct.
Lloyds said it bought the additional 294,500 Italy Fund common
shares since November 7 for a total of 3.3 mln dlrs. Another
70,000 shares of the stake are held by an affiliate, it said.
    It said its dealings in Italy Fund stock are for investment
purposes only and that it has no current plans to increase or
decrease its current stake.
 Reuter

Arthur Appleton, a Chicago investor,
39,000 shares of Sage Drilling Co Inc, or 5.1 pct of the total
    Appleton said he bought the stock for 116,554 dlrs for
    Depending on several circumstances, Appleton said he may
buy more Sage common shares, or sell some or all of his current
stake.
 Reuter

said it ordered U.S. airlines to inspect their older DC10 jumbo
jets within five days for hairline cracks in tail areas.
    The FAA action follows a warning to the airlines by the
plane's maker, Douglas Aircraft Co, that three cracks had been
discovered on two DC10s.
    Douglas Aircraft is a unit of McDonnell Douglas Corp.
    Such cracks typically are caused by metal fatigue and pose
no safety risk if repaired.
    The cracks were found in the metal skin covering the tail,
during aircraft maintenance.
    If not detected and repaired, the cracks "may progress until
the spar cap or skin panel is severed, which could result in
structural failure," the FAA order said.
    The spar cap is the top part of the tail wings' main beam.
    The FAA said the inspection order would apply to airplanes
with over 40,000 hours of flight or more than 12,000 landings.
 Reuter

April 8 will be the last day for its stock to be traded on the
American Stock Exchange due to its failure to meet the
financial guidelines.
    It said it is exploring the possibility of listing its
stock on another exchange.
 Reuter

Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>,
VW, plans to construct a major new car plant in China, a
company spokesman said. However, he added that discussions with
China about the plant were still at an early stage.
    It would have an annual capacity of up to 300,000 vehicles
but would not be built until the 1990's at the earliest.
    VW already has a large joint venture with the Chinese
authorities under which it produces the Santana model in
Shanghai. The spokesman said the Shanghai plant should have an
annual capacity of 30,000 cars by the end of next year. So far
15,000 Santanas have been produced since output began in 1985.
    The VW spokesman said no decision had yet been made about
the type of car which could be built at the new plant.
    However, company officials have said VW plans to bring out
a cheaper car than the Santana for the Chinese market and which
will be aimed at private owners. The Santana is generally used
by government officials and visiting foreigners or as taxis for
tourists.
    No details were given about the extent of investment in the
new plant and it was not clear where it would be built.
 Reuter

PORSCHE REPORTS LOWER DOMESTIC MARCH SALES
    RENO, Nev., Porsche Cars North America Inc said its
domestic car sales for the month of March fell to 2,394 from
2,545 a year earlier and year-to-date car sales fell to 5,863
from 6,407 during the same period of 1986.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said car sales for the
March 21-31 period rose 20.2 pct to 40,454 from 33,669 a year
earlier.
    For the month of March, it said auto sales increased 6.3
pct to 96,649 from 90,945.
    Chrysler said U.S. truck sales in late March jumped 65.2
pct to 28,698 from 17,372 a year ago. For the entire month,
truck sales advanced 28.9 pct to 63,283 from 49,102, it said.
    The company said it was still tabulating year-to-date
figures.
 Reuter

Compaq Computer Corp, IBM's chief
rival in the personal computer market, scored a big gain on
Wall Street today. Compaq's stock rose 1-3/8 to 32-1/4 on
volume of 1.3 mln shares.
    "The rationale for the move," one trader said, "is that the
damage from the IBM announcement yesterday was less than
expected." He said Compaq's stock had been under pressure
recently because of anticipation of IBM's unveiling of a new
line of personal computers.
    International Business Machines <IBM> introduced four new
personal computers and more than 100 new peripheral products.
But analysts said the new computers, though they do contain a
lot of proprietary concepts, will not be as hard to copy as
some other PC makers had feared.
    "The long range issue here is who wins and who loses in the
PC business, and that issue was not resolved yesterday and is
unlikely to be decided any time soon," analyst Mark Stahlman of
Sanford C. Bernstein and Co said.
    Stahlman reaffirmed his recommendation of Compaq and Apple
Computer Inc <AAPL>.
    Stahlman said "The critical investment question now is who
will have a pickup in sales in the near term. We expect to see
a strong demand setting for PCs for the rest of this year, and
that will boost the revenues for all of the major PC vendors."
    "The first quarter was the strongest PC sales period on
record for Compaq, Apple and IBM," Stahlman said, "and I don't
think the IBM announcement is going to change that trend soon."
    "In anticipating the IBM announcement, Compaq has made
pricing adjustments necessary to compete for its immediate
purposes," he said.
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said
production will remain shut down at its fire-damaged copper
mine here until it can completely examine the mine.
late yesterday, killed one miner and trapped 56 others
underground for about 24 hours. The 56 were eventually brought
safely out of the mine.
take from a few days to several weeks, but would not be more
specific.
    Noranda said that, when it resumes production, it plans to
operate the mine at about one-third of the normal 72,000 metric
tons annual finished capacity.
    The fire weakened part of the mine's support structure,
    Noranda said if it decides to keep the mine open, it would
take four or five months before it could resume full
 Reuter

The Canadian government's budget deficit
rose to 1.78 billion dlrs in January from 1.67 billion dlrs in
the same month last year, the finance department said.
    But the deficit in the first 10 months of the fiscal year
which began on April 1, 1986, fell to 22.36 billion dlrs from
25.74 billion dlrs in the same period a year ago.
    January revenues rose to 7.96 billion dlrs from 7.56
billion dlrs while expenditures grew to 9.74 billion dlrs from
9.23 billion dlrs. Revenues in the first 10 months increased to
70.06 billion dlrs from 62.30 billion while expenditures grew
to 92.42 billion dlrs from 88.05 billion.           
 Reuter

CIS Technologies Inc said it
executed a formal share purchase agreement with Swiss
Reinsurance Co of Zurich, Switzerland.
    Under terms of the agreement, Swiss Re will acquire 5.5 mln
newly issued CIS stock at 2.50 dlrs a share, or 13.8 mln dlrs.
This purchase represents 30 pct of the outstanding shares.
    Swiss Re will acuqire 500,000 of the shares immediately and
remaining shares will be bought after a due diligence report is
completed by auditors.
    The transaction is expected to be complete by June 11.
 Reuter

Qtly div 42 cts vs 41.5 cts prior
    Payable APril 28
 Reuter

Colombia's cost of living index rose 2.71
pct in March, after a 2.03 pct increase in February and a 2.21
pct rise in March 1986, the government statistics institute
said.
    The result brought year-on-year inflation to 20.36 pct
compared with 22.65 pct at end-March 1986 and 19.77 pct for the
year ending February 1987.
be slightly lower than in 1986 when it reached 20.9 pct.
 REUTER

home mortgage rates fell from early February to early March to
their lowest point in nine years, but the rate of decline was
slower than it had been in recent months.
for fixed-rate mortgages for single family homes and a 25 pct
loan-to-price ratio with a maturity of at least 15 years was
9.48 pct in early March.
    The rate was four basis points lower than a month ago, only
one-eighth the size of decline in the previous month, the bank
    Rates for adjustable-rate mortgages decline eight basis
points from early February to 8.43 pct in early March, the bank
board said. The drop was far less than the 15 basis point
decline in the previous period, the agency said.
major mortgage lenders declined nine basis points from early
February to early March, the agency said. The fall brought the
rate to 9.14 pct was the lowest since December 1977, it said.
    The effective rate for ARMS was 8.39 pct, 15 basis points
below a month earlier. For fixed-rate loans it was 9.36 pct, 14
basis points below a month earlier, the agency said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said a seat
on the New York Futures Exchange sold for 1,500 dlrs, which is
up 250 dlrs from the previous sale yesterday.
    The Exchange said the current bid is 1,250 and the current
offer is 1,500 dlrs.
 Reuter

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 FALLS 291 MLN DLRS IN WEEK, BANK OF CANADA SAID

Beneficial Corp said the sale of its
American Centennial Insurance Co subsidiary to <First Delaware
Holdings Inc> was approved by the Delaware Insurance
    Under the transaction, American Centennial will receive a
cash infusion of 200 mln dlrs, including the settlement of tax
sharing agreements with Beneficial Corp, Beneficial said.
    It will also receive 25 mln dlrs from Beneficial
International Insurance Co, another Beneficial subsidiary being
purchased by the management-led group of First Delaware, the
 Reuter

spectacular growth over the next five years as more
    Reed said derived option products in particular will become
a popular instrument for managing equity risks. On the Chicago
Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the cash-settled S&P 100 index
option is the most traded in the world.
 Reuter

Tierco Group INc said it sold at
par to the Kuwait Real Estate INvestment and Management Co its
10 mln dlrs 75. pct senior subordinated note due 1997, together
with warrants to buy 1.1 mln shares of common stock.
    The warrant may be exercised within five years at 9.50 dlrs
per share.
 Reuter

Shr 5.56 dlrs vs 3.88 dlrs
    Net 47.5 mln vs 33.2 mln
    Revs 254.5 mln vs 243.5 mln
    ITT Corp <ITT> owns 100 pct of ITT Canada common shares
 Reuter

said an additional 3.2 mln dlrs contract was received from
Systems.
    This contract follows a 750,000 dlrs contract awarded last
year.
    Shipments will begin in APril 1987.
    The company also disclosed that Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd is
the licensee of a one mln dlrs technology agreement announced
last fall.
 Reuter

Stewart INformation Services Corp said
it rescheduled its annual meeting to May 18.
    It had been scheduled for APril 24.
 Reuter

FIserve Inc said 14 savings and
loans with 1.5 billion dlrs in cumulative assets will transfer
their data processing to FIserve from Midwest Commerce Data
Corp, a unit of Midwest Commerce Corp.
    About one mln dlrs a year in new recurring revenues will be
generated for FIserve, it said.
 Reuter

Mony Real Estate Investors Trust said
its investment portfolio consists of 137.1 mln dlrs of
mortgages with an average maturity of less than six years, 43.7
mln dlrs of real estate equities and 2.7 mln dlrs of foreclosed
    The trust's exposure to oil-dependent regions is limited to
2.2 mln dlrs, it said.
     It said it accepted an offer to sell foreclosed property
and increased its loss reserve by 750,000 dlrs in anticipation
of the sale.
 Reuter

M-1 fell 291 mln dlrs to 32.44 billion dlrs in the week ended
March 25, Bank of Canada said.
non-personal deposits, fell 7 mln dlrs to 75.14 billion dlrs
fixed-term deposits, fell 56 mln dlrs to 177.54 billion dlrs.
Canada, rose 321 mln dlrs to 216.67 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank general loans outstanding fell 169 mln dlrs
to 126.03 billion dlrs.
    Canadian liquid plus short term assets rose 72 mln dlrs to
36.47 billion dlrs and total Canadian dollar major assets of
the chartered banks rose 507 mln dlrs to 224.22 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank net foreign currency assets fell 231 mln
dlrs to minus 2.00 billion dlrs.             
    Notes in circulation totalled 16.16 billion dlrs, up 50 mln
    Government cash balances fell 1.17 billion dlrs to 4.63
billion dlrs in week ended April 1.
    Government securities outstanding rose 1.09 billion dlrs to
226.42 billion dlrs in week ended April 1, treasury bills rose
1.35 billion dlrs to 76.95 billion dlrs and Canada Savings
Bonds fell 47 mln dlrs to 43.87 billion dlrs.         
 Reuter

Copley Properties Inc said the company
will invest 9,500,000 dlrs in a joint venture to acquire and
develop 33.4 acres of industrial land in Hayward, Calif.
    Copley said it will own 60 pct of the project and be
entitled to a 10 pct preferential return on its investment plus
60 pct of all excess cash from operations, refinancings and
other capital transactions.
 Reuter

The United Food And Commercial
Workers said that more than 1,000 rank-and-file members of the
union will demonstrate Monday at Dart Group Corp's headquarters
protesting Dart's proposed 1.73 billion dlr takover of
Supermarkets General <SGL>.
    Supermarkets is best known for its Pathmark chain of
supermarket drug stores in the New York and New Jersey area and
also owns Rickels home centers.
    The union said that it is firmly against the Dart bid
because "workers have always ended up with a raw deal in the
current takeover mania."
    A Union statement said: "We do not intend to allow our
members to pick up the tab for Supermarket General's executives
and the bankers or the Dart Group who stand to make millions."
    Dart is controlled by the Haft family of Washington, which
last year made a bid for California-based Safeway Stores Inc.
The Hafts lost, but walked away with at least 100 mln dlrs in
profits, analysts estimate.
    The union said that Dart's Safeway bid forced a major
restructuring at Safeway to pay the Hafts and their lawyers and
caused a loss of thousands of jobs.
 Reuter

Pan Am Corp's Pan American World
Airways said its load factor rose to 60.6 pct last month from
54.9 pct in March 1986.
    The airline said its scheduled March traffic increased 14.6
pct to 1.94 billion revenue passenger miles from 1.70 billion
last year as available seat miles rose 3.8 pct to 3.21 billion
from 3.09 billion.
    It said the March traffic increase was the third
consecutive month of year over year traffic growth for Pan Am.
    For the first quarter, Pan Am said, its load factor
increased to 56.3 pct from 53.4 pct as scheduled traffic
increased 10.2 pct to 5.25 billion miles and available seat
miles increased 4.5 pct to 9.32 billion.
    The airlines said its March scheduled freight ton miles
increased 1.5 pct to 53.3 mln from 52.5 mln and was up 0.4 pct
for the first quarter to 134.6 mln.
 Reuter

FCS Laboratories Inc said merger
discussions with an unnamed privately-held company in the
health care field have ended without an agreement.
    The previously announced negotiations began last August,
    "It's disappointing to spend so much time on these
negotiations and have them fail," said FCS chairman Nicholas
Gallo III. "But the discussions could not produce a deal
acceptable to our board in the context of the company's
stronger financial position today as compared to six months
ago."
    Gallo said FCS will stop actively seeking potential merger
partners, but will respond to serious inquiries.
    "We are determined to follow our plan to restore this
company to profitability," he said. "To continue actively
searching for potential acquirers inherently forces us to
postpone the implementation of critical decisions which are
part of the plan."
    The company, which has 4,475,930 common shares outstanding,
reaffirmed it expects to be profitable in the second half of
the fiscal year ending September 30, 1987.
 Reuter

The White House said the rise in
interest rates was "unfortunate in a general sense" but reflected
market forces.
    "There's always movement up and down and the basic fact is
that we believe the economy is strong and growing and there
will always be fluctuations in the interest rate, but the
economy is sound and in good shape," spokesman Marlin Fitzwater
said.
    Citibank raised its prime rate by one quarter of a point
and the move was followed by other banks.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts
    Net loss 1.4 mln
    Revs 630,118 dlrs
    NOTE:Due to change in fiscal year, prior 4th qth and year
cannot be presented on comparable basis. 1986 loss includes
writedowns approximating 1.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 1.1 cts vs 1.7 cts
    Net 26,708 vs 35,084
    Revs 447,548 vs 243,161
    NOTE:1986 net includes 4,300 dlrs gain from tax credit and
1985 includes gain of 8,300 dlrs gain from credit.
 Reuter

Shr nine cts vs 19 cts
    Net 188,000 vs 362,000
    Revs 20.4 mln vs 11.3 mln
    NOTE:1985 restated for reversal of certain tax benefits.
1986 and 1985 reflects preferred stock dividend requirements.
 Reuter

Burlington Northern Inc said its
Burlington Northern Railroad Co unit reached an agreement in
principle to settle a class action lawsuit filed against the
company in May 1985 by holders of two series of the company's
bonds.
    It said the settlement arrangement calls for the company to
establish a cash settlement fund of 35.5 mln dlrs, which would
be distributed to the bondholders after deductions for
attorney's fees.
    The lawsuit, filed by holders of its four pct Prior Lien
bonds due January 1, 1997 and its three pct General Lien Bonds
due January 1, 2047, sought to prevent the release of
collateral, the company said.
    If the settlement agreement is approved, the trading prices
of the bonds will decline substantially because they will no
longer reflect the speculative premiums at which the bonds
currently trade, Burlington Northern also said.
    It said the settlement is subject to negotiation by
Burlington Northern, the Citibank N.A. unit of Citicorp <CCI>
and Bankers Trust Co <BT>, the bonds' trustees.
 Reuter

    Net 1,981,000 vs 1,689,000
    Rev 24.7 mln vs 19.6 mln
    Shr 59 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 5,855,000 vs 4,360,000
    Rev 70.9 mln vs 51.9 mln
    NOTE: Fiscal 1986 per share data reflects dilutive effect
of shares issued for April 1986 convertible debenture
conversion. Company's full name is Richarson Electronics Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs profit 72 cts
    Net loss 79,069 vs profit 829,737
    Revs 14.4 mln vs 14.1 mln
    NOTE:1985 includes extraordainy credit of 11 cts.
 Reuter

The Alaska Airlines unit of Alaska Air
Group Inc said its March load factor rose to 58.1 pct from 57.3
pct a year earlier, but its year-to-date load factor dropped to
51.8 pct from 52.6 pct last year.
    March revenue passenger miles rose five pct to 225.9 mln
from 215.6 mln, but year-to-date revenue miles fell one pct to
586.7 mln from 593 mln.
    Available seat miles for the month totaled 389.1 mln, a
three pct increase over the 376.1 mln posted for March 1986,
and for the year-to-date available miles totaled 1.132 billion
compared with 1.128 billion a year earlier, Alaska Air said.
 Reuter

The U.K. Government hopes for a
breakthrough on the deadlock with Japan over trade policies
during next week's visit to Tokyo by Corporate Affairs Minister
Michael Howard, political sources said.
    Howard, who leaves for Japan tomorrow, told Reuters he will
try to promote understanding on trade issues during his visit.
    Meanwhile, Britain will re-examine a letter from Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone promising personal help in
solving the row over a U.K. Firm's bid to win a significant
role in Japan's telecommunications market, government sources
said.
    Tensions have risen following Britain's decision to arm
itself early with new statutory powers which it says could be
used against certain Japanese financial institutions.
    Britain reacted optimistically at first to the letter from
Nakasone to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, seeing it as a
signal that he would work towards ensuring a satisfactory
outcome to the bid launched by Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L>,
government officials said.
    But this view has since been clouded by reports from Tokyo
that Nakasone's assurances really constituted little more than
politeness in the face of British anger, they added.
personal interest in this problem.
    Howard added that during his Tokyo visit he would be
"talking to them about it (the letter), finding out exactly what
they do mean about it, and making it plain that we take a very
serious view of the fact that access to Japanese markets is not
as free as we allow access to our markets to be."
institutions in London if U.K. Firms fail to receive similar
treatment in financial markets in Japan soon.
    During the trip Howard will meet officials in the Tokyo
Stock Exchange, the Ministry of Finance, the Trade Ministry,
and Posts and Telecommunications Minister Shunjiro Karasawa.
    Karasawa is regarded as behind opposition to any
significant role for Cable and Wireless in the Japanese
telecommunications industry.
    Share prices on the London Stock Exchange were undermined
again today by fears of a possible U.K./Japanese trade war.
This was despite denials by Trade and Industry Secretary Paul
Channon that Britain was on the verge of a trade war.
    He told a meeting of insurance brokers today that Britain
believed a "sensible solution" could be found which would open
Japanese markets to British goods.
    Government officials were at pains today to deny that
Britain had set a deadline of three weeks for Japan to promise
similar access to its financial markets to U.K.-based financial
firms as that enjoyed in London by equivalent Japanese firms.
    They said that Department of Trade and Industry officials
had said yesterday that the measures against Japanese financial
institutions could be imposed from then but that this did not
necessarily constitute a deadline.
    Experts believe Britain would lose out by acting against
Japanese banks, insurance and investment institutions. But
despite the danger of Japanese firms taking their trade
elsewhere in Europe, Howard said he did not expect the move to
backfire.
    He said in a radio interview today  "it is true that we
benefit from their presence - but they would not want to lose
those advantages. And I am sure they are making their views
plain to the Japanese government on this matter."
    Howard, who will also be visiting South Korea before
returning to London on April 11, said his trip to Tokyo was
planned well before the current trade row.
    Howard said his talks with Japanese officials would also
include ways of jointly combating financial fraud in global
markets with Japanese officials. This would be done through a
cooperation between national regulatory bodies.
    He said a memorandum of understanding for exchanging
information to combat financial fraud would be sought with
Japan on terms similar to one signed last autumn between
Britain and the United States.
 REUTER

its Diablo Canyon Unit 2 nuclear power plant will begin its
first refueling today after about 13 months of operation.
    The refueling outage is expected to last about 12 weeks and
will include a variety of maintenance as well as the
replacement of about one-third of Unit 2's fuel, the company
said.
    Pacific Gas said Unit 2 generated power about 93.7 pct of
the time during its first year of operation.
    Pacific Gas' two Diablo Canyon units generate about 2.2 mln
kilowatts of electricity in full operation.
 Reuter

Mid-State Federal Savings and Loan
Association said it and First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Brooksville <FFBV> reached a definitive merger
    As previously announced, Brooksville shareholders will get
cash and stock in exchange for their shares. The transaction is
expected to be completed during the summer 1987.
 Reuter

<Memotec Data Inc> said it completed
the previously announced 488.3 mln dlr acquisition of Teleglobe
Canada from the federal government.
    Memotec Data said Teleglobe, which has provided Canada's
overseas telecommunications services since 1950, now becomes
Teleglobe Canada Inc, a unit of Memotec.
    Teleglobe president and chief executive Jean-Claude Delorme
will continue in the same post, the company said.
    In addition to the sale price, the government will receive
Teleglobe's accumulated cash of 102 mln dlrs and a special 18
mln dlr dividend, making total proceeds 608.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Citizens First Bancorp Inc said
its banking subsidiary pleaded guilty to two technical
violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and was fined 2,000 dlrs.
    The subsidiary, Citizens First National Bank of New Jersey,
pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in Federal District Court
for the District of New Jersey. Charges had been brought by the
U.S. Attorney's office.
    The company said no additional charges will be brought
against it and that it has instituted additional procedures to
reduce the possibility of future violations. It cooperated with
authorities in the investigation.
    The violations occurred on Aug 12, 1982, and May 25, 1984,
when the bank failed to report currency transactions involving
more than 10,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. and Japanese officials meet
tomorrow to try to settle a dispute over semiconductor trade
and to cut short the 300 mln dlr penalty tariffs President
Reagan has ordered imposed on Japanese exports.
    But U.S. officials held out little hope that any accord
could be reached before the tariffs of 100 per cent - up from
about five per cent - are to take effect on April 17.
    The Customs Bureau last week started to levy a bond on the
Japanese goods that Reagan ordered penalized. The penalties
would be retroactive to March 31.
    Reagan said on March 27 when ordering the tariffs that he
hoped the Japanese would soon end their unfair practices in
semiconductor trade and that sanctions could be lifted.
    Technical meetings are to be held today and tomorrow, with
meetings at a more senior level scheduled for Thursday and
Friday. Public hearings on the sanctions are set for April 13.
    The Japanese aides here for the technical talks include
Shigeru Muraoka, director-general of international trade policy
of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and
Masashi Yamamoto, deputy director-general of the information
and machinery bureau.
    Meeting with them will Glen Fukushima, director of the
Japan office of the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, and Jim
Gradoville, of trade representative's office of industry and
services.
    The two sides in the Thursday and Friday talks will be
headed by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael Smith and
MITI vice minister Makoto Kuroda.
   
 Reuter

Tribune Co said it filed a shelf
registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for
300 mln dlrs in debt securities.
    Underwriters may include Salomon Bros Inc and Merrill
Lynch, it said. Proceeds will be for general needs.
 Reuter

Ameron Inc said its board
adopted a rights plan designed to protect shareholders from
potentially unfair takeover tactics.
    The plan calls for distribution of one right for each of
its outstanding common shares and each right entitles the
holder to buy one/one-hundredth of a share of newly authorized
Series A Junior Participating cumulative Preferred stock at an
exercise price of 55 dlrs, Ameron said.
    It said the rights are exercisable if a group acquires 20
pct or more of its common stock or announces a tender offer for
30 pct or more of its shares.
 Reuter

Britain's Export Credits Guarantee
Department (ECGD) is holding talks with Nigeria aimed at
resuming insurance cover for British exporters to Nigeria, the
head of ECGD's international debt division, Gerry Breach, said.
    The ECGD suspended cover on Nigeria in 1984 after the
country fell into arrears on payments of insured and uninsured
debts.
    Following last week's bilateral accord between Britain and
Nigeria to reschedule the country's insured trade debts,
bankers had hoped that talks would commence on a resumption of
cover.
    Breach made his comments in an address to a private meeting
of businessmen, a copy of which was made available to the
press.
    Breach noted that for the ECGD to consider "a gradual
introduction of a package of new support" certain criteria would
have to be met.
    This would involve the Nigerian economic structural
adjustment program being put into effect and being endorsed by
the International Monetary Fund, the program remaining on
course and continuing to be endorsed by the IMF and a
satisfactory level of acceptance by the Nigerian government of
the ECGD insured short-term trade arrears.
    Breach said that these criteria are now beginning to be
satisfied, adding that while the ECGD could not yet formally
announce new cover, it was holding discussions with Nigeria on
priorities for new credits.
    He said an announcement would be made "as soon as possible"
on an agreement and the ECGD would create a package for Nigeria
that would include the department's normal range of export
trade support facilities.
    British exports to Nigeria exceeded 550 mln stg in 1986.
    Breach noted that since cover was removed, the ECGD has
maintained a limited amount of short-term trade cover for
Nigeria, which was backed by letters of credit from the
Nigerian Central Bank.
    While the ECGD would initially continue to use this
structure under a new package, it would also hope to expand the
volume of coverage in the short-term area and relax the terms
it is prepared to underwrite towards the commonly accepted
maximum of 180 days.
 REUTER

FCS Laboratories said its merger
talks with another unidentified company in the health care
field ended without agreement.
    The talks began last August, the company said.
    The company also said it will no longer actively seek out
potential merger partners, but will respond to serious
inquiries.
 Reuter

Corp said recently elected secretary, John Manningham, and his
wife, Patricia, died early this morning in a fire at their
Reidgefield, Conn home.
    Manningham, 53, began his IBM career in 1959 as a marketing
representative. His election would have been effective July 1.
    Tom Irwin is the current secretary.
    IBM Chairman John Akers said "this is a great loss to the
IBM Company and to the Manningham's family, friends and
 Reuter

The U.K. government hopes for a
solving the row over a U.K. firm's bid to win a significant
said.
outcome to the bid launched by Cable and Wireless Plc,
 Reuter

expressed concern that trade protectionism, at the heart of a
new showdown between the United States and Japan, might spread
throughout the industrial world.
    But in an interview with Reuters, Conable said the action
by the United States to slap tariffs on certain electronic
goods from Japan did not mean the countries were heading for a
full-scale trade war.
    Conable said the World Bank has been pressing developing
countries to open their markets, arguing that a free trading
environment increased the possibility of global economic
growth.
    "We have, in fact, been making adjustment loans to many
countries in the developing world which have encouraged the
opening of their markets and we want to be sure that the
developed world doesn't close at the same time," he said.
    He said the U.S. action against Japan was "a significant
retaliatory step but it did not constitute a basic change in
trade policy."
    The interview came just before next week's semi-annual
meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
    Referring to Brazil's recent interest payments moratorium,
Conable also said the global debt situation was very serious
and must be closely watched.
    He said the Bank, which in the past has concentrated on
making loans that assist the basic underpinnings in the
developing world such as dams, roads and sewers, will
increasingly make assistance available for economic reform.
    The Bank has increased these loans, in part because of the
debt crisis that has found countries desperately in need of new
funds for balance of payments adjustment and economic reforms
aimed at opening their markets, encouraging foreign investment
and reducing government's role in the economy.
    "We're comfortable with adjustment lending, we expect,
however, that it will never reach a majority of our portfolio,"
Conable said.
    He made clear, however, that adjustment lending would
continue to increase as a proportion of overall Bank lending
    He noted, "the problem of debt was a severe one and many
countries are asking for adjustment assistance because of the
problem of debt."
    Conable, is a a former Republican Congressman from New York
chosen by President Reagan for the Bank position last year. He
is an associate of Treasury Secertary James Baker who launched
the U.S. strategy for shoring up indebted nations in October,
1985 which included a call for increased adjustment lending by
the World Bank.
    Conable also said that he expected the result of a major
study of the Bank's organization to be completed in the next
several weeks.
    He said the decision to seek a reorganization was based, in
part, on the fact that the Bank had come under fire from the
poorest countries for not doing enough to help and from the
richest countries because of inefficiency.
    the reorganization is considered a major initiative by
Conable, and is being closely-watched by the agency's 151
member-countries as an indication of his management style and
priorities.
    "I want to be sure this institution is viewed by those who
must support it as soundly constituted so that it will be
permitted to grow," Conable said.
    However, he said "I don't believe there is anything
basically wrong with this institution and I don't believe it
has to have any redefinition of its purpose."
    He said, however, that it was apparent that the debt
initiative proposed by Baker has given the Bank a central role
in dealing with the debt crisis.
    Conable added that cooperation between the Bank and its
sister agency, the International Monetary Fund, was good and
that he talked often with IMF Managing Director Michel
Camdessus on a variety of issues.
    On a personal level, Conable said that he not feel a need
to put his personal stamp on the Bank noting that "I don't have
a particular mission here except to be useful to the
institution and to the process of development."
    He added, "so I don't feel a great calling to personalize
the institution."
    On the development needs of sub-Sahara Africa, Conable said
that the Bank was constantly reviewing new ways for assisting
the region, noting that half of the recently agreed financing
of 12.4 billion dlrs for Bank's International Development
Association was earmarked for Africa.
    Leading industrial nations are expected to consider new
forms of debt relief for the very poorest nations, like those
in the Sub-Sahara, during next week's meetings.
 Reuter

American Savings Bank F.S.B. said
it applied for a state charter and it intends to change its
depositor insurance coverage to the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp and to withdraw from coverage by the Federal Savings and
    The savings bank also said state chartered institutions
have broader banking powers and the conversion will be in the
best interest of both shareholders and depositors.
 Reuter

LTV Corp said its AM General
division received two contracts valued at 11.7 mln dlrs from
the U.S. Army to make special equipment kits for Hummer troop
and cargo vehicles.
    Deliveries are set for May 1987 through November 1988, the
company said. AM General is part of LTV Missiles and
 Reuter

Boeing Co. <BA> is trying to find out
what caused an engine brace to snap on one of Japan Air Line's
747-SR jumbo jets, a spokesman for the airplane manufacturer
said.
    "We know about the problem and we have provided a service
advisory to operators of 747s," said the spokesman. "We are not
advising any massive inspections at this time."
    The advisory alerts operators of the jumbo jets that a
problem has occurred and under what circumstances, but it does
not recommend any action.
    "A 'service bulletin' would be sent out if there is
anything they should be concerned about," the spokesman said.
    A JAL spokesman in Toyko said inspectors making a routine
check found one of three diagonal braces attaching an engine to
the wing of a 747-SR had snapped due to metal fatigue.
    The airlines said it had ordered an inspection of all 11 of
its 747-SR's. The plane is a full-sized jumbo jet that has been
modified slightly to handle short-haul routes in Japan, mainly
between Tokyo and Osaka.
    The jetliners have beefed-up landing gear to accommodate a
higher-than-normal number of landings and takeoffs.
    Boeing's spokesman said only JAL and All Nippon Airlines
use the 747-SR. JAL took delivery of its first 747-SR in 1973
and purchased two more last year. He said the braces had been
shipped to a Boeing plant near Seattle where they were being
inspected.
 Reuter

debts.
cover.
    Breach told a businessmen's meeting that for the ECGD to
consider "a gradual introduction of a package of new support"
certain criteria would have to be met.
 Reuter

A five billion dlr credit facility being
arranged for two units of British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L>
attracted over 15 billion dlrs in syndication but will not be
increased, Morgan Guaranty Ltd said on behalf of Morgan
Guaranty Trust Co of New York, the arranger.
    It said that 64 of BP's relationship banks will be joining
the facility, although their participations will be cut back
dramatically. Banks had been invited as lead managers at 200
mln dlrs, managers at 125 mln and co-managers at 75 mln.
    BP will make the final decision on the allotments broadly
based on relationships rather than on the amounts offered.
    The facility is being arranged for BP International and BP
North America in conjunction with the company's planned tender
offer for the 45 pct of Standard Oil Co it does not already
own.
    Because of the purpose of the facility, Morgan only had
five business days to arrange the facility. As a result, it
carried terms that bankers considered relatively favourable
when compared with those on most other recent credits. The
facility fee, for example, was 1/8 pct compared with the 1/16
pct BP paid on a recent 1.5 billion dlr refinancing.
 REUTER

Spain's Minas de Almaden y Arrayanes S.A.
has agreed with Algerian producer ENOF to establish a minimum
price of 300 dlrs per flask for spot mercury sales, Almaden
spokesman Jesus Gallego said.
    In response to enquiries from Reuters, he said his company
had raised the minimum price for its spot sales from 240 dlrs
per flask following talks with ENOF.
    In a separate press release, the company said that ENOF and
Almaden held talks in Istanbul a week ago with Turkish mercury
producers on ways to improve prices, but Gallego said he was
not in a position to say what action the Turkish companies
would be taking.
 Reuter

A steep drop in goods-producing jobs
detracted from U.S. March non-farm payroll employment and makes
it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will tighten monetary
policy to defend the dollar, economists said.
    U.S. March non-farm payroll employment rose 164,000, less
than the gain of 220,000 to 290,000 the financial markets
expected. Manufacturing employment fell 25,000, compared with
February's 50,000 gain, while March construction employment
dropped 45,000 after being unchanged in February.
    "The momentum of industrial activity is tapering off as we
end the first quarter," said Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley
and Co Inc. "This sets the stage for more sluggish growth in
the second and third quarters."
    "The Fed will view this as a caution flag on the economy,"
he said. "They will not ease as long the dollar is weak, but
clearly they can't tighten."
    David Wyss of Data Resources Inc said that the downward
revision in February non-farm payroll employment to 236,000
from 337,000 means that employment gains in the first quarter
were weaker than expected.
    While Wyss left his first-quarter forecast of real U.S.
gross national product growth at 3.5 pct, he said the March
jobs data suggested a downward revision in his second-quarter
growth forecast to 2.5 pct from 2.8 pct.
    Bill Sullivan of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc said the average
monthly gain in non-farm jobs in the first quarter was only
237,000, compared with 254,000 in the fourth quarter of 1986.
    "There's momentum in first quarter labor force activity, 
but less than assumed," he said. "Gains in goods-producing jobs
were subdued at best. This rules out any possibilty of the Fed
tightening for exchange-related purposes."
    In March, the average workweek fell back to its January
level of 34.8 hours from 35.0 hours in February. Manufacturing
hours also fell back to their January level, totalling 40.9
hours in March compared with 41.2 hours in February.
    The Commerce Department noted that loss of manufacturing
jobs in March was concentrated in automobile, electrical and 
    Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities International said that a
13,000 decline in auto manufacturing employment accounted for
nearly half of the total drop in manufacturing jobs.
    Economists said that a build-up in auto inventories
resulting from a steep drop in sales has finally caught up with
the labor force and may point to slower growth ahead.
    Most expect an increase in inventories of as much as five
pct to offset a steep four to five pct drop in final sales in
the first-quarter GNP accounts.
    Roach said he expects first quarter U.S. GNP to rise two
pct, to be followed by a gain of 1.0-1.5 pct at best in the
second and third quarters. He said the March drop in industrial
activity "is a reasonable response in light of the inordinate
contribution inventory accumulation made to GNP."
    Economists said the employment data also suggest weak gains
in industrial production and personal income for March.
They expect only marginal gains, if not small declines, for
these indicators, compared with a February increases of 0.5 pct
in industrial production and 0.9 pct in personal income.
    Steve Slifer of Lehman Government Securities said the drop
in March construction employment may also signal a drop in
March housing starts, which rose 2.6 pct in February to 1.851
million units at an annual rate from 1.804 million units in
January.
    The rate of unemployment fell to 6.6 pct, its lowest level
since March 1980, from 6.7 pct in February. But Wyss pointed
out that this resulted from a drop in the labor force, which 
fell to 119.2 mln in March from 119.35 mln in February.
    "This just means that there were fewer people looking for
work, so the drop in unemployment doesn't mean much," he said.
    He said the latest employment report will not concern the
Fed because it does points to GNP growth in the first half of
2.5-3.0 pct, but "it does suggest they can't afford to tighten
to quickly either."
    The statistical factors used to smooth out seasonal
fluctuations in the jobs data may have understated March labor
force gains, just as seasonal factors probably overstated them
in January and February, Slifer said, but are consistent with
his forecast of 1.8 pct first quarter GNP growth.
    Economic growth remains sluggish, but Silfer does not think
that the Federal Open Market Committee changed policy at their
meeting this week. "At some point they will be more inclined to
ease," he said. For the time being, however, the March
employment report "increases the likelihood they won't tighten,
regardless of the dollar."

 Reuter

SciMed Life Systems Inc <SMLS> said
Bristol-Myers Co is analyzing the pending lawsuit brought
against SciMed by <Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc> to
determine whether to consummate its previously announced plans
to merge with SciMed.
    The company said its was served the suit in Minneapolis on
March 31, the day after it announced its definitive merger
agreement with Bristol-Myers.
    SciMed said the suit, which alleges that SciMed infringed
on Advanced Cardiovascular patents, is without merit.
 Reuter

Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard
said he will use a coming trip to Tokyo to seek a memorandum of
understanding between Britain and Japan on the exchange of
information to fight fraud in world financial markets.
    He told journalists that he would be seeking an agreement
with Japan similar to one struck last autumn between the U.K.
Department of Trade and Industry, on the one hand, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission on the other.
    Market sources have persistently speculated that it was
information passed on to the U.K. By the SEC through their pact
that triggered the DTI's investigations into (Guinness Plc's)
<GUIN.L> takeover of <Distillers Co Plc> last year.
    The probe, launched in December, triggered the resignation
of some of Guinness' senior management, including Chairman
Ernest Saunders.
    The Trade department, however, has never confirmed this and
has yet to state what its investigation actually concerns.
 REUTER

Iraq said its forces sank three Iranian
boats which tried to approach its disused deep water oil
terminal in the northern Gulf today.
agency, said other Iranian boats fled. He did not identify the
vessels.
    Iraq's major oil outlets in the northern Gulf were closed
shortly after the war with Iran started in late 1980.
 Reuter

Housing group France HLM is launching a
750 mln French franc 8.40 pct 15-year bond with an issue price
of 95.36 pct and denominated in 5,000 franc units, lead manager
Banque Paribas said.
    The issue is being co-led by Credit Lyonnais.
    Payment date is April 20 and redemption will be in 12 equal
annual instalments starting after the first three years of the
issue's life. It will be listed in the Official Bulletin (BALO)
on April 6.
 REUTER

Texas Air Corp'S Continental Airlines
said its March 1987 load factor rose to 65.6 pct from 64.3 pct
last year. Available seat miles rose to 5.1 mln from 2.5 mln
and revenues passenger miles rose to 3.3 mln from 1.6 mln
    For the year to date, load factor fell to 61.8 pct from
61.9 pct, available seat miles rose to 13.2 mln from 7.3 mln
and revenue passenger miles rose to 8.2 mln from 4.5 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 82 cts vs 76 cts prior
    Pay May 1
 Reuter

Bell Petroleum Services Inc said it
agreed to begin talks with Regal International Inc to form a
plan of reorganization under which Bell would become a
subsidiary of Regal.
    The plan would be subject to Bankruptcy court approval due
to Bell's status as a debtor-in-possesion under Chapter 11. the
company's expect to file a plan by the end of May.
    This agreement terminates litigation between the companies
concerning previous attempts at a plan of reorganization..
    Bell is also free to continue talks with any third parties
interested in an acquisition, it said.
 Reuter

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc
said domestic car sales for the month of march rose four pct to
40,554 units from 39,008, but truck sales were down 19.3 pct to
28,046, compared with the 34,745 sold in March 1986.
 Reuter

Healthvest said its board declared
a dividend for the final three weeks of the March quarter of 14
cts, payable April 28 to holders of recrod April 15.
    Previously, it dclared a special interim dividend of 42 cts
for January 1 to March 9 in connection with its recently
completed offering.
    The combined dividend totals 56 cts for the March quarter,
an increase from the prior quarter's dividend of 55 cts
 Reuter

Hyundai Motor America, a
unit of Hyundai Motor Co of South Korea, said domestic car
sales during the month of March rose to 19,502 compared witrh
10,432 during March last year.
    Year-to-date car sales rose to 56,164 from 11,020 during
the same period last year, the company said.
    Hyundai began selling cars in the United States last
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 7,209,000 vs 5,574,000
    Sales 77.7 mln vs 58.7 mln
    Avg shrs 16,676,000 vs 15,478,000
    Year
    Shr 1.12 dlrs vs 1.10 dlrs
    Net 18,371,000 vs 17,032,000
    Sales 257.5 mln vs 198.3 mln
    Avg shrs 16,411,000 vs 15,433,000
    NOTE: Year-ago period ended Feb 1, 1986
    Full-year earnings include gains from discontinued
operations of 184,000 dlrs, or one ct a share vs 3,143,000
dlrs, or 20 cts a share
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchanage said two
seats were sold on the New York Futures Exchange.
    The Exchange said the first seat sold for 1,500 dlrs, which
is unchanged from the previous sale, made earlier today.
    The Exchange said a second seat then sold for 1,250 dlrs,
off 250 dlrs.
    It said the current bid is 300 dlrs and the current offer
is 1,500 dlrs.
 Reuter

Daltex Medical Sciences Inc
said it received a grant from the National Cancer Institute to
develop a commercial ultrasound mammography system.
    The award is valued at 48,394 dlrs.
 Reuter

A grain elevator in Burlington, Iowa,
exploded today, leaving five injured.
    The elevator, operated by Archer Daniels Midland Co. of
Decatur, Ill., is a terminal elevator on the Mississippi River,
Doug Snyder, assistant to the vice president said.
    The cause of the explosion and the extent of damage to the
elevator was not immediatley known.
 Reuter

Several pharmaceutical companies, drawn
in the 1970s to the fast growing cosmetics industry, are no
longer finding it fashionable to sell makeup.
    "The fad right now is to purify and concentrate on the most
attractive business. Right now that's the drug business," said
David Saks, an analyst with Morgan, Olmstead.
    Yesterday, Eli Lilly and Co joined the ranks of other drug
companies by choosing to sell off its lower growth Elizabeth
Arden cosmetics business.
    "It's not that Elizabeth Arden is bad. To some it may be
their pride and joy, but to Eli Lilly, it's a diversion of
their management energies and financial resources from their
gemstone, which is the drug business," Saks said.
    "Arden is a good company. I'm sure it's going to be a hot
property. I'm sure people will be lining up to buy it," said
Lynne Hyman, E.F. Hutton cosmetics analyst.
    Analysts said the Arden business could command about 600
mln dlrs, and likely buyers would be interested in its
well-known name and distribution channels.
                                   
    Analysts said Avon Products Inc, a door-to-door makeup
distributor, and the Japanese company Shiseido Co of Tokyo,
might be willing buyers. An Avon spokesman said the company is
interested in Arden, but it has not yet seen offering
    Analysts said most of the changes of control in the
cosmetics industry have been determined for the time being.
"There's not much out there that hasn't changed hands or isn't
relatively stable," said Hyman.
    Squibb <SQB> last year sold its Charles of the Ritz
business to Yves Saint Laurent for 630 mln dlrs, and Beecham
Plc said last month it was selling its Germain Monteil unit to
Revlon Group <REV>.
    American Cyanamid <ACY>, a chemical and drug concern, is
selling its Jacqueline Cochran Inc unit.
    One big cosmetics concern whose fate hasn't been sealed is
Revlon Group Inc. The company received a takeover offer from
McAndrews and Forbes, which is controlled by its chairman,
Ronald Perelman.
    A major Revlon shareholder, McAndrews and Forbes, is
offering 18.50 dlrs per share to take the company private. But
Wall Street has been estimating values for the company of 20
dlrs per share and more. The stock was trading today at 20-7/8,
off 1/2.
    Analysts said Revlon's cosmetics lines and name might be
attractive to a corporate buyer, but they doubt one would jump
into the situation one analyst described as a "can of worms."
    Analysts said drug companies are getting high prices for
the cosmetics companies. They said buyers are attracted by
strong brand names because of profit stability and prestige.

French industrialists have sharply revised
down their investment expectations, forecasting that investment
in the competitive sector will rise by just three pct in real
terms this year compared with a forecast of six pct growth made
last November, according to the latest study by the National
Statistics Institute (INSEE).
    Last year investment in the competitive sector grew by just
one pct in real terms. Investment by small companies is
expected to grow by nine pct this year, while investment by
medium and large companies will grow by only three pct.
 REUTER

U.S. grain carloadings totaled 25,744
cars in the week ended March 28, down 4.3 pct from the previous
week but 41.6 pct above the corresponding week a year ago, the
Association of American Railroads reported.
    Grain mill product loadings in the week totalled 10,920
cars, up 0.1 pct from the previous week and 12.7 pct above the
 Reuter

Bank of New England Corp is offering
200 mln dlrs of subordinated capital notes due 1999 yielding
8.86 pct, said lead manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    The notes have an 8-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.20
to yield 125 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-redeemable for life, the issue is rated A-3 by Moody's
Investors and A by Standard and Poor's. Keefe Bruyette, Goldman
Sachs and Merrill Lynch co-managed the deal.
    Bank of New England said the notes will count as primary
capital of the corporation.
 Reuter

Commission reminded corporate raiders and others tendering for
the shares of companies that they must extend the period their
offers are open if key conditions are changed.
    Specifically, the agency said those making tender offers
for companies' stock must extend the offers if they decide to
eliminate conditions requiring a minimum number of shares to be
tendered in order for the offers to be valid.
    Tender offers typically include minimum share conditions.
As a result, a purchaser would not be bound to buy the shares
that were tendered if the minimum level were not reached.
    In an interpretation of current rules, which officials said
clarifies the SEC's present position, the agency said a tender
offer must be extended if a minimum share condition is waived,
even if the purchaser reserved the right to do so.
    The interpretation makes clear that waiving a minimum share
condition is a "material change" of the tender offer under U.S.
securities law, SEC officials said.
    The SEC has already said that other specific material
changes, such as changes in the percentage of securities being
sought or the price being offered, made during the course of a
tender offer require a 10-day extension of the offer.
    The length of the extension, which is aimed at giving
shareholders an adequate chance to assess revisions of a tender
offer, was not specified in cases where the minimum share
conditions were waived.
    SEC officials said the length of the extension in such
cases would depend on the facts and circumstances surrounding
each case, but would generally be between five and 10 days.
    The agency cited two recent tender offers in which waivers
of a minimum share conditios were tried on the last day of each
offer, denying shareholders the chance to react to the new
information. Officials declined to identify the two offers.
    "If a bidder makes a material change near or at the end of
its offer, it will have to extend the offer to permit adequate
dissemination," the SEC said.
    Federal securities law requires that all tender offers
remain open for at least 20 business days.
 Reuter

Fox Broadcasting, owned by Rupert
Murdoch's News Corp Ltd, is set to launch two prime time
television shows this Sunday on what some have called the
fourth television network.
    The company, built around Murdoch's two billion dlr
acquisition of seven television stations last year, marks the
first network startup since 1948, when ABC, now owned by
Capital Cities/ABC Inc <CCB>, hit the airwaves.
    "I think our goal, more than anything else, is to provide
an alternative to the three networks," said Fox president Jamie
Kellner.
    Fox's debut comes when earnings at two of the three
networks are under pressure and network advertising dollars
have been growing slowly.
    "The barriers to entry are exceptionally high," industry
analyst Peter Appert of C.J. Lawrence said. "Their (Fox) saving
grace is that their parent has deep pockets."
    The question television industry, advertising and Wall
Street executives are asking is whether this new entry can lure
advertisers from the big three: CBS Inc <CBS>, ABC, and NBC, a
unit of General Electric Co <GE>.
    Network advertising revenues rose to 8.6 billion dlrs in
1986 from 8.3 billion a year earlier, with NBC accounting for
all of the gain. Revenues at CBS and ABC declined, analysts
noted.
    "They (Fox) are competing for the same pool of funds as the
traditional networks," said Jon Mandel, associate media
director at Grey Advertising Inc.
    But James Mandelbaum, a Los Angeles-based entertainment
attorney said, "If they have enough money, they have a good
chance of making it work."
    Fox president Jamie Kellner said the company expects to
lose 30 to 50 mln dlrs this year on revenues of about 150 mln
dlrs. He said it will take three to five years to turn a
profit.
    To succeed, the company must also win over the young
viewership it has targeted with an offbeat set of shows, two of
which debut this Sunday, and another, next weekend.
    The first Fox-produced program -- "The Late Show,"
featuring comedienne Joan Rivers -- was shown last fall on
Fox's seven stations and close to 100 affiliates. Although the
show has dropped recently in ratings, it still has a captive
young audience in the late night time slot, analysts said.
    Sunday's prime-time shows include a situation comedy,
"Married ... with Children," which Kellner describes as an
alternative to the suger coated family shows on the networks.
It is also airing "The Tracy Ullman Show," featuring the
British comedienne, singer and actress.
    Fox has lined up 107 independent TV stations around the
U.S. to run the shows. The networks have some 637 affiated
stations.
    To make sure viewers get a chance to see the programs, the
company is taking the unprecedented step of airing them three
times in the course of the evening.
    "I believe if some of their shows were on the traditional
networks, it would be extremely high-rated," Mandel said, who
added that his firm has signed up several million dlrs in
advertising for the shows.
    But some question whether Fox will really become a fourth
network. Robert Adler, president of the Cabletelevision
Advertising Bureau, said many cable shows are geared to the
audience Fox is attempting to win. "There are already many
alternatives out there to the three networks," he said.
    And at least one network is not yet ready to consider Fox
the competition. An ABC spokesman said, "the schedule we've put
together for this Sunday night ... has not taken Fox's
programming schedule into account."
    But analysts noted that the major networks are keeping a
eye on the venture to see how it fares in the ratings and with
its advertisers.
    Fox also appears willing to take a long-term view. Asked
whether the company will be looking at ratings after Sunday's
debut, Kellner said, "the last thing I want to do is worry
about ratings because that was the last thing Murdoch told me
to do."

 Reuter

boats that tried to approach its disused deep water oil
vessels.
 Reuter

M/A-Com Inc said it won a
major contract from Ford Motor Co to provide a corporate
switching network.
    The value of the contract, awarded to M/A-Com's
telecommunications unit in Germantown, Md., was not disclosed.
 Reuter

Anadarko Petroleum Corp is raising 100
mln dlrs via an offering of convertible subordinated debentures
due 2012 with a 5-3/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole
manager Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
stock at 32.625 dlrs a share, representing a premium of 23.11
    Non-redeemable for two years, the debentures have a
mandatory sinking fund beginning in 1998 calculated to retire
70 pct of the issue prior to maturity, Kidder said.
    Moody's and S and P ratings are pending.
 Reuter

GenCorp said its RKO General Inc
subsidiary completed the sale of WOR-TV to MCA Inc <MCA> for
387 mln dlrs.
    The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale
last December, GenCorp said. The closing was delayed because
that decision was appealed by four parties to the U.S. Court of
Appeals, GenCorp explained.
    WOR-TV is based in  Secaucus, N.J., GenCorp said.
    Earlier today, <General Partners> said it was prepared to
raise its bid to 110 dlrs per share, or even more, in its bid
 Reuter

Galileo Electro-Optics Corp
said estimated earnings for the second quarter ended March 31,
1987, will be over current analysts estimates of 40 cts to 45
cts per share.
    However, the company said it has not closed its books for
the quarter and release earnings April 20.
 Reuter

Inc's Hackensack Water Co subsidiary said the New Jersey Board
of Public Utilities has authorized a 5.9 pct cut in its water
rates.
    The company said the cut, which is effective today, is
expected to reduce its revenues by 5.2 mln dlrs a year.
    The company also said it probably will not need to seek
additionalk rate adjustments until the end of 1987. It applied
in January for a decrease of about 2.3 mln dlrs in annual
revenues, equal to about three pct. This was adjusted to
reflect increased water use, and lower power costs and taxes.
 Reuter

U.S. scientists said some tropical
vegetable oils can be hazardous to consumers whose health is at
risk because of high levels of saturated fat, lending weight to
a campaign by the American Soybean Association (ASA) for
labelling changes.
    The scientists appeared to support an ASA charge, denied by
Malaysian palm growers, that imported coconut, palm and palm
kernel oils contain high levels of saturated fat and thus raise
blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.
    In a petition filed in January, the ASA asked the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) to require palm, palm kernel and
coconut oils to be identified as saturated fats on food
manufacturers' labels.
    The FDA responded to the ASA in a letter saying it would
consider the petition as a comment to a proposed rule dealing
with cholesterol and fatty acid labelling of foods.
    Malaysian oil palm growers have said the charges by the ASA
that palm oil consumption increases blood cholesterol and
contributes to heart disease are untrue.
    But Steve Chang, Professor of Food Science at Rutgers
University, said, "Palm oil is definitely not good for human
health because it has a high content of saturated fatty acid."
    He added that the higher the fatty acid, the greater the
blood cholesterol level. "It has been well established that
high cholesterol levels will have a higher level of heart
disease," he said.
    A Malaysian Oil Palm Growers Council official, Borge
Bek-Nielsen, has said studies have shown that palm oil is
cholesterol-free, low in saturated fats, has anti-cancer
properties and prevents blood clotting and blocking of arteries
in humans.
    Bek-Nielsen said Americans consume more saturated fats
daily through food like butter, bacon, ham and beef than from
palm oil, which, he added is rich in vitamins A and E.
    David Kritchevsky, Associate Director of the Wistar
Institute in Philadelphia, appeared to take the ASA view on
labelling. "What people really have to learn is to read labels,"
said Kritchevsky. "The more a consumer knows, the more likely he
will make an intelligent choice."
    The U.S. scientists said they had no doubt imported palm,
palm kernel and coconut oils contain high saturated fat levels.
    Kritchevsky, a specialist in nutrition, said, "More
saturated fat would raise cholesterol levels...So, from that
point of view it's a health risk. High cholesterol levels in
the blood are a risk factor for heart disease."
    Susanne Harris, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S.
Agriculture Department's Food and Consumer Services Division,
said the health risk among consumers of vegetable oils with
high saturated fat levels was highest among those who have
heart disease.
    The scientists said more than 50 pct of the fatty acid
content of the tropical oils was saturated, whereas less than
20 pct of the fatty acid content of soybean oil was saturated.
    David Ericksen, director of ASA's technical services, said
U.S. soybean producers could regain about one-half of the 273
mln dlrs in sales lost to imported tropical oils if consumers
were aware the vegetable oils were high in saturated fat.
    Imported tropical oils displace 171 mln bushels of U.S.
soybean sales in the U.S. market, ASA estimates.
    U.S. imports of coconut oil during January totaled 82.9 mln
lbs compared with 48.0 mln lbs in December and 106.5 mln a year
earlier, according to Commerce Department figures.
    Imports of palm oil totaled 44.0 mln lbs compared with 51.3
mln lbs in December and 85.2 mln a year earlier.
 Reuter

GENERAL MOTORS CANADA MARCH CAR SALES UP TO 38,520 UNITS
FROM YEAR-AGO 34,209

government was ousted in a parliamentary censure vote backed by
three left-wing opposition parties.
    President Mario Soares, who returns from a visit to Brazil
on Sunday, now faces the task of either forming a new
government or calling an early general election.
    The Socialist Party, Democratic Renewal Party and Communist
Party, with 140 of the 250 parliamentary seats, voted for the
motion against the ruling Social Democratic Party and its
Christian Democrat allies.
 Reuter

Nissan Motor Corp said it is
raising the suggested retail price for its cars and trucks sold
in the United States by 1.9 pct, or an average 212 dlrs per
vehicle, effective April 6.
    The company said the increase is the result of the
continued strengthening of the Japanese yen against the U.S.
dollar.
 Reuter

    The Socialist Party (PS), Democratic Renewal Party (PRD)
and Communist Party (PCP), who held 140 of the 250 parliament
seats, voted for the motion against the Social Democratic Party
(PSD) government and their Christian Democrat allies.
on Sunday, was now faced with the task of either forming a new
 Reuter

Snyder Oil Partners L.P. told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it made an exchange offer to
Cenergy Corp that would allow Snyder to acquire up to 49.9 pct
of the company's common stock.
    Under the exchange offer, which was proposed yesterday to
Cenergy's officers and directors, each share of Cenergy common
stock could be exchanged for 8.50 dlrs in market value of
Snyder's limited partnership units, Snyder said.
    Under the proposal, Snyder, which already holds 1,170,400
Cenergy common shares, or 12.0 pct of the total, could boost
its Cenergy stake to a total of 49.9 pct, it said.
    Snyder did not say whether it has received any response to
its proposal from Cenergy.
    If it acquires the 49.9 pct stake, Snyder said in its SEC
filing it would use the stock to "obtain a proportionate
beneficial interest" in the company's assets and liabilities.
    It said it has not decided its next move it the exchange
proposal does not lead to negotiations with Cenergy.
    Snyder said it may boost its stake or sell some or all of
its current holdings. It repeated a statement made in its
initial SEC filing last month that it is considering several
alternatives, including seeking control of Cenergy.
 Reuter

wholly owned by General Motors Corp, said March car sales
increased 12.6 pct to 38,520 units from 34,209 units a year
earlier.
    Year-to-date car sales fell 10.1 pct to 82,000 units from
91,243 units in the same period last year, the company said.
 Reuter

agreed to sell 93 mln dlrs of convertible notes, with half to
be purchased by brokers Wood Gundy Inc and McLeod Young Weir
Ltd and the other half by controlling shareholder Kinburn
Industrial Corp.
    The notes will be convertible into six mln common shares at
15.50 dlrs a share by September 30. Paperboard now has
6,057,495 shares outstanding. Proceeds will be used partly to
finance the previously announced acquisition of Belkin Inc.
Purchase of notes will be conditional on Paperboard acquiring
98.2 pct of Belkin's shares from Balaclava Enterprises Ltd.
 Reuter

Seaway Multi-Corp Ltd said Peat Marwick
Ltd was appointed receiver-manager of its operating subsidiary,
Levy-Russell Ltd, after it was unable to meet the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce's demand for repayment of loans
totaling about 20 mln dlrs.
    It said the receiver is seeking offers for the sale of
Levy-Russell as a going concern.
 Reuter

Harleysville Group Inc said it
was in talks to acquire Atlantic Mutual Fire Insurance Co, a
property and casualty insurer licensed in five southern states.
    The company said it believes an acquisition could be
completed by June 30, subject to approval by regulatory and
Atlantic Mutual policyholders.
    Harleysville plans to invest about four mln dlrs in the
business if the deal is completed.
 Reuter

Kroger Co said it agreed to buy nine 
retail food stores from the Dallas division of <Safeway Stores
Inc>, which announced it was closing the 141-store division as
part of a restructuring.
    Kroger expects to take over operation of the stores, one of
which is under construction, in late April. The addition of the
stores will bring Kroger's Dallas division to 75 stores, it
said.
    It operates more than 1,300 stores in 20 states.
 Reuter

Ridgefield, Conn home.
    IBM Chairman John Akers said "this is a great loss to IBM
and to the Manningham's family, friends and community.
(corrects spelling of town in line five)
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs one ct
    Net 178,919 vs 34,429
    Sales 3,148,420 vs 1,912,438
 Reuter

Shr loss 65 cts vs loss 1.31 dlrs
    Net loss 1,366,340 vs loss 2,148,656
    Revs 2,664,852 vs 799,864
 Reuter

it has accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale of
50,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat to Sri Lanka.
    A bonus of 37.44 dlrs per tonne was awarded to Continental
Grain Co on the shipment scheduled for April 8-16, Melvin Sims,
USDA general sales manager said.
    An additional 10,000 tonnes of wheat are still available to
Sri Lanka under the export enhancement program, Sims said.
 Reuter

<Carburos Metalicos> of Spain has bid
2,205 francs a share for French chemicals group <Duffour et
Igon>, rivalling the 2,100 franc bid announced yesterday by
Union Carbide France, the French subsidiary of the U.S.
Chemical giant Union Carbide Corp <UK.N>, the stockbrokers'
assocation (CSAC) said here.
    Duffour et Igon's capital is comprised of 133,100 shares
with a nominal value of 100 francs each. Shares were last
quoted at 856 francs on January 9.
    Banque Paribas will act for Carburos Metalicos, while Union
Carbide France's bid is being led by Rothschild et Associes
Banque.
    Duffour et Igon shares will be suspended on April 6 and 7
and will resume trading on April 8.
 Reuter

Brazil will import 30,000 barrels
per day of crude oil from Kuwait, a spokesman for the state oil
company Petrobras said.
    He said that, unlike Saudi Arabia, Kuwait did not impose
any conditions on Brazil.
    Last month, Petrobras cancelled a 40-mln dlr oil purchase
from Saudi Arabia after the Saudis refused to accept credit
guarantees from the official Bank of Brazil.
    The Saudis eventually lifted the condition and Brazil
decided to reconfirm the purchase.
    Brazil currently consumes 1.1 mln barrels of oil per day.
 Reuter

18,000 tonnes of U.S. durum wheat to Algeria.
    A bonus of 43.25 dlrs per tonne was awarded to Cam USA Inc
on the shipment scheduled for June 20-30, Melvin Sims, USDA
general sales manager, said.
    An additional 228,000 tonnes of durum wheat are available
to Algeria under the department's export enhancement program,
Sims said.
 Reuter

owned by Chrysler Corp, said it sold 16,484 passenger cars in
March, a 9.7 pct increase over the 15,024 sold in the same
month of last year.
    The company said truck sales rose 32 pct to a March record
of 7,400 units from 5,603 in March of last year.
    For the first quarter, car sales totaled 34,578 compared
with 37,097 a year earlier, while truck sales totaled 15,397
compared with 14,069.
 Reuter

announced Colombia has been made eligible for sales of up to
15,000 tonnes of barley malt under the department's export
enhancement program, EEP.
    As with the previous 64 EEP initiatives, sales of U.S.
barley malt would be made to buyers in Colombia at competitive
world prices, USDA said.
    The export sales would be subsidized with commodities from
the inventory of the Commodity Credit Corp and enable U.S.
exporters to compete at commercial prices in the Colombian
market, USDA said.
 Reuter

Erly Industries Inc said it provided
privately-owned Hanson Foods Inc with a 23 mln dlr credit line
needed to carry out its voluntary reorganization plan.
    The plan calls for about 20 mln dlrs of the credit facility
to be used to retire outstanding bank debt and to pay trade
creditors, with the balance to be used for working capital,
Erly said.
 Reuter

USX Corp's USS division said it
it intends to close the Geneva Works near Provo, Utah,
    The company said it is continuing talks with local
interests in Utah concerning a possible sale of the Geneva
works plant.
    The company had announced the indefinite idling of the
integrated steel mill in February. The plant, which produced
flat rolled steel products and small diameter pipe, had
employeed 2,200 workers, the company said.
 Reuter

Texas Petroleum Corp said it issued 14.4
mln shares of restricted common stock in exchange for oil and
gas properties and joint ventures located in the U.S. and
overseas.
    The properties were acquired from <North American Oil and
Gas Corp> and Texas Petroleum Corp in Canada, the company said.
It added the acquisitions were the first step toward creating
an oil and gas exploration and development enterprise.
 Reuter

<Metromedia Co> said it
purchased from Time Inc's <TL> Home Box Office Inc a warrant to
purchase 800,000 shares of common stock of Orion Pictures Corp
<OPC>.
    The price for the warrant was 10 mln dlrs, Metromedia said.
It added that it now owns 16.4 pct of the outstanding common
stock of Orion.
 Reuter

Inc said it won 7.6 mln dlrs worth of Navy contracts,
subcontracts and increases to existing contracts.
    The company said its backlog of contracts is approximately
107 mln dlrs, compared to 62 mln dlrs of backlog contracts a
year ago this time.
 Reuter

Bank of Montreal said it will reduce the
interest rate it charges on outstanding MasterCard balances to
18.3 pct from 21 pct, beginning in July.
    The bank said it will continue its policy of not charging
any annual fee or transaction fees to credit card holders.
                
 Reuter

Synergen Inc said it plans to
file with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell about
1.5 mln shares of common stock.
    Proceeds would be used to fund research and development,
for product testing, working capital and general purposes.
    The offering will be made through underwriters and only by
means of a prospectus, the biotechnology firm said.
 Reuter

it intends to close its Geneva Works near Provo, Utah,
 Reuter

Nissan Motor Corp in USA, a unit
of Nissan Motor Co Ltd, said its domestic car sales for the
March 21-31 period rose 82.8 pct to 4,635 from 2,536 a year
ago.
    It said automobile sales for the month gained 37.6 pct to
10,130 from 7,363 and year to date they increased to 23,899
from 20,209.
    Nissan said late-March U.S. truck sales increased 15.5 pct
to 3,567 from 3,089. The month's truck sales declined 4.2 pct
to 7,271 from 7,592, and year to date, sales increased to
20,398 from 18,477.
 Reuter

common stock was deleted from Nasdaq as of March 17 because two
of the company's three market makers ceased trading in the
stock.
    The company also said it agreed to sell for 100,000 dlrs
assets of its closed Woburn, Mass., plant to <Toxikon Corp>, 
which will assume the lease on the facility.
    Bioassay's common stock will continue to be traded in the
National Daily Quotation, or pink, sheets, it said.
 Reuter

    Net loss 330,613 vs profit
    Revs 2,170,628 vs 614,511
    Year
    Shr loss one ct vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 212,289 vs profit 829,747
    Revs 5,397,167 vs 3,785,688
 Reuter

American Honda Motor Co said domestic
car sales for the March 21-31 period rose to 16,635 from 6,358
a year ago.
    It said sales for all of March advanced to 28,476 from
15,175. Year to date, the domestic car sales rose to 76,225
from 43,075.
 Reuter

Sears, Roebuck and Co said in its
annual report that its Merchandise Group plans 1987 capital
expenditures of 355 mln dlrs, up from 280.4 mln dlrs in 1986.
   It said about 131 mln dlrs will be used for 32 new and
relocated stores and 38 new paint and hardware stores. The
nation's largest retailer also said it plans to remodel 126
stores this year.
    Of five new stores to open in 1987, Sears said four will
replace units in markets already served and one will be in a
new area. At yearend 1986, the company said it had 284
full-line stores operating in its new market-driven format.
    Sears said it was "optimistic" about prospects for 1987,
citing its positioning to meet merchandise and financial
service needs of its customers.
    To broaden its apparel customer base, Sears said it will
issue a new catalog called "Changes" featuring natural fiber
clothing. It said the catalog, printed on oversized pages, will
be distributed in limited markets in 1987, with national
circulation planned for 1988.
    In the annual report, Sears reiterated its expectation that
losses from introducing the company's financial services
instrument, Discover Card, should continue to decline
throughout 1987 and cross the breakeven line and generate a
profit in 1988.
    The company scheduled its annual meeting for May 14.
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 646,000 vs loss 96,000
    Revs 9,414,000 vs 9,899,000
    Avg shrs 5,382,833 vs 3,722,833
    NOTE: Converted using Dec 31 exchange rate of 40.05 Belgian
francs to the U.S. dlr.

 Reuter

    Revs 3,148,420 vs 1,912,438
 Reuter

Firmer crude oil prices, government aid
packages and corporate spending cuts will help Canada's oil
industry recover from last year sharp downturn, industry
    They said there will be significant earnings gains in 1987
compared to last year's dismal results when oil prices dropped
about 50 pct.
    On Canada's stock exchanges, energy shares have soared to
their highest levels since 1983, with many issues trading at
record highs.
    "This is reflecting a tremendous amount of optimism on the
part of the investment community that the outlook for the
industry for the future is extremely attractive," Peters and Co
Ltd oil analyst Wilf Gobert said.
    Financial statements from Canada's major oil companies,
culminating with Dome Petroleum Ltd's 2.20 billion Canadian dlr
1986 loss reported this week, painted a bleak picture of last
year's results, analysts said.
    "But the financial statements are a snap shot and a
recording of history. The stock market is the indication of the
future," Gobert commented.
    The Toronto Stock Exchange's oil and gas index of 41
companies is up to 4065.4 so far in trading today from 3053.15
    Among Canada's largest oil companies, class A shares of
Imperial Oil Ltd <IMO.A>, 70 pct owned by Exxon Corp <XON>, is
trading at 71, up from a 52-week low of 34-3/4.
    Shell Canada Ltd, 72 pct owned by Royal Dutch/Shell Group,
is at 40-1/2, up from a low during the last year of 18-3/4.
Texaco Canada Inc <TXC>, 78 pct owned by Texaco Inc <TX>, is
at 34-7/8, up from a low of 24-1/2.
    Levesque Beaubien Inc oil analyst Robert Plexman forecasts
operating profit for 10 of Canada's largest oil and gas
companies will rise 37 pct in 1987 to about 1.44 billion dlrs
and operating cash flow will increase 12 pct to 3.24 billion
dlrs, based on an average oil price for the year of 16.50 U.S.
dlrs a barrel. "However, if prices hold about 18 U.S. dlrs a
barrel...1987 net operating income could show a 69 pct increase
with cash flow 27 pct higher," analyst Plexman said.
    "Although it is difficult to forecast the extent of the
profit improvement this year, the gain should be significant,"
he added.
    Those improvements follow a sharp downturn in 1986, when
operating income for the ten companies dropped 47 pct to 1.05
billion dlrs and operating cash flow fell 22 pct to 2.90
    But one industry source doesn't think oil prices will hold
recent gains and more government assistance is needed.
    Canadian Petroleum Association technical director Hans
Maciej sees industry cash flow falling another 10 pct in 1987,
after dipping about 60 pct last year. Maciej said he sees crude
oil supply outweighing demand and doesn't believe a recent OPEC
production accord will continue to support prices.
    However, several companies share the optimistic industry
outlook expressed by a majority of analysts.
    Shell Canada and <Norcen Energy Resources Ltd> forecast
improved 1987 earnings in their annual reports issued this
week, assuming oil prices remain at or above 1986 levels.
    "The industry's outlook for 1987 is positive, but not
robust," Texaco Canada said in its annual report.
    "While oil prices have strengthened somewhat and there is
good reason to believe that the general level is sustainable,
continued volatility is likely," Texaco Canada added.
    In the face of short-term uncertainty, many companies have
pared 1987 spending plans from last year's lower levels,
deferring most frontier exploration work.
    "The industry is becoming very selective in investments,
very conservative and cautious, which is not unexpected,"
Canadian Petroleum Association's Maciej said.
    Federal and Alberta goverment aid measures helped cushion
the industry downturn in 1986 and are improving 1987 results.
    The most significant help came last September when the
federal government lifted the 10 pct Petroleum Gas Revenue Tax
(PGRT) 28 months earlier then planned.
    Analysts estimate the tax relief will save larger oil
companies about 1.50 billion dlrs by the end of 1988.
    The PGRT cut helped brake the steep profit and cash flow
decline in 1986 for many oil companies and prevented further
exploration spending cuts, analysts said.
    "For a number of companies, the PGRT cut was absolutely
necessary to even maintain the kind of reduced investments that
were made, otherwise the reduction would have been considerably
more," Maciej said.
 Reuter

U.S. mine production of gold rose to
244,900 troy ounces in December from 244,749 ounces in
November, the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Mines said.
    U.S. imports of gold in December were 692,700 ounces, vs
2,011,754 ounces in November and 611,811 ounces in December,
1985.
    Gold exports totaled 243,191 ounces in December, vs
November's 374,468 ounces and 350,078 ounces in December a year
earlier.
    Mine production of gold in the 12-month period Jan-Dec,
1986, totaled 2,951,151 ounces, vs 2,475,436 ounces over the
same period in 1985.
    Gold imports in Jan-Dec, 1986, totaled 15,749,447 ounces,
vs 8,225,999 ounces for the same period in 1985, while exports
stood at 4,612,919 ounces and 3,966,678 ounces over the
respective periods, the bureau said.
 Reuter

Pictel Corp said it completed the
public offering of 1.05 mln units at six dlrs apiece through
F.N. Wolf and Co and Sherwood Capital Inc.
    Proceeds will be used for product development, marketing
expenses, capital equipment and working capital, the
telecommunications products company said.
    Each unit consists of five shares of common stock and three
 Reuter

Shr loss 67 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 2,410,000 vs loss 245,000
    Revs 11.0 mln vs 10.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr loss 21 cts vs profit 43 cts
    Net loss 748,000 vs profit 1,571,000
    Revs 46.9 mln vs 40.5 mln
 Reuter

U.S. mine production of silver rose
to 2,295,230 troy ounces in December from 2,181,082 in
November, the Interior Department's Bureau of Mines said.
    U.S. imports of silver in December were 8,458,000 ounces,
vs 19,950,000 in November, and 8,840,000 in December, 1985.
    Silver exports totaled 1,549,000 ounces in December, vs
2,346,000 in November and 1,504,000 ounces in December, 1985.
    Silver mining production in the 12-month period Jan-Dec,
1986 totaled 31,720,769 ounces, vs 39,357,197 ounces produced
over the same period in 1985.
   Imports of silver in Jan-Dec, 1986 totaled 144,890,000
ounces, vs 152,601,000 ounces in Jan-Dec, 1985, while silver
exports stood at 25,114,000 ounces and 24,756,000 ounces over
the respective periods, the bureau said.
 Reuter

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co said it raised the
wholesale price for seven-stick packages of its Spearmint,
Juicy Fruit, Doublemint and Big Red brands, marching
competitive moves to a 35 cts retail price. The gum previously
sold at 30 cts a pack.
    The company also said on March 30 it brought out a
five-stick package of the four brands. The new package-size,
generally phased out by the trade in 1972, was priced at 25 cts
a pack, Wrigley said. A company spokesman said the five-stick
size was "well received" by the trade.
 Reuter

Rising demand for U.S. rice may
gradually reduce surpluses while a marketing loan should help
increase the U.S. share of the world rice market despite
sluggish trade this year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    In its quarterly rice outlook and situation summary, the
department said U.S. rice use may surpass production during the
1986/87 marketing year, causing stocks to fall about 10 mln
hundredweight from a year earlier to an estimated 67 mln cwt on
July 31.
    Long grain acreage as a percentage of total acreage is
expected to decline this year, the report said.
    USDA said factors once supportive of increased long grain
acreage have turned around. Domestic prices of medium grain
relative to long grain have increased, the loan differential
has been greatly reduced and increases in long grain yields
relative to those of other classes have leveled off.
    With the drop in domestic prices resulting from the
marketing loan, domestic rice use is expected to grow at a
faster rate, USDA said.
    "Development of new products and increased promotion have
helped make rice more available and visible to a wider range of
consumers," USDA said.
    USDA said world trade is expected to fall in 1987 because
of large production and stocks but a weaker market should
affect competing exporters more than the U.S.
    "The United States has already recovered a substantial share
of the European Community market and made inroads into markets
in the Middle East and Africa," the report said.
    World rice consumption is projected to reach record levels
in 1986/87, the report said, as higher per capita incomes,
increased domestic production and low import prices have
allowed people in many countries to substitute rice for coarse
grains.
    China, India and South Korea have increased output, while
the Middle East and Africa have doubled imports since the
mid-1970s, the report said.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton LBO Inc is still interested
in an acquisition of Purolator Courier Corp, and is examining
the possibility of raising its 35 dlr per share offer, an E.F.
Hutton spokesman said.
    Hutton's offer was topped by a 40 dlr per share offer from
Emery Air Freight Corp <EAF> earlier this week.
    "We're definately not out of it at this point," the Hutton
    "We want to see what the offer is completely and understand
it fully, and then fashion our response," the spokesman said.
    After Emery made its offer, Hutton extended the deadline on
its offer to Monday. The offer was to have expired Wednesday.
    Analysts said it might be difficult for Hutton to raise the
offer since Emery, an overnight courier, might have an easier
time justifying a lofty price since it would realize cost
savings by combining its business with those of Purolator.
    Purolator, a New Jersey-based overnight courier, has
    Purolator had traded above the Hutton offer price on
speculation a new bidder would emerge. It was up 1/8 today at
40-3/8, above the Emery offer.
 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp said a shareholder
filed a class action suit in Philadelphia in light of the
precipitous decline in Mellon's stock on the New York Stock
Exchange.
    Mellon's stock fell 3-1/2 to 40-7/8 today after plunging
6-1/4 yesterday after the bank holding company reported its
first loss in its 118 years, according to the shareholder, John
Paul Decker.
    Yesterday, the company said it expected to report a first
quarter loss of between 55 mln and 65 mln dlrs and its
intention to reduce the quarterly dividend.
    The shareholder charges that Mellon and its senior officers
failed to disclose the company's true financial condition
during the class period, between February 1, 1985 and
April 2, 1987 
    Mellon said it had no comment because it had not yet seen
the suit.
 Reuter

Mtly div 10.4 cts vs 10.8 cts prior
    Paid April 1
 Reuter

American Exploration Co said it raised 
63 mln dlrs for its property acquisition program, and has spent
all but 10 mln dlrs of that total on acquiring property.
    American Exploration said the 63 mln dlrs raised for its
"APPL-IV" program represented the largest amount raised for any
of its "APPL" programs. It said it will attempt to raise more
capital in its upcoming "APPL-V" program.
    American said it raises money from outside sources and then
uses the funds to buy on and off shore oil and gas producing
properties, mostly in Texas and Louisiana.
 Reuter

upgraded 295 mln dlrs of debt of Hawaiian Telephone Co, a GTE
Corp unit.
    It raised the company's first mortgage bonds to AA from
AA-minus and sinking fund debentures to AA-minus from A-plus.
    S and P cited earnings improvement, better capital
recovery, a stable construction program and a sophisticated
network, as well as financial improvement. This gave Hawaiian
Telephone a strengthened capital structure and cash flow in
both regulated and non-regulated businesses. But S and P said
it considers coverage a little weak.
 Reuter

Turkey has been made eligible for the sale of up to 70,000
tonnes of medium grain milled rice under the department's
export enhancement program, EEP.
    As with the 65 previous EEP initiatives, the export sales
would be subsidized with commodities from the inventory of the
Commodity Credit Corp and made at competitive world prices,
USDA said.
 Reuter

International LPG prices were mixed in
the past week, with North Sea prices easier while prices in the
Mediterranean and the Gulf were up in April, traders said.
    In the North Sea market, small cargoes of propane were sold
as high as 126 dlrs per tonne on the f.o.b. basis early in the
week, but prices eased after the majors posted their April
contract prices, traders said.
    British Petroleum plc <BP> left propane unchanged at 110
dlrs and raised butane prices 5.50 dlrs to 123 dlrs, Shell, a
unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <ST> raised propane three
dlrs to 113 and butane 5.50 dlrs to 123 dlrs, they said.
    In the Mediterranean, prices firm in Lavera as Algerian
supplies were not always available. Spot propane was unchanged,
while butane rose about 25 dlrs from last week, traders said.
    They said, however, the Mediterranean butane market was
very thin, making it subject to wide price swings.
    In the Gulf, strong demand from the Far East pushed premium
on small cargoes five to 10 dlrs above government selling price
(gsp) for propane and 10 dlrs for butane, traders said. 
    The rising premium over gsp, however, was partially offset
by about 10 pct decline in shipping, making prices for propane
about unchanged and butane five dlrs higher, basis c. and f.
Japan, the traders said.
SPOT.(DLRS/TONNE)......PROPANE..............BUTANE...........
NORTH SEA (FOB)........113/117..............125/130..........
NORTH SEA (CIF)........120/125..............135/140..........
MEDITERRANEAN.(CIF)....140/145..............175/180..........
THE GULF (FOB).........130/135..............140/145..........
JAPAN (C AND F)........155/160..............160/165..........
OFFICIAL PRICES-FOB..........................................
SAUDI ARABIA (3/1)........125.................125............
ALGERIA......(3/1)........120.................130............
BP/POSTED PRICE.(4/1).....110.................123.00.........
SHELL/POSTED PRICE.(4/1)..113.................123.00.........
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 27 cts
    Net loss 1,905,774 vs loss 2,160,717
    Revs 868,117 vs 307,135
 Reuter

US West Inc said it named A. Gary Ames to
succeed Robert Blanz as president and chief executive officer
of its Mountain Bell subsidiary.
    Blanz, who announced his intention to retire effective June
1, was elected chairman of the Mountain Bell board of
    Ames currently serves Mountain Bell as executive vice
 Reuter

Pacific Horizon Funds Inc said it will
place a sales charge on three of its six portfolios effective
April 20.
    The sales charge, which will not apply to investors who
were shareholders prior to that date, will be 4-1/2 pct on
investments less than 100,000 dlrs, and progressively less on
larger amounts.
    The funds affected are Pacific Horizon's Aggressive Growth,
its California Tax-Exempt Bond, and its High-Yield Bond.
 Reuter

The Mitsubishi Motor
Sales America Inc unit of Mitsubishi Motor Corp said domestic
car sales during March rose to 6,403 from 4,089 a year earlier
and year-to date car sales were up to 14,071 from 12,937 last
year.
    Truck sales rose to 3,800 during the month from 2,526 last
year and year-to-date sales increased to 11,126 from 6,520,
Mitsubishi said.
 Reuter

Great American Management and Investment
Inc said it formed a new subsidiary, Eagle Industries Inc, and
secured a 125 mln dlr credit facility for the unit from Heller
Financial Inc.
    It said Eagle consists of eight subsidiaries which
primarily serve the electric utility, building products and
process industries. The financing will be used to repay
existing debt, for working capital and for ongoing acquisition
programs.
    Great American said all of the Eagle Industries businesses
previously were units of the company and its subsidiaries.
    It said Eagle's projected sales for the year ending July
31, 1987 are 282 mln dlrs and projected operating income is 28
mln dlrs.
    Now based in Purchase, N.Y., Eagle Industries is setting up
headquarters in Chicago with a move scheduled for midyear.
 Reuter

Scott Instruments Corp said its
independent public accountants qualified the report on Scott's
1986 financial statements because of its weak financial
condition.
    The report indicates the realization of the company's
assets is dependent on it obtaining enough working capital to
finance operations and additional funds to meet other
liabilities, among other things.
    These factors indicate the company may be unable to
continue its existence.
    Earlier, Scott reported a 1986 loss of 1.9 mln dlrs
compared to a loss of almost 2.2 mln dlrs in 1985. Total assets
were nearly 1.1 mln dlrs at year end, down from 1.2 mln dlrs
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury said it issued 
calls on its tax and loan accounts covering class "C"
depositaries.
    The "C" call was for 25 pct of the uncalled balances of
open-ended note accounts as of close of business yesterday, for
payment today.
    In addition, the call was for 92 pct of the book balances
in open-ended note accounts as of close of business today, for
payment Monday.
    The total of the calls for today and yesterday was 2.704
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.64 dlrs vs loss 2.08 dlrs
    Net loss 9,761,000 vs loss 10,977,000
    Revs 4,409,000 vs 2,697,000
 Reuter

Bayou International Ltd said it
acquired 19.9 pct of <Amalgamated Equities Ltd> of Australia
for 710,000 dlrs.
    Bayou is 55.2 pct owned by <Australia Wide Industries Ltd>.
 Reuter

Wall Street scored its biggest one
session gain ever, climbing to a record in extremely active
trading. A strong bond market, triggering arbitrage related buy
programs and drawing many short sellers in to even up
positions, propelled stocks sharply higher.
    "This was a startling performance in a week that began with
a nervous selloff and growing anxiety about inflation, interest
rates and trade friction," Alan Ackerman of Gruntal and Co
said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 70 points to
2390. Outdistancing the previous one day record gain of 54
points set on February 17.
 Reuter

Network Control Corp said it
intends to take a 250,000 dlr charge against earnings for the
third quarter ended March 31 and said sales for the quarter
would be about 400,000 dlrs, about 50 pct below sales in the
same year-ago quarter.
    Network said it is taking the charge due to the significant
increase in accounts receivable which remain uncollected for
more than 90 days after billing. It said it ultimately will
collect most of those accounts.
    It attributed the sales decline to a transition period for
its new products and a delay in a major order.
 Reuter

Petrobras is pledging to export 4.6 mln cubic meters of fuel,
or 28.9 mln barrels in 1987, a company spokesman said.
    He said that represents a total sale worth 600 mln dlrs.
The volume is 27 pct higher over 1986 sales, which totalled 3.6
mln cubic meters, or 22.6 mln barrels.
    The United States, Africa and Latin American are Brazil's
main fuel buyers, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

U.S. BUSINESS LOANS FELL 822 MLN DLRS IN MARCH 25 WEEK, FED SAYS

reiterated his hope that this week's rise in prime rates would
be a temporary blip upwards.
    "I would hope that it would simply be a temporary blip
upward as we've seen in the past," Baker said in television
interview with the Cable News Network. The interview airs
tomorrow but CNN released extracts from his remarks today.
    Baker also repeated his position that the reaction of
financial markets to U.S. tariffs on Japanese electronic goods
showed "the importance of the United States not going
protectionist. The markets were telling us...be careful."
 reuter

Delta Dental Plan of San Francisco
has been awarded a 121.0 mln dlr contract to provide dental
services to 100,000 families of military personnel in the
United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the
    The plan is a private, non-profit health organization which
operates in 48 states.
    The contract is the first let by the Office of Civilian
Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS)
in a move to provide more cost-effective and efficient health
care for dependents of U.S. military personnel.
 REUTER

Kenai Corp said its shareholders
approved of a reorganization to avoid a chapter 11 filing under
the U.S. bankruptcy code.
    Shareholders approved an increase in authorized shares to
two billion common and two mln preferred, with a par value of
0.001 dlrs per share. A portion of the new shares will be
issued to holders of 57.5 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures,
all of which are in default.
    The company, which was also merged into a subsidiary, said
its 35.7 mln outstanding shares will be exchanged for shares in
the new company on a one-for-one basis.
    According to the exchange offer, each 1,000 dlrs principle
of subordinated debentures will be exchanged for 1,000 shares
of common stock, 500 dlrs principal of a variable interest
subordinated debenture and 24 shares of convertible preferred
stock, the company said.
    It said the offer will result in the issue of 57.5 mln
common shares, 28.85 mln dlrs principle of variable rate
subordinated debentures, and 1.38 mln shares of convertible
    The company said two holders of 29.9 mln dlrs of debentures
who have already exchanged their holdings for 20.8 mln common
shares and 23.5 mln dlrs principle amount of notes will
resubmit the securities to meet the terms of the current
exchange offer.
    It said the offer is dependent on filings with the
    The company also said that upon completion of the exchange
offer, it may issue warrants to buy 100 mln shares of common
stock to current shareholders and warrants for 75 mln shares to
 Reuter

Perini Corp said a joint
venture of <Tuto-Saliba Corp> of Sylmar, Calif., and Perini's
Western division have been awarded a 117.8 mln dlrs contract to
build San Diego-s waterfront convention center.
 Reuter

E AND B MARINE &lt;EBMI&gt; 4TH QTR NET
    EDISON, N.J., April 3
    Shr loss 1.65 dlrs vs loss 24 cts
    Net loss 3,259,000 vs loss 470,000
    Revs 16.0 mln vs 9,510,000
    12 mths
    Shr loss 84 cts vs gain 63 cts
    Net loss 1,661,000 vs gain 1,301,000
    Revs 80.5 mln vs 56.4 mln
 Reuter

Four U.S. meat processors have asked
the federal government to relax a labelling requirement which
they said discourages the use of mechanically separated meat,
the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The petition, filed by Bob Evans Farms, Odom Sausage Co,
Sara Lee Corp and Owens Country Sausage, asks USDA to allow
mechanically separated meat to be listed on product labels as
the species from which it was derived.
    For example, "pork" would be listed on the ingredients
statement instead of "mechanically separated pork."
    Under the petition, the calcium content of the meat product
would have to be stated on the label and the mechanically
separated meat could constitute no more than 10 pct of the meat
and poultry portion of the product.
    Mechanically separated meat is a high-protein, low-cost
product that has been approved for use since 1978, USDA said.
    Current regulations allow use of mechanically separated
ingredients at levels up to 20 pct of the meat and poultry
product, but require it to be listed in the ingredient
statement as "mechanically separated (species)," USDA said.
    USDA said the petitioning firms claimed companies avoid
using mechanically separated meat in their products because the
term carries an "unwarranted negative connotation" in the minds
of many consumers. The petitioners also noted that no similar
regulation exists for poultry products.
    Mechanically separated meat is made by placing carcass
parts, which usually have been hand-trimmed but still have some
remaining meat, into specialized processing equipment.
 Reuter

Assistant Treasury Secretary Roger
Mentz said the administration supported continuing a tax credit
for business research expenses after the current 20 pct credit
expires at the end of next year.
    Mentz, in testimony before the Senate Finance subcommittee
on taxation, said the administration was not ready yet to make
a recommendation to Congress on the appropriate structure, rate
or duration of the credit.
    The subcommittee is considering a plan to make the credit
permanent and raise it to 25 pct.
 Reuter

Iroquois Brands Ltd said it has
been sued by Lyon Food Cos Inc which is seeking 2.3 mln dlrs in
damages in connection with the April 1986 nine mln dlrs
purchase of Iroquois' former specialty food products segment.
    Iroquois said that based upon the defenses it will assert,
it does not believe that any charge against income is required
as a result of the claim.
 Reuter

Division said it is introducing a summer lease merchandising
program that will run from April Six through August Three.
    It said the plan features a special GMAC 50-month retail
schedule with low lease payments on selected Pontiacs.
    Participating dealers will offer monthly payments starting
at 179 dlrs for a Pontiac Sunbird, it said.
 Reuter

The Federal Open Market Committee at
its February 10-11 meeting voted nine to one to maintain the
then-existing degree of reserve restraint, minutes showed.
    The FOMC issued an asymmetric inter-meeting policy
directive which gave greater possibility to firmer rather than
easier policy. The Committee set a six to seven pct January
through March annualized growth target for M-2 and M-3 and no
M-1 goal. At the prior meeting in mid-December, the FOMC set a
seven pct target for M-2 and M-3 for November through March.
    The February FOMC kept the four to eight pct Federal funds
rate "reference" range for policy, as in other recent meetings.
    At a telephone conference on February 23, committee members
discussed the possible implications of the decisions reached in
Paris for U.S. intervention in foreign exchange markets. No
conclusions were contained in the minutes.
    In its inter-meeting policy directive, the February FOMC
said that "somewhat greater reserve restraint would, or
slightly lesser reserve restraint might, be acceptable
depending on the behavior of the aggregates, taking into
account the strength of the business expansion, developments in
foreign exchange markets, progress against inflation, and
conditions in domestic and international credit markets."
    The February FOMC voted nine to one for an unchanged
policy. Thomas Melzer, St Louis Federal Reserve Bank president
favored some tightening of reserve conditions.
    He noted the strong growth in bank loans in November
through January and the firm federal funds rate that had
prevailed despite the extraordinary pace of reserve growth. He
also cited the recent declines in the dollar's value.
    Finally, looking ahead, Melzer pointed out the potential
for a further rise in inflationary expectations. He believed
that prompt restraints might avert the need for more
substantial tightening later.
    Regarding inter-meeting policy adjustments, the FOMC
minutes showed, "the members generally felt that policy
implementation should be especially alert to the potential need
for some firming of reserve conditions."
    In this view, the FOMC said somewhat greater reserve
restraint would be warranted if monetary growth did not slow in
line with current expectations and there were concurrent
indications of intensifying inflationary pressures against the
background of stronger economic data.
    One indication of potential price pressure might be a
further tendency for the dollar to weaken.
    The minutes showed that one member, presumably Melzer,
preferred a directive that did not contemplate any easing
during the weeks ahead. However, "most of the members did not
want to rule out the possibility of some slight easing during
the inter-meeting period, although they did not view the
conditions for such a move as likely to emerge."
    The FOMC members assumed that future fluctuations in the
dollar's value would not be of sufficient magnitude to have any
significant effect on the Fed's economic projections. In
addition, they anticipated that considerable progress would be
made in reducing the federal budget deficit.
 Reuter

FEDERAL RESERVE BUSINESS LOAN DATA - APRIL 3
     One week ended March 25   daily avgs-mlns
 U.S. Business Loans......280,220 down......971
 Excluding Acceptances....277,940 down......822
 Govt, agency securities..112,852 down.......95
 CDs/major time deposits..158,226 down......175
 Trading accounts .........17,156 down... 1,058
 U.S. commercial paper....338,816 down......210
 Includes financial cos...261,819 down......880
 New York business loans...64,615 down......122
 Excluding acceptances.....64,005 down.......41
 CDs/major time deposits...35,633 down......540

 Reuter

U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, fell 822 mln dlrs to 277.94
billion dlrs in the week ended March 25, the Federal Reserve
971 mln dlrs to 280.22 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

DRUG COMPANIES =6 NEW YORK
    Hyman said cosmetics used to be more appealing to drug
companies, but product lines have matured and competition
became more fierce. "At one time, the profit margins in these
businesses were more attractive. The businesses were small and
had a lot of opportunity to grow," she said.
    Analysts said drugs, while ultimately subject to patent
expirations, can be marketed for years without competition from
generic products. Cosmetics, however, are fad related and there
are no barriers to competition.
    Saks said pharmaceutical companies in the last two years
have been selling non-strategic assets, among them the once
alluring cosmetics businesses.
    Pfizer Inc &lt;PFE&gt; and Schering-Plough Corp &lt;SGP&gt; remain
among the only two drug companies with cosmetics concerns.
    Schering is committed to its Maybelline cosmetics unit.
    "We've made a strategic determination as a company that
cosmetics is a main line business for us, and we want to
develop it aggressively," the spokesman said. The spokesman
would not comment on whether Schering would want to add by
acquisition to that line.
    Pfizer had no comment, but analyst Ronald Nordmann of
PaineWebber said he does not believe Pfizer would want to sell
off its Coty business.
    Analysts said Elizabeth Arden is one of the more attractive
cosmetics concerns.
    Hyman said the company's performance should be in line with
the expectations for the U.S. industry. She predicts the U.S.
industry in 1987 will have unit growth of three pct and sales
growth of six pct.
    She estimated U.S. cosmetic sales to amount to about two
billion dlrs annually.
    Arden had operating profits of 32.6 mln dlrs in 1986 on
sales of 397.9 mln dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Canada's state-run Export Development
Corp said it arranged a 15 billion yen offering of 4-1/2 pct
notes, due Aug 28, 1992, its first Euro-Yen offering.
    The redeemable notes, priced at 101-7/8 pct, is being
offered through Bank of Tokyo International Ltd, Daiwa Europe
Ltd, Nomura International Ltd, Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd,
Morgan Stanley International and 19 other institutions.
    Net proceeds, which have been swapped to U.S. dlrs for
undislcosed terms, will used to fund loan commitments and other
purposes. 
 Reuter

The Argentine Grain Board issued
the following figures covering shipments of major export grains
in the week to April 1, in tonnes, with comparisons for the
previous week and the same week in 1986.
    Bread wheat        235,800    205,700    115,500
    Maize              158,400    189,000    272,700
    Sorghum             26,500     18,700     39,900
    Soybean                nil        nil        nil
    Sunflowerseed        1,800     18,800        nil
    Cumulative figures for April 1 and this calendar year, with
the previous year's figures in brackets, are as follows, in
thousands of tonnes:
    Bread wheat        64.3   (44.5),    3,074.4   (2,851.4)
    Maize              48.3  (107.7),      486.1     (922.4)
    Sorghum             5.1   (22.2),      108.1     (188.8)
    Soybean             nil    (nil),        nil       (nil)
    Sunflowerseed       0.9    (nil),       43.2       (nil)
 REUTER

Texas American Bancshares Inc
said three of its Texas American banks will be merged into
Texas American Bank/Galleria.
    The corporation said the Spring Branch, Fonderen and
Gulfway Texas American banks will become separate banking
offices of TAB/Galleria.
 Reuter

Illinois Power Co said it filed a
shelf registration to issue up to 50 mln dlrs principal amount
of debt securities. No date for an offering was announced.
    It said at the time the shelf is issued, the net proceeds
from this registration and a previous registration, together
totaling 75 mln dlrs, will be used in part to refund a portion
of the company's outstanding first mortgage bonds and in part
to reimburse a part of the funds required in earlier refunding
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.50 dlrs vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 3,395,933 vs loss 318,225
    Revs 8,963,097 vs 12.6 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.93 dlrs vs profit two cts
    Net loss 6,613,327 vs profit 49,421
    Revs 44.4 mln vs 48.7 mln
    NOTE: Current periods include 2.2 mln dlr charge for
possible obsolete inventory and provision of 356,000 dlrs for
consolidation of cable manufacturing plant.
 Reuter

President Reagan set the
Export-Import Bank's direct loan ceiling in fiscal year 1987 at
800 mln dlrs, a decrease of 100 mln dlrs.
    In a letter to Congress, Reagan also said he was not
seeking any additional legislation to rescind any authority of
the bank, which aids U.S. exports.
    Reagan said he had concluded that the statutory 1987 limit
for Eximbank loan guarantee commitments should not be changed,
noting that "continued growth in the U.S. economy and global
recovery could create unexpected demand for guarantees and
insurance."
          
 Reuter

Reserve fell on April 2 to 3.775 billion dlrs from 4.602
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 6.493
billion dlrs from 6.495 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 10.268
billion dlrs on April 2 compared with 11.097 billion dlrs on
April 1.
 Reuter

The U.S. Energy Department issued a
request for proposals to buy the Snettisham Hydroelectric
project, a major part of the Alaska Power Administration.
    It said invitations were sent to two Alaskan electric
utilities, the city and borough of Anchorage and the state of
Alaska.  It did not cite a possible purchase prices.
    The requests were limited to Alaskan entities because the
purpose of privatization of the administration was to put the
local utility into the hands of a local body, the DOE said.
    It added that proposals are due back by August three.
    The DOE said it then had 120 days to select a proposal that
it would recommend to Congress, which then would vote the
recommendation up or down.
    Proposals to buy the other major part of the Alaska Power
Administration, the Eklutna project, was expected to be issued
in early June, it said.
 reuter

U.S. output of bituminous coal and
lignite in the week ended March 28 was estimated at 17.05 mln
short tons, off 1.6 pct from 17.33 mln in the previous week and
vs 17.54 mln a year earlier, the Energy Information
Administration said.
    In its weekly coal production report, the Energy Department
agency said year-to-date output was 209.61 mln short tons, down
7.1 pct from corresponding 1986 output of 225.60 mln.
    Production of Pennsylvania anthracite was estimated at
86,000 tons, down 7.5 pct from 93,000 tons a week earlier and
compared to 59,000 tons in the year-ago week, it said.
    Year-to-date anthracite output was one mln tons, up 35.8
pct from the corresponding output of 755,000 tons last year,
the EIA said.
 Reuter

The Brazilian Coffee Institute
(IBC) could close May export registrations tonight following
extremely heavy sales today, exporters said.
    They estimated registrations today at between 1.0 mln and
1.2 mln 60 kilo bags. Yesterday 645,000 bags were registered.
    The exporters said over 1.0 mln bags of total registrations
could have been the declaration of sales made in the six weeks
during which books were closed. The rest would be new sales.
    When the IBC opened May registrations from yesterday it did
not set any volume limit. April registrations opened and closed
on February 16 when a daily record 1.68 mln bags were declared.
 Reuter

ConAgra Inc said it will buy 500,000
shares of the company's common stock in the open market.
    This continues Conagra's program of acquiring treasury
stock to meet stock option, incentive plan and preferred stock
conversion obligations, it said.
    Conagra said its purpose is to use treasury shares for
these purposes rather than issuing new shares so that earnings
per share won't be diluted. The company said this is not a
buy-back program to reduce shares and common equity.
    Conagra said it has 67.4 common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

peru's consuemr price index rose 5.3 pct
last month to 13,914.4 (base 100) following a 5.3 pct increase
in february and 5.3 pct rise in march 1986, the national
statistics institute said.
    It said that the accumulated inflation for the first three
months of 1987 was 18.5 pct compared to 15.4 pct for the same
    Inflation for the 12-month period ending march 1987 was
67.4 pct compared to 120.8 pct for the 12-month period ending
march 1986.
 Reuter

The Argentine Grain Board adjusted
    Maize 71 (72), grain sorghum 65 (66).      
    Roasted groundnutseed, according to grain size, 510 (520),
400 (410), 375 (385), 355 (365).               
    Soybean pellets for shipments through May 164 (162) and
June onwards 161 (159).
 REUTER

Warehouse Club Inc said it expects to
take a one-time charge of about five mln dlrs on its June 30
third quarter results from closing of two unprofitable Chicago
area units.
    The company said it will continue to operate 12 warehouses
in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
    It added that it expects future operating results to be
improved because of the closing of the two warehouses.
 Reuter

Fortune Systems Corp and SCI
Systems Inc said they signed a letter of intent covering the
purchase of Fortune's microcomputer business assets for an
unspecified amount of cash.
    Fortune Systems makes a desktop computer systems.
 Reuter

Residential Mortgage
Investments Inc's Mortgage Acceptance Inc unit said it is
offering a 54.3 mln dlrs collaterized mortgage obligation using
mortgage pass-through certificates evidencing undivided
interests in pools of conventional mortgage loans on
single-family residential properties as collateral.
    It is expected the issue will close on April 28.
 Reuter

the central bank began signing contracts
by which it will provide dollars at a preferential rate for the
payment of 7.8 billion dlrs of foreign debt, under a new plan
announced last december.
    A statement from the bank said twelve companies have
already been called to sign the agreements and the process is
expected to continue in the coming weeks.
    Under the new eight-year repayment plan, private sector
debtors may obtain dollars at the preferential 7.50 bolivar
rate by paying a premium of of 3 bolivars on principal and up
to 1.50 bolivars on interest.
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said that the
credit quality of most U.S. cable television companies is
unlikely to improve in the near term.
    S and P said that after two years and many delays and
disappointments, the cable television industry has firmly
established a net cash generating position.
    However, rather than using their improved position to
decrease the leverage of current capital structures, the
companies' cash flows are being fully leveraged to finance a
wave of consolidations, S and P said.
    Many cable television companies exhibit greater financial
risk because of their asset growth aspirations and
debt-financed consolidation. That delays a lower risk profile
for many of them, Standard and Poor's said.
    The acquisition and financial growth policies of many
company executives heavily influenced the ratings outlook.
    Citing aggressive capital structures, acquisitions and cash
flow coverages of interest expense of between 1.0 and 1.5
times, S and P noted that the companies are more debt intensive
now than in their building phase. These factors keep their
ratings at speculative grades, the agency concluded.
 Reuter

Grain and oilseed complex export
business reported since yesterday by government agencies and
private exporters -
    Japanese crushers bought 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of Canadian
rapeseed in export business overnight for May shipment...Greece
has agreed to buy 27,000 to 33,000 tonnes of Spanish corn for
spot shipment, with Italy buying 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes of
Spanish corn for last/half April shipment, a spokesman for
cargill's spanish unit said...Taiwan bought 54,000 tonnes of
U.S. soybeans for April 20/May 5 delivery C and F...
    (Continued) - The India State Trading Corp bought 20,000
tonnes of optional origin soybean oil for May 20/June 20
shipment and 6,000 tonnes of RBD palm olein for April 25/May 25
shipment at its import tender yesterday...Pakistan rejected
offers at its tender for 12,000 tonnes of RBD palm oil, but is
expected to retender next week...The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) said it has accepted a bid for an export
bonus to cover the sale of 50,000 tonnes of U.S. hard red
winter wehat to Sri Lanka for April 8/16 shipment, with an
additional 10,000 tonnes of wheat still available to Sri Lanka
under the Export Enhancement Program (EEP)...
    (Continued) - The USDA said it has accepted a bid for an
export bonus to cover the sale of 18,000 tonnes of U.S. durum
wheat to Algeria for June 20/30 shipment, with an additional
228,000 tonnes still available to Algeria under the EEP.
    Tenders - Jordan will tender Monday, April 6, for 225,000
tonnes of U.S. hard and soft wheats for various April/Nov
shipments under the EEP.
    Market talk and comment - The USDA said Turkey has been
made eligible for the sale of up to 70,000 tonnes of medium
grain milled rice under the EEP...
    Market talk and comment (continued) - The USDA announced
Colombia has been made eligible for sale of up to 15,000 tonnes
of U.S. barley malt under the EEP...The Canadian Grain
Commission reported Canadian wheat exports in the week ended
March 29 totalled 447,200 tonnes, compared with 277,700 the
previous week, with 1986/87 season exports so far up to
10,228,600 tonnes versus 10,637,500 for the 1985/86 season,
with barley exports 38,800 tonnes, 106,700 tonnes, 4,804,500
and 1,892,600 respectively, rapeseed 43,900 tonnes, 50,700
tonnes, 1,292,600 and 920,000 respectively and flaxseed 20,700
tonnes, 13,600 tonens, 450,900 and 392,600 respectively...
    Market talk and comment (continued) - Pakistan is not
emerging as a major wheat exporter as World market prospects
are not good enough, a government official said...Active
timecharter fixing by Soviet operators to cover USSR grain
imprts featured the ocean freight market this morning, ship
brokers said...Dry cargo futures on the BIFFEX extended
yesterday's strong advance, with sharp gains of 22 to 17 points
in response to rumors of higher rates for grain business from
the U.S. Gulf to Japan, dealers said.
 Reuter

Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc said
it will defer paying a cash dividend for the next 12 months,
due to the economic slump in the Texas economy. It previously
paid a five cents a share dividend in recent quarters.
    It also said its first quarter earnings ended March 31,
which it said it will release later this month, will be similar
to its fourth quarter earnings last year.
    In 1986 the company reported a loss of 6,565,000 dlrs or 91
 Reuter

<Nelson Holdings International Ltd> said
it plans to expand the marketing of its video vending machines,
which have been tested successfully in Toronto.
    The machines, which can contain up to 400 videocassettes,
have been placed in convenience stores and gas stations for the
past nine months.
    Nelson said it now has machines in about 50 locations in
Toronto and will expand its sales effort across Canada this
year.
    The vending machines allow customers to rent a
videocassette, using a credit card, and return the cassette to
the same machine.
 Reuter

A group of New York investors said it
lowered its stake in Rospatch Corp to 170,250 shares, or 7.0
pct of the total outstanding common stock, from 202,108 shares,
or 8.3 pct.
the group said it sold a net 31,858 shares of Rospatch common
stock between February  2 and March 31 at prices ranging from
21.50 to 25.13 dlrs a share.
    The group includes Brookehill Equities Inc, a brokerage
firm, and Moore, Grossman and deRose Inc, an investment
advisor.

 Reuter

Canadian bonds closed slightly lower on
market jitters amplified by rumors that a big holder of
domestic bonds was selling early in the day, dealers said.
    The market had opened 1/4 to 3/8 point stronger on news of
unexpectedly weak U.S. employment data for March, but the
advance sparked profit-taking which forced prices down about
1/4 point on the day. Rumors of a major seller were not
confirmed but some traders felt limited potential for further
Canadian dollar gains might be taking some of the shine off
domestic bonds. The benchmark Canada 9-1/2 pct of 2001 ended at
106-1/4 3/8 and the 8-1/2 pct of 2011 at 97-1/4 1/2.
 Reuter

State-run oil company Ecopetrol said
Colombia's main oil pipeline was bombed again and pumping of
170,000 barrels per day was suspended.
    A spokeswoman for the company said that the early morning
dynamite attack was the 31st in the last nine months on the
Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline, which links Colombia's biggest
oilfied at Cravo Norte to the Caribbean.
    She said about 2,000 barrels of crude were spilled and
could not indicate when pumping would resume. The attack was
near Magangue in northeastern Bolivar province.
    Ecopetrol is exploiting Cravo Norte in association with
Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY> and Shell Petroleum N.V., a
unit of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <ST>.
    Ecopetrol said in a communique that bombings since last
July led to a loss of more than 110,000 barrels of crude, or
the equivalent of 10 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The United States defended its sales
of stockpiled tin in 1986 in reaction to criticism from
Malaysian miners who have said it violated an agreement with
southeast Asian producers.
    "The United States has continued to abide by the spirit of
the memorandum of understanding and has consulted with the
ASEAN states on GSA tin disposals," a State Department spokesman
    "The views of the ASEAN governments have been taken into
account in determining disposal levels," the statement said.
    The United States and the ASEAN countries signed a
memorandum of understanding concerning tin disposals by the
U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in December 1983.
    In its latest annual report, the States of Malaya Chamber
of Mines said the GSA sold 5,490 tonnes of tin in 1986, well
above an agreed upon annual limit of 3,000 tonnes. "The United
States appears to have lost sight of the U.S./ASEAN Memorandum
of Understanding," it said.
    The State Department statement said GSA tin disposals
increased in calendar year 1986 due to changed market
conditions. During the first quarter of calendar year 1987,
they have been running at a lower rate compared to 1986.
    The spokesman declined to say how much stockpiled tin the
GSA sold last year, however.
 Reuter

Loctite Corp said it expects
third quarter earnings to be higher than security analysts'
forecasts of 75 to 80 cts a share.
    Last year the company earned 53 cts per share in the third
quarter.
    It attributed its better than expected forecast to sales
growth, which it said were particularly strong overseas. It
also said it will have a lower effective tax rate.
 Reuter

Time Inc said the acquisition of Scott,
Foresman and Co last year will dilute earnings per share by
about 17 cts a share for the full year in 1987.
    For the first quarter the acquisition will have a negative
impact of about 20 cts per share, chief financial officer
Thayer Bigelow told security analysts.
    He said Scott, Foresman, a textbook publisher, will
contribute more than 50 mln dlrs in operating income before
depreciation and amortization for the full year.
Soctt Foresman will have over 200 mln dlrs in revenue in 1987.
    Bigelow said the textbook business, which normally has its
highest profit in the third quarter and incurs a loss in the
first quarter, will have an "adverse impact of 15 mln dlrs' on
book publishing income for the first quarter.
    "First quarter performance for the rest of Time Inc will be
better than last year," Bigelow said.
    The dilution of 17 cts per share for 1987 includes the
effects of financing the acquisition. Bigelow also said the
company is "comfortable" with estimates that earnings will be
between 3.75 dlrs and 4.25 dlrs per share for the year.
 Reuter

CYACQ Corp said it terminated its
February six tender offer for Cyclops Corp.
    CYACQ was unsuccessfully bid against Dixons Group Plc for
control of Cyclops. As of March 27, Dixons Group Plc had
acquired more than 80 pct the stock under an increased tender
offer.
 Reuter

Leonard Chavin, a Chicago real estate
developer who has said he is considering seeking control of
L.E. Myers Co Group, said he raised his stake in the company to
273,100 shares, or 12.1 pct, from 219,600, or 9.7 pct.
Chavin said he bought 53,500 Myers common shares between March
10 and 31 at prices ranging from 5-1/2 to six dlrs a share.
    Last January, Chavin said he retained investment banker
R.G. Dickinson and Co to advise him on his Myers stock
dealings. He has also said he would be unable to seek control
of Myers unless he gets financing.
 Reuter

today registered 1.4 mln 60 kilo bags of green coffee for May
shipment, an IBC statement said.
    This brings the total in the two days registrations have
been open to 2.05 mln, including 4,868 bags of soluble.
    Today's registrations comprised 1,076,226 bags to members
and 326,259 to non-members of the International Coffee
Organisation. No soluble sales were registered today.
 Reuter

First Quarter
 Anchor Financial Corp shr 31 cts vs 31
 Nine Months
 Biomet Inc shr 49 cts vs 36
 Federal Co shr 3.55 dlrs vs 1.66
 Richardson Electronics shr 59 cts vs 53
 Year
 Eac Industries Inc oper shr loss 65 cts vs
 loss 97 cts
 Fine Art Acquisitions shr 15 cts vs 10
 Mangood Corp oper shr loss 6.07 dlrs vs  loss  7.64
 Reuter

Shr loss 31.09 dlrs vs loss 1.86 dlrs
    Net loss 112.7 mln vs loss 5.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 loss includes operating loss of 109.4 mln dlrs
or 30.21 dlrs a share, including an additional loan loss
provision of 68 mln dlrs, write downs in the value of real
estate of 13 mln dlrs and an extraordinary loss of 3.3 mln dlrs
for early retirement of long-term debt.
 Reuter

Baker International Corp and
Hughes Tool Co said they signed a consent decree with the U.S.
department of justice, resolving the department's objections to
their merger.
    The companies also said the signing cleared the way for
their merger completed today. In the decree, Baker agreed to
sell certain rock bit and electric submersible pump assets to
resolve the Department's complaints.
    The new company will be called Baker Hughes Inc. On monday,
April 6, it will begin trading under the symbol <BHI>, they
said.
 Reuter

Michael Krupp, a Golden, Colo.,
businessman and major shareholder of Kappa Networks Inc, said
he and Kappa's management are considering seeking a merger
between Kappa and Radiation Systems Inc.
Krupp said companies he controls and Kappa acquired a combined
292,000 Radiation System shares, or 5.25 pct of the total.
    Krupp, who has a 24.4 pct stake in Kappa, said he and Kappa
management believe a Kappa-Radiation Systems combination would
be good for both companies. But no decision has been made on
whether or how to proceed with a merger attempt, he added.
 Reuter

Olin Corp's Olin Hunt
Specialty Products Inc said it acquired Image Technology Corp
    Image Technology makes chemicals for the semiconductor
industry.
 Reuter

said it reached an agreement in principle to acquire Central
National Bank of Buckhannon, in W. Virginia.
    Terms call for an exchange of 2.75 shares of Centurion
shares for each share of Central National. The transaction is
valued at 16.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Sturm, Ruger and Co Inc said it
submitted a bid in excess of 60 mln dlrs for Smith and Wesson,
a manufacturer of law enforcement firearms, and a unit of Lear
Siegler.
    Smith and wesson is among a number of companies being sold
by Forstman and Little after its recent acquisition of Lear
Siegler.
 Reuter

Freedom Savings and Loan Association
said it may seek a possible sale or merger of the association
as it reported a net loss of 112.7 mln dlrs or 31.09 dlrs a
share for 1986.
    The loss included a number of charges, including additions
to its loan loss provision of 68 mln dlrs and write-downs on
the value of its real estate of 13 mln dlrs.
    It said it is continuing to work with investment bankers to
find sources of new capital, return its non-performing assets
to earning status, and reduce operating expenses and
 Reuter

The Brazilian state oil company
Petrobras has made a second oil discovery in the Amazon region,
President Jose Sarney said.
    He said the well had an initial flow of 150,000 cubic
meters of gas and 220 barrels of oil per day. It is situated 14
kilometres from the first well to be discovered in the region
last year, which is currently yielding 500,000 cubic meters of
gas and 900 barrels of oil daily.
    The wells, the biggest onshore well in the country, are on
the banks of the river Uruc in the Amazon basin 3,600
kilometres (2,250 miles) north of Brasilia.
 Reuter

(IBC) tonight closed export registrations, exporters said.
    They said they heard of the closure from IBC officials but
no officials could be reached immediately for confirmation.
    Earlier an IBC statement said registrations for May, the
only month which was open, today totalled 1.4 mln bags of 60
kilos to bring the total registered for the month to 2.05 mln.
 Reuter

Arden Group Inc said stockholders
approved the redesignation of its common stock as Class A and
the issuance of a new class B common stock.
    The class B has super-voting rights, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 13 cts
    Net loss 197,779 vs loss 245,190
 Reuter

MONTHLY dist 2.1 cts vs 2.1 cts prior
    Payable April 25
 Reuter

Publishers Equipment Corp said it reached
an agreement to incorporate flexo printing technology into The
Tentonian, an Ingersoll newspaper in Trenton, N.J.
    It said that mid-1988 will be the target date for start-up
for the new equipment which will double the size of its present
press.
 Reuter

Mario Gabelli told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
cut its stake in Gencorp Inc to 1,410,184 shares, or 6.3 pct of
the total, from 1,626,233 shares, or 7.3 pct.
    The Gabelli group said it sold 216,049 Gencorp common
shares between March 20 and 30 at prices ranging from 108.75 to
114.75 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

INternational Telecharge INc said it
Commission for a public offering of one mln shares of common
stock.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury market ended sharply
higher, reassured by news that the Federal Open Market
Committee voted in February to maintain the then-existing
degree of restraint on bank reserves, dealers said.
    News of a weaker-than-expected March employment report and
a minor bounce back in the dollar prompted short-covering that
pushed coupon issues higher, while an easing in the Federal
funds rate below six pct helped short-dated issues.
    The key 7-1/2 pct 30-year Treasury bond price finished 3/4
higher at 95-27/32, pushing the yield down to 7.86 pct from
7.93 pct yesterday.
    Danuta Zielonka of Wertheim Schroder Co Inc said that
recent slowing in the growth of the monetary aggregates is a
another factor arguing against firmer Fed policy.
    "Money growth has been slowing perceptibly in March which
should give them more room to not tighten," she said. "Both M2
and M3 are will be at the low end of their target ranges in
March."
    "The FOMC minutes are neutral for the bond market,"
Zielonka said. "Dollar considerations will prevent them from
easing anytime soon, but they can't tighten with the economy
weak and the banks having to deal with Brazil."
    Doubts on the economy's strength were underscored not only
by a smaller-than-expected 164,000 gain in March non-farm
payrolls, but also by a downward revision in February's gain to
236,000 from a previously reported 337,000.
    The market's initial reaction to the data was restrained by
fears the employment news would undermine the dollar, but when
the dollar maintained a firm tone, the bond market extended its
gains.
    Profit-taking pulled bond prices down from the day's highs,
but a record close in the U.S. stock market stimulated buying
late in the day that offset this somewhat.
    Still, coupon issues were unable to recover completely from
this week's steep losses as trade tensions between the U.S. and
Japan pressured the dollar and discouraged Japanese investors
from buying U.S. Treasury bonds.
    The current 7-1/2 pct Treasury bond traded down to 94-11/32
in Tokyo this week, pushing the yield to 7.98 pct. This capped
the U.S. 1987 high yield on the 30-year bond of 7.93 pct, seen
    Treasury bills advanced on the week. The six-month bills
rose one basis point, but three-month bills fell 17 basis
points and the year bill fell two basis points.
    Dealers said that the sharp drop in three-month bills
resulted in part from recent outright bill purchases for a
customer, believed to be related to heavy intervention by
foreign central banks to support the dollar.
    A drop in the Fed funds rate to 5-15/16 today underpinned a
decline in bill rates. It traded at this level throughout the
session, down from yesterday's 6.14 pct average.
    Three-month bills closed two basis points lower at 5.48 pct
bid. Six- and 12-month bills both dropped nine basis points to
respective bids of 5.70 pct and 5.75 pct.
 Reuter

Kenner Parker Toys Inc's Parker
Brothers said it obtained injunctions in two trademark
infringement cases.
    One action was brought against Kits Games, which planned to
market a game called Worldopoly, which was very similar to
Kenner's Monopoly.
    The second case was brought against Citigames of America
Inc which marketed a game called Hometown Monopoly.
 Reuter

Mario Gabelli, head of New York
investment firm Mario Gabelli and Co, said he sold some shares
of GenCorp Inc <GY> as part of a "portfolio rebalancing"
process to meet the needs of his more than 600 clients.
    He said as the stock moved up following acquisition
proposals from a group formed by AFG Industries Inc <AFG> and
Wagner and Brown, some of his clients were overweighted.
    Regarding the company's shareholders meeting Tuesday,
Gabelli told Reuters, "there was nothing said that caused me to
sell or buy." He still thinks "values are 140 dlrs per share or
more" and has clients that asked to buy more.
    Gabelli said he amended certain filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission because his clients are now passive
investors. "We wanted to remove our clients from the process
unfolding between GenCorp and Wagner and Brown," he said.
    He said he was pleased that chairman A. William Reynolds
stated at the meeting that he found the concept of greenmail to
be "repugnant." Greenmail refers to a corporation buying out a
shareholder at a premium not available to others.
 Reuter

Poul Erik Moller, a Santa Monica,
Calif., investor said he raised his stake in First Western
Financial Corp to 412,000 shares, or 6.5 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 347,000 shares, or 5.5 pct.
Moller said he bought 65,000 First Western common shares
between Jan 20 and March 26 at prices ranging from 10.000 to
10.625 dlrs a share.
    Moller said he bought the stock as a long-term investment
and may buy more, but has no plans to seek control of the
company.
 Reuter

between January 20 and March 26 at prices ranging from 10.000
to 10.625 dlrs a share.
company.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved a 90
mln dlr loan to Yugoslavia's third largest bank to support a
project promoting energy conservation and substituting
lower-cost energy sources for present sources.
    It said the loan consists of a credit line to Ljubljanska
Banka, Ljubljana (LBL), to finance a project expected to
improve industrial competitiveness and reduce energy imports,
easing the country's current balance-of-payments difficulties.
    The loan will also support development of technical
capabilities for energy audit work and strengthen the financial
and institutional capability of LBL, the Bank said.
    The Bank said the project will benefit small and
medium-sized industries, primarily in Yugoslavia's Republic of
Slovenia.
    It said 600,000 dlrs of the loan will cover the foreign
exchange costs of consultancy services, equipment and training
abroad for technical and financial personnel.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 30 cts vs profit eight cts
    Oper net loss 5,887,996 vs profit 1,620,312
    Revs 32.4 mln vs 48.5 mln
    Note: 1987 net excludes extraordinary gain of 2.7 mln dlrs
or 14 cts shr from settlement of provision for discontinued
operations vs yr-ago tax gain of 562,248 dlrs or three cts shr.
 Reuter

Capital Blue Cross and Pennsylvania
Blue Shield said they will pay for diagnostic testing for their
subscribers who may be infected with the AIDS virus because
they received blood transfusions before 1985.
    The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a coordinating body
for the insurer's plans, said it had no nationwide policy
towards AIDS testing for transfusion recipients concerned they
were infected with the AIDS virus.
    An association spokesperson said routine screening for AIDS
was not covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Blue Cross and Blue
Shield cover about 75 mln people nationwide.
   
 Reuter

Sales of U.S.-built new cars surged
during the last 10 days of March to the second highest levels
of 1987, indicating that car buying may have fully rebounded
from its January slump.
    Sales of imports, meanwhile, fell for the first time in
years, succumbing to price hikes by foreign carmakers.
    For the ten-day March 21-31 period, domestic automakers
sold 282,358 new cars, up 19.3 pct from late March 1986, giving
the industry an annualized sales rate of 8.1 mln cars. That
rate a year ago was 6.9 mln cars.
    "The last 10 days of March was the second strongest 10-day
period we've had this year," said David Healy at Drexel Burnham
Lambert.
    "We've had a slow recovery since January, and these latest
figures build on that. This lends some encouragement to the
idea that we're looking at a pretty strong year," he said.
    In early February sales were up briefly to 8.3 mln units on
an annual basis, before dropping again.
    Car buyers had rushed to dealer showrooms in December to
take advantage of expiring tax deductions, taking away from
normal January selling.
    But a slowly expanding economy, an exploding stock market
and a growing array of incentives have lured customers to
dealers' showrooms, analysts said.
   Ford Motor Co <F> sales jumped 29.5 pct in the period to
79,249 cars from 61,169 a year ago. For the month, the nation's
second largest carmaker said sales increased 17.8 pct to
197,328 compared to 167,490.
    Chrysler Corp <C> reported a 20.2 pct sales jump to 40,454
compared with 33,669. In all of March it sold 96,649, up 6.3
pct from 90,945.
    Industry giant General Motors's sales rose a more modest
6.2 pct for late March to 140,522 verses 132,298 last year. But
sales for the full month dropped 5.6 pct to 349,578 from
370,390.
    Also helping the U.S.-based industry, analysts said, is the
slackening demand for imports, which suffered the first sales
decline in memory.
    "Imports will need more and more sales incentives, a
phenomenon unheard of two years ago," said Scott Merlis at
Morgan Stanley. "Import prices have risen 17 pct on average, so
they've become more sensitive to weaker demand in general."
    General Motors market share for the period fell to 48.2
pct, below the 51 pct for the first three months of the year
and far below the 56 pct of most of last year.
    Ford's market share was 28.1 pct, up from 27.7 pct for the
first three months, while Chrysler's share was 14.3 pct, a rise
from 13.7 pct since the start of the year.
    Falling market share at General Motors apparently prompted
the company to decide this week to close six plants for a week
to bring supply into line with demand.
    But Ronald Glantz at Montgomery Securities said further
production cuts might be necessary.
    "While GM has just taken 100,00 units out of second quarter
production already because of weak sales, the continuation of
this weakening market share suggests another production cutback
is likely," Glantz said.
    Other carmakers with U.S plants posted these results during
the March 21 to 31 period -- American Motors Corp <AMC> 1,198,
down 50 pct, Volkswagen 2,145, down from 3,342, American Honda
16,635, up from 6,358, and Nissan 4,635, up from 2,536.
 Reuter

Slovenia.
 Reuter

    Uno Restaurant Corp - Initial public offering of one mln
shares of common stock, including 250,000 by current holders,
at an estimated eight to nine dlrs each, through A.G. Edwards
    Federal Express Corp <FDX> - Offering of 200 mln dlrs of
senior debentures due 2017 through Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - PRAXIS &lt;PRAX&gt; AIDS DRUG
    In New York item titled PRAXIS &lt;PRAX&gt; AIDS DRUG TO GO INTO
WIDER TESTS please read April 3 as date. Also, please read in
third paragraph...Lippa said the firm has about one mln dlrs
left from its public offering in January 1985...correcting
amount.
    Also please read in first paragraph of PRAXIS &lt;PRAX&gt; =2 NEW
YORK ... the Beverly-Hills, Calif.-based company is considering
a private offering ... to help finance the cost of the
trials...corrects to read that company considering private
offering from preparing a private offering.
 Reuter

of 1987, indicating car buying may have fully rebounded from
its January slump.
Lambert.
 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp said that an
earlier announced shareholder class action suit was totally
without merit and that it would vigorously defend it.
    Earlier, an attorney for shareholder John Paul Decker said
he filed suit due to the precipitous decline in Mellon's stock
since reporting on Thursday that it would be posting a first
quarter loss of 55-65 mln dlrs.
    Mellon's stock fell 3-5/8 to 40-3/4 today after plunging
6-1/4 yesterday. The shareholder's attorney said he charges
that Mellon failed to disclose its true financial condition
between February 1, 1985 and April 2, 1987.
 Reuter

Houston Lighting and Power Co, a unit
of Houston Industries Inc, said it will redeem on May 4 at par
plus accrued interest about 140 mln dlrs of first mortgage
bonds.
    The utility expects the redemption will save it nearly
three mln dlrs annually in interest expenses. Houston Lighting
recently exchanged 390 mln dlrs of high coupon bonds for nine
pct bonds, saving about 11 mln dlrs in annual interest costs.
    Houston Lighting plans to buy back its outstanding 11-1/4
pct bonds of 2009, 12s due 2010, 12-3/8s of 2013 and 11-5/8s
due 2015 and part of its 10-1/8s of 2004.
 Reuter

Cash distribution 13.3 cts vs 8.4 cts prior
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
 Reuter

its condition has "significantly deteriorated" and that its
operating cash reserves will be inadequate by May 1987 unless
it receives additional financing or rate relief from state
public utilities commissions in Texas and Louisiana.
    In the company's newly-released annual report and 10-K
filing, Gulf States said its bank lenders had notified the
utility last month that no additional credit would be granted.
Gulf States said the banks had requested the utility to begin
making prepayments by the end of April of 45 mln dlrs more than
the estimated 1987 lease payments of 40 mln dlrs.
    "The circumstances increase the likelihood that the company
may have to seek protection from its creditors under the
bankruptcy code," Gulf States said.
    The utility had previously said it might be forced to
consider filing for bankruptcy because of limited rate
increases granted by state regulators in connection with Gulf
States' 4.3 billion dlr River Bend nuclear plant in Louisiana.
    "If the regulatory commissions approve the company's
proposed rate moderation plan and grant the increases provided
for in such plan during the initial three-year phase-in period,
the company believes it could achieve financial stability,"
Gulf States said.
    In February, the Texas Public Utilities Commission granted
Gulf States an interim rate increase of 39.9 mln dlrs
contingent upon the utility obtaining a new 250 mln dlr line of
credit to pay operating expenses. The utility had sought 144.1
mln dlrs in rate hikes in Texas.
    Gulf States has appealed a decision by Louisiana state
regulators rejecting its application for 100 mln dlrs in
emergency rate relief.
    In 1986, Gulf States earned 244.9 mln dlrs on revenues of
1.47 billion dlrs, compared to profits of 265.4 mln dlrs on
sales of 1.85 billion in the previous year.
 Reuter

Hudson Foods Inc said April 13 has
been set as the record date for eligibility of stockholders and
debentureholders to participate in its previously announced
stock and debt exchange offers.
  
 Reuter

ST Systems Corp said it was awarded
a two-year contract with three one-year options valued at
nearly 30 mln dlrs to provide support services for atmospheric
science research at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's Langley Research Center.
    The company said it has supported Langley's atmospheric
science research program for 12 years and will integrate its
past work into the new contract.
 Reuter

<Boddie-Noell Restaurant
Properties Inc> said it filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission covering its initial public
offering of 3,100,000 shares of common stock.
    The company said it plans to qualify as a real estate
investment trust and buy 53 existing Hardee's restaurant
properties located in Virginia and North Carolina.
 Reuter

HK SHANGHAI BANK, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK RAISE PRIME ONE-HALF POINT TO 6.5 PCT.

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp and
Standard Chartered Bank raised their prime rate one-half point
to 6.5 pct, effective Tuesday, the Association of Banks said.
    The association said in a statement deposit rates have also
been increased by 1/4 to 1/2 percentage point.
    The banks last announced an adjustment on February 28 when
they raised the prime rate by one point to six pct.
    The deposit interest rates are now savings and 24 hours two
pct, seven-day call, one week and two weeks 2-1/4 pct, one
month and two months 2-3/4 pct, three and six months 3-1/4 pct,
nine months 3-1/2 pct and 12 months four pct.
 REUTER

South Korea's wholesale price index, base
1980, rose 0.2 pct to 125.1 in March after a 0.2 pct rise in
February but was 0.6 pct lower than its March 1986 level, the
Bank of Korea said.
    The March consumer price index, same base, rose 0.5 pct to
146.0 after a 0.1 pct gain in February, for a year-on-year rise
of 1.7 pct.
 REUTER

The Tahoe Savings and Loan
Association of South Lake, Tahoe, Cal., Was placed in
receivership yesterday because it was "insolvent, unsafe and
unsound," the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) said.
    Its 84.4 mln dlrs of assets -- as well as its deposits and
liabilities -- were transferred to a newly chartered federal
mutual association, Tahoe Savings and Loan, the FHLBB said.
    A management contract to operate it was awarded to First
Federal Savings of Nebraska, it added.
 REUTER

President Alan Garcia said he sought to
deepen Peru's hard-line foreign debt stance, possibly by
limiting repayments to the World Bank.
    In a televised address tonight, he criticised the World
Bank for making Peru make larger debt payments than the amount
the bank is willing to make in new loans. "We will deepen our
policy on the foreign debt," he said.
    Peru has limited foreign debt repayments to 10 pct of
export earnings, effectively suspending most remittances due
foreign private banks and many governments. It has generally
been current for most of Garcia's 20 months in office on
payments to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development
Bank.
    But tonight Garcia said: "We have met our aim of limiting
the payment of the debt and will limit it also even though
organisations like the World Bank have credits which oblige us
to buy a certain type of machinery and to build certain types
of public works and not others, and to pay much more in dollars
than that which they are willing to newly lend us."
    The Economy Ministry said last year it owed the World Bank
about 520 mln dlrs in loans out of the country's 14 billion dlr
debt.
    Garcia said his government had been a model for Latin
America because Peru had enjoyed growth in gross domestic
product (GDP) last year of nine pct while taking its hard line
on debt. He said GDP would grow by at least six pct this year.
    He announced an immediate 40 pct rise in the minimum wage
to 1,260 intis per month, benefiting the 1.3 mln minimum-wage
workers out of a total labour force of 6.7 mln.
    Salaries will go up this month by 30 pct for civil servants
and 27 pct for those workers earning above the minimum wage but
not covered by collective bargaining agreements.
    He also said the price of petrol, frozen since August 1,
1985, would increase by 20 pct from the current 17.5 intis per
U.S. Gallon and remain at the new level for the rest of the
year. He did not say when this increase would be effective.
    Taxes on petrol are the government's leading revenue
earner, traditionally accounting for about one-third of taxes.
Sales taxes on autos, liquour and cigarettes would also go up,
he said, without specifying the amount.
    Garcia announced the government would encourage Peruvians
to repatriate their savings deposited abroad by paying a 15 pct
premium above the market exchange rate.
    The inti's official buy-sell rate against the dollar is
14.85/92 and the free rate is about 21.70/80.
    To encourage private investment, he said the government
would set up a special fund with which it would match every two
intis of private investment with one inti from the government.
    He also said his dismissal of Peruvian Air Force Commander
Lieutenant General Luis Abram Cavarellino yesterday
strengthened the democratic authority of his government.
 REUTER

South Korea ordered the takeover of six
financially troubled overseas construction firms and two
shipping companies under the government's industrial
realignment programme, Finance Ministry officials said.
    They said the Industrial Policy Deliberation Committee
decided to allow concessionary loans to three firms taking over
the eight. The companies involved would be exempted from
corporate tax and property transfer and registration taxes.
    Under the programme, five subsidaries of <Chung Woo
Development Co Ltd> will be taken over by <Byuck San Corp>,
<Korea Develpoment Corp> by <Daelim Industrial Co Ltd>, and two
subsidaries of <Korea Shipping Corp> by the <Hanjin Group>.
    Another five construction companies were ordered to improve
their financial status by reorganising their subsidiaries or
selling off unproductive real estate holdings to help repay
bank loans, the officials said.
    These are <Pacific Construction Co Ltd>, <Life Construction
Co Ltd>, <Chin Heung International Co Ltd>, <Samick Co Ltd> and
<Hanshin Construction Co Ltd>.
    A further five shipping companies -- <Hanjin Container Line
Ltd>, <Choyang Shipping Co Ltd>, <Hyundai Merchant Marine Co
Ltd>, <Pan Ocean Shipping Co> and <Dooyang Line Co Ltd> -- will
be allowed to defer the repayment of bank loans and interest,
but details have yet to be finalised, the officials said.
    They said the government would take similar measures for
more companies in August in line with the continuing
realignment policy, which had already affected 56 firms last
year.
 REUTER

Oil output in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) dropped ten pct in March from February to an average 1.05
mln barrels per day (bpd), mainly because of customer
resistance to fixed prices of Abu Dhabi oil, industry sources
said.
    The UAE quota assigned by the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) is 902,000 bpd. Traders could buy
Abu Dhabi's Umm Shaif crude on the spot market for 17.50 dlrs a
barrel yesterday, against the official OPEC price of 17.72
dlrs.
    The sources said output by Abu Dhabi, the largest UAE
producer, fell to around 700,000 bpd from a range of
800,000-820,000 bpd during the preceding four months.
    Dubai production slipped to an average 350,000 bpd from
around 370,000 in February after the emirate declared a
mid-February output cut to help boost world oil prices, the
    Most of the Abu Dhabi drop came from the offshore Umm Shaif
and Upper and Lower Zakum fields as customers found fixed
prices too high and cut liftings, the sources said.
    The onshore Murban grade was less affected because Japanese
term buyers saw strategic benefit in maintaining liftings, they
added. The Japanese firms lift around 120,000 bpd, most of it
Murban.
    Abu Dhabi considers output from Upper Zakum, which came on
stream in 1983, to be test production not included in
calculations for complying with the OPEC quota.
    Without Upper Zakum, the UAE would be producing roughly its
quota in March, the sources added.
 REUTER

The southwest Chinese region of Guangxi
increased its production of sugarcane by 26.8 pct to 9.4 mln
tonnes in the 1986-87 crushing season (November to March) from
the previous year, the New China News Agency said.
    The cane, grown on 206,000 hectares, yielded 1.04 mln
tonnes of refined sugar, it said without giving comparative
figures.
    China's sugar output in calendar 1986 rose to 5.24 mln
tonnes from 4.45 mln in calendar 1985, official figures show.
An official newspaper said in January that output in the
1986/87 crushing season would be only 4.82 mln tonnes because
of a drop in acreage due to low profits on growing cane and
beet.
 REUTER

Production in the manufactured goods
industry has been falling since mid-1986 and will decline by
between one and two pct this year after a 2.5 pct increase in
1986, the Ifo economic institute said.
    An Ifo report said recessionary influences were affecting
the engineering industry particularly. It saw a decline of two
to three pct in this sector after a 5.2 pct rise in 1986.
    Orders, especially from abroad, were also falling sharply
for capital goods in the electronics sector, it added.
    Ifo also predicted stagnation in the automobile industry in
1987 after a particularly successful 1986 when production rose
5.1 pct.
    Chemical industry production, which fell by 0.9 pct last
year, was likely to stagnate or decline by one pct in 1987.
This sector suffered from slack demand from abroad and from low
domestic consumption.
 REUTER

The Central Bank has approved the
conversion of 80.7 mln dlrs worth of Philippine debt into
equity in local projects under a debt-to-equity swap program
started last August, Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin said.
    He told reporters the amount represented 57 transactions
involving diversified investments. He said 90 applications to
convert 316.7 mln dlrs of debt have so far been received by the
Central Bank.
    Ongpin also said the International Finance Corp (IFC), a
World Bank affiliate, would invest up to 12.5 mln dlrs in the
First Philippine Capital Fund.
    The fund, to be launched jointly by New York investment
house Shearson Lehman Brothers and IFC, was proposed by Ongpin
during a trip to the United States in September.
    There was still no word on when the fund, designed to
encourage private sector investment in the Philippines, would
be launched.
    A telex from IFC to Ongpin said the IFC investment will
consist of exchanging up to 12.5 mln dlrs face value of
Philippine debt it holds.
    The capital fund and the Central Bank's debt conversion
plan are both aimed at reducing the country's debt burden by
enabling interested investors to buy government notes at a
discount, repatriate these and convert them at full value in
pesos.
    The proceeds will then be used to investing in local
projects.
    The country's foreign debt now stands at 27.8 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

The Plessey Co Plc announced it had won a
100 mln dlr digital telephone exchange order in the United
States, which it said was the first major U.S. Telephone
exchange order not to go to established U.S. Suppliers.
    <South Central Bell Telephone Co>, a unit of Bellsouth Corp
<BLS.N>, placed the order with Plessey's U.S. Subsidiary
<Stromberg-Carlson>.
    Most of the equipment for the 100 exchanges will be built
in Stromberg-Carlson's Florida plant over the next three years.
    "It is the most important thing that has happened in the
Plessey telecommunications business," said Plessey
Telecommunications Managing Director David Dey.
    The British firm failed to win a four billion dlr deal to
supply an advanced communications system to the U.S. Army in
November 1985 despite personal lobbying by Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. A rival French system won the contract.
 REUTER

Philippine officials will meet major aid
donors in May to discuss a 500 mln dlr funding for an extensive
land reform program, Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin said.
    He told a news conference he had planned to sit down with a
consultative group of major donors led by the World Bank late
this month in Tokyo but said the documentation of the project
would not be ready until the end of this month.
    "The World Bank has recommended that we meet some time in
the second half of May because it is pointless to have that
meeting unless the participants have had adequate time to
review the documentation," he said.
    Government officials said the progam, estimated to cost 36
billion pesos, aims to distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land,
including some 50,000 hectares seized from former associates of
deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
    The new plan will include not only rice and corn land but
also sugar and coconut plantations. It is expected to benefit
about three mln impoverished peasants.
    Ongpin said earlier there was strong interest in the
program from donors but said given the substantial financial
requirements of the plan, the government could not rely on only
one source but on a combination of sources.
    President Corazon Aquino approved last month the use of an
estimated 20 billion pesos from the proceeds of the sale of
certain non-performing assets to private companies.
    Ongpin said he has asked Aquino to consider two other
sources, namely the proceeds from the sale of government
corporations which are to be privatised and proceeds from the
liquidation of seized Marcos-related assets.
    He also said he would recommend public hearings before such
a big project was legislated.
    "If we get a good reception in the public hearings, perhaps
then the President might feel persuaded that it is not
necessary to wait for the Congress," he said.
    Aquino had said she would prefer that legislation for the
program be approved by a two-house Congress, whose members will
be elected on May 11.
    But her advisers are trying to persuade her to implement
the program before the Congress convenes in July.
 REUTER

(IBC) confirmed having closed May export registrations,
effective April 6.
    On Friday night exporters said they had heard of the
closure from IBC officials, but the officials could not at the
time be reached for confirmation.
 REUTER

Exchequer Nigel Lawson said the next U.K. Election was not the
only element standing in the way of full British membership of
the European Monetary System (EMS).
    But he added that arguments against joining had weakened.
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, widely believed to be the
strongest government opponent of full EMS membership, has made
clear she does not expect to consider joining until after the
next UK election, due by mid-1988 at the latest.
    But Lawson, in answer to a question, told reporters after
an informal European Community finance ministers' meeting here
that other factors apart from the upcoming election stood in
the way of full membership.
    In addition to the question of the exchange rates at which
Britain should enter the EMS's core exchange rate mechanism,
there was also the impact of sterling membership on the system
to be considered, he said.
    British entry would change the EMS from a monopolar system
based on the West German mark to a bipolar mark-sterling
system, he noted. "We have to make sure it would work."
    But Lawson added that some of the considerations that had
made it difficult for Britain to join in the past now posed
less of a problem.
    As an example he cited sterling's role as a petrocurrency,
which he said was diminishing. "That argument has clearly
weakened," he said.
    Lawson restated that the government was keeping the
question of membership under review.
 REUTER

European Community (EC)
finance ministers and central bankers agreed on the need for
greater cooperation to strengthen the European Monetary System
(EMS) against international market turbulence, officials said.
    "There was a general will to reinforce the European Monetary
System, with all that implies," Belgian Finance Minister Mark
Eyskens said yesterday after hosting a one-day session of
informal talks at this Belgian coastal resort.
    The gathering was the first such discussion since the
second major realignment of EMS parities within nine months in
January.
    The system has come under severe strain as funds have
flowed out of the slumping dollar and into the dominant EMS
currency, the West German mark, sending it soaring against
weaker currencies in the system.
    But Eyskens said February's agreement between leading
western industrialised nations to stabilise exchange rates at
around current levels was working and this would allow the EC
to speed up its efforts to boost the internal stability of the
EMS.
    He told a news conference yesterday's meeting agreed on the
need for closer coordination among EMS member governments of
interest rate policies and of interest rate differentials
between different countries.
    They also agreed they needed better coordination of
exchange market intervention to hold currencies stable, both
when they reached their fixed EMS limits and within their
agreed margins.
    But Eyskens said this coordination raised a whole range of
technical problems and ministers would discuss these further in
Luxembourg in June on the basis of proposals from the EC's
Monetary Committee and Committee of Central Bank Governors.
    He said the EC needed a set of indicators of economic
convergence betwen Community countries and it was important
that interest rates fulfilled this role together with exchange
rates and inflation rates.
    The Belgian minister, whose country presently holds the
presidency of the community, made clear the meeting had not
produced any agreement to move radically forward in developing
the EMS towards the EC's long term goal of economic and
monetary integration.
    "We have committed ourselves to reestablishing the normal
functioning of the system," Eyskens said.
    Eyskens has repeatedly stressed that he believes the EMS
has to be reinforced if the EC's plans to liberalise all
movements of capital across national borders by 1992 are to go
ahead.
    EC executive Commission President Jacques Delors told the
meeting the authority would put forward proposals for a final
phase of capital market liberalisation in October that would
include safeguard clauses for member countries for which the
move would create difficulties.
    Eyskens said the ministers and central bankers also
discussed the need to "dedramatise" realignments of EMS parities
by letting high-ranking monetary officials carry them out by
telephone rather than calling a meeting of finance ministers.
    However, West German sources said Bonn Finance Minister
Gerhard Stoltenberg was unenthusiastic about the idea.
    British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson told
journalists that one of the technical issues raised by greater
coordination of exchange market intervention was the question
of which currencies should be used to intervene and held in
central bank reserves.
    He said several EMS member countries believed the EMS would
work better if central banks held each other's currencies -- an
issue of particular importance regarding West Germany since the
Bundesbank holds only dollars in its foreign exchange reserves.
    He said the debate on dedramatising EMS realignments
reflected a general feeling among participants that the way the
January reshuffle had been conducted was unsatisfactory.
   The realignment was marked by acrimony between France and
West Germany, with each side blaming the other for strains in
the system that forced the parity overhaul.
 REUTER

The Zambian currency further depreciated
yesterday at the second auction since the introduction of a
two-tier foreign exchange system last month.
    The (central) Bank of Zambia said the kwacha was pegged at
16.99 to the dollar, compared to last week"s rate of 15 to the
dollar.
    The bank, which offered six mln dlrs at the auction,
reported demand for 13.4 mln dlrs. At the previous auction, the
government offered eight mln dlrs.
    Last month the government set a fixed exchange rate of nine
kwacha per dollar, subject to adjustment against a basket of
five currencies, for certain official transactions.
    It also introduced a new weekly foreign exchange auction
only for parastatal organisations and the private sector, where
the exchange rate is allowed to float in accordance with market
demand.
    The new auction system is designed to be more restrictive
than the previous one, suspended in January after the central
bank fell 10 weeks in arrears to successful bidders.
    Under the new system, no bidder, except the the state oil
company Zimoil and the national airline Zambia Airways, is
allowed to bid for more than five pct of the foreign exchange
on offer.
 REUTER

The White House denied a report that
the United States was continuing to ship arms or
weapons-related equipment to Iran, but an administration
official said there had been non-weapons sales to Tehran
through commercial channels.
    "To the best of our knowledge, there have been no illegal
sales from the forbidden munitions list," a White House
    The Defence Department also denied any military supplies
had been sent to Iran since an administration ban late last
year.
    NBC television, quoting U.S. And foreign intelligence
sources, reported that the United States had been shipping
weapons-related equipment to Iran as recently as last month.
    The administration official, who asked not to be named,
told Reuters there had been commercial sales of products
licensed by the Commerce Department, which maintains a list of
products that can be exported without hurting national
security.
    President Reagan banned arms shipments to Tehran after the
Iran arms scandal broke last November.
    In January Secretary of State George Shultz told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee there would be "no more transfers of
U.S.-origin military equipment to Iran, either directly or
through third parties."
    The NBC report said the Pentagon was coordinating shipments
of anti-aircraft command and control equipment used to direct
fire of weapons systems.
    It said some shipments labelled "machine parts" had moved
through Ostend, Belgium,on aircraft of the Santa Lucia Airways,
which it identified as operated by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA refused to comment.
    NBC said the equipment was flown to Pakistan and then on to
Iran by Pakistani civilian and military aircraft.
    Later, State Department spokeswoman Sondra McCarty said: "We
categorically deny that the United States is selling and/or
sending any weapons to Iran." She added that Washington was "not
doing anything in connection with the government of Iran which
is not consistent with U.S. Laws or trade policy."
    Another administration official, who asked not to be
identified, told Reuters the United States had licensed
commercial sales of low-technology computer equipment to Iran,
amounting to about 60 mln dlrs over the last three years.
 REUTER

Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger has
ordered the U.S. Navy to increase its presence near the Gulf in
an effort to fulfil President Reagan's pledge to keep oil
flowing to Europe and Japan, The New York Times reported.
    The newspaper quoted Pentagon officials as saying the Navy
would keep the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on station in the
Arabian Sea and the rest of the Indian Ocean until May, three
months longer than planned.
    The Navy would then have a carrier battle group of six to
eight warships in the area at all times rather than part of the
time, as happens now, the paper said.
    The paper said that last month U.S. Intelligence sources
said they had spotted land-based anti-ship missiles of a
Chinese design known in the West as the HY-2 near the Strait of
Hormuz.
    It said their purpose was seen as a signal Iran was ready
to continue and perhaps step up the Gulf shipping war against
Iraq.
    U.S. Carriers or battleships would sail out of range of
those missiles, but within striking distance, the paper quoted
officials as saying.
    From several hundred miles at sea, carriers could launch
aircraft bombing runs or missile strikes, and battleships could
fire long-range missiles, the paper said.
 REUTER

Twenty-seven people were killed and 18
injured when an Indonesian airliner flew into electricity lines
and tumbled to the ground in an explosive ball of fire, airport
    The Garuda Indonesia Airways DC-9 crashed yesterday on a
domestic flight while carrying 37 passengers and eight crew
members, an airline spokesman said.
    The plane, made by McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD.N>, cost 18
mln dlrs and was one of 19 DC-9s in Garuda's fleet of 74 jets.
 REUTER

A Japanese government investigation team
believes that faulty repairs by Boeing Co caused the worst
single plane crash in history, one of the team said.
    Boeing Co is the manufacturer of the Japan Air Lines 747
jumbo jet which crashed into a mountain in Japan on August 12,
1985, killing 520 people. There were only four survivors.
    A Boeing spokesman, contacted by telephone at the firm's
headquarters in Seattle, Washington, told Reuters the firm
would probably have no comment to make until the Japanese
investigation team's report was officially released.
    The team investigator, a Japanese Transport Ministry
official who declined to be identified, said a failure by
Japanese aircraft inspectors to check the repair work done on
the plane by a Boeing team had provoked an internal debate in
the Ministry over inspection procedures.
    The Ministry official told Reuters that a report by his
team, which has already been sent in draft form to the U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board for comment, should be
released in late May. Under an international convention, the
draft must be submitted for final comments to the pertinent
    Asked on Thursday about Boeing's role in the crash, a
Ministry spokesman declined comment.
    On September 6, 1985, Boeing issued an official statement
saying that repairs it had undertaken on the doomed Japan Air
Lines plane in 1978 were faulty.
    However, no official, direct connection was then made
between the faulty repairs and the crash.
    The Japanese investigation team says in its draft report
that it believes those faulty repairs were the cause of the
1985 accident, the investigator said.
    The Boeing statement after the crash said: "Examination of
the wreckage, the flight data recorder readout, the cockpit
voice recorder, and interviews with the surviving off-duty
flight attendant indicate that decompression occurred in flight
due to a rupture of the aft pressure bulkhead.
    "The Boeing examination of the bulkhead at the site of the
crash has revealed that a relatively small section of the
bulkhead splice, approximately 17 per cent, was not correctly
assembled during repairs which Boeing made after a 1978 landing
accident," the statement said.
    The repairs were required after a 1978 landing accident at
Osaka airport, in western Japan, in which the plane's tail
scraped the runway.
    The Japanese report also mentions the government inspectors
who in 1978 signed a certificate of airworthiness approving the
repairs, he said.
    Police had investigated four inspectors, including one man
who two weeks ago killed himself by drinking insecticide after
four days of police questioning.
    "None of the four had looked at Boeing's repair work," the
investigator said.
 REUTER

A consortium headed by the construction
group Bouygues SA has been awarded a 50-pct controlling stake
in French state television network TF1, which stock market
analysts said represented a major boost for Bouygues.
    The Bouygues-led consortium was widely regarded as the less
likely of the two candidates in contention to be awarded the
three billion franc stake by the National Commission for
Communications and Liberties (NCCL), the French television
watchdog authority.
    The losing candidate was a consortium headed by publishing
group Hachette SA <HACP.PA>.
    The NCCL decision awarded the Bouygues consortium a 50-pct
controlling stake in a company which will have a 10-year
operating concession for TF1, France's oldest and most widely
watched television network.
    Independent market analysis group C.O.P.S. In a note on
Bouygues said the award would represent a major diversification
for the group out of the highly cyclical construction industry
into the rapidly expanding media business.
    Bouygues in February said it estimated 1986 group net
attributable profit at 480 mln francs, up from 443 mln for
1985, on consolidated turnover of 45.8 billion francs, up from
26.3 billion.
    The sharp rise in turnover reflected the groups acquisition
of the loss-making SCREG construction group last year.
    Bouygues closed on the Paris stock market at 1,451 francs
on Friday, up from 1,405 the previous day, but well below its
year's high of 1,475.
    Hachette closed at 3,280, up from a previous 3,250.
    Bouygues holds a 50-pct stake in the winning consortium,
giving it a 25-pct stake in TF1.
    The U.K.-based <Pergamon Media Trust> of Robert Maxwell has
a 20-pct stake in the consortium, representing a 10 pct stake
in TF1, while <Maxwell Media France> has a six pct stake, or
three pct of the television network.
    Minority shareholders in the consortium include the
<GMF/FNAC> group, Societe Generale <SGEN.PA>, <Editions
Mondiale>, the <Groupe Bernard Tapie>, <Financiere Faltas>,
<Banque Indosuez> and Credit Lyonnais <CRLP.PA>.
    The remaining 50 pct of TF1 is to be split between a 40-pct
stake to be offered to the general public and a 10-pct stake to
be offered to employees.
 REUTER

Algerian and Spanish producers which
together meet 40 pct of the Western market's needs in
quicksilver have agreed to apply a minimum selling price of 300
dlrs per unit, the Algerian news agency APS said.
    The agreement was made during a meeting here last week
between Algeria's Entreprise Nationale des Non-ferreux et
Substances Utiles (ENOF) and Spain's Almaden to discuss the
market situation.
    The two firms "took note with regret that prices quoted by
some specialised publications do not reflect the reality of the
whole market since they take into account only part of the
deals made," a statement by ENOF said.
    The result is that the prices quoted are far away from two
firms' production costs.
    "They have thus decided that their selling price would not
be linked any more to the prices quoted by these publications
and that sales would be made at a minimum price of 300 dlrs fob
per jar, which is close to their production cost," the statement
said.
    It added that Turkish producers would join in when the two
firms meet again in Madrid later this month.
    The price of quicksilver on the London Metal Exchange
hovered around 200 dlrs this week.
 REUTER

Western creditor
governments have reached agreement in principle on new
proposals for easing the debt burden of sub-Saharan African
countries, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
said.
    He told journalists the accord, reached in the so-called
Paris Club of western governments, calls for rescheduling the
debts of sub-Saharan African countries over very long periods
and on very favourable terms.
    The proposals will be put forward for discussion at a
meeting of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank
Development Committee in Washington next week, he said.
    Lawson said that under the proposals countries could have
15 or 20 years to repay their debts along with have a grace
period.
    But he added the favourable terms would not be offered
indiscriminately to all nations in the region but granted on a
    The Paris Club groups Western governments -- as opposed to
commercial banks -- which are owed money by poorer nations.
    Lawson was speaking after an informal gathering of European
Community finance ministers and central bankers held to prepare
for discussions on international monetary issues and Third
World debt at next week's spring meetings of the IMF and World
Bank.
    French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said he had
insisted at the gathering that developed countries take
adequate account of the problems facing poorer nations that
were trying to put their ailing economies in order.
    He told journalists he would be unveiling new proposals for
dealing with the Third World debt problem in  Washington.
    He declined to give details but Belgian Finance Minister
Mark Eyskens, who hosted the talks, indicated that Balladur's
proposals involved giving a greater role to a World Bank fund
used to compensate developing countries for falls in the prices
of their main commodities.
    "The French ideas got a very sympathetic welcome," Eyskens
    He said the European Community felt a new IMF
(International Monetary Fund) report which forecasts
inflation-adjusted economic growth of just 2.5 pct in the
industrialised world this year, compared with 3.1 pct expected
last autumn, was slightly too pessimistic.
    Many economists believe industrialised countries need to
grow by at least three pct a year if the world debt is to be
brought under control.
    Eyskens added the Community wanted to give "certain nuances"
to the IMF report that would be constructive for dealing with
the Third World debt problem.
    However, Italian sources quoted Italian Treasury Minister
Giovanni Goria as calling it scandalous that the meeting here
did not include a discussion of what he called the problem of
falling world demand.
     He complained that West Germany was refusing to do enough
to boost demand while the United States, suffering from a
massive trade deficit, was unable to do anything in this
direction.
 REUTER

Britain's corporate affairs minister left
for Tokyo saying he planned to present Japanese authorities
with a timetable for obtaining fair market access for his
country's goods and financial services.
    "I should be expecting a positive response to that
timetable," the minister, Michael Howard, said.
    He said the response was expected by next month, but
reiterated his belief that Britain would not have to invoke a
new law allowing a ban on Japan's banks and insurance firms
from trading in London if it failed to reciprocate in Tokyo.
    "I don't think that talk of a trade war is justified in any
event ... I think the Japanese are going to realize that it's
important that access should be available."
    The Conservative British government decided on Thursday to
bring forward legislation allowing the possible imposition of a
ban against foreign countries failing to allow reciprocal
market access. It is due to take effect in three weeks.
    Twenty-nine Japanese banks, nine insurance companies and 58
securities houses currently operate in London, while only five
British banks and eight securities firms are licensed in Japan.
    "We are sure reasonable men will come to a reasonable
solution," said a spokesman for <Nomura International>, the
biggest of the Japanese securities firms in London which could
be targetted.
    The government decided to rush provisions of the Financial
Services Act into effect largely in response to the failure of
Cable and Wireless <CAWL.L> to gain what it considers a
satisfactory stake in one of two consortia seeking to compete
in Japan's international telephone business.
    However, British economists say the use of financial
services countermeasures in the trade dispute would hurt
Britain more than Japan.
    The British press expressed concern that was Howard was
travelling with counterproductive or irrelevant ammunition.
    The Daily Telegraph commented that an unfortunate minister
was being "despatched to Tokyo armed with a pistol pointing at
his own foot." The Financial Times urged Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher to avoid provoking a "nasty backlash" from Tokyo.
    Japan appeared to be making no concessions ahead of
Howard's trip and Trade and Industry Secretary Paul Channon on
Friday sought to dispel some of the growing concern over the
dispute.
    "We don't want a trade war," he said. "We're not interested in
trade wars."
     But Channon made plain the government was determined that
British firms should have the same opportunites in Japan as
Japanese firms have in Britain and wanted a timetable set for
this purpose.
 REUTER

Economy Minister Juan Sourrouille
was heading for Washington for talks with creditor banks on
rescheduling part of Argentina's foreign debt.
    Economy Ministry sources said he hoped to seal an agreement
rescheduling 30 bln dlrs of private foreign debt.
    Argentina, seeking 2.15 bln dlrs in fresh loans from
private international banks to meet 1987 growth targets, has
been negotiating with the banks' steering committee since
February.
    Sourroille will also attend International Monetary Fund and
World Bank meetings.
 REUTER

China's foreign exchange reserves
totalled 10.514 billion dlrs at end-1986, up from 10.37 billion
at end-September but down from 11.9 billion at end-1985,
according to central bank figures published by the New China
News Agency.
    The agency said 2.072 billion dlrs of the reserves was held
by the state treasury, down from 2.26 billion at end-September,
while 8.442 billion was held by the Bank of China, up from 8.11
billion.
    China's outstanding foreign debts rose to 7.572 billion at
end-1986 from 5.067 billion at end-1985. Gold reserves stood at
12.67 mln ounces, unchanged over the year.
 REUTER

Growth in oil consumption in the Western
industrialised countries is likely to slow to around one pct
this year compared with 2.3 pct in 1986, the International
Energy Agency (IEA) said.
    Oil use in the 24 countries of the OECD increased by around
one pct in first quarter 1987 to 35.9 mln bpd, the IEA said in
its Monthly Oil Market Report.
    Growth in OECD countries is expected to come primarily from
transport fuels, as in 1986. But if average consumer prices are
higher than 1986, the rate of growth for these fuels may be
below last year's 3.6 pct, it said.
    The IEA said that assuming crude oil and product prices
stay close to current levels, some destocking by end-users can
be expected. If that happens, natural gas will also regain some
of the market share it lost to heavy fuel in 1986, and there
may be slightly less growth in transport fuels.
    IEA estimates on April 1 put oil stocks in the OECD area at
428 mln tonnes, representing 98 days of forward consumption.
This is about the same level as at the begining of the year.
    The agency said this flat trend is explained by the
projected seasonal consumption decline in the second quarter of
the year which offset a reduction in stocks.
    It said initial estimates indicate that company stocks fell
by 1.2 mln bpd in OECD countries in the first quarter of the
year. This followed a small rise in January of 0.4 mln bpd but
a decline of 1.5 mln bpd in February and 2.5 mln bpd in March.
    It is possible that final data will show a larger draw,
particulary for March, it said. As crude production also fell,
there is likely to have also been a decline in non-reported
stocks, particularly at sea, the IEA said.
    Company stocks on land in the OECD rose to 326 mln tonnes
on April 1 against 316 mln on April 1 1986. Governments built
up strategic stocks to 102 mln tonnes against 97 mln in the
period.
    The year-on-year trend of government stock building is
continuing with year-on-year company stocks also rising, more
or less in line with consumption, after declining for five
years, the IEA noted.
    Oil stocks on land in the U.S. And Canada were put at 206.6
mln tonnes on April 1, down from the 214 mln tonnes on January
1 and equivalent to 94 and 98 days of consumption,
    Oil stocks in Western Europe were 147.4 mln tonnes on April
1, down from the 154 mln on January 1 but still equivalent to
94 days of consumption.
    World oil supply fell in the first quarter by about two mln
bpd to 45.2 mln bpd from 47.2 mln bpd in last quarter 1986.
    This drop was mostly due to a decline in OPEC crude
production to around 15.5 mln bpd in February/March from 16.5
mln bpd in January and to the seasonal drop in exports from
centrally-planned Economies, the IEA said.
    Total OPEC crude oil supply was 15.8 mln bpd in the first
quarter, plus 1.4 mln bpd of NGLs, compared with 17.3 mln bpd
of crude in the last three months of 1986 and 17.9 mln average
for the whole of 1986. Supply from non-OPEC countries totalled
28 mln bpd, against 28.5 mln bpd in the fourth quarter 1986.
    A drop in Saudi Arabian output to a tentatively forecast
3.3 mln bpd in March from 3.6 mln bpd in February was the
largest factor behind the OPEC production decline, the IEA
said.
    Saudi Arabia"s Opec-assigned output quota is 4.133 mln bpd.
 REUTER

West Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU)
and their liberal Free Democrat Party (FDP) allies today won
control of the central state of Hesse in state elections,
toppling the Social Democrats (SPD) who had governed the state
for over 40 years.
    The CDU/FDP coalition will have a two-seat majority over
the SPD and their Greens party allies in the new state
parliament. Earlier predictions forecast a hung parliament.
    The poll was the first major test of public opinion since
national elections last January returned Chancellor Helmut
Kohl's CDU-dominated coalition to power in Bonn.
    Political commentators said the result was a debacle for
the SPD, which has been split by disagreements over the party's
future direction. It was also a rebuff for a unique coalition
the SPD had formed in Hesse with the anti-nuclear Greens
movement, which left-wing Social Democrats said could provide a
model for a similar alliance at federal level.
    Bonn Environment Minister Walter Wallmann, the CDU's
victorious candidate for the state premiership, told reporters
"Many traditional SPD voters voted for us because they did not
want an SPD that was under the influence of the Greens."
 REUTER

The U.S. economy in March improved at a
faster rate than in February, with the National Association of
Purchasing Management's composite index rising to 53.9 pct from
51.9 pct, the NAPM said.
    The first quarter average for the index also was 53.9 pct.
The NAPM said that, if this average were to continue for the
rest of 1987, it would be consistent with real gross national
product growth of about three pct.
    An index reading above 50 pct generally indicates that the
economy is in an expanding phase. One below 50 pct implies a
declining economy.
    The NAPM said the economic improvement was evident in all
of the indicators in the index except inventories, which
declined slightly.
    New orders rose sharply in March, with production also
higher. Vendor deliveries slowed, another sign that the economy
improved in March. Employment expanded for the first time since
Inc <PBI> said "the economy ended the first quarter with a
healthy, if not substantial improvement."
    Bretz said the sharp rise in the growth of new orders in
March assures a good beginning for the second quarter.
    Some 50 pct of the purchasing managers reported that they
were paying higher prices in March than at the end of 1986. Of
those paying higher prices now, the average increase was put at
2.5 pct.
    The estimated average price increase anticipated by members
for the remainder of 1987 is 2.1 pct. While prices continue to
rise, the NAPM said that most purchasers do not see them as
being significant.
    The monthly report is based on questions asked of
purchasing managers at 250 U.S. industrial companies.
 Reuter

British securities house <Barclays de
Zoete Wedd>, BZW, said it would open today a subsidiary office
in Amsterdam, its first office in continental Europe.
    BZW, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barclays Plc <BCS.L>,
said in a statement the new company had been built on the
parent company's former Dutch subsidiary, Barclays Kol.
    The new company, <Barclays de Zoete Wedd Nederland NV>,
will focus on trading in both Dutch and international equities
and will develop a full range of investment banking services.
    It will initially employ 29, aiming to increase numbers to
35 by the year-end, it said.
    BZW said its parent Barclays Bank had subsidiary companies
active on the stock exchanges of Zurich, Milan and Paris which
BZW planned to use to strengthen its presence in continental
Europe.
    Commenting on the move, BZW chairman Sir Martin Jacombe
said while international deregulation had turned London, New
York and Tokyo into "pivotal points for trading across time
zones, firms like BZW that seek to serve the world-wide
financial community must have a presence in Europe, not just in
the U.K."
    BZW currently employs some 2,000 staff in its offices in
Britain, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and Sydney.
 REUTER

Public opinion polls showing a surge in
support for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher following
her trip to Moscow have raised the possibility she will call a
spring election, political analysts said.
    A poll in today's Daily Express showed 39 pct support for
the ruling Conservative party, 30 pct for the Alliance of
Liberals and Social Democrats and 29 pct for the Labour party.
    Reproduced in a general election, the result would give
Thatcher an overall parliamentary majority of 22.
    A poll in yesterday's Sunday Times gave the Conservatives
41 pct support, 12 percentage points ahead of both opposition
groups -- their biggest lead in three-and-a-half years.
    Conservative sources have said Thatcher would prefer a
series of polls giving her party over 40 pct of the vote,
securing it a clear parliamentary majority, before announcing
the date for the next election.
    Lord Whitelaw, Conservative leader in the House of Lords
and one of Thatcher's closest advisors, yesterday ruled out a
May general election, but left open the choices of June and
early autumn.
    The Sunday Times poll, taken during Thatcher's visit to
Moscow last week, was the first to show the party breaking
through 40 pct.
    The Express poll was the first since Thatcher's trip to
Moscow, hailed as a triumph by the British media. It confirmed
a number of recent surveys suggesting that the Alliance had
overtaken Labour.
    Thatcher, currently serving her second consecutive term of
office, does not have to call elections until June 1988 but is
widely expected to do so within the next six months.
 REUTER

U.S. Bond trading is likely to remain
cautious in the near term with a possible downward price bias
as market participants focus on trends in the dollar, the
economy and Federal Reserve policy, economists said.
    Most expect the economy to continue showing modest gains,
that the dollar has more room to fall and that the Fed will
keep policy essentially steady, perhaps for several months.
    Until trends are clearer, "the market can only attempt to to
establish and hold a new trading range at higher interest
rates," said economists at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    Merrill Lynch economists Raymond Stone and Ward McCarthy
said that while the fundamentals generally bode for a healthy
investment climate, the market will have no confidence in this
environment until there is illumination of and confidence in
U.S. Dollar/trade policy.
    Salomon Brothers' Henry Kaufman said the bond market,
highly sensitized to dollar movements, could be encouraged if
currency markets seem to be stabilizing or if U.S. And overseas
economic growth is perceived as slowing sharply.
    "The crucial question, however, is how soon either of these
developments is likely to occur," Kaufman said.
    "Market uncertainties and the erosion of portfolio manager
confidence could continue portfolio selling pressure a while
longer," said Philip Braverman, chief economist at Irving
    However, Braverman said that, "from a longer term
perspective, current (bond) prices provide a buying
opportunity."
    Despite a nearly one-point bond price rebound Friday on
unexpectedly weak March employment data, key 30-year Treasury
bonds lost 2-1/4 points in price for the week as a whole and
Thursday's 7.93 pct closing yield was a 1987 high.
    Braverman said historical evidence suggests that a long
bond yield in the 7.93 pct area provides a basis for optimism.
Bonds closed at 7.86 pct on Friday.
    The Irving economist noted that three times last year, in a
similar "paroxysm of pessimism," the key bonds reached a similar
closing yield high. Within three to six weeks in each instance,
however, Braverman said bond prices recovered to bring the
yield down sharply by 63 to 82 basis points.
    Mitchell Held of Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc said
that many portfolio managers now believe yields could approach
nine pct by midyear, which he considers unlikely.
    Held said that, since late 1986, Smith Barney analysts have
spoken about the risk that interest rates could move higher and
they continue to believe that an upward bias is likely to
persist over the next few months.
    Held said that in conversations with portfolio managers
last week there appeared to be increasing belief that the rate
rise had just begun and that yields could approach nine pct by
midyear. Naturally, that would mean a sharp bond price fall.
    "Yields could rise further over the next few months, but the
rise should be less than the 65 basis point rise we've seen
since the start of the year," Held said.
    Most expect Fed policy to be neutral for bonds near term.
    "The Fed is currently frozen into a fixed stance," said
economists at Aubrey G. Lanston and Co Inc.
    They said the Fed cannot tighten policy and push up
interest rates as might be appropriate to stabilize the dollar
and head off renewed inflationary psychology. That might harm
the fragile U.S. Economic expansion.
    The Lanston economists said, "The Fed cannot ease its policy
stance to both foster more rapid economic growth and calm
domestic and Third World debt jitters without the threat of
causing a further decline in the dollar."
    Minutes of February's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)
meeting released Friday showed that while the FOMC left policy
unchanged it was more inclined to firm rather than ease policy
later if conditions in the economy, foreign exchange or credit
markets warranted a policy shift.
    However, economists generally believe that continued fairly
sluggish U.S. Economic growth and the financial strains on U.S.
Banks resulting from their problem loans to developing
countries rule out any Fed policy firming.
    There is broad agreement among economists that the FOMC at
last Tuesday's meeting also left Fed policy unchanged.
    This week's U.S. Economic data are expected to have little
impact. February consumer instalment credit numbers are due on
Wednesday, with March producer price data out Friday.
    There may be mild relief in some quarters that the U.S.
Purchasing Managers Composite Index, a closely-watched economic
indicator, rose only to 53.9 pct in March from 51.9 pct. A
Friday rumor had put the number far higher. The index's first
quarter average also was 53.9 pct, translating into real GNP
growth of about three pct if continued through 1987.
    Federal funds traded at 5-15/16 pct late Friday and are
expected to open about there today with no Fed action seen.
 REUTER

National Australia Bank Ltd <NABA.S>
said it lowered its benchmark prime lending rate to 18.25 pct
from 18.5, effective today, but left its base rate at 18.5.
    The benchmark reduction brings the rate into line with the
prime rates of most of Australia's trading banks, including
those of two of the other three major trading banks.
    However, the rate is above the 18 pct - the lowest ruling
rate - set by the other major, the Australia and New Zealand
Banking Group Ltd <ANZA.S>, on Friday and effective today.
    The benchmark is based on short-term interest rate
movements while the base rate is tied to longer-term trends.
 REUTER

Caesars World Inc <CAW> said its
directors unanimously approved a recapitalization plan under
which stockholders will get a cash distribution of 25 dlrs per
share via a one-time special cash dividend and will retain
their common stock ownership in Caesars World.
    Caesars World said it expects to raise the approximately
one billion dlrs needed to pay the 25 dlr per share dividend
and the expenses of recapitalization through around 200 mln
dlrs in bank borrowings and a public sale of approximately 800
mln dlrs of debt. Some outstanding debt will be retired.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc, Caesars' financial advisor, has
told the company it is confident it can arrange the entire
financing needed for the recapitalization.
    Henry Gluck, chairman and chief executive officer of the
hotel, casino and resorts company, said in a statement the
board believes the recapitalization plan is financially
superior to a 28 dlr a share tender offer by Martin Sosnoff.
    Gluck said the Caesars World board once again recommends
that shareholders reject the Sosnoff offer.
    The stock closed at 29.25 dlrs a share on Friday.
    "Our ability to restructure along these lines is possible
primarily because of the financial stability and the strong
operating results achieved by management in recent years," Gluck
said.
    He said that after the recapitalization takes effect,
proforma net income for the fiscal year ended July 31, 1988 is
expected to be about 28.7 mln dlrs.
    Fiscal 1988 primary earnings per share are projected to be
76 cents, based on about 37.8 mln in post-recapitalization
common and common-equivalent shares outstanding.
    Commenting on the company's longer term earnings outlook,
Gluck said "we project net income to increase to 86.2 mln dlrs
in 1992, reflecting increased operating income and lower
interest expense due to the retirement of 267 mln dlrs of debt
incurred in connection with the recapitalization."
    He said the company does not usually release projections,
but has done so now beause of the significance of the
    Gluck said the recapitalization plan will be submitted for
stockholder approval at a special meeting expected in June.
    The plan will require the approval of stockholders and that
of the Nevada and New Jersey gaming regulatory authorities.
    As part of the plan, the company will change its state of
incorporation from Florida to Delaware by means of a merger of
Caesars World into a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
    The new incorporation certificate and bylaws will provide
for, among other things, a "fair price" provision requiring that
certain transactions with interested 15 pct stockholders be
approved by an 80 pct vote of stockholders, excluding shares
held by such interested stockholders.
    Caesars World said in a statement that "the cash
distribution will result in a substantial deficit in
stockholders' equity." It did not give an estimate of the size
of this deficit.
    But the company said its financial advisors have said they
believe that after the recapitalization, Caesars World should
have the financial flexibility and resources necessary to
finance its current and projected operating and capital
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank said it will offer
80 mln N.Z. Dlrs of treasury bills at its regular weekly tender
tomorrow.
    The Bank said in a statement it will offer 30 mln dlrs of
56-day treasury bills and 50 mln dlrs of 77-day Bills.
    The Bank will also buy 170 mln dlrs of bills maturing in
early June and 200 mln dlrs of bills maturing late June for its
own portfolio.
 REUTER

<The Australian Gas Light Co> (AGL) said it
will offer one share plus one dlr cash for every two shares in
oil and gas producer <TMOC Resources Ltd> in a counter-bid to
the previously reported takeover offer by Santos Ltd <STOS.S>.
    The offer values TMOC shares at 4.75 dlrs each, based on
AGL's closing price of 8.50 dlrs on Friday. TMOC shares jumped
to 4.60 dlrs on the announcement from its Friday closing price
of 4.15.
    The AGL offer, the third to be made for TMOC this year,
compares with the Santos cash offer of 4.00 dlrs a share.
    Based on TMOC's issued capital of 62.08 mln shares, the AGL
offer values the entire company at 249.9 mln shares.
    AGL said in a statement that it already holds 10.5 pct of
TMOC's issued capital. This compares with the Santos stake of
3.1 pct when it announced its bid in March 23.
    <Elders Resources Ltd> began the auction for TMOC about
three months ago with an unsuccessful 2.55 dlrs a share
on-market offer that has since lapsed.
    AGL said its offer is above the upper end of the range of
values placed on TMOC by its advisers in the company's response
urging rejection of the Elders Resources bid.
    AGL said it will make the same offer for TMOC's convertible
notes. Accepting share and note holders will participate in
AGL's planned one-for-one bonus issue.
    It said TMOC is already a partner with AGL in the Alice
Springs to Darwin gas pipeline and has a number of businesses
complementary with those of AGL.
    AGL is the New South Wales natural gas utility while TMOC
has extensive onshore holdings, mainly in Queensland where it
owns the Moonie oil field and in the Northern Territory where
it operates and holds 43.75 of the Mereenie oil-gas field. It
also has interests in a number of gas or oil pipelines.
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industrialized countries is likely to slow to around one pct
Energy Agency said.
    Oil use in the 24 member countries of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) increased by around
one pct in the first quarter of 1987 to 35.9 mln barrels a day,
the IEA said in its latest monthly report.
transport fuels, as was the case in 1986. But if average
consumer prices are higher than 1986, the rate of growth for
these fuels may be below last year's 3.6 pct.
    The IEA said assuming crude and product prices remain nar
current levels, some destocking by end-users can be expected.
    If that takes place, natural gas will also regain some of
the market share it lost to heavy fuel in 1986, it said.
    IEA estimates on April one put oil stocks held in the OECD
area at 428 mln tonnes, or 98 days of forward consumption. This
is about the same as at the begining of the year.
on April one this year compared with 316 mln tonnes in calender
1986 while governments also built up their strategic stocks to
102 mln tonnes against 97 mln in 1986.
continuing with company stocks rising, more or less in line
with consumption, after declining for five years, IEA said.
    Oil stocks on land in the United States and Canada were put
at 206.6 mln tonnes down from the 214 mln tonnes on January one
and equivalent to 94 and 98 days of consumption, respectively.
    Oil stocks in Western Europe were 147.4 mln tonnes, down
from the 154 mln tonnes on January one but still equivalent to
    The IEA said that initial estimates indicate that company
stocks fell by 1.2 mln bpd in OECD countries in the first
quarter of the year. This followed a small rise in January of
400,000 bpd but a decline of 1.5 bpd in February and 2.5 bpd in
March.
    And it is possible that final data will show a larger draw,
particulary for March, it said.
    As crude production also fell, there is likely to have also
been a decline in non-reported stocks, particularly at sea, the
IEA said.
    World oil supply fell through the first quarter by about
two bpd to 45.2 bpd from 47.5 bpd in the last quarter of 1986.
production to around 15.5 bpd in February/March from 16.5 bpd
in January and to the seasonal drop in exports from Centrally
Planned Economies, the IEA said.
    Total OPEC oil supply totalled 17.2 bpd in the first
quarter of 1987 compare with 19.3 bpd in the last three months
of 1986 while supply from non-OPEC countries totalled 28 bpd as
against 28.2 bpd in the same 1986 period.
3.3 bpd in march from 3.6 bpd in February was the largest
factor behind the OPEC production decline, the IEA said.
 Reuter

Miyazawa sees major nations reaffirming Paris accord this week-political sources

Miyazawa expects coordinated action to stabilize currencies - political sources

Philippine coffee exports are expected
to fall sharply due to a combination of the International
Coffee Organisation's (ICO) decision not to revive export
quotas and higher local prices, ICO Certifying Agency official
Dante de Guzman told Reuters.
    He said exporter registrations dropped from an average
weekly 500 tonnes in March to 45 tonnes last week, with exports
in coffee year 1986/87, ending September, forecast to total
about 8,000 tonnes against 48,000 in 1985/86.
     "Because of the relatively higher level of domestic prices,
it has become difficult to service exports," de Guzman said,
adding that most exporters are taking a wait and see attitude.
    Coffee production was expected to drop slightly to about
one mln bags of 60 kg each in the 1986/87 crop year ending June
from 1.1 mln bags last year, he said.
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parliamentary committee he expects major nations to reafffirm
the currency pact they struck in Paris when they meet this week
in Washington, political sources said.
    The Minister also was quoted as saying he expects major
nations to take coordinated action to ensure exchange rate
comment. In Paris on February 22, six nations - Britain,
Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. And West Germany - pledged to
cooperate to hold their currencies stable.
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Leading cocoa producers will discuss
whether newly-agreed rules on an international cocoa buffer
stock will succeed in reversing a sharp fall in world prices
when they start four day's of talks here later today,
conference sources said.
    Another topic likely to be discussed at the twice-yearly
meeting of the Cocoa Producer Alliance (CPA) is the pact's
second line of market support -- a witholding scheme under
which exporters can take up to 120,000 tonnes of cocoa off the
market if buffer stock purchases fail to defend prices.
    The International Cocoa Organisation is due to discuss the
scheme at a meeting in June, and exporters could use the
Yaounde talks to work out a common position on the issue, the
    Delegates will also be briefed on arrangements for an
international cocoa research conference due to take place in
Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic next month, CPA
secretary general D.S. Kamga said.
    The 11-member CPA include the world's top three producers
of Ivory Coast, Brazil and Ghana and accounts for around 80 pct
of world output.
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AUSTRALIAN WEEKLY WHEAT SHIPMENTS - WEEK TO 23-29
    (in tonnes for crop year beginning oct 1) current week     
  prev week 316,024           297,045 crop year to date    
prev crop to date 7,217,394         8,422,811

Baldrige said the dispute between the U.S. And Japan over
computer chips will not develop into a full-scale trade war.
    "I think both sides will try and make sure that this doesn't
start a trade war -- as a matter of fact I'm positive that
there won't be a trade war with Japan," Baldrige said in a
    President Reagan last week imposed penalties over Japan's
alleged failure to adhere to a July 1986 agreement to stop
selling semiconductors in third countries at below cost and to
open its own market to U.S.-made chips.
    Despite Tokyo's displeasure with the penalties, Baldrige
said Japan would refrain from taking retaliatory steps that
would lead to a trade war, largely because Japan itself would
have the most to lose in such a conflict.
    "Japan, I think will -- because they have the means to do it
-- face up to the fact that as the second largest industrial
trading power in the world they have to live up to their
responsibilities of free trade," he said.
    "I think we'll work our way out of this," he added. "It's not
going to be easy. But I guarantee you, we're not going to have
a trade war."
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South Korea's gross national product (gnp)
is forecast to grow by nine pct in 1987, surpassing the
government's original forecast of eight pct and against a 12.5
pct rise in 1986, an Economic Planning Board report said.
    The report reviewing the country's economy in the first
three months of this year said year-on-year gnp was
provisionally estimated to have grown by about 12 pct in the
period, against a 10.5 pct growth in the same 1986 period.
    Board officials said the gnp rise in the January-March
period is due largely to increased exports, which totalled 9.34
billion dlrs against 6.9 billion a year earlier.
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An extension of the International Tin
Agreement (ITA) is unrealistic and the pact should be allowed
to lapse, Indonesian Mines and Energy Minister Subroto told
    Asked about Jakarta's position for the quarterly session of
the International Tin Council on April 8-9, Subroto said
Indonesia had agreed to the formation of a study group to look
into how to replace the pact.
    But he said that given the present disagreement between
producers and consumers, there is unlikely to be any follow-up
to the ITA.
    Asked by reporters if Indonesia would support an extension
of the ITA, he said, "No one will propose that. It's also
unrealistic to do so."
    Subroto played a key part in securing agreement between the
seven member Association of Tin Producing Countries to
introduce a quota system which limited their exports and
consumption to 96,000 tonnes in the year starting March 1.
    Indonesia's quota was set at 24,516 tonnes.
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Indonesian Energy minister Subroto said
he was very confident of continued stability in the oil market
because of the determination of Opec members to maintain a
price of 18 dlrs a barrel.
    "We are very confident that things will continue this way.
The short-term outlook is favourable because of the resolution
of Opec to stick to the 18 dlr price," he said at a signing
ceremony for a new Indonesian production sharing agreement.
    He said Opec output continued to remain slightly under its
agreed ceiling of 15.8 mln barrels, and he expected prices to
firm slightly in the third quarter of the year.
    He said at Opec's next meeting in Vienna in June, members
will face the choice of either maintaining present volume and
seeing prices rise a bit, or raising the production ceiling so
that members could produce more in the third and fourth
quarters of 1987.
    He gave no figures for how much he thought volume could be
raised without undermining the 18 dlr target, or any indication
of which option he preferred.
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The failure of the Bangladesh government
to tackle the country's current food crisis could lead to a
famine, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khaleda
Zia, told a press conference yesterday.
    Prices of rice rose by at least 25 pct across the country
in March and the government has begun emergency rice and wheat
sales to lower cereal prices, a food ministry report said.
    Ministry officials said the next harvest, due in mid-April
will ease the situation. "Temporary grain shortage in the arid
north and some other rain-starved regions is not unusual at
this time of the year," one official said.
    Khaleda, said corrupt practices by food officials and
failure to procure enough grains contributed to the crisis. Her
remarks coincided with newspaper reports that a continuing heat
wave has destroyed thousands of acres of crops in the
south-west.
    Officials said last week Bangladesh now has only 390,000
tonnes of grain in stock which would be exhausted in two or
three weeks. Bangladesh expects to produce 14.5 mln tonnes of
rice and 1.5 mln tonnes of wheat in 1986/87 ending June 30. It
revised its food import target for this fiscal year upward by
300,000 tonnes to 1.8 mln.
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The U.S. Administration, under
Congressional pressure to cut the trade deficit, will urge
Tokyo and Bonn to meet commitments to speed economic growth to
stabilise currencies at Wednesday's meetings of leading
industrial nations in Washington, monetary sources said.
    The U.S. Will also try to develop proposals made at the
1986 Tokyo Summit for measures to ensure agreements such as the
Paris Accord are more binding, they said.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker's dual initiatives reflect
U.S. Frustration with the two countries for not moving fast
enough to curb their huge trade surpluses, they added.
    Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa is expected to
bring the outline of an economic stimulus package to the
meeting, which will be attended by West Germany, France,
Britain, Italy and Canada as well as the U.S. And Japan, the
    "The sooner the Japanese can announce their intention to
announce a stimulative package,the better it is for Japan and
for the exchange markets in general," one of the sources said.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker said the Paris Agreement, in
which West Germany and Japan made their commitments, will be
renewed by the industrial countries this week.
    Other U.S. Officials said a meeting of the Group of Seven
will be a status report on progress Bonn and Tokyo have made
setting up stimulus measures.
    The U.S. Will tell its partners that it expects a further
substantial budget deficit reduction package to be agreed with
Congress this year, the sources said.
    Washington would like its economic partners to establish
specific economic policy goals. Sharp deviations from the set
objectives would trigger consultations among the countries on
appropriate corrective action, they added.
    The Paris accord envisaged surplus countries like Japan and
West Germany stimulating domestic demand to absorb more imports
and the U.S. Cutting its budget deficit, thereby depressing its
demand for imports.
    But the markets are signalling the dollar's floor may be
far below its level at the time the Paris agreement was struck,
    Monetary sources also said the dollar's recent sharp fall
against the yen reflected the U.S.-Japanese dispute over
semi-conductor trade which resulted in U.S. Tariffs on certain
Japanese electronic goods.
    One of the sources said the dispute has to some extent
soured the atmosphere ahead of the meetings.
    Congressional sentiment for protectionist measures, aimed
particularly at Japan, has strengthened, the sources said.
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Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd <SMIT.T>
said it and four other firms jointly concluded negotiations to
export a total of over 400,000 tonnes of seamless pipes in the
six months to end-September to China and the Soviet Union.
    Export prices for that period for both countries were set
100 to 150 yen per tonne higher than previous contracted prices
due to the yen's gains against the dollar, it said.
    Contracted export volume for China is likely to be over
200,000 tonnes against 350,000 for Oct 1986-March 1987, and
420,000 for April-Sept 1986, and for the Soviet Union over
200,000 tonnes. No direct Soviet comparison was available.
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<Enim Oil Co Ltd>, a wholly owned
subsidiary of <Southern Cross Ltd> of Colorado, signed a
production sharing contract with Indonesia's state oil company
Pertamina to explore for oil in the Lematang block of Sumatra.
    It was the second production sharing contract signed by
Pertamina this year. Three contracts were awarded in 1986.
    The agreement, signed at a public ceremony in the presence
of Energy Minister Subroto, calls for the standard oil
production split of 85-15 pct in Pertamina's favour.
    Hong Kong-based Enim Oil is contracted to spend 120 mln
dlrs over the next six years, including 10 mln in the first two
years.
    The 1,137 sq km Lematang block is located between two oil
producing sectors of South Sumatra, and Enim officials said
there is a good chance of getting a high return on investment.
    A spokesman said the area, which has not been drilled
before, was neglected because it is deeper than surrounding
blocks. He said new developments in seismic techniques have now
made seismic survey possible.
    The agreement is similar to a production-sharing contract
Pertamina signed with Occidental Petroleum Corp in February.
    Gas produced will be divided 70-30 pct in Pertamina's
favour with operational costs deducted.
    Pertamina can market at least 50 pct of Enim Oil's
production share, and Enim must give up 10 pct of its interest
in the block to an appointed Indonesian company if it finds
oil.
    Enim must also set aside 28.57 pct of its crude for
refining in Indonesia if its share exceeds 150,000 barrels a
day.
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Japanese oil traders generally expect oil
prices to remain steady through June, when the next
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (Opec) meeting
is scheduled to take place.
    Prices have kept to a narrow trading range for more than a
month, despite coming under considerable pressure in February
as Japanese oil companies holding high oil stocks strongly
resist paying official prices, trade sources said.
    Despite these attempts, spot crude rose steadily to
stabilize around OPEC's 18 dlr a barrel target, they said.
    Spot prices fell more than two dlrs during the month,
mainly on market assumptions Opec was producing more than its
15.8 mln barrel a day (bpd) self-imposed ceiling and members
would submit to pressure to discount prices, oil traders said.
    However, Opec's discipline in holding its price and output
targets eventually forced many of the buyers back, they said.
    Countries such as Qatar, Iran and Iraq refused to bend to
demands for lower prices in spite of threats of non-lifting
from Japanese buyers.
    The solidarity of Opec encouraged Qatar to charter vessels
to store its production rather than cut its prices, they said.
    Opec's March production was 14.6 mln bpd, 1.2 mln below its
ceiling, with Saudi Arabia's output just below 3.0 mln bpd
compared to its Opec quota of 4.133 mln bpd, the Middle East
Economic Survey estimated.
    "Of course there was a little cheating but not enough to
destroy the market," an oil trader in Tokyo said.
    Opec crudes have been appearing on the spot market at
discounted prices through barter deals and the swapping of
Middle East grades for North Sea cargoes, but these trades have
not generated sufficient volume to depress the market, he said.
    The current spot values of Middle East grades are only 20
to 25 cts below official prices, so resistance to buying crude
under term contracts in the second quarter is likely to be
weaker, traders said.
    Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mines Subroto said today
OPEC faces the choice of either maintaining present output
volume at 15.8 mln bpd and seeing prices increase slightly, or
raising the production ceiling so members can produce more in
the third and fourth quarters of 1987.
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Finnish unemployment was 6.9 pct in
January after 6.9 pct in December and 6.8 pct in January last
year according to the revised formula of the Central Statistics
Office.
    It said in a statement 173,000 were unemployed in January
and December against 158,000 in January 1986.
    The new formula shows unemployed persons willing to work if
jobs were available but excludes any coming under the country's
unemployment pension scheme.
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plans to seek a listing for its shares on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange later this year, subject to shareholder approval.
    The Tokyo listing will create a 24-hour market for the
stock. A company spokesman said the listing is expected in the
final quarter. Sponsorship for the listing will be disclosed
after shareholder approval is sought on April 29.
    Reuters "B" ordinary shares are currently listed on the
London Stock Exchange, while Reuters American Depositary
Shares, representing six "B" shares, are quoted on NASDAQ in New
York.
    The company said a Tokyo listing would also increase its
profile in Far Eastern markets. (Reuters has maintained a news
bureau in Japan since the 1870s, and now employs about 180
people at its offices in Tokyo and Osaka).
    Last month, Reuters announced plans jointly with Jiji
Press, the Japanese financial news agency, to display Jiji
services through the Reuter monitor and through the Reuter
Composite Information System, CIS.
    The Reuter Monitor Dealing Service was launched in Japan in
1986.
 REUTER

final, seasonally adjusted 2.21 pct in February after falling a
final 2.16 pct in January, Department of Trade and Industry
    The February all-retailers sales index, base 1980, was put
at a final 125.0 after 122.3 in January.
    In the three months from December 1986 to February 1987,
the level of sales was unchanged from the previous three months
but was up by almost 6.0 pct from the same 1985/86 period. On a
non-seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales in February were
9.0 pct higher than a year earlier, the Department said.
 REUTER

Indium Corp of America said it has raised
its list price for indium ingots, minimum 99.97 pct, to 4.50
dlrs per troy ounce from 3.95 dlrs, effective immediately.
    Traders said the rise was based on continuing strong
consumer demand in the United States and Japan.
    Free market price ideas rose this morning to a nominal
range of 135 to 145 dlrs per kilo, the highest level for about
five years, compared with 125/132 dlrs on Friday, dealers said.
 REUTER

Indonesia has imported 12,000 tonnes of
refined sugar from Cuba to meet consumer demand in the province
of South Sulawesi, the head of the provincial food agency said.
    The imported sugar was needed because two of three sugar
refineries in the province have been temporarily shut down. It
arrived in the provincial capital of Ujungpandang today and
will be distributed to markets in the province, the food agency
    Indonesia used to be a sugar exporter but last year it
imported 162,500 tonnes of sugar from Thailand, Angola and
Brazil to bolster its depleted stocks.
    Indonesia's sugar cane production last year was expected to
rise significantly but domestic sugar consumption has soared
because of rising demand by the food processing industry, the
head of the food logistics agency, Bustanil Arifin, has said.
    The government has forecast that sugar production in
calendar 1987 would increase 30.2 pct to 2.59 mln tonnes from
1.99 mln in 1986 but industry sources doubt whether the target
could be met due to persistent post-harvest handling and
transport problems.
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Said it will host a conference of mercury producers here at the
end of April to study how to stimulate low mercury prices.
    Last week, Almaden and Algerian producer ENOF agreed to
establish a minimum price of 300 dlrs per flask (34.5 kilos)
for spot mercury sales, up from the previous minimum of 240
dlrs.
    A Minas de Almaden statement said the non-communist world's
main mercury producers had decided not to sign any contracts
using the reference price of specialist publications, because
it was well below their costs of production.
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credit rose to 2.95 billion stg in February from 2.70 billion
in Janaury, when bad weather had a depressing effect, the
Department of Trade and Industry said.
    Of the February total, 1.28 billion stg was advanced on
bank credit cards.
    On a three-month basis, total advances in December to
February were 2.0 pct higher than in the previous three months.
Within this total, lending to consumers rose by 1.0 pct and
lending to businesses declined by 4.0 pct.
    At end February the total amount outstanding was 24.5
billion stg, up from January's 24.1 billion stg and 4.0 pct
above the total three months earlier, the Department said.
    February saw a rise of 400 mln stg in amounts outstanding
to finance houses, other specialist credit grantors and
retailers and on bank credit cards between end-January and
end-February.
    The Department said advances on bank credit cards rose by
4.0 pct between the two latest three month periods. Retailers
advanced three pct less in the latest three months than in the
 REUTER

A top Japanese businessman said the
country's four largest economic organizations will soon present
to the government a set of proposals to expand domestic demand.
    Eishiro Saito, Chairman of the Federation of Economic
Organizations (Keidanren), told a news conference the
government should draw up a package of economic measures
totalling more than 5,000 billion yen.
    Saito said the government's package should include plans to
remove residual import restrictions on agricultural products
and to lift tariffs on industrial products.
    Leading industrialised countries should also step up
concerted market intervention to stabilize exchange rates,
Saito said.
    The measures will be presented to Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone as a joint proposal of Keidanren, the Japan Federation
of Employers' Association, the Japan Committee for Economic
Development and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
    Saito said Japan should stop paying only lip service to its
pledges to open its markets.
    The proposed measures should be undertaken by increased
fiscal spending, he added.
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one pct in first quarter 1987 to 35.9 mln barrels per day, the
IEA said in its Monthly Oil Market Report.
 Reuter

European Community unemployment fell
slightly in February to just under 17 mln from 17.1 mln in
January, the EC statistic's agency Eurostat said.
    It said the fall came despite a bad winter in most of the
EC when seasonal factors could be expected to have had a more
adverse effect.
    However, the agency added, the long-term trend was
virtually unchanged stating that compared to February 1986 the
number of registered unemployed increased by 222,000.
 REUTER

Thailand exported 75,160 tonnes of rice
in the week ended March 31, down from 88,785 tonnes the
previous week, the Commerce Ministry said.
    It said the government and private exporters shipped 36,552
and 38,608 tonnes respectively.
    Private exporters concluded advance weekly sales for 22,086
tonnes against 44,483 tonnes the previous week.
    Thailand exported 1.23 mln tonnes of rice in January/March,
down from 1.29 mln tonnes a year ago. It has commitments to
export another 381,171 tonnes this year.
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<Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd> may import
car telephones made by its 100 pct U.S. Subsidiary, <Oki
America Inc>, for sale in Japan, an Oki spokesman said.
    The firm would like to import the car phones, which are
made according to a system developed jointly by Motorola Inc
<MOT> of the U.S. And Oki Electric, the spokesman said.
    A final decision will hinge on obtaining approval from
Japan's Post and Telecommunications Ministry and whether or not
it is feasible to convert the models to meet Japanese
specifications, he said.
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The weighted average yield for 50 mln
N.Z. Dlrs of 77-day Treasury bills sold in this week's regular
weekly tender was 24.97 pct, the Reserve Bank said.
    The weighted average yield on 30 mln dlrs of 56-day bill
was 25.50 pct, it said in a statement. No comparable bills have
been offered recently.
    Bids totalling 379 mln dlrs were received for the 80 mln
dlrs of bills on offer.
 REUTER

Japan's Ministry of International Trade
and Industry (MITI) is considering buying a U.S.-built
supercomputer worth three to four billion yen, but a final
decision and funding have yet to be determined, MITI said.
    The Cray II computer, made by Cray Research Inc <CYR>,
would be used jointly by nine MITI research institutes in
Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, a MITI official told Reuters.
    Its purchase would be in line with MITI's goal of boosting
imports, he said.
    Funds for the supercomputer are not included in the fiscal
1987 budget currently stalled in parliament.
    Funds could be provided in a supplementary budget likely to
be introduced this autumn, the official said.
    The U.S. Has strongly urged Japan to open its public sector
to sales of U.S. Supercomputers, and the complaint is a key
issue in current U.S.-Japan trade friction.
    One year before it was privatised in April 1985, <Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp> (NTT) bought a Cray
supercomputer, an NTT official said, the only public sector
purchase of a U.S. Supercomputer to date.
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Wheat and rapeseed crops in east China
suffered considerable damage because of frost during a spell of
unusually cold weather in late March, the China Daily said.
    It said average temperatures for the last 10 days of March
in most of east China were three to five degrees centigrade
below average. Snow fell in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Henan,
making early rice sowing difficult.
    Heavy snow blanketted central and south Jilin and north
Liaoning, leaving farmland too muddy for spring ploughing and
sowing, the paper said.
    The paper said rainfall during the last 10 days of March in
areas south of the Yangtze had been much higher than normal.
    Heavy rain fell last Sunday in parts of Guangdong, ending a
particularly arid dry season and marking the start of the flood
season, it said. It gave no further details.
    The New China News Agency said rain and snow in Henan had
improved the prospects for wheat, sown on 4.8 mln hectares, and
caused a drop in grain prices at rural fairs since late
February. It gave no 1986 figures for comparison.
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The Bank of Japan intervened in early
afternoon Tokyo trading to support the dollar against active
selling by institutional investors and speculative selling by
overseas operators, dealers said.
    The central bank had also bought dollars against the yen in
morning trade.
    The dollar traded around 145.20/30 yen when trading began
in the afternoon here and weakened only slightly, the dealers
said.
 REUTER

CHASE-AMP BANK TO LOWER AUSTRALIAN PRIME RATE TO 17.75 PCT FROM 18.25 TOMORROW

japan ruling party seeks over 5,000 billion yen supplementary budget-party official

Kuwait may re-register part of its
tanker fleet with foreign flag jurisdictions, including the
U.S. And USSR, in an attempt to protect them from Iranian
missile attacks in the Gulf war zone, U.S. Officials were
quoted by the New York Times as saying.
    The transfers would allow the country of registration to
escort Kuwaiti-owned ships in the Gulf. Kuwait had earlier
declined an offer of U.S. Naval escorts as too public an
admission of its need for protection, they said.
    Kuwait is also looking at flagging-out to European
registries, the officials said.
    Soviet flag tankers transporting Kuwaiti oil through the
Gulf may get Soviet escorts, the officials said.
    Kuwait had earlier considered having both USSR and U.S.
Escorts, but the U.S. Was unwilling to give the Soviet Union a
naval role in the region, the newspaper quoted the officials as
saying.
    Kuwait has backed Iraq in the seven-year war against Iran
and its ships have increasingly been the target of Iranian
attacks.
    The U.S. And Kuwait have been negotiating for over a month
on methods of protecting Kuwaiti ships.
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<Chase-AMP Bank Ltd> said it will lower
its prime lending rate to 17.75 pct from 18.25, effective
tomorrow.
    The bank is the first to lower its prime rate below the 18
pct set by a few banks in the last few days in a continuation
of a downward trend which began late last month.
    Other prime rates range from 18.25 to 18.5 pct, with the
majority on 18.25.
    The bank said the reduction reflected the recent downturn
in money market rates, the improved economic outlook and
adequate liquidity in the second quarter tax rundown period.
 REUTER

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has
drawn up the guidelines of an economic package including a
supplementary budget of more than 5,000 billion yen, a senior
party official said.
    It also urged the government to concentrate in the first
half of the current fiscal year which began on April 1 a record
proportion of the year's public works spending, he said.
    The LDP also suggested the government review the ceiling on
budgetary requests for investment in public works projects
presented by individual ministries, he added.
    But the LDP official said the government should not abandon
its fiscal reform target of ending the issue of
deficit-covering bonds by fiscal 1990.
    These measures should be treated as an emergency, partly
because of the urgent need for Japan to redress its external
trade imbalance with the U.S., He said.
    The guidelines will be explained to the U.S. This week when
Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visits Washington for the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting, he added.
    The official, the LDP Policy Affairs Research Council's
Chairman Masayoshi Ito, told a press conference the proposed
supplementary budget will probably be compiled no earlier than
August but before November.
    The guideline will be the basis for a more detailed
reflationary plan to be worked out by the LDP before Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone leaves for Washington on April 29
for talks with President Reagan, Ito said.
    The full government-endorsed economic package is expected
to be announced in late May.
    The LDP expects public works spending in the first 1987/88
half to account for more than 80 pct of what was originally
incorporated in the fiscal 1987 budget, Ito said. The previous
record for the rate was 77.5 pct in 1986/87.
    Ito said revenue sources for the additional pump-priming
measures should include the issue of construction bonds and the
use of part of the proceeds from sales of the privatized Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp stocks.
    An LDP statement said the government should use the
additional budget mainly to encourage housing construction and
to revitalize regional economies hit hard by the yen's rise.
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The Finance Ministry auctioned 280 billion
yen of four-year government notes, the first auction of fiscal
1987 which started on April 1.
    The coupon was set at 3.7 pct, a record low for any
government note and below the 3.8 pct set on the last two-year
notes, auctioned in February.
    Today's issue was the first for four-year notes since last
May, which produced an average price of 99.79, average yield of
4.561 pct and a coupon of 4.5 pct, the Ministry said.
    The auction results will be announced tomorrow afternoon.
 REUTER

Tokyo stock market index rises 198.54 to record closing high of 22,784.65

Swiss consumer prices rose one pct in the
year to March, the same rise as in the year to February, and
against 0.9 pct in the year to March 1986, the Federal
    In March alone, prices rose 0.1 pct after a 0.3 pct rise in
February.
    The March index, base 1982, was 109.7 against 109.5 in
February.
    The Statistics Office said the March increase reflected
rises in certain sectors such as food, clothing and household
goods and falls in transport, heating and lighting.
    Both home produced and imported goods rose by 0.1 pct
during the month. But over the year as a whole, domestically
generated inflation reached 2.5 pct, offset by a 2.8 pct drop
in imports.
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Nixdorf world group 1986 net profit 222.42 mln marks vs 172.29 mln, div 10 marks

Iran said it had achieved important
victories against Iraq on the southern war fronts last night.
    A brief Iranian news agency IRNA report said "Important
victories achieved in southern fronts Monday night." It gave no
    Iran launched a major offensive, codenamed Karbala-5,
towards the major southern Iraqi port of Basra in January, but
there have been no reports of heavy fighting in the area in
recent weeks.
 REUTER

The coupon on the 100 mln dlr warrant
bond for Kansallis-osake-Pankki (K-o-P) has been set at 4-5/8
pct compared with the indicated range of 4-1/8 to 4-5/8 pct,
lead manager Morgan Stanley International said.
    Each 1,000 dlr bond has ten warrants attached which are
exercisable into K-o-P free shares at 50 Finnish markka per
share. The foreign exchange rate on the seven year bond was set
at 4.4450 markka to the dollar.
 REUTER

Japan's Livestock Industry Promotion Corp
(LIPC) said that on April 28 it will import 7,515 tonnes of
beef for the first half of the 1987 fiscal year started on
April 1 under the simultaneous buy and sell tender system,
against 6,813 a year ago.
    The system calls on the agency to buy beef from trading
houses and simultaneously sell it to users in one tender. The
tender quota in April-September is 10 pct of the agency's beef
import share. Japan's beef import quota in 1987/88 was set at
93,000 tonnes against 85,000 for the same period in 1986/87.
 REUTER

Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> said it was extending
its 151 mln stg contested bid for <Hillards Plc> until May 1.
    It said it now controlled 9.8 pct of Hillards shares,
comprising acceptances of the offer for 1.5 mln, or 3.1 pct,
and 3.2 mln, or 6.7 pct, owned by itself, its pension fund or
its associates.
    It also controlled 23,250 convertible preference shares, or
0.2 pct.
    Hillards shares were unchanged at 313p while Tesco was two
pence firmer at 475p.
 REUTER

liquidity aid at a fixed bid rate of 3.80 pct, a central bank
    Banks must make their bids by 1400 GMT today. Funds will be
allocated by 0900 GMT tomorrow and credited to accounts later
in the day. Banks must repurchase securities pledged on May 6.
 REUTER

1,300 billion yen, money traders said.
    Of the total, 400 billion yen will yield 3.8502 pct on
41-day repurchase accord maturing on May 19.
    Another 400 billion yen will yield 3.7991 pct in a 20-day
repurchase pact maturing on April 28, they said.
    The repurchase agreement yields compare with the 3.8125 pct
one-month, and 3.7500 pct three-week commercial bill discount
rates today.
    Tomorrow's surplus is attributable to government tax
allocations to local governments and public entities.
4,300 billion yen, they said.
 REUTER

Two British opinion polls showed the
ruling Conservative Party would retain power with a clear
majority in general elections.
    A poll for commercial television, conducted after Prime
Minister Thatcher returned from Moscow, this morning gave the
Conservatives their highest rating since they were re-elected
in 1983, with 43 pct of the votes, Labour 30 and the Social
Democratic-Liberal Alliance 26 pct.
    Another poll in the Times newspaper taken in 73 key
marginal constituencies, predicted a Conservative majority of
92 seats.
    Thatcher, does not have to call elections until June 1988.
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YEAR TO END-DEC 1986
    Proposed dividend 45 francs vs 34.50 francs
    Note - Full name of company is Moet-Hennessy SA <MHSP.PA>
   REUTER

Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation
<AVMD.PA> has suspended deliveries of its Mirage fighter jets
to Egypt because of payment delays on planes already delivered,
aircraft industry sources said. A Dassault spokesman could
neither confirm nor deny the suspension.
    The sources said the last six of 20 fighters ordered by
Cairo in 1983 were being held back, although the contract is
expected to be completed in the near future. Deliveries started
last year. They said the decision, taken in consultation with
the French government, would pressure Cairo to speed up
payments, delayed because of Egypt's foreign currency shortage.
 REUTER

Bahrain's issue of two mln dinars worth
of 91-day Treasury bills was allotted at an average price of
98.506 to yield an average 6.00 pct, a spokesman for the
Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) said.
    Bids for the tender, held today, totalled about 4.65 mln
dinars, the spokesman said. This week's average yield compares
with 6.09 pct a week ago. Three-month interbank dinar deposits
were quoted today at about 6.87/5.87 pct.
    The BMA spokesman said the next tender for two mln dinars
of 91-day bills will be held on April 14.
 REUTER

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it
had approved two loans amounting to 75.7 mln dollars for
agricultural projects in Bangladesh and Nepal.
    It said both loans are repayable over 40 years, including a
10-year grace, and carry a service charge of one pct a year.
    The bank said it approved 51.7 mln for an agricultural
inputs program for Bangladesh aimed at sustaining foodgrain
    It said the loan will cover the entire foreign exchange
component of the project's total cost of 65 mln.
    The ADB said it approved 24 mln dlrs to support an
agricultural credit project in Nepal.
    The loan will benefit Nepal by increasing foodgrain output,
augmenting production of milk and other dairy products and
expanding energy generation in rural areas, it said.
 REUTER

Zenchiku Co Ltd is issuing a 40 mln dlr
equity warrant eurobond due April 30, 1992 paying an indicated
coupon of 2-1/4 pct and priced at par, lead manager Daiwa
    Final terms will be fixed on April 13 and the non-callable
issue is available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs. It is
guaranteed by Mitsui Bank Ltd. The selling concession is 1-1/2
pct while management and underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct.
    The payment date is April 30 and the issue will be listed
in Luxembourg. The warrants are exercisable from May 18, 1987
until April 10, 1992.
 REUTER

will likely be used to raise more than 1.5 billion dlrs in
1987, continuing a long-term bullish trend that began last year
when about the same amount was tapped.
    Stock analysts and economists said the trend will be helped
by low interest rates and the government's plan to sell 380 mln
dlrs worth of shares in state enterprises each year for the
next 10 years, which should attract foreign interest.
    One foreign analyst said international fund managers are
increasingly attracted to Asian markets like Singapore.
    He said uncertainty over Hong Kong's future had helped the
flow of funds to Singapore over the last eight to nine months.
    Trade friction between Washington and Tokyo and the high
value of the yen had also diverted a trickle of funds from
Japan.
    But he added, "A slight trickle will have a large impact on
the local exchange."
    Economists said the inflow from foreign institutions is
difficult to estimate but it is increasing as the local
recession bottoms out with the help of reduced corporate taxes
cuts and of lower wage costs.
    Tan Soo Nan, director of the Development Bank of Singapore
Securities Ltd and a member of the exchange, said he expects
Singapore companies alone to tap around one billion dlrs this
year, but he warned there were some short-term risks.
    Corporate earnings in fiscal 1987 ending March fell short
of an expected 20 pct increase over 1986 and a major failure
would dampen sentiment, he said. He added the SES should admit
only companies able to sustain their earnings levels.
    But one foreign analyst said any slowing of activity would
be temporary and many investors are waiting for the results of
elections in Malaysia later this month.
    On the whole, Tan said, the long-term trend remains bullish
because of the economic recovery, the high growth potential for
the Asian Pacific region and the liberalisation of the Toyko
    Tan said the introduction of the Stock Exchange of
Singapore Dealing and Quotation System in January and the new
government securities market was in keeping with the global
trend towards debt securitisation and financial deregulation.
    Singapore's economic recovery will be more broad-based in
1987 and the exchange's strategy should be to build up
expertise in risk and fund management, he said.
 REUTER

The Soviet Communist Party has criticised
the country's Grain Products Ministry for failing to ensure
proper grain storage, turning out poor quality bread and for
unsatisfactory book keeping, Pravda said.
    The party daily said that losses in the industry owing to
waste and theft amounted to 7.3 mln roubles over the last two
    The situation was particularly bad in the Central Asian
republic of Kazakhstan, which has been severely criticised
since the ousting of its veteran leader Dinmukhamed Kunayev
    Its new leader, Gennady Kolbin, has said that at times the
grain-growing republic has performed so badly that it has been
obliged to seek grain supplies from national reserves.
    Tass news agency announced yesterday that Grain Products
Minister Grigory Zolotukhin, 75, was being retired and replaced
by Alexander Budyka, a senior food industry official.
    Pravda added today that the crisis in the industry had been
drawn to Zolotukhin's attention and two of his deputies
reprimanded.
 REUTER

West German banking regulations must be
expanded to cover off-balance sheet risks arising from new
financing forms, Federal Banking Supervisory Office President
Wolfgang Kuntze said.
    Kuntze told bankers at a reception that deals for hedging
price risks are not covered by current supervisory rules.
    Such deals could be used for speculation and do not have to
be disclosed.
    Kuntze also said it must be considered whether banks can
continue not to set shareholders' equity and reserves against
their own holdings of securities.
    Since early 1984, banks have been limited to lending 18
times shareholders' equity and reserves on a consolidated basis
and Bundesbank officials have said that interest rate and
currency swaps and currency options are under scrutiny.
    Authorities favour reinterpreting the banking law to fit
    Kuntze said solutions to the problem of banking supervision
can be found without having to change the law again.
    The risk structure in banking is moving away from the model
on which banking supervisory rules are based, Kuntze said.
    Banking supervisors are still firemen with a safety net but
the safety net has become a little too small, he said.
    Kuntze declined to detail possible changes to banking
regulations, as these are still the subject of discussions
between the Supervisory Office and the Bundesbank.
    He said he sees no chance in the foreseeable future for an
international harmonisation of supervisory law and the German
supervisory office would not wait for such harmonisation.
    Nor would it get involved in international competition on
minimal regulatory standards in order to shield banks from
competitive disadvantages, he said.
 REUTER

(ICCO) buffer stock could face an uphill battle to halt the
downtrend in world cocoa prices when it begins buying
operations in the next few weeks, cocoa traders said.
    Traders said they believed buffer stock purchases could
reach 75,000 tonnes in a matter of weeks without lifting prices
significantly, given the amount of surplus cocoa overhanging
the market. The buffer stock may begin buying shortly as the
ICCO 10 day average indicator price is now at 1,578.03 Special
Drawing Rights (SDR) per tonne, below the 1,600 "must buy" level.
    Rules governing buffer stock operations were agreed last
month by the ICCO council. Buying will begin once the buffer
stock manager has completed preparations, traders said.
    Some traders said the buffer stock manager may delay buffer
stock buying until mid or end-April when changes in months used
to calculate the ICCO indicator may lift the 10 day average
above the 1,600 SDR "must buy" level.
    The ICCO indicator price is calculated from the average of
the second, third and fourth positions on the London and New
York futures markets. The daily price was 1,577.61 SDR per
tonne yesterday.
    Months used currently for the indicator are May, July and
September, but these are set to change to July, September and
December on April 15, prior to May becoming the New York spot
month, traders noted.
    The introduction of December into the calculations may lift
the daily SDR price as December is currently quoted about 75
stg above May on the London terminal market.
    But the buffer stock manager would have to wait for the
higher daily price to feed through into the 10-day average, the
indicator which governs his activities, traders said.
    "The buffer stock manager is obviously looking at the
implications of delaying until forward prices lift the
indicator since it might mean he has to buy less cocoa," an
analyst from a leading cocoa trade house said.
    Traders said the buffer stock purchases could reach 75,000
tonnes fairly quickly once buying starts. If purchases reach
this level within six months, buying is suspended pending an
ICCO council review of price ranges. But some cocoa market
watchers said the buffer stock may benefit from recent
forecasts for a poor Brazilian Bahia temporao crop at 1.5 mln
to two mln 60 kilo bags against initial expectations of up to
three mln.
    A lower than expected Brazilian crop may cut the 1986/87
world surplus to between 50,000 and 70,000 tonnes, compared
with a recent forecast by the ICCO statistics committee of
94,000 tonnes, traders said.
    In these circumstances, the buffer stock may only need to
buy between 20,000 and 30,000 tonnes to lift prices above the
"must buy" level.
    But some dealers said the ICCO buffer stock rules may put
constraints on how quickly and effectively the buffer stock
manager can remove cocoa from the market.
    The buffer stock system of price differentials set
according to quality and a 15 pct limit on purchases from
non-members could limit the buffer stock's scope for action,
    Most of the cocoa readily available to the buffer stock is
nearby in-store material of Malaysian and Ivory Coast origin.
    But the buffer stock can only buy 15 pct Malaysian cocoa as
Malaysia is not an ICCO member, while purchases of nearby cocoa
can only reach 40 pct in any one day, which forces the buffer
stock to buy some intermediate and forward shipment material.
    Limits on buffer stock purchases of nearby and non-member
cocoa will reduce the impact on terminal prices which are
pressured by the overhang of Malaysian material, traders said.
    Buffer stock purchases of forward shipment cocoa from
quality producers such as Ghana will have only a limited impact
on futures, but is likely to widen physical market premiums for
this cocoa over futures.
    Ghana's premium to the terminal has risen to about 50 stg
from 25 to 30 stg a month ago partly in anticipation of buffer
stock buying, dealers said.
    "The buffer stock may not help the terminal market, but will
provide a backstop for quality cocoas," one trader said.
    Traders cautioned that views on the impact of the buffer
stock were "all prognostication" and that no one could hope to
predict accurately what the result would be. Psychologically
buffer stock buying should help prices, but since the buffer
stock already holds a carryover of 100,000 tonnes from the
previous cocoa agreement and the market is in surplus, dealers
expressed doubts purchases can counter bearish pressure.
    In June the ICCO is due to discuss rules for a withholding
scheme as an additional market support mechanism.
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German February capital account deficit 7.53 billion marks vs Jan 11.91 billion surplus - Bundesbank

The yield on 180-day bankers security
Agency (SAMA) rose slightly to 6.63492 pct from 6.56823 last
week, bankers said.
    SAMA reduced the offer price on the 500 mln riyal issue to
96.78906 from 96.82031 last week. Like-dated interbank deposits
were quoted today at seven, 6-3/4 pct.
180-day paper to banks in Bahrain each week.
 REUTER

West Germany recorded a net outflow of
7.53 billion marks on the February capital account, combining
long and short term capital flows, compared with a net inflow
of 11.91 billion marks in January, the Bundesbank said.
    This compared with a net outflow of 3.51 billion marks in
February 1986, the Bundesbank said.
 REUTER

and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK> have withdrawn plans for a
bonus issue of new "B" shares, chairman of both companies Li
Ka-shing said.
    He told a press conference in view of the difficulties the
companies have had with the stock exchange regarding the
issuance of shares with proportionally higher voting rights,
the issuance of such new shares cannot go ahead until the stock
exchange and the government clarified their positions.
    Cheung Kong and Hutchison on March 31 announced a
one-for-two bonus issue of new "B" shares whose par value will be
one-tenth that of existing shares, but with equal voting
rights. Their move followed similar plan by Jardine Matheson
(Holdings) Ltd <JARD.HK> on March 27.
    The stock market fell sharply following Cheung Kong and
Hutchison's announcement as institutional investors reacted
negatively to the news.
 REUTER

Showa Aluminium Corp is issuing a 100 mln
dlr equity warrant eurobond due April 23, 1992 paying an
indicated coupon of 2-1/8 pct and priced at par, lead manager
Nomura International Ltd said.
    Final terms will be fixed on April 15. The selling
combined pays 3/4 pct. The non-callable bond is available in
    The payment date is April 23.
 REUTER

Nippon Shokubai Kagaku Kogyo is issuing a
80 mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due April 30, 1992 paying an
    Final terms will be fixed on April 14 and the issue is
guaranteed by Daiwa Bank Ltd. The selling concession is 1-1/2
5,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    The payment date is April 30 and the warrants are
exercisable from May 14, 1987 until April 23, 1992.
 REUTER

Taiwan's trade surplus widened to 4.18
billion U.S. Dlrs in the first quarter of 1987 from 3.05
billion a year ago, the government statistics department said.
    First quarter exports rose to 11.25 billion U.S. Dlrs from
8.38 billion in the same period in 1986. Imports rose to 7.08
billion from 5.33 billion last year.
    The March trade surplus was 1.45 billion dlrs compared with
1.32 billion in February and 1.02 billion in March 1986.
Exports rose to 4.07 billion U.S. Dlrs from 3.85 billion in
February and 2.99 billion in March last year. Imports were 2.61
billion dlrs against 2.53 billion in February and 1.96 billion
in March 1986.
 REUTER

The National Development Finance Corp
of Pakistan has raised three billion yen through private
placement, arranger Daiwa Securities Co Ltd said.
    The seven year "Shibosai" issue in the Tokyo domestic market
carries interest at 6.9 pct. No other details were available.
 REUTER

The French treasury has decided to repay
680 mln francs of debt issued before 1950, the Finance Ministry
said.
    Seven issues, accounting for 0.13 pct of total state
domestic debt, would be redeemed by the Caisse d Amortisement
de la Dette Publique, the national debt amortisation fund, a
Ministry statement said.
    The Ministry said the debt rationalisation exercise,
similar to one carried out in 1958 and 1959, would take out of
circulation old issues which were expensive to manage and
difficult to trade because of their highly complex structure.
    Technical details of the operation would be announced in
the next few days.
    The securities to be redeemed would be the three pct
perpetual rente, five pct perpetual rente, four pct 1941-1960
redeemable rentes, 3.5 pct 1942-1952 redeemable rentes, three
pct 1942-1955 redeemable rentes, three pct 1945-1954 redeemable
rentes, and 4.5 pct 1933-1960 redeemable treasury bonds.
    The ministry said the operation would mainly benefit
long-term holders of the issues, mainly small investors and
small communes.
    The issues were difficult to trade because they comprised
securities of variable nominal value, it noted.
 REUTER

<Chrysler Canada Ltd> said it signed an
agreement to import 100,000 Mitsubishi small cars from <MMC
Sittipol Co Ltd> of Thailand between 1988 and 1993.
    Chrysler Canada, a subsidiary of Chrysler Motors Corp <C>
of the U.S., Will market the two and four-door cars in Canada
under the Dodge-Colt brand.
    The cars will be Thailand's first car exports.
    MMC Sittipol is a Thai-Japanese joint venture in which
Mitsubishi Motors Corp <MIMT.T> of Japan holds an estimated 47
pct stake. Its Thai partners are <Sittipol Motor Co> and
<United Development Motor Industries Co Ltd>.
    Officials of MMC Sittipol said Chrysler Canada currently
buys the same Dodge-Colt models from Japan where the strong yen
has sharply increased their production costs.
    They said Chrysler will from next year import the same cars
from Japan and Thailand which has a lower labour cost
advantage.
    The officials said Mitsubishi's decision to move its
production to Thailand also stemmed from the fact that Japan is
facing auto export quota restrictions to the Canadian market.
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Economy Undersecretary Yannos Papantoniou
said the Greek economy was responding well to a two-year
government austerity program.
    He told reporters the evidence for this was in last year's
figures, which showed a drop in inflation from 25 pct to 16.9
and a reduction in the current account deficit from 3.3 billion
dlrs to 1.7 billion.
    Papantoniou said indications were encouraging that a target
of 1O pct inflation and a deficit of 1.25 billion dlrs would be
reached by the end of 1987.
    He predicted a "mild" recovery for the Greek economy in 1988
and said the government might be able to ease its tough incomes
policy, which has virtually frozen wages, and allow some
increases related to productivity.
    The austerity program, started by Prime Minister Andreas
Papandreou's socialist government in October 1985, resulted in
a wave of strikes late last year and more industrial action is
planned by trade unions and workers in coming months.
 REUTER

Genfinance Luxembourg is issuing a 50 mln
stg eurobond due May 7, 1994 paying 9-1/4 pct and priced at
101-1/4 pct, lead manager Kleinwort, Benson Ltd said.
    The issue is guaranteed on a subordinated basis by Generale
Bank. It is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 stg
underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct. The payment date is May 7.
 REUTER

Greece and the Soviet Union have reached
agreement in Moscow on a joint venture for a 450 mln dlr
alumina plant in Greece, government spokesman Yannis Roubatis
said.
    Roubatis told reporters the Soviet Union agreed to buy the
plant's entire annual output of 600,000 tonnes of alumina. More
details would be given later by Greek Industry Undersecretary
George Petsos, who was in Moscow.
    The project was due to start in 1986, but problems over
plans to sell some alumina to Bulgaria caused delays. The
Soviet Union, which was to take 400,000 tonnes, later agreed to
take the full production.
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the dollar was fixed lower at 1.8218 marks after 1.8243
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan bought a small amount of
dollars at around 145.95 yen shortly after the Tokyo market
opened, dealers said.
    But the dollar then fell on speculative selling by trading
houses, they said.
    The dollar had opened here at 145.95 yen against 145.85/90
yen in New York and 146.00 yen at the close here yesterday.
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Iraq said today its troops had killed
thousands of Iranians in checking a new Tehran offensive on
their southern war front.
    The official Iraqi news agency INA quoted a correspondent
in the field as saying Baghdad's forces were pursuing
retreating Iranian troops.
    The agency said the al-Ghadeer Brigade of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards and the 21st Brigade had been destroyed in
the fighting.
    The INA correspondent said Iraqi troops had surrounded the
Iranians after the overnight attack was launched.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA said Iranian forces had killed
or wounded over 2,600 Iraqis in their new Karbala-8 offensive
and the thrust through Iraqi defences was continuing.
    Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who presided over a meeting
of his top military commanders in Baghdad two days ago, visited
the northern city of Mosul today to attend celebrations marking
the 40th anniversary of the ruling Baath Arab Socialist Party.
    Reuter correspondent Subhy Haddad reported from Mosul that
political observers there said Iran's offensive was timed to
coincide with the party's anniversary. But radio programs were
normal and there was no word in Mosul on fighting in the south.
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    Dealers said dollar trading was very quiet over the
European morning, with operators made wary by today's meeting
of the Group of Five finance ministers and central bank chiefs
ahead of the full IMF/World Bank session in Washington.
    It was undermined by remarks from U.S. Council of Economic
Advisers Chairman Beryl Sprinkel who told Iowa bankers the U.S.
Had no objective regarding the value of the dollar.
    Sprinkel also called the reference to stabilizing exchange
rates at about current levels, made at the Paris meeting on
February 22, a "vague statement," casting doubt on operators'
assumptions that a secret target level had been set.
    Sprinkel added that if West Germany and Japan made progress
to stimulate their economies as the Paris agreement envisaged,
"there would not be the necessity of significant declines in the
dollar."
    One dealer for a U.S.-based bank noted the dollar tended
easier after the remarks. "They were obviously regarded as being
negative. And if the market starts regarding anything that
comes out negatively then it means that the underlying
sentiment is negative," he said.
    Some early selling pressure softened the dollar's
undertone.
    Most operators overlooked intervention by the Bank of Japan
to support the dollar against selling in favour of the yen by
institutional investors and overseas operators, dealers said.
    After the strong focus on the dollar/yen rate in recent
weeks up to the end of the Japanese financial year on March 31,
interest and activity was likely to switch, dealers said.
    "We can start to look at a point in time where the interest
shifts away from dollar/yen and more into dollar/mark and the
other European currencies," the U.S. Bank dealer said.
    Despite the softer undertone, traders would remain wary of
taking significant new positions during the Washington
meetings, dealers said. Aside from the G-5 session today,
Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl is due to meet the German
Affairs group on international monetary issues later.
    The mark gained some strength from news the Bundesbank set
a new securities repurchase tender to add money market
liquidity at a fixed 3.80 pct, unchanged from those over the
last several weeks. Some expectation had been growing that it
might cut the rate or move to a minimum interest rate tender,
signalling a desire for a slight easing in credit policy.
    Bundesbank central bank council member Lothar Mueller said
the Bundesbank had not given up its focus on money supply. A
monetary policy which took into account exchange rates and
capital flows could not be confused with an exchange-rate
oriented policy, he said, contradicting some growing sentiment.
    Sterling eased a touch to 2.950 marks at the fixing from
2.957. The yen's unabated strength, despite the intervention,
brought it up to 1.2555 marks per 100 from yesterday's 1.2480.
    The Swiss franc rose to a fix of 120.515 marks per 100 from
120.180. The French franc eased to 30.055 marks per 100 after
30.060, Belgian franc was little changed at 4.829 marks per
100.
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Fire protection and security group
Wormald International Ltd <WOIA.S> said British-listed <Holmes
Protection Group Inc> has agreed to issue it with 6.15 mln
common shares of one U.S. Cent par-value at 1.72 stg each.
    The two groups have also begun exploratory talks on a
possible merger of the Holmes business with the compatible
businesses of Wormald, comprising some or all of its fire
protection and security businesses in the Americas and Europe,
Wormald said in a statement.
    The issue of shares in the New York-based Holmes is
conditional upon shareholder approval at a general meeting.
    Wormald said its stake will represent 9.99 pct of Holmes'
existing issued shares and 9.09 pct of the enlarged capital.
    The issue will raise 10.6 mln stg which will be used for
further development of the Holmes business.
    Wormald said the businesses of the two groups are largely
complementary in terms of both geographical spread and the
nature of their activities, with Holmes concentrating on
burglar alarms and Wormald on fire systems.
    Holmes's operations are concentrated in and around New York
amd Miami. It earned 11 mln U.S. Dlrs pre-tax in its last
reported full year, 1985, and 6.0 mln in first half 1986.
 REUTER

Finance ministers from African countries
in the French franc currency zone called for more aid from the
international banking community at a meeting here last Friday,
the French finance ministry said in a statement.
    The talks, held to prepare for this week's International
Monetary Fund interim committee meeting in Washington,
underlined that a considerable decline in bank aid to
developing nations was a major source of worry.
    The ministers noted that this decline was contrary to
expectations on debt strategy which emerged from the October
1985 IMF general assembly in Seoul.
    "Even if to a certain extent the efforts of banks can be
helped out by those of private investors, the contribution of
the international banking community remains indispensable," the
    They underlined the need, given present circumstances, for
a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to relieve
tensions on the exchange reserves of numerous developing
countries, the statement added without elaborating.
 REUTER

 Reuter

West German consumption of oilmeals and
oil cakes last year rose by 2.4 pct to 6.3 mln tonnes, the
agriculture ministry said.
    It said in a statement the increase was exclusively due to
sharply higher use of rape products, which went up by 8.9 pct
to 1.08 mln tonnes.
    Use of soy products dropped 7.2 pct to 2.89 mln tonnes, it
added.
 REUTER

he would support the issuance of Reagan bonds, yen-denominated
U.S. Government securities, if it was considered appropriate, a
Japanese daily paper reported.
    The Sankei Shimbun quoted Sumita as saying in an interview
"It (Reagan bond) is a very feasible idea," speaking in the
context of the effectiveness of such bonds in halting the
dollar's decline.
    Asked how he would respond to the idea if it were brought
up at any Group of Five meeting in Washington later this week,
the paper quoted him as saying "I will back it up."
    But Sumita said the market still has confidence in the
dollar, and one must be careful in associating the current
dollar decline with anything like a free fall, the paper said.
    In 1978, the administration of then president Jimmy Carter
floated government securities worth four billion dlrs in marks
and Swiss francs to try to halt the the dollar's depreciation.
    A Bank of Japan spokesman confirmed that the newspaper
report was basically correct.
    But a senior central bank official told Reuters that as far
as he knew, the idea was not being seriously considered now,
either in the U.S. Or in Japan.
 REUTER

A strong earthquake registering 6.9 on the
open-ended Richter scale jolted central and northern Japan, the
Meteorological Agency said, but there were no immediate reports
of injuries or damage.
    An agency statement estimated the epicentre of the quake,
which struck at 9:40 A.M. (0040 GMT), as being under the sea
off Fukushima prefecture, some 240 km north of Tokyo.
    On March 18, a quake also registering 6.9 on the Richter
scale hit south-west Japan, killing two people.
    Earthquakes of force six on the Richter scale are capable
of causing widespread, heavy damage in a populated area.
    The agency issued, but soon cancelled, a tidal-wave warning
for the Pacific coastline of central and northern Japan.
    The Shinkansen bullet train linking Tokyo and northern
Morioka stopped running. Services will be suspended for several
hours while workers check the tracks, railway officials told
Reuters.
    A spokesman for Fukushima police told Reuters they had not
received any damage reports, even from the coastal town of
Onahama, which registered the maximum intensity.
    He described the shaking as very strong.
 REUTER

Hyundai Motor Co <HYUN.SE> exported 80,432
cars in the first three months of 1987, mostly to North
America, up from 62,813 in the same 1986 period, company
    The company aims to export 450,000 cars in 1987, including
250,000 to the United States.
    Last year Hyundai exported a record 300,200 cars, including
168,900 sales to the U.S. Of the Pony Excel sub-compact, they
said.
 REUTER

Italy's majority Christian Democrat party,
saying the five-party government to which it belongs is
finished, has decided to withdraw its 16 ministers before a
parliamentary confidence vote later this week.
    Christian Democrat leadership issued a document saying it
"registers ... The dissolution of the present government."
    Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi's five-party
government resigned on March 3 after a dispute between his
party and the Christian Democrats. President Francesco Cossiga
has rejected the resignation and sent the government back to
parliament for a confidence debate.
 REUTER

the money market with 224 mln stg help in the morning session.
This compares with the Bank's forecast of a shortage in the
system today of around 850 mln stg which it earlier revised up
from 800 mln.
    The central bank bought bank bills comprising 27 mln stg in
band one at 9-7/8 pct, 21 mln stg in band two at 9-13/16 pct
and 171 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
    It also purchased three mln stg of treasury bills and two
mln stg of local authority bills in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

Industrial production in the European
Community (EC) in January showed no growth compared with
January 1986, the EC statistics office, Eurostat, said in a
report.
    It said the EC industrial production index, base 1980,
stood at 103.9 in both months.
    EC officials said while the lack of growth may have been
due in part to the icy weather which gripped large parts of the
EC in January, it also reflects a worrying trend.
    Eurostat said for the last three months for which figures
are known, industrial output rose by only 0.9 pct compared with
    Annual growth in the 12 months to January averaged about
1.8 pct, well below the 2.8 pct figure recorded in the 12
months ending last June, the office said.
 REUTER

Electrical appliance maker Moulinex
<MOUP.PA> said industrial director Roland Darneau had been
nominated as general manager of the group.
    Darneau's appointment, if confirmed by the Moulinex board
on April 16, effectively names him as successor to 87-year-old
Moulinex group President Jean Mantelet, industry analysts said.
    The company declined to comment on press reports that
Moulinex recorded a loss of between 200 mln and 250 mln francs
in 1986, or that this would be offset by Mantelet personally
injecting 200 mln francs.
    Company sources said earlier this year that the group was
likely to increase its net consolidated losses to 200 mln
francs in 1986 from 34.9 mln in 1985.
    Moulinex has implemented a restructuring programme,
including plans to cut jobs, to improve its results.
    The group is currently looking for a possible partner after
a merger with <Scovill Inc> of the U.S. Fell through.
    Scovill sold its 20 pct stake in Moulinex at the beginning
of March.
 REUTER

2,500 billion lire of indexed government discount certificates
at rates slightly higher than on the preceding issue.
    The seven-year certificates carry a first-year coupon,
payable April 21 1988, of 4.86 pct, identical to that on the
preceding issue in March.
    They will be offered at a base price of 72 lire, down from
74 previously, for an effective net annual yield on the first
coupon of 10.15 pct against 9.66 in March. Yields after the
first year will be linked to rates on 12-month Treasury bills.
    Subscriptions to the issue close April 17.
 REUTER

London's soft futures markets, namely
cocoa, coffee and sugar, are adopting with immediate effect a
uniform presentation on their respective open positions
referring to previous day's trading figures, a spokeswoman for
the London Commodity Exchange (LCE) said.
    The figures represent total clients' long positions as well
as short positions, plus the net house positions as submitted
by all members for each delivery month, she said.
    As a result, figures will differ from those previously
published but are hoped to be more accurate and to compare more
favourably with other international markets, she added.
    Since the introduction of a revised clearing procedure last
October, which incorporated a system of "mark-to-market',
figures as published bore little relationship to the true open
position, the spokeswoman said.
    The open position for business done up to the previous
trading day is prepared daily by the International Commodity
Clearing House (ICCH) and then posted on the various market
notice boards.
 REUTER

The Danish government said it planned
tax changes to discourage people making shopping trips to West
Germany and other countries where consumer durables are
cheaper.
    Tax Minister Isi Foighel told journalists the government
will present a bill abolishing sales tax - generally 10 to 20
pct - on radios, record players, loudspeakers, video tapes,
vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens and small household items.
    The annual loss in revenue of 275 mln Danish crowns will be
made up by higher duties on four-wheel drive vehicles and small
pick-up vans, which will be taxed in future as commercial
vehicles under two tonnes.
    Foighel also announced small reductions in the concessions
for duty-free imports to compensate for a strengthening of the
Danish crown.
    He said maximum concessions would apply in future only to
travellers out of the country for more than 24 hours. Those
returning within that period will have to prove to customs that
they have been on more than a shopping trip.
    The tax move follows an official report showing that total
border imports, about three billion crowns in 1985, rose by
some 600 mln crowns in 1986, a trend which has alarmed Danish
businesses, particularly in Jutland areas bordering Germany.
 REUTER

The former chief of
foreign exchange at Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> has been arrested in
connection with a scandal which may have cost the car maker a
quarter of a billion dlrs, the chief state prosecutor Carl
Hermann Retemeyer said.
    He told Reuters that Burkhard "Bobby" Junger was arrested
yesterday for suspected embezzlement.
    "There is reason to believe that Junger could have evaded
justice, and investigating magistrates therefore asked for his
arrest," Retemeyer said.
    VW fired Junger in March, after news emerged of the
suspected foreign exchange swindle. In January the board gave
him leave of absence. Six other people have been suspended.
    VW said last month computer programs were erased and
documents faked in the possible fraud, in which it believes
transactions meant to protect it against foreign currency
losses were not completed.
    Retemeyer said "We are still investigating a larger circle
of people, among them Frankfurt currency dealers"
    He would not comment whether other arrests could be
expected.
    The possible fraud resulted in a major management shake-up
with the resignation of Rolf Selowsky, management board member
in charge of finance, who assumed managerial responsibility for
the affair.
    Retemeyer said last month he wanted to question
Frankfurt-based money broker Joachim Schmidt, who may be able
to give more details.
 REUTER

Occidental Petroleum Corp said the
Shiviyacu-23 development well on Block 1-AB in the Peruvian
Amazon jungle is producing 6,593 barrels of 22 degree gravity
oil per day from depths of 9,543 to 9,547 and 9,556 to 9,599
feet.
    The company said it is drilling a new exploration well on
the block, Southeast Shiviyacu-1, 2.5 miles away.
 Reuter

Atari corp said it has
canceled a planned 75 mln dlr domestic offering of convertible
subordinated debentures in favor of an overseas offering.
    Yesterday, in London, lead underwriter PaineWebber Group
Inc <PWJ> announced a planned offering of 75 mln dlrs of Atari
convertible debentures due 2002 with an indicated coupon of
five to 5-1/4 pct.
    Atari said the debentures will not be available for U.S.
resal until at least 90 days after completion of the offering
abroad.
 Reuter

CBS Inc said under its settlement with
former chairman and chief executive officer Thomas Wyman, it
will pay him 400,000 dlrs a year for life.
    CBS, in a proxy statement, said Wyman can also elect to
receive either 3,800,000 dlrs in 10 annual installments or a
lump sum of 2,800,000 dlrs next January Two.
    The settlement with Wyman called for his employment to
continue through 1986, and he was paid 809,654 dlrs in base
salary and 293,859 dlrs in bonuses for the year, CBS said, with
the bonuses paid in February 1987.
    Wyman resigned on September 10 amid opposition from the
company's two largest shareholders, Loews Corp <LTR> chairman
Laurence A. Tisch and retired CBS chairman William S. Paley.
Tisch was then named chief executive officer and Paley returned
as chairman.
    The proxy statement said Tisch will receive a salary of
750,000 dlrs for serving as chief executive this year.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 46 cts
    Shr diluted 44 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 2,267,000 vs 2,055,000
    Sales 87.3 mln vs 70.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 1.12 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.07 dlrs vs 1.03 dlrs
    Net 5,318,000 vs 4,958,000
    Sales 243.7 mln vs 198.7 mln
 Reuter

which struck at 0940 hrs (0040 GMT), as being under the sea off
Fukushima prefecture, some 240 km north of Tokyo.
scale hit southwest Japan, killing two people.
Reuters.
 Reuter

92 seats.
    Thatcher does not have to call elections until June 1988.
 Reuter

Foreign banks in West Germany are
reassessing their positions after a number of changes in the
markets and the regulatory environment that have dampened a
once-euphoric enthusiasm for expansion here.
    Banking sources said the most important changes were plans
to bring securities holdings into capital lending ratios, the
first such move in a major financial centre. This could place a
serious burden on several foreign banks, particularly those
active in primary and secondary bond markets. Foreign banks had
much lower equity and reserve capital than most domestic banks.
    Senior banking sources said talks between the Bundesbank
and the banking supervisory office over bringing securities --
primarily bonds -- under banking laws governing capital ratios
were in progress.
    Although no date had been set for imposition, banks as
early as this year may be obliged to bring bonds under 1985
rules that limit bank lending to 18 times shareholders equity
and reserves.
    Although other national regulatory authorities are known to
be considering similar steps in light of growing securitisation
of debt previously in the balance sheet, Germany, with its
tradition of prudence, may be the first.
    Brian Kissack, president of the Foreign Banks Association,
told Reuters, "It's not a positive sign. It could cause certain
people who are not in (West Germany) to query whether it was as
attractive to get in now."
    Larger banks may begin to use global networks to pass on
holdings in mark securities to other centres which had less
stringent ratios, taking business out of the country, he added.
    But sources said foreign banks faced a host of other
practical problems as well. These included,
    -- the apparent unwillingness of the Bonn government to
make an early move to abolish the stock exchange turnover tax.
    -- signs that London's "Big Bang" may have deeper
implications for German securities trading than first thought.
    -- difficulty in finding experienced securities
professionals to staff new subsidiaries.
    -- growing pressure on commercial banking margins that is
forcing widespread retrenchment and refocusing of activities.
    -- the threat of having to face a renewed push for market
share by the largest and most powerful Japanese banks.
    By leaving the stock exchange turnover tax out of the
initial negotiating session of the incoming federal coalition
government, Bonn had dashed hopes it would soon be abolished.
    The tax is 0.25 pct on each side of a securities trade by a
non-bank, but it is not levied on public authority bonds.
    This extra cost, particularly for finely-priced instruments
such as floating rate notes, had kept much mark securities
business firmly in the City, awaiting a change. But aside from
this, London was more active than domestic houses had expected.
    Large U.S., British, Japanese and Swiss investors often
preferred to execute block trades -- 50,000 shares and up --
with City market makers who could absorb at least some of the
paper in their own positions, diminishing the immediate impact
on the share price.
    Most German brokers and banks pass trades direct to the
exchange floor, cutting profits or adding to costs.
    Bank in Liechstenstein (Frankfurt) GmbH board member
Michael Zapf said London's share of German securities business
done was causing foreign banks without German units to weigh
whether establishment costs involved were worth the returns.
    Additional signs that London market makers may move into
secondary level stocks had added to this concern, he said.
    Now, plans by many foreign banks to transfer mark
securities trading entirely to newly established, mainly
Frankfurt-based units were being reassessed, sources said.
    The continuing existence of the stock exchange tax had also
effectively prevented the birth of a short-term mark paper
market in certificates of deposit or commercial paper.
    Many U.S. Investment and money centre banks in particular
were hoping experience in these would provide the lever to
prise open tight credit relationships between companies and
their domestic "house" banks.
    At the moment, U.S. Investment banks are expanding fastest
here. A unit of Salomon Inc <SB.N> began last summer and Morgan
Stanley Group Inc <MS.N> is currently fitting out offices,
probably for a summer start to business.
    A unit of <Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co> should begin
operations toward year end. Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER.N>
and Shearson Lehman Brothers are known to be weighing
conversion of current, small operations to full-standing units.
    But expansion had been hampered by the lack of experienced
personnel in a hitherto fairly small market. The big three
Swiss banks, which arrived between late 1985 and first half
1986, have been steadily building up securities departments,
taking staff equally from domestic and foreign competitors.
    The two U.S. Banks longest established here, Citibank AG
and Chase Bank AG, had been particularly hard hit.
    Both banks recently announced plans to cut back commercial
activities and shut down German branch offices on orders from
head office. In the competitive environment, return on assets
employed was insufficient to meet requirements, sources said.
    But the weakening attraction of "Financial Centre Germany"
was unlikely to deter major Japanese banks from setting up full
subsidiaries when the Bundesbank gives the green light for mark
eurobond lead management probably around third quarter 1987.
    Once banks such as Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd <DIKB.T> and
Sumitomo Bank Ltd <SUMI.T> move in, competition for business,
for staff and even for premises would soar, sources said.
 REUTER

President Reagan will shortly
nominate the head of the U.S. program for Third World
development, Peter McPherson, as second-ranking officer of the
Department of the Treasury, administration sources said.
    They said the White House was expected to announce
McPherson's nomination to succeed Richard Darman as deputy
Treasury scretary later this week.
    The nomination is subject to Senate approval.
    McPherson has headed the Agency for International
Development (AID) since 1981. As Treasury Secretary James
Baker's chief assistant, he would be expected to work closely
on international economic policy, including the major problems
of the Mexican and Brazilian debts.
    McPherson, a lawyer, worked in the White House under
President Gerald Ford, after serving as a corporate tax
specialist for the Internal Revenue Service.
    He also spent two years in Peru as a member of the Peace
Corps.
    Darman, who was considered to have played a central role in
achieving agreements among industrial countries on
international economic policy, will leave the Treasury on April
13 to join the Investment Banking Group of Shearson Lehman
Brothers.
 Reuter

The British Petroleum <BP.L> Co Plc's
refinery at Grangemouth, Scotland, shut down after an explosion
and fire in the hydrocracker on March 22, will probably be back
in operation towards the week-end, a refinery spokesman said.
    He said the refinery will resume at about half its 178,500
barrels per day (bpd) capacity, as work on overhauling the
North Side of the complex, which began at the end of January,
will not be completed before the end of April.
    He said the refinery had been closed for longer than
originally expected due to the lengthy safety checks being
carried out prior to restarting.
    The explosion and fire, in which one worker was killed,
caused extensive damage to the central part of the 32,000
hydrocracker and the spokesman said today this unit would be
out of operation for several months. The remainder of the
refinery, including the 19,000 catalytic cracker, was
undamaged.
    He said inquiries into the accident, which happened while
the hydrocracker was not in operation, were continuing.
    In an earlier incident, two people were killed in an
explosion and fire at the refinery on March 13.
 REUTER

    It also urges the government to concentrate in the first
proportion of the year's public works spending.
    The guidelines will be explained to the U.S. this week when
meetings with the IMF and G-7 ministers, Ito added.
    The LDP suggested the government review the ceiling on
presented by individual ministries, Ito said.
 Reuter

British corporate affairs minister Michael
Howard told Japan to resolve the row over the U.K. Firm Cable
and Wireless Plc's <CAWL.L> shareholding in a new Japanese
telecommunications company or face an abrupt deterioration in
trade relations.
    In meetings with both the foreign and telecommunications
ministers Howard said he expressed deep concern about the way
Tokyo had handled the dispute and about the continuing trade
imbalance between the two countries.
    "I put it to the (post and telecommunications) minister that
I was sure he did not want to be responsible for an abrupt
deterioration in the trading relations of our countries which
would have widespread reverberations elsewhere in the world,"
Howard told reporters.
    "He listened very carefully and I have little doubt the
message got home," he added.
    British frustration over the lopsided trade balance -
nearly six billion dlrs in Japan's favour last year - has
reached boiling point over the telecommunications issue, Howard
said.
    Howard has accused Japan of trying to shut out Cable and
Wireless from having a major role in the international
telephone market in Japan.
    "I want a fair crack of the whip for Cable and Wireless as I
want a fair crack of the whip for Britain generally in trading
relations," Howard said. "We simply aren't prepared to continue
to accept the imbalance which has been the position for such a
long time."
    Post and Telecommunications Ministry officials were unable
to comment on Howard's meeting with their minister.
    But Foreign Ministry officials said Foreign Minister
Tadashi Kuranari said that British exports to Japan are
increasing, but acknowledged the continuing imbalance in trade.
    Kuranari said he wants everyone in the telecommunications
dispute, including Cable and Wireless, to be satisfied.
    Howard told reporters that Britain was actively considering
possible retaliatory measures if it did not get its way on the
telecommunications issue.
    "There are measures which are under consideration if we
continue to suffer from the imbalance in our trading relations,"
he added, but gave no details.
    He said he had received a reassuring response from the
Japanese he has spoken with.
    "But of course we've had reassuring signs from the Japanese
for quite some time," he added. "What I've made plain is we
expect to see action."
    Howard ruled out using powers in Britain's Financial
Services bill to retaliate against unfair trade practices.
Those powers, which allow London to ban foreign financial firms
like banks from Britain, are designed to ensure U.K. Firms
equal access to overseas financial markets.
 REUTER

    Retemeyer said, "We are still investigating a larger circle
expected.
 Reuter

Cardinal Industries Inc said it
restated earnings for the first nine months of 1986 to 235,000
dlrs, or nine cts per share, from 485,000 dlrs, or 18 cts,
reported previously due to the failure of an automated
accounting system installed in mid-year and replaced in the
    The company said its Reliance segment sustained a
significant operating loss for the full year 1986 due to the
accounting problems and increased promotional and advertising
expenses.  For the full year, it said it earned 284,000 dlrs,
or 10 cts a share, up from 271,000 dlrs, or 10 cts, in 1985.
    Cardinal Industries said revenues for the year were 30.7
mln dlrs, up from 23.0 mln dlrs in 1985.
    The company said for the first quarter of 1987, earnings
were about 48,000 dlrs, up from 13,000 dlrs or nil per share in
the year ago period.  The year-ago first quarter earnings,
however, have been restated from 101,000 dlrs or four cts per
share.  It said sales for the first quarter were about
8,363,000 dlrs, up from 6,636,000 dlrs.
    For the first half of 1986, the company said it restated
earnings to 141,000 dlrs or five cts per share from 340,000
dlrs or 12 cts per share reported previously.
 Reuter

holds talks with counterparts from Europe and Japan today, to
urge them to carry out commitments in a recent accord to speed
their economic growth.
    Baker is also expected to outline proposals for making
agreements to coordinate economic policies more binding.
    The bilateral discussions foreshadow full-blown talks of
the Group of Five industrial countries joined later by Italy
and Canada to form the Group of Seven.
    The five comprise finance ministers and central bankers of
the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain.
    The Treasury Secretary is expected to see Japanese Finance
Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, West German Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson.
    Baker and other finance ministers say they intend to
reaffirm the Paris Agreement to buttress global economic
growth, reduce trade imbalances and stabilize currencies.
    Monetary sources said a short communique to that effect is
expected after the meeting ends.
    These talks form part of this week's semi-annual meetings
of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
    At the same time, monetary sources say they expect Baker to
put forward proposals, originally outlined at the 1986 Tokyo
Summit, to tighten procedures for policy coordination.
    Washington wants other major nations to establish specific
policy goals for economic growth, inflation, current account
balance of payments, trade balances, budget performance,
monetary conditions and currencies.
    If actual economic performance veers sharply away from such
objectives, then countries should consult on whether corrective
action is necessary, the proposal says.
    Monetary sources said there was some support for the
proposal, which may not be made final until the Venice Economic
Summit in June, but Britain and West Germany were firmly
against any attempt to make corrective action automatic.
    The U.S. Treasury team, led by Baker, has worked on this
plan since last September, when it won the support of France.
    Baker, meanwhile, will press Japan and West Germany to live
up to their commitments, made over six weeks ago in Paris, to
boost their domestic demand to absorb more imports.
    He is also expected to reassure his counterparts that the
Reagan administration will reach agreement with Congress on a
significant budget deficit cut this year, helping to depress
U.S. demand for imports.
    The aim of the Paris Accord is to redress the huge
imbalance between the trade surpluses of Tokyo and Bonn on the
one hand, and Washington's massive trade deficit on the other.
    Japan, in particular, is under pressure to come up with a
meaningful stimulus package or face a further rise in the yen.
    Financial markets appear to believe the yen should go
higher against the dollar, a development that has become
unacceptable in Japan.
    The Paris Agreement, by the United States, Japan, West
Germany, France, Britain and Canada, called for currencies to
be stabilized around current levels.
    But the dollar fell again just several weeks after the
agreement was reached, and its present stability is said to be
temporary as dealers await the outcome of this week's talks.
    Meanwhile, representatives of the leading Third World
countries continue preparing their position for their ministers
to present to industrial nations later this week.
    Monetary sources said the so-called Group of 24 developing
nations are preparing a very tough communique which brands the
western strategy for shoring up the debt strategy as a failure.
    They call instead for vast new assistance from the
industrial world and a much greater role for the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
 Reuter

holders of 75 pct of its outstanding 10-3/4 pct senior
subordinated debentures due December 1, 1998, have indicated
their intention to tender under the company's current exchange
offer and to reach an agreement with the company.
    It said it hopes to conclude negotiations with the
debenture holders and its lenders and to conclude the exchange
offer as soon as possible.
    Michigan General in March had said that the exchange offer
would be conditioned on 90 pct acceptance and on its lender
waiving or providing relief from loan agreement defaults.
    Michigan General had also said that the offer would be
conditioned on ratification of amendments to the indenture
governing the 10.75 pct debentures by holders of two thirds of
the issue.
    It had said that if the offer and talks with its lender did
not succeed, it would probably have to file for bankruptcy law
protection.
    Michigan General is offering to exchange 500 dlrs of
increasing rate senior subordinated notes due March 1, 1992,
200 dlrs of non-interest bearing delayed convertible senior
subordinated notes due March 1, 1997 and 2 shares of two dlr
delayed convertible preferred stock with a liquidation value of
25 dlrs a share for each 1,000 dlrs of the debentures.
 Reuter

Egypt's Central Bak left the dollar rate
for Commercial banks for April 8 unchanged at 1.353/67 pounds.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Italy's government is expected to fall
tomorrow after the majority Christian Democrats decided to
withdraw their 16 ministers unless Socialist Prime Minister
Bettino Craxi resigned, political sources said today.
    They said the decision brought the prospect of early
general elections even closer.
    After a tense eight-hour meeting, the Christian Democrat
leadership late last night said it registered "the dissolution
of the present government," in which the party provides more
than half the 30 ministers.
    Party leader Ciriaco De Mita told reporters that when Craxi
went to parliament for a confidence debate. "There won't be a
Craxi government any more ... I don't believe you can have a
confidence vote for a government which does not exist."
    Craxi announced today after being told of the Christian
Democrat decision that a cabinet meeting would be held tomorrow
afternoon and he would then go to the Senate (upper house).
    The sources said that at the cabinet meeting the Christian
Democrats, senior partners in a coalition including Social
Democrats, Liberals and Republicans as well as the Socialists,
would tell Craxi he had to resign.
    If he refused to do so and insisted on a full debate they
would withdraw their ministers, forcing the collapse of the
government before a confidence vote, the sources said.
 Reuter

A Brazilian seamen's strike, which
began on February 27 and has been tapering off for weeks, has
now ended, a seamen's spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the seamen had signed an agreement with
the state-owned Lloyd Brasileiro company on Saturday for a 120
pct salary rise.
    The national strike had been tailing off since mid-March as
seamen struck individual accords with companies. At the height
of the stoppage, seamen said about 200 ships were strike-bound.
 Reuter

Ing. C. Olivetti EC Spa <OLIV.MI> plans to
announce a new line of computer products in June, company
chairman Carlo De Benedetti said at a news conference.
    De Benedetti said the new products would include personal
computers and would compete with the new computers announced
last week by International Business Machines Corp <IBM>.
    De Benedetti reiterated that Olivetti's provisional figures
show that 1986 turnover rose 1160 billion lire to 7,300 billion
lire and that net profit will be more than 550 billion lire
compared with 503.7 billion the year before.
    "This year will be a year of consolidation of the results
reached thus far and characterized by an important renewal of
the product line and the turnaround of Triumph Adler," he said.
    Olivetti acquired West German typewriter maker <Triumph
Adler> from Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> last year . As part of the
deal, VW bought a five pct stake in Olivetti. De Benedetti
added that Olivetti would continue to seek international
alliances.
 Reuter

South African gold holdings rose 172.56
mln rand to 4.17 billion rand in March after rising 39 mln rand
to 4.0 billion rand in February, Reserve Bank figures show.
    In volume terms gold holdings rose to 5.51 mln ounces in
March from 5.26 mln ounces in February, valued at 757.24 rand
an ounce for March versus 754.59 rand an ounce for February.
    Total gold and foreign assets rose to 6.30 billion rand
from 6.22 billion, of which the gold content increased to 66.22
pct from 64.3 pct.
    Foreign bills remained at zero in March while investments
fell slightly to 105.69 mln rand from February's 106.56 mln
rand and other assets to 2.02 billion rand from 2.11 billion,
the figures showed.
    Total liabilities fell to 12.21 billion rand in March after
rising to 13.62 billion in February.
 REUTER

Newmont Mining Corp, said it is raising its copper cathode
price by 0.50 cent to 66.00 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Kaneb Energy Partners Ltd, 82 pct owned
by Kaneb Services Inc <KAB>, said a juiry in Circuit Court of
Tuscaloosa County, Ala., has ruled in its favor and that of Jim
Walter Corp <JWC> against Sonat Inc <SNT> in a dispute over a
natural gas sales contract.
    The company said the suit was filed seekiong to enforce
Sonat's obligations under the contract to pay for methane gas
produced by the Brookwood Coal Degasificiation Project in the
Black Warrior Basin of Alabama, which is equally owned by Kaneb
and Jim Walter.
    Kaneb said the jury awarded it and Jim Walter about 22 mln
dlrs for required payments for deliveries through January 1987
plus interest through March 16 -- the full amount sought -- and
rejected Sonat's counterclaim of fraud.
    It said the decision may be appealed.
 Reuter

Rent-A-Center Inc is raising 35 mln
2012 with a 5-3/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole manager
stock at 40.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.58
 Reuter

Whittaker Corp said it has completed
the previously-announced sale of its wholly-oiwned Whittaker
General Medical Corp subsidiary to R.A.B. Holdings Inc for
    Whittaker General Medical has annual revenues of about 450
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Big Bear Inc said it has filed
for a secondary offering of one mln of its common shares to be
made by Odyssey Partners and Dover Fund Inc.
    Lead underwriters are <Goldman, Sachs and Co> and
<Oppenheimer and Co Inc>.
    Underwriters have been granted an overallotment option for
up to 150,000 more shares.
 Reuter

Wang Laboratories Inc said it has
added two entry-level 32-bit minicomputers to its TEMPEST
systems product line.
    It said the low-cost VS 5T and VS 6T, priced at 13,500 dlrs
and 21,500 dlrs, respectively, maintain software and peripheral
compatibility with all VS systems. The new systems can be
configured both as standalone processors and as end-node
systems in large distributed networks.
    Wang also said it is introducing a 1/4-inch streaming
caRtridge tape drive for system back-up and two SCSI-technology
portable Winchester disk drives for increased security, greater
capaicty and faster throughput.
    It said the caRtridge tape dirve is priced at 4,000 dlrs.
The new disk drives are priced at 9,000 dlrs for a 72MB model
and 15,000 dlrs for a 145MB model.
    The company said the new computers and storage devices,
available in May, comply with the U.S. Government's NACSIM
5100A specifications.
 Reuter

StarTel Corp said it expects to
report a first quartter loss on a 25 to 30 pct revenue fall
from the year-earlier 2,524,000 dlrs.
    The company earned 64,000 dlrs in last year's first quarter.
 Reuter

Datron Systems Inc said it
expects to report a falloff in earnings for the year ended
March 31 of about 25 pct from fiscal 1986 levels.
    In fiscal 1986, Datron earned 1,776,000 dlrs.
    The company said new orders for the year just ended,
however, rose 50 pct to 26 mln dlrs, bringing backlog at
year-end to 19 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

DATA GENERAL TO TAKE 18.2 MLN DLR PRETAX CHARGE TO REDEEM 150 MLN DLRS OF DEBT

Enterra Corp said it has completed the
sale of its Hale Fire Pump co and Macomson Machine Co
subsidiaries to a company formed by Los Angeles investment firm
McBain, Rose Partners for about 27 mln dlrs in cash.
    Both Hale and Macomson make fire pumps and related
 Reuter

Compaq Computer Corp said cofounder and
vice president of sales is resigning effective April 20 and
will enter a masters in religious education program in Houston
this summer.
 Reuter

FMD Inc said it has agreed to acquire
Bankers Protective Financial Corp for 28,836,000 common shares,
subject to approval by the Texas State Board of Insurance.
    Bankers Protective is a life insurance company based in
Texas.
 Reuter

    Net profit 1,033,000 vs loss 4,346,000
    Sales 6,060,000 vs 5,818,000
    1985 sales exclude contract revenues of 3,217,000 dlrs.
    1986 net includes reversal of 597,000 dlrs of reserves no
longer deemed necessary and tax credit 340,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 99 cts vs 97 cts
    Net 31,011,000 vs 30,899,000
    Sales 651.5 mln vs 583.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 3.13 dlrs vs 2.92 dlrs
    Net 98,643,000 vs 92,347,000
    Sales 2.61 billion vs 2.51 billion
    NOTE: 1986 results reflect two-for-one stock split of July
23, 1986
 Reuter

Inc said it expects its fully diluted earnings per share for
the first quarter to be about 35 pct above the same year-ago
period.
    It also looks for 1987 full-year fully diluted earnings to
be about 20 pct higher than the record 4.31 dlrs a share
reported for 1986.
    Chairman Donald Clark, in remarks prepared for delivery to
New York security analysts, cited increased earnings from
Household Financial Services and "excellent return on equity
from Household Manufacturing, combined with the impact of our
share repurchase program, will result in higher earnings per
share and improved return on equity in 1987."
 Reuter

A total of 14,685 tonnes of British
home market, the Home Grown Cereals Authority said.
    Bids amounted to 19,115 tonnes against offerings of 31,528.
Prices paid were at, or above, the prevailing intervention feed
wheat price of 120.71 stg per tonne.
    Grain traders said a large part of the tonnage on offer was
in stores, which would mean high transport costs to deficient
areas. The European Commission recently made available 70,000
tonnes for next week's tender.
 Reuter

A unit of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is
issuing a 15 billion yen eurobond due May 12, 1992 paying 4-1/2
pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, market sources said. The joint
bookrunners are Tokai International and Daiwa Europe Ltd.
    The formal name of the borrower is Banca Nazionale del
Lavoro (London Branch) (Through the Law Debenture Corporation
Plc). The non-callable bond is available in denominations of
one mln yen and will be listed in Luxembourg.
underwriting combined pays 5/8 pct. The payment date is May 11
and there will be a long first coupon period.
 REUTER

Data General Corp said it
expects to record an extraordinary pretax charge of about 18.2
mln dlrs in the second quarter ended March 28.
    The company said the charge will result from a redemption
of debt. On May 18, Data General said, it will redeem 150 mln
dlrs of outstanding 12-3/8 pct sinking fund debentures due
2015.
    The redemption price will be 111.138 pct of the total
principal amount of notes then outstanding plus accrued
interest to the redemption date, it said.
    No interest will accrue or will be payable on the
debentures starting May 18, the computer and communications
    Data General reported a loss of 1.8 mln dlrs or six cts a
share for the second quarter ended March 29, 1986. The loss
included a charge of 3.8 mln dlrs from redemption of
debentures. In the year-ago quarter, revenues fell less than
one pct to 318.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil
production is likely to drop sharply this year, due to lower
yields, the Hamburg-based newsletter Oil World said.
    The publication expects total Malaysian output during
Jan/Sept 1987 to decline by eight pct to 3.05 mln tonnes. For
East Malaysia, it put production during the period at 297,000
tonnes after 312,000 a year earlier and for West Malaysia 2.75
mln compared with just over 3.0 mln during Jan/Sept 1986.
    It said new plantings had slowed markedly in both
countries, but the effects of this will not be felt until
1988-90.
    Above normal yields during recent years resulted in trees
reacting to the stress by changing the sex ratio to more male
inflorescences and/or aborting more female, Oil World said.
    Yields per hectare are also likely to be adversely affected
this year by insufficient rain up to 25 months ago. This could
especially affect trees in West Malaysia during April/June,
while in East Malaysia the impact will be in February/April and
July/Dec, and in Indonesia July/Sept.
    Last year's cut in fertilizer use will hit this year's
yields and bigger effects are expected within the next three
years, Oil World said without elaborating.
    Opening stocks in West Malaysia at the start of this year
were put at only 565,000 tonnes compared with 914,000 in
January 1986, Oil World said.
    West Malaysian net exports are therefore expected to drop
500,000 tonnes to 2.54 mln during Jan/Sept, while those of East
Malaysia are likely to decline by 10 pct to 280,000 tonnes.
    Indonesian palm oil production is forecast to fall about
eight pct during Jan/May, but to rise from June on. Overall
Indonesian output during Jan/Sept is forecast to rise three pct
to 933,000 tonnes. Indonesian stocks as of April 1, however,
are put at only 65,000 tonnes compared with 160,000 a year ago.
    Indonesian export commitments and domestic requirements are
both running at high levels, Oil World said, and it expects the
country's imports to reach a record 110,000 tonnes during
Jan/Sept. The bulk of this will arrive during Feb/May, ahead of
the April elections and the religious Ramadan festival
throughout May, it said.
    Indonesian net exports, therefore, may fall by 29 pct to
350,000 tonnes, Oil World said. The possibility that recent
Indonesian palm oil purchases will not actually enter the
country but be transshipped to other countries to fulfill
Indonesia's export orders cannot be ruled out, it said.
 REUTER

money market with a further 284 mln stg assistance in the
afternoon session.
    This takes the bank's total help so far today to 508 mln
stg and compares with its revised estimate of a 900 mln stg
shortage in the system which it earlier revised up from 850
mln.
comprising 100 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, 56 mln stg in
band two at 9-13/16 pct, 112 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct
and 16 mln stg in band four at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

Sesostris, the Spanish subsidiary of the
international grain trader Dreyfus, sold 18,000 tonnes of
barley to Greece for delivery from Mediterranean ports from
April 14 to 30, a company spokesman said. He gave no details on
price.
    The barley has a 14 pct humidity.
 Reuter

Widespread strikes have not seriously
disrupted Spain's economy and wage restrictions are likely to
continue as policy makers call for more austerity to help the
country compete in the European Community (EC), foreign bankers
    "The strikes were unexpected and in some cases spectacular,
but they have had little effect on basic economic life," a U.S.
Banker told Reuters. "The socialists can apply restrictive
measures as long as the unions remain relatively weak."
    The communist-led Workers' Commissions recently rejected a
call by its leadership for a general strike while the ruling
Socialist Party's trade union arm, the General Workers' Union,
has refused to demonstrate with the communists on May 1.
    The government's chief concern is inflation, which stood at
8.3 pct last year. The high inflation rate is especially
damaging in view of Spain's trade balance with Europe, which
turned into a deficit last year after entry to the EC.
    Officials say the situation is rapidly deteriorating. The
deficit of 450 mln dlrs in the first two months of 1987 was
only slightly below the 515 mln dlr deficit for all of 1986.
    The government has tightened up money supply, called for
maximum 5.0 pct wage increases -- the same as this year's
inflation target -- and is pursuing a program of industrial
restructuring despite an unemployment rate of 21.5 pct.
    Bankers say tight-money policies have attracted an
avalanche of foreign capital that is cashing in on the strong
peseta and high interest rates and those funds, converted into
pesetas, are swelling money supply still further.
    Bank of Spain governor Mariano Rubio said last week that
money supply is expected to rise 14.3 pct in the first quarter
compared with this year's eight pct target.
    Most analysts agree that the government will have to accept
inflation closer to six pct this year but they say there is
little cause for alarm.
    "The money supply should be back on track by the summer and
we will begin to see lower interest rates," said Andres
Trujillo, general manager of Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking
Corp's Madrid branch.
    He told Reuters the labour protests, despite occasional
outbursts of violence, are not having a serious impact on
foreign investment.
    "Spain is a big and relatively underdeveloped market," he
said. "It is still easier to compete from here than in other
countries and this sporadic unrest is not likely to scare off
investors."
    Juan Jose Macaya, general manager of Investban SA, a
portfolio management company, said he expects monetary
objectives to be under control in two or three months.
    "There has been some nervousness in the stock exchange but
we see this as a short-term reaction," he said.
 REUTER

it agreed to sell its wholly owned Norwegian subsidiary to Elf
Aquitaine Norge A/S of Stavanger, Norway for 13 mln Canadian
dlrs.
    The principal asset of the subsidiary, Bow Valley
Exploration Norge A/S, is  an eight pct interest in the Heimdal
gas and condensate field offshore Norway.
    The sale is expected to conclude by the middle of April,
Bow Valley said.
 Reuter

<Syngold Exploration Inc> and <Corp
Falconbridge Copper> said they defined undiluted reserves of
911,000 tons of ore with an average grade of 0.43 ounces of
gold per ton in two separate deposits on the Deka property
located at Noranda, Quebec.
    Assay results from 20 suface holes drilled on 250 foot
centers indicate that the Donalda number one deposit contains
possible reserves of 611,000 tons at an average grade of 0.48
ounces of gold per ton.
    The number one deposit's reserves are contained between a
vertical depth of 750 and 1200 feet at a strike length of 900
feet.
    Reserves of the Donalda number-two deposit, located 1,000
feet below the number-one deposit, were recalculated at 300,000
tons with an average grade of 0.33 ounces of gold per ton.
    Syngold has earned a 20 pct interest in the Deka property
from the operator, Corp Falconbridge Copper.
 Reuter

Cambridge BioScience Corp said
it received Federal Drug Administration approval on its
"Investigational New Drug" filing to begin human clinical
trials of its second generation diagnostic test for AIDS.
    The company said it anticipates the test may be released to
worldwide markets by late 1987 or early 1988.
    Cambridge BioScience also said it expects to file soon an
"Investigational New Drug"  with the FDA on its screening test
for detecting AIDS antibodies.
    This test, which is being evaluated in emergency situations
in several African nations, does not require highly trained
technicians nor instrumentation, according to the company.

    Cambridge BioScience explained that the filing for human
clinical trials for AIDS that received FDA approval, utilizes
recombinant-DNA technology to detect and screen antibodies in
blood or serum of patients infected with the AIDS-causing
virus.
    The other separate planned filing with the FDA is a
revolutionary, five-minute latex agglutination screening test
for detecting AIDS antibodies, the company said. This test,
utilizes latex beads coated with CBC's recombinant antigen
which attract and hold AIDS antibodies, forming clusters
(agglutination), which indicates a positive result.
 Reuter

3Com Corp said it supports
International Business Machines Corp's personal System/2 series
of computers, and will provide network operating software and
interfaces.
    The software and interfaces will allow the new machines to
be integrated into existing 3System workgroup systems, 3Com
said.
    3Com said it is modifying its 3+ network software to work
under DOS 3.3, ensuring campatibility with current Personal
Snd IBM's new Token Ring adaps
Micro Channel architecture.
 Reuter

Rexon Inc said an offering
of two mln common shares is underway at 13.25 dlrs per share
through underwriters led by Hambrecht and Quist Inc.
up to 300,000 more shares.
 Reuter

Surgidyne Inc said it filed
a registration statement for a proposed initial public offering
    The company proposes to offer 1,125,000 common shares at
about 2.00 dlrs a share.
    The offering would be underwritten by Westonka Investments
Inc.
    Surgidyne develops and markets specialty medical and
surgical products.
 Reuter

AAR Corp said its AAR
Technical Service Center unit signed a major maintenance
agreement with Continental Airlines to provide a wide range of
support for components operated on Continental's expanding
fleet of B727, B737, DC9, MD80 and DC10 aircraft.
    It said it is the largest component repair service
agreement reached by Continental Airlines with an independent
repair facility.
 Reuter

is to change the lead engine on its A-340 aircraft because the
high-technology superfan engine will not be ready by 1992, a
   Airbus has chosen the Franco-U.S. CFM-56-S3 engines to
replace the <International Aero Engine> (IAE) consortium's
superfan. The spokesman added the new engine, to be produced by
General Electric Co of the U.S. And SNECMA of France, can
provide greater thrust than the IAE rival.
    The spokesman said the IAE consortium, which includes Pratt
and Whitney of the U.S. And Britain's <Rolls Royce>, is unable
to supply its superfan engines in time for mid-1992 when the
A-340 is due to become operational.
    Airbus signed an agreement with IAE last December,
replacing an earlier accord with GE and <SNECMA>, whose CFM-56
engine could then offer no more than a 28,600 lbs thrust,
compared to the proposed superfan's 30,000 lbs.
    The latest version of the CFM-56, however, can provide a
30,600 lbs thrust.
    The Airbus spokesman said the consortium's decision did not
exclude the IAE superfan, once ready, being offered as an
alternative engine on the A-340 as the superfan was more
fuel-efficient than the CFM engine.
    The spokesman said Airbus expected IAE to come back with
some proposals on superfan's new production timetable within
the next few weeks or months.
 Reuter

EMERY AIR FREIGHT SAID HUTTON GROUP ENDS OFFER FOR PUROLATOR COURIER

The Intrepid Museum Foundation
reiterated that it is continuing negotiations with its official
Bondholders' and creditors' committees concerning the terms of
a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
    In December 1986, the museuem said it proposed a 20 pct
cash payment to its bondholders and a 12.5 pct cash payment to
the unsecured creditors. The museum said it is hopeful of
filing a plan in the near future.
    The museum said it has 15.2 mln dlrs principal amount of
gross revenue bonds outstanding, and approximately 1,350,000 of
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said it agreed to buy an
initial 1,000,501 treasury shares of <Sanivan Group Inc> at
5.25 dlrs per share.
    Noranda also has an option until June 30, 1988, to acquire
an additional 1,000,501 Sanivan treasury shares at 5.75 dlrs
per share.
    Sanivan is the largest hazardous waste management company
in Canada.
 Reuter

Emery Air Freight Corp said it has
entered into an agreement with E.F. Hutton Group Inc EFH under
which Hutton will terminate its merger agreement with Purolator
Courier Corp and its pending 35-dlr-per-share tender offer,
effective April 13.
    Under its merger agreement, Hutton has the right to
unilaterally terminate the merger agreement under certain
circumstances, including its receipt of less than 66-2/3 pct of
Purolator shares or the start of a higher competing tender
offer, such as Emery's competing 40 dlr per share offer for
Purolator stock.
    Yesterday, Hutton's PC Acquisition Corp subsidiary extended
its tender offer, which was to have expired at midnight, for
two more days.  It said it only about 450,000 shares, or 6.5
pct, of Purolator shares had been tendered and not withdrawn,
down from an 11.5 pct interest held earlier.
    Emery's bid expires April 28.
    Emery said pending the termination of PC Acquisition's
merger agreement, PC has released Purolator from an agreement
not to discuss Emery's acquisition proposal with Emery. Emery
said as a result it is renewing its request that Purolatr enter
into merger negotiations with it.
    Emery said if it were to acquire 51 pct of Purolator shares
or control of the Purolator board, it has agreed not to dispute
PC Acquisition's right to receive fees that Purolator agreed to
pay if PC were unsuccessful in acquiring control of Purolator
due to the acquisition of control by another party.
    The company said it has also agreed to let Purolator pay
all of PC Acquisition's documented expenses in connection with
the merger agreement up to three mln dlrs and Emery has agreed
to pay the amounts itself should Purolator fail to do so.
 Reuter

South Africa gold holdings rose 172.56
to 4.0 billion in February, Reserve Bank figures show.
the figures showed. Total liabilities fell to 12.21 billion
rand in March after rising to 13.62 billion in February.
 Reuter

Hotel Investors Trust and Hotel
Investors Corp, whose shares are paired and traded together,
said shareholders approved the sale of 355,556 paired shares to
John F. Rothman and Ronald A. Young the presidents and chief
executive officers of the trust and corporation, respectively.
    Rothman and Young agreed to buy the shares for 22.50 dlrs
each, subject to shareholder approval, after selling Wester
Host Inc to Hotel Investors in December. The company had about
11.4 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Spain will shortly sign with Saudi Arabia
an order for barley for April/May delivery, trade sources said.
    They gave no details on amounts or prices, but said it
would be a "major" order.
    Saudi Arabia bought 500,000 tonnes of Spanish barley last
year.
 Reuter

Clayton Homes Inc said revenues
in the third quarter rose eight pct to 38 mln dlrs.
    Sales in the nine months ended March 31 rose 12 pct to 126
mln dlrs from 112 mln dlrs, the homebuilder said.
    In the quarter, 2,240 homes were sold, up from 2,149 sold
in the year-ago quarter. Sales to independent dealers rose by
three mln dlrs, accounting for most of the increase, Clayton
said.
    In the nine months, 7,544 homes were sold compared to 7,043
in last year's period.
    Earnings will be released April 14, the company said.
 Reuter

Twistee Treat Corp said
it has signed letters of intent for four investor group to
develop a total of 585 additional Twistee Treat Ice Cream
Stores in western New York, California, North Carolina, South
Carolina and Texas.
    The company said the agreements call for the opening of at
least 83 locations in the next 12 months and completion of
remaining stores by 1989.
    It said it expects area development fee income of over two
mln dlrs in cash over the next three years.
 Reuter

Caisse Nationale des Autoroutes is issuing
a 120 mln ecu, 7-3/8 pct bond due May 15, 1995 at 101-3/4 pct,
lead manager Credit Lyonnais (CL) said.
    The non-callable issue of senior debt, guaranteed by
France, has fees of 1-1/4 pct for selling and 5/8 pct for
    "A management group is being put together and we are selling
well inside the fees," a CL spokesman said.
    Payment date is May 15, denominations are of 1,000 and
10,000 ECUs and listing is in Luxembourg.
    Co-leads are Shearson Lehman and Nippon European Bank SA.
 REUTER

Tandem Computer Inc said its
common stock is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under
the symbol TDM.
    The company's securities were previously traded on the
NASDAQ National Market System under the synbol TNDM.
 Reuter

Colombia is in the process of arranging
two co-financings for projects in the electrical sector,
director of public credit Mauricio Cabrera said.
    He told journalists he expects an 86.6 mln dlr loan to be
co-financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to be
completed by the middle of next month.
    He also said talks have just concluded with the World Bank
on a 200 mln dlr co-financing and that discussions with the
bankers will begin later this month.
    Cabrera was here for the signing yesterday of a 50 mln dlr
floating rate note.
    The floating rate note was the first such issue for
Colombia, which has had limited access to the international
capital markets since the eruption of the international debt
crisis in 1982, despite its ability to avoid a rescheduling.
    The IADB co-financing is for Interconexion Electrica SA
(ISA), a public electricity utility. The loan is for 10 years,
with four years grace. Interest will be at 1-1/8 pct during the
grace period after which the margin will rise to 1-1/4 pct,
Cabrera said. There is also a front end fee of one pct.
    The cost of the project totals 301.6 mln dlrs, of which ISA
will contribute about 100 mln and the IADB 115 mln, he added.
    Fuji Bank Ltd and Samuel Montagu and Co Ltd are arranging
the commercial bank portion of the financing. Cabrera noted
that only about 20 pct of the loan will be drawn this year.
    He said the World Bank co-financing is likely to come to
the market no earlier than June. It is part of an overall
financing for various projects in the electrical sector that
will take four years and cost about 300 mln dlrs a year.
    Of the total cost, he expects the World Bank and the IADB
to contribute about 700 mln dlrs, with the Export-Import Bank
of Japan lending between 200 and 300 mln. The balance will come
from commercial banks.
    Cabrera said that Colombia also plans one other issue in
the international capital markets this year.
    The country expected to launch up to 120 mln dlrs in
floating rate notes, but the market has virtually disappeared
in the past few months as supply outstripped demand and the
number of market makers contracted sharply.
    Cabrera said he is now considering several options,
including a fixed rate Eurobond and an issue in Japan. Last
year Colombia arranged a private placement in Japan for the
equivalent of about 40 mln dlrs. Although it prefers a public
issue, Colombia would place any financing in Japan privately.
    Bankers noted that the floating rate note signed yesterday,
which was for seven years with four years grace and paid 1-1/8
pct over Libor, was basically a "disguised loan."
    Cabrera said that as of December 31, 1986, Colombia had 11
billion dlrs of public sector foreign debt and 3.4 billion dlrs
of private sector debt.
    Of its planned total borrowings this year of two billion
dlrs, he said that about 1.4 billion had been arranged before
the end of 1986 and that most of the borrowings in 1987 will be
drawn in future years.
 REUTER

Photon Technology International
said it signed a research and development agreement with <M-L
Technology Ventures L.P.>, a research and development limited
partnership sponsored by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
   The agreement calls for MLTV to pay Photon more than 3.1 mln
dlrs over a three-year period to develop new electro-optical
technologies with applications in the medical field, the
    In 1988, MLTV may, at its option, have the right to acquire
warrants to purchase, during the next six years, 475,000 shares
of the company's common stock at 6.50 dlrs per share, adjusted
for future earnings, Photon said.
 Reuter

VOLCKER SAYS FURTHER SIZEABLE DECLINE IN DOLLAR COULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

    PARANA STATE: UMUARAMA NIL, PARANAVAI NIL, LONDRINA NIL,
MARINGA NIL.
    SAO PAULO STATE PRESIDENTE PRUDENTE NIL, VOTUPORANGA NIL,
FRANCA NIL, CATANDUVA NIL, SAO CARLOS NIL, SAO SIMAO NIL.
    MINAS GERAIS STATE: GUAXUPE 33.0 MILLIMETRES, TRES PONTAS
5.0 MM. REUTER

Cargill U.K. Ltd's oilseed processing
plant in Seaforth, northwest England, will resume operations
tomorrow morning following settlement of a labour dispute which
has paralysed production there since December 19, a company
    It is likely to resume deliveries of soymeal and oil within
a couple of days. Force majeure had previously been declared
for supplies up to, and including May, but the company will
attempt to fulfill all outstanding contracts, the spokesman
said.
 Reuter

VOLCKER SAYS EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENT ENOUGH TO NARROW U.S. TRADE DEFICIT

THE 24 HOURS UP TO (1200) GMT TODAY
    PARANA STATE: CASCAVEL NIL, PONTA GROSSA 0.2 MILLIMETRES,
CAMPO MOURAO NIL, LONDRINA NIL, MARINGA NIL.
    RIO GRANDE DO SUL STATE: PASSO FUNDO NIL, SANTA MARIA NIL,
CRUZ ALTA NIL, SAO LUIZ GONZAGA NIL. REUTER

VOLCKER SAYS REDUCING U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT NEEDED TO IMPROVE TRADE BALANCE

VOLCKER SAYS MORE STIMULUS ABROAD NEEDED FOR ADJUSTMENTS IN TRADE BALANCES

The U.S. Agriculture Department gave
a preliminary breakdown of grain in the Farmer-Owned Grain
Reserve as of April 1, with comparisons, based on telephone
reports from farmers filed with the department's Kansas City
field office, in mln bushels --
           April 1   Previous
 Wheat     657.6      659.7
 Corn    1,406.5    1,397.0
 Sorghum    95.8       95.5
 Barley    122.1      122.0
 Oats        3.7        3.7
 
 Reuter

Shr primary 34 cts vs 17 cts
    Shr diluted 33 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,487,000 vs 686,000
    Rev 19.8 mln vs 8.8 mln
    Shr primary 77 cts vs 43 cts
    Shr diluted 75 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 3,240,000 vs 1,710, 000
    Rev 42.2 mln vs 25.0 mln
    NOTE: Company's full name is On-Line Software International
Inc.
    The qtr and year-to-date results include the operations,
since the end of October 1986, of a business purchase from
Martin Marietta Corp <ML>.
    In fiscal 1987 ending May 31 the company initially adopted
FASB statement number 86 and, as required, capitalized certain
software deveopment costs. During the qtr and nine months
period ended Febraury 28, 1987 the company capitalized pre-tax
amounts of 746,000 dlrs and 1,445,000 dlrs of development
costs, respectively.
 Reuter

the following breakdown of grain remaining in the farmer-owned
grain reserve as of April 1, in mln bushels, by reserve number
--
             I    II  III    IV      V      VI
 Wheat      nil  nil  0.1   0.3    10.5  479.7
 Corn        --   --   --   4.1 1,231.9     --
 Sorghum-x   --   --   --   0.1    38.8     --
 Barley      --   --   --   0.1    73.9     --
 x - mln cwts. Note - USDA says above totals may not match
total in reserve numbers.
 Reuter

Motorola Inc said its Microcomputer
Division unveiled the Model 2616 departmental computer, one
of several systems in the company's new VME Delta Series
product line, as well as the MVME134 single board computer and
the MVME135 multiprocessor board.
    Motorola said the Model 2616 is a 32-bit system containing
a 12-slot VME-bus chassis with open-system flexibility for
unlimited end-user application options.
    The company said the Model 2616 is available immediately at
prices ranging from 14,000 dlrs to 25,000 dlrs.
    Motorola said the VME Delta Series systems are packaged
systems built around open systems architecture, industry
standard processors and software including VMEbus, MC68020
microprocessors and American Telephone and Telegraph's <T> Unix
System V operating system.
    The company said its microcomputer division also introduced
the MVME134, a single board computer targeted to the
OEM and System integrator market.
    Motorola said the MVME134, a VME module 32-bit
microcomputer, provides a cost effective engine for UNIX
applications and is priced at 2,250 dlrs for June delivery.
    The company also unveiled its new MVME135 board which, it
said, along with its companion MVME136, are 32-bit monoboard
microcomputers for the multiprocessor market.
    Motorola said the boards are the first products on the
market using Motorola's new MVSB2400 gate array, a low power,
user-programmable, bipolar gate array.
    Motorola said the MVME135 and the MVME136, both VMEmodule
32-bit monoboard microcomputers, are available now, priced at
3,934 dlrs and 4,256 dlrs, respectively.
    It added the MVME135-1, 32-bit monoboard is also available
now at a price of 4,256 dlrs.
    Motorola said the MVSB2400 lists for 300 dlrs each and will
be available for delivery in July.
 Reuter

Shifts in domestic economic policy,
not a further fall in the dollar or trade restrictions, are the
key to reducing imbalances in trade and payments, Dutch Finance
Miniister H. Onno Ruding said.
    Ruding told a meeting of the World Trade Forum here that
protectionism would naturally lead to retaliation and aggravate
the problems of heavily indebted developing countries.
    "The main contribution towards resolving the still enourmous
U.S. trade deficit is not repeat not a further fall in the
dollar, is not still more protectionism in your country."
    "No, it is - like in other countries - changes in domestic
economic and financial policies," Ruding said.
    Ruding said he was less worried about a crisis of the
weakening dollar than he was in January before the Paris accord
to stabilize foreign exchange rates.
    He said the highest priority should be given to policy
changes in the United States, especially reducing the budget
deficit and encouraging domestic savings.
    But he said other countries, such as Japan and West
Germany, also needed to take greater steps toward reducing
their trade surpluses.
 Reuter

Carolyn Bean Publishing Ltd said
it has completed the acquisition of greeting card company
Millen Cards, which had sales of over 1,500,000 dlrs in 1986,
    The company said 90 pct of Millen's cards have been sold in
the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, but Bean expects to
increase sales to 2,500,000 dlrs this year by distributing the
line nationally.
    Millen specializes in Jewish religious cards and also sells
traditional greeting cards.
 Reuter

NMR Centers Inc said its
common stock has started trading on the NASDAQ National Market
System, making it eligible for margin financing.
 Reuter

Chesapeake Corp said it has
retained Salomon Inc <SB> to help it sell Plainwell Paper Co
Inc, a maker of premium coated and uncoated printing papers and
technical specialty papers with a capacity of 85,000 short tons
a year.
    The company said it has decided to sell Plainwell in ordfer
to focus on the production of kraft and tissue products,
containers and treated wood products.
 Reuter

Pyramid Technology Corp
said it has reached an agreement to sell Oracle Corp's Oracle
database and <Relational Technology Inc's> Ingres database
through the Pyramid direct sales force and to original
equipment manufactures and value-added resellers.
    The company said it will also develop separate joint
engineering projects with Oracle and Relational to tailor the
two databases to use Pyramid's functional parallel system
architecture to imporove database performance.
    It said it has also reached an agreement for <Information
Builders'> Focus language and database management system to
become available on Pyramid Technology superminicomputer
systems.
 Reuter

Ball Corp said it was awarded a
one-year 12,750,000 dlr contract to supply copper-plated zinc
penny blanks to the U.S. mints in Philadelphia and Denver.
    The new contract, effective in June, calls for shipping
23,200,000 pounds of blanks to the mint in Philadelphia and
7,600,000 pounds to Denver. It said the blanks will be
manufactured in Greenville, Tenn.
    Ball began supplying blanks to the San Francisco and West
Point mints in 1981 when the penny's content was changed to
zinc from copper.
 Reuter

Brierley Investments Overseas NV is
issuing a 100 mln dlr eurobond due April 30, 1992 paying 8-1/4
pct and priced at par, lead manager Banque Paribas Capital
    The issue is guaranteed by Brierley Investments Ltd.
Payment date is April 30.
 REUTER

owned by Chrysler Corp, said it concluded an agreement for MMC
Sittipol Co Ltd to sell Mitsubishi Colt subcompact cars built
in Thailand to Chrysler for sale in Canada.
    Shipments of the Colts to Canada will start in late 1987,
and Chrysler Canada plans to import about 8,000 units in 1988,
rising to 20,000 units a year by 1990, the company said.
    Chrysler Canada said it will import four-door sedan and
three-door hatchback Colt models under Autopact trade agreement
provisions, requiring Chrysler to provide Canadian production
to offset each vehicle imported for sale in Canada.
 Reuter

Cognitive Systems Inc said it
has completed work on a prototype artificial intelligence
program for American Express Co's <AXP> American Express travel
Related Services Inc involving a point-of-sale application for
customer-assisted transactions.
    The company said it developed the prototype under a fixed
price agreement on a one-tim project basis.  It said American
Express plans to conduct consumer testing of the program in the
near future.
 Reuter

said it has received a 300,000 dlr order for Remote Computer
Systems to be used for flood control applications from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle district.
 Reuter

VOLCKER URGES INDUSTRIAL NATIONS TO KEEP TRADE MARKETS OPEN TO FOSTER GROWTH

Shr primary 58 cts vs 66 cts
    Shr diluted 54 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 10.1 mln vs 11.4 mln
    Revs 266.2 mln vs 194.6 mln
    Avg shrs 17.4 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 1.78 dlrs vs 1.58 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.65 dlrs vs 1.58 dlrs
    Net 30.9 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Revs 823.8 mln vs 511.0 mln
    Avg shrs 17.4 mln vs 17.3 mln
    NOTE: prior qtr and nine mths include 3.1 mln dlrs, or 18
cts per share, from gain on partial settlement on an insurance
claim.
    nine mths 1987 includes seven cts gain for partial
settlement on an insurance claim.
   Results of Flow Control operations have been included since
its acquisition from ITT Corp on Jan 31 1986.
   nine mths prior includes extraordinary gain 2.3 mln dlrs, or
14 cts per share, for replacement of a pension plan.
 Reuter

NWA Inc said the passenger load factor
for its Northwest Airlines subsidiary rose in March to 66.3 pct
from 63.2 pct a year ago.
    It said available seat miles increased to 5.43 billion from
3.13 billion, and revenue passenger miles gained to 3.6 billion
from 1.98 billion.
    Year to date, Northwest said its load factor gained to 60.2
pct from 56.9 pct. Available seat miles increased to 15.19
billion from 9.0 billion, and revenue passenger miles rose to
9.15 billion from 5.12 billion.
 Reuter

A 6.25 pct, 10-year loan for the World
Bank, originally 300 mln guilders, has been raised by 150 mln
guilders at an issue price of 99.50 pct, lead-manager Algemene
Bank Nederland NV said.
    Subscriptions for this second tranche close April 14 and
payment date is April 27.
    Redemption is on March 1, 1997, the same date as the first
tranche, which was also issued at 99.50 pct.
    Complete details on the syndicate were not available.
    Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV is co-lead and a number of
Dutch and British banks will complete the syndicate.
 REUTER

Belgium is launching a euro-commercial
paper program for an unlimited amount, with the issue planned
immediately after signing in mid-May, First Chicago Ltd said as
arranger.
    Dealers will be Chase Investment Bank Ltd, Citicorp
Investment Bank Ltd, Salomon Brothers International Ltd, Swiss
Bank Corp International Ltd and First Chicago. Issuing and
paying agent is First Chicago Clearing Centre.
    Paper will be issued in minimum denominations of 500,000
dlrs with maturities of up to 365 days. There will be a
multi-currency option.
 REUTER

1ST QTR TO MARCH 31
    Working profit 487.50 mln rand vs 559.59 mln
    Tax 274.28 mln vs 302.15 mln
    Net 264.32 mln vs 300.99 mln
    Tonnes milled 3.74 mln vs 3.72 mln
    Gold production 30,865 kgs vs 30,236 kgs
    Gold revenue 846.05 mln rand vs 907.36 mln
    Working costs 358.56 mln vs 347.77 mln
    Avg price per kg 27,371 rand vs 29,964
    NOTE - Full name of company is Gold Fields of South Africa
    Ltd <GLDF.J>.
 Reuter

Sound Advice Inc said its
System.
 Reuter

Volcker said a further large drop in the value of the dollar
could be counterproductive for world economic growth.
    Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Volcker
said that Europe and Japan were slowing exports and that growth
in those countries was also decreasing.
    "In that kind of situation, further sizeable depreciation
of the dollar could well be counterproductive," he said.
    Domestic expansion in foreign industrial countries has not
been enough to offset the effects of slower exports, Volcker
said.
    On the value of the dollar, Volcker said he could not say
whether it should be higher or lower to restore balance in
trade.
    "What we do know is that a substantial exchange rate
adjustment has already been made," he said.
    "That adjustment should be large enough, in a context of a
growing world economy and fiscal restraint in the United
States, to support the widespread expectations of a narrowing
in the real trade deficit in the period ahead," he said.
    Volcker said U.S. exports were now growing substantially
while import growth should slow.
    Volcker said that to improve the trade deficit with a
minimum of inflationary pressure, the United States would have
to slow its spending growth.
    It would also have to achieve a better balance between
investment and domestic savings if it wants to be able to
dispense with foreign capital.
    "The constructive way to work in the needed direction would
be to reduce our budget deficit, year by year, paving the way
for improvements in our trade accounts," he said.
    Relying on depreciation of the dollar alone would risk
renewed inflation, he said.
 Reuter

Marion Laboratories Inc's stock rose
sharply today after the company presented a bullish earnings
scenario at a meeting for pharmaceutical analysts Monday,
traders and analysts said.
    The company said it expects earnings for fiscal 1987,
ending June 30, to rise more than 75 pct over a year ago.
    That pronouncement encouraged analyst David Crossen of
Sanford C. Bernstein and Co to raise his earnings estimates for
the company to 1.28 dlrs a share in 1987, compared to his
previous estimate of 1.20 dlrs a share. Last year the company
earned 70 cts a share.
    Marion's stock gained 3-1/4 to 75-1/2.
    At the meeting of pharmaceutical analysts, Marion's
president Fred Lyons Jr. said Wall Street eanrings estimates of
1.10-1.15 dlrs a share for fiscal 1987 "are expected to cause
even the aggressive side of this range to be 10 to 15 cts low."
    Lyons said the strong performance in the second half of
this year will result from the fourth quarter introduction of
90 mg and 120 mg Cardizem tablets. Analyst Crossen said that
Cardizem, which treats angina, is also expected to be approved
for the treatment of hypertension by the end of the year.
    Crossen said "because Marion is still just a small company,
the growth of Cardizem is having a big impact on the bottom
line." He raised fiscal 1988 earnings estimates to 2.15 dlrs a
share from his previous estimate of 2.05 dlrs a share.
    "The company has a broad new product pipeline in the
industry and as far as I am concerned, it is the most
innovative company in the business," he said.
    For the five years through 1991, Crossen expects Marion to
have a growth rate of 55 pct.
 Reuter

The United States has appealed for
stronger powers for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) to enforce world trade rules.
    The call by U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Michael Smith
at a special committee meeting into the future of GATT follows
a series of bilateral trade rows which have clouded efforts by
the 93-nation body to promote fair trade.
    Today's meeting was part of the Uruguay trade round
launched by ministers last September. The round, which covers
13 areas of trade in agriculture, manufactured goods and
services will take four years to negotiate.
    Smith called for boosting GATT's links with financial
institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World
Bank. He also urged greater involvement of trade ministers to
ensure the success of the Uruguay Round.
    "The GATT as an institution needs to be strengthened to
assure that the GATT plays its proper role in management of the
world trading system and the global economy," Smith said.
    "Rules can and will be ignored if the institution is weak,
or perceived as unable to adapt to the changing world economy."
    He also also urged that member states be accountable to
each other for their trade policies.
    Smith, who flies to Brussels today for talks with European
Community (EC) officials, told Reuters the committee wanted to
stress GATT's importance and did not discuss specifics.
    "We are interested in more periodic ministerial
involvement...Whether in formal or informal meetings," he said.
    GATT's ruling council is due to hear a complaint from the
12-nation EC on April 15 about the U.S.-Japanese accord on
semiconductors. The EC charges the accord breached GATT trade
rules by allowing Tokyo to set minimum prices for Japanese
chips sold in third countries and is requesting a GATT dispute
panel be set up to review the agreement.
    President Reagan, who strongly supported the Uruguay trade
round to promote freer trade, has said Washington will impose
tariffs against Japanese electronic goods.
    He said Tokyo had not shown willingness to open its markets
to U.S. Exports.
 REUTER

HITK Corp said its common stock
will be included in NASDAQ's National Market System starting
today, making the stock marginable.
 Reuter

Lead underwriter Woolcott and Co Inc
said an initial public offering of 1,100,000 shares of Kingston
Systems Inc is underway at eight dlrs per share.
165,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

China's soybean crop this year is
forecast at 11.5 mln tonnes, down slightly from 11.55 mln
estiamted for last year, the U.S. Agriculture Department's
officer in Peking said in a field report.
    The report, dated April 2, said Chinese imports this year
are projected at 300,000 tonnes unchanged from last year's
level.
    Exports are forecast to increase to 1.0 mln tonnes from
800,000 tonnes exported last year, the report said.
    Imports of soybean oil are estimated at 200,000 tonnes,
also unchanged from last year.
 Reuter

Lira/Dollar rate for April 8 of 784.50/788.42 to the Dollar,
down from the previous 784.35/788.27.
    The Bank also set a Lira/Mark rate of 430.60/432.75 to the
Mark, down from the previous 429.35/431.50.

Barclays Bank Plc said it has promoted
John Kerslake to chief executive officer of its North American
operations with overall responsibility for the bank's U.S.
banking and finance operations.
    He succeeds Brian Pearse, who is promoted to executive
director and chief financial officer of Braclays' worldwide
operations, based in London.
    Kerslake, who takes up his new job on June 1, was most
recently a general manager responsible for personnel policy. He
was previously in charge of Barclay's operations in the Middle
East and Asia.
 Reuter

Volcker said that debtor nations have made much progress in
laying the groundwork for economic growth, but a solution to
world debt difficulties was endangered by inaction on new
    "There is clearly a danger that adequate financing
arrangements are not being negotiated and put in place in a
timely way," Volcker told the Senate Banking Committee.
    The borrowing countries need to be able to proceed with
confidence that the necessary funds will be available to them,
he said.
    Brazil has the potential for becoming a leading world
economic power, but it is in a difficult position today,
    He said it will take a concerted effort to regularize
Brazil's external payments.
    "The key prerequisite is clearly in the hands of Brazilian
authorities," he said.
    Both Brazil and its creditors have a strong incentive to
work together, Volcker said.
    Regarding trade imbalances, Volcker said that it was
critically important that markets be kept open by the
    In addition, the United States must reduce its budget
deficit and foreign nations need to provide stimulus to their
domestic economies, Volcker said.
    "We need time for those actions and the earlier
depreciation to work their effects," he said.

 Reuter

Unisys Corp said it is offering eight
new models of its A15 large-scale mainframe computer.
    The new models improve the overall system performance by an
average 20 pct, the computer maker said.
    Memory capacity on four of the models is doubled, and is
increased by 50 pct on the A12 mainframe.
    Unisys said prices for the new models range from 2.9 mln
dlrs for the single processor A-15FX to 8.4 mln dlrs for an
A-15NX, which has four processors.
    The new computer systems, which encorporate the "Master
Control Program/Advanced Systems" operating system, will
compete with other large mainframes, including International
Business Machines Corp's <IBM> IBM 3090, Unisys said.
    Unisys' A-12 computer is a less powerful, smaller version
of the A-15.
    The A-12 is a "lower-end model, almost an entry-level
machine," said a Unisys spokesman.
    The price of the machine starts at 1.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Bundesbank council member Lothar
Mueller said the bank has not given up its money supply policy
and that restraining money supply growth does not always mean
pushing up interest rates.
    Mueller said in an article for the Boersen Zeitung
financial daily that a monetary policy which took into account
exchange rate expectations and capital flows could not be
confused with an exchange rate oriented policy.
    The article followed international press speculation that
the Bundesbank had abandoned money supply targetting in favour
of an exchange rate policy.
    Mueller, a member of the Bundesbank council in his position
as president of the regional state central bank in Bavaria,
noted that the Bundesbank's decision in January to cut leading
interest rates amid continuing strong monetary growth had led
some people to think it was dropping monetary targetting.
    "Simply to ignore the external economic context would be
risky and dangerous for monetary policy," he explained.
    Mueller said the cuts in official interest rates had put an
end to interest rate speculation. The Bundesbank could now
assume that upward pressure on the mark would ease and currency
inflows slow down.
    Lower money market rates, achieved by widening short and
long term interest rate differentials, also encouraged
investors to re-invest funds parked in liquid accounts, Mueller
said.
    The measures therefore aimed clearly at bringing monetary
growth back onto the desired path, he said.
    "Finally, of course, and there is no need to keep this
quiet, the cut in interest rates was also in line with the
changed economic situation of the last few months," he added.
    "All in all, the Bundesbank in no way abandoned its money
supply policy with the January discount rate cut, despite
suppositions to the contrary," Mueller said.
    "Keeping money supply developments in check is not always
synonymous with raising interest rates, especially when
excessive liquidity due to inflows from abroad, rather than
growth in bank credits, is the cause of rising monetary
holdings of non-banks," Mueller said.
    Now that West Germany no longer ran large external deficits
other concepts were needed for monetary policy.
    Mueller said it would be both difficult and dangerous for
monetary policy to pursue a specific mark/dollar exchange rate.
    In any case, the exchange rate partly depends on U.S.
Currency and budgetary policy and the U.S. Economy, he said.
    But an exchange rate orientation would also mean the end of
a strict stability policy because both interest rates and
liquidity would be affected by required currency intervention
and could no longer be steered autonomously by the Bundesbank.
    Even interest rates are not in the centre of the
Bundesbank's considerations, but reflect competition and other
market conditions, Mueller said.
    A cut in bank liquidity will not directly influence central
bank money stock, the Bundesbank's main money supply indicator.
    This does not reflect banking liquidity, but the liquidity
of industry and households which cannot be directly reached
with the Bundesbank's instruments, Mueller said.
    The less dependent non-banks are on bank credits, the
harder it is to steer money supply. This has increasingly been
the case recently, because non-banks have received considerable
sums from current account surpluses and capital imports.
    "If the Bundesbank had tried to brake the money supply rise
with higher interest rates, as would have been appropriate if
credit was growing excessively, it would not only have missed
its target but probably even set off further inflows," he said.
    Mueller said growth in money supply was still too high.
    In the last three months money stock grew at an annual rate
of seven pct, down from 10 pct in the previous quarter.
    The growth curve has therefore come closer to the three to
six pct 1987 target corridor for central bank money stock
growth, pointing to the success of the current policy, he said.
    But high monetary stocks can be a warning sign and there
should be no change in priorities. "Monetary policy must be
first and foremost stability policy and successful stability
policy is money supply policy -- nothing else," he said.
 REUTER

Volcker said international policymakers should make improving
the stability of exchange rates a major priority.
    In testimony before a Senate Banking subcommittee, Volcker
said he does not have any specific proposals for improving
exchange rate stability, but thought it was worthy goal.
    "I do think we ought to be thinking about and working toward
greater exchange rate stability," Volcker said. "I think that the
objective of greater exchange rate stability ought to loom
larger among our various policy priorities."
 Reuter

This week's Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in
Washington provides an opportunity to verify an accord reached
at the Tokyo summit last May to include Italy and Canada in
Group of Five (G-5) talks on management of the international
monetary system and related issues, the Italian Treasury said.
    It said in a statement the G-7 meeting, which Italy plans
to attend, will provide a forum for considering the Tokyo
accord in the light of events in Paris in February this year.
    On February 22, Italy boycotted a meeting in Paris of its
G-7 partners - the United States, Japan, West Germany, France,
Britain and Canada - after being excluded from an earlier
session of talks involving G-5 members.
    Today's statement from the Italian Treasury said-
    "Nobody denies the existence of G-5 but we should like it to
be remembered that the Tokyo accords provided for the
enlargement of the group to Italy and Canada whenever "the
management or the improvement of the international monetary
economic policy measures are to be discussed or dealt with.'"
    Italy refused to attend the Paris G-7 meeting on the
grounds that G-5, grouping the United States, Japan, West
Germany, France and Britain, had reduced Italy's role to rubber
stamping agreements already taken.
    The Italian Treasury said today that Italy was "certain that
this time incidents would not occur."
    But it said it would be opportune to look in depth at the
role and the procedures of G-7 in relation to those of G-5.
 REUTER

Kuwait has asked at least four
countries, including the United States, Soviet Union, Britain
and China, for temporary use of their flags or tankers to
protect Kuwaiti oil shipments in the troubled Persian Gulf,
Reagan Administration officials said.
    The officials confirmed a New York Times report that Kuwait
wants to transfer some of its oil tankers to U.S. or Soviet
registration in hopes Iran would be reluctant to launch new
"Silkworm" missiles at superpower flags.
    The United States has vowed to keep the gulf open to
international oil traffic and has warned Tehran against using
the Chinese-made missiles recently installed in Iran near the
mouth of the gulf.
    "They (the Kuwaitis) have also asked Britain, China and
possibly some other European countries to lease tankers to
carry their oil," one of the administration officials, who asked
not to be identified, told Reuters.
    The United States is considering the request to temporarily
transfer Kuwaiti ships to American registration, but such a
move could create insurance and other problems, the officials
said.
    U.S. defense officials told Reuters yesterday that Kuwait
had decided for at least the time being not to accept a U.S.
offer to use American warships to escort its tankers in the
gulf, where both Iran and Iraq have been attacking shipping.
 Reuter

State-owned engine maker <Rolls Royce
Plc> launches its prospectus for privatisation tomorrow with
many analysts forecasting higher profits this year. But it is
likely to miss contracts to power the proposed <Airbus
Industrie> A340 aircraft.
    The company's so-called "pathfinder prospectus" gives all the
details of its stock market flotation except for the price at
which shares will be offered.
    Last month, the company announced that pretax profits rose
in 1986 to 120 mln stg from 81 mln the year before.
    Brokers Barclays de Zoete Wedd, BZW, sees 155 mln profit
for 1987.
    Analyst Tim Harris of Phillips and Drew said rising profits
and a low tax charge would be offset by the fact that Rolls
operated in a sector which traditionally attracted low ratings.
    Assuming the company was valued at around eight times
earnings, this would give a selling price valuing it at about
1.2 billion, though he said the recent good performance of the
aerospace sector could nudge this figure upwards.
    BZW is currently forecasting a higher sale price at between
1.5 billion and 1.7 billion.
    The price will be increased by it being likely to have much
of its debt wiped off by a government anxious to assure the
company's health when it has to fend for itself. Rolls was
rescued from bankruptcy and taken into state ownership in 1971.
    When the government announced the sale, it said it would
inject permanent capital equivalent to net debt -- around 250
mln stg at end-1986 -- into the company.
    Analysts noted this was necessary to ensure Rolls a credit
rating to match those of its main competitors such as General
Electric Co <GE.N> and United Technologies Corp's <UTX.N> Pratt
and Whitney unit.
 Reuter

Volcker said the performance of the dollar in exchange markets
could be a factor in the U.S. central bank's decisions on
    "The performance of the dollar in the exchange market might
become a factor bearing on our provision of reserves," Volcker
said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.
    He said that fiscal policy changes in the United States,
Germany and Japan would be more important that intervention to
instill confidence in current exchange rate levels.
                      
 Reuter

intervene in the government securities market to supply
temporary reserves indirectly via customer repurchase
agreements, economists said.
    They said the Fed is expected to execute anywhere from
1.5-2.0 billion dlrs of customer repos to offset seasonal
pressures on bank reserves.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.20 pct yesterday, opened at
6-1/8 pct and remained there in early trading.
   
 Reuter

today it raised the posted cargo prices for number six high
sulphur fuels in the New York Habor 50 cts a barrel, effective
today.
    The increase brings prices for two pct sulphur fuel to
19.75 dlrs, 2.2 pct sulphur to 19.25 dlrs, 2.5 pct sulphur to
19.00 dlrs and 2.8 pct sulphur to 18.85 dlrs, it said.
    Posted prices for 0.3 pct sulphur and one pct sulphur were
unchanged at 22.00 and 20.00 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Volcker said reducing the federal budget deficit was a more
important goal for Congress than drafting trade legislation.
    "Reduce the budget deficit," Volcker responded when asked by
a member of the Senate Banking Committee about trade
legislation priorities.
    "If you don't deal with the budget deficit, everything else
you do is going to be counterproductive," he said.
 Reuter

American sports Advisors Inc
said it has agreed to sell its sports handicapping and
publication business to Professor Enterprises for about
1,650,000 dlrs and intends to liquidate after closing.
    The transaction is subject to shareholder approval.
    Professor is owned by American Sports president Edward C.
Horowitz and Mike Warren, it said.
 Reuter

As pressure mounted on British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher to call a June election, she said
today that the decision on when to go to the county was hers
and hers alone.
    She was speaking to parliament after senior members of the
ruling Conservative Party urged her to call elections due in
June 1988 a year early in the wake of two more opinion polls
giving her party a commanding lead.
    Asked by a Conservative back-bencher for an assurance that
the decision was hers alone, and did not depend on "media hype,
pressure and speculation," she replied: "The date of the next
election will be decided by Downing Street, not Fleet Street."
    Downing Street is the Prime Minister's official residence,
Fleet Street the traditional home of the British national
press.
    A Harris poll for the breakfast-time program TV-AM gave the
Tories 43 pct of the vote, representing a majority of 132 seats
in parliament, their biggest lead since the party's landslide
victory in the 1983 elections.
    In The Times of London, a MORI poll gave the Tories a 92
seat majority. It was the sixth poll to show the ruling party
with a big lead over the opposition Labour Party and the
fast-improving centrist Alliance.
    Leading the chorus urging Thatcher to go to the polls in
June, Sir Marcus Fox, vice-chairman of the influential 1922
committee of Conservative back-benchers, said: "I have always
felt that it would be June, and this reinforces my view.
    "I always thought June was right. We have got most of our
legislation through and to go beyond that I do not think would
be in the national interest."
    Another Tory back-bencher, Anthony Beaumont-Dark, said: "I
have always been an October man, but I think it would be good
to get it out of the way now."
    Their comments came as government officials dismissed
speculation about a snap election to coincide with local polls
in May, timed to reap maximum advantage from the recent
popularity surge, Thatcher's successful trip to Moscow and
Labour's current popularity slump.
    Calls for a May poll were also prompted by Tory concern
over a steady advance by the Alliance, and the possibility that
if it continues it could rob the Conservatives of an overall
majority in parliament.
    Today's MORI poll showed an Alliance gain of eight points
over the past month in around 100 key marginal seats where the
outcome of the next election is likely to be decided.
 Reuter

Portugal's "flag carrier" airline TAP has
confirmed an order for three Airbus Industrie <AINP.PA>
A310-300 passenger aircraft, British Aerospace Plc <BAEL.L>
(BAe), one of four shareholders in the international Airbus
consortium, said.
    BAe said in a statement TAP had also taken options on
another two Airbus aircraft, either the existing A310-300
medium range craft or the long-range four-engined A340 which
Airbus hopes to launch in 1992, depending on the airline's
needs.
    BAe said the firm order confirmed a commitment taken by TAP
in January. Details of the value of the contract, delivery
dates or which engine would power the aircraft were not
 Reuter

<ERIC.ST> said it has won its third contract from U.S. West Co
Inc <WST> for digital exchange equipment to be supplied in the
state of Idaho over the next five years.
    No financial details were available. The company said the
contract provided for the replacement of more than 50 older
exchanges run by <Mountain Bell>, one of U.S. West's three
operating companies, with Ericsson's AXE system.
 Reuter

Volcker said a restrictive monetary policy would be damaging to
investment and that a better course would be to restrain
spending.
    "A restrictive monetary policy would hit investment. You
don't want to put interest rates up unless you have to," Volcker
told the Senate Banking Committee.
    "That is not a constructive way to proceed," he said.
    Volcker said that given a choice between squeezing the
budget deficit or squeezing investment, he would favor
squeezing the budget deficit.
    In response to a question about banks, Volcker said he
would be pleased if Congress decided to give banks a tax
writeoff as an incentive for them to take greater reserves
against loans to debtor countries.
    "If you give a tax writeoff for reserving against loans,
then we will see more reserving and that would make me happy,"
Volcker told Committee Chairman Sen William Proxmire (D-Wisc).
 Reuter

Rich Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Reuters Holdings PLC of London, said it completed installation
of a 20 mln dlr trading system for Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER> in New York.
    The company said its Composite Information System was
designed and installed for Merrill Lynch in the investment
firm's World Financial Center offices in downtown Manhattan.
    The system, which offers access to financial news, in-house
computers, commercial television and other services, includes
479 equity positions, 614 in the debt area and 152 municipal
markets positions, the company said.
 Reuter

The records in turnover set by the London
International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) in March could
be surpassed in the coming months, Liffe Chief Executive
Michael Jenkins said.
    Last month, Liffe saw record monthly futures volume at 1.15
mln lots, and record monthly options volume at 97,700. Total
Liffe volume in first quarter 1987 rose to 2.8 mln contracts,
or 89 pct up on the same 1986 period.
    Long gilt turnover in first quarter 1987 was 300 pct up on
the year-ago period at 1.63 mln lots versus 409,500. But T-bond
volume fell by 38 pct to 244,500 in first three months 1987.
    Jenkins told Reuters the higher volumes for gilts reflected
in part the volatility in the U.K. Markets in recent months,
while the falloff in T-bonds was an indication of the relative
stability of U.S. Credit markets.
    Jenkins said he saw room for the whole financial futures
sector to grow further in the coming months. In particular, FT-
SE 100 futures had great scope for expansion, and turnover in
them should be much higher by end 1987.
    FT-SE futures volume was 62,700 in first quarter 1987, an
increase of 124 pct over the 28,000 contracts recorded in the
same months of 1986.
    Institutions here had been slow to find out about the use
of stock exchange futures, but they would now learn more,
Jenkins predicted.
    Commenting on the difference in popularity between gilts
and bonds, Jenkins said Liffe had designed the widest possible
variety of contracts so that at any given time, at least one
sector would be volatile enough to attract trading. The current
situation of U.S. Markets being steady, and U.K. Ones
changeable, might alter completely in coming months.
    A further boost to Liffe's volume and attractiveness should
come with the introduction of yen bond futures, he added.
 REUTER

Net 12.3 mln vs 6,438,000
    NOTE: Company went public in March.
 Reuter

Honeywell Bull, a 1.9 billion dlr
computer systems company formed March 27 by Honeywell Inc
<HON>, Compagnie des Machines Bull of France and NEC Corp of
Japan, said it introduced a line of high-performance computers
for medium and large companies.
    The company also unveiled software for the new systems to
facilitate patient care in hospitals and control inventory and
production in factories.
    Honeywell Bull said its new line includes five models in
the DPS 7000 family of 32-bit virtual memory systems that
support as many as 600 terminals and perform between 9,000 and
52,000 transactions an hour.
    Prices for the systems will range from 127,000 dlrs to more
than 1.0 mln dlrs.
    It said two integrated, modular software packages
introduced are specifically for operation on DPS 7000
 Reuter

The Oxford Energy Co said it received
final approval from the Connecticut Department of Public Utiliy
Control of a power contract for the company's tire burning
energy plant to be located in Sterling, Conn.
    The Oxford facility has an estimated total cost of
approximately 70 mln dlrs, and is expected to start
construction during the second half of 1987. Construction of
the project is subject to the receipt of various state and
local permits, the company said, and the arrangement of
    Under the terms of the order, issued by the Connecticut
Department of Publc Utility Control, Connecticut Light and
Power Co will be required to purchase the output of the
Sterling facility under a 25-year power purchase aagreemnt at
prices fixed by the contract formulas, the company said.
 Reuter

Polydex Pharmaceuticals Ltd said a U.S.
patent for an anti-wrinkle cream ingredient has been assigned
to the company by its chairman, Thomas C. Usher.
    The company said the pantent was granted to Usher for skin
permeable elastin.
 Reuter

Digital Transmission Inc is offering
400,000 units at 9.625 dlrs a unit, underwriter Muller and Co
Inc said.
    Net proceeds will be used for sales and marketing, research
and development, capital equipment and working capital.
    The underwriter has been granted an over-allotment option
to buy up to 60,000 more units. Each unit consists of four
shares of class A common stock and one class A common stock
purchase warrant.
    The stock and the warrants are not detachable or separately
tradeable until six months after the offering or an earlier
date that may be determined by the underwriter.
 Reuter

Presidential Airways Inc saiud it has
sold 10 of its 11 Boeing 737's to Ryder System Inc <RDR>, which
then leased seven of the planes Boeing Co <BA> made planes back
to Presidential on a short-term basis.
    The company said it ended long-term leases on the planes.
The short-term leases will run up to eight months and the
aircraft will be returned to Ryder on completion of present
charter commitments, coincinding with the expected deliveries
of British Aerospace Bae146 jets.
    In Miami, Ryder said it will sell the three planes that
Presidedntial will not lease back to other airlines.
 Reuter

Highwood Resources Ltd said it is not
aware of any material change in the company's affairs to
account for recent trading activity in the company's shares,
but said it anticipates being a future producer of minerals
used in electronic superconductors.
    Recent widespread publicity concerning superconductors
suggest a greatly increased demand for yttrium and lanthanide
minerals, Highwood said.
    The company said it is developing such deposits at Thor
Lake, Northwest Territories in cooperation with Hecla Mining
Co, of Idaho.
    Highwood Resources said the deposits contain beryllium,
yttrium, lanthanides, niobium and tantalum. It did not
immediately elaborate on estimated reserves on the property.
    Highwood shares traded earlier on the Toronto Stock
Exchange at 6-7/8, up 1/8, after climbing 1-1/8 in yesterday's
session.
 Reuter

General Electric Co said that EH
Industries, a joint effort between <Westland Helicopter> of
England and the <Augusta Group> of Italy, rolled out the first
prototype EH 101 helicopter in Yeovil, England.
    GE said the helicopter is powered by three GE
 T700 engines.
    The company added that the multi-mission EH 101 has naval,
utility and civil models. The latter two will be powered by
2,000 shaft horsepower CT7-6 engines being co-developed by GE,
<Fiat Aviazione> and <Alfa Romeo Avio>, GE said.
 Reuter

Rich Inc, wholly owned by Reuters
Holdings Plc <RtrSY>, said it completed installation of a 20
mln dlr trading system for Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER> in
New York.
firm's World Financial Centre offices in downtown Manhattan.
 REUTER

The African Development Bank (ADB) said
it increased its lending by 42.1 pct last year to 1.64 billion
dlrs from 1.15 billion dlrs in 1985.
    A bank statement said agriculture, set as the main growth
area in a five-year economic recovery program adopted in 1985
by African states, received 607 mln dlrs, 37 pct of the total.
    The ADB is made up of the bank itself, its financing
soft-loan arm, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the
Nigeria Trust Fund, another soft-loan institution.
    ADB president Babacar N'Diaye released a 1987 economic
report on Africa prepared by the ADB and the U.N. Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), saying progress was being made
toward substantial increases in the bank's capital resources.
    He said an ad-hoc committee of the ADB board of governors,
comprising 18 African and non-African countries, recommended a
200 pct increase in the organisation's capital for 1987-91.
    He said such an increase would raise capital from around
6.55 billion dlrs to 19.66 billion dlrs, adding he was hopeful
the proposal would be adopted at the annual meetings of the
bank and fund, due to be held jointly in Cairo in June.
    He welcomed France's recent proposals to the Paris Club of
Western government creditors to extend repayment periods for
Third World debts and give better rescheduling terms.
    "The proposition represents a major step forward. But
African countries should not be the ones to ask for large-scale
debt write-offs," he said. Africa's total external debt was
estimated at 175 billion dlrs at the end of 1986.
    The ECA-ADB report said prospects would remain bleak for
African economies in 1987 but predicted Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) growth ranging between 2.5 and four pct, compared with
1.2 pct last year.
 REUTER

Melridge Inc said its 50 pct
owned Conroy's Inc subsidiarey, which franchises flower shops,
has entered into an agreement for an affiliate of Public
Storage Inc to acquire and develop real estate for the
expansion of Conroy's franchise operations.
    The company said under the agreement, Public Storage will
obtain an undisclosed equity interest in Conroy's and Melridge
and undisclosed equity interest in the Public Storage affiliate.
 Reuter

Shr 64 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 1,062,000 vs 585,000
    Sales 13.6 mln vs 9,262,000
 Reuter

Midway Airlines Inc said its March load
factor declined to 59.2 pct from 61.3 pct in the same year-ago
period.
    It said revenue passenger miles increased to 200.9 mln from
167.2 mln, and available seat miles rose to 339.5 mln from
272.9 mln.
    Year to date, Midway said its load factor declined to 56.1
pct from 57.8 pct. It said revenue passenger miles gained to
534.0 mln from 450.0 mln, and available seat miles went to
952.1 mln from 778.8 mln.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs seven cts
    Net 215,821 vs 196,873
    Sales 3,112,571 vs 2,649,003
 Reuter

Durakon Industries Inc said its
All Star Liner will be sold as the exclusive pickup truckbed
liner in Lowe's Cos Inc's 300 retail home center outlets in the
Southeastern U.S.
 Reuter

Federal Resources Corp said it has
named John Kotts president and chief operating officer,
replacing Paul Hannesson, who remains chairman and chief
 Reuter

Walker Telecommunications corp
said Teledial America has selected the fiber optic system
operated by Walker's Mutual Signal Corp subsidiary to carry
Teledial's traffic in Michigan and link interstate facilities
throughout the country.
 Reuter

Australian Industry Development Corp is
issuing a zero coupon eurobond with total redemption amount 30
mln Australian dlrs, lead manager Orion Royal Bank Ltd said.
    The issue matures on May 12, 1992 and is priced at 53-1/2
pct. It is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
Australian dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. Payment date
is May 12.
    Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd, Commerzbank AG, Hambros
Bank Ltd and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets are co-lead
managers. There will be no co-managers. Fees total 1-3/8 pct.
 REUTER

Knight-Ridder Inc <KRI> said its TKR Cable
Co joint venture with Tele-communications Inc has signed a
letter of intent to acquire cable television systems with
55,000 basic subscribers in Wildwood, N.J., and Ramapo and
Warwick, N.Y., from Tele-Communications for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

Up to 70 pct of the 240 finance
companies operating in Sweden are likely to be squeezed out
over the next few years by the deregulation of financial
markets, the Association of Swedish Finance Companies said.
    Association chairman Arne Ogren told a news conference that
a major restructuring of the sector was inevitable.
    Central Bank governor Bengt Dennis said when announcing the
deregulation in November 1985 that one of his main aims was to
give commercial banks a chance to compete on equal terms with
finance companies and so undermine Sweden's "grey market."
    Total credit granted by the Swedish finance companies rose
to 77 billion crowns in 1986 from 64.7 billion in 1985. This
includes leasing and is the equivalent of 19 pct of all
outstanding loans by the banking sector at end-1986.
    Ogren said that if proposals now being discussed by a
government-appointed inquiry into the credit market to license
finance companies and make them increase their share capital
were pushed through, up to 70 pct would disappear.
    But he said this would in fact have little effect on credit
volumes as the 42 biggest finance companies accounted for 70
pct of lending by the entire sector.
    The explosive growth of Swedish finance companies began in
the early 1970s and commercial banks even started their own to
get around the tight restrictions then imposed on banking
activities and particularly on the growth of lending.
    Now that they were on an equal footing with their parent
companies, many bank-owned finance companies faced an identity
crisis, Ogren said. He predicted there would be mergers and
individual firms would carve out specialised niches to ensure
their survival in a deregulated climate.
    Ogren said the sector's losses on bad loans were bound to
rise steeply in 1989-1990 due to the rush to increase credit.
 REUTER

Shr profit 25 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Net profit 998,000 vs loss 612,000
    Revs 8,086,000 vs 365,000
 Reuter

Swedish industry expects a rise in
both production and exports during this year, with engineering
and forest companies forecasting the largest increases, a
survey by the National Institute for Economic Research showed.
    The government institute said in the survey -- of 2,000
manufacturing companies -- that industry this year planned to
reduce both raw material and finished goods inventories.
    It said domestic demand was expected to be mainly unchanged
but that exports should rise significantly. The number of firms
operating at full capacity fell slightly, however, in the first
quarter, said the report, which gave no figures.
 REUTER

The inflow of long-term capital into
West Germany slumped to 606 mln marks in February from
January's record 11.91 billion, with foreign purchases of
German bonds and shares declining sharply, the Bundesbank said.
    While foreigners bought only four billion marks worth of
German bonds in February after 13 billion in January, they sold
a net 500 mln marks in shares and promissory notes of public
authorities after sales worth 300 mln in January.
    With German investors' purchases of foreign securities
steady around 1.3 billion marks, only 2.2 billion marks were
imported through securities transactions, after 11.2 billion.
    Direct investment abroad led to a capital outflow of 1.60
billion marks in February after 2.83 billion in January.
    There was a deficit of 8.14 billion marks in the short-term
capital account after a surplus of 194 mln in January.
    Banks alone exported some 8.6 billion marks in funds while
domestic companies increased their short-term financial assets
abroad by 700 mln. But public authorities received some one
billion marks from abroad, the Bundesbank said in a statement.
    Combining long and short term capital outflows, West
Germany recorded a net outflow of 7.53 billion marks in
February against a net inflow of 11.91 billion in January.
    The Bundesbank confirmed the German trade surplus widened
to 10.45 billion marks in February from January's 7.20 billion.
    Taking the two months together the seasonally adjusted
surplus was slightly below the figure for the previous two. In
terms of current as well as constant prices, the narrowing of
the surplus was progressing, the bank said.
    Germany's current account surplus widened to 6.63 billion
marks in February from 4.79 billion in January, but was down on
the 7.26 billion figure for February 1986. Seasonally adjusted,
the February current account surplus narrowed against January.
    While exports in February fell a half pct against the same
month last year, imports fell 10-1/2 pct largely due to the
drop in prices. Exports grew three pct in volume and imports
two pct.
    In the balance of services, a fall in net investment income
led to a 300 mln mark deficit in February after a 300 mln mark
surplus in January.
    The deficit in transfer payments widened to 3.70 billion
marks from 2.69 billion, largely due to a sharp jump to 2.3
billion marks from 200 mln in payments to the European
Community budget.
 REUTER

said it had signed a collaboration agreement with Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp on the exchange of personnel and
information over a three-year period beginning April 7.
    The company said in a statement the plan is designed to
promote increased business activities of both firms.
    In a separate statement British Telecommunications said
that it had signed a two-year, eight mln Canadian dlr,
distribution agreement with <Gandalf Technologies Inc> of
Canada to distribute its Mezza VoiceStation system in Canada
and the U.S.
 Reuter

The European Commission has not taken a
decision on applications from the British government for the
release of 200,000 tonnes of intervention feed wheat onto the
British market in May and June, Commission sources said.
    They said last week's cereals management committee agreed
to release 70,000 tonnes of feed wheat through weekly tenders
between April 14 and May 26. It also indicated it planned to
allow the release of another 30,000 tonnes from April 23.
    However, it decided to leave consideration of the release
of further wheat until later.
    The British government had applied for the release of a
further 100,000 tonnes in both May and June from British
intervention stores to prevent market prices rising.
    However, the sources said, the Commission wanted to review
the market situation nearer the time before giving its
approval.
    The Commission was given new powers last year to control
the release of intervention cereals onto the market, the
sources noted.
    Following last week's committee meeting, the U.K. Ministry
of Agriculture said the Commission had given an assurance that
additional quantities of intervention wheat would be made
available in May and June. It also said that it was envisaged
that monthly releases would be at least 100,000 tonnes,
depending on the state of the market.
    This lead to the widespread assumption that the Commission
had actually approved the release of 300,000 tonnes during the
three months of April, May and June at last week's meeting.
 Reuter

The New York brokerage firm of Spear,
Leeds and Kellogg told the Securities and Exchange Commission
it had increased its preferred stock in Allegheny International
Inc to 8.6 pct, from 7 pct.
    It said it may buy additional shares, but had not decided
whether to offer its shares in response to a tender offer by
Sunter Acquisition Corp, a unit of First Boston Inc.
    The brokerage firm said it bought the Allegheny shares
March 30-April 2 for 86.50-87.25 dlrs each.
 reuter

Stone Container Corp said it filed a
registration statement for a secondary offering of 1,933,453
shares of its common stock.
    It said the shares and warrants originally were issued to
Champion International Corp, a holder of 1,633,453 shares of
Stone common stock and warrants to buy an additional 300,000
common shares, in connection with the February, 1986
acquisition by the company of a major portion of Champion's
Brown Papers System.
    Stone said it will receive 9.75 mln dlrs from underwriters
as a result of their exercise of the warrants.
 Reuter

Boeing Co <BA.N> said its Boeing Vertol
helicopter unit proposed that U.K. Helicopter maker <Westland
Plc> should build up to a third of all future Chinooks for
Britain's airforce.
    A Boeing statement made here said the work would involve up
to 12,500 man-hours per machine, and solve some of Westland's
short-term workload problems. It comes amid speculation that
Britain may pull out of the European EH-101 project, with the
possibility of up to 2,000 Westland job losses.
    Westland was rescued last year by United Technologies Corp
<UTX.N> and Fiat Spa <FIAT.MI>.
 Reuter

Environmental Power Corp said it has
signed a 50 year contract to sell power from its 12-megawatt
Allegheny River Lock and Dam Number Seven Project near
Kittanning, Pa., to Allegheny Power System Inc <AYP>.
    The company said the project is expected to produce an
average electrical output of 55 mln kilowatt hours when
completed and is contingent on Environmental obtaining a
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license.
    The company said it has also signed a 15-year contract to
sell all power to be generated by 2.6 megawatt hydroelectric
project at Falls Lake Dame near Raleigh, N.C., to Carolina
Power and Light Co <CPL>.  The average expected annual
electrical output is 11 mln kilowatt hours.
 Reuter

Lone Star Industries Inc
expects demand for cement om the U.S. to remain in the 85-90
mln ton range through 1992, its annual report said.
    The company said U.S. cement consumption totaled 90.6 mln
tons last year, up four pct from 1985.
    Lone Star also said it expects consolidation and
internationalization of the U.S. cement industry to continue,
adding foreign companies now own over 50 pct of U.S. capacity.
    Since 1974, it added, more  than 30 cement plants have
closed. "In our opinion, the industry's annual cement capacity
today is, in reality, less than 80 mln tons" a year, it added.
    Lone Star said the gap between supply and demand is being
filled by imported cement, which accounted for 18 pct of
domestic consumption last year, up from four pct ten years ago.
 Reuter

Malta is tendering to buy 3,000 tonnes
white sugar today for arrival in two equal parts in May and
June, traders said.
 Reuter

Calton Inc said a
registration statement was declared effective by the Securities
and Exchange Commission for the public offering of 2,500,000
shares of its common at 12-7/8 dlrs a share.
    Calton said the public offering began today.
    The offering is being underwritten by Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets.
    Calton said it will use the net proceeds, about 12.2 mln
dlrs, for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Chili's Inc said it filed with the
covering a 35 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Net proceeds will be used primarily to retire outstanding
bank debt, Chili's said.  The remainder will fund capital
expenditures for additional restaurants and for general
corporate purposes.  The company currently operates 95
restaurants in 16 different states.
    Chili's named Goldman, Sachs and Co and Alex Brown and Sons
Inc as underwriters.
 Reuter

Gotthard Bank said it is
selling 65,000 covered warrants at 255 Swiss francs each
exercisable into shares of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals Inc.
     Each warrant entitles the holder to buy 100 shares in the
company in the period from May 15, 1987 until August 13, 1993
at an exercise price of 505 yen per share. The shares closed
today at 700 yen.
 REUTER

<Alias Research Inc> said it entered
into a four mln dlr joint venture capital investment with
several firms led by <TA Associates> of Boston.
    Joining TA Associates are <Greylock Management Corp>, and
<Crownx> of Toronto, Alias said.
    Alias, which develops 3D computer graphics software, said
the investment capital will be used to support ongoing research
and development and to extend worldwide marketing  initiatives.
 Reuter

emery Air Freight Corp said March
shipments were up 19 pct to 1,349,000 from 1,134,000 a year
earlier and weight was up 27 pct to 61.4 mln pounds from 48.4
mln.
 Reuter

Corroon and Black Corp said it
completed the acuqisition of <Contractors Planning Group Inc>
in an exchange of shares.
    Contractors is headquartered in Garden City, N.Y., and has
branch offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and Cheshire, Conn.
 Reuter

Colonial BancGroup said it and
The Liberty Bank of Pensacola, Fla., signed a letter of intent
for Colonial to acquire Liberty.
    Terms of the acquisition were not dislcosed.
    Colonial said the acquisition was its first move toward
acquiring and out-of-state bank under Alabama's regional
interstate banking law.
    Liberty has total assets of 35 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

average of 6.91 pct, up from 6.87 pct last week, a treasury
department spokesman said. Average price was 98.307.
 Reuter

optical products subsidiary sold 5,652 Alges soft bifocal
contact lenses in March, after allowances for exchanges and
returns.
    The lenses were approved for marketing in April 1986 by the
Food and Drug Administration.
 Reuter

Qtrly div five cts vs five cts prior

    Pay June 15
 Reuter

construction to expand its passenger terminal facilities at
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
    Adding a new nine-gate terminal that will be connected to
Delta's existing terminal by an underground tunnel will cost
about 20 mln dlrs, a Delta spokesman said.
    The carrier will have a total of 32 gates, up from the
current 23, when the terminal is completed in late 1988.
    With the new "satellite" terminal, Delta will be able to
expand to more than 300 daily flights at the airport, up from
about 200 currently, it said.
 Reuter

<Golden Rule Resources Ltd> and
Goldsil Resources Ltd said they had agreed to merge.
    The merged company will issue to each Golden Rule
shareholder 1-1/2 shares and one warrant. The warrant will be
for a term of two years. Payment of 3.10 dlrs and delivery of
two warrants will entitle the shareholder to one additional
share of the merged company, the companies said.
    Each Goldsil shareholder will receive one share and
one-half warrant. The warrant will be for a term of two years.
Payment of 3.10 dlrs and delivery of two warrants will entitle
the shareholder to one additional share of the merged company.
 Reuter

government securities market to arrange two-day repurchase
agreements for system account, a spokeswoman for the New York
Fed said.
direct injection of temporary reserves, dealers said.
    Most economists had expected a less aggressive injection of
reserves via customer repurchase agreements.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 1.3 mln vs 2,460,000
    NOTE: 1987 1st qtr includes loan write-offs at banking
subsidiary, The Colonial Bank of Mobile, due to loan losses, of
1.3 mln dlrs or 25 cts a share.
 Reuter

Dresdner to propose 1986 dividend 10 marks vs same, one-for-18 bonus share issue

Shares of Detroit automakers rose
sharply in active trading as investors scrambled to accumulate
the stocks in anticipation of postive announcements by Ford
Motor Co <F> and General Motors Corp <GM> at meetings to be
held at the end of the week, traders said.
    General Motors gained two points to 83-1/2 and Ford one to
91-1/8. Chrysler Corp <C>, which is not expected to make any
major announcements this week, rose 1/4 to 58-1/2.
    "There is a little mystery coming at the end of the week
for the automakers," one trader said, "and in a bull market,
investors don't mind the mystery so much."
    Yesterday, GM's stock climbed 1-3/4 points on expectations
that the company might disclose some bullish news at a meeting
before analysts on April 9-10. A GM spokesman had no comment on
the meeting.
    GM chairman Roger Smith is expected to attend the meeting,
along with GM president James McDonald and other senior GM
     "The stock could be moving up just on the proximity of the
meeting, thinking GM will say something positive," analyst
Philip Fricke of Goldman Sachs said.
    Though he maintains a buy recommendation on GM, Fricke said
he cut 1987 earnings estimates for the company by 50 cts a
share to 7.30 dlrs a share because of the costs of incentive
programs. The company earned 8.21 dlrs a share in 1986.
     Monday, Ford closed 2-5/8 points higher as rumors
circulated that the company would announce a higher dividend
and a three-for-two stock split at it Thursday board meeting.
     A Ford spokesman said, "it is likely they will have a
dividend announcement." He said it is a board policy to make a
dividend announcement at the first board meeting of the
quarter, but he would not comment on any plans for a change in
the dividend or a stock split.
 Reuter

Browning-Ferris Industries Inc said its
subsidiary, CECOS International Inc, said it intends to seek a
permit to install an incinerator for burning hazardous wastes
at a site in southwest Jefferson County in Kentucky.
    In a related matter, CECOS said it will acquire <BT Energy>
and its assets contingent on CECOS receiving the permit, it
said.
    BT Energy already has a permit to treat and store
industrial and chemical wastes and has been providing services
to the Jefferson County area for 13 years, CECOS said.
    The application will be submitted in July and will require
about one year for reviews and hearings before construction of
the plant could start, CECOS said.
    The cost of the project is estimated to be approximately 30
mln dlrs, CECOS said.
 Reuter

Japan is attempting to cut back
semiconductor production to forstall the 300 mln dlrs in U.S.
tariffs on Japanese electronic goods set to take effect April
17, industry analysts said.
    The move is likely to create a sharp price rise and a
possible shortage of the key computer components in the next
few weeks, the analysts said.
    "Prices have gone up for memory components, the mainstay of
the Japanese semiconductor industry," analyst Drew Peck of
Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette said.
    But analysts said the price rises have been slight so far,
and some questioned whether Japan would be successful in
forcing Japanese companies to cut production in the long run.
    Others, however, were more optimistic, saying evidence was
already in hand that Japan has cut back prodution and halted
sales to the grey market, the third country brokers that sell
chips at below production costs.
    "We've seen the grey market begin to dry up for D-RAMS, and
it has virtually dried up for EPROMS," said Merrill Lynch
analyst Thomas Kurlack of the two key memory chips used in
    "Prices are inching up and lead times on deliveries are
stretching," Kurlack added.
    Industry analysts said Japan's Ministry of International
Trade and Industry, or MITI, had requested the cut backs in
production to meet the terms of last year's semiconductor
accord with the U.S.
    The Reagan adminsitration recently proposed tariffs on
Japanese electronic goods, alleging that Japan had failed to
live up to the accord and continued to dump the computer
components in the U.S. market.
    But some analysts said Japan's attempt to mollify the U.S.
was a double edged sword, and might be read at a subtle form of
trade retaliation for the tariffs proposed by the U.S.
    As production in Japan is cut, these analysts argue, prices
will rise in the U.S. and few American semiconductor
manufactures will be able to take up the slack since most long
ago exited the market for memory chips. U.S. computer makers
that use the chips in their machines will then be pressured.
    "The Japanese are looking for ways to reduce trade
pressures from Washington, but at the same time they're
demonstating their muscle," analyst Peck said.
    The cut backs in Japanese production are expected to
benefit U.S. chip makers.
    "I think this could be a very important factor for U.S.
semiconductor manufacturers," industry analyst Elliot Levine of
Ladenburg Thalmann Co said.
    But analyst Peck said, "it will take a few weeks to see
whether Japan has genuinely cut production."
    He said Japanese manufactures were likely to view MITI's
request unfavorably because chip capacity was still high and
production cut backs would lead to significant write-offs in

 Reuter

Two New York management investment
firms told the Securities and Exchange Commission they had
increased their holdings in Purolator Courier Corp to 7.2 pct,
from 6.2 pct.
    Mutual Shares Corp and Mutual Qualified Income Fund Inc
said they were weighing offers to buy Purolator shares from PC
Acquisition Inc, a unit of E.F. Hutton LBO Inc, for 35 dlrs a
share, and from EAF Acquisitions Corp Inc, a unit of Emery Air
Freight Corp. at 40 dlrs
    They told the commission they had bought their new
Purolator shares March 25-27 for 34.875-35.250 dlrs each.
 reuter

Central Bank to the commercial banks rose by 1.2 billion
guilders to 10.7 billion in the week up to and including April
6, the Bank's weekly return showed.
    Paper discounted with the Bank also rose, by 477 mln
guilders to 916 mln.
    These rises were balanced by a 1.6 billion guilders rise in
the Treasury's account at the Bank, made up mainly of
repayments on housing loans by local authorities.  The
Treasury's account stood at 8.1 billion guilders, the weekly
return showed.
    The Bank's gold and currency reserves rose by 484 mln to
56.89 billion guilders, while the value of non-gold holdings
rose by 140 mln guilders, analysts said.
    They added that the rise in the reserves was merely the
result of commercial currency transactions by the Bank.
    Call money and period tariffs were only fractionally
changed this week and were seen sustaining their stable levels
since no dramatic changes in the money market debt, currently
around 10.25 billion guilders, are expected.
    Today call money traded between 5-3/8 to 5-1/2 pct and
period tariffs all between 5-5/16 to 5-7/16 pct.
 REUTER

chairman said he wanted to develop a plan to help rural
America, which he said has been neglected by the Reagan
     "I hope to develop a sound and comprehensive plan to
revitalize rural America.... We need a renewed national
commitment to rural America and we will have one," Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.) told a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.
    Leahy faulted the Reagan administration for having no
strategy to revitalize rural America.
    Leahy added that some rural countries were losing
population and this was contributing to the economic decline.
 Reuter

The use of generic commodity
certificates, or "certs," for fiscal years 1986-88 will save
the government 50 to 100 mln dlrs, Department of Agriculture
Undersecretary Daniel Amstutz said.
    Speaking at a House agriculture subcommittee hearing on the
use of the certificates, Amstutz said that the issuance of 8.5
billion dlrs of certificates during fiscal years 1986-88 could
result in government outlays of up to 400 mln dlrs.
    However, the use of certificates preclude the need for 450
to 500 mln dlrs in storage and handling costs, resulting in net
savings for the government of 50-100 mln dlrs, he said.
    Without the use of certificates, Amstutz said nearly the
entire 1985 crop which had been put under loan would have been
forfeited to the Commodity Credit Corporation, CCC.
    In addition, 260 mln bushels of grain that have been
redeemed from CCC inventory through certificate exchanges would
have remained in the goverment inventory, he said.
    When asked to comment on a recent study by the General
Accounting Office that concluded certificates result in a net
cost to the government, Amstutz said, "GAO underestimated the
benefits and overstated the costs" of the certificate program.
    Amstutz said while certificates encourage more loan
entries, they also encourage heavier loan redemptions rather
than forfeitures.
    GAO underestimated this net loan activity, Amstutz said.
    "There is no question in the mind of the Department of
Agriculture that these certificates have been very useful,"
Amstutz said.
    Immediate benefits of certificates include greater market
liquidity, improved market price competitiveness, higher farm
income, and improved debt situation and decreased carrying
    Certificates are an integral part of USDA's long-range
market-oriented farm policy, he said.
    Amstutz told subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dan Glickman,
D-Kans., that USDA is in the process of preparing an official
response to the GAO study on certificates and will submit it to
the subcommittee when completed.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it set up a new
office of Latin American operations as part of the company's
continuing international restructuring.
    The automaker named James F. Waters Jr to head the
operations. Waters, who will work out of the United States, is
General Motors' vice president and group executive in charge of
the Overseas Group.
    In Asia, Barton Brown, General Motors' vice president in
charge of Asian, African and International Export operations,
will assume responsibility for Australian operations.
    General Motors also shifted some officers at its GM do
Brasil and GM de Mexico operations.
    In Brazil, Clifford J. Vaughn, vice president and managing
director of GM do Brasil, will return to the United States as
vice president of manufacturing at the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada
Group.
    Vaughn will be replaced as managing director of GM do
Brasil by Robert B. Stone, vice president and managing director
of GM de Mexico. Stone will remain a vice president.
    Richard C Nerod, executive director of marketing and sales
of GM do Brasil, will become managing director, GM de Mexico.
 Reuter

Leading industrial nations will be
reviewing the Paris agreement to stabilize exchange rates,
foster increased worldwide growth and reduce trade imbalances
but the U.S. thinks the accord has been successful so far, a
senior U.S. Treasury official said.
    "The Paris accord will be reviewed at this meeting. It has
been successful and continues to be succesfull," a senior U.S.
Treasury official told reporters.
    In a briefing ahead of this week's semiannual IMF and World
Bank meetings, he also said the U.S. was looking to West
Germany and Japan to bolster their economic growth.
    The official said both surplus countries, like West Germany
and Japan, and deficit countries, like the U.S., agreed to play
a role in bringing about more balanced economic growth.
    He reaffirmed the U.S. would press ahead with efforts to
reduce its budget deficit, resist protectionism and boost U.S.
competitiveness.
    The official also said that he expected trade issues, like
the dispute between the U.S. and Japan over microchips, to be
included in the discussions.
    The official made no direct comment on the content or
schedule of forthcoming Group of Five and Group of Seven
discussions. He said that industrial countries are concerned
that the large external imbalances remain a threat to the
international monetary system.
    He added that the meetings will also provide an opportunity
to discuss economic policy coordination efforts.
    The official said indicators would be used to measure
policy objectives of industrial countries and their economic
    They would also be used to assess progress of policy goals.
    Asked whether the U.S. was proposing a new initiative
regarding the indicators, the official said the issue would be
reported to the Venice Summit in June. Monetary sources said
the U.S. proposal envisages using the indicators to make policy
coordination agreements, like the Paris Accord, more binding.
 Reuter

Gandalf Technologies Inc said it signed a
two-year, eight mln dlr agreement with British Telecom to
distribute British Telecom's Mezza Voicestation System in
Canada and the United States.
    Gandalf said it will market the system as the Gandalf
Voicestation System.
 Reuter

The board of directors of Manhattan
National Corp said it has named Charles Hinckley chairman and
chief executive officer of the life insurance holding company,
replacing Wilmot Wheeler Jr, who returns to his former position
of vice chairman.
    Hinckley is also president and chief executive officer of
<Union Central Life Insurance Co>, a mutual insurer that on
March 31 acquired 3.6 mln shares of Manhattan National's common
stock for 43.2 mln dlrs, or 12 dlrs a share, a spokesman for
Manhattan National said.
    The spokesman said the purchase, coupled with the 900,096
Manhattan National shares Union Central already owned, brought
Union Central's Manhattan National stake up to 52.2 pct of the
outstanding common shares.
    Manhattan National said it also named five others from
Union Central to its board of directors.
    The spokesman said Union Central now holds seven of
Manhattan National's thirteen seats on the board of directors.
    The company also said it named Paul Aniskovich Jr president
and chief executive officer of its Manhattan Life Insurance Co
and Manhattan National Life Insurance Co units.
    Aniskovich, who fills a vacancy at the units, formerly was
executive vice president of Union Central Life.
 Reuter

Acme Precision Products Inc said it set
its annual meeting for May 14 for shareholders to vote on the
proposed management-led leveraged buyout of the company.
    The record date for the meeting will be April 16, with
proxy materials to be sent to shareholders on or before April
20.
    The buyout proposal, which was previously announced, will
be structured as a one for 100,000 reverse stock split. It must
be approved by a majority of shareholders. Acme Precision has
1,008,857 shares outstanding.
 Reuter

The pilots union that has bid 4.5
billion dlrs to buy United Airlines from UAL Inc said it is
holding a meeting for all airline employees that will be
televised on closed-circuit channels across the country to
other locations to present details of the offer.
    The meeting at a suburban Chicago location is intended to
provide information on the offer to buy the airline, it said.
    Lawyer F. Lee Bailey, pilot chiefs, attorneys and
investment bankers from Lazard Freres, the pilots' financial
advisors, will speak, it said.
 Reuter

upgraded upgraded to B-1 from B-3 National Gypsum Co's 887 mln
dlrs of industrial revenue and pollution control bonds.
    Moody's said a highly leveraged capital structure and thin
debt protection continues since the April 1986 leveraged
buyout.
    But the firm is well-positioned in its business segments.
As the second-largest U.S. gypsum wallboard producer, it
generates over 80 pct of operating earnings through wallboard
output. This business changes with the construction cycle and
so increases Gypsum's cash flow vulnerability, Moody's said.
 Reuter

Nynex Corp's New York Telephone said it
will hire 1,900 temporary clerical and technical employees to
work from April through October, with some positions open until
December. It said salaries for jobs range from 245 dlrs a week
for inexperienced clerical workers to 700 dlrs a week for
skilled technicians.
    N.Y. Telephone said it has been receiving 2,000 job
applications daily, but needs 1,000 more applicants a day from
which to select the temporary work force. The company also said
it will hire nearly 900 permanent directory assistance
operators to fill vacancies followed by normal turnover.
 Reuter

L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co
said it has received a contract to provide U S West Inc with
AXE digital central office switching equipment for use in
Idaho, replacing 50 older electro-mechanical switches.
    The company said U S West's Mountain Bell will place the
first AXE in service before year-end and the project is to be
completed by the end of 1991.
    The company said the replacement program follows an
agreement between Mountain Bell and the Idaho Public Utilities
Commission for conversion of a substantial part of the Idaho
telephone network to digital from analog technology over the
next five years.
 Reuter

Volcker said that he did not believe there was a connection
between the Fed's policies and the recent rise in the prime
interest rate by most major U.S. banks.
    Asked by reporters following testimony before the Senate
Banking Committee whether the Fed had anything to do with the
rise to 7-3/4 pct in the prime, he replied, "not that I was able
to detect."
 Reuter

Dutch insurer Aegon NV <AEGN.AS> plans
to issue 200 mln guilder, 6.5 pct, six-year bonds at an issue
price of 101.00 pct with 200,000 warrants, lead-manager
Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV (Amro) said.
    From July 16, 1990, Aegon may, at its option, redeem early
the bonds in whole or in part. The issue has denominations of
1,000 guilders.
    The warrants give the right to subscribe to a second series
of bonds, a 200 mln guilder, 6.5 pct, six-year bullet loan. The
issue price of the warrants has been fixed at 30 guilders each.
    From May 15 this year up to and including July 15, 1990,
each warrant will entitle the holder to the bullet by surrender
of the other bond and a warrant.
    After July 16, 1990, each warrant will entitle the holder
to acquire one bullet at a price of 100 pct of the nominal
value plus accrued interest from the preceding coupon date.
    Aegon will pay the holders of unexercised warrants,
outstanding on July 15, 1993, 15.00 guilders each.
    Subscriptions close April 16 and pay date is May 14.
    Coupon date is July 15.
    Application will be made for listing on the Amsterdam Stock
Exchange. Amro said it was the second time it arranged a bond
with debt warrants for Aegon.
    This type of issue gives the holder the opportunity, in
times of falling interest rates, to ensure himself of a fixed
maturity loan, while with unchanged or rising rates, he has the
option not to exercise his warrant, Amro said.
    In the underwriting syndicate are ABN bank, Morgan Bank
Nederland, NMB bank, Rabo-bank, Pierson, Heldring en Pierson,
Mees en Hope, Van Haften en Co, Citicorp Investment Bank (The
Netherlands) and Swiss Bank Corp Int Holland.
 REUTER

Weis Markets Inc said its board
declared a three-for-two stock split for holders of record May
1, 1987, with a distribution date of May 22, 1987.
    The company also said a regular quarterly dividend of 16
cts per share on the pre-split shares will be paid May 22 to
shareholders of record May 1.
 Reuter

Raytheon Co said it was awarded a
37.5 mln Navy contract to provide engineering and technical
services for production of the standard Missle II program.
    This award provides for engineering support to the
230-missle second source production contract currently under
way at Raytheon's missile systems divsion facility, the company
said.
   
 Reuter

Lorimar/Telepictures Corp said
its Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon and Eckhardt unit has been named the
advertising agency for the Lawn Boy unit of Outboard Marine
Corp <OMC>, replacing Walker and Associates.
    Annual billings are estimated at four mln dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

Shr primary 24 cts vs 25 cts
    Shr diluted 21 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 530,583 vs 493,423
    Revs 10.2 mln vs 9,834,578
 Reuter

Plexus Resources Corp said it
will undertake an 11 mln Canadian dlr equity financing package
to allow development of the Rawhide Gold Project in central
Nevada.
    It said the financing will take place upon execution of
contracts currently being concluded with <Peter Kiewit Sons
Inc's> Kiewit Mining Group unit and Standard Oil Co's <SRD>
Kennecott unit.
 Reuter

There is no consensus so far among
industrial countries on an agreement providing debt relief for
the world's poorest nations, a senior U.S. Treasury official
said.
    The official said, "There has not been a consensus reached
yet," when asked about reports the Paris club of western
creditors had agreed to long-term stretch outs of African debt
at concessional interest rates.
    The official, briefing reporters on this week's semiannual
IMF meetings, said the issue would be discussed this week and
the U.S. had an open mind on the proposal but it did object to
concessional interest rate relief.
 Reuter

offers on 3,701,000 lbs of electrolytic copper and 629,000 lbs
of electrolytic cut nickel cathodes or briquettes that it
    It said both metals are for delivery in the week of May 11
to Olin Corp, East Alton, Ill.
    Offers for the copper are due by 1100 hrs EDT, April 21,
while offers on the nickel are due at 1100 hrs EDT on April 14.
    The Mint said that firms, in submitting their offers,
select to receive payment by standard check or be wire
transfer. Awards are determined by whichever of the two methods
is most cost advantageous, based on the cost of money at that
time.
    The minimum acceptance periods for each solicitation is
three calendar days for the copper and 10 calendar days for the
nickel, the Mint said.
 Reuter

Family Health System Inc said
The Federal Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, Texas has approved
its offer to purchase <Sheppard Dental Centers Inc's> assets
from a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding for about 300,000 dlrs.
    FHS administers and markets multiple office dental
practices in the Dallas metropolitan area as well as dental
offices in the Dallas Metroplex.
    The company said it plans to open 12 locations in Dallas by
 Reuter

    Net 131,000 vs 135,000
    Revs 4,222,000 vs 3,656,000
    Avg shrs 1,278,529 vs 1,356,672
    Nine mths
    Shr 31 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 406,000 vs 426,000
    Revs 12.3 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Avg shrs 1,330,511 vs 1,361,421
 Reuter

Motorola Inc said it has selected
<Oregon Software's> Pascal-2 compilers as the compiler for its
MC68000 family of 16-bit microprocessor chips under the
VERSados and SYSTEM V/68 operating systems.
    Also, Motorola said that its Microcomputer Division and
Oregon Software will be the sole supplier of the Pascal
suppliers.
    Motorola said the Pascal-2 compiler for SYSTEM V/68,
supporting the MC68020 and MC68881, is priced at 2,800 dlrs for
June delivery.
    It added that the Pascal-2 compiler for the VERSAdos system
is priced at 2,800 dlrs for June delivery.
 Reuter

(Consolidated-Bathurst Inc) said it
expects improvement in the pulp and paper sector shown in the
second half of 1986 to continue this year. The continued
improvement would be due to good market demand, better product
prices and high operating capacity, the company said in its
    Consolidated-Bathurst, which reported operating profit of
104 mln dlrs last year on sales of 2.02 billion dlrs, said its
joint-venture acquisition of a market pulp mill at Castlegar,
B.C. last year broadens its product range and will contribute
to equity earnings.
    Last year's results were up from 1985 operating profit of
80 mln dlrs and sales of 1.73 billion dlrs.
    The company said it views its near-term prospects with
improved optimism.
    It said results from its Bridgewater newsprint mill in the
U.K. should improve greatly this year due to stronger capacity
and production and more favorable market conditions.
    It said it anticipates a return to profitability in 1987
for its Diamond-Bathurst Inc (DBH) subsidiary, which lost 6.2
mln U.S. dlrs and underwent a reorganization last year, and
expects higher sales and earnings for its other North American
packaging divisions.
    Consolidated-Bathurst said the outlook for its Europa
Carton unit is mixed. It said the effect of trade disputes
between the United States and the European Economic Community
on the West German economy and the higher value of the mark may
lead to increased costs which could not be offset by price
 Reuter

More generic grain certificates
should be released onto the market in order for the U.S.
certificate program to have its full effect on commodities,
according to a study by Sparks Commodities Inc.
    The Agriculture Department should make grain deficiency
payments and paid land diversion payments in a two-third
certificate, one-third cash ratio through fiscal year 1989, 
Carroll Brunthaver, president of Sparks Commodities, told a
House agriculture subcommittee hearing on certificates.
    Thereafter, government payments should be issued in roughly
a 50-50 split between cash and certificates, Brunthaver said.
    The Sparks study on certificates examined two possible
scenarios through the 1990 growing season -- a "zero
certificate case," where no certificate program was assumed,
and an alternative case labeled "adequate certificate case" in
which sufficient certificates would be released so that grain
prices would not be artificially supported by market shortages
due to acreage reduction programs or government holdings.
    The study showed that total grain use under the adequate
certificate scenario would exceed the zero certificate scenario
by 11.2 pct.
    Usage would be markedly more in 1989 and 1990, when grain
usage under a certificate program was estimated to exceed the
zero certificate case by 15 to 19 pct.
    For the five-year period examined, government expenditures
under the adequate certificate case were 7.0 billion dlrs, or
7.5 pct less than under the zero certificate case.
    The Sparks study said that 5.1 billion dlrs, or 70 pct of
those savings resulted from smaller government storage costs.
    The study also estimated that government grain stocks under
the adequate certificate case would be 4.7 billion bushels
below the zero certificate case at the end of the period
examined.
    The Sparks study said that while certificates permit market
prices to fall below loan levels, these lower prices increase
commodity usage and reduce the net costs of certificates versus
cash.
 Reuter

Cummins Engine Co said it told
shareholders higher engine orders to the North American
heavy-duty truck market will result in improved earnings in the
    Cummins said the company should make progress this year and
next toward its goal of five pct profitability.
    Cummins recorded net income of 3,743,000 dlrs, or 38 cts
per share, on sales of 516.9 mln dlrs.
    It said it expects 1987 North American heavy-duty truck
production to total 135,000 units, an 8.5 pct increase from
1986.
    Cummins said it expects capital expenditures to total about
155 mln dlrs, down from 274 mln dlrs the year before.
 Reuter

North-West Telecommunications Inc
said it acquired the assets and customer base of Com-Tel
Systems Inc, a telephone interconnect firm that operates in La
Crosse and Stevens Point, Wis. and Rochester, Minn.
    It said the purchase only includes the businesses in La
Crosse and Rochester.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 2,407,000 vs 2,393,000
    Revs 117.2 mln vs 67.1 mln
    Note: Aggregate judgments in antitrust and other suits of
77 mln dlrs not included in year-ago or 1987 1st qtr results.
Company said any portion of this amount, including related
interest or attorneys' fees, would be proportionately reflected
as a reduction in its minority interest of Sealy recorded on
its consolidated balance sheet upon final settlement of
    Note: Consolidated balance sheet as of end of 1st qtr
reflects after-tax impact of 50 mln dlr settlement won by Sealy
licensee in Michigan.
    1987 results include all operations of all acquired
Sealy-brand licensees and 82 pct of Sealy. Remaining 18 pct of
Sealy is recorded as minority interest.
    Proceeds of 170 mln dlrs from sale of stock and debt were
used to reduce balance of revolving credit agreement to 80 mln
dlrs. Accordingly, 250 mln dlr obligation to banks under credit
agreement was recorded as a long-term liability as of end of
1st qtr.
    Note: In April, company intends to acquire Michigan Sealy
licensee and fund transaction with 25 mln dlrs in cash and
borrow balance required from banks.
 Reuter

The executive committee of the Italian
national banking association (ABI), representing the country's
major credit institutions, approved the setting up of a common
reserve fund to guarantee customer deposits in the event of
bank failures.
    ABI chairman Giannino Parravicini told a news conference
that the fund would not be operative until the latter part of
1987, and only on condition that 60 pct of banks representing
at least 75 pct of total deposits participated.
    He said the fund would initially have 1,000 billion lire
available and would cover deposits of up to three billion lire.
    A statute for establishing a deposit guarantee fund has
already been approved by the Bank of Italy and by an
interministerial committee on credit and savings.
    The 1,000 billion lire initial funding, which will be
provided through contributions from banks which opt to join the
scheme, compares with an originally targetted figure of 4,000
billion lire.
    Parravicini said the fund would be gradually increased to
4,000 billion lire by end 1991, and that the decision to
achieve this figure gradually rather than immediately was due
to fiscal considerations.
    The fund, still to be formally ratified by ABI's steering
committee, will provide 100 pct coverage on deposits of up to
200 mln lire, 90 pct on deposits between 200 mln and one
billion lire and 80 pct on those between one billion and three
    Assuming that all banks join the fund, contributions would
be equivalent to around 0.25 pt of a bank's total deposits.
    The ABI's steering committee later unanimously ratified the
executive committee's decision to create the common reserve
fund.
 REUTER

said after six months of testing, American Telephone and
Telegraph Co <T> has installed initial orders for six of the
company's CHANNELink 5100/R products.
    The product is used for interconnection of IBM mainframe
 Reuter

Yugoslavia, which refinanced part of
its 19.7 billion dlr debt in talks with creditor governments
last week, has begun talks with banks on rescheduling its
commercial debt, the official Tanjug news agency said.
    The talks began in Washington yesterday and Tanjug said the
general attitude of the banks was "favourable."
    At the same time, other Tanjug reports showed Yugoslavia is
having difficulties in obtaining a 600 mln ECU loan from the
European Community (EC) and in receiving money owed to Yugoslav
firms by Middle Eastern countries.
    The Western creditor governments and Kuwait agreed on March
31 to refinance 475 mln dlrs of Yugoslavia's debt due in 1987
and 1988. This made possible the talks with commercial banks.
    Tanjug said sources close to the Yugoslav delegation said
the initial reaction of commercial banks was favourable despite
their continued insistence on "technical and legal elements."
    It said it was believed that a commercial debt rescheduling
would be formally agreed in the next few weeks. Bank debt
accounts for about 70 pct of Yugoslavia's overall debt, which
stood at 19.7 billion dlrs at end-1986.
    Tanjug said Yugoslavia also discussed with its commercial
creditors the idea of converting some of Yugoslavia's debt into
joint venture investments but it gave no details of this.
    It said Deputy Finance Minister Boris Skapin was holding
talks on this with representatives of Manufacturers Hanover
Trust Co., Which coordinates the interests of several hundred
banks in Yugoslav debt negotiations.
    In a separate report Tanjug said the EC has so far refused
a Yugoslav request for a 600 mln ECU infrastuctural loan and a
100 mln ECU grant from the EC budget. The EC had so far only
agreed to provide 380 mln ECUs towards transport modernisation.
    It said Yugoslav Finance Minister Svetozar Rikanovic
yesterday met World Bank and International Monetary Fund
officials in Washington.
    It said the World Bank agreed that infrastructural projects
in Yugoslavia should be accelerated and structural adjustment
loans should be agreed this year.
 REUTER

BOESKY AIDE DAVIDOFF CONSENTS TO SEC PENALTIES; AGREES TO HELP INVESTIGATION

Gradual warming continued in most
regions of Western Soviet Union in the week ended April 4, the
Joint Agricultural Weather Facility of the U.S Agriculture and
said most of the region's precipitation fell as rain.
    The southern snow cover boundary continued to slowly
retreat northward and eastward, it said.
    Moderate to deep snow cover the northern half of the
Ukraine, northern North Caucasus, and the lower Volga, about
one month later than usual, it said.
    The agency said average weekly temperatures were below
normal in the southeast, near normal in the southwest and
northeast, and above normal in the northwest.
    Winter grains remained dormant over the region, but warm
weather promoted greening in crop areas adjacent to the Black
Sea coast, it said.
 Reuter

House Democratic leader Thomas Foley
said he thought the House would approve a budget resolution
calling for 22 billion dlrs of new revenues including 18
billion dlrs of new taxes.
    "I think we will have enough votes to pass the budget
resolution and implement it," Foley told reporters.
    Asked why he thought a majority of the House was willing to
support higher taxes, Foley said, "The deficit problem has
become more apparent." President Reagan has said he will veto
any legislation raising taxes. The House is expected to act on
the budget resolution this week.
 Reuter

Cotton planting continued progressing
in the week ended April 5, but cold, wet weather in the South
hampered seedbed preparation, the Joint Agricultural Weather
Facility of the U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments said.
said planting increased in California as soil temperatures
improved.
    Texas planted 10 pct compared with an average of eight pct.
Arizona and Georgia planted 35 pct and two pct, respectively,
it said.
    Oklahoma farmers prepared 10 pct of their cotton seedbeds,
15 points below average, the agency said.
 Reuter

Daltex Medical Sciences Inc said a
non-toxic, oral drug to treat skin disorders, such as redness,
scattered pimples, yellow and wrinkling associated with aging,
has been filed by the inventors and assigned to the company.
    The inventors are Dr. Albert M. Kligman and Dr. Gerd
Plewig. Kligman, a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist,
discovered the use of retinoic acid for treating acne.
    Daltex said initial tests of the drug, a retinoid compound,
have proved effective in treating "problem" skin most often
found in those over 50 and in those whose skin problems have
been aggravated by excessive sun exposure.
    In a Daltex statement, Dr Kligman said that daily doses of
the drug can "moderate or reverse" a number of skin problems
without the side effects typically associated with retinoid
compounds.
    He said more than 100 men and women in the U.S. and Germany
have been treated for six months to two years with the drug,
and said studies indicate that its therapeutic effect can be
maintained if patients take maintenance doses two or three
times a week.
 Reuter

Nine grain ships were loading and 16
said.
 Continental Grain, Westwego     1      5
 Mississippi River, Myrtle Grove 1      0
 ADM Growmark                    1      2
 ST CHARLES DESTREHAN         1      1
 RESERVE ELEVATOR CORP        1      0
 PEAVEY CO, ST ELMO           1      1
 CARGILL GRAIN, PORT ALLEN    0      0
 ZEN-NOH                      1      3
 reuter

Industrial countries do not agree on
ways to provide debt relief for the world's poorest nations, a
    A senior U.S. Treasury official said, "There has not been a
consensus reached yet," when asked about reports the Paris club
of western creditors had agreed to long-term stretch outs of
African debt at concessional interest rates.
 Reuter

Michael Davidoff, head trader for
Ivan Boesky's Seemala Corp, consented to Securities and
Exchange Commission penalities and agreed to help in its
continuing investigation of insider trading, the SEC said.
    Davidoff recently pleaded guilty in federal court to
violating the net capital requirements governing brokers and
traders.
    The SEC had filed similar charges and it said Davidoff had
consented to a final judgement enjoing him from future stock
trading violations.
    The SEC said Davidoff consented to its order without
admitting or denying the allegations that he aided and abetted
violations by a broker and dealer.
    It also said Davidoff consented to a planned SEC order to
bar him from future securities dealings.
 reuter

MIYAZAWA LEAVES HOTEL FOR MEETING WITH BAKER AT TREASURY, JAPANESE OFFICIALS SAY

Snow and freezing temperatures
stressed livestock in the eastern half of the United States in
the week ended April 5, the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility
of the U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments said.
agency said most Nebraska and Kansas livestock are fair as calf
losses from the storm during the week were variable.
    Calving and lambing continued.
    Freezing temperatures slowed pasture growth in most areas,
 Reuter

BURLINGTON NORTHERN INC 1ST QTR SHR PROFIT 93 CTS VS LOSS 3.55 DLRS

An explosion and fire today
damaged a grain elevator in Bancroft, Iowa, destroying
thousands of bushels of grain, authorities said.
    The pre-dawn explosion ripped the wooden elevator open, and
a fire that followed continued burning at late morning but had
been contained, according to a dispatcher at the Algona Police
    No injuries were reported at the Lone Rock Coop facility.
    The dispatcher said the elevator was filled with corn, and
a nearby drying building holding soybeans was on fire.
    The explosion was the second in four days in Iowa following
the destruction of an Archer Daniels Midland elevator in
Burlington last Friday.
 Reuter

Artistic Greetings Inc said it
expects a rebound in profits and an increase in sales in 1987
as costs connected with computerization, staffing, traning and
catalog sales start to taper off.
    Today it reported 1986 earnings of 294,650 dlrs, down from
371,064 dlrs a year before, on revenues of 8,157,864 dlrs, up
from 7,054,709 dlrs.
 Reuter

Parsow Partnership Ltd, an Elkhorn,
Neb., investment partnership, said it bought a 5.1 pct stake in
Orange-Co Inc common stock as an investment.
Parsow said it had bought all its 220,000 Orange-Co shares in
the open market with funds from its working capital.
    The partnership, whose sole general partner is Elkhorn
investor Alan Parsow, said it "has no present intention of
effecting any change in the control of Orange-Co Inc."
 Reuter

<Cooperative Energy Development
Corp> said two exploratory oil wells in the Zama area of
Alberta tested 1,020 and 950 barrels a day, and will increase
the company's daily oil production by 30 pct.
    The company did not immediately elaborate on total
production figures.
    The wells, flowing oil from the Keg River formation, will
be constrained to combined production of about 450 barrels a
day to optimize reserve recovery, the company said.
    Permanent production facilities are being installed and the
wells will produce to pipeline by mid-April.
 Reuter

<Avinda Video Inc> said its debenture
holders agreed to convert 3.3 mln dlrs of 13 pct subordinated
debentures to common stock at a conversion price of 40 cts a
share, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
    Avinda said the debt conversion will inject 3,140,000 dlrs
of equity into the company, increase net book value per share
to 22 cts from five cts, and reduce annual interest costs by
428,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co said it named
Ronald Tanler as chairman of the company's L.S. Ayres
department store division based in Indianapolis, filling a
long-time vacancy.
    It said Robert Friedman continues as president and chief
executive officer of L.S. Ayres.
    Tanler had served the company as senior vice president and
chief financial officer of its St. Louis-based Famous-Barr
department store division.
 Reuter

FilmTec Corp, a subsidiary of Dow
Chemical Co, said the Food and Drug Administration willpermit
the FilmTec FT30 reverse osmosis membrane to be used in food
processing and purifying water for food applications.
    The company said the development opens "a potentially huge
market for FilmTec." It said food processors will be able to
concentrate juice and other food streams with reverse osmosis
rather than with evaporation techniques.
 Reuter

    Pay June 15
    Record June 1
 Reuter

Philadelphia Electric Co said the
Operations Engineer at its Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station
has been replaced with another nuclear experienced, qualified
engineer holding a senior operator license at Peach Bottom.
    Early last week, the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission ordered that unit three of the nuclear power plant
be shutdown after determining that operators were sleeping on
duty.
    In a letter to the commission detailing actions taken as a
result of that order, the utility said the Operations Engineer
had been reassigned to corporate headquarters on April 6.
    Releasing its letter to the NRC, Philadelphia Electric said
it "will have no future comment on this response pending
Nuclear Regulatory Commission disposition" of the case.
    Effective April 11, the utility said, it is establishing
24-hour coverage of operations by at least one independent,
nuclear experienced engineer or physicist per shift posted
within the control room complex who will report directly to the
company's Superintendent of Nuclear Operations Quality
Assurance Division at corporate headquarters.
    Immediately after receipt of the NRC order, Philadelphia
Electric said, Senior Plant Management began making unannounced
control room visits during the night shift, adding this
activity will continue until the planned additional 24-hour
coverage operations are in place.
 Reuter

Lawmakers from Ontario asked their
U.S. counterparts to exempt Canada from the mandatory trade
retaliation provisions in a major trade bill being considered
by the U.S. Congress.
    At a meeting of the Northeast-Midwest Coalition, an
organization of U.S. legislators, David Cooke, chairman of the
Ontario Parliament's Select Committee on Economic Affairs, said
the exemption would help trade relations.
    The trade legislation to be considered by the full House in
late April would require President Reagan to retaliate against
foreign unfair trade practices unless the trade actions would
harm the U.S. economy.
    Currently, Reagan can reject trade sanctions on any
grounds.
    Cooke, a member of the Liberal party, told the U.S.
congressmen, "I can understand (the trade bill). I think it has
to do with concerns you have with the other parts of the world."
    "I would suggest to you that we are your best friends. You
do not have those concerns with Canada and you should sincerely
consider exempting our country from that bill," he added.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 10.9 mln vs 9,498,000
    Assets 3.60 billion vs 3.25 billion
    Deposits 2.45 billion vs 2.23 billion
    Loans 2.16 billion vs 1.67 billion
    NOTE: full name of company is Central Bancshares of the
South Inc.
 Reuter

The amount of coffee stored in New York
and New Orleans warehouses and certified for delivery against
the New York Coffee "C" futures totalled 585,555 bags as of
April 3, compared with 585,794 bags the previous week, a net
decrease of 239 bags, the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa
Exchange said.
    The total comprised 392,845 bags in New York, an increase
of 261 bags, and 192,710 bags in New Orleans, a drop of 500
bags.
    The exchange said there were nil bags pending
classification. There were 56,578 bags pending certification,
including 32,553 in New York and 24,025 in New Orleans, the
 reuter

Textron Inc said it plans to
sell its Avco Specialty Materials Division as part of its debt
reduction and restructuring.
    The company said it will use proceeds from the sale to
reduce the debt incurred by its acquisition of Ex-Cell-O Corp
last year.
    Textron said Morgan Stanley and Co will represent it in the
sale.
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 9,421,000 vs 9,312,000
    Rev 37.7 mln vs 36.3 mln
    Avg shrs 17,049,920 vs 21,173,570
    NOTE: Per-share results adjusted for two-for-one common
stock split in June 1986
 Reuter

New immigration rules relating to
alien farm workers and reportedly being drafted by the U.S.
Agriculture Department are meeting with objections in Congress,
sources on Capitol Hill said.
    USDA is drafting regulations, required by a 1986 law, that
would offer amnesty to illegal aliens if they worked in the
cultivation of fruits, vegetables and other perishable
commodities.
    The department is considering including in its definition
of perishable commodities such farm products as tobacco, hops,
Spanish reeds and Christmas trees, while excluding sugar cane,
the New York Times reported yesterday.
    Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., would like to see the
definition extended to include sugar cane, cultivation of which
is "a breeding ground for one of the scandals of the nation,"
Gene Smith, a spokesman for Berman, said.
    Livestock, dairy and poultry producers have been lobbying
USDA hard to have their products covered by the amnesty
provision, farm industry sources said.
    Chuck Fields of the American Farm Bureau Federation said
livestock producers were "desperate" because they fear they will
be unable to retain the many illegal aliens who have joined
that industry.
    A House staff member involved in drafting the landmark 1986
immigration law who asked not to be identified said Congress
did not mean to extend special amnesty provisions to workers
who helped cultivate tobacco, and that inclusion of hops and
Spanish reeds was "marginal."
    In addition, lawmakers made it clear during consideration
of the bill that lumber workers were not to be covered by the
the amnesty provisions, making the inclusion of Christmas trees
"a tough call," this source said.
    USDA officials declined to comment on the draft regulation
except to say it was subject to change before it will be
released, probably some time later this month.
    While lawmakers may object to the USDA rule under
consideration relating to perishable commodities, Congress is
not likely to reopen debate on the controversial immigration
question, congressional sources said.
    The amnesty provision specially designed for farm workers
was crucial to passage of the overall immigration bill.
    Congressional staff members estimate the special farm
worker amnesty provision would apply to between 250,000 to
350,000 aliens. The law would allow eligible farm workers who
worked for 90 days during the year ending May 1, 1986, to apply
for temporary, then permanent, resident status.
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp president Arlie
Lazarus, said the sales for the fiscal year ending January 30,
1988, would reach approximately 700 mln dlrs.
    Jamesway recorded sales for the fiscal year ending January
31, 1987, of 612.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The French government's privatisation
offer of <Banque du Batiment et des Travaux Publics> (BTP) is
attracting strong demand, a spokesman for the government's
adviser for the offer, <Credit Industriel et Commercial> said.
    A CIC spokesman said demand for the BTP offer today and
yesterday was similar to demand on the first two days of the
share offer for another recently privatised bank, <Sogenal>,
which closed 46 times oversubscribed.
    He recalled the Sogenal offer over two weeks last month was
for 4.95 mln shares, compared to the offer of 1.07 mln shares
in BTP, which closes on Friday after opening on Monday.
 Reuter

Cuban president Fidel Castro told a
Congress of the Union of Young Communists here that the
production of crude sugar during the harvest still in progress
is 800,000 tonnes behind schedule.
    In a speech Sunday, published in today's official paper
GRANMA, Castro said unseasonable rains since January seriously
interrupted harvesting and milling operations especially in the
central and western parts of the island.
    The Cuban leader said the mechanical cane harvesters
scheduled to cut over 60 pct of the cane this year were
particularly "vulnerable," as muddy fields prevent operations.
    Neither Castro nor the Cuban press have given out figures
to estimate tonnes of crude production during the present
harvest or the goals for the sugar campaign.
    However, a cuban sugar official told Reuters that the
country will be lucky if crude output reaches last year's 7.2
mln tonnes. Output of crude for the previous 1984-85 harvest
was 8.2 mln tonnes.
    The harvest was scheduled to end April 30 but due to the
present shortfalls it will be extended into May and June, the
 Reuter

American Telephone and Telegraph Co said
the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) approved its 4.1
mln dlr rate restructuring proposal to reduce intrastate long
distance rates by about 4.4 pct.
    ATT said it will file new prices at the PSC in August to
meet a Sept. 1 effective date set by the commission.
    The telephone company said it asked the PSC on Nov. 7 for
permission to increase its prices for intrastate private line
services, used mainly by large business customers, which ATT
said were priced below its access costs.
    "Private line service has been grossly underpriced since
1984, and, therefore, it has been subsidized by all long
distance users," Terry Hobbs, assistant vice president said.
    "As a result of today's PSC decision to allow our private
line service prices to cover their access costs, these
subsidies will end and we'll be able to reduce basic long
distance rates for everyone," he added.
 Reuter

the chase manhattan bank, N.A. <CMB>, is
closing its peruvian consumer banking operations less than
three yeas after they opened, the bank's manager in peru, jorge
sosa, said.
    He told reuters June 30 was the closing date. He said the
measure was not linked to peru's foreign debt position. Chase
is one of peru's top private banking creditors.
    Peru is over 700 mln dlrs in arrears on its interest owed
to its 280 or so private foreign bank creditors, bankers said.
    Sosa said chase opened its local consumer banking operation
in september 1984. It held the equivalent of around four mln
dlrs in deposits and had extended the equivalent of
about five mln dlr in loans.
    The bank still had to decide whether it would sell the
holdings to another banking institution before closing the
operation, he said.
    The closing of chase's consumer operation will leave only
five foreign banks operating this service in peru. Two of them
are institutions from the united states and there is one each
from britain, japan and spain.
 Reuter

AVON SAYS IT TO BUY GIORGIO INC, A FRAGRANCE COMPANY, FOR 185 MLN DLRS

price by 0.50 cent to 65.50 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Yeutter said that if Congress were to require trade
retaliation, it would only close markets and would result in
less trade.
    In remarks prepared for an address to members of the
University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, Yeutter
said many Congressional proposals do not appear to be overtly
protectionist, yet their undeniable effect would be to close
off market opportunitites, just as exchange rate movement is
unleashing such opportunities for the first time in several
years.
    "Despite all our progress on trade policy and despite the
President's comprehensive competitiveness initiative, there are
many in Congress who still are supporting trade bills
containing many dangerous provisions," Yuetter said.
    Yeutter said many countries would prefer U.S. retaliation
to opening their own markets. "We should be intelligent enough
to not let them off the hook that easily," he said.
    He said that tough but flexible legislative language is
infinitely preferable to tough but inflexible language.
    Both House and Senate trade proposals place undesirable
limits on Presidential discretion, he said.
    "Limiting the President's ability to consider all available
options on issues as sensitive as these would be most unwise,"
Yeutter said. "That could readily provoke retaliation, which
would unneccesarily embroil us in trade wars, injuring most
competitive export industries."
    Yeutter said present U.S. trade laws are fundamentally
sound.
    President Reagan has threatened or implemented retaliation
eight times in the last 18 months -- most recently in the case
of Japanese semiconductors being dumped in world markets.
    "He took these steps as a last resort, only after carefully
analyzing all the contingencies on a case by case basis and
only after determining that such actions would open markets to
American exports", he said.
    Yeutter said it would be foolish to attempt to solve the
U.S. trade deficit by focusing on trade policy alone. He added
that the trade deficit was created primarily by macroeconomic
policy shortcomings here and abroad.
 Reuter

Jeumont-Schneider, a subsidiary of
Schneider SA <SCHN.PA>, announced in a statement the creation
of a Canadian subsidiary, Jeumont-Schneider of Canada.
    The new subsidiary will work on developing
Jeumont-Schneider's Canadian sales, particularly for its
electro-mechanical and electronics goods.
    The company also said it had signed a distribution
agreement with <Beel Electronics> for sales of the French
group's speed variators in Canada.
 Reuter

Waste Management Inc said in response to
a Reuters inquiry that it knew of no reason to account for the
decline in its stock, trading at 74-1/4, off 2-5/8.
 Reuter

(CCC) has transferred 21.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees
previously earmarked for sales of U.S. corn and 5.0 mln dlrs
for sales of oilseeds to increase available coverage on sales
of U.S. poultry meat to Iraq, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    The department said the action was taken at the request of
Iraq's State Trade Organization for Grains and Foodstuffs.
    The guarantee line for sales of corn has been reduced from
78.0 mln dlrs to 57.0 mln and the line for oilseeds from 5.0
mln dlrs to zero.
    The guarantee line for sales of frozen poultry has been
increased from 30.0 mln dlrs to 56.0 mln dlrs, USDA said.
 Reuter

Avon Products Inc said it reached an
agreement in principle to purchase <Giorgio Inc>, a fragrance
company, for 185 mln dlrs in cash.
    Giorgio's annual revnues are more than 100 mln dlrs, Avon
said. The acquisition has been approved by Avon's board, with
the closing set for May 7.
    The transaction would have no impact on Avon's current
dividend rate, it said.
    Giorgio's boutique in Beverly Hills, Calif., will be sold
back to Fred Hayman, one of the shareholders, who will continue
to operate it independently, Avon said.
    Avon said it identified Giorgio more than a year ago as a
preferred acquisition candidate. It said it is launching a
prestige fragrance developed in conjunction with Catherine
Deneuve this spring.
    Giorgio will be operated as a separate subsidiary, Avon
said, and would not compete with Avon's direct selling beauty
products business.
 Reuter

Honduras will tender April 13 under
Public Law 480 for U.S. and non-U.S. flag vessels to deliver
approximately 52,500 tonnes of various wheats in bulk, an agent
for the country said.
    The agent said deliveries of northern spring/dns wheat will
include laydays of July 1-10 for 7,500-9,500 tonnes, August
1-10 for 8,000-10,000 tonnes, and September 15-25 for
12,500-14,500 tonnes.
    Deliveries of hard red winter wheat will have laydays of
June 20-30 for 5,000-7,000 tonnes, July 15-25 for 6,500-8,500
tonnes, and September 15-25 for 7,000-9,000 tonnes.
    Offers are due by 1200 hrs EDT, April 13, and will remain
valid until the close of business April 14, the agent said.
 Reuter

Brazil has set up a special debt
commission, headed by Finance Minister Dilson Funaro, to be
responsible for renegotiating Brazil's 109 billion dollar
foreign debt, officials said.
    The principal negotiator on the commission, created by
President Jose Sarney, will be former foreign minister Ramiro
Saraiva Guerreiro.
    Officials said Guerreiro would be joined on the commission
by eight senior officials, including a representative of the
National Security Council.
    The creation of the commission is intended to underscore
the Brazilian government's contention that the debt issue is
essentially political and that a political solution must be
found to the problem.
    On February 20 Brazil suspended interest payments on its 68
billion dollar foreign bank debt to try to force the issue.
    Creditor banks, however, have signalled that they are
equally determined to resist Brazil's demands for debt relief.
    Yesterday Funaro travelled to the United States for fresh
debt negotiations with creditors deeply angered by Brasilia's
suspension of interest payments.
    Funaro was due to hold talks in New York today with the
private sector, before travelling to Washington for the semi-
annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank.
    Officials said the new commission would start work in
earnest when Funaro returns from the United States.
    Yesterday Funaro called for a new forum for discussion of
the foreign debt. He suggested direct participation of the
governments of creditor countries in debt talks.
    In negotiations on commercial debt, talks have
traditionally been restricted to banks.
    The creation of the new commission brings Brazil's highly
professional Foreign Ministry much more into the forefront on
the debt issue than it has been in the past.
    During the period of military rule, which ended in 1985,
the Foreign Ministry played a very minor role in debt policy.
    But the new commission has diplomats among its members and
the chief negotiator, Saraiva Guerreiro, is a seasoned envoy
with a long diplomatic career.
 Reuter

downgraded 1.8 billion dlrs of long-term debt of Deere and Co
and its finance unit John Deere Credit Co.
    Downgraded were senior notes and debentures to Baa-2 from
A-3 and subordinated debt to Baa-3 from Baa-1. The senior debt
includes John Deere Credit Co's guaranteed Eurobonds.
    Moody's cited lower agricultural equipment demand due to
depressed conditions in the farm economy. It also noted that
equipment prices are pressured by competition. Deere is the
industry's dominant producer but overcapacity keeps cash flow
and debt protection measures under pressure, Moody's noted.
 Reuter

Trans World Airways said load factor
in March rose to 67.4 pct from 60.4 pct last year.
    Available seat miles rose 22 pct to 3.9 billion from 3.2
billion and revenue passenger miles rose 35.4 pct to 2.6
billion from 2.0 billion.
    For the year-to-date, load factor rose to 60.3 pct from
55.2 pct, available seat miles rose 10.2 pct to 11.2 billion
from 10.2 billion and revenue passenger miles rose 20.2 pct to
6.7 billion from 5.6 billion.
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc said the decision by
General Partners, comprised of AFG Industries and Wagner and
Brown, to end its hostile offer for the company supports its
belief that the buy back offer it announced yesterday was a
"financially superior alternative."
    GenCorp said it would annouce details of its plans to buy
back 54 pct of its stock for 1.6 billion dlrs, or 130 dlrs a
share, later this week. GenCorp's buy back was made to fend off
the hostile 2.3 billion dlr, 100-dlr-a-share, tender offer by
AFG and Wagner and Brown.
    Earlier today AFG and Wagner and Brown said that without
the benefit of additional information available to GenCorp's
management, it cannot compete economically with GenCorp's
proposal.
    The group said it is ending its tender offer for GenCorp
and promptly return to tendering shareholders all shares
tendered pursuant to its offer.
    The group owns 9.8 pct, or 2,180,608 shares, of GenCorp's
 Reuter

Berry Petroleum Co said its board
and the Norris Oil Co board approved a merger agreement that
calls for Norris to become a wholly-owned Berry subsidiary.
    Berry, a privately-owned company which already owns 80.6
pct of Norris Oil's stock, said the agreement calls for Norris'
public shareholders to receive 0.0333 Berry common shares for
each Norris share held.
 Reuter

(CCC) has reallocated 5.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees
previously earmarked for sales of U.S. wheat to provide
coverage for sales of U.S. vegetable oil to Bangladesh, the
    USDA said the action was taken at the request of the
Bangladesh government and reduces the guarantee line authorized
for wheat sales from 25.0 mln dlrs to 20.0 and creates a new
line of 5.0 mln dlrs for vegetable oils.
    To be eligible for coverage under the CCC's Intermediate
Export Credit Program, credit terms must be in excess of three
years, but not more than seven years.
    All sales covered by the credit guarantees must be
registered and shipped by September 30, 1987, USDA said.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc's Bendix Test
Systems Division is cutting between 75 and 125 employes as part
of its streamlining efforts.
    Bendix, which is part of the Aircraft Systems Co of
Allied-Signal's Aerospace's Bendix sector, said the cuts would
create a more cost-effective unit. It said employment is
expected to remain at approximately 1,200 employes.
    The reductions began last month when the division announced
a voluntary retirement program for eligible employes.
 Reuter

(CCC) has authorized 2.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees to cover
sales of seeds for planting to Algeria, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the additional guarantees increase the
cumulative fiscal year 1987 program for sales of U.S.
agricultural products to Algeria to 466.0 mln dlrs.
    To be eligible under the new seed credit guarantees, all
sales must be registered by September 30, 1987, and shipped by
December 31, 1987, USDA said.
 Reuter

AMR Corp, parent company of American
Airlines, said it has formed a new unit named AMR Investment
Services to provide cash and pension fund management services
to AMR and to small and medium-sized companies and
    AMR said the unit will provide short-term portfolio
management services through either individual segregated
accounts or through a commingled money market portfolio that is
part of a new open-ended mutual fund called American AAdvantage
Funds.
    AMR said the unit will provide pension fund and profit
sharing invetsment management services through the American
AAdvantage Balance Fund, the American AAdvantage Equity Fund
and the American AAdvantage Fixed Income Fund.
    The company said it appointed William Quinn, AMR Corp's
assistant treasurer-funds management, as president of the new
unit.
 Reuter

announced the following prevailing world market prices of rice
on a loan-rate basis, with previous prices --
    -- Long grain whole kernels 5.87 cts per lb vs 5.70
    -- Medium grain whole kernels 5.28 cts per lb vs 5.12
    -- Short grain whole kernels  5.22 cts per lb vs 5.06
    -- Broken kernels 2.94 cts per lb vs 2.85
    The repayment rate for 1986-crop warehouse or farm-stored
rice loans are the higher of the world price or 50 pct of the
loan rate of 7.20 dlrs per cwt.
    The prices will remain in effect for a week, but new prices
could be announced earlier if warranted, USDA said.
 Reuter

    Net 1,356,000 vs 1,041,000
    Revs 9.7 mln vs 8.4 mln
 Reuter

    Net 1,356,754 vs 1,048,340
    Assets 448.5 mln vs 407.4 mln
   
 Reuter

Manhattan National Corp said it elected
Charles Hinckley chairman and chief executive officer of the
life insurance holding company.
    Hinckley succeeds Wilmot Wheeler Jr, who returns to his
former position as vice chairman, the company said.
    Hinckley will continue as president and chief executive
officer of Union Central Life Insurance Co, a Cincinnati-based
mutual insurer, which owns approximately 52.2 pct of Manhattan
National outstanding stock.

 Reuter

    Shr loss three cts vs loss two cts
    Net loss 183,500 vs loss 163,800
    Sales 608,800 vs 1,156,100
    Year
    Shr loss 16 cts vs loss 21 cts
    Net loss 1,128,600 vs loss 1,081,600
    Sales 3,811,200 vs 6,968,700
   
 Reuter

    Revs 9,729,000 vs 8,367,000
 Reuter

<Wilderness Experience Inc>
said it may be forced to file for bankruptcy court protection,
or seek a liquidation of the company, if it is unsuccessful in
obtaining the financing necessary to meet its bank debt
commitments.
    The company said it has been unable to renew a short-term
borrowing arrangement with its bank or to make scheduled debt
payments.
    It also said the bank has said it will foreclose their
security interest in the company if it does not present an
acceptable payment program within the next several weeks.
 Reuter

The following initial securities
    RehabCare Corp, Chesterfield, Mo. - 2.5 mln shares of
common stock at an estimated 10-13 dlrs a share through an
underwriting group led by Prudential-Bache Capital Funding.
    Sanderson Farms Inc, Laurel, Miss. - 1.25 mln shares of
common stock at an estimated 15-17 dlrs a share through a group
led by Smith, Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc.
    Samna Corp, Atlanta, Ga - one mln common shares at an
estimated eight-10 dlrs each through Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc.
 Reuter

<E-tron> said it named Thomas
Fleming director of its Chaff Countermeasures Division.
    Fleming, who has 18 years experience in Chaff
manufacturing, was formerly with Tracor Inc <TRR>, the company
said.   E-Tron said it is currently in Chapter 11.
 Reuter

Perceptronics Inc said its
FAAC Perceptronics subsidiary received a 2.7 mln dlr contract
from the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, Pa.
    The contract calls for the company to develop software for
Naval aircraft training simulators and F-14D weapons systems
analysis, Perceptronics said.
 
 Reuter

leased a 23,500 ton passenger vessel from Orley Shipping Co
Inc, of Liberia for a term with options extending for 15 years.
    The vessel, SS Liberte, will be renamed the Canadian Star
and will be used for cruises to Montreal from New York,
beginning in June.
    Orley SHipping is partially owned by Common Brothers PLC, a
U.K. maritime firm which owns 60 pct of Bermuda Star's shares
and arranged debt financing for the ship's purchase.
    Orley acquired the vessel from Banstead Shipping Ltd. Terms
 Reuter

Iraq said tonight its forces were
battling to dislodge Iranian troops from territory they gained
during a new three-pronged offensive on the war front near the
southern city of Basra.
    The third High Command communique issued during the day
said the Iranians launched a major overnight assault on the
fronts of three Iraqi divisions, the Qutaiba, Muthanna and
Mohammed al-Qassem forces.
    It said the Iranian troops which attacked the Qutaiba front
were completely annihilated but the invading force managed to
gain some footholds on the other fronts.
    "Fierce fighting has been raging since dawn today and all
morning where our forces succeeded in dislodging the Iranians
from all the positions they gained at the Muthanna front and
the situation ended in Iraq's favour," the communique said.
    It said Iraqi forces were continuing counter-attacks to
drive the Iranians from the few positions they were still
holding on the front of the Mohammed al-Qassem forces.
    The precise locations of the three fronts were not given.
 Reuter

<Premdor Inc> said it planned a
two-for-one common stock split, subject to shareholder approval
at the May 4 annual meeting.
    It said the split, if approved, would take effect on May
20.
    Premdor manufactures and sells wood doors.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs loss two cts
    Net loss 183,597 vs loss 136,990
    Rev 36,600 vs 61,763
    Avg shares 12,355,000 vs 9,205,000
    Year
    Shr loss five cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 571,336 vs loss 416,595
    Rev 103,327 vs 61,763
    Avg shares 12,355,000 vs 8,705,000
    NOTE: Company's full name is <Teletrak Advanced Technology
Systems Inc and it is a unit of Helm Resources <H>. 1985 net
loss includes loss from discontinued operations of 278,156
dlrs.
 Reuter

Hooker Corp Ltd of Australia said it has
named A. Anthony McLellen to the new position of president of
Hooker Holdings (U.S.A.) Inc, the holding company for Hooker
Corp's U.S. operations.
 Reuter

Cannon Group Inc said it agreed in
principle to sell its 50 pct interest in the HBO/Cannon Video
joint venture to the Home Box Office unit of Time Inc <TL>.
    The company said it is making the sale because in the near
future all of its video products will be licensed in the United
States and Canada to either the Warner Brothers unit of Warner
Communications Inc <WCI>, or to Media Home Entertainment.
 Reuter

keeping GenCorp Inc's 100 mln dlrs of BB-plus subordinated debt
on creditwatch with negative implications.
    S and P cited the company's announcement that it will
purchase up to 54 pct of its common stock shares for 1.6
billion dlrs. GenCorp will finance some of the buy back with
bank loans, the agency noted.
    GenCorp was originally placed on creditwatch for a possible
downgrade after a partnership affiliated with AFG Industries
Inc <AFG> and Wagner and Brown made a tender offer of 110 dlrs
per share, or 2.2 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

royalty funds available for distribution to unit holders in
April.
    It also said that based on recent independent petroleum
engineers' estimates of Oct 31, 1986, there may be no amounts
avialable for distribution the rest of the year.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 52-1/2 cts vs 52-1/2 cts
    Pay May one
    record April 17
 Reuter

    Pay July 1
 Reuter

Shr 87 cts vs 87 cts prior qtr
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

    Pay June Eight
 Reuter

 Reuter

(Comterm Inc) said it signed an
agreement to manufacture computer terminals for General
Instrument Corp to be used in the company's computerized
electronic lottery systems. Comterm did not give the value or
other details of the contract.            
 Reuter

<Westmin Resources Ltd> said it
plans to increase capacity at its Myra Falls, British Columbia,
base and precious metal mine and mill complex by 33 pct to
4,400 tons of ore a day, subject to regulatory approvals.
    The company said the expansion will cost about 24 mln dlrs
and could be in operation by 1988.
    Economies of scale from the expansion should pay back net
expansion cost in less than one year, Westmin said.
    The Myra Falls complex processed 3,257 tons of ore a day
 Reuter

Cryodynamics Inc said it
received 1,575,000 dlrs through a warrant conversion program
that ended March 31.
    The company said 85.5 pct of its one mln outstanding
warrants were converted to common stock. It said it now has
7,500,000 common shares outstanding.
    The money generated by the warrant conversion has been
added to working capital, the company said.
 Reuter

customers for heating oil in New York harbor by 0.50 cent a
    The increase brings the contract barge price to 50.50 cts a
gallon, Sun said.
 Reuter

U.S. SELLING 13.2 BILLION DLRS OF 3 AND 6-MO BILLS APRIL 13 TO PAY DOWN 12.35 BILLION DLRS

Levitt Corp said it filed with the
    Proceeds from the offering will repay the company's debt
and will be used for general corporate purposes.
    Levitt designs, builds and sells single-family homes and
has recently begun a number of new construction projects,the
    Bear, Stearns and Co and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets have
tentatively been named as underwriters.
 Reuter

(Sportscene Restaurants Inc) said it
acquired (Cafe Christophe Van Houtte Inc), a cafe chain with
ten franchises and one corporate restaurant, for an unspecified
amount of cash and Sportscene shares.
 Reuter

U.S. CONSUMER CREDIT ROSE 1.77 BILLION DLRS IN FEB VS REVISED 789 MLN JAN GAIN

NYSE TUMBLES 45 POINTS ON PROFIT TAKING AND FUTURES RELATED SELL PROGRAMS, TRADERS SAY

Shr loss 21 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 971,000 vs loss 318,000
    Revs 8.3 mln vs 9.2 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 43 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net loss 1.9 mln vs profit 606,000
    Revs 32.5 mln vs 31.9 mln
    NOTE:1986 loss includes reserves of 329,000, 1985 includes
tax benefit of 352,000, 96,000, and 570,000 dlrs.1986 4th qtr
includes 850,000 dlrs writedowns, 499,000 dlr gain from sale.
    1985 net includes extraordinary items of 108,000 and gain
on sale of 1.6 mln dlrs , tax carryforward gain of 246,000
dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Iraq said its forces were battling to
dislodge Iranian troops from territory they gained during a new
three-pronged offensive on the war front near the southern city
of Basra.
    The communique said the Iranian troops which attacked the
Qutaiba front were annihilated but the invading force managed
to gain some footholds on the other fronts.
    The precise locations of the three fronts were not given. A
previous Iranian offensive launched in January towards Basra,
Iraq's second city, was halted with Baghdad saying the Iranians
had gained only a narrow strip of Iraqi territory.
 Reuter

Westmin Resources Ltd said it
4,400 short tons of ore a day, subject to regulatory approvals.
during 1986. Myra Falls 1986 production was 44,000 ounces of
gold, 966,266 ounces of silver, 45.5 mln lbs of copper, 96.2
mln lbs of zinc and 777,000 lbs of lead, a company spokesman
said.
    Myra Falls 1986 production was 44,000 ounces of gold,
966,266 ounces of silver, 45.5 mln pounds of copper, 96.2 mln
pounds of zinc and 777,000 pounds of lead, a company spokesman
said.
 Reuter

Reserve rose on April 6 to 4.262 billion dlrs from 3.876
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 4.950
billion dlrs from 5.004 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 9.212 billion
dlrs on April 6 compared with 8.880 billion dlrs on April 3.
 Reuter

General Physics Corp said it will
purchase up to 100,000 shares of its common stock from time to
time in open market transactions.
    The purchase would represent approximately 16 pct of the
shares in the public float, the company said. Yesterday, the
last bid price of General Physics common stock as quoted by
Nasdaq was 15 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

    The April 13 sale, to be evenly divided between the three
and six month issues, will result in a paydown of 12.35 billion
dlrs as maturing bills total 25.55 billion dlrs including the
9-day cash management bills issued April 7 in the amount of
11.01 billion dlrs.
    The bills will be issued April 16.
 Reuter

Manufacturers Hanover Corp said its OFP
Inc unit acquired a Dallas office building through foreclosure.
    The company said it foreclosed on the Allied Bank Tower, a
1.2 mln-square-feet office building at One Fountain Place,
Dallas.
 Reuter

Terrace Bank of Florida said it is selling
500,000 shares of stock at 10.50 dlrs per share in its initial
offering.
    The organizers of the bank plan to purchase 81,000 of those
shares, which will have a par value of five dlrs.
    Individual investors may purchase as few as 100 shares of
the stock, the bank said. The offering is slated to end by May
15, but could be extended, it said.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 11 cts vs 11 cts prior
 Reuter

Consolidated said it terminated negotiations with the proposed
purchaser of its wholly owned subsidiary headquartered in
Vancouver, B.C.
    The company said it is vigorously continuing its efforts to
sell its Canadian operations, substantially on the terms and
conditions previously announced.
 Reuter

ITT Corp said its board authorized the
repurchase of up to 10 mln shares of its common and preferred
stock as market conditions warrant.
    The company said the repurchased shares will be held as
treasury shares.
    An ITT spokesman said the board approved the proposed stock
buy back as part of its program to enhance shareholder value
and increase ITT's per-share earnings.
    He said ITT would fund the purchases with a portion of the
1.3 billion dlrs in cash it received from selling a majority
interest in its telecommunications operations to <Compagnie
Generale d'Electricite> of France.
 Reuter

47.68 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended April four, up 11.1 pct from 42.91 billion a year
earlier, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said.
ended March 28 was 45.56 billion kilowatt-hours.
    The EEI said power production in the 52 weeks ended April
four was 2,563.61 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.4 pct from the
    Electric output so far this year was 695.50 billion
kilowatt hours, up 2.8 pct from 676.58 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

downgraded Dayton Hudson Corp's 1.3 billion dlrs of debt.
    The agency cut to Aa-3 from Aa-2 Dayton Hudson's senior
notes, debentures, revenue bonds and Eurodebt, and shelf
registration to Provisional Aa-3 from Provisional Aa-2.
    Moody's said it expected that leverage, which has risen
because of an aggressive expansion program, would remain high
due to the company's spending plans. The agency noted that
Dayton Hudson's operating returns recently declined.
    But Moody's also said the company's recent operating
problems would probably be temporary.
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 5,000 tonnes
of Canadian rapeseed in export business overnight for late
May/early June shipment, trade sources said.
 Reuter

CarePlus Inc said it will seek shareholder
approval of its proposed acquisition of certain assets and
assumption of certain liabilities of Professional Care Inc
<PCI>.
    In connection with the acquisition, shareholders will be
requested to approval the merger of CarePlus into its newly
formed Delaware subsidiary, CarePlus said.
    CarePlus said its board has tentatively determined that its
stock would be exchanged for common stock of the new
corporation at the rate of seven for one.
 Reuter

Southern Union Co said it filed with
covering a 50 mln dlr offering of 10-year notes and a
same-sized issue of 30-year debentures.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem three outstanding debenture
issues and repay two outstanding note issues.
    The company named Goldman, Sachs and Co as sole manager of
the note and debenture offerings.
 Reuter

a seasonally adjusted 1.77 billion dlrs in February after a
revised rise of 789 mln dlrs in January, the Federal Reserve
    The annual rate of growth in February was 3.7 pct, up from
1.6 pct in January. Previously the Fed said consumer credit
rose 536 mln dlrs in January.
    Among the credit categories, auto credit rose in February
by 717 mln dlrs after increasing 416 mln dlrs in January, the
Fed said.
    Revolving credit in February rose 1.04 billion dlrs after
falling by 23 mln dlrs in January.
    Mobile home credit was down by 59 mln dlrs in February
after rising 141 mln dlrs in January.
union loans, increased by 74 mln dlrs in February after rising
by 255 mln dlrs in January, the Fed said.
totaled 576.05 billion dlrs at the end of February, compared
with 530.41 billion dlrs at the end of February, 1986.
 Reuter

Yeutter said President Reagan should have the authority and
responsibility for deciding if and when to award import relief.
    "As the only nationally-elected official in the government,
only the president can weigh all the factors that go into
determining whether or not it is in the national economic
interest to do so," he said in a prepared address to the
University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
    Yeutter was commenting on proposed changes in the law which
would transfer to the trade representative much of the current
retaliatory power held by the White House, which has been the
target of congressional dissatisfaction on trade issues.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc made a filing in a Texas
Court of Appeals to enjoin the enforcement of the 10.3 billion
dlr judgement pending appeal, an attorney for Pennzoil Co <PZL>
said.
    "They made the filing in the First Court of Appeals in
Texas," said John Jeffers, an attorney at the Houston law firm
of Baker and Botts representing Pennzoil.
    A Spokesman for Texaco had no immediate comment. Attorneys
representing Texaco were not immediately available.
    The filing follows yesterday's decision by the U.S. Supreme
Court, overturning a lower federal court decision that had cut
Texaco's bond to one billion dlrs. The high court ruled that
the issue should first be considered by Texas state courts.
    Texaco yesterday said it would soon file to prevent
enforcement of the bond, but it was unsure whether it would
make the filing in a District Court, the Court of Appeals or
the Texas Supreme Court.
    Jeffers said Texaco chose the Appeals Court because it
currently has jurisdiction in the case.
    According to Texas state law, Texaco could be forced to
post the full amount of the judgement as a bond. If it failed
to do so, Pennzoil could seek liens on Texaco's assets for the
amount of the judgement.
    Texaco's filing contains a request to cut the amount of the
bond to between one and 1.5 billion dlrs, Jeffers said. Asked
what Pennzoil's thought of that amount, he said, "I don't think
it's enough."
    Pennzoil has repeatedly said it would not seek to force
Texaco to post the full amount of the judgement in the form of
a bond, but has said it would seek other forms of security.
    "We've recognized there are other alternatives to a bond,"
Jeffers, the Pennzoil attorney, said.
    Pennzoil will also have the right to respond to the filing
but Jeffers said he was unsure when the response would be made.
    The dispute between Texaco and Pennzoil stems from the 1984
takeover of Getty Oil Co by Texaco. Pennzoil said the merger
violated a prior agreement it had to buy Getty and sued Texaco.
Since then, Pennzoil's position has twice been upheld by Texas
State Courts. The Judgement now stands at 10.3 billion dlrs,
including interest, and is on appeal.
 Reuter

affirmed the debt ratings of 3.7 billion dlrs of debt of United
Technologies Corp and its units.
    Affirmed were the Aa-3 senior debt of the parent and its
units United Technologies Credit Corp, United Technologies
Financial Services Inc, United Technologies Finance N.V.,
Carrier Corp and Carrier International Finance N.V. Also
affirmed were the parent's Prime-1 commercial paper, Aa-3
Euroyen bonds and A-1 preferred stock.  United Technologies
Credit Corp's A-1 subordinated debt was also affirmed, Moody's
said.
    Moody's cited its expectations that the company's programs
will be successful in lowering operating costs and improving
intermediate-term capital management. This will raise financial
measures from current low levels.
    As operating earnings and cash flow of the companies
increase as a result of the programs, balance sheet leverage
will decrease, the agency noted.
    United Technologies and its units face strong competition
but they all dominate their markets, Moody's pointed out.
 Reuter

Yeutter said a textile bill, widely expected to be offered as
an amendment to trade legislation on the House or Senate floor,
is "pure protectionism."
    "Its attachment to a trade bill would kill the bipartisan,
cooperative spirit needed to produce growth-oriented,
market-opening legislation," he said in a speech prepared for
the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
    President Reagan vetoed that bill last year and would
almost certainly reject this year's bill, he added.
    "We simply cannot accept legislation that would provoke
retaliation against American exporters, destroy the Uruguay
Round, and embroil us in dozens of trade wars," the trade
representative said.
 Reuter

An investor group including Bessemer
Securities Corp and Cilluffo Associates told the Securities and
Exchange Commission it asked federal antitrust regulators for
advance clearance to hold more than 30 mln dlrs of Intermedics
Inc common stock.
    The group said it currently holds 1.8 mln shares or 17.6
pct of the total outstanding following purchases of 84,300
shares March 18-April 1. A group spokesman would not disclose
the total purchase price of its current holdings.
    The group has said it is accumulating Intermedics stock for
 Reuter

Shr 81 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 40,453,000 vs 11,833,000
    Sales 267.1 mln vs 127.0 mln
    Avg shrs 50,226,000 vs 48,337,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr 2.07 dlrs vs 38 cts
    Net 102,564,000 vs 18,127,000
    Sales 708.0 mln vs 318.3 mln
    Avg shrs 49,573,000 vs 48,024,000
 Reuter

An investor group led by Dart
Container Corp, a Sarasota, Fla., plastic utensil maker, told
the Securities and Exchange Commission it raised its stake in
Texstyrene Corp to 420,500 common shares or 11.7 of the total
    The group said it bought the shares for investment and
intends to continue to buy Texstyrene stock in the future.
    The group said its most recent purchases included 106,000
shares bought March 10-31 in ordinary brokerage transactions.
 Reuter

Enro Holding Corp said it acquired Enro
Shirt Co and Foxcroft Ltd from Wilson Bros for 30 mln dlrs.
     Enro Holding is owned 50 pct by investors and 50 pct by
management and others. The investor group bought 50 pct of the
common equity and supplied five mln dlrs in mezzanine
financing. Management bought the other 50 pct. Congress
Financial Group supplied 28 mln dlrs in senior financing and
the seller took back a note for 12.1 mln dlrs.
    Enro Shirt has annual sales of about 42 mln dlrs and
Foxcroft has sales of about 13 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Spartech Corp said shareholders at the
annual meeting approved a reverse stock split of the common
stock, on a one-for-five basis.
    The company said the split was necessary in preparation for
an offering of 25 mln dlrs in convertible subordinated
debentures, expected to be made soon through Kidder, Peabody
and Co.
    It said the new common stock will begin trading April 8
under the symbol "SPTNd."
    Separately, Spartech said its board appointed Bradley
Buechler as president, filling a vacancy.
    It said Lawrence Powers remains as chairman.
    Buechler, prior to his promotion, was executive vice
president and chief operating officer. He will retain his
duties as chief operating officer.
 Reuter

Shr primary profit two cts vs loss nine cts
    Shr diluted profit one cent vs loss six cts
    Net profit 17,156 vs loss 89,594
    Revs 2,360,220 vs 3,208,802
    Avg shrs 870,000 vs 1,026,627
    NOTE: full name of company is People Ridesharing Systems
Inc.
 Reuter

affirmed the  A-minus rating on Supermarkets General Corp's
12.2 mln dlrs of industrial revenue bonds.
    S and P cited the withdrawal by Dart Group of its 1.73
billion dlr bid for Supermarkets General.
    Supermarkets General had been under review for possible
downgrade because of the Dart Group bid. However, S and P
pointed out that Dart is still interested in Supermarkets
General and the possibility exists that another party would try
to acquire the company.
 Reuter

An influential member of Congress
endorsed a General Accounting Office, GAO, proposal calling for
establishing a federal board to oversee government assistance
to the financially-troubled farm credit system.
    Rep. Ed Jones, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Agriculture
subcommittee which will draft a farm credit rescue package
later this year, told reporters following testimony by
Comptroller General Charles Bowsher, that establishing a
federal board to implement the rescue is a good idea.
    "I like the idea of an additional layer of management" to
oversee the rescue, Jones told reporters.
    Rep. Jones made the remarks following a hearing at which
the General Accounting Office, GAO, outlined its suggestions
for a bail-out of the system.
    Comptroller General Bowsher proposed Congress set up a
strong board, modeled on the example of the successful Chrysler
loan guarantee board, to make hard choices on restructuring the
failing system.
    The members of the board would include both representatives
of government agencies and some independent officials, Bowsher
proposed.
 Reuter

Brazil's financial crisis is rapidly
becoming a political and social crisis, and President Jose
Sarney faces increasingly serious questions about his future.
    As Brazil enters debt talks with creditors in the United
States this week, political analysts say Sarney's
administration has never appeared weaker.
    The full political price which Sarney will have to pay for
the failure of the much-vaunted anti-inflation Cruzado Plan is
still not clear. He might have to pay with the presidency.
    Calls are increasing for direct presidential elections to
pick a successor to Sarney early next year. The length of his
term will be decided by a Constituent Assembly, and Sarney has
been lobbying for a six-year term.
    Sarney came to power, without facing presidential
elections, in March 1985, when the military bowed out after 21
years of rule.
    Although there was wide public support for direct 
elections for president, the military as one of their last
acts, insisted an electoral college, where it felt it had more
influence, make the choice.
    The college chose Tancredo Neves, a popular politician who
headed the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which
had opposed military rule.
    In part to smooth relations with the military, Neves chose
Sarney, a supporter of the generals, for the purely ceremonial
post of vice-president. But Neves died before he could take
office and Sarney took power.
    He won the grudging support of the PMDB and the Cruzado
Plan was wildly popular with inflation-weary Brazilians.
    But the Cruzado Plan failed and politics in Brazil has not
been the same.
    "The country is a rudderless ship," said a U.S. Diplomat,
echoing a common view that the government lacks any clear idea
of how to tackle the economic crisis.
    Sarney has appeared increasingly isolated, with criticism
coming from the business community, the trade unions, some of
the military, the media and political opponents.
    Many businessmen are unhappy with Sarney's decision
announced on February 20 to suspend interest payments on 68
billion dlrs of foreign debt.
    A motor industry executive said: "The business community
thinks Brazil should go to the IMF. Their rules are sometimes
harsh and strict, but this is the only way to put the house in
order."
    Trade unions generally support the debt moratorium, but
disagree with other aspects of government policy. Since the end
of February they have organized national strikes of seamen,
bankworkers and federal university teachers and countless local
stoppages and protests.
    Economic problems have prompted criticism from some
military figures, including the last army ruler, General Joao
Figueiredo. It is a sign of the times that almost daily
military men deny there is going to be a coup.
    If the army does stay in the barracks, the key arbitors of
Sarney's fate will be the PMDB's leaders. So far, they have not
taken a clear stand on the issue of direct elections.
    But one PMDB leader, Senator Affonso Camargo, pointedly
said yesterday that it was the sovereign right of the
Consituent Assembly to call direct elections for the presidency
whenever it wished.
    In the media, Sarney has to contend with strong criticism.
    One senior political commentator, Fernando Pedreira of the
Jornal do Brasil, wrote in the newspaper last week:
    "President Sarney is ... a man of good intentions, but it
is just possible that he himself is not aware of the true state
of the country and the people since the immense failure of the
Cruzado Plan.
    "The disappointment, the frustration, the irritation, the
enticement have been (and continue to be) too great, too
profound."He called for direct elections early in 1988 as the
only way out of the present crisis.
    One of Sao Paulo's leading news magazines, Senhor, said in
an editorial this week: "The anarcho-populist government of
President Jose Sarney has failed. Two years have already been
too long for such a disastrous experience.
    "It deserves to be buried as quickly as possible. The
natural solution: direct elections soon."
    The government's inability to control inflation is now
bringing with it serious social problems.
    An explosion in rents in Sao Paulo has thrown tens of
thousands of families onto the streets because they can no
longer afford to pay even for a wooden shack in the slums.
    The local press says the city is experiencing the biggest
wave of land invasions in its history.
   According to rental agencies, rents have increased 500 pct
in little more than a year. Even the cheapest shacks now cost
2,000 cruzados (90 dollars) a month, half as much again as the
minimum wage, which is all that many earn.
    Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, the Roman Catholic archbishop
of Sao Paulo, warned yesterday of the possibility of "a social
conflict of unimaginable proportions."
    With his back to the wall politically and with social
tensions rising, Sarney is no position to compromise on debt.
 Reuter

billion dlr foreign bank debt to try to force the issue.
    Yesterday Funaro travelled to the U.S. for fresh debt
negotiations with creditors deeply angered by Brasilia's
 Reuter

(La Confederation des Caisses
Populaires et d'Economie Desjardins), the Quebec credit union
group, said it is lowering the interest rate on unpaid balances
on its Visa credit card to 15.9 pct from 18.0 pct, effective
with June billing statements.
    The move follows cuts in credit card interest rate charges
by several Canadian banks.
 Reuter

Shr profit eight cts vs loss 1.84 dlrs
    Net profit 785,000 vs loss 4,279,000
    Revs 10.4 mln vs 8,464,000
    Avg shrs 9,649,000 vs 2,664,000
    Six Mths
    Shr loss nine cts vs loss 4.09 dlrs
    Net loss 262,000 vs loss 9,689,000
    Revs 19.2 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Avg shrs 2,874,000 vs 2,660,000
 Reuter

Data General Corp president Edson de
Castro said the general outlook for his company and for the
industry shows "little fundamental improvement."
    Citing the computer industry's dependence on capital
investments, de Castro termed the environment "lackluster" and
declined to predict the timing of a possible upturn.
    Data General is "taking its show on the road" to educate
its customers and targeted prospects, de Castro told a press
briefing initiating a three-day exposition here of Data
General's computer systems' capabilities.
    Data General has targeted for its future growth increased
participation in the industries of banking, insurance,
brokerage, health care, manufacturing, petrochemical and the
U.S. government.
 Reuter

BRAZIL ADJUST CRUZADO DOWN AGAINST DOLLAR
    NEW RATE 22,840/22,945 PREVIOUS           
    22,690/22,803 EFFECTIVE WEDNESDAY APRIL 8

The Senate approved legislation to
extend until March 31, 1988 the date for the National
Commission on Dairy Policy to report on the federal milk price
support program and the dairy industry.
    The report is to recommend whether the Agriculture
Department should have continued authority to reduce the milk
price support level.
    The one year extension was required due to delays in
setting up the commission.
 Reuter

downgraded RepublicBank Corp's 550 mln dlrs of debt.
    Cut were the firm's senior debt to BBB-plus from A,
subordinated debt to BBB from A-minus and preferred stock to
BB-plus from BBB. Its A-2 commercial paper was maintained.
    S and P said the action reflected a heightened risk profile
for RepublicBank because of its proposed acquisition of
InterFirst Corp <IFC>. However, the agency pointed out that the
merger is a unique opportunity for RepublicBank to expand its
already strong market position. InterFirst will remain on
creditwatch until the transaction is closed, S and P said.
 Reuter

Nacco Industries Inc said it will
report a gain in the second quarter of about 11.5 mln dlrs or
1.25 dlrs a share from the sale of stock of a subsidiary.
    Nacco said its North American Coal Corp unit has received
notice that Consolidation Coal Co, a unit of Du Pont Co <DD>,
will exercise an option to buy all of the stock of Quarto
Mining Co, a subsidiary of North American Coal.
    For the stock, North American Coal will receive about 15.2
mln dlrs, 5.2 mln of which will be paid at closing April 10 and
the rest in installments, the company said.
    In addition, Quarto will pay a dividend to North American
Coal of about 10 mln dlrs from retained earnings before
closing. The funds were previously used to finance mining
    Consolidation Coal got the option from the Capco Group of
utilities, which received the option from Nacco in 1981.
    Nacco reported earnings of 10.8 mln dlrs or 1.11 dlrs a
share in last year's second quarter.
    In 1986, Quarto generated 5.9 mln dlrs in net income, equal
to 62 cts a share, of Nacco's total 1986 earnings of 3.48 dlrs
a share.
    Quarto produced about 3.6 mln short tons of the 24.3 mln
tons produced by North American Coal in 1986, Nacco said.
 Reuter

The New York Futures Exchange will move
its trading operations to the floor of the New York Cotton
Exchange, NYFE president Lewis J. Horowitz and Cotton Exchange
president Joseph O'Neill announced.
    NYFE will become an affiliate of the Cotton Exchange
through a licensing agreement while remaining a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange.
    NYFE's trading floor and floor support staff will move to
the Cotton Exchange, which is located in the Commodity Exchange
Center at Four World Trade Center. The move should be completed
by the first quarter of next year, a Cotton Exchange
    The plan was approved today by the board of the Cotton
Exchange and previously by the New York Stock Exchange.
    The move will offer traders from both exchanges access to
each other's contracts. Cotton exchange members will have
trading rights to NYFE's New York Stock Exchange composite
index futures and options contracts and its Commodity Research
Bureau Index contract.
    NYFE members will have the opportunity to trade the Cotton
Exchange's U.S. dollar index futures and options contracts and
its European Currency Unit futures contract. They will not have
trading rights to cotton and frozen concentrated orange juice
futures.
 Reuter

Interface Flooring Systems Inc
said it announced a public offering of 2,800,000 shares of the
company's Class A common stock at a price of 21.25 dlrs per
share.
    The underwriting group was co-managed by the
Robinson-Humphry Co Inc, and PaineWebber Inc, it said.
 Reuter

setting up the commission.             
 Reuter

Buffton Corp said it will    
conduct an investigation on a plant designated as a Superfund
Site, which will result in a charge of about six cts per share
in its second quarter.
    In the year ago second quarter, Buffton reported net income
of 10 cts a share or 330,000 dlrs on sales of 10.3 mln dlrs.
     The study should be completed in nine months and will
determine any clean-up or remedial action that may be required.
Robintech Inc, the plant's former owner, will split the cost.
Buffton said its share will cost 400,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Over-investment and over-production are
at the root of many of the difficult trade issues that have
soured relations between the United States and some of its
major trading partners, trade representative Clayton Yeutter
said.
    He told a conference, held by the University of Chicago's
Graduate Business School, that much of this was caused by
governments "getting their finger in the pot."
    Yeutter referred specifically to the problems of
agricultural trade, where subsidized exports have been a point
of contention most notably between the United States and the
    "Think of the vast waste of financial and other resources,"
he said.
    Yeutter said much of the problem underlying the dispute
with Japan over semiconductors was due to overproduction.
    The trade representative called for a long-term approach to
international trade and said the recent commitment to a
free-trade agreement between the United States and Canada was a
    There's a lot of work to be done in the next six months,
but we have set October 1 as a target date for an agreement to
be reached, he added.
    "We're trying to create an environment that will facilitate
and foster free and open trade in the world," he said.
 Reuter

American Dynamics Corp and
<Meridian Reserve Inc> said they signed a definitive agreement
under which Meridian will buy 81.9 mln shares, or 51 pct, of
American Dynamics' common stock.
    Under terms of the agreement, Santa Ana, Calif.-based
Meridian said it will pay Columbus-based American Dynamics one
mln dlrs in cash and notes over five years and about 500,000
    Meridian said it has the option to issue an additional
1,500,000 shares of its common over the next two years in
payment of certain of the notes.
    Meridian, an oil and gas company whose operations are
primarily in Oklahoma, said the acquisition will increase its
its consolidated assets to 30 mln dlrs and its contractually
committed gas reserves to more than 40 mln dlrs at discounted
present value.
    American Dynamics is engaged in gas gathering, transmission
and liquids extraction, also in Oklahoma.
    The companies said they have five extracting plants and
about 525 miles of transmission lines in five adjoining
Oklahoma counties.
 Reuter

ITT Corp said it will redeem the
outstanding shares of its four-dlr convertible series H,
4.50-dlr convertible series I and four-dlr convertible series J
    ITT said the shares will be redeemed for 100 dlrs a share
plus dividend accrued through June eight, the redemption date.
    ITT said the right to convert the series H issue will end
June one, while the right to convert the series I and J issues
will end June eight.
    ITT has about 124,000 shares of series H outstanding,
839,000 shares of series I and 142,000 shares of series J.
    Earlier today the company said its board authorized the buy
back of up to 10 mln shares of common and preferred stock.
 Reuter

Erie Lackawanna Inc said Consolidated
Rail Corp filed with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a
Court of Appeals opinion which held Erie as not being liable
for damages allegedly resulting from operations prior to its
emergence from reorganization in 1982.
    The claims are for damages for asbestosis and other
work-related injuries claimed by former employees of the Erie
Lackawanna.
    Erie said it intends to oppose Conrail's request.
 Reuter

USSR EXCHANGE RATES - SOVIET STATE BANK EFFECTIVE APRIL 8, 1987
ROUBLES PER HUNDRED UNLESS STATED U.S.                  63.85  
  (63.60) STG                  103.47    (102.56) BFR (1,000)  
        16.90     (17.01) DMK                   35.06    
(35.43) DFL                   31.00     (31.20) LIT (10,000)   
       4.91      (4.94) CAN                   48.85     (48.79)
DKR                    9.28      (9.32) NKR                   
9.38      (9.34) FFR                   10.52     (10.59) SKR   
               10.06      (UNCH) FIN MRK               14.20   
  (UNCH) SFR                   42.03     (42.33) YEN (1,000)   
        4.37      (4.34) AUS SCH                4.98     
(5.01) AUS DLR               44.77      (UNCH) PAK RUP         
      3.74      (UNCH) IND RUP                5.10      (UNCH)
IRN RYL                0.88      (UNCH) LIB DIN (ONE)         
2.09      (UNCH) MRC DRHM               7.78      (UNCH)

There were six grain ships loading and
  
 Reuter

Italy's state-owned Ente Nazionale
Idrocarburi (ENI) will invest 197 mln dlrs in two joint
ventures in coal and petrochemicals with Petroleos de
Venezuela, S.A, ENI president Franco Reviglio said.
    Speaking at a news conference, Reviglio said the two
projects will eventually bring in some 300 mln dlrs annually in
foreign exchange to Venezuela and help diversify the country's
export base. "Joint ventures are the principal instrument for
allowing the resources of the industrialized countries to be
channeled to the developing world so as to lead future growth
for both," Reviglio said.
    ENI's subsidiary Ecofuel will join Pequiven, the
petrochemical subsidiary of PDVSA in building a 160 mln dlr
plant to produce mtbe, a gasoline additive used to increase
octane levels.
    The 500,000 mt per year plant will be constructed at Jose
in eastern Venezuela, and fed by butane produced at PDVSA's
eastern cryogenic complex. ENI owns 48 pct of the joint venture
company, Super Octanos, C.A., while Pequiven has 49 pct, with
the remaining three pct to be sold to private investors.
    Production is set to begin in third quarter 1989. Ecofuel
officials said the plant is modeled after one in Saudi Arabia.
    Another ENI subsidiary, Agip Carbone, will sign a letter of
intent in Caracas tomorrow to enter a partnership with PDVSA to
mine the coal deposits at guasare in western zulia state, he
said.
    Feasibility studies are still being done on the carbozulia
project, with a definitive accord slated for august, he added.
    Agip carbone and atlantic richfield coal, an arco
subsidiary have formed a consortium which will own 48 pct of
the carbozulia project, whose total cost is estimated at 500
mln dlrs, the company said. Agip carbone will invest 24 pct, or
120 mln dlrs, in the project, it said.
 Reuter

Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc is telling
clients getting nervous about the volatile U.S. stock market to
take a look at European and other foreign stock markets.
    "We're still pushing for a fully invested position (in U.S.
stocks) but we also recognize the market is up 40 pct since
September," says Burton Siegel, investment strategist.
    Rein van der Does, director of international research,
admits to being cautious and somewhat confused about certain
developments in the Tokyo market, such as Nippon Telephone
shares trading at 250 times earnings.
    The firm recently dropped its recommendation on Jaguar plc
<JAGRY> following a sharp runup in the shares. About the same
time, says analyst Khaled Abdel Majeed, Drexel issued a buy
recommendation on the West german automaker BMW.
    He says a new plant and new models brighten the outlook for
1987 and 1988. "The company trades in Germany on the parent
company's earnings but on worldwide consolidated earnings, the
multiple is seven or eight, half that of competitors."
    By contrast Jaguar's share price to earnings multiple is
about 12 and Daimler-Benz AG is around 14 or 15.
    Drexel analyst Lucille Palermo recently upgraded
recommendations on some Canadian gold stocks. With no recession
in sight she sees improved physical demand plus new buying
interest from the Middle East. Also, expectation of a higher
inflation rate stimulates demand.
    On the supply side she thinks "people are overlooking the
problems in South Africa."  Palermo says all of this will push
the bullion price to 475 dlrs an ounce by the end of the year.
    Her current buy recommendations are Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd
<AEAGF>, American Barrick Resources Corp <ABX>, and Echo Bay
Mines Ltd <ECO>.
    Palermo also believes the overall Canadian stock market has
greater potential this year than last. Although the Canadian
dollar has moved up slightly it is below levels of several
years ago. "Canadian exports of all types look relatively cheap
to foreigners - resources, manufactured goods, bonds and
stocks."
    Other European stocks favored by Drexel include Club
Mediterranee <CMI>, Pernod-Ricard, Royal Dutch Petroleum <RD>,
Unilever <UN>, British Petroleum Co plc <BP> and Imperial
Chemical Industries plc <ICI>. Drexel cautions U.S. investors
that foreign dividends may be subject to withholding tax.
 Reuter

TEXACO CONFIRMS IT FILED PETITION FOR RELIEF FROM BOND PROVISIONS IN TEXAS APPEALS COURT

RepublicBank Corp said it has placed
182.6 mln dlrs of all intermediate and term loans to Brazil on
a non-accrual basis as of March 31.
    It said the reclassification will reduce first quarter
earnings by 2.8 mln dlrs after taxes, and 11 mln dlrs after
taxes for all of 1987, if Brazil does not change its position
of a moratorium on interest payments.
    RepublicBank also said its net income for the first quarter
is expected to be about 10.4 mln dlrs or 30 cts a share on a
fully diluted basis. In the year-ago first quarter the company
earned 23.1 mln dlrs or 75 cts a share.
    The company also said its first quarter results are
expected to include a provision for loan losses of 55 mln dlrs,
about 20 mln dlrs over net loan-charge-offs of about 35 mln
dlrs. It said the provision will increase loan losses to about
328 mln dlrs or 2.2 pct of loans.
    RepublicBank, with total assets of about 21 billion dlrs,
announced in December an agreement with InterFirst Corp <IFC>
to form First RepublicBank Corp. If the merger is approved by
regulatory agencies and stockholders, it would create the 12th
largest bank holding company in the United States.
 Reuter

Petroleum futures rallied today in a
market that was expecting declines in domestic supplies and
became further unsettled by escalated Mideast fighting.
    Crude oil, gasoline and heating oil all posted gains on the
New York Mercantile Exchange, with crude oil prices matching
life-of-contract highs. Crude for delivery in May closed 17
cents higher at 18.84 dlrs a barrel.
    "Crude futures could jump above 19 dlrs a barrel but will
not remain there long if products are not strong," Robert
Murphy, account executive at E.F. Hutton, said.
    Traders said prices were supported by anticipation that the
American Petroleum Institute would report a decline in domestic
inventories of petroleum products in a weekly report.
    Traders said prices also were supported by an escalation in
the Iran-Iraq war, with the Iranians reportedly launching a new
offensive against Iraqi positions, and Iraq attacking offshore
oil fields and an oil export depot.
    Buying by speculators continued to prompt gains in gold and
silver futures on the Commodity Exchange in New York.
    Gold prices retreated at midday, but rallied before the
close with support from the silver market, which was
approaching two-year highs, traders said.
    Soybean futures posted strong gains on the Chicago Board of
Trade, while corn and wheat were mostly higher.
    Traders said cash sales have been slow in the country, and
the soybean harvest in Brazil has been delayed by rain, which
is limiting supplies.
    In addition, the Agriculture Department last week projected
a substantial drop in soybean acreage this year.     Monday's
report that the USDA inspected 46 mln bushels of corn for
export last week was unexpectedly high and, coupled with a lack
of farm sales, provided support for the corn market, traders
said.
    Live hogs and frozen pork bellies rallied on the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, while cattle ended lower.
    Live hogs pushed ahead on a lack of supplies because many
farmers are turning their attention to spring planting rather
than marketing livestock, traders said, noting that cash sales
have been lighter than expected this week.
    The lack of marketing also has supported pork bellies, but
prices drifted lower for moderate losses in nearby months as
speculators sold contracts to take profits, traders said.
    Cattle prices closed lower but continued to show strength
related to tight supplies.
    Prices pushed ahead to new contract highs, extending gains
past three-year peaks set Monday, as tight supplies forced meat
packers to bid aggressively for available animals.
    However, some traders sold contracts to take profits after
the extended rally, which has seen the April delivery contract
soar to 69.90 cents a pound from 56 cents a pound at the start
of the year.
    New York coffee futures closed higher on trade talk Brazil
would not be an aggressive seller near term, analysts said.
 Reuter

N.Y. GRAIN FREIGHTS - April 7
    Yukong took Nichiku Maru 52,000 tonnes North Pacific to
Japan April-May dates 9.75 dlrs 11 days all purposes
    Peavey took Maria Sitinas 26,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to Puerto
Cabello and Guanta prompt 15.25 dlrs four days load 1,500
discharge Puerto Cabello 1,000 Guanta
    Portline took Sky Crest 35,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to Lisbon
spot 15.25 dlrs 7,000 load 5,000 discharge
    Feruzzi took Alecos M. 31,000 tonnes barley Rouen
completing Le Havre to Jeddah 15.35 dlrs 5,000 load 3,000
discharge
    Chinese charterers took Patricia VI 25,000 tonnes River
Plate completing Buenos Aires or Bahia Blanca to China April
dates 29.00 dlrs Buenos Aires or Bahia Blanca only 28.00 dlrs
2,500 load 3,000 discharge
    Comanav took Sea Song 30,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to Morocco
April-May dates 13.50 dlrs one-to-one option 14.50 dlrs
one-to-two 5,000 load 5,000 discharge
 reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS UP 628,000 BBLS, GASOLINE UP 2.29 MLN, CRUDE UP 8.52 MLN

Posted county prices in 99 southern
Texas counties have been changed to reflect only one market
differential instead of the usual two-terminal market pricing
system, a senior Agriculture Department official said.
    Interior grain and soybean prices in the affected counties
will now be based solely against the Texas Gulf. Prior to the
change, county prices were also priced against the Amarillo
market.
    The changes were made to better reflect local market
conditions, said Ralph Klopfenstein, deputy administrator for
commodity operations at USDA.
    "The Texas Gulf has always been the dominant market in those
counties. Amarillo never became effective for that area,"
Klopfenstein told Reuters.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said it filed a
petition in the Texas Court of Appeals for relief of the bond
and lien provisions of the 10.3 billion dlr judgement in its
legal dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    Earlier today, a lawyer for Pennzoil told Reuters a filing
had been made in the Texas court of Appeals.
    "The petition asks the court to determine a reasonable
security arrangement between Texaco and Pennzoil," Texaco said
    Texaco also said it asked the court for a temporary
restraining order against Pennzoil's enforcement of the 10.3
billion dlr judgement until the petition is resolved.
    According to Texas law, Texaco could be forced to post the
full amount of the judgement as a bond. If it fails to do so,
Pennzoil could seek liens against Texaco's assets for the full
    Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court stuck down a lower federal
court ruling which had cut Texaco's bond to one billion dlrs.
It said the issue should first be considered in Texas state
Courts.
    Earlier, the attorney for Pennzoil said Texaco had
suggested a bond of one to 1.5 billion dlrs as a reasonable
amount in today's filing.
    But a Texaco spokesman had no immediate comment on the
figure.
    
 Reuter

N.Y. TANKERS - April 7
    Ashland took Majestic Pride 45,000 tons dirty April 12 East
Coast Mexico to U.S. Gulf worldscale 120
    Frota took Fidelity L 49,000 tons dirty April 21 Brazil to
United States worldscale 118
    CPC took Eisho Maru 220,000 tons dirty April 12 Mideast
Gulf to Taiwan worldscale 35
    Citgo took Friendship Venture 67,000 tons dirty April 16
Caribbean to U.S. Gulf worldscale 89
    MSC took Loire 52,000 tons dirty April 10 East Coast Mexico
to U.S. Gulf worldscale 92.5
 reuter

Amoskeag Bank Shares Inc and
<Portsmouth Savings Bank> said they will file motions for a
rehearing with the New Hampshire Supreme Court of its March 30
ruling that overturned state regulatory approval of Amoskeag's
acquisition Portsmouth.
    "The ramifications of this decision, we believe, go well
beyond the affiliation of Amoskeag and Portsmouth Savings
Bank," said Amoskeag chairman William S. Bushnell.
    The transaction was opposed by a group of Portsmouth
investors who wanted the bank to remain independent, according
to press reports.
 Reuter

Egypt has cancelled its Export Bonus
tender for 200,000 tonnes of soft red winter wheat for May-June
shipment after failing to bid a price acceptable to USDA,
 Reuter

Energy Secretary John Herrington told
Congress that a federally chartered corporation would be the
best way to manage and operate the government's uranium
enrichment program.
    He said in a letter to Congressmen that unless the program,
now run by the Energy Department, is improved, sales worth five
billion dlrs could be lost between 1990 and 2000.
    The program now has annual commercial sales of about one
billion dlrs and holds 50 pct of the free world market for
enrichment services.
    A department official said the world market for enriched
uranium for reactors for power utilities is increasingly
competitive and private entity could better tap it.
    The Administration's plan to spin off the department's 
uranium enrichment operation is in line with it effort to
reduce the federal government's role in areas where it feels
private enterprise could be more efficient.
 reuter

Red Lion Inns L.P. said it began an
initial public offering of 4.9 mln units priced at 20 dlrs a
unit.
    Proceeds and a 105.87 mln dlrs mortgage loan will be used
to finance the acquisition of 10 Red Lion hotels, it said.
    
 Reuter

Jordan has boosted its bids for U.S.
soft and hard wheat under Export Bonus, private export sources
said.
    Jordan today bid 74 dlrs per tonne for soft wheat and 75
dlrs per tonne for hard red winter wheat in its tender for
225,000 tonnes of hard and soft wheat for April through
November shipment. Earlier today, USDA rejected its bids of 70
dlrs for both varieties, they said.
 Reuter

Morocco will tender Thursday for
120,000 to 210,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat, cheapest variety
preferred, for May and June shipments under PL 480, private
    The tender will consist of three lots of up to 70,000
tonnes each for shipment May 1-30, May 10-June 10, and May
25-June 25, they said.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker held a meeting with
senior West German monetary officials, including Finance
Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg, Volcker said.
    Volcker emerged after two-hours in the Treasury building
but declined to comment on the subjects they discussed.
    Stoltenberg, accompanied by other senior West German
officials attending the spring meeting of the International
Monetary Fund, left the Treasury without speaking to reporters.
 Reuter

Lac Minerals Ltd's exploration spending
will rise this year to 25 mln dlrs from 16.3 mln dlrs last
year, the gold miner said in its annual report.
    The 1987 budget involves 16 mln dlrs for advanced
exploration on a tin project in New Brunswick, Bousquet mine
number two in Quebec and the Ortiz property in New Mexico, and
nine mln dlrs for pure exploration.
    Total capital and exploration spending will rise this year
to about 130 mln dlrs from 98 mln dlrs last year, with 77 mln
dlrs of the 1987 amount set for the Page-Williams mine in
Hemlo, Ontario, Lac said.
    A decision is imminent on Lac's appeal of an Ontario court
ruling last year ordering Lac to hand over Page-Williams to
<International Corona Resources Ltd>.
    Lac's total 1986 gold production rose to 478,394 ounces
from 265,925 ounces the previous year. Production excluding
Page-Williams eased last year to 245,232 ounces from 255,556
ounces in 1985.
 Reuter

<Trilon Financial Corp> said it declared
a stock dividend of one class A share for each two class A
shares held, payable May 15 to shareholders of record on April
30.
 Reuter

year, the company said in its annual report.
    Total capital and exploration spending will rise to about
130 mln dlrs from 98 mln dlrs last year, with 77 mln dlrs of
the 1987 amount set for the Page-Williams mine in Hemlo,
Ontario, Lac said.
Page-Williams eased to 245,232 from 255,556 ounces in 1985.
 Reuter

Logicon Inc said it has received a
12 mln dlr add-on contract, including options, to continue
developing the Joint Analytic Warfare System for the
Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    The new award increases the total contract value, including
options, to over 13.8 mln dlrs, including two mln dlrs for the
initial nine-month period and another ten mln dlrs in options
over the next five years.
 Reuter

primary storage rose by 628,000 barrels in the week ended April
three to 106.96 mln barrels from a revised 106.33 mln the
previous week, the American Petroleum Institute said.
group said gasoline stocks rose 2.29 mln barrels to 247.91 mln
barrels from a revised 245.62 mln, and crude oil stocks were up
8.52 mln barrels to 337.73 mln from a revised 329.21 mln.
    It said residual fuel stocks rose 28,000 barrels to 38.25
mln from a revised 37.98 mln barrels.
    API said refinery runs in the week rose to 12.54 mln
barrels per day from 12.21 mln and refinery use of operating
capacity was 80.4 pct, up from 78.3 pct.
    Crude oil imports in the week fell to 3.40 mln bpd from a
revised 3.60 mln, API added.
 Reuter

completed an issue of a five mln dlrs convertible debenture to
Arcalex B.V., a Dutch corporation that owns 54.3 pct of First
Toronto's outstanding common shares.
    The debenture is convertible to one mln common shares of
First Toronto for a period of five years.
 Reuter

Allegheny International Inc, which has
agreed to a merge with a jointly-formed First Boston Inc
affiliate in a deal worth 500 mn dlrs, said shareholders of its
preferred stock have filed a class action complaint against the
company.
    The complaint alleges, among other things, that the company
and its board agreed to pay First Boston an illegal seven mln
dlr topping fee if it received a higher offer for the company
prior to the buyout.
    The suit contends that this fee hampers Allegheny's ability
to attract other offers or take other actions that would
benefit holders of preferred stock. The complaint also alleges
federal securities laws violations and breach of fiduciary
duty.
    The suit requests an injunction against proceeding with the
pending offer being made by Sunter Acquisition to acquire
Allegheny. Sunter Acquisition Corp and Sunter Holdings Corp
were formed by First Boston and Allegheny.
    Allegheny said it and the Sunter concerns intend to
vigorously defend the complaint's charges.
    The complaints were filed by Robert Moss and other parties
who are believed to own about 230,000 shares of Allegheny's
 Reuter

Capital Cities/ABC's ABC Television
Network said its Newsone news service reached a cooperative
agreement with Potomac Telecommunications Group to offer
ABC affiliates expanded coverage of Washington news.
    Potomac will work with ABC to transmit stories at rates
lower than current transmitting costs.
    Potomac covers Washington for 150 stations. The deal
affects about 219 ABC affiliates, and does not affect Potomac's
other customers. The deal does not affect ABC's network news
coverage, which is currently involved in a strike.
 Reuter

TAP Air Portugal said it signed a
contract for three <Airbus Industrie> A310-300 aircraft,
confirming a commitment made in January.
    Air Portugal said it has taken options on two further
aircraft which may be either A310-300s or A340s.
 Reuter

A group of Canadian lawmakers from
Ontario today asked their U.S. counterparts to exempt Canada
from the mandatory trade retaliation provisions in a major
trade bill being considered by the U.S. Congress.
grounds.
    Canada is the United States' largest trading partner, with
two-way trade more than 113 billion dlrs in 1985, according to
the coalition. But the U.S. ran up a 23 billion dlr deficit in
manufactured goods that year compared to a 14 billion dlr
surplus in services trade with its neighbour.
 Reuter

Interface Flooring Systems Inc said
it began a public offering of 2.8 mln shares of Class A stock
at 21.25 dlrs a share.
    Proceeds will be used to finance the acquisition of 50 pct
of Debron Investments PLC and to reduce debt.
 Reuter

Chevron Corp's Chevron U.S.A.
Inc said it has begun the installation of an oil drilling
platform, called Platform Gail, in the Sockeye field, located
in federal waters in the Santa Barbara Channel offshore
southern California.
    Chevron said a 25-mln dlr, eight leg platform jacket was
launched from a barge Sunday and secured in position in 739
feet of water.
    Modules for crew quarters, drilling and production
operations are to be completed later this year, the company
said.
    The three-deck platform, 11 miles west of Port Hueneme,
will be equipped with 36 drilling slots, Chevron said.
    Production from the first of 25 planned wells in the
100-pct Chevron-owned field is slated to begin in early 1988,
    The estimated total cost of the platform is 150 mln dlrs,
Chevron said.
 Reuter

Maritrans GP Inc said it began an
offering of 12.25 mln depositary units representing limited
partnership interests of Maritrans Partners L.P. at 9.75 dlrs
per unit.
    After completion of the offering, Maritrans will own and
operate the tug and barge business currently owned by Sonat
Marine Inc and other subsidiaries of Sonat.
 Reuter

Shr profit one cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 641,000 vs loss 992,000
    Revs 26.0 mln vs 19.0 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit six cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 2.8 mln vs loss 1.8 mln
    Revs 39.0 mln vs 37.4 mln
    NOTE:1987 six months includes gain of four cts from change
in accounting principle.
 Reuter

Aeronautics and Space Administration selected it for
negotiations leading to a contract for the Technical and
Management System project in support of the Space Station
program.
    NASA's initial commitment is about 40 mln dlrs.
    Under terms of the contract, Boeing will design and operate
an information exchange network to support development of the
proposed space station.
 Reuter

JAPAN SEEKS TO STRENGTHEN PARIS ACCORD ON CURRENCIES, JAPANESE OFFICIALS SAY

CURRENCY TARGET ZONES WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED AT G-7 MEETING, JAPANESE OFFICIALS SAY

The State of Texas, faced with a record
5.8 billion dlr budget deficit over the next two years, may
have to consider introducing income tax,economic analysts said.
     Such a possibility was unthinkable a few years back when
the state's enormous wealth from oil and gas revenues easily
allowed Texans the luxury of paying no personal or corporate
income tax.
     However, last year's dramatic slump in oil prices not only
sent the Texas economy into a tailspin, but cut heavily into
the state's tax revenues.
    Both Moody's Investor Services and Standard and Poor's cut
their credit ratings of the state to double A from the top
triple A in early March.
    Moody's Vice President George W. Leung said it was the
first time Texas' rating had been lowered since 1962, adding
the report noted that while "the Legislature is now considering
proposals to restore budget balance, medium term prospects for
full recovery are weak."
    With only a slight improvement in the economy seen by State
Comptroller Bob Bullock, the Texas Legislature must grapple
with a one billion dlr deficit by August 31 and another 4.8
billion dlr deficit by the end of the next biennium. No other
state in U.S. history has faced such a deficit.
    "There is a strong independent streak in Texans and five
years ago I would never have dreamed the State Legislature
would institute an income tax," said George Bland, Assistant
Professor of Political Science at North Texas State University,
adding, "Now my contacts at the Legislature tell me it's
coming, it's inevitable, it's only a matter of time."
     State taxes on oil and gas production traditionally
supplied as much as a third of the state's revenues.
    However, that source has fallen to about 15 pct in recent
years, and with last year's price slump, the state's dependence
on sales taxes is approaching 50 pct.
     Bland said he believes the Tax Reform Act will be a major
factor in the state's decision because under it sales taxes are
no longer deductible from federal income tax while state income
tax is.
    John Kennedy, senior research associate at the Austin-based
Texas Research League said, "There is a great deal of popular
sentiment against it, plus the first plank of Governor
Clements' platform was no tax increases, let alone a new tax."
    However, he said that since the oil price fall the state
faced a choice of either instituting an income tax or
broadening and possibly raising the sales tax.
    Steve Pejovich, director of the Center for Free Enterprise
at Texas A and M University and an opponent of income taxes,
said he favored reforming the present tax system to take
account of the changed structure of the economy.
    "We should rely less on traditional sources, such as oil
and agriculture and real estate and more on service industries,
manufacturing and high-tech," Pejovich said.
    Tony Proffitt, an aide to State Comptroller Bob Bullock
said, "Bullock is opposed to an income tax, but has warned the
Legislature that if they get tired of looking at everything
else, that's the only option."
    Apart from Texas, states which have no individual income
tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota,
Washington and Wyoming 
    For the time being, Attorney General Jim Mattox has ruled
that the Legislature may carry over the current one billion dlr
deficit into the next biennium, even though the state
consitution requires a balanced budget. But as State Treasurer
Ann Richards said last Thursday, "Jim Mattox's decision today
turns the heat down on the pressure cooker, but we must not
think that the goose isn't still cooking."
    Opponents to new or higher taxes argue in favor of spending
cuts. But the state is already under pressure from a Federal
District Court to clean up its overcrowded prison system -- or
face 24 mln dlrs a month in fines.
    And U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett has accused
the state, among others, of lax education reform. Earlier this
year, both houses of the Legislature, citing financial
restraints as well as teacher morale, passed bills abandoning
plans to require teachers to take competency tests.
    Bland said he believes the state will set up a commission
next year to "study alternative revenue sources," with an
income tax being instituted as early as January 1989.
    "If the political leaders are educated about (the effects
of the Tax Reform Act), I think there will be a gradual drift
toward income tax," he said.
                
 Reuter

Gynex Inc said that Gynex Labs
and G.D. Searle, a unit of Monsanto Co <MTC>, have terminated
the distribution agreement under which Searle had exclusive
rights to market Gynex's line of generic oral contraceptives.
    This means that Gynex Labs, 50 pct owned by Gynex and 50
pct by Watson Laboratories, will not get remuneration under the
distribution agreement beyond the 650,000 dlrs received from
Searle in February and March 1986. This has been applied to the
costs of inventories.
    Searle and Gynex Labs will both bear costs involved with a
product recall. Gynex Labs' cost is estimated at 900,000 dlrs,
to be shared equally by Gynex Inc and Watson, it said.
    The companies ended the agreement when it was determined
that Searle's product line sales and marketing commitment would
not allow it to commit the necessary resources for the relaunch
of the Gynex line of oral contraceptives, Gynex said.
    After launching the first two Gynex products in early
February, Searle voluntarily recalled them in March as a
preventive measure because a limited number of packages may
have contained out of order or missing tablets.
    Gynex has made changes that should prevent a recurrence of
the problem, and is ready to reinitiate production, it said.
Talks are underway with other potential distributors.
 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs seven cts prior
    Payable May 15
    Record APril 29
 Reuter

Shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.07 dlrs
    Net 13.6 mln dlrs vs 10.2 mln
    Revs 271.2 mln vs 182.3 mln
    NOTE:1986 results reflect year 11 month period because
company changed fiscal year to end February 28 from March 31.
 Reuter

Nanometrics Inc said it is
reducing its domestic workforce of 141 people by about 17 pct.
    The comapny said the action, coupled with other cost
reduction measures, is intended to address the continuing slow
sales of its semiconductor measurement and inspection
 Reuter

The Reagan administration is secretly
developing plans for an early deployment of President Reagan's
controversial "Star Wars" anti-missile system, according to a
Senate study.
    "Near-term deployment is an absurd and dangerous course for
America," said Sen. Bennett Johnston in a statement issued with
the report. "It would force us to break the bank, throw out the
ABM treaty and commit us to an arms race in space."
    The Reagan administration is engaged in an internal debate
over the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), as the land and
space-based anti-missile system is called, and may decide later
this month to reinterpret the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
treaty to justify an acceleration of SDI research to include
development and space testing.
    Johnston, of Louisiana, and fellow Democrat William
Proxmire of Wisconsin, whose staff prepared the report, accused
the administration of covertly seeking early  deployment as a
political ploy to commit the United States to strategic
defenses even after Reagan leaves office in 1989.
    "This report exposes the fact that without a presidential
directive or congressional consent, the SDI program ... is
being changed to pursue a near-term deployment of strategic
defenses," Proxmire, chairman of the powerful Senate
Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said.
    "In other words, they're covertly reorienting the SDI
program without congressional approval."
  
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 1.3 mln vs 1.7 mln
    Revs 9.0 mln vs 7.9 mln
 Reuter

said it received an Alberta court order extending to April 20
from April six the filing of a plan of arrangement with the
court under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
    It said the order also extended the stay of legal
proceedings against the company to May 20 and provided for
shareholders' and creditors' meetings by May 15.
 Reuter

Japan will seek to strengthen the
Paris accord on currency stability at the meeting of the group
of seven leading industrial nations tomorrow, Japanese
    However, the officials travelling with Japanese Finance
Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and who asked not to be identified,
would not provide any details of how they wanted the accord,
which was signed by the six leading industrial democracies in
February, to be strengthened.
    Currency target zones, or reference ranges, will not be
discussed at the G-7 meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow,
the Japanese officials said.
    The meeting, which is being held in conjunction with this
week's International Monetary Fund/World Bank sessions, will
reaffirm the currency pact and there is no need for changing 
the language used in the Paris accord, the officials said.
    Miyazawa met with U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker early
in this afternoon and discussed the dollar/yen exchange rates,
officials said, but they declined to disclosed the details of
that discussion.
    The Japanese officials also declined to detail what
Miyazawa and Baker discussed on the subject of greater joint
intervention in currency markets to stabilize the dollar or on
independent American intervention.
    The officials said such a money market action to stabilize
the dollar is not only for the benefit of Japan, which is
suffering from a sharp appreciation in its currency, but also
for the benefit of the United States as well.
    As to U.S. urgings for Japan to take steps to boost its
domestic demand to reduce its trade surplus, Japan will explain
economic measures to the G-7, the officials said.
    However, Miyazawa failed to outline the size of the
Japanese economic package in his meeting with Baker today
because the Japanese 1987/88 budget has not been authorized by
the Diet, or parliament, despite the new fiscal year which
started April one, the officials said.
    Japan's ruling liberal democratic party revealed its own
economic package today calling for more than 5,000 billion yen
in additional spending.
 Reuter

credit quality of corporate bond issuers continued to decline
in first quarter of 1987.
    Of all corporate ratings changes during the quarter, 66 pct
were downgrades compared with 55 pct during all of 1986.
    Moody's said downgrades led upgrades last quarter by two to
one. It downgraded 50 companies, affecting 61 billion dlrs of
debt and upgraded 25 companies, affecting 9 billion dlrs of
debt.
    It said more than half of the quarter's downgrades were in
the industrial sector, affecting 25 billion dlrs of debt.
    Moody's said that continued leveraged buyouts and
restructuring among small and medium-sized companies will
account for up to one-quarter of coporate debt downgrades.
    Worldwide competition and overcapacity will continue to
take its toll on industrial companies, Moody's added. It said
intensifying competition in an environment of slow economic
growth, Moody's predicts 2.5 pct worldwide growth in 1987, will
lower returns and margins for many multinational firms.
    Bank and finance company downgrades outpaced upgrades by 16
to 6 respectively. It said this trend will continue because of
Latin American debt problems.
 Reuter

Communications Satellite Corp said it
changed the name of its Hi-Net Communications unit to Comsat
Video Enterprises to better reflect the nature of the unit's
    Comsat recently took full control of Hi-Net, which provides
in-room entertainment to hotels by satellite, by acquiring
Holiday Corp's <HIA> 50 pct interest in the firm.
    In addition, Comsat said it signed new seven-year contracts
with LaQuinta Motor Inns Inc <LQM> and <Drury Inns Inc>.
 Reuter

Ameritrust Corp said it is
introducing a pooled investment fund for IRA's and other
retirement accounts, called the Collective INvestment
Retirement Fund.
    The fund will operate much like a mutual fund and will
allow initial investments as low as 250 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

said its board declared an initial quarterly dividend of three
cents per share, payable April 30 to shareholders of record
April 17.
    TCW said it anticipates paying a regular quarterly
dividend. The company made its initial public stock offering
 Reuter

The House Armed Services Committee
slashed President Reagan's funding request for the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI), approving 1.7 billion dlrs less than
he had proposed for the anti-missile program.
    The committee, during its consideration of the 1988 defense
authorization bill, also cut by more than half Reagan's request
for a rail system for strategic missiles.
    The proposals must be adopted by the full House and Senate
before becoming law.
    The committee approved 3.5 billion dlrs for SDI, a land-
and space-based anti-missile defense program commonly known as
"Star Wars." The amount was 1.7 billion dlrs less than the
administration request of 5.2 billion dlrs.
    The Reagan administration has requested a total of 312
billion dlrs for defense in 1988, but congressional leaders
have said that will be cut as part of a budget-trimming effort
to reduce the huge federal deficit.
    In other action today, the committee approved 250 mln dlrs
for a rail system for inter-continental ballistic missiles, but
did not specify which missile system. Supporters have said
missiles on such a rail network would be less vulernable to
attack than those in fixed underground silos.
    The administration requested 590 mln dlrs specifically for
a rail-mobile system for the 10-warhead MX missile. But many
congressmen, including House Armed Services Chairman Les Aspin,
a Wisconsin Democrat, favor a smaller mobile missile dubbed the
"Midgetman."
 Reuter

Dutch Finance Minister Onno Ruding
said there was a growing feeling in the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund that commercial banks and debtor
countries should take a greater lead in assembling new
financing packages.
    "The IMF and the Bank may be less inclined to put together
large packages like Mexico," Ruding told reporters in a briefing
on this week's semi-annual IMF and World Bank talks.
    Ruding, who is also chairman of the IMF's policy-making
Interim Committee, said he was reflecting a feeling within the
two institutions.
    Asked whether his comments reflected a feeling the
institutions were being unduly pressured by the Reagan
administration, Ruding replied "we should not go in the
direction of politicisation of the two institutions."
    Ruding said "no country large or small should push in that
direction."  He said he expected commercial bank lending to
debtors to come in for some criticism for the slow pace of
lending recently. Ruding also said he did not expect any major
initiatives to develop a larger commercial bank role in the
debt strategy or any new proposals for dealing with the debt
crisis itself.
    In other remarks, Ruding said many countries supported a
General Capital Increase for the World Bank and he expected
Bank president Barber Conable also to express his support.
    The U.S. has said it is opposed to a GCI at present.
    Ruding said the Interim Committee Communique would support
the use of indicators to assist multilateral surveillance but
would stop short of supporting U.S. proposals for automatic
consultations if indicators were sharply out of line with
policy objectives. Monetary sources say the U.S. has suggested
establishing "norms" or automatic triggers for consultations
among industrial states if policies deviate from plan.
    Currently the plan also has the support of France, the
Netherlands and Italy while Britain, Japan and West Germany are
all opposed.
 Reuter

News of an agreement among G-5 and G-7
finance ministers meeting in Washington this week will be key
to the direction of currency futures at the International
Monetary Market, but any such agreement will need to go beyond
the Paris accord to stem the recent rise in futures, financial
    "If they (the finance ministers) give the market something
really new to look at -- that is, some package that goes beyond
the Paris agreement -- you could have a real boost in the
dollar," said Shearson Lehman Brothers analyst Anne Mills.
    On the other hand, "anything neutral would tend to be
bearish for the dollar," Mills said.
    Traders and analysts agree a simple reaffirmation of the
Paris accord will not be enough to halt the decline in the
dollar, nor will central bank intervention.
    "A lot of people are looking for a reason to buy currencies
and sell the dollar," said one trader for a large retail firm
on the floor of the IMM.
    "If there is no concrete resolution, they will be looking
to sell the dollar, possibly down to the 1.80 mark level," he
said.
    Technically, most currency futures are poised for another
rise, said Smith Barney Harris Upham analyst Craig Sloane.
    Sloane noted that June yen futures set a new contract high
on Tuesday and closed at its best level ever, while June
sterling set a new contract high on Monday.
    "Everything seems to be coming to a head right now and you
don't need much to get things rolling," Sloane said.
    In particular, the June Canadian dollar, for which Sloane
recently put out a buy recommendation, has hovered in a range
between 0.7600 and 0.7660 in recent weeks, forming a triangle
on the charts from which it may soon break out on the upside.
    A close above the contract high of 0.7665 would signal a
breakout, Sloane said, and would likely mean the nearby
Canadian dollar contract would extend its advance to near the
0.7800 level. June Canadian dollar closed at 0.7656 Tuesday.
    Mills noted, however, that interest rate differentials
between Canadian securities and U.S. securities have narrowed
dramatically recently, with yields on 10-year Canadian bonds
only about 80 basis points above U.S. 10-year notes.
    What has helped the Canadian currency, she noted, is an
increasing proportion of foreign funds flowing into the
Canadian equity market, particularly from Japanese investors.
    Other analysts, however, said currency futures may be near
the top of their long-term rally.
    "Something will be done at the (G-5 and G-7) meeting to
calm people," said David Horner of Merrill Lynch Economics.
    The Paris accord has pretty much fixed where major European
currencies will trade, Horner said.
    But sterling futures may still make another run for new
highs, up to 1.6300 to 1.6500 dlr in the June contract, on the
positive atmosphere that will prevail before British elections
and possibly another interest rate cut, Horner said. The June
British pound closed at 1.6080 on Tuesday.
    Horner said that new boundaries for the trading range of
the yen are likely to come out of the G-5 and G-7 meetings.
    The most likely range will be a bottom for the dollar
between 140 to 142 yen per dollar and a top near 150 to 152
yen, Horner said. In yen futures, the bottom of the dollar's
range would be equivalent to 0.007100 to 0.007150 in the June
contract. June yen closed at 0.006913 on Tuesday.
    If such a range does emerge from the meetings, "we will
have one more rally in the yen," Horner said.
 Reuter

TEXACO GETS TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER FROM TEXAS COURT AGAINST PENNZOIL

Texaco Inc said it obtained a temporary
restraining order from the Texas court of appeals against
Pennzoil Co <PZL> taking action to enforce a multi-billion dlr
judgment against Texaco.
    A Texas jury last year found that Texaco interfered with
Pennzoil's attempt to acquire Getty Oil Co last year and
awarded Pennzoil more than 10 billion dlrs in damages.
    Texaco said the temporary restraining order was a positive
initial step.
    A spokesman said arguments will begin in the Texas State
Court of Appeal in Houston on April 13 on Texaco's request for
relief from the full bond and lien requirement, which equal the
amount of the judgment.
 REUTER

Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl
said a weaker dollar would be risky and a further appreciation
of the mark would damage prospects for sustained West German
    In a speech to the Institute of Contempory German Affairs
here, Poehl said "It would be an extremely risky policy to aim
for a further substantial decline in the value of the dollar to
correct the trade deficit."
    He said the United States could face a vicious circle of
depreciation, inflation and more depreciation if it took that
route.
    Poehl noted West Germany had already taken steps to meet
U.S. Demands for greater stimulation of its domestic economy,
accelerating tax cuts, cutting interest rates and tolerating
above-target money supply growth.
    He said he would have been happy to have brought forward
five billion marks of tax cuts now planned for January 1988 to
the beginning of this year, but he said the government faced
political constraints getting such measures through the upper
house of the West German parliament.
    But there were also limits to the impact West Germany could
accept on exports from a rising mark, he said.
    Poehl said West Germany relied on exports for about
one-third of its gross national product, so a substantial
erosion of export markets could not be offset by increasing
demand at home.
    "A further appreciation of the mark could even be an
obstacle to further growth," he said.
    Poehl said the Bundesbank had tolerated rapid money supply
growth last year because the country enjoyed low inflation and
because external factors, including low oil prices and
favourable terms of trade, had given some extra leeway.
    But Poehl said West Germany now faced a difficult dilemma
over monetary policy.
    The underlying rate of inflation was now two pct, not the
reported negative inflation rates last year, and West Germany
was affected more than before by exchange rate developments.
    "For the time being, we will have to focus our policy more
on the external side, and we can live with a more expansionary
money supply. But we must be very careful," he said.
    He said he shared some of the U.S. Concern about Japan's
trade surpluses, which affected European countries as well as
    Poehl welcomed the so-called Louvre accord of monetary
officials of major industrialized countries, saying the
importance of the February 22 agreement to stabilize exchange
rates had been underestimated.
    All partners had agreed that the dollar was at about the
right level, and that further changes would damage growth, he
said.
    "This was a remarkable change in attitude, especially on the
part of our American colleagues," he said.
    But he said there was still a danger that the correction of
the dollar's value could overshoot.
 REUTER

New Zealand's unemployment rate was
3.9 pct of the workforce in the quarter ended December 31,
unchanged from a revised 3.9 pct (preliminary 3.8 pct) in the
previous quarter but slightly above 3.8 pct in the year-earlier
quarter, the Statistics Department said.
    The Department, citing the Household Labour Force Survey,
said in a statement the number of unemployed in October-
December 1986 was 61,500 against 60,500 in the September
quarter and 60,500 a year earlier.
 REUTER

400 mln N.Z. Dlrs in government bonds of two differing
maturities at a 14 pct coupon at a bond tender on April 15.
    The bank said it will offer 200 mln dlrs of bonds maturing
March 1990 and 200 mln dlrs of bonds maturing July 1992.
    The bond tender is the first for the fiscal year ending on
March 31 1988. A full bond tender program for the year has not
yet been announced.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan buys dollars shortly after opening at around 145.30 yen -- dealers

dollars shortly after the opening at around 145.30 yen, dealers
said.
    The central bank intervened as a medium-sized trading house
sold dollars, putting pressure on the U.S. Currency, they said.
    The dollar was also supported by a major electrical
consumer goods company, which was a speculative dollar buyer at
around 145.25 yen, they added.
    The dollar opened at 145.33 yen against 145.60/70 in New
York and 145.25 at the close here yesterday.
 REUTER

Japan's rubber stocks fell to 44,980
tonnes in March from 46,198 in February and from 53,784 in
March 1986, the Japan Rubber Trade Association said.
    The stocks (in tonnes), with February and year-earlier
comparisons, were -
                    March 87  Feb 87    March 86
    Crude Rubber     41,536   42,094     49,551
    Synthetic         3,334    3,978      4,044
    Latex               110      126        189
 REUTER

THE BANK OF KOREA SAID IT FIXED THE
MIDRATE OF THE WON AT 844.30 TO THE DOLLAR, ITS HIGHEST LEVEL
SINCE FEBRUARY 26, 1985, WHEN IT WAS 843.90.
    THE WON WAS SET at 845.50 YESTERDAY.
    THE WON HAS RISEN 2.03 PCT AGAINST THE DOLLAR SO FAR THIS
YEAR, AFTER RISING 3.34 PCT IN 1986.
 REUTER

Nippon Mining Co Ltd said it lowered its
selling price for electrolytic copper by 10,000 yen per tonne
to 260,000, effective immediately.
 REUTER

Securities Commissioner Ray Astin and
Chairman of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ronald Li said in a
joint statement they have rejected a plan by Jardine Matheson
Holdings Ltd <JARD.HK> to list its new "B" shares and that other
such plans will not be approved.
    They said the move resulted from recognition of the
potential disadvantages of listing "B" shares and from strong
opposition by stock brokers and members of the exchange.
    They also noted both Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HK>
and associate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <HWHH.HK> have agreed to
withdraw previously announced plans to issue "B" shares.
    The Cheung Kong firms each announced bonus issues of one
new "B" share for each two ordinary shares last week after a
proposed four-for-one bonus issue of "B" shares by Jardine.
    The stock exchange then barred any further issues of "B"
shares, except the three proposals already submitted. The "B"
shares have equal voting rights with existing shares but a much
lower par value.
    The exchange's Hang Seng index lost 134 points between
Jardine Matheson's March 27 announcement and its close at
2,664.70 yesterday. But the index rose over 40 points in early
trading today and brokers linked the rise to the statement.
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Australian trade unions said they have
launched week-long strikes and other industrial action in New
South Wales (NSW) to protest against new laws that would reduce
injury compensation payments.
    Union sources said talks with the state government broke
down last night, but the two sides are scheduled to meet later
today in an attempt to find a compromise.
    Rail freight and shipping cargo movements in the country's
most populous state were the first to be affected, and union
officials said almost every business sector will be hit unless
there is a quick settlement.
    The state government recently introduced a new workers'
compensation act which would cut the cash benefits to injured
workers by up to a third. The act is now awaiting parliamentary
ratification.
    NSW state premier Barrie Unsworth has said workers'
compensation has risen steeply in recent years and the proposed
cuts would save hundreds of mlns of dollars a year.
    Union officials said industrial action could spread to
other states as the federal government also plans to make sharp
cuts in workers' compensation.
 REUTER

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
has proposed expanding imports of 12 farm products named in a
U.S. Complaint against Japan to the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade last year, an LDP official said.
    The products include fruit juices, purees and pulp, some
tomato products, peanuts, prepared beef products and beans.
    The proposal will be used as the basis for a more detailed
LDP economic package to cut the trade surplus with the U.S. The
party is expected to formalise the package before April 19,
when LDP General Council Chairman Shintaro Abe visits
 REUTER

Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) Vice Minister Makoto Kuroda leaves for
Washington today with data he hopes will refute U.S. Charges
Japan has violated a pact on microchip trade.
    A three-man Japanese trade team is already in Washington
laying the groundwork for talks between Kuroda and Deputy U.S.
Trade Representative Michael Smith aimed at persuading the U.S.
Not to impose tariffs on certain Japanese products.
    But Kuroda said he is taking no new proposals. "I have
nothing in my briefcase except an explanation of the current
situation," Kuroda told the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
    Kuroda said the U.S. Decision was based on incorrect data
and an exaggerated sense of MITI's power to control market
forces. "The U.S. Has excessive expectations. To stabilise
supply-demand relations which have been disrupted by excess
inventories since 1985 will take some time," he said.
    Kuroda also laid part of the blame for low U.S. Chip sales
in Japan on a lack of effort by American firms here.
    He said if he fails in talks tomorrow and Friday to
forestall sanctions, he will seek further talks with U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter. U.S. Officials said this week's
talks are unlikely to delay imposition of tariffs.
 REUTER

Sharp Corp will set up a 100 pct-owned
subsidiary in Thailand to make microwave ovens and
refrigerators for export to the U.S. And western Europe, a
    The company, to be named <Sharp Appliances (Thailand) Ltd>,
will be capitalised at 2.1 billion yen and start operations in
October, he told Reuters.
    Sharp hopes the subsidiary, which will use parts from Japan
and southeast Asia, will eventually produce other electric
appliances, he said.
 REUTER

Yugoslav government plans to stop
subsidising loss-making firms will anger hundreds of thousands
of workers, Western diplomats said.
    The law, proposed by Prime Minister Branko Mikulic, goes
into effect on July 1 and aims to end a long-standing practice
of supporting unprofitable companies. Under the law, wage cuts
will be imposed on losing enterprises, while those failing to
recover within a six-month grace period will face liquidation.
    The diplomats said Mikulic's attempt to create a market
economy is inevitable, but has still come as a shock to those
accustomed to government subsidies.
    "It was a bitter pill which had to be swallowed, but if an
overdose is taken too abruptly, it may have adverse effects on
the system," a Western diplomat said.
    He said if the law was applied too strictly it would
probably provoke a new wave of strikes and unrest.
    Yugoslavia was swept by strikes last month following the
introduction of a wage-freeze law, later amended to allow more
flexibility and some exemptions in what some political analysts
saw as a retreat by Mikulic.
    But with inflation moving towards 100 pct, trade union
leaders have asked how much more deprivation workers can take.
    The union leaders said workers thoughout the country are
already receiving salaries below limits set under existing law,
while others have received no wages at all this year because
their employers are unable to pay them.
    Workers also complain much of their income is taken in
local, state and federal taxes.
    Many others are losing their motivation to work and
confidence in government as they feel their decision-making
powers are being eroded, trade union officials said.
    Meanwhile, the official Tanjug news agency reported a paper
and cellulose factory at Ivangrad in the Montenegro republic
closed yesterday and 2,000 of its workers were given "temporary
leave."
    Tanjug said the plant had been running at a loss for the 24
years it had been in operation, and its closure was the result
of "economic necessity" rather than bankruptcy.
 REUTER

The French government won, as expected, a
vote of parliamentary confidence sought by Prime Minister
Jacques Chirac on his general policies.
    Votes from Chirac's Gaullist RPR party and its junior
partner in the ruling coalition, the centre-right UDF, gave
Chirac's cabinet a slim majority in the National Assembly.
    A total of 294 deputies in the 577-member assembly voted to
support Chirac, with 282 voting against. One member was absent.
    The Socialists, Communists and the extreme-right National
Front voted against the prime minister's call.
 REUTER

Mounting trade friction between the
U.S. And Japan has raised fears among many of Asia's exporting
nations that the row could inflict far-reaching economic
damage, businessmen and officials said.
    They told Reuter correspondents in Asian capitals a U.S.
Move against Japan might boost protectionist sentiment in the
U.S. And lead to curbs on American imports of their products.
    But some exporters said that while the conflict would hurt
them in the long-run, in the short-term Tokyo's loss might be
their gain.
    The U.S. Has said it will impose 300 mln dlrs of tariffs on
imports of Japanese electronics goods on April 17, in
retaliation for Japan's alleged failure to stick to a pact not
to sell semiconductors on world markets at below cost.
    Unofficial Japanese estimates put the impact of the tariffs
at 10 billion dlrs and spokesmen for major electronics firms
said they would virtually halt exports of products hit by the
new taxes.
    "We wouldn't be able to do business," said a spokesman for
leading Japanese electronics firm Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co Ltd <MC.T>.
    "If the tariffs remain in place for any length of time
beyond a few months it will mean the complete erosion of
exports (of goods subject to tariffs) to the U.S.," said Tom
Murtha, a stock analyst at the Tokyo office of broker <James
Capel and Co>.
    In Taiwan, businessmen and officials are also worried.
    "We are aware of the seriousness of the U.S. Threat against
Japan because it serves as a warning to us," said a senior
Taiwanese trade official who asked not to be named.
    Taiwan had a trade trade surplus of 15.6 billion dlrs last
year, 95 pct of it with the U.S.
    The surplus helped swell Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves
to 53 billion dlrs, among the world's largest.
    "We must quickly open our markets, remove trade barriers and
cut import tariffs to allow imports of U.S. Products, if we
want to defuse problems from possible U.S. Retaliation," said
Paul Sheen, chairman of textile exporters <Taiwan Safe Group>.
    A senior official of South Korea's trade promotion
association said the trade dispute between the U.S. And Japan
might also lead to pressure on South Korea, whose chief exports
are similar to those of Japan.
    Last year South Korea had a trade surplus of 7.1 billion
dlrs with the U.S., Up from 4.9 billion dlrs in 1985.
    In Malaysia, trade officers and businessmen said tough
curbs against Japan might allow hard-hit producers of
semiconductors in third countries to expand their sales to the
U.S.
    In Hong Kong, where newspapers have alleged Japan has been
selling below-cost semiconductors, some electronics
manufacturers share that view. But other businessmen said such
a short-term commercial advantage would be outweighed by
further U.S. Pressure to block imports.
    "That is a very short-term view," said Lawrence Mills,
director-general of the Federation of Hong Kong Industry.
    "If the whole purpose is to prevent imports, one day it will
be extended to other sources. Much more serious for Hong Kong
is the disadvantage of action restraining trade," he said.
    The U.S. Last year was Hong Kong's biggest export market,
accounting for over 30 pct of domestically produced exports.
    The Australian government is awaiting the outcome of trade
talks between the U.S. And Japan with interest and concern,
Industry Minister John Button said in Canberra last Friday.
    "This kind of deterioration in trade relations between two
countries which are major trading partners of ours is a very
serious matter," Button said.
    He said Australia's concerns centred on coal and beef,
Australia's two largest exports to Japan and also significant
U.S. Exports to that country.
    Meanwhile U.S.-Japanese diplomatic manoeuvres to solve the
trade stand-off continue.
    Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party yesterday outlined
a package of economic measures to boost the Japanese economy.
    The measures proposed include a large supplementary budget
and record public works spending in the first half of the
financial year.
    They also call for stepped-up spending as an emergency
measure to stimulate the economy despite Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone's avowed fiscal reform program.
    Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael Smith and Makoto
Kuroda, Japan's deputy minister of International Trade and
Industry (MITI), are due to meet in Washington this week in an
effort to end the dispute.
 REUTER

The union representing 7,000 pilots at
United Airlines is proposing wage cuts of up to 25 pct to help
finance a 4.5 billion dlr employee buyout of the nation's
second largest air carrier.
    In a television link-up of 10,000 employees at 11 sites
nationwide, the Air Line Pilots Association unveiled details of
a planned employee stock ownership plan for United, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of UAL Inc.
    The proposed wage cuts would affect senior pilots the most,
although the other 53,000 workers employed by United would also
be asked to accept less pay.
    In addition, the union is asking its pilots to invest
one-third of the union pension fund's 1.1 billion dlrs in the
proposed employee-owned company.
    In an effort to get the rank and file to contribute five
pct of their earnings, United's 21-member master executive
council donated 150,000 dlrs in cash and committed 2.1 mln dlrs
in pension fund assets for acquisition of new preferred shares.
 REUTER

A survey of 19 provinces and seven cities
showed vermin consume between seven and 12 pct of China's grain
stocks, the China Daily said.
    It also said that each year 1.575 mln tonnes, or 25 pct, of
China's fruit output are left to rot, and 2.1 mln tonnes, or up
to 30 pct, of its vegetables. The paper blamed the waste on
inadequate storage and bad preservation methods.
    It said the government had launched a national programme to
reduce waste, calling for improved technology in storage and
preservation, and greater production of additives. The paper
 REUTER

Industry (MITI) will revise its long-term energy supply/demand
outlook by August to meet a forecast downtrend in Japanese
energy demand, ministry officials said.
    MITI is expected to lower the projection for primary energy
supplies in the year 2000 to 550 mln kilolitres (kl) from 600
mln, they said.
    The decision follows the emergence of structural changes in
Japanese industry following the rise in the value of the yen
and a decline in domestic electric power demand.
    MITI is planning to work out a revised energy supply/demand
outlook through deliberations of committee meetings of the
Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, the officials said.
    They said MITI will also review the breakdown of energy
supply sources, including oil, nuclear, coal and natural gas.
    Nuclear energy provided the bulk of Japan's electric power
in the fiscal year ended March 31, supplying an estimated 27
pct on a kilowatt/hour basis, followed by oil (23 pct) and
liquefied natural gas (21 pct), they noted.
 REUTER

Nissan Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> is
negotiating the supply of car components to Mexican units of
Ford Motor Co <F> and Chrysler Corp <C>, a Nissan spokeswoman
said.
    <Nissan Mexicana SA de CV> is owned 96.4 pct by Nissan and
3.6 pct by Marubeni Corp <MART.T>. It expects to win orders for
precision casting parts for engines, and aluminium cases for
automatic transmissions.
    These will supply output of 70,000 mid-size cars a year at
Chrysler's Mexican unit, the spokeswoman said.
    Nissan is negotiating a similar deal to supply Ford's
Mexican unit with precision casting parts for car engines, the
spokeswoman said, without providing further details.
    The company is expected to reach agreements with both U.S.
Car makers sometime this year, she said.
    Nissan Mexicana will invest about 400 mln yen to improve
production facilities after the agreements are signed, she
said.
 REUTER

Foreigners will be able to invest up
to two mln N.Z. Dlrs in New Zealand assets without getting
approval from the Overseas Investment Commission, the
Commission said.
    The decision, effective tomorrow raises the threshold from
its previous level of 500,000 dlrs, it said in a statement.
    "The new level is felt to be more appropriate to objectives
given the present cost structure involved in operating a
business in New Zealand," the commission said. The increase does
not apply to the acquisition of shares.
 REUTER

Thailand's trade deficit widened to 4.5
billion baht in the first quarter of 1987 from 2.1 billion a
year ago, the Business Economics Department said.
    It said Janunary/March imports rose to 65.1 billion baht
from 58.7 billion. Thailand's improved business climate this
year resulted in a 27 pct increase in imports of raw materials
and semi-finished products.
    The country's oil import bill, however, fell 23 pct in the
first quarter due to lower oil prices.
    The department said first quarter exports expanded to 60.6
billion baht from 56.6 billion.
    Export growth was smaller than expected due to lower
earnings from many key commodities including rice whose
earnings declined 18 pct, maize 66 pct, sugar 45 pct, tin 26
pct and canned pineapples seven pct.
    Products registering high export growth were jewellery up
64 pct, clothing 57 pct and rubber 35 pct.
 REUTER

Indonesia expects crude palm oil (CPO)
prices to rise sharply to between 450 and 550 dlrs a tonne FOB
sometime this year because of better European demand and a fall
in Malaysian output, Hasrul Harahap, junior minister for tree
crops, told Indonesian reporters.
    Prices of Malaysian and Sumatran CPO are now around 332
dlrs a tonne CIF for delivery in Rotterdam, traders said.
    Harahap said Indonesia would maintain its exports, despite
making recent palm oil purchases from Malaysia, so that it
could possibly increase its international market share.
    Indonesia, the world's second largest producer of palm oil
after Malaysia, has been forced to import palm oil to ensure
supplies during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
    Harahap said it was better to import to cover a temporary
shortage than to lose export markets.
    Indonesian exports of CPO in calendar 1986 were 530,500
tonnes, against 468,500 in 1985, according to central bank
figures.
 REUTER

<Nissho Iwai Corp> and Kawasaki Heavy
Industries Ltd <KAWH.T> have jointly won an order to build 200
subway cars worth about 200 mln dlrs for the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority of New York, a Nissho spokesman said.
    The cars, to be produced with 51 pct U.S. Content, will be
delivered between early 1988 and August 1989, he said.
    Ten will be built in Japan, but the others will be made at
a Yonkers, New York, plant equally owned by Nissho and
Kawasaki.
 REUTER

Tokyo stock market index rises 128.34 to record close of 22,912.99

last night proposed cutting President Reagan's funding request
for the Strategic Defence Initiative program by 1.7 billion
dlrs to 3.5 billion.
    The committee also cut by more than half the amount the
president requested for a rail system for strategic missiles.
It approved 250 mln dlrs for the project during its
consideration of the 1988 defence authorisation bill.
    The committee's proposals must be adopted by the full House
and Senate before becoming law. The administration's total
request for 1988 defence spending was 312 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

NEC Corp <NESI.T> filed suit in Tokyo
District Court to temporarily halt the manufacture and
marketing of <Seiko Epson Corp>'s NEC-compatible personal
computer series, an NEC spokesman said.
    He said Seiko Epson's PC 286 computer and HDD-20 interface
board infringe on software copyrights of the Basic In Out
System program of NEC's best-selling 9801 computer series.
    A spokesman for Seiko Epson, which is part of the Hattori
Seiko Co Ltd <HATT.T> group, said its computer does not
infringe on any copyrights and will be marketed this month.
    The HDD-20 interface board went on sale last December.
    NEC's request for an injunction against Seiko Epson and its
marketing subsidiary is the first entirely domestic lawsuit
charging infringement of computer software copyrights, the
Seiko Epson spokesman said.
    Share market analysts said that NEC controls about 70 pct
of Japan's personal computer market.
    Introduction of NEC-compatible machines could spark a price
war and cut NEC's profits, as happened to International
Business Machines Corp <IBM> following the introduction of
IBM-compatible machines, they added.
 REUTER

Tug crews in New South Wales (NSW),
Victoria and Western Australia yesterday lifted their ban on
foreign-flag ships carrying containers but NSW ports are still
being disrupted by a separate dispute, shipping sources said.
    The ban, imposed a week ago over a pay claim, had prevented
the movement in or out of port of nearly 20 vessels, they said.
    The pay dispute went before a hearing of the Arbitration
Commission today.
    Meanwhile, disruption began today to cargo handling in the
ports of Sydney, Newcastle and Port Kembla, they said.
    The industrial action at the NSW ports is part of the week
of action called by the NSW Trades and Labour Council to
protest changes to the state's workers' compensation laws.
    The shipping sources said the various port unions appear to
be taking it in turn to work for a short time at the start of
each shift and then to walk off.
    Cargo handling in the ports has been disrupted, with
container movements most affected, but has not stopped
altogether, they said.
    They said they could not say how long the disruption will
go on and what effect it will have on shipping movements.
 REUTER

The Indonesian Commodity Exchange is
likely to start trading in at least one new commodity, and
possibly two, during calendar 1987, exchange chairman Paian
Nainggolan said.
    He told Reuters in a telephone interview that trading in
palm oil, sawn timber, pepper or tobacco was being considered.
    Trading in either crude palm oil (CPO) or refined palm oil
may also be introduced. But he said the question was still
being considered by Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh and no
decision on when to go ahead had been made.
    The fledgling exchange currently trades coffee and rubber
physicals on an open outcry system four days a week.
    "Several factors make us move cautiously," Nainggolan said.
"We want to move slowly and safely so that we do not make a
mistake and undermine confidence in the exchange."
    Physical rubber trading was launched in 1985, with coffee
added in January 1986. Rubber contracts are traded FOB, up to
five months forward. Robusta coffee grades four and five are
traded for prompt delivery and up to five months forward,
exchange officials said.
    The trade ministry and exchange board are considering the
introduction of futures trading later for rubber, but one
official said a feasibility study was needed first. No
decisions are likely until after Indonesia's elections on April
23, traders said.
    Trade Minister Saleh said on Monday that Indonesia, as the
world's second largest producer of natural rubber, should
expand its rubber marketing effort and he hoped development of
the exchange would help this.
    Nainggolan said that the exchange was trying to boost
overseas interest by building up contacts with end-users.
    He said teams had already been to South Korea and Taiwan to
encourage direct use of the exchange, while a delegation would
also visit Europe, Mexico and some Latin American states to
encourage participation.
    Officials say the infant exchange has made a good start
although trading in coffee has been disappointing.
    Transactions in rubber between the start of trading in
April 1985 and December 1986 totalled 9,595 tonnes, worth 6.9
mln dlrs FOB, plus 184.3 mln rupiah for rubber delivered
locally, the latest exchange report said.
     Trading in coffee in calendar 1986 amounted to only 1,905
tonnes in 381 lots, valued at 6.87 billion rupiah.
     Total membership of the exchange is now nine brokers and
44 traders.
 REUTER

Food Department officials said the U.S.
Department of Agriculture approved the Continental Grain Co
sale of 52,500 tonnes of soft wheat at 89 U.S. Dlrs a tonne C
and F from Pacific Northwest to Colombo.
    They said the shipment was for April 8 to 20 delivery.
 REUTER

Western Mining Corp Holdings Ltd
<WMNG.S> (WMC) said it will establish a new joint venture gold
mine in the Northern Territory at a cost of about 21 mln dlrs.
    The mine, to be known as the Goodall project, will be owned
60 pct by WMC and 40 pct by a local W.R. Grace and Co <GRA>
unit. It is located 30 kms east of the Adelaide River at Mt.
Bundey, WMC said in a statement
    It said the open-pit mine, with a conventional leach
treatment plant, is expected to produce about 50,000 ounces of
gold in its first year of production from mid-1988. Annual ore
capacity will be about 750,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

Sumitomo Bank Ltd <SUMI.T> is certain to
lose its status as Japan's most profitable bank as a result of
its merger with the Heiwa Sogo Bank, financial analysts said.
    Osaka-based Sumitomo, with desposits of around 23.9
trillion yen, merged with Heiwa Sogo, a small, struggling bank
with an estimated 1.29 billion dlrs in unrecoverable loans, in
October.
    But despite the link-up, Sumitomo President Koh Komatsu
told Reuters he is confident his bank can quickly regain its
position.
    "We'll be back in position in first place within three
years," Komatsu said in an interview.
    He said that while the merger will initially reduce
Sumitomo's profitability and efficiency, it will vastly expand
Sumitomo's branch network in the Tokyo metropolitan area where
it has been relatively weak.
    But financial analysts are divided on whether and how
quickly the gamble will pay off.
    Some said Sumitomo may have paid too much for Heiwa Sogo in
view of the smaller bank's large debts. Others argue the merger
was more cost effective than creating a comparable branch
network from scratch.
    The analysts agreed the bank was aggressive. It has
expanded overseas, entered the lucrative securities business
and geared up for domestic competition, but they questioned the
wisdom of some of those moves.
    "They've made bold moves to put everything in place. Now
it's largely out of their hands," said Kleinwort Benson Ltd
financial analyst Simon Smithson.
    Among Sumitomo's problems are limits placed on its move to
enter U.S. Securities business by taking a share in American
investment bank Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    Sumitomo last August agreed to pay 500 mln dlrs for a 12.5
pct limited partnership in the bank, but for the time being at
least, the Federal Reserve Board has forbidden them to exchange
personnel, or increase the business they do with each other.
    "The tie-up is widely looked on as a lame duck because the
Fed was stricter than Sumitomo expected," said one analyst.
    But Komatsu said the move will pay off in time.
    "U.S. Regulations will change in the near future and if so,
we can do various things. We only have to wait two or three
years, not until the 21st century," Komatsu said.
    Komatsu is also willing to be patient about possible routes
into the securities business at home.
    Article 65 of the Securities and Exchange Act, Japan's
version of the U.S. Glass-Steagall Act, separates commercial
from investment banking.
    But the walls between the two are crumbling and Komatsu
said he hopes further deregulation will create new
opportunities.
    "We need to find new business chances," Komatsu said. "In some
cases these will be securities related, in some cases trust
bank related. That's the kind of deregulation we want."
    Until such changes occur, Sumitomo will focus on such
domestic securities business as profitable government bond
dealing and strengthening relations with Meiko Securities Co
Ltd, in which it holds a five pct share, Komatsu said.
    He said Sumitomo is cautiously optimistic about entering
the securities business here through its Swiss universal bank
subsidiary, Banca del Gottardo.
     The Finance Ministry is expected to grant licences to
securities subsidiaries of U.S. Commercial banks soon,
following a similar decision for subsidiaries of European
universal banks in which the parent holds a less than 50 pct.
    But Komatsu is reluctant to push hard for a similar
decision on a Gottardo subsidiary.
    "We don't want to make waves. We expect this will be allowed
in two or three years," he said.
    Like other city banks, Sumitomo is also pushing to expand
lending to individuals and small and medium businesses to
replace disappearing demand from big business, he added.
    The analysts said Sumitomo will have to devote a lot of
time to digesting its most recent initiatives, including the
merger with ailing Heiwa Sogo.
    "It's (Sumitomo) been bold in its strategies," said
Kleinwort's Smithson.
    "After that, it's a question of absorbing and juggling
around. It will be the next decade before we see if the
strategy is right or wrong."
 REUTER

Mines and Energy Minister Subroto
confirmed Indonesian support for an extension of the sixth
International Tin Agreement (ITA), but said a new pact was not
    Asked by Reuters to clarify his statement on Monday in
which he said the pact should be allowed to lapse, Subroto said
Indonesia was ready to back extension of the ITA.
    "We can support extension of the sixth agreement," he said.
"But a seventh accord we believe to be unnecessary."
    The sixth ITA will expire at the end of June unless a
two-thirds majority of members vote for an extension.
 REUTER

Negotiations between mining
companies and the National Union of Mineworkers are foundering
and mines could face a May Day work stoppage, the Chamber of
Mines said.
    It said the union had called off talks on a specific issue,
the introduction of a Labour Day on May 1.
    The union refused a request to give advance notification of
the names of workers who would be working on May 1 rather than
taking the option of a paid holiday, the Chamber said.
    It said mining companies wanted advance notice in order to
plan their operations.
    "The union is adamant only employees who wish to work on
Labour Day should notify management," the Chamber said.
    "This raises the prospect that the mines will once again
face stay-away action on May 1 and that the employees who do
not work will once again forfeit pay."
    It said the union accepted all the proposals except giving
advance notification for May 1.
    It said miners had been offered a full paid holiday on May
1 or a premium of six pct of their basic monthly pay for
working that day.
 REUTER

The coupon on the 75 mln dlr, 15-year,
convertible eurobond for Atari Corp has been set at 5-1/4 pct
compared with indicated range of five to 5-1/4 pct, lead
manager Paine Webber International said.
    The conversion price was set at 32-5/8 dlrs, representing a
premium of 20.38 pct over yesterday's Atari share close of 27
dlrs.
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Bangladesh is expected to draw up a 47
billion taka development plan for the 1987/88 fiscal year
beginning July 1, Finance Ministry officials said.
    This is a rise of six pct over the current year. They said
86.5 pct of the funds would come from foreign sources.
    Bangladesh will seek nearly two billion dlrs to be used for
development projects and imports in 1987/88 at a donors'
meeting in Paris later this month, the officials said.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank accepted bids for 6.1
repurchase pact at a fixed rate of 3.80 pct, a central bank
    Banks, which bid for a total 12.2 billion marks liquidity,
will be credited with the funds allocated today and must buy
back securities pledged on May 6.
    Some 14.9 billion marks will drain from the market today as
an earlier pact expires, so the Bundesbank is effectively
withdrawing a net 8.1 billion marks from the market with
today's allocation.
    A Bundesbank spokesman said in answer to enquiries that the
withdrawal of funds did not reflect a tightening of credit
policy, but was to be seen in the context of plentiful
liquidity in the banking system.
    Banks held an average 59.3 billion marks at the Bundesbank
over the first six days of the month, well clear of the likely
April minimum reserve requirement of 51 billion marks.
    The Bundesbank spokesman noted that by bidding only 12.2
billion marks, below the outgoing 14.9 billion, banks
themselves had shown they felt they had plenty of liquidity.
    Dealers said the Bundesbank is keen to prevent too much
liquidity accruing in the market, as that would blunt the
effectiveness of the security repurchase agreement, its main
open-market instrument for steering market interest rates. Two
further pacts are likely this month over the next two weeks.
    The Bundesbank is currently steering call money between 3.6
and 3.8 pct, although short-term fluctuations outside that
range are possible, dealers said.
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The U.N. Development program (UNDP) will
give Bangladesh a 6.79 mln dlr grant to undertake a detailed
study on the building of a bridge over the River Jamuna, the
official BSS news agency said.
    It said an agreement was signed here yesterday.
    Communication Ministry officials said the bridge would be
to link Dhaka with the northern areas of Bangladesh and was
expected to cost about 836 mln dlrs. They said offers of help
had been received from Saudi Arabia and the World Bank, but
they gave no details.
 REUTER

The issue price of the European
Investment Bank's 300 mln guilder 6.25 pct bullet bond due
1995, announced on April 1, has been set at par, lead manager
Amro bank said.
    Subscriptions remain open until 1300 gmt tomorrow, April 9.
    Payment is due May 14 and coupon date is May 15.
 REUTER

Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> and Atlas
Consolidated Mining and Development Corp <ATLC.MN> are still
holding talks on a bail-out package for the troubled mining
firm, an Atlas statement said.
    Atlas, the Philippines' biggest copper producer, said it
had been hit by depressed world copper prices. It reported a
net loss of 976.38 mln pesos in the year ending December 1986,
compared with a net loss of 1.53 billion in 1985.
    The company said it had been able to cut its losses because
its scaled-down copper operations in the central island of Cebu
started in the second half of 1986.
    Atlas said negotiations were continuing on the acquisition
by Bond of the company's existing bank loans and their
restructuring into a gold loan.
    A memorandum of understanding signed by the two sides in
October last year said Bond would acquire Atlas' total loans of
275 mln dlrs, to be repaid by the mining company in gold.
    Atlas said the two sides were also discussing equity
infusion into Atlas and the creation of a development fund for
further exploration and development of the company's gold
properties in the central province of Masbate.
    Wilson Banks, general manager of <Bond Corp International
Ltd> in Hong Kong, told Reuters the Atlas statement on the
negotiations was "reasonably accurate."
    Banks said Bond Corp was seriously considering several
investments in the Philippines but did not give details.
    In its statement, Atlas said development of the pre-World
War Two underground mines in Masbate had been accelerated and
the ore tonnage had increased, extending the operation's life
at least until 1993.
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Thailand's improving economy may have
helped its trade and finance position but it has also created
major problems for local banks, Thai and foreign bankers said.
    They said a 900 mln dlr saving from cheaper imported oil
and 19.7 pct export growth last year contributed to the
country's first current account surplus in 20 years.
    But the bright picture, together with a government program
to help farmers cope with depressed commodity prices, coincides
with sluggish investment by a private sector still feeling the
lingering effects of the 1984-86 recession.
    Thai banks have had growing surplus funds and difficulties
finding borrowers since the third quarter of 1986.
    Kunthon Narkprom, head of the budget and planning division
of Thai Farmers Bank Ltd, estimated excess liquidity in banks
peaked last month at 60 billion baht, three times what he
considered normal. Bank of Thailand figures show total deposits
in 1986 grew 12.7 pct to 627.7 billion baht, while lending rose
only 3.4 pct to 548.6 billion.
    The lending/deposit ratio, which measures bank loans as a
percentage of deposits, fell to 86.6 pct last month, the lowest
since the 1970s, after averaging 96.6 pct in 1985.
    Thai banks have cut lending and deposit rates a record six
times since January 1986, during which time the average minimum
loan rate fell to 11.5 pct from 15.5 and the gross one-year
fixed deposit rate to 7.25 pct from 11.
    Five banks announced last week they would cut their maximum
lending rates to small borrowers by one percentage point to 14
pct.
    Kunthon of Thai Farmers estimated banks now have a combined
80 billion baht unused overdraft line as many small and
medium-size companies delay borrowing in anticipation of more
cuts in interest rates.
    The record liquidity has seriously hurt the profits of
banks, which have been forced to invest idle funds in low-yield
government securities.
    Kunthon said the banks hold four to 10 billion baht in
short-term government bonds bought through the Bank of
Thailand's bond repurchase facility, double the normal amount.
    Thailand's 16 local commercial banks registered one of
their worst years in 1986, with overall profits falling over 30
pct after a 14 pct decline in 1985.
    Kunthon said profits should increase 10 pct this year as
the banks adjust to the new interest rate structure.
    Olarn Chaipravat, senior executive vice president of Siam
Commercial Bank Ltd, told reporters last week the liquidity
problem stems partly from the fact most loan demands come from
businesses seeking funds for small, labour-intensive projects.
    He said there are few large, capital-intensive projects and
many borrowers go offshore to meet their requirements.
    Somboon Chinsavananond, Thai Farmers' fund management
executive, said liquidity has been aggravated by the central
bank's policy of fixing a stable baht-dollar exchange rate
which permits Thai companies to import dollar-denominated funds
with a minimal risk of currency exchange losses.
    He said underlying bearishness towards the U.S. Dollar has
encouraged foreign borrowers who hope to pay less on loan
principal when their loans mature.
    Thai bankers said central bank governor Kamchorn Sathirakul
last month rejected a request to increase a 10 pct withholding
tax on interest on foreign loans, a measure they said would
reduce foreign borrowings. The governor replied the bankers
should extend more loans to rural areas instead.
    Bankers said some Thai banks have offered credit-worthy
clients loans at near money market rates of seven to eight pct
in a bid to compete with foreign funds.
    A market analyst at Siam Commercial Bank said bank lending
at such rates amount to about 15 pct of all loans extended by
the industry.
    A foreign banker, who requested anonymity, said the
"segmented market approach" used by Thai banks for setting
different lending rates has caused dislocation of funds in the
financial sector, eroded bank profits and prevented banks from
taking a more logical move of further cutting interest rates.
    He said the liquidity problem gives the Bank of Thailand a
perfect opportunity to assert more control on the Thai money
market.
    The Bank of Thailand is taking "a step in the right
direction" by planning to float three billion baht in bonds to
mop up part of the surplus, he said, but he added the bank has
been lax in using its bond repurchase window as a tool to
absorb or inject liquidity into the market.
    William Wu, head of the Treasury Unit of Chase Manhattan
Bank N.A., Said the money market lacks the instruments to
absorb liquidity and avoid sharp interest rate fluctuations.
    He said the liquidity has fuelled the stock market's
strongest rally in seven years and Thailand should seize the
opportunity to develop the corporate bond market.
 REUTER

China's industrial output rose 14.1 pct
in the first quarter of 1987 against the same 1986 period, the
People's Daily said.
    Its overseas edition said the growth rate, which compares
with a target of seven pct for the whole of 1987, was "rather
high" but the base in the first quarter of 1986 was on the low
side. Industrial output grew 4.4 pct in the first quarter of
1986.
    It said China's industrial production this year has been
normal but product quality and efficiency need further
improvement. It gave no further details.
 REUTER

Westpac Banking Corporation is issuing a
50 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 6, 1990 paying 14-1/2
pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead manager Deutsche Bank
Luxembourg. The selling concession is one pct, while management
    The payment date is May 6.
 REUTER

Major Japanese automakers are gearing up
to equip sporty models with four-wheel steering, a feature that
could become standard on high-grade cars in the future,
automotive industry sources said.
    Two companies are ready to market such cars soon, they
said. Honda Motor Co Ltd will sell its Prelude with four-wheel
steering from this Friday, and Mazda Motor Corp officials say a
model with the new steering will be out by mid-year. Mazda aims
to ship the cars overseas before year-end but the decision will
depend on initial consumer reaction.
    Nissan Motor Co Ltd has offered a less sophisticated
four-wheel steering system on its Skyline since August 1985.
Toyota Motor Corp has exhibited its developments in the field
at a recent motor show and Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it will
use the system in the near future.
    Though major U.S. And European automakers have also
researched and tested the four-wheel system, they say they are
waiting to see consumer response to the Japanese cars and for
further improvements in safety and costs.
    Four-wheel steering allows drivers to easily manoeuvre into
parking spaces and gives more control on sharp turns. 
    Mazda officials believe the new steering will improve
safety. "At extremes, four-wheel steering gives a driver more
control," said one official. "On slippery surfaces or at high
speeds, the system reduces unnecessary movement of the vehicle."
    While acknowledging the added vehicle stability, a Honda
engineer said: "This invention is not intended to improve
safety, but is aimed at allowing everyone to drive easily."
    Mazda's electronic steering system tells the back wheels to
turn in the opposite direction from the front wheels at slow
speeds but in the same direction at high speeds.
    Honda's system, which is mechanical, is similar but the
direction of the rear wheels is determined by the angle of the
front wheels. With Nissan's system the rear wheels move only
parallel to the front.
    Automakers say professional drivers who have tested the
four-wheel steering say it greatly improves handling.
    An official with one U.S. Vehicle manufacturer said
four-wheel steering is a technical improvement, but it is
uncertain whether it will translate into higher sales or
profits. "All automakers are interested in something new," he
said. "If it becomes a predominant factor, everyone will want to
follow."
    The official said four-wheel steering is partly a gimmick
to sell cars. "It's a benefit of a secondary nature compared
with devices for fuel economy or emission control."
    General Motors Corp has developed a four-wheel steering
system, but is unlikely to market it within the next five
years, Y. Hojoh, engineer with the Japan branch of General
Motors Overseas Corp, said. GM must consider the costs to the
consumer, he added.
    The industry sources said the additional cost of the system
in Japan would probably make little difference to the consumer
as it would be added to already high-priced models.
 REUTER

Japan's Agriculture Ministry, angered by
U.S. Demands that Japan open its farm products market, will
tell U.S. Officials at talks later this month that
liberalisation would harm existing U.S. Farm exports to Japan,
a senior ministry official said.
    "Imports from the U.S. Would drop due to active sales drives
by other suppliers," the official, who declined to be named,
said. "Japan is the largest customer for U.S. Farm products and
it is not reasonable for the U.S. To demand Japan liberalise
its farm import market," he said.
    Agriculture Minister Mutsuki Kato has said if the U.S.
Insists Japan open its protected rice market it will also open
its wheat market, where volume and origin are regulated to
protect local farmers.
    Australia and Canada could then increase their wheat
exports as they are more competitive than the U.S., He said.
End-users would also buy other origins, grain traders said.
    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng, who is due to
visit Japan for talks between April 16-27, has said he will ask
Japan to offer a share of its rice market to U.S. Suppliers and
remove quotas on U.S. Beef and citrus imports.
    Other countries are already cutting into the U.S. Market
share here. Australia, the largest beef supplier to Japan, has
been trying to boost exports prior to the expiry of a four-year
beef accord next March 31.
    Imports of U.S. Corn have fallen due to increased sales
from China and South America, while Japanese soybean imports
from Brazil are expected to rise sharply this year, although
the U.S. Will remain the largest supplier.
    U.S. Feedgrain sales will also drop if Japan opens up its
beef imports, since Japan depends almost entirely on feedgrain
imports, mainly from the U.S., Japanese officials said.
    An indication of the U.S. Position came last December when
Under Secretary of Agriculture Daniel Amstutz said Japan has
the potential to provide one of the largest boosts to U.S.
Agricultural exports, with the beef market alone representing
some one billion dlrs in new business.
    The U.S. Has also asked the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade to investigate the legality of Japanese import
controls on 12 other farm products, including fruit juices,
purees and pulp, tomato juice, ketchup and sauce, peanuts,
prepared beef products and miscellaneous beans.
    To help calm heated trade relations with the U.S., Japan's
top business group Keidanren has urged the government to remove
residual import restrictions on agricultural products.
    But Agriculture Minister Kato has ruled out any emotional
reaction, and the senior ministry official said the farm issue
should not become a scapegoat for trade pressure in the
industrial sector.
    "Japan is the largest buyer of U.S. Farm products, and these
issues should not be discussed on the same table," the official
said.
 REUTER

Amatil Ltd <AMAA.S> said it proposes to
make a two-for-five bonus issue out of its revaluation reserve
to shareholders registered May 26.
    Shareholders will be asked to approve the issue and an
increase in authorised capital to 175 mln shares from 125 mln
at a general meeting on May 1, it said in a statement.
    The new shares will rank for dividends declared after
October 31. Amatil, in which B.A.T. Industries Plc <BTI.L>
holds a 41 pct stake, said it does not expect to maintain its
latest annual dividend rate of 29 cents a share on the enlarged
capital.
 REUTER

Shr 27.7p vs 20.7p
    Div 6.0p vs 5.5p making 10.0p vs 9.25p
    Turnover 1.34 billion stg vs 1.29 billion
    Pretax profit 48.0 mln vs 32.4 mln
    Tax 14.4 mln vs 6.9 mln
    Company name is Bowater Industries Plc <BWTR.L>
    Trading profit 63.4 mln vs 45.1 mln
    Packaging and associated products 23.2 mln vs 14.2 mln
    Merchanting and services 18.4 mln vs 9.6 mln
    Tissue and timber products 9.0 mln vs 5.8 mln
    Interest debit 15.4 mln vs 12.7 mln
    Minority interests 7.0 mln debit vs 6.2 mln debit
    Extraordinary items 15.4 mln credit vs 11.9 mln debit
 REUTER

some 505 mln stg, while bills for repurchase by the market will
remove around 194 mln. In addition, a rise in note circulation
and bankers' balances below target will each drain around 110
mln stg.
will add some 690 mln stg to the system today.
 REUTER

South Korea's trade surplus is growing too
fast and the government has started taking steps to slow it
down, Deputy Prime Minister Kim Mahn-je said.
    He told a press conference the government planned to
increase investment, speed up the opening of the local market
to foreign imports and gradually adjust its currency to hold
the surplus "at a proper level."
    But he said the government would not allow the won to
appreciate too much in a short period of time. South Korea has
been under pressure from Washington to revalue the won.
    The U.S. Wants South Korea to cut its trade surplus with
the U.S., Which rose to 7.4 billion dlrs in 1986 from 4.3
    Kim, who is also economic planning minister, said prospects
were bright for the South Korean economy, but the government
would try to hold the current account surplus to around five
billion dlrs a year for the next five years.
    "Our government projections of eight pct GNP growth, five
billion dlrs of (current account) surplus and 12 pct growth in
exports all seemed to be reasonable early this year. But now
the surplus is growing faster than we expected," he said.
    Trade ministry officials said South Korea's exports rose 35
pct to 9.34 billion dlrs in the first three months of this
year, while imports rose only 8.5 pct to 8.2 billion dlrs.
    Kim said the swing of South Korea's current account to a
surplus of 4.65 billion dlrs in 1986 from an 890 mln dlr
deficit in 1985 was very significant. The surplus enabled the
country to reduce its foreign debt last year for the first
time.
    South Korea's foreign debt, which fell to 44.5 billion dlrs
in 1986 from 46.8 billion in 1985, is still among the largest
in Asia.
    "This huge amount of our foreign debt has been one of the
major constraints on our development... Last year was a major
turning point for the Korean economy," Kim said.
    Kim said his government plannned to reduce the ratio of
foreign debt to the country's GNP to about 20 pct in 1991, from
about 50 pct in 1986.
    "The government, however, does not want to accelerate
reducing the debt by making an excessive trade surplus," he
said.
    Kim said a sudden rise in the surplus would cause inflation
and lead to trade friction with Seoul's major trading partners,
particularly the United States.
    "We need a surplus because we have to reduce our debt, but
we are taking measures to hold the size of the surplus at a
proper level," Kim said.
 REUTER

Finland's national oil company Neste Oy
<NEOY.HE> said in a statement it had agreed with Canadian firms
to study the feasibility of building a plant in Edmonton,
Canada, to produce a replacement for lead in petrol.
    The prospective plant would cost an estimated 270 mln
Canadian dlrs and would produce methyl tertiary butyl ether
(MTBE) from raw materials available locally, it said.
    The partners in the study are Neste Oy, Celanese Canada
Inc, Hoechst Celanese Corporation and Trade Mountain Pipe Line
Company Ltd, of Vancouver, B.C.
    The Edmonton site was suitable because of the raw materials
availability, the proximity to pipeline transportation and the
important capital and operating advantages gained by locating
on an existing Celanese Canada site, the statement said.
    The partners would look into the feasibility of a plant
producing 500,000 tonnes per annum of MTBE, an octane enhancer
that can replace tetra ethyl lead.
    Most of the MTBE would be targeted for the United States
where lead levels in gasoline are being lowered because of
health concerns, the statement added.
    Canadian lead limits are currently 11 times as high as the
U.S. Limit but lead is scheduled for virtual elimination in
Canada by 1993, which should create a Canadian demand for MTBE,
it said.
    Finland's Neste Oy, whose turnover last year was over five
billion dlrs, has extensive experience with MTBE. It has a
major investment in an MTBE plant in Saudi Arabia.
    The Edmonton, Alberta plant would be scheduled to go on
stream in late 1989, the statement said.
 REUTER

Talks between
employers and unions in the West German engineering industry
over pay and working hours broke down without result late last
night, an official from the IG-Metall union said.
    IG-Metall, Western Europe's largest union, is reviving its
campaign for a 35-hour working week and is demanding a five pct
pay increase. Strikes for a 35-hour week in 1984 brought West
Germany's automobile industry virtually to a standstill.
    The result of the 1984 campaign was a compromise reduction
in working hours to 38.5 from 40.
    The talks which broke down yesterday were in the key North
Wuerttemberg/North Baden area, which generally sets the trend
for the rest of the country.
    IG-Metall official Ernst Eisenmann, speaking last night,
blamed the failure of the negotiations on the employers. He
said they had been uncompromising on the question of the
shorter week.
    Hans-Peter Stihl, negotiating for the employers, said any
plan to reduce working hours gradually to 35 hours was
unacceptable. 
    The employers have not made an official offer on cutting
the working week, but sources involved in the negotiations say
that they are working on the basis of a possible half-hour
reduction from next year and a pay increase of 2.7 pct in 1987
and of 1.5 pct in 1988.
    The Union will propose that the negotiations be officially
declared a failure and then a process of arbitration is likely.
    IG-Metall has said that cutting the working week will
create jobs in West Germany where more than two mln people are
unemployed. IG-Metall itself has about 2.5 mln members.
    IG-Metall has already been staging a series of "warning
strikes" to press home demands for the 35-hour week.
    Yesterday, 23,000 engineering workers struck at 90 plants
for one to two hours, according to an IG-Metall statement.
    Among the strikers were 4,000 at a Daimler-Benz AG <DAIG.F>
plant in Bremen, and 3,100 at Ford Motor Co's <F> Ford-Werke AG
plant in Saarlouis.
 REUTER

<Whim Creek Consolidated NL> said the
consortium it is leading will pay 76.55 mln dlrs for the
acquisition of CRA Ltd's <CRAA.S> <Forrest Gold Pty Ltd> unit,
reported yesterday.
    CRA and Whim Creek did not disclose the price yesterday.
    Whim Creek will hold 44 pct of the consortium, while
<Austwhim Resources NL> will hold 27 pct and <Croesus Mining
NL> 29 pct, it said in a statement.
    As reported, Forrest Gold owns two mines in Western
Australia producing a combined 37,000 ounces of gold a year. It
also owns an undeveloped gold project.
 REUTER

Malaysia is launching a 100 mln Swiss
franc 5-3/4 pct 10-year notes issue priced at 100.2 pct, lead
manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    Payment date is expected to be April 22. Early redemption
is not allowed.
    Swiss Bank Corp said this is the first time Malaysia has
tapped the Swiss capital market since it issued a bond here in
July 1985.
 REUTER

The number of workers employed in
the West German industrial sector stagnated in the last quarter
of 1986 as a 50,000 increase in overall employment benefited
only the services branch, the DIW economic institute said.
    A DIW report added the general downturn in the economy
since last Autumn had had a negative effect on the willingness
of firms to take on workers. It referred to a marked downturn
in the number of workers taken on in the capital goods sector.
    New orders for manufacturing industry goods have mostly
fallen or stagnated in recent months, but data for February
finally showed a reversal of the trend, with a 1.9 pct rise.
 REUTER

Federal Realty Investment Trust is
issuing a 75 mln dlr convertible eurobond due April 30, 2002
paying an indicated coupon of 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 pct and priced at
par, lead manager Salomon Brothers International said.
    The issue has a put option after seven years which will be
priced to give the investor a yield in line with current seven
year U.S. Treasury bond. Final terms will be fixed on April 9.
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct. The issue is available in
 REUTER

The South Korean stock market seems to be
consolidating following government measures to cool its rapid
rise this year, domestic and foreign analysts said.
    The composite index hit a record 405.13 early last week,
nearly 50 pct up from the New Year when it stood at 264.82, but
plunged to a 383.48 close on April 3, the day after the
government intervened.
    Under the measures, industrial firms with bank loans worth
50 billion won or more must either offer new shares or issue
convertible bonds to repay the loans.
    Securities houses will have to sell shares they are holding
if the volume exceeds 40 pct of their paid-in capital. The
ceiling for investment trust firms was fixed at 50 pct.
    South Korean firms have traditionally preferred obtaining
low interest bank loans -- the current rate is 10 pct -- to
issuing bonds at a higher rate or floating share issues with
the attendant dividend pressures and launch expenses.
    The Seoul Stock Exchange, with 355 listed stocks, grew
explosively in the first three months of the year, building on
an already impressive 68.9 pct gain in 1986.
    Analysts now expect the market to pause temporarily and
then resume its upward movement, despite the indirect
government regulation.
    They said the continuous growth of the nation's gross
national product (GNP) and trade surplus, improved exports and
good performances by industrial firms all fuelled the boom.
    The trade surplus widened to 460 mln dlrs in March from 110
mln in February, while government economists expect GNP to grow
nine pct this year.
    Analysts said the deep slump in the real estate market also
increased liquidity in the stock market.
    "Many investors are still confident the market will not lose
its strength. It seems likely to pause for a while and then
rebound again," said Park Sin-bom, a director of Lucky
Securities Co.
    "There are more positive factors than negative. The market
is still buoyed by ample liquidity thanks to the economy's
strong performance."
    The stock market began to recover during Saturday's
half-day session with the index closing at 397.24 in active
trading on Monday, but closed lower on Tuesday at 390.24 on
turnover of 76 billion won.
    "I would say the market is flat for the time being.... It is
very prone to profit-taking after the sharp gains in the first
three months and the various government measures," a foreign
analyst said.
    "But the market will head up again after a rest because the
fundamentals are expected to rise and investors will be as
bullish as ever at the slightest sign of a market recovery."
    He added that the newly launched 30 mln dlr Korea Europe
Fund would have an impact on the South Korean stock market,
despite its small volume compared with the 5.72 trillion won of
listed capital on the Seoul exchange.
    Local dealers recommend blue chips and financial shares as
these stand to benefit most from continuing trade friction
between the United States and Japan and the rumoured
restructuring of local finance houses.
    Dealers also cite the shares of domestically oriented
firms, which are less vulnerable to the effects of the gradual
appreciation of the won.
 REUTER

Malaysia has decided to postone
development of a five billion dlr hydroelectric power project
in Sarawak, East Malaysia, until the economy improves, deputy
Minister of Energy, Telecoms and Post Zainal Abidin Zin said.
    He told reporters a shortage of funds forced the government
to shelve the project, which involved building several dams and
a 20,000 megawatt capacity undersea cable.
    Malaysia originally planned to export electricity generated
by the project to Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia by 2000 if
the project could be started before 1996, Zainal said.
 REUTER

The Province of Quebec is issuing a 30
billion yen eurobond due May 7, 1997 paying five pct and priced
at 102-1/2 pct, lead manager Bank of Tokyo International Ltd
said.
    The payment date is May 7.
 REUTER

Bowater Industries Plc <BWTR.L> 1986
pretax profits of 48.0 mln stg exceeded market expectations of
around 40 mln and pushed the company's shares up sharply to a
high of 491p from 468p last night, dealers said.
    The shares later eased back to 481p. Bowater reported a
32.4 mln stg profit in 1985.
    The company said in a statement accompanying the results
that the underlying trend showed improvement and it intended to
expand further by developing existing businesses and seeking
new opportunities.
    It added that it had appointed David Lyon, currently
managing director of Redland Plc <RDLD.L> as its new chief
executive.
    Analysts noted that Bowater's profits of 18.9 mln stg from
13.2 mln previously had been given a boost by pension benefits
of 4.5 mln stg.
    Profit from Australia and the Far East showed the greatest
percentage rise, jumping 55.0 pct to 15.5 mln from 10.0 mln,
while the profit from U.K. Operations rose 30.7 pct to 24.7
mln, and Europe, 42.9 pct to 11.0 mln.
 REUTER

Citibank A/S <CCI.N>, the Norwegian
subsidiary of the U.S.-based bank, said it made a net loss of
just over six mln crowns in 1986 -- although foreign bankers
said they expect it to show 1987 profits after two lean years.
    Citibank's Oslo treasury head Bjoern Sejerstad told
Reuters, Citibank, one of seven foreign bank subsidiaries
operating in Norway, lost money because of restructuring for
investment banking away from commercial banking and an economic
slump in Norway following last year's plunge in oil prices.
    Foreign banks have been allowed to operate susbidiaries in
Norway since 1985.
    Foreign banking analysts in Oslo said access to Norway's
second-hand securities and equities markets, to be approved
later this spring, and lower primary reserve requirements would
make profit this year.
    Citibank lost 490,000 crowns in Norway in 1985, but
Sejerstad said a profit was likely this year because of planned
liberalisation and better economic performance, helped by a
steadier oil price of around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    Earlier this year, Chase Manhattan Bank's <CMB.N>
subsidiary decided to stop foreign exchange trading after heavy
losses and focus instead on fee-based merchant banking.
 REUTER

The economic package unveiled yesterday by
the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) marks the start of a
major shift away from the policies of the past, private
economists and government officials said.
    "A big step forward has been taken," said Industrial Bank of
Japan Ltd senior economist Susumu Taketomi.
    The package, seen as a response to mounting overseas
pressure to boost the sagging Japanese economy, calls for a
supplementary budget of more than 5,000 billion yen later this
year, plus increased imports.
    Although the measures must still gain the approval of the
Finance Ministry, economists said the government will find it
too difficult to alter the measures significantly once they
have gained domestic and overseas backing.
    "At last, the LDP and the Ministry of Finance are turning a
corner," said Sumitomo Bank Ltd's chief economist Masahiko
Koido.
    For the past five years the government has adhered to a
tight fiscal policy in its drive to stop issuing deficit
financing bonds in 1990.
    To meet that goal, spending departments are required to
submit annual budgets for current expenditure 10 pct below the
previous year and investment five pct below.
    Masayoshi Ito, chairman of the LDP's policy affairs
council, said yesterday the government must stick to its 1990
fiscal reform target, but should review the ceiling it places
on public works spending.
    Even some Finance Ministry officials privately acknowledge
that policy changes might be needed, including easing the
government's iron grip on spending.
    Economists said the government could meet its 1990 target
and also increase spending by using money it got from the sale
of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp shares and by taking
advantage of lower than expected interest rates on its debt.
Officially, the Finance Ministry is adhering to its tight
stance but some signs of change have appeared.
    "We do not have any intention of abandoning our objective to
restore fiscal balance," a Finance Ministry spokesman said.
    He said so far the ministry had tried to achieve two goals
simultaneously. These were reforming the government's fiscal
position and stimulating domestic demand.
    But the Finance Ministry spokesman added, "In looking at the
current situation of the economy and the relationship between
Japan and the United States, we feel we have to place more
emphasis on stimulating demand."
    Economists predict battles within the government over the
coming months as the Finance Ministry fights to ensure the
cracks in its policy do not lead to a complete breakdown of
fiscal discipline.
    "The Ministry is afraid that once there is a small hole in
the dike, it will lead to a flood," Industrial Bank's Taketomi
said.
    But Taketomi said the ministry, provided it has a device in
place to check excess spending for political reasons, is likely
to give the go-ahead to a shift in policy.
    "This seems to mark the first step toward a more active
fiscal policy in response to requests from the international
community," he said.
    Sumitomo's Koido said if the government quickly implements
the LDP's 5,000 billion yen package, economic growth in the
1987/88 year ending next March 31 could be around three pct,
His current forecast of 2.2 pct growth assumes a supplementary
budget of around 1,000 billion yen.
 REUTER

A sharp fall in the dollar price of
zinc and the depreciation of the U.S. Currency created
unfavourable economic conditions for Vieille Montagne SA
<VMNB.BR> in 1986.
    It said in a statement that the two factors led to a
squeeze on refining margins and an 18.24 pct fall in sales and
services income despite an unchanged level of activity.
    Vieille Montagne, which is actively pursuing a
restructuring program, reported a 198 mln franc net loss, after
187 mln francs in provisions for the closure of an electrolysis
plant, compared with a 250 mln franc net profit in 1985.
 REUTER

1986 Year
    Net loss after exceptional charges 198 mln francs vs profit
    250 mln
    Exceptional provisions for closure of Viviez electrolysis
    Plant 187 mln francs vs exceptional gain 22 mln
    Sales and services 16.51 billion francs vs 20.20 billion
    Proposed net dividend on ordinary shares nil vs 110 francs
    Company's full name is Vieille Montagne SA <VMNB.BR>.
 REUTER

European Community (EC) members of the
International Tin Council, except Britain, have said they are
prepared to back an extension of the International Tin
Agreement, an EC spokesman said.
    He said at a meeting of EC states' representatives here
yesterday, Britain undertook to communicate its own decision to
its partners today. It said it was not ready yesterday to take
a stand but did not say why.
    He added nine other EC states backed an extension. Spain
and Portugal, which are not members of the International Tin
Council, raised no objections to a common EC stance in favour.
 REUTER

The five-nation <International Aero
Engine> (IAE) consortium has decided not to go ahead with the
proposed launch of its Superfan engine, a spokesman for
consortium member <Rolls-Royce Plc> said.
    He said a group board meeting had concluded that a launch
would have been premature given the risks involved in trying to
meet an availability date of Spring, 1992 required by airlines.
    However, he added that the project had not been cancelled
and could be offered later on.
    The engine was originally proposed for fitting on the
<Airbus Industrie> A340.
    IAE's members are Rolls, United Technologies Corp's <UTX.N>
Pratt and Whitney, Fiat SpA <FIAT.MI> <Japanese Aero Engines
Corp> and <MTU> of West Germany.
    Airbus said this week it would switch to the Franco-U.S.
CFM-56-S3 alternative because of doubts whether the Superfan
would be ready on time.
    Rolls, which has been state-owned since 1971, launches its
"pathfinder" prospectus giving preliminary details of its public
flotation later today.
    Analysts said that the timing of the postponement of
Superfan -- an 30,000 pound thrust upgrade of the consortium's
V2500 engine fitted to the A320 -- was embarrassing but should
not be considered a serious blow. If anything, it indicated the
financial prudence of the group, one added.
    The Rolls spokesman added that the decision did not affect
the V2500 programme itself. Equally, there was the possibility
that the consortium would go ahead with the Superfan later on.
    Rolls RB211 engine was not available for fitting to early
versions of the Boeing Co <BA.N> 747 but had since captured
about 25 pct of the market, he noted.
 REUTER

Japan and Britain have signed a memorandum
on exchange of securities market information to protect
investors and promote the integrity of securities markets,
Finance Ministry officials said.
    As interaction between Japanese and U.K. Securities markets
grows, it is desirable for both countries to exchange
supervisory and investigatory information to assist each other
in securing compliance with their statutes, rules and
requirements, the memorandum said.
    The ministry's securities bureau has a similar arrangement
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
 REUTER

Deputy prime minister Kim Mahn-je said
South Korea is studying various measures to reform what he
described as its underdeveloped bank and financial sector.
    Kim, who is also economic planning minister, told a news
conference the country's banks and finance houses had not
developed to keep pace with their industrial counterparts.
    He said two major factors had hampered the development of
the financial sector -- high inflation and heavy government
intervention in bank decision-making.
    He said in the past the government had pressed banks to
give soft loans to industry to boost economic growth.
    Kim said the government would now give top priority to
interest rate liberalisation. This could be achieved within
several years, though not within one year.
    He said liberalisation was possible because South Korea's
current account had turned from a deficit to a surplus, which
had brought in foreign funds and increased domestic savings.
    The current account recorded a surplus of 4.65 billion dlrs
in 1986 after a deficit of 890 mln dlrs in 1985.
    But Kim said the government needed to reorganise much of
the financial sector.
    Kim said mergers of some financial companies and the
upgrading of others to merchant banks or full banks were being
considered by the financial development committee of the
finance ministry. He did not elaborate but said he expected no
drastic measures to be announced this year.
    On liberalisation of the country's stock market, Kim said
despite Seoul's determination to open it up, free investments
there by foreigners would not be allowed in the near future
because the market was currently "over-heated." He said this was
due to ample liquidity created partly by the country's current
account surplus.
    Kim said the market was extremely vulnerable to a sudden
influx of foreign funds because it was still very small in
terms of size and numbers of shareholders.
    "Opening up the capital market must wait until the
vulnerability to such an influx is removed," he said.
    He said only about one mln South Koreans, out of a
population of 40 mln, invest in the Seoul market.
 REUTER

A top U.S. Official said Japan has little
chance of convincing the U.S. To drop threatened trade
sanctions, despite the efforts of a Japanese team that left for
Washington today.
    Michael Armacost, Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs, was asked at a press conference whether Japan's moves
to boost its domestic economy and open its markets could
persuade the U.S. Not to impose tariffs on Japanese imports
said, and replied: "...It is probably too early for the figures
to demonstrate that the situation has turned around and to
permit the result you have described."
    Armacost said the U.S. Hopes Japan will take steps to lift
its domestic economy and reduce dependence on exports, remove
barriers to imports and settle outstanding trade issues.
    "There are obvious problems at the moment in the trade area,
but we do not wish those problems to divert attention from
important areas of cooperation that continue to exist on
security and political issues," he said.
    "The question is whether through cooperative actions between
our governments we can reduce the (trade) imbalance or whether
Congress takes action to reduce it through protectionist
legislation," he said.
 REUTER

Thai zinc ingot exports fell to 882
tonnes in March from 1,764 in February and 3,008 in March 1986,
the Mineral Resources Department said.
    A spokesman for Padaeng Industry Co Ltd, the country's sole
exporter, attributed the decline to the company's lower stocks,
which averaged 5,000 tonnes in the first quarter against 16,000
tonnes in late 1985 when it began exporting.
    The department said major buyers included China, Japan, the
Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
    Thailand exported 4,842 tonnes of zinc ingots during the
first quarter, down from 14,937 a year ago.
 REUTER

The ministries of Finance and Justice
said they have presented parliament with a new law to make
insider trading in shares a criminal offence.
    A year ago, the Amsterdam Bourse announced its own rules,
effective from January 1, 1987, aimed at preventing unfair use
of inside information in the trading shares listed on the
exchange, but said back-up legislation was essential.
    The proposed law calls for up to two years imprisonment,
fines of up to 100,000 guilders for an individual and one
million guilders for a company, and repayment to the state of
profits made from insider dealing.
    The proposed fines are higher than any currently in force
in Dutch law, a joint statement from the two ministries said.
    The draft law sets no limit to the illegal profits to be
repaid. The amount would be determined by a court.
    A Finance Ministry spokesman said the time-frame for the
introduction of the new legislation depended entirely on its
reception in Parliament.
    In the meantime the Bourse's Share Trading Association
monitors business closely, frequently suspending or even
rescinding dealings in a stock when price movements suggest
that foreknowledge of a pending announcement is being
exploited.
 REUTER

Dansk Naturgas A/S is issuing a 10
billion yen eurobond due May 13, 1993 paying 4-5/8 pct and
priced at 101-5/8 pct, lead manager IBJ International Ltd said.
combined pays 5/8 pct. The issue is guaranteed by Denmark.
    The payment date is May 13.
 REUTER

The outcome of today's European Community
(EC) white sugar tender is extremely difficult to predict after
last week's substantial award of 102,350 tonnes at the highest
ever rebate of 46.864 European currency units (Ecus) per 100
kilos, traders said.
    Some said they believed the tonnage would probably be
smaller, at around 60,000 tonnes, but declined to give a view
on the likely restitution. Last week, the European Commission
accepted 785,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention by operators
protesting about low rebates. This might be a determining
factor in today's result, they added.
 REUTER

North Yemen has called a buying tender
for Saturday for the purchase of 30,000 tonnes of white sugar
for arrival in June, traders said.
 REUTER

The Japanese Finance Ministry said it
plans to hold formal financial talks with France on April 17 in
Tokyo, the second such meeting after a first session in May
last year. The agenda has not yet been decided.
    The Japanese side will be headed by Toyoo Gyohten, Vice
Finance Minister for International Affairs, while the French
delegation will include Daniel Lebegue, Director General of the
Treasury.
 REUTER

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc <BUD.N> has
joined several other foreign bidders for sequestered shares of
the Philippines' largest food and beverage maker San Miguel
Corp <SANM.MN>, the head of a government panel which controls
the shares told Reuters.
    Ramon Diaz, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG), said Anheuser-Busch had told the
government it was interested in buying 14 mln "B" shares of San
Miguel. He did not disclose the offered price.
    Diaz said Australian brewer Alan Bond's Bond Corp Holdings
Ltd had offered 150 pesos per share for the "B" shares.
    Diaz said New York investment bank Allen and Co Inc had
earlier said it was interested in buying all 38.1 mln
sequestered shares. He told Reuters last month Elders IXL Ltd
<ELXA.S>, the Melbourne-based brewing company, had also bid for
the "B" shares.
    The Hong Kong Economic Journal last month quoted a
spokesman of Australian stock broker Jacksons Ltd as saying
that <Barwon Farmlands Ltd>, an Australian firm owned 30 pct by
<Ariadne Australia Ltd>, was planning a Filipino branch in
order to buy the entire block of 38.1 mln shares.
    Anheuser-Busch last year made a 150 mln dlr bid to buy <San
Miguel Brewery Ltd>, a Hong Kong listed company which is 69.65
pct owned by <Neptunia Corp Ltd>, a San Miguel Corp subsidiary.
    The talks broke down last June after the two sides said
they could not agree on the terms of the sale.
 REUTER

The People's Construction Bank of
China is launching its first international borrowing by
mandating four foreign banks for a 150 mln U.S. Dlr loan, one
of the lead managers Banque Indosuez said.
    The other three lead managers are Bank of Tokyo, Citicorp
International Ltd and the Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd.
    The 10 year loan has a 4-1/2 year grace period. Interest is
set at 1/8 percentage point over London interbank offered rate
for the first eight years, rising to 1/4 pct for the remaining
two years. There is a 3/16 pct management fee and an
unspecified, but very small, commitment fee.
    Syndication of the loan is expected to start soon and it
should be signed in Shanghai next month.
    The Construction Bank, which is one of four specialist
banks in China, focuses on infrastructure and heavy industrial
projects.
    The funds raised will partly finance two ethylene factories
near Shanghai. Construction of the plants, which are a major
item in the current five year plan, will begin soon.
    The plants will cost more than 300 mln dlrs. The remainder
of the funds will come from export credits and domestic
borrowings.
 REUTER

Australian markets are booming as foreign
fund managers redirect capital away from the United States and
other traditional markets, analysts said.
    High short-term interest rates, a bullish stock market and
an increasingly stable currency reflect a massive inflow of
fresh funds in the last two months, largely from Japanese and
U.S. Investors, analysts polled by Reuters said.
    Fund managers want quality markets to park their cash in
and have settled on Australia, Britain and Canada as they
diversify from volatile U.S. Dollar instruments, they said.
    A one percentage point fall in key 10-year bonds rates in
the past month, record share prices and a 10-month high for the
currency of 0.71 U.S. Dlrs all illustrated the inflow.
    Official figures on the latest inflow of investment capital
are not available, but brokers said they received almost daily
inquiries from Japan and the United States.
    "These people have got trillions of dollars sloshing about
and they don't know what to do with it. Some of that is ending
up here with the attraction of high interest rates and
reasonable currency stability," National Australia Bank Ltd
economist Brian Hamley said.
    "There is a 'flight to quality'," Hamley said. "Australia may
not be in the best (economic) position, but there aren't too
many other countries where you'd want to put your money."
    The stronger Australian dollar was also attracting
investors taking advantage of an appreciating currency against
the volatility of the U.S. Unit, analysts said.
    "We're looking a more favoured market than perhaps the U.S.
Where some people would be concerned about the value of the
U.S. Dollar," Lloyds Bank NZA Ltd chief economist Will Buttrose
said. "Why not put the money in Australia where entry is cheap
and the currency looks stable?"
    But turning that capital into more permanent productive
investment depends on government economic policy, he said.
    "It will only disappear if people lose confidence in the
direction in the economy," Buttrose said, adding that offshore
investors would carefully watch the government's promised tough
economic statement on May 14.
    While happy to invest in bonds and other vehicles yielding
interest unobtainable elsewhere, fund managers could just as
easily reverse the flow -- particularly the Japanese, who were
badly hurt in the past by rapid falls in the Australian dollar
and hefty jumps in bond rates, analysts said.
    "It will remain very edgy money. If something was not to be
delivered, if the statement wasn't considered tough enough, one
might see a substantial outflow," Buttrose said.
    Offshore investors are eager to see Australia take tough
economic decisions to curb its 100 billion dlr foreign debt and
stubborn current account deficit, analysts said.
    "They are giving us the benefit of the doubt and I think
they would like to leave the money here," Buttrose said.
    Reserve Bank policy has also reflected the increased
interest in investment in Australia and the need to shield
Japanese investors from rapid currency fluctuations.
    Reserve Governor Bob Johnston last week acknowledged an
element of targeting the rate against the yen in currency
policy when he said authorities could not take their "eyes off
the yen" because of the crucial role of Japanese investors.
    Analysts said they believed the Reserve Bank had worked
successfully in recent months to keep the Australian dollar
within the range of 100 to 103 yen.
    Apart from its recovery against a weak U.S. Dollar, the
Australian dollar has also risen almost three pct on a
trade-weighted basis in the last three weeks.
    Offshore buying has also played a role in the booming
Australian share market. It has followed Wall Street and other
markets, but is also setting its own trend in response to the
weight of both domestic and offshore funds pouring into
equities, particularly in the gold sector.
    The key all ordinaries index rose to a record 1,758.3
today, nearly 20 pct above its level at the end of 1986, while
the gold index has nearly doubled to a record 3,081.0 in the
same period.
    The property sector is also sought after, with Japanese
companies that have invested heavily in the United States in
recent years turning their attention to undervalued real
estate, particularly in the tourism field.
    Analysts pointed to the recent sale of Sydney's five-star
Regent Hotel to Japanese interests for more than 145 mln dlrs
as indicative of the type of property being sought.
    "They think they find good value real estate here which,
with long term and fixed capital investment, is the kind of
investment Australia needs," Buttrose added.
 REUTER

Kuwait's oil-reliant and debt-ridden
economy has started to pull out of a nosedive but oil prices
will determine the pace of recovery, bankers and economists
say.
    Crucial will be the ability of the 13-member OPEC to hold
oil prices around a new benchmark of 18 dlrs a barrel in the
northern hemisphere summer when demand usually slackens.
    Bankers estimate the economy, measured in terms of gross
domestic product (gdp), shrank 19 pct in real terms last year
after contracting 8.1 pct the year before.
    This was after taking into account inflation in consumer
prices of 1.5 pct in 1985, slowing to 1.0 pct in 1986.
    Factors depressing economic activity include the
6-1/2-year-old Iran-Iraq war on Kuwait's doorstep, which
threatens the emirate's vital oil export lifeline through the
Gulf and has sapped business confidence.
    But sentiment received a much-needed boost in September
when, after a series of piecemeal steps to combat a debt crisis
caused by the 1982 crash of local stock market, a comprehensive
new debt settlement program was introduced.
    The share crash, result of a speculative spree in forward
trading, left 95 billion dlrs of post-dated cheques in default.
    The cheques were also used as collateral for consumer
spending, thus generating an informal credit system.
    Much of the debt has been watered down but big sums are
still owed by individuals and companies.
    There was some 4.4 billion dinars (about 15.7 billion dlrs)
in outstanding bank credit at the end of 1986, of which
one-quarter to one-third was estimated by bankers to rank as
bad or doubtful debt. But the government has repeatedly said it
will not allow any banks to go under.
    The new debt settlement scheme entails a rescheduling of
problem credit over 10 to 15 years, depending on whether
debtors have regular cash flows or not.
    Banks' shareholders and depositors will have their rights
guaranteed by the government -- an edict of vital significance
in a country of only 1.7 mln people where the financial sector
is the biggest after oil.
    Kuwait is better placed than any other OPEC country to ride
out the oil glut, bankers and economists say.
    Kuwait has an OPEC quota of 948,000 barrels per day (bpd)
compared with production capacity of 4.0 mln bpd mentioned last
year by Oil Minister Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah.
    But strategic diversification into downstream operations in
Europe several years ago and a hefty refining investment at
home gives it guaranteed markets abroad and enables it to sell
over one-half of its output as high-grade refined oil products.
    Oil industry sources say Kuwait is able to get an average
2.00 dlrs a barrel more by selling oil in the form of processed
product such as gas oil, kerosene and naphtha, rather than as
crude.
    Bankers say the rebound in oil prices is the major reason
for cautious optimism. Other reasons are low domestic
inflation, a bottoming out of the fall in imports in recent
years and signs government spending on productive sectors will
remain steady.
    External accounts are in good shape, with an estimated 1.8
billion dinar current account surplus in 1986, 16 pct below
that for 1985, but still an achievement in the recession-hit
Gulf.
    Kuwait's petrodollar reserves in mid-1986 were put
officially at over 80 billion dlrs, earning investment income
of the equivalent of about 3.65 billion dlrs a year.
    But for the first time since the end of the oil boom, these
reserves may not be enough to prevent a "real" budget deficit for
the 1986/87 fiscal year ending June 30, bankers say.
    In a budget portrayed by bankers as mildly contractionary,
revenues for 1986/87 were cut 38.6 pct and spending 11 pct,
doubling the nominal deficit to 1.33 billion dinars.
    This left out income from state reserves, usually excluded
in official budget accounting, which are forecast by bankers at
up to 1.0 billion dinars in 1986/87, resulting in some
shortfall.
    Bankers say it is too early to venture a forecast for
economic growth this year or next.
    "It depends on oil prices," one said. "This summer is
    Cabinet Affairs Minister Rashid al-Rashid said last Sunday
the cabinet has ratified recommendations to rationalise state
spending in favour of productive sectors and reactivate the
economy.
    He gave no details but bankers say these are expected to be
spelled out in the 1987/88 budget, possibly in June.
 REUTER

Malaysia is unlikely to meet its
targeted output of five mln tonnes of oil palm in calendar
1987, oil palm growers told Reuters.
    Output in 1987 is expected to reach around 4.5 mln tonnes,
unchanged from 1986, because of drought, low use of fertiliser
and overstressed palms, they said.
    The growers were asked for their reaction to an Oil World
newsletter report that Malaysia's oil palm output is likely to
drop sharply this year.
    Palm oil now sells at around 700 ringgit a tonne, or about
115 ringgit less than soybean oil, but Malaysia must sell more
palm oil to prevent a stock buildup that could damage the
industry, a leading grower told Reuters.
    The country's palm oil stocks now total some 500,000 tonnes
against about 800,000 last March, the growers said.
    The growers expect palm oil prices to ease later this year
due to pressure from South American and U.S. Soybean output.
    The current South American oilseed harvest, mainly soybean,
is likely to be around 25.7 mln tonnes against the previous
21.7 mln tonne crop, they said.
    In addition, new U.S. Soybean plantings are also expected
to enter the market around November when Malaysian palm oil
output peaks.
    They said new planting of palms is also likely to slow,
with some 50,000 hectares expected to be planted with new trees
against 100,000 in 1986, although the effects of this reduction
will not be felt for about another three years.
 REUTER

Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> plans to float
off the around 5,000 public houses belonging to its U.K.
Subsidiary Courage Ltd to raise about one billion stg, Elders
strategy executive director Stuart Kelso said.
    The scheme, subject of speculation in a Scottish newspaper
yesterday, was fairly well advanced, but not certain to go
ahead. "There could be road blocks," he added.
    The earliest flotation date would be June, though the sale
will probably be later. Elders would retain a one-third
interest in the property interests under the current plan.
    No immediate use has been earmarked for the funds raised.
    Kelso said float plans currently include an offering of
debentures to institutional investors and issues of ordinary
shares and convertible stock for sale to the public.
    Elders bought Courage from Hanson Trust Plc <HNSN.L> last
year for 1.4 mln stg. The deal followed Elders' unsuccessful
efforts to expand into the U.K. Drinks industry by acquiring
Allied-Lyons Plc <ALLD.L>.
    Hanson acquired Courage when it took over Imperial Group
Plc early last year. The Elders plan to raise funds from
Courage is a variant of the its earlier scheme to sell off 50
pct stakes in the Allied-Lyons pubs to their publicans, market
 REUTER

Freeport McMoran Inc <FTX.N>, a New York
listed New Orleans-based natural resource, oil and gas company,
is planning to build and run a surface sulphur mine in the
central Philippines, a company statement said.
    It said Freeport officials were in the Philippines to
discuss contractual arrangements with joint venture partner
<International Consultex (Philippines) Inc>.
    The statement quoted Robert Foster, president of Freeport
Sulphur Co, as saying the company was optimistic about the
proposed mine at Pamplona in Negros Oriental province, as well
as the country's investment climate.
    "The sulphur project will involve initial capital
expenditures of between 50 and 100 mln dlrs depending upon the
processing technology and the capacity of the project," Foster
said. "We anticipate that the project may employ as many as
1,000 workers in Negros Oriental."
    Freeport-McMoran's senior vice-president Rene Latiolais
said the company was also interested in gold and other precious
metals and geo-thermal energy development in the Philippines.
    The statement said Freeport, which anticipates 1987 sales
of 1.5 billion dlrs, is a major producer of sulphur, phosphate
and nitrogen fertilisers, uranium oxide and geo-thermal energy.
 REUTER

A Bank of Japan spokesman declined to
comment on a press report that the central bank had decided to
conduct closer scrutiny of the operations of financial
institutions in the bond market.
    The JIJI Press news agency had quoted Bank of Japan sources
as telling Japanese reporters the bank was deeply concerned
over potential risk in yen bond trading because the market had
risen too fast.
    However, JIJI quoted the sources as saying, the central
bank would not take such actions as guiding interest rates
higher.
    JIJI quoted the sources as saying that current bond market
yields are similar to short-term interest rates due to
excessive speculative operations.
    This was attributable to heavy redemptions of government
bonds and unclear prospects for the dollar, which has sent many
foreign bond market participants to the domestic market, the
sources were quoted as saying.
 REUTER

Mafina BV of Voorburg, a subsidiary of
Petrofina SA <PETB.BR>, is issuing a minimum 200 mln franc
seven year bond with warrants, paying two pct, lead manager
Credit Suisse said.
    The issue is guaranteed by the Belgian parent.
    The warrant exercise period is from May 1, 1987 until May
20, 1991. Each 5,000 franc note carries nine warrannts, each of
which entitles the holder to buy one share in the company at
10,800 Belgian francs each.
    Payment is due April 30.
 REUTER

Hokuriku Electric Industry is issuing a
35 mln dlr equity warrant bond due May 7, 1992 paying an
    The issue is guaranteed by Hokuriku Bank Ltd. The selling
combined pays 3/4 pct. Final terms are due April 16.
    The payment date is May 7 and the issue is available in
denominations of 5,000 dlrs. Listing will be in Luxembourg.
 REUTER

Saitama Bank Ltd is issuing 100 mln Swiss
francs of convertible notes due September 30, 1992, paying an
indicated 1-1/4 pct, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
    Terms will be set on April 15 with payment due May 6.
18, 1992.
 REUTER

JARDINE MATHESON SAID IT SETS TWO-FOR-FIVE BONUS ISSUE REPLACING "B" SHARES

Diversified building materials group
Monier Ltd <MNRA.S> said talks are taking place which may lead
to Britain's Redland Plc <RDLD.L> making an offer for the
Monier shares it does not already hold, chairman Bill Locke
said.
    Redland already holds about 49 pct of Monier's 156.28 mln
issued shares, he said in a brief notice to the Australian
    Locke said shareholders would be advised as soon as the
discussions progressed and recommended that they keep their
shares.
    Monier shares were trading at a 1987 high of 3.10 dlrs
today, up from the previous peak of 2.80 at yesterday's close,
and well above the 1987 low of 2.18 dlrs.
    Monier is the largest concrete roof tile manufacturer in
Australia, the U.S. And New Zealand and the world's largest
marketer of fly ash, according to its annual report for 1985/86
ended June 30.
    It recently reported first-half 1986/87 net fell to 15.02
mln dlrs from 17.09 mln a year earlier due to the Australian
housing downturn, although foreign earnings rose.
 REUTER

Isuzu Motor Ltd <ISUM.T> will pay no
dividend for the first half year ending April 30, 1987, as the
company is expected to mark a 12 billion yen parent company
current loss in the first half due to slow exports caused by
the yen's appreciation, a company spokesman said.
    The company has paid no dividend since the year ended
October 31, 1983, when it paid five yen.
    It had a 4.44 billion yen current profit in the first half
of 1985/86.
 REUTER

Norway will from June require finance
institutions and insurance companies to report lending volume
to the central bank once a month rather than quarterly in a bid
to tighten domestic lending, Finance Ministry officials said.
    Norwegian Bank Association President Trond Reinertsen told
Reuters the new rule would make it more difficult for banks to
transfer funds to financial and insurance companies for
lending.
    Banks have in the past used the two month lapse in loan
registration to transfer money for lending to finance and
insurance groups to avoid penalty reserve requirements for
lending in excess of government set ceilings.
    The new rule brings loan reporting requirements for
insurance and finance companies in line with those already
applied to commercial banks, Ministry officials said.
    Borrowers have increasingly sought loans from finance and
insurance companies after the central bank last year clamped
down on what it called excessive bank lending.
    Bank lending dropped by five billion crowns in January from
260 billion crowns the previous month in response to the
stricter penalty reserve requirements, Oslo bankers said.
    They said recent central bank cuts in the overnight rate it
charges banks might offset new pressure on interest rates.
 REUTER

The Bell Group Ltd <BLLA.S> said it now
holds 14.9 pct of the issued capital of Standard Chartered Plc
<STCH.L> after acquiring further shares.
    The one-sentence statement from Bell's headquarters
confirmed what its brokers Warburg Securities told Reuters in
London yesterday.
    Bell previously held 10 pct of Standard.
    Bell chairman Robert Holmes a Court, who is also a director
of Standard, was not available for comment on his company's
intentions in boosting its holding and other company officials
contacted here by Reuters declined to comment.
 REUTER

Nippon Steel Corp <NSTC.T> denied local
newspaper reports that China has been seeking to buy steel
plants from Japanese firms which plan to suspend output under
the recently announced rationalisation program.
    The Mainichi Shimbun quoted Nippon Steel as saying that
China's State Planning Commission and some Chinese firms have
asked Japanese makers to sell them steel works and rolling
mills to expand steelmaking cheaply. It named no sources.
    A Nippon Steel spokesman told Reuters that China has made
no such official request, and the company was not considering
such sales at the moment.
    But Mainichi quoted Nippon Steel officials as saying if
prices are reasonable, they would export their used mills to
China.
    The paper said China's crude steel output totalled 52 mln
tonnes in calendar 1986 and that it plans to increase to 80 mln
by 1996.
    Japan's steel industry rationalisation plan is aimed at
cutting production capacity sharply over the next few years.
 REUTER

February car production totalled 269,745
this year, up 27.2 pct on a year-on-year basis, the Automobile
Constructors' Association (CSCA) said.
    This brought total car output in the first two months of
the year to 504,266, a 14.1 pct year-on-year rise, it said.
 REUTER

<JARD.HK> said it will withdraw the previously announced
four-for-one bonus issue of "B" shares and replace it by a
two-for-five bonus issue of ordinary shares.
    A statement said the firm expects to pay total dividends
for 1987 of not less than 40 cents a share on the expanded
capital.
    Jardine Matheson decided to withdraw its issue because of a
joint announcement earlier today by Ronald Li, chairman of the
Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, and Securities Commissioner Ray
Astin, that the listings of new "B" shares would be barred.
    The official announcement said this will include the
proposal by Jardine Matheson.
    But the Jardine statement quoted chairman Simon Keswick as
saying: "We continue to believe that the issuing of "B" shares
would benefit shareholders, and regret that they will not be
given the opportunity to vote on the matter at this stage."
    Keswick said the "B" share issue will benefit Jardine
Matheson's shareholders by giving the firm flexibility to issue
ordinary shares for expansion in future without diluting
existing shareholders' voting rights.
    However, he added: "We certainly welcome (the Secretary for
Monetary Affairs) David Nendick's referral of this very
important matter to the Standing Committee on Company Law
Reform and are hopeful that the process will lead to the
development of general principles which can be embraced by all
constituents of the Hong Kong market."
 REUTER

chance of persuading the U.S. to drop threatened trade
 REUTER

Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir
Petrovsky said today Moscow felt "indignation and regret" at what
he called "truly hostile statements about the Soviet Union" made
by President Reagan.
    Reagan told reporters yesterday he was ordering a
high-level review of security at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow
following a sex-and-spy scandal there and said Soviet diplomats
would not be allowed to use a new embassy in Washington until
the U.S. Moscow mission was made secure.
    Petrovsky told reporters it was not accidental that
Washington had chosen this time, only a week before a scheduled
Moscow visit by U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, to make
accusations against the Soviet Union.
    Objective conditions existed for improving Soviet-U.S.
Relations. "But it seems that someone in Washington fails to
appreciate this process and tries to poison the atmosphere," he
said.
 Reuter

Fighting broke out between Palestinian
guerrillas and Shi'ite Moslem Amal militiamen near camps in
south lebanon as Syria prepared to extend its military presence
at Beirut's settlements.
    Security sources in the southern port of Sidon said the
clashes erupted in villages to the southeast between Amal and
guerrillas loyal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
    Syria stepped in yesterday to halt battles at two Beirut
refugee camps but Amal said it would only lift its siege after
Arafat withdrew his men from the villages near Sidon.
 Reuter

South Africa's economic recovery
has broadened as favourable terms of a three-year foreign debt
rescheduling accord have given confidence to local business,
Liberty Life Association of Africa Ltd said.
    The major life assurance company said in its first quarter
review that economic activity improved in 1986 with car and
retail sales clearly rising, adding that South Africa's
economic future had "brightened considerably."
    Liberty said pre-conditions existed for further growth in
1987 despite longer term structural problems.
    Short-term interest rates were unlikely to rise markedly in
the near future and unemployment levels were stabilising, the
    But the report cautioned that South Africa's economy still
faced high inflation and "extremely fragile" consumer and
business confidence which could be upset by political events.
    It also predicted the rand was likely to remain basically a
weak currency despite its nine pct rise in the first quarter to
49.55 U.S. Cts. REUTER

The first Malaysian investment fund
for foreign investors will be launched in the United States
market next month to raise between 60 to 69 mln dlrs, <Arab
Malaysian Merchant Bank Bhd> (AMBB) said.
    The fund, called <Malaysian Fund Inc>, will be jointly
sponsored by the merchant bank and the International Fund
Corporation of the World Bank, said AMBB in a statement.
    The two institutions, together with Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets <MER> and Morgan Stanley Inc <MS>, are underwriters for
the fund, it added.
    AMBB said its wholly-owned subsidiary <Arab Malaysian
Consultant> will be the fund's Malaysian investment adviser
while <Morgan Stanley Asset Management Inc> will manage it.
    It added that 80 pct of the money raised will be used to
invest in shares of Malaysian companies on the Kuala Lumpur
Stock Exchange and the remaining in unlisted shares.
    AMBB said the fund will expose the Malaysian market to US
and Japanese investors and help develop the local capital
market.
 REUTER

Inflation was by 8.8 pct in Indonesia
during fiscal 1986/87 to March 31, compared to 5.66 pct the
previous year, Information Minister Harmoko said after a
cabinet session to discuss the economic situation.
 REUTER

money market with 53 mln stg assistance in the morning session.
    This compares with the bank's estimate of a shortage in the
system of around 300 mln stg which it earlier revised up from
250 mln.
comprising 46 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct and seven mln
stg in band four at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

The coupon on the 25 mln dlr equity
warrant eurobond for Keihanshin Real Estate Co Ltd has been set
at 2-1/8 pct compared with the 2-1/4 pct indication, lead
    The exercise price has been set at 810 yen per share which
represents a premium of 2.53 pct over today's closing price of
790 yen. The exchange rate was set 146.30 yen to the dollar.
    The five-year deal is priced at par and guaranteed by the
Sumitomo Bank Ltd.
 REUTER

A bid by San Miguel Corp (SMC) <SANM.MN>
to buy back 38.1 mln sequestered shares from United Coconut
Planters Bank (UCPB) has been hit by two new lawsuits, sources
in the Philippine food and brewery company said.
    A Manila court yesterday issued an injunction barring UCPB
from selling the shares, which represent 31 pct of SMC's
outstanding capital stock of 121 mln shares, until hearings on
April 21 on a petition filed by Eduardo Cojuangco, a former
chairman of both SMC and UCPB.
    Cojuangco said the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF)
and 1.4 mln farmers were the rightful owners of the shares.
    Cojuangco said the shares were held in trust by UCPB and
represented a blue chip investment. His petition said UCPB's
plans to sell the shares to SMC were "a serious breach of
fiduciary duties."
    The SMC sources said the proposed share sale could also be
held up by a second derivative suit filed before the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Eduardo de los Angeles, a
government nominee on the company's board.
    De los Angeles, who represents SMC's minority stockholders,
asked the SEC to block the transaction, approved last week by
the company's board.
    On April 2 the board sanctioned the repurchase of the
sequestered shares for 4.79 billion pesos at 126 pesos per
share. De los Angeles told the SEC the company's retained
earnings of 1.33 billion pesos would be wiped out by the
purchase of the shares and would prevent the declaration of
    De los Angeles said the share purchase would also violate
an SMC agreement with its creditors to maintain a 2.2-to-1 debt
to equity ratio. He quoted SMC's chief financial director Ramon
del Rosario as telling the board that the transaction would
boost the ratio to 2.5-to-1.
    In petitioning the SEC, de los Angeles amended an earlier
suit two weeks ago in which he charged SMC Chairman Andres
Soriano III and nine other directors of violating their duties.
    De los Angeles' earlier complaint related to SMC assuming
last December a 26.5 mln dlr loan contracted by SMC's Hong Kong
subsidiary <Neptunia Corp> for a down payment on the shares.
The loan assumption was again ratified by last week's board
meeting.
    An arbitration panel set up by President Corazon Aquino to
resolve the ownership issue is expected to submit its report by
April 15.
    "The amended suit filed by Eduardo de los Angeles is part of
a continuing attempt by certain elements, in complete disregard
of the facts and with questionable motives, to delay an early
disposition of the sequestered shares," San Miguel Corp said in
    "Coming as it does, when San Miguel Corp and UCPB have
reached agreement on the price of the shares and the method of
payment, this suit is in direct contravention of the
government's expressed desire to reach an amicable settlement
of the controversy by April 15," the statement added.
    A San Miguel spokesman said he had no comment on
Cojuangco's court petition, adding: "Any statement coming from
us might be interpreted as adversarial."
    Meanwhile, Ramon Diaz, the head of a government panel which
sequestered the shares last year, said Soriano was not eligible
to buy the major portion of the shares because he was a United
States citizen.
    The sequestered shares are split into 24 mln "A" shares,
which can only be owned by Filipinos, and 14 mln "B" shares which
are available to foreign buyers.
    SMC sources said Soriano personally was not among
prospective buyers. They said the shares would be purchased by
the <A.Soriano> group of companies, SMC, Neptunia and unnamed
institutional investors. Soriano was named as one of the buyers
in a bid in March 1986 for 33 mln shares controlled by UCPB.
    The sale was aborted when Diaz's Presidential Commission on
Good Government sequestered the shares on suspicion they were
owned by Cojuangco, a close associate of former President
Ferdinand Marcos. Cojuangco lives in self-imposed exile in the
U.S.. The shares grew to 38.1 mln after a 15 pct stock dividend
announced last June.
    "We have no objection to Soriano buying the "B" shares," Diaz
told Reuters. "But everything is on hold now."
    The SMC spokesman said he did not know if the controversy
would be resolved before the company's annual stockholders'
meeting, scheduled for May 14.
    San Miguel Corp reported sales revenue of 12.2 billion
pesos in 1986, 11 pct above its 10.9 billion peso sales in
1985. It said unaudited net profit was in the neighbourhood of
700 mln pesos, an increase of about 50 pct over 1985.
 REUTER

Good rains of one to four inches in the
past 10 days have boosted moisture-stressed sugar cane crops in
the Mackay-Burdekin region of Queensland's central coast, an
Australian Sugar Producers' Association spokesman said.
    As previously reported, the region has been undergoing a
severe dry spell, partly relieved by scattered rainfall, since
December, following the virtual failure of the summer wet
season.
    Mills in the area have been reporting that their crops are
beginning to look healthy and greener and are putting on growth
since the rains began, the spokesman said from Brisbane.
    Although the Mackay-Burdekin crop outlook is much better
than it was, there will be some cane losses, the spokesman
said. But is too early to say what they will be and more rain
is needed to restore sub-soil moisture.
    Elsewhere, in far north Queensland, the Bundaberg region
and southern Queensland, the cane is in excellent condition and
some mills are forecasting record crops, he said.
    Initial 1987 crop estimates will probably be compiled
towards the end of May, he said.
    The cane crush normally runs from June to December.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) is expected to
award export licences at today's weekly tender for above 60,000
and possibly up to 100,000 tonnes of white sugar after last
week's award for 102,350 tonnes, traders here said.
    They expected a maximum rebate of between 46.40 and 46.50
Ecus per 100 kilos, compared to last week's 46.864.
    Earlier, traders in London said the outcome of the tender
was very hard to predict after last week's substantial award
and the placing of 785,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention.
They said they believed the tonnage would be around 60,000 but
declined to give a rebate figure.
 REUTER

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange will soon
open offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo to help boost Far Eastern
participation in foreign currency options before it starts
evening trading in four or five months time, exchange president
Nicholas Giordano told reporters.
    Japanese institutions are already major players in foreign
currency options traded in Philadelphia, using subsidiaries or
agents to trade during the current daytime session.
 REUTER

Thyssen AG <THYH.F> unit
Thyssen Guss AG, a metals group, said it had agreed to
cooperate with Canadian firm <Cercast Inc> to manufacture fine
casting products.
    Both companies would merge plants in the West German towns
of Soest and Moers under a new company in which the two groups
would have equal shares in a capital of three mln marks.
    A spokeswoman for Thyssen Industrie AG, which holds 100 pct
of Thyssen Guss, said the joint-venture should produce turnover
of an annual 40 mln marks. Thyssen Industrie is held 90 pct by
Thyssen AG.
 REUTER

Italian insurer La Fondiaria Spa <LFDI.MI>
said it expects to report consolidated group profit in 1986
significantly higher than the 60 billion lire reported in 1985.
    The company said in a statement that parent company net
profit last year will rise from the 72 billion lire reported in
1985. Consolidated group premiums totaled 1,700 billion lire in
1986 compared with 1,490 billion the previous year.
    Iniziativa Meta <INZI.MI>, the financial services unit of
Montedison Spa <MONI.MI>, controls the largest single stake in
Florence-based Fondiaria with 49.9 pct.
 REUTER

National Bank Mortgage Corp is issuing a
100 mln Canadian dlr eurobond due May 18, 1992 with a nine pct
coupon and priced at 101-3/4 pct, McLeod Young Weir
    The non-callable bonds will be guaranteed by the National
Bank of Canada. They will be issued in denominations of 1,000
and 10,000 dlrs and listed in Luxembourg.
    Gross fees of 1-7/8 pct comprise 1-1/4 pct for selling and
5/8 pct for management and underwriting combined. Pay date is
May 18. There will be two co-leads.
 REUTER

Nickel prices are unlikely to rise
significantly from current levels unless further steps are
taken to reduce production, Shearson Lehman Brothers said in
its quarterly nickel market report.
    The market had recovered slightly to around 1.72 dlrs a lb
yesterday from its four year low of 1.55 dlrs in early January,
due to the absence of Soviet nickel cathode deliveries, but
Shearson sees Soviet shipments soon returning to last year's
buoyant levels, which should ease current tightness.
    Output reductions by producers will take effect later this
year but are likely to be offset by increases elsewhere.
    Shearson said the nickel market will be virtually in
balance during 1987, with total non-Socialist world demand at
556,000 tonnes, compared with an estimated 544,000 tonnes in
1986, production at 505,000 tonnes (504,000) and imports from
Socialist countries at 47,000 tonnes (50,000).
    It forecast prices will edge higher during the year from a
first quarter average of 1.67 dlrs a lb up to 1.77 dlrs in the
last quarter. The year's average will be around 1.72 dlrs a lb
compared with 1.76 dlrs in 1986, using London Metal Exchange
cash metal prices in dollar terms and assuming an average 1987
sterling exchange rate of 1.55 dlrs.
 REUTER

The government will provide new
guarantees for up to three billion H.K. Dlrs in financing
instruments to be issued by the government owned <Mass
Transport Railway Corp>, bringing the total to 9.1 billion
dlrs, Financial Secretary Piers Jacobs said.
    He told the Legislative Council the instruments would
replace existing longer term government guaranteed export
credit debt obligations.
    A total of 1.5 billion dlrs in government guaranteed export
credit debt obligations are due to mature in two years.
 REUTER

The fully state-owned Dutch
chemical firm NV DSM <DSMN.AS> said its 1986 net profit rose to
412 mln guilders from 402 mln in 1985, while turnover fell to
17.7 billion guilders in 1986 from 24.1 billion in 1985.
    The company said 1986 dividend, which will be paid to the
Dutch state in its capacity of the firm's sole shareholder,
would be raised to 98 mln guilders from 70 mln guilders in
1985.
    In an initial comment on its 1986 results, DSM said the
drop in 1986 turnover had been caused mainly by losses in the
company's fertilizer division.
 REUTER

Cincinnati Bell Inc said it has started
its previously-announced 15.75 dlr per share tender offer for
all shares of Auxton Computer Enterprises Inc.
    In a newspaper advertisement, the company said the tender
and withdrawal rights will expire May Five unless extended. The
offer, which has been approved by the Auxton board and is to be
followed by a merger at the same price, is conditioned on
receipt of a majority of Auxton's voting stock on a fully
diluted basis.
 Reuter

California Biotechnology
Inc said it expects to report a loss of 1,300,000 dlrs to
1,600,000 dlrs for the first quarter due to increased
investment in research and manufacturing and a scaleup of
    The company said research spending is running 50 to 60 pct
above a year ago as it tries to commercialize its products as
quickly as possible, and increased expenditures are expected to
continue for several more quarters.  It said operating results
will fluctuate quarter to quarter, depending on the timing of
significant payments from commercial partners.
    In the first three months of 1986, the company lost 150,000
dlrs.  The company changed its fiscal year in 1986 to a
calendar year from a year ending November 30.  For the first
quarter of last year, ended February 28, California Biotech
earned 114,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 8-1/2 cts vs 8-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May One
 Reuter

Japan should promote division of labour
with its Asian neighbours, especially the newly industrialized
countries, to help achieve more balanced world economic growth,
the Bank of Japan said in a report.
    Instead of trying to produce everything by itself, Japan
should open up its market further to imports, transfer
manufacturing facilities abroad and increase technology
transfer with those nations, the bank said in its monthly
report.
    Japan should not see industrializing Asian nations as mere
competitors in its overseas and domestic markets but as
countries that can contribute to the region's prosperity.
    The bank said trade relations between Japan and the Asian
neighbouring countries have so far been vertical, meaning that
Japan imports primary goods from those countries and exports
manufactured goods to them.
    But this has resulted in an increase in their trade
deficits with Japan while some newly industrialized Asian
nations have accumulated trade surpluses with countries like
 REUTER

President Quett Masire appealed for
international aid to combat the effects of a drought ravaging
land-locked Botswana for the sixth consecutive year.
    Speaking on state radio, Masire said the drought had
decimated herds of cattle and wiped out crops throughout the
mainly desert country, which would be forced to rely on South
Africa for most of its food supplies in the coming year.
    Masire said the government would also be forced to continue
a drought relief program until at least the end of 1988 to
provide emergency water supplies and supplementary food to
vulnerable sections of the population.
    "It is against this background that we appeal to the
international community for assistance," Masire said.
    He thanked foreign governments for previous assistance, but
added, "The needs of the people in rural areas are greater now,
not less. We must prevent the human suffering caused by
malnutrition."
 REUTER

The U.K. Government will inject 283 mln
stg gross into <Rolls Royce Plc> when the company is floated at
the end of this month, the pathfinder prospectus for the sale
said.
    The government will offer all 635 mln existing shares, as
well as an unspecified number of shares created through the
capital injection, for sale to the public, the prospectus said.
    The sale price will be announced on April 28 and the offer
will close on May 7. Trading is expected to begin on May 19.
    The offer will be made in the U.K. Only and there will be
no offering of shares overseas, it said.
    No allocation will be made of more than 10 pct of the
shares in the company, and the government will hold on to a
"golden share" to secure that the aero-engine manufacturer
remains under U.K. Control, the prospectus said.
    Chairman Sir Francis Tombs said in the prospectus special
arrangements were being made for U.K. Employees and pensioners
of the company to buy shares on a preferential basis.
    Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Paul Channon said
the capital injection of 283 mln stg would ensure the company
had a sound a balance sheet when it returned to the private
sector after 1971.
 REUTER

California regulators said they
were seeking disciplinary action against the accounting firm
KMG Main Hurdman as the result of a 1985 audit of Technical
Equities Corp., an investment firm that filed for bankruptcy
last year.
    A spokeswoman for the California Board of Accountancy,
which certifies public accountants and firms in the state, said
a six-page complaint was filed against the New York-based
    "We basically charged that the Technical Equities audit was
not conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards," Della Bousquet, executive officer for the board,
    She said a hearing would probably be held before an
administrative law judge within three months. Penalties could
range from censure to revocation of KMG Main Hurdman's license
to do business in California.
    KMG Main Hurdman merged last week with Peat Marwick
Mitchell of New York to become the world's largest accounting
firm.
    The San Francisco office of the firm declined to comment on
the board's allegations.
    Bousquet said the company, among other things, was accused
of not properly investigating financial transactions and of
issuing a favorable opinion in August 1985 that relied on
misrepresentations of Technical Equities management.
    She said the accounting firm, although it knew Technical
Equities had severe cash flow and liquidity problems, was
accused of not performing a proper audit of it.
    The complaint named four individuals, including two
partners and two audit managers.
    Technical Equities, based in San Jose, filed for protection
under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy laws in February 1986,
listing debts of 69.7 mln dlrs to 1,068 investors.
    Many of the investors were prominent sports and
broadcasting figures.
 Reuter

Iranian forces mounted fresh attacks on
the Gulf war southern front today but Iraq said all were
repulsed with heavy loss of life.
    The Iranian news agency IRNA said Iranian troops inflicted
severe losses on Iraqi troops and military equipment on the
second day of a new offensive east of Iraq's city of Basra.
    "A number of tanks and personnel carriers were seized intact
which were used against the enemy in the operational theatre,"
IRNA said.
    The Iraqi news agency INA said Iraqi forces beat back the
latest Iranian thrusts.
    Baghdad said earlier that the Iranians had gained "footholds"
on Iraqi territory after launching the offensive on three
fronts near Basra.
    IRNA said yesterday the Iranians overran the headquarters
of two Iraqi brigades west of Fish Canal, a defensive line
about 10 km from Basra.
 Reuter

West Germany should take steps to increase
its official development assistance, the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said.
    A report by the organisation's Development Assistance
Committee (DAC) said German aid levels had shown only a
moderate increase in real terms in recent years, adding that
there was a risk that growth over the next few years might slow
further.
    German aid, estimated at around four billion dlrs in 1986,
represents 0.46 pct of the country's GNP. This is above the
DAC's average of 0.36 pct, but might decline if corrective
measures were not taken, the report said.
 REUTER

Unilever Plc and NV <UN.AS> has issued a
prospectus through investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Co
seeking a buyer for <Stauffer Chemical Co> of the U.S., Which
it acquired with the recent takeover of <Chesebrough-Pond's
Inc>, a Unilever spokesman said.
    He noted Unilever has been indicating plans to dispose of
Stauffer, plus some smaller assets of Chesebrough, since the
bid was made in December.
    The Stauffer sale prospectus has been sent in recent weeks
to a number of companies expressing interest.
    The Unilever spokesman declined to say how much the group
expected to receive for Stauffer.
    Chesebrough's footwear and tennis racket businesses are
also likely to be disposed of, he added.
    Immediately available financial information on Stauffer,
which is wholly-owned, was limited, he added. Nine month sales
to September 1986 were about 1.2 billion dlrs.
    Unilever aquired Chesebrough for 3.2 billion dlrs in order
to benefit from its well-known toiletry brands and food
products.
 Reuter

A sharp oil price decline and sharp
fluctuations of exchange and interest rates in 1986 produced a
mixed economic performance by the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), a United Nations study said.
    The annual report of the U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said the
international economic environment reversed the fortunes of the
trade-oriented economies of the six ASEAN member countries.
    It said the already low 1985 growth rates of ASEAN's oil
exporting countries -- Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia --
dropped further after the oil price fall.
    Three oil importers -- Singapore, the Philippines and
Thailand -- improved their performance mainly by restructuring
their economies. But the report said the oil price fall reduced
export earnings, worsening economic prospects for the
    The exporters' non-oil commodity prices did not show major
improvement and protectionist pressures from industrial
countries restricted export of manufactured products, it said.
    The GDPs of Indonesia, which was 1.9 pct in 1985, and
Malaysia, which fell a real one pct, barely grew in 1986.
    The two countries, buffeted by unfavourable external
factors in the past few years, were forced to curb aggregate
domestic consumption demands last year to avoid severe balance
of payments pressures and to resort to extensive commercial
    The U.N. Body said the economic outlooks of Singapore,
Thailand and the Philippines improved steadily in 1986 as the
year advanced. It said the most favourable factor benefiting
the three was the realignment of key currencies, especially the
appreciation of the yen, which has resulted in the increased
competitiveness of their exports against those from Japan.
    The report said the downward spiral plaguing the Philippine
economy since 1983 was reversed into an estimated 0.9 pct GDP
growth in 1986 with agriculture and public utilities becoming
growth sectors.
    It said the resumption of the Philippines' sustained growth
rests largely on a satisfactory solution of its debt problem.
    ESCAP said the yen appreciation, together with economic
restructuring measures, played a big role in helping Singapore
recover faster than expected from its 1.8 pct GDP decline in
1985.
    It said the Singapore GDP achieved a growth of over one pct
last year after registering positive growth from the second
quarter.
    The Singapore economic revival was hampered by its own
adjustment measures especially its two-year wage freeze
enforced last April, a glut of its property market and
depressed conditions in its ASEAN neighbours which hurt
Singapore because they take about a quarter of its total
exports.
    The report said Thailand benefited from the changing world
economic environment far more than any of its ASEAN neighbours.
    The Thai performance stemmed from the expansion o its
non-traditional export items last year to cover more
manufactured products and its greater exploration of
unsaturated export markets such as Asia, the Middle East and
the European Community.
 REUTER

CONRAC CORP SAID IT HAS ENTERED TALKS ON ITS ACQUISITION WITH SEVERAL PARTIES

Britain and Japan clashed today over U.K.
Demands for greater access to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) as
trade tensions between the two countries mounted.
    British consumer affairs minister Michael Howard told
reporters he was dissatisfied with the exchange's response to
Britain's non-negotiable timetable for increased British
membership and warned of possible reprisals in the future.
    He described his meeting with Tokyo stock exchange (TSE)
head Michio Takeuchi, in which he demanded greater exchange
access, as "very frank indeed."
    In a separate press conference, TSE President Michio
Takeuchi said the exchange has done its utmost to liberalise
its membership and called on Britain to make some concessions.
    According to Takeuchi, Howard wants three British firms to
be named members of the Tokyo stock exchange by the end of this
year. Neither Takeuchi nor Howard would name the companies.
    "Next May is the earliest possible date for opening our
membership and I want the British government to understand
this," Takeuchi said.
    Membership cannot be increased before space on the trading
floor is expanded in May 1988, he said.
     Howard told reporters that was not good enough and said
that Britain would use its powers to ban Japanese financial
institutions from London if it was not satisfied with Tokyo.
    Japan has until the next meeting of senior officials from
the two countries in May or June to come up with a postive
response to the British timetable or face retaliation, he said.
    "The timetable was constructed in a way that made it a very
reasonable request and I expect it to be met," he said.
    Asked about the exchange's argument that it has no floor
space to expand membership, Howard replied, "We find it very
difficult in our country to understand why the considerable
ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Japanese (in world
markets) is unable to overcome problems of that kind."
    While here, Howard said he also expressed frustration with
the huge trade imbalance with Japan and with Tokyo's handling
of demands by Britain's Cable and Wireless for a greater role
in Japan's telecommunications business.
    According to Japanese newspaper reports, at least some of
that message may have penetrated.
    According to several reports, the Post and
Telecommunications Ministry is considering a Cable and Wireless
proposal for a telephone cable between Japan and the U.S.
    Ministry officials were unavailable for comment.
 REUTER

Hauser Chemical Research Inc said
it has been contracted by Allied Signal Inc's Allied Fibers
division for research consulting on further development of
improved adhesion of polyolefin fiber through photografting.
    Hauser said it previously completed the successful first
phase of this research effort.
 Reuter

has received a three-year contract worth over 30 mln dlrs from
Toshiba Corp to supply anode X-ray generating tubes for
Toshiba's line of computerized tomography scanners.
 Reuter

ASIX Systems, a developer of
test systems for ASIC devices, said it has received 4,800,000
dlrs in a second round of equity financing.
    The company said investors include first round participants
Paragon Partners, Citicorp <CCI>, Vista Ventures, Rust Ventures
and Orien Ventures, plus new investors North Carolina Bank
Venture Co LP, RepublicBankCorp <RPT> and ECI Ventures.
    It said it has now raised total capitalization of 8,600,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Conrac Corp sait has started
negotiations with several interested parties on its possible
    It said there can be no assurance that any transaction will
result from the talks.  It gave no further details.
    Mark IV Industries Inc <IV> started tendering for all
Conrac shares at 25 dlrs each on March 24 and owned 9.9 pct of
Conrac before starting the bid.
    Conrac is a producer and marketer of computer-related
information display and communications equipment which also
produces special purpose architectural and industrial products.
    It owns Code-A-Phone Corp, a producer of telephone
answering machines.
    For 1986, the company reported profits of 7.8 mln dlrs, or
1.16 dlrs a share, on sales of 153.9 mln dlrs. It has nearly
6.8 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

China's foreign debt is very low given
its export capability, the size of its economy and its growth
potential and the country is politically stable, Jean-Maxime
Leveque, chairman of Credit Lyonnais, told reporters.
    Leveque, who has met the heads of most of China's banks
including the president of its central bank during a visit
here, said the Chinese authorities are very attentive to its
foreign debt and have the matter under control.
    Official figures show China's foreign debt at a post-1949
record 16 billion dlrs at end-1986.
    Asked if he had advised China to borrow more francs and
U.S. Dollars and less yen, Leveque said he had not offered any
advice, but added: "The yen and the dollar are not stable, but
the ECU is stable."
    Asked if his bank has lost any confidence in China after
the resignation of Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang in January,
he said: "We have total confidence in the political stability in
China. The policies of the open door and economic development
outlined in 1979 will not change, although there may be
fluctuations in speed."
 REUTER

 Reuter

South Wales, NSW, to protest against new laws that would reduce
 Reuter

The Tanzanian government raised
the price of beer, soft drinks and cigarettes by 20 pct and
telephone and telex calls by 10 pct in an attempt to keep its
budget deficit for this financial year roughly on target.
    The deficit for the financial year ending on June 30 was
initially forecast at 3,350 mln shillings and the new measures
will raise some 700 mln shillings in extra revenue, a statement
from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning
said.
    According to the statement, the price increases, which take
immediate effect, were needed because the government had lost
tax revenue through lower than expected industrial production.
Water and power problems and a shortage of spare parts had
reduced the output of Tanzanian factories, it said.
    The ministry also announced a new 30 pct tax on goods
imported by non-resident businessmen and said the government
would take steps against importers who have been evading duty
in collusion with corrupt customs officials.
 REUTER

    Net 217,572 vs 153,454
    Revs 2,530,273 vs 2,558,924
    1st half
    Net 299,838 vs 174,739
    Revs 4,865,249 vs 4,495,021
 Reuter

NMR Centers Inc said it
has started building five mln dlr multi-modality Ocean Medical
Imaging Center in Toms River, N.J., and completion is scheduled
for November.
    It said the center should generate more than five mln dlrs
in annual revenues when fully operational.
    NMR said it is providing about 3,500,000 dlrs in equipment
and working capital and will manage the center, while Center
State Health Services Corp is financing construction of the
1,600,000 dlr building.
 Reuter

Banking supervisory authorities are
not carrying out any special checks at banks in the wake of the
currency fraud scandal at Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, a spokesman
for the Hesse regional state central bank, LZB, said.
    But inspectors are paying particular attention to foreign
exchange matters in their routine checks at banks, he said in
answer to enquiries. There is no evidence rules were broken.
    The LZB spokesman was commenting on press reports that
banks had "parked" open currency positions for short periods with
VW to circumvent regulations limiting the size of open currency
positions that can be carried by banks overnight.
    The press allegations emerged after VW said it may have
lost 480 mln marks as a result of a possible currency fraud.
    LZBs are regional branches of the Bundesbank. Their
inspectors also act for the Federal Banking Supervisory Office
in West Berlin, which regulates banking in West Germany.
    Following the 1974 Herstatt bank crash on currency
speculation, West Germany limited a bank's total open positions
overnight to 30 pct of shareholders' equity and reserves.
    German press reports have said some banks circumvented this
rule by selling excess positions to VW, then repurchasing them.
    The banking regulations only cover banks. Company foreign
exchange activities are not subject to the banking regulators.
    The LZB spokesman said there were no concrete signs that
the regulations had been broken, and it would be irresponsible
to instigate a special check just on the basis of the reports.
    The LZBs receive monthly balance sheet statistics from
banks in their areas, which they check, and they also routinely
inspect all banks in greater detail over longer periods.
    But LZB officials said it would be hard for inspectors to
detect a breach of these rules as they do not check companies
and therefore would not see both sides of any parking deal.
    "If the managements of the banks have not spotted them, it
will be even harder for our inspectors," said one official.
    It would be up to the public prosecutors to order special
checks on suspicion of breaches of these regulations, they
said. Prosecutors in Brunswick are already investigating the VW
currency scandal, and have ordered the arrest of VW's former
chief foreign exchange dealer.
a 100,000 mark fine for the dealers involved, and in extreme
cases by removal of the managers if their active involvement is
proved.
 REUTER

The pay dispute went before a hearing of the Arbitration
 Reuter

The two sides in the Rotterdam port
general cargo dispute have agreed to appoint an independent
chairman, Han Lammers, to preside over future meetings,
employers' spokesman Gerard Zeebregts said.
    Lammers, Queen's Commissioner for the province of
Flevoland, will not act as a mediator but will draw up an
agenda and procedures for meetings between the employers and
unions on a work-practice agreement and proposed redundancies.
    Two months of strikes in the sector began on January 19 in
protest at employers' proposals for 350 redundancies from the
4,000-strong workforce this year.
    The strikes were called off by the main port union FNV on
March 13 following an Amsterdam court's interim injunction
against the redundancies on procedural grounds.
    The court is due to make a final ruling on May 7 but
Zeebregts said he expected the judgment to go against the
employers and they were therefore very likely to restart the
complicated legal redundancy procedures in the near future.
    Meanwhile, the dispute over a new work-practice agreement
in the port's grain sector continued, with 30 maintenance
workers on strike, although loading was not affected, a
spokesman for Graan Elevator Mij, the largest employer in the
sector, said.
    The employers have written to the union asking it to
reconsider its position and a meeting of union members has been
called for tomorrow.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 1,358,000 vs 2,476,000
    Revs 27.1 mln vs 26.2 mln
    Avg shrs 6,852,000 vs 7,764,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 68 cts vs 1.05 dlrs
    Net 4,957,000 vs 8,129,000
    Revs 82.6 mln vs 78.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,316,000 vs 7,754,000
 Reuter

Boeing Co's Boeing Commerical Airplane
Co said it selected an unducted fan engine for continued
development as the baseline engine for the advanced technology
7J7 airliner due to enter service in 1992.
    Boeing said it reached the decision following a three-month
study of <International Aero Engine's> SuperFan concept and the
General Electric <GE> UDF engine.
    Boeing said the UDF engine would up with a nine pct
advantage in fuel savings over the SuperFan on a typical
500-nautical-mile trip.
    Boeing said it wil proceed with detail design of the 7J7
and could launch the program in 1987 depending on the market
response. It will seat about 150 passengers, the company said.
 Reuter

    Net 20.6 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Sales 238.0 mln vs 188.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit 13 cts vs loss 33 cts
    Net profit 1,149,000 vs loss 2,833,000
    Rev 51.8 mln vs 47.8 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 24 cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net profit 2,050,000 vs loss 1,551,000
    Rev 200.6 mln vs 180.1 mln
 Reuter

market with further help totalling 166 mln stg during the
    In band one, it bought 31 mln stg of treasury bills and
three mln stg of bank bills at 9-7/8 pct, while in band two it
bought 69 mln stg of bank bills at 9-13/16 pct. In addition, it
bought 63 mln stg of band three bank bills at 9-3/4 pct.
    This brings the total assistance by the Bank so far today
to 219 mln stg against a liquidity shortage it has estimated at
around 300 mln stg.
 REUTER

Canadian Airlines International
said it agreed to purchase six Boeing Co 767-300ER (extended
range) aircraft, and options on eight more, for 1.6 billion
Canadian dlrs, including spare parts and training.
    Delivery will begin in April 1988 and run through April
1989, the company said.
    The airline said it plans to finance the new aircraft by
means of oeprating leases. Canadian Airlines was recently
formed through the merger of Canadian Pacific Airlines and
Pacific Western Airlines.
 Reuter

Rubbermaid Inc said its incoming
order rates continue strong and it expects to continue
recording favorable year to year comparisons in each remaining
    Today the company reported first quarter earnings of 20.6
mln dlrs on sales of 238.0 mln dlrs, up from earnings of 16.1
mln dlrs on sales of 188.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 494,000 vs 204,000
    Avg shrs 896,655 vs 494,155
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs not given
    Net 642,484 vs 362,883
    NOTE: Company went public in October 1986.
    Net includes pretax loan loss provisions of 90,000 dlrs vs
56,250 dlrs and gain on sale of securities of 113,432 dlrs vs
88,946 dlrs.
 Reuter

2nd qtr March 31
    Shr 57 cts vs not given
    Net 790,874 vs 628,020
    1st half
    Shr 1.15 dlrs vs not given
    Net 1,588,985 vs 1,073,163
    NOTE: Company recently went public.
 Reuter

    Net 596,000 vs 594,000
    Revs 8,693,000 vs 8,164,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 61 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 1,784,000 vs 1,653,000
    Revs 26.3 mln vs 23.0 mln
 Reuter

North Star Uranium Inc said it has
changed its name to West Coast Traders Inc to reflect its
business, the bulk importing of olive oil.
    The company said it plans to start distributing its Italia
Olive Oil brand, now sold on the West Coast, nationally.
    North Star Uranium had been inactive until it acquired West
Coast Traders in June 1986.
 Reuter

said it will build a new plant in El Dorado, Ark., to produce
several fluorine-based specialty chemicals.
    It said total cost of the project, which would employ up to
50 workers, is estimated in excess of 20 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Swedish unemployment was steady at 2.2
pct of the workforce in March compared with the previous month,
the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
    In March 1986, the figure stood at 2.4 pct.
 REUTER

Compaq Computer Corp said it expects
sales and earnings for the first quarter of 1987 to be higher
than analysts expectations due to strong demand for its
products.
    Rod Canion, president and chief executive officer of
Compaq, said he expects sales of over 200 mln dlrs for the
period ending March 31, above analysts' estimates of 165-185
mln dlrs. He added that earnings per share would exceed
analysts estimates of as high as 42 cts a share.
    Compaq reported earnings of 8.3 mln dlrs, or 30 cts a
share, and sales of 144 mln dlrs for the first quarter 1986.
    The company said demand for its DESKPRO 386, PORTABLE III
and the new COMPAQ DESKPRO 286 will contribute to the sales
increase.
    "The initial demand for the recently introduced COMPAQ
PORTABLE III and the new models of the COMPAQ DESKPRO 286
exceeds that of any other Compaq personal computers," Canion
said. "We saw continued demand for our personal computers
across the quarter, with March (1987) being a particularly
strong month.
 Reuter

Italy's majority Christian Democrats have
handed in their resignation from the five-party government in
which they are senior partners, Deputy Prime Minister Arnaldo
Forlani said.
    Forlani, president of the party, said he had handed a
letter of resignation by the Christian Democrats, who make up
more than half the 30 member cabinet, to the office of Prime
Minister Bettino Craxi.
    Political sources said the withdrawal of the Christian
Democrats meant the coalition -- which also includes
Republicans, Social Democrats and Liberals as well as the
Socialists -- had collapsed.
 Reuter

eliminated the post of cheif operating officer, which had been
held by president Thomas F. Burke until his recent election as
    The company said in a reorganization, it has named senior
vice president-corporate marketing James F. Bunker to the new
post of executive vice president and chief strategic officer,
giving him responsibility for corporate marketing, component
field sales, strategic planning, new business development and
the company's corporate technology center.
    The company said Richard H. Hale, president of the
components division, has been named executive vice
president-Components Group, giving him additional
responsibility for the semiconductor division and advanced
semiconductor operations.
    It said Harold C. Wells has been named executive vice
president-Systems Group, giving him responsibility for the
government systems division, Omni West subsystems division,
subsystems operations in Burlington, Mass., microwave power
devices operations in Hauppauge, N.Y., and the M/A-Com MAC
operation in Chelmsford, Mass.
    Wells had been co-president of the subsystems division.
 Reuter

I.U. International Co said it
reached a preliminary agreement to sell the Hawaiian Insurance
Cos to Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. <HE>.
    Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the company
said.
    The transaction is subject to the execution of definitive
agreements, certain governmental approvals and approvals by the
boards of directors involved, I.U. International said.
    Hawaiian Electric said the planned purchase was part of its
strategy to increase the company's investment in selected
service industries in Hawaii, including financial services.
 Reuter

Colorocs Corp said it has extended
the expiration of the exercise period for its Class A warrants
to May Eight from April 16.
    Each warrant allows the holder to buy a common share for
3.75 dlrs.
 Reuter

<Mason Best Co> said it has formed
<Meridian Energy Corp>, a privately-owned holding company
structured to acquire operating companies ans assets in the oil
and gas industry.
    Mason Best, a Texas-based merchant banking firm, said it is
sponsor and largest shareholder of Meridian. The new company's
chairman and chief executive officer is  Ralph E. Bailey, who
retired as vice-chairman of Du Pont Co <DD> and chairman of its
Conoco Inc subsidiary on March 31.
    Meridian is headquartered in Dallas with an administrative
office in Stamford, Conn.
 Reuter

    Net 215,000 vs 16,000
    Revs 2,800,000 vs 1,100,000
    Nine mths
    Shr one ct vs nil
    Net 620,000 vs 231,000
    Revs 8,100,000 vs 2,100,000
 Reuter

William Proxmire (D-Wis) said he planned to introduce
legislation shortly to require greater public disclosure of
corporate takeovers and fairer treatment for all shareholders.
    Speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers,
Proxmire said recent insider trading stock scandals increased
the chance that Congress will act to curb abuses.
    "We are proposing legislation that would provide for more
disclosure, would be fairer to all shareholders, and would
insure that takeovers are properly financed," he said.
    Among the provisions, the bill would reduce the threshold
for notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission that a
investor or group has acquired a percentage of stock in a
company to three pct from the current five pct threshold within
10 days, Proxmire said.
    In addition, there would be a pre-notificaton requirement
that an investor intended to aquire three pct that would have
to filed with the SEC.
    Proxmire said the pre-notification requirement was meant to
prevent arbitragers from having a jump on the general public in
knowing about coming takeover attempts.
    Proxmire said he would call for extending the period that a
tender offer must be kept open under the Williams Act to 60
business days from the current 20 business days.
    His bill would provide for private suits if the acquiring
company violated the time period on the tender offer.
    To correct abuses in the financing of takeovers, Proxmire
said the legislation would aim at insuring current margin
requirments are properly enforced.
    The Federal Reserve Board has a 50 pct margin requirement
for purchasing stock, but Proxmire said it is not generally
enforced in hostile takeovers.
    Rather, the groups or individuals leading a takeover
declare that they can raise the capital for a takeover without
actually putting any of their own money, Proxmire said.
    He said his bill would allow private suits for damages for
failure to meet the Federal Reserve's 50 pct margin
    The bill also would require more disclose when several
investors form an alliance in a hostile takeover.
    "When Pickens and Icahn get together we want people to know
about it," Proxmire said.
    Proxmire said he favored the approach used in Britain
towards two-tiered tender offers that insures that all
shareholders recieve equal treatment.
    He said he expected amendments to the bill also would cover
defensive mechanisms such as green mail and poison pills.
    Proxmire said he intended to introduce his bill later this
month and predicted the Senate committee would act this spring.
    He said he was hopeful Congress could pass a bill this
year.
 Reuter

    Net 598,000 vs 392,000
    Sales 10.2 mln vs 7,474,000
    Avg shrs 3,432,000 vs 3,045,000
    Year
    Oper shr profit 1.05 dlrs vs loss 47 cts
    Oper net profit 3,498,000 vs loss 1,427,000
    Sales 52.2 mln vs 40.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,320,000 vs 3,060,000
    NOTE: Latest year net excludes 782,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust New York Corp said it has
placed its approximately 540 mln dlrs of medium- and long-term
loans to Brazil on non-accrual status and that first-quarter
net income will be reduced by about seven mln dlrs as a result.
    Brazil suspended interest payments on its 68 billion dlrs
of medium- and long-term debt on February 22.
    U.S. banking regulations do not require banks to stop
accruing interest on loans until payments are 90 days overdue,
but Bankers Trust said it acted now because of "the high
potential of a continued suspension that would result in
reaching the 90-day limit in the second quarter of 1987."
    Assuming no cash payments at current interest rates are
received for the rest of 1987, Bankers Trust estimated that
full-year net income would be reduced by about 30 mln dlrs.
    Bankers Trust said it assumes that debt negotiations
between Brazil and its commercial bank lenders will lead to the
resumption of interest payments.
    The negotiations resume in New York on Friday when central
bank governor Francisco Gros is expected to ask banks for a
90-day rollover of some 9.5 billion dlrs of term debt that
matures on April 15.
 Reuter

Shr profit 63 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 775,868 vs 276,446
    Revs 2,255,742 vs 706,130
 Reuter

UK INTERVENTION BD SAYS EC SOLD 118,350 TONNES WHITE SUGAR AT REBATE 46.496 ECUS.

Stoltenberg said today's meetings of major industrial countries
would look at ways of strengthening the Paris accord on
stabilizing foreign exchange rates.
    Stoltenberg told journalists he saw no fundamental weakness
of the February 22 agreement of the Group of Five countries and
Canada to keep exchange rates near the then-current levels.
    But he declined to say what measures would be discussed
ahead of a communique of the Group of Seven ministers later
today.
    Stoltenberg and Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl said
the importance of the Paris agreement, also known as the Louvre
accord, had been underestimated.
    Stoltenberg said there is greater agreement now among major
countries than six months ago, at the time of the annual
meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank,
marked by sharp discord between the United States and its major
    "There is no fundamental weakness of the Paris accord," he
said. "We will be looking at ways of strengthening it, but I do
not want to discuss that here.
    Stoltenberg said the Louvre agreement was working despite a
"slight firming" of the yen against the dollar.
    And Poehl noted that the dollar/mark parity was unchanged
since February 22 without the Bundesbank having had to sell
marks to support the dollar.
    "The Louvre agreement has been honored by the market," he
said.
    Poehl said West Germany had lived up to its side of the
bargain in Paris by preparing the way for tax cuts to be
accelerated as a way of stimulating growth.
    Poehl said, however, that Japan had not yet fulfilled its
pledges for economic stimulation.
    "And we will have to see if the United States is able to do
what they promised in Paris on reducing the budget deficit --
and get it through Congress," he added.
    Stoltenberg reiterated West German concern about a further
fall in the dollar, noting that the mark was up 85 pct against
the dollar and nearly 20 pct on a trade-weighted basis.
    "You cannot expect that to go unnoticed in an economy. And
it is not just a German problem, it is a European problem," he
said.
 REUTER

A total 118,350 tonnes of current series
white sugar received export rebates of a maximum 46.496
said.
    Out of this, traders in the U.K. Received 37,800 tonnes, in
France 34,500, in West Germany 20,000, in Belgium 18,500, in
Spain 5,800 and in Denmark 1,750 tonnes, it added.
    Earlier today, London traders had declined to give a
projected view on the level of subsidy although some said total
tonnage awards would be around 60,000 tonnes.
    Paris traders foresaw between 60,000 and 100,000 tonnes
being authorised for export at a 46.40/46.50 Ecu subsidy.
    Cumulative sales authorisations for the current season
(1986/87) now stand at 2,194,970 tonnes (43 weeks).
    Last week saw 102,350 tonnes whites authorised for export
under licences to end-Sep at the higest ever rebate of 46.864
European Currency Units (Ecus) per 100 kilos.
 REUTER

<Noranda Inc> said it will sell 150 mln
dlrs of adjustable convertible subordinated debentures to a
group of investment dealers led by Gordon Capital Corp.
    The debentures will be convertible into Noranda common
shares until April 29, 2007 at 35 dlrs per share.
    Interest rate will be five pct subject to upward adjustment
based on dividends paid on common shares, Noranda said.
 Reuter

BACHE SECURITIES CANADA BUYS TORONTO EXCHANGE SEAT FOR 301,000 DLRS

The issue amount of Mafina BV's seven
year two pct Swiss franc bond with equity warrants has been set
at 250 mln Swiss francs, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
 REUTER

Mead Corp said the outlook for its
major paper markets looks strong for the second quarter and
augurs well for its earnings in 1987.
    "The generally strong outlook bodes well for significantly
improved earnings this year," Burnell Roberts, chairman and
chief executive officer said.
    Earlier, the company reported first quarter earnings of
34.2 mln dlrs, or 1.09 dlrs a share, versus 20.3 mln dlrs, or
65 cts a share, in last year's first quarter.
    In 1986 the company reported earnings from continuing
operations of 109.3 mln dlrs, or 3.50 dlrs a share.
    Mead said its first quarter benefitted from stronger market
conditions and improved operations.
    "The combination of capital improvement programs and more
employee involvement has been paying off throughout our paper
operations," Roberts said.
    He added that Mead's pulp and paperboard businesses are
operating well as prices have improved and strong demand has
placed most products in a sold-out position through the middle
    Mead said sales of its unbleached coated paperboard was
particularly strong, up 13 pct versus the first quarter 1986.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said because of its
decisions to discontinue development of health care products,
reorganize under Chapter 11 and establish adequate allowances
for uncollectible receivables, it expects to establish reserves
totaling about 11 mln dlrs in the March 31 second quarter.
    The company said it plans to seek buyers for health care
technologies including proprietary rights to a Hepatitis B
Vaccine and technologies related to LAK cell cancer
immunotherapy.
 Reuter

Shr profit 20 cts vs loss three cts
    Net profit 849,299 vs loss 82,512
    Revs 7,929,138 vs 3,849,224
 Reuter

Comstock Group Inc said it has
signed a letter of intent to sell about 20 mln dlrs of
convertible preferred stock to <Spie Batignolles SA> of Paris'
Spie Group Inc U.S. subsidiary.
    Details were not disclosed.
 Reuter

QVC Network Inc said its
agreement in principle with Safeguard Scientifics Inc <SFE>
allows Safeguard to name the majority of QVC's directors only
if a seven mln dlr indebtedness to Safeguard is in default.
    Yesterday, QVC said announced it entered into the agreement
in principle with Safegaurd under which QVC would receive 13
mln dlrs in financing, including seven mln dlrs of QVC notes to
be purchase by Safeguard and a six-mln-dlr revolving credit
facility to be provided by a local bank.
    QVC said as long as the seven mln dlr indebtedness to
Safeguard remains outstanding, Safeguard will be able to name
three of QVC's nine directors. Safeguard's ability to name a
majority of QVC's directors will be triggered only if the seven
mln dlr indebtedness to Safeguard is in default, the company
said.
 Reuter

Shr primary 78 cts vs 68 cts
    Shr diluted 75 cts vs 68 cts
    Qtrly div six cts vs five cts
    Net 7,929,000 vs 6,569,000
    Revs 78.7 mln vs 61.9 mln
    NOTE: Pay date for the qtrly div is April 28 for
 Reuter

Equitable Resources Inc said it filed
statement covering a 75 mln dlr issue of units.
    Each unit will consist of a 1,000 dlr face amount 25-year
debenture with up to 21 five-year warrants to purchase the
company's common stock. Each warrant will equal one share. The
debentures will be non-refundable for 10 years.
    Proceeds will be used to repay short-term loans incurred to
finance part of Equitable's 1986 capital expenditure program
and the redemption of 9-5/8 pct and 10-1/2 pct first mortgage
bonds of 1995. First Boston will manage the issue.
 Reuter

4thh qtr Feb 28
    Shr 46 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 2,139,034 vs 854,182
    Sales 30.8 mln vs 20.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,280,854 vs 4,559,646
    Year
    Shr 1.34 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Net 5,935,117 vs 4,156,171
    Sales 107.2 mln vs 71.6 mln
    Avg shrs 5,281,387 vs 3,616,183
    NOTE: Town and Country Jewelry Manufacturing Corp.
 Reuter

Paxar Corp said it has
acquired Thermo-Print GmbH of Lohn, West Germany, a distributor
of Paxar products, for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

Shr 10 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 975,000 vs 3,145,000
    Sales 159.1 mln vs 147.3 mln
 Reuter

Key Tronic corp said it has
received contracts to provide seven  original equipment
manufacturers with which it has not done business recently with
over 300,000 computer keyboards for delivery within the next 12
months.
    The company said "The new contracts represent an annual
increase of approximately 25 pct in unit volume over last
year."
 Reuter

Canadian Bashaw Leduc Oil and
Gas Ltd said it agreed to merge with Erskine Resources Ltd.
Terms were not disclosed.
    Ownership of the combined company with 18.8 pct for the
current shareholders of Canadian Bashaw and 81.2 pct to the
current shareholders of Erskine, the companies said.
 Reuter

Entourage International Inc said it had
a first quarter loss of 104,357 dlrs, after incurring 70,000
dlrs in costs for an internal audit, a report for shareholders
and proxy soliciation and 24,000 dlrs in startup expenses for
opening London offices.
    The company went public during 1986.
    Entourage also said it has started marketing a solid
perfume packaged in a lipstick tube called "Amadeus," retailing
at 15 dlrs.
    The company also said it has acquired North Country Media
Group, a video productions company.
 Reuter

Shr 58 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 3,141,000 vs 1,440,000
    Sales 24.7 mln vs 13.0 mln
 Reuter

Digital Communications
Associates Inc said its board has named James Ottinger
    The company said Ottinger replaces Bertil Nordin as
president. Nordin will become chairman and chief executive
officer, Digital Communications added.
 Reuter

Teradyne Inc said Digital Equipment Corp
signed a multi-license purchase agreement valed at over one mln
dlrs for Teradyne's Lasar Version Six Simulation System.
    The company said the agreement includes the option for
futrue lasar purchases by Digital.
 Reuter

said it has opened a Dialysis at Home office in Philadelphia,
its 12th nationwide.
 Reuter

Bache Securities Inc, 80 pct owned by
Prudential Bache Securities Inc, said it acquired its third
Toronto Stock Exchange seat for 301,000 Canadian dlrs.
    The company said the price was the highest yet paid for an
exchange seat. A Toronto Stock Exchange spokesman said an
exchange seat last sold for 195,000 dlrs in March, which was
acquired by <Toronto Dominion Bank>.
    Bache Securities said it needed a third exchange seat as
part of an extensive plan to provide an enhanced level of
service to clients. The seat will be used to further build its
professional trading area, the investment dealer said.
 Reuter

F.W. WOOLWORTH CO SAYS IT HIKES DIVIDEND TO 33 CTS A SHARE FROM 28 CTS

Qtly div 33 cts vs 28 cts prior
    Pay June 1
 Reuter

Roughly half of this year's expected
130,000 hectare Dutch sugar beet crop is already in the ground,
a spokesman for Suiker Unie, the largest sugar processor in the
Netherlands, told Reuters.
    Conditions are generally good and the average sowing date
for the crop is expected to be around April 11, against April
23 last year, and a 10-year average of April 14, the spokesman
added.
    "It is far too early yet to say what kind of output we can
expect when it comes to harvest in September, but at least the
crop is off to a very good start," he said.
    Last year, the Netherlands planted a record 137,600
hectares of sugar beet and produced a record 1.2 mln tonnes of
white sugar, substantially more than the country's combined "A"
and "B" quota of 872,000 tonnes.
    This year, however, a self-imposed quota system has been
introduced with the aim of cutting plantings to 130,000
hectares and reducing white sugar output to around 915,000
tonnes to minimise the amount of non-quota "C" sugar produced.
    Only farmers with a record of growing suger beet have been
allotted quotas. This is expected to prevent the area being
boosted by dairy or cereal farmers moving into sugar.
 Reuter

Demand for shares in state-owned engine
maker <Rolls Royce Plc> is expected to be substantial when the
government privatises it at the end of April, Christopher Clark
of the group's bankers Samuel Montagu and Sons Ltd said.
    He told a press conference after the release of an initial
prospectus for the float that the issue would be offered to
U.K. Institutions, company employees and the general public.
    As in previous flotations, clawback arrangements would be
made if public subscriptions exceeded initial allocations.
    He declined to say how the shares would be allocated beyond
saying that a "significant proportion" would go to institutions.
    A decision on what percentage would go to each sector would
be made shortly before the sale price was announced on April
28.
    Minimum subscription would be for 400 shares with payment
in two tranches, again a method broadly in line with previous
privatisations.
    Chairman Sir Francis Tombs denied suggestions that Rolls
was a stock that should be left to the institutions. He noted
that although the aircraft industry was cyclical, Rolls had
several operations -- such as spare parts and military
equipment -- that evened out the swings.
    Rolls' 1986 research and development expenditure in 1986
was 255 mln stg and could be expected in the future to vary
according to changes in turnover.
    He noted that net research and development expenditure was
written off in the year it occurred, a policy that received
"inadequate recognition in one or two of the more extravagant
forecasts of future profits." He made no forecast himself.
    In 1986, Rolls reported that pretax profit rose 48 pct to
120 mln stg on turnover 12 pct higher at 1.8 billion.
 Reuter

NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> shares are due to start trading
on the New York Stock Exchange on April 14, Philips chairman
Cor van der Klugt told the annual shareholders meeting.
    In March, the Dutch electronics group announced it would
end its current over the counter listing on the New York NASDAQ
system and move to the NYSE.
    Philips said the "big board" listing in New York is expected
to boost its profile in the U.S., Where 10 pct of all
outstanding Philips shares are held.
 Reuter

The EC Commission confirmed it granted
export licences for 118,350 tonnes of current series white
sugar at a maximum export rebate of 46.496 European Currency
Units (ECUs) per 100 kilos.
    Out of this, traders in France received 34,500 tonnes, in
the U.K. 37,800, in West-Germany 20,000, in Belgium 18,500, in
Spain 5,800 and in Denmark 1,750 tonnes.
 REUTER

<Pancontinental Oil Ltd> said
it arranged a 10 mln dlr private financing with Pemberton
Houston Willoughby Bell Gouinlock Inc.
    The private placement consists of special warrants to
purchase seven pct convertible redeemable preferred shares.
    The shares will be convertible for five years into common
shares at five dlrs per share. The preferred shares are not
redeemable for 2-1/2 years. Net proceeds will be used to
increase working capital and finance exploration and
 Reuter

Today's dollar convertible eurobond for
Federal Realty Investment Trust has been increased to 100 mln
dlrs from the initial 75 mln, lead manager Salomon Brothers
    The coupon has been fixed at 5-1/4 pct compared with the
indicated range of 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 pct. The conversion price has
been fixed at 30-5/8 dlrs compared with last night's close in
the U.S. Of 25-1/2 dlrs. This represents a premium of 20 pct.
    The put option after seven years was priced at 120 pct to
give the investor a yield to the put of 7.53 pct.
 REUTER

VW, is due to make a formal announcement about its 1986
dividend tomorrow after saying the 1985 level of 10 marks per
ordinary share would be held, despite massive losses because of
a suspected foreign currency fraud.
    A spokesman said VW's supervisory board will meet tomorrow
to discuss the payout.  A statement will be made afterwards.
    VW has also said disclosed profits for 1986 will reach
their 1985 level, despite provisions of a possible 480 mln
marks linked to the currency affair. The figure is virtually
the same as the 477 mln mark 1985 parent company net profit.
    When VW first confirmed the currency scandal on March 10 it
said the management board would propose an unchanged 10-mark
dividend to the supervisory board. A dividend of 11 marks would
be proposed for the company's new preference shares.
    Share analysts said they saw supervisory board approval of
the management board proposal as virtually a formality.
"Anything else would be more than a surprise," one said.
    Company sources said VW would have to dig into reserves to
maintain the disclosed profit. Parent company reserves stood at
around three billion marks at end-1985.
 Reuter

Toronto Dominion Bank, Nassau Branch is
issuing a 40 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 15, 1990
paying 14-1/2 pct and priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead manager
Hambros Bank Ltd said.
1,000 Australian dlrs and will be listed in London. The selling
concession is one pct, while management and underwriting
combined will pay 1/2 pct.
    The payment date is May 15.
 REUTER

 Reuter

Shr 1.40 dlrs vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 5,776,000 vs 4,429,000
    Avg shrs 4,132,828 vs 3,834,117
 Reuter

Southmark Corp said it acquired 28
long-term care facilities containing for approximately 70 mln
    It said the facilities, which contain approximately 2,500
beds in seven western states, were bought from Don Bybee and
Associates, of Salem,Ore.
    The acquistion brings to 57 health care facilities acquired
in the last three months, the company said.
 Reuter

Helen of Troy Corp said it filed with
covering a 20 mln dlr issue of covertible subordinated
debentures due 2007.
including possible repayment of bank debt, product development
and possible acquisitions, Helen of Troy said.
 Reuter

shr 1.22 dlrs vs 1.28 dlrs
    net 226.4 mln vs 233.9 mln
    assets 80.45 billion vs 70.23 billion
    loans 35.16 billion vs 35.99 billion
    deposits 45.22 billion vs 39.68 billion
    return on assets 1.14 pct vs 1.35 pct
    return on common equity 18.20 pct vs 22.08 pct
    NOTE: 1987 qtr net was reduced by 20 mln dlrs because 1.3
billion dlrs of loans to Brazil were placed on non-accrual.
    loan loss provision 35 mln dlrs vs 70 mln year earlier.
 Reuter

Shr 74 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 8,067,000 vs 7,317,000
   
 Reuter

    Shr Class A 61 cts vs 48 cts
    Shr Class B 59 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 2,358,000 vs 1,876,000
    Revs 122,508,000 vs 105,871,000
    Six mths
    Shr Class A 1.15 dlrs vs 86 cts
    Shr Class B 1.13 dlrs vs 84 cts
    Net 4,485,000 vs 3,378,000
    Revs 242,453,000 vs 210,117,000
    NOTE: qtr and six mths prior figures reflect two-for-one
stock split in August 1986.
 Reuter

Hanover Insurance Co said its
stockholders approved a two-for-one stock split.
    As a result of the split, Hanover said it increases the
number of authorized shares of capital stock from 10.4 mln,
having a par value of one dlr, to 20.9 mln, also having a par
value of one dlr.
    The stock split is payable April 30 to stockholders of
record April 10, Hanover said.
 Reuter

Federal Paperboard Co Inc said it
has entered into an agreement with Ozaki Trading Co Ltd of
Osaka, Japan, allowing Ozaki to represent Federal Paperboard's
bleached paperboard sales in Japan.
    Federal added it will be opening an office in Japan in the
   
 Reuter

National Guardian Corp said it
has acquired a number of security services companies recently,
with aggregate revenues of about 3,500,000 dlrs, for an
aggregate cost of about 2,700,000 dlrs.
    It said it acquired guard service companies C.S.C. Security
Gaurd Service of Paramus, N.J., from Cartel Security
Consultants Inc, the Guard Services Division of Security
Services of America of Wayne, N.J., Capital Investigations and
Protective Agency of Hackensack, N.J., and Meyer Detective
Agency Inc of National Park, N.J.
    The company said it bought alarm service operations
Certified Security Services Inc of Key West, Fla., Custom
Security Services of Myrtle Beach, S.C., A-T-E Security Group
Inc of Houston and the Louisville, Kent and Nashville, Tenn,
offices of Wells Fargo Alarm Services.
 Reuter

Qtly distribution 7-1/2 cts vs 7-1/2 cts prior (excluding
2-1/2 cts special)
    Record April 22
    NOTE: Full name is Universal Medical Buildings L.P.
 Reuter

The Zambian government has no immediate
plans to follow last week's increase in the producer price of
maize with a hike in the retail price of maize meal, an
official of the ruling party said.
    Last December, a 120 pct increase in the consumer price for
refined maize meal, a Zambian staple, led to food riots in
which at least 15 people died.
    That price increase, which President Kenneth Kaunda later
revoked, followed pressure by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) to reduce the government's subsidy bill.
    However, if the producer price rise, from 6.10 dlrs to 8.67
dlrs per 90-kg bag, is not accompanied by a retail price
increase, the government will have to spend more on subsidies,
a practice discouraged by the IMF.
    "There is no way out but to raise the subsidy levels of
meal. It (the government) would have to choose between the
demands of the IMF and those of the people," a Ministry of
Agriculture economist said.
 Reuter

Blocker Energy corp said an offering of
20 mln common shares is underway at 2.625 dlrs per share
through underwriters led by <Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc> and
    The company is offering 19.7 mln shares and shareholders
the rest.  Before the offering it had about 33.6 mln shares
 Reuter

Asarco Inc said it completed the sale
of four mln shares of Asarco common stock to an underwriting
group led by First Boston Corp.
    The underwriters sold the shares to the public at a price
of 22.50 dlrs a share, the minerals and energy company said.
    Proceeds of about 86 mln dlrs will be used to reduce
outstanding debt, it said.
    The offering included 3.5 mln shares announced April 1 and
500,000 to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

American Midland Corp
said <Braodway Casinos Inc> has entered into a letter of intent
for a new company to be formed by <Carnival Cruise Lines Inc>
and <Continental Hotel Cos> to operate Broadway's planned
hotel/casino in the Marina area of Atlantic City, N.J.
    American Midland has agreed to spin off its 8.2 acre
Atlantic City property to Broadway, a new company in which
American Midland shareholders would initially own an 85 pct
interest.
 Reuter

said shareholkders have approved the acquisition of its
advisor, Wedgestone Advisory Corp, for 600,000 shares.
    It said completion is expected to take place April 10.
 Reuter

subsidiary said it is decreasing the price it charges contract
barge customers for heating oil in ny harbor by 0.50 cent a
    The 0.50 cent a gallon price reduction brings Sun's heating
oil contract barge price to 50 cts a gallon, the company said.
 Reuter

Promising new findings in the use of
a controversial experimental drug called Interleukin-2 as a
cure for cancer will be published in the April 9 issue of the
prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, according to a
Wall Street analyst who has obtained an advance copy of the
magazine.
    Among interleukin's principal U. S. makers are Cetus Corp
<CTUS>, headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., and Immunex Corp
<IMNX>, based in Seattle, Wash.
    The journal, to be released late today, contains two
articles reporting high remission rates several cancer types.
    The journal also contains a signed editorial concluding
that the new results mark a significant milestone in the search
for a successful immunotherapy for cancer.
    Interleukin-2, also known as IL-2, is a substance naturally
produced by living cells in the laboratory.
    The drug is controversial because it was widely praised as
a promising cancer treatment in early reports on its
effectiveness in late 1985, only to come under criticism a year
later for its failure to live up to its promise and due to its
ravaging side effects.
    One of the new studies, conducted by Dr. William West of
Biotherapeutics Inc of Franklin, Tenn., is particularly
significant because it found far fewer harsh side effects after
it changed the way in which the drug is administered.
    In that study, researchers administered IL-2 to 48 cancer
patients and found a 50-pct remission rate for kidney cancers
and a 50 pct remission rate for melanoma, a type of skin
cancer, according to Prudential-Bache Securities' Stuart
Weisbrod, who obtained the advance copy of the magazine.
    For rectal and colon cancer, the researchers found no
remissions, but none of the 48 patients treated had side
effects serious enough to be placed under intensive hospital
care, according to the article.
    In the second study, whose principal author is Dr. Steven
Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute, researchers
administered IL-2 to 157 cancer patients and found a 33 pct
remission rate in cancers of the kidney, a 27 pct rate in
melanomas and a 15 pct rate in cancers of the colon and rectum.
    In the National Cancer Institute trials, a total of four
patients died, the magazine reported, confirming the harshness
of the drug's side effects as originally administered.
    "Perhaps we are at the end of the beginning of the search
for successful immunotherapy for cancer," said the editorial,
signed by John Durant of Philadelphia's Chase Cancer Center.
    "These observations reported by Rosenberg and West surely
did not describe successful practical approaches ready for
widespread applications in the therapy of cancer patients," the
editorial said.
    "On the other hand, if they reflect, as seems possible, a
successful manipulation of the cellular immune system, then we
may be near the end of our search for a meaningful direction in
the immunuotherapy of cancer," the editorial concluded.
 Reuter

An audit submitted to the Georgia
Public Service Commission claims that between 944 mln dlrs and
1.8 billion dlrs of the costs of the Plant Vogtle nuclear power
station should be disallowed, a Southern Co spokeswoman said.
    Southern's Georgia Power Co subsidiary has a 45.7 pct
interest in the plant and estimated earlier this year it would
cost a total of 8.87 billion dlrs. Last year, the plant's
owners pledged to Georgia regulators they would limit the cost
passed on to rate payers to 8.4 billion dlrs.
    The Southern spokeswoman said the company feels the report
by O'Brien-Kreitzberg is "flawed and biased." She said the
report was released yesterday by the state attorney general.
    Responding to the report today, Georgia Power Chairman
Robert W. Scherer told a news conference the conclusions drawn
by the firm "are not only wrong -- they also reflect the same
bias against nuclear power that these auditors have
demonstrated in similar cases accross the country."
    Saying he was not suggesting Georgia power was without
fault, Scherer said "the audit identified several things I wish
we had done differently."
    Scherer pointed out a report O'Brien-Kreitzberg submitted
to Georgia regulators in March 1986 projected Georgia Power
would not finish Plant Vogtle unit one before the end of 1987.
    Noting "unit one is finished, and we expect it to be in
commercial operationg by June," he said the firm's latest
report ignored the earlier projection, gave the utility no
credit for the completion and "actually penalized us by
suggesting that costs to maintain t he schedule be disallowed."
    Scherer said the latest audit alleges Georgia Power could
have saved 95 mln dlrs if it had stopped using four shifts,
seven days a week to speed construction three years sooner.
    He said this would have delayed completion of the plant for
another year "and it would have cost several hunderd million
dlrs more."
    Noting the audit said costs were increased 600 mln dlrs by
schedule delays totaling 20.5 months, he said "First, we have
the best concrete placement record in the industry, Second new
government regulations after the Three Mile Island incident
significantly increased construction time.
   
 Reuter

Argentine grain producers adjusted
their yield estimates for the 1986/87 coarse grain crop
downward in the week to yesterday after the heavy rains at the
end of March and beginning of April, trade sources said.
    They said sunflower, maize and sorghum production estimates
had been reduced despite some later warm, dry weather, which
has allowed a return to harvesting in some areas.
    However, as showers fell intermittently after last weekend,
producers feared another spell of prolonged and intense rain
could cause more damage to crops already badly hit this season.
    Rains in the middle of last week reached an average of 27
millimetres in parts of Buenos Aires province, 83 mm in
Cordoba, 41 in Santa Fe, 50 in Entre Rios and Misiones, 95 in
Corrientes, eight in Chaco and 35 in Formosa.
    There was no rainfall in the same period in La Pampa.
    Producers feared continued damp conditions could produce
rotting and lead to still lower yield estimates for all the
crops, including soybean.
    However, as the lands began drying later in the week
harvesting advanced considerably, reaching between 36 and 40
pct of the area sown in the case of sunflower.
    Deterioration of the sunflower crop evident in harvested
material in Cordoba, La Pampa and Buenos Aires forced yield
estimates per hectare to be adjusted down again.
    The season's sunflowerseed production is now forecast at
2.1 mln to 2.3 mln tonnes, against 2.2 mln to 2.4 mln forecast
last week and down 43.9 to 48.8 pct on the 1985/86 record of
4.1 mln.
    Area sown to sunflowers was two to 2.2 mln hectares, 29.9
to 36.3 pct below the record 3.14 mln hectares last season.
    Maize harvesting has also reached 36 to 40 pct of the area
sown. It is near completion in Cordoba and Santa Fe and will
begin in La Pampa and southern Buenos Aires later in April.
    Production estimates for maize were down from last week at
9.5 mln to 9.8 mln tonnes, against 9.6 mln to 9.9 mln estimated
    This is 22.2 to 23.4 pct below the 12.4 mln to 12.6 mln
tonnes estimated by private sources for the 1985/86 crop and
21.9 to 25.8 pct down on the official figure of 12.8 mln
tonnes.
    Maize was sown on 3.58 mln to 3.78 mln hectares, two to
seven pct down on last season's 3.85 mln.
    Sorghum was harvested on 23 to 25 pct of the area sown in
Cordoba, Santa Fe and Chaco. Harvest will start in La Pampa and
Buenos Aires in mid-April.
    The total area sown was 1.23 mln to 1.30 mln hectares, 10.3
to 15.2 pct down on the 1.45 mln sown last season.
    The new forecast for the sorghum crop is 2.9 mln to 3.2 mln
tonnes compared with three mln to 3.3 mln forecast last week,
and is 23.8 to 29.3 pct down on last season's 4.1 mln to 4.2
mln tonne crop.
    The soybean crop for this season was not adjusted,
remaining at a record 7.5 mln to 7.7 mln tonnes, up 4.2 to 5.5
pct on the 7.2 mln to 7.3 mln estimated by private sources for
1985/86 and 5.6 to 8.5 pct higher than the official figure of
7.1 mln.
    The area sown to soybeans this season was a record 3.7 mln
to 3.8 mln hectares, 10.8 to 13.8 pct up on the record 3.34 mln
sown in 1985/86.
    The soybean crop is showing excessive moisture in some
areas and producers fear they may discover more damage. Some
experimental harvesting was carried out in Santa Fe on areas
making up only about one pct of the total crop but details on
this were not available.
    Preparation of the fields for the 1987/88 wheat crop, which
will be sown between May and August or September, has so far
not been as intense as in previous years.
 Reuter

Dutch seasonally adjusted unemployment
rose in the month to end-March to a total 693,000 from 690,600
at end-February, but was well down from 730,100 at end-March
1986, Social Affairs Ministry figures show.
    The figure for male jobless rose by 2,000 in the month to
436,500 compared with 470,700 a year earlier. The figure for
women was 256,500 at end-March against 256,100 a month earlier
and 259,400 at end-March 1986.
    On an unadjusted basis total unemployment fell by 16,500 in
the month to end-March to 692,200. In March 1986 the figure was
725,000.
    A ministry spokesman said the unadjusted figures showed a
smaller than usual seasonal decrease for the time of year,
because of particularly cold weather delaying work in the
building industry. He said this explained the increase in the
adjusted statistics.
    Total vacancies available rose by 1,900 to 26,300 at
end-March. A year earlier the figure was 28,763.
 REUTER

HARTMARX CORP &lt;HMX&gt; BOOSTS DIVIDEND
    CHICAGO, April 8 
    Qtly div 25 cts vs 23 cts prior qtr
    Pay 15 May

affirmed the long-term debt ratings but cut the commercial
paper to Prime-2 from Prime-1 of Avco Financial Services Inc, a
unit of Avco Corp.
    Avco Financial has 2.5 billion dlrs of debt outstanding.
    For the paper cut, Moody's cited a higher risk profile
inherent in the company's core business. Moody's said the
affirmation reflected its assessment of a less diversified risk
profile in the company's receivables.
    Affirmed were Avco Financial's A-3 senior debt, Baa-2
senior subordinated debt and Baa-3 junior subordinated debt.
 Reuter

Top officials of leading industrial
nations arrived at the U.S. Treasury main building to begin a
meeting of the Group of Five.
    Officials seen arriving by Reuter correspondents included
West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and Bundesbank
President Karl Otto Poehl, French Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur and his central banker Jacques de Larosiere.
    Also seen arriving were Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa and Japan's central bank governor Satoshi Sumita and
British Chancellor of the Exchequer and central bank governor
Robin Leigh Pemberton.
    There was no immediate sign of Italian or Canadian
officials. Monetary sources have said a fully blown meeting of
the Group of Seven is expected to begin around 3 p.m. local
time (1900 gmt) and last at least until 6 p.m. (2200 gmt), when
a communique is expected to be issued.
    Italian sources said Italian acting Finance Minister
Giovanni Goria met Treasury Secretary James Baker last night.
    At those talks Baker apparently convinced Goria, who
declined to attend the February meeting of the Group of Seven
in Paris, that Italy would participate fully in any meaningful
decisions.
 Reuter

    Economists expect the Fed to execute 2.0-2.5 billion dlrs
of customer repos to offset pressures from the end of the
two-week bank reserve maintenance period today. Some also look
for a permanent reserve injection to offset seasonal pressures
via an outright purchase of bills or coupons this afternoon.
     The Federal funds rate opened at 6-3/8 pct and remained at
that level, up from yesterday's 6.17 pct average.
 Reuter

March rose to 26.1 mln dlrs from 11.9 mln dlrs in the
comparable 1986 period.
    It said sales for the fiscal year ended March 31 rose to
329.5 mln dlrs from 113.1 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    The company said sales performance was based on the
addition of 12 new retail facilities.
 Reuter

AutoSpa corp said it will redeem all
its common stock purchase warrants on May Five at 7.5 cts each.
    Through May Four, each warrant may be exercised into one
common share at 1.75 dlrs.
 Reuter

<The Reader's Digest
Association Inc> said it sold its subsidiary, Source
Telecomputing Corp, to the venture capital firm of <Welsh,
Carson, Anderson and Stowe>.
    The purchase price was not disclosed, Reader's Digest said.
    It said it purchased an 80 pct stake in Source in 1980 and
earned an unspecified profit on 14 mln dlrs in revenues in
1986.
 Reuter

Shr 59 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 18.0 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Revs 278.6 mln vs 272.2 mln
 Reuter

Anvet Inc said it filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement for
a proposed public offering of 150 mln dlrs of convertible
    Avnet said it will use the net proceeds for general working
capital purposes and the anticipated domestic and foreign
expansion of its distribution, assembly and manufacturing
    The company said an investment banking group managed by
Dillon Read and Co Inc will handle the offering.
 Reuter

Continental Bank of Canada said
shareholders approved a capital reorganization to allow an
initial payout by the end of May to common shareholders from
last year's 200 mln Canadian dlr sale of most Continental
assets to <Lloyds Bank PLC>'s Lloyds Bank Canada.
    The bank said the initial distribution would take the form
of a stock dividend of cumulative redeemable retractable class
A series two preferred shares entitling holders to monthly
floating rate dividends at 72 pct of prime and to 12.75 dlrs a
share on retraction.
    Continental said the initial payout was subject to Canadian
    The bank reiterated that total distributions to common
shareholders would range from 16.50 dlrs a share to 17.25 dlrs
including the initial stock dividend and a final distribution
in late 1988 or early 1989.
    The payout of existing preferred shareholders will be
completed just before next month's initial distribution to
common shareholders, Continental added.
   
 Reuter

4th qtr
    Shr loss 17 cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net loss 14.5 mln vs loss 18.0 mln
    Revs 27.3 mln vs 23.7 mln
    Year
    Shr 58 cts vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net loss 48.3 mln vs loss 84.2 mln
    Revs 111.7 mln vs 141.9 mln
    NOTE: Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp of
Manila.
    Translated from Philippine pesos at 20.3489 pesos to dollar
vs 18.5571 in quarter and 20.2315 vs 18.2743 in year.
 Reuter

its buyer incentive program on light trucks to April 30 from
April 6, the program's previous expiration date.
    Ford, which saw a 23 pct rise in its March truck sales over
the March 1986 level, said the incentives were extended to
"maintain its truck sales momentum."
    The program itself was not changed. Customers have a choice
of 3.9 to 9.9 annual percentage rate financing or a cash rebate
of 300 dlrs or 600 dlrs, depending on the type of transmission
chosen.
    Ford last week extended to April 30 from March 12 its
incentive program on its compact trucks and the Ford Taurus and
Mercury Sable cars.
 Reuter

World output of staple foods maintained
growth in 1986, following a record harvest the year before, and
most of the increase was in developing countries, the director
general of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
said.
    Speaking to FAO's committee on world food security, Edouard
Saouma said sub-Saharan Africa registered a cereal production
increase of 3.6 pct in 1986 and the Far East also continued to
increase production.
    Despite ample supplies worldwide, many countries face
problems in paying for all the food they need, he said.
    Saouma said many of the developing world's food problems
were the result of "chaotic" world trade.
    He said it was vital to promote employment to improve the
"food-security situation" of the poor, with policy reforms in
developing countries to remove existing disincentives to
production so that agriculture could play a greater role in
stimulating economic growth.
 Reuter

AVX Corp said it has filed a
Commission for a proposed public offering of 75 mln dlrs
prinicipal amount of convertible subordinated debentures.
    AVX said a syndicate managed by Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc will underwrite the offering.
 Reuter

Sci-Med Life Systems Inc said
its directors approved a previously proposed agreement of
merger with Bristol-Myers Co.
    The proposed transaction is subject to completion of a due
diligence investigation, including a review by Bristol-Myers of
a patent infringement suit served on Sci-Med by Advanced
Cardiovascular Systems Inc on March 31, 1987.
    Bristol-Myers has the right to call off the agreement under
certain circumstances, it said.
    Sci-Med said it continues to believe the patent suit is
without merit.
 Reuter

Fidelcor Inc said it has completed
the sale of its Industrial Valley Title Insurance Co subsidiary
to a group of investors including the unit's management for
    Industrial Valley has assets of about 37.6 mln dlrs and was
acquired last year along with IVB Financial Corp.
 Reuter

    Net 575,000 vs 379,000
    Sales 6,625,000 vs 4,537,000
    Avg shrs 3,173,000 vs 2,977,000
 Reuter

Cheap oil feedstocks, the weakened U.S.
dollar and a plant utilization rate approaching 90 pct will
propel the streamlined U.S. petrochemical industry to record
profits this year, with growth expected through at least 1990,
major company executives predicted.
    This bullish outlook for chemical manufacturing and an
industrywide move to shed unrelated businesses has prompted GAF
Corp <GAF>, privately-held Cain Chemical Inc, and other firms
to aggressively seek acquisitions of petrochemical plants.
    Oil companies such as Ashland Oil Inc <ASH>, the
Kentucky-based oil refiner and marketer, are also shopping for
money-making petrochemical businesses to buy.
    "I see us poised at the threshold of a golden period," said
Paul Oreffice, chairman of giant Dow Chemical Co <DOW>, adding,
"There's no major plant capacity being added around the world
now. The whole game is bringing out new products and improving
the old ones."
    Analysts say the chemical industry's biggest customers,
automobile manufacturers and home builders that use a lot of
paints and plastics, are expected to buy quantities this year.
    U.S. petrochemical plants are currently operating at about
90 pct capacity, reflecting tighter supply that could hike
product prices by 30 to 40 pct this year, said John Dosher,
managing director of Pace Consultants Inc of Houston. Demand
for some products such as styrene could push profit margins up
by as much as 300 pct, he said.
    Oreffice, speaking at a meeting of chemical engineers in
Houston, said Dow would easily top the 741 mln dlrs it earned
last year and predicted it would have the best year in its
history.
    In 1985, when oil prices were still above 25 dlrs a barrel
and chemical exports were adversely affected by the strong U.S.
dollar, Dow had profits of 58 mln dlrs. "I believe the entire
chemical industry is headed for a record year or close to it,"
Oreffice said.
    GAF chairman Samuel Heyman estimated that the U.S. chemical
industry would report a 20 pct gain in profits during 1987.
Last year, the domestic industry earned a total of 13 billion
dlrs, a 54 pct leap from 1985.
    The turn in the fortunes of the once-sickly chemical
industry has been brought about by a combination of luck and
planning, said Pace's John Dosher.
    Dosher said last year's fall in oil prices made feedstocks
dramatically cheaper and at the same time the American dollar
was weakening against foreign currencies. That helped boost
U.S. chemical exports.
    Also helping to bring supply and demand into balance has
been the gradual market absorption of the extra chemical
manufacturing capacity created by Middle Eastern oil producers
in the early 1980s.
    Finally, virtually all major U.S. chemical manufacturers
have embarked on an extensive corporate restructuring program
to mothball inefficient plants, trim the payroll and eliminate
unrelated businesses. The restructuring touched off a flurry of
friendly and hostile takeover attempts.
    GAF, which made an unsuccessful attempt in 1985 to acquire
Union Carbide Corp <UK>, recently offered three billion dlrs
for Borg Warner Corp <BOR>, a Chicago manufacturer of plastics
and chemicals. Another industry powerhouse, W.R. Grace <GRA> 
has divested its retailing, restaurant and fertilizer
businesses to raise cash for chemical acquisitions.
    But some experts worry that the chemical industry may be
headed for trouble if companies continue turning their back on
the manufacturing of staple petrochemical commodities, such as
ethylene, in favor of more profitable specialty chemicals that
are custom-designed for a small group of buyers.
    "Companies like DuPont <DD> and Monsanto Co <MTC> spent the
past two or three years trying to get out of the commodity
chemical business in reaction to how badly the market had
deteriorated," Dosher said. "But I think they will eventually
kill the margins on the profitable chemicals in the niche
market." Some top chemical executives share the concern.
    "The challenge for our industry is to keep from getting
carried away and repeating past mistakes," GAF's Heyman
cautioned. "The shift from commodity chemicals may be
ill-advised. Specialty businesses do not stay special long."
    Houston-based Cain Chemical, created this month by the
Sterling investment banking group, believes it can generate 700
mln dlrs in annual sales by bucking the industry trend.
    Chairman Gordon Cain, who previously led a leveraged buyout
of Dupont's Conoco Inc's chemical business, has spent 1.1
billion dlrs since January to buy seven petrochemical plants
along the Texas Gulf Coast.
    The plants produce only basic commodity petrochemicals that
are the building blocks of specialty products.
    "This kind of commodity chemical business will never be a
glamorous, high-margin business," Cain said, adding that demand
is expected to grow by about three pct annually.
    Garo Armen, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds, said
chemical makers have also benefitted by increasing demand for
plastics as prices become more competitive with aluminum, wood
and steel products. Armen estimated the upturn in the chemical
business could last as long as four or five years, provided the
U.S. economy continues its modest rate of growth.
 Reuter

it has named Ozaki Trading Co Ltd of Osaka to represent it it
Japan on the sale of bleached paperboard.
    Federal said it plans to open its own Japanese office in
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit 38 cts
    Net loss 90,000 vs profit 1,685,000
    Revs 1,826,000 vs 29.3 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 3.37 dlrs vs profit 46 cts
    Net profit 15.0 mln vs profit 2,047,000
    Revs 26.2 mln vs 123.6 mln
    NOTE: Net includes pretax securities sale gain 10,000 dlrs
vs loss 1,000 dlrs in quarter and gain 486,000 dlrs vs loss
112,000 dlrs in year.
    Net includes pretax gains on sale of businesses of nil vs
4,656,000 dlrs in quarter and 26.0 mln dlrs vs 4,656,000 dlrs
in year.
    Net includes pretax losses on disposition of product line
of nil vs 3,150,000 dlrs in quarter and 3,300,000 dlrs vs
3,150,000 dlrs in year.
    Quarter net includes tax credits of 102,000 dlrs vs 736,000
dlrs.
    Net includes reversal of tax loss carryforwards of 259,000
dlrs vs 264,000 dlrs in quarter and tax loss carryforwards of
8,635,000 dlrs vs 579,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

introduced the first add-on mass storage products for the new
International Business Machines Corp <IBM> IBM Personal
System/2 Model 30 personal computers.
    CMS said the products are available immediately and include
hard disk drives, tape backup subsystems and a hard disk drive
on an expansion card.
    It added it plans to introduce more products for higher-
end models of the IBM personal computers within the next two
months.
    Prices for the new products range from 795 dlrs for a tape
backup subsystem, to 5,695 dlrs for a mass storage subsystem.
 Reuter

Oper shr 26 cts vs not given
    Oper net 866,000 vs 480,000
    NOTE: 1987 net excludes 157,000 dlr gain from termination
of pension plan.
    Company went public in August 1986.
 Reuter

Nantucket Industries Inc said James
Adams has been named president of its hosiery division,
replacing John Wineapple, and Terry Hampton has been named vice
president of manufacturing for the division, replacing Howard
Fromkin.
    No reason was given for the changes.
 Reuter

Freeport-McMoRan Inc said it
has decided to begin accruing a portion of its estimate of the
intanmgible drilling and development cost recapture amount as a
cost in determining payments to be made to Freeport-McMoRan Oil
and Gas Royalty Trust <PMR> unitholders.
    Freeport said this is expected to reduce monthly payments
by about two cts per unit starting with the distribution
payable July 10 to holders of record May 29.
 Reuter

it has developed superconducting wires that can easily be
formed into coils.
    It said when cooled to 91 degrees Kelvin, or 296 degrees
below zero Fahrenheit, the wires conduct electricity without
resistance.
    ATT said the wires are made of a barium-yttrium-copper
oxide compound.  It said while many engineering details remain
to be worked out, "The ability to draw the material into fine
wire and to wind the wire into coils and other forms is key for
many superconductor applications now being considered."
 Reuter

Faulty repair work by The Boeing Company
<BA.N> was a contributary cause to a Japan Air Lines Co Ltd
<JAPN.Y> 747 crash on August 12, 1985, that killed 520 people,
the final draft of a Ministry of Transport report says.
    There were only four survivors when the aircraft crashed
into a mountain north of Tokyo.
    The report said inadequate inspection of the aircraft by
Japanese inspectors after the repairs was another factor in the
crash. The crew were cleared of any responsibility for the
disaster.
    The report, which was sent on March 23 to the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board for comment, should be released in
late May. Under an international convention the draft must be
submitted for final comments to the relevant authorities.
    Boeing spokesmen were unavailable for comment. On April 4,
a Boeing spokesman at the firm's headquarters said the company
would probably make no comment on the Japanese investigation
team's report until it was officially released.
    On September 6, 1985, Boeing said in a statement that the
1978 repairs it had undertaken were faulty. This statement did
not, however, connect the faulty repairs with the cause of the
crash.
 Reuter

<Shared Network Technologies Inc> said
it entered into a cooperative marketing agreement with MCI
Communications Corp involving services designed specifically
for the university market.
    Under the agreement, the companies will jointly promote and
support TelNet Plus, a combination of MCI's PRISM family of
services, and TelNet, Shared Network's telephone billing and
network management services, the company said.
    TelNet Plus keeps track of all calls made through a
university's telephone system, rates the calls and produces
monthly invoices for each student or departmental account,
Shared Network said.
    The system also offers a variety of reportes, which aid
college telecommunications directors in controlling and
managing their telephone systems, it added.
 Reuter

Reynolds and Reynolds said that it
filed a coutersuit in the U.S. District Court in Detroit
against Advanced Voice Technologies and that it denied all
allegations in Advanced's March lawsuit against Reynolds.
   As previously reported, Advanced's suit charges Reynolds
with pirating a computer-based voice messaging system for auto
dealer departments using confidential information it received
while test marketing the system for Advanced.
    In the countersuit, Reynolds claimed that Advanced used its
proprietary inofrmation contrary to an agreement between the
    Reynolds also said Advanced interfered with its plans to
enter the market and compete with Advanced through a public
relations campaign and other activities.
    Reynolds said its suit asked the court for injunctive and
monetary relief based on Advanced's activities.
 Reuter

    Pay June 8
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 1.37 dlrs vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 101.8 mln vs 92.3 mln
    Revs 1.750 billion vs 1.725 billion
    Avg shrs 74.2 mln vs 77.8 mln
 Reuter

The Victorian Corporate Affairs
Commission, CAC, said it had suspended the futures trading
licence of G H Shintoh (Australia) Ltd after a receiver was
appointed to the company's South Australian branch.
    The one month suspension followed consultation with the
Sydney Futures Exchange, SFE, which was liaising with Shintoh
concerning the open positions of its clients, the CAC said.
    The South Australian CAC had applied for the appointment of
a receiver and manager over the Adelaide office of Shintoh, an
associate member of the SFE, the CAC said.
    Shintoh's is the first licence suspended under a Futures
Industry Code introduced by Australian states from July 1,
1986, SFE chief executive Les Hosking told Reuters.
    Asiavest Pty Ltd, a commodities futures trader associated
with Shintoh and incorporated in Queensland, was placed in
receivership earlier this year, he said.
 Reuter

Shopsmith Inc said its board has
released Joseph DiGaicomo Jr. as president, but he will remain
on the board.
    The company said the post of president will not be filled
at present.
    "With very disappointing sales results during the quarter
just ended, adjustments are appropriate," the company quoted
chairman John R. Folkerth as saying.
 Reuter

Qtly div eight cts vs N.A.
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co is issuing a 200 mln
Australian dlr zero-coupon bond due May 12, 1992 and priced at
54-3/8 for an effecitve yield of 13.52 pct, said Merrill Lynch
    The securities, which are available in denominations of
1,000 and 10,000 dlrs, will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock
Exchange. Eastman Kodak's outstanding issues are rated AAA/AA.
    There is a 7/8 pct selling concession and 1/2 pct combined
management and underwriting fee. Payment is due May 12, 1987.
 REUTER

First Boston Corp analyst William
Randol recommended the purchase of Texaco Inc today, saying
"the discount that investors have made in the share price to
reflect the ongoing litigation with Pennzoil has been overdone
relative to how we expect the case to conclude."
    Texaco's stock rose 1/8 to 34-1/8.
    On Monday, the stock tumbled four points after the Supreme
Court overturned a lower court decision that cut Texaco's bond
in the 10.3 billion dlr legal dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL> to
one billion dlrs. Yesterday, a Texas court granted a temporary
injunction on the bond issue pending a hearing next week.
    The current litigation arose from Texaco's buyout of Getty
Oil Co in 1984. Pennzoil sued, arguing its earlier agreement to
buy Getty was binding. Two Texas state courts upheld Pennzoil's
position.
     Randol, noting that the stock has suffered a great deal in
the two years since the litigation was filed, said "we
recognize the legal problems but think investors have overdone
it."
    He said "the stock is selling at 48 pct of its asset value,
and we think it represents a good value at this level."
 Reuter

NV Philips
Gloielampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> expects volume turnover to show
"a satisfactory increase" in the first 1987 quarter, chairman Cor
van der Klugt told the annual shareholders meeting.
    But an average dollar rate of only 2.07 guilders against
the 2.69 guilders in the first quarter of 1986 would take
turnover for January to March this year in guilder terms to
less than the 13.06 billion guilders posted in the comparable
    He said all the first quarter figures were not yet
available and would be released on April 29.
 Reuter

Data I/O Corp said it unveiled a
software package that helps engineers design complex integrated
circuits that fit on circuit boards built by <Mosaic Systems
Inc>.
    It said the Mosaic boards allow engineers to develop the
circuits at one-tenth their present size. The software will be
marketed in conjuction with the circuit boards, the company
said.
 Reuter

Photographic Sciences Corp said
it has formed a new Metrology Division for the production and
marketing of surface profiler measurement equipment.
    It said the equipment, a new market area, should add
significantly to company revenues in the next few years.
 Reuter

Merck and Co Inc said a combination
heart drug is available by prescription in the U.S.
    The drug is Vaseretic, a once-a-day medication combining an
angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE) and a diuretic to
treat high blood pressure. The inhibitor is a new class of
antihypertensive drugs. Last year Merck introduced Vasotec, an
ACE inhibitor.
    The new drug combined Vasotec and HydroDiuril, a frequently
prescribed diuretic.
 Reuter

Britain intends to negotiate further
agreements on international securities regulation to match
those now in force with the U.S. And Japan, government sources
said.
    The Department of Trade and Industry said earlier it had
concluded a memorandum of understanding with Japan's Finance
Ministry to swap supervisory and investigatory information.
    The agreement covers stocks, shares and government bonds,
but not commodity futures, whose regulation in Japan does not
come under the Finance Ministry. It therefore does not cover
some transactions on the London International Financial Futures
Exchange and the London commodities and metal exchanges.
    The DTI said it hoped to seek further understandings with
other countries which met in the U.K. Last December. The
meeting involved delegates from the U.K., Switzerland, the
U.S., Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, France, West Germany
and Holland.
    Government sources said the deal with Japan completes
arrangements linking Tokyo, the U.S. And London. A U.K.
Agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) was signed last September.
    Today's agreement will deal with requests for information
on a "case by case" basis, U.K. Government sources said. It is
not legally binding and comes into force immediately.
 REUTER

Shr primary 73 cts vs 60 cts
    Shr diluted 70 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 38,528,000 vs 31,680,000
    Avg shares 52,087,634 vs 51,294,652
    NOTE: Qtr net interest income is 130.7 mln dlrs vs 114.8
mln dlrs. Earnings per share reflects two-for-one common stock
split on March 15.
 Reuter

<Dominion Textile Inc> considers a
published report that it has bought a stake in Burlington
Industries Inc and is considering making a joint bid for the
company to be a rumor, a company spokesman said.
    "As far as I am concerned and the company is concerned, they
are rumors and we're not commenting on rumors," spokesman Michel
Dufour told Reuters in response to a query.
    "All the information that has been given out publicly is
that, yes, Dominion Textile is interested in making an
acquisition that big...probably based on that people are
starting all sorts of rumors," he said.
    Dufour said yes when asked whether the report was only a
rumor, but said the company was not prepared to comment
further. Dominion Textile president and chairman Thomas Bell
was out of town and unavailable for comment.
    Dominion Textile last year made an unsuccesful 104-mln-
U.S.-dlr bid for Avondale Mills and has maintained a 120-mln-
U.S.-dlr line of credit to be used for an American acquisition.
    Dufour said the company has been negotiating with "many"
U.S. textile companies but would not say whether Burlington
Industries was one of them.
    Burlington's stock rose sharply this morning on the report,
which said Dominion Textile had joined with U.S. investor Asher
Edelman to buy a stake in the company and to consider making a
takeover offer.
    Dominion Textile, which reported operating profit of 11.1
mln Canadian dlrs last year on sales of 926.5 mln dlrs, has
repeatedly said it will concentrate on expanding into the U.S. 
   The company has said it plans to diversify into new product
and market areas in addition to expanding its textile
 Reuter

Raytheon said a 10 pct rise in
its first quarter net to 101.8 mln dlrs reflected improved
operations and a lower effective tax rate.
    The company said revenue gains in electronics, major
appliances and other lines were offset by decreases in energy
services and aircraft products. Revenues in the quarter rose
1.4 pct to 1.75 billion dlrs, it said.
    The company said backlog stood at 7.520 billion dlrs, down
from 7.912 billion dlrs a year earlier. It said a five year
3.55 billion dlr U.S. defense contract was awarded shortly
after the close of the first quarter.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 2.80 dlrs vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 90.5 mln vs profit 5,271,000
    Revs 240.9 mln vs 159.4 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 2.49 dlrs vs loss 2.07 dlrs
    Net loss 80.4 mln vs loss 66.5 mln
    Revs 787.9 mln vs 612.4 mln
    NOTE: Includes loss of 89.6 mln dlrs vs loss 14.5 mln dlrs
in year and loss of 91.6 mln dlrs in current qtr from
    1986 qtr includes pretax gain of five mln dlrs from
settlement of litigation and tax gain of 5.1 mln dlrs from
change in estimated effective tax rate.
 Reuter

Major cocoa exporters are likely to
limit sales in the weeks ahead in an effort to boost world
prices, sources close to a meeting of the Cocoa Producers
Alliance (CPA) said.
    The sources said the depressed world market had been one of
the main topics discussed in a closed door meeting of the
11-member CPA which began on Monday.
    They said producers agreed that cutting sales would aid the
buffer stock manager of a new international cocoa pact in his
effort to support prices.
    Major cocoa producing and consuming nations agreed
operation rules for the buffer stock at a meeting in London
last month and the stock manager is expected to enter the
market soon.
    Prices, under the weight of three successive cocoa
surpluses, recently fell to the level at which the manager has
to buy cocoa under stock rules.
    The buffer stock aims to keep prices within a pre-set range
by buying when prices fall and selling when they rise.
    "The world's cocoa price at present is just not interesting,"
commented one delegate representing a major CPA producer.
    Another source said that with much of the 1986/87
(October-September) world cocoa crop sold, limiting sales in
the near term concerns essentially next year's harvest.
    The sources noted, however, that the cocoa industry in
Brazil, the world's number two producer, is in private hands.
This means limiting sales is more difficult than in major West
African producers, where sales are made or authorized by
commodity marketing boards.
    The CPA includes the world's top three producers, Ivory
Coast, Brazil and Ghana, and accounts for 80 pct of all output.
    The meeting here is due to end tomorrow evening.
 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange overnight System
    Dealers said that Federal funds were trading at 6-3/8 pct
 Reuter

Public Law 480 for approximately 52,500 tonnes of various
wheats in bulk, an agent for the country said.
    The agent said Honduras is seeking U.S. no. 2 or better
northern spring/DNS, with 14 pct protein minimum and 13 pct
moisture maximum, and U.S. no. 2 or better hard red winter,
with 12 pct protein minimum and 13 pct moisture maximum.
    The agent said NS/DNS laydays include July 1-10 for
7,500-9,500 tonnes, Aug 1-10 for 8,000-10,000 tonnes, and Sept
15-25 for 12,500-14,500 tonnes.
    HRW laydays include June 20-30 on 5,000-7,000 tonnes, July
15-25 for 6,500-8,500 tonnes, and September 15-25 for
7,000-9,000 tonnes.
    Offers are due by 1550 hrs EDT, April 13, and will remain
valid until 1000 hrs EDT, April 14, the agent said.
 Reuter

Pan Am Corp's Pan Am World Airways said
it began hiring pilots and flight engineers for the first time
in 19 years.
    The need for about 130 to 150 new pilots has been created
by the Pan AM shuttle, it said.
    Processing of applicants began March 30 and the first class
of new-hire pilots will begin training on APril 15.
    Pan Am said it also completed the recall of more than 250
pilots. Most of the new hires will begin as flight engineers,
but as many as 50 will move directly into the first officer
position, it said.
 Reuter

Thermwood Corp said it is extending
the expiration date of its 620,000 common stock warrants
through Dec 31, 1987.
    It said the warrants to purchase one share of common stock,
which have an exercise price of 3.00 dlrs, were to expire April
11.
    The company noted that its stock price has more than
doubled since late last year and "is now much closer to the
exercise price of the warrants."
    Thermwood is trading at 1-7/8, off 1/8.
 Reuter

Ameribanc Inc is raising 15 mln dlrs
through an offering of convertible subordinated capital notes
due 1995 with an eight pct coupon and par pricing, said lead
manager Stifel, Nicolaus and Co Inc.
stock at 18.75 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 27.1
    The issue is non-callable for two years. It was not rated
by Moody's Investors or Standard and Poor's at the time of the
pricing, Stifel said. Burns, Pauli and Co Inc co-managed the
deal.
 Reuter

March sales rose to 50.6 mln dlrs from 47.4 mln dlrs a year
ago.
    On a comparable store basis, it said the sales decreased
nine pct.
 Reuter

Investment Technologies Inc said it
will make available its online investment advisory service to
<Spear Securities Inc> customers.
    Investment Technologies said that through a Spear rebate
program, purchasers of the investment advisory service, VESTOR,
can receive a cash rebate of up to the full subscription price
of the investment advisory service from Spear Securities.
    Spear's brokerage commission rebate program will allow
money managers or individual investors who purchase VESTOR from
Investment Technologies, or from other authorized distributors,
to recive a rebate of the brokerage commissions, the company
said.
    Each month Spear will send participating customers a check
equal up to 25 pct of monthly commissions generated by the
client account, it added.
 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co Inc said its
first-quarter earnings fell by 3.2 pct, largely reflecting its
previously announced decision to place on non-accrual status
its 1.3 billion dlrs of medium- and long-term loans to Brazil.
    That decision, spurred by Brazil's suspension of interest
payments on February 20, reduced the quarter's net income by 20
mln dlrs to 226.4 mln dlrs, compared with 233.9 mln in the
first three months of 1986.
    Morgan also reported a loss of 1.8 mln dlrs from securities
underwriting and trading, in contrast to a gain of 45.4 mln
dlrs in the year-earlier period.
    In the fourth quarter of 1986, Morgan posted other trading
losses of 5.5 mln dlrs because of setbacks in the trading and
underwriting of Euromarket securities.
    Conditions in some sectors of the Euromarket remained
difficult last quarter, with floating rate notes suffering
heavy price falls, but a spokeswoman was unable to say whether
Morgan's trading losses were restricted to the Euromarket.
    On the positive side, Morgan reduced its provision for loan
losses to 35 mln dlrs from 70 mln a year earlier. Foreign
exchange trading income rose to 82 mln dlrs from 72.6 mln and
trust income increased to 95.9 mln dlrs from 75.9 mln.
    Morgan said other operating income, mainly fees and
commissions, rose to 102.2 mln dlrs from 88.4 mln, but net
investment securities gains dropped to 43.1 mln from 58.1 mln.
    Net interest earnings were 490.4 mln dlrs in the first
quarter, down from 499.4 mln a year earlier, and net yield fell
to 2.79 pct from 3.20 pct.
    If Brazil had not been placed on non-accrual, which means
that interest can be recorded as income only when payments are
actually received, net interest earnings would have been 525.9
mln dlrs and net yield 2.99 pct. If Brazil does not resume
payments, 1987 net would be cut by 72 mln dlrs, Morgan added.
    After the provision for loan losses, Morgan's allowance for
credit losses at the end of March totaled 953 mln dlrs compared
with 910 mln at end-1986 and 815 mln a year earlier.
    It reported net recoveries of six mln dlrs after
charge-offs of eight mln, compared with net charge-offs of 49
mln dlrs after recoveries of three mln a year earlier.
    Excluding Brazil, non-accruing loans at quarter's end were
583 mln dlrs, down from 633 mln at end-1986 and 684 mln a year
earlier. Non-interest expenses rose to 371.1 mln dlrs from
303.5 mln dlrs, with more than half the increase related to
personnel costs, Morgan said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 17.3 cts vs 21.5 cts
    Year
    Shr loss 58 cts vs loss 1.01 dlrs
 Reuter

Avnet Inc said it filed with the
covering a 150 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Proceeds will be used for general working capital and the
anticipated domestic and foreign expansion of Avnet's
businesses, the company said.
    Avnet named Dillon, Read and Co Inc as manager of the
offering.
 Reuter

Storage problems with Brazil's record
grain crop are likely to result in losses of about five mln
tonnes, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said.
    Ministry spokesman Leonardo Brito, speaking from Brasilia,
told Reuters he believed that about five mln tonnes of this
year's estimated crop of 65 mln tonnes would be lost.
    He said part of this would be the normal loss inevitable in
harvesting, but that most of it would stem from storage
problems.
    Brazil has a storage capacity of 66 mln tonnes,
theoretically sufficient for the crop.
    But Brito said that the storage capacity was badly
distributed. The states of Sao Paulo, Parana and Rio Grande do
Sul had between them 70 pct of the nation's capacity, but were
responsible for only 50 to 60 pct of production.
    The biggest problems are concentrated in the Centre-West
growing regions, where rising production has outpaced storage
capacity.
    Brito said the Centre-West, whose crops include soya and
maize, had between 30 and 40 pct of the nation's grains
production but only 20 pct of its storage space.
    In addition to the poor distribution of storage units,
there is the problem that too much of the capacity is geared to
storing grain in sacks, while not enough is suitable for
storing loose grain, Brito said.
    Finally, there is a shortage of lorries to transport the
crops.
    The sheer scale of the task in transporting the record crop
has been evident from television reports, which have shown
enormous queues of lorries waiting outside granaries.
 Reuter

Fleet Financial Group said its
shareholders approved an increase in shares of the company's
authorized common stock to 100,000,000 shares from 75,000,000
shares currently.
    The company said shareholders approved the move at the
annual meeting in Providence today when the company reported
that its first quarter earnings rose to 38.5 mln dlrs, or 73
cts a share, from 31.7 mln dlrs, or 60 cts a share, in the
first quarter 1986.
    J. Terence Murray, chairman and president of Fleet
Financial, said, "Fleet's mortgage banking activities in
particular continued to produce signficant income increases (in
the first quarter)."
    Murray said Fleet's mortgage servicing portfolio reached
22.1 billion dlrs by March 31, including 1.8 billion dlrs
purchased in March.
 Reuter

General Motors Acceptance Corp, a unit
of General Motors Corp, is raising 500 mln dlrs via offerings 
of 300 mln dlrs of notes due 1990 and 200 mln dlrs of notes due
1994, said lead manager Merrill Lynch Captial Markets.
    The three-year notes have a 7-1/4 pct coupon and were
priced at 99.682 to yield 7.37 pct, or 52 basis points over
    The seven-year notes were priced at 99.473 with an eight
pct coupon to yield 8.10 pct, or 71 points over Treasuries.
    Both issues are non-callable for life and are rated AA-1 by
Moody's Investors and AA by Standard and Poor's.
 Reuter

    Net 854,000 vs 839,000
    Revs 23.2 mln vs 21.9 mln
 Reuter

Exchanges and telecommunications
authorities should abolish their restrictions on full and free
dissemination of information to the investment and banking
communities, Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRS.L> chairman Sir
Christopher Hogg said.
    In the 1986 annual repoprt, he said lengthy negotiations
had brought agreement with the Tokyo and London Stock Exchanges
for fuller, but still not complete, access to market data
through Reuter services.
    "Many other markets maintain restrictions," he added.
    Hogg said members of some markets appear to believe that
information restrictions protected their interests.
    In other cases, exchanges seem to be limiting the
distribution of data in order to provide competitive advantage
to their own commercial information businesses.
    He also noted that despite increasing liberalisation in the
telecommunications field, some countries continue to protect
their state monopolies at the expense of other economic
sectors.
    "Reuter dealing services remain excluded from such
countries. As a result, banking communities serving entire
economies are put at a competitive disadvantage," he added.
    Reuters increased its 1986 pre-tax profit by 39 pct from
the previous year to 130.1 mln stg on a 43 pct rise in revenues
to 620.9 mln stg.
    Earnings per ordinary share were up 47 pct to 19.4p. The
annual shareholder meeting will be held in London on April 29.
 Reuter

<CCL Industries Inc> said it purchased a
majority interest in Monobloc U.S.A. from Envases Metalurgicos
de Alava of Spain.
    CCL also said it agreed to exchange present and future
technology with Envases.
 Reuter

The Association of White Metals has
decided to publish a daily tin price here in French francs per
100 kilos, the French Federation of Non-Ferrous Metals said.
    The price, quoted for the first time yesterday, was
introduced as the lack of tin quotes was causing problems for
some French companies, a spokesman for the non-ferrous metals
    Today's price was set at 4,776 francs per 100 kilos and
Tuesday's at 4,790.
    The International Chamber of Commerce stopped publishing a
tin price after the London Metal Exchange (LME) stopped tin
trading on October 24, 1985.
    The Association has tested the basis it uses to calculate a
French franc price over the last few months to ensure it was
reliable, the spokesman said.
    The French franc price is pre-tax, for specified quality, a
minimum 99.9 pct purity, at a French port or border railway
station and a minimum delivery of 10 tonnes.
    The French Federation of Non-Ferrous Metals groups various
metal associations including the Association of White Metals.
 Reuter

AVX Corp said it filed with the
    The company named Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc as manager
 Reuter

John Shad said he wanted Congress to write a better definition
of insider trading but thought action should wait until the
Supreme Court ruled on an insider trading case.
    "I'd like the benefit of the Winans decision before
deciding on a definition," Shad told a Senate Appropriations
subcommittee hearing.
    Shad was refering to the appeal by former Wall Street
Journal reporter R. Foster Winans of his conviction on insider
trading charges for telling a friend in advance what stocks he
was going to write about in his column.
    The stocks usually went up or down in price depending on
Winans' recommendation.
    He said insider trading accounted for only 11 percent of
the SEC's enforcement activities last year despite the
publicity given to recent major cases.
    "Insider trading makes up only a tiny fraction of one pct
of the 50 billion dlrs of daily securities trading," Shad said.
    Shad asked for a budget increase so the SEC could enlarge 
its enforcement staff by 20 this year and 73 next year to deal
with all types of securities fraud.
    Shad said he hoped to start his new duties as U.S.
Ambassador to the Netherlands by June. He said he did not know
when his successor would be named by President Reagan.
 Reuter

The Brotherhood of Railway and
Airline Clerks said more than 5,500 former Republic Airlines
workers will receive an average of 10,000 dlrs each as part of
a stock payout.
    It said some members will receive almost 19,000 dlrs in
payments.
    The total 56 mln dlr payment comes from an employee stock
ownership plan negotiated by several unions representing
Republic employees before the carrier's takeover by <Northwest
Airlines> in 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Western Digtial Corp said it has
completed the redemption of its 47 mln dlr, 6-3/4 pct
    The redemption resulted in the issuance of 2,685,142 shares
of the company's common stock, Western Digital said.    
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
 Reuter

<Madeira Inc> said it
signed a letter of intent to be acquired by Tradevest Inc
through a stock-for-stock exchange.
    After completion of the transaction, Tradevest would own 90
pct of the issued outstanding stock of Madeira.
 Reuter

Celltronics Inc said its directors
declared a one-for-10 reverse stock split of its common stock.
    It said the split will be payable April 17 to shareholders
 Reuter

<Montedison SPA> of Italy said net
consolidated profit for its Agrimont Group, formed in June
1986, totalled 1.5 billion lire in 1986.
    Agrimont SPA, the holding company for Montedison's
Agro-Industrial businesses, had sales of 810 billion lire and a
net profit of about 1.1 billion lire, after amortization costs
of 35 billion lire and a 13 billion lire reduction in the value
of inventory due to falling market prices, Montedison said.
    Agrimont, still wholly owned by Montedison, is taking steps
to be traded on the Milan exchange, the company said.
    The company said that 1986 was characterized by an unstable
fertlizer market due to the weak dollar and the decline of
international prices for products sold in Europe and the U.S
where Agrimont operates through its Conserv division.
    In pesticides and in animal health care products Agrimont
maintained its previous level of revenues and market share in
1986, Montedison said.
    Montedison said it named Ettore dell'Isola to the newly
created position of president of Agrimont.
    Montedison also said it named Renato Picco, managing
director of <Eridania SPA> and Gianfranco Ceroni, managing
director of <Italiana Olii e Sifi>, both of whom are members
of the the Ferruzzi Group's management board, to Argimont's
board of directors. Ferruzzi owns about 40 pct of Montedison,
    
 Reuter

Datron Corp said it agreed to
merge with GGFH Inc, a Florida-based company formed by the four
top officers of the company.
    According to terms of the proposed transaction, each share
of Datron common stock, excluding those shares owned by the
four officers, will be bought for six dlrs a share, it said.
    Datron's officers hold about 73 pct of the total 896,000
Datron common shares outstanding.
    Upon completion of the proposed transaction, the officers
of Datron would own 100 pct of the company. The merger is
subject to GGHF's receiving financing for the plan, Datron
said.
    Shareholders of Datron will be asked to approve the plan at
their annual meeting to be held in June or July, and the merger
is expected to be completed by July 31, it said.
 Reuter

Director James Miller said President Reagan will reject the tax
increase called for in the House Budget Committee's 1988 budget
proposal which is before the House for a vote today.
    "It's just completely unacceptable," Miller told a House
Appropriations subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and
General Government Appropriations.
    The plan, drafted by the Democratic-controlled Budget
committee, calls for 22 billion dlrs in higher revenues, of
which 18 billion would be from new taxes set by the tax-writing
    The House committee's budget proposal includes some
increases in federal user fees as well as 18 billion dlrs in
taxes.
    Miller warned that failure to reduce the federal deficit
would jeopardize the U.S. economy.
    "If we do not further reduce the deficit... we place this
economic expansion that we've had in the last five years at
risk," Miller told the subcommittee.
    "The result of any kind of tax increase would be to increase
substantially the prospects that the expansion would come to an
end," Miller said.
 Reuter

Dutch state-owned chemical
firm NV DSM <DSMN.AS>, the former Dutch state mines, which
today reported a 2.5 pct increase in 1986 net profit to 412 mln
guilders, said it was poised to be privatised, possibly next
year.
    DSM chairman Hans van Liemt told journalists "We have done
our homework. We're ready. It is up to the state now."
    He said a public sale of 30 pct of DSM's assets in 1988 was
not unlikely, but the timing of the sell-off was entirely in
the hands of Parliament.
    Dutch Finance Minister Onno Ruding is known to be a
proponent of privatisation, and the centre-right government
coalition mentioned plans to privatise DSM in its policy
declaration last autumn.
    Van Liemt would not speculate on a possible market price,
but said his company had raised its total 1986 dividend to 98
mln guilders, almost 25 pct of 1986 net profit.
    "We ought to be able to match our German competitors on
price earnings ratio, although the Amsterdam bourse generally
has a lower ratio than the world's major exchanges, " he said.
    The average Dutch price/earnings ratio is 10.
 Reuter

Shr 26 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 1,386,000 vs 2,773,000
    Revs 47.7 mln vs 38.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 52 cts vs 97 cts
    Net 2,765,000 vs 5,419,000
    Revs 116.9 mln vs 97 mln
 Reuter

CNA Income Shares Inc said it filed
statement covering a 30 mln dlr issue of convertible extendible
notes due 1992.
    The proceeds will be used for investment purposes, the
    CNA Inc named Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc as sole
underwriter for the offering.
 Reuter

Donald Trump and Interstate Properties
said they were holding preliminary discussions regarding a
possible joint acquisition of Alexanders Inc at 47 dlrs per
share.    
    The possible acquisition is subject to any applicable real
estate gains and transfer taxes, the joint statement said.
    Trump and Interstate, which presently own about 40 pct of
Alexander's common stock, said they intend to keep the company
as a retailer if they succed in their acquisition.
    There can be no assurances that the parties will reach any
agreement regarding an acquisition or what price might be
offered, the statement said.
 Reuter

Japan bought 4,000 tonnes of Canadian
rapeseed overnight at an undisclosed price for last half
May/first half June shipment, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 12 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net profit 183,000 vs loss 234,000
    Revs 2.4 mln vs 1.5 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit 22 cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net profit 345,000 vs loss 358,000
    Revs 5.2 mln vs 2.9 mln
    NOTE:1987 2nd qtr and six months include gains of 78,000
dlrs and 154,000 dlrs for tax loss carryforward.
 Reuter

Entourage International Inc said it
plans to package solid perfume in a lipstick tube and retail
the product, called "Amadeus," for 15 dlrs.
    The company said the product was first test marketed in
Feburary after six months of research and development.
 Reuter

Tunisia is expected to tender April 14 for
100,000 tonnes of French soft wheat for delivery between May
and August and which would be covered by the French export
credit agency, COFACE, export credits, traders said here.
    No official tender has been announced yet by Tunisia, they
said.
    France has sold a total of 200,000 tonnes of soft wheat to
Tunisia since the begining of the current campaign which was
covered by COFACE export credits. Of this amount, a total of
150,000 tonnes was exported by March 1, they said.
 Reuter

said it registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission
a proposed public offering of two mln shares of its common
stock.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt
incurred in the acquisition of two chemical companies, to
increase Great Lakes equity investment in Huntsman Chemical
Corp and for general corporate purposes, it said.
    Underwriters are led by First Boston Corp, Goldman, Sachs
and Co and Eberstadt Fleming Inc.
 Reuter

Northern Telecom
said it shipped the first digital central office switching
system it sold to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone under the
terms of a 250 mln dlrs supply agreement.
    The agreement began with the signing of a letter of
understanding in December 1985. THe formal seven-year agreement
was signed in May 1986.
    The Northern Telecom systems is the first U.S.-manufactured
digital central office switching systems to be installed in the
Japanese public telephone network, it said.
  
 Reuter

West Germany's total net direct investments
abroad fell to 11.2 billion marks in 1986 from 13.6 billion in
1985, but investments in developing countries rose to 683 mln
marks from 358 mln, the Economics Ministry said.
    Foreign investments in West Germany were a net 5.8 billion
marks in 1986, up from 3.6 billion in 1985, with higher
European investments largely responsible for this increase.
    The ministry noted that, despite last year's rise in West
German investments in developing countries, the 1986 level was
below the investments of over two billion marks seen in 1981,
1982 and 1983.
 REUTER

Shr 28 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 9,387,000 vs 25,617,000
    Revs 410.1 mln vs 393.5 mln
    Avg shrs 35.4 mln vs 164.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net reflects interest expense on debt incurred
to finance recapitalization in Oct. 1986. Prior year earnings
restated to reflect recapitalization plan.
 Reuter

The Senate Budget Committee ended its
stalemate over a budget plan and approved by a single vote a
revised 1988 budget proposed by chairman Lawton Chiles to cut
the deficit to 133.7 billion next year.
    The new plan broke last week's gridlock in which the
committee failed to approve a similar Chiles plan on a tie
vote. Today, the measure was sent to the Senate 13 to 11.
    Among a series of changes to get the extra vote, Chiles
added about 400 million dlrs for additional, unspecified,
agricultural spending programs to be paid with partly with
higher user fees.
 Reuter

Yankee Cos Inc said its Eskey
Inc <ESK> subsidiary has decided not to sell its Yale E. Key
unit.
    Further details were not disclosed.
 Reuter

said it has added a new chief compliance officer and will
expand its regulatory surveillance program.
    Paul O'Kelly, currently assistant regional administrator of
the Securities and Exchange Commission, was named
vice-president of compliance for the exchange, the CME said.
    The expanded compliance program, which calls for an
increase in the exchange's compliance budget and addition of
staff, was in response to recent criticisms that the CME's
current surveillance was not able to keep up with increased
demands of recent volatility and volume, the CME said.
    The new surveillance program calls for the addition of
three floor investigators and five compliance investigators,
the CME said.
    Some of the new staff will monitor the exchange's new
Computerized Trade Reconstruction system, scheduled to start
July 1.
    In addition, three computer programmers will be added to
assist in regulatory support for the exchange's management
information system department.
    Recent criticism has been especially directed at the CME's
Standard and Poor's stock index futures and options division.
    A special membership referendum to prohibit CME members
from filling customer orders and trading for their own account
in S and P 500 futures and options will be voted on April 13.
    In a letter dated March 12, CME chairman John Sandner and
Executive committee chairman Leo Melamed urged members to
reject the referendum in favor a series of new rules.
    Included in the rule changes was the requirement that
futures brokers in the S and P pit manually record all personal
trades to the nearest minute, intended to "enhance the
effectiveness of surveillance and compliance functions,"
    "We made a promise to our members that we have kept,"
Melamed said in a release today.
    He said the new surveillance program "represents a
commitment to a vigorous enforcement policy."
 Reuter

Plans to rejuvenate Poland's economy
by reducing central government control would help reassure
Western creditors that the country's economy was safe to invest
in, a senior Polish official said.
    "The business of granting loans to Poland is not as bad a
business as you might imagine," senior Polish government
spokesman Jerzy Urban told a news conference in Stockholm.
    Urban, visiting the Swedish capital to deliver a lecture at
the Foreign Policy Institute, announced earlier this week that
Poland would soon offer shares to private citizens in state
companies in a bid to make the economy more responsive.
    This was part of a major economic reform to be announced in
the coming weeks, he said.
    Urban said the main problem with his country's foreign debt
burden of 32 billion dollars was short term interest charges
but  the long term looked more secure.
    He said he hoped talks under way with the Paris Club,
grouping Poland's main government creditors, would shortly
solve the problem of short term servicing.
    Urban told reporters that debt servicing was hampering the
expansion of the national economy, but that the new plans for
economic reform would "open new vistas for Polish exports."
    He criticised the blocking efforts of some Western
governments, whom he declined to name, for putting political
considerations ahead of economic co-operation.
    "After the lifting of U.S. Sanctions against the Polish
economy we considered all political obstacles had been removed,
but that has not been the case," Urban said.
 REUTER

Shr 59 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 2.4 mln vs 1.9 mln
    Revs 122.5 mln vs 105.9 mln
    Six months
    Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 84 cts
    Net 4.5 mln vs 3.4 mln
    Revs 242.5 mln vs 210.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 share adjusted for 2-for-1 stock split.
 Reuter

Iran decided to continue its operations
east of Basra to destroy Iraq's forces, Iranian Prime Minister
Mir-Hossein Mousavi told Tehran Radio.
    "That seems to be the best spot for the complete destruction
of (Iraqi President) Saddam's forces. This is why it was
decided that the operations would forcefully continue there," he
said.
    "At the same time, we have maintained our ability to act
throughout the length of the fronts," Mousavi told the radio,
monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
    Tehran Radio reported over 1,500 Iraqi casualties today as
Iran continued its Karbala-8 operation launched early
    Iran said over 2,600 Iraqis had been killed or wounded
yesterday. Iraq said today its forces had beaten back the
latest attacks inflicting heavy casualties.
    Mousavi told Tehran radio that "on the whole, our advances
have broken the back of the military forces of Saddam."
    Earlier today the Iranian news agency IRNA said Tehran's
forces were stabilising new positions after their assault on
Iraqi lines defending Basra, Iraq's second city.
    In Baghdad, a military spokesman said Iraqi warplanes today
destroyed an oil pumping station and a production unit at
Iran's Ahvaz field.
 Reuter

The Bank of France said it will offer 9.5
billion francs worth of negotiable Treasury bills at its next
weekly tender on April 13.
    The total includes four billion francs worth of 13-week
bills, 2.5 billion francs of two-year bills and three billion
francs of five-year bills.
7.7 billion francs worth of 13 and 26-week bills against an
original offer of seven billion and demand for 22.66 billion.
 REUTER

Shr 33 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 9,219,017 vs 8,515,539
    Revs 112.0 mln vs 95.4 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 5,952,000 vs profit 2,078,000
    Revs 55.9 mln vs 50.6 mln
    Avg shrs 25.2 mln vs 24.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 11 cts vs profit 24 cts
    Net loss 2,673,000 vs profit 6,800,000
    Revs 162.6 mln vs 143.9 mln
    Avg shrs 25.0 mln vs 24.4 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes pretax charge
seven mln dlrs from increase in reserve for investments in
broadcast television entities and tax credits of 1,002,000 dlrs
in quarter and 520,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Investment Canada said it has allowed the
indirect takeover of Holt, Rinehart and Winston Canada Ltd.,
W.B. Saunders Co of Canada Ltd and Les Editions HRW Ltd by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Canada Inc.
    The government agency said, however, Harcourt Canada has
agreed to sell control of the firms to Canadian interests
within two years.
    Harcourt Canada's U.S. parent, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Inc <HBJ>, indirectly acquired the Canadian book publishing
companies when it purchased Holt Rinehart and Winston from CBS
Inc <CBS> last October.           
 Reuter

The New Jersey Hospital Association
said it will hold a symposium on the quality of hospital care
on Friday, April 10.
    Thirty-eight health-care executives from 18 nations will be
on hand at the symposium.

 Reuter

The largest U.S. textile maker focused
on its own business as its competitors found merger partners,
but now Burlington Industries Inc may have restructured itself
into an attractive takeover candidate, analysts said.
    The takeover spotlight fell today on Burlington, which rose
4-7/8 to 52-7/8 on speculation that investor Asher Edelman and
Dominion Textiles Inc of Canada bought an almost five pct
stake.
    A published report said Edelman and Dominion jointly
acquired a stake in Burlington and were weighing a takeover
offer. Edelman would not comment, and a spokesman for
Montreal-based Dominion called the report just "rumors."
    Burlington said it did not know if the report was true.
    Wall Street professionals said they were not convinced of
the story or that Edelman and Dominion would be the victors if
Burlington actually came into play.
    Arbitragers said past comments from Dominion, however,
added credence to the speculation. Dominion has said that it
was looking for a takeover in the U.S.
    Last year, Dominion unsuccessfully bid for Avondale Mills
and has maintained a 120 mln dlr line of credit to be used for
a U.S. acquisition.
    A Dominion spokesman said Canada's largest textile producer
has been negotiating with "many" U.S. textile companies, but
would not say whether Burlington was among them.
    "There have been acquisitions in this area. It's not
unusual that someone could be looking at Burlington after the
housecleaning they've done," said Eileen Gormley of Thomson
McKinnon.
    Burlington sold its domestic operations, which made sheets
and other linens, to J.P. Stevens and Co Inc for 110 mln dlrs
last year. It also has reorganized management, and focused its
operations on businesses that would be less affected by foreign
competition, Gormley said.
    "They've pulled back so as not to be a commodity marketer,"
said Gormley. She said in moving more heavily into industrial
fabrics, Burlington bought C.H. Masland, which supplies carpets
and other fabric to the auto industry.
    "In the past, they just spent and never realized the return
on the outlays they did make," she said.
    "You look at their record over the year, and I think
they're poised to be more profitable than they had been in the
past," Gormley said.
     She estimated 1987 earnings of 2.50 dlrs per share, up
from 2.01 dlrs per share.
    Some analysts today recommended clients not buy Burlington
at its current levels.
    Edward Johnson of Johnson Redbook said he recommends
selling. He said he believes the stock is worth only about 50
dlrs on a takeover basis and about 46 dlrs on an earnings
basis.
    Some arbitragers, however, said takeover values have been
placed on the company of 60 to 65 dlrs per share.
    "After Asher's (Edelman) recent history, a lot of people
don't find him very credible anymore," said one arbitrager.
    Another, however, said Edelman succeeds in forcing
managements to take steps to enhance shareholder values even if
he doesn't win the target company.
    Edelman was unsuccessful last year in offers for Lucky
Stores Inc and Fruehauf Corp. He did succeed in buying
Ponderosa Inc.
    The stocks of other textile makers rose along with
Burlington.
    J.P. Stevens <STN> climbed 5/8 to 44-7/8, and Fieldcrest
Cannon Inc <FLD>, the result of a merger of Fieldcrest and
Cannon, rose 1-1/8 to 39-3/4. West Point-Pepperell Inc <WPM>
rose 1-7/8 to 67-1/8.
 Reuter

Kidder, Peabody and Co and E.F. Hutton
Co Inc, acting as co-managers in the underwriting group, said
<Amplicon Inc's> initial public offering of 1,650,000 shares of
its common stock was being offered at 12.25 dlrs per share.
    Of the shares being offered, 1,400,000 are being sold by
the company and 250,000 shares are being sold by selling
stockholders, Kidder Peabody said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 10 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 206,000 vs loss 281,000
    Revs 1,022,00 vs 344,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 48 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 746,000 vs loss 342,000
    Revs 3,213,000 vs 2,925,000
 Reuter

Senior Japanese officials tomorrow
open talks with American trade negotiators in a last-ditch
effort to avert new high U.S. tariffs to be imposed on a wide
variety of Japanese electronic exports.
    Makoto Kuroda, vice minister of Japan's Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI), is to hold two days of
meetings with the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Michael
Smith, and the Under Secretary of Commerce, Bruce Smart.
    The new tariffs, to go into effect on April 17, are in
retaliation for Japan's failure to adhere to an agreement to
end dumping semiconductors in world markets at below cost and
to open its home market to U.S. semiconductor shipments.
    They are to be imposed on goods which use semiconductors,
including television and audio equipment and computers.
    Both U.S. and Japanese officials have said there was little
likelihood the talks would do anything to avert the 100 pct
duties on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese shipments.
    President Reagan announced the planned tariffs on March 27
after he said that close monitoring of the July 1986
U.S.-Japanese semiconductor pact convinced U.S. officials that
Japan was not honoring the agreement.
    In making the annoucement, Reagan said "I am committed to
the full enforcement of our trade agreements designed to
provide American industry with free and fair trade."
    Trade analysts said his move was aimed as much at Japan's
semiconductor trade practices, which are said to have injured
the U.S. semiconductor industry, as Congress, which has
complained about presidential timidity on trade issues.
    Congressional Democrats have pledged to enact aggressive
trade laws to counter what they contend has been Reagan's
inaction to redress the growing U.S. trade deficit, which last
year reached 169.8 billion dlrs.
    About one-third of the deficit was with Japan.
    Reagan said there were recent signs Japan was beginning to
adhere to the pact and that was why he was not terminating it.
    Kuroda said on leaving Tokyo today he had no new proposals
but did have an explanation of the semiconductor situation.
    He told the daily newspaper Ashai Shimbun that Reagan's
decision was based on inaccurate data and an exaggerated sense
of MITI's power to control Japanese traders.
    "The United States has excessive expectations.," he said. To
stabilize supply-demand relations which have been disrupted by
excess inventories since 1985 will take some time."
    He also said that U.S. firms had not been aggressive enough
in trying to sell in the Japanese market.
 Reuter

has sold 10 mln dlrs of eight pct senior notes due March 1992
to a major institutional investor it did not name.
    The company also said 5,800,000 dlrs of its convertible
subordinated notes due 1997 have been converted into 728,476
 Reuter

<Hoechst Celanese Corp> said it
sent propsective customers a confidential report describing its
polyester textile fiber facilities in North Carolina and South
Carolina.
    The company did not disclose any prices.
    The report describes the facilities in Darlington County,
S.C., and Fayetteville, N.C., the company said. The report also
decribes related manufacturing, marketing, administrative and
technical resources that could be made avialable to a buyer.
    Hoechst Celanese was formed Feb 27 by the merger of
Celanese Corp and American Hoechst Corp. The merger took place
after an agreement was reached with the Federal Trade
Commission that certain domestic polyester textile fiber assets
of the combined companies would be divested, it said.
    Hoechst Celanese said it has the option of divesting either
the South Carolina facilities of the former American Hoechst or
a package of polyester textile fiber facilities of the former
Celanese.
 Reuter

    Payable May 6
 Reuter

A Treasury official said there are no
plans to try to reduce the U.S. budget deficit by issuing
yen-denominated bonds that would become known as "Reagan bonds."
    "It simply isn't something that we are planning to do," the
    He added the Treasury was aware of Japanese news reports
suggesting the Reagan administration might issue such bonds as
the former Carter administration did when it sold "Carter bonds"
denominated in West German marks.
    But he said the situation was greatly different now.
    "If you look at the differences between the treasury market
now and in the Carter administration years, it is a much more
global market now," the official said.
    "There was not the same ease then for the holder of another
currency to buy other countries' securities," he added, "But
there is no difficulty now for them to purchase dollars and buy
U.S. securities."
    The United States needs dollars, not Japanese yen, to pay
its debts and reduce the deficit and so has no plans to issue
yen-denominated bonds, he emphasized.
 Reuter

Public Service Co of Colorado said it has
reached a preliminary agreement to resolve a territorial
dispute with Union Rural Electric Association of Brighton,
Colo.
    The company said, "The tentative agreement protects Union's
boundaries and also would set in motion a vote of Union's
membership, which could lead to acquisition of Union by Public
Service Co."
    Union provides electrical service to about 14,000 members
in cities and rural areas north of Denver.
    The company said the settlement, which is pending before
the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, is under review by
the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which
supplies power to Union, and is subject to approval by the
Public Service Colorado board and Union's membership. It also
will be discussed with the Colorado Rural Electric Association.
    It said legislation that would halt the acquisition of
electric utility service territories by annexation will remain
active in the Colorado House of Representatives until Union and
Public Service assure legislators they are in agreement.
 Reuter

Advanced Micro Devices Inc said it is
developing a set of five computer chips for use in digital
communications systems.
    The company said the new chips support the integrated
services digital network, or ISDN, the international standard
for digital voice and data communications.
    Advanced Micro also said it has signed a licensing
agreement with American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> under
which ATT has provided it with certain digital communications
specifications.
    Today's announcement follows the company's introduction
last week of a 32-bit microprocessor.
    "We have now reached a key point in the development of
communications devices that implement a worldwide ISDN
standard," said John East, group vice president for Advanced
Micro's logic businesses.
    He said the company's new computer chips, to be available
by the end of this year, should boost the acceptance and
implementation of ISDN services.
     The chip set includes five separate devices in 100 unit
quantities. The devices are priced from 7.25 dlrs to 29.25
dlrs. Similar chip sets for ISDN communications are already
being sold by a number of companies including INTEL Corp
<INTC>, ATT, Rockwell International <ROK> and a joint venture
between Northern Telecom LTd <NT> and Motorola Inc <MOT>.
    The ISDN standard, portions of which are still being
defined, will provide for the simultaneous transmission of
voice, data and video.
    Advanced Micro chip sets will be used in equipment such as
private branch exchanges and desktop computers.
    The company also said it is developing an ISDN protocol
controller. It said the controller will connect directly with
its current line of ISDN devices.
    The device supports several digital communications
protocols, including ones from International Business Machines
Corp <IBM> and ATT.
 Reuter

General Electric Co Plc <GECL.L> (GEC)
declined comment on rumours on the London stock market that it
is planning another purchase in the U.S. Medical equipment
field, in addition to its existing U.S. Subsidiary <Picker
International Inc>.
    A GEC spokesman said that it is company policy not to
comment on acquisition rumours.
    Stock Exchange traders said the rumour helped GEC's share
price to rise 5p, to a final 206p from yesterday's closing
price of 201p.
 Reuter

Preston corp said it expects to
report a loss of about 300,000 dlrs or five cts per share for
the first quarter, compared with a profit of 1,081,000 dlrs or
19 cts per share a year before.          
    The trucking company attributed the loss to the continued
rate of discounted in its primary markets, flat revenues and
increased costs, including uninsured claims expense resulting
from adverse weather conditions during the last three months.
    It said results outside the Northeast were strong, and it
expects to show improved results for the rest of the year.
 Reuter

Government securities market and offered to buy all maturities
of Treasury notes and bonds, a Fed spokesman said.
    He said this coupon "pass," which adds permanent reserves
to the banking system, was for regular delivery tomorrow.
    Dealers said that Federal funds were trading at 6-7/16 pct
when the Fed announced the operation. Economists had been
expecting the Fed to do this because of the need to offset
seasonal factors expected to drain reserves heavily over the
next few weeks. The Fed had previously offered to buy all
coupon issues on March 31.
 Reuter

Synergen Inc said it has filed
for an offering of 1,500,000 common shares through underwriters
led by Alex. Brown Inc <ABSB>, Hambrecht and Quist Inc and
Boettcher and Co Inc.
    It said proceeds will be used to fund research and testing
and for other general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

The U.S. Senate Budget Committee
ended its stalemate over a budget plan and approved by a single
vote a revised 1988 budget proposed by chairman Lawton Chiles
to cut the deficit to 133.7 billion next year.
added about 400 mln dlrs for additional, unspecified,
 Reuter

Quebec mines minister Raymond Savoie said
the province is prepared to offer money to help re-open
(Noranda Inc)'s Murdochville, Quebec copper mine, shut down by
fire last week, but said he could not give a specific figure
until damage estimates have been completed.
    Federal member of parliament for the region, Charles-Eugene
Marin, said last week the federal government is also prepared
to provide financial help to restart operations as soon as
possible. Noranda has estimated damage from the fire at about
10 mln dlrs and a company spokesman said it should have a more
specific estimate by the end of the month.
    Noranda said it had hoped to have an estimate sooner, but
has found that it will take longer than expected to gain access
to the burned-out area.
    Noranda said the mine was not insured.
    "We decided many years ago...that the costs of insuring all
of Noranda's underground operations would have been
prohibitive," Larry Taylor, Noranda's risk management and
insurance director, said.
    Taylor said before last week's fire, the company had only
had one previous mine accident many years ago.
    Last week's fire killed one miner and trapped 52 other
underground, some for up to 24 hours. It was believed to have
started on a new conveyor system.
    Noranda has said it would take four to five months to
return the mine to normal operating capacity. It produced
72,0000 tons of copper anode last year, Coffin said.
 Reuter

Western Digital Corp said its 47
mln dlrs of 6-3/4 pct convertible debentures due 2011, which
had been called for redemption, were converted into 2,685,142
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co is raising 25 mln dlrs
through an offering of notes due 1997, said sole underwriter
    The notes have a 7-1/2 pct coupon and an initial offering
price of 99.625 to yield 7.34 pct, or 20 basis points over
five-year Treasury notes. Morgan said the notes will be
reoffered to investors at variable prices.
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated Aaa by Moody's
Investors Service Inc and AA by Standard and Poor's Corp.
Investors can sell the notes back to the company in 1992.
 Reuter

<Le Peep Restaurants Inc> said it is
suing an Ohio company, charging it copied its restaurant from
its menu to its design.
    The action is being taken against <Shelly's Inc>, operator
of three restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, the company said. The
suit alleges copyright infringement and unfair competition, it
said.
    The suit was filed in U.S. District Court of the Southern
District in Ohio, and seeks damages in excess of 2,250,000, the
 Reuter

has listed Red Lion Inns LP, which went public today.  The
initial trade of the partnership units was at 19.75 dlrs, it
said.
 Reuter

Fitzwater said U.S. trade sanctions against Japan were likely
take effect on April 17 in spite of a "full court press" by
Japanese officials to avoid them.
    "All indications are they will take effect," he said.
    "I would say Japan is applying the full court press ... They
certainly are putting both feet forward in terms of explaining
their position," Fitzwater told reporters.
    He noted high level meetings on the trade dispute are
underway here but said, "I don't think there's anything I can
report and I don't believe there's been any official movement."
 REUTER

Stanford Telecommunications
Inc said it was awarded a three-year contract for 2,945,052
dlrs to support the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center.
    The company said its tasks will include mission modeling,
ground system specific task assignements, ground system
architecture/operations studies, transition planning, frequency
management support, radio frequency interference development
and system engineering.
 Reuter

Sir Norman Macfarlane, non-executive
chairman of <Guinness PLC>, has agreed to remain in his post
for two more years, the company said.
    The company said its board asked Macfarlane to continue in
his capacity. Macfarlane has been in his post since January.
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 5,000,000 vs 4,600,000
    Revs 125.2 mln vs 123.9 mln
    Note: 52 pct-owned by Dana Corp <DCN>.
 Reuter

    Stone Container Corp <STO> - Secondary offering of
1,633,453 shares of common stock and offering of 300,000 shares
of common stock, both through Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and
Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    American Continental Corp <AMCC> - Shelf offering of up to
250,000 shares of 100 dlr cumulative convertible preferred
stock through Offerman and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Western Digital Corp said it has
completed the redemption of its 47 mln dlrs of 6-3/4 pct
    The debt was surrendered for conversion into comon stock,
resulting in 2,685,142 shares being issued.
 Reuter

CopyTele Inc said the
U.S. Patent Office has issued a structure patent for its high
resolution charged particle flat panel display screen.
    The company said it has successfully developed an
experimental model with a 4.5 inch image area measured
diagonally, and is continuing development on panels with larger
image areas.
 Reuter

The basic deposit on cocoa futures
contracts will be reduced by 25 pct as from Friday, April 10,
taking the required deposit for one 10 tonne lot to 300 stg
from 400 previously, a spokesman for the International
Commodity Clearing House (ICCH) said.
    The deposit for spread contracts will be similarly cut, to
150 stg for a one 10 tonne lot from 200 previously, he said.
    The ICCH had been looking at cocoa market fluctuations over
a period of weeks, he said, adding the market's basic stability
had warranted a cut in deposit rates.
    The decision to cut deposits was taken by the ICCH after
consultation with the London Cocoa Terminal Market, the
    The cuts were likely to attract more business to the
 Reuter

    Nine Mths
 Reuter

Munson Geothermal Inc said it
received the necessary financing to complete construction work
at its Brady Hot Springs facility and begin commercial delivery
of geothermally produced electricity to Sierra Pacific Resouces
Corp <SRP> by July this year.
    Munson has a 30-year contract which calls for it to supply
Sierra Pacific with about 23.5 megawatts of electricity per
year, a spokesman said.
    Munson, a wholesale electric utility, said the financing
consists of a 1.25 mln dlr credit agreement with a division of
Foster Oilfield Co of Houston.
    Trading in Munson's stock was halted earlier, news pending.
It last traded at a bid of 2-3/8 and an offer of 2-1/2.
    In addition, Munson said that since closing its 1.2 mln dlr
limited partnership at Brady in December 1986, the company has
raised about 500,000 dlrs through private placements with
qualified investors.
    The funds will be used to help finance commercial startup
of the Brady facility, Munson also said.
 Reuter

Arvin Industries Inc said it and
Sango Co Ltd of Japan have started building a new 119,000
square foot joint venture auto exhaust plant in Madison, Wis.
    The company said the 15.2 mln dlr plant of its Arvin Sango
Inc venture with Sango is scheduled to be in operation early in
1988.
 Reuter

Washington Energy Co said it plans to
file a registration statement later this month covering a
planned public offering of 1.2 mln common shares.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to reduce
short-term bank borrowings incurred to finance capital
expenditures, the company said.
 Reuter

<Whonnock Industries
Ltd> said it agreed to sell two mln class A subordinate voting
shares to investment dealers Dominion Securities Inc and
Pemberton Houston Willoughby Bell Gouinlock Inc for resale to
the public at 7.75 dlrs each.
    Whonnock said <Toronto Dominion Bank> agreed to sell
500,000 of its Whonnock class A subordinate voting shares to
the same investment dealers as part of the public offer.
 Reuter

A third Marine has been arrested on
suspicion of espionage in a growing sex-spy scandal involving
security at both the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the American
Consulate in Leningrad, the Pentagon said.
    Sgt. John Joseph Weirick, 26, was arrested yesterday in
California and jailed for questioning on suspicion of espionage
while he served as a guard at the U.S. consulate in Leningrad
for a year beginning in October, 1981, Pentagon spokesman
Robert Sims said.
    Two other Marines were earlier charged with espionage at
the Moscow Embassy and a third Marine, Staff Sgt. Robert
Stufflebeam, was charged yesterday with failure to report
contacts with Soviet women in Moscow, Sims told reporters.
 Reuter

Philadelphia Electric Co will have
to spend an average of about five mln dlrs a day to replace the
electricity which would have been generated by the Peach Bottom
nuclear power plant, Chairman J. Lee Everett said.
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered the utility to
close the plant early last week.
    "This is the first time an operating plant has been shut
down by the NRC specifically because of plant operator
problems," Everett told the company's annual meeting.
    He did not say who would pay for the replacement power --
rate payers or shareholders.
    Everett told the meeting Philadelphia Electric can not give
a definitive answer on the cost of the shutdown until it gets
Peach Bottom back in service.
    He said the utility had been aware for some time it had
attitude problems among the operating forces at Peach Bottom
and thought it had been making progress toward improvement.
    "While the attitude of operating personnel at Peach Bottom
has been rated poor, the attitudes or our personnel at
Limerick, our other nuclear plant, have been rated excellent.
We have asked ourselves over and over how two plants, managed
by the same company, can be so different."
    Everett said "Limerick has been the model for improvements
we set out to accomplish at Peach Bottom, and remains so."
    He said a special committee composed of Philadelphia
Electric's outside directors will monitor and direct the
company's investigation of the problem.
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 74,000 vs profit 418,000
    Sales 18.2 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit nine cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net profit 426,000 vs profit 1,170,000
    Sales 58.7 mln vs 56.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit 2.26 dlrs vs loss 81 cts
    Net profit 9,785,000 vs loss 3,422,000
    Revs 26.0 mln vs 18.9 mln
    Avg shrs 4,316,000 vs 4,207,000
    1st half
    Shr profit 2.75 dlrs vs loss 1.07 dlrs
    Net profit 11.9 mln vs loss 4,486,000
    Revs 39.0 mln vs 37.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,318,000 vs 4,181,000
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes gain 9,500,000
dlrs from sale of Orange-Co of Florida subsidiary to American
Agrnomics Corp <AGR>.
    Net includes pretax real estate disposition loss 920,000
dlrs vs gain 52,000 dlrs in quarter and loss 863,000 dlrs vs
gain 117,000 dlrs in half.
    Prior year net includes tax credits of 2,132,000 dlrs in
quarter and 3,039,000 dlres in half.
    Current half net includes 2,051,000 dlr pretax gain
2,051,000 dlrs from change in accounting.
 Reuter

    Net 66,719,000 vs 61,773,000
    Rev 285.6 mln vs 259.7 mln
    NOTE: Earnings include after-tax gain of 29.4 mln dlrs, or
30 cts a share, versus after-tax gain of 31.4 mln dlrs, or 32
cts a share, for 1986 first quarter. Earnings per share
reflects a 50 pct stock dividend in the form of a class B
common stock distribution on June 30, 1986.
   
 Reuter

CCC-plus from B-minus Lanesborough Corp's 50 mln dlrs of senior
    S and P said the downgrade reflected Lanesborough's planned
purchase of Ampex Corp from Allied-Signal Inc <ALD> for 479 mln
dlrs.
    "The acquisition represents a dramatic departure from
management's stated financial policies," S and P said. It also
said that Lanesborough is making a major investment in a
venture with extremely high financial risk.
    The company's implied senior debt rating is B.
 Reuter

United Airlines, a subsidiary of UAL
Inc, said its load factor in March rose to 70.6 pct from 66.2
pct in the same period a year ago.
    United said its March traffic jumped 23.2 pct to 6.05
billion revenue passenger miles from 4.91 billion revenue
passenger miles in the same month last year. Available seat
miles for the month increased 15.4 pct to 8.56 billion from
7.42 billion available seat miles, it said.
    Total cargo ton miles for March were up 22 pct to 104.4 mln
from 85.6 mln cargo ton miles in March 1986, it said.
    For the January through March period in 1987, United said
its load factor advanced to 63.8 pct from 59.9 pct last year.
    Traffic for the period through March soared 32.7 pct to
15.57 billion revenue passenger miles from 11.73 billion
revenue passenger miles in the 1986 period, it said. Available
seat miles were ahead by 24.6 pct to 24.42 billion from 19.60
billion available seat miles in the comparable period last
year, United said.
    Total cargo ton miles for the 1987 first quarter rose 30.6
pct to 275.7 mln from 211.1 mln cargo ton miles in the 1986
period, the airline said.
 Reuter

LORD ABBETT BOND DEBENTURE FUND
    Qtly div 28 cts vs 29 cts prior
    Pay May 5
    ---
    Daily div 2.9 cts vs 2.9 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME FUND NATIONAL SERIES
    Daily div 6.7 cts vs 6.7 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    ---
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME NEW YORK SERIES
    Pay May 15
    LORD ABBETT TAX FREE INCOME TEXAS SERIES
    Daily div 5.9 cts vs 5.9 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    ---
    LORD ABBETT CALIFORNIA TAX FREE INCOME
    Daily div of 6.2 cts vs 6.2 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Dutch brewer Heineken NV said it hoped
to maintain for a number of years a similar earnings growth to
the 7.5 pct increase in net profit achieved in 1986, despite
continuing investments in a reorganization program and efforts
to extend world penetration.
    Heineken last month reported a 1986 net profit of 285 mln
guilders, after 265 mln in 1985.
    Chairman Freddie Heineken said the company, Europe's
leading beer producer with six pct of market share in 1986,
said sales increased by 6.3 pct to 42.1 mln hectoliters.
    The volume increase was due mainly to a rise in the U.S.,
Where the brand Amstel Lite saw great demand, and in Europe,
where sales accounted for 25.5 pct of the total.
    Turnover, despite losses in guilder terms due to weaker
foreign currencies, rose by 4.4 pct, to 6.7 billion guilders.
    Further consolidation of foreign companies, including the
increase of its stake in leading Spanish brewery <El Aguila
S.A.> to 51.2 pct, new ventures and modernization, particularly
in French and Spanish interests, eroded profit margins. The
company still planned to invest 700 mln guilders this year in
restructuring and marketing, Heineken said.
    Heineken's Spanish activities should start yielding profit
next year, Heineken said, adding that its French operations had
already turned to profit after vast rationalization last year.
    Vice Chairman Gerard van Schaik said the decision by the
European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to allow foreign beer
into the closed West German market -- Europe's biggest beer
market -- offered interesting possibilities for Heineken. "We
have the beer, but distribution and sales is the important
point," van Schaik said, adding that since the ruling Heineken
had been inundated by German traders seeking joint ventures.
    "The question is not if we want to penetrate the German
market, but how we are to do it," van Schaik said, adding that
while the widely traveled Germans seemed to be developing a
taste for foreign beer, the internal structure was very
regionalized.
     Heineken board member Hans Coebergh, responsible for
African operations, said he saw Africa as one of the most
important beer growth markets in the long term.
     He said the company, present in Africa since 1932 and with
majority stakes in six breweries and interests in 25, was
hampered by the lack of hard currencies there.
    Africa, where beer consumption averages only nine liters
per head per year and sales are limited by import restrictions
and currency risks, nonetheless accounted for 6.5 pct of total
1986 sales.
    On-site production is rendered expensive by the high price
of imports of essential ingredients. But Heineken scientists
have been looking at other possibilities.
    To balance the costs of imported malt, Heinken launched on
the Nigerian market a new beer made of 50 pct sorghum, which
had sold successfully, Coebergh said.
    Heineken is urging farmers to grow the traditional raw
materials, but Coebergh noted that banana and palm beer were
popular in Rwanda . "This is a possibility, but we could not
possibly achieve the Heineken flavor," Coebergh said.
    Chairman Heineken said the company's seven year efforts to
penetrate the Soviet market had finally resulted this week in a
contract that relaxed some of the restrictions they faced.
    But again, a lack of hard currencies limited Heineken's
market potential. Heineken now has seven bars in Moscow that
are enjoying good sales, but the bars only accept western
money.
 Reuter

Research Industries Corp said it
is introducing three additions to its line of cardiovascular
specialty products.
    The company said the products are a patented drainage
bicaval cannula for open heart surgery, a proprietary catheter
for neonatal thoracic surgery and a line of specialized baloon
catheter shunts for carotid artery surgery.
 Reuter

Orange-Co Inc said
Stoneridge Resources Inc.
    The company said yesterday shareholders of American
Agronomics Corp <AGR>, which acquired Orange-Co's Orange-Co of
Florida subsidiary late in 1986, approved a name change to
Orange-Co Inc.
 Reuter

Qtly div 13-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 cts prior qtr
    Pay 12 June
    Record 21 May
 Reuter

A Colombia government trade official has
urged the business community to aggressively diversify its
activities and stop relying so heavily on coffee.
    Samuel Alberto Yohai, director of the Foreign Trade
Institute, INCOMEX, said private businessmen should not become
what he called "mental hostages" to coffee, traditionally
Colombia's major export.
    The National Planning Department forecast that in 1987
coffee will account for only one-third of total exports, or
about 1.5 billion dlrs, with oil and energy products making up
another third and non-traditional exports the remainder.
 Reuter

Turkey said today its disputes with
Greece, including rights on the continental shelf in the Aegean
Sea, should be solved through negotiations.
    A Foreign Ministry statement said the latest crisis between
the two NATO members stemmed from the continental shelf dispute
and an agreement on this issue would effect the security,
economy and other rights of both countries.
    "As the issue is basicly political, a solution can only be
found by bilateral negotiations," the statement said. Greece has
repeatedly said the issue was legal and could be solved at the
International Court of Justice.
    The two countries approached armed confrontation last month
after Greece announced it planned oil exploration work in the
Aegean and Turkey said it would also search for oil.
    A face-off was averted when Turkey confined its research to
territorrial waters. "The latest crises created an historic
opportunity to solve the disputes between the two countries,"
the Foreign Ministry statement said.
    Turkey's ambassador in Athens, Nazmi Akiman, was due to
meet Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou today for the Greek
reply to a message sent last week by Turkish Prime Minister
Turgut Ozal. The contents of the message were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Digilog Inc said revenues
for the second quarter ended MArch 31 were about 4,300,000
dlrs, up from 3,065,000 dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

Cuba will continue to develop its economy
despite the need to cut imports from hard currency nations by
half this year, President Fidel Castro said.
    The Cuban economy is going through a difficult period due
mainly to two years of drought, low sugar prices, a fall in the
price of petroleum and the fall in the value of the dollar,
Castro said in a published weekend speech delivered to a young
communists union congress.
    Castro said  cuba will continue to prospect for oil, build
thermo-electric generating stations, a large petroleum refinery
and a nuclear power plant in 1987.
    He said work would also continue this year in developing
the chemical and mining industries. Among the main projects in
mining are two nickel processing plants built with Soviet and
Comecon aid .
    REUTER

Frontier Insurance Group Inc
said it is currently negotiating to acquire the business of
Medical Quadrangle Inc, formerly its largest medical
malpractice insurance producer, and the business of its other
malpractice producer, Medical Professional Liability Agency
Inc.
    It gave no details.
 Reuter

Oper shr 25 cts vs six cts
    Oper net 840,000 vs 139,000
    Revs 8,290,000 vs 4,743,000
    Avg shrs 3,335,029 vs 2,400,000
    Year
    Oper shr 97 cts vs 53 cts
    Oper net 2,546,000 vs 1,275,000
    Revs 28.8 mln vs 18.5 mln
    Avg shrs 2,635,665 vs 2,400,000
    NOTE: Net excludes investment gain four cts shr vs loss six
cts in quarter and gain five cts vs loss six cts in year.
 Reuter

The official in charge of
agricultural matters in the new round of global trade talks is
in Washington today and tomorrow to meet with congressional and
Reagan administration officials.
    Aart de Zeeuw, chairman of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade's negotiating group on agriculture, met this morning
with members of the House Agriculture Committee.
    Committee sources said De Zeeuw expressed concern over
protectionism and high farm price supports. House lawmakers
noted that in 1985 the United States took steps to reduce loan
rates, committee staff said.
    "Members told him (De Zeeuw) that we lowered our (U.S.) loan
rates and can't eliminate subsidies unilaterally," one source
said.
    De Zeeuw was told of the U.S. lawmakers' frustration with
Japan's restrictive rice import policy, and members defended
the U.S. dairy policy, which aims to cut surplus production by
subsidizing producers to trim herds, sources said.
    Later today De Zeeuw will meet the Senate Agriculture
members and Undersecretary of State Affairs Allen Wallis.
    Tomorrow, De Zeeuw is to meet the House Ways and Means
Trade Subcommittee and the Senate Finance Committee, before
visiting Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng.
    De Zeeuw goes to Canada later this week. His trip to North
America is part of his attempt to meet farm policy leaders in
the key GATT member states.
    The negotiating group on agriculture held its first meeting
in February and is expected to meet again in May.
 Reuter

    Net 707,000 vs 505,000
    NOTE: Company went public in July 1986.
 Reuter

Qtly div 12-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 cts prior qtr
    Pay 20 May
    Record 20 April
 Reuter

Walgreen Co said preliminary
figures show that its sales for March will be up 11.2 pct over
March 1986, when it had 313.4 mln dlrs in sales.
    Final March retail figures are expected Thursday April 9.
    It also said it expects a strong Easter selling season.
 Reuter

merge with GGHF Inc, a Florida-based company formed by the four
four officers, will be converted into six dlrs a share, it
said.
Datron common shares outstanding, it said.
(corrects company name, GGHF, in first paragraph)
 REUTER

Shr 62 cts vs 58 cts
    Qtly div 13-1/2 cts vs 13-1/2 cts prior
    Net 38.8 mln vs 35.7 mln
    Revs 1.18 billion vs one billion
    Six mths
    Shr 84 cts vs 86 cts
    Net 52 mln vs 52.9 mln
    Revs 2.14 billion vs 1.82 billion
    NOTE: Results include charge of four cts shr for latest six
mths vs credit of five cts shr for prior six mths from
investment tax credit
     Dividend payable June 12, record May 21
 Reuter

The relatively high level of real U.S.
interest rates suggests that there is scope for further
declines in money market rates, but the Federal Reserve is
unlikely to promote such a drop as long as the dollar remains
volatile, said J.P. Morgan and Co Inc chairman Lewis Preston.
    He said in response to a reporter's question after the
bank's annual meeting that money market rates could decline
further but, "I don't think the Fed is going to encourage that
as long as the exchange markets are as volatile as they are."
    On the other hand, he said that, barring a collapse of the
dollar, he did not see rates going much higher.
    He said that Morgan's recent rise in its prime lending rate
was "purely a reflection of an increase in a whole spectrum of
rates."
    Preston reiterated earlier company forecasts that the U.S.
economy should show roughly 2.5 to three pct real growth this
year.
    He also said that as a consequence of the dollar's decline
and oil price rises, inflation would rise "moderately" to a 3.5
to four pct rate in 1987.
 Reuter

Medtronic Inc said it sees 15 pct
growth in sales and earnings for the year ending April 30,
1988.
    At an analysts meeting here the company said that for the
year ending April 30, 1987 it will earn about 73 mln dlrs, or
about 5.15-5.35 dlrs a share on sales of about 500 mln dlrs.
    In the year ago period, the company earned 53.4 mln dlrs,
or 3.65 dlrs a share, on sales of 402.8 mln dlrs.
    Winston Wallin, Medtronic chairman, said the company will
improve market share in fiscal 1988 in cardiac pacemakers and
expand its cardiovascular therapeutic product line.
    Wallin cautioned analysts not to quickly change their per
share estimates for the company as he said Medtronic will have
heavy sales and marketing expenses in fiscal 1988.
    He said the company intends to reinvest its earnings in its
businesses and not in its dividends. "Shareholders are better
off if we grow the business rather than reinvest in dividends
or share repurchases," he said.
    Wallin said he sees Medtronic's share of the total
worldwide pacemaker market increasing to 42 pct in fiscal 1988,
from 40 pct in fiscal 1987.
    He said the worldwide market for cardiovascualr therapeutic
products, which includes pacemakers, valves, catheters and
lasers, will be valued at about 2.5 billion dlrs 1990 and will
double that by 1995.
    Wallin said, "Our objective is to get a hold of new
products and start building market share if we have to beg,
borrow or steal to get into new markets."
    In the past, Medtronic's pacemakers have been plagued with
a number of problems leading to product recalls. Regulators
also have criticized the industry, citing quality problems and
a needless overprescription of pacemakers.
    "We have no knowledge of any major problems in our
pacemakers or leads," Wallin said. "We intend to re-establish
our company as the quality leader in the industry."
    Glen Nelson, executive vice president for Medtronics, said
the company intends to diversify internally and through
acquisitions of companies in areas of Medtronic's expertise,
such as drug delivery systems.
    Wallin said the 15 pct earnings growth for fiscal 1988 does
not include dilutions from acquisitions. "We hope to have some
safety provisions so that we won't have any major dilutions
from an acquisition."
    Wallin also said the company will have virtual exclusivity
in rate responsive pacemakers for all of fiscal 1988.
    The company markets Activitrax, the first single chamber
pacemaker that varies heartrate in response to physical
activity.
    Siemens AG, a West German company, is also developing a
rate responsive pacemaker.
   
 Reuter

Corp said IBM vice president Ray S. AbuZayyad has been named
president of its ROLM Corp subsidiary, succeeding Dennis D.
Paboojian, who remains with IBM as a consultant.
    The company said IBM vice president Paul R. Low has been
named president of the IBM General Products Division,
succeeding AbuZayyad, and IBM vice president Michael J. Attardo
has been named president of IBM's General Technology Division,
succeeding Low.
    A Rolm spokeswoman said Paboojian decided to step down for
    His decision, she said, was not related to IBM's move last
month to merge Rolm's sales and service organization into its
own marketing corps.
    That merger was viewed by some analysts as reducing Rolm's
independence and relegating it to a role as a manufacturing and
product development site within IBM.
    "He wanted to take some personal time off," she said,
adding that Paboojian had taken part in the merger decision.
    Scores of Rolm veterans have left the company, which makes
telephone exchanges and other communications equipment, since
it was acquired by IBM in 1984.
    Rolm's highly respected founder, Ken Oshman, left more than
a year ago.
    Rolm and IBM customers have complained about a lack of
coordination between Rolm and IBM, and analysts estimate the
unit lost money last year.
    But the spokeswoman said Paboojian was "happy with the way
things are going with Rolm." She said the unit posted its best
fourth quarter revenues ever in the 1986 fourth quarter.
 Reuter

Capital spending in the U.K. Chemical
industry is expected to rise to 1.4 billion stg this year, a
three pct increase on the 1986 level after inflation, the
Chemical Industry Association said.
    A further increase to 1.52 billion stg is expected in 1988,
but there will be a decline to 1.38 billion in 1989, the
association found in its latest investment intentions survey.
    Even so, the estimated total fixed capital spending for the
1987-89 period of 4.3 billion is a real spending increase of
six pct on the previous three years, the report said.
Eighty-one firms took part in the survey.
 Reuter

Southern California Edison said
it signed a 30-year contract with the federal government for
hydroelectric power from Hoover Dam.
    Southern California Edison said it would receive some 277.5
megawatts of electrical power under the contract, enough to
serve about 160,000 homes.
    The original 50-year contracts for Hoover Dam hydroelectric
power are scheduled to expire at the end of May, the company
said.
 Reuter

Construction group <Spie Batignolles> is
negotiating to increase its holding in U.S. Engineering and
electrical installations firm <Comstock>.
    Spie Batignolles, a subsidiary of Schneider SA <SCHN.PA>,
said in a statement it was negotiating to invest 20 mln dlrs in
Comstock in the form of bonds convertible into shares.
    Spie Batignolles has held a 20 pct stake in Comstock since
February 1986. A spokesman said if Spie Batignolles converted
all the new bonds, it could open the way for the French company
to take control of Comstock but he gave no other details.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it set dates to
shut down two of its truck and bus facilities that had been
slated for closure.
    General Motors said its number one line at its Flint,
Mich., truck and bus assembly plant will be closed May 29. The
company said the closing was in line with its announcement last
November that it would close 11 plants. At that time, General
Motors said the line would be closed "by August."
    At Flint, "layoffs could reach 2,000," the automaker said.
Some 1,400 workers on the line will be transferred to other
locations or put in a job placement program. The second line at
the plant is not affected.
    General Motors also said it will close the truck and bus
plant in St. Louis on August seven.
    General Motors did not specify how many of the 2,200
workers at the facility would be laid off, but said "many of
those employees will be transferring toother General Motors
operations in the area."
    In the automaker's previous announcement, it said the
facility would be closed by "mid-1987."
    General Motors said the full-size pickup trucks currently
being built of Flint's Line One are being replaced by a new
full-size pickup truck being assembled at Fort Wayne, Ind., and
at renovated plants in Pontiac, Mich., and Oshawa, Ont.
    The St. Louis plant makes full-size pickup trucks,
including crew cab models. The production is being phased out
as the Fort Wayne, Pontiac and Oshawa plant begin to produce
General Motors' new redesigned 1988 full-size pickup. Crew cab
truck output is being shifted to Janesvile, Wis.
 Reuter

Discussions on the possible extension of
the sixth International Tin Agreement (ITA) began at the
quarterly session of the International Tin Council (ITC) but
the Council is still waiting for decisions from various member
states.
    A number of producer governments in particular have not
decided their final position on whether the ITA should be
extended for up to two years or wound down after it expires on
June 30, according to delegate sources.
    Earlier today European Community (EC) members decided to
back an extension, with the exception of Britain, which
undertook to communicate its decision to its EC partners later.
    Delegates said it could be Friday before all the member
countries declare their positions on the possible extension.
Today's full Council session started shortly before 1500 GMT
after the scheduled 1330 start was delayed by an EC
coordination meeting.
    The council reconvenes at 0930 GMT tomorrow, although
delegates said the morning is likely to be taken up with minor
technical matters and the main issue will probably not be
discussed before the afternoon session.
 Reuter

Pakistan is likely to produce a record
7.6 mln bales (375 lbs each) of cotton from the current 1986/87
crop, exceeding a target of 7.2 mln bales, Food and Agriculture
Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Baluch said.
    He told a Pakistan Central Cotton Committee meeting here
the present was the third consecutive poroduction
record-setting year and said the momentum would be accelerated
in the future, the official APP news agency reported.
    Baluch said indications were that Pakistan is to attain a
record cotton production of 7.6 mln bales, compared to the
1985/86 crop of 7.2 mln bales which also represented the target
earlier set by authorities for this year's production.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 633,300 vs 300,859
    Sales 15.2 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Avg shrs 1,165,047 vs 1,224,982
    Year
    Shr two dlrs vs 1.64 dlrs
    Net 2,379,400 vs 2,011,924
    Sales 58.6 mln vs 54.0 mln
    Avg shrs 1,187,828 vs 1,223,511
 Reuter

SECURITY PACIFIC EXPECTS BRAZIL LOAN ACTION TO CUT NET BY 7.2 MLN DLRS

The White House said high U.S.
Tariffs on Japanese electronic goods would likely be imposed as
scheduled on April 17, despite an all-out effort by Japan to
avoid them.
    Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater made the remark one
day before U.S. And Japanese officials are to meet under the
emergency provisions of a July 1986 semiconductor pact to
discuss trade and the punitive tariffs.
    Fitzwater said: "I would say Japan is applying the
full-court press...They certainly are putting both feet forward
in terms of explaining their position." But he added that "all
indications are they (the tariffs) will take effect."
 Reuter

Controversial plans to pay
Western Europe's surplus-producing farmers generous cash grants
to leave the land ran into problems at today's weekly meeting
of the European Community (EC) Commission, officials said.
    They said the 17-member Commission, which effectively runs
the Community on a day-to-day basis, appeared divided over the
proposals which some people argue could lead to national
capitals having too much say in EC farm policies.
    EC Farm Commissioner Frans Andriessen is proposing paying
farmers as much as 2,800 dlrs a year over five years to leave
the land. EC member states would be permitted to top up
payments to the poorest farmers to 80 pct of the average
national farm income.
    The package would also include an early retirement scheme,
details of which have yet to be unveiled.
    Andriessen's aim is to make a restrictive price policy --
the centre-piece of a current battle to curb unwanted food
production -- more acceptable to countries with large farming
communities.
    With two-thirds of the EC's entire 39 billion dlr budget
swallowed up by EC farm supports, he argues that in the
long-run the payments would lead to considerable savings.
 Reuter

it won two follow up contracts from the U.S. Defense
Communications Agency worth 10.7 mln dlrs.
    The company said the three year contracts are for
scientific and technical support at the Center for Command and
Control Communications systems. The company has provided the
services since 1972.
 Reuter

Showboat Inc will take a
charge of 19 to 20 mln dlrs pretax against results for the
third quarter ended March 31, director and assistant to the
president J. Kell Houssels III told Reuters.
    He said the charge results from pre-operating expenses of
its recently-opened Atlantic City, N.J., Showboat Hotel, Casino
and Bowling Center and will cause a loss for the third quarter
and probably for all of fiscal 1987 as well.
    But Houssels said Showboat's earnings for fiscal 1988
should show a sharp increase from fiscal 1986 levels due to the
contribution of the new Atlantic City facility.
    Showboat earned 1,753,000 dlrs in last year's third
quarter.  For all of fiscal 1986 it earned 5,769,000 dlrs.
    Houssels said Showboat since the opening of the Atlantic
City hotel/casino, Showboat has had to start charging interest
expenses connected with debt it sold to finance the facility
directly against income rather than capitalizing the interest
as it had been able to do previously.
    Showboat opened the hotel during its third quarter and
gaming began last Thursday on a regular basis after test gaming
was completed earlier in the week.
 Reuter

Security Pacific Corp said it is
placing medium and long-term loans to Brazil and Ecuador on a
non-accrual basis as of March 31, a move that will reduce first
quarter earnings by 7.2 mln dlrs, or nine cts per share, after
taxes.
    Despite the anticipated reduction to quarterly earnings,
Security Pacific said it still expects to report first quarter
earnings higher than the 88 mln dlrs, or 1.11 dlrs per share
reported for the first quarter of 1986.
    The bank holding company said the action affects 401 mln
dlrs of loans to Brazil and 73 mln of loans to Ecuador.
of medium- and long-term debt on February 20.
    Ecuador, which has foreign debt of roughly eight billion
dlrs, has not paid any interest to foreign banks since
February.
    In March Ecuador said it would suspend interest payments
for the rest of the year because of an earthquake which halted
the export of oil, which accounts for about 75 pct the
country's export revenues.
    In its announcement, Security Pacific said it will record
interest income only as it is received in cash.
    The company also said it believes that Brazil will reach an
agreement with its banks and that interest payments will resume
later in 1987.
    The Brazilian negotiations resume on Friday in New York
when Central Bank Governor Francisco Gros is expected to ask
banks for a 90-day roll-over of some 9.5 billion dlrs of term
debt that matures on April 15.
 Reuter

A British opinion poll showed the ruling
Conservative party was still ahead of Labour and the
Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance, but support appeared to be
declining, raising the spectre of an inconclusive election
result.
    The Marplan poll, to be published in tomorrow's Guardian
newspaper, showed support for the Conservative party stood at
38 pct against 32 pct for Labour and 27 pct for the Alliance.
 Reuter

GROUP OF FIVE MEETING CONCLUDES, LAWSON, STOLTENBERG DECLINE COMMENT

Iraq said today its troops were pushing
Iranian forces out of positions they had initially occupied
when they launched a new offensive near the southern port of
Basra early yesterday.
    A High Command communique said Iraqi troops had won a
significant victory and were continuing to advance.
    Iraq said it had foiled a three-pronged thrust some 10 km
(six miles) from Basra, but admitted the Iranians had occupied
ground held by the Mohammed al-Qassem unit, one of three
divisions attacked.
    The communique said Iranian Revolutionary Guards were under
assault from warplanes, helicopter gunships, heavy artillery
and tanks.
    "Our forces are continuing their advance until they purge
the last foothold" occupied by the Iranians, it said.
    (Iran said its troops had killed or wounded more than 4,000
Iraqis and were stabilising their new positions.)
    The Baghdad communique said Iraqi planes also destroyed oil
installations at Iran's southwestern Ahvaz field during a raid
today. It denied an Iranian report that an Iraqi jet was shot
down.
    Iraq also reported a naval battle at the northern tip of
the Gulf. Iraqi naval units and forces defending an offshore
terminal sank six Iranian out of 28 Iranian boats attempting to
attack an offshore terminal, the communique said.
   
 Reuter

Ashton-Tate Corp said it
appointed Harry Wong to the newly created position of senior
scientist.
    Wong, formerly of the University of California's Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory, will provide technical direction in
advanced database architectures and structured query language,
SQL, a computer language.
    The company also said it is acquiring technology to develop
a future database product that incorporates SQL.
 Reuter

    Qtly div six cts vs six cts in prior qtr
    Avg shrs 13.1 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Nine mths
    NOTE: Dividend is payable April 30 to holders of record
April 20
 Reuter

A meeting of finance ministers and
central bankers of the Group of Five ended after nearly three
and a half hours.
    West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson declined to
comment on the meeting as they emerged from the U.S. Treasury.
    A European monetary official said the ministers of the
Group of Seven countries would gather at about three p.m. local
(1900 GMT) at the Treasury.
 Reuter

Siemens Information Systems
Inc, a unit of <Siemens AG> of West Germany, has reached an
agreement in principle with NEC America Inc, a unit of NEC Corp
of Japan, allowing Siemens Information's Tel Plus
Communications Inc subsidiary to continue distributing NEC's
NEAX2400 Information Management System.
    Siemens Information said the three year agreement will allow
TPC to market all current and future NEAX2400 models over the
contract's term.
 Reuter

Securities Dealers Inc said it set April 15 as the deadline for
government securities brokers and dealers to submit
applications for registration under new rules.
    It said the rules apply to unregulated brokers and dealers,
who must be registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission by July 25.
    NASD said it could guarantee brokers and dealers would meet
the July 25 deadline if it received application materials by
April 15. After April 15, it said it will make every effort to
meet the July 25 deadline, but could not guarantee it.
 Reuter

preparing a proposal that would require all foreign meat
products to be inspected at their point of arrival in the
United States, a USDA official said.
    Donald Houston, administrator of USDA's Food Safety and
Inspection Service, FSIS, told a House Agriculture subcommittee
USDA was developing a proposed change in regulations that would
put an end to the current practice of permitting foreign meat
products to be unloaded at one port and inspected at another
port.
    Houston said the requirement would be phased in over
several years to "avoid disruptions and economic hardship."
 Reuter

Union Texas Petroleum said its worldwide
proved reserves fell to 511 mln barrels of oil equivalent at
the end of 1986 from 555 mln barrels reported in 1985.
    In its newly released annual report, Union Texas said it
replaced about 71 pct of its production of 56 mln barrels of
oil equivalent last year after taking into account the sale of
27 mln barrels of U.S. reserves.
    Union Texas, the nation's largest independent oil and gas
producer based on revenues, is a privately-held company owned
by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co and Allied-Signal Inc <ALD>.
    The Houston-based company said it lost 57.5 mln dlrs on
1.26 billion dlrs in sales last year, compared to profits of
165 mln dlrs on 2.04 billion dlrs in sales in 1985.
    Union Texas said it received an average of 13.35 dlrs per
barrel for its international oil production and 2.99 dlrs per
mcf for its foreign natural gas sales. The majority of the
company's total energy production is in the United Kingdom,
Indonesia and Pakistan.
    In the United States, Union Texas said it completed
evaluation work on its oil find in Alaska's Colville Delta
area.
    "Although significant oil reserves were confirmed,
development of this discovery will not be economical without
substantially higher prices," the company said.
    Union Texas said it planned to spend about 42 mln dlrs over
the next two years to develop its Eugene Island Block 371 in
the Gulf of Mexico.
    In 1987, the company said it budgeted 178 mln dlrs for
capital spending, less than half of the amount spent in 1985
and down from 199 mln dlrs budgeted last year. Union Texas also
said it would seek acquisitions of oil and gas properties as
well as petrochemical-related businesses.
 Reuter

UAL Inc may have a response this
afternoon to the pilots union proposal to buy its United
Airlines unit, a UAL spokesman said.
    "Obviously, we have a lot of movement in our stock, and we
need to get a clarification out," the spokesman said, adding
that there was a "50-50" chance a statement would be released
today.
    The pilots earlier this week offered to buy the airline for
2.3 billion dlrs, and assume 2.2 billion dlrs of existing debt.
    Takeover speculation has driven UAL's stock for several
weeks. UAL last month said New York Real estate developer
Donald Trump held a position in its stock, and that he also
held discussions with its chairman.
    The developer indicated in those talks that he took the
position as an investment, but he revealed no other plans.
    Today, rumors circulated that Coniston Partners were buying
UAL stock. UAL jumped five to 70-3/4 on volume of more than 3.2
    "United has got to consider this proposal. I think the
pilot's proposal is realistic. I don't exptect them to take it,
but it could put some interesting options in front of UAL
management," said Timothy Pettee, Bear Stearns and co analyst.
    Analysts have said UAL made itself vulnerable to attack
when it diversified away from its core airline. It added Hertz
rental cars, Westin and Hilton International hotels in a
strategy to become a travel service company.
    The strategy left its stock in a slump and its pilots union
concerned that the company was not focussing enough attention
on its airline.
    UAL has stood firm on its strategy. It is emphasizing its
new focus by changing its name to Allegis, as of May one.
    But takeover speculation has escalated, and Wall Street has
been busy calculating break up values well in excess of 100
dlrs per share. Traders today described the buying in UAL as
widespread, indicative to them that big institutions believe
the stock is in play.
    Market sources have said that although Trump attracted
attention to the stock, the pilots proposal acted as a
catalyst, kicking off a new round of speculation and perhaps
throwing the company into the hands of another buyer.
    "The first domino is you have an investor with a
considerable stake. the second domino is the union. That type
of attitude has been a precursor to airline deals in the past,"
said Pettee.
    "What's interesting is the values are there. There's
something for everybody," he said.

 Reuter

Hartmarx Corp, following a year of
restructuring, continues to target record earnings for fiscal
1987, Chairman John Meinert told the annual meeting.
    Meinert reiterated an earlier comment that earnings for the
remainder of the year must double the 1986 level to meet that
goal. In fiscal 1986, ended November 30, 1986, Hartmarx
reported earnings of 24.8 mln dlrs, or 1.20 dlrs a share, down
from the prior year's 42.7 mln dlrs, or 2.25 dlrs a share.
    The 110-year-old apparel manufacturer recently posted
first-quarter earnings of 54 cts a share, up from 40 cts a year
ago.
    Meinert told shareholders Hartmarx has no plans to sell any
of its divisions. He added, "We have the financial capacity to
take advantage of acquisitions."
    In 1987, Meinert said the company will open five new and 10
redesigned Kuppenheimer direct-to-consumer stores in Atlanta,
Detroit, St. Louis, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
    He said the company's women's apparel continues to grow,
and Hartmarx has on the drawing board a Briar concept store
which will feature ties, shirts and some tailored clothing.
 Reuter

Analysts at Salomon Brothers Inc say
the outlook for stock markets worldwide is postivie, although
total returns in the U.S. stock market are not expected to
exceed 10 pct over the next 12 months.
    The report by Robert Salomon Jr and Caroline Davenport said
that after a strong first quarter, which saw U.S. stock market
indices rise more than 20 pct, the direction of the market is
still upward because slower economic growth will stretch out
the recovery period. The firm expects profits for companies in
the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index to rise 17 pct in 1987
and 18 pct in 1988. 
    The bullish global outlook is underpinned by continued but
subdued economic growth, fiscal restraint, good liquidity and
increasing profits, Salomon said.
    The Salomon analysts say potential risks which must be
monitored include any shift toward protectionism and foreign
buying of U.S. stocks particularly by the Japanese. "A sharp
run-up in stock prices in secondary stocks" would be a warning
sign, as would a big increase in enthusiasm for the initial
public offering market," Salomon said.
    Salomon said global diversification of equity markets has
reached a new peak.
 Reuter

Ghana will import 15,000 tonnes of crude
oil annually from Iran under an agreement reached in Tehran
today, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
    The agency, received in London, said the accord was reached
between Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh and a visiting
Ghanaian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Obed Asamoah.
    IRNA said that under the agreement, Iran will also provide
technical and scientific assistance in manpower training and
oil exploitation, production and refining.
 Reuter

<New Hampshire Yankee> said it
will submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission emergency
response plans for the six Massachusetts communities within a
10-mile radius of the Seabrook Station.
    New Hampshire Yankee, a consortium of utility companies,
said it is filing the plans because it claimed Massachusetts
refuses to cooperate with it in emergency planning.
    It said the 26-volume emergency plan was originally
prepared for Massachusetts by the state Civil Defense Agency
and emergency planning consultants.
    New Hampshire Yankee said submitting the plans was done in
an effort to keep the Seabrook licensing process moving
forward.
 Reuter

Robert Heller, a member of the
Federal Reserve Board, said he expects "more modest levels" of
growth in the money supply this year.
    "In my view, this would not only be a logical, but also a
most desireable development," he said in a speech prepared for
delivery to an economic forum at Chapman College in Orange,
Calif.
    A text was released in Washington.
    He said the effect of lower inflation and financial
deregulation on monetary aggregates was now largely finished.
    "Consequently, monetary growth may return to more modest
levels," Heller said. He noted growth in the money supply slowed
after mid-January.
    "I would not be surprised at all if the monetary aggregates
were to grow rather slowly during the balance of the year as
well," he added.
    Heller said there was a danger of renewed price inflation.
    "The pricing behavior of American producers in response to
price increases of their foreign competitors will be crucial
for our economic future," he said.
    Widespread domestic price rises in response to rising
import prices would "generalize the inflationary forces
emanating from the foreign trade sector" and might not gain more
market share for U.S. producers.
    "A return to the stagflation of the late 1970s may well be
the result of such a behavior pattern," Heller warned.
    He said "we at the Federal Reserve will have to be
disciplined in our conduct of monetary policy." 
    Heller said said the government should also exercise fiscal
discipline and cut the deficit by spending restraint rather
than new taxes.
    "The imposition of new taxes would tend to rekindle
inflation and certainly would not make us more competitive in
international markets," Heller said.
    He said the U.S. economy should expand by nearly three pct
during 1987, aided by higher exports to Europe and Canada.
    A free trade agreement currently being negotiated with
Canada "would be exceedingly helpful in allowing American
producers to compete more effectively in that country," Heller
said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.37 dlrs vs 1.18 dlrs
    Net 624 mln vs 537 mln
    Sales 8.32 billion vs 5.88 billion
    NOTE: Prior year does not include results of RCA Corp.
 Reuter

NSA Inc said, in an attempt to
go private and repurchase its shares, it is offering to
exchange a five year subordinated investment note for each
share held by shareholders with more than 600 shares.
    NSA said the investment note will carry a face value of one
dlr and will pay five annual principal installments, as well as
quarterly interest payments on the outstanding principal amount
at an eight pct annual rate.
    NSA added that for shareholders with less than 600 shares
it is offering to purchase their shares for cash at one dlr per
share.
 Reuter

it had an operating loss for the year ended December 31 of 2.4
mln dlrs, or 40 cts per share.
    But it said a 41.5 mln dlr non-cash writeoff of oil and gas
properties taken in the first quarter resulted in a net loss of
43.9 mln dlrs, or 7.21 dlrs per share.
    Energy Development Partners, is a limited partnership which
began operating in September 1985.
    Full year revenues totaled 23.7 mln dlrs, the company also
said.
    It said proved reserves at December 31 totaled 4.8 mln
barrels of oil and 88 mln cubic feet of natural gas.
 Reuter

Kaufman and Broad Inc said it
up to two mln shares of common stock.
    First Boston Corp and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets will be
the underwriters for the offering.
 Reuter

Financial ministers and central
bankers of leading industrial nations reconvened here this
    Canadian Finance Minister Michael Wilson said on entering
the meeting the ministers would review the Paris agreement.
Asked if he was satisfied with West German and Japanese
stimulus, Wilson replied, "They could do a little more."
    French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur, meanwhile,
confirmed there would be a communique at the end of the
meeting.
    Finance ministers and central bankers of Britain, FRance,
Canada and West Germany were seen by Reuter correspondents
returning to a Treasury building.
    Japanese officials and Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl
did not appear to have left the building at the end of earlier
Group of Five talks which broke up around 2 p.m. local time
(1800 gmt).
    There was no sign, however, of the Italian delegation whose
position was thrown into question this morning by the
resignation of the Christian Democratic wing of Italy's
Socialist-led government.
    European monetary officials said later that the Italian
delegation was inside the building.
    This meant that a full blown meeting of the Group of Seven
was in progress.
 Reuter

The U.S. meat and poultry inspection
programs are incapable of protecting consumers from
contaminated products, groups representing inspectors and
consumers charged.
    "The whole trend of inspection for the last 10 years has
been to corrupt and to degrade the system where today the
public is at constant risk to contaminated and adulterated
meat," Kenneth Blaylock, president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, told a House Agriculture subcommittee.
    "The American consumer has little reason to feel confident
about the safety of meat and poultry being offered to him
today," said Rodney Leonard, executive director of the Community
Nutrition Institute.
    "Company management is less concerned about the risk to
health than about raising plant output and company profits,"
Leonard told a hearing of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on
Livestock, Dairy and Poultry.
    Kenneth Morrison, staff associate at the Government
Accountability Project, said inspectors consistently disclose
violations of federal law, demonstrating a "serious breakdown in
the entire inspection system."
    Morrison told of chicken fat for flavoring being
contaminated by "intestines dragging in a water trough used to
flush away the condemned product, fecal material, human spit,
chewing gum and paper towels used by plant employees to blow
their noses."
    Donald Houston, administrator of the U.S. Agriculture
Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, FSIS, defended
the government's program, calling it "one of the most respected
public health programs in the world."
    FSIS inspects an estimated 127 mln head of cattle and 4.5
billion chicken and turkeys every year.
    Houston said inspection programs have kept pace with
change, but conceded that the danger of chemical residues in
the meat and poultry supply has increased.
    He also said that, although he was confident the bacterium
salmonella eventually could be eradicated, it would take time
and much money to contain the growing problem.
    Salmonella, which in extreme cases can cause death, is
found in approximately 37 pct of U.S. broilers, 12 pct of raw
pork and three to five pct of raw beef, Houston said.
    The number of reported cases has doubled over the past 20
years, he said, to 40,000 cases annually.
    "We certainly really have not found an effective means of
turning this disease around," said Rep. James Olin (D-Va.)
    The National Research Council recommended in 1985 that FSIS
intensify efforts to develop rapid diagnostic procedures for
detecting microoganisms.
    But the meat and poultry industries have said such controls
would cost too much.
    "Hopefully we will not overreact by installing unnecessarily
complicated procedures that may become obstacles to the real
goal of providing an increasingly safer, more nutritious and
economical meat supply for consumers," Stanley Emerling,
executive vice president of the National Association of Meat
Purveyors, said.
    Blaylock, speaking on behalf of food inspectors, said a new
program allowing elimination of USDA inspection functions at
certain plants "voids the law in letter and spirit, and must be
repealed or we will see rising consumer fraud and an epidemic
of death and illness for which there will be no prevention nor
legal recourse."
    Subcommittee Chairman Charles Stenholm (D-Tex.) said the
panel would hold a hearing on salmonella June 2.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp and Regie Natiionale des
Usines Renault said they agreed to extend by up to two weeks
the period for reaching definitive agreement on Chrysler's
proposed 1.5 billion dlr takeover of American Motors Corp.
    The letter of intent signed by Chrysler and Renault on
March nine set April nine as the target date for completing
    However, the letter also allowed room for an extension of
that date to April 23 if an agreement could not be reached.
    The two companies said they "now plan to complete work by
April 23."
    Chrysler and Renault said, "Given the complex nature of the
deal, the need for additional time was to be expected."
    The March letter of intent between the two companies says
that Chrysler could ask Renault to extend the agreement date
"in the event that prior to April 9, 1987, Chrysler discovers
an unforeseen problem in the course of its 'due diligence'
investigation of the company," referring to American Motors.
    A Chrysler spokeswoman would not say whether some problem
had cropped up in the talks. She stuck by the company's
statement that more time was needed because the talks are
complex. "That is our definition of the delay," she said.
    Under the previous agreement between Chrysler and Renault,
their letter of intent would be terminated on April nine or
when an agreement was reached. But the letter could be amendend
by a written agreement by both companies.
    The Chrysler spokeswoman said, "We are still working toward
a definitive agreement." Said another Chrysler official who is
not part of the talks but who would be told if the deal were in
trouble: "There are no glitches."
    Analysts also downplayed the significance of the delay. "I
can't visualize where they wouldn't want it to be done," said
Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette analyst Richard Henderson.
 Reuter

Perry Drug Stores Inc said its
March sales rose 9.3 pct to 60 mln dlrs from 55 mln dlrs in the
same month a year ago.
    Fiscal year-to-date (November through March) sales
increased 15 pct to 300 mln dlrs from 261 mln dlrs in the
comparable period of fiscal 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 16-1/2 cts vs 16-1/2 cts
 Reuter

    Net loss 696,777 vs loss 598,095
    Sales 472,812 vs 41,454
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net loss 2,194,482 vs loss 1,751,884
    Sales 800,336 vs 151,884
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc's Madison Square
Garden Corp subsidiary said it has reorganized into three
operating groups including two new groups.
    The company said its MSG Sports group will continue to
operate the New York Rangers National Hockey League team and
the New York Knickerbockers National Basketball Association
team.
    It said the new MSG Facilities Development and Management
Group will be responsible for all operating aspects of Madison
Square Garden Center and for planning and operation of the
planned new Madison Square Garden.
    The company said its new MSG Entertainment Group will
include the Madison Square Garden Network sport-oriented pay
television operation, Madison Square Garden Event TV, which
will produce specials and non-episodic programming for network
television, pay television and first-run television
syndication, and Madison Square Garden Productions, which will
produce live entertainment including touring arena shows and
concerts.
    It said it expects the greatest growth from the MSG
Entertainment Group.
 Reuter

completed its previously announced 171.25 mln dlr share
offering consisting of five mln Class A subordinated voting
ordinary shares at 34.25 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

CANADA PLANS TO MONITOR STEEL IMPORTS, EXPORTS, TRADE MINISTER SAYS

General Electric Corp said its
first quarter results were significantly higher due to the
strong results of RCA, which was acquired last year.
    General Electric also attibuted continued strong
performances in plastics, major appliances and the Employers
Reinsurance Corp for its strong quarter.
    GE recorded net earnings for the first quarter 1987 of 624
mln dlrs, or 1.37 dls per shr, up 16 pct from 537 mln dlrs, or
1.18 dlrs per share for the same quarter a year ago.
    General Electric chairman John Welch Jr reiterated the
company's outlook for 1987 in which it expects double-digit GE
earnings growth for the year. He said the first quarter results
are in line with those expectations.
    General Electric cited the strong results in TV network and
station operations of the National Broadcasting Co, which was
not part of GE in the first quarter of 1986, as one reason for
its strong earnings.
    It also noted that aircraft engine operating profit was
much higher than a year ago, caused by a increase in shipments
than the 1986 quarter, which was impacted by a strike.
    Aerospace revenues were sharply higher in this year's first
quarter from a year ago, mainly because of the inclusion of
RCA's aerospace and defense business, the company said.
    In addition, consumer products revenues were up from last
year, mainly because of including sales of RCA video products.
    General Electric said restructuring provisions of 308 mln
dlrs before taxes to implement various strategic moves were
charged against operations in the first quarter of 1987. It
added that there was a one-time gain of 281 mlns dlrs after
taxes from an inventory accounting change.
    And technical products revenues and operating profit were
ahead of last year, led by a strong increases in medical
systems volume and the inclusion this year of RCA's
communications and related services.
 Reuter

<Teck Corp> said it
was continuing talks about joining a joint copper venture at
Highland Valley, British Columbia, held by affiliates Cominco
Ltd <CLT> and <Lornex Mining Corp>, but did not know when
negotiations would be completed.
    Teck vice-president of administration John Guminski said in
reply to a query that the talks had been "ongoing for a long
time." He declined to speculate on the outcome.
    Cominco, 29.5 pct owned by a consortium led by Teck, is
optimistic that the talks will soon be concluded, spokesman Don
Townson told Reuters.
    "I think all partners are hopeful that the situation will be
resolved," Cominco's Townson said.
    "We're optimistic that they will be concluded shortly," he
added. Townson declined to specify when the talks might end.
    Cominco and Teck's 22 pct-owned Lornex agreed in January
1986 to form the joint venture, merging their Highland Valley
copper operations.
    Cominco and Lornex share equally in control and management
of the Highland Valley operations, while Cominco has a 55 pct
share of production and Lornex receives 45 pct.
    For the six months following July 1, 1986, when the venture
officially started production, Highland Valley had total ore
milled of 22.6 mln short tons, grading an average of 0.41 pct
copper, Townson said.
    Cominco's share of production was 43,000 short tons of
copper contained in concentrate, 1,200 short tons of Molybdenum
in concentrate, 340,000 ounces of silver and 800 ounces of
gold, he said.
    A consortium, 50 pct owned by Teck and 25 pct each by MIM
(Canada) Inc and Metallgesellschaft Canada Ltd, acquired its
Cominco stake last year from Canadian Pacific Ltd <CP>.
 Reuter

Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 1.00 dlr
    Net 6,215,538 vs 5,757,013
 Reuter

Angered by late flights and
complicated restrictions on discount air fares, a senator has
introduced legislation to make airlines provide more details on
fares and schedules in their advertisements.
    Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the bill's sponsor, said airline ads
now are often misleading because they do not give prospective
passengers enough facts about discount fares.
    "Air travelers are lured by low advertised fares which
simply aren't available," the New Jersey Democrat said in a
statement. "It's the old bait and switch."
    Airline advertisements usually say discount seats are
limited, but Lautenberg said more information was needed.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group Inc said it is
providing financing for the previously announced acquisition of
<Virgin Islands Telephone Co> by <Atlantic Tele-Network Co>.
    Terms of the financing were not disclosed.
    Virgin Islands Telephone, which operates telephone systems
in the U.S. Virgin Islands, handles about 1.5 mln local calls
per week and one mln long-distance calls per month, the company
said.

 Reuter

signed a joint venture with Madrid, Spain-based Ingenieria De
Sistemas Electronics S.A.
    The pact establishes General Automation Iberica S.A. as a
local manufacturer and master distributor of General
Automation's ZEBRA multi-user business systems in Spain and
Portugal.
    General Automation Iberica will be equally financed by
General Automation and Ingenieria.
 Reuter

Minnetonka Inc said that
neither its Foltene hair treatment nor its European supplier,
Crinos Industria Farmacobiologica SpA, are named or involved in
action filed by Upjohn Co.
    Earlier today, Upjohn said it filed a complaint with the
International Trade Commission requesting an investigation of
infringement of its patent for the drug, Minoxidil, used in its
treatment for baldness.
    Minnetonka said it decided to make a statement to "dispell
any association it may be involved" with the suit. Foltene does
not use compositions of Minoxidil, it said.
 Reuter

Xebec Corp said it expects to
report a loss for its second quarter ended April three, due
principally to a decline in sales to International Business
Machines Corp <IBM>, the company's largest customer.
    Xebec also said it expects revenues to total about 23 mln
dlrs.
    The company reported a second quarter loss last year of 1.9
mln dlrs, or 14 cts per share, on 23.9 mln in revenues.
    Xebec said IBM has historically accounted for about 50 pct
of the company's revenues, but that total fell to 20 pct during
the quarter just ended.
    IBM had used Xebec's hard disk drive controller products in
the IBM PC/XT, a product which IBM is phasing out.
    Xebec said it intends to continue streamlining its
operations in light of the loss of business.
    The company also said it has already consolidated two of
its plants in Nevada and it now plans to sell unused and
surplus assets to provide additional liquidity.
 Reuter

accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover a sale of 12,500
tonnes of wheat flour to Iraq, the U.S. AGriculture Department
said.
    The bonus awarded was 113.0 dlrs per tonne and will be paid
to Peavey Company in the form of commodities from CCC stocks.
    The wheat flour is for delivery May 15-June 15, 1987, the
    An additional 162,500 tonnes of wheat flour are still
initiative announced January 7, 1987, USDA said.
 Reuter

Saudi American Bank (SAMBA) will
concentrate on treasury activities and be an active market
maker in Saudi riyal foreign exchange through the new branch
that opened here, Shaukat Aziz, SAMBA managing director said.
    He told Reuters that SAMBA also will be active in corporate
banking, correspondent banking and investment management. It
also plans to develop trade financing between the Middle East
and Europe and be active in the Eurocurrency and sterling
deposit markets.
    SAMBA is 40 pct owned by Citicorp of the U.S. And the
balance is held by Saudi shareholders.
 Reuter

about 200,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat under an existing PL-480
agreement, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    It may buy the wheat, valued at 22.0 mln dlrs, between
April 15 and August 31, 1987, and ship it from U.S. ports by
 Reuter

Caterpillar Inc, in remarks
delivered at its annual meeting in San Francisco, reiterated
its expectation of a loss in the first quarter.
    It said results would be hurt by a 25 mln dlr one-time
charge by Caterpillar Mitsubishi, a 50-pct owned affiliate. The
company said it expected profit from operations for the full
year to improve over 1986.
    In remarks prepared for delivery to shareholders, President
Peter Donis said Caterpillar's targeted five pct cost reduction
in 1987 "will be difficult to achieve because the weaker dollar
has limited opportunities to obtain lower material costs."
 Reuter

Mingold Resources, a newly formed gold
company equally owned by Inspiration Resources Corp <IRC> and
<Minorco Canada Ltd>, said it plans to be a publicly traded,
self-financing gold mining company within three to four years.
    Mingold currently manages Hudson Bay Gold Inc and Farley
Gold Inc, both wholly owned units of Inspiration.
    The company said Hudson Bay and Minorco have agreed to
explore and, if warranted, to develop the Metalore gold
property near Beardmore, Ontario, after Metalore satisfactorily
settles an action filed against it by <Ontex Resources Ltd>. A
work program that includes drilling will begin shortly, Mingold
said.
 Reuter

An investor group headed by
Minneapolis, Minn., broker Jeffrey Wendel said it raised its
stake in Zondervan Corp to 292,900 shares, or 7.1 pct of the
total outstanding, from 238,900 shares, or 5.8 pct.
the Wendel group said it bought 54,000 Zondervan common shares
between March 24 and April 3 at prices ranging from 27.87 to
29.96 dlrs a share.
    The Wendel group has acted in cooperation with another
shareholder group headed by London investor Christopher Moran,
who sought unsuccessfully last year to take over Zondervan.
 Reuter

Corvus Systems Inc said it
named Lewis Lipton its president and chief operating officer.
    Lipton had been consulting for Corvus for the past nine
months and prior to that was the chief executive officer of
Trimedia Corp.
    He reports to James Siehl, who had been acting as president
and continues as chief executive officer. Siehl was also named
Chairman of the Board, which he had also been acting as.
 Reuter

<Kiena Gold Mines Ltd> said shareholders
approved a previously reported proposed two-for-one common
    Record date of the split will be April 21, Kiena said.
 Reuter

America West Airlines Inc said
its March load factor fell to 58.7 pct from 69.8 pct a year
earlier and its year-to-date load factor dropped to 56.6 pct
from 60.4 pct during the same period of 1986.
    March revenue passenger miles rose to 422.1 mln from 280
mln and year-to-date revenue miles were up to 1.15 billion from
701.9 mln.
    Available seat miles for the month increased to 719.2 mln
from 401 mln and for the first three months of the year
available miles totaled 2.04 billion, up from 1.16 billion
during a same period a year earlier, America West said.
 Reuter

board declared a quarterly dividend of nine cts per share
payable May 15 to holders of record April 17.
    The dividend comes after a two-for-one stock split,
effective April 10, which was approved by shareholders today.
    The company paid a dividend of 14 cts per share on a
pre-split basis.
 Reuter

Day International Corp said it has
entered into a letter of intent to sell its Allen Industries
Inc unit to a group including the unit's current management.
    Day said the sale could enable Day to accelerate its
earnings for its current fiscal year ending October 31, 1987.
    "Net earnings for the full year (ending October 31)
should be in the ball park of some analysts' estimates of 16
mln dlrs to 19 mln dlrs," Richard Jacob, Day chairman and chief
executive officer said.
    Day reported earnings of 3.1 mln dlrs, or 39 cts a share,
in fiscal 1986.
    Day said the agreement is subject to the preparation and
negotiation of a definitive agreement and the ability of the
group to obtain financing.
 Reuter

named David Black as chief executive officer. It said he will
succeed William Wall after the May Five annual meeting.
    It said Black is the company's senior vice president, law.
 Reuter

Qtly div 16.5 cts vs 16.5 cts
 Reuter

U.S. Secretary of State George
Shultz said the Marines spy case had cast a "heavy shadow" over
his scheduled talks in Moscow next week.
    "Unfortunately, as is so often the case when we are in the
midst of potentially promising discussions with the Soviets,
the discussions take place in a difficult environment generated
by their actions, and these things cast a heavy shadow on our
discussions," he told reporters.
 Reuter

today formally signed an agreement with the Franco-U.S. Group
<CFM International> for an improved version of the CFM56-5
engine to power the A340-200 and A340-300 aircraft, an Airbus
    Airbus said yesterday that it chosen the CFM56-5-S3 engine,
to be produced by <General Electric> of the U.S. And <SNECMA of
France, because the <International Aero Engine> (IAE) high
technology superfan engine would not be ready by early 1992,
when the A340 plane is due to become operational.
    The five-nation IAE consortium has decided not to go ahead
with the proposed launch of the superfan, a spokesman for
consortium member <Rolls-Royce Plc> said today, adding that the
project had not been cancelled and could be offered later on.
    Airbus said the CFM56-5-S3 will have a thrust of 30,600 lbs
and an improved fuel burn of four per cent compared with the
CFM56-5A1 which is now being operated on the A320 flight-test
aircraft. It will be available for deliveries of the A340 in
May 1992.
    At the same time, the Airbus statement said Airbus
Industrie and General Electric have concluded an accord for an
improved version of the GE CF6-80C2 engine, with 64,000 lbs of
thrust and a three per cent improvement in specific fuel
consumption, to power the A330 aircraft which will be
introduced in spring 1993.
    "This continues the long-standing history of all Airbus
launches being made with either GE or CFMI engines," Airbus
Industrie president Jean Pierson said in the statement.
    "Airbus Industrie has already worked with CFMI to launch one
new aircraft programme - the A320 - in early 1984, and is happy
to build on this relationship by launching the A340 with an
improved version of the same engine," Pierson said.
    Airbus Industrie said it has so far received a total of 128
commitments for the A340 and A330 from nine customers.
 Reuter

South Korea's purchase of about 2.4
mln tonnes of U.S. corn in the past six months -- close to
double last year's total -- indicates that imports from the
United States, as well as total imports are set for a dramatic
jump, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
said total South Korea corn imports for the 1986/87 season
(Oct-Sept) are estimated at 4.3 mln tonnes, with about 3.4 mln
tonnes from the United States.
    During the 1985/86 season, imports totaled only 1.3 mln
tonnes of U.S. corn out of a total of 3.6 mln tonnes.
    Ite appears the Koreans are shifting back to U.S. corn in
light of competitive U.S. prices and uncertain supplies from
China, Argentina and South Africa, it said.
 Reuter

The Group of 24 developing countries
said in a communique that some kind of debt relief is necessary
and called for "a new attitude" on the part of the banks.
    The communique, released in conjunction with the semiannual
said the very low income countries needed a cancellation of
debt to industrial countries, a conversion of part of their
debt into grants and a rescheduling on concessional terms.
    For some other countries, the communique said, the debt
cannot be properly serviced if the countries are to grow at the
same time.
    "The debt overhang effects the capacity to grow as it
reduces the ability to import," the communique said.
    It added: "Some kind of debt relief and a new attitude on
the part of the banks is necessary."
    The communique added that debtor countries and banks have
to explore new market mechanisms, debt into equity swaps,
capitalization of interest and writeoffs.
 Reuter

the Peruvian government decreed that a wide
range of firms would have to earmark between 20 and 30 pct of
their 1986 net profits to buy treasury bonds this year.
    A presidential decree said that banking, financial and
insurance firms as well as bottling and tobacco industries with
1986 sales of more than 1.6 mln intis would have to earmark 30
pct of their net profits from last year to buy the bonds.
    The bonds would be redeemed over the next two years and
their interest rate would be set by the central bank. Textile,
commercial and fishing canneries with sales over 1.24 mln intis
would have to buy bonds equal to 20 pct of profits.
    The firms would have to buy the bonds between April and
December 1987.
   The decree said the government adopted the move to obtain
financing for high-priority investment projects, which it did
not specify.
    The economy ministry says it aims to keep the public
sector's budget deficit to between five and six pct of the
gross domestic product (gdp).
    Last year, the deficit was six pct of gdp, according to the
 Reuter

All steers imported into the United
States from Mexico must now be branded with the letter M on the
right jaw, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
said the branding is necessary to improve surveillance for
bovine tuberculosis because it provides a permanent way to
identify Mexican steers.
    The requirement is not expected to affect the number of
Mexican steers imported into the United States and the brand
will be applied before the animals arrive at U.S. ports of
entry.
    Last November, the Mexican Government authorized an export
quota of nearly 1.1 mln head of live cattle for the 1986/87
season (Aug-July), most of which goes to the United States.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's Chevrolet
Motor Division said it extended its cash rebates to April 30 on
three of its cars and to June 30 on a fourth.
    A fifth car, the Cavalier, was dropped from the program
after rebates on all five cars expired April six.
    Terms of the program were not changed. The Chevrolet
division said buyers of its Celebrity and Camaro cars between
yesterday and April 30 are eligible to receive 1,000 dlrs
rebate, while buyers of the Nova can receive 750 dlrs.
    Spectrum customers are eligible for a 500 dlrs rebate until
June 30.

 Reuter

Vulcan Corp's first quarter operating
results will show a loss, Chairman Lloyd I. Miller told told
the annual meeting.
    The company reported a profit of 365,883 dlrs, 23 cts a
share, for the first quarter last year with one cent a share
coming from non-operating factors, a spokesman said.
    Miller attributed the expected loss to completion of the
purchase transfer and consolidation of operating assets of the
O'Sullivan Rubber Division, saying this was proving more costly
and taking more time than originally anticipated.
    Vulcan is working to resolve the problems, Miller told
shareholders, adding it appears it will take most of 1987 to
find solutions.
   
 Reuter

Detroit Edison Co is raising 400 mln
dlrs through a two-tranche offering of general and refunding
mortgage bonds, said sole manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    A 175 mln dlr issue of bonds due 1997 was given an 8-3/4
pct coupon and priced at 99.375 to yield 8.845 pct, or 128
basis points over comparable Treasury securities.
    A companion 225 mln dlr offering of 27-year bonds was given
a 9-3/4 pct coupon and priced at 99.625 to yield 9.79 pct, or
180 basis points over Treasuries.
    Both tranches are non-refundable for five years and rated
Baa-2 by Moody's and BBB by Standard and Poor's.
 Reuter

UAL Inc, citing company policy, told
the New York Stock Exchange it would not comment on the unusual
rise in its stock.
    UAL, parent of United Airlines, closed up 6-1/4 at 72 on
volume of 3.9 mln shares.
    Wall Street traders said UAL's stock soared in response to
the the proposed 4.6 billion dlr buyout offer by United Air's
pilots union and on a general rise in air fares throughout the
industry.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.11 dlrs vs loss 1.53 dlrs
    Net loss 7.1 mln vs loss 8.8 mln
    Revs 3.1 mln vs eight mln
 Reuter

Strata Corp said its 1986
earnings report contained a qualified opinion from its
independent auditors.
    Strata said it owed 1.4 mln dlrs in overdue interest to its
lender at the end of 1986, and the entire 10.9 mln dlr
principle has been classified as a liability.
    The company, which has an agreement to merge with <Lomak
Petroleum Inc>, lost 7.1 mln dlrs in 1986 against a loss of 8.8
mln dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board of New
York said mortgage loans acquired by member institutions in
1986 rose 54 pct from the prior record made in 1985.
    Fouth-quarter mortgage lending by the 98 New York thrifts
required to report was nearly 75 pct above the lending volume
of the same 1985 period. Mortgage loans acquired - comprising
total mortgage loans closed and mortage loans and
participations purchased - were 5.3 billion dlrs in the fourth
quarter and 15 billion for the year.
    Total mortgages outstanding for New York members were 58.8
billion dlrs on December 31 versus 50.7 billion at end-1985.
 Reuter

VMS Short Term Income Trust said it
agreed to commit to fund a 1.8 mln dlrs loan increase for 1420
K Street, a 12-story, 60,000 square foot office building in
Washington, D.C.
    The trust previously approved a 2.9 mln dlr loan for the
property, making the total loan 4.7 mln dlrs.
    VMS said the increased financing will have an initial term
of six months and will include a one pct participation in the
net appreciation of the property upon sale or refinancing.
 Reuter

Qtly div 23 cts vs 23 cts prior qtr
    Pay 10 June
    Record 20 May
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 20 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

President Reagan has agreed to let
the House and Senate select committees investigating the Iran
arms sale review his personal diary notes on the affair,
committee members said today.
    The notes will cover the period from January 1, 1984 to 
December 19, 1986 when the Iran arms deal was planned and
carried out and will include notes on Iran, Nicaragua and
related subjects, House committee chairman Lee Hamilton said.
    The notes will be selected by the White House counsel and
reviewed by Reagan before they are made available to committee
members within a few weeks.
    Under terms of the agreement, committee members will be
allowed to review the notes at the White House, but will not be
permitted to make copies of the information.
   
 Reuter

NAT'L DISTILLERS SAYS IT AGREES TO SELL SPIRITS UNIT FOR 545 MLN DLRS TO AMERICAN BRANDS

seeking public comments on the question of adjusting the
Commodity Credit Corporation's (CCC) discount and premium
schedules to improve the quality of grain it accepts as loan
collateral or under price support programs.
    The premiums and discounts schedule are based on quality
factors such as moisture content and kernel damage. The
schedule stipulates the premiums and discounts used for valuing
grain the CCC accepts or purchases during the year.
    The department said it is possible that producers could be
encouraged to delivery higher quality grain to CCC by adjusting
the premiums and discounts.
    Comments are due by April 24 and a report to Congress is
required by law by May 10.
 Reuter

Brazil has a foreign debt of 110.6
billion dlrs, according to the latest official figures released
by the Central Bank.
    The figure, published in the Central Bank's quarterly
review "Brazil Economic Program," refers to the situation in
    The Central Bank said the registered medium and long-term
debt was 101.54 billion dlrs, while non-registered debt was
estimated at 9.03 billion dlrs.
    In the previous official figure given at the end of last
year, the total debt stood at 108.8 billion dollars.
 Reuter

MCF Financial Corp said it filed
Commission covering a proposed initial public offering of
1,075,000 common shares.
    MCF said proceeds from the offering will be used to repay
debt, to purchase loan participation interests and for working
capital.
    MCF is engaged in the commercial finance business.
 Reuter

<Cascade Importers Inc USA>'s
Cascade International Europa GmbH of West Germany, said it
tentatively acquired worldwide rights for the products of Madam
Gre from the Bernard Tapie Group in Paris.
    The agreement calls for Cascade to have the rights for the
manufacturing and trading of perfumes, skin care and treatment
products, and cosmetics of the group, it said.
    Cascade said the agreement also includes the exclusive
rights to trade through duty-free channels worldwide the
designer Gres accessories.
    In addition, Cascade said it was granted an option to
purchase all the assets including the plant and equipment
located in France. 
    The company said the cosmetic product line in the U.S.
market alone could represent 20 mln dlrs in revenue.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 79 cts vs loss 2.32 dlrs
    Oper net loss 2,536,896 vs loss 6,562,472
    Revs 13.8 mln vs 14.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss 59 cts vs loss 2.35 dlrs
    Oper net loss 1,712,896 vs loss 5,747,472
    Revs 43.6 mln vs 44.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 excludes charge of 12 cts per share in the
fourth quarter and gain of 11 cts per share in the year.

 Reuter

said it signed a definitive agreement to sell its spirits
division for 545 mln dlrs to James Beam Distilling Co, a unit
of American Brands Inc <AMB>.
    The sale of the spirits division was made under the
company's previously announced plan to sell its spirits and
wines businesses, it said. The wine business was sold last
month for 128 mln dlrs to Heublein Inc, part of Grand
Metropolitan PLC, National Distillers said.
    The purchase price will be paid in cash, a National
Distillers spokeswoman said.
    The sale permits National to focus on its core businesses,
chemicals and propane marketing.
    Proceeds from the sale will be used to repay debt and for
other corporate purposes, the company said.
    In a separate statement, American Brands said the sale
would be for 545 mln dlrs plus the assumption of liabilities.
    The sale would be subject to compliance with the
Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other
regulatory approvals, the company said.
    National's distilled spirits business has sales of about
580 mln dlrs, American Brands said. National's spirits brands
include Gilbey's gin and vodka, DeKuyper Liqueurs and Windsor
Supreme Canadian Whisky.
 Reuter

Management Science America Inc,
clarifying statements made earlier today, said its loss for the
first quarter could exceed 20 cts a share because of
non-recurring expenses associated with the acquisition of
several companies, including Comserv Inc.
    Earlier today, the company told a meeting of investors here
that the first quarter loss would be 20 cts a share.
   
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve will promote lower
interest rates this year to sustain world economic growth,
First Boston Corp managing director Albert Wojnilower said.
    As much as the Fed would like to take a tough line against
inflation, it cannot act to slow the growth of credit without
subverting national U.S. economic policy.
    "On selected occasions when the dollar seems steady, and,
because the trade deficit is not responding, the United States
decided to push Germany and Japan harder to meet their
commitments to economic growth, the Federal Reserve will do its
part by moving rates down," Wojnilower said in a report.
    "Justifiably not anticipating either a recession or
seriously higher interest rates, securities market participants
have seen little to fear," Wojnilower said.
    He said last week's "hiccup" in money and currency rates
and bond and stock prices was probably caused by Japanese
window dressing for March 31 end-of-fiscal-year accounts.
    Wojnilower said the U.S. probably enjoyed above-average
economic growth in the first quarter. However, the pick-up
seems to reflect an unsustainable pace of inventory building
and the prospect for the full year is still for real gross
national product growth of about 2-1/2 pct, he said.
 Reuter

Raytech Corp said it acquired
<Raybestos Industrie-Produkte GmBH> for 7.5 mln dlrs.
    Raybestos, with manufacturing facilities in Radevormwald,
West Germany, produces friction materials for use in clutch and
braking applications.
 Reuter

Intercare Inc said it
expects to report a substantial loss for its fourth quarter
ended January 31 because of a writeoff of expenses associated
with its recently terminated debt and equity offering.
    The company also said the write off includes expenses
associated with the acquisition of U.S. Medical Enterprises
Inc, and with the restructuring of certain partnerships.
    Intercare also said it increased its reserve against
accounts receivable.
    Executives at the company were not immediately available to
provide additional details.
    Intercare also said it has implemented a workforce
reduction, closed two medical centers and is considering
additional closings as a means of reducing a working capital
deficit.
 Reuter

Canada plans to monitor steel shipments
flowing in and out of the country in an attempt to appease
concerns in the U.S. over the high level of Canadian steel
exports, Trade Minister Pat Carney said.
    "To help maintain our open access to the U.S. steel market,
the government is taking further action to ensure we have more
accurate data on exports and imports and that Canada is not
used as a backdoor to the U.S. market by offshore suppliers,"
Carney said.
    Carney also said Canadian companies were being asked to
exercise prudence in the U.S. market and both countries were
considering establishing a joint commission to study the
growing steel problem.
    Carney told the House of Commons she will soon announce an
amendment to the Exports and Imports Permits Act to set up the
monitoring program.
cent of the U.S. market in recent months, almost double the
level just two years ago, Canadian trade officials said.
several countries in the face of a decline in the domestic
American market be limited to 2.4 pct.
 Reuter

United Technologies Corp said
the decision by an international consortium not to develop a
new engine would have no impact on 1987 or 1988 earnings.
    <International Aero Engines>, IAE, 30 pct owned by United
Technologies' Pratt and Whitney division, has decided not to
launch a superfan version of its V2500 engine.
    "We've told analysts that IAE's decision not to launch a
full development program of the IAE superfan for certification
in 1991 will have no short term impact on earnings," a United
Technologies spokesman told Reuters.
    Short term refers to 1987 and 1988, the spokesman said. He
declined to elaborate.
    IAE's other owners are Rolls Royce PLC, <Japanese Aero
Engines Corp>, Fiat SPA and <MTU> of West Germany.
    Analysts are estimating United Technologies will earn 3.75
dlrs to 4.50 dlrs a share in 1987. It reported earnings of 36
cts a share in 1986, which included two large writeoffs.
 Reuter

Shr profit 72 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net profit 3,309,000 vs profit 609,000
    Revs 72 mln vs 65 mln
    Year
    Shr nil vs loss 4.13 dlrs
    Net profit 1,000 vs loss 19 mln
    Revs 249 mln vs 269 mln
    NOTE: Full name Stewart and Stevenson Services Inc.
 Reuter

Canada plans to offer a three-part bond
issue Tuesday, April 14, which will be dated and delivered May
1, the finance department said.
    The issue will have a mid-term bond, a bond due in about 10
years and a long term bond. Further details, including the
amount being offered, will be announced Monday.
    The deparment said 650 mln dlrs of government bonds mature
May 1, 1987.            
 Reuter

General Electric Co's RCA Global
Communications said it now offers RCA THRUFAX, a service that
delivers telex messages to facsimile terminals.
    No special equipment or extra cost is required to receive
telex messages, but the facsimile terminal must be registered -
without charge - with RCA, the company said.
    The company said through the service, every telex terminal
in the world will be able to reach RCA-registered facsimile
terminals in the U.S., of which there are approximately
500,000.
 Reuter

Centocor Inc said it entered into
an agreement with <Ajinomoto Co Inc> for the exclusive
distribution of Centocor's Panorex in Japan.
    Panorex is a monoclonal antibody, made through recombinant
gene technology, for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. It has
been tested in humans in Europe and the U.S. since 1982.
Centocor said it intends to begin clinical trials in the U.S.
this year with a modified form of the drug.
    Under the agreement, Ajinomoto will conduct clinical tests
of the drug in Japan and both companies will jointly file for
marketing approval for the product in Japan.
 Reuter

<Century Bancorp Inc> said it
filed for an initial public offering of 1.6 mln shares of Class
A common shares through an underwriting group managed by
Moseley Securities Corp.
    The company said the Class A shares are non-voting except
under certain limited conditions.
 Reuter

Shr 98 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 2,602,000 vs 1,571,000
    Loans 834.8 mln vs 729.0 mln
    Deposits 1.04 billion vs 942.1 mln
    Assets 1.15 billion vs 1.02 billion
 Reuter

The Senate unanimously approved
legislation to lift a ban on new construction of natural
gas-fired power plants and other large industrial gas-burning
plants.
    The bill, sponsored by Senate Energy Committee chairman
Bennett Johnston, also repeals mandatory incremental pricing of
natural gas which was designed to protect residential consumers
from major price increases by forcing some industrial users to
pay higher than market prices.
    "This legislation will open up new natural gas markets," the
Lousiana Democrat said.
    The gas restrictions were enacted in 1978 in response to a
shortage of natural gas and predictions of higher prices.
    "Now both oil and gas prices are severely depressed,"
Johnston said.
    In a compromise with coal producers, the bill requires new
baseload electric powerplants be designed to accomodate
modifications necessary to burning coal or another alternate
fuel.
 Reuter

The value of U.S. farmland declined
again last year, but less than in the previous year, the U.S.
    In a summary of its Agricultural Resources Report, the
department said on February 1, 1987, the average value per acre
of farmland stood at 548 dlrs, down eight pct from a year
earlier. Values dropped 12 pct in 1985, it noted.
    Real values, which are adjusted for inflation, also
declined less than in 1985, because of the low rate of
inflation in 1986.
    Real values fell 10 pct compared to 14 pct in 1985, it
said.
    The department said in the Corn Belt and Northern Plains,
which suffered severe losses in the past five years, declines
appear to be moderating. Also there are reports of stable
values in some areas of the Corn Belt, it noted.
    The continuing downturn in values reflects the large
acreage of land offered for sale relative to demand, concern 
about lower crop prices, and uncertainty over farm programs,
    Those factors tend to offset the effects of relatively high
cash farm income, lower interest rates, and reduced operating
expenses, it said.
 Reuter

Following the lead of other major
banks, Southeast Banking Corp told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it would place 54.2 mln dlrs of medium- and
long-term Brazilian debt on non-accrual or cash status.
    Based on current interest rates, it estimated in a filing
that the move will reduce net income by about 800,000 dlrs in
the first quarter and 3.2 mln dlrs for all of 1987. The company
also said it did not believe the Brazilian debt situation would
have a "material adverse" effect on it.
    It also said it would issue 1,080,000 common shares in
connection with its acquisition of Popular Bancshares Corp.
 Reuter

Williams Cos said it expected oil and
fertilizer transportation volumes to be flat in 1987 but said
operating profits from the pipeline unit should improve from
49.4 mln dlrs earned last year when a seven mln dlr special
charge was incurred.
    Williams Pipeline Co took the charge against earnings in
1986 for the removal of more than 500 miles of old pipeline
from service and for casualty losses. Companywide, Williams had
a net loss of 134 mln dlrs on total revenues of 1.85 billion
dlrs, a decline from profits of 32 mln dlrs on sales of 2.46
    In its annual report, Williams said its Northwest Pipeline
Corp and Williams Natural Gas Co had natural gas costs that are
among the lowest in the nation, averaging 2.04 dlrs and 2.07
dlrs per mcf, respectively, last year. Total natural gas
reserves for both units declined to 10,010 billion cubic feet
in 1986 from 11,334 billion cubic feet the previous year.
    The company said its Williams Natural Gas unit, which has
less take-or-pay exposure than most major pipelines, should
show improvement in its 1987 operating results because of
changes tariff and federal tax rates.
    The company's gas marketing business is expected to have
somewhat lower earnings in 1987 because of competition in its
operating region, the annual report said. The gas marketing
unit earned 26.0 mln dlrs on sales of 285.6 mln dlrs last year.
    Williams also said it expected a substantial decline in its
debt to equity ratio this year because of more than 250 mln
dlrs received in cash from the sale of Agrico Chemical Co and
proceeds from the sale and leaseback of Williams
Telecommunications Co. The telecommunications business, a
2,000-mile fiber optic system for long distance use, will not
be profitable until late 1988, Williams said.
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 28,339,000 vs 18,650,000
    Sales 2.27 billion vs 1.97 billion
    Avg shrs 74,485,000 vs 74,270,000
    Year
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 1.23 dlrs
    Net 89,301,000 vs 91,247,000
    Sales 9.07 billion vs 7.91 billion
    Avg shrs 74,387,000 vs 74,184,000
    NOTE: 1986 period ended February 22, 1986
    1986 earnings include net loss of unconsolidated subsidiary
of 162,000 dlrs in the quarter and 702,000 dlrs for the year
 Reuter

Shr loss 70 cts vs loss 57 cts
    Net loss 20,616,000 vs loss 16,854,000
    Revs 23.1 mln vs 60.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 1.38 dlrs vs loss 1.02 dlrs
    Net loss 40,780,000 vs loss 29,996,000
    Revs 61.0 mln vs 114.9 mln
 Reuter

Ministers from the Group of 24
developing coutries said that the debt crisis was entering a
new and dangerous phase and called for the formation of a
ministerial committee to examine solutions to the problem.
    In a statement following a meeting of the ministers, they
said that the "existing (debt) strategy offers no prospect for a
lasting solution to the debt problem."
    The statement said that there should be a new attitude and
approach in respect of the existing stock of debt and called
for current flows and future credits to be examined by
governments, multilateral and banking institutions.
    The statement also said that the prospects of the least
developed countries continue to deteriorate and "will improve
only if commensurate financing on concessional terms is made
available."
 Reuter

International coffee prices could drop to
between 70 and 80 cents a lb by next October if no agreement is
reached to support the market, Jorge Cardenas, manager of
Colombia's National Coffee Growers' Federation said.
    Speaking at a forum for industrialists, he said one of the
reasons was that the market was already saturated and that
producers will have excess production and stockpiles of 39 mln
(60-kg) bags in 1987.
    Today, May futures in New York settled at 107.90 cents a
lb.
 Reuter

Pan American Corp's Pan Am World
Airways said it will begin daily service tomorrow from Atlanta
to New York, Washington and Miami.
    The company said it will offer the flights for 49 dlrs
between April 9 and May 9. The 49 dlr fare is unrestricted, but
is capacity controlled, Pan Am said.
    Pan Am said the flights are timed to connect with European-
and South American-bound flights.
 Reuter

keeping 230 mln dlrs of debt of Caesars World Inc and Caesars
World Finance Corp on creditwatch with negative implications.
    S and P cited Caesars World's proposed recapitalization
plan that calls for incurring one billion dlrs of bank and
other debt to finance a 25 dlr per share special dividend and
the repayment of about 222.5 mln dlrs of existing debt.
    It said the plan's terms would violate dividend convenants
in the rated debt's indentures and likely force refinancing of
those issues. Caesars was placed on creditwatch for a possible
downgrade March nine following investor Martin Sosnoff's bid.
    Sosnoff bid 28 dlrs per share, or 725.2 mln dlrs, for the
86.4 pct of Caesars World stock he does not already own,
Standard and Poor's noted.
    The rating agency said an increase in Sosnoff's offer is
possible. If successful, the stock bid would markedly raise
Caesars World's financial risk and lead to a large drop in net
income and cash flow, S and P said.
    Caesars World currently carries BB senior debt and B-plus
subordinated debt. The finance unit's subordinated debt, which
is guaranteed by the parent, is rated B-plus.
 Reuter

Phoenix Financial Corp said that,
in connection with its previously announced reorganization, 
its board of directors resigned.
    Resigning as directors, officers and employees of the
company were Mary Anne Cossa, Thomas C. Amendola and James J.
O'Maller, the company said. It said Martin S. Ackerman and Joel
Yonover, both attorneys, were named directors and constitute
the new board.
    In addition, the company said Ackerman was named chief
    Phoenix said it acquired a controlling interest in <Data
Access Systems>, which sells and leases computer equipment.
    It said Ackerman, Yonover and Diane Ackerman were named
directors of Data Access.
    Moreover, the company that it and Data Access are both in
the process of reorganizing and the securities of both
companies represent speculative and risk-related investments.
 Reuter

Engineered Systems and
Development Corp said Wells Fargo and Co's <WFC> Wells Fargo
Bank has demanded immediate payment of a 1,750,000 dlr loan
made to Engineered's Seaborn Development Inc unit under a
revolving credit arrangment that expired on April 30, 1986.
    The company said Wells Fargo has also said it will sue to
collect if it does not receive payment immediately.
    The parties involved also began negotiations to restructure
the repayment over an 18 month period and the talks are
ongoing, Engineered Systems also said.
 Reuter

Summa Medical Corp said it
intends to file a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange
Commission outling a commitment for a six mln dlr financing,
signed yesterday.
    Summa said it expects the filing to take place before April
24.
 Reuter

HBO and Co said it sent a letter of
strongly urging shareholders not to sign any proxy cards sent
by Andover Group.
    ON March 30, Andover Group, a two-man general partnership
which owns about seven pct of HBO's stock, filed preliminary
proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission
seeking to nominate an alternative slate of directors at the
company's April 30 annual meeting.
    Andover had expressed an interest to acquire the company in
September 1986 but HBO has never received an offer from them,
it said.
    In addition, HBO said its financial condition is improving
rapidly as the result of a significant restructuring
implemented in 1986.
    It expects the company to report net income of about 40 cts
per share in 1987 and a very significant increase in 1988.
    For the year ended December 1986, the company reported a
loss of 3.6 mln dlrs, or 16 cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 5,645,000 vs 6,153,000
    Revs 45.9 mln vs 45.3 mln            
 Reuter

<UAP Inc> said it has acquired Slater
Auto Electric Ltd, with two Ontario stores, and United Diesel
Engine Parts Ltd, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, for undisclosed
terms. It said the transactions, together with acquisitions
earlier this year, will increase its annual sales by about 4.5
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Greece accused Turkish warplanes of
infringing the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) in the
Aegean Sea three times.
    The Defense Ministry said the Turkish intrusions took place
over the islands of Chios, Samos, Lesbos and Lemnos. The planes
were identified and intercepted by Greek fighters, it said.
    Greece has charged Turkish aircraft with 10 other FIR
infringements and two air space violations in the Aegean over
the last two days.
 Reuter

EIA SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS UNCHANGED, GASOLINE OFF 200,000, CRUDE UP 6.3 MLN

    First Interstate Bancorp <I> - Shelf offering of up to 112
mln dlrs of debt securities, including notes and debentures, on
terms to be determined at the time of the sale.
    Pacificorp Credit Inc, subsidiary of Pacificorp <PPW> -
Shelf offering of up to 250 mln dlrs of debt securities,
including notes and debentures, at prices and on terms to be
determined at the time of the sale.
 Reuter

currently discussing an amendment to a PL 480 agreement signed
with Morocco on January 22, but the mix of commodities under
the amendment has not been determined, a U.S. Agriculture
Department official said.
    The official noted the agreement signed in January provided
for the supply of about 55,000 tonnes of vegetable oil, 55,000
tonnes of corn and 126,000 tonnes of wheat, all for delivery
during the current fiscal year, ending this September 30.
    No purchase authorizations for the commodities provided in
the January agreement have been announced by the department.
 Reuter

<Thorn-EMI PLC> said the New York
Supreme Court dismissed six of the nine actions in a suit filed
by the Beatles for royalties on their songs.
    It said the court dismissed charges of fraud and
conversion, and claims of 50 mln dlrs in punitive damages
sought by the companies, <Apple Records Inc>, <Apple Corps
Ltd>, and former Beatles, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and the
widow of John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Paul McCartney was not party to
the suit.
    The Beatles brought the suit against Capital Records Inc
and EMI Records Ltd, two units of Thorn-EMI.
    The Beatles charged the record companies with defrauding
them by not paying royalties on sales of various recordings
over the past 18 years.
    A spokesman for the company in New York said while the
court dismissed six of the nine actions involving punitive
damages, three actions remain, with 30 mln dlrs in claims for
royalties.

 Reuter

The negotiating committees for the
United Steelworkers of America and LTV Corp said they have
begun intensive negotiations and have made a "firm commitment"
to successfully conclude these negotiations by May one.
    They said the talks will cover issues related to
termination of pension plans by the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp for both active workers and retirees, and insurance
programs for both groups.
    The Union and LTV also said they plan to resolve all issues
related to the terms of a basic labor agreement and the
effective use of manpower and equipment.
 Reuter

primary storage were unchanged in the week ended April three at
106.9 mln barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA)
said.
Energy agency said gasoline stocks were off 200,000 barrels in
the week to 248.1 mln barrels and refinery crude oil stocks
rose 6.3 mln barrels to 335.8 mln.
    The EIA said residual fuel stocks fell 100,000 barrels to
38.1 mln barrels and crude oil stocks in the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose 1.1 mln barrels to 520.0 mln.
    The total of all crude, refined product and SPR stocks rose
9.4 mln barrels to 1,561.1, it said.
 Reuter

Hawkeye Bancorp's 1986 annual
financial results were qualified by its auditors, according to
    "...there are conditions which may indicate that the
company will be unable to continue as a going concern,"
auditors Deloitte Haskins and Sells said in Hawkeye's annual
report to shareholders.
    Hawkeye reported a 1986 loss of almost 59 mln dlrs, citing
an increase in its loan loss provision to 34.7 mln dlrs and
restructuring costs of 27 mln dlrs.
    However, Hawkeye, with assets of 1.09 billion dlrs at 1986
year end, said it expects "to have sufficient cash to meet its
obligations for the next 12-month period."
    Last July the bank holding company reached a debt
restructuring agreement which identifed 17 bank subsidiaries
and five non-bank operations for disposition.
    "The restructuring has improved Hawkeye's financial
condition, but it does not assure that Hawkeye will be able to
survive as a going concern," the report said.
    Hawkeye's survival will depend on its ability to comply
with provisions of the debt restructuring and regulatory
agreements and on its ability to return to profitable
operations, it said.
    There can be no assurance that Hawkeye will be able to meet
these requirements. However, the company "believes it will be
able to do so," Hawkeye said.
 Reuter

CORRECTION - PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC &lt;PE&gt; NUCLEAR
    In Philadelphia story headlined "Philadelphia Electric
Nuclear Cost Estimate" ... please read in first paragraph ...
Philadelphia Electric Co will have to spend an average of about
five mln dlrs a month to replace the electricity which would
have been generated by the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant,
Chairman J. Lee Everett said ... Company corrects amount to
five mln dlrs a month, not a day.
 Reuter

corporate credit quality stabilized in the first quarter of the
year, even though downgrades outpaced upgrades.
    S and P said it reduced 79 debt ratings, affecting 63
billion dlrs of debt securities, and raised 28 ratings,
affecting 12 billion dlrs of debt.
    However, the rating agency pointed out that last quarter's
number of downgrades was the lowest since first quarter 1986.
It also said the upgrades were the fewest since early 1986.
    It said rating changes quieted in the oil and insurance
sectors, while utilities provided a positive influence.
    Standard and Poor's said its major downgrades last quarter
were of Denmark, USX Corp <X>, Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> and
    It said the most negative influence on rating changes
occurred in the financial institution sector, where there were
22 downgrades versus five upgrades.
    Notably, ratings were reduced for several of the largest
U.S. bank holding companies, reflecting lower asset quality and
weaknesses that were specific to those firms, S/P said.
    Among industrials, S and P cut 43 ratings and raised 10.
Lower ratings prevailed in steel and health care, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,051,000 vs 1.8 mln
    Assets 1.7 billion vs 1.5 billion
    Deposits 1.4 billion vs 1.2 billion
    Loans 1.1 billion vs 900 mln
    Note: Year-ago results restated to reflect merger with
Colson Inc.
 Reuter

Dome Petroleum Ltd's proposal to
restructure debt of more than 6.10 billion Canadian dlrs
includes provisions that may force the company to sell its 42
pct stake in <Encor Energy Corp Inc>, Dome said in a U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
    Dome said in the filing that its debt plan proposes making
payments under a five year income debenture to the lender whose
debt is secured by Dome's Encor shares.
    After the five years are up, "under certain circumstances
the shares of Encor may be required to be disposed," the company
said.
part of its debt to <Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce>,
estimated last year at 947 mln dlrs.
    Analysts have said Commerce Bank was pressing Dome to sell
the stock to pay down its debt.
    Dome's Encor shares had a market value of 313 mln dlrs on
March 17, 1987, the company's filing said.
    As previously reported, Dome is seeking approval in
principle for the debt restructuring plan. Dome said in the
filing it proposed lenders sign a letter of understanding in
early April, with implementation to be effective July 1, 1987.
    Dome Petroleum reiterated in the SEC filing that its
existence as a going concern is dependent on continuing the
interim debt plan, due to expire on June 30, and winning
agreement for its proposed restructuring plan.
    "The company believes that the negotiation and
implementation of the proposed debt restructuring plan is
realistic and achievable," Dome said.
    "However, the final outcome of the negotiations cannot be
predicted at this time," it said.
 Reuter

Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. signed a
letter of intent with Agip Carbone and Arco Coal Co, a unit of
Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> to exploit the coal deposits at
Guasare in western Zulia state, PDVSA officials said.
    The Carbozulia project will include open-pit mining of the
low sulphur content coal, as well as the construction of a
railroad and port facilities, at an estimated total cost of 500
mln dlrs.
    The Agip/Arco consortium will own 48 pct of Carbozulia,
while PDVSA will have 49 pct, with the remaining three pct to
be held by private investors.
    Carboulia President Luis Urdaneta said work will begin this
month on a preliminary test mine with a capacity of 500,000 mt
a year. A first shipment is scheduled to be ready by third
quarter 1987, he said.
    "The purpose of this trial shipment is to let potential
customers know about the quality of the Guasare coal," Urdaneta
said. Long-term plans call for Carbozulia to produce 6.5 mln mt
a year of by 1995, at which time coal exports are expected to
bring Venezuela some 200 mln dlrs a year.
    Agip Carbone President Francesco Coffrini said yesterday 60
pct of Carbozulia's coal will be exported to European markets.
   
 Reuter

products supplied fell 2.6 pct in the four weeks ended April
three to 15.73 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 16.16 mln in the
Department agency said distillate demand was off 7.9 pct in the
period to 2.90 mln bpd from 3.15 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.76 mln bpd, off 3.1 pct from
6.98 mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.15 mln
bpd, off 16.9 pct from 1.39 mln, the EIA said.
    So far this year, distillate demand fell 2.3 pct to 3.20
mln bpd from 3.28 mln in 1986, gasoline demand was 6.63 mln
bpd, off 0.3 pct from 6.65 mln, and residual fuel demand fell
4.9 pct to 1.35 mln bpd from 1.42 mln, the EIA said.
    Year-to-date domestic crude output was estimated at 8.40
mln bpd, off 7.6 pct from 9.09 mln a year ago, while gross
crude imports averaged 3.92 mln bpd, up 27.1 pct from 3.08 mln,
it said.
 Reuter

Financial analysts say they are
pleased with congressional moves to trim next year's federal
budget deficit but believe the actions will do little to help
improve the U.S. trade deficit or buoy the economy.
    The House of Representatives is expected to vote tomorrow
to approve a trillion-dollar budget blueprint for the coming
fiscal year that reduces the deficit by 38 billion dlrs.
    Similarly, the Senate Budget Committee has approved a plan
that would cut federal red ink by about 37 billion dlrs next
year.
        "In terms of the economy, 37-38 billion dlrs is
infinitesimal, so cuts of this magnitude will have little
impact on the economy and the trade deficit," said Stanley
Collander, a Touche Ross federal budget policy analyst.
    "At best, it will have a small positive effect," Collander
    Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker has repeatedly
told Congress that cutting federal red ink would go a long way
to help reduce the massive trade deficit and also help ease
some of the downward pressure on the value of the dollar.
    The U.S. government has attempted to remedy the trade
imbalance by driving down the value of the dollar. But Volcker
has warned that a further fall in the dollar's value is fraught
with danger.
    Such a decline, he has said, could refuel inflation as
imported goods become more expensive and chase away foreign
capital needed to finance the federal budget deficit.
    In addition, in February, U.S. officials meeting with other
major industrialized nations in Paris agreed that the value of
the dollar had dropped enough and that world exchange rates
should be stabilized at around current levels.
    As part of that agreement, Japan and West Germany agreed to
take steps to stimulate their economies and the United States
agreed to cut its budget deficit.
    The alternative to driving down the dollar any further as a
way to deal with the trade deficit, Volcker said recently, is
to reduce U.S. consumption, particularly federal spending.
you do is going to be counterproductive," Volcker said in recent
testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
    Volcker also said he would prefer to further tighten the
government's purse strings than have the Fed tighten the credit
supply if action was needed to fight inflationary pressures or
to assure the continued flow of foreign capital into the United
States.
    Analysts say that Fed tightening now could choke off the
current modest economic expansion and threaten a recession.
    Kemper Financial Services economist John Silvia stressed
that any deficit reduction was better than none.
    But he said the size of the cuts under consideration were 
not enough to give the Federal Reserve Board the flexibility it
needs to steer the economy or to keep the value of the dollar
from plunging further in world exchange markets.
    "There's no doubt that some deficit reduction helps, but if
your objective is to stabilize the dollar and perserve the
Fed's flexibility to conduct monetary policy, then the answer
is, it's not enough," Silvia told Reuters.
    The U.S. trade deficit has become one of the government's
most vexing and persistent problems.
    The 1986 deficit was 169.8 billion dlrs and there is as yet
little indication that this year's figure will be any lower,
though administration officials have predicted it will drop by
about 20 to 30 billion dlrs by year's end.
    In the past, Volcker has joked that he never lost sleep
worrying whether Congress would cut too much fat from the
federal budget.
    On the other hand, he also has made it clear he is not
attached to the gradually declining deficit ceilings set for
the 1986-1991 period by last year's Gramm-Rudman balanced
budget law.
    While the new law set a ceiling of 108 billion dlrs for
next year's federal deficit, both the House and Senate Budget
Committees have conceded that their budget plans would fall
short of the deficit reduction goal by about 25 billion dlrs.
    "For political reasons, 35 to 40 billion dlrs is about the
most you're going to get" out of Congress at the present time,
said Touche Ross's Collander. "To do something more than that
would be extraordinary, remarkable and very, very difficult."
    Collander said the real danger for Congress was to end up
short of the deficit reduction goal set by its Budget panels.
    "To an extent, this has become the minimum acceptable
reduction level," he explained. "Anything less than that will now
look like a failure to Wall Street."
    The budget plan now under debate on the House floor would
lower an estimated 171 billion dlr deficit for the year
beginning on October one to about 133 billion dlrs by cutting
defense and domestic programs by 38 billion dlrs from their
anticipated spending levels for next year.
    The Senate Budget Committee has called for a deficit of
nearly 134 billion dlrs with about 18.5 billion dlrs in new 
taxes and about the same amount in spending cuts.
 Reuter

extended to April 30 its buyer incentive program on 1986 and
1987 Ford Escort and Tempo, and Mercury Lynx and Topaz.
    Consumers will have a choice of 3.9 pct to 9.9 pct annual
percentage rate financing or a cash rebate of up to 600 dlrs.
    Earlier Ford extended its incentive program to April 30 on
its Taurus and Mercury Sable and several lines of light trucks.
 Reuter

4th qtr ended Jan 31.
    Shr profit 72 cts vs profit 14 cts
    Net profit 3,309,000 vs 609,000
    Year
    Shr profit nil vs loss 4.13 dlrs
    Revs 245 mln vs 269.1 mln
 Reuter

Robert A. Alexander resigned
yesterday as chairman, president and director of ORS Corp
following his conviction in the United States District Court in
Tulsa of seven counts of mail and wire fraud, the company said.
    The company, which will appoint an interim president, said
Alexander plans to appeal the conviction.
    The company said it was not charged in Alexander's
indictment.
 Reuter

    Return on avg assets 0.92 pct vs 0.63 pct
 Reuter

Colombia's coffee export registrations
remain open and there are no plans to close them since a new
marketing policy means an unlimited amount can be registered,
    "The philosophy of the new policy is not to close
registrations. Nobody so far said may would be closed," he told
Reuters.
    On March 13, Colombia opened registrations for April and
May for an unlimited amount.
    Without giving breakdowns, Arango said private exporters
had registered 1,322,804 bags this calendar year up to April 6,
or roughly 440,000 bags per month, slightly lower than the
average in recent years.
    He estimated the amount of bags registered by the national
coffee growers' federation at about the same, meaning a total
of about 900,000 bags registered and sold per month by
Colombia.
    "The only change that could happen is, because of the
volume, we would be told that from such a date, registrations
would be for June shipment, etc" Arango said.
 Reuter

<Alberta Energy Co Ltd> said it
filed a preliminary prospectus for an issue of convertible
debentures, which may total 100 mln dlrs depending on market
    It said it had not yet determined the interest rate,
conversion terms, maturity date or size of the issue.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 902,178 vs 662,647
    Deposits 174.7 mln vs 134.4 mln
    NOTE: Per share amounts adjusted to reflect 10-for-one
stock split effective Sept 16, 1986.
 Reuter

Selas Corp of America said it
signed a letter of intent for a three mln dlr sale and
leaseback of its corporate offices and plants.
    The sale is subject to a number of conditions, including
approval by the board and the unidentified buyer.
 Reuter

William Rodman, a 43-year-old New York
investor was indicted for allegedly plotting to manipulate the
price of three over-the-counter stocks to drive up their prices
and create interest in the companies.
    Rodman was also charged with securities and wire fraud
stemming from the alleged manipulation of the stocks of Memory
Metals Inc <MRMT>, Memory Protection Devices Inc <MPDI> and
<Intravision Inc>, beginning in January 1984.
    The indictment charged that Rodman and other unnamed
co-conspirators bought and sold the stocks through 100 accounts
in at least 35 broker-dealer firms.
   
 Reuter

Funaro, who suspended interest payments to creditor banks two
months ago, said creditors had to trust him when he said Brazil
would achieve a trade surplus large enough to continue
servicing its debt.
    Speaking to reporters at the Brazilian Embassy, Funaro said
he would not seek approval of Brazil's economic program outside
his country, but added, "At the same time we show credibility,
you (the banks) are going to have to trust us."
    Asked if creditor banks would accept Brazil's refinancing
needs based on a new economic program not endorsed by the
International Monetary Fund, Funaro said, "What other options do
they have?...They have to try to see our program."
    Funaro, who is in Washington to attend the Interim
Committee and Development Committee meetings of the World Bank
and IMF, said he unveiled his refinancing proposals to the
major creditor banks in New York yesterday.
    According to Funaro, the creditor banks "agreed on the need
to find a solution to the crisis." He did not elaborate.
    Funaro said the commercial banks agreed on Brazil's need
for economic growth and added that creditors were aware that
Brazil cannot continue to export the 24 billion dlrs in net
capital that it transferred over the past three years.
    He also said that he told bankers about Brazil's needs to
ensure a seven pct average growth and eight billion to 11
billion dlr trade surplus until 1991.
    Administration officials familiar with the negotiations
said Brazil's new economic measures did not make much sense
based on current conditions in that country, and added that
they saw long and difficult negotiations ahead.
    Lewis Preston, chairman of J.P. Morgan and Co. Inc., told
Reuters he remains hopeful that Brazil and its foreign bank
creditors will reach a debt rescheduling agreement before the
end of the year.
    But Preston, who did not attend the meeting between Funaro
and creditor banks yesterday, added the onus is still on Brazil
to put its economic house in order first.
    "They haven't even come up with a plan yet," Preston said
after Morgan's annual meeting in New York today.
    Funaro, however, said most creditor banks had
representatives in Brazil who were well aware of Brazil's new
economic measures, designed to curb a surge in inflation and
spending and a sharp drop in exports.
    Funaro called Brazil's program very responsible and very
strong, adding that "it is very different from other years,
there has been a tremendous change."
    Based on Brazil's current economic situation - suspension
of interest payments on 67 billion dlrs owed to banks, 200 pct
inflation and the need of four billion dlrs in new loans every
year until 1991 - he said he was faced with two options.
REUTER...

American Brands Inc's 545 mln dlrs
acquisition of National Distillers and Chemical Corp's liquor
business is expected to be one of a series of acquisitions by
the tobacco company, analysts said.
     "They were very frustrated with their inability to get
Chesebrough. They said they were looking for an acquisition. It
doesn't surprise me that they came up with another one," said
Allan Kaplan of Merrill Lynch and Co.
    American Brands failed late last year in its 2.9 billion
dlrs bid for Chesebrough-Ponds Inc when Unilever N.V. agreed to
buy the company. But since then, Wall Street has been
speculating that American Brands would find another candidate
to help reduce its earnings exposure to tobacco.
    "This is just typical," said George Thompson of
Prudential-Bache securities. "There's going to be more to come
here. American Brands had to make an acquisition because
tobacco is still a significant part of earnings. Their position
is a little less favorable than Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds,"
he said.
cash flow from its low growth tobacco, but the tobacco business
does require great amounts of capital expenditures. It can
therefore use its funds to make acquisitions. Analysts said the
National Distillers' spirits company, which makes Gilbey's gin
and vodka, Old Grandad and Old Crow whiskey, is not quite the
type of acquisition they envisioned.
    "The distilled spirits business has been in a steady
gradual decline for sometime, as has the tobacco business,"
said Thompson.
 REUTER...

Bundesbank board member Claus Koehler
called on central banks of major industrialised nations to
cooperate closely on exchange and interest rate policies.
    In a lecture at the University of Surrey, pre-released
here, Koehler said that the only alternative to cooperation was
protectionism and control on capital movements.
    "Central banks have sufficient experience of exchange market
transactions to steer exchange rates where they want to have
them," he said. He added that West German growth forecasts would
have to be revised downward because of the recent dollar drop
to 1.80 marks from above two marks at the start of 1987.
    Koehler said that transactions on foreign exchange markets
had parted company with transactions in goods, services and
investments. It was the scale of speculative transactions that
determined market trends.
    Speculative inflows could cause monetary aggregates to
grow. To reverse such a rise in the money stock, interest rates
would have to be lowered to allow funds to drain off.
    "In other words, the monetary policy measures required are
different from -- and sometimes diametrically opposed to --
those needed when the money stock is increasing as a result of
mounting economic activity," Koehler said.
    The dollar fall was one means of reducing the massive U.S.
Current account deficit. But attempts to keep the depreciation
going by talking the dollar down posed problems.
    The sharp drop of the dollar had led to an immediate steep
rise in the cost of U.S. Imports and a sharp fall in the cost
of European imports. But the volume effect of falling imports
to the U.S. And rising imports to Europe would take time to
make itself felt compared with the price effect.
    "Hence the depreciation of the dollar may well be going
further than would be necessary to adjust the current account
over the medium term," Koehler said.
    A reduction in the U.S. Current account deficit would occur
only if the growth rate of GNP was higher than domestic demand.
In Japan and West Germany by contrast, domestic demand should
rise faster than GNP.
    "In Germany this did indeed happen in 1986," Koehler said.
    If a further appreciation of the dollar was to be
prevented, the U.S. Current account deficit could be offset by
an inflow of foreign funds into the U.S..
    But only if there was an appropriate interest rate
differential would Europe and Japan look for financial
investment in the U.S.
    When selecting monetary policy instruments, a central bank
had to pay greater heed than in the past to the impact its
measures might have on expectations and consequent decisions.
    Koehler said the Bundesbank was changing money market rates
by operating on the open market rather than adjusting leading
interest rates because of the signal this gives to the market
and its substantial impact on exchange rates.
    It was not only important to achieve the domestic goals of
price stability, economic growth and full employment but also
to tackle international problems like the exchange rate
problem, the debt problem and the current account problem.
    A strategy had to be designed that helped "the safeguarding
of non-inflationary economic growth in an international
monetary system largely free of disruptions," Koehler said.
    Given the system of floating exchange rates, it was
necessary for central banks to agree to intervene. It sufficed
to tell the market where central banks saw exchange rates over
the next few years and intervention points should not be set,
because they were only testing points for the market, he said.
    In order to keep the international monetary system free of
disruptions central banks should not only intervene jointly but
also cooperate on interest rate policies, Koehler said.
 REUTER

Australia's seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate rose to 8.4 pct of the estimated workforce in
March from 8.2 pct in February and 7.9 pct a year earlier, the
    The number of jobless rose to 650,700 from 631,900 in
February and 593,200 a year earlier, the Bureau said.
    Unadjusted, the number of unemployed rose to 702,600 from
699,600 in February but the rate eased to 9.0 pct from 9.1,
reflecting a slight increase in the estimated workforce. In
March 1986, 640,400 persons, or 8.5 pct of the workforce, were
out of work.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said its sale of <Delhi
Petroleum Pty Ltd> will not affect the other oil and gas
interests it manages or operates.
    CSR sold Delhi, which holds an average 25 pct in the Santos
Ltd <STOS.S>-led Cooper-Eromanga Basin onshore gas and liquids
joint ventures, to an Exxon Corp <XON> unit for 985 mln dlrs on
April 1.
    In a statement to clarify the position, CSR said it will
retain its Roma Gas unit, the associated Roma-Brisbane gas
pipeline and the Bula oilfield on Seram, Indonesia, plus
exploration interests in Queensland and Hainan Island, China.
 REUTER

The Agriculture Ministry declined comment
on a local newspaper report that Japan had agreed to hold talks
on its closed rice market in the new GATT round.
    "We have no idea about the report and cannot comment," a
    Nihon Keizai Shinbun, quoting unnamed government sources,
said Japan would tell U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng
and U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter of its
intentions. The two are due to visit Japan later this month for
farm talks.
    The U.S. Has been pressing Japan to discuss the rice issue
at the new round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
talks. But Japan has said GATT is not the right forum.
    Imports of rice to Japan are banned under the Foodstuff
Control Act.
    Nihon Keizai said Japan's plan resulted from worries about
mounting trade tension with the U.S. At the GATT talks, Japan
will try to persuade the U.S. That its rice policy is
justified, it said.
    The 93-nation world trade body began the Uruguay trade
round last September. It will take four years to negotiate.
 REUTER

<Showa Denko Ltd> said it is exporting
aluminium billet casting equipment and technology to countries
that have recently begun aluminium smelting.
    A company official said it won a 500 mln yen order to
deliver 10 sets of casting equipment to Venezuela's Venalum by
end-1987. He said it received an order for one set from
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. Last year and expects further orders
from the Bahrain smelter.
    Showa Denko withdrew from smelting last year but expects to
increase its sales of equipment and technology, he said.
 REUTER

New Zealand's ruling Labour Party
government has just completed its three-year economic reform
which threw thousands of people out of work, yet its popularity
has risen as the September deadline for the election draws
closer, a recent poll shows.
    An Eyewitness/Heylen Poll, conducted for Television New
Zealand's Eyewitness news broadcast on April 2, showed Labour
had the support of 50 pct of voters compared with the
opposition National Party's 46 pct.
    The figures had been reversed in a poll a month earlier.
    The poll showed 40 pct of the canvassed voters thought the
economy would improve over the next year, up 12 points on last
month's result.
    The increase came in a week when the government turned
seven departments into nine profit-oriented corporations run by
businessmen who promptly sacked some 4,000 employees, including
half the country's 1,700 coal miners.
    The latest survey confounded those who proclaimed Labour's
days were numbered because of perceived insensitivity to its
traditional backers, the workers, political analysts said.
    The poll indicates people are swinging behind the party and
the arguments of Finance Minister Roger Douglas, who has
presided over the deregulation of the economy and the
construction of one based on market forces without subsidies or
currency controls, the analysts said.
    The economic reforms, by a party increasingly regarded in
New Zealand as more akin to the West European-style Social
Democrats than working class socialists, have rattled the
National Party, which is now regretting it was not as
innovative in the decade it ruled until Prime Minister Robert
Muldoon was ousted in 1983, one analyst said.
    The National Party was further shaken, the analyst said,
when the Press, a Christchurch daily, said on April 2 the party
was "on the verge of flying apart" with the prospect of a coup
attempt against leader Jim Bolger by Muldoon. Bolger said the
article was an April Fool's joke.
    Labour's reforms have brought unexpectedly strong tax
revenues, a lower budget deficit and less state borrowing, an
improvement in the balance of payments, a reduction in foreign
debt and improved productivity, economists said.
    Inflation should peak at 19.5 pct in the quarter ended
March 31 and fall to about eight pct within a year, they said.
    Labour's reforms have hit every sector, but the most
dramatic was the "corporatisation" of seven government
departments on April 1, which critics argue is the first stage
step towards the sale of state assets, the analysts said.
    The move stops short of privatisation, as the state will
retain ownership, but the new corporations are expected to be
financially self-supporting and pay dividends.
    Arguments have already broken out over money. One utility,
Electricorp, said its assets are worth less than 3.8 billion
dlrs yet the Treasury wants 8.5 billion for them.
    No agreement has been reached on the value of assets of the
former forest service, the analysts added.
    Chairman Alan Gibbs said in a speech the forest service had
been losing 100 mln dlrs annually, yet due to economies it now
employed less than 30 pct of its previous workforce and the new
corporation would pay the state a dividend of at least 20 mln
dlrs in its first year.
    Uncertainties have also arisen over the government, as the
only shareholder, retaining the right to order the new
corporations to undertake certain projects although the full
cost must be met by the state, the analysts said.
    Deputy prime minister Geoffrey Palmer said managers would
be held accountable for performance, with the government paying
for projects undertaken for social or environmental reasons.
    This policy has already caused problems, the analysts
added. For example, Electricorp has refused to spend several
hundred million dlrs to build a hydro project at Luggate,
further up the Clutha river from the Clyde high dam now under
construction in Central Otago.
    Prime Minister David Lange said this week that Labour MPs
had decided last year that Luggate be built and it was
important that the government honour its promises.
    "But it is also a matter of importance that we do not see
many more jobs lost because of economic distortion than we
would save by having that promise honoured to the last," he
added.
 REUTER

<Goodman Fielder Ltd>, an Australian
food products and supermarket firm, is planning a 100 mln U.S.
Dlr multi-option note issuance facility, lead manager BT Asia
Ltd said.
    Under the three-year "evergreen" facility, which can be
extended annually, notes will be issued by its subsidiaries
<Goodman Fielder New Zealand Ltd> and <Goodman Fielder
Industries Ltd> and guaranteed by the parent company.
    The facility is underwritten up to 75 mln dlrs at a maximum
of 17.5 basis points over the London interbank offered rate.
The underwriting fee is 10 basis points, BT Asia said.
    The facility will allow the issuers to opt for notes not
exceeding 50 mln Australian dlrs and 50 mln New Zealand dlrs on
a non-underwritten basis, but the outstanding total is limited
to 100 mln U.S. Dlrs, BT Asia said.
    The notes, in denominations of 100,000 U.S. Or Australian
or New Zealand dlrs, will have maturities of one to 12 months.
    The borrower has a further option to issue, also on a
non-underwritten basis, medium term notes with maturities of
one to three years, it added.
    The management fee was not disclosed and syndication is
expected to close tomorrow.
 REUTER

Japan's little-known Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications (MPT) has emerged as an international force
to be reckoned with, political analysts said.
    MPT, thrust into the spotlight by trade rows with the U.S.
And Britain, is in a position of strength due to its control of
a lucrative industry and its ties with important politicians,
they said.
    "The ministry is standing athwart the regulatory control of
a key industrial sector, telecommunications and information,"
said one diplomatic source.
    "They are a potent political force," the diplomatic source
said.
    But MPT is finding domestic political prowess does not
always help when it comes to trade friction diplomacy, analysts
said.
    "The ministry was a minor ministry and its people were not
so internationalized," said Waseda University professor Mitsuru
Uchida. "Suddenly they're standing at the centre of the world
community and in that sense, they're at a loss (as to) how to
face the situation."
    Most recently the ministry has been embroiled in a row with
London over efforts by Britain's Cable and Wireless Plc to keep
a major stake in one of two consortia trying to compete in
Japan's lucrative overseas telephone business.
    The ministry has favoured the merger of the two rival
groups, arguing the market cannot support more than one
competitor to Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd, which now
monopolizes the business.
    It has also opposed a major management role in the planned
merger for any non-Japanese overseas telecommunications firm on
the grounds that no such international precedent exists.
    The ministry's stance has outraged both London, which has
threatened to retaliate, and Washington, which says the merger
plan is evidence of Japan's failure to honour pledges to open
its telecommunications market.
    Washington is also angry over other ministry moves which it
says have limited access for U.S. Firms to Japan's car
telephone and satellite communications market.
    Much of MPT's new prominence stems from the growth of the
sector it regulates.
    "What has been happening is an important shift in the
economy which makes the ministry a very important place," said
James Abegglen, head of the consulting firm Asia Advisory
Service Inc.
    A decision to open the telecommunications industry to
competition under a new set of laws passed in 1985 has boosted
rather than lessened MPT's authority, analysts said.
    "With the legal framework eased, they became the de facto
legal framework," said Bache Securities (Japan) analyst Darrell
Whitten.
    Close links with the powerful political faction of the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) nurtured by former Prime
Minister Kakuei Tanaka are another key to MPT's influence, the
    "Other factions ignored MPT (in the 1970s), but the Tanaka
faction was forward looking and ... Recognized the importance
of MPT," Uchida said. Many former bureaucrats became members of
the influential political group, he added.
    The ministry also has power in the financial sector due to
the more than 100,000 billion yen worth of deposits in the
Postal Savings System, analysts said.
    MPT has helped block Finance Ministry plans to deregulate
interest rates on small deposits, a key element in financial
liberalisation, since the change would remove the Postal
Savings System's ability to offer slightly higher rates than
banks, they said.
    Diplomatic sources, frustrated with what they see as MPT's
obstructionist and protectionist posture, have characterized
the ministry as feudal.
    Critics charge MPT with protecting its own turf, limiting
competition and sheltering the former monopolies under its
wing. Providing consumers with the best service at the lowest
price takes a back seat to such considerations, they said.
    But many of the ministry's actions are not unlike those of
its bureaucratic counterparts in much of the Western world
including Britain, several analysts said.
    "The United States is really the odd man out," Abegglen said.
"For a government to take the view that it wants to keep order
in utilities markets is not an unusual and/or unreasonable
view," he said.
 REUTER

Members of prime minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have shunned
his support in their campaigns for upcoming local elections.
    "His presence will do more harm than good," an LDP candidate
in Tokyo told Reuters. The candidate is one of several
conservatives who have rebelled and joined the public outcry
against Nakasone's proposal for a five pct sales tax.
    Political analysts said Nakasone might have to step down
before the Venice summit of industrial democracies on June 8-10
if the LDP lost too many major local seats.
    Nakasone's popularity has dropped sharply since he led his
party to its greatest-ever election victory last July, and
analysts said the proposed tax was one reason for the decline.
    Over 2,500 local seats will be filled during two rounds of
polling. The first round is on Sunday, the second on April 26.
    Political analysts said a seat to watch would be the
governorship of Fukuoka, southern Japan. The LDP and two centre
parties are challenging the incumbent governor, Hachiji Okuda,
who is supported by the opposition socialist and communist
parties.
    The proposed tax is a key campaign issue.
    "The LDP and the centrist parties should have about
1,350,000 votes against 700,000 for Okuda. But Okuda is the
incumbent and has the sales tax weapon," said Rei Shiratori,
professor of political science at Dokkyo University.
    "Nakasone will serve out his term to the end of October if
the LDP wins in Fukuoka," he said.
    Analysts believe the opposition is likely to win the
governorship of the northern island of Hokkaido.
    But Kenzo Uchida, professor of political science at Hosei
University, said, "Nakasone can afford to get fairly tough if
the LDP loses only in Hokkaido."
    The opposition parties are campaigning to scrap the sales
tax proposal.
    The tax is one of the main pillars of Nakasone's plan to
overhaul the tax system, which has remained unchanged for 36
years.
    It is also a key element in plans to boost Japanese
domestic demand and cut back on exports. Without the tax
revenue the government would have less to spend on stimulating
 REUTER

Keen demand for gold stocks and quality
industrials pushed the Australian share market to all-time
highs in active trading, brokers said.
    A higher close on Wall Street, a strong local dollar and
easier domestic interest rates boosted sentiment in the
industrial sector, while demand for gold stocks continued
despite a slightly softer bullion price.
    Brokers said Western Mining featured in trading, gaining 30
cents to 9.00 dlrs after announcing a five-for-eight bonus
issue. By the close of trading, the all ordinaries index had
risen 12.5 points above yesterday's close to a record 1,771.6.
    The all industrials index gained 20.8 points to 2,639.3 and
the all resources 6.2 to 1,110.2. The gold index passed
yesterday's record close by 73.6 points to reach 3,156.2.
    National turnover was a high 206.7 mln shares worth 376.3
mln dlrs, with rises outnumbering falls five to three.
    Turnover was boosted by a large number of special sales,
including one for 5.0 mln Kalimantan Gold at 65 cents, 5.95 mln
Minora Resources at 23 cents, 3.57 mln Barrier Reef at 65, and
about 13 specials in Elders IXL totalling more than 2.0 mln
shares, brokers said. Elders rose 14 to 5.64 as more than 6.0
mln traded following news it will float Courage hotels.
    Elsewhere in the industrials sector, investors concentrated
on banking and insurance stocks and those in the food and
alcohol and tobacco sectors. ANZ gained 12 cents to 3.70 dlrs,
Westpac and National Australia four each to 5.06 and 5.64, and
FAI 10 to 10.60 after reaching a high of 10.90.
    Goodman Fielder advanced 10 to 4.60, Southern Farmers 20 to
8.40, and Arnotts 10 to 4.70. Amatil gained 10 to 10.70 and
Rothmans 20 to 7.20.
    Others to gain included Bell Group, up 15 to 10.85, IEL, 16
higher at 5.36, and Wormald, up 20 at 3.65. Coles Myer rose 20
to 7.00 after reports it plans to expand overseas.
REUTER^M

Following is the text of a statement
by the Group of Seven -- the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France,
Britain, Italy and Canada -- issued after a Washington meeting
    1. The finance ministers and central bank governors of
seven major industrial countries met today.
    They continued the process of multilateral surveillance of
their economies pursuant to the arrangements for strengthened
economic policy coordination agreed at the 1986 Tokyo summit of
their heads of state or government.
    The managing director of the International Monetary Fund
also participated in the meeting.
    2. The ministers and governors reaffirmed the commitment to
the cooperative approach agreed at the recent Paris meeting,
and noted the progress achieved in implementing the
undertakings embodied in the Louvre Agreement.
    They agreed, however, that further actions will be
essential to resist rising protectionist pressures, sustain
global economic expansion, and reduce trade imbalances.
    In this connection they welcomed the proposals just
announced by the governing Liberal Democratic Party in Japan
for extraordinary and urgent measures to stimulate Japan's
economy through early implementation of a large supplementary
budget exceeding those of previous years, as well as
unprecedented front-end loading of public works expenditures.
    The government of Japan reaffirmed its intention to further
open up its domestic markets to foreign goods and services.
    3. The ministers and governors reaffirmed the view that
around current levels their currencies are within ranges
broadly consistent with economic fundamentals and the basic
policy intentions outlined at the Louvre meeting.
    In that connection they welcomed the strong implementation
of the Louvre Agreement.
    They concluded that present and prospective progress in
implementing the policy undertakings at the Louvre and in this
statement provided a basis for continuing close cooperation to
foster the stability of exchange rates.
 REUTER

Honda Motor Corp <HMC.T> will sell cars
equipped with four-wheel steering in Japan from tomorrow and
will export the cars to the U.S. And Europe later this year,
company officials said.
    They told a press conference shipments to the U.S. Will
begin around July and to Europe around October.
    Four-wheel steering will be available on the Prelude saloon
at an added cost of 80,000 yen, they said.
    Honda expects to sell 48,000 Prelude saloons in Japan and
to ship 80,000 to the U.S., 10,000 to Canada and 20,000 to
Europe by year-end.
 REUTER

British Airways Plc <BAB.L> is issuing a
100 mln stg eurobond due May 6, 1997, paying 9-1/2 pct and
priced at 101-1/2, lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland said.
    Payment date is May 6.
 REUTER

The Bank of France said it has invited
offers of first category paper today for a money market
intervention tender.
    Money market operators were divided over whether the Bank
of France will use to occasion to cut its intervention rate,
which has stood at 7-3/4 pct since March 9.
    Some thought a price cut unlikely while others said there
was room for a further 1/4 point cut by the bank.
 REUTER

RIO TINTO-ZINC CORP PLC 1986 PRETAX PROFIT 601.7 mln stg
vs 614.4 mln

    SHR 78.91p vs 83.05p
    DIV 16.5p making 23.5p vs 22p
    PRETAX PROFIT 601.7 mln stg vs 614.4 mln
    NET ATTRIBUTABLE PROFIT 245 mln stg vs 257 mln
    TURNOVER 3.34 billion stg vs 3.09 billion
    Note - Accounts have been restated
    Full name of company is Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Plc <RTZL.L>
    Group operating profit 529.4 mln stg vs 470.7 mln
    Operating costs 2.81 billion stg 2.63 billion
    Share of profit less losses of related companies 104.4 mln
stg vs 165.0 mln
    Interest receivable/other income 41.5 mln stg vs 47.4 mln
    Interest payable 73.6 mln stg vs 68.7 mln
    Tax 274.8 mln stg vs 277.1 mln
    Leaving 326.9 mln stg vs 337.3 mln
    RTZ' investment in Australian associate CRA has been equity
accounted for 1986 and 1985 figures restated on the same basis
after the reduction of RTZ's interest to 49 pct in October
1986.
 REUTER

The value of turnover on the Australian
Stock Exchange (ASX) soared to a record 17.11 billion dlrs in
the first three months of 1987 from 7.50 billion in the
corresponding months of 1986, the ASX said.
    Its statement did not give the previous peak.
    First quarter volume also rose sharply, to 9.95 billion
shares from 4.31 billion a year earlier, it said.
    The record volume reflected increased investment in
Australian companies by local and overseas institutions and the
popularity of gold mining and other resource sector shares, the
ASX said.
    In the nine months ended March 31, turnover value climbed
to 38.52 billion dlrs from 20.72 billion a year earlier, the
ASX said.
    Volume in the nine month period rose to 24.07 billion
shares against 13.15 billion a year earlier, it added.
 REUTER

China is likely to succeed in joining
GATT despite policies that contradict free trade, because
western countries support its entry, western diplomats said.
    China applied to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) in July 1986. The organisation, formed in 1948 to
integrate the world's free market economies, now regulates 80
pct of world trade.
    The GATT secretariat is expected to submit a list of
detailed questions to China next month at the start of long and
complex entry negotiations, the diplomats said.
    One diplomat said China's prospects are good, with its
application supported by the United States, Japan and the
European Community for political and economic reasons.
    "The fear is that if China was refused entry, it would draw
back the bamboo curtain and go back to the way it was," he said.
    Another said the Soviet Union was waiting in the wings.
    "If GATT accepted China, it would be hard not to accept the
Soviet Union," he said.
    "China's agreement will be seen as a model for the Soviet
Union. GATT is not a political body."
    But serious problems have to be tackled during the talks,
including China's pricing system and trade subsidies.
    GATT is based on free trade and aims to lower tariffs and
promote trade, with prices alone dictating who buys what.
    One diplomat said it was very hard in China to establish
the real cost of goods because many prices are set by the state
and often contain subsidies.
    "Even when you go in person to a factory or a company to try
to find out the real cost of something, officials do not give
you a clear answer. The political meaning is evident. They do
not want to answer," he said.
    China's position, as set out in a memorandum to GATT in
February, is that it is gradually reforming its price system to
bring prices in line with real production costs and replace
administrative controls with market ones.
    Another diplomat said countries with centralised economies
such as Hungary and Yugoslavia had joined GATT. However, China
would not apply for membership on similar terms, but rather as
a less developed country entitled to preferential treatment.
    He added that the economies of Hungary and Yugoslavia are
small, while China's is huge and its weight would be felt.
    "It (China) is the world's number two producer of coal, for
instance," the diplomat said. "It could have a very large impact
on world trade."
    Another sticking point is the subsidies China pays its
companies to export so it can earn foreign exchange to pay for
vitally needed technology, equipment and raw materials.
    A Japanese trader said China lost money on every tonne of
grain it exported, because it had to make up the difference
between a low world price and a high domestic price.
    A western diplomat said an official of a foreign trade
bureau of a major inland Chinese city told him export subsidies
might be as high as 100 pct for some products.
    "When I asked what the subsidy figure was for the whole
country, he referred me to the Ministry of Finance, adding with
a grin that they would not tell me," he said.
    He said officials were unwilling to give figures because of
the sensitivity of the subject.
    "Unless something is done to change this, China will find
many countries in GATT putting restrictions on imports from
China," the diplomat added.
    In a major speech on the economy late last month, Planning
Minister Song Ping made an indirect reference to this problem.
    "While trying to expand exports to earn more foreign
exchange, we must improve economic accounting practices and
reduce the cost of exports," he said.
    One diplomat said China's freedom to change its foreign
trade and pricing system to bring them more in line with GATT
principles could conflict with domestic pressures. China has
said there will be no major price reforms this year following
widespread discontent in 1985 and 1986 from a public used to
stable prices since the Communist takeover in 1949.
    "So the question is how fast and how thoroughly can China
reform its economy?," the diplomat said. "How can it balance the
requirements of GATT membership with domestic political needs?"
    But he added the advantages of China's entry would in the
end outweigh these problems.
    "China's entry would force it to modernise and become more a
part of the world economy," he said.
    "Just as China would get increased access to foreign
markets, so it would have to give more access to its domestic
market to foreign countries."
 REUTER

Remarks by two leading central bankers
sparked renewed speculation in financial markets that a cut in
the West German three pct discount rate may be under
discussion, currency dealers said.
    Bundesbank board member Claus Koehler said in a speech that
monetary growth resulting from speculative capital inflows
required cuts in interest rates.
    Separately, West Berlin state central bank president Dieter
Hiss told journalists that the discount rate could fall below
its lowest ever point of 2.75 pct. He made clear that he was
not making a forecast on interest rates, however.
    Currency dealers here and in the Far East said the dollar
gained slight background support from the speculation.
    But German dealers noted that the Bundesbank kept the 3.80
pct rate unchanged at which it offered liquidity to the money
market this week, dashing some expectations that it may either
offer lower fixed rate money or offer a reduced minimum rate
and let the strength of banks' demands set the allocation rate.
    It allocated 6.1 billion marks in new liquidity, much less
than the 14.9 billion leaving the market as a prior pact
expired. This further weakened sentiment the Bundesbank could
move to a more accommodative monetary stance, dealers said.
    Koehler said in a speech in Surrey, England, speculative
capital inflows may cause monetary growth, regardless of
whether central banks intervened or exchange rates fell.
mounting economic activity."
    Though Koehler was known to be the most liberal of the
generally monetarist Bundesbank board, his comments marked the
first time cuts in rates had been concretely suggested as a
counterpoint to overly strong monetary growth, dealers said.
REUTER^M

XYVision Inc is issuing a 25 mln dlr
convertible eurobond due May 5, 2002 paying an indicated coupon
of between 5-3/4 and six pct and priced at par, lead manager
Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd said.
    The issue is callable after 30 days at 106 pct declining by
one pct per annum to par thereafter. It is not callable for
three years unless the conversion price exceeds the stock price
by 130 pct.
underwriting each pay 1/2 pct. Final terms will be set on, or
before, April 15.
    The issue is available in bearer and registered form in
denominations of 5,000 dlrs. It will be listed in Luxembourg
while the payment date is May 5.
 REUTER

The Soviet trade deficit with the West
almost quadrupled last year, reaching 2.72 billion roubles
compared with 713 mln in 1985, official figures showed.
    Statistics published by the monthly journal Foreign Trade
showed Soviet trade turnover for 1986 fell to 130.9 billion
roubles from 142.1 billion the previous year, a drop of 7.8
pct.
    Moscow's trade surplus with East Bloc countries continued
to grow in 1986.
    Western analysts attributed the deficit rise with the West
to the world oil price slump, which hit Moscow's main export
and cut hard currency earnings needed for purchases in the
West.
 REUTER

Year 1986
    Shr 33.54p vs 34.2p.
    Final div 9.5p, making 14p vs 12.75p.
    Pre-tax profit 105.9 mln stg vs 79.6 mln.
    Net profit before minorities 56 mln vs 52.1 mln.
    Turnover net of duties 1.32 billion stg vs 1.46 billion.
    Minorities 800,000 stg vs same.
    Extraordinary debit 20.4 mln vs 28.2 mln.
    NOTE: Company's full name is The Burmah Oil Co Plc <BURM.L>
REUTER^M

Pests and disease, which destroyed 1.1
mln tonnes of wheat in China in 1986, are threatening crops on
11.64 mln hectares this year, the China Daily said.
    About 14.54 mln hectares of wheat were affected in 1986.
    The paper said abnormal weather conditions had encouraged
the spread of wheat midges in 2.47 mln hectares in Shanxi,
Henan, Sichuan, Anhui, Hebei and Jiangsu.
    In Henan, Shandong and Hebei wheat aphids are affecting
4.67 mln hectares, wheat red mite 2.8 mln hectares and wheat
powdery mildew 1.7 mln hectares.
 REUTER

Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Plc <RTZL.L>, RTZ,
said the predicted rise in industrial production in the U.S.
And Europe should boost its 1987 performance.
    Consumption of some base metals and their dlr prices are
showing signs of improvement, although iron ore markets have
weakened. The oil price in U.S. Dlrs is above the 1986 average,
and if sustained, should improve energy earnings.
    The company was commenting in a statement on its 1986
results which, on a restated basis, showed net attributable
profits lower at 245 mln stg after 257 mln the previous year.
Pretax profits also dipped to 601.7 mln stg after 614.4 mln.
    RTZ said the excellent performance of its expanding range
of industrial businesses in 1986 was offset by the collapse in
    Industrial businesses contributed 202 mln stg to net
profit, a 40 pct increase from 144 mln in 1985, and 60 pct of
the total. Trading performance improved at wholly-owned
subsidiaries RTZ Borax Ltd, RTZ Cement Ltd, RTZ Chemicals Ltd
and RTZ Pillar Ltd. First time contributions from recent
investment and acquisitions mainly in speciality chemicals and
minerals also aided performance.
    Metals activities contributed 83 mln stg to net profit.

State-owned Korea Electric Power Corp
(KEPCO) has signed contracts with three U.S. Firms to supply
equipment and services for its tenth and eleventh nuclear power
plants, a KEPCO spokesman said.
    Combustion Engineering Inc <CSP> will supply pressurised
light-water reactors, General Electric Co <GE> will provide
turbines and <Sargent and Lundy Engineers> will supply
engineering and design services, he said.
    Work on the two plants, at Yongkwang in the southwest of
the country, is due to start around June 1988 and be completed
in 1995 and 1996.
    The firms will receive a total of 430 mln dlrs, or 11.5 pct
of the construction cost of 3.74 billion dlrs.
    The three suppliers were chosen from 13 bidders after
tenders closed in April 1986.
    South Korea operates six atomic stations, is building
another three and has plans for about 20 by the year 2000.
 REUTER

Group shr 35.99 yen vs 38.28
    Net 21.01 billion vs 21.08 billion
    Current 47.73 billion vs 48.06 billion
    Operating 55.04 billion vs 54.99 billion
    Sales 792.71 billion vs 864.28 billion
    NOTE - Company forecast for current year is group shr 37.70
yen, net 22 billion, current 52 billion and sales 800 billion.
 REUTER

The state-owned People's Construction
Bank of China is making its first foreign borrowing, 300 mln
dlrs to finance a large ethylene plant in Shanghai, the
    The newspaper's overseas edition said the plant will
produce 300,000 tonnes of ethylene a year.
    It said the bank last year started foreign exchange
services for the first time on an experimental basis in
Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Xiamen, but it gave no more details.
 REUTER

<Equiticorp Hongkong Ltd> is planning
a 30 mln U.S. Dlr transferrable loan facility to raise working
capital, lead managers <Manufacturers Hanover Asia Ltd> and
<Manufacturers Hanover Ltd>, said.
    The two year loan with bullet repayment carries interest at
5/8 of a percentage point over the London interbank offered
rate. It will be guaranteed by parent company <Equiticorp
Holdings Ltd> of New Zealand, the managers said.
    Syndication is proceeding and managers and participants are
being invited to participate at four levels with management
fees ranging from 15 to 30 basis points, it said.
 REUTER

The maximum export rebate granted at
yesterday's EC sugar tender marked no change in policy over
producer complaints that they are not obtaining the EC
intervention price in exporting sugar outside the Community, EC
    The maximum rebate was 46.496 Ecus per 100 kilos for
118,350 tonnes of sugar, down from 46.864 Ecus the previous
week, but the change is explained by world market conditions.
    Producers claim the rebate was short of the level needed to
obtain a price equivalent to the intervention price by over one
Ecu per 100 kilos, and was 0.87 Ecu short the previous week,
    They said this was despite the fact that the Commission had
to accept 785,000 tonnes of sugar into intervention from
operators protesting that rebates are too low.
    Operators have now until early May to withdraw this sugar.
But they have not given any sign of planned withdrawals unless
the Commission reviews its export policy, they said.
 REUTER

CIBC Australia Ltd is issuing a zero
coupon eurobond with a total redemption amount of 125 mln
Australian dlrs due May 15, 1992 priced at 54 pct, sole lead
manager CIBC Ltd said.
    The issue is available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000
Australian dlrs and is guaranteed Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce. The selling concession is 3/4 pct, while management
 REUTER

The current year has opened well, with
trading prospects remaining favourable, Burmah Oil Co Plc
<BURM.L> said in a statement with its 1986 results.
    The company plans to maintain a steady rate of investment
in its marketing operations and to obtain improved profit
margins on its liquified natural gas, LNG, project.
    Burmah has the financial capacity to continue making
acquisitions within its business sectors, it added. The
rationalisation programme, including sale of the Bahamas oil
terminal and all peripheral activities, is now complete.
    Pre-tax profit for 1986 rose to 105.9 mln stg from 79.6
mln.
REUTER^M

Year 1986
    Consolidated net profit 67 mln Swiss francs vs 42 mln.
    Dividend 100 francs per registered share vs 80 francs and
10 francs per participation certificate vs eight.
    Consolidated turnover 4.55 billion francs vs 4.54 billion.
    Parent company net profit 38.2 mln francs vs 26.4 mln.
    Parent company turnover 2.20 billion francs vs 2.29
billion.
    Note - Company's full name is Gebrueder Sulzer AG <SULZ.Z>
 REUTER

Mitsubishi Corp <MITT.T> said it will
issue a 50 billion yen unsecured seven-year convertible bond
and a 30 billion yen unsecured nine-year convertible bond on
the domestic capital market through public placement with Nikko
Securities Co Ltd as lead manager.
    Coupon and conversion price for both par-priced bonds will
be set at a board meeting to be held later this month and
payment is due on May 14, Mitsubishi said in a statement. The
seven-year bond matures on September 30, 1994, and the
nine-year bond on September 30, 1996. Mitsubishi's share price
fell 30 yen to 1,200 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today.
 REUTER

The British Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) has granted licenses for two airlines, <Brymon Airways>
and <Eurocity Express>, to fly three lucrative European routes
from the 20 mln stg London docklands airport.
    Brymon plans to offer five flights a day from the London
City Airport to Paris, and three to Amsterdam and Brussels.
Eurocity will also operate flights to Duesseldorf and
Rotterdam.
    The airport is due to open in October, and is only a
20-minute taxi ride from the capital's financial district, the
City, compared to an hour to get from the City to the nearest
existing airport, Heathrow.
 REUTER

The leaders of two of Japan's top business
groups said in separate statements the Group of Seven (G-7)
accord reached in Washington yesterday is of deep concern to
Japan because it shows the major industrial nations regard the
yen's current level as appropriate.
    Eishiro Saito, chairman of the Federation of Economic
Organizations (Keidanren), said the yen's present rate is well
above adequate levels. He did not elaborate.
    Takashi Ishihara, chairman of the Japan Committee for
Economic Development, said the accord will not prevent the yen
from rising further.
    "We do not understand why the G-7 approved present rates as
the yen has risen excessively since the Paris accord," Ishihara
said.
    G-7 members Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the U.S.
And West Germany said in a statement they consider their
currencies are now within ranges broadly consistent with
    Saito called on each G-7 member nation to prepare to
intervene in the market strongly enough to ensure exchange
rates are stabilised at appropriate levels.
 REUTER

<Kowloon Electricity Supply Co Ltd>, a
joint venture of China Light and Power Co Ltd <CLPH.HK> and
Exxon Corp <XON>, has renewed and increased an existing
commercial paper program, arranger <Schroders Asia Ltd> said.
    The fully underwritten program, which expires this month,
has been extended to December 1990 and increased to 540 mln
H.K. Dlrs from the original 500 mln dlrs, it said.
    The underwriting fee is 1/8 of a percentage point over the
Hong Kong interbank offered rate.
    Commercial paper in tenures of one to three months will be
issued in denominations of one mln dlrs, it said.
    The program offers a U.S. Dlr option whereby commercial
paper in denominations of 100,000 U.S. Dlrs will be issued
subject to the same underwriting margin.
    Joining Schroders as underwriters are Barclays Bank Plc,
Citicorp International Ltd, Paribas Asia Ltd, Sanwa
International Finance Ltd and Sumitomo Finance (Asia) Ltd.
    The six underwriters will be joined by 11 other financial
institutions in the tender panel.
 REUTER

Sankei Building Co Ltd is issuing a 60
mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due May 7, 1992 paying an
    The issue is guaranteed by Sumitomo Bank Ltd and is
available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs. The selling
combined pays 3/4 pct. The payment date is May 7 and listing
will be in Luxembourg.
    Final terms will be fixed on April 15. The warrants are
exercisable from May 21, 1987 until April 23, 1992.
 REUTER

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) will
list yen bond futures contracts once the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission gives its approval, which could come within
six months, CBOT chairman Karsten Mahlmann said.
    Mahlmann earlier told a press conference he would visit
Kyoji Kitamura, director-general of the Finance Ministry's
Securities Bureau, to express the CBOT's concern that Japanese
financial institutions and individuals are not permitted to
trade on the CBOT. Mahlmann is on a two-week tour of Hong Kong,
Tokyo and Sydney.
    Mahlmann urged Japan to boost Tokyo's status as a world
financial center by promoting the internationalisation of its
financial industry.
    The Finance Ministry is expected to allow local banks,
securities houses and insurance companies to use overseas
markets from this month, bond market sources said, but
officials would only say the issue was under study.
    Initially, the ministry is likely to bar corporate and
individual investors due to their relative inexperience, and to
limit trading to instruments like currency, stock indexes, time
deposits and government debt futures, the sources said.
    Mahlmann told reporters the CBOT will start evening trading
to coincide with Far East morning activity on April 30. But he
added night sessions would not preclude the CBOT from forming
links with Far Eastern exchanges, although nothing had been
decided.
    Asked what type of financial futures would be appropriate,
he cited products concerning debt and equity.
    The CBOT evening session will run from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M.
Chicago time (2300 to 0200 GMT), which is 8:00 to 11:00 A.M. In
Tokyo, and trading will be limited to four contracts -- U.S.
Treasury note and bond futures and options, he said.
    Yen bond dealers said a proposed link between CBOT and the
London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE),
combined with yen bond futures listings on both, would multiply
volume if trade was encouraged by Tokyo-based orders.
    Healthy liquidity growth in cash yen bond markets overseas
is a prerequisite for expanded futures trading, traders said.
    LIFFE plans to list yen bond futures should go ahead from
September, possibly coinciding with the CBOT, traders said.
    The CBOT applied for permission to offer a long-term
Japanese government bond futures contract on March 17, and the
authorities must rule on the request within a year.
 REUTER

<Pergamon Holdings Ltd> and its associate
companies said that they had sold 30 mln ordinary shares in the
British Printing and Communication Corp Plc <BPCL.L> and 10.5
mln in <Hollis Plc> together with other securities.
    No total price was given but the company said the proceeds
of the sales would be used to fund Pergamon's expansion
programme and worldwide acquisition stategy. The company said
that following these sales Pergamon's ordinary shareholdings in
both BPCC and Hollis remained above 51 pct. It said it had no
intention of further reducing its holdings in either company.
 REUTER

British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey
Howe and U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz plan to discuss
the growing crisis in trade relations with Japan in talks in
Washington, government officials said.
    Howe views the apparent deadlock in British attempts to
secure a greater share in Japanese domestic markets very
seriously, said an official travelling with him.
    Britain has threatened to impose retaliatory restrictions
on Japanese finance houses in London if Japan does not open up
its markets. The U.S. Has already imposed higher tariffs on
computer microchips imported from Japan.
    Michael Howard, the British minister for consumer and
corporate affairs, repeated the threat of sanctions before
leaving Tokyo yesterday at the end of a four-day visit during
which he failed to secure major concessions from the Japanese.
    Howe's main mission in Washington was to brief Shultz on
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's visit to the Soviet Union
last week. Shultz is due to fly to Moscow next week.
 REUTER

Year 1986
    Net profit 635.5 mln guilders vs 603.4 mln.
    Revenues 17.35 billion guilders vs 17.27 billion.
    Net profit per nominal 2.50 guilder share 5.79 guilders vs
5.67, corrected for capital increase. (1985 uncorrected figure
5.73).
    Dividend 2.50 guilders vs 2.38, corrected. (2.40
uncorrected.)
    Note - Full name is Nationale Nederlanden NV <NTNN.AS>
REUTER

<Bond Corp International Ltd> said it
has sold a residential block at Hong Kong's mid-levels to a
joint venture between Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd <SHKP.HK> and
<New Town (N.T.) Properties Ltd> for 138 mln H.K. Dlrs.
    Bond International, a subsidiary of the Australia based
Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S>, will receive net profits of
about 16 mln dlrs from the deal.
    The firm bought the building, which has total floor spaces
of 110,580 sq ft and is now fully let, as part of a parcel of
properties which it acquired from Hongkong Land Co Ltd
<HKLD.HK> for 1.43 billion dlrs late last year.
 REUTER

The statement issued today by the Group of
Seven (G-7) industrialised nations has put Japan under greater
international pressure to stimulate its economy or face a
further rise in the yen, private economists and analysts said.
    They said the communique reflected increased foreign
frustration with Japan's burgeoning trade surplus and its
tight-fisted fiscal policies in the past.
    Unless Japan implements economic measures included in the
statement, foreign protectionist sentiment would grow and the
yen would come under renewed upward pressure, they said.
    The G-7 -- grouping the U.S., Japan, West Germany, Britain,
France, Italy and Canada -- said in the statement they welcomed
proposals announced by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) for extraordinary and urgent measures to stimulate its
economy and that Japan reaffirmed its intention to further open
its domestic markets.
    "It's rather unusual that only Japan was mentioned in the
communique and promised something," said Takeshi Saito, general
manager of Fuji Bank Ltd's research division. This showed how
strongly other nations want Japan to take concrete and
effective steps to redress its trade surplus, he said.
    The statement referred to some details of Japan's proposed
economic measures, such as early implementation of a large
supplementary budget exceeding those of previous years and
    It did not mention any figure for the projected
supplementary budget but LDP officials have said it will amount
to more than 5,000 billion yen for fiscal 1987, which compares
with 2,000 billion provided for the previous year.
    "It signalled a clear shift away from the conservative
fiscal policies of the past," said Kazuaki Harada, senior
managing director of Sanwa Research Institute.
    For the last five years the government has stuck to a
tight-fisted fiscal policy in its attempt to stop issuing
deficit financing bonds by 1990.
    But mounting foreign pressure for Japan to boost its
economy, hurt by the yen's extended rise, hurried the
government to hammer out a draft economic package and bring it
to the latest G-7 meeting.
    Harada said Japan should not view expansion of its economy
as the result of pressure but as an opportunity to lead world
    "The Japanese economy has the potential to take a leadership
role and we should recognize it," Harada said.
    If Japan fails to meet such international expectations it
will invite some retaliatory moves, especially from the U.S.,
Which may result in a further rise of the yen, analysts said.
    The G-7 communique represented a test for Japan's
commitment to domestically-generated economic growth and to a
more balanced world trade structure, they said.
 REUTER

Ta Chung Hua Rubber Factory of
Shanghai will raise a 30 to 35 mln U.S. Dlr loan to expand and
modernise its plant, arranger CCIC Finance Ltd said.
    The loan, to be lead managed by the Bank of China, is
expected to mature in eight to nine years, but terms have not
been finalized.
    The money will be used to import manufacturing equipment
including technology transfer for the production of truck
radial tyres. Part of the output will be exported.
    The expansion program is expected to cost a total 54 mln
dlrs. The shortfall will be financed domestically.
 REUTER

Saudi riyal interest rates rose as
Bahrain-based banks scrambled to cover short positions, dealers
said.
    Several Bahrain banks had been lending in the fixed periods
and borrowing in the short dates, but today they found the
day-to-day money in short supply, dealers said.
    "Everybody's stuck in the spot-next," one trader said.
    Spot-next rose to as high as 6-1/4, six pct from 5-1/4,
five pct yesterday, and the borrowing interest spilled over
into the periods, with one month rising to around 6-3/16,
5-15/16 pct from 5-15/16, 7/8 pct yesterday.
    Three months edged up to around 6-9/16, 5/16 pct from
6-7/16, 1/4 pct, while six months was quoted a touch firmer by
some banks at seven, 6-3/4 pct.
    Commercial banks quoted the spot riyal at 3.7500/04 to the
dollar after 3.7507/09 yesterday.
 REUTER

Belgium plans to issue Swiss franc
warrants to buy gold, with Credit Suisse as lead manager,
    No confirmation or further details were immediately
 REUTER

Tabuchi Electric Co is launching 30 mln
Swiss francs of five-year straight notes with a 4-3/4 pct
coupon and par issue price, lead mananger Swiss Bank Corp said.
 REUTER

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co
<PLDT.MN> is planning a two-for-one stock split and a 20 pct
stock dividend later this year to reduce excess market
buoyancy, Vice-President Sennen Lazo told Reuters.
    Lazo said the stock split would reduce the par value of the
company's common stock from 10 to five pesos.
    He said the stock split would apply to holders of about 18
mln common shares of stock on the record date of September 15
1987. "The exercise should make our stock more marketable," Lazo
said. "Now it is beyond the reach of many small investors."
    PLDT common stock surged from a low of 37 pesos in February
1986 to 367.50 at close of trading yesterday on the Manila
    Lazo said the 20 pct stock dividend, payable on October 15,
would also apply to stockholders on record as of September 15.
    PLDT reported 1986 net income of 1.89 billion pesos, up 68
pct from 778.9 mln pesos in 1985, on operating revenues of six
billion pesos, up from 4.7 billion pesos in 1985.
    At end December 1986 the company had 417,100 stockholders.
    A PLDT spokesman said the company's profits are likely to
be substantial since the government raised its franchise tax to
three pct from two and to impose a 35 pct corporate income tax
from which it was previously exempt.
    The government has not so far ordered the implementation of
the tax decision.
    PLDT is the largest of 58 telephone companies in the
Philippines. On December 31 1986 the company had 856,014
telephones in operation, representing 94 pct of all instruments
in the country.
    In Manila item "Philippine Telephone firm plans stock split"
please read in page 3, first para, "the company's profits are
likely to be substantially cut" (inserting dropped word). This
replaces  "the company's profits are likely to be substantial"

The coupon on the Bank of Tokyo Ltd's 100
mln Swiss franc convertible has been cut to 7/8 pct from the
indicated 1-1/4 pct, lead manager Swiss Bank Corp said.
    The conversion price has been set at 1,590 yen, the same as
today's close.
    The exchange rate has been set at 96.84 yen to the franc.
    Payment is due April 30. The conversion period is from May
20, 1987 until September 20, 1992.
 REUTER

London-based trader Cargill (U.K.) Ltd
confirmed it sold one cargo of white sugar to India for
shipment April 15/May 15 at yesterday's tender.
    Price details were not immediately available but some
traders suggested business had been done around 220 dlrs a
tonne cif.
    India tendered for one or two cargoes of white sugar. There
was no specific requirement on shipping period.
 REUTER

Malaysia has asked Japan for a 42
billion yen 25-year loan to finance the construction of gas
pipelines from eastern Trengganu to southern Johor, the
Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) said.
    OECF's chief representative, Takashi Matsuya, told
reporters the Japanese Government is appraising the loan.
Another OECF official told Reuters Japan is likely to approve
the loan because "it is technically and economically viable."
    If approved, the loan would carry a coupon rate of four
pct, a grace period of seven years, Matsuya said. It would be
disbursed over three years, he added.
    The pipeline contruction is the second phase of the
Peninsular Gas Utilisation Project by Petronas, Malaysia's
national oil company.
    The first phase was the supply of gas to households in and
around the eastern oil town of Kertih.
 REUTER

Credit Commercial de France <CCFP.PA>
reported a parent company net profit up 34.8 pct to 140.1 mln
francs from 103.9 mln francs a few weeks before its
denationalisation around the end of this month.
    Official sources said the bank, France's sixth largest in
terms of its deposits and seventh in terms of its assets,

planned a share split to increase the number of shares on offer
ahead of the sale of 40 pct of its ordinary share capital to
the public, of 10 pct to staff and 20 pct abroad.
    Previously one of France's biggest private banks, it was
nationalised by the Socialists in 1982.
    The sources said it was too early to give details of the
planned split or of the share price, but cited April 27 as a
likely date for the flotation launch.
    So far 30 pct of the group's capital, currently at 10.33
mln shares of 100 francs nominal, has been offered for sale to
large private investors to constitute a solid core of eight to
ten shareholders before the flotation.
    The private tender offer closes on April 16, while a 12 mln
franc advertising campaign for the flotation begins on Sunday.
"The privatisation will be a way of attracting extra clients,"
CCF deputy director-general Rene de la Serre told Reuters.
    Market sources put the total value of CCF's privatisation
at between four and five billion francs.
    De la Serre said the bank was likely to attract at least
the same number of investors as <Sogenal>, another recently
privatised bank in which 850,000 people bought shares.
    The government's sweeping privatisation programme has also
included the sale of Saint-Gobain <SGEP.PA>, and Cie Financiere
de Paribas <PARI.PA>. The sale of <Banque du Batiment et des
Travaux Publics> and <Banque Industrielle et Mobiliere Privee>
should be completed this month, while third largest French bank
Societe Generale <SGEN.PA> will be privatised later this year.
 REUTER

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is
issuing a 40 billion yen eurobond due May 6, 1994 paying 4-5/8
pct and priced at 101-1/2, lead Nomura International Ltd said.
concession is 1-1/8 pct while management and underwriting
combined pays 1/2 pct. The payment date is May 6.
    There is a mandatory purchase fund operating in years one
and two, except for the first month after the payment date,
whereby the EIB can purchase up to five pct of the issue each
year if it is trading below par.
 REUTER

Association (IDA) is lending 18.6 mln dlrs to Sri Lanka for
agricultural research and development, the World Bank said in a
    The loan is part of a 26.5 mln dlr project to improve
production of commodities, mainly rice, and raise farmer
incomes. Other financing for the project will come from Sri
Lanka (7.1 mln dlrs) and West Germany (800,000 dlrs).
    The IDA credit is interest-free and for 50 years. It
includes a 10-year grace period but has annual charges of 0.5
pct on the undisbursed balance, and 0.75 pct on the disbursed
balance, the Bank statement said.
    The project envisages the creation of a Council of
Agricultural Research to formulate a national agricultural
strategy and introduce a contract research programme to finance
research activities, the Bank said.
    The Washington-based IDA is the World Bank's affiliate for
concessionary lending.
 REUTER

Johnson Matthey today issued the
following Platinum group base prices (unfabricated), all U.S.
Dlrs per troy ounce.
 Previous prices in parentheses.
 PLATINUM  -   562   (567)
 PALLADIUM -   130   (130)
 IRIDIUM   -   400   (400)
 RHODIUM     1,230 (1,230)
 RUTHENIUM -    80    (80)

Lex Service Plc <LEXL.L> said it had
acquired <Sears Motor Group Ltd>, the retail motor distribution
arm of Sears Plc < SEHL.L>, and an 11.9 mln stg loan note
payable by Sears Motor for 33.4 mln stg.
    The purchase will be through 1.4 mln stg in cash and the
issue to Sears Plc of 8.0 mln new Lex ordinary shares.
    The company said in a statement that immediately following
the acquisition of the motor group, its car and commercial
vehicle contract hire fleet of some 3,000 vehicles was sold to
<Lex Vehicle Leasing Ltd> for 14.3 mln stg in cash, a sum equal
to the net book value of the vehicles transferred.
    Lex Vehicle is owned equally by Lex Services and <Lombard
North Central Plc>.
    Lex said the shares involved in the transaction were today
being placed for Sears Plc with institutions at 400p. These
shares will not qualify for the final Lex dividend on 10 April.
    Lex said in a statement that its acquisition of Sears Motor
Group represents a major development for its automotive
activities. The enlarged retailing operations of the Lex
Automotive group now have a turnover of 530 mln stg. Lex's
existing automotive interests include Volvo Concessionaires,
the sole importer of Volvo cars and parts into the U.K.
    Lex said the turnover for Sears Motor Group in the year to
31 December 1986 was 242 mln stg and that at the date of the
acquisition the group had about 50 mln stg in external
    Lex shares fell on the announcement to trade around 409p
from a 419p close yesterday.
 REUTER

The Philippines will import 250,000 bags
of cement worth 375,000 dlrs from Indonesia by the end of the
month to meet growing demand from the construction sector,
Trade and Industry Secretary Jose Concepcion said.
    He told reporters that local cement manufacturers had
stepped up production but were falling short of demand. "The
only solution is to import," he added.
    Concepcion said average monthly requirements of cement in
1986 were 6.7 mln bags while supply hovered around 9.3 mln
bags, but this year demand had grown to 10.4 mln bags per
month.
    Trade and Industry sources said construction sector
representatives estimated an additional 70,000 bags would be
required daily to meet demand.
    Cement is officially priced at 48.50 pesos per bag, but
construction industry sources said it was selling at black
market rates of up to 65 pesos a bag in some areas.
    The sources said falling interest rates as well as a
government budget of four billion pesos in 1987 for low-cost
housing had fuelled a construction boom.
 REUTER

The Japan Development Bank is issuing a
150 mln dlr eurobond due May 20, 1994 paying eight pct and
priced at 101-1/8 pct, lead manager Bank of Tokyo International
Ltd said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by Japan and is
available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs.
    The payment date is May 20. Listing will be in London.
 REUTER

Officials from Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore and, perhaps, Thailand will meet here tomorrow to
discuss increased regional cooperation on rubber marketing and
ways to raise rubber prices, industry sources said.
    The officials will discuss linking rubber markets in the
four countries to improve price transparency, the sources said.
    This is the first time Indonesia is attending such a
meeting, they said, but representatives from Thailand may not
be able to attend because of their tight schedule. Malaysia,
Indonesia and Thailand account for 90 pct of world rubber
exports and Singapore is a major regional rubber trading
centre.
    The Malaysian Rubber Futures market, freighting and
contracts for rubber are among other issues expected to be
    Last month, rubber importing and exporting countries
adopted a new International Natural Rubber Agreement in Geneva.
The new pact is more responsive to market trends than its
predecessor, the sources said, and earlier provisions allowing
the buffer stock to borrow from banks have been eliminated.
 REUTER

MEPC Plc <MEPC.L> said that its offer for
<Oldham Estates Ltd> would remain open until further notice.
    On February 26 MEPC made an agreed bid for Oldham based on
a formula reflecting its asset value at 30 September 1986. A
year earlier Oldham's net asset value was put at 531.4 mln stg.
    As of 1 April the valuation used under the formula had
still to be agreed so Oldham had yet to give a firm
recommendation to its shareholders regarding the value of the
the offer.
 REUTER

Toronto Dominion Bank, Nassau Branch, has
increased its eurobond offering to 50 mln Australian <dlrs from
40 mln, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
    All other terms remain the same.
 REUTER

Year to December 31, 1986.
    Shr 18.35p vs 14.95p
    Div 3.75p vs 2.9p making 4.75p vs 3.75p
    Pretax profit 66.5 mln stg vs 46.9 mln
    Tax 14.6 mln stg vs 4.5 mln
    Net profit 51.9 mln stg vs 42.4 mln
    Turnover 1.44 billion stg vs 1.58 billion
    Note - Full name of company is George Wimpey Plc <WMPY.L>.
    Operating profit before exceptional items 88.9 mln stg vs
80.5 mln
    Exceptional debits 3.0 mln stg vs 11.6 mln
    Operating profit 85.9 mln stg vs 68.9 mln
    Share of profits less losses of associated companies 1.4
mln stg vs 2.4 mln loss
    Interest - net payable 20.8 mln stg vs 19.6 mln
    Attributable minority profits debits 0.2 mln stg vs 0.3 mln
    Extraordinary items debit 3.4 mln stg vs 4.3 mln credit
    Net borrowings 195.1 mln stg vs 193.5 mln
 REUTER

CANADA FEBRUARY TRADE SURPLUS 1.25 BILLION DLRS AFTER
JANUARY 623 MLN DLRS SURPLUS

Net profit 327.1 mln guilders vs
307.5.
    Total revenue 7.97 billion guilders vs 8.7 billion.
    Net profit per five guilder nominal share 9.33 guilder vs
9.25 (corrected for capital increase).
    Final dividend 1.30 guilders and 2.4 pct stock vs 1.30
guilders and 2.2 pct in stock. Interim dividend already paid
was 1.30 guilders.
    Note : full name of company is AEGON NV <AEGN.AS>
    REUTER

Canada had a trade surplus of 1.25
billion dlrs in February compared with an upward revised 623
mln dlrs surplus in January, Statistics Canada said.
    The January surplus originally was reported at 533 mln
dlrs. The February surplus last year was 189 mln dlrs.
    February exports, seasonally adjusted, were 10.44 billion
dlrs against 9.85 billion in January and 10.05 billion in
    February imports were 9.19 billion dlrs against 9.23
billion in January and 9.86 billion in February, 1986.
 Reuter

of dollars at around 145.10 yen just after the market here
    Just before the opening, the dollar dropped swiftly as
speculators concluded the Group of Seven (G-7) comminuique
issued in Washington contained nothing basically new, they
said. It fell about a half yen, to around 145.
    The G-7 reaffirmed that their currencies around current
levels reflect economic fundamentals.
    One dealer said the Bank of Japan probably intervened in
Australia before the opening here, but could not confirm this.
 REUTER

Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa said the strengthening of the yen against the dollar
that has occurred since the Paris Agreement was within the
range agreed on in the Louvre discussions.
    "I would say that what has happened (to the yen) in the past
several weeks was not outside the range we agreed to in the
discussions in Paris," Miyazawa told a press conference
following the Group of Seven meeting here.
    He added that the current discussions were a "reaffirmation"
of that agreement, indicating that the "solidarity" that occurred
in Paris was still in place.
 reuter

Brazil's three most powerful state
governors have joined forces to seek the removal of Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro.
    The governors of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais
told a news conference they want changes in the cabinet and in
the shaping of economic policy, with Funaro singled out for
criticism by Sao Paulo governor Orestes Quercia.
    They made their call while Funaro is in Washington holding
talks with creditors on rescheduling Brazil's 111 billion dlr
reuter^M

Three people were killed and two others
injured when a huge explosion, believed to be a bomb, went off
in a suburb of Botswana's capital Gaborone.
    Witnesses told Reuters the blast, near the headquarters of
the Botswana Defence Force, occurred at about 2 A.M. (1200 GMT)
and flattened several houses.
    Minutes after the explosion Botswana soldiers sealed off
the scene, which is near where South African troops last May
launched a military attack against alleged guerrilla targets.
 Reuter

The coupon on the 100 mln dlr, 15-year,
convertible eurobond for the Bank of Tokyo Ltd has been cut to
1-3/4 pct from the two pct initially indicated, lead manager
    The foreign exchange rate has been set at 146.40 yen to the
dollar but details of the conversion price were not immediately
 REUTER

the money market this morning, buying 103 mln stg bank bills.
    The central bank bought in band one 60 mln stg at 9-7/8, in
band two eight mln at 9-13/16, in band three 26 mln at 9-3/4
and in band four nine mln stg at 9-11/16 pct.
    This compares with the bank's forecast of a 400 mln stg
shortfall today.
 REUTER

Japan, which has been accused of dumping
everything from steel to computer microchips on world markets,
is now under attack for alleged cut-throat selling of a product
of a different sort -- banking services.
    At meetings here this week, Bank of England officials
pressed their Japanese counterparts to change regulations that
foreign bankers say give their Japanese rivals an unfair
advantage in world financial markets.
    The technical banking talks coincided with, but were
separate from, discussions between Japanese officials and
British corporate affairs minister Michael Howard, who left
Tokyo yesterday for South Korea.
    At the crux of the talks was the way regulators in various
countries measure bank capital and how much capital banks must
put up to back up their loans.
    It is generally agreed that shareholders' equity forms the
bulwark of bank capital but there is disagreement about what
else should be included.
    Some foreign bankers contend that their Japanese rivals can
undercut them on loans and other banking services because
Tokyo's capital regulations are easier to meet.
    The Japanese banks have an unfair advantage, Paul Hofer,
head of the Foreign Bankers Association of Japan, told Reuters.
    Sumitomo Bank Ltd chief economist Masahiko Koido said, "They
see us as very aggressive. We say we are just trying to catch
up with them."
    Earlier this year, the United States and Britain agreed to
adopt common regulations requiring banks to put up capital
equivalent to at least six pct of total assets. The two
countries urged others to follow suit, notably Japan.
    But Japanese Finance Ministry officials held out little
hope that would happen soon as they just introduced new
regulations governing capital ratios last May.
    Under those regulations, banks have until 1990 to attain a
capital ratio of four pct. But, in tacit recognition of
overseas pressure, the ministry set a six pct target for
Japanese banks with overseas branches.
    But foreign bankers say the rub was that it allowed Japan's
banks to count 70 pct of the value of their massive holdings of
Japanese shares - their so-called hidden reserves - as capital.
    Without the shares, big Japanese banks would only have
capital ratios of around three pct. With them, their ratios are
well above six pct, especially after the recent record-breaking
climb of Tokyo share prices.
    Western diplomats argue that the shares are valued far too
high by the ministry. Japanese banks would never be able to
realize anywhere near that amount if they were forced to sell
the shares to raise funds in an emergency, they say.
    Finance Ministry officials defended their stance by saying
that studies of the stock market over the last 30 years show
that prices have rarely fallen below the 70 pct value level.
    But the U.S. Federal Reserve seems to think otherwise.
Japanese officials say the Fed has effectively held up
applications for bank licenses by Japanese financial
institutions by asking them for a very detailed accounting of
their hidden reserves.
    The officials say Japan recently raised the issue with the
Fed through its embassy in Washington and is hoping for talks
on the subject.
 REUTER

The Netherlands' largest insurer
Nationale Nederlanden NV <NTTN.AS> (NatNed) said it expected at
least unchanged results in 1987 after reporting 1986 net
profits up 5.3 pct to 635.5 mln guilders from 603.4 mln in
1985,
    Revenues increased by 0.5 pct to 17.35 billion guilders
after 17.27 billion the previous year, and the dividend was
raised to 2.50 guilders per share from 2.38 guilders in 1985,
corrected on a capital increase.
    The company said guilder revenue and profit were pressured
by falls in exchange rates, particularly in the US and
Australian dollar and sterling.
    Without these currency fluctuations, net profit would have
been 30.7 mln guilders higher and revenue 1.97 billion higher,
NatNed said.
    The international share in turnover was 50 pct in 1986
compared with 52 pct in 1985.
    The company's life insurance result fell to 365.7 mln
guilders after 428.4 mln in 1985 due to currency influences,
tighter interest margins and increased investment.
    Claim payouts fell to 9.9 mln guilders after 66.6 mln the
    The company's total assets reached 69.87 billion guilders
in 1986 against 67 billion the year before.
    Assets per share equalled 65.68 guilders against 65.53.
guilders aft
 INTERRUPTED

Shares of Continental Gummi-Werke AG
<CONG.F> opened eight marks stronger in an otherwise mixed
Frankfurt market and dealers attributed the trend to favourable
press reports about a new tyre system the company is
developing.
    The shares later eased to 344.50.
    A spokesman for the West German Automobile Association,
ADAC, said the ADAC magazine in a recent edition described
advantages of the new tyre.
 REUTER

BANK OF FRANCE RETURN - APR 9
 Week end Apr 2 (in mln francs)
 Gold reserves 218,316 (unch)
 Convertible Currency Reserves 119,518 (116,728)
 Ecus 62,008 (62,020)
 Special Operations (advances to
     Exchanges stabilisation fund) nil (nil)
 Special Drawing Rights 6,866 (unch)
 Notes In Circulation 209,260 (207,517)
 Foreign Liabilities 3,101 (3,082)

European currency markets reacted quietly
to the G-7 communique, with comments from bankers and dealers
ranging from disappointment that it was not more concrete to
surprise that the markets should have expected so much.
    The dollar opened lower against virtually all currencies
and traded in a narrow range after the communique, which
reaffirmed support for the Paris accord on currency
stabilisation but contained no moves to strengthen it.
    Dealers in Frankfurt and Zurich saw the dollar remaining
broadly entrenched in its current trading range.
    "The dollar is likely to stay within a range of 1.80 to 1.84
marks," said Gisela Steinhaeuser, senior dealer at Chase Bank
AG. She said there was some resistance to further climbs.
    However, she said the dollar could break out of the range
with major surprises such as a worse-than-expected U.S.
Merchandise trade deficit, due next Tuesday.
    Theodor Stadelmann, dealer with Bank Julius Baer and Co Ltd
in Zurich, said he expects the dollar to hold steady against
the mark and Swiss franc but to weaken further against the yen,
possibly to 140 yen.
    A Milan banker shared Stadelmann's view, saying he expects
a dollar-yen range of 140-150 in the short term.
    London traders said the G-7 communique failed to curb
underlying bearishness toward the dollar but this negative
sentiment was not yet strong enough to tempt interbank
operators to test the downside.
    Concern that finance ministers and officials still in
Washington could issue more concrete statements in favour of
currency stabilisation kept players sidelined, along with
worries about provoking fresh central bank intervention in the
near term, the traders said.
    Most Paris dealers expressed disappointment at the
communique, saying nothing has changed to reverse the dollar's
downward trend.
    Traders in several centres said the market would look for
fresh opportunities to test the willingness of central banks to
defend current ranges, which the communique said were "broadly
consistent with economic fundamentals and the basic policy
intentions outlined at the Louvre meeting."
    Dave Jouhin, senior dealer at Midland Bank in London, said
"They're going to put somebody's resolve to the test soon." The
U.S. February trade data may provide the trigger, dealers said.
    However, some dealers said London-based operators would be
unlikely to open major positions next week ahead of the long
Easter weekend. They saw near-term technical support at 1.825
marks and 145 yen and resistance about 1.83 marks and 146 yen.
    Chase Bank's Steinhaeuser and other Frankfurt dealers said
the G-7 communique guaranteed a relatively calm and stable
market for the foreseeable future compared with the extreme
volatility seen in the first few months of this year.
    One dealer at a German bank said the wording of the
communique made clear the leading nations did not want a
further dollar drop, and this was supporting the dollar.
    The German dealer saw the dollar gradually appreciating to
1.87 marks, broadly seen as its upper limit within the Louvre
accord's supposed currency target range.
    A Swiss bank economist said he believed the markets were
ready for a period of "mainly sideways movement."
    But Milan dealers were sceptical about the communique
contributing to greater stability.
    "Nothing has changed substantially to give the dollar a big
boost," said one dealer, while another Italian banker said he
expects the dollar to trade between 1.77 and 1.87 German marks
in the next three months.
    A Swiss monetary source, who asked not to be named, said
the communique had been in line with realistic expectations and
should not have produced disappointment.
    "The problem is that the changes needed in fiscal and trade
policies to redress current imbalances are of a different
timescale than currency markets operate on," the source told
Reuters, "This is a political process which takes time."
    Alois Schwietert, chief economist at Swiss Bank Corp in
Basle, also questioned the tone of disappointment evident on
currency markets today. "Did people really expect a patent
remedy?" he asked.
    Bank economists in Paris noted yesterday's meeting was only
the first in a series and said the market would watch carefully
in the next few weeks for any changes in positions.
    A senior economist with Banque Indosuez said the focus was
now on trade and growth rather than interest rates. Any move by
Japan and West Germany to boost their economic growth could
lead to a quick change in the U.S. Position.
    Dealers in all centres agreed that markets would be wary in
pushing the dollar too far too quickly in the coming months
while central banks appear resolved to use their muscle to
support the Paris accord.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union displayed spying
equipment it said had been placed by American agents in five
different Soviet buildings in the United States.
    A Foreign Ministry spokesman told a news conference the
equipment demonstrated "the widespread, illegal activities
against Soviet people and missions in the United States by
American special services."
    Diagrams and photographs displayed at the news conference
showed devices allegedly found in the Soviet embassy in
Washington, the consulate in San Francisco and in other
 REUTER

Remarks by central bankers raised some
hopes the Bundesbank will cut rates on securities repurchase
pacts, but operators remained divided on the likelihood of a
move in the near term, money market dealers said.
    Comments by Bundesbank board member Claus Koehler yesterday
that rate cuts were needed to curb money supply growth from
speculative capital inflows, and by West Berlin state central
bank president Dieter Hiss that there was no natural lower
limit to the discount rate had, however, no immediate impact.
    Call money declined to 3.65/75 pct from 3.75/85 pct but the
drop was tied to extra liquidity in the market, dealers said.
    Dealers said the Bundesbank's latest liquidity allotment
this week dashed some hopes of lower rates.
    The Bundesbank allotted only 6.1 billion marks yesterday in
new liquidity in a repurchase pact at an unchanged rate of 3.80
pct, thus subtracting some 8.8 billion marks from the market,
as an outgoing 14.9 billion pact expired.
    But some dealers said the smaller volume awarded by the
pact was in line with present liquid money market conditions,
and did not exlude a cut in the repurchase pact rate soon to
3.70 pct if money market rates continue at present levels.
    The next opportunity for the Bundesbank to lower rates on
repurchase pacts will be in a tender expected next Tuesday.
    Bundesbank officials have already said they favour more
discreet rate adjustments through repurchase pacts, rather than
the more public adjustment of leading rates.
    The Bundesbank may either set a fixed allocation rate and
allow banks to tender for the volume, as has been the case
since it lowered its discount rate January 22, or else it may
allow banks to tender for the rate and set the volume itself.
    Dealers expect volume of the tender to be lower than the
15.2 billion marks flowing out, to offset other incoming funds.
    Some seven billion marks is expected to flow in next week.
This should then flow back into the market as it is deposited
    Banks were well supplied with liquidity, holding 61.5
billion marks in reserves at the Bundesbank on Tuesday.
    Holdings of average daily reserves over the first seven
days of April stood at 59.6 billion marks, still above the
estimated 51 billion required for all of April.
 REUTER

Swedish drug firm AB Astra <ASTS.ST>
shares rose 48 crowns to 690 in the first two hours of trading
on the Stockholm Bourse, amid hopes its research into
anti-viral drugs may have promising results in the treatment of
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
    Stockbrokers said the shares, which climbed amid heavy
institutional buying, also rose in reaction to an optimistic
assessment of future products in the firm's annual report which
was released this week.
    Brokers Enskilda Fondkommission said in a report this month
that Astra was a world leader in anti-viral drugs.
    Although Enskilda said Astra had not made any breakthrough
in developing a specific drug to treat the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome it noted that investors were only now
discovering that the firm's approach in the area was promising.
    "It is clear that Astra has a tradition in anti-viral
research which should prove valuable in fighting this disease,"
the report by Enskilda, the investment banking unit of
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken <SEBS.ST>, said.
    Company officials could not be reached for comment on the
causes of today's share rise.
 REUTER

Thailand is to negotiate tomorrow with
selected trade houses for renewal of long term raw sugar sales
contracts, to cover the next five years at a rate of 60,000
tonnes annually, traders said.
    They also reported vague talk Algeria may be seeking 50,000
tonnes of raws tomorrow but details are unclear.
 REUTER

The European Community launched an
investigation into allegations of dumping by Japanese
semiconductor makers in a move which diplomats said could mark
an intensification of world trade strains.
    Tokyo already faces a deadline of April 17 from Washington
for the imposition of 300 mln dlrs worth of tariffs on chips it
imports into the U.S.
    The EC Executive Commission said today the European
Electrical Component Manufacturers Association complained that
Japanese firms were selling high capacity EPROM type (erasable
programmable read only memory) chips at unfairly low prices.
    Japan last year took 78 pct of the 170 mln dlr EC EPROM
market, up from 60 pct in 1984. The EC firms said they had been
forced to offer their products at a discount of up to 30 pct in
order to compete with the Japanese.
    The Commission said it believed the Association had given
sufficient elements of proof for dumping to warrant an
investigation, which could lead it to impose duties if it found
the complaints were justified.
    The Commission claims last year's accord between the U.S.
And Japan on microchip pricing gives U.S. Firms privileged
access to the Japanese market.
 REUTER

The Swiss Federal Government will launch
a new series of three month money market certificates totalling
around 150 mln Swiss francs, the National Bank said.
    Subscriptions close April 14 and payment date is April 16.
    The last series of three month paper issued in March raised
147.3 mln francs at an issue price of 99.142 pct, giving an
average annual yield of 3.501 pct.
    REUTER

    Frankfurt and Zurich dealers saw the dollar staying broadly
entrenched in its current trading range.
 REUTER

Finance ministers from seven major
industrialized nations agreed on the need to stabilize
currencies at current levels but said more action was needed to
reduce trade imbalances and sustain economic growth.
    In a communique issued after a four-hour meeting at the
U.S. Treasury that ended last night, the ministers said the
value of the dollar and other currencies was basically correct
now, and they welcomed new measures planned by the Japanese to
boost their economy.
    West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg called it
a "good meeting" and in brief remarks exchanged with reporters
other ministers seemed pleased with its outcome.
    Shortly after the communique was issued and just as foreign
exchange trading opened in Tokyo, the Bank of Japan intervened
again to prevent the yen rising too quickly.
    The communique said, "The ministers and governors reaffirmed
the commitment to the cooperative approach agreed at the recent
Paris meeting. They agreed, however, that further actions will
be essential to resist rising protectionist pressures, sustain
global economic expansion and reduce trade imbalances."
    It welcomed the plans set this week by the Japan's ruling
Liberal Democratic Party to stimulate its economy with what the
communique termed "extraordinary and urgent measures" including
an "unprecedented front-end loading of public works
expenditures."
    The meeting of the so-called Group of Seven brought
together ministers and central bank governors of the seven
major industrial democracies, the United States, Japan, West
Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
    The communique said the ministers reaffirmed the commitment
on cooperation reached in a meeting on February 22 in Paris
when they had agreed to stabilize foreign exchange rates at the
then-current levels.
    In the weeks that followed, the dollar continued to fall
against the Japanese yen despite massive dollar purchases by
the Bank of Japan and other central banks and is now trading at
around postwar lows.
    Japan has come under growing criticism from both the United
States and European countries for its only modest efforts to
open its markets to outside competition and to reduce its
exports.
    The communique said Japan affirmed its intention to open
domestic markets to foreign goods and services but did not
    It said the officials "reaffirmed the view that around
current levels their currencies are within ranges broadly
 Reuter

Dutch insurer AEGON NV <AEGN.AS>
reported a 6.4 pct increase in 1986 net profits to 327.1 mln
guilders and said it expected a moderate increase in profits
for 1987.
    Total revenue was eight pct lower in 1986 at 7.97 billion
guilders vs 8.7 billion guilders in 1985. The company said its
revenues were down due to lower foreign exchange rates and a
change in accounting practice. It added that revenues would
have risen by about seven pct had those changes not occurred.
    Revenue from Dutch operations rose five pct in 1986, mainly
due to its life insurance business.
    Health insurance revenues in the Netherlands also rose
despite a notable shift to insurances with lower premiums and
higher personal risks.
    Damage insurances made losses, mainly due to car damage
insurances. AEGON did not specify the loss.
    In the United States, revenue in guilders from health and
life insurance was lower. AEGON said this was due to a change
in accounting for U.S. Annuities.
    AEGON said annuities are subject to such strong personal
investment influences that it should be accounted differently
from the more traditional insurances.
    This change in accounting practice and another change to
account for profits made on fixed interest investments,
resulted in an incidental rise in net profits of 31 mln
guilders.
    AEGON said incidental negative influences on net profits
were slightly higher, being the lower dollar rate, high initial
costs for new products, and the cost of new headquarters in The
Hague.
    In 1986, a large number of new insurance products emerged
in the Netherlands and the U.S., AEGON said. Large initial
costs for these products have depressed net profits somewhat.
    Monumental Corp, a U.S. Insurer which merged with AEGON in
May 1986, saw its profits almost completely eroded by these
costs and made only a small contribution to the group's
profits.
    AEGON said it has written-off 657 mln guilders in goodwill
for Monumental Corp.
    AEGON's net equity was 2.71 billion guilders in December
1986, against 3.46 billion the year before.
  REUTER

Miyazawa said the Group of Seven (G-7) countries reaffirmed
their Paris accord on stabilising currencies to convince the
market of their resolve.
    At a news conference after today's G-7 meeting, Miyazawa
said the ministers and central bank governors did not believe a
totally new statement was needed.
    The speculative selling did not reflect economic
fundamentals, and since the fundamentals had not changed only a
reaffirmation of the goals of the Paris accord was needed, he
said.
    He also noted that this test of the G-7 nations resolve had
concentrated on the yen, while other currencies, especially the
mark, had remained stable.
    Miyazawa said any change in economic conditions since the
Paris accord was not worth being called fundamental.
    "As I said at a time of Louvre (agreement), the expression
of 'current level' is rather vague idea," he said.
    The yen's movement in the past several weeks is within the
range agreed in Paris in Febraury, he said.
    It was better to give a vague expression than pin-pointing
a level, which could have an adverse impact on the market,
Miyazawa said.
    Asked why only Japan was committed to fresh measures in the
statement, he said Japan was exceptional among the seven
because the yen appreciated against the dollar while other
major currencies largely have been stable.
    He also said Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has
justed adoped a package to reflate the economy while other
nations are not supposed to produce new measures in a short
period since the Paris agreement.
    Miyazawa also said the U.S. sanctions against Japanese
semiconductor products was not discussed through the G-7
meeting and did not affect the currency talks.
    The seven nations discussed the debt problems of developing
countries and ways to proceed in line with the debt initiative
outlined by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker 18 months ago.
 REUTER

The yen is likely to start another
uneven rise against the dollar and other major currencies
because the Group of Seven communique contained nothing new,
currency and bond analysts here said.
    "Is that it? I was expecting something more than that," said
one trader at a major Wall Street securities company.
    Marc Cohen of Republic National Bank of New York said: "The
market now has the impetus to drive the dollar lower again."
    The dollar hovered between 145.50 and 147 yen in the days
just before the talks. Dealers restrained their underlying
bearishness and squared positions ahead of Wednesday's meeting
of the finance ministers and central bankers of the top seven
industrialized nations in Washington.
    After more than four hours of talks, the G-7 issued a
communique which merely reaffirmed the recent Paris agreement's
view that prevailing currency levels were broadly consistent
with economic fundamentals and that exchange rate stability
should be fostered around these levels.
    The dollar sank to 144.75 yen in early Tokyo trading.
    "They said that the dollar/yen rate was broadly in line with
fundamentals when it was 154. Now they are saying it's in line
when it's at 146. Will this still be so at 138 or 130?," asked
Republic's Cohen.
    Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa fuelled
speculation about the amount of fluctuation the authorities are
prepared to tolerate by saying that the current yen level is
still inside the range agreed on in Paris in late February.
    Official statements in recent weeks had indicated that the
key psychological level of 150 yen was at the lower end of the
authorities' permissible range.
    Dealers and analysts warned that the dollar's decline would
probably be uneven. They anticipated a concerted effort to prop
up the dollar and restrain the yen via a mixture of open market
intervention and public comments.
    Shortly after the Tokyo market opened today the Bank of
Japan was detected by local dealers buying moderate amounts of
dollars. The dollar rebounded to about 145.20 yen.
    The sources said the market may also be wary of agressively
selling dollars for yen before Tuesday's February U.S. Trade
data. The figures are expected to show a deficit of 13 billion
dlrs, from a provisional 14.8 billion in January.

 Reuter

Arus Corp said it has received a
letter of intent from Winston Financial Corp for the purchase
of over 5,200,000 dlrs in telephone diagnostic testing
    It said it expects to negotiate a firm order in May.
    The company said the total value of the order is at least
5,200,000 dlrs and could be more, depending on circuit
configurations required.
 Reuter

Net profit 2,529,000 vs loss 1,066,000
    Revs 59.0 mln vs 52.6 mln
    Year
    Net profit 15.4 mln vs profit 865,000
    Revs 247.0 mln vs 231.1 mln
    NOTE: Company became wholly owned and operated by Donald
Trump in May 1986, when he acquired 50 pct interest that had
been owned by former operator Holiday Corp <HIA>.
 Reuter

long term, the traders said.
 Reuter

Westronix Inc said it has
completed the private sale of 2,500,000 common shares at 2.30
dlrs each.
 Reuter

Unseasonal cold weather has delayed
sugar beet plantings in West Germany by up to three weeks, the
    A ministry spokesman said in some central areas, especially
in the Rhineland, farmers have taken advantage of warmer
weather and started plantings in the past two days.
    West German planting intentions this year are put at
381,000 hectares, down from 390,500 ha last year, he said,
adding that the 1980/1985 average was 405,000 ha.
 REUTER

Southwest Realty Ltd said it has filed
for a rights offering.
    It said for each three shares owned, a shareholder will
receive a transferable right to purchase one additional share
at 2.50 dlrs.
    The company said the offering is expected to be made on
June 15.
 Reuter

Step-Saver Data Systems Inc
said Bergen-Richards Corp has exercised a warrant to buy
450,000 Step-Saver shares at two dlrs each.
    It said warrants issued to the underwriter in its initial
public offering were exercised in March for an aggregate of
169,200 dlrs.
 Reuter

Galaxy Oil Co said its
common stock and nine pct convertible subordinated debentures
due 1994 are being delisted from the <American Stock Exchange>
because the company no longer meets listing criteria.
    Galaxy filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April Six.
    The company said trading in both issues will be suspended
by the Amex at the close on May One but is expected to start
elsewhere on May Four.
 Reuter

TransCapital Financial Corp's
TRANSOHIO Savings Bank subsidiary said it plans to close 11
offices in the Cleveland area and one in Columbus, Ohio,
reducing its total number of offices to 81 statewide.
    The company said accounts will be moved into other
TRANSOHIO offices.  Four closings are set for May 23 and four
for June 20 and the rest are tentatively set for September 19.
    It said it is closing branches were overlaps exist
following its August 1986 acquisitions of Citizens Federal
Savings and Loan Association of Cleveland and Dollar Savings
Bank of Columbus or where efficiencies could be improved.
 Reuter

Coast Savings and Loan Association
said it is in talks with the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corp on the acquisition of Central Savings and Loan Association
of San Diego.
    Central, which operates 46 branches, has been under
management guidance of the FSLIC since May 1985.
    Coast said the acquisition would give it an entry into the
San Joaquin Valley market besides strengthening its presence in
the San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange Counties areas.
 Reuter

<C.D. Bramall Plc> said in a statement
accompanying its annual results that it proposed to acquire
Gelco U.K. For some 26.3 mln dlrs.
    Part of the cost will be met by the issue of 2.14 mln new
ordinary Bramall shares which are being placed at 265p each.
    The acquisition will be satisfied by an initial payment of
some 25.3 mln dlrs in cash with further payments of 500,000
dlrs up to a maximum 26.3 mln dlrs. These further payments will
only be made if profits achieved by Gelco for the year ending
July 31, 1987 reach a certain level.
    Bramall shares were trading 6p lower at 278p.
 REUTER

Privately-held software
developer SAPC Inc said it has filed suit in U.S. District
Court in Boston against Lotus Development Corp, alleging the
infringement of a copyright and the misappropriation of trade
secrets and is seeking 100 mln dlrs in damages.
    The firm's suit alleges that Lotus' spreadsheet program
1-2-3 violates the copyright of VisiCalc, which was developed
by SAPC several years ago, before 1-2-3 was introduced, when
the firm was known as Software Arts Inc.  Software Arts sold
rights to VisiCalc to Lotus in 1985 and changed its name.
    The suit also alleges that Lotus founder Mitchell D. Kapor,
who resigned as chairman in July 1986, breached a
confidentiality agreement with SAPC.  Kapor, also named as a
defendant, had worked for a firm that had marketing rights to
VisiCalc before founding Lotus.
    The suit alleges that Lotus and Kapor deliberately sought
to make 1-2-3 look and feel like VisiCalc by copying a number
of commands, keystrokes and screen displays.
    Lotus, in response, said it feels the suit is without merit.
 Reuter

The United States, which has long
sought Japanese action to stimulate its economy, appears to be
satisfied Tokyo's latest package is a major development and
allows leading industrial nations to reaffirm their agreement
to stabilize currencies.
    Monetary sources said they believed that U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker considered Tokyo's package, announced
yesterday, to be a major stimulation of the Japanese economy.
    But yesterday's statement by seven leading industrial
powers endorses the yen's rise from around 153 to the dollar,
the level at the February 22 Paris Accord, to about 145 today.
    The supplementary budget worth about 34.48 billion dlrs was
announced by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on the eve of
Miyazawa's departure for Washington, to attend yesterday's
meetings of leading industrial nations.
    In a strongly worded statement terming the Japanese action
"extraordinary and urgent", the meeting reaffirmed the Paris
Accord by noting that current exchange rates are within ranges
broadly consistent with fundamentals, or economic reality.
    The Group of Seven -- the United States, Japan, West
Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada -- therefore
repeated their willingness to continue close cooperation to
foster exchange rate stability.
    The cooperation agreement has resulted in concerted central
bank intervention of 8 billion to 9 billion dlrs to halt the
dollar's fall. While relatively unsuccessful, the scale of
intervention between so many nations is unprecedented in recent
years.
    Monetary sources also said they understood that Secretary
Baker considered the meeting to be extremely successful in the
light of the Japanese announcement.
    They also said there was a growing feeling among the
finance ministers and central bankers that cooperation over
medium-term policies has replaced the bickering over short-term
differences in past meetings.
    West Germany, whose currency has not risen anything like
the yen since the Paris Agreement, appears from the face of
yesterday's statement to have won acceptance from other
countries that its exchange rate is acceptable.
    Bonn's finance minister Gerhard Stoltenberg argues that
major currency shifts needed to remedy the huge imbalance
between West Germany and Japan's trade surpluses and America's
trade deficit have already taken place.
    No mention was made, however, of the U.S. commitment to cut
the budget deficit even though it is implied in the
reafffirmation of Paris.
    European nations and Japan believe deficit cuts are
essential to curbing the record U.S. trade shortfall that
reached nearly 170 billion dlrs last year.
    A similar argument was made on Capitol Hill earlier this
week by Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker. A further
sharp fall to redress trade imbalances would "clearly pose
substantial risks of renewed inflationary momentum and could
undermine confidence in future financial stability," he said.
    Volcker warned a further dollar fall might force the
politically independent Fed to drive up interest rates.
    Monetary sources said that, privately, West Germany
welcomed the rise in the yen against the dollar while its own
currency remained relatively stable against the U.S. unit.
    Bonn and other European nations worry that once the weak
dollar blunts Tokyo's export drive to the United States, the
Japanese monolith will concentrate on European markets.
    The ministers, meanwhile, also continued talks on making
their policy coordination more binding and one, Canadian
Finance Minister Michael Wilson, said good progress was made.
    Wilson said they will meet before the June Economic Summit
to prepare a report for the leaders of the seven nations.
    The United States and France, backed by the International
Monetary Fund, want the seven to agree on ranges or "norms" for a
limited number of economic objectives such as growth,
inflation, monetary conditions, trade balances and current
account balances.
    Sharp deviations from these guidelines would result in
consultations between the countries on whether corrective
action should be required.
    But the inclusion of currencies as one of the objectives
has Bonn and London worried, monetary sources say, because it
implies Washington is moving in the direction of target zones.
    The sources said the Reagan administration unsuccessfully
sounded out its allies on a system of target zones to limit
currency fluctuations just before the February meeting.
    The concept is a much more rigid one than the secret ranges
of the Paris Accord and would mark a sharp departure from the
relatively free currency markets of recent years.
 Reuter

The Kingdom of Belgium is launching 100
mln Swiss francs of seven year notes with warrants attached to
buy gold, lead mananger Credit Suisse said.
    The notes themselves have a 3-3/8 pct coupon and are priced
at par. Payment is due April 30, 1987 and final maturity April
30, 1994.
    Each 50,000 franc note carries 15 warrants. Two warrants
are required to allow the holder to buy 100 grammes of gold at
a price of 2,450 francs, during the entire life of the bond.
    The latest gold price in Zurich was 2,045/2,070 francs per
100 grammes.
 REUTER

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) said global wheat and coarse grain output was likely to
fall in 1987 but supplies would remain adequate to meet demand.
    FAO said in its monthly food outlook bulletin total world
grain output was expected to fall 38 mln tonnes to 1,353 mln in
1987, due mainly to unusually high winter losses in the Soviet
Union, drought in China and reduced plantings in North America.
    World cereal stocks at the end of 1986/87 were forecast to
rise 47 mln tonnes to a record 452 mln tonnes, softening the
impact of reduced production. But stocks are unevenly
distributed, with about 50 pct held by the U.S.
    "Thus the food security prospects in 1987/88 for many
developing countries, particularly in Africa, depend crucially
on the outcome of this year's harvests," FAO said.
    FAO said world cereal supplies in 1986/87 were estimated at
a record 2,113 mln tonnes, about five pct higher than last
season and due mainly to large stocks and a record 1986
harvest, estimated at 1,865 mln tonnes.
    FAO's forecast of 1986/87 world cereals trade was revised
upwards by eight mln tonnes to 179 mln due to the likelihood of
substantial buying by China and the Soviet Union.
 REUTER

sales for the five weeks ended April Four were up 7.8 pct to
314.0 mln dlrs from 291.3 mln dlrs a year earlier, with
same-store sales up 5.5 pct.
    The company said sales for the first two months of its
fiscal year were up 7.7 pct to 554.7 mln dlrs from 515.1 mln
dlrs a year earlier, with same-store sales up 5.6 pct.
    Carter Hawley said sales were helped by shifting some
promotions to March from April to compensate for the later
Easter this year.
 Reuter

Independent Air Inc said its board
has extended the expiration of its Class A warrants to June 30
from April 11 and left the exercise price unchanged at 18 cts
per common share.
 Reuter

Xicor Inc said based on recent
talks with Intel Corp, it expects its joint research program
with Intel on the development of advanced memory devices to be
ending shortly.
    The company said it will reallocate personnel presently
assigned to the program to its one megabit CMOS E2 PROM program
and other development programs.
    Reasons for the end of the Intel venture were not given.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 5,223,000 vs 4,682,000
    Avg shrs 19.7 mln vs 19.4 mln
    NOTE: Results reflected pooled acquisition of First
Community Bancshares Inc on March 31, 1987 and include Camden
Bancorp from January 31, 1987 purchase.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net profit 689,000 vs loss 1,910,000
    Revs 12.3 mln vs 9,432,000
    NOTE: 1987 net includes 276,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

George Wimpey Plc <WMPY.L> said  the
outlook for 1987 looked encouraging as the company realised the
continuing benefits of restructuring.
    It said its overall financial position showed further
improvement in 1986 and the reshaping of its U.K. Business into
clearly defined and activity related divisions had been
successfully achieved.
    Wimpey was commenting in a statement on its 1986 results
which showed pretax profits up 42 pct to 66.5 mln stg.
    The group had a good overall year in North America, the
 Reuter

C.O.M.B. Co said it has acquired
the principal assets of National Tech Industries Inc and Telkom
Corp, which are engaged in the sale and telemarketing of
consumer electronic merchandise and do business as House of
Imports and N.L. Industries respectively.
    The company said it paid a total of 8,700,000 dlrs,
including the assumption of liabilities.
    National Tech had sales of about 23 mln dlrs for 1986, it
said.
 Reuter

today it has shelved threatened legal action against West
Germany's Lufthansa <LHAG.F>, Alitalia of Italy <AERI.MI> and
Olympic Airways of Greece after they agreed to change practices
that restrict competition in the heavily-protected EC sector.
    The Commission had also written to seven other Community
airlines, including British Airways <BAB.L> and Air France,
last summer warning them that agreements such as capacity and
revenue sharing accords broke EC competition rules. The seven
have already agreed to hold talks with the Commission on
bringing such practices into line with the rules.
    In a statement, the EC's executive authority also spelled
out tough demands it will be putting to carriers in talks on
liberalising EC air transport and bringing down airfares,
warning that new legal moves were possible if they refused to
comply.
    As a first step, the Commission wanted the 10 carriers to
eliminate the most serious distortions of competition caused by
the current practices and agreements.
    The latest demands go further towards liberalisation than
proposals that are currently the subject of difficult
negotiations between by EC Transport Ministers. REUTER

buy gold, lead manager Credit Suisse said.
at par. Payment is due April 30, 1987, and final maturity April
30, 1994.
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs profit nil
    Net profit 27,622 vs profit 5,556
    Sales 1,031,306 vs 840,906
    Nine mths
    Shr loss one ct vs loss two cts
    Net loss 195,095 vs loss 445,379
    Sales 2,702,085 vs 2,219,961
 Reuter

since the Paris Agreement was within the range agreed in the
Louvre discussions.
    He said the current discussions were a "reaffirmation" of
that agreement, saying the "solidarity" that occurred in Paris
was still in place.
 Reuter

Todd Shipyards Corp said
production workers represented by the multi-union Pacific Coast
Metal Trades District Council at its San Francisco division
struck on April Six.
    It said negotiations are expected to resume at the end of
    Todd also said the collective bargaining division in effect
at its Galveston Division expires April 17, and negotiations
with the Galveston Metal Trades Council are continuing.
    The company said results of balloting on a new collective
bargaining agreement proposal in its Seattle Division are
expected to be tabulated at the close of business tomorrow.
    The Pacific Coast Council has recommended acceptance of
that proposal by membership, Todd said.
                                       
 Reuter

insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 338,000 in the
week ended March 28 from 355,000 in the prior week, the Labor
regular state programs totaled 2,436,000 in the week ended
March 21, the latest period for which that figure was
    That was down from 2,480,000 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

    At a news conference after yesterday's G-7 meeting,
Miyazawa said the ministers and central bank governors did not
believe a totally new statement was needed. The speculative
selling did not reflect economic fundamentals, and since the
fundamentals had not changed only a reaffirmation of the goals
of the Paris accord was needed, he said.
    He said this test of the G-7 nations' resolve had
 Reuter

CLEVITE INDUSTRIES SAYS J.P. INDUSTRIES OFFERED 13.50
DLRS A SHARE TO BUY COMPANY

India's private businessmen say they
have been placed on an unequal footing in raising money from
the capital market because government companies are wooing
investors by issuing more attractive tax-free bonds.
    Stock brokers and bankers polled by Reuters said although
equity shares or debenture issues floated by private firms
provide a higher return and shorter maturity, they are fast
losing their popular appeal as they are liable to both wealth
and income taxes.
    Brokers said many investors are transferring funds into
government company bonds because of their tax-free status and
easy transferability.
    About 100 private companies have postponed plans to issue
equity shares and debentures in the first quarter of fiscal
1987/88 partly on account of fierce competition from public
sector bonds, a merchant banker said.
    They included equity shares and rights issue worth one
billion rupees planned to be issued this month by Tata
Fertilisers Ltd, he said, adding the issue has been postponed
    "The government bonds are making serious inroads on the
private sector companies' resources," said R. P. Goenka,
president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry.
    "The discriminatory tax treatment should be done away with
and equal facilities be provided to the two sectors to mobilise
resources from the market which is common to both," Goenka said.
    A senior Finance Ministry official said government and
private firms were free to compete to raise resources, adding
it was not correct that public sector-issued bonds were
preventing private firms from raising money on the stock
market.
    "Debentures and equity shares floated by private companies
still account for at least 60 pct of total capital raised in
stock exchanges," the ministry official said.
    A spokesman at Bombay stock brokers Batliwala and Karani
said government bonds were valued at about 20 billion rupees or
about 40 pct of 50 billion rupees raised by both government and
non-government firms in the domestic capital market in 1986/87.
    The share was 35 to 40 pct of about 36.95 billion rupees
mobilised in 1985/86, he said. "To save taxes, commercial banks,
mainly foreign banks, and some private companies, are investing
their surplus funds in the tax free bonds," he said.
    "Individuals who are very well off are also investing in the
bonds to gain tax benefits while only small investors are going
for equities or debentures floated by private companies on a
selective basis," the spokesman said.
    The maturity period of government company bonds varies
between seven and 10 years. No wealth or income taxes are
payable on nine pct seven-year bonds but those carrying 13 pct
interest on 10-year bonds are subjected to income tax if interest amount^M
exceeds 7,000 rupees a year.
    Equity shares, the 14 pct non-convertible debentures and
12.5 to 14 pct convertible debentures issued by private
companies are not exempted from either the wealth tax or from
the tax on income earned from them.
    The government bonds are listed as securities but traded on
India's four major stock exchanges. They can be sold freely on
the stock market by simple endorsement while debentures can
only be sold to the company after one year, brokers said.
    Government companies are trying to capitalise on a boom in
the stock market since 1984/85 sparked by liberal tax
concessions and reforms in exchange operations, brokers said.
    The National Thermal Power Corp, NTPC, was the first
government company to issue the bonds to raise one billion
rupees in January last year, breaking the monopoly of private
companies on the capital market. The seven-year NTPC bond was
oversubscribed three times, brokers said.
    Official figures show bonds floated by government companies
have been heavily oversubscribed. More state companies have
sought the Ministry's permission to issue them in coming
months.
    NTPC's second bond issue at the end of 1986 raised 4.51
billion rupees against 1.2 billion originally permitted by the
Finance Ministry.
    The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam mobilised 3.83 billion rupees
last year against authorised 1.5 billion and last month the
Indian Railway Finance Corporation's record susbcription
totalled 5.5 billion rupees against authorised 2.5 billion.
    In most cases, the government has allowed the companies to
maintain the oversubscribed amount, brokers said.
    Goenka said that government bonds are making it
increasingly difficult for private companies to launch new
equity or debenture issues. He said the government could at
least "fix a suitable limit on the funds to be raised through
such bonds by the public sector."
    Merchant bankers said the government is pressing state
companies to borrow from the public by reducing financial
support to them.
    To ease its internal debt burden, the government has
reduced the budgetary support to development investment in
about 120 public sector companies to 69.92 billion rupees in
1987/88 from 77.92 billion a year earlier, official figures
show.
 REUTER

Shr 54 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 70.2 mln vs 64.0 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one split in July 1986.
    Results restated for pooled acquisition of Third NAtional
Corp in December 1986.
    Net chargeoffs 15.0 mln dlrs vs 14.2 mln dlrs.
    Assets 25.8 billion dlrs, up 7.2 pct from a year earlier,
deposits 21.1 billion, up 9.4 pct, and loans 17.1 billion dlrs,
up 17.2 pct.
 Reuter

SunTrust Banks Inc said in the first
quarter it placed about 20.2 mln dlrs of loans to Brazil and
21.6 mln dlrs of loans to Ecuador on nonaccrual status.
    The company made the disclosure in reporting that first
quarter earnings rose to 70.2 mln dlrs from 64.0 mln dlrs a
 Reuter

Ropak corp said it has formed
a new Tokyo-based subsidiary called Ropak Nippon Ltd to market
its North American products in Japan.
    It said the new unit has started importing plastic pans and
other products for the packaging of seafood and will also
market rigid-plastic shipping pails for a variety of packaging
uses.
 Reuter

Burlington Industries Inc is raising 75
debentures due 2012 with a 6-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing,
said lead manager Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc.
stock at 63.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 18.1
    Non-callable for three years, the issue is rated Ba-2 by
Moody's Investors Service Inc and BBB by Standard and Poor's
Corp. Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Salomon Brothers Inc
 Reuter

The Pacific Stock Exchange said it
will start options trading on Baker Hughes Inc today.
    Expirations will be January, May, July and October.
 Reuter

<International Thomson Organisation Ltd>
said it will report financial results in U.S. funds rather than
sterling, beginning from Jan 1, 1987.
    It said the change will not be applied retroactively to
prior financial periods.
    The company said as a result of recent investments, most of
its assets now are located in the United States.
            
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs 18 cts
    Net 220,000 vs 1,250,000
    Revs 11.8 mln vs 9,430,000
    Year
    Shr 45 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 3,400,000 vs 4,037,274
    Revs 45.1 mln vs 34.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 40 cts
    Qtly div 18 cts vs 15 cts prior
    Net 793,740 vs 603,661
    NOTE: Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in November
1986.
    Dividend pay May One, record April 25.
 Reuter

<Biosystems Research Inc> said
its new technique for a treatment for Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome showed good results on subjects who were
treated.
    Called biostimulation, the non-drug approach to the
treatment of those with AIDS and AIDS related complex involves
exposure to low-level magnetic and electrical stimulation in
combination with phototherapy from the visible light spectrum,
   
    Biosystems said it tested its technique in two studies with
eight subjects since January 1986, for periods of five to 60
weeks. It said the treatments have not produced any adverse
effects in the subjects.
 Reuter

Chicago Pacific Corp is raising 150 mln
due 2012 with a 6-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead
stock at 62.50 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.63
Corp. First Boston Corp and Lazard Freres and Co co-managed the
deal.
 Reuter

Durakon Industries Inc said
Canadian Tire Corp, the large Canadian auto retailer, has
selected Durakon's All Star Liner as its exclusive pickup truck
bed liner, to be sold in the 400 Associate Stores across Canada.
 Reuter

    Sorghum 64 (63), sunflowerseed cake and expellers 103 (102)
, pellets 101 (100), meal 99 (98), linseed oil 274 (264),
groundnutseed oil 450 (445), soybean oil 300 (290), rapeseed
oil 290 (280).
    Sunflowerseed oil for shipment through May 323 (313) and
june onwards 330 (320).
    The board also adjusted export prices at which export taxes
are levied in dlrs per tonne FOB, previous in brackets, as
follows:
    Bran pollard wheat 40 (42), pellets 42 (44).
 REUTER

received a written proposal from J.P. Industries Inc <JPI>
seeking to buy all of its outstanding shares for 13.50 dlrs a
share.
    Clevite's stock was trading on NASDAQ at 13-1/4.
    J.P. Industries recently completed the acquisition of
Clevite's Engine Parts Division.
    J.P. Industries said its proposed transaction would be
financed through borrowings under its available bank lines and
a bridge financing facility which Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette
Securities Corp agreed to arrange.
    To expedite the transaction, J.P. Industries said it would
be willing to start a cash tender for Clevite's shares within
five days after agreeing upon a definitive merger and
confirmation of Clevite's financial results and condition.

 Reuter

said.
 Reuter

ABOUT 3,314 HEAD OF CATTLE WERE
AUCTIONED IN LINIERS CATTLE MARKET, AGAINST 13,952 ON WEDNESDAY
AND 9,217 LAST THURSDAY, TRADE SOURCES SAID.
    MAXIMUN PRICES, IN AUSTRALES PER KILO, WITH DOLLAR
EQUIVALENT IN BRACKETS, INCLUDED:
                               TODAY     WEDNESDAY
    STEERS OVER 480 KILOS   1.02(0.658) 1.015(0.654)
    STEERS 460 TO 480 KILOS 1.05(0.677) 1.032(0.665)
    COWS FOR CANNING        0.56(0.361) 0.56 (0.361) REUTER

<Thesing-Verwaltungsgesellschaft GmbH> of
Coesfeld, West Germany, is issuing a 10 mln Swiss franc eight
year bond with an indicated 6-3/8 pct coupon and par issue
price, joint lead managers Fintrelex SA and E.Gutzwiller und
Cie, Banquiers said.
    Subscription is from May 7 until May 13.
    The issue is guaranteed by Schallplattentruhe A. Thesing
GmbH und Co Kommanditgesellschaft, Martin Thesing
Handelsgesellschaft.
 REUTER

sales for the five weeks ended April four were up 0.5 pct to
184.7 mln dlrs from 183.7 mln dlrs a year earlier, with
same-store sales off 1.7 pct.
    Mercantile said sales for the first nine weeks of its
fiscal year were up 2.9 pct to 297.9 mln dlrs from 289.6 mln
dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up 0.5 pct to 288.6
mln dlrs from 287.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Best Products Co Inc said sales
for the five weeks ended April four were off 0.5 pct to 151.2
mln dlrs from 152.0 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    It said year-to-date sales were off 5.9 pct to 263.2 mln
dlrs from 279.6 mln dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

American Woodmark Corp said it
plans to build a 100,000 square foot kitchen cabinet component
plant in Toccoa, Ga., with completion expected in the spring of
1988.
 Reuter

K mart Corp said its sales for the
five weeks ended April One rose 4.6 pct to 2.18 billion dlrs
from 2.08 billion dlrs a year earlier. On a comparable store
basis, sales rose one-tenth of one pct.
    It said year-to-date sales increased 7.9 pct to 3.64
billion dlrs from 3.37 billion dlrs in the same 1986 period. On
a comparable store basis, the increase was 3.2 pct.
 Reuter

its estimate of today's shortfall to 350 mln stg from 400 mln,
before taking account of 103 mln stg morning assistance.
 REUTER

Physio Technology Inc said it
expects to have a third quarter, ended March 31, loss of about
200,000 dlrs and is in default on its bank loan because of the
resignation of chairman and chief executive officer.
    The company said the loss followed four quarters of modest
profits. In the year ago quarter it earned 11,000 dlrs, or one
cent a share. For the first half of fiscal 1987, it reported a
profit of 42,000 dlrs, or two cts a share, compared to a year
earlier loss of 294,000 dlrs, or 17 cts a share.
    It said President Michael R. Hall will assume the duties of
    Physio Technology said the resignation of Chairman James C.
Lane can constitute non-compliance with its Series A
convertible subordinated debentures due 1996 and a default
under its agreement with the Merchants Bank of Kansas City.
    It explained a declaration of non-compliance under the
debentures would create a a default under the loan agreements
requiring immediate payment of 1.8 mln dlrs of debentures and
about 450,000 dlrs outstanding under the bank credit line.
    The company said the debenture holders intend to waive the
non-compliance, but reserve the right to withdraw the waiver at
the end of any 30 day period.
    Physio Technology said it is changing its field sales force
to independent representatives and dealers from employees to
"significantly reduce its fixed overhead."
    Its statement did not indicate how many employees would be
affected by the move.
    The company said Lane will become an independent dealter
for the company in certain midwestern states. He will continue
to serve as a director, it added.
 Reuter

Texas International Co said it has
retired 2,700,000 dlrs of its 10 pct third delayed convertible
snior subordinated notes of 1993 Series A and B.
    As a result, it said it has eliminated the scheduled May
1987 conversions of 1,300,000 dlrs of Series A notes and
1,400,000 dlrs of Series B notes.
 Reuter

<Derlan Industries Ltd> said it plans to
issue 2.1 mln common shares in a private placement at a price
of 14 dlrs per share for gross proceeds of 29.4 mln dlrs.
    The issue will be placed by McLeod Young Weir Ltd and
Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon and Co Ltd.
    Proceeds will be used by the company to continue its
acquisition program and for internal expansion.
 Reuter

Compaq Computer Corp said the General
Service Administration has awarded it a contract allowing
federal agencies to purchase COMPAQ personal computers until
March 31, 1988. The previous Compaq GSA contract expired March
31.
    Under the new agreement, federal agencies can order the
COMPAQ presonal computers through any one of 1,400 authorized
COMPAQ computer government dealers without going through
time-consuming competitive bids.
    Puchases of over 300,000 dlrs, however, must still be bid
competitively, Compaq said.
 Reuter

Qtr ends March 31
    Shr one dlr vs 76 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 8,929,000
    Six mths
    Shr 1.92 dlrs vs 1.43 dlrs
    Net 22.8 mln vs 16.8 mln
    NOTE: full name of bank is washington federal savings and
loan association.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd said it is forming a new
publicly held company, Cominco Resources International Ltd, to
continue exploration and development of its mineral holdings
outside Canada, Alaska and Australia.
    Cominco will maintain a majority position in the company,
but the remaining interest will be sold in offerings led by
Wood Gundy Inc and First Marathon Securities Ltd in Canada, and
S.G. Warburg Securities and Wood Gundy Inc internationally.
    Cominco said it is filing a preliminary prospectus with
securities regulators in all Canadian provinces.
                          
 Reuter

CalFed Inc said it has entered the
property-casualty insurance business through the formation of
Anglo-American Insurance Co Ltd, a London-based subsidiary
initially capitalized at 80 mln dlrs.
    The company said <London United Investment PLC> will share
equally in all risks, premiums and reinsurance with
Anglo-American and perform all underwriting activities for
Anglo-American.
    It said more than half of the venture's business is
expected to be in the U.S.
 Reuter

Sekisui Chemical Co Ltd is issuing a 200
mln dlr equity warrant bond due May 7, 1992 paying an indicated
coupon of two pct and priced at par, lead manager Yamaichi
    The issue is guaranteed by Sanwa Bank Ltd and is available
in denominations of 5,000 dlrs. The selling concession is 1-1/2
The payment date is May 7 while listing will be in Luxembourg.
exercisable from May 20, 1987 until April 20, 1992.
 REUTER

sales for the five weeks ended April Four rose to 167.4 mln
dlrs from 147.5 mln dlrs a year ago, or one pct on a comparable
store basis.
    Year to date, it said sales gained to 499.6 mln dlrs from
422.0 mln dlrs, or four pct on a comparable store basis.
 Reuter

Traders expect U.S. energy futures will
open unchanged to slightly lower this morning with support near
yesterday's lows.
    Crude futures are called unchanged to five cts weaker
tracking unchanged domestic crudes and North Sea Brent crude,
which traded at 18.01 dlrs a barrel today, about ten cts below
yesterday's New York close.
    Traders said the supply squeeze in 15-day forward April
Brent appears to have ended.
    Product futures, which fell sharply yesterday, are due to
open unchanged to 0.25 cent lower, traders said.
    Traders expect some followthrough selling in products but
said gasoil futures in London will probably lend some support
since they are trading as expected. May gasoil futures were off
1.50 dlrs a tonne this morning while June was down 1.25 dlrs in
thin conditions.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 89 cts
    Net 3,425,216 vs 3,370,682
    Avg shrs 5,421,330 vs 3,803,425
    NOTE: net for both qtrs reflects gains on sales of
securities of 1,755,137, or 51 pct of net, in 1987; and
3,001,222, or 89 pct of net in 1986.
 Reuter

BUNDESBANK SEES NO REASON TO CHANGE MONETARY COURSE -
VICE-PRESIDENT SCHLESINGER

The Bank of England said it has satisfied
its revised estimate of today's shortfall in the money market,
providing 261 mln stg assistance in afternoon operations.
    The Bank bought in band one, 60 mln stg bank bills at 9-7/8
pct and in band two 200 mln stg bank bills and one mln stg
treasury bills at 9-13/16 pct. This brings the total help so
far today to 364 mln stg, compared with its deficit estimate of
350 mln stg.
 REUTER

Stop and Shop Cos Inc said its Bradlees
Discount Department Stores Division's sales for the five weeks
ended April four were up six pct to 156 mln dlrs from 147 mln
dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up one pct.
    The company said sales for the first nine weeks of the year
were up six pct to 259 mln dlrs from 245 mln dlrs a year
before, with same-store sales up two pct.
 Reuter

Soviet Union," he said. "China's agreement will be seen as a
model for the Soviet Union. GATT is not a political body."
 Reuter

Wang Laboratories said it signed
an agreement with <Desk Top Financial Solutions Inc> giving
Wang the right to market the Desk Top Financial Planning System
for Wang's Office Information Systems (OIS) product line.
    Wang said the Desk Top Financial Planning System for its
OIS comes in two basic packages -- the Advanced Planning
System, priced at 2,995 dlrs, and the Budget Reporting System,
priced at 1,995 dlrs.
    Both are avialable on eight inch and 5-1/4 inch diskettes,
Wang said.
 Reuter

The Lebanese Pound fell sharply against
the U.S. Dollar again today with dealers attributing the
decline to continued political uncertainty.
    The pound closed at 118.25/118.75 against the dollar
compared to yesterday's close of 115.60/115.80.
    "Political deadlock is reflected in the pound's position.
There was more demand and less on offer in the market," one
    The pound, which was at 18 to the dollar in January, 1986,
has lost more than 30 pct of its international value over the
past three months.
 REUTER

Dividend on 1986 business 12 marks per share vs seven
marks.
    (Company is a subsidiary of Switzerland's BBC AG Brown
Boveri und Cie <BBCZ.Z>).
 Reuter

Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Plc <RTZL.L> cut its
balance sheet gearing, measured as net debt as a proportion of
equity, to 35 pct at the end of 1986 from 61 pct a year
earlier, finance director Andrew Buxton told reporters.
    He said currency movements last year did not greatly affect
the earnings outcome, though had a greater impact on the
balance sheet.
    At year-end, 40 pct of its assets were industrial, 35 pct
in metal mining and processing and 25 pct in energy.
    Earlier, RTZ reported 1986 net attributable profit of 245
mln stg against 257 mln the previous year.
 Reuter

Association is expected to report the sixth straight increase
in its three-month average book-to-bill ratio, reflecting a
continued modest recovery in the computer chip industry,
semiconductor analysts said.
    Semiconductor analysts contacted by Reuters put the March
book-to-bill -- which is the ratio of new orders to actual
sales -- at around 1.15, up from a preliminary 1.13 in the
three months ended in February. The association is expected to
release its estimates later today or on friday.
    The analysts said they expect strong March performance both
in new orders and actual sales.
    Michael Gumport, analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc,
projected the three-month average of new computer chip orders
at about 835 mln dlrs, up from 788 mln dlrs in February.
    He put three-month average sales at about 720 mln dlrs,
also an increase from the 700 mln dlrs reported last month.
    Gumport said average new orders over 850 mln dlrs would be
a plus for semiconductor industry stocks, while orders under
800 would be interpreted negatively on Wall Street.
    Gumport said cut backs in Japanese computer chip production
are aiding U.S. chip maker orders and sales.
    Edward White, analyst with E.F. Hutton Group Inc, said
while Japanese cut backs may be a small factor, their effect
should be more readily apparant in April and May.
    White, who put the March book-to-bill ratio at 1.15-1.16,
said the ratio might hit 1.20 later this spring, before showing
a normal seasonal decline during the summer.
    He forecast three-month average orders at 825 mln dlrs for
March, with three-month average billings at about 711 mln dlrs.
    "This says the industry is still in a phase of moderate
recovery...it is not dramatic yet," said White.
    He said the industry still has not seen a pick-up in high
technology capital spending needed to create a strong recovery.
    He said a boost in spending on such big-ticket items as
mainframe computers would enhance the recovery, which is now
focused on personal and small business computers.
    Kidder Peabody and Co analyst Michael Kubiak agreed the
industry is showing a recovery trend, that while encouraging,
is not dramatic.
    Kubiak projected the March book-to-bill ratio at 1.14. He
said the three-month average for orders will be up about 4.5
pct from last month, while shipments rise about one pct.
    He noted, however, orders during the month of March alone,
a statistic the Semiconductor Industry Association does not
publish, should show a 15-20 pct rise from February orders.
    Kubiak said a book to bill ratio of 1.14 would have little
or no effect on semincondutor industry stocks, while a ratio of
1.13 would be negative for the market and a ratio of 1.16 would
likely cause the stocks to rise.
 Reuter

Moderately active grain fixing was
reported out of the U.S. But none of the business involved the
significant voyages to the Continent or Japan, ship brokers
said.
    A steady 13.50 dlrs was paid from the U.S. Gulf to Morocco
and 23.25 dlrs was paid for 27,000 long tons from the Gulf to
Taiwan. A vessel carrying 13,500 long tons of bagged wheat
flour from the Gulf to Aqaba received a lump sum of 472,500
dlrs.
    Grain from the Great Lakes to Algeria made 28 dlrs against
27.75 paid for similar fixing towards the end of March.
    Market talk suggested a Federal Commerce vessel had been
booked to move grain from the Great Lakes to Morocco on Comanav
account at about 22 dlrs and 15.50 had been paid for a cargo of
oilseeds from British Columbia to Japan, but no confirmation
was obtainable.
    On the Continent, shippers agreed 19 dlrs for wheat from La
Pallice to Buenaventura and 10.75 dlrs for grain from Ghent to
Naples/Venice range. Elsewhere, maize from East London to Japan
paid 22 dlrs.
    Soviet charterers reappeared in the timecharter sector and
secured a 30,000 tonner from Savona for a trans-Atlantic round
trip at 4,450 dlrs daily and a 31,000 tonner from
Antwerp-Hamburg for a similar voyage at 4,250 dlrs daily.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 287,000 to 295,000 head versus
292,000 week ago and 322,000 a year ago.
128,000 head versus 129,000 week ago and 134,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Senetek PLC said its
Senetek A/S Danish subsidiary has signed a letter of intent to
market <Diagnostic Biotechnology Co Pt Ltd> of Singapore's AIDS
antibody tests to the health care industries in Britain and the
Scandinavian countries.
    The company said its 49 pct owned Tessek Ltd joint venture
affiliate in Prague has also signed a letter of intent to
market Diagnostics AIDS tests in Czechoslovakia and other
Comecon countries.   It said Tessek has agreed to exchange
research information with Diagnostic in the development of a
new AIDS diagnostic kit using Tessek technology.
 Reuter

The number of cards in the Eurocheque
system, Europe's biggest personal payments system, grew by 11
pct to 39.1 mln last year and is expected to continue
increasing by around 10 pct in coming years, Eurocheque
International Secretary General Mark Van Wauve said.
    He told a news conference Eurocheque cards can now be used
in 40 European and Mediterranean countries to back Eurocheques
written in local currency and, where facilities are available,
as electronic debit cards. The system would have 5,000
automatic cash dispensers by the end of this year and aimed to
have 25,000 throughout Europe by 1992.
    Eurocheques and cards are issued by banks in 21 countries.
    Van Wauve said Italian banks, who already accept
Eurocheques, had recently asked to be allowed also to issue
Eurocheques and cards to their clients. It was possible these
would be launched in Italy this year if the Rome government
agreed to lift exchange controls that prevent residents writing
cheques abroad in any currency but lira, he told Reuters.
    Eurocheque International, the system's Brussels-based
coordinating centre, was also reviewing a request from the
Soviet Union for permission to issue cheques and cards.
    Eurocheque's agreements with banks do not permit them to
charge commissions from clients using Eurocheques, and Van
Wauwe said problems with French banks that have demanded such
commissions had been reduced to a minimum last year.
    Eurocheques can also be used to pay in local currency for
goods and services bought in over five mln retail outlets in 28
countries, with Hungary, Tunisia and Greece added to the system
this year. East Germany last year became the 40th country to
accept Eurocheques, made out in dollars, at banks and shops.
    Eurocheque International estimated the total of Eurocheques
used nationally and internationally at over one billion a year.
 REUTER

    PARANA STATE: CASCAVEL NIL, PONTA GROSSA NIL,CAMPO MOURAO
NIL, LONDRINA NIL, MARINGA NIL.
    RIO GRANDO DO SUL STATE: PASSO FUNDO NIL, SANTA MARIA 7.0
MILLIMETRES, CRUZ ALTA 8.5 MM, SAO LUIZ GONZAGA 4.4 MM. REUTER

cooperative findings on interleukin-2, the anti-cancer drug,
were published today in the "New England Journal of Medicine".
    Biotherapeutics, along with the Biological Therapy
Institute and the National Cancer Institute, said the
publication focused on a reduction in toxicity through the use
of a constant infusion mode of intravenous administration
protocol.
 Reuter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said March
sales were up 32 pct to 1.13 billion dlrs from 855 mln dlrs a
year earlier, with same-store sales up eight pct.
fiscal year were up 37 pct to 2.01 billion dlrs from 1.47
billion dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up 11 pct.
 Reuter

The Bundesbank sees no current reason
to change monetary course, vice-president Helmut Schlesinger
    Schlesinger was responding to questions following remarks
yesterday by Bundesbank board member Claus Koehler and West
Berlin state central bank president Dieter Hiss, which, dealers
said, revived some speculation that German interest rate cuts
may once again be under discussion.
    Schlesinger said he had no comment on the remarks of his
two central bank council colleagues.
    But he added that the last central bank council meeting on
April 2 had discussed the economic situation with a mood of
"subdued optimism," particularly influenced by the news brought
by several state central bank presidents.
    "Much is going better than the impression gained by the
public from the January figures, which have been in the
meantime superseded," he said.
    German January industrial output fell 3.0 pct after a
decline of 0.9 pct in December. New industry orders fell 1.9
pct after they had been unchanged in December.
    Bank economists said that the two together showed the
economy would either stagnate or contract in the first quarter
of 1987.
    Aside from the economic developments, Schlesinger added, a
steady monetary course was important to hold the dollar/mark
rate around current levels as Bundesbank president Karl Otto
Poehl had said while attending the Washington World Bank/IMF
meeting.
    Asked, however, if the Bundesbank could move to cut rates
on repurchase agreements at the setting of the next repurchase
tender, due next Tuesday, Schlesinger said, "Since the central
bank council gives its opinion on this theme only every 14
days, this is hardly probable."
    Responding to the question whether the Bundesbank had moved
away from a policy of targetting monetary growth toward one of
targetting currency rates, Schlesinger said he could have no
comment on the subject while negotiations were still in
progress in Washington.
 REUTER

    MINAS GERAIS STATE: GUAXUPE NIL, TRES PONTAS NIL. REUTER

convertible eurobond for Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd has been
set at 1-3/4 pct compared with the indicated two pct,
joint-lead bookrunner Yamaichi International (Europe) Ltd said.
    The conversion price was set at 1,052 yen, while the
foreign exchange rate was fixed at 146.20 yen per dollar.
 REUTER

E.F. HUTTON LBO INC SAID TENDER OFFER BY PC ACQUISITTION
FOR PUROLATOR COURIER EXPIRED

The World Bank will support Sri Lanka's
development program provided the country reduces its budget and
current account deficits, the Ministry of Finance said.
    It said Bank President Barber Conable at a meeting with Sri
Lanka's Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel in Washington also
emphasised the need for structural adjustment and reform to the
economy, battered by five years of separatist disturbances.
    Officials said Sri Lanka's budget deficit this year is
expected to surpass the projected 28.7 billion rupees while
defence spending, already up by two billion rupees from a
targetted 10 billion, is also likely grow.
    The Ministry said de Mel asked the World Bank to give Sri
Lanka 6.5 billion rupees balance of payments support.
 REUTER

E.F. HUTTON LBO INC SAYS UNIT TERMINATES MERGER AGREEMENT
WITH PUROLATOR COURIER

Holding company <Gemina Spa> said it had
no comment on an Italian press report today that it has
acquired a 12 pct stake in <Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano Spa>.
    Italian daily La Repubblica said that Gemina paid 205
billion lire for the shareholding from several Italian banks. A
Gemina spokeswoman told Reuters, "We have nothing to say about
the report."
    A spokeswoman for Milan-based Ambrosiano said, "We have no
information at this time." In February, Ambrosiano chairman
Giovanni Bazoli said foreign and domestic firms have expressed
interest in buying stakes in the bank.
    REUTER

Sears, Roebuck and Co said retail sales
of its Merchandise Group in March rose 4.2 pct to 2.62 billion
dlrs from 2.51 billion dlrs a year ago.
    For the nine weeks ended April Four, Sears Merchandise
Group sales rose 4.5 pct to 4.46 billion dlrs from 4.27 billion
dlrs in the same 1986 period.
 Reuter

Dividend on 1986 business unchanged at 10 marks per
ordinary share. Company also set dividend of 11 marks for new
preference shares, which were issued last year.
    (Note: Company has said profit will match 1985 level,
despite provisions of 480 mln marks connected with alleged
currency fraud. Group net profit in 1985 was 596 mln marks,
parent company net was 477 mln marks. Company's full name is
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>).
 REUTER

Shr 66 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 48,700,000 vs 49,300,000
    Sales 961.0 mln vs 870.6 mln
    Avg shrs 74,123,837 vs 73,374,398
 Reuter

    And the initial reaction of currency markets in the Far
East demonstrates that financial markets are unconvinced that
currencies yet reflect economic fundamentals, even though the
countries appear to do so. The yen sank below 145 at one point
despite intervention by the Bank of Japan.
    Kiichi Miyazawa, Japan's Finance Minister, said the
movement since Paris was consistent with currency trading
ranges the nations agreed to defend in the February talks.
discussions in Paris," Miyazawa said yesterday.
years. Monetary sources also said they understood that
Secretary Baker considered the meeting to be extremely
successful in the light of the Japanese announcement.
 Reuter

in the market against first category paper in today's money
    Money market dealers had earlier expressed mixed views on
the possibility of quarter point cut.
    The rate was last adjusted on March 9, when it was cut to
7-3/4 pct from the eight pct rate set in January.
 REUTER

The global economy is expected to
weaken this year, adding new worries to an already serious
poverty outlook, economic analysts said.
    For finance ministers and central bankers attending this
week's semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank, the new figures released by the IMF add an
additional concern.
    The Fund estimated world output would only grow by 2.7 pct
this year, versus 2.9 pct last year, and 3.1 pct in 1985.
    In the industrial countries, Gross National Product, a
measure of all goods and services, was expected to decline to
2.3 pct this year, compared with 2.4 pct in 1986, the IMF said.
    For the developing countries, the Gross Domestic Product,
another measure of economic growth, was expected to fall to 3.0
pct from 3.5 pct last year.
    The new figures are considered a major disappointment to
the poorest countries. They had hoped that new vitality in the
industrial countries brought on by a sharp decline in oil
prices would assist their economic recovery and help them cope
with growing mounds of debt.
    IMF officials, discussing their outlook, said they believed
the industrial country economies would move up to an annual
growth rate of three pct by the end of the decade.
    Economic analysts and the IMF have been saying for some
time that the ability to keep the debt crisis from turning into
an economic rout rests on sustained economic growth.
    Since the debtor countries must look to the wealthier
states for markets for their products as well as financial
assistance, economic weakness in the developed nations' 
economies poses fundamental worries.
    Debtor countries, including the very poorest states, have
only a few avenues open to them for earning foreign exchange,
including the key one of exports.
    The U.S. economy, which is in its fifth year of expansion,
has served as a mainstay for developing country exports, but it
too is seen as being rather feeble this year, growing by only
2.3 pct, according to the IMF.
    For this reason and because of a high trade deficit, the
United States has been pressuring Japan and West Germany to
ignite their economies but with little apparent success.
    The IMF study also examines the course of the dollar and
the curious lack of impact it has had on the U.S. trade
deficit.
    Reagan administration officials have been saying that the
impact is now beginning to show up, although it has been much
slower than expected.
    The IMF observed in its World Economic Outlook that "it has
to be recognized that exchange rate adjustments take time to
work through to payments flows -- probably at least three years
to get a resonably complete effect."
    The report added, however, "the adjustments may take even
more time on this occasion."
REUTER^M

The head of Spain's employers'
federation, Jose Maria Cuevas, said employers were worried
about the government's monetary policies because high real
interest rates were hampering investment.
    He told a news conference wage pacts signed so far this
year were not endangering the government's five pct inflation
target. The government's perceived need to control inflation by
keeping a tight rein on credit was unnecessary, he said.
    High real interest rates were attracting an influx of
speculative foreign capital which was undercutting the
government's target for monetary growth, Cuevas said.
    Spain's most closely-watched measure of money supply,
liquid assets in public hands, grew at an annualised rate of 17
pct in March, against 11.4 pct in December last year and a
target range of 6.5 to 9.5 pct for 1987.
    To combat this, the Bank of Spain has raised its call money
rate 14 times so far this year, to 14.5 pct at present from
11.8 at end-1986.
    Cuevas said employers were heeding the government's call to
hold wage increases to its five pct inflation target this year,
with increases from salary reviews awarded last year and new
wage pacts averaging 5.6 pct in the first quarter of 1987.
    These agreements covered less than 40 pct of Spanish
workers, Cuevas said, with the rest still in wage negotiations.
    He said Spain's current wave of strikes mainly affected the
state sector, where the government is trying to impose its five
pct wage ceiling.
    Cuevas said employers were also worried about the trend in
Spain's foreign trade balance. The trade deficit in the first
two months of 1987 totalled 233 billion pesetas, a 68 pct
increase over the corresponding period last year.
    However, employers did not favour a devaluation of the
peseta to correct the imbalance.
 REUTER

Showboat Inc said its board declared a
two-for-one stock split, payable to shareholders of record on
May 15.
 Reuter

J.C. Penney Co Inc said sales for the
five weeks ended April Four for its JCPenney stores and catalog
were off 1.3 pct to 1.12 billion dlrs from 1.13 billion a year
before, with same-store sales off 1.5 pct.
    The company said total company sales were off 0.2 pct to
1.25 billion dlrs from 1.26 billion dlrs.
    Penney said sales for ther first nine weeks of its fiscal
year for its JCPenney stores and catalogs were up 1.3 pct to
1.90 billion dlrs from 1.87 billion dlrs a year before, with
same-store sales up 1.2 pct.
    Penney said year to date sales company-wide were up 2.3 pct
to 2.14 billion dlrs from 2.09 billion dlrs, with same-store
sales up 2.2 pct.
    Penney said "Sales were in line with expectations in light
of the shift of Easter from March in 1986 to April this year.
Sales continued strong for catalog operations and,
geographically, ranged from very active in the East to weak in
the economically depressed Southwest.
 Reuter

its sales were 540.9 mln dlrs for the five-week period ended
April 4, 1987, a 7.8 pct increase over sales of 501.8 mln dlrs
for the comparable period a year ago.
    For the nine-weeks of its current fiscal year through April
4, the company said sales were 965.8 mln dlrs, a 7.5 pct
increase over 898.2 mln dlrs for the comparable period last
year.
 Reuter

Lead prices have risen this week against
a background of a finely balanced physical sector, traders
said.
    Further gains are possible if the USSR steps up its buying
or if labour problems develop in North America, they added.
    London Metal Exchange (LME) prices are unusually buoyant at
a time of year when seasonal demand is normally slackening and
prices tending to drift lower.
    This buoyancy is generally attributed by traders to the low
level of LME stocks and steady, if unspectacular, physical
demand in the Northern Hemisphere finding supplies curtailed.
    The supply problems are not new but are beginning to be
felt by a market in which, as peak winter demand tails off,
stocks usually build fast and availability increases, traders
said.
    The lower supply levels result from a number of different
factors around the globe.
    Delayed shipments from Peru to Mediterranean countries
because of production and transport problems, lack of Spanish
exports since the closure last year of Cia La Cruz's smelter at
Linares and lower output in Morocco and Greece have all meant
additional demand being directed to merchants who in turn have
been drawing on LME stocks.
    In addition Broken Hill Associated Smelters' Port Pirie,
South Australia, smelter is halting production for five weeks
for maintenance. Although the company said it would meet
commitments, this will put further pressure on stocks.
    And the U.S. Company Doe Run has kept its 140,000 tonnes
per year Boss, Montana smelter closed. This cut producer stocks
and contributed to a closer supply/demand balance within the
U.S. Market, for many years depressed by surplus production and
a regular supplier to the world market.
    Mexican supplies, which have sometimes swelled LME stocks,
have been normal but are finding ready buyers, traders said.
    On the demand side, winter battery manufacture has held up
quite well and some U.S. Buying of lead sheet has been reported
in the U.K. Soviet lead buying, notably absent in Europe in the
first two months of the year, was resumed when a large buying
order was filled by merchants in March.
    Merchant demand has fuelled the rise in LME lead prices
this week and has seen cash metal move above 320 stg and
establish a premium of around 10 stg over three months
delivery. Specific demand has been directed towards metal in
Gothenburg and Trieste warehouses. Gothenburg material is often
a target for merchants shipping to the USSR, traders said.
    On stocks, the popular LME Continental warehouses, Antwerp
and Rotterdam, have little more than 3,000 tonnes of lead each,
and this is believed to be in strong hands.
    Out of a total 22,125 tonnes in LME stocks, the lowest
level since June 1980, just over half is in U.K. Warehouses
which are not popular with merchants putting together
shipments.
    But even U.K. Stocks have dropped around 6,000 tonnes since
the start of the year. Traders said this is partly due to
secondary smelters buying ingots to supplement feed supplies
affected by environmental controls, which put restrictions on
the transport of used batteries.
    Labour negotiations in North America will play an important
part in determining the direction of prices, with contracts
expiring end-April at Cominco's Trail and Kimberley, B.C.,
Mine/smelter and at Doe Run's Herculaneum, Mo, smelter.
    Noranda's New Brunswick mine/smelter also has a contract
expiry in July which may cause some nervousness in view of
strikes by its zinc and copper workers over recent months.
    Traders said LME three months delivery, already attracting
speculative buying, could rise to 320/330 stg on current
firmness, while nearby tightness could widen the cash premium
to 20 from four. Three months was quoted at 313 stg at
midsession.
 Reuter

F. W. Woolworth Co said sales for the
five weeks ended april 4 rose 0.2 pct to 591 mln dlrs from 590
mln dlrs.
    Domestic sales decreased 4.4 pct to 355 mln dlrs from 371
mln dlrs and foreign sales, expressed in U.S. dlrs, rose 7.9
pct, the company said.
    If foreign exchange rates had remained constant, foreign
sales would have decreased 4.0 pct and total sales 4.2 pct, it
said.
    For the nine weeks, total sales rose 4.3 pct to 1.01
billion from 964 mln dlrs.
    Domestic sales of 604 mln dlrs were unchanged and foreign
sales, expressed in dlrs, increased 11.4 pct from the year
earlier period. If foreign exchange rates were constant,
foreign sales would have decreased 1.0 pct and total sales 0.4
    "As anticipated, March sales were lackluster in our
seasonally sensitive businesses due to Easter's being three
weeks later this year than last," the company said in a
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 2,918,000 vs 1,746,000
    Sales 68.3 mln vs 53.5 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes pretax gain 400,000 dlrs from
change in pension accounting.
    1987 results include Production Graphics Corp and Systems
Technology and Weapons System Test Divisions of NEw Technology
Inc, acquired December 30, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 3,445,000 vs 3,193,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split in January
1987.
 Reuter

  30-174 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct    30-87 days
 175-190 days  5.85 pct  5.82 pct   88-103 days
 191-270 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  104-179 days
 271-288 days  5.92 pct  5.85 pct  180-205 days
 289-360 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  206-360 days
                       
 Reuter

Anchor Financial Corp said it
has agreed to acquire Waccamaw State Bank of Surfside Beach,
S.C., in an exchange of 1.435 Anchor shares for each Waccamaw
share, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
    Waccamaw had assets of 22.8 mln dlrs as of March 31.
 Reuter

Stoltenberg said he was not surprised by the overnight decline
of the dollar in foreign exchange markets.
    Speaking briefly with reporters before entering a meeting
of the International Monetary Fund he said, "These minor
movements don't really affect us."
    The dollar declined in the initial reaction to a statement
by the Group of Seven industrial countries reaffirming their
Paris agreement in February to maintain their currencies around
 Reuter

Asarco Inc said it is increasing its
base spot sales price for refined lead by one-half cent to
26.50 cents a lb, FOB, delivered in carload lots, effective
 Reuter

French government ministers will meet next
Tuesday to discuss measures to cover the state Social Security
Fund's deficit before the summer, Prime Minister Jacques
Chirac's social affairs adviser, Marie-Helene Berard, said.
    Employment Ministry officials say the fund, in surplus
until 1985, faces a 24 billion franc deficit by the end of this
year, largely because of rising unemployment. Budget Minister
Alain Juppe said the fund needed more resources and a
management overhaul. The government was not in favour of
introducing an additional tax to fund the deficit as did the 
previous socialist administration between 1982 and 1985, he
said.
 REUTER

E.F. Hutton LBO Inc said the tender
offer by its wholly owned unit, PC Acquisition Inc, for
Purolator Courier Corp <PCC> expired at 2400 EDT yesterday
without the purchase of any Purolator common stock.
    Hutton added that PC Acquisition also terminated its merger
agreement with Purolator.
    Hutton said the offer, which had been conditioned upon the
tender of at least 5,116,892 Purolator shares, or about
two-thirds of the outstanding shares, was terminated because
the minimum number of shares was not tendered.
    Purolator had entered into a definitive agreement with PC
Acquisition, part-owned by E.F. Hutton LBO Inc, a unit of E.F.
Hutton, and some officers of Purolator's U.S. courier division,
in which PC offered to purchase 6,332,471 Purolator common
stock shares for 35 dlrs a share.
    Following that move, PC Acquisition planned to merge a
subsidiary into Purolator, converting all outstanding Purolator
common it did not own into an aggregate 46 mln dlrs principal
amount of 12 pct guaranteed debentures due 2002 and warrants to
purchase 15 pct of a Purolator unit comprised of Purolator's
U.S courier operations.
    Hutton said as of 2400 EDT yesterday about 181,000 shares
of Purolator common stock, or about 2.4 pct of the outstanding
shares, had been validly tendered and not withdrawn.
    PC Acquisition has instructed its depository for the offer
to return promptly the Purolator stock deposited by, or on
behalf of, tendering shareholders, Hutton said.
 Reuter

India's national foodgrain target has
been fixed at 160 mln tonnes in 1987/88 (Apr-Mar), unchanged
from the 1986/87 target, the Agriculture Ministry said in its
annual report for 1986/87.
    Actual output was estimated at 151 mln tonnes in 1986/87
due to failure of monsoon rains in 15 out of 35 meterological
sub-divisions of the country.
    The report gave the targets for various crops with
estimated harvested crops in 1986/87 in brackets as following,
in mln tonnes - rice 65 (60), wheat 49 (49), coarse grains
including sorghum and millets 32 (29) and pulses 14 (13).
    Despite failure of monsoon rains in recent years, it was
possible to maintain higher foodgrain production, signifying
growing resilience in agricultural sector, the report said.
    The strategy for increasing irrigation potential along with
greater use of high yielding seed varieites and improvement in
fertiliser efficiency is yielding results, it said, adding
total foodgrain output in 1985/86, 1984/85 and 1983/84
respectively was 150.5 mln tonnes, 145.5 mln and a record 152.4
mln.
   India has targeted to produce between 178 and 183 mln tonnes
of foodgrains by the last year of the seventh five-year
development plan ending March 31, 1990.
    Taking the midpoint of 180 mln tonnes as the target and the
1986/87 estimated production of around 151 mln tonnes, the gap
of 29 mln tonnes has to be made up during the remaining three
years of the plan by increasing grain output annually by more
than nine mln tonnes. But the target can be achieved only with
good weather, the report said.
    "The major thrust programme will, therefore, be better water
(irrigation) management. Simultaneously, efforts for spread of
improved technology including timely use of inputs (farm
materials like fertilisers) in adequate quantities have to be
vigrously pursued," it said.
 Reuter

of April 8 were reported at 34,661 bales, down 421 bales from
the previous day's figure. There were no bales awaiting review
and 1,218 bales awaiting decertification.
 Reuter

Reichhold Chemical Inc said its
board adopted a warrant dividend plan in which one preferred
stock purchase right will be distributed as a dividend on each
common share outstanding.
    The company said its warrant dividend plan is designed to
protect its shareholders against unsolicted, coercive attempts
to aquire control without making an adequate offer for all
shares.
    Reichhold said the adoption is not a response to any
specific takeover attempt.
    Reichhold said each right will entitle shareholders to buy
one one-hundreth of a share of a newly created series of
preferred stock at an initial exercise price of 120 dlrs, with
dividend and voting rights approximately equal to those of one
share of the company's common stock.
    The rights will be exercisable only if, without Reichhold's
prior consent, a person or group a acquires 20 pct or more of
the voting power or announces a tender offer which would result
in 20 pct ownership, the company said.
    Reichhold said it is entitled to redeem the rights at five
cts apiece before a 20 pct position has been acquired, or
before an existing 20 pct shareholder buys an additional two
pct or more of the voting power of the company, or in
connection with certain transactions afterward.
    The tax-free distribution will become effective May 1,
1987, and will expire 10 years later, the company said.
    Details of the plan are outlined in a letter to be mailed
to stockholders.
 Reuter

Shr 62 cts vs 52 cts 
    Net 142.0 mln vs 123.0 mln
    Sales 1.00 billion vs 865.0 mln

 Reuter

International Proteins Corp said
it has agreed to sell in a private placement 330,000 common
shares at 11.75 dlrs a share to a U.S. subsidiary of Hanson
Trust Plc.
    In addition, David Clarke the president of another Hanson
Trust subsidiary, Hanson Industries, will be named chairman of
International Proteins's executive committee upon his election
to the board at the annual meeting.
    International Proteins recently acquired Clarke's family
business, Great South Beach Sales Co, for 900,000 restricted
common shares of which 350,000 have been issued to date.
    International Proteins said its agreement with Hanson Trust
is subject to stockholder approval at the annual meeting which
is expected to be held in June.
    The company said Hanson Trust is purchasing the stock for
investment purposes, adding the agreement includes restrictions
on purchase or sale of the company by Hanson for the next five
years.
    International Proteins said it will use the proceeds to
expand domestic operations.
    The company has about 2.1 mln shares outstanding.          
 
 Reuter

Egypt bought 125,723 tonnes of U.S.
wheat flour in its PL 480 tender yesterday, trade sources said.
    The purchase included 51,880 tonnes for May shipment and
73,843 tonnes for June shipment. Price details were not
 Reuter

Spain had a 35 mln dlr current account
surplus in February compared with a 68 mln dlr surplus in
January and a 355 mln dlr surplus in February last year, Bank
of Spain figures show.
    Spain's trade deficit narrowed to 581 mln dlrs compared
with 664 mln dlrs in January but the large increase in non-oil
imports contributed to the substantial increase over the 159
mln dlr deficit registered in February 1986.
    Exports at 2.58 billion dlrs were up 19 pct compared with
February last year, but imports were 46 pct higher than last
February, totalling 3.16 billion dlrs.
    Non-oil imports totalled 2.79 billion dlrs compared with
1.91 billion in February last year, reflecting the large
ammount of investment goods entering the country with the
recovery of the Spanish economy, the Bank of Spain said.
    Spain's tourism earnings continued to grow and totalled 655
mln dlrs in February, compared with 103 mln dlrs in January and
502 mln dlrs in February last year.
 REUTER

India's oilseed output is expected to
rise to 12.25 mln tonnes in 1986/87 ending October, up on 11.15
mln in 1985/86 but down from 12.95 mln harvested in 1984/85,
the Agriculture Ministry's 1986/87 report said.
    But the forecast for 1986/87 is well below a target of 14.8
mln tonnes fixed for the year, it said, adding bad weather hit
groundnut and other oilseed crops.
    The National Oilseeds Development Program will invest 300
mln rupees in 1986/87 on supplying improved high-yielding seeds
and other support services to help boost production, it added.
India imports about 1.2 mln tonnes of edible oils a year.
 Reuter

<Zenex Oil Pty Ltd> said it
acquired the interests of Esso South Africa, the local
subsidiary of Exxon Corp <XON), and will use up to 20 mln rand
in profits to finance educational and social programs.
    The profit scheme will begin after Zenex has paid Exxon an
undisclosed purchase price for Esso, Zenex chairman John
Truscott said in a statement.
    The acquisition follows the Exxon withdrawal from South
Africa announced last December.
 Reuter

Britain, France and other European
nations will make a strong plea in high-level meetings today
for urgent debt relief for the very poorest countries, European
monetary sources said.
    The request will be put to the International Monetary
Fund's policy-making Interim Committee, which meets here as
part of semi-annual IMF and World Bank talks.
    But it is likely to run into opposition from the United
States, which regards debt relief, even for the world's poorest
nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, with distaste.
    "If all creditors agreed, (Britain and France) would be
prepared to consider below market interest rates " for the
countries, one source said.
    A senior U.S. Treasury official poured cold water on the
plan earlier this week, however. "We are not willing to enter
into arrangements that would forgive debt or provide
concessional interest rates," the official said.
    At the heart of the American objection is the fear that
once such a concession is made for the very poorest nations,
then sooner or later Latin debtors will be demanding similar
relief.
    African nations owe foreign creditors, most of them
governments, over 70 billion dlrs. Over 21 billion dlrs is debt
owed by poorest Sub-Saharan African nations.
    In addition to interest rate concessions, the sources said
European countries wanted repayment of these loans to be
stretched out for up to 20 years, with a substantial delay
before capital repayments start.
    The issue was inconclusively discussed in yesterday's
meetings of the major industrial nations -- the United States,
Japan, West Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.
    It is already under consideration by the Paris Club of
western creditor nations, to which the United States belongs.
    "There are quite obviously differences about it," one source
said of the American attitude. "But it is perfectly clear that
(debt repayment) is an abiding problem for a small number of
the poorest countries."
    The plan would also involve the conversion of bilateral aid
to these countries into outright grants, a policy already
adopted by Paris and London.
REUTER^M

Commonwealth Edison Co filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for the sale of 375 mln dlrs
in first mortgage bonds.
    It said the proceedings would be used to discharge or
refund outstanding obligations.
    No underwriter was named.
 Reuter

follows:
    5-14 days  5.80 pct    5.75 pct     5-14 days
  15-360 days  5.00 pct    5.00 pct    15-85 days
                           5.80 pct    86-91 days
                           5.00 pct   92-176 days
                           5.83 pct  177-183 days
                           5.00 pct  184-360 days
 Reuter

    33 days   6.00 pct   6.00 pct  33 days
  
 Reuter

ARGENTINE GRAIN BELT TEMPERATURES
(CENTIGRADE) AND RAIN (MM) IN THE 24 HOURS TO 12.00 GMT WERE:
    ...............MAX TEMP..MIN TEMP..RAINFALL
    BUENOS AIRES.......24.......12............0
    BAHIA BLANCA.......22........7............0
    TRES ARROYOS.......22........8............0
    TANDIL.............22........7............0
    JUNIN..............24.......11............0
    SANTA ROSA.........--........6............0
    CORDOBA............23.......12............1
    SANTA FE...........21.......18...........17 REUTER

Losses for Volkswagen AG
<VOWG.F>, VW, linked to an alleged foreign currency fraud will
not exceed the 480 mln marks provision already made, a VW
    The spokesman was commenting after VW had confirmed it
would pay an unchanged 10 mark dividend for ordinary shares on
1986 business, despite the provision.
    One West German newspaper today quoted foreign currency
dealers in Frankfurt as speculating that the total losses from
the currency affair could be as high as 1.5 billion marks, but
the VW spokesman described 480 mln marks as an "upper limit."
    VW said in a statement following today's supervisory board
meeting that it had discussed the foreign currency scandal in
detail, and was setting up a new probe into its foreign
currency activities to be carried out by an unnamed auditing
company.
    VW has said computer programs were erased and documents
were faked in the alleged fraud in which it believes
transactions intended to protect it against possible foreign
currency losses were not completed.
    VW's former foreign currency chief Burkhard Junger was
arrested on Monday on suspicion of embezzlement and of having
evaded justice.
    Earlier VW had said that its 1986 results would match 1985
profits. VW's group net profit in 1985 was 596 mln marks and
parent company net was 477 mln marks. It also said it recommend
an unchanged dividend to the supervisory board. The company has
also set a dividend of 11 marks for new preference shares,
which were issued last year. Analysts have described the held
dividend as a move to reassure worried shareholders.
    VW increased nominal capital by 300 marks last year to 1.5
billion marks, with the result that its total dividend payment
on 1986 will be 306 mln marks compared with 240 mln on 1985,
since the new capital was in preference shares.
    The share analysts say VW will have to dig into reserves in
order to maintain the disclosed 1986 profit at 1985 levels. At
the end of 1985, VW had parent company reserves of slightly
less than three billion marks.
 REUTER

Yugoslavia will tender April 14 for
100,000 tonnes of wheat, the U.S. Agriculture Department's
Counselor in Belgrade said in a field report.
    The report, dated April 7, said the wheat must be from 1986
and 1987 harvest, and imports of soft wheat from Europe and
from other suppliers will not be considered.
    It said the imports will be used to rebuild the federal
reserves and as a result will not be subject to import
surcharges.
 Reuter

Prices were lower at this week's coffee
auction for all grades and qualities except better quality AB
grades, which held steady, the Coffee Board of Kenya said.
    The board said it offered 35,000 bags and sold 32,876.
    So far this coffee year, Kenya has sold 918,707 bags to all
markets, of which 326,182 are for the 1986/7 pool, with an
overall average price of 41,500 shillings a tonne, it added.
    The board will offer 35,000 bags at its next auction on
April 14.
          BAGS                PRICE PER 50 KG
      OFFERED SOLD        AVERAGE
 PB      430   430   2304.78 (2267.21)
 AA     7289  6834   2292.92 (2358.96)
 AB    12664 11895   2289.99 (2291.13)
 C      3198  2867   2073.15 (2107.64)
 T       876   876   1508.79 (1510.67)
 TT     1375  1375   2053.25 (2095.64)
 E       159   159   2250.19 (2252.18)
 MISC   9009  8440   1409.50 (1398.60)
 TOTAL 35000 32876     AVERAGE FOR SALE      2014.93 (1994.94)
 Reuter

Alex. Brown Inc said it has declared a
three-for-two stock split, payable May 29, record May 22.
    The company also said it has filed to offer 912,000 common
shares, including 162,000 to be sold by a shareholder, with
company proceeds to be used for working capital and general
corporate purposes.  Its Alex. Brown and Sons Inc subsidiary is
lead underwriter.
    The offering is expected to be made before the record date
of the split, the company said.
 Reuter

Jamesway Corp said sales for the
five weeks ended April Four were up 15 pct to 54.1 mln dlrs
from 47.1 mln dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up four
pct.
    The company said sales for the first nine weeks of its
fiscal year were up 14 pct to 85.8 mln dlrs from 75.1 mln dlrs
a year before, with same-store sales up four pct.
    It noted that Easter sales will fall in April this year,
instead of March as last year.
 Reuter

sales for the five weeks ended April Four were up 4.9 pct to
934.9 mln dlrs from 891.6 mln dlrs a year before.,
fiscal year were up 6.8 pct to 1.65 billion dlrs from 1.55
billion dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

five weeks ended April Four were up 12.7 pct to 522.3 mln dlrs
from 463.5 mln dlrs a year before.
fiscal year were up 17.4 pct to 849.3 mln dlrs from 723.7 mln
 Reuter

AMR Corp, the parent of American
Airlines, rose sharply in active trading after analyst Roland
Moreno of Smith Barney upgraded his opinion of the stock to buy
from accumulate and added it to the brokerage house's
recommended list, traders said.
    AMR climbed 1-3/8 to 55-5/8.
    A spokeswoman for Smith Barney said the recommendation was
made because the airline group looks cheap relative to the
broad market and the analyst feels AMR is the best in the
group.
    In a related action, Moreno downgraded his opinion of UAL
Inc <UAL> to accumulate from buy and took it off the firm's
recommended list, Smith Barney's spokeswoman said. The stock
slipped 1/2 to 71-1/2 on volume of 1.3 mln shares.
    She said the Moreno's downgrade of UAL was because the
"stock had risen to a level beyond what current fundamentals
can support." The stock has risen more on merger speculation
than on fundamentals, the opinion continued.
    In recent weeks, rumors UAL stock was being accumulated for
a possible takeover bid shored up the stock, traders and
analysts said. In addition, pilots of UAL's United Airlines
unit proposed a buyout of the airline for 4.5 billion dlrs.
    The Smith Barney spokeswoman said the postive
recommendation of AMR emphasizes the company's strong marketing
ability, its good management and customer loyalty to the AMR
name. She said the company has been the best financial
performer of the airline group.
    The AMR recommendation includes earnings expectations of
4.35 dlrs a share in 1987 as compared to earnings of 4.63 dlrs
a share last year, the spokeswoman said. In 1988, the company
is expected to earn six dlrs a share.
    Traders said other airline stocks moved higher today
primarily as a result of fare hikes announced Wednesday by
Texas Air <TEX>, United Airlines and AMR.
    Delta <DAL> rose 1/2 to 56-7/8, NWA Inc <NWA> 3/8 to 66,
and Pan Am <PN> 1/8 to 4-5/8.
 Reuter

    Shr 38 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 7,012,000 vs 11,193,000
    Revs 223.0 mln vs 200.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 1.36 dlrs
    Net 20,214,000 vs 23,602,000
    Revs 656.5 mln vs 520.5 mln
    Avg shrs 18,257,631 vs 17,376,480
 Reuter

LVI Group Inc said it has agreed in
principle to purchase all outstanding shares of <Spectrum
Holding Corp> for a proposed 13 mln dlrs in cash.
    LVI said an additional 10 mln dlrs in common stock and
seven mln dlrs in notes will become payable if Spectrum has
certain minimum future earnings.
    LVI, an interior construction firm, said the acquisition is
subject to execution of a definitive agreement and completion
of due diligence.
    LVI and Spectrum, an asbestos abatement concern, expect to
close the deal in June, LVI said.
 Reuter

MacGregor Sporting Goods
Inc said its wholly-owned MacGregor Team Sports Inc subsidiary
has filed for an initial public offering of two mln common
shares at an expected price of 11 to 14 dlrs a share.
    The company said after the offering it would continue to
own 8,800,000 shares or at least an 80 pct interest, since
McGregor Team Sports has granted underwriters an option to buy
another 200,000 shares to cover overallotments.
    E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH> is lead underwriter.
    The company said proceeds will be uysed to reduce debt.
    The company said MacGregor Team Sports consists of its
Riddell Inc football helmet producing unit, its Sports
Specialties Corp sport cap distributing unit and Equilink
Licensing Corp, which licenses MacGregor trademarks.
 Reuter

Texas American Energy Corp said
its board has decided to again omit the quarterly dividend on
its 2.575 dlr cumulative convertible exchangeable preferred
stock.
    The dividend would have been payable May One.  The company
last paid 64.3 cts a share on the issue in August 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 1.64 dlrs vs 1.56 dlrs
    Net 4,583,000 vs 5,313,000
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 19 mln
    Avg shrs 2.8 mln vs 3.4 mln
    Year
    Shr 5.06 dlrs vs 5.92 dlrs
    Net 16 mln vs 20.3 mln
    Revs 74.6 mln vs 68 mln
    Avg shrs 3.2 mln vs 3.4 mln
 Reuter

<Brenda Mines Ltd> said it sold
2,830,390 <Kerr Addison Mines Ltd> shares to a group of
underwriters led by Wood Gundy Inc and Brown, Baldwin Nisker
Ltd for redistribution.
 Reuter

Data Access Systems Inc said
chairman David Cohen has sold 1,800,000 common shares to
Phoenix Financial corp for undisclosed terms and resigned as
    The company said Phoenix Financial now has a 27 pct
interest in Data Access and effective control.
    Data Access said Phoenix chairman Martin S. Ackerman has
been named chairman of Data Access as well and two other
Phoenix representatives have been named to the Data Access
board.  It said four directors other than Cohen have resigned
from the board.
 Reuter

Health and Rehabilitation
Properties Trust said it declared an intitial dividend of 55
cts per share for the period ending March 31, 1987
    The dividend will be payed May 20 to shareholders of record
on April 20, the company said.
    The company said it organized in late 1986 and closed its
intitial public offering of shares Dec 23, 1986.
    The initital dividend includes five cts attributable to the
period between Dec 23 and 31, 1986, and 50 cts attributable to
the first qtr of 1987, ending March 31, 1987.
 Reuter

T. Rowe Price Associates said its
first quarter earnings rose about 50 pct from the year-ago
2,634,000 dlrs and revenues about 30 pct from the year-ago 24.2
mln dlrs.
    It said it expects "very good" earnings and revenue growth
this year.  In 1986 it earned 14.8 mln dlrs on revenues of
111.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

British Petroleum ordered a CRAY X-MP/24 supercomputer valued
at about 6.6 mln dlrs.
    The leased system will be installed at BP Exploration Co
Ltd's London headquarters in the fourth quarter of 1987,
pending export license approval, it said.
    The CRAY X-MP/24 will replace a CRAY X-MP/12 supercomputer
in operation since 1985, it added.
    Separately, the company said that a CRAY X-MP/24 system
valued at 8.5 mln dlrs was installed at Lockheed Missiles and
Space Co.
 Reuter

General Partners told the Securities
and Exchange Commission it has reduced its stake in GenCorp Inc
to 8.6 pct, from 9.8 pct, by selling 250,000 shares at a price
equal to 118.5 dlrs per share.
    General Partners, which includes GC Holdings Inc and
General Acquisitions Inc, said yesterday it was dropping its
100-dlr-a-share hostile takeover bid for GenCorp because of
GenCorp's move to buy back its shares for up to 130 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Shr 45 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 1,503,000 vs 938,000
    Avg shrs 3,358,664 vs 2,158,664
    NOTE: Company had its initial public offering of 1,200,000
shares in October, 1986
 Reuter

National Computer Systems Inc
expects fiscal year earnings to improve by about 20 pct, the
company told analysts, although it said the April 30 first
quarter should show "down earnings and virtually flat
revenues."
    Chairman Charles Oswald said National Computer has taken
steps to improve margins. He said revenues are expected to
increase modestly because of the company's decision to downsize
its leasing business, nonrecurring revenueslast year from a
one-time Texas teacher assessment project and the impact of the
discontinuance of products last year.
    Oswald said National Computer's first quarter results will
be down as a result of a major financial systems sales last
year, a higher effective tax rate and the increased number of
    The company said the next three consecutive quarters should
demonstrate "excellent earnings growth."
 Reuter

U.K. CHANCELLOR LAWSON SAYS THERE MAY BE NEED TO CUT
INTEREST RATES IN SOME COUNTRIES

Mobil Corp said sales of its Montgomery
Ward and Co subsidiary for the five weeks ended April Four rose
3.3 pct on a comparable store basis to 332.9 mln dlrs from
323.2 mln dlrs a year ago.
    Cumulative sales for the nine week period of February One
through April Four rose 7.3 pct on a comparable store basis to
609.6 mln dlrs from 572.2 mln dlrs.
    It said the number of stores in operation was 295, two more
than in the same 1986 period.
 Reuter

Rexham Corp said it has
repurchased 381,050 of its shares or 9.1 pct from Nortek Inc
for 42 dlrs each, and Nortek has withdrawn its proposal to
acquire Rexham for 43 dlrs per share.
    Rexham said Nortek has also agreed not to buy Rexham shares
or take other actions under a 10-year standstill agreement. 
The Rexham board had rejected the Nortek bid as inadequate.
    The company also said its board has authorized the
repurchase in the open market or privately from time to time of
up to an additional five pct of its own shares and the
establishment of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.  The plan is
expected to purchase from Rexham a new convertible preferred
stock with 11.5 pct of Rexham's voting power with proceeds of a
pension plan overfunding and borrowings.
 Reuter

LAWSON SAYS MAJOR CENTRAL BANKS WILL INTERVENE AS AND
WHEN NECESSARY

Exxon Corp's Exxon U.S.A. unit reduced the price it charges
contract barge customers for heating oil in New York harbor
0.50 cent a gallon, effective today.
to 49.75. The price decrease follows sharp declines in heating
oil prices in the spot and futures markets, traders said.
 Reuter

Kapok Corp said it has cured
technical defaults on laons from Southeast Banking Corp <STB>
and Murray Steinfeld and has negotiated extensions of both
loans.
    The company also said it has arranged a one mln dlr loan
secured by its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., property from Republic
Bank for Savings of Jackson, Miss., and has sold its Peter Pan
Restaurant in Urbana, Md., for 1,100,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

  30-174 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct   30-174 days
 175-190 days  5.88 pct  5.85 pct  175-190 days
 191-270 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  191-270 days
 271-288 days  5.92 pct  5.92 pct  271-288 days
 289-360 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  289-360 days
                       
 Reuter

With seven car assembly plants down this
week, including six at General Motors Corp <GM>, U.S. carmakers
are expected to built an estimated 160,111 cars for the week
ending April 11, down from 177,687 a year ago, said the trade
publication Ward's Automotive Reports.
    Year to date, it estimated domestic car output at
2,334,528, down from 2,442,221 in the same 1986 period.
    It projected the weeks truck output at 80,168, up from
72,026 a year earlier. Cumulative truck sales were pegged at
1,096,732, up from 1,011,029 a year ago.
   
 Reuter

Cannon International said <Viva
Films International> agreed to exclusively distribute Cannon
films in the Philippines for the new four years.
    The company said the agreement covers both theatrical and
video distribution. Terms were not disclosed.

 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 1,196,331 vs 1,341,314
    Revs 5,153,109 vs 7,680,350
 Reuter

AFP Imaging Corp said it expects
revenues to reach about 20 mln dlrs in fiscal 1987, ending June
31, compared with sales of 16.8 mln dlrs in fiscal 1986.
    AFP said its products have continue to gain market share in
the medical, dental and graphic arts industries over the past
eight months, adding that it will spend "considerable effort"
now to expand its KENRO pre-press vertical cameras and
processors.
    The company, which designs and makes film processing and
camera equipment for the medical industry, said it plans to be
a major player in the 10 bln dlr graphics art industry through
a combination of internal growth and acquisitions.
    AFP also said it expects KENRO revenues to double during
the coming fiscal year.
    AFP said it is exploring the possibility of assembling and
distributing a line of dental chairs and operatories for an
unnamed company in the industry. AFP said the move could expand
its DENT-X dental x-ray processing product presence in the
dental equipment business whilke adding more factory loading.
                                         
 Reuter

the government securities market to supply temporary reserves
indirectly via customer repurchase agreements, economists said.
    They said that while the Fed faces no great urgency to add
reserves at the start of the two-week maintenance period today
it would probably do so in order to offset a relatively high
federal funds rate.
    Fed funds opened at 6-3/16 pct and remained there in early
trading. Yesterday, they averaged 6.45 pct, after rising as
high as seven pct at the close.
 Reuter

Diamond Crystal Salt Co said it
might sell its salt division.
    The company said it retained First Boston Corp to assist it
with the possible sale of the division, "assuming a fair price
and reasonable terms can be obtained."
    Diamond Crystal said sale of the unit was in the best
long-term interests of its shareholders.
    The company also said it incorporated its Packet Products
Division as of April one. The unit will be an indirect wholly
owned subsidiary called Diamond Crystal Specialty Foods Inc.
Current management of the division will remain.
 Reuter

Nigel Lawson, Britain's Chancellor of
the Exchequer, said some countries may need to cut interest
rates with the aim of maintaining exchange rate stability.
    Speaking to journalists one day after the Group of Seven
countries reaffirmed goals set in Paris six weeks ago, he said
central banks would continue to intervene "as and when
necessary."
    He said the G-7 countries were concerned that Japan do more
to stimulate domestic demand and welcomed measures outlined by
Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa yesterday.
    Lawson said he was still worried about  the risk of a
simultaneous recession in the United States, Japan and West
Germany, though less so than when he gave his March 17 budget
speech to the British Parliament.
    "If anything I'm a little bit less concerned, but there is
still a risk," he said.
    Asked if the United States should consider increasing
interest rates to support the dollar, he said, "If there is a
need for changes in relative interest rates, it doesn't need to
be a rise in interest rates in the United States."
    Lawson said there was some concern expressed in yesterday's
meetings at the slow progress the United States had made in
reducing its budget deficit.
    "We believe there will be some worthwhile progress in
reducing the deficit this year. The important thing is that it
continue year after year," Lawson said.
    The February 22 Louvre accord called for efforts to
stabilize currencies at then-current exchange rates. In the six
weeks that followed the Japanese yen continued to rise against
the dollar despite massive central bank intervention.
    Asked whether this intervention was a sign of weakness in
the Louvre accord, he said, "I don't think so. If there had been
no intervention you would have called that a sign of weakness."
    Although intervention could be a cause of inflation, Lawson
said, "the world does not appear to be in an inflationary mode
... but one has to be vigilant."
    He said yesterday's G-7 statement, which affirmed that
"current levels" of exchange rates were appropriate, had been
"carefully worded." "We know what we mean, and we all mean the
same thing," he said.
    Lawson said financial markets seem to believe that Japanese
measures outlined in the Louvre accord were the source of
weakness for that agreement.
    Therefore, the G-7 countries welcomed Miyazawa's
presentation of plans for a supplemental budget to stimulate
domestic demand.
    They particularly welcomed the goal of an immediate
increase in public works spending, but Lawson said the package
also involved a second stage to increase expenditures during
the second half of this year.
 Reuter

to export 320,000 tonnes of free market barley, 225,000 tonnes
of maize, 25,000 tonnes of free market bread-making wheat and
20,000 tonnes of feed wheat at today's EC tender, trade sources
said.
    For the barley, rebates of between 138 and 141.25 European
currency units (Ecus) per tonne were sought, for maize they
were between 129.65 and 139 Ecus, for bread-making wheat around
145 Ecus and for feed wheat around 142.45 Ecus.
    Barley rebates of up to 138.50 Ecus were requested for a
total of 40,000 tonnes and at 139 Ecus for 85,000 tonnes.
    Rebates of up to 130 Ecus per tonne were requested for a
total of 55,000 tonnes maize and up to 131 Ecus for 105,000
tonnes, the sources said.
 Reuter

Dayton Hudson Corp said retail sales
for the five weeks ended April Four were 791.8 mln dlrs
compared to 755.6 mln dlrs a year ago. On a comparable store
basis, it said sales declined 4.9 pct.
    Sales for the nine months were 1.39 billion dlrs, up from
1.26 billion dlrs in the same 1986 period. On a comparable
store basis, the sales rose 1.2 pct.
 Reuter

Trading on the London potato futures
market will not be suspended, Richard Harris, Chairman of the
London Potato Futures Association (LPFA), said in a statement
to floor members.
    It was in response to strong representations by the Potato
Marketing Board (PMB) complaining of a gross distortion of
price which they say will result in large deliveries into the
physical market when the April futures position expires.
    The PMB had sought an immediate suspension in futures
trading and asked the LPFA to take action to restore the
relationship between futures and physicals.
    Farmers and merchants have alleged a squeeze and cornering
of the market but Harris pointed out that recent investigations
by the Association of Futures Brokers and Dealers (AFBD), the
International Commodities Clearing House (ICCH) and other
parties, found no evidence to substantiate this.
    The main complaint from some sections of the physical
market is what they say is an unrealistic futures premium over
the PMB's average ex-farm price. April futures traded this
morning between 168 and 170 stg per tonne compared with PMB's
average price of 104 stg.
    Bill Englebright, joint secretary of the LPFA said there is
a two-tier market for physical potatoes. He said quality
potatoes are in short supply and prepackers have been paying
between 145 and 165 stg per tonne for best samples. But lesser
quality grades have traded below 100 stg.
    Some merchants fear that a large tonnage will be delivered
against the April futures contract between now and the end of
the month, and possibly disrupt the physical market.
    Harris said the LPFA rule book allows the management
committee to take steps as necessary to correct any malpractice
and he assured the committee is monitoring the situation.
 Reuter

The Group of 10 developed nations
issued a communique welcoming the reaffirmation of the Paris
accord on currency stability by the Group of Seven leading
industrial democracies yesterday.
    In the communique issued this morning, the G-10 said
"prospects of member countries' economies would be improved by
stability in the exchange rates of their currencies."
    The G-10 includes the group of seven - the United States,
Canada, Britain, Japan, Italy, West Germany and France - plus
Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and also Switzerland.
    Sources who attended the G-10 conference this morning said
the reference to the latest G-7 agreement was especially added
to the brief communique because currency stability will benefit
all the G-10 members.
    The G-10 met briefly before the International Monetary Fund
Interim Committee meeting scheduled for today.
.
 Reuter

Credit National is issuing a one billion
franc convertible bond issue in two tranches both paying 8.50
pct and in 5,000 franc units, lead managers Caisse Nationale de
Credit Agricole, Union de Garantie et de Placement and Morgan
et Cie said.
    Both tranches will be redeemable at the end of their lives
and both have a payment date of April 27.
    One seven year tranche will be priced at 99.94 pct. Each
bond will be convertible on a one-for-one basis for a 8-1/2
year, 8.50 pct bond priced at 98.76 pct, redeemable at the end
of its life.
    This bond will pay a first coupon of 4.25 pct on April 27
next year and the payment date will be October 27, 1987.
    A 13-year tranche, priced at 97.74 pct, will also be
convertible until October 10, 1987 on a one for one basis for a
8.50 pct, 10-1/2 year year bond priced at 98.08 pct.
    This bond will pay a first coupon of 212.50 francs on
October 27 next year and the payment date will be October 27
this year.
 REUTER

(The Canam Manac Group Inc) said its
Canam Steel Works unit received a contract valued at 8.5 mln
dlrs to supply steel trusses to (Canron Inc) for a new car
plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.
    Canam Manac said it will produce the trusses at its Quebec
and Ontario plants and delivery will be completed by August.
 Reuter

Spot tin on the European free market was
indicated in the easier range 4,200 to 4,230 stg per tonne, for
high grade metal in warehouse Rotterdam, down 20 stg from
yesterday's afternoon kerb close.
    Stability in sterling versus the dollar continued to apply
pressure to a market which is coming close to testing a
psychological chart support base at 4,200 stg, traders said.
    Dealers said major consumers still need to cover their May
and June requirements but are holding out for even lower
offers. Reported high grade tin business in London was confined
to end April metal at 4,225 stg.
    Small-scale spot business was reported by West German
operators at 12.60 and 12.63 marks per kilo although the market
was still being undercut by Chinese material, which traded at
one stage down to 12.54 marks per kilo, traders said.
 REUTER

The dollar drifted down to end one
pfennig lower after a lacklustre session, held in limits by the
lack of concrete news from the Group of Seven meeting and
comments on the edge of the Washington IMF/World Bank meeting.
    Dealers said the communique early in the European morning
from the G-7 meeting contained no significant new factors and
although the dollar dipped it generally resisted further
attempts to push it lower through the day.
    The U.S. Currency ended at 1.8270/80 marks, below
yesterday's last 1.8365/75.
    Koch said the assessment of the dollar's direction was
based on a global view, with operators paying most attention to
comments by finance officials to see how closely they stated
adherence to international agreements such as those set at the
Plaza Hotel in 1985 and in Paris on February 22.
    Koch described the wording of the communique from the G-7
as "soft as wax."
    Bundebank vice-president Helmut Schlesinger told Reuters in
a telephone interview that the German central bank sees no
current reason to change monetary course at present.
Berlin state central bank president Dieter Hiss, which dealers
said revived some speculation that German interest rate cuts
may be under consideration.
    German call money was slightly softer today, at around 3.70
pct after 3.80 yesterday.
    Some dealers said rates on new liquidity injections added
via Bundesbank securities repurchase agreements may be cut next
week. Hopes of a cut were dashed on Tuesday with an allocation
at an unchanged 3.80 pct.
    But speaking of the pact tender rate next week, Schlesinger
said, "since the central bank council gives its opinion on this
theme only every 14 days, this is hardly probable."
    Euromark rates scarcely responded to the central bankers
comments, with six months funds ending unaltered at around
3-7/8 pct. Eurodollars for the same maturity rose a fractional
1/16 pct from yesterday to around 6-11/16 pct.
    Sterling dipped to end at 2.952/956 marks after 2.960/965
last night. The Swiss franc firmed slightly to 120.30/45 marks
per 100 from 120.25/40, with the yen soaring however to
1.2570/90 marks per 100 from 1.2515/35 yesterday.
    EMS currencies saw the French franc end unchanged from last
night at 30.03/06 marks per 100, with the Belgian franc easing
however to 4.829/831 marks per 100 from 4.831/833.
 REUTER

Shr 1.01 dlrs vs 1.08 dlrs
    Net 21,983,000 vs 23,434,000
    Sales 174.9 mln vs 161.7 mln
 Reuter

Gandalf Technologies Inc said its
Redifacts division and Apparel Computer Systems Inc of Concord,
Calif., started a joint marketing effort in industrial data
collection and dissemination.
    Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
    Gandalf said the companies will link software products to
develop an on-line, real-time payroll information system for
apparel production factories.
 Reuter

K Mart Corp said it was opening
branch offices of <First Nationwide Bank> in 21 of its stores
in Florida.
    The company said this brings to 57 the number of bank
branch, which are part of the Nationwide Network, an alliance
of 40 independent locally managed financial institutions,
locations in Florida.
 Reuter

Humana Inc said it has agreed in
principle to sell 68 MedFirst primary medical care facilities
to <Primedical Corp> for undisclosed terms, with transfers
taking place over the next four months.
    It said it retains 37 MedFirst offices, mostly in the
Chicago area.
    The transaction is not expected to have any impact on
earnings, Humana said.
 Reuter

may downgrade American Healthcare Management Inc's 80 mln dlrs
of 15 pct subordinated notes.
    Moody's review will focus on prospects for the company's
operating earnings in view of moderately disappointing results
in 1986, an increasingly difficult industry environment and the
possible loss later this year of income from one of American
Healthcare's most profitable hospitals.
    The agency said American was unable to renew that
hospital's lease. Moody's will also study the likelihood of
American Healthcare reducing debt service requirements.
 Reuter

Morgan, Olmstead, Kennedy and
Gardner Capital Corp said Michael Fusco has been named
president of its securities brokerage and investment banking
firm, Morgan, Olmstead, Kennedy and Gardner Inc.
    Fusco formerly was executive vice president of PaineWebber
Inc.
    He replaces G. Bryan Herrmann, who will retain his title of
president of the parent group, and assume the title of vice
chairman of the parent, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs nine cts
    Net 168,000 vs 206,000
    Sales 15.3 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 10 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 228,000 vs 649,000
    Sales 35.8 mln vs 32.5 mln
 Reuter

Food-N-Fuel Partners L.P. said it
Commission covering a planned initial offering of 2,575,000
Class A Units of limited partnership interest.
    The partnership said the units are expected to be offered
at 13 to 15 dlrs each next month by underwriters managed by
Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, Rotan Mosle Inc, Lovett Mitchell
Webb and Garrison Inc and Southwest Securities Inc.
    Food-N-Fuel said it will use the proceeds and 1,925,000
Class B Units to acquire convenience stores, self-service
gasoline outlets and truck stocks, primarily in small
communities in the Southwestern and Southern United States,
which the partnership will manage.
 Reuter

Ranger Oil Ltd said its
previously reported public 75 mln U.S. convertible debenture to
be placed in the European market would mature April 28, 2002,
bear yearly interest of 6-1/2 pct and have a six U.S. dlr a
share conversion price.
    Lead managers are Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd and
Cazenove and Co.
 Reuter

British Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson said he saw no immediate implications for British
monetary policy arising from the Group of Seven meeting
    "Exchange rate stability is in the U.K.'s interest," he told
journalists.
    Asked what it meant for U.K. monetary policy, he said, "No,
I do not think there are any immediate implications."
 Reuter

Qtly div 75 cts vs 65 cts prior
 Reuter

Standard Elektrik Lorenz Finanz BV is
issuing a 40 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 11, 1990
paying 14-1/4 pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager
Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd said. It is guaranteed by
Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG.
1,000 and 5,000 Australian dlrs and will be listed in
    The payment date is May 11.
 REUTER

Steel stocks, which have had a healthy
runup recently, still present some short term investment
opportunities, according to some steel analysts.
    But others say the upturn, based on strong orders and firm
prices this spring, has been strictly seasonal and will end
soon. They recommend taking profits.
    "It's that time of year. This is strictly seasonal," said
Charles Bradford of Merrill Lynch and Co. "Orders will be
strong for about two months, and there are signs that some
(order rates) are starting to dive already."
    But Dean Witter Reynolds Inc analyst Clarence Morrison sees
some short-term potential in the group, which includes USX Corp
<X>, Bethlehem Steel Corp <BS>, Armco Inc <AS> and Inland Steel
Industries Inc <IAD>.
    "There is still some attractiveness to steels over the
short- to intermediate-term based on improved order rates and
rising prices," Morrison said. He only recommends one stock,
however, Inland, which is modernizing steelmaking operations to
make them more efficient.
    Despite his bearishness, Merrill's Bradford continues to
recommend Armco, which he sees as a major turnaround.
    Armco's steelmaking operations are profitable, the balance
sheet has been improved, and its oilfield equipment business
has been slimmed and put in a joint venture with USX, Bradford
noted. "It's not a high-quality investment situation yet but
they've come a long way," he said.
    "We think the stock will do moderately better than the
market," he said. Armco shares, trading off 1/4 at 10 today,
could go to 12, and possibly as high as 15, he said.
    Bradford sees Armco earning 50 to 75 cts a share in 1987,
before special gains from recouped investment tax credits,
against losses last year.
    Armco's 1988 earnings could be significantly higher, he
said.
    Bradford is recommending sale of USX shares. "We had a buy
on it below 20 but when it gets to 28, let somebody else have
it," he said.
    The steel and energy concern will earn about one dlr a
share in 1987, about half of that coming from asset sales, and
from two dlrs to 2.50 dlrs in 1988, Bradford said. "But a lot
depends on oil prices," he added. About 60 pct of USX's sales
come from oil and natural gas.
    Other analysts, including Michelle Galanter Applebaum of
Salomon Brothers Inc, recommend USX. "The company's done a lot
(of restructuring), more than the market's given them credit
for," she said.
    She sees the stock going to the mid 30s or higher. USX was
trading up 1/8 at 28-1/2. She predicts USX will earn 18 cts a
share this year and 2.73 dlrs next year against large losses in
1986.
    Applebaum, who is also positive on Armco and Inland, has
been recommending the stocks since last November.
    Peter Marcus of Painewebber Inc is neutral on the group
although he said the earnings outlook is improved through the
    But he sees potential trouble beyond then. "I think (steel)
prices on a bookings basis will start to drop by the summer,"
he said.
    Applebaum of Salomon Brothers also sees some seasonal
dropoff later in the year. "But there are more positives than
negatives," she said, citing reduced capacity in the domestic
industry, better prices, and a weaker dollar, which should
cause steel imports to drop off slightly from last year.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 2.4 mln vs 1.7 mln
    Revs 136.7 mln vs 174.4 mln
    Six Mths
    SDhr 72 cts vs 82 cts
    Net 8.6 mln vs 9.9 mln
    Revs 212.5 mln vs 268.8 mln
 Reuter

Abbott Laboratories Inc said
its 1987 first quarter record results reflected continued
productivity improvement, higher volume, better product mix and
a weaker U.S. dollar.
    Abbott reported 1987 first quarter earnings rose to a
record 142 mln dlrs or 62 cts a share on record sales of one
    Research and development expenses, most of which was
applied to diagnostic and pharmaceutical products, increased by
23 pct to 78 mln dlrs, it said.
    Sales of pharmaceutical and nutritional products were 548
mln dlrs in the first quarter, up 17.6 pct over a year ago,
Abbott said. Hospital and laboratory product sales in the first
quarter rose 14.1 pct to 456 mln dlrs, it said.
    First quarter sales in domestic markets advanced 11.5 pct
to 688 mln dlrs while international sales jumped 27.1 pct to
316 mln dlrs, Abbott said.
 Reuter

Demand good for moderate
supplies of most beef cuts, However, limited interest noted for
tenderloins/flank steaks. Yield grade 2-3 beef cuts, fabricated
items, vacuum packed.
                          LBS    CHOICE
 ROUND CUTS -steady/up 11.00                 
 160 round, part bnls     50-85  few 137
 161 round, bnls          42-80  few 147
 161 diamond cut          49-85  few 149
 167 knuckle               8-15  few 148
 167a knuckle, peeled      8-15  few 163
 168 top inside round     14-26  165-175
 170 bottom gooseneck rnd 18-33  131-135
 More

Brazil's 1986/87 cotton crop estimate
has been reduced to 710,000 from 735,000 tonnes (lint basis),
the U.S. Agriculture Department's officer in Sao Paulo said in
a field report.
    The report, dated April 7, said the reduction is based on
an expected smaller harvest in the center-south region.
    The center-south crop is now estimated at 550,000 tonnes --
25,000 tonnes below the previous estimate.
    Hot, dry weather during part of January and excessive rains
in some areas in February reduced yield prospects and may have
affected quality, the report said.
    Nearly 60 pct of the crop has been harvested in Parana and
slightly less in Sao Paulo, it said. Cotton entering gins is of
fairly good quality, according to trade sources, it said.
 Reuter

US Sprint, a joint venture of
GTE Corp <GTE> and United Telecommunications Inc <UT>, said its
second transcontinental fiber-optic route now is fully
    "The cable placement was completed in mid-March abd
commercial traffic began moving on the route April 1," Charles
Skibo, US Sprint president, said.
    The new Southern route network runs from Los Angeles to
Fairfax, S.C., US Sprint said, adding it plans a third route in
the North from New York to Seattle.
    US Sprint completed its first route, known as the Central
route, in October 1986.
    The company also said its customer base now exceeds five
mln customers. When it was formed in June 1986 it had 2.7 mln
customers, US Sprint said.
 Reuter

Combustion Engineering Inc said it will
offer four mln shares of its common stock at 33.75 dlrs per
share.
    It said the U.S. offering will be underwritten by Salomon
Brothers Inc, The First Boston Corp and Goldman Sachs and Co
Inc. The underwriters have been granted an option to purchase
up to an additional 600,000 shares to cover over-allotments.
    Concurrent with this offering, 500,000 shares of common
stock are being sold at the same price in Europe.
    Proceeds of the sales will be used to repay short-term debt
incurred to finance the acquisition of AccuRay Corp in January
1987 and certain associated costs, the company said.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS TRADE, CURRENT ACCOUNT IMBALANCES "SIMPLY NOT SUSTAINABLE"

FIRST INTERSTATE BANCORP SETS FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS WITH BANKS IN LOUISIANA, WASHINGTON, D.C.

EC AUTHORISES EXPORT 55,000 TONNES MAIZE,  MAXIMUM REBATE 130 ECUS/TONNE - TRADE SOURCES.

EC AUTHORISES EXPORT 65,000 TONNES BARLEY,  MAXIMUM REBATE 138.75 ECUS - BRUSSELS TRADE

Iran said it launched a fresh offensive
today north of Baghdad, three days after it began a new thrust
against Iraq on the southern Gulf war front.
offensive began before dawn northeast of Qasr-e-Shirin, on the
border 110 miles northeast of the Iraqi capital.
    "Heavy casualties and losses have been inflicted on Iraqi
forces in the fresh Iranian assault," IRNA said.
    Iran today reported major gains on the southern front near
the major Iraqi port city of Basra, saying its forces had
captured an important defensive line.
 REUTER

RJR NABISCO FIRST QUARTER NET TO INCLUDE 208 MLN DLR GAIN, 209 MLN DLR CHARGE

Berliner Bank AG Berlin is issuing a 50
mln Australian dlr eurobond due November 13, 1990 paying 14-1/4
pct and priced at 101-1/2 pct, lead manager Banque Paribas
    The payment date is May 13 and there will be a long first
 REUTER

Brazilian cocoa exporters are not
likely to follow the example of Cocoa Producers Alliance, CPA,
members, who may limit sales of the product in an effort to
boost world prices, trade sources said.
    They said a similar procedure was taken in the past in
Brazil and that it did not work out according to plans.
    "The cocoa market is completely free. Unlike coffee, which
is controlled through export registrations, cocoa exporters in
Brazil operate at their own free will," a trade source said.
    The traders were responding to questions whether they would
follow the example of CPA members meeting in Yaounde.
    The sources said the Banco do Brasil's Foreign Trade
Department, CACEX, never interferes in the cocoa market by
rejecting sales that do not meet certain price or shipment
criteria.
    "The position of local producers is always to negotiate as
they please. If they buy for ten and sell for eleven and think
it's a good deal, they are free to go ahead," one source added.
 Reuter

Properties Trust said its board declared an initial dividend of
55 cts, including 50 cts for the first quarter just ended and
five cts from its initial operating period that began December
23.
    The dividend is payable May 30, record April 20.
 Reuter

that changes in exchange rates have generally been orderly and
have improved the prospects for a reduction in external
imbalances to more sustainable levels.
    In remarks before the IMF's policy-making Interim
Committee, Baker reiterated a Group of Seven statement last
night that the substantial exchange rate changes since the
Plaza agreement 18 months ago have "now brought currencies
within ranges broadly consistent with economic fundamentals."
    Baker said, "These exchange rate shifts have generally been
orderly, and have improved prospects for the reduction of
external imbalances to more sustainable levels."
    As they are today, the trade and current account imbalances
"simply are not sustainable," Baker told the ministers.
    He said that the Reagan administration was resisting "strong
domestic pressure" for trade protection and was working closely
with the U.S. Congress in crafting a trade bill.
    "While we cannot yet be sure of the outcome, we are doing
what we can to ensure that the bill is not protectionist," he
said.
    Baker also urged the International Monetary Fund's
executive board to review possible modifications to the Fund's
compensatory financing facility before the annual meeting this
fall.
    "We should pay particular attention to the lack of
continuing conditionality associated with the use of the CFF
and to whether shortfalls in export earnings are indeed
temporary," he said.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said Data
Architects Inc common will begin trading on the exchange
tomorrow under the symbol <DAI>.
REUTER^M

    Iraq said today it repelled an Iranian assault near its
southern port of Basra last night, inflicting thousands of
casualties on the attackers.
    An Iraqi field commander told a correspondent of the
official Iraqi news agency INA that four Iranian divisions were
destroyed in the fighting. He said "Our forces are still engaged
in repelling the enemy offensive, inflicting on them intensive
losses, but (they are) in full control of the situation."
    A Baghdad war communique last night said Iraq had foiled a
three-pronged thrust some 10 km from Basra while admitting Iran
had occupied some fresh territory.
 REUTER

Conseco Inc said it has filed to
offer two mln common shares through underwriters led by Sears,
Roebuck and Co Inc's <S> Dean Witter Reynolds unit.
    It said the offering is expected to be made in early May,
with proceeds to be used to partly finance the proposed 275 mln
dlr acquisition of Western National Life Insurance Co or to
repay bank debt if the acquisition is not completed.
 Reuter

Comair Inc said March load factor
fell to 36.6 pct from 39.8 pct a year earlier.
    The company said revenue passenger miles rose 9.0 pct to
12.4 mln from 11.3 mln and available seat miles rose 18.5 pct
to 33.8 mln from 28.5 mln.
    For the year to date, Comair said load factor fell to 36.3
pct to 40.3 pct a year before, as revenue passenger miles rose
3.8 pct to 131.4 mln from 126.6 mln and available seat miles
rose 15.3 pct to 362.3 mln from 314.3 mln. 
 Reuter

The Democratic-run House of
Representatives defeated on a 394 to 27 vote President Reagan's
1988 budget and planned to vote later on one written by House
Budget Committee Democrats.
    The defeat was expected. Republicans as well as Democrats
abandoned Reagan's budget for containing what they said were
unrealistic assumptions.
    Democratic leaders said they expected to pass the
committee's budget after considering two other alternatives,
but committee sources said the voting could be close.
 Reuter

Toth Aluminum Corp said an offering
of 2,500,000 common shares is under way at 1.875 dlrs each.
    It said another 5,993,577 shares are issuable on the
exercise of outstanding options.
 Reuter

<Varity Corp> said shareholders approved
a previously reported proposal to transfer 137.5 mln U.S. dlrs
to the contributed surplus account on the company's balance
sheet from the stated capital account for common shares.
    The company said the move would allow it to meet Canadian
government tests related to dividend payments.
 Reuter

Time Inc said its Time-Life Video Inc
subsidiary has agreed in principle to sell its institutional
training business to Time-Life Video president William V.
Ambrose for undisclosed terms.
    It said the business will operate as Ambrose Video
Publishing.
 Reuter

increased its eurobond offering to 50 mln Australian dlrs from
 REUTER

Council of Economic Advisers chairman
Beryl Sprinkel said the Reagan Administration remains strongly
opposed to a tax increase, including 18 billion dlrs of new
revenues in the budget plan by Congressional Democrats.
    "We believe that significant increases in taxes would not
reduce deficits and could have adverse effects on growth,"
Sprinkel told the House Rules Committee.
    He said the Administration wanted to continue its policy of
gradually reducing deficits through restraining government
spending and promoting economic growth. Sprinkel said cutting
the budget deficit was the best way to lower the trade deficit.
 Reuter

Shr 49 cts vs five cts
    Shr diluted 45 cts vs five cts
    Net 651,000 vs 95,000
    1st half
    Shr 57 cts vs one ct
    Shr diluted 53 cts vs one ct
    Net 781,000 vs 56,000
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes gain 873,000
dlrs from repurchase of securities.
    Results exclude Business Forms Division, which is to be
sold.
 Reuter

    Net 18,534 vcs 27,431
    Revs 270,032 vs 188,326
    Avg shrs 6,598,871 vs 6,090,576
    Year
    Net 47,299 vs 21,570
    Revs 1,004,392 vs 677,909
    Avg shrs 6,618,063 vs 5,931,324
    NOTE: Share adjusted for one-for-11 reverse split.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 408,000 vs 237,000
    Revs 8,863,000 vs 6,738,000
    1st half
    Shr 27 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 647,000 vs 356,000
    Revs 17.2 mln vs 12.5 mln
 Reuter

Carson Pirie Scott and Co said its March
retail sales increased 8.2 pct to 70.6 mln dlrs from 65.3 mln
dlrs a year ago.
    It said cumulative sales gained 13.2 pct to 125.0 mln dlrs
from 110.4 mln dlrs in the same 1986 period.
 Reuter

is now under attack for alleged cutthroat selling of a product
 REUTER

A New Jersey investor, Joseph
Falkenstein, told the Securities and Exchange Commission he
holds 5.2 pct of the shares of Kinark Corp.
    He said he has no plans to change the company and that he
bought the shares because he believed the stock was undervalued
and would rise in the next six months.
 reuter

<Honeywell Bull> is seeking a 400 mln dlr,
five-year multi option facility, arranger Banque Nationale de
Paris said.
    The facility will be co-arranged by Morgan Guaranty and The
Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd.
    The operation has an "evergreen" facility and can be extended
up to eight years, BNP said.
    The facility will be made up of two components. The first "A"
part will consist of a maximum 400 mln dlrs with a maximum
spread of Libor plus 3/8 pct.
    Component "B," to be unsecured, will be for a maximum of 200
mln dlrs with a maximum spread of Libor plus 5/8 pct for the
first three years, Libor plus 3/4 pct for the fourth to sixth
years and LIBOR plus 7/8 pct for the seventh year.
    Honeywell Bull was recently created by Cie des Machines
Bull <BULP.PA>, <Honeywell Inc> and <NEC Corp> of Japan.
 REUTER

expects to realize a second quarter after-tax gain of four dlrs
per share from the 545 mln dlr sale of its spirits business to
American Brands Inc <AMB>.
    National Distillers' stock rose 1-1/8 to 65-1/2, after an
opening delay on the New York Stock exchange for an imbalance
of orders.
    "I think the sales price was higher than most people
expected," said John Henry of E.F. Hutton Group.
    A company spokeswoman said the four dlr per share gain will
be included in second quarter net, which compares with 31 cts
per share last year, including the spirits and wine business
    "They netted over 700 mln dlrs for spirits and wine. That
will ease their interest cost burden," said Henry.
    National Distillers sold its wine business last month to
Grand Metropolitan PLC's Heublein Inc for 128 mln dlrs.
    Henry said he had anticipated National Distillers would net
only 600 mln dlrs at the most from the sale of the two liquor
    Henry said the company recovered from the sales the cost of
buying Enron Chemicals in the fourth quarter last year.
National Distillers paid 570 mln dlrs cash for Enron and
assumed 34 mln dlrs in debt. National Distillers said at the
time it bought Enron it would sell the spirits and wine
businesses, moving more into the chemical area.
    For 1986, two thirds of income were from chemicals and
propane. National Distillers earned, excluding the liquor
businesses, 2.21 dlrs per share for 1986. Income from
discontinued operations, including the liquor businesses, was
67 cts per share.
 Reuter

Unfavorable weather conditions during
the second week of March caused damage to oranges in the
Calabria region in southern Italy, the U.S. Agriculture
Department's officer in Rome said in a field report.
    The report, dated April 3, said the region accounts for
about 22,000 hectares of the Italian orange crop or about 26
pct of total production.
    However, orange production in the region for marketing year
1986/87 is forecast at 565,000 tonnes or 25 pct of the total
Italian orange crop, it said.
    The report said trade contacts agree that about 15 pct of
the orange output in Calabria was damaged by frost.
 Reuter

export of 65,000 tonnes of free market barley at today's tender
at a maximum rebate of 138.75 European currency units and
55,000 tonnes of French maize at 130 Ecus, grain traders here
said.
    It rejected bids for breadmaking and feed wheat, they said.
 Reuter

Lloyd's of London has offered to meet
part of the 235 mln stg in claims that investors in PCW
Underwriting Agencies face due to fraud and mismanagement,
chairman Peter Miller said at a press conference.
    Miller urged 3,000 PCW members to accept the offer so that
the five-year-old affair could be closed.
    The members have until May 30 to accept the offer,
involving a 103 mln stg payment by Lloyd's and some of Lloyd's
underwriters in exchange for a 34 mln stg contribution from PCW
members, he said.
    Miller said that at end-1985, PCW syndicates had gross
liabilities of 680 mln stg.
    To offset this, they had assets, including cash and
payments from reinsurance policies on some of the risks
underwritten by the syndicates, of 445 mln stg, leaving net
liabilities of 235 mln, he said.
    The total sum on offer, including a 48 mln stg payment from
Lloyd's 311 mln stg contingency fund and 55 mln stg from
Lloyd's brokers who could otherwise face court cases for their
involvement in PCW, is designed to cover the full reinsurance
cost for those 235 mln stg of net liabilities, Miller said.
    Under the offer, which requires 90 pct acceptance, Lloyd's
itself would take over all members' future obligations
connected with the PCW syndicates, Miller said. Members would
have to agree not to pursue the matter in court.
    Miller said a rejection of the offer would probably lead to
protracted litigation in court which, even if succesful for
members, was unlikely to produce a better deal for them.
    He added that acceptance would mean members could continue
underwriting in the Lloyd's market and qualify for tax relief
on the cash payments they would make towards the settlement.
    Miller denied that PCW members would face bills of over
200,000 stg.
    He said only 34 members would be asked to pay between
100,000 and 200,000 stg, and about 100 between 60,000 and
100,000 stg. Special arrangements would be sought for those who
accept the offer but are unable to pay.
    Miller said the offer did not imply Lloyd's accepted
responsibility for the affair, uncovered in the late autumn of
1982 when "it became quite clear that (PCW agency founder) Peter
Cameron Webb and (his partner) Peter Dixon had perpetrated
theft upon members," he said.
    Part of the sum involved was subsequently recovered and
repaid to members, but Cameron Webb and Dixon left the affairs
of PCW syndicates "in a state of chaos which led to a sharp
deterioration of their underwriting results," Miller said. Both
were fined by a Lloyd's disciplinary committee and expelled
from membership.
    He said Lloyd's would continue to seek reparation in
British and U.S. Courts "with the utmost vigour ... To bring to
a close one of the most shameful episodes in the history of
Lloyd's," and was contemplating claiming the full amount of the
settlement now on offer from Cameron Webb and Dixon.
    In a reaction, insurance brokerage Sedgwick Group Plc
<SDWK.L> said it supported Lloyd's proposals and had
contributed 10 mln stg towards the proposed settlement.
    It said in a statement, "as largest broker in the Lloyd's
market, the company has an essential interest in maintaining
the reputation of the market. That reputation has been damaged
by problems at PCW and will continue to be so as long as they
remain unresolved." It had contributed to the proposed
settlement to avoid costs related to the defence of some of its
subsidiaries which had been named as potential defendants to
litigation by PCW members, it said.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 311,255 vs loss 157,941
    Revs 546,069 vs 284,636
    Avg shrs 3,790,235 vs 1,819,680
    Year
    Shr loss 27 cts vs loss 24 cts
    Net loss 858,624 vs loss 399,385
    Revs 1,491,518 vs 1,407,441
    Avg shrs 3,175,157 vs 1,692,700
 Reuter

Shr primary 99ct vs 82 cxts
    Shr diluted 93 cts vs 78 cts
    Net 7,784,000 vs 6,357,000
    Assets 3.25 billion vs 2.74 billion
    Deposits 2.58 billion vs 2.24 billion
    Loans 2.20 billion vs 1.81 billion
 Reuter

Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank NV <AMRO.AS>
said it plans to issue 300 mln 6.75 pct capital bonds due
1988/2007.
    The bonds will be redeemable in 20 almost equal annual
instalments starting June 1, 1988.
    Early redemption is not permitted, the bank said.
    The issue price will be announced no later than Wednesday,
April 15. Subscriptions close on Thursday April 16 at 15.00 hrs
local time. The coupon and payment date is June 1.
    The bonds will be listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
    A spokesman for the bank said the capital bonds were
subordinated and had an average maturity of 10.5 years.
    The bonds will be in denominations of 1,000 and 5,000
guilders.
 REUTER

Kurz-Kasch Inc, a Dayton thermoset
molding maker, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
had increased its holdings in Component Technology Corp by two
pct, to 9.3 pct.
    It said it bought the 39,000 shares of stock at 5.30-6.875
dlrs a share for investment purposes.
 Reuter

signed franchise agreements with banks in Louisiana and
Washington D.C.
    The banks, Citizens Bank and Trust Co of Thibodaux,
Louisiana and National Enterprise Bank of Washington, will
change their names to First Interstate this summer.
    Citizens Bank has assets of 267 mln dlrs in eight offices.
National Enterprise has 53 mln dlrs in assets in one office.
    Under its franchise system, member banks offer a variety of
First Interstate financial services, but are not owned by First
Interstate.
    First Interstate operates 24 banks in 12 states, but its
franchise operation extends the geographic area through its
affiliate banks to 19 states, plus the District of Columbia.
    First Interstate, the nation's ninth largest bank, has 42
banks with 138 offices under its franchise system.
    Today's move is its first into the east coast and southern
portion of the nation. Most of its other franchise system banks
are located in the western region.
    First Interstate Chairman Joseph Pinola told Reuters in a
recent interview the lagging agricultural economy in the
Midwest continues to inhibit expansion into that region.
 Reuter

<AVMD.PA> has offered the French Defence Ministry a new design
of its Rafale fighter which is lighter and less detectible by
radar, a company spokesman said today.
    The new version would weigh between 8.5 and nine tonnes
unarmed against 9.5 tonnes for the existing Rafale-A
demonstrator which first flew last year, he said.
    The Rafale-D design calls for special paints and materials
to absorb radar signals, as well as smoother contours and
electronic counter-measures.
 Reuter

A key U.S. lawmaker in the securities
field said the insider trading scandal gripping Wall Street
reflects the attitude of the Reagan administration.
    "They don't ask the question, 'Is it right or is it wrong?'
They ask the question, 'Can you pull it off?'" Rep Edward Markey
(D-Mass) told a state securities administrators meeting here.
    Markey, Chairman of the House telecommunications and
finance subcommittee which oversees U.S. securities markets,
said this ethic permeated Wall Street as well as the Reagan
    He cited as examples a number of administration officials
tainted by charges of wrongdoing including ex-Reagan advisor
Michael Deaver, former national security aide John Poindexter
and former Environmental Protection Agency official Rita
Lavelle.
    Some Wall Street critics have blamed the insider trading
scandal on the so-called "Yuppie mentality", in which young
professionals strive for financial reward and neglect social
values.
    But Markey said the inspiration for this attitude came from
the administration.
 Reuter

Based on field travel in the
Brazilian state of Parana, soybean yields should be about
average or 2.0 to 2.2 tonnes per hectare, the U.S. Agriculture
Department's officer in Sao Paulo said in a field report.
    The report, dated March 24, noted Parana accounts for about
20 to 24 pct of Brazil's total soybean crop.
    It said generally favorable weather from early December
through February helped compensate for earlier dryness.
    However, hot, dry weather during the past 20 to 30 days
followed by an unseasonably brief cold spell during the second
week of march has raised concern about late planted soybeans
which are still immature, but the impact may be localized, the
    The corn crop is expected to be a record and will create
serious storage problems, the report said.
    Due to favorable support prices, corn area increased by
more than 25 pct at the expense of soybeans, and yields are
expected to be above average, it said.
    Due to late plantings only about 20 pct of the corn crop
crop has been harvested.
    During the field trip long truck lines were noted at grain
elevators where preference is given to soybeans over corn, the
    New crop wheat plantings are expected to decline  -- Parana
accounts for about 60 pct of total production. Major reasons
for the decline are expected reduced government support price
and good summer crop harvests.
 Reuter

Colombia has secured total borrowings
this year for 1.95 billion dlrs, of which 1.40 billion
correspond to loans arranged before 1986, Director of Public
Credit Mauricio Cabrera said.
    Cabrera said about half of the borrowings would come from
the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
    He was speaking at a forum for industrialists upon his
return from London where he attended the signing of a 50 mln
dlr floating rate note, Colombia's first such offering on the
euromarket.
    Cabrera reaffirmed that Colombia has no intention of
rescheduling  its foreign debt, which he put at 14.35 billion
dlrs, of which 11.35 billion are from the public sector.
    For the international banking community, Colombia continues
to be "the best house in spite of being in the worst
neighbourhood," he said.
    He said debt servicing will remain a burden in 1987 and
will amount to 34.6 pct of total exports.
 REUTER

    Pay June Four
    Record May 14
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve was detected buying
dollars for yen in the open market as the dollar fell to a
40-year low of 144.60 yen in nervous late morning trading,
currency dealers said.
     They said the size of the intervention was relatively
modest so far but it was a clear indication that the U.S.
remained committed to the late February Paris currency
stabilization accord, which was reaffirmed in Washington last
night.
    A Fed spokeswoman had no comment on the dealer reports.
    The dollar hovered around 144.70 just before midday.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc said its
1987 first quarter results will include an after-tax gain of
208 mln dlrs from the sale of Heublein Inc and offsetting
charges.
    The company said its operations are performing well and in
line with expectations.
    RJR Nabisco said the charges reflect reserves it
established to cover certain expenses.
    RJR Nabisco said the expenses covered, on after-tax basis,
include --
    -- 50 mln dlrs for the write-down of redundant equipment
and facilities resulting from modernization of its U.S. tobacco
operations,
    -- 79 mln dlrs for continuing restruction of its food
subsidiaries, and
    -- 80 mln dlrs in connection with the early retirement of
high coupon debt.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.08 dlrs vs 96 cts
    Oper shr diluted 1.02 dlrs vs 89 cts
    Oper net 16.1 mln vs 12.8 mln
    Avg shrs 14.9 mln vs 13.4 mln
    Avg shrs 16.1 mln vs 14.8 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net excludes gain 4,820,000 dlrs from cumulative
effect of change in calculating depreciation expense.
 Reuter

The United States and Britain
served notice that they would block a move in the
U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions against South Africa
in a bid to end its rule of Namibia (South West Africa).
    Their vetoes would repeat the joint action they took on
February 20 to bar selective sanctions against Pretoria over
its apartheid policy.
    "Measures of this sort would be counterproductive, giving
South Africa the excuse to remain intransigent," John Birch, the
British delegate, said. Vernon Walters, the U.S.
representative, said Washington flatly opposed mandatory
sanctions.
   
 Reuter

French Finance Minister Edouard
Balladur said that the financial community is closer to
arriving at a system of target zones for currencies despite the
fact that little is being said about them.
    Speaking with reporters at the semiannual meetings of the
International Monetary Fund, Balladur said, "We are not very far
from the notion of target zones, even if we don't say so."
    He told reporters that "our ideas are progressing," adding
that the finance ministers have been talking about more
cooperation on economic policies and on levels around which
currencies should stabilize.
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 71 cts
    Net 42.4 mln vs 34.5 mln
    Assets 18.61 billion vs 15.66 billion
 Reuter

No raw sugar is being unloaded at Tate
and Lyles refinery at Silvertown on the River Thames following
a fire yesterday afternoon, Tate and Lyle Plc said.
    The fire destroyed a large sector of the main conveyor from
the raw sugar jetty to the weighhouse.
    The company said it is not yet known how long the jetty
will be out of use but it hoped that by tomorrow unloading of
the bulk carrier Mykon Wave will be able to continue using
temporary arrangements, Tate and Lyle said.
    The Mykon Wave arrived in the port recently with about
18,300 tonnes of bulk sugar from Maputo in Swaziland. About
1,600 tonnes remain to be discharged.
    Five other ships loaded with raw sugar are awaiting at
Silvertown to be discharged, Tate and Lyle added.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co said sales
for March rose 3.5 pct to 885.4 mln dlrs from 855.2 mln dlrs
for the five-week period ended April 4.
    It said a major factor in March was the absence of Easter
sales, which will be three weeks later this year than last
year.
    For the first two months of fiscal 1987 sales were 1.52
billion dlrs, up eight pct from 1.40 billion dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

JP Industries Inc confirmed the
announcement by Clevite Industries Inc <CLEV> that JP
Industries has submitted a proposal to Clevite for the
acquisition of the company at 13.50 dlrs per share in cash.
    John Psarouthakis, chairman and president of JP Industries,
said that the company hopes to promptly negotiate an agreement
with the special committee of Clevite's board.
    In February, JP Industries said it purchased Clevite's
engine parts division.
    JP Industries said it is not aware of any other reason for
activity in its stock.
 Reuter

SCI Holdings Inc and its unit Storer
Communications Inc said they are negotiating with <The Gillet
Group> to create a new entity, jointly owned by SCI and Gillet,
to own and operate six of Storer's television stations, Storer
Television sales and Storer's Washington News Bureau.
    SCI said the six stations involved include WAGA-TV,
Atlanta, WJW-TV, Cleveland, WJBK-TV, Detroit, and WITI-TV,
Milwaukee, all CBS Inc <CBS> affiliates, NBC affiliate KCST-TV,
San Diego and WSBK-TV, Boston, an independent station.
 Reuter

GenCorp Inc said its board extended
to April 13 the date the rights issued under the company's
shareholder rights plan will trade separately from the common
stock.
    The company said the plan, originally adopted February 18,
has been extended several times since its adoption.
    GenCorp said the rights plan makes it more difficult for an
outside company or person to takeover the company. The plan has
been extended indefinitely and to no person acquiring 20 pct or
more of the common stock prior to April 13, the company said.
    The plan calls for the attachment of one preferred stock
purchase right to each common share outstanding.
   On Monday, GenCorp announced it will buy up to 54 pct of its
own outstanding common shares for 130 dlrs per share. It said
details of the plan will be announced by the end of the week.
   
 Reuter

Rep. Anthony Beilenson, D-Cal, said
he introduced legislation to triple the federal excise taxes on
beer and on two types of wine which have the least alcohol.
    His bill would raise the tax on beer from nine dlrs to 27
dlrs per 31-gallon barrel, an increase of about 32 cents per
six pack. The tax on the two types of wine would go from 17
cents to 51 cents per gallon and from 67 cents to 2.01 dlrs per
gallon respectively, he said in a statement.
    "Raising the tax rates on beer and wine is an entirely
justifiable means of reducing the deficit. It would also
modestly discourage excessive drinking," Beilenson said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 43 cts vs 38 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    Record April 30  
 Reuter

Monsanto Corp's G.D. Searle and Co unit
said it will report an operating loss for 1987, mainly due to
expenses for research and development.
    Searle chairman Sheldon Gilgore said Searle's operating
loss in 1987 will be less than the 87 mln dlr operating loss in
1986.
    He said Searle's first quarter sales will be up 21.8 pct to
179 mln dlrs from 147 mln dlrs in the year ago quarter. In 1986
Searle's sales were 665 mln dlrs.
    Gilgore said the company intends to have sales of three
billion dlrs by the mid-1990s.
    He said the company anticipates approval in Japan, the
U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K. for its ulcer treatment drug
Cytotech.
    He also said that in a paper not yet published the drug was
shown to prevent a flare-up of ulcers for a longer period of
time than Tagamet, made by SmithKline Beckman Corp <SKB>.
    Other drugs in Searle's pipeline include tissue plasminogen
activator (TPA), made by a different process than Genentech's
<GENE> TPA, expected to be approved for marketing this year.
   
 Reuter

Oper shr six cts vs one ct
    Oper net 194,109 vs 28,751
    Revs 2,731,688 vs 347,134
    Avg shrs 3,360,527 vs 2,295,359
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 11 cts vs five cts
    Oper net 356,571 vs 111,545
    Revs 5,923,907 vs 1,491,852
    Avg shrs 3,296,982 vs 2,289,762
    NOTE: Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in December
1986. Prior year net excludes tax credits of 5,775 dlrs in
quarter and 17,325 dlrs in nine mths.
    Net excludes discontinued amusement game operations gains
144,095 dlrs vs 70,194 dlrs in quarter and loss 2,952,814 dlrs
vs gain 196,872 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

International Surgical and
Pharmaceutical Corp said it will offer diagnostic testing
services to hospitals, clinics and private medical practices in
the metropolitan New York area.
    The company said it has leased a vascular diagnostic
testing mobile unit to conduct a test for early indicators of
potential stroke.
    Medicare/Medicaid and other insurance programs have
approved the test and are paying up to 500 dlrs for the
diagnostic procedures, it said.
 Reuter

European airlines, hit by a drop in
business across the North Atlantic for much of last year, today
reported record passenger traffic for February.
    The 21-member Association of European Airlines said
passenger traffic in February was 11 pct higher than a year
earlier, allowing carriers to fill just under 60 pct of seat
capacity, the highest ever recorded in the month.
    On the North Atlantic route, where 1986 business suffered
because American visitors were deterred by the falling dollar,
fears of terrorism and the Chernobyl nuclear accident,
passenger traffic was up 15.5 pct.
    Improvements were also registered on South and
Mid-Atlantic, European, Asian and Middle East routes.
    "If the momentum is maintained AEA airlines can anticipate
sustained growth this summer -- in marked contrast to last
year," Henderson said in a statement.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 20 cts prior qtr
    Pay 6 May
    Record 21 April
 Reuter

    Pay May 14
 Reuter

Qtly div 24 cts vs 21-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May 15
    NOTE: Northwestern National Life Insurance Co.
 Reuter

Ten grain ships were loading and 14
said.
 Continental Grain, Westwego     1      6
 PEAVEY CO, ST ELMO           1      0
 CARGILL GRAIN, TERRE HAUTE   2      1
 ZEN-NOH                      1      2
 reuter

Centel Corp is raising 50 mln dlrs
through an offering of debentures due 2017 yielding 9.233 pct,
98.90 to yield 117 basis points over comparable Treasury
Corp.
    E.F. Hutton and Co Inc and UBS Securities Inc co-managed
the deal.
 Reuter

said sales for the five weeks ended April Four were up 8.2 pct
to 164.0 mln dlrs from 151.6 mln dlrs a year earlier, with
same-store sales up 6.5 pct.
    The company said for the first nine weeks of its fiscal
year, sales were up 16.3 pct to 277.6 mln dlrs from 238.7 mln
dlrs a year before, with same-store sales up 14.5 pct.
 Reuter

Foothill Group Inc said it reached a
standstill agreement with Santa Cruz Resources Inc and its
parent, Sierrita Resources Inc, that bars the companies from
acquiring more than a 30 pct interest in Foothill, except
through a business combination approved by Foothill's board.
    The company also said Santa Cruz has advised it that it
owns 24.7 pct of Foothill's outstanding common stock.
    In addition, Santa Cruz and Sierrita have agreed to vote
their shares in accordance with instructions from the Foothill
board in connection with certain business combinations and
certain anti-takeover matters, Foothill said.
    Foothill said the arrangement also bars Santa Cruz and
Sierrita fron tendering any Foothill securities owned by them
into any tender offer unless certain unspecified conditions are
met.
 Reuter

Shoe-Town Inc said sales for the
five weeks ended April four, 1987 rose 19 pct to 16.8 mln dlrs
from 14.1 mln dlrs a year ago.
    It said year-to-date rose 19.4 pct to 36.3 mln dlrs from
30.4 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Shr 3.33 dlrs vs 3.39 dlrs
    Net 37,069,000 vs 36,902,000
    Avg shrs 10.95 mln vs 10.05 mln
 Reuter

Waste Recovery Inc said it has received
an exclusive license to use <Blue Circle Industries PLC's>
refuse-derived fuel technology in the U.S.
    The company said it plans to modify a 750 short ton per day
resource recovery plant in Miami to use the technology and will
sell refuse-derived fuel from the Miami plant to Lone Star
Industries Inc's <LCE> Hialeah, Fla., cement plant, to take the
place of about 20 pct of the Hialeah plant's coal usage.
    Waste Recovery said initial demonstration trials are
scheduled for the fourth quarter.
    Waste Recovery said it also plans to build two new scrap
tire processing plants to produce tire-derived fuel in Atlanta
and in the Philadelphia area.  It said Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Co <GT>, its main shareholder, has agreed to supply Waste
Recovery with scrap tires for raw materials for fuel.
    It said tire-derived fuel trials by major cement and paper
companies in the Southeast are scheduled for the second and
third quarters of 1987, with fuel for the trials to come from
its Houston plant.
 Reuter

Colonial BancGroup said it has
signed letter of intent to acquire Community Bank and Trust of
Hartselle, Ala., with assets of 26 mln dlrs, for undisclosed
terms, subject to approval by regulatory authorities and
Community Bank shareholders.
    Completion is expected within the next year, it said.
 Reuter

The United States will push for a
strong statement from Western heads-of-state at the June
economic summit in Venice, urging "comprehensive" negotiations
on agriculture begin immediately to reduce domestic farm
subsidies, the senior U.S. planner for the summit said.
    "Agriculture has really become the number one international
economic problem," Allen Wallis, undersecretary of state for
economic affairs, told Reuters in an interview.
    At the Tokyo economic summit last year, western leaders
identified agriculture as a major international problem but
made no specific recommendations.
    This year, Wallis said the U.S. will press for a statement
instructing trade ministers to begin negotiating on the issue,
and include domestic programs.
    While the Western leaders, including president Reagan, will
not conduct specific negotiations, Wallis said they can give a
push to the agriculture talks under the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
    Wallis said the leaders should endorse a "comprehensive"
negotiation, which is interpreted as including domestic
policies as well as import restraints and export subsidies.
 Reuter

Shr 69 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 2,488,000 vs 2,435,000
    Revs 27.6 mln vs 26.5 mln
 Reuter

The European Commission was authorised
to buy up to one mln tonnes of maize into intervention stores
in the second half of June, although sales into intervention
normally end on April 30, Commission sources said.
    They said approval was given by the EC's Cereals Management
Committee because of the possible disturbance of the market due
to heavy imports of maize under the agreement between the EC
    The agreement guarantees access to the Spanish market for
two mln tonnes of non-EC maize a year for the next four years.
    The sources said the intervention price for the maize would
be 201.49 Ecus a tonne.
    They said at this price it seemed unlikely that the full
    They added the decision is also designed to prevent massive
offers of maize for intervention just ahead of the normal April
30 deadline, which could be caused by speculation about the
implementation of the accord with the United States.
 Reuter

Japan bought 5,000 tonnes Canadian
rapeseed overnight at an undisclosed price for May shipment,
 Reuter

Corroon and Black Corp said <Minet
Holdings PLC>, of which it owns 25 pct, agreed to participate
in a 103 mln stg fund set up by Lloyd's of London to cover part
of the claims faced by PCW underwriting agencies.
    The company said Minet and several other companies were
involved in the syndicate, which faces 235 mln stg in claims
due to fraud and mismanagement.
    The fund was proposed by Lloyd's to cover a portion of the
claims in return for a contribution of 34 mln stg from PCW
members. The offer is subject to acceptance by 90 pct of the
PCW members by May 30.
    Lloyd's 103 mln stg offer, including 48 mln stg from
Lloyd's and 55 mln stg from brokers, is designed to cover the
reinsurance costs on the 235 mln stg of net liabilities.
    Minet was unable to disclose the amount of its proposed
contribution to the fund, Caroon and Black said. However, Minet
was confident that the losses could be funded from existing
cash resources.
    Under the terms proposed, Lloyd's would take over all
members' future obligations connected with PCW, and members
would agree not to pursue the matter in court.
 Reuter

Shr 87 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 14.7 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Assets 8.38 billion vs 7.43 billion
    Loans 3.91 billion vs 3.40 billion
    Deposits 5.60 billion vs 5.08 billion
 Reuter

The consumption of some base metals,
along with dollar prices, are showing signs of modest
improvement, according to Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Plc (RTZ).
    However, the company said, iron ore markets have weakened.
    RTZ commodity specialist Philip Crowson told reporters he
thought base metals industry forecasts for 1987 were erring on
the side of caution, whereas forecasts for the last several
years had proven over-optimistic.
    RTZ said it expected to benefit from a rise in U.S. And
industrial production in 1987. Earlier, RTZ reported 1986 net
attributable profit of 245 mln stg against 257 mln in 1985.
 Reuter

The value of colombian exports other than
coffee rose 55 pct in january compared with the same period
last year, apparently setting a trend for the trade balance in
1987, government statistics institute figures show.
    They amounted to 180.8 mln dlrs fob compared with 147.5 mln
dlrs for coffee, a drop of 42 pct from last year.
    The trade balance registered a 35 mln dlr surplus, compared
with a 56 mln dlr surplus in january 1986.
    The national planning department forecast that in 1987
coffee, colombia's traditional major export, will account for
only one-third of total exports, or about 1.5 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

27,000 long tons
USG/Taiwan 23.25 dlrs fio five days/1,500 1-10/5 Continental.
    Trade Banner - 30,000 long tons grain USG/Morocco 13.50
dlrs 5,000/5,000 end-April/early-May Comanav.
    Reference New York Grain Freights 1 of April 8, ship
brokers say the vessel fixed by Cam from the Great Lakes to
Algeria at 28 dlrs is reported to be the Vamand Wave.
    Reference New York Grain Freights 2 of April 8, they say
the Cory Grain maize business from East London at 22 dlrs is to
Japan and not to Spain as reported.
 Reuter

TBN 14,00 mt bulk sugar
Fiji/Prai 16 dlrs fio 10,000/1,000 1-10/5 Fiji Sugar Marketing.
    TBN 15,000 mt bulk sugar Queensland/Japan 14.65 dlrs fio
10,000/1,000 20-30/4 CSR.
    ENQUIRIES - Antwerp/1-3 ports Greece 40,000 mt bagged sugar
indications 750/750 in shipments of 10,000/15,000 tonnes spread
from May to July a/c unnamed charterer.
    Inchon/India 12,600 mt bagged sugar 1,000/1,000 20/4-5/5
a/c Kaines.
    Reunion/1-2 ports Portugal 10,000 mt bulk sugar about 20
dlrs 2,000/750 1-10/5 a/c French charterer.
 Reuter

Antwerp/Libya 5,500 mt bagged flour 14
daps 24-27/4.
    New Orleans/Guanta 9,387 mt bulk hss 3,000/13 days
25-4/5-5.
    Naantali/Saudi Red Sea 30,000/35,000 mt barley 4,000/3,000
20-30/4 or early May.
    Dunkirk/Xingang 12,000 mt bagged flour 1,500/1,700 13-20/4.
    Toledo/Seaforth 17,000 mt hss offers 18.50 dlrs four
days/8,000 13-15/4.
    River Plate/Malaysia 20,000/22,000 long tons hss
2,000/2,000 Apr.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs not given
    Net 6,089,000 vs 7,310,000
    NOTE: Company went public in November 1986.
    Net includes loan loss provisions of 75,000 dlrs vs 30,000
dlrs and gains on sale of securities of 756,000 dlrs vs
2,468,000 dlrs pretax.
    1986 net includes tax credit 1,022,000 dlrs.
    1987 net includes 2,400,000 dlr gain from tax credit
resulting in reduction of goodwill.
 Reuter

Israeli helicopter gunships attacked
Palestinian guerrilla positions near Sidon in southern Lebanon
today in the ninth air raid over Lebanon this year, the
    "All our aircraft returned safely to base and the pilots
reported accurate hits," he said. The aircraft returned ground
fire, he said.
    The targets, three buildings on the outskirts of Ain
el-Hilweh refugee camp, were command posts for planning
guerrilla attacks, the military said.
    The army says Israel's air raids on its northern neighbour,
averaging two a month, are aimed mostly at Palestinian
guerrilla bases, weapons depots and launching posts for attacks
against Israel.
    The last Israeli Air Force attack was on March 23.
 Reuter

Ross Stores Inc said its
five-week sales for the period ended April 4 totaled 44 mln
dlrs, up five pct from a year earlier.
    The company said for the two months ended April 4, sales
totaled 85 mln dlrs, up nine pct from a year ago.
    Ross stores operates 121 retail stores. It closed 25 of its
stores earlier this year.
    It said comparing sales to a year ago, not counting the 25
stores now closed, sales were up 22 pct in the five-week period
and up 29 pct in the two month period.
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 6,416,000 vs 6,057,000
    NOTE: Net includes pretax securities sales gains of
5,900,000 dlrs vs 5,900,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 381,391 vs profit 736,974
    Revs 6,161,391 vs 9,241,882
    NOTE: Canadian dollars.
    Proved oil reserves at year-end 3.3 mln barrels, up 39 pct
from a year earlier, and natural gas reserves 4.7 billion cubic
feet, off nine pct.
 Reuter

Analysts who follow Sears, Roebuck and
Co said the company's 4.2 pct sales gain in March by its
Merchandise Group reflects more competitive pricing and
continues a pattern of growth started in late 1986.
    Sears said sales for the five weeks ended April 4 rose to
2.62 billion dlrs from 2.51 billion dlrs a year earlier.
    Linda Kristiansen of Paine Webber Inc called the numbers
"impressive," and said she looks for a full-year sales gain of
five pct for the nation's largest retailer.
reuter^M

Beirut radio stations said Israeli
helicopter gunships raided south Lebanon and that one of the
craft was downed.
    State owned Beirut Radio quoted witnesses as saying one
helicopter was apparently shot down by heavy anti-aircraft fire
as it attacked targets in the Ain al-Hilweh area east of the
port of Sidon.
    The Sunni Moslem Voice of the Homeland radio said the
helicopter was seen falling into the sea.
    There was no immediate independent confirmation of the
reports.
 REUTER

Southmark Corp said it will issue its
shareholders a special dividend right to acquire 22 shares of
American Realty Trust <ARB> for each 100 shares of Southmark
they own.
    Each right entitles the holder to buy one share of
beneficial interest of American Realty Trust at a price of 3.75
dlrs per share, Southmark said.
    Southmark said the offer's record date is May 1, with an
ex-dividend date of April 27, adding that the it will issue the
rights to shareholders on May 6 and the offer will expire on
May 22.
    Southmark said it received the rights on April 6 as the
holder of about 84 pct of American Realty Trust's outstanding
shares.
    Holders of fewer than 455 Southmark shares who would
receive rights to acquire fewer than 100 American Realty shares
will be paid cash in lieu of the rights distribution, the
    Southmark said it will compute the cash price paid based on
the average closing market price of the rights on the American
Stock Exchange for the first ten days the rights are traded,
beginning April 6.
    In order to get the dividend for these rights a Southmark
shareholder must own common stock on the ex-dividend date,
April 27, the company said.
    After that, Southmark said its common stock will be traded
on an ex-rights basis.
 Reuter

Colombian exports other than coffee rose
55 pct in January compared with the same period last year,
figures from the government statistics institute show.
    Non-coffee exports amounted to 180.8 mln dlrs fob compared
with 147.5 mln dlrs for coffee, a drop of 42 pct from last
year.
with a 56 mln dlr surplus in January 1986.
coffee, Colombia's traditional major export, will account for
only one third of total exports, or about 1.5 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

made no specific recommendations. This year, Wallis said the
U.S. will press for a statement instructing trade ministers to
begin negotiating on the issue, and include domestic programs.
    "They (GATT talks) really have to deal with domestic
policies, as well as trade arrangements," Wallis said.
    Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter has said a summit
statement of support for agriculture talks is part of an
overall U.S. strategy to build momentum for the GATT farm
talks.
    Public statements in recent weeks by several members of the
Reagan cabinet have stressed the agriculture issue.
    Yeutter and Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng will
repeatedly discuss agriculture during a visit to Japan starting
next week. Yeutter said agriculture will also be on the agenda
of the trade ministers "quadrilateral" talks among
Japan, the European Community, the U.S. and Canada this month.
    And the ministerial meeting of the Paris-based Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, in May will
highlight the agriculture problem, Yeutter said.
    The OECD in May is expected to release a study of domestic
farm subsidies which shows that Japan has the highest subsidies
among industrial countries, but aid to farmers is also generous
in the EC and United States.
    The controversial OECD study calculated a measure of farm
subsidies called the Producer Subsidy Equivalent, PSE, which
allows farm aid to be compared across countries.
    Some officials including British Agriculture Minister
Michael Jopling, have said the PSE could be useful as a method
of negotiating lower domestic farm subsidies worldwide.
    However, the State Department's Wallis said while the PSE
can be useful in negotiations, it has shortcomings and "its not
definitive."
    He and other U.S. officials said the Reagan administration
has not yet reached a decision on a specific U.S. agriculture
proposal to present to the GATT.
    "I would expect it (U.S. proposal) to be in the fall,"
after the series of international meetings, Wallis said.
    At preliminary meetings of the GATT agriculture committee,
the United States has pushed for the so-called "freeze and
rollback" approach. Subsidies would first be frozen at current
levels, then rolled-back jointly in stages.
    However, the Reagan administration perplexed some trade
analysts recently by reacting cooly to a plan by Australian
prime minister Bob Hawke calling for a similar approach. Hawke
unveiled a seven-point plan to freeze and subsequently reduce
the gap between high farm price supports and world prices.
    Australia is leading a the so-called Cairns group of 13
coutries pressing for freer agriculture trade.
    "The proposals that the so-called Cairns group are coming
up with seem to be focusing on short-run, quick fixes which is
not what we think is what's called for here," Wallis said.
    Wallis and other said the U.S. wants a "long-range"
solution to the agriculture problem.
    U.S. officials also have criticized the Australian proposal
because they said it deals primarily with the difference
between domestic prices and world levels in the EC and U.S.,
but fails to focus on the question of market access.
    At the same time the U.S. is rejecting the Australian
"quick fix", Wallis said the U.S. will press at the summit for
a declaration urging that agriculture talks be completed
"expeditiously", or within two years.
    The unstated U.S. strategy, U.S. officials said, is to keep
the pressure on the EC this year through the export enhancement
program and lower value of the dollar, in the hope that a
sweeping agriculture agreement is possible in 1988.
 Reuter

TVX Broadcast Group Inc
<TVXG> said it has completed the previously-announced purchase
of five Taft television stations.
    Last week, TVX said the sale, which was scheduled to close
then, had been delayed.
    Taft said the purchase price was 240 mln dlrs, as
previously announced. The price is subject to final
adjustments, Taft said.
    Taft did not indicate the size of the gain, if any, it
would post on the sale.
    It said the stations are WTAF-Philadelphia,
WDCA-Washington, WCIX-Miami, KTXA-Dallas and KTXH-Houston.
 Reuter

reports.
 Reuter

European Community trade experts will
meet in Brussels tomorrow to discuss possible EC action against
Japan over trade, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
said.
    She told Parliament the officials would examine ideas put
forward by the U.K. Last weekend. "Trade matters and trade
initiatives have to be taken by the Community," Thatcher said.
    She said the experts would focus "on more effective action
against the dumping of components (by Japan), possible
unbinding of tariffs on certain products (to allow each EC
country to set their own tariffs) ... And measures which might
be necessary to avoid diversion if the United States acts
against Japan."
 REUTER

U.S. retailers' lackluster March sales
were due to a late Easter, according to analysts who expect a
recovery in April.
    "Sales look soft because of the Easter shift, but
underlying business is better than the numbers indicate," said
Bear Stearns analyst Monroe Greenstein.
     Analysts generally average the sales results of March and
April to account for the variation of Easter's occurance. This
year, Easter is being observed on April 19, which is three
weeks later than last year.
sales for March rose an unadjusted 2.5 to 3.0 pct, and a
seasonally adjusted 5.5 pct to six pct, compared to an adjusted
5.7 pct last year.
    "The obvious question is whether these numbers indicate
that the consumer activity is slowing, but it does not appear
to be because liquidity and employment are rising," said
analyst Jeff Edelman, analyst of Drexel Lambert and Burnham.
    Overall, analysts said first half sales are coming in
according to expectations. Sales for all of 1987 are expected
to rise about 5.5 pct to six pct, up a bit from 1986's rise.
     In March, sales of housewares, furniture and big ticket
items were stronger than apparel sales, signaling to many
analysts that apparel sales will be strong in April as the
holiday nears.
    "Sales gains in home appliances and home fashions reflect a
continuing strength in the housing market," said Edward
Brennan, chairman of Sears Roebuck and Co <S> which reported an
overall sales gain of 4.2 pct. Brennan said sales of women's
sportswear were also excellent.
    "Sears' total apparel sales was up only modestly, but even
a modest improvement in apparel is a very good accomplishment
due to the fact that most people will buy apparel in April,"
said C.J. Lawrence analysts Harry Mortner. 
    J.C. Penney Co Inc <JCP> and Dayton Hudson Corp <DH> were
among the weaker performers with comparable stores sales
declining 1.5 pct and 4.9 pct, respectively. Penney's store and
catalog sales declined 1.3 pct overall and Dayton Hudson's
overall sales rose 4.8 pct.
    Penney chairman William Howell said, "Sales continued
strong for catalog operations and, geographically, ranged from
very active in the east to weak in the economically depressed
southwest."
    "Penney's been shifting away from leisure time activity
wear to other apparel lines, which yield higher profit margins,
but are currently hurting sales," said Greenstein of Bear
Stearns.
    Hudson chairman Kenneth Mackes cited the late Easter for
the decline. Edelman of Drexel said that "Hudson had a tougher
comparison because it had an exceptionally good 1986."
    Most analysts agreed that promotions are slightly lower
    "Retailers are not planning for much - inventories are
being kept lean, markdowns are lower than last year, but sales
are coming through anyway," said CJ Analyst Harry Mortner.
    Mortner said he expects profits in the first quarter to  
be better than he had originally expected in the beginning of
the year.
    Most retailers report their first quarter in the middle of
May.
     MARCH RETAIL SALES FOR MAJOR U.S. RETAILERS
    STORE       PCT        1987       1986
    SEARS       4.2     2.6 BIL       2.5 BIL 
    K MART      4.6     2.2 BIL       2.1 BIL 
    JC PENNEY  (1.3)    1.1 BIL       1.1 BIL 
    WAL-MART     32     1.1 BIL       855 MLN
    FEDERATED   4.9     934 MLN       891 MLN
    MAY         3.5     885 MLN       855 MLN
    DAYTON      4.8     792 MLN       756 MLN
    WOOLWORTH   0.2     591 MLN       590 MLN
    ZAYRE      12.7     522 MLN       464 MLN
 Reuter

Eurodollar bonds closed as much as a full
point lower as the dollar fell to a post-war low against the
yen and interest rates on U.S. Treasuries rose almost to eight
pct.
    The dollar fell to 144.30 yen and recovered only slightly
after foreign exchange traders in New York said the Federal
Reserve intervened to buy dollars for yen.
    But despite the dollar's woes, Japan Development Bank,
wholly owned by the Japanese government, raised 150 mln dlrs in
a seven-year eurobond carrying an eight pct coupon.
    Lead manager for the issue, Bank of Tokyo, said the deal,
at the time of pricing, was to yield 60 basis points over
comparable maturity Treasuries. However, by the close of
trading, that spread had narrowed to 55 and continued to slide
in aftermarket activity.
    Dealers noted that the spread to Treasuries is wide for a
newly-priced AAA-rated borrower like Japan Development Bank.
For example, earlier this week, the World Bank raised U.S. Dlrs
at only 25 basis points over Treasuries. Dealers said that
because the borrower comes to market fairly infrequently -- the
last time was about nine months ago, the spread appears wide.
    But officials at Bank of Tokyo said the spread is intended
to compensate for the lack of liquidity and for the uncertainty
currently associated with owning dollar securities.
    The officials said the borrower opted to raise funds in
dollars, despite the currency's weakness, because it is the
only market deep enough to accommodate an issue of that size.
Japan Development Bank is not allowed to raise euroyen.
    Market sources said the deal is likely to be swapped into
yen as the borrowers previous issues were.
    Late in the day, the deal was trading just inside its fees
at less 1.75 less 1.55.
    Also issued today was a 40 mln dlr five-year offering from
Toshiba International Finance (Netherlands) carrying a 7-3/8
pct coupon and priced at 101-1/2.
    Three equity linked dollar denominated deals were offered,
the largest of which was a 200 mln dlr offering by Sekisui
Chemical Co and guaranteed by Sanwa Bank Ltd. The issue has
equity warrants attached and late in the day it was quoted on
brokers' screens at 106-1/2, bid only.
    The Australian dollar market continued active, with
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce offering a bond of 125 mln
five-year with a zero coupon priced at 54.
    Late in the day, the deal was quoted at less 1-1/4 bid. A
similar deal yesterday by Toronto Dominion, priced slightly
higher at 54.37 pct for an effective yield of 13.52 pct, was
quoted slightly lower at less 1.37 less 1.25 pct.
    Dealers said that investors are apparently willing to
accept zero-coupon bonds yielding 50 to 100 basis points less
than annual-pay bonds because their are tax benefits for retail
buyers. Also, the bonds are more volatile and if interest rates
fall in Australia as many analysts expect, the potential for
capital gains is greater with a zero-coupon. The bonds are also
better for those who expect the australian dlr to appreciate.
    Dealers said that the Australia dlr zero coupon bonds are
apparently being placed with retail accounts on the European
continent with very little placement being done in Japan.
    Euroyen issues sank slightly in line with prices on
domestic Japanese bond markets but recovered in late trade as
the yen soared. After the markets closed, the dollar fell to
144 yen.
    The European Investment Bank (EIB) issued a 40 mln euroyen
issue paying 4-5/8 pct over seven years. This is the second
seven-year yen issue in two days -- a sector of the yield curve
in Japan that dealers feel has not yet become overpriced.
 REUTER

said his agency plans to send a mission to Brazil next week to
explore economic conditions.
    Speaking to reporters at the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank annual meeting, Conable said that he felt
positive and optimistic that something between Brazil and its
creditors will be worked out.
    Conable met last night with Brazilian officials and told
reporters that "We agreed to send a mission to Brazil next week
to explore further the state of progress and to get
clarifications."
 Reuter

Reducing the amount of crop base a
farmer can receive deficiency payments on is being looked at as
one way to cut the U.S. agriculture budget for fiscal year
1988, congressional aides and lobbyists said.
    Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-Tex.) has suggested that the
planted crop base a producer receives deficiency payments on be
reduced by five pct, an aide to Stenholm said.
    The aide said no official proposal has yet been drawn up,
but that as it becomes more clear exactly how much agriculture
spending will have to reduced, specific numbers will be
discussed and a proposal could "very likely" be drafted.
    Under the proposal, if a farmer idled 20 pct of his acreage
base and was eligible to plant the remaining 80 pct, he would
receive payments on only 75 pct of his total base.
    Current regulations provide farmers with deficiency
payments on 100 pct of their non-idled acreage.
    Reducing the payment base by five pct could save around 400
to 500 mln dlrs, but would have to be applied to the 1987 crop
programs in order for any savings to accrue in fiscal year
1988, an Agriculture Department economist said.
    Stenholm's aide said when the proposal is officially
offered, it would likely be an amendment to the budget
reconciliation bill.
    Other options currently being talked about as a way to cut
one to two billion dlrs from the farm budget include increasing
acreage reduction programs, limiting farm payments,
implementing a 0/92 acreage set-aside program or limiting the
use of generic in-kind certificates.
 Reuter

Gillette Canada Inc is issuing a 70 mln
stg bond due October 30, 1993 carrying a coupon of 9-5/8 pct
and priced at 101-1/2, Morgan Stanley Ltd said as lead manager.
    The issue is guaranteed by Gillette Co and is available in
denominations of 1,000 and 5,000 stg. Payment date is April 30
and there is a long first coupon.
    The issue will be listed in Luxembourg.
    There is a selling concession of 1-1/4 pct and a combined
management and underwriting fee of 5/8 pct.
 REUTER

 Reuter

said.
 Reuter

FIRST INTERSTATE EXPECTS BRAZIL, ECUADOR LOAN ACTIONS TO CUT 1987 NET BY 15.4 MLN DLRS

reporters, "We agreed to send a mission to Brazil next week to
explore further the state of progress and to get
 Reuter

Morocco is scheduled to tender April 14
for a total of 55,000 tonnes of U.S. soyoil under PL-480 for
shipments from May through September, private export sources
said.
    The tender calls for shipment of 6,100 tonnes in May,
12,200 tonnes each in June, July and August and 12,300 tonnes
in September, they said.
 Reuter

President Reagan declared that a
major disaster existed in the State of Maine in following
severe storms and flooding there, paving the way for federal
relief and reconstruction assistance.
    In announcing Reagan's action, the White House said in a
written statement that Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec,
Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset counties would be
eligible for federal aid.
    Those counties were hit by storms and flooding in late
March and early April.           
 Reuter

Shr diluted 1.18 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 45.0 mln vs 39.2 mln
    Assets 16.7 billion vs 15.2 billion
    Deposits 13.0 billion vs 12.1 billion
    Loans 11.9 billion vs 10.1 billion
    NOTE: Results restated for merger of Midlantic Banks Inc
and Continental Bancorp Inc on January 30, 1987.
 Reuter

<Worldwide 800 Services Inc>,
whose Service 800 unit recently filed a lawsuit against
American Telephone and Telegraph Co for false advertising and
anti-competitive practices, said it has named <Young and
Rubicam>, an advertising firm, as a defendent in the case.
    Worldwide said Young and Rubicam designed and placed the
ATT advertisements in question.
    The amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, seeks
injuctive relief damages, the company said.
    The suit charges Young and Rubicam with misrepresenting
ATT's involvement in the toll-free international dialing
service network through a series of false and misleading
advertisements.
 Reuter

(Canadian Airlines International Ltd)
said it signed an agreement with (The Flying Tiger Line Inc),
that will offer Canada's first around-the-world cargo service.
    The service, from Mirabel airport, will link Canada to a
large network of worldwide air freight markets using wide-body
B747 freighter aircraft, Canadian Airlines said.
    It said the agreement calls for the two companies to share
aircraft capacity on a 50/50 basis and compete independently
for cargo on the route.
    The airline said the joint operating agreement will give
Canadian shippers a fast, reliable and cost effective way of
moving their products to major markets, including the U.S.
 Reuter

A.T. Brod and Co Inc, an investment
banking firm, said Michael L. Brod has been named president and
chief operating officer, succeeding his father Albert T. Brod,
who remains chairman and chief executive officer.
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 1,101,551 vs 831,398
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split in May
1986.
 Reuter

Sole underwriter Goldman, Sachs and Co
said it is publicly offering 40.05 mln dlrs of principal
exchange rate linked securities, or "PERLS," due 1991 that it
purchased from Westinghouse Electric Corp <WX>.
    The securities have a 13-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing.
Interest will be paid in U.S. dlrs. At maturity, investors will
receive the principal amount of their holdings in New Zealand
dlrs, Goldman Sachs detailed.
and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's. PERLS are relatively new 
in the domestic debt market.
 Reuter

Qtly div 38 cts vs 35 cts prior
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Co
said its Board of Directors authorized a filing with the
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities seeking authority
to issue up to 27 mln dlrs of long-term notes.
    Proceeds will be used to redeem, after June one, all
outstanding shares of the company's cumulative preferred stock,
four dlr series, redeem certain outstanding long-term
indebtedness and repay outstanding short-term indebtedness.
    Fitchburg said this would lower its cost of capital in the
future and give the utility an opportunity to reduce existing
lines of credit.
   
 Reuter

A senior Japanese trade official met
U.S. negotiators in an emergency effort to try to head off new
high American tariffs on Japanese semiconductor goods set to go
into effect on April 17.
     The vice minister of Ministry of International Trade and
Industry, Makoto Kuroda, flew in from Tokyo for the talks with
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael Smith.
    A second round of talks is set for tomorrow.
    U.S. officials have said Japan has failed to live up to its
semiconductor agreement with the U.S. and there was little that
could be done now to avert the 300 mln dlrs in tariffs.
 reuter

Northern Trust Corp said its first
quarter earnings were reduced by 875,000 dlrs by placing 53.2
mln dlrs of loans to Brazil and six mln dlrs in loans to
Ecuador on a cash basis.
    Should these loans remain on nonperforming basis for the
rest of 1987, net income for year will be cut by about 3.2 mln
dlrs, the bank said.
    Earlier it posted net income for the period of 14.7 mln
dlrs or 87 cts a share, up from 11.7 mln dlrs or 73 cts a
share.
    Total nonperforming assets were 114.1 mln dlrs at March 31,
up from 53.4 mln dlrs at December 31 and 79 mln dlrs at March
31, 1986 the bank said.
    The provision for loan losses for the first quarter was
eight mln dlrs compared to 11 mln a year ago. Net loan charge
offs were six mln dlrs, down from 11 mln dlrs a year ago.
    The reserve for loan losses was 78.1 mln dlrs, or two pct
of outstanding loans, higher than the 56 mln dlrs of 1.65 pct
of loans outstanding at March 31, 1986.
   
 Reuter

A further cut in West German taxes to
overcome the current weakness of the domestic economy has been
called for by Thomas Wegscheider, management board chairman of
Bank fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG.
    He said in  an interview due in tomorrow's Die Welt
newspaper that tax cuts already decided by the government
should be expanded by implementation of the "Stability Law,"
which allows tax cuts of up to 10 pct for a limited period.
    Wegscheider also said a temporary rise in state borrowing
resulting from such cuts would be tolerable, according to
excerpts of his remarks released early by Die Welt.
    In line with a pledge made at the Paris monetary conference
in February, the government announced in March that 5.2 billion
marks worth of tax cuts would be added on to reductions of some
nine billion marks already scheduled for next year.
    Wegscheider said the Bundesbank should pursue its policies
aimed at lower interest rates and said a reduction in money
market rates could encourage private capital market investment.
    Earlier today the Bundesbank's vice-president Helmut
Schlesinger said the central bank saw no current reason to
change its monetary course.
 REUTER

General Electric Co said it has
received a 60 mln dlr order to provide CF6-80C2 engines for
three <Airbus Industrie> A310-300 aircraft bought by TAP Air
Portugal.
    It said aircraft deliveries are scheduled to start in late
1988.
 Reuter

Swiss franc notes issued after May 1 must
be provided with a prospectus, virtually erasing the difference
in information requirements between notes and public bonds,
according to a convention drafted by the Bankers' Federation.
    The convention requires that lead managers draw up a
prospectus naming all syndicate members and providing certain
details about the borrower.
    In contrast to public issues, though, the prospectus must
merely be made available to clients on request via all
syndicate banks rather than published and distributed in
printed form.
    The convention, which was approved by banks earlier this
month, replaces an earlier convention dating from 1984 and
deals with what had been widely seen as an increasingly
anachronistic distinction between notes and public issues.
    Its publication follows a long debate among bankers on the
amount of information that should be provided by borrowers,
heightened by difficulties with Swiss franc issues here on
recent occasions .
    It applies to all notes in units of at least 50,000 Swiss
francs, the usual denomination, which are placed directly with
customers by the syndicate and not quoted on the bourse.
    Anything smaller than 50,000 francs will be governed by the
unchanged, more demanding rules that apply to public issues.
    Bankers contacted by Reuters said they did not envisage
that the new requirement would present them with problems or
push up fees. Many banks said that they had for some time been
providing more than the legal minimum of information.
    Traditionally, notes or private placements, as they were
also known, were medium term instruments denominated in 50,000
francs and placed largely with institutional investors.
    They were normally not brought onto the open market and
never quoted on the stock exchange.
    But over the years the distinction between notes and the
publicly quoted and traded bonds gradually broke down. The
National Bank therefore last May abolished all remaining
restrictions on maturities and denominations which still
formally divided them.
    However, it was not in the competence of the National Bank
to rule on prospectuses and banks have since continued largely
as before: public issues, generally quoted on stock exchanges,
have been provided with detailed prospectuses, while notes,
virtually always not-quoted, have been equipped only with
"information memorandums" with varying degrees of detail.
    The new convention attempts to put an end to this. It says
each notes prospectus must contain the following seven points:
    - The precise terms of the issue
    - Details of the company performance if it is more than six
months since the last annual report
    - Naming of all guarantors
    - The source of the information
    - Details of ratings, insofar as they have been made
    - For equity linked notes, details of where the company's
shares are listed and price high and lows over at least the
last three years.
    - That the lead manager has required the borrower to
provide information during the lifetime of the notes on the
progress of his business.
     According to figures from Swiss Bank Corp, total note
issues by foreign borrowers reached 18.6 billion Swiss francs
last year, compared with 23.6 billion francs borrowed in the
form of public bonds.
    A majority of the note issues were for Japanese borrowers.
 REUTER

Brazil's political crisis appears
to be deepening as powerful state governors are calling for the
removal of Finance Minister Dilson Funaro, chief architect of
economic policy.
    Commentators said their call, front-page headlines in
today's press, laid bare President Jose Sarney's political
weakness and highlighted Brazil's economic planning turmoil.
    The demand for Funaro's resignation came last night from
four governors with much combined political clout, those of Sao
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul. At
a news conference in Sao Paulo, they delivered a blunt message
-- the economy was in crisis and they wanted a new ministerial
team to shape policy. Otherwise there was a risk of social
chaos.
 Reuter

Doe Run Company said it is
increasing the price of its corroding grade lead by one-half
cent to 26.50 cents a lb, effective immediately.
    The price is quoted FOB, Herculaneum, Mo., and FOB, Boss,
Mo., with freight allowed for carload quantities.
   
 Reuter

Spain's foreign reserves rose by 905 mln
dlrs in February to total 17.05 billion dlrs, compared with
14.11 billion dlrs in February 1986, Bank of Spain figures
show.
    Under a new accounting system introduced this month,
Spain's foreign reserves now exclude foreign currency held by
financial institutions.
    Under the previous system, Spain's foreign reserves would
have risen by 391 mln dlrs in February, taking into account a
fall of 514 mln dlrs in financial institutions' foreign
currency position.
    In January this year, the Central Bank's foreign reserves
rose by 143 mln dlrs, while financial institutions' foreign
currency position fell by 118 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

    Net loss 9,900,000 vs loss 17,300,000
    Revs 14.7 mln vs 29.8 mln
    Note: Previous loss restated.
 Reuter

downgrade the A-2 commercial paper of General Instrument Corp.
    S and P cited the firm's 80 mln dlr loss for fiscal 1987
and a 90 mln dlr loss on discontinued micro-electronic and
opto-electronic businesses and venture investments.
    These losses, coupled with restructuring and re-evaluation
actions, have led to poor earnings and cash flow since fiscal
1985. Stockholders equity fell 25 pct since fiscal year-end
1984 to a 465 mln dlr pro forma level, S and P said.
    S and P said it will assess the effects of management's
restructuring plans on credit quality and profit improvement.
 Reuter

General Physics Corp said it
has formed a new business unit called HP Technical Services to
furnish health physics technicians and radiological engineers
and scientists to the electric utility industry for use in
nuclear power plants.
 Reuter

Shr 74 cts vs 92 cts
    Net 1,300,450 vs 1,600,258
    NOTE: Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in July
1986.
    Company based in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
 Reuter

Federated Group Inc
said its sales for the five weeks ended April five totaled 33.9
mln dlrs, compared with 33.8 mln during the same period last
year.
    Comparable store sales fell eight pct to 29.4 mln dlrs from
32.1 mln a year earlier, the company said.
    Federated said it now has 65 stores in operation compared
with 59 during the like period a year ago.
              
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said it is reducing
coach fares up to 62 pct between Atlanta and 21 destinations
for travel April 12 through June 15.
    The fares are non-refundable and applicable to roundtrip
flights. Reservations must be made at least two days in advance
and tickets purchased within 24 hours after reservations are
made, the company said.
    Roundtrip fares between Atlanta and Pittsburgh, for
example, would be 178 dlrs instead of 478 dlrs, USAir said.
 Reuter

agreed in principle on a license deal with United Media/United
Feature Syndicate Inc under which it would have the right to
sell a line of men's spectator sportswear bearing the
likenesses of characters from Charles M. Schulz' "Peanuts"
comic strip.
    The company said the license runs through December 1988 and
has renewal options for two more years.
 Reuter

Shipboard Satellite Network Inc <SSN>
said it will offer television service delivered by satellite to
ships at sea beginning June 1.
    The company, whose initial public offering began yesterday,
said its programming will include a mix of general and
financial news, sports and talk shows. In addition, the company
said it plans to offer first-run movies, sports and
entertainment specials.
    The company said its programming will be transmitted
several times a day to passenger cabins and lounges.
 Reuter

    Net loss 123,840 vs loss 1,298,377
    Revs 1,333,416 vs 385,146
    Year
    Net profit 124,872 vs loss 2,171,011
    Revs 4,618,232 vs 2,959,141
 Reuter

Protective Life Corp said it
has signed a letter of intent to assume <Liberty Life Insurance
Co's> group insurance on July 1, subject to regulatory

 Reuter

said Bank South Corp <BKSO> purchased several of its recently
introduced System 9000 intelligent T-1 switching systems.
    DCA said the switching systems will be used to transmit
voice and data between the bank's downtown banking location
here and its new operations center near Atlanta's Hartsfield
International Airport.
 Reuter

Qtly divs Class A and B 20 cts vs 20 cts
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Sony Corp <SNE.T> chairman Akio
Morita played down the U.S.-Japanese trade conflict, saying
that direct investment abroad was the most effective way to
reduce Japan's trade surplus.
    Morita was speaking at the official opening of a 100
million franc (16.4 million dollars) compact disc player
factory in eastern France.
    He said trade friction between the U.S. And Japan over
high-technology was a very complicated and delicate issue but
that Sony intended to invest directly throughout the world.
    Referring to the European Community's stance against
turnkey plants, he said: "I know Brussels is not very favourable
to these so-called new Japanese 'screwdriver factories', but in
Sony's case our policy is quite different."
    The Colmar plant, Sony's third in France, would eventually
use local components and be a purely French factory, he said.
     Sony France SA was established in 1973. Its 1986 sales
were two billion francs (327 mln dlrs) and the company says it
expects sales of 2.7 billion francs (443 mln dlrs) in 1987.
Sony's other two French plants, in the south west of the
country, export over 80 per cent of their production.
    Company officials say that production from Sony's European
factories currently accounts for over 30 per cent of the
group's European sales and they expect this to increase. In
1986 over 20 per cent of Sony's eight billion dollar worldwide
sales were made in Europe.
    At the beginning of 1987, Sony employed about 1,100 people
in Europe. The group plans to open a compact disc software
factory in Austria this summer and an audio cassette plant in
Italy next year.
 Reuter

Shr 1.02 dlrs vs 78 cts
    Net 14.4 mln vs 11.0 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes gain 2,222,000 dlrs from
    Results restated for pooled acquisitions and share adjusted
for stock dividends.
 Reuter

<New Jersey Steel Corp> said it
Commission for the initial public offering of 1.8 mln shares of
common stock at an estimated price of 20 dlrs to 22 dlrs a
share.
    The company said it would sell one mln shares and that <Von
Roll Ltd>, would sell the remaining 800,000 shares.
    Proceeds from the offering, to be made through an
underwriting group managed by PaineWebber Inc, will be used for
capital expenditures and repayment of long-term debt owed to
Von Roll, the company said.
 Reuter

the five weeks ended April 4 were off 22.3 pct to 8,242,525
dlrs from 10.6 mln dlrs a year earlier.
fiscal year were off 14.5 pct to 14.1 mln dlrs from 16.5 mln
    Results exclude the discontiued Big Value Outlet division,
it said, and are not directly comparable because Easter fell in
March last year and will fall late in April this year.
 Reuter

Emcore said it completed
the sale of 4.1 mln dlrs of stock to Citicorp Venture Capital
Ltd, Concord Ventures of Dillon Read and Co and private
 Reuter

has retained Salomon Bros to seek ways to inject new capital
into Financial Corp of America, a Financial Corp spokeswoman
said.
    Financial Corp, which recently has held preliminary talks
with unidentified parties concerning a possible acquisition of
the company, is also negotiating with a firm to advise and
represent it in matters regarding potential acquisition matters
as they may arise, Financial Corp said last month.
    The Financial Corp spokeswoman said there have been no new
developments since the company announced the preliminary talks
on March 27.
    Financial Corp, parent of American Savings and Loan
Association, the nation's largest thrift, has repeatedly said
it would give serious consideration to a merger as a means of
rapidly improving its capital position.
    The company has also said it would need more than one
billin dlrs of capital to bring its regulatory net worth up to
regulatory requirements.
 Reuter

said it will hold a public hearing against Martin Saposnick,
who was a co-underwriter of a 1983 public offering of North
Atlantic Airlines Inc.
    The SEC claims that Saposnick, chairman of Marsan
Securities Co Inc, knew the offering prspectus failed to
adequately disclose the company's delinquent federal and state
taxes and its inability to pay debts when due.
    No specific date was set. The SEC said the hearing will
determine whether Saposnick misrepresented compliance with
NASDAQ and if so, will determine remedial action.
 Reuter

Michigan General Corp said it
has extended its exchange offer for its 10-3/4 pct senior
subordinated debentures due December 1, 1988 until April 23.
    It said the offer is being extended to allow it to conclude
talks with its lender and with representatives of the holders
of 75 pct of the debentures on the terms of the offer.
    The holders have indicated their intention to tender and to
reach an agreement with the company, Michigan General said.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said Richard
Sakowicz has been named president, chief executive officer and
a director, effective April 13.
    Sakowicz, recently vice president at Control Data Corp
<CDA>, succeeds John Wright who will be resigning, it said.
    In other action, the company said that Burton Merical has
been retained as a consultant to provide management and
financial advisory services and to act as chief financial
officer.  Merical has provided consulting services to companies
who have successfully reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings, Endotronics noted.
    In late March, Endotronics reported that its auditing firm
said its opinion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1986
"should no longer be relied upon." The company also reported at
the time, that it was the subject of a formal private
investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs six cts
    Net 1,612,000 vs 1,406,000
    Revs 38.2 mln vs 34.3 mln
    Avg shrs 23,742,000 vs 22,945,000
 Reuter

U.S. Healthcare Inc said it has
been granted a certificate of authority to operate a health
maintenance organization in Delaware by the Delaware Department
of Health and Social Services.
 Reuter

Ugandan Finance Minister Chrispus
Kiyonga has asked the National Resistance Council, the
country's interim parliament, to approve 1,000 billion
shillings (714 mln dlrs) in extra government spending over the
last three months of this financial year, council sources said.
    Kiyonga told the council that because of high inflation,
estimated to be running at over 150 per cent a year, the
government needed extra money to keep its services running
until the financial year ends on June 30.
    The new appropriation requested by the minister is almost
as much as the 1,127 billion shillings (805 mln dlrs) the
government expected to spend during the whole year.
    Kiyonga said the government was having trouble keeping to
the deficit target of 350 billion shillings (250 mln dlrs)
contained in the original budget announced last August. The
deficit was to be financed by borrowing.
    The minister did not give a new budget deficit estimate.
 Reuter

Belgium's current account surplus,
measured on a cash basis, widened sharply to 134.9 billion
francs last year from 17.5 billion in 1985, the Finance
    The increase was due almost entirely to a sharp rise in the
goods trade surplus to 126.1 billion francs from 20.4 billion.
    The services trade surpluses increased to 52.4 billion
francs from 38.9 billion while the deficit on transfers rose
slightly to 43.6 billion from 41.8 billion.
    Private sector capital operations showed a steeply higher
deficit of 160.7 billion francs after 56.9 billion in 1985.
 Reuter

Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> director Thomas
Ward told a High Court hearing that the company's action
against him and ex-chairman Ernest Saunders sought to give the
impression of an international hunt for Ward's 5.2 mln stg fee
in connection with the Distillers Co Plc <DIST.L> takeover, the
Press Association news agency reported.
    In a sworn statement, Ward, a U.S. Lawyer, said Guinness
had failed to acknowledge that his attornies in March had
offered to put the money, less tax and various expenses, into
an escrow account where it could only be touched under agreed
circumstances.
    Ward said Guinness had made a transparent attempt to
belittle his services, the PA reported.
    "I wish to emphasise that the fee paid for my services was,
when considered out of context, admittedly very large."
    But every aspect of the (Distillers) bid - the size of the
target, the benefit to Guinness from success, the potential
damage from failure, the difficulties of the issues raised and
the cost for all services - were not merely large but virtually
unprecedented in the history of English takeovers," Ward said.
    Failure would have cost Guinness between 25 mln stg and 100
mln stg, he added.
    Ward said it was his idea to have a merger agreement with
Distillers under which Distillers agreed to pay Guinness's bid
costs, the PA reported.
    Ward's statement was read to the court by his lawyer Peter
Curry. Ward and ex-Guinness chairman Saunders want to end a
temporary court freeze of their assets up to the disputed
amount of the 5.2 mln stg fee which Guinness is trying to
recover.
    Guinness acquired Distillers in a fierecly fought 2.7
billion stg battle during 1986. The U.K. Government is also
probing the affair and has yet to report.
 Reuter

Denpac Corp said it placed an
order for the assembly of the first 100 production units of its
Sinterloy processor, which will begin delivery later this year.
    The company said two pre-production units have been placed
for clinical and laboratory evaluations, with an additional six
pre-production units to be placed shortly.
    The company said the Sinterloy processor is used by dental
laboratories to fabricate dental appliances such as bridges and
crowns.
 Reuter

    Net profit 325,000 vs profit 105,000
    Revs 19.5 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr profit nine cts vs loss 35 cts
    Net profit 627,000 vs loss 2,280,000
    Revs 36.9 mln vs 27.4 mln
 Reuter

Zimbabwe's beef exports to the European
Community (EC), potentially worth 70 mln Zimbabwean dlrs this
year, may be jeopardised by an outbreak of foot and mouth
disease in southwestern Matabeleland, industry sources said.
    The country has temporarily suspended beef exports to the
EC because of the outbreak and awaits a decision from the EC
veterinary committee, which is considering a formal ban.
    The outbreak in the country's main ranching province has
already led neighbouring beef-producing Botswana and Zambia to
bar beef and dairy imports from Zimbabwe, threatening the dairy
industry with a loss of at least one mln dlrs in export
revenue.
    "The situation is still uncertain at the moment. Normally
when an outbreak occurs there is an automatic suspension of
beef exports," one industry source said yesterday.
     Commenting on EC policy, he explained, "Depending on the
seriousness of the outbreak the (veterinary) committee then
decides on three options, allowing us to continue exporting
beef from disease-free areas, clamping a three-month suspension
on exports or banning us from exporting for a year. We are
still awaiting their decision," he added, asking not to be
    Zimbabwe was granted an export quota of 8,100 tonnes of
high-grade beef to EC markets in 1985 after the country had
spent millions of dollars erecting disease-control fences and
upgrading abattoirs to meet stringent EC rules.
    Should the EC ban Zimbabwean exports, the country will be
forced to sell its beef on glutted world beef markets at low
prices, the source said. Projected earnings from beef sales
could fall about 23 mln dlrs as a result, he said.
 Reuter

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, whose
five-party coalition government fell apart yesterday, told the
Senate he was resigning.
    Craxi said at the end of a Senate (upper house) debate on
the government that he would go tonight to hand his resignation
to President Francesco Cossiga.
    Craxi's government collapsed when the majority Christian
Democrats withdraw their 16 ministers from the 30 member
cabinet yesterday. Craxi had been prime minister for three and
a half years.
 Reuter

Shr 1.32 dlrs vs 1.26 dlrs
    Net 21.2 mln vs 17.4 mln
    Avg shrs 16.1 mln vs 13.8 mln
    Assets 10.0 billion vs 8.4 billion
    Deposits 7.2 billion vs 6.1 billion
    Loans 6.7 billion up 26 pct
    NOTE: Results restated for pooled acquisitions of Shawmut
Home Bank and Fidelity Trust Co and include First Gibraltar
Mortgage Corp from December 30, 1986 purchase.
    Loan loss provision 8,800,000 dlrs vs 6,300,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Minntech Corp said it expects
to report loss for its fiscal 1988 first quarter to end June
30, due to start-up costs related to a new membrane oxygenator
and water filtration products.
    However, revenues and earnings should consistently increase
throughout the remainder of the year, President Louis Cosentino
 Reuter

The United States said a new attack
by Iran in the Gulf war against Iraq does not appear to be a
major offensive.
    "We don't believe that what has been called Karbala-8 is a
major offensive," State Department spokesman Charles Redman
said.
    He was responding to Iran's announcement that it had
launched its second offensive in three days against Iraq.
    Karbala-8 is the code name for the attack in which both
sides have reported heavy fighting on the southern front near
the major Iraqi port of Basra.
    Redman said the offensive "appears to have been an Iran
attack which has not made much of an advance."
    Detailed information is lacking, he said, "but this seems
to be largely a repetition of the kind of fighting we had seen
previously in the same area east of Basra."
    Redman restated the U.S. call for an immediate end to
hostilities and said Washington "deplored the loss of life in
this tragic war."
 Reuter

<Gordex Mineral Ltd>
said geologists located more than one mln tons of gold-bearing
deposits, 0.057 ounces per ton, at Cape Spencer.
    The company said it plans to invest 2.5 mln Canadian dlrs
to expand on-site treatment facilities to process 100,000 tons
of gold-bearing deposits this year and 200,000 tons in 1988.
    Prior to the completion of the recent exploration program,
Gordex estimated the Cape Spencer deposit had 200,000 tons.
    Gordex said the expansion of the Cape Spencer facilities is
intented to enable it to operate 24 hours a day throughout the
year.
 Reuter

Rep. John Porter, R-Ill., introduced
in the House of Representatives legislation proposed by the
Reagan administration to slash the U.S. sugar price support, a
spokesman for Porter said.
    The spokesman said the bill was introduced without any
changes from the administration's proposal sent to Congress
    That plan calls for a cut in the sugar loan rate to 12
cents per pound from 18 cents now. Sugar growers would be
compensated for the price cut with targeted direct payments,
to be gradually phased-out through 1990. The payments to
growers would cost an estimated 1.1 billion dlrs.
    Representatives of sugar growers have rejected the
proposal, saying it would ruin the domestic sugar industry.
 Reuter

CANADA 91-DAY T-BILLS AVERAGE 6.95 PCT, MAKING BANK RATE 7.20 PCT

The U.S. drilling rig count rose by four
last week to a total of 752, against 987 working rigs one year
ago, Hughes Tool Co said.
    In Canada, the rig count continued falling last week
because of the government's annual springtime ban prohibiting
heavy equipment from being transported over rain-softened
highways. A total of 85 rigs were working in Canada, down 46
from the previous week, Hughes said. At this time last year, a
total of 109 rigs were working in Canada.
    Among individual states, Louisiana and New Mexico each
reported drilling declines of 10 rigs and Kansas was down by
seven. Gains were reported in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas which
increased by 20, seven and one, respectively.
    Hughes said the total of 752 working rigs in the United
States included 17 in inland waters, 74 in offshore waters and
661 on land.
 Reuter

Shr 89 cts vs not available
    Net 1,163,000 vs 466,000
    Nine Mths
    Net 3,696,000 vs 1,624,000
    NOTE: Company converted to stock ownership effective August
1986.
    Periods end March 31, 1987 and 1986 respectively.
 Reuter

Southmark Corp said shareholders will be
issued, as a special dividend, rights to acquire 22 shares of
owned.
    The record date for Southmark shareholders to receive these
rights will be May one with an ex-dividend date of April 27.
    Southmark received these rights on April six, as the holder
of about 84 pct of American Realty Trust's outstanding shares.
   
 Reuter

Market response to the Italian Treasury's
3,000 billion lire offer of short-term bills (BOTs) was mixed,
with six month paper oversubscribed but 12-month bills little
in demand, Bank of Italy figures show.
offer was announced on April 4.
    The market was assigned all the 1,500 billion lire worth of
six-month bills on offer after requesting a total of 1,660
billion. Effective net annualized compound yield on the bills
is 9.19 pct, against 9.24 pct at the end-March auction.
    Of the 1,500 billion lire of 12-month paper offered,
operators requested and were assigned 911.975 billion lire at a
net annualized compound rate of 9.02 pct.
    The Bank of Italy took up the remaining 588.025 billion
lire of 12-month paper.
    The bills replace maturing paper worth 2,485 billion lire
of which 1,985 billion was in the hands of market operators and
the remainder with the Bank of Italy.
 Reuter

Takeover speculation continues to fuel
heavy trading in UAL Inc, traders said.
    UAL rose 1-5/8 to 73-5/8 on volume of more than two mln
shares, after trading with little upward movement earlier in
    Traders said rumors, which began yesterday, added to
speculation that the company would be the target of a takeover.
    They said it was believed Coniston Partners and the
Pritzker family of Chicago were buying the stock.
    Coniston declined comment and the Pritzkers had no comment.
    Traders said there was speculation a bidder might appear,
and also that real estate developer Donald Trump, who holds a
stake in UAL, might participate in a takeover bid. UAL pilots
said they would be willing to pay 4.5 billion dlrs, which
includes debt, for the company's United Airlines unit.
 Reuter

Gordex Mineral Ltd
said geologists located more than one mln short tons of
gold-bearing deposits, 0.057 ounces per ton, at Cape Spencer.
intended to enable operation 24 hours a day throughout the
year.
 Reuter

NIGERIAN OIL MINISTER RILWANU LUKMAN SAID
TODAY GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY ON DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTS HAD RISEN
FROM 20 TO 85 PCT AFTER THE FLOTATION OF THE NAIRA CURRENCY
LAST SEPTEMBER.
    THE NAIRA HAS DEPRECIATED BY OVER 60 PCT AGAINST THE DOLLAR
SINCE IT WAS FLOATED AND THE GOVERNMENT SAYS PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
HAD BECOME TOO CHEAP ENCOURAGING SMUGGLING TO NEIGHBOURING
STATES.
    LUKMAN TOLD REPORTERS DOMESTIC OIL PRICES WERE BEING
CRITICALLY STUDIED AND A DECISION WOULD BE TAKEN SOON ON
WHETHER OR NOT TO REDUCE THE SUBSIDY.
    LAST YEAR, THE GOVERNMENT CUT OIL SUBSIDY BY 80 PCT AS PART
OF ITS ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM.
    OIL FIRMS HAVE ARGUED THAT THE DEPRECIATION OF THE NAIRA
HAS MADE FURTHER REMOVAL OF PETROLEUM SUBSIDY NECESSARY.
 Reuter

U.K. Property company Greycoat Group Plc
is seeking two financings, one for 120 mln stg and the other
for 16 mln stg, in connection with its Embankment Place
development above and around Charing Cross station in London,
    The first transaction, a 120 mln stg credit, will be
arranged by N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd and Bank of Tokyo
International Ltd on behalf of a special purpose Greycoat
subsidiary yet to be incorporated.
    It matures in June 1993 but will be extendible by up to two
years to June 1995 at the option of the borrower.
    The first credit, a project financing, will carry a basic
margin of 5/8 point over London Interbank Offered Rates
(LIBOR), with an additional 1/4 pct per annum payable on
outstanding amounts to the extent that the property is not
substantially pre-let.
    In addition, if the property is pre-sold while amounts are
still outstanding, the basic margin will be reduced to 1/2
point over LIBOR, the banking sources said.
    For a one year extension of the maturity an extra 1/8 point
margin will be paid, with a further 1/8 point if the maturity
is lengthened for the optional second year.
    There will be a commitment fee of 1/4 pct per annum on
available amounts and of 1/8 pct on unavailable amounts, the
sources said. Rothschild is sole agent for this transaction.
    The second transaction, a 16 mln stg credit for the purpose
of working capital, is being arranged by Rothschild alone on
behalf of the Greycoat Group Plc itself. It will be secured on
a property called Brettenham House.
    The margin will be 1/2 point over LIBOR in years one to
four, 5/8 point over LIBOR in years five and six and 3/4 point
over LIBOR thereafter. The credit will mature in June, 1995.
    The sources said that a commitment fee of 20 basis points
will be payable on the available tranche, with 10 basis points
on unavailable amounts.
 Reuter

<Sulpetro Ltd> said it had not
yet obtained Canadian government approval of a previously
reported agreement to restructure its 505 mln dlr debt, and
remaines dependent in the interim on support from its principal
banker.
    Sulpetro said it was operating as if the restructuring were
implemented, and was required to pay interest only on the term
loan part of its debt.
   It earlier said its net loss for the first quarter ended
January 31 fell to 9.9 mln dlrs from a restated year-earlier
loss of 17.3 mln dlrs.
    Sulpetro president Michael Williams declined to speculate,
in reply to a query, on when government approval of the
restructuring deal was likely.
    The company said first quarter costs fell to 25.4 mln dlrs
from year-ago 45.5 mln dlrs, due partly to lower sales costs
and reduced depletion because of its fiscal 1986 writedown.
    First quarter revenues fell to 14.7 mln dlrs from
year-earlier 29.8 mln because of lower wellhead prices, reduced
gas and natural gas liquids sales, disposal of its British
properties and surrender of part of the Irish-Lindbergh heavy
oil properties, Sulpetro said.
 Reuter

Delta Air Lines said it filed with the
U.S. Department of Transportation its application for one-stop
service from Portland, Ore, to Seoul, Korea, via Tokyo.
    If all government approvals are given promptly, Delta said
service could begin by July One, 1987.
    Delta said it started service from Portland to Tokyo on
March two and operates five weekly round trips. It will
increase service to six flights on June One, and plans daily
service by 1988, Delta said.
 Reuter

Canada's key bank rate rose to 7.20 pct
from 7.15 pct the week before, Bank of Canada said.
    Bank rate is set 1/4 percentage point above the average
yield on the weekly issue of 91-day treasury bills. This week's
yield was 6.95 pct compared with the previous week's 6.90 pct.
    Tenders were accepted for 2.55 billion dlrs of 91-day bills
at an average price of 98.296 dlrs against 98.310 dlrs last
week.
    The 1.40 billion dlrs of 182-day bills were priced at an
average 96.488 dlrs against 96.549 dlrs last week, to yield an
average 7.30 pct, versus 7.17 pct last week.
    The 500 mln dlrs of 364-day bills were priced at an average
92.969 dlrs against 93.159 dlrs last week, to yield an average
7.58 pct versus 7.38 pct last week.
    Tenders will be received next week for 2.50 billion dlrs of
 91-day bills, 1.40 billion dlrs of 182-day bills and 500 mln
dlrs of 364-day bills.          
 Reuter

The quarterly session of the
International Tin Council (ITC) continued without formal
agreement on an extension of the sixth International Tin
Agreement (ITA), but delegates said it was apparent there was a
general consensus the Agreement should be prolonged.
    Some delegations are still awaiting formal instructions
from capitals, but informally most have indicated they favour
an extension, delegates said.
    This afternoon's session was used by delegates to seek
further clarification on some of the issues involved, and to
discuss internal matters.
    Some sources were optimistic a resolution on an extension
could be passed tomorrow but others suggested a special session
would be convened to adopt the resolution after the Association
of Tin Producing Countries meeting April 14 to 16.
    The full Council session resumes tomorrow at 1330 GMT after
a European Community coordination meeting at 1100.
 Reuter

Funaro shrugged off demands by a group of Brazilian governors
that he resign.
    "At this moment I am discussing something much more serious
for Brazil and it's absolutely indispensible in a negotiation
like this one that I dedicate myself entirely to the
discussions," Funaro told reporters.
    Funaro, who spoke today to the International Monetary
Fund's interim committee, was referring to talks he began
Tuesday with creditor banks in New York in which unveiled
Brazil's economic targets and financial needs.
    The governor of Sao Paulo state Orestes Quersia and other
governors last night called on Brazilian President Jose Sarney
to assume direct control of the debt negotiations.
    Asked if the governors' demands for his resignation would
affect negotiations, Funaro said: "We are building a new
refinancing position and that is what we are doing now. The
rest is secondary."
    He added that Brazil's economic program clearly
demonstrates the intention to renegotiate the countries
international financial committments, and added: "The domestic
problems are our business."
    Funaro said discussions on Brazil's refinancing proposals
were well under way with private creditor banks and added World
Bank President Barber Conable had also accepted the proposals
as "a good plan" at a meeting they had last night.
    But Conable, who was also present at today's IMF interim
committee meeting told reporters that the World Bank wanted
further clarifications on Brazil's economic programs.
    "We wish further clarification about the program with
respect to adjustment lending," Conable said.
    He added that a World Bank mission would travel to Brazil
early next week to explore the state of Brazil's new economic
measures.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs 10 cts
    Net 31,000 vs 82,000
    Sales 10.9 mln vs 9,760,000
 Reuter

<Skyswitch Satellite Communications
Co> said it GTE Corp's GTE Spacenet has signed an original
equipment manufacturing agreement with Skyswitch that will
enable the two companies to set the standard for satellite news
gathering voice communications systems.
    The equipment will be provided under GTE's specifications
and label, it said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.64 dlrs vs 1.50 dlrs
    Oper net 6,200,000 vs 5,600,000
    12 mths
    Oper shr 2.76 dlrs vs 2.58 dlrs
    Oper net 10.4 mln vs 9,600,000
    NOTE: Net income including discontinued operation and, in
both 1986 periods, 1,500,000 dlr gain from change in accounting
for which results restated, 6,200,000 dlrs vs 7,200,000 dlrs in
quarter and 10.6 mln dlrs vs 11.6 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 56 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 10,271,000 vs 6,425,000
    Loans 1.44 billion vs 1.20 billion
    Deposits 2.36 billion vs 1.96 billion
    Assets 2.96 billion vs 2.55 billion
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 1,316,000 vs 656,000
    NOTE: qtr 1987 includes tax gain 500,000 dlrs, or 19 cts
per share.
 Reuter

Texaco Canada Inc, 78 pct owned by
Texaco Inc <TX>, likely would not form any part of a possible
settlement in a 10.3 billion U.S. dlr legal battle between
Texaco Inc and Penzoil Co <PZL>, Texaco Canada chief executive
Peter Bijur told reporters.
    "I just just don't believe that it (Texaco Canada) would be
part of any settlement," Bijur said during a interview.
    Bijur said he could not comment directly on the
Texaco-Penzoil dispute, adding he had no first-hand information
concerning efforts by Texaco and Penzoil to resolve the matter.
    "We don't have any problems that I am aware of that are a
result of that litigation in the United States, and we continue
to do business on a normal, 'business as usual' basis," Texaco
Canada's Bijur told reporters during an interview session.
    As previously reported, Texaco Inc is seeking a court order
to block Pennzoil from taking action to secure a 10.3 billion
dlr judgement against Texaco.
    In reply to a query, Bijur said Texaco Inc has imposed no
spending retraints on Texaco Canada as it continues previously
reported efforts to make an energy-related acquisition.
    After considering making an acquisition for several months,
Texaco Canada set up a "business development team" of five people
about one month ago to increase its efforts, Bijur said. The
company has also widened the scope of its search to include
candidates involved in refining and marketing as well as
production segments of the industry.
    "We're going to widen the scope of our view. We're going to
look at the downstream and we're going to look at the entire
petroleum business," he said.
    Bijur declined to specify how much money Texaco Canada
would spend on an acquisition.
    Bijur said the company was not close to concluding any
acquisitions and declined to specify when he expected a
transaction might be made. "We're not in a hurry," he said.
    Texaco Canada said in the annual report it had a cash
position of 808 mln dlrs at the end of 1986, and Bijur said the
company's cash fund has not changed materially during the first
quarter.
    Commenting on earnings results, Bijur said he expected
first quarter profit to be lower than last year's earnings of
84 mln dlrs or 70 cts a share, due to lower profit contribution
from production because of lower oil prices.
REUTER^M

Minnesota Laser Corp said it introduced
a new line of Coagulase Series Nd:YAG surgical laser systems.
    It said the lasers use 400 micron fiberoptics designed for
endoscopic, microscopic and freehand surgical applications in
gynecology, urology, gastroenterology and pulmonology.
 Reuter

The House of Seagram, Seagram Co Ltd's
U.S. marketing arm for Joseph E. Seagram and Son's distilled
spirits and wine coolers, said it is replacing its four current
national spirits companies with a single sales force, one
marketing unit and a centralized finance and administrative
function.
    Effective May four, House of Seagram said its sales force
will operate nationally through seven, equal-sized regions,
five in open states and two in control states, Seagram said.
    The change reflects a more aggressive marketing and sales
focus on the local level, the company said.
    A vice president-general manager will head each region,
reporting to Jerome Mann, executive vice president, Seagram
said, adding that Sales, Seagram Distillers, 375 Spirits,
Perennial Sales and Summit Sales will cease to exist as
    "We will no longer have individual spirits companies, the
resulting internal competition for distributor and retailer
attention or centalized decision making on virtually all
issues," Edgar Bronfman, House of Seagram president, said.
    Seagram said the group that markets Seagram's line of wine
coolers, the be caled the Seagram Beverage Co, will not be
affected by the reorganization.
    The company added that Seagram Beverage will remain inside
the House of Seagram, but separate from the spirits unit.
 Reuter

Reuters Holdings Plc <RTRS.L> said it has
launched its colour videotext service, Reuter News-Watch, in
Britain to service the customers of hotels, restaurants,
airports and banks.
    News-Watch subscribers can insert their own advertisements
and announcements for display.
    The service uses information from the Reuter database of
news, prices and displays. It carries the latest news and sport
from around the world, financial rates and prices, weather
forecasts and horoscopes. News-Watch, already available in most
West European countries, will go worldwide this year.
 Reuter

The Government of Bermuda is seeking a 40
mln dlr, seven year revolving credit, which will be the only
credit outstanding in its own name, N.M. Rothschild and Sons
Ltd said as arranger and agent.
    The credit will pay a margin of 20 basis points over U.S.
Dollar London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) and will
incorporate a tender panel for U.S. Dlr advances.
    There is a 10 basis point annual facility fee in years one
to four, rising to 12-1/2 points thereafter.  A 7-1/2 basis
point participation fee is payable on the transaction, which
started syndication this week.
 Reuter

Royal Dutch/Shell's Scallop Petroleum
Co subsidiary said it will reduce the price it charges contract
barge customers in New York harbor for heating oil by 2.5 cts a
gallon, effective tomorrow.
    The company said the price cut will bring the contract
barge price for heating oil to 51 cts a gallon.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust New York Corp filed
offering of up to 400 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures on
    The bank holding company said proceeds will be used for
general corporate purposes including investments in or
extensions of credit to its subsidiaries.
 Reuter

price by 0.25 cent to 65.75 cents a lb, effective immediately.
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 57.4 mln vs 46.6 mln
    Assets 28.39 billion vs 25.87 billion
    Loans 13.99 billion vs 14.35 billion
 Reuter

Shr 94 cts vs 1.02 dlrs
    Net 7,255,000 vs 7,856,000
    Loans 2.88 billion vs 2.94 billion
    Deposits 4.05 billion vs 3.73 billion
    Assets 5.43 billion vs 5.14 billion

 Reuter

Oper shr four cts vs one ct
    Oper net 108,000 vs 30,000
    Revs 12.8 mln vs 14.8 mln
    Note: Current qtr figures exclude operating loss
carryforward gain of 57,000 dlrs, or two cts per share vs gain
of 21,000 dlrs, or one ct per share.
 Reuter

IRT Property Co, a real estate investment
trust based in Atlanta, Georgia, has launched a 30 mln dlr
convertible subordinated debenture in the Euromarket, a partner
of Chandler Partnership Ltd said.
    The issue is unique in several respects and is only one of
a handful of such deals to be brought to this market, he said.
    Unlike most eurobonds, the issue will not be underwritten.
Instead, IRT mandated Chandler Partnership to find potential
investors with whom the issue can be preplaced and to then
place on a "best efforts" basis what ever amount may not be
subscribed.
    Chandler itself was set up in the Isle of Jersey in the
middle of last year as a partnership, whose members have been
involved in financial markets.
    The deal has two sponsors who assist in the placement--
Interallianz Bank Zurich AG and Nivison Cantrade Ltd, a small
U.K. Trading firm that formerly was broker R. Nivison and Co.
    The debentures are due June 1, 2002 and pay a semi-annual
coupon of two pct and are priced at par. They can be converted
into shares of the company's stock at 23-1/2 dlrs a share.
    IRT's shares closed last night on the New York Stock
Exchange at 19-7/8.
    The debentures can be redeemed at par at maturity and are
callable at the company's option after the first two years.
    On or after August 1989 the company can call half the
debentures if the stock trades for 30 days at 123 pct of the
conversion price and half if it reaches 140 pct of the
conversion price, Nivison said.
    In addition, holders will be able to surrender half the
bonds during May 1991 at 123 pct for a semi-annual yield of
7.043 pct and the other half in May 1993 at 140 pct, for a
yield of 7.383 pct.
    The payment date is June 1, 1987. The debentures will be
listed in London and the fees for the deal total 2-1/4 pct.
    Nivison said that the deal contains a convenent which
states that if the company's debt to equity ratio exceeds two
to one the debentures cannot be converted unless the company
obtains a bank guarantee or a letter of credit.
    Nivison said IRT's debt to equity ratio currently is less
than one to one.
    The Chandler partner said that this type of deal gives the
borrower funds that are less costly than if it had done an
issue in the U.S. Domestic market.
 REUTER

Egypt has cancelled its April 2 tender for
200,000 tonnes of any origin wheat for April 15-30 shipment,
trade and Egyptian official sources said.
    Trade sources said the cancellation followed an offer by an
Egyptian company, Islamic Corp, at 85.80 dlrs/tonne cost and
freight, undercutting other traders' offers of between 93.90
and 94.49 dlrs/tonne.
    An Egyptian trade official in Paris confirmed cancellation
of the tender following the Islamic Corp offer, which he said
the government had refused for legal reasons.
    The official denied trade reports that the government might
have substituted a private deal with Islamic Corp for the
original tender.
 Reuter

U.K. Helicopter maker <Westland Plc> will
reduce the 6,000 workforce of its helicopter division by around
a third over the next few weeks, a company spokesman said.
    He said the decision was in part the result of a 400 mln
stg government order for military helicopters announced
earlier.
    The spokesman said the order had reduced the number of
redundancies necessary but was not large enough to avoid job
losses. The total group workforce is 11,000. The company was
rescued last year by a consortium of United Technologies Corp's
<UTX.N> Sikorsky unit and Fiat SpA <FIAT.MI>.
 Reuter

has voted for a transfer in the management of stockpiled
materials for national defense to the U.S. Defense Secretary.
    The committee also voted for legally-binding quantity and
quality requirements on the materials, mostly metals.
    The measures are a part of the Defense Authorization Bill
which will be voted on in the House next month.
    The purpose of the measures, passed by the committee
yesterday, is to improve stockpile management and discourage
sell-offs of materials that could jeopardize strategic needs, a
staff member of the committee told Reuters.
    "They (the stockpiles) stand to gain the most by being
managed properly," said the staffer. "Management of the stockpile
over the last 10 years has been atrocious."
    Responsibility for stockpile management now belongs to a
White House agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
    The staffer said under the measures passed by the committee
the Secretary of Defense would have more influence over
decisions to keep or sell strategic stockpile materials.
    The administration has proposed a goal of 700 million dlrs
worth of strategic materials to be held in the stockpile. The
stockpile now contains around 10 billion dlrs of materials.
    He said several agencies currently helped FEMA to manage
the stockpile and decide how much to sell to help the deficit.
    These agencies included the Office of Management and Budget
and the Departments of Interior and Commerce, he said.
    The committee believed the shared involvement in stockpile
management was counter-productive, he said.
 Reuter

Canada's trade picture has brightened
considerably, underscoring economists' predictions the sector
would post a long awaited recovery this year.
    The federal government reported today that the monthly
surplus soared to 1.25 billion Canadian dlrs in February,
double January's 623 mln dlrs surplus and sharply higher than
February 1986's 189 mln dlr tally.
    "Hopefully it's the beginning of a trend," said Richardson
Greenshields of Canada Ltd economist Susan Clark in Toronto.
    Economists generally don't expect such large gains over the
next months, but are looking for an upward trend throughout the
year.
    "We thought the trade balance would improve ... over the
year, and it certainly looks as if this morning's figure is
indicative of that," commented economist James Donegan at the
Toronto securities firm of Midland Doherty Ltd.
    Statistics Canada reported the surplus was driven by a 23
pct gain in automobile product exports to a record 3.2 billion
dls in the month.
    "Recovery in the automotive sector helped push the value of
exports up by 5.9 pct in February," the agency said in its
monthly report.
    Total exports expanded to 10.44 billion dlrs from 9.85
billion dlrs in February, while imports slipped to 9.19 billion
dlrs from 9.23 billion dlrs.
    Economists have predicted the 1987 trade surplus would end
up three to five billion dlrs higher than last year's dismal
10.1 billion dlr total. In 1985 the surplus was 17.48 billion
dlrs.
    Money market analysts said the positive trade news touched
off a modest rally in the Canadian dollar, which rose to 76.85
U.S. cts on North American markets early this morning after
closing at 76.58 cts Wednesday.
    The currency was hovering around 76.78 cts in early
afternoon trading.
    Economists have been banking on an improved trade
performance this year to stimulate an otherwise sluggish
Canadian economy.
    They say the country's consumers, who have been spending at
a torrid pace in recent years, will sharply curtail outlays
this year and this should help curtail the flow of imports into
the country.
    Meanwhile, demand for Canadian exports in the United
States, by far the country's largest market, is expected to be
strong as a result of a projected rise in American consumer
spending and the relatively low value of the Canadian currency.
    "We maintain what's going to drive Canada's export
performance is income growth in the U.S.," said Midland's
Donegan.
    But at the Bank of Nova Scotia, deputy chief economist
Warren Jestin was less optimistic about the U.S. outlook and
said it could be a mistake to read too much into February's
trade upturn.
    Jestin said, "Given the fact the U.S. economy is showing
signs of weakening--particularly car sales--it would indicate
that part of the strength (in Canada's trade figures) is
probably transitory."
 Reuter

First Bank Systems Inc, in reporting
higher first quarter net, said that if interest is not paid on
the 140 mln dlrs in Brazilian loans and nine mln dlrs in
Ecuadorian loans for the rest of 1987, its profits for the
entire year will be cut by 6.9 mln dlrs.
    The banking firm said the non-performing status of these
loans cut first quarter net by 1.7 mln dlrs.
    Earlier it reported first quarter profits of 57.4 mln dlrs
or 95 cts a share, up from 46.6 mln dlrs or 80 cts a share in
    Nonaccrual loans, restructured loans and other real estate
were 637 mln dlrs, or 2.24 pct of total assets, compared to 514
mln dlrs or 1.84 pct of assets at the end of 1986 and 636.1
mln, or 2.46 pct of assets at March 31, 1986.
    The provision for loan losses in the quarter was 35 mln
dlrs, compared to 152.1 mln in the first quarter 1986, when
there was a special addition to the reserve of 100 mln dlrs.
Net charge offs were 34.7 mln, compared to 41.1 mln dlrs a year
earlier.
REUTER^M

USDA ESTIMATES 1986/87 USSR GRAIN IMPORTS  28.0 MLN TONNES VS 26.0 IN MARCH, 29.9 YEAR AGO

International American Homes Inc
said it would not be able to release any statements concerning
its stock halt on Nasdaq for about 45 minutes to an hour.
    American Homes, whose stock halted on a last sale of 7-3/4,
said the only executive who could release the news would not be
available until then.
 Reuter

USDA ESTIMATES 1986 SOVIET GRAIN CROP  AT 210 MLN TONNES VS 210 IN MARCH, 192 YEAR-AGO

USDA - U.S. 1986/87 ENDING CORN STOCKS  5,240 MLN BU, WHEAT 1,848 MLN, SOYBEANS 610 MLN

USDA 1986/87 U.S. ORANGE CROP 190,050,000  BOXES, FLORIDA CROP 122,900,000 BOXES

USDA ESTIMATES 1986/87 ORANGE JUICE YIELD  AT 1.50 GALS PER BOX FROM FLORIDA CROP

Exchange Commission covering 300 mln dlrs of debt securities.
    The proposed offering includes 150 mln dlrs of 30-year
debentures and 150 mln dlrs of 10-year notes, the company said.
    Net proceeds from the offering will be used to reduce bank
borrowings, National Medical said, adding, Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets will manage the underwriting.
 Reuter

Comdata Network Inc said it has
received a letter from Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc stating that,
subject to conditions, the company could raise up to 235 mln
dlrs in debt securities to finance the previously announced
merger of a newly formed corporation controlled by <Welsh,
Carson, Anderson and Stowe IV> and Comdata.
    Comdata said the letter was in accordance with the
previously announced terms with Welsh, Carson.
 Reuter

Western Bell Communications Inc said
it is preparing a 23-mln-dlr syndicated limited partnership to
finance three films and three television pilots through its
Western Bell Entertainment Inc unit.
    Western Bell Entertainment will produce all of the
projects, the company said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.64 dlrs vs 84 cts
    Oper net 4,583,000 vs 2,869,000
    Revs 20.1 mln vs 19.0 mln
    Avg shrs 2,791,639 vs 3,432,746
    Year
    Oper shr 4.46 dlrs vs 3.20 dlrs
    Oper net 14.1 mln vs 10.9 mln
    Revs 74.6 mln vs 68.0 mln
    Avg shrs 3,154,665 vs 3,425,187
    NOTE: Operating net excludes gains of nothing vs 2,444,000
dlrs, or 72 cts a share, in quarter and 1,890,000 dlrs, or 60
cts a share, vs 9,3267,000 dlrs, or 2.72 dlrs a share, in year
from tax loss carryforwards
 Reuter

Following are highlights of the U.S.
Agriculture Department supply/demand projections for the
1986/87 seasons, in mln bushels, with comparisons, unless noted
--
    Corn -- Stocks, Aug 31, 1987, at 5,240, vs 5,595 last
month. Stocks, Aug 31, 1986, at 4,040, vs 4,040 last month.
    Exports projected at 1,375, vs 1,250 last month. Exports in
1985/86 at 1,241, vs 1,241 last month.
    Domestic use at 5,680, vs 5,450 last month. Usage in the
1985/86 season at 5,255, vs 5,255 last month.
    Wheat -- Stocks, May 31, 1987, projected at 1,848, vs 1,877
last month. Stocks on May 31, 1986, at 1,905, vs 1,905 last
month.
    Exports in 1986/87 season at 1,025, vs 1,025 last month.
1985/86 season at 915, vs 915 last month.
    Domestic use in 1986/87 at 1,134, vs 1,105 last month.
1985/86 at 1,045, vs 1,045 last month.
    Cotton -- in mln 480 lb bales - Stocks, July 31, 1987, at
5.40, vs 5.49 last month. Stocks July 31, 1986, at 9.35, vs
9.35 last month.
    Exports in 1986/87 season at 6.66, vs 6.76 last month.
Exports in 1985/86 - 1.96, vs 1.96 last month.
    Soybeans -- in mln bushels - Stocks, Aug 31, 1987,
projected at 610, vs 635 last month. Stocks Aug 31, 1986, at
536, vs 536 last month.
    Soybean crushings during 1986/87 - 1,130, vs 1,115 last
month. Crushings in 1985/86 at 1,053, vs 1,053 last month.
    Exports in 1986/87 season at 700, vs 700 last month.
Exports in 1985/86 at 740, vs 740 last month.
    Soybean Oil -- mln lbs - Stocks on Sept 30, 1987, at 1,360,
vs 1,200 last month. Stocks on Sept 30, 1986, at 947,  vs 947
    Exports in 1986/87 at 1,350, vs 1,350 last month.  Exports
in 1985/86 at 1,257, vs 1,257 last month.
    Soybean Cake/Meal -- thousand short tons - Stocks, Sept 30,
1987, at 270, vs 315 last month. Stocks, Sept 30, 1986, at 212,
vs 212 last month.
    Exports in 1986/87 season at 6,500, vs 6,350 last month. 
Exports in 1985/86 at 6,036, vs 6,008 last month.
 Reuter

estimated 1986/87 citrus production, as follows (in boxes) --
    Total U.S. orange crop (excluding Florida Temples) --
190,050,000 boxes, vs 190,850,000 boxes last month and
176,410,000 boxes in the 1985/86 crop.
    Florida oranges (excluding Temples) -- 122,900,000 boxes,
vs 124,000,000 last month and 119,000,000 boxes in 1985/86.
    Florida Temples -- 3,400,000 boxes, vs 3,400,000 last month
and 2,950,000 boxes in 1985/86.
    The department's estimates are based on April 1 crop
 Reuter

projected an average yield of 1.50 gallons of frozen
    That compares with 1.47 gallons per box previously and 1.38
season are based on maturity and yields tests as of April 1.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union has added 175,600
tonnes of U.S. corn to its previous commitments for delivery in
the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR Grain Supply Agreement, which
began October 1, 1986, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    According to the department's Export Sales Report, covering
transactions in the week ended April 2, corn transactions
consisted of 140,600 tonnes of new sales and changes in
destinations for 35,000 tonnes.
    Total corn commitments to the USSR  for delivery in the
fourth agreement year amount to 2,825,600 tonnes. The Soviets
have not purchased wheat or soybeans in the fourth year of the
 Reuter

Robert Salomon, managing director of
Salomon Inc, said rumors the Wall Street firm suffered bond
trading losses in the first quarter are not true.
    Salomon said the rumors affected the company's stock and 
are "unequivocally denied."
    The Salomon share price was off 5/8 at 37-1/2, but it had
been off more than one dlr on heavy volume earlier in the day.
    Analysts said the rumors have been circulating in the
market for several days.
   
    Salomon said the firm will report first quarter results on
April 22 or 23.
    Analysts said the stock would have reacted poorly today,
even without the rumors, because of the decline in the stock
and bond markets.
    Other brokerages were also down today. E.F. Hutton <EFH>
fell one to 41-1/4. Bear Stearns and Co <BSC> slipped 3/8 to
19-1/2. PaineWebber Group <PWJ> fell 1/2 to 36, and First
Boston Corp <FBC> slid 3/8 to 49-3/4. Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
was off 7/8 at 42-3/8.
 Reuter

estimated 1987 spring potato production, based on April 1
conditions, at 19,267,000 cwts (100 lbs), vs 19,822,000 cwts
indicated last year.
    The department estimated spring potato area for harvest at
79,100 acres, vs 76,700 acres estimated last month and 75,900
acres harvested last year.
    Spring potato yield per harvested acre is forecast at 244
cwt per acre, vs 261 cwt per acre a year ago, USDA said.
 Reuter

The U.S. Agriculture Department made
the following revisions for 1986 crop summer potatoes --
    Production -- 21,003,000 cwt (100 lbs), vs 20,900,000 cwt
estimated previously.
    Acreage for harvest -- 95,700 acres, vs 95,800 acres
    Yield per harvested acre -- 219 cwt per acre, vs 218 cwt
per acre previously estimated, the department said.
 Reuter

projected carryover free stocks of feedgrains, corn and wheat
under loans, with comparisons, as follows, in mln bushels,
except feedgrains, which is in mln tonnes --
                1986/87            1985/86
           04/09/87 03/09/87  04/09/87 03/09/87
 Under Regular Nine Month Loan --
      WHEAT    225     300       678     678
 FEEDGRAINS   52.1    68.1      75.7    75.7
       CORN  1,800   2,400     2,589   2,589
 Special Producer Storage Loan Program --
      WHEAT    165     150       163     163
 FEEDGRAINS    7.0     6.7       5.3     5.3
       CORN    200     200       147     147
 Reuter

Clevite Industries Inc, which
earlier received a 96 mln dlr takeover offer from J.P.
Industries Inc <JPI>, said it amended its Shareholder Rights
Plan so that certain provisions of the plan cannot occur until
the board determines that it is in the best interests of the
company and stockholders.
    The plan, adopted in December 1986, permits Clevite to
issue shares at half price to existing stockholders and allows
stockholders to buy shares of an unfriendly bidder at half
price.
    Clevite said the amendments by its board effectively mean
that the so-called flip-in and flip-over provisions of its
rights plan can only be triggered by affirmative board
approval.
    The company said it acted inview of the proposed
acquisition and because certain debt restrictions could block
its ability to redeem the rights.
 Reuter

The following proposed public
offerings of securities were filed recently with the Securities
and Exchange Commission:
    Utah Power and Light Co <UTP> - Shelf offering of up to 95
mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds on terms to be set at the time
of sale. Underwriters were not named.
    Conseco Inc <CNC> - Two mln shares of common stock through
an underwriting group led by Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
 Reuter

in 1985/86 is projected at 99.99 mln tonnes, vs 100.00 mln
1986/87, vs 15.00 mln tonnes last month. Imports in 1985/86 are
estimated Soviet 1986/87 coarse grain imports at 12.00 mln
tonnes, vs 10.00 mln tonnes last month, and 1985/86 imports at
    USDA said Soviet coarse grain imports include 1986/87 corn
imports, which it forecast at 8.00 mln tonnes, vs 6.00 mln
tonnes last month. Corn imports in 1985/86 are estimated at
10.40 mln tonnes, vs 10.40 mln last month.
    Total Soviet grain imports in 1986/87, at 28.0 mln tonnes,
include one mln tonnes of miscellaneous grains.
 Reuter

the 1986/87 breakdown of supply and distribution for wheats by
classes, in mln bushels, with comparisons, as follows.
    HARD WINTER --
                1986/87           1985/86
 Start Stocks 1,009   1,009      717     717
 Production   1,018   1,018    1,230   1,230
 Ttl Supply-X 2,027   2,027    1,947   1,947
 Domestic Use   599     579      543     543
 Exports        450     475      395     395
 Total Use    1,049   1,054      938     938
 End Stocks     978     973    1,009   1,009
 Note - Season begins June 1. X-Includes imports
    HARD SPRING --
 Start Stocks   498     498      371     371
 Production     451     451      460     460
 Ttl Supply-X   956     956      838     838
 Domestic Use   218     192      174     174
 Exports        200     190      166     166
 Total Use      418     382      340     340
 End Stocks     538     574      498     498
 Note - Season begins June 1. X-Includes imports.
    SOFT RED --
               1986/87           1985/86
          04/09/87 03/09/87  04/09/87 03/09/87
 Start Stocks   79     79       64     64
 Production    290    290      368    368
 Ttl Supply-X  369    369      432    432
 Domestic Use  181    193      204    204
 Exports       120    120      149    149
 Total Use     301    313      353    353
 End Stocks     68     56       79     79
    WHITE --
 Start Stocks  198    198      173    173
 Production    232    232      254    254
 Ttl Supply-X  433    433      430    430
 Domestic Use   82     83       80     80
 Exports       170    160      152    152
 Total Use     252    243      232    232
 End Stocks    181    190      198    198
    DURUM --
 Start Stocks   121    121      100    100
 Production      95     95      113    113
 Ttl Supply-X   221    221      218    218
 Domestic Use    54     58       44     44
 Exports         85     80       53     53
 Total Use      139    138       97     97
 End Stocks      82     83      121    121
 Note - Season begins June 1. X-Includes Imports.

 Reuter

forecast Brazil's 1986/87 soybean crop at 17.00 mln tonnes, vs
17.00 estimated last month. It put the 1985/86 crop at 13.90
mln tonnes, vs 13.70 mln last month.
    The department forecast Argentina's 1986/87 soybean crop at
7.70 mln tonnes, vs 7.70 mln last month. It projected the
1985/86 crop at 7.30 mln tonnes, vs 7.30 mln last month.
    Brazil's 1986/87 soybean exports were forecast at 2.50 mln
tonnes, vs 2.50 mln tonnes estimated last month. USDA projected
1985/86 exports at 1.20 mln tonnes, vs 1.20 mln last month.
 Reuter

forecast Argentina's 1986/87 coarse grain crop at 13.99 mln
tonnes, vs 15.44 mln tonnes last month. It estimated the
1985/86 crop at 17.06 mln tonnes, vs 17.14 mln last month.
    USDA forecast Argentina's 1986/87 wheat crop at 9.00 mln
tonnes, vs 9.00 mln tonnes last month, while the 1985/86 crop
was projected at 8.50 mln tonnes, vs 8.50 mln last month.
    USDA forecast Argentine 1986/87 coarse grain exports at
6.60 mln tonnes, vs 7.73 mln tonnes last month, and projected
1985/86 exports at 9.43 mln tonnes, vs 9.58 mln last month.
 Reuter

forecast Australia's 1986/87 wheat crop at 16.70 mln tonnes, vs
17.30 mln tonnes last month. It estimated 1985/86 output at
mln tonnes, vs 14.50 mln tonnes last month, while exports in
month.
 Reuter

projected China's 1986/87 wheat crop at 90.30 mln tonnes, vs
88.50 mln tonnes last month. It estimated the 1985/86 crop at
85.81 mln tonnes, vs 85.81 mln last month.
    USDA projected China's 1986/87 wheat imports at 7.00 mln
tonnes, vs 7.00 mln tonnes last month, and estimated 1985/86
imports at 6.60 mln tonnes, vs 6.60 mln last month.
 Reuter

month.
tonnes, vs 19.00 mln tonnes last month. Exports in 1985/86 are
estimated at 17.72 mln tonnes, vs 17.71 mln last month.
 Reuter

the net change in export commitments, including sales,
cancellations, foreign purchases and cumulative exports, in the
current seasons through the week ended April 2, with
comparisons, as follows, in tonnes, except as noted --
                        4/2/87   Prev Week
            All Wheat   119,800    368,300
                 Corn 1,001,900    927,000
             Soybeans   240,500    300,900
         Soy Cake/Meal  117,700    170,200
          Soybean Oil     2,400-x    8,100
            Cotton-Y     60,200     31,900
   x-minus total. Y-running bales.
    The indicated totals include reported commitments to both
named and unnamed destinations, sales on exporters' own account
and optional origin sales plus actual exports already made
during the respective marketing seasons.
    The USDA cautions that reported outstanding sales are
subject to modification, deferral or cancellation and it is
unlikely that all reported quantities will be exported.
    USDA gave detailed breakdowns for the 1986/87 and 1987/88
seasons as follows, in thousand tonnes unless stated --
 (A) - Firm sales to a declared destination.
 (B) - Ultimate destination not yet declared.
 (C) - Sales made on exporters' own account.
 (D) - Exporter holds option to fill commitment with supplies 
from origins other than U.S.
 (E) - Accumulated exports since season began based on data 
reported by exporters.
 (F) - Indicated total for season.
 (G) - USDA-projected exports for season.
 Note -- Totals may not add due to rounding.
     ALL WHEAT
                1986/87             1987/88
             4/2/87   Prev Wk  4/3/87 Prev Wk
 Named-A    3,157.6   3,684.1 1,591.4 1,635.6
 Unnamed-B    143.8     144.3    87.1    57.1
 E.O.A.-C       9.5       9.5     nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D       nil       nil     nil     nil
 Gr Total   3,310.9   3,837.9 1,679.0 1,692.7
 Ay Expd-E 21,044.6  20,433.4
 Ind Ttl-F 24,355.5  24,271.3
 USDAPRJ-G 27,900.0  27,900.0
    SOYBEANS
                 1986/87            1987/88
             4/2/87   Prev Wk   4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A    1,774.7  1,780.3     215.9   215.9
 Unnamed-B    500.3    524.8       nil    30.0
 E.O.A.-C      18.4     18.4       nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D       nil      nil       nil     nil
 Gr Total   2,293.4  2,323.5     215.9   245.9
 Ay Expd-E 14,334.2 14,183.2
 Ind Ttl-F 16,627.6 16,506.7
 USDAPRJ-G 19,050.0 19,050.0
    CORN
            4/2/87    Prev Wk    4/2/87 Prev WK
 Named-A    8,559.8   8,684.8    772.1   268.8
 Unnamed-B    945.7     920.1      nil     nil
 E.O.A-C       90.8      66.9      nil     nil
 O.O.P-D      138.0     175.0      nil     nil
 Gr Total   9,734.3   9,846.9    772.1   268.8
 Ay Expd-E 20,296.0  19,293.8
 Ind Ttl-F 30,030.3  29,140.7
 USDAPRJ-G 31,750.0  31,750.0
    SORGHUM
                1986/87            1987/88
             4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87 Prev WK
 Named-A      875.6    805.1     nil      nil
 Unnamed-B    151.2    151.2     10.2-x   nil
 E.O.A-C        nil      nil     nil      nil
 O.O.P-D      114.5    138.3     nil      nil
 Gr Total   1,141.3  1,094.6     10.2-x   nil
 Ay Expd-E  3,222.5  3,149.7
 Ind Ttl-F  4,363.8  4,244.3
 USDAPRJ-G  5,720.0  5,720.0
 x-minus total 
    WHEAT PRODUCTS
               1986/87            1987/88
            4/2/87  Prev Wk   4/2/87   Prev Wk
 Named-A     321.0   401.9       nil    nil
 Unnamed-B     nil     nil       nil    nil
 E.O.A.-C      nil     nil       nil    nil
 O.O.P.-D      nil     nil       nil    nil
 Gr Total    321.0   401.9       nil    nil
 Ay Expd-E   926.9   840.9
 Ind Ttl-F 1,348.2 1,242.8
  Note - Includes bulgur, semolina, farina, rolled, cracked and
crushed wheat.
    SOYBEAN OIL
               1986/87           1987/88
           4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A      8.8    10.4      nil     nil
 Unnamed-B    7.0    10.5      nil     nil
 E.O.A-C      nil     nil      nil     nil
 O.O.P-D      nil     nil      nil     nil
 Gr Total    15.8    20.9      nil     nil
 Ay Expd-E  138.4   135.8
 Ind Ttl-F  154.2   156.7
 USDAPRJ-G  610.0   610.0
    SOYBEAN CAKE AND MEAL
             4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87 Prev Wk
 Named-A      788.0    869.7    50.7      48.4
 Unnamed-B     76.0     94.0     nil       nil
 E.O.A-C        2.7      6.1     nil       nil
 O.O.P-D        nil      nil     nil       nil
 Gr Total     866.7    969.8    50.7      48.4
 Ay Expd-E  4,098.0  3,880.6
 Ind Ttl-F  4,964.7  4,850.4
 USDAPRJ-G  5,760.0  5,760.0
     COTTONSEED OIL
 Named-A      7.4     7.2       nil     nil
 Unnamed-B    0.3     0.3       nil     nil
 E.O.A.-C     nil     nil       nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D     7.8     7.8       nil     nil
 Gr Total    15.4    15.2       nil     nil
    ALL UPLAND DOMESTIC RAW COTTON-Y
            4/2/87    Prev Wk   4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A    2,007.9  2,076.1     468.2   457.2
 Unnamed-B     20.3     20.2       nil     nil
 E.O.A-C        nil      nil       nil     nil
 O.O.P-C        nil      nil       nil     nil
 Gr Total   2,028.2  2,096.3     468.2   457.2
 Ay Expd-E  4,333.1  4,204.7
 Ind Ttl-F  6,361.3  6,301.0
 USDAPRJ-G  6,335.0  6,335.0
  Y-In thousand running bales.
    BARLEY
            4/2/87   Prev Wk     4/2/87 Prev Wk
 Named-A      559.5    584.5      nil      nil
 Unnamed-B     12.7     12.7      nil      nil
 E.O.A.-C       nil      nil      nil      nil
 O.O.P.-D      25.0     25.0      nil      nil
 Gr Total     597.1    622.1      nil      nil
 Ay Expt-E  2,464.6  2,440.7
 Ind Ttl-F  3,061.7  3,062.8
 USDAPRJ-G  3,270.0  3,270.0
    OATS
             1986/87            1987/88
           4/2/87 Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A     nil    nil       nil    nil
 Unnamed-B   nil    nil       nil    nil
 E.O.A.-C    nil    nil       nil    nil
 O.O.P.-D    nil    nil       nil    nil
 Gr Total    nil    nil       nil    nil
 Ay Expd-E   2.4    2.4
 Ind Ttl-F   2.4    2.4
 USDAPRJ-G  30.0   30.0
    RICE
            4/2/87   Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A      347.6    369.1      nil     nil
 Unnamed-B      1.0      1.0      nil     nil
 E.O.A-C        nil      nil      nil     nil
 O.O.P-D        nil      nil      nil     nil
 Gr Total     348.6    370.1      nil     nil
 Ay Expd-E  1,718.8  1,688.2
 Ind Ttl-F  2,067.4  2,058.3
 USDAPRJ-G  2,580.0  2,580.0
    HARD RED WINTER WHEAT
           4/2/87   Prev Wk     4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A   1,738.0  2,019.7     893.0   943.0
 Unnamed-B    80.5     70.5     107.6    77.2
 E.O.A.-C      nil      nil       nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D      nil      nil       nil     nil
 Gr Total  1,818.5  2,090.2   1,000.6 1,020.2
 Ay Exp-E  8,332.1  7,974.5
 Ind Tl-F 10,150.6 10,064.8
    WHITE WHEAT
            4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87   Prev Wk
 Named-A     548.5    635.6     58.0    58.0
 Unnamed-B    19.0-x   19.0-x    6.0-x   6.0-x
 E.O.A.-C      nil      nil      nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D      nil      nil      nil     nil
 Gr Total    529.5    616.6     52.0    52.0
 Ay Exp-E  3,831.5  3,757.7
 Ind Tl-F  4,361.0  4,374.3
  x - denotes minus figure
    HARD RED SPRING WHEAT
              1986/87             1987/88
          4/2/87   Prev Wk    4/2/87   Prev Wk
 Named-A    576.6    620.6    164.7   164.7
 Unnamed-B   29.6     16.0      nil     nil
 E.O.A.-C     0.9      0.9      nil     nil
 O.O.P.-D     nil      nil      nil     nil
 Gr Total   607.1    637.5    164.7   164.7
 Ay Exp-E 4,312.4  4,247.6
 Ind Tl-F 4,919.5  4,885.1
     DURUM WHEAT
              1986/87              1987/88
           4/2/87   Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A    166.6    280.3      93.4   93.4
 Unnamed-B   52.8     76.9       nil    nil
 E.O.A.-C     2.8      2.8       nil    nil
 O.O.P.-D     nil      nil       nil    nil
 Gr Total   222.2    360.0      93.4   93.4
 Ay Exp-E 1,842.6  1,727.5
 Ind Tl-F 2,064.8  2,087.5
    SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT
               1986/87             1987/88
            4/2/87  Prev Wk     4/2/87  Prev Wk
 Named-A     127.8    127.8    382.3   376.5
 Unnamed-B     nil      nil     14.0-x  14.0-x
 E.O.A.-C      5.8      5.8      nil     nil
 Gr Total    133.6    133.6    368.3   362.5
 Ay Exp-E  2,726.0  2,726.0
 Ind Tl-F  2,859.6  2,859.6
 x-minus figure
    Country and destinations of the identified sales of
commodities reported by exporters in week ended April 2 for
the respective marketing seasons were detailed by the USDA as
follows, with comparisons for the previous week, in thousands
of tonnes, except where noted-- 
 ALL WHEAT  
             4/2/87  Prev Wk   4/2/87   Prev Wk
 E.C.          nil     nil      50.0    50.0
 Other West
 Europe      218.8   236.8       nil     nil
 East Europe 261.0   346.0      25.0    25.0
    ALL WHEAT Continued
             4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 USSR           nil      nil      nil     nil
 Japan        490.4    662.2      nil     nil
 China         90.0     90.0    910.0   910.0
 Taiwan       115.0    141.0    144.0   144.0
 Other Asia and
 Oceania      654.9    730.9     28.6    78.6
 Africa       959.5  1,115.0    167.1   167.1
 Western
 Hemisphere   367.9    362.1    266.7   260.9
 SOYBEANS        1986/87            1987/88
            4/2/87   Prev Wk   4/2/87   Prev Wk
 E.C.        302.2     317.7    91.4     91.4
 Other West
 Europe       25.0      25.0     nil      nil
 East Europe 101.0     101.0     nil      nil
 Japan       355.4     330.5     nil      nil
 China         nil       nil     nil      nil
 Taiwan      472.0     499.0    87.0     87.0
 Oceania     164.6     187.7     nil      nil
 Africa        nil       nil     nil      nil
 Western
 Hemisphere  354.4     391.5     37.5    37.5
             1986/87           1987/88
          4/2/87  Prev Wk    4/2/87  Prev Wk
 E.C.        1.5     1.5      nil     nil
 India       nil     nil      nil     nil
 Oceania     nil     nil      nil     nil
 Africa      nil     nil      nil     nil
 Western
 Hemisphere  7.3     8.9      nil     nil
    SOYBEAN CAKE/MEAL
 E.C.        301.7   350.7     47.2   45.0
 Other West
 Europe        nil     nil      nil    nil
 East Europe   nil    36.0      nil    nil
 Japan         nil     3.5      nil    nil
 Oceania      25.0    40.0      nil    nil
 Africa       30.2    38.0      nil    nil
 Western
 Hemisphere  431.0   401.5      3.4    3.4
    CORN         1986/87            1987/88
              4/2/87   Prev Wk   4/2/87  Prev Wk
 E.C.           82.5     22.5       0.2     0.2
 Other West
 Europe          nil      0.8       nil     nil
 E. Europe      94.0     50.0      50.0    50.0
 USSR        2,432.7  2,543.8       nil     nil
 Japan       2,767.4  2,787.8      52.4    21.0
 China         495.0    555.0       nil     nil
 Taiwan        791.0    836.0     390.0   170.0
 Oceania       721.7    615.2     250.0     nil
 Africa        125.0    195.5       nil     nil
 WestHem     1,050.5  1,114.0      29.4    27.6
    UPLAND COTTON (In thousand bales)
            4/2/87  Prev Wk     4/2/87 Prev Wk
 E.C.        260.9    266.1     97.9    95.0
 Other West
 Europe       62.2     66.2      8.7     8.7
 E. Europe     3.1      3.1      nil     nil
 Japan       445.8    484.1     72.3    70.1
 Taiwan      377.9    390.4     41.6    39.5
 Oceania     741.7    783.4    244.5   241.1
 Africa       16.7     13.4      nil     nil
 Western
 Hemisphere   99.6     69.5      3.2     2.7
 Reuter

    The staffer said that under the measures passed by the
committee the Secretary of Defense would have more influence
over decisions to keep or sell strategic stockpile materials.
 Reuter

Miyazawa said that further substantial exchange rate shifts
could damage the prospects for growth and adjustment and called
for cooperation in exchange markets.
    In a statement to the International Monetary Funds Interim
Committee, Miyazawa said it was imperative that current account
surplus countries follow policies designed to strengthen
domestic demand and reduce surpluses while maintaining price
stability. He said Japan intended to carry out policies
announced at the Paris meeting of finance ministers to
    Miyazawa said that, given the massive external imbalances
and serious unemployment in some countries, "there are very real
fears of a protectionist uprising."
    In addition, "we are most concerned about this very serious
problem of exchange rate instability," Miyazawa said.
 Reuter

forecast the European Community's 1986/87 wheat crop at 71.60
mln tonnes, vs 71.50 mln tonnes last month. It estimated
1985/86 output at 71.70 mln tonnes, vs 71.71 mln last month.
    E.C. 1986/87 coarse grain production is projected at 81.22
mln tonnes, vs 81.19 mln tonnes last month. The 1985/86 crop is
estimated at 88.21 mln tonnes, vs 88.28 mln last month.
    E.C. wheat exports in 1986/87 are forecast at 28.22 mln
tonnes, vs 28.31 mln tonnes last month. Exports in 1985/86 are
estimated at 27.77 mln tonnes, vs 27.62 last month.
 Reuter

the following supply/demand projections for the 1986/87
seasons, in mln bushels, with comparisons, unless noted --
    CORN --     1986/87            1985/86
 Acreage (mln acres) --
     Planted   76.7    76.7     83.4    83.4
   Harvested   69.2    69.2     75.2    75.2
  Yield (bu)  119.3   119.3    118.0   118.0
 Supply (mln bu) -- 
 Start Stock  4,040   4,040    1,648   1,648
  Production  8,253   8,253    8,877   8,877
     Total-X 12,295  12,295   10,536  10,536
  X-Includes imports.
    CORN (cont.)
                 1986/87           1985/86
 Usage: Feed  4,500    4,300     4,095    4,126
       Other  1,180    1,150     1,160    1,129
  Ttl Domest  5,680    5,450     5,255    5,255
     Exports  1,375    1,250     1,241    1,241
   Total Use  7,055    6,700     6,496    6,496
  End Stocks  5,240    5,595     4,040    4,040
 Farmer Reser 1,400    1,300       564      564
  CCC Stocks  1,700    1,500       546      546
 Free Stocks  2,140    2,795     2,930    2,930
  AvgPrice  1.35-1.65  1.35-1.65  2.23     2.23
  Note - Price in dlrs per bu. Corn season begins Sept 1.
    ALL WHEAT -
     Planted   72.0    72.0     75.6    75.6
   Harvested   60.7    60.7     64.7    64.7
       Yield   34.4    34.4     37.5    37.5
 Supply (mln bu) --
 Start Stcks  1,905   1,905    1,425   1,425
  Production  2,087   2,087    2,425   2,425
       Total
    Supply-X  4,007   4,007    3,865   3,865
 X - Includes imports.
    ALL WHEAT   1986/87            1985/86
 (cont.)   04/09/87 03/09/87  04/09/87 03/09/87
 Usage: Food    700    690       678    678
        Seed     84     90        93     93
        Feed    350    325       274    274
  Ttl Domest  1,134  1,105     1,045  1,045
     Exports  1,025  1,025       915    915
   Total Use  2,159  2,130     1,960  1,960
  End Stocks  1,848  1,877     1,905  1,905
 Farmer Reser   475    450       433    433
  CCC Stocks    950    950       602    602
 Free Stocks    423    477       870    870
  Avg Price  2.30-40  2.30-40   3.08   3.08
 Note - Price in dlrs per bushel. Wheat season begins June 1.
    SOYBEANS -
      Planted   61.5   61.5     63.1   61.1
    Harvested   59.4   59.4     61.6   61.6
   Yield (bu)   33.8   33.8     34.1   34.1
 Start Stocks    536    536      316    316
   Production  2,007  2,007    2,099  2,099
        Total  2,543  2,543    2,415  2,415
    SOYBEANS (cont.)
               1986/87             1985/86
          04/09/87 03/09/87   04/09/87 03/09/87
      Usage --
  Crushings  1,130   1,115      1,053   1,053
    Exports    700     700        740     740
 Seed, Feed and
   Residual    103      93         86      86
  Total Use  1,933   1,908      1,879   1,879
 End Stocks    610     635        536     536
 Avg Price 4.60-4.80 4.60-4.80   5.05    5.05
 Note - Average price in dlrs per bushel. Soybean season begins
June 1.
    FEEDGRAINS - X
      Planted  119.8   119.8     128.1   128.1
    Harvested  102.0   102.0     111.8   111.8
 Yld (tonnes)   2.48    2.48      2.45    2.45
 Supply (mln tonnes) --
 Start Stocks  126.4   126.4      57.5    57.5
   Production  252.4   252.4     274.4   274.4
      Imports    0.6     0.6       0.9     0.9
        Total  379.4   379.4     332.7   332.7
 X - Includes corn, sorghum, barley, oats.
    FEEDGRAINS - X (cont.)
                 1986/87          1985/86
 Usage: Feed  140.6   136.2     134.8   135.5
       Other   35.8    35.0      35.0    34.3
  Ttl Domest  176.4   171.2     169.8   169.8
     Exports   43.9    40.8      36.6    36.6
   Total Use  220.3   211.9     206.4   206.4
  End Stocks  159.1   167.5     126.4   126.4
 Farmer Reser  39.0    36.5      16.6    16.6
  CCC Stocks   55.2    49.5      20.4    20.4
 Free Stocks   64.8    81.5      89.3    89.3
 X - Includes corn, sorghum, oats, barley. Seasons for oats,
barley began June 1, corn and sorghum Sept 1.
    SOYBEAN OIL -
 Supply (mln lbs) --
 Start Stcks     947     947       632     632
  Production  12,263  12,103    11,617  11,617
     Imports     Nil     Nil         8       8
       Total  13,210  13,050    12,257  12,257
 Note - 1985/86 production estimates based on October year
crush of 1,060 mln bushels.
    SOYBEAN OIL (cont.) -
          04/09/87  03/09/87  04/09/87  03/09/87
 Usage (mln lbs) --
  Domestic  10,500    10,500    10,053   10,053
   Exports   1,350     1,350     1,257    1,257
     Total  11,850    11,850    11,310   11,310
 End Stcks   1,360     1,200       947      947
 AvgPrice  14.5-16.0  15.0-17.0  18.00    18.00
 Note - Average price in cents per lb. Season for soybean oil
begins Oct 1.
    SOYBEAN CAKE/MEAL, in thousand short tons --
 Start Stcks     212     212       387     387
  Production  26,558  26,203    24,951  24,951
       Total  26,770  26,415    25,338  25,338
    SOY CAKE/MEAL (cont.) -
               1986/87            1985/86
 Usage (thous short tons) --
  Domestic   20,000  19,750    19,090  19,118
   Exports    6,500   6,350     6,036   6,008
     Total   26,500  26,100    25,126  25,126
 End Stcks      270     315       212     212
  AvgPrice  145-150  145-150   154.90  154.90
  Note - Price in dlrs per short ton. Season for soybean cake
and meal begins Oct 1.
    COTTON --
 Area (mln acres) --
      Planted  10.06   10.06     10.68   10.68
    Harvested   8.49    8.49     10.23   10.23
  Yield (lbs)    549     553       630     630
 Supply (mln 480-lb bales) --
 Start Stks-X   9.35    9.35      4.10    4.10
   Production   9.70    9.79     13.43   13.43
 Ttl Supply-Y  19.06   19.14     17.57   17.57
  X - Based on Census Bureau data. Y - Includes imports.
    COTTON (cont.) -
   Usage --
   Domestic   7.10    7.01     6.40    6.40
    Exports   6.66    6.76     1.96    1.96
      Total  13.76   13.77     8.36    8.36
 End Stocks   5.40    5.49     9.35    9.35
 Avge Price  51.7-X  51.7-X   56.50   56.50
 X - 1986/87 price is weighted average for first five months of
marketing year, not a projection for 1986/87. Average price in
cents per lb. Cotton season begins August 1.
    RICE
     Planted   2.40    2.40      2.51    2.51
   Harvested   2.38    2.38      2.49    2.49
 Yield (lbs)  5,648   5,648     5,414   5,414
 Supply (mln cwts) --
 Start Stcks   77.3    77.3      64.7    64.7
  Production  134.4   134.4     134.9   134.9
     Imports    2.2     2.2       2.2     2.2
       Total  213.9   213.9     201.8   201.8
    RICE (cont.)
 Usage (mln cwts) --
    Domestic   67.0    67.0      65.8    65.8
     Exports   80.0    80.0      58.7    58.7
     Total-Y  147.0   147.0     124.5   124.5
  End Stocks   66.9    66.9      77.3    77.3
  CCC Stocks   42.9    42.9      41.5    41.5
 Free Stocks   24.0    24.0      35.8    35.8
   AvgPrice 3.45-4.25 3.45-4.25  6.53    6.53
 Note - Average price in dlrs per CWT. Y-Rough equivalent.
N.A.-Not Available, USDA revising price definition due to
marketing loan. Rice season begins August 1.
    SORGHUM
  Yield (bu)  67.7    67.7     66.8    66.8
 Start Stcks   551     551      300     300
  Production   942     942    1,120   1,120
       Total 1,493   1,493    1,420   1,420
  Usage (mln bu) --
        Feed   550     575      662     662
       Other    30      30       29      29
  Ttl Domest   580     605      691     691
    SORGHUM (cont.) -
    Exports     225     225       178     178
  Total Use     805     830       869     869
 End Stocks     688     663       551     551
 Avge Price  1.30-50  1.30-50    1.93    1.93
 Note - Price in dlrs per bushel. Sorghum season begins Sept 1.
    BARLEY
   Yield (bu)  50.8    50.8      51.0    51.0
 Start Stocks   325     325       247     247
   Production   610     610       591     591
      Imports     5       5         9       9
        Total   941     941       847     847
    BARLEY (cont.)
             1986/87            1985/86
        04/09/87 03/15/87  04/09/87 03/15/87
 Usage (mln bu) --
       Feed  300    300       333    333
      Other  175    175       167    167
 Ttl Domest  475    475       500    500
    Exports  150    150        22     22
  Total Use  625    625       522    522
 End Stocks  316    316       325    325
  AvgPrice 1.45-65  1.45-65  1.98   1.98
 Note - Average price in dlrs per bushel. Barley season begins
June 1.
    OATS - in mln bushels
  Yield (bu)  56.0   56.0      63.7   63.7
 Start Stcks   184    184       180    180
  Production   385    385       521    521
     Imports    30     30        28     28
       Total   598    598       729    729
    OATS, in mln bushels (cont.)
              1986/87             1985/86
         04/09/87 03/09/87   04/09/87 03/09/87
     Usage --
      Feed   400     400       460     460
     Other    85      85        83      83
 Ttl Domes   485     485       543     543
   Exports     2       2         2       2
     Total   487     487       545     545
 End Stcks   111     111       184     184
 AvgPrice 1.00-20  1.00-20    1.23    1.23
  Note - Average price in dlrs per bushel. Oats season begins
June 1.
    LONG GRAIN RICE, in mln CWTs (100 lbs) --
   Harvested --
 Acres (mln)   1.83    1.83     1.94    1.94
 Yield (lbs)  5,358   5,358    5,168   5,168
  Start Stks   49.3    49.3     37.7    37.7
  Production   97.8    97.8    100.4   100.4
  Ttl Supply  148.6   148.6    140.1   140.1
 Note -- Starting Stocks does not include broken kernels --
Supply minus use does not equal ending stocks in breakdowns.
Total Supply includes imports but not broken kernels.
    LONG GRAIN RICE, in mln CWTs (100 lbs), cont. --
            04/09/87 03/09/87 04/09/87 03/09/87
 Domestic Use   43.0    43.0      48.8    48.8
      Exports   65.0    60.0      42.0    42.0
    Total Use  108.0   103.0      90.8    90.8
 End Stocks-X   40.6    45.6      49.3    49.3
    AvgPric 3.45-4.25 3.45-4.24   6.86    6.86
 Note - Average price in dlrs per cwt. X-Broken kernels not
included -- supply minus use does not equal ending stocks in
breakdowns. Rice season begins August 1.
    MEDIUM, SHORT GRAIN RICE - in mln CWTs (100 lbs) --
 Acres (mln)   0.55    0.55     0.55    0.55
 Yield (lbs)  6,651   6,651    6,258   6,258
  Start Stks   26.7    26.7     25.7    25.7
  Production   36.6    36.6     34.5    34.5
  Ttl Supply   65.3    65.3     61.7    61.7
    MEDIUM, SHORT GRAIN RICE, in mln CWTs (100 lbs), cont. --
 Domestic Use   24.0    24.0      17.0    17.0
      Exports   15.0    20.0      16.7    16.7
    Total Use   39.0    44.0      33.7    33.7
 End Stocks-X   24.5    19.5      26.7    26.7
    AvgPric 3.45-4.25  3.45-4.25  5.91    5.91
 Note - Average price in dlrs per CWT. X-Broken kernels not
included - supply minus use does not equal ending stocks in
    NOTES ON U.S. SUPPLY/DEMAND TABLES
    -- N.A. - Not available.
    -- Totals may not add due to rounding.
    -- Figures for 1986/87 are midpoint of USDA range.
    -- Feed usage for corn, wheat, soybean, feedgrains,
sorghum, barley, oats includes residual amount.
    -- Residual amount included in rice and medium/short grain
rice domestic usage.
    -- Rice, long grain, and medium/short grain rice average
price for 1985/86 estimates and 1986/87 projections are market
prices and exclude cash retained under the marketing loan since
April, 1986.
 Reuter

forecast the Soviet 1986/87 cotton crop at 11.20 mln bales
(480-lbs net), vs 11.20 mln bales forecast last month.
    The department also estimated the 1985/86 Soviet cotton
crop at 12.10 mln bales, vs 12.10 mln bales last month.
 Reuter

forecast South Africa's 1986/87 corn crop at 8.50 mln tonnes,
vs 9.50 mln tonnes last month. It estimated the 1985/86 crop at
8.08 mln, vs 8.08 mln last month.
    USDA forecast South African 1986/87 corn exports at 2.10
mln tonnes, vs 3.00 mln tonnes last month, and 1985/86 exports
at 2.75 mln tonnes, vs 2.75 mln tonnes last month.
 Reuter

The Stop and Shop Cos Inc said its board
voted a two-for-one stock split payable July One, to
stockholders of record May 29.
    It also said it was raising its quarterly cash dividend 16
pct to 32 cts per share from 27.5 cts per share prior.
    As a result of the split, the number of outstanding shares
will increase to 28 mln from 14 mln, the company said.
    The dividend is payable July One to shareholders of record
May 29, it said.
 Reuter

<National Beverage Corp>
said it agreed to acquire <Faygo Beverages Inc> for an
    Faygo has revenues in excess of of 100 mln dlrs, National
Beverage said.
    
 Reuter

Salomon Brothers Inc said it was altering
the management structure of its London operation, Salomon
Brothers International Ltd, following a similar move in New
York last October.
    Under the new structure, Charles McVeigh, who currently
heads the London operation, will be chairman, while Miles
Slater will be president and chief executive officer. Slater
will continue to be in charge of the firm's international fixed
income commitment taking and international capital markets
services.
    Bruce Koepfgen, manager of the London office, will be U.K.
and European sales manager and general manager of the office.
    A board of directors also is being introduced consisting of
seven managing directors involved in key areas of the firm's
business.
    They are Peter Clarke, George Hutchinson, Koepfgen,
McVeigh, Sheldon Prentice, Slater and Daniel Tyree.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 2,668,000 vs 3,655,000
    Revs 93.9 mln vs 83.8 mln
    Avg shrs 15.7 mln vs 13.2 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 48 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 7,510,000 vs 7,482,000
    Revs 228.8 mln vs 181.9 mln
    Avg shrs 15.7 mln vs 12.9 mln
    NOTE: full name of company is audio/video affiliates Inc.
 Reuter

Memory Metals Inc said that at a
special meeting of the board of directors it removed M. Brian
O'Shaugnessy as chairman, president and chief executive
officer.
    The company said it replaced O'Shaugnessy as president with
Stephen Fischer, formerly senior vice president and chief
    The other two positions have not been filled yet, a
spokesman for the company said.
 Reuter

VLSI Technology Inc said it
plans to file a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission in mid-April covering a proposed
underwritten public offering of 50 mln dlrs principal amount of
    The company said it plans to use proceeds from the offering
to fund growth and for capital expenditures associated with
increasing manufacturing capacity.
 Reuter

Procter and Gamble Co said its Swiss
subsidiary, Procter and Gamble AG, has concluded an agreement
with Mintax Deterjan Sanayii AS to establish a joint venture in
Turkey.
    The venture, 50 pct owned by Procter and Gamble, has been
approved by the Turkish government. It will market consumer
products in Turkey. Other terms were not disclosed.
    Privately held Mintax, based in Istanbul, has 900 employees
and makes laundry detergents, dishwashing products, shampoo,
fabric softeners and deodorant. Its 1986 sales about 50 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Fluorocarbon Co said it
signed a definitive agreement to acquire Eaton Corp's
Industrial Polymer division for an undisclosed price.
    The polymer division, based in Aurora, Ohio, had 1986 sales
of 86 mln dlrs, Fluorocarbon also said.
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 78.5 mln vs 64.6 mln
    NOTE: Current qtr includes gain of seven cts/shr from sale
of securities. Year-ago restated.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said a seat
on the exchange sold for 380,000 dlrs, a record price that is
5,000 dlrs higher than the previous sale on Feb 17.
    The current bid is 330,000 dlrs and the offer, 425,000
dlrs, the exchange said.
 Reuter

Qtr ended February 28
    Net 765,138 vs 311,388
    Rev 8.3 mln vs 3.7 mln
    Avg shares 12,272,265 vs 11,377,491
    Six months
    Shr 17 cts vs five cts
    Net 2,073,057 vs 515,229
    Rev 15.0 mln vs 7.4 mln
    Avg shares 12,295,934 vs 11,200,000
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 2,362,000 vs 1,613,000
    Avg shrs 5,567,300 vs 4,070,700
 Reuter

Exports of the following commodities
between start of current seasons and April 2, with comparisons,
as reported to USDA by exporters, in thousand tonnes, unless
noted --
               4/2/87    Prev Wk   4/3/86
 Wheat        21,044.6  20,398.3  19,725.8
 Soybeans     14,334.2  14,063.5  14,698.4
 Corn         20,296.0  19,194.6  25,182.6-x
 Sorghum       3,222.5   3,149.7   3,168.9-x
 Soybean Oil     138.4     135.8     179.9
 Soybean Meal  4,098.0   3,880.6   3,141.3
 Cotton        4,333.1   4,204.7   1,510.4
 X-2,059,300 tonnes of corn and 763,800 tonnes of sorghum added
to reflect change in marketing year to Sept-Aug.
 Reuter

the European/Mediterranean area continued to show strong gains
last week, increasing nearly two percentage points to 46.1 pct,
    The total number of working rigs in Europe and the
Mediterranean region was 71, reflecting an increase of three
during the week, compared to a total of 111 working rigs at
this time last year. In the previous week, the area also gained
three working rigs.
for the week remained steady at 53.9 pct, reflecting a total of
392 working rigs. Last year, a total of 479 rigs were working
throughout the world.
    In the Gulf of Mexico, the utilization rate decreased
slightly to 35.5 pct, from 35.6 pct the previous week because
of the addition of one rig to the Gulf fleet. A total of 83
rigs were working last week in the Gulf out of a fleet of 234.
 Reuter

Hawaiian Electric Industries said it
has entered a letter of intent to buy the Hawaiian Insurance
Companies.
    The transaction is subject to a definitive agreement, and
government and board approvals.
    The Hawaiian Insurance Companies ad assets at the end of
1986 of 137.4 mln dlrs and earned premiums of 46.1 mln dlrs.
    Hawaiian Electric said it plans to operate the comapny,
which has 226 employees, with current management.
 Reuter

increased its estimate of 1986/87 grain purchases by the Soviet
Union to 28 mln tonnes, up two mln tonnes from last month.
    In its monthly report on the Soviet grain situation, the
USDA said imports will be higher than earlier estimated because
Soviet grain buyers have been actively purchasing in the last
month.
    USDA said the increased purchasing is "somewhat surprising"
because of recent higher Soviet crop estimates.
    All of the increase in estimated imports will be in corn,
USDA said.
    Of the 28 mln tonnes total, 15 mln tonnes will be wheat, 12
mln tonnes coarse grains, and the remaining one mln tonnes
miscellaneous grains and pulses, USDA said.
    USDA noted that the Soviet winter grain crop suffered
through a severe winter and spring field work has been delayed.
    The severe winter "is believed to have resulted in above
average winter-kill," USDA said.
    Some grain trade analysts have said abnormal winter losses
maybe one reason why the Soviet Union has been actively buying
grain recently.
    USDA said Moscow already has purchased over 25 mln tonnes
grain for delivery in 1986/87, including 14 mln tonnes wheat
and 12 mln tonnes coarse grain.
 Reuter

The Roy Disney family disclosed in a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it made
a bid to acquire Holly Sugar Corp for a package of cash and
    Shamrock Holdings of California Inc, a Disney family
company, said it submitted the bid on April 8 to Salomon
Brothers Inc, Holly Sugar's investment banker.
    The offer was for 45 dlrs in cash, securities with a face
value of 70 dlrs, and a "contingent payment certificate" that
would pay out as much as 70 dlrs over a 20-year period for each
share of Holly Sugar outstanding.
    The Disney family already holds 101,300 Holly Sugar shares
or 9.0 pct of the total outstanding following purchases of
12,500 shares March 13-April 17, Shamrock told the SEC.
    Shamrock said it had asked for certain information about
Holly Sugar's financial condition but had been turned down. It
said its offer was therefore subject to further discussions.
    "Once we have had an opportunity to complete our due
diligence evaluation of the company, including inspections of
certain facilities and meetings with key management personnel,
we would be prepared to negotiate all aspects of our proposal,
including price," it said in its April 8 letter.
REUTER^M

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 200,000 TONNES WHEAT  SOLD TO JORDAN FOR 1987/88 DELIVERY

Shr 26 cts vs nil
    Net 2,244,000 vs nil
    Rev 3.4 mln vs nil
    NOTE: Company's full name is Universal Health Realty Income
Trust. Quarter is company's first full quarter of earnings.
 Reuter

Semi-annual div seven cts vs six cts prior
.
 Reuter

C.O.M.B. Co said it acquired for 8.7
mln dlrs the principal assets of National Tech Industries Inc
and Telkon Corp.
    The companies are engaged in servicing, sales and
telemarketing of consumer electronic merchandise.
 Reuter

SHr one cts vs 14 cts
    Net 17,806 vs 328,290
    Revs 1.3 mln vs 2.2 mln
    Shr 27 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 640,156 vs 622,251
    Revs 5.6 mln vs 5.6 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes loss of 49,040 in nine months from
discontinued and gain of 15,598 dlrs in 3rd qtr.
 Reuter

Centel Corp said it completed the
acquisition of Welbac Cable Television Corp, which serves more
than 2,500 cable television subscribers in east central
Michigan.
    With the addition of Welbac customers, Centel Cable
Television Co of Michigan serves more than 83,000 customers.
Overall, Centel has nearly 495,000 customers in seven states.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 10 cts vs 10 cts prior
 Reuter

Class A qtly div 2-1/2 cts vs 2-1/2 cts prior
    Class B qtly div 1-1/2 cts vs 1-1/2 cts prior
    Pay May 8
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 300,000 TONNES  SOYBEAN MEAL TO IRAQ FOR SPLIT DELIVERY

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 100,000 TONNES CORN  SOLD TO ALGERIA FOR 1986/87 DELIVERY

Banque de Financement Immobilier SOVAC,
BFIM-SOVAC, launched an offer to repurchase its 14.30 pct 1980
bond issue at a price of 2,180 francs per bond, a Paris Bourse
    The repurchase offer, managed by Lazard Freres et Cie,
opens April 10 and closes April 27. The 140 mln franc issue
comprised 70,000 bonds of 2,000 franc nominal value each.
 Reuter

the following 1986/87 projections in its world Supply/Demand
report, with comparisons, in mln tonnes, except where noted --
    Total World Grain
         04/09/87  03/09/87  04/09/87  03/09/87
 Produc  1,682.31  1,686.11  1,663.69  1,663.70
 Total
 Supply  2,025.71  2,028.45  1,919.18  1,920.13
 Trade-X   212.15    211.89    204.42    203.92
 Usage   1,635.01  1,630.40  1,575.78  1,577.79
 End Stks  390.70    398.05    343.40    342.34
 X-Based on export estimate.
    All Wheat    1986/87           1985/86
 Start Stks  137.05   136.48   125.54   125.87
 Production  529.20   528.40   498.97   498.81
 Imports      97.57    98.27    94.56    94.36
 Feed Use    101.79   100.82    90.19    90.56
 Total Domes 517.26   514.89   487.45   488.20
 Exports     101.08   101.20    95.92    95.76
 End Stocks  148.99   149.99   137.05   136.48
  Note - World imports/exports may not balance due to differing
marketing years, grains in transit and reporting discrepancies.
    Coarse Grain
 Start Stcks 181.64  181.10    107.80  108.40
 Production  835.21  838.82    844.60  844.84
 Imports      95.66   93.77     95.70   95.18
 Feed Use    514.07  510.20    510.20  510.80
 Total Domes 796.33  793.64    770.76  772.14
 Exports      98.97   98.47     96.02   95.76
 End Stocks  220.52  226.28    181.64  181.10
marketing years, grain in transit and reporting discrepancies.
    Corn (Mln Tonnes)
 Start Stcks 123.08  123.11     61.09   61.75
 Production  477.26  480.29    481.86  481.92
 Imports      61.03   58.59     62.12   62.08
 Feed Use    295.49  289.47    286.53  287.42
 Ttl Domes   444.78  439.80    419.88  420.55
 Exports      62.80   62.10     62.53   62.15
 End Stocks  155.56  163.61    123.08  123.11

    Soybeans
 Start Stcks  23.03   22.84    17.59   17.58
 Production   99.98   99.43    96.74   96.53
 Imports      26.21   26.27    27.08   27.08
 Crushings    79.69   79.33    76.16   76.15
 Ttl Domes    97.53   96.40    92.36   92.34
 Exports      26.45   26.43    26.02   26.01
 End Stocks   25.23   25.71    23.03   22.84
  Note - Imports and exports do not balance due to differing
marketing years and time lags between reported exports and
imports.
    Soybean Meal
 Start Stocks  2.55    2.47     2.79    2.74
 Production   62.71   62.40    60.09   60.09
 Imports      23.47   23.49    23.48   23.47
 Consumption  62.69   62.49    61.06   61.10
 Exports      23.51   23.39    22.76   22.74
 End Stocks    2.52    2.47     2.55    2.47
  Note - Imports and exports may not balance due to differing
imports.
    Soybean Oil
                1986/87          1985/86
 Start Stocks  1.61   1.51       1.37   1.36
 Production   14.20  14.13      13.65  13.66
 Imports       3.31   3.29       3.08   3.05
 Consumption  14.02  14.03      13.33  13.40
 Exports       3.33   3.35       3.15   3.16
 End Stocks    1.78   1.54       1.61   1.51
   Note - Imports and exports do not balance due to differing
imports.
    Cotton (Mln Bales)
               1986/87          1985/86
 Start Stcks 45.87   48.14    42.70   43.11
 Production  69.53   69.66    78.94   78.92
 Imports     23.07   23.07    21.49   21.45
 Mill Use    80.72   77.08    76.84   74.79
 Exports     23.37   23.50    20.25   20.28
 End Stocks  34.16   39.99    45.87   48.14
  Note - Imports and exports may not balance due to cotton in
transit and reporting discrepancies in some countries.
    Rice (Milled Basis)
 Start Stocks 24.71   24.75     22.16   22.16
 Production  317.90  318.90    320.12  320.05
 Imports      10.56   10.63     11.68   11.70
 Dom. Use    321.41  321.87    317.58  317.46
 Exports      12.11   12.22     12.49   12.39
 End Stocks   21.19   21.78     24.71   24.75
 Reuter

RAI Research Corp said it appears
that the reduced level of sales may continue for the near term.
    Earlier, RAI reported that third quarter net declined to
17,806 dlrs on sales of 1.3 mln dlrs from net income of 328,290
dlrs on sales of 2.2 mln dlrs a year ago.
   It said sales declined as a result of reduced sales of
permion battery separators to Japanese customers and it does
not know the duration or extent of these factors.
 Reuter

Shr 22.50 dlrs vs 21.74 dlrs
    Assets 546.9 mln vs 485.2 mln
    Shrs out 24.3 mln vs 22.3 mln
    NOTE: lastest assets after capital gain distributions of 28
cts a share in February 1987 and 2.55 dlrs a share in December
1986
 Reuter

Shr 31.36 dlrs vs 25.23 dlrs
    Assets 286.5 mln vs 253.0 mln
    Shrs out 9,138,526 vs 8,839,695
    NOTE: latest assets after capital gain distributions of 50
cts a share in February 1987 and 83 cts a share in December
1986, and with 29,955,000 stated value 1.676 dlr convertible
preferred stock outstanding.
 Reuter

detailed world supply/demand data for major importers and
exporters of corn, by country, as follows in mln tonnes --
    USSR CORN
 Start Stocks  N.A.    N.A.     N.A.    N.A.
 Production   12.50   12.50    14.40   14.40
 Imports       8.00    6.00    10.40   10.40
 Domes Use    20.50   19.50    24.40   24.40
 Exports        Nil     Nil      Nil     Nil
 End Stocks    N.A.    N.A.     N.A.    N.A.
 N.A. - Not Available.
    SOUTH AFRICA CORN, in mln tonnes -- 
         04/09/87 03/09/87  04/09/87 03/09/87
 Start Stcks  1.20   1.20     1.87   1.87
 Production   8.50   9.50     8.08   8.08
 Imports       Nil    Nil     0.01   0.01
 Domes Use    6.10   6.20     6.00   6.00
 Exports      2.10   3.00     2.75   2.75
 End Stocks   1.50   1.50     1.20   1.20
    EC-12 CORN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  5.17    5.28      2.89    2.89
 Production  25.00   25.03     25.70   25.78
 Imports     10.69   10.61     12.82   12.82
 Domes Use   28.20   29.00     29.46   29.60
 Exports      7.91    7.94      6.78    6.61
 End Stocks   4.75    3.98      5.17    5.28
    ARGENTINA CORN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.52   0.39       0.39   0.39
 Production  10.00  11.00      12.10  12.10
 Imports       Nil    Nil        Nil    Nil
 Domes Use    4.60   4.60       4.60   4.60
 Exports      5.70   6.50       7.37   7.50
 End Stocks   0.22   0.29       0.52   0.39
    THAILAND CORN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stocks 0.43   0.33      0.11   0.11
 Production   4.10   4.10      5.35   5.15
 Imports       Nil    Nil       Nil    Nil
 Domestic Use 1.55   1.35      1.35   1.25
 Exports      2.80   3.00      3.67   3.67
 End Stocks   0.18   0.08      0.43   0.33
    JAPAN CORN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  1.24   1.24       1.06   1.06
 Production    Nil    Nil        Nil    Nil
 Imports     15.50  15.44      14.55  14.55
 Domes Use   15.51  15.45      14.37  14.37
 Exports       Nil    Nil        Nil    Nil
 End Stocks   1.24   1.24       1.24   1.24
 Reuter

private U.S. exporters reported sales of 200,000 tonnes of
wheat to Jordan, 300,000 tonnes of soybean meal to Iraq and
100,000 tonnes of corn to Algeria.
    The wheat for Jordan includes 165,000 tonnes of hard red
winter and 35,000 tonnes of soft red winter and is for delivery
during the 1987/88 marketing year.
    The soybean meal sales to Iraq includes 180,000 tonnes for
delivery during the 1986/87 season and 120,000 tonnes during
the 1987/88 season, the department said.
    The 100,000 tonnes of corn sales to Algeria are for
delivery during the 1986/87 season, it said.
    The marketing year for wheat begins June 1, corn September
1, and soybean meal October 1.
 Reuter

said it entered into a conditional contract to acquire the
<Maione-Hirschberg Cos Inc> and affiliated entitles for 19 mln
dlrs.
    International American, whose stock was halted on Nasdaq
earlier, said the purchase price is payable 12 mln dlrs in cash
and the balance in its own common shares.
    Selling shareholders may earn an additional amount up to a
maximum of eight mln dlrs payable in cash based on the future
performance of the companies acquired during the three years
ending March 31, 1990, International said.
    The acquisition is subject to certain conditions, such as
satisfactory results of due diligence investigations, the
   
 Reuter

Morita said Sony's profits would be sharply down in 1987 as a
result of the dollar's decline.
    Sony Corp posted net consolidated income of 41.89 billion
yen (290 million dollars) in 1986, 42.6 pct down on 1985's
73.02 billion yen (506 million dollars).
    But Morita added that Japan would benefit from the strong
yen by saving on its energy import bill and he expected profits
to recover from 1988 onwards.
    He was speaking to reporters at a sony factory opening
here.
 Reuter

exporters of coarse grains, by country, as follows in mln
tonnes --
    USSR COARSE GRAIN
 Start Stcks  N.A.    N.A.      N.A.    N.A.
 Production 103.30  103.30     99.99   99.99
 Imports     12.00   10.00     13.70   13.70
 Domes Use  112.30  112.30    111.99  111.99
 Exports       NIL     NIL       NIL     NIL
 End Stocks   N.A.    N.A.      N.A.    N.A.
    EC-12 COARSE GRAIN, in mln tonnes --
              1986/87            1985/86
 Start Stcks 14.91   14.93    10.53   10.53
 Production  81.22   81.19    88.21   88.28
 Imports     16.58   17.26    18.29   18.24
 Dom Use     79.64   81.27    82.38   82.55
 Exports     19.90   19.96    19.73   19.56
 End Stocks  13.18   12.15    14.91   14.93
    EASTERN EUROPE COARSE GRAIN, mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  4.07    3.72     5.14    5.14
 Production  73.95   74.50    68.28   68.38
 Imports      4.90    4.47     5.58    5.26
 Dom Use     73.04   73.23    72.65   72.77
 Exports      3.55    3.55     2.28    2.28
 End Stocks   6.34    5.46     4.07    3.72
    JAPAN COARSE GRAIN, in mln tonnes --
              1986/87           1985/86
 Start Stcks 2.32    2.23     1.91    1.91
 Production  0.35    0.35     0.39    0.39
 Imports    21.56   21.50    21.51   21.51
 Dom Use    21.79   21.73    21.49   21.49
 Exports      NIL     NIL      NIL     NIL
 End Stocks  2.44    2.44     2.32    2.32
    ARGENTINA COARSE GRAIN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.78    0.53     0.83    0.83
 Production  13.99   15.44    17.06   17.14
 Imports      0.02     NIL      NIL     NIL
 Domes Use    7.73    7.75     7.76    7.87
 Exports      6.60    7.73     9.43    9.58
 End Stocks   0.46    0.49     0.78    0.53
    CANADA COARSE GRAIN, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks 6.19    6.19     4.66    4.61
 Production 27.62   27.62    24.95   24.95
 Imports     0.30    0.30     0.31    0.31
 Dom Use    19.80   19.80    18.99   18.96
 Exports     7.41    7.21     4.74    4.72
 End Stocks  6.90    7.10     6.19    6.19
    THAILAND COARSE GRAINS, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.49    0.38     0.16   0.16
 Production   4.40    4.40     5.67   5.47
 Imports       NIL     NIL      NIL    NIL
 Domes Use    1.57    1.37     1.40   1.30
 Exports      3.10    3.30     3.94   3.95
 End Stocks   0.22    0.11     0.49   0.38
 Reuter

AMR Corp's American Airlines said it is
prepared to shift a total of 1,010 flights and add more than 33
hours a day in flying time to assist the process of reducing
flight delays in the nation's air transport system.
    American said it proposes to make the changes on June 15 at
its two major conecting hubs, Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago,
which have been the focal points for wide-ranging schedule
experiments by the airline over the past several weeks.
 Reuter

(CCC) accepted eight bonus offers from two exporters on sales
of 190,000 tonnes of hard red winter and 35,000 tonnes of soft
red winter wheat to Jordan, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    The department said the bonuses awarded averaged 38.08 dlrs
per tonne and the wheat is for delivery May-November, 1987.
    The bonus awards were made to Louis Dreyfus Corp (200,000 
tonnes), and Continental Grain Co (25,000 tonnes) and will be
    The purchases of U.S. wheat completes the Export
Enhancement Program initiative announced on December 31, 1986.
 Reuter

Argentine grain board preliminary
figures show 1986/87 crop export registrations of grains and
oilseeds in the week to April 8, were as follows, in tonnes,
compared with the previous week and the comparable week a year
earlier.
    BREAD WHEAT         nil        nil       nil
    MAIZE              113,500    21,800    51,300
    SORGHUM             13,600      nil     26,500
    SOYBEAN             30,000    36,000    72,000
    SUNFLOWERSEED        nil        nil     19,100
    Cumulative figures export registrations for the 1986/87
crop to April 8, 1987, with comparative figures for the 1985/86
crop up to April 9, 1986, in brackets, were in thousands of
tonnes.
    BREAD WHEAT            2,692,4    (4,161.0)
    MAIZE                  2,305.1    (5,200.0)
    SORGHUM                  220.5      (625.7)
    SOYBEAN                  561.3      (524.5)
    SUNFLOWERSEED             45.7      (213.2)
 REUTER

Winn Enterprises' Knudsen Foods Inc
said it entered an agreement to sell its Hawaiian dairy
operations to Foremost Foods Inc for 13 mln dlrs cash.
     The company said the purchase price is subject to
adjustment and the entire transaction is subject to approval by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of
 Reuter

said it expects revenues for the year ending March 31, 1987 to
be approximately 145 mln dlrs.
    It said it recorded 30 mln dlrs in revenues for the year
prior, and 115 mln dlrs pro forma revenues for the prior fiscal
year which includes the May 1986 acquistion of the Porten
Sullivan Group.
    On a pro forma basis, International said revenues for the
year ended March 31, 1987, would be approximately 200 mln dlrs
if the proposed acquisiton of Maione-Hirschberg Cos Inc and
Diversified Shelter Group are consummated.
 Reuter

said it agreed to acquire privately held Faygo Beverages Inc
    The company said Detroit-based Faygo, a soft drink maker,
has annual revenues of more than 100 mln dlrs.
    National Beverage, which is also privately held, owns and
bottles Shasta Beverages, Spree All Natural Beverages and
private label brands in its 11 bottling facilities in the
 Reuter

exporters of soybeans, by country, as follows in mln tonnes --
    BRAZIL SOYBEANS
 Start Stocks  4.19    4.01     4.71    4.71
 Production   17.00   17.00    13.90   13.70
 Imports       0.35    0.35     2.09    0.29
 Domestic Use 14.54   14.54    13.51   13.49
 Exports       2.50    2.50     1.20    1.20
 End Stocks    4.50    4.32     4.19    4.01
    ARGENTINA SOYBEANS, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stocks  1.83    1.83     1.80    1.80
 Production    7.70    7.70     7.30    7.30
 Imports        NIL     NIL      NIL     NIL
 Domestic Use  4.97    4.97     4.74    4.74
 Exports       2.65    2.65     2.54    2.54
 End Stocks    1.91    1.91     1.83    1.83
    EC-12 SOYBEANS, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stocks  0.51   0.52       0.66   0.66
 Production    0.83   0.83       0.33   0.33
 Imports      12.89  12.85      12.99  12.96
 Domestic Use 13.72  13.68      13.34  13.30
 Exports       0.11   0.11       0.13   0.13
 End Stocks    0.40   0.41       0.51   0.52
    JAPAN SOYBEANS, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.76   0.76      0.79   0.79
 Production   0.25   0.25      0.23   0.23
 Imports      4.84   4.84      4.80   4.80
 Domes Use    5.10   5.10      5.06   5.06
 Exports       NIL    NIL       NIL    NIL
 End Stocks   0.75   0.75      0.76   0.76
 Reuter

exporters of soybean meal, by country, as follows in mln tonnes
--
    ARGENTINA SOYBEAN MEAL --
 Start Stcks  0.13   0.13      0.19   0.19
 Production   3.67   3.67      3.49   3.49
 Imports       NIL    NIL       NIL    NIL
 Domes Use    0.35   0.35      0.35   0.35
 Exports      3.30   3.30      3.20   3.20
 End Stocks   0.15   0.15      0.13   0.13
    BRAZIL SOYBEAN MEAL, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.61   0.60      0.72   0.72
 Production  10.40  10.39      9.69   9.66
 Domes Use    2.55   2.55      2.41   2.40
 Exports      7.85   7.85      7.38   7.38
 End Stocks   0.61   0.59      0.61   0.60
    EC-12 SOYBEAN MEAL, in mln tonnes --
           04/09/87 03/09/86  04/09/87 03/09/87
 Start Stcks   0.40   0.40       0.44   0.44
 Production   10.44  10.45      10.18  10.17
 Imports      13.03  13.03      13.48  13.48
 Domes Use    18.50  18.49      18.59  18.57
 Exports       5.07   5.09       5.10   5.11
 End Stocks    0.30   0.30       0.40   0.40
 Reuter

exporters of soybean oil, by country, in mln tonnes --
    ARGENTINA --
 Start Stcks  0.10   0.10      0.10   0.10
 Production   0.77   0.77      0.73   0.73
 Domes Use    0.10   0.10      0.11   0.11
 Exports      0.66   0.66      0.63   0.63
 End Stocks   0.10   0.10      0.10   0.10
    BRAZIL SOYBEAN OIL, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.32   0.28      0.24   0.24
 Production   2.52   2.51      2.35   2.35
 Imports      0.15   0.15      0.12   0.12
 Domes Use    2.00   2.00      1.94   1.98
 Exports      0.65   0.65      0.45   0.45
 End Stocks   0.34   0.28      0.32   0.28
    EC-12 SOYBEAN OIL, in mln tonnes --
 Start Stcks  0.22   0.22      0.23   0.22
 Production   2.32   2.33      2.26   2.26
 Imports      0.44   0.44      0.50   0.50
 Domes Use    1.46   1.45      1.38   1.38
 Exports      1.29   1.30      1.39   1.39
 End Stocks   0.23   0.23      0.22   0.22
    INDIA SOYBEAN OIL --
 Start Stcks  0.12   0.07      0.21   0.21
 Production   0.17   0.17      0.15   0.15
 Imports      0.35   0.35      0.25   0.25
 Domes Use    0.52   0.52      0.49   0.54
 End Stocks   0.12   0.07      0.12   0.07
 Reuter

Scallop Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary of
Royal Dutch/Shell group, said it will raise contract prices for
heavy fuel 50 cts to one dlr a barrel, effective tomorrow.
    The increase brings the price for 0.5 pct sulphur fuel to
21.50 dlrs, up 50 cts, 0.7 pct sulphur to 21 dlrs, up 75 cts,
0.7 pct sulphur to 21 dlrs, up 75 cts, one pct sulphur to 20.25
dlrs, up 75 cts, two pct sulphur to 19.75 dlrs, up one dlr, 2.2
pct sulphur to 19.50 dlrs, up one dlr, 2.8 pct sulphur 19 dlrs,
up one dlr, the company said.
    Price for 0.3 pct sulphur was unchanged at 22.25 dlrs, it
said.
 Reuter

exporters of cotton, by country, as follows, in mln 480-lb
bales --
    CHINA COTTON --
 Start Stcks 16.00  18.30      19.40  19.80
 Production  16.30  16.30      19.00  19.00
 Imports         X      X          X      X
 Domes Use   21.00  17.50      19.50  17.50
 Exports      2.30   2.50       2.90   2.90
 End Stocks   9.05  14.55      16.00  18.30
 X - Less than 5,000 bales
    PAKISTAN COTTON, in mln 480 bales --
 Start Stocks 1.07   1.07      1.05   1.05
 Production   6.10   6.10      5.67   5.67
 Imports         X      X         X      X
 Domestic Use 2.50   2.50      2.34   2.34
 Exports      3.00   3.00      3.15   3.15
 End Stocks   1.51   1.51      1.07   1.07
 X - Less than 5,000 bales.
    USSR COTTON, in mln 480-lbs bales --
 Start Stocks  2.76   2.76       2.62   2.62
 Production   11.20  11.20      12.10  12.10
 Imports       1.00   1.00       0.65   0.65
 Domestic Use  9.70   9.70       9.60   9.60
 Exports       2.80   2.80       3.00   3.00
 End Stocks    2.46   2.46       2.76   2.76
    JAPAN COTTON, in mln 480-lbs bales --
 Start Stocks  0.52   0.52      0.61   0.61
 Production     NIL    NIL       NIL    NIL
 Imports       3.10   3.10      3.05   3.05
 Domestic Use  3.10   3.10      3.15   3.15
 Exports        NIL    NIL       NIL    NIL
 End Stocks    0.52   0.52      0.52   0.52
 Reuter

U.S. SELLS 1-YEAR BILLS AT AVERAGE 5.92 PCT, STOP 5.93 PCT, AWARDED AT HIGH YIELD 80 PCT

(CCC) accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover a sale of
12,500 tonnes of U.S. wheat flour to Iraq, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the bonus awarded was 105.82 dlrs per
tonne and the wheat flour is for shipment July 1-10, 1987.
    The bonus was awarded to The Pillsbury Company and will be
    An additional 150,000 tonnes of wheat flour is still
initiative announced January 7, 1987, the department said.
 Reuter

detailed rice supply/demand milled-basis data for Thailand, the
world's major rice exporter, as follows in mln tonnes --       
        1986/87            1985/86
 Start Stcks  1.32   1.33       1.46   1.46
 Production  11.88  12.14      13.00  13.00
 Imports       NIL    NIL        NIL    NIL
 Domes Use    8.73   8.73       8.80   8.80
 Exports      3.70   3.70       4.34   4.34
 End Stocks   0.77   1.04       1.32   1.33
 Reuter

latest estimates on 1986/87 Florida orange production and
orange juice yield are bearish for the frozen concentrated
orange juice futures market because the yield increase was
greater than expected, FCOJ traders and analysts said.
    The USDA projected an average yield of 1.50 gallons of FCOJ
per box versus last month's estimate of 1.47 gallons.
    The government estimated Florida orange production
(excluding Temples) at 122.9 mln boxes versus 124 mln last
month. Temples were unchanged at 3.4 mln boxes.
    Traders and analysts said the unexpectedly large yield
increase outweighed the anticipated drop in box count.
 reuter

 Reuter

Canada Southern Petroleum Ltd said its
board authorized the sale of additional limited voting stock
exclusively to the company's shareholders.
    A registration statement in connection with the proposed
offering was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, it said.
    Details on the offering have not been determined, it added.
    Canada Southern said it has approximately nine mln shares
of limited voting stock outstanding, with 15 mln shares
 Reuter

<Noranda Inc> said it began salvage
operations at its Murdochville, Quebec, mine, where a fire last
week killed one miner and caused 10 mln dlrs in damage.
     Another 56 miners were trapped underground for as long as
24 hours before they were brought to safety.
    Noranda said the cause and full extent of the damage is
still unknown but said it does know that the fire destroyed
6,000 feet of conveyor belt.
     Noranda said work crews have begun securing the ramp
leading into the zone where the fire was located. The company
said extreme heat from the fire caused severe rock degradation
along several ramps and drifts in the mine.
     Noranda estimated that the securing operation for the zone
    Noranda said the Quebec Health and Safety Commission, the
Quebec Provincial Police and Noranda itself are each conducting
an investigation into the fire.
    Production at the mine has been suspended until the
investigations are complete. The copper mine and smelter
produced 72,000 tons of copper anodes in 1986 and employs 680
people.
     The smelter continues to operate with available
concentrate from stockpiled supplies, Noranda said. Reuter
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 15 cts prior qtr

 Reuter

Reserve fell on April 8 to 3.531 billion dlrs from 4.229
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 11.345
billion dlrs from 12.149 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 14.877
billion dlrs on April 8 compared with 16.378 billion dlrs on
April 7.
 Reuter

Diana Corp said it organized the
Stockholders Protective Committee of Freedom Federal Savings
Bank to nominate two candidates for election to the Freedom
board at the April 20 annual meeting.
    It said the committee's nominees, Richard Fisher, Diana
chairman and Harold Sampson, a Diana director, will oppose
nominees of the present board of directors.
    Diana, which is 60 pct owned by Farm House Foods Corp
<FHFC>, owns 105,554 shares of Freedom Federal common stock.
    Diana noted that Freedom Federal's board recently declared
a distribution of Preferred Stock Purchase Rights "with the aid
of which such directors might disapprove, and perhaps prevent,
possible acquisition offers or substantial stock accumulations,
regardless of how beneficial they might be to the
stockholders."
    The company said "we want to increase the responsiveness of
the (Freedom Federal) board to stockholder concerns."
 Reuter

U.S. HOUSE VOTES 1988 BUDGET CALLING FOR CUTS AND TAXES TO REDUCE DEFICIT

The United States' dependency on
foreign oil sources may reach record levels by the mid-1990s,
according to John H. Lichtblau, president of Petroleum Industry
Research Associates.
    Lichtblau, speaking at an alternative energy conference
here, said the U.S. may depend on foreign suppliers for as much
as 52 pct of its oil by 1995, surpasssing the previous high
level of 47 pct in 1977.
    "The long term growth in dependency on foreign oil is
inevitable," Lichtblau said. As much as 30 pct of U.S. oil
imports in 1995 could come from OPEC nations, he said.
    Lichtblau said the U.S. depended on foreign suppliers for
33 pct of its oil in 1986 and predicted that would increase to
40 pct by 1990.
    "However, the rate of this growth can be affected
positively or negatively through government action or
inaction," Lichtblau said.
    He said that one of the government's negative actions is
the maintenance of the windfall profits tax which acts as a
disincentive to developing existing fields and reduces cash
flow for oil exploration.
    Lichtblau called for the adoption of an international floor
price for crude oil to help stabilize world oil prices.
    "An international floor price adopted by all or most
industrial countries would clearly be a much more effective
measure and would be much less distortive for the U.S. than if
we imposed it alone," Lichtblau said.
    Development of alternate energy sources such as synthetic
fuels as well as increased development in Alaska could lessen
U.S. dependency on foreign oil, Lichtblau said.
    A potential for alternative supplies could limit the
willingness of OPEC nations to raise oil prices, he said.
    Lichtblau also called for the federal government to offer
tax abatements for oil drilling, to fill the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve at a faster rate and to develop pilot plans
for alternative energy.
 Reuter

The U.S. Treasury said its auction of
9.76 billion dlrs of 52-week bills produced an average rate of
5.92 pct.
    The rate was up from 5.68 pct at the last auction of
one-year bills on March 12.
    At today's sale, the bond-equivalent yield was 6.30 pct. 
Accepted bids ranged from 5.88 pct to 5.93 pct and 80 pct of
bids at the high, or stopout, rate were taken.
    The Treasury received 26.7 billion dlrs of bids, including
554 mln dlrs in non-competitive bids from the public.
    The average price of the one-year bills was 94.014 and the
range was 94.055 to 94.004.
    The average rate of 5.92 pct was the highest since 5.98 pct
on July 8, 1986.
 Reuter

The House approved by a 230-112 vote
and sent to the Senate a trillion dlr spending budget that
calls for domestic and defence cuts and higher taxes to reduce
the 1988 deficit.
    The measure proposes cutting the deficit from 171 billion
dlrs to 133 billion dlrs using the non partisan Congressional
Budget Office calculations, or to 108 billion dlrs using more
optimistic assumptions of President Reagan--whose own budget
was defeated earlier.
 Reuter

eight ships were waiting to load at Portland, according to the
  
 Reuter

Raytheon Co has been awarded a 215.3
mln dlr contract for production of 1,927 guidance and control
sections and spare components for Sparrow air-to-air missiles,
 REUTER

Shr primary 1.05 dlrs vs 88 cts
    Shr dilulted 1.05 dlrs vs 86 cts
    Net 151.6 mln vs 135.2 mln
    Revs 2.32 billion vs 2.55 billion
    Avg shrs 144.6 mln vs 154.5 mln
 Reuter

Oshkosh Truck Corp has been awarded a
189.3 mln dlr contract for 1,403 HEMTT 977 series trucks, the
Army said.
 reuter

Amoco Corp said it sees a more favorble
outlook because of actions taken last year and a recent
strengthening of oil prices.
    "It appears now that the worst is behind us," said Amoco
executive vice president Richard Leet in remarks prepared for
delivery to security analysts in San Francisco. "We face the
future with more optimism than we did a year ago," he said.
    In response to last year's steep drop in oil prices, Amoco
reduced and redirected exploration and production spending
plans, expanded its cost cutting efforts and accelerated staff
reductions, he noted.
 Reuter

General Dynamics Corp has received a
182.5 mln dlr contract for production of 1,391 guidance and
control sections and spare sections for Sparrow air-to-air
missiles, the Navy said.
 reuter

NEW YORK BANK DISCOUNT WINDOW BORROWINGS 169 MLN DLRS IN APRIL 8 WEEK

(CCC) has transferred 12.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees
previously earmarked for sales of U.S. hatching eggs and 7.0
mln dlrs in guarantees for breeder livestock to increase
coverage on sales of U.S. protein concentrates to Iraq, the
    The action was taken at the request of Iraq's State Trade
Organization for Grains and Foodstuffs and reduces the line for
hatching eggs to zero and the line for breeder livestock from
15.0 mln dlrs to 8.0 mln dlrs, the department said.
    The guarantee line for sales of protein concentrates has
been increased from 25.0 mln dlrs to 44.0 mln dlrs, it said.
   
 Reuter

fell 1.31 billion dlrs to 62.70 billion in the week ended April
1, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
    Including acceptances, loans dropped 1.34 billion dlrs to
63.23 billion.
    Commercial paper outstanding nationally fell 4.80 billion
dlrs to 334.28 billion.
Friday.
 Reuter

daily average borrowings of 169 mln dlrs from the Federal
Reserve in the week ended April 8, a Fed spokesman said.
    A Fed spokesman said that all of the borrowings were made
yesterday by fewer than half the banks.
    It was the second half of the two-week bank statement
period that ended on Wednesday. Average borrowings by these
banks were 142 mln dlrs in the first week of the period.
   
 Reuter

price through April 8 as follows (Dlrs/Bu-Sorghum Cwt) -
 Wheat   2.62   2.40       IV     4.65     --
                            V     4.65     --
                           VI     4.45     --
 Corn    1.38   1.92       IV     3.15   3.15
                            V     3.25     --
 Oats     1.58   0.99        V    1.65    -- 
 Barley   1.55   1.56       IV    2.55   2.55
                             V    2.65    -- 
 Sorghum  2.54   3.25-Y     IV    5.36   5.36
                             V    5.54    -- 
 Reuter

Soybean Processors Association (NSPA) crushed 19,416,000
bushels of soybeans in the week ended April 8 compared with
20,115,000 bushels in the previous week and 17,160,000 in the
year.
70,351 tonnes vs 135,452 tonnes a week ago and compared with
76,065 tonnes in the year-ago week.
    NSPA gave the following breakdown of the soybean crush for
the week, with comparisons, in 1,000 bu:
                    4/08/87   4/01/87  YEAR-AGO
           Illinois   2,576    3,479        X
      Ind, Ky, Ohio   3,586    3,376    6,053-Y
         South East   3,871    3,791    3,058
      South Central   1,631    1,934    1,563
         South West   2,426    2,334    2,183
               Iowa   3,450    3,550    2,815
   Minn, N.D., S.D.   1,875    1,651    1,488
         Total U.S.  19,416   20,115   17,160
 X-Ill not reported exclusive of Ind, Ky and Ohio in year-ago
period. Y-Includes Ill.
                    
 Reuter

United Technologies Corp has received
a 130.7 mln dlr contract to exercise an option for seven SH-60F
CV anti-submarine helicopters and associated maintenance
trainers, the Navy said.
 reuter

Kidder, Peabody and Co vice president
Edward Weihenmayer said his company was giving drug tests to
all employees to make sure its funds and assets were being
handled properly.
    "Drugs are easily available in the Wall Street area,"
Weihenmayer told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We move
billions of dollars around in tens of thousands of transactions
daily and have a legitimate interest in the safety and security
of those assets."
    He said customers had a right to expect that their funds
were being handled by sober and drug-free professionals.
    Weihenmayer said almost all Wall Street firms were testing
new employees and many were testing all workers.
    He said Kidder, Peabody would try to help anyone found to
be using drugs, but those who failed a second test would almost
certainly be fired.
   "Our objective is to strive for a drug-free enviroment," he
said.
    Committee chairman Joseph Biden said drug tests posed a
difficult problem in balancing the rights of workers with the
need for companies to eliminate drugs from the work-place.
    "There is no easy answer," the Delaware Democrat said.
 Reuter

Fundamental Brokers Institutional
Associates, a leading inter-dealer broker in U.S. government
securities, said it has agreed to acquire certain assets of MKI
Government Brokers Inc for undisclosed terms.
    Acquisition documents have been signed and are being held
in escrow pending the receipt of certain consents, it said.
    In conjunction with the sale of assets, MKI has ceased
brokering treasury bills, notes and bonds, Fundamental said.
    Industry sources told Reuters yesterday that Fundamental
was close to acquiring the government securities brokerage
division of MKI, a major broker of corporate bonds.
    Fundamental said it intends to use the facilities formerly
used by MKI to provide a new block brokering service in the
most active Treasury issues.
    By separating the execution of wholesale trades from the
heavy volume of smaller lots, large-scale transactions will be
facilitated, the company said.
    "The new system is expected to substantially enhance the
liquidity and effiency of markets," Fundamental said.
    The wholesale brokering service will begin on or around
April 20.
 Reuter

Argentina's Economy Minister Juan
Sourrouille said the "narrow interest" of creditor banks was
holding up an accord to stretch out debt repayments and warned
Argentina may break off negotiations.
    "It is inadmissible that the private narrow interest of some
banks threatens to turn into an insurmountable obstacle for a
policy we have agreed with the international community,"
Sourrouille said.
    Speaking to the International Monetary Fund's Interim
Committee meeting, Sourrouille said Argentina had given ample
proof that it is negotiating seriously with the banks.
    "Today, with that same responsibility, we are clearly
stating that it will be imposible for us to continue
negotiating on that basis."
    A monetary source who heard Sourrouille's speech from a
vantage point close to U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker,
said Baker turned to one of his advisors to ask for the names
of banks that Sourrouille said were stalling on an agreement.
    "Let's give them a call right away," the source quoted Baker
as saying.
    Sourrouille reminded the Interim Committee that the IMF
last February approved a 1.3-billion-dlr stand-by loan and a
longer-term credit, known as an extended Fund Facility for
another 500,000 dlrs.
    But he said that despite Argentina's "disciplined effort" to
achieve inflation-free economic growth, it was unable to obtain
IMF payouts due to the link between that arrangement and
settlement of a separate agreement with creditor banks.
    Sourrouille  stated flatly that the banks were flouting a
long-established practice under which debtor countries which
reached agreements on economic reforms with the Fund were a
good credit risk for the banks.
    "In other words, facts are demonstrating that the current
debt strategy is showing that an IMF agreement is only a weak
signal for the beginning of another discussion (with the
banks)," he stated.
    He added the fact that the strategy is not working was also
demonstrated when governments that approved Argentina's program
had to join in a bridge loan for his country.
    Sourrouille stated that Argentina has met IMF requirements
regarding its balance of payments and its monetary and fiscal
policies.
    Despite this Sourrouille said, "What we are facing is the
inexplicable demands (from the banks) that are blocking
negotations."
    Argentina, with a foreign debt of 50 billion dlrs, has been
seeking to reschdule 24 billion dlrs in "old debt" and another
4.2 billion dlrs that had been refinanced in 1985.
    The minister also said there were two issues separating
Argentina from an accord with creditor banks, one was a minimum
difference on the interest rate margin above international
levels.
    The other condition, of more concern, were suggestions by
the banks that would upset the country's financial system.
    Monetary sources said creditor banks have been offering
Argentina the London Interbank rate (Libor) plus 7/8 pct, which
they gave Venezuela in a recent refinancing agreement.
    The sources said Argentina is committed to winning the
lower spread Mexico gained last year of 13/16 pct above Libor.
 Reuter

General Electric Corp has received a
30.0 mln dlr contract for lot three of attack radar sets for
the F/FB-111 avionics modernization program, the Air Force said.
 reuter

Newhall Investment Properties
said it declared a special distribution of 50 cts per share,
payable June one, to unitholders of record April 24.
 Reuter

Association said frozen concentrated orange juice movement into
trade channels in the week ended April 4 totalled 4,496,533
gallons versus 5,058,976 gallons in the week ended March 28 and
4,141,578 gallons in the corresponding year-ago period.
    There were 499,967 gallons of foreign imports last week
versus 341,280 gallons the week before. Domestic imports last
week were 24,774. Retail movement was 1,741,139 versus
1,464,490 a year ago. Bulk movement was 2,328,368 against
2,139,383 a year earlier.
    Current season cumulative movement was 79,516,753 gallons
versus 76,919,119 last year. Cumulative net pack for the season
was 86,254,846 versus 82,355,864 a year ago. Inventory was
75,212,711 versus 75,985,696 a year ago.
 Reuter

National Heritage Inc said it acquired
the assets of Chartham Management Corp of Salem, Ore.
    The assets acquired will be used to form a new divisional
office serving the northwest, the nursing home operator said.
    The newly acquired Salem operation has management
responsibility for about 2,500 beds in 28 nursing homes in
seven states.
    Southmark Corp <SM>, which owns 80 pct of National
Heritage, recently agreed to acquire the 28 facilities.
National is the manager of nursing home properties owned by
 Reuter

Medivix Inc said its American
Subscription Plan Inc subsidiary signed a contract with 
<Midwest Benefits Corp> to provide mail order prescription
services for employees of 300 companies.
    Midwest acts as a third party administrator for the
companies, Medivix said.
    The company said it anticipates the new pact will generate
substantial revenues during the next 12 months.
 Reuter

Ohio Mattress Co said that its
Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Co unit completed its
previously announced acquisition of Sealy Mattress Co of
Michigan Inc.
    In addition, the company said Sealy Inc, of which its owns
82 pct, redeemed the outstanding Sealy stock held by Michigan
Sealy, thus increasing the company's stake in Sealy to 93 pct.
 Reuter

said it, Du Pont Co's Conoco Inc subsidiary and <Oranje-Nassau
Energie B.V.> have been offered four exploration blocks
offshore The Netherlands.
    Louisiana Land said Blocks Q4a, E12c and E15b were offered
to the group in which Conoco has a 67.5 pct interest, Louisiana
Land 20 pct and Orange-Nassau 12.5 pct, while this group along
with a consortium headed by Pennzoil Co <PZL> were offered
Block Q5c. The offers were the result of applications submitted
to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the Netherlands Sixth
Offshore Licensing Round.
    Louisiana Land said the Conoco group intends to provide a
formal acceptance of the blocks with plans to start exploration
this year.
    The company also said the two Q blocks immediately offset
other offshore blocks on which hydrocarbons have been found in
commercial quantities.
 Reuter

lowered the ratings on AFG Industries Inc's subordinated
debentures to B-plus from BB-plus.
on March 18. About 185 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S/P noted that while AFG's and Wagner and Brown's 2.2
billion dlr offer to acquire Gencorp Inc has been withdrawn,
AFG's participation in the offer, as well as its previous 1.4
mln dlr offer for Lear Siegler Inc, shows a greater appetite
for substantial acquisitions than was previously anticipated.
    
 Reuter

raised its ratings on about 50 mln dlrs of outstanding
securities of Southwest Airlines Co unit, TransStar Airlines
Corp, formerly named Musa Air Corp.
    The agency has up the company's senior secured debt to Ba2
from B2.
    The action reflects the improvement in the company's
financial position since its acquisition by Southwest.
    Southwest operates TransStar as a separate unit and has not
legally assumed its debt.
   
 Reuter

Patient Technology Inc said it
retained an investment banking firm to consider alternatives in
restructuring its long-term debt, including a possible exchange
offer for 20 mln dlrs of outstanding convertible debentures.
    On April one, it began consolidating sales, marketing and
manufacturing operations. The consolidation is expected to be
complete by June one and the company said it is now focusing on
restructuring its balance sheet. 
     The company said the first quarter will be adversely
affected by the consolidation effort.
    For the year ago first quarter, the company reported a
profit of 100,000 dlrs on 7.3 mln dlrs.
    The company further said that the second quarter will be 
transitional period and that earnings growth will resume in the
second half of 1987.
    For the year ended December 31, 1986, Patient reported a
net loss of 1.4 mln dlrs on sales of 29.8 mln dlrs, due to
write-offs from discontinued operations and a temporary backlog
of orders.
   
 Reuter

Napco International Inc said it
has suspended its plan to sell its international business to a
group of that business' top managers because the group has
failed to obtain satisfactory financing.
    The company also said it still intends to pursue a new
corporate direction, and is exploring acquisition alternatives.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs loss 89 cts
    Net profit 161,000 vs loss 5,938,000
    Assets 3.43 billion vs 3.46 billion
    Deposits 2.68 billion vs 2.67 billion
    Loans 1.45 billion vs 1.64 billion
    Note: Shr data after payment of preferred dividends.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp said it
acquired Frampton Computer Services Ltd, a British software
company that is also known as Isis.
    Based in Bristol, England, Isis employs 65 workers and has
annual revenues of about five mln dlrs, McDonnell Douglas said.
    The company added that Isis will operate as part of
McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International.
 Reuter

said it and Canon Inc <CANNY> plan to jointly develop
integrated circuits and software products which will be
manufactured by Canon.
    The first product will be a laser-beam printer for
National's Series 32000 family of 32-bit microprocessor
products, the company said.
 Reuter

Liberty Financial Group Charles D.
Cheleden, chairman and chief executive officer, said Harold
Kline has resigned his position as president of the group and
its subsidiary, Liberty Savings Bank, effective May One.
    Cheleden said he will assume the offices previously held by
Kline, who will continue to serve on the board of the Liberty
Financal Group and Liberty Savings Bank.
 Reuter

upland cotton at 50.57 cts per lb, to be in effect through
midnight April 16.
    The department said since the adjusted world price is above
the loan repayment rate of 44 cts per lb for the base quality,
no First Handler Cotton Certificates will be issued during the
period.
    Based on data for the week ended April 9, the adjusted
per lb --
        Northern European Price -- 62.88
                 Adjustments --
 Average U.S. Spot Mkt Location --  9.98
         SLM 1-1/16 Inch Cotton --  1.80
          Average U.S. Location --  0.53
             Sum of Adjustments -- 12.32
           Adjusted World Price -- 50.63
 Reuter

A shareholder group controlling 48.3
pct of the stock of Rocky Mount Undergarment Co Inc told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it will try to take control
of the company by taking over its board of directors.
    The group, which includes David Greenberg, Rocky Mount's
former president, and several other members of the Greenberg
family, said it had been close to an agreement with the company
on board representation when talks broke down.
    As a result, it will propose its own slate of directors and
vote for that slate at the company's April 24 annual  meeting,
the group said.
    David Greenberg had been president and chairman of Rocky
Mount until May 1986 when he resigned at the board's request.
    David's younger brother, Herbert Greenberg, was a vice
president until November 1986, when he was fired by the board.
    However, Herbert refused to resign his board seat and
remains a company director.
    Rocky Mount sued the group in federal court in North
Carolina earlier this month, charging that its accumulation of
Rocky Mount stock amounted to an illegal tender offer in
violation of the federal securities laws.
 Reuter

U.S. corn sales of just over 1.0 mln
tonnes in the week ended April 2 were eight pct above the prior
week, but 25 pct below the four-week average, the U.S.
    In comments on its latest Export Sales Report, the
department said Iraq, Japan and the USSR were the largest
buyers.
    Sales for the next marketing year, which begins September
1, totaled 503,200 tonnes and were mainly to Iraq and Taiwan.
    Wheat sales of 119,300 tonnes for the current season and
net reductions of 13,700 tonnes for the 1987/88 season were
four-fifths below the combined total for the prior week and the
four-week average, it said.
    Sri Lanka was the most active wheat destination with
purchases of 52,500 tonnes for the current year, it said.
    Other significant purchasers for the current year were
Mexico and Honduras, it said.
    Soybean sales of 240,500 tonnes were one-fifth below the
prior week and nearly one-third below the four-week average.
    Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Italy and Israel were the major
purchasers, the department said.
    Net sales of 117,700 tonnes of soybean cake and meal fell
31 pct from the previous week and 38 pct below the four-week
average. Major increases for West Germany, Venezuela, the
Netherlands and Saudi Arabia were partially offset by
reductions for unknown destinations, USDA said.
    Activity in soybean oil resulted in decreases of 2,400
tonnes, with sales to unknown destinations down by 2,700
tonnes, while sales to Canada increased 200 tonnes, the
    Combined sales of 71,300 running bales of cotton -- 60,200
bales for the current season and 11,100 bales for 1987/88
season -- were four-fifths higher than the prior week's level
but nine pct below the four-week average.
    Mexico was the dominant buyer for the current year followed
by Zaire, Italy, and Spain, the department said.
The primary buyers for the 1987/88 season were South Korea,
Spain, Japan and Taiwan, the department said.
    Sorghum sales of 143,300 tonnes were 25 pct less than the
prior week, with Japan and Venezuela the main buyers. 
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 MONEY SUPPLY FALLS TWO BILLION DLRS IN MARCH 30 WEEK, FED SAYS

FED SAYS U.S. DISCOUNT WINDOW BORROWINGS 361 MLN DLRS IN APRIL 8 WEEK

U.S. BANK NET FREE RESERVES 447 MLN DLRS IN TWO WEEKS TO APRIL 8

Westinghouse Electric Corp chairman
Douglas Danforth said he was encouraged by first quarter
results for fiscal 1987, and said the company was positioned to
capitalize on the economy's modest growth for the rest of the
year.
    "I am encouraged by the continuing improvement in
earnings," Danworth said. "The first quarter met our
expectations."
    Westinghouse recorded net income for the first quarter of
151.6 mln dlrs, or 1.05 dlrs per share, on revenues of 2.32
    Danworth attributed the results to an increase in the
operating profit in the energy and advanced technology,
industries and commerical segments.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs five cts
    Net 240,000 vs 136,000
    Loans 264.5 mln vs 251.7 mln
    Deposits 319.7 mln vs 306.8 mln
    Assets 348.6 mln vs 334.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs six cts
    Net 653,561 vs 251,955
    Revs 4,143,056 vs 2,199,238
 Reuter

AMR Corp's American Airlines will start
its own information campaign in its dispute with the
Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
    The company, which has been negotiating with its 10,000
attendants since late last year, will give out information
brochures at its terminals, outlining its position, according
to L.C. Duncan Jr., vice president of corporate communications.
    During a news conference, Duncan said the APFA was
conducting a "smear campaign" by handing out leaflets at the
company's terminals. The union says it was trying to win public
support by presenting its position.
     Last month, American fired 20 flight attendants for
handing out the leaflets at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The
union is fighting the move in court.
     In response to a question, Duncan said the company's
latest proposal for a new three-year contract, which was
offered March 11, does away with a two-tiered system of pay,
whereby new employees are paid on a lower scale than those
hired before 1983.
     However, the union has contended that the company's
proposal keeps the system in a disguised form.
     A union spoksewoman had no immediate response to
American's announcement.
     Currently, the airline and the union are in the middle of
a federally-mandated 30-day cooling off period that was
triggered after both sides rejected a federal mediator's offer
of binding arbitration.
     When the period ends on April 25, the union is free to
strike and the company is free to unilaterally impose its
latest offer under the Federal Railway Labor Act.
     Even though the union has repeatedly said it will not
strike, Duncan confirmed today that the company has received
permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to speed up
the hiring of new attendants.
     In response to a question, Duncan denied the company was
thinking of firing attendants who do not comply after the 25th.
     "It (the speeded-up hiring) is a precautionary measure,"
he said.
   
 Reuter

British Airways said it suspended sale
in the U.S. of its "Europe on Us" for travel from the U.S. due
to disapproval by the U.S. Department of Transporation on
grounds of reciprocity.
    Under the promotional program, customers would buy a round
trip from the U.S. to London and would receive a free round
trip ticket from London to one of 45 cities in 16 countries.
    A company spokesman said the Transportation Department's
contention was that American carriers could not compete in this
program. British Airways said it is seeking a review of the
decision.
 Reuter

Shr loss 42 cts vs loss 56 cts
    Net loss 596,354 vs loss 795,009
    Revs 3,818,258 vs 2,070,772
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 491,000 vs 356,000
    Revs 890,000 vs 720,000
    Year
    Shr 1.54 dlrs vs 2.49 dlrs
    Net 1,952,00 vs 3,165,000
    Rev 3,463,000 vs 3,005,000
    Note: Net includes state tax credit of 400,000 for 1986 qtr
and year. Net also includes gains from sale of real estate of
3,000 vs 83,000 for qtr and 563,000 vs 1,317,000 for year.
 Reuter

The Treasury said sales of EE U.S.
savings bonds were 17 pct higher during March at 703 mln dlrs
than in March, 1986.
    It was the highest savings bond sales total for any March
since 1978.
    Total holdings of U.S. savings bonds reached 94.76 billion
dlrs, the highest in the history of the program, the Treasury
said.
    March redemptions fell six pct to 441 mln dlrs last month
from 468 mln dlrs in March, 1986.
    For the first six months of fiscal 1987, savings bonds
sales have risen 129 pct from the comparable fiscal 1986 period
to 7.01 billion dlrs from 3.07 billion dlrs, the Treasury said.
 Reuter

less extended credits averaged 361 mln dlrs a day in the week
to Wednesday, April 8, the Federal Reserve said.
    Total daily borrowings in the week fell 99 mln dlrs to 591
mln dlrs, with extended credits down 35 mln dlrs at 230 mln
dlrs. The week was the second half of the two-week statement
period that ended Wednesday. Net borrowings averaged 425 mln
dlrs in the first week of the period.
April 8, the Fed said banks had average net free reserves of
447 mln dlrs.
    A Fed spokesman told a press conference that there were no
large one-day net misses in the Fed's estimates of reserves in
the week ended Wednesday.
    Of the week's borrowings, money center banks accounted for
65 pct, and small banks for almost 35 pct. On Wednesday, when
net borrowings were 1.36 billion dlrs and Fed funds averaged a
high 6.45 pct, money center banks accounted for more than 90
pct of the borrowing.
    Borrowings in the latest two weeks averaged 393 mln dlrs a
day, the highest since the statement period ended January 28.
    Float ranged from about 250 mln dlrs on Thursday to between
one and 1.25 billion dlrs on Monday and Tuesday.
    The spokesman said Monday's float included 500 mln dlrs in
holdover float at one Fed branch due to mechanical problems.
    About 500 mln dlrs of Tuesday's float reflected
non-weather-related transportation float in one Eastern Reserve
bank.
    As-of adjustments ranged from minus 500 mln dlrs on Monday,
when cash letter errors at two eastern reserve banks were
corrected, to plus 500 mln dlrs on Thursday, when a correction
was made to unposted funds at a single bank.
    In the first half of the statement period ended Wednesday,
banks held excess reserves on the first four days of the week
but ran a deficit on Wednesday.
    In the second week, they ran a deficit on Thursday, Friday
and Monday but held excess reserves on the final two days.
 Reuter

Noranda Inc said it began salvage
operations at its Murdochville, Quebec mine where a fire last
     Noranda said the cause and full extent of the damage is
still unknown but the fire destroyed 6,000 feet of conveyor
belt.
    The company said extreme heat from the fire caused severe
rock degradation along several ramps and drifts in the mine.
    Production at the mine has been suspended until
produced 72,000 tons of copper anodes in 1986.
concentrate from stockpiled supplies, Noranda said.
 Reuter

U.S. M-1 money supply fell two billion
dlrs to a seasonally adjusted 738.9 billion dlrs in the March
30 week, the Federal Reserve said.
    The previous week's M-1 level was revised to 740.9 billion
dlrs from 741.0 billion, while the four-week moving average of
M-1 rose to 739.8 billion dlrs from 739.7 billion.
anywhere from down two billion dlrs to up 1.8 billion.
 Reuter

said a bank in Texas and one in Oklahoma were closed and their
deposits transferred to other banks for the 54th and 55th bank
failures in the nation this year.
    The Southwestern Bank of Houston was closed and its
deposits transferred to OMNIBANC, North Belt, also of Houston.
    The failed bank's main office will reopen as a branch of
OMNIBANC. Southwestern had total assets of 14.8 mln dlrs.
    First National Bank of Braman, Okla., was closed and its
desposits assumed by Community Bank of Shidler, Okla.
    First National had total assets of 12.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A group led by Shamrock Associates
told the Securities and Exchange Commission it will mount a
proxy contest in an effort to elect three class one directors
to the Prime Medical Services Inc board of directors.
    The Shamrock shareholder group said its members also
pledged not to sell their holdings back to the company "unless
we sell in connection with a transaction that woulde include
all Prime stockholders."
    The group has about 1.5 mln Prime shares or 17.8 pct of the
total outstanding. Shamrock is an investment partnership
controlled by Far Hills, N.J. lawyer Natalie Koether.
 Reuter

Bevis Industries Inc, which has
been seeking to be acquired, said it recently received
inquiries concerning the purchase of the company.
    The company did not identify the parties that made the
inquiries, but it said they had been referred to its investment
bankers, Tucker, Anthony and R.L. Day Inc, for study.
    On March 18, the company said it engaged Tucker, Anthony to
seek purchasers of its operating units, Greenville Tube Corp
and MD Pneumatics Inc.
 Reuter

LTV Corp said it will seek approval from
the U.S. bankruptcy court to make one-time hardship payments to
retired steelworkers who lost some pension benefits when their
retirement plans were terminated.
    The payments would range from 100 dlrs to 750 dlrs per
person for more than 9,800 steel company salaried and hourly
retirees, LTV said.
    The company's steel unit retirement plans were terminated
in January by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, which
said the plans were insolvent.
    LTV filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last July 17.
    Under Chapter 11, a company is protected from creditors
while it works out a plan to pay debts.
    While most regular pension payments were continued after
LTV Steel Co's pension plans were terminated, some retirees got
a reduction in their supplemental early retirement benefits or
other payments that were more than maximums guaranteed by the
federal agency.
    LTV also began talks with the United Steelworkers union,
and both sides have made a commitment to reach a new labor
agreement by May 1, the steel, aerospace and energy concern
said.
    LTV has the right to renegotiate its labor contracts while
operating in Chapter 11. At issue are pension and health
benefits for active and retired employees and other items, such
as use of manpower and equipment.
    The company plans to present a comprehensive proposal to
the U.S. bankruptcy court in May to deal with pensions and
health care benefits for steel and energy retirees and health
care benefits for aerospace retirees, it said.
    All LTV retirees are currently receiving health and life
insurance payments mandated by federal laws passed in October
that have been extended until May 15.
 Reuter

Jacor Communications Inc said it
agreed to buy two Denver radio stations from A.H. Belo Corp
<BLC> for 24 mln dlrs in cash and notes.
    Jacor said the two stations are KOA-AM and KOAQ-FM.
    The acquisitions must be approved by the Federal
Communications Commission, Jacor added.
 Reuter

increased 1.39 billion dlrs in the week ended yesterday to
236.77 billion dlrs, the Investment Company Institute said.
    Assets of 93 institutional funds were up 481.1 mln dlrs to
65.65 billion dlrs, 93 broker-dealer funds rose 285.3 mln dlrs
to 107.31 billion dlrs, and 197 general purpose funds gained
625.5 mln dlrs to 63.8 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Polycast Technology Corp told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it sold off 119,800 of its
Spartech Corp common shares, reducing its stake in Spartech to
30,000 shares or 1.2 pct of the total outstanding.
    Polycast said it made the sales April 6-8 in the
    It gave no reason for the sales.
 Reuter

Smithkline Beckman Corp said its
genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine has received
regulatory approval for marketing in Switzerland and
    The vaccine, called Engerix-B, has been approved in several
other countries, including Belgium and Hong Kong.
    Smithkline said it is currently considering marketing
avenues in the United States.
    Merck and Co <MRK> also has a genetically engineered
vaccine being marketed in several foreign markets, according to
industry sources.
 Reuter

There were 287,700 tonnes of U.S.
corn shipped to the Soviet Union in the week ended April 2,
    That compares with 106,200 tonnes shipped in the prior
week.
    The USSR has purchased 2,825,600 tonnes of U.S. corn, as of
April 2, for delivery in the fourth year of the U.S.-USSR grain
soybeans.
 Reuter

plans to expand into the Australian market, as well as
neighboring countries, with its chain of automotive fast oil
change and maintenance centers.
    Jiffy Lube said it plans to open its first center in
Brisbane later this year, and have 100 centers open within six
years.
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS NEED MORE PROMINENT ROLE

HOSPITAL CORP SAYS IT RECEIVED 47 DLR A SHARE OFFER FROM INVESTOR GROUP

    Pay July 13
 Reuter

TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM NEEDS GREATER STABILITY

refineries rose sharply in Europe and firmed in the U.S. last
Friday from the previous week but fell sharply in Singapore,
    The firmer tone to refining margins in Europe and the U.S.
relected higher prices for petroleum products, particularly
gasoline, and support from crude oil prices.
    Netback values for crude oil refined in Northern Europe
rose substantially following strong gains in gasoline prices
there. Brent is valued at 19.45 dlrs, up 56 cts a barrel or
three pct from the previous week.
    In the U.S. Gulf, sweet crudes rose in value by 14 cts to
19.33 dlrs for West Texas Intermediate, up about 0.7 pct.
    Sour grades in the U.S. Gulf showed an increase of 33 cts a
barrel for Alaska North Slope, up 1.7 pct.
    But netbacks for crude oil refined in Singapore fell
sharply, down 15 cts to as much as 68 cts a barrel as ample
distillate supplies weighed on petroleum product prices.
    Attaka in Singapore is valued at 18.55 dlrs, a decline of
68 cts a barrel or 3.5 pct from the previous week.
    For refineries in the Mediterranean, netback values were
mostly lower, with declines of seven to 14 cts. The value of
Kuwait crude fell 14 cts to 18.37 dlrs, while Iranian Light
fell 11 cts to 19.14 dlrs.
    On the U.S. West Coast, netback values for ANS CIF L.A.
also jumped sharply, up 40 cts a barrel or 2.2 pct to 18.82
dlrs on higher gasoline prices.
 Reuter

the floating exchange rate system has not been as effective as
had been hoped in promoting stability and preventing imbalances
from emerging in the global economy.
    In remarks before the afternoon session of the
International Monetary Fund's Interim Committee, Baker said he
was not suggesting that the system should be abandoned.
    "But I do suggest," he said, "that we need something to give
it more stability and to keep it headed in the right direction
when the wind shifts."
    He said that indicators can serve "as a kind of compass" but
added that structural indicators can help focus attention on
some policies.
    Baker, however, said the IMF "needs to move beyond
macroeconomic indicators and find structural indicators that
can help focus attention on some of the policies of specific
relevance to the imbalances we face today."
    The Treasury Secretary said that indicators should be given
a more prominent role in the annual economic reviews -- Article
IV consultations -- that the Fund performs.
    Baker also told the policy making group that it was time
for the IMF to adopt earlier recommendations making IMF
surveillance more relevant to national policymakers and the
public.
    "In particular, we urge increased publicity for IMF
appraisals developed in Article IV consultations, the use of
follow-up reports on country actions to implement IMF
recommendations, and greater use of special consultation
procedures," he said.
    Baker emphasized that indicators were a device "for moving
beyond rhetoric to action."
    He said they provide "more structure to the system, and
induce more discipline and peer pressure into the process of
policy coordination."
    He said the Fund's procedures for surveillance need to be
reviewed and updated to reflect the use of indicators.
    "This should be matter of priority for the executive board,"
he said.
    Baker also urged the Fund to develop alternative
medium-term economic scenarios for countries that "can help us
focus even more clearly on the most important imbalances, by
identifying options for addressing them and analyzing the
implications of these options."
    He said also that further work should be done on finding
paths that lead toward possible medium-term objectives.
    "If we are to take effective remedial action when there are
significant deviations from an intended course, then we must
have more definitive ways of indentifying the right course for
key variables," he said.
 Reuter

Nerco Inc said its oil and gas
unit closed the acquisition of a 47 pct working interest in the
Broussard oil and gas field from <Davis Oil Co> for about 22.5
mln dlrs in cash.
    Nerco said it estimates the field's total proved developed
and undeveloped reserves at 24 billion cubic feet, or
equivalent, of natural gas, which more than doubles the
company's previous reserves.
    The field is located in southern Louisiana.
 Reuter

For the second time in seven
weeks, the United States and Britain vetoed a Security Council
resolution to impose mandatory sanctions against South Africa.
    Nine of the Council's 15 members voted for the draft, aimed
at forcing South Africa to implement an eight-year-old  U.N.
independence plan for Namibia (South West Africa), a vast,
sparsely populated territory rich in minerals.
    The U.S. and Britain were joined by West Germany in casting
negative votes. France, Italy and Japan abstained.
    The resolution called for comprehensive mandatory sanctions
because Pretoria insists on making Namibian independence
conditional on the withdrawal of more than 30,000 Cuban troops
from neighbouring Angola.
 Reuter

Commodities from gold to grains to
cotton posted solid gains in a flurry of buying today as losses
in the U.S. dollar and rising interest rates kindled fears of
inflation and economic instability.
    Gains were most pronounced on the Commodity Exchange in New
York, where gold jumped 12.40 dlrs and closed at 436.50 dlrs a
troy ounce, and silver 22.5 cents to 6.86 dlrs a troy ounce.
    A key factor behind the advance was anticipation that
inflation will be the only way for the major industrial nations
to halt the slide in the value of the U.S. dollar, said Steve
Chronowitz, director of commodity research with Smith Barney,
Harris Upham and Co., in New York.
    The dollar tumbled one day after top finance officials from
the seven largest industrial nations reaffirmed their
commitment to support its value, and despite reports of
intervention by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, traders said.
    Traders said it appears that the industrial nations, known
as the Group of Seven, lack the ability to change the long-term
direction of the currency markets.
    "Maybe they have some ideas or plans," said Chronowitz. "If
they do, it's not evident."
    "It looks like there's no cure but to let the free market
take values to where they should be.
    "One way or another, we will force our major trading
partners to stimulate their economies," as a measure to correct
the mounting U.S. trade deficit, Chronowitz said.
    "I think the markets believe, and have believed for a long
time, that the only recourse is to reflate at some point. It's
going to be a long and tedious process, but that's what's
happening," he said.
    The falling value of the dollar makes U.S. commodities
cheaper for foreign buyers, stimulating demand.
    At the same time, traders who are holding stocks and bonds
saw the value of their investments falling and many are turning
to commodities such as precious metals as a hedge, said Marty
McNeill, a metals analyst in New York with the trading house of
Dominick and Dominick.
    The reaction in the metal markets reverberated throughout
the commodities markets, as grains, livestock, and cotton
posted broad gains.
    Traders at the Chicago Board of Trade said attention in the
grain markets has shifted from concern about burdensome
supplies to the outlook that a lower dollar will stimulate
export demand.
    After the close of trading, the Agriculture Department
raised its estimate for grain imports by the Soviet Union by
two mln tonnes from the month-earlier report.
    Live hogs and frozen pork bellies posted sharp gains on the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, while live cattle were moderately
higher.
    Analysts said several factors boosted hog prices. They said
hogs haven't been making the weight gains that are normal at
this time of year, and farmers have been too busy with field
work to market animals.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said it will
temporarily lay off 9,800 workers at two plants next week.
    The layoffs will bring to 11,900 the number of General
Motors workers temporarily let go by the company.
    Indefinite layoffs remain unchanged at 37,000.
    General Motors said its Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada
plant at Okalhoma City, Okla., will be shut down April 13
through April 20 for inventory adjustment. Some 5,500 workers
will be idled at the plant.
    General Motors' Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada plant at
Doraville, Ga., will be closed for the same period for
inventory adjustment, with 4,300 workers affected.
    The company's Lakewood, Ga., plant has been shut since
December, with 2,100 workers on temporary layoff.
    General Motors said it will have one car plant and five
truck plants working on on overtime Saturday, April 11.
 Reuter

<Tennex Industries Inc>, a
Japanese owned supplier of air cleaners for the automotive
industry, said it will build a seven mln dlr plant in
Munfreesboro, Tenn.
    The company said the 37,500-square-foot plant will
initially supply parts to <Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp USA>
in nearby Smyna.
    The company said it hopes to eventually produce parts for
other U.S. car makers.
 Reuter

Egypt is expected to tender April 22
for 500,000 tonnes of corn for May through September shipments,
 Reuter

Shr 67 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 9,160,000 vs 7,722,000
    Assets 4.5 billion vs four billion
    Note: Shr and net data are before accounting change
announced in 1986, which added 30 cts a share to year-ago 1st
qtr results.
 Reuter

N.Y. GRAIN FREIGHTS - April 9
    Nidera took TBN 12,000 tonnes HSS Toledo to Casablanca
April 29-May 5 25.00 dlrs three days load 1,000 discharge
    Comanav took Radnik 20,000 tonnes Lakehead to Morocco April
15-25 22.00 dlrs 5,000 load 3,000 discharge
    Krohn took Akron 75,000 tonnes anygrains on 55 feet stowage
Mississippi River to Rotterdam May 1-10 8.05 dlrs 12 days all
purposes
    Continental took Legionario 40,000 tonnes River Plate to
Japan April 25-May 10 22.50 dlrs 2,000 load 5,000 free
discharge
    Garnac took Sokorri 30,000 tonnes U.S. Gulf to Constanza
April 15-25 17.00 dlrs load terms unknown 3,000 discharge
 reuter

Shr loss 21 cts vs loss 28 cts
    Net loss 817,000 vs loss 1,058,000
    Revs 5,627,000 vs 7,397,000
    Year
    Shr loss 75 cts vs loss 1.36 dlrs
    Net loss 2,872,000 vs loss 5,200,000
    Revs 23.3 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Note: 1985 net includes 1,255,000 adjustment in inventory
valuations and 486,000 in cost-reduction expenses.
    Full name is International Power Machines Corp.
 Reuter

CBOE, said it will list new Standard and Poor 500 stock index
options beginning April 20 that will trade side-by-side with
the existing S and P 500 options <SPX>.
    The new S and P 500 option contract differs from the
existing contract in that settlement of the new contract will
be based on the opening value of the index on expiration
Friday. Settlement of the existing contract is based on the
closing value of the index on expiration Friday.
    The new opening settlement S and P 500 options will be
offered only in months in which there are S and P 500 futures.
    Initial months to be listed in the new options will be
June, September and December, the CBOE said.
    Dissemination of the settlement of price of the new options
will be made through a special ticker symbol -- <SET>, the
    There will initially be seven series of strike prices for
each contract month of the new options -- one strike price "at
the money," or near to the actual spot index value, and three
above and three below the spot index.
    Position limits in any combination of both the new and
existing S and P 500 options will be 15,000 contracts.
    The exchange said in the rare event that a stock does not
open on expiration Friday, the previous day's closing price of
that stock will be used to calculate the settlement value of
the index.
 Reuter

The European Community has told
Congress that if textile legislation injuring EC interests is
approved, there was no doubt the community would retaliate
against U.S. exports.
    Roy Denmam, head of the EC delegation here, issued the
warning in a letter to Senator Lloyd Bentsen, chairman of the
Finance Committee. A copy of the letter was provided Reuters.
    Denmam told Bentsen, a Texas Democrat, that if the textile
legislation passed on its own or was included in an omnibus
trade bill and injured EC interests, "there should be no doubt
that the EC will retaliate against the United States."
    He added that "at a time when U.S. textile exports to the EC
are growing rapidly, one result of such retaliation would be a
substantial reduction of U.S. exports and jobs."
    The textile legislation, backed strongly by the industry,
hard hit by imports, and by senators from textile-producing
states would impose new tough global quotas on textile imports
and for the first time include Europe in the quotas.
    Reagan Administration officials have also opposed the
textile legislation, saying that if it passed it would likely
prompt a presidential veto.
    Denman made his comments on the textile issue in a general
assessment of the Senate trade bill, titled S.490.
    He said he was concerned about provisions in the Senate
bill that would limit, if not eliminate, the president's
discretion if retaliating against nations for keeping their
home markets closed to foreign goods.
    U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter has also opposed
those provisions, arguing that presidential flexibility was
needed in order to be able to negotiate with countries to open
their markets, with retaliation being retained as a final, but
discretionary, weapon.
    The pending overall trade legislation would force the
Administration to consult often with Congress and seek its
approval during step-by-step GATT negotiations.
    He said "enactment of S. 490 would reduce the confidence of
other governments in America's commitment to multinational
trade."
    Summing up the senate legislation, Denman said "a number of
provisions of that bil may achieve the opposite of what is
intended and lead to dangerous consequences for the world and
the U.S. economy."
 Reuter

the existing S and P 500 options.
    Dissemination of the settlement price of the new options
the index.
 Reuter

A Grand Jury in Manhattan Federal Court
indicted three arbitrageurs, charging they swapped inside
information between their firms, Goldman Sachs and Co and
Kidder Peabody and Co, court documents showed.
    Robert Freeman, head of risk arbitrage at Goldman
Sachs and Co, Richard Wigton, an employee of Kidder Peabody Co
Inc, and Timothy Tabor, also formerly with Kidder, were charged
with trading on inside information between June 1984 and
January 1986. They were arrested in February.
    The indictments also alledged that Goldman Sachs and
Freeman made money on the insider trading scheme.
    According to the indictment, Freeman exchanged inside
information with Martin Siegel, who at the time was a vice
president of Kidder Peabody.
    Siegel pleaded guilty last February 13 to charges he
participated in the conspiracy. The indictment charged Siegel
passed on non-public information to both Wigton and Tabor from
Freeman.
 Reuter

Investment Inc told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
acquired a 7.7 pct stake in Atcor Inc.
    Great American said it bought the stake for investment.
    It added that it has also considered--but not yet
decided--to buy additional Atcor shares, either in the open
    Great American said it paid about 6.1 mln dlrs for its
462,400 Atcor shares. It said its most recent purchases
included 191,400 shares bought March 18-April 6.
 Reuter

Oper shr one ct vs 13 cts
    Oper net 17,806 vs 312,692
    Revs 1,318,165 vs 2,239,349
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 27 cts cs 28 cts
    Oper net 640,156 vs 671,291
    Revs 5,612,818 vs 5,632,044
    Note: Oper excludes gain from discontinued operations of
15,598 for year-ago qtr and loss from discontinued operations
of 49,040 for year-ago nine mths.
 Reuter

Moore Corp Ltd expects 1987 profits from
continuing operations will exceed 1986 results and recover to
1985 levels when the company earned 152 mln U.S. dlrs or 1.70
dlrs a share, president M. Keith Goodrich said.
    "We'll have a substantial increase in earnings from
continuing operations," he told reporters after the annual
meeting. He said he expected profits would recover last year's
lost ground and reach 1985 results.
    In 1986, profits from continuing operations slumped to
139.5 mln dlrs or 1.54 dlrs a share. The total excluded losses
of 30 mln dlrs on discontinued operations.
    Goodrich said Moore is still actively looking for
acquisitions related to its core areas of business forms
manufacturing or handling.
    "We could do a large acquisition," he said when asked if
the company could raise as much as one billion dlrs for this
purpose.
    Chairman Judson Sinclair, answering a shareholder's
question, told the annual meeting that a special resolution
passed by shareholders to create a new class of preferred
shares would allow Moore to move quickly if it decided to
pursue an acquisition.
    "If we were to make a major acquisition ... it means we can
move with a certain expediency," Sinclair said.
    Asked if the resolution was designed to give Moore
protection from a possible hostile takeover, Sinclair said
only, "I know of no threat to the corporation at this time."
        
 Reuter

Arvin Industries Inc said its
shareholders at the annual meeting voted to increase authorized
common shares to 50 mln from 30 mln.
    The company told shareholders that the offering of 1.7 mln
common shares in January raised 50 mln dlrs, and the 500 shares
of variable rated preferred stock offered in February also
raised 50 mln dlrs. The company said it also placed 150 mln
dlrs in long-term debt in March.
 Reuter

Raytheon Co said the United
States Navy awarded it a 215.3 mln dlr contract to produce
1,927 AIM/RIM-7M Sparrow Missile Guidance and Control Sections
and associated hardware.
    Under the contract, the company said it will provide
missiles and associated hardware to the U.S. Navy and Air Force
and to several U.S. allies.
    Raytheon said the contract represents the major share of
the fiscal 1987 competitive Sparrow missile procurement.
 Reuter

Gabelli Group Inc said it and two
subsidiaries held a total of 295,800 Decision/Capital Fund Inc
shares or 14.8 pct of the total outstanding.
    It said the shares were held on behalf of investment
clients and it said it had no intention of seeking control of
the fund.
    Gabelli said its most recent purchases of Decision/Capital
Fund stock included 95,800 shares bought April 3-6 on the
Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
    Gabelli is an investment firm headquartered in New York
City. Its Gabelli and Co subsidiary is a brokerage firm.
 Reuter

Consumers Power Co said it has 56
mln dlrs available to be used to redeem at par any 15 pct
series first mortgage bonds that are not exchanged under an
outstanding bond exchange program.
    The utility on March 17 offered to exchange its 15 pct
first mortgage bonds due March 1, 1994 for a new series of
first mortgage bonds, 9-1/4 pct due April 1, 1997. The offer
will expire April 14, 1987.
 Reuter

Association put the three-month average book-to-bill ratio at
1.21, which was above analysts' expectations and reflects the
sixth straight increase in this indicator of computer industry
activity.
    Average booking in the three month period ended in March
totaled 910.8 mln dlrs, up 15.6 pct from a month ago and the
highest bookings since September, 1984. March billings, or
computer chip sales in the month, totaled 912.1 mln dlrs, up
34.6 pct from a month ago, the association said. The three
month average billings totaled 751.3 mln dlrs, up 6.5 pct.
    March billings were the strongest recorded since November,
1984, the association said. The book to bill ratio, at 1.21,
was the highest since May, 1984, it noted.
    Preliminary total solid state shipments for the first
quarter of 1987 totaled 2.25 billion dlrs, up 4.9 pct from last
quarter and up 15.9 pct from last year's first quarter.
    Semiconductor Industry Association President Andrew
Procassini said the rise in the book to bill was due to a
substantial increase in U.S. bookings during March.
    "We believe that the bookings increase reflects growing
confidence by electronic equipment manufacturers that some
end-equipment market segments have improved substantially
during the first quarter," Procassini said in a statement.
    The association also revised its book-to-bill ratio
estimate for the three months ended in February to 1.12, from
1.13 earlier. It further revised the January book-to-bill
figure to 1.09 from 1.12 estimated earlier.
    The three-month average book-to-bill ratio of 1.21 for
March means for every 100 dlrs worth of product shipped,
computer chip maker received 121 dlrs in new orders.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc analyst Michael Gumport said
association numbers indicate March orders were up 20 pct above
the normal seasonal level.
    The association does not break out March orders from its
three-month average, which it put at 910.8 mln dlrs.
    Gumport noted the three-month average bookings were well
above the 800-865 mln dlrs anticipated by the industry.
    He said semiconductor stock could rise five to ten pct on
the stock market open tomorrow, due to the positive numbers.
    "Skeptics are going to have to have some pretty strong
reasons not to like this group (of stocks)," Gumport said.
    Kidder Peabody and Co analyst Michael Kubiak said the ratio
indicates March orders at about one billion dlrs, which would
be the highest monthly order rate since April, 1984.
    He predicted at least a five pct rise in semiconductor
stocks on the open, and said the stock group could soar as high
as 15 pct during the session.
    "One month does not a boom-time make, but this is very good
news," he said.
    Kubiak attributed the stong semiconductor orders to
strength in the personal computer market, inventory restocking
and strong buying by distributors.
    Purchasing managers had been keeping computer chip
inventories low, due to the overcapacity in the industry and
the slow growth of the economy in general, analysts noted.
    The semiconductor industry has been in a slump for the past
    The analysts said the March order and sales numbers are the
strongest evidence yet that the trend may be turning.
    Nevertheless, they do not expect the Administration to
retreat from proposed sanctions against Japanese chip makers.
    They added, however, if the industry continues to improve,
it could mean the sanctions will be short term.
    Jack Beedle, President of In-Stat, an electronics industry
research firm, called the March numbers "excellent", but also
cautioned against excessive optimism.
    "I still believe caution should be the word, rather than
euphoria," said Beedle, adding that he has yet to see strong
indications from the general economy or the computer industry
that support a solid, long-term recovery.
    Beedle said while he thinks the semiconductor industry will
have a very good second quarter, he still thinks positive
shifts in exports and industrial production are needed to
sustain a recovery.
 Reuter

MP Co, a New York investment
partnership, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it
bought a 6.8 pct stake in IPCO Corp common stock.
    The partnership said it acquired 346,600 IPCO shares,
paying 4.9 mln dlrs, because it believed the securities to be
"an attractive investment opportunity."
    It said it planned to regularly review its investment and
may in the future recommend business strategies or an
extraordinary corporate transaction such as a merger,
reorganization, liquidation or asset sale.
    The partnership is controlled by Marcus Schloss and Co Inc,
a New York brokerage firm, and Prime Medical Products Inc, a
Greenwood, S.C., medical supplies firm.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 30 cts vs loss 1.27 dlrs
    Oper net loss 8,648,000 vs loss 25.6 mln
    Revs 27.4 mln vs 33.3 mln
    Avg shrs 29.1 mln vs 20.1 mln
    Note: Oper excludes loss on provision for discontinued
operations of 971,000 vs 12.2 mln and loss from conversion of
debt 587,000 vs gain of 1,734,000.
    1985 oper excludes loss from pension plan liquidation of
631,000 and loss from discontinued operations of 1,015,000.

 Reuter

Retail sales of trucks in March rose
16.4 pct over the same month last year, said the Motor Vehicle
Manufacturers Association.
    The trade group said dealers sold 377,617 trucks in March,
up from 324,327 last year.
    Year-to-date truck sales were up 3.6 pct at 934,074 from
1986's 901,757.
 Reuter

Elements of the drug industry endangered
the lives of children by pressuring the government to delay a
now common warning on the link between aspirin and an often
fatal disease, a doctor said.
    The warning involving Reye's Syndrome has since been
required on aspirin products under a Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) directive of one year ago, and now appears
on the labels of aspirin and aspirin-containing products.
    The industry under government coaxing began voluntarily
printing warning labels in mid-1985.
   
    But in an editorial in this week's Journal of the
American Medical Association, Dr Edward Mortimer of Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland said some aspirin
manufacturers misled physicians and acted irresponsibly in
opposing the warning for several years before then.
    Mortimer's criticism was prompted by a new government study
published in the same issue of the Journal which said it had
found a "strong association" between aspirin and Reye's Syndrome.
    Reye's Syndrome, which kills about 20 per cent of its
victims, strikes following chicken pox, influenza and other 
illnesses. Symptoms include lethargy, belligerence and
excessive vomiting. Those who survive sometimes suffer brain
damage.
  
 Reuter

CADILLAC FAIRVIEW SAYS IT HAS RECEIVED SOME ACQUISITION PROPOSALS

Aircraft Co said it received a contract worth more than 20 mln
dlrs from Boeing Co's Boeing Commercial Airplane Co.
    Hughes will supply a cabin entertainment and service system
for Boeing's new 747-4000 jumbo jetliners.
 Reuter

<Audec Corp> said it sold
privately 24 units, each consisting of 40,000 common shares and
40,000 redeemable common share purchase warrants, for a total
of 480,000 dlrs.
    Audec said the sale was part of its plan to place a total
of 28 units at 20,000 dlrs each.
 Reuter

The French government said it 
proposed the creation of a new facility for development and for
debt reduction under the framework of the World Bank.
    In a statement issued in conjunction with the meeting of
the International Monetary Fund's policy-making Interim
Committee, the French said the "multilateral resources thus
collected would permit a partial refinancing on highly
concessional terms of previously rescheduled official debts."
    The statement said the "French government believes it is
necessary to take new steps to deal with the issue of the
poorest countries' debt."
    The French statement said that Paris club reschedulings
should have a lengthening of the repayment period up to between
15 and 20 years instead of the current limit of 10 years.
    And grace periods would be extended.
    "These measures would be confined to the poorest, heavily
indebted countries and would be decided on a case-by-case
basis," it said.
    The French also called for making the IMF's compensatory
financing facility for export shortfalls more concessional.
 Reuter

<Cadillac Fairview Corp Ltd> said it
received proposals to acquire the company, following its
announcement last August that it had retained investment
dealers to solicit offers for all outstanding common shares.
    Cadillac Fairview said the offers are subject to
clarification and negotiation and offered no further details.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said one of its U.S. car
and truck assembly plants will work overtime next week.
    Six of its seven U.S. facilities will work during the week.
The plant on overtime, both during the week and on Saturday,
April 11, is the company's Sterling Heights, Mich., factory.
    The company's U.S. plants and offices will be closed
Friday, April 17, and Monday, April 20, for the Good Friday and
Martin Luther King Jr. holidays.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) will
retaliate against U.S. textile exports if Congress passes trade
legislation damaging European interests, an EC official warned
today.
    Roy Denman, head of the EC delegation here, issued the
Finance Committee. A copy was provided to Reuters.
    The bill, backed by the textile industry and senators from
textile-producing states, would impose global quotas on textile
imports and for the first time include Europe.
    Denman said he was concerned about provisions in the bill
that would limit, if not eliminate, the president's discretion
in retaliating against nations that keep their home markets
closed to foreign goods.
 Reuter

N.Y. TANKERS - April 9
    Tennaco took Nicopolis part cargo 50,000 tons dirty April
12 Caribbean to U.S. Gulf worldscale 130
    Exxon took Brazil Glory 77,000 tons dirty April 17 East
Coast Mexico to U.S. Atlantic Coast worldscale 75
    Champlin took Tamba Maru part cargo 57,000 tons crude April
18 Caribbean to U.S. Gulf worldscale 105
    Pecten took World Cliff part cargo 74,500 tons dirty April
14 Sullom Voe to U.S. Atlantic Coast/U.S. Gulf worldscale 70
for Atlantic Coast worldscale 67.5 for Gulf
    Crown Petroleum took British Skill (Gotco relet) part cargo
100,000 tons dirty April 18 West Africa to U.S. Gulf worldscale
63
    Oroleum took Marika P. part cargo 59,000 tons dirty April
16 Caribbean to U.S. Atlantic Coast/U.S. Gulf rate not reported
 Reuter

Winterhalter Inc said its
shareholders approved the 525,000 dlr acquisition of
Winterhalter by Interface Systems Inc <INTF>.
    The acquisition would be for 15 cts per Winterhalter share.
 Reuter

Harold H. Kline, 48, will resign on
May one as president of Liberty Financial Group Inc and its
Liberty Savings Bank unit to pursue other business
opportunties, the company said.
    The company said Kline's post will be filled by Charles G.
Cheleden, chairman and chief executive officer.
    Kline will continue to serve on the boards of Liberty
Financial and Liberty Savings, the company added.
 Reuter

Immunomedics Inc said it filed a
Commission for the proposed sale of 2,500,000 shares of common
stock.
    The company said it will sell 2,100,000 shares and that
certain stockholders will sell the remaining 400,000 shares.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used for product
development, basic research, staff expansion, prepayment of
debt, capital expenditures and working capital, the company
said. The offering will be co-managed by E.F. Hutton and Co Inc
and First Boston Corp, Immunomedics said.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp Chairman Allen E. Murray said
the company's exploration and production budget would not be
increased in the foreseeable future as it is "operating on the
assumption that (oil) prices will remain on the lower end of
the spectrum.
     "Our budget is at about the same level as it was last year
and I think it is the right amount," said Murray who was in
town for ceremonies celebrating the consolidation of Mobil's
domestic exploration and production operations into a new,
locally-based subsidiary.
     Last year, Mobil spent a total of 2.13 billion dlrs on
exploration and production, 341 mln dlrs in the United States
and 1.79 billion overseas.
     Murray said the new subsidiary, Mobil Exploration and
Production U.S. Inc., was not created as "part of any cost
saving effort" but instead to "increase our efficiency and
ability to stay ahead of the pack."
     The consolidation will, however, save Mobil about 15 mln
dlrs annually once relocation and reorganization costs have
been absorbed, according to A.F. Stancell, vice president of
U.S. producing operations for the company.
     Mobil, the nation's second largest oil company, responded
to the collapse of oil prices last year -- from 30 dlrs a
barrel at end-1985 to as low as 10 dlrs in mid-1986 -- by
laying off 5,500 people and cutting its budget in midyear by 27
percent, or 1.1 billion dlrs.
     Of that amount, more than 900 mln dlrs was eliminated from
its exploration and spending spending plans.
     But the company reported an increase in profits in 1986
over 1985 and a jump in per share earnings to 3.45 dlrs a share
from 2.55 dlrs.           
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs profit 17 cts
    Net loss 1,546,000 vs profit 4,078,000
    Revs 22.6 mln vs 38.9 mln
 Reuter

General Motors' Hughes Aircraft Co
said it was awarded a contract worth more than 20 mln dlrs by
Boeing's Boeing Commercial Airplane Co to provide an advanced
cabin entertainment and service system for Boeing's new 747-400
airliners.
    Hughes said the new system uses advanced digital electronic
techniques and also adds cabin lighting control, cabin advisory
signs and seat information.
    Hughes said the first 747-400 is scheduled to be completed 
in early 1988.

 Reuter

President Reagan criticized
the House-passed budget by saying the Democratic budget plan
was just business as usual.
    The budget cut defense by eight billion dlrs and called for
18 billion dlrs in new taxes.
    He said the defense cut potentially theratened national
security and was asking the American taxpayers to pay for the
Democrats' excesses.
 Reuter

rating on 190 mln dlrs of Zenith Electronic Corp debt because
of continued poor earnings results and increased debt leverage.
    Among the rating changes, the company's senior debt was
lowered to BB-plus from BBB-plus.
 Reuter

lowered the ratings on 464 mln dlrs of long-term debt issued by
RepublicBank Corp and its two principal subsidiaries but
upgraded 451 mln dlrs of securities of Interfirst Corp <IFC>.
    The rating adjustments are based on the likelihood that the
proposed merger of the two Texas banks will be consummated.
Moody's said Interfirst is considerably the weaker of the two
    Among the rating changes, RepublicBank's senior debt was
downgraded to BA-1 from BAA-1 while Interfirst's was raised to
BA-1 from B-1.
 Reuter

that commercial banks need to develop more flexibility in their
concerted lending mechanisms "to help assure continued
participation in new money packages."
    He said that major debtor nations need to be able to count
on receiving timely disbursements on new loans essential to
support well-conceived economic programs.
    His remarks were made to the afternoon session of the
International Monetary Fund's policy making Interim Committee.
    Baker said, "The sense of urgency and willingness to
cooperate in support of a larger general interest that helped
to carry us through the difficult crisis period of 1982 and
1983 is now less evident."
    He said to address this problem, it is important for the
commercial banks to "develop a menu of alternative new money 
options from which all banks with debt exposure can choose in
providing continuing support for debtor reforms."
    He said the "continued implementation of the debt strategy
may well rest on their doing so."
    Baker also said that growth prospects for the lowest income
countries remain an issue of "critical concern to the United
States."
    He said that he intended to address the problem of poor
country prospects in greater detail at tomorrow's meeting of
the joint IMF-World Bank Devlopment Committee.
    Baker said, however, that ministers should guard against
what appear to be magical solutions to the complex debt
problem.
    "I want to stress the need for all to guard against the
ephemeral attraction of magical solutions, which may appear as
tantalizing alternatives to the rigorous realities of grappling
with our debt problems," he said.
    But he emphasized that the only lasting progress is to
approach each situation on a case-by-case basis, "bringing to
bear the policies and financing needed to bring the economy
back to sustained economic growth."
 Reuter

chile's trade surplus narrowed to 102.2
mln dlrs in february, from 105.4 mln dlrs in the same month
last year, but it was above the 18.2-mln-dlr surplus recorded
in january 1987, the central bank said.
    Exports in february totalled 379.4 mln dlrs, 17.2 pct above
the january figure. Imports fell 9.2 pct from the previous
month to 277.2 mln dlrs. The figures for the same month last
year were 314 mln and 208.6 mln dlrs, respectively.
    The accumulated trade surplus over the first two months of
1987 stands at 120.4 mln dlrs against 132.8 mln dlrs the
 Reuter

Economists said that they doubt the
Federal Reserve is firming policy to aid the dollar, despite
higher discount window borrowings in the latest two-week
statement period and very heavy borrowings Wednesday.
    Data out today show net borrowings from the Fed averaged
393 mln dlrs in the two weeks to Wednesday, up from 265 mln
dlrs in the prior statement period. Wednesday borrowings were
1.4 billion dlrs as Federal funds averaged a high 6.45 pct.
    "One could make a case that the Fed is firming, but it
probably isn't," said William Sullivan of Dean Witter Reynolds.
    Sullivan said some may assume the Fed has firmed policy
modestly to support the dollar because net borrowings in the
two-weeks to Wednesday were nearly 400 mln dlrs after averaging
around 250 mln dlrs over the previous two months.
    However, the Dean Witter economist noted that the latest
two-week period included a quarter end when seasonal demand
often pushes up borrrowings.
    "Some might argue that the Fed was firming policy, but it
looks like it tried to play catchup with reserve provisions
late in the statement period and didn't quite make it," said
Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    A Fed spokesman told a press press conference today that
the Fed had no large net one-day miss of two billion dlrs or
more in its reserve projections in the week ended Wednesday.
    Still, McCarthy said it may have had a cumulative miss in
its estimates over the week that caused it to add fewer
reserves earlier in the week than were actually needed.
    The Fed took no market reserve management action last
Thursday and Friday, the first two days of the week. It added
temporary reserves indirectly on Monday via two billion dlrs of
customer repurchase agreements and then supplied reserves
directly via System repurchases on Tuesday and Wednesday.
    Based on Fed data out today, economists calculated that the
two-day System repurchase agreements the Fed arrranged on
Tuesday totaled around 5.9 billion dlrs. They put Wednesday's
overnight System repos at approximately 3.4 billion dlrs.
    "It is quite clear that the Fed is not firming policy at
this time," said Larry Leuzzi of S.G. Warburg and Co Inc.
    Citing the view shared by the other two economists, Leuzzi
said the Fed cannot really afford to seriously lift interest
rates to help the dollar because that would harm already weak
economies in the United States and abroad and add to the
financial stress of developing countries and their lenders.
    "Those who believe the Fed tightened policy in the latest
statement period have to explain why it acted before the dollar
tumbled," said McCarthy of Merrill Lynch.
    He said the dollar staged a precipitous drop as a new
statement period began today on disappointment yesterday's
Washington meetings of international monetary officials failed
to produce anything that would offer substantive dollar aid.
    In fact, currency dealers said there was nothing in
Wednesday's G-7 communique to alter the prevailing view that
the yen needs to rise further to redress the huge trade
imbalance between the United States and Japan.
    The economists generally agreed that the Fed is aiming for
steady policy now that should correspond to a weekly average
Fed funds rate between six and 6-1/8 pct. This is about where
the rate has been since early November.
    "I'm not so sure that the Fed is engineering a tighter
policy to help the dollar, as some suspect," said Sullivan of
Dean Witter.
    If it is, however, he said that Fed probably has just
nudged up its funds rate goal to around 6.25 to 6.35 pct from
six to 6.10 pct previously.
 Reuter

mln-dlr, 20-year loan to assist Pakistan in a project designed
to improve power plant efficiency.
    Noting that a shortage of power constrains Pakistan's
economic development, the Bank said one objective of the
project is to provide at least 200 megawatts of additional
    Another objective is to improve the efficiency with which
hydrocarbons are used by Pakistan's Water and Power Development
Authority (WAPDA) in power production, it said. One effect of
this would be reduced atmospheric pollution.
 Reuter

Shr loss six cts vs loss 84 cts
    Net loss 219,632 vs loss 16.3 mln
    Revs 1.4 mln vs 2.8 mln
    NOTE:1985 net includes 15.5 mln dlrs of writedowns and tax
benefit of 51,294.
   
 Reuter

Valex Petroleum Inc said its 1.3
mln dlrs in long-term debt with a commercial bank was
reclassified as a current liability, which resulted in its
auditors giving it a qualified opinion.
    Earlier, Valex reported a net loss 219,632 for 1986.
 Reuter

Data Architects inc said it
intends to make a public offering of 850,000 shares of its
common stock, of which 672,000 shares will be sold by the
company and 178,000 by certain shareholders.
 Reuter

<Terrapet Energy Corp> said five
directors resigned because they could not obtain directors and
officers liability insurance.
    It said the directors are Dean R. Fellows, Frederick B.
Hegi Jr, W.D. Masterson, Thomas Sturgess and John C. Thomas.
 Reuter

Goldman, Sachs and Co, responding to
the indictment earlier today of Robert M. Freeman, who remains
head of its risk arbitrage unit, said it believes the
44-year-old executive did not violate insider trading laws.
    "Based on all we now know, we continue to believe in him
and to believe that he did not act illegally," the company said
    Freeman was indicated by a federal grand jury along with
two other top Wall Street executives, Richard Wigton and
Timothy Tabor, for allegedly swapping insider information in a
scheme that produced millions in illegal profits.
    The company said it based in belief in Freeman's innocence
on an investigation conducted by its independent outside
counsel after Freeman was arrested in February.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved a 25
mln dlr structural adjustment loan for Mauritius to aid that
country's industrial sector.
    The Bank said the 17-year loan will support policy reforms
designed to help increase the efficiency of the country's
manufacturing sector, develop export enterprises and encourage
efficient use of resources.
    It added, "The increased availability of foreign exchange
for imports is expected to help the expansion of industrial
output and exports."
 Reuter

Toronto's financial district, the
business heart of Canada, slowed to a near halt this afternoon
after being struck by a power blackout, utility and business
    The blackout occurred around 1515 EDT in about an
eight-square-block section of the city's downtown core, home to
most of the city's skyscrapers, containing the  headquarters of
many of Canada's major corporations and financial institutions.
    Ontario Hydro spokeswoman Christina Warren told Reuters the
blackout occurred when a transformer cable went down during
routine maintenance at a downtown hydroelectricity station.
Power was restored after 10 minutes.
    The power loss halted floor trading for 15 minutes on the
Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada's largest equity market,
although computerized trading - accounting for about 20 per
cent of the Exchange's normal volume - continued, Toronto Stock
Exchange official John Kolosky said.
    Bank operations were also affected. The headquarters or
major offices of Canada's six major banks line a small section
of Bay Street, the Wall Street of Canada.
    Bank of Montreal spokesman Brian Smith told Reuters the
blackout shut down electronic banking machines and caused a
minor slowdown in money trading operations, although "all in all
we were not seriously affected."
    Officials at various downtown skyscrapers said the blackout
also briefly shut down elevators and disrupted business in the
downtown core's extensive network of underground shopping
malls.
    Workers at some of the buildings said several people were
briefly trapped on elevators, but police and firefighters
reported no serious problems.
 Reuter

The Administration's 15 billion dlr
plan to recapitalize the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corporation is needed to ensure the future profitablity of the
U.S. thrift industry, according to a top industry regulator.
    "Today thrifts in overwhelming numbers are profitable," 
Shannon Fairbanks, executive chief of staff of the Federal Home
Loan Bank Board told a thrift industry conference.
    "But every thrift is paying a market tax for the inabliity
of regulators to deal with problems carried forward from the
past," she said, referring to the premium that thrifts have to
pay in the marketplace to entice deposits away from banks.
    "The industry wants to see a five billion dlr plan passed
now, and then to wait and see what happens," Fairbanks said.
"They're saying, 'we don't want to pay more right away.' The
argument is that it's a drain on the industry."
    "But the dollars paid out can be recaptured in the
reduction in the market tax differential," she said. "The cost
of recapitalization to the industry would be recaptured in
bottom line profitability."
    Fairbanks said that the public's confidence in thrift
instititutions eroded with the financial difficulties of
savings and loan associations in Ohio and Maryland in 1985.
    As thrift institutions in economically distressed areas
like Texas have continued to fall on hard times, this has
increased depositors' demand for a higher premium on deposits
in savings and loans compared with premiums paid on deposits in
commercial banks, she said.
    Before 1983, thrift institutions paid a 25 basis point
yield differential on savings deposits over that offered by
commercial banks as mandated by U.S. financial regulations.
    With the elimination in 1983 of regulations that had drawn
strict lines between savings and loans and commercial banks,
the gap widened to as much as 50 to 75 basis points as wary
depositors demanded a higher premium to place their funds in
thrift institutions, Fairbanks said.
    "The market tax paid by today's thrift industry is the most
significant impediment to future profits," she said.
    Depositor confidence is also eroded by the existence of
thrifts that are failing but manage to stay in business by
paying deposit rates well above prevailing market rates.
    Presently, the FHLBB cannot afford to close failing
institiutions "because we can't afford it with the current
FSLIC fund," she said.
    Fairbanks estimated that the high market tax differential
paid by thrifts will drop by at least 10 to 20 basis points
with an adequate recapitalization of FSLIC because it will help
restore this lost confidence.
 Reuter

New Zealand's trading bank
seasonally adjusted deposit growth rose 2.1 pct in February
compared with a 2.6 pct rise in January, the Reserve Bank said.
    Year-on-year total deposits rose 28.9 pct compared with a
30.6 pct rise in January and 34.4 pct rise in February a year
ago period, the bank said in its weekly statistical release.
    Total deposits rose to 17.55 billion N.Z. Dlrs in February
compared with 17.18 billion in January and 13.61 billion in
 Reuter

The Senate approved a 433 mln dlr
bill to aid thousands of homeless people sleeping on streets
around the country.
    The legislation was approved on an 85 to 12 vote but must
be reconciled with a similar House-passed bill differing in
some details.
    The bill passed after Senate leaders managed on a 68 to 29
vote to break a filibuster that had blocked final action.
    The filibuster was led by Republican Senator Gordon
Humphrey of New Hampshire who was trying to force an amendment
to reverse a 12,100 dlr pay raise Congress approved earlier
this year that boosted the lawmakers' salaries to 89,500 dlrs
annually.
 Reuter

Association said it approved a 18.6 mln dlr credit to Sri Lanka
to help that country strengthen its agricultural research and
    IDA, the World Bank arm that makes interest free loans to
the poorest nations, said the credit will support changes
designed to raise farm income by boosting production,
developing better crop varieties and improving farm systems.
    It said these goals will be accomplished through the
establishment of a Council of Agricultural Research which will
formulate and institute an agricultural research strategy.
 Reuter

BANK OF JAPAN INTERVENES TO BUY DOLLARS AROUND 143.70 YEN - DEALERS

DOLLAR OPENS AT RECORD TOKYO LOW 143.75 YEN (PREVIOUS RECORD 144.70) - DEALERS

The dollar opened at a record Tokyo low
of 143.75 yen despite aggressive Bank of Japan intervention,
    The previous record low was 144.70 yen set on March 30. The
opening compares with 143.90/144.00 yen at the close in New
York.
    The central bank bought dollars through Tokyo brokers just
before and after the market opening, the dealers said.
    The intervention took place when the dollar fell to 143.20
yen, one dealer said.
    The dollar opened at 1.8155/60 marks against 1.8187/97 in
New York.
    The dollar fell as low as 142.90 yen despite central bank
intervention at 143.00 yen, dealers said.
    Selling pressure was strong from securities houses and
institutional investors in hectic and nervous trading on
underlying bearish sentiment for the dollar, they said.
    Most dealers were surpised by the dollar's sharp fall
against the yen in New York, although many had expected such a
drop to happen eventually.
    Institutional investors are expected to sell the dollar
aggressively if it rises to around 143.50 yen, dealers said.
    The U.S. Currency steadied well above 143.00 yen after Bank
of Japan intervention and scattered short-covering, they said.
    The dollar opened at 1.5120/30 Swiss francs against
1.5085/00 at the New York close.
    Sterling started at 1.6190/00 dlrs against 1.6195/05.
 REUTER

The dollar fell below 143 yen in hectic
early Tokyo trading despite aggressive Bank of Japan
intervention, dealers said.
    After opening at a Tokyo low of 143.75 yen, the dollar fell
as low as 142.90 yen on heavy selling led by securities firms
and institutional investors, they said.
 REUTER

Share prices plunged in early trade as an
opening foreign exchange record low of 143.75 yen to the dollar
and a weak stockmarket in New York withered investors'
confidence, brokers said.
    After 32 minutes' trade, the average plummetted 313.00 to
22,609.20. Yesterday the market gained 9.21 to a record close.
    Brokers said the dollar's fall against the yen prompted a
large selloff of export-related shares. But fears had spread
throughout the market, depressing almost all issues.
 REUTER

The Argentine grain market was
quiet in the week to Wednesday, with prices rising slightly on
increased interest in wheat, millet and birdseed.
    Wheat for domestic consumption rose six Australs per tonne
to 118.
    For export it rose eight to 108 per tonne from Bahia
Blanca, increased 0.50 to 104 at Necochea and was unchanged at
Rosario at 108.30.
    Maize increased one to 90 per tonne at Buenos Aires, was
unchanged at 82 in Bahia Blanca, increased 0.50 to 85 at
Necochea and fell one to 88 at Parana River ports.
    Sorghum from Bahia Blanca increased 0.50 Australs to 76.50
per tonne and dropped one to 75 at Rosario.
    It was quoted at 75 at Villa Constitucion, San Nicolas and
Puerto Alvear.
    Oats were unchanged at 168 per tonne at Buenos Aires.
    Millet from Buenos Aires and Rosario rose five per tonne to
140 and birdseed rose 15 to 205 at Buenos Aires.
 REUTER

Today's turmoil in the U.S. Financial
markets, with bond and stock prices tumbling in the dollar's
wake, is evidence of a major shift in investor psychology that
is likely to spell more turbulence ahead, economists said.
    For two years, the markets had hailed the dollar's decline
as the cure-all for the U.S. Trade deficit. Interest rates fell
sharply and Wall Street became a one-way street, up.
    But that confidence is now cracking as the financial
markets suddenly believe Fed chairman Paul Volcker's
often-repeated warnings about the risks of a dollar collapse.
    "Volcker's been saying for a long time that a dollar
freefall would be extremely dangerous - now he's got it," said
David Jones, economist at Aubrey G. Lanston and Co Inc.
    The dollar fell below 144 yen today for the first time in
40 years as the Group of Seven finance ministers in Washington
failed to convince the foreign exchange market that they have a
credible strategy for redressing global trade imbalances, short
of further depreciation of the dollar.
    Bonds suffered their biggest one-day drop in months amid
worries that the dollar's slide will rekindle inflation, scare
away foreign investors and force the Fed to tighten credit.
    The inflationary fears boosted gold bullion by more than 12
dlrs to a 1987 high of 432.20/70 dlrs an ounce, while the spike
in interest rates pulled the Dow Jones Industrial Average down
by 33 points to 2339.
    Norman Robertson, Mellon Bank chief economist, called the
markets' instability frightening. He believes economic
fundamentals do not justify the bearishness but said that "once
you start the ball rolling it's difficult to stop."
    "There's a stark possibility that you could get a
destabilizing drop in the dollar that forces up interest rates
and drives us into recession. The markets are in a panic."
    Stephen Marris of the Institute for International Economics
in Washington, has been warning for a long time that the
controlled decline of the dollar since peaks of 3.47 marks and
264 yen in February 1985 could turn into a nightmare.
    "We're still more or less on track for a hard landing... But
the agony may be fairly drawn out," Marris told Reuters.
    Marris does not expect the crisis to peak until later this
year, but he warned that the situation is so fragile that it
would take very little to touch off what he calls the second
phase of the hard landing, whereby a loss of confidence in the
dollar pushes up interest rates and leads to a recession.
    The stock market's reaction today and its sharp drop on
March 30 shows how the loss of confidence could come about.
    The fact that it has not happened yet is consistent with
historical experience, which teaches that domestic markets are
not affected until a currency is in the final stages of its
decline, Marris said. He has forecast a drop to about 125 yen.
    Marris felt that a major impetus for the dollar's latest
weakness was the loss of credibility that central banks
suffered when they failed to prevent the dollar from falling
below 150 yen, the floor that the market believes was set as
part of the G-7 Paris agreement in February.
    Robertson at Mellon, by contrast, said the loss of
confidence was triggered last week when Washington announced
plans to slap 300 mln dlrs of tariffs on Japanese electronic
imports, raising the specter of a debilitating trade war.
    Many economists believe that long-run stability will not
return to the markets until the root cause of the trade gap is
addressed - excessive consumption in the U.S., Reflected in the
massive budget deficit.
    But in the short term, given the failure of the G-7 and of
central bank intervention, some feel that the Fed will have no
choice but to tighten credit to restore faith in the dollar.
    "The only thing that will stop the dollar falling is a
substantial increase in the discount rate and a corresponding
cut abroad, at least by Japan," said Lanston's Jones.
    Marris expects the Fed to act quickly to raise interest
rates, even at the risk of increasing the debt burden for
American farmers, Latin American governments and others.
    But Robert Giordano, chief economist at Goldman Sachs and
Co, scoffed at the notion. "It's ridiculous to think the Federal
Reserve will raise interest rates when the dollar is weak
against just one currency. This is yen strength, not dollar
weakness," he said.
    Giordano said the market was ignoring the progress being
made toward reducing the U.S. Budget deficit.
    "We're going to have one of the biggest reductions in the
budget deficit relative to GNP in history this year, and nobody
cares," he said, noting that only the deficit cut in 1968-69
will have been greater.
    He said he does not expect the dollar to collapse and
thinks interest rates are likely to fall back later this year.
    But for now, market psychology has changed so abruptly that
a further drop in the bond market cannot be ruled out. "Put on
your helmets," Giordano said.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa is
expected to hold a press conference later today after returning
from Washington, a ministry spokesman told Reuters.
    Miyazawa is scheduled to arrive at 4.15 P.M. (0715 GMT) in
Tokyo. The earliest time for the press conference would be 6.30
P.M. (0930 GMT).
    The minister attended a meeting of the Group of Seven (G-7)
and other international monetary conferences in Washington. The
G-7 -- Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the U.S. And West
Germany -- reaffirmed that current exchange rates are in line
with economic fundamentals.
 REUTER

Average interest rates on yen
certificates of deposit (CD) fell to 4.13 pct in the week ended
April 8 from 4.33 pct the previous week, the Bank of Japan
said.
    New rates (previous in brackets) -
    Average CD rates all banks 4.13 pct (4.33)
    Money Market Certificate (MMC) ceiling rates for week
starting from April 13 -       3.38 pct (3.58)
    Average CD rates of city, trust and long-term banks -
    Less than 60 days          4.15 pct (4.41)
    60-90 days                 4.14 pct (4.29)
    90-120 days                4.12 pct (4.25)
    120-150 days               4.12 pct (4.23)
    150-180 days               unquoted (4.03)
    180-270 days               4.05 pct (4.05)
    Over 270 days              4.05 pct (unqtd)
    Average yen bankers acceptance rates of city, trust and
long-term banks -
    30 to less than 60 days    3.98 pct (4.20)
    60-90 days                 4.03 pct (3.97)
    90-120 days                unquoted (unqtd)
 REUTER

Bank of Japan sources said the bank
has no plans to cut its discount rate.
    They told reporters that there was no pressure on Japan
during the Group of Seven (G-7) meeting here yesterday to lower
its discount rate. They added that they themselves do not feel
any need for a cut at all.
    Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson told reporters
earlier today that some countries - those with strong
currencies - might have to cut interest rates.
    The Bank of Japan sources also said that it was too soon to
call the G-7 pact a failure.
    The central bank sources were commenting on the dollar's
renewed tumble in New York and Tokyo, which was sparked by
remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker that the
dollar's fall had been orderly.
    They said the market must have misinterpreted Baker's
comments because he was referring to the dollar's fall since
the Plaza agreement in September 1985, over a long-time span,
not the currency's recent movements.
    They added that the foreign exchange markest seem to seize
on anything to use as an excuse to drive the dollar one way or
the other.
    The Bank of Japan sources said the U.S. Is putting more
weight on the dollar/yen rate in terms of judging market
stability than on other currencies.
    Throughout the G-7 meeting, Japan pointed to the dangers
that would arise from a further dollar fall because it would
reduce the flow of Japanese capital to the U.S., Hurting the
U.S. And world economies, they said.
    In February and in March of this year, Japanese investors
reduced their purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds, the sources
said.
    Each country in the G-7 - Britain, Canada, France, Italy,
Japan, the U.S. And West Germany - has a different view about
currency stability, the Bank of Japan sources said.
    This is because the overall foreign exchange market is a
triangle of dollar/yen, European currencies/yen and
dollar/European currencies.
    At the time of the Louvre agreement, European countries did
not want the yen to weaken against their currencies so they did
not object to the yen strengthening, they said.
 REUTER

Union and New South Wales government
officials have reached a compromise in a dispute over workers
compensation, averting increased industrial action in the
state, union sources said.
    But some unions, including those of building and mining
workers, said they were dissatisfied with the deal and would
continue their strikes for a few more days.
    State officials said the government had agreed to revise
its proposals to cut compensation and would allow slightly
higher cash benefits for injured workers.
    Under the original proposal, which sparked strikes and
other industrial action in the state on April 7, workers'
compensation would have been cut by one third. Full details of
the compromise package are not yet known.
    The Labour Council, affiliated to the Australian Council of
Trade Unions (ACTU), had threatened to paralyse New South Wales
unless the government modified its pending legislation on the
issue.
    State officials said the only sectors affected in the past
three days were some government building projects, railway
freight movement and cargo handling in Sydney's ports.
 REUTER

Ecuador is due to resume limited crude oil
output on May 8 when a new 43 km pipeline to neighbouring
Colombia should be finished, an energy ministry spokesman said.
    Oil output was halted on March 5 by an earthquake which
damaged 50 km of the main pipeline linking jungle oilfields at
Lago Agrio to the Ecuadorean port of Balao on the Pacific.
    About 13 km of the new link, capable of carrying some
50,000 barrels per day (bpd), has been built, he said.
    Ecuador pumped 245,000 to 250,000 bpd before the
    The new link will connect Lago Agrio to Puerto Colon in
Colombia, the starting point of Columbia's pipeline to the
Pacific ocean port of Temuco.
    The government estimates it will take about four more
months to repair the Lago Agrio to Balao pipeline and return
output to normal levels, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Sumitomo Corp <SUMT.T> and <Nippon Sharyo
Ltd> have won a joint order for 54 railway cars worth 69.60 mln
dlrs from California's Los Angeles County Transportation
Commission, a Nippon Sharyo spokesman said.
    He told Reuters components totalling 20 pct of the value of
the articulated light rail vehicles will be U.S.-made, and that
delivery is due between early 1989 and early 1990.
    The cars will be used for a Long Beach to Los Angeles
service due to start in May 1989.
 REUTER

Thailand exported 56,652 tonnes of rice
in the week ended April 7, down from 75,160 tonnes the previous
    It said the government and private exporters shipped 41,607
and 15,045 tonnes respectively.
    Private exporters concluded advance weekly sales for 48,062
tonnes against 22,086 tonnes the previous week.
    Thailand exported 1.29 mln tonnes of rice so far in 1987,
down from 1.39 mln tonnes a year ago.
    It has commitments to export a further 353,045 tonnes this
year.
 REUTER

The Agriculture Ministry estimates
Japan's edible oil demand will rise 1.5 pct in calendar 1987 to
1.68 mln tonnes from 1.65 mln in 1986.
    Domestic consumption will rise to 1.66 mln tonnes in 1987
from 1.64 mln in 1986, while imports will rise to 77,000 tonnes
from 70,000 and exports will be unchanged at 14,000.
    Edible oil supplies will total 1.75 mln tonnes in 1987
against 1.73 mln last year, including domestic output of 1.60
mln against 1.55 mln. Domestic supplies will comprise 725,000
of soybean oil (706,000 in 1986), 638,000 of rapeseed oil
(609,000) and 235,000 of other origin oils (231,000).
 REUTER

The French parliament has approved a
substantial increase in defence spending to modernise the
country's nuclear and conventional forces.
    The bill provides 474 billion francs for defence
expenditure over a five-year period starting next year, with 32
pct allocated to modernise the country's nuclear weapons
systems.
    The budget represents a six pct annual increase, starting
next year, well above the 3.5 pct NATO recommends for members
of its military command. France is a member of NATO but does
not belong to its integrated military command.
    The budget will help finance three new types of nuclear
weapons, a military reconnaissance satellite, a nuclear powered
aircraft carrier, the AMX Leclerc tank and the possible
development of chemical weapons.
    The program also includes funds for design work on nuclear
missile submarines and the M-5 submarine-launched missile.
 REUTER

Countries meeting at the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week are looking at a
variety of new ways to resolve the problem of third world debt,
Swiss National Bank president Pierre Languetin said.
    Languetin said meetings of the Group of 10 and the IMF
Interim Committee today reached a consensus that a rescheduling
like that of Mexico's debt must be the last of its kind. The
Mexico rescheduling has still not been finally resolved six
months after it started. Various members suggested other
options to break the deadlock between debtor countries and
their creditors, he said.
    Languetin said no recommendations were agreed, but he
listed some of the suggestions.
    One involved individual banking systems each resolving the
problem of small banks which refused to participate in
reschedulings. It was this problem that had prevented
completion of the Mexican rescheduling, he said.
    Debt-equity swaps could be expanded, as could 'on-lending',
which some banks had proposed for Argentine debt. 'On-lending'
allows banks to select customers for rescheduled amounts.
    Small banks which did not wish to reschedule might be
forced to sign "exit bonds," prohibiting them from lending to
that country again, he said.
    Languetin said none of these represented a general view.
But he added "People are trying to get out of the corset."
 REUTER

Swiss National Bank President Pierre
Languetin said a wider interest rate differential between the
dollar and stronger currencies was needed to brake the dollar's
fall.
    At a news conference, he said Japan and West Germany could
try to stimulate their economies further by expanding money
supply, but he added "I'm not so sure it would be desirable if
monetary policy became more expansive.
    "But what would be useful is a greater differential in
 REUTER

Thirty South African coal miners
have been killed in an underground explosion at a colliery east
of Johannesburg, mine owners said.
reuter^M

Pacific Dunlop Ltd said it will make
a one-for-ten bonus issue from its asset revaluation reserve to
shareholders registered June 15.
    The bonus involves the issue of about 45 mln shares, the
diversified rubber and plastics group said in a statement.
    The new shares will not rank for the deferred annual
dividend of not less than 12.5 cts that Pacific Dunlop will pay
in August, but will rank pari passu thereafter, it said.
    As previously reported, it did not pay an interim dividend
for the first half to December 31 pending a review of the new
dividend imputation legislation.
 REUTER

Wholly-owned Mobil Corp <MOB> unit,
<Mobil Oil Australia Ltd>, reported a 38.63 mln dlr net loss in
1986, a turnaround from its 37.25 mln profit in 1985.
    The loss reflected a combination of strikes plus scheduled
and unscheduled refinery shutdowns for maintenance and
inventory losses caused by government controls on both crude
and product prices, Mobil said in a statement.
    However, equity-accounting of associates' profits reduced
the loss to 24 mln dlrs against a 37 mln profit in 1985.
    Mobil said it was confident 1987 would see a return to
profit as it built further on its 1985 company restructuring.
 REUTER

Texaco Inc, in documents filed with a
Texas state appeals court, said a ruling forcing it to post a
bond of more than one billion dlrs as security for a 10.53
billion dlr judgment would halt its credit agreements and force
the company into bankruptcy.
    A hearing is scheduled Monday on Texaco's motion to reduce
the amount of bond required by Texas state law to secure a 1985
judgment in favour of Pennzoil Co <PZL> in a dispute over the
acquisition of Getty Oil.
    Pennzoil today said it proposed to the court that Texaco
secure its bond with assets valued at about 50 pct of the bond.
    It said this would not force Texaco into bankruptcy.
    Richard Brinkman, Texaco's chief financial officer, said in
a newly filed affidavit that the company was willing to use its
65 mln shares of <Texaco Canada Inc> as collateral for a letter
of credit or loan to provide security to Pennzoil.
    The Canadian unit's stock, valued at about 1.8 billion
dlrs, was returned to Texaco earlier this week after being held
as security by a federal district court in New York while
Texaco awaited a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Brinkman
estimated that Texaco could borrow no more than one billion
dlrs using its Canadian subsidiary stock as collateral for a
loan.
    Texaco, he said, was unwilling to pledge the stock of its
other foreign subsidiary corporations as security because the
stock is not widely traded and its market value was unclear.
    Brinkman also said the company had already lost access to a
four billion dlr revolving credit line since the initial jury
verdict against Texaco.
    Texaco had been able to raise working capital by selling
about 700 mln dlrs in receivables to a group of banks since the
judgment, he said. The banks earlier this week notified Texaco
that they would not purchase any additional receivables because
of the company's uncertain status, Brinkman said.
    Four other credit agreements for 1.15 billion dlrs would
also be cut off if a judgment of more than four billion dlrs is
outstanding against the company and it is unable to obtain a
stay, Brinkman said.
    "Since the Supreme Court decision on April 6, many other
suppliers to Texaco have notified Texaco that their dealings
with it are under review and a number have demanded cash
payment or terminated their dealings with Texaco," he said.
    The Supreme Court overturned a lower federal court decision
to cut Texaco's bond to one billion dlrs, saying the issue
should first be considered in Texas courts.
    In a separate affidavit, <Morgan Stanley & Co> Managing
Director Donald Brennan also said Texaco would be forced into
bankruptcy if the company were forced to provide Pennzoil with
security exceeding one billion dlrs.
 REUTER

Japan warned the United States it may
take retaliatory measures if the United States imposes its
planned trade sanctions on April 17, a senior government
    Shinji Fukukawa, Vice Minister of the International Trade
and Industry Ministry, said in a statement Japan would consider
measures under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and
other actions if the United States imposes 100 pct tariffs on
some Japanese exports as planned next week.
    However, Fukukawa said Japan was ready to continue trade
talks with the United States despite its failure to convince
America to call off the threatened tariffs during two days of
emergency talks which ended in Washington yesterday.
    Last month President Reagan announced the sanctions in
retaliation for what he called Japan's failure to honour a July
1986 agreement to stop dumping computer microchips in markets
outside the United States and to open its home market to
American goods.
    Fukukawa said the United States had regrettably not
listened to Japan's explanation of its efforts to live up the
pact and said Washington had not given any detailed explanation
of why it planned to impose the tariffs.
 REUTER

A judge ruled that questions of
liability in the 1985 crash of a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747
which killed 520 people near Tokyo will be decided in Seattle.
    But he left open the possibility that monetary damages
could be awarded in a Japanese court.
    The ruling, by King County Superior Court Judge Gary
Rittle, came in a hearing on lawsuits in which survivors of 77
of the victims are seeking millions of dollars in compensation.
    Rittle said after the liability problems are settled, he
will examine the question of where damages will be decided.
    Lawyers for both the airline and the Seattle-based Boeing
Co (BA.N> argued that the suits should be handled in a Japanese
court, saying it would be more costly and time-consuming to
hear them in an American court.
    But lawyers for the victims' survivors said the two
companies were trying to evade the liability question and
reduce the amount of compensation they may have to pay.
    Court officials said the case was likely to go to trial
here in eight to 10 months.
    A draft report by a Japanese Transport Ministry
investigation team said faulty repairs in 1978 by Boeing and
inadequate inspection by ministry inspectors had contributed to
the cause of the disaster.
    The report, obtained by Reuters this week, is expected to
be made public next month. Boeing has said it will probably not
comment on the report until it is officially released.
 REUTER

Two Utah financial institutions, the
Bank of Iron County and Summit Savings and Loan Association,
have failed, official spokesmen said.
    The board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) has approved the assumption of the deposit
liabilities of Bank of Iron County, Parowan, Utah, by Dixie
State Bank, St George, Utah, an FDIC spokesman said.
    The bank, which had total assets of 20.1 mln dlrs, was the
first bank in Utah to fail this year and the 59th nationwide.
    Its three offices will reopen Monday as branches of Dixie
State Bank and its depositors will automatically become
depositors of the assuming bank.
    Dixie State Bank will assume about 19.9 mln dlrs in 6,300
deposit accounts and will purchase all of the failed bank's
assets at a discount of 3.575 mln dlrs.
    The Federal Home Loan Bank Board closed Summit Savings and
Loan Association, Park City, Utah, and directed the Federal
Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) to transfer an
estimated 116.9 mln dlrs in insured deposits to United Savings
and Loan Association, Ogden, Utah, an FSLIC spokesman said.
    Summit, a 120.8 mln dlr institution, was insolvent, the
spokesman said. The bank board appointed the FSLIC as
conservator for the association on April 14, 1986.
    Summit has since operated as part of the bank board's
Management Consignment Program. United Savings has 205 mln dlrs
in assets and nine offices in Utah, and one in Idaho.
 REUTER

The Kuwait Investment Office (KIO)
has increased its stake in <Sime Darby Bhd> to 63.72 mln
shares, representing 6.88 pct of Sime Darby's paid-up capital,
from 60.7 mln shares, Malayan Banking Bhd <MBKM.SI> said.
    Since last November, KIO has been aggressively in the open
market buying shares in Sime Darby, a major corporation with
interests in insurance, property development, plantations and
    The shares will be registered in the name of Malayan
Banking subsidiary Mayban (Nominees) Sdn Bhd, with KIO as the
beneficial owner.
 REUTER

A committee of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank said protectionist
agricultural policies of industrial countries were a major
cause of depressed global commodity prices.
    The joint Development Committee, in a communique released
following day-long discussions, said an improved environment
for commodities was extremely important to the long-term
viability of developing countries.
    The committee also criticised the slow-down in lending to
    Poorer countries, which rely primarily on raw commodity
sales to industrial nations to pay their debts, have been
highly critical of protectionist agricultural policies in the
United States, Western Europe and Japan.
    "Ministers identified protectionist agricultural policies as
a major cause of distortions including depressed commodity
prices on world markets, of surplus production and of budgetary
drain," the communique said.
    The communique, delayed because of disputes over specific
language, was the final statement by the IMF and the bank after
week-long semi-annual meetings of the two lending agencies.
    Earlier, the IMF's powerful Interim Committee added its
voice to growing criticism of delays by commercial banks on
critically needed loan packages for debt-laden developing
    The committee said it welcomed the exploration of new
procedures and financing techniques that will help mobilise new
financial support for indebted countries.
    On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, in a
statement to the policy-making committee, said commercial bank
lending to debtor nations last year was disappointing and more
flexibility in loan programs was needed.
    "Doubts about financing can clearly undermine the resolve to
carry out needed reforms," Baker said.
    The Development Committee also joined in the criticism,
noting that there had been a declining flow of capital to the
developing countries that "has been particularly significant in
the case of flows from commercial banks."
    A number of bank negotiations are bogged down over details
including financial packages for Mexico, Nigeria and Argentina.
    The banks, acknowledging it has been difficult to complete
deals, say part of the blame goes to the developing countries
for not making sufficient reform to make them good credit
risks.
 REUTER

A sugar mill which was this
nation's second largest employer closed its doors yesterday,
saying it had been run out of business by sugar smuggled from
Miami and the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
    The closure of the Haitian American Sugar Company (HASCO)
will idle 3,500 employees and affect as many as 30,000 to
40,000 small sugar cane planters in regions around the capital,
    "Because of unprecedented and ever-growing smuggling, HASCO
regrets ... It cannot continue to accept delivery of sugar cane
after April 10," the mill warned planters earlier this week.
    Since President Jean-Claude Duvalier fled Haiti fourteen
months ago, widescale smuggling of basic goods such as cooking
oil, flour, rice, sugar and canned milk has lowered consumer
prices but bankrupted several local manufacturers, throwing
hundreds of thousands of Haitians out of work.
    At the HASCO compound, where grim-faced workers lined up to
receive their last pay, Spokesman Georges D. Rigaud showed a
warehouse stocked with an estimated 445,000 unsold 100-pound
(45-kg) bags of sugar.
    "We are closing because of our huge stock of unsold sugar.
We have no money left to continue operations," Rigaud said.
    He said the company owed 7.6 mln dlrs and had borrowed an
additional 1.5 mln dlrs in order to pay off workers.
    Rigaud blamed the mill's problems on an order by Duvalier
two years ago forbidding HASCO from refining sugar.
    He said the government then began importing refined sugar
at world market prices and reselling it at a huge profit and
the provisional military-civilian government that replaced
Duvalier last year continued the policy.
    "But now with all the smuggling even the state can't compete
with smuggled Dominican refined sugar," Rigaud said.
    HASCO workers earned 4.20 dlrs daily, considerably above
the usual minimum wage of three dlrs.
    It is generally estimated that every employed Haitian
supports at least six people. Rigaud said HASCO's closing at a
minimum would affect 280,000 to 300,000 people.
    Laid-off workers were bitter about the closure. "We're dead,
and it's the government that's causing us to die," declared
Lucien Felix, 34, who has five dependents.
 REUTER

Taiwan announced plans for another round
of import tariff cuts on 862 foreign goods shortly before trade
talks with Washington which officials described as a move to
help balance trade with the United States.
    Wang Der-Hwa, Deputy Director of the Finance Ministry's
Customs Administration Department, told reporters the list of
products included 60 items asked by Washington.
    "The move is part of our government efforts to encourage
imports from our trading partners, particularly from the United
States," he said.
    He said the ministry sent a proposal today to the cabinet
that the tariffs on such products as cosmetics, bicycles,
apples, radios, garments, soybeans and television sets be cut
by between five and 50 pct.
    The cabinet was expected to give its approval next Thursday
and the new tariff cuts would be implemented possibly starting
on April 20, he added.
    Taiwan introduced a sweeping tariff cut on some 1,700
foreign products last January aimed at helping reduce its
growing trade surplus with the United States, the island's
largest trading partner.
    Washington however was not satisfied with the cuts and
pressed for more reductions as a way of cutting its huge trade
deficit with Taipei.
    Washington's deficit with Taipei rose to a record 13.6
billion U.S. Dlrs last year from 10.2 billion in 1985. It
widened to 3.61 billion in the first quarter of 1987 from 2.78
billion a year earlier, Taiwan's official figures show.
    Today's announcement came before a departure later today of
a 15-member Taiwan delegation for Washington for a series of
trade talks with U.S. Officials.
    The delegation's leader, Vincent Siew, told reporters last
night he was leaving with "a heavy heart," meaning that he would
face tough talks in Washington because of rising protectionist
sentiments in the U.S. Congress. Taiwan's 1986 trade surplus
with Washington was the third largest, after Japan and Canada.
    Siew said the talks, starting on April 14, would cover U.S.
Calls for Taiwan to open its market to American products,
purchases of major U.S. Machinery and power plant equipment,
import tariff cuts and protection of intellectual property.
    "I am afraid this time we have to give more than take from
our talks with the U.S.," he said without elaborating.
 REUTER

A British minister said he had given the
Japanese government a clear warning of sanctions against
Japanese companies if Tokyo did not allow more access to its
internal markets "and it was clearly understood."
    Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard said on his
return from a visit to Japan he thought the Japanese were
beginning to appreciate the need to be "fair and open" about
access to their own markets.
    At an airport news conference Howard denied opposition
charges that his trip had been a failure because he had
returned empty-handed.
    "I did what I set out to do. I was sent to deliver a clear
message to the Japanese government, and I delivered it very
clearly, and it has been clearly understood."
    Howard said that under the Financial Services Act the
govenment had considerable flexibility in taking sanctions
against Japanese companies and finance houses operating in
Britain.
    "It is not simply a question of withdrawing or refusing
operating licences. We can ban firms from certain countries
from carrying out certain kinds of business, while allowing
them to carry out other kinds."
    "I hope we don't have to use these powers, but I made it
clear in Japan that if our timetable isn't met, we shall use
them."
    He said it would be unfortunate if Britain and Japan became
involved in a tit-for-tat exchange, adding that Japan gained
more than anyone else from an open trading relationship.
    "I think they are beginning to appreciate that if this
relationship is to continue, it is very important for them to
be fair and open about access to their own markets."
    On the question of the British firm Cable and Wireless Plc
<CAWL.L>, which is trying to win a significant share of
telecommunications contracts in Japan, Howard said he had told
the Japanese this was being widely regarded as a test case.
    He said there were signs of movement on the case. Cable and
Wireless was due to take part in talks in Japan next Tuesday,
he said.
    Earlier this week British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
said Britain could not go it alone on sanctions against Japan,
but would have to coordinate action with its European Community
partners.
    Community sources said after a meeting of trade officials
yesterday that the group might impose steep new tariffs on a
range of Japanese goods to prevent diversion from United States
markets if Washington imposes trade sanctions against Tokyo as
it has threatened.
 REUTER

The yield on 30-day Bankers Security
Deposit Accounts issued this week by the Saudi Arabian Monetary
Agency (SAMA) rose by more than 1/8 point to 5.95913 pct from
5.79348 a week ago, bankers said.
    SAMA decreased the offer price on the 900 mln riyal issue
to 99.50586 from 99.51953 last Saturday. Like-dated interbank
deposits were quoted today at 6-3/8, 1/8 pct -- 1/8 point
higher than last Saturday.
    SAMA offers a total of 1.9 billion riyals in 30, 91 and
180-day paper to banks in the kingdom each week.
 REUTER

Uganda's Coffee Marketing Board (CMB)
has stopped offering coffee on the international market because
it is unhappy with current prices, coffee trade sources said.
    The board suspended offerings last week but because of its
urgent need for cash it was not immediately clear how long it
could sustain, the sources added.
    Hundreds of Ugandan coffee farmers and processors have been
waiting several months for payment from the CMB, which has had
trouble finding enough railway wagons to move the coffee to the
Kenyan port of Mombasa.
    Foreign banks have contributed to the cash crisis by
holding up remittance of Uganda's hard currency earnings from
coffee exports, the government newspaper New Vision said.
    The banks are holding up to seven mln dlrs in coffee money
and President Yoweri Museveni is thinking of imposing a penalty
for such delays, it added.
    Banking sources said a third factor in the crisis was that
commercial banks have lent the board only 77 billion shillings
-- the equivalent of 55 mln dlrs -- for crop finance in the
current coffee year, while the government had asked for 100
billion.
    The CMB has 455,000 60-kg bags of coffee, about 15 pct of
annual production, stockpiled in Kampala awaiting shipment.
    The crop accounts for over 90 pct of Uganda's export
earnings and the recent slide in prices to four-year lows is
likely to more than offset an expected increase in production.
    CMB officials have forecast that because the government has
restored law and order in important growing areas, Uganda will
produce over three mln bags of coffee in the year ending
September 30, about 25 pct more than in 1985/6.
 REUTER

The West German cocoa grind rose 2.9
pct to 55,190 tonnes in the first quarter of 1987 from 53,643
tonnes in the same quarter of of 1986, the Bonn-based
Confectionery Industry Association said in a statement.
 REUTER TAW

A prolonged dry spell has damaged
111,350 hectares of rice and corn plantations in 10 provinces
in the central and southern Philippines, agriculture officials
said.
    They said some 71,070 tonnes of agricultural produce
estimated at about 250 mln pesos was lost to the lack of
rainfall. They warned of a severe drought if the prevailing
conditions continued until next month.
    Agriculture Secretary Carlos Dominguez said he hoped the
losses would be offset by the expected increase in output in
other, normally more productive areas not affected by the dry
spell.
    Affected were 14,030 hectares of palay (unmilled rice),
representing a production loss of 22,250 tonnes valued at 77.8
mln pesos, Department of Agriculture reports said.
    About 48,820 tonnes of corn from 97,320 hectares valued at
170.8 mln pesos have also been lost, they said.
    Officials said the hectarage planted to palay that has been
hit by the drought accounted for only one pct of national total
thus the damage is considered negligible.
    In the case of corn, they said the loss can be filled by
production from non-traditional corn farms which diversified
into the cash crop from sugar two years ago.
     The Philippine Coconut Authority said coconut production
in the major producing region of Bicol might drop by 25 pct to
320,000 tonnes if the dry spell continued. There were no
reports of actual damage.
 REUTER

Spain's registered unemployment fell by
10,465 people to 2.97 mln or 21.4 pct of the workforce in
March, Labour Ministry figures show.
    Registered unemployment in February was 2.98 mln people, or
21.5 pct of the workforce.
    The figures were nonetheless higher than those for March
1986 -- 2.8 mln people and 21 pct of the workforce.
 REUTER

Mitsubishi Electric Corp <MIET.T> said it
is nearing an agreement with Unisys Corp <UIS> of the U.S. To
supply central processing units for a medium-sized Unisys
mainframe computer planned to succeed the System 80.
    A Mitsubishi Electric official declined to say how many
processors would be involved, but said there are no plans to
market the new Unisys computer in Japan.
 REUTER

Canon Inc <CANN.T> and Intel Corp <INTC>
of the U.S. Agreed to the joint development, production and
import of very large scale integrated circuits, a Canon
    He told Reuters Intel will make the chips and Canon will
import them for use in for use in photocopiers, printers and
facsimiles to be made and sold in Japan. Canon, which last week
made a similar pact with National Semiconductor Corp <NSM>,
plans to raise its ratio of microchip imports this year to 28
pct from 24 pct last year to take advantage of the yen's rise
and help quell mounting trade friction, he said.
 REUTER

Hungary has announced sharp price
increases for a range of food and consumer products as part of
its efforts to curb a soaring budget deficit.
    The official MTI news agency said the government decided
consumer price subsidies had to be cut to reduce state
spending. From today the price of meat will rise by an average
18 pct and that of beer and spirits by 10 pct, MTI said.
    MTI said consumer goods will also become more expensive,
with the price of refrigerators rising some five pct. It also
announced a number of measures to ease hardship, including
higher pensions and family allowances.
    Statistics indicate the budget deficit tripled in 1986 to
47 billion forints. Central banker Janos Fekete has said the
Finance Ministry is trying to cut the 1987 shortfall to between
30 and 35 billion from a planned 43.8 billion.
    A major tax reform, including the introduction of a
Western-style valued added tax, is planned for January 1988 in
an effort to cure problems in state spending.
    But diplomats said the latest announcement shows the
authorities were forced to act quickly to keep this year's
deficit under control.
    The measures are also aimed at cooling an overheated
economy, and could help dampen Hungarians' appetite for
imported Western goods which consume increasingly expensive
hard currency, the diplomats said.
    The diplomats also said, however, that they did not expect
the kind of social unrest that followed sharp price rises in
other East Bloc states, notably Poland.
 REUTER

TOKYO STOCKMARKET INDEX PLUNGES 427.48 TO 22,789.11 AT 1343 LOCAL TIME - BROKERS

Tokyo's stockmarket index plunged sharply
at the start of afternoon trade as investors took profits from
last week's four straight record closes, brokers said.
    The market index fell 427.48 points to 22,789.11 only 13
minutes after afternoon trading began at 13:30 local time.
    Brokers said concern over weekend announcements of mounting
trade tension with Europe and the U.S. Sparked the heavy
selloff.
    The average had risen 630.48 points in the last four
trading sessions of last week.
 REUTER

BANK OF JAPAN ACTIVELY BUYING DOLLARS AT AROUND 142.20 YEN IN TOKYO - DEALERS

China is negotiating with Pakistan to
buy 5,000 tonnes of cotton this year, after importing the same
amount last year under a barter agreement, Chinese consulate
    Chinese ambassador Tian Ding told a meeting of Pakistani
industrialists on Thursday that China intended to increase
imports from Pakistan to reduce a trade imbalance.
    Pakistani officials estimate the country's cotton output
from the current crop at a record 7.6 mln bales (375 pounds
each). Last year's output totalled 7.2 mln bales and domestic
consumption was just below three mln bales, they said.
 REUTER

The government must announce harsh cuts
in spending in its May 14 economic statement if it is to give
an adequate response to Australia's economic problems, the ANZ
Banking Group Ltd <ANZA.S> said.
    Cuts of two billion dlrs would be insufficient against the
backdrop of a 12 billion dlr government deficit and a 14
billion dlr current account deficit, it said in its monthly
Business Indicators publication.
    "For the past two years, the government has struggled with
an economic reality that demands measures beyond those which it
sees as politically practicable," it said.
    The political climate meant there would be a continued
over-reliance on monetary policy to hold the exchange rate and
maintain confidence in economic management, ANZ said.
    "The cost of this approach is that the much-needed revival
of business investment will be further postponed," it said.
    The economy was now on a modest growth upswing boosted by
export and import-replacement industries which had created a
false suggestion that the worst adjustments to the balance of
payments crisis were past. "Unfortunately, successful adjustment
to Australia's deep-seated economic problems remains a
long-term process," it said.
    In its economic forecasts, ANZ said it expected moderate
overall economic growth with gross domestic product (GDP)
rising 2.7 pct this year and 2.4 pct in 1988.
    The current account deficit would narrow to five pct of GDP
this year and 4.3 pct in 1988 and net foreign debt would grow
strongly from 81 billion at the end of 1986 to 97.2 billion at
end-1987 and 110.3 billion a year later.
    Inflation would fall to 8.5 pct in 1987 and 7.5 pct in 1988
from 8.9 pct in 1986 and further falls in real wages were
expected, ANZ said.
 REUTER

Bell Resources Ltd <BLLA.S> said it will
raise about 50.8 mln dlrs by issuing 135.6 mln warrants at 37.5
cents each, entitling the holder to take up shares in BHP Gold
Mines Ltd <BHPG.ME> at 1.60 dlrs each on or before December 15,
1987.
    The non-renounceable entitlement will be on the basis of
one-for-three to holders of Bell Resources fully-paid shares
and convertible preference shares registered on May 6, the
company said in a statement. Other ratios will be one-for-five
for partly paid Series A shares, one-for-eight for partly-paid
Series B and C shares and one-for-10 for 1987 options.
    Bell said the security is similar in concept to the
warrants on the shares of BHP Gold Mine's parent company, The
Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd <BRKN.ME> (BHP), launched by Bell about
one year ago.
    BHP is currently floating BHP Gold Mines, the vehicle for
its gold interests in Australia and other countries.
    The Bell Group Ltd will not take up its entitlement to the
BHP Gold Mines warrants, but the family companies of its
chairman Robert Holmes a Court will, Bell said.
    The warrants will be listed and stockbroker McCaughan Dyson
and Co Ltd is underwriting the issue.
 REUTER

The Electrolytic Refining and
Smelting Co of Australia Pty Ltd said it lowered its ex-works
Port Kembla Refinery Copper Price by 20 dlrs to 2,160 dlrs a
tonne, effective today.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan actively bought dollars
here in early afternoon trade at around 142.20 yen, dealers
said.
    The central bank had placed buy orders at that level and
prevented the dollar from falling when it came under heavy
selling pressure from investment trusts and trading houses,
they said.
    However, the intervention failed to boost the U.S. Currency
significantly from the 142.20 yen level, they added.
    The dollar was trading around its midday rate of 142.30
yen. It had opened here at 141.85 yen.
 REUTER

Texaco Inc <TX> said its decision to
file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy
code will not affect the majority of its businesses.
    It said its subsidiaries, which account for 96 pct of its
32.6 billion dlrs in revenues and 79 pct of its net property,
plant and equipment, were free of the action.
    Only parent holding company, Texaco Inc, and operating
subsidiaries, Texaco Capital Inc and Texaco Capital N.V, are
affected, it said.
    But the company said it was likely to suspend its 75 cents
per share quarterly common stock dividend and halt repayments
on debts of some 6.8 billion dlrs.
    Texaco said it filed for Chaper 11 because suppliers were
demanding cash payments and banks were withholding loans as a
result of a legal dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    Texaco is fighting a Texas law requiring it to post a bond
of more than 10 billion dlrs before it can appeal a 1985
judgment that ruled it illegally interfered with Pennzoil's
1984 acquisition of Getty Petroleum Corp <GTY>. The bond almost
matches the damages awarded against Texaco.
    Should Texaco fail to place the bond, Pennzoil could begin
to attach its assets to secure the judgment.
    Last Monday, the Supreme Court overturned a decision to cut
Texaco's bond to one billion dlrs, and sent the issue back to
the Texas courts.
    Analysts said the bankruptcy filing effectively froze all
Texaco's obligations while it continued to appeal the merits of
the Pennzoil lawsuit.
    "Attempts last week to win a compromise on both the bond
issue and the larger dispute failed," James Kinnear, Texaco's
president and chief executive officer, told reporters.
    Kinnear said Pennzoil's disclosure in court papers on
Friday that it wanted to extend the bond issue hearing until
the end of April, pushed Texaco further towards Chapter 11.
    Pennzoil had asked Texaco to post a 5.6 billion dlr cash
bond and to reduce its dividend to not more than 50 pct of
earnings. Pennzoil also wanted assurances that Texaco would not
sell any assets, Kinnear said.
    Texaco offered to put up one billion dlrs in a letter of
credit and agreed not to let the value of its assets fall under
11.1 billion dlrs, he added.
    Joseph Jamail, a Houston attorney for Pennzoil, said the
company had made its latest settlement offer to Texaco on
Saturday and was taken by surprise when Texaco filed for
    He declined to reveal the amount of the proposal, citing a
confidentiality agreement between the two companies. "Texaco
told us they would get back to us but instead they chose to go
to bankruptcy court," Jamail said.
    Attorneys for Pennzoil said they believed the company would
prevail in court appeals, adding that Texaco's assets were
ample ultimately to pay the Pennzoil judgment in full.
 REUTER

The United Auto Workers union (UAW)
vowed to fight wage and job cuts in a round of labour talks
starting in July that cover nearly 500,000 workers at General
Motors Corp <GM> and Ford Motor Co <F>.
    "The UAW doesn't go around picking fights, but we don't run
away from them when they're forced on us ... We want peace, but
peace comes at a price," union president Owen Bieber said.
    "And if it's war, the UAW will be ready for it," he said, in
an address to 3,000 union leaders at the start of a four-day
special convention.
    He said the Detroit carmakers had turned their backs on
America by the increasing use of imports that cost U.S. Jobs.
    He said the union was ready to strike for "job and income
guarantees," bans on shifting production to foreign and other
non-union sources, and increases in pay and profit-sharing.
    GM, under pressure from declining sales and profits, has
said this year's talks will be difficult because it wants to
limit wage rises and shed parts-manufacturing operations
considered uncompetitive.
    Contracts at both companies expire at midnight on September
14.
 REUTER

Finance Minister Roger Douglas said
eight bond tenders of 250 mln dlrs each are planned for the
year ending March 1988.
    Douglas said in a statement the June quarter borrowing
program will not include a May tender, but a 250 mln dlr tender
will be held on June 11.
    Overfunding in 1986/87 has removed the need for a May
tender, he said.
    Preliminary estimates put net public sector injections for
1987/88 year at 2.1 billion dlrs.
    The fiscal deficit for 1987/88 is forecast at 2.2 billion
dlrs compared with a forecast of 2.45 billion for 1986/87 and
1.87 billion a year earlier.
    However, Douglas said the 1987/88 estimate is subject to
uncertainties over the results of pre-budget spending reviews
and tax forecasts and over the effect the program of
"corporatising" certain government departments will have on
liquidity.
    Douglas said whatever the outcome of these influences the
net public sector injections will continue to be fully funded
on a fiscal year basis.
 REUTER

week ended April 4 were about 275,000 (60-kilo) bags, including
that used for soluble production, compared with 215,000 bags in
the corresponding week of last year and about 320,000 bags in
the week ended March 28, George Gordon Paton and Co Inc
reported.
4,440,000 bags, compared with 4,540,000 bags by this time last
year.
 Reuter

Australian share markets closed at
record levels for the seventh consecutive session as strong
overseas interest in gold stocks pushed the market higher,
    They said heavy trading in gold stocks in London on Friday
night provided the impetus for the local market.
    At the close of trading the all ordinaries index was 11.6
points higher above Friday's previous record close at 1,799.0,
while the gold index had risen 176.8 points or 5.2 pct to a
record 3,562.1.
    The all resources index added 23.9 points to 1,164.3 but
the all industrials index dropped 4.8 points to 2,631.9.
    National turnover was a high 228 mln shares worth 525 mln
dlrs with rises outnumbering falls by four to three.
    Western Mining continued its run, jumping 1.04 dlrs to a
record 10.30. Poseidon gained 3.00 to 16.00, Sons of Gwalia 90
cents to 16.50 and Kidston 50 to 9.00.
    Placer Pacific rose 25 cents to 3.95 dlrs, Elders Resources
17 to 3.20, CRA 36 to 8.70 and MIM 19 to 3.35.
    Market turnover was boosted substantially by the inclusion
of about 180 mln dlrs in Australian Consolidated Minerals
shares, understood to represent the sale of Western Mining's
holding, brokers said. ACM shares finished 30 cents down at
8.40 dlrs.
    Resources leader BHP closed 15 down at 11.40 in quiet
trading while Bell Resources rose eight to 5.70. Elders IXL
lost 10 to 4.75.
    With most investors concentrating on mining stocks,
industrial stocks took a back seat.
    TNT dropped 10 cents to 4.75 dlrs and News Corp recovered
to be steady at 23.00 after being down most of the day. ANZ
Bank dropped 10 to 5.60 and National four to 5.46.
    In the oil and gas sector Santos dropped 26 to 5.00 and
Bridge eight to 1.40, but Genoa gained 25 to 3.05.
    June share price index futures staged a late rally and
finished 24.0 points higher at 1,824.0.
 REUTER

<WMNG.S> (WMC) said it sold its entire holding of 22.13 mln
shares in the gold mining company <Australian Consolidated
Minerals Ltd> (ACM).
    WMC gave no details, but stockbrokers said the sale was
made at eight dlrs a share on Friday to a number of U.S.,
European and Australian investors through WMC's usual brokers.
    The company purchased the 19.9 pct parcel in early March
from Amax Inc <AMX.N> at 6.32 dlrs a share ahead of a
one-for-three bonus issue when Amax sold its entire 47 pct
stake in ACM to a number of local companies.
 REUTER

National Bank economic data for 1986
shows that Yugoslavia's trade deficit grew, the inflation rate
rose, wages were sharply higher, the money supply expanded and
the value of the dinar fell.
    The trade deficit for 1986 was 2.012 billion dlrs, 25.7 pct
higher than in 1985. The trend continued in the first three
months of this year as exports dropped by 17.8 pct, in hard
currency terms, to 2.124 billion dlrs.
    Yugoslavia this year started quoting trade figures in
dinars based on current exchange rates, instead of dollars
based on a fixed exchange rate of 264.53 dinars per dollar.
    Yugoslavia's balance of payments surplus with the
convertible currency area fell to 245 mln dlrs in 1986 from 344
mln in 1985. The National Bank said the drop was due to a
deterioration in trade. Exports to the convertible currency
area rose 11.6 pct from 1985, while imports rose 17.8 pct.
    Retail prices rose an average of 88.1 pct in 1986 while
industrial producer prices rose by 70.6 pct, the bank's data
showed. The cost of living rose by 89.1 pct.
    Personal incomes rose by 109 pct in 1986.
    Prime Minister Branko Mikulic warned in February that wages
were too high given the level of productivity.
    Mikulic introduced a law cutting wages to the level of the
last quarter of 1986 and tying future rises to productivity.
    Bank statistics show the overall 1986 rise in M-1 money
supply was 109.1 pct with a year-end position of 3,895.9
billion dinars. Yugoslavs have 9.8 billion dlrs worth of
foreign currency savings in the country and 20 billion dlrs
abroad, mostly owned by workers employed in western Europe.
    The dinar fell by 73.1 pct against a basket of hard
currencies in 1986. The highest depreciation was against the
Swiss franc, 85.3 pct, and the lowest against the U.S. Dollar,
46.2 pct.
 REUTER

Group Ltd <ANZA.S> said it will make a one-for-two bonus issue
from its asset revaluation reserve to shareholders registered
June 2.
    The proposed bonus and an increase in authorised capital to
one billion one-dlr par shares from 600 mln will be put to
shareholders for approval at an extraordinary general meeting
on May 26, the ANZ said in a statement.
    The issue will absorb about 230 mln dlrs of the 260.9 mln
standing in the asset revaluation reserve, it said.
    The bank said that by lowering the dividend rate it expects
to maintain the value of dividend payout on the enlarged
capital at about the level of its last full year ended
September 30. The group paid 31 cents a share and 133.1 mln
dlrs in all for that year.
    Shareholders will also be asked to approve changes in the
bank's articles of association to allow it to offer shares in
lieu of the interim dividend at a discount of five pct to the
market price.
    The group is the latest to announce a tax-free bonus issue
ahead of dividend imputation, effective July 1.
 REUTER

(CD) offered by the United Arab Emirates Central Bank were
higher than last Monday's offering, the bank said.
    The one-month CD rose 1/4 point to 6-3/8 pct, while the
two, three and six-month maturities rose 5/16 point each to
6-7/16, 6-1/2 and 6-5/8 pct respectively.
 REUTER

A tourist hotel in Suzhou, Jiangsu
province, is raising a 21 mln U.S. Dlr loan to cover its
construction cost, lead manager <DnC Ltd> said.
    The loan for the Suzhou Aster Hotel will mature in 10 years
and is guaranteed by the provincial investment arm <Jiangsu
International Trust and Investment Corp>. The terms were not
revealed. The loan, to be signed by the end of the month, will
be provided by a number of banks on a club basis.
    The hotel is being developed on a contractual joint venture
basis between an unnamed Hong Kong Chinese investor and Suzhou
municipal entities.
 REUTER

China's largest sulphur-iron mine has
started trial production at Yunfu in the southern province of
Guangdong, the China Daily said.
    It said the mine has an annual output capacity of three mln
tonnes of sulphur-iron ore, which can be used without
processing because of its high quality.
 REUTER

China's state-owned Beijing Non-Ferrous
Metals Industrial Corp and <Wrought Copper Ltd> of Chile signed
a contract to jointly build a copper tube plant on the
outskirts of Peking, the China Daily said.
    The Beijing-Santiago Copper Tube Co involves an investment
of 9.93 mln dlrs and will, on completion, have a production
capacity of 5,000 tonnes of copper tubes a year, it said.
    It said Chile will supply copper at preferential rates to
the venture, whose equipment comes from <Wednesbury Tube Co> of
U.K.
    The agreement calls for joint Sino-Chilean management of
the venture for 15 years, the paper said.
    It said the venture is the first economic cooperation
project between China and Chile, but gave no more details.
    China is a major copper importer. Customs figures show it
imported 171,118 tonnes of copper and alloy in calendar 1986,
down from 355,652 tonnes in 1985.
 REUTER

The <Scandinavian Airlines System>'s
SAS International Hotels unit and Skanska AB <SKBS.ST> of
Sweden are raising a 37 mln U.S. Dlr loan for their joint
venture hotel in China, loan lead manager DnC Ltd said.
    It said the loan will finance part of the cost of the 46
mln dlr SAS Grand Hotel Beijing in the Chinese capital. The
three other lead managers are DnC's parent company Den norske
Creditbank, Scandinavian Far East Ltd and its parent
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.
    Terms of the loan are being finalised and syndication is
expected to begin in about one month, DnC Ltd said.
    The recipient of the loan will be SAS Grand Hotel Beijing
Joint Venture Co Ltd, which is owned 50 pct by the China
International Exhibition Centre and 50 pct by the two Swedish
firms.
    Skanska will be responsible for the construction and SAS
International Hotels for the management of the hotel, which is
part of the International Exhibition Centre complex.
    Construction of the 400-room hotel will start after the
loan is signed. It is due to be opened in late 1989.
 REUTER

Singapore's external trade grew 8.8
pct in first quarter 1987, against a 12.4 pct decline in the
same period last year and two pct growth in the previous
quarter, the Trade Development Board said.
    It said exports over the period rose by 8.7 pct to 12.38
billion dlrs and imports by 8.9 pct to 14.64 billion for a
trade deficit of 2.26 billion, against a 2.06 billion deficit
in the same 1986 period and 1.78 billion deficit previously.
    The growth was attributed to the strength of non-oil trade,
especially computers and computer parts, electronic components
and garments, it said.
 REUTER

Malaysia's manufacturing exports
rose by 24.5 pct to 15.1 billion ringgit in 1986, chairman of
the Export Promotion Council Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamind said.
    The improved export performance was led by electrical and
electronic products, textiles, footwear, clothing, processed
food, timber, chemical and rubber products, he told a news
    However, total gross exports for the year declined by 5.6
pct to 35.9 billion ringgit from 38 billion in 1985 due to a
fall in major commodity exports and weak prices, he said.
 REUTER

Rates for five billion pesos worth of
Philippine Treasury bills eased slightly at Friday's auction,
with tenders totaling 13.94 billion, the Central Bank said.
    It said 1.3 billion pesos of 91-day bills averaged 11.249
pct, down from 11.743 pct the previous week, 1.6 billion of
182-day bills averaged 12.473 pct against 12.847 pct, and 2.1
billion of 364-day bills averaged 14.029 pct against 14.233.
    The bank said there would be no auction this week because
of the Easter holiday.
    It also said T-bills and three-year T-note auctions totaled
61.1 billion pesos in the first quarter of 1987.
 REUTER

West Germany's capital market
liberalization program has stalled and bankers are worried it
may take years for further reforms to be completed.
    Liberalization got underway in May 1985 when foreign banks
received Bundesbank permission to lead-manage mark eurobonds.
    Further moves included introduction of mark-denominated
certificates of deposit last year. But other changes, including
revisions in the domestic options market and introduction of
futures contracts, need lengthy statutory changes and this may
take years, bankers and dealers say.
    Deutsche Bank AG co-chairman F. Wilhelm Christians called
last week for an enlargement of current capital market
instruments to include instruments already standard abroad.
    He said these are needed especially when prices fall,
citing declines in West German share prices in the first two
months of this year when stock indices fell about 20 pct.
    Others are more blunt. Securities dealers say the lack of
viable hedging instruments for shares and bonds makes trading
in domestic markets too risky.
    "We need a stock index futures contract, and a futures
contract for recent government bonds," one dealer said.
    West Germany now has options contracts on about five pct of
shares and bonds traded on exchanges here, covering only about
30 pct of the average traded volume, stock market sources said.
    Options can only be written on the original 14 bonds
selected when bond options were introduced last April. The most
recent bond on the list was issued in 1985.
    There are no futures exchanges in West Germany. German
banks may participate in futures exchanges through branches
abroad but these are at least outwardly subject to stringent
West German rules requiring that every contract be secured on a
one-by-one basis with a separate hedge, to prevent speculation.
    Another problem is a lack of liquidity in the existing
markets, owing to lack of private investor participation.
    Private individuals and corporations do not engage in
options trading now due to West Germany's civil and exchange
laws, which define losses made in futures and options business
as gambling losses, which investors need not pay back.
    Options business has been hurt by lack of liquidity from
pension funds, which currently are forbidden to invest in these
instruments. But they are to be allowed to enter the business
soon as the European Community begins to harmonize rules
governing funds.
    Manfred Laux, general secretary of the West German mutual
funds association in Frankfurt, said harmonized rules are to be
adopted by October 1, 1989 at the latest.
    The push to adopt new instruments has not been great in the
past, owing to wide-spread belief they are speculative, which
gives them a bad name in West Germany. But pressure for their
introduction here is growing.
    The start-up of a Swiss futures exchange has some bankers
considering if a similar exchange would be useful in West
Germany. They say that without innovations, some business could
drift to London, which the Bundesbank vehemently opposes.
    An official at the London International Financial Futures
Exchange (LIFFE) said the exchange currently has no plans to
introduce more mark-denominated contracts beyond the existing
mark-dollar contract. But he said the exchange is studying the
feasibility of other contracts, including one for three-month
mark interest rates and possibly a government bond contract.
    A Bundesbank capital markets expert said the Bundesbank has
no objections to hedging through futures but any liberalization
in that sector is still in the early planning stages after
earlier talks ended two years ago.
    Considerations about the futures business have been drawn
out because of the large number of participants involved in
talks. They include parliament, the Bundesbank, the Federal
Banking Supervisory Board, eight West German stock exchanges
and their governing states, and the four West German banking
    Beyond options and futures, other changes being suggested
include replacing the federal government's current bond
consortium with an auction procedure similar to one being
considered in the U.K. And already in practice in the U.S.
    This would upset the existing market order providing German
and foreign banks in the consortium with fixed quotas but it
would eliminate the misallocations some bankers say presently
arise within the fixed consortium quota system.
    In addition, some bankers would like the method of bond
trading on the West German stock exchange changed to a system
of continuous price-setting from the current system in which
every bond price is fixed once a day.
    This would make trading more transparent if it reduced the
proportion of off-floor interbank bond trading, now some 90 pct
of the volume of bond transactions here, the bankers say.
 REUTER

The central bank, Bank Negara,
said yields on the 91-day Malaysian treasury bills rate rose
slightly to 2.032 pct at this week's tender from 2.020 pct last
week.
    Accepted bids ranged between 1.951 and 2.060 pct compared
with 1.874 and 2.048 pct previously. Applications totalled 440
mln ringgit for the 100 mln of bills on offer.
    The bank said it will offer 100 mln ringgit of 91-day bills
and 150 mln of 182-days at a tender closing on April 20.
 REUTER

A 3.22 billion dlr offer for Dome
Petroleum Ltd <DMP.MO> by TransCanada Pipelines Ltd <TRP.TO>
may short-circuit Dome's restructuring plan and open the door
for more takeover bids, oil analysts said.
    Dome is trying to get approval for a plan to refinance debt
of more than 4.5 billion dlrs by July 1, 1987, when an interim
debt plan that allowed the Canadian oil and gas firm to defer
substantial payments to creditors will expire.
    Analysts said TransCanada's bid signals Dome's debtholders
that an alternative exists to Dome's debt plan.
    Dome announced its plan to 56 major creditors as well as
public noteholders in March after several months of delicate
    TransCanada's proposal "amounts to a quasi debt
restructuring," oil analyst Doug Gowland of Brown Baldwin Nisker
Ltd said from Toronto.
    Calgary-based Dome's restructuring plan would allow
creditors to convert debt to common shares under a formula yet
to be negotiated. Payments on remaining debt would be linked to
cash flow generated by assets pledged against the debt.
    "The weakness of the whole debt-refinancing proposal is that
even with approval of creditors, there is no assurance that
Dome will in fact be able to repay all of its debt obligations,"
said Wilf Gobert, an oil analyst for Peters and Co Ltd in
Calgary.
    TransCanada's announcement came as a surprise since Dome
was waiting for responses from creditors on its proposed
refinancing packages, Gobert said.
    The TransCanada proposal could open the bidding for Dome
since other potential buyers were probably waiting for lenders
to agree to a restructuring, he added.
    "I would think that the debtholders would want to entertain
any and all offers (for Dome)," Gobert said.
    Dome spokesman David Annesley said in New York that
TransCanada's announcement could be seen as an attempt to fix
the bidding price for Dome and an effort to preclude other
possible buyers from making an offer. "By drawing attention to
us in our discussions, it means that others may be a little
reluctant to come forward," he said.
    Dome does not consider TransCanada's proposal a formal
offer because the pipeline utility's announcement breached a
confidential agreement between the two companies, he said.
    Dome responded to the statement by suspending discussions
with TransCanada in order to pursue talks with other
unidentified parties. However, Dome said its management and
financial advisers would evaluate all proposals, including
TransCanada's.
    Gowland said TransCanada's offer is probably a fair price
for the company's 36.1 mln acres of oil and gas land holdings.
    However, he said not enough financial details are known
about Dome's debt restructuring to compare the value of
TransCanada's proposed offer.
 REUTER

Prime Ministers Zhao Ziyang of China and
Anibal Cavaco Silva of Portugal signed an agreement to end more
than four centuries of Portuguese rule over the territory of
Macao and return it to Chinese control in 1999.
    Macao will become a special administrative region on
December 20, 1999, retaining a high degree of autonomy except
in foreign affairs and defence. Its capitalist system is to
remain intact for 50 years under an arrangement similar to the
one that will return Hong Kong to China from Britain in 1997.
    China hopes to win back the Nationalist-ruled island of
Taiwan under the same "one country, two systems" formula.
    "The successful settlement of the question of Macao has
proven and will continue to prove that the concept of 'one
country, two systems' is realistic and therefore definitely
viable," Zhao said.
    Macao's population of 300,000 includes more than 40,000
Portuguese passport holders.
    Peking has said Chinese nationals in this category will be
able to use their Portuguese passports after 1999 but will not
be entitled to Portuguese consular protection in Macao or
elsewhere in China.
 REUTER

Eurobonds for Texaco Inc subsidiaries
were unquoted this morning as traders assessed the implications
of the company's shock weekend decision to file for bankruptcy
under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy laws, eurobond dealers
said.
    The decision to file for bankruptcy follows a court
decision that it had to post an 11 billion dlr bond to continue
its court battles with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    One head trader at a U.S. Securities house said, "I don't
want to be obstructive, but there genuinely is no market in
Texaco bonds at the moment. Everyone is stunned by the decision
(to file for bankruptcy) and can't really believe it."
    One dealer noted that Texaco subsidiaries have outstanding
eurobonds totalling over three billion dlrs out of total
borrowings of some 6.8 billion dlrs.
    He added that many of the fixed interest eurobonds - dollar
straights - had been trading "basis only" for some time prior to
this weekend's news. This means traders could quote a two way
price for the bonds but would not be bound to trade them. Any
trades would be negotiated.
    He said that recently there appeared to have been some
speculative buying of the bonds from the U.S. But that European
investors had been overall sellers.
    Dealers noted that under the Chapter 11 filing noteholders
will receive no interest payments.
    Texaco also has eurobonds outstanding which are convertible
into Texaco Inc common stock - known as convertibles. Trading
did not open in these issues either. One convertible dealer
said, "We're waiting to see the result of today's court hearing."
Texaco is applying today in the Texas courts for relief from
having to post the court bond.
    Texaco shares were being indicated by over the counter
share dealers here at around 26 to 28 dlrs compared with
Friday's close in New York of 31-7/8 dlrs.
    Pennzoil shares were indicated at 85 to 87 dlrs compared
with Friday's New York finish of 92-1/4 dlrs.
 REUTER

shortage of around 400 mln stg in the money market today.
some 1.085 billion stg.
circulation will add some 340 mln stg, exchequer transactions
around 300 mln and bankers' balances above target about 50 mln.
 REUTER

Bangladesh's cost of living index fell
1.09 pct in January to 479, after a 1.6 pct decline to 484.28
in December (1973-74 base 100), the Bureau of Statistics said.
    The cost of living index fell 0.14 pct to 434.49 in January
1986.
    In the year to January, inflation ran at 10.24 pct after an
11.3 pct rate a month earlier and 9.72 pct a year earlier.
 REUTER

issuing a 100 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 14, 1990
paying 14-1/8 pct and priced at 101-1/4 pct, lead manager
Deutsche Bank Capital Markets Ltd said.
    The bond, guaranteed by parent Deutsche Bank AG, is
available in denominations of 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs and will be
    Fees total 1-1/2 pct, comprising one pct selling concession
and 1/2 pct management and underwriting combined.
 REUTER

<Rothmans Holdings (Tobacco) Ltd> said
in a sttement there was "no foundation" to press speculation that
it would sell its stake in Rothmans International Plc <ROT.L>
to Philip Morris Inc <MO.N>, or that it would buy Morris'
stake.
    In the 1986 report, Rothmans International said RHT, which
is controlled by <Rupert Foundation SA>, owned 18.25 mln
ordinary and 64.37 mln B ordinary shares, or 99.9 pct and 26.1
pct respectively.
    Morris owns 79.8 mln B ordinary shares, or 32.4 pct.
Rothmans B shares, which firmed on the speculation to close at
273p from 241p on Friday, eased to 245.5p at 0838 GMT.
 REUTER

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone's unpopular plan to introduce a sales tax caused an
electoral setback for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
in Sunday's local elections, political analysts said.
    The LDP retained its 11 prefectural governorships, but
failed to restore a governorship in Fukuoka it had placed much
importance on winning. In the prefectural assembly elections to
fill 2,670 seats, the LDP has so far lost 92 of its previously
held 1,487 seats to the socialists and communists.
    Full election results should be available later today.
    Discussing the election results with reporters, Nakasone
said, "I wouldn't say the proposed five pct sales tax had no
effect at all, but there were other factors, such as a low
turnout and unusually cold weather."
    The Home Affairs Ministry said the average turnout for the
13 gubernatorial elections was a record low 59.78 pct while the
prefectural assembly polls drew an average of 66.66 pct, also a
record low.
    Noboru Goto, president of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and a longtime friend of Nakasone, told reporters the
impact of the sales tax on the LDP's setback was obvious.
    "The government should take action (on the sales tax) in
regard to the people's wishes," Goto said.
    Nakasone and other LDP leaders have already hinted at a
delay in the implementation of the tax, which had been
scheduled for next January, and a possible cut in the rate.
    "The most important thing now is to get parliamentary
approval of the budget as soon as possible to arrest a rapid
appreciation of the yen," Nakasone said. "We must implement
measures to prop up the economy."
    Opposition parties said the elections were a referendum on
the tax and they will continue to demand its retraction.
 REUTER

Union Bank of Switzerland NV is issuing
a 15 billion yen eurobond due June 1, 1992 paying 4-3/8 pct and
priced at 101-3/8 pct, lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland
(Securities) Ltd said.
    The issue has a call option and put option after four years
at par and is guaranteed by Union Bank of Switzerland. The
    The issue is available in denominations of one mln yen and
will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment date is June 1.
 REUTER

Member states of the European
Community are starting to run out of patience with Japan which
they believe has repeatedly promised major initiatives to open
its market to imports, but as often made only minor moves.
    Diplomatic sources here said several recent actions by EC
countries bear witness to a new disillusionment with the
willingness, or at least the ability, of the Japanese
government to reduce its massive trade surplus with the EC.
    However, they said an all-out trade war may be far off, as
EC states know they would suffer almost as much as Japan.
    Senior EC diplomats gave a generally favourable reaction to
an EC executive commission proposal under which the EC could
raise tariffs on a range of Japanese products if the U.S.
Carries out a threat to make a similar move on April 17.
    The EC tariffs, which would involve renouncing obligations
entered into with the world trade body GATT, would be designed
to stop a diversion of exports to the EC market from that of
the U.S.
    The diplomats were meeting as Tokyo announced that the EC's
trade deficit with Japan reached a record 2.13 billion dlrs in
March, up from 1.94 billion in February.
    In 1986, Japanese exports to the EC totalled 30.67 billion
dlrs, up 4.5 pct from 1985, while EC exports to Japan fell one
pct to 12.43 billion dlrs.
    In Paris, trade minister Michel Noir said France has
decided to give Japan a taste of its own medicine.
    Burgeoning imports of microwave ovens and of frozen
Coquilles St Jacques will be restricted by a strict application
of French quality standards -- something EC states say often
happens to their own exports entering Japan.
    Britain has threatened to withdraw the licences of Japanese
banks and insurance companies to operate in the City of London,
because the British Cable and Wireless company lost out in
competition for a Japanese telecommucations contract.
    However, British officials in London have said that the
government may have gone too far in implying that it would take
immediate drastic action unless the contract was reopened.
    By contrast, West Germany, with the EC's most successful
economy, has never threatened Tokyo with sanctions, preferring
to rely on firm diplomacy and encouragement of its own
industries to surmount obstacles to export to Japan.
    The EC Commission itself has switched its tactics in recent
years, substituting general calls for action by Japan to open
its market with specific demands for moves in key areas.
    At present, it is, for instance, pressuring Japan to end
allegedly discriminatory taxation of imported wines and
spirits, to ensure EC companies have a chance to win contracts
for the building of a new international airport, and to
simplify certification and safety checks on imported cars.
    EC officials say these tactics yield some benefits, but
often the Japanese announce modifications of their non-tariff
barriers which open the door to imports by only a token amount.
    They stress, however, that any action must be taken by the
EC as a whole to stop beggar-my-neighbour action.
    One of the problems Britain could face if it were to
withdraw licences for Japanese banks would be that the bankers
would be welcomed with open arms in Frankfurt or Amsterdam,
they point out.
 REUTER

Morgan Crucible Co Plc <MGCR.L> said the
prospects for 1987 were encouraging, with orders and sales
significantly up on last year in all divisions.
    It said there were good opportunities for growth in both
existing and recently acquired businesses as well as for growth
by acquisition in related areas.
    It earlier announced a 6.1 mln stg rise in pre-tax profit
to 24.8 mln stg for the year to December 28. Turnover rose to
242.1 mln from 211.5 mln.
    Most of its companies performed well despite a slowdown in
the U.S., U.K. And Australian economies in the first half.
    Currency fluctuations reduced pretax profit by around one
mln stg, it noted.
    Morgan said although profits in the electronics sector
improved to 1.0 mln stg from 100,000 stg previously, results
were nonetheless disappointing.
    Sales were lower than expected, due mainly to delayed
defence orders and cancellations. However, it said it had taken
the necessary remedial action, obtained new business and was
now proceeding with the delivery of major delayed orders.
    Morgan shares firmed two pence to 318p at 0905 GMT from
316p at Friday's close.
 REUTER

Year to December 28, 1986
    Shr 20.1p vs 17.6p
    Div 5.0p vs 4.6p making 9.2p vs 8.5p
    Turnover 242.1 mln stg vs 211.5 mln
    Pretax profit 24.8 mln vs 18.7 mln
    Tax 6.7 mln vs 5.8 mln
    Operating profit 28.3 mln vs 21.3 mln
    Investment income 1.0 mln vs 0.7 mln
    Net finance charges 4.5 mln vs 3.3 mln
    Company full name is Morgan Crucible Co Plc <MGCR.L>
    Minorities and provisions for preference dividends 0.7 mln
vs 1.2 mln
    Extraordinary debit - 0.9 mln vs 1.3 mln credit
    Carbon 8.3 mln vs 7.0 mln
    Technical ceramics 7.0 mln vs 5.6 mln
    Thermal ceramics 7.6 mln vs 4.6 mln
    Speciality chemicals 4.4 mln vs 4.0 mln
    Electronics 1.0 mln vs 0.1 mln
REUTER^M

Swedish industrial production rose
2.6 pct in February, after a 1.8 pct fall in January, showing a
4.4 pct rise over February 1986 and reaching its highest level
ever, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
    The rise reflected recovery in almost all sectors after an
exceptionally cold spell in January, the Bureau said, adding
that the highest rises were seen in the forest, chemical and
metal industries.
 REUTER

Kenya devalued the shilling by 0.6 pct
against the special drawing right (SDR) in response to the
decline of the dollar last last week, bankers said.
    The Central Bank of Kenya set the shilling at 20.7449 to
the SDR compared with the 20.6226 rate in force since the last
devaluation on March 31.
    The Kenyan shilling has lost 5.6 pct of its value against
the SDR this year in a series of devaluations designed to keep
the value of the dollar above 16 shillings.
 REUTER

Australia could lose valuable wheat
markets through lack of availability if plantings for the
coming 1987/88 season are significantly reduced, Australian
Wheat Board (AWB) chairman Clinton Condon said.
    "If predictions of a 30 pct decrease in plantings prove
true, Australia may not be able to supply wheat to some of its
valuable markets," he said in a statement.
    Condon did not say who had made the predictions, but an AWB
spokesman said there was a general industry feeling that
farmers, hard hit by low prices and rising costs, could cut
back plantings sharply. Wheat sowing normally begins in May.
    However, Condon said he did not believe plantings would be
cut by as much as 30 pct although he realised many farmers were
facing enormous financial pressures.
    He said the AWB expects the area sown to be about 10.7 mln
hectares, down from 11.3 mln in 1986/87 when the crop was about
16 mln tonnes. Final crop estimates for 1986/87 and planting
intentions for 1987/88 are not yet available.
    If the AWB is unable, because of a short-term cut in
plantings, to meet the needs of the markets it has developed
with much time and effort, it may have great difficulty selling
wheat to those markets in the future, Condon said.
    "Markets which rely on a steady supply of Australian wheat
understand a decrease in production due to drought but they
will have difficulty understanding a deliberate decision to
decrease production," Condon said.
    "If Australia wants wheat to continue as a major export
income earner, governments and government authorities will need
to closely examine ways of contributing to the continuing
viability of the wheat industry," he added.
    Australia's leading wheat markets include China, Egypt,
Iran, Iraq, the Soviet Union and Japan.
 REUTER

<Williams Holdings Plc> said that it had
received acceptances for its offer for Norcros Plc <NCRO.L>
from the holders of 233,448 Norcros ordinary shares, or 0.18
pct, and 180,240 preference shares, or 8.19 pct.
    Before the 568 mln stg contested bid was launched last
month, Williams held 850,000 ordinary shares, or 0.67 pct and
since then it had acquired options to buy a further 1.99 mln or
1.58 pct.
    The offer has been extended to April 15. Norcros shares
eased 26p to 410p on the announcement while Williams fell to
767p from 785p.
 REUTER

A major animal feed producer, Cehave
NV Veghel (CHV), has begun legal proceedings against the
application of the European Community grain co-responsibility
levy, with the full backing of the Dutch animal grain and feed
trade association, Het Comite, association chief executive
Peter Pex told Reuters.
    Oral proceedings were held in the Hague on Friday and the
court said it would give its verdict within six weeks. "However,
that is the normal wording and we expect the Hague court to
refer questions on the interpretation and application of the
levy to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg," Pex added.
    Het Comite claims the way the levy is applied does not take
account of currency cross-rates of exchange and can mean a
compounder in one country being asked to pay a higher levy in
its own national currency than it received down the chain from
the original producer of the grain.
    "We would like the Business Administration Court in the
Hague to ask the Luxembourg Court of Justice not only whether
the Dutch Grain Commodity Board, the levy collection agency,
has interpreted the levy regulations correctly, but also
whether the regulations themselves may contravene European law,"
Pex said.
    "It is only with great regret that we have taken this route,
but we have had no political help, and therefore have no option
even though it could take years," Pex added.
    Het Comite asked CHV to act as a test case against the
grain levy because the bill the company received from the
commodity board included grain from a wide variety of origins
and was therefore considered to be the best general basis for a
legal challenge to the levy, Pex noted.
    Het Comite's actions will run in tandem with questions on
the levy already posed to the Luxembourg Court in a case
brought by the Association of European Animal Feed
Manufacturers, FEFAC.
 REUTER

China has raised the state purchase
prices of corn, rice, cottonseed and shelled peanuts from April
1 to encourage farmers to grow them, the official China
Commercial Daily said.
    The paper said the price paid for corn from 14 northern
provinces, cities and regions has increased by one yuan per 50
kg. A foreign agricultural expert said the rise will take the
price to 17 fen per jin (0.5 kg) from 16 fen.
    The paper said the price for long-grained rice from 10
southern provinces and cities was raised by 1.5 yuan per 50 kg.
    The paper said the price for round-grained rice from 11
provinces, regions and cities in central, east and northwest
China has been increased by 1.75 yuan per 50 kg. It gave no
more price details.
    It said local authorities must inform farmers of the price
increases before farmers begin planting, to encourage
production of grains and oilseeds.
    Chinese officials have said farmers are unwilling to grow
grain because they can earn more from other crops.
 REUTER

West German first quarter cocoa
grindings, which rose 2.9 pct from the same 1986 quarter, were
within expectations, trade sources said.
    They described the results, announced Saturday, as normal
and unspectacular, considering that the grind in the fourth
quarter was rather high and some was carried over into the
    Grindings rose to 55,190 tonnes from 53,643 in the first
1986 quarter. A spokesman for the Confectionery Industry
Association said that West German grindings are expected to
stay relatively high in comparison to other West European
 REUTER

St.Gobain Netherlands, guaranteed by Cie
de St.Gobain, is issuing a 75 mln ECU bond with gold warrants
attached, due May 6, 1992 carrying a 4-1/2 pct coupon and
priced at par, lead manager Salomon Brothers International Ltd
said.
    Fees comprise 1-1/4 pct selling concession with 5/8 pct for
management and underwriting combined. Listing is in Luxembourg.
    Each 1,000 ECU bond carries one gold warrant exercisable
from May 6, 1987 until May 6, 1990 entitling the holder to
purchase one ounce at an exercise price of 490 dlrs.
 REUTER

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia said
it will lower its prime lending rate to 17.5 pct from 18.25,
effective April 15.
    The bank's new rate will be the lowest of Australia's
current prime rates. They now range from 17.75 pct to 18.5
after a recent series of reductions since late March following
an easier trend in short term money market rates.
    Two of the three other major trading banks now have prime
rates of 18 pct and one of 18.25.
    The Commonwealth's move reverses an increase from 17.5 pct
in early February.
 REUTER

Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> plans to
use its 1.05 billion dlr acquisition of Kerry Packer's
television and radio holdings as the springboard to a global
media group, chairman Alan Bond said.
    Bond Corp's broadcasting float, <Bond Media Ltd>, was
geared for international expansion as a company specialising in
the electronic media, he told a news conference here after a
presentation on the new company to shareholders and analysts.
    "It's intended that we will be a global media company in the
fullness of time," Bond said.
    Bond Media will bring together Bond's existing broadcasting
interests and those recently acquired from Packer's
<Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd>.
    Bond Corp shareholders are being offered 50 pct of the new
company at 1.55 dlrs a share on a three-for-four basis.
    A presentation by underwriters A C Goode and Co Ltd and
Rivkin James Capel Ltd forecast Bond Media's net profit at 41
mln dlrs in 1987/88 ending June 30, rising to 72 mln in
1989/90.
 REUTER

Hepworth Ceramic Holdings Plc <HEPC.L>
said it had agreed to sell its <Western Plastics Corp> unit to
<Globe Machine Manufacturing Co> for 16.25 mln dlrs cash.
    Western, which makes polystyrene foam and container
products, has net assets of 19.3 mln dlrs and reported a 1986
pre-tax profit of 0.9 mln.
    The proceeds of the sale would be used to reduce borrowings
and develop activities in the U.K.
    Hepworth shares eased 0.5p on the announcement to 227.5p.
 REUTER

U.S. Legislators called on Japan to open
its financial markets to more foreign participation and boost
its efforts to head off growing U.S. Protectionism, a Foreign
    "We have come to seek the opening of Japan's financial and
banking markets," Jake Garn, ranking Republican on the Senate
Banking Committee, told Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
    "Japan's financial and banking market is very large and
increasingly sophisticated, but there is not yet true
reciprocity between Japan and the United States in this market,"
the ministry official quoted Garn as saying.
    Nakasone replied that some problems exist over providing
more seats on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for foreign firms, one
of the main steps urged by the U.S. Delegation.
    "But I promise to make Tokyo's markets as open as those of
New York," he told Garn and three other legislators.
    In separate talks with Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa,
the U.S. Group also urged Japan to give U.S. Financial
institutions a bigger role in the underwriting of long-term
Japanese government bonds, a Finance Ministry spokesman said.
 REUTER

Euro-medium term notes, a recent
phenomenon in the international capital markets, are hardly
attracting a flood of issuers but investment bankers are doing
their best to breath life into the market.
    Medium term notes (MTNs) have met with staggering success
in the U.S. Market where total outstandings have grown to
around 50 billion dlrs since 1983, the year they took hold as a
new financing vehicle to bridge the gap between commercial
paper and longer term bonds. Convinced they are here to stay,
investment bankers are attempting to adapt MTNs for the
    Ralph Bunche, a vice president of Morgan Stanley
International, predicted at a recent Euromoney conference on
MTNs here that they will become the predominant instrument for
raising funds in the late 1980's and 1990's. "It (the MTN
market) will even surpass the bond market," he said.
    Other bankers took exception with the degree to which MTNs
will grow. But they generally agreed that these instruments
provide the borrower with greater flexibility and lower costs
than a traditional bond.
    The trick is in convincing European borrowers it is worth
arranging a program and, having accomplished that, to persaude
European investors -- whose preferences differ from their U.S.
Counterparts -- to buy the securities.
    Discussions with bankers proved one thing. No one is
exactly sure how to proceed with structuring and marketing
these issues.
    To date only 13 Euro-MTN programs have been announced but
only a few have been activated, such as those for a unit of
PepsiCo Inc and another for AB Electrolux.
    Several firms have devised different structures for
Euro-MTNs and defend their structures adamantly.
    The PepsiCo notes, for example, are sold on a continuously
offered basis. This involves a small amount of new notes with
similar maturities constantly on offer at current market rates.
    The Electrolux program uses multi-tranche tap notes devised
by Merrill Lynch. Under this structure, an initial tranche of a
minimum 50 mln dlrs has a fixed rate of interest and maturity.
The borrower then issues additional notes in this category up
to a pre-determined maximum.
    Those who defend the continuously offered method, such as
Wendy Dietze, a Salomon Brothers Inc vice president, point to
the flexibility they offer in interest rate and maturity.
    Furthermore, she believes this structure offers the
European investor greater confidence in market liquidity -- a
major concern for these buyers.
    Merrill Lynch Europe Ltd's Kevin Regan defends the
medium-tranche tap notes concept saying it offers comparable
liquidity. But he also said that this structure may not be the
right option for all borrowers.
    Peter Mortimer, a partner in the law firm Milbank, Tweed,
Hadley and McCloy, noted that legal requirements could well
determine which structure is chosen.
    He noted that the tap system allows a more clearly defined
"lock-up" period as each tranche has a specific maturity. In the
case of notes issued by U.S. Borrowers, the "lock-up" period is
the 90 days after the completion of a series during which time
a security cannot be sold back to the U.S. Or to U.S.
Investors.
    However, he said that the Securities and Exchange
Commission is reviewing its current regulations on the
ownership of foreign securities by U.S. Citizens and that some
softening in the rules could come in the not too distant
future.
    For their part borrowers say they feel a bit like guinea
pigs.
    Petter Skouen, executive vice president of the Nordic
Investment Bank (NIB), noted that a few weeks ago NIB would
have said it was disappointed with its Euro-MTN program, but
that the success of a recent issue changed their minds.
    He conceded that in retrospect it would have been wiser to
establish separate programs for the euromarket and the U.S.
Domestic market, rather than try to extend the U.S. Issue
globally. Under NIB's 200 mln dlr program, 100 mln has been
sold in the U.S. And 25 mln in Europe.
 REUTER

has agreed to acquire an 80 pct stake in <Merlin International
Petroleum Corp> from <Crowley Maritime Corp> for 90.8 mln U.S.
Dlrs.
    Of this total, 7.8 mln dlrs is due on exchange of contracts
on April 30 and 69 mln on July 7, subject to any regulatory
approvals being obtained, Bond said in a statement.
    The balance of 14 mln dlrs will be paid as required by
Merlin for its exploration and production commitments, it said.
    Bond said Merlin has a 6.25 pct working interest plus a 2.5
pct reversionary interest in the Papua New Guinea permit,
PPL-17, the site of the Iagifu oil discovery.
    Merlin also has a 12.5 pct stake in the adjacent Papuan
Basin permit, PPL-18, which contains the Juha gas and
condensate discovery.
    In addition to Papua New Guinea, Merlin has petroleum
exploration and production interests in the U.S., Bond added.
 REUTER

Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc will issue a
seven-year 20 billion Euroyen bond on April 22, a company
    The straight bond, to be priced at 101.625, will carry a
4.75 pct coupon to yield 4.445 pct.
    Lead manager is Nomura International Inc.
    Issue cost including fees will be 4.8 pct, or 0.9
percentage point below the March issue rates for Japanese
electric power company bonds. These are normally between the
rates on 10-year government bonds and private corporate bonds.
 REUTER

<MC.T> said it would launch the world's smallest and lightest
personal-use plain paper copier (PPC) on the domestic market in
early June.
    It said the 69,800 yen copier is 367 mm by 407 mm by 120
mm, weighs six kilos, and can copy pictures from television and
VCR's with an optional adaptor. The company plans to produce
2,000 sets a month and will eventually export them, it said
without providing further details.
    Total Japanese PPC output rose 12 pct to 560,000 units in
1986 and is projected to rise to 610,000 this year, it said.
 REUTER

The five leading West German economic
research institutes have failed to agree about how strongly the
domestic economy will expand this year but revised down
forecasts contained in a report published six months ago.
    The three research groups of Kiel, Hamburg and Essen
predicted in the institutes' joint spring report that gross
national product (GNP) would rise by two pct in 1987, compared
with 2.4 pct in 1986. The five institutes had jointly forecast
three pct 1987 growth in October last year.
    Taking a dissenting view, the DIW institute of West Berlin
and Munich's Ifo institute predicted only one pct 1987 growth.
    The joint report said that the estimates of economic
development made by the DIW and Ifo were "markedly less
favourable" than those of the other three.
    The DIW and Ifo forecast the economy would pick up after a
slow start to the year. "In the second half of 1987 there will,
however, only be a weak upward movement," they said.
    The two institutes said external economic factors which
were currently damaging exports and pushing up imports would
dominate the economic environment throughout the year. They saw
exports falling by a real 2-1/2 pct in 1987 and predicted no
marked improvement in the course of the year.
    The other three institutes, however, wrote: "The decline in
demand and production (seen) in the winter months does not
indicate the beginning of a cyclical downswing."
    They said the sharp rise of the mark had led to corporate
uncertainty and companies had not carried out investment plans.
But they expected that many investments had not been cancelled
but only put off. "It can be presumed that the braking actions
(on the economy) will diminish markedly this year."
    They added: "The domestic prerequisites for a continuation
of the economic uptrend are still favourable."
    These three institutes said diminishing external burdens
combined with favourable domestic conditions meant an upturn in
demand and production could be expected by the spring.
    However, this projection was clouded by risks including the
further development of the mark against the dollar.
    Contrary to the DIW and Ifo, the three institutes said that
while exports would continue to be the weak point of the
economy in 1987, "there is good reason to believe that exports
will soon bottom out and that a slight rise will emerge during
the course of the year." They predicted an overall 0.5 pct fall
in exports in 1987, the same as in 1986.
    The three more positive institutes saw private consumption
rising by four pct in 1987, compared with 4.2 pct in 1986,
while DIW and Ifo predicted a three pct increase.
    They saw the climate for equipment investment improving but
predicted only a rise of four pct in 1987 against 4.6 pct in
1986. Ifo and DIW saw these investments rising by only two pct.
    All the institutes predicted only a slight decline in
unemployment. The Kiel, Hamburg and Essen institutes said the
jobless total would average 2.17 mln in 1987 compared with 2.23
mln in 1986 and predicted a rise in the number of people in
work of about 200,000.
    These three institutes said new jobs would be created
mainly in the private services sector and also by the state in
the context of job creation measures. The construction industry
was likely to engage new workers for the first time since 1980
but they predicted either no rise in employment in the
manufactured goods industry or only a slight expansion.
    The DIW and Ifo said rises in employment would occur only
in the tertiary sector, while "the number employed in the
manufacturing industry will decline."
    The DIW and Ifo said unemployment would only decline to
2.20 mln in 1987 from 2.23 mln in 1986.
    They saw the current account surplus falling in 1987 to 58
billion marks from 78 billion in 1986. The other three saw a
current account surplus in 1987 of at least 60 billion marks
and predicted that the trade surplus would fall to only around
100 billion marks from 112 billion in 1986.
    The institutes agreed that consumer prices would start to
rise in 1987, after they declined in 1986, and all five
predicted an average increase over the year of 0.5 pct.
 REUTER

<Blue Arrow Plc> said it had agreed
terms to acquire a group of U.S. Companies collectively known
as the <Richards Companies>, which specialise in executive
recruitment and management consultancy on personnel matters.
    The total consideration will be 29 mln U.S. Dlrs of which
50 pct will be payable in cash and 50 pct by the issue of 1.36
mln new ordinary shares in Blue Arrow.
    The Richard Companies made a pre-tax profit of 3.6 mln dlrs
in the year to end-1986, on turnover of 7.1 mln dlrs with net
tangible assets at the end of 1986 of 3.4 mln dlrs.
    Blue Arrow shares were trading 9p lower at 670 this
morning.
 REUTER

The State Bank of Victoria is raising
50 mln Australian dlrs through a three-year bullet eurobond at
14-1/2 pct and priced at 101-3/8, lead and sole manager
Commerzbank AG said.
    The bond is due on May 15, 1990 and interest is paid on
that date annually. Payment date is also May 15.
    Denominations are 1,000 and 10,000 dlrs and listing is in
London.
    Fees total 1-1/2 pct, with a half-point for management and
underwriting and one point for selling.
 REUTER

surged across the board as banks tried to build long positions
in anticipation of a further rise in U.S. Interest rates,
    They said traders expected riyal deposits to follow the
recent strong rise in eurodollar rates sparked by fears of a
tighter U.S. Monetary policy to halt the dollar's slide.
    "There was a wave of panic buying early in the morning as
people tried to cover gaps and build long riyal positions," said
one dealer. As a result, riyal deposits were strongly bid and
traders scrambled for any available offers.
    One-way trade focused mainly on the fixed periods but short
dates also rose, dealers said. Spot-next and one-week deposits
climbed to 6-5/8, 1/8 pct from 6-3/8, six on Sunday.
    One-month deposits rose to 6-1/2, 3/8 pct from 6-1/4, six
and three-month deposits climbed to 6-3/4, 5/8 pct from 6-9/16,
7/16. Six-month deposits also firmed to 7-1/8, seven pct from
7-1/16, 6-7/8 on Sunday.
    The spot riyal was steady at 3.7500/03 to the dollar after
quotes of 3.7498/7503 yesterday.
 REUTER

Gold bullion continued to move higher
supported by good general buying and was fixed this morning at
436.50 dlrs, 268.368 stg, an ounce, up from Friday's close of
432.00/50, dealers said.
    The setting was the highest since October 8 as gold built
on Friday's gains, which had been based on the weakness of the
dollar and fears of a trade war between the United States and
Japan.
    It opened slightly firmer at 433.50/434.00 and moved up
steadily during the morning supported by commission house and
trade buying, dealers said.
    Dealers said there was resistance around 440.00 but with
sentiment still firm some traders believe the rally may even
take gold as high as 500 dlrs.
    Platinum was fixed this morning at 583.50 dlrs an ounce, up
from Friday's close of 578.50/580.50, and also the highest
setting since October.
 REUTER

Borg-Warner <BOR> Corp, facing an
unwanted offer from GAF Corp <GAF>, agreed to a 4.23 billion
dlr buyout offer from a company to be formed by <Merrill Lynch
Capital Partners Inc>.
    Borg-Warner and Merrill said yesterday they entered a
definitive merger agreement, under which a subsidiary of the
new company, <AV Holdings Corp>, will begin a 48.50 dlr per
share cash tender offer today for 77.6 mln shares or 89 pct of
Borg-Warner common stock.
    The offer will be followed by a merger in which each
remaining share will be converted into 19.75 dlrs cash and
54.25 dlrs principal amount of AV Holdings junior subordinated
discount debentures.
    As a result of the merger, Borg-Warner will become a wholly
owned subsidiary of AV Holdings. A Borg-Warner spokeswoman said
members of management do not plan to participate in the
transaction, but they will retain their positions with the
company.
    A spokesman for GAF was unavailable for comment. GAF holds
19.9 pct of Borg-Warner's shares.
    GAF had said it would offer 46 dlrs per share.
    Borg-Warner's spokeswoman said the company still plans to
sell its financial services unit, which includes Wells Fargo
security guards, and the Chilton Corp, a credit rating service.
    Borg-Warner has been the focus of takeover speculation for
about a year. Corporate raider Irwin Jacobs last year proposed
a takeover of the firm and until recently held 10 pct of the
stock. Following the GAF offer, analysts had calculated breakup
values for the company in the low 50 dlrs per share range and
speculated an offer would have to be sweetened.
    In its statement, Borg-Warner said its board endorsed the
Merrill offer and it recommended that shareholders tender their
shares. The board received opinions on the offer from its
advisors, First Boston Corp and Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    James Burke, president of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners,
said, "We are very pleased to have entered into this transaction
with Borg-Warner. We are looking forward to working with the
employees of Borg-Warner and to Borg-Warner maintaining its
strong presence in the Chicago community."
    Merrill Lynch will be the dealer-manager for the offer,
which expires at midnight EDT May 8 (0400 GMT, May 9), subject
to conditions, including the completion of necessary financing
    The offer is also subject to a minimum 44.25 mln shares, or
51 pct of the outstanding shares, being tendered.
    Merrill Lynch and certain affiliates have committed to
provide 200 mln dlrs in AV Holdings equity and 870 mln in
subordinated financing and forward underwriting commitments.
    Merrill Lynch said that following discussions with
commercial banks it is confident it can obtain the rest of the
financing required to complete the transaction.
    The junior subordinated discount debentures to be issued in
the merger will carry a 13 pct coupon and will begin paying
cash interest after five years.
    The debentures will be redeemable at the company's option
for the first six years at 105 pct, during the seventh year at
102.5 pct and after that at 100 pct of the principal amount.
    The junior subordinated discount debentures have a maturity
of 20 years and are entitled to a sinking fund commencing in
the 16th year designed to retire 60 pct of the issue before
maturity.
    Borg-Warner will also redeem all of its outstanding 4.50
dlrs cumulative preferred stock, series A, for 100 dlrs per
share. Holders who wish to participate in the offer must first
convert their preferred stock into Borg-Warner common stock.
    The board of Borg-Warner has also taken steps to redeem its
poison pill or share purchase rights for five cents per right,
 REUTER

The price index for sales of
manufactured goods in the U.K. Rose a provisional, unadjusted
0.3 pct in March after an identical rise in February,
Department of Trade and Industry figures show.
    The index for materials and fuel purchased by manufacturing
industry fell a provisional and unadjusted 1.1 pct after a 1.7
pct fall in February.
    The Department said the year-on-year rise in producer
prices in March was a provisional 3.7 pct, compared with a
provisional 4.2 pct increase in the year to end-February.
    The index for output prices, non-seasonally adjusted, was
put at a provisional 149.7 in March after 149.3 in February.
    The index for input prices, also not seasonally adjusted,
was set at 128.2 in March after February's 129.6.
    The 1.1 pct fall in input prices between February and March
was mainly due to a seasonal fall in industrial electricity
costs and lower scheduled prices for petroleum products, the
    The Department said these falls were only partly offset by
a rise in prices of home-produced food manufacturing materials.
    The seasonally adjusted index for input prices showed a 0.2
pct rise between February and March.
    Year-on-year, the input price index was down 0.7 pct in
March after a 2.8 pct drop in February.
 REUTER

Sri Lanka's cabinet has ordered a 12
pct cut in budget spending by ministries this year to offset
the rising cost of the fight against Tamil guerrillas, Finance
    A senior economist at the Ministry, who declined to be
named, told Reuters the cuts would not apply to defence-related
Ministries and those involved in health and education.
    Defence expenditure, projected at 10 billion rupees this
year, is now forecast at 12 billion and is expected to exceed
this by the year-end.
    The economist said the cuts were part of a government plan
to reduce spending to satisfy the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) which has promised to lend Sri Lanka 6.5 billion rupees
to help its balance of payments.
    The IMF has said previously Sri Lanaka must reduce its
budget and balance of payments deficits to satisfy loan
    He said World Bank and IMF teams were expected here next
month. "If approved the loan would be available only after
November and would be part of the 1988 budget," he said.
 REUTER

Norway's state oil company
Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S (Statoil) <STAT.OL>, has told
Thai authorities it is interested in taking a 30 pct share in a
big offshore Thailand gas field, Statoil said.
    The field, in the southern sector of the Gulf of Thailand,
is currently operated by U.S. Oil company Texas Pacific Oil Co
Inc, a unit of Canada's Seagram Co Ltd <VO.N>. Thailand's state
oil company <Petroleum Authority Thailand> (PTT) also holds a
major stake in the field.
    PTT wants to develop the field and has asked Statoil to
consider co-development if the field's licence is renewed.
    PTT, according to Statoil, is currently negotiating with
Texas Pacific to buy back the Dallas-based oil company's
holdings in the field.
    "PTT must first sort out its problems with Texas Pacific.
When this is done, we have said we are interested in taking
over a 30 pct share in the field," Statoil spokesman Willy Olsen
    Statoil, hired by PTT to carry out an independent appraisal
of the field's reserves and propose a development plan, has
estimated the field could be commercially developed at a cost
of some 700 mln crowns.
    Industry sources said Texas Pacific has submitted lower
reserve estimates for the field than Statoil and shown little
interest in its development. Statoil refused to disclose its
upgraded reserve estimate for the field.
    The field's reserves could be sold domestically through
Thailand's gas distribution network or by converting the gas to
electricity, the sources said.
    Sources would not say which field Statoil is considering.
 REUTER

The New South Wales Treasury Corporation
is issuing a 100 mln Australian dlr eurobond due May 27, 1992
paying 14-1/4 pct and priced at 101-7/8 pct, lead manager
County Natwest Capital Markets said.
    The non-callable bond is guaranteed by the crown-in-right
of New South Wales. The selling concession is 1-3/8 pct while
Australian dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment
date is May 27.
 REUTER

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's
(LDP) setback in Sunday's nationwide local elections may force
the government to water down its controversial proposal for a
five pct sales tax and undermine its commitment to stimulating
the economy, private economists said.
    The LDP's failure to win seats in some crucial local
constituencies will weaken the government's ability to push
through its tax plan, and without a compromise tax proposal the
budget for fiscal 1987/88 ending March 31 is unlikely to be
passed soon, they said.
    Without the budget, the government would also be
hard-pressed to come up with an effective package to stimulate
the economy as pledged at Group of Seven meetings in Paris in
late February and in Washington last week, they said.
    Opposition protests against the sales tax have stalled
parliamentary debate on the budget for weeks and forced the
government to enact a stop-gap 1987/88 budget that began early
    "The LDP's election setback will have an enormous impact on
the already faltering economy," said Johsen Takahashi, chief
economist at Mitsubishi Research Institute.
    Takahashi said that behind the LDP's poor showing was
public discontent with the government's high-handed push for
tax reform and its lack of effective policies to cope with
economic woes caused by the yen's appreciation.
    "This explains why the LDP failed to regain governorships in
the most hotly contested constituencies of Fukuoka and
Hokkaido, where the shipbuilding and steel industries are
suffering heavily from the yen's extended rise," he said.
    Takahashi said the government should delay introduction of
the sales tax for one or two years beyond its original starting
date of January 1988 and implement tax cuts now.
    Sumitomo Bank Ltd chief economist Masahiko Koido also said
he favours watering down the proposed sales tax while
suggesting the government boost public works spending by
modifying its tight fiscal policies.
    "The local election results were a signal the economy now
needs government action to take clear-cut fiscal measures," he
said, adding that such moves would help the world economy as
well as Japan's.
    For the last five years or so, the government has stuck to
a tight fiscal policy in a bid to halt the issue of deficit
financing bonds by fiscal 1990/91, economists said.
    If the LDP election setback leads to a scaled down sales
tax proposal, the government would have to find other revenue
sources to help finance the planned tax cuts and a package of
measures to stimulate the economy, the economists said.
    Koido said the government could raise additional revenue by
selling shares in public corporations such as Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone Corp. But it should issue additional bonds to
ensure a more stable source of funds, he said.
    "It may run counter to its avowed policy of balancing the
budget, but it can do so on a short-term basis," he said.
    Takahashi of Mitsubishi Research also agreed with the need
for the government to float more bonds to raise funds needed
for economic expansion.
    He said additional government borrowing would place no
burden on the capital market because it has amassed huge excess
funds and government bond prices have risen to record levels
lately.
    "The market is just waiting for more new government bond
issues," he said.
 REUTER

Japanese oil traders and refiners are
considering whether to suspend further business with Texaco Inc
<TX>, which yesterday filed for protection under Chapter 11 of
the U.S. Bankruptcy code, industry sources told Reuters.
    Texaco, the third biggest U.S. Oil company, said it filed
to protect itself from creditors while it fights a legal battle
with Pennzoil Co <PZL> over the purchase of Getty Petroleum
Corp <GTY> in 1984.
    Many Japanese trading houses decided to stop dealing with
Texaco several months ago as rumours it was about to file for
bankruptcy spread through the market, the sources said.
    "We haven't dealt with them for six months," said one
Japanese trader.
    Some Japanese trading houses with offices in the U.S. May
ask for letters of credit if they decide to continue trading
with Texaco, oil sources said.
    They said Texaco, which said its bankrupcty protection
measure will not affect the majority of its businesses, may
find industry reaction stronger than anticipated.
    "Texaco tried to buy substantial volumes of gasoline on the
U.S. Gulf on Friday but no one offered to them," one trading
house source said.
    One U.S. Major is reviewing its relationship with Texaco,
and an international oil trading company, while continuing
limited transactions with Texaco, will send its lawyers to meet
with the company tonight in New York, oil sources said.
    But one Japanese oil company, which holds several joint
venture oil exploration interests with Texaco, said business
would continue as usual pending the outcome of the dispute, a
 REUTER

French commercial bank Credit Commercial
de France has split each of its shares into four to increase
the number of shares on offer when it is privatised at the end
of this month, a company official said.
    He told Reuters a general assembly had passed a proposal
splitting 10.33 mln shares of 100 francs nominal into around
41.32 mln shares of 25 francs nominal.
    Market sources have put the total value of CCF's selloff at
between four and five billion francs. The bank said the share
sale price was likely to be announced on April 24, before the
launch of a public flotation offer on April 27.
 REUTER

research institutes said the government should do more to
stimulate economic growth and called for early introduction of
tax cuts planned for 1990.
    In their joint spring report the institutes were divided
about 1987 growth forecasts, with three predicting two pct
expansion and the other two only one pct growth. Gross national
product grew 2.4 pct last year.
    But the report said all the institutes believed that "more
must be done to produce dynamic growth so that more additional
jobs can be created."
    The institutes said any step which improved basic economic
conditions should be taken as quickly as possible. "From this
point of view, the tax reform planned for 1990 should be
brought forward."
    The government plans gross tax reductions of 44 billion
marks as part of the major tax reform. The net tax relief from
the tax reform will amount to 25 billion marks.
    However, the institutes criticised the government, not only
for the timing of the reform, but also because the question of
its financing had been left open.
    The government has not specified how the remaining 19
billion marks of the tax reduction package will be paid for,
though it has said it wants to cut state subsidies.
    The institutes said this lack of clarity from Bonn had
caused uncertainty among companies and households as to what
exactly they would receive from the tax reform and urged a
quick decision from the government.
    They also said the government should reduce tax
preferences, which would simplify the fiscal system, urged a
restriction of state spending and called for no increase in
value-added tax.
    The institutes also criticised Bonn for increasing
subsidies at a time further reductions had been pledged.
    They referred specifically to a doubling of special
writedowns for small and medium sized companies announced in a
package of tax adjustments planned for 1988 and described this
as an increase in subsidies.
    The institutes said total subsidies, including tax
preferences, had reached 80 billion marks in 1985 and risen
further since then. Given the scope of these subsidies, it
should be possible "despite ... Major political difficulties" to
finance the tax reform by cutting state handouts.
    The institutes said that if the government raised value
added tax or other indirect taxes a large portion of the
positive effects resulting from lower taxes would be lost.
    The report also noted that the government was progressing
only slowly with its plans to privatise state companies and
said more deregulation was needed. The government had to aim
for more competition, it said.
 REUTER

Glaxo pre-tax profit 376 mln stg vs 260 mln in six months to end-December

Hillsdown Holdings Plc <HLDN.L> said its
Christie-Tyler Ltd unit would buy the European bedding making
interests of Simmons Co U.S.A., Owned by Gulf and Western
Industries Inc USA <GW>, for 23 mln dlrs.
    The acquisitions include <Sleepeeze Ltd> in the U.K.,
<Compagnie Continentale Simmons SA> in France and <Compagnia
Italiana Simmons SpA> in Italy.
    In 1986 the three businesses made pre-tax profit of around
2.5 mln stg on sales of 39 mln stg. Net assets being acquired
come to around nine mln stg.
    Hillsdown shares were unchanged at 266p.
 REUTER

effectively given Japan six weeks to take moves to open its
market to imports before it decides on possible tough
retaliatory trade measures, EC diplomats said.
    They said EC foreign ministers will meet on May 25 and 26
to review the state of trade relations between the two sides.
    The EC executive commission was asked by representatives of
member states on Friday to propose a renunciation of some EC
pledges to the world trade body, GATT, unless there are
"adequate and early measures to open the Japanese market."
    Such a renunciation would be the first step to imposing
stiff increases in duties, or quantitative limits, on Japanese
exports.
    The diplomats said it was unlikely that the issue would be
discussed in detail at the next meeting of EC foreign ministers
on April 27 and 28 in Luxembourg as time was needed to prepare
proposals for possible retaliatory action.
    They said the commission has powers to take some limited
action before getting ministerial approval to prevent Japanese
exports of electrical, photographic and other goods being
diverted to Europe in the wake of possible U.S. Tariff moves.
    In May, the ministers are also likely to discuss how to
prevent Japan from getting an extra trading advantage as a
result of Spain and Portugal joining the bloc, which obliges
them gradually to reduce tariffs on many industrial goods.
    Meanwhile, Japan's trade surplus with the Community has
grown steadily, registering a record 2.13 billion dlrs in
March.
 REUTER

Six months to end-December
    Shr 32.6p vs 22.3p
    Div 5.0p vs 4.0p
    Pre-tax profit 376 mln stg vs 260 mln
    Turnover 883 mln vs 686 mln
    Tax 133 mln vs 94 mln
    Note - company full name is Glaxo Holdings Plc <GLXO.L>.
    Trading profit 338 mln vs 233 mln
    Share of profits of associates 14 mln vs seven mln
    Investment income less interest payable 24 mln vs 20 mln
    Profit after tax 243 mln vs 166 mln
    Minority interests two mln vs one mln
    Extraordianry credit eight mln vs nil
    Turnover includes -
    Continuing activities 875 mln vs 647 mln
    Discontinued activities eight mln vs 39 mln
    U.K. 111 mln vs 91 mln
    Europe 299 mln vs 218 mln
    North America 334 mln vs 229 mln
    Central and South America 21 mln vs 20 mln
    Africa and Middle East 29 mln vs 23 mln
    South East Asia and Far East 57 mln vs 47 mln
    Australasia 24 mln vs 19 mln
    Anti-peptic ulcerants 414 mln vs 285 mln
    Systemic antibiotics 112 mln vs 82 mln
    Respiratory system 183 mln vs 141 mln
 REUTER

A takeover battle began today for
debt-burdened Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP.MO> as TransCanada
PipeLines Ltd <TRP.TO> announced a 4.3 billion dlr offer and
Dome said it is continuing talks with other possible buyers.
    Companies mentioned in market speculation as potential
buyers for Dome include Imperial Oil Ltd <IMO.A> which is 70
pct owned by Exxon Corp <XON.N>, <PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd>
which is 87 pct owned by the conglomerate Canadian Pacific Ltd
<CP.N> and British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L>.
    Along with the TransCanada offer, Dome has had another
proposal from "a substantial company" and discussions with a
third company which could lead to an offer, Dome said in a
    The statement confirmed Dome received TransCanada's bid,
but did not identify the companies involved in talks.
    TransCanada, Canada's largest natural gas pipeline
operator, said it is offering Dome a package of cash, common
and preferred shares, and shares in a new subsidiary which
would own and operate Dome's assets. TransCanada said the offer
is to Dome management, not to shareholders.
    Dome has massive oil and gas landholdings in Canada,
totalling 36.1 mln acres of which 7.4 mln have been developed.
It also has tax credits worth about 2.5 billion dlrs.
    Dome's statement said the TransCanada announcement "violated
the terms and spirit of a confidentiality agreement entered
into with prospective purchasers" and was apparently timed to
prevent Dome from considering other proposals.
    It said the TransCanada bid "seems to require favourable and
substantial taxation concessions from the federal and
provincial governments." But Dome added that its management and
financial advisers will evaluate all proposals.
    TransCanada chief financial officer H. Neil Nichols said he
was surprised at the vehemence of Dome's statement and denied
that TransCanada was trying to usurp other bids. "I find (Dome's
statement) very bothersome. Once the board made the decision to
authorise the proposal, it had a legal obligation to announce
it," he said. Nichols said he did not know the identity of the
other bidders, or the terms of other offers.
    Dome common shares closed at 1.13 dlrs on Friday on the
Toronto Stock Exchange. The preferred class A stock closed at
5.00 dlrs. Common stock traded as high as 25.00 dlrs in 1981.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell 800 billion
yen in deficit financing bills today through 51-day repurchase
agreements maturing June 3 to help absorb a projected money
    The operation will raise the outstanding supply of the
bills to a record 4,800 billion yen.
houses from money houses will be 3.8999 pct compared with the
two-month commercial bill discount rate today of 3.8750 pct and
the two-month certificate of deposit rate of 4.13/00 pct.
    The traders estimated the surplus today at about 1,800
billion yen.
    They said it is mainly due to 1,300 billion yen of
government tax allocations to local governments and public
entities and to excessive banking system cash holdings due to
continuous large central bank dollar purchases.
 REUTER

Italian state-owned bank Banca
Commerciale Italiana, BCI, said it and Mediocredito Centrale
will sign a joint venture pact with Soviet central bank Gosbank
and Vneshtorgbank, the foreign trade financial institution.
    A BCI spokesman told Reuters the agreement involves the
banks providing financial services and taking equity stakes in
joint Soviet-Italian industrial ventures.
    Under the agreement, the Italian banks will have a 50 pct
interest in a new firm to be formed by the four institutions.
The accord is expected to be signed today or tomorrow at a
Venice conference on East West trade, the spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the joint venture company will operate
primarily in the corporate finance sector. Additional details
about the firm's activities were not available, he said.
    BCI is Italy's second largest bank, while Mediocredito
provides medium-term export financing.
 REUTER

issued a note clarifying details on its new high grade
aluminium contract, in response to questions from members
following the announcement of the contract, due to start June
1.
 All deliverable shapes of aluminium under the high grade
primary aluminium contract (minimum 99.7 pct purity) will also
be deliverable against the standard primary aluminium contract
(min 99.5 pct), the LME said.
    Sows will not constitute good delivery against the standard
contract until September 1, and 99.5 pct purity sows are not
good delivery and cannot be placed on LME warrant.
    The dollar quotation for the high grade contract will be in
multiples of one U.S. Dollar but carries may be made at 50
cents for even tonnages only.
    Singapore, which is the first port warehouse outside Europe
to be used as an LME delivery point, will be used for high
grade metal only and the rent imposed by owners Steinweg will
be 1.05 U.S. Dlr a tonne per week, the LME said.
    The LME Board, in response to representation from the
trade, agreed to annul from LME contracts the minimum weight
requirements of 450 kilos for T-bars and 250 kilos for sows,
effective for high grade on June 1 and for standard on July 24.
 REUTER

Agency (SAMA) rose to 6.43896 pct from 6.21563 a week ago,
    SAMA lowered the offer price on the 500 mln riyal issue to
98.39844 from 98.45313 last Monday. Like-dated interbank
deposits were quoted today at 6-3/4, 5/8 pct.
180-day accounts to banks in the Kingdom each week.
 REUTER

A Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) official denied a local news agency report that
Japan will end its seven-month-old semiconductor agreement with
the U.S. If Washington imposes tariffs on 300 mln dlrs worth of
Japanese electronic goods from April 17.
    Kyodo News Agency reported a high-ranking MITI official as
saying Japan would end the chip pact if the U.S. Implements the
punitive tariffs.
    Nothing new has been decided, the official said. As MITI
said on Saturday, Japan would only pursue its rights under the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), he added.
 REUTER

North Yemen at its weekend tender bought
white sugar from a French operator acting on behalf of a Swiss
house at 214.70 dlrs a tonne c and f, traders said.
    The amount bought was not immediately available, although
the country had sought 30,000 tonnes of June arrival whites,
they said.
 REUTER

take retaliatory measures if the U.S. imposes its planned trade
sanctions on April 17, a senior government official said at the
weekend.
and Industry Ministry, said in a statement that Japan would
consider measures under the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade and other actions if the United States imposes 100 pct
tariffs on some Japanese exports as planned next week.
emergency talks which ended in Washington on Friday.
    In March President Reagan announced the sanctions in
retaliation for what he called Japan's failure to honor a July
1986 pact to stop dumping computer microchips in markets
outside the U.S. and to open its home market to U.S. goods.
    Fukukawa said the U.S. had not listened to Japan's
explanation of its efforts to live up the pact. He saod the U.S
had not given detailed reasons of why it planned tariffs.
 Reuter

the money market with 75 mln stg help in the morning session.
This compares with the Bank's estimate that the system would
face a shortage of around 400 mln stg today.
    The central bank bought bank bills outright comprising two
mln stg in band two at 9-13/16 pct, 15 mln stg in band three at
9-3/4 pct and 58 mln stg in band three at 9-11/16 pct.
 REUTER

Japanese trade figures are seriously
challenging the entrenched view of policy makers of the Group
of Seven industrialised nations that relative currency rates
are the key to smoothing world trade problems.
    Senior Japanese, U.S. And European officials in Tokyo say
they are at a loss to fully explain the data, for if currencies
are the key they ask, why then are are U.S. Exports to Japan
shrinking?
    What if manipulating currencies and driving the dollar down
made world trade problems worse rather than solving them,
fulfilling Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker's forecast of
world trade recession?
    U.S.-Japan trade has declined even after a 40 pct dollar
fall against the yen since the September 1985 Group of Five
pact in New York.
    The lower dollar ought to have made U.S. Exports 40 pct
more competitive in Japan. The officials, most of them
economists, can offer no objective reason why they are not.
    Worse, how are European Community sales to Japan rising
rapidly when the European Currency Unit has until now declined
only 11 pct against the yen.?
    Last week's G-7 meeting in Washington has been widely
interpreted as a sign from the policy makers that the dollar
must go lower. So worst of all, what if Volcker is correct?
    At a loss to give an objective explanation, officials can
only offer explanations which tend to be highly subjective.
    "I don't know and I don't think anyone knows," said Hugh
Richardson, acting head of the EC delegation in Tokyo.
    "What I do know is that Community exporters are making a
hell of an effort in this market. If you make an effort, there
is money to be made in Japan," he added.
    But U.S. Officials and businessmen are convinced low U.S.
Exports to Japan are Japan's fault. They cite restrictive trade
practices, protected Japanese trade sectors, such as
agriculture, and non-tariff barriers, such as unreasonable
checking and customs procedures for car imports.
    Publicly, Japanese officials remain conciliatory in the
face of what they see as U.S. Aggression. In private, they
blame U.S. Industry for being uncompetitive.
    "We see it that way, but we don't like to seem arrogant,"
said a senior official, who declined to be named. "We like to
refrain from accusing them of not making enough effort."
    Industrialists such as Eishiro Saito, chairman of the
Keidanren business group, and Sony Corp chairman Akio Morita
repeatedly accuse foreign firms of not making enough effort to
understand Japan's markets, and some foreigners agree. "The real
issue is the inability of major sectors of American and
European industry to compete not only internationally but even
in their home markets," Peter Huggler, President of Interallianz
Bank Zurich, told a recent conference in Switzerland.

Turkey is to apply tomorrow for European
Community membership, Foreign Ministry officials said.
    They told Reuters that Minister of State Ali Bozer would
lodge the application in Brussels with Belgian Foreign Minister
Leo Tindemans.
    Turkey would be the 13th member of the group, of which
Belgium is current president.
 REUTER

Negotiations scheduled between the
metalworkers' IG Metall union and employers to resolve an
impasse over a new contract will start on Wednesday, the union
    IG Metall is demanding a 35-hour week, with a parallel
increase in wages of five pct. Employers Gesamtmetall have
offered a half-hour shortening in the current working week, to
38 hours, and an initial rise of 2.8 pct.
    IG Metall, under newly-elected leader Franz Steinkuehler,
proposed the talks on Thursday, after regional negotiations in
the northern part of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg collapsed.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia is in the market for 4,000
tonnes of refined bleached deodorised palm olein for June 1/10
shipment, traders said.
 REUTER

The London based trade journal "METAL
BULLETIN'S" average producer price of good ordinary brand zinc
for week ended April 10 is 790.00 dlrs per tonne.
 Reuter

U.K. Producer price data for March were
roughly as expected after taking into account technical factors
which affected the year-on-year outcome, economic analysts
said.
    The figures showed a 0.3 pct provisional, non-seasonally
adjusted rise in output prices in March, unchanged from
February and close to the average for the last six months.
    The year-on-year rise was put at 3.7 pct, down from 4.2 pct
in February.
    But Chris Tinker, economist at brokerage house Phillips and
Drew, said the drop in the year-on-year rate mainly reflected a
rise in excise duties which affected the index in March last
year.
    He cautioned that it was dangerous to read too much into
the monthly figure, adding that a rise of only 0.2 pct in April
would take the year-on-year rise back above 4.2 pct.
    Analysts also noted that a drop in manufacturers' input
prices was almost entirely due to anticipated seasonal factors
such as a fall in industrial electricity costs.
    Duncan Squire of Lloyds Merchant Bank said the figures were
slightly disappointing in that the strengthening of sterling
had not yet reduced input prices as much as expected.
    Both he and Tinker said this factor should help keep input
costs down over the next few months, although Tinker added that
last year's fall in oil prices is now about to drop out of the
year-on-year comparisons and is likely to lead to a return to
rises in the index rather than falls.
 REUTER

Bangemann indirectly rejected a call from the country's leading
economic research institutes for early introduction of a major
tax reform involving gross tax cuts of 44 billion marks.
    In a statement reacting to the five institutes' joint
spring report, Bangemann said that as far as the call for
bringing forward the 1990 tax reform was concerned --
    "The government points out that the positive effects for
growth of its policy of consolidation (cutting the budget
deficit) must not be allowed to be endangered."
    Bangemann also recalled that the scope of tax cuts planned
for 1988 had already been increased.
    Three institutes predicted two pct economic growth in 1987,
with exports falling by 0.5 pct. The other two saw only one pct
growth and said exports would fall 2.5 pct.
    Bangemann said "The government, agreeing with the majority,
sees no reason for the extraordinarily pessimistic estimate for
exports expressed by the minority."
    He said there was reason to believe that export demand
would start to rise in the course of the year, partly because
of a further increase in world trade.
 REUTER

Italy's Gross Domestic Product, calculated
at 1980 prices, rose 2.4 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986,
compared with the same period in 1985, National Statistics
Institute ISTAT said.
    ISTAT said in a statement that GDP growth in fourth quarter
1986 was zero compared with the preceding quarter. Italy's
budget ministry said last month that 1986 GDP rose 2.7 pct in
real terms from 1985.
    Imports in the fourth quarter totalled 26,361 billion lire,
down 1.4 pct from the 1985 fourth quarter and down 6.6 pct from
the third 1986 quarter, ISTAT said.
    Istat said exports totaled 23,190 billion lire in the
fourth quarter, down 4.1 pct from the comparable 1985 quarter
and down 6.7 pct from the third quarter in 1986.
    Fixed investments were 23,438 billion lire in the fourth
quarter, down 0.7 pct from the preceding quarter and up 1.1 pct
from the comparable 1985 quarter.
 REUTER

Tokyo share prices are expected to weaken
further for about a week, following a sharp drop which at one
time today saw the Nikkei Dow index down 571.01 points in
mid-afternoon trading, brokers said.
    They said uncertainty caused by disputes between Japan and
its main trading partners will continue to deter investors from
equities.
    The market index, which closed the day 297.05 points down
at 22,919.54, will probably end the present downturn at around
22,300 points, brokers predicted.
    "This is just a short-term correction and the market will
probably end up at about 22,300 in about a week's time," said a
broker at Nomura Securities Co.
    He said that today's late recovery from afternoon lows
showed that investors were still hunting bargains in
anticipation of an upturn.
    Brokers reiterated expectations of an imminent cut in
Japan's 2.5 pct discount rate, a factor seen to be diverting
money from bank accounts into stocks and boosting the market.
    Securities company, bank and insurance issues, likely to
benefit from a rate cut, were bought in late trading.
    The Nomura broker said he expects the rate cut in May or
June, after Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's scheduled visit
to Washington on April 29. Nakasone is expected to seek an end
to Japanese-U.S. Trade disputes which are hurting investor
confidence.
    "Until we see some concerted effort by the Japanese to halt
the yen's rise against the dollar and settle trade disputes,
the market will stay low," said head of equities at Jardine
Fleming Securities Co, Mario Malt.
    Malt said current talks between the countries were
inflammatory and damaged stockmarket optimism.
    Brokers also said that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic
Party has to show it still rules, after Sunday's nationwide
local elections showed dwindling support.
    "It raises doubts on whether the LDP can push through the
reforms it planned for this year," said one broker.
    Top policy priorities this year are deregulation of
financial activities, stimulation of domestic demand to boost
imports and removal of agricultural subsidies.
    If these policies are abandoned or scaled down, stockmarket
investors will have few reasons to buy stocks, brokers said.
 REUTER

    Its three offices will reopen today as branches of Dixie
 REUTER

nations appear deeply worried that financial markets have
ignored their efforts to coordinate policies, which they
believe they strengthened in talks last week.
    Monetary sources said officials were exasperated that the
markets, which drove the dollar rapidly lower and severely
disrupted bond and stock markets too, did not take heed of the
policy commitments of the Group of Seven -- the United States,
Japan, West Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker went out of his way to
reassure markets of his commitment to a stable dollar with a
statement, and French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur
underscored that by saying: "I don't believe at all that the
Americans want a weaker dollar."
    West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said the
dollar's latest rapid descent "involves the risk -- now already
a tangible threat -- of a new strong surge of inflation,
leading to a renewed rise in interest rates."
    But there were signs too, that while policymakers feared
the market uproar, they seemed to accept there was little they
could do until the economic picture changed, and currencies
settled into a stable pattern as a result.
    Nor did there seem to be any enthusiasm at last week's
semi-annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank for higher
U.S. Interest rates as the best way to curb the dollar's rapid
descent. That distaste stems in part from fears of recession.
    Outgoing Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman told
television interviewers he did not think a policy of driving
the dollar down would solve the U.S. trade deficit.
    "It would slow growth in Germany and Japan which would
adversely affect our trade balance and ultimately it would
drive interest rates up here which would throw us, if not
(into) recession, into slower growth," he said.
    Asked if higher U.S. Interest rates would stabilize the
dollar, Balladur said: "When a currency is maintained
artificially high, by artificially high interest rates, it is
not healthy."
    And resorting to higher interest rates could lead to
recession, he said.
    Acknowledging the dollar's latest slide was now a fact of
life, Balladur said, "there may be adjustments of course in one
or other currencies, this is not a fixed rate system."
    But Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker said he
might rein in credit if the dollar's slide deepens.
    U.S. Monetary sources also said Washington wanted it
understood by markets the seven's commitments were genuine.
    "The United States and the six major industrial countries
are fully committed to implementing our undertakings in these
agreements," Baker told the meetings.
    Darman said Baker had been misinterpreted by markets which
wrongly believed earlier remarks suggested he wanted a further
decline in the dollar. Baker, Darman said, was committed to
stabilizing currencies at current levels.
    Last week's statement from the seven reaffirmed a February
22 agreement in Paris in which the Reagan administration agreed
to reach a budget deficit compromise with Congress and to fight
protectionism.
    West Germany and Japan, meanwhile, agreed to stimulate
domestic demand and lead a global upturn.
    Ministers believed the Paris pact was bolstered by Japan's
promise of a 35 billion dlr supplementary budget.
    The sources said they believed Baker saw it as a major
action. But the seven seem to accept their commitment to stable
currencies applied to today's exchange rates and not those at
the time of the Paris agreement, when the dollar stood higher.
    The Paris accord said, "currencies (are) within ranges
broadly consistent with underlying economic fundamentals, given
the policy commitments summarized in this statement."
    Now they accept the dollar's lower level, especially
against the yen, as hard reality that is nonetheless consistent
with the agreement. "The ministers and governors reaffirmed the
view that around current levels their currencies are within
ranges broadly consistent with fundamentals," last week's
statement read.
    Monetary sources said policymakers understood markets were
focusing on instability created by the gap between the U.S.
Trade deficit and the surpluses of West Germany and Japan
rather than prospective policy changes. European monetary
sources said Bonn was still unconvinced that Washington meant
business with its commitment to cut the budget deficit.
 Reuter

research institutes, which have revised down their forecasts
for 1987 growth, do not predict a recession in West Germany,
their spokesman, Hans-Juergen Schmahl said.
    The institutes were divided in their spring report on
forecasts for 1987, with three predicting two pct growth and
two seeing only one pct expansion. Growth was 2.4 pct in 1986.
    Schmahl, presenting the report at a news conference, said,
"None of the institutes reckons with a recession or with the
beginning of a recession." He added, however, that exports
remained the weak point of the economy .
    Schmahl also said West Germany would have to expect further
encroachments of foreign goods onto its markets.
    Arthur Krumper of Munich's Ifo institute, which with the
DIW of West Berlin had presented the more pessimistic view of
the economy, said, "The braking effects (on the economy)
produced by external factors will remain considerable for most
of the year."
 REUTER

Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 1.10 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.03 dlrs vs 1.02 dlrs
    Net 8,186,000 vs 8,114,000
 Reuter

Computer Associates International Inc
said it has started its previously-announced 1.92 dlr per share
tender offer for all shares of BPI Systems Inc.
which has been approved by the BPI board and is to be followed
by a merger at the same price, is conditioned on receipt of at
least 1,813,742 shares.  The offer and withdrawal rights expire
May 15 unless extended.
    In addition to shares sought in the tender, shareholders of
BPI owning 1,951,720 shares or 34.6 pct have agreed to sell
their shares to Computer Associates for the tender price.
 Reuter

Former Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> chairman
Ernest Saunders dismissed allegations he ordered the shredding
of documents in the early stages of a U.K. Investigation as
"completely untrue," the Press Association news agency reported.
The allegations were made by his former personal assistant
Margaret McGrath, in a statement to the High Court on Friday.
    Saunders' reply was read out by his lawyer at the start of
the fourth day of a hearing, on an application by Saunders and
U.S. Lawyer Thomas Ward for the discharge of "asset-freezing"
orders obtained by Guinness on March 18.
    McGrath alleged that among the documents destroyed were
papers from the files on the <Distillers Co Plc> bid, as well
as diaries, correspondence and an address book.
    The temporary orders froze property owned by the two men
valued about 5.2 mln stg, the sum paid by Guinness into a
Jersey bank last May during the Distillers takeover.
    They are also contesting orders requiring them to disclose
the whereabouts of the money and hand it back to Guinness
lawyers.
 REUTER

said it had closed Future Savings and Loan Association of
Albany, Ore., and transferred its insured deposits to
Williamsburg Savings Bank of Salt Lake City, Utah.
    Future had 6,614 accounts with total deposits of 57.3 mln
dlrs. On Monday, its five branches in Oregon will open as
branches of Williamsburg, which has 287 mln dlrs in assets and
19 offices in Oregon, Washington state and Utah.
    The Bank Board said it closed Future because the
association was insolvent.
    The Board said Future lost money on commercial real estate
loans which were poorly underwritten and inadequately
appraised. Future also violated regulations on the amount of
money which could be loaned to one individual, the Board said.
    Accounts of up to 100,000 dlrs at Future are insured by the
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp (FSLIC). Depositors
with accounts of over 100,000 dlrs will share Future's assets
on a pro rata basis after the assets have been liquidated.
    Future was the ninth federal savings association to be
closed this year compared with 21 in 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs eight cts
    Net 6,597,000 vs 2,602,000
    Revs 56.4 mln vs 23.2 mln
    1st half
    Shr 57 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 17.6 mln vs 9,810,000
    Revs 137.7 mln vs 76.0 mln
 Reuter

Year to end-December Shr 76.7p vs 67.7p
    Div 17p making 23p vs 21p
    Pretax profit 127.0 mln stg vs 116.9 mln
    Turnover 1.10 billion vs 947.2 mln
    Tax 25.0 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Note - company full name is Blue Circle Industries Plc
<BCIL.L>. Company said it proposes one-for-one capitalisation
issue
    Gross profit 390.9 mln vs 321.6 mln
    Distribution costs 215.6 mln vs 177.6 mln
    Administrative expenses 65.1 mln vs 58.9 mln
    Other operating income 5.3 mln vs 11.0 mln
    Share of profits of related companies 50.0 mln vs 58.1 mln
    Operating profit 165.5 mln vs 154.2 mln
    Net interest payable 33.6 mln vs 32.2 mln
    Exceptional items 4.9 mln debit vs 5.1 mln debit
    Minorities 3.4 mln vs 6.9 mln
    Extraordinary items after tax 39.5 mln vs 4.2 mln
    U.K. 37.7 mln vs 20.5 mln
    U.S. 27.5 mln vs 22.8 mln
    Mexico 15.0 mln vs 20.7 mln
    Australasia 15.7 mln vs 13.2 mln
    Africa 12.0 mln vs 12.6 mln
 REUTER

Railway cargo handlers yesterday called
a three-day strike starting April 19 to press for higher wages,
union sources said.
    Workers of the Contratas Ferroviarias franchise firm, which
is also responsible for train and railway station maintenance,
are asking for an eight pct wage rise. The company has offered
four pct.
 Reuter

Northrop Corp said it and Eaton
Corp have been selected by the McDonnell Douglas Corp/Textron
Inc team to codevelop the aircraft survivability equipment for
the U.S. Army's light helicopter experimental program.
    The Army is expected to pick contractors to produce the
helicopters in 1992.
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc said it is
negotiating for the possible acquisition of Benel Distributors
Ltd, which operates Crazy Eddie Record and Tape Asylums in all
Crazy Eddie stores.
    It said the acquisition would probably also include
affiliate Disc-o-Mat Inc, which operates a number of record and
tape stores in the New York metropolitan area.
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc said its board has
adopted a defensive shareholder rights plan and said it has
received "friendly inquiries" on its acquisition.
    It said under the plan, shareholdrs of record as of April
21 will receive a right to purchase under certain circumstances
at a price of 42 dlrs 0.01 preferred share for each common
share held.  The rights will expire April Nine.
    The company said the rights would be exercisable 20
business days after a party were to acquire 20 pct or more of
Crazy Eddie common stock or announce a tender or exchange offer
that would result in ownership of 30 pct or more.
    Crazy Eddie said if a party owning 20 pct or more of its
stock were to merge into it or if a party were to acquire 40
pct or more of Crazy Eddie stock, right holders other than the
acquiring party would be entitled to acquire common shares or
other securities or assets with a market value equal to twice
the rights' exercise price.
    If after a party acquired 20 pct or more of its stock Crazy
Eddie were acquired or 50 pct of its earnings power or assets
sold, rightholders other than the acquirer would be entitled to
buy shares of the acquirer's common stock worth twice the
rights' exercise price, the company said.
    Crazy Eddie said if a party were to acquire 30 pct or more
of its common stock and then fail to acquire Crazy Eddie within
180 days thereafter, rightholders would be entitled to exchange
their Crazy Eddie common stock for subordinated notes of Crazy
Eddie maturing either one year or, above a certain dollar limt,
five years after issuance.
    Crazy Eddie said adoption of the plan is not in response to
any known effort to acquire control of it.  But the company
said it has become aware of some "possible accumulations" of
its stock has has received some "friendly inquiries."
 Reuter

Six workers were killed and four
injured in an undeground rock fall at South Africa's second
largest gold mine today, the mine owners said.
    It was the third major mine accident in the country in less
    Thirty four workers died in methane gas explosion at a coal
mine last Thursday.
 Reuter

The Zambian kwacha fell at this week's
foreign exchange auction to 18.75 kwacha to the dollar from
last week's 16.95, the Bank of Zambia said.
    The rate was the lowest since the auctions resumed two
weeks ago under a new two-tier exchange rate system worked out
with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
    The Bank of Zambia said it received 370 bids, ranging from
13.00 to 20.75 kwacha, for the six mln dlrs on offer. One
hundred and thirty-five bids were successful.
    A British High Commission spokesman said Britain would put
eight mln stg into the auction at a rate of one mln a week as
soon as Zambia reached a full agreement with the IMF.
    The money could be spent only on goods produced and
supplied by British firms, excluding luxuries and defence
equipment, the spokesman added.
 Reuter

Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) called on major industrial countries to
make a pledge at the coming economic summit in Venice to cut
    "I think at the summit meeting in Venice what we ought to be
trying to do is to get the other major industrial nations that
are involved to bring interest rates down, say, one pct,"
Bentsen told NBC Television's "Meet the Press."
    Bentsen said coordinated rate cuts could take "billions off
the debt service of the Latin countries" and help ease
protectionist pressures in the industrial countries.
    Bentsen also South Korea and Taiwan should be pressured to
revalue their currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar.
    "You take the Taiwanese, with an enormous capital surplus,
enormous trade surplus, and we've had very little cooperation
there," he said.
    Departing Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman told the
same television network he agreed that the U.S. dollar had not
fallen enough against the currencies of some countries.
    "I think that more does have to be done there in
negotiations with the countries involved, the so-called NICs
(newly industrialized countries)," he said.
    Darman said such negotiations with newly industrialized
countries were underway privately.
    Bentsen predicted Congress and the White House would agree
on a fiscal 1988 budget that would raise between 18 and 22
billion dlrs in new revenues.
    The Texas senator said a series of excise taxes would be
considered by Congress, including an extension of the telephone
tax and new levies on liquor and cigarettes.
    Bentsen said he supported an oil import fee, but that it
would not happen without President Reagan's support.
    Darman called for a "top level negotiation" between the White
House and Congress on a budget compromise that would include
asset sales, some excise taxes, cuts in middle-class
entitlement programs, "a reasonable, steady rate of growth in
defense" and reform of the budget process.
 Reuter

Calgary.
 Reuter

Investor Martin T. Sosnoff said he has
raised his offer for Caesars World Inc shares to 32 dlrs each
from 28 dlrs and has reduced the number of shares he is seeking
to 29.1 mln from all those not already owned.
    In a newspaper advertisement, Sosnoff said the bid by his
MTS Acquisition Corp, withdrawal rights and the proration
period will now expire June 19 unless extended. The offer had
been scheduled to expire May 15. In late March, Sosnoff said he
had received a "negligible" number of shares in response to the
offer, which had been rejected by Caesars as inadequate.
    Sosnoff already owns about four mln of Caesars' 30 mln
common shares now outstanding, or a 13.3 pct interest on a
primary basis.
    Last week, Caesars' board approved a recapitalization plan
as an alternative to the Sosnoff offer under which shareholders
would receive a special dividend of 25 dlrs per share, subject
to approval by shareholders at a special meeting to be held in
June.
    The company planned to borrow 200 mln dlrs and sell 800 mln
dlrs in debt to finance the payout.
    Sosnoff said in the newspaper advertisement that the
amended offer is conditioned on receipt of enough shares to
give him a majority interest on a fully diluted basis and on
the arrangement of financing, as well as to approvals by New
Jersey and Nevada gaming authorities.
    He said the tender would be the first step in acquiring all
of Caesars' shares and if successful would be followed by a
merger transaction.
    Sosnoff said later in a statement that the 29.1 mln shares
he is now seeking, together with the 4,217,675 shares he owns,
would give him a 92.4 pct interest on a fully diluted basis.
    He said he still has received only a "negligible" number of
shares in response to his tender.
    In a letter to Caesars' chairman Henry Gluck included in
the statement, Sosnoff said Gluck had again refused, on April
8, to meet with him, even though he had said he was willing to
increase the price of his offer.
    Sosnoff said the financing for the offer is almost fully in
place.
    Sosnoff said PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> has now delivered
to him commitments to purchase up to 475 mln dlrs of increasing
dividend cumulative exchangeable preferred stock of MTS Holding
Corp, an indirect parent corporation of MTS Acquisition.
    He said Marine Midland Banks Inc <MM>, which leads a
syndicate that has provided commitments for a 500 mln dlr
margin facility, believes it will be able to arrange for
further commitments under the margin facility to advance up to
an additional 25 mln dlrs that may be needed to permit the
purchase of shares under the offer.
    Sosnoff said under the merger that would follow his tender,
each of the 2,750,000 Caesars shares not covered by the offer,
or 7.6 pct on a fully diluted basis, would be converted into
Series A preferred stock valued at 32 dlrs per shareby an
independent investment baking firm.
    He said "To the extent that fewer than 29,100,000 sdhares
are purchased in the offer, the stockholders would receive a
combination of cash and Series A preferred stock having a value
of 32 dlrs per share of Caesars."
    Sosnoff said he believes terms of his offer are superior to
Caesars' recapitalization.
    Sosnoff said he will be meeting this week with gaming
officials in Nevada in an effort to expedite the investigatory
process required for regulatory approval, a process that it
already underway in New Jersey.
    He said his offer has been extended based on the likely
duration of the regulatory process.
    He said he intends to further extend the offer if the
approval process is not completed by the expiration date.
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc executive vice
president and chief financial officer Sam Antar, who turns 66
soon, has resigned from its board and has been replaced by
William H. Saltzman, vice president and general counsel of
Sun/DIC Acquisition Corp.
    Sam Antar and other executive vice presidents Mitchell
Antar and Isaac Kairey were named to an Office of the President
that took over the duties of chief executive officer from
chairman Eddie Antar in January.
 Reuter

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz
and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze met today an in
elegant Moscow mansion in pursuit of the first superpower arms
control agreement in nearly a decade.
    Shultz, accompanied by senior advisers and technical
experts, arrived from Helsinki aboard a U.S. Air Force plane
and went straight into a closed-door meeting with Shevardnadze
and Soviet negotiators.
that U.S. Arms control advisers had been told not to discuss
the U.S. Proposals with the press.
    U.S. Officials have been optimistic about the possibility
of progress at the talks, scheduled to end on Wednesday.
    Shultz has been more guarded, saying that if the Soviet
officials approached the talks in the same constructive spirit
as the Americans "we should be able to move the ball along in a
very positive way."
    Shultz is expected to protest about a spying network that
has come to light at the U.S. Embassy and which has cast a
shadow over his talks. For its part the Soviet Union has said
its diplomatic missions in the United States are subjected to
surveillance and has accused Washington of "spy-mania."
    Shevardnadze met Shultz with a handshake at the door of the
ornate guest house built by a Russian merchant, now belonging
to the Foreign Ministry. Later, in the white marble room where
the discussions were being held, they had to be prompted by
photographers to shake hands again.
    "There was no instinctive warmth," an observer said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 67 cts vs loss two cts
    Net loss 3,721,000 vs loss 107,000
    Revs 155.7 mln vs 24.2 mln
    NOTE: Results for 12 months ended Dec 31, 1986, and eight
months ended Dec 31 1985. Because of the acquisition of Brooks
Drug in September 1986 and the company's change of fiscal year,
prior-year results are not comparable, Compact Video explained.
 Reuter

Leaders of the nation's unionized
automobile workers have signaled their intent for a major work
stoppage later this year if General Motors Corp. <GM> and Ford
Motor Co. <F>  fail to satisfy demands for job security, pay
raises and protection against shifting U.S. production to
foreign sources.
    United Automobile Workers (UAW) president Owen Bieber was
loudly cheered by some 3,000 local delegates at a special
bargaining strategy convention yesterday when he declared the
1.1 mln-member union is ready to go to "war" against the major
auto makers in support of its goals.
    "It takes two to make peace, but only one to make war ...
and if it's war, the UAW will be ready for it. War against the
insecurity of layoff," the UAW chief said.
    The militant tone as the four-day convention opened
underscored the probability for bitter confrontation during the
summer's labor negotiations between the UAW and the auto
companies over new contracts covering some 500,000 U.S. workers
at G.M. and Ford.
    The current pacts expire September 14.
    GM Vice President and chief labor negotiator Alfred Warren
recently told Reuters that the 1987 bargaining round would
likely be the most difficult of the decade because of the
carmaker's drive to cut costs and shed uncompetitive
parts-making operations employing thousands of workers.
    Job security has been the union's main theme for several
years. A master resolution stating UAW goals notes that the
union's membership working in the auto industry has fallen by
200,000 since 1978 to a current level of about 690,000.
    GM was hit by a six-day selective national strike in 1984
before signing its current labor agreement, which contains a
one billion dlr job security fund to protect workers whose jobs
are threatened by new technology or moves to outside suppliers.
    At Ford, which has more than 8 billion dlrs in cash
reserves and out-earned larger GM last year for the first time
since 1924, executives said they would oppose the UAW's demand
for a return to guaranteed percentage annual pay increases that
were dropped in the last recession.
    Ford has not been hit by a national strike since 1976,
which has prompted some union analysts to suggest it is now
Ford's "turn," to be the UAW strike target.
    Bieber yesterday described the UAW's situation in 1987 as
"crucial" in view of the growing penetration of the U.S. market
by imported cars and trucks as well as moves by the Detroit
automakers to use foreign and other non-union sources to secure
cheaper vehicles and auto parts.
    He said the union will stress job security, annual general
pay raises, improved profit-sharing and limits on companies'
ability to transfer work.
 Reuter

Oper shr 45 cts vs 26 cts
    Oper net 2,258,000 vs 1,166,000
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes 842,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

The Newspaper Advertising Bureau said
its preliminary estimates show spending for newspaper
advertising in January totaled 2.06 billion dlrs, an increase
of 10.5 pct from the year earlier month.
    The bureau said retail advertising for the month was up
10.7 pct to 1.02 billion dlrs. National advertising was off 0.7
pct to 264 mln dlrs. Classified increased 14.7 pct to 777 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Deutsche Texaco AG, Texaco Inc's <TX.N>
99.15 pct-owned West German subsidiary, will not be affected by
the legal dispute with the Pennzoil Company <PZL.N>, managing
board chairman Armin Schram said.
    Schram told a news conference that Deutsche Texaco's
business will not be affected by the "legal proceedings in the
U.S. Our liquidity is more than sufficient to guarantee
supplies of crude oil and products to refineries and customers."
    Schram said West German law prohibited the parent company
from "touching our basic capital of 500 mln marks and reserves
of 81 mln."
 REUTER

Pakistan's Corporate Law Authority,
CLA, has begun an enquiry into imports of tea from Kenya and
the trade imbalance between the two countries, CLA chairman
Irtiza Husain confirmed.
    He told Reuters by telephone that importers Liptons and
Brooke Bond had been asked to supply data to the authority and
a hearing would be held.
    The CLA would then report back to the Commerce Ministry,
which had requested the enquiry. Husain said no date had yet
been set for the hearing and declined to give further details
of the matter.
    Industry sources told Reuters reports that the companies'
tea import licences had been suspended were incorrect.
 Reuter

Portugal's economy, which has been
enjoying one of its most buoyant periods in more than a decade,
may now be strong enough to shrug off the country's latest
government crisis, analysts said.
    But the April 3 ousting of Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco
Silva's government could slow economic reforms and investment
as Portugal continues to adapt to membership in the European
Community, which it joined in January last year, they said.
    Cavaco Silva's minority Social Democratic Party, PSD, was
toppled in a parliamentary censure vote by left-wing parties.
    The centre-right administration had made economic growth
reform a priority in its 17 months in office.
    In 1986, Portugal's economy grew four pct, its current
account surplus swelled to more than one billion dlrs and
inflation fell to 10 pct, from 20 pct in 1985.
    Analysts and businessmen said the prospects of instability
were worrying but they felt the foundations for continued
growth had not been badly shaken.
    "The economy has developed a certain self-confidence that is
now less dependent on the political situation," said Fritz
Haser, economics professor at Universidade Livre, Lisbon.
    "The market doesn't see this as a real crisis yet," economist
Jorge Braga de Macedo told Reuters.
    Businessmen have identified political instability over the
last 13 years as one of the biggest obstacles to lasting
economic progress.
    The PSD administration was the 16th formed since the 1974
revolution.
    Portugal's developing stock markets, however, remain
buoyant. Brokers and unit trust managers said the recent surge
in economic confidence under the PSD rule was still largely
underpinned by continuing optimistic forecasts.
    Investment grew nearly 10 pct in 1986 and a Bank of
Portugal forecast, released on the day the PSD government fell,
predicted the pace of investment and overall economic growth
would remain at similar levels this year.
    But analysts said the crisis interrupted current policies
and could slow economic development.
    Soares, who is expected to announce a decision by the end
of the month, can either call early elections or form a new
government from parties in the existing left wing-dominated
    Many businessmen said they strongly favoured quick
elections as the best solution. "There is a good chance that a
majority government could result from early elections,"
Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP) president Pedro
Ferraz da Costa said.
    He said they were optimistic this could mean the
continuation in the near future of liberalisation policies
introduced over the last year.
    The left-wing parties favour a parliamentary solution, but
the PSD said it wants an early election in which opinion polls
say they could win an overall majority.
    A PSD majority would also open the way for more
wide-ranging reforms, such as relaxation of labour laws and
possible denationalisation of industry, the analysts said.
    Cavaco Silva has accused the left-wing opposition parties
of blocking key economic reforms.
    The left-wingers said Portugal's positive economic results
were more the product of favourable international conditions
such as cheaper oil and raw material imports, than of PSD
policies.
 REUTER

Malaysia will reduce its budget
for the 1986-1990 development plan to 49 billion ringgit from
its original 74 billion to limit expenditure, the Economic
Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister's Department said.
    EPU director-general Radin Soenarno was quoted by the
national news agency Bernama as saying this would be done by
suspending many projects which could only take off when the
recession-hit economy improved.
    Radin did not specify what projects would be suspended but
said the Fifth Malaysian Plan will be reviewed annually instead
of on a mid-term basis.
 REUTER

arrived in Moscow for talks with Soviet leaders likely to focus
on nuclear arms reductions.
    Shultz flew in from Helsinki and drove straight from the
airport to a meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze.
    The three days of talks are overshadowed by an espionage
row between the two powers. Shultz has said he wants to discuss
it but Soviet officials have indicated they expect him to
concentrate on disarmament issues.
 Reuter

Shr primary one dlr vs 85 cts
    Shr diluted 97 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 108.6 mln vs 86.8 mln
    Rev 2.70 billion vs 2.17 billion
 Reuter

Cooper Canada Ltd said it planned to
consolidate its common and class A non-voting shares into one
class of common shares, subject to shareholder approval on May
1.
    Cooper Canada said the proposal would result in only voting
shares being available to respond to Charan Industries Ltd
<CHN.TO>'s previously announced six dlr a share takeover bid.
 Reuter

International Corona Resources Ltd said
its board of directors believes that terms of Royex Gold Mining
Corp's previously announced offer are fair and reasonable, but
it decided it will make no recommendation on the offer to its
    Royex on March 31 offered to buy four mln Corona shares.
For each Corona share it offered four dlrs cash, one series B
share of Royex, one series C share of Royex and one share
purchase warrant. It also bid for all Corona warrants expiring
Aug 31, 1987.

 Reuter

South Atlantic Financial Corp
said it has agreed in principle to merge with Independence
Holding Co into a new company to be called SAFCO International
Ltd.
    It said each South Atlantic share would be exchanged for
one SAFCO share and each Independence share for 2.822 SAFCO
shares.
    Independence now owns about 40 pct of South Atlantic's 9.8
mln primary common shares.
    South Atlantic said said its chairman and chief executive
officer Sheldon S. Gordon would have the same posts with SAFCO
and Independence president Ronald G. Strackbein would be
president of SAFCO.
    The company said the transaction is subject to execution of
definitive agreements, the receipt of fairness opinions from
investment banks and approval by boards and shareholders of
both companies.  It said proxy materials are expected to be
maioled this quarter.   Both South Atlantic and Independence
are insurance companies.
 Reuter

Shr 47 cts vs not given
    Net 2,100,000 vs 1,277,000
    NOTE: Company went public in fourth quarter of 1986.
    Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Upper East
Tennessee.
 Reuter

StateWest Airlines Inc said it
started service to Las Vegas, Nev., Tucson, Ariz., and San
Diego, and entered into a joint fare agreement with Trans World
Airlines <TWA>.
    StateWest said the fare agreement will result in lower
fares for StateWest passengers who continue to any one of Trans
World's 50 U.S. destinations.
    The company also said the new destinations expand its daily
flights to 49 and it added the company's fourth advanced Shorts
360 to its fleet of aircraft.
 Reuter

The U.S. Feeder Steer Price, or USFSP,
as posted by the CME is calculated by Cattle Fax and represents
the price used for cash settlement of the CME Feeder Cattle
contract.
    The USFSP is a seven-calendar-day average of feeder steer
prices from 27 states, based on auction and direct country
sales for feeder steers that weigh between 600 and 800 lbs and
are estimated to grade between 60 and 80 pct choice when fed to
slaughter weight.
    April 9         Previous quote
    70.03             69.87
 Reuter

Nova, An Alberta Corp said it
will redeem its 12 pct cumulative redeemable convertible second
preferred shares on May 15, 1987 at the redemption price of
26.25 dlrs per share.
    Holders may convert their shares into class A common shares
on the basis of 3.435 class A common shares for each 12 pct
convertible preferred share held, Nova said.
    Nova said it retained Burns Fry Ltd, Merrill Lynch Canada
Inc and Gordon Capital Corp to maintain a market bid of at
least 26-3/8 dlrs for the preferred shares until May 12, 1987.
    Nova said that if any 12 pct preferred shares are acquired
by the broker group, the shares will be converted into class A
 Reuter

Columbia Gas Transmission
corp said it made an abbreviated, streamlined filing with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recover a portion if
its costs of renegotiating high-cost gas purchase contracts.
    Recently, the Columbia Gas System Inc pipeline subsidiary
said, FERC denied on procedural grounds and without prejudice a
proposal to include these costs in the company's most recent
purchased gas adjustment -- or PGA -- filing.
    Noting it has has asked for a rehearing on the denial
ruling, Columbia Gas said it would withdraw its alternative
filing if the commission grantes its request for a rehearing to
include the contract renegotiation costs in its PGA or
consolidates this issue in the pipeline's general rate filing
and permit recovery, subject to refund, effective April one.
    The company said the alternative filing seeks to recover
about 79 mln dlrs a year through the pipeline's non-gas sales
commodity rates. This annual amortization amount is based on
recovery of about 653 mln drls over an 8-1/4 year period,
beginning April 1, 1987.
    Columbia Gas said the filing would increase the pipeline
commodity rates by 15.74 cts per mln Btu to 2.95 dlrs per mln.
    The company said it orginially sought to include these
costs in its PGA since the payments to products resulted in
almost five billion dlrs in prospective price relief and were
not related to take-or-pay buyout costs.
    It explained this interpretation was based on FERC's April
10, 1985, Statement of Policy which said that only take-or-pay
buyout costs must be recovered through a general rate filing
under the Natural Gas Act.
    As a result of renegotiating contracts for high-cost gas,
Columbia Gas said, it has been able to reduce the average price
paid for gas purchased from Southwest producers to 1.96 dlrs
per mln Btu in December 1986 from 3.64 dlrs per mln in April
1985.
    The pipeline said Southwestern producers account for 46 pct
of its total available gas supply this year.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp said J. David
Barnes has retired as chairman and chief executive officer and
resigned from the board of the company and its Mellon Bank
    The company said senior director Nathan W. Pearson will
succeed Barnes but also appointed a special search committee to
review all internal and external candidates for chairman.
    Mellon said "Mr. Barnes felt a change of management at this
time would help the bank move more quickly and with less
constraint in meeting the needs of shareholders, customers and
employees."
    Pearson is 75 and is financial advisor to the Paul Mellon
Family Interests. Barnes is 57.
    On Friday Mellon reported a 59.8 mln dlr first quarter
loss. It had placed 310 mln dlrs of Brazilian loans on a
nonaccrual basis and said it would cut its quarterly dividend
to 35 cts per share from 69 cts due to energy, foreign,
commercial real estate and heavy industry loans.
 Reuter

 Reuter

automobile workers have signalled their intent for a major work
stoppage later this year if General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor
Co., fail to satisfy demands for job security, pay raises and
protection against shifting U.S. production to foreign sources.
1.1-mln-member union is ready to go to "war" against the major
 Reuter

P.H. GLATFELTER CO SAYS IT WILL BUY ECUSTA CORP FOR 149 MLN DLRS IN CASH

Shr profit one ct vs nil
    Net profit 74,000 vs profit 10,000
    Revs 925,000 vs 112,000
    Avg shrs 10 mln vs nine mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss nil vs loss one ct
    Net loss 16,000 vs loss 90,000
    Revs 1,855,000 vs 333,000
 Reuter

Commission, CFTC, is expected to accept the Chicago Board of
Trade's, CBT, proposal to establish a night trading session
when the commission meets Wednesday, CFTC officials said.
    CBT has proposed starting an evening trading session
between 1800 and 2100 local time in Treasury bond and Treasury
note futures and options on the two futures contracts.
    The exchange hopes to launch the experiment April 30.
    While CFTC staff have raised numerous questions about how
the evening session will operate, they have not discovered any
major obstacle to approval, CFTC sources said.
    "We are not anticipating any problems with approval," a CBT
    CBT President Thomas Donovan and CBT Chairman Karsten
Mahlmann have been in the Far East this month to drum up
support for the night session.
 Reuter

1st qtr
    Shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.65 dlrs
    Net 785 mln vs 1.02 billion
    Gross income 10.68 billion vs 10.13 billion
    Avg shrs 604.6 mln vs 615.6 mln
    NOTE: Pretax net 1.34 billion vs 1.83 billion.
    Sales 6.50 billion vs 6.10 billion, maintenance gross
income 1.95 billion vs 1.77 billion, program products gross
income 1.40 billion vs 1.15 billion and rentals and other
services 825 mln vs 1.10 billion.
 Reuter

USAir Group Inc said, in announcing
the final proration factor for its tender offer for Piedmont
Aviation Inc <PIE>, that 17.0 mln shares, or 90 pct of the
shares were validly tendered.
    USAir said it has purchased and will pay for 9.3 mln
shares, representing about 55 pct of those tendered.
 Reuter

The number of British gold articles
hallmarked during the first quarter of this year rose by more
than 11 pct on the corresponding period last year, figures
released by the Assay Offices of Great Britain show.
    More than 2.5 mln British items were hallmarked during the
quarter, up 11.1 pct on the same year ago period. The four
Assay Offices also marked 832,222 foreign gold articles, up 2.5
pct on last year.
    In weight terms the 7.19 mln grams of British gold assayed
was a 15.3 pct increase, while the 2.95 mln grams of foreign
gold represented a rise of 3.1 pct.
    British silver goods assayed totalled 698,132, an increase
of 6.2 pct but only 78,457 foreign items were marked, a fall of
11.1 pct.
    A total of 10,968 kilos of silver were assayed, an 11.1 pct
rise.
    The number of platinum items marked fell 12.5 pct to 1,785,
while in weight terms the total slipped 8.1 pct to 9,849 grams.
    A spokesman for the Assay Offices of Great Britain said he
was particularly encouraged to see the percentage increase for
British manufactured goods.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc.'s plunge into bankruptcy to
shield it from posting a bond in its 10.53 billion dlr legal
battle with Pennzoil Co. <PZL> is a strategy that will give it
breathing room until the fight over the 1984 acquisition of
Getty Oil Co. winds its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court,
    Texaco, the nation's third-largest oil company, filed for
protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code earlier
today, saying it had no choice because of Pennzoil's refusal to
negotiate a reasonable settlement.
    But unlike most Chapter 11 cases, the Texaco proceeding
should not result in a major reorganization of the company or
affect its daily business operations, several experts said.
    "This is another piece of financial history," Sanford
Margoshes, an analyst with Shearson Lehman Brothers, said of
the bankruptcy filing. "What Texaco is doing is buying time to
fight its battle in the courts. They have high hopes they will
be upheld if the case goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court."
    Margoshes said he did not anticipate any significant
changes in Texaco's oil exploration and production business
because the bankruptcy filing affects only about four pct of
the giant oil company's 32.6 billion dlrs in annual revenues.
    Texaco executives said the bankruptcy filing would
effectively halt payments of stock dividends and repayment of
its 6.8 billion dlr debt, but added that the company's assets
far exceeded its liabilities.
    "Texaco's cash flow is at a very respectable rate of about
15 dlrs per share annually," Margoshes said. "Obviously, the
point of Chapter 11 was not so much seeking protection from
creditors as it was seeking protection from the predator
Pennzoil."
    The two companies have been locked in an acrimonious
struggle since a Texas state court jury in November 1985
ordered Texaco to pay Pennzoil 10.53 billion dlrs for
improperly interfering with Pennzoil's planned acquisition of
Getty Oil Co. In a major setback for Texaco last week, the U.S.
Supreme Court said Texaco must abide by Texas state law that
requires posting a bond for the full amount of the judgment
while the merits of the case were appealed.
    Although a Texas appeals court hearing was scheduled Monday
(April 13) on Texaco's motion to reduce the amount of the bond
required under state law, Texaco elected not to risk losing the
important court ruling that could have required it to post more
than 10 billion dlrs in collateral.
    The bankruptcy filing, analysts said, effectively freezes
all of Texaco's obligations while it continues to appeal the
merits of the Pennzoil lawsuit.
    "This is a drastic measure," said Rosario Ilacqua, an
analyst with L.F. Rothschild in New York. "But it's also an
indictment of the legal system in this country in that Texaco
was forced to seek bankruptcy when it couldn't get a fair
hearing."
    Ilacqua predicted that the Texas jury judgment would
ultimately be overturned or whittled down from its original
10.53 billion dlrs, an amount that is increasing by about 2.5
mln dlrs in interest accumulated daily. Texaco has contested
the ruling, insisting that Pennzoil did not have a valid
contract under New York state law to acquire Getty Oil.
    Suggestions by some experts that the Texaco bankruptcy
might be an incentive for Pennzoil to lower its settlement
demands, which are widely believed to be between 3 billion and
5 billion dlrs, were discounted by indignant Pennzoil
    "I think it makes it much more difficult to settle," said
Baine Kerr, Pennzoil's retired president who has acted as the
company's chief negotiator in the Texaco litigation. "I think
that's one of the main reasons they did it."
    Joseph Jamail, a Houston lawyer for Pennzoil, said the
bankruptcy. He declined to reveal the amount of the proposal,
citing a confidentiality agreement between the two companies.
    "Texaco told us they would get back to us but instead they
chose to go to bankruptcy court," Jamail said. "This was an
irresponsible and unneeded move."
    Ilacqua also said the bankruptcy filing appeared to
eliminate any chance of settlement in the near-term.
    "There have been some crazy numbers floating around in
settlement discussions," Ilacqua said. "I think 1 billion dlr
settlement would be more than adequate for Pennzoil. I don't
know if that Texas jury really understood what money is. They
gave Pennzoil an astronomical judgment."
    Analysts said they expected Texaco stock, which closed
Friday at 31 and 7/8, to slip to about 25 when the New York
Stock Exchange opened Monday morning.
    Lawyers for Pennzoil said they believed the company would
ample enough to ultimately pay the Pennzoil judgment in full.
 Reuter

the Swiss National Bank fell 4.64 billion Swiss francs to 7.88
billion in the first 10 days of April, the National Bank said.
    Foreign exchange reserves rose by 9.4 mln francs to 33.12
billion.
    Sight deposits are an important measure of money market
    The National Bank said banks repaid around 5.8 billion
francs of traditional central bank credit taken out to meet
their end-of-quarter liquidity requirements. This was partially
offset by new swap arrangements.
    Bank notes in circulation fell 440.2 mln francs to 24.48
billion while other deposits on call at the National Bank --
mainly government funds -- fell 840.5 mln francs to 941.5 mln.
 REUTER

market with a further 68 mln stg assistance this afternoon,
bringing its total assistance on the day to 143 mln stg.
   Shortly before, the Bank said it had revised its estimate
of the shortage up to 450 mln stg from the earlier forecast of
400 mln.
    During the afternoon, the bank bought 22 mln stg of band
two bank bills at 9-13/16 pct and two mln stg of local
authority bills plus 44 mln stg of bank bills in band four at
9-11/16 pct. These rates were in all cases unchanged from
previous intervention levels.
 REUTER

expects to report earnings from continuing operations of over
one dlr per share on 71.3 mln average shares outstanding.
    In last year's first quarter the company lost 60.0 mln dlrs
or 55 cts per share on 108.4 mln shares outstanding, after a
110.8 mln dlr writedown of oil reserves of its Celeron Corp
unit.
    Goodyear said it will report first quarter results April 27.
    Goodyear chairman Robert E. Mercer also told the annual
meeting that unless there is a major downturn in the economy,
it expects to work its debt down to normal levels in three
years through its restructuring and cash flow from improved
margins.
    The company set up its restructuring program to fend off a
hostile takeover attempt by Sir James Goldsmith.  As part of
the restructuring, Goodyear executed a major stock buyback
program that resulted in an increase in its debt.
 Reuter

Customs Administration Department, on Saturday told reporters
the list of products included 60 items asked by Washington.
    He said the ministry sent a proposal to the cabinet that
the tariffs on such products as cosmetics, bicycles, apples,
radios, garments, soybeans and television sets be cut by
between five and 50 pct.
 Reuter

 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 280,000 to 300,000 head versus
294,000 week ago and 303,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 120,000 to
126,000 head versus 120,000 week ago and 124,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

   Senior EC diplomats gave a generally favourable reaction to
the U.S.
 Reuter

exports.
diverted to Europe following of possible U.S. Tariff moves.
    Japan's trade surplus with the Community has grown
steadily, registering a record 2.13 billion dlrs in March.
 Reuter

P.H. Glatfelter Co said it
has reached an agreement to acquire all the capital stock of 
<Ecusta Corp> for 149,177,857 dlrs in cash.
    Glatfelter, a printing and writing paper maker, said Ecusta
operates an uncoded three sheet and light-weight specialty
paper mill in Pisgah Forest, N.C. The mill produces and
converts paper products used by the doemstic and foreign
tobacco industry.
    Glatfelter said it expects to close the deal by May 31.
 Reuter

Greenwhich Pharmaceuticals Inc
<GRPI.O> said it has completed a private placement of its
common stock, generating more than eight mln dlrs in net
proceeds.
    These funds, together with the two mln dlrs in cash
currently held by the company, will be used to complete its
Therafectin rheumatoid arthritis drug development program and
to develop other drugs, the company said.
 Reuter

CECOS International Inc, a
subsidiary of Browning-Ferris Industries Inc, said it expects
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to sue the company,
claiming non-compliance with regulatory requirements at CECOS'
Livingston, Louisiana hazardous waste treatment plant.
    CECOS said the EPA advised the company it intendend to seek
a penalty in the range of five mln dlrs to 10 mln dlrs.
    CECOS said it considered the proposed penalty to be "grossly
excessive" and has offered 125,000 dlrs in earlier negotiations
to settle the disputed issues.
    CECOS said it believes strongly that the EPA's claims and
proposed remedies concerning the Livingston waste disposal site
are unreasonable.
    The company also said its 125,000 dlr settlement offer was
consistent with monetary penalties previously accepted by the
EPA concerning disputes over other hazardous waste treatment,
storage and disposal operations.
    CECOS said major issues of the dispute include the
Livingston waste site's analysis and operation plans,
inspection records and freeboard limits of rainwawater holding
impoundments.
 Reuter

First Marathon Inc said it planned a
two-for-one stock split, to be effective on shareholders'
approval at the June 4 annual meeting.
    The financial services company said it also completed the
previously reported 29.6 mln dlr private placement of 1.5 mln
non-voting preferred shares convertible one-for-one into
non-voting class A shares.
 Reuter

Shr 66 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 20.0 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Avg shrs 30.3 mln vs 30.0 mln
 Reuter

Corp said shipments and revenues were higher in the first
quarter, but net earnings fell 22.8 pct in part due to higher
expenses.
    IBM said net income fell to 785 mln dlrs or 1.30 dlrs a
share from 1.02 billion dlrs or 1.65 dlrs on about 1.8 pct
fewer shares outstanding.
    While total sales and income rose 5.5 pct to 10.68 billion
dlrs from 10.13 billion dlrs, costs and expenses rose 12.1 pct
to 9.61 billion dlrs from 8.57 billion in the quarter, the
computer maker said.
    The company said it continues to take actions to make it
more competitive, including cost and expense reduction
measures.
    "Although the worldwide economic situation remains
unsettled, there are some encouraging signs in our business,"
IBM said in a statement.
    "In addition to the increase in first quarter shipments, we
have announced new offerings in our large processor and
personal computing product lines," it said.
    "We have yet to fully benefit from our recent product
announcements, retirement incentives and other resource
balancing measures, and we expect these actions will have a
more significant impact as 1987 progresses," the company added.
    It said it expects more than 12,000 U.S. employees to take
advantage of the retirement incentives announced last year.
    Pretax earnings fell 27 pct to 1.34 billion dlrs from 1.83
billion, IBM said. Pretax margins slipped to 12.5 pct in 1987
from 18.1 pct in 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Graan Elevator Mij, GEM, said its
146,000 tonnes on April 11 from 111,000 a week earlier after
arrivals of 404,000 tonnes and discharges of 369,000 tonnes
last week.
    The balance comprised 21,000 tonnes of grains plus oilseeds
and 125,000 tonnes of derivatives.
    This week's estimated arrivals total 274,000 tonnes, of
which 71,000 are grains/oilseeds and 203,000 derivatives.
 Reuter

    Net 689,561 vs 784,088
    Sales 19.2 mln vs 19.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4.7 mln vs 5.3 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes a gain of 108,000 dlrs or two cts a
share from proceeds from the sale of property.
 Reuter

Belgelectric Finance BV is raising
300 mln Luxembourg francs through a five year, non-callable
bullet bond carrying a 7-1/4 pct coupon at par, lead manager
Banque Internationale a Luxembourg SA (BIL) said.
    The private placement for the Belgian utilities' finance
company is for payment on May 26 and coupon payments are
annually on May 27. Fees total 1-3/4 pct and the issue is
guaranteed by the Belgian utilities, Intercom, Ebes and Unerg.
 REUTER

Four of West Germany's five leading
economic research institutes warned that excessive monetary
growth threatened a resurgence of inflation.
    But in a dissenting view the DIW institute in West Berlin,
echoing recent statements by leading Bundesbank officials, said
the expansion seen over the last 1-1/2 years did not
necessarily threaten stability.
    The five institutes issued a joint spring report, in which
three -- Kiel, Hamburg and Essen -- forecast a two pct rise in
GNP in 1987, while West Berlin and Munich predicted one pct.
    The four institutes said an expansive policy was welcome in
view of the slowdown in economic activity. But experience has
shown that strong monetary growth eventually leads to a price
rise which undoes the beneficial effects of monetary policy.
    Given virtual zero inflation in West Germany such fears may
seem exaggerated, they said.
    "But it has often turned out in the past that the price
climate can quickly deteriorate, forcing the central bank into
a restrictive policy," they said.
    The economic costs of a preventive stability policy are
less than fighting inflation once it has taken hold, they said.
    The four institutes disputed the view that monetary
expansion would slow of its own accord in 1987 as domestic
investors switch liquidity into longer term capital market
investments following lower interest rates.
    "Such redispositions may temporarily dampen the expansion of
central bank money stock, but do not automatically lead to a
smaller expansion of money supply," they said.
    A return to growth and stability did not require
spectacular central bank moves, but could be done quietly with
open market operations and repurchase pacts, which would avoid
an interest rate rise by dampening inflationary expectations.
    The DIW institute said monetary policy should not be
focused simply on growth of production potential. Because of
uncertainty about exchange rate developments and economic
weakness other factors should be taken into account.
    Monetary policy should aim for further interest rate cuts
and avoid rises to boost the economy and discourage revaluation
speculation. Recent strong monetary expansion was not a threat
in itself to price stability.
    The 1979/81 inflation following strong 1977/78 money growth
reflected other causes, such as rising oil prices and the
falling mark.
 REUTER

Shr 65 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 61.5 mln vs 50.2 mln
    Revs 1.12 billion vs 960.8 mln
    Avg shrs 95.3 mln vs 99.4 mln
 Reuter

West German producer prices fell 0.1
pct in March compared with February to stand 3.9 pct lower than
in March last year, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    In February, producer prices fell 0.3 pct from January and
dropped 4.2 pct from their levels a year earlier.
    The Statistics Office said producer prices for natural gas
had fallen 3.0 pct in March against February, heavy heating oil
prices were 3.2 pct down, liquefied gas prices fell 14 pct and
coffee was 7.4 pct cheaper.
 REUTER

lowered its ASCS terminal prices for low protein hard red
winter and hard red spring wheat at a number of locations, a
senior USDA official said.
    USDA reduced the price of hard red winter wheat at Kansas
City and Texas by six cents, at Minneapolis and Duluth by 32
cents and at St Louis by nine cents, Ralph Klopfenstein, deputy
administrator of commodity operations at the Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation Service, said.
    The department also lowered the terminal price of hard red
spring wheat at Minneapolis and Duluth by 32 cents, he said.
    In addition, USDA cut the Pacific Northwest price of hard
red spring wheat by 31 cents, USDA officials who asked not to
be identified said.
    The officials said hard red spring wheat prices at Chicago,
Denver and Toledo were adjusted by about the same amount as at
Pacific Northwest, Duluth and Minneapolis.
    The price changes should lead to a pickup of PIK and roll
activity, Klopfenstein said. The price change was decided upon
last week and will be effective today, he said.
    Klopfenstein also said the department raised the premiums
on high protein wheat to offset the drop in low protein wheat
prices, meaning the net price on any wheat commanding a protein
premium would remain unchanged.
 Reuter

Alcide Corp said preliminary
experimental results obtained using a formulation it has
developed for the disinfection of blood platelets indicate
feasibility for the approach.
    The company notes there have been recent increases in
reports of transmission of microbial infections in recipients
of platelets, which are used in blood transfusions in patients
undergoing cancer therapy.
    The company said related whole blood tests with baboon
blood showed no significant loss of in vitro activities or
survival.
    The company said as a followup to the studies on thje
bacterial disinfection of platelets, it is planning to evaluate
the system for the inactivation of several viruses in the
presence of platelets.  The viruses include Herpes Simplex
Virus Type I, cytomegalovirus and Human Immunodeficiency Virus,
which is responsible for AIDS.
 Reuter

Texaco Canada Inc said its business
operations, its plans and financial integrity are unaffected by
yesterday's move by 78 pct-owner Texaco Inc <TX> to file for
protection under U.S. bankruptcy law.
    Texaco Canada chief executive Peter Bijur said in a
statement that "it is business as usual for us on Monday
morning."
    Texaco Inc added in a statement that it "has never operated
outside the U.S., and relations with all foreign governments
and activities of interest to them and their citizens are not
affected" by its legal dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
 Reuter

  30-140 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct   30-179 days
 141-160 days  6.13 pct  6.08 pct  180-200 days
 161-182 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  201-274 days
 183-200 days  6.17 pct  6.18 pct  275-290 days
 201-360 days  5.00 pct  5.00 pct  291-360 days
                       
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 1.4 mln vs 851,000
    Revs 9.8 mln vs 6.5 mln
    Six months
    Shr 74 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 2.0 mln vs 1.1 mln
    Revs 17.7 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2.7 mln vs 2.1 mln
    NOTE:Quarter ended March 31. 1987 six months includes
charge of 115,000 dlrs due to reversal of investment tax
credits.
 Reuter

Boston Five Cents Savings Bank said it
and Neworld Bank for Savings have agreed to merge, forming a
new holding company, Boston Five Bancorp.
    Boston Five said the proposal calls for its holders to
receive 1.163 shares of the new company's stock for each share
now held and for Neworld Bank holders to recieve one share for
each share held in a tax free exchange.
    Boston Five said the planned merger with Newworld Bank for
Savings Will create the largest savings bank in Massachusetts
and the third largest in New England with combined assets of
3.1 billion dlrs.
    Boston Five chairman Robert J. Spiller said "There is a
natural fit between both banks. We consider this to be a merger
of equals."
    Spiller will become Chairman of Boston Five Bancorp and
Neworld president James M. Oates will be president and chief
executive officer. 
    Boston Five said its President, Peter J. Blampied, will
become vice chairman and chief operating officer of the holding
company. The board of the holding company will have an equal
number of directors from each institution.
    "Unlike many recent combinations, this merger has no
acquisition premium associated with it," Blampied said.
    Boston Five has assetsof 1.9 billion dlrs and 35 officers.
Neworld has assets of 1.2 billion dlrs and 24 officers in
Massachusetts. It also has a loan center in New Hampshire.
 Reuter

Coopervision Inc said it is
preparing a recapitalization plan, which includes a common
stock repurchase program and an exchange of debt securities for
    The plan, along with a proposal to change its name to
Cooper Cos Inc, will be submitted for shareholders' approval at
the company's annual meeting on June 22.
    The meeting had been postponed from its original date of
May 14 in order to let management review recapitalization
options, it said.
    In addition, Coopervision said operating income in its
current fiscal quarter ending April 30 is expected to show an
improvement over its prior fiscal quarter's 82.5 mln dlrs and
its year ago quarter.
    Income from continuing operations was not immediately
availalbe for the prior year's second quarter in which it
reported a net loss of 14.9 mln dlrs.
    At a Drexel Burnham Lambert Investor Conference,
Coopervision chairman Parker Montgomery said, as previously
announced, he will listen to any bid that makes sense for
    He also said Coopervision's stock fell in 1986 due to its
second quarter loss, rumors of a liquidation at 30 dlrs and 35
dlrs a share, and Ivan Boesky's subsequent sale of his
position.
    "The stock dropped six dlrs in three days after Boesky sold
his position and has never recovered," Montgomery said. The
company's stock is currently trading at 19-1/4.
    Montgomery further told the conference, "Don't be an
investor in the stock on the basis of any short term recovery
in operating or net income in 1987 and 1988."
    "Our concentration is on maintaining or increasing market
share in our core businesses this year and next, regardless of
the impact to the bottom line," he said.
 Reuter

Colombia has opened coffee
registrations for June shipment with no limit set for private
exporters, as in April and May, a National Coffee Growers'
Federation official said.
    Colombia has sold an average of 900,000 bags per month
since the beginning of the calendar year.
 Reuter

U.S. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS SET OFFERING TOTALING 2.135 BILLION DLRS

CANADA LEADING INDICATOR UP 0.4 PCT IN JANUARY AFTER 0.4 PCT DECEMBER RISE - OFFICIAL

Spain's principal measure of money
supply, the broad-based liquid assets in public hands (ALP),
grew at an annualised rate of 17.6 pct in March against 16.6
pct in February and 19.6 pct in March last year, provisional
    The bank's target range for this year is 6.5 to 9.5 pct,
and Bank of Spain Governor Mariano Rubio said this month he was
aiming for the lower end of that range.
    ALP grew by 11.4 pct during 1986.
 REUTER

Shr 72 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 38.6 mln vs 25 mln
    Revs 281.8 mln vs 174.5 mln
    Avg shrs 53.5 mln vs 48.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 1st quarter amounts do not includes sales of
AVIA Group International Inc, acquired at the end of the first
quarter. 1987 1st quarter revenues include Rockport revenues of
31 mln dlrs. 1986 1st quarter amounts do not include Rockport,
as Reebok acuqired that company in October 1986.
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs three cts
    Oper net 1,930,000 vs 391,000
    Revs 313.9 mln vs 308.9 mln
    Avg shrs 11.9 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 60 cts vs 27 cts
    Oper net 7,215,000 vs 3,340,000
    Revs 1.23 billion vs 1.16 billion
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes gains 4,896,000 dlrs in
quarter and 8,873,000 dlrs in year from termination of
overfunded pension plans.
    Backlog 1.0 billion dlrs vs 942 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

market late assistance of around 210 mln stg, bringing its
total help on the day to some 353 mln stg.
    This compares with the Bank's estimate of the liquidity
shortage of around 450 mln stg, raised from its early forecast
of 400 mln stg.
 REUTER

Ltd said it signed an agreement in principle with Hecla Mining
Co for an operating joint venture on Hecla's Stibnite, Idaho,
gold deposit.
    Giant Bay said if its bioleaching technology is used for
ore processing, it will have the right to acquire a working
interest in the property. It said it may spend as much as three
mln U.S. dlrs, excluding capital costs to bring the mine into
production. It said drilling has indicated substantial sulphide
reserves with a gold grade of about 0.1 ounce a ton, and early
tests show the gold ore responds to bioleaching.

 Reuter

Blue Arrow PLC said it signed an
agreement to acquire Richards Consultants Ltd for 29 mln dlrs
in cash and securities.
    Richards is a privately-owned New York-based executive
recruitment firm.
    As part of the agreement, Blue Arrow said the four
principal shareholders who manage Richards will enter into
long-term service contracts with it. The agreement is subject
to approval of Blue Arrow shareholders.
 Reuter

Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc said
its board declared a three-for-two stock split, payable May One
to holders of record April 17.
 Reuter

base spot sales price for refined lead by one-half cent to 27.0
cents a lb, FOB, delivered in carload lots, effective
 Reuter

Italy's state-owned Ente Nazionale per
l'Energia Elettrica (ENEL) is issuing a 15 billion yen eurobond
due May 27, 1994 paying 4-3/4 pct and priced at 101-7/8 pct,
joint-lead bookrunner IBJ International Ltd said. Morgan
Stanley International is the other joint-lead bookrunner and
appears on the left in documentation.
combined pays 5/8 pct. The payment date is May 27.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia has speeded up reform of
its financial system with a package of measures designed to
boost the economy and open up the Kingdom to the lucrative
world of investment banking.
    Bankers in Saudi Arabia detect a fundamental shift in
policy stemming from a need to tackle the underlying
contradiction between an Islamic legal framework and western
    One senior banker in Jeddah said: "There is a new wind
blowing... Saudi Arabia is moving on many fronts in a manner
that is extraordinarily aggressive."
    The speed of reform, begun last year but now gathering
pace, has surprised bankers who have had to contend with a
financial system that restricted internationalisation of the
riyal and a religious court system that made debt collecting
difficult.
    Saudi banks, once the most profitable in the world, have
generally reported falling profits for 1986 -- the fourth
successive year of decline -- as loan loss provisions ate into
already dwindling earnings.
    Bankers say the Saudi Finance Ministry and Saudi Arabian
Monetary Agency (SAMA) seem to have developed a new strategy
although it remains to be seen how it will be implemented.
    Reform started in 1986 with measures to boost previously
dormant stock trading, but took off in earnest this year.
    -- From January 1, SAMA liberalised the money market,
giving banks greater access to liquidity aid via repurchase
    -- From March 22, the Finance Ministry abolished
withholding tax on funds borrowed by Saudi banks abroad.
    -- From the same date, banks were notified of a new
committee to be set up under the auspices of SAMA to hear bank
disputes with creditors over non-payment of loans.
    -- Also from the same date, banks were allowed to use
mortgages as collateral for lending, banned since 1981.
    -- Within a few weeks, the Kingdom's first stock market
trading floor is expected to be opened.
    Housed in central Riyadh in the building of the Saudi
Industrial Development Fund, the floor will initially be used
to trade shares on an auction system. Staff from each of the 11
commercial banks have been trained ahead of the launch and a
new computer network has been set up.
    One banker said: "The abolition of withholding tax will give
banks the opportunity to participate in new instruments such as
interest rate or currency swaps. At last SAMA and the Finance
Ministry are opening up markets for investment banking."
    Bankers say Saudi authorities appear to have been shocked
into reform by pressure from banks and alarm at bank reluctance
to extend further loans to the private sector.
    Banks have lobbied hard for change, arguing that the
religious, or Sharia, legal framework was inconsistent with the
Kingdom's western banking system and made it nigh impossible
for them to collect interest on bad loans through the courts.
    As a result, many banks had virtually stopped new lending,
but found themselves cut off from world investment banking by a
series of restrictions. Withholding tax made it punitively
expensive to take part in interest rate or currency swaps.
    The private sector's frustration at the virtual standstill
in bank lending overflowed at a businessmen's conference in the
mountain resort in Abha last month and some powerful merchant
families also called for change, bankers said.
    "Banks lobbied hard and had the ultimate weapon to force
change -- they stopped lending," another banker said. "That was
stifling growth of the economy."
    It is still unclear whether the new committee that will be
set up to hear bank disputes with creditors will prove any more
efficient than another non-Sharia system already in force, the
Committees for the Settlement of Commercial Disputes (CSCDs).
    Some bankers believe the new committee, yet to be formed,
will simply delay pending cases and force banks into a series
of private deals with creditors.
    Nor is it clear what stance the new committee will take on
interest payments, generally not recognised under Islamic law.
    But other bankers say the move is clear recognition by SAMA
and the Finance Ministry that Sharia courts and the CSCDs were
not the correct bodies for hearing bank disputes.
    Other reforms have been taken or are in the pipeline.
Finance Minister Mohammed Ali Abal-Khail said in March that a
new body would examine late government payments to contractors.
    In addition, further moves are under way to align business
life to the Gregorian calendar year, with companies being urged
to adopt it as their financial year.
    A black list of borrowers, started more than two years ago
by banks, has recently been effectively sanctioned by SAMA,
bankers say.
    Banks are now not permitted to lend or engage in securities
transactions with any party on the list.
 REUTER

Shr 1.51 dlr vs 1.62 dlr
    Net 28.6 mln vs 30.4 mln
    Assets 23.8 billion vs 20.9 billion
    Deposits 15.5 billion vs 14 billion
    Loans 13.8 billion vs 12 billion
 Reuter

General Nutrition Inc filed a
Commission for a secondary offering of eight mln common shares.
    All the shares are being sold by the estate of David
Shakarian, the founder of the company. Kidder, Peabody and Co
Inc will be the sole manager of the underwriting.
    The Shakarian estate owns 25.6 mln shares of General
Nutrition. There are 33.1 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,823,000 vs 3,216,000
    Rev 47.9 mln vs 42.9 mln
    NOTE: The 1986 earnings per share adjusted for a four for
three stock distribution paid May 1986.
 Reuter

FRENCH 13-WEEK T-BILL AVERAGE RATE RISES TO 7.39 PCT FROM 7.36 PCT - OFFICIAL

    Net 2,028,000 vs 1,879,000
    Revs 32.1 mln vs 29.5 mln
 Reuter

NVHomes LP said April 30 will be
the distribution date for new units as a result of its
previously-announced two-for-one split to unitholders of record
April 20.
 Reuter

BERKEY INC &lt;BKY&gt; 4TH QTR NET
    GREENWICH, Conn., April 13
    Oper shr profit one cent vs loss 32 cts
    Oper net profit 64,000 vs loss 1,496,000
    Revs 47.1 mln vs 60.4 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr loss 2.87 dlrs vs loss 70 cts
    Oper Net loss 13.5 mln vs loss 3,267,000
    Revs 166.6 mln vs 159.8 mln
    NOTE: qtr 1985 excludes profit 663,000 dlrs, or 14 cts per
share, from discontinued operations; and excludes loss 900,000
dlrs, or 19 cts per share, for net operating loss carryforward.
    12 mths 1986 excludes discontinued operations loss 129,000
dlrs, or three cts per share.
    12 mths 1985 excludes discontinued operations gain
9,837,000 dlrs, or 2.12 dlrs per share; and excludes gain
813,000 dlrs, or 17 cts per share, for net operating loss
 Reuter

DILLARD DEPARTMENT STORES AGREES TO BUY TWO ALLIED STORES UNITS FOR 255 MLN DLRS CASH

Bankers Trust Co said it is raising
its broker loan rate to 7-1/2 pct from 7-1/4 pct, effective
    U.S. Trust Co, the only other bank to publicize its broker
rate, was already posting 7-1/2 pct.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co lawyers said they plan to
file documents challenging Texaco Inc's Chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings in the Southern District of New York.
    John Jeffers, a Houston lawyer representing Pennzoil in its
10.53 billion dlr dispute with Texaco over the acquisition of
Getty Oil Co, said he expected the challenge to be filed
sometime this week.
    "We'll challenge it as a bad faith filing," Jeffers told
Reuters following a brief hearing before a Texas State Court of
Appeals.
    The court had been scheduled to hear arguments on a Texaco
motion to reduce the amount of bond required for it to appeal
the judgement.
    Instead, the court agreed with Texaco lawyers that the
issue was moot because of Texaco's bankruptcy petition filed
yesterday that stays all of its debts and obligations.
    "We think they abused the process," Jeffers said, referring
to Texaco's bankruptcy filing.
    D. J. Baker, a lawyer representing Texaco, told reporters
that the nation's third largest oil company was forced to seek
bankruptcy protection because of its precarious fianncial
condition and problems with suplliers and bankers stemming from
the 10.53 billion dlr judgement.
    "All activity after the filing can be conducted on normal
business terms," Baker said.
    He said Texaco would seek permission from the court to
continue its appeal in Texas courts of the Pennzoil judgement.
    "There will be no bond required because all state court
litigation has been stayed," Baker said.
    When asked whether Texaco's reorganization plan would
include major restructuring of the company, Baker declined to
say what the eventual plan might include.
    "I think Texaco will succesfully complete its Chapter 11
proceedings and have a reorganization plan approved by the
court," he said.
    Baker said Texaco expected Pennzoil to seek a seat on a
creditors' committee to be appointed by the bankruptcy courts
but added he did not know whether Texaco would oppose such an
attempt.
    Lawyers for both sides also said that each company
continued to be interested in a possible settlement, but
declined to say whether any negotiations were scheduled between
the two companies.
    "Texaco has tried to settle and will continue and try and
settle," Baker said.
    The two companies reportedly remain far apart in what each
considers to be a fair settlement, with Pennzoil seeking
between three and five billion dlrs, while Texaco has
maintained it cannot pay more than about one billion dlrs,
according to analysts.
 Reuter

Pentland Industries PLC said it report
a substantial capital gain from the sale of part of its
holdings in Reebok International Limited, which will cut its
stake in Reebok to 32.2 pct from 36.7 pct.
     It said Reebok filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering of six mln
shares of Reebok common. Reebok will sell three mln shares and
Pentland will sell 1,404,866 shares, reducing its stake in
Reebok to 18.1 mln from 19.5 mln shares.
    After the offering, Reebok will have 56.1 mln shares shares
    Pentland said the amount of the capital gain from the sale
depends on the offering price for the Reebok shares to be
negotiated between it, Reebok, and the other selling
stockholders who will offer about 1.6 mln shares of Reebok
common, and the underwriters.
    Pentland said proceeds from the offering will be used by
Reebok to retire bank debt incurred in its acquisition of AVIA
Group for about 180 mln dlrs. Is said that afterwards, Reebok
will have bank credit lines available for general corporate
purposes, including possible acquisitions.
    Reebok's stock was selling at 45-1/2, up 1/8. At that
price, the 1.4 mln Reebok shares Pentland will sell are worth
about 64 mln dlrs and the three mln shares Reebok will sell are
worth about 136.5 mln dlrs.
    Pentland said it will use proceeds to fund growth and
    Pentland said 4,500,000 shares of Rebbok will be offered in
the U.S. by a syndicate led by Kidder, Peabody and Co Inc and
1,500,000 shares will be offered outside the U.S. by an
international syndicate led by Kidder.
    It said the U.S. underwriters have been granted an option
to buy from certain selling stockholders up to an additional
900,000 shares to cover overallotments. Pentland said it has
not chosen to participate in this over allotment.
    Pentland said that as soon as the date and price of the
offering have been determined it will release further details.
    It said it expects the offering to close in May.
 Reuter

Home Loan Banks announced a debt offering totalling 2.135
    The issues are 1.2 billion dlrs maturing April 25, 1989;
635 mln dlrs maturing April 27, 1992; and 300 mln dlrs maturing
April 25, 1994.
    The office said the issues will be priced and offered for
sale tomorrow. Secondary trading will occur April 15.
    The issues are for settlement April 27, the office said.
    The office said 120 mln dlrs of the 1989 issue, 63.5 mln
dlrs of the 1992 issue and 30 mln dlrs of the 1994 issue will
be reserved for the Federal Reserve System for its own or
customer accounts.
    It said the bonds are available in book entry form only in
increments of 10,000 dlrs and 5,000 dlrs thereafter. No
definitive bonds will be available.
 Reuter

rose 0.4 pct in January with eight of the 10 major components
posting gains, the most widespread monthly advance in the past
year, Statistics Canada said.
    The index also gained 0.4 pct in the preceeding month. The
unfiltered index, however, fell 0.1 pct in January after rising
1.0 pct in December.
    The gain was led by the residential construction index
while the manufacturing groups continued to improve and the
stock market index turned up, the federal agency reported.
 Reuter

Net 17.7 mln vs 15.3 mln
    NOTE: <National Westminster Bank PLC> subsidiary.
    Loan loss provision 13.8 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Investment securitiesd gaons 2,003,000 dlrs vs 169,000
dlrs.
    Figures in dollars.
 Reuter

Irving Bank Corp said the decline in
its first quarter earnings to 28.6 mln dlrs from 30.4 mln dlrs
in the year-ago period were due to the placement on a
non-accrual basis of 215 mln dlrs and 33 mln dlrs of medium and
long-term loans to borrowers in Brazil and Equador.
    Excluding the impact of the non-accrual loans, Irving said
its first quarter net income would have rose 8.4 pct to 32.9
mln and per share amounts would have risen eight pct to 1.75
dlr. In the first quarter the bank reported earnings per share
of 1.51 dlr compared to 1.62 dlr in the same period last year.
 Reuter

Sears, Roebuck and Co said it will
redeem all its outstanding adjustable rate preferred shares,
first series. The redemption price is 103.79 dlrs a share,
which includes accrued and unpaid dividends from April 1, 1987,
to the date of redemption of 79 cts a share.
    Of the 50 mln shares authorized, 2.5 mln were issued, the
    It said no dividends will accrue on the shares after May
15, 1987.
 Reuter

Global Petroleum corp said today it
lowered the posted cargo prices for number six fuel in the new
york harbor 45 to 75 cts a barrel, effective today.
    The decrease brings the prices for one pct sulphur to 20.75
dlrs, down 45 cts, two pct sulphur 20.10 dlrs, down 75 cts, 2.2
pct sulphur 19.75 dlrs, down 75 cts and 2.5 pct sulphur 19.50
dlrs, down 75 cts.
    Prices for 0.3 pct and 0.5 pct sulphur remained unchanged
at 22.50 and 21.85 dlrs, it said.
 Reuter

shr 1.58 dlrs vs 1.93 dlrs
    net 86,220,000 vs 102,629,000
    avg shrs 50,831,512 vs 49,156,828
    assets 61.04 billion vs 57.95 billion
    loans 38.76 billion vs 39.68 billion
    deposits 38.20 billion vs 33.14 billion
    return on assets 0.57 pct vs 0.71 pct
    return on common equity 11.47 pct vs 15.19 pct
    NOTE: 1987 qtr net reduced by 12 mln dlrs because 1.04
billion dlrs of Brazil loans were placed on non-accrual
 Reuter

of 2,750 head of dairy cattle to the Canary Islands, the U.S.
    The cattle are for delivery May, 1987-October, 1988, it
said.
    The bonus was 1,379.00 dlrs per head and was made to
Holstein-Friesian, Inc and will be paid in the form of
commodities from the CCC inventory.
    An additional 175 headed of dairy cattle for still
available to the Canary Islands under the Export Enhancement
 Reuter

Shr primary 54 cts vs 41 cts
    Shr diluted 51 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 9,098,000 vs 5.924,000
    Revs 111.7 mln vs 85.0 mln
    Avg shrs primary 16,889,254 vs 14,500,737
 Reuter

Preparatory work for construction of a
450 mln dlr alumina plant near the village of Aghia Efthymia in
the Greek province of Fokida will begin at the end of next
month and the plant will be operational by 1992, Industry
Undersecretary George Petsos said.
    Greece yesterday signed contracts with the Soviet Union for
the joint venture project, the biggest investment in the
country for 20 years.
    Petsos said the Soviet Union, which had initially agreed to
buy 380,000 tonnes, would now purchase the plant's entire
output of 600,000 tonnes a year.
 Reuter

Shr 62 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 2,312,000 vs 944,000
    NOTE: 1987 includes five ct shr charge from loan loss
provision.
 Reuter

Commonwealth Aluminum
(Comalco) said it put its Goldendale, Wash., smelter back on
the market after would-be buyer, Columbia Aluminum Corp, of
Hermiston, Ore., failed to pull together financing by an April
one deadline.
    The plant, which has an asking price of 18.7 mln dlrs plus
several mln more dlrs for inventory, it said. Commonwealth said
it is continuing talks with Columbia, but has also opened talks
with other interested parties.
    Commonwealth bought the plant in January 1985 and closed it
Feb 15, 1987, leaving about 400 workers jobless.
  
 Reuter

Alza Corp <AZA>, a U.S. Pharmaceutical
products concern, is issuing a 75 mln dlr convertible eurobond
due May 8, 2002 with an indicated coupon of 5-1/2 to 5-3/4 pct
and par pricing, lead manager Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
said.
    Fees comprise 1-1/2 pct selling concession and 1/2 pct
management and underwriting combined. The conversion premium is
indicated at 17 to 22 pct. Final terms will be fixed before
April 21.
 REUTER

Interfinco S.A. Of Luxembourg is
launching a 50 mln Swiss franc five-year convertible bond with
an indicated coupon of 2-1/2 pct, lead manager S.G. Warburg
Soditic SA said.
    The issue, guaranteed by Cofide-Compagnia Finanziaria de
Benedetti SpA of Turin, Italy, is convertible into shares of
<CIR SpA - Compagnie Industriali Riunite> at an indicated
premium of five pct.
 REUTER

downgraded to D about 8.4 billion dlrs of debt of Texaco Inc
and the oil company's subsidiaries.
    The rating agency cited Texaco's filing over the weekend
for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code while
Texaco seeks judicial relief from an 8.5 billion dlr, plus
interest and costs, judgement against it in the suit brought by
Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    S and P uses the D rating grade for securities issued by
companies in Chapter 11 reorganization, the agency said.
    Reduced to D from B were the senior debt of Texaco, Getty
Oil Co, Getty Oil International (Caribbean) N.V., Pembroke
Capital Co Inc, Reserve Oil and Gas Co, Texaco Capital Inc,
Texaco Capital N.V., Texaco Convent Refining Inc, Tidewater Oil
Co and Loop Inc.
    Cut to D from C were MAGEC Finance Co and from CCC the
subordinated debt of Texaco Capital N.V.
 Reuter

Shr 84 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 82,416,000 vs 67,819,000
    Revs 703.9 mln vs 759.7 mln
    Avg shrs 98,369,307 vs 84,807,498
    Loans 19.06 billion vs 19.51 billion
    Deposits 21.60 billion vs 19.86 billion
    Assets 27.16 billion vs 27.15 billion
    Note: Prior qtr per shr figure adjusted for three-for-one
stock split of May 1986.
 Reuter

Du Pont Overseas Capital N.V., a unit
of Du Pont Co, said it will redeem on May 15 all 189 mln dlrs
of its outstanding 13-3/4 pct guaranteed retractable notes due
1997.
    It will buy back the notes at par value plus accrued
interest, Du Pont Overseas said.
 Reuter

Berkey Inc said it elected
Jonathan Taplin as its chairman, replacing A. Michael Victory,
who will remain as a company director.
    Taplin was formerly a director of the company, Berkey said.
    In addition, the company said it will raise four mln dlrs
through a privately-placed convertible preferred stock offering
and other securities.
    It said the offering will give holders upon exercise the
right to acquire approximately 1.5 mln shares of the company's
 Reuter

Pakistan is reported to have bought
100,000 tonnes of white sugar at its weekend tender from a
North Korean operator, traders said.
    The purchase, believed priced around 210 dlrs a tonne cost
and freight for fine/medium grain, was due to be shipped for
arrival in May (30,000 tonnes), in June (45,000) and in July
(25,000 tonnes), they said.
 Reuter

bank of england to auction up to 3.25 billion stg in gilts, first auction in mid-may

EKN Bank of Nidwalden is launching a 25
mln Swiss franc 2-1/2 pct 10-year bond with warrants at par,
lead manager Bank Leu AG said.
    Each 1,000-franc bond carries a warrant entitling the
holder to buy one 200-franc nominal EKN bearer share for 510
francs.
    Subscriptions close April 24.
 REUTER

may downgrade the top-flight Aaa ratings of Societe Generale,
Banque Nationale de Paris and Credit Lyonnais.
    The rating agency cited the ongoing deregulation of the
French banking industry and financial markets. Moody's said it
anticipates increasing competition and reduced profitability of
the banks' core businesses.
    The senior debt and certificates of deposit of the three
banks are rated Aaa. However, their Prime-1 commercial paper
ratings are not under review. Issues supported by long-term
letters of credit of the banks may also be affected.
 Reuter

reserves directly by arranging three-day System repurchase
    They said the Fed may add the reserves indirectly instead
via a large round, two billion dlrs or more, of customer
    Federal funds, which averaged a high 6.35 pct on Friday,
opened at 6-7/16 pct and traded between there and 6-1/2 pct.
 Reuter

Dillard Department Stores Inc, based
in Little Rock, Ark., and Allied Stores Corp jointly said they
entered a definitive purchase agreement for the sale to Dillard
of the Joske's and the Cain-Sloan divisions of Allied for 255
mln dlrs cash, subject to certain closing adjustments.
    The sale excludes certain real estate assets of Joske's and
Cain-Sloan, which Allied estimates have an aggregate value of
30 mln dlrs based on current market conditions.
    Joske's has 26 stores in Texas and one in Arizona.
Cain-Sloan has four stores in Nashville. Joske's is the largest
unit Allied has slated for sale in its restructuring.
    Allied Stores Corp, a subsidiary of Campeau Corp, was
acquired by acquired by the Canadian developer last year.
    Robert Campeau, chairman of Allied, said "this is a
terrific start to our disposition program which is proceeding
well ahead of schedule. This sale will fulfill the requirements
under our bank agreements to sell certain assets by June 30 and
give us additional flexibility in the disposal of the remaining
divisions being sold."
     Allied Stores is required to pay 200 mln dlrs in bank debt
by June 30. There had been some doubts on Wall Street that the
company could meet the payment.
    A Campeau source said, "We believe this cash sale puts us
in a very strong negotiating position to maximize the proceeds
Allied can receive from its other divisions."
    "Allied was able to put itself in a position where it knows
it will be able to meet the June 30 payment schedules," the
    About 1.1 bilion dlrs in Allied assets had been targeted
for sale by Dec. 31, 1988 to pay for the aquisition of Allied
by Campeau.
    Allied will be taking bids for its other divisions.
Targeted for sale are Bonwit Tellers, Garfinckel's, Dey's,
Donaldson's, Herpolsheimer's, Heer's, Miller's, Miller and
Rhoads, Pomeroy's, Catherine's, Plymouth Shops, and Jerry
Leonard. The divisions provided 38.4 pct of Allied net sales
and 11.8 pct of store profit in fiscal 1985.
 Reuter

A Texas State Court of Appeal agreed
that Texaco Inc's bankruptcy petition effectively stays the
company's obligation under Texas law to post a bond in its
10.53 billion dlr litigation against Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    In a brief hearing before a three-judge appeals court,
Texaco attorney James Sales said the company's motion to reduce
the amount of bond required to appeal the case was moot because
Texaco's Chapter 11 petition protects the company from all
previously existing debts and obligations.
    Lawyers for Pennzoil, which won the 10.53 billion dlr
judgment in a struggle over Texaco's acquisition of Getty Oil
Co, did not object.
    Texaco lawyers said they planned to pursue the appeal in
Texas courts and in Federal courts, if necessary.
    The Texaco lawyers said the company would seek permission
from the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York
to pursue the Pennzoil litigation.
 Reuter

April Major Market Index (MMI) stock index futures will expire
1515 CDT Thursday instead of Friday because of the Good Friday
holiday, the exchange said.
    The Chicago Board Options Exchange said April options on
the Standard and Poor's 100 and 500 stock indexes, currency
options and about one-third of the listed individual equity
options will expire at their normal time Saturday, April 18,
although the last day of trading will be Thursday in those
 Reuter

marginally in the week ended today as the number of active
rotary rigs fell by three to 749 against 917 one year ago,
Hughes Tool Co said.
    The latest total included 662 working land rigs, 70
offshore rigs and 17 in inland waters.
    Among individual states, California dropped by three,
Colorado by six , Wyoming by one, West Virginia by six.
Drilling increases were reported in Kansas where five rigs were
added, in Michigan three, in Louisiana one and Oklahoma 11. Rig
counts were unchanged in New Mexico and Texas.
 Reuter

NCR Corp, earlier reporting higher
first quarter profit, said it continues to expect that it will
report record earnings and revenue for all of 1987.
    "Our optimism is based on our incoming order rates and the
strength of our product lines," the company said.
    NCR Corp plans additional new product announcements this
year, it said without elaborating.
    NCR earlier said first quarter profit increased to 61.5 mln
dlrs or 65 cts share from 50.2 mln dlrs or 51 cts share in the
prior year. NCR's 1986 full-year earnings rose to 336.5 mln
dlrs from 315.2 mln dlrs in the prior year.
    NCR said the increase in first quarter profit resulted from
strong revenue growth, which was particularly strong in Europe
and Pacific marketing groups.
    Growth in U.S. revenues also improved, the company said.
First quarter revenues increased to 1.12 billion dlrs from
960.8 mln dlrs in the prior year.
    NCR's U.S. dollar value of 1987 first quarter worldwide
incoming orders posted a very substantial gain over the prior
year first quarter, NCR also said without giving specific
figures. Order growth was broad based across NCR's product
lines, with the greatest growth coming from U.S., it said.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 11 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 1,309,000 vs loss 937,000
    Revs 5,271,000 vs 4,417,000
    Avg shrs 11,690,000 vs 8,724,000
 Reuter

Prime Computer Inc said tomorrow
it will introduce two new high-end superminicomputers.
    The company said the machines will significantly expand the
performance of its 50 Series product line.  It gave no further
details.
 Reuter

Entre Computer Centers Inc said it
is discontinuing its European and Australian operations.
    The company today reported a loss for the second quarter
ended February 28 of 2,733,000 dlrs, after a 6,705,000 dlr
pretax provision for the shutdown of the overseas units and a
2,511,000 dlr tax credit.  A year earlier it earned 911,000
dlrs.
    It said the overseas operations lost 400,000 dlrs in the
second quarter and did not appear strong enough to provide for
future growth.
 Reuter

may downgrade 950 mln dlrs of debt of Irving Bank Corp and lead
bank Irving Trust Co.
    The rating agency said it will assess Irving's ability to
substantially improve operating results in increasingly
competitive markets. The review will also focus on Irving's
shifting risk profile in light of its modest capital base.
    Moody's cited the bank's significant exposure to less
developed countries. Under review are the parent's Aa-3 senior
debt, A-1 subordinated debt and Aa-3 preferred stock and Irving
Trust's Aa-1 long-term desposits and letters of credit.
 Reuter

State bank Banca Commerciale Italiana
(BCI) said it is launching a 50 billion lire eurobond on behalf
of Merrill Lynch & Co. Due May 26, 1992 paying 10 pct and
priced at 100 -1/2 pct.
    BCI said in a statement that it is leading an international
underwriting consortium of 25 banks and financial institutions.
The bank said Merrill Lynch International and Co is co-lead
manager.
    The non-callable bond is available in denominations of two
mln lire and will be listed in Luxembourg, BCI said.
 REUTER

Shr loss 29 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 2,733,000 vs profit 911,000
    Revs 21.5 mln vs 18.5 mln
    1st half
    Shr loss 23 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net loss 2,154,000 vs profit 2,445,000
    Revs 37.8 mln vs 37.7 mln
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes 6,705,000 dlr
pretax provision for closing overseas operations and tax
credits 2,511,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,977,000 dlrs in half.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co said investment
banking revenues were strong in the first quarter, rising to
257.4 mln dlrs from 152.9 mln in the first quarter 1986.
    "We have made steady progress in a period of market
activity which has been marked by unprecedented activity,"
William Schreyer, chairman and cheif executive officer, and
Daniel Tully, president and chief operating officer, said.
    Earlier, the company reported first quarter net income of
108.6 mln dlrs, or one dlr per share, up from 86.8 mln dlrs, or
85 cts per share, in 1986's first quarter.
    Merrill Lynch said its insurance revenues made the biggest
gains in the first quarter, rising to 242.3 mln dlrs in the
this first quarter, from 68.3 mln dlrs in last year's first
quarter.
 Reuter

DSC Communications Corp said it amended
an existing long term supply contract with MCI Communications
Corp <MCIC> for deliveries of a new tandem switch.
    Deliveries of the switch, the DEX 600E, are scheduled to
begin in third quarter of 1988 and end by year-end 1989, the
telecommunications systems company said.
    The new switch increases the port capacity of DSC's
existing 600 switches, it said.
    Under the amended agreement, DSC will also deliver signal
point transfer products to MCI.
 Reuter

Woodward and Lothrop Inc said
president David Mullen resigned, and will be replaced by Tom
Roach effective April 20, 1987.
    Woodward and Lothrop, a privately held retailer, said
Mullen has stated his desire to pursure other business
    Roach joined J.W. Robinson Inc of Los Angeles as chairman
in March, 1986, resigning shortly after parent company
Associated Dry Goods was acquired by May Co.
 Reuter

Feb 28 end
    Shr profit four cts vs loss nil
    Net profit 448,000 vs loss 28,000
    Revs 15.1 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit four cts vs profit nil
    Net profit 459,000 vs profit 51,000
    Revs 53.2 mln vs 44.5 mln
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 53,000 dlrs vs 1,023,000
dlrs in quarter and 48,000 dlrs vs 2,557,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

Oper shr 39 cts vs 47 cts
    Oper net 2,104,462 vs 2,452,420
    Revs 4,675,904 vs 4,744,248
    Avg shrs 5,427,561 vs 5,139,415
    1st half
    Oper shr 82 cts vs 93 cts
    Oper net 4,418,718 vs 4,609,613
    Revs 9,346,483 vs 9,338,590
    Avg shrs 5,427,486 vs 4,943,966
    NOTE: Current year net excludes gains on sale of real
estate of 470,778 dlrs in quarter and 1,533,273 dlrs in half.
    Period ended February 28.
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss one cts
    Net profit 172,000 vs loss 180,000
    Revs 4.2 mln vs 883,000
    Six months
    Shr profit nine cts vs loss four cts
    Net profit 315,000 vs loss 107,000
    Revs 7.4 mln vs 1.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4.4 mln vs 2.6 mln
 Reuter

its C-E Environmental Systems and Services Inc unit agreed to
work with Keeler/Dorr-Oliver, a unit of Standard Oil Co <SRD>,
to develop systems to destroy hazardous wastes.
    Under the teaming arrangement, Keeler/Dorr-Oliver will
supply fluid bed technology, equipment and services. C-E
Environmental will provide environmental consulting and site
investigations, engineering and construction services and
operation, maintenance and training services.
 Reuter

    Net 687,888 vs 441,659
    Revs 7.9 mln vs 6.8 mln
    Shr 1.12 dlrs vs 1.07 dlrs
    Net 1.8 mln vs 1.3 mln
    Revs 23.2 mln vs 19.7 mln
    Avg shrs 1.6 mln vs 1.2 mln
    NOTE:Full name is Scott and Stringfellow Financial Corp.
 Reuter

General Nutrition Inc said it has
filed for a secondary offering of eight mln common shares.
    It said all the shares are being sold by the estate of
founder David B. Shakarian.  Lead underwriter will be Kidder,
Peabody and Co Inc.
    General Nutrition has about 33.0 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc's decision to file for
protection under the bankruptcy code had a chilling effect on
its stock, and sent Pennzoil Co's shares sharply lower as well,
    Texaco dropped 3-1/2 to 28-3/8 and Pennzoil fell 12-7/8 to
79-3/8.
    "A lot of people had bid up Pennzoil, expecting a
settlement of two to five billion dlrs in this case," energy
analyst Rosario Ilacqua of L.F. Rothschild said, "and now
nobody knows where this is going to settle out."
    "It seems to me that the hope of an out of court settlement
in this long running court case had a greater relative impact
on Pennzoil's stock then on Texaco's," analyst Sanford
Margoshes of Shearson Lehman Brothers said, citing the sharper
decline in Pennzoil this morning.
    The litigation arose when Pennzoil sued Texaco for
interfering in its 1984 agreement to acquire Getty Oil. In
1985, a Texas state court ruled in favor of Pennzoil and
ordered Texaco to pay 10.53 billion dlrs in damages.
    Citing the burden of the court case and a Supreme Court
ruling last week in favor of Pennzoil concerning the amount
Texaco must put up as a bond while appealing the case, Texaco
filed for the Chapter 11 protection on Sunday.
    "That decision puts Pennzoil in the unsecured creditor
catagory and that means they have lost their preferred
position, which is causing the most damage to the stock today,"
Margoshes said. "They will only be able to collect payment
after secured creditors have collected," he said.
    "From the standpoint of the attractiveness of Texaco's
stock," Margoshes said, "I have turned quite bullish."
    "I think there is an overreaction in the downside of the
(Texaco) stock today, with some investors believing that Texaco
cannot effectively conduct its business. But only Texaco Inc
and two subsidiaries are under protection, and there is no
indication that they will not be able to proceed adequately,"
Margoshes said. In addition, he noted, "there are insitutions
that just cannot legally--according to their own
regulations--hold a stock that is in bankruptcy. That caused
much of the selling at the opening," he said.
    L.F. Rothschild's Ilacqua said "you have to wonder if an
interim settlement can be reached between the two or if this
thing is going to go the full legal route, and that is what
investment decisions hinge on."
    He said "if this whole thing settles with Texaco owing a
lot less than the 10 billion dlrs, speculating in Texaco stock
could be quite interesting." He expects the stock to trade 25
dlr to 30 dlr a share range for as long as it takes for a
decision to made in the case.
 Reuter

John Mowlem Plc, the U.K. Building and
construction company, has arranged a 50 mln stg commercial
paper program, with an option to issue notes in U.S. Dollars,
Mowlem treasurer Philip Ridal said.
    He said the company hopes to make the first drawings in May
to take advantage of lower borrowing costs and the greater
flexibility afforded by this program. It also should increase
the company's arbitrage opportunities, he added.
    The program was arranged by Kleinwort Benson Ltd, which
will act as a dealer along with Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd and
Swiss Bank Corp International Ltd.
    The sterling notes will be sold in denominations of one mln
and 500,000 stg and will have maturities of seven to 364 days.
    Ridal said the new program will complement a note issuance
facility the company arranged last year and also increase the
investor base.
 REUTER

Foster Wheeler Corp <FWC> said an
audit of its Stearns Airport Equiment Co Inc unit, revealed
"substantial discrepancies" in Stearns accounts that may
require material adjustments to previously announce
consolidated results of the company and its subsidiaries.
    Foster said certain Stearn officers and senior management
made Stearn's operations appear more profitable than they were
by improperly recording job costs. It said Stearn's president
and controller had resigned. A Foster spokesman said he did not
know the names of the president and controller, and could not
immediately comment on the release.
    Foster said the amount involved in the "discrepancy" is
about 13.7 mln dlrs before taxes or about 8.2 mln dlrs net
after tax due to an "improper recording of job costs over a
period of several years and continuing through part of the
first quarter of 1987."
    Stearns is a unit of Foster's Conergic Corp subsidiary.
The company said the impact on its results for 1987 was not
"likely to be significant" but the amount to be charged to
prior periods had not been determined.
    Foster reported after tax earnings of 28 mln dlrs, 26 mln
dlrs and 35.4 mln dlrs for 1986, 1985, and 1984, respectively.
    Stearns, based in Crowley, Texas, makes airport baggage
conveyor equipment and passenger loading bridges.
    Foster, a diversified international concern with 27
subsidiaries operating worldwide, is based in Livingston, New
Jersey. Its reported revenues for the period ended December 26,
1986 of 1.3 billion dlrs.
    The company said a detailed audit and investigation is
continuing. A company spokesman declined to comment further on
the investigation.
 Reuter

Bank Mees en Hope NV, a fully-owned
subsidiary of Algemene Bank Nederland NV, said it launched the
second tranche of a 100 mln guilders commercial paper program
for the city of The Hague.
    Mees en Hope declined to comment on the size of the second
tranche but said the first tranche, ended March 10, was for 50
mln guilders.
    The second tranche is for the period April 14 to July 14.
Denominations are one mln guilders and the issue price, on a
discount to yield basis, is to be set tomorrow at 1000 hours
local.
    Clearing and delivery of the program will be via the short
term paper clearing institute of the Dutch Central Bank.
    The Hague was the first Dutch city to start a commercial
paper program, allowed on the Dutch capital markets since
    Rotterdam and Amsterdam have since followed with programs
of 400 mln and 300 mln guilders respectively.
 REUTER

Drilling activity slowed down
substantially in Canada. The number of active rotary rigs fell
by 19 in the week ended today, Hughes Tool Co reported.
    A total of 66 rigs were working during the week, compared
with 71 one year ago, it said.
 Reuter

Despite a sharp early fall in Texaco
Inc bonds, the 125 billion dlr U.S. junk bond market was
largely unaffected by Texaco's weekend filing for protection
under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, analysts said.
    "Texaco's filing had little, if any, effect on junk bond
prices this morning. It should not spill over to the overall
market like LTV Corp's <LTV> bankruptcy filing did last
summer," said one analyst.
    Traders said some Texaco debt issues fell over 30 points
this morning in thin trading, but recouped about half that.
    "Because of the Texaco filing, some investors bid down its
paper to the mid-60 area (around 650 dlrs per 1,000 dlr face
value) from around 95 Friday," said a dealer in high-yield, low
rated bonds.
    "But sellers could not be found at those levels and the
bids soon rebounded to the 75 to 85 area," he added, referring
to such issues as Texaco's 13 pct notes of 1991, the 13-1/4s of
1999 and 13-5/8s of 1994. All were in the mid-90s Friday.
    The rebound occurred after Standard and Poor's Corp
downgraded the debt ratings of 8.4 billion dlrs of debt of
Texaco and its subsidiaries to D, traders noted.
    S and P cited the weekend bankruptcy filing. The agency
said it uses the D grade for securities issued by companies in
Chapter 11 reorganization.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc followed suit, cutting most
of the debt of Texaco and its units to Caa.
    The junk bond market experienced a short-lived downturn
last summer when LTV's bankruptcy filing sparked worries that
credit conditions of other steel companies would also worsen.
    "This is clearly not the case with Texaco," said one
trader. Because of their high yields, junk bonds have lately
outperformed investment grade corporates, he and others said.
    Analysts and portfolio managers said they viewed Texaco's
bankruptcy filing as a defensive move.
    Indeed, a Texas State Court of Appeal this morning said the
bankruptcy petition effectively stays Texaco's obligation under
Texas law to post a bond in its 10.53 billion dlr litigation
against Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    "The filing was not the result of credit weakness. The
company got through the oil crisis alright," said one portfolio
manager.
    Others who run junk bond portfolios agreed with that
assessment and said they would still buy high-yield issues.
 Reuter

Current prospects for this year's
grain crop in Bulgaria and Romania appear less favorable than
in 1986, the U.S. Agriculture Department's officer in Belgrade
    The report said the assessment was based on travel in the
two countries from March 30 to April 4.
    It said crop conditions were better than earlier expected
following the extreme dry conditions last fall and the
prolonged winter temperatures this spring.
    However, in general plant development was at least three
weeks or more behind normal this spring, and conditions varied
greatly by regions, the report said.
    Fields seeded during the optimum period last fall, and
especially those receiving supplemental irrigation water (about
65 pct of the fields observed), appeared to be in good
condition, with little evidence of winterkill, while others
varied considerably, the report said.
    Fields lacking adequate moisture last fall showed weak and
uneven stands. Spotty germination and winterkill in those
fields averaged 10 to 30 pct, it said.
 Reuter

    Net 1.5 mln vs 536,000
    Revs 26.6 mln vs 17.7 mln
    Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 43 cts
    Net 7.8 mln vs 3.0 mln
    Revs 86.9 mln vs 82.9 mln
    NOTE:Shares adjusted for 2-for-1 stock split payable May
28, 1987 to holders of record May 14, 1987.
    1987 3rd qtr and nine months includes tax loss carryforward
gain of 695,000 dlrs and 3.6 mln dlrs, respectively.
    1986 3rd qtr nine months includes tax loss carryforward
gains of 260,000 dlrs and 1.4 mln dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

markets contracted significantly in March with 23.1 billion
dlrs of medium and long-term funds raised, down 3.4 billion
from February and about nine billion dlrs less than in March
1986, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
said in its latest monthly report.
    Borrowing on external bond markets totalled 19.7 billion
dlrs, some 1.1 billion below the February figure.
    The market for floating rate notes saw further setbacks and
the volume of new offerings fell to only 800 mln dlrs from 1.4
billion in February.
    For the first quarter as a whole, the OECD said, funds
raised on the floating rate bond market totalled three billion
dlrs, the lowest figure since the third quarter of 1982.
    Activity on the straight bond market was also less buoyant
than in previous months while equity-related offerings
continued to benefit from the good performance of major stock
markets.
    Exchange rate uncertainties continued to have a major
impact on the currency composition of new bonds. Dollar issues
totalled 6.8 billion dlrs, accounting for only 35 pct of total
offerings, but borrowing was particularly heavy on the euroyen
market (3.3 billion dlrs) and in sterling (2.8 billion dlrs).
    Offerings of mark bonds declined to 1.3 billion dlrs from
around three billion dlrs in the two previous months, whilst
strong advances were recorded in the euro-Australian and
euro-Canadian dollar sectors, where new offerings exceeded one
billion dlrs, the OECD said.
fell to 2.4 billion dlrs in March from 4.2 billion in February.
Similarly, activity on the market for note issuance and other
back-up facilities fell to one billion dlrs from 1.5 billion.
    In March, OECD borrowers accounted for over 90 pct of total
borrowing. Japan was the largest fund-raiser with 4.5 billion
dlrs, followed by the U.S. With 3.9 billion and Britain with
2.4 billion dlrs.
    France, West Germany and Norway raised funds of over one
billion dlrs each.
    Borrowing by developing countries totalled one billion
dlrs, about the same amount as in February. But borrowing by
east European countries fell to 300 mln dlrs from 600 mln in
February, the OECD added.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia bought 4,000 tonnes of
Malaysian refined bleached deodorised palm olein for June 1/10
shipment at around 356 dlrs per tonne cost and freight Jeddah,
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs not given
    Net 617,000 vs 550,000
    Loans 92.8 mln vs 84.7 mln
    Deposits 121.9 mln vs 119.4 mln
    Assets 155.4 mln vs 152.4 mln
    Note: prior share not given due to June 18, 1986 conversion
to stock ownserhip
 Reuter

Great Lakes Forest Products Ltd said it
plans a 390 mln dlr modernization and expansion of its fine
paper and newsprint operations in northwestern Ontario over the
    It will install a 175 mln dlr fine paper machine at Dryden
and a 215 mln dlr newsprint machine at Thunder Bay to replace
two aging machines. The Dryden machine will have capacity to
produce 175,000 metric tons of fine papers annually when it
starts up in the 1989 third quarter, while the Thunder Bay
machine will have design capacity of 240,000 metric tons
annually and is expected to be in operation by early 1991.
    Great Lakes said it expects to pay for the program mainly
with internally generated cash flow, but external financing
will be available to support peak spending periods.
    It said the expansion's effect on company employment levels
will be minimal.
    Great Lakes said a decision on a joint venture with five
publisher-partners to construct a newsprint mill in
northeastern Washington State should be coming from the
partners in the near future. Great Lakes' capital investment in
this project would be about 60 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 29 cts vs not given
    Net 3,508,000 vs 2,483,000
    NOTE: Company went public in August 1986.
    1986 figures restated.
    Net includes loan loss provision 550,000 dlrs vs 203,000
dlrs, gain on sale of securities of 309,000 dlrs vs 638,000
dlrs and gain on sale of loans 403,000 dlrs vs 553,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Kuwait has agreed to charter tankers
from the Soviet Union in a move to protect its oil exports
through the Mideast Gulf, diplomatic sources said.
    They said the agreement followed months of talks with the
Soviet Union and the U.S. On ways to secure its oil exports
after Iran started to attack Kuwaiti-connected vessels in
retaliation for Kuwait's backing for Iran's war enemy Iraq.
    Diplomats said they expect three Soviet tankers initially
to reinforce other flags already supporting Kuwait's 22-tanker
fleet.
    The diplomats said they knew of no deal for Moscow to
provide a naval escort for its own vessels, but "the idea of
protection is implicit," one said.
    They said Soviet cargo ships bound for Kuwait in the past
to unload arms and materiel for road delivery to Iraq were
known to have sailed under escort. So far, none of the Soviet
ships are known to have been attacked by Iran. Diplomats said
they expected the chartered Soviet tankers to sail between
Kuwait and Khor Fakkan on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) coast
a short way outside the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the
Gulf.
 Reuter

Chemical New York Corp said its
first-quarter profits fell by 16 pct, largely because it placed
1.04 billion dlrs of loans to Brazil on non-accrual.
    Chemical reported first-quarter net income of 86.2 mln
dlrs, down from 102.6 mln a year earlier, but declaring the
Brazilian loans non-performing cost Chemical 21 mln dlrs in
lost interest income, or 12 mln dlrs after-tax.
    A 13.3 pct jump in non-interest expense to 471.3 mln dlrs
from 415.9 mln also hit the bottom line. It said the rise was
mainly due to staff costs associated with continued growth in
consumer, capital markets and investment banking activities.
    Excluding the effect of placing Brazil on non-accrual,
Chemical said its net income would have been 98.2 mln dlrs, or
4.3 pct below 1986 earnings.
medium- and long-term debt on February 20. If they are not
resumed by year's end, Chemical said its after-tax net for the
whole of 1987 will be reduced by about 51 mln dlrs.
    Chemical also placed 52 mln dlrs of loans to Ecuador on
non-accrual because the Quito government also suspended
interest payments on its foreign debt. This reduced interest
income by 1.5 mln dlrs.
    Chemical said net interest income fell to 476.4 mln dlrs
from 488.9 mln and its net spread narrowed to 3.61 pct from
3.96 pct.
    This reflected the reclassification of Brazilian loans, a
reduced federal income tax rate (which affected the calculation
of the taxabale-equivalent adjustment on tax-exempt assets) and
a narrowing of the spread between the prime rate and Chemical's
cost of funds.
    Foreign exchange trading profits rose to 37.9 mln dlrs from
27.0 mln, but bond trading profits dropped to 21.9 mln dlrs
from 26.2 mln.
    Fees from trust and other banking services rose to 146.5
mln dlrs from 129.3 mln a year earlier, Chemical said.
    The provision for loan losses was 87.2 mln dlrs, compared
with 83.8 mln. Net loan charge-offs were 86.5 mln, up from 60.7
mln, leaving the allowance for loan losses at 672.6 mln dlrs at
quarter's end, or 1.74 pct of loans outstanding, compared with
594.3 mln, or 1.50 pct, a year earlier.
    Non-accruing loans at the end of March were 2.39 billion
dlrs (1.35 billion excluding Brazil), compared with 1.35
billion at the end of 1986 and 1.22 billion at the end of
March, 1986.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Genetics Institute Inc,
earlier reporting an increased first quarter net loss, said it
expects to incur losses in fiscal 1987 "that are somewhat higher
than those reported in fiscal 1986."
    It had a loss of 4,504,000 dlrs for fiscal 1986 ended
November 30, compared to a fiscal 1985 loss of 1,732,00 dlrs.
    The company said the losses result from its strategic
decision to invest prudent levels of equity in development of
products the company can manufacture and bring to market.
    Genetics earlier said first quarter ended February 28
losses rose to 1,309,000 dlrs from year-ago loss of 937,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Investor Albert Kahn said in a statement
that a group he heads increased its stake in Trans-Lux Corp to
8.9 pct from 8.1 pct on a fully diluted basis.
    Kahn said he indicated in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that his group bought an additional 7,300
Trans-Lux common shares and 100,000 dlrs of nine pct
convertible subordinated debentures due 2005, convertible into
an additional 6,803 shares.
    Kahn said he is considering seeking representation on the
Trans-Lux board and starting a proxy contest in connection with
the upcoming annual meeting.
    Kahn also said he is seeking an examination of the
Trans-Lux shareholder list and corporate books and records
under Delaware law.
    Trans-Lux is a Connecticut concern that leases teleprinters
and display units in brokerage offices, airports and other
public places.
    Kahn is a Miami insurance executive and investor.
 Reuter

    Shr 40 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 1,747,000 vs 775,000
    Revs 13.2 mln vs 13.3 mln
    Avg shrs 4,321,376 vs 5,148,318
    Year
    Shr 67 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 3,300,000 vs 3,299,000
    Revs 49.5 mln vs 50.2 mln
    Avg shrs 4,895,788 vs 4,951,177
    Note: 1986 year after 819,000 dlr tax provision and 660,000
dlr tax credit
    1985 year after 559,000 dlr credit for anticipated income
tax settlement for 1970 and 331,000 dlr tax provision
 Reuter

National Computer Systems Inc said
its board authorized the company to repurchase up to 2.0 mln
shares of its common stock in the open market.
    The company currently has about 19 mln shares outstanding.
    It said the shares will be retained for use in the employee
stock purchase plan, stock option plans and for general
corporate use.
 Reuter

    Net 4,661,000 vs 2,499,000
    NOTE: Net includes securities gains of 663,000 dlrs vs
1,173,000 dlrs.
    Company went public in December 1986.
 Reuter

The Michigan Attorney General
said it reached a settlement with Michigan Bell Telephone Co, a
subsidiary of American Information Technologies Corp, which
will reduce rates, resulting in 79.6 mln dlrs lower revenues to
Michigan Bell.
    The settlement reflects Michigan Bell's reduced federal
income taxes resulting from tax reform legislation, and will be
submitted for approval to the Public Service Commission, the
Attorney General's office said.
    The lower rates are expected to become effective July one,
when Michigan Bell's tax rate falls to 34 pct from 46 pct.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 301,820 vs 248,419
    Revs 12.1 mln vs 10.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,855,966 vs 2,033,881
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 2,256,000 vs 1,915,000
    Revs 38.2 mln vs 35.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 62 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 6,474,000 vs 5,808,000
    Revs 125.9 mln vs 112.3 mln
    Backlog nine mln vs six mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five-for-four stock split in June
1986.
 Reuter

Command Airways Inc said
its March load factor rose to 44.6 pct from 40.8 pct in March
1986.
    Revenue passenger miles rose 43.2 pct in March to 4,573,200
from 3,192,700 and 34.3 pct year-to-date to 41.6 mln from 30.9
mln, the company said.
    Available seat miles increased 30.8 pct in March to 10.2
mln from 7,832,800 and 25.9 pct in the 10 months to 101.4 mln
from 80.6 mln.
    Year-to-date load factor rose to 41 pct from 38.4 pct, it
said.
 Reuter

Swift Independent Packing Co said it
agreed in principle to sell its Huron, South Dakota, pork plant
to Huron Dressed Beef, for undisclosed terms.
    Completion of the proposed transaction is subject to
Huron's ability to hire an experienced work force at
competitive rates, and receive government approval of the
purchase and operation of the plant, Swift said.
 Reuter

Shr primary 88 cts vs 83 cts
    Shr diluted 84 cts vs 78 cts
    Net 8,869,000 vs 8,176,000
    Avg Assets 2.62 billion vs 2.42 billion
    Deposits 2.06 billion vs 1.80 billion
   
 Reuter

Primary dealers in U.K. Government gilts
will not be required to underwrite the government's offering of
its securities when the first auctions begin in Mid-May, the
Bank of England said.
    In an official notice released today, the Bank said "There
will be no formal or informal underwriting arrangement for the
auctions but the Bank encourages all gilt-edged market makers,
as part of their commitment to the market, to participate
actively in the auction process."
    The Bank was originally believed to have favoured requiring
the dealers to underwrite auctions, which are patterned after
those in the U.S. Treasury market.
    However, the Treasury was believed to have baulked at the
request by the 27 market makers for an allotment commission
which would discourage the largest institutional investors from
placing orders for new stock directly through the Bank of
England, thus denying primary dealers some of their best
customers. Commission would have been passed along to customers
who did place orders via the primary dealers, making it less
expensive to buy through them than to go directly to the Bank.
    Market sources said the Bank had, in its discussions with
the dealers about the upcoming auctions, agreed that the
allotment commission was reasonable if the dealers had a
concurrent commitment to buy at the auction regardless of
    Indeed, the Bank and the gilts dealers are believed to be
disappointed that the Treasury has not agreed to go along with
the plan. However, in its paper, the Bank suggested that any
conditions applied for the first few auctions may be abandoned
or modified in future sales of gilts if they prove inefficient
or unwieldy.
    Among other items in the document, the Bank said its first
auction will consist of up to 1.25 billion stg in conventional
short-dated stock and have a maturity of seven years or less.
    Subsequent auctions to be held in the 1987-88 financial
year would first be of up to one billion stg of long-dated
stock having a maturity of 15 years or longer and then of up to
one billion stg of medium dated stock of seven to 15 years in
maturity.
    The remainder of the gilt-edged funding program would be
met by traditional tap offerings of stock via the government
broker.
    To protect the buyers of the newly auctioned stock, the
Bank has agreed to establish a so-called fallow period, a
28-day period during which it agrees not to issue any new stock
of the same type, and it will not necessarily resume selling
the stock once the fallow period expires.
    In the event that prices offered for the stock to be sold
are substantially out of line with market conditions, the Bank
will agree to take the stock onto its own books.
    The bank would then be free to sell the stock during the
fallow period but not at a price below the minimum tender
price.
    The Bank also said that at least initially, auctions will
be alloted on a bid price basis, a system under which bidders
are allotted stock at the price which they bid.
    However, the Bank said it reserves the right to limit any
money market maker from buying more than 25 pct of a single
auction. The Bank is widely believed to be concerned about
preventing a single market maker from cornering a stock to
drive the price up.
   The Bank has repeatedly signalled its intention to prevent
dealers from cornering the market in a stock, issuing
additional stock, on occasion, to end a market shortage.
    The Bank has also agreed to publish information about the
auction results as soon as possible after the sale is complete,
which is widely expected to be on the same day.
    Information to be released will include the amount of stock
allotted in terms of both competitive and non-competitive bids,
and the highest, lowest and average price of the successful
bids.
 REUTER

the Gulf of Mexico fell about 0.5 percentage point to 35.0 pct
this week, with a total of 82 working and 152 idled, Offshore
    In the European-Mediterranean area, utilization remained
about unchanged at 46.1 pct, after rising four percentage
points in the previous two weeks. Out of a total of 154 rigs,
71 were working and 83 idled, it said.
    Worldwide utilization of offshore rigs was steady at 53.8
pct, reflecting 391 rigs working and 336 idled.
   
 Reuter

    Dealers said Federal funds were trading at 6-1/2 pct when
    Most had expected the Fed to supply reserves directly via
System repurchase agreements or to add them indirectly through
two billion dlrs or more of customer repurchase agreements.
Some believe the Fed is adding fewer reserves than are needed
to keep upward pressure on rates and so help the dollar.
 Reuter

(Burroughs-Wellcome Inc) said it plans
to invest 10 mln dlrs in research and development-related
activities over the next five years if changes planned to
Canada's patent act become law.
    The company said it would increase its commitment to
clinical research if the patent act is changed to provide
further protection for patent rights, as planned.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 2,151,000 vs 2,439,000
    Sales 90.3 mln vs 96.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,960,000 vs 4,782,000
 Reuter

Software Services of America
Inc said its board has extended the expiration date of its
warrants until August 31 from April 30.
 Reuter

    Net 2,891,844 vs 2,666,278
    Revs 13.7 mln vs 12.7 mln
 Reuter

Bache Securities Inc, 80 pct-owned by
Prudential-Bache Securities Inc, a unit of Prudential Insurance
Co of America, said it would change its name on April 15 to
Prudential-Bache Securities Canada Ltd as the first part of a
major expansion in Canada.
    The investment dealer said the expansion would involve
increased research and retail staff, three new Canadian
branches by year-end and enhanced corporate financing ability.
    Bache chief executive George McGough told a news conference
that Bache might expand its 20 mln Canadian dlr capital base by
up to seven times over the next several years.
    McGough said the move resulted from the proposed June 30
deregulation of Ontario's securities industry, which will lift
existing restrictions on the growth of foreign dealers such as
Bache and allow it access to its U.S. parent's 134 billion U.S.
dlrs of capital and products offered by Prudential Insurance Co
of Canada, also owned by Bache's U.S. parent.
    Stressing that company growth would be internal, McGough
told reporters "that our game plan does not call for an
acquisition," saying Bache recently rejected merger overtures
from three other investment dealers in Canada.
    McGough declined to identify the names of the three dealers
that approached Bache.
    He said that Bache hoped to rank in the top five Canadian
investment dealers within the next few years. It now ranks
about 14th.
    McGough voiced confidence that Bache's plans would be
unaffected by any delay past June 30 in the implementation of
financial deregulation resulting from an ongoing dispute
between the Canadian and Ontario governments over regulatory
jusisdiction. He said regulators had already approved the name
change and indicated they would approve Bache's expansion.
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 36 cts prior
    Pay July 31
    Record June 23
 Reuter

<Charterhouse Group International>,
which specializes in leveraged buyouts and purchasing troubled
companies, said it has raised 310 mln dlrs in new capital to
help it compete in the acquisition market for U.S. companies.
    Charterhouse said that it has formed Charterhouse Mezzanine
Partners, a limited partnership capitalizaed at 152 mln dlrs,
to provide subordinated financing in leveraged buyout
    Charterhouse also said it recently received an infusion of
100 mln dlrs of new capital from its shareholders.
    In addition, the company said it has completed forming the
Recovery Group, a limited partnership established to invest in
distressed companies.
    Then Recovery Group, to be co-managed by Charterhouse and
two investors, Jay Goldsmith and Harry Freund, is capitalized
at 58 mln dlrs from investors in Europe and America, the
    Charterhouse said the group will acquire equity or debt
securities of distressed companies.
 Reuter

Mthly div 6.6 cts vs 6.9 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin michigan Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Mthly div eight cts vs 7.1 cts prior
    NOTE: Franklin High Yield Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

Franklin Pennsylvania
Tax-Free Income Fund said its board declared an initial monthly
dividend of six cts per share, payable April 30 to holders of
 Reuter

General Partners, a Texas
partnership that recently ended its bid to take over GenCorp
Inc, told the Securities and Exchange Commission it sold nearly
all of its remaining 8.6 pct stake in the company.
    General Partners said it sold 1,930,500 shares of GenCorp
on April 10 at 118.25 dlrs a share in an open market
transaction on the New York Stock Exchange.
    It said the sale leaves it with 108 GenCorp common shares.
    The partnership, which includes Wagner and Brown of Midland
Texas and Irvine, Calif.-based AFG Industries Inc, last week
dropped its 100 dlr a share hostile tender offer.
 Reuter

Investors U.S. Government Securities Fund Fund said its board
declared an initial monthly dividend of 7.8 cts per share,
 Reuter

Duff and Phelps today lowered the
senior debt rating of Mellon Bank Corp. to D&P-8 (High BBB)
from D&P-6 (middle A) and lowered the preferred stock rating to
D&P-9 (middle BBB) from D&P-7 (low A).
    These rating changes affect approximately 607 mln dlrs of
    In addition, the certificate of deposit rating of Mellon
Bank has been lowered to Duff one minus from Duff one. The
rating affects approximately 2.7 bln dlrs on CDs.
    "A sharp deterioration in asset quality," resulting in a
"significant" first-quarter loss were cited in the change.
 Reuter

GAF Corp is studying an agreement
under which Merrill Lynch Capital Partners will take
Borg-Warner Corp private in a 4.23 billion dlr transaction, a
GAF spokesman said.
    The spokesman had no further comment.
    Analysts said there was speculation GAF would make a new
offer for the Chicago-based plastics and automobile parts
company. Borg-Warner's stock rose 7/8 to 49-1/4, above the
Merrill Lynch 48.50 dlrs per share tender offer price.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, a unit of Merrill Lynch and
Co, is tendering for 89 pct of Borg-Warner and offering a
package of cash and securities for the balance of the shares.
    GAF had offered 46 dlrs per share previously. It holds 19.9
pct of Borg-Warner's stock.
 Reuter

National Westminster Bank USA said
higher loans and core deposit volumes as well as a substantial
increase in net interest income contributed to a 16 pct rise in
first-quarter earnings to 17.7 mln dlrs from 15.3 mln reported
    The earnings gain came despite a 1.5 mln dlr reduction of
income as a result of placing Brazilian loans on non-accrual.
    Net interest income totalled 92.5 mln dlrs compared with
91.7 mln dlrs in the same 1986 period as loans, mostly to
middle market businesses, increased by 896 mln dlrs. But some
of these gains were offset by low levels of interest rates.
    Provision for loan losses rose to 13.8 mln dlrs from 13.0
mln a year earlier. At March 31, the allowance for loan losses
was 114.2 mln dlrs versus 94.8 mln at end of March 1986.
    Non-accrual loans rose to 286 mln dlrs from 132 mln at the
end of the first quarter of 1986, largely because 119 mln dlrs
of loans to Brazil were put on non-accrual status.
    The bank said that if these loans remain on non-accrual for
the remainder of the year net income for 1987 would be reduced
by about 4.9 mln dlrs.
    National Westminster Bank USA is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of National Westminster Bank PLC.

 Reuter

Shr loss 26 cts vs loss one cts
    Net loss 699,000 vs loss 20,617
    Revs 883,000 vs 1.1 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 62 cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 1.7 mln vs loss 185,003
    Revs 3.6 mln vs 4.5 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 57-1/2 cts vs 54-1/2 cts prior qtr
    Pay May 15
 Reuter

Carlo De Benedetti's food
company Industrie Buitoni Perugina Spa said it has acquired the
Italian food group Vismara.
    Buitoni said in a statement that Vismara had 1986 sales of
181 billion lire and net profit of 11 billion lire, employs 950
people and has four subsidaries.
    Buitoni did not disclose financial details about the
acquisition. De Benedetti said last week that his group was
negotiating a purchase of an unidentified Italian food firm.
    Vismara primarily produces a variety of pork products. "The
acquisition represents a diversification in a market sector
with annual consumption of 8,500 billion lire," Buitoni said.
    Buitoni also said its consolidated revenue during the first
quarter of this year was 429 billion lire, up 51 pct from the
    As reported, Buitoni's consolidated revenue rose last year
to 1,623 billion lire from 1,177 billion in 1985. Net profit
rose to 18.5 billion lire from 448 mln lire in 1985.
 Reuter

McGraw-Hill Inc said it has sold its
McGraw-Hill Book Co South Africa Pty Ltd subsidiary to a local
management group for an undisclosed amount of cash and halted
the sale of all products and services to South Africa.
    The company said the divestiture follows a resolution of
its board in February that cited increased political and social
unrest within South Africa and the refusal of the South African
government to abolish the apartheid system.
 Reuter

Oak Industries Inc said it
agreed to buy the stock of Electronic Technologies Inc of New
York for an undisclosed amount of cash.
    Electronic Technologies manufactures quartz crystal
components, Oak said.
    It said the acquisition is part of its ongoing stategy to
restructure its core businesses through cost reduction programs
and the purchase of compatible companies.
 Reuter

    NOTE: Includes net securities gains of 663,000 dlrs vs 1.2
mln dlrs from.
    Company converted to stock ownership in December 1986.
 Reuter

REVLON GROUP AGREES TO MERGE WITH MACANDREWS AND FORBES GROUP FOR 20.10 DLRS/SHR CASH

U.S. Trust Co said it raised its
broker loan rate to 7-3/4 pct from 7-1/2 pct, effective
    Bankers Trust Co <BT>, which also quotes its broker loan
rate publicly, raised its rate to 7-1/2 pct earlier today.
 Reuter

Firestone Tire and Rubber Co said
Chairman John Nevin entered into a new employment agreement
allowing him to continue as an executive or consultant with the
company until he becomes 65 years old in February 1992.
    Firestone said Nevin has agreed to remain as chief
executive officer until its board elects a successor. The
company was not immediately available for comment.
   In the release, Firestone said while Nevin serves as chief
executive, he will be paid his current salary and will continue
to be eligible for supplemental compensation.
    Firestone said Nevin will serve as a consultant to the
company after a new chief executive is found and until Nevin
becomes 65. Firestone said it agreed that during this period,
Nevin will be paid a fee not less than the pension which he
would have been entitled to if he retired.
    It also said Nevin agreed not to engage in a competitive
business until he becomes 67.
    On February 17, Firestone granted Nevin an option to buy
100,000 shares of the company's common at 34.19 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

reacived inquiries on a friendly merger.
    It said under the plan, shareholders of record as of April
share held.  The rights expire April 9, 1997.
Crazy Eddie common stock or announce a bid for 30 pct or more.
    Adds dropped year of rights expiration.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs one-half ct
    Net 508,000 vs 21,000
    Revs 7.2 mln vs 7.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 28 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 1,523,000 vs 567,000
    Revs 26.2 mln vs 22.6 mln
    Note: period ended February 28.
REUTER
 Reuter

<Texcan Corp> said it reached an
agreement in principle with its major creditors on a
reorganization plan to lift it out of bankruptcy.
    The plan proposes Texcan to pay its bank debt partially
through a 15 mln dlr secured obligation, to pay its general
trade debt of two mln dlrs, and to satisfy subordinate
debenture holders through issuance of 45 pct of the stock of
the reorganized corporation, it said.
    Texcan said its bank debt will be paid to United Bancorp of
Arizona's <UBAZ> United Bank of Arizona and Security Pacific's
Corp's <SPC> Security Pacific Bank.
    Subordinated bondholders also will have the right to
subscribe to buy an additional 40 pct of the common stock of
the reorganized corporation for three mln dlrs under an
arrangement to be announced in a few weeks, Texscan said.
    Total debt claims have been filed in the Chapter 11
proceeding of 110 mln dlrs, it said.
    Texscan said its existing stock will be extinguished under
the proposed reorganization plan. The company said it filed for
reorganization Nov 22, 1985.
 Reuter

Nomura International Ltd said it is
using a special purpose issuing vehicle, "Lives 2 Ltd," to
repackage part of the Denmark's 7-1/8 pct dollar straight issue
launched by Nomura on January 8 this year and due 1992, into a
zero coupon 17 billion yen bond priced at 82-1/4 pct.
    The notes and swap agreement are secured by a charge on 97
mln dlrs of the Denmark bond. The new bond is due March 5,
1992.
    Payment date on the issue, which will be listed in
Luxembourg, is April 24 and the first coupon will be short.
    Fees comprise 85 basis points for selling with 70 for
management and underwriting. Denominations are 10 mln yen.
 REUTER

(Rhone Poulenc Pharma Inc) said it
plans to spend 29 mln dlrs over the next five years for
research and development in Canada. It said the investment
depends upon passage of a federal government bill which
proposes greater protection for holders of drug patents.
    The company said it will spend 7.9 mln dlrs to upgrade its
Montreal operations.
    It said the new patent law would give drug companies 
reasonable protection from generic drug copying of new
 Reuter

Texaco Petroleum Maatschaapij
(Netherlands) BV said its operations were unaffected by
yesterday's move by Texaco Inc <TX.N> to file for protection
under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code.
    A Texaco spokesman said the Dutch unit, wholly owned by
Texaco Inc through holding companies, had its own financial
relationship with banks, its own distribution facilities and
refinery, and bought its own crude oil and products.
    There had been no negative reaction from trading partners
to the U.S. Move, although there was some negative influence on
publicity, he said.
    "The Dutch operations are not dependent on the U.S. For
money or products. We are informing our customers that our
business is not affected in any way," the spokesman said.
    He said trading partners had not made demands for stricter
credit terms than was normal in the international oil markets.
    Spot market traders at Dutch arms of other major companies
said they were acting as usual towards Texaco so far, but some
were maintaining contact with their headquarters' credit
control offices. One trader said his company hoped to meet
representatives of Texaco personally to clarify the position.
 Reuter

Portugal's consumer prices rose 1.4 pct
in March after a one pct increase in February and a 1.2 pct
rise in March 1986, the National Statistics Institute said.
    The consumer price index (base 100 for 1976) rose to 772.0
from 761.3 in February and compared with 703.4 in March 1986.
    This gave a year-on-year March inflation rate of 9.8 pct
against 9.5 pct in February and 12.2 pct in March 1986.
    Measured as an annual average rate, inflation in March was
10.9 pct compared with 11.1 pct in February. The government
forecasts annual inflation of about eight pct this year.
 REUTER

Dest Corp said it expects a 17
pct increase in revenues for its fourth quarter ended March 31
compared with the 4.8 mln dlrs reported for the same quarter a
    The company said the increase is due to increased demand
for its PC Scan product family.
    The scanning products are used with desktop publishing
systems, Dest also said.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 803,708 vs 642,534
    Sales 21.0 ln vs 18.8 mln
    NOTE: Per share figures adjusted for ten pct stock dividend
paid August 1986.
 Reuter

Resdel Industries said it
and San/Bar Corp has agreed to merge San/Bar into Resdel.
    The arrangement calls for San/Bar to spin-off assets of its
Break-Free division to shareholders then exchange its own
shares for Resdel stock at a ratio of one Resdel share for each
San/Bar share held, Resdel said.
 Reuter

Midlantic Corp said it agreed to
acquire County Bancorp for about 23 mln dlrs in an agreement
calling for County Trust Co, a County Bancorp subsidiary, to
merge into Midlantic National Bank/North.
    Midlantic said it will pay 83.73 dlrs a share in cash, or
2.36 times County Bancorp's March 31 book value, for each of
County's about 276,0000 shares outstanding. It said it received
an option from three principal shareholders for 40 pct of
County's outstanding.
    The acquisition is expected in the third quarter of 1987
and is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
 Reuter

Net 646,000 vs 470,000
    Assets 173.0 mln vs 152.9 mln
    NOTE:Quarter ended March 31. The company completed
conversion from mutual to stock form in October 1986, raising
14.1 mln dlrs in net proceeds through the sale of 2.3 mln
 Reuter

Period ended December 28.
    Shr nil vs loss six cts
    Net loss 6,319 vs loss 265,651
    Revs 1,117,778 vs 1,090,001
    Avg shrs 6,874,383 vs 4,323,614
    Year
    Shr nil vs loss 10 cts
    Net profit 4,323 vs loss 432,458
    Revs 4,711,350 vs 4,256,708
    Avg shrs 6,837,871 vs 4,322,816
 Reuter

The United Automobile Workers Union,
UAW, is asking local leaders to back a renewed drive for higher
wages in upcoming bargaining with the car and other major
industries while acknowledging that futher job losses are
inevitable as traditional U.S. manufacturing shrinks.
    The UAW will begin bargaining this summer on new contracts
covering some 380,000 members at General Motors Corp, the
world's largest corporation, and nearly 110,000 members at Ford
Motor Co, the number two U.S. automaker.
    National UAW labor contracts at both companies expire at
midnight September 14.
    The union is expected to chose one of the companies as a
possible strike target in early September to concentrate its
efforts.
    UAW president Owen Bieber was loudly cheered by some 3,000
local delegates at a special bargaining strategy convention
yesterday when he declared the union is ready to go to "war"
against the major auto makers in support of its goals.
    In a 101-page document proposing its 1987 collective
bargaining program, the leadership of the 1.1 mln member union
urged "full resumption of our traditional wage formula" as "a
top priority in this round of bargaining."
    But the union concedes that increased foreign competition,
new technology and shifts to low-cost offshore production by
U.S. manufacturers will continue to cut the number of workers
in the motor vehicle and agricultural equipment industries.
    Union leaders told Reuters the 1987 round of bargaining
with GM and Ford will be one of the most difficult in the
51-year history of the union in view of GM's announced goal to
close plants it deems non-competitive and to increase its
purchase of parts from outside suppliers as part of a massive
program to reduce its costs by 10 billion dlrs and reverse the
profits decline it suffered the last two years.
    At Ford, where a record 3.3 billion dlrs in profits last
year swelled its cash reserves past eight billion dlrs,
analysts say the company's healthy position could make it a
tempting target for the union in its drive to increase wages.
    Labor executives for both GM and Ford have said they will
oppose any attempt to return to annual general wage increases
that were dropped in 1982 when the Detroit-based industry was
mired in a deep recession.
    But the UAW, pointing to a three pct pay increase to be
implemented later this year in the contract it negotiated with
Chrysler Corp after a 1985 strike, said it intends to seek full
reinstatement of annual percentage wage increases in this
year's bargaining with GM and Ford.
 Reuter

Shr 78 cts vs 86 cts
    Net 265.0 mln vs 283.0 mln
    Avg shrs 329.0 mln vs 319.0 mln
                    
 Reuter

Mitel Corp said it introduced two new
digital telephone switching systems and additional applications
software for its current product line.
    The new SX-2000s digital private branch exchange is a
smaller version of the SX-2000, directed at line capacities of
100 to 500 telephone extensions. The other new product is the
even smaller SX-50 for 30 to 100 telephones, with software
specifications designed for the hotel and motel industry.
    Mitel said it has developed new software packages to
"extend the data capabilities of the SX-2000 to high speed
applications found in an IBM-type environment."
                    
 Reuter

GTE POSTS PRE-TAX LOSS OF 121 MLN DLRS IN 1ST QTR FOR 50 PCT SHARE OF US SPRINT

A shareholder group consisting of
foreign investment firms and investors said it raised its stake
in Scandinavia Fund Inc to 2,607,900 shares, or 40.0 pct of the
total outstanding from 2,309,700 shares, or 35.4 pct.
the group also said it is considering an informal offer made by
Scandinavia Fund President Bjorn Carlson on March 31 which
would grant it representation on the company's board.
    The group includes VBI Corp, a Turks and Caicos Islands
investment firm, and Ingemar Rydin Industritillbehor AB, a
Swedish investment firm, and Erik Martin Vik, a Norwegian
investor, and Vik's son, Alexander.
    The group said VBI and the elder Vik bought a combined
298,200 Scandinavia Fund common shares since March 13 at prices
ranging from 9.500 to 10.000 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Shr 79 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 22,901,000 vs 21,042,000
    Sales 336.1 mln vs 334.1 mln
 Reuter

Triton Energy Corp said proven reserves
of the Villespedue oil field in France's Paris Basin were
estimated at a total of 67.5 mln barrels on March one, up 39
pct from 48.7 mln barrels on May 31, 1986.
    Triton said its 60 pct owned <Triton Europe Plc> subsidiary
has a 50 pct interest in the field which is located 50 miles
east of Paris. The other 50 pct is held by <Total Exploration
S.A.>, the field's operator.
 Reuter

has started the year aggressively, but industry analysts said
the company still faces some tough rounds in its fight to stop
a two-year earnings slump.
    "I am more impressed with what's happening at IBM than I
have been in a long time," said PaineWebber analyst Stephen
Smith.
    "But they're not out of the woods yet," he added.
    At 1.30 dlrs a share, IBM's first-quarter net income easily
topped most estimates on Wall Street, which had ranged from an
even dollar to 1.20 dlrs.
    Most analysts said they were pleasantly surprised by IBM's
performance. But they indicated that IBM's chances for a full
recovery hinged on several key factors whose impact will not be
felt until later in the year.
    These include the success of IBM's new personal computer
line, introduced two weeks ago, and its 9370 minicomputers,
which will begin volume shipments in July.
    In addition, IBM has said the full benefits of its
early-retirement program and other cost-cutting moves will
emerge as the year progresses.
    Analysts noted that IBM chairman John F. Akers was
relatively more upbeat in assessing the company's outlook than
he has been for nearly a year.
Akers said, pointing to, among other things, higher
first-quarter shipments. "We remain optimistic about the
prospects for both the industry and IBM," he said.
    "Akers was most encouraging," said PaineWebber's Smith.
    A weak dollar, a lower tax rate and strong mainframe
computer sales all contributed to the better-than-expected
first-quarter results, analysts said.
    "Shipments of the 3090 mainframes were very strong in
March," after a weak January and February, said Ulric Weil of
Washington-based Weil and Associates.
    Sales of the top-of-the-line mainframes, commonly called
the Sierras, "bailed out the whole quarter," Weil said, adding,
"If this continues, it augers well for the rest of the year."

BankEast Corp <BENH> said a state
Superior Court enjoined <Suncook Bank> from delivering any
notices of shareholder meetings until it produces a shareholder
list.
    The order effectively prevents Suncook from holding any
shareholder meetings until BankEast has a copy of its
shareholder list, BankEast said.
    The order also gives BankEast, which is eyeing a takeover
of the bank, 30 days to communicate with its shareholders of
Suncook, it said.
    BankEast, which said it is a substantial stockholder in
Suncook Bank, said the order came from the Merrimack County
Superior Court.
    At the same time, it said the Bank of New Hampshire Corp's 
<BNHC> Bank of New Hampshire also has made a bid for Suncook
Bank.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 20 cts vs loss 63 cts
    Oper net loss 439,000 vs loss 1,347,000
    Sales 6,303,000 vs 5,062,000
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss 43 cts vs loss 1.02 dlrs
    Oper net loss 934,000 vs loss 2,333,000
    Sales 12.1 mln vs 9,878,000
    Note: oper data does not include 1986 losses from
discontinued operations of 60,000 dlrs, or three cts per shr,
in qtr and 151,000 dlrs, or seven cts per shr, in six mths.
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 3,000 to
4,000 tonnes of Canadian rapeseed in export business overnight
for last half May/first half June shipment, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Irving Bank Corp said a six pct drop
in first-quarter net income from a year earlier was largely the
result of placing medium- and long-term loans to borrowers in
Brazil and Ecuador on non-accrual status.
    Income in the first three months fell to 28.60 mln dlrs
from 30.43 mln in the same 1986 period. Earnings per share
dropped to 1.51 dlrs from 1.62.
    Irving put 215 mln dlrs of Brazilian and 33 mln dlrs of
Ecuadorean loans on non-accrual, reducing first-quarter net
income by a total of 4.4 mln dlrs after tax.
    Irving estimates full year net would be reduced by 15.3 mln
dlrs after tax if no cash interest payments are received on
these loans during the remainder of 1987.
    Also adversely affecting earnings were losses on the
trading of securities and higher non-interest expenses,
although these were partly offset by increased trust income,
profits from foreign exchange trading and investment securities
gains, the bank said.
    The allowance for loan losses was 224.8 mln dlrs, up from
185.2 mln a year earlier. The provision for loan losses was
21.8 mln versus 19.5 mln in the first quarter of 1986.
 Reuter

Alza Corp said it plans to
make an offering in Europe of 75 mln dlrs principal amount of
15-year convertible subordinated debentures.
    The company said it expects the annual coupon rate of the
bonds to be between 5-1/2 pct and 5-3/4 pct.
    It said the bonds will be convertible into Alza common
stock at an expected premium of between 17 and 22 pct of the
share price on the pricing date.
    Alza also said it expects the debentures will be listed on
the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
 Reuter

Morgan Stanley (Jersey) Ltd is issuing
45,000 covered equity warrants exercisable into shares of Japan
Synthetic Rubber Co Ltd at an issue price of 212 Swiss francs
per warrant, lead manager Morgan Stanley SA said.
    The initial exercise price is 494 yen per share and final
maturity is February 4, 1992. The issue price represents a
premium of 6.57 pct over the stock's closing price of 653 yen.
    Each warrant is exercisable into 100 shares of common stock
of Japan Synthetic Rubber.
    The exercise period is June 5, 1987 to February 4, 1992.
 REUTER

Qtly div 7-1/2 cts vs six cts prior
    Pay June 3
    NOTE: Full name Allegheny and Western Energy Corp.
 Reuter

Standard Oil Co said a contract has
been awarded to <CBS Engineering Inc> for a drilling and
production platform to be installed in Ewing Bank Block 826 in
the Gulf of Mexico where Standard and Mobil Corp each own a 40
pct interest.
    Standard said its Standard Oil Production Co subsidiary
will operate the platform which is being designed to produce
15,000 barrels of oil and 50 mln cubic feet of gas daily. The
platform is now expected to be installed in the summer of 1988.
Other owners are Kerr-McGee Corp <KMG> with 16.66 pct and
<Prudential Insurance Co of America> with  3.34 pct.
 Reuter

Shr profit one ct vs loss 28 cts
    Net profit 23,000 vs loss 725,000
    Sales 20.6 mln vs 18.5 mln
    Avg shrs 3,959,011 vs 2,608,571
 Reuter

The February monthly merchandise
trade figures to be reported Tuesday by the Commerce Department
will be on a new basis reflecting more recent data, so avoiding
future revisions of the monthly figure, Commerce officials
said.
    The overall January deficit of 14.8 billion dlrs will be
revised, but the February figure will be a final one, officials
said.
    Previously, the initial monthly figure has had to be
revised in subsequent months because of the time lag between
the report and the compiling of final estimates on imports and
exports.
    The reporting of the February trade data was delayed
several weeks to permit gathering latest figures on imports and
exports to give a clearer picture of the monthly trade balance.
 Reuter

<MacAndrews and Forbes Group> and
Revlon Group Inc <REV> said that they have entered into a
definitive mergewr agreement where MacAndrews will acquire
Revlon at 20.10 dlrs per common share in cash.
    MacAndrews said it increased its offer to purchase all
Revlon common shares to 20.10 dlrs a share, from its April 1
offer of 18.50 dlrs a share.
    Following consummation of the offer, a unit of MacAndrews
will merge into Revlon and each remaining share will be
converted into the right to receive 20.10 dlrs per share in
cash, the companies said.
    Revlon said its board of directors unanimously approved the
merger agreement.
    MacAndrews and Revlon also said they have reached a
settlement with the plaintiff in the pending litigation
challenging acquisition of the shares by MacAnrews.
    The companies said the tender offer and withdrawal rights
will expireon Tuesday April 28, unless extended.
    MacAndrews said it will promptly file revised tender offer
material with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc is acting as dealer-manager for the offer,
the companies said.
    Revlon currently has about 42 mln shares outstanding. The
current offer price is about 782 mln dlrs, a company spokesman
said, up from the previous offer of 720 mln dlrs.
    On April 1, MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Ronald
Perelman, offered 18.50 dlrs a share for the 63 pct of Revlon
shares he did not already own.
    Since the offer was made over a dozen shareholder lawsuits
were brought against Revlon alleging the original offer was too
low.
    But, the companies said these lawsuits have been settled in
the amended offer.
 Reuter

Roland International Corp, a Coconut
Grove, Fla., real estate development company, said it cut its
stake in Intermagnetics General Corp to 308,400 shares, or 4.8
pct of the total outstanding, from 358,400 shares, or 5.6 pct.
Roland said it sold 50,000 shares on Feb 4 at 5.13 dlrs each.
    As long as Roland's stake in Intermagnetics General is
below five pct, it is not required to report any further
dealings in the company's stock.
 Reuter

Data Technology Corp said
it registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to
make an initial public offering of 1,700,000 shares of common
stock.
    It said all the shares will be offered by the company at an
anticipated price of between eight and ten dlrs per share.
    The offering will be managed by Hambrecht and Quist Inc and
    Data Technology designs, develops and markets intelligent
storage controllers and chips sets, primarily for use in
IBM-compatible personal computers.
 Reuter

<DHL Worldwide Express>
added 35 overseas and 10 domestic service centers to its
delivery network.
    The private air express company said one of the additions
includes the German Democratic Republic (East Germany),
bringing to eight the number of Eastern Bloc countries it
serves.
   
 Reuter

USG Corp in a proxy for its May 13
annual meeting said it will ask shareholders to increase the
authorized common shares to 300 mln from 100 mln and the
preferred shares to 36 mln from 12 mln.
    The company said it there were insufficient shares
available for a two-for-one stock split, although it said there
were no plans to take such action.
    It said the availability of additional shares could
discourage an attempt to obtain control of the company. But USG
said it is unaware of any pending takeover attempt.
    As of April 1, 1987, USG said there were 51,128,191 shares
of its common stock outstanding. It said 784,350 shares were
reserved for issuance under various stock option plans.
    Of the 12 mln authorized shares of preferred stock, it said
124,641 shares of 1.80 dlrs Convertible Preferred Stock was
issued and outstanding and an additional 6,800,000 shares were
reserved for issuance as Junior Participating Preferred Stock,
Series A, 1.00 dlr par value a share.
    USG also said shareholders will be asked to approve an
amendment to its restated certificate of incorporation that
includes staggered election of directors and the requirement of
an 80 pct vote on certain mergers and asset sales or leases.
    The company also is asking shareholders to approve an
amendment limiting the liability of directors.
 Reuter

it signed a letter of intent to acquire the Imaging Solutions
Inc unit of Reliance Electric Co under undisclosed terms.
    This acquisition will give it all rights to proprietary
solid and liquid ink technologies which had been developed by a
joint venture operated by it and Exxon Corp <XON>, Dataproducts
said.
    It said Imaging Solutions, formerly named Exxon Printing
Systems Inc, had been a Reliance Electric Co subsidiary.
    But Reliance recently became an independent company as the
result of a leveraged buyout from its former owner, Exxon.
 Reuter

Jannock Ltd said its Jannock Imaging Co
Ltd unit acquired a 50 pct stake in Arthurs-Jones Lithographing
Ltd, of Toronto, for undisclosed terms.
    It said the acquisition would lift Jannock Imaging revenues
to 50 mln dlrs this year. It did not specify Arthurs-Jones'
1986 revenues.
 Reuter

Presidential Airways said its
Continental Jet Express will begin daily non-stop service
between Dulles International Airport here and Akron/Canton,
Ohio, and the Lexington/Frankfort area of Kentucky.
    Presidential reiterated its marketing agreement with Texas
Air Corp's <TEX> Continental Airlines on Jan 12 which calls for
Presidential to do business as Continental Jet Express.
 Reuter

Northern Trust Corp said it filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer up to 150 mln
    The company said it may sell the securities through
underwriters, who may include Goldman Sachs and Co, or directly
to other purchasers.
    Proceeds will be used for general purposes, which may
include possible acquisitions, refunding outstanding securities
and repaying short-term debt, the bank holding company said.
 Reuter

the Securities and Exchange Commission a shelf registration
statement covering up to 150 mln dlrs of debt.
    Proceeds will be used for possible future acquisitions, the
repayment of outstanding debt and general corporate purposes.
    The company said Goldman, Sachs and Co may underwrite the
deal.
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 2,526,000 vs 1,452,000
    Revs 71.9 mln vs 25.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 68 cts
    Net 10.2 mln vs 4,738,000
    Revs 291.5 mln vs 83.0 mln
    Avg shrs 8,511,000 vs 6,983,000
    NOTE: Current periods include gain of 299,000 dlrs in qtr
and 1.2 mln dlrs in year from changes in pension accounting.
    Year-ago shr figures restated for 3-for-2 splits paid June
1986 and January 1987.
 Reuter

said its Nuclear Packaging Inc unit won a contract with the
U.S. Department of Energy worth up to 2.3 mln dlrs.
    The company said the initial phase of the contract was
awarded for 1.2 mln dlrs, with an optional second phase for 1.1
mln dlrs.
    Under the pact, Pacific Nuclear will design, license and
fabricate two truck casks and trailers for defense program
wastes.
    The contract wil begin immediately, with the first cask
delivery planned for May, 1989.
 Reuter

Aequitron Medical Inc said
that a wrongful death suit in which the company was named as a
defendant has been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice by the
plaintiffs.
    The suit, asking one mln dlrs in damages, was originally
filed in U.S. district court in Atlanta in August 1986, it
said. It alleged that the defective performance of an Aequitron
respiration and heart rate monitor resulted in the death of an
infant in October 1985.
    Under terms of the settlement, the plaintiffs released
their rights to any further legal proceedings against
Aequitron, it said.
    In return, Aequitron said it agreed to release the
plaintiffs from any claims for costs or attorneys fees.
    "The dismissal with prejudice, and the plaintiffs'
retraction of all claims against Aequitron, support our
original contention that this suit was without merit," the
 Reuter

Electrohome Ltd said it
agreed to sell certain assets of the computer service sector of
its AABEX service division to Canadian General Electric Co Ltd
<CGE.TO>.
    Terms were not disclosed. The closing date is expected to
be May 1, 1987.
 Reuter

Period ended February 28.
    Shr 14 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 741,000 vs 510,000
    Revs 5,980,000 vs 4,836,000
    Six Mths
    Shr 29 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1,556,000 vs 1,080,000
    Revs 12.2 mln vs 9,214,000
 Reuter

Laser Photonics Inc said it
completed a previously announced sale of 615,385 shares, or 18
pct, of its common stock to a group of investors for one mln
dlrs.
    A 400,000 dlrs loan made by the investors was repaid out of
the proceeds, it said.
    It also said it restructured its board to include three
members designated by the investors, including Pierre
Schoenheimer, Roger Kirk and Leonard Lichter.
 Reuter

AmSouth Bancorp said it will
issue about 3,166,000 shares of stock to acquire First
Tuskaloosa Corp.
    Under a previously announced merger agreement, Amsouth
offered 66 dlrs a share in Amsouth stock for First Tuskaloosa.
    The company said First Tuskaloosa shareholders will receive
1.978825 shares of Amsouth stock for each First Tuskaloosa
share held when the merger is effected April 17.
    First Tuskaloosa has assets of more than 425 mln dlrs.
Amsouth's assets are about six billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 670,105 vs 599,107
    Revs 21.4 mln vs 20.1 mln
 Reuter

Royal Palm Savings said it
named Joseph Burgoon as president, a position which has been
vacant since Jay Rosen left it in December 1985 to pursue other
business ventures.
    Burgoon most recently served as executive vice president
and chief operating officer of Cardinal Federal Savings Bank of
Cleveland.
 Reuter

Hadson Corp said it
completed the acquisition of 85 pct of the Seaxe Energy Corp's
<SEAX.O> common stock for 182,415 shares of Hadson's stock.
    Seaxe is engaged in international oil and gas exploration
and development primarily in the Paris basin of France.
 Reuter

Hugh Keith Mobile Enterprises
Ltd said it completed the acquisition of 59 acres of land
adjacent to its mobile home park near Stuart, Fla., for 850,000
dlrs in cash and notes.
 Reuter

Arrays Inc said it completed
its merger with Haba Systems Inc.
    Terms of the merger called for each share of Arrays to be
exchange for a share of Haba in a transaction valued at 4.1 mln
    Both companies produce and market microcomputer software.
 Reuter

Consul Restaurant Corp said it
extended the deadline of its exchange offer for its 13 pct
convertible debentures due 1992 to 1700 CDT April 24.
    The offer originally was scheduled to expire April 13.
    It said investor response to the offer has been favorable,
but a higher exchange level is needed if the company is to meet
its 90 pct acceptance level. On March 16 Consul offered to
exchange each 1,000 dlr face value of bonds for 10 shares of
preferred stock, convertible after Dec 1, 1987 into a total of
500 shares of common stock. In addition, tendering and
non-tendering investors will receive the bonds' May One
interest payment in common stock.
 Reuter

Michael Foods Inc, a newly formed
multi-regional food processing and distribution company, said
it named Richard Olson as president and chief executive
officer.
    Olson, a former vice president of food service for
Pillsbury Co <PSY>, most recently was president of Fil-Mor
Express Inc, a transportation company.
    Michael Foods' three subsidiaries in 1986 had combined
sales of 153.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

    Reord April 15
 Reuter

    NOTE: Franklin Minnesota Insured Tax-Free Income Fund.
 Reuter

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The Bank of England will step up
reporting requirements for primary dealers in U.K. Government
gilts during the when-issued trading period in between the date
an auction is announced and the date the sale is actually held.
    In its document on the auctions, the Bank said "The Bank is
content for such (when-issued) trading to cevelop subject to
certain conditions, in particular for predential supervision of
the credit risk to which the gilt-edged market makers and
Inter-dealer brokers may become exposed."
    The Bank is widely expected to require dealers to report
wehn-issued trading positions on a daily basis.
    When-issued trading presents certain unusual risks because
dealers are buying and selling a security that technically does
not exist although there is no uncertainty about when it will
be issued.
    Still, the fact there is no physical delivery possible
presents certain credit risks as well.
    The Bank is widely expected to expand its reporting
requiremenmts for unsettled trades, requiring firms to report
unsettled when-issued trades one day after they occur.
Normally, unsettled trades must be reported three days after
they occur.
 REUTER

Dome Petroleum Ltd shares moved higher
in the U.S. and Canada after TransCanada PipeLines Ltd <TRP>
made a 4.3 billion Canadian dlr bid for Dome and Dome said it
is in talks with two other unidentified companies.
    Market speculation is that the other two potential bidders
are not Canadian companies and DuPont's <DD> Conoco and
Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> are mentioned as possibilities,
Wilf Gobert of Peters and Co Ltd said.
    Dome rose 1/4 to 1-1/8 on the American Stock Exchange.
TransCanada PipeLines was down 1/4 at 15-3/4 on the New York
    Dome was the most active stock on the Toronto exchange at
1.50 dlrs per share, up 37 cts.
    Gobert characterized the market action in Dome as "awfully
optimistic" but said investors are hoping for a competing offer
to the shareholders.
    TransCanada PipeLines' offer is to Dome management, not to
shareholders. However, it proposes issuing new equity in a
subsidiary that would operate Dome assets. Current Dome
shareholders would own 20 pct of the new subsidiary.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 13,492,000 vs 46,417,000
    Revs 720.2 mln vs 793.6 mln
    Avg shrs 99,085,000 vs 96,804,000
 Reuter

Hoechst Celanese Corp, a recently
formed subsidiary of Hoechst AG of Frankfurt, West Germany,
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a 500 mln
dlr debt offering to repay part of its merger debt.
    Hoechst, which acquired Celanese Corp on Feb 27, said it
plans to offer 200 mln dlrs of notes due 1997 and 300 mln dlrs
of debentures due 2017 to repay part of the debt incurred in
    A group led by First Boston Corp will underwrite the
offering, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 8,753,000 vs 7,804,000
    Avg shrs 32.6 mln vs 23.2 mln
    NOTE: Includes gains of 4.1 mln dlrs or 12 cts vs 3.3 mln
dlrs or 15 cts from tax loss carryforwards.
 Reuter

Clark Copy
International Corp said it acquired a majority interest in
Datagraph GMBH of Lich, West Germany.
    The acquisition was made through Clark Copy's majority
owned subsidiary Interactive Computer Aids of Norway.
    No price was disclosed for the acquisition.
    Clark Copy said worldwide sales for Datagraph, which makes
color graphics workstations, were 10 mln dlrs for the year
ended Dec. 31, 1986.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 29 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Six mths
 Reuter

GTE Corp said the decline in its
first quarter net income reflects a 121 mln dlr loss from its
50 pct share ownership of U.S. Sprint's operations.
    This loss is an increase from the 60 mln dlrs loss reported
on operations GTE owned a year ago quarter and prior to
entering a joint venture with United Telecommunications <UT> in
July 1986. Under the joint venture, each company owns 50 pct of
Sprint.
    Earlier, the company reported net income declined to 265.0
mln dlrs from 283.0 mln dlrs in the first quarter a year ago.
    Theodore Brophy, chairman of GTE said, "we expect US
Sprint's losses to diminish later this year as customer traffic
migrates to the new fiber-optic network for long distance
telecommunications.
    The reason for the higher losses reflect lower prices as
well as higher operating costs related, in part, to the
fraudalent use of the network.
    Operating income of its telephone operations, which account
for 91 pct of the total, rose eight pct to 736.0 mln dlrs. 
Revenues from telephone operations rose eight pct to 2.9
 Reuter

Penn Pacific Corp said it
plans to place about two mln dlrs of convertible debentures
with persons outside the U.S. through Euro Continental
    The offering will not be registered within the U.S., the
company said. It also said it is discussing placing additional
convertible debentures with London-based financial
 Reuter

expects to sell its Celeron Corp oil and gas subsidiary for
about two billion dlrs in about two months.
    After the company's annual meeting, Rober Mercer,
Goodyear's chairman and chief executive officer, also said 
Goodyear expects to report a profit of more than one dlr a
share from continuing operations in the first quarter. In the
same year-ago period, Goodyear reported a loss of 64 cents a
share from continuing operations.
    Mercer said about seven companies are interested in buying
Celeron and they may form a consortium to buy the unit.
    Celeron consists of oil and gas reserves and an almost
complete pipeline linking drilling operations in Santa Barbara,
Calif., to Texas refineries. Mercer said Celeron's reserves
would not be sold separately from the pipeline.
    Concerning speculation that two billion dlr price tag for
Celeron was too high, Mercer said "There is no fire sale going
on here and we can continue to keep Celeron as a profitable
operation throughout the year."
    Mercer said the expected 1st quarter operating profit was
based on the new share total after Goodyear's share repurchase
last year to fend off Sir James Goldsmith's hostile takeover
bid.
 Reuter

    Northern Trust Corp <NTRS> - Shelf offering of up to 150
mln dlrs of debt securities, including senior and subordinated
securities, on terms to be determined at the time of the sale
through Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    GardenAmerica Corp <GACO> - Secondary offering of 489,764
shares of common stock through Montgomery Securities.
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp said it named
Richard Rosenberg as vice chairman and head of a newly
designated California Banking Group.
    Rosenberg had been president and chief operating officer of
BankAmerica's Seafirst Corp. Seafirst Chairman Richard Cooley
will resume the additional duties of president.
    Rosenberg will report directly to BankAmerica Chairman A.W.
Clausen. He will be responsible for BankAmerica's California
banking activities and will serve on the bank's Managing
Committee and on its Money and Loan Policy Committee.
    BankAmerica said the creation of the California Banking
Group is a refinement of what had been called the Retail Bank
and is intended to improve the development and delivery of
services and products in California.
    BankAmerica President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas
Cooper had been acting as head of California Operations
    BankAmerica said Cooper will continue to lead its
aggressive cost reduction and operating improvements program.
    Before joining Seafirst, Rosenberg had been vice chairman
of Crocker National bank and before that of Wells Fargo Bank.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs not given
    Net 3,499,000 vs 2,295,000
    NOTE: Converted to stock ownership Aug 1, 1986.
 Reuter

Net 12.8 mln vs 12.2 mln
    Loans 2.8 billion vs 2.5 billion
    Deposits 3.2 billion vs 2.9 billion
    Assets 4.5 billion vs 3.8 billion
    NOTE: American National Corp is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of First Chicago Corp.
 Reuter

AB Astra <ASTS.ST> said it was
proposing a two-for-one share split and the issue in June of a
new series of foreign-targeted shares with lower voting rights
as part of a strategy to internationalise the company.
    The deal, which requires Swedish government approval, will
raise the percentage of foreign voting rights allowed in the
medical group to 22.5 pct from 20 pct, Astra said.
    An extraordinary meeting of Astra's board proposed the
creation of B free shares open to foreign buyers with one tenth
of a voting right per share. At present, Astra stock consists
of one series of restricted shares and one of free shares.
 Reuter

Chambers Development Co Inc said it
signed an easment and license agreement with the Passaic County
Utilities Authority for the disposal of nonhazardous solid
waste from Passaic County, N.J.
    Chambers said it expects the agreement to generate 12 mln
dlrs a year throughout its term.
    The company said according to the agreement it will accept
municipal waste generated in Passaic County for disposal until
the county's planned waste-to-energy facility is operational
within the next five years.
    Chambers said it and the Passaic Authority also entered
into agreements with <Penpac Inc> who will transport the waste
to Chambers' landfills.
    The company said all agreements are sunbject to approval of
the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection.
 Reuter

    Investment securities gains 2,003,000 dlrs vs 169,000 dlrs.
    Corrects name to subsidiary from parent.
 Reuter

Turkey, which tomorrow will formally
apply to join the European Community, faces major obstacles in
its bid and is unlikely to become the bloc's 13th member before
the year 2,000, EC officials said.
    Turkey's move comes as no surprise, but some officials said
the application from a relatively poor country with most of its
territory in Asia rather than Europe was likely to spark a long
process of soul-searching among the EC's current members about
what kind of European Community they wanted in the long term.
    Officials echoed the view of diplomats in Ankara that
Turkey's move put the EC in the dilemma of wanting to make
clear it values Ankara as an ally in the NATO alliance, but
sees huge problems in accepting it as a fellow EC member.
    They said industrialised Community members have tried to
dissuade Turkey from making the long-discussed formal
application until the EC had had more time to digest the
accession of Spain and Portugal last year.
    Several also feel Ankara and the EC should first fully
implement a 23-year-old association agreement between them
before Turkey becomes a full member.
 REUTER

Shr 76 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 5,952,000 vs 4,374,000
    Avg shrs 7,837,511 vs 7,446,356
    NOTE: Includes gains of 1.3 mln dlrs vs 239,000 dlrs from
benefit of tax loss carryforwards.
    Includes operations of Bank of Hartford, acquired Feb 23.
    Year-ago shr figures reflect 2-for-1 split on April 15,
1986.
 Reuter

Nor-Quest Resources
Inc said it will make a takeover offer to acquire all shares of
Northair Mines Ltd on the basis of one Nor-Quest share plus one
dlr for two shares of Northair.
    Nor-Quest said it plans to bring Northair's Willa Mine in
the Nelson area of British Columbia into production using
Nor-Quest's recently acquired 1200-ton per day mill located in
the area.
 Reuter

    The initial exercise price is 494 yen per share and
 REUTER

Aristech Chemical Corp chairman and
chief executive officer Thomas Marshall said analysts'
estimates of its 1987 fiscal year earnings of 2.25 dlrs to 2.50
dlrs per share are about right.
    Addressing a gathering of analysts and institutional
investors, Marshall also said that analysts' estimates of its
first qtr earnings - 50 cts to 55 cts per share - were "in the
ballpark."
    Marshall said the full year estimates represent more than a
32 pct increase over 1986's fiscal year net of 1.70 dlrs per
share.
    He also said the first quarter estimates were 70 pct higher
than 1986's first quarter net of 29 cts per share.
Marshall attributibuted the first quarter earnings growth to
several factors, including sustained demand in Aristech's major
domestic markets and continued growth in exports.
    Aristech plans to spend approximately 200 mln dlrs over in
capital investments over the next three years, Marshall added.
 Reuter

said its lower first quarter earnings included a loss of
63,055,000 dlrs from its equity in US Sprint.
    US Sprint was formed July 1, 1986, as a partnership which
combined United Telecommunications' long distance voice and
data operations with those of GTE Corp <GTE>.
    Earlier, United Telecommunications reported first-quarter
earnings of 12.6 mln dlrs, or 13 cts a share compared to 46.4
mln dlrs, or 47 cts a share a year ago. Revenues declined to
720.2 mln dlrs from 793.6 mln dlrs.
    United Telecommunications said the transition of US
Sprint's nationwide fiberoptic network is proceeding ahead of
schedule.
    It said the transition to the fiber network from interim
networks would not only reduce operating costs in the second
half of 1987, but also assist in controlling unauthorized
network use.
 Reuter

State bank Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro,
BNL, said it signed a joint venture accord with the Bank for
Foreign Trade of the USSR and the State Bank of the USSR in the
financial services field.
    BNL said in a statement that the banks will provide a broad
range of corporate finance services for joint Italian-Soviet
industrial ventures. The bank said it is studying the formation
of a jointly owned company with the Soviet banks.
    Earlier today, state bank Banca Commerciale Italiana, BCI,
said it and Mediocredito Centrale will sign a financial
services joint venture with Soviet banks Gosbank and
Vneshtorgbank.
 REUTER

has entered into a joint marketing agreement with <Inference
Corp> whereby Apollo will join with Inference to market
Inference's Automated Reasoning Tool software on Apollo
   
 Reuter

ProGas Ltd was issued an export licence
to sell 10.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Ocean State
Power Co of Burrillville, Rhode Island, the federal energy
    The sale, covering a 20 year period beginning May 1, 1989,
was previously recommended by the National Energy Board.
    Contract terms were not released.
 Reuter

downgraded about 8.2 billion dlrs of debt of Texaco Inc and its
units.
    Moody's cited Texaco's filing under Chapter 11 of the
Bankruptcy Code on Sunday. The filing was made in the names of
Texaco Inc, Texaco Capital Inc and Texaco Capital N.V., Moody's
noted.
    The ratings downgraded to Caa from Ba-1 included Texaco's
senior unsecured debt, Texaco Capital Inc's and Texaco Capital
N.V.'s senior unsecured debt and industrial revenue and
pollution control bonds.
    Moody's reduced to Caa from Ba-3 Texaco Capital N.V.'s
convertible subordinated Eurodebentures. The agency said they
also lowered to Caa from Ba-1 the ratings on Getty Oil Co's
notes and Getty Oil International N.V.'s Eurobonds.
    Pembroke Capital Co Inc's debt remains under review.
    Moody's noted that Texaco guaranteed these debt issues when
they were first brought to market.
 Reuter

eurobond market ended lower after another nervous day's
trading, with many operators keeping to the sidelines ahead of
tomorrow's U.S. Trade figures for February, dealers said.
Prices of longer dated issues ended 1/2 or 5/8 point lower,
while short dates were 1/8 to 3/8 point easier.
    Bonds for Texaco Inc units hardly traded during the day
following the weekend news that the company filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection in another twist to its long running
dispute with Pennzoil Co, dealers added.
    The Chapter 11 filing means that Texaco will not be paying
interest on its eurobonds. Dealers in the straight bonds noted
that the market in them had been basis only for some time prior
to the weekend's news. "It wasn't a true market, someone asked
you a price and you just gave them an idea," one said.
    However, the company's convertible bonds had been trading
since the company's share price provided a benchmark to which
dealers could establish a proper price level. The company has
two actively traded convertibles outstanding, a 500 mln dlr
bond due 1994 which pays 11-3/4 pct and a one billion dlr deal,
also due 1994, paying 11-7/8 pct.
    Traders even disagreed about last week's closing levels for
the convertible bonds, but a median appeared to be around 97 to
99 pct. Today, one trader said they were indicated initially at
65 to 70 pct before ending at some 79 83 pct.
    But he added, "That's only an idea. There's no real market
today. I've dealt once during the day, I'm not going to say at
what level." Other dealers were reluctant even to give an
indication of the bonds' levels.
    Dealers said the market in all Texaco deals will almost
certainly remain on an indicated, or negotiated, basis until
the events of the weekend are further clarified.
    The primary market had a steady day, with the Australian
dollar and the yen sectors again seeing the most activity,
dealers said. Deutsche Bank Finance NV Curacao became the first
of three issuers in the Australian dollar market during the
morning with a 100 mln dlr bond due 1990 paying 14-1/8 pct and
priced at 100-1/4 pct.
    The issue was lead managed by Deutsche Bank Capital Markets
(DBCM) and guaranteed by Deutsche Bank itself. A DBCM official
said the firm had placed 60 mln Australian dlrs of the issue
itself and quoted the deal at less one less 7/8 pct,
comfortably inside the 1-1/2 pct total fees.
    The State Bank of Victoria issued a 50 mln Australian dlr
bond paying 14-1/2 pct over three years and priced at 101-3/8
pct. Commerzbank AG was sole manager for the deal, which was
offered on one broker screen at less 1-1/2 pct.
    The day's other borrower in this sector was the New South
Wales Treasury Corporation guaranteed by the crown-in-right of
New South Wales. The five year bond pays 14-1/4 pct and was
priced at 101-7/8 pct.
    Lead manager was County Natwest Capital Markets. It was
quoted at less 1-7/8 less 1-3/4 pct, inside the two pct total
fees.
    Secondary market Australian dlr bonds ended little changed
on the day, with dealers saying that operators are awaiting the
Australian trade figures for March. A deficit of some 800 mln
to one billion dlrs was expected by one house active in the
sector.
    Union Bank of Switzerland (Securities) Ltd lead managed a
15 billion yen bond for Union Bank of Switzerland NV. The five
year deal pays 4-3/8 pct and features a put and call option at
par after four years.
    Priced at 101-5/8 pct, the issue was quoted at less 1-1/4
pct bid on the grey market compared with the total fees of
1-5/8 pct.
    Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Elettrica issued a 15 billion
yen bond due 1994 at 4-3/4 pct and priced at 101-7/8 pct. The
deal was quoted on the 1-7/8 pct total fees.
    Elsewhere, Alza Corp issued a 75 mln dlr convertible bond
due 2002 through Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. The par priced
issue has an indicated coupon of between 5-1/2 and 5-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

Brand Companies Inc said it expects to
report a 1987 first quarter loss of 15 to 17 cts a share on
revenues of 20 to 22 mln dlrs.
    In the 1986 first quarter, Brand reported earnings of 21
cts on revenues of 28.5 mln dlrs.
    No reason was given for the expected loss.
    Final quarterly results will be reported toward the end of
the month or the beginning of May, a company spokesman said.
 Reuter

Canada's population increased 4.2 pct to
25.4 mln between 1981 and 1986, the lowest growth rate in any
five year period for the past 25 years, according to final
census figures released by Statistics Canada.
    Lower immigration levels and a falling birth rate were
behind the slower growth, the federal agency said. Canada's
growth rate peaked at 9.7 pct in the 1961-1966 period.
    Ontario, the most populous province with 9,113,515, led the
provinces with a 5.7 pct increase. Newfoundland trailed with a
0.1 pct rise to 159,917 people.           
 Reuter

the year 2000, EC officials said.
 Reuter

<Fischer-Watts Gold Co Inc> said it 
and Horizon Gold Shares Inc have begun sampling their
jointlyl-held Rich Hill Placer Prospect mine in Yavapai County,
Arizona.
    The 60-day sampling program begins today and will consist
of over 2,000 cubic yards of placer gravels taken from over 40
sample sites.
 Reuter

Some 340 General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) secretariat staff staged a half-day strike in
protest against what they said was a sharp decline in salaries
and pensions.
    The stoppage forced postponement until tomorrow of a
scheduled meeting to check progress in a global round of
negotiations to liberalise world commerce launched last
    Pickets at the entrance to the GATT offices said all but
seven or eight staff members took part in the strike.
 REUTER

Eurocapital Corp said its
<Europharmaceutical Corp> affiliate has submitted four
applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
approval to market in the U.S. three condom products to be made
by <Inkey SA> of Barcelona.
    The company said one is for approval to market a condom
containing spermicide monoxynol-9, a second for the same condom
without the spermicide and the third and fourth for marketing
of a condom with a diffierent spermicide it did not identify
that is said is effective in reducing the risk of sexual
transmission of the AIDS virus.
    The company said  the approval process on the last two
applications may be lengthy.
    It also said it has increased its ownership of
Europharmaceutical to 51 pct from 45 pct.
    It said Europharmaceutical's obligation to pay Inkey for
exclusive distribution rights to all Inkey products has been
cut to 500,000 dlrs from two mln dlrs and payment has been
extended to 180 days after FDA approval to market any of the
condom products from 30 days.  It said Europharmaceutical is
now obligated to pay Inkey two cts for each condom distributed
and Inkey will ship to Europharmaceutical on open account.
 Reuter

Maryland National Corp said it filed
statement covering a 125 mln dlr issue of subordinated capital
Maryland National said.
    The firm named Goldman, Sachs and Co and Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets as managers of the offering.
 Reuter

Boothe Financial Corp, a
diversified holding company, said it has acquired the <Robert
Half and Accountemps> franchises in New England, including four
offices in Boston and Eastern Massachusetts and one office in
Providence, R.I.
    Boothe said it previously announced the purchase of <Robert
Half International Inc> the franchisor of the Robert Half and
Accountemps offices in the U.S.
    The company said the aggregate purchase price it paid for
Robert Half International and the franchises was about 59 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Atlantic Financial said it
signed a definitive agreement to acquire <Centurion Savings and
Loan Association>.
    Atlantic did not disclose the purchase price.
    Atlantic said it originally announced its intention to
acquire Centurion, located in Los Angeles, on Feb 23, 1987.
    Centurion has assets of 105 mln dlrs, Atlantic said.
 Reuter

GAF Corp, set on acquiring Borg-Warner
Corp's valuable plastics business, is believed by analysts to
be preparing an increased offer for the Chicago-based company.
     Yesterday, Borg-Warner said it agreed to be acquired for
4.23 billion dlrs by a company to be formed by Merrill Lynch
Capital Partners. Merrill offered 48.50 dlrs cash per share for
89 pct of Borg-Warner's common stock, and a package of cash and
securities for the balance.
    Borg-Warner stock rose 1-3/8 to 49-5/8.
    "I think it's (the stock price) telling us GAF is coming in
with another bid," said one analyst, who values the company at
51 or 52 dlrs per share.
    GAF has offered 46 dlrs per share. It holds 19.9 pct of
Borg-Warner's stock.
    "You're in a cat and mouse game on how you're going to up
the price. Obviously, nobody wants to pay more than you have
to. I think GAF is looking at the company the way we're looking
at it - that it's worth more," Pershing and Co analyst Richard
Henderson said.
    Henderson estimated it is worth abouth 55 dlrs per share.
    GAF has only said it was reviewing the situation. Merrill
Lynch officials did not return phone calls.
    Analysts have said they believe GAF Chairman Samuel Heyman
sought Borg-Warner because of its chemicals and plastics
business. The rigid plastics are used in such things as
telephones, computer terminals, and appliances.
    "Where the heck can you buy a world class chemical
operation these days," said Henderson.
    "He's (Heyman's) got the bucks. He's a heavy hitter, and he
does not like to get pushed around," said Henderson.
    GAF, a roofing and chemicals concern, attempted a takeover
of the much larger Union Carbide Corp two years ago. While GAF
did not win the company, it made a substantial gain on its
investment in Carbide.
    Analysts said GAF already has a large profit built into its
Borg-Warner holdings. They said even if GAF raises its offer
and does not succeed, a higher bid from another company would
give GAF millions of dollars in profits on its stock.
    "It's a win-win situation," said one analyst.
    One analyst speculated an offer from GAF would be
forthcoming shortly.
    "I think we are finally down to the final paragraph in this
book," he said.
    Borg-Warner's other businesses include automotive parts,
protective services, which includes Wells Fargo security
guards, and Chilton Corp, a credit rating service.
    Charles Rose, an Oppenheimer and Co analyst who follows
GAF, said if GAF were to sell into the Merrill Lynch offer, it
would realize about 125 mln dlrs net profit, or about 3.50 per
share.
    "I think there's a probability he goes up in price," said
Rose.
    Rose said, however, he could not really predict what Heyman
would do. "Sam's a low-risk, high-return player."
    "Is he trying to build a major industrial chemical
enterprise, or is he trying to be an investment bank," Rose
said.
    Analysts said Borg-Warner's chemical business would add
earnings momentum to GAF. "I worked out that paying as much as
50 dlrs per share would still be additive to GAF in time, if
they sold off most of the non-chemical facilities," said John
Henry of E.F. Hutton.
    Borg-Warner's chemical and plastics business provided 1986
operating profits of 153.3 mln dlrs on revenues of 1.04 billion
dlrs. Total operating profits were 349.7 mln dlrs, and net
earnings were 206.3 mln dlrs for 1986.
    "The Borg chemical business is great," said Rose, adding
its only U.S. competitors are Monsanto Co <MCT> and Dow
Chemical Co <DOW>.
 Reuter

has started trading American Businessphones Inc's common
shares, which had traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

The Foothill Group Inc said its
Foothill Captial Corp unit completed the placement of 23 mln
dlrs in senior debt and 27 mln dlrs in senior subordinated
debt.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co privately placed the debt with a
group of institutional lenders, the company said.
    It said the senior debt will bear a 9.4 pct interest rate
and the senior subordinated debt will bear 10.15 pct.
   
 Reuter

<Osicom Technologies
Inc> said it filed for an initial public offering of one
million shares of common stock.
    Osicom said it filed the registration statement on April 10
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Sherwood Securities Corp proposes to act as the managing
underwriter for the offering, Osicom said.
    The company is a distributor of products used primarily to
increase data storage capacity of microcomputers, it said.
    A spokeswoman for the company said she expects the stock to
be traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol <OSIC.O>.

 Reuter

Personal Computer Products
Inc said it completed a 4.2-mln-dlr, five pct convertible
preferred stock issue to private investors.
    Net proceeds of about 3.8 mln dlrs will be used to expand
marketing, sales and research and development efforts, to
supplement working capital, and to repay the company's entire
bank debt of about 650,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

agreed in principle to sell its Huron, South Dakota pork plant
 Reuter

factor for March declined to 42.2 pct from 46.1 pct a year
earlier.
    It said revenue passenger miles increased to 16.5 mln from
12.7 mln, and available seat miles rose to 39.1 mln from 27.5
mln
   Year to date, Simmons said its load factor fell to 41.5 pct
from 45 pct. It said revenue passenger miles rose to 45.8 mln
from 36.3 mln, and available seat miles gained to 110.3 mln
 Reuter

Gen Term Corp said it entered
into escrow for the 5.2 mln dlr purchase of Lewis-Westco and
Co, a privately-held bottler and distributor of wines and
distilled spirits.
    Lewis-Westco had sales of more than 45 mln dlrs for its
fiscal year ended June 30, Gen Term also said.
    Separately, Gen Term, which trades over-the-counter, said
it plans to apply for NASDAQ listing after it completes the
 Reuter

Shr 1.46 dlrs vs 66 cts
    Net 1,514,312 vs 714,670
    Sales 62.1 mln vs 57.2 mln
 Reuter

CCX Network Inc said it has
entered into a letter of intent to acquire privately-held
<Modern Mailers Inc> and its affiliate <AnWalt Inc> for about
3,200,000 dlrs in common stock.
    The company said Modern Mailers had revenues of 8,600,000
dlrs for the year ended October 31 and provides computer
service, computer printing and lettershop facilities.
 Reuter

Medical Imaging Centers of
America Inc said Shared Imaging Partners L.P., a Delaware
limited partnership, filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission covering a planned offering
of partnership units.
    SI Management Corp, a wholly-owned Medical Imaging
subsidiary, is the general partner of Shared Imaging.
    The company said the partnership intends to offer between
7.5 mln dlrs and 18.5 mln dlrs of limited partnership interests
at a price of 1,000 dlrs per unit.
 Reuter

Grain traders and analysts expect
today's weekly U.S. corn export inspection figure to be well
above last year, with wheat slightly better and soybeans about
the same.
    Corn export inspection guesses ranged from 40.0 to 44.0 mln
bushels for the week ended April 9, compared up 46.6 mln
inspected a week earlier and 15.2 mln in the year-ago week.
    Soybean export estimates ranged from 12.0 to 15.0 mln
bushels versus 10.8 mln exported last week and 13.2 mln last
year.
    Export guesses for all wheat ranged from 16.0 to 20.0 mln
bushels, compared with 16.4 mln last week and 11.2 mln last
year.
 Reuter

NWA Inc said its Northwest
Airlines unit will add a nonstop Detroit to Tokyo flight April
17.
    The new flight will operate three times a week until June
one, when it will fly seven days a week.
 Reuter

Inc said it expects to report a loss of about 195,000 dlrs in
its third quarter ended March 31, compared to a year ago loss
in the quarter of 169,000 dlrs.
    It said revenues in the quarter are expected to be about
1,200,000 dlrs, compared to 564,000 dlrs a year earlier.
    For the nine months ended March 31, Personal Computer
expects a net loss of about 325,000 dlrs, compared to a loss of
584,000 dlrs the previous year. Revenues in the nine months are
expected to be about 3,880,000 dlrs, compared to 1,828,000 a
year ago. The company said it will report its earnings soon.
 Reuter

Flexible Computer Corp said it has
received a 418,000 dlr order from General Dynamics Corp for a
FLEX/32 multicomputer.
 Reuter

Scan-Graphics Inc said it has
received about 500,000 dlrs in orders for its new CF1000
Scanner and RAVE software, a document scanning and vectorizing
system, from McDonnell Douglas Corp.
 Reuter

Gander Mountain Inc said it
acquired the privately held Western Ranchman Outfitters, a
catalog and point-of-purchase retailer of western apparel based
in Cheyenne, Wyo.
    It said Western Ranchman had sales for the year ended Jan
31, 1987 of about 2.2 mln dlrs.
    The purchase was made for an undisclosed amount of cast.
 Reuter

Pauley Petroleum Inc said it
appointed Mark Newgard president and chief operating officer.
    Newgard, 42, had been president of privately-held Edgington
Oil Co.
    He succeeds William Pagen, Pauley's chairman, who had also
been serving as president, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.59 dlrs vs 54 cts
    Net 43.3 mln vs 13.9 mln
    Revs 566.7 mln vs 487.8 mln
    Avg shrs 27.2 mln vs 25.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 figures restated for adoption of financial
accounting standards board statement 87 "employer's accounting
for pensions." 
    Net 1986 and 1987 includes 900,000 dlrs of investment tax
credits in 1987, and 3.1 mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Airship Industries Ltd said it has
received a six mln stg contract from a Japanese advertising
agency it did not name for a 12-month lease of one of its 600
Class airships equipped with a nightsign, with a 12-month
renewal option.
    The company said the contract will start by October One and
contribute significantly to profits.
 Reuter

Digilog Inc said it has
received 669,000 dlrs in orders from BellSouth Corp for network
monitoring and management equipment that is to be delivered
 Reuter

Tracor Inc said it has received a
research contract worth over one mln dlrs from Lockheed Corp
for the development of exploding foil initiated ordnance
devices for the Exoatmospheric Reentry Interceptor Susbystem,
or ERIS, Functional Technology Validation Interceptor Vehicle.
 Reuter

Bell Atlantic Corp's CompuShop
subsidiary said it has been named an authorized reseller of
Xerox Corp's <XRX> Xerox Ventura Publisher desktop publishing
software for International Business Machines Corp's <IBM> XT
and AT personal computers and compatibles.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts
    Net 1,948,000
    Revs 3,397,000
    Note: Company began operating on February 20, 1987.
 Reuter

said he opposed forgiving developing countries' debt because
the proposal, if adopted, would lead to a cutoff in lending to
the indebted countries.
    "I think (debt) forgiveness will simply create an
environment in which no more money will go into development and
a lot of the world will be consigned to poverty and to
instability indefinitely," he told ABC Television on Sunday.
    A number of bills have been introduced in Congress that
would require commercial banks to forgive a least a portion of
the debt owed them by cash-starved developing countries.
    "I think we've got to find ways of encouraging continuous
improvement in policies, of wise use of money in short, rather
than trying to turn everybody off," Conable said.
    Conable told ABC's "Business World" he supported Treasury
Secretary James Baker's debt plan as an "andidote to debt."
    Baker has said the best way to reduce the developing
countries' debt burden is to boost their growth rates through
reformed domestic policies and increased commercial bank
lending.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board of Trade, CBT,
achieved record volume in trading of 10-year U.S. Treasury note
futures-options April 10.
    Volume reached 38,402 contracts, up from the previous
record of 16,349 contracts set April 9.
 Reuter

Iran said it had achieved its
objectives in heavy fighting against Iraq since launching an
offensive near the southern Iraqi city of Basra last Tuesday.
    Baghdad said on Saturday its forces had routed the Iranians
from the few footholds they initially gained. But an Iranian
field commander said on Sunday the Iranians are now entrenched
west of the Jasim River and the Fish canal, about 10 km east of
Basra.
    The unnamed commander, quoted by the Iranian news agency
IRNA, said foreign reporters could now visit Iranian
strongholds in the region.
 REUTER

Argentine Treasury Secretary Mario
Brodersohn said the country is near accord with creditor banks
on refinancing about 30 billion dlrs of foreign debt.
    Brodersohn, in an interview from Washington with Argentine
television, said Saturday the major obstacles to an agreement
with creditor banks had been overcome. "Only details remain to
be resolved," he said.
    Economy Minister Juan Sourrouille on Thursday in a speech
at the IMF accused creditor banks of standing in the way of an
accord by demanding conditions incompatible with Argentina's
IMF standby program.
    Brodersohn said that since there "has been progress. I'd
say that we are now working on the fine print of the
agreement."
    Negotiations between Argentina and the banks have been
stuck over differences on the question of capitalisation of the
debt as well as on-lending programs.
    Argentina has resisted a renewal of on-lending programs and
sought an agreement whereby creditor banks would invest a fresh
dollar for every dollar of debt capitalised.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 1.36 dlrs vs 1.13 dlrs
    Net 78.3 mln vs 51.6 mln
    Avg shrs 53,698,000 vs 43,449,000
    Loans 35.89 billion vs 24.66 billion
    Deposits 31.71 billion vs 19.64 billion
    Assets 43.98 billion vs 28.60 billion
 Reuter

Shr 1.78 dlrs vs 1.12 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.72 dlrs vs 1.08 dlrs
    Net 20,029,000 vs 13,059,000
    Avg shrs 10,598,481 vs 10,430,649
    Loans 843.4 mln vs 727.5 mln
    Deposits 8.30 billion vs 7.82 billion
    Assets 9.89 billion vs 9.27 billion
dividends
 Reuter

Uniclub Inc said it has agreed to form
an equally-owned joint venture called Uniclub Marketing Inc
with Goodway Marketing Inc.
    The company said Uniclub Marketing will use narrowcast
cable television, including Goodway's Video Shopping Mall
television shopping program, to sell Uniclub memberships, add
new participating merchants and sell Uniclob licenses and
franchises.
    The company said it expects the new program will give it
enough cardholders, merchants and fee income to make Uniclub
solidly profitable by year-end.  Uniclub markets a consumer
charge card that gives members a 15 pct reduction on monthly
billing for all retail purchases.
 Reuter

World Airways said it laid off
an additional 103 employees in its contract maintenance
operation at Oakland.
    Over the past five weeks, the company previously laid off
274 maintenance employees.
    The layoffs resulted from declines in current and projected
maintenance work, which the company provides principally for
other air carriers.
    World Airways said it cannot rule out additional layoffs,
as it explores a range of alternative for its contract
maintenance operation.
 Reuter

Champion Products Inc said the
two-for-one stock split it declared February 26 will be payable
April 24 to shareholders of record April One.
 Reuter

was holding several hours of talks with Soviet Foreign Minister
Eduard Shevardnadze today in pursuit of the first superpower
arms control agreement in nearly a decade.
    Shultz, accompanied by a panoply of senior advisers and
technical experts, went directly into a closed-door meeting
with Shevardnadze and the Soviet delegation after arriving in
Moscow from Helsinki aboard a U.S. Air Force jet.
traveling with the secretary that as the crucial talks got
under way, U.S. Arms control advisers were instructed not to
discuss the substance of the American proposals with the press.
    It has been reported previously that some of the proposals
-- such as those dealing with President Ronald Reagan's "Star
Wars" space shield against enemy missiles -- represent a
hardening of the U.S. Position.
    Nevertheless, U.S. Officials have been optimistic about the
possibility of progress on arms control during the talks, which
are scheduled to end Wednesday.
    Reagan, who is believed to want an agreement before he
leaves office in 1989, said last week that a breakthrough on an
accord eliminating intermediate-range missiles (INF) in Europe
was a distinct possibility.
 Reuter

    Shr 22 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 549,000 vs 747,000
    Sales 8.4 mln vs nine mln
    Avg shrs 2,550,784 vs 2,468,964
    Nine mths
    Shr 69 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 1,749,000 vs 1,554,000
    Sales 23.6 mln vs 21.3 mln
    Avg shrs 2,543,711 vs 2,453,520
 Reuter

has started trading the common stock of Lawrence Insurance
Group Inc, which went public today.
 Reuter

Guy F. Atkinson Co said its Guy
F. Atkinson Construction Co won a multi-million-dlr contract to
construct a station for the Metro Rail Project in Los Angeles.
    Construction on the proposed station wil begin this month,
with completion scheduled for February, 1990.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs six cts
    Net 1.7 mln vs 610,000
    Revs 68.7 mln vs 63.5 mln
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc's RJ
Reynolds Tobacco USA unit said it reached a definitive
agreement to sell Winchester Little Cigar Business to Tobacco
Exporters International USA Ltd of Atlanta, the U.S. subsidiary
of Rothman's International PLC.
    Terms were not disclosed. 
    Last week, RJ Reynolds announced the sale of four smoking
tobacco brands. These brands and Winchester represent less than
one pct of Rj Reynolds Tobacco USA's total sales, which were
4.7 billion dlrs in 1986.
    Reynolds said the sale is expected to be completed on April
24.
    The company said it planned to concentrate its resources on
the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.
    Reynolds said that Winchester, introduced in 1971, was a
dominant brand in the little cigar market.
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc said executive
vice president Sam Antar, who turns 66 soon, has resigned from
its board and has been replaced by William H. Saltzman, vice
president and general counsel of Sun/DIC Acquisition Corp.
    The company said Antar remains an executive vice president.
    Corrects to delete references to Antar being chief
financial officer and a member of the Office of the President.
 Reuter

<GPA Airbus 320 Ltd>, an affiliate of
Irish aircraft leasing company <GPA Group Ltd>, a Guinness Peat
<GNSP.L> subsidiary, said it had placed a 320 mln dlr order
with Franco-U.S. Group <CFM International> to supply the
engines for the 25 Airbus A320 it has on order.
    A spokeswoman said the final choice was between the CFM56-5
engine and the V2500 being developed by the five-nation
International Aero Engine consortium. CFM is a joint company of
U.S. General Electric Co <GE> and France's <SNECMA>.
    She said GPA had not decided which engine should power the
25 further A320 aircraft on which it has an option.
    GPA Airbus 320 chairman Peter Swift said in a statement, "We
received innovative and attractive proposals from both
manufacturers. We are confident our choice will prove
attractive to the many airlines which will be leasing our A320
fleet as it is delivered from 1990 onwards.."
    GPA Airbus 320 is a joint venture company, owned half by
GPA Group with <Canadian International Airlines> holding a 25
pct stake, Airbus Industrie <AINP.PA> a 17.5 stake and Banque
Paribas holding a 7.5 pct share.
    The company, based in Shannon, Ireland, is managed by GPA
Group.
 Reuter

Nearly 50 manufacturers and trade
groups asked the Reagan Administration for exclusions from the
tariffs it is to impose on Japanese exports Friday.
    Several police agencies also told a special screening panel
they wanted a Japanese-made fingerprinting system to be
excluded because it was vital for crime-fighting.
    Another 25 firms are to testify tomorrow.
    President Reagan announced the tariffs on March 27 to
retaliate for Japan's failure to honor an agreement to stop
dumping semiconductors in world markets outside the United
States at below cost and to open its own market to U.S. goods.
    U.S. semiconductor makers had complained they were being
injured by Japan's unfair trade practices.
    The tariffs of 100 pct - up from about five pct - are to be
applied to 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese exports including
power tools, television sets, computer parts and audio
equipment, in addition to the fingerprinting equipment.
    Reagan issued a list of several dozen products that could
be subject to the tariffs, and businessmen, lobbyists and
others asked for the exclusions in the two days of public
testimony that began today at the Commerce Department.
    He said "action should be taken in such a manner that
efforts to help the semiconductor industry do not inflict
extensive economic damage on the highly successful information
technology industry."
    A spokesman for Amdahl Corp <AMH>, a computer maker, said
it would be hit hard by tariffs on Fujitsu Ltd equipment
because Fujitsu was its only supplier of key electronic
    Makita U.S.A., Inc, a maker of hand-held electric power
tools, said if tariffs were imposed on its goods it would have
to close its U.S. manufacturing operation in Buford, Ga., and
layoff its entire U.S. workforce of 600 people.
    The U.S. Trade Representative's Office, which is conducting
the hearings, said the products to be assessed the higher
tariffs will be made public on Thursday or Friday.
    It said it would base its judgment on the impact of the
tariffs on the companies hit as well as on the buying public.
    Some of the tariffs would double the price of imports.
    Law officers from California, Illinois, Alaska and
elsewhere said they relied on NEC Corp of Japan's advanced
fingerprinting system and asked it be exempt from the new
tariffs.
    Fred Wynbrandt, representing the California attorney
general's office, said the tariffs would double California
state and local costs for fingerprinting operations.
    Many of those testifying backed the idea of retaliatory
tariffs but not on some goods that would hit their business.
    Vico Henriques, president of the Computer and Business
Equipment Manufacturers Association, called for exemptions for
components that U.S. firms bought in Japan and for goods made
in Japan under a U.S. license or by a joint venture.
 more

Leading central bank
governors held their routine monthly meeting at the Bank for
International Settlements (BIS) here today, monetary sources
said.
    There was no indication of subjects discussed. No
statements were planned.
 Reuter

Digital Equipment Corp said it will
redeem on May 14 all 75 mln dlrs of its outstanding 9-3/8 pct
sinking fund debentures of 2000.
    It will buy back the debentures at 1,052.86 dlrs for each
1,000 dlr principal amount, including interest, Digital said.
    The firm will redeem the debentures with funds generated
from operations. Its capital structure will be strengthened and
interest expense reduced as a result, the company noted.
 Reuter

3rd qtr Feb 28
    Shr profit 14 cts vs loss four cts
    Net profit 311,994 vs loss 66,858
    Revs 2,229,273 vs 645,753
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 51 cts vs profit two cts
    Net profit 1,126,673 vs profit 42,718
    Revs 7,277,340 vs 1,378,372
 Reuter

Some of the United States' largest
aerospace firms are competing with some of the world's most
powerful nations for a chance to cash in on the coming
commercialization of space.
      The newest space race is for contracts to launch
privately owned satellites into orbit - a business expected to
be worth two billion to five billion dlrs annually in a few
years.
    The growing opportunities to make money in space will be
highlighted this month when the U.S. National Oceanic
Atmospheric Administration seeks lucrative commercial bids to
lauch future weather satellites, ending its long-standing
dependence on the National Aeronautics and Space
    Companies and countries with established satellite
launching operations may also get a jump on eventually
providing other space-based services, particularly if the
proposed international manned space station is launched as
planned in the early 1990s.
    The 12 billion dlr space station, first proposed by
President Reagan in 1984, could require as many as 16 cargo
deliveries a year, many delivered by private firms. The
partners in the space station are currently slated to be
Canada, Japan, and the 13-nation European Space Agency, the
latter two of which also have or are developing their own
commercial space programs.
     Until the Challenger explosion in January 1986, NASA had a
virtual lock on the world's commercial space cargo.
    But after a re-evaluation of the shuttle program, President
Reagan declared last August that future U.S. shuttle flights
will no longer carry commercial payloads.
    The administration's decision left Arianespace, a
French-led European consortium, the only option available to
satellite owners and the concern quickly sold out all its
planned flights through 1989.
    The company also raised its prices, from 30,000 dlrs a
launch to 50,000 dlrs, but even the larger price tag did not
dampen demand. Arianespace sighned 18 new contracts last year,
compared with 11 in 1985.
    Those kind of tariffs have caused even non-capitalist
countries to try and get a piece of the action.
    China, the Soviet Union and Japan have all announced
satellite launch programs and several U.S. firms, including
McDonnell Douglas Corp, General Dynamics Corp and Martin
Marietta promised to spend mlns of dollars over the next three
years to develop their own satellite launch capabilities.
    There will be some tremendous pent-up demand for satellite
launches by then, analysts said. Without Challenger, there were
only three satellite launches last year, 15 fewer than in 1985
and the lowest since 1980, when only two were sent up.
    Ariane expects to launch from six to eight satellites a
year for the next three years, about 75 pct of the world's
satellite launches during that period.
     McDonnell Douglas scored the biggest coup of the U.S.
firms in January when it won a 734 mln dlr U.S. Air Force pact
for up to 20 unmanned rockets to launch military satellites.
The contract is expected to underwrite the company's efforts to
build rockets for private satellite launches.
      Martin Marietta, however, was the first U.S. company to
sign up a client, Federal Express Co. Marietta plans to launch
an ExpressStar communications satellite in 1989.
    Marietta said it will also build a version of its Titan
rockets used by the Air Force to other private companies that
want to get into the satellite launch buisiness.
    Arianespace director Charles Bigot said the U.S. companies
will probably become the European firm's biggest competitors
for satellite launching. He does not expect the national space
programs to become commercially viable until the late 1990s.
    Japan has expanded its space program, launching 38
government-owned satellites in the last 16 years. But most of
them were small and it was only in February it launched its
first satellite that circles the earth over the poles.
    Japan also has yet to design and build its own rockets. The
satellite launched in February was placed in orbit by a
McDonnell Douglas-designed Delta rocket assembled by the
Japanese under license.
    Tsugo Tadakawa, director of the Washington office of
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA), said Japan
plans to launch seven of its H-1 rockets, an American Japanese
hybrid that replaces the Delta, through 1991. Its much larger
sucessor, the H-II, should be ready by 1992, he said.
    NASDA's annual budget is only about 800 mln dlrs, Tadakawa
said, about 10 pct the size of NASA's yearly spending.
    Still, NASDA is free from private competition at home and
has the full support of the government, since aerospace was
chosen by the Ministry of Trade and Information as one of the
country's new industries for the next decade.
     Surprisingly, the People's Republic of China, a relative
newcomer to aerospace, is so far the most successful competitor
to Ariane.
    The country's Great Wall Industry Corp is the only national
program besides the European consortium to win a private
satellite contract. It will launch a Westar communications
satellite for New-York based Terasat in 1988.
 Reuter

acquired privately held Western Ranchman Outfitters, a
Cheyenne, Wyo., retailer and catalog seller of western apparel.
    Western Ranchman had sales of about 2.2 mln dlrs for the
year ended Jan 31, 1987, the company said.
    Gander Mountain sells brand name hunting, fishing and
outdoor gear through catalogs.
 Reuter

U.S. officials said they held out
little hope the European Community, EC, would withdraw a
controversial meat inspection requirement, due to go into
effect April 30 and which U.S. meat producers claim will cut
off their exports.
    But the officials said they expect the EC to allow U.S.
plants to continue shipping meat through the end of the year
provided they submit a plant improvement program with the U.S.
Agriculture Department.
    The EC's so-called Third Country Meat Directive will
require foreign meat processing plants to comply fully with EC
inspection standards beginning April 30.
    The U.S. meat industry has prepared a petition requesting
the Reagan administration to retaliate against the EC rule.
    At issue are U.S. meat exports to the EC valued at 132 mln
    The EC rule would require all U.S. plants to make changes
in their inspection methods, ranging from veterinary staffing
to use of wood.
    Last December, the EC determined that only one U.S. cattle,
one hog and one sheep slaughtering facility could be approved
without further review. USDA would have to certify that the
plants had corrected the deficiencies.
    All remaining plants with a history or potential of
shipping to the EC -- totaling nearly 400 -- would require more
significant changes in plant constructions or procedures before
further EC review.
    Robert Hibbert, general counsel for the American Meat
Institute, said the meat industry expected to submit a formal
trade retaliation petition by April 30.
    An interagency committee is reviewing the industry's draft
petition.
    An official at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office said
U.S. officials continued to press the EC to withdraw the rule,
but that "the chances of that are not too good at this time."
    However, there is the "expectation" in U.S. government and
meat industry circles that the EC will continue to allow
shipments, at least through the end of the calendar year, from
U.S. plants that submit to USDA a plan on how they will bring
their operations into conformity with the EC regulation, the
USTR official said.
 Reuter

Major U.S. banks may lift prime
lending rates again within days due to recent increases in
their borrowing costs and speculation the Federal Reserve is
nudging up interest rates to help the dollar, economists said.
    In what was the first prime rate boost since mid-1984, most
banks in early April lifted their rates a quarter point to
7-3/4 pct, citing a reduced gap between the prime and their own
cost of money. That spread has narrowed again.
    "A prime rate increase could happen as soon as tonight,"
said Robert Brusca of Nikko Securities Co International Inc.
    Brusca said a quarter-point prime rate rise to eight pct is
justified because the spread between banks' cost of funds and
the prime rate has narrowed to less than three quarters of a
percentage point.
    He said that spread had averaged around 1.4 percentage
points since last October until it fell below one point and
triggered the April prime rate rise at most banks.
    "We could easily have another prime rate increase as soon
as this week," said David Jones of Aubrey G. Lanston and Co.
    "We've got a fairly good chance of a prime rate rise in the
near future," said Allan Leslie of Discount Corp.
    "Based on the spread between the prime rate and funding
costs, you would ordinarily see a prime rate increase now,"
said Harold Nathan, economist at Wells Fargo Bank.
    However, he said banks may be reluctant to lift the prime
because that would dampen already fairly weak business loan
demand and because some are not sure the Fed will maintain
recent upward pressure on money market interest rates.
    Nathan believes the Fed has let market pressures lift
short-term rates in recent days to help the ailing dollar. He
said "if there is widespread belief money market rates will
stay high, a prime rate rise could occur at any time."
    Fed officials have long expressed concern that too steep a
dollar drop could help rekindle U.S. inflation. As the dollar
fell to a 40-year low against the yen Friday, currency traders
said the Fed and other central banks supported the dollar.
    In addition to buying dollars outright, another way to
stabilize the U.S. currency would be for the Fed to push U.S.
interest rates higher relative to overseas rates.
    Based particularly on the Fed's reserve management actions
on Friday and today, Nathan of Wells Fargo said "it has become
clear that the Fed is not fully resisting upward rate pressure
in the market. It is supplying fewer reserves than are needed."
    Bank funding costs and other short and long-term interest
rates rose sharply Friday and today on heightened speculation
that the Fed is gently firming monetary policy.
    That was because the Fed supplied far fewer reserves in the
market than most economists had expected.
    On Friday, the Fed added reserves indirectly and in small
amounts via one billion dlrs of customer repurchase agreements
with the Federal funds rate at which banks lend to one another
high at 6-5/16 pct. With funds trading even higher at 6-1/2 pct
today, the Fed arranged only a slightly larger 1.5 billion dlr
round of customer repurchase agreements.
    "The Fed's actions on Friday and today show that it is
offering only token resistance to upward funds rate pressures,"
said Jones of Lanston.
    "The Fed is focusing its policy attention mainly on the
need to defend the dollar," Jones said. He believes it is
merely shading policy toward restraint now, "but to have a
major impact on the dollar, the Fed will have to tighten policy
overtly at some point."
    Jones expects the Fed to foster higher market rates by
becoming more restrictive in supplying reserves and, within
four to six weeks, to raise its discount rate from 5-1/2 pct.
    Jones said a U.S. discount rate increase to six pct might
well be accompanied by West German and Japanese rate cuts to
further aid the dollar.
    Given likely Fed policy firming, he said both the yield on
30-year Treasury bonds (about 8.30 pct now) and the prime rate
may be at 8-1/2 pct at end-June and nine pct by year's end.
    "The jury is still out on whether the Fed is tightening
policy to defend the dollar," said Leslie of Discount Corp. He
said tax-date pressures have been pushing up Fed funds lately.
Leslie said Fed actions and reserve data once these pressures
abate will show whether or not it is firming policy.  
 Reuter

BankAmerica Corp said it has
introduced an electronic information and transaction service
for small businesses in California.
    The bank holding company said the service, called Business
Connection, allows customers to use personal computers to
transefer money between accounts, check account balances in
Bank of America business checking, savings and credit card
accounts, and to call up checking account statements.
    The service also allows businesses to use electronic mail
to stop payments on checks, access commercial credit lines for
advancements and repayments,  and to pay bills.
 Reuter

White House officials
said no progress had been made in talks with Japan on a dispute
on Japanese microchip sales.
    President Reagan's National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci
told reporters "it looks like a very difficult situation at this
point."
    The Reagan administration is due to slap 100 pct tariffs on
a range of Japanese products on Friday in retaliation for
Japan's alleged failure to honor an agreement to stop dumping
semiconductors in world markets outside the U.S. and failure to
open its own market to U.S. goods.
    White House chief of staff Howard Baker said that talks
with the Japanese had failed to provide any reason to prevent
the publication of a proclamation on Friday putting the new
duties in effect.
    "I assume that there will be a proclamation on Friday," Baker
said. Carlucci said that the evidence of Japanese microchip
dumping at below production costs in third countries had been
fairly conclusive. He said that in U.S.-Japanese talks that
concluded last Friday, Japanese officials presented statistics
to show that Japan had made its market more open to American
products.
    "Our statistics do not confirm this, indeed they tend to go
in the other direction," Carlucci said.
    Baker and Carlucci appeared before White House reporters as
Reagan enjoyed a vacation at his mountaintop ranch near Santa
Barbara.
 Reuter

Properties Trust said it declared its initial dividend of 55
cts per share for the quarter ending March 31, 1987.
    The dividend is payable May 20 to shareholders of record
April 20, 1987, it said.
    The dividend includes five cts attributable to the period
between Dec 23 and 31, 1986, and 50 cts attributable to the
first quarter of 1987, ending March 31, 1987.

 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 58 cts
    Net 29.0 mln vs 37.9 mln
    Revs 251.2 mln vs 254.2 mln
    Avg shrs 57.9 mln vs 56.0 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 1.36 dlrs vs 2.37 dlrs
    Net 93.7 mln vs 152.3 mln
    Revs 981.9 mln vs 1.03 billion
    Avg shrs 57.2 mln vs 55.3 mln
    NOTE: 1987 12 mth net includes 43.7 mln dlr charge due to
December 1986 provision for coal mining operations refund.
 Reuter

L.M. Ericsson of Sweden said it agreed
in principle to buy the 49 pct of Intelsa, its Spanish unit,
that it does not already own from <Telefonica>, Spain's
telecommunications administration.
    Ericsson said Intelsa, which controls about 40 pct of the
Spanish telephone switch market, has 2,400 employees and annual
sales of 800 mln crowns, or 117 mln dlrs.
    "The purchase will not affect the close working
relationship between Telefonica and Intelsa," Ericsson said.
 Reuter

<ITS Inc> said it has completed
development of two interactive video systems for <Mass Mutual
Insurance Co> under a two mln dlr development agreement.
    ITS said the systems are integrated, interactive marketing
and training programs designed for the insurance industry.
 Reuter

Insituform Group Ltd said the exercise
price of its publicly-held warrants will increase 38 cts to
2.76 dlrs per share on April 25 and will increase 38 cts on
each succeeding April 25 until their April 25, 1990 expiration.
 Reuter

PicTel Corp said it has changed
its name to PictureTel Corp, effective immediately.
    It said Pacific Telesis Grouyp <PAC> had threatened legal
action if it did not cease the use of the name PicTel, alleging
that it conflicted with Telesis' trademark PACTEL.
    The company said Telesis will reimburse it for some
expenses of the name change, which was approved by shareholders
at the annual meeting last week.
 Reuter

CompuTrac Inc said it expects first
quarter earnings to be down 50 to 60 pct from a year ago.
    In last year's first quarter ended April 30, CompuTrac
earned 379,000 dlrs on revenues of 2.4 mln dlrs.
    The company said sales commitments on hand are about 50 pct
above those of a year ago, but system sales revenues are
recognized at shipment, and only 30 to 40 pct of sales
commitments in hand will ship during the period.
    It said its outlook for the year remains unchanged.
 Reuter

Datapoint Corp said it named
John Novak to the newly-created position of senior vice
president of operations, and John Peter as chief financial
officer.
    Peter replaces Stewart Paperin, who also held the
treasurer's post, the company said. Datapoint named Stephen
Baum as its treasurer and vice president of financial planning.
    Also named to vice president positions were George Beason,
of customer sales and development, who replaced Charles McCoy.
    Gordon Cardigan, of communications, and Charles Temple, of
human resources and corporate administration, filled vacancies,
    Novak was formerly vice president and general manager of
manufacturing and support operations, the company said. Peter
was vice president and corporate controller, it added.
   
 Reuter

Hitech Engineering Co said it won
litigation brought against it by Coldwell Banker Commercial
Services Group, a unit of Sears, Roebuck and Co <S>.
    In the lawsuit, tried in U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia, Coldwell had claimed that Hitech
improperly canceled a lease for additional office space and
sought damages of 350,000 dlrs.
    The company said the plaintiff has the right to appeal but
that no appeal has been filed to date. Hitech's legal counsel
is confident that the verdict will not be overturned, it added.
 Reuter

Nova, an Alberta Corp, chief executive
Robert Blair expressed hope that Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>
remains under Canadian ownership, but added that his company
plans no bid of its own for debt-troubled Dome.
    "We've no plan to bid," Blair told reporters after a speech
to a business group, although he stressed that Nova and 57
pct-owned Husky Oil Ltd <HYO> were interested in Dome's
extensive Western Canadian energy holdings.
    "But being interested can sometimes be different from
making a bid," Blair said.
    TransCanada PipeLines Ltd <TRP> yesterday bid 4.30 billion
dlrs for Dome, but Dome said it was discontinuing talks with
TransCanada and was considering a proposal from another company
and was also talking with another possible buyer, both rumored
to be offshore.
    Asked by reporters if Dome should remain in Canadian hands,
Blair replied, "Yes. I think that we still need to be building
as much Canadian position in this industry as we can and I
think it would be best if Dome ends up in the hands of Canadian
management."
    He said he did not know who other possible bidders were.
    Blair said that any move to put Dome's financial house in
order "will remove one of the general problems of attitude that
have hung over Western Canadian industry."
    He added, however, that the energy industry still faced "a
couple of tough, tough additional years."
    Asked about Nova's 1987 prospects, Blair predicted that
Nova's net profit would rise this year to more than 150 mln
dlrs from last year's net profit of 100.2 mln dlrs due to
improved product prices and continued cost-cutting.
 Reuter

FEDERAL COURT DISMISSES FMC CORP'S INSIDER TRADING SUIT AGAINST IVAN BOESKY, COURT CLERK SAYS

<Associated Metals and Minerals Corp>
said its Swiss subsidiary, <Metall und Rohstoff AG>, sued
<Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette Inc>, the New York investment
bank, for 65 mln dlrs.
    The amount reflects the unsatisfied portion of a judgment
issued in February by a London court against ACLI Metals
(London) Ltd, a unit of DLJ, the company said.
    A London Commercial court found that a DLJ managing
director and ACLI employees fraudulently misappropriated Metal
und Rohstoff collateral in 1983 to cover deficits in aluminum
trading accounts, it said.
    The court awarded 76 mln dlrs plus costs to Metall und
Rohstoff, which received about 10 mln dlrs from ACLI.
    The new lawsuit alleges that DLJ management misappropriated
collateral and also charges it with breach of trust and abuse
of the legal process.
    In addition, Metall und Rohstoff has filed a petition in
London seeking the compulsory involuntary bankruptcy of ACLI
London. It is expected that a liquidator will be named shortly,
Associated said.
    DLJ is owned by <Equitable Life Assurance Society of the
U.S.>
 Reuter

March cargo ton miles, includiung U.S. mail and air express
services, were up 27.2 pct to 4,763,432 from 3,744,535.
    For the year to date, it said cargo ton miles were up 26.7
pct to 13.3 mln from 10.5 mln a year before.
 Reuter

Exxon Co U.S.A. said it is expanding
marketing of its mid-grade unleaded gasoline along the U.S.
East Coast.
    The Exxon Corp subsidiary said the changeover to the
89-octane unleaded fuel will begin late this month and early
next in major markets in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, and the
District of Columbia. The product was introduced in New York,
New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and the Philadelphia area late last year.
   
 Reuter

<FiberCom Inc> said it signed a
contract with <Computer Connection A/S>, Mjoendalen, Norway, to
install a data communications network based on fiber optics.
    Under terms of the 3.5 mln dlr agreement, the company said
it will supply Computer Connection with 6,000 transceivers and
its WhisperNet local area network, which employs the Ethernet
standard.
    FiberCom said the network will connected 125 of Norway's
largest banks. It said the network will be the largest
fiber-optic based data network in the world.
 Reuter

First Montauk Securities Corp
said it has reached a preliminary merger agreement with
MCC-Presidential Inc.
    The company said MCC shareholders would have a 25 pct stake
in the combined company and would receive a cash distribution
of about 35 cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr 82 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 44.6 mln vs 38.9 mln
    Avg shrs 54.3 mln vs 52.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 1.35 dlrs vs 1.53 dlrs
    Net 42,137,000 vs 47,792,000
    Loans 10.26 billion vs 9.97 billion
    Deposits 7.65 billion vs 7.63 billion
    Assets 11.84 billion vs 12.00 billion
    Note: Current qtr figures include 3.3 mln dlr charge 
resulting from penalties for prepayment of FHLB borrowings.
 Reuter

keeping Borg-Warner Corp's 400 mln dlrs of debt on creditwatch
with negative implications.
    Under review are the company's A-plus senior debt and A-1
    S and P cited an offer by a Merrill Lynch and Co-backed
investment group's offer to acquire Borg-Warner for 3.76
    The purchase would increase Borg-Warner's financial risk
and impair its earnings and cash flow protection, resulting in
a debt leverage rise to a very high level, S and P said.
 Reuter

Oper shr 96 cts vs 79 cts
    Oper net 43.7 mln vs 36.4 mln
    Sales 1.48 billion vs 1.15 billion
    NOTE: 1987 sales includes operations of Sperry Aerospace.
    1986 operating net excludes a charge from discontinued
operations of 10.2 mln dlrs or 22 cts a share.
 Reuter

The Environmental Protection Agency's
five to 10 mln dlr suit against a Browning-Ferris Industries
Inc <BFI> unit, CECOS International Inc, caused the stock to
drop today, analysts said.
    The stock has fallen 2-1/4 to 56-1/8 so far today, after
the news about the suit was released this morning.
    "It's potentially a big suit and investors feel that its
not good to go against regulators," Kenneth Ch'u-K'ai Leung, a
Smith Barney analyst said.
    "What investors are actually saying by selling off some BFI
shares is the cloud over this industry is the threat that the
EPA will get tough on waste management companies," Willard
Brown, senior analyst for First Albany Corp.
    "Investors are saying to themselves that waste management
companies have that kind of exposure to regulatory suits,"
Brown said. Brown said if the suit were settled for 10 mln dlrs
it would have an impact on Browning Ferris earnings.
    Leung said, however, that Browning-Ferris has adequate cash
reserves to cover the fine. "It would have no impact on
earnings whatsoever," he said.
 Reuter

Homestake Mining Co is considering
acquiring more gold ore reserves in addition to the company's
exploration efforts, chief executive Harry Conger told Reuters
in an interview.
    "We are looking at more options to acquire more reserves
rather than just exploration," Conger said adding, "the move to
consider acquisitions represents a change in the company's
acquisitions policy."
    Conger said all of Homestake's current cash position of 120
mln dlrs would be available to acquire reserves. In addition,
Homestake has two lines of credit totaling 150 mln dlrs which
have not been drawn on today and could be used to finance an
acquisition, he said.
    Conger said he anticipates 1987 exploration budget will be
about the same as 1986 spending of 27.3 mln dlrs. Conger said
exploration for precious metals may be slightly higher than
last year's spending of 17.7 mln dlrs while oil and gas
exploration spending will be slightly less than last year's 9.6
pct.
    Conger said he sees Homestake's 1987 gold production about
the same as 1986 gold production of 669,594 ounces.
    However, 1987 first quarter production from its McLaughlin
reserve will be about 10 pct lower than last year's 45,400
ounces due to start-up production problems.
    He said he believes gold prices will hold above the 400
U.S. dlr an ounce level for the rest of 1987.
     IN 1986, company earnings were based an average market
price for gold of 368 dlrs an ounce.
    Conger said a three pct change in gold prices represents a
12 cts a share impact on earnings but he declined to give a
specific forecast for 1987's first quarter, due to be released
in 10 days, or for full year 1987 results.
 Reuter

Shr loss 95 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net loss 6,882,497 vs loss 513,153
    Revs 11.3 mln vs 10.0 mln
    Avg shrs 7,251,000 vs 6,017,000
    NOTE: 1986 net includes 1,600,000 dlrs in increased
provisions for uncollectible receivables from affiliates, lower
recoverable value of inventories and writeoffs of capitalized
costs on discontinued projects, 1,700,000 dlr provision for
resolution of shareholder class action suit and gain 1,300,000
dlrs from repurchase of manufacturing equipment.

 Reuter

Empire Co Ltd said it will acquire all
shares of Sobeys Stores Ltd it does not already own under an
arrangement approved by directors of both companies.
    Holders of Sobeys class A non-voting shares and class B
common shares may elect to receive either 1.6 non-voting class
A Empire shares or one non-voting class A Empire share and
one-half of an eight pct redeemable retractable preferred
share. The preferred share has a par value of 25 dlrs and is
retractable at the holder's option on May 1, 1994.

 Reuter

    Net 152,360 vs 94,141
    Revs 4,073,911 vs 4,116,333
    NOTE: International Research and Development Corp is full
name of company.
 Reuter

Brooklyn Union Gas Co's Brooklyn
Union Exploration Co Inc unit said it entered a 200 mln dlr
three-year gas and oil exploration and development venture with
Smith Offshore Exploration Co.
    The agreement calls for drilling of 10 to 12 offshore wells
per year, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico area off the Texas
and Louisiana coasts and 30 to 40 onshore Texas and Louisiana
Gulf Coast wells.
   
 Reuter

may upgrade 1.28 billion dlrs of debt of New Jersey Bell
Telephone Co, a unit of Bell Atlantic Corp.
    The agency will evaluate New Jersey Bell's ability to
sustain its improved financial performance, including interest
coverage, capital structure and profitability. Moody's will
also assess the likelihood of continued constructive regulatory
treatment.
    New Jersey Bell currently carries Aa-1 debentures. Its
Prime-1 commercial paper rating is not under review. Moody's
also cited a strong New Jersey economy.
 Reuter

CANADA PLANS THREE-PART, ONE BILLION DLR BOND ISSUE TUESDAY - OFFICIAL

FMC Corp's 225 mln dlr insider trading
case against Wall Street arbitrageur Ivan Boesky was dismissed
by a federal court, a court clerk said.
    Federal Judge Ann C. Williams, in an oral ruling, said FMC
had not been harmed by trading in FMC stock by Boesky and other
traders prior to FMC's two-billion dlr recapitalization last
year.
    FMC had claimed insider trading by Boesky had forced it to
increase the value of the recapitalization to 80 dlrs a share
from 70 dlrs a share.
    FMC had charged that Boesky received confidential
information about FMC's planned recapitalization from Dennis
Levine, a former merger specialist with Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc.
    An FMC spokeswoman said in response to an inquiry that FMC
might appeal the ruling, made in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Illinois, once a formal written
decision is received. The written ruling is expected April 15.
    The spokeswoman said FMC might appeal alleged contract
violations involved in the dispute. That part of the case,
involving a contract between FMC and Goldman Sachs and Co,
would be appealed to an Illinois state court, she said.
    Goldman Sachs was FMC's investment banker in its planned
restructuring. A FMC spokeswoman said the contract was a
standard contract under which Goldman Sachs advised FMC on the
    "We are certainly taking a look at appealing" the ruling in
Illinois state court, the FMC spokeswoman said in response to
an inquiry.
    The suit claimed that Boesky bought 95,300 FMC shares
between February 18 and February 21, 1986, selling those shares
for a profit of 975,000 dlrs on February 21, the day FMC first
said it was considering a recapitalization.
    Also, the suit said Boesky bought a further 1,922,000 FMC
shares between March 12 and April four, acknowledging the
purchase of a 7.5 pct stake in the company in a 13-D filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April seven.
    "We alleged his actions kept the stock price artificially
high and put pressure on FMC to increase the terms of the
recapitalization," the FMC spokeswoman said.
    The increase to 80 dlrs from 70 dlrs a share was announced
April 26.
 Reuter

same year-ago period, Goodyear reported a loss of 59 cents a
   
 Reuter

    Note: Full name is International Research and Development
Corp.
 Reuter

Honeywell Inc said a gain of
20.1 pct in its 1987 first quarter operating earnings was the
result of cost cutting efforts which began last year.
    Honeywell reported 1987 first quarter operating earnings
rose to 43.7 mln dlrs or 96 cts a share from 36.4 mln dlrs or
79 cts in the same period a year ago.
    Better operating results in each of the company's three 
sectors offset higher interest costs in the first quarter due
to financing the December acquisition of Sperry Aerospace and
the sharing of the Federal Systems subsidiary pre-tax profit
with Honeywell Bull Inc, Honeywell said.
    "Our first quarter results show clear benefits of our
restructuring," chairman Edson Spencer said. "All of our
businesses are producing better results than last year, even
though we do not see significant improvement in the external
market environment," he said.
    Total orders in the first quarter were up substantially,
with a sharp increase in aerospace and defense orders in
addition to those of the new Sperry Aerospace group, it said.
    Domestic industrial automation and control orders were
modestly higher than the same period in 1986, it said.
    Orders in Honeywell's home and building automation and
control business were flat in the U.S. and up in international
markets, it said.
    International orders increased, with the greatest strength
in Europe, Honeywell said.
    The company said that by year-end 1987, it intends to
complete the repurchase of 3.3 mln shares remaining of a five
mln share buyback program which began in 1986.
 Reuter

CCC, has authorized 3.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees for sales
of U.S. rice to Algeria for fiscal year 1987 under the Export
Credit Guarantee Program, GSM-102, the U.S. Agriculture
    The additional guarantees increase the cumulative fiscal
year 1987 program for sales of U.S. agricultural products to
Algeria to 469.0 mln dlrs.
    To be eligible for the credit guarantee coverage, all sales
under the new line must be registered and exported by September
30, 1987, the department aid.
 Reuter

Shr loss 34 cts
    Net loss 17.1 mln vs profit 10.1 mln
    Revs 106.2 mln vs 101.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 28 cts
    Net loss 14.4 mln vs profit 11.6 mln
    Revs 237.2 mln vs 179.5 mln
    Note: Company said year ago per share not given as not
comparable due to certain allocations of expenses from the
Turner Entertainment Group, not made in subsequent periods.
1987 results reflect the TBS merger agreement and operations of
the company as independent agent. 1986 data includes
extraordinary tax loss carryforward gains of 1,185,000 dlrs in
qtr and six mths.
 Reuter

Spencer Cos Inc said it sued two Chase
Manhattan Corp units for forcing Spencer and its subsidiaries
to seek protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S.
Bankruptcy Code.
    The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Massachusetts, seeks 100 mln dlrs in actual
damages, 300 mln dlrs in additional damages and recovery of
attorney's fees. In the nine-count complaint, Spencer contends
that Chase Manhattan Bank, while purporting to negotiate
additional financing, inflated Spencer's accounts, dishonored
its checks and seized 600,000 dlrs from its accounts without
notification.
    The company said Chase then demanded immediate repayment of
its 3.2 mln dlrs unsecured loan.
    The suit also names Chase National Corporate Services Inc
as a defendant.
    The damages sought include a loss of about 40 mln dlrs on
the liquidation of Spencer's Happy Legs Inc subsidiary, the
footwear retailer said.
    Spencer said it has recovered more than 500,000 dlrs of the
funds seized by Chase and has obtained financing from a leading
Boston bank.
    Boston-based Spencer filed for Chapter 11 on Nov 19, 1986.
 Reuter

    Conger said, "the move to consider acquisitions represents
a change in the company's acquistions policy."
have not been drawn on and could be used to finance an
about the same as 1986 spending of 27.3 mln dlrs.
    Conger said exploration for precious metals may be slightly
higher than last year's spending of 17.7 mln dlrs while oil and
gas exploration spending will be slightly less than last year's
9.6 pct.
 Reuter

Bell Atlantic Corp's Bell of
Pennsylvania unit said federal regulators granted it interim
permission to sell regulated telecommunications network
services along with equipment provided by an unregulated Bell
Atlantic unit.
    In January, the Federal Communications Commission ruled
that Bell telephone companies could sell their telephone
services in tandem with equipment provided by their unregulated
equipment units.
    But the FCC stipulated that the Bell companies must comply
with new accounting rules that separate the costs of regulated
telephone service from those of unregulated businesses.
    Bell of Pennsylvnia said the FCC gave it interim relief to
jointly market services and equipment until its accounting plan
is approved by the commission.
 Reuter

OPEC's credibility faces fresh scrutiny
in coming weeks amid signs of a significant rise in supplies of
oil to international oil markets, the Kuwait daily al-Qabas
said.
    In an article headlined, "Gulf oil sources say Middle East
production up 1.4 mln bpd," it warned OPEC's official prices
could face fresh pressure from international oil companies
seeking cheaper supplies.
    It did not say whether only OPEC or both OPEC and other
producers were behind the reported rise in Mideast output. Nor
did it specify if the sources were official or other contacts. 
   "The sources said the credibility of OPEC would come under
fresh scrutiny from today (Monday), with activity in the
European and American markets," the daily said.
    The sources were quoted as saying that after OPEC had in
March demonstrated its commitment to quota agreements, some
members had raised output last week. It gave no details.
    "Dealers in oil markets were now waiting to see if Opec was
able to control production, or whether the days of cheating and
producing over quotas has begun anew," it said.
    The sources warned that "maybe the (price of a) barrel of
oil will fall below 18, perhaps 17.80 dlrs this week or next if
there is no control on supplies," it said.
    "The sources believed a return of oil below 18 dlrs a barrel
may open the doors for international oil companies to pressure
OPEC over contract prices, similar to the struggle last March,"
it said, apparently referring to resistance by buyers to lift
from Qatar unless it gave price discounts.
    "More than one official has warned OPEC would find its
solidarity under scrutiny by the end of April or start of May,"
it said, noting demand usually fell with the onset of summer.
 Reuter

Shr 90 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 22.9 mln vs 7,567,000
    Sales 323.0 mln vs 272.1 mln
    Note: per share figures reflect April 25, 1986
five-to-three stock split. Full year figures not available.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton said it named Steven 
Peras, formerly vice president in charge of all spot trading
for Irving Bank's <V> Irving Trust Co, senior vice president
for worldwide foreign exchange trading.
    Peras, 30, will direct Hutton's foreign corporate and
individual foreign exchange account development, and
market-making in currencies for the firm on a worldwide basis,
Hutton said. Hutton has foreign exchange trading operations in
London and New York.
 Reuter

American Century Corp said it
has restated its earnings for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1986 to provide an additional five mln dlrs to its loan loss
allowance, causing a restated year-end net loss of 14,937,000
dlrs, instead of 9,937,000 dlrs.
    The company said the change came after talks with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on the company's judgement
in considering the five mln dlrs collectible.
    In the note to its 1986 financial statement, American
Century said it considered the five mln dlrs collectible,
making its loan loss provision less than required.
    The company said in spite of the SEC decision, it still
feels its allowance for possible loan losses at June 30, 1986
was adequate and that it has considered all relevant
information to determine the collectibility of the five mln dlr
receivable.
    But, it said continued disagreement with the SEC staff
would not be in its best interest.
 Reuter

Canada plans a three part, one billion
dlr issue Tuesday, which will be dated and delivered May 1, the
finance department said. The bonds will be issued as follows.
    - 8-1/2 pct bonds due March 1, 1992,
    - 8-3/4 pct bonds due June 1, 1996,
    - 9 pct bonds due March 1, 2011.
    The nine pct bonds will be issued to a maximum of 325 mln
dlrs. The Bank of Canada will buy a minimum of 100 mln dlrs of
the new issue, including five mln dlrs of the 2011 maturity.
 Reuter

(Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)
is considering classifying its 1.2 Canadian billion dlrs in
loans to Brazil as non-accrual and will decide whether it will
do so in June, bank chairman R. Donald Fullerton told reporters
after a business speech here.
    Fullerton said the loans would be listed as non-accrual in
financial results for the second quarter ending April 30.
    (Bank of Montreal), which has loaned about two billion
Canadian dlrs to Brazil, the largest amount of any Canadian
bank, previously said it is also considering declaring the
loans as non-accrual in second quarter results.
    Under Canadian guidlines, loans are classified as
non-accrual when there are indications the bank will lose
interest or principal on the loan or when it believes it will
be difficult to fully settle the account within a reasonable
period.
    Several U.S. banks have already announced they plan to
place their loans to Brazil on non-accrual lists.
    Fullerton also said Canadian Imperial still plans to enter
the brokerage business this year after the federal government
introduces laws that will let banks expand their actitivities.
    "We'll be looking at anything in the Canadian market at
this point in time--from the very biggest (brokerage company)
to the very smallest," Fullerton told reporters.
    Fullerton said he considers buying seats on stock exchanges
"a sensible move".
    Fullerton declined to comment on TransCanada Pipelines Ltd
(TRP)'s bid for Dome Petroleum Ltd (DMP). Canadian Imperial has
about 900 mln Canadian dlrs in outstanding loans to Dome,
making it one of the oil company's two largest Canadian
creditors. The bank has a joint director on Dome's management
board, Fullerton said.          
    Fullerton said he did not have enough information on the
bid to evaluate its effect on Dome or its debt restructuring
talks.
    Fullerton called in a prepared speech for full reciprocity
in any free-trade agreement with the U.S. involving financial
services.
    "There are strong indications that financial services are
being bargained away in the current free trade negotiations
between Canada and the United States with no requirement of
full reciprocity," Fullerton said.          
    He said U.S. banks given equal privileges with Canadian
banks here would be able to operate throughout the country
while Canadian banks in the U.S. would be subject to approval
and regulation by each state.
 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 5.3 billion dlrs of debt of Georgia
Power Co, a unit of The Southern Co.
    Affirmed were the Baa-1 first mortgage bonds, secured
pollution control revenue bonds and cumulative preferred stock,
and the Baa-2 unsecured pollution control revenue bonds.
    Moody's said, however, that it may review the company's
debt ratings pending a rate decision by the Georgia Public
Service Commission due by October. If the rate order is
unconstructive, Moody's review would have negative implications
at that time, the agency noted.
 Reuter

Shr loss 28 cts vs profit three cts
    Net loss 18.9 mln vs profit 2.1 mln
    Assets 16.7 billion vs 19.8 billion
    Deposits 14.1 billion vs 16.2 billion
    Loans 12.2 billion vs 14.4 billion
    Note: Net includes securities gains of 20.4 mln vs 13.1
mln. Net charge-offs totaled 41.9 mln vs 42.2 mln, while
provisions for loan losses was 56.6 mln vs 52.2 mln.
Non-performing assets totaled 1.24 billion vs 799 mln.
 Reuter

Computer Telephone Corp
said Stephen Ide, its founder and president, resigned for
personal reasons, but will remain a consultant with the
company.
    It said James Mahon, executive vice president, has been
elected president effective immediately.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said 10
governors were elected to its 25-member board of governors at
the annual membership meeting today.
    The exchange said there were eight new members, including
five from the public sector, among the ten elected to the
board.
    Elected to three-year terms from the public sector were
Ernst and Whinney Chairman Ray J. Groves, Hasbro Inc Chairman
Stephen D. Hassenfeld,  Bowery Savings Bank Chairman Richard
Ravitch, and Phelps-Stokes Fund President Franklin H. Williams.
    Elected to a two-year term from the public sector was James
R. Jones, a former congressman anda partner in Dickstein
Shapiro and Morin.
    The Amex said Greenberg Securities Co President Mark D.
Greenberg and Jacee Securities Inc President Joel L. Lovett
were the industry representatives elected to three year terms
on the board and Johnson Lane Space Smith and Co Inc President
David T. Johnson was elected to a one year term as an industry
representative.
    It said two industry representatives were returned to the
board for three year terms -- Rotan Mosle Inc President R. John
Stanton Jr. and Smith Barney Harris Upham and Co Inc President
sGeorge A. Vonder Linden.
 Reuter

Clevite Industries Inc said J.P.
Industries Inc <JPI.O> has refused to pay it 9.5 mln dlrs in
connection with J.P. Industries' acquisition of the company's
former Engine Parts Division.
    The amount results from a disputed post-closing adjustment
of the division's purchase price.
    Clevite sold the division to J.P. Industries in February
1987, subject to a final audit after the closing.
    Clevite said J.P. Industries held back a portion of the
purchase price at the time of the sale. It said a preliminary
audit showed J.P. Industries owed Clevite 14 mln dlrs, of which
4.5 mln dlrs has been paid.
    It said J.P. Industries disputed the balance. Clevite said
it would pursue all possible means to collect the amount owed.
    On April Eight, Clevite said it received a 13.50 dlr a
share offer, valued at about 96 mln dlrs, for all of its
outstanding shares from J.P. Industries. A Clevite
management-led group also is seeking a leveraged buyout of the
company at 11.50 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Shr 1.74 dlrs vs 1.89 dlrs
    Net 35.3 mln vs 38.2 mln
    Assets 24.5 billion vs 21.8 billion
    Deposits 16.9 billion vs 16.1 billion
    Loans 18.9 billion vs 16.0 billion
    NOTE: Qtr includes pre-tax provision of 9.7 mln dlrs,
resulting in 5.7 mln dlrs after-tax loss, for reserve against
interest due on medium- and long-term Brazilian loans.
    Net investment gains for the qtr were 2.2 mln dlrs versus a
gain of 15.5 mln in last year's first quarter.
    Provision for loan losses in the quarter was 35.3 mln dlrs
vs 44.1 mln dlrs the prior first quarter.

 Reuter

NL Industries Inc said it named J.
Landis Martin as president and chief executive officer,
succeeding Harold Simmons, who will continue as chairman.
    The company said Martin, 41, was also named chairman and
chief executive of its NL Chemicals Inc unit.
 Reuter

Fourth National Corp said an
investor group led by management has acquired a 73 pct stake in
the company from Interfirst Corp <IFC>, a Dallas bank holding
firm.
    A Fourth National spokesman said the deal was for cash but
would not disclose the amount.
    Fourth National, a bank holding company with about 500 mln
dlrs in assets, said in a statement that it will continue to
operate its four subsidiaries and retain its employees.
 Reuter

Del E. Webb Corp said its Del E.
Webb Properties Corp unit sold one-half of its interest in the
224-acre Towne Meadows mixed-use development near Mesa and
Gilbert, Ariz., to Klukwan Inc, an Alaskan native cooperative.
    Webb said it had a one-half interest in the venture.
 Reuter

Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 83 cts
    Net 51.7 mln vs 39.4 mln
      
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 350,000 TONNES CORN SOLD TO UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS FOR 1986/87

    Shr 35 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 1,682,047 vs 1,817,820
    Revs 36.1 mln vs 29.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 73 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 3,518,515 vs 3,606,689
    Revs 74.1 mln vs 62.7 mln
 Reuter

U.S. TRADE PANEL RULES AGAINST BRAZILIAN  ORANGE JUICE IMPORTS, WILL IMPOSE DUTUES

Shr 83 cts vs 94 cts
    Net 41.2 mln vs 45.5 mln
    Revs 428.4 mln vs 429.6
    Avg shrs 49.8 mln vs 48.1 mln
    12 months
    Shr 3.59 dlrs vs 3.53 dlrs
    Net 176.9 mln vs 164.4 mln
    Revs 1.87 billion vs 1.70 billion
    Avg shrs 49.3 mln vs 46.6
    NOTE: 1986 first quarter profits restated down one cent a
share as a result of previously reported pooling of interests
merger with Mid-Continent Life Insurance Co.
 Reuter

Tribune Co said it agreed to buy from
Gene Autry and the Autry Foundation certain properties located
in Hollywood, California. Terms were not disclosed.
    The properties include broadcast and studio facilities on
10.1 acres of land located at Sunset Boulevard and Van Ness
Avenue in Hollywood.
    Also included in the agreement are three additional parcels
of land on Sunset Boulevard totaling 2.3 acres, it said.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. International Trade
Commission, ITC, voted to authorize the Commerce Department to
impose anti-dumping duties on imports of Brazilian frozen
concentrated orange juice.
    The ITC voted 3-2 in favor of the anti-dumping petition in
its final ruling on the matter.
    Today's ITC ruling was consistent with the Commerce
Department's final ruling of March 9, and activates an
anti-dumping duty of 1.96 pct on imports of Brazilian frozen
concentrated orange juice, Stephen Vastagh, ITC investigator
said.
    The ITC found that Brazilian orange juice imports have
injured U.S. producers. The Commerce Department had already
ruled that the imports were unfairly priced, and lowered to
1.96 pct the anti-dumping margin that in a preliminary decision
last fall had been set at 8.5 pct, Vastagh said.
    The U.S. government has been requiring bond to be posted on
imports of Brazilian frozen concentrated orange juice since
Commerce's preliminary ruling of last October 23, he said.
    Commerce had ruled that one major Brazilian producer --
Cutrale -- would be excluded from the anti-dumping duty.
    Brazilian imports account for about 40 pct of total U.S.
supply, Vastagh said. Between December 1985 and November 1986,
the United States imported the equivalent of 546 mln gallons of
Brazilian orange juice worth 622 mln dlrs, he said.
    Currently, the United States requires a 35-cent per gallon
tariff on orange juice imports, Vastagh said.
    An ITC spokesman said the agency would forward its final
report on the anti-dumping case to Commerce by April 22.
    Commerce then will process the anti-dumping order and
transmit it to U.S Customs, which will liquidate bond entries
dating from Commerce's preliminary ruling and begin assessing
duties, Vastagh said.
    He said about 12 Brazilian orange juice exporters,
including three major shippers, would be affected by the
decision.
 Reuter

Talks between the United States
and Japan on alleged Japanese dumping of computer microchips
have failed to head off U.S. imposition of retaliatory tariffs,
two senior White House officials said.
    President Reagan's chief of staff, Howard Baker told
reporters here that he saw no developments that that would
cause the president to back away from his plan to issue a
proclamation on Friday slapping 100 per cent tariffs on a range
of Japanese electronic products.
    "I assume that there will be a proclamation on Friday,"
    Reagan's National Security Adviser, Frank Carlucci added,
"It looks like a very difficult situation at this point."
    Carlucci said that evidence of Japanese "dumping" of
microchips had been "fairly conclusive." The alleged dumping --
selling abroad at below the cost of manufacture -- is said to
have undercut the technologically important U.S. microchip
industry.
    Carlucci also said that although Japanese officials had
presented statistics designed to show that Japan was opening
its markets to American producers of microchips, "our
statistics do not confirm this."
    "Indeed, they tend to go in the other direction,"Carlucci
said.
    President Reagan announced on March 27 that he planned to
raise tariffs on as much as 300 mln dlrs in Japanese exports to
    He accused Japan of failing to enforce major provisions of
a September 1986 agreement on preventing microchip dumping and
providing American industry with fair trade opportunities.
    He said he would be prepared to lift the sanctions when
Japan took corrective action on these two issues.
    The dispute has soured U.S.-Jpanese relations as Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone prepares to visit Washington
at the end of the month for talks with Reagan.
    Last Friday Reagan, answering questions following a speech
to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, said Nakasone had
endangered his political standing at home because of his
willingess to try to eliminate trade barriers against U.S.
goods.
    He said he was looking forward to his talks with Nakasone
and "he has been most helpful."
    Today Reagan was vacationing at his ranch near here.
 Reuter

Bio-Nutronics Inc said that if it is
unable in the "very near future" to substantially increase its
revenues or otherwise raise additional funds, it may be
required to cease operations.
 Reuter

Lawyers for Morton Thiokol Inc asked
a federal judge to unseal all papers filed in court here in
connection with a lawsuit against it by a former employee.
    U.S. District Judge Harold Greene held a hearing this
morning on the company's request but took no immediate action,
according to a clerk.
    The company's motion was opposed by lawyers for the U.S.
    The lawsuit filed by the former employee, engineer Roger
Boisjoly, alleged criminal responsibility by Thiokol in the
deaths of the seven Challenger astronauts in January 1986.
    Justice Department sources told Reuters earlier this month
that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a
criminal investigation of Thiokol, which made the booster
rocket blamed for the loss of the Challenger space shuttle.
    The sources said the probe stemmed from the suit by
Boisjoly, who is now on medical disability.
    Boisjoly is seeking damages from the company for allegedly
defaming his professional reputation by transferring him to a
less important job after he testified to a presidential
commission about the Challenger explosion.

 Reuter

Shr 1.21 dlrs vs 1.80 dlrs
    Net 16.9 mln vs 24.6 mln
    Revs 230.9 mln vs 289.6 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 1.97 dlrs vs 2.37 dlrs
    Net 27.6 mln vs 32.4 mln
    Revs 648.6 mln vs 875.7 mln
    NOTE: company reports earnings qtrly and includes the
previous 12 mths figures.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc has re-established some key
oil supply lines following yesterday's court filing for
protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankrupcty code, said
Elton Yates, Texaco's coordinator of worldwide operations.
    "Several companies say they are willing to start trading,"
Yates told Reuters in an interview.
    The company last week had stated that a number of domestic
and international oil suppliers were demanding cash for oil
shipments, and in some cases, had cut supplies altogether.
Banks had also cut credit lines, it said in court filings.
    Manufacturers Hanover Corp <MHC> and other banks told
Texaco it would cut off a one billion dlr credit line, Texaco
said in the court filing. Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> and J.P.
Morgan Co's <JPM> Morgan Guaranty Trust Co asked for deposits
to cover transactions, it said.
    The severe conditions with suppliers and creditors arose
from an unfavorable ruling last Monday by the U.S. Supreme
Court in Texaco's ongoing dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL> over
the acquisition of Getty Oil Co in 1984.
    The High Court said Texas Courts must consider Texaco's
plea to cut its 10.3 billion dlr bond while appealing the case.
    "Most of the suppliers stayed with us as long as they
could," Elton said. But following Monday's Supreme Court
ruling, Texaco's suppliers began demanding cash and halting
supplies.
    "It wasn't until last Wednesday that it turned into an
avalanche," he said. "Supplies were cut to the point where we
could not run the system at anywhere near capacity."
    He said less than half of Texaco's oil supplies had been in
jeapordy, but the cut off would have produced severe shortages
by mid-May. Now the situation appears much less severe, Elton
said.
    It said that Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company,
canceled future deliveries of crude oil and natural gas,
Occidental Petroleum Co <OXY> demanded cash for crude, and
Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC> asked for special safeguards.
    The company also said British Petroleum Co PLC <BP> last
week refused to accept an order for fuel oil. But Yates today
said, "a big U.K. company has in fact said they would go on
supplying. They had cancelled last week."
    He declined to identify the company.
    <Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.>, the Venezuelan state oil
company that supplies a large portion of Texaco's oil, also
halted shipments two weeks ago, Yates said.
    But he added that Texaco expected to meet with the
Venezuelans later today in an attempt to reestablish that key
supply line. Talks were also expected to take place with the
Algerians, he added.
    Bankruptcy specialists said it was likely Texaco's chapter
11 filing would allow the company to secure its credit lines
and oil supplies that are key to the company's business.
    "It will be business as usual for Texaco," said Martin
Klein, a bankruptcy attorney at the New York law firm Dreyer
and Traub.
    "Creditors are a nervous bunch of people," he said. "But
when the dust settles they will reevaluate the situation and
will likely extend credit to the chapter 11 company."
    But other officials at Texaco were not immediately
available to say whether discussions were being held with its
banks, or whether credit lines had been reestablished.
 Reuter

said it will add flights in May to three destinations it
already serves from Denver, raising its total daily departures
to 264 from 261 at Stapleton International Airport.
    The company said that beginning May 4 it will add a fourth
daily nonstop to Des Moines, Iowa and a third nonstop to
Spokane, Wash.
    Meanwhile, on May 21 it will add a fourth daily nonstop to
New York/Laguardia International Airport.
 Reuter

National City Bancorp said
directors at the annual meeting declared a 10 pct stock
dividend payable May 22, record April 24.
 Reuter

Gaming and Technology Inc said
Stan Fulton has resigned as president of the company.
    Chairman Alfred Wilms said he will assume the additional
position of president.
    Fulton will remain a director of the company and will work
on special projects, a Gaming and Technology spokeswoman said.
 Reuter

may downgrade 500 mln dlrs of Eurodebt of TransCanada Pipelines
Ltd.
    The agency cited TransCanada's 4.3 billion Can dlr offer
for the assets of Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>. The offer entails a
cash payment of 3.87 billion Can dlrs to Dome's creditors and
the exchange of about 20 pct of the common stock of a new
TransCanada subsidiary for Dome's common and preferred.
    Moody's will examine the financing of the proposed
transaction and resulting capital structure. TransCanada has
A-3 Euro mortgage bonds and Baa-1 Eurodebt.
 Reuter

    Net 488,000 vs 443,000
    Assets 289.3 mln vs 213.9 mln
    Deposits 254 mln vs 188.5 mln
    Loans 156.4 mln vs 123.4 mln
    NOTE: Per share amounts adjusted for stock dividends.
 Reuter

Shr primary 87 cts vs 83 cts
    Shr diluted 85 cts vs 74 cts
    Net 35.9 mln vs 30.6 mln
    Avg shrs 41.0 mln vs 34.2 mln
    Assets 13.95 billion vs 12.34 billion
    Deposits 10.21 billion vs 9.24 billion
    Loans 9.22 billion vs 7.89 billion
    Return on assets 1.07 pct vs 1.05 pct
    Note: Net includes securities gains of seven cts a shr vs
two cts.
    Net includes loan loss provision of 20.2 mln vs 12.6 mln.
    Net charge-offs totaled 15.6 mln, brining the loan loss
reserve at the end of the qtr to 120.5 mln.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp's pension expense is
expected to increase by more than 50 pct this year due to new
pension accounting standards, its annual report said.
    It said implementation of Statement of Financial Accounting
Standards Number 87 issued by the Financial Accounting
Standards Board in December 1985 this year is expected to
increase Chrysler's pension expense by more than 50 pct when
compared to pension expense calulated under the prevsious
    Last year, the report said, the company's pension expense
was 236.3 mln dlrs, up from 219.8 mln dlrs in 1985.
    A Chrysler spokeswoman said the exact amount of the
increase caused by the accounting change will be reported when
the company reports first quarter earnings late this month.
    The report also said Chrysler is continuing its program,
announced in December 1984, of buying up to 56.25 mln shares --
adjusted to reflect two three-for-two stock splits since then.
    The company had acquired about 42.3 mln shares by the end
of 1986, the report said, adding there is no target set for
completion of the program.
 Reuter

Bank of New England Corp reported
that pro forma first quarter earnings, which reflect its 
combined operations under a pending merger with the Conifer
Group, rose to 60 mln dlrs, or 89 cts a share, from 49 mln
dlrs, or 75 cts a share in 1986.
    The merger is expected to close on April 22.
    Earlier, Bank of New England reported first quarter net
income, not taking the merger into account, rose to 1.04 dlrs
from 83 cts a share.
    NOTE:First quarter of 1986 does not include restatement
from recent acquisitions. After restatement, net income was
39.8 mln dlrs.
    The 1987 pro forma first quarter results include
nonrecurring merger expenses of 4.7 mln dlrs.
    Excluding these expenses, growth in operating expenses of
the combined companies was reduced from 14 pct to 12 pct during
the first quarter.
    Loans and leases increased 34 pct to 19.5 billion dlrs and
deposits grew 14 pct to 19.6 billion dlrs.
    The provision for possible credit losses was 14.4 mln dlrs
in the first quarter compared with 19.7 mln dlrs last year.
    Net charge-offs were 10.9 mln dlrs, down from 12.8 mln dlrs
in 1986.
 Reuter

Qtr ended March 31
    Net 268,760 vs 235,274
    Revs 721,882 vs 575,806
    Six mths
    Net 472,642 vs 464,042
    Revs 1,372,453 vs 1,059,462
    Note: per share data not given, as not comparable to net
figures, which are before depreciation.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson said it
was too early to comment on the tax implications of TransCanada
PipeLines Ltd's 4.3 billion dlr offer for Dome Petroleum Ltd.
    "The specific offer by TransCanada is just in the course of
being made and we don't have the details of all the elements of
the proposal," Wilson told the House of Commons daily question
period.
    Opposition parties were questioning Wilson about a possible
loss of tax revenue if the takeover was completed because of
the large tax credits held by Dome.               
 Reuter

International Telecharge Inc said it
introduced a new international inbound long-distance service
from Europe called "Quick Call USA."
    The three-minute call will be available from seven European
countries. The call, placed by dialing a local country access
number, will be answered by an International Telecharge
operator and sent to any phone in the U.S., it said.
    The caller has the option of calling collect or billing to
a major credit card at a flat rate of 10.65 dlrs, expect for
calls from the U.K. which will be billed at a rate of 8.53

 Reuter

Dauphin Deposit Corp said it
signed a definitive agreement to acquire <Colonial Bancorp
Inc>.
    The agreement calls for Colonial to be merged into Dauphin
Deposit Corp, and Colonial's subsidiary, New Holland Farmers
National Bank, to be merged into Dauphin Deposit Bank and Trust
Co, the lead bank of Dauphin Deposit Corp, the company said.
    Shareholders of Colonial will receive between 3.6 and 4.4
shares of Dauphin common stock for each share of Colonial,
depending on Dauphin's current market value, it said.
    As of Dec 31, 1986, Colonia Bancorp had assets of 150 mln
dlrs, Dauphin said.
 Reuter

said.
    In an article headlined "Gulf oil sources say Middle East
production up 1.4 mln bpd" and "Markets witness new surplus amid
whispers of return to cheating days," it warned OPEC's official
prices could face fresh pressure from international oil
companies seeking cheaper supplies.
    It did not say whether only OPEC or Opec and other
did it specify if the sources were official or other contacts.
fresh scrutiny from Monday, with activity in the European and
American markets," it said.
    The sources were quoted as saying that after Opec had in
producing over quotas has begun anew," it reported.
   "The sources warned that maybe the (price of a) barrel of oil
will fall below 18, perhaps 17.80 dlrs this week or next if
there is no control on supplies.
Opec over contract prices, similar to the struggle last March,"
    "More than one official has warned Opec would find its

 Reuter

Reserve fell on April 10 to 3.373 billion dlrs from 3.523
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts fell to 11.645
billion dlrs from 11.869 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 15.018
billion dlrs compared with 15.392 billion dlrs on April 9.
 Reuter

The Energy Department said it had
approved in final form an agreement that resolves all remaining
issues with Shell Oil Co over oil pricing and allocation
controls that ended in 1981.
    Under the agreement, The Royal Dutch/Shell Group unit 
agreed to pay 20 mln dlrs to settle refiner pricing issues and
160 mln dlrs to settle crude oil pricing issues, DOE said.
    DOE said that before making the pact final, it modified it
to reflect Shell's compliance with the Tertiary Incentive
Program, a provision not in the version published last Dec 31.
 reuter

Cellular Communications Inc said that
a unit purchased a 6.99 pct interest in the Cincinnati
non-wireline cellular system.
    As a result of the transaction, the company said it now
owns 100 pct of the system in Cincinnati.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    Record May one.
 Reuter

    Shr 88 cts
    Net 973,000 vs 713,000
    Six mths
    Shr 1.35 dlrs
    Net 1,497,000 vs 1,464,000
    Note: Bank went public on Dec 29, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,524,000 vs 2,046,00
    Sales 28.5 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.01 dlrs vs 1.09 dlrs
    Net 6,323,000 vs 6,990,000
    Sales 80.6 mln vs 68.8 mln
    Note: Current qtr and nine mth net include 447,000 dlr gain
on asset sales.
    Prior nine mth net includes 3.4 mln dlr asset sale gain.
 Reuter

GAF Corp said it is exploring its
options in response to Merrill Lynch Capital Partners' 4.23
billion dlr offer for Borg-Warner Corp, and it has asked for
all information that was supplied to Merrill Lynch.
    A GAF spokesman said the company asked for the information
in order to enable GAF to fully evaluate its alternatives.
    The spokesman also confirmed that GAF did raise its bid to
48 dlrs cash from 46 dlrs per share on Friday.
    Merrill is offering 48.50 dlrs per share cash for 89 pct of
Borg-Warner, and a package of cash and securities for the
balance.
    The transaction with Merrill Lynch will take Borg-Warner
private in the form of a leveraged buyout. Merrill Lynch does
not intend to sell Borg-Warner assets, but it may be forced to
do so in financing the deal, said sources familiar with the
     Borg-Warner has said its management is not a participant
in the transaction, but managers will retain their positions.
    The investors involved with Merrill include pension funds,
insurance companies and other institutional investors, sources
said.
    Analysts believe GAF, which owns 19.9 pct of Borg-Warner,
will raise its offer.
    That speculation drove Borg-warner stock up 1-3/8 to 49-5/8
in heavy trading. GAF closed at 49-5/8, off 3/4.
 
 Reuter

New Jersey Bell, wholly owned by
Bell Atlantic Corp, said the Federal Communications Commission
will allow it to market its network service with equipment
provided by Bell Atlanticom Systems, an unregulated company
also wholly owned by Bell Atlantic.
    New Jersey Bell said the FCC ruling gives it interim relief
from current accounting restrictions until the company's plans
for complying with new accounting rules are approved by the
FCC.
    New Jersey Bell said the FCC ordered January one that
telephone companies could offer equipment as long as they
complied with new accounting rules that separate costs of
regulated service from unregulated activities.
    New Jersey Bell said the joint marketing program between it
and Bell Atlanticom Systems will apply initially to New Jersey
Bell's largest business customers.
 Reuter

A senior Abu Dhabi oil official said
in remarks published today the emirate, largest producer in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), was succeeding in marketing its
crude oil without breaching OPEC accords.
    Khalaf al-Oteiba, Marketing Director at the Abu Dhabi
National Oil Co (ADNOC), told the company's Petroleum Community
magazine ADNOC was also keen to keep good customer relations.
"The company will maintain its dialogue with and care for its
customers in accordance with market conditions...And take
necessary steps to guarantee marketing its production," he said.
   "The present oil marketing policy of ADNOC is based on
adherence to OPEC decisions of December 1986 to control
production and establish a new pricing system in an attempt to
stabilize the market," he added.
    OPEC agreed last December to limit production to 15.8 mln
bpd and return to fixed prices averaging 18 dlrs a barrel.
    Oteiba said stabilization of the oil market in the future
depended on how much discipline OPEC showed.
    Oteiba said last year, when world oil prices dropped, was
ADNOC's most difficult ever but "a practical and flexible
pricing policy was implemented to relate to the changed market
environment."
    He said crude oil sales last year jumped to an average
609,000 bpd of which 73 pct was exported. Refined product sales
totalled eight mln metric tonnes, of which 67 pct was exported.
    In 1985, ADNOC marketed a total of 476,000 bpd of crude oil
and 7.2 mln tonnes of refined products.
 Reuter

The Pratt and Whitney Government
Products Division of United Technologies Corp <UTX> is being
awarded a 502.1 mln dlr increase to an Air Force contract for
alternate fighter engine and support equipment, the Defense
    It said the contract, which funds work related to
F100-FW-220 engines, combines purchases for the U.S. Air Force,
Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Egypt and the Netherlands under the
Foreign Military Sales program.
    Work on the contract is expected to be completed December
1988, the department said.
 Reuter

and Space Co is being awarded a 275 mln dlr modification to a
Navy contract for development and production of Trident II
missiles, the Defense Department said.
March 1990.

 Reuter

Core-Mark
International Inc said it was vigorously addressing its
problems and would correct them in the near term.
    The packaged goods distributor said that its statement
followed "a number of apparently confusing statements
concerning the company that may have given rise to uncertainty
as to the company's current operative condition and future."
    Core-Mark previously said that former chief executive D.E.
Gillespie resigned due to family problems and declining health,
and added that negotiations for sale of his majority stake to
two unnamed investor groups were a growing possibility.
    Core-Mark's interim chief executive Anthony Regensburg said
the sudden earnings deterioration in late fourth quarter "took
everyone by surprise and directors along with management are
urgently addressing these problems.
    "Speculation as to the company's future has been less than
helpful and has provoked and heightened anxieties and diverted
management's time and attention to address them," Regensburg
 Reuter

Shr 61 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 695,252 vs 633,329
    Loans 125.2 mln vs 89.9 mln
    Deposits 209.2 mln vs 172.9 mln
    Assets 245.5 mln vs 207.5 mln
 Reuter

Kraft Inc said it completed the
acquisition of Holleb and Co, a foodservice distributor based
in Bensenville, Ill.
    Terms were withheld.
    It said Holleb's 1986 sales were about 85 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 1.12 dlrs vs 1.27 dlrs
    Net 15,000,000 vs 11,900,000
    Avg shrs 9,642,403 vs 8,322,245
    Loans 4.57 billion vs 3.29 billion
    Deposits 6.80 billion vs 4.75 billion
    Assets 7.75 billion vs 5.37 billion
 Reuter

Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 1,348,000 vs loss 2,410,000
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 22.3 mln
    Acg shrs 13.8 mln vs 12.9 mln
 Reuter

U.S. SELLS 3-MO BILLS AT 5.98 PCT, STOP 5.99 PCT, 6-MO 6.08 PCT, STOP 6.10 PCT

Newmont Mining Corp held 5,250,376 Du
Pont Co shares, or about 2.2 pct of those outstanding, at the
end of 1986, down from the 5,970,141 shares, or 2.5 pct of
those outstanding, it held a year earlier, Newmont's annual
    --Corrects March 30 item to show holdings decreased.
 Reuter

    Net 3,732,000 vs 3,131,000
    Assets 1.09 billion vs 861.2 mln
    Deposits 817.7 mlnvs 705.7 mln
    Loans 704.1 mln vs 553.4 mln
    Note: 1986 results restated to reflect acquisition of
United Banks Corp.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp is being awarded
a 97 mln dlr Air Force contract for 176 turboprop engines in
three separate designs, the Defense Department said.
    It said the contract, which combines purchases for the U.S.
Navy, the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Japan and Norway under the
Foreign Military Sales program, is expected to be completed in
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 4,568,656 vs 3,461,674
    Assets 1.7 billion vs 1.4 billion
    Deposits 1.46 billion vs 1.19 billion
    Note: 1986 results restated to reflect a 100 pct stock
dividend.
 Reuter

Domestic sales of farm wheel tractors
in March declined 9.2 pct to 7,654 units from 8,434 in the same
year-ago period, the Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute
said.
    Year to date, it said sales declined 16.9 pct to 18,003
from 21,665 in the same 1986 period.
    It said in the two-wheel drive 40 horsepower and under
segment, 4,747 vehicles were sold in March compared to 5,473 a
year ago. In the 40 and under to 100 horsepower, 2,238 vehicles
were sold, up from 1,995 the previous March.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 10,978,000 vs 11,916,000
    Revs 153.5 mln vs 163.4 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Central Illinois Public Service Co
 Reuter

Versar Inc said it received a
four year contract from the U.S. Air Force with a maximum value
of 9.5 mln dlrs for carrying out work including radioactive and
toxic contamination studies.
    Versar said work under the contract with the Air Force
Occupational Health Laboratory, Aerospace Medical Division, at
Brooks Air Force Base in Texas, will be done in and around air
force installations worldwide.
 Reuter

Brascan Ltd said it planned to redeem on
May 15 all outstanding 1981 series A preferred shares at 26
dlrs a share plus accrued and unpaid dividends.
 Reuter

Thera-Care Inc said it agreed
to acquire Cushing and Associates of Glendale, Calif., in
exchange for 1,480,000 Thera-Care shares.
 Reuter

Interco Inc said its shareholders and
those of Lane Co approved a merger of the two companies at
special meetings.
    As previously announced, Lane's shareholders will receive
1.5 shares of Interco common stock for each share of Lane stock
held.
    Interco said the merger becomes effective April 14.
 Reuter

HMO America Inc said it signed a letter
of intent with Mount Sinai Medical Center here and an
affiliate, providing that all of its common and preferred stock
be acquired by a new not-for-profit company to be controlled by
Mount Sinai and other Chicago area not-for-profit hospitals who
may elect to participate in the acquisition.
    The form of the transaction has not yet been determined, it
said.
    According to terms, HMO's shareholders would receive a
combination of cash and debt securities to be issued by the
buyer in exchange for their outstanding shares of common and
preferred stock, it said.
    The amount of cash per share has not yet been determined,
it added.
    Arrangements for financing have not yet been made and there
can be no assurance that any financing will be received, HMO
said.
    Closing of the proposed transaction, if it is completed, is
expected on or before November 2, 1987, it said.
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
 Reuter

    Pay May 18
 Reuter

Shares of Dome Petroleum Ltd posted
their biggest gain in months in the U.S. and Canada as stock
markets foresaw a takeover tug-of-war beginning for the
debt-heavy company.
    Dome rose 1/4 to 1-1/8 on the American Stock Exchange and
gained 31 cents to 1.44 Canadian dlrs on the Toronto Stock
Exchange, where it was the most active stock. It rose as high
as 1.50 dlrs in Toronto during the day. In recent months, Dome
has normally moved by only a few cents per day.
    TransCanada PipeLines yesterday announced a 4.3 billion dlr
Canadian (3.22 billion U.S.) bid for all of Dome's assets, but
Dome, which is based in Calgary, Alberta, said it is also still
talking with two other companies, which it refuses to identify.
    Market analysts today said the other two firms are believed
to be foreign oil companies, noting that TransCanada yesterday
stressed that its bid is "a Canadian solution to the financial
difficulties of Dome Petroleum."
    "The talk is about Conoco, which is controlled by DuPont
<DD>, and Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC>, which sold its Canadian
interest in 1975 and could be getting back in," said Wilf Gobert
of Peters and Co Ltd.
    David Bryson of Moss Lawson and Co also noted that British
Petroleum PLC <BP> is mentioned as a possible buyer, despite
BP's 70 U.S. dlr per share bid two weeks ago for the 45 percent
of Standard Oil Co <SRD> it does not already own.
    Calgary-based independent analyst James Hamilton has said
in recent reports that Amoco Corp <AN> has also been in talks
with Dome.
    Representatives of Atlantic Richfield, British Petroleum,
Conoco and Amoco were not immediately available for comment.
    Gobert characterized the market action in Dome today as "awfully
optimistic," given TransCanada's offer to give current Dome
shareholders stock in a new subsidiary, which it valued at 1.10
dlrs Canadian per common share.
    Under the offer, current Dome common and preferred
shareholders would own 20 pct of the new subsidiary, which
would own and operate all Dome's former assets. TransCanada
would own 80 pct.
    However, Bryson said the market may be looking at the
potential for shares in a publicly-traded subsidiary. "The
TransCanada offer has quite a bit of upside potential for Dome,"
he said.
    Gobert said he believes the TransCanada offer is "at the
upper end of what I thought somebody would pay for Dome."
    The TransCanada proposal would pay Dome's creditors 3.87
billion Canadian dlrs (2.90 billion U.S. dlrs), with another
one billion Canadian dlrs (750 mln U.S. dlrs) available to
secured creditors if the Dome subsidiary earns profits above a
certain level. TransCanada would not detail the profit level.
    Dome currently is seeking to restructure about six billion
Canadian dlrs (4.5 billion U.S. dlrs) in debt, which it took on
several years ago when oil prices were high and the company
wanted to expand.
    "There has been speculation that Dome's assets are capable
of supporting debt of three to four billion dlrs, so on that
basis, the TransCanada offer would be at the upper end of that,"
    Dome's debt troubles have often obscured the fact that it
is a major player in the Canadian oil and gas field. It holds
reserves of about 176 mln barrels of crude oil and 3.9 billion
cubic feet of natural gas.
    The company also owns or has an interest in 14.2 mln acres
of oil and gas exploration land in the province of Alberta, the
heart of Canada's oil industry.
   Dome owns or has an interest in a total of 36.1 mln acres of
land across Canada.
   The company also has tax credits of about 2.5 billion dlrs
Canadian (1.9 billion dlrs U.S.). It reported a 1986 loss of
2.2 billion dlrs (1.65 billion dlrs U.S.), believed to be the
largest ever by a Canadian company.
   
 Reuter

auction of three-month bills produced an average rate of 5.98
pct, with a 6.08 pct rate on six-month bills.
    These rates compared with averages of 5.53 pct for the
three- and 5.63 pct for the six-month bills sold last week.
    The bond-equivalent yield on three-month bills was 6.17
pct. Accepted bids ranges from 5.92 to 5.99 pct and 60 pct of
the bids at the high, or stopout rate, were taken. For six
months, the yield was 6.38 pct and the bids ranged from 5.98
pct to 6.10 pct with 48 pct of the bids accepted.
    The Treasury said it received 25.99 billion dlrs of bids
for the three-month bills, including 1.2 billion dlrs in
dlrs of bids, including 2.1 billion dlrs from the Federal
Reserve and 180 mln dlrs from foreign and international
    Some 24.7 billion dlrs in bids for six-month bills were
received, including 832 mln dlrs in non-competitives. The
Treasury accepted 6.6 billion dlrs, including 1.8 billion dlrs
from the Fed and 1.2 billion dlrs from foreign and
    The average price for the three-month bills was 98.488 and
prices ranged from 98.504 to 98.486.  The average price for the
six-months bills was 96.926, and prices ranged from 96.977 to
96.916.
since 5.99 pct on June 30, 1986.  The average yield on the
six-month bills was the highest since 6.13 pct on June 23,
1986.
 Reuter

Andover Group, a Virginia general
partnership, said it mailed proxies soliciting votes for a
slate of nominees to HBO and Co's board of directors.
   Last week, HBO and Co sent a letter urging shareholders
against the proxies.
    Andover said HBO has consistently refused to provide it
with internal financial information it considers essential to
formulate an acquisition offer. If its nominees are elected,
Andover said it will make a proposal to buy HBO on terms and
conditions to be determined at that time.
    The annual meeting is scheduled for April 30.
 Reuter

United Technologies Corp said it
joined with two other companies to form a partnership in
proposing a defense system for the U.S. Army.
    United Technologies said it joined forces with FMC Corp
<FMC> and <British Aerospace> to form <United Aerospace Defense
Systems>.
    Together, they proposed the "Tracked Rapier" defense system
to meet Army requirements for defending American divisions in
Europe from low flying helicopters and tactical aircraft.
  
 Reuter

Hills, N.J., investor Natalie Koether said it raised its stake
in Computer Memories Inc to 573,300 shares, or 5.1 pct of the
total outstanding, from 542,000 shares, or 4.8 pct.
the group, which includes Sun Equities Corp, an investment
firm, said it bought a net 31,300 Computer Memories common
shares since March 31 at prices ranging from three to 3-5/16
dlrs a share for "capital appreciation."
    The group had earlier abandoned plans to seek control of
the company and lowered its stake to less than five pct.
 Reuter

Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd told
the Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 72,600
shares of McGill Manufacturing Co Inc, or 5.1 pct of the total
    Industrial Equity, which is principally owned by Brierley
bought the stake for 2.3 mln dlrs for investment purposes.
    It said it may add to its stake, or sell some or all of it,
but has no plans to seek control of the company.
 Reuter

Ramada Inc is raising 100 mln dlrs
through an offering of subordinated notes due 1999 yielding
11.703 pct, said sole manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    The notes have an 11-5/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.50, Salomon said.
    Non-callable for three years and non-refundable for five,
the issue is rated B-2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc and
B-minus by Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

Shr 49 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 3,922,533 vs 3,979,580
    Note: Full name Montgomery Street Income Securities Inc.
 Reuter

Northair Mines Ltd
said it would oppose Nor-Quest Resources Inc's earlier reported
proposed takeover bid "with every means at its disposal,"
saying "this attempt at a property grab is an insult to the
intelligence of our shareholders."
    It said Nor-Quest's offer to swap one Nor-Quest share plus
one dlr for two Northair shares would seriously dilute
Northair's equity in its Willa mine in British Columbia.
    "Our company is in sound financial position and production
financing can be readily arranged when required. We're not
looking for a partner and if we were, it certainly wouldn't be
these guys," Northair said.
 Reuter

Vista Chemical Co said it plans to file
Commission in early covering the sale of about 4.5 mln shares
of its common stock to the public.
    The shares will be sold by institutional investors who
partially financed the company upon its formation in 1984 and
by the trustee of its savings and investment plan on behalf of
employee participants.
    None of the shares will be sold by the company, it said.
 Reuter

Harmon Industries said it
signed a contract worth more than three mln dlrs with the
National Railroad Passenger Corp (Amtrak).
    Harmon Industries said the contract includes the design,
engineering, manufacturing, delivery and system integration for
signalling equipment along Amtrak's 55-mile Philadelphia to
Atlantic City, N.J., line.
 Reuter

CFM International, a joint
venture of <SNECMA> of France and General Electric Co said it
received an order for its CFM56-5 engines worth 320 mln dlrs
from <GPA Airbus 320 Group Ltd, Shannon, Ireland.
    The company said the engines will power 25 twin-engine
Airbus Industrie A320 aircraft.
 Reuter

expects the Food and Drug Administration to soon approve the
company's application to begin limited tests of its potential
therapy against AIDS using a combination of ozone and oxygen.
    The company said that once it receives FDA approval, 20
patients with AIDS-related complex will start the treatment at
Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
    Dr Joseph Latino, director of research at Medizone said the
therapy, which he likened to a process, uses a combination of
oxygen and ozone injected into a patient's owns blood outside
of the body, and then reinfused back into the body.
    "We are guardedly optimistic that this treatment may work,"
said Latino, who said the process has been used to treat viral
illneses, including AIDS, in Europe with varying degrees of
success.
    He said ozone can kill viruses and is used to kill viruses
in waste water treatments. He said the treatment should not be
compared to inhaling ozone, which is toxic.
   Latino said the company is prepared to fund the trial, which
will cost about 250,000 dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Textron Inc said E. Paul Casey
resigned as vice-chairman and a director to pursue other
    Casey assumed his duties at Textron in October, 1986,
following acquisition of Ex-Cell-O Corp by Textron. Casey was
formerly chairman, president and chief executive of Ex-Cell-O.
 Reuter

said it began a disciplinary review of two men who were
previously convicted of fraud for violations of  U.S.
    The SEC said Robert and Albert D'Elia were convicted
following allegations that they traded upon information
misappropriated from a financial printer in 1980 and 1981. The
D'Elias were officers and shareholders of Rad Securities Inc, a
Philadelphia broker-dealer.
    A hearing will be scheduled at a later date, the SEC said.
 Reuter

completed its previously announced plan to sell its travel
agency automation system, SystemOne Direct Access Inc, and its
computer and communications support unit, EAL Automation
Systems Inc, to SystemOne Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Texas Air Corp.
 Reuter

Holdings Inc, said it is offering 300 mln dlrs of priority
senior subordinated notes due 1997 with an 11-3/8 pct coupon
and par pricing.
    Non-redeemable for five years, the issue is rated B-2 by
Corp.
    A sinking fund starts in 1994 to retire 75 pct of the notes
by maturity. Proceeds will be used to terminate the company's
current revolving credit facility. Goldman, Sachs and Co and
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets underwrote the deal.
 Reuter

downgraded 110 mln dlrs of debt of Michigan General Corp.
    Reduced were the company's 10-3/4 pct senior subordinated
debentures of 1998 to Caa from B-3.
    Moody's cited Michigan's ongoing losses which have impaired
liquidity, weakened financial flexibility and lessened the
likelihood for operating performance to improve.
    Michigan's principal business, lumber and housebuilding
products sales, operates in a cyclical and highly competitve
environment so that even debt restructuring would probably not
improve earnings, Moody's pointed out.
 Reuter

Shr 68 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 53.9 mln vs 53.2 mln
    Assets 26.5 billion vs 22.2 billion
    Loans 15.7 billion vs vs 13.3 billion
    Deposits 13.8 billion vs vs 11.6 billion
 Reuter

said it plans to begin flights to Egypt next year following a
bilateral air trade agreement signed between the Egyptian and
Canadian governments.
    "Egypt has a healthy passenger and cargo air market in
which Air Canada can be a powerful competitor," executive
vice-president Roger Linder said.
    The airline said it would like to link the service with one
of its European stops.
    It said it plans further expansion with destinations in the
Middle East and Asia and a trans-Pacific route from Canada to
the Far East.
 Reuter

Fidelity International Ltd, a
Bermuda-based investment advisory firm, and an affiliated
investment firm, American Values III N.V., said they have
acquired 208,000 share of Blasius Industries Inc.
the group said it bought the stake, which amounts to 5.3 pct of
the total outstanding common stock, to acquire an equity
interest in the company for investment purposes.
    The group said it may raise its stake or sell some or all
of it, and has no plans to seek control of the company.
 Reuter

Energy Minister Marcel Masse announced a
series of conferences will be held across Canada to review the
country's policy options in the energy sector.
    "It is planned as a comprehensive review of Canadian energy
issues, an examination of the present energy situation, an
attempt to identify and evaluate our options for the future,"
Masse said in a speech at a luncheon in Toronto that was made
available here.
    The meetings, which will be chaired by Tom Kierans,
President of McLeod, Young Weir Ltd, will begin in June in
Calgary, Alberta and conclude in December in Montreal.
    The energy minister did not elaborate on what, if any,
federal legislation would result from the process.
    A final report would be issued at the end of the conference
sessions and Masse said he would be in a position to respond to
the report at that time.
    In his speech, however, Masse said he would prefer to see
the government's energy policies retain a market base, but
added government intervention was sometimes necessary.
    "I believe most of us accept the importance of allowing the
market to function with the greatest possible freedom and
flexibility," he said.
    "However, because of intervention of all kinds, a market as
perfect as we would like to have does not exist in this
imperfect world," Masses said.
 Reuter

Conoco, a unit of DuPont Co, said it is
not interested in buying Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>, the Canadian
oil company which has said it is in discussions with two
unidentified companies.
    "To my knowledge, there is no interest on our part," Conoco
spokesman Sondra Fowler said.
    Houston-based Conoco has been mentioned in market
speculation on the identity of the two companies. Yesterday,
Dome also received a 4.3 billion Canadian dlr offer for all its
assets from TransCanada PipeLines Ltd <TMP>.
 Reuter

First Family Group Inc said sales
for March increased 27 pct over a year ago the same month to
4.4 mln dlrs from 3.5 mln dlrs.
    The company also reported third quarter sales increased 35
pct to 14.5 mln dlrs from 10.6 mln dlrs.
    First Family Group also reported sales for the first nine
months of fiscal 1987. It said sales were 54.5 mln dlrs,
compared to 52.7 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

Bechtel said it signed aa
contract with the Lewis County Public Utility District and
started preliminary design of the 100-mln-dlr Cowlitz Falls
Hydroelectric Project in Washington.
    The 70-megawatt project will generate about 250 mln
kilowatt hours annually, serving the 21,000 residents of Lewis.
    Bechtel said it will use anew power generation concept
called hydrocombine, which may save 15 pct on the cost of the
project.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs 24 cts
    Net 1,114,000 vs 3,676,000
    Revs 43.6 mln vs 41.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 25 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 3,952,000 vs 9,614,000
    Revs 118.6 mln vs 119.9 mln
 Reuter

Slater Industries Inc said it planned a
15 mln dlr modernization of its Slater Steels Corp Fort Wayne
specialty bar division in Indiana.
    It said the modernization would involve replacement of the
existing bar mill with a high-speed, quick-change continuous
mill. The new facility will lower labor and mill costs and
enhance product quality and range, Slater said.
    Completion date of the new mill was undisclosed.
 Reuter

Adams-Russell Co Inc said it
agreed to acquire cable television systems serving about 7,000
customers in New York State from Sammons Communications Inc for
    Adams-Russell said the systems operate in Wellsville,
Amity, Andover, Scio, Willing, Belmont, Milo, Jerusalem, Benton
and Penn Yan, N.Y.
 Reuter

<Forber and Platel Inc> said it
filed a demand for arbitration against Medi-Rx America Inc that
seeks damages of more than five mln dlrs.
    The company said that its demand alleges breach of
contract, tortious interference with contractual relationships
and fraud.
    The company said it signed a contract with Medi-Rx to sell
mail order prescription services and prescribed medical
products for Medi-Rx. The company said that Medi-Rx violated
terms of the contract and failed to pay commissions as provided
for under the agreement.
 Reuter

Gulf Canada Corp said it
acquired a 25 pct working interest in the Gulf of Suez oil
concession for undisclosed terms.
    The company said its agreement with operator Conoco
Hurghada Inc and Hispanoil covered the 168,374-acre East
Hurghada offshore concession. It said a 15.6 mln U.S. dlr
four-well program was planned for 1987.
    After the acquisition, which is subject to Egyptian
government approval, working interests in the Hurghada block
will be Conoco Hurghada at 45 pct, Hispanoil 30 pct and Gulf
Canada the balance.
 Reuter

said it expects to report in the first quarter a loss more than
twice the size of the 4.8-mln-dlr loss reported in the fourth
    Convergent reported a first quarter 1986 profit of
2,100,000 dlrs, or five cts per share.
    The company said results declined in the quarter both in
its traditional OEM business and its business systems group.
    The anticipated loss reflects lower than expected operating
margins, start-up costs for new product manufacturing and
higher than planned expenses.
 Reuter

G. Heileman Brewing Co Inc said
it agreed to acquire the trademarks of Philadelphia-based C.
Schmidt which produces a line of malt beverage products,
including Schmidt, Rheingold, Duquesne and Ortlieb.
    In 1986, Schmidt sold about 1.6 mln barrels.
    Under terms of the proposed agreement, Heileman said it
will enter a trademark transfer agreement which provides for
royalties to be paid to Schmidt over a specified period of time
on beverage products produced under the C. Schmidt labels.

 Reuter

Texaco Inc told securities analysts at
a meeting today that any settlement offers to Pennzoil Co <PZL>
would now be far less than what it offered before, according to
analysts who attended the meeting.
    "The message was they were far less likely to settle
following the bankruptcy filing," said Richard Pzena of Sanford
C. Bernstein and Co, who attended the meeting.
    Texaco yesterday filed Chapter 11 bankrupcty to protect
itself from the 10.3 billion dlr judgement awarded to Pennzoil
for Texaco's illegal takeover of Getty Oil Co.
    Texaco spokesmen said they could not comment on the
    The company's bankruptcy filing freed Texaco from posting a
bond for the judgment pending appeal of the case in Texas
Courts. Pennzoil said it would oppose the Chapter 11 filing.
    "They are ready and willing to talk settlement," said one
analyst who attended the Texaco meeting but declined to be
named. "But a settlement would be for less now," he added.
    The analysts, a number of whom said they were recommending
Texaco, said the stock was so cheap that it might open up the
company up to a takeover bid. Texaco declined 3-1/8 to close at
28-1/2 today.
    Pzena said company officials were asked at the meeting if
it would agree to a takeover, but offered "no comment" in
reply. He said the company said that takeover talks were not
being held.
    "It would make a lot of sense for Royal Dutch/Shell <RD> or
Exxon Corp <XON> to go out and do it," Pzena said. "But they
wouldn't make a hostile offer."
    "This thing has opened them up to a possible acquisition,"
said Alan Edgar of Prudential Bache Capital Funding in Dallas.
"There's a lot of volume (in their stock) and that tells me
someone's messing around," he added.
    Texaco was the most actively traded issue on the New York
Stock Exchange with just under 13 mln shares changing hands.
    "I wouldn't rule anything out right now," said John Olson,
an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    Pennzoil's stock, also on the NYSE's most active list, fell
15-1/4 points to close at 77. Many analysts said the bankruptcy
filing was unfavorable to Pennzoil.
 Reuter

INTERCO Inc said its
shareholders and shareholders of the Lane Co <LANE.O> approved
the merger of the two companies.
    In the merger, Lane's stockholders will receive 1.5 shares
of INTERCO common stock for each outstanding share of Lane
common stock, INTERCO said.
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 10.5 mln vs 8,697,589
    Revs 71.9 mln vs 64.9 mln
 Reuter

PacifiCorp said on May 15 it is
redeeming 2.4 mln shares of its preferred stock.
    The company said it is fully redeeming its 2.29-dlr no par
serial preferred and its 2.48-dlr no par serial preferred and
partially redeeming its 9.15 pct serial preferred.
    The 993,383 shares of 2.29-dlr will be redeemed at 26.72
dlrs per share, plus accumulated dividend of 0.0565 dlrs.
    The 976,352 shares of 2.48-dlr preferred will be redeemed
at 26.24 dlrs per share, plus dividend of 0.0612 dlrs.
    Pacificorp will redeem 87.5 pct of its 500,000 shares of 
9.15 pct preferred at 105.78 dlrs, plus 0.2257 dlrs dividend.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 38 cts
    Qtrly div 35 cts vs 35 cts prior
    Net 731,055 vs 865,117
    NOTE: dividend payable May 20 to shareholders of record
April 24.
    
 Reuter

Dotronix Inc said it agreed
in principle to buy Video Monitors Inc, a privately-held
company.
    In payment for the acquisition, Dotronix will issue 312,500
unregistered shares of its common stock, notes worth 1.8 mln
dlrs payable over three years, and about 70,000 dlrs in cash.
    Dotronix said Video Monitors' sales for the fiscal year
ended April 30, 1986, were 7.6 mln dlrs. Dotronix had income of
659,663 dlrs on sales of 7.1 mln dlrs for the six months ended
Dec. 31, 1986, as previously reported.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 34 cts vs loss 58 cts
    Net loss 1,252,000 vs 2,145,000
    Revs 4,539,000 vs 3,504,000
    SIX MTHS
    Shr loss 66 cts vs loss 86 cts
    Net loss 2,428,000 vs loss 3,163,000
    Revs 9,033,000 vs 8,192,000
 Reuter

Software Inc said it renegotiated its bank credit facility from
a demand note to a 10-year term note with a 25-year payment
schedule.
 Reuter

Genetic Laboratories Inc said
it set up a wholly owned subsidiary that will encorporate its
reconstructive plastic surgery products.
    Genetic Laboratories said one of the reasons for the move
was to "facilitate the sale or merger" of the business "with
other companies specializing in plastic surgery."
 Reuter

Dresser Industries Inc said the U.S.
Court of Appeals ruled against it in its appeal of a 1985
judgment in favor of Hughes Tool Co <HT> concerning a patent
    The case alleged that Dresser infringed on a Hughes patent
regarding a drill bit sealing device, the company said.
    However, Dresser said the Appellate Court set aside the
royalty rate of 25 pct on selected bits as being arbitarary and
returned the case to the district court level to ascertain a
new rate.
 Reuter

U.S. oil traders said Texaco Inc's
filing for protection under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code is
adding uncertainty to an already skittish oil market, but
opinions are divided on the impact to the market.
    "The filing is holding up wet barrel trading today," said
one trader. "Everyone is talking about it, assessing their
company's situations in relation to Texaco," he added.
     Some traders said companies that deal with Texaco are
concerned about whether they will receive payment or supplies
under the bankruptcy filing.
    However, others were less worried. "The first paid will be
the trading community and those connected with Texaco in the
shipping industry," one New York trader said.
    "If Texaco doesn't get crude supplies it can't run its
refineries, so its other assets would not be worth anything,"
he added.
    Texaco filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S.
bankruptcy code yesterday after failing to reach a settlement
with Pennzoil on an 11 billion dlrs court award for illegally
interferring with Pennzoil's proposed purchase of Getty Oil Co.
he added.
    "There is some reluctance to trade with Texaco but no great
change," said another trader, adding that traders are tending
toward prudence in their dealings with the company.
    Traders are assessing whether to require cash prepayment or
letters of credit, or to continue to trade as usual with Texaco
on an open line basis, he said.
    Another trader, however, described today's activity as
business as usual, adding that traders feel more secure because
no liens can be put on Texaco's assets while it is in
    Traders said there was no apparent effect of the Texaco
filing on crude futures trading although they said the exchange
might lower Texaco's position limit and require higher margins
for Texaco's trades.
    New York Mercantile Exchange President Rosemary McFadden
declined to comment on Texaco's futures trading, saying that is
is proprietary information. McFadden did say, however, that as
a matter of procedure, it is possible the exchange can lower
allowable position limits or increase margin requirements for
companies that are in financial trouble.
 Reuter

ERC International said it will
file in the first quarter for a public offering of 25 mln dlrs
principal amount convertible subordinated debentures due 2012.
    It said it will file a registration statement with the
    Proceeds will be used to repay existing debt, with the
balance to be used in its acquisition program and for
additional working capital, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.18 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Net 19.7 mln vs 19.3 mln
    Assets 10.05 billion vs 9.62 billion
    Deposits 8.56 billion vs 8.04 billion
    Net loans 6.95 billion vs 6.71 billion
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 73 cts vs 73 cts
    Pay June 10
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc <MER>
subsidiary seeking to take over of Borg-Warner Corp said it
could realize a 30 mln dlr fee for its efforts, whether or not
the deal, which it values at 4.7 billion dlrs, succeeds.
Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc said it would receive a 30
mln dlr fee from the surviving company for acting as dealer
manager of the merger after the Borg-Warner deal is completed.
    But it said it could also receive a break-up fee of 30 mln
dlrs if the deal fails for reasons, which include another party
holding more than 40 pct of its stock or tendering for 50 pct.
    The 30 mln dlr fee is among the highest set down in any
tender offer agreement, either in compensation for dealer
manager services or for break-up of the deal.
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, backed by a group of
investors it organized, has launched a 48.50 dlr a share tender
offer for Borg-Warner for 90 pct of its stock.
    The company's board has approved the plan, which was
intended to thwart an unsolicited offer from GAF Corp.
    Borg-Warner also agreed to redeem all outstanding Series A
preferred shares and to pay off on all options at a 48.50 dlr a
share exercise price before the merger is effective, it said.
    Merrill Lynch said its representatives discussed a possible
leveraged buyout with Borg-Warner as early as last December.
    At that time, Merrill Lynch told the company it would
consider a 43 dlr a share tender offer in cash and securities,
if the Borg-Warner board approved, it said. On Feb 24, it said
it was told the company had decided against a buyout.
    But talks were revived after GAF launched its 46 dlr a
share proposal on March 31, Merrill Lynch said.
    Unlike its earlier proposal, Merrill Lynch said Borg-Warner
management was asked not to take part in the new deal and it
was conditioned upon payment of the fees.
    In addition to its fees, Merrill Lynch said it will also
get up to 17 mln dlrs from Borg-Warner to cover its expenses in
    Merrill Lynch said it would continue operating Borg-Warner
as a subsidiary with its current officers keeping their
positions.
    But for flexibility purposes, Merrill Lynch said it is
considering redistributing Borg-Warner's assets to a number of
subsdiaries of an entity it created to carry out the merger.
    All in all Merrill Lynch estimated that there would be 130
mln dlrs in fees and expenses connected with the deal.
    Another 250 mln dlrs will be needed to repay certain debt
of Borg-Warner, Merrill Lynch said.
    To finance the deal, Merrill Lynch said it expects to
borrow 3.5 billion dlrs from a group of banks and sell 100 mln
dlrs of common stock of the new company, sell 100 mln dlrs of
non-voting preferred stock of the new company to Merrill Lynch
and Co, sell up to 650 mln dlrs of subordinated notes to
Merrill Lynch and Co and sell to the public 204 mln dlrs of
subordinated discount debentures.
    GAF has raised its offer to 48 dlrs a share cash.
 Reuter

United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union said its locals currently bargaining with
Supermarkets General Corp were prepared to demand additional
job security in light of the recent takeover attempt by the
Dart Group Corp.
    The union said it represented more than 10,000 Pathmark
workers.
 Reuter

Paradyne Corp said it signed a
contract with Van Waters and Rogers Inc, a subsidiary of UNIVAR
Corp, to supply a data communications network.
    The contract, valued at 1.5 mln dlrs, will include Paradyne
modems, multiplexers, ANALYSIS network management system and
NetCare services, Paradyne said.
 Reuter

President Reagan's chief of staff
said a decision on a new U.S.-Soviet summit could emerge from
Secretary of State George Shultz' Moscow talks with Soviet
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
    Chief of Staff Howard Baker noted Reagan's invitation to
Kremlin chief Mikhail Gorbachev to visit the United States,
made at their first summit in Geneva in November, 1985, was
still on the table.
    "I would not be surprised to see that subject discussed by
the secretary of state and the Soviet Foreign Minister," Baker
    "I would not be surprised to see some sort of decision
result from those conversations."
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co, frustrated by Texaco Inc's
<TX> decision to seek bankruptcy protection from its 10.3
billion dlr court judgment, is preparing to launch a new
assault that may include investigating assets Texaco
transferred from its corporate parent to subsidiaries, legal
experts said.
    Joe Jamail, a Houston lawyer for Pennzoil, said the company
would file a challenge to Texaco's bankruptcy petition sometime
this week accusing the oil giant of bad faith and ignoring its
fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders.
    The action is almost certain to ignite a new round of
debate between the two companies stemming from Texaco's 1984
acquisition of Getty Oil Co for 10.2 billion dlrs, a company
Pennzoil believed it had an agreement to buy.
    "We're going to be doing a lot of things they may not
like," Jamail said, referring to the bankruptcy court
proceeding in New York.
    Some legal experts suggested that a mud-slinging battle in
bankruptcy court between the two companies might also provoke
Congressional interest in whether the bankruptcy code is too
lenient because it permits a profitable firm to freeze debts.
    Texaco, which has assets totaling 34.9 billion dlrs, sought
protection Sunday under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy
code rather than risk having a Texas appeals court order the
company to post a security bond for the entire amount of the
Pennzoil judgment.
    Gerald Treece, dean of the South Texas College of Law and
an observer of the litigation during the past three years, said
Pennzoil was unlikely to prove Texaco is not qualified to be in
bankruptcy court simply because the giant oil company has a
positive cash flow and assets that far exceed its liabilities.
    But Pennzoil may be successful in raising the issue of
whether Texaco improperly transferred certain assets from the
corporate parent into subsidiaries unaffected by the bankruptcy
filing, Treece said.
    "Pennzoil's lawyers are going to be like dogs barking at
the heels of Texaco wherever they go," Treece said, "I think
people are going to be surprised at the level of intensity that
Pennzoil will use in searching for hidden Texaco assets."
    Jamail said Pennzoil objected to Texaco's transfer of an
oil refinery and chemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas from its
corporate parent to a subsidiary on Dec. 9, 1985, one day
before a state court judge entered the record jury award
against Texaco. Jamail suggested that the refinery and chemical
plant, valued at about 1.1 billion dlrs, were deliberately
placed out of reach of the Texas jury judgment.
    But Richard Lieb, an attorney with Kronish, Lieb, Weiner
and Hellman in New York, said Texaco could elect to place
additional subsidiaries into bankruptcy if necessary.
    In the petition filed Sunday, only Texaco Inc, the
corporate parent, and two financial subsidiaries were included
in the bankruptcy case. The businesses account for only about
four pct of Texaco's total revenues.
    Mickey Sheinfeld, a Houston lawyer who represented
Continental Airlines in an historic bankruptcy case that set
aside labor union agreements, said the track record of the
bitter Texaco-Pennzoil struggle indicates that the two
companies could spend two or three years fighting in bankruptcy
court.
    "The courts have been very interested in the issue of
good-faith bankruptcy filings. This may prove to be a landmark
case in developing that issue," Sheinfeld said.
    Texaco, he said, was following the example set by Manville
Corp, A.H. Robins Co and other firms that fell into bankruptcy
expressly to avoid paying large legal judgments. Bankruptcy
laws were relaxed in 1978 so that a company no longer needed to
prove it was insolvent in order to seek protection from
    Texaco lawyers bristle at the suggestion that the company
entered bankruptcy to spite Pennzoil.
    Gibson Gayle, a Texaco lawyer, said the company had every
right to seek protection from creditors, and that Texaco had
embarked on an internal restructuring plan in December 1984
that required transferring various assets among subsidiaries.
But Treece said the high profile of the Texaco bankruptcy case
may also put the company under an uncomfortable spotlight.
    "What seems fair and what may be legally correct may be two
entirely different things," Treece said. "This may be a signal
to Congress to do something about tightening the bankruptcy
laws. You are either a chicken or a duck, just like you are
either bankrupt or you're not."
 Reuter

The latest British opinion poll gave
Margaret Thatcher's Conservative party a huge 17 point lead
over the opposition -- the highest rating yet for the prime
minister who is seeking a record third consecutive term.
    The poll in today's Sun popular tabloid showed the
Conservatives could win a solid majority of 125 seats in
Parliament in the next general election.
    Thatcher must call an election by June 1988 but is widely
expected to call it this year.
    The survey gave the Conservatives 44 pct of the votes,
left-wing Labour and the centrist Liberal-Social Democratic
Alliance 27 pct each.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc and Pennzoil Co are still
far apart on a settlement of their 10.3 billion dlrs dispute,
but both sides are still willing to settle, executives from
both companies said.
    Pennzoil chairman J. Hugh Liedtke, on the MacNeil/Lehrer
News Hour, said Pennzoil had offered to settle the dispute
along the lines suggested by Wall Street analysts - something
in the range of three to five billion dlrs - but Texaco Inc
president James Kinnear said it was the first time he heard the
three to five billion dlrs figure.
    Kinnear, on the television news program, said Pennzoil had
talked about four to five billion dlrs previously.
    Both executives, who were taped in separate interviews,
each accused the other of irresponsible actions in the ongoing
legal battle, which involves Texaco's 1984 takeover of Getty
Oil Co.
    Yesterday, Texaco filed for protection under Chapter 11 of
the U.S. Bankruptcy code, stating it was unable to continue its
business because of the legal fight.
    Liedtke said Pennzoil is prepared to litigate the matter as
long as it takes to bring the case to a final conclusion.
    Lietke said he thought it would take about 18 months to two
years to conclude the case.
    Asked if chance of a settlement were out the window,
Liedtke replied, "I've never thought that was the case. I
always believed this could be settled. But it will never be
settled as long as Texaco has the position that it has that
either you will settle with us on our basis or we will hold our
breath till we die." 
    But Kinnear said, "we offered a big reasonable settlement."
    Kinnear also seemed to confirm remarks made at an analysts
meeting earlier today where Texaco said it would only settle
the matter for far less than what it offered before.
    "The offers we made yesterday won't be repeated tomorrow,"
Kinnear said.
    Kinnear charged that Pennzoil was "using extortionary
pressure to deny us the ability to conduct our business." He
said that pressure forced the company into its Chapter 11
filing. 
    But he added he still hoped the dispute would be settled.
 Reuter

said its Chrysler Training Corp non-profit organization sold
the name and assets of its Motech Auto Mechanic and Body Shop
Schools to O/E Corp of Troy, Mich.
    Under the Internal Revenue Service code, proceeds from the
sale of Motech must be donated to another tax-exempt nonprofit
organization. Chrysler did not reveal the name of the group
that received the proceeds.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 16.8 mln vs 12.4 mln
    Sales 248.6 mln vs 233.3 mln
 Reuter

Dense-Pac Microsystems Inc
said it named James Turner is chief executive officer.
    He replaces Anthony Macedo, who was acting on an interim
basis and remains a director.
    Turner had been president of Titan Severe Environment
Systems Co.
 Reuter

Diceon Electronics Inc said it
has entered an agreement in principal to buy closely-held
Symtron Corp in a stock exchange transaction.
    Under the pact, Diceon would exchange 300,000 shares of its
stock for all of Symtron's shares.
    The acquisition, which is subject to board approval and a
definitive agreement, is expected to be concluded during May.
    Diceon said Symtron management would continue running the
business, which would become a wholly-owned subsidiary.
    Symtron had 1986 sales of about 20 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Advanced Genetic Sciences Inc
said it  received final authorization for field testing of its
genetically altered bacteria, Frostban, developed to protect
fruit and nut crops from frost damage.
    The company said its state permit by the California
Department of Food and Agriculture is the final clearance
needed, ending three and one-half years of laboratory and
greenhouse testing and various government approvals.
    A public interest group concerned about the environmental
safety of the test tried repeatedly to block government
approval of the testing.
    "Its's gratifying when government relies on scientific
expertise in reaching its decision and rejects the rhetoric
that has delayed this risk-free field trial for too long," said
Advanced Genetic Sciences President and Chief Executive Officer
Joseph Bouckaert.
    The company said it expects to begin the testing, on
strawberry plants covering one-fifth of an acre, later this
spring.
    The test site is near Brentwood, California.
 Reuter

Ecuador will resume limited crude output
next week to fill up storage tanks as a first step to pump oil
to a Colombian pipeline on May one, the state Ecuadorean
Petroleum Corp (CEPE) said.
    CEPE manager Carlos Romoleroux told reporters that Ecuador
would begin pumping an unspecified amount of crude in
northeastern jungle oilfields at the end of next week in
preparation to send the oil through a new pipeline link-up to
neighbouring Colombia.
    Oil production in Ecuador was halted on March five when an
earthquake damaged the country's main pipeline from Lago Agrio,
at the heart of the Ecuadorean jungle oilfields, to the pacific
port of Balao.
    It will take at least until the end of July to repair the
pipeline and return output to normal levels. The country was
pumping between 245,000 bpd and 250,000 bpd before the tremor.
    To resume limited output in the meantime, Ecuador is
constructing a 26 mile pipeline linkup, capable of carrying
55,000 bpd, from Lago Agrio to Puerto Colon, the starting point
of Colombia's pipeline to the Pacific port of Tumaco.
    The original target date to resume limited crude output was
May eight, the scheduled date for the inauguration of the Lago
Agrio to Puerto Colon pipeline, an energy ministry spokesman
said.
 Reuter

New Zealand's consumer price index,
CPI, which measures the rate of inflation, rose 2.3 pct in the
quarter ended March 31 against an 8.9 pct rise in the December
1986 quarter and a 2.3 pct rise in the March 1986 quarter, the
    For the 12 months ended March 1987 the CPI rose 18.3 pct
against 18.2 pct in 12 months ended December 1986 and 13.0 pct
in the 12 months ended March 1986, it said in a statement.
    Nearly half the increase in the latest quarterly index was
contributed by the housing group, the department said.
    The December quarter was significantly affected by the
introduction of a 10 pct value added goods and services tax,
GST, in October 1986, it added.
    However, some GST charges not measured in the December 1986
quarter influenced the latest March quarterly figure, it said.
    This is because of an unavoidable lag in price information,
particularly on housing, used cars and insurance on household
contents, it added.
 Reuter

The latest British opinion poll, gave
Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives a 17-point lead over the
opposition -- the highest rating yet for the Prime Minister who
is seeking a record third consecutive term.
    The poll in today's Sun tabloid showed the Conservatives
could win a majority of 125 seats in Parliament in the next
general elections. Thatcher must call the elections by June
1988, but is expected to do so this year. The survey, conducted
between April 10 and 12 among 1,000 adults eligible to vote,
gave the Conservatives 44 pct, and left-wing Labour and the
centrist Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance 27 pct each.

The operations in Colombia of Texas
Petroleum Co, a subsidiary of Texaco Inc, will not be affected
by the legal dispute with the Pennzoil Co, its manager John
Buttle said in a communique.
    The company yesterday filed protection under Chapter 11 of
the Bankruptcy code. He said Texaco Inc did not operate outside
the United States and operations of Texas Petroleum here are
unaffected.
    Texas Petroleum Co, which posted a seven mln dlr profit in
1986 in Colombia, exploits in association with state-run oil
company Ecopetrol some crude and natural gas wells.
   
 Reuter

Bank of Japan intervenes to support dollar after Tokyo opening, dealers

The Bank of Japan intervened in Tokyo to
buy dollars just after the market opened, dealers said.
    The dollar opened at 142.05 yen against 142.15/25 in New
York and 142.50 at the close here yesterday.
    The bank stepped into the market amid selling pressure from
interbank dealers, dealers said.
 REUTER

told a press conference he expects the U.S. Trade deficit to
eventually start reflecting economic fundamentals, which should
influence exchange rates.
    The minister was not referring to the U.S. Trade data to be
released in Washington later today.
    Miyazawa also said he told major industrial nations when he
was in Washington last week that present exchange rates are not
necessarily good. He had said earlier in Washington that
current exchange rates were within levels implied in the
February Paris currency accord.
 REUTER

Japan March wholesale prices rise 0.2 pct (0.1 pct February drop) - official

No formal talks have been scheduled yet
among companies involved in a controversial proposal to merge
two groups seeking to enter Japan's international
telecommunications sector, an official from one group said.
    "Nothing has been firmed up yet," said an official at
<International Digital Communications Planning Inc> (IDC), one
of the groups set up last year to study competing against
<Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd>, which monopolises the sector.
    Britain's Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L>, which holds a 20
pct share in IDC, has opposed plans to merge with rival group,
<International Telecom Japan Inc>.
    Under the plan, backed by the Post and Telecommunications
Ministry, Cable and Wireless and U.S.-based <Pacific Telesis
International Inc> would become core companies in the merged
firm, with shares equal to those of the six major Japanese core
companies and seats on the board of directors.
    Britain, angry over what it feels are moves to restrict
Cable and Wireless' role in the sector, views the issue as a
test case. The IDC official declined to specify what was
holding up the talks.
    A spokesman for C. Itoh and Co Ltd <CITT.T>, which holds 20
pct of IDC, said a meeting may be held later this week.
 REUTER

Members of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange (CME) rejected a membership petition to ban dual
trading in Standard and Poor's 500 stock index futures and
options on futures, the exchange said.
    Members voted 1,272 to 525 against a proposal to prohibit
members from filling customer orders and trading for their own
account, known as dual trading, in the S and P contracts.
    Instead of an outright ban on dual trading, the CME board
adopted new rules, which include limitations on dual trading in
stock index products, that will now be sent to the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission for approval.
    The new rules will limit the use of the top step in the S
and P 500 futures and options pits, where the most active
contract is traded, to brokers filling customer orders only.
They may not transact business for their own account.
    The CME last week hired a new compliance officer and
increased the staff of the market surveillance department to
enhance security and regulation of the exchange.
    The rule changes also require brokers in S and P futures
and options to manually record to the nearest minute the time
of all personal trades in stock index products.
    Finally, the board voted to impose strict limits on trading
within broker groups applicable to the entire exchange and
redefined broker groups to more completely cover all forms of
associations. A percentage limitation on the personal trading
of a broker group member with other members of the group, and a
percentage limitation on filling orders between members of the
same broker group, will be set.
    John Sandner, CME board chairman, said in a statement the
original petition would have adversely affected liquidity,
discriminated against every broker and deprived all customers
of their right to choose a broker who is a dual trader.
 REUTER

About 2,000 sugar cane planters
marched to Port-au-Prince to protest against the closure of
Haiti's largest sugar mill and second biggest employer.
    The Haitian American Sugar Company closed on Friday because
of a huge surplus of unsold sugar. The firm said Haiti has been
flooded with smuggled refined and unrefined sugar from the
Dominican Republic and refined U.S. Sugar from Miami.
    The closure idled 3,500 factory workers and left 30,000
small cane planters with no outlet for their cane. The
protesters blamed Finance Minister Lesly Delatour for the
closure, saying his policies have hurt Haitian businesses.
 REUTER

China, a major aluminium importer, will
open the first phase of its biggest aluminium plant on October
1, the China Daily said.
    The first phase of the plant, located in Qinghai province,
will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes of ingots, half
the capacity of the finished plant. It will turn out 4,000
tonnes in 1987, the paper said, but gave no more details.
    Construction of the 510 mln yuan plant began in April 1984.
    Customs figures show China imported 266,241 tonnes of
aluminium and alloy in 1986, down from 487,862 in 1985.
 REUTER

Taiwan imported about 210,000 tonnes of
South African maize between January 1 and April 13, the joint
committee of local maize importers said.
    Under a three-year agreement signed last year, South Africa
will export 600,000 tonnes of maize a year to Taiwan.
    A committee spokesman told Reuters the rest of this year's
quota will be shipped during the rest of 1987.
 REUTER

A 50 pct cut in the import tariff for
soybeans should help boost 1987 U.S. Soybean exports to Taiwan,
a spokesman for the joint committee of soybean importers told
Reuters.
    He said the cut to 3.5 from seven pct was approved by the
cabinet yesterday and would go into effect within a week.
    The cut will encourage local importers to increase 1987
soybean imports to 1.9 mln tonnes from 1.74 mln last year, he
said. The previous target for 1987 was 1.81 tonnes.
    Taiwan imports more than 90 pct of its soybeans from the
U.S. And the rest from South America.
    The spokesman said the increase in imports from the U.S. Is
in line with government efforts to reduce Taiwan's trade
surplus with Washington, which rose to 3.61 billion U.S. Dlrs
in the first quarter of 1987 from 2.78 billion a year ago.
    "The tariff cut is very helpful for American suppliers (who
want) to boost their exports to Taiwan," Steve Chen, country
director of the American Soybean Association, told Reuters.
 REUTER

China will be short of sorghum in 1987
for the sixth successive year because high production costs and
low profits discourage farmers from growing it, the China Daily
    It said sorghum output in calendar 1986 was 5.34 mln
tonnes, down five pct from the 1985 level, and prices on the
free market rose in January to 0.42 yuan per kg, up 14 pct on
    It said sorghum acreage in 1987 is six pct lower than in
1986. Sorghum accounts for 40 pct of the raw materials needed
by China's breweries, it added but gave no more details.
 REUTER

Bank of Japan intervening to support dollar against yen, dealers

average of M-2 plus certificate of deposits (CD) rose a
preliminary 9.0 pct in March from a year earlier, compared with
an 8.8 pct rise in February, the Bank of Japan said.
    The seasonally adjusted March average of M-2 plus CDs rose
0.8 pct from February when it rose an identical 0.8 pct from a
month earlier, it said.
    Unadjusted M-2 plus CDs stood at an average 343,600 billion
yen in March compared with 336,015 billion in February.
 REUTER

Traders in financial centres in Asia
generally welcomed the first U.S. Night session of futures
trading which starts in Chicago on April 30.
    Traders in Japan, Sydney and Hong Kong said they expected
the move to bring benefits, but traders and bankers in
Singapore said it posed a serious threat to the Singapore
International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX).
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in
Washington gave unanimous approval to the Chicago Board of
Trade's (CBT) proposals on Tuesday.
    The CBT plans to offer futures on U.S. Treasury notes and
bonds, and options on those futures, from 1800 to 2100 hrs
Chicago time (2300 to 0200 gmt) on Mondays to Thursdays.
    The sessions would mark the start of the trading day, which
would end at the present close of business the next day.
    The proposed hours are designed to coincide with the
busiest morning trading hours in Japan.
    But Andrea Corcoran, chief of CFTC's division of trading
and markets, said on Tuesday she expected the evening sessions
to attract primarily U.S. Firms looking for additional
overnight protection.
    Traders in Tokyo said the night sessions were expected to
help expand U.S. Treasury bond trading volume and enlarge daily
fluctuation ranges in Tokyo.
    They said Japanese financial institutions were very
interested in using overseas futures markets, but were waiting
for finance ministry approval to do so. Approval is expected
before the end of the month.
    The foreign branches of financial institutions can already
trade futures, but in practice make little use of them.
    But, traders said the timing of the launch was poor, as it
is in a ten day period when Tokyo has three public holidays.
    The Tokyo traders said because of the holidays little
interest in night trading could be expected until after May 5.
    Tokyo bond managers said also that participation could be
limited by a lack of experienced futures traders in Tokyo.
    The Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) hoped the four-hour
trading overlap with the new CBT hours would boost activity in
Sydney's eurodollar and U.S. Treasury bond contracts, spokesman
Stephen Calder said.
    The eurodollar contracts are linked to the London
International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE).
    Calder said turnover in both contracts had been
disappointingly low since they were introduced last October.
    He said the CBT move would broaden arbitraging
opportunities for SFE traders.
    "With a late evening lead from Chicago, there's also more
chance that people will deal here in the afternoon," he said.
    But in Singapore news of the CBT move was not welcomed.
    A senior executive of a Japanese securities firm operating
in Singapore told Reuters: "Expanding global links between
futures markets mean that SIMEX must add Chicago and London and
Sydney to its list of rivals."
    "LIFFE could cut further into the SIMEX contract, with a U.S
treasury bond contract that can be off-set on the CBOT," the
Singapore-based Japanese trader said.
    Such a contract is expected later this year, he said.
    Other SIMEX traders said local interest in the Sydney
treasury bond contract might be boosted if the Sydney exchange
established a three-way link with Chicago and London. LIFFE has
signed a memorandum of understanding with CBOT for such a link.
    "If this link-up materializes, most traders are likely to
by-pass SIMEX," said one trader.
    Hong Kong commodity traders welcomed the CFTC's decision,
though they added that local investors would have been more
interested in financial futures.
    "I think it is very good, because the move will help us to
increase our market share here," said Joseph Tan, manager of
<Bache Securities (HK) Ltd>.
    He said that Bache, like many other local units of U.S.
Commodity houses, had been participating in Chicago's rregular
hours of trading for a long time and would like to extend its
business.
    Local Hong Kong houses also welcomed the move, but a
spokesman for Shun Loong Co said investors would be more
interested if stock index or currency futures were available.
    Futures contracts in the local Hang Seng index have become
increasingly popular since they were introduced to the market
in May 1986.
 (See ECRA for Spotlight Index)
 REUTER

Tokyo stock index rises 69.92 to record closing 23,938.35 - brokers

Guangdong International Trust and
Investment Corp is preparing to issue 300 mln HK dlrs in bonds
in Hong Kong, the China Daily Business Weekly said.
    It said the issue will be the first such bond issue in Hong
Kong by a local organisation but gave no more details.
 REUTER

South Korea has decided on major changes
in its trade, investment and finance policies aimed at reducing
the growth of its balance of payments surplus and avoiding a
trade war with the United States, Deputy Prime Minister Kim
Mahn-je said.
    Kim told reporters the excessively fast rise in exports
could make South Korea too reliant on exports, increase
nflation and produce trade friction. The policy shift, which
means abandoning Seoul's goal of rapidly reducing its foreign
debt, was worked out at a series of ministerial meetings.
    Kim, who is also Economic Planning Minister, said the
current account surplus, previously expected to exceed eight
billion dlrs this year, would be held at about five billion
dlrs by increasing imports, accelerating market liberalisation
and rationalising exports.
    He said Seoul would try to limit its current account
surplus to around five billion dlrs a year for the next few
years, although trade volume would continue to grow.
    "This will gradually reduce the ratio of the surplus to GNP
(gross national product) from the current five pct level to
three pct by 1991," he added.
    Koo Bon-yong, an aide to Kim, said South Korea's foreign
debt had been expected to fall below 40 billion dlrs by the end
of 1987, against the initial forecast of 41.8 billion, and 44.5
billion dlrs at end-1986.
    "But now (with the policy changes) the debt is expected to
remain above 40 billion dlrs, although it could still be lower
than the originally projected 41.8 billion dlrs," he said.
    The policy change was announced two days before the
scheduled arrival of U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige
for talks with Trade Minister Rha Woong-bae.
    South Korea is under U.S. Pressure to reduce its bilateral
trade surplus, which rose to 7.4 billion dlrs last year from
4.3 billion dlrs in 1985.
    Kim said the policy changes were also prompted by the swing
in South Korea's current account to a surplus of 2.06 billion
dlrs in the first quarter of 1987 from a deficit of 438 mln
dlrs in the same 1986 period. First quarter 1987 exports rose
36 pct to 9.4 billion dlrs.
    The government would make foreign currency loans worth 2.5
billion dlrs to firms willing to import capital goods, raw
materials and equipment, preferably from the U.S., He said.
    "The foreign currency-based loans, which carry interest at
1.5 points above LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate), are
considerable incentives given to increase imports," Koo said.
    Koo said the loans would be repayable in foreign currency.
"It means they could become interest-free loans if the Korean
currency continues to rise in value," he said.
    He said the South Korean won would be revalued against the
dollar gradually, but added "We do not believe in rapid one-shot
changes in the value of the won."
    The won, fixed at 839.70 to the dollar today, has risen six
pct against the dollar since the beginning of 1986.
 REUTER

Japan's vehicle exports fell 3.8 pct to
6.59 mln in the year ended March 31, 1987, while vehicle output
fell 1.2 pct to 12.27 mln, industry sources said.
    Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> said its exports fell 5.5 pct to
1.87 mln in 1986/87, and comprised 1.20 mln cars, down 0.8 pct
from a year earlier, 649,587 trucks, down 11.7 pct, and 14,797
buses, down 48.2 pct.
    Nissan Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> said its 1986/87 exports fell
8.1 pct to 1.29 mln. They comprised 1.03 mln cars, down 0.3 pct
from a year earlier, 258,278 trucks, down 29.5 pct, and 4,857
buses, down 37.1 pct.
    Toyota's exports to the U.S. Rose 4.2 pct from a year
earlier to 1.01 mln and those to Europe rose 17.7 pct to
428,977. Of the European total, shipments to West Germany rose
46.9 pct to 96,589 and those to U.K. Fell 13.9 pct to 34,131.
    Toyota's 1986/87 exports to the Middle East fell 56.8 pct
to 71,631 and those to Southeast Asia fell 58.2 pct to 62,145.
    Nissan exports to the U.S. Fell 5.5 pct to 659,118. Exports
to Europe rose 17.3 pct to 413,462, of which those to West
Germany rose 43.3 pct to 97,284 but those to the U.K. Fell 8.9
pct to 100,831. Exports to the Middle East fell 59.6 pct to
40,679,those to Southeast Asia fell 55.8 pct to 33,398.
 REUTER

State-owned Bank of China has bought a
three to five pct share of BAII Holding SA, a financial
institution registered in Luxembourg, the China Daily Business
Weekly said.
    It said the institution is 50 pct owned by Arab interests
and has set up a wholly owned commercial banking branch in Hong
Kong but gave no more details.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia hopes to increase the volume
of its oil exports to Japan through expanding bilateral trade,
Saudi Arabian Interior Minister Naif bin Abdul-Aziz said.
    He told a Tokyo reception his country hopes to raise crude
and products exports to Japan to earlier levels, but did not
elaborate. To promote trade, Saudi Arabia is inviting Japanese
industries to do business there, he said.
    Japanese firms now have long-term contracts to import a
total of 150,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude.
 REUTER

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng
has asked Japan to open its farm market further to help
Washington cut its trade deficit and ease protectionist
pressures, an Agriculture Ministry official told reporters.
    Hideo Maki, Director General of the ministry's Economic
Affairs Bureau, quoted Lyng as telling Agriculture Minister
Mutsuki Kato that the removal of import restrictions would help
Japan as well as the United States.
    The meeting with Kato opened a 12-day visit to Japan by
Lyng, who is here to dicuss farm trade.
    However, Maki quoted Kato as replying that Japan was
already the world's largest grain importer.
    Kato added Japan is the largest customer for U.S. Grain and
depended on domestic output for only 53 pct of its food
requirements in 1985.
    Lyng said the U.S. Put high priority on talks on 12 farm
products named in U.S. Complaints against Japan to the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) last year, as well as on
beef, citrus products and rice.
    Kato said Japan will maintain its current level of
self-sufficiency and will try not to produce surplus rice
because potential production is higher than domestic demand.
    The world farm market suffers from surpluses because of
rising production by exporting countries, he added.
    Lyng said the U.S. Has been trying to reduce farm product
output with expensive programs, Maki said.
    Maki said the U.S. And Japan will hold detailed discussions
on each trade item as well as a new round of GATT trade talks
at a meeting on April 20, in which U.S. Trade Representative
Clayton Yeutter will join.
 REUTER

South Korea's Securities Supervisory
Board has ordered securities houses to report by tomorrow the
list of their clients holding shares worth 100 mln won or more,
Board officials said.
    They said the order was aimed at preventing large investors
from manipulating the Seoul exchange to make illegal margin
profits. "It was believed that such shareholders were
responsible for overheating the market earlier this year," one
official told Reuters. No further details were given.
 REUTER

At least 60,000 tonnes of corn worth 240
mln pesos have been smuggled into the Philippines over the past
few months, the Manila Bulletin newspaper said, quoting an
official in the National Food Authority (NFA).
    The official, who was not named, said a large corn shortage
and corruption among customs and Coast Guard personnel have
jeopardised the government's ban on corn imports, which was
aimed at saving foreign currency.
    The newspaper quoted NFA Marketing Director Jig Tan as
saying monthly corn consumption stood at about 331,000 tonnes
against a national stock inventory of 191,732 tonnes.
    Tan said a continuing drought affecting about 49,150
hectares of corn has led to the loss of 43,725 tonnes of corn
worth 174.9 mln pesos and contributed to the shortage.
    The newspaper quoted Linda Geraldez, an NFA statistician,
as saying despite the drought and the shortage, the total
inventory at the end of the January/June crop season is
expected to be at least 201,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

The Washington Post said the U.S.
Commerce Department yesterday issued a new report showing that
the U.S. Merchandise trade deficit was 13.65 billion dollars in
February, a reduction of 1.4 billion dlrs from the 15.06
billion figure the department reported only two days earlier.
    The newspaper said: "News of the unexpectedly large 15
billion deficit helped batter the dollar's value on foreign
exchange markets and boosted U.S. Interest rates.
    "However, the new report went largely unnoticed by financial
markets since such a downward revision in the deficit is a
monthly occurrence."
    The Washington Post said: "By law, the department must first
publish what a top commerce official agreed are misleading
trade figures and then wait 48 hours before putting out the
more accurate ones."
    No one was immediately available at the Commerce Department
for comment on the Washington Post report.
 REUTER

rose 1.9 pct to 172.9 (base 1980) in February after a 0.8 pct
rise in January, to stand 17.2 pct higher than in Feburary
1986, provisional Economic Planning Board figures show.
index.
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Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd <DPRI.T> said
it will issue three convertible yen bonds on domestic markets.
     It will issue a 25 billion yen 15-year bond through public
placement with Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd as lead manager. It
will also issue a 15 billion yen 10-year bond and a 10 billion
yen six-year bond through public placement, both with Nomura
    Coupon and conversion price for the par-priced bonds will
be set at Dai Nippon's next board meeting. Payment will be due
on June 1. The 15-year bond will mature on May 31 2002, the
10-year on May 30 1997, and the six-year on May 31 1993.
    Dai Nippon's share price rose 20 to 1,800 yen on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange today.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry is likely to allow
Japanese financial institutions here to use overseas financial
futures market from next month, bond market sources said.
    A senior ministry official declined to give an exact
timing, but said he expects removal of the ban on trading in
overseas financial futures as soon as possible.
    The domestic call for participation in overseas markets to
hedge foreign securities holding risks was reinforced by the
launch of a night trading session by the Chicago Board of Trade
from April 30. The session covers morning trading hours in
Tokyo.
    Resident financial institutions are currently not allowed
to participate in foreign financial futures markets, although
their overseas branches may.
    The newly eligible institutions are expected to be
securities houses, banks, life insurance companies and
investment trusts, the market sources said. But the ministry is
likely to prohibit broking business by those institutions and
by individuals, the sources said.
    In addition corporate investors are expected to be barred
initially because of their relative lack of experience.
 REUTER

(LDP) will call for adequate and flexible management of the
nation's monetary polices in its plan to expand domestic
demand, a senior LDP official told Reuters.
    Junichiro Koizumi, the head of the LDP committee working
out the plan, said the phrase should not be taken as implying
an immediate cut in Japan's 2.5 pct discount rate.
    "The LDP generally believes that there is no need for a
further discount rate cut at the moment," he said. But Koizumi
said the LDP does not rule out a rate cut if necessary in the
future.
    Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita told a press
conference on Wednesday that the central bank does not have any
intention of easing credit conditions.
 REUTER

French corporate bankruptcies rose to a
seasonally-adjusted 2,857 last month from 2,631 in February and
2,572 in March 1986, the National Statistics Institute (INSEE)
said.
    The rise has been progressive since the end of last year,
with bankruptcies totalling 2,367 in January and 2,195 in
    The cumulative total for the first quarter of this year was
7,855 bankruptcies, four pct up on 7,560 in the first quarter
of 1986.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry said India's
wholesale-price linked inflation rate dropped marginally to 5.3
pct in all fiscal 1986/87 ended March from 5.8 pct in 1985/86
and 7.1 pct in 1984/85.
    The average wholesale-price related inflation stood at 5.2
pct in March this year against 5.1 pct a year ago, the Ministry
    It said wholesale prices of cement, textiles and jute fell
in 1986/87, compared with the previous year, but milk, cereals
(mainly wheat and rice), fruits and vegetables, edible oils,
tobacco and fertilisers were costlier in 1986/87.
 REUTER

International banks have radically
changed their attitudes towards debt and lending and debtor
nations will have to explore new methods of ensuring inflows,
Philippine Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said.
    "Commercial banks have tended to be rather difficult in
terms of new money for some time now," he told reporters at a
news conference. "Within the world there are enormous changes
taking place in attitudes of different banks."
    He said the banks were no longer flush with funds from the
post-1973 oil boom and were reluctant to lend money.
    "They don't have the same kind of money they used to have
... They find their whole deposit base eroding," Fernandez said.
Groups of major banks had decided that the international arena
was not to their liking.
    "They wind up with 7/8 (over Eurodollar rates) and who wants
7/8 really? It's nothing. They want to get the frills, but if
they are not big enough they don't get the frills."
    The Philippines on Wednesday announced it wanted to
renegotiate a debt restructuring accord it reached on March 27
with its 12-bank advisory committee, saying it wanted the same
terms as were granted to Argentina earlier this week.
    Argentina was granted a 19-year repayment at 13/16 points
over Eurodollar rates, the same historically low spread that
Mexico won last October, while the Philippines, which had
insisted on a deal similar to Mexico's, restructured 10.3
billion dlrs of its 28.2 billion dlr foreign debt at 7/8.
    Fernandez said the old type of new-money agreement, where
hundreds of banks were forced into involuntary lending by an
advisory committee that negotiated agreements with debtor
countries, was becoming increasingly difficult.
    He said involuntary lending proved useful in the two or
three years since the Mexican debt crisis in 1982.
    "But the present tendency has been that more and more of the
banks, specially the regionals or the small ones, have either
sold off their portfolios or simply by policy will not put up
any more money," Fernandez said.
    He said another disturbing development was the so-called
national quota approach adopted by groups of banks.
    "Groups of banks by nationality have chosen to take a look
at what other groups of banks in other countries are willing to
do and if let us say British banks wind up giving 99 pct of
what is needed and U.S. Banks give only 92 pct, then the
British banks say as a whole they will pull out," he said.
    "There are banks that have decided that lending is not a
good business any more. They want to deal in securities, they
want to go into investment banking, they want to go into the
turnover business rather than the carry business," Fernandez
said. "We have to thread our way through a constellation of
banks, all of whom have different objectives."
    He said in order to survive, the Philippines would have to
try and stimulate new types of inflows, "whether this be direct
investments, whether this be investments by institutions that
now have chosen not to lend but to invest, or whether this be
debt to equity conversions."
 REUTER

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
has drawn up a detailed plan calling for large tax cuts and an
increase in government purchases of foreign goods, the head of
the committee working out the plan, Junichiro Koizumi, said.
    The plan will also urge the government to double 1985's
official development assistance to 7.6 billion dlrs within five
years instead of seven as the government had promised, senior
LDP officials said at a press conference.
    LDP executive council chairman Shintaro Abe will explain
the plan to U.S. Officials when he visits the U.S. On April 19.
    Abe's visit is to prepare for Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone's talks with President Ronald Reagan later this month.
    Koizumi said the LDP plan will not specify the size of the
tax cut or the amount of domestic demand to be stimulated.
However, top LDP executives will work out figures so that Abe
will be able to offer specifics to U.S. Officials.
    The proposed increase in procurement of foreign goods by
the government will probably include the purchase of super
computers, LDP officials said.

specific trade problems with other nations and will encourage
flows of funds to developing countries, the officials said.
    The LDP expects the measures to prop up the economy and
lessen trade problems with the U.S., They added.
    The basic ideas of the LDP's plan were presented to and
welcomed by monetary authorities of the major industrial
nations in Washington last week, they said.
    The LDP plan will form the basis for the last of several
packages to stimulate Japanese domestic demand and will be
unveiled by the government in late May.
 REUTER

China's trade deficit in the first
quarter fell to 1.05 billion dlrs from 3.04 billion in the same
1986 period, customs figures show.
    Zhang Zhongji, spokesman of the State Statistical Bureau,
quoted the figures as showing exports rose 27 pct to 7.28
billion dlrs and imports fell 5.1 pct to 8.33 billion.
    He said if imports of gifts, foreign aid items and
materials for joint ventures are excluded, the deficit was only
350 mln dlrs, and the surplus on invisibles was 700 mln. As a
result, foreign exchange reserves increased somewhat from their
level at end-1986, he said, but gave no figure.
    Official figures show the reserves at 10.514 billion dlrs
at end-1986, down from 11.9 billion at end-1985.
    Zhang said one reason for the rise in exports was improved
incentives to export firms, which are being allowed to retain
more foreign exchange from the goods they sell.
    He said first quarter exports to Hong Kong and Macao rose
35.5 pct to 2.48 billion dlrs and imports rose 55.3 pct to 1.46
billion. Exports to Japan fell 2.3 pct to 1.28 billion and
imports 24.4 pct to 2.14 billion.
    Exports to the U.S. Rose 23 pct to 640 mln dlrs and imports
fell 26.7 pct to 840 mln. Exports to the EEC rose 35.1 pct to
770 mln dlrs and imports fell 3.8 pct to 1.5 billion, he said.
 REUTER

Teck Soon Co Ltd, a major Thai rubber
exporter has formed a joint venture with state-owned Chinese
International Economic and Technology Development Corp to
produce 50,000 tonnes of sheet rubber annually for export to
the Chinese auto industry, Teck Soon general manager Chit
Surivitchpan said.
    Chit said a new joint venture company will have a
registered capital of four mln dlrs.
    China imported 69,952 tonnes of Thai sheet rubber last year
and 60,296 tonnes in 1985.
 REUTER

Basic reform of Japan's protected farm
sector is a key to shifting its economy away from export to
domestic-led growth, a vital step if it is to trim its trade
surplus, securities analysts said.
    The farm sector, which is protected by import tariffs and
quotas, propped up by subsidies and price supports, and
sheltered by the tax system, has ample room for change, they
said.
    "In economic terms, reform would be a plus," said Christopher
Chew of brokerage firm James Capel and Co.
    The ultimate cost of the existing system is food prices
twice those in Europe and two to three times those in the U.S.,
The analysts said.
    Spending on food accounts for about one quarter of the
average household's budget and roughly 10 pct of the gross
national product (GNP), according to a study by Chew.
    Reducing these prices could increase household spending
power by five pct, his study said. The money could be spent on
products which would have a more direct impact in boosting
domestic growth, it added.
    "There's a lot of slack," a U.S. Government official in Tokyo
said. "All that money could be spent on something else."
    Direct central government subsidies to the farm sector
amount to some five billion dlrs per year. Independent
estimates put total subsidies from all sources as high as 37
billion and the analysts said much of that money is wasted.
    Changing tax laws to encourage city residents who only farm
on weekends to put their land up for sale for residential
development would also give a boost to domestic spending,
    "Housing construction is the key strategic variable in the
expansion of domestic demand," wrote Chihiro Nakajima, professor
at Kyoto Gakuen University.
    Japanese business groups are calling for staged farm reform
to shift some of the burden of trade friction and economic
restructuring away from the manufacturing sector and onto the
farm sector. Employers groups also want change. "If you really
want to expand domestic demand, the way to do it is not to
raise wages recklessly, but to reduce commodity prices," Bumpei
Otsuki, President of the Japan Federation of Employers'
Associations told a recent press conference.
    External pressures are rising as the U.S. And Europe seek
removal of tariffs and quotas to help reduce their trade
deficits with Japan.
    But vested Japanese interests opposed to change remain well
entrenched, dimming prospects for quick reform, analysts said.
    Although the full-time farm population is falling and there
are signs the LDP is paying more attention to urban
constituencies, the ruling party remains heavily dependent on
farm votes in the rural areas. One rural vote is worth several
city votes due to the pattern of constituency borders.
    The LDP is already in political trouble over its tax reform
plan and does not want to raise another sticky issue so soon,
the analysts said.
    Consumer groups are politically weak and tend to accept the
traditional view that higher prices are a small fee to pay for
national food security, they said.
    Powerful agricultural cooperatives are fiercely opposed to
import liberalisation, but are more flexible about reforms
aimed at stepping up productivity, they said.
    Reform, when it comes, will be in response to specific
pressure rather than an all-embracing program, said Chew.
 REUTER

Sri Lanka and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached agreement on the broad outline
of economic reforms, but tough negotiations are likely before
the IMF approves up to 240 mln dlrs in loans, a senior finance
ministry official told Reuters.
    He said the government and IMF this week agreed on a
package to reduce the balance of payments deficit, improve
management of public enterprises, reform tariffs, develop
non-traditional exports and privatise public firms.
    An IMF-World Bank team will visit Colombo next month to
start negotiations on details of a three-year economic reform
programme. "There is a broad agreement on the content of the
policy package for a structural reform," the official said. "But
in areas where the reform would take place, there would be
tough neotiations on how much you do and in what order should
it take place," he added.
    Sri Lanka is seeking a total of about 240 mln dlrs in
structural adjustment loans to support the balance of payments
and in a compensatory financing facility to offset losses in
commodity exports.
    Sri Lanka needs the IMF and World Bank approval of the two
facilities to clear the way for negotiations on requests for
aid and loans from donor countries.
    These include an expected pledge of 550 mln dlrs from from
12 industrialised countries and about 240 mln dlrs in loans
from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
    Finance Minister Ronnie De Mel said in an interview
published today by the Daily News that there was likelihood of
Sri Lanka obtaining all of that aid despite intense lobbying by
pro-Tamil and human rights groups abroad.
    He said that although friendly countries were still
prepared to assist Sri Lanka with concessional aid, Colombo
would have to surmount many problems in detailed negotiations
due in May, June and August before these loans are finalised.
    "In these matters, there's many a slip between the cup and
the lip as other governments have learned to their cost," De Mel
said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan said it forecast
Japan's broadly-defined M-2 money supply average plus
certificates of deposit (CDs) will rise by about nine pct in
the current April-June quarter against 8.5 pct a year earlier.
    Unadjusted M-2 plus CDs rose a preliminary 8.8 pct in
January/March 1987 compared with a nine pct rise a year
earlier, it said.
    The bank said the forecast rise is due to an increase in
floating deposits due to recent low interest rates and a shift
to private banks from the Bank of Japan of 400-1,000 billion
yen by the recently privatised Japanese Railways.
 REUTER 

Japan's plan to stimulate its economy
will inject about 5,000 billion yen into the economy and should
be appreciated by the U.S., Ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) executive council chairman Shintaro Abe told reporters.
    "I expect considerable U.S. Appreciation of measures I have
personally prepared with cooperation of the government and the
LDP to help solve some individual issues pending with the
United States," he said.
    Abe, former Foreign Minister, starts a week long visit to
Washington on Sunday.
    Abe said he will meet President Reagan, Vice President
George Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, Defence
Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Treasury Secretary James Baker,
White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker and as many Congressmen
    Washington is likely to announce today a series of tariff
sanctions against Japanese electrical products after it accused
Tokyo of failing to meet terms of a 1986 bilateral pact on
computer chip trade.
    "I will ask U.S. Leaders to rescind any sanctions," said Abe.
    Japanese officials have said Tokyo would appeal to the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for possible
compensation or the right to retaliate should U.S. Sanctions
    But Abe said, "We should not repeat retaliatory measures.
What I would like to say to the United States is retaliation or
protectionism alone cannot solve our trade disputes."
 REUTER

The Dutch transport, trading and
storage firm PHS Van Ommeren NV <OMMN.AS> said it plans a 75
mln guilder bond issue with warrants attached.
    The bond will have a maturity of 10 years with repayment in
the second five year period in equal yearly instalments.
    Each bond of 1,000 guilders nominal has five "A" warrants and
20 "B" warrants attached. Each warrant entitles the holder to
acquire one non-cancellable share certificate. The exercise
period of the "A" warrants will be three years and of the "B"
warrants five years.
     Coupon and price of the bond issue as well as the exercise
price of the warrants will be announced April 27 after the
close of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
 REUTER

The European Community (EC) is ready
to take measures to ensure that Japanese exports expected to be
effectively excluded from the U.S. Market from today are not
diverted to the EC, a spokesman said.
    President Reagan is expected to announce later today the
imposition of 100 pct tariffs on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese
goods ranging from computers and television sets to power tools
and photographic film.
    The spokesman for the EC executive Commission said
representatives of member states last Friday agreed a series of
measures to prevent Tokyo deflecting exports to the EC.
    The spokesman declined to detail the measures, saying they
were technical, and the Commission would decide their precise
content depending on the exact details of the measures
announced by Reagan.
    The EC fears Tokyo will step up exports to it of a range of
products including calculating machines, measuring instruments,
small televisions, tapes and some machine tools as a result of
the U.S. Measures.
    But the spokesman said there was thought to be ample time
to put the countermeasures in place after the Easter holiday.
    He noted the probable outline of Reagan's announcement and
its date have been known for some time.
    The Japanese manufacturers of goods likely to be affected
by the announcement are thought to have been stepping up their
exports to the United States in recent weeks in order to beat
the April 17 deadline, he noted.
    They were therefore unlikely to have stocks available for
export to the EC immediately, he said.
 REUTER

Consumer prices in the countries of the
rose 0.3 pct in February and inflation rose to 2.4 pct
year-on-year, the OECD said in a communique.
    The OECD attributed the rise in consumer prices to the
effects of the February 1986 drop in energy prices working
their way out of the index. The February increase was less than
Janauary's 0.4 pct increase but slightly above the average for
the later months of 1986.
    Inflation in the 24 western industrialised nations in
January was a revised 1.9 pct year-on-year. 
    Retail energy prices rose by 0.3 pct, less than January's
1.1 pct increase. Energy prices for consumers were still nine
pct lower than a year earlier, it said.
    Consumer prices excluding food and energy rose 0.3 pct in
February, in line with previous months, although there has been
some acceleration noticeable in the U.S. And Britain.
    Among the leading seven industrial countries, consumer
price inflation was highest in Italy at 4.2 pct, followed by
Canada at 4.0 pct, Britain at 3.9 pct, France at 3.4 pct, the
U.S. At 2.1 pct and West Germany and Japan with negative rates
of 0.5 pct and 1.4 pct respectively.
 REUTER

opens talks with Japanese government officials today well aware
his demand for the opening of Japanese rice, beef and citrus
markets is likely to be rejected.
     But in an interview with Reuters during the flight to
Tokyo yesterday, Lyng said the goal of his trip was to throw an
international spotlight on Japan's agricultural import
protection in the hope pressure would build on Tokyo to open
its markets.
    "(The Japanese) have said they are happy we are coming, but
they are not going to give us anything," Lyng said.
    U.S. Officials do not expect any Japanese concessions
during Lyng's two-week visit here. Any farm trade concessions
would be unveiled later this month, they said.
    "If there is anything of consequence to offer (Prime
Minister Yasuhiro) Nakasone would take it with him," when he
visits Washington later in the month, one U.S. Official said.
    Lyng plans to ask Japan to open the door to rice imports by
partially lifting the longstanding ban on foreign purchases.
    A private U.S. Rice trader visited Tokyo last week
requesting Japan buy 200,000 tonnes of rice for industrial uses
such as making sake. Japan has rejected the overture, saying
Tokyo maintains a policy of self-sufficiency in rice.
    Lyng will also press Japan to eliminate an import quota for
beef by April 1988 because he believes Japanese consumers would
like to buy much more beef than currently allowed.
    He cited the example of a California company which
transports live U.S. Cattle to Japan by air for slaughter to
circumvent the beef quota. The cost of transport is higher than
the value of the animal, he said.
    U.S. Officials said the Japan Livestock Industry Promotion
Corporation which regulates beef imports, was forced to borrow
from the fiscal 1987 quota earlier this year because the 1986
quota was exhausted and Japanese beef prices were rising. Japan
has said it cannot open its markets to beef imports.
    Along with beef, the U.S. Will also press Japan to
eliminate import quotas on fresh oranges and orange juice by
April, 1988. Some U.S. Officials believe Japan may eventually
be willing to scrap the quota on fresh oranges because
liberalized trade would not necessarily damage the Japanese
mandarin orange industry.
    The quota on juice may be harder to eliminate because
imports might replace domestic produced juice, U.S. And
Japanese officials have said.
   Lyng has resurrected a past U.S. Proposal that Japan buy
surplus U.S. Foodgrains for donation to developing countries,
but some U.S. Officials are skeptical action will be taken.
   Lyng will also urge Japan to put its domestic farm policies,
including rice, on the negotiating table during GATT talks in
Geneva. He said Japan must eliminate import quotas on certain
minor food products or face possible U.S. Reprisals.
 REUTER

Traders in financial centers in Asia
business.
 REUTER

Air Mauritius has leased a second
Boeing 747 SP jumbo jet and will take delivery of two Boeing
767-200 long-range airliners in 1988, the airline's general
manager Tirvengadum told Reuters.
    The second-hand Boeing 747, which was acquired on a
renewable one-year lease, made its first scheduled flight to
Munich earlier this month, he told Reuters.
    Tirvengadum said the twin-engined Boeing 767-200's, costing
a total of 130 mln dlrs, would be delivered in March and April
next year.
    Tirvengadum said the new aircraft would enable Air
Mauritius to expand its services to Europe, Australia and the
Far East and phase out its two Boeing 707's.
    The airline will begin a weekly non-stop service to Geneva
next June and hopes to obtain landing rights in Australia, he
added.
    Tirvengadum said South African Airways, which currently
flies to Australia via Mauritius, will be forced to give up the
route in November as a result of Australian sanctions.
 REUTER

    According to the plan, Japan will also strive to solve
 REUTER

Baldrige leaves on Saturday on a 10-day trip to the Far East to
help spur U.S. Trade and improve business relations with China,
South Korea and the Philippines, U.S. Officials say.
    Baldrige will also stop in Hong Kong to meet British
officials and local U.S. And Hong Kong businessmen.
    The U.S. Last year had major deficits with three of its
Asian trading partners -- South Korea 7.1 billion dlrs, Hong
Kong 6.4 billion and China 2.1 billion. The deficit with the
Philippines was 800 mln dlrs.
    Baldrige will meet South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan and
Trade Minister Rha Woong Bae on Monday to discuss opening South
Korean markets to more U.S. Goods.
    Baldrige will be in Peking from April 21 to 24. He will
meet Zheng Tuobin, minister for foreign economic relations and
trade, attend a meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on
Commerce and Trade and address a management and training
organisation.
    However, U.S. Officials said a chief purpose of Baldrige's
visit would be to discuss relaxed U.S. Rules for transferring
modern technology to Chinese industries.
    In Hong Kong, Baldrige will hold meetings on April 27 with
Governor David Wilson and Trade and Industry Secretary Eric Ho,
as well as addressing the American Chamber of Commerce.
    U.S. Officials said Baldrige will meet Philippines
President Corazon Aquino on April 28 to show continued U.S.
Support for her government and to discuss steps it could take
to improve the atmosphere for American investment.
    He will also will meet Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin and
Trade and Industry Secretary Jose Concepcion.
 REUTER

Soldiers killed one man and
seriously wounded several others as they barred a group of
landless peasants from 120 acres of land seized from Canadian
missionaries in northern Haiti, a source at the Cap Haitien
church radio said.
    The soldiers, acting yesterday on orders from the Haitian
attorney general, had used tear gas and fired warning shots
into the air prior to the shootings, the source said.
    There was no official confirmation of the report.
    Seven men who refused to leave the land were arrested after
the shootings and would be tried, he said.
    The source said the peasants, who are illiterate, had heard
that Article 36 of Haiti's new constitution, ratified by
popular referendum on March 29, allows for land seizures. In
fact, the constitution forbids land seizures except as part of
a court-sanctioned agrarian reform process.
    The Canadian missionaries, the Sacred Heart Brothers, had
bought the land from the state during the government of
dictator Jean Claude Duvalier and had planted sugar cane on it,
the source said.
    "...the peasants are starving to death," the source told
Reuters, "and they saw that the Canadians were working a large
fertile property."
 Reuter

Dollar General Corp said sales
for March fell 4.6 pct to 43.4 mln dlrs from 45.5 mln dlrs a
year earlier, with same-store sales off 6.9 pct.
    The company said in March 1986, sales were helped by Easter
shopping and a heavier schedule of promotions. Easter falls
April 19 this year, and the company said unseasonably cold and
snowy weather hampered March results this year.
    It said first quarter sales were up seven pct to 114.4 mln
dlrs from 107.0 mln dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

Federated Guaranty corp said
its board declared a two-for-one stock split and raised the
quarterly dividend to 6-1/2 cts per share post-split from six
cts, both payable June One, record May 15.
    The company said shareholders at the annual meeting
approved an increase in authorized common shares to 19 mln from
10 mln and a name change to Alfa Corp.  It said the name change
should take effect next week, along with a NASDAQ ticker symbol
change to <ALFA.O>.
 Reuter

Littlefield, Adams and Co said it
is attempting to work out new financing arrangements with
lender Congress Financial, and unless it receives an extension
of its loan to at least year-end, it expects a qualified audit
opinion on 1986 financial statements.
    The company said the revolving loan fell due at the end of
February, and Congress has so far granted two one-month
extensions.  It said it has asked the Securities and Exchange
Commission and American Stock Exchange for an extension in
filing 1986 annual reports while it tries to work out the new
funding.
    The company also said its Collegiate Pacific subsidiary has
closed its Gardena, Calif., plant and leased the facility and
equipment to a non-competing seller of printed wearables. It
said it has licensed newly-formed Collegiate Pacific West to
distribute Collegiate Pacific branded merchandise in 14 western
states, western Canada and Japan.
    It said the leasing and licensing agreements should provide
about 200,000 dlrs in revenues a year.
 Reuter

President Reagan today is to
announce a decision on tough new tariffs on Japanese exports to
retaliate for what he calls Japan's failure to end its unfair
practices in semiconductor trade.
    The 100 pct tariffs are to be imposed on 300 mln dlrs of
Japanese goods recommended for curbs by a special panel of
experts headed by the U.S. Trade Representative's Office.
    Reagan announced last March 27 he would impose the tariffs
on certain goods taken from a list that ranged from computors
and television sets to power tools and photographic film.
    The panel this week winnowed through the list of the some
20 products and sent their recommendations yesterday to Santa
Barbara, where Reagan is vacationing.
    In his March annoucement, Reagan said "I am committed to
full enforcement of our trade agreements designed to provide
American industry with free and fair trade opportunities."
    He added the tariffs would be lifted once Japan honored the
pact it signed last year to end dumping semiconductors in world
markets and opened its home market to U.S. products.
    U.S. officials said Japan had done nothing since the March
announcement to alter Reagan's plan to invoke the sanctions.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said yesterday:  "we
do not want a trade war, but we feel that this is the kind of
action that requires meaningful action."
    Reagan's move follows steadily rising U.S. trade deicits,
with last year's hitting a record $169.8 billion.
    About one-third of the deficit is in trade with Japan.
    Congress is weighing a trade bill to force the president to
retaliate in certain cases of unfair trade practices.
    He has opposed the legislation, saying it would prevent
negotiated solutions to trade disputes and, in any case, that
existing law was adqeuate to end unfair trade practices.
    Trade experts say his tough action against the Japanese was
as much to penalize the Japanese as to show Congress he did not
need any new trade legislation.
    The Japanese have complained that they have been honoring
the semiconductor pact, but that it would take time before the
results showed up.
    U.S. officials, however, have said their monitoring of
Japanese semiconductor shipments to East Asian countries and
Western Europe showed no letup in the dumping and that the
Japanese home markets remained shut to American exports.
    Japan has said that if Reagan imposed the tariffs, it would
file a complaint with the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade
(GATT).
    It said hoped GATT would find the U.S. retaliation had
violated the regulations of the global trading group and would
approve compensation or Japanese retaliation.
    U.S. officials have said they did not think Japan would
retaliate because it had too much to lose in any trade war with
 Reuter

Shr 92 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 5,700,000 vs 5,400,000
    Avg shrs 6,100,000 vs 3,700,000
    NOTE: Dividend pay May 15, record May One.
 Reuter

Union Planters Corp said it has
received regulatory approvals for its previously-announced
acquisitions of Borc Financial Corp and First Citizens Bank of
Hohenwald, and approval of its acquisition of Merchants State
Holding Co is expected within 10 days.
    All are to be completed during the second quarter of 1987,
it said.
 Reuter

March 31 end
    Shr 65 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 1,016,738 vs 526,057
    Avg shrs 1,561,774 vs 1,035,162
    1st half
    Shr 1.31 dlrs vs 1.09 dlrs
    Net 2,050,911 vs 1,130,462
    Avg shrs 1,561,643 vs 1,035,162
 Reuter

Shr loss 29 cts vs loss two cts
    Net loss 5,168,000 vs loss 410,000
    Revs 46.5 mln vs 29.4 mln
    Avg shrs 17.6 mln vs 17.1 mln
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 3,938,000 dlrs vs 394,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

    Net 42,000 vs 26,000
    Sales 15.6 mln vs 15.2 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net includes gain 63,000 dlrs from change in
pension accounting.
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 873,000 vs 773,000
    Sales 19.5 mln vs 20.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 387,000 vs 240,000
    Sales 9,346,000 vs 8,579,000
    Avg shrs 2,200,000 vs 1,600,000
    1st half
    Shr 36 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 734,000 vs 410,000
    Sales 18.4 mln vs 17.2 mln
    Avg shrs 2,051,648 vs 1,600,000
 Reuter

1st qtr
    Net 808,850 vs 297,266
    Revs 13.9 mln vs 7,588,280
    Avg shrs 4,926,566 vs 3,123,411
 Reuter

Shr 84 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 475,000 vs 425,000
    Total income 7,248,000 vs 7,286,000
    1st half
    Shr 1.61 dlrs vs 1.50 dlrs
    Net 911,000 vs 847,000
    Total income 14.6 mln vs 14.2 mln
 Reuter

Oper shr loss five cts vs loss nil
    Ope net loss 1,211,000 vs loss 2,000
    Revs 6,626,000 vs 11.0 mln
    Avg shrs 23.2 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Year
    Oper shr profit 12 cts vs loss one ct
    Oper net profit 2,632,000 vs loss 240,000
    Revs 34.8 mln vs 52.0 mln
    Avg shrs 22.9 mln vs 23.4 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes extraordinary tax charges 1,919,000 dlrs
vs 49,000 dlrs in quarter and credits 1,431,000 dlrs vs
2,335,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

ChemLAwn Corp said due to the
tender offer by Ecolab Inc <ECL> for ChemLawn shares at 36.50
dlrs each, it has postponed its annual meeting, which had
scheduled for April 23.
    No new date was set.  The tender offer is scheduled to
expire April 20 unless extended.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 251,000 vs loss 222,000
    NOTE: Pretax net profit 295,000 dlrs vs loss 256,000 dlrs.
    Charge against earnings for loan losses 1,743,000 dlrs vs
2,743,000 dlrs and net chargeoffs 1,636,000 dlrs vs 3,865,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

2nd qtr Feb 28
    Shr loss two cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 33,482 vs loss 163,130
    Revs 143,961 vs 287,131
    1st half
    Shr loss 14 cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 276,238 vs loss 149,407
    Revs 273,737 vs 679,860
 Reuter

    Net loss 76,000 vs profit 357,000
    Sales 8,987,000 vs 15.3 mln
    1st half
    Shr loss 12 cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 440,000 vs loss 246,000
    Sales 13.2 mln vs 20.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 1,507,000 vs 1,147,000
    Sales 13.8 mln vs 9,608,000
    Backlog 52.1 mln vs 37.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 83 cts
    Shr diluted 89 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 2,297,842 vs 1,782,764
    Avg shrs 2,408,332 vs 2,160,000
    Avg shrs diluted 2,573,908 vs 2,326,667
 Reuter

Residence Inn Corp said it has
agreed to buy Holiday Corp out of their equaly-owned joint
venture for 51.4 mln dlrs, with closing expected within the
next few weeks.
    The all-suite Residence Inn system, which is geated to
extended stays, currently has 93 open franchised or
company-owned hotels nationwide and another 55 in construction
or development.
 Reuter

Oper shr 12 cts vs five cts
    Oper net 1,715,000 vs 730,000
    Sales 12.1 mln vs 7,719,000
    Avg shrs 13.9 mln vs 13.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 32 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 4,379,000 vs 2,266,000
    Sales 32.8 mln vs 23.3 mln
    Avg shrs 13.8 mln vs 12.4 mln
    NOTE: prior year net excludes extraordinary credits of
340,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,190,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 1,328,000 vs 344,000
    Sales 23.0 mln vs 12.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 566,000 vs 563,000
    Sales 14.2 mln vs 9,831,000
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs 11 cts
    Oper net 660,000 vs 447,000
    Revs 9,936,000 vs 9,005,000
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes 381,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

    Net 973,000 vs 775,000
    Revs 12.8 mln vs 9,678,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 1,718,000 vs loss 1,483,000
    Sales 7,266,000 vs 6,490,000
    Year
    Shr loss 1.83 dlrs vs loss 53 cts
    Net loss 13.2 mln vs loss 3,833,000
    Sales 19.1 mln vs 29.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 year net includes pretax realized loss on
secureity transaction of 4,124,000 dlrs.
    Net includes tax credits of 751,000 dlrs vs 606,000 dlrs in
quarter and 1,163,000 dlrs vs 2,289,000 dlrs in year.
    1986 net both periods includes gain 1,887,000 dlrs from
pension plan termination.
 Reuter

    Net 673,000 vs 514,000
    Revs 18.4 mln vs 17.2 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for five-for-four stock split in
 Reuter

Oper shr 14 cts vs 10 cts
    Oper net 711,000 vs 517,000
    Sales 11.2 mln vs 11.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes 84,000 dlr gain from discontinued
machinery division.
 Reuter

Martin PRocessing Inc said it
expects significant sales growth for the rest of the year,
particularly for its peak periods, the second and third
quarters.
    The company reported first quarter sales of 11.2 mln dlrs,
up from 11.1 mln dlrs a year before.  For all of 1986 it had
sales of 46.6 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS - APRIL 17
 Church's Fried Chicken Inc        
 Dominion Resources Inc            
 Hospital Corp Of America          
 Massmutual Corporate Investors Inc
 Reuter

U.S. DIVIDEND MEETINGS - APRIL 17
 Communications Satellite
 Reuter

Growth Stock Outlook Trust Inc
said its asset value as of March 31 was 141.4 mln dlrs or 9.83
dlrs per share, up from 117.3 mln dlrs or 9.38 dlrs per share a
 Reuter

Bush Industries Inc said it
expects higher earnings and sales for 1987, partly due to
efficiencies in manufacturing that have improved its margins.
    The company reported first quarter earnings of 1,328,000
dlrs, up from 344,000 dlrs a year before, on sales of 23.0 mln
dlrs, up from 12.3 mln dlrs.  For all of last year it earned
2,506,000 dlrs on sales of 65.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs three cts
    Net 617,000 vs 112,000
    Sales 31.3 mln vs 11.4 mln
    Avg shrs 4,877,057 vs 3,310,585
    NOTE: 1987 net includes 87,000 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

J. Bildner and Sons Inc said it expects
improved earnings and sales in the current fiscal year.
    The company reported earnings for the year ended January 25
of 617,000 dlrsl up from 112,000 dlrs a year before, on sales
of 31.3 mln dlrs, up from 11.4 mln dlrs.
    Bildner also said it plans to offer 25 mln dlrs in
Eurodollar convertible subordinated debentures due 2002 through
underwriters led by PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> and Kidder,
Peabody and Co Inc, with proceeds to be used to finance
expansion and reduce debt.
 Reuter

A strike by machinists
against Eastern Airlines is very likely before the end of the
year and Eastern pilots would probably honor the picket line,
the president of the airline pilots' union said.
     Capt. Henry A. Duffy, president of the Air Line Pilots
Association, told a group of aviation executives meeting in
Atlanta Duffy said the pilots' union has a contract through
1988 with Eastern Airlines.
    However, a contract between Eastern and the International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is due to
expire this year, Duffy said.
    If the machinists strike, which seems likely, Eastern
pilots probably would refuse to cross picket lines, he added.
    Noting that the pilots' union had clashed several times
with Eastern's parent, Texas Air Corp <TEX.A>, Duffy said, "We
have had a difficult relationship with Texas Air wherever they
have existed in the industry."
    Eastern's pilots had picketed the airline recently over new
sick leave policies and Duffy repeated criticisms of those
policies in his speech today.
    "The new policies pressure us to try to fly when we're sick
against federal air regulations and pressure us to fly beyond
federal air limits," Duffy said. "For all those reasons, we don't
see a very happy future over there."
 Reuter

Employees of Morton Thiokol Inc
<MTI.N> have gone to the FBI with allegations of fraud by the
firm in the manufacture of booster rockets blamed for the 1986
Challenger explosion, ABC News reported.
    According to the report, some Morton Thiokol employees went
to the FBI in Salt Lake City, Utah, with their allegations last
January 15.
    An FBI criminal investigation into Morton Thiokol began in
late January, although FBI officials have refused to confirm
whether the probe was related to the Challenger disaster.
    FBI spokesman Ray McElhaney refused to discuss the report
today, saying FBI officials could not comment about current 
investigations.
    The space shuttle Challenger exploded after takeoff Jan
28, 1986, when the temperature at the Florida launch site was
20 degrees below that specified for the O-rings that hold the
solid-rocket boosters together.
    The rings failed and all seven shuttle astronauts died in
the explosion.
    Morton Thiokol, based in Chicago, built the Challenger's
boosters in its Utah facility.
    The allegations by the employees follow similar charges by
former Morton-Thiokol engineer Roger Boisjoly, who has filed
two lawsuits alleging criminal fraud against his former
employer.
 Reuter

Sixteen Wall Street stockbrokers were
charged with dealing cocaine, some at a brokerage house federal
officials said was deeply involved in drug trafficking as well
as trading violations.
    A total of 19 people were arrested in the federal
investigation, eight of them affiliated with Brooks, Weinger,
Robbins and Leeds, Inc.
    Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani said the
investigation marked the start of a wider probe into widespread
drug abuse in the New York financial district.
    "This case and the implications of it are quite serious.
This is the beginning of this whole area of investigation," he
said at a news conference announcing the indictments.
    The arrests marked the latest phase in a series of scandals
that have rocked Wall Street, most of them involving illegal
insider trading.
    The federal probe coincides with a police investigation  in
which 114 people, including messengers, a security guard and a
New York Telephone company executive, have been arrested for
alleged drug dealing and drug abuse, police said today.
    A request by Giuliani's office for a warrant to search two
Brooks, Weinger offices alleges numerous instances of stock
manipulation as well as other securities law violations.
 Reuter

Wainoco Oil Corp said its board has
voted to redeem its shareholder value rioghts for 10 cts each,
payable June One to holders of record on April 27.
    The rights have been attached on a one-for-one basis to 
Wainoco common shares.  As previously announced, the company is
redeeming the rights to have sufficient authorized and
unreserved common shares to proceed with a planned unit
offering of common stock and warrants.
    It said its shareholder purchase rights distributed in June
1986 are unaffected.
 Reuter

Jefferson Bank said it plans to
offer shareholders the right to purchase additional common
shares at 80 pct of the closing bid price per share on the date
the offering starts, subject to a minimum of 9.25 dlrs per
share.
    The company said the offering is being made in connection
with a planned investment in Jefferson of up to 4,500,000 dlrs
by principal shareholder State Bancshares Inc.  Both the
investment and the rights offering are subject to State's
arrangement of financing and participation in the rights
offering.
 Reuter

Genex Corp said it has filed
for a proposed 8,500,000 dlr rights offering that is planned
for early summer.
    It said shareholders will have the right to buy 1.1
convertible preferred shares at 60 cts a share for each common
share held as of May Eight.
    It said lenders who extended a four mln dlr secured credit
line to Genex in early March will have the right to buy all
unsubscribed shares, and based on an agreement with Genex's
largest shareholders, the lenders will be able to buy at least
34 pct of the offering.
    The company said to make the offering, it will ask
shareholder approval for an increase in authorized common
shares to 50 mln from 21 mln and for the authorization of a new
class of 20 mln preferred shares.  It said it will also ask
approval for a change in state of incorporation to Delaware to
take advantage of more flexible corporation laws and new
provisions regarding director liability.
    Genex said the new preferred will have the right to elect a
majority of its board and will be convertible into common
stock.  If the rights offer were sold out and all shares
converted, common shares outstanding would more than double.
    The company is now incorporated in Maryland.
    Genex said it will use proceeds of the rights offering to
repay its credit line and for working capital.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp is apparently the successful
bidder for debt-laden Dome Petroleum Ltd, according to a
published report.
    The Toronto Globe and Mail, quoting sources close to the
negotiations, today said Dome broke off talks last night with
TransCanada PipeLines Ltd, which last week announced a 4.3
billion Canadian dlr offer for all of Dome's assets.
    No financial details about the Amoco offer were available
and a Dome spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that Amoco
had emerged the winner, the newspaper said.
    However, the Dome spokesman indicated that the sale of Dome
could be finalized and announced this weekend, the Globe and
Mail said.
    Representatives of Amoco were not immediately available for
comment.
    Last Sunday, when TransCanada announced its offer, Dome
said it was also in talks with two other companies, but refused
to identify them.
    Since then, market speculation has centered on Amoco and
Exxon Corp's <XON> 70 pct-owned Imperial Oil Ltd subsidiary in
Canada.
    British Petroleum PLC <BP> and Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD>
have also been mentioned as possible suitors for Dome.
    In the past two days, Dome management has been pressured by
the federal government to select the offer from TransCanada,
the only Canadian company in the bidding.
    Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government appears to want
to avoid a Dome sale to a foreign company since the government
gave Dome hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to
encourage oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, analysts and
    A purchase by TransCanada would be least likely to run
afoul of Canadian antitrust laws, however, TransCanada is
asking for tax concessions from a federal government that is
trying to hold its deficit below 30 billion Canadian dlrs,
analysts have said.
    A takeover by Amoco or Imperial would also give a foreign
oil company a dominant position in Canada's oil industry.
    Imperial Oil is already Canada's largest energy company,
with 1986 revenues of 7.1 billion Canadian dlrs. Chicago-based
Amoco had 1986 revenues of 20.23 billion U.S. dlrs. Its Amoco
Canada Petroleum subsidiary is 100 pct owned by Amoco Corp.
 Reuter

Qtly div 21 cts vs 21 cts prior
    Pay June 10
 Reuter

Qtly div 10-1/2 cts vs 10-1/2 cts prior
    Record June 10    
 Reuter

    Pay May 20
    Record May Eight  
 Reuter

    Pay May 22
 Reuter

    Pay May 15
    Record April 30   
 Reuter

 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it is asking
shareholders to increase the number of shares of authorized
common stock to 500 mln from the current 300 mln.
    The company, in the proxy statement mailed to 135,000
stockholders for its May 21 annual meeting in Savannah, Ga., 
said the added shares will be needed to complete its proposed
buyout of American Motors Corp <AMO>.
    Chrysler also said the additional shares could be used for
future acquisitions, financing transactions, stock dividends or
splits and employee benefit plans.
    The company also said in the proxy statement for its annual
meeting that in 1986 the board approved the granting of 77.0
mln dlrs of cash awards to 1,914 executives and 16.2 mln dlrs
for a supplemental executive retirement plan under its
incentive compensation program.
    It said it also paid out 66.9 mlndlrs in bonuses to over
93,000 hourly and salaried employees, and it recently paid out
46.7 mln dlrs in profit-sharing payments to full-time employees
based on 1986 performance.
    Chrysler further said it is offering special 500 dlr checks
only to patrons of the 1987 New York Auto Show good toward the
purchase of Chrysler LeBaron Coupes, Plymouth Sundances, Dodge
Shadows and Dodge Daytonas.
    The checks will be redeemable at participating dealers in
the New York metropoliutan areas through May Two and are in
addition to any low percentage rate financing or cash
incentives the company is offering.
 Reuter

Texas Air Corp's Eastern Airlines
subsidiary said it will cut 259 jobs for mechanics and related
employees in Miami and Boston, effective around May One.
    The company said part of the staff cuts result from the
proposed sale of five Boeing Co <BA> 727-100's and two Lockheed
Corp <LK> L-1011's, as well as the previously announced
transfer of six <Airbus Industrie> A300's to Continental
Airlines, another Texas Air subsidiary.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its board made cash
bonus awards of 77 mln dlrs to 1,914 executives in 1986 based
on 1985 earnings, including a 975,000 dlr bonus that brought
chairman Lee Iacocca's cash compensation to 1.7 mln dlrs.
    The number three U.S. automaker also disclosed in its
shareholder proxy statement that Iacocca exercised stock
options last year that netted him nearly 9.6 mln dlrs and
received 337,500 shares of Chrysler stock last November three
that at current market prices would be worth more than 18 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

French industrial production rose a
seasonally adjusted three pct in February after an unrevised
1.98 pct fall in January, the National Statistics Institute
(INSEE) said.
put the February index, base 1980, at 102 after 99 in January.
    INSEE changed its base year to 1980 from 1970 last month.
 Reuter

Danners Inc said it has agreed in
principle for Indian LP, a partnership associated with Sherman
Clay Group, to purchase 100,000 shares of redeemable voting
junior preferred stock with a liquidation preference of 20 dlrs
per share and cumulative dividends of 1.60 dlrs per share
annually for two mln dlrs.
    It said the partnership would also receive detachable
warrants to buy 1,600,000 common shares at 1.25 dlrs each,
payable in cash or in junior preferred stock at the liquidation
preference value.                            
    Danners said completion of the infusion would allow the
partnership to name a majority of its board.
    In addition, Danners said it granted the partnership an
option to buy 200,000 more common shares at 1.25 dlrs each,
exercisable if it should fail to meet any condition connected
with the transaction or if principal shareholders should accept
a merger offer from another party.  It said Danners family
members owning 171,538 shares have granted options to Indian to
buy their shares on similar terms and conditions.
    The company said the Danner family options provide that if
the infusion is completed, the partnership will have the option
starting six months later and ending in April 1992 to buy the
shares at the last bid or last sales price, whichever is lower.
    Danners said the agreement is subject to a recapitalization
by its bank group of outstanding loans, satisfactory company
prospects, favorable opinon from an investment banker and
closing by April 30, with possible extensions to no later than
May 11.
    The company lost 529,000 dlrs in the prior year.
    Danners said it has terminated its use of LIFO inventory
accounting, resulting in a restatement of its net worth as of
February 1, 1986, the last day of its prior fiscal year, to
15.5 mln dlrs from 9,901,000 dlrs.  But losses for the year
just ended will result in a net worth deficiency at the end of
that year of about 4,400,000 dlrs or eight dlrs per share.
    The company said it incurred unusual fourth quarter losses
due to the previously-announced closing and disposition of 17
of its 35 3D discount department stores, inventory clearances
and conversion to a new pricing and promotion system.
    The company said if it should fail to perform under the
deal, it could be liable for all expenses incurred by the
partnership.  If it does perform but the infusion transaction
collapses for another reason, it said it could be liable for up
to 50,000 dlrs in expenses.
    It said the Danner family members who have agreed to the
option have the ability to sell some or all of their shares to
the partnership around the closing date at two dlrs each.
    Danners further said it expects to report a loss for the
year ended January 31 of over 19 mln dlrs, substantially worse
than it had expected.
    The company said it also incurred losses in the fourth
quarter on the disposition of nonoperating assets.  It said it
expects to report results for the year soon.
    Danners said problems with its credit relationships,
together with its losses for the year, resulted in its
transaction with Indian, which is intended to alleviate its
problems.
 Reuter

Grumman Corp said shareholders
at the annual meeting approved an amendment on the
indemnification of direcors, officers and employees against
 Reuter

First Federal Savings and
Loan Association of Brooksville said it has adjourned its
annual meeting until May 11 due to the unexpected death of
director J.R. Underwood, creating the need for a substitute
nominee for the board.
 Reuter

Profitt's Inc said it has filed
for an initial public offering of one mln common shares at an
expected price of eight to 10 dlrs each through underwriters
led by Morgan Keegan Inc <MOR>.
    It said proceeds will be used to retire debt.
    Profitts Operates five specialty department stores in
 Reuter

Shr loss nil vs profit six cts
    Net loss 89,000 vs profit 1,136,000
    Revs 105.0 mln vs 97.,3 mln
    1st half
    Shr loss two cts vs profit 21 cts
    Net loss 396,000 vs profit 3,790,000
    Revs 212.1 mln vs 194.8 mln
    Avg shrs 18.1 mln vs 18.3 mln
    NOTE: Current quarter net includes 77,000 dlr tax credit.
    Current half net includes reversal of 2,622,000 dlrs of
 Reuter

MiniScribe Corp said it filed with the
covering a 65 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Initially, a portion of the proceeds will be used to reduce
funds drawn from MiniScribe's revolving bank credit facility.
Proceeds will also be used for working capital purposes,
primarily to finance inventories and accounts receivable, and
to acquire capital equipment and expand manufacturing capacity,
MiniScribe said. It named Morgan Stanley and Hambrechit and
Quist as managing underwriters.
 Reuter

    NEt loss 90,066
    Sales 328,127
    NOTE: Company began opeations in April 1986.
 Reuter

The French Finance ministry said today a
public flotation offer opening this coming Tuesday for 39 pct
of the capital of <Banque Industrielle et Mobiliere Privee>
(BIMP) has been set at 140 francs per share.
    The offer closes next Friday. The ministry said in a
statement 51 pct of the bank's capital had been sold to a solid
core of large investors, including insurance companies and
Michelin subsidiary SPIKA, for 145 pct of the public offer
price. Ten pct of the shares have been reserved for employees,
who get a five pct discount increased to 20 pct if they keep
the shares for two years.
    Employees also get one free share for each one bought, if
the shares are held for at least one year.
    Small investors would receive one free share for every 10
bought, with an upper limit of five free shares per investor,
and on condition the shares are held for at least 18 months.
    The state-owned capital of BIMP comprises 2.51 mln shares.
The bank is being sold to the public as part of a sweeping
programme to privatise 65 state-owned groups over five years.
    In a separate statement, the ministry said last week's
privatisation offer of 1.07 mln shares in <Banque du Batiment
et des Travaux Publics> (BTP) was 65 times oversubscribed.
 REUTER

White House Budget chief James
Miller said he was concerned that the Federal Reserve might
"overreact" to the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar by
raising interest rates, a move he said could cause a recession
next year.
    "Our greatest danger is overreaction," Miller told newspaper
reporters yesterday. "I'm concerned about the Fed's
overreaction. I'm concerned about what I see in recent data
showing a substantial fall in the money supply."
    Edwin Dale, Miller's spokesman, said the remarks, published
in the New York Times today, were accurate.
    Miller said he was concerned the Fed might overreact to
signals of rising inflation by tightening credit -- a move he
said could have "political consequences."
    The White House budget chief appeared to be referring to
the effect an economic slowdown could have on the presidential
and congressional elections next year.
    "My fear is that if we get into a recession we are in deep
soup, and there is no question about it," he said.
    Miller said an economic slowdown could lead to lower tax
revenues and a widening of the budget deficit.
    Miller's remarks reflected concern that the U.S. central
bank might feel compelled to tighten credit as a means of
bolstering the dollar.
    Both Treasury Secretary James Baker and Federal Reserve
Board Chairman Paul Volcker recently have warned that further
declines in the value of the U.S. dollar could jeopardize
global growth prospects.
    U.S. officials have urged Japan and West Germany to
stimulate economic growth in their countries -- a move that
could boost U.S. exports and relieve trade protectionist
pressures in the United States.
 Reuter

The Bank of France said in its latest
monthly report on the French economy it expected a pickup in
industrial production registered in March to gather steam over
    Without giving figures, the report said last month's rise,
partly linked to efforts to catch up with production lost
earlier this year through industrial action, was due mainly to
a firming of domestic demand.
    "New progress is expected in all main sectors except capital
goods where production will remain at its present level," the
report added.
    The upbeat report comes in the wake of grim March trade
balance figures which showed a deficit in industrial trade for
the first time since June 1982.
    While the automobile industry remained unchanged from
previously boosted levels, consumer goods production grew and
was expected to accelerate except in the area of domestic
appliances. Semi-finished goods showed a clear increase in all
sectors. Construction and civil engineering, boosted by a rise
in public works, also improved, while retail trade sales in all
sectors continued to slow.
 REUTER

Italy's wholesale price index rose 0.2 pct
month-on-month in February 1987 after increasing by 1.1 pct in
January, the national statistics institute ISTAT said.
    The index, base 1980 equals 100, registered 173.1 in
February compared with 172.8 in January.
    The February figure represents a decline of 0.2 pct
compared with February 1986 after a year-on-year decline in
January 1987 of 1.7 pct.
                      
 Reuter

Sharon Steel Corp said it has filed a
voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of federal
bankruptcy laws.
    The company, which has been losing money and experiencing
financial difficulties for years, said it took the action in
response to Quantum Fund's notice that it intended to
accelerate the maturity of Sharon's 13-1/2 pct subordinated
debentures due 2000 at 1200 EDT today.
    Sharon said Quantum had requested the trustee for the
debentures to file an involuntary petition under Chapter 7 of
the bankruptcy code against it.
    Sharon Steel said as a result of the bankruptcy filing, its
exchange offer has been terminated.
    Sharon had been making an exchange offer for its 13.5 pct
debentures due 2000 and 14.25 pct debentures due 1999 that was
subject to a number of conditions being met.  Acceptance of the
offer, which had been extended several times, had been below
required levels for its completion.
 Reuter

Yeutter said it was all but certain President Reagan would go
ahead today and impose curbs on Japanese exports as planned.
    Asked in a television interview what the chance was for
Reagan to cancel the scheduled 100 pct tariffs on Japanese
electronic exports, he said "slim to none."
    Reagan announced on March 27 he would impose the tariffs to
retaliate for Japan's failure to honor a 1986 agreement to end
dumping computer semiconductors in world markets at less than
cost and to open its home markets to U.S. products.
    Yeutter, on the NBC program "Today," said the United States
did not want to terminate the agreement and would drop
the tariffs once Japan began fulfilling the agreement.
    He said Japanese negotiators last week told U.S. officials
they were honoring the pact, but Yeutter said it would take
time to monitor any compliance.
    Asked how long that would take, he said "We want to see a
pattern of compliance, so in a minimum I would say that would
take a few weeks."
    Yeutter said he did not think there would be much consumer
impact by the tariffs on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese goods
because the items selected are also readily available from
other countries and manufacturers.
    He said he did not think Japan would retaliate.
    "It seems to me it is not in the interests of either country
to get in an escalating conflict.  The Japanese understand that
full well," Yeutter said.
    He added Japan might challenge the tariffs in the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), but "that's more of a
paper kind of exercise and I don't really expect to see any
adverse impact on U.S. trade."
    Yeutter also said he did not see any way the semiconductor
issue could be resolved before or during a Washington visit
later this month by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
    He said he hoped the visit, which is to have trade as a
major issue, would be productive but "I don't see any practical
way to resolve this particular dispute before or during his
visit."
 reuter

TCF Banking and Savings F.A. said it
filed with the Federal Savings and Loan Association to issue up
to 100 mln dlrs of subordinated capital notes.
    Proceeds will be used to increase the bank's regulatory
capital and for general corporate purposes, TCF said.
 Reuter

Shr one ct vs 14 cts
    Qtly div 11-1/2 cts vs 11-1/2 cts prior
    Net 411,000 vs 5,299,000
    Revs 88.5 mln vs 108.4 mln
    NOTE: Dividend pay May 18, record May One.
 Reuter

<Sony Corp> of Japan plans to launch a
15-mln-dlr project here soon to produce video and music
cassette tapes mainly for export, Chira Phanupong, head of
Thailand's Board of Investment, said.
    Chira told reporters Sony will likely receive investment
tax incentives from his agency which is in charge of promoting
    The BoI chief said most small and medium Japanese firms
view Thailand as the best country in South East Asia to which
they could shift their high-cost production facilities in the
wake of the strong yen.
    BoI officials said the number of new Japanese investment
projects seeking promotional privileges from the Thai
government increased substantially in the past year as the
stronge yen forced more Japanese companies to look for cheaper
production bases abroad.
    <Sharp Corp> recently also obtained BoI tax incentives to
invest in a project here to produce microwave ovens and
refrigerators for the Thai market and for export.
    Chira said a big Japanese electronic firm is negotiating
with his agency for Thai tax incentives for its project to
manufacture audio equipment and other electrical appliances
here.
    He declined to name the Japanese company but said its
proposed project will provide employment for 50,000 Thais in
              
REUTER

General Motors Corp believes it must
become competitive with other with auto manufacturers in the
next five years or cease building its cars in the U.S., a
published report said.
    The Detroit Free Press quoted GM industrial relations
vice-president Alfred Warren as saying "we've got about three
to five years to either get our act together or get out of the
    "People cannot believe we could stop building automobiles
in the United States," he said, adding "I'm sure the
electronics people felt the same way."
    Warren, who will be GM's chief negotiator this summer in
labor bargaining on a new contract covering 380,000 U.S. hourly
workers, said there will be a greater loss of jobs if GM's
share of the U.S. car market continues to decline.
    And he added the United Automobile Workers union must
resolve its concerns over job security with GM because its
"jobs are at General Motors...not somewhere else."
    Warren said GM may have been "foolish" in the last
recession to agree to bring back laid-off UAW members to its
parts-making operations because "today we would be better off
had we not brought workers back."
 Reuter

Alliance Well Service Inc said
not all of its five principal lending banks have agreed yet to
the proposed settlement of Alliance debt that the company
announced April 15.
    The company said some important points still need to be
negotiated in the agreement, as well.
    Under the agreement, all 29.3 mln dlrs of its bank debt,
plus related interest, would be eliminated, the banks would
recieve common stock and the company would not challenge the
banks' foreclosure of its 119 drilling rigs.
 Reuter

Southwest Bancorp said through
yesterday, it had receioved 53,571 shares of its 2.50 dlr
cumulative convertible preferred stock in response to its offer
to exchange 11 common shares for each of the 108,710 shares of
the preferred.
    The company said the offer, which was to have expired
today, has been extended until May One.
 Reuter

Goldome FSB said it has filed
with the New York Superintendent of Banks to convert to a state
stock savings bank from a federal mutual savings bank as part
of its plan to go public.
    The company said it plans to first make a subscription
offiering to depositors and a direct community offering in its
major New York and Florida markets and elsewhere were it has
significant subsidiary operations.  Any shares remaining would
be sold in a public offering through underwriters led by
    Goldome has 14.6 billion dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

Argentina's controversial new
financing package should be completed quickly thanks to a wide
range of innovative options in the deal, said Jorge Gonzalez,
undersecretary for external debt in the economics ministry.
    The deal offers banks a lucrative fee if they sign early
and an "exit bond" provision allowing banks to sell as much as
five mln dlrs of their existing loans. Gonzalez also disclosed
that banks will have the choice of lending up to one mln dlrs
in the form of a bearer bond. "We expect to complete the
package very quickly," he said in a telephone interview.
    By providing their share of the 1.55 billion dlrs in new
money being raised for Argentina via an easily tradable bearer
bond instead of a participation in the syndicated loan, smaller
banks could avoid time-consuming legal paperwork.
    The bonds, currently dubbed "alternative participation
instruments," would carry the same terms as the syndicated loan
- a 12-year term, five years' grace and an interest rate margin
of 7/8 pct over Eurodollar rates, Gonzalez said.
    The idea of the "exit bond" is that a creditor bank may
exchange up to five mln dlrs of existing debt for a new,
tradeable bond that bears below-market interest rates.
    In return for accepting a lower yield, the amount of debt
converted will be subtracted from the bank's exposure for
purposes of calculating its contribution to future new loans.
    Gonzalez said it was difficult to say how many banks would
take up the "exit bonds" because no such instrument has been
offered before.
    On paper, however, Argentina's lending syndicate could
shrink dramatically because over 100 of the country's 350
creditors have exposure of less than five mln dlrs.
    Details of the "exit bonds" are still being finalized,
Gonzalez added.
    Argentina has pressed hard for a streamlining of the
lending process because it has bitter memories of its last
package, which was agreed with the Citibank-led steering
committee in December 1984 but not signed until August 1985.
    Gonzalez praised the committee for its cooperation in the
latest negotiations and said the resulting deal, which was
announced by the banks on Wednesday, should put Argentina on
the road to meeting its economic goals.
    "We believe this is a package that will help Argentine to
continue on the track it has elected to follow - stable growth
and equilibrium in the external accounts," he said.
    Asked what role the Reagan Administration had played in the
final stages of the talks, Gonzalez said it had lent "practical
support."
    He did not elaborate, but bankers said the U.S. had pressed
for an agreement after Economics Minister Juan Sourrouille
threatened at last week's spring meeting in Washington of the
International Monetary Fund to break off talks unless banks
stopped blocking a deal.
    The specter of Argentina emulating Brazil and suspending
interest payments haunted policymakers and bankers alike, who
have long feared the emergence of a debtors' cartel.
    "That was a feeling among people on the committee," one
    As a result bankers agreed to give Argentina the same
interest rate margin as Mexico, 13/16 pct, on the rescheduling
of 30 billion dlrs of debt, even though they knew this would
raise the ire of the Philippines and Venezuela, which paid 7/8
pct on recent rescheduling packages.
    Asked about the angry reaction of the Manila government,
which promptly said Wednesday that it would demand a spread of
13/16 pct, Gonzalez said this was a matter between the
Philippines and the banks.
 Reuter

Shr 1.31 dlrs vs 1.03 dlrs
    Net 123 mln vs 95 mln
    Revs 831 mln vs 764 mln
    Avg shrs 94 mln vs 91 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 4.38 dlrs vs 3.68 dlrs
    Net 409 mln vs 331 mln
    Revs 3.14 billion vs 2.77 billion
    Avg shrs 93 mln vs 90 mln
 Reuter

H.B. Fuller Co said
shareholders at the annual meeting approved an increase in
authorized common shares to 40 mln from 15 mln and a
requirement that certain accumulations of its voting securities
by subject to prior shareholder approval.
    In addition, it said shareholders approved the elimination
of the personal liability of directors in legal proceedings
alleging a breach of fiduciary duty.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock Corp said it has set
April 30 as the record date for the spinoff of its refining and
marketing operations, Diamond R and M Inc, and shares will be
mailed around May 10.
    Shareholders will receive one Diamond R and M share for
each four Diamond Shamrock shares held.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it is developing an
aluminum space frame for its Probe V concept car using extruded
stretch-formed aluminum that could lead to new techniques for
building production cars in the future.
    It said the frame would reduce vehicle weight and cost
while maintaining structural integrity and crashworthiness. The
frame has fewer parts than conventional steel frames, Ford
said.  The company said the lighter weight would allow smaller
powertrains and suspensions, further reducing weight and
improving fuel economy.
    Ford said in addition, extrusion dies cost 1,000 to 12,000
dlrs each, compared with hundreds of thousands of dollars for
steel stamping dies, and using extruded aluminum the number of
welds in a car could be reduced to about 40 from over 2,000.
 Reuter

James River Corp said it will
rebuild its Number Three paper machine at the Wauna pulp and
paper mill near Clatskanie, Ore., at a cost of about 31.8 mln
dlrs to significantly improve newsprint quality and expand its
uncoated groundwood specialties paper product line.
    It said completion is expected in late 1988.
 Reuter

The Bank of Italy said market operators
had taken up 1,111 billion lire of indexed government discount
certificates (CTs) out of an offer of 2,500 billion lire.
    The Bank took up 600 billion lire and 789 billion were
    The seven-year certificates carry a first-year coupon
payable April 21 1988 of 4.86 pct, identical to that on the
preceeding issue of CTs in March.
    They were offered at a base price of 72 lire, down from 74
previously, for an effective annual yield on the first coupon
of 10.15 pct against 9.66 in March. Yields after the first year
will be linked to rates on 12-month Treasury bills.

The Commerce Department said on that
insurance and freight costs for imported goods of 1.45 billion
dlrs were included in the February trade deficit of 15.1
billion dlrs reported on Tuesday.
    The department is required by law to wait 48 hours after
the initial trade report to issue a second report on a "customs
value" basis, which eliminates the freight and insurance
charges from the cost of imports.
    Private-sector economists emphasized that the Commerce
Department was not revising down the deficit by 1.45 billion
dlrs but simply presenting the figures on a different basis.
    A report in the Washington Post caused a stir in the
foreign exchanges today because it gave the impression, dealers
said, that the underlying trade deficit for February had been
revised downward.
    The Commerce department would like to have the law changed
to permit it to report both sets of figures simultaneously.
    "My feeling is the second one is a better report but there's
legislation that requires us to delay it two days," said Robert
Ortner, Commerce undersecretary for economic affairs.
    "But this has been going on for a long time and no one pays
any attention to the second figure."
    The 15.1 billion dlr February trade deficit compared with a
revised January deficit of 12.3 billion dlrs.
    The law requiring a 48-hour delay in publishing the monthly
trade figure excluding freight and insurance was passed in
1979.
    Reportedly the feeling was the first figure, which includes
customs, freight and insurance, allowed a better comparison
with other countries that reported their trade balances on the
same basis.
    The second figure, which would always be lower by deducting
freight and insurance, presents the deficit in a more favorable
light for the Reagan administration.
    Ortner said he would like to see the law changed to
eliminate the 48-hour delay in reporting the two figures.
    "We're considering it," he said, "It's one of those dinosaur
laws and I think it's time has come."
laws and I think its time has come."
 Reuter

Hong Kong investment firm, said it raised its stake in CalMat
Co to 3,712,860 shares, or 12.2 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 3,312,460 shares, or 10.9 pct.
bought 400,400 Calmat common shares between April 9 and 13 for
a total of 10.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation
told the Securities and Exchange Commission it cut its stake in
Wurlitzer Co to 89,000 shares, or 4.98 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 125,000 shares, or 7.0 pct.
    The foundation said it sold 36,000 Wurlitzer common shares
between March 13 and 30 at prices ranging from 3.25 to 2.375
    As long as the foundation's stake in Wurlitzer is below
five pct, it is not required to report further dealings it has
in the company's common stock.
 Reuter

funds they control told the Securities and Exchange Commission
they raised their Orient Express Hotels Inc stake to 1,663,800
shares, or 17.0 pct of the total, from 1,560,800, or 15.9 pct.
    The firms, Boston-based FMR Corp and Bermuda-based Fidelity
International Ltd, said they bought a combined 103,000 Orient
Express common shares from March 12 to April 8 at prices
ranging from 3.05 to 3.55 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Hospital Corp of America said
its management believes the 47 dlr per share acquisition offer
it received from Charles R. Miller, Richard E. Ragsdale and
Richard L. Scott is not in the best interest of shareholders,
and it does not plan to meet with the individuals.
    The company said its board considered information on the
three and their bid, and "Given the lack of any demonstrated
ability on the part of these individuals to consummate an
acquisition of this magnitude, the board decided it was not
necessary to take any action on their proposal at this time."
    Hospital Corp said "The benefits of the company's ongoing
repositioning program are already being realized, and we will
continue to explore appropriate alternatives for enhancing
 Reuter

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's
unpopular sales tax plan suffered another dent today when
members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) called for
time to be taken in dealing with the proposed sales tax, party
    The call came in a resolution adopted by a group of some
150 LDP parliamentarians and secretaries, acting on behalf of
their parliamentarians, at a meeting at the LDP headquarters,
they said. The MPs represented seemed to Account for one-third
of LDP MPs.
    The group is an LDP voluntary organisation, called the
Parliamentarians' Research Society for Reestablishment of
Finances claiming a membership of about 300 MPs, they said.
    Meanwhle, Nakasone this evening hinted that his party might
be ready to accept some modification to the five-pct sales tax
proposal after the fiscal 1987 state budget plan was passed by
parliament. The LDP suffered a setback in last Sunday's local
elections because of the controvertial tax plan. The result
also undermined Nakasone's prestige, giving rise to a
possibility that he might be forced out of office before
October 30, when he is supposed to step down.
 REUTER

Kaydon Corp said president
Richard A. Shantz has been named chairman, succeeding Glenn W.
Bailey, who remains on the board.
    The company said Lawrence J. Cawley, who had been president
of the Bearing Division, has ben named to succeed Shantz as
Kaydon president.
 Reuter

Affiliated Bankshares of Colorado Inc
said president and chief operating officer Kent O. Olin has
been named to the added post of chief executive, succeeding Leo
Hill, who plans to retire at the end of the year.
 Reuter

may downgrade Todd Shipyards Corp's 110 mln dlrs of debt.
    It cited Tood's report of significant and unanticipated
losses on a commercial contract, and continuing uncertainty
over the U.S. Navy's DDG-51 Destroyer program, which Moody's
termed an important business for Todd's viability.
    Moody's said it would assess the company's future financing
flexibility in light of current negotiations of existing credit
and loan agreements. Todd carries B-2 senior subordinated notes
due 1996 and B-3 3.08 dlr convertible exchangeable preferred
stock.
 Reuter

Calny Inc said M. Hal Taylor
has been named poresident and chief operating officer,
succeeding Marvin Hart, who had been serving as president on an
interim basis and remains chairman and chief executive.
    The company said Taylor, who joined the company in January,
has also been named to the board.
 Reuter

GoodMark Foods Inc said president
and chief executive officer Ron E. Doggett will assume the
added post of chairman effective June One, when H. Hawkins
Bradley retires.
    It said Bradley will remain on the board and as a company
consultant.
 Reuter

El Pollo Asado Inc said executive vice
president and chief operating officer Richard J. Peterson has
been named president, succeeding Richard B. Lipson, who remains
    The company also said chief financial officer Ronald A.
Paradis has been named to the added posts of executive vice
president and director.  On the board he replaces Maria A.
Lipson.
 Reuter

Citizens Savings Bank FSB
said chairman and chief executive officer Frank L. Hewitt Jr.
is retiring and is being succeeded by vice chairman Clinton C.
Sisson.
    The company said Hewitt will remain chairman and president
of its First Citizens Corp subsidiary.
 Reuter

    Pay May 13
 Reuter

Rowan Cos Inc said it expects to incur
substantial losses in 1987 despite expected improvement in
drilling levels in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.
    The offshore and onshore drilling company today reported a
first quarter loss of 18.6 mln dlrs after a 12.2 mln dlr tax
credit, compared with a year-earlier loss of 5,855,000 dlrs
after a tax credit of 8,510,000 dlrs.  For all of 1986, Rowan
lost 42.1 mln dlrs after a 47.6 mln dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Shr loss 36 cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 18.6 mln vs loss 5,855,000
    Revs 23.9 mln vs 53.9 mln
    NOTE: Net includes tax credits of 12.2 mln dlrs vs
8,510,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it awarded 164.3 mln
dlrs in bonuses to 5,528 executives based on the company's
record 3.3 billion dlrs in 1986 profits.
    The number two U.S. automaker said chairman Donald Petersen
last year collected more than 4.3 mln dlrs, inlcuing salary of
660,772 dlrs, a 1.3 mln dlr bonus and nearly 2.4 mln dlrs from
exercising stock options.
    Ford said each of it five top executives received bonuses
which swelled their pay last year past the one mln dlr mark.
    Ford said it last month paid 371 mln dlrs in profit-sharing
to 160,000 hourly and salaried employees in the U.S.
    The company also disclosed in its proxy statement mailed to
262,000 shareholders for Ford's May 14 annual meeting in
Detroit that directors John Connally and Carter Burgess are
retiring from its board and that Irvine Hockaday Jr, president
of Hallmark Cards Inc of Kansas City, Mo, is being nominated
for a board seat.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 64 cts vs profit 11 cts
    Oper net loss 7,229,000 vs profit 902,000
    Revs 67.6 mln vs 66.7 mln
    Avg shrs 11.3 mln vs 8,507,000
    Year
    Oper shr loss 63 cts vs profit 43 cts
    Oper net loss 6,177,000 vs profit 3,604,000
    Revs 264.8 mln vs 238.5 mln
    Avg shrs 9,827,000 vs 8,403,000
    NOTE: 1986 quarter net includes 731,000 dlr tax credit.
    1986 net excludes charges from debt restructuring of
1,976,000 dlrs in quarter and 3,800,000 dlrs in year.
 Reuter

NWA Inc said Edward A. Neer Jr.
has been named president and chief executive officer of its
Mainline Travel Inc subsidiary, replacing Warren D. Phillips as
chief executive and Robert L. Daniels asd president.
    Neer had been western regional sales director of NWA's
Northwest Airlines unit.
    It said Daniels has been named president of Mainline's
retail division.
 Reuter

    Qtly div 29 cts vs 27 cts prior
    Net 9,089,000 vs 7,585,000
    Sales 86.8 mln vs 83.0 mln
    NOTE: Pay May 15, record May One.
 Reuter

Damon Corp's Damon Clinical
Laboratories expects to report "significantly better" profits
this year and a 20 pct gain in sales due in part to increased
testing for AIDS virus, Damon president Joe Isola said.
     Last year the unit earned 8.6 mln dlrs on sales of 97.3
mln for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1986. Overall, Damon
Corp reported a loss of 2.5 mln dlrs on sales of 148 mln.
     Isola attributed the loss to the company's biotechnology
     Damon Labs currently tests about 8,000 samples a night for
the AIDS virus at its Irving, Texas, facility. That's an
increase of about 100 percent from 18 months ago when the U.S.
Army chose the company to test for Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome among its recruits.
     Now, in addition to recruits, the company processes
regular Army soldiers undergoing annual physicals, Army
Reserves, the National Guard as well as some Coast Guard and
Naval Reserves.
     Despite having a capacity for processing 10,000 samples a
day, Damon Labs recently decided to move out of its Irving
facility into a larger one close by and from April 25 on will
be able to process some 16,000 a day.
     He said AIDS testing was expected to contribute 18 mln
dlrs to sales over the next three to four years, adding that
some 80 pct of the AIDS testing was military-related.
     Despite the enormous number of tests being processed each
day, he said there had never been a mistake.
 Reuter

downgraded 3.7 billion dlrs of debt of Security Pacific Corp,
lead bank Security Pacific National Bank and other units.
    Moody's said it is concerned over the outlook for
improvement in the lead bank's earnings and asset quality,
which have been burdened by high levels of nonperforming assets
and charge-offs.
    Cut were the parent's senior and guaranteed debt to Aa-3
from Aa-2 and subordinated debt to A-1 from Aa-3 and the lead
bank's senior debt and long-term deposits to Aa-2 from Aaa.
 Reuter

said its insured savings and loan associations (thrifts) that
made a profit in the fourth quarter of 1986 reported moderate
increases in net earnings.
    It said that the 74 pct of the thrifts reporting profits
had net after-tax income of 2.3 billion dlrs, up from 2.0
billion dlrs earned by 77 pct of the profitable industry in the
    For 1986 as a whole, the profitable firms had a net income
of 9.2 billion dlrs, up from 7.3 billion dlrs in 1985.
     It said the 26 pct of the industry that made no profit in
the fourth quarter had losses of 3.2 billion dlrs.
    The figure for the unprofitable firms was up from 2.1
billion dlrs in the third quarter of 1986, it said.
    Over the year, these firms had total losses of 8.3 billion
dlrs, up from 3.6 billion dlrs in 1985.
 Reuter

Niagara Mohawk Power Corp said
it and the other owners of Nine Mile Point Two nuclear power
unit have filed suit seeking over 500 mln dlrs in damages
against three companies involved with the design and
fabrication of the ball valve system for the plant.
    The company said the suit, filed in New York State Supreme
Court, names Gulf and Western Industries Inc <GW>, Wickes Cos
Inc <WIX>'s Wickes Manufacturing Co Inc subsidiary and Gearhart
Industries Inc's <GOI> Crosby Valve and Gage Co affiliate.
    Gulf and Western sold the Fluid Systems Division of its
Gulf and Western Manufacturing unit, which makes such valves,
to Crosby Valve in 1983 and the remainder of Gulf and Western
Manufacturing to Wickes in 1985.
    The company said the suit alleges breaches of contract and
warranty and negligence in engineering and seeks damages for
the cost of delay in the plant's commercial operation alleged
caused by the failure of the valve system to meet contract
specifications and licensing requirements.
    The ball-type main steam isolation valve system was removed
from Nine Mile Two in March following tests in which the
company said the valves failed to meet specifications agreed to
by the defendants. The system is now being replaced by a
Y-pattern globe valve system.
    It said the 500 mln dlr figure is a preliminary estimate.
    Niagara Mohawk owns 41 pct of Nine Mile Two, a 1,080 megatt
boiling water reactor near Oswego, N.Y., with Long Island
Lighting Co <LIL> owning 18 pct, Rochester Gas and Electric
Corp <RGS> 14 pct and Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp
<CNH> nine pct.
 Reuter

The White House announced
100 pct tariffs on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese electronic
goods, effective Friday.
    The tariffs were imposed because of alleged Japanese
failure to honor an agreement to stop below cost dumping of
computer microchips on world markets and to open up its
domestic markets to American goods.
    "I regret that these actions were necessary," President
Reagan said in a statement.
    Reagan said the tariffs would be eliminated "as soon as we
have firm and continuing evidence that the dumping in third
country markets has stopped and that access to the Japanese
market has improved."
    He said he was encouraged by recent actions by Tokyo to
improve compliance with the U.S.-Japanese semiconductor
agreement and he looked forward to the day when it was working
as effectively as it should.
 REUTER

Soviet industrial output in the first
quarter of this year grew by 2.5 pct compared with the first
three months of 1986, Tass news agency reported.
    A regular meeting of the Politburo heard that in March,
industry achieved the average daily rate needed to fulfil
annual targets.
    Quarterly plans were exceeded in the fuel and power sector
and agriculture, where output grew by 8.7 pct compared with the
same period last year, it said. Plans were not fulfilled by the
engineering and building ministries, the chemical and timber
sectors, rail transport and light industry, it added.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's executive salary
bonus plan, effective since 1918, was out of date for the
world's largest automaker's changing corporate strategy,
executive vice president Robert Stempel said.
    "The bonus plan was a plan that was really in sync with a
manufacturing organization selling what it builds," Stempel told
reporters at New York Auto Show's press opening.
    Commenting on GM's previously announced move to replace the
executive bonus-system with a stock option plan, Stempel said
the old system did not fit with the company's strategy of long
term capital investment.
    "We need to make sure that our pay system is in line
with...the long term enhancing of the value of the stock, and
we think that the new program will be doing just that for us,"
GM's Stempel said in response to a reporter's question.
    Stempel voiced confidence that GM shareholders will approve
the new plan, outlined in a shareholder proxy statement issued
Thursday.
    Stempel also said General Motors will reduce 10 pct of its
component business by 1990, for savings of about 500 mln dlrs.
GM plans to "eliminate those units that are clearly defined as
non-competitive in the components business," he said.
 Reuter

British Automobile Manufacturers
Association expects exports to the United States to more than
double in 1987 to 56,595 units from 26,200 in 1986, association
president G.W. Whitehead told reporters at the New York Auto
Show.
    "We feel this is the appropriate occasion to announce the
return of British cars as an important force in the U.S.
imported car market," said Whitehead, who is also president of
Jaguar Plc's U.S. unit.
    Whitehead said increased sales will result from intensified
North American marketing by British automakers.
 Reuter

downgraded 1.7 billion dlrs of debt of Bankers Trust New York
Corp, lead bank Bankers Trust Co and other subsidiaries.
    It said the slate of key competitors in Bankers Trust's
principal markets shifted as the bank repositioned itself into
the global institutional markets. Moody's said the substantial
new capital committed to these markets, and the size of direct
competitors, increased the uncertainty of future performance.
bank's long-term debt and deposits to Aa-1 from Aaa.
 Reuter

The Argentine government will ask
congress to declare a state of siege following a rebellion by
army officers objecting to human rights trials, official
    Earlier, Army Chief of Staff Hector Rios Erenu said he
would use all the means at his disposal to put down the
rebellion. He relieved from their commands two colonels, one of
them at an airborne infantry regiment in Cordoba, centre of the
uprising.
    Argentine Army Chief of Staff Hector Rios Erenu said he
would begin moving troops for a possible military operation to
put down the almost three-day old rebellion.
    Interior Minister Antonio Troccoli said the government
would seek parliamentary approval of the state of siege "unless
there is something unexpected that justifies more urgent
treatment."
 Reuter

Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
said he suspended key talks to unite his ruling ZANU-PF party
and opposition PF-ZAPU party.
    "I am sorry to say we have been deadlocked for too long on
the question of unity, and the central committee of my party
has recently decided that the talks be discontinued for they
are serving no purpose," he said in a nationwide
radio-and-television address.
    The collapse of the unity talks, widely expected to have
heralded creation of a socialist, one-party state, was a major
setback for the government, diplomats said.
 Reuter

The White House,
distancing itself from remarks by the administration's budget
chief, said the Federal Reserve's current course of monetary
policy was appropriate.
    "The administration feels that the current course of
monetary policy is appropriate," White House spokesman Marlin
Fitwater said.
    Fitzwater said the administration did not endorse remarks
by White House budget chief James Miller, who said he was
concerned the Federal Reserve might overreact to the decline in
the value of the U.S. dollar by raising interest rates.
 More

Senior U.S. bankers are seeking to
calm the furore in the Philippines caused by the terms of
Argentina's new financing package, but a source in New York
close to the Manila government said finance minister Jaime
Ongpin is in no mood for compromise.
    Ongpin is angry because the banks granted Argentina an
interest rate spread of 13/16 pct, the same as Mexico won, just
weeks after telling the Philippines that it must accept 7/8 pct
because the Mexican margin could never be repeated.
    Bankers acknowledged the political sensitivity of the
interest spread but urged Ongpin to examine the Argentine
package in its entirety.
    Argentina, for instance, is offering banks a 3/8 pct
participation fee if they sign up for the deal within 30 days
(declining to 1/8 pct if banks commit within 60 days), which
boosts the all-in interest rate it is paying on the package.
    "You can make the case that the deal is not 13/16 pct," one
banker said. Another, referring to the Philippine debt
negotiators, said "The only reason they'd have to come back to
New York is political, not economic."
    Ongpin has said as much himself, estimating that an extra
1/16 percentage point would cost just 5.1 mln dlrs a year.
    But the source close to the Philippines said Ongpin's anger
goes beyond the dollars. He said the minister feels personally
betrayed by bankers who insisted Mexico's 13/16 pct was a
rock-bottom spread that could not be duplicated. Top U.S.
Treasury and Federal Reserve officials had said the same.
    The source said Ongpin is unlikely to come to the U.S. to
press his case and was expecting the Philippines' bank advisory
committee, headed by Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co, to
negotiate the spread reduction by telex.
    Ongpin has not said the Philippines will unilaterally start
paying interest at the lower rate but has made it clear to the
committee in a telex that he is not prepared to pay more than
Mexico and Argentina, the source said.
    "The Philippines really means business on this. I don't
think there's much room for compromise," he said.
    Manufacturers Hanover declined to comment on the issue.
    The Philippines last month won an agreement to reschedule
10.3 billion dlrs of debt over 17 years at an interest rate of
7/8 pct, whereas some 30 billion dlrs in old Argentine debt
will be stretched out over 19 years with a spread of 13/16 pct.
    Bankers said they were forced to break their word because
political circumstances had changed in the past few weeks.
    In particular, they said it had become clear that Argentina
was serious about its threat to suspend interest payments
unless it got a good deal. Fearing that an Argentine moratorium
would stiffen the resolve of its neighbour Brazil, which has
already suspended payments, the banks, at the urging of the
Reagan Administration, bowed to Argentina's demands.
    Some U.S. bankers argued that, regardless of politics, the
rich menu of options in the Argentine package makes it
attractive enough to justify a 13/16 pct rescheduling rate.
    "When they (the Philippines) see the whole package, they
may realize that this is not a Mexican deal," one banker said
of the Argentine agreement.
    The Argentine pact contains several features that were not
in the Mexican accord such as "exit bonds," an option to
provide new money via bearer bonds, a trade facility, onlending
provisions and a debt-equity conversion scheme.
    Moreover, Argentina is requesting only 1.95 billion dlrs in
new loans, compared with Mexico's 7.7 billion, and is paying
7/8 pct for most of the money instead of the 13/16 pct charged
to Mexico.
    This line of argument cuts no ice with the Filipinos, who
note drily that they asked for no new money at all.
    "The banks reacted on the level of politics to Argentina
and try to justify it in terms of economics, and now they're
going to have problems with both the Philippines and
Venezuela," said the source close to the Manila government.
    Because of the Easter holidays bankers have not yet got an
official reaction from Venezuela, which is also paying 7/8 pct
on its 20.2 billion dlr rescheduling. But they acknowledged
that Caracas, which was also told that the Mexico spread was
inviolate, is quite likely to demand a lower spread.
    Bankers were more sanguine in the case of Chile.
    Because it is under fire for its human-rights record, the
government of General Augusto Pinochet is unlikely to attract
attention to itself by seeking to renegotiate its recent debt
package, which carries interest of one pct, bankers said.
    They hope that, once tempers cool, the Philippines will
also accept that reopening an agreement that took 4-1/2 tough
months to negotiate will be more trouble than it is worth.
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc <GW> said it
believes it has no liability under an earlier reported lawsuit
seeking 500 mln dlrs in damages against it and two other
    The suit, filed by Niagara Mohawk Power Corp and other
owners of the Nine Mile Point Two nuclear plant, concerns the
design and fabrication of the ball valve system for the
facility.
    "Niagara Mohawk appears to be trying to shift their
responsibilities in connection with the construction of the
Nine Mile Point Two plant to others," Gulf and Western said.
    Gulf and Western said it has not yet seen the lawsuit.
    The company said a subsidiary no longer owned by it sold
the valves in question in 1977. Since then, the valves have
been subject to substantial modifications by others, it said.
 Reuter

The former chief executive officer
of Baldwin-United Corp, now known as PHLCorp <PHX>, agreed to
settle charges stemming from misleading financial statements
the company is accused of making before it collapsed in 1983.
    Under the settlement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, former Baldwin-United President Morley Thompson
agreed to an order issued by the U.S. District Court in
Cincinnati, Ohio, barring him from committing further
    Thompson did not admit or deny the charges.
    Although Thompson was the last of several defendants to
settle charges brought by the SEC on September 26, 1985 in
connection with the Baldwin-United case, the agency said it is
continuing to investigate other matters related to the company
and may bring charges against other people.
    Baldwin-United, a Cincinnati-based diversified financial
services holding company, went bankrupt in September 1983. It
changed its name last November to PHLCorp.
    The SEC said Thompson violated reporting and anti-fraud
provisions of federal securities laws in late 1982 by issuing
misleading press releases.
    Baldwin-United, which has already settled SEC charges
brought against it, made "false statements concerning the
financing for two corporate acquisitions," the SEC said.
    The statements indicated that the company had available
cash for the takeovers while it was actually facing a "serious
cash flow crisis," it said.
    The company was also accused of filing false and misleading
financial statements with the SEC.

 Reuter

The White House issued a
list of Japanese exports to covered by the 100 pct tariffs
imposed by President Reagan.
    - Automatic data processing machines (1986 imports worth
180 mln dlrs), including certain desk and lap models with
microprocessor-based calculating mechanism capable of handling
words of at least 16-bits off the microprocessor;
    - Complete color television sets, with 18, 19 or 20 inch
screens (1986 imports 90 mln dlrs);
    - Power tools, including certain drills, percussion
hammers, sanders, polishers, grinders.
 Reuter

U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, fell 1.08 billion dlrs to
276.37 billion dlrs in the week ended April 8, the Federal
Reserve Board said.
1.1 billion dlrs to 278.67 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

shr 46 cts vs 76 cts
    div 30 cts vs 30 cts prior
    net 8.5 mln vs 14.0 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr net is after a 5.5 mln dlr reserve for a
potential refund as a result of the Federal Communications
Commission's continuing rate investigation. company said it
believes any refunds it may have to make would not materially
affect its financial position.
 Reuter

shr 21 cts vs 18 cts
    net 1,068,000 vs 902,000
    revs 38.1 mln vs 29.7 mln
    avg shrs 5,177,000 vs 5,120,000
    NOTE: shr reflects 2-for-1 stock split on June 9, 1986
 Reuter

shr loss 17 cts vs loss 14 cts
    net loss 467,000 vs loss 400,000
    revs 3,856,000 vs 3,423,000
    avg shrs 2,821,000 vs 2,797,000
 Reuter

shr loss 38 cts vs profit two cts
    net loss 2,254,533 vs profit 106,621
    revs 3,430,970 vs 4,104,506
 Reuter

shr 73 cts vs 1.03 dlrs
    net 10,245,000 vs 12,364,000
    avg shrs 13,981,024 vs 11,968,524
    assets 6.07 billion vs 5.22 billion
    loans 2.92 billion vs 2.45 billion
    deposits 4.78 billion vs 4.14 billion
    NOTE: gain from sale of securities 4.6 mln vs 12.8 mln.
loan loss provision 100,000 dlrs vs 7.7 mln
 Reuter

The Republic of Finland filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for a shelf offering of
up to 550 mln dlrs of debt securities, including notes and
bonds, and/or warrants to buy debt securities on terms to be
    The offering is in addition to 50 mln dlrs of debt
    Proceeds from the sale will be used to finance capital
investment and the promotion of productive investments and
exports designed to strengthen the country's balance of
payments, the government said. No underwriter was named.
 Reuter

awarded a 77 mln dlr increment to a Navy contract related to
fiscal 1988 A-6F aircraft production, the Defense Department
said.
October 1990.
 Reuter

shr 1.35 dlrs vs 1.27 dlrs
    div 39 cts vs 39 cts prior
    net 14,291,000 vs 13,211,000
    revs 52.6 mln vs 51.1 mln
    avg shrs 10,234,000 vs 9,936,000
 Reuter

Co said its Bluegrass Broadcasting Co Inc subsidiary has agreed
to sell two Orlando, Fla., radio stations to TK Communications
Inc for 13.5 mln dlrs, subject to FCC approval.
 Reuter

shr loss 57 cts vs loss 2.88 dlrs
    net loss 3,442,000 vs loss 13,750,000
   
 Reuter

    General Instrument Corp <GRL> - Offering of 150 mln dlrs of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2012 through an
underwriting group led by Lazard Freres and Co
    Dillard Department Stores Inc <DDSA> - Shelf offering of up
to 100 mln dlrs of debt securities, including debentures and
notes, and a shelf offering of another 100 mln dlrs of debt
securities by its Dillard Investment Co Inc subsidiary, both
    Sara Lee Corp <SLE> - Shelf offering of up to 1.0 mln
shares of common stock through Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and
 Reuter

Tracor Applied Sciences, a division
of Tracor Inc, is being awarded a 60.1 mln dlr contract for the
design and development of Radio Communication Suites for the
Aegis CG-60 through CG-70 ships, the Defense Department said.
1992.
 Reuter

shr 47 cts vs 46 cts
    net 3,470,859 vs 3,454,577
   
 Reuter

First Bank System said it has
agreeed to sell its First Bank Lewiston subsidiary, of
Lewiston, Mont., to two local bankers for undisclosed terms.
    First Bank Lewiston has assets of 101.4 mln dlrs at the end
 Reuter

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it has acquired 556,500
shares of Syncor International Corp, or 5.0 pct of the total
    ICN said it bought the stake for 3.9 mln dlrs as an
investment and has no plans to seek control of the company or
to participate in the management of it.
 Reuter

The Japanese Embassy said in a
statement it was "deeply disappointed" by the tariffs announced
by President Reagan in retaliation for Japan's not honoring its
semiconductor agreement with the United States.
    It said Japan had been fully implementing the pact to end
dumping semiconductors in world markets and to open its home
market to U.S. goods and the results were starting to show.
    The embassy said Japan would complain to the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as it said it would, and seek
new talks with Washington to resolve the issue as soon as
possible.
 Reuter

Dixons Group Plc <DXNS.L>, the
British concern that recently acquired operational control of
Cyclops Corp, said it is exploring the possibility of selling
the Cyclops subsidiary, Busy Beaver Building Centers Inc.
Dixons said it has determined to explore the possibility of the
sale following its preliminary review of the business and
activities of Cyclops.
    Busy Beaver Building Centers is a Pittsburgh, Pa., lumber
and building materials company. Dixons won control of Cyclops
with a 95 dlr a share tender offer.
 Reuter

The tough trade sanctions President
Reagan imposed on Japanese exports are not only a shot across
Japan's bow but also a sign Reagan will attack unfair trade
practices worldwide, U.S. officials said.
    But Robert Crandall, a trade specialist at Brookings
Institution, a think tank, said "a shot across their bow can
often result in a shot in our stern."
    He said it left the United States open to retaliation.
    The U.S. officials said the 100 pct tariffs Reagan ordered
on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese goods will also show Congress
that a tough pro-trade stand can be taken under existing laws,
and no new protectionist legislation is needed.
    In the past year tough trade action had been taken against
the European Community over corn and sorghum, Taiwan over beer
and wine, South Korea over counterfeiting of copyrights,
patents and trademarkets and Japan on tobacco.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters the
tariffs - up from five pct - should be seen as a "serious signal"
to other nations on the need for fair trade practices.
    Reagan said he imposed the sanctions on certain computers,
television sets and some hand tools because Japan did not honor
an agreement to end dumping semiconductors in world markets at
less than cost and to open its markets to U.S. products. The
tariffs were placed on items which were available from other
sources so there would be little effect on the American
consumer, Fitzwater said.
    Reagan has come under heavy pressure to take tougher action
- especially against Japan - to end global unfair trade
practices and reverse the growing U.S. trade deficit.
    The alternative was that if he did not, Congress would.
    The U.S. trade gap last year was a record 169.8 billion
dlrs, and continues to rise, with Japan accounting for about
one-third of America's overall deficit.
    But there are other two-way deficits - with Canada, West
Germany, Taiwan and South Korea - and Reagan officials said the
president is ready to fight them all.
    Reagan said in announcing the sanctions today that "I regret
that these actions are necessary," but that the health and
vitality of the U.S. semiconductor industry was essential to
American competitiveness in world markets.
    "We cannot allow it to be jeopardized by unfair trading
practices," Reagan added in the statement from his California
vacation home at Santa Barbara.
    He said the tariffs would remain in force until Japan
abided by the agreement.
    U.S. officials say the action today will show Congress -
which is about to write a trade bill he does not like - that he
already has the tools needed to fight unfair trade.
    The White House aide said of the tariff action, "it wasn't
done to appease Congress, but because there was an unfair trade
practice."
    The aide added, however, "on another plane, it was an
example of how the administration uses the trade law to fight
unfair practices, an that it is not necessary to make a major
overall of our trade laws."
    But the analyst, Crandall, said the tariff action was not
in the best interests of the United States, and that
negotiations should have been pursued to resolve the issue.
    "It's very dangerous to go down the retaliatory route," he
said, "because it leads to more retaliation and restrictions in
trade."
    Crandall said, "the administration is doing this for its
political impact across the country, and therefore its impact
on Congress."
    He said, "I don't think it makes a lot of sense."
    But other analysts said it made little difference whether
the tariffs were aimed at U.S. trading partners or Congress,
and that the main point was that the trading partners were on
notice that retaliation was a weapon Reagan was ready to use.
    Spokesman Fitzwater said "we don't want a trade war," but the
imposition of sanctions showed the United States would act when
it had evidence that trade pacts were being violated.
 Reuter

redeem May 29 the entire outstanding amounts of three separate
sinking fund debenture issues.
    The company will buy back its outstanding 79.7 mln dlrs of
7.70 pct debentures of 2001 at 103.20 pct of par value plus
accrued interest, 59.9 mln dlrs of nine pct debentures due 1999
at 103.15 pct per principal amount plus accrued interest, and
50 mln dlrs of 9-1/8 pct debentures of 2000 at 103.625 pct of
par value plus accrued interest.
 Reuter

Rebellious troops in the central
city of Cordoba called off an uprising against President Raul
Alfonsin's government, the army command said.
    Congressional leaders said that it would probably not be
necessary therefore to declare a state of siege.
     Military officers earlier said army units in Buenos Aires
and Misiones provinces had supported the Cordoba regiment, the
focal point of the uprising. The troops were objecting to human
rights trials.
 Reuter

Yeutter said he was almost sure Japan would not retaliate
against tariffs President Reagan slapped on 300 mln dlrs of
Japanese electronic goods today.
    "I'd say it's 99 plus pct sure that it (the tariffs) will
not provoke a retaliation on American products," Yeutter told
Cable News Network.
    "Japan has far too much at stake in this relationship (with
the United States) to seriously entertain thoughts of
retaliation," Yeutter said.
    Earlier today, Reagan 
imposed 100 pct tariffs on a range of
Japanese goods in retaliation for Japan's alleged violation of
a bilateral pact governing semiconductor trade.
    Yeutter did say that U.S. farm products would be targeted
if Tokyo decided to hit back.
    "If they (Japan) were to retaliate, it would probably be on
something like American agricultural products," he said.
    "But I really think the chances of that happening are
between slim and none," he added.
 Reuter

Shooting erupted at Philippine army
headquarters early this morning, an independent Manila radio
station said.
    Radio DZRH said it was checking unconfirmed reports that
about 120 mutineers had surrounded an office building inside
Fort Bonifacio.
    An officer told Reuters an alert had been sounded at the
camp.
    A Reuter reporter at the camp said the gates had been
sealed and guards were preventing anyone from going inside.
REUTER

A truckload of heavily-armed rebel
soldiers forced their way into Philippine army headquarters and
freed several men held prisoner in the camp since a January
revolt, military sources said.
    The sources told Reuters an estimated 100 rebels were
occupying the headquarters building at Fort Bonifacio and
forces loyal to President Aquino had surrounded the building
urging them to surrender.
    An independent radio station reported gunfire at the camp.
 REUTER

Japan does not plan to take immediate
retaliatory action against implementation of U.S. Tariffs on
some Japanese electronic goods, the minister of international
trade and industry, Hajime Tamura, said in a statement.
    Japan requested bilateral consultations in accordance with
Article 23-1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) in Washington yesterday.
    Tamura said there was deep regret over the U.S. Measures,
which will impose 100 pct tariffs on about 300 mln dlrs worth
of Japanese imports of some small computers, colour television
sets and power tools.
 REUTER

The central bank has issued 5.3 billion
Taiwan dlrs of certificates of deposits (CDs), boosting CD
issues so far this year to 140.42 billion compared with 16
billion issued in the same 1986 period.
two years, carry interest rates ranging from 4.07 to 5.12 pct,
a bank spokesman told Reuters.
money supply, the result of large foreign exchange reserves now
at more than 53 billion U.S. Dlrs.
 REUTER

Foreign investment in Malaysia in
1986 rose to 524.5 mln ringgit, the highest since 1971, from
324.9 mln in 1985, the Malaysian Industrial Development
Authority, MIDA, said.
    MIDA director-general N. Sadasivan said the increase was
due to large investment from the Netherlands in a 180.3 mln
ringgit petrochemical project in Bintulu, national news agency
Bernama reported.
 REUTER

U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige
praised South Korea's new surplus-cutting trade policies but
warned of possible protectionist retaliation if Seoul's market
liberalisation efforts falter or fail.
    In a press conference after talks with South Korean
leaders, Baldrige called the government's announced intention
to regulate exports and boost imports "a very, very important
step, the right direction for the Korean government to take."
    The government adopted the new policies last week in the
hope of heading off a trade war with the U.S.
    Baldrige said the policies "showed an understanding of the
fact that this country cannot go on indefinitely growing by
exports alone."
    "There has to be enough of a change so that domestic growth
begins to take more of the load," he said.
    South Korea had a 7.2 billion dlr trade surplus with
Washington in 1986, thanks largely to booming sales of cars and
consumer electronic goods. It racked up another 1.4 billion
dlrs in surplus in the first quarter of this year.
    Baldrige said Seoul's package of measures was "broad enough
and comprehensive enough so that ... Actions can be taken for
liberalising imports (and) increasing the domestic economy, if
the government is willing to follow through."
    "We will be watching the implementation of this new policy
direction very closely," he said. "Because of the protectionism
growing in the U.S., We see a real problem if Korea does not
keep on the same path ... Of steadily increasing
liberalisation.... If that should falter or fail or turn
backward, I'm as sure as I'm standing here that we'd see
protectionist movement in the U.S."
    Baldrige said he and South Korean Trade Minister Rha
Woong-bae spent much time discussing trade problems in specific
product categories.
    These included service industries, which he said were still
too much of a closed sector in South Korea, and computers and
cars. Baldrige said he urged speedy action on removing the
tariffs and taxes on imported U.S. Cars which can make them
sell for up to three times their American prices.
    "We want to stop that. With this sort of thing, there's
going to be trouble somewhere down the road," he said. "We are
just pointing this out."
    Asked if Seoul's measures could succeed without a
revaluation of the won, which Washington has been urging for
months, Baldrige declined to comment. "We don't have any target
for any particular currency, but we do feel that currencies
around the world, if we are going to be successful as a world
economy, have to reflect the fundamentals of the various
economies involved," he said.
    Baldrige said he had agreed to Rha's proposal for
cooperation on forming U.S.-South Korean joint ventures in
third countries. The American government would be pleased to
encourage U.S. Firms to get involved, he added.
    Commenting on President Reagan's decision to increase
tariffs on certain Japanese imports to the U.S., Baldrige said
Washington's trade problems with Japan were not comparable to
its difficulties with South Korea.
    "I think the attitude in Korea is both reasonable and fair,"
he said. "It's a firm attitude. We don't get anything for
nothing or just by asking for it.
    "But our negotiations are friendly and reasonable and they
usually end up with something good happening at the end that
both countries live up to."
 REUTER

Rice Export Corp of Pakistan Ltd said
it had invited tenders up to May 7 for the export of 15,000
tonnes of rice from the 1985-86 (November/March) crop.
 REUTER

not change its decision to admit China as a member despite
protests from founder member Taiwan, bank president Masao
Fujioka said.
    China's admission in March 1986 and the decision of the
bank to change Taiwan's name to 'Taipei, China' caused a
Taiwanese boycott of the ADB's last annual meeting in Manila.
    Fujioka told Reuters in an interview that Taiwan had been
invited to the bank's 20th annual meeting starting April 27 in
Osaka, "but the situation remains the same."
    "The bank's board agreed to change Taiwan's name to 'Taipei,
China'," Fujioka said.
    "We have tried to maintain our channels of communication
through the Taiwanese director, but we are not negotiating with
a view to changing our agreement with China," he said.
    ADB figures show China has the largest shareholding among
the bank's developing members, with 7.2 pct of its equity.
    Fujioka said a stalemate also continued with Vietnam, which
complained at last year's meeting that for several years the
ADB had unilaterally stopped advancing loans.
    An ADB spokesman said the last loan of 40.67 mln dlrs was
made to the then Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in 1974.
    Vietnam said last year that only 23 mln dlrs of that loan
were disbursed.
    The bank's 1986 annual report said of 11 loans approved for
Vietnam, eight had been closed, two were suspended and only one
was under administration at the end of 1986.
    Cumulative disbursements to Vietnam at the end of 1986
totalled 25.3 mln dlrs, or 99.5 pct of the total amount of
effective loans, the report said.
    "The situation (in Vietnam) is not conducive to bank
operations," Fujioka said. "Vietnam continues to be a member. We
would like to help it, but new loans seem to be difficult."
    "It's not a question of political instability, the
environment has to be right for banking operations."
    He said with the first loans made to India in 1986, and
lending operations in China scheduled to start this year, the
ADB had now acquired a "truly Asian" character.
    Although China's finance ministry had gained five years of
experience in borrowing from the World Bank, ADB loans would be
routed through the country's central bank, Fujioka said.
    "It's been a very slow start," Fujioka said. "We identified
three projects (in China). One disappeared and we now have only
two left."
    He said the ADB might lend China between 200 and 300 mln
dlrs in 1987 for an investment bank and an energy project.
    He did not foresee an expansion of lending to India.
    The ADB in 1986 approved two loans to India totalling 250
mln dlrs.
    "There is a sort of agreement that our loans to India should
be modest and that the World Bank should be the major lender,"
Fujioka said. He did not give details.
    Fujioka said the ADB saw its lending to the private sector
serving as a catalyst. The bank's new private sector division
in 1986 approved three loans totalling 11.46 mln dlrs without
government guarantees.
    In addition, the ADB approved four equity investment
projects totalling 8.15 mln dlrs. This raised to 15.18 mln the
cumulative approvals since equity financing commenced in 1983.
    But Fujioka said the ADB should not compete with private
banks. "We have a narrow path to walk," he said.
    He said he was happy with the decision of the bank's donor
countries to increase the ADB's fund for soft loans.
    The fourth replenishment of the soft-loan window, the Asian
Development Fund , brought it to 3.6 billion dlrs, from 3.2
billion, Fujioka said. In particular the United States has
maintained its 16 pct share," said the ADB chief.
    He said there had been disagreements with the U.S., Which
holds 14.9 pct of the bank's equity, over lending policies. The
U.S. Complained in 1986 the ADB was granting bad loans in its
impatience to hit lending targets.
    "I suspect there is some arm-twisting," he said.
    "I find some developed countries are more interested in the
procurement side instead of the development side."
    Fujioka said he said he foresaw increased sectoral lending
and a gradual dilution of the ADB's project-tied lending.
    Fujioka said project lending was expected to drop to 63 pct
of total loans in 1987, from 66.5 pct in 1986 and 77.5 pct in
1985. He said sectoral lending was projected to rise to 20 pct
in 1987, from 12.8 pct in 1986 and 7.5 pct in 1985.
    He said the bank would try to reduce some of its liquid
assets by repaying borrowings carrying high interest rates.
    "On the other hand we must maintain our presence in major
financial markets," he said. "Why should we not take advantage of
historically low interest rates?"
 REUTER

Australian coal industry sources said
Japanese electricity utilities are demanding price cuts in
annual coal contract negotiations underway in Tokyo.
    But the sources said they were unable to substantiate
reports here that one of the largest steaming coal customers
<Chugoku Electric Power Co Inc> threatened to stop taking
deliveries until new prices are set.
    Coal exporters want to maintain last year's 32 U.S. Dlrs a
tonne price, which expired at the end of Japan's fiscal year on
March 31, while the Japanese want to pay no more than the 27-28
U.S. Dlrs secured with China and South Africa.
    Ross McKinnon, general manager of <Thiess Dampier Mitsui
Coal Pty Ltd>, which annually exports about one mln tonnes of
steaming coal to Japan, mainly to Chugoku, told Reuters he had
not been informed of any refusal to take shipments.
    McKinnon said he could not recall when a Japanese contract
had been settled before the previous one had expired, and said
"controlled leaks" were commonplace during talks.
    But Australian foreign currency markets took the reports
seriously enough for dealers to say it added nervousness to
trading, with the local dollar settling on 0.7080 U.S. Cents at
midsession against its 0.7120 opening.
    Coal was Australia's largest single export in the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1986 with shipments reaching 90.49 mln
tonnes worth 5.21 billion dlrs, or 15.9 pct of total exports.
    Japan is the largest customer for the crucial steaming coal
sector and took 14.97 mln tonnes of total exports of 43.3 mln
tonnes in calendar 1986.
    Sydney resources analyst Ian Story said the appreciation of
the Australian dollar against the U.S. Currency meant steaming
coal exporters were now receiving just 44.72 dlrs a tonne
against 52.42 dlrs when last year's contract was negotiated.
 REUTER

Asian countries are offering better oil
exploration concessions to avert damaging shortfalls due to
last year's oil price slump, the United Nations said.
    The Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific said in its annual report that the price
fall substantially cut exploration by foreign oil firms, which
found it unprofitable to maintain investments in the region.
    Oil production investment in Indonesia fell to about 2.8
billion dlrs in 1985 from 3.2 billion in 1983 and was estimated
to have declined six pct last year. There were 11 wells drilled
in Thailand in 1986 against 64 in 1985.
    The report said <Thai Shell Exploration and Production Co
Ltd>, a unit of the <Royal Dutch/Shell Group> announced a 30
pct cut in exploration and production spending last year.
    To counter declining output, India and Malaysia reduced
petroleum sharing demands, while Indonesia cut taxes.
    Nepal offered a guaranteed income share of up to 87.5 pct
to cover exploration costs, while Thailand began decreasing its
12.5 pct royalty payments. The big losers were major regional
exporters such as Indonesia, Brunei, China, Malaysia and Iran.
Their aggregate oil income fell an estimated 20 billion dlrs in
1986 from 40 billion the previous year.
    Indonesia's export earnings fell by nearly half in 1986
from 11.6 billion dlrs in 1985, the U.N. Report said.
    Iran also lost about six billion dlrs, Brunei 3.8 billion,
China three billion and Malaysia 0.8 billion.
    However, Asian importers saved between eight and nine
billion dlrs during 1985 and 1986, which considerably eased
their balance of payments.
    South Korea, the Philippines, India, Thailand and Pakistan
were major beneficiaries, with Thailand and Pakistan
respectively saving about 875 mln and 435 mln dlrs last year.
 REUTER

Swiss wholesale prices rose 0.1 pct in
March after a 0.3 pct fall in February and a 0.8 pct drop in
March 1986, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    Prices fell 3.4 pct in the year to March after a 4.3 pct
decline in the year to February and a 3.5 pct fall in the year
ended March 1986.
    The March index, base 1963, was 168.8 compared with 168.5
in February and 174.7 in March 1986.
    The Statistics Office said the slight increase in March was
due to higher prices for energy and consumer goods.
 REUTER

Northern Foods Plc <NFDS.L> said its
<Northserv Inc> unit had agreed to sell <Flagship Cleaning
Services Inc> to <Best Co Inc> of Nevada for 24.6 mln dlrs
cash.
    Completion is due on April 30. Flagship is based in
Philadelphia and holds the Sears, Roebuck and Co <S> franchise
for domestic carpet and upholstery cleaning throughout the U.S.
    In the year to end March, 1986, Flagship - then known as
KeyServ - reported pre-tax profits of 2.0 mln dlrs with
end-year assets of 8.4 mln, giving a book profit on disposal of
16.2 mln.
    Northern Foods shares were unchanged at 297p.
 REUTER

    Banks must make their bids by 1400 GMT tomorrow and funds
allocated will be credited to accounts tomorrow, April 22.
Banks must repurchase securities pledged on May 20.
 REUTER

Japan's policy of self-sufficiency in
rice is an example of extreme protectionism, visiting U.S.
Agriculture secretary Richard Lyng told a press conference.
    He told the National Press Club of Japan that because Japan
had a large export balance, not just with the U.S. But with
other countries, it was inconsistent for it to be 100 pct
self-sufficient in one product.
    Speaking after farm trade talks with Japan agriculture
minister Mutsuki Kato, Lyng said the U.S. Had not asked for
total liberalisation of the rice market in Japan.
    Lyng urged Japan to allow some imports of rice.
    "We want to have some access in the rice market," he said.
    He said both he and trade representative Clayton Yeutter
were disappointed at the outcome of talks with Japan. He told
reporters Japan had rejected the U.S. Proposal to open
negotiations on rice at the new round of trade talks at the
    Lyng said he suggested instead bilateral talks with Japan
on rice.
    Kato has said Japan cannot negotiate on its policy of rice
self-sufficiency.
    Asked what the next U.S. Step would be on the rice issue,
Lyng said he did not know what Yeutter or the U.S. Rice
industry would do.
    Yeutter has promised to consider again in July or August
this year a complaint against Japan's rice import ban by the
U.S. Rice Millers Association if no breakthrough is made in the
meantime.
    U.S. Rice industry officials have indicated they would
consider filing another complaint against the Japan rice import
ban.
 REUTER

Alcoa of Australia Ltd <AA.S>, owned
51 pct by the Aluminum Co of America <AA>, said net profit rose
to 20.2 mln dlrs in the first quarter of 1987 from 0.8 mln in
    Sales revenue climbed to 300.9 mln from 233.0 mln. The
company paid 36.5 mln income tax compared with 4.8 mln.
    Capital expenditure was 24.0 mln, against 33.4 mln. Alcoa
spent 15.7 mln on its new Portland aluminium smelter compared
with 25.8 mln the year before. Over 65 pct of the smelter's
first potline is on stream and by the second quarter it will be
producing at the full annual rate of 150,000 tonnes a year.
 REUTER

Pakistan will retender today for 6,000 to 12,000
tonnes of refined bleached deodorised palm oil for first half May
 REUTER

South Korea has cut loans to exporting
companies to help reduce the growing trade surplus with the
United States and the European Community, finance ministry
    They said two billion dlrs worth of foreign currency loans
would be available to firms willing to import industrial
facilities, and 500 mln dlrs for those importing raw and
intermediary materials and parts.
    Exporters, who previously received 645 won (0.769 dlrs) for
each dollar's worth of overseas orders, will now get only 575
won (0.686 dlrs), they said.
    The officials said the government also stopped new bank
loans given to aid the installation of export-oriented
facilities by the nation's 30 largest business groups.
    A finance ministry official told Reuters the measures were
part of the South Korean government's package to curb the
increase in the nation's trade surpluses with major trading
partners.
    South Korea had a trade surplus of 7.2 billion dlrs with
the United States in 1986, against 4.1 billion in 1985. It had
a surplus of 1.09 billion dlrs last year with the EC, against
188.8 mln dlrs in 1985.
 REUTER

said Japanese government officials do not seem to understand
that protectionist sentiment in the U.S. Could lead to an
explosive situation and protectionist legislation.
    Speaking to the National Press Club of Japan, Lyng said
protectionist sentiment in the U.S. Has increased alarmingly
during the last six months.
    "It is a radically changed situation and is very explosive.
We are on the verge of some very harsh mandatory retaliatory
laws which would have very serious consequences for other
countries, especially Japan," Lyng told reporters.
    Lyng's comments about protectionist trade legislation
appeared to be a reference to the so-called Gephardt provision,
requiring retaliation against countries which have trade
surpluses with the U.S., Trade analysts said.
    U.S. House majority leader Thomas Foley, a Washington
Democrat, yesterday predicted during a visit here that the
Gephardt provision will be approved by the House when trade
legislation is taken up later this month.
    Senior Japanese officials do not seem to perceive the
volatility of the situation in the U.S., Where Congress is
increasingly unpredictable, he said.
    "The purpose of this trip is to emphasise the fact that
patience is beginning to be very much frayed in Washington. I
cannot emphasise that enough," Lyng said.
    In talks with Japanese Agriculture Minister Mutsuki Kato
yesterday, Lyng and Trade representative Clayton Yeutter asked
Japan to begin negotiations on its rice policy and end import
quotas on beef and citrus.
    Lyng said he was disappointed Kato rejected the U.S.
Request but hoped it would not lead to a protectionist response
in Congress, where legislation on rice retaliation has been
introduced in both the House and Senate.
    Lyng said the U.S. Is dependent on Japan as a market for
exports because Japan has been the largest buyer of U.S. Farm
products since 1964, especially grains.
    He said the U.S. Understands Japan, with a limited land
area, is concerned about maintaining some level of
self-sufficiency in food for national security reasons.
    But he argued the freeing of farm product imports would not
necessarily weaken Japanese agriculture.
    Lyng pledged the U.S. Will never again embargo shipments of
farm products as it did in 1973.
 REUTER

The World Bank has suggested India
should move to a more open economy by gradually removing most
government controls on industry and adopting a liberal external
trade policy with reduced levels of protection.
    A confidential "executive summary" of a draft Bank report on
the Indian economy was made available to Reuters. It suggests
liberalisation as part of a package of reforms to boost exports
of Indian goods by making them more competitive.
    The summary said, "These reforms would result in (domestic)
prices much more in line with world prices than is true today,
and in a greater degree of import competition and export
rivalry than the nation has ever seen."
    The summary said foreign trade must play a key role in
India's transition towards a more dynamic economy. Liberal
imports of capital goods would help modernise the economy and
expose Indian producers to foreign competition. Larger exports
would provide the foreign exchange for imports.
    "The main guideline is unambiguously to abandon the present
principle of unlimited protection for all indigenously
available products and to recognise the role of actual or
potential competition from imports as a source of discipline on
the prices and costs of public and private sector domestic
manufacturers," the summary said.
    An Indian official told Reuters the government was
discussing the report with the Bank. A final report with some
changes was likely to be ready by May, but he declined to give
    The Bank and industrialised nations will discuss the Bank's
final report at a meeting in Paris on June 22 and 23 to discuss
aid for India in the 1987/88 year starting in June.
    The summary said India's gross domestic product (gdp) grew
at an average five pct in Indian fiscal years 1985/86 and
1986/87, which ended in March.
    It said investment was being sustained at nearly 25 pct of
gdp. Almost 94 pct of the investment was being financed by
national savings, mainly from the private sector.
    India's trade deficit is officially said to have narrowed
to 5.6 billion dlrs in 1986/87 ended March, from a record 6.96
billion dlrs in 1985/86. The current account deficit fell to
2.4 billion dlrs in 1986/87 from 2.88 billion in 1985/86.
    But the summary said the improvement was largely due to
lower prices of crude oil, petroleum products and fertilisers
which make up the bulk of India's import bill.
    India was able to save about 2.6 billion dlrs in foreign
exchange in 1986/87 due to lower prices of those products, the
summary said.
    The Bank's summary said there was little room for
complacency in the balance of payments position.
    It said that despite a lower trade deficit in 1986/87,
Indian foreign exchange reserves fell by 240 mln dlrs.
    Real export growth would need to average at least 6.1 pct a
year in value terms in the coming years to maintain a viable
balance of payments, the summary said.
    It did not explicitly suggest the rupee should be devalued.
India "might have to reaffirm the commitment to exporting while
undertaking some dramatic changes in general incentives that
involve some political costs," it said.
    "An example of such a policy would be the adoption of an
exchange rate regime that maintained exporters' profitability,"
the summary said.
    It said such an approach had been successful in countries
such as South Korea, Colombia and Turkey. It would maintain the
competitiveness of Indian exports and simultaneously reduce
import pressures.
    Earlier this year, the Indian government denied that the
World Bank asked it to devalue the Indian rupee to boost
exports.
 REUTER

International Finance Corporation
(IFC), the World Bank's investment arm, will raise its
investment in Malaysia to a maximum of 200 mln dlrs from
current 21.2 mln, IFC chief executive William Ryrie said.
    He told reporters after a two-day meeting with government
and private sector representatives that the IFC would be active
in risk capital and equity finance.
    The IFC is interested in a 500 mln ringgit Sabah state
government pulp and paper project and is talking to state
investment holding company Permodalan Nasional Bhd about joint
ventures to help transfer profitable firms to Malays.
    Ryrie added the IFC is involved in underwriting a 60 mln
dlr Malaysian Fund to be launched on the New York Stock
Exchange next month.
    IFC's investment in Malaysia involves textile
manufacturing, development finance, cement, iron and steel,
sawmill operations and money and capital markets.
 REUTER

Spain's consumer price index rose 0.6
pct in March after a 0.4 pct increase in February and 0.3 pct
in March last year, the National Statistics Institute said.
    The March rise brought the year on year rate to 6.3 pct.
The government has set a five pct target for 1987 consumer
price inflation after an 8.3 pct increase last year.
 REUTER

The Belgian National Bank said it cut
its one, two and three month treasury certificate rates
    It said in a telex message the key three month rate was
reduced by 0.05 points to 7.25 pct, the two month rate by 0.10
points to 7.20 pct and the one month rate by 0.15 points to
7.15 pct.
rates on April 3, when all three rates were cut by 0.10 points.
    It has made regular small reductions in rates after
hoisting the three month rate 0.50 points to 7.90 pct and the
other rates to eight pct on January 6 ahead of the realignment
of the European Monetary System.
    The National Bank bought more than 7.91 billion francs of
foreign currency in the week ended April 13, a National Bank
spokesman said last week. Foreign exchange analysts noted this
reflects the current strength of the Belgian franc.
 REUTER

base 1981, rose 14.21 pct to 162.19 in March from a revised
142.01 in February, and 7.19 pct from March 1986, the Economic
    The February figure was revised from a preliminary 140.06.
    A ministry official said the March index stood at its
highest level since the 169.94 set in December 1986.
    He attributed the increase to rising production of
textiles, wooden and bamboo products, plastics, machinery,
electronics, transportation equipment, mining and house
 REUTER

Bowater Industries Plc <BWTR.L> said it
had agreed to buy Southampton-based builders' merchants <Hooper
and Ashby Ltd> for 718,545 Bowater shares, floating rate
unsecured loan stock and cash.
    It gave no further financial details besides saying that a
final payment of cash or loan stock would be made when audited
accounts were available.
    Hooper is a family-owned business which had a turnover of
around 25 mln stg in 1986 and net assets of about nine mln stg.
    Bowater shares were unchanged at 495p on Thursday.
 REUTER

market to try to accelerate the dollar's rise after heavy
dollar buying by institutional investors, dealers said.
    The central bank bought a moderate amount of dollars at
around 142.10 yen, they said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan is carefully watching
the recent rapid rise of the Tokyo stock and yen bond markets
for their impact on inflation, governor Satoshi Sumita said.
    In a statement to the bank's regional branch managers,
Sumita said the central bank was particularly monitoring the
markets because of the recent rapid growth of money supply. He
said he is also carefully watching real estate prices.
    Sumita said he expects money supply growth to remain high
from April through June. In March, money supply, as measured by
M-2 plus certificates of deposit, rose at a year-on-year rate
of nine pct.
 REUTER

Pakistan bought 6,000 tonnes of rbd palm
oil at its import tender today for first half May shipment,
    The price was believed to be in the region of 345.50 dlrs
per tonne cost and freight, but confirmation is awaited, they
said.
    Pakistan sought to buy up to 12,000 tonnes for first half
May and has not said when it is likely to tender for the
balance.
 REUTER

A black policeman was killed and
70 were injured when a bomb was lobbed onto a parade ground in
South Africa's biggest black township of Soweto this morning,
the government said.
    The device was thrown from a passing vehicle as trainee
township policemen from all over South Africa were on parade at
the Tladi police training centre, the government's Bureau for
Information said.
    Ten officers were seriously wounded and 60 suffered slight
injuries, it said.
    A bureau spokesman said the type of explosive device used
was not known and no arrests had been made.
    The government has blamed a spate of limpet mine blasts in
South African cities in recent months on the outlawed African
National Congress (ANC), fighting a low-level guerrilla war
against white domination in South Africa.
    The municipal police, who perform security duties in black
townships, have been a main target of black militants in the
past three years of political unrest which has claimed some
2,400 lives.
    Many black policemen have been forced to live in compounds
on the outskirts of townships after their homes were attacked.
    Today's attack, one of the most daring since a national
state of emergency was declared last June, came as police and
troops deployed at railway stations to stop attacks on trains
linked to a bitter strike by black transport workers.
    Foreign Minister Pik Botha has alleged that the ANC is
planning a campaign of violence in the run-up to the
whites-only general election next month. Security is a major
election issue, with extreme right-wingers accusing the
government of being soft in the face of a "revolutionary
onslaught."
    Botha warned neighbouring black-ruled states not to allow
the guerrillas to infiltrate South Africa through their
territory. He said South Africa would not hesitate to take
action to thwart the alleged offensive.
    Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe denied Botha's
charges and said they were a pretext for South African attacks
on them. Pretoria has raided alleged ANC bases in the so-called
Frontline states in the past.
 Reuter

North Korea unveiled plans to boost
industrial and agricultural production sharply over the next
seven years and to greatly expand its foreign trade.
    Prime Minister Li Gun-mo told the eighth Supreme People's
Assembly in Pyongyang that North Korea intends to increase
international trade by 220 pct in the period 1987/93, gross
industrial output by 90 pct and agricultural production by 40
pct, according to the North Korean Central News Agency,
monitored here.
 REUTER

industrial and agricultural production over the next seven
years and to greatly expand trade with other nations, the
official North Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Tokyo,
reported.
Assembly in Pyongyang agricultural production will rise 1.4
times in the period of the new seven-year plan, the agency
said.
    "For a more satisfactory solution of the problem of food,
clothing and housing for the people, a 15 mln tonne target of
grain will be hit...And 1.5 billion metres of textiles will be
produced annually," he said.
    Annual output of non-ferrous metals will be lifted to more
than 1.7 mln tonnes in the seven year plan, the agency quoted
Li as saying.
    During the previous seven-year plan North Korea achieved
annual output of 10 mln tonnes of grain. Chemical fertilizer
production hit an annual target of five mln tonnes. He did not
provide any other figures.
 REUTER

<Esso U.K. Plc>'s 1987 exploration
scheme involves less activity than last year, said a company
    She confirmed that Esso UK, a member of Exxon Corp <XON>,
was likely to participate in 15 to 20 wells this year, against
25 wells last year. Total capital expenditure budget this year,
however, will be similar to last year's budget of about 450 mln
stg, she said.
    She added that exploration and production expenditure last
year was 370 mln stg and Esso UK turned the year with 1.2
billion stg of forward capital commitment.
    The spokeswoman said 30 to 40 pct in cost savings had been
made for development plans for Kittiwake - the only field in
the Shell-Esso Gannet North Sea oil and gas cluster still being
considered for development over the next few years.
    Esso UK and <Shell U.K. Exploration and Production>, part
of the Shell Transport and Trading <SC.L> group, have so far
spent between 300 to 350 mln stg on Kittiwake, with recoverable
reserves of some 70 mln barrels. Cost savings were also made on
the 40 to 45 mln barrel Osprey field which is expected to cost
at least 150 mln stg to develop. Development of both fields are
expected to go ahead this year or early next year, she said.
 REUTER

Striking dockers brought the Canary
Island port of Las Palmas to a halt today but called off a
stoppage in Spain's main port of Barcelona after winning the
reinstatement of a sacked worker, port officials said.
    They said about 15 freighters were affected in Las Palmas
as talks on dockers' demands to reinstate five workers went on.
A stoppage was also called off in Santa Cruz, on Tenerife.
    Union sources said the strike would continue in Las Palmas
tomorrow and would spread unless the demands were met, with a
strike threatened in all ports for two hours on Thursday, four
on Friday, six on Saturday and every other hour from May 4-11.
 REUTER

Howe called on industrial and developing countries to combat
trade protectionism and remove barriers which impede free
trading in agricultural products.
    Howe said in an address to the annual meeting of the U.N.
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
that success in fighting protectionism hinges on the current
Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
    He said Britain is committed to resisting and combatting
protectionism because free trade is vital to Britain where 30
pct of the gnp comes from trade in goods and services.
    Howe urged developing countries to open up their markets,
remove measures distorting free trade in services and provide
protection for intellectual property rights.
    He said industrial nations should also adopt macro-economic
policies which help reduce trade imbalances and promote stable
currency relationships.
    Howe said the agricultural industry, plagued by surpluses
and falling commodity prices in recent years, is over
subsidised and over protected. But the problem of farm
surpluses must be tackled despite the fact that it is
politically difficult for any government to reverse the trend
of growing farm subsidies.
    "This problem of over-subsidisation and over-protection of
agriculture will dog us in the years ahead and it will need the
sustained application of all our energy and our imagination to
find solutions," Howe said.
 REUTER

Taiwan's Economic Ministry has approved
an ambitious proposal calling for a one billion U.S. Dollar
investment by private and public companies in the United States
over the next five years, ministry officials said.
    John Ni, director of the Ministry's Industrial Development
and Investment Centre (IDIC), said under the IDIC proposal,
Taiwanese firms would be encouraged to set up factories and
invest in property and securities markets in the U.S..
    Taiwan's 1986 investment in the U.S. Totalled 46 mln U.S.
Dlrs, official statistics show.
    The investment was mainly in the electronics, food, service
and trading sectors.
    The new proposal, approved by Economic Minister Lee Ta-hai
yesterday, calls for investment of 80 mln U.S. Dlrs in 1987,
120 mln in 1988, 160 mln in 1989, 240 mln in 1990 and 400 mln
in 1991, he told Reuters.
    It will be discussed soon by officials of the Finance
Ministry, the Central Bank and the Council for Economic
Planning and Development before being submitted to the cabinet
for final approval, he said.
    "This is the first ambitious proposal with government
initiatives to encourage our businessmen to invest in America,"
Lee said.
    He said government incentives to prospective Taiwanese
investors would include bank loans and a five-year income tax
holiday. Applications for investing in the U.S. Would also be
simplified.
    A ministry spokesman told reporters the proposed investment
would be helpful in creating job opportunities for Americans
and avoiding U.S. Import quotas or restrictions on Taiwanese
products.
    The plan will also help reduce Taiwan's trade surplus with
the U.S., Which rose to a record 13.6 billion U.S. Dlrs in
1986, up from 10.2 billion in 1985, the spokesman said.
    The rising surplus has enabled Taiwan to accumulate some 54
billion U.S. Dlrs in foreign exchange reserves.
    Economists described the proposal as a significant step by
the government to head off U.S. Protectionism.
    "Time is running out for us. Taiwan has lagged far behind
Japan and South Korea in encouraging its businessmen to invest
abroad," said Hou Chia-chi, economics professor at Soochow
University.
 REUTER

two left."
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> and its partners have
made a significant natural gas discovery in the Roma region of
central western Queensland, CSR said in a statement.
    The Wingnut Number One exploration well flowed up to 6.5
mln cubic feet a day from three zones during drill stem testing
over the intervals 1,180-1,207 meters and 1,112-1,159.
    CSR said the well, 400 meters from an existing gas
gathering system, is the second of a four well program in the
Roma petroleum leases being funded by <Barcoo Petroleum NL>.
    Interest holders on completion will be CSR 42.58 pct,
Barcoo 49.9, and <IOL Petroleum Ltd> 7.51.
 REUTER

U.S. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel
said there was a one in five chance that new drilling in Alaska
would find oil.
    "But if it's there, there's a very good chance that it would
be a giant field," Hodel said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
    "So it is the best geological prospect that they
(geologists) have talked to me about since I've been involved
in this process," he said.
    Hodel announced yesterday that he would urge Congress to
open up 1.5 mln acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in
Alaska to oil exploration despite fears of environmental damage
threatening the Caribou herd in the region.
    He said today the exploration was needed in an effort to
prevent future U.S. oil shortages and said oil drilling in the
large Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska proved oil could be drilled
without severely damaging the environment.
    He said the Caribou herd at Prudhoe Bay had tripled,
contrary to concerns before the drilling operation that it
would endanger the herd.
 Reuter

the Swiss National Bank fell by 416.9 mln Swiss francs to 7.46
billion in the six days ending April 16, the National Bank
said.
    Foreign exchange reserves fell by 627.4 mln francs to 32.50
billion francs. The National Bank attributed this fall to the
dismantling of outstanding swap arrangements.
    Bank notes in circulation fell by 116.9 mln francs to 24.36
billion while other deposits on call at the National Bank,
mainly government funds, fell by 116.0 mln francs to 825.5 mln.
 REUTER

said U.S. Sales of high technology to China are rising despite
Peking's complaints they are being restricted.
    He told reporters at the airport on arriving here for talks
that technology transfers to China had increased every year and
would continue to do so.
    The official Peking Review yesterday accused the United
States of delaying approval on high-technology sales to China.
    Last year, Washington approved only 60 pct of the exports
China applied for, the magazine said.
    "The COCOM-listed kind of export controls are just a
fraction of the technology that the U.S. Is transferring (to
China) by other means, such as joint ventures," Baldrige said.
    COCOM is the Western coordinating committee formed after
World War Two to limit the export of advanced technology to
Communist nations.
    Baldrige said he was sure U.S. Firms could compete against
firms from other countries for high technology sales.
    He added that protectionism would hurt the economies of
trading nations and said the Reagan Administration would fight
protectionist legislation in the U.S. Congress.
    Baldrige and China's Foreign Trade Minister Zheng Tuobin
will act as chairmen of the fifth session of a commission on
commerce and trade that will review bilateral trade relations.
    A U.S. Official said other issues to be raised during
Baldrige's talks are trade deficits, which each country says it
has with the other, and the problems facing U.S. Companies
investing in China.
 Reuter

<City Resources (Asia) Ltd>, a
locally listed unit of Australian based <City Resources Ltd>,
said it acquired an 80-day option to buy exploration,
development and operating rights for mining property on the
island of Luzon in the Philippines.
    It said in a statement that average assay results of random
samples of the Brescia ore bearing body on the 459-hectare site
showed 2.4 grammes of gold, 64 grammes of silver and 1.9
grammes of copper per tonne.
    It said it will exercise the option if tests confirm the
site's potential. Further details were not available.
 REUTER

The General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) will begin a probe on May 7-8 on the legality of
Japanese import restrictions on 12 farm products, Agriculture
    The investigation, which will take place in Geneva, follows
a U.S. Complaint last year that the restrictions violated GATT
rules prohibiting import quotas.
    The products involved include fruit juice, peanuts and
tomato juice.
 Reuter

The Japanese government is considering
buying U.S.-made supercomputers to help defuse mounting trade
friction between the two countries, Trade Minister Hajime
Tamura was quoting as saying.
    Japanese officials said Tamura told visiting U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter that the government may set
aside money for the purchase of the supercomputers in a
supplementary budget to be drawn up later this year.
    But he emphasised that the matter was still under study and
that no firm decision had been made.
    Tamura urged Yeutter to lift the trade sanctions imposed
against Japan and argued that the yen's rapid rise was already
working to correct the country's trade imbalance.
    But, according to Japanese officials, Yeutter held out
little hope that the American trade sanctions would be lifted
soon and said the United States needed action from Japan to
boost its domestic demand and imports, not just words.
    In order to lift the tariffs imposed on 300 mln dlrs worth
of Japanese exports last Friday, the U.S. Needs proof that its
joint computer chip pact with Japan is working. And that will
take time, Yeutter was quoted as telling Tamura.
 REUTER

A total of 2,769 tonnes of British
intervention feed wheat, out of an available 57,300 tonnes, was
sold at today's tender for the home market, the Home Grown
 Reuter

Dry, warm weather over
Western Europe sugar beet areas this week will allow planting
to progress rapidly, private forecaster Accu-Weather Inc said.
    Sugar beet areas in Britain will be dry and warm Thursday
and Friday while beet areas from France to West Germany will
have dry, seasonable weather, becoming warmer.
    But damp, chilly weather will delay planting in all Soviet
beet areas, it said. Eastern Soviet sugar beet areas were windy
yesterday with rain and snow showers. Water equivalent amounts
were 0.10 of an inch.
    Showers or snow flurries will linger today and up to 0.30
of an inch of rain is likely tomorrow.
 Reuter

The Swiss National Bank sold yen against
dollars, joining in concerted intervention by central banks, a
spokesman for the National Bank said.
    He declined to say which central banks had been active in
the market, but earlier today Tokyo dealers said the Bank of
Japan had intervened at 142.10 yen to the dollar, and market
sources here said they believed the Bundesbank was in the
market as well.
    The National Bank spokesman declined to specify the volume
of its dollar purchases or the rate paid.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank intervened in the open
market to buy dollars against yen, dealers said.
    They were responding to enquiries immediately after news
the Swiss National Bank said it joined concerted intervention
to sell yen for dollars.
    The Bundesbank had no immediate comment on the reports.
    But dealers said the German central bank came into the
market just after 1300 GMT when the dollar was trading around
141.90 yen to buy small amounts of the U.S. Currency. Dollar
trading had been very quiet for most of the European session.
 REUTER

the money market a further 183 mln stg assistance in the
today to 561 mln stg and compares with its estimate of a
shortage of some 550 mln stg in the system which it earlier
revised up from 400 mln.
80 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct, eight mln stg in band two
at 9-13/16 pct and 95 mln stg in band three at 9-3/4 pct.
 REUTER

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd has raised
its takeover offer for Dome Petroleum Ltd to 5.5 billion
Canadian dlrs from 4.3 billion, according to a report on the
Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC).
    However, a spokesman for Dome said the company is not
interested, since it has already agreed to be acquired by Amoco
Corp <AN> for 5.1 billion dlrs, the CBC said.
    Spokesmen at Dome and TransCanada could not immediately be
reached for comment.
    Although Dome has said it is only interested in the Amoco
offer, a spokesman for TransCanada was quoted as saying that
the ultimate decision rests with Dome shareholders.
    "I don't know what (Dome chairman J. Howard Madconald) is
going to say if a letter lands on his desk and he's got an
offer there equal or better for the shareholders than the one
he has on his desk at this time," TransCanada chief financial
officer Neil Nichols was quoted as saying.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 275,000 to 293,000 head versus
284,000 week ago and 320,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 122,000 to
128,000 head versus 128,000 week ago and 138,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve Board opposed
pending legislation to establish ceilings on interest charged
by credit card companies.
    "The Board does not believe it would be appropriate to
impose a federal ceiling on credit card rates," Fed governor
Martha Seger told a Senate Banking Subcommittee.
    "Among other things a Federal ceiling could have undesirable
side effects in the form of reduced credit availability and
could lead to changes in non-rate credit card terms," she
testified.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Governor Wayne
Angell said the Reagan appointed majority on the board was not
at odds with Chairman Paul Volcker on whether interest rates
should rise to support the dollar.
    "I would anticipate very little difference between the
chairman's position on price-level stability - and on the view
of the dollar in foreign exchange markets - and my own," Angell
said in an interview with the New York Times.
    "And I would also see very little difference in (Governor)
Manley Johnson's position and my own," he added.
    The newspaper said Angell was speaking in response to
inquiries concerning a report by syndicated columnists Rowland
Evans and Robert Novak that Volcker was ready to raise rates to
defend the dollar but that he was being thwarted by the four
Reagan appointed members on the board.
    Angell told the newspaper that there was no evidence of
disagreement on the board and that "anyone who should suggest"
there is one "might be reaching pretty far."
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it signed
a definitive agreement to sell the stock of its Six Flags theme
park subsidiary to an affiliate of Wesray Capital Corp.
    Ccompletion of the proposed transaction is expected in
early May, it said.
    Bally said it will receive gross proceeds of 350 mln dlrs
for the Six Flags subsidiary.
    Bally said the transaction is part of its restructuring and
will result in an after tax profit of about 100 mln dlrs.
    Proceeds from the sale of Six Flags will be used for
general corporate purposes and to reduce debt, it said.
    The sale of the theme parks will also remove from Bally's
balance sheet an additional 250 mln dlrs in Six Flags debt now
carried on the Bally balance sheet, it said.
    Kidder Peabody will provide bridge financing to Wesray to
complete the proposed transaction, Bally said.
    Six Flags operates seven major theme amusement parks, two
water parks and other family oriented entertainment facilities.
    Wesray Capital is a private investment firm based in
Morristown, New Jersey.
 Reuter

A bomb rocked a white area of
Johannesburg but first reports said no one was injured.
    Police said an explosive device was placed under a car in
the Mayfair district.
 Reuter

Japan is faced with a mounting crisis
over its huge trade surplus and recognizes that it must act
more quickly to refocus its export driven economy, a senior
Foreign Ministry official said.
    "The sense of crisis among the Japanese public as well as
the government is increasing," Deputy Director General Hiroshi
Hirabayashi told reporters. "The need to accelerate the efforts
(to restructure the economy) is well recognized."
    Hirabayashi said that gradual progress had been made to
refocus the Japanese economy, but admitted that it might not
seem all that spectacular to foreign observers.
    Difficulties had been encountered in implementing the
so-called Maekawa report since it was unveiled a year ago, he
said. But, he added, foreign governments should appreciate the
efforts that have been made.
    The report, named for its principal author, former Bank of
Japan governor Haruo Maekawa, called for a shift in Japan's
economy away from its dependence on exports for growth. The
Japanese cabinet today reviewed progress made since its
release.
    According to Hirabayashi, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
told his fellow ministers that Japan must follow the direction
set out by Maekawa and urged them to make efforts to achieve
it.
    Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari added that not enough had
been done to publicize the action Japan was taking to refocus
its economy.
    Listing some of those actions, Hirabayashi said imports of
manufactured goods have increased, interest rates have fallen,
and coal, steel and non-ferrous metal output have been reduced.
    He expressed hope that Japan will act more quickly in the
future to implement the report and scoffed at a suggestion that
it would take ten years for Maekawa's goals to be met.
    "It will not take very much time to fulfill the (goals) set
out by the Maekawa report," he said.
 REUTER

Corp said it should experience anouther outstanding year in
1987 based on the performance of the first three months.
    Reporting record earnings for the tenth consecutive
quarter, the company said profits rose to 81.2 mln dlrs, or
1.66 dlrs a share, from 79.8 mln dlrs, or 1.50 dlrs, a year
earlier.
    The company said its growth, "which includes a 19.7 pct
increase in net interest income, encourages us to believe that
1987 will be another year of strong earnings growth."
   
    Great Western said its real estate loan originations
totaled 1.7 billion dlrs in the latest quarter, up from 1.5
billion dlrs a year earlier. Total lending was 2.2 billion dlrs
vs 1.9 billion dlrs.
    About 95 pct of first quarter loan volume was in adjustable
rate mortgages or short term loans, it said.
    The company said loan sales were 755 mln dlrs in the latest
quarter compared with 1.5 billion dlrs a year earlier.
 Reuter

The Thai Cabinet approved a seven pct
increase in the national budget for fiscal 1987/88 starting
next October, compared with a 6.2 pct increase for the current
year ending September, a government spokesman said.
    He told reporters the budget, to be presented to Parliament
by late next month or in early June, calls for spending of
243.5 billion baht against 227.5 billion this year.
    The new budget is intended to make Thailand's Gross
Domestic Product grow by at least five pct during the year
without compromising its conservative fiscal and monetary
policy, the spokesman said.
    "The budget is in line with our policy to stimulate the
economy and to achieve a stable growth while we continue
maintaining our current cautious fiscal policy," he said.
    The spokesman said the budget provides for a 9.6 pct
increase in fresh government investment expenditure to 39.8
billion baht, up from 36.3 billion this year.
    Government revenue is projected to grow 7.5 pct to 199.5
billion baht against 185.5 billion targetted for 1986/87.
    He said the budget contains a 44 billion baht deficit, or
about 3.4 pct of GDP, compared with 42 billion or 3.5 pct
planned for this year.  The deficit is required by Thai laws to
be financed by domestic borrowings.
    The finalised budget bill earmarks 59.8 billion baht, or
24.6 pct of total expenditure, for servicing the government's
domestic and foreign debt, up from 56 billion and a similar
24.6 pct this year.
 REUTER

The London Metal Exchange (LME) said it
has applied to form a new holding company because of
uncertainties relating to lawsuits filed over the 1985 tin
crisis.
    The new company, to be called The London Metal Exchange
Ltd, would replace a two-tiered committee and board structure
with a single managing board by the end of July.
    The exchange said it took the steps after the Securities
and Investments Board said unresolved legal tussles resulting
from the tin crisis of October 1985 might prevent acceptance of
the LME's application to become a Recognized Investment
Exchange.
    The exchange currently is run by The Metal Market and
Exchange Company Ltd, which is facing a law suit linked to tin.
    The assets needed to run the exchange will be transferred
to the new company at fair market value, it added.
 Reuter

adjusted, rose 1.9 pct in February after a downward revised 0.3
pct decline in January, Statistics Canada said.
    Retail sales rose to 12.19 billion dlrs in February, a
significant increase over the 11.97 billion dlrs recorded in
January, the federal agency said. Unadjusted sales were 7.8 pct
higher than in February, 1986.
    In February, automobile sales rose 3.4 pct, department
store sales rose 3.2 pct and service stations were up 1.9 pct.
The increases were slightly offset by a 2.0 pct decline in
grocery, confectionery and sundries stores sales.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp's Exxon U.S.A. subsidiary increased the price it
charges contract barge customers for heating oil in New York
harbor by 0.25 ct a gallon, effective today.
    The 0.25 cent price hike brings Exxon's contract barge
price to 48.75 cts a gallon, traders said.
 Reuter

Admar Group Inc said it agreed
in principle to acquire SelectCare Management Co Inc for a
combination of cash and stock totaling 3.6 mln dlrs.
    SelectCare, based in Torrance, Calif., manages alternative
health care delivery systems, Admar said.
    It said the company has annual revenues of about 1.5 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

    They said it is likely to supply the reserves indirectly by
arranging two to 2.5 billion dlrs of customer repurchase
agreements. There is less chance of a direct reserve add
instead via System repurchase agreements.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.21 pct yesterday, opened at
6-3/8 pct and traded between there and 6-7/16 pct.
 Reuter

Alfin Inc <AFN> said it has received a
regulatory letter from the Office of Compliance of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration asserting that because of
labelling and certain advertising claims its Glycel products
are "new drugs" within the meaning of the Federal Food, Drug
and Cosmetic Act for which no approval has been obtained and
are "misbranded" in their labelling.
    The company said it understands that this action is part of
an industry-wide investigation.
    The company added it is reviewing the matter with counsel,
intends to respond and take corrective action, if necessary.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3
decision, ruled that an Indiana law aimed at protecting
companies from hostile takeovers by out-of-state businesses is
constitutional.
    The high court justices reversed a ruling by a U.S. Court
of Appeals in Chicago that struck down the 1986 control-share
acquisition law.
    The case involved a hostile takeover bid by Dynamics Corp
of America against CTS Corp, based in Elkhart, Ind.
    Dynamics made a tender offer in 1985 for one million shares
to bring its holdings of CTS stock to 27.5 pct of the company's
total.
   
    After CTS invoked the state law, Dynamics filed a lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of the measure.
    One effect of the law is to impose a 50-day delay on the
tender offer at the option of the target company.
    It also requires that the acquisition for control shares in
an Indiana corporation does not include voting rights unless a
majority of all pre-existing shareholders so agree at their
next regularly scheduled meeting.
    Justice Lewis Powell, writing for the court majority, held
that the state law was not pre-empted by federal securities
law.
   
    "The Indiana Act protects independent shareholders from the
coercive aspects of tender offers by allowing them to vote as a
group," he said.
    He acknowledged that the law may delay some tender offers
and may decrease the number of successful tender offers for
Indiana corporations.
    But he said the law does not discriminate against
interstate commerce and was justified by the state's interests
in protecting shareholders.
   
 Reuter

The State of New Jersey said that it
sold 23 stocks in a program trade worth 43 mln dlrs this
morning.
    Roland Machold, director of the Division of Investment for
the state of New Jersey, said, "the sale was part of our
ongoing divestment program."
    Under N.J. state law enacted in August 1985, the state must
divest all securities, stocks and bonds, of companies that do
business in, or with South Africa by August 1988, Machold said.
    He said "in order to be fully divested by August 1988, we
will probably have to sell an average every week of between 50
mln and 75 mln dlrs of stock."
    The stocks sold in today's program sale include Abbott
Laboratories <ABT>, Allied Signal Inc <ALD>, CitiCorp <CCI>,
Ford Motor Co <F>, General Motors <GM>, Gillette Co <GS>, H.J.
Heinz <HNZ>, IBM <IBM>, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
<MMM>, Mobil <MOB>, Monsanto Co <MTC>, NCR Corp <NCR>, Pepsico
Inc <PEP>, Pfeizer <PFE>, Union Camp <UCC>, USX <X>,
Westinghouse Electric <WX>, Weyerhaeuser Co <WY>, American
International Group <AIG>, CBS <CBS>, Coca-Cola <KO>, Merck
<MRK> and Upjohn <UPJ>.
    Machold said that one brokerage house handled today's sale
but seven houses bid on the deal. He would not disclose the
brokerage house that handled the sale.
    "The total value of the sales to date," Machold said, "are
about three billion dlrs in book value and about four billion
dlrs in market value."
    He said that because of the difficulty of defining
companies that do business with South Africa, it is difficult
to determine exactly how much future sales will be worth.
Machold estimated the book value of future sales to August 1988
will be in the range of 1.2 billion dlrs to 5.2 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Du Pont Co's Conoco Inc said the Viodo
Marine Number one exploratory well offshore the People's
Republic of the Congo produced up to 1,135 barrels of 26.55
degree gravity oil daily in tests through a 3/4 inch choke.
    The company said the well, in 202 feet of water about 10
miles west of Pointe-Noire, Congo, was drilled to a depth of
11,527 feet and tested between 7,204 feet and 11,300 feet.
    The well is located on the Marine II block, a 260,000 acre
offshore permit acquired in May 1985, where Conoco is operator
with a 42.5 pct interest. <Orange-Nassau Marine C.V.> owns 7.5
pct and Hydro Congo, the state oil company, 50 pct.
 Reuter

Falconbridge Ltd said it expected
results for the rest of 1987 to improve from the earlier
reported first quarter operating loss of 15.4 mln dlrs.
    Chief executive William James told reporters after the
annual meeting that "I would hope that the loss for the year
certainly wouldn't be a high as the loss for the first quarter.
In other words we are going to make money from here on in."
    Falconbridge last year made a first quarter operating loss
of 17.1 mln dlrs and a full-year operating loss of 15.5 mln
dlrs.
    James said currency losses tied to the stronger Canadian
dollar resulted for about eight mln dlrs of the first quarter
operating loss. Falconbridge records its cash and accounts
receivable in U.S. dollars, with the Canadian dollar equivalent
decreasing as the U.S. dollar falls.
    He said the first quarter loss also stemmed from weaker
nickel and ferronickel prices and lower production at the
company's Sudbury, Ontario nickel operations and at some Kidd
Creek operations. Falconbridge anticipates higher production
through the rest of the year and higher average prices this
year for precious metals, James added, without elaborating.
    Falconbridge has no immediate plans for further
divestments, James said in reply to reporters' inquiries. The
company sold several mining subsidiaries last year to help pay
down debt from its January, 1986 acquisition of Kidd Creek
Mines Ltd from Canada Development Corp <CDC.TO>.
    He said Falconbridge's debt now totaled about one billion
dlrs, down from 1.37 billion dlrs at the time of the Kidd Creek
buy.
    James said he could not assess the impact of Amoco Corp
<AN>'s proposed acquisition of Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>. Dome's
23 pct-owned Dome Mines Ltd <DM> owns 21 pct of Falconbridge.
    Asked by reporters if Falconbridge preferred competing Dome
bidder, Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada PipeLines Ltd to
Chicago-based Amoco, James replied, "It makes no difference to
me...whoever takes it over is fine by us."
    He told shareholders that Falconbridges' planned capital
expenditures this year would decline to 134 mln dlrs from 160
mln dlrs last year.
 Reuter

filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer two
mln shares of common stock through Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc
and L.F. Rothschild Unterberg Towbin Inc.
    The shares offered do not include shares issuable under an
over-allotment and 48,075 shares to be sold by selling
shareholders, the maker of bar-code reading equipment said.
 Reuter

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd denied
reports that it raised its offer for Dome Petroleum Ltd <DMP>
to 5.5 billion Canadian dlrs from 4.3 billion.
    A report on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) late last
night said TransCanada's new bid was rejected by Dome, which
has accepted a 5.1 billion dlr bid from Amoco Corp <AN>.
    "We still want to acquire Dome's assets and are prepared to
negotiate. However, we have not presented a new proposal to the
company since April 16 and Dome has refused to negotiate with
TransCanada since that date," said TransCanada president Gerald
Maier.
    TransCanada said its proposal consists of two parts -- 4.5
billion dlrs in cash and securities and one billion dlrs of
payments to creditors based on future profits.
    Last week, TransCanada valued the first part of its offer
at 4.3 billion dlrs, but a spokesman today said the company
increased the estimated value of that part to 4.5 billion dlrs
after the recent gain in Dome's stock.
    Dome was halted today on the Toronto Stock Exchange pending
clarification of TransCanada's offer. It last traded at 1.70
dlrs per share. Two weeks ago, before TransCanada's offer, Dome
traded at about 1.10 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

The Brazilian Coffee Institute, IBC,
plans to sell in a series of auctions over the next few weeks
robusta coffee purchased in London last year, but details of
where and when auctions will take place are still to be
finalised, IBC president Jorio Dauster told reporters.
    The sales of 630,000 bags of robusta and an unspecified
amount of Brazilian arabica coffee will take place over a
minimum of six months but it is not decided where sales will
take place or whether they will be held weekly or monthly.
    The amount offered at each sale has also not been set, but
could be in the order of 100,000 bags, Dauster said.
 Reuter

AMCA International Ltd said it
appointed president and chief executive officer WIlliam Holland
to succeed Kenneth Barclay as chairman.
    Barclay, who is 60 years old, decided not to stand for
reappointment as chairman this year but will continue as a
director, AMCA said.
 Reuter

The American Petroleum Institute, API,
said its weekly U.S. petroleum inventory report will be issued
tonight, despite many company closures on Friday of last week
for the Easter holiday.
    The API report is usually released around 1700 EDT on
Tuesday nights.
    The Energy Information Administration said it also expects
its weekly oil statistic report to be released as usual, on
Wednesday night at about 1700 EDT.
 Reuter

Quantum Fund N.V., a Netherlands
Antilles mutual fund for which New York investor George Soros
is investment adviser, said it has agreed to limit further
purchases of Fairchild Industries Inc stock.
Quantum, which already holds 1,647,481 Fairchild common shares,
or 11.5 pct of the total outstanding, said it agreed to the
restriction after Fairchild said its security clearance might
be jeopardized if Quantum acquires a major stake in it.
    But Quantum said Fairchild management was told that Soros,
acting either individually or through entities other than
Quantum that he controls, may decide to buy common stock in the
company on his own behalf.
    Quantum had recently notified the Federal Trade Commission
under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976
that it might buy up to 49.9 pct of Fairchild's voting stock.
Unless the FTC had objected, Quantum would have been free, but
not obligated, to buy up to 49.9 pct of Fairchild stock.
    Fairchild management, however, warned that if Quantum, a
foreign entity, raises its stake in the company to 49.9 pct, it
could "impair" the government security clearances Fairchild
needs to carry out its its defense contract work.
    In response, Quantum said it told Fairchild it will not
make "significant additional purchases" of its common or
preferred stock without giving Fairchild enough prior notice to
enable it to consult with Quantum over the impact of action.
    Quantum also said it has withdrawn its notification request
to the FTC and the antitrust division of the Justice Department
of its intent to buy up to 49.9 pct of Fairchild.
    Quantum also said it told the FTC and the Justice
Department that it does not expect to resubmit any further
notifications of intent to significantly raise its stake in
Fairchild at this time.
    The restrictions Quantum has agreed to follow regarding
further dealings in Fairchild stock do not apply to Soros as an
individual investor.
     Fairchild's annual shareholders meeting is scheduled to be
held tomorrow.
 Reuter

Government securities market to arrange two-day System
 Reuter

Capital Associates Inc
said its common stock will be included in NASDAQ's national
market system, starting today.
    Capital Associates is an equipment leasing and financial
service company with headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
 Reuter

The U.S. Mint received 17 offers
from seven firms at prices ranging from 0.66845-0.6840 dlrs per
lb for payment by standard check and 0.66695-0.68 dlrs per lb
for wire transfer payment in a review of offers on 3,701,000
lbs of electrolytic copper it is seeking to purchase.
    Philipp Brothers, N.Y., led with the lowest offers of
0.66695 for wire transfer payment and 0.66845 dlrs per lb to be
paid by check, followed by Cerro Sales Corp, N.Y., with 0.6684
dlrs per lb on one mln lbs for wire payment, and 0.6713 dlrs
per lb on one mln lbs for standard payment.
    Firms, in submitting offers, elect to be paid by standard
check or wire transfer, with awards based on whichever of the
two methods is more cost advantageous at that time.
    Cerro Sales also offered prices for wire payment of 0.6689
dlrs per lb on one mln lbs and 0.6693 dlrs per lb on 1,701,000
lbs. Cerro's standard payment offers included 0.6719 dlrs per
lb on one mln lbs and 0.6723 dlrs per lb on 1,701,000 lbs.
    Cargill Metals, Minneapolis, offered 0.67025 dlrs per lb
for wire payment and 0.67275 dlrs per lb for standard payment,
while Elders Raw Materials, Darien, Ct., offered 0.6718 dlrs
per lb for wire payment and 0.6735 dlrs per lb for standard
payment on increments of 950,000 lbs each.
    Other offers for wire transfer payment include 0.6759 dlrs
per lb on 380,000 lbs, submitted by Deak International, N.Y.,
0.6789 dlrs per lb on the entire quantity by Diversified Metals
Corp, St. Louis, and 0.68 dlrs per lb by Gerald Metals,
Stamford, Ct.
    Other standard payment offers include 0.6819 dlrs per lb on
950,000 lbs by Diversified Metals, and 0.6840 dlrs per lb on
the entire quantity by Gerald Metals.
    The Mint said the copper is for delivery the week of May 11
    The offers have a minimum acceptance period of three
calendar days, it said.
 Reuter

Ahed Corp said it began discussions
with an investment dealer about issuing an additional one mln
treasury shares in the near future.
    Ahed also said it believes recent increases in its stock
price could be attributable to a published report describing
the activities of the company.
    Ahed said no other events are known to have taken place
which would cause these recent price increases.
 Reuter

U.S. WEST INC said it introduced its
first product for managing data networks, called the NETCENTER
graphic network monitor.
    The product was developed by U.S. WEST Network Systems Inc,
a subsidiary of U.S. WEST INC, it said. It will be distributed
in the third quarter of 1987.
    The company said the product is aimed at companies with IBM
SNA networks, and will allow customers control over their own
networks.
   
    The initial license fee for a typical configuration will be
in the 100,000 dlr to 300,000 dlr range, depending on the size
of the network, the company said.
 Reuter

The Ministry of Agriculture left its
estimates of French winter cereal sowings for the 1986/87
campaign barely changed at 6.606 mln hectares compared with its
previous forecast of 6.601 mln.
    This compared with the 6.41 mln ha of winter cereals
harvested in the 1985/86 campaign.
    Winter soft wheat sowings were put at 4.647 mln ha compared
with its previous estimate of 4.651 mln and 4.57 mln ha
harvested last campaign. Winter barley plantings were forecast
at 1.46 mln ha, unchanged from its previous estimate and
compared with 1.41 mln harvested last season.
    The ministry put hard winter wheat sowings at 246,000 ha
versus a February 1 estimate of 236,000 and actual area
harvested last campaign of 217,000.
    Winter rape plantings were forecast at 627,000 ha against a
previous estimate of 621,000 and 375,000 rpt 375,000 harvested
 Reuter

Energex Minerals
Ltd said economic evaluation of reserves indicates high-grade
operation from three open pits may be feasable based on
five-year operation at 100 tons a day, a payback of less than
1-1/2 years.
    An increase in the project's life, profitability and scale
is anticipated as additional reserves are developed in 1987,
    Current reserves are one mln long tons at 0.20 ounce gold
per ton, all categories; proven-probable 262,242 long tons at
0.25 ounce gold per ton, the company said.
 Reuter

Liberal Party leader John Turner said he
will meet with senior executives of Dome Petroleum Ltd in
Calgary tomorrow to discuss the proposed sale of Dome.
    Turner's office said he will hold a news conference
tomorrow at 1400 MDT (1600 EDT) in Calgary.
    Turner, who is opposition leader in Parliament, has
criticized Dome's acceptance of a 5.1 billion dlr takeover bid
from Amoco Corp <AN> as a sell-out of Canada's oil industry.
 Reuter

The New York Times Co said
that if prevailing business conditions continue, the company
sees "another outstanding year, although the remaining quarters
of 1987 will probably not show uniform gains."
    The company's first quarter earnings rose 21 pct to 41.1
mln dlrs or 50 cts a share compared to 33.9 mln dlrs or 42 cts
a share in the year-ago quarter restated for a two-for-one
   
    The company also said its newspaper division, which
includes the New York Times and 32 regional newspapers, had a
first quarter operating profit of 69.8 mln dlrs compared with
60.7 mln dlrs in the year-ago first quarter mainly due to
advertising volume and rate increases.
    The company's magazine division, which includes "Family
Circle," had a first quarter profit of 9.7 mln dlrs compared to
7.4 mln dlrs in the year ago quarter.
    The company's broadcasting and cable tv group reported an
operating profit of 2.9 mln dlrs compared to 2.6 mln dlrs in
the year-ago first quarter.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust New York Corp said its
first quarter foreign exchange trading income rose to 82.8 mln
dlrs from 20.9 mln dlrs in the first qtr of 1986, offsetting
the bank's 7.4 mln dlr loss incurred from placing 540 mln dlrs
of Brazilian loans on a non-accrual status.
    Earlier, the bank reported that first quarter net income
increased to 124.2 mln dlrs, or 1.77 dlrs a share, from 115.9
mln dlrs, or 1.64 dlrs a share, a year ago.
    Bankers Trust chairman Alfred Brittain III said increased
non-interest income, a lower provision for loan-losses and
increased net interest income also helped first quarter net.
   
    Bankers Trust previously announced that the 540 mln dlrs in
non-accruable Brazilian loans would cut its first quarter
earnings by 7.4 mln dlrs, and could slice about 30 mln dlrs
from the full year's net.
    Bankers Trust said non-interest income in the first quarter
equaled 275.4 mln dlrs, up 37.1 mln dlrs from a year ago.
    Loan losses fell in the quarter to 22 mln dlrs, versus 40
mln dlrs a year ago while taxable net interest income remained
flat at 266 mln dlrs, the bank said.
 Reuter

Altex Industries Inc said it agreed to
sell the assets of its wholly-owned oilfield service
subsidiary, Parrish Oil Tools Inc.
    The price and buyer were not disclosed.
    Altex said Parrish had a loss from operations of 428,000
dlrs on revenues of 881,000 dlrs in fiscal 1986 and a loss from
operations of 48,000 dlrs on revenues of two mln dlrs in fiscal
1985.
 Reuter

Imark Industries Inc said its
directors approved payment of an annual dividend of 25 cts on
May 21, record May seven.
    The company paid the same dividend last year.
 Reuter

Duquesne Light Co president Wesley
von Schack told shareholders that current state law and
regulatory policies will result in higher capital rates and
higher rates for customers.
    "Pennsylvania's recently enacted excess capacity
legislation denies shareholders the opportunity to earn a fair
return on their investment and undermines economic development
in Pennsylvania," von Schack told shareholders at the annual
meeting.
   
   Von Schack said two major bond rating agencies have recently
downgraded Duquesne's credit rating due to regulatory
uncertainty. The action will result in higher capital rates and
higher rates for customers, he said.
    He said the Pennsylvania Utility commission indicated in
its most recent rate case decision that even if newly
constructed Perry No. 1 nuclear plant was in commercial
operation, shareholders would be denied a return on their
investment in the plant. Von Schack called on shareholders to
join it and certain legislators' efforts to create a
partnership to fight these issues and resolve these problems.
     
 Reuter

Kuwait, a major oil producer hit by last
year's price slump, is leaning towards a more creative monetary
policy to help spur its economy, banking sources said.
    "There is a clear emphasis on encouraging the use of money
in productive ventures, rather than having it all tied up in
interest bearing investments which have no direct productive
outlet," one banker said.
    Kuwait's Central Bank yesterday cut one key money market
rate and abandoned another which had been used since February
1986 to direct inter-bank borrowing and lending costs.
    The bank reduced to six pct from 6-1/2 pct the rate at
which it will offer funds of one month to one year in the
inter-bank market. This, in turn, affected retail rates.
    The cut, the third this year, followed a major overhaul of
interest rate policy last month which Central Bank Governor
Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz al-Sabah said was designed to revive
    One banker said "There is growing flexibility, creativity,
in interest rate policy, amid an awareness of the need to
diversify the economy by stimulating the non-oil sector."
    For the first time in nearly three years domestic interest
rates are now significantly below those for the U.S. Dollar, a
favourite haven for Gulf speculative and investor funds in the
past, banking sources said.
    Despite uncertainties generated by the 6-1/2 year old Iran-
Iraq war on Kuwait's northern doorstep, bankers play down the
prospect of any significant capital flight.
    The Kuwaiti dinar, whose value is set by the Central Bank
and was fixed today at 0.27095/129 to the dollar, is stronger
now than for several years.
    Fears that the dollar may fall further will prompt second
thoughts among Kuwaiti investors prepared to consider switching
funds into the U.S. Currency, the sources said.
    "There is a distinct exchange rate risk," they added.
    Bankers said the dollar slump hurt many investors behind
the last major capital outflow in 1984, encouraged then by 18
pct U.S. Interest rates and the start of Iranian attacks on
neutral shipping in the Gulf.
    The Central Bank calculates its dinar exchange rate against
a basket of currencies. Bankers do not know the basket's exact
make-up but say it is weighted heavily in favour of the dollar.
    Some bankers believe any strengthening of the dinar beyond
0.27000 to the dollar might provoke investors into shifting
funds into the U.S. Currency. "They may ask:When will the dollar
be so cheap again?" one said.
    And with dinar interest rates now roughly one pct below
those for the dollar, they say the Central Bank faces a
delicate balancing role requiring further flexibility.
    Bankers said the current, expansionary interest rate policy
is only part of a broader attempt to encourage local investment
and strengthen the backbone of the economy.
    They estimate the economy, measured in terms of GDP and
allowing for inflation, shrank 19 pct in 1986 after an 8.1 pct
contraction the previous year.
    Bankers also noted recent measures to stimulate stock
market activity, capped today by sharp cuts in brokerage fees
to make it cheaper for investors to trade.
 REUTER

CSX Corp said
that Joseph Abely, chairman and chief executive officer of
CSX's Sea-Land Corp unit, will retire by the end of the month.
    The company said he will be replaced by Robert Hintz,
executive vice president of CSX and president and chief
executive officer of the company's energy and properties
groups.
 Reuter

A Brazil Fund through which foreign
investors will be able to buy stocks in Brazilian companies
should start operating in about two months, the Securities and
Exchange Commission said.
    A spokesman told Reuters that four institutions in the
United States were interested in participating in the Fund --
Merrill Lynch and Co Inc, Salomon Brothers Inc, the IFC and the
First Boston Corp.
    The spokesman said the Fund, approved last December, was
expected to attract about 100 mln dlrs of investments.
 Reuter

rapeseed for last-half May/first-half June shipment, nearly
completing buying for May needs, trade sources said. 
    Price details were not available.

 Reuter

South Korea yesterday bought 50,000
tonnes of Canadian feed wheat for late June/early July shipment
at 95.00 dlrs per tonne FOB Vancouver, trade sources said.
 Reuter

Congress returned from its Easter
recess ready for the annual Spring budget battle that promises
to be a partisan dispute.
    The budget fight pitting Democrats against President Reagan
and Republicans is expected to get underway this week in the
Senate late this week and last at least another week. It is
taking on new prominence because of current trade woes.
    That is because the budget problems and its associated huge
deficits are said to be at the root of related international
trade friction currently worrying financiers.
    As the dollar slides downward on global markets and stock
exchanges gyrate wildly, the trade dispute involving the United
States and Japan once again is spreading fears of a major trade
war between the two trading giants for the first time since
World War II.
    Ostensibly that dispute is over U.S. charges that Japan is
refusing to open its markets to semi-conductor chips and the
resulting U.S. tariffs doubling prices of Japanese televisions
and small computers.
    Behind the elements of a brewing trade war which neither
side wants, is the dilemma of the U.S. budget and its deficit.
    Some analysts say the financial markets may be waking up to
the economic realities that the huge debt cannot continue to
grow without repercussions.
    A large portion of the U.S. debt has been financed by
foreigners from their accumulated trade surpluses. But if they
withdraw this support the result can only be further problems,
including higher interest rates for Americans.
    In a nutshell, the U.S. budget process has now moved to the
showdown stages in Congress. Reagan's own trillion dollar
spending budget for the government year 1988, starting Oct. 1,
was trounced badly in the House on April 9.
    The Senate takes up a plan similar to one that passed the
House, calling for slashing the deficit from its estimated 171
billion dlr level next year to about 134 billion dlrs, through
defense and domestic spending cuts and about 18.5 billion dlrs
in new, unspecified, taxes. As the Senate prepares to take up
its own budget plan, majority Democrats predict there will be
passage of a bill, only after a protracted partisan battle.
    In the House, not one Republican voted for the budget,
which passed by 230 to 192. In the Senate, none of Reagan's
Republicans voted for the budget as it passed out of the Senate
Budget Committee for full Senate consideration.
    A key Senate Budget Committee source told Reuters he
believes this very unusual unanimous opposition was by design
among congressional Republicans, perhaps with the tacit
approval of the White House.
    "Republicans want Democrats to take the heat for any tax
hikes and defense cuts," he said.
    In the coming weeks, the source said, Democrats will press
for a bipartisan budget and seek a negotiated budget with
Reagan -- who already is opposed to the idea. But "it is not
clear how the Republicans will act," he added.
    He said Republicans may propose their own plan for lower
taxes and more defense spending, which they did not offer after
Reagan's budget was clobbered in an early vote in the House.
     When Reagan entered the White House in 1981, he inherited
what was labelled a huge deficit from Jimmy Carter that wound
up to be nearly 79 billion dlrs that year.
    Despite Reagan's promise to balance the budget by 1983,
critics note that his administration's record of accumulated
debt is estimated over one trillion dlrs, or 1,100 billion
dlrs.
    That is money the government must borrow, and pay back, and
many analysts say it is what kept the dollar high and caused
the worst U.S. trade deficit ever.
     Last year the United States bought goods from the world
worth 169.8 billion dlrs more than what it sold, including
purchases of 58.6 billion dlrs in Japanese goods.
    While Congress is trying to attack the trade deficit on one
front through a get-tough trade bill promising retaliatory
measures unless all markets are opened, its success so far
against the budget deficit has been marked by limited progress.
    Congress, which controls the pursestrings, has put the
deficit on a downward path from its record high of 220.7
billion dlrs accumulated in fiscal 1986, which ended Sept. 30.
    Because of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget law
enacted in late 1985, there has been pressure on Congress to do
more than talk about deficits.
    That law, named after Republican Senators Phil Gramm of
Texas, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and Democrat Ernest
Hollings of South Carolina, calls for a balanced budget by 1991
through a series of set deficit targets that Congress must meet.
    The law has been followed, even though an enforcement
mechanism to mandate automatic across-the-board cuts if
Congress misses its goal was stricken by the Supreme Court.
    The legislators have followed the targets -- on paper. But
in reality, the goal has actually been missed. For example,
Congress last year approved legislation to meet the 1987 target
of a 144 billion dlr deficit. But even after approving the
numbers, the deficit for 1987 is estimated at over 170 billion
dlrs -- far off the target.
    This year the target is 108 billion dlrs and that goal is
expected to be missed widely.
 Reuter

Commonwealth Edison Co is raising 360
mln dlrs via a two-tranche offering of first and refunding
mortgage bonds, said lead manager Morgan Stanley and Co Inc.
    A 200 mln dlr issue of bonds due 1990 has an 8-1/8 pct
coupon and was priced at 99.775 to yield 8.21 pct, or 65 basis
points over comparable Treasury securities.
    A 160 mln dlr offering of bonds due 1992 has an 8-5/8 pct
coupon and was priced at 99.85 to yield 8.661 pct, or 78 basis
points more than Treasuries. Both tranches are non-callable for
life and rated A-3 by Moody's and A by S and P. Salomon
Brothers Inc co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

James Stuckert, a Louisville, Ky.,
businessman, told the Securities and Exchange Commission he has
acquired 380,000 shares of Royal Resources Corp, or 5.7 pct of
    Stuckert said he bought the stake for 600,000 dlrs solely as
an investment.
 Reuter

introduced two communications systems, Spirit and Merlin, and
other products, in a bid to strengthen its position with small
    The Spirit system, with a basic price tag of 1,500 dlrs,
can handle up to six lines and 16 telephones and a more
advanced line which can handle up to 24 lines and 48
tlelphones.
    ATT said the Merlin line, which starts at 2,500 dlrs, can
handle up to 32 lines and 72 telephones.
    ATT said the new products will eventually replace the
current Merlin product family. Some of the systems will be
available in May and others in the third quarter.
    ATT also introduced software enhancements for the System
25, for business that require PBX voice and data communications
and need up to 150 phones. These and other enhancements will be
available in the third quarter, the company said.
 Reuter

Spanish Secretary of State for the
economy Guillermo de la Dehesa said the government maintained
its five pct inflation target for this year although a 0.6 pct
increase in March pushed the rise in the year on year consumer
price index to 6.3 pct.
    De la Dehesa said the March rise, announced today by the
National Statistics Institute, was not entirely satisfactory
but acceptable.
    The year on year rate at the end of February was six pct.
Prices rose 8.3 pct last year.
    The March rise included a 0.05 pct increase correcting an
error in last January's consumer price index. Economists had
earlier said the error could have been as high as 0.2 pct.
    De la Dehesa said seasonal increases in food prices pushed
the index up in March and he expected the rate to be lower in
April.
    The Communist-led Workers Commissions union said the March
price rise showed inflation was going up again and the
government looked increasingly unlikely to meet its five pct
target.
    The Workers Commissions said the inflation trend fuelled
unions's claims to wage increases beyond the government's
recomendation to limit wage rises at around five pct.
    Spain is being affected by a two-month-old wave of strikes
for wage rises. Government officials note wage settlements so
far this year have yielded average increases upwards of six
pct, while unions say the figure is higher then seven pct.
 REUTER

The American Petroleum Institute said
it plans to release its weekly report on U.S. oil inventories
tonight, even though last Friday was a holiday.
 Reuter

GCA Corp said it completed its
previously announced plan of financial restructuring under
which Hallwood Group Inc <HWG> took a 14 pct interest in the
company, a maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
    The company said it also implemented a one-for-50 reverse
    Under terms of the plan, the company exchanged about 109
mln dlrs in debt to creditors and suppliers for 43 mln dlrs in
cash, and warrants to purchase 2.2 mln shares of its common
stock. GCA also raised 71.7 mln dlrs through the sale of common
stock.
 Reuter

Commission reminded securities dealers that its mark-up
disclosure requirements also applies to transactions on
zero-coupon securities.
    Dealers and brokers are required by U.S. securities law to
disclose their mark-ups if they are excessive, the SEC said in
a public notice.
    Further, excessive mark-ups on securities transactions,
whether disclosed or not, violate the rules of the national
Association of Securities Dealers Inc and Municipal Securities
Rulemaking Board, it said.
    In a separate action, the SEC filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in a private civil case involving a complaint against
Merrill Lynch over excessive mark-ups on zero-coupon bonds. The
case is being appealed to the U.S. Appeals Court.
    The lower court dismissed the complaint, finding antifraud
provisions of securities laws do not prohibit undisclosed
excessive mark-ups on securities transactions.
    The SEC is urging the appeals court to reverse the
decision, citing its nearly 50 year-old position that
undisclosed excessive mark-ups by securities dealers violate
the general antifraud provisions of securities laws.
 Reuter

Oper shr 32 cts vs 37 cts
    Oper net 18.9 mln vs 21.6 mln
    Revs 352.1 mln vs 323.0 mln
    Note: 1987 net excludes extraordinary gain of 2.8 mln dlrs
or five cts shr from sale of surplus property.
 Reuter

Shr 96 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 8,663,000 vs 4,798,000
    Revs 89.7 m ln vs 66.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.33 dlrs vs 1.67 dlrs
    Net 21.1 mln vs 15.1 mln
    Revs 241.3 mln vs 192.8 mln
 Reuter

Special Japanese envoy Shintaro Abe
said in a brief interview with Reuters that the feeling in the
U.S. congress is "very severe" against Japan.
    However, Abe said he believed that neither Congress nor the
Reagan administration wants to undermine relations with Japan.
    He said the Reagan administration showed "relative
understanding" of how Japan is trying to alleviate its U.S.
trade imbalance. Abe said he was convinced "Congress and the
administration had the same view that the relationship between
Tokyo and Washington should not be undermined."
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.54 dlrs vs 82 cts
    Oper net 33.7 mln vs 17.66 mln
    Revs 473.1 mln vs 419.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 4.60 dlrs vs 2.39 dlrs
    Oper net 100.4 mln vs 51.0 mln
    Revs 1.38 billion vs 1.21 billion
    Assets 18.5 billion vs 15.5 billion
    Deposits 13.00 billion vs 11.29 billion
    Loans 15.04 billion vs 12.56 billion
    Note: Oper net excludes extraordinary loss 6,636,000 and
11.9 mln for 1987 qtr and nine mths on prepayment of borrowings
from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.
    Oper also excludes tax credits of 15.8 mln vs 5,954,000 for
qtr and 17.8 mln vs 11.6 mln for nine mths.
   
 Reuter

Qtr ended April four
    Shr profit eight cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net profit 341,000 vs loss 903,000
    Revs 58.4 mln vs 46.3 mln
    Six mths
    Shr profit 35 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net profit 1,466,000 vs loss 767,000
    Revs 121.4 ln vs 95.9 mln
 Reuter

U.S. banking data released today are
too distorted to draw sweeping conclusions about monetary
policy, but they do support the market's assumption that the
Federal Reserve has started to tighten its grip on credit,
    "It's clear that the Fed has firmed somewhat. Discount
window borrowings, net free reserves, the Fed funds rate
average and the pattern of reserve additions are all consistent
with a modest tightening," said Dana Johnson of First Chicago
Corp.
    Johnson, and several other economists, now estimate that
the Fed funds rate should trade between 6-1/4 and 6-3/8 pct.
    Discount window borrowings in the week to Wednesday were
935 mln dlrs a day, producing a daily average for the two-week
statement period of 689 mln dlrs, the highest since the week of
December 31, 1986, and up from 393 mln dlrs previously.
    Moreover, banks were forced to borrow a huge 5.2 billion
dlrs from the Fed on Wednesday - the highest daily total this
year - even though unexpectedly low Treasury balances at the
Fed that day left banks with over two billion dlrs more in
reserves than the Fed had anticipated.
    However, economists said it is almost certain that the Fed
is aiming for much lower discount window borrowings than
witnessed this week. They pointed to two factors that may have
forced banks to scramble for reserves at the end of the week.
    First, economists now expect M-1 money supply for the week
ended April 29 to rise by a staggering 15 to 20 billion dlrs,
partly reflecting the parking in checking accounts of the
proceeds from stock market sales and mutual fund redemptions to
pay annual income taxes.
    As banks' checking-account liabilities rise, so do the
reserves that they are required to hold on deposit at the Fed.
    Required reserves did indeed rise sharply by 2.5 billion
dlrs a day in the two weeks ended Wednesday, but economists
said the Fed may not have believed in the magnitude of the
projected M-1 surge until late in the week and so started to
add reserves too late.
    Second, an apparent shortage of Treasury bills apparently
left Wall Street dealers with too little collateral with which
to enagage in repurchase agreements with the Fed, economists
said. Thus, although there were 10.3 billion dlrs of repos
outstanding on Wednesday night, the Fed may have wanted to add
even more reserves but was prevented from doing so.
    "It's not at all inconceivable that the Fed didn't add as
much as they wanted to because of the shortage of collateral,"
said Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch Economics Inc.
    McCarthy estimated that the Fed is now targetting
discount-window borrowings of about 400 mln dlrs a day,
equivalent to a Fed funds rate of around 6-3/8 pct.
    After citing the reasons why the Fed probably has not
tightened credit to the degree suggested by the data,
economists said the fact that the Fed delayed arranging 
overnight injections of reserves until the last day of the
statement period was a good sign of a more restrictive policy.
    Jeffrey Leeds of Chemical Bank had not been convinced that
the Fed was tightening policy. But after reviewing today's
figures, he said, "It's fair to say that the Fed may be moving
toward a slightly less accommodative reserve posture."
    Leeds expects Fed funds to trade between 6-1/4 and 6-3/8
pct and said the Fed is unlikely to raise the discount rate
unless the dollar's fall gathers pace.
    Johnson at First Chicago agreed, citing political
opposition in Washington to a dollar-defense package at a time
when Congress sees further dollar depreciation as the key to
reducing the U.S. trade surplus with Japan.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 34 cts vs loss 78 cts
    Oper net profit 7,434,000 vs loss 17.0 mln
    Revs 201.2 mln vs 171.7 mln
    Note: Year-ago oper exludes gain on sale of businesses of
139.6 mln.
    Year-ago oper includes charges of 27.8 mln resulting from
allocation of the purchase price of Revlon's businesses to
inventory and 7.1 mln for restructuring costs.
 Reuter

A large group of "other milds"
coffee-growing nations will hold talks in Guatemala next month
to map their strategy for next September's meeting of the
International Coffee Organisation (ICO).
    Mario Fernandez, executive director of the Costa Rican
coffee institute, said delegates from Mexico, the Dominican
Republic, Peru, Ecuador, India, Papua New Guinea and five
central american nations will participate in the two-day
strategy session beginning May 4.
    The main topic will be reform of what many producing
countries perceive as the ICO's unfair distribution of export
quotas, Fernandez said.
    He said Costa Rica would press for quotas "based on the
real production and export potential of each country in the
past few years" and to distribute quotas based on "historic"
production levels rather than recent harvests and crop
 Reuter

A congressional study today said the
proposed, but now apparently abandoned, merger of the
Communications Satellite Corp <CQ> and Contel Corp <CTC>
would technically be legal but could violate the spirt of the
law setting up COMSAT.
    Two weeks ago before the study was completed, Contel
announced it would seek to terminate the proposed merger.
    The study by the non partisan Congressional Research
Service (CRS) said "the proposed merger appears to comply,
technically, with the mandates or letter of statutes, if may
nevertheless violate the spirit of the law."
    Comsat, created by a 1962 act of Congress, and Contel, a
corporation of local telephone and communications firms, filed
with the Federal Communications Commission last November 3 an
application for merger. Several firms had protested the
proposed merger.
    In an analysis of the law, the research service issued
several critical comments about the structure of the new firm
and said apparent domination by Contel of a restructured COMSAT
would have broken the spirit of the law setting up
COMSAT.COMSAT is the U.S. arm of Intelstat, the international
satellite communications firm. 
 
Reuter...^M

Japan's Lower House passed the 1987
budget after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party agreed to a
mediation proposal that could kill its plan to introduce a
controversial sales tax, political analysts said.
    The move was seen as a major blow to Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone, the leading advocate of the five pct tax.
    Some analysts predicted Nakasone might be forced to step
down just after the June summit of leaders from major
industrial democracies, well before his one-year term is due to
expire at the end of October.
    The ruling party though was anxious to pass the budget
before Nakasone leaves next week for the U.S. so that he could
tell Washington the Japanese government was doing its utmost to
boost the sagging economy and imports.
 Reuter

the Tokyo market opened to support the dollar from falling
below 140.00 yen, dealers said.
    The central bank bought a moderate amount of dollars to
prevent its decline amid bearish sentiment for the U.S.
Currency, they said.
    The dollar opened at a record Tokyo low of 140.00 yen
against 140.70/80 in New York and 141.15 at the close here
yesterday. The previous Tokyo low was 140.55 yen set on April
15.
 REUTER

Australia's M-3 money supply growth was
1.5 pct in March and 11.3 pct in the 12 months to March, the
Reserve Bank said.
    This compared with a revised rise of 0.5 pct in February
and 11.1 pct in the year to end-February.
    The Reserve Bank said the M-3 data for March was affected
by the start of the operations of <National Mutual Royal
Savings Bank Ltd>, which has resulted in the transfer of
deposits (equivalent to around 1.5 pct of m-3) from the United
Permanent Building Society to National Mutual Royal Savings
Bank Ltd.
    The Reserve Bank said M-3 money supply in March was 110.77
billion Australian dlrs compared with a revised 109.11 billion
in February and 99.48 billion in March, 1986.
    M-3 is deposits of the private sector held by trading and
savings banks plus holdings of notes and coins.
 REUTER

Parliament's Lower House passed the 1987
budget shortly before midnight local time, official
    The move followed agreement by the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party to a proposal that could kill its plan to
introduce a controversial sales tax, political analysts said.
The move was seen as a major blow to Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone, the leading advocate of the five pct tax, they said.
    Some analysts said Nakasone may be forced to step down
after the June summit of heads of major industrial democracies
and before his one-year term is due to expire at end-October.
    Under the compromise agreed by the LDP and opposition
parties, Lower House Speaker Kenzaburo Hara will take charge of
the sales tax bill, appoint a ruling/opposition party council
to debate it and allow opposition leaders to review the present
tax system, analysts said.
    Hara also verbally agreed to scrap the sales tax plan
entirely if the joint council fails to reach agreement on how
to handle the tax.
    The opposition parties, who have been vociferously
attacking the sales tax plan for months, hailed the decision as
a great victory.
    The opposition parties had already delayed passage of the
budget for three weeks after the April 1 start of the fiscal
year by intermittent parliamentary boycotts.
    Although the LDP had more than enough votes to ram the
budget through parliament, it had been reluctant to do so for
fear of a backlash of public opinion, especially after its
setback in recent local elections due to the sales tax issue.
before Nakasone leaves next week for the U.S. So that he could
    According to Kyodo News Service, Nakasone told reporters he
did not think the sales tax was dead.
    If the sales tax is dropped, it could prove a major boost
to the economy because it would increase the government budget
deficit, economists said.
    The sales tax was originally scheduled to be introduced
next January to help offset the loss of government revenues
stemming from a cut in income and corporate taxes due to go
into effect this month.
 REUTER

Many major nations yesterday intervened heavily to aid dlr - Miyazawa

STANDARD OIL SAYS BRITISH PETROLEUM SHARE TENDER EXTENDED UNTIL MAY 4

Japan has no plans to take new emergency measures to support
the dollar, other than foreign exchange intervention.
    He also told reporters that many major nations yesterday
intervened heavily to support the dollar against the yen.
    Yesterday's intervention was large in terms of the
countries involved and the amounts expended, he said.
    With the continued fall of the dollar against the yen,
0speculation had arisen in currency markets here that Japan
might take new measures to support the U.S. Currency, such as
curbing capital outflows.
    Miyazawa said that yesterday's news of a 4.3 pct rise in
U.S. Gnp in the first quarter had been expected. Although the
growth looks robust on the surface, the figures in reality are
not that good, he said.
    He said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is
expected to come up with a final set of recommendations of ways
to stimulate the Japanese economy before Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone leaves for Washington next week.
    Commenting on yesterday's report on economic restructuring
by a high-level advisory panel to Nakasone, Miyazawa said it
was important to put the panel's recommendations into effect.
 REUTER

Standard Oil Co <SRD> said in a brief
announcement issued after a meeting of its board of directors
that British Petroleum Co PLC <BP.L> (BP) has extended its 70
dlr per share tender offer until midnight May 4.
    The offer for the 45 pct of Standard shares not owned by BP
had been due to expire midnight April 28.
    Standard Oil said discussions with BP concerning the tender
were continuing but provided no further details.
    "So long as those discussions continue, no recommendation
will be made to Standard Oil shareholders regarding the offer,"
Standard said.
    Standard directors met at the company's Cleveland
headquarters on Thursday in a regularly scheduled meeting. The
spokesman was unable to say if the meeting would continue on
Friday.
    A committee of independent directors previously obtained an
opinion from First Boston Corp that the Standard shares were
worth 85 dlrs each, 15 dlrs more than the BP offer.
 REUTER

State-owned <Qantas Airways Ltd> said it
has placed a firm order for a single Boeing Co <BA.N> 767-300ER
(extended range) aircraft for delivery in August 1988 at a cost
of 150 mln Australian dlrs, including spares.
    A statement said it also has options to buy six more and
will decide in mid-1987 whether to use engines made by United
Technologies Corp <UTX> unit Pratt and Whitney or General
Electric Co <GE>.
    The 767-300ER can carry more cargo and passengers and is
more fuel-efficient than the 767-200, six of which Qantas has
in service.
 REUTER

Japan should look out for possible
effects of the yen's recent sharp rise on Japan's economy as
growth remains slow, the government's Economic Planning Agency
said in a monthly report submitted to cabinet ministers.
    EPA officials told reporters the underlying trend of the
economy is firm but growth is slow due to sluggish exports.
    Customs-cleared exports by volume fell 4.9 pct
month-on-month in February after a 2.8 pct fall in March.
    The government must take adequate economic measures to
expand domestic demand and stabilise exchange rates in a bid to
ensure sustained econonic growth, the report said.
    The report made a special reference to the yen's renewed
rise and its effect on the economy, the officials said, adding
the agency's judgement of current economic conditions has not
changed since last month.
    The EPA said last month Japan's economy is beginning to
show signs of bottoming out, conditional upon exchange rates.
    The dollar fell below 139 yen in early trading today - a
post-war low.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan does not intend to ease
credit policy further, bank officials told Reuters.
    They were responding to rumours in the Japanese bond market
that the central bank was planning to cut its 2.5 pct discount
rate soon, possibly before Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
leaves for Washington on April 29.
    Bank of Japan governor Satoshi Sumita will be in Osaka,
western Japan on April 27 and 28 for the annual meeting of the
Asian Development Bank, making a rate cut announcement early
next week a virtual impossibility, they said. April 29 is a
holiday here.
 REUTER

National Mutual Royal Bank Ltd said
it would cut its prime rate to 17.75 pct from 18.25, effective
April 27.
    The cut follows a trend toward lower rates started last
month and accelerated by Westpac Banking Corp, which yesterday
cut its prime to 17.50 pct from 18.25 pct. Westpac's 17.50 pct
is the lowest prevailing rate.
 REUTER

Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> said the
Canadian government approved its bid for <Carling O'Keefe Ltd>.
    Elders earlier announced it was buying 10.9 mln shares, or
50.1 pct of Carling, from the Canadian subsidiary of Rothmans
International Plc <ROT.L> for 18 Canadian dlrs each.
    Elders chairman John Elliott said in a statement when the
offer for the ordinary shares closed on April 23, that
acceptances representing over 93 pct of outstanding shares had
been received. <IXL Holdings> would proceed to acquire the rest
compulsorily, he said.
 REUTER

Ecuador will use a new pipeline link
with Colombia to export crude oil for the next five years,
Colombian mines and energy minister Guillermo Perry said.
    The link will be inaugurated on May 8. It was built to
allow Ecuador to resume exports of crude oil halted on March 5
by earthquake damage to its Lago Agrio to Balao pipeline,
    Once that pipeline is repaired, Ecuador will exceed its
OPEC quota in order to offset lost income and pay debts
contracted with Venezuela and Nigeria since the quake, Ecuador
mines and energy minister Javier Espinosa said.
    The two ministers were speaking at a news conference after
signing an agreement for joint oil exploration and exploitation
of the jungle border zone between the two nations. Drilling
will begin in September.
    "The agreement to transport Ecuadorean crude oil is not only
for this emergency period but for the next five years, with
possibility of an extension. Between 20,000 and 50,000 barrels
per day (bpd) will be pumped along it," Perry said.
    Espinosa said Ecuador planned to pump 35 mln barrels
through the link in the next five years, at a cost of 75 cents
per barrel during the first year.
    The 43-km link, with a maximum capacity of 50,000 bpd, will
run from Lago Agrio, the centre of of Ecuador's jungle
oilfields, to an existing Colombian pipeline that runs to the
Pacific port of Tumaco.
    Espinosa said the 32-km stretch of the link built on the
Ecuadorean side cost 10.5 mln dlrs. Perry gave no figures for
Colombia's 11 km segment but said it was "insignificant compared
with what we are going to earn."
    OPEC member Ecuador was pumping around 250,000 bpd before
the quake. Lost exports of 185,000 bpd are costing it 90 mln
dlrs per month, Espinosa said.
 REUTER

President Suharto's ruling Golkar party
appears to have made substantial gains with over 75 pct of the
votes counted in Indonesia's national elections.
    Figures released by the election commission showed Golkar
on target to take 70 pct of the vote.
    Provisional figures indicate that with results of 68.9 mln
ballots announced, Golkar had won 50.29 mln, the Moslem-based
United Development Party 10.93 mln and the nationalist
Democratic Party 7.69 mln.
    The total electorate is 94 mln and officials said they
thought about 90 pct of the votes had been counted.

producer Novo Industri A/S <NVO.CO> said in a statement that
its "B" shares would be listed on stock exchanges in Zurich,
Basel and Geneva from May 4.
    The aim is to create broader European interest in Novo
stock, currently listed in Copenhagen, London and New York,
said the statement issued after yesterday's ordinary general
meeting.
    Novo said more than 50 pct of its B shares were owned by
U.S. Investors. The new listings, the first by a Danish company
on the Swiss exchanges, will not involve issuing of new share
capital.
 REUTER

importers will tender on April 29 for two cargoes of U.S.
Maize, totalling between 54,000 and 87,000 tonnes for delivery
between May 21 and June 25, a committee spokesman told Reuters.
    Taiwan has set a calendar 1987 import target of 2.92 mln
tonnes compared with imports of 3.05 mln in 1986. About 80 pct
of the imports are expected to come from the U.S. And the rest
from South Africa, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

The Swiss National Bank will continue to
take part in concerted intervention on currency markets as
necessary, president Pierre Languetin told the bank's annual
meeting.
    He said the dollar had on occasion hit highs or lows which
bore no relation to economic fundamentals and cooperation
between all monetary authorities was necessary to prevent it
breaching thresholds that would damage everyone.
    "We are resolved -- as we have done in the past -- to take
part in concerted intervention to the extent that this is
possible and desirable," Languetin said.
    Languetin said Switzerland had noted with satisfaction the
six nation Paris accord on currency stabilisation measures in
February, adding that it had anchored the principle of
strengthened international cooperation.
    He said measures such as recent concerted intervention were
useful in the short term.
    But he added, "The (Paris) Louvre accord can produce no
lasting effects without a correction of the fundamental
imbalances, without a reduction of the American budget deficit
and without stronger growth in Europe and Japan."
    Languetin said certain changes would probably be necessary
in the "too expansive" monetary policy of the United States,
adding that there was a prevailing view that U.S. Money supply
was expanding too strongly.
    "If this should last long the dollar could only be
stabilised at the cost of a substantial easing in monetary
policy on the part of the other central banks, which would in
turn create the basis for a new wave of world-wide inflation,"
he said. One positive factor was that monetary authorities in
the most important countries had not relinquished their
anti-inflation policies.
 REUTER

Several Japanese buyers have accepted
postponement of between 150,000 and 200,000 tonnes of Cuban raw
sugar scheduled for delivery in calendar 1987 until next year
following a request from Cuba, trade sources said.
    Cuba had sought delays for some 300,000 tonnes of
deliveries, they said. It made a similar request in January
when Japanese buyers agreed to postpone some 200,000 tonnes of
sugar deliveries for 1987 until 1988.
    Some buyers rejected the Cuban request because they have
already sold the sugar on to refiners, they added.
    Japanese buyers are believed to have contracts to buy some
950,000 tonnes of raw sugar from Cuba for 1987 shipment.
    But Japan's actual raw sugar imports from Cuba are likely
to total only some 400,000 to 450,000 tonnes this year, against
576,990 in 1986, reflecting both the postponements and sales
earlier this year by Japanese traders of an estimated 150,000
tonnes of Cuban sugar to the USSR for 1987 shipment, they said.
    They estimated Japan's total sugar imports this year at 1.8
mln tonnes, against 1.81 mln in 1986, of which Australia is
expected to supply 550,000, against 470,000, South Africa
350,000, against 331,866, and Thailand 400,000, after 390,776.
 REUTER

India plans to export about 280 mln
kilos of tea a year by 1990, up from estimates of 202 mln in
1986 and 220 mln in 1985, Minister of State for Commerce Priya
Ranjan Dasmunsi told Parliament.
    Bad weather reduced domestic tea output in 1986 causing a
shortfall in exports. To boost exports the government recently
introduced higher cash compensatory support on packet tea,
excise tax rebate of 50 paise per kilo of bulk tea, full rebate
of excise duty on packet tea exports and exemption of customs
duty on filter paper used in making tea bags, he said.
 REUTER

Union Bank of Switzerland <SBGZ.Z> said
first quarter profits were higher than in the third and fourth
quarters of 1986, but were below the record results of the
    Nevertheless, the bank said overall performance in the
first three months was satisfactory, with the situation
particularly promising in commission, foreign exchange,
securities and trading sectors.
    In a newspaper interview on April 10, chief executive
Nikolaus Senn said first quarter earnings had been below last
year's level.
    The bank said its assets grew by 1.2 billion francs in the
three month period to reach 153.3 billion at end-March. If it
had not been for the decline in the dollar, the rise would have
been as much as 4.3 billion francs, it said.
 REUTER

74.77 billion crowns in March, against 70.56 billion in
February and 98.55 billion in March 1986, the Central Bank said
in its monthly balance sheet.
    Foreign exchange reserves totalled 67.05 billion crowns,
compared with 67.21 billion in February and 92.08 billion
unchanged from the previous month and last year's figure.
    Central Bank special drawing right holdings were 3.07
billion crowns, compared with 3.06 billion in February and 2.27
 REUTER

The Bank of Spain announced a one-point
rise in overnight call money rates to 16-5/8 pct, which a
central bank spokesman said was part of government efforts to
control money supply growth.
    The increase came after yesterday's one-point rise and
pushed interbank rates to 19 19-1/2 pct from 18-1/8 19 pct.
    The M-4 money supply, liquid assets in public hands, the
broadest measure of money supply, rose 14.1 pct in the first
three months compared with this year's eight pct target. Money
supply growth was 11.4 pct last year.
 REUTER

market to buy dollars for yen ahead of the Frankfurt fixing,
    They said the Bundesbank bought dollars for around 139.80
yen in small amounts in the half-hour running up to the 1100
GMT fix.
    The Bundesbank did not intervene when the dollar was fixed
in Frankfurt at 1.7969 marks.
    Earlier the Bank of Japan bought dollars steadily in the
Far East, but could not stop heavy selling which pushed the
dollar to a post-war low of 139.05 yen at one point.
 REUTER

A Swiss National Bank spokesman said the
bank had not intervened in currency markets today and dealers
said they had seen no evidence of Bundesbank action outside
    Frankfurt dealers reported that the Bundesbank bought
dollars for yen in the open market there.
    Zurich dealers said the absence of the Swiss National Bank
suggested that no concerted intervention was under way.
    Asked earlier today if the Swiss National Bank had
intervened, the spokesman said "not yet."
 REUTER

French sugar beet plantings are off to a
good start, thanks to generally favourable winter and spring
weather, the CGB beet planters' association said.
    It said in a report that soil structure was likely to be
excellent for good preparation as a result of a cold,
reasonably showery, winter.
    By April 15, 27.8 pct of the area had been sown against
three pct at the same year ago date.
    It added the area sown was likely to be reduced this year
by 1.2 pct to 445,000 hectares.
 REUTER

The Dutch central bank has intervened
in the currency markets today, in apparent concerted action
with other central banks, foreign exchange dealers said.
    They detected selling of the yen for dollars, which some
estimated would run to a moderate 200 mln guilders, comparable
to token Dutch intervention reported last week.
    Other dealers, however, said they believed today's moderate
intervention had been in guilders against dollar.
    The dealers agreed the intervention was minimal and more a
political gesture than a market moving force.
 REUTER

unpopular sales tax plan has been defeated and although fellow
politicians and political analysts agree he has suffered a
grave loss of face only a few are willing to write him off.
    Michio Watanabe, a Nakasone faction member and deputy
secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, LDP,
is one of those who believes he will survive.
    "He's tough, he won't step down," but "will hang on to the
death" at least until his term ends on October 30, Watanabe told
Reuters.
    The sales tax scheme was a mainstay in Nakasone's plans to
revamp the nation's tax system for the first time in 36 years.
Watanabe acknowledged that the five pct sales tax was a
mistake.
    "It was too greedy," he said. A two or three pct tariff might
have been easier to swallow, he said.
    One popular school of thought among skeptical analysts is
that Nakasone will be remain in office at least until the June
8-10 summit of industrialised nations in Venice.
    A Western diplomatic observer said he believed that
Nakasone would be at the summit as prime minister. But he would
not bet on his chances of survival up until October.
    Masamichi Inoki, a senior fellow at the conservative
Institute of Peace and Security, said he did not think Nakasone
had suffered irreparable damage.
    "He will certainly hang on for the summit," Inoki said.
    In any event, the general belief now is that the five pct
sales tax, as championed by Nakasone, is a dead issue but that
an indirect tax, in another form, will be introduced by the
LDP.
    Inoki said he believed the issue would be resurrected as
early as the next Diet (parliament) meets. The current session
finishes on May 27.
    The newspaper Tokyo Shimbun expressed another stream of
opinion, stating that Nakasone might well get another year to
deal with the unfinished and unpopular business of tax reform.
    The government has to find a way of generating revenue to
support an expected glut of elderly Japanese.
    And the only means of drumming up the money is to levy an
indirect tax, said Watanabe, a former Minister of International
Trade and Industry.
    The next prime minister will have to grapple with an
indirect tax, and "whoever is the next prime minister won't be
in the job very long," Watanabe said.
    Watanabe said he doubted the next prime minister would be
any of the three so-called "New Leaders," LDP secretary general
Noboru Takeshita, LDP executive council chairman Shintaro Abe,
and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Each of them controls a
powerful LDP faction. "It will be somebody else," he said.
    Political science professor Rei Shiratori of Dokkyo
University gave one of the darkest readings on Nakasone's
political future.
    "Soon after the Venice summit, there will be a move to
change the government by the New Leaders," Shiratori said.
    "He can't fight on," he said.
    He said Nakasone had a special emotional attachment to the
sales tax plan as the last and most important item in Japan's
purge of policies inherited from the U.S. Occupation.
    Shiratori said an indirect tax will have to be levied, but
"to introduce such a tax, they'll have to change the prime
minister."
    Nevertheless, Shiratori said he believes Nakasone could
hang on until as late as September.
 REUTER

speculation had arisen in currency markets here that Japan
 REUTER

A strike by Japanese dockworkers will
continue over the weekend as no breakthrough is in sight, a
Japan Harbour Transportation Association spokesman said.
    The association has not yet agreed on a schedule for
preliminary negotiations with the National Council of Harbour
Workers Unions, because the council insisted on talks with
shippers as well as dock management, he said.
    The strike, which began on Tuesday, halted container
movements to points inside Japan from the ports of Tokyo,
Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Kitakyushu, Shimizu, Yokkaichi
and Hakata.
 Reuter

Taiwan and the U.S. Have revised and
extended their textile export agreement after negotiations in
Washington this week, a spokesman for the Taiwan Textile
Federation said.
    Charles Chen told Reuters the original three year accord
has been extended by one year to the end of 1989. The U.S. Has
agreed to raise the limit on annual growth of Taiwan's textile
and apparel exports to one pct from 0.5 pct for calendar 1989,
he said. "The new accord is more fair and gives breathing space
to our textile makers (so they can) diversify their exports to
other nations," he added.
    Chen said the revised agreement puts Taiwan on similar
textile exporting terms to Hong Kong and South Korea. But
despite the changes, Taiwanese firms have lost orders to rivals
in Hong Kong and South Korea because of the strong Taiwan
dollar, he said. The Taiwan currency has risen 17 pct against
the U.S. Dollar since September 1985 while the Korean won rose
by some six pct and the Hong Kong dollar was stable.
    Taiwan's textile exports to the U.S. Amounted to 2.8
billion U.S. Dlrs last year out of total exports to the U.S. Of
7.8 billion. Textile exports are expected to remain the same
this year, Chen said.
 REUTER

(LDP) drew up a final plan to expand domestic demand and boost
imports in time for Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's visit to
Washington next week, LDP officials said.
    The plan calls for additional fiscal measures worth more
than 5,000 billion yen, a large-scale supplementary budget for
the current fiscal year started April 1, and concentration of
more than 80 pct of the annual public works budget in the first
half of the year, they said.
    Nakasone will explain the measures to U.S. Officials during
his visit to Washington starting April 29.

    The LDP plan will be the basis for a government package of
pump-priming measures expected to be unveiled in late May.
    The LDP said Japan should do more to reduce its trade
surplus. Its plan is expected to help increase economic growth
led by domestic demand, officials said.
    The government was also urged to review the ceiling on
budgetary requests for investment purposes in 1988/89. The
government has imposed a five pct cut in investment outlays in
the past five years in line with Nakasone's avowed policy of
fiscal reforms.

    The plan called on Japan to promote government purchases of
foreign goods and private sector imports of manufactured goods
by improving import financing, and to make clear official
procurement procedures for foreign supercomputers.
    The LDP also said Japan should contribute further to
society at large through measures such as doubling its official
development assistance to 7.6 billion dlrs in five years or so
instead of seven years as the government had originally
promised.
    The government was urged to work out a program to recycle
funds from Japan's trade surpluses to debt-ridden countries.

    The officials said the funds to be recycled would include
those from the private sector and others provided through the
government Export-Import Bank of Japan and Japan's Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund.
    The plan also calls for the government to take steps to
help the development of African and other less developed
nations.
    The LDP called for adequate and flexible management of
monetary policy, such as a cut in interest rates on deposits
with the Finance Ministry's Trust Fund, and a tax cut to
promote plant and equipment investment.

 REUTER

Friedman Industries Inc said
shareholders at a special meeting held for a vote on its
proposed merger into companies controlled by Venezuelan
businessman John Castellvi failed to provide a high enough
affirmative vote for approval.
    It said about 75 pct of the shares entitled to vote at the
meeting were voted in favor, but an 80 pct vote was needed.
    The company said a significant number of shares held in
street name were not voted.  As a result, it said it adjourned
the meeting until April 28 and, if the merger is approved,
closing is expected late next week.
 Reuter

Long-term bank sources confirmed their
banks have decided to leave the current 5.2 pct long-term prime
    The current rate has been in effect since March 28.
    The bankers said the rate was unchanged because the falling
dollar and the bond market rally made it difficult to clarify
the current level of yen interest rates.
    There had earlier this week been expectations of a 0.2
point cut from today in response to the fall in the secondary
market yield in five-year long-term bank debentures, but
bankers said last night the rate would be unchanged.
 REUTER

Shell Canada Ltd said
performance in all business segments in the first quarter
showed improvement over last year and it expects "significantly
enhanced performance" in 1987.
    Shell Canada reported first quarter earnings of 103 mln
dlrs, or 90 cts per share, up from 40 mln dlrs, or 32 cts per
share.
    Oil products earnings were 38 mln dlrs, up 19 mln dlrs from
last year, when margins were impaired by lower oil prices.
    Shell Canada said chemical earnings were 17 mln dlrs in the
quarter, compared with a loss of five mln dlrs in 1986. The
styrene business saw significant improvement, stemming from an
increase in international demand.
    Resources earnings increased by six mln dlrs to 46 mln
dlrs. Lower prices for all commodities were offset by the
removal of the Petroleum and Gas Revenue Tax, the impact of
lower royalty rates and higher volumes.
    Gross production of crude oil and natural gas liquids
increased seven pct from the first quarter of last year to
11,200 cubic meters a day, Shell said.
    Shell Canada also said natural gas sales volumes of 19.6
mln cubic meters a day was up five pct from last year.
    Sulphur sales of 4,143 tonnes a day were up 70 pct.
    The company also recorded benefits of 10 mln dlrs from the
acquisition of Shell Explorer Ltd. Interest expense for the
quarter was lower than in the previous year, due to the early
retirement of a 200 mln U.S. dlr debenture and the impact of a
stronger Canadian dollar on U.S. dollar-denominated debt.
 Reuter

Valero Natural Gas Partners
LP, 49 pct owned by Valero Energy Corp <VLO>, said a jury in
Sutton County, Texas, district court has found that it had no
liability for 21 mln dlrs in take-or-pay claims that had been
alleged by Lively Exploration Co.
    Take-or-pay claims involve allegations that natural gas
supply contracts require volume of natural gas to be paid for
even if not taken. As a result of declining markets, most
pipelines, like Valero, do not have customers for all the gas
that could be delivered by producers, such as Lively.
    Valero said it used as its primary defense the Texas
Railroad Commission's rules that require intrastate pipelines
to take ratably from their producers and in times of surplus
take gas in accordance with priority categories set by the
 Reuter

Service Resources Corp said its Chas.
P. Young Co subsidiary, which has offered to acquire Sorg Inc
in a friendly merger at 22 dlrs per share, is willing to
explore the possibility that members of the Sorg family and
other Sorg shareholders could continue to hold an equity
position in the combined company.
    The company also said it has received a commitment for up
to 66 mln dlrs in financing from Security Pacific Corp <SPC>
for the merger, the repayment of Sorg's bank debt and working
capital of the combined company.
 Reuter

Hudson's Bay Co said it agreed to sell
its entire 54.5 pct interest in Canadian Roxy Petroleum Ltd, a
total of about 7.5 mln shares, to Westcoast Transmission Co Ltd
<WTC> for 11 dlrs a share.
    Hudson's Bay said proceeds of about 82 mln dlrs will be
used to reduce corporate debt. It said the sale was part of a
program of concentrating on its core business of department
stores and real estate.
    The sale is subject to regulatory approvals.
 Reuter

The visit this week by a special
Japanese envoy has done little to defuse Japan's trade
frictions with the United States, U.S. and congressional
leaders say.
    White House and congressional leaders took a wait-and-see
stance, after a series of meetings with former Japanese Foreign
Minister Shintaro Abe, who was here paving the way for the
April 29-May 2 visit of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

    They are withholding judgment until Nakasone's visit, with
one senator saying Japan had promised to stimulate its economy
and open its markets to foreign goods in the past, but it was
time now for action.
    The U.S. trade deficit last year was a record 169.8 billion
dlrs, with more than one-third of it in trade with Japan.
    Congress is ready to approve tough trade legislation to try
to turn around the deficit, which has cost millions of U.S.
jobs and closed thousands of factories.
    Much of the anger has been directed at Japan.
    U.S.-Japan trade friction was further fueled by President
Reagan's April 17 decision to impose 100 pct tariffs on 300 mln
dlrs worth of Japanese goods in retaliation for unfair
    Reagan said he imposed the tariffs on personal computers,
television sets and hand tools because Japan failed to keep an
agreement to end dumping semiconductors in world markets at
less than cost and to open its home market to U.S. products.
 
    Abe had asked Reagan to end the tariffs quickly, but U.S.
officials said the curbs would not be dropped until Japan had
shown it was honoring the pact, which could take several
months.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, asked if Nakasone's
visit might help to defuse trade tensions, said "whether
progress can be made depends on how you want to measure it."
    He added, "I would expect progress to be made. If you want
to measure that in terms of lifting the sanctions, that's more
doubtful."
    Congressmen were equally skeptical.
    Abe met Senate and Democratic leaders active in trade
legislation, telling them of Japan's plan to spur domestic
spending by 34 billion dlrs and open its markets to a wide
range of goods, including supercomputers and farm products.
    Sen. John Danforth, a Missouri Republican, said after the
meeting, "We have heard promises in the past, but the question
now is whether there will be real action."
    Abe also met House leaders pressing for a tough trade bill,
including Congressman Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat.
    Gephardt is sponsoring legislation to penalize nations with
large deficits and which are guilty of unfair trade practices.
    Gephardt's legislation would hit Japan, as well as Taiwan,
South Korea, and West Germany. The bill is expected to pass the
House next week - coinciding with Nakasone's visit - but its
fate in the more moderate Senate is uncertain. A bipartisan
group of senators, however, told Nakasone in a letter released
as Abe was holding Senate meetings, that fresh Japanese-U.S.
trade strife would erupt if Japan's markets were not soon
opened to American goods.
    The signers included Democratic leader Robert Byrd of West
Virginia, Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas and others
ranging from moderate to hardline on trade issues.
    They said in the letter there was growing U.S. sentiment
that Japan was fighting opening its markets and "evidence to the
contrary is necessary to combat this perception, or it is
likley that additional efforts will be attempted to close off
the American market to Japanese goods.
  
 Reuter

China's textile exports in the first
quarter reached a record 2.2 billion dlrs, an increase of 49
pct on the year-earlier period, the People's Daily said.
    Its overseas edition gave no country breakdown. The U.S. Is
one of China's largest markets for textiles.
    U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige told a press
conference that Chinese textile and apparel exports to the U.S.
In 1986 rose 65 pct in value from the 1985 level, a rate of
growth that "is not sustainable nor equitable to our other major
foreign suppliers." China is now the United States' largest
textile supplier, he said.
    Baldrige declined to say what would be an acceptable growth
rate for Chinese textile exports. Negotiations on the next
China-U.S. Textile agreement are due to begin in May, he said.
    "There clearly has to be a limit," he said. "Our economy can
only absorb so much textiles. It is in both of our interests to
reach a satisfactory conclusion. Without an agreement, we would
have a chaotic situation."
 Reuter

The growth of the Swiss
economy will likely slow to 2.2 pct this year and 1.9 pct in
1988 after reaching 2.8 pct last year, according to a study by
a group at Basle University's Institute of Applied Economics.
    It blamed the expected slowdown partly on a disappointing
outlook for exports caused by the weaker dollar. Exports would
likely grow by 2.8 pct this year and by 3.0 pct in 1988, after
3.0 pct in 1986, the group predicted.
    Final domestic demand will also fall back, to a likely 3.0
pct this year and 2.3 pct next, after 4.1 pct in 1986. However,
the domestic picture will likely be mixed.
    The study said investment in plant and equipment would
continue to be the main motor for the growth in domestic
demand, although it was unlikely to grow as fast as last year's
7.4 pct, rising this year by 4.5 pct and by 2.8 pct in 1988.
    While the growth in private consumption is expected to fall
back to 2.5 pct this year and 2.1 pct in 1988 from last year's
3.1 pct, public consumption spending will likely grow by 1.9
pct in 1987 and 2.0 pct next year, after 1.5 pct in 1986.
    Consumer prices were seen rising by 1.7 pct this year and
2.4 pct in 1988, after just 0.8 pct in 1986. Unemployment
should fall back to 0.7 pct from last year's 0.8 pct.
 REUTER

Chrysler Corp said it and Regie
Nationale des Usines Renault <RENA.PA> agreed to set May 5 as
the new target date when Chrysler aimed at reaching a
definitive agreement for Chrysler for acquire American Motors
Corp.
    AMC is 46.1 pct owned by Renault.
    The two companies originally had targeted April 23 as
completion date for reaching a definitive agreement.
    Chrysler, which signed a letter of intent on March 9 to
acquire AMC, said "considerable progress has been made, but a
number of issues remain to be resolved."
 Reuter

assigned a top-flight Aaa rating to African Development Bank's
15 billion yen senior Samurai bond due 2002 issued in Tokyo.
    The rating reflects the support provided by the callable
capital of non-borrowing member countries, which include the
U.S., Japan, Canada, West Germany and several other European
nations.
    Moody's said that African Development Bank's sound lending,
borrowing and liquidity policies also support the top rating
grade.
 Reuter

and sold yen in concerted action along with the Bundesbank and
the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, a bank spokesman told Reuters.
    "We intervened in dollar-yen with the Bundesbank and the
Fed," he said. He declined to specify the extent of the
intervention, which took place at around 1200 GMT, after
reports by Frankfurt dealers the Bundesbank was in the market.
    The intervention failed to prevent the dollar dipping to
1.4548 Swiss francs at around 1320 GMT, close to its all-time
low of 1.4510 francs set on September 26, 1978. It then
steadied to 1.4560/75 francs.
 REUTER

money market with further assistance worth 518 mln stg this
    It bought 349 mln stg of band one bank bills at 9-7/8 pct
and 169 mln stg of band two bank bills at 9-13/16 pct.
    This brings its total assistance on the day to 543 mln stg
compared with a liquidity shortage it has estimated at around
850 mln stg.
 REUTER

today's hog slaughter at about 280,000 to 287,000 head versus
257,000 week ago and 311,000 a year ago.
    Saturday's hog slaughter is guesstimated at about 40,000 to
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 121,000 to
126,000 head versus 128,000 week ago and 136,000 a year ago.
    Saturday's cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 19,000
to 35,000 head.
 Reuter

U.S. personal income rose 0.2 pct,
or 5.4 billion dlrs, in March to a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 3,603.9 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    The increase followed an upwardly revised 1.3 pct rise in
February. Earlier, the department said income rose 0.9 pct in
February.
    Personal consumption expenditures rose 0.3 pct, or 8.9
billion dlrs, to 2,882.6 billion dlrs in March after rising a
revised 2.4 pct in February instead of the previously reported
1.7 pct rise, the department said.
    Last month's income gain matched a 0.2 pct rise in November
and was the lowest since June when income was unchanged. The
spending rise was the weakest since January's 2.0 pct decline.
    The department said the slowdown in income was mainly due
to a drop in subsidies to farmers. Excluding that factor,
personal income rose 0.4 pct in March and 0.7 pct in February.
    Wages and salaries rose 7.4 billion dlrs last month after
gaining 16.6 billion dlrs in February, while manufacturing
payrolls declined 1.3 billion dlrs after rising 2.5 billion
dlrs in February.
 Reuter

The European Community is to offer
Argentina compensation for its loss of maize and sorghum
exports to Spain following Spain's accession to the EC, EC
    They said the offer will be made next week in Geneva,
headquarters of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), and will also involve products other than cereals. They
    Argentine exports of sorghum to Spain fell to zero last
year from 300,000 tonnes in 1985, while maize sales fell to
15,000 tonnes from 994,000, official EC statistics show.
    The sources noted that an agreement between the EC and the
U.S. guarantees special access to the Spanish market for two
mln tonnes of non-EC maize and 300,000 tonnes of sorghum each
year for the next four years.
    But they said various details of this accord will tend to
inhibit imports from Argentina.
    These include a provision for reduction of the amounts if
Spain imports cereals substitutes, and the EC's plan to import
the special maize and sorghum on a regular monthly basis.
Argentina tends to have exportable quantities only three or
four times a year.
 Reuter

Consolidated Natural Gas Co said its
CNG Producing Co subsidiary, bidding alone or with partners,
was the apparent high bidder on six of seven tracts it south at
Wednesday's sale of federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of
Mexico.
    The company said it share of the six bids totaled 6.2 mln
dlrs. Its 100 pct interest bids were on three offshore tracts
-- West Cameron 209, 302 and 303. Consolidated has a 50 pct
interest in the bid for Eugene Island 375 and Ship Shoal 128
and 129.
   
    The remaining interest in 139 is held by Sun Energy
Partners <SLP>, which is 96.3 pct owned by Sun Co Inc <SUN>.
<Union Texas Petroleum Corp>, which is 49.7 pct owned by
Allied-Signal Inc <ALD>, is Consolidated's partner on the other
two tracts.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's <GM> Bedford
Trucks subsidiary has signed a memorandum of understanding with
its affiliate Isuzu Motors Ltd <ISUM.T> to negotiate a van
manufacturing joint venture in the U.K.
    The proposals would involve doubling output at the loss
making plant at Luton in southern England to around 40,000 vans
a year by 1990.
     Bedford, faced with reduced demand for heavy trucks in the
last few years, stopped most of its heavy truck production at
the end of 1986. GM would have a 60 pct stake in the venture
and Izuzu 40 pct
    GM holds a 38.6 pct stake in Isuzu.
    Bedford already has a link with Izuzu under which it
assembles some smaller Japanese vehicles in Britain.
    A Bedford spokesman said financial details of the deal had
not yet been finalised although it was anticipated that the
venture would start without debt.
    Currently the Luton van plant was estimated to be losing
some 500,000 stg a week, he added.
    Bedford's other truck plant, which manufactures military
vehicles and trucks in kit form for export, was not involved in
the venture.
    Analysts said the deal was another attempt by U.K. Truck
manufacturers to restructure operations and cope with heavy
losses and low demand that have hit the market over the past
few years.
    In February, state-owned Rover Group Plc <BLLL.L> formed a
joint venture with <Van Doorne's Bedrijswagenfabriek Daf BV>
for truck manufacture, with Daf owning 60 pct.
    Last year, Ford Motor Co's <F.N> U.K. Subsidiary formed a
joint venture with Fiat SpA's <FIAT.MI> 's <Iveco BV> for the
supply and marketing of small commercial vehicles in Britain.
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp said it was
raising the prices by 30 dlrs per ton on section extras on
certain wide planned structural shapes.
    The increase will affect seven wide planned section groups
and will increase the price to 500 dlrs per ton from 470 dlrs
per ton, effective May 3, the company said.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp reported a 37 pct drop in
first quarter profits to 1.07 billion dlrs citing lower oil and
    The company said profits in the lastest quarter included a
26 mln drl restructuring gain from divestment of certain gold
operations overseas, while last year's first quarter profit of
1.71 billion dlrs included the initial charge of 235 mln dlrs
for its 1986 corporate reorganization.
    First quarter revenues were down 13 pct to 19.44 billion
dlrs.
   
    One time items aside, Exxon said, its first quarter results
were stronger than 1986's final quarter which included several
large asset sales and positive inventory adjustments.
    It said earnings per share declined 36 pct reflecting the
company's continued purchases of its own common for the
treasury. During the first quarter, 5,085,000 shares were
acquired at a cost of 416 mln dlrs compared with 3,132,000 in
1986's fourth quarter.
    Commenting on the first quarter, Exxon said crude oil
prices strengthened moderately within the quarter and were
higher than a year ago at the end of the quarter.
   
    However, average crude prices for the quarter were below
the year ago period, leading to lower earnings for exploration
and production operations, Exxon said.
    Also contributing to reduced earnings were lower natural
gas prices, primarily overseas, representing contract
adjustments representing contract adjustments tied to falling
product prices in 1986, the company said.
    During the first quarter, the company said, intense
competition in both domestic and international markets served
to depress margins for refined products.
   
    Exxon said the lower product margins resulted in
significantly reduced earnings for refining and marketing
operations, contrasting sharply with the unusually strong
margins prevailing in the first qtr of 1986.
    It said savings from efforts to control costs and improve
efficiency helped soften the negative impact of lower oil and
natural gas prices.
    Exxon said earnings from chemicals and power generation
activities showed consideratble improvement, remaining strong
throughout the period.
 Reuter

Sugar beet planting in Denmark is
about two weeks behind normal due to a severe winter and a wet
spring, a spokesman for the country's largest sugar beet
concern, De Danske Sukkerfabrikker A/S, said.
    The weather has improved recently but very little beet has
been drilled so far.
    "If good weather conditions continue, I think we will be
sowing next week or the following week," the spokesman said.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve Board has no
news conference or announcement planned for today, a Fed
spokesman said, dispelling market rumors that a statement was
pending.
    "No such event is scheduled or planned," said spokesman Bob
Moore.
    Rumors of a pending Fed announcement or news conference
circulated in financial markets, following a government report
that consumer prices advanced by 0.4 pct in March, suggesting a
rapid rise of inflation.
 Reuter

Texas Commerce Bancshares Inc said its
shareholders approved the merger of the bank with Chemical New
York Corp <CHL>, moving a step closer towards creating the
nation's fourth largest bank.
    The company said each holder will receive 31.19 dlrs a
share in cash and securities, somewhat less than the 35 dlrs to
36 dlrs a share estimated when the deal was announced on
December 15, 1986. The deal is now worth 1.16 billion dlrs.
    The merger is still subject to approval by Chemical's
shareholders, who will vote on the deal at the company's annual
meeting on April 28.
    The company said 98.7 pct of the shareholders voting on the
merger cast an affirmative vote.
    Chairman and chief executive officer Ben Love said all
regulatory hurdles to the merger have been cleared, including
last week's final approval of the transaction by the U.S.
comptroller of the currency. Pending approval of Chemical's
shareholders, the merger should be closed by May one, he added.
    The bank said the combined company will have assets of
about 80 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Co cited
lower oil and gas prices in its first quarter loss of 32 mln
dlrs or 16 cts a shares compared with net income of 96 mln dlrs
or 39 cts a share in the year-ago period.
    It also said there was a decline in crude oil production
due to its recently completed asset sales program.
    Phillips also said it expects crude prices will continue to
be soft in the second and third quarters, but will improve
toward the end of the year.
   
    Phillips also said that foreign currency transaction losses
in the first quarter were 10 mln dlrs compared with a gain of
46 mln dlrs in the fourth quarter of 1986 and a loss of one mln
dlrs in the first quarter of 1986.
 Reuter

Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, the
state owned oil company, has re-established posted prices for
some light products and heavy fuel oil, industry sources in New
York said.
    The return to posted prices is a sign that the market is
returning to a more stable and orderly condition after a year
of volatile price movements in which Venezuela ceased posting
prices and moved to negotiating prices with companies.
    "We are in more stable market now and PDVSA has probably
decided to return to postings for some products," one industry
trade source said.
   
    But there was no talk of Venezuela posting prices for crude
oil which were also dropped in 1986.
    Posted prices were dropped in the first quarter of 1986  
when prices for crude oil and products tumbled in response to
OPEC's market share strategy and netback arrangements.
    PDVSA has set out posted prices for several groups of light
products including gasoline, naphtha, jet kerosene and
distillates effective April 15 as follows.
    Unleaded gasoline was posted at 19.74 dlrs a barrel (47 cts
a gallon) with leaded gasoline at 20.16 dlrs a barrel (48 cts a
gallon).
   
    Light naphtha was posted at 17.85 dlrs a barrel (42.5 cts a
gallon), full range naphtha at 19.11 dlrs a barrel (45.50 cts a
gallon), and heavy naphtha at 19.53 cts a gallon (46.5 cts a
gallon).
    Jet kerosene was posted at 18.90 dlrs a barrel, also
effective April 15, or (45 cts a gallon) with dual purpose
kerosene at 18.06 dlrs a barrel (43 cts a gallon).
    Distillates of 0.2 pct sulphur and 0.3 pct sulphur grades
were posted at 18.48 dlrs a barrel (44 cts a gallon), each with
0.5 pct sulphur 18.08 dlrs a barrel (43.05 cts a gallon).
    LPG postings, also effective from April 15, were made as 
follows, propane 175 dlrs a tonne (33.33 cts a gallon), butane
210 dlrs a tonne (46.26 cts a gallon) and isobutane at 240 dlrs
a tonne.
    Heavy fuel products were given a posted price effective
April 10 and ranged from 0.3 pct sulphur at 19.35 dlrs a barrel
to 17.21 dlrs a barrel for 2.8 pct sulphur.
    Heavy fuel postings are also referred to as minimum export
prices.
 Reuter

Exxon Corp's Exxon U.S.A. subsidiary raised the price it
charges contract barge customers for heating oil in the New
York harbor by 0.50 cent a gallon, effective today.
    They said the 0.50 cent a gallon increase brings Exxon's
contract barge price to 49.25 cts a gallon.
 Reuter

NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> and General Electric Co Plc
<GEC.L> are planning a 50-50 joint venture in the medical
equipment field, Philips announced.
    The venture will group all the medical systems of the two
companies, combining GEC's Ohio-based medical division Picker
International with Philips' medical division in a new
U.S.-based subsidiary.
    Picker employs 6,000 people worldwide and has production
and distribution facilities in North America, Britain, West
Germany, the Caribbean and Japan.
    Picker's turnover in the year ending March 31, 1986
totalled 612 mln dlrs, according to Philips.
    Philips' own medical systems activities, currently part of
its Professional Products and Systems division, with
headquarters in the Dutch town of Brest near Eindhoven, has
production facilities in the U.S., West Germany, France, Italy
and Britain as well as in the Netherlands.
    Its 1986 turnover was 2.82 billion guilders.
    Philips said GEC was planning substantial additional
investment in the project to bring its share to 50 pct.
    "The new company will be a vigorous competitor in all the
important areas in the world, with matching distribution
networks and other facilities capable of meeting the needs of
rapidly advancing technology in medical systems," Philips said.
    Dutch corporate analysts said the merger will create the
world's second biggest company specialised in medical
technology after U.S. General Electric Co <GE.N>.
    The new company should start operations in the second half
of this year, a Philips spokesman said.
 Reuter

Hyundai Auto Canada Inc, wholly owned
by the South Korean concern, said it recalled 126,524 cars for
inspection of a mechanism that may cause the hood to open
without warning while the vehicle is in motion.
    The company said the voluntary recall affects Hyundai Pony
cars sold in Canada and produced before Dec 4, 1986.
    Hyundai models sold in the United States and other
countries are not affected by the recall.
 Reuter

Traders said the Indian State Trading
Corporation (STC) bought three 6,000 tonne cargoes of refined
bleached deodorised palm olein at its import tender today. They
also said the STC is still in the market and additional
business may be concluded over the weekend.
    The confirmed business comprised two cargoes of rbd olein
for June shipment at 351.50 dlrs per tonne and one July at 352
dlrs cif, all on 30 pct counter trade.
 Reuter

A range of substantial policy
initiatives need to be implemented to shift resources from
consumption to production in the Zimbabwe economy, says the
Zimbabwe Banking Corporation (ZBC) in its quarterly economic
review.
    The state owned banking group says although Zimbabwe's
balance of payments improved significantly last year the
underlying position deteriorated. Last year's improved trade
surplus was partly the result of sales of stockpiled gold and
continued import restraint.
    It says debt service charges are projected to exceed 35 pct
of exports in 1987 and warns against squeezing imports further.
    ZBC says mining industry import quotas for the first six
months of 1987 have been halved and those for manufacturing
industry cut by a third.
    It contrasts the performance of manufacturing industry in
1967 to 1974, with that since independence in 1980. Industrial
production almost doubled between 1967 and 1974, when foreign
currency allocations almost trebled in real terms.
    Since 1980, import allocations have been cut 45 pct and the
Zimbabwe dollar has depreciated by more than 60 pct. As a
result the bank says the external purchasing power of foreign
currency allocations is currently only 20 pct of its 1980
levels.
 REUTER

Foreign investors purchased, on a net
basis, a record one billion dlrs of Canadian stocks in
February, more than the total for all of 1986, Statistics
    U.S. residents continued to be the largest investor, with
purchases doubling from the previous month to more than 800 mln
dlrs.
    Net sales of outstanding Canadian bonds to Japan, however,
amounted to 679 mln dlrs in February, which, on average, was
about 500 mln less than in each of the four previous months.
 Reuter

submitted the high bid for six tracts at the Central Gulf of
Mexico sale on April 22.
    It said its exploration and production subsidiary, Samedan
Oil Corp, participated in the high bid for the following
tracts, West Cameron 296, East Cameron 296, Vermilion 266, Ship
Shoal 350, Main Pass 90 and Main Pass 100.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd's 3,200
unionized workers at its Trail and Kimberley, British Columbia
lead-zinc operations voted 94 pct in favor of authorizing a
possible strike, the union said in reply to an inquiry.
    Their two-year contracts expire on April 30.
    A spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America, which
represents the workers, reiterated that private mediation talks
are set for Monday and that no strike date had been set.
   
    The union has said it is asking for a three pct wage hike
in each year of a proposed two-year contract, while Cominco has
offered a 40 ct an hour increase in the third year of a
proposed contract if workers agree to loosen rules on job
    The average unionized worker's wage is now about 14.78 dlrs
an hour.
    Cominco's Trail operations produced 240,000 long tons of
zinc and 110,000 long tons of lead in 1986. The Sullivan mine
at Kimberley produced 2.2 mln long tons of ore last year, most
for processing at the Trail smelter.
 Reuter

<Petranol Plc> said it was discussing
the takeover of an unnamed company owned by Frenchman Hubert
Perrodo in exchange for Perrodo taking a 51 pct stake in
Petranol.
    It said in a statement the assets of the company to be
acquired included a "substantial interest" in an unspecified oil
field in Torrance, California, and five mln dlrs in cash.
    Funding commitments for Petranol, both in respect of the
Californian oil field and Petranol's existing U.S. Assets,
would be included in the agreement. Petranol said the deal
would enhance its presence in the U.S., Increase its capital
and secure the availability of development cash.
 Reuter

Hagensborg
Resources Ltd said it will receive a seven mln dlrs Canadian
line of credit from the Bank of Novia Scotia to develop a
salmon farming operation.
    The company said the funds will be used to complete
construction of the land-based operation at Nanaimo in British
Columbia.
    Details of the credit line are being finalized with the
Bank of Novia Scotia with the financing to be fully guaranteed
by Norway-based Den Norske Creditbank and the Norwegian
Guarantee Institute for Export Credit, it added.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it will provide
Morocco a 125 mln dlr loan for a project intended to improve,
expand and modernize its telecommunications network.
    The Bank said the project expects to satisfy about 80 pct
of the demand for telephone service and the 100 pct of the
demand for telex service by 1994.
    The total cost of the project is 647.5 mln dlrs, with the
Office National des Postes et Telecommunications du Maroc
providing 359.6 mln dlrs and bilateral sources expected to
provide 189.9 mln dlrs, the Bank said.
 REUTER

Jim Walter Corp said its board
approved a 5-for-4 stock split in the form of a 25 pct stock
dividend to be distributed July 12 to stockholders of record
June 15.
    It also said its board approved a regular quarterly cash
dividend of 35 cts a share on its pre-split common, payable
July one to holders of record June 15. The current dividend is
equal to 28 cts on the common outstanding after the split.
    The company said it plans to increase the quarterly cash
dividend on the post-split shares by seven pct to 30 cts
beginning with the October one payment.
 Reuter

Federal Home Loan Bank Board
chairman Edwin Gray said pending bills do not provide enough
money for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp to deal
with insolvent thrift associations.
    The Senate has passed a bill to provide 7.5 billion dlrs in
FSLIC recapitalization, while the House Banking Committee has
approved five billion dlrs in new funds.
    "We are operating right now on net operating losses of four
billion dlrs a year. That's double last year. We think it's
going to increase," Gray told a Senate Appropriations
    "The FSLIC is insolvent under generally accepted accounting
procedures and it lacks the financial resources to
cost-effectively resolve its caseload of insolvent
institutions," Gray said.
    Gray said FSLIC now had 191 cases and the number was
expected to increase.
    He said the gap between the 80 pct of healthy savings
associations and the other 20 pct of thrifts grew in 1986.
    Banking committee chairman William Proxmire, D-Wis, told
Gray he supported more recapitalization, but other members did
not want to impose a greater burden on healthy thrifts.
 Reuter

Peter Lin, a Montebello, Calif.,
physician, told the Securities and Exchange Commission he has
acquired 285,000 shares of Sierra Health Services Inc, or 5.1
    Lin said he bought the stock for about 1.7 mln dlrs solely
    Although he said he may buy more stock in Sierra Health
Services, Lin said he has no intention of seeking control of
 Reuter

New United Motor Manufacturing
Inc, a joint venture formed by General Motors Corp and Toyota
Motor Corp, said it plans to cut production at its automaking
facility here because of lower than anticipated sales.
    The company said production will be reduced to about 750
vehicles per day from the current rate of 800 per day,
effective May 18.
    It said there will be no layoffs because of the cutbacks,
but the lower production schedule will be in effect throughout
the 1987 model year.
    GM and Toyota produce the Chevrolet Nova at the
joint-venture plant, which began production in December, 1984.
 Reuter

Iraq said its warplanes attacked two
large naval targets -- Baghdad's usual term for oil tankers or
merchant ships -- in the Gulf today.
    A military spokesman said the planes scored accurate and
effective hits in both attacks.
    There was no immediate confirmation of the raids from
independent shipping sources in the region.
    The spokesman said during one of the attacks, Iraqi planes
intercepted an Iranian F-4 Phantom and shot it down. All Iraqi
warplanes returned safely to base, he added.
 REUTER

The U.S. Mint said it awarded
contracts to Philipp Brothers, N.Y., and Sidney Danziger, a New
York metals merchant, to procure 3,701,000 lbs of
electrolytic copper and 629,000 lbs electrolytic cut nickel
cathodes or briquettes.
    The Mint said Philipp Brothers will supply the entire
3,701,000 lbs of copper at a cost of 0.66845 dlrs per lb.
    Sidney Danziger will furnish 338,000 lbs of the nickel at
1.8344 dlrs per lb, while Phibro will provide 291,000 lbs at
1.8369 dlrs per lb, the Mint said.
 Reuter

Economics Minister Martin Bangemann, who
flies to Washington this weekend for high level talks, said
boosting West German economic growth would not have any
significant effect on the high U.S. Current account deficit.
    In a paper prepared ahead of his trip, Bangemann said
Bonn's trading partners had been asking whether West German
growth was slowing and whether the Federal Republic should not
in the future pursue more strongly expansionary policies.
    In the paper Bangemann wrote, "It is not possible to reduce
the U.S. Current account deficit by any signficant amount just
through more stimulation of the West German economy."
    One U.S. Administration policy maker said in Washington
this week that the United States government wanted West Germany
and Japan to reduce their interest rates even further to
stimulate their economies.
    Bangemann said it was clear the high mark, as well as
uncertainty about further currency developments, was making
companies here cautious about production plans and investments.
    While West Germany did not seek exchange rates which
unilaterally favoured its exports, it favoured more stability
and realistic rates, which corresponded to "fundamentals."
    He welcomed the February "Louvre Agreement" of six industrial
nations to stabilise currencies and said, "(We) expect all
parties to hold by the accords struck there." West Germany had
fulfilled its pledge of boosting planned tax cuts, he noted.
    Despite calls for lower interest rates, Bundesbank
Vice-President Helmut Schlesinger has hinted that central bank
policy may even have to be tightened.
    He wrote in a newspaper article published yesterday that
the Bundesbank's current accommodative stance could not
continue in the long term.
    During his trip to Washington, which runs from April 26 to
29, Bangemann will meet Secretary of State George Shultz, trade
envoy Clayton Yeutter, World Bank President Barber Conable, IMF
Managing Director Michel Camdessus and Paul Volcker, Chairman
of the Federal Reserve Board.
 REUTER

Thomas O'Malley, Chairman of Phibro
Energy, a subsidiary of Salomon Bros Inc <SB>, has left the
company to form his own oil trading firm because of unhappiness
with the current arrangement between Salomon Brothers and
Phibro Energy, industry sources said.
    Earlier he resigned as a Director and Vice Chairman of
Salomon Inc.
    A Salomon spokesman did not deny that O'Malley had left the
company but offered no further comments at this time.
    Al Kaplan, another former Phibro Energy executive, will
join the new business, the sources said.
    The new company, Argus Energy, is located in Stamford,
Conn., and will begin active trading in June of this year.
 Reuter

The Farm Credit System will need
3-4.5 billion dlrs in federal assistance to cover losses over
the next three years, a member of the board of the System's
regulatory agency said.
    Jim Billington, member of the three-person board of
directors of the Farm Credit Administration, said he intended
to ask the board on May 5 to vote to certify that the ailing
farm lending network needs federal aid.
    Billington, the sole Democrat on the board, said the System
would need federal aid sooner than suggested by a FCA report,
which said assistance would be required by the end of 1987.
    "I would say the System will require outside financial
assistance possibly by July 1 if System districts don't lend
unsecured credit to one another to meet collateral problems," he
said.
    FCA officials today disclosed that efforts by the System's
districts to reach a collateral-sharing agreement has been
 Reuter

ABM Gold Corp will use the proceeds of
an initial public offering of seven mln shares of stock at 10
dlrs a share to increase its interest in three Canadian
companies, said co-managing underwriters PaineWebber Inc and
Advest Inc.
    ABM Gold manages and develops properties of Sonora Gold
Corp <SON.TO>, Goldenbell Resources Inc <GBL.TO>, United Gold
Corp <UGC.V> and Inca Resources Inc <IRI.TO>.
    Proceeds will be used to raise its stake in Sonora, buy a
15 pct interest in the net profits of Sonora's Jamestown mine,
and buy capital stock of Goldenball and United, they said.
    ABM Gold explores, acquires and develops gold properties in
California, and also processes gold-bearing ore into gold
bullion.
    The co-managing underwriters said they are selling 3.5 mln
shares in the U.S. and Canada, while an interational offering
will be managed by PaineWebber International. The underwriters
have been granted an option to buy up to an additional 105,000
shares to cover over-allotments.
 Reuter

Fine weather throughout Europe
allowed farmers to make good progress with sugar beet sowings
during the period April 16-21, but conditions in the Soviet
Union remained unfavourable, West German analyst F.O. Licht
said.
    With daytime temperatures in parts of Europe exceeding 20
degrees centigrade Licht said sowings have been boosted and may
be completed in most countries by the end of the month.
    In France the beet growers' association said the entire
crop could be sown within a week if the good weather persists.
    Sowings this year will still be behind 1986 but Licht noted
that good results have often been produced from late-sown
crops.
    In the Soviet Union, however, most beet-growing regions
still had cool weather with night frosts. Only in the western
Ukraine was it warm enough to permit sowings, Licht said.
    Sowings in the USSR will consequently be much later than
last year when one mln hectares had already been drilled by
 Reuter

Ferro Corp said shareholders
approved increasing the number of authorized common shares to
50 mln from 20 mln.
    Shareholders also approved amending the indemnification
provisions of the Code of Regulations of the company and
re-elected three directors to three-year terms on the board of
   
 Reuter

Amoco Oil Co said it will continue to
sell leaded gasoline to farmers in certain portions of the
midwest as long as there is sufficient demand for the product.
    "It appears that the agricultural community will need
limited amounts of leaded gasoline for certain types of
equipment until an acceptable alternative is found," the
    Amoco previously announced it would sell all lead-free
gasoline to motorists at its service stations.
 Reuter

the Group of Seven leading industrial nations is fully
committed to halting a further decline in the dollar.
    "Let me emphasize that all seven major industrial nations
remain fully committed to strengthening policy coordination,
promoting growth and cooperating to foster stability of
exchange rates," he told the American Enterprise Institute.
    "We all believe a further decline of the dollar could be
counter productive to our efforts (to promote growth)," he said.
    Baker also said that after meeting Japanese special envy
Shintaro Abe, "it's clear that Japan intends to take strong
steps to stimulate its economy to meet its committments under
the Louvre Accord."
    Baker said in the past two years he has worked to promote
greater coordination of economic policies and important
progress has been made.
    "Substantial exchange rate adjustments have also been
accomplished over the past two years so that today we are
better positioned to promote growth and reduce external
imbalances," he said.
    Baker pointed out that in February the seven agreed to
foster stable exchange rates and those commitments were
renewed recently.
     In a speech largely devoted to discussing trade and
competitiveness, Baker again warned of the dangers of
protectionist trade legislation, saying it would harm the U.S.
standard of living.
    Baker stressed adminstration trade policy sought to remove
foreign barriers to trade and via forthcoming GATT talks will
focus on agriculture, services and intellectual property.
    The Treasury Secretary said that as well as trade issues he
had to focus on macroeconomic issues as well which encompass
the trade picture.
    "The world economy today is really one constantly flowing
circle of capital and goods. Trade accounts catch and measure
that flow at only one spot on the circle," he said.
 Reuter

<Elders IXL Ltd>, of Australia, said it
acquired 20.8 mln or 95 pct of Carling O'Keefe Ltd common
shares under its previously announced tender offer that expired
    Investment Canada said earlier this week it approved
Elders's takeover of Carling, Canada's third largest brewery.
 Reuter

The White House said last month's
0.4 per cent in increase in the CPI, the third sharp rise in
three months and one that brought the annual inflation rate to
6.2 pct so far this year, was no cause for alarm.
    "While this is something to watch, it's not something to be
alarmed about," said spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.
    He said the three month increase in inflation was due
almost entirely to higher energy prices.
    Fitzwater said once an OPEC price hike is "passed through
the system," the nation should see a slowing of the inflation
rate to the administration's 3.8 pct 1987 forecast.
 REUTER

The Labor Department said it
rescheduled the release of the first-quarter nonfarm
productivity report to May 4 at 1000 EDT (1400 GMT) from April
27.
    The delay was necessary because the Commerce Department
moved back release of national income and product data used by
the Labor Department to compute productivity.
 Reuter

Sears Roebuck and Co said it will
restructure its business systems centers, which sell computer
systems.
    The restructuring reflects the changing personal computer
market, Sears said.
    Sears will consolidate 41 business systems center outlets
in markets where it has more than one sales facility.
    Sales and support staffs will remain intact and will report
to a single location in most metropolitan areas.
    When the consolidation is complete, Sears will operate 59
computer centers in 51 markets nationwide.
    Some 31 markets with single sales offices will not be
affected.
    "We no longer need as many sales locations in each market
because our sales organization will be calling directly upon
our customers at their places of business," explained John H.
Rollins, national manager of Sears Business Systems Centers.
 Reuter

Spanish exporters are asking the
government to clear 33,200 tonnes of sunflower seed authorised
for export by the European Community (EC), a spokesman for one
of Spain's major sunflower oil producers said.
    He told Reuters in a telephone interview the government was
holding back on authorisation to hold prices low.
    "They are deliberately keeping prices down to help meet this
year's inflation target despite the threat of a surplus on what
looks like a bigger harvest than we expected," he said.
    He said the policy of allowing stocks to accumulate had
caused a price drop, with raw oil prices falling to 147 pesetas
a kilo from 160 at the start of the 1986/87 marketing year
ending July 31.
    Sunflower oil output was expected to rise to 370,000 tonnes
this year from 340,000 last year, with seed output up at
905,000 tonnes from 860,000 last year.
    He said domestic consumption was falling due to imports of
other edible oils. "We estimate demand at 296,000 tonnes this
year, leaving a 124,000 tonne surplus with the 50,000 tonnes
now stockpiled," he said. "If we discount 24,000 tonnes held for
strategic purposes, this still leaves us with 100,000 tonnes."
 Reuter

Japanese crushers bought 5,000 to
8,000 tonnes of Canadian rapeseed for last-half May/first-half
June shipment, trade sources said. Price details were not
 Reuter

CORRECTION - PHIBRO ENERGY CHAIRMAN
    In New York story headlined "Phibro Energy chairman said to
have resigned," please read in headline "Former Phibro Energy
Chariman Starts New company" and first paragraph: Thomas
O'Malley, former chairman and chief executive officer of Phibro
Energy, a subsidiary of Salomon Bros. Inc., has formed a oil
trading company. (clarifies that O'Malley was former chairman)

Continental Medical Systems
Inc said its board met to consider the allegations in the
derivative action filed by Continental Care Group and that
officers named as defendants believe it to be totally without
merit is likely to be dismissed in Maryland Federal court.
    Continental Medical has sued Continental Care Group for
over 5 mln dlrs for breach of a contract calling for it to buy
12 nursing homes from Continental Care.
    Yesterday, Continental Care filed a derivative action
against Continental Medical charging it with fraud and
misrepresentation of fiduciary duties.

 Reuter

Shell Oil Co said first quarter net
income dropped 61 pct over the prior-year quarter on revenues
that slipped four pct.
    "Lower prices for crude oil and natural gas and reduced
margins in our oil and chemical products businesses were the
major factor for the earings decline," John F. Bookout,
president, said in a statement.
    For the quarter, the company, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell
Group <RD> <SC>, earned 108 mln dlrs on sales of 4.50 billion
dlrs, compared with 276 mln dlrs on sales of 4.67 billion dlrs
a year ago.
    Bookout said the company is cautiously optimistic oil
markets will be less volatile in coming months than they were
in 1986.
    "In coming months, oil products results should benefit from
seasonally higher gasoline volumes," he said.
    "However, so long as U.S. product inventories remain high,
it may be difficult to fully recover from the depressed margins
of recent periods," he added.
    Bookout said the company's chemical products earnings
should benefit from strong performances in chemical sales
volumes and continued high industry operating rates.
    Shell said its oil and gas exploration and product segment
earned 110 mln dlrs for the quarter vs 91 mln dlrs in 1986.
    It said earnings were hurt by lower selling prices for
crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Domestic crude
oil prices averaged 14.24 dlrs a barrel, compared with 19.28
dlrs last year, while natural gas prices dropped 24 pct, Shell
said.
    Shell said earnings at its oil products segment plunged by
53 mln dlrs, to eight mln dlrs. It said lower refined product
selling prices were only partially offset by reduced raw
material costs.
    The company said earnings from chemical products also fell
sharply, to 40 mln dlrs from 72 mln dlrs, due mainly to lower
margins, especially in commodity chemicals, coupled with its
pullout from the agricultural chemicals business in October
1986.
    Shell said capital and exploratory outlays totaled 500 mln
dlrs for the quarter, off from 645 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

A majority of 31 African countries
replying to a questionnaire had carried out economic reforms
recommended in United Nations and Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) recovery programmes, Adebayo Adedji, Executive Secretary
of the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Africa said.
    He told African planning and economy ministers that the
questionnaires, distributed by the Economic Commission to
monitor the programmes, showed that 25 of the 31 countries had
taken steps to increase foreign aid.
    The same number had improved the investment climate in
their countries, he said.
    Twenty-two had made structural adjustments to their
economies, 22 had taken measures to promote exports and five
had carried out an "overall economic rehabilitation," he added.
    The main thrust of the recovery programmes was to encourage
agriculture by giving farmers greater incentives to produce.
    The OAU plan envisaged investment of 128 billion dlrs in
all 50 African countries over the next five years. Foreign
donors were expected to contribute 46 billion dlrs.
    Nineteen out of 50 African governments have failed to
answer the questionnaire, he said.
 REUTER

Conservation Service (ASCS) is seeking 12.5 mln pounds of
vegetable oil for export June 6-20 and June 21/July 5, an ASCS
    Offers must be received at the Kansas City Commodity Office
by 1430 CDT May 4, and successful offerors will be notified May
5.
 reuter

the Group of Seven countries, in seeking to foster stability in
exchange markets, believe a further decline in the value of the
dollar would be counterproductive.
     In answer to questions by a business group, Baker said
that for one thing further reductions could make it
economically difficult for the surplus countries to grow,
thereby making it difficult for them to purchase overseas
goods. In addition, Baker said he was opposed to the U.S.
selling a yen denominated bond arguing that such a move might
send the wrong signal to markets.
 Reuter

West German banks face disruption
from strike ballots and selective strikes after the breakdown
of talks on wages and working hours, the German Employees
Union, DAG, and the Commerce, Banking and Insurance Union, HBV,
said.
    But the chairman of the bank employers' federation, Horst
Burgard, told reporters in Frankfurt he hoped the two sides
would reach agreement after a pause for thought.
    DAG chief negotiator Gerhard Renner said the employers'
offer to resume talks was farcical as long as they refused to
remove the issue of flexible working hours from the talks.
    Both sides agreed there was now little point in top level
negotiations similar to those held in the engineering industry
which resolved a dispute on working hours.
    Renner and HBV chief negotiator Lorenz Schwegler said they
were prepared to compromise on the issue of flexible working
hours, but this subject should not be included in the wage
negotiations for the 380,000 bank employees.
    Burgard, also management board member of Deutsche Bank AG,
said the employers sought acceptance of more flexible hours on
an unchanged 40 hour week in the negotiations.
    The employers have unilaterally imposed a 3.6 pct pay rise
backdated to March 1, with the collapse of the talks. The HBV
is seeking a six pct rise and DAG a 6.5 pct increase.
    Schwegler said the unions would react to the collapse of
the talks with protest and warning strikes. Union officials
would resist overtime and attempts to introduce flexible hours.
    Next week the unions will set strike ballots aiming at
strikes in sensitive areas such as bank computer and bourse
data centres. The unions only account for some 25 pct of bank
employees. DAG will seek support from its members in the
Bundesbank who are not directly affected by the negotiations.
 REUTER

The most likely reason for West German
producers withdrawing white sugar from intervention stores is
that they already have, or are reasonably certain of, obtaining
European Community (EC) export licences for it, traders said.
    They were responding to EC Commission sources in Brussels
saying West German producers have withdrawn most of the 79,250
tonnes of the sugar they put into intervention on April 1.
    The traders said it is also likely that French producers,
who put over 700,000 tonnes into intervention, will withdraw a
significant proportion of this for the same reason before they
are due to accept payment for the sugar in early May.
    Earlier this week traders said the stepping up of the level
of export licences being granted by the EC at recent tenders,
with generous subsidies, had been due to producer threats to
leave the sugar in intervention and to a desire to move most of
the old crop sugar before the new crop tenders start in May.
    The EC has so far granted licences for 2,467,970 tonnes out
of around 3.1 mln tonnes targetted for export in the 1986/87
series of tenders. This would indicate the likelihood of high
tonnages continuing to be moved over the next few tenders and
subsidies also remaining high in order to attract producer bids
for the export licences, traders said.
 Reuter

The Ugandan government, in its four
year investment and development plan, proposed taxing land and
food crops in an attempt to broaden its revenue base away from
dependence on coffee sales.
    The government also said in the plan, made available to
Reuters, that a devaluation of the Ugandan shilling would do
little to redress a chronic balance of payments deficit.
    The plan, the first since President Yoweri Museveni took
power 15 months ago, seeks to raise 2.4 billion dlrs in
investment funds from abroad between 1987 and 1991.
    It says the government had already secured 1.4 billion dlrs
in pledges before Islamic lenders promised a further 494 mln
dlrs at a conference in Kampala last week.
    Uganda already had an external debt of 984 mln dlrs at the
end of 1986 and in the nine months of the current budget debt
servicing will cost 204 mln dlrs, almost 50 pct of export
earnings of 431 mln, the plan said.
    The new fiscal measures include a proposed tax on large
land holdings, regardless of whether the owners are exploiting
them, and taxes on maize, beans and other crops sold by the
Produce Marketing Board.
    The plan says the aim is to spread the tax burden, which in
Uganda has traditionally fallen almost exclusively on coffee
farmers. Coffee provides over 90 pct of foreign exchange
earnings and more than 70 pct of government revenue.
    On exchange rate policy, it repeats Museveni's argument
that any form of fotation would not help allocating resources.
    Western governments and multilateral funds say the Ugandan
shilling is grossly overvalued and the government must change
the exchange rate if it wishes to encourage investment. The
shilling sells on the black market at more than 15,000 to the
dollar, compared with an official rate of 1,400.
 REUTER

mexico's minister of energy and
mines, alfredo del mazo, has yet to reply to a peruvian
invitation for ministerial-level talks on bilateral cooperation
in silver marketing, a ministry spokesman said.
    Peruvian officials said they extended the invitation
earlier this week and that it was possible the talks could be
held within the next 15 days.
    Meanwhile, a banco de mexico spokesman confirmed that
mexican central bank head miguel mancera aguayo held private
talks here yesterday with the president of the peruvian central
bank leonel figueroa.
 Reuter

prime minister edward seaga
last night presented a budget of 6.9 billion jamaica dlrs, the
largest in the country's history, which projects increases in
capital spending and continued divestment of state companies.
    In a nationally televised speech to the parliament, the
prime minister, who is also minister of finance, said jamaica's
gdp grew by four pct, the highest level in 15 years, while
unemployment stood at 23.6 pct, down from last year's 26 pct.
Inflation, meanwhile, was 9.4 pct, as compared to 19.7 pct two
years ago.
    Government revenues were up by 419 mln jamaica dlrs, to 4.3
billion, enough to finance the entire recurrent expenditure of
3.7 billion dlrs, with a 666 mln dlr surplus.
    Seaga said that with financial accounts in order, the
government will proceed to reduce the country's debt service
ratio from the current level of 49 pct of gdp to 25 pct over
the next five years.
    During this period, he said, growth would be targetted at
three to four pct.
    The 6.9 billion dlr budget, which represents an increase of
18 pct over last year's 5.8 billion, will be financed by
borrowing of 8.868 billion dlrs and estmated revenue of 1.385
billion.
    Seaga said 1.835 billion of the budget will go to finance a
government capital investment program. The plan, which
represents a 10.3 pct increase over last year, projects greater
spending on health, education, housing and infrastructure. Some
818 mln dlrs in revenue to finance the budget will come from
the government's divestment program, which seaga said will be
stepped up in 1987.
 Reuter

France's National Statistics Institute
(INSEE) said French 1986 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by
1.9 pct, after Finance Minister Edouard Balladur reported a
1986 rise of just two pct in February.
    France's balance of payments surplus in goods and services
rose to 53 billion francs in 1986 against 28 billion in 1985.
    The annual average monthly rise in retail prices was 2.7
pct in 1986 from 1985, INSEE added.
 REUTER

A cargo of U.S. corn for the Soviet
Union was rejected and forced to be unloaded at a Chicago
export elevator earlier this week after it failed to make
grade, with the British vessel Broompark now being reloaded, an
elevator spokesman said.
    The first attempt to load the ship failed when the
percentage of broken kernels proved to be higher than contract
    The Soviets traditionally refuse to take sub-grade grain at
a price discount, as is the practice with many other importing
nations, he added.
    The official estimated the reloading of the vessel with
about 700,000 tonnes of corn may be completed by Tuesday, April
28.
 Reuter

Henley Group said it has not hired
Bear Stearns and Co in connection with Santa Fe Southern
Pacific Corp <SFX>, a Henley spokesman said.
    Traders have said in the past two sessions that it seems
Bear Stearns was restricted in both Santa Fe Southern and
Henley, implying that Bear Stearns may be helping Henley
examine the possibility of taking over Santa Fe.
    "We don't have them looking into anything, including Santa
Fe," a spokesman said, in response to questions from Reuters.
    Bear Stearns has declined comment.
    Traders said there was also speculation that Henley was a
buyer of Santa Fe stock in the last two days.
    Henley said it does not comment on whether it is buying or
selling stock in a company.
    Separately, Wall Street sources said the reports of Henley
acquiring Santa Fe stock in recent sessions are untrue. Henley
has told the securities and exchange commission that it bought
about five pct of Santa Fe stock last year.
    Santa Fe was up earlier by more than two points. It was
trading at 42, up 1/8.
 Reuter

The Bank of Finland said it was
reducing restrictions on the use of money market rates as
reference rates for loans.
    The Bank would start quoting money market rates referred to
as HELIBOR (Helsinki Interbank Offered Rate). Banks may
henceforth use these as reference rates in their lending, it
said.
    From May 1 the banks would be allowed, without special
central bank approval, to use as a reference rate not only its
base rate but also other Bank of Finland rates or the official
money market rate used in market transactions.
    A derivative of these could also be used, the statement
said. But housing loans would be excepted and their lending
rate would, as formerly, be linked directly or indirectly to
the Bank of Finland's base rate.
    The new guidelines involve mainly two changes. Money market
rates in future would be used as reference rates for loans with
a maturity of over five years and the introduction of a new
reference rate would no longer require central bank approval.
    The decision was made as a continuation of the central
bank's process of liberalisation, it said.
 REUTER

Rockwell International Corp <ROK.N> has
signed an agreement leading to the takeover of Valeo <VLOF.PA>
subsidiary <SO.M.A. Europe Transmissions>, Valeo said in a
    The company said Rockwell had agreed to handle Soma sales
around the world and to help Valeo in restructuring its
loss-making subsidiary.
    It also said Rockwell, an American high-technology
engineering group with interests in aerospace and the car
industry, would take control of Soma at the beginning of 1988
if it obtained approval from the French government.
    Soma, a fully owned subsidiary of Valeo, makes axles and
gear boxes for heavy vehicles and machinery mostly used in the
construction business. A Valeo spokesman said <S.E.S.M.>, a
subsidiary of Soma specialized in equipment for military
vehicles, had been excluded from the agreement with Rockwell.
     He said no details were available on the eventual amount
Rockwell would pay for Soma.
    Vehicle components maker Valeo was the object of a takeover
bid in 1986 by Italian group <Compagnie Industriali Riunite>
(CIR), controlled by Olivetti chairman Carlo de Benedetti.
    The French government limited CIR's holding in Valeo to
less than 30 pct in June 1986, after classifying Valeo as a
defence contractor. Today CIR has effective control of Valeo
through its French holding company <Compagnies Europeenes
Reunies>, Cerus, which has a 18.24 pct stake in Valeo.
    Since CIR won control of the French group in June, Valeo
has pursued a policy of concentrating its activities on the car
industry. The company spokesman said Valeo had sold off all its
construction interests in 1986 but declined to comment on the
amount of the sales.
    The spokesman said figures were not available on Soma's
losses in 1986 but said the company had registered a turnover
of 546 mln francs. Valeo recorded a consolidated net loss of
388 mln francs in 1986 on a turnover of 12.1 billion francs.
    REUTER

Mexico's minister of energy and
mines, Alfredo del Mazo, has yet to reply to a Peruvian
    Meanwhile, a Banco de Mexico spokesman confirmed that
Mexican central bank head Miguel Mancera Aguayo held private
talks here yesterday with the president of the Peruvian central
bank.
    The spokesman said the talks were in line with mutual
consultation agreements made during Peruvian President Alan
Garcia's visit to Mexico in march.
    Press reports citing diplomatic sources at the meeting said
the two central bank heads discussed means of coordinating
actions in the silver market.
    Mexico is the world's leading silver produer. It produced
about 73.9 mln troy ounces in 1986, according to preliminary
government figures.
    Peru, the second biggest producer of the precious metal,
earlier this week froze new silver sales in an effort to
stabilize silver prices. It produced 57 mln troy ounces in
1986.
 Reuter

Wurlitzer Co said George Howell
was elected vice chairman, succeeding Sid Weiss who was named
    Weiss became vice chairman in December 1986. Weiss and
Leonard Friedman, Wurlitzer chairman, led Wurlitzer Investments
Ltd, a Texas partnership which purchased a controlling interest
in Wurlitzer.
    In other action, Frank Rubury was elected president and
chief operating officer of Wurlitzer, effective April 27.
Rubury was formerly president of Horsman Inc, a subsidiary of
Drew Industries Inc <DRWI.O>.
 Reuter

<Glenmede Trust Co> and Sun Co said
that Glenmede plans to sell a portion of its charitable
holdings of Sun common stock, of which it holds 28 pct of the
    They said the sales, to be made in the market subject to
prevailing market conditions, will not exceed 2.5 pct of Sun's
107.7 mln outstanding common shares.
    Glenmede, a trustee for various trusts and estates, said
the sales are part of an ongoing plan to maintain its Sun
holdings at levels roughly equal to those prior to the Sun
stock buyback program that began in 1980.
 Reuter

Algeria's Finance Minister Abdelaziz
Khelaf said no rescheduling of his country's foreign debt is
envisaged.
    Khelaf, who came to Geneva for a meeting organised by the
World Economic Forum, told Reuters Algerian debt amounted to
about one third of the country's Gross National Product of 55
    France and Algeria yesterday finalised two agreements
giving Algeria a total 580 mln dlrs in credits to finance trade
and projects.
 REUTER

Volkswagen of America said it
will shut down its U.S. car assembly plant for two weeks and
idle 1,650 workers.
    The wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen A.G. said the
facility will be closed for two weeks starting today to adjust
inventories.
    The 1,650 hourly workers will be laid off until May 11.
    Volkswagen's sales of U.S.-made cars this year have dropped
sharply below last year's figures, a spokeswoman said.
    So far this year, sales are down nearly 40 pct compared to
last year. The U.S. company has sold a total of 13,218
U.S.-made cars so far this year, down from 21,943 during the
    In its most recent 10-day sales period, April 11-20, the
company sold 30.7 pct fewer cars. It sold a total of 1,167 cars
during the period against 1,683 in the same 1986 period.
    The spokeswoman also said inventories of Volkswagen's cars
are running as high as 335 day's supply as of April 20, well
above the inventory level of 50 to 60 days supply considered
acceptable by the U.S. car industry. The highest inventories
are on the company's new "GT" model.
    Stocks of Volkswagen's 16-valve "GTI" model are 164 days'
supply. Inventory levels for other Volkswagen models are as
follows--"Golf" gas-powered-87 days, "Golf" diesel-powered 20
days, regular "GTI"-83 days.
 Reuter

The heads of the central banks of Mexico
and Peru have met in Mexico city to coordinate actions aimed at
consolidating the upward trend in the price of silver, the
official newspaper El Peruano said.
    It said that Peruvian central bank president Leonel
Figueroa met yesterday with the president of the bank of
Mexico, Miguel Mancera Aguayo.
   Peru, which froze new sales of refined silver and its
government-marketed silver ore on tuesday, is the world's
second biggest producer of the precious metal. Mexico is the
largest producer.
    Together, the two nations account for nearly 40 pct of the
world's silver output, the official paper El Peruano said.
    Peru adopted the move on tuesday in an bid to stablilise
the price of silver bullion, which has climbed in a month from
about 5.70 dlrs an ounce to over 9.00 dlrs an ounce today.
    After the meeting of the Peruvian and Mexican central bank
heads, it was understood that Mexico might diversify the use of
silver, El Peruano said.
    It said that Mexico and Peru did not want to speculate with
the price of silver. Instead, they aimed to see that the price
of the precious metal recuperated to adequate levels.
    El peruano did not specify what these levels were.
    El peruano quoted energy and mines minister Wilfredo Huayta
as saying that Peru did not want to participate in speculative
operations with silver.
    He said the government's aim was to avoid a "brutal fall" in
the price of silver.
    Figueroa's office confirmed the Peruvian central bank
president had travelled to mexico city. It was not certain if
he had returned to Lima by midday today.
 Reuter

The Spanish cabinet agreed a 223.33
billion peseta aid package for the steel industry to restore
the sector to profitability by 1989, Industry Minister Luis
Carlos Croissier said.
    He told reporters at a news conference the money would be
shared among four state and privately-owned mills, which now
operate at a loss.
    The funds will be used to help modernise the industry,
increase productivity and cut production to 17.5 mln tonnes a
year from a current capacity of 18.2 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

The U.S. M-1 money supply number to be
announced next Thursday is expected to show one of the largest
one-week increases in history, analysts said.
    The average forecast of economists polled by Reuters calls
for a 17.7 billion dlr M-1 jump for the week ended April 20.
Estimates of the increase range from five billion dlrs to 26.3
    "The M-1 surge will be very temporary. About two thirds of
the increase is likely to be washed out in the following week,"
said Kim Rupert, an economist at Money Market Services Inc.
    Rupert said a huge increase in M-1 for the April 20 week is
implied by very strong deposit survey data and by an
unexpectedly sharp gain in required reserves in Federal Reserve
data released Thursday.
    Those numbers, covering the two-week bank statement period
that ended on April 22, show a 2.5 billion dlr jump in basic
required reserves. Economists said this largely reflected the
parking in checking accounts of the proceeds from stock market
sales and mutual fund redemptions to pay annual income taxes.
Fed seasonal adjustments do not adequately compensate for these
and other special factors.
    Analysts noted that income tax refunds from the Treasury
also appear to be coming earlier than usual.
    They also are not adequately compensated for by the Fed's
seasonal adjustment factors to the money supply.
    The Federal Reserve is no longer targeting M-1 because the
link between M-1 and economic growth has largely been severed
by financial market innovation and deregulation.
    As such, there is likely to be little financial market
reaction to the huge M-1 increase that is expected to be
announced next week.
 Reuter

Word Economic Forum, told Reuters Algerian debt amounted to
 Reuter

Boeing Co said it confirmed orders
totaling 543 mln dlrs for 14 jet aircraft from four customers.
    The company said Delta Air Lines <DAL> has increased its
orders for the 767-300 jetliner by six, bringing its total
commitment for the longer-fuselage plane to 15, with a total
value of more than 300 mln dlrs.
   
    Boeing said <Lufthansa German Airlines> will take delivery
of five more 737-300 jetliners worth about 130 mln dlrs,
bringing its orders for the twinjets to 15.
    <Quantas> of Australia has ordered its first 767-300 with
extended range capability for about 75 mln dlrs, Boeing said.
    Boeing said <Air France> has placed firm orders for two
additional 737-200 twinjets valued at 38 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

will permanently close its fertilizer plant at Kimberley,
British Columbia, in the latter half of May and 140 employees
will lose their jobs.
    It said the operation has been losing money for several
years, and lost seven mln dlrs in 1986.
    Cominco said the decision to close the plant was based on
high production costs, anticipated continued losses and excess
capacity for phosphate-based fertilizers. The plant produced
98,500 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate fertilizer and
190,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid in 1986.
                                          
 Reuter

Nigeria's military government retreated
in the face of hostile public opinion and restored the minimum
wage of 125 naira (about 32 dlrs) a month.
    It revoked an order made only last December which exempted
companies with fewer than 500 employees -- the vast majority --
from paying the minimum wage.
    Labour Minister Brigadier Ike Nwachukwu, announcing the
decision in Lagos today, said it was made out of respect for
public opinion and to maintain industrial harmony.
    Nwachukwu said the thinking behind the exemption was in
line with Nigeria's far-reaching structural adjustment program
and the measure was intended to promote small-scale industry
and agriculture.
 Reuter

Consumer energy costs rose 1.0 pct
in March following a moderate rise last month, the Labor
    The March increase in the overall energy costs, including
petroleum, coal and natural gas, followed a 3.0 pct rise in
January and a 1.9 pct rise in February, it said.
    However, energy prices were 5.6 pct below year-ago levels.
of gasoline rose in March by 2.3 pct, after a 4.2 pct rise in
February.
    Gasoline prices were nonetheless 5.9 pct below their levels
as of March 1986.
rose in March by 1.4 pct, putting it 9.0 pct under the year-ago
figure.
unchanged last month, but down 3.1 pct from the March 1986
    The index has been updated to reflect 1982-84 consumption
patterns. Previously, the index was based on 1972-73 patterns.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bank Corp Chairman
Joseph Pinola said he was not optimistic about the prospects
for a resolution of the Brazilian debt situation during the
current year.
    "I am not as optimistic personally on a resolution as some
others are," Pinola told reporters after the company's annual
meeting.
    He said it did not seem likely that the Brazilian
government has the will to take the steps necessary to resolve
their domestic economic difficulties.
   
    In February, Brazil suspended interest payment on about 68
bln dlrs of its commercial debt. Many U.S. banks have placed
their Brazilian loans on non-accrual status as a result of this
action, but they also expressed confidence that Brazil and U.S.
lenders could resolve the situation before the end of the year.
 Reuter

FMC Corp said it will consider selling
to the public a minority interest in a subsidiary that will
hold the company's North American gold and precious metals
properties and operations.
    FMC said its board also authorized the transfer of the
metals properties to the newly formed unit.
    An unnamed investment advisor has been retained to help in
evaluating alternatives on the properties, which consist of a
wholly owned gold mine at Paradise Peak, Nev., a 30 pct
interest in a gold mine at Jerritt Canyon, Nev., and a 28 pct
interest in a gold mine near Austin, Nev.
 Reuter

First Interstate Bank Corp spent
about 3.5 mln dlrs on its attempted takeover of BankAmerica
Corp, First Interstate Chairman Joseph Pinola said.
    In response to a shareholder's question following the
company's annual meeting, Pinola also said that figure could
ultimately be lower depending on the outcome of negotiations
with the firm's insurers.
    Pinola explained that the company's insurance rates went up
"substantially" after last year's attempt to acquire BankAmerica
Corp.
    In February, First Interstate withdrew its 3.20 bln dlr bid
for BankAmerica and said it was no longer interested in the
acquisition because of BankAmerica's divestitures.
    During the takeover battle, BankAmerica sold its Italian
banking operations and its profitable Charles Schwab and Co
discount brokerage firm.
 Reuter

traders' immediate comments on the 13-state USDA quarterly
cattle on feed report were negative.
    Traders said that placements on feed and total on-feed
numbers were at the high end of expectations and will likely
weigh on futures tomorrow.
 Reuter

Stocks of paper and lumber producers
tumbled as a rumor spread that the Japanese may impose tariffs
on wood and paper products, analysts and industry officials
said. But, they said, logic and their own research do not
support the rumors.
    "Apparently a rumor is floating around trading circles
about the Japanese doing something about tariffs on wood and
paper products," Lowell Moholt, director of investor relations
at Weyerhaeuser Co said. "And we can only assume that this
rumor is one of the factors hurting the stocks."
    "I have talked to many people, some with government
contacts, and most of them have been mystified by the rumor,"
said Moholt.
    Nevertheless, International Paper <IP> fell 4-3/8 to
95-1/2, Weyerhaeuser Co <WY> two to 51-1/2, Potlatch Corp <PCH>
3-1/2 to 69, Great Northern Nekoosa <GNN> 3-1/8 to 85-1/2,
Temple Inland Inc <TIN> 2-3/4 to 57-1/4, Boise Cascade 2-3/8 to
74-3/8, Georgia Pacific Corp <GP> 1-1/2 to 43-3/4, Champion
International Corp <CHA> 1-3/8 to 36-1/2 and Pope and Talbot
Inc <POP> 1/2 to 36.
    "My sources told me there is no grain of truth to the
Japanese imposing tariffs," Sherman Chao, analyst with Salomon
Inc said. "The realities and the logic do not support these
rumors," he said.
    "The Japanese have a lot more to lose by imposing tariffs.
They are running a trade surplus," he said, "and if they
started a trade war it would hurt them more than the U.S."
    Chao said that U.S. producers annually export about two
billion dlrs of forest products to Japan. "Three quarters of
that is in the form of wood products, meaning logs, wood chips
and lumber, and the balance is paper products."
    "They (the Japanese) don't have any domestic sources to
make up for the restrictions," Chao said, "so it's not like
they would put a tariff to protect their own industry."
    "The rumors do no make economic sense, and I am skeptical,"
analyst Mark Rogers of Prudential Bache Securities said, "but
politics has been known to override economic concerns."
     Speculation has surfaced on Wall Street recently that the
Japanese would take action to retaliate against tariffs the
Reagan Administration imposed last Friday on Japanese
    Rogers said the rumor fueled the profit taking that was
already occuring in these stocks. "In a nervous market, people
tend to take profits, and they tend to take profits that have
been the biggest gainers lately."
 Reuter

announced it accepted three bids from two exporters for export
bonuses to cover sales of 54,000 tonnes of durum wheat to
Algeria.
    USDA said the bonuses awarded were 42.45 dlrs per tonne, to
be paid in the form of commodities from CCC inventory.
    The bonus awards were made to Cam USA Inc (36,000 tonnes)
and Corprostate Inc (18,000 tonnes).
    Shipment is scheduled for June 1-30, 1987.
    An additional 64,000 tonnes of durum wheat are still
 Reuter

Molecular Genetics Inc said
it has held preliminary discussions with a privately-held
company convening a possible acquisition.
    "No agreement in principle has been reached, and serious
negotiations on material terms have not begun," said Robert
Auritt, acting co-chief executive officer and co-president.
    Molecular said it would have no further comment on the
matter until an agreement in principle is reached or
discussions are terminated.
 Reuter

Reserve fell on April 23 to 6.211 billion dlrs from 9.431
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts rose to 25.154
billion dlrs from 24.953 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 31.366
billion dlrs on April 23 compared with 34.385 billion dlrs on
April 22.
 Reuter

The Soviet government said economic
results achieved in the first three months of the year were
unsatisfactory, the official news agency Tass said.
    Soviet industrial production from January to March grew by
2.5 per cent compared with the same period last year, but fell
short of its target by 0.8 percent, official statistics showed.
    "The Council of Ministers (government) emphasised that the
results did not meet the Communist Party's exacting demands for
the radical reconstruction of the economy," Tass said. "The first
quarter economic results were deemed unsatisfactory."
    The government said poor economic results last January,
when industrial production was 0.1 lower than in January 1986,
had been overcome to a considerable extent in March, but the
negative effects had not been completely eliminated.
     It singled out failings in the engineering, chemical and
timber industries, as well as light industry.
    Growth in the machine-building sector, a priority in
Kremlin plans for economic renewal, also fell short of target
by 4.2 per cent, with below-level output in nearly all branches
at a cost of 723 million roubles (1.08 billion dollars) in
undelivered products.
    The sales volume of consumer goods fell 2.7 per cent short
of planned growth, with a resulting decline in income to the
state, the figures showed.
    Foreign trade turnover totalled 27.5 billion roubles (41.25
billion dollars), or 4.8 billion roubles (7.2 billion dollars)
less than in the same period last year.
    The power industry, however, performed well. Output of oil,
electricity, gas and coal were all above plan.
 Reuter

Carmel Container Systems Ltd said
Mikhal Industrial and Development Management Ltd sold 202,500
shares to a group of private investors.
    After the sale, Mikhal retains a 49 pct ownership of Carmel
Plaro Holding Ltd, which owns 51 pct of Carmel Container
SYstems' outstanding stock.
 Reuter

Britain can look forward to fairly
strong economic growth, falling interest rates and firm
Sterling, Barclays Bank Plc chairman-elect John Quinton said.
    "We should see a reasonable decline in interest rates in
the next few months, but not a great one and not a rapid one,"
Quinton told a press luncheon.
    He said that whereas the British economy is growing at
about three pct, he expects only "minor" growth for the western
industrialized world as a whole. But, unless there is a major
move toward protectionism, there should be no need to worry
about a recession in the next two or three years.
    Quinton said much will depend on the resolution of trade
disputed between the United States and Japan.
    He said Tokyo, in resisting the appreciation of the yen,
had been "holding back the laws of economics." But if the
dollar has to fall further to reduce Japan's trade surplus, he
said he hoped the fall would be slow rather than rapid.
    Quinton said it will be difficult for the City of London to
stave off the creation of a powerful securities industry
regulatory body along the lines of the Securities and Exchange
Commission in the U.S., especially if there are more insider
trading scandals and if the Labour Party wins the next U.K.
election.
 Reuter

Unless U.S. refiners reduce the amount
of gasoline they now produce, the oil industry will enter the
coming summer driving season with the largest surplus of motor
fuel since 1984, oil analysts and traders said.
    "They key question is how much gasoline refiners produce in
the coming weeks," said Larry Goldstein of Petroleum Industry
Research Inc. "If refiners cut output and demand turns upward,
gasoline stocks could begin to draw, and the surplus could
potentially turn around in four to eight weeks," said
Goldstein.
    The American Petroleum Institute said U.S. gasoline stocks
for the week ended April 17 are 37.6 mln barrels above last
year's levels, and analysts said they don't believe the
expected one to two pct rise in demand will take care of the
surplus before the start of the summer driving season, which
begins Memorial Day weekend.
    The API said the last time stocks were this high was in
1984, when there was a 27 mln barrel excess. Oil traders said
that the surplus held throughout the summer of 1984, depressing
prices for the motor fuel.
    Over the past several weeks, analysts said they expected
refiners to reduce production because there was no profit in
continued production of gasoline due to the surplus. However,
refineries continued to operate at higher levels, they said.
    U.S. refineries have been running at about 78.8 pct of
capacity during March and April this year, compared to 77.5 at
this time last year, API statistics show.
    Because of the current excess in stocks, one planner for a
major oil company said he believed that most companies are
contemplating cutting refinery throughput over the near term.
    He said some refiners appear to be selling less
aggressively in order to have product on hand to meet the
expected rise in demand this summer.
    Goldstein said that other factors, such as higher speed
limits, the gasoline lead phasedown, and possible new
restrictions on gasoline vapor pressure could tighten the
supply situation this summer.
    However, a planner at another major oil company said that
although large inventories are dampening the price outlook for
gasoline this season, he does not expect refiners to cut output
soon.
    That oil company planner said high crude oil runs reduce
the refiner's average costs, making the incremental barrel of
gasoline cheaper to produce.
    Most analysts expect a slight upturn this summer over the
summer of 1986. Bo Poates, an analyst at the Energy Futures
Group Inc said he foresees demand up about one pct in the
second and third quarters of 1987.
    Chase Econometrics' Scott Jones sees gasoline demand rising
1.9 to 2.2 pct for the year, due mainly to continued low
prices.
 Reuter

Becor Western Inc said it set June 4
as the date for a special meeting at which stockholders will
vote on two proposals involving the sale of its subsidiary and
the acquisition of the company.
    The previously-announced proposals call for the sale of its
aerospace operations subsidiary to <Lucas Industries Inc> and
the related leveraged buyout of the company by <BCW Acquisition
Co>, the company said.
    Becord said May 4 has been set as the record date for the
special meeting.
 Reuter

Atcor Inc said a Federal Court has
reinstated a 1986 jury verdict against it and in favor of
Indian Head Inc for antitrust damages of 3.8 mln dlrs before
trebling and attorneys' fees.
    The company said it will challenge the ruling by the United
States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which reversed a
decision of the District Court in its favor.
    The case involved charges that Atcor acted improperly in
opposing Indian Head's attempt to have its plastic electrical
conduit sanctioned by the National Fire Protection Association
under the 1981 National Electrical Code, it said.
    Atcor said the ruling by the three-judge panel of the Court
of Appeal was incorrect and "seriously questionable in light of
established Supreme Court doctrine".
    The legal avenues to be examined in an attempt to have the
ruling reversed could include filing a petition for Supreme
Court review, the company added.
 Reuter

Commission house livestock analysts
agreed with Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor traders in
calling today's USDA 13-state quarterly cattle on feed report
and cold storage report for pork bellies negative.
    June live cattle futures are called 0.20 to 0.50 cent lower
on Monday and back months of cattle are expected 0.50 to 1.00
cent lower. Pork bellies are expected 0.50 to 1.00 cent or more
lower, the analysts said.
    Disappointment was voiced over the placement and total on
feed figures in the cattle report. Both the quarterly section
and monthly 7-state part showed the amount placed on feed and
on feed numbers at the high end of expectations.
    The other disappearance figure of only three pct above a
year ago in the 7-state section was also vieved as negative.
Most of the early guesses predicted a much larger number for
death loss following the two winter snow storms that struck the
west in late March, they said.
    However, weight groupings were friendly to the nearby
futures and should prompt some bull spreading on the decline,
they said.
    William Arndt from Dean Witter noted that the 900 to 1,100
lb steers and 700 to 900 lb heifers were at 94 pct of a year
ago and should lend some support to June futures. However, 700
to 900 lb steers at 119 pct will weigh on August, he said.
    "The big reduction in cattle weighing over 900 lbs should
be friendly to the market for at least the next 30 to 60 days,"
AGE Clearing analyst Jerry Abbenhaus said.
    Movement of bellies into frozen storage was at the high end
of expectations and should weigh on futures tomorrow,
especially as futures prices ended weak today, they said.
    Other parts of the cold storage report were also viewed as
negative to livestock and meat futures.
    "We have a lot of poultry in storage. Even though we have
smaller pork supplies, the decline is not enough to offset the
increases in poultry," Shearson Lehman analyst Chuck Levitt
said. Also, there is more beef in storage than last year and
this was achieved on smaller production.
 Reuter

Energy and mines minister, Wilfredo
Huayta, said Peru would maintain its freeze on new sales of
silver until the price of the precious metal reaches "the true
value this raw material should have."
    He spoke to reporters at the presidential palace after
meeting president Alan Garcia, whom he said recently spoke by
telephone with Mexican president Miguel de la Madrid. Mexico
and Peru are the world's two largest silver producers.
    Huayta, asked what the true price level of silver should
be, repled: "well, this cannot be predicted."
    He said Minero Peru Comercial (Minpeco), the government's
minerals marketing arm, would closely study the price of silver
in the world market.
    Last Tuesday, the government instructed Minpeco, which
handles all Peru's exports of refined silver and state-
produced ore, to immediately freeze all new silver sales until
the metal's price reached equilibrium in the world market.
   Peru plans to produce 63 mln ounces of silver this year, and
is the largest producer of the precious metal after Mexico.
   Huayta said both nations' central banks would coordinate
their work, but did not elaborate how they would do this.
   Peruvian central bank president Leonel Figueroa and the head
of Bank of Mexico, Miguel Mancera Aguayo, met in Mexico City
yesterday to coordinate actions aimed at consolidating the
upward trend in the price of silver, the official newspaper El
Peruano said today.
    Huayta said his Mexican counterpart, minister of oil, mines
and parastatal industry, Alfredo del Mazo, should be in Lima on
a visit at a nearby date.
   Huayta added Peru did not want to see great fluctuations in
the price of silver, but declined to comment on what Peru would
like to see as a ceiling for the precious metal's price.
   Silver bullion climbed to nearly 10.00 dlrs an ounce today
from about 5.70 dlrs an ounce a month ago.
 Reuter

money manager Mario Gabelli said it raised its stake in
Allegheny International to the equivalent of 1,026,261 shares,
or 9.4 pct of the total, from 884,061 shares, or 8.2 pct.
Gabelli and companies he controls said they bought a total of
142,200 Allegheny common shares between March 30 and April 22
at prices ranging from 24.125 to 24.875 dlrs a share.
    The stake, which includes some 11.25 dlr cumulative
preferred stock, was bought solely for investment purposes and
not to seek control of the company, the group said.
 Reuter

seeking comments on common provisions of the 1988 wheat,
feedgrains, cotton and rice programs.
    It said many program provisions are common to all the
commodity programs and decisions made in regard to one will
likely apply to other program crops.
    It asked for specific comments on the percentage reduction
for acreage limitation requirements under the wheat program,
the loan and purchase level, and whether a marketing loan, the
inventory reduction program and related provisions
should be implemented.
    The percentage acreage reduction of between 20 and 30 pct
must be announced no later than June 1, 1987 for wheat, it
said.
 Reuter

Brazil's trade surplus in March
totalled 136 mln dlrs, down from 1.13 billion dlrs in the same
month last year, the official Banco do Brasil announced.
    In a news conference, the director of the bank's Foreign
Trade Department (Cacex), Roberto Fendt, attributed March's 
weak performance to labour strikes.
    March exports totalled 1.43 billion dlrs, against 1.53
billion dlrs in February, and 2.16 billion dlrs in March 1986.
    March imports amounted to 1.29 billion dlrs compared to
1.27 billion dlrs in February and 1.02 billion dlrs in March
1986.
    Fendt said coffee earnings were up to 220 mln dlrs in March
from 110 mln dlrs in February, while oil derivatives were down
to 54 mln dlrs from 58 mln dlrs in February.
    He said that although the March results were considerably
lower than the same month last year, the government's target of
an eight billion dlr surplus for 1987 should be achieved. The
January-March trade surplus totalled 526 mln dlrs, below the
same period last year, which reached 2.46 billion dlrs.
    Asked to explain the reason for his optimism, Fendt said
the trade surplus should reach one billion dlrs in each of the
last six months of the year.
    Even though results in the exports of steel, shoes and
frozen concentrated orange juice were weaker compared to
February, Fendt said this was not an indication that the United
States was retaliating on account of its dispute with Brazil in
the issue of informatics.
    For the next three months, Fendt estimated a monthly trade
surplus of 400 mln dlrs, for an overall surplus of 1.2 billion
dlrs in the April-May-June period.
 Reuter

Analyst George Salem of Donaldson,
Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp upgraded his recommendation
on most U.S. money center banks following comments from a
Japanese official that Japan plans to provide developing
nations with up to 30 billion dlrs in loans.
    Salem said he changed his trading recommendation from
negative to a buy. He is still neutral to negative long term.
But the Japanese assistance is a psychological boost for the
stocks. He said his report focused on Citicorp <CCI> , J.P.
Morgan and Co <JPM>, Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> and Bankers
Trust Co <BT>.
    Yesterday, a U.S. state department spokesman said the loans
will help the countries import goods needed to increase
domestic production. The countries could then boost exports and
earn foreign exchange, making it easier to repay loans to U.S.
banks.
    "This is a group of stocks that was starving for good
news," Salem said. "I"m not declaring an end to the debt
crisis, or that problems of all the countries are now under
control."
    Stocks in the money center bank group were generally higher
today, adding to yesterday's gains.
 Reuter

Entwistle Co told the Securities and
Exchange Commission it has acquired 62,500 shares of Espey
Manufacturing and Electronics Corp, or 5.1 pct of the total
    Entwistle, a Hudson, Mass., machinery maker and military
contractor, said it bought the stake for investment purposes
and has no plans to seek control of the company or to seek
representation on its board of directors.
    But Entwistle said it has indicated its interest to Espey
management in acquiring a family-held 19 pct stake in the
company in addition to its current stake.
 Reuter

narrowed by three cents the price differential between the
Louisiana Gulf price of corn and posted country prices pegged
to the gulf price, USDA officials said.
    The change, effective April 27, means posted county prices
will be three cents higher in the region, Robert Sindt,
assistant deputy administrator of USDA's Agricultural
    Trade sources said USDA adjusted the differentials because
gulf prices had shown some weakness in recent days compared
with the rest of the country.
    Sindt said Louisiana Gulf corn price differentials that had
been between four and eight cents would, effective Monday,
range between one and five cents.
    Trade sources said cash bids at the Louisiana Gulf have
been between three and 4.5 cents weaker than in the rest of the
country in recent days, and that USDA's move would strengthen
the front end of the corn market.
 Reuter

Alexander's Inc said that although no
proposal has been received, the company has been served with
several shareholder complaints challenging the 47-dlr-a-share
acquisition price under consideration by Donald Trump and
Interstate Properties.
    Alexander's chairman Robin Farks said that an announcement
made earlier this month indicated that no assurance could be
given that Trump and Interstate would reach any agreement
regarding an acquisition of the company, or what price might be
offered.
 Reuter

High labour costs and slower corporate
investment could hinder Sweden's economic growth after 1987,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,
OECD, said.
    The Swedish economy grew at a slower rate in 1986 than in
previous years. GDP rose about 1.7 pct in 1986 compared with
2.2 pct in 1985. But this growth depended largely on external
factors, particularly lower oil prices, the OECD secretariat
said in its latest annual report on Sweden.
    It warned that labour costs had risen more rapidly in
Sweden than in other OECD countries.
    Because of high labour costs Swedish industry, which
largely relies upon export markets, was losing market share.
Wages in the manufacturing sector grew by seven pct in 1986, in
line with 1985 increases, while public sector wages rose an
estimated 9.2 pct in 1986, up from six pct in 1985.
    This was significantly higher than average wage increases
of 3.75 pct for the seven largest members of the OECD in 1986.
    The report said wage moderation was central to maintaining
economic growth in Sweden. It suggested that wage negotiations
should be at least partly centralised to control the total
wages bill and hold down inflation and unemployment levels.
    Helped by low oil prices and the government's tight fiscal
policy, inflation fell to just over three pct in 1986 from
almost six pct in 1985 but remained higher than in most other
OECD countries, the report said.
    Unemployment, a principal policy target, was at 2.7 pct in
1986, in line with 1985's 2.8 pct and well below the OECD
average of 8.6 pct. The report said Sweden's employment
policies accounted for the high levels of wage inflation.
    It also said that economic growth in 1986 relied
increasingly on private consumption because corporate
investment in machinery and equipment had shrunk.
    The total volume of industrial investments dropped by two
pct in 1986, with sharp declines in spending by the wood, pulp
and paper industries. This compared to a 19 pct rise in 1985
when there was heavy investment in these industries.
    The OECD said Sweden should now make an effort to boost
corporate investments and reduce its dependence on domestic
consumption for economic growth. It suggested there was room
for reform in the tax system.
    Sweden should continue to cut public sector spending,
especially in local government, to keep in line with its
tighter fiscal policy, the report said.
 REUTER

totalled only 136 mln dlrs compared to 1.13 billion dlrs in the
same month last year, director of the Banco do Brasil's Foreign
Trade Department (Cacex) Roberto Fendt said.
    In a news conference, Fendt attributed the weak performance
in the March trade balance to labour strikes in the country.
March exports totalled 1.43 billion dlrs, against 1.53 billion
dlrs in February, and 2.16 billion dlrs in March 1986.
1986.
    Fendt said that coffee earnings rose to 220 mln dlrs in
March from 110 mln dlrs in February while oil derivatives were
down to 54 mln dlrs from 58 mln dlrs in February.
January-March trade surplus totalled 526 mln dlrs, well below a
similar period last year, which reached 2.46 billion dlrs.
they were estimating that in each of the last six months of the
year the trade surplus would amount one billion dlrs.
 Reuter

The Peruvian government's freeze on silver
sales, which has contributed to a sharp boost in the metal's
price, could draw retaliation by rich nations and big traders
seeking lower prices, President Alan Garcia said.
    Peru, the world's second biggest silver producer, stopped
selling its refined silver and state-marketed ore on tuesday.
Since then, the metal's price has risen to its highest level in
nearly three years. It closed today at over nine dlrs an ounce
on world markets.
    Garcia said the move showed that a small nation like Peru
could move international markets and did not have to accept
cheap prices for silver, traditionally one of the top revenue
earners of the country.
    Peru exported its refined silver last year at an average
price of 5.40 dlrs a troy ounce. As recently as one month ago,
silver bullion was trading for about 5.70 dlrs an ounce on
    "One thing is that Peru, which produces silver, sells it
silently and in a submissive manner at the price world markets
want," he told reporters at the presidential palace.
    "The other is that a nationalist government says, 'wait a
moment I can't sell silver at these prices,'" he added.
    The peruvian energy and mines minister, Wilfredo Huayta,
said the government would maintain its freeze on new sales of
silver until the price of the metal reaches "the true value this
raw material should have." He did not specify this level.
    Garcia said rich nations and big traders, faced with Peru's
stance, could try to defend themselves.
    "They have some stocks, they have silver deposits, they can
make fictitious sales and that way try to make the price of our
mineral fall in the world market," Garcia said.
    "Whatever manoeuvre they take will be answered by Peru," he
said. "Peru is in a position of action."
    President Garcia had recently spoken by telephone with
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid, Huayta said. Mexico is
the world's biggest producer of silver.
    Mexico and Peru together produce nearly nearly 40 pct of
the world's silver, the official newspaper El Peruano said.
    The newspaper added that Peruvian central bank president
Leonel Figueroa and the head of the central bank of Mexico,
Miguel Mancera Aguayo, met in Mexico City yesterday to
coordinate actions aimed at consolidating the upward trend of
the price of the metal.
    Analysts in Zurich, a major silver trading centre, said
today the rally in silver prices was also fuelled by investors
buying the metal to protect themselves against inflation, which
they fear could be rekindled by the dollar's weakness.
    On an historical basis, silver is still relatively cheap
compared to gold, which some investors believe could set the
stage for further rises, they said.
 Reuter

2.5 pct compared with the same period last year, but fell short
of its target by 0.8 pct, official statistics showed.
timber industriess, as well as light industry.
 Reuter

AM International Inc said its third
quarter net income may not exceed the breakeven level.
    However, the company said its fourth quarter operating
profits are expected to be the largest of this year, and added
its operating profits for the full year should be more than
twice the fiscal 1986 year.
    AM International earned 8.5 mln dlrs, or 17 cts a share in
the third period last year. Its operating profit for the fourth
quarter last year was 6.7 mln dlrs. For the full year last year
AM International had an operating profit of 29.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Ecuadorean economy, struck by an
earthquake last month, will contract an estimated four pct in
1987 and its crude oil output will drop by 42 pct, the
government's national development council (Conade) said.
    A Conade report, dated April 21 and obtained, said that the
country's gross domestic product (gdp) would fall by an
estimated four pct compared to 1.5 pct growth last year. Conade
functions as the country's main planning institution.
    Crude output will fall to 61.2 mln barrels in 1987 from
105.6 mln in 1986, Conade said. It forecast exports of 22.9 mln
of crude and derivatives against 63.3 mln last year.
    The March five earthquake killed up to 1,000 people and
caused an estimated one billion dlrs in damage. It paralyzed
Ecuador's crude output because it ruptured the country's main
pipeline from Lago Agrio, at the heart of jungle oilfields, to
the Pacific Ocean port of Balao.
    It will take until at least end-July to repair the line and
return output to normal levels, oil officials said. Ecuador
output was about 250,000 barrels per day before the tremor.
    Conade forecast total 1987 exports of 1.77 billion dlrs,
572 mln dlrs of which would be oil and derivatives.
    Imports were forecast at 1.70 billion dlrs. Total 1986
exports were 2.18 billion dlrs, of which 979 mln dlrs were
crude and derivatives, with total imports 1.66 billion dlrs.
    Conade predicted that payments on Ecuador's 8.16 billion
dlrs foreign debt will be limited to 947 mln dlrs this year
against 1.489 billion dlrs last year. Conade's projected
ceiling on payments is not legally binding.
    The current account balance of payments deficit was seen at
934 mln dlrs in 1987. It was 696 mln dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

    Current rates are savings accounts and 24-hours two pct,
seven-day call, one and two-weeks 2-1/4 pct, one and two months
2-3/4 pct, three and six months 3-1/4 pct, nine months 3-1/2
pct and 12 months four pct.
    Prime rate is 6-1/2 pct.
 REUTER

A subsidiary of the Japanese
construction group Kumagai Gumi Co Ltd <KUMT.TOK> is seeking to
float its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, merchant
    They said <Kumagai Gumi (Hong Kong) Ltd> has appointed
<Canadian Eastern Finance Ltd>, <Sun Hung Kai International
Ltd> and <Wardley Ltd> as arrangers for the flotation. But they
declined disclosure of any further details.
    A spokesman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd <CKGH.HKG> told
Reuters the group's chairman Li Ka-shing also will take a 10-15
pct stake in Kumagai Gumi (Hong Kong).
    He said the privately held <Li Ka-shing Foundations Ltd>
will receive a certain number of shares in Kumagai Gumi (Hong
Kong) for injection into the company and up to 50 pct interest
in a 520 mln H.K. Dlr worth property project at Hong Kong's New
Territories.
    But he added the Cheung Kong group will have no interest in
the construction firm.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank is trying to keep
monetary policy tight in order to counter inflationary
tendencies, Bundesbank Vice-President Helmut Schlesinger was
    "We are trying to keep the monetary framework tight, so that
inflationary pressures cannot develop," he told the Frankfurter
Neue Presse daily in an interview.
    "Central bank money stock does not have to be reduced
because of this, but it must continue to grow modestly," he
said.
    Bundesbank spokesmen were not available for comment.
    On Thursday Schlesinger said in a contribution to the
Handelsblatt daily that the accommodative monetary stance in
West Germany caused by outside pressures could not determine
policy in the long term.
    The improvement in West German terms of trade, providing
room for non-inflationary expansion of domestic demand in
excess of output growth, put the overshoot of central bank
money stock in a more positive light, he said on Thursday.
    Central bank money stock, the Bundesbank's main monetary
measure, was growing at an annual rate of 7.3 pct in March,
above the 1987 three-six pct target range.
    Money stock overshot the 3.5-5.5 pct 1986 growth target.
    Schlesinger told the Frankfurter Neue Presse that the phase
of falling prices was over in West Germany.
    Prices might still be lower on a comparison with their
level one year earlier. But the cost of living index has risen
to 120.7 in March from its November 1986 low of 120.0,
expressing a slight rise in prices, Schlesinger said.
    In March the cost of living was steady against February but
0.2 pct below March 1986.
    Schlesinger said a rise of between one and 1.5 pct during
1987 would be acceptable, and effectively mean price stability.
    Agreements so far in the current West German wage round are
neutral as far as inflation is concerned because of the
strength of the mark, Schlesinger said.
    Wage agreements in the public service and engineering
industry were relatively high in view of the stable cost of
living. But the higher costs would be compensated for, he said.
    "I am thinking above all of the fact that in the course of
this year we will in all probability have a stronger mark
against other currencies than last year," he said, adding
"Without this mark revaluation effect, we would have had to say
that the wage rise agreements were not neutral for prices."
    Schlesinger said exchange rate movements had increased the
scope for redistributing wealth this year, but this development
was unlikely to continue in 1988.
    "For this reason I cannot comment on that part of the
engineering agreement which covers the coming years," he said.
    Some 2.3 mln workers for the public services received a 3.4
pct pay rise from January 1. An agreement for four mln
engineering workers raised pay by 3.7 pct from April 1, and
then raises pay by another two pct from April 1, 1988 and by
2.5 pct from April 1, 1989. The engineering agreement also cuts
the working week by 1-1/2 hours to 37 hours in two stages.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was
advised to work out a plan for his government to buy more than
one billion dlrs worth of foreign industrial products as part
of efforts to defuse Japan's trade frictions with the United
States, officials said.
    Former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe made the
recommendation at a meeting with Nakasone soon after returning
from a U.S. Visit designed to pave the way for the prime
minister's visit to Washington starting next Wednesday.
    Abe met President Ronald Reagan and U.S. Congressional
leaders during his visit.
    It was not known how Nakasone responded to the suggestion.
    It also included increasing the nation's untied loans to
developing countries to between 25 billion and 30 billion dlrs
over the next three years and giving foreign firms greater
access to a six billion dlr international airport project in
western Japan, officials said.
    Abe called for tax cuts and government funds to be funneled
into public works projects to stimulate domestic demand. Abe
spoke of the possibility that Nakasone's visit could coincide
with the passage of a protectionist trade bill by the U.S.
House of Representatives.
 REUTER

Japan"s 1987 car export
restraint to the European Community (EC) is not enough, EC
external trade chief Willy de Clercq said.
    There are also strong signs Japanese exporters are
diverting cars to the EC after the dollar"s fall against the yen
made their U.S. Market unprofitable, he told reporters after
meeting U.S., Japanese, and Canadian trade ministers.
    The EC has agreed that if it detects an abnormal diversion
in Japanese exports from the U.S. To the EC market due to
currency movements over the past two years, it will move to
prevent it, he said.
    Over the period, the yen has risen against the dollar
almost eight times as fast as against the European Currency
Unit, he said.
    Japan has set an unofficial, voluntary 10 pct rise in car
exports to the EC this year as part of its efforts to stop its
rising trade surplus with the Community, which hit a record 18
billion dlrs last year.
    But Japanese car exports to the EC so far this year jumped
over 30 pct compared to a drop of 17 pct in U.S. Sales, and a
seven per cent fall globally. "We think there is some diversion
there," said de Clercq.
    Japanese officials say the overall annual rise will be only
10 pct.
    "But even 10 pct is 100,000 cars, whereas we sell only
40,000 cars to Japan (per year) in total," he said.
    The EC is also demanding that Japan ease its strict checks
and requirements for imported cars, which Brussels says is a
non-tariff barrier.
    The EC is also worried because EC demand for cars is
falling this year, making any rise in Japanese imports even
more serious for EC auto manufacturers.
    De Clercq, who has taken a hard line on world trade
problems at this weekend meeting in central Japan, said the EC
appreciated Japan"s plans to cut exports and lift domestic
growth instead.
    "But even if all these measures are implemented, it will
take time. But there is not time," he said.
    "There are burning issues on the table which cannot wait. It
were better that the fire were put out immediately and not to
wait till the house burns down," he said.
 REUTER

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Central
Bank Governor Abdel Malik al-Hamar said any changes in the UAE"s
exchange rate policy would be carried out in conjunction with
other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
    In a speech opening a seminar on Arab exchange rate
policies, he noted the UAE had not changed the value of the
dirham against the U.S. Dollar since 1980 despite wide
fluctuations in the latter"s value against other currencies.
    "The exchange rate policy of the dirham has realised its
goals in the past and changes in this policy depend on
coordination and cooperation with other GCC countries," he said.
    The GCC states -- the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar,
Oman and Kuwait -- have agreed in principle to link their
currencies to a common grid.
    Their currencies are now linked either to the dollar, IMF
special drawing right (SDR) or, in the case of Kuwait, a
trade-weighted basket of international currencies.
    The UAE dirham can fluctuate within a band of 7.25 pct
higher or lower than 4.7619 to the SDR but has been fixed at
3.671 to the dollar since November 1980.
 REUTER

The World Bank, citing Pakistan"s progress
in its economic performance and fiscal policy reforms, said it
had agreed a 2.4 billion dlr aid programme for 1988.
    The bank said in a statement "substantial increases" had been
approved to help fund support for refugees from neighbouring
Afghanistan.
    But the bank said it had expressed serious concern at
Pakistan"s budget. "This year"s overall budget deficit is expected
to be larger than either either last year"s outcome or the
amount originally budgeted (for 1987)," it added.
 REUTER

Ministers from the major
trading nations have for the first time made a concerted
commitment to review the whole distorted structure of world
farm trade, Canadian Trade Minister Patricia Carney said.
    "We think we can get some movement on this," she told
reporters at a briefing following informal talks with the U.S.,
Japanese and European Community (EC) trade ministers here.
    Canada, strongly supported by Australia, has championed the
cause of both developed and developing nations which have seen
their farm trade suffer largely due to a farm subsidy war
between the United States and the EC.
    Japan"s protected agricultural markets have also attracted
criticism.
    The issue is of extreme importance to many indebted,
developing nations which often rely totally on one or two farm
sector exports to sustain their economies but which cannot
compete with the subsidised U.S. And EC products.
    "Canada can afford so many billions of dollars (to do so),
but many countries cannot," said Carney.
    She said the EC had changed its previous unhelpful attitude
and had raised proposals similar to those of Canada under which
to discuss the issue.
    Talks will now continue at the Organisation of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), which meets next month, and
at the series of discussions on a new world trading framework,
begun at Punta del Este, Uruguay, last year.
    Carney said Japan had also agreed to take a positive role
in the farm talks, and that the United States was willing to
see short-term progress, as long as long-term solutions were
not affected.
    Canada"s five point programme demands that farm product
prices must reflect open world market prices, that any support
for farmers incomes should not be linked to production
incentives, that there should be no new farm subsidies, no new
farm import barriers, and that any decisions should be
implemented collectively.
    The farm trade problem was almost completely ignored by the
industrialised world until Canada raised it last year at the
Tokyo summit of seven leading industrial powers.
    The distortions created by subsidies and protectionism have
created some absurd situations.
    For example, to protect its farmers the Japanese government
buys Canadian wheat and sells it at 10 times the purchase price
to Japanese consumers.
    "So we end up borrowing in the Japanese (financial) market
to help pay subsidies to keep our farmers while they make a
profit on our wheat to help pay the price support for their
farmers," said Carney.
    The problem causes pain for many nations and increases the
already dangerously high debts that they owe mainly to U.S.,
Japanese and EC banks.
 REUTER

Bank profits in the Gulf oil state of
Qatar are coming under renewed pressure and foreign banks are
retrenching further in one of the region"s most overbanked
markets.
    Results for 1986 show a year of declining profit for
several foreign banks, although locally-owned operations were
in some cases able to cushion the drop by increasing market
share.
    <Qatar National Bank SAQ>"s (QNB) General Manager, Abdulla
Khalid al-Attiya, said: "The economy is not improving as we
hoped... 1987 will be another difficult year for the banks."
    Oil-dependent Qatar, with a tiny indigenous population of
60,000 to 80,000 and an expatriate workforce estimated at about
280,000, boasts five local banks and 10 foreign bank
    Local and foreign bankers in the capital said the Gulf-wide
recession, aggravated this year by Qatar"s severe difficulty
marketing its crude oil at official OPEC prices, has taken a
heavy toll on the economy and bank profitability.
    As a result, the only U.S. Bank, <Citibank NA>, is thought
to be negotiating to sell its operation to the fast growing
locally based <Al Ahli Bank of Qatar QSC> which only started
operations in 1984, bankers said. Citibank would not comment.
    Other foreign banks have retrenched, with <Standard
Chartered Bank> cutting staff and others expected to follow.
<Banque Paribas> is examining a change in its status to admit
51 pct Qatari ownership in a bid to improve its access to local
business, bankers said.
    One banker added: "Weak profits are here to stay for the
time being. There is no cause for optimism at the moment."
    Sentiment had picked up briefly at the end of last year
when OPEC reached its accord to curb oil output and return to
fixed prices. However, it soon became apparent that Qatar was
having difficulty selling oil at OPEC prices.
    The soft spot oil market has left official Qatari crude
prices 20 to 40 cents more expensive and sales have been
running in recent weeks at 100,000 and 120,000 barrels per day,
well down on the nation"s OPEC quota of 285,000, oil sources
said.
    Bankers said this serious shortfall in Qatar"s revenue has
led to a new spate of payments delays from the public sector to
private contractors after a marginal improvement in January.
    Loan loss provisions continued to eat into bank profits
last year, as did the introduction of minimum reserve
requirements by the Qatar Monetary Agency. Trade financing has
almost dried up as a traditional source of bank income.
    Of the local banks, QNB conducts the bulk of the
government"s business and subsequently enjoys a huge advantage
its rivals cannot expect to match, bankers said.
    The bank reported a 2.9 pct rise in net 1986 profit to 93.1
mln Qatari riyals, while its balance sheet grew by 10.8 pct to
9.0 billion, making it by far the largest bank in Qatar.
    But the strong assets growth partly reflected bridging
loans for the public and private sector to tide government
departments and local business over the lean economic spell,
Attiya said. "Generally speaking, we are overbanked in Qatar," he
said, echoing a widespread feeling in the banking community.
    Other local banks fared less strongly. The second largest,
<Doha Bank Ltd QSC>, reported a 13 pct drop in net profit to
27.5 mln riyals, while <Commercial Bank of Qatar Ltd QSC>,
registered a decline to 18.5 mln riyals from 19.4 mln in 1985.
    The newcomer Al Ahli Bank, continued to expand rapidly and
reported net profit of 5.2 mln compared with 3.3 mln during the
start-up period from August 4, 1984 to end-1985.
    Bankers said the local banks had clearly begun to win
commercial deposits previously held by foreign banks,
increasing already strong pressure on non-Qatari banks to
reexamine their staffing levels and overheads.
    <Grindlays Bank PLC> recorded a net loss at its Doha branch
last year of 4.7 mln riyals after registering a nominal profit
in 1985 of 12,000 riyals.
    Two other long-established banks in the Gulf, the <British
Bank of the Middle East> (BBME) and Standard Chartered, also
found last year a difficult climate to make strong profits.
    BBME"s net profit fell to 3.2 mln riyals from 10.4 mln in
1985, but Assistant Manager John Farquharson said 1985"s result
had been artificially inflated by tax rebates on provisions.
    "Foreign banks are seeing their assets decline, while local
banks are increasing their market share," Farquharson said.
    BBME"s operating profit was steady in 1986, edging up to
12.3 mln riyals from 11.5 mln in 1985. "We are expecting the
same level of operating profit in 1987," Farquharson said.
    Standard Chartered"s net profit last year recovered slightly
to 1.6 mln riyals after a loss of 161,000 in 1985. Staff
numbers were cut last year to reduce overheads.
    Bankers said the lack of new construction projects in Qatar
means business is unlikely to pick up this year although hopes
are rising that the start of Qatari gas exploitation could
provide a boost. But the threat of higher U.S. Interest rates
may erode bank deposits as savings are moved offshore.
 REUTER

New York Federal Reserve Bank
President Gerald Corrigan opposed a further fall in the value
of the dollar but refused to say whether U.S. Interest rates
would be raised to protect the currency.
    "A further decline in the dollar or appreciation of the yen
at this juncture I would regard as counterproductive," he told a
    His comments echoed those made last week by U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker, who also warned against a further dollar
fall. The U.S. Currency plunged to a post-war low below 140 yen
last week, despite dollar-buying by a number of central banks.
    Currency speculators and investors are convinced that a
further dollar fall is needed to help reduce the huge U.S.
Trade deficit, dealers said. The only thing likely to help the
dollar is seen as a rise in U.S. Interest rates.
    Corrigan refused to say whether the U.S. Was ready to risk
damaging its economic recovery by raising interest rates.
    The dollar"s sharp drop this month has also raised questions
about the usefulness of recent meetings of the Group of Seven.
But Corrigan said: "They have played a constructive role in so
far as the broad objective of facilitating a higher degree of
economic policy coordination."
 REUTER

President Reagan warned the U.S.
Congress in his weekly radio address against passing what he
called dangerous, protectionist trade legislation that would
tie his hands in trade negotiations with Japan and other
    Reagan, who will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone here this week, said he would lift tariffs
imposed last week against some Japanese products as soon as
Tokyo complied with a U.S.-Japanese pact on semiconductors.
    U.S. Officials gave the same message to former Japanese
Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe in meetings in Washington last
week.
    In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Reagan said he
would tell Nakasone: "We want to continue to work cooperatively
on trade problems and want very much to lift these trade
restrictions as soon as evidence permits.
    Reagan said the 100 pct tariffs he imposed on some 300 mln
dlrs worth of Japanese goods was a special case of trade
retaliation and did not signal a shift in what he called his
staunch anti-protectionist policies.
    "In imposing these tariffs we were just trying to deal with
a particular problem, not begin a trade war," he said.
    But Congress is ready to approve tough trade legislation to
try to turn round the record U.S. Trade deficit, which has cost
millions of U.S. Jobs and closed thousands of factories.
    A vote on a trade bill sponsored by Congressman Richard
Gephardt is expected to come during Nakasone"s visit. It would
penalise nations with large trade surpluses and which are
alleged to use unfair trade practices.
    Reagan warned Congress that such action would undercut his
ability to negotiate on trade issues with Nakasone and others.
    "With my meeting with Prime Minister Nakasone and the Venice
economic summit coming up, it"s terribly important not to
restrict a president"s options in such trade dealings with
foreign governments," he said.
    "Unfortunately, some in the Congress are trying to do
exactly that," he said.
    Reagan said he would keep the American people "informed on
this dangerous legislation because it"s just another form of
protectionism and I may need your help to stop it."
 REUTER

Four trade ministers ended a
weekend meeting with a frank confession that their governments
are losing credibility in world financial markets and will not
regain it until they back their promises over trade and
currencies with action.
    "Until today we have anounced policies, but when it came to
action required it was done in a way that satisfied nobody,"
Japanese Trade Minister Hajime Tamura told a news conference.
    "From now on, if a government comes up with a certain
policy, it must be followed by action," he said following two
days of informal talks with the trade ministers of the United
States, the European Community and Canada in central Japan.
    Last week, the dollar fell to a new record low below 140
yen, despite statements from the Group of Seven (G-7) leading
industrial powers that currencies should be stabilised to
underpin world trade.
    "We need credibility to gain confidence. When we have
confidence, then we can have an impact," said Tamura.
    His colleagues agreed that when major trade nations fought
over trade issues while calling for each other to honour free
trade rules in general, it was not a sight which inspired
confidence in the markets.
    "The time has come now to act in step with the talk. If you
belong to a club, you have to act in concord with the rules, if
you want to be credible," said EC external trade chief Willy de
Clercq. Canadian Trade Minister Patricia Carney also agreed: "We
are meeting in a time of great trade tension. What the world
needs to see is that we have the political will to deal with
these problems we face."
    She said that next month"s meeting of the Organisation of
Economic Cooperation and Development and the meeting of leaders
of the G-7 nations in Venice in the summer would be a forum to
show this will existed.
    U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter reminded the news
conference that the results of such high level meetings could
lead to action which would only have an effect on smoothing out
world trade imbalances perhaps years later.
    "The media typically has a tendency to evaluate meetings
like this in terms of tangible results. That is not the way it
should be pursued," he said.
    "What is achieved in an intangible way almost always exceeds
what is achieved in a tangible way," he said.
    Progress in personal contacts and understanding each others"
positions and policies was just as important toward reducing
trade tensions, he said.
    Tamura read out an agreed summary of the joint talks:
    Currency stability was now essential, but currency
movements alone would not correct a U.S. Trade deficit with
Japan which hit 58 billion dlrs last year, an 18 billion dlr EC
deficit with Japan in 1986, and a Japanese global trade surplus
of almost 90 billion, he said.
    Trade retaliation, protectionism, and forcible export
restraints which lead to a shrinkage in world trade flows were
most dangerous, he said.
    The imbalances can only be solved by coordinated policies
over a whole range of fiscal, monetary, trade and industrial
measures, and in line with a body of internationally agreed
rules, he said.
    In this regard, the policing role of the Geneva-based
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade world trade body must be
strengthened, he said.
    The ministers reconfirmed their individual promises to
solve the problem. The United States will try to reduce its
large budget deficit and restore competitiveness within its
    Japan will introduce early and effective measures to expand
its domestic growth and rely less on exports.
    The EC must continue efforts for balanced growth and
reduced unemployment. All felt satisfied at the new progress in
the Canadian economy.
 REUTER

ministers resume discussions in Luxembourg tomorrow on tough
1987/88 farm price proposals from the bloc"s executive
Commission with only thin hopes of reaching a quick agreement.
    Their current chairman, Belgium"s Paul de Keersmaeker,
promised at the end of the group"s last meeting that if
agreement appeared in sight this week, he would keep his
colleagues at the negotiating table for long days and nights.
    But one diplomat told journalists: "I don"t think you need to
worry about that. We are a long way from the crunch yet."
    The commission has tabled a series of proposals which farm
experts say would together amount to the most swingeing attack
on overspending on the bloc"s Common Agricultural Policy, and
the biggest blow to farmers" incomes, in years.
    As well as cuts in common farm prices of 2.5 pct in the key
cereals sector, quality standards for farm goods sold into EC
surplus stores would be raised and the period of the year when
such sales were allowed restricted.
    The experts say prices received by farmers would be cut by
over 10 pct for many crops if such measures were agreed.
    The effects, however, would be mitigated by Commission
proposals unveiled on April 14 for generous cash grants to
farmers worst hit by the struggle to curb EC food surpluses.
    When ministers met on March 30 and 31 in Brussels for
initial discussions on the farm price package, several, notably
France"s Francois Guillaume and West Germany"s Ignaz Kiechle,
said the proposals were unacceptably tough.
    Only the Dutch and British delegations gave general support
to the Commission line that such drastic measures were
necessary to curb surplus food production in the EC and to
reduce the massive cost of the CAP.
    But even then, the British are among several delegations
which oppose the Commission"s controversial plan to raise two
billion European Currency Units through a tax on imported and
EC-produced oilseeds and fats.
    In order to seek common ground, de Keersmaeker plans to
spend the whole of tomorrow in bilateral meetings with each of
his colleagues in turn.
    Diplomats said although the ministers will meet together on
Tuesday, de Keersmaeker is likely to conclude that further
talks at the level of officials are necessary and that the hard
bargaining will have to wait until May.
 REUTER

mainly steady at yesterday"s higher levels in a market which saw
little activity due to the European weekend, dealers said.
    They said banks in the kingdom offered two and three month
deposits 1/16 of a percentage point lower, but there were few
takers.
    Rates for short-dated and other fixed period funds were
little changed following their sharp rise on Saturday brought
on by higher eurodollar deposit rates.
    Spot-next and one-week deposits were relatively unchanged
at 6-3/4, 1/2 pct.
    One-month deposits were steady at 6-3/4, 1/2 pct while
three-month funds eased to 6-7/8, 5/8 pct from 6-15/16, 11/16.
    Six-month deposits also declined marginally to 7-5/16,
7-1/8 pct from quotes of 7-3/8, 1/8 at the close of trade on
Saturday.
    The spot riyal was steady at 3.7499/7504 to the dollar.
 REUTER

Senior officials from the Group of
Seven (G-7) countries will meet next week to decide an agenda
for the body"s June summit scheduled to be held in Venice,
Japanese officials said.
    The meeting will provide senior government officials with
their first chance to discuss the recent sharp drop of the
dollar, although the main focus of the gathering is longer
term, they said.
    Deputy Finance Ministers, including Japanese Vice-Finance
Minister Toyoo Gyohten, will attend. The meeting will be held
in Italy, they said, but gave no other details.
    The leaders of the G-7, the United States, Britain, Canada,
France, Italy, Japan and West Germany, are expected to discuss
ways of improving economic policy coordination in Venice.
    The hope is that increased coordination will help reduce
the huge imbalances in world trade and calm volatile currency
markets. But economists say the strategy has so far not worked.
    Japanese officials admitted there is little more they can
do on their own to stem the dollar decline, which last week saw
the currency plunge to a post-war low below 140 yen.
    The officials said they expected sentiment against the
dollar to change soon, once the U.S. Trade deficit starts to
fall and the Japanese surplus begins to shrink.
    "We have already seen some signs of improvement (in the
trade picture), but the market does not appreciate it yet," one
said.
    Last week"s passage of the Japanese government budget by
parliament"s Lower House also paves the way for Tokyo to take
additional action to stimulate its sagging economy and boost
imports, the officials said.
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Plans for a new-style European
Community (EC) free of damaging budget wrangles receive their
first full review from EC foreign ministers today, but are
unlikely to gather much support.
    Diplomats said key EC capitals would voice strong criticism
of proposals that would lead to a sharp increase in EC budget
payments by bringing member states" contributions more into line
with national wealth.
    They said the EC"s current paymasters, Britain, France, and
West Germany, would lead the opposition to the plans, designed
to enable the community meet the challenges of the 1990s.
    Faced with a budget deficit this year of at least five
billion dlrs, EC Commission President Jacques Delors called in
February for a radical overhaul of the EC financing system.
    Such action was necessary, he argued, to end a damaging
cycle of annual budget crises and ensure cash for technological
research programs and regional and social spending projects.
    Ironically, diplomats said, the move could spark exactly
the type of row it was intended to avoid with industrially
developed northern states demanding assurances the new cash
would not be swallowed up by the poorer southern members.
    Delors" plans, by linking a country"s contributions to its
Gross National Product (GNP), would over the next five years
add some 18 billion dlrs to the present budget of 34 billion.
    Currently, contributions are calculated on a percentage of
Value Added Tax (VAT) returns.
    Under the new scheme, all countries would pay one pct of
their VAT receipts to Brussels. Extra cash would then be raised
in line with needs by a levy on the difference between a
country"s total VAT receipts and its GNP.
    London is one of the most resolutely opposed countries to
the scheme, arguing instead that money should be made available
from deep cutbacks in the EC"s heavily-subsidised farm sector.
    Unofficially many EC capitals secretly support the
wearisome budget wrangling, taking the line that the highly
diverse 12-nation Community can only take tough decisions when
forced to do so.
    The issue is further complicated by a possible general
election in Britain and acceptance that the EC problems cannot
seriously be addressed by London until those polls are out of
the way.
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Delegates from 46 countries are
gathering for the 20th meeting of the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) amid concern over the bank"s role in aiding regional
    The three-day meeting, the first to be held in Japan since
the bank"s inaugural meeting in Tokyo in 1966, will open
tomorrow with political controversy dogging its heels.
    Taiwan, one of the ADB"s founders, will boycott the meeting
for the second year in succession in protest against China"s
admission last year.
    Taiwan, which borrowed only 100 mln dlrs or 0.51 pct of the
ADB"s total lending of 19.4 billion dlrs over the past 20 years,
is staying away because its name was changed by the bank to
"Taipei, China."
    But the boycott is likely to be overshadowed by the
presence of communist giants China and the Soviet Union.
    Moscow is attending an ADB meeting for the first time in
what is widely seen as a first step to eventual full
    China is expected to obtain its first loans from the bank
in 1987.
    A senior ADB official said Peking, now the bank"s third
largest shareholder after the United States and Japan, would
also take one of the 12 seats on the bank"s board of governors.
    The official, who declined to be identified, expected
sparks to fly when governors met in formal session on Tuesday.
    He said calls for expanded bank lending were expected from
poorer countries in the Asia-Pacific region, hit by plunging
commodity prices, tariff barriers in export markets, a growing
resources crunch and balance of payments crises.
    But the U.S. Delegation was likely to repeat warnings ADB
lending should stress quality over quantity, the official said.
    The debate over ADB lending is fuelled by the bank"s highly
successful money management.
    With liquid reserves of about four billion dlrs, profits
have been rising steadily and touched 287 mln dlrs last year.
    The key indicator of the ADB"s reduced role in regional
development is its net transfer of resources -- loan
disbursements less repayments made by borrowers -- which fell
sharply to 237 mln dlrs in 1986 from 421 mln in 1985.
    In 1986, the bank approved loans totalling two billion
dlrs, but only to 19 of its 29 developing members.
    ADB chief economist Kedar Nath Kohli told Reuters the bank"s
ordinary lending had declined each year since 1984.
    "I"m afraid if you exclude India and China, it"s going to go
down even further in 1987," Kohli said.
    Kohli said developing countries in the region were entering
a period of painful adjustments.
    He said one country that seemed to be on the right track
was South Korea, which had bucked the regional trend of rising
indebtedness by cutting its foreign debt by about two billion
    One country that has complained about the ADB's lending
policies is Vietnam, which charged at last year's meeting that
the bank had cut off its aid on political grounds.
    The bank abruptly halted loans to Hanoi after the fall of
the Saigon government in 1975. Despite Moscow's presence,
however, the bank is not expected to change its Vietnam policy.
    The Philippines, the ABD's second-largest borrower in 1986
with loans totalling 316 mln dlrs, is happy with the bank's
role.
    Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin told Reuters he expected the
figure would reach roughly the same level this year.
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The Bank of Japan intervened buying
dollars shortly after the opening of 137.70 yen, dealers said.
    Strong selling from life insurance companies and investment
trusts pressured the dollar downward, but the U.S. Unit
steadied on profit-taking buying by petroleum companies and
intervention by the central bank.
    The dollar's upward potential looks limited as forward
dollar selling by exporters for commercial purposes is expected
above 137.80, dealers said.
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Japan's Jiji Press quoted Bank of Japan
Governor Satoshi Sumita as telling Japanese reporters the
central bank will continue determined market intervention to
prevent a further rise in the value of the yen.
    Sumita, who is attending an annual meeting of the Asian
Development Bank, also said he does not think the yen will
continue to rise, Jiji reported. He said the Bank of Japan is
keeping close contact with other major industrial nations on
concerted market intervention, Jiji said. He said coordinated
intervention is the only way to stop the dollar from dropping
too fast, Jiji said. The dollar fell below 138 yen today.
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The Bundesbank intervened in the Tokyo
foreign exchange market to buy a small amount of dollars
against marks through the Bank of Japan, dealers said.
    The West German central bank bought dollars when the dollar
was at about 1.7770-80 marks. Dealers' estimates of the
intervention amount varied from 100 mln to one billion dlrs.
    Some dealers said the Bank of Japan appeared to have
undertaken small-lot mark-selling intervention on its own
account.
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told a press conference the basic solution to currency
instability among major nations is economic policy
coordination.
    He said that is a time-consuming process as coordination
does not always proceed in a way policy makers envisage. "That
is democracy," he said. Upon that foundation, Miyazawa said,
there must be coordinated intervention. Major nations have
sufficient funds to continue concerted intervention, he added.
    "Without doubt this set-up of coordinated intervention will
continue to operate," Miyazawa said.
    Miyazawa said Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and U.S.
President Ronald Reagan are likely to reaffirm the Louvre and
Washington Group of Seven (G-7) agreements on currency
stability when they meet later this week.
    Asked whether the dollar is declining against all major
currencies, not only the yen, Miyazawa declined to make any
comments.
    He reiterated that many major nations have undertaken
coordinated intervention in recent weeks to prop up the dollar,
including countries who are not members of the G-7.
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CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said it plans to offer
3.50 dlrs a share cum-bonus for all the issued capital of
building products group Monier Ltd <MNRA.S>.
    The offer values Monier's current issued capital of 156.28
mln shares at 547 mln dlrs and compares with the latest share
market price of 2.80 dlrs, equal to last Friday's close.
    Monier recently said it proposes to make a one-for-two
bonus issue before June 30.
    CSR will shortly announce further details of the offer
including a CSR share alternative, it said in a statement.
    CSR said it currently holds 323,000 Monier shares or only
0.21 pct of the company's issued capital.
    Redland Plc <RDLD.L>, the holder of 49.87 pct of Monier,
has agreed with CSR that Redland will not accept the offer for
its stake initially, CSR said.
    Instead, CSR has granted Redland two alternative options,
the first giving Redland the right to accept the CSR offer at
the same price within six months of the closing date of the
bid, the company said.
    The second grants Redland the option to increase its Monier
holding to 50.1 pct in the same period.
    The second option is exercisable by Redland at 3.50 dlrs a
share, CSR said.
    Both option deals are subject to the approval of Monier
shareholders except CSR and Redland.
    As previously reported, Redland and Monier had been
discussing a possible Redland bid for Monier but the talks
broke off two weeks ago.
    CSR said Redland supports the CSR offer as a means of
establishing a fruitful joint venture in building materials in
which they both have interests. At the end of the offer, they
will discuss how these interests may be developed.
    Redland has indicated that it would be prepared to consider
at a later stage an increase in CSR's Monier stake to enable it
to become a CSR subsidiary, assuming Redland exercises the
second option, CSR said.
    It said the offer is generous because it will give Monier
shareholders a price equivalent to 16.8 times after-tax
earnings in 1985/86 ended June 30, a 25 pct premium over
Friday's market price and a 125 pct premium over last reported
net tangible asset backing per share of 1.57 dlrs.
    The offer is beneficial for both CSR and Monier
shareholders, CSR's chief executive officer Bryan Kelman said.
    "The acquisition will broaden CSR interests in building
materials by the addition of complementary domestic and
overseas businesses in concrete and clay tiles, metal roofing
materials and concrete blocks and piping," Kelman said in the
    "Importantly, the acquisition will provide CSR with new
growth opportunities in building materials both in Australia
and overseas," he added.
    Monier, which earned a net 32.49 mln dlrs in 1985/86, has
operations in a number of countries, including the U.S., Japan,
Britain and New Zealand, as well as Australia.
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CORRECTION - BUNDESBANK INTERVENES IN TOKYO
    In the Tokyo item "/BUNDESBANK INTERVENES IN TOKYO VIA BANK
OF JAPAN," please read in the second para: "Dealers' estimates of
the intervention amount varied from 10 mln to 100 mln dlrs."
Corrects figures from 100 mln to one billion dlrs.
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The Soviet Union is attending an
Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual general meeting for the
first time, but has not decided whether to apply for
membership, a senior Soviet State Bank official said.
    "No specific plans exist for applying for membership," Yurij
Ponomarev, international managing director of the State Bank,
told Reuters. "It's too early to draw up any plans."
    The USSR is attending the 20th meeting as an observer.
    "The sole purpose is to observe and collect information
first hand," Ponomarev said.
    He said the Soviet Union was responding to a long-standing
ADB invitation to attend the meetings.
    "This is one of the fastest growing regions in the world,"
the State Bank official said. "It is in our interest to have
good contacts."
    But those strengthened contacts will not be made at the
expense of the Soviet Union's other relationships, he said.
    Delegates here said the USSR move was connected to recent
efforts to develop closer ties with Asia. The policy was
announced last year by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in a
speech at Vladivostok.
    Moscow's decision to attend the meetings follows its
application last year for membership of the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
    Delegates said the USSR faces lacklustre growth and is
searching for ways to boost its economy.
    Although the ADB said political ideology is not a critiera
for membership, several delegates said politics would play a
large role in any decision to allow Moscow to join.
    Moscow's application would have to be approved by
two-thirds of the board of governors representing
three-quarters of the total voting power of member countries.
    The basic votes of the 47 members are all equal and total
one-fifth of all votes. The remainder are proportional to the
number of shares held by each member.
    Japan is the largest shareholder, at 15.1 pct, followed by
the U.S. With 14.9 pct and China with 7.2 pct.
    The U.S. Has more than 12 pct of the total votes,
insufficient to block a Moscow membership bid.
    Japanese officials said Tokyo has not decided its position
regarding the possibility of Soviet membership and said they
noted the Soviets had not yet made any move to join.
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Spring rain in the last few days has
helped ease a serious drought in most of north China, the New
    It said rain fell in Peking, Shandong, Hebei, Henan,
Shanxi, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Sichuan and parts of Inner Mongolia.
It said the drought in Shanxi, north Hebei, north Shaanxi and
Peking has basically ended.
    But snowfalls of 10 mm have affected spring sowing in
Liaoning, struck by abnormally cold and warm weather since
January, including rainfall 10 times more than normal in some
places, it said, but gave no more details.
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President Reagan is expected to tell
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone this week that the U.S. May be
able to lift trade sanctions against Japan by the end of June,
    The newspaper, quoting administration officials, said that
under such a scenario the President would announce just before
the June 8-10 economic summit meeting in Venice that he hoped
to lift the restrictions on electronics imports by the end of
the month. Japan, for its part, would have to show that it had
stopped underpricing semiconductors and had widened access in
Japan for U.S. Chip producers.
    The U.S. Administration imposed 100 pct tariffs on 300 mln
dlrs worth of Japanese color television sets, motorised tools
and personal computers on April 17.
    Japanese officials have said Nakasone's main demand when he
arrives for talks with Reagan on Wednesday would be the
immediate lifting of the tariffs.
    But with Congress planning further trade reprisals against
Japanese trade policies, the end-of-June timeframe is seen as
the best Reagan can offer, the Times said. It said some verbal
formulation was expected to be found in a communique that would
allow Nakasone to claim at least a modest victory.
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The Philippines has received a 300
mln dlr loan from the Japanese Export-Import Bank, Philippine
Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin told Reuters.
    Ongpin said the loan, carrying interest of 5.5 pct a year,
matches a 300 mln dlr economic recovery loan approved by the
World Bank in March.
    Ongpin said Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
expressed satisfaction at the recent rescheduling of the
Philippines' 10.3 billion dlr foreign debt during a meeting
here yesterday. The 14th yen aid package from Japan's Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund was also discussed.
    Ongpin said the Japan is expected to respond favourably to
a Philippine request to raise the aid level to between 75 and
80 billion yen.
    The aid package, originally scheduled for Japan's 1986/87
fiscal year ended March, was delayed because of the
Philippines' change of government last year.
    "The Japanese have indicated we may not get as much as we
are asking for in one big jump from the 13th yen package of 49
billion yen," he said. "But they are likely to bring it up to
that level for the 15th package."
    Ongpin said Manila had 14 projects in the pipeline for the
14th yen package.
    "We are trying get the 15th package mainly in the form of
untied commodity loans," he said.
    Discussion on a Philippine request for 500 mln dlrs in soft
loans to finance a land reform program, for which Japan is
expected to supply most of the financing, had been put off
until next month because of delays in preparatory work.
    Ongpin said he will make a strong pitch for the land reform
program in his speech on Tuesday at the 20th annual meeting of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here.
    Ongpin said the Philippines is very happy about the ADB's
support after President Corazon Aquino took over from deposed
leader Ferdinand Marcos.
    "But I would like to see them push more aggressively in the
field of lending to the private sector," he said.
    The Philippines was the bank's second-biggest borrower
after Pakistan in 1986, with loans totalling 316 mln dlrs.
    Ongpin said he expects ADB lending to the Philippines in
1987 to reach the same level.
    "They have told us they can lend us two billion dlrs if we
want. But we have to come up with the projects," he said.
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has cancelled a trip to Australia because of pressing business
at home, including the visit this week by Japanese Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, a Treasury spokesman said.
    The spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said, "I
would not draw any conclusion from the cancellation ... I would
just say it's the press of business."
    He said Nakasone's visit was "part of the press of business"
but denied the cancellation was linked to the current turmoil
in the financial markets.
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Fresh tremors hit the northern area of
the Indonesian island of Sumatra after an earthquake measuring
6.6 on the Richter scale yesterday and local officials told
Reuters they fear flooding after a dam was cracked.
    Contacted by telephone, they said the area around the town
of Tarutung, south of the city of Medan and about 560 km west
of Singapore, was shaken by more tremors this morning.
    The dam on the Sigeon river is leaking and there is a
possibility of flooding if it rains in the next few days before
repairs can be made, they said.
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Egypt is trying to persuade Arab states
and banks to buy its military debts to the United States and
other Western countries so it can repay them on better terms,
an Egyptian official said.
    "We want the Arabs to buy the debt and reschedule it at a
more reasonable interest rate of up to seven pct," the official,
who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
    Egypt owes the U.S. 4.5 billion dlrs in military debt and
has failed to persuade Washington to reduce interest rates on
it averaging about 14 pct.
    Eqypt also owes France an undisclosed amount, estimated by
Arab diplomats at over two billion dlrs, and has not serviced
the debt for over a year. Other military debts are owed to
Spain, West Germany and Britain.
    The official said negotiations on the possibility of buying
the debt have started, with approaches made to Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia, but no firm decisions have been reached.
    The official also said the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and Egypt have agreed on certain economic reforms in
return for emergency funds. An accord with the IMF would open
the way for Cairo to reschedule its 40 billion dlr debt.
    The official said the IMF agreement requires Egypt to raise
energy prices to international levels, unify its multi-tiered
foreign exchange system and raise interest rates.
    "Egypt will seek loans from various countries immediately
after the agreement with the IMF is signed," he said.
    "If an Arab country buys part of the military debt or gives
us guarantees, it will encourage banks to step in," he added.
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A fire damaged a large stock of
imported sugar stored in a customs warehouse at Karachi on
Saturday night, customs officials said.
    They said the warehouse contained about 15,000 tonnes of
sugar in 150,000 bags but they did not know how much had been
destroyed or damaged. They said the cause of the fire was
unknown.
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Malaysia may cut its base lending
rate by 0.75 to one percentage point from a current 8.5 pct in
June to stimulate economic growth, Finance Minister Daim
Zainuddin said.
    The last cut, of 0.5 pct, was effected by banks and finance
companies on April 1 following a Central Bank directive.
    The lending rate has been declining in recent months
because the Central Bank has injected more funds into the
economy, Daim told an assembly of the dominant Malay-based
United Malays National Organisation party.
    Daim, who is also the party's Treasurer General, said
Malaysia's gross domestic product growth in 1987 is likely to
exceed the one pct forecast in his 1987 budget presented last
year. He gave no details of the expected rise.
    GDP growth in 1986 was 0.5 pct.
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Taiwan's unemployment rate fell to 2.03
pct of the labour force in March from 2.37 pct in February and
2.79 pct in March 1986, the government statistics department
said.
    A department official said the decline was due to rising
employment in the manufacturing sector, including textiles and
footwear.
    The unemployed totalled 163,000 in March against 193,000 in
February and 216,000 in March 1986.
    The labour force fell to 8.03 mln in March from 8.14 mln in
February and 7.74 mln in March 1986, it said.
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Three Japanese trading companies and one
coin retailer will start selling Australia's Nugget gold coins
in Japan from May 12 after actively buying at the first
international trading of the coins last Thursday, officials
involved in the sale said.
    They estimated Japanese companies bought 30 pct of 155,000
ounces sold on Thursday.
    The coins are likely to be sold in Japan at prices similar
to the South African krugerrand.
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Algeria's national petroleum agency
Sonatrach and the U.S. Panhandle-Trunkline <PEL.N> group signed
a 20-year accord for the delivery of liquefied natural gas
(LNG), the official APS news agency said.
    Deliveries will start next winter and rise over three years
to reach 4.5 billion cubic metres annually, with 60 pct of the
gas carried in Algerian ships to a terminal at Lake Charles,
La., APS said.
   APS said the pricing formula will "preserve the purchasing
power of LNG and the interests of Sonatrach, and take into
account ... The world (and) the American market."
    The agreement follows months of negotiations between
Panhandle Eastern Petroleum Corp and Sonatrach over the new LNG
contract.
    The talks followed an accord in July 1986 which resolved a
long-standing dispute between Sonatrach and Panhandle
subsidiary <Trunkline Gas Co> after the U.S. Group unilaterally
suspended purchases of Algerian LNG.
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Foreigners were net sellers of Japanese
stocks in the week ended April 17 for the seventh consecutive
week, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said.
    Net sales were 112.15 billion yen against 105.80 billion
the previous week.
    Overseas investors sold shares worth 727.08 billion yen on
the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya Exchanges, down 5.3 pct from the
previous week. They bought stock worth 614.93 billion yen, down
5.2 pct.
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Central bank governors
from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet here this
week for two separate conferences on finance and monetary
problems, the Central Bank of Barbados said.
    The 24th session of Central Bank governors of the American
continent opens today for two days and the central bank
governors of Latin America and Spain will hold a separate
conference from April 29-30.
    Representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and other international financial
organisations will attend both conferences.
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Finance minister Manuel Azpurua said he
will visit Japan in mid-May to seek new credits for planned
expansion in Venezuela's state-owned aluminum, steel and
petrochemical industries.
    Azpurua told reporters he will be accompanied by central
bank president Hernan Anzola and director of public finance
Jorge Marcano.
    "The idea is to hold meetings with Japanese economic and
financial authorities, with the banks which have business and
credits in Venezuela and with some of the Japanese companies
already active here," Azpurua said.
    Azpurua said he was optimistic about the trip, in light of
Japan's recent announcement it will disburse 30 billion dlrs in
new credit to Latin American countries.
    "I think this trip is being taken at an opportune time and
will allow us to reveal the potencial which this country holds
for the Japanese economic community," Azpurua said.
    He would not say how much Venezuela will seek in credits
from Japan.
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Japan's preliminary industrial production
index (base 1980) rose 0.7 pct to a seasonally adjusted 122.8
in March from the previous month, the Ministry of International
    Production had fallen 0.2 in Feburary from a month earlier.
    The preliminary, unadjusted March index fell 0.2 pct from a
year earlier after remaining flat in Feburary.
    The adjusted March producers' shipment index (same base)
fell 0.6 to 117.3 from February. The unadjusted index rose 0.3
    The adjusted March index of producers' inventories of
finished goods (same base) rose 0.7 pct to 105.4 from Feburary.
The unadjusted index fell 1.1 pct from a year earlier.
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market, buying a moderate amount of dollars around 137.80-85
yen, dealers said.
    Some dealers noted talk that the Bundesbank intervened here
directly buying dollars against marks, after reports that it
intervened through the Bank of Japan in the morning.
    The dollar moved up on short-covering aided by the central
bank intervention, they said.
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The U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Malcolm Baldrige said a further decline of the dollar would not
be productive.
    He told reporters here that Treasury Secretary James Baker
"feels, and I feel the same way, that a further dollar fall
would be counterproductive."
    Baldrige also said governments cannot determine long-term
currency exchange rates and that currencies would eventually
reflect underlying economic fundamentals.
    The U.S. Commerce Secretary is in Hong Kong after stops in
Peking and Seoul on an Asian trade tour.
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C. Itoh and Co Ltd <CITT.T> said in a
statement it has agreed in principle to buy a Cray Research Inc
<CYR> X-MP supercomputer worth 8.3 mln dlrs.
    The computer will be paid for and used by the Century
Research Center (CRC), a research body specialising in civil
engineering, in which C. Itoh has a 36.2 pct stake, a company
spokesman said. The final contract will be signed on May 15 and
delivery is scheduled for December this year.
    The U.S. Administration has been urging Japan to buy more
U.S. Supercomputers to help relieve trade friction and reduce
Japan's trade surplus with the U.S.
    The supercomputer will the eighth such machine sold to a
Japanese concern, the spokesman said.
    He said Cray has about 70 pct of the world supercomputer
market but under 10 pct in Japan.
    Fujitsu Ltd dominates the Japanese market for such
machines, industry sources said.
    Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, which bought a Cray
supercomputer in 1984 when it was publicly-owned, is the only
government-owned entity to have done so. Trade Minister Hajime
Tamura was quoted as saying last week that the government is
considering buying U.S. Supercomputers.
 REUTER

A Chinese newspaper said the country
must be careful about introducing credit instruments to avoid
the risk of an uncontrolled credit expansion.
    It said: "The introduction of credit, while undoubtedly
facilitating business, could result in unhealthy expansion of
the volume of money in circulation..." adding that the ordinary
consumer must learn how to use credit wisely.
     The paper said in an editorial that "a sound approach and
one that will not entail the risks of introducing uncontrolled
expansion of credit into the monetary system is the present one
of issuing renminbi in larger denomications."
    Today, the first two of nine new bank notes, including
notes for 50- and 100-yuan were introduced. The largest
denomination had been 10 yuan.
    The paper said the new notes are necessary because of the
rapid development of the economy, which has made it
inconvenient to carry large amounts of cash in small
denominations.
    Economists have been urging that personal cheques, buying
on instalment, letters of credit and credit cards be introduced
more widely, it added.
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India, which received its first
loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1986, expects to
increase borrowing this year, an Indian official said.
    The official, a member of the Indian delegation at the
ADB's annual meeting here, told Reuters the bank is likely to
approve three loans totalling between 350 and 400 mln dlrs in
1987, up from the 250 mln in two loans in 1986.
    The official said negotiations on a 100 mln dlr loan for
the modernisation of the Haldia and Madras ports had been
completed and only need approval by the bank's board.
    The official said an ADB team is now in India for a survey
of the second project involving imports of railway locomotives.
He said the bank was also likely to extend a credit line to the
Industrial Development Bank of India.
    The ADB in 1986 extended a 100 mln dlr line of credit to
state-owned Industrial Finance Corp of India.
    The official said the ADB wants to gradually expand lending
to India. "They (the bank) do not want their traditional
borrowers from smaller countries in the region to get
overwhelmed by (India and China)," he said. China is expected to
receive its first ADB loan this year.
    "We are quite satisfied at having opened this new window in
borrowing," the official said. "Our projects are being vetted
quickly. We have no complaints."
    He said the ADB in any case would not be able to match
Indian borrowing needs.
    "In fiscal 1986/87 ending June India will borrow two billion
dlrs from the World Bank alone," he said.
    "That represents the total ADB lending to all its borrowers
in 1986."
    The official said total Indian development assistance from
multilateral and bilateral creditors is likely to total four
billion dlrs in 1986/87.
    Asked to comment on U.S. Criticism of the quality of ADB
lending, the official said: "The ADB is a regional bank and
ought to have a better understanding of realities in Asia."
    "You cannot apply World Bank conditionalities everywhere," he
said. "The U.S. Cannot impose one yardstick for every country."
 REUTER

Taiwan accused China of trying to
downgrade its international status by forcing the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) to change its name in the organisation.
    Taiwan is boycotting the annual meeting of the ADB, which
opened in Tokyo today, in protest at the Bank's decision to
change its name to "Taipei, China" from "Republic of China" after
admitting China as a member.
    "It is a plot by China to downgrade Taiwan's status in the
organisation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cheyne Chiu told a
 REUTER

The Reagan Administration is
considering tax incentives to boost oil output and restore
100,000 jobs, U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington said.
    A tax credit for new exploration would be part of a package
to bring 1,000 idle drilling rigs back into operation and raise
domestic production by one mln barrels a day, he said.
    The tax status of exploration might also be changed,
Herrington told reporters at the World Petroleum Congress.
    He said the oil industry was experiencing difficult times
internationally and had been devastated in the United States.
    Consumer demand and a significant decline in domestic
production has resulted in a rise in oil imports of one mln
barrels a day in over the last 16 months, Herrington said.
    "Steps must be taken...To reverse the downturn in our
domestic energy industry and to safeguard and increase our
energy security," he said.
    The administration is committed to improving marketplace
conditions and incentives to spur exploration and development.
    "This commitment includes rejecting quick fix solutions,
like an oil import fee, which are bad for the United States and
bad for the world," he added.
 REUTER

Bangladesh's overall balance of payments
deficit narrowed to 3.03 mln U.S. Dlrs in November from 8.3 mln
in October and 22.63 mln in November 1985, Central Bank
    The current account deficit increased to 28.68 mln dlrs in
November against 10.69 mln in October and 55.19 mln in November
1985.
    The trade deficit rose to 88 mln dlrs from 36.36 mln in
October and 86.2 mln in November 1985.
 REUTER

Total world closing stocks of primary
zinc at smelters, excluding Eastern Bloc countries, fell 31,800
tonnes to 432,800 tonnes in March from a corrected February
figure of 464,600 tonnes, provisional European Zinc Institute
    This compares with 403,300 tonnes in March last year.
    Total European stocks of primary zinc, excluding
Yugoslavia, fell 10,100 tonnes to 149,900 tonnes in March from
160,000 tonnes in February, against 131,300 tonnes in March
last year.
 REUTER

President Jaime Lusinchi is preparing
an economic package in response to demands from organised
labour in Venezuela for a general wage increase and controls on
inflation, the state news agency Venpres reported.
    Venpres said the plan includes pay hikes and a "strategy
against indiscriminate increases in prices or speculation."
    The Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV), the country's
largest labour group, last week proposed a general wage
increase of between 10 and 30 pct and a six-month freeze on
consumer prices and on layoffs.
    The CTV asked Lusinchi to respond to its proposal before
the May 1 Workers' Day holiday.
    Labour's demands comes as private economists forecast
inflation will reach between 25 and 30 pct in 1987 as the
country begins to feel the effects of the December devaluation
of the bolivar by 100 pct against the dollar.
    Inflation increased 4.2 pct in the first two months of
1987, almost double the rate in the same 1986 period.
    Venpres said Lusinchi is prepared to approve some price
increases, but intends to protect the public against
speculation and indiscriminate hikes in the cost of living.
 REUTER

told a parliamentary Upper House budget committee that he does
not think the dollar is in a freefall.
    He said concerted intervention is only a supplementary
measure to moderate volatility in exchange rates and repeated
that policy coordination among major industrial nations is
necessary. "We cannot expect currency stability only through
coordinated market intervention," he said.
    Miyazawa also told the committee the U.S. Has not called on
Japan to cut its 2.5 pct discount rate.
    Miyazawa said the government is not considering investing
in U.S. Government bonds to help stabilize exchange rates. This
matter has to be dealt with carefully because it involves the
public's money and exchange rates are moving widely, he added.
    The ministry will consider where to invest its funds when
exchange rates become stable, he said.
    Asked if Japan is considering a request to the U.S. For it
to raise its discount rate to stabilize exchange rates,
Miyazawa said the U.S. Has not been able to take action now
because it has to maintain its economic growth.
 REUTER

Good soaking rain is boosting the sugar
cane crop in the key Mackay region of Queensland following a
prolonged dry spell relieved only by intermittent falls, an
Australian Sugar Producers Association spokesman told Reuters.
    The rains began late last week, developed into heavy
downpours over the weekend and are continuing today, he said
from Brisbane.
    The Mackay and Burdekin regions, which together grow about
half the Australian cane crop, have been the Queensland cane
areas hardest hit by unseasonal dry weather since December.
    The spokesman said the rain missed the Burdekin area, just
to the north of the Mackay region on the central Queensland
coastal fringe, although recent light showers have freshened
the crop there.
    Owing to the dry spell in the Mackay and Burdekin areas,
the overall 1987 Australian cane crop is likely to be below the
25.4 mln tonnes crushed in 1986 for a 94 net titre raws outturn
of 3.37 mln tonnes, he said.
    But any decline will not be as great as seemed likely a
couple of months ago when it appeared the Mackay-Burdekin crops
were going to suffer badly, he said.
    Preliminary crop estimates are expected to be available
early next month, the spokesman said.
    The crush in the Mackay-Burdekin is likely to start later
this year, in late June or early July against mid-June last
year, to allow the cane to grow and sweeten further, he said.
    The crush normally runs to around the end of December.
    Elsewhere in the sugar belt, the cane is doing well, with
some mill areas expecting record crops, he said.
    Industry records show variations in the crop are not always
mirrored in raws output. In 1985, 24.4 mln tonnes of sweeter
cane than in 1986 produced 3.38 mln tonnes of raws.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank urged the West German
government not to relax efforts to rein in spending when taxes
are cut in a 1990 fiscal reform package, saying that higher
expenditure could lead to a dangerous rise in interest rates.
    The Bundesbank's 1986 annual report said the government's
choice of measures to compensate for any cut in tax income was
a key political task. "There will also be consequences for the
state's attitude on spending," it said.
    It added that, while tax cuts should have a stimulatory
effect on the economy, the government should not expect any
significant increase in tax income in the short-term.
    The reform will cut taxes by a gross 44 billion marks, of
which 19 billion marks will be financed through as yet
unspecified measures.
    The Bundesbank noted that reducing tax preferences and
financial grants as well as raising some indirect taxes were
being considered.
    "As experience shows that a tax cut is not self-financing
... The question remains of how the rest of the tax cuts will
be financed," the Bundesbank said.
    The Bundesbank noted that in 1986, spending had increased
by more than the three pct annual average rise for 1982 to
1986. If this three pct limit were exceeded over a long period,
there would be a danger that increased new borrowing would be
necessary to finance deficits.
    It added that interest rates in West Germany were now low,
partly because of a high influx of foreign funds. But the
situation would become more difficult if the government's
credit requirements increased massively. "The anticipated
stimulatory effects on the economy from the tax cuts could be
thrown into jeopardy by higher interest rates," it said.
 REUTER

Germany's current account and trade
surpluses should narrow sharply in 1987 but they will take a
long time to get back to normal levels, the Bundesbank said in
its 1986 yearly report.
    The procedure would be slow as an abrupt turnaround in
external factors such as oil prices and exchange rates was not
expected. It did not specify what levels it considered normal.
    West Germany posted a record trade surplus of 124 billion
marks in 1986, after 86 billion in 1985 and its current account
surplus widened to 76.50 billion from 44.6 billion.
    Signs imports would continue to rise, a factor already
noted at the start of 1986, while exports rose only slightly,
would lead to a smaller trade surplus, the Bundesbank said.
    In real terms, West German imports rose 5.7 pct in 1986
while exports only increased by 0.8 pct.
    Germany's current account surplus widened to a provisional
6.6 billion in February from 4.8 billion in January but was
down from 6.85 billion posted in February 1986.
billion marks from 7.2 billion in January and was still above
the 6.84 billion reached in the same month the year before.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan's deputy governor
Yasushi Mieno told a parliamentary Upper House budget committee
that the central bank has no monetary measures other than
intervention planned to stabilize currency rates.
    He also said the Bank of Japan is not considering a cut in
its 2.5 pct discount rate.
    Mieno said the central bank is determined to restore
currency stability through intervention by the major industrial
nations as recent exchange rate volatility stems from
speculation. Economic fundamentals have not changed, he added.
 REUTER

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm
Baldrige said he hopes Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone will make specific proposals to ease U.S.-Japan trade
friction at a meeting with President Reagan this week.
    He also told reporters he hopes the U.S. Will soon be able
to lift sanctions imposed against Japan for alleged violations
of an accord on semiconductors.
    "We have been very specific about our trade problems," he
told a news conference during a stopover in Hong Kong. "I hope
(Nakasone) brings some specific answers to the trade problems."
    "We want to lift the sanctions as soon as possible," Baldrige
said.
    He said that once the U.S. Determines that Japan is selling
semiconductors at cost it will be able to lift the 300 mln U.S.
Dlrs of duties it imposed on Japanese electronics goods on
April 17.
    "We have not seen that yet," he said, adding that it would
take about one month to determine whether the alleged
violations of a bilateral semiconductor pact had been
discontinued.
    Baldrige did not say what specific solutions he wanted for
U.S.-Japan trade problems.
    But the New York Times today quoted administration sources
as saying that the U.S. May be able to lift trade sanctions
against Japan by the end of June.
    Japan would have to show that it had stopped underpricing
semiconductors and had widened access in Japan top U.S. Chip
    Baldrige also said that despite the current trade rift, the
U.S. And Japan have long had friendly ties that neither side
wants to change.
    "We have a very special relationship with Japan. Japan is a
friend and our ally," Baldrige said. "Neither one of us wants
that to change."
    He also repeated statements that he did not foresee a trade
war with Japan but that the U.S. Had no choice but to impose
the trade sanctions.
 REUTER

Central bank money stock was growing
at about seven pct in the first quarter of 1987, down from
9-1/2 pct in the second half of 1986, so there are signs that
the pace of growth is slowing even though it is still above
target, the Bundesbank said in its 1986 annual report.
    The Bundesbank set a target range of three to six pct
growth from fourth quarter 1986 to fourth quarter 1987 for
central bank money stock. In the previous year it grew 7.7 pct,
outside the 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 pct target range.
    The Bundesbank noted that monetary policy in 1986 was
limited by a series of external factors.
    These included the revaluation of the mark, growing foreign
payments surpluses of non-banks, and currency inflows.
    The Bundesbank therefore tolerated the monetary overshoot
in 1986, as an attempt to counter monetary expansion with
interest rate and liquidity moves would have increased upward
pressure on the mark, it said.
    The lower end of the 1987 target range would be realistic
if a large part of funds currently held in a liquid form were
invested in long-term bank accounts or bonds, public bonds or
foreign securities, the Bundesbank said.
    But if companies and private households continue to hold
their funds in liquid forms, or if there are further currency
inflows, growth will be closer to the upper end of the range.
    "The more the conflict between external constraints and
domestic objectives relaxes -- and many things point to this at
the time of writing this report -- the more possible it will be
to do justice again to the medium-term concept of money supply
control," the Bundesbank said.
    It noted that prices were beginning to tend upwards again
at the start of 1987.
    There would be virtually no easing of other production
costs in 1987 to compensate for the rise in unit-wage costs.
    "Nevertheless, no inflationary trends are likely to set in
this year," the Bundesbank said.
    A link between excessive monetary growth and intensifying
price rises can only be observed in the long term, it added.
    The continuing trend for non-banks to switch into long-term
borrowing to take advantage of low interest rates, while for
the same reason shunning long-term investments, increases the
risks in changing interest rates for banks refinancing
themselves with variable-interest deposits, it added.
 REUTER

A top United Arab Emirates (UAE)
banker said a new law would be introduced soon obliging courts
to recognise interest rates contracted between bank and
borrower.
    Sheikh Suroor bin Sultan al-Dhahiri, Chairman of Abu Dhabi
Commercial Bank, told reporters after the shareholders' meeting
last night the decree would make interest in debt cases payable
at the contracted rate up to the day a case is filed in court.
    Subsequently, interest would be charged at a maximum nine
pct for personal and 12 pct for corporate loans, he said.
    The law, if passed, would mark a breakthrough in solving
what UAE bankers say is one of their biggest problems,
collecting bad debts in court.
    Under current UAE law in all emirates, except Dubai, courts
recognise only simple interest at a maximum nine and 12 pct
even if a loan was contracted at higher compounded rates.
    The Central Bank said last year that roughly a quarter of
total loans in the UAE banking system were non-performing.
Sheikh Suroor also said a judicial committee set up to consider
debt cases would begin functioning within a month.
 REUTER

Attempts to hold currency rates
rigidly within tight ranges through European Monetary System
intramarginal intervention can be counterproductive, bringing
funds into the stronger currency from the weaker at rates still
considered fairly favourable, the Bundesbank said.
    "The movements thus sparked can actually promote the weaker
tendency of a currency, requiring still larger obligatory
intervention when rates hit band limits," it said in its 1986
annual report. The other danger was that money supply expansion
could be caused in the stronger currency nation without its
central bank being involved in the activity.
    "For this reason, currency levels should be allowed as much
room for manoeuvre as possible inside the band limits when a
currency is in a phase of weakness," the Bundesbank said.
    "In addition, speculative positions are made more expensive
to hold when interest differentials are increased."
    In the report, the Bundesbank gave a rare glimpse of the
extent of intramarginal and obligatory EMS intervention that
has taken place since the foundation of the eight-currency
system on March 13, 1979.
    Obligatory intervention is that required by EMS central
banks when a currency reaches its agreed limit against another
participating unit.
    Intramarginal intervention is undertaken on agreement
between central banks when speculative pressure moves a
currency in an unwanted direction, although it may not yet be
near any allowed EMS limits.
    At the start of this year, central banks were very actively
selling marks and supporting weaker currencies, primarily the
French franc, as speculative EMS pressure grew.
    But the announcement by the Bank of France that it was
ceasing intramarginal intervention sent the franc straight to
its then-permitted floor of 31.8850 marks per 100.
    Data in the Bundesbank report showed the EMS central banks
bought a net total 29.9 billion marks after the April 6, 1986
realignment until the selling petered out on July 7.
    But this was far outweighed by net purchases between July
8, 1986, and the realignment on January 12 this year totalling
63.0 billion marks - 44.1 billion of which was intramarginal
and 18.9 billion was obligatory intervention.
    The data showed that 17.4 billion marks of the total
eventually filtered into the West German monetary system.
    Since the latest realignment, central banks have bought
16.1 billion marks in intramarginal intervention, the
Bundesbank said, without naming the banks involved.
    Only very high activity after the March 21, 1983
realignment came close to matching moves up to last January.
Then, central banks bought a massive 61.6 billion marks in the
period up to July 1985, mainly to stabilise the EMS as the
dollar surged.
    This then turned into mark sales of a net 34.0 billion from
July 11, 1985 in the run-up to the April 1986 realignment.
 REUTER

Chancellor Helmut Kohl has decided to
keep Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl in office for a
further eight years, the news magazine Der Spiegel said.
    Government officials were not immediately available to
comment on the report, which said that because Poehl is a
member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Kohl had not taken
the decision lightly.
    Poehl has been Bundesbank chief since January 1, 1980,
while Kohl's conservative/liberal coalition has held power
since 1982.
    Der Spiegel said Kohl would have preferred to offer the
post to a member of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
    But the magazine noted Poehl enjoyed a good international
reputation. Officials have often said Poehl and CDU Finance
Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg hold each other in high regard.
    Poehl's current term expires at the end of this year.
Officials have said no date has been set for an announcement on
whether his tenure will be extended.
    Poehl was made an economic adviser to SPD Chancellor Willy
Brandt in 1971. A year later he was appointed State Secretary
at the Finance Ministry when former SPD Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt was Finance Minister.
    There has recently been press speculation that the
Bundesbank presidency may be offered to Poehl's deputy, Helmut
Schlesinger, a conservative monetarist.
    According to these reports, Schlesinger would be replaced
two years later by CDU member Hans Tietmeyer, the current
Finance Ministry State Secretary.
    Also under discussion as president was Johann Wilhelm
Gaddum, a member of the Bundesbank board and a CDU member who
is known to be close to Kohl.
 REUTER

Coats Viyella Plc <CPAT.L> and <Youghal
Carpets (Holdings) Plc> have agreed to merge on the basis of an
offer from Coats, a joint statement said.
    Coats is offering one Irish penny in cash per Youghal
ordinary share. The offer also covers shares arising on
conversion of Youghal convertible preference shares.
    As an alternative, Coats is offering a convertible
redeemable note of 10 pence sterling per Youghal ordinary
share.
    The notes being offered will have the right to conversion
into Coats Viyella ordinary shares or redemption at 10 pence
stg in 10 years time, the statement said.
    For 1986, Coats Vieylla had pre-tax profits of 182 mln stg
on turnover of 1.75 billion stg. Youghal in 1986 had a pre-tax
profit of 205,000 Irish pounds on turnover of 44.5 mln Irish
pounds.
    Foir Teoranta, which holds four mln Youghal ordinary shares
plus preference shares which are convertible into 27.6 mln
ordinary shares, has irrevocably undertaken to accept the
offer.
    The cash terms value Youghal at 538,000 Irish pounds.
 REUTER

South Africa's trade surplus fell
sharply to 940.8 mln rand in March after rising to 1.62 billion
in February, Customs and Excise figures show.
    In February last year the surplus stood at 752.8 mln rand.
    Exports fell to 3.24 mln rand in March from 3.36 billion in
February while imports rose to 2.30 billion rand from 1.74
billion.
    This brought total exports for the first quarter of this
year to 9.92 billion rand and imports to 6.45 billion rand for
a surplus of 3.47 billion versus 2.47 billion rand in the same
in 1986 period.
 REUTER

The resignation of Finance Minister
Dilson Funaro is bound to focus attention on whether Brazil
will now adopt a more flexible debt stance and move towards an
accord with creditors, bankers and political analysts said.
    With Funaro in charge, Brazil's relations with creditors
sank to a low ebb, they said.
    Bankers told anti-Funaro jokes from Sao Paulo to New York
and economic analysts said the personal animosity between the
minister and U.S. Bankers was a real obstacle to reaching
agreement on rescheduling Brazil's 111 billion dlr debt.
    Commenting on Funaro, a foreign banker here recently told
Reuters, "They (banks) see his removal pretty much as a
precondition for getting serious negotiations under way."
    Funaro angered the banks in February by suspending interest
payment on Brazil's 68 billion dlr bank debt.
    There was also a question of personal style. Bankers
disliked Funaro's aloof demeanor and in private heatedly
accused him of arrogance and inflexibility.
    However, Funaro did not fall because he upset foreign
bankers but rather because his Cruzado Plan price freeze last
year was a massive flop, economically and politically.
    However, it is in the domain of the debt and Brazil's
relation with creditors that his departure will have the most
closely-watched international repercussion, bankers said.
    It became part of Funaro's trademark that he would have no
truck with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus
effectively blocking a debt agreement.
    He argued that if Brazil sought the help of the IMF, the
Fund would lay down conditions which would lead to recession.
    Funaro and others who supported this position had memories
of the IMF austerity program in Brazil in the early 1980s, a
period when hungry crowds stormed supermarkets.
    The foreign banker in Sao Paulo said, "I think Brazil could
have an agreement with the IMF which would allow (it)
acceptable growth."
    Argentina, working with the IMF, won excellent terms for a
major portion of its 50 billion dlr debt earlier this month.
    Given the IMF role in the Argentine accord, a U.S. Diplomat
here said the agreement had been extremely damaging for Funaro
because it showed that cooperation with the IMF bore fruit.
    Mexico has also taken the IMF path and, earlier than
Argentina, clinched a favourable pioneering agreement with
creditors on its 100 billion dlr debt.
    Brazil is now the only one of the three biggest Latin
American debtors not to have a debt agreement.
    Some Brazilian opinion, particularly in the business
community, is favourable to an IMF accord.
    A leading newspaper, Jornal do Brazil, carried a report
from Washington over the weekend saying it was a myth the IMF
brought recession and the best moment for an accord was now. As
it happens, a routine IMF mission is visiting Brasilia.
    The government has repeatedly dismissed speculation it is
considering any major change in debt policy and political
analysts caution against expecting changes on the IMF issue.
    The government of President Jose Sarney has gained a
reputation for chronic indecisiveness and some analysts believe
the government will turn to the IMF only if it comes to the
conclusion there really is no option.
    But such a policy shift looks more and more likely before
too long in the eyes of many analysts.
    One major political obstacle, Funaro, is no longer in the
picture and the economic pressures on Brazil are growing.
    The sharp drop in the trade surplus, which triggered
Brazil's present debt crisis, shows no sign of being reversed.
In the first quarter of 1987 Brazil chalked up a surplus of
only 526 mln dlrs, just a fraction of the 2.47 billion dlr
surplus it had in the same period last year.
    Brazilian officials concede that time is not on their side
in the debt crisis.
    "Brazil has an interest in resolving this problem as rapidly
as possible," Central Bank President Francisco Gros said on
Friday.
 REUTER

Shares in Kloeckner-Werke AG <KLKG.F>
were suspended from stock exchange trading pending an
announcement expected by the company today or tomorrow, a
bourse spokesman said, without giving further details.
    Kloeckner shares closed Friday at 67.20 marks. They had
come under pressure in recent sessions on reports the company
may be exposed to as much as 300 mln marks in debts as a result
of the bankruptcy of steelmaker Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft
Maximilanshuette mbH (Maxhuette).
    Kloeckner owns just over 49 pct of the share capital in the
Bavarian-based Maxhuette.
 REUTER

Oil prices have stabilized in world
markets and demand is likely to increase in the second half of
the year, Indonesia's Mines and Energy Minister Subroto said.
    He told a meeting of oil industry executives that oil
prices had stabilized at 18 dlrs a barrel -- the average fixed
price OPEC put into effect in February -- and supply and demand
have been in equilibrium since March.
    If OPEC does not increase overall output in the second half
of the year, prices will tend to increase, because non-OPEC
producers have not been able to produce more oil at current
prices, he said.
    But he declined to predict, when asked after the meeting,
whether OPEC would raise its production ceiling of 15.8 mln
barrels at its next meeting in June.
    He said in his speech that world oil production over the
last two months was estimated at 45.6 mln barrels a day, or two
mln barrels a day less than world oil demand.
    Oil production by industrialized countries, particularly
the U.S. And Canada, is expected to decrease this year, but
some of that slack will be taken up by increased production in
Cameroon, India and other developing countries, he said.
    This year is a battle between OPEC and non-OPEC oil
producers and consumers in the industrialized world for the
upper hand in world oil markets, Subroto said in an earlier
speech to management trainees at Pertamina Oil Company.
    "If OPEC emerges the winner, than it can gradually resume
its former role in world oil markets," he said.
    "But don't expect oil prices to return to the level of 28-30
dlrs a barrel, at least not in the next three or four years,"
Subroto said.
 REUTER

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> will set up a
five-year technology partnership with California-based SDA
Systems Inc with the intention of designing and producing
computer microchips, a company spokesman said.
    Toshiba's investment in the project is likely to total less
than 10 mln dlrs over the five years, he said.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said he
hopes his visit to Washington later this week will help resolve
Japan's severe trade problems with the United States.
    Nakasone leaves on his sixth official visit to the United
States on Wednesday, only weeks after President Reagan imposed
punitive tariffs of 300 mln dlrs a year on Japanese electronic
goods for alleged violation of a semiconductor pact.
    Japan also faces more possible sanctions amid calls in the
U.S. Congress for further action to help improve trade
    Japan's trade surplus with the United States reached a
record 58.6 billion dlrs in 1986.
    Nakasone told reporters that special envoy Shintaro Abe,
who has just returned from Washington, told him protectionist
sentiment in the United States is severe.
    "We are well aware of a movement in the United States to
enact legislation," Nakasone said.
    He said friends at home and abroad have advised him not to
go to the United States but it is now more important than ever
that he express Japan's view and carefully listens to the views
of the United States.
    "My visit to the United States at this time will be the most
important visit of all," Nakasone said.
    While in Washington, he said he hopes to have candid and
frank discussions with President Reagan and Congressionl
leaders. He said he plans to discuss exchange rate stability,
economic cooperation to developing countries and U.S.-Soviet
disarmament and arms control.
    On the recently imposed trade sactions, Nakasone said he
would present evidence that Japanese semiconductor imports are
increasing and that Japan is monitoring exports to third
    "We have full confidence we can present clear evidence," he
said. "(Therefore), we will request that the sanctions be lifted
at the earliest possible time."
    On the trade imbalance, Nakasone said Japan has already
taken action. The volume of exports to the United States has
been cut, while U.S. Imports have increased.
    But Japanese imports from Europe and other Asian nations
have recently surged, those from the United States remain weak,
indicating a lack of U.S. Competitiveness, he said.
    Nakasone said Japan will continue to strive to improve the
trade imbalance but the United States will have to become more
competitive and improve its huge budget deficit.
    He said he will also discuss the forthcoming Venice summit
of the seven major industrial nations in June.
    "We can further enhance the efforts for improving peace,
disarmament and the world economies as a whole through
solidarity," Nakasone said.
 REUTER

Insects are threatening to destroy
367,000 hectares or about one-third of the spring rice crop in
northern Vietnam, Hanoi radio reported.
    Drought has hit another 189,000 hectares, with 40,000
hectares very badly affected, it said.
    Insecticides are in short supply so only the most
endangered rice fields should be sprayed, the radio added.
    The affected areas -- the Red River delta and other coastal
areas in northern Vietnam -- produce between 30 to 40 per cent
of the country's rice.
    The radio report, monitored in Bangkok on April 20 but only
translated here over the weekend, said the threatened damage
was spread over twice as large an area as last year.
    Vietnam has not been able to grow enough food for its
expanding population, with the Soviet Union buying rice in
Thailand and Burma in recent years for supply to Vietnam.
    Vietnam produced 18.2 million tonnes of food, most of it
rice, last year and hopes to boost that to 23-24 million tonnes
by 1990.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will sell 600 billion
yen in 60-day financing bills tomorrow through 36-day
repurchase agreements maturing June 3 to roll over a previously
issued 400 billion yen of such bills maturing tomorrow, money
houses by money houses will be 3.8498 pct compared with the
one-month commercial bill discount rate today of 3.8125 pct and
the one-month certificate of deposit rate of 4.18/07 pct.
    The traders estimate the surplus tomorrow at about 700
billion yen. The remaining 300 billion yen is mainly due to
increased cash holdings by the banking system because of
central bank dollar purchases.
    The operation will put the outstanding supply of such bills
to 3,500 billion yen.
 REUTER

Karl Otto Poehl is likely to be re-elected
President of the Bundesbank when his current term in office
expires at the end of this year, government sources said.
    They were commenting on a report in Der Spiegel news
magazine which said Chancellor Helmut Kohl had decided to keep
Poehl in office for another eight years.
    Government spokesman Friedhelm Ost had no comment on the
report, other than to say that the subject of the Bundesbank
presidency was not currently under discussion. Der Spiegel said
that, because Poehl is a member of the Social Democratic Party
(SPD), Kohl had not taken the decision lightly.
since 1982. Der Spiegel said Kohl would have preferred to offer
the post to a member of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
 REUTER

The central bank issued 7.53 billion
Taiwan dlrs worth of certificates of deposits (CDs), bringing
issues so far this year to 174.48 billion against 40 billion a
year ago, a bank spokesman said.
    The new CDs, with maturities of six months, one and two
years, carry interest ranging from 4.03 to 5.12 pct.
    The issues are designed to help curb the growth of M-1b
money supply.
 REUTER

Miyazawa opened the 20th annual meeting of the Asian
Development Bank by holding out the promise of more Japanese
money for the organisation.
    "We are ... Striving to enhance the flow of capital from
Japan to the developing countries," he said.
    "The Asia-Pacific region is an area of special concern for
us in our bilateral and multilateral assistance."
    He said Tokyo was ready to study setting up a special
Japanese fund at the ADB, like the one at the World Bank.
    The World Bank fund is earmarked for use by developing
    Developing countries and the United States have criticised
Japan for failing to use its trade surplus to help poor
    Later this week, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is
expected to tell President Reagan that Japan plans to extend as
much as 30 billion dlrs to developing countries over the next
three years, Japanese officials said. The exta ADB funding
would be part of that amount.
    "Our cooperation is intended to contibute to ... Alleviating
the burden on (developing countries)," said Miyazawa, who is
also chairman of the ADB board of governors.
    "The developing countries today find themselves in a very
difficult situation," he said. "With a few notable exceptions,
those countries that are highly dependent upon commodity
exports face a rough road ahead."
    While the developing countries can help themselves by
striving to become internationally competitive and seeking to
attract foreign investment, the ADB also has a role to play, he
said.
    Miyazawa told the meeting the bank must beef up its
economic advice program to developing nations and must work
vigorously to identify development projects for loans.
    He also called for more use of loans that were not tied to
development projects, but provided more overall help to the
borrower.
    ADB President Masao Fujioka supported Miyazawa's view.
    "The bank has been fondly described as the family doctor,"
Fujioka said. "The bank will now have to equip itself to meet a
range of services required to attend to varied needs of its
developing members."
    Miyazawa told the meeting Tokyo was ready to allow its
Export-Import Bank to co-finance ADB loans. These would not
have to be used for the purchase of Japanese equipment.
    Tokyo was also prepared to let the Asian Development Bank
raise more funds in Tokyo and financial markets should it need
to do so, he said.
 REUTER

Nippon Steel Corp <NSTC.T> nominated
Hiroshi Saito as president, to replace Yutaka Takeda, subject
to shareholders' approval at a meeting on June 26, company
officials told a press conference.
    Takeda will become chairman, and vice president Akira Miki
will be vice chairman, they said. Current chairman Eishiro
Saito, who is also chairman of the Federation of Economic
Organisations (Keidanren), a leading Japanese business
organisation, will act as honorary chairman and advisor, they
added. Nippon Steel is now undergoing a strict rationalisation
program to meet declining demand for steel products.
 REUTER

The United States and Japan are waging a
behind the scenes battle at this week's Asian Development Bank
meeting over Tokyo's attempts to win a greater say in the
organization, U.S. And Japanese delegates said.
    Washington is opposing the Japanese efforts because it
would mean the end of the long-standing parity between the two
nations in the Bank, U.S. Officials said.
    Right now, the two countries' voting shares are about
equal, Japan having 12.53 pct and the United States 12.36 pct.
The slight difference is due to a temporary delay in the U.S.
Subscription to the Bank.
    "It's quite a delicate matter," Japanese Finance Ministry
deputy director general Fumiya Iwasaki told Reuters. "I don't
see the discussion ending soon."
    The issue is further complicated because other member
nations would have to give up some of their power in the Bank
if Japan were to increase its influence, he said.
    Tokyo raised the issue at last year's annual meeting in
Manila, arguing that the 3.7 billion dlrs it has contributed to
the Bank's soft loans fund entitled it to a greater say in the
overall organization. The United States has given 1.2 billion
dlrs to the Asian Development Fund.
 REUTER

The three Australian participants in
the <Kalgoorlie Mining Associates> (KMA) gold mining venture
are discussing a possible restructuring of their interests in
<Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie Ltd> (GMK), KMA said.
    The other participants are Western Mining Corp Holdings Ltd
<WMNG.S> (WMC) and Poseidon Ltd <POSA.S>, GMK said in a brief
statement. It gave no further details.
    KMA is owned 52 pct by <Kalgoorlie Lake Pty Ltd> (KLV) and
48 pct by a local unit of Homestake Mining Co <HM>.
    KLV in turn is owned 47 pct each by Poseidon and GMK and
six pct by WMC.
    The KMA joint venture was formed in 1976 and operates the
Mount Charlotte and Fimiston gold mines in Western Australia.
    The two mines produced a total of 222,000 ounces of gold in
1985/86 ended June 17.
    KMA is the sole source of GMK's revenue and profits and the
major contributor to Poseidon's earnings, their annual reports
show. GMK is owned 31.8 pct by WMC.
 REUTER

of the dollar but refused to say whether U.S. interest rates
fall.
trade deficit, dealers said, adding the only thing likely to
help the dollar is seen as a rise in U.S. Interest rates.
    Corrigan refused to say whether the U.S. was ready to risk
    The dollar's sharp drop this month has also raised
questions about the usefulness of recent meetings of the Group
of Seven. But Corrigan said: "They have played a constructive
role in so far as the broad objective of facilitating a higher
degree of economic policy coordination."
 Reuter

    U.S. officials gave the same message to former Japanese
Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe in talks here last week.
 Reuter

comments.
 Reuter

A visiting U.S. Mint official told
reporters that American Eagle gold coins took the largest share
of the world bullion coin market in 1986 despite the fact sales
only began in October last year.
    She said the U.S. Coins accounted for 37 pct of the world
market share, against 31.9 pct for Canadian coins and 18.6 pct
for South African. She gave no sales volume figures for 1986.
    Sales of the U.S. Coins in the first six months of issue
totalled 2.32 mln ounces, exceeding the target of 2.2 mln in
the first year, she said.
    Japan alone has imported 140,000 ounces of the coins since
November, the official said, adding that the U.S. Mint sees
Japan as a major market.
    Sumitomo Corp and Tanaka Kikinzoku KK already distribute
the coins in Japan, she said. Nissho Iwai Corp has just been
appointed a distributor, she added.
    The U.S. Started issuing gold bullion coins, following the
ban on imports of South African Krugerrands to the U.S., In a
bid to offer investment grade coins to investors, the Mint said
 REUTER

Sugar beet plantings are almost
complete in southern West Germany but are lagging behind in
other regions, trade sources said.
    In the west of the country, about 60 pct of the plantings
were completed, while in the north only 40 pct of the sugar
beet area has been sown, they said.
    The weather is forecast to stay mild in northern West
Germany in the coming days and more planting progress is
expected there, they said.
    This year's area sown to sugar beets is likely to fall to
38,500 hectares from around 40,000 last year.
 REUTER

manufactured goods fell 3.6 pct in March, the National
Statistics Institute (INSEE) said.
    It said the figure fell to 46.35 billion francs seasonally
adjusted and in real terms from February's 48.07 billion, where
it had held steady for three months.
    It said sales of most durable goods had fallen 3.5 pct
while household electricals, clothing and textiles were down by
about eight pct from February.
 REUTER

U.S.-based insurance and investment
broker <Integrated Resources Inc> has set up two subsidiaries
in Hong Kong, a company statement said.
    <Integrated Resources Insurance and Investment Services
Ltd> will focus on insurance marketing and <Integrated
Resources (HK) Ltd> on stock broking.
    The statement gave no financial details for the local
firms.
 REUTER

The U.S. warned its major
trade partners that its trade deficit must fall by September or
a protectionist trade bill from Congress would be highly
likely.
    Meanwhile, European Community (EC) external trade chief
Willy de Clercq said that if Japan's trade surplus, which hit
almost 90 billion dlrs last year, continued so high, there
would be stormy weather ahead.
    U.S. Trade representative Clayton Yeutter told trade
leaders from Japan, the EC and Canada that there was at least a
50-50 chance that a protectionist bill reaching the House of
Representatives this week would pass the Senate in September.
    The U.S. economy badly needed better trade figures by then,
or President Ronald Reagan would have a difficult time vetoing
such a bill, he said, according to a series of briefings to
reporters by official delegates at the weekend meeting.
    A 15 billion dlr U.S. Trade deficit in March had only
incensed Congress further, he said.
 Reuter

Thailand will this week seek
clarification from the U.S. About its decision to freeze rice
export prices from January to early April, Commerce Minister
Montri Pongpanich said.
    Montri told reporters he will seek a meeting with U.S.
Ambassador William Brown to determine why the U.S. Failed to
set its weekly rice prices in accordance with rising world
prices during the period.
    He said the U.S. Has followed a policy of weakening world
rice prices by announcing highly subsidised export prices lower
than those quoted by Thai traders.
    Thai officials said weekly rice prices as announced by the
U.S. Agriculture Department were unchanged for 11 weeks up to
April 8.
    Thailand, a major rice exporter, has criticised the U.S.
Farm Act which provides heavy subsidies to U.S. Exporters
enabling them to compete with Thai exporters.
    Thai officials said average export prices of Thai rice fell
19 pct last year and another 5.8 pct during the first quarter
this year.
    The Board of Trade said Thailand exported 1.23 mln tonnes
in January/March, down from 1.29 mln a year ago.
    It said the export decline was partly due to the reluctance
of Thai traders to accept all foreign orders as world prices
did not rise in line with firming domestic prices.
    The board said, however, that Thailand may export more rice
later this year, especially to Africa, the Middle East and
Asia, due to lower production in many drought affected African
countries and to expected small exportable surpluses in Burma
and Pakistan.
    It said Thai rice exports to nine major African buyers rose
to 351,889 tonnes during the first quarter from 93,038 a year
earlier.
 REUTER

Britain's ruling Conservatives
maintained a commanding lead in a new opinion poll, reinforcing
views that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is poised to call a
general election in June.
    The Harris poll published in the Observer newspaper gave
the Conservatives the support of 42 pct of those questioned,
Labour 31 pct, and the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance
trailing with 25 pct.
    This would give the Conservatives a 94-seat overall
majority in the House of Commons.
 Reuter

Japan's 1987 car export
diverting cars to the EC after the dollar's fall against the
yen made their U.S. market unprofitable, he told reporters
after meeting U.S., Japanese, and Canadian trade ministers.
 Reuter

for the body's June summit scheduled to be held in Venice,
said.
    Last week's passage of the Japanese government budget by
parliament's Lower House also paves the way for Tokyo to take
 Reuter

intervene in the money market during the morning.
    It also said that it had raised its estimate of the
liquidity shortage in the market to 450 mln stg from 400 mln.
 REUTER

Strikers at the Caterpillar Inc tractor
plant near Glasgow, due to be closed by the U.S.-owned firm,
voted to end their occupation of the factory after more than
three months.
    A meeting attended by 700 of the plant's 1,200 workers
approved an agreement reached with management on Thursday after
four days of talks. Production will resume today.
    The agreement calls for the establishment of a working
group of representatives from both sides, which has been given
until October 16 to find a new buyer for the factory.
    The company has promised that there will be no job losses
before that date. Workers began their occupation on January 14
after Caterpillar said it planned to close the plant and lay
off the entire work force.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Manuel Azpurua said
today he will travel to Japan in mid-May to seek new credits
for planned expansions in Venezuela's state aluminum, steel and
    Azpurua told reporters he will be accompanied by Central
Bank President Hernan Anzola and Director of Public Finance
    'The idea is to hold meetings with Japanese economic and
already active here,' Azpurua said.
 Reuter

week at two separate conmferences to discuss finance and
monetary problems, the Central Bank of Barbados said.
    The 24th session of central bank governors of the american
continent opens today for two days. Central bank governors of
Latin America and Spain will hold a separate conference from
april 29-30.
    Representatives of the Inter American Development Bank, the
organizations will attend both conferences.
    The Central Bank of Barbados gave no agenda for the
meetings
 Reuter

The Soviet Union will present a draft
treaty today calling for elimination of all U.S.-Soviet
medium-range missiles in Europe, an official source in the
Soviet arms negotiating team told Reuters.
    The draft treaty will be handed over to the American team
negotiating on medium-range missiles during talks at the U.S.
Diplomatic mission in Geneva this afternoon, the source said.
    The United States presented its draft treaty, which would
also scrap the so-called "Euromissiles," during a previous round
of negotiations in early March.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia will not seek to push OPEC
oil prices above the current benchmark of 18 dlrs per barrel
unless oil demand grows strongly, the Middle East Economic
Survey (MEES) said.
    The Cyprus-based weekly newsletter quoted authoritative
Saudi sources as saying the Kingdom's oil price policy would
not change "unless and until there is a strong revival in the
growth of demand for oil."
    MEES said this contradicted recent hints of new Saudi price
hawkishness from U.S. Congressional and oil industry sources.
    The Saudi sources said their policy was firmly based on the
long-term need to restore the competitive position of oil in
general and OPEC oil in particular against other energy
sources.
    "Saudi Arabia is certainly committed to cooperating with its
OPEC partners to exercise the necessary production restraint to
maintain the 18 dlr per barrel reference price level," MEES
said.
    The newsletter said Saudi output in the first three weeks
of April averaged slightly above its OPEC quota of 4.133 mln
barrels per day (bpd). Output would fall in the last week,
causing the month's average to be below quota, MEES said.
    MEES estimated overall OPEC production for April at around
16.8-16.9 mln bpd -- two mln bpd more than both its figures for
March and Reuter estimates for March.
    It said Iranian production had risen by 500,000 bpd this
month to 2.2-2.3 mln bpd, around its quota level. In Iraq, with
an OPEC-assigned quota of 1.466 mln bpd, output rose this month
to two mln bpd, not including "war relief" supplies from Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia, the newsletter said.
    Nigeria, which has had problems selling its full 1.238 mln
bpd entitlement, increased its output to 1.2 mln bpd, it added.
 REUTER

The cut in the lending rates and other
changes made in the interest rates will hit the profitability
of many commercial banks in India, Indian Banks' Association
chairman M. N. Goiporia told a bankers' conference.
    The changes were announced by the Reserve Bank of India on
March 31 and became effective on April 1.
    "Some of the latest credit policy measures such as reduced
lending rates, raising the statutory liquidity ratio and
restructuring of deposit rates will pose a potential threat to
commercial banks' continuing higher profitability levels," he
said.
    Goiporia said most foreign and Indian commercial banks
including those owned by the government have been making
profits over the years, mainly due to better fund management
and the enlargement of the banks' capital base. He did not
    The Reserve Bank's new credit policy for commercial banks
cut the maximum lending rate by one pct to 16.5 pct, raised
rates on deposits of two years by a half pct to nine pct and by
one pct to 10 pct on deposits of more than two years. To cut
excess liquidity in the industry, the Reserve Bank raised the
banks' liquidity ratio by a half pct to 37.5 pct, immobilising
nearly five billion rupees of deposits, bankers said.
 REUTER

said the Group of Seven major industrial nations, G-7, can
achieve stable currency values by adhering to accords reached
this year in Paris and Washington.
    Balladur, asked at a news conference if coordinated market
intervention by central banks was sufficient to halt the
dollar's recent slide, said "each country has to fulfill
commitments" outlined in the G-7 accords.
    Earlier this month in Washington, finance ministers of the
U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada
reaffirmed an earlier Paris accord to arrest the dollar's fall.
    Balladur said the current nervousness in foreign exchange
markets can be partly attributed to "some operators in the
market only watching short term economic indicators. You have
to keep a cool head," he said, declining to elaborate further.
    In an earlier speech before the Milan Chamber of Commerce,
the minister said European countries have to seek "a better
consensus of economic and monetary policies."
    On the European Monetary System, he said, "The persistent
vulnerability of the foreign currency mechanism, particularly
to the movements of the dollar, can be explained by the absence
of a common policy for currencies of other countries."
    Balladur said, "I am profoundly convinced that the European
countries have to define together this position with respect to
the dollar and the yen."
    He said Italy eventually would have to abandon its higher
margin of fluctuation within the European Montetary System. "I
hope that the spectacular improvement of the economic situation
and of the balance of payments will permit (Italy) to do it
soon."
    The lira is currently allowed a fluctuation margin either
side of its agreed midpoints with other EMS currencies of six
pct, against 2.25 pct permitted for the other members.
  REUTER

Norway's stock exchange has touched record
levels, propelled by higher oil prices and foreign buying
interest. But analysts say the bullish trend probably will not
last. Tight restrictions on foreign ownership of shares have
held back development on the market, they say. While some of
these rules could soon be eased, Norway's unresolved economic
woes mean the prices boom is likely to be short-lived.
    Last Thursday, the all-share index reached 325.48 points to
beat the previous record of 325.31 set in mid-November, 1985.
    Brokers say the new record, spurred by firmer oil prices
above 18 dlrs a barrel which are crucial to Norway's economy,
has for now set the Oslo bourse apart from the current
fluctuations on other world stock markets.
    "It's an underdeveloped market...Virgin territory ," Jenny
Tora, a Scandinavian securities analyst with London-based
stockbrokers James Capel, told Reuters.
    But the attraction for foreign investors of the stock
market, where price/earnings ratios average around a relatively
low 11, is tempered by restrictions and some nervousness about
the future of Norway's economy, analysts say.
    Foreign ownerhsip is limited in all sectors and varies
between 10 and 40 pct of the shares of any company - and the
class of shares rarely carry voting rights.
    "It's often hard to get stocks as the quotas are full," Tora
said. "There can be problems of liquidity in the market. You can
get into the market, but perhaps not get out."
    Analysts said this meant that foreign interest had been
restricted mostly to professional trading rather than client
buying, and that the market missed some speculative impetus.
    There are also no stock options, and bonds cannot be held
by foreigners in Norwegian securities trading.
    Thor Bang, chief economist at Den Norske Creditbank A/S,
Norway's biggest bank, said he thought the stocks boom had
little foundation in Norway's economic situation.
    "One of the factors (in the rise) is a belief in...Political
stability," he told Oslo's business daily, Dagens Naeringsliv.
    The minority Labour government has looked increasingly
stable since it came to power in May, 1986, with the former
right-centrist coalition in disarray.
    But stock market analysts say continued economic problems
could soon jeopardise the bourse's bull trend, in spite of the
appreciation of the crown against the dollar.
    Although firming oil prices mean better news for Norway,
Western Europe's biggest oil producer after Britain, analysts
point to high interest rates, uncertainty over the future price
of oil and a weighty current account balance of payments
deficit as threats to the bourse.
    Interest rates stand at around 14 pct, while annual
inflation is 10 pct. The current account balance of payments
deficit stood at 32.8 billion crowns last year, against a
surplus of 26.8 billion crowns in 1985.
    "I'd be very cautious about present stock levels," Chris
Honnor of London-based brokers Grieveson Grant said.
    The record-breaking performance last Thursday meant that
the all-share index had increased by 16 pct from the start of
1987.
    On Friday the index leapt another 7.78 points to 333.26.
But analysts noted this was largely due to much better than
expected profits in the first quarter from Norsk Hydro,
Norway's largest diversified corporation.
    Foreign investors, spurred by the appreciating crown and
the rise in oil prices, have been more prominent in the market
this year, although they still trade selectively mainly in
Norsk Hydro, Norsk Data and a few other top-traded industrials.
    Earlier this month the government proposed allowing the
share of foreign ownerhsip permitted in financial institutions
to rise in a bid to boost competition. Depending on the
circumstances, the share foreign owners can have will rise from
10 pct to between 15 and 25 pct.
    Saga Petroleum, Norway's largest fully private oil company,
has also said it will seek government permission to boost
permitted foreign share ownerhsip to 40 pct from the present 20
pct. Saga shares have registered some of the strongest gains on
the bourse because of the move, adding more than 60 pct to
their value so far this year.
 REUTER

Representatives of the Group of Seven will
meet in the Sardinian resort of Porto Cervo from April 30 to
May 2 to discuss the agenda for the group's Venice summit in
June, sources close to the Italian Foreign Ministry said.
    The sources said the meeting would be informal and attended
by the personal representatives of G-7 leaders.
    The sources did not comment on reports from Osaka that
deputy finance ministers would attend the Porto Cervo meeting,
and said there would be a complete information blackout on the
    The sources had no comment on statements by Japanese
officials in Osaka yesterday that the falling dollar would be
among topics discussed.
    The Japanese officials had said the meeting, while focusing
on longer-term issues, would provide senior government
officials with their first chance to discuss the recent sharp
drop of the dollar.
 REUTER

Treasury Secretary James Baker has
cancelled a trip to Australia because of pressing business at
home, including the visit this week by Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone, a Treasury spokesman said.
    The spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said: "I
would not draw any conclusion from the cancellation...I would
    But he added that the visit by the Japanese leader was "part
of the press of business."
    The spokesman denied the cancellation was linked to the
current turmoil in the financial markets.
   
    Nakasone's visit is expected to be crucial for the currency
markets. Unless the Japanese prime minister brings with him
measures to stimulate the Japanese economy by fiscal expansion
or lower interest rates, the visit is likely to be considered
by currency markets as an outright failure.
    In addition, it is thought highly unlikely that Nakasone
and Reagan will agree on the removal of U.S. trade sanctions
imposed earlier this month on certain electronic goods.
    But the participation in the talks by Baker, the
administration's top policy maker on international economic
affairs, suggests that hard bargaining between the two sides
may be in prospect.
   
    Asked if the trip by Baker, who was to have left April 30
and returned May 6, had been dropped in the last couple of
days, the Treasury spokesman replied: "I would think so."
    He described the trip as "purely ceremonial."
    Both Japan and the United States have a lot to lose from an
unsuccessful outcome to the this week's talks.
    Tokyo and Washington are aware that nervous currency 
markets stand ready to bail out of dollars and buy yen, which
economists fear could send world interest rates soaring and
even lead to global recession.
    Baker has been the driving force behind the
administration's efforts to coordinate international economic
policies and reduce global trade imbalances.
   
 Reuter

The 22nd annual meeting of the Asian
Development Bank will be held in Peking in 1989, a senior bank
    China, which was admitted as the bank's 47th member in
March 1986, will take a place on the ADB board at the current
meeting here, he said.
    Peking's representatives have been attending board meetings
over the past year as observers with no voting rights, he
added.
    He said China, the bank's third-largest shareholder after
Japan and the United States, will take the seat on the
12-member board currently occupied by a grouping of Sri Lanka,
Vietnam, the Maldives, Laos and Afghanistan.
    He also said the U.S., Whose nominee on the board, Joe O.
Rogers, resigned in September 1986, has named Victor Frank as
his replacement.
    Frank, a private-sector appointee, is awaiting Senate
approval and will take up his post later this year, he added.
 REUTER

 REUTER

soon."
 
 REUTER

<Quintette Coals Ltd> of Canada and
Japanese steelmakers failed to agree on the Canadian coal base
price over four years from April 1, but agreed to have another
round of talks in late May, officials involved said.
    Japanese firms have asked for the base price to be set at
44 U.S. Dlrs per tonne (FOB), sharply lower than the 75 to 76
dlrs of the past four years, they told Reuters. The base price
is reviewed every four years under the long-term accord.
    The Canadian mine insisted on maintaining the present
price, they said.
    Japanese firms bought 4.75 mln tonnes of Quintette coal in
1986/87, and plan to buy the same volume in 1987/88 depending
on the result of the talks, the officials said. They added
Japan has no plans to withdraw its price cutback request due to
recent falls in coking coal prices on the world market.
    Meanwhile <Gregg River Co> of Canada has agreed on a
Japanese proposal to set a temporary price of 75.80 Canadian
dlrs on and after May shipment following the failure of the
1987/88 price talks, they said. Japanese firms plan to buy
150,000 tonnes of Gregg River coal for May shipment and hold
another round of talks with Gregg in late May, they added.
 REUTER

South Korean prosecutors formally charged
the chief executive of Pan Ocean Shipping Company, the
country's largest shipping firm, with alleged financial
offences.
    A statement from the prosecutors' office said charges of
illegal capital movement, violation of foreign exchange laws
and tax evasion were laid against Hahn Sang-yon, president of
the hugely indebted company whose chairman, Park Ken-sek, fell
to his death a week ago.
    Prosecutors said that over the past six years Hahn and Park
illegally sent abroad more than 15 mln dlrs.
    The prosecutors said that the two executives used more than
2.7 mln dlrs of the diverted funds to acquire U.S. Real estate.
The Office of National Tax Administration has sent banking
experts to the United States to investigate.
    Park plunged to his death from his 10th floor office window
on April 19.
    Finance Minister Chung In-young last week ordered the
state-owned Korea Exchange Bank to take over Pan Ocean,
burdened by debts of more than 1,000 billion won.
 REUTER

 REUTER

 Reuter

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone,
beleaguered by political turmoil at home, sets out Wednesday on
a tough mission to Washington aimed at defusing the most
serious U.S.-Japanese trade tension in recent memory.
    Two rounds of talks between President Reagan and Nakasone,
scheduled for Thursday and Friday, come on the heels of the
imposition by the United States of punitive tariffs on Japanese
goods for the first time since World War Two.
    In the past, bilateral trade friction involving cotton
goods, steel, television sets, textiles and cars have ended
with Japan taking on voluntary export curbs.
    Nakasone's visit could coincide with the passage of a
protectionist trade bill by the U.S. House of Representatives.
    A proposed amendment to the bill, drafted by Representative
Richard Gephardt of Missouri, will mandate a 10 pct annual
reduction in the trade surpluses of Japan and other nations
which have large trade gaps with the United States.
    The United States last year had a record trade deficit of
169.8 billion dlrs and Japan accounted for about one-third.
    Foreign Ministry spokesman Yoshifumi Matsuda said recently
he was reasonably optimistic about the results of talks between
the two leaders.
    Top U.S. and Japanese officials have shuttled back and
forth across the Pacific to lay the groundwork for Nakasone's
visit. The last of the talks leading up to the main event will
be in Washington next Wednesday between U.S. Secretary of State
George Shultz and Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari.
    Nakasone will have an economic package worked out by the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and by an advisory body
led by former Bank of Japan Governor Haruo Maekawa.
    Japan plans to spend over 5,000 billion yen to boost
domestic demand, increase imports of U.S. products including
supercomputers and give more help to developing countries,
    The government has been making last ditch efforts in time
for Nakasone's trip to address outstanding bilateral issues,
    The issues include foreign access to a new Japanese
overseas telecommunications venture and a six billion dlr
international airport project in western Japan.
    Nakasone and his party last week reached a compromise
accord with opposition parties over a controversial sales tax
plan in exchange for parliamentary passage by the Lower House
of a government draft budget for 1987/88.
    The accord, offered by House Speaker Kenzaburo Hara,
virtually killed the Nakasone-sponsored plan, but left room for
future tax reform plans, political analysts said.
    Nakasone, who led his party to a resounding electoral
triumph last July, saw his popularity drop because of the sales
tax.
    His party suffered setbacks in an Upper House by-election
and nationwide local elections in the past two months.
    Mitsuru Uchida, professor of political science at Waseda
University, told Reuters: "I doubt that whatever Nakasone does
in Washington -- no matter how good it might be -- would help
restore his weakened power-base at home."
    Many analysts said Nakasone might step down after the
Venice summit of industrialized nations in June.
 Reuter

 REUTER

Clercq.
    Pat Carney of Canada said "We are meeting in a time of great
trade tension. What the world needs to see is that we have the
political will to deal with these problems we face."
    She said that next month's meeting of the Organisation of
    Progress in personal contacts and understanding each
others' positions and policies was just as important toward
reducing trade tensions, he said.
movements alone would not correct a U.S. trade deficit with
 Reuter

The Dutch Central Bank intervened
modestly to support the dollar with spot market transactions,
    They said the bank bought dollars against guilders as the
U.S. Currency dipped to a low of 2.0013 guilders from 2.0130-40
on opening, the lowest since the end of January.
    There was no intervention at the fix, however, which put
the dollar at 2.0045 guilders after 2.0280 last Friday, and
dealers said the Bank's buying was limited.
    "I'd be surprised if the Bank had bought as much as 100 mln
dlrs," one dealer said.
 Reuter

An explosion rocked a building at the
U.S. military office in Manila but there were no immediate
reports of casualties, a police spokesman said tonight.
    He said investigators were still looking into the explosion
inside the motor pool building of the Joint United States
Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) in a Manila suburb.
    Home-made bombs were thrown into the JUSMAG compound last
July causing minor damage.
 Reuter

<Arabian Investment Banking Corp EC>
(Investcorp) signed for a 75 mln dlr revolving credit facility,
one of the lead managers <Arab Banking Corp>, ABC, said.
    The facility was first mandated for 50 mln dlrs but was
increased before syndication to 60 mln when a lead group of six
banks was formed. Strong demand during syndication led to
another increase in the final amount to 75 mln dlrs.
    ABC said the facility, with a final lending syndicate of 32
banks from 13 countries, is part of Investcorp's strategy to
develop and diversify its source of funds and reduce its
borrowing costs.
    ABC as overall arranger said the facility will be used to
finance Bahrain-based Investcorp's general corporate funding
requirements. It can be exercised in three different ways.
    These are through the issue of euronotes or advances by
tender, the extension of committed advances by underwriting
banks, or the issue of contingent obligations from a panel of
selected banks.
    The facility has a maturity of three years, with interest
on committed advances based on utilisation from 17.5 basis
points over London Interbank Offered Rates for one third to 20
basis points for two thirds and 22.5 for an amount above that
level.
 REUTER

The Sixth International Tin Agreement,
ITA, has been extended for two years from July 1, 1987, the
International Tin Council, ITC, said.
    The extension was formally agreed at a resumed special
session of the council held here this morning and follows a
session early this month when the council agreed in principle
to extend the pact but had to await the formal approval of some
member governments.
    The extension will enable the council to continue with its
statistical work and studies of the tin industry.
 Reuter

South Korea unveiled a shopping list of
2.6 billion dlrs of U.S. Goods in line with its new policy of
seeking to limiting its trade surplus to ease trade friction
    The government said this would help freeze this year's
trade surplus with the United States at the 1986 level.
    "The surplus, which rose to 7.4 billion dollars last year
from 4.3 billion in 1985, was projected to top 10 billion this
year but the government has taken steps to constrain it to the
seven billion dollar level," one Trade Ministry official told
Reuters.
    A government statement said the 2.6 billion dlrs was in
addition to about two billion dlrs of purchases made last month
by a South Korean trade mission to the United States.
    The announcement follows a visit here this week by U.S.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, who said that if South
Korea wanted to avoid protectionist retaliation it should not
falter in its policies to open its market and cut its surplus.
    The statement said the government, state agencies and other
public institutions would buy 480 mln dlrs worth of U.S. Cars,
computers, helicopters, ambulances, motorcycles, medical and
laboratory equipment and other products. "This amounts includes
89 mln dlrs worth of purchases which were not originally
reflected in their budgets," it added.
    The list includes 1.13 billion dlrs of capital goods, 700
mln of farm products, 50 mln of aluminium, zinc, polyethylene
and other raw materials, and 250 mln of steel, electronics and
shipbuilding parts which would be shifted from other nations.
    Agriculture Ministry officials said South Korea had already
bought 310 mln dlrs worth of U.S. Wheat, raw cotton, corn and
soybeans.
    This meant the country would buy from the United States
nearly all of the 1.27 billion dlrs of its planned imports of
such commodities this year, they said.
    The government will also take steps to reduce tariffs,
accelerate the opening of its markets, voluntarily restrain
exports and cut export financing, the statement said.
    South Korea will also reorganise the country's 3,600 trade
agents to deliver better after-sales services for imported
products and hold a trade show in November for U.S. Products.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg
reaffirmed his commitment to the Louvre accord struck in Paris
where leading industrialised countries agreed to stabilise the
dollar around then current levels.
    He told a congress of West German tax advisers in Hamburg
the policy agreed in Paris has so far been successful in the
mark/dollar relationship.
    "We want to continue it (the policy)," Stoltenberg said.
According to a text of his remarks released in Bonn, he also
said trade tensions in specific branches had to be overcome and
he warned against any return to protectionism.
 REUTER

said the government awarded control of <Compagnie Generale de
Constructions Telephonques> (CGCT) to a consortium headed by
Sweden's AB LM Ericsson <ERIC.ST> last week because its
proposal was "judged technically sound and valid."
    Balladur, responding to a question following a speech
before the Milan Chamber of Commerce, said the successful bid
by Ericsson and French partners Matra <MATR.PA> and <Banque
Indosuez> was "well organised and equipment will be readily
available." He did not comment further.
    CGCT has 16 pct of France's telephone switching market.
 Reuter

Stelco Inc said contract negotiations
with United Steelworkers of America concluded in a memorandum
of settlement for a new three-year collective agreement
covering about 12,000 workers at 15 of Stelco's plants.
    Further terms of the new agreement were not immediately
    The company said early negotiations began March 2, 1987 in
order to reach a new contract well before the July 31, 1987
expiry of the existing contract.
    It said the new contract was endorsed by negotiating
committees of all union locals representing Stelco workers.
 Reuter

About 20 members of the Taiwan
parliament criticised the government for holding too much of
foreign exchange reserves in U.S. Dollars and asked the cabinet
to diversify these holdings into other major currencies.
    A parliament statement said the criticism came from 18
Kuomintang (nationalist) legislators and several opposition
members, who asked the government to diversify reserves into
mark, yen, Swiss franc, other currencies or gold.
    It said that from September 1985 to September 1986 the
central bank's exchange rate loss was about 144 billion Taiwan
dlrs.
    Fourteen local banks lost 12.6 billion Taiwan dlrs during
the period, it said.
    In the same time span the Taiwan dollar rose to 36.77 to
the U.S. Currency from 40.45. It closed at 33.17 today.
    The statement said the central bank's loss this year would
more than double because of the rising Taiwan dollar and
reserves, which had reached 54 billion U.S. Dlrs last week.
    Government legislators said they expected the reserves to
increase to more than 60 billion U.S. Dlrs this year and the
trade surplus to increase by about 15 billion U.S. Dlrs,
compared with 15.6 billion last year.
 REUTER

Huntingdon International Holdings plc
said it has entered into discussions with a view to acquiring
Northern Engineering and Testing Inc, a company based mainly in
the northwestern United States.
    The company said Northern Engineering had sales of
approximately 6.5 mln dlrs in the year ended March 31.
 Reuter

The Zeebrugge ferry disaster, in which
around 200 people drowned seven weeks ago, was almost certainly
caused by the ship leaving port with its bow doors wide open, a
British government inquiry was told.
    Lawyer David Steel, representing the government, told the
opening session of a public inquiry into the March 6 tragedy
that this was "the only tenable explanation."
    The ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise, is owned by
Townsend Thoresen, part of P and O's <PORL.L> subsidiary
European Ferries Group.
    Steel, commissioner of wrecks for England and Wales, said
the inquiry would probably conclude that the ferry capsized in
calm seas and fair weather a mile outside the Belgian port when
water poured into the car deck.
    "We think you will also conclude that the immediate cause of
that was that the doors were open, he said.
    Steel told the tribunal it appeared no attempt was made to
close either the inner or outer bow doors prior to what should
have been a routine voyage to the English port of Dover,
despite a provision in the ship's "Stability Booklet" that the
doors were to be closed and kept closed.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 275,000 to 285,000 head versus
157,000 week ago and 305,000 a year ago.
126,000 head versus 109,000 week ago and 133,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Fitzwater declined to comment on the continuing slide of the
dollar against the Japanese yen, but said Treasury Secretary
James Baker was watching developments.
    "Jim Baker is monitoring that at the Treasury Department,
but at this point we don't have any comment to make on the
dollar," Fitzwater told reporters.
    He was asked at a briefing whether the White House was
concerned about the continuing decline in the dollar's value.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James Baker is
urging Congress to pass legislation promptly to raise the
ceiling on U.S. debt the United States can borrow, Senate
majority leader Robert Byrd said.
    Byrd told reporters Baker visited him late Friday to urge
Congress not to add time-delaying amendments to the debt
ceiling bill that Congress must pass before May 15. Byrd, a
Democrat, said he agrees but said others may want amendments.
    The current ceiling of 2.3 trillion (2,300 billion) dlrs
drops on May 15 to 2.1 trillion dlrs, a level considered too
low for U.S. borrowing.
 Reuter

A leading regional banker said
that it was axiomatic that despite market intervention, a
country's currency will eventually fall to an exchange rate
which balances its international trade and payments accounts.
    John Medlin, president and chief executive officer for the
First Wachovia Corp, said that "substantial and rapid currency
devaluations usually are followed in time by surging price
inflation, spiralling interest rates and painful economic
austerity."
    Speaking to a banking trade group, he also said the peak of
debt writeoff has not yet been reached.
    Medlin told the Bankers Association for Foreign Trade that
ultimately "our nation's budget and trade deficits will be
balanced either through voluntary restraints in spending and
consumption or through forced austerity imposed by a
dispassionate and unmerciful international market place."
    He said the continuing weakness of the dollar and the
recent increase in inflation and interest rates "provide early
warning that the classic laws of international economics still
are in effect."
    He also told the association that trying to reduce the
trade deficit by erecting protectionist barriers to imports
would not give lasting relief.
    "However, the imposition and enforcement of fair trade
rules could help improve imbalances with nations which practice
protectionism and deception on us."
    Medlin noted that the U.S. economy was likely to continue
"at best being a sluggish mixture of depressed segments and
growth areas."
    But he said that the business cycle was still alive and
that the next downturn "could be deeper and harder to reverse
than the last one."
 Reuter

One of West Germany's major feedstuff
and grain traders, Kurt A. Becher GmbH and Co KG, said ConAgra
Inc of the U.S. Was taking it over, effective June 1.
    Becher said ConAgra, which already owns 50 pct of the trade
house, would take over the remaining 50 pct from the Becher
family. Further details were not immediately available.
    ConAgra, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is a foodstuff company
and has access to world markets through its agricultural trade
subsidiary, ConAgra International.
 Reuter

Northern Telecom Ltd's U.S. unit will
announce a reorganization today to form a new division focusing
on sales and servicing of data communications equipment,
spokesman Richard Lowe said.
    The new division, called data communications and networks,
will be formed effective May 1 and will market, sell and
service data communications equipment, Lowe said from Northern
Telecom Inc's Nashville, Tenn. headquarters.
    The group will include the company's sales to the U.S.
federal government and U.S. military, he said.
    The U.S. unit's new division will also concentrate on sales
to large end user customers who have a variety of equipment
combined in one network, as well as data packet switching
business for either public or private networks, Northern
Telecom spokesman Lowe said.
    Lowe said the company anticipates revenues from the new
operating group will be about 350 mln dlrs in 1987, increasing
to about one billion dlrs in five years.
    "Raising this to a group level within the company
demonstrates the importance we see in this marketplace and the
rapid growth that could occur there," Lowe said.
    Lowe said the business of the new group was previously part
of Northern Telecom Inc's Dallas-based private branch exchange
division.
    Northern Telecom Inc accounted for about 65 pct of parent
company Northern Telecom Ltd's 1986 revenues of 4.38 billion
dlrs.
    Northern Telecom, North America's second largest
telecommunications equipment designer and manufacturer, is 52
pct owned by Bell Canada Enterprises Inc <BCE>.
 Reuter

Pressure is growing in the financial
markets for the U.S. to take overt action to stabilize the
dollar even though doubts linger that it has fallen far enough
to help redress world trade imbalances, economists and dealers
said.
    Some experts believe that a half-point increase in the U.S.
discount rate, preferably in conjunction with rate cuts in
Tokyo and Bonn, would be enough to discourage sellers.
    But many fear that more drastic action, such as a U.S.
issue of yen-denominated Treasury bonds, may be needed.
    Despite official warnings about the dangers of a further
dollar decline and concerted central bank intervention, the
dollar extended its recent sharp depreciation, touching a
40-year low of 137.25 yen in Tokyo earlier today after closing
here on Friday at 139.30/40.
    The impact on other financial markets was devastating.
    In Tokyo, the stock market suffered its largest single day
decline; in London, gold bullion prices rose to four-year highs
and in the U.S., long Treasury bond yields surged above 8.80
pct and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 40
points in hectic early trading.
    "The problem now is linkage. This is not just a currency
problem. It is affecting all the markets," said one senior
trader at a major U.S. bank.
    Up until September of last year, international efforts to
redress world trade imbalances appeared to working like a
dream; the dollar was falling in an orderly manner, world
interest rates were tumbling and inflation was kept in check.
    In recent months, however, this strategy has begun to show
signs of severe stress, with the U.S. imposition of punitive
tariffs on Japan threatening to unravel this spirit of
cooperating and condemn the world to a damaging trade war.
    "The markets fear that we have built up a momentum that is
really difficult to stop. A U.S. rate hike has become an
inevitability," one currency dealer said.
    "At this point, nothing short of a Fed discount rate
increase, ideally combined with further discount rate cuts by
Japan and Germany, would seem capable of stabilizing the
dollar," said David Jones of Aubrey G. Lanston and Co Inc.
    Allen Sinai of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc predicted a 1/4
to 1/2 point U.S. rate increase before May 19 and a rise in
U.S. bank prime lending rates to eight pct from 7-3/4 pct in
    But many economists feared that any moderate U.S. rate
increases, which appear unlikely to be matched by rate cuts
overseas, would be too little, too late.
    "They should have done this 10 days ago. It would have done
the trick then," said one currency analyst.
    "If they do it now, it would be seen as a defensive measure
not an offensive one. It would show policy weakness not
strength," added one trader.
    In addition, economists fear that a discount rate rise
might place additional strain on a sluggish U.S. economy and
tempt embattled debtor nations to retaliate.
    A U.S. discount rate increase would also fuel the
protectionist fires in Washington, where the House is expected
to pass a protectionist trade bill, whatever compromises
President Reagan and Prime Minister Nakasone can come up with
during their summit later in the week.
    "Politically, they can't really do it this week," said one
currency analyst, pointing out that if it failed to stabilize
the dollar, it would only weaken the U.S. negotiating stance.
    Even if the U.S. retains the upper hand, economists and
traders do not hold out high hopes for any major new
initiatives from this week's talks.
    At best, the experts see some sort of accord whereby Japan
will agree to stimulate growth and open its domestic markets to
outsiders while the U.S. promises to lift its tariffs and
support the Group of Seven dollar stabilization agreement.
    But many fear that this may not be enough to assuage the
market's speculative selling fervor, which has now raised fears
of weak overseas interest at next week's quarterly U.S.
Treasury refunding program.
    Japanese and European investors have traditionally played
an active role in these auctions, which are expected to total
28 to 29 billion dlrs.
    Consequently, thoughts are turning to the possibility that
President Reagan may try to remove foreign investors' worries
about currency risk by financing part of the U.S. budget
deficit in yen or mark bonds, rather than dollars.
    While similar action by former President Carter helped to
stabilize the dollar in 1978, the White House is clearly
reluctant to take such a step, economists said.
    This hesitance was amply shown last Friday when U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker said, "there might well be some
who would view (yen-denominated bonds) as a lack of confidence
by the U.S. in its own currency."
    Baker added, "therefore we don't think it's an appropriate
thing to do."
    A foreign exchange analyst at a major Japanese bank here
shared Baker's doubts. "Dollar defending measures are very
unlikely. They will confirm the dollar's weak undertone and
lead to further speculative dollar selling," he said.
    Thus, it may be less destabilizing for the authorities to
stop trying to fight the market's bearish sentiment.
    In a recent lengthy report, economists at Morgan Guaranty
Trust Co concluded, "the dollar should be left free to trade at
whatever level market forces produce."
 Reuter

ITT Corp said first quarter results,
reported earlier, were substantially ahead of budget and added
it is confident of a continued improvement by all divisions in
the remainder of the year.
    The company said the natural resources division more than
doubled its contribution from the year ago quarter while the
diversified services business reported strong operating results
due to continued improvement in the domestic casualty business
at The Hartford.
    It said the operationg performance of the industrial and
defense technology business was above expectations but below
the year ago result.
 Reuter

Du Pont Co, reporting lower
first quarter profits, said a drop in energy earnings was only
partially offset by surging chemical and specialty products.
    Du Pont earned 391 mln dlrs, or 1.62 dlrs a share, in the
latest quarter, down from 404 mln, or 1.67 dlrs a share, in
1986's initial quarter.
    It had sales of 7.13 billion dlrs, down from 7.17 billion
last year and total revenues of 7.20 billion dlrs down from
7.29 billion dlrs.
    Du Pont said after-tax operating income for its chemical
and specialty products businesses totaled 393 mln dlrs in the
latest quarter, rising 55 pct from last year's first quarter
due to improved results from most businesses, notably fibers,
white pigments and specialty polymers.
    Results benefited from improved worldwide demand and lower
costs attributable to lower energy feedstock prices, earlier
restructurings, and efforts to improve productivity.
    It said sales of these businesses were up eight pct to 4.2
billion dlrs on a sales volume increase of five pct and three
pct higher average prices, reflecting a weaker dollar.
    Du Pont said after-tax operating income from the petroleum
segments dropped 64 pct from a year ago to 55 mln dlrs in the
latest quarter.
    These results reflect lower refined petroleum product
margins and lower worldwide crude oil and domestic natural gas
prices. Coal earnings were down 27 pct on lower prices.
    The company said it anticipates continued strong results
from chemicals and specialty products as worldwide demand
remains high. Improvement in petroleum will require flat or
improved crude oil prices and improved refined product margins.
 Reuter

France's seasonally adjusted unemployment
rate rose to a record 11.1 pct of the workforce at end-March
compared with 11 pct at end-February, the National Statistics
Institute (INSEE) said.
    The total number of unemployed edged up to 2.67 mln at
end-March from 2.65 mln at end-February, an INSEE spokeswoman
said.
 REUTER

Exxon Corp chairman Lawrence Rawl said
total world energy consumption will continue to grow, but added
new oil discoveries worldwide are slowing down and can not
offset annual production.
    In a speech at the World Petroleum Congress here, Rawl said
oil companies would increasingly be forced to turn to enhanced
recovery techniques, very heavy oil and synthetics to
compensate for substantial declines in conventional oil
    "What our current outlook suggests is that total world
energy consumption will continue to grow steadily in an ever
more energy efficient world," Rawl said. But, he added, Exxon
projects that "despite today's ample supplies, the world will
also be facing up to inherent limitations on the availability
of oil and gas, which currently supplies more than half of the
world's energy needs."
    The Exxon chairman told some 1,500 oil executives from
around the world that some synthetics projects could become
practical when oil reaches 30 dlrs to 40 dlrs a barrel range in
real terms.
    "The question is when and how this will happen," he said.
"I believe that synthetic projects will not only re-emerge but
will become commercial well below those we were thinking about
the last time oil prices moved substantially higher."
    Rawl said synthetic fuel would become economic at lower
prices because companies are investigating "a new generation of
ideas that promise substantially lower costs" and projects
begun in the late 1970s, which have since been suspended.
    Rawl also said companies must find new and more effective
ways of enhanced recovery from existing oil fields.
    "It would be my view that new oil discoveries, even with
advanced technology, are likely to slow down - not reverse -
the decline in worldwide oil discoveries," he said. "So it is
essential to find a better way to recover more of the
discovered oil from producing fields using chemicals, solvents,
heat, and other techniques."
    Rawl emphasized that private oil companies need some
assistance from government in developing synfuels technology.
"More importantly, they need to provide a political and
economic environment that is stable enough to allow the
developmental process to function effectively, he said.
    Rawl also said stable energy markets serve the best
interest of producing and consuming nations by allowing both
groups to plan for steady economic growth.
    He did not make any oil price prediction, saying only that
the economic goals of the U.S. and other nations can only be
achieved if world oil prices "stabilize within a reasonable
range."
    "Prices must be high enough to meet realistic aspirations
for income and encourage resource development in the producing
countries, but not so high as to inhibit economic growth in
consuming nations," he said.
    The Exxon chairman also criticized "the occasional attempt
of consuming nations to try to control domestic oil prices,
calling such protectionist measures disruptive to the world oil
market.
 Reuter

French producers have withdrawn all
offers to sell more than 700,000 tonnes of sugar into European
Community intervention stocks, EC Commission sources said.
    They also said West German producers had now withdrawn the
last 3,000 of the 79,250 tonnes they sold into EC stores on
April 1.
    The sales were made to protest against the level of export
restitutions being granted for sugar at weekly EC tenders.
    Last Friday, commission sources said the West German
producers had withdrawn all but 3,000 tonnes of their sales.
    The protest by European producers involved sales of 854,000
tonnes of sugar into intervention, of which 785,000 tonnes were
accepted by the commission.
    Under EC regulations, operators had five weeks before
receiving payment to withdraw the sugar.
    Their decision to withdraw the sugar follows what
commission sources have said is a slight shift in the
authority's stance in recent weeks. The commission last week
increased the maximum restitutions to within about 0.5 Ecus per
kilo of the prices which traders claim are needed to match
intervention prices.
 Reuter

Brunswick Corp said its first-quarter
sales and profits hit records despite an after-tax charge of
about 10 mln dlrs from its new boat-building units.
    The 10 mln dlrs charge, or 22 cts a share, was for
amortization of intangible assets at Bayliner and Sea Ray, two
boatmakers acquired in December, a spokesman told Reuters.
    Earlier it said net profits for the period were 34.7 mln or
78 cts a share versus 23.8 mln or 57 cts a share a year ago.
Its Mercury unit's first-quarter sales increased 26 pct and
operating earnings rose 19 pct, while its industrial products
unit operated at a slight loss, it said.
 Reuter

The Commodity Credit Corporation late
Friday readjusted county price differentials for PIK corn
redemptions traded off the Louisiana Gulf, according to a CCC
spokesman at the Kansas City Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service, ASCS, office.
    He said the adjusted differentials supersede the
adjustments made March 30. They represent an increase over the
original differentials but are lower than the differential
adjustments recently made.
    For differentials of five to 15 cents, CCC added one cent.
For 16-25 cents add two cents, for 26-35 cts add three cts, for
36-45 cts add four cts and for 46-55 cts add five cts.
    The recent drop in barge freight rates prompted the
adjustments, the source said.
 Reuter

Chevron Corp's <CHV> <Chevron Petroleum
(U.K.) Ltd> said it sold interests in two North Sea blocks and
part of a third block to <Midland and Scottish Resources Ltd>.
    The two firms said they have signed an agreement which
transfers Chevron's interests, comprising 29.41 pct in block
2/10b under licence p326, 29.41 pct in block 2/15a under
licence p327 and part of block 2/10a under licence p234.
    The part of block 2/10a which is being sold covers
Chevron's interest in the Emerald accumulation, discovered by
the company in 1978. Chevron is retaining its 25 pct interest
in the remainder of block 2/10a and in block 3/28a under
licence p234.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court refused to dismiss
a Justice Department civil suit charging Archer Daniels Midland
Co, ADM, and Nabisco Brands Inc with violating the antitrust
laws.
    The high court let stand lower court rulings that rejected
the motion by the two companies seeking dismissal of the suit.
    The suit challenged the 1982 agreement by Nabisco to lease
both of its high fructose corn syrup, HFCS, plants to ADM.
    The department said that before 1982 ADM was the second
largest U.S. producer of HFCS while Nabisco ranked third. The
deal made ADM the nation's largest producer.
 Reuter

President Reagan said he hoped the
United States could lift trade sanctions against Japan soon.
    But he said the United States would do what is necessary to
see that other nations lived up to their trade agreements.
    In a speech prepared for delivery to the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, he said, "I hope that, before long, we can lift these
(Japanese trade sanctions) and that this episode will be
recorded as a small incident in the building of our
relationship."
    But, Reagan added, "we will do what is necessary to see that
other nations live up to their obligations and trading
agreements with us. Trade must be free. It must also be fair."
    Reagan said the decision to impose 100 pct tariffs on 300
mln dlrs worth of electronic exports to the United States sent
a message it was time to complete a U.S.-Japan "trade bridge."
  "The final answer to the trade problems between America and
Japan is not more hemming and hawing, not more trade sanctions,
not more voluntary restraint agreements - though these may be
needed as steps along the way - and certainly not more
unfulfilled agreements," he said.
    Reagan said the answer was genuinely fair and open markets
on both sides of the Pacific - "and the sooner, the better."
    Reagan said the administration's tools for dealing with
unfair trade practices met the need for both firmness and
finesse.
    He said trade legislation pending in Congress would be
dangerous because it would force the administration to use "a
steamroller against unfair practices every time, no matter
whether the steamroller would open the trade doors or flatten
the entire house," he said.
    Reagan said that ending every unfair trade practice in
Japan would cut the U.S. trade deficit by only about 10 pct.
    "If our trade deficit is to come down, more must be done --
and is being done," he said.
    "The change in the dollar's value is part of it, and since
the middle of last year, the actual volume of our exports had
been on the rise," he said.
    He also said he believed America's trading partners should
cut taxes and regulations, as the United States had done, so
that they could create jobs and buy more goods.
 Reuter

NCR Corp said it cut prices on its
personal computers, the 80286-based PC8 and 8088-based PC6
models, by 10 pct to 21 pct effective immediately, to maintain
a competitive position on pricing.
    NCR said prices of its high-end PC8 models have been cut by
10 pct to 13 pct and by 10 pct in its PC8 model designed to
compete with 286-based XT-level PCs. It also reduced the list
price of its PC6 model configured with 256 RAM and 360 K flex
drive, along with other products in the line.
    NCR also said it reduced the price of its 64MB fixed disk
drive to 2,995 dlrs from 3,595 dlrs.
 Reuter

Effective extraction of the toxic
metal cadmium from soil may at last be feasible using soybean
plants, research in the Netherlands by a Belgian-based
environment group shows.
    Cadmium, naturally drawn up by plants and passed on to
consumers, has been shown to produce kidney damage and
resulting calcium loss as well as causing high blood pressure
and cancers, a spokesman for the Ecological Life and
Cultivation (VELT) said.
    Three years of experiments by the organization showed
soybean plants extracted up to 16 pct of soil-borne cadmium,
which went into the leaves and not into the beans themselves.
    Cadmium is present in the soil because of emissions in the
past by factories producing non-ferrous metals, the spokesman
said.
    "Although many of these factories are now using far safer
methods of manufacture, the cadmium is already in the soil and
until now there has been no way to get rid of it," he said.
 Reuter

European Community foreign ministers
agreed to formal talks on signing an economic pact with
Hungary, in a move which could clear the way towards
establishing EC diplomatic ties with Budapest, EC officials
said.
    They said Community foreign ministers agreed to mandate the
EC executive Commission to open talks on a cooperation pact
which would boost trade and economic ties with Hungary.
    Earlier this year, Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Jozsef
Marjai said Hungary might be willing to normalise relations
with the Community in exchange for such a deal, according to EC
officials. No date has been fixed for opening the talks.
 REUTER

Crane Co said shareholders at its
annual meeting approved a three-for-two stock split of its
common to shareholders of record May seven. Crane said the
additional shares will be issued on or about May 21.
    It said the number of common shares outstanding will
increase to 23.7 mln from 15.8 mln.
    Crane also said shareholder's approved an increase in the
company's common to 80 mln from 40 mln and authorized five mln
shares of preferred stock with a par value of one ct.
 Reuter

National Business Systems Inc said its
Transact Data Services Inc subsidiary agreed to acquire Access
ATM Network Inc <ATM.TO>'s 1.6 mln outstanding shares for 1.6
mln dlrs cash.
    The company said the deal was conditional on Access
completing the previously announced sale of its automated
teller machine assets to unidentified buyers and approval by
Access shareholders. Closing is expected in May, it said.
    National Business said Transact Data planned to amalgamate
Access's software and switching capability operations.
 Reuter

Peru failed to conclude any purchases at
its weekend buying tender for two cargoes June shipment white
sugar owing to the sharp price rise that day, traders said.
    However, the country had bought whites last week at 202.90
dlrs a tonne cost and freight for May/June, they said.
    Meanwhile there was no news of the recent tender quest by
Algeria for 30,000 whites, the traders said.
 Reuter

Syria is holding a buying tender on May
6, for reply the next day, for 24,000 tonnes white sugar for
shipment in two equal parts in June and July, traders said.
 Reuter

directly supply temporary reserves by arranging three or
four-day System repurchase agreements, economists said.
    They said there is less chance that it will add reserves
indirectly instead. If the Fed fails to supply reserves,
however, economists said this will be a strong indication that
it is firming policy, perhaps in preparation for a near term
discount rate increase from 5-1/2 pct.
    Federal funds, which averaged 6.29 pct on Friday, opened at
6-7/16 pct and remained there in early trading.
 Reuter

French state-owned Banque Nationale de
Paris is planning a one-for-10 capital increase in the next few
months, the bank announced at its annual press conference.
    BNP is planning to distribute one new share or investment
certificate for every 10 held.
    The French state is a 99.97 pct shareholder in the bank,
which is due for privatisation during the next five years under
the government's plan to return 65 state-owned banks, insurance
companies and industrial groups to the private sector.
 REUTER

Stanley Works said it
expects record sales and earnings in 1987 against earnings of
78.7 mln dlrs on sales of 1.37 billion dlrs in 1986.
    "We feel confident that, with our present momentum, the
Stanley Works is positioned for strong performance with record
sales and earnings expected for 1987," chairman Donald W. Davis
said.
    The company said its first quarter earnings from operations
rose to 19.2 mln dlrs from 14.8 mln dlrs a year ago.
 Reuter

A shift in the European Community's
attitude to exports led to West German producers withdrawing
sugar sold into intervention, industry sources said.
    The sources noted the withdrawal followed a rise in maximum
Commission restitutions to within 0.5 European currency units,
Ecus, per 100 kilos of the level traders claim is needed to
match intervention prices.
    One source said, "This was taken as a sign that the
Community was taking a more favourable stance towards exports."
He added producers still expected more from the Commission.
    German producers had sold 79,250 tonnes into intervention.
 Reuter

Federated Department Stores
Inc and Allied Stores, currently wholly owned by Robert
Campeau, said they have entered into a definitive stock
purchase agreement for the sale of Allied's Blocks Inc unit to
Federated for 55 mln dlrs cash.
    The price is subject to certain cloising adjustments, the
    Allied said it is selling Blocks, which operates 10
department stores under that name in Indiana and Ohio, and two
Michigan stores under the Herpolsheimer's name, under its
previously announced restructuring program.
    The transaction is expected to close in June of this year
when the twelve Blocks stores will be operated as an entity of
Federated's Cincinnati-based Lazarus Department store division,
    The companies added that the deal is subject to customary
closing conditions, including expiration of the waiting period
under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act.
 Reuter

Corp expects its new products and cost-cutting measures to have
an increasingly positive impact as 1987 proceeds, chairman John
Akers told the annual meeting.
    Akers repeated his assessment of the company's outlook when
first quarter results were announced last week that "although
the worldwide economic situation remains unsettled, we see some
encouraging signs."
    He said IBM shipments in the first quarter exceeded the
1986 level, "the first time that has happened since 1985."
    Akers said that IBM will increase its emphasis on service
and support of customers this year and that by the end of 1987
it will have 20 pct more sales representatives and systems
engineers than two years ago.
    He said the company is accomplishing this by both moving as
many existing employees as possible into marketing and through
new hires.
    Akers said IBM will increase its U.S. software programming
workforce, both through retraining and hiring, by nearly six
thousands people over early 1985, to a yearend total of 26,000.
    Last year IBM announced that it would try to reduce its
workforce without violating its historical no-layoff policy
through early-retirement offers and retraining.
    Earlier this month, the company introduced a new line of
personal computers and this summer it will begin shipping a new
generation of minicomputers it hopes will compete successfully
against offerings from Digital Equipment Corp <DEC>.
    Akers said, "We expect our product announcements and
resource-balancing measures to have an increasingly positive
impact as 1987 proceeds."
    Akers said that since last April the company's worldwide
workforce has been reduced by 11,000.
    He said some 14,000 people have been moved from one IBM
location to another, headquarters staff positions were cut by
7,000 and the number of U.S. managers has been cut by 1,500.
    Akers said IBM is "working hard to reduce our product
cycle," which is the time between the cenception of a new
product and its first shipment.
    "We want to make this as short as possible and we are
making progress," he said.
 Reuter

General Tire, a subsidiary of
GenCorp, said it was evaluating the sale of its company-owned
stores as part of its ongoing restructuring program.
    General Tire said it received inquiries from tire dealers
and other interest parties. The company said the stores would
only be sold as a complete package, not individually.
    General Tire said it has 84 commerical and retail outlets
across the country.
 Reuter

said he wants the Senate to pass by late Friday a fiscal 1988
budget that starts reducing the flow of U.S. debt.
    The Democratic leader told a news conference and later the
Senate itself that the Senate would debate the measure today
even though technically the first procedural vote --on formally
bringing up the vital measure for action--would not take place
until tomorrow afternoon.
    The pending budget would cut some 38 billion dlrs from an
anticipated deficit that would occur without any action.
    Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole also said he wanted quick
action on the budget measure this week, before Friday afternoon
when some Republicans want to leave town.
    Dole said a Republican substitute probably would be offered
to the Democratic-written budget which would reduce the
estimated 1988 deficit of about 171 billion dlrs to about 134
billion dlrs, through cuts in defence and social spending and
some 18.5 billion dlrs in unspecified tax hikes in 1988.
    The House, also controlled by Democrats, has passed a
similar budget which would have to be reconciled with a Senate
plan. President Reagan's budget was defeated in the House.
 Reuter

The Manitoba Agriculture Department
weekly crop report said no measurable precipitation was
reported across the province in the past week, allowing small
grain seedings to progress rapidly across the south, with field
preparation under way in the northern growing regions.
    Small grains should be seeded across the Province in one to
two weeks, assuming weather remains dry.
    Planting progress was most advanced in the southeast, with
30 pct of the spring wheat acres and 40 pct of the barley acres
seeded. Cereals plantings were well under way in the south
central part of the province, with seedings spotty so far in
the southwest.
    Summer fallow acres should be in line with the latest
Statistics Canada projections, the report said.
 Reuter

Canadian gross domestic product should
grow at a real rate of 3.3 pct this year before easing to a 3.0
pct growth rate next year when U.S. economic growth is expected
to decline, Royal Bank of Canada, Canada's largest bank, said
in its monthly economic forecast.
    The forecast is from fourth quarter to fourth quarter. The
bank did not give Canada's real rate of growth for 1986. The
bank said it expects the Canadian dollar to remain at the 75
U.S. ct level for the next few months as major economic
fundamentals have not improved enough to return the currency to
a higher level in the absence of a wider interest rate spread.
 Reuter

Britain is not considering any
restriction of its present oil production, UK Energy Minister
     Speaking to reporters at the Offshore Technology
Conference, Buchanan-Smith said, "No, we've made that
absolutely clear, we see no reason for changing (the production
level)."
     Earlier today, Buchanan-Smith gave the go-ahead to Mobil
Corp for two new North Sea developments -- the Ness oil field
and Beryl B subsea water injection project -- totalling 96 mln
dlrs (60 mln British pounds).
     Unlike Norway, which has restricted its production of
North Sea oil by 80,000 barrels a day in an effort to stabilize
world oil prices, Britain has consistently refused to intervene
in the market place.
     Buchanan-Smith also said there may be a demand-supply gap
in the 1990s for natural gas in Britain, but added that it
would probably be less than had been previously estimated.
     Norway is a major producer of natural gas and this morning
Norway's Energy Minister Arne Oien said he was hoping Britain
will take more Norwegian gas in the 1990s.
     Buchanan-Smith also said he expects to announce the
results of the 10th licensing round of North Sea tracts next
month.
     He said there had been 75 applications for 127 tracts by
84 companies, and added that he expects about 50 blocks will be
licensed.
     He said the results would be in line with rounds prior to
but not equal to the ninth two years ago, which was one of the
most successful ever.
 Reuter

Pogo Producing Co said it should gain
some 700 to 800 barrels per day of additional oil production
when new onshore wells start production in June.
    The company said work on offshore properties appears to be
on schedule to complete the addition before year end of about
10 mln cubic feet of gas and 400 barrels of liquids to Pogo's
daily producing capabilities.
    In the first quarter, liquids production averaged 8,525
barrels daily, down from 11,233 barrels a day in the year
earlier quarter.
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp said a
group in which it is a participant discovered oil in the
offshore Norwegian North Sea Block 9/2-1 exploratory well.
    The well tested at a maximum rate of 6,800 barrels of 39
degree API gravity oil and 918 thousand cubic feet of gas
through a 3/4 inch choke. The well, the first to be drilled on
the block, was drilled in about 320 feet of water to a total
depth of 12,228 feet subsea.
    Occidental has a 10-pct stake in the 136,067-acre block
operated by Statoil, the Norwegian state oil company, which
holds a 50 pct interest.
 Reuter

Shultz said it was up to the Agriculture Department to decide
whether to offer subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union.
    Shultz told the Newspaper Farm Editors of America that a 
wheat bonus offer to the Soviet Union "is something that I
basically leave to the Agriculture Department to figure out."
    Last year, Shultz spoke out against President Reagan's
decision to offer subsidized U.S. wheat to the Soviet Union --
an offer Moscow spurned.
    "I've always been a little put off by the idea that we would
arrange our food supplies so as to price them in such a way
that the Soviet housewife could buy American-produced food for
less than the American housewife could buy it," Shultz said.
    "It also seems to me that if we are going to sell in world
markets, we have to meet the price," he added.
    Shultz called proposals to broaden the eligibility criteria
of USDA's export enhancement program (EEP) to include all U.S.
customers "questionable."
    An across-the-board EEP would mark a "considerable change" in
the current program, which Shultz said is designed "to say to
other countries that subsidize, particularly the European
Common Market, that we're not going to give up our markets to
those subsidized sales and we'll have a little kit bag that
will meet that competition and hold our markets for our
farmers."
    "If you just go across-the-board and subsidize everything,
that's a different order of program and seems to me quite
questionable," he said.
 Reuter

Blocking Canadian gas imports
would not serve the long-term interests of the United States,
said Martha Hesse, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, adding that the development of a freely open North
American energy market should be encouraged.
    "I firmly believe that the long-term interest of U.S.
consumers would not be served by any attempt to promote a 'Made
in America' label for gas," she said at an oil and gas
    She said the commission recognizes the important role
Canadian gas plays in the American market, despite grumblings
among U.S. domestic producers of the competition from north of
the border.
    Recent figures show Canada shipped 2.48 billion Canadian
dlrs worth of gas to the U.S. in 1986, down sharply from the
3.91 billion dlr total in 1985.
    "But we do seriously recognize the importance in the years
to come of the supplies of Canadian gas to U.S. markets," she
said. "And even in the short term, competition is generally a
good thing," she added.
    She said the commission is concentrating on improving the
access to U.S. pipelines, something that would be of great
benefit to Canadian producers.
    Hesse said transportation of Canadian gas is already
improving, gas imports rising more than 21 pct in the first two
months of the year. But Hesse declined to comment in detail on
the controversial December order, known as the "as billed issue",
because it is the subject of a new hearing.
    The order, which is being fought by Canada, involves
barring U.S. pipeline companies and consumers from paying
certain Canadian shipping expenses.
    Hesse said the order was never intended "as an attempt to
extend the arm of U.S. regulations across the border."
    However, a senior Canadian government energy official
warned delegates the ruling could severely weaken Canadian gas
producers. "Besides the extra territorial effect, there is the
potential that Canadian consumers and producers may end up
subsidizing the cost of transportation services originally
incurred on behalf of U.S. customers," said Robert Skinner, an
assistant deputy minister in Canada's energy department.
 Reuter

The Reagan administration is expected to
face tough resistance from Japan and from some entrenched U.S.
interests, if it hopes to succeed in forcing Japan to end beef
and citrus import controls by April, 1988, U.S. and Japanese
    Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng and Trade Representative
Clayton Yeutter took a hardline stance on beef and citrus in
talks here last week, insisting that the quotas be abandoned by
April, 1988.
    But that stance will be difficult to maintain because Japan
will resist the pressure fiercely and because some U.S.
suppliers of those commodities have an interest in maintaining
the quotas, U.S. and Japanese officials told Reuters.
    Twice in the past, the United States has negotiated with
Japan on beef and citrus import quotas -- during the Tokyo
round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1978, and in
bilateral talks in 1984.
    Each time the U.S. demanded an end to the quotas at the
outset but ultimately accepted substantial increases instead.
The current agreement calls for an increase in high quality
beef imports to 58,400 tonnes in fiscal 1987, oranges to
126,000 tonnes and orange juice to 8,500 tonnes.
    Lyng has said repeatedly that this time the United States
will not settle for simple increases in the quotas. Japan has
been given plenty of time to reform its agricultural support
system and the quotas must be scrapped, Lyng said.
    Japanese officials want to begin informal talks on beef and
citrus in August or September in Hawaii, sources said.
    If the U.S. intends to press its tough stance, and Japan,
as expected rejects the demands, the issue may then be put to
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade for settlement,
which would mean prolonging the friction beyond the April, 1988
deadline set by the U.S., officials said.
    In interviews here, Japanese officials insist that on beef
they will not liberalize imports, regardless of the U.S.
pressure, because the Japanese beef industry is not competitive
and would be damaged by freer trade.
    Most Japanese beef production still tends to be on small
farms which Japanese officials said must be protected from
cheap imports by use of the quota system.
    Furthermore, while the U.S. National Cattlemen's
Association is strongly supporting the tough administration
position, some U.S. meat exporters and packers are ambivalent.
    This is because to some U.S. exporters and packers beef
exports to Japan under the quota system are a steady, reliable
business managed by a quasi-government Japan Livestock Industry
Promotion Corporation. Under quotas the U.S. share of Japan's
beef market has expanded at the expense of Australia.
    In the absence of quotas, some U.S. suppliers are concerned
the U.S. share might decline and exporting to Japan would
become a riskier business, meat industry sources said.
    Major U.S meat industry leaders will meet in Washington
next week, including cattlemen, processors and exporters, in an
effort to reach an industry-wide consensus toward Japan.
    The citrus industry also appears split on the quota issue.
California's Sunkist, the largest U.S. supplier of oranges to
Japan, has expressed reservations about eliminating quotas.
    A representative of Sunkist said the cooperative is
concerned that in the absence of quotas, lower quality oranges
from Israel and South Africa might be competitive in Japan.
    Ironically, some Japanese officials hinted that fresh
oranges may be a product on which imports could be freed with a
minimum of impact on Japanese mandarin orange production.
    This is because U.S. oranges do not directly compete with
smaller Japanese mandarins, officials said. But Japan wants to
maintain quotas on orange juice because it fears imported juice
tastes better and would displace Japanese mandarin orange
juice, they said.
    One scenario mentioned by both U.S. and Japanese officials
is that Tokyo may try to blunt the tough administration stance
by offering to scrap the quota on fresh oranges in return for
U.S. acceptance of increases in beef and juice quotas.
    Lyng has acknowledged that liberalization of beef and
citrus imports is a difficult objective, but he insisted during
the week-long tour here that it is a high priority on the
U.S./Japan agriculture agenda-- more important than the rice
issue which received most of the attention.
    Asked about the ambivalence of some in U.S. agribusiness,
Lyng noted some interests on both the U.S. and Japanese side
have benefited from quotas but this will not stop the
administration from pressing for liberalization.
    And Lyng said the administration believes it can marshall
more support for eliminating the quotas now than ever before,
because of concern about Japan's rising trade surplus.
    "We're coming at this one (beef and citrus negotiation)
with a much stronger view coming out of Washington. The times
have changed. The trade balance is much worse," Lyng said.
 Reuter

The sliding value of the U.S. dollar
may soon force the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries to raise its oil benchmark price, setting the stage
for prices as high as 22 dlrs a barrel by yearend, top
executives with U.S. oil companies said.
    The current benchmark price of 18 dlrs a barrel was
established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) at its December meeting when the cartel set a
15.8 mln barrel per day production ceiling.
    But the continuing weakness of the U.S. dollar, the
currency used by OPEC for its oil sales, is making the 18 dlr
price difficult to sustain, said Fred Hartley, chairman of
Unocal Corp <UCL>.
    The U.S. dollar has fallen in value by about 10 pct since
December and has fallen by a total of about 40 pct during the
past two years.
    Hartley told Reuters he expected significantly higher oil
prices this winter and would not rule out the potential for 25
dlrs a barrel by the spring of 1988.
    "I think June will be the critical month to see what they
do," said Hartley, who was in Houston to attend the World
Petroleum Congress. OPEC has scheduled a regular meeting in
June which some experts believe is likely to revive suggestions
that oil should be priced according to a basket of world
currencies instead of the U.S. dollar.
    E.H. Clark, chairman of <Baker Hughes Inc>, said the Saudi
kingdom's need to generate revenues -- rather than greater
world demand -- would drive any price increases.
    "The Saudis have made committments and have a balance of
trade based on receiving 18 dlrs a barrel for this oil. But the
U.S. dollar won't buy as much as it did five or six months
ago," Clark said in an interview. "I'm betting on the Saudi
king's need to sustain revenues."
    Clark predicted that world oil prices would top 22 dlrs a
barrel by January one.
    However, the authoritative Middle East Economic Survey
reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia would not seek to increase
OPEC oil prices unless oil demand showed strong growth.
    Saudi sources told the newsletter that the policy was based
on the longterm need to restore the competitive position of
OPEC oil against other energy sources.
    Many oil industry experts are forecasting a modest increase
in world oil demand averaging one pct annually during the next
few years.
    Michel Moreau, a director of the <Elf Aquitaine Group>,
said he believed the worldwide oil industry had reached a
consensus that prices of at least 20 dlrs a barrel were
necessary to cover exploration costs, royalties and taxes on
new production.
    The 20 dlr level will be reached this year only if the
cash-strapped nations of Nigeria, Egypt and Gabon refrain from
discounting oil prices or increasing production levels, Moreau
said.
    "I think if more than two (OPEC nations) defect, the
production agreement will fall apart," he said. "But this
threat is the Saudis' big stick to keep producers in line.
Nobody wants a repeat of the collapse that occurred in 1986."
    Lawrence Rawl, chairman of Exxon Corp <XON>, told Reuters
he expected prices would remain at 18 dlrs through the end of
1987, adding that 20 dlrs a barrel was a possibility.
    Other major companies are taking a more cautious view of
prices, fearing that some OPEC members may yet upset the
cartel's production agreement.
    "This is a year of testing," said Alfred Munk, manager of
foreign affairs at Amoco Corp. (AN). "If they fail, there may
be a price decline to about 14 dlrs a barrel."
    French-owned Total CFP's vice president Pierre Vaillaud
said, "Demand is not going up very quickly, at best maybe one
percent a year. You can't change the price with just one pct,"
Vaillaud said.
 Reuter

Advest Group Inc said it is against
company policy to comment on unusual market activity or rumors
in response to inquiries on the unusual activity of its stock,
according to the New York Stock Exchange.
    The stock closed up 1-1/2 to 15. The exchange said it had
contacted the company and requested a public statement
indicating whether there are any corporate developments which
may explain the activity.
 Reuter

Morgan Stanley Group Inc unit Natural
Gas Clearinghouse Inc said it has reached agreement with
(Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd) of Canada to import substantial
quantities of natural gas for its U.S. customers.
    The company said potentially 500 mln cubic feet a day of
Canadian natural gas could be imported under the agreement.
    It said the natural gas would be competitively priced but
did not refer to specific prices.
    Pan-Alberta is owned by Nova <NVA.A.T> and Alberta Energy
Co, the company added.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said an
investment trust which issues units in exchange for Eastman
Kodak Co <EK> shares began trading today on a "when issued"
basis.
    AMEX said the trust, known as the Americus Trust for Kodak
shares, trades under the ticker symbol KDUWI and will accept a
maximum of 7,500,000 shares.
    The trust included two categories which traded separately
from the units, known as prime and score components, which
respectively allowed investors to receive current income or
capital appreciation potential, it said.
 Reuter

The prospect of renewed assaults on
the dollar might force the United States eventually to unveil
distasteful measures to bolster support for its currency,
monetary analysts and economists said.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker has acknowledged that the
Reagan administration discussed the possibility of issuing
yen-denominated U.S. government bonds to support the dollar.
    But he has also dismissed speculation that he was ready to
take such an unusual step. Nonetheless, monetary sources say
the issue has been seriously discussed by the administration.
    "It is unlikely that we would undertake to do that now,"
Baker said last week. "In our view there might well be some who
would view (issuing U.S. yen bonds) as, in fact, a lack of
confidence by the U.S. in its own currency. And therefore we
don't think it's an appropriate thing to do."
    But if the Reagan administration did announce measures,
they could be a part of an internationally-coordinated effort
to end the instability in financial markets with genuine action
to reduce massive economic imbalances, monetary analysts
believe.
    And, like a currency defense package unveiled by the Carter
administration, issuing yen bonds could be accompanied by a
rise in the discount rate, now 5.5 pct.
    The Federal Reserve has resisted pressure to raise this key
rate so far, chiefly, some Fed officials say, because it could
hurt economic growth. Another concern is the fragile
international debt situation.
    Analysts who expect a currency support package are divided
over its possible timing. Some even believe an announcement
could come this week during a visit to Washington by Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
    "It would give some real focus to the visit, and it might
steady the dollar and prevent it from going down," said Charles
Taylor, an analyst with Prudential-Bache Securities.
    But monetary sources said they thought it unlikely that the
Reagan administration would resort to measures which would
bring to mind the troubles of President Carter.
    Until very recently, the current administration has urged a
lower dollar to help redress its huge trade deficit while
Carter faced a weak dollar as confidence in his economic
policies collapsed. But today, Washington's policies are
increasingly in question.
    The Carter plan was unleashed on Nov. 1, 1978. And it was a
resounding success. "This package really gave credibility to the
administration to get the dollar up," said Robert Hormats,
vice-president of Goldman Sachs Inc and a former senior U.S.
economic in the Carter and Reagan Administrations.
    The dollar then stood at just under 1.87 marks and around
188 yen. Today it stands around 1.79 marks and 139 yen.
    "The problem is now that the administration in rhetoric is
evidencing concern about the dollar but in practice is really
doing very little," Hormats said of statements to support the
dollar by U.S. officials.
    Several currency traders and foreign central bank officials
think these statements still fall short of unequivocally saying
the dollar has declined far enough.
    Carter issued 6.4 billion dlrs of mark and swiss franc
bonds aimed essentially at buttressing pyschological support
for the dollar but also at attracting foreign investors, who
had lost confidence in the dollar, to U.S. government notes.
    The package was supported by a one pct rise in the discount
rate, to 9.5 pct, drawings on U.S. monetary reserves at the
International Monetary Fund and sales of U.S.-held SDRS to
other IMF members. 
    It was also supported by increased Fed currency swap lines
with other central banks and stepped up official U.S. gold
sales.
    Stephen Axilrod, a former Fed official who is now
vice-chairman of Nikko Securities, said, "I think it's very
unlikely they would do that now."
    He argued that it was politically difficult to take action
to support the dollar while Japan and West Germany have still
to fulfill pledges to stimulate their economies.
    But most analysts believe a currency support package would
only work if genuine economic measures to redress world trade
imbalances are undertaken by the leading industrial powers.
    It could coincide with the June Venice summit of leaders of
the seven major industrial democracies -- the United States,
    Hormats said he believed the currency has to decline
slightly further for a package to have impact. He said the
seven nations' Paris Accord to stabilize currencies was forged
too soon to fundamentally change market sentiment.
    "I think we're nearing a point when they would feel
(politically) comfortable doing this," Hormats said.
    Many analysts think the administration's reluctance to act
firmly on the dollar has been due to its desire to keep up the
pressure on its allies to bolster their economies and for fear
of fanning protectionist sentiment in Congress.
    But Hormats said "there will be a point at which the
government of the United States shows it does give a damn for
the dollar."
 Reuter

General Dynamics Corp was named as a
defendant in a multimillion dlr fraud suit brought by the U.S.
government in 1985 stemming from government subsidized
shipbuilding contracts, according to court documents.
    The government originally filed the suit against two of
Dynamic's officers and two officers of its subcontractor,
Frigitemp Corp. The suit, filed in federal court in New York,
seeks to reclaim funds from kickbacks, overpayments and
subsidies that were allegedly overexpended on two shipbuilding
projects. The government paid 70 mln dlrs in subsidies between
1978 and 1982, court papers said.
 Reuter

The offshore oil drilling industry
will attract increasing numbers of government connected firms
in the 1990s, according to Ronald Tappmeyer, Vice Chairman of
Reading and Bates Drilling Co.
     Tappmeyer told the Offshore Technology Conference that
contract drilling was reaching the same kind of situation that
oil producing companies reached when their oilfields were
nationalized in nations as Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
     He said local connections to the nation whose waters are
being drilled was an increasingly important factor in the
market.
     "We have seen contractors put at competitive disadvantages
in nations in which they had worked successfully for years
essentially moved aside to make room for locally-owned firms or
a locally-built rig," he said.
     Tappmeyer, who is president of the International
Association of Drilling Contractors, said how far the trend
would spread depends on the growth of trade protectionism.
     He added that international contractors will increasingly
find their role restricted to regions that require special
expertise and experience, such as wildcat areas and severe
environments such as in the Arctic and extremely deep waters.
     Tappmeyer also said he expects producing companies to
provide the main financing for offshore drilling in the coming
decade as banks will be unwilling to repeat overexposing
themselves and drilling contractors will have difficulty
providing financing out of cash flow.
     At the same time, he said he saw the financing as indirect
as he does not see producers getting back in the rig-owning
business.
     He also said projectfinancing will have to be backed up
by work commitments to guarantee the payoff of construction
costs.
     For the time being, he said there was a superabundance of
rigs. But he said there will be a need for new, technologically
advanced rigs within a few years.
     He said the floating-drilling rigs were most likely to
benefit from new developments in technology, adding that by
2,000 there should not be an ocean left that is too deep, too
cold, too stormy or too remote to be explored.
 Reuter

European Community (EC) leaders hope
to make a new attempt to inject fresh urgency into talks on
reforming the bloc's controversial farm policy when EC
agriculture ministers meet for a third day of discussions here
    Community officials said farm commissioner Frans Andriessen
met Belgian minister Paul de Keersmaeker late last night to
plan a new initiative.
    Both Andriessen and de Keersmaeker, who currently chairs EC
farm ministers' meetings, were said to be disappointed by the
lack of progress in the talks so far this week.
    The bloc's executive Commission has proposed a tough
package involving effective cuts of upwards of 10 pct in
farmers' returns for many crops this year.
    Ministers were due to have adopted a package by April 1 but
are only this week getting down to serious negotiations.
    Yesterday, they discussed plans to cut cereals prices by
2.5 pct, and reduce farmers' rights to sell surpluses to EC
stores, to cut prices for fruit and vegetables by larger
margins, and to impose a tax on EC-produced and imported
oilseeds, a proposal which would be likely to sour EC trade
relations with the United States.
    Diplomatic sources said ministers, all of whom are opposed
to at least one of these propositions, maintained entrenched
positions yesterday, making the task of de Keersmaeker in
steering his colleagues towards a compromise a daunting one.
    They said he could also be treading a minefield if he
sought to breach the divide between his fellow ministers over
plans to change the system by which EC farm prices, expressed
in a notional common currency, are translated into the
currencies of member states.
    West German minister Ignaz Kiechle indicated yesterday he
would veto the adoption of Commission proposals in this area,
saying they would unfairly affect farmers in strong currency
nations.
    The Belgian sources said de Keersmaeker may today present a
paper to his colleagues which, while not having the status of a
compromise proposal, would attempt to narrow their options.
    But diplomats said the philosophical gap between ministers
like Kiechle, with his commitment to maintaining traditional
rural patterns, and others who see runaway farm spending as
unacceptable economically, is likely to prove extremely
difficult to bridge.
    They agreed with EC farmers' union association president
Hans Kjeldsen who said yesterday that an agreement in June
appeared to be the best that could be hoped for.
 Reuter

Currency futures at the International
Monetary Market (IMM) are likely to consolidate near current
levels in nervous trading conditions over the next few days,
although underlying sentiment remains positive, currency
    "Currencies are likely to muddle around these levels," said
Shearson Lehman Brothers analyst Anne Parker Mills.
    Traders are unwilling to establish either long or short
positions in futures because of uncertainty over upcoming trade
talks and U.S. trade legislation, they said.
    Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and President
Reagan will meet Thursday and Friday to discuss trade tensions
between their two countries, while at the same time the
Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on
a controversial trade bill.
    "Unless something really surprising comes out of the
Nakasone/Reagan talks, I don't see the dollar getting above 142
(yen) and 1.83 (marks)," Mills said.
    The equivalent in futures of those interbank levels are
about 0.007050 to 0.007025 in the June yen contract and about
0.5500 in June marks, she said.
    June yen closed at 0.007191 on Tuesday while June marks
finished the day at 0.5602.
    Mills said, however, that "the chances of them (Reagan and
Nakasone) coming up with something new are limited." One
possibility might be a Japanese discount rate cut, but "they
probably won't do that unless we raise our discount rate."
    Recent firmness in the federal funds rate and the Federal
Reserve's slowness in adding reserves to the banking system has
heightened sentiment that the money-policy making body has
already tightened credit and a discount rate hike is possible,
    Recent weakness in currencies and strength in the dollar
has been more the result of nervous shortcovering ahead of the
meeting rather than reaction to the White House statement
Monday supporting a stable dollar, said Harris bank currency
analyst Earl Johnson.
    Traders "are worried about the outcome of the talks between
Reagan and Nakasone," and as the talks are late in the week,
the market may not get a chance to react to any developments
until Monday, Johnson said.
    Until then, Johnson expects the dollar to remain in a broad
range between 1.77 and 1.85 marks and 137 to 140.50 yen.
    Chicago Corp analyst John Bilson, however, expects a rally
in the European currencies over the near-term, while the yen,
at this point is overbought.
    "The Japanese are moving away from the U.S. market," and
investment funds formerly directed to the U.S. are likely to
flow into Europe, Bilson said.
    The chief beneficiary of such a flow of funds will be
sterling, Bilson said.
    "Sterling rates are about four pct above Japanese rates,
despite the half point rate cut," Bilson said. Major U.K. banks
lowered their base lending rates today to 9.5 pct.
    In addition to a favorable interest rate spread which
should attract funds, Bilson said the firm oil market and the
strong political situation of Prime Minister Thatcher also make
British investments attractive.
    Passage of the trade bill, which includes an amendment by
Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt that would force a 10 pct
annual cut in imports from countries with an excessive trade
surplus with the U.S. if they fail to remove unfair trade
barriers to the U.S. after six months of negatiations, would
likely pressure the yen, Bilson said.
    Bilson, however, said the legislation is unlikely to pass,
but that Nakasone is likely to bring a promise to open Japanese
markets to U.S. goods and back it up with government contracts
with U.S. manufacturers.
 Reuter

A study by the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development says it may take years
to resolve the huge economic imbalances now plaguing the world
economy, U.S. and western officials said.
    The paper was expected to stimulate policy debate among
senior officials of leading industrial nations preparing for
next month's annual meeting of finance ministers in Paris.
    The May 11-13 ministerial meeting of the 24-nation OECD, a
forum for coordinating economic policies, has taken on added
significance in view of the difficulties dogging the attempts
of major nations to achieve joint goals.
    Despite two meetings of the seven leading industrial powers
-- the United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain,
Italy and Canada -- pledges to change policy have still to be
turned into action.
    As a result, financial markets have been unusually unstable
and have focussed their attention on every international
meeting for clues that change is in the air.
    The study concludes that there needs to be much greater
fiscal action by the United States, West Germany and Japan to
reduce their massive trade imbalances, a U.S. official said.
    "We looked at what we could do to get from here to there.
We've got to continue cutting the deficit, and there needs to
be domestic expansion (in West Germany and Japan)," the official
said, noting that significant actions are called for.
    Officials noted the study strongly underscores the need for
action by West Germany and Japan.
    Seperately, western officials said they understood that
U.S. overtures to Japan and West Germany to cut their
short-term interest rates have been rebuffed for now.
    Such rate reductions would have helped stabilize the steep
decline of the dollar, by widening the difference between bond
yields in the United States, on the one hand, and in Japan and
West Germany on the other.
    One official said that while the policy actions called for
were similar to those urged by the seven, the study shows "it's
going to take several years to resolve (the trade
imbalances)."
    The OECD has set three pct as the necessary target for
average annual growth in the industrial world if trade
imbalances are to be corrected and the Third World debt crisis
kept under control.
    The study strongly implies these targets will not be met
without major action by the three leading nations, officials
said.
    Equally, it suggests that without major fiscal expansion by
Bonn and Tokyo, and a corresponding deep reduction in the U.S.
budget deficit, the current trend of an upturn in U.S. interest
rates and a weakening dollar will go uncorrected.
    U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker says the dollar's deep
decline alone will shave only 15 billion dlrs off the roughly
140 billion dlrs U.S. deficit in goods and services this year.
    But the study group also found that progress has been made
and the seven main nations are moving in the right direction.
    In Paris this February, the seven agreed that fiscal
actions by the three major powers would help them stabilize
currencies around levels ruling then.
    The Reagan administration, this week facing the prospect of
a tough trade bill aimed at curbing foreign trade surpluses,
also promised to fight protectionism.
    The officials said Washington must move ahead with budget
deficit cuts of around 36 billion dlrs, a figure set as a goal
by the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives.
    They also called for significant increases in the budget
deficits of Japan and West Germany. Since the study group met,
Japan has announced a roughly 35 billion dlr supplementary
budget which was warmly welcomed by Washington.
    Nonetheless there is caution over both the timing and the
content of the proposed Japanese budget.
    Financial markets, unconvinced by yet another Japanese
promise of action, have pushed the yen sharply higher against
    While no West German fiscal action is promised before
January 1988, U.S. officials would welcome such a move. "We'd
love them to accelerate their tax cuts," one official said.
    West German economic growth fell steeply in the first
quarter this year, but the official said Bonn has reassured
U.S. officials they expect growth to pick up again.
    If faster German growth fails to emerge, Bonn could find
itself under pressure to speed up tax cuts planned for early
1988 when leaders of the seven meet in Venice this June.
 reuter

A Soviet geologist said scientists need
to coordinate data about onshore and offshore oil deposits to
help identify global formations that would indicate other
potential discoveries of oil and gas reserves.
    Vladmir Vladiminovich Semenovich, the head of petroleum
geology at Moscow State University, told delegates at the World
Petroleum Congress that exploration efficiency could also be
improved through new and more sophisticated technology.
    "We should emphasize that when having the data about
petroleum distribution onshore and offshore, it is possible to
clarify the idea of global regularities in oil and gas
prospects," Semenovich said. "However, much work should be done
to coordinate data concerning the structure and oil and gas
prospects in adjoining onshore and offshore basins."
    Sharing the information could help geologists better
predict regional trends and underground formations that
indicate the presence of oil or gas, he said.
    Semenovich also said that existing estimates of the
potential oil and natural gas resources of the world may need
to be revised upward as oil companies continue to examine
unexplored regions.
    The world, which has already produced 476 billion barrels
of oil and gas, has a current total of about 733 billion
barrels in proved reserves. Undiscovered resources are
estimated at about 1.4 trillion barrels, or about half of the
total ultimate reserves, Semenovich said.
    "There are a lot of unstudied regions all over the world
and, as far as the already known basins, one continues to find
additional reserves," he said, noting that Antarctica has been
virtually ignored. "The existing estimate of potential
resources of the world may need to be enlarged."
    To find deeper and more expensive reserves, scientists will
need to use 3-D mapping of underground formations and laser
spectrometry to measure bitumen in soils and plants among other
techniques, he said.
    He estimated that continental slopes contain about 10 to 13
pct of all offshore reserves.
    Semenovich also said that virtually all of the total oil
and gas resources now estimated to exist in the world would be
discovered and placed in production during the next 50 years.
    After his speech, Semenovich told Reuters that Soviet oil
production was increasing. "The difficulties of 1985 have been
overcome and we're now back to normal production," he said.
    The Soviet Union, the world's largest producer of oil, had
experienced drilling and technical problems that cut total
liquids production from 12.45 mln barrels a day in 1984 to 12.1
mln barrels a day in 1985. Last year, the Soviets produced an
estimated 12.3 mln barrels.
    When asked about the recent reopening and testing of a coal
gasification project in Soviet Central Asia, Semenovich said
the project was important because of the lack of oil reserves
in the region.
    Semenovich declined to identify at what level of world oil
prices the coal gasification process would become economic
again. "It's too expensive for the time being," Semenovich
said.
    "Theoretical development is underway and tests are being
run. For the moment, coal gasification is a very small part of
the energy industry," he said.
 Reuter

Hong Kong has not taken unfair
advantage of its currency's link with the U.S. Dollar, Hong
Kong monetary affairs secretary David Nendick told the annual
meeting of the Asian Development Bank here.
    He said: "We have taken the rough with the smooth, having to
accept a downward adjustment of our economy in 1985 following a
period when the U.S. Dollar was clearly overvalued in world
terms, but benefiting as that currency subsequently declined."
He said that since the establishment of the link in 1983, Hong
Kong's trade had been broadly in balance. This year a modest
deficit was expected.
    "Under the link, Hong Kong's entirely free and open economy
continues to adjust quickly to any external imbalances, but the
burden of adjustment now falls almost entirely on our domestic
interest rates, money supply and price levels," Nendick said.
    "The relative volatility in these domestic variables is the
price we pay for the stability of our currency against the U.S.
Dollar," he said.
 REUTER

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
today wound up a three-day meeting which was marked by
criticism of the ADB from both rich and poor member nations.
    In speech after speech, the 20-year-old ADB was charged
either with not doing enough to help countries in the region,
or with funding projects which were not worthwhile.
    The attacks often, but not always, broke down along
developed and developing country lines.
    The former, which provide the ADB with money, generally
emphasized the need for quality projects.
    The ADB was not even spared criticism from its host country
and largest shareholder, Japan.
    "I am not 100 pct satisfied with the performance of the ADB,"
Japanese finance ministry deputy director-general Fumiya
Iwasaki told Reuters.
    He said the Bank had only approved five pct more new loans
in 1986 than in 1985. He hoped for a return to the more rapid
growth rates of earlier years.
    "The Asian economy is now changing. The ADB should adapt
itself to those changes," he said.
    But supporters of the ADB said it already was changing, and
Iwasaki made it clear Japan welcomed the steps being taken by
the ADB's president Masao Fujioka.
    "So far, we have confidence in Mr Fujioka's leadership,"
Iwasaki said.
    To spur demand for loans, the ADB has restructured its
country and agricultural departments to enable it to identify
the needs of developing member countries more quickly.
    But some delegates said the ADB was putting too much
emphasis on the need to give out more money, and not enough on
checking the quality of the projects involved.
    "The success of the Bank should not be measured by the
volume of its lending but by its contribution to the
development process," chief U.S. Delegate Charles H. Dallara
told the meeting.
    He said: "Project quality is an area which has attracted
attention recently and on which the United States has expressed
strong views. Although over the years the majority of ADB loans
have been sound, we have had problems with some of the projects
brought before the board of directors lately."
    Australia voiced similar concerns.
    Australian delegate C. J. Hurford said: "Bad projects
benefit neither the Bank nor its borrowers. They damage the
Bank's reputation and ultimately lessen support from donor
countries and capital markets."
    There were also criticisms of proposals from developing
countries that the ADB make more of its loans dependent on
economic reforms in Third World nations.
    "We are concerned with the Bank's increasing preoccupation
with dialogue," said India's delegate, S. Venkitaramanan.
    "We have expressed our unhappiness with the insistence of
multi-lateral agencies on global prescriptions," he said.
 REUTER

Civil strife in Sri Lanka will
make the economy's growth rate in 1987 its slowest in a decade,
Sri Lankan finance minister Ronnie de Mel said here.
    He told Reuters in an interview that he expected gross
domestic product to expand by only four pct in 1987. He said it
averaged five pct over the past three years.
    For the first two years after the present troubles began in
1983, production of key commodities like tea, rubber, coconuts
and rice kept up, he said.
    Tamils on the island are fighting for a seperate state.
    De Mel said: "Private sector production in fact grew by 25
pct in 1984 and 20 pct in 1985. But last year things took a
turn for the worse."
    He said prices of tea, the main export, fell to half their
1984 levels. World prices of rubber and copra also fell.
    "There was also a decline in income from tourism and
remittances from Sri Lankans working in the Middle East."
    He said any savings from the worldwide drop in crude oil
prices were wiped out by the cut in commodity earnings.
    "To add to all this we have had, between January and March
this year, the worst drought I have seen in my life," he said.
    De Mel said the drought would seriously affect agricultural
    He said because of the fighting in the country, defence
expenditure was now about 20 pct of the national 1987 budget of
70 billion rupees.
    Sri Lanka planned to borrow about 600 mln dlrs in 1987 from
the World Bank and the Sri Lanka Aid Consortium which comprises
members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), he said.
    "We also plan to ask the International Monetary Fund for
another 200 mln dlrs through a structural adjustment facility
and a compensatory financing facility to balance our export
revenue cuts," de Mel said.
    He said despite the unrest, Sri Lanka had succeeded in
keeping its total foreign debt to three billion dlrs by
avoiding borrowing from commercial banks.
    "Commercial bank debt accounts for only 15 pct of our total
foreign debt," he said.
    He said the Mahaweli hydro-electric project was nearing
completion. It was likely to cut dependence on oil imports.
    "The project will more than treble our hydro-electric power
from 300 megawatts to nearly 1,000 megawatts," de Mel said.
    He said 20 new townships would rise around the project,
which is in the north-central part of the island. It was
expected to irrigate 1.2 mln acres of land and indirectly
provide employment for 500,000 landless families.
    De Mel said Tamil guerrillas were waging a war of attrition
in the island's north and east.
 REUTER

China is likely to borrow up to
300 mln dlrs this year from the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
president Masao Fujioka said.
    The loans would be China's first from the ADB.
    "I think there will be at least one loan to China this year,
and possibly a second," Fujioka told a news conference at the
end of the ADB's annual meeting here.
    Asked how large the loans were likely to be, Fujioka said
he thought they would range from 100 mln to 150 mln dlrs each.
    China is the ADB's newest member, joining in March 1986.
    China is the third-largest shareholder after Japan and the
U.S.. It was elected to the ADB's 12-member board yesterday.
    Fujioka announced that the ADB's 1989 meeting would be held
in Peking. The 1988 meeting will be held in Manila.
    Fujioka said the ADB would consider delegates' suggestions
that it set up a task force of experts to define its future
role. The ADB's performance was criticised by both its rich and
poor members at the three-day meeting just finished.
    External experts had carried out a study on ADB policy for
the 1980s, Fujioka said. He said a similar study for the 1990s
would be useful, but the ADB had no fixed ideas yet.
    He said the ADB had already responded to members like the
U.S., Which urged it to improve analysis of funded projects.
    "We had already decided that the ADB should strengthen its
research capability," Fujioka said.
    He said ADB lending had declined, but "the amount is not the
only thing that counts. We also want to be a catalyst by taking
innovative measures like the promotion of the private sector."
    Fujioka also talked of the struggle between the U.S. And
Japan over their voting power in the ADB.
    Total Japanese contributions to the ADB are higher than
those of the U.S., So Japanese delegates asked for their voting
power to reflect this. The U.S. Opposed the move.
    "It is advisable and wise, for institutions like the ADB to
be viable, that there be a reasonable relationship between
financial contributions and voting power," Fujioka said.
    But he indicated the problem remained unresolved.
    Asked if the ADB would respond to a plea by Vietnam to
resume lending which was cut off in 1974, Fujioka re-iterated
his view that conditions there were not conducive to banking.
    Fujioka declined to elaborate on Vietnam, but said there
had been no pressure from the U.S. Or any other country on the
issue.
    He also spoke about demands by the bank's financiers that
it take a more active role in prodding borrowers into making
economic policy changes.
    "The initiative must come from the borrowing country. We
don't accept that we impose policy conditions. There must be a
two-way consultation," he said.
 REUTER

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves have
risen to a new high of 56 billion U.S. Dlrs, and officials
attribute the increase to a surging trade surplus and the
influx of speculative funds.
    The reserves, up from 54 billion dlrs on April 19, compare
with 27.3 billion a year ago, the Central Bank said.
    Vice economic minister Wang Chien-shien told Reuters: "The
rising reserves will certainly intensify our trade friction
with the U.S."
    A central bank official, who declined to be named, said
Taiwan's trade surplus is expected to exceed 5.5 billion U.S.
Dlrs in the first four months of 1987, against 4.25 billion a
year ago.
    The influx of speculative funds, mainly from Hong Kong,
Japan and the U.S., Also played a major role behind the rise of
the reserves, he said, but declined to give figures.
    Banking sources said almost 10 billion U.S. Dlrs had
entered Taiwan since early 1986. About three billion of the
funds were remitted through different channels, including the
black market, since the start of this year, they said.
for Economic Planning and Development, said he expects the
reserves to rise in the next few months because of the
continuing high level of Taiwan's exports and the steady
appreciation of the local dollar against the U.S. Currency.
    "The latest government moves to open (the domestic) market,
cut import tariffs and lift foreign exchange controls have
achieved little success," he said.
    Vice economic minister Li Mo said tariffs were cut on some
1,700 products in January and a further 862 this month in a bid
to encourage more imports, especially the U.S.
    More tariff cuts on about 300 imported products, including
televisions, video tape recorders, cosmetics and refrigerators
will be announced in a month or two, Li said.
    Li's colleague, Wang Chien-shien, said the government will
send several trade missions to the U.S. This year to buy about
one billion U.S. Dlrs of products, including machinery, power
equipment, grains and precision tools.
    "We earnestly hope to reduce our trade surplus with the
U.S.," he said.
    Taiwan's trade surplus rose to a record 13.6 billion U.S.
Dlrs last year from 10.2 billion in 1985, and it widened to
3.61 billion in the first quarter of 1987 against 2.78 billion
a year ago, official statistics show.
    The surplus has increased U.S. Pressure on Taiwan for a
faster appreciation of its currency, which has risen by about
18 pct since September 1985.
    It opened at 33.10 to the U.S. Dollar today.
 REUTER

surplus widened to a provisional 8.8 billion marks in March
from a slightly downwards revised 6.5 billion in February, a
spokesman for the Federal Statistics Office said.
    The trade surplus fell to a provisional 10.1 billion marks
from 10.4 billion in February.
    The Statistics Office had earlier put the February current
account surplus at a provisional 6.6 billion marks. The
provisional February trade surplus was confirmed.
    The Office said the March trade surplus had also risen
strongly from the year-ago month total of 8.5 billion marks,
while the March current account surplus compared with only 4.3
billion marks a year earlier.
    The figures given by the office show nominal trade flows,
but an office statement said that the current account surplus
had also risen in real terms from February.
    However, it attributed this partly to the fact that
payments to the European Community had been brought forward in
February, with the result that transfers abroad in March were
unusually low.
    The Statistics Office said March imports totalled 36.93
billion marks, a rise of 15 pct from February and of 4.7 pct
compared with March 1986.
    March exports of 47.06 billion marks were 11 pct higher
than in February and 7.6 pct higher than in March last year.
    Other data reported in the current account balance showed
there was a 400 mln mark deficit in supplementary trade items,
a 500 mln mark deficit in the services account and a 400 mln
mark deficit in transfer payments.
    The Statistics Office said that in the first three months
of this year the trade surplus had risen to 27.8 billion marks
from 22.6 billion marks in the same period last year.
    The current account surplus had risen to 20.0 billion marks
from 15.6 billion.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union's first official
observer at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said he came away
from this week's ADB annual meeting with a favourable
impression but that no decision has been made on whether the
Soviet Union should join as a full member.
    Yurij V. Ponomarev, international managing director of the
State Bank, said he will file a formal report when he returns
to Moscow, but it will not contain any recommendation on
membership. "We haven't started any process with a view toward
membership," he said.
    Ponomarev downplayed the significance of his attendance,
saying it only signalled a slight change in attitude by Moscow.
Although this is the first time Moscow has attended the ADB's
annual meeting as an observer, Soviet bankers have come to
meetings in the past as guests, he said.
    Delegates here saw the Soviet move as part of an overall
strategy to strengthen ties with Asia and improve the
functioning of the Soviet economy.
    Ponomarev declined to comment on remarks yesterday by a
senior U.S. Official, who warned that Soviet membership in the
ADB would cause serious operational problems.
    "How would the ADB, for instance, use the (Soviet) rouble as
a basis for expanding its capital?" asked the U.S. Official, who
declined to be identified.
    Ponomarev said: "It is far too premature to speculate on the
potential difficulties that might be involved if we applied for
membership."
    In order to become a member, Moscow would have to gain the
backing of two-thirds of the board of governors representing
three-quarters of the voting power of member countries.
Washington has just over a 12 pct voting share.
 REUTER

The Central Bank issued 5.68 billion
Taiwan dlrs' worth of certificates of deposit (cd's), bringing
issues so far this year to 180.16 billion dlrs against 40
billion issued a year earlier, a bank spokesman said.
    The new cd's, with maturities of six months, one and two
years, bear interest of 4.03 to 5.12 pct.
    The issues are intended to help curb the growth of m-1b
money supply resulting from large foreign exchange reserves
which the bank said today had reached a record 56 billion U.S.
Dlrs.
 REUTER

importers awarded contracts to two U.S. Firms to supply two
shipments totalling 81,000 tonnes, a committee spokesman said.
    Continental Grain Co of New York won a contract for the
supply of 54,000 tonnes, priced at 96.17 U.S. Dlrs a tonne c
and f Taiwan for delivery between May 21 and June 5.
    Gulf Coast Grain Inc of Memphis, Tennessee, won a contract
for 27,000 tonnes at 100.75 dlrs a tonne also c and f Taiwan,
for May 21-June 5 delivery.
 REUTER

China's total wage bill for state
employees grew too fast in the first quarter, because of
excessive bonuses, allowances and overtime pay, the official
Economic Information newspaper said.
    It said the total wage bill in the period was 38.7 billion
yuan, an increase of 16.7 pct over the first quarter of 1986,
when the bill grew a year-on-year 16.3 pct. The increase
accounted for 39.6 pct of planned wage rises in all of 1987.
    It said bonus payments rose a 42.6 pct, far in excess of
growth in productivity. Industrial output grew a 14.1 pct in
    The newspaper said state allowances rose in the period by
20 pct over the corresponding 1986 quarter, with some areas and
work units increasing coal and electricity allowances on their
own without proper authorisation.
    It said overtime pay rose a year-on-year 32 pct, with some
enterprises ignoring official regulations in their payments.
 REUTER

West German use of tapioca is likely to
decline further despite favourable prices and import licences
for only 420,000 tonnes have been registered since the start of
the current agricultural year, compared with 640,000 tonnes
during August/April the previous year, trade sources said.
    The 12 European Community (EC) countries have licensed a
total of 4.22 mln tonnes, while at the same year-earlier period
the EC contracted for 3.17 mln tonnes, they said.
    The Netherlands is registering an increase in licences to
around 2.9 mln tonnes, up 400,000 tonnes from last year, they
said.
    Total EC tapioca imports during the current agricultural
year are expected to stagnate at last year's level of around
6.0 mln tonnes, the sources said.
    They reported a rise in consumption and in import licences
for France, Spain and Belgium but said the West German compound
feed industry was increasingly using grain in feed mixtures.
    Sellers quoted tapioca for nearby delivery at around 27
marks per 100 kilos against 37 marks in March and 34 marks in
April last year.
    Feed barley was quoted at about 42 marks per 100 kilos,
resulting in higher West German feed stuff prices, but demand
was seen as slack.
    The sources said the West German feed industry was trying
to help cut the grain surplus through increased use of grain in
feed mixtures.
    Other EC member countries are likely to take advantage of
the lower tapioca prices, they said.
 REUTER

Washington views with concern a
plan to increase Japan's voting power at the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), a U.S. Delegate at the bank's annual meeting said.
    Japan, which holds 15.1 pct of the ADB's capital stock, and
the U.S. Which holds 14.9 pct, currently have near-parity in
    "The ADB was set up in 1966 as a partnership between the
U.S. And Japan," the official said. "Any change in that
relationship would transmit a psychological message to this
region's countries that there is a slackening of interest on
the part of the U.S."
    "We do not want any dilution of our influence in the
organisation," the U.S. Official added.
    He said an imbalance in procurement contracts awarded for
ADB-funded projects was however improving slowly.
    The U.S. Share of the contracts had grown from about seven
pct to about 12 pct in 1986, the official said, while Japan's
share had dropped from 25 pct to 20 pct.
    "We will urge more U.S. Businessmen to join in the bidding
for these projects," he said.
    The official said Washington was concerned about the ADB's
future role in the region.
    "The U.S. Believes the ADB should act as a catalyst both for
policy changes that will lead to sustainable, long-term
economic growth and for other financial flows," chief U.S.
Delegate Charles Dallara told the meeting earlier.
    "Economic reform should be a theme of the ADB's lending," the
unidentified U.S. Official said.
    "The bank is doing its borrowers a disservice by not
entering into policy dialogue," he added.
    "We are looking for the bank to take up the cudgel when its
borrowers are at a critical stage in their development. We are
looking at a 15 or 20 year horizon."
 REUTER

Central Bank governor Chang Chi-cheng
defended Taiwan's policy of holding a large amount of its
foreign exchange reserves in U.S. Dollars, citing similar
policies followed by countries such as West Germany and Japan.
    The reserves, now a record 56 billion U.S. Dlrs, are the
world's largest after those of West Germany and Japan. About 90
pct is held in U.S. Dollars and the rest in yen and marks.
    Chang's remarks to parliament were in response to a call on
Monday by about 20 members of the parliament who asked the
government to diversify into other currencies, including yen,
marks and Swiss francs because of exchange rate losses.
    The legislators said the bank lost about 3.8 billion U.S.
Dlrs between September 1985 and September 1986 as the Taiwan
dollar rose to 36.77 to the U.S. Dollar from 40.45.
    They said they expected the losses to continue because of
the rising Taiwan dollar against the U.S. Currency.
    Chang said the central bank could not sell the U.S. Dollars
like other private banks or enterprises because such trading
would be speculative and risky.
    "The U.S. Dollar is an international currency and is widely
used among trading nations," he added.
    Chang said the Central Bank has further revised foreign
exchange rules, which would relax most controls or even suspend
them.
    The revised rules have been submitted to the cabinet for
approval, he said. He declined to give details.
 REUTER

The U.K. Will ship 39,250 tonnes of feed
wheat to China this month as food aid at a cost to the British
aid program of 3.4 mln stg, the Overseas Development
Administration (ODA) said.
    The wheat will be supplied by grain exporter Ceres UK Ltd.
    As part of the European Community's obligation under the
Food Aid Convention, the U.K. Is pledged to supply 110,700
tonnes of cereals each year. From this commitment the U.K.
Makes allocations to the World Food Programme.
 REUTER

Unemployment in the European
Community fell in March to 16.8 mln from 17 mln in February
thanks to an improvement in the weather, the EC's statistics
agency Eurostat said.
    It said the number of jobless fell in all 12 Community
member states as weather conditions improved, though France,
Italy and Spain saw declines of less than one pct.
    There was also a particularly large drop in the number of
jobless under-25s in all states except Italy, where 19,300 more
young people were unemployed in March than in the month before.
 REUTER

Thailand's gross domestic product will
expand five pct this calendar year, up from 3.8 pct in 1986,
despite a projected slight decline in agricultural output due
to drought, the Bank of Thailand said.
    Central bank spokesman Siri Karncharoendi told reporters
the Thai economy clearly recovered in the first quarter from
the lingering effects of the 1984-85 recession.
    He said the industrial sector is expected to expand 5.5 pct
this year, up from five pct in 1986. Agricultural output is
projected to grow 2.8 pct after 1.5 pct contraction in 1986.
    He said January/March imports grew 19.2 pct to 70.7 billion
baht, in response to an improving domestic market, compared
with a nine pct decline to 59.3 billion a year ago. Non-oil
imports grew 24.8 pct to 60.2 billion baht while oil imports
declined 5.6 pct to 10.5 billion.
    First quarter exports increased 12.7 pct to 63.2 billion
baht compared with 14.4 pct and 56.1 billion a year ago.
    Siri said he expects the trade deficit to widen to about 30
billion baht this year from 17.4 billion in 1986. The current
account, which last year posted a surplus of 3.5 billion baht,
is projected to return to a 7.4 billion deficit in 1987.
    He said overall January/March lending by the Thai banking
system grew a strong nine pct to 577.9 billion baht, up from
4.7 pct growth in the previous quarter and 5.8 pct for the
whole of 1986.
    He said the Thai consumer price index rose 1.8 pct in the
first quarter, down from 2.3 pct a year ago, but added that
with the economy picking up, inflation is expected to rise to
2.5 pct this year from 1.9 pct for the whole 1986.
 REUTER

ministers ended a three-day meeting in Luxembourg still deeply
divided over plans by the EC Commission to curb the cost of the
EC's farm policy through sharp cuts in farm returns.
    Their chairman, Belgium's Paul de Keersmaeker, told a news
conference after the meeting he would work on a paper setting
out possible compromise solutions in the next two weeks, with
the hope that the ministers can get down to detailed
negotiations at a meeting in Brussels on May 18.
    But diplomats said the talks this week had served little
more than to clarify member states' positions on the complex
package of measures proposed by the commission.
    The executive body has proposed measures which would result
in price cuts this year for many crops of upwards of 10 pct.
    Other controversial plans include a tax on EC-produced and
imported oilseeds and fats to bring in two billion European
currency units, to help the EC's cash crisis, and changes in
the conversion of EC common farm prices into national
currencies which would inflict extra burdens on West German and
Dutch farmers.
    De Keersmaeker attempted yesterday to narrow differences
between EC states on the oils tax proposal, the currency
measures and the key question of cereals prices and associated
measures.
    But he told journalists, "We have used this meeting to reach
the point at which real negotiations can start at the next
meeting. Ideally they should have started now but our
procedures took much longer than planned."
    Ministers are in theory supposed to agree a price package
by April 1 each year, although this target is seldom reached in
practice.
    Diplomats said on all the points there were widely
diverging views, with Britain and the Netherlands, the
countries most supportive of commission proposals for cereals
price cuts, strongly opposed to the oils tax.
    However, de Keersmaeker said West German objections to the
monetary proposals could prove the most difficult issue to
resolve. "This is a very tough political nut, and because of the
very nature of the problem there is no technical solution," he
said. Commission sources said farm commissioner Frans
Andriessen was prepared to alter some technical aspects of his
proposals to make an agreement easier.
    However, because of the EC's budgetary crisis, he had
little room for concessions to pleas for a cut in the impact of
his proposals on farmers' incomes as several ministers, led by
Germany's Ignaz Kiechle, are demanding.
    EC Commission president Jacques Delors has warned that the
EC will have an accumulated budgetary deficit of over five
billion Ecus by the end of this year, even if the commission
farm price package is adopted in its entirety.
 REUTER

A Greek bulk carrier loaded with iron
ore has run aground in Venezuela's Orinoco river, Lloyd's
shipping services reports.
    The 74,596-dwt Andromachi is reported to have run aground
near mile 149 on Monday and attempts to refloat the vessel
using tugs has so far been unsuccessful, Lloyd's said.
    The Andromachi is managed by Theodore and Angelos
Efstathiou of Piraeus.
 Reuter

metals group Pechiney <PUKG.PA> is planning to sell 25 pct of a
Canadian aluminium plant at Becancour to the U.S.'s Reynolds
Metals Co <RLM.N> over the coming weeks, the company said.
     Pechiney currently holds a majority 50.1 pct stake in the
plant. The company also said it planned an agreement soon with
Italy's <La Metalli Industriale>, a 57 pct owned subsidiary of
<Societa Metallurgica Italiana> related to cupreous products.
No further details were available.
 REUTER

Belgian Agriculture Minister Paul de
Keersmaeker said he would review EC Commission proposals for a
tax on imported and EC produced vegetable oils and fats in the
light of objections made by certain EC member states.
    De Keersmaeker, current chairman of the EC farm ministers'
council, was speaking after a three-day meeting of ministers at
which the tax proposal was one of the key themes.
    He said he would review the position as part of plans to
present compromise proposals for the 1987/88 farm price package
to the next meeting, starting in Brussels on May 18.
    De Keersmaeker, who said there was "a great deal of
resistance in many delegations" to the tax, declined to say what
aspects of the proposals he would review.
    However, EC Commission sources said they are expected to
include the question of whether it should apply to marine oils.
    They said Denmark and Portugal might agree to the tax, to
be set initially at 330 Ecus a tonne, if these oils, of which
they are major producers, were excluded.
    The sources said, however, that Britain, the Netherlands
and West Germany continue to have strong objections to the tax,
partly because of fears that its impact on U.S. Soybean exports
could provoke transatlantic trade friction.
    They said that, if these three countries held firm to this
position, they would be able to block the proposal under the
EC's majority voting mechanism.
 Reuter

283,000 week ago and 312,000 a year ago.
128,000 head versus 124,000 week ago and 136,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Robert Ortner, under secretary of
commerce, said last month's 0.4 pct rise in the Index of
Leading Indicators was consistent with growth of 3.0 pct this
year.
    He said in a statement that stock prices accounted for a
large share of the index's growth in the last six months.
    "Excluding stock prices, the rate of increase was still a
healthy 6.2 pct and is consistent with 3.0 pct or more overall
economic growth during 1987," he said.
 Reuter

Kenya's coffee and tea growing areas
remained generally dry for the second consecutive week, in the
period to April 28, weather and farming sources said.
    All areas east and west of the Rift Valley recorded below
25 mm of rain with western Kericho town having only 21 mm, they
said. Kericho, which last year received 387 mm in April last
year, has so far recorded only 176 mm and little rain is
forecast throughout the country in the next two days.
    Tea and coffee crops are doing well but farmers fear that
output will be low if the unusually dry spell continues. April
is normally the wettest month in Kenya.
 Reuter

Soviet farmers had sown spring crops
on only 15.8 mln hectares or 11 pct of cultivated land by April
27, compared with 26.2 mln ha by April 21, 1986, Izvestia said.
    Grains and pulses (except maize) were sown on 6.7 mln ha,
compared with 13.1 mln at the same time last year, it added.
    Spring sowing is off to a slow start, with planting two to
four weeks behind schedule in many areas of the Ukraine,
Byelorussia and Russia, because the winter was unusually cold.
    Western agricultural experts believe the crop could still
be good but heavy winterkill will make it difficult to reach
the 1987 grain target of 232 mln tonnes. The 1986 crop was 210
mln.
 Reuter

It is vitally important that the
industrialised countries of the world work towards convergence
of their economies and economic policies, U.S. Ambassador to
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Edward Streator said.
    He told an American Chamber of Commerce lunch the world was
changing rapidly and national attitudes had to alter
accordingly if growth was not to falter and world depression
set in.
    Liberalisation of world trade in money, goods and services
and technology was an overriding goal, he added.
    World financial flows were now 12 times as large as
traditional trade flows, the importance of commodities was
declining rapidly, countries such as those on the Pacific Rim
were becoming major growth areas, and the labour element in
manufacturing was declining sharply, Streator said.
    All these factors were creating major social and economic
pressures and demanding a rapid reassessment of traditional
attitudes, he added.
    "Agriculture is a prime target for change.One of the first
things we must do is disconnect farm subsidies from production,"
Streator said.
    At an OECD ministerial meeting in two weeks time there
would be an attempt to agree global principles to help reduce
this major agricultural problem, Streator said.
    "However, of equal and vital importance in reducing the
world's dangerous slide towards protectionism will be the
outcome of the new round of talks under the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)," Streator added.
    Dutch finance minister Onno Ruding, who also spoke briefly
at the lunch, stressed the importance of coordinating national
policies and of the GATT talks in preventing a rapid decline
into bilateralism and global protectionism.
 REUTER

The Swiss National Bank is
prepared to increase its intervention on currency markets if
the action can be properly coordinated with other central
banks, Markus Lusser, a member of the Bank's three man
directorate, said.
    He told a meeting of Swiss industrialists that intervention
to support the dollar could not bring about lasting changes in
exchange rates unless accompanied by fundamental changes in
    However, intervention could send signals that would
contribute to a short term smoothing of currency movements.
    The National Bank was prepared to intensify cooperation
with other central banks, especially where convincing
coordination and significant timing are guaranteed, Lusser
said.
    He said currency developments could not simply be talked
into existence but needed to be matched by actions in the field
of economic policy.
    "Put simply, that means that in order to stabilise the
dollar in a lasting way, a reduction of the budget deficit and
a slowdown in money supply growth in the United States are
unavoidable," he said.
    The National Bank has intervened in dollar-yen repeatedly
in the last few weeks and earlier this week it said it had
intervened in dollar-Swiss franc for the first time since last
October.
    Lusser said the key to increased exchange rate stability
lay not in currency intervention by central banks but only in
an improvement in international economic policy coordination.
    This meant that industrial countries must avoid abrupt
switches in economic policy and give priority to price
    Lusser said the National Bank continued to take the view
that easing its strict monetary policies would be incompatible
with its primary goal of combatting inflation. The bank target
is for growth of two pct in central bank money supply in 1987.
    He noted that in 1978, when the Swiss franc rose sharply
against all currencies, the bank was forced to abandon its
money supply targets in favour of an exchange rate target, with
the result that inflation surged.
    "Current exchange rate developments have not, until today at
any rate, made any such measures by the National Bank
necessary," he said.
 REUTER

Speculation abroad that the
Bundesbank will steer money market rates lower, opening the
for interest rate cuts around Europe, is not shared by many
economists and money market dealers within Germany.
    Speculation has developed that the Bundesbank would
engineer lower rates to take pressure off the dollar/mark.
    A strong rise in U.S. Market rates this month, prompting
speculation the Fed would raise its 5-1/2 pct discount rate,
has raised the question whether Germany and Japan would also
broaden interest rate differentials to support the dollar.
    The U.S.-Japanese trade dispute is the key to the interest
rate outlook, money market dealers in Paris said.
    Talks this week between Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone and President Reagan, if successful, could take
pressure off the dollar, dealers and economists said.
    Short term interest rates would be likely to ease if the
trade dispute is solved and the dollar steadies, they said.
    But if no solution is found, the Paris dealers said, a
renewed dollar fall would put strains on the mark/French franc
rate and force the Bank of France to raise short-term rates.
    The three-month U.S. Treasury bill rate rose to six pct
this week from 5.6 pct at the start of April, and the yield on
the 30-year benchmark treasury bonds rose this week in Tokyo to
a 14-month high of 8.86 pct from 7.66 pct in late March.
    The dollar stabilized today just below 1.80 marks and above
140 yen, underpinned by higher U.S. Rates and the Fed discount
rate speculation.
    But most dealers expect it to weaken further, which would
put pressure on the Bundesbank to ease interest rates.
    Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said yesterday
the U.S. Had requested Japan to cut short-term interest rates.
    The Bank of Japan was making efforts to do this, he said,
adding the U.S. Had not asked for a cut in Japan's 2.5 pct
discount rate, a move which Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi
Sumita said was not under consideration.
    A call for a German move came yesterday from Dutch central
bank president Wim Duisenberg, who said the Dutch central bank
favoured a cut in West German interest rates and would follow
suit if it happened.
    Citibank AG said in its April report that another expected
phase of dollar weakness would prompt the Bundesbank to cut key
money market rates in the next three to six months.
    The Bundesbank has set a fixed rate of 3.80 pct on
repurchase pacts since February, with call money trading around
3.70 pct for much of April.
    Phillips and Drew senior European economist Richard Reid
said the Bundesbank would allow interest rates to ease further,
either with a lower fixed rate tender, or a tender by interest
rate, allowing the market to set the rate.
    "I'm fairly confident we'll see lower rates," he said.
    Reid said taking 30 basis points off the repurchase rate
would have little impact on the German economy or fundamental
exchange rates, but could change market currency perceptions.
    "A cut in German rates wouldn't be bad for the dollar, but I
think its effect would be limited in duration unless it was
accompanied by other measures elsewhere," he said.
    Money market dealers here noted the speculation abroad that
the Bundesbank would push down repurchase rates, but said the
Bundesbank had little reason to cut rates further at the
moment, despite the liquid market seen for most of this month.
    The dealers said the Bundesbank was likely to move to an
interest rate tender for its repurchase pacts next month. That
should not be seen as a sign of easing monetary policy however,
they said.
    The Bundesbank would merely be experimenting with interest
rate tenders, following the introduction of a new system to
speed up the tender process at the start of April, they said.
    Reinhard Pohl, head of the monetary policy section at the
DIW economic research institute in West Berlin, said the
Bundesbank would probably not cut rates on repurchase pacts.
    "I don't think that if they cut the repurchase rate a little
it would stop a wave of (currency) speculation," he said. But a
sharp and sudden deterioration in the dollar could force the
Bundesbank to take some action, he said.
    Pohl said the Bundesbank was concerned that a cut in
interest rates would accelerate excessive monetary growth.
    Some Bundesbank officials have argued recently that the
monetary overshoot was due to strong currency inflows rather
than credit growth, and therefore a more appropriate response
to excessive money supply growth would be to cut rates, to make
the mark and mark investments less attractive.
    Pohl said the Bundesbank was hoping that domestic investors
would switch funds parked in liquid short-term accounts, which
have swollen central bank money stock, into securities, which
would take them out of the Bundesbank's key monetary measure.
    A cut in interest rates at this stage however would lead
investors to assume that rates had bottomed out and the next
move would be upwards. They would therefore hold off buying
bonds, leaving central bank money stock swollen.
    There are so far no signs that German investors are
switching funds into long term securities as the Bundesbank
hopes they will, Berliner Handels- und Frankfurter Bank
economist Hermann Remsperger said.
    But Phillips and Drew's Reid said prospects of lower rates
and a strong currency would attract foreign investors into
German bonds, which would in turn attract domestic investors.
    Werner Rein, chief economist at Union Bank of Switzerland
in Zurich, said he thought it likely that interest rates would
continue to drift lower in many European countries.
    "The scope for lower rates is probably greatest in Britain
but more limited in West Germany, where we could see some
consolidation," he said. Switzerland could be forced to match
any cut in German rates to prevent the franc rising further
against the mark, he said.
    Currency dealers in London said another half-point cut in
U.K. Bank base rates was likely in the next few weeks as the
pound had shrugged off yesterday's cuts and was still rising.
 REUTER

The Commodity Credit Crporation has
accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale of 8,000
tonnes of hard red winter wheat to Zaire, the U.S. Agriculture
    The wheat is scheduled for shipment May 11-June 11, 1987,
    The bonus, to Continental Grain Co, was 32.55 dlrs per
tonne and will be paid in the form of commodities from CCC
stocks.
    An additional 7,000 tonnes of wheat are still available to
Zaire under the Export Enhancement program initiative announced
on October 17, 1986, it said.
 Reuter

Sterile screwworm flies will be
released this weekend in Miami, Florida, and Albuquerque, New
Mexico, to combat a potential outbreak of screwworms, a serious
pest of livestock, the Agriculture Department said.
    The action follows identification April 21 of screwworm
larvae in a hunting dog which passed through airports in Miami
and Albuquerque while being returned to the United States from
Venezuela, it said.
    Sexually sterilized screwworm flies will be released twice
a week for six weeks in an effort to eradicate any breeding
populations of the flies.
    Adult femals usually mate only once in their lifetime and
eggs resulting from matings between sterile and fertile flies
will not hatch, thus ending the life cycle, it said.
 Reuter

The index of Dutch producer prices of
finished and intermediate goods rose 0.3 pct in January to a
provisional 112.1, base 1980, against 111.8 in December 1986,
Central Bureau of Statistics figures show.
    The January figure was 4.7 pct below the January 1986
figure of 117.6. In December 1986, the index showed a 5.7 pct
year-on-year decline.
    The Bureau said earlier this week it had run into delays in
processing producer price statistics for recent months.
 REUTER

A 0.4 pct rise in the March U.S. index
of leading indicators points to continued moderate U.S. real
economic growth, economists said.
    "The report is consistent with a modestly growing economy,"
said Steve Slifer of Lehman Government Securities Inc. "The
economy is not robust, but we're not heading into a recession
either."
    "The report suggests more of the same: continued moderate
growth," said Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch Government and Co
Inc. "The gain was mostly in stock prices. There was no change
in the fundamental movement of the economy."
    The Commerce Department said that higher stock prices led
the March gain. Unemployment claims, vendor performance,
contracts and orders for plant and equipment, manufacturers'
orders, and building permits also were positive.
    The average workweek, raw materials prices, and money
supply detracted from the index.
    Economists noted that the index signals the direction but
not the magnitude of changes in gross national product.
    "You can't derive profound conclusions on the economy from
the report," McCarthy said. "The link between leading
indicators and the economy is not strong."
 Reuter

The U.K. Economy looks stronger than it
did only last month, when the government unveiled its budget
for fiscal 1987/88, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
said.
    He told Parliament that "all the indicators that have been
published since the budget confirm that, if anything, we are
doing even better than I suggested then." The budget was
unveiled on March 17.
    "The PSBR (Public Sector Borrowing Requirement) has come out
lower than I forecast in the Budget. Inflation, too, is lower
than I suggested ... (and) the current account of the balance
of payments is also performing better, so far, than I
predicted."
    The budget foresaw inflation easing to 4.0 pct at the end
of this year after peaking at around 4.5 pct. Lawson said at
the time that the overall 1986/87 PSBR would be around 4.0
billion stg. It was in fact lower, at 3.3 billion stg.
    He had also projected average GDP growth in calendar 1987
of 3.0 pct after 2.5 pct in 1986. Lawson today said "output
appears to be rising, if anything, rather faster."
    Speaking during a House of Commons debate, he said, "by the
end of this year we will have registered the longest period of
steady growth, at close to 3.0 pct a year, that the British
economy has known since the (Second World) War."
    The 1987/88 budget contained a proposal to cut the basic
rate of taxation by two pence, to 27 pence in the pound.
    Lawson today reaffirmed that the government aimed to
further cut the standard rate to "no more than 25p." He said that
that objective "should not take too long to achieve."
    Turning to policies proposed by political opposition
parties, Lawson said those advocated by the Labour Party would
entail extra public expenditure of some 34 billion stg.
    That, he said, "would require either a doubling of the basic
rates of income tax or more than trebling the standard rate of
(valued added tax) VAT," which is currently 15 pct.
    On value added tax, Lawson noted that the Conservative
government promised back in 1984 not to extend VAT to food.
    "Beyond that, the incidence of taxation has to be determined
in the light of the budgetary needs at the time, and no
responsible government could conceivably take any other
position," he said. Labour MPs have accused the Conservatives of
planning VAT increases for some essential consumer goods.
    Lawson reiterated his belief that reductions in taxation
can often produce higher, not lower, revenues  "thus leading to
the scope for still further reductions in taxation."
    Lawson said "inheritance tax is expected this year to yield
almost 50 pct more in real terms than Capital Transfer Tax did
in 1978-79. The yield of Capital Gains Tax is forecast to be 80
pct higher in real terms, and Stamp Duty up by 140 pct."
    He said that "the greatly increased yield of Corporation
Tax, reflecting greatly increased company profitability, is
clearly connected with the reform of Corporation Taxation I
introduced in 1984, which brought the rate of tax on company
profits in this country to the lowest in the industrialised
world."
 REUTER

Iraqi warplanes attacked and hit a
large "naval target" -- Baghdad's term for a tanker or merchant
vessel -- in the Gulf today, an Iraqi military spokesman said.
    He said the raid took place off the Iranian coast at 0600
gmt and all aircraft returned safely to base.
    Lloyds Shipping Intelligence earlier today said the Greek
bulk carrier Pamit, 84,137 tonnes dw, was attacked and hit in
the engine room this morning in the northern Gulf.
    It said all the crew were safe and tugs were heading to aid
the ship.
 Reuter

has started trading the common stock of American Land Cruisers
Inc, which had traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

The oil price collapse of 1986 put
development of a vast petroleum resource -- heavy and extra
heavy oils -- on hold. But as oil prices increase the long-term
economic outlook is favorable, oil industry experts said.
    "Estimated potential world reserves of extra heavy oils
exceed 500 billion barrels, of which more than half are located
in Venezuela," Juan Chacin Guzman, President of Petroleos de
Venezuela told the World Petroleum Congress.
    "And this virtually unused resource represents a prime
example of the need to invest in technology to ensure
tomorrow's energy future," he added.
    Venezuela had to reduce heavy crude oil output in favor of
light oils because of economics and a very limited market. Not
many refineries have been upgraded to process the heavy oils.
    "Improved technology has the potential for reducing the
capital investment and operating costs of typical heavy oil
development projects by 30 pct or more," Gordon Willmon, VP and
general manager, oil sands and coal department, Esso Resources
Canada Ltd said at the World Petroleum Congress.
    Crude oil prices fell under 10 dlrs dlrs a barrel last
summer as OPEC members increased production to gain market
share, but have since risen to around 18 dlrs because the  OPEC
production/pricing agreement is basically in tact.
    Willmon said light and medium crude oils currently supply
90 pct of world oil demand yet they account for less than 25
pct of remaining petroleum resources.
    "So future demand increasingly will be met from the various
forms of heavy oil," Willmon said. Heavy crude oil resources
include extra-heavy oil/tar sand, natural bituminous sands and
oil shales (in sedimentary rock).
     Willmon cited major factors that will make heavy oil
development economical, including real and stable growth in
crude oil prices, favorable fiscal terms, and improved
    He said he expects "all pieces of the puzzle to fit
together." But he cautioned that the short-term outlook is very
sensitive to crude oil prices. And he said the most important
factor in development of heavy oils is the recovery of the
price of crude.
    Willmon said the price of light crude must be about eight
dlrs higher than heavy crude before there is an incentive for
an oil company to upgrade its refinery to process heavy oil.
    He said the current price differential is only about five
    Willmon indicated that a benchmark crude oil price above 20
dlrs would be ideal. But he said currently under study are a
broad range of high potential cost-effective technologies for
resources recovery, transportation and upgrading of heavy oils,
which would permit commercial development despite a lower crude
oil price outlook.
    Willmon said these technologies included enhanced recovery
by steam injection and oil-and-water emulsion to reduce the
viscocity of the heavy oils so they can flow easily through a
pipeline. He said such technologies may substantially reduce
current captial investment and operating costs.
    But he emphasized that innovative technology alone may not
encourage new investment, that oil prices need to show a
meaningful and sustained recovery.
   Most of the expenses associated with heavy oils production
is fixed operating costs as in an oil sands project, rather
than in exploration, according to Robert Smith, Senior VP
Operations <Syncrude Canada Ltd>.
    While exploration costs for conventional crude oil range
from four to nine dlrs a barrel, discovery costs for synthetic
crude from oil sands are nearly zero because the location and
nature of the deposit are known, according to Smith.
    But the remote location of oil sands deposits mean that
everything required to build and operate the plant must come
from outside the area.
    Willmon also said, "Public policy could best help by
providing financial support to offset the high cost of
technology developmemt which would help generate projects that
could survive even at low oil prices for extended periods of
time."
    U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington said, "The Reagan
Administration is firmly committed, without equivocation, to
continuing our efforts to improve conditions and incentives in
the marketplace that will spur oil and gas exploration and
development."
 Reuter

The U.S. Economy has peaked and will slow
to a growth rate of between 2.5 pct and three pct for the
remainder of 1987, First Boston Corp Managing Director Albert
Wojnilower said.
    He told an investment conference the U.S. Economy will not
be able to sustain the 4.3 pct growth rate recorded in first
quarter gross national product.
    He said continued intermittent attacks on the U.S. Currency
could lead to a substantial rise in long term interest rates.
However, he predicted that rates will eventually decline either
in anticipation of a recession or because of one.
  REUTER

The Securities Exchange Commission
decided to allow the Midwest Stock exchange to trade 25 stocks
currently listed on the National Securities Dealers Association
Automated Quotation, NASDAQ, system.
    The SEC's unanimous decision granting so-called unlisted
trading privileges to the 25 NASDAQ securities will allow the
Midwest Exchange to begin trading the issues by May 18 under a
one-year pilot program.
    Unlisted trading privileges allow trading of stocks on an
exchange other than the one on which the stocks are listed.
    Before it would approve the Midwest Exchange request for
the unlisted trading privileges, the SEC had insisted that it
and the National Association of Securities Dealers, NASD, come
up with a way of reporting and combining information on stock
prices and transactions.
    SEC officials said they needed to be assured that 
information on the trading in and price of the securities would
be in one place, for accuracy and consistency.
    But since the exchanges still have not come with a master
plan, the SEC approved an interim plan under which NASDAQ
terminals would be put on the Midwest Exchange floor.
    All trades in the 25 over the counter securities done on
the Midewest Exchange will be quoted in the NASDAQ system as
well as on the Midwest Exchange under the interim plan.
    The NASD, Midwest Exchange and several other exchanges have
said they are working on a master plan for consolidating the
reporting of price quotes and other information on stocks now
traded on NASDAQ and listed on one or more exchanges.
    But an SEC official said such a new master reporting system
is not expected to be in place until early next year. The
Midwest Exchange proposed the interim reporting plan so that it
can begin unlisted trading immediately, he said.
    The 25 securities to be traded on the Midwest Exchange are
the first over the counter securities to be traded on any
exchange besides the NASDAQ. Some issues listed on exchanges,
however, are traded on the NASDAQ.
    The 25 securities had an average dollar volume last year of
2.4 billion dlrs and made up 18 pct of the dollar volume of all
the securities quoted on the NASD's National Market System.
    SEC officials said they would review the pilot program in
about a year. It was intended to spur more competition in the
 Reuter

A bill that would impose an oil
import fee to support a world floor price for oil of 25 dlrs a
barrel was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by
12 Congressmen from oil-producing states.
    The variable import fee would be dropped if oil prices rise
above 25 dlrs a barrel, sponsors of the bill said.
    Revenues from the fee would be used to buy domestic oil
from stripper wells - those that produce 10 barrels a day or
less - at a fixed price of 25 dlrs a barrel. Purchases would
stop when prices rose above that level.
    "Time is running out on the domestic oil and gas industry,"
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in a statement. "An oil import
fee is really just the premium for a national insurance
policy."
    President Reagan opposes an oil import fee, but supporters
of the bill said they hoped for action on it before the end of
the year.
 Reuter

Egypt has embarked on reforms sought by
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank by
raising the price of diesel oil and other types of transport
fuels.
    The energy price increases were the first visible measures
taken in return for IMF standby credits and World Bank loans.
    Effective today, fuel oil prices were trebled and prices of
gas oil, diesel and kerosene went up by over 50 pct, an
Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC) official said. He said
fuel oil will sell for 28 Egyptian pounds a ton, instead of 7.5
pounds.
    Kerosene and gas oil were raised by 66 pct to sell for five
piasters a litre, while diesel rose 50 pct to 4.5 piasters.
    The government is expected also to act soon, possibly as
early as next weekend, to simplify the country's complex
exchange rate system, bankers said.
    Moving towards a more realistic exchange rate for the pound
was part of a package of reforms sought by the IMF and creditor
governments. In return, Egypt stands to receive up to one
billion dlrs in IMF standby credits phased over three years to
help it repay its 38.6 billion dlr foreign debt and guarantee
rescheduling by western governments, the main creditors.
    Energy price increases were also a condition of progress on
World Bank project loans of up to 800 mln dlrs in energy,
communications and other sectors which have been under
negotiation for several months, western diplomats said.
    The U.S. And Western Europe have pledged political backing
for President Hosni Mubarak's government, committed to a
multi-party political system and peace with Israel and
strategically poised in control of the Suez Canal.
    Fuel price rises, postponed at least once and likely to
lead to higher retail prices of basic goods, were a test of the
government's resolve to pursue economic reform, diplomats said.
    But the new prices are still below world market levels.
    There was no announcement of increases in more politically
sensitive products such as gasoline or natural gas, used for
cooking, and the mass-circulation Al-Akhbar newspaper said they
would stay the same.
    Official comment was not available on speculation among
bankers and diplomats that the Central Bank would soon tinker
with the pound's exchange rates to try to channel more dollars
into the banking system away from the illegal but tolerated
free market.
    The Central Bank was expected to set up a committee in
which 10 commercial banks, including the four state-owned
banks, would decide the pound's value every day.
    The official "incentive rate," currently set by the Central
Bank daily, is around 1.36 pounds to the dollar, against 2.15
on the free market.
    Bankers predicted that the banks' committee might set rates
around 1.80 or 1.90. But some doubted this would serve the aim
of curbing the free market.
 REUTER

Better times for the hard hit
natural gas industry remains two to three years away as a
seemingly intractable supply bubble continues to depress sales
and prices, industry officials said.
    An uncertain regulatory environment, disputes over Canadian
pricing policies and unusually warm winters are working against
a quick recovery in the sector, a number of corporate and
government speakers told an energy conference here.
    "We see a tough, tough short-term market, both as to price
and volume," said Michael Phelps, vice president of <Westcoast
Transmission Co Ltd>, a major Canadian natural gas carrier.
    But Phelps predicted a fall in U.S. supply -- caused by a
sharp drop in exploration -- and a slight demand increase
should help to burn off the excess supply by 1990.
    As a result, Canadian gas exports to the U.S. market should
rise to up to 1.5 trillion cubic feet a year by the end of the
decade, nearly double 1986's total.
    The health of the Canadian industry is heavily dependent on
the U.S. market where nearly one third of Canada's gas
production is sent.
    Cuba Wadlington, a vice president at Northwest Pipeline
Corp of Salt Lake City, shared the view that markets could be
in balance by 1990.
    He said while North American demand for natural gas has
flattened at about 18 trillion cubic feet a year, a return to
more colder winters in the next few years could quickly tighten
supplies.
    "Things are clearly working towards a shrinking of the
bubble," Wadlington told Reuters in an interview.
    However, recent decisions by the U.S. Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) were sharply criticized by
Canadian delegates who suggested the moves could prevent the
country from participating in the market's recovery.
    The key dispute, known as the as billed issue, involves a
ruling last December by FERC which effectively bars U.S.
pipeline companies and consumers from paying certain Canadian
shipping expenses.
    The Canadian government believes the ruling could severely
weaken the country's gas producers. "Besides the
extra-territorial effect, there is the potential that Conadian
producers and consumers may end up subsidizing the cost of
transportation services originally incurred on behalf of U.S.
customers," said Robert Skinner, an assistant deputy minister in
Canada's energy department.
    But FERC Chairman Martha Hesse told the conference the
ruling was really intended "to assure equal, fair and open
competition in the pricing of natural gas sold within our
country -- whatever the source of the gas."
    Hesse maintained Canadian gas was crucial to the emergence
of a freely competitive, continent-wide, energy market.
    Speaking to concerns in Canada that the U.S. is seeking to
limit Canadian gas shipments, Hesse said such a move would work
against the long-term interest of American consumers. "We truly
constitute a North American market," she said. "Natural gas
moving through pipelines recognizes no boundries."
 Reuter

Some 60 pct of 6,300 employees at
Spain's 27 major ports have supported a strike since Monday in
support of wage negotiations, a spokesman for the Public Works
    He said, however, that the stoppage has had no effect in
Barcelona, Bilbao, Las Palmas and Pasajes and that mandatory
minimum services in other ports allowed perishable goods to be
handled.
    The strike is due to continue tomorrow with work resuming
on Friday.
 Reuter

Devcon International Corp
said it has received a 13.5 mln dlr contract from the
government of Antigua for harbor dredging and construction of a
deepwater pier at St. John's, with completion expected within
two years.
    It said work will start immediately.
 Reuter

Daiwa Securities America Inc, wholly
owned by Daiwa Securities Co Ltd, of Tokyo, received approval
to acquire a seat on the Toronto Stock Exchange for 361,000
Canadian dlrs, the exchange said.
    Approval was granted by the exchange's board of governors
and is the first acquisition of an exchange seat by a Japanese
company, it said.
    The purchase price is the highest ever paid for an exchange
seat, it added.
    Daiwa acquired the exchange seat from Andras Research
Capital Inc, the Toronto Stock Exchange said.
    Daiwa now intends to apply for exchange membership, which
will be subject to approval by other exchange members and the
Ontario Securities Commission, it said.
 Reuter

Reuters Holdings PLC said shareholders
approved changes in the company's articles of association to
allow it to seek a listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
    The shareholders also approved a stock option plan tied to
performance. The plan allows grants of options up to eight
times earnings to a small group of executives, the company
said.
    The shareholders approved the measures at a special meeting
following the company's annual meeting.
    The amendment allowing the Tokyo listing exempts the <Japan
Securities Clearing Corp> from a 15 pct shareholding limit
contained in the articles of association.
    Under rules of the Tokyo exchange, shares in foreign
companies owned by Japanese must be registered in the name of
Japan Securities Clearing or its nominee, the company said.
    Reuters, based in London, supplies a wide range of
information services to business and news media subscribers.
 Reuter

Offshore drilling for oil and gas will
be moving into deeper and deeper waters, according to Ronald L.
Geer, a consultant with Shell Oil Co. and president of the
Marine Technology Society.
     Geer told a press conference at the Offshore Technology
Conference that the technology existed to drill exploratory
wells in up to 10,000 feet of water.
     But he added that as the industry moves more and more to
floating systems as opposed to fixed bottom supported
structures, the financial risks involved were greater.
     He said such projects involved six to nine year time
frames, and there was a "reluctance for people to stick their
necks too far out."
     Shell holds the world record for the deepest exploratory
well, at 6,900 feet, in the Wilmington Canyon in the Atlantic
offshore New Jersey in 1984.
     The company is currently drilling a 6,700 foot well in the
Atwater Valley in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana.
     Meanwhile, Brazil's Petrobras set a world record for
underwater production when they brought a well in 1,350 feet of
water offshore Rio de Janeiro state into production in January.
     Geer said the industry was particularly interested in the
Green Canyon field offshore Louisiana where a number of
companies, including Shell, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell <RD>,
Dupont Co's <DD> Conoco Inc, USX Corp's <X> Marathon Oil Co,
Standard Oil Co <SRD> and <Placid Oil Co>, are working, many of
them testing new deep-water technologies.
     Of particular interest is the controversial Penrod-72
system being operated by the Dallas-based Hunt brothers who
last year placed Placid Oil under bankruptcy court protection
in order to avoid foreclosures on its valuable oil properties.
     They have been seeking the right to use assets to drill
oil wells in the Green Canyon through Penrod, arguing that
continued development of the project is essential to their
ability to get out of their financial crisis.
     Earlier this month, the Hunts were granted permission by a
bankruptcy court to pursue the Green Canyon project.
     The Penrod system involves a controversial floating
production platform with well heads sitting 1,350 feet down on
the ocean floor. Some 24 wells will be attached to the
wellhead, with one satellite well sitting in a record 1,700
     Geer said he could not comment on the Penrod project,
other than to note that it involves so many new technologies,
it might have a problem fitting all the pieces together within
a specific time frame.
     He also said he believed the potential production from the
project could be in line with what the Hunt Brothers have
projected
.
     The Hunts' creditor banks have contended the Hunts have
exaggerated the potential of the project.
     "They're in the ballpark," he said, of the numbers, adding
that he did not have enough information to comment further.
 Reuter

Demand for natural gas has failed to
grow in proportion to the decline in oil deliveries because of
concerns over unresolved regulatory issues in the United
States, said industry analysts and gas utility company sources.
    "Natural gas is not free to compete," said Larry Makovich,
director of utilities service at Data Resources Inc, "problems
on pipeline open access and take-or-pay liabilities still weigh
heavily on end-users' decision to switch to natural gas."
    A manager with an East Coast gas distribution company,
agreed that reluctance among end-users often stemmed from fear
of unresolved regulatory issues.
    "The fact that at the federal level open access is not yet
firmly in place threatens to impede free flow of natural gas
from producers to consumers," he said.
     Michael German, an economist with the American Gas
Association, said while a significant amount of gas was now
replacing oil in dual-fuel boilers, the progress of expanding
the marketshare of gas was slow. First quarter natural gas
consumption data is not available until June.
    In the first three months of 1987, residual fuel demand
fell by an average of 55,000 barrels per day, according to the
American Petroleum Institute. Natural gas, however, was not
able to take full advantage of the decline in oil consumption.
    AGA's German said that while industrial consumers were
concerned with regulatory issues in their long-range capital
investment decisions, in the dual-fuel boiler market relied on
spot purchases.
    "With all the capability of switching (from oil to natural
gas) already there, price of the fuel is the only concern," he
said, adding that compared with the same period last year,
January natural gas price at burner tip is 16 pct lower for
industrial users and 32 pct lower for utilities.
    German attributed the sluggish performance of natural gas
to lower demand in the utility sector as a whole.
    "March was warmer than normal, which cut down gas
consumption not only in home heating but also in electricity
generation," he said.
     In March, according to API monthly statistics, residual
fuel deliveries fell by 13.6 pct to 1.2 mln barrels per day
from the same period a year ago.
    While API specifically mentioned lower natural gas prices
had put residual fuel at a price disadvantage among electric
utilities and industrial users, industry analysts believed the
role of natural gas was over-stated.
    Makovich of DRI noted much of the decline in oil in the
fuel mix was taken up by new nuclear capacity coming on stream
in the last few years.
    Nuclear capacity rose nine pct in 1986, and he projected
the same rate of growth for 1987 and 11 pct growth in 1988. 
    In contrast, oil and gas together represented only 15 pct
of the fuel mix in 1986 and should decline to 13 pct by 1989,
he said. Within this sector, gas share fell to 66 pct in 1986
from 76 pct a year ago due to competition from falling oil
prices, he added. But this year, gas was expected to recapture
only two pct of the share, Makovich said.
    Michael German of AGA agreed and said, "Nevertheless,
outlet for several hundred billion cubic feet of gas a year is
significant in a glutted market."
 Reuter

Iran's navy commander warned that Iran
would close off the Strait of Hormuz, entrance to the Gulf, if
there was any disruption to its shipping or sea-bound trade,
Tehran radio said.
    Commodore Mohammed Hoseyn Malekzadegan told a news
conference Iran was ready to maintain security in the Gulf.
    But he added "If there is any disruption in the movement of
our ships and our imports and exports, this waterway would not
be left open for any country."
    The radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, quoted Malekzadegan as saying Iran's navy now had
the most advanced defensive equipment, including long-range
shore- to-sea missiles and a range of sea-to-sea missiles.
    He said it had also expanded operations to cover the whole
region "from the most northerly point in the Persian Gulf to the
most southerly part of the Sea of Oman."
    Referring to U.S. fleet movements in and near the Gulf,
Malekzadegan said they had so far not been directed against
Iran's interests.
    "Their movements have been on the basis of international
regulations and in the open seas," the radio quoted him as
saying. "However, if any movement or action is carried out
against the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran in
whatever context, we shall decisively confront that move."
 Reuter

Daiwa Securities Co Ltd, of Tokyo,
plans to open a new Canadian company after a June 30
deregulation of the Ontario equity market is implemented, Daiwa
Securities general manager for Canada Hajimu Watanabe told
Reuters in reply to query.
    The Toronto Stock Exchange earlier announced Daiwa became
the first Japanese company to acquire an exchange seat, paying
361,000 Canadian dlrs, the highest price ever paid.
    "This is a prelude of our establishment of a new Canadian
company," Watanabe said.
    Watanabe said Daiwa's new Canadian brokerage house will
concentrate on investment in Canadian stocks by Japanese
investors, Canadians acquiring Japanese equity, and government
and corporate financing, mainly in the Canadian bond market.
    "We have now a huge amount of demand on the part of Japanese
investors for Canadian stocks," Watanabe said.
    "So if we can get membership of the Toronto Stock Exchange,
that should support our business very much," he added. Daiwa's
application for exchange membership is subject to approval by
other members and the Ontario Securities Commission.
    When asked, Watanabe declined to specify how much capital
Daiwa, the world's second largest investment dealer, would
invest in its Canadian subsidiary.
    "It is quite confidential at this moment, but say our main
intention is not to create any friction with the Canadian
houses," Watanabe said.
    He said Daiwa could easily set up its new unit with one
billion Canadian dlrs of capital, "but we are starting at quite
a moderate figure."
    "But small means quite big in Canadian terms," he added.
    Daiwa, which established a representative office in Canada
in 1980, is ready to open its Canadian house as soon as Ontario
security deregulation is implemented on June 30, Watanabe said,
adding Daiwa is very pleased with its reception by Canadian
    Watanabe said about 10 pct of Japanese investment in
foreign securities goes to Canada, ranking second to the United
States which receives about 50 pct.
    "The Japanese institutional investors feel that it is rather
risky to concentrate around the 50 pct" in one country, he said.
    Japanese institutional investors are trying to diversify to
other non-American vehicles, and there are very few candidates
that remain safe investment objects, Daiwa's Watanabe added.
    Investors in Japan are also feeling it is risky to
concentrate in fixed income paper, and are looking more towards
investment in paper equity and real estate.
   "So, investment in Canadian paper, especially Canadian
equity, should have a great future," Watanabe said.
 Reuter

Nippon Mining Co Ltd president Yukio
Kasahara said the state-owned Japanese firm hoped to find
additional joint venture partners to explore for U.S. oil
reserves.
    "We have to secure the stability of oil for Japan,"
Kasahara told reporters at the World Petroleum Congress. "In
the exploration area I think Japanese companies are interested
in joint ventures."
    Nippon Mining, for example, last September signed an
agreement with Dupont Co's <DD> Conoco Inc to participate in a
135 mln dlr exploration venture that includes six wells on land
and 14 offshore Louisiana. The first joint well drilled is in
the Gulf of Mexico's Green Canyon Block 182, a deepwater lease
that Conoco was almost forced to return to the federal
government undrilled because of low oil prices.
    "At this moment we have no success but we will proceed with
Conoco. Maybe by the end of the year we will find oil there,"
Kasahara said. He said that similar kinds of joint ventures
"would be best" for Nippon Mining's oil exploration efforts in
    Kasahara also said Nippon Mining was not planning to
acquire any U.S. refining or marketing outlets. "Retail sales
in general do not interest the Japanese oil companies," he
said.
    When asked whether he believed world oil prices might
strengthen later this year, Kasahara said he expected prices to
hold steady at today's level.
    "Within this year I think the 18 dlrs a barrel will
continue. But next year I don't know," he said. "For the
refining business, stability is important. Whether the price is
18 dlrs or 20 dlrs, we don't care."
    But encouraging additional upstream efforts may require
modestly higher oil prices, Kasahara added. "For exploration I
think 20 dlrs a barrel or 22 dlrs a barrel would be
reasonable," he said.
    The key factor in determining whether the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would raise its 18 dlr a
barrel benchmark price is the ongoing war between Iran and
Iraq, Kasahara said. Saudi Arabia, he added, was an uncertain
element in the OPEC equation because of its need to maintain
revenues at the same time the weakened U.S. dollar has reduced
oil profits.
    Nippon Mining, which like all Japanese crude buyers is
benefitting from the drop in the value of the dollar, favors
continuing to price OPEC crude oil according to U.S. currency
regardless of the dollar-yen relationship, Kasahara said.
    "I hope the dollar would strengthen eventually and continue
to improve. I would prefer to see the (OPEC) pricing remain in
dollars," he said.
 Reuter

President Reagan said a further
decline in the value of the dollar could be counterproductive.
    In written answers to questions put by Japan's Asahi
Shimbun newspaper, he noted Treasury Secretary James Baker had
said all seven major industrial nations were committed to
cooperating in fostering stability of exchange rates.
counterproductive," Reagan said.
    Reagan said the best way for the United States to reduce
its trade deficit was to export more.
    He said Japan could make a major contribution to reducing
external imbalances and sustaining world economic growth by
adopting policies to promote stronger domestic demand in the
short-run and, in the long-run, implementing structural reforms
to ease Japanese dependence on exports as a source of growth.
 Reuter

Bangladesh has been authorized to
purchase about 32,000 bales (480 lbs) of U.S. cotton under an
existing PL 480 agreement, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    It may buy the cotton, valued at 10.0 mln dlrs, between May
6 and August 15, 1987 and ship it by September 15, the
 Reuter

Coastal Corp and TransAmerican Natural
Gas Corp have proposed settling more than four billion dlrs in
lawsuits with an agreement for natural gas sales and
transportation between the two Texas firms, a lawyer for
Coastal said.
    The proposed settlement also provided for Coastal to
withdraw its reorganization plan in TransAmerican's bankruptcy
    Thomas McDade, a lawyer for Coastal, said the settlement
included a five-year agreement for TransAmerican to transport
up to 100 mln cubic feet of natural gas daily from south Texas
fields to major pipeline interchanges. TransAmerican will also
sell Coastal up to 125 mln cubic feet of gas at spot market
prices during the next 10 years.
    McDade said Coastal would agree to support TransAmerican's
plan of reorganization pending in federal bankruptcy court.
    TransAmerican, a Houston-based natural gas production and
pipeline company, had sued Coastal for 4.1 billion dlrs
alleging that Coastal chairman Oscar Wyatt wrongly interfered
with TransAmerican's reorganization efforts. Coastal is one of
TransAmerican's unsecured creditors.
 Reuter

Mexico's policies for silver
production and sales have not changed despite Peru's decision
last week to freeze its silver sales, government mining and
central bank officials said.
    The officials also expressed doubt that such a policy
change was in the works.
    Mexico is the world's leading silver producer and had an
output of about 73.9 mln troy ounces last year, according to
preliminary government figures.
    Peru, the world's second leading silver producer, last week
suspended sales of the precious metal in what authorities in
Lima said was an effort to protect its price in an unstable
market.
    Since the decision, Peruvian officials have said they will
discuss cooperation in the silver market with Mexican officials
in scheduled meetings.
    Last week, Peruvian central bank president Leonel Figueroa
and the head of the central bank of Mexico, Miguel Mancera
Aguayo met in Mexico City in private talks said aimed at
consolidating the upward trend of silver prices.
    Mexican minister of energy and mines, Alfredo del Mazo, is
also expected to meet soon with his Peruvian counterpart,
Wilfredo Huayta.
    However, no Mexican decision has been made to follow the
Peruvian example of suspending new silver sales, Mexican
    One Mexican mining sector official working closely with the
government's production and sales policy told Reuters there
have been no changes in policy handed down by the central bank.
    "The same policy that has been followed will be continued,"
said the official, who asked not to be further identified.
    A spokesman for the central bank said the bank had no
information on any silver policy changes.
    An energy and mines ministry spokesman and an official in
the ministry's metallurgy department also said no government
silver policy change had been made.
    The mining sector official also said he doubted Mexico
would follow Peru's policy, reasoning that if the two
governments had intended to coordinate silver policies, Mexico
would have announced a sales suspension along with Peru last
week.
    "It's very probable a change won't be made," the official
said.
 Reuter

Members of local 174 of the United Food
and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, representing 1,900 meat
cutters in New York city, yesterday rejected the latest
management offer on a new contract.
    "Members rejected the latest offer by a 2 to 1 margin," Bob
Wilson, executive officer of local 174 said. But workers have
been asked to remain on the job while negotiations continue.
    The union has been in negotiations with the Greater New
York Association of Meat and Poultry Dealers, a group of meat
wholesalers and distributors. The contract expired April 26 and
the latest management offer sought "give backs" in holiday and
sick leave which the membership rejected, Wilson said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said Genrad Inc
declined to comment on what the exchange called unusual
activity in its stock today.
    The exchange said that in view of the unusual market
activity of Genrad stock it requested the company issue a
public statement indicating whether there are any corporate
    The company said its policy is not to comment on unusual
market activity or rumors, the Exchange said.
    Genrad stock closed at 12-1/2, up 1-1/4.
 Reuter

Bangladesh is keeping its options open on
whether to seek a penalty from Continental Grain Co of the
United States for alleged breach of a wheat shipment contract,
but is also asking the company to expedite shipment of the
cargo, a senior Food Ministry official said.
    The official, who declined to be named, said the company
under a deal agreed to ship 100,000 tonnes of wheat by April 7
and another 100,000 tonnes by April 16. But it shipped only
126,000 tonnes altogether.
    The supplier will have to pay penalty at a rate of two dlrs
per tonne for every delayed day according to a document signed
by both the Food Ministry and the suppliers' agent in Dhaka, he
    "If they arrange quick shipment, we may take a lenient view,"
the official said. The issue is expected to be decided at a
cabinet meeting scheduled for next Sunday, he added.
    A pro-government Bengali daily "Dainik Janata" reported today
that Continental Grain could face a penalty of 200 mln taka
(6.49 mln dlrs) for alleged failure to maintain shipment
schedule.
    The local agent of Continental Grain, Shafi Ahmed
Choudhury, told Reuters he applied to the Bangladesh government
for an extension of the shipment period because loading of
wheat at London was being delayed due to bad weather and a
faulty elevator at a grain silo. But the government has not yet
granted the extension, he said.
    Choudhury said the freight rate and price of wheat had gone
up after the deal was signed, which resulted in a financial
loss to the company.
    He said he was not "officially informed" of the move to
impose a penalty, although he was "not totally unaware of it."
    Continental Grain officials in New York declined to
comment.
 Reuter

products supplied rose 0.6 pct in the four weeks ended April 17
to 15.91 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 15.82 mln in the same
said.
Department agency said distillate demand was off 10.2 pct in
the period to 2.67 mln bpd from 2.98 mln a year earlier.
    Gasoline demand averaged 6.94 mln bpd, off 1.8 pct from
7.06 mln last year, while residual fuel demand was 1.17 mln
bpd, off 12.9 pct from 1.34 mln, the EIA said.
bpd, down 5.9 pct from 8.88 mln a year ago, and gross daily
bpd, up 5.2 pct from 3.52 mln, the EIA said.
    Refinery crude runs in the four weeks were 12.58 mln bpd,
up 2.0 pct from 12.33 mln a year earlier, it said.
    In the first 113 days of the year, refinery runs were up
2.3 pct to an average 12.36 mln bpd from 12.09 mln in the
year-ago period, the EIA said.
16.26 mln bpd, up 1.6 pct from 15.99 mln in 1986, it said.
    So far this year, distillate demand fell 3.1 pct to 3.11
mln bpd from 3.21 mln in 1986, gasoline demand was 6.71 mln
bpd, off 0.3 pct from 6.73 mln, and residual fuel demand fell
6.2 pct to 1.32 mln bpd from 1.40 mln, the EIA said.
    Year-to-date domestic crude output was estimated at 8.38
mln bpd, off 7.4 pct from 9.05 mln a year ago, while gross
crude imports averaged 3.86 mln bpd, up 21.1 pct from 3.19 mln,
it said.
 Reuter

a senior economist predicted the
u.s. dollar would decline another 30 pct by year-end, but said
he foresees no significant change in u.s. interest rates.
    "the market recognizes another 30 pct dollar depreciation is
necessary," said rudiger dornbush of the massachusetts institute
of technology.
    he said the only thing preventing the dollar from dropping
far below current levels was intervention by central banks in
definace of market forces.
    he said artifical support of the dollar had put the world's
financial markets in an "excessively volatile" position, however,
and predicted that within about four months "it is going to be
very difficult to keep the dollar in place."
    the forecasts, dornbush added, are for "a steady
deterioration from now on."
    dornbush, a university of chicago-educated economist, works
with the national bureau of economic research as well as mit.
he spoke here at the invitation of panama's national banking
association, sponsor of a three-day international banking
convention that got under way yesterday.
    dornbush discarded fears of soaring u.s. interest rates
because of the declining dollar.
    "the u.s. cannot raise interest rates. if it raises interest
rates all the debts will bounce in the foreign sector ... and
all over latin america," he said.
 Reuter

China's oil drilling industry is one of
the few bright spots in the international oilpatch with about
1,000 rigs currently working and annual increases of 80-100
expected through the end of the century, a Chinese petroleum
    "In China, production concentrates on the domestic market,
and does not depend on the international price of oil," Zhai
Guang Ming, a director of the Chinese Ministry of Petroleum,
    Chinese oil sold within the nation's borders is priced at
about one-third the 18 dlr a barrel benchmark price established
by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Zhai said
in an interview at the World Petroleum Congress.
    The optimism in China is in sharp contrast to the United
States where weak oil prices have prompted a steep fall in the
number of active rigs from a 1981 peak of 4,500 to only 765
last week according to the latest Baker Hughes Co rig count.
    At this time, China actually has more rigs in operation
than any other country in the world, said Xianglin Hou, another
member of the 20-man Chinese delegation at the Houston meeting.
    But this does not mean good news for the sagging oilfield
equipment industry in the rest of the world, said Bryan Walman,
international sales manager for Reed Tool Co in Houston.
    Walman said more than 90 pct of China's drilling activity
is on land and under the control of the Chinese government
which requires local manufacture of drilling equipment.
    But U.S. and other western nations do provide equipment for
China's fledgling offshore projects as well as participate in
the actual drilling, he said.
    Amoco Corp <AN>, for example, has reported a discovery in
1,000 feet of water in the South China Sea.
    "We're encouraged," said Alfred Munk, manager of Amoco's
foreign affairs, "but we need substantial reserves before we
can do commercial production in a remote area like that."
     Zhai estimated that current Chinese oil production of 130
mln tonnes a year should rise to total 200 mln tonnes annually
by the year 2,000.
    Chinese crude reserves total 23.6 billion barrels, with
ultimate resources estimated at 69.3 billion barrels.
 Reuter

U.S. Interior Secretary Donald
Hodel said he does not support an oil import fee as a means to
stimulate domestic oil and gas production.
    "I am an advocate for incentives for exploration," Hodel
said, but added, "I do not favor an oil import fee."
    "It would inject the federal government so deeply back in
to the process, we would never get the government out again,
and I think that would be in the long term disinterest of the
nation," Hodel said in an address to a group of local business
    Earlier today, Congressmen from oil producing states
introduced a bill that would impose a fee on oil imports.
    Hodel said he supports drilling incentives, such as repeal
of the Windfall Profits Tax and Fuel Use Act and deregulation
of natural gas.
    The secretary also said oil and gas exploration offshore
California and in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge is
necessary to prevent the U.S. from becoming too dependent on
foreign supplies of oil for its energy needs.
    Failure to approve such exploration, Hodel said, would lead
to greater U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil.
    "In the next two to five years, no matter what we do today,
we are very likely to find the U.S becoming 50 pct or more
dependent on imports for its oil requirements," Hodel said.
    If OPEC were to raise oil prices sharply, Congress would
likely act to have the federal government fix gasoline prices
and allocate supplies, Hodel said.
    "If they allocate supplies you and I, in the same
two-to-five year time frame, could well find ourselves sitting
back in gas lines," Hodel said.
    Exploration for oil and gas in offshore areas and in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not jeopardize
environmentally sensitive areas, Hodel said.
    "We are convinced we can meet and resolve every
environmental concern that is raised," Hodel said.
 Reuter

An oil import fee could cost
consumers nearly 17 billion dlrs a year and undermine long-term
U.S. energy security by leading to a quicker depletion of 
domestic reserves, a Federal Trade Commission study said.
    The study by the FTC's bureau of economics found that a
five dlr a barrel tariff on crude oil and gasoline oil imports
would increase costs to consumers by 14 to 16.7 billion dlrs a
year.
    After weighing the benefits of such a tariff against the
costs, the study found a five dlr a barrel import fee would
have a net cost to the economy of 3.6 billion dlrs a year.
    Several oil import fee proposals ranging from two to 10
dlrs a barrel have been made in Congress in an effort to cut
the federal budget deficit and maintain the momentum for energy
conservation programs, which have been hurt by cheaper oil.
    But by making foreign oil more expensive, the tariffs would
reduce oil imports and force greater consumption of domestic
oil, which would deplete U.S. reserves faster, the study found.
    "Any attempt to increase our energy security by limiting
imports will actually reduce our long-run energy security by
speeding the depletion of domestic reserves," the study said.
    The five dlr a barrel tariff would also cut domestic
petroleum refiners' profits by 7.5 to 10 billion dlrs a year,
increase domestic crude oil producers' profits by about 13
billion dlrs a year and raise government revenues by 6.7 to 
8.2 billion dlrs a year, the FTC said.
    Under the Reagan administration, the FTC has consistently
opposed government regulation of the oil industry at the state
and federal levels.
    "This study backs up my belief that government regulation
and interference with competition hurt both the market and
consumers," FTC Chairman Daniel Oliver said in a statement.
 Reuter

Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, facing
an increasingly violent wave of labour unrest, has told
Spaniards he is determined to bring down inflation even if it
means slower growth and fewer votes for his Socialist Party.
    In a 50-minute television interview broadcast live,
Gonzalez criticized widespread protests which have blown up
less than a year after he won a resounding general election
victory.
    "It seems so important to us that sometimes I ask myself
'Why don't they understand when I explain this?'" Gonzalez said
of the anti-inflation strategy designed to modernise Spain and
make its economy competitive within the European Community.
    Gonzalez said the illegal work-to-rule at the airline was
grounding more and more planes and producing a backlog of
maintenance work which would not be cleared until the summer.
    "The comfortable thing to do would be to give in and have no
problems," the 44-year-old prime minister said, adding that
nothing could justify the use of violence in a democracy.
    Gonzalez said he still believed it was possible to reduce
inflation to five pct this year from the current rate of 6.3
pct, even though other government officials have admitted the
target may now be beyond reach.
 Reuter

The depressed offshore oil industry is
still waiting for a turnaround despite increasing optimisim
that world oil prices have stabilized around 18 dlrs a barrel.
     "The perception of a turnaround comes from the change in
prices," Charles Siess Jr, vice chairman of Marathon
Manufacturing Co, a subsidiary of USX Corp <X>, and chairman of
the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a press
briefing at the Offshore Technology Conference.
     "From the level of industry activity, there is no
turnaround," he added.
     John Huff, president of Oceaneering International Inc
<OCER>, was slightly more optimistic. "We are through the low
part of the cycle -- there's an increase in interest for
projects," he said, adding, "whether it comes to orders, who
knows?"
     The oil industry is recovering from last year's dramatic
fall in oil prices, from 30 dlrs a barrel in late 1985 to under
10 dlrs in mid-1986. Particularly hard hit were the service
companies that provide the oil rigs with keys products, such as
pipe and tools.
     Earlier in the week, Secretary the Interior Donald Hodel
announced -- at the Conference -- the government's new
five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program, proposing 38
sales, including tracts in the Gulf Coast, offshore California
and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
     For the most part, the industry was disappointed with the
plan, with most arguing that additional areas should have been
included. At the same time, most were supportive of Hodel.
     Environmental concerns, particularly in California, had
lobbied strenuously against offshore oil development.
     "The (Outer Continental Shelf) leasing program fails to
take into account the environmental performance of the oil
industry," said Bill Bradford, executive vice president of
Dresser Industries <DI> and president of the Petroleum
Equipment Suppliers Association.
     Huff quoted National Academy of Science figures showing
offshore rigs contributed only two pct of petroleum pollution
in the oceans, while tankers were responsible for 47 pct and
municiple dumping 31 pct.
     "The OCS is the keystone of the domestic reserve
development program," said Siess, adding that with oil imports
rising to 50 pct of U.S. oil consumption, the issue was one of
national security.
     Looking ahead, Constantine S. Nicandros, president of
Dupont's <DD> Conoco Inc subsidiary, said, "We are more likely
to see a five pct increase in spending this year than the
widely-forecast five pct decrease."
     Other optimistic signs include the recent sale in New
Orleans of offshore tracts in the Gulf of Mexico which raised
290 mln dlrs against an expected 90 mln.
     However, Ronald Tappmeyer, vice chairman of Reading and
Bates Drilling Co <RB>, said the oversupply of rigs would
continue for the near-term, but added demand for
technologically advanced rigs would increase in the 1990s.
     Much of that demand is seen coming from the move into
icreasingly deeper waters, with the projects becoming ever more
expensive and needing five to ten years to develop.
     Over 50 pct of the sales in New Orleans were for deep
water tracts.
     Ronald L. Geer, a consultant with Shell Oil Co, a
subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell <RD>, and president of the
Marine Technology Society, said the technology existed to drill
exploratory wells in up to 10,000 feet of water.
companies, including Shell, Conoco, USX Corp's Marathon Oil Co,
Standard Oil Co <SRD> and Placid Oil Co, are working, many of
them testing new deep-water technologies involving floating
platforms.
 Reuter

Venezuelan president Jaime Lusinchi
approved a general wage increase in the form of bonuses ranging
from 20 to 30 pct and a 120-day price freeze on a basket of
basic consumer goods.
    Both measures, which take effect on May 1, were approved by
the cabinet. They will be announced to the nation by Lusinchi
in a televised address tonight but the text of the decrees was
released this afternoon.
    Businessmen, who met Lusinchi, opposed the pay rise, saying
it will fuel inflation. The inflation rate was 11.5 pct in 1986
and private economists say it will be 25 to 30 pct in 1987.
    The central bank said first quarter inflation was 6.3 pct.
    The wage increase for public and private sector employees
will be 30 pct on salaries of up to 2,100 bolivars a month. For
salaries of from 2,101 to 6,100 bolivars 25 pct and for those
of 6,101 to 20,000 bolivars 20 pct.
    The measures were taken in response to a request from the
Venezuelan confederation CTV for an increase to offset the loss
in the purchasing power of workers' salaries. It estimated the
loss at 40 pct.
    The general wage rise is the third granted by Lusinchi
since his government took office in February 1984.
    The wage increases are a bonus and will not be considered
in calculating benefits or severance pay, the decree said.
    At the same time, Lusinchi declared a freeze on lay-offs
and firings for the next 120 days.
    The price freeze applies to a group of 120 foods and other
consumer goods declared to be "of primary necessity."
    It does not apply to prices charged by agricultural
producers or to goods for which the price is falling.
    The decree establishes fines of between 1,000 and 500,000
bolivars for merchants who violate the price control measure.
 REUTER

Hospital Corp of America said it
received financing commitments of about 1.9 billion dlrs to pay
for its previously announced reorganization, which was approved
by the company's board of directors today.
    Under the reorganization, Hospital Corp will spin off over
100 hospitals to a new, independent firm for 1.8 billion dlrs
in cash and preferred stock and warrants in the new company,
which will be owned by an employee stock ownership plan, ESOP.
    Hospital Corp said that Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc has
agreed to provide bridge financing, or to find buyers for debt
of the new company, for an amount of up to 956 mln dlrs.
    This financing will comprise 270 mln dlrs of senior
unsecured ESOP debt and 686 mln dlrs of unsecured subordinated
financing for the new company, Hospital Corp said.
    Wells Fargo Bank NA has agreed to syndicate up to 940 mln
dlrs of secured bank financing, comprising a 400 mln dlr
revolving credit a separate 540 mln dlr term loan. Wells Fargo
has committed itself to fund an aggregate 400 mln dlrs of these
loans. Hospital Corp said it will not guarantee any of the
debt. The transaction will cut the number of hospitals the
company owns to about 125 from more than 230. It is expected to
be completed in the third quarter of the year.
 REUTER

Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar
Velayati warned that Iran would combat any superpower
intervention in the Gulf.
    "Iran, which is the most powerful (country) in the Gulf...
Will not allow the superpowers or any other foreign forces to
interfere in the region," he said.
    Velayati, visiting the United Arab Emirates on the first
leg of a Gulf tour, told reporters Iran had the "capabilities
and means" to prevent any interference. President Reagan has
pledged to keep the Gulf sealanes open and to protect Kuwaiti
tankers from possible Iranian attack.
 REUTER

The Central Bank said it will offer offer
250 mln rupees worth of three-month treasury bills in a tender
closing on June 4.
 REUTER

Companies offering variable life insurance
policies, introduced in Japan in October, look set to report
sparkling results when they report on fund performance later
this month, fund managers at major insurance companies said.
    The managers told Reuters some insurers showed variable
life returns topping 50 pct on an annual basis in the five
months to March 31. Industry sources said all 17 Japanese and
U.S. Insurers offering variable life policies here have earned
returns of more than 10 pct on their investments.
    Returns on variable life policies, which are paid when
policies are surrendered, depend on the performance of funds
run by insurers.
    Managers said strong results are due to the loading of
funds into the buoyant Tokyo stock market and into convertible
bonds and attractive short-term instruments such as large yen
time deposits.
    Japanese share prices rose 30 pct in absolute terms between
November 1 and March 31. Key bond yields fell to around four
pct from five pct in the same period.
    "Variable life avails itself of the times and clients are
likely to be attracted after the impressive results to be made
public in early June," Ichirou Hayashi, general manager of
Nippon Life Insurance Co Ltd's fund management office said.
    The Finance Ministry does not allow disclosure of insurance
company figures for the year ended March 31 until early June.
    Nippon Life, the largest Japanese insurer, had about 50,000
investors in variable life by end-March while the three U.S.
Firms which offer variable life here have a total of some 7,550
investors, fund managers said.
    Equitable Life Insurance Co Ltd, American Life Insurance Co
Ltd and Sony Prudential Life Insurance Co, which is a joint
venture between Sony Corp and Prudential Life Assurance of the
U.S., Are the three U.S. Insurers offering variable life here.
   "Although (variable life) appears to be a short-term
financial instrument with death benefit, its first priority is
to raise as much cash value as it can over the long period,"
said Ichiro Kono, managing director and chief actuary of Sony
Prudential. Variable life guarantees a fixed death benefit.
    "Variables are also attractive to executives of companies
who wish to receive them as retirement funds with options for
settlement in annuities," Kono said.
    Nippon Life's Hayashi said sales of variable life were
shaping up well as interest rate consciousness grows.
    Insurance managers said they expect variables to survive
any credit market collapse since the funds should be able to
react to interest rate fluctuations more quickly than huge
general insurance accounts, assuming fund managers grow more
sophisticated in global fund and risk management.
    Japanese life insurers have cut dividends paid to holders
of regular insurance by as much as 0.45 of a percentage point
since April 1 due to declining domestic interest rates.
    Fund managers said regular insurance funds are invested
more conservatively with decisions based on long-term
strategies. Major life insurers are expected to report huge
exchange losses, estimated at over 2,000 billion yen, on
foreign investment for 1986/87, they said.
    "Asset mix is more of a concept for larger funds, not for
our variables, especially after the huge currency losses made
in the last fiscal year," Hayashi of Nippon Life said.
    Industry analysts said shifts of funds ahead of tax changes
due in October are helping boost the demand for variable life.
    The government is expected to impose a 20 pct withholding
tax on interest from certain instruments including single
premium endowment insurance, much of which is maturing now, but
variable life will be free of such a tax.
    But Sony Prudential's Kono said, "A large shift of funds
from single premium endowment to variable life is unlikely,
because investors in the former are more short-term
return-minded, while the latter doesn't guarantee short-term
cash value."
    Sony Prudential and Equitable Life each have three separate
variable life accounts. Equitable's funds specialise in
Japanese stocks, U.S. Stocks and money market instruments while
Sony's covers bonds, stocks and general investment.
    Japanese insurers have only one variable account each.
    The Finance Ministry allowed sales of variable life
endowment with terms over 10-years and whole life insurance
from October 1 last year but allowed single premiums only on
the latter.
 REUTER

Group shr 11.86 yen vs 19.24
    Net 34.18 billion vs 59.44 billion
    Pretax 78.02 billion vs 130.52 billion
    Operating 51.58 billion vs 121.50 billion
    Sales 3,308 billion vs 3,373 billion
 REUTER

Singapore oil companies can set their
own petrol and diesel prices at the pump from today subject to
ceilings determined by their individual wholesale prices, The
Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
    The ministry previously revised pump prices and announced
the changes for the oil companies.
    Lead content of petrol is further cut to 0.15 gm/litre from
0.4 gm from today. Pump prices of the lower lead petrol grades
are expected to be announced soon by the oil companies which
have said wholesale prices are between 1.3 cents/litre to 3.2
cents higher than previous grades.
 REUTER

Peru's consumer price index rose 5.9 pct in
May to 15,706.5 (base 1979) compared to 6.6 pct in April and
3.3 pct in May 1986, the National Statistics Institute said.
    It said accumulated inflation for the first five months of
this year was 33.8 pct against 24.1 pct for the same period in
1986.
    Inflation for the year ending May 1987 was 75.7 pct
compared to 76.8 pct for the year ending May 1986.
 REUTER

The south China province of Guangdong is
importing millions of tonnes of grain a year from overseas and
other parts of China because farmers have switched from grain
to more profitable crops, the Peking Review magazine said.
    The official magazine said the province's grain area fell
to 4.33 mln hectares in 1985 from 5.7 mln in 1978 out of a
total farmland area of 7.4 mln hectares.
    Farmers have switched to cash crops such as sugarcane,
bananas, oranges, papaya and freshwater fish-farming, in part
to supply major consumer markets in Hong Kong and Macao, the
magazine said. It gave no 1986 area figures.
    The magazine said China aims to keep 80 pct of national
farmland under grain, 10 pct under cash crops and 10 pct under
other crops, although the ratio will vary from place to place.
    It said primitive cultivation methods, labour-intensity and
low productivity make grain the least profitable farm
commodity. Farmers in one central region of China can from 0.1
hectare earn 2,250 yuan a year from vegetables, 375-450 yuan
from cotton or 225 yuan from grain, it added.
    It said consumer prices for foodgrain can be adjusted only
gradually as part of a reform of the entire pricing system.
 REUTER

The European Commission should make urgent
and concrete proposals to break the deadlock over moves to cut
sky-high European airfares, an independent report said.
    The report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) said
costs, fares and profits on international services within
Europe are the highest in the world although European airlines
are less efficient and not perceptibly safer than their cheaper
U.S. Equivalents.
    "The European airlines protect their position through the
secrecy they maintain over the costs and profits of any group
of services," the report said.
    The airlines also protect themselves through "the ferocity
with which (they) resist any relaxation of the monopolistic
practices which protect their profits," the report said.
    Britain, a strong advocate of deregulation, has been trying
to push measures to introduce greater competition among
Europe's airlines but negotiations foundered at the end of 1986
over discount and deep discount fares.
    The IEA report said European governments and the
Commission, the EC executive authority, had been
extraordinarily lax about the airlines' secretiveness, showing
"a lack of concern for the interests of the traveller."
 REUTER

Bundesbank's Schlesinger says no plan to cut discount rate-Nihon Keizai newspaper

Singapore Petroleum Co Pte Ltd will
revise pump prices of petrol from June 2, an official said.
    Grade 97 octane with 0.15 gm/lead will be 96.8 cents/litre
against 94 cents previously for 0.4 gm lead. Grade 92 octane
will be 90.6 cents against 87.6 previously.
    SPC's price revision follows the Ministry of Trade and
Industry's move to liberalise petrol pricing by allowing oil
companies to set their own pump prices.
    New grades of petrol with lower lead content are sold in
Singapore from today in line with the Ministry of Environment's
 REUTER

Bundesbank Deputy President Helmut
Schlesinger said the West German central bank had no plan to
cut its three pct discount rate, Nihon Keizai newspaper
reported.
    The financial daily quoted Schlesinger as saying in an
interview that the bank would try to maintain current interest
rate levels for the time being.
    He also told the newspaper he saw no need for large-scale
intervention in the foreign exchange market because exchange
rates are stable.
     Earlier, Schlesinger told a press conference that the
Bundesbank would continue its policy of maintaining short-term
interest rates at a low level for currency stability.
    He also said he was satisfied with the current dollar/mark
exchange rate but added that he was not certain if it was ideal
for the West German economy.
 REUTER

South Korea will cut import taxes on 50
items, including construction equipment, photographic film,
cigarettes and pipe tobacco, to help reduce its trade surplus
with the United States, the finance ministry said.
    The tariff cuts, of between five and 30 percentage points,
take effect on July 1.
    This brings to 157 the number of goods on which import
taxes have been cut this year, a ministry official said.
    The 157 are among about 290 items on which Washington has
asked Seoul to lower tariffs, he added.
    Today's announcement follows Saturday's removal of import
curbs on 170 products. For 46 of those products, the U.S. Had
had sought free access to the South Korean market.
    "This is in line with the government's policy to limit our
trade surplus with the United States to help reduce trade
friction between the two countries," the official said.
    South Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to 7.3
billion dlrs in 1986 from 4.3 billion in 1985. Officials said
the surplus was expected to widen further in 1987 but Seoul
would try to hold it below eight billion dlrs.
    The finance ministry said tariffs would be cut later this
month on a further 53 items, including acrylic yarn and
ethylene, by an average 7.7 percentage points in order to check
    The officials said the tariff cuts would contribute to
holding wholesale and consumer price rises at less than three
pct this year.
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Rising interest rates and
protectionist trade policies had prompted a new push by Latin
American nations to win debt relief, regional foreign and
finance ministry officials said here.
    Officials of the Cartagena group of 11 debtor nations met
here this week to draw up new proposals in reaction to what
they called a deteriorating world panorama, and Citicorp's
decision to create reserves against third world loans.
    (SEE ECRA FOR SPOTLIGHT HEADLINES)
    "We are looking at trade, interest rates and financial
flows.....In order to put forward a basis for some permanent
solutions," Mexico's public credit director Angel Gurria said.
    Recent developments have led to moves for a summit of Latin
American presidents and debate on new solutions.
    Ideas include schemes to link debt payments to trade, and
proposals for stable interest rates. The latter was proposed in
a letter this week from Cartagena to G-7 leaders who are due to
attend a summit in Venice this month.
    Another idea is to include debt under Gatt negotiations,
but Cartegena ministers have yet to endorse any proposals.
    Speaking earlier in New York, Uruguay's Foreign Minister
and Cartagena group chairman Enrique Iglesias said Citicorp's
decision could discourage new lending. But it might help
Cartagena's bid to have old and new debt treated separately.
    The Cartagena group, which has not met at ministerial level
for over a year, wants to repay debt contracted before the debt
crisis at the low interest rates prevailing in the 1970s. It
would pay new loans at current market rates.
    "Many countries fear that what they have gained in months of
arduous debt negotiations they can lose at a stroke with a one
point rise in interest rates," one official here said.
    "The new increase in interest rates has come precisely when
we thought they had still not come down enough," Iglesias said.
    Latin American officials are also concerned that varying
interest spreads granted to different debtor nations could
generate discord, as with the Philippines' recent protest at
being given less favourable terms than Argentina.
    There has been speculation Venezuela would demand a cut in
its 7/8 pct spread, but public finances director Jorge Marcano
said here there were no plans to renegotiate terms.
    This week's meeting came after three Latin American
presidents meeting in Montevideo called for stable interest
rates on the region's 380 billion dlr foreign debt. It was
called to review developments since the last ministerial
meeting in February 1986 and to think up new ideas.
    Since the last ministerial meeting there have been some
advances, such as Mexico's growth-oriented 77 billion dlr loan
and refinancing package agreed last September. But there have
also been setbacks, like Brazil's payments moratorium.
    The loans expected in the Baker plan have not materialized
and debtors have been forced to browbeat reluctant banks.
    "We have clearly stretched the restructuring process to its
limits and and the question is now where do we go from here?" a
senior Mexican foreign ministry official said.
    Existing debt strategy has been based on nursing debtor
economies back to a position where they can again service their
debts and qualify for new loans.
    But after five years of economic adjustment, Latin American
debtors are currently unable to raise voluntary credits, with
the exception of Colombia. Only Venezuela is paying back
principal. Most countries have no prospect of paying their
debts in the foreseeable future.
    Citicorp has made clear its decision to move three billion
dlrs to reserves does not mean it is writing-off the loans.
    Latin American officials here said Citicorp's move would
probably boost trading of discounted third world debt in the
secondary market, implicitly downvaluing the amount owed. But
they said it might make new lending even more remote.
    Discounted debt can be bought by foreign investors through
debt-equity schemes that generate new resources for debtor
economies. Chile and Mexico are currently front-runners in this
field, but most Latin American officials see these schemes as
limited and no panacea for the overall problem.
    Most Latin officials set greater store on building up
export income than on debt-equity schemes.
    Exports hit 97.7 billion dlrs in 1984, cutting the region's
debt service ratio to 36 pct, but they fell to 78.3 billion
last year. So, even though interest rates had dropped the ratio
hardly changed.
    The Cartagena group has called for the debt-trade link to
be recognized before, but has not made detailed proposals.
    Officials said initiatives discussed here would be
submitted to foreign and finance ministers of the 11 nations,
before IMF and World Bank annual meetings later this year.
 REUTER

The use of tariffs and quotas to
reduce the flow of foreign goods into the United States will do
little to cut the nation's swelling trade deficit, a government
study said.
    In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report said,
such protectionist policies could make U.S. Products less
competitive in the world marketplace by raising the cost of
imported products that are re-exported in different forms.
    "Such policies are much more likely to hurt, rather than
help, the productive capabilities of the U.S. Economy," it said.
    The 218-page report, written by FTC economists John Hilke
and Philip Nelson, blamed the rising trade shortfall, which
climbed to a record 166.3 billion dlrs last year, on shifting
currency exchange rates and growing U.S consumer demand.
    Other factors commonly blamed for the deficit, such as
foreign trade practices, deteriorating U.S. Industrial
competitiveness, high labour costs and government restrictions
on mergers, added little to the problem, it said.
    "Although each industry's competitiveness affects the level
of imports and exports in that industry, in general we find
that there have been no significant industry-specific changes
affecting competitiveness that would explain the increase in
the overall trade deficit," the study said.
    "To the extent any government action is needed to deal with
the trade deficits, policies should focus on economy-wide
phenomena such as exchange rates and relative economic growth,"
the FTC study said.
    Supporting its conclusion that broad-based economic shifts
were the cause of the increase in the trade deficit, the report
said it found that nearly all U.S. Industries lost some
domestic market share to foreign competitors in the 1980s.
    It also said it found a "fairly direct relationship" between
the increased trade deficit and the influence of shifting
currency exchange rates, U.S. Economic growth and domestic
demand for goods and services, which has outpaced foreign
    The study examined seven factors which have been commonly
blamed for the trade deficit: foreign government subsidies and
trade barriers to protect foreign industries, a lack of
investment in U.S. Industry, declining research and development
in U.S. Industry, high labour costs, union work rules, the oil
prices rises of the 1970s and U.S. Antitrust regulations.
    In each case, the study found little or no evidence that
the factor had any impact on the trade deficit.
 REUTER

A senior Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> executive
said he hoped the alleged illegal export of high technology
equipment to the Soviet Union by a Toshiba subsidiary would not
hurt the parent company's exports to the U.S.
    Toshiba's 50-pct subsidiary <Toshiba Machine Co Ltd> "is a
completely independent company with independent management,"
Toshiba Corp senior vice-president Osamu Iemura told a press
    "We want to have that fact understood overseas," he said.
    Iemura said he had no information to suggest the U.S.
Defence Department had broken off talks with Toshiba on the
possible procurement of lap top computers because of the
illegal exports by Toshiba Machine.
    Kyodo News Agency, quoting the weekly magazine U.S. News
and World Report, said on Saturday the U.S. Air Force had
decided to cancel an agreement to buy 100 mln dlrs worth of
computers because of Toshiba Machine's illegal exports.
    "We have no contract. The U.S. Defence Department has been
negotiating for procurement with several companies including
Toshiba," Iemura said.
    Last week, police said they had arrested two Toshiba
Machine employees on suspicion of illegally exporting high
technology equipment to the Soviet Union.
    The Japanese government has already banned further
shipments of goods to Communist states by Toshiba Machine for
one year and by its export agency C. Itoh and Co Ltd <CITT.T>
for three months.
 REUTER

Israel's central bank said in its
annual report the country made striking gains in 1986 under an
austerity program, but warned a national election campaign
could harm the economy.
    Elections are due by November 1988, but tension within the
government over a Middle East peace conference has led many
political analysts to predict the government may fall earlier.
    Bank of Israel governor Michael Bruno told a news
conference the austerity since July 1985 had balanced the
national budget for the first time in 15 years, and pushed
inflation from 400 pct a year to just below 20 pct in 1986.
    But Bruno warned that if politicians followed their past
practice of lifting customs duties and increasing government
subsidies on basic goods in order to curry public favour during
elections, the gains of the program could be lost.
    "The great success of the national unity government in
executing the economic programme ... Depends on its ability to
show proper judgement towards economic issues also when
elections are on the horizon," Bruno said.
    He blamed a 12 pct rise in real wages in 1986 for a sharp
increase in private consumption, and said higher pay was
harming attempts to push inflation to under 10 pct a year.
    "The lowering of inflation was one of the striking successes
of 1986," Bruno said.
    "It is important to note that in this area of economic
stability we still have to tread a delicate path to reach an
annualised inflation rate of 10 pct in the second half of this
year," he said. He added that this was achievable.
    The Bank's report said Israel's gross domestic product grew
by 2.2 pct in 1986. The business GDP, which most economists
view as a better indicator of economic growth, rose by 3.7 pct.
 REUTER

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange for Industry
(TOCOM) said it will allow five more members to become precious
metal brokers, taking the total to 54, and four more members to
broke rubber, for a total of 39.
    An exchange official told Reuters the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry is expected to approve the the
new brokers by mid-June.
    The move has been under study since early May in response
to requests by non-broker members of the exchange.
 REUTER

West Germany's eurobond market may
revive in June, after two month's relative dormancy, before
dozing off for the summer, bond market sources said.
    Syndicate managers said many borrowers, anticipating lower
West German interest rates, cancelled mandates during the last
two-week calendar, hoping borrowing costs would decline.
    Borrowers are likely to return as domestic interest rates
lose downward momentum, syndicate managers said. A
supranational issue via Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozcentrale
is likely today and Dresdner Bank AG could lead a new bond.
    New issue volume is likely to be helped by a recent
domestic legal change which indirectly lowered costs for
European Community state-backed borrowers, the sources said.
    A statutory change to the West German Exchange Admissions
Act, which went into effect on May 1, allows such borrowers to
file for bourse listing without a prospectus and without an
underwriting group. This saves them the 1/2 point listing fee
formerly paid to banks.
    The two most recent issues for Electricite de France, led
by Deutsche Bank AG, and Bank of Greece, led by Commerzbank AG,
were brought to market under the new law, managers said.
    Deutsche Bank confirmed that its bond was brought out in
conformance with the new law. Commerzbank had no comment.
    The success of Commerzbank's Bank of Greece deal,
especially for the shorter of the two tranches of five and
eight years, has also encouraged syndicate managers to bring
out new issues during the new calendar period.
    Many borrowers might also seek to get their bonds in before
the market enters its quiet summer phase, referred to by German
bond dealers as the "summer hole."
    But syndicate managers said there are also some factors
standing in the way of new issues.
    One negative factor is that current swap conditions for
marks into dollars are not favourable.
    Syndicate managers said the yield spread between domestic
Schuldschein notes and mark eurobonds is now too low to make
swaps profitable for eurobond borrowers.
    Low yields on domestic notes comparable to mark eurobonds
mean German banks can now borrow cheaply at domestic rates.
    They would charge a high premium to borrowers taking up
euromarks for swaps as banks have little incentive to take on
more expensive euromark liabilities at present.
    However, some foreign borrowers might anyway borrow in
marks out of a genuine need for the currency, managers said.
    Another factor which might dampen the primary market is
uncertainty about the dollar. Its rise last week over 1.80
marks helped send West German government bonds lower by nearly
one pfennig over the week.
    If the dollar looks poised to stabilize or rise further,
foreign investors in mark eurobonds could switch out of them on
the belief that gains from the mark's appreciation were ending,
    The dollar is expected to remain stable this week before
the seven leading nations begin their economic summit in Venice
on June 8.
    In May, a total of 1.1 billion marks of new mark eurobonds
were launched, compared with 1.0 billion in April.
    This compared with a relatively active March, when 2.3
billion marks of eurobonds were launched, and a very strong
February, when issues totalled nearly 5.0 billion.
 REUTER

Renison Goldfields Consolidated Ltd
<RGFJ.S> (RGC) and explorer <City Resources Ltd> have agreed in
principle on a joint venture to re-examine the Bulolo alluvial
gold field in Papua New Guinea, City Resources said.
    City Resources would progressively earn up to 66.66 pct of
RGC's Prospecting Authority 585, which covers all the field, by
spending a total of 6.5 mln kina, it said in a statement.
    It said it believed Bulolo was not fully exploited in the
past, noting the literature refers to heavy gold losses in
tailings during dredging from 1931 to 1967 which produced a
total of 2.1 mln ounces.
    City Resources also said previous dredging was only carried
out to a depth of 36 metres and high grade gold values are
reported to at least 60 metres in the central part of the
Bulolo Valley and possibly as deep as 90 metres.
    In its productive life, recovered average grade at Bulolo
was 0.3 rpt 0.3 grams a tonne from some 207 mln cubic metres of
gravel, it said. City Resources will act as operator.
    The Bulolo field, in Morobe Province, was the first
successful gold mining operation of <Placer Development Ltd>
after it was floated in Canada in 1926. It operated the field
until dredging ceased in 1967.
 REUTER

Venezuela has no plans to try
to renegotiate the debt rescheduling agreement it worked out
with creditor banks in February, public finance director Jorge
Marcano told Reuters.
    Speaking here after a meeting of the 11-nation Cartagena
group, Marcano said he was aware of political pressure at home
to reduce debt payments but did not think such a move would
benefit Venezuela.
    "We have no intention of revising the terms of the accord,"
he said. "There would be little to gain and in fact it would
probably be detrimental."
    Venezuela agreed with its bank advisory committee on a 14.5
year rescheduling of 20.3 billion dlrs in public sector foreign
debt, with an interest rate 7/8 pct over Libor. The previous
agreement, reached a year before but never implemented, was for
12-1/2 years with a 1-1/8 pct spread.
    In Caracas there have recently been calls to invoke the
agreement's contingency clause which the government used last
year to amend the original terms after a 40 pct drop in oil
income.
    But Marcano said the bulk of payments to be made this year
are on private debts and non-rescheduled public debts.
    Marcano said Venezuela, which has reduced its debt by six
billion dlrs since 1983, should have no problems in repaying
restructured debt this year or next.
    Asked whether the government felt badly treated with its
7/8 pct spread when Mexico and Argentina have won a 13/16 pct
margin, Marcano said he still felt Venezuela had a good deal.
    "Venezuela has restructured its debt so that most of it is
being repaid at 7/8 pct, which I think is better than the other
countries," he said. The rescheduling accord covers some 90 pct
of Venezuela's commercial bank debt, which accounts for more
than 90 pct of the total public sector external debt.
    Venezuela has almost no debt outstanding to multilateral
agencies.
    Marcano said attempting to revise the rescheduling accord a
second time would probably hurt Venezuela's bid to restore it
credit rating and raise new loans.
    He said Venezuela now obtains trade credit lines without a
government guarantee, something that Argentina and others are
just starting to try to negotiate in their restructuring
packages.
    Venezuela is currently seeking loans in Japan and West
Germany to finance steel and aluminium expansion.
    According to finance minister Manuel Azpurua, a 100 mln
mark credit has been lined up for the Venalum aluminium plant.
    Marcano said no mandate has yet been given for a planned
100 mln dlr bond issue, although he confirmed that talks were
continuing with Morgan Guaranty and other banks.
    Banking sources said one option was to privately place the
bonds through the Caracas-based Banco de Venezuela, which would
underwrite the issue, but Marcano said no decision has yet been
made.
 REUTER

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> expects to report a
group net profit of 38 billion yen for the year ending March
31, 1988, up 11.2 pct from a year earlier, assuming an exchange
rate of 140 yen to the dollar, a company official said.
    Osamu Iemura, a senior vice president, told a news
conference sales are forecast at 3,500 billion yen, up 5.8 pct.
The forecasts are based on expectations of improved sales of
office automation equipment, a recovery in semiconductor market
prices and an increase in plant exports.
    Toshiba said earlier that 1986/87 group net profit fell
42.5 pct from a year earlier to 34.18 billion yen, the second
consecutive year-on-year drop. Sales fell 1.9 pct to 3,308
billion yen, the first year-on-year sales drop in 21 years.
    Iemura said the results reflected trade friction over
semiconductor exports to the U.S., The yen's sharp rise against
the dollar and a drop in exports to China.
    The 1986/87 foreign exchange loss totalled 145 billion yen,
including parent company losses of 120 billion.
    The average value of the yen against the dollar rose to 161
from 221 a year earlier, he added.
    Weaker prices for semiconductors and office automation
equipment cut total sales 245 billion yen, Iemura said.
    Group sales of telecommunication and electronic devices,
accounting for 36 pct of the total, rose five pct to 1,183
billion yen in 1987/88 from a year earlier, helped by good
sales of word processors, workstations, medical equipment,
point-of-sales systems and exports of personal computers.
    Semiconductor sales rose to 410 billion yen from 360
billion a year earlier but fell short of an expected 430
billion. Sales are expected to be 460 billion in 1987/88.
    Office automation equipment sales rose to 650 billion yen
in 1986/87 from 600 billion a year earlier, Iemura said. Sales
in 1987/88 are expected to be 695 billion yen, mainly due to
good sales of computers in Europe and to expectations the U.S.
Will remove its 100 pct import duty on computers.
    Sales of heavy electric goods, accounting for 26 pct of
sales, rose 0.2 pct from a year earlier to 868.14 billion yen.
    Home electronics sales fell 10 pct to 940.64 billion yen,
mainly due to the yen's appreciation against the dollar and a
drop in colour television exports to China, Iemura said.
    Overall 1986/87 overseas sales totalled 1,021 billion yen,
down three pct from a year earlier, Iemura said.
    Overseas sales of telecommunication and electronic devices
rose nine pct from a year earlier to 493.90 billion yen, helped
by a 80 pct year-on-year rise in computer and computer-related
equipment sales.
    Home appliance sales abroad fell 24 pct to 312.10 billion,
mainly due to the yen's appreciation, lower sales to China, and
increased competition with newly-industrialised countries.
    Toshiba reduced the number of divisions to three from four
in reaction to market changes, effective April 1.
    Group sales of telecommunication and electronic devices are
estimated at 1,520 billion yen in 1987/88, Iemura said.
    Home appliance sales are estimated at 1,260 billion yen and
heavy electric goods sales at 720 billion.
    Iemura said group exports to China are expected to rise to
90 billion yen in 1987/88 from 30 billion in 1986/87 due to an
increase in sales of generators.
    Sales to China were down from 70 billion yen in 1985/86 due
to a sharp drop in home appliance exports, he said.
    Group capital spending in 1987/88 will fall to 197 billion
yen from 213.30 billion in 1986/87, Iemura said.
    Of total capital spending, investment in semiconductors
will fall to 65 billion from 68 billion.
    Research and development spending will rise to 217 billion
yen from 201.10 billion, he said.
 REUTER

A public opinion poll showed Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives maintaining their
lead over the opposition Labour party as Britain's June 11
general election campaign entered its third week. The poll,
conducted for TV-AM breakfast television by the Harris
organisation, put the Tories on 43 pct, Labour on 35 and the
centrist Social Democrat-Liberal Alliance on 20 pct.
    If translated into parliamentary seats in a general
election, Thatcher would enjoy an overall majority of 50.
    Since the general elections were announced on May 11,
Thatcher's Tories have maintained the lead.
    A survey of marginal seats for The Times of London, carried
out by the MORI organisation, showed that Thatcher would sweep
back in with an overall majority of l40 seats, the same margin
she enjoyed in the 1983 general elections.
    The Times poll of marginal seats where Labour is
challenging a Conservative incumbent -- and which it must win
in order to dislodge the Tories -- showed the Conservatives
with 42 pct, Labour with 34 and the Alliance on 23.
    If the result were repeated on polling day, Labour would
win only a handful of the marginal seats, giving Thatcher a
landslide.
 REUTER

Any Iranian attack on Soviet ships in the
Gulf will bring a forceful and violent response, a Soviet
foreign ministry official said in an interview published here.
    Alexander Ivanov, head of the Gulf desk at the Soviet
Foreign Ministry, told Al-Rai al-Aam newspaper Moscow "will
answer back with force and violence if Iran attempts to attack
any Soviet ship or tanker in the Gulf." A Soviet tanker hit a
mine in the Gulf last month.
    Ivanov also accused the United States of stepping up the
regional crisis and of failing to exert genuine efforts to end
the Iran-Iraq war.
 REUTER

Mobil Oil Singapore Pte Lte will raise
pump prices of petrol from June 2, a spokeswoman said.
    Grade 97 octane with 0.15 gm lead will be 96.8 cents/litre
will be 90.2 cents against 87.6 previously.
    SPC earlier announced its pump prices of 96.8 cents and
90.6 cents for 97 and 92 octane, respectively, for 0.15 gm lead
petrol which is being sold in Singapore from today in line with
the Ministry of Environment's regulations.
 REUTER

The Industrial Bank of Japan <IBJT.T> (IBJ)
amortized 68 billion yen worth of loans, including the
write-off of an unspecified amount of loans, to the <Japan Line
Ltd> group in the year ended March 31, an IBJ spokesman said.
    He declined to comment on a report in the economic daily
Nihon Keizai Shimbun that it had written off loans worth 15
billion yen to Japan Line, one of the world's largest tanker
operators.
    Japan Line's current liabilities amounted to 68.98 billion
yen at the end of September.
    In December, Japan Line asked its creditor banks to shelve
repayment of 124 billion yen of outstanding loans and about 153
billion in loans to its subsidiaries following the yen's steep
rise and the world recession in shipping.
 REUTER

RBC Finance BV, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, is to raise 300 mln
Luxembourg francs through a six-year, 7-3/8 pct private
placement, lead manager Banque Paribas (Luxembourg) SA said.
    The non-callable bullet issue is priced at par. Payment
date is June 16 and coupon date is June 17.
    The issue is co-managed by Banque Generale du Luxembourg
SA, Banque Internationale a Luxembourg SA, Kredietbank SA
Luxembourgeoise and Credit Europeen SA.
 REUTER

Lebanon's Prime Minister Rashid Karami
died from injuries after a bomb exploded in a helicopter flying
him to Beirut to the northern port of Tripoli, official sources
said.
    They said Karami, 66, died at a hospital in the Christian
town of Byblos north of Beirut.
    The bomb, which exploded under Karami's seat, also injured
Interior Minister Abdallah al-Rassi and the pilot, who made a
forced landing.
 REUTER

Japan has extended a 24 billion yen loan to
Bangladesh, Finance Ministry officials said.
    The loan, to be disbursed over two years from next July, is
for chemicals, cement, steel and machinery imports and for
setting up a power plant in eastern Sylhet district, they said.
    The credit brings total Japanese loans and grants to
Bangladesh to 441.25 billion yen since 1972, they said.
 REUTER

Poor returns by oil refiners and utilities
will drag down average current profits of major Japanese firms
in the year ending March 31, Wako Research Institute said.
    Current profits will drop an average 13.5 pct after a 7.3
pct drop in 1986/87, it said.
    Oil refiners and utilities face a sharp profit fall after
two years of high profits due to the yen's strength, lower
world oil prices and reduced interest rates, it said.
    Sales of all firms are expected to rise 2.3 pct from the
previous year when they fell 11.9 pct from a year earlier.
    The independent institute surveyed 436 firms listed in the
first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, excluding banks and
insurance firms. Excluding the oil refiners and utilities, Wako
forecasts that current profits will rise 3.7 pct after a 22.3
pct drop in 1986/87 and a 19.5 pct drop in 1985/86.
    Electric power firms and gas companies are likely to see
42.5 and 31.6 pct falls in current profits respectively in
1987/88 due to cuts in utility prices to recycle windfall
profits made during the yen's rise against the dollar, and due
to the recent recovery in world oil prices, the institute said.
    Current profits of manufacturing industries will rise an
average seven pct after a 29.7 pct drop in 1986/87 and a 25.0
pct drop in 1985/86, Wako said.
    An increase in overseas production and an expected increase
in domestic demand will cause the recovery in manufacturing
sector profits, it said.
 REUTER

The Kuwait Central Bank kept its window
for funds to the domestic interbank deposit market shut as
banks returned from a four day holiday, dealers said.
    The move drove short-term interest rates sharply higher,
with overnight and tomorrow-next funds more than doubling from
last Wednesday and hitting 20 pct.
    There were few offers in a tight market and traders
scrambled for any available funds. One-month to one-year
deposits were indicated one point higher at eight, seven pct
but there was little activity at the longer end of the market.
    Bankers see the suspension of central bank aid as a
deliberate move to drive up Kuwaiti dinar interest rates and
stem a flow of funds out of the country, where market
nervousness is increasing over the growing tension in the Gulf.
    The central bank's move has been combined with a steady cut
in the dinar exchange rate.
    Today's rate was reduced to 0.27939/73 to the dollar from
0.27758/92 on Wednesday before the four day bank holiday that
celebrated the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
 REUTER

Skylark Co Ltd <SKLK.T> said it will issue
a 20 billion yen nine-year unsecured convertible bond in the
domestic capital market through public placement with Nomura
    Coupon and conversion price for par-priced bond maturing
June 28, 1996, will be set at its board meeting to be held in
mid-June and payment is due on July 1, the company said in a
statement. Skylark's share price fell 10 yen to 2,880 on the
 REUTER

Shell Eastern Pte Ltd will revise pump
prices of petrol from 2300 hours local while Caltex Asia Ltd
and BP Singapore Pte Ltd will revise theirs at midnight
tonight, company officials said.
    Caltex and Shell will set prices of 0.15 gm lead at 96.8
cents/litre for 97 octane and 90.2 cents for 92 octane. BP will
set prices at 96.8 cents/litre and 90.6 cents, respectively.
Previous industry pump prices for 0.4 gm lead were 94 cents for
97 octane and 87.6 cents for 92 octane.
 REUTER

Bangladesh will import 60,000 tons of high
speed diesel oil from the Soviet Union under a barter agreement
signed here last week, Bangladesh petroleum Corporation
    The oil worth about 10 mln U.S. Dlrs will be shipped by
December this year, they added but did not say what Bangladesh
would sell in return to the Soviet Union.
 REUTER

The West German car industry celebrated its
100th birthday with a record-breaking 1986 performance at home
and is due to turn in another set of solid results in 1987.
    But share market analysts warn it faces continued problems
from the strong German mark and predict increasingly aggressive
competition in Europe from the Japanese.
    On the plus side for the industry, which is West Germany's
biggest foreign exchange earner, the analysts are confident the
technical superiority and innovative qualities of the luxury
producers will help them maintain a strong market profile.
    Most analysts thought Daimler-Benz AG <DAIG.F> would do
best this year but expected Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche AG <PSHG.F>
to continue its slide because of the weak U.S. Dollar.
    They were generally optimistic for Bayerische Motoren Werke
AG <BMWG.F> (BMW) but some were sceptical it could match record
1986 profits. Views were mixed on Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, but
some analysts took comfort from the fact that Europe's leading
car maker had apparently put a major currency scandal behind
it.
    VW could be vulnerable as Japanese exporters, suffering
from the strength of the yen against the dollar, switched their
sales offensive from the U.S. To Europe, they said.
    Analyst Joseph Rooney with brokers James Capel in London,
noted the Japanese drive was coming at a time when the whole
European market was expected to contract slightly.
    But analysts saw most German manufacturers meeting the
challenge, even though the Japanese were now starting to focus
on the up-market sector.
    BMW's chairman Eberhard von Kuenheim shrugged off the
Japanese drive in an interview with Wirtschaftswoche magazine."I
view the move by the Japanese into the top class with a certain
equanimity. Not only are we playing on home turf, we also have
technical superiority," he said.
    The car industry benefitted last year from clarification of
domestic rules on low-pollution cars, which meant orders put
off in 1985 were carried out the following year. Tax cuts
generally boosted domestic demand, especially for cars.
    Domestic registrations leapt by nearly 19 pct to a record
2.8 mln cars. The VDA industry association says this might ease
to 2.7 mln in 1987, but predicts another good year.
    Looking to the future, Daimler has designated 16 billion
marks for car sector spending in the next five years. Chairman
Werner Breitschwerdt says spending is not aimed at quantity but
improving high quality technology and accessories.
    Analyst Stephen Reitman with Phillips and Drew in London,
said Daimler had the best earnings profile of West German
producers, with group profits per share rising to 80 marks from
78.8 in 1986.
    Analysts were more cautious about VW. Reinhard Fischer with
Bank in Liechtenstein (BiL) in Frankfurt saw VW's group
earnings per share falling to 35 marks in 1987 from 42 in 1986.
A recent report from his bank said last year's currency losses
were a sign of mismanagement.
    It stressed heavy losses from VW's Brazilian operations and
its Spanish unit, SEAT.
    VW's first quarter figures also highlighted problems in
both the U.S. And Brazil, analysts said.
    VW reported flat first quarter earnings, except for a 39.2
pct fall in U.S. Sales and Brazilian sales which dived 46.5
pct.
    Reitman was more optimistic than BiL about VW's 1987 group
earnings and, predicting an improvement in both Spain and
Brazil, he saw an unchanged 42 marks per share, ,
    He also said that VW now stood to benefit from not hedging
against foreign exchange fluctuations.
    In a May 1 study, he wrote: "One point in VW's favour is
that its extraordinary policy of not hedging forward has meant
that it will have less far to go in adjusting to current
DM/Dollar rates than the other German manufacturers who were to
a lesser or greater extent protected up to 1986."
    Reitman was also reassured by the apparent end of the
currency scandal, where allegedly faked forward contracts were
not acknowledged by VW's banks. VW fixed final losses from the
fraud at 473 mln marks for which provisions were made in 1986.
    VW's new Audi 80, a sporty model which German media reports
say was designed to jazz up Audi's staid "Grandpa" image,
contributed significantly to VW's first quarter performance.
The 80 doubled its sales against the year-ago level.
    But the Audi range as a whole has suffered a huge setback
in the U.S. Because of an image problem linked to claims of
"unintentional acceleration."
    Von Kuenheim won't be pinned down on BMW's 1987 profits,
but at a news conference he emphasised 1986 earnings were a
record high. Without referring to 1987, he added: "If profits
are less in one year or the other they will still be good."
    Rooney said group profits per share, which BMW does not
publish, would rise to 62.5 marks this year. Some analysts put
the 1986 group profit at 60 marks, a figure BMW does not deny.
    But Reitman was more pessimistic, predicting 50 marks per
share in 1987, and a return to 60 next year. He said: "BMW will
be the story of 1988," when it plans to launch an updated
version of its Five series.
    BMW also has a big investment programme under way and Bil's
Fischer said depreciations could affect earnings. Other
analysts pointed to possible hedging problems and Reitman noted
a 2.10 marks to the dollar hedge expired this September.
    Reitman said the outlook for Porsche was bearish for the
year to end-July, 1987. Porsche's 1985/86 group profits at 84
marks per share fell 30 pct from the record 120 marks in
1984/85 and Reitman saw 60 marks in 1986/87.
    "With the U.S. Currently accounting for 63 pct of unit sales
(this is expected to fall to 60 pct in the full year 1986/87)
Porsche's earnings remain uncomfortably exposed to the
DM/dollar relationship," he said.
 REUTER

<British Airport Services Ltd> (BAS) has
concluded an 18 mln yen contract with the <Kansai International
Airport Co Ltd> for consulting work on the terminal at a new
airport to be built in western Japan, the airport company said
    The contract is the first to be awarded to a British
company and follows the award of a 200,000 dlr consultancy
contract to a division of the U.S-based <Bechtel International
Corp> in consortium with six Japanese companies, a company
spokesman told Reuters. BAS is a subsidiary of <BAA Plc>, the
former British Airports Authority.
    The six-billion dlr project to build the airport has been a
major source of friction with the U.S. And the European
Community who have put pressure on Japan to allow foreign
companies to compete with domestic firms in building it.
 REUTER

Goodman Fielder U.K. Plc is issuing a 75
mln stg convertible eurobond due July 4, 1997 with an indicated
coupon of five to 5-1/4 pct and par pricing, lead manager
    The issue is guaranteed by Goodman Fielder Ltd and final
terms will be set on, or before, June 5. The issue is callable
at 106 pct declining by one pct per annum to par thereafter but
is not callable until 1992 unless the share price exceeds 130
pct of the conversion price.
    The issue has an investor put option in 1992 which will be
priced to give a yield of approximately 8-3/4 pct. The expected
conversion premium is 20 to 24 pct.
    The issue is available in denominations of 1,000 stg and
will be listed in London. The payment date is June 24 and there
will be a long first coupon period. The conversion period is
from July 4, 1987 until June 26, 1997.
    Over the weekend, Goodman Fielder announced in Sydney that
it had signed for a 100 mln U.S. Dollar composite revolving
euronote issuance facility to be launched in Hong Kong.
 REUTER

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)
chairman Jose Romero said he would visit Brussels later this
month to lobby against a proposed 100 pct European Community
(EC) levy on vegetable oil imports.
    "I intend to visit Brussels and talk to whoever is putting
up this devilish scheme to impoverish third world countries
like the Philippines," Romero said in an interview.
    He said he did not know how much support the levy had
within the EC but he said he believed those originally opposed
to the tax were under pressure to change their position.
    Romero said a group of EC members led by West Germany, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Norway were opposed to the tax. But
there was a danger some of them would be persuaded to change
sides, and if that happened opposition could crumble.
    Romero said another threat to exports lay in an EC warning
that copra meal cake used in livestock feeds contained
dangerous levels of aflatoxin, a carcinogenic chemical.
    He said the EC standard of 0.02 parts of aflatoxin per
million parts of meal, which EC countries had been asked to
apply by October 1988, was too rigid. He said Philippine copra
cake contained much higher levels of aflatoxin.
    Aflatoxin comes from moulds which develop in copra when it
is not properly dried or ground.
    Romero said he would tell big buyers of copra meal in
London that the Philippines was doing its best to meet EC
standards. It was also trying to eliminate aflatoxin totally,
but this was likely to take several years of research.
    Copra meal exports were 817,641 tonnes or 35 pct of total
coconut exports in 1986. The meal was worth 73.5 mln dlrs.
    Romero said he would also visit Oxford University's
department of agricultural economics to discuss ways of
avoiding the copra process altogether.
    "There are ways of producing coconut products outside of
copra," Romero said. "We can process fresh coconut without drying
the meat in the sun. Through the wet process we can process
coconuts into other food or non-food products, or we can go to
the chemical root."
    He said there was a tendency for agricultural countries to
become more protectionist and he expected export prices of
coconut products to drop.
    "In the long term we will be getting less and less for more
and more production, and I'm not comfortable with that," he
said.
    With countries like Indonesia and Malaysia stepping up
production of palm oil, a coconut oil substitute, palm oil
output had risen nearly 70 pct since 1971, Romero said.
    "To add to that the U.S. Soybean Association is spending
billions of dollars to discredit palm oil and coconut oil by
saying that they are polysaturated fats and bad for the heart,"
he said.
    Romero said he expected coconut product export prices to
stay up for the rest of the year. They would probably touch a
high of 20 cents/pound from the current level of 18.59 cents,
and a sharp rise from year-ago levels of 10.50 cents.
    Romero said the Philippines was at the end of a five-year
coconut production cycle which showed production tended to fall
after two successive years of good harvests.
    He said 1985 and 1986 were good harvests and this year, to
add to the production fall, drought had affected output.
    "Traders are stocking up and when they have overbought the
prices will start declining again. The only sure way to keep
prices stable is by processing, adding more value," he said.
    Coconut farmers were being encouraged to intercrop by
planting other cash crops between coconut trees, he said.
    "A typical farm may have from 100 to 150 trees sitting on
10,000 square metres of land. That's a lot of space," Romero
said. He said the government's proposed land reform program
would exclude about 75 pct of the coconut farmers because they
had less than the proposed seven-hectares of land.
    "If the idea of land reform is to increase income levels,
production and employment then it won't happen," he said.
    PCA figures show about one-third of the country's
population is dependent on the coconut industry.
    Coconuts are planted on about 3.2 mln hectares or
one-fourth of total agricultural land.
 REUTER

Crude oil prices could remain around 18
dlrs a barrel until the end of the year, but OPEC's decision on
output at its next meeting would be the critical factor, an
official of Mexico's state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos
(Pemex), told a group of Japanese businessmen.
    Adrian Lajous, Pemex' executive vice president of
international trade, said current OPEC output already appeared
to be very near the 16.6 mln barrel per day level it set itself
for the third quarter. "Production is surging ahead of what was
originally planned, while demand is growing more slowly than
envisaged a few months ago," he said.
    He said OPEC had to look very carefully at what level of
production in the third quarter would effectively sustain the
18 dlrs price, and that an increase to what had originally been
envisaged might soften price levels.
    The 13-member cartel is scheduled to meet on June 25 in
Vienna to review its December accord on prices and output.
    "I hope OPEC will follow a very conservative attitude in
terms of volume decisions," Lajous said.
    A repetition of what happened last year, when OPEC boosted
output and sent oil prices tumbling down below 10 dlrs, is
always there as a possibility, he said.
    "I hope never again to go through the trauma of 1986. I
expect other oil exporters have learned their lessons and
discipline will be maintained," he said.
    Lajous said there was still excess supply and as long as
this remains there will be a tendency to instability in oil
markets, but prices should remain around 18 to 19 dlrs during
1987 if output remains under control.
    He said Saudi King Fahd's remarks last month, that
increased production was not so important as long as incomes
would not be affected by the output, were "very relevant and
welcome from such a powerful producer."
 REUTER

An investor group led by Coniston
Partners said it plans to continue its effort to gain control
of Allegis Corp despite the defensive maneuvers Allegis
announced last week.
    Allegis said then that it would borrow three billion dlrs
and pay shareholders a dividend of 60 dlrs per share, lowering
the company's net worth. The Coniston group, which owns 13 pct
of Allegis stock, has said that it would seek shareholder
consents to remove 13 of the 16 Allegis directors. The group
had said it would consider breaking up Allegis into its
airline, hotel and vehicle rental components if it succeeded.
    The Coniston group said it expects to make a further
announcement today on its plans for Allegis.
    Wall Street analysts and traders had not expected Coniston
to abandon its pursuit of Allegis as a result of the Allegis
defensive measures.
    Allegis officials were unavailable for comment.
 Reuter

Three United Steelworkers
of America locals on strike at Cominco Ltd rejected a tentative
three-year contract, a union representative said.
    "The vote was 1,229, or 54.5 pct, against, and 1,028, or
45.5 pct, for the contract. Eighty-one pct of the membership
voted," he said.
    The union representative said that the pact offered cost of
living increases designed to keep pace with inflation, but
contained no wage increase.
    The locals' bargaining committees are expected to meet and
prepare for the reopening of negotiations with Cominco, he
said.
    The three locals cover about 2,600 production and
maintenance workers at Cominco's Trail smelter and Kimberley,
B.C. lead-zinc mine.
    Output at both sites has been shut down since the
production and maintenance workers, along with about 600 office
and technical workers, went on strike May 9.
    The two Steelworkers locals representing the office and
technical workers have not negotiated since May 21.
    The strike caused Cominco to declare force majeure, which
means the company may not be able to honor contracts for
products from the smelter and mine.
    Each of the five locals have separate contracts, all of
which expired April 30, but the main issues are similar.
    The union had requested a three pct wage increase in each
year of a two-year contract. Cominco had pressed for a
three-year contract and some loosening of the rules on job
    The Trail smelter, about 400 miles east of Vancouver,
produced 240,000 long tons of zinc and 110,000 long tons of
lead last year. The Sullivan mine at Kimberley, about 450 miles
east of Vancouver, produced 2.2 mln long tons of ore last year,
most for processing at the Trail smelter.
    The smelter also produced cadmium, bismuth and indium.
    Revenues from the Trail smelter totalled 356 mln Canadian
 Reuter

Compaq Computer Corp said it has cut
prices on its PORTABLE II models 2 and 4 to 2,699 dlrs from
2,999 dlrs and to 3,999 dlrs from 4,499 dlrs respectively.
 reuter

Kaypro Corp said it has cut
prices on its Kaypro 386 Models A and E supermicrocomputers and
Extra! Extra! desktop pulbishing system by 500 dlrs.
    The Kaypro 386 Model A will retail for 4,495 dlrs, and the
Kaypro 386 Models E-40 and E-130 will sell for 5,795 dlrs and
8,095 dlrs, respectively, the company said.
    The Kaypro 386, Model E is available with eithe a 40 or 130
MB hard disk, the company said.
    In addition, the Kaypro Extra! Extra! will be reduced to
7,995 dlrs, and the Kaypro 16E, a transportable, IBM
PC-compatible computer, now retails for 1,595 dlrs, and the
dual floppy Kaypro 162E is 1,395 dlrs, Kaypro said.
 Reuter

FIRST CITY INDUSTRIES SELLS YALE AND NUTONE UNITS FOR 400 MLN DLRS AND SECURITIES

RS Bank Sparebanken Rogaland of Stavanger,
Norway is launching a 40 mln Swiss franc seven year bond with a
4-7/8 pct coupon and par issue price, lead manager Banque
Gutzwiller, Kurz, Bungener Ltd said.
    Subscription is from June 11 until June 17 with closing and
pay-out on July 7.
    It can be called at 101 in 1992, and at 100-1/2 in 1993.
 REUTER

Three United
Steelworkers of America locals on strike at Cominco Ltd
rejected a tentative three-year contract, a union
     "The vote was 1,229, or 54.5 pct, against, and 1,028, or
     The union representative said that the pact offered cost
of living increases designed to keep pace with inflation, but
contained no wage increase.       
said.
     The three locals cover about 2,600 production and
     Output at both sites has been shut down since the
and technical workers, went on strike May nine.     
     The two Steelworkers locals representing the office and
     The strike caused Cominco to declare force majeire, which
which expired April 30, but the main issues are similar.       

     The union had requested a three pct wage increase in each
     The Trail smelter, about 400 miles east of Vancouver,
     The smelter also produced cadmium, bismuth and indium.
     Revenues from the Trail smelter totalled 356 mln Canadian
dlrs in 1986.        
 Reuter

First City Industries Inc
said it has reached a definitive agreement to sell its Nuton
and Yale security subsidiaries to Valor PLC for 400 mln dlrs
and warrants to purchase two mln Valor ordinary shares.
    In addition, the company said it will recieve a special
dividend of 60 mln dlrs from Nutone and Yale and it has agreed
to buy 35 mln dlrs of Valor convertible preference shares.
    First City said it is seeking to increase shareholder
values by improving and realizing the values inherent in its
operating subsidiaries.
    The company said the transaction is subject to approval by
shareholders of Valor and is expected to be completed within 40
days.
    It said Valor has arranged financing through an issue of
ordinary and convertible preference shares underwritten by
Hoare Govette Ltd and Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd.
    Nutone makes built-in electric products for the housing
market and Yale makes door locks and electronic security
products.
    Valor makes home products.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs seven cts
    Net 911,000 vs 293,000
    Sales 88.1 mln vs 74.8 mln
 Reuter

U.S. corporate treasurers are expected
to race to market this week, propelled by hopes that the recent
recoveries of the Treasury market and the dollar will whet
investors' appetities for new issues, underwriters said.
    Underwriters expect to price about 2.3 billion dlrs of new
debt issues this week, including an asset-backed debt deal.
    "Treasurers have been sitting on the sidelines for weeks,
waiting to pounce," said an underwriter with a large Wall
Street house. "They will hit the market at a fast pace as long
as the dollar remains stable."
    "The financing calendar is the heaviest it has been in
weeks," said a trader with a small securities firm.
    "And there are billions of dollars on the SEC shelf that
can come to market at any time," he said, referring to company
debt filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Investment bankers said last week signaled a surge in
financings. New debt offerings rose to nearly 2.8 billion dlrs
during the holiday-shortened week from 2.09 billion dlrs in the
previous week, they calculated.
    "And most of (last week's) issues were not even on the
calendar," an underwriter remarked.
    Analysts noted that in the past few months the fixed-income
markets became virtually obsessed with the dollar. The
currency's sharp drop ignited fears that foreign investors
would shun dollar-denominated debt vehicles.
    Also, many participants believed inflation would gather
momentum because of the dollar's fall. Inflation is the number
one enemy of fixed-rate investments, analysts explained.
    But the dollar's recovery last week calmed worries in the
Treasury and corporate bond markets over foreign investor
demand and inflation. The resulting decline in yields should
bring company treasurers to market, traders said.
    Underwriters are slated to bid competitively tomorrow for
250 mln dlrs of first mortgage bonds due 2017 of Georgia Power
Co, a unit of Southern Co <SO>. The issue is rated Baa-1 by
Moody's Investors and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's.
    This would be Georgia Power's first bond issue in the U.S.
since August 1986 when it sold 250 mln dlrs of same-rated,
same-maturity 10 pct bonds yielding 250 basis points more than
    Tomorrow will see another competitive. Syndicates will bid
for 100 mln dlrs of 30-year bonds rated A-1/A-plus of Virginia
Electric and Power Co, a unit of Dominion Resources Inc <D>.
    Virginia Electric last visited the domestic debt market in
October 1986 when the utility issued 100 mln dlrs of
same-rated, same-maturity 9-1/4 pct bonds. The bonds were
priced to yield 9.27 pct, or 141 basis points over Treasuries.
    The biggest investment grade deal tentatively scheduled for
pricing this week is 600 mln dlrs of securities due 1992 backed
by the automobile loan receivables of Marine Midland Banks
<MM>. Salomon Brothers Inc will head the syndicate.
    The Marine Midland issue follows last week's offering of
230 mln dlrs of car loan backed debt by RepublicBank Dallas NA,
a unit of RepublicBank Corp <RPT>, underwriters noted.
    Goldman, Sachs and Co led the group for the RepublicBank
deal. First Boston Corp and Salomon Brothers, the most active
underwriters of asset-backed securities, were co-managers.
    First Boston has dominated the asset-backed market since
introducing the concept of selling these securities in March
1985. It has a commanding 86.1 pct share of the 12.5 billion
dlr market, according to figures tabluated by First Boston.
    Salomon Brothers is in second place with a market share of
8.8 pct, followed by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc's share of 3.5
pct of the market. Goldman Sachs is next with a 1.6 pct market
share that was calculated before the RepublicBank Dallas deal.
    Indeed, investment bankers say that banks will be the most
frequent issuers of asset-backed securities this year. The
finance arms of the U.S. automakers accounted for the bulk of
last year's offerings, with General Motors Corp's <GM> General
Motors Acceptance Corp taking the lion's share of that.
    The Marine Midland cars deal is rated a top-flight AAA by
both Moody's and Standard and Poor's because it is backed by a
letter of credit by Union Bank of Switzerland.
    Recently, Imperial Savings and Loan Association of San
Diego filed a registration statement with the SEC covering 100
mln dlrs of credit card backed debt, underwriters noted.
 Reuter

National Security Insurance Co said a
group of investors has acquired 226,243 common shares, or a
22.2 pct, interest, for 27.50 dlrs per share.
    The company said the acquisition of the portion of the
shares over a five pct interest is subject to approval by the
Alabama Department of Insurance.
    It said the sellers included Atlantic American Corp
<AAME.O>, Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Co and Georgia
Casualty Insurance Co.
 Reuter

The Panamanian liquified gas carrier
Nyhammer, 48,772 dwt, was attacked by an Iranian gunboat on May
24, Lloyds Shipping Intelligence said.
    One rocket was fired but missed.
    The vessel subsequently arrived at its destination of Ras
Tanura on May 25 and left this morning.
 REUTER

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES TO ACQUIRE UCCEL CORP FOR ABOUT 800 MLN DLRS

Thousands of tea workers of Indian origin
went on strike today to press demands for citizenship and
voting rights in Sri Lanka, a union statement said.
    The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) said its 400,000 members
launched a prayer campaign at temples and other places in a
non-violent protest to get the authorities to expedite
citizenship procedures.
    A CWC spokesman said a three-day campaign was suspended
after a Cabinet committee promised to speed up procedures under
a new set of regulations. Trade sources said the strike did not
affect production or today's Colombo auction.
 Reuter

Genetech Inc said it still
remains confident that it will be able to work with the U.S.
Food and Drug Adminstration to obtain approval of its tissue
plasminogen activator Activase for use in treating heart attack
victims.
    On Friday an advisory committee of the FDA recommended that
the blood clot dissolving drug not be approved until additional
mortality data be developed.
    Genetech said it will provide the additional data and
believes that much if not all of it is already being developed.
 Reuter

The supercomputer industry is getting
crowded as a handful of startup companies and some huge
Japanese manufacturers compete for the right to apply the label
"world's fastest machine" to their products.
    Currently there are only about 250 supercomputers installed
around the world, but many believe that situation is about to
change dramatically as these highly specialized and extremely
expensive machines move out of the research laboratories where
most of them are found today and into commerical applications.
    "It is commercial supercomputing... that holds the most
promise for this young industry's handful of vendors," said
Gary Smaby, supercomputer analyst for Piper Jaffray and
Hopwood.
    These commercial applications, he said, could propel annual
sales of supercomputers from 850 mln dlrs in 1986 to 2.4
billion by 1990.
    For years two companies, Cray Research Inc <CYR> and
Control Data Corp  <CDA> were virtually the only options for
customers seeking to buy supercomputers.
    But in the last three years a number of new companies have
announced supercomputers using some innovative technologies,
and the industry finally expanded enough to hold its first
World Supercomputer Exhibition in Santa Clara last month.
    Also in the last month two small companies, ETA Systems Inc
(a subsidiary of Control Data) and Thinking Machines Corp  both
laid claim to having the world's fastest computer and a joint
venture of Honeywell Inc <HON> and Japan's NEC Corp <NIPN.T>
Honeywell-NEC Supercomputers Inc, announced its entrance into
the U.S. market.
    All three are aiming at industry leader Cray Research Inc,
which holds more than 60 pct of the market.
    This week, Cray plans to make a joint announcement with
Digital Equipment Corp, <DEC> already the world's largest
minicomputer maker, of some products that will work on both
companies' computers, expanding the market opportunities for
both supers and minis even further.
    Supercomputers were initially designed only for the most
complex of applications, such as predicting worldwide weather
patterns, fusion energy research or military defense and
weapons design.
    They are built for speed, not for standard business
functions such as payroll processing. The fastest
supercomputers can perform more than a billion calculations per
second, greater than the combined power of 100,000 personal
    They also carry stratospheric price tags of between one mln
to 20 mln dlrs each, which is why Cray's revenues could reach
600 mln dlrs last year even though it only shipped 36 new and
10 used supercomputers, a level that would spell starvation for
any standard computer company.        
    But speakers at the supercomputer exhibition emphasized
that a host of new applications should increase total industry
shipments to 150 systems a year by the end of the decade.
    Most commercial customers of supercomputers now use the
machines to simulate a physical process, such as the flow of
air over an aircraft wing, in design and testing work.
    But financial institutions, particularly Wall Street
brokerage houses, are considered the next major buyers of
supercomputers as they try to recognize changes in stock
trading patterns faster than any of their competitors.
    Two firms, Goldman Sachs and Co and Morgan Stanley and Co,
are now using superminicomputers, hybrid machines that are
faster than a minicomputer but cheaper than a super, to create
financial models of the stock and bond markets.
    Analysts said it is only a matter of time before actual
supercomputers are found on Wall Street.
    One reason for the shift to commercial applications is that
supercomputers are coming down in price as new technologies
provide greater speed at lower costs than the Cray and Control
Data behemoths.
    Both the ETA and Thinking Machines Systems use a technology
called parallel processing, in which a number of internal
processors work together to solve a problem.
    With such systems a problem is broken up and different
segments are assigned to different processors. By contrast,
standard computers solve a problem one instruction at a time,
or sequentially.
    The ETA system, the ETA 10, will eventually use as many as
eight parallel processors capable of processing up to 8.32
billion operations per second.
    However, the first ETA 10, installed at Florida State
University, has only two processors, later to be expanded to
four.  ETA president Lloyd Thorndyke said the ETA 10 represents
a drastic change in architecture from parent company Control
Data's Cyber system.
    Priced from 5.5 mln to 22 mln dlrs, the ETA 10 contains
about 240 chips in each of its processing units, built onto a
board about the size of a standard newspaper section.
    Each of these boards contains the equivalent of 1.5 miles
of embedded wiring.
    It took ETA about 3-1/2 years to develop its supercomputer
but Thorndyke said he expects much faster development time
frames in the futre, from both ETA and its competitors.
    "We're in a leapfrog business and we just took the last
leap," he said.
    Thinking Machines also claims to have the world's fastest
computer and in some ways this is true. Its Connection Machine
Model CM-2 can process 2.5 billion instructions per second, but
it is a very specialized architecture only meant for certain
very specific applications.
    The one mln to five mln dlr Connection Machine uses a
technology called "massive parallism." It contains 64,000
processors crammed into a five foot cube. The processors all
work on a problem at once, breaking it down into minute bits.
    It is an ideal tool for applications with many
unpredicatble variables, according to Brian Boyle, analyst for
Novon Research Group. "The more unpredictable things are, the
more the Thinking Machine will be appropriate," he said.       

 Reuter

Dutch cocoa processors are unhappy with
the intermittent buying activities of the International Cocoa
Organization's buffer stock manager, industry sources told
Reuters.
    "The way he is operating at the moment is doing almost
nothing to support the market. In fact he could be said to be
actively depressing it," one company spokesman said.
    Including the 3,000 tonnes he acquired on Friday, the total
amount of cocoa bought by the buffer stock manager since he
recently began support operations totals 21,000 tonnes.
    Despite this buying, the price of cocoa is well under the
1,600 Special Drawing Rights, SDRs, a tonne level below which
the bsm is obliged to buy cocoa off the market.
    "Even before he started operations, traders estimated the
manager would need to buy at least up to his 75,000 tonnes
maximum before prices moved up to or above the 1,600 SDR level,
and yet he appears reluctant to do so," one manufacturer said.
    "We all hoped the manager would move into the market to buy
up to 75,000 tonnes in a fairly short period, and then simply
step back," he added.
    "The way the manager is only nibbling at the edge of the
market at the moment is actually depressing sentiment and the
market because everyone is holding back from both buying and
selling waiting to see what the manager will do next," one
processor said.
    "As long as his buying tactics remain the same the market is
likely to stay in the doldrums, and I see no indication he is
about to alter his methods," he added.
    Processors and chocolate manufacturers said consumer prices
for cocoa products were unlikely to be affected by buffer stock
buying for some time to come.
 Reuter

Aristech Chemical Corp said a judgment
was entered against it in Texas State Court for nine mln dlrs
plus prejudgment interest of 6,500,000 dlrs and legals fees of
    It said the judgment arose from a suit filed by Union
Pacific Corp <UNP> against USX Corp <X>, Aristech's former
parent, in 1983, claiming damages for an alleged 1980 breach of
a cumene purchasing contract by Aristech's predecessor, the USS
Chemicals division of USX, which was then known as U.S. Steel
Corp.
    The company said it considers the judgment unjustified and
it will seek to have it overturned.
 Reuter

ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING SEEKS TO BUY CRAZY EDDIE FOR EIGHT DLRS A SHARE

Spectra-Physics Inc said its
board rejected a 32 dlrs per share unsolicited tender offer for
the company's stock from Ciba-Geigy Ltd <CIGZ.Z>, which already
holds 18.8 pct of the stock.
    Spectra-Physics said it also filed a lawsuit in Delaware
federal court this morning seeking to enjoin the offer and
alleging, among other things, that the offer vilates federal
securities laws, certain agreements between Ciba-Geigy and
Spectra-Physics, and Ciba-Geigy's fiduciary duties.
    Spectra-Physics said the two Ciba-Geigy designess to its
board were not present at yesterday's special meeting which
voted to reject the offer as financially inadequate, unfair and
not in the best interests of Spectra-Physics or its
    The company said the board also authorized a special
committee of outside directors to take whatever steps it deems
necessary to protect the interests of Spectra-Physics and its
stockholders and to investigate all alternatives to maximize
the value of the stock, including talks with third parties.
    Spectra-Physics said a letter communicating the board's
recommendation and reasons therefore is being mailed to
    It said Robert Bruce, Reliance Group Holdings Inc's <REL>
designee on Spectra-Physics' board, resigned his position on
May 29. His letter of resignation said the action was to
alleviate Ciba-Geigy's stated justification for making the
unsolicited offer that it had not contemplated another
significant investor having representation on the board when
its Spectra-Physics' investment was made.
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's
forecast that French end-of-season soft wheat stocks will
almost double in 1987/88 is premature but would not be
surprising, according to French cereal organisation officials.
    The Cereals Intervention Board, ONIC, Wheat Producers'
Association and the National Union of Agricultural and Cereal
Cooperatives have not yet forecast 1987/88 exports or
end-of-season stocks.
    However, the officials said the USDA's figure of end
1987/88 stocks at 5.03 mln tonnes against 1986/87's 2.87 mln
was not surprising given a record high yield forecast in April.
    The French Feed Cereals Research Institute, ITCF, forecast
in mid-April an average yield of 6.58 tonnes per hectare for
soft wheat in 1987/88 compared with 5.6 tonnes in 1986/87 and
the record high yield of 6.5/6.6 tonnes in 1984.
    This would result in a French soft wheat harvest of around
31 mln tonnes against 25.5 mln in 1986/87, given a Ministry of
Agriculture estimate of area planted of 4.66 mln hectares
against 4.61 mln in 1986/87.
    ONIC's first preliminary forecast of the 1987/88 campaign
will be released at the beginning of September, an ONIC
    Soft wheat exports in 1987/88 were extremely difficult to
estimate at this stage, both within the European Community and
to non-EC countries, an ONIC official said.
    He said, however, that among countries to which France
could increase its wheat exports were Egypt and the Maghreb
countries (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), he said.
    The USDA's forecast of an 11.65 mln tonne maize crop in
1987/88 against 11.48 mln in 1986/87, while again premature,
was not out of line with estimates of the French Maize
Producers Association, AGPM, an AGPM official said.
    Maize plantings would be down in 1987/88 but yields were
expected to be higher, the AGPM official said.
    It estimated 1987/88 maize plantings of 1.73 mln hectares,
down seven pct from the 1.87 mln hectares planted in 1986/87.
 Reuter

The Italian Treasury said the public sector
borrowing requirement in the first four months totalled a
provisional 40,100 billion lire compared with 40,380 billion in
the comparable 1986 period.
    The Treasury said revenues in the first four months
totalled a provisional 64,151 billion lire, while spending was
a provisional 108,439 billion lire. Treasury management
operations showed a positive balance of 4,188 billion lire.
    The borrowing requirement was financed through medium and
long term bond and loan issues on the domestic market totalling
36,721 billion lire, through foreign borrowing of 60 billion
lire, and through a 3,319 billion lire increase in other
treasury debts.
 REUTER

Boeing Co and ARGOSystems Inc <ARGI.O>
said they reached an agreement for Boeing to acquire the
Sunnyvale, Calif., defense electronics firm for about 275 mln
dlrs.
    The boards of both companies have approved the merger,
which will be accomplished through a tender offer by a Boeing
subsidiary of 37 dlrs a share cash for all of ARGOSystems'
shares, the companies said.
    Under the agreement, the Boeing subsidiary, TBC Holdings
Corp, will begin the tender offer promptly. If at least 90 pct
of the shares are not tendered, the offer will be prorated to
49 pct, the companies said.
    ARGOSystems has granted Boeing an option to buy 1,238,311
shares or 18.5 pct of the outstanding stock for 37 dlrs a
share, they said.
    Also, Bill May, chairman of ARGOSystems, and three other
officers have granted Boeing an option to buy their shares,
another 8.9 pct of the outstanding stock, for 37 dlrs a share.
    ARGOSystems makes equipment to monitor and analyze military
communications signals, electronic warfare equipment to monitor
and jam radar signals and signal processing systems.
    For the nine months ended March 31, 1987, ARGOSystems
reported earnings more than doubled to 6.3 mln dlrs or 95 cts a
share from 3.1 mln dlrs or 46 cts. The year-ago period included
a 2.2 mln dlr charge from a writedown of securities. Sales rose
23.5 pct to 70.9 mln dlrs.
    Sales are expected to exceed 100 mln dlrs for the fiscal
year ending June 30, the companies said in a joint statement.
    The company's backlog is currently more than 180 mln dlrs,
they said. It has about 1,200 employees.
    About 30 pct of ARGOSystems' business comes from
international customers.
    "ARGOSystems is a clear leader in its field. This
association will expand our overall activities and
significantly enhance our ability to compete in the defense
electronics area," Boeing president Frank Shrontz said in a
    ARGOSystems will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Boeing Co.
    The merger following the tender offer will be subject to
approval by ARGOSystems shareholders, the companies said.
    The tender offer and merger are subject to customary
conditions and expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino notification
waiting period, they said.
 Reuter

and UCCEL Corp <UCE> said they have signed a definitive merger
agreement under which Computer Associates will pay about 800
mln dlrs in stock for all outstanding UCCEL shares.
    The companies said under the terms of the agreement, all
UCCEL shareholders will receive about 1.69 shares of Computer
common stock for each of the approximately 17 mln UCCEL shares
   
    According to the companies, this would amount to about
47.50 dlrs per UCCEL share, based on May 29 New York Stock
Exchange closing prices.
    Closing of the transaction is anticipated in August, the
companies said. The companies said the resulting company wil
retain the name Computer Associates International Inc.
    Additionally, the companies said Charles Wang, currently
Computer Associates chairman and chief executive, will continue
as chairman of the new company.
 Reuter

American motorists bought 16,524,000 used
cars last year at an average cost of 5,833 dlrs each for a
total market of 96.4 billion dlrs, according to a yearly study
by the Hertz Corp.
    The study also showed an increase in used car sales of
about 600,000 units over 1985 volumes while the average price
rose about 400 dlrs.
    But the survey said the typical used car that changed hands
in 1986 was slightly newer at 4.5 years old and 41,140 miles
than in the prior year, when such a car had run 45,270 miles
and was 4.6 years old.
    "The sample shows that retail sales volume for used cars
turned up after two years of decline," said Leigh Smith, a
Hertz Corp. spokesman.
    "And while costs of ownership went up to 25.5 cents a mile
for used cars from 25.05 cents in 1985, they remain 47 pct
under the estimated 48.5 cents a mile cost to own and operate a
new car."
    The increase in activity appeared to be linked to the
record market for new cars, which passed 11.4 mln domestic and
imported models last year because of the unprecedented cut-rate
loan incentive packages offered by the Detroit-based automakers
and changes in U.S. tax laws.
    The incentive campaigns were largely sparked by General
Motors Corp <GM> in an attempt to reverse its slipping share of
the American car market.
 Reuter

The Zambian government today announced
minor price cuts for essential commodities as part of its new
economic strategy, while police and troops patrolled the
northern Copperbelt to prevent any outbreaks of rioting.
    However, staple foods, such as bread, sugar and maize meal,
were not affected by the cuts and many people said this could
provoke trouble from disgruntled elements who had expected more
sweeping reductions.
    Observers in the capital expressed disillusionment with the
small extent of the price cuts, which ranged up to 10 pct on
items such as blankets, soap, detergents and baby food.
    Residents in the Copperbelt contacted by telephone said
government forces had set up roadblocks around the main towns.
    In Lusaka, business went on as usual and there was no sign
of troops or police reinforcements on the streets.
    President Kaunda had ordered the price reductions to take
account of lower import costs following the revaluation of the
kwacha to a fixed rate of eight per dlr from 21 on May 1.
    The revaluation formed part of a new go-it-alone economic
strategy which Kaunda adopted to replace Zambia's IMF austerity
program.
    Labour leaders in the Copperbelt said last week gangs of
unemployed youths were being formed in the politically volatile
region to take action against shops that did not reduce their
prices after today's deadline. Fifteen people were killed in
the Copperbelt during food riots last December after the
government tried to lift maize subsidies.
 Reuter

board has authorized an offering of about three mln shares of
limited voting stock to shareholders of record on June 23.
    The company said the rights offering will expire August
Three.  The rights are nontransferable.
    It said shareholders will be entitled to buy one new share
for every three held at one dlr U.S. or 1.34 dlrs Canadian.
Shareholders subscribing for their entire allotments will have
the option of subscribing for shares not bought by others on a
contingent allotment basis in any amount up to 100 pct of their
original allotments.
 Reuter

goods, including construction equipment, cigarettes and
tobacco, to help reduce its trade surplus with the United
States, the Finance Ministry said today. The tariff cuts of
between five and 30 pct will take effect on July 1.
    South Korea ran a trade surplus of 7.3 billion dlrs with
Washington in 1986, sharply up from 4.3 billion in 1985.
    Today's announcement brings to 157 the number of goods for
which similar measures were taken this year, a ministry
official said. The 157 are among about 290 items on which
Washington has asked Seoul to lower tariffs.
friction between the two countries," said the official.
 Reuter

Entertainment Marketing Inc <EM>
said it has made an offer to the board of Crazy Eddie Inc to
acquire all outstanding shares of Crazy Eddie Inc for eight
dlrs a share in cash.
    Entertainment said the offer would be conducted through a
negotiated merger with a new corporation to be formed by
Entertainment Marketing.
    Entertaiment said it has requested an early meeting with
Crazy Eddie Inc's board and that it has committed 50 mln dlrs
toward the purchase of the shares including those already
purchased.
   
    The company also said it has retained Dean Witter Reynolds
Inc to assist in raising the balance of the financing.
    According to Entertainment, its company and its chairman
own about 4.3 pct of Crazy Eddie's currently outstanding
shares.
    Additionally, the company said it is willing to negotiate
all aspects of its offer and is willing to consider a
transaction which would be tax free to Crazy Eddie's
 Reuter

SmithKline Beckman Corp said it and
<Boehringer Mannheim GmbH> signed a final agreement to develop
and market new cardiovascular medicines discovered by
Boehringer.
    Under the agreement, SmithKline said, it will have
responsibility for developing the products in the U.S. Both
partners will market the products in the U.S. and abroad.
    Initially, SmithKline said, the companies will concentrate
on the clinical development and marketing of carvedilol which
is a compound to treat mild to moderate hypertension and
angina.
   
    An application for marketing approval of carvedilol was
submitted in West Germany last December, SmithKline said.
Applications expected in other European markets this year and
submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is
projected for 1990.
    It said work also underway on thromboxane receptor
antagonists, compounds which could be useful in accelerating
disolution of blood clots and preventing blod clots from
occuring in a heart attack as well as in other arterial
diseases. The company said two of these compounds are in
clinical evaluation in Europe and the U.S.
 Reuter

previously reported retirement of nine series of Natural Gas
Pipeline Co of America debt will occur on July two.
    Retirement of the subsidiary's was announced by Occidental
last week.
    It said notices of redeemptions and pre-payments will be
mailed shortly to all registered holders.
 Reuter

India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas
Commission (ONGC) plans to drill more wells in the Bombay
offshore area, where a well spudded in February this year gave
both oil and gas, an ONGC spokesman said.
    The exploratory well, spudded at a depth of 2,140 metres,
yielded 2,000 barrels of oil and 180,000 cubic metres of gas
per day, he said.
    "The well, one of the four structures drilled in the area 80
km north-west of Bombay, indicates good prospects of both oil
and gas. We've decided to drill at least three more wells in
there before starting production on a commercial scale."
    Production of Bombay High, part of the Bombay offshore
field, has stabilised at around 500,000 barrels per day for the
last two years.
    ONGC produced 27.85 mln tonnes of crude in 1986/87 ending
March, up from 27.51 the previous year. Bombay High accounted
for 20.61 mln tonnes, marginally up from 20.10 the year before.
India's total oil output is around 30 mln tonnes.
    ONGC has been exploring the Bombay offshore area, developed
since the late 1970s, for more oil as production from Bombay
High has reached a plateau.
 REUTER

Town and Country Jewelry
Manufacturing Corp said effective today its NASDAQ ticker
symbol has been changed to <TCJCA.O> from <TJCA.O>
 Reuter

Society for Savings Bancorp Inc
said it has completed its previously announced plan of
acquisition making a new Delaware-chartered bank holding
company the parent of Conneticut chartered Society for Savings.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabia's renegotiation of its
collective agreement with Aramco to purchase oil for the
latter's ex-partners is moving along and should lead to a
fundamental structural change in the contract, oil industry
    Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, in this Monday's edition,
said negotiations are moving along for adjustment of the 1.34
mln bpd joint long term agreement at official prices and
volumes and other terms may be rearranged.
    The agreement signed in January for the months from
February to June is up for renegotiation.
    Under the January contract Aramco was to purchase 1.34 mln
bpd for the four partners allocated among them as Exxon Corp
<XON> 440,000 bpd, Texaco Inc <TX> 350,000 bpd, Mobil Corp
<MOB> and Chevron Corp <CHV> 550,000 bpd between them.
    But an overlifting by Texaco Inc in the first quarter
allowed other companies like Exxon Corp to underlift its
obligations under the contract
    PIW said that that one alternative under consideration is
to revert to four individual contracts rather than a collective
agrement.
    John Lichtblau, director of the Petroleum Industry Research
Foundation Inc said that renegotiation of the pact was more of
a formality as the Saudis have each company on a separate
schedule although separate agreements with the companies would
favor one on one negotiations and ensure that contracted
liftings occur .
    "The companies will probably follow the Saudi wants within
limits as they do not want to antagonize them for the long
haul," he said.
    Lichtblau said that the renegotiations would most likely
concentrate on volume rather than price.
    Saudi displeasure with the agreement has long been noted
and in April industry publications said that renegotiation were
being sought, a fact later confirmed by Reuters with Aramco.
    Aramco Corp was formerly owned by Chevron Corp <CHV>, Exxon
Corp <XON>, Mobil Corp <MOB> and Texaco Inc <TX> but is now
owned by Saudi Arabia which bought its assets although the
ex-partners have various agreements with Saudi Arabia.
 Reuter

Schering-Plough Corp said its
Elocon topical steroid for inflammatory skin disorders has been
approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
in cream and ointment forms for once-daily applications.
    The company said overseas health agency registrations for
Elocon are scheduled to be submitted in a number of major
markets this year and in other areas in 1988.
 Reuter

Residents of central Oklahoma
returned to their homes over the weekend after a week of heavy
rains and severe flooding that left two dead and caused more
than 20 mln dlrs in damage, officials said.
    Some 900 people were evacuated from their homes during the
rains and flooding last week, civil defense officials said.
    Many of the shelters set up throughout the state in areas
threatened by flooding, except those near the Washita and Red
Rivers, closed as residents returned to their damaged homes.
    Farmers who had expected a near-record wheat crop now say
this year will see one of the largest losses in decades.
    Gov. Henry Bellmon, who on Thursday declared a flooding
emergency for central Oklahoma, was expected to ask President
Reagan for federal disaster relief for the area.
    In northern Texas, officials reported several tornadoes on
Friday. A twister in Lubbock yesterday damaged six mobile homes
and two houses. No injuries were reported.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBT) has
asked federal regulators for authority to trade a futures
contract in long-term Japanese government bonds.
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said it has
received an application from CBT for a contract comprised of
yen bonds with a face value at maturity of 100 mln yen.
    The price of the proposed contract would be quoted in
points per 100 yen par value, with one point equal to one mln
yen. The minimum price fluctuation would be 10,000 yen per
contract, and the contract would have no daily price limits.
    CFTC has requested public comment on the proposal.
 Reuter

money market with late assistance of around 25 mln stg.
    This takes the Bank's total help today to some 137 mln stg
and compares with its latest forecast of a 150 mln stg
shortage.
 REUTER

Pega Capital Resources Ltd <PGA.TO> said
it agreed in principle to acquire a 50 pct undivided interest
in all rights and patents to a tamper resistant and
tamper-evident packaging process for 1,250,000 dlrs.
    The company said the purchase price is payable in 1,250,000
common shares priced at one dlr each. The shares will be paid
under an escrow agreement where Pega may terminate the purchase
agreement and cancel the shares up to October 31, 1987.
    It said the process results in readily visible breakage if
packaging material is pierced by a sharp object.
 Reuter

Bausch and Lomb said it plans to
launch a new line of soft contact lens care products in the
    The company said the line will be marketed under the ReNu
tradename, and will involve fomulations which will
enhance the convenience of contact lens cleaning and
disinfecting.
    Bausch and Lomb said the two products, which are scheduled
for shipment in late July, are ReNu Multi-Action Disinfecting
Solution and ReNu Sterile Preserved Saline.
   
    According to the company, the ReNu disinfecting solution is
a single-step product for cold disinfection and the ReNu saline
solution contains a new preservative with very low potential
for eye irritation.
    The company said another product in this line, ReNu
Enzymatic Tablets, was introduced in December.
    Additionally, the company said patents are currently
pending on all three ReNu products, and that other solutions
will be added to the ReNu line following Food and Drug
Administration approval.
 Reuter

U.S. construction spending rose 1.7
billion dlrs, or 0.4 pct, in April to a seasonally adjusted
rate of 384.1 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    Spending in March fell a revised 4.4 billion dlrs, or 1.1
pct, to 382.4 billion dlrs, the department said.
    Previously it said spending fell 1.3 pct in March.
    April construction spending was 10.2 billion dlrs, or 2.7
pct, above the April, 1986, level of 373.9 billion dlrs.
    Private construction spending rose to 307.9 billion dlrs in
April from 306.0 billion dlrs the previous month and included a
gain in single-family homes, the department said.
    Spending on one-unit home construction rose to 113.1
billion dlrs from 111.5 billion dlrs while multi-unit spending
edged down to 28.3 billion dlrs from 28.6 billion dlrs.
    Spending on nonresidential construction rose to 88.0
billion dlrs from 87.1 billion dlrs, but outlays on office
construction fell to 24.5 billion dlrs from 25.6 billion dlrs
in March, the department said.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc <QTX> said it will
support the efforts of a Texas legislature joint committee,
which will study and propose remedies for problems with the
procedural bond and lien rules of the Texas judiciary.
    The rules, which require a defendant in a civil case to
post a bond in the full amount of the judgment plus interest in
order to exercise its right to appeal the judgment, directly
led to Texaco to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the
Federal Bankruptcy Code, Texaco said.
   
    Texaco said it was unfortunate that it took its bankruptcy
to illustrate the need for reform.
    Texaco also said Pennzoil Co's <PZL> obstructive tactics
prevented similar legislation earlier in the legislature's
session, which would have provided the trial judge in Texas
flexibility to set the bond at a level appropriate to secure
the interest of the judgment creditor based on the
circumstances of the case.
    Under current law, Texaco said it would have had to post
the full 11.1 billion dlrs to exercise its right to appeal the
judgment.
 Reuter

CPC International Inc said
it has completed previously-announced transactions involving
its grocery products businesses in four Asian countries with
Ajinomoto Co Inc <AJIN.T>, raising about 300 mln dlrs.
    It said it will receive about 40 mln dlrs more later,
mostly this month, when closings are expected in three more
countries.  Proceeds will be used mostly for debt reduction.
    CPC said Ajinomoto has purchased its equity in Knorr Foods
Co Ltd, a joint venture in Japan between the two companies,
with CPC to get fees for trademark and technology use.
    CPC said Ajinomoto is also purchasing 50 pct interests in
CPC's wholly-owned subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
 Reuter

Thompson Medical Co Inc expects to
release a statment in a few minutes, a company spokesman said.
    The New York Stock Exchange has delayed opening the stock
saying news is pending. The stock closed Friday at 19-3/4.
 Reuter

Innovative Software Inc said it plans to
sell later this month or in July about 25 mln dlrs of
including possible acquisitions of complementary products,
technologies or companies, Innovative Software said.
 Reuter

Cullinet Software Inc said it has
introduced Release 10.1 of Performance Monitor, an on-line
system that enables system programmers to analyze performance
information quicky.
    Cullinet said the Release 10.1 provides program analysis
functions for users of Cullinet's IDMS/R database software.
    The company said it also has enhanced the new system with a
"windowing" function that allows people to view several
resources concurrently.
    It added the new system is priced at 27,000 dlrs and will
be generally available later this month.
 Reuter

The Chicago Board of Trade, CBT, has
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, said it has
 Reuter

Mercedes-Benz Credit Corp is issuing a 100
mln dlr eurobond due June 25, 1992 paying 8-1/4 pct and priced
at 100-1/2 pct, lead manager Deutsche Bank Capital Markets
said.
1,000 and 10,000 dlrs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The
selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while management and
    The payment date is June 25.
 REUTER

Porex Technologies Corp said it
has agreed to merge with its partly-owned subsidiary Medco
Containment Services Inc in a deal worth about 380 mln dlrs in
cash and common stock to Porex shareholders.
    The company said under the agreement, Prex holders would
receive new Medco shares representing a pro rata share of the
9,159,552 Medco shares now owned by Porex plus a pro rata
shares of the cash value of other porex assets, which is
estimated at 60 mln dlrs subject to adjustment.
    Medco now has 16.9 mln shares outstanding.
    While exact terms may not be determined until the
transaction becomes effective, Porex said each Porex share is
expected to be exchanged for 0.82 Medco share and 5.38 dlrs in
cash, subject to approval by sharehoilders of both companies.
As part of the deal, Medco will split its stock five for two.
    The company said the merger will be accounted for as a
corporate reorganization and be recorded at historical book
values.
 Reuter

Woodstream Corp said it expects a
second quarter loss on sales below those of a year earlier.
    In last year's second quarter, Woodstream earned 349,000
dlrs on sales of 13.1 mln dlrs.
    The company said it is seeking to reduce expenses and boost
sales.  It said it is scaling back California fishing rod
operations to cut overhead expenses anbd minimize losses.
    Woodstream said its fishing technologies group is
experieincing significantly higher selling, promotion and
factory expenses, while fishing product sales have fallen due
to inventory corrections by several major customers.
    It said sales of its color liquid display fish/depth finder
are expected to exceed three mln dlrs in the first half but
will be substantially less than expected.
 Reuter

Colt Industries Inc said it signed a
conditional agreement to sell its Woodville Polymer Engineering
Ltd subsidiary in Great Britain to the Dowty Group PLC of
Gloucestershire, England, for 35.9 mln stg.
    The deal is scheduled to close by the end of June, the
    Woodville, which makes high technology precision products
for aerospace, automotive and other industries, had 1986 sales
of about 24 mln stg, it said.
 Reuter

Fluor Corp said it retained two
investment bankers to assess the value of its gold operations
in light of improved world gold market conditions.
    The engineering, construction and natural resources company
said it retained Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and S.G. Warburg
and Co Inc to assist in the assessment.
    Fluor owns 90 pct of St. Joe Gold Corp <SJG>, a unit of
Fluor's St. Joe Minerals subsidiary.
    St. Joe Gold explores, develops, mines and produces
precious metals in the U.S., Canada and Chile. It produced
281,000 ounces of gold in its most recent fiscal year.
    Fluor also has gold operations in Australia, Spain and
Uruguay.
 Reuter

Brampton Brick Ltd said it
increased its 1987 earnings forecast to 94 cts a share from the
83 cts a share predicted in its October 30, 1986 public share
offering prospectus.
    It said increased earnings will result from continuing
production at its Toronto Don Valley plant past the original
termination date of June 30, 1987, which will double 1987
output. In addition, annual capacity at unit Brique Citadelle
was increased by about 15 pct to 48 mln bricks.
    The revised earnings forecast is after a May, 1987
agreement to issue 900,000 class A subordinate voting shares.
 Reuter

    Net 2,022,000 vs 1,355,000
    Revs 16.0 mln vs 13.2 mln
    Avg shrs 6,237,000 vs 6,052,000
    Six mths
    Shr 58 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 3,561,000 vs 2,525,000
    Revs 30.0 mln vs 26.1 mln
    Avg shrs 6,180,000 vs 6,017,000
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs seven cts
    Net 164,000 vs 417,000
    Revs 1,345,000 vs 2,021,000
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 1,757,000 vs 1,201,000
    Revs 73.5 mln vs 71.2 mln
 Reuter

House of Fabrics Inc <HF>
said it expects further modest gains in revenues for fiscal
year ending January 31, 1988.
    In fiscal 1987, the company's revenues were 316.4 mln dlrs
compared to 286.7 mln dlrs the previous fiscal year ending
    House of Fabrics President and Chief executive, Gary
Larkins, said the company will be aggressively promoting sales
while applying tighter inventory controls.
 Reuter

    Net 421,000 vs 333,000
    Revs 2,103,000 vs 2,287,000
    Avg shrs 16,068,000 vs 12,041,000
 Reuter

The U.S. Regional carrier <Metro
Airlines> has signed an agreement with Saab Scania AB <SABS ST>
to buy 16 34-seater Saab SF340 aircraft worth a total 650 mln
crowns, the Swedish group's largest single order yet, Saab
said.
    It said in a statement that Metro airlines was also taking
an option on a further 15 SF340 commuter planes.
    The aircraft are to be delivered between now and next
April.
    "The order from Metro airlines is a definite breakthrough
for the Saab SF340," said Tomy Hjort, the head of the SF340
programme at Saab's air division.
 reuter

Holderbank Financiere Glarus AG <HOLZ.G>
expects its 1987 results to be at least steady, with increases
in volume sales and negative currency factors roughly
cancelling each other out, deputy chairman Max Amstutz said.
    He told a news conference that turnover was likely to rise
20 pct in volume terms, partly through the consolidation of
recently acquired companies. Ideal Basic Industries Inc <IDL>
of the U.S., Which Holderbank agreed last year to acquire,
should boost group sales by around 12 pct.
    But the weakness of the dollar -- the key currency for the
group -- would remain a strong negative factor.
    Holderbank earlier reported consolidated 1986 net profit of
239 mln Swiss francs compared with 126 mln in 1985 on sales
which fell to 3.3 billion francs from 3.6 billion.
    Group president Thomas Schmidheiny said Holderbank was now
in a consolidation phase after 15 years of enormous growth.
    Priority would be given to strengthening its existing
positions and to integrating recent acquisitions but the group
would continue to take advantage of new opportunities for
 Reuter

Video Jukebox Network inc said it signed a
letter of intent to purchase up to 3.5 mln shares of the four
mln shares of the company's common stock from its founder and
president, Steven Peters.
    Video said the shares are to be purchased by Louis Wolfson
III, senior vice president of <Venture W Inc>, <National Brands
Inc>, J. Patrick Michaels Jr and <CEA Investors Partnership
II>.
    Video said it currently has 7,525,000 shares of common
stock outstanding. The company said it went public earlier this
year and its current ask price was 1-7/8.
   
    CEA Investors Partnership II has planned the partnership to
be operated by Michaels, who is chairman and president of
<Communications Equity Associates Inc>, a media brokerage firm,
Video said.
    The terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.
    Video said Peters will continue as chairman and president
    It said the parties have until June 29 to agree to all
terms of the letter of intent.
 Reuter

Circus Circus Enterprises Inc said it
expects to report a charge of about six mln dlrs or 16 cts per
share against results for the second quarter ending July 31 due
to a tender for all 75 mln dlrs of its first mortgage bonds
that expires June Two.
    In last year's second quarter, the company took a 6,200,000
dlr or 16 ct per share charge from the redemption of 80 mln
dlrs principal amount of subordinated notes.
 Reuter

provisionally totalled about 66 billion marks in April, a real
decline of four pct compared with the same month last year, the
Federal Statistics Office said.
    In March wholesale turnover had risen by a real seven pct
on the year-ago period.
    The Statistics Office said that in the first four months of
this year wholesale turnover of about 244 billion marks was a
real one pct down from last year.
 REUTER

Qtly div 30-1/2 cts vs 28-1/2 cts prior
    Pay July 15
 Reuter

Food Lion Inc said sales for the
four weeks ended May 23 were up 21.9 pct to 222.6 mln dlrs from
182.6 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    The company said sales for the year to date were up 23.4
pct to 1.06 billion dlrs from 858.8 mln dlrs a year before.
 Reuter

    Shr diluted two cts vs 10 cts
    Net 1,841,000 vs 978,000
    Revs 36.1 mln vs 20.5 mln
    Avg shrs 25,734,000 vs 9,200,000
    Avg shrs diluted 48,878,000 vs 9,200,000
 Reuter

Quadram, a unit of Intelligent
Systems Corp, said it has introduced three new memory and
multifunction boards for the International Business Machines
Corp <IBM> Personal System/2 Models 50 and 60.
    The company said the new products, scheduled for shipment
in August and September, include QuadMEG PS/Q memory board,
QuadPort PS/Q, an input/output board, and Quadboard PS/Q a
multifunction board.
    Quadram also said it has slashed prices effective
immediately for its QuadEGA+ and QuadEGA ProSync graphics
boards by 10 pct and 15 pct, respectively.
    Quadram said QuadEGA+'s price is cut to 445 dlrs from 495
dlrs, while QuadEGA ProSync's price is reduced to 495 dlrs from
595 dlrs.
    The Intelligent Systems unit also has entered into an
open-ended joint technology and product development agreement
with <Genoa Systems Corp>, Genoa Systems said.
    Genoa, a maker of PC-compatible products, said the
agreement allows Quadram to use Genoa's proprietary video
controller chip sets in Quadram's new UltraVGA graphics board
products and sets up a joint development project for a variety
of future graphics products.
    Genoa Systems said the agreement extends a prior, two-year
commercial relationship under which Genoa has supplied Quadram
with technology and equipment based on its Galaxy line of tape
backup systems.
 Reuter

Shr loss 52 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net loss 3,142,000 vs loss 2,936,000
    Sales 40.9 mln vs 40.1 mln
    NOTE: Year ago share results adjusted for five-for-four
stock split in August 1986
 Reuter

Marcade Group Inc said it has agreed in
principle to acquire a prominent, privately-held maker of
ladies' sports wear for an cash, shares and options to purchase
Marcade common valued at about 20 mln dlrs.
    In its fiscal year recently ended, Marcade said, the
company to be acquired which owns five U.S. manufacturing
facilities and one offshore had revenues of over 60 mln dlrs
and pretax earnings of about four mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing Co said it signed a five year agreement to become
a preferred supplier to San Diego, California-based (American
Healthcare System).
    The agreement permits American Healthcare hospitals to buy
at competitive prices from 3M's 14 business divisions, products
in radiology, laboratory, food service, maintenence supplies
and audio visuals, advertising services, office supplies,
computer hardware and software, it said.
    American Healthcare is a health care network representing
more than 1,100 not-for-profit hospitals in 47 states.
 Reuter

Thompson Medical Co Inc said about
1,290,000 shares of its common were tendered before the
expiration of the company's offer of 20 dlrs a share for up to
one mln common shares.
    Accordingly, the proration percentage is expected to be
about 77.5 pct, Thompson said.
    It said payment for the one mln shares being purchased is
expected to begin about June 12.
 Reuter

Utilities Investment Inc said
it still is offering to acquire Pennsylvania Enterprises Inc
for 55 dlrs per share.
    It said it is prepared to negotiate its offer.
    The Pennsylvania Enterprises board rejected the offer two
weeks ago as being inadequate.
    Utilities said it has the financial commitments required to
ensure that Pennsylvania Enterprises' facilities would be
upgraded to insure an adequate supply of safe drinking water.
    It said its representatives will be attending Pennsylvania
Enterprises' annual meeting tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical U.S.A. Midland Co
said it will increase prices of its high performance thermal
fluids, in bulk and drums, effective July One, for contract and
spot customers.
    The bulk list prices for diphenyl oxide, in both technical
and refined grades, will be raised five pct to 1.26 dlrs per
pound for technical and 1.36 dlrs per for refined, Dow said.
    Other increases include Dowtherm G to 21.92 dlrs per
gallon; Dowtherm HT to 20.94 dlrs per gallon; Dowtherm J to
14.96 dlrs per gallon, and Dowtherm LF to 18.68 dlrs per
gallon.
 Reuter

Qtly div 13 cts vs 12-1/2 cts prior
    Record June 10
    NOTE: Dividend adjusted for recent two-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

Thompson Medical co Inc said it received
about 1,290,000 of its common shares in response to its tender
offer for up to one mln at 20 dlrs each, and as a result the
proration percentage is expected to be about 77.5 pct.
    The company said payment for the shares is expected to
start June 12.
 Reuter

Cato Corp, which went public
April 30, said its board declared an initial quarterly dividend
as a public company of two cts per share, payable June 26 to
holders of record June 12.
 Reuter

MERRILL LYNCH SAYS PRORATION FACTOR FOR SUPERMARKETS TENDER IS 85.66 PCT

Brazil is not selling cocoa beans
to the International Cocoa Organization, ICCO, buffer stock, as
spot prices for beans in the interior area are 20 to 25 pct
higher than levels which would be paid by the ICCO buffer stock
manager, trade sources in the major producing state Bahia said.
    The scarcity of beans because of the effects of drought on
the current temporao harvest has pushed prices well above
international levels, the sources noted.
    The only buyers are bean exporters or local processors
covering previously contracted commitments, they added.
    If sales were made they would be executed by individual
exporting companies which are members of the Brazilian Cocoa
Trade Commission, they said.
 Reuter

Raven Industries Inc said it
purchased the utility truck body business of (Astoria
Fibra-Steel, Inc) for cash.
    Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
    The Astoria product line, which has annual sales of about
2.5 mln dlrs, will be manufactured and sold by Raven's newly
formed subsidiary, Astoria Industries Inc, Raven said. Its
Glasstite Inc subsidiary also manufactures and sells utility
truck bodies.

 Reuter

Gleason Corp's subsidiary,
Gleason Power Systems, said its Torsen torque-sensing
differential will be supplied as standard equipment in the new
Audi 90 Quattro four-wheel drive vehicle.
    Initial Torsen differential production for the new Audi 90
will not affect earnings in 1987, Gleason said.
    The Audi Quattros 80 and 90 models will be introduced in
the U.S. in late 1987, the company said.
 Reuter

for its previously announced reorganization.
     Hospital Corp said under the reorganization, over 100
hospitals will be spun off to a new, independent company owned
by an employee stock ownership plan, ESOP, for 1.8 billion dlrs
in cash.
    Hospital Corp said in addition to the cash payment, it will
also receive preferred stock and warrants to purchase up to 34
pct of the fully diluted stock of the new company.
   
    According to Hospital Corp, the transaction is expected to
be completed in the third quarter of the year, and proceeds
will be used to reduce Hospital Corp's debt and to repurchase
Hospital Corp common shares.
     Hospital Corp said the 100 hospitals to be acquired by the
new company had net revenues totaling about 1.5 mln dlrs in
1986.
    Hospital Corp further said the ESOP would initially own
99.5 pct of the outstanding common stock of the new company or
about 51 pct on a fully diluted basis.
   
    Hospital Corp said the new company's management would
initially purchase one-half of one pct of the common stock of
the new company, with incentive plans providing management the
opportunity to earn up to 10 pct of the stock.
    According to Hospital Corp, institutions purchasing debt of
the new company will receive warrants for the remaining five
pct of the new company's fully diluted common stock.
    Hospital Corp said Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc has agreed to
provide bridge financing, or to find buyers for debt of the new
company, for an amount of up to 956 mln dlrs.
   
    The financing will comprise 270 mln dlrs of senior
    Additionally, Wells Fargo Bank NA has agreed to syndicate
up to 940 mln dlrs of secured bank financing, comprising a 400
mln dlr revolving credit loan and a 540 mln dlr separate ESOP
term loan, Hospital Corp said.
    Wells Fargo has committed itself to fund an aggregate 400
mln dlrs of these loans, Hospital Corp said.
    Hospital Corp said it will not guarantee any of the debt.
 Reuter

European Community diplomats said the
question of whether Eurobonds will fall under proposed EC rules
requiring new securities issues in Community countries to be
preceded by a prospectus has yet to be resolved.
    The U.K. Securities industry has been lobbying hard against
an EC Commission proposal, aimed at protecting investors, that
would require publication and approval of a prospectus before
all public offers of securities.
    The proposed directive currently includes Eurobonds,
although it makes an exception to the prospectus rules for
issues directed exclusively at professional investors.
    Diplomats said that with Britain tending towards backing
West Germany and Luxembourg in their opposition to the
inclusion of Eurobonds, the question of whether they would
remain within the scope of the directive or not was wide open.
    "Everything is in the melting pot," said one diplomat who
declined to be named.
    The diplomats said Belgium has now given up attempts to
have the directive adopted by EC ministers before it hands over
the presidency of the 12-nation Community to Denmark on July 1.
It was not immediately clear what priority the Danes would
attach to getting the proposals through during their six month
tenure.
    Meanwhile, discussions on the directive at working group
level have halted, diplomats said.
    Officials of the EC Commission said it recognised that its
proposals created a conflict between the need for greater
protection of investors, on the one hand, and for banks and
other institutions to place Eurobonds quickly, on the other.
    "It's a problem and we are still in the grips of internal
debate as to the right line to take," said one Commission
official. Eurobonds were not included in the original draft
directive, first put forward in 1981, but were brought into its
scope later at the request of a number of EC member states.
    Diplomats said countries that oppose the inclusion of
Eurobonds in the proposals are worried that the prospectus
requirements would prevent the thriving Eurobond market from
functioning as well as it does now.
    "With timing so essential to the market for placing and
distribution, there's just not time to deal with these
bureaucratic hurdles," said one.
    He and others said the overriding concern was that the
requirements could drive the Eurobond market out of traditional
EC centres like London and Luxembourg to Switzerland, the U.S.
Or Japan.
    Diplomats said the Eurobond question is not the only issue
that needs to be resolved before the directive can be passed.
    They said West Germany's main objection to the directive in
its present form is that it considers as too stringent proposed
rules laying down how much information companies issuing
non-listed securities should disclose in their prospectuses.
    The proposed rules create problems for West Germany because
its new second tier securities market has less demanding
requirements that would have to be tightened.
 REUTER

Pay N' Pak Stores Inc said it received
two proposals in response to its previously announced
solicitation of potential buyers for the company.
    The company said it is evaluating the proposals from Paul
Bilzerian and from a third party which is active in the
leveraged buyout field but which Pay N' Pak declined to
identify.
    It said the Bilzerian proposal calls for shareholders to
receive on a blended basis 16.67 dlrs in cash and 3.30 dlrs in
liquidation value of cumulative exchangeable redeemable
preferred stock for each common share.
   
    Pay N' Pak said the second proposal is structured as a
merger in which each holder would receive a combination of
17.50 dlrs in cash and 2.50 dlrs in liquidation value of 13-1/2
pct cumulative preferred.
    The company said the dividend on the preferred offered by
Bilzerian would be set so that in the opinion his financial
advisor and the company's financial advisor the preferred would
trade in the public market at its liquidation value.
    Dividends on the preferred could be paid at the option of
the surviving corporation in cash or additional shares of
preferred for the first five years, it added..
   
    Pay N' Pak said Bilzerian's proposal is subject to a
physical inventory of merchandise at June 30. Bilzerian did not
provide details with respect to financing of his proposal,
which is not subject to a financing condition.
    The company said dividends on the preferred being offered
in the second proposal would be paid in additional preferred in
the first three years and the preferred would be redeemed in
years 12 and 13.
    It said the second offer is contingent on the arrangement
of financing, adding the party making the offer is confident of
its ability to obtain the balance of the financing.
   
    Pay N' Pak said the second proposal is conditioned upon a
satisfactory agreement with the company's management regarding
its equity participation in the new company.
    The second party anticipates executing a letter of intent
when it delivers its financing commitment to the Pay N' Pak
board that would incorporate an expense reinbursement and
option arrangement, the company said.
 Reuter

Publisher Robert Maxwell's British
Printing and Communicaton Corp PLC said it filed a lawsuit in
U.S. district court against Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc, its
directors and advisers to stop, among other things, payment of
the special dividend Harcourt is paying as part of its
    The suit, filed in Manhattan, also names First Boston Corp
<FBC> and seeks to void the issue by Harcourt of 40,000 shares
of super voting preferred stock to First Boston Securities Corp
and the issue of convertible voting preferred stock with
4,700,000 votes in the Harcourt employee stock ownership plan.
    The preferred shares to be issued to First Boston have
8,160,000 votes. The suit, brought derivatively on behalf of
Harcourt and individually in British Printing's capacity as a
substantial holder of Harcourt common shares and 6-3/8 pct
convertible debentures.
    The suit alleges Harcourt's special dividend exceeds by
more than one billion dlrs Harcout's surplus available for
dividends under New York law and contstitutes a fraudulent
conveyance.
    The lawsuit also alleges that Harcourt failed to disclose
that one consequence of the payment of the dividend, which it
terms illegal, will be that shareholders will be liable to
repay it.
    Harcourt last week said it would pay 40 dlrs per share to
stockholders as a special dividend. Harcourt also announced an
extensive recapitalization plan, which analysts said was aimed
at thwarting a takeover effort by British Printing.
    British Printing last week withdrew its 44 dlr per share,
or two billion dlr offer for Harcourt because of the
recapitalizaton plan. At the time, it said it was reviewing its
    British Printing said it filed the suit after consultation
with its advisers. Its lawsuit also alleges that Harcourt
failed to disclose the effect of the special dividend on
Harcourt 6-3/8 pct convertible debentures.
    British Printing alleges the effect will be an enormous
increase effective on the June eight record date for the
dividend in the number of Harcourt common shares issuable upon
conversion of the debentures. British Printing also charged 
Harcourt is unlawfully coercing debenture holders to convert
denbentures before the record date because Harcourt may not
have enough authorized common shares to honor conversion after
the date.
    British Printing holds 460,600 shares and 5.6 mln dlrs
worth of debentures.
    The suit also alleges that management, the board of
directors, and First Boston engaged in an illegal scheme of
entrenchment through a combination of selling to First Boston
Securities Corp the super voting preferred at a bargain price,
the grant to the company employee stock plan of convertible
voting preferred, the six mln share open market repurchase
program and the manner in which its financing has been
 Reuter

Representatives of major U.K. Based banks
are meeting here today to consider a new plan for reducing the
cost of financing British exports guaranteed by the Export
Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), senior banking sources
said.
    The plan is being developed in conjunction with the ECGD
and the Bank of England.
    Neither the ECGD nor the Bank of England would comment on
the plan. However, bankers said one of the main points under
discussion is a plan to refinance the bulk of the ECGD's medium
term credit portfolio in the international capital markets.
    The proposals involve introducing a set of interest margins
on ECGD backed debt of 5/16 to 7/8 pct, depending on the size
and maturity of the credit and the currency.
    The banks are likely to push for a higher margin. Bankers
said that while these rates would reduce a bank's return they
would still be more than those proposed about a year ago when
the government attempted unsuccessfully to initiate another
cost reduction plan.
    At the same time, the banks would be expected to allow the
ECGD to realise additional savings by refinancing existing
government backed credit in the capital markets.
    On credits that are refinanced an original lender would
receive a residual margin of 7/16 pct for loans up to 10 mln
stg and 3/16 pct on larger transactions.
 REUTER

A group controlled by New York
investor Saul Steinberg told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it has acquired 168,500 shares of Pizza Inn Inc, or
5.02 pct of the total outstanding common stock.
    The group, which includes Reliance Financial Serivces Corp,
a subsidiary of Reliance Group Holdings Inc <REL>, said it
bought the stock as an investment. It said it might add to its
stake or sell some or all of it.
    The Steinberg group said it bought the stock for 1.75 mln
dlrs in open market purchases between April 13 and May 19 at
prices ranging from 13.625 to 14.2661 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve is expected to add
reserves to the U.S. banking system by arranging a round of
customer repurchase agreements during this morning's
intervention period, several economists said.
    Some others, however, judged that the Fed has almost
completed its reserve-adding requirement for the statement
period ending on Wednesday and will not need to operate today.
    Fed funds were trading at 6-11/16 pct, compared with
Friday's average of 6.63 pct.
 Reuter

Americana Hotels and Realty corp said it
intends to repurchase up to 400,000 of its common shares, or
about seven pct, in the open market or privately from time to
time.
 Reuter

SMG Acquisition Corp, a subsidiary of
Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc, said 38.3 mln shares of
Supermarkets General Corp were validly tendered by the midnight
Friday expiration, resulting in a preliminary proration factor
of 85.66 pct.
    Merrill Lynch said it expects to announce the final
proration factor within 10 business days and begin payment
immediately thereafter. Shares validly tendered represented
about 98.75 pct of the outstanding shares of Supermarkets
General, the announcement said. The cash tender offer was for
up to 32.8 mln shares at 46.75 dlrs net per share.
 Reuter

Monsanto Chemical Company, a unit of
Monsanto Co <MTC.N>, is to acquire the polyphenyls business of
Rhone-Poulenc Chimie, a unit of Rhone-Poulenc <RHON.PA>,
Monsanto said in a statement issued from its European
headquarters.
    The statement did not disclose financial details.
    Gustaaf Francx, general manager of Monsanto Chemical Co
Europe-Africa, said the acquisition would help Monsanto to
expand its customer base for polyphenyls, which are used as
components for high temperature heat transfer fluids.
 Reuter

Pulitzer Publishing Co said it
increased the retail price of the Sunday St. Louis
Post-Dispatch to 1.00 dlrs a copy from 75 cts, effective June
14.
    The Post-Dispatch, which last increased the price of its
Sunday paper in 1980, said it will receive 19 cts as its share
of the 25 cts increase.
    For the quarter ended March 31, the Post had an average
Sunday circulation of 556,620.
 Reuter

Qtly div five cts vs five cts previously
 Reuter

    Pay June 30
 Reuter

OPEC OUTPUT IN MAY SEEN OVER CEILING AT 17 MLN BPD LONDON, June
1 - OPEC's May output appears to have risen well above its 15.8
mln bpd ceiling to 17 mln bpd, and the increase is likely to
put a short-term lid on spot oil prices, Kleinwort Grieveson
Securities says.
    But Kleinwort's latest World Oil Report said re-stocking
and lower non-OPEC output earlier this year should allow the
group to produce up to 17 mln bpd in the current third quarter.
    "On the supply/demand front, the market continues to enjoy a
degree of stability rarely seen in recent years," it said.
    It said most OPEC members were overproducing slightly but
only the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was seriously above quota.
    The report said Saudi Arabia had been sending clear signals
on the need to maintain oil prices at current levels of around
18 dlrs a barrel and adopt provisional output rises agreed in
December when OPEC meets in Vienna on June 25. If OPEC adopts
the provisional ceilings of 16.6 mln bpd in third quarter and
18.3 mln bpd in the fourth, there will probably be room for
overproduction in the third quarter when demand for its crude
will probably be 17.5 to 18 mln, it said.
    It said that the UAE and Ecuador may demand higher quotas
in Vienna, but the biggest obstacle is Iraq, which has refused
to honour its quota as it is less than that of Gulf War enemy
Iran.
    But OPEC appears committed to a short meeting and realises
something must be done about the Iraq issue, the report said.
    According to Kleinwort's sources, Saudi Arabia has already
held separate talks with Iran and Iraq and is urging Iraq to be
more moderate.
    "One strong indication that some kind of deal may be
eventually worked out is the almost complete silence coming
from Iran," it said.
    Indications are that, in return for going along with the
Saudi desire to maintain official prices in Vienna, Iran is
seeking concessions from the kingdom on the Iraq issue, it
said.
    Kleinwort said the kingdom will face an increasingly uphill
task in trying to maintain prices around 18 dlrs beyond 1987.
    Firstly, OPEC hardliners led by Iran are bound to oppose
such a move. Secondly, other OPEC members will press for
another price rise if the dollar remains weak against other
    Thirdly, Saudi Arabia may be forced to raise prices earlier
than it intended to ward off growing calls for higher prices
from the U.S. To stimulate domestic drilling and exploration.
    The report concluded that there is a strong possibility
official OPEC prices will rise to 20 dlrs a barrel by end-1987
and 22 dlrs a barrel by end-1988.
 REUTER

Borden Inc said it is acquiring <Prince
Co Inc> and three companies producing grocery products for 180
mln dlrs.
    Borden said the four companies are expected to have 1987
sales totaling 230 mln dlrs.
    It said Prince, a Lowell, Mass., producer of pasta and
Italian food sauces, is expected to account for 210 mln dlrs of
this total. This year's sales of Borden pasta -- by the 13
regional brands and the premium Creamette brand distributed on
a nearly national basis -- are expected to toal 285 mln dlrs,
it said.
    Borden said the other three companies being acquired are
Steero Bouillon of Jersey City, N.J., Blue Channel Inc, a
Beaufort, S.C., producer of canned crabmeat, and the canned
shrimp products line of DeJean Packing Inc of Biloxi, Miss.
    Borden also said the divestment of three operations with
about 50 mln dlrs a year in sales is expected to produce nearly
45 mln dlrs in cash for use toward the purchase of new
    It said the sale of Polyco of Cincinnati, Ohio, which makes
polyvinyl acetate emulsions, to Rohm and Haas Co <ROH> was
announced by the buyer last month.
   
    Borden said the divestment of two producers of toy models
and hobby items -- Heller in France and Humbrol in England --
is in process.
 Reuter

Kincaid Furniture Co Inc said its
board has authorized the repurchase of up to 100,000 of its
common shares, or a 2.9 pct interest, in the open market or
privately from time to time.
 Reuter

Florida said its board has named president and chief operating
officer Edward P. Mahoney to the added post of chief executive
officer, succeeding Morris N. Broad, who remains chairman.
    The company said Broad will focus on merchant banking
investments, real estate developments and mortgage lending
 Reuter

Qtly div six cts vs five cts
    Pay June 30
    Record June 22
 Reuter

(Suburban Bancorp Inc) and
(Woodstock State Bancorp Inc) said they agreed to a merger
under which Suburban will purchase Woodstock's shares for a
total of more than 18 mln dlrs in cash and Suburban Bancorp
shares.
    Woodstock is the holding company for the 110 mln dlr State
Bank of Woodstock. The merger will bring Suburban's assets to
661 mln dlrs and its total banks to 13.
    The merger is subject to regulatory and shareholder
approval.
 Reuter

Novell Inc said it introduced a
series of new networking products that extend its NetWare local
area network (LAN) communications.
    One of the new products, an asynchronous bridge, connects
multiple remote NetWare LANs to a local to a local NetWare LAN
over telephone lines using high-speed modems, Novell said.
    Novell also said it has introduced a new asynchronous
gateway which provides NetWare LANS with access to resources on
minicomputers from Digital Equipment Corp <DEC>, Data General
<DGN>, Hewlett-Packard <HWP>, Prime Computer Inc <PRM> and
Tandem Computers <TDM>.
    Novell also said that its CXI Inc unit has introduced a
series of new International Business Machines Corp <IBM>
gateway products including a 40-session coaxial gateway
software, a variety of LAN workstation gateway sofware and new
software for PCOX gateways.
 Reuter

PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> analyst John
Pincavage says most airline stocks are undervalued in relation
to record industry earnings expected in 1987.
    Noting that the airlines as a group earned 85 mln dlrs in
the first quarter of 1987 compared with a loss of 625 mln dlrs
in the first quarter of 1986, Pincavage sees an improvement of
similar magnitude in the current quarter. He believes earnings
for the group will total about one billion dlrs in the second
quarter of 1987 compared with 250 mln dlrs in earnings in the
second quarter of 1986. "We're shaping up for a record year in
1987," Pincavage told Reuters.
    For the third quarter of 1987, Pincavage expects the group
to earn about 1.5 billion dlrs compared with one billion dlrs
in the same period of 1986.
    Noting that the summer quarter is always a peak period, he
says "at this point it's too soon to tell" about trends in the
latter months of 1987. But he says for the group as a whole,
fare discounting practices are not pressuring earnings like
they were last year.
    Pincavage has not changed any recommendations recently,
maintaining buys on Texas Air Corp <TEX> NWA Inc <NWA> and AMR
Corp <AMR> and rating most others attractive.
 Reuter

Italian fashion conglomerate Benetton
Group Spa <BTOM.MI> expects its net profit to rise to around
135 billion lire in 1987 from 113 billion the year before, Aldo
Palmeri, managing director of Benetton Group, said.
    Palmeri told a presentation here that sales should increase
to between 1,280 and 1,300 billion lire in 1987 from 1,079
billion in 1986, of which foreign sales were expected to take
up 850 billion lire.
    Benetton finance director Carlo Gilardi said the company
was planning to diversify further into the financial services
sector and would also expand into the shoe business.
    Benetton expanded into financial services mainly to speed
up the development of its own systems, Gilardi said. Benetton
has 400 sub-contractors and 600 distributor companies which
created a demand for such services. "But we do not plan to
abandon our traditional business," Gilardi said.
    Benetton plans to expand further outside Italy, especially
in the Far East. Talks are under way over a possible joint
venture with the Soviet Union and with South Korea.
    Palmeri said Benetton plans to list its shares in
Frankfurt, London, New York and Tokyo as part of its global
expansion but gave no dates when the listings would take place.
 Reuter

said.

 REUTER

Qtly div six cts vs five cts prior qtr
    Pay 1 July
    Record 19 June
 Reuter

Consolidated said it has agreed in principle to sell its
Vancouver-based Canadian bottling subsidiary to Coca-Cola Co
<KO> for undisclosed terms, with closing expected within 60
days subject to regulatroy approvals.
    The company said the sale, a previously-announced agreement
for Coca-Cola to buy 1,600,000 Coke Consolidated common shares
and operating cash flow should allow it to reduce its long-term
debvt to about 200 nmln dlrs from 325 mln dlrs at the end of
 Reuter

Campeau Corp said its Allied Stores Corp
entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Garfinckel's
division to <Raleigh Stories Corp> for 95 mln dlrs.
     The transaction is expected to close in July, the company
said.
    Garfinckel's net sales for fiscal 1986 were 111.9 mln dlrs,
    Campeau said it expects to sell its remaining Allied
divisions in the near future. Campeau announced its first
agreement to sell an Allied unit in April, the company said.
                                      
 Reuter

Wallace Computer Services Inc said
it acquired for 12 mln dlrs in cash and industrial revenue
bonds, certain assets of Rockwell-Barnes Inc, a Chicago-based
office products company.
 Reuter

West Germany will stand firm at next week's
economic summit in Venice against foreign pressure to follow
Japan's example of a multi-billion dlr package to stimulate the
economy, West German officials said.
    They conceded Japan's announcement last week of a 6,000
billion yen plan to bolster its economy would throw the
spotlight back on West Germany, which would face redoubled
calls from its partners to stimulate sluggish growth.
    (See ECRA page for latest Economic Spotlights)
    This view has already been voiced in Washington, where
officials spoke at the weekend of behind-the-scenes
consultations with Chancellor Helmut Kohl with the aim of
securing a quick pledge to take action on the economy.
    Italy's central bank governor Carlo Ciampi has also
criticized West Germany's reluctance "to utilize its economic
potential" for expansionary policies.
    But West German officials said it was virtually
inconceivable that Kohl would make any concessions in Venice
despite a sharp economic downswing at the start of this year.
    "There is just no room for manoeuvre for any economic moves,"
said one official, echoing statements by both Kohl and Finance
Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg.
    Stoltenberg already has problems finding the cash to
finance a series of tax cuts promised for 1990, and has said
his budget is now stretched to the limit.
    He is reluctantly letting government borrowing rise while
federal income falls as a result of the tax cuts, which he
hopes will stimulate growth and satisfy foreign critics.
    "West Germany is exhausting to the furthest possible limit
its fiscal scope as far as growth and employment is concerned,"
Stoltenberg said last month.
    But U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary David Mulford said
Europeans and the U.S. Were worried by flagging German growth.
    "We and others are concerned about the continued signs of
weakness in the German economy," he said. Other U.S. Officials
said France shared these worries.
    Kohl will go to Venice only days after the publication of
figures expected to show that the West German economy actually
contracted in the first three months of 1987.
    West Germany has pledged to review possible measures should
further growth be endangered, but officials say they do not
expect such a review to be necessary.
    Bonn says the economy rebounded in the second quarter and
it predicts growth of just under two pct for the year.
    West Germany's trading partners are also likely to wait in
in vain for any further pump-priming from the Bundesbank.
    Bundesbank vice-president Helmut Schlesinger made clear
today the bank would keep interest rates down, but said there
were no plans for a cut in the Bundesbank's key discount rate,
which, at three pct, is near historical lows.
    Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl also spoke over the
weekend of the need for all countries to play a role on the
international economic scene.
    "We have to recognise that there are also limits to economic
growth in a country like Germany," he said.
    This stance was taken by Kohl when he outlined expectations
for the Venice summit in an interview last week.
    Referring to West Germany's program of tax cuts and its low
interest rates, he said, "With these policies we have made a
significant contribution to growth and to a balanced
development of the world economy."
    Kohl expected no new initiatives from Venice, though he
reckoned on confirmation of agreed policies, such as a pact
made in Paris in February which sought to stabilize the dollar.
    That pact involved a pledge from the United States and
Japan, respectively to cut the massive American budget deficit
and to stimulate Japanese demand.
    Kohl said he would remind both Washington and Tokyo of
those promises.
 REUTER

<Alger Inc> said it will sell the Alger
Fund through broker-dealers as a result of its agreement with
Dealer Network Services, a division of the newly-established
<Rutland Securities L.P.>.
    The fund formerly was sold only directly to investors,
Alger said.
    Dealer Network Services is organizing a countrywide group
of established broker-dealers to sell the Alger Fund, Alger
said.
 Reuter

CSC Industries Inc <CPSL.O> and ENZON
Inc <ENZN.O> said their common stocks will be added to the
National Association of Securities Dealers' NASDAQ National
Market System tomorrow.
 Reuter

<Wolverine Exploration Co> said
substantially all the material aspects of the agreement to sell
its 8.95 pct working interest in the Luckey Ditch unit in Unita
County, Wyo., to Sun Co Inc have been satisfied.
    Closing of the transaction is scheduled for June eight,
Wolverine said. The company agreed to sell its interest for
7,250,000 dlrs, subject to downward adjustment for certain
title and state requirements. Sun already owns a 44 pct working
interest in the unit.
 Reuter

Secom General Corp said its
common stock will be listed on the NASDAQ system tomorrow.
 Reuter

Kroger Co said members of the United Food
and Commercial Workers Union, which have been on strike against
its King Soopers Supermarkets division for the past two weeks,
will vote tonight on a new contract proposal.
    It said the union has removed pickets from King Soopers
stores pending the outcome of the vote.
 Reuter

it has reached a marketing agreement for a "major multinational
consumer products company" it did not name to seek U.S. Food
and Drug Administration approvals for over the counter sales of
Cistron's home test for detection of vaginal infections.
    The company said product commercialization could take place
within 18 months.  The new tests are expected to retail for 10
to 20 dlrs each and take about 30 minutes for results to become
known.  It said its agreement with the major company also
covers worldwide sales.
 Reuter

Realm Resources Inc said it has sold
privately 500,000 common shares and 500,000 shares of three dlr
per share Series A preferred stock for total proceeds of
    The company said proceedsd will be used to funds oil and
natural gas prospect generation efforts.
    Realm also said it has placed a large block of Canadian
metals mining company Getty Redsources Ltd with a group of
investors and expects to earn a fee of up to one mln dlrs for
its efforts, with proceeds to be used to fund investments in
mining ventures, particularly precious metals ventures.
    Realm further said its Class A common stock has been
converted to common stock to simplify its capital structure.
    It said it is considering a filing for a NASDAQ listing.
 Reuter

Star Technologies Inc <STRR.O> said
it has appointed Robert Mathis as president and chief executive
officer.
    Mathis, a retired four-star general with the U.S. Air
Force, and formerly president of <Toomay, Mathis and Associates
Inc>, replaces Herbert Shaw, who is returning to his position
at <Shaw Venture Partners>, Star said.
    Star said Shaw will continue as Star's chairman of the
board.
  
 Reuter

    Net profit 163,016 vs loss 23,527
    Revs 250,469 vs 48,473
    Note: Full name Consolidated Professor Mines Ltd.
 Reuter

WHITE HOUSE SAYS REAGAN HAS NOT DECIDED WHETHER TO RENAME VOLCKER AT FED

Star Technologies Inc said it has
appointed Robert Mathis as president and chief executive
officer, effective June one.
board.
  
 Reuter

Emery Air Freight Corp, which
acquired controlling interest in Purolator Courier Corp <PCC>,
said it has named John Kilcullen executive vice president and
chief operating officer of Purolator.
    Previously, Emery said Kilcullen was Purolator's executive
vice president of operations.
    Emery said Kilcullen now heads the Purolator executive
management team and reports to Emery President Denis McCarthy.
 Reuter

Occidental Petroleum Corp said its unit
Natural Gas Pipeline will delay until July second its
redemption of 202 mln dlrs of debt.
    Natural Gas previously announced a call date of June 29.
    The unit will redeem all five of its first mortgage
pipeline bonds including the 8-1/8s and 9-1/2s of 1989, the
7.70s of 1991, the 8.35s of 1993 and the 9-1/4s of 1995.
    It will also retire its 15-3/8 pct debentures due 1992, the
9-1/2 pct debentures due 1990 as well as all outstanding 9-7/8
pct notes due 1994 and 8-1/8 pct notes due 1988.
 Reuter

Geodyne Resources Inc said iit filed a
covering a planned offering of 3.6 mln warrants to buy its
common.
    The company also said its board is evaluating a proposal to
acquire closely-held <Snyder Exploration Co> for one mln
Geodyne shares. Members of Geodyne's senior management also
serve as senior management at Snyder and PaineWebber Group Inc
<PWJ>, which owns 40 pct of Geodyne's 12.6 mln outstanding
shares, has a substantial equity interest in Snyder.
    The acquisition is being evaluated by Geodyne board members
not employed by the company, PaineWebber or any company
affiliated with PaineWebber. It will be subject to approval by
the board and series C preferred shareholders.
    Geodyne Resources said a registration related to the stock
to be exchanged for Snyder has been filed with the SEC but has
not yet become effective.
    The Snyder owners other than PainWebber are Geodyne's
president, Michael W. Tomasso, and its executive vice
president, James D. Snyder.
    The company said the warrants will be offered solely to
investors in the PaineWebber/Geodyne Energy Income Program II.
For every 100 dlrs invested in the program, an investor will be
entitled to buy one warrant to purchase one Geodyne common
share at a price equal to 120 pct of the average closing price
of the stock for the 15 trading days prior to formation of the
partnership to which the investor subscribes.
    In adddition, Geodyne said, PaineWebber investment
executives who market the program will be entitled to receive
one warrant for every 500 dlrs in subcriptions generated after
a four-year vesting period. These warrants would have an
exercise price equal to 150 pct of the 15-day average.
    The company said the warrants are currently priced at 25
cts each, but this price is suject to further evaluation by an
independent underwriter.
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
 Reuter

    Pay July 28
 Reuter

had made no decision on whether to reappoint Paul Volcker as
chairman of the Federal Reserve Board when Volcker's term
expires in August.
    "No decision has been made on chairman Volcker ... He has
not discussed this with the president, and no decision has been
made one way or another," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater
said.
    Asked if Reagan would discuss the issue with Volcker before
leaving for the Venice summit on Wednesday, Fitzwater said, "I
have no idea."
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs nil
    Net 713,000 vs 1,500
    Revs 13 mln vs 9,328,000
 Reuter

    Net 32,345 vs 3,772
    Revs 9,946,578 vs 5,939,252
 Reuter

Norway is expected to seek a compromise
solution to defuse a row between Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap
A/S <STAT.OL> (Statoil) and Conoco Norge A/S over which firm
will operate the Heidrun oil field, government sources said.
    The sources, who asked not to be named, said the government
will likely recommend that Conoco be allowed to continue as the
field's operator through the development phase, with Statoil
taking over only after production starts in the early 1990s.
    Oil Minister Arne Oeien told Reuters the government had
today discused the Heidrun matter but that no final decision
had been taken and several questions remained unresolved.
    It was unlikely the government would announce its decision
on Heidrun operatorship until after Thursday's cabinet meeting
and after discussing a proposed solution with both companies,
    This spring Norway's state-owned oil company Statoil
exercised an option in the Heidrun field exploration license
that, if approved by the government, would allow it to relieve
Conoco as Heidrun operator, a move sharply criticised by
Conoco.
    Heidrun is often cited by the government and industry as
the most likely candidate for the first field development
project on the Haltenbanken exploration tract off central
Norway.
 Reuter

Year 1986
    Net profit 132 billion lire vs 82 billion
    Ordinary share dividend 500 lire vs 400
    Note - <Finanziaria Di Sviluppo Spa>, a financial services
subsidiary of Fiat Spa <FIAT.MI>, said in a statement that
shareholders approved a previously announced nominal share
capital increase from 125 billion lire to 250 billion.
 Reuter

A cut of about half a percentage point
in Dutch official interest rates is still in prospect, although
economists said the timing would depend on Bundesbank moves.
    Speculation has been rife that the Dutch Central Bank,
encouraged by a strong guilder/mark relationship and wide
premiums for Dutch money and capital market rates over German,
might lower rates without the Bundesbank moving first.
    Last month, the Central Bank lowered its special advances
rate to 5.1 pct from 5.25 pct after the Bundesbank dropped its
repurchase tender rate to 3.55 pct from 3.8 pct.
    That rate has remained in force, just holding above the
five pct official secured loans rate which governs commercial
bank borrowings.
    Given a strong guilder, a further fall in the West German
repo rate would trigger a lower special advances tariff,
forcing an official Dutch rate cut, analysts said.
    In February, when the Bundesbank cut its discount rate to
three pct from 3.5 pct, the Central Bank only lowered money
market rates and removed a surcharge over the secured loans
rate on lending under its three month credit quota.
    Since then, however, both the Central Bank and Finance
Ministry have made it clear they favour lower official rates.
    In April, Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg said he
would follow any Bundesbank cut, and last week the Finance
Ministry expressed satisfaction when it raised 2.25 billion
guilders with a six pct coupon state loan priced at 100.10 pct
for an effective yield of 5.98 pct, the lowest since 1965.
    Technically, analysts said, there has to be a difference
between the secured loans rate which applies to lending under
the credit quota, and the tariff on special advances which add
extra liquidity to the money market.
    Bank economists and dealers said a West German move to
further lower the rate on securities repurchase pacts would
result in the Central Bank easing the special advance rate,
provided the guilder/mark relationship permitted.
    The Central Bank aims to keep the guilder stable around its
parity value within the European Monetary System of 112.673
guilders per 100 marks.
    Today, foreign exchange buying pushed the mark up 10
guilder cents to 112.705 guilders per 100 at the fix, a level
that would not permit a change in the interest rate
differential between West Germany and the Netherlands, dealers
said.
    An economist at ABN Bank said he expected West German and
Dutch interest rates to ease in the short term. However, he
said new wage agreements in West Germany had raised inflation
expectations which would put upward pressure on interest rates
in the longer term.
    In the Netherlands, the inflation outlook for 1987 is nil,
or even negative, while the latest official economic forecasts
point to a falling rate of economic growth.
    "It will depend on the outcome of collective wage agreement
negotiations here whether there could be cost push inflation,"
the ABN economist said.
    He said Dutch money supply growth, which ran at 3.4 pct in
January, could also contribute to some inflation.
    At Amro Bank, a leading analyst said inflation could run to
two pct next year. The bank expects Dutch capital market rates,
currently averaging around 6.1 pct, to stop easing in the
second half of this year and stabilize around 5.6 pct.
    Analysts said an official rate cut could trigger a buying
spree on the bond market which would bring yields down,
probably only temporarily, while money rates could fall below
five pct.
    Currently, all periods are traded at 5.12 to 5.25 pct in
the money market.
 REUTER

Cross border stock market investment is
rising at unprecedented rates, seeking a high return and
diversification, Charles Lillis, associate director of <Merrill
Lynch Europe Ltd>, a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER.N>, said.
    He told an international equities seminar here that global
equity offerings amounted to 3.7 billion dlrs in the first
quarter, compared with 11.4 billion dlrs in all of last year
and 4.1 billion dlrs in 1985.
    He said most new issues would come from countries with
underdeveloped potential, such as  France and Italy.
 Reuter

Northgate Exploration Ltd said
hourly-paid workers at its two Chibougamau, Quebec mines voted
on the weekend to accept a new three-year contract offer and
returned to work today after a one-month strike.
    It said the workers, represented by United Steelworkers of
America, would receive a 1.21 dlr an hour pay raise over the
life of the new contract and improved benefits.
    Northgate, which produced 23,400 ounces of gold in first
quarter, said that while the strike slowed production, "We are
still looking forward to a very satisfactory performance."
    The Chibougamau mines produced 81,500 ounces of gold last
year.
 Reuter

National Home Loans Corp Plc of London
is raising 100 mln dlrs through a five-year bullet eurobond
carrying an 8-3/4 pct coupon and priced at 100-5/8 pct to yield
8.59 pct at issue, lead manager Commerzbank AG said.
    Payment date is July 7. The bond pays interest on that date
annually, and matures on that date in 1992. Denominations are
1,000 and 10,000 dlrs. The bond will be listed in London.
    Fees total 1-7/8 pct, comprising 5/8 pct for management and
 REUTER

Royal Gold Inc said it has signed two
agreements in principle to acquire the stock of two
<Transwestern Mining Co> units for 1.1 mln shares of Royal Gold
    Royal said the assets of the units it will acquire from
Transwestern are mostly gold properties.
    It added it expects to close the deals on June 18 and 19,
subject to standard closing conditions, including title and
environmental approval and closing of a definitive agreement.
    Royal said the shares issued in the deal will be subject to
registration rights.
 Reuter

<Integrated Network Corp> said
it entered into an agreement with Nynex Corp's Nynex
Enterprises Corp which could enable New England Telephone and
New York Telephone to offer advanced data capability.
    Nynex Enterprises is testing Intergrated's data/voice and
universal switched data capability system, the company said.
    Integrated said the system is capable of enabling New
England and New York telephone companies to provide certain
circuit-switched data transmission and certain simultaneous
voice and data transmissions using the existing telephone
network, the company said.
   
 Reuter

Teleglobe Canada Inc, owned by Memotec
Data Inc (MDI.M), said it received an order from Credit
Lyonnais Canada for a direct satellite link between Canada and
France that will be the first private satellite network between
the two countries.
    Value of the contract was undisclosed.
    Teleglobe said the connection will provide the bank with a
permanent link to the digital phone switch at its parent
company's Paris headquarters and connect it with Credit
Lyonnais' network in France and the rest of the world.
 Reuter

Total sterling commercial paper
outstanding rose 251 mln stg to 1.19 billion in April, taking
it above one billion stg for the first time since the market
opened in May 1986, figures released today by the Bank of
England show.
    Banks' holdings of commercial paper totalled 264 mln stg at
end-April, down six mln from March.
    Of the total, 225 mln had been issued by U.K. Companies, up
three mln from March. Changes in these holdings are included in
the  "bank lending in sterling to the U.K. Non-bank private
sector" component of M3 money supply.
 Reuter

A conference to assess the economic
recovery of African states begins in the proposed Nigerian
capital Abuja on June 15, Foreign Ministry officials said
today.
    Organised by Nigeria in collaboration with the Economic
Commission for Africa, the June 15-19 conference would be
attended by several African leaders as well as United Nations
Secretary General Perez De Cuellar, they said.
    Huge debts, falling prices of their export commodities and
in some cases drought have imposed severe hardships on the
economies of African states.
 REUTER

Shr 12 cts vs six cts
    Net 398,318 vs 211,801
    Sales 7,385,107 vs 7,275,162
    Six Mths
    Net 736,219 vs 446,288
    Sales 14.3 mln vs 14.2 mln
    NOTE: Per share earnings adjusted for ten pct stock
dividend paid February 1987.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 15
    NOTE: Full name of company is equitable real estate
shopping centers l.p.
 Reuter

hourly-paid workers at its two Chibougamau, Quebec, mines voted
on the weekend to accept a three-year contract offer and
America, would receive a 1.21-dlr-an-hour pay raise over the
still looking forward to a very satisfactory performance." The
Chibougamau mines produced 81,500 ounces of gold last year.
 Reuter

Unemployment in Portugal held steady at
9.6 pct in the first quarter of 1987 after the same rate in the
last quarter of 1986, the National Statistics Institute said.
    This compared with 11.1 pct unemployment in the first
    The total number of registered unemployed in the first
quarter of this year was 437,500.
 REUTER

Congressional budget negotiators may 
reach an agreement this week on a 1988 budget plan, House and
Senate Budget Committee sources said.
    They held out hope that an agreement can be hammered out,
especially over the thorny issues of taxes and defence spending
levels.
    "It may come this week," a Senate source said. "They are
making progress," a House source said about back room
    Despite these new notes of optimism, earlier hopes for
quick agreement had been dashed when negotiators stalled.      

    House and Senate negotiators, working on different budgets,
have been stymied over proposals for new taxes and defence
spending levels. Both measures seek 18 billion dlrs in new
taxes in 1988, but the Senate proposes nearly 119 billion dlrs
in taxes over a four year span, while the House calls for only
57 billion dlrs over three years.
    The Senate plan would allocate about seven billion dlrs a
year for defence, a proposal not in the House plan which calls
for 1988 defence spending levels nearly eight billion dlrs
under the Senate plan.         
    The two sides have not had a formal negotiating meeting
since May 13. Both House and Senate would have to approve a
final compromise budget, which would be the working U.S. budget
for fiscal 1988, starting Oct. 1.
     Although the congressional budget proposes tax levels, the
actual approval of specific tax plans must be implemented
through legislationd rafted by the House Ways and Means
Committee and Senate Finance Committee which have been cool to
the idea of higher taxes.          
 Reuter

Dayton Hudson Corp is raising 150 mln
with a 9-7/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager
    That is 129 basis points over the yield of comparable
starting in 1998 can be increased by 200 pct at the company's
option, giving them an estimated minimum life of 13.85 years
and maximum life of 20.5 years. Moody's rates the debt Aa-3 and
Standard and Poor's rates it AA.
                                               
 Reuter

Fifty people were killed or injured in
flooding in southeastern Iran and three died after heavy rain
elsewhere, Tehran Radio reported today.
    The radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp, said
flooding around Zahedan, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,
caused heavy damage.
    Rain in central Iran damaged houses, bridges, crops and
irrigation systems.
 Reuter

Chemical Corp said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
granted permission to its subsidiary, IMCERA Bioproducts Inc,
to make a genetically engineered microorganism for use as a
growth factor in laboratories.
    The action marks the first time such a biotechnological
product has undergone successful review by the EPA, it said.
    The EPA action clears the way for IMCERA to begin
commercial production of the microorganism, Escherichia Coli
K-12, in the production of its IGF-I growth factor for use in
laboratories in cultivating tissues and cells, it said.
    Escherichia Coli K-12 is a non-pathogenic organism commonly
used in laboratory operations for studies and commercial
fermentations, and does not affect humans, it said.
    International Minerals said it plans to manufacture the
microorganism at IMCERA's plant in Terre-Haute, Indiana and
market it to research institutions and pharmaceutical companies
in the U.S. and other countries.
 Reuter

said it completed a three mln dlr private placement of
restricted Class A non-voting common stock to two private
    The company said the stock was sold to real estate
developers Simon Konover of West Hartford, and Harry Gampel of
Boca Raton, Fla.
    The transaction is for 375,000 shares of Class A stock, or
approximately 2.75 pct of the total North American Holding
voting and non-voting common shares outstanding, it said.
 Reuter

Andover Group, a Great Falls, Va.,
investment partnership that is seeking control of HBO and Co,
said it raised its stake in the company to 2,026,000 shares, or
8.7 pct of the total, from 1,626,000 shares, or 7.0 pct.
the partnership said it bought 400,000 HBO common shares for
5.4 mln dlrs on May 28.
    The group, which has a slate of candidates seeking board
seats, said it would decide whether to submit an offer to
acquire the company after the HBO annual shareholders meeting,
which was to have been April 30, but was postponed.
 Reuter

Infinite Graphics Inc expects to report
earnings for the fiscal year ended April 30 of about 360,000
dlrs, or 20 cts a share, Chairman Cliff Stritch Jr told Reuters
    In the prior fiscal year, the Minneapolis-based company
reported a loss of 812,000 dlrs or 46 cts a share.
    Stritch cited strength in the company's electrical printed
circuit board software and CAD/CAM (computer aided
design/computer aided manufacturing) business. He also said two
new products, using scanning and vectorization, are under
 Reuter

North American Communications Inc
said its shareholders approved at the annual meeting an
amendment to limit the liability of its directors.
 Reuter

Humana Inc said a Florida Judge
approved a previously announced proposal for the company to buy
certain assets of International Medical Centers, which had been
declared insolvent and put into receivership in early May.
    Humana said it will pay 40 mln dlrs to the state's
Department of Insurance to pay prior claims and 20 mln dlrs in
working capital.
 Reuter

Diversified Industries Inc plans to
recover more than four mln dlrs from the sale of two marginal
subsidiaries, chairman Ben Fixman told the annual meeting.
    Fixman said Diversified Industries, as part of its effort
to redeploy assets, wants to sell its Theodore Sall Inc and
Liberty Smelting Works (1962) Ltd units. The two either lost
money or had marginal profitability in recent years, he said.
    Diversified also said it is in the process of obtaining six
mln dlrs in an industrial revenue bond financing from the State
of Connecticut to modernize the company's Plume and Atwood
Brass Mill plant in Thomaston, Conn.
 Reuter

Litton Industries Inc said
the Navy awarded a 223.2 mln dlr contract to its Data Systems
division to produce a certain comman and contraol systems for
the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force.
    Litton said the contract includes options for government's
1988 and 1989 fiscal years and for additional systems which
could bring the total contract through fiscal 1989 to 750 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Whittaker Corp chairman and chief
executive officer Joseph Alibrandi said the company expects to
report operating profits in fiscal 1987 that exceed 1986
results of 41.5 mln dlrs.
    "We continue to expect fiscal 1987 operating profits for
the chemicals and technology segments to exceed the results
reported for 1986," Alibrandi said. Whittaker reported fiscal
1986 operating earnings for its chemical segment of 18.0 mln
dlrs, and for its technology segment of 23.4 mln dlrs.
    The company's fiscal year ends October 31.
    Earlier, Whittaker reported profits of 3.1 mln dlrs, or 37
cts a share, for the second quarter ended April 30, versus a
loss of 4.5 mln dlrs, or 35 cts a share in the same period last
year.
 Reuter

President Daniel arap Moi replaced his
ministers of foreign affairs and economic planning in a far
reaching cabinet reshuffle, the official Kenya News Agency
(KNA) said.
    Zachary Onyonka, former economic planning minister,
replaces as foreign minister Elijah Mwangale, who moves to
agriculture. Anrew Omanga, former minister of tourism and
wildlife, becomes minister of planning and national development
after Robert Ouko, who moves to the newly created ministry of
industry.
    Fourteen ministers retain their old jobs, including Finance
Minister George Saitoti and Energy Minister Nicolas Biwott.
 Reuter4

has no comment at this time on the lawsuit filed against it by
British publisher Robert Maxwell.
    In the suit, Maxwell's British Printing and Communication
Corp is attempting to stop Harcourt's payment of a 40 dlr per
share special dividend and other actions.
    Harcourt announced its recapitalization plan to escape a
hostile bid by Maxwell. Maxwell last week withdrew his 44 dlr
per share or two billion dlr bid because of the plan.
 Reuter

American Express Co's Shearson Lehman
Brothers said it helped establish a national pooled capital
program offering low-cost financing to small and medium-sized
    Shearson said that it and non-profit <American Development
Finance Corp> will help organize the Enterprise Capital Fund,
which will initially have a 100 mln dlr pool.
    The capital will be used primarily to make loans that
finance small business growth and other projects that
contribute to job creation and economic develpment, Shearson
said.
 Reuter

About 300 local representatives on the
United Automobile Workers union's General Motors Corp
bargaining council convened at a Detroit hotel this morning for
private strategy sessions in the run-up to this summer's
national contract bargaining covering 380,000 UAW members at
GM.
    AlThough the sessions were closed to the press, UAW
vice-president Donald Ephlin urged delegates in a bargaining
document obtained by Reuters to be "willing to use creative and
non-traditional means in achieving our bargaining goals."
    The document calls outsourcing of GM's production work to
foreign or non-GM operations "perhaps the greatest single
threat to the job security of our members" and urges bargainers
to seek an expansion of limits on the giant automaker's ability
to outsource.
    While saying that outsourcing pits "worker against worker"
and the UAW "will not tolerate this practice," the document
falls short of demanding an outright ban on the practice and
instead calls for improvements in "current provisions and
restrictions on outsourcing."
    The union said its barginers must seek bans against plant
and work place closings "similar to those included in our 1982
and 1984 contracts."
    In addition, the UAW said, "full resumption of our
traditional wage formula is a top priority in this set of
negotiations."
    While the document does not specify a percentage wage
increase, the UAW's traditional standard before making
concessions in 1982 was a three pct annual wage increase with
benefits calculated from the base wage rate.
 Reuter

Corporate Life Insurance Co, a West
Chester, Pa., insurance firm, told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it has acquired 44,600 shares of preferred stock in
Piezo Electric Products Inc, or 10.8 pct of the total.
    Corporate insurance said it bought the cumulative
convertible preferred stock stake for 199,690 dlrs for

 Reuter

Cellular Inc said it reached a definitive
agreement to sell assets of its wholly owned Michigan Cellular
Inc to Century Telephone Enterprises Inc <CTL> and add 28 cts a
share to the year's earnings as a result.
    It said the sale, subject to regulatory approval,
represents a capital gain in excess of 800,000 dlrs over the
original price paid by Cellular for its cellular interests in
Michigan, acquired in December 1986.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said a federal
district court judge has upheld a trial jury's judgment against
a Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY> subsidiary but reduced the
amount awarded a Coastal subsidiary to 412 mln dlrs from 549
mln dlrs.
    The company said Judge Clarence A. Brimmer denied all
post-trial motions by Occidental's Natural Gas Pipeline Co of
America but did eliminate the trebling of a portion of the
damages for future lost profits and part of the damages for
interference with a contract awarded by the jury in the
antitrust case last October.
   
    An Occidental spokesman said the company has previously
said it will take the case to the federal appeals court which
has previously upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
regulations Natural Gas Pipeline was following in its dealings
with Coastal's Colorado Interstate pipeline subsidiary and
Union Pacific Corp <UNP> Champlin Petroleum Co subsidiary.
 Reuter

The elimination of price limits on
precious metals contracts trading at the Commodity Exchange in
New York appears to be having little effect on the market,
    "There is nothing apparent from the change," said William
O'Neill, director of futures research at Elders Futures Inc.
"The market has not approached the old price limits and trading
is relative quiet, in narrow ranges," he added.
    Gold futures, which previously had a limit of 25 dlrs on
market moves in most back months, were about 7.00 dlrs weaker
in the nearby contracts amid thin conditions, traders said.
    On May 5, COMEX did away with price limits on the two
contracts following spot after a volatile market in silver
futures at the end of April caused severe disruptions.
    During the last week of April, silver futures traded up and
down the price limit in the back months, causing traders to
rush into the spot contract to offset those moves, analysts
said.  As a result, Elders' O'Neill said, there was much
confusion, many unmatched trades, and large losses.
    The COMEX fined Elders Futures and three other large firms
a total of 100,000 dlrs for failure to resolve unmatched trades
in a timely manner.
    Silver futures were trading about 30-40 cts weaker in the
nearby contracts amid quiet trading today.
    O'Neill said the elimination of price limits on all COMEX
metals futures would add caution to trading since all contracts
could move any distance.
    "This is amore realistic approach because the metals market
is a 24 hours market and prices can move without limit,"
O'Neill said.
    Paul Cain, a vice president at Shearson Lehman Brothers,
said the elimination of price limits will cut back on panic
buying or selling  and contribute to more orderly markets.
   
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs four cts
    Net 373,000 vs 82,000
    Sales 10.1 mln vs 7,825,000
    Year
    Shr 45 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 981,000 vs 595,000
    Sales 34.5 mln vs 28.5 mln
 Reuter

Cincinnati Bell Inc said it will sell up
to 90 mln dlrs of 10-year notes to complete the financing of
its acquisition of Auxton Computer Enterprises Inc.
    It said it plans to issue the notes within the next few
months. Cincinnati Bell acquired Auxton on May six.
    Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc will lead the underwriting
group, the company said.
      
 Reuter

Federal law enforcement authorities
said they began a criminal investigation of R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Co after the company imported herbicide-tainted tobacco
and then exported tainted cigarettes to Japan.
    "We can confirm that the U.S. Customs Service has launched a
criminal investigation of Reynolds," a Customs spokesman told
Reuters.
    "There is an investigation under way," said Bob Edmunds, the
U.S. attorney in Greensboro, N.C.
    Reynolds is a subsidiary of RJR Nabisco Inc. of
Winston-Salem, N.C.
    The investigation is particularly embarrassing--for Tokyo
and Washington, as well as the company--because the Japanese
government, under pressure from the United States, agreed only
last year to open its markets to U.S.-made tobacco products.
    R.J. Reynolds spokesman David Fishel said in a telephone
interview that his company acknowledged importing into the
United States large amounts of tobacco treated with a
weedkiller called Dicamba, and then exporting cigarettes made
with the tobacco to Japan. He acknowledged the weed killer was
present in the tobacco at levels exceeding U.S. standards but
said use of the tobacco did not pose a threat to human health.
    "Dicamba is approved by the government for use on a variety
of crops including food crops, and is widely used as a ripening
agent on tobacco," Fishel said.
    Earlier today, Japanese Finance Ministry official Etsuzo
Kawade said in Tokyo that government authorities were holding a
large shipment of Winston Lights manufactured by R.J. Reynolds
after tests showed some of them contained unacceptable amounts
of the weedkiller.
    "We do not believe the herbicide posed a serious threat to
people's health but the levels were unacceptable by law," Kawade
said.
 Reuter

the Gulf of Mexico climbed by 2.1 pct last week to 38.9 pct,
reflecting a total of 91 working rigs, Offshore Data Services
said.
    One year ago, the Gulf of Mexico utilization rate was 32.5
pct. Offshore Data Services said some drilling contractors had
reported recent increases of about 1,000 dlrs a day on large
jackup rigs, which now command rates of 11,000 to 12,000 dlrs a
day.
    In the European/Mediterranean area the rig utilization rate
rose 0.6 pct to 53.6 pct, against 67.3 pct one year ago.
    Worldwide rig utilization rose by 1.2 pct to 57.7 pct,
reflecting a net increase of eight working rigs. Offshore Data
Services said a total of 419 rigs were in use worldwide and 307
were idled last week.
 Reuter

Dotronix Inc said it completed
the acquisition of Video Monitors Inc for 3.92 mln dlrs.
    Video Monitors is a privately-owned Wisconsin-based
manufacturer of video display and and video monitor devices.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs eight cts
    Net 248,000 vs 155,000
    Revs 4,385,000 vs 2,487,000
    Year
    Net 720,000 vs 220,000
    Revs 15.2 mln vs 9,253,000
    NOTE: Share adjusted for 10 pct stock dividend in April
1987.
 Reuter

April 30 end
    Net loss 83,116 vs loss 266,037
    Sales 1,393,455 vs 1,035,500
 Reuter

The French Cereals Intervention Board
(ONIC) will tender Wednesday for 20,000 tonnes soft wheat for
Pakistan under the French food aid programme, an ONIC official
said.
    The grain will be shipped between June 15 and July 15.
    ONIC also will hold a tender June 9 for 65,000 tonnes soft
wheat under the European Community food aid programme, for
shipment in bulk during August, the official said.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co is raising 100
mln dlrs through an offering of debentures due 2017 with a
9-7/8 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead manager Morgan
    That is 129 basis points more than the yield of comparable
Moody's and Aa-minus by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread
is 8.75 dlrs, the selling concession is 5.50 dlrs and the
reallowance is 2.50 dlrs. E.F. Hutton co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

France is to provide Togo with 475 mln cfa
francs of aid for a range of projects that include development
of the coffee and cocoa industries and reafforestation in the
south of the country, official sources said.
 Reuter

Clark Copy International
Corp said it bought a Norwegian drafting machines company for
three mln U.S. dlrs.
    Clark Copy said its majority-owned Norwegian subsidiary,
Interactive Computer Aids Co of Norway, purchased Kongsberg
Drafting Systems, a division of Norwegian state-owned Kongsberg
Vappenfabrikk.
    Kongsberg Drafting's annual worldwide sales are about 15
mln dlrs, Clark Copy said.
 Reuter

B from B-plus 50 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated
debentures of Chi-Chi's Inc.
    The company's senior debt rating is BB-minus.
    S and P said the action reflected poor performance from
Chi-Chi's chain of 200 Mexican food restaurants. The agency
also said that a planned repurchase of three mln common shares
will result in reduced equity of 23 mln dlrs and a rise in debt
leverage to 67 pct from about 60 pct in fiscal 1987.
    Chi-Chi's posted a 5.7 mln dlr loss for the nine months
ended January 31, S and P noted.
 Reuter

West Germany said it would accept a
superpower plan to ban medium and shorter-range nuclear
missiles in Europe provided Bonn was allowed to retain its own
shorter-range missiles.
    After six weeks of public wrangling over the so-called
"double-zero" offer, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's coalition finally
said it would agree to an East-West ban on shorter-range
nuclear missiles.
    But in a statement issued after top-level talks, the
government said Bonn wanted the 72 West German Pershing-1a
missiles excluded from an East-West accord -- a demand
diplomats said could produce a snag in the Geneva arms talks.
 Reuter

The U.S. drilling rig count fell by four
last week to a total of 758, against 723 working rigs at this
time last year, Baker Hughes Inc said.
    In Canada, the weekly rig count rose 19 to 100, compared to
46 working rigs last year.
    Among individual states, the steepest declines were in
Oklahoma and Louisiana which lost eight and seven,
respectively. Drilling increases were reported by Michigan, up
by five rigs, and Ohio and Pennsylvania which each rose by
three. Baker Hughes said the total of 758 working rigs in the
United States included 84 rigs working in offshore waters.
 Reuter

A trade bill before the United States
House of Representatives "is a very dangerous bill for Canadian
industry," Canadian Forest Industry Council chairman Adam
Zimmerman told reporters.
    By changing the definition of subsidy under U.S.
countervailing duty law, House of Representatives Bill 3
removes protection for companies that take advantage of widely
used government programs, Zimmerman told a media briefing.
    "Clearly, any industry to which Canadian governments grant
rights to fish, mine, cut timber, or produce power could be
vulnerable to a finding of a subsidy under this language," he
said.
    The Canadian forest lobby's Zimmerman also said the House
of Representative Bill would adopt a new way of measuring
subsidies that would greatly increase the size of any
countervailing duties that might be imposed on Canadian
resource exports to the U.S.
    Under the bill, any difference between Canadian prices and
U.S. or world market prices would constitute a subsidy, he
said. Such a method would make Canadian resource industries
vulnerable to similar penalties like a 15 pct export tax
imposed last January on shipments of Canadian softwood lumber
to the U.S., Zimmerman added.
    Canadian negotiators agreed to levy the new tax if a U.S.
forest industry lobby would drop its request for a countervail
duty on imports of Canadian softwood lumber.
    "We represent the first victim of the move to price other
countries' natural resources according to the U.S. system,"
Zimmerman said.
    "If we're an example, than other resource industries had
better watch out," he added.
    Zimmerman said the Canadian Forest Industry Council plans
to discuss concerns about the U.S. trade bill with lobby groups
from other Canadian resource industries.
 Reuter

Society for Savings said it has
completed a merger into newly formed holding company Society
for Savings Bancorp Inc on a share-for-share basis.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs profit 31 cts
    Net profit 330,;575 vs profit 1,4;73,100
    Revs 1,501,996 vs 2,602,568
    Avg shrs 10,964,786 vs 4,446,958
    Year
    Shr loss eight cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 91,523 vs profit 746,289
    Revs 3,854,821 vs 5,231,598
    Avg shrs 6,091,334 vs 4,446,958
    NOTE: Share results after preferred dividend requirements
of 44,174 dlrs vs 99,901 dlrs in quarter and 377,111 dlrs vs
480,851 dlrs in year
    Company 40 pct owned by PainWebber Group Inc <PWJ>
 Reuter

LADD Furniture Inc said it has
completed the previously-announced acquisition of
privately-held Colony House Furniture Inc for an undisclosed
amount of cash and notes.
 Reuter

A new steel quota system that would
strictly limit European Community (EC) support to the industry
could be forced on producers if they fail to find their own
solution quickly, officials said.
    EC industry ministers meeting here considered two key
proposals aimed at cutting back surplus capacity by 30 mln
tonnes by 1990.
    The first would limit the current quota system, which has
protected EC output for seven years, only to flat products and
heavy sections, thereby forcing other types of steel products
into free market competition.
    The second proposal would link continuation of a quota
system with progress toward plant closures, although less than
a month ago the EC steelmakers' lobby group Eurofer said they
had abandoned efforts to close plants voluntarily.
    The ministers stopped short of imposing their own solution
immediately, instead urging steel producers to try again to
reach agreement on voluntary cutbacks.
    The EC Commission has said it will come up with detailed
proposals in July on the future of the EC steel industry and EC
industry ministers meet again in September to reach a final
decision.
 Reuter

Pacific Gas and Electric Co said it will
buy back on July one 93.9 mln dlrs of two mortgage bond issues,
Series 82A and 82B.
    The redemption will save the company about 2.8 mln dlrs in
annual financing costs for the remaining lives of the two
mortgage bond issues, Pacific Gas said.
    It will buy back the Series 82A bonds at 1,066.60 dlrs per
1,000 dlr principal amount, plus one month's accrued interest
of 12.81 dlrs. It will redeem the Series 82B at 1,105.20 dlrs
per 1,000 dlr face amount, plus one month's accrued interest of
11.14 dlrs.
 Reuter

said it will begin creation of a Cleveland Hub July one,
doubling the number of cities it serves nonstop from Cleveland
and increasing daily flights by 50 pct.
    Continental said it will spend about 14 mln dlrs for
facilities expansion in Cleveland and will increase its local
employment from 48 to 100 people by July one.
    Continental will begin four daily nonstop flights to
Washington-National, two daily nonstops to Los Angeles, and one
daily nonstop each to San Francisco, Orlando and Tampa.
 Reuter

said it has agreed to acquire Process Integrity Inc of Dallas,
a computer software designer, for undisclosed terms.
    It said Process' software helps companies monitor
industrial processes, identifies problems and recommends
solutions.
 Reuter

International American Homes Inc said it
filed on May 29 with the Securities and Exchange Commission a
registration statement covering a 25 mln dlr issue of
convertible subordinated debentures due 2007.
    Proceeds will be used to finance the proposed acquisition
of Diversified Shelter Group Ltd and affiliated entities and to
retire acquisition indebtedness, International American said.
    The company said Moseley Securities Corp would underwrite
 Reuter

QMS Inc said its Laser Connection
subsidiary has been awarded exclusive rights to distribute the
entire line of Ziyad laser printer sheet feeders in the U.S.
    The company said it expects the arrangement to add 15 to 20
mln dlrs to its annual sales.
 Reuter

Genentech Inc is suffering only a
temporary setback following a U.S. agency decision to withhold
a recommendation on its genetically-produced drug which is used
to treat heart attacks in progress, industry sources and
    "When TPA (the drug) first came on the scene, the projected
time scale for approval was 1990," said Sam Milstein, a
scientist and industry consultant.
    "So even with the new delay that has arisen, in all
likelihood the drug will be approved prior to initial
projections," he added.
    Last Friday, an advisory committee at the Food and Drug
Administration, FDA, withheld a recommendation on Genentech's
tissue plasminogen activator, a drug called Activase.
    Athough it supported Genentech's claim that the drug
dissolves blood clots, the FDA said it wanted data that showed
the treatment benefits heart-attack victims.
    "We will be talking to the FDA as soon as possible to ask
specifically what they are looking for," a Genentech
spokeswoman said. She said the company had data that showed
improvement in the heart muscle after the drug was administered
but had not included it in the FDA filing.
 
    Industry analysts also said the 12 point drop in the
company's stock to 37-1/4 was largely expected in light of the
speculative nature of the biotechnology companies whose
fortunes often depend on the success of an important drug.
    "In larger pharmaceutical companies each product does not
have as much overall significance. But this is very important
to Genentech," said Robert Riley, a senior consultant at Arthur
D. Little Inc.
    Some estimated that Genentech could see as much as 1.5
billion dlrs from the drug. But with each delay, others can
enter the market and catch up to Genentech's lead.

    Industry sources pointed out that KabiVitrum, in an
alliance with Hoechst AG <HFAG.F>, won a recommendation for its
streptokinase drug on the same day Genentech's application was
delayed. Streptokinase, an enzyme-based drug, is also used to
treat heart attack victims.
    In addition, Milstein said that Beecham Group Plc <BHAM.L>
has a drug called Eminase which is "the most likely competitor
to TPA," and from a clinical standpoint, nearly identical.
Beecham's drug has been approved for use in Germany and is
awaiting approval in the U.K., he added.
     Streptokinase was difficult to administer to heart attack
victims because it would dissolve before it reached the heart.
Another method, which involved pumping the drug directly into
the heart through a tube, proved difficult when a heart attack
was in progress. TPA was seen as a savior since it was easier
to administer and worked quickly.
    But new developments have made streptokinase more effective
and easier to administer, becoming a potential threat to
Genentech's grasp on the TPA market. And if that wasn't enough,
about 30 other biotech companies are quickly developing TPA in
Genentech's path.
 
    "Genentech's advantage is being first in the market," said
industry consultant Scott King, formerly an analyst with
Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. "They'll be the first
approved but then they'll face competition after one or two
years."
    The company may also face patent pressures for its drug. It
is currently about to go to court with Beecham Group in the
U.K. in a patent dispute. And while its patent is pending in
the U.S., many analysts expect the company to face some suits
as soon as the patent is issued, a potentially more harmful
situation than any temporary setback in the FDA.
 Reuter

Southam Inc said a Canadian government
official asked the Ontario Supreme Court to order Southam to
seek shareholder approval of a 1985 share swap between Southam
and fellow newspaper publisher Torstar Corp <TSB.TO>.
    Frederick Sparling, an official in the Department of
Consumer and Corporate Affairs, wants the share exchange
nullified if shareholder approval is not obtained, Southam
added.
    Southam said it believed it had acted properly and would
vigorously defend itself in what would probably be a lengthy
process.
    Sparling's action came after a year-long investigation by
the federal corporations branch in response to minority
shareholders' complaints about the share exchange, which gave
Torstar a 22 pct stake in Southam.
    Southam said at the time of the Torstar deal that the share
swap was necessary to avert a hostile takeover bid for Southam
by a third party.
    The company declined further comment while the case is
before the courts.
 Reuter

Peerless Manufacturing Co said it has sold
its Industrial Sensors and Instruments Division and Panhandle
Equipment Co subsidiaries for a total of 635,000 dlrs in cash.
    It said the transaction will result in a loss of about
605,000 dlrs or 50 cts per share, which it will take in the
fourth quarter ending June 30. Peerless said due to the sale it
will probably have a loss for the year.
    It said it sold the units, to buyers it did not name, due
to increasing losses caused by the depressed petroleum
equipment market.
                               
    Peerless earned 576,000 dlrs or 63 cts per share in fiscal
1986.
    It said the units being sold lost 28 cts per share in the
first nine months of fiscal 1987 and 12 cts in all of fiscal
1986.
 Reuter

Middle South Utilities Inc said the
U.S. Supreme Court granted the company's Mississippi Power and
Light Co's request for stay of a Mississippi Supreme Court
ruling blocking a portion of the utility's retail rates.
    In February, the state court had returned to state
regulators a case involving the recovery of Grand Gulf one
nuclear power plant costs at the rate of 28 mln dlrs per month.
These rates, some of which were deferred for future phase-in,
were granted by the state regulators in September 1985 based on
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allocation of the power
plant's cost among Middle South's subsidiaries.
    Middle South said one condition of the stay is the posting
of a bond that is suitable to the Mississippi Supreme Court.   
 Middle South said the Supreme Court stay brings stability to
Mississippi Power and Light's situation and "removes the
possibility of MP and L's imminent insolvancy while the case is
proceeding on the merits."
    The company said it expects its subsidiary's case to
prevail on the merits, resolving for all Middle South System
companies "issues concerning the prudence and retail rate
recovery of costs associated with the Grand Gulf One nuclear
unit."
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs profit three cts
    Net profit 64,197 vs profit 56,437
    Revs 4.9 mln vs 1.6 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit four vs loss seven cts
    Net profit 67,133 vs loss 114,427
    Revs 9.1 mln vs 2.8 mln
    NOTE:1987 first half includes revnues of new racetrack

 Reuter

Canada's softwood lumber will become
unprofitable for some forest product producers if prices
decline to about 175 U.S. dlrs per thousand board feet of two
by four inch lumber from current levels of about 195 U.S. dlrs,
Canadian Forest Industry Council chairman Adam Zimmerman told
    Zimmerman reiterated profitability has been hurt by a move
by Canadian negotiators to impose last January a 15 pct export
tax on softwood lumber shipped to the U.S. in exchange for a
U.S. lumbermen's lobby dropping its request for a countervail
duty.
    "I think that there has been a falling off in the market, so
I think there is a moderate slow down in the price now,"
Zimmerman said at a media briefing.
    Zimmerman said the adverse impact from lower U.S. lumber
product prices would be felt by lumber mills in eastern Canada
first, migrating westward.
    "The country has swallowed a time bomb and it will go off
when times get tough," Zimmerman said.
    He also said the federal government should maintain the
existing 15 pct export tax and not allow provinces to offset
the tax with increased provincial fees for cutting lumber.
 Reuter

Semicon Tools Inc said it has
signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority interest in
privately held East Coast Sales, a distributor and fabricator
of technical ceramic products and disposable clean room
materials and supplies.
    It said it expects to acquisition to result in a
substantial sales increase.
 Reuter

Safety-Kleen Corp said it completed
the acquisition of an 80 pct interest in BresLube Enterprises,
for about 12 mln dlrs in stock and cash.
     BresLube, based in Toronto, collects used lubricating oils
from auto garages, car dealers and other businesses, and
re-refines it for resale. Its annual revenues are about 18 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

GenCorp said it has started
construction on a new 50 mln dlr 260,000 square foot plant for
the reinforced plastics division of its DiversiTech General
unit.
    It said completion is expected in mid-1988.
 Reuter

said it has begun developing a home test kit for detecting an
antibody to the AIDS virus.
    The company said its Animial Biotech Corp subdiary, which
will develop the test, recently completed development of a
simlar technology for a home test kit for feline leukemia virus
in cats that exhibits similar properties to the AIDS virus,
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus.
   
    NMS is the first firm to annouce the development of a home
test kit for AIDS. The company said it should have a working
model ready in the first quarter of 1988.
    Abbott Laboratories <ABT>, based in Chicago, is the
worldwide leader in the 60 mln dlrs AIDS test market with about
a 50 pct share. Abbott also recently applied to the Food and
Drug Administration to market a new test that will be ablet to
detect early infection with the AIDS virus and help monitor the
progress of therapy.
   
    NMS said its home AIDS test would use proprietary
technologies and advanced genetic engineering techniques for
the home test kitS. NMS said the test would use a drop of blood
from a finger prick to detect the AIDS virus.
    The company stressed that there is no assurance it will
succeed in develop ths test, nor in obtaining government
approval for marketing such as test.
   
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said it agreed with
Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT> and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
Ltd <MC> to form a company that would make heating and cooling
units in Japan for Mazda cars.
    Equity in the new company will be shared equally, Ford
said. Each of the three participants will be represented on the
board of directors of the new company.
    Ford said a manufacturing plant will be located in
Higashi-Hiroshima City near Mazda's headquarters. Completion of
the factory, and production start-up, is scheduled for the fall
of 1988.
 Reuter

Zenith Laboratoreis Inc said it was
voluntarily recalling 20 lots of Digoxin, a cardiovascular
drug, because about seven of the lots made betweeen October
1984 and Janauary 1986 failed to meet certain requirements.
    The lot number of Digoxin, in 0.25 mg tablets, are 112
through 131. Zenith said the recalled lots were not likely to
cause serious ill health effects, but said the recall is being
done because some of the lots failed to meet dissolutation
requirements upon retesting.
    Zenith said the other lots are not subject to the recall.
It said the recall will cost about 50,000 dlrs.

 Reuter

General Electric Co said it and
Alsthom of France are developing a 200 megawatt gas turbine
that will be the most powerful combustion turbine in the world,
the MS9001F.
    The company said when used in a combined cycle application,
the power plant efficiency will exceed 50 pct.
    The company said it will offer the turbine exclusively for
50 hertz electrical system markets.  Most of the world, except
the U.S. and several other countries, use the 50 hertz system,
it said.  It said Alsthom, its licensee in France, is
codeveloper and comanufacturer of the first unit.
    GE said the first of the turbines will be installed for
Electricite de France's grid.
 Reuter

SPI Holding Inc, a group consisting of
Hicks and Haas and Acadia Partners LP, said it has received
commitments for the senior bank financing needed to complete
its proposed acquisition of Spectradyne Inc for 46 dlrs a share
in cash or securities, or a total of about 452 mln dlrs.
    The transaction was conditioned on the arrangement fo
financing by today.
    It said it has also executed multi-year employment and
non-competition agreements with five Spectrayne senior managers.
 Reuter

Service Resources Corp said Patrick J.
Rooney has resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of
its Chas. P. Young subsidiary to devote more time to his posts
as chairman and chief executive of the parent company.
    Young has recently offered to acquire Sorg Inc <SRG> for 23
dlrs a share and take the combined company public.
    The company said James P. Alexis, president of Young's
Chicago operation, will succeed Rooney as chairman and chief
executive of Young, with Jack R. Hubbs remaining president and
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co <F> is to invest 23 mln stg
in high technology equipment at its Bridgend engine plant in
South Wales, the Press Association said.
    The move includes a new computerised engine test facility
which the company says will make the factory one of the most
efficient of its kind in the world.
    Bridgend currently supplies Escort, Orion and some Fiesta
engines to Ford plants in Britain, West Germany and Spain.
 Reuter

signed an agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri
to jointly develop and operate a new health maintenance
organization for the St. Louis area.
    The company said Blue Cross will wholly own HMO Missouri,
which U.S. Healthcare will manage and market. It said it hopes
to start offering the HMO by January.
 Reuter

Investitech Ltd said it has
closed on a 500,000 dlr long-term mortgage loan in connection
with its previous purchase of a Mulberry, Fla., plant,
replacing a short-term borrowing.
    The company said full production at the plant will start
 Reuter

Computer Associates International Inc's
800 mln dlr merger with Uccel Corp <UCE> will eliminate its
strongest rival, but the company still faces stiff competition
from International Business Machines Corp <IBM>, Wall Street
     "IBM is still the ruling force in mainframe systems
software," said Scott Smith, an analyst with Donaldson Lufkin
and Jenrette.
    "But the combination of the two companies will clearly
present a much stronger front," he said.
    Besides IBM, "Computer Associates will be far and away the
most powerful company in the field," added E.F. Hutton analyst
Terence Quinn.
    That field is a segment of the market known as system
utilities, or software packages that boost the productivity of
a company's data processing facilities by increasing the speed,
power and efficiency of large mainframe computers.
    The merger of Uccel and Computer Associates combines the
two biggest systems utilities suppliers other than IBM.
Analysts said the remaining players are mostly small firms that
will find the competition much harder than in the past.
    For Computer Associates, the merger with Uccel caps a
six-year acquisition campaign that has vaulted the Garden City,
N.Y.-based company to the top of the software industry.
    When the deal is completed sometime in August, the
company's revenues will exceed 450 mln dlrs, pushing it past 
Microsoft Corp <MFST> as the world's largest independent
software vendor.
    Computer Associates founder and chairman Charles B. Wang
took the company public in 1981, and since then he has bought
15 companies and boosted annual sales from 18.5 mln to 309.3
mln dlrs for the year ended March 31.
    Liemandt took charge of Wyly, sold off its non-computer
businesses and decided that it would focus solely on mainframe
computer software. In 1984, the company was renamed Uccel Corp.
    Liemandt, who said he will leave the company after the
merger is completed, also turned to acquisitions for growth.
    On the last day of 1986, Uccel completed the buyouts of six
companies for a total of about 60 mln dlrs.
    For 1986, it earned 17.0 mln dlrs, or 1.01 dlrs a share, on
sales of 141.5 mln dlrs.
    The agreement took industry analysts by surprise, largely
because the companies had been such bitter rivals. Also,
Dallas-based Uccel had engineered a strong comeback from the
dark days of 1982, when, as Wyly Corp, it lost 7.7 mln dlrs, or
56 cts a share.
   At that time, Wyly owned a potpourri of 13 different
businesses, only three of which were involved in computer
software. In 1983, Walter Haefner, a Swiss financier and a
major Wyly investor, lured Gregory J. Liemandt away from his
job as chairman of General Electric Co's <GE> computer services
unit.
    Computer Associates' Wang and Uccel's Liemandt said at a
news conference that the merger would give computer users a
single source for a wide range of software products.
    In addition to system utilities, Computer Associates also
sell products for microcomputers, while Uccel has made inroads
in the applications software market, where analysts said it has
been successful with accounting and banking systems.
    Wang said Computer Associates would continue to support and
enhance both companies' product lines, but noted that the
company will eventually weed out duplicate offerings. He said
about 20 pct of the companies' products overlap.
    Analysts said the merger would dilute the holdings of
current Computer Associates shareholders by about 10 pct. But
they joined Wang in forecasting that the deal will not dilute
Computer Associates' earnings for the current fiscal year.
    Quinn of E.F. Hutton said Wang has a proven track record of
completing acquisitions without earnings dilution. Therefore,
he said he would not change his 1988 earnings estimate of 1.05
    Wang said he would look closely at the combined operations
of the two companies and cut duplication in sales, marketing
and research and development.
    Analysts said Computer Associates paid a premium for Uccel.
Based on Friday's closing price, the company will swap 47.50
dlrs worth of its stock for each Uccel share, which is nearly
33 times Uccel's 1987 estimated earnings of 1.45 dlrs a share.
    Stephen T. McClellan of Merrill Lynch Research said most
software companies are currently valued at about 20 times
per-share earnings. But the analyst said Uccel was worth the
premium because of its earnings potential and customer base.

    Wang said Haefner, the Swiss investor, would hold about 25
pct of Computer Associates stock after the merger. He currently
owns 58 pct of Uccel.
    The executive said the merger would not alter his target of
maintaining sales and earnings growth of 30 pct to 35 pct.
    In addition, he said he expects no problems in having the
deal cleared by the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice
    Uccel's Liemandt declined to say what he will do after the
merger, but he did not rule out working together with Wang.

 Reuter

British press magnate Robert Maxwell said
his British Printing and Communication Corp Plc would not renew
its bid for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc <HBJ> if the lawsuit
filed against Harcourt in New York today fails.
    Speaking at a press conference, Maxwell denied market
rumors that British Printing had approached British
institutions to arrange a rights issue with a view to
relaunching its bid for the U.S. publishing concern.
    "I don't believe in chasing mirages," maxwell said.
    British Printing filed suit in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan to block what Maxwell called a fraudulent
recapitalization announced by Harcourt last week.
    Harcourt, in response to a hostile two billion dlr takeover
proposal from Maxwell, planned a recapitalization that would
pay shareholders 40 dlrs per share. Under the plan, it also
said 40 pct of its shares will be controlled by its employees,
management, and its financial adviser, First Boston Corp <FBC>.
 Reuter

Net 7,237,000 vs 5,938,000
    Sales 630.8 mln vs 601.8 mln
    Year
    Net 34.1 mln vs 20.5 mln
    Sales 2.75 billion vs 2.61 billion
    NOTE: Twelve and 52-week periods.
    Generale Occidentale SA subsidiary.
    Prior year net both periods includes 7,580,000 dlr pretax
charge for store closings.
    Year net includes pension gain 3,455,000 dlrs vs charge
5,502,000 dlrs due to change in pension accounting.
    Income tax rate for year 45.9 pct vs 34.1 pct due to
abolition of investment tax credits.  Elimination of investment
tax credits approximately offset gain from change in pension
accounting, company said.
 Reuter

extended to June 30 from June 4 a short-term voluntary sale
program for shareholders owning 10 or fewer Bell Canada common
shares.
    The plan allows such shareholders of record at April 21 to
sell their shares at market price without incurring brokerage
commissions or other charges.
    Bell Canada was quoted at 42 dlrs, up 1/4, in afternoon
 Reuter

Synercom Technology Inc said it has named
Robert Forsyth president.
    The company said Forsyth is taking over the position from
Thomas Moore, who remains chairman and chief executive officer.
 Reuter

U.S. Video Vending Corp said it
completed acquiring First National Telecommunications INc from
First National Entertainment Corp for about 10 mln, or a
controlling interest of U.S. Video Vending shares.
    Pursuant to the transaction, Harvey Seslowsky and William
Hodes resigned from U.S. Video's board and were replaced by
four members of First National.
 Reuter

Traders recently returned from West Africa
say some producers there are dismayed by the ineffective action
so far by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) buffer
stock manager on buffer stock purchases.
    One trader said some West African producers are annoyed the
Buffer Stock manager is not playing his part as required by the
International Cocoa Pact to stabilise prices from current lows.
    So far, only 21,000 tonnes of second hand cocoa have been
taken up for buffer stock purposes and this, traders noted,
only on an intermittent basis.
    They noted the purchases, of 8,000 tonnes in the first week
he bought and 13,000 in the second, are well short of the
limitations of no more than 5,000 tonnes in one day and 20,000
in one week which the cocoa agreement places on him.
    The traders recently returned from West Africa say
producers there are unhappy about the impact on cocoa prices so
far, noting producing countries are part of the international
cocoa pact and deserve the same treatment as consumers.
    London traders say terminal market prices would have to
gain around 300 stg a tonne to take the ICCO 10-day average
indicator to its 1,935 sdr per tonne midway point (or reference
price).
    However, little progress has been made in that direction,
and the 10-day average is still well below the 1,600 sdr lower
intervention level at 1,562.87 from 1,569.46 previously.
    The buffer stock manager may announce today he will be
making purchases tomorrow, although under the rules of the
agreement such action is not automatic, traders said.
    Complaints about the inaction of the buffer stock manager
are not confined to West African producers, they observed.
    A Reuter report from Rotterdam quoted industry sources
there saying Dutch cocoa processors also are unhappy with the
intermittent buffer stock buying activities.
    In London, traders expressed surprise that no more than
21,000 tonnes cocoa has been bought so far against total
potential purchases under the new agreement of 150,000 tonnes.
Carryover holdings from the previous International Cocoa
Agreement in the stock total 100,000 tonnes.
    Terminal prices today rose by up to 10 stg a tonne from
Friday's close, basis July at its high of 1,271.
    It seems that when the buffer stock manager is absent from
the market, prices go up, while when he declares his intention
to buy, quite often the reverse applies, traders said.
 Reuter

Canada's corporate debt burden is at its
lowest point in five years but still exceeds pre-1981 recession
levels, said a study by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
<CM.TO>.
    The bank said the debt-equity ratio for all Canadian
companies, excluding financial corporations, now averages 1.50,
down from 1.70 in 1982, but higher than 1.47 in 1980.
    "Five years of uninterrupted economic growth in Canada and
the strength of the Canadian bond and stock markets, despite
recent corrections, have led to a marked improvement in the
financial health of most Canadian corporations," the bank said.
   
    The bank said that manufacturing, construction,
transportation, utility and service industries had improved
their debt-equity ratios to 1977 levels. Mining, oil and gas
companies were not performing as well due to low commodity
prices, the bank added.
    Canadian corporate financial ratios are also stronger than
those in the U.S., the bank said. It said the 1981-82 recession
led some Canadian companies to downsize and use resulting
savings to cut floating rate debt, and others to shift to
equity from debt financing.
                                               
 Reuter

American Travellers Corp's
American Travellers Life Insurance Co unit said it wrote more
than 1.1 mln dlrs of new business in May
    Last year, the unit wrote 553,350 dlrs of new business for
the month of May.
 Reuter

Privately-held Rapid-American Corp said
it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of 66
Kresge and Jupiter stores from K Mart Corp.
    The company said it plans to operate 57 of the stores as
McCrory Five and 10 variety stores and close the others by the
end of July.
 Reuter

Zenith Electronics Corp said it
introduced a one-piece computer with 512 kilobytes of memory
priced starting at 999 dlrs.
    Zenith said the new computer, called the "eaZy pc", is
compatible with the PC/XT system and uses 3-1/2-inch disk
drives.
    The computer, Zenith's lowest priced unit, uses an Intel
8088-compatible microprocessor. Its memory will be expandable
to 640K through two options expected to be available in August.
The system uses an MS-DOS operating system developed by Zenith
and Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O>.
 Reuter

Shr 58 cts vs 53 cts
    Shr diluted 54 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 1,957,745 vs 1,594,009
    Sales 95.8 mln vs 87.4 mln
    NOTE: Average shares up 11.7 pct on primary basis.
 Reuter

Expediters International of Washington
Inc president John Kaiser told securities analysts business in
the current quarter is good and he is looking for good results
    Kaiser, however, declined to make specific earnings
projections.  In 1986, the company reported earnings of 4.1 mln
dlrs, or 73 cts a share, on sales 108.8 mln dlrs.
    "The second quarter looks good and it looks like we're
going to have a good year," he said, citing strength in imports
and exports in the Pacific Rim.
    Kaiser also said a pickup in electronics and computer
business would help this year's results.
    The company is trying to get a license to operate directly
in Korea before next year's Olympics, he said. It currently
works through an agent there.
    He said four countries in the Pacific - Hong Kong, Korea,
Taiwan and Singapore, where the company does much if its
business - should have economic growth of more than 10 pct over
the next two to four years. "The Pacific Rim will still be our
strongest market," he said.
 Reuter

The elimination of limits on daily price
fluctuations for metals futures contracts traded on the
Commodity Exchange, COMEX, appears to be having little effect
on the market, analysts said.
    "The market has not approached the old price limits and
trading is relative quiet, in narrow ranges," he said.
    On May 5, COMEX eliminated price limits on the two
contracts following each spot delivery in gold, silver, copper
and aluminum futures after a review of its clearing operations,
which were severely tested by a volatile market in silver
futures at the end of April. COMEX announced Friday the lifting
of all daily limits, effective today.
    Gold futures, which previously had a limit of 25 dlrs per
ounce in most back months, were about 7.00 dlrs weaker in the
nearby contracts amid thin volume conditions, traders said.
    Silver futures, previously limited at 50 cents in most back
months, were trading about 30-40 cts weaker in the nearby
contracts amid quiet trading today.
    During the last week of April, silver futures often traded
at the daily allowable limit amid concerns about inflation, the
dollar, and other factors. Traders rushed into the spot, or
unlimited, contract to offset those moves, analysts said.
    As a result, O'Neill said, there was much confusion, many
unmatched trades, and large losses for some traders.
    The COMEX fined four large firms a total of 100,000 dlrs
for failure to resolve unmatched trades in a timely manner.
buying or selling and contribute to more orderly markets.
    O'Neill added that the elimination of daily limits would
add caution to trading.
    "This is a more realistic approach because the metals
market is a 24 hours market and prices can move without limit,"
 Reuter

Grand Union Co, a subsidiary
of Generale Occidentale SA of France, said it plans capital
spending of 111 mln dlrs this year mostly for new stores and
expansions of existing units, up from 76 mln dlrs for the year
ended March 28, 1987.
 Reuter

Total Health Systems Inc said it
has agreed to acquire CoMED Inc of Denville, N.J., a health
maintenance organization with over 63,000 subscribers, for an
undisclosed amount of cash, the assumption of liabilities and
the provision of up to 10 mln dlrs in equity and debt
    The company said the acquisition is subject to regulatory
    It said CoMED had 1986 revenues of 30.0 mln dlrs and
earnings of 650,383 dlrs and had revenues for the first four
months of 1987 of 13.6 mln dlrs, up 60 pct from a year before.

 Reuter

Qtly div 44 cts vs 39 cts prior
    Pay Aug 14
    Record July 31
 Reuter

ALLTEL Corp said it has received
permission from the Federal Communications Commission for the
transfer of its Syracuse/Binghamton/Cortland, N.Y., radio
paging licenses to Mobile Communications Corp of America
<MCCABV.O> and the transfer takes effect today.
 Reuter

United Asset Management corp said it
has completed the acquisition of Rice, Hall, James and
Associates of San Diego for undisclosed terms.
    It said Rice Hall manages investments for institutions and
individuals and has about 690 mln dlrs in assets under
management currently.
 Reuter

KMS Industries Inc said its
Covalent Technology Corp subsidiary won a one-year 60,000 dlr
contract for develpoing a rapid and simple method for detecting
heaptitis B antigen and diarrheal disease toxins.
    It said the award was from the Program for Appropriate
Technology in Health, in collaboration with the United States
Agency for International Development.
 Reuter

Since British Airways was sold to the
public by the British government, airline analysts have begun
covering the big carrier and giving it good reviews.
    "Analysts are picking up British Airways because it's a
major airline, and because they have fewer companies to work
with after all the mergers," said Merrill Lynch analyst Edmund
Greenslet. "Two years ago there were enough U.S. carriers, but
now more analysts are adding the international airlines."
    Merrill Lynch, for instance, will be covering it from its
international offices, he said.
    British Airways was sold to the public by the Conservative
government in February.
    It has a fleet of 167 jetliners, making it the largest in
Europe. A relatively small portion of revenue and traffic comes
from intra-U.K. operations, and its predominantly long-haul
route network spans the globe.
    Julius Maldutis at Salomon Brothers said he likes British
Airways because it can quickly redeploy jets to strong markets
or away from weak ones, as it did last year in response to the
severe downturn in North Atlantic traffic after the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster and terrorist actions.
    "Because of its diverse network, it has the ability to
hedge or mitigate adverse developments in one particular area,"
Maldutis said.
    He said British Airways should outperform the rest of the
stock market. Salomon was an underwriter for the company's
public offering in February.
    About 6.3 mln British Airways' American depositary receipts
are traded on the NYSE, and 2.8 mln ADRs on the Toronto
exchange. Each ADR equals 10 ordinary shares.
    Louis Marckesano at Janney Montgomery Scott said British
Airways near-term outlook is good. "We're looking for good
traffic growth and improved revenues," he said.
    "British Airways should be riding a good wave," he said.
"Its fiscal year began April one, so when you think of all the
troubles it experienced in the first half of last year,
especially in the North Atlantic market, you know all
camparisons should be nice."
    At March 31 the carrier had total debt of 279 mln stg for a
debt-to-equity ratio of 33 pct, which is very good for an
airline, analysts said.
    "Its balance sheet is very conservative - perhaps too
conservative for an airline - but that means it can borrow to
expand its fleet," Marckesano said.
    British Airways has been a leading force of airline
liberalization in Europe, which is being gradually implemented
to avoid the problems of U.S. airline deregulation, which
brought years of unstable fares and losses.
    Analysts agree a phased-in deregulation will greatly
benefit British Airways over the long run because it is the
largest European carrier.
    Analysts caution that British Airways faces increasing
competition for travelers to Europe from U.S. carriers as
airline consolidation here expands route networks.
    In 1983, for instance, about 69 pct of U.K.-bound
passengers transferred to European carriers after arriving at
U.S. gateway airports onboard U.S. carriers.
    But U.S. carriers are retaining more of their passengers,
and this year about 30 pct of U.K.-bound travelers are expected
to switch to a European carrier to complete the trip, according
to British Airways' chief executive officer, Colin Marshall.
    "British Airways had a greater shot at picking up traffic
when it was funneled to New York," said Marckesano "Now,
traffic is being captured earlier by U.S. carriers as it leaves
Atlanta, Dallas and other cities," said Marckesano.
    He also said that British Airways' first-half results might
mislead an investor into gauging full-year results because its
fiscal year begins April one.
    "Profits build in the first half. But if an investor just
doubles that figure, he'll be making a big mistake," he said.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS,  SOYBEANS 7,209, WHEAT 15,187 CORN 25,347

Computerland Corp said an
investor group led by the financial services firm E.M. Warburg
Pincus and Co Inc has agreed to acquire Computerland's
business.
    Computerland, a privately-held company said to be the
world's largest retailer of personal computers, declined to
provide details of the arrangement.
    But the company said it expects to close the acquisition
over the next 60 to 90 days.
    In announcing the transaction, Computerland said the
acquisition will provide it with resources and support to
maintain and expand its leadership position in the computer
retail industry.
    Computerland also said its network retail sales in 1986
totalled 1.45 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

The Center for Auto Safety, a private
auto industry watchdog group, sought a government recall of
50,000 schoolbuses, charging that a defect in their manufacture
causes the buses to split open in a crash.
    The center said it asked the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall all school buses built
since 1977 by Thomas Built Buses of High Point, N.C..
    "In the past seven years, 45 children were injured and six
killed in crashes of Thomas schoolbuses where the panels of the
buses split open at the joints," Executive Director Clarence
Ditlow wrote Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole.
    NHTSA is a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
    Ditlow said Thomas had failed eight body and three floor
joint tests since 1977. "No Thomas schoolbus tested for joint
strength since (a federal standard) was adopted in 1978 has
ever passed," he said.
    Officials of Thomas were unavailable for comment.
    NHTSA officials had no immediate comment on the recall
petition.
 Reuter

it has received the first 1,623,000 dlr increment of a possible
five mln dlr contract award from the U.S. Space and Naval
Warfare Systems Command.
    It said the contract covers production and systems
integration of seven AN/WSC-6 SHF SATCOM systems for use on
combatant and survey ships.
 Reuter

Sooner Defense of Florida Inc said
it won a 4.2 mln dlr contract from the U.S. Army Armament to
build  electronic proximity fuzes used in Navy five-inch gun
systems.
 Reuter

BILZERIAN SAYS IF PAY N'PAK SIGNS MERGER ACCORD HE WILL TENDER FOR 7.5 MLN SHARES

Piosec Technology Ltd said it
exchanged 4.5 mln common shares for 21 pct of privately owned
<Alliance Semiconductor Corp> of Santa Clara, Calif.
    Followin the acquisition, a Piosec spokesman said, the
company has 6.5 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

American Credit Card
Telephone Co said it has completed arrangements to purchase
500,000 of its common shares and 500,000 of its warrants as
well as all payphone technology, software and rights from
Digvitech Inc's <DGTC.O> Digitech Communications Inc affiliate.
 Reuter

eight and 10 billion francs worth of tap stock, depending on
market conditions, at its next monthly tender on Thursday, the
French bond issuing committee said.
    The planned issue will be of two fixed-rate tranches of the
8.50 pct May 1994 and the 8.50 pct December 2012 stock and one
tranche of the 12-year variable rate 1999 stock.
    At its last tender on May 7, the Bank of France sold 8.2
billion francs of tap stock.
 Reuter

European free market tin traders made a
somewhat muted response to plans for a Kuala Lumpur
dollar-based tin futures market due to be launched in October.
    Traders said the new market would probably be a useful
trading medium for Japan and other South East Asian tin
interests although European traders generally appear to be
reasonably satisfied with the current "free market" system
which has been operating since London Metal Exchange, LME, tin
trading ceased in October 1985. Dealers here will also want to
see how acceptable foreign metal will be on the new market and
what sort of demand develops for forward deliveries.
    There is also a view among European traders that, while the
proposed Kuala Lumpur tin futures market would provide another
useful reference point, a market inaugurated by the Malaysian
government -- in the past viewed as a major player at times by
the trade -- would make participants uncomfortable.
    Some traders expressed a preference for a resumption of
trading on the London Metal Exchange, but they added that while
there has been some behind the scenes discussion on the subject
a definite move is unlikely until outstanding High Court
litigation actions have been resolved.
    Spot tin prices on the European free market are currently
around 4,200 stg per tonne for high grade metal in warehouse
Rotterdam. Over the past 18 months the price moved to a ten
year low of 3,400 stg in March 1986 and rebounded to as high as
4,680 stg in December 1986.
    This compares with 8,140 stg last paid when LME trading
ceased in October 1985 and a record high tin price of 10,350
stg traded for Cash Standard Grade metal in June of that year.
    LME warehouse stocks are now near a two-year low at 28,065
tonnes, having fallen steadily from a record high of 72,485
tonnes reached in February 1986.
    Traders said the free market turned bullish during late
last year based on producer forecasts of a supply/demand
deficit of some 28,000/29,000 tonnes. Analysts were predicting
prices of up to 5,000 stg per tonne during 1987.
    However, the trend was reversed following a strong upswing
in sterling versus the dollar and values fell back briefly to
4,100 stg last month after approaching 4,700 stg in December.
    The decline accelerated as producers who had sold very
little metal at the higher levels became competitive sellers.
    There was also a lack of significant demand from major
steel mills who made large purchases prior to the new year.
    Traders say the 15 ITC creditor banks' original tin
holdings of nearly 45,000 tonnes have now been almost halved,
and the bulk of material still available is being held by
Malaysian and Japanese firms which are reluctant to depress the
market with unwanted metal.
    Some 80,000 tonnes were held by banks and brokers after the
International Tin Council's, ITC, buffer stock manager halted
support operations on the LME on behalf of the 22 members
nations of the International Tin Agreement.
    The overhang of metal was reduced further by broker
Shearson Lehman Brothers, which earlier this year reported
having sold its ITC-related holdings and halved its overall tin
position.
    Analysts see no immediate sign of a rally in European tin
prices and movements are still expected to be largely related
to currency fluctuations, unless significant consumer demand
emerges for the third quarter.
    The Association of Tin Producing Countries, ATPC, has made
efforts since the collapse of the ITA to achieve higher world
prices by attempting to bring all major producers under an
export control umbrella, but to date Brazil and China, two
major producers, remain unaffected by the ATPC argument and
apparently are continuing to offer material at discounts to
consumers in main European trading centres, dealers said.
 Reuter

Leisure Concepts Inc said it has signed
a definitive agreement to be licensing agent for all
Lorimar-Telepictures Corp television and film properties,
formalizing a preliminary agreement reached in January.
    It said undser the terms, Lorimar has received a five-year
warrant to buy up to 250,000 Leisure Concepts shares at 6.25
dlrs each.  Leisure Concepts now has about 3,100,000 shares
 Reuter

ICCO buffer stock manager to buy 5,000 tonnes cocoa Tuesday, June 2 - official

<Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc>
said it has introduced five new V-series system products and a
new generation communication software package, Smartcom III.
    Hayes said the new V-series includes the V-Series
Smartmodem 9600, V-Series Smartmodem 9600B, V-Series Smartmodem
2400 and V-series Smartmodem 2400B.
    These products provide error control, adaptive data
compression and automatic feature negotiation, Hayes said.
    Hayes also said it has established a network of dealers and
distributors aurthorized to sell the new products.
    The company also said it has introduced a V-series Modem
Enhancer and has reduced the estimated retail prices on its
current modem product line.
    Its other new product, the Smartcom III, is a
communications program for the International Business Machines
Corp <IBM> PC, Compaq Computer <CPQ> and compatible personal
computers, the company said.
    Hayes said it has priced the Smartmodem 9600 at 1,299 dlrs,
Smartmodem 9600B at 1,199 dlrs (1,299 dlrs with Smartcom III),
V-Series Smartmodem 2400 at 899 dlrs and V-series Smartmodem
2400B at 849 dlrs (899 dlrs with Smartcom).
    In addition, Hayes said that following an introductory
promotional price of 199 dlrs  until September 30, the V-series
modem enhancer will have an estimated retail price of 349 dlrs.
    Smartcom III will be priced at 249 dlrs, Hayes said, adding
that all products will be available this month.
 Reuter

Gull Inc said it has received a
contract initially worth about 1,500,000 dslrs to supply
McDonnell Douglas Corp with the control system for an On-Board
Inert Gas Generating System to be used in the new C-17A
military transport cargo airport.
    It said under production options in the coutract, it could
supply controllers for up to 210 aircraft, raising the value of
the contract to over 25 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Lodgistix Inc said it is expanding
distribution in Canada of its automated property management
systems for hotel and resorts with the opening of a new ssales
office in Calgary, Alberta.
 Reuter

US West Information Systems said it
completed an agreement with the Australia and New Zealand
Banking Group Ltd <ANZA.S> to provide a turnkey installation of
hardware, software and support services for a nationwide
point-of-sale network in Australia.
    Financial terms of the five-year agreement were not
disclosed. US West Information Systems is a unit of US West
Inc.
 Reuter

Co-operative Bancorp said it
completed the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding
stock of the Quincy Co-operative Bank <QBCK.O>.
    Under the agreement, Quincy stockholders will receive 30
dlrs cash for each share owned of the Quincy Co-operative Bank,
for a total transaction of approximately 50 mln dlrs,
Co-operative said.
 Reuter

EPSCO Inc said it has receiveed
contracts worth 2,800,000 dlrs from Raytheon Co for
high-powered microwave components and antenna feed subsystems
for use on the Patriot air defense missile system.
 Reuter

it has opened a 120-bed nursing care and phsical therapy center
in Pensacola, Fla., called Palm Gardens of Pensacola.
    It said it manages the center for owner Florida
Convalescent Centers Inc.       
 Reuter

REAGAN TO CALL FOR WEST GERMAN AND JAPANESE ECONOMIC GROWTH AT VENICE SUMMIT

REAGAN SAYS U.S., ALLIES MUST HONOR ACCORDS ON EXCHANGE RATE STABILITY

Monsanto Co said it is acquiring
certain commerical assets of <Rhone-Poulenc Chimie's>
polyphenyl business.
    Among the assets being acquired are its polyphenyl business
worldwide, including biphenyl and the heat transfer fluid
Gilotherm TH, together with associated manufacturing and
application technology, Monsanto said.
 Reuter

The New Jersey operations of
Pepsico Inc's Pepsicola Bottling Group in the New York
metropolitan area have been struck by Teamsters Union Local
125, a Pepsico spokesman said.
    He said the company has hired temporary drivers to cover
deliveries from the struck warehouses in West Caldwell, North
Brunswick, Moonachie and South Carney.
    Also struck were the company's manufacturing operations at
Teeterboro and its food service operations at Hasbrouck
Heights, the spokesman added.
    The Pepsico spokesman said the company's contract with the
union expirted at 2400 EDT yesterday.
    He said the company reached a tentative agreement with the
union Friday after five weeks of negotiations which was
rejected by the rank and file in a vote Saturday.
 Reuter

International Research and
Development Corp's earnings per share in its second quarter
should be higher than the three cts a share earned in the 1986
period, president Francis X. Wazeter told shareholders.
    He said share earnings in this year's second period will be
about the same as the six cts a share earned in the 1987 first
period.
    Wazeter said earnings per share this year should be higher
than the 15 cts a share made last year, and revenues from
studies in progress will be higher than last year's revenues of
16.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

<Info-Data Inc> said it
will acquire <USA Outdoor Advertising Inc> of Jacksonville,
Fla., in exchange for stock.
    USA Outdoor Advertising was acquired for 62.4 pct of the
outstanding shares of Info-Data Inc, the company said.
    Info-Data said it plans to change its name to USA Outdoor
Advertising Inc to reflect the change in the company's
 Reuter

President Reagan said he will use the
annual economic summit of major industrialized countries to
press for economic expansion by West Germany and Japan.
    In a pre-summit speech at the White House, Reagan said that
preserving a growing world economy was the business of every
member of the world trading community.
    "It will be made clear, especially to our friends in Japan
and the Federal Republic of Germany that growth-oriented
domestic policies are needed to bloster the world trading
system on which they depend," he said.
 Reuter

President Reagan, preparing to depart
for the Venice economic summit on Wednesday, said the United
States and its allies must fulfill agreements on exchange rate
    "Economic policy decisions made last year in Tokyo, and at
this year's meetings of Group of 7 Finance ministers in Paris
and in Washington, cannot be ignored or forgotten," he said.
    "The commitments made at these meetings need to be
translated into action," Reagan said in a pre-summit speech
celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.
 Reuter

Uni Marts Inc said it acquired
seven <Gas-N-All Inc> convenience stores for an undisclosed
amount of cash.
    The acquisition bring to 228 the number of convenience
stores owned by Uni-Marts, the company said.
 Reuter

President Reagan said he would discuss
the Mideast Gulf situation with allied leaders at next week's
Venice economic summit and hinted he would seek their help in
preserving free navigation.
    In a speech prepared for delivery as the United States made
plans to protect 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian attack,
Reagan said the American people were aware that "it is not our
interests alone that are being protected."
    Saying that allied dependence on gulf oil was no secret,
Reagan declared, "During the upcoming summit in Venice, we will
be discussing the common security interests shared by the
western democracies in the MIDEAST Gulf.
    "The future belongs to the brave. Free men should not cower
before such challenges, and they should not expect to stand
alone."
    Reagan will meet the leaders of Britain, France, West
Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan at the economic summit, which
will take place in Venice June 8-10.
   
    The 13th annual top-level meeting of the major industrial
democracies will take place against a backdrop of rising
congressional concern over Reagan's plan to protect gulf
shipping and demands that the allies do more.
     These concerns were heightened by the May 17 Iraqi missile
attack on the U.S. frigate Stark which killed 37 seamen.
    "They died while guarding a chokepoint of freedom, deterring
aggression and reaffirming America's willingness to protect its
vital interests," Reagan said.
   
    In a pre-summit speech celebrating the 40th anniversary of
the Marshall Plan, Reagan, who spoke to an audience of foreign
affairs experts, also pledged to push for economic expansion by
West Germany and Japan to bolster the world trading system.
    "While the vibrancy of the U.S. economy has contributed
enormously to the world expansion, preserving a growing world
economy is the business of every member of the world trading
   
and the Federal Republic of Germany, that growth-oriented
domestic policies are needed to bolster the world trading
system on which they depend."
    Reagan coupled this appeal with a call for compliance with
allied accords on exchange rate stability.
    "Economic policy decisions made last year in Tokyo and at
this year's meetings of Group of Seven finance ministers in
Paris and in Washington cannot be ignored or forgotten," he
said. "The commitments made at these meetings need to be
translated into action."
 Reuter

    Net 965,000 vs 726,000
    Revs 13.4 mln vs 11.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4,606,242 vs 3,624,528
 Reuter

Advanced Telecommunications Corp
said it reached an agreement in principle to purchase <Teltec
Savings Communications Co>, a long distance telephone service
    The proposed acquisition price is approximately 17.5 mln
dlrs in cash, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr seven cts vs eight cts
    Net 278,000 vs 340,000
    Revs 11.4 mln vs 8,871,000
    Year
    Shr three cts vs one ct
    Net 113,000 vs 33,000
    Revs 39.7 mln vs 33.1 mln
 Reuter

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
Chairman L. William Seidman told a bankers' meeting he thinks
more banks will follow Citicorp <CCI> and Chase Manhattan <CMB>
in building up their reserves to meet Latin American debt
problems.
    Seidman, speaking to an American Bankers Association trade
conference, said he did not think regulators would play as big
a role in encouraging banks to build up their loan-loss
reserves as the marketplace would.
   
    My guess is that we as regulators won't become the key
factor. I think the market system will get most of the other
banks to follow suit," Seidman told some 3,000 executives
attending the ABA's National Operations and Automation
Conference.
    In the past two weeks, Citicorp has added three billion
dlrs and Chase Manhattan, 1.6 billion dlrs, to their loan-loss
reserves.
   
    "I think that most banks are going to find it irresistible
to move forward on the same type of reserving because, if they
don't, their future earnings will be penalized as they hold up
their reserves on a quarter-by-quarter basis," Seidman said.
    He said Chase and Citibank, by setting aside huge amounts
at one time,  have put their losses behind them and will show
much better future earnings.
    That, he said, will put pressure on more banks to follow
suit.
 Reuter

has reallocated 50.0 mln dlrs in credit guarantees from the
previously announced undesignated line to provide additional
guarantees for sales of feedgrains, oilseeds, and wheat to
South Korea, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The department said the action increases the feed grains
line by 23 mln dlrs to 63 mln, the oilseed line by seven mln
dlrs to 52 mln, and the wheat guarantee line by 20 mln to 165
mln dlrs.
    The undesignated line is reduced to zero.
    The commodities are for delivery during the current fiscal
year ending this September 30, it said.
 Reuter

Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation Chairman L. William Seidman told a bankers' meeting
he thinks more banks will follow Citicorp and Chase Manhattan
problems.
reserves as the marketplace.
    "My guess is that we as regulators won't become the key
banks to follow suit," Seidman said.
    In the past two weeks, Citicorp added three billion dlrs
and Chase Manhattan 1.6 billion to loan-loss reserves.
 Reuter

BASIN PIPELINE TEXAS/OKLA BORDER WASHED OUT BY FLOODS SOME 300,000 BPD CRUDE AFFECTED.

Interest rates on commodity loans
disbursed by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) this month
will carry a 6-7/8 pct interest rate, the U.S. Agriculture
    That is up from the May rate of 6-1/4 pct and reflects the
interest rate charged the CCC by the U.S. Treasury in June,
USDA noted.
 Reuter

Agriculture Commissioner Frans Andriessen said his proposal for
a tax of up to 330 European Currency Units per tonne on oils
and fats was likely to go up for discussion at next week's
summit meeting of EC leaders.
    EC farm ministers have been unable to agree the tax, one of
the main items proposed by Andriessen for the 1987-88 farm
price package.
    The tax, which would apply on both domestically-produced
and imported oils and fats, has been fiercely opposed by the
United States and developing countries' vegetable and marine
oil producers.
 Reuter

Investor Paul Bilzerian said if Pay N'
Pak Stores Inc enters into a merger accord with him he will
immediately begin a tender offer for 7.5 mln shares for 20 dlrs
per share in cash.
    Bilzerian told Reuters he believes his offer is superior to
a leveraged buyout proposal disclosed in an announcement by the
company this morning.
    The company said it is evaluating both proposals.
Bilizerian said he was optimistic his offer will be accepted at
a meeting of the board of directors Wednesday. Officials of Pay
N' Pak did were not immediately available for comment.
 
    Bilzerian said he has a pool of 150 mln dlrs raised by
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc available for the tender and "we
may add a bank to that."
    "We've submitted an agreement we're prepared to sign," he
said. Shares not accepted in Bilzerian's tender would be
exchangeable for 20 dlrs in convertible preferred stock.
    Asked what would happen if the leveraged buyout group,
which the company did not identify, topped his offer between
now and the board meeting, Bilzerian said he expected an
opportunity to respond.
    Pay N' Pak gave no details about the buyout group, but did
say the offer was contingent on financing and on an agrreement
regarding management's equity participation.
    Bilzerian said it was his understanding that the management
particpation was "nominal."
    Pay N' Pak fell 1-1/2 to 19. Arbitrageurs said there was
disappointment that neither of the offers topped 20 dlrs.
    "We were expecting an offer north of (above) 21 or 22
dlrs," said one arbitrageur. The leveraged buyout plan was for
17.50 dlrs per share in cash and 2.50 dlrs in 13-1/2 pct

    Robert Cheadle, analyst at Montgomery Securities, said "you
have to ask yourself why no one in the industry made a bid."
    Scott Drysdale, analyst at Birr Wilson Securities, said the
company has not made the best strategic moves over the years.
"They have not done the right things at the right time," he
said, and as a result earnings per share have steadily declined
since 1984. The 57 cts per share in earnings reported for the
fiscal year ended in February was lower than 1978's earnings,
he said. Earnings totaled 5.7 mln dlrs on revenue of 398.4 mln
dlrs.
    Drysdale said Pay N' Pak has better trained sales people
than many competitors, but it competes on price even though
competitors have lower costs. The result is squeezed margins.
He noted that there have been no other publicly identified
bidders stepping forward since the company rejected an earlier
Bilzerian proposal in mid-April.
    Another arbitrageur said it might not be too late for
another bidder to get in the game. He speculated that someone
in the same home improvement business might be able to offer a
deal for stock that would top both the buyout proposal and
Bilzerian's plan.
 Reuter

Toronto Sun Publishing Corp said it
raised its semi-annual dividend to five cts per share, pay June
15, record June nine
    The company said the annual dividend rate, now ten cts per
share, is an increase of 33 pct after adjusting for a two for
one split of the common shares.
 Reuter

PharmaControl Corp said it
acquired Private Formulations Inc from <Revco D.S. Inc> for six
mln dlrs in cash, a 13,550,000 dlr promissory note and warrants
to buy 200,000 PharmaControl common shares.
    PharmaControl said the purchase price was financed, along
with one mln dlrs in working capital, through secured
institutional financing.
    The company said betweenm 11,550,000 dlrs and 12,550,000
dlrs f the principal amount of the Revco note, plus accrued
interest, is payable June 30. The balance is payable over three
years.
    PharmaControl said it expects to make the payment due to
Revco from proceeds of a proposed offering of units consisting
of convertible subordinated debenturers and common stock
currently on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Upon closing of the public offering, the company said, it
expects the secured institutional financing to increase to a
total of 12 mln dlrs.
    Private Formulations is primarily engaged in the
manufacture and distribution of vitamins and private label
over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.
 Reuter

Dean Foods Co said its board
elected Howard M. Dean, the company's president, to succeed
Kenneth J. Douglas as chief executive officer of the firm.
    Kenneth will replace Douglas, who is also chairman, on
October one, Douglas' 65th birthday. Douglas will remain
chairman.
 Reuter

Fisher Foods Inc <FHR> said
<5300 Richmond Road Corp>, its largest shareholder, has not yet
reached a definitive decision about whether it will buy more
Fisher stock through a possible merger, tender offer or another
acquisition proposal.
    5300 is a Delaware corporation formed by <American Seaways
Foods Inc>, <Rini Holding Co> and <Rego Companies> which owns
1.5 mln shares of Fisher, or about 44 pct of its outstanding
    Fisher said 5300 had announced on April 20 that they would
make a decision on June 1 about the move.
    Fisher said 5300 also told it they will continue to explore
possible advantages and disadvantages of various acquisition
    5300 also said it is continuing to discuss with various
financial groups about possible financing for such a move, but
gave no indication of when any financing or proposal would be
finalized, Fisher said.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 150,000 TONNES OF  BARLEY SOLD TO SAUDI ARABIA FOR 1987/88-USDA

37.1 mln dlrs to Tanzania and Rwanda through the International
Development Association (IDA), the bank's concessionary lending
affiliate.
    Tanzania will recieve a 23 mln dlr IDA loan to help
rehabilitate its telecommunications network, the bank said.
    The 14.1 mln dlr IDA loan to Rwanda will help finance
tropical forest conservation projects and a reforestation
program, the bank said.
    The IDA credit is for 50 years, including 10 years of
grace, and carries no interest, the bank said.
 Reuter

Private exporters reported sales of
150,000 tonnes of barley to Saudi Arabia for delivery in the
1987/88 season, the U.S. Agriculture Deapartment said.
    The 1987/88 season for barley begins today.
 Reuter

U.S. Bancorp (Oregon) said it has
been advised orally that its application for the acquisition of
Old National Bancorp has been approved by the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve.
    The company said it has also been advised that it has
received Fed approvals for its acquisition of Heritage Bank of
Camas, Wash., and for its conversion of its subsidiary, U.S.
Thrift and Loan of Salt Lake City, Utah, into a commercial
bank.
    In January U.S. Bancorp and Old National reached a
definitive agreement covering the acquisition of all the stock
of Old National which it does not already own for 171 mln dlrs.
    U.S. Bancorp currently owns 4.9 pct of Old National's
stock.
 Reuter

Flooding in the Red River on the
Texas/Oklahoma border has shut down the Basin Pipeline, a
24-inch pipeline that transports as much as 300,000 barrels per
day of sweet and sour crudes from Texas to Cushing, Okla, a
Texaco Pipeline Co spokesman confirmed.
    "The water is rushing by so fast that we can't get any
divers down to assess the damage but there is some possibility
that the pipeline could be up by the end of the week," a company
    The pipeline transmits roughly two-thirds sour crude and
one-third sweet crude oil from the Midland, Texas region.
    Texaco sources said that if the pipeline service is
restored by Friday there would be little problem in restoring
oil which has been lost to the flood.
    "But if the pipeline is down more than 10 days it will be
difficult to make up without prorationing and we would not like
to proration this pipeline, if we don't have to."
    The Basin Pipeline is jointly owned by Atlantic Richfield
Corp <ARC>, Shell Oil Co, a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell
Group <RD> and Texaco Inc <TX>, which is the pipeline's
operator.
     Peter Beutel, analyst at Elders Futures Inc, said crude
oil futures contracts on New York Mercantile Exchange rose to
new highs this afternoon following news of the pipeline break.
    July crude futures of West Texas Intermediate traded up to
19.60 dlrs a barrel, a rise of more than 20 cts.
    Cash market prices also firmed on the news with sellers of
WTI raising offers to 19.60 dlrs a barrel.
    Sour crudes, which would be most affected by the pipeline
shutdown, however, were slow to react to the news with West
Texas Sour and Alaska North Slope holding 50 cts to one dlr a
barrel below WTI, respectively.
    Dan Stevens, manager of public and government affairs at
Texaco, said the company hopes to fix the pipeline in five days
but that will depend on when the water level of the Red River
recedes. There is already evidence that the water level is
dropping and it appears the rain has stopped in the area
affecting the pipeline, Stevens said.
    He said the segment of the pipeline that was damaged was
underground and at a distance from the Red River that flooded.
The pipeline runs over the Red River and under the subsoil
nearby, according to Stevens. He said some of this subsoil was
apparently washed away.
   
    The potential for environmental damage is being downplayed
at this time despite the volume of oil that runs through this
line.
    Texaco's Stevens said that aerial surveillance has not
found any crude on the water in the river or in Lake Texoma,
which is nearby.
 Reuter

Unisys Corp said it will redeem on July
one all of its outstanaing 200 mln dlrs of 7-1/4 pct
convertible subordinated debentures of 2010.
    It will buy back the convertibles at 106.525 pct of 1,000
dlr par value, plus accrued interest.
    Unisys also said it expected that substantially all of the
debentures will be surrendered for conversion into its common
stock. Each 1,000 dlr debenture is convertible into 12.88
shares of common before the close of business on June 26.
    The company the conversion of the debt to equity would
strengthen its capital structure.
 Reuter

Shr loss 36 cts vs loss 57 cts
    Net loss 4,589,000 vs loss 7,339,000
    Revs 19.9 mln vs 19.6 mln
    Avg shrs 14.7 mln vs 13.3 mln
    NOTE: Company is a subsidiary of <British Land Co PLC>
 Reuter

<First Philadelphia Corp> said its
Computone Systems Inc unit filed a chapter 11 plan for with the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta.
    Subject to confirmation by the court of the plan, the
assets of Computone's two operating divisions would be
transferred to CPX Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First
Philadelphia, the company said.
    First Philadelphia said it is in the process of raising
1,750,000 dlrs to complement it initial investment of 750,000
dlrs to fund the cost of the reorganization and provide ongoing
capital for existing Computone businesses.
 Reuter

<Forstman Little and Co> said it plans
to sell its Sybron Corp unit, a leading maker and marketer of
dental and laboratory products, for an undisclosed sum.
    Forstmann Little said it acquired Sybron in February 1986
and since that time Sybron has been substantially restructured,
with new management, lower corporate overhead and a new
location in Saddle Brook, N.J.
    Fortsmann Little said <Goldman Sachs and Co> will act as
its financial advisor for the move. It added that Sybron
expects revenues for the current fiscal year of 242 mln dlrs
with operating income of about 51 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group Inc shares rose on
speculation the company would receive a takeover offer, traders
said.
    Hutton's stock also was affected by a newspaper report that
First Boston Corp <FBC> accumulated almost five pct of Hutton's
stock on behalf of an outside client, traders said. Traders
said the story, which appeared in USA Today, added speculation
which began on the street last week. They said there were
rumors the stock was under accumulation and speculation
abounded the company would soon receive an offer. A Hutton
official declined comment. Hutton's stock rose 2-1/4 to 39-3/8.
    Hutton several months ago rejected a buyout offer from
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc <SHE>. The newspaper story
mentioned speculation American Express Co <AXP>, the parent of
Shearson, was a possible buyer. But traders said the rumors
today did not name buyers. First Boston officials were not
immediatley available for comment.
    Prudential Bache analyst Larry Eckenfelder said he doubted
the speculation about American Express. He said he believed
Hutton, which is occassionally surrounded by rumors, moved up
today as a result of the newspaper article. "Hutton is still a
takeover candidate," said Eckenfelder.
 Reuter

Corp to 2,025,850 shares, or 28.1 pct of the total outstanding
common stock, from 1,808,700 shares, or 25.1 pct.
bought 217,150 Wrather common shares on May 28 and 29 at 20.00
dlrs a share, or 4.3 mln dlrs total.
 Reuter

Allegis Corp may file its plan of
recapitalization with the Securities and Exchange Commission
later this week, a company spokesman said.
    The spokesman also said the company has no comment on
Coniston Partners plan to carry out its solicitation of
consents from shareholders to remove Allegis directors.
    Coniston proposes replacing the board of directors with its
own candidates and then selling off one or more units of
Allegis. Allegis, apparently in response to takeover activity,
announced a sweeping recapitalization plan, which will give
shareholders 60 dlrs per share.
    Allegis shares came under pressure from institutional
selling today. The stock slipped 1-3/8 to 85-1/8 on volume of
more than 1.6 mln shares. Traders said there was also
arbitrage-related buying.
    PaineWebber Group analyst Edward Starkman said institutions
and other long-term holders may want to cash in their gains
instead of waiting for the company's special dividend, which
would be taxed at a higher rate. The recapitalization is
subject to shareholder and other approvals.
    Starkman said he believes Coniston may still have a chance
to win the battle for control of Allegis' board room, despite
the recapitalization plan.
    Coniston Partners would not comment on the recapitalization
plan.
    "We said a week ago, and we say it again today that the way
to maximize value for shareholders is to see these companies
traded as independent companies," said Keith Gollust, one of
the partners.
    Allegis owns United Air Lines, Hertz rental cars, and
Westin and Hilton International hotels.
    Allegis' recapitalization plan does not entail the sale of
any of those businesses, which its management claims are
necessary to its travel services strategy. The recapitalization
plan would add three billion dlrs in debt to its balance sheet.
    Some Wall Street analysts believe such a move could be
risky since the airline, as well as other travel businesses,
are dependant on the strength of the economy.
    "They've become sort of a super cyclical company," Starkman
said. The hotels and car rental business represents "no
diversification. It just makes it worse."
    Traders and analysts who believe Coniston's effort may have
a chance believe that Allegis management is not giving
shareholders full value. After receiving the dividend,
shareholders will still hold their stock. Arbitragers and
analysts valued the recapitalization in the upper 80s to 100
    Breakup values for the company estimated on Wall Street
exceed 110 dlrs per share.

 Reuter

British Airways is looking forward to
industry deregulation in Europe and believes it will be a
smoother transition than the turmoil that followed the opening
of the U.S. skies, its chief executive said.
    Colin Marshall told Reuters that Europe will phase in
deregulation gradually to avoid the problems created in the
U.S. in the late 1970s -- fast growth, unstable fares, new
carriers that went bankrupt and ultimately years of losses for
even the largest airlines.
    "In Europe we have the benefit of learning from the
American experience," Marshall said. "When you add that to the
conservative nature of the Europeans, it amounts to an approach
that is slower and more cautious."
    Airline liberalization, as it is called, must first be
approved by the transportation ministers of the European
Community nations. This could come this month when the
ministers meet to take it up, Marshall said in an interview
during a U.S. visit to talk to airline industry analysts.
    "As the largest airline in Europe, and with the
sophisticated computer systems we have to help us with yield
and load factors management, I think we have a very good
chance, if not the best chance, of doing well in a liberalized
situation in Europe," Marshall said.
    Airline market deregulation in Europe will open up new
routes between European countries, allow established carriers
to grow and permit new airlines to begin operations.
    It will also free airlines to fly more seats on any given
route -- something that is highly regulated now -- and to base
fares on market forces. Discount fares in Europe might even
become more widespread.
    "We think liberalization will help stimulate traffic,"
Marshall said.
    Lower fares have been offered by British carriers since
domestic services in Britain were deregulated in 1984, he said.
But passengers taking return flights or from other countries
pay higher, regulated prices.
    Marshall said deregulation will spawn more European
airlines, possibly to be followed by a spate of mergers, as is
happening in the United States.
    Two airlines, Sabena and Scandinavian Airlines System
(SAS), are now discussing a merger. Their success "might open
up Europe to further merger activity," he said.
    This is because an SAS-Sabena merger could be a test case
to determine whether countries are willing to allow landing
rights to be transferred from one carrier to another, he said.
 Reuter

Rep. Mike Synar said today that while
President Reagan is ready to use military force to protect
Kuwait tankers in the Gulf, the United States is ill-prepared
at home to deal with a new energy crisis.
    Synar, Democrat of Oklahoma, made his remarks in comments
on a study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) on the U.S.
participation in the 1985 test of the emergency oil sharing
program of the International Energy Agency.
    The IEA, an alliance of 21 oil consuming countries, was
formed after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo to find ways to deal
with any future oil cutoff.
    Synar said, "the president is prepared to take military
action to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers but has been unwilling to
take less dangerous, equally-important action to prepare our
nation for the next energy crisis."
    Reagan said the U.S. military would protect Kuwaiti oilers
to assure the West of a continuing supply of Middle East oil,
increasingly being threatened by the Iranian-Iraqi war. Synar,
who asked for the GAO report after criticism of U.S. action in
a previous IEA test, said the United States successfully
advocated a test limited to training participants in oil
sharing procedures and the system's mechanical aspects.
 Reuter

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc said
its Metal Container Corp subsidiary will build its planned
beverage can manufacturing plant in Orange County, New York
instead of Chester, New York.
    The site was changed because Metal Container was unable to
obtain necessary building permits within its construction
schedule requirements, it said.
    The proposed plant, which is expected to be completed in
late 1988, will produce aluminum spin-neck cans and have an
operating capacity of more than two billion cans a year, it
said.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc said it 
completed the sale of its MPB Corp unit to Bearing Acquisition
Corp for 145 mln dlrs plus assumption of certain MPB
    Headquartered in Keene, N.H., MPB designs and makes
precision ball and roller bearings used in aerospace, ordnance
and computer applications. Allied-Signal said the unit had 1986
sales of over 90 mln dlrs.
    It noted the sale to newly formed Bearing Acquisition was
announced May 18.
   
    Allied-Signal said Bearing Acquisition is a newly-formed
corporation owned by an investors group organized by Harold S.
Geneen and Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corp.
    Wells Fargo Bank provided senior debt financing to Bearing
Acquisition and Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette provided bridge
financing in the form of subordinated notes, preferred stock
and common stock in an amount sufficient to fund the purchase
price, Allied-Signal added.
 Reuter

expects to meet today with two of five United Steelworkers of
America locals on strike at its Trail smelter and Kimberley,
B.C. lead-zinc mine, a Cominco spokesman said.
    It had no meeting scheduled with the other three striking
locals, which rejected a tentative three-year contract
Saturday, Cominco spokesman Richard Fish said.
    Fish said the pact that was rejected contained a cost of
living increase tied to the Canadian consumer price index, but
no wage increase. With 81 pct of the membership voting, 54.5
pct voted no and 45.5 pct voted yes, the union said.
    The three locals represent about 2,600 production and
maintenance workers, while the remaining two locals cover about
600 office and technical workers.
    The office and technical workers last negotiated May 21.
Production at Trail and Kimberley has been shut down since the
strike began May 9 and Cominco has had to declare force
majeure, which means the company may be unable to honor
contracts for products from the smelter and mine.
    Trail smelter revenue was 356 mln Canadian dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

the Bass family of Fort Worth, Texas, said it lowered its stake
in National Distillers and Chemical Corp to 1,159,400 shares,
or 3.6 pct of the total common, from 1,727,200, or 5.3 pct.
the Bass group said it sold 567,800 National Distillers common
shares between May 15 and 29 at prices ranging from 59.94 to
63.44 dlrs a share.
    As long as the group's stake is below five pct, it is not
required to disclose its further dealings in National
Distillers' common stock.
 Reuter

Republic American Corp told the
Securities and Exchange Commission it raised its stake in
Buckeye Partners L.P. to 963,200 limited partnership units, or
8.0 pct of the total, from 744,200 units, or 6.2 pct.
    Republic, which is controlled by Cincinnati, Ohio,
financier Carl Lindner and his American Financial Corp, said it
bought 219,000 Buckeye units between May 14 and 22 at prices
ranging from 22.49 to 23.02 dlrs each, or about 5.0 mln dlrs
total.
 Reuter

Universal Health Realty
Income Trust said its board approved the repurchase over the
next 12 months of up to one mln shares of beneficial interest
of the trust in the open market or subject to obtaining
necessary financing.
    Universal also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 33
cts a share payable June 30 to shareholdres or record June 15.
 Reuter

Kingsbridge Holdings Ltd, said it signed
a letter of intent for a merger with <Masco Sports Inc>.
    The transaction calls for 230 mln sahres of Kingsbridge
common stock to be issued to shareholders of Masco.

 Reuter

Period ended March 31
    Oper shr profit four cts vs loss 17 cts
    Oper net profit 584,000 vs loss 2,165,000
    Revs 7,493,000 vs not given
    SIX MTHS
    Oper shr profit eight cts vs loss 14 cts
    Oper net profit 1,177,000 vs loss 1,778,000
    Revs 14.8 mln vs not given.
   
 reuter

Pepsico Inc's Kentucky Fried Chicken
said it has committed 40 mln dlrs over the next 90 days to
introduce a major new product category.
    The company said it is introducing Chicken Littles, a
chicken patty sandwich served on a soft dinner roll, which will
sell for 39 cts.
 Reuter

Ralston Purina Co said it formed a
new branded foods group to align all of its warehouse-delivered
human foods.
    W. Patrick McGinnis, formerly executive vice president of
the company's grocery products division, was named president of
the new group and will report to W.P. Stiritz, Ralston's
chairman.
                                         
 Reuter

Oper shr loss three cts vs loss one ct
    Oper net loss 1,796,000 vs loss 381,000
    Revs 2,501,000 vs 2,695,000
    SIX MTHS
    Oper shr loss eight cts vs loss four cts
    Oper net loss 3,235,000 vs loss 1,123,000
    Revs 4,850,000 vs 4,551,000
    Note: 1987 net excludes 2nd qtr extraordinary gain of 87
mln dlrs or 1.54 dlrs shr from sale of 51 pct stake of Mascot
Gold Mines Ltd <MSG.TO>. Full name Royex Gold Mining Corp.
 Reuter

DRESSER INDUSTRIES INC TO SELL RELIANCE STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE TO ROSENKRANZ UNIT

Public Service Co of New Hampshire
<PNH> said the owners of the Seabrook nuclear power plant
approved a 1.2 mln dlr advertising campaign to inform the
public about the plant's safe construction.
    The campaign make a point that nuclear power provides
one-third of New England's electricity and Seabrook is the
ninth nuclear plant in the six-state region.
    Operation of the plant has been delayed by the reluctance
of officials in neighboring Massachusets to participate in
evacuation drills. New Hampshire Public Service is operator of
the plant and has a 35.6 pct interest in the facility.
 Reuter

Oper shr 74 cts vs 30 cts
    Oper net 3,034,000 vs 1,225,000
    NOTE: 1987 operating net excludes credits of 1,043,000 dlrs
or 25 cts a share.
    1986 operating net excludes discontinued operations of
84,000 dlrs or two cts, and extraordinary charges of 1,119,000
dlrs or a loss of 27 cts.
 Reuter

American Realty Trust said
oversubscription pool requests received in a recent rights
offering were in excess of five mln shares.
    As a result, all 12.1 mln shares offered will be issued,
and the trust will receive additional equity of over 45 mln
dlrs. Under the offering, the Trust distributed to shareholders
rights to acquire beneficial interest at 3.75 dlrs per share .
    Its largest shareholder, Southmark Corp <SM> delivered most
of its rights to shareholders as a special dividend, reducing
its share ownership to 42 pct from 84 pct, it said.
 Reuter

Kendall Refining Co, a unit of
Witco Corp, and the <Knox Truck Stop> chain, said they have
developed one of the nation's first fast-oil-change centers
for trucks outside of Dallas.
    The service, called Fast Lube, offers a 60-minute oil
change and inspection service for trucks and also involves a
used-oil analysis program that relays engine information to the
driver's fleet headquarters, the companies said.
    According to the companies, fast-oil-change centers are
expected to grow from the current three pct of the oil
lubrication market to 15 pct by 1990.
   
    In addition, Kendall said it recently launched a national
Fast Lube program with <Avis Inc> that provides participating
Avis Lube franchises with lubricants, equipment and marketing
support.
 Reuter

Wyse Technology said it agreed
in principle to acquire privately-held Link Technologies Inc in
exchange for an undisclosed amount of Wyse Technology shares.
    Link Technologies develops and markets computer terminals,
Wyse also said.
 Reuter

LTV Corp's LTV Aircraft Products Group
said it was awarded a contract valued at more than 10 mln dlrs
to continue production of engine covers and thrust reversers
for the Challenger 601-3A executive business jet.
    the aircraft is manufactured by Canadair Ltd. of Montreal,
it said.

 Reuter

Lincoln Bancorp said it filed a
common shares at an estimated offering price of between eight
and nine dlrs per share.
    The company said First of Michigan Corp will manage the
purposes and for expansion.

 Reuter

Pueblo International Inc, a supermarket
operator, said it bought 75,000 shares last week in two
separate transactions from unrelated shareholders as part of
its share buy back program.
 Reuter

    Net 234,326 vs 266,653
    Revs 5.5 mln vs 5.8 mln
    Six months
    Shr 21 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 445,509 vs 646,978
    Revs 9.4 mln vs 10.8 mln
 Reuter

Peter Myers, Deputy Secretary of
Agriculture will head the U.S. delegation to the World Food
Council's Thirteenth Ministerial in Peking, China June 8-11,
    The discussions will center on four issues -- the global
state of hunger and malnutrition and the impact of economic
adjustment on food and hunger problems, the impact of
international agricultural trade and related national policies
on food and development, regional cooperation in food and
agriculture among developing nations in the Southern
hemisphere, and activities of multilateral assistance agencies
aimed at reducing hunger.
    The World Food Council is a 36-country United Nations body,
which recommends how governments and international
organizations can work together to alleviate world hunger.

 Reuter

Morino Associates Inc said it
established a new business unit to establish its presence in
Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South and Central AMerica,
Africa, Middle East and the Far East.
    The new unit will explore opportunities for the
establishment of marketing agreements that address secondary
markets for the company's technology and will evaluate
opportunities in Japan, it said.
 Reuter

Toyota Motor Co's <TOYO.T> U.S. sales
subsidiary said it has been studying the possibility of forming
a new division to market upscale cars, but denied a published
report that it would announce a startup decision this year.
    Toyota spokesman Jerry Giaquinta told Reuters: "All we're
saying at this point is we'be been studying the luxury,
performance segment and no final decision has been made on
whether to enter it or which or several options to follow."
    The trade paper Automotive News reported in this week's
edition that Toyota will announce such a  division in a move
similar to rival Honda Motor Co's <HMC> Acura car division.
    The Toyota spokesman said, "The Automotive News article is
based on speculative assumptions."
    The paper said Toyota has already identified 100 key
dealers who would be offered the "unnamed new franchise" that
would open in the 1989 model year with "three
luxury-performance car lines."
    It also said the new Toyota luxury line would have prices
likely to start arpund 16,000 dlrs and going to the
"high-20,000-dlr range" to appeal to buyers of European and
American luxury buyers.
 Reuter

    Net 4.6 mln vs 3.8 mln
    Revs 112.8 mln vs 104.1 mln
    NOTE:1987 includes lifo charge of 1.5 mln dlrs, pension
expenses declined by 879,000 dlrs due to change in accounting,
interest decreased by 382,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Dresser Industries Inc said it signed a
definitive agreement to sell its Reliance Standard Life
Insurance Co to RSL Holding Co Inc., a subsidiary of the
privately-held, New York-based investment firm of Rosenkranz
and Co.
    Terms were not undisclosed. Philadelphia-based Reliance
earned 25.3 mln dlrs on sales of 201.6 mln dlrs in 1986.
    Dresser said it will use the proceeds from the sale for
stock repurchases, debt reduction, and possibly complementary
acquisitions in the field of engineered products and services
for energy producers.
 Reuter

Atcor Inc said that Roth-American Inc,
which had signed a letter of intent on May 1 to acquire its
Turco and Charmglow operations of its consumer products
segment, has decided against buying Charmglow.
    While Roth-American said it is still interested in
acquiring Turco, Atcor said it is now reviewing its options
with other potential buyers who have expressed interest in its
consumer products businesses.
 Reuter

    Net profit 68,607 vs loss 183,893
    Revs 4.2 mln vs 602,665
 Reuter

share bid made last Wednesday by Union Pacific Corp (UNP), 
    "The offer is inadequate," said Douglas Augenthaler, an
analyst with E.F. Hutton, noting that it does not represent the
needed premium over the company's fundamental value based on
earnings estimates.
    USPCI, which has 8.7 mln shares outstanding, was trading at
48-1/8, down 3/8.
    USPCI vice president of finance Larry Shelton said he could
not comment on the adequacy of the offer or on when the board
would meet to consider it.
    Augenthaler said that while USPCI was trading at only 34
dlrs a share at the time of the takeover bid, its announcement
that same day of higher earnings expectations changed its
value. USPCI said its second quarter earnings would exceed
analysts expectations of 24 to 30 cts a share.
    At that price, USPCI could maintain a stock price in the
low 40s, Augenthaler said.
    Hutton revised its 1987 earnings estimate for the waste
management concern to 1.40 dlrs a share from 1.20 dlrs on the
announcment, he said. It lifted its 1988 projection to 1.90
dlrs a share from 1.70 dlrs.
    In addition, analysts said the hazardous waste management
business holds significant growth potential. The industry has
grown from 16 to 35 pct over the last five years, based on
earnings per share, said Jeffrey Klein, an analyst with Kidder
Peabody and Co. The industry is expected to continue growing at
15 to 35 pct over the next five years, he said.
    Augenthaler said the 43-dlr-a-share offer, or 375 mln dlrs
total, would be a bargain for Union Pacific. The transportation
and energy company would both gain entry into a profitable
business and win cost-control benefits, he said.
    "Union Pacific has what are rumored to be some fairly
signficant environmmental problems of its own," he said.
    Herb Mee Jr., president of Beard Oil Co (BEC), which holds
a 30.4 pct stake in USPCI, said last week Union Pacific's offer
was "grossly inadequate."
 Reuter

Total Petroleum NA <TPN> shut down
several small crude oil pipelines operating near the
Texas/Oklahoma border last Friday as a precaution against
damage from local flooding, according to Gary Zollinger,
manager of operations.
    Total shut a 12-inch line that runs across the Ouachita
River from Wynnewood to Ardmore with a capacity of 62,000 bpd
as well as several smaller pipelines a few inches wide with
capacities of several thousand bpd or less, Zollinger said.
    The Basin Pipeline, a major pipeline running 300,000 bpd,
run by a consortium of other oil companies, was closed today.
    One other small pipeline that Total also closed has a
capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 bpd and crosses the Red River in
Fargo, Texas, Zollinger said.
    He said the closed pipelines run under river water and
could be damaged as the flooded rivers erode the river banks
and expose the piping.
    Zollinger said Total is waiting for the river waters to
recede before they reactivate the pipelines.
 Reuter

Thousands of British Columbian
unionized workers staged a one-day general strike to protest
proposed new provincial labor legislation.
    Ferry service was halted, there was no garbage collection,
government offices were closed and some medical services were
restricted. Postal workers, although covered by federal laws,
refused to cross picket lines.
    In Vancouver, transit workers also joined in the protest
and no buses operated. Management, however, kept the city's
SkyTrain service in operation.
 Reuter

The Energy Department said it reached
proposed oil pricing settlements totaling 680,150 dlrs with the
operator and four working interest owners of A.D. LeBlanc No. 1
well, Vermillion Parish, La.
    Trigon Exploration Co., Inc operated the well from June
1979 to January 1981 for D. Bryan Ferguson, C. William Rogers,
Omni Drilling Partnership No 1978-2 and Entex Inc.
    DOE alleged Trigon caused overcharges of 624,208 dlrs by
improperly classifying its oil as "newly discovered crude," a
classification that allowed charging higher prices during a
period of price controls.
    It said the proposed settlements would resolve disputes
over possible violations by the five parties. DOE added that in
agreeing to the settlements, the five did not admit any
violations or non-compliance with its regulations.
    It said it would receive written comments on the
settlements before making it final.
 reuter

has proposed a futures contract based on the Nikkei Stock
Average, a price-weighted index of 225 stocks on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange, federal regulators said.
    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said CME's
proposed contract is designed to be used as a hedging tool for
dealers and investors in Japanese equities.
    The contract's unit of trading would be 500 Japanese yen
times the Nikkei index, CFTC said. The minimum price
fluctuation would be 2,500 yen, with no daily price limits.
    Public comment on the proposal is due by July 28.
 Reuter

put Hospital Corp of America's nearly three billion dlrs of
long-term debt under review with uncertain direction.
    Under review are the A-2 senior debt, A-3 convertible
subordinated debt and Prime-2 commercial paper ratings.
    Moody's cited the firm's planned sale of 104 U.S.-based
hospitals to an employee stock ownership plan. The cost would
be 1.8 billion dlrs in cash plus preferred stock and warrants.
    Moody's expects favorable credit implications if the sale
includes low-profit hospitals. Reducing Hospital's financial
leverage will be needed to maintain credit quality, it said.
 Reuter

Gerhard Laske, a national of West
Germany, has been appointed treasurer of the International
Monetary Fund, succeeding Walter Habermeier, who took early
retirement, the agency said.
    Laske, 59, held a senior position at the Bundesbank in the
Department for International Organizations. Prior to that, he
was executive director for Germany.
 REUTER

it acquired (Keystone Bancshares Inc) for 25 mln dlrs.
    Keystone shareholders will receive 45 dlrs per Keystone
share, payable in First of America convertible preferred stock
having a dividend rate of nine pct.
    Keystone has two affiliates with combined assets of 205 mln
dlrs. First of America has 7.9 billion dlrs in assets.
 Reuter

The U.S. Court of International Trade has
upheld the International Trade Commission's refusal to extend
countervailing duties on Canadian hogs to include pork
products, the National Pork Producers' Council said.
    The court's ruling came in an appeal to the Trade
Commission's decision filed by the Pork Producers' Council.
    Council president Tom Miller said he was disappointed by
the court ruling and said the council will accelerate
activities in support of an amendment to the 1930 Tariff Act
that would address the objections outlined in the Trade
Commission's ruling.
    The Commission had said there was insufficient economic
integration between the pork production industry and the pork
packing industry to justify extending the duty on live hogs to
fresh, chilled or frozen pork.
    The legislation has already passed the House of
Representatives and recently passed the Senate Finance
Committee. It is expected to be considered by the full Senate
by the end of the summer.
    An appeal by the Canadian Pork Council that the current
countervailing duty on Canadian hogs entering the U.S. be
lifted is pending before the Court.
 Reuter

completed the acquisition of Eaton Corp's <ETN> industrial
polymer division.
    The company said it paid about 70 mln dlrs in cash for the
division, which will be renamed Samuel Moore Group.
    Fluorocarbon also said the division should boost annual
sales to 165 mln dlrs from last year's 98 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Supermarkets General Corp said it
redeemed its preferred stock purchase rights on May 29 and will
pay five cts a right in the near future to holders of record
May 29.
 Reuter

Dekalb Corp said it sold its Heinold
Hog Market Inc to the unit's employees through an Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
    Terms were not disclosed, but president Bruce Bickner said
the sale will have a positive, but not substantial, impact on
DeKalb as a whole.
    The company said the hog marketing unit did not fit with
its strategy of investing in its core businesses.

 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its May North American
car production fell 12.8 pct to 94,715 from 108,595 a year ago.
    Chrysler said its May truck production rose 32 pct to
61,151 from 46,332 last year.
 Reuter

LTV Corp's LTV Steel Corp said it
agreed to resume negotiations with the United Steelworkers of
America at the local plant levels, to discuss those provisions
of its proposal that require local implementation.
    The local steelworker union narrowly rejected a tentative
agreement with the company on May 14, it said.
    LTV also said it agreed to reopen its offer contained in
the tentative agreement reached with the union's negotiating
committee as part of a plan to resolve problems through local
discussions.
               
 Reuter

affirmed about four billion dlrs of long-term debt of Middle
South Utilities and nearly all of its units.
    Moody's cited the U.S. Supreme Court's stay of an adverse
Misssissippi Supreme Court ruling for a Middle South unit,
Mississippi Power and Light Co. The approval of the stay may
enhance Mississippi Power's prospects for a favorable judgment,
Moody's added.
    But Moody's said it will watch the situation closely
because the stay depends on a bond posting that is satisfactory
to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
    On May 26, the Mississippi Public Service Commission
ordered Mississippi Power to stop collecting about 12 mln dlrs
in monthly revenues from its Grand Gulf power plant, Moody's
pointed out. The Commission also wants Mississippi Power to
submit a plan for refunding 190 mln dlrs of previously
collected funds, Moody's said.
    The first mortgage bonds and secured pollution control
bonds of Mississippi Power, Arkansas Power and Louisiana Power
and Light Co were affirmed at Baa-1. Their preferred stock was
affirmed at Baa-2. In addition, Moody's affirmed Mississippi
Power's Baa-2 unsecured pollution control debt.

 Reuter

General Motors Corp said its May North
American car production fell 26.3 pct to 328,221 units from
445,440 a year ago.
    The company said its May production of commercial vehicles
(trucks and buses) rose 5.1 pct to 158,444 from 150,752 a year
ago.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said its May North American
car production rose 2.2 pct to 213,790 from 209,109 last year.
    The company said its May truck production eased 4.7 pct to
140,696 from 147,638 a year ago.
 Reuter

Westport Bank Corp Inc  aid its
board has declared a 2-for-1 stock split of Westport's common
and an increase in its quarterly cash dividend.
    The company said the split will be effective in the form of
a 100 pct stock dividend on Westport's outstanding common with
a distribution date of July six to shareholders of record on
June 12.
    The company said the pre-split quarterly cash dividend is
26 cts per share, up from 25 cts the previous year, to paid on
July one to shareholders of record on June 12.
   
    Westport Bank said a quarterly dividend of 13 cts a share
will be paid on shares outstanding after the 2-for-1 split.
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 563,000 vs 863,00
    Revs 28.8 mln vs 32.5 mln
    Avg shrs 5.0 mln vs 3.3 mln
 Reuter

Financial Security Savings and
Loan Association said it signed a letter of intent for a
controlling interest to be acquired by an investor group led by
South Florida developer William Landa.
 Reuter

E-Systems said it expects earnings for the
second quarter will likely be below prior expectations due to a
reduction in investment income and higher than expected costs
on several power amplifier programs.
    The company said it does not expect to match the 52 cts a
share net income reported for the second quarter last year.
 Reuter

New York investor Asher Edelman and
Dominion Textile Inc <DTX.T>, who are currently seeking to
acquire Burlington Industries Inc in a hostile tender offer,
said they lowered their stake in the company.
    In a filing with the Secruties and Exchange Commission, the
Edelman/Dominion group, known as Samjens Acqusition Corp, said
it sold options to buy 258,800 Burlington common shares,
reducing its stake in the company to 3,408,813 shares, or 12.33
pct, from 3,667,313 shares, or 13.3 pct.
    The group said the sale, which represented all the
Burlington options it owned, was made May 28 for 8.7 mln dlrs.
    The Edelman/Dominion group last week sweetened its hostile
tender offer to 77 dlrs a share, after Burlington agreed to a
leveraged buyout by a Morgan Stanley and Co-backed group for 76
    But the Edelman/Dominion group, which has litigation
pending against Burlington, also said it has held talks with
Morgan Stanley about "the possibility of settlement of
outstanding matters among" it, Morgan Stanley and Burlington.
 Reuter

A quickly growing Texas-based
distributor of electronics products offered 240 mln dlrs
for Crazy Eddie Inc <crzy>, the leading New York City
electronics retailer, or one dlr per share more than its
founder has bid.
    The 8-dlr-a-share offer by Entertainment Marketing Inc <em>
for Crazy Eddie comes less than two weeks after founder Eddie
Antar and a firm controlled by the Belzbergs of Canada
announced a bid to take the 32-store Crazy Eddie chain private.
    Analysts said Entertainment Marketing, whose revenues and
profits quadrupled in 1986, may be looking to break into the
highly competitive New York City retail market for consumer
electronics, the nation's biggest, at a time the fortunes of
electronics retailers have sagged.
    The analysts questioned whether Houston-based Entertainment
Marketing, founded by a former electronics retailer but whose
present buinesses are primarily as wholesale distributors, had
the management expertise for retailing or was merely trying to
drive up the price of the Crazy Eddie shares it already owns.
    "I have mixed feelings," said analyst Dennis Telzrow of
Eppler, Geurin and Turner, a Dallas brokerage. "On the one hand
it's probably a cheap price. On the other hand, does
Entertainment Marketing have the management talent to run it
and will the Crazy Eddie people leave?"
    "It's a risky strategy for Entertainment Marketing," said
analyst Eliot Laurence of Wessels Arnold and Henderson, a
Minneapolis brokerage. "Electronics retailing is very management
concentrated; they'd want to keep Crazy Eddie's management in
place."
    Laurence said that, since Entertainment Marketing already
owns 4.3 percent of Crazy Eddie's 31.3 million shares, it may
be trying to get the Antar-Belzberg group to increase its
7-dlr-a-share offer.
    Shares of Crazy Eddie, which have jumped from the high
4-dlr range to above 7 dlrs since the Antar-Belzberg bid was
announced May 20, rose another 50 cents Monday to 8.375 a share
in over-the- counter trading. 
    Antar, the reclusive founder of the chain in the New York
City, Philadelphia and Connecticut areas, said last month that
his group controlled 14 percent of Crazy Eddie's shares.
    A Crazy Eddie spokesman said the company's board has taken
no decision on the Antar-Belzberg offer, worth some 187 mln dlrs
since they own more shares than Entertainment Marketing. He
would not comment on the new offer.
    Entertainment Marketing sells computer products such as
disk drives and other, often discounted electronics goods to
retailers, primarily in the southwest, and directly to
consumers by cable television.
    In fiscal 1986, ending last January, its revenues rose to
87.9 mln dlrs from 21.3 mln dlrs the previous year. Net profit
went to 3.2 mln dlrs from 750,000 dlrs in 1985.
    Entertainment Marketing, whose chief executive officer,
Elias Zinn, once ran an electronics retailing business, said in
a statement it had committed 50 mln dlrs toward the purchase
of Crazy Eddie and had retained Dean Witter Reynolds Inc to
assist in financing the balance.
    Analyst Telzerow estimated that the company would have to
borrow about 100 mln dlrs to complete the proposed buyout since
Crazy Eddie has cash and other assets worth about the same
amount.
    Shares of Entertainment Marketing were up 12.5 cents Monday
to 9.50.
 Reuter

The U.S. Defense Department said it
has awarded contracts totaling 176.7 mln dlrs to Grumman
Aerospace Corp <GQ>, GEC Avionics Ltd, General Dynamics Corp
<GD> and Refinery Associates.
    The Pentagon said it has awarded Grumman Aerospace Corp a
50.9 mln dlr addition to an existing contract for 18 F-14A
Tomcat fighter aircraft.
    It also said it has awarded General Dynamics Corp 50.1 mln
dlrs for three contracts. General Dynamics Fort Worth Division
was awarded a 41.3 mln dlrs in increase to existing contracts
for foreign military sales of the F-16.
    General Dynamics Corp's Electric Boat Division has been
awarded an 8.8 mln dlr contract to provide logistics and
training support requirements for the Trident Refit facility,
the Defense Department said.
    GEC Avionics Limited of Rochester, England, has been
awarded a 35.4 mln dlr increase to an existing contract for 564
air data computer kits and 920 mounting hardware kits for
aircraft, the department said.
    Refinery Associates Inc has been awarded 40.3 mln dlr
contract for 93.2 mln gallons of various fuel oils, it said.
 Reuter

The Home Insurance Co, a unit of the
Home Group Inc, said it is not affected by a May 29 California
court ruling that says 20 insurance companies must bear the
costs of asbestos-injury claims.
    The company said it had reached a settlement agreement with
five former asbestos manufacturers that it had insured, prior
to the Superior Court ruling that said insurers, and not
asbestos makers, would have to pay the claims from the
thousands of victims of asbestos-related illnesses.
    Home Insurance did not disclose the terms of the
   
    Home Insurance said it had provided excess coverage to
Manville Corp <QMAN>, Armstrong World Industries <ACK>,
<Fibreboard Inc>, GAF Corp <GAF> and <Nicolet Inc>.
    Home Insurance said it had been negotiating for the past
two years to reach a settlement with the five former asbestos
manufacturers to establish the amount of coverage that Home
Insurance would provide in the claims.
    The company said the settlement does not impact current or
future earnings of the Home Insurance or its parent, Home
Group, and that it will no longer offer insurance for
asbestos-related incidents.
   
 Reuter

President Amin Gemayel named Sunni Moslem
Education Minister Selim Hoss as acting prime minister
following the assassination of Premier Rashid Karami, a
presidential palace statement said.
    "After consultations by President Amin Gemayel with
political and religious leaders the president decided to name
Selim Hoss as acting prime minister," said the statement
broadcast on local radio stations.
    Moslem leaders proposed Hoss, a former premier, as acting
prime minister after Karami died of injuries from a bomb that
exploded aboard his helicopter.
 Reuter

Security Pacific Corp said it intends
to add 500 mln dlrs to its provision for credit losses during
the second quarter, a move that will result in a loss for the
period of about 175 mln dlrs.
    The company added, however, that it now expects to post a
profit for the full year of about 150 mln dlrs.
    Security Pacific said the reserve is specifically related
to its loans to the developing world.
    Security Pacific, which has assets of about 64 billion
dlrs, reported 1986 net income of 385.9 mln dlrs. Last year it
posted second quarter net income of 93.5 mln.
    In making the announcement, Security Pacific said the extra
500 mln dlrs will raise its reserve for credit losses to about
1.3 billion dlrs, or 2.8 pct of total loans and leases
    It said the amount of reserves allocated to Lesser
Developed Country (LDC) debt represents about one-third of the
company's total LDC debt portfolio.
    A spokesman said the company currently has LDC debt
exposure of about 1.8 billion dlrs. The company's total loan
portfolio at March 31 stood at 44.4 billion dlrs.
    The Security Pacific move follows similar provisions by
several other money center banks.
    Last month Citicorp <CCI> led the move by annoucing a three
billion dlr addition to its reserve to help bolster its
protection against uncertainties in the economic world.
    Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> followed with a 1.6 billion dlr
addition to its credit loss reserve.
    "While our LDC debt exposure is relatively small, we think
that the LDC debt environment has been altered significantly
given the recent actions of other major financial
institutions," Security Pacific chairman Richard Flamson said
    Following its 500 mln dlr addition to the credit loss
reserve, its primary capital ratio at the end of the second
quarter will be about 7.4 pct, Security Pacific said.
    The company further stated that it anticipates continuing
its current dividend payment at an annual rate of 1.80 dlrs per
share.
    The company also stressed that it is not writing off loans
to the developing world but rather, adding to its reserves will
allow greater flexibility when dealing with these credits in
    Security Pacific also said it intends to play a continuing
role in meeting the needs of those countries.
    Security Pacific is the nation's sixth largest bank holding
company.
 Reuter

First Union Corp said it
completed the acquisition of two Florida-based banks, North
Port Bank, based in North Port, and City Commerical Bank, based
in Sarasota.
 Reuter

4th qtr ended March 31.
    Shr loss 24 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 751,900 vs loss 569,000
    Revs 497,500 vs 811,400
    Year
    Shr loss 1.13 dlrs vs loss 70 cts
    Net loss 3,472,700 vs 1,990,300
    Revs 2,484,100 vs 2,498,300
 Reuter

The investor group that has agreed to
buy <Computerland Corp> will likely take the leading personal
computer retailer public or sell it to other investors,
    "Now's a good time," said Joe Levy of International Data
Corp. "The personal computer industry has bottomed out and is
on the way up again," he said.
    Earlier today, closely held Computerland, the largest PC
retailing chain in the country, said it agreed to be bought by
an investor group led by E.M. Warburg Pincus and Co, New York.
    Neither Computerland, which is 96 pct owned by its founder,
William H. Millard, nor E.M. Warburg, a money management and
venture capital firm, would disclose the value of the
    Analysts estimated that Computerland, whose 800 stores
generated 1.4 billion dlrs in sales last year, would fetch  150
mln dlrs to 250 mln dlrs. Computerland franchise owners pay
royalties averaging 5.9 pct to the parent company.
    Officials for E.M. Warburg referred all questions to
Computerland. Computerland officials could not immediately be
    E.M. Warburg currently manages 1.5 billion dlrs in venture
capital funds, and its past investments have included Mattel
Inc <MAT> and the Ingersoll newspaper chain. It is also a money
manager, with 3.5 billion dlrs under management.
   Although the PC retailers are benefitting from the strong
upturn in PC sales, analysts said Computerland must make key
changes if it is to fend off advances from rivals like
Businessland Inc <BUSL.O> and Tandy Corp's <TAN> Radio Shack
stores. "The name of the game now is outbound sales forces,
customer service and customer support," said Levy of
International Data.

    Relations between Computerland and its franchise owners
have mellowed recently after Millard was forced to give up
managment control of the company in 1985.
    Ed Faber, who took over as chairman and chief executive
officer, revamped the company's royalty plan, which help quell
much of the franchisee dissent.
   
 Reuter

affirmed Security Pacific Corp's 4.5 billion dlrs of debt.
    S and P said that although the bank's decision today to
increase its reserve against developing country debt by 500 mln
dlrs will result in a loss in the second quarter, the firm
still expects to report a profit for the year.
    Affirmed were Security Pacific's AA senior debt, AA-minus
subordinated debt and preferred stock and A-1-plus commercial
paper. Also, uninsured certificates of deposit of Security
Pacific National Bank and Arizona Bank of Phoenix were affirmed
at AA/A-1-plus.
 Reuter

Digital Communications Associates
Inc said it introduced four new personal computer
communications products, including equipment designed for the
recently anounced International Business Machines Corp <IBM>
personal system/2, and Apple Computer Inc's <APPL.O> 's
Macintosh II and Macintosh SE computers.
 Reuter

United Park City Mines Co said it
had a full and complete subscription to all of the 5,400,731
shares ot its common stock offered in connection with its
recent rights offering.
    It said it will issue 4,892,153 shares of its common under
the basic subscription right and 508,578 shares of its common
under the oversubscription privilege. It said it will also
receive 2.7 mln dlrs in proceeds from the offering.
 Reuter

Ladd Furniture Inc's Clayton-Marcus
Furniture subsidiary said it completed the previously announced
purchase of privately-held Colony House Furniture Inc
for an undisclosed amount of cash and notes.
 Reuter

Hycor Biomedical Inc said it was
forming a unit, Hycor Instruments Inc, to distribute a line of
chemistry analyzers made by <JEOL Ltd> of Japan.
    The product, called a "clinalyzer," is an automated blood
analyzer capable of providing diagnostic and other tests for
hospitals and clinics, the company said.
    The company also said it has discussed distributing other
products made by JEOL.

 Reuter

will close its Montreal truck centre August 31, due to low
sales volume, putting most of the centre's 131 employees out of
work.
    "The sales volume at the centre has been insufficient to
support the operation," the company said in a statement.
    "With the recently announced joint venture with Volvo to
supply the heavy-duty truck market, customer requirements for
the GM line of light and medium duty trucks will be better
satisfied by GM dealers located throughout Quebec," the company
said.
    General Motors Canada said it will provide 52 weeks of
layoff benefits for most employees and up to 104 weeks for some
senior employees.
 Reuter

International Thomson Organization Ltd
said it planned an issue in all of Canada except Quebec of two
mln 1.85 dlr cumulative redeemable retractable series one
    It said that underwriters McLeod Young Weir Ltd and Wood
Gundy Inc agreed to acquire the issue at 25.568 dlrs a share,
with yield to retraction on October 15, 1991 of 7-1/8 pct a
year. The company said it also agreed to sell to the two
underwriters two mln 1.84375 dlr series four cumulative
redeemable retractable preferred shares, which will be resold
privately.
 Reuter

CIS Technologies Inc said that it
and the Swiss Reinsurance Co of Zurich, Switzerland agreed to a
second extension of two dates for the final part of their share
purchase agreement.
    It said the June one election date has been extended to
June 15 and the June 30 closing date has been changed to July
31.
 Reuter

Elsinore Corp said it deposited five mln
dlrs to cover accrued and unpaid interest through June 30 of
the 15-1/2 pct senior mortgage bonds of 1999 of its unit
Elsinore Finance Corp.
    Elsinore has guaranteed the payment of its unit's bonds.
    The parent deposited the five mln dlrs with Elsinore
Finance's trustee, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co, it said.
 Reuter

The Palo Verde Unit 1 nuclear
power plant returned to service today following an automatic
shutdown early Saturday morning, the Arizona Nuclear Power
Project said.
    The shutdown came during a weekly test of feedwater pumps
leading to the steam generators on the non-nuclear side of the
plant, a Power Project spokesman said. A defective electrical
relay caused a feedwater pump to stop operating, leading to an
automatic shutdown of the plant, he said.
    Palo Verde Unit 1 was restarted Sunday following repairs
and surveillance testing. Unit 1 was operating at 40 pct power
Monday and is expected to return to full power, about 1300
megawatts, Tuesday, the spokesman said.
    Palo Verde Unit 2 continues to operate at full power,
generating 1347 gross megawatts, he said.
    The Arizona Nuclear Power Project is a consortium including
AZP Group's <AZP> Arizona Public Service, El Paso Electric
<ELPA>, Public Service of New Mexico <PNM> and Southern
California Edison <SCE>.
 Reuter

directors approved a May 10 accord with Modulaire Industries
<MODX.O> under which Waste Management would acquire Modulaire.
    Under the agreement, Modulaire stockholders would receive
16 dlrs in Waste Management stock for each Modulaire share.
    Modulaire has scheduled a special shareholders meeting for
July 15 to vote on the merger. Waste Management said it has
received proxies from holders of 49.6 pct of Modulaire's common
stock that could be voted in favor of the merger.
    The Hart-Scott-Roding waiting period on the takeover will
expire June 17.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Boeing Co is attempting to recreate
money-losing de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd in its own
image.
    But it is a process that will be complex and, because the
company was in worse shape than expected, time-consuming,
according to de Havilland president Ron Woodard.
    Yet Woodard, a former Boeing executive, believes the
makeover is absolutely essential to revitalize the historic
company Boeing bought from the Canadian government a year ago.
    "These are very complex, deep problems that you don't change
overnight," Woodard told Reuters in an interview as he outlined
his vision of transforming de Havilland into a diversified
manufacturer and an important cog in Boeing's worldwide
    "We've got to get our house in order. We've got to get lots
of Boeing (sub-contract) work in here and we've got to get
Boeing's systems in here and just get to be part of the
worldwide support system."
    But based on de Havilland's turbulent flight path in recent
years, the task will also not be easy.
    Formed in 1928 as an offshoot of the British operation
started by Geoffrey de Havilland, the company has turned out a
variety of small aircraft. During World War II it produced the
unique wooden Mosquito bomber for the Allied Command.
    In the postwar years that de Havilland became renowned
internationally for its rugged bush planes.
    Canada's Liberal government, interested in developing de
Havilland's STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) technology,
acquired the firm in 1974 and poured 830 mln Canadian dlrs into
it over a dozen years, helping to develop the 50-seat Dash 7
and 39-seat Dash 8 commuter aircraft.
    Amid accusations of a sellout, the pro-business
Conservative government sold the company to Boeing in 1986 for
90 mln Canadian dlrs, or less than the price of one of Boeing's
747s.
    Woodard believes de Havilland, which has not made a profit
since 1982, suffered from neglect under government control. It
was also in worse condition than anticipated, and
the company has approached Ottawa for compensation for what it
believes were unexpected shortcomings at the plant.
    "We found to our shock, to our surprise, last August we had
very serious health and safety regulation violations," said
Woodard.
    Although he would not divulge how much is being sought,
Woodard said it would be in excess of the 10 mln Canadian dlrs
already spent on replacing the plant's outmoded ventilation
system.
    Yet Woodard is optimistic that once Boeing's manufacturing
systems are in place, the company can begin delivering planes
on time and at a profit -- possibly within a year and a half.
    "We've got a great product and if we can get everyone
heading the same way we're just going to eat the rest of the
world," Woodard predicted.
    Company officials said production of the 6-mln-U.S.-dlr 
Dash 8 has been doubled to four a month and they hope to reach
six a month by year end.
    Some 63 Dash 8s are on order and there are options for the
purchase of another 27. For the brand new "stretch" or extended
version of the plane, 23 have been ordered and 11 are under
option.
    Woodard said that while de Havilland has a commanding grip
on the North American commuter market, which has been booming
under airline deregulation, the company has only a 30 pct
market share worldwide.
    "I'd like to see us make some overseas penetrations. There
are a lot of places now where people are starting to
deregulate. I think the next big, big growth area is probably
Europe," he said.
    De Havilland now has 5,500 employees, up from 4,300 when
Boeing bought the company. All manufacturing is located at its
Downsview Airport site in Toronto.
 Reuter

U.S. District Court Judge Eugene
A. Gordon said he plans to issue a decision tomorrow on
Burlington Industries Inc's request for an injunction to stop
Samjens Acquisition Corp's takeover bid for the company.
    Wall Street sources have said the outcome of the case could
be pivotal in determining the winner in the fierce takeover
battle for Burlington, the largest u.s. textile maker.
    Gordon presided over six hours of argument today by lawyers
for Burlington and Samjens, a partnership formed by Dominion
Textile Inc and New York investor Asher Edelman.
    Hearings are scheduled to continue tomorrow. A preliminary
injunction would hold up Samjens 2.47 billion dlr offer until
the case is decided.
    Burlington had previously agreed to a 2.44 billion dlr
buyout from Morgan Stanley Group Inc <MS>, one dlr per share
lower than a sweetened 77 dlr per share bid made by Samjens
last week. Burlington has not responded to the new Samjens
offer.
    Burlington has alleged in its lawsuit that Edelman and
Dominion used illegally obtained confidential information about
the company in making their takeover attempt.
 
    That information, Burlington said, was provided by James
Ammeen, a former Burlington executive, through PaineWebber
Group Inc <PWJ>. Ammeen, who had worked for Burlington for 23
years, had as many as 12 divisions with 50 pct of Burlington's
sales reporting to him. When he left Burlington in November,
1985, Burlington said he signed a contract promising never to
divulge inside information about the company.
    Burlington lawyers said shortly after he left he began
working with a PaineWebber employee on a hostile plan to
"takeover the company, dismember the company and displace its
management," Burlington lawyer Hubert Humphrey said.
    Samjens lawyers acknowledged it received information from
PaineWebber, but argued the information was public information
and could be obtained either from texitle industry analysts or
Burlington's public financial statements.
    Burlington lawyers said PaineWebber and Ammeen met with
Edelman and Dominion in November and continued to meet with
them until a couple of days before Edelman and Dominion went
public April 24 with their intention to take over the company.
Burlington lawyers claim Dominion's board decided to attempt a
takeover of Burlington after Ammeen met with the board in
February.
    Burlington lawyers said Edelman and Dominion held
discussions with PaineWebber and Ammeen about acting as
financial advisers to Samjens. But they allege talks broke off
because Painewebber and Ammeen could not satisfy Edelman and
dominion with a written statement that they did not provide
inside information.
    Lawyers for Samjens contended that Painewebber and Ammeen
withdrew as potential advisers because Burlington chairman
Frank Greenberg had called a PaineWebber executive and
threatened legal action if PaineWebber got involved in an
effort to takeover Burlilgnton.
    "The ultimate question is not the price per share or the
profit, but rather the permissable standards of conduct for
those who would takeover an American company," said burlington
lawyer Humphrey.
    Burlington lawyers also contended that Burlington, as the
largest manufacturer of denim in the United States, would be in
violation of anti-trust laws if it acquired Dominion, Canada's
largest textile maker. Dominion has denim manufacturing plants
in Georgia, which would reduce competition in the denim market,
the lawyers said.
    Samjens' lawyers discounted the concern. They said the
market for denim is more fragmented than Burlington contends
and that Burlington has the ability to switch between light
weight and heavy weight denim production as demand and price
dictate.
    Samjens lawyers also pointed to a lawsuit filed by
Burlington in Canada, in which it said it was considering a bid
for Dominion. "Surely, what would have been sauce for the goose
would have been sauce for the gander," said Sidney Rosdeitcher,
a Samjens lawyer.
 Reuter

A tender offer of Asher Edelman and
Dominion Textile Ltd <DTX.TO> for Burlington Idustries Inc is
not affected by the investors' sale of options to buy
Burlington stock, according to an associate of Edelman.
    Noting that "our tender offer is definitely in place" the
aide said the investors are prohibited by Securities and
Exchange Commission regulations from exercising options as long
as a tender offer is open. The options are due to expire at the
    He said the May 28 sale of options to buy 258,800
Burlington shares was thus a "non-event."
 Reuter

Business leaders' confidence in the U.S.
economy has improved slightly, but many top executives express
concern about prospects for the second half of this year, the
Conference Board said.
    The board's measure of business confidence closed at 55 in
the 1987 first quarter, up from 51 in the 1986 fourth quarter.
    However, the Board said virtually all of the gain reflected
optimism about current conditions rather than prospects for the
last half of 1987. The survey covers over 1,000 chief
executives and other top-level executives, representing a wide
cross section of business.
 Reuter

Continental Materials Corp said its
directors decided not to give further consideration to
"business combination" proposed by a stockholder group that
holds 5.2 pct of Continental Materials stock.
    Continental Materials said the offer had been received from
Continental Associates, a group of St. Louis businessmen.    
According to Continental Materials, the group said May 11 it
might boost its stake in Continental Materials. But the group
also said in a letter last week to the company that the group
had no financing. The board "did not consider it an official
offer," a Continental Materials spokeswoman said.
 Reuter

Ameribanc Investors Group and
Cardinal Savings and Loan Association jointly announced that
the proposed acquisition of Cardinal by Ameribanc has been
terminated by mutual agreement.
 Reuter

Darius Keaton, 63, former director of
Santa Fe International Corp, was sentenced to two months in
jail and fined 11,000 dlrs for trading the company's stock on
insider knowledge of its 1981 two-billion-dlr takeover.
    Keaton, who was sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court,
pleaded guilty to wire fraud and failing to report to the
Securities and Exchange Commission that he used his inside
knowledge of a takeover by Kuwait Petroleum to buy shares of
Santa Fe's stock before the takeover was disclosed.
     Keaton must also serve 1,000 hours of community service
after which he will be placed on probation for five years.
 Reuter

Presidential Airways Inc said its load
factor for April was 43.8 pct compared with 44.6 pct in the
    The airline also said its revenue passenger miles were 53.2
mln compared with 30.9 mln in April 1986 and available seat
miles increased to 119.3 mln compared to 70.7 mln.
    Presidential also reported that for the first quarter it
had a loss of 72 cts a share compared with a loss of 98 cts a
share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were 20.6 mln dlrs,
compared with 11.8 mln dlrs in the year-ago period.
 Reuter

Venezuela has obtained more than 300 mln
dlrs in financing for industrial projects and increased its
lines of credit for import financing, finance minister Manuel
    'We can say that we are achieving the recuperation of
credit, but that cannot be done overnight,' Azpurua said in a
    He said a credit agreement for 100 mln marks will be signed
this week with the German state bank Kreditanstalt fur
Wiederaufbau (KFW), to finance an expansion of the state
aluminum company Venalum.
    The credit will be divided into two separate agreements,
one for 85 mln marks with an interest rate of 6.13 pct, and
another for 15 mln marks, at 6.20 pct.
    Azpurua said financing has also been obtained for expansion
of Alcasa, another state aluminum company, and for projects in
the state steel and petrochemical industries.
    Yesterday, he said Venezuela obtained two new credits of
5.0 mln dlrs each for export financing, one from Credit du Nord
of France and the other from Britain's Midland Bank.
    The Venezuelan government has been criticised at home for
failing to obtain new credits, despite its insistence on
repaying foreign debt according to the terms of a rescheduling
accord reached last February.
    Azpurua recently visited Tokyo hoping to acquire new
credits for industrial expansions but clinched no agreements.
Japanese officials refused to allow a new issue of Venezuelan
bonds until the country regains its 'Triple A' credit rating.
 Reuter

The dollar's recent signs of stability
have raised hopes that its 27-month decline may be nearly over,
but most currency analysts refuse to commit themselves until
after the June 12 release of U.S. trade data for April.
    "The trade data will be a deciding factor to see if the
dollar has bottomed out," said Jim McGroarty of Discount Corp.
    Since February 1985, the dollar has nearly halved its value
against the yen and the mark as part of an officially
orchestrated campaign to make U.S. goods more competitive on
world markets and redress gaping world trade imbalances.
    On April 27, the dollar fell to a 40-year low of 137.25 yen
but has enjoyed a modest recovery over the last few weeks,
topping 145 yen today for the first time in nearly two months.
    Many economists now believe that the dollar has fallen far
enough to ease the trade deficit's drag on the U.S. economy.
    The U.S. trade gap narrowed to 13.6 billion dlrs in March
from 15.1 billion in February and is expected to show continued
improvement in April in volume, if not in real, terms.
    Keiichi Udagawa of Bank of Tokyo in New York said that if
further progress is reported, the dollar would head back up
towards 150 yen.
    "There is growing consensus that the dollar has bottomed
out for the medium term," added Tom Campbell of First National
Bank of Chicago.
    Other factors supporting this bullish view were growing
expectations that Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker would
be reappointed for a third four-year term in August, Japan's
larger-than-expected economic stimulus package last week and 
more favorably technical chart signals, analysts said.
    The dollar was also aided by Japan's moves to dampen
speculative selling in Tokyo and by reports of active central
bank intervention to support the dollar.
    The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said last week that
the U.S. monetary authorities bought more than four billion
dlrs during the February-April period -- the largest amount
since the dollar crisis of the late 1970's.
    Discount Corp's McGroarty described the Fed's intervention
volume as "impressive".
    James O'Neill of Marine Midland Bank was not so positive,
however: "the dollar has not yet bottomed out. After the trade
data are released, the dollar could fall towards 1.77 marks and
140 yen."
    Similarly, Natsuo Okada of Sumitomo Bank in New York
warned, "I don't think the dollar has bottomed out yet."
    Although the dollar could rise as high as 146.50 yen, Okada
said market impatience about the painstakingly slow decline of
the U.S. trade deficit may lead to renewed pressure.
    Currency analysts also warned about an unfavorable reaction
to the seven-nation economic Summit on June 8 to 10 in Venice,
which is likely to focus on the implementation of previous
commitments rather than yield any fresh initiatives.
    President Reagan said today, "economic policy decisions
made last year in Tokyo and at this year's meetings of Group of
Seven finance ministers in Paris and Washington cannot be
ignored or forgotten."
translated into action," he added in a speech, celebrating the
40th anniversary of the Marshall aid plan for Europe.
    Now that Tokyo has unveiled its fiscal stimulus package,
analysts expected Bonn and the dollar/mark rate to bear the
brunt of U.S. calls for further action.
    Marine Midland's O'Neill said, "pressure will build up on
Germany to take stimulative action like Japan."
    Some Japanese bank dealers warned that although the dollar
could hold above 145 yen for some months it could also come
under attack again if it seems the latest economic package is
not having much impact on Japan's economy and its trade
surplus. Reflecting a longer-term uncertainty, some some trust
banks and Japanese insurers are keeping their short dollar
positons hedged against exchange losses in their foreign
portfolios, while some others have started covering those short
positions, Japanese bank dealers said.
 Reuter

Bank Building and Equipment Corp of
America said the Delaware Chancery Court denied a stockholder's
request for a preliminary injunction against an
offer for Bank Building stock made by the company and its
employee stock ownership plan and trust.
    Bank Building said the joint offer is for 780,300 shares of
Bank Building stock at 14 dlrs a share. The offer is scheduled
to expire midnight (EDT) on June 2.
    Bank Building also said its board set July 30 as the date
of the company's annual meeting, with a record date of July
six.
 Reuter

Holders of convertible subordinated
debentures of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc threatened to sue
the company if they do not get more information about how their
investment will be affected by the company's proposed
    The holders, none of whom was willing to be identified,
said although Harcourt has urged that they convert their shares
to common stock by the June eight record date for a special
dividend, they were unable to determine if it might be better
for them to continue holding the debentures.
   
    "There are rumors that various houses will bring litigation
if we don't get answers," said a Wall Street source. Officials
of Harcourt declined to comment, citing a suit brought by
British publisher Robert Maxwell whose has been trying to
acquire Harcourt.
    Executives of First Boston Inc, Harcourt's financial
adviser, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
    When it announced its recapitalization May 26 Harcourt
advised holders of the 6-3/8 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due 2011 to convert into common by the June eight
record date for the company's special dividend.
    Harcourt's special dividend pays 40 dlrs per share in cash
plus a security worth 10 dlrs. Holders would also retain stock
in the recapitalized firm.
    The debentures had been convertible at 34 dlrs per share.
Harcourt's May 26 announcement said the conversion price would
be adjusted according to the indenture covering the securities.
Arbitrageurs said the conversion formula yielded a "negative
number" and thus they needed further information from the
company.
 Reuter

venezuela has obtained more than 300 mln
dlrs in financing for industrial projects and has also
increased its lines of credit for import financing, finance
minister manuel azpurua said.
    "we can say that we are achieving the recuperation of
credit, but that cannot be done overnight," azpurua said in a
    Azpurua said a credit agreement for 100 mln marks will be
signed this week with the german state bank kreditanstalt fur
wiederaufbau (kfw), to finance an expansion of the state
aluminum company venalum.
another for 15 mln marks, at 6.20 pct. Azpurua said financing
had also been obtained for the expansion of alcasa, another
state aluminum company, as well as for projects in the state
steel and petrochemical industries. He did not provide details.
    Yesterday, after a meeting of leaders of the ruling accion
democratica party, azpurua said venezuela had obtained two new
credits of five mln dlrs each for export financing, one from
credit du nord of france and the other from the midland bank of
great britain.
    The finance minister's statements came as the government is
under sharp criticism for failing to obtain new credits,
despite its insistence on repaying the foreign debt according
to the terms of a rescheduling accord reached last february.
    Azpurua and other senior economic officals returned from a
trip to tokyo last week in which they hoped to acquire new
credits for industrial expansions, but no agreements were
reached.
    Japanese officials also refused to allow a new issue of
venezuelan debt bonds because until the country regains its
'triple a' credit classification.
 Reuter

South Korea has increased its duty on crude
oil imports to 4.29 dlrs a barrel from 3.29 dlrs, effective
today, the energy ministry said.
    The duty, to raise funds for special energy projects, was
adjusted after average crude import prices rose to 16.85 dlrs a
barrel in April, from 16.65 dlrs in March and 13.08 dlrs in
April 1986, ministry officials said.
    A separate 24.5 pct import tax on crude oil is unchanged.
 REUTER

<Equiticorp Tasman Ltd> (ETL) said it will
offer 4.15 dlrs a share cash for all the issued capital of
Monier Ltd <MNRA.S>, currently the subject of a 3.80 dlrs a
share bid by CSR Ltd <CSRA.S>.
    Alternatively, ETL will offer three shares plus 82 cents
cash for each Monier share, it said in a statement.
    As previously reported, ETL moved into the market for
Monier shares last week, taking its stake to 13.7 pct by
Friday.
    It now holds 14.99 pct, the maximum allowed without Foreign
Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval. ETL is classified as
foreign because of its New Zealand base.
    The ETL cash offer values Monier's issued capital of 156.28
mln shares at 649 mln dlrs, against 593 mln for the CSR bid.
    Based on the current price of ETL shares of 1.05 dlrs, the
alternative is worth 3.97 dlrs per share, but ETL said the
value placed on its shares for the offer aproximates to the
diluted asset backing of ETL as at March 31.
    ETL said the offer will have no minimum acceptance
conditions and will be subject to Australian foreign investment
and U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino anti-trust clearances.
    ETL chairman Allan Hawkins said in the statement that the
shareholding in Monier was a long term investment.
    ETL and its <Feltex International Ltd> associate have
targetted the building products sector as an area of expansion
and Monier fits well with this aim, he added.
    Monier chairman Bill Locke said in a separate statement
that the independent directors of Monier intend to recommend
acceptance of the ETL bid in the absence of a higher bid.
    He also said Monier will not now proceed with the
one-for-two bonus issue announced with its interim results on
March 19 in view of the proposed takeover bids.
    As previously reported, the CSR offer involves a complex
put and call option deal with Monier's major shareholder,
Redland Plc <RDLD.L>, which gives Redland the choice of
accepting the CSR offer for its 49.8 pct stake or moving to
50.1 pct within six months of the bid closing.
    CSR officials have made it clear that they see Redland
taking the second option, resulting in the two companies
running Monier as a joint venture.
    CSR officials have also said they had no intention of
raising the company's bid for Monier after ETL's intervention
became public last week.
 REUTER

Venezuela's central bank has ordered
Venezuelan banks and exchange houses to cease foreign exchange
operations with brokers based outside the country, according to
a copy of a central bank telex made available to Reuters.
    The measure, confirmed by a brokerage firm here, has
effectively cut off all foreign participation in Venezuela's
volatile currency market.
    The telex, issued on May 19, was signed by Carlos Hernandez
Delfino, manager of the bank's department of international
    The telex said the restriction on business with foreign
brokers is in line with an earlier measure prohibiting foreign
exchange houses from selling dollars or other foreign
currencies to anyone living outside Venezuela.
    In recent weeks the Venezuelan government has denied
rumours that it intends to impose foreign exchange controls to
prop up the weakening bolivar.
    But brokers said the central bank's move is seen as a de
facto currency control. "It is definitely a control in the sense
that there's no longer complete freedom to operate," one broker
here said.
    "Gradually they're imposing restrictions and the direction
is towards complete control," the broker said.
    The broker, who requested anonymity, said virtually all his
Venezuelan customers had stopped doing business with him since
the central bank issued the telex and followed it up with
telephone calls.
    He said that before the restriction was imposed the volume
of his firm's transactions with Venezuela was about 10 mln dlrs
a day. "It was a frenetic market, it was really quite active," he
said.
    The broker said he saw no logical explanation for the
prohibition because his firm only acted act as an intermediary
between Venezuelan brokers, exchange houses and banks.
    "We weren't buying dollars from Venezuelans, that's
ridiculous," he said. "They've been on a rampage against
foreigners."
    The broker noted that two months ago Venezuela's central
bank quietly announced that banks doing foreign exchange
business outside Venezuela would have to respect a new 200 pct
reserve requirement.
    In February, the central bank also prohibited trading in
bolivar futures, the broker said.
    "We used to have a forward market," he said. "For a small
currency it was miraculous."
    He said the bolivar, which averaged 20.29 to the U.S.
Dollar in 1986, would continue to slip from its current range
of 28.35 to 28.50 because the central bank was rapidly running
out of foreign reserves to support the currency on the free
market.
 REUTER

Esso Singapore Pte Ltd said it raised
pump prices of petrol from today.
    New prices for 0.15 gm lead grades are 97.0 cents/litre for
97 octane and 90.8 cents for 95 octane.
    Other Singapore oil companies announced yesterday that they
would revise their pump prices effective today.
    Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd, Mobil Oil Singapore Pte
Ltd, Caltex Asia Ltd, Singapore Petroleum Co Pte Ltd and BP
Singapore Pte Ltd are pricing 97 octane at 96.8 cents. Shell,
Mobil and Caltex are pricing 92 octane at 90.2 cents, and SPC
and BP at 90.6 cents.
 REUTER

Forest fires in north-east China had
flared again, threatening settlements and virgin forests so far
untouched by the blaze, the official press said.
    The New China News Agency said eight new fires had been
discovered in the Inner Mongolia region and were rapidly
spreading north and west. It said rain forecast for the region
was expected to help contain them.
    The China Daily said fires near the town of Tahe to the
east had re-kindled and were moving towards nearby logging
camps. Soldiers have been called in to fight the blaze.
    The fires which began on May 6 have killed 191 people.
 REUTER

South Korea raised its pre-tax ex-factory
naphtha price to 104.21 won per litre from 103.97 won,
effective today, energy ministry officials said.
 REUTER

Tokyo - Bundesbank's Schlesinger sees no reason to lower interest rates

Bundesbank vice president Helmut
Schlesinger said he saw no reason to lower interest rates now.
    With money supply growth showing no sign of slowing down in
May and the dollar stable or even rising against the mark,
Schlesinger told Reuters that he was not convinced that a
further cut in interest rates was needed.
    The economy is picking up, after contracting by a
seasonally adjusted 1/2 to one pct in the first quarter from
the fourth, he added. "We may have an increase in gnp starting
in the second quarter," he said in an interview.
    Concerned by the first quarter downturn, the U.S. Has been
pressing West Germany to pump up its economy and boost its
imports, either through fiscal or monetary policy.
    Schlesinger said the contraction in the first quarter was
mainly due to adverse weather conditions, just as occured in
1986. Year-on-year growth was thus about two pct.
    He estimated that economic growth for the year as a whole
would probably be between one and two pct.
   "It is not a question of monetary conditions if domestic
demand does not grow strongly," he said, noting that interest
rates are at historically low levels and funds are ample.
    Schlesinger said he saw no signs that central bank money
stock growth was slowing down from its recent year-on-year pace
of 7-1/2 to eight pct, well above the Bundesbank's three to six
pct target.
    He said the target could still be achieved but much will
depend on the direction of long-term capital flows. Heavy
inflows, particularly in January around the time of the EMS
revaluation, boosted domestic money supply.
    "There is still a certain hope that the net inflow of
foreign money can be diminished or can even be a little bit
reversed," Schlesinger said.
    A major reason for the inflows was the market's conviction
that the mark was headed higher. "As we can see from the market,
expectations for a further revaluation of the deutschemark have
diminished," Schlesinger said.
    The recent widening of interest rate differentials, the
fact that the dollar has fallen sharply in a very short period
and an improvement in real trade balances have all combined
towards stabilizing the dollar, he said.
    Asked if central banks might act to prevent a sharp dollar
rise, as the U.S. Did in March when the dollar rose above 1.87
marks, he said this would depend on the circumstances.
    At midday here, the dollar stood at 1.8340/45 marks.
    "Central banks are always in contact about these
fluctuations but I cannot give any answer how they would react,"
Schelsinger said.
    "One has to look at how it (the market) is moving," he said,
adding, "It is not only our own case, it is also the American
case."
    He said that the West German export industry has been hit
hard by the dollar's sharp fall and would probably like to see
some correction now. "But it wouldn't be good to have short-term
fluctuations," he said. "Let us wait and see."
    "It is mainly the strength of the (dollar) fall in a very
short period which was a little bit of a shock, than the level
(of rates) as such," Schlesinger said.
    The sharp rise of the mark, coupled with weak prices of
such key commodities as oil, had a favourable impact on West
German inflation down year.
    Although there have recently been signs of inflation
picking up, he said that this was due to changes in key
commodity prices. The underlying inflation rate this year would
be unchanged, at about one to 1-1/2 pct, he said.
    Schlesinger said the problem of rapid money supply growth
was longer term, in that the economy was building up the
potential for a possible eventual resurgence of inflation.
    The above-target growth of money supply over the past 16
months had prompted some discussion of the usefulness of
targets themselves, a matter which might be taken up at the
mid-year meeting of the Bundesbank's council, Schlesigner said.
    But he added: "I don't see any great pressure to go away
from it."
 REUTER

<NIXG.F> plans a sharp expansion of its activities in the
United States, deputy management board chairman Arno Bohn said.
    He told a news conference that in the medium term Nixdorf
wanted to raise its U.S. Turnover to one billion marks from a
current 300 mln and aimed to employ some 5,000 people in its
U.S. Operations, compared with 1,300 now.
    Nixdorf's world group turnover was 4.50 billion marks in
1986. Bohn said a major order last year from a U.S. Retailer
was a decisive element behind current plans for expansion.
    Retail chain Montgomery Ward and Co Inc, a unit of Mobil
Corp <MOB>, awarded a 100 mln dlr order to Nixdorf in July last
year for point-of-sales computer terminals.
    Bohn said that by 1990 there should be a total 15,000 cash
terminals and 500 computer terminals in place in all of the 290
stores of Montgomery Ward.
    Nixdorf has said previously that, more important than the
supply of the hardware for these systems, is the fact that
Nixdorf is also providing the relevant software.
 REUTER

Deregulation of Japan's oil industry could
mean hardship for smaller firms and lead to their merging into
bigger refining and marketing groups, industry sources said.
    They said the relaxation of controls was now under review
by the Petroleum Council, an advisory panel to the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI).
    A spokesman for a major firm said, "Deregulation would bring
about a reorganization. If it's a by-product of freer
competition, we have no choice but to accept it."
    The Council is due to close its discussions on June 12.
    The sources said the Council was likely to tell MITI it
should end its 50 year-old protection of the industry. It
should cut capacity to 3.8 mln barrels per day, about 75 pct of
current capacity. Quotas should end for crude throughput and
gasoline output, and oil tariffs should be abolished.
    They said deregulation was vital to promote more
competition and efficiency, and most saw it as inevitable.
    "Deregulation is taking place everywhere. Now it's our turn
to see if we can survive cut-throat competition," said a source
at one major Japanese oil company.
    A spokesman for a smaller refiner said, "We'll have a hard
time surviving, but that's something we must go through."
    "In addition to our streamlining and efficiency programs for
the oil division, we will exert efforts towards branching out
further into other lines such as real estate and travel
agencies," he said.
    Larger companies are also streamlining. Nippon Oil Co Ltd
which had the largest share of refined products sales in the
Japanese market in fiscal 1985, cut nine pct of its refining
capacity in fiscal 1986.
    Cosmo Oil Co Ltd, the third largest seller of oil products
in 1985, cut its workforce by some 20 pct last year, a
    Between 1984 and 1986, on the recommendation of the
Council, 13 oil companies were integrated into 11 companies
within seven refining and marketing groups to improve the
efficiency of the industry.
    Oil industry sources said this structure was now likely to
be streamlined further into five refining groups.
    "MITI means business. It will urge the major seven groups to
merge into five to build up their muscles," a source said.
    A MITI official told Reuters he did not rule out the
possibility of further mergers within the Japanese oil industry
in the event of the relaxation of oil controls.
    He declined to officially confirm or deny that the
Petroleum Council had recommended deregulatory measures but
said that in principal MITI would encourage a move towards
 REUTER

Group shr - 13.56 yen vs 27.06
    Net - 21.61 billion vs 38.93 billion
    Current - 37.66 billion vs 46.70 billion
    Operating - 57.37 billion vs 79.91 billion
    Sales - 1,789 billion vs 1,692 billion
 REUTER

Japan was ready to use diplomacy to help
maintain the security of the Gulf, Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone said.
    But he told reporters Japan should not cut its lines of
communication with Iran and Iraq because its policy was to take
a broad political stance. Officials of the foreign ministry
said Japan had maintained good relations with both Iran and
Iraq, which have been at war since September 1980.
    Last week Nakasone ruled out Japanese military or financial
help to patrol the waters of the Gulf. About 60 pct of Japan's
crude oil passes through the waterway.
    President Reagan said yesterday the threat to oil routes in
the Gulf from attacks by Iran and Iraq was high on the agenda
for next week's G-7 summit in Venice.
    Reagan has approved plans for the United States to step up
its naval presence in the Gulf despite congressional
expressions of concern and he has called on U.S. Allies to help
maintain freedom of navigation.
    Japan's constitution prevents its armed forces from being
deployed overseas. Nakasone has said that Washington
understands this problem.
 REUTER

Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> has forecast that
group net profits will rise 75.9 pct in the current year to 38
billion yen and current profits will rise 72.6 pct to 65
billion, the company said in its earnings statement.
    Sales are expected to rise 14 pct to 2,040 billion yen in
the same period, it said.
 REUTER

Western bickering over food surpluses is
obscuring the fact that starvation is now a bigger problem than
ever before, a senior World Food Council official said.
    Alain Vidal Naquet, head of external relations for the
council, told a news conference that a meeting organised by the
United Nations body in Peking next week would try to force
governments to take a more serious attitude to the food crisis.
    "The world is facing two crises -- poverty in developing
countries and paradoxically an overflow of food surpluses in
the northern part of the world," Naquet said.
    "This is affecting dangerously the balance of the
international economy," Naquet said.
    He said it was ironic that the leaders of the western world
would discuss food over-production during the summit in Venice
next week at the same time as the Peking meeting would be
discussing food shortages.
    "Hunger is not a problem kept in mind by governments. The
urgency of the problem is hidden by the (food surplus and
trade) problems of the rich countries," he said. "There are more
people today in the world lacking enough food than there were
in 1974 (the year of the World Food Conference in Rome)."
     Progress has been made in some parts of the world,
especially Asia, but Naquet said that increasing food
production and aid from the developed world were not in
themselves the answer to the world food problem.
    He said developing countries should not rely entirely on
aid from developed countries and should increase cooperation
amongst themselves to increase local food production and
improve distribution of existing food stocks.
    More than 30 government ministers are expected to attend
the Peking meeting, including delegations from Third World
countries, the U.S., The Soviet Union and Europe.
 REUTER

Singapore's government securities
market had performed well in volume terms since its launch on
May 7 but there were constraints to further growth, bankers and
    Lawrence Yeo, director of securities trading and
distribution for Citicorp Investment Bank (Singapore) Ltd, told
Reuters there was a shortage of non-professional corporate,
institutional and private investors trading in fixed income
securities, especially those with long term funds. The market
trades treasury bills and bonds.
    Available liquid funds were still moving into traditional
investments because share prices were rising and returns were
low on fixed income securities, Yeo said.
    He said the lack of market information and investment
education for potential investors were limiting factors.
    Referring to the securitisation of corporate debt, he said
"If the saving between a traditional bank loan and a public
offering is not great, investors prefer to take the loan
because it does not require the public disclosure of
information."
(Singapore) Ltd, said institutional investors this year had
focussed on the equity market rather than bonds.
    Bankers and analysts said the new market would pave the way
for the development of corporate bond issues.
    The bankers said development of an active fixed income
securities market would encourage more private and public
companies to issue debt instruments.
    They said they hoped the risk-free government bond yield
curve would provide a benchmark for corporate bonds and other
debt instruments.
    Economists and bankers said the recent share offer by
Sembawang Maritime Ltd, which was oversubscribed 92.3 times and
which raked in a record 6.80 billion dlrs, showed the flow of
liquidity into the share market. The previous record of 1.96
billion dlrs was set in April by Avimo Singapore Ltd.
    Wong said total average daily turnover of the government
securities market had fallen sharply due to share issues.
    He said there were at most seven active participants,
mainly banks. Other financial institutions were on the
sidelines because the securities market concept was new.
    Wong said the recent revision of the minimum liquid asset
ratio to 18 pct allows banks to restructure liquid assets and
inject more long term funds into the securities market.
    One of the primary dealers, United Overseas Bank Ltd, has
an average daily turnover of over 100 mln dlrs but this could
rise to 300 mln on active option days, deputy manager Ho Kian
Fah told Reuters.
    Ho said major participants, besides the primary and
registered dealers, were mainly U.S. And U.K. Banks which
showed a willingness to quote prices.
    Loh Hoon Sun, general manager of the Overseas Union Bank
Ltd, said he forsees active trading and bidding of new
offerings in pre-issued business. Loh estimated OUB's average
turnover to be around 50 mln to 100 mln dlrs on active days.
    Dealers said a significant factor was that the t-bill and
money market rate yield gap had narrowed, making rates for
bills more competitive with those in the money market.
    Tan Mong Tong, executive director of National Discount Co
Ltd, told reporters the new securities market would enable
banks, statutory bodies, insurance companies to manage their
funds more flexibly.
    The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) plans to issue
eight to 10.5 billion dlrs of taxable instruments in the first
year and a gross issue of 35 billion dlrs over five years.
    The first issue of 300 mln dlrs worth of T-bills by the MAS
was 1.9 times subscribed while the first issue of 500 mln dlrs
worth of five-year bonds was three times oversubscribed. The
recent issue of 300 mln dlrs of two-year bonds received 1.17
billion dlrs in applications.
    The new securities market operated by MAS on an electronic
book entry system will provide new investment outlets intended
to develop Singapore's capital market, bankers said.
    But the market is new and long term success and expansion
will depend on how the MAS and the primary and registered
dealers stimulate activity, the bankers and analysts said.
    They said it was necessary to promote liquidity because
investors did not negotiate frequently enough and tended to
hold on to their investments.
    They advocated the establishment of a market makers
association to help investors understand the market and its
instruments as a lack of speculative activity limits market
turnover and supply.
 REUTER

Oman has granted term crude oil
customers retroactive discounts from official prices of 30 to
38 cents per barrel on liftings made during February, March and
April, the weekly newsletter Middle East Economic Survey (MEES)
said.
     MEES said the price adjustments, arrived at through
negotiations between the Omani oil ministry and companies
concerned, are designed to compensate for the difference
between market-related prices and the official price of 17.63
dlrs per barrel adopted by non-OPEC Oman since February.
 REUTER

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
Conservatives lead the opposition Labour party by seven
percentage points in the June 11 election campaign, according
to a public opinion poll today.
    The Harris poll on the TV-AM breakfast television show gave
Thatcher's Conservative Party 42 pct, Labour 35 pct and the
centrist Alliance 21 pct.
    This was a one point drop for the Conservatives and one
point rise for the Alliance since the same organisation's
survey yesterday.
    However, a Marplan poll in the Today newspaper had the
Conservatives 11 points ahead. It gave them 44 pct, Labour 33
pct and the Alliance 21 pct.
    All poll results since the campaign began have shown the
Conservatives in the lead. An aggregate of recent surveys
showed they held a nine to 10 point lead over Labour, enough
for a comfortable election victory.
 REUTER

Malaysian rubber production should
return to normal levels this month after a hard wintering
season, the Malaysian Rubber Exchange and Licensing Board said
in its latest review. "As packers and remillers expect
production to recover to normal levels in June, sellers will
remain reserved in the near future," the review, dated May 14,
said. Many consumers are holding off, waiting for the best time
to buy.
    The market is mindful of approaching summer holidays in
industrial countries and there is an air of uncertainty beyond
July, it said. It gave no figures for the output drop.
 REUTER

Government tax revenues for the 1986/87
 year ended March 31 were more than 600 billion yen higher than
forecast and could be used to help fund the economic package
announced last week, Finance Ministry sources said.
    The final figure for 1986/87 will not be available until
next month, but some local newspapers speculated that the
carryover could be as much as 1,000 billion yen.
    The government is due to introduce a supplementary budget
during an extarordinary parliamentary session expected to start
in July. The budget will be used to finance the central
government share of last Friday's emergency economic package.
    That package totalled more than 6,000 billion yen,
including more than 1,000 billion in tax cuts.
    Government officials including Finance Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa have previously said possible revenue sources for tax
cuts include the tax revenue carryover from 1986/87 and
proceeds from the sale of shares in the privatized Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
    The sale of 1.95 mln NTT shares in 1986/87 left about 450
billion yen available for use as a revenue source for tax cuts,
the sources said. Another 1.95 mln are expected to be sold in
the current fiscal year.
 REUTER

The Philippines' first quarter growth
figures released yesterday indicated the government was likely
to achieve its 1987 targets, Central Bank governor Jose
Fernandez said in an interview.
    The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA)
announced yesterday gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.78 pct
and gross national product (GNP) 5.53 pct in the first quarter
    "I don't see anything on the horizon that should cut it
(growth) short," Fernandez said.
     NEDA said GNP had grown 3.56 pct and GDP 3.25 pct in the
fourth quarter of 1986 from a year earlier. Last year's GNP
growth, put earlier at 0.13 pct, was revised to 1.51 pct.
    "Certainly I do not see any shortage in external resources
and if GNP growth continues at this level I would assume that
domestic resources on the fiscal side would be generated and
would not be a stumbling block," Fernandez said.
    "I think even before the figures came out, simply looking at
key indicators, such as consumption of fuel oil and power,
showed that the economy was on a different track from last
    Fernandez said consumption tended to be heavier in the
first and second quarters because of the dry weather, and it
could drop off in the third quarter.
    He said the most significant sign of recovery lay in the
manufacturing sector, which grew by 9.64 pct, after declines in
1985 and a slow turnaround in the second half of 1986.
    "That is not a seasonal thing, it is secular," he said.
    He said the government had met all monetary targets set for
the first quarter in consultation with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). It expected to draw down the fourth
tranche from its 198 mln SDR stand-by arrangement soon.
    The Philippines has so far drawn three tranches totalling
58 mln SDRs from the arrangement expiring on April 23, 1988.
Fernandez said an IMF mission would visit here in July or
August to review performance in the January-June period.
    He said IMF repayments were projected to total 1.56 billion
dlrs over the 1987-92 period and drawings only 236 mln dlrs.
Repayments were inevitable and many countries would find their
net repayments to the IMF rising in the next few years.
    "It means that since there will be a net drain on ODA
(official development assistance) accounts the commercial
banking system will be requested to hold the line," he said.
    It is an internal constraint that exists because the IMF
debt cannot be rescheduled, Fernandez said.
    The Philippines rescheduled 10.3 billion dlrs of its 28
billion dlr foreign commercial debt in March.
    Fernandez said Central Bank bills, introduced in March 1984
to mop up excess liquidity, had peaked at 43.1 billion pesos in
April 1986. But their unwinding on maturity dates, started in
October last year, had almost been completed.
    He said auctions of treasury bills, whose outstanding level
touched 95.44 billion pesos on May 20, were going well.
"Treasury bills will remain a basic monetary tool," he said.
    Commenting on the country's foreign debt Fernandez said, "I
think the Philippine debt stock looms large because our own
receipts from exports have not taken the same kind of leap
forward as might have been suitable."
    The foreign debt is projected by the Central Bank to reach
29.04 billion dlrs by the end of 1987.
    NEDA said exports totalled 1.2 billion dlrs in the first
quarter, while imports were 1.4 billion dlrs.
    Fernandez said the government had targeted GNP growth of
between six and 6.5 pct this year. He cautioned that while
growth so far was high the targets had not yet been achieved.
    Fernandez said he saw no merit in arguments by some
economists that the peso, currently pegged at 20.50 to the
dollar, ought to be devalued to make the country's exports more
    "By being pegged to the dollar on a basket basis the peso
has already substantially devalued against all of the country's
trading partners," he said.
    On the proposed Omnibus Investment Code, he said he was
opposed to a clause which would allow the unrestricted
repatriation abroad of investments made during the first two
years after the imposition of the Code.
    The imposition of the Code, scheduled for last January, has
been delayed by objections from some business groups.
    "I think any central bank, certainly this one after the
events of the past two or two and a half years, has to be
prudent. This is not the time to throw all caution to the winds
and I'm not about to do that," Fernandez said.
    "It would be ideal if we reach a point where movement of
capital and earnings can be free," he said.
    "We have had one year of reasonably good results. Certainly
we continue to have a fairly heavy drain on our external
availabilities simply by servicing our debts."
 REUTER

Belgian industrial production, excluding
construction and adjusted for seasonal and calendar influences,
was provisionally 0.6 pct lower in February than a year
earlier, the National Statistics Office said.
    Output in February was, however, 5.9 pct higher than in
January.
    A spokeswoman for the office said the production index,
base 1980, rose to a provisional 108.8 in February from a
provisional 102.7 in January, slightly revised from the 102.8
originally estimated. In February last year the index stood at
109.5.
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liquidity aid at a minimum bid rate of 3.50 pct, a central bank
    Banks must make their bids by 1400 GMT today and funds
allocated will be credited to accounts tomorrow. Banks must
repurchase securities pledged on July 1.
 REUTER

53 weeks to April 4, 1987
    Share - basic 22.2p vs 21.6p
          - fully-diluted 21.6p vs 19.9p
    Final dividend 6.3p vs 5.7p, making 8.6p vs 7.7p
    Pretax profits 129.2 mln stg vs 116.0 mln
    Turnover 1,088.1 mln stg vs 968.4 mln
    Profit from retail operations 133.3 mln stg vs 115.6 mln
    Tax 40.1 mln stg vs 36.5 mln
    Profit after tax 89.1 mln stg vs 79.5 mln
    Extraordinary items debit 0.7 mln stg vs debit 24 mln
    NOTE - full name is Storehouse Plc <STHL.L>
 REUTER

Year to March 31
    Shr 28.0p vs 21.4p
    Final dividend 9p vs 6.5p making 12p vs 9.3p
    Pretax profit 53.16 mln stg vs 45.12 mln
    Turnover 641.1 mln stg vs 639.7 mln
    Group operating profit 57.63 mln stg vs 49.06 mln
    Share of associates' profits 1.33 mln stg vs 3.87 mln
    Investment income 1.59 mln stg vs 2.19 mln
    Interest payable 7.38 mln stg vs 10.01 mln
    Tax 16.48 mln stg vs 17.60 mln
    Leaving 36.68 mln vs 27.51
    Minorities debit 1.58 mln stg vs debit 1.39 mln
    Extraordinary items credit 2.95 mln stg vs debit 8.12 mln
    Operating profits breakdown, by class of business,
    - building materials manufacture 23.7 mln stg vs 20.9 mln
    - distribution 10.1 mln stg vs 7.5 mln
    - specialist print and pack 12.6 mln stg vs 9.6 mln
    - international 6.0 mln stg vs 5.6 mln
    - head office and property 4.6 mln stg vs 3.6 mln
    - discontinued, sold businesses 589,000 stg vs 2.4 mln
    Operating profits, geographic breakdown:
    - Britain 51.4 mln stg vs 43.3 mln
    - Africa 3.3 mln stg vs 3.4 mln
    - Australasia 1.4 mln stg vs 854,000 stg
    - North America 1.5 mln stg vs 1.6 mln
    NOTE - full name is Norcros Plc <NCRO.L>.
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The Cyprus Bank Employees' Union called
off a threatened strike following a meeting last night of the
union's executive committee, the Commercial Bankers Association
and Labour Minister Andreas Moushouttas.
    Bank sources said union members were expected to approve an
agreement reached at the meeting. Union demands included an
annual 3.5 pct pay increase for the next two years and a
five-day working week.
 REUTER

South Korean firms affected by a government
order to cut bank loan exposures fear the move may make their
exports less competitive, company officials said.
    Last month, the government ordered 82 companies to repay 10
pct of their bank borrowings by December 31. It told them to
replace the amount with new share issues or money raised
through convertible bonds offered on the local capital market.
    Company officials said they backed the move in principle
but were worried it would raise financing costs at a time when
the won was rising steadily against the dollar.
    "We plan to export 100,000 cars this year and 200,000 next
year and with our present production facilities we cannot
produce this amount," an official from Daewoo Motor Co Ltd, who
requested anonymity, told Reuters. "We must invest in production
facilities to meet our target, which means we need a lot of
money from banks or elsewhere."
    "But if we should pay back bank loans within this year, we
will face mounting financial difficulties and have less money
to invest on a new production line, which will eventually
discourage our exports," he added.
    The 82 companies each have bank loans exceeding 50 billion
won, representing a combined exposure of 10,052 billion won or
about 20 pct of all loans extended by South Korean banks,
finance ministry officials said.
    The companies must raise 1,005.2 billion won by the
December deadline, the officials said. Of this total, the 82
firms would raise some 646.5 billion won from selling part of
their existing Seoul stock market portfolios, they said.
    Another 74.1 billion would be raised by new share offerings
and 284.6 billion by convertible bond issues.
    Most of the firms affected by the repayment scheme are
affiliates of large conglomerates or "chaebols."
    Thirteen of the 82 are affiliates of Samsung Co Ltd, 10 are
Hyundai Corp associates, seven are part of the Lucky-Goldstar
Group, six are part of Daewoo Corp, four are Sunkyong Ltd
affiliates and four are part of Ssangyong Corp.
    Finance ministry officials said the order was part of
government efforts to absorb excessive money supply triggered
by the growing current account surplus and to increase the
supply of shares on the stock market.
    "We want to mop up the excess liquidity by making companies
issue new shares and bonds, and to give banks more funds to
lend to small-sized firms," one official said.
    The targeted 1,005.2 billion won represents three pct of
the M-2 money supply of 33,871 billion won at the end of 1986.
    The M-2 at end-April was up 18.2 pct from a year earlier,
compared with the government's 18 pct growth target for the
whole of this year, officials figures showed.
    The current account swung to a surplus of 2.5 billion dlrs
in the first four months of this year from a deficit of 294 mln
    "We expect the measure will help companies improve their
financial structure by lowering the ratio of liability," the
ministry official said.
    A Hyundai Motor Co official, who asked not to be
identified, said, "We basically see the measure as positive, for
we can raise money in the capital market by issuing new shares
or convertible bonds which will eventually improve our
financial structure."
    "But as far as the finance cost is concerned, issuing new
shares is more expensive than borrowing from banks and we have
to pay back the loans (soon)," he added.
    South Korean bank loans attract an average interest rate of
11.5 pct.
    "We are also concerned over the won's gradual appreciation
against the dollar which is emerging as a threatening factor to
export-oriented firms," another company official said.
    "We will come under mounting financial pressure if the won
continues to go up," he added.
    The won has risen more than 4.5 pct against the dollar this
year after gaining 3.34 pct in 1986.
    "Many firms prefer to borrow from banks rather than boost
capital by issuing shares so that they can evade new dividend
pressure," a bank official said. "A firm's owners hate to see
their holding ratio lowered by issuing shares."
    "But their dependency on the banks should be corrected
because their financial structure is already poor," he said.
    (See Monitor page ECRA for spotlight index)
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Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> and International
Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> (IBM) had resolved some issues
in a longstanding dispute over software copyright protection,
Fujitsu said in a prospectus for a warrant bond recently issued
in London.
    The dispute involved questions of contractual
interpretation arising from a 1983 agreement between the
companies, the prospectus said.
    Under question was how much software information the firms
were obliged to disclose to each other. The case had been
before the American Arbitration Association (AAA) since 1985.
    "By subsequent agreements, the parties have resolved some of
the issues and have established procedures to resolve presently
outstanding disputes with the involvement of the members of the
panel of arbitrators," the prospectus said.
    "The Company is not in a position to predict with certainty
the outcome of this process and its effect on the future
results or operations, financial or otherwise, of the Group," it
said.
    A Fujitsu spokeswoman declined to comment on the
prospectus, noting the dispute remained under arbitration by
the AAA. An IBM spokesman here also declined comment.
    Last November the AAA ordered both companies to maintain
the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings and said
that both Fujitsu and IBM had agreed that no additional comment
on the subject be made.
    Late last year, IBM and Hitachi Ltd <HIT.T> said they had
agreed to revise a separate 1983 agreement which arose out of
software disputes similar to those between Fujitsu and IBM.
 REUTER

The five year equity warrant eurobond for
Daiwa House Industry Co Ltd <DHOU.T> has been increased to 400
mln dlrs from the initial 300 mln dlrs, lead manager Nomura
    The coupon has been set at 1-1/4 pct compared with the
indicated level of 1-5/8 pct. Bond market sources noted that
this equals the lowest ever coupon seen in this sector.
    The exercise price was set at 2,604 yen per share,
representing a premium of 2.52 pct over today's closing price
of 2,540 yen. The foreign exchange rate was set at 146.20 yen
to the dollar.
 REUTER

Figures for first quarter 1987 West
German GNP will be published on June 11 after they were
provisionally scheduled for June 4, an official at the Federal
    The official said there had been a delay in gathering
information for the data, which are expected to show that the
West German economy contracted in the period.
    A spokesman for the Economics Ministry in Bonn said there
was no political motivation behind publishing the figures on
June 11, the day after the Venice economic summit ends.
    "There is no political motivation. It is a purely technical
matter," he added.
    The West German government is expected to come under
pressure in Venice from both the U.S. And its European partners
to stimulate domestic demand as a way of reducing international
trade imbalances and contributing to world economic growth.
    However, government officials have ruled out any further
tax reduction packages to supplement a major program of
stimulatory fiscal measures already underway.
    Helmut Schlesinger, vice-president of the West German
central bank, the Bundesbank, said in Tokyo today that GNP, the
widest measure of a country's economic activity, fell in real
terms by a seasonally adjusted 1/2 to one pct in the first
quarter compared with the fourth 1986 period.
     The government has confirmed that growth was negative in
the first 1987 quarter. But year-on-year growth is expected to
be about two pct.
    Schlesinger today repeated the Bundesbank's reluctance to
cut its official interest rates further. Its key discount rate,
at three pct, is just above historical lows.
    West German officials are likely to emphasise at the Venice
summit that domestic demand, which draws in goods from abroad,
is already outstripping export performance, which has suffered
from an 80 pct rise of the mark against the dollar in just over
two years.
    The government has pointed out that depressed exports are
the main reason for the current weakness in the economy, but
says that later in the year stronger domestic demand will
compensate for this setback.
    It expects GNP growth for the whole of 1987 of just under
two pct, after a 2.4 pct rise in 1986.
 REUTER

Dutch insurer Stad Rotterdam Anno 1720
N.V. <ASRN.AS> said from July 1 it will own 20 pct of the
shares of <Europeesche Verzekering Maatschappij N.V.>, a
fully-owned unit of Swiss insurer <Union
Rueckversicherungs-Gesellschaft>.
    Stad Rotterdam chairman Lucas van Leeuwen told Reuters it
may raise its stake to a majority interest if the two companies
are found to be sufficiently compatible.
    Van Leeuwen said that due partly to the fact Europeesche
made losses in 1985 and 1986, the 20 pct stake was obtained at
below the shares' intrinsic value. He gave no precise sum.
    The Europeesche, which specialises in travel and recreation
insurance, had a premium income of 150 mln guilders in 1986.
    Stad Rotterdam's premium income in 1986 was 1.17 billion
guilders, making it the fifth largest Dutch insurer.
    Europeesche made a loss of nine mln guilders in 1985, which
narrowed to 4.5 mln guilders in 1986, van Leeuwen said.
    He said the company was on course for independent recovery
and was expected to reduce its losses further in 1987.
 REUTER

Nabisco Brands Inc, or one of its units,
is expected to issue shortly a dollar straight eurobond,
probably totalling 100 mln dlrs, bond market sources said.
    They said they expect the issue will have a seven year
maturity, but to have an investor put option after four years
at par. The coupon is expected to be 8-3/4 pct while pricing
will be at 101-3/8 pct.
 REUTER

The coupon on the 17 mln dlr, five year,
equity warrant eurobond for Eagle Industry Co Ltd has been set
at the indicated level of 1-7/8 pct, lead manager Nomura
    The exercise price was set at 729 yen a share, representing
a premium of 2.53 pct over today's closing price of 711 yen.
The foreign exchange rate was set at 146.20 yen to the dollar.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry would raise lending
limits on local non-life insurance firms to meet the increasing
need for efficient fund management, a ministry spokesman said.
    He said the allowable non-collateral lending limits would
be increased to 30 pct of each insurer's total assets from 25
pct and that overseas subsidiaries will be made eligible as
borrowers.
    The lending limit for non-life insurers which do not
satisfy criteria for making non-collateral loans would be
expanded to three pct of total assets from one pct.
    The upper limit of lending of securities by non-life
insurance companies, now set at five pct of each insurer's
total assets would be abolished, the official said.
    This will enable such lending by non-life insurers to be
included in the separate category of money lending, which is
limited to 55 pct of the total assets of each insurer.
    Approvals for the changes, which must be given to each
insurer on application, were expected to begin soon, possibly
as early as next week.
 REUTER

French industrial gas group <Duffour et
Igon> has decided to back the takeover bid by Swedish
industrial gases group Aga AB <AGA.ST>, ending a lengthy battle
between rival bidders from France, Spain and West Germany,
Duffour et Igon Chairman Jean Igon said.
    The board agreed late last night to back the Aga bid and
advise its shareholders to accept the Swedish group's latest
offer of 4,410 francs per share, he told Reuters.
    The other main bidders were Union Carbide Corp's <UK.>
French subsidiary <Union Carbide France> and West Germany's
Linde AG <LING.F>.
    Aga topped rival bids for the gases distribution group in
May by raising its offer to 4,410 francs from 4,000 francs.
    This was accepted by Spain's <Carburos Metalicos SA> which
sold Aga six pct of Duffour et Igon's stock and the right of
first refusal on the remaining nine pct of stock it holds. It
also won over the French Midi-Pyrenees development authority
which agreed to sell Aga its 20 pct stake in Duffour et Igon.
    Under Aga's offer, shareholders can either accept a cash
bid or exchange one share in Duffour et Igon for one bond of a
nominal value of 4,410 francs with a 10 pct coupon issue by Aga
France SA. The bond issue is guaranteed by the parent Aga AB.
    The takeover battle for the Toulouse-based company, which
controls eight pct of the French industrial gas distribution
market, began on April 2 with an offer of 2,100 francs per
share from Union Carbide France <UK>.
    Aga's offer, which puts a price of 587 mln francs on the
company, closes on June 24 and the results will be announced on
July 21.
    Duffour et Igon shares were quoted yesterday at 4,410
francs, with no buyers, after a series of suspensions during
the takeover tussle. They traded at 856 francs on January 9
before the first suspension.
 REUTER

Industry (MITI) said it would issue guidelines later this month
for microchip production during the third quarter.
    A MITI official said it was too early to say if the
guidelines would call for reductions following similar
government requests in the first two quarters of 1987.
    "This is not a matter which should be decided on a political
basis alone," the official told Reuters.
    MITI asked that production of 256 kilobit dynamic random
access memory chips and erasable programmable read only memory
chips be cut by 11 pct during the April/June quarter.
    Production was cut back 10 pct in the first quarter and
industry analysts said the reductions have boosted prices.
    U.S. And Japanese officials met in Washington last week to
discuss the removal of U.S. Sanctions against some Japanese
exports but both sides agreed not to reveal the outcome of the
talks, the MITI official added.
    Washington imposed the sanctions in April, saying Tokyo had
failed to abide by a 1986 pact on microchip trade.
 REUTER

Santos Ltd <STOS.S> said it would buy
<Total Exploration Australia Pty Ltd> from <Total Holdings
(Australia) Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total-Cie
Francaise des Petroles <TPN.PA>.
    Total Exploration had interests ranging from 18.75 to 25
pct in four blocks in permit ATP259P in south-west Queensland,
Santos said in a statement.
    The Santos group stakes will rise to between 52.5 and 70
pct of the four ATP259P blocks as a result of the purchase. The
price was not disclosed.
    Santos said a number of oil and gas fields have been
discovered in the Total Exploration areas and that it regards
them as having very good prospects for further discoveries.
    Total's reserves amount to 75 billion cubic feet of gas and
5.5 mln barrels of oil and condensate, it said.
    It said it will promote a vigorous exploration program in
the areas for the rest of 1987 and in the future.
    The acquisition is the latest in a series by Santos as part
of a program to expand from its origins in the South Australian
Cooper Basin.
 REUTER

Belgium's public debt rose in April by a
nominal 38.5 billion francs to 5,719.4 billion francs. This
follows a rise of 89.8 billion in March and a rise of 11.2
billion in April 1986, Finance Minister Mark Eyskens said.
    He said in his monthly statement that after taking account
of foreign exchange variations and other factors the figure
corresponding to the government's net financing requirement in
April was 34.9 billion francs against 24 billion in April 1986.
    In the first four months of this year public debt rose
301.1 billion francs against 269.7 billion in the same period
of 1986, the statement said.
    Between January and April the figure corresponding to the
net financing requirement was 286.3 billion francs compared
with 293.1 billion in the same period in 1986.
    The government has started an austerity programme designed
to cut spending this year by 195 billion francs and to cut the
net financing requirement to below 420 billion francs compared
with 561 billion in 1986.
 REUTER

For currency dealers Karl Otto Poehl is
the scourge of speculators, for bankers he is the man who has
played a key role in shaping the world's financial destiny for
the last seven years, and for Germans he is the guardian of the
mark.
    President of the powerful and independent West German
central bank, the Bundesbank, Poehl is likely to have his
contract renewed for another eight years when it expires at the
end of this year, government officials say.
    (Index of economic spotlights, see page ECRA)
    But no official announcement has yet been made, raising
eyebrows in West Germany's business community.
    The ebullient Poehl spent seven years in Bonn in top
ministerial posts under the Social Democrats, now in
opposition, before he moved to the Bundesbank.
    There has been speculation that Chancellor Helmut Kohl
would try to replace Poehl with a man closer to his own
Christian Democrats. But officials noted that Poehl has worked
closely and successfully with Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg since Kohl's government took office in 1982.
    Poehl, the most senior central banker apart from Paul
Volcker of the United States, enjoys a strong international
reputation which it would take a newcomer years to build up.
    Given these circumstances, Kohl will probably overlook
Poehl's past as an adviser to former Social Democrat Chancellor
Willy Brandt, and top aide to Helmut Schmidt when he was
Finance Minister, bankers said. It was Schmidt who, as
Chancellor, appointed Poehl to his present job in 1980.
    In recent months, with the mark's strong rise against the
dollar, Poehl has made exchange rates the central concern of
the Bundesbank's council, a highly conservative institution
which has doggedly pursued monetary policies to prevent
inflation catching hold. Older Germans can remember two bouts
of galloping inflation this century.
    But with consumer prices falling for much of 1986, and
inflation negligible so far this year, Poehl thinks it is safe
to relax the monetary reins a little and concentrate on the
dangers to the German economy of a bloated exchange rate.
    "I am of the opinion that efforts to stabilise the
dollar/mark rate have reached a high priority, also for the
Bundesbank, because a further massive revaluation of the mark
would endanger the economy in West Germany," he told business
journalists in Frankfurt recently.
    Ute Geipel, head of research at Citibank AG, says that
Poehl's reappointment would guarantee flexible monetary policy.
    "Poehl's policy has always been a policy which does not
focus so rigidly on domestic factors, but also on the external
economy," she said.
    An economist at a German bank, who declined to be
identified, said "If Poehl is confirmed in his post, it will
certainly be a plus for the pragmatic course which is not so
rigidly oriented towards money supply."
    One of Poehl's great struggles recently has been to
persuade the United States to stop "talking down" the dollar. For
Poehl, the significance of the February Louvre Accord was that
the United States agreed to join efforts to stabilise
    The Louvre Accord was greeted with scepticism by currency
dealers who said they would soon put it to the test. But in
fact the dollar has been relatively stable since the pact.
    "This is because the markets know - or perhaps because they
don't know - what the central banks can do," Poehl says of
intervention in currency markets which can quickly turn rates
round, making a speculator's position worthless.
    Poehl was born in 1929 and worked as a financial journalist
in the 1960s before starting his ministerial career.
    A relaxed sun-tanned figure who enjoys cracking jokes over
a glass of beer, he is hardly a stereotype central banker.
    He is also a keen sportsman who likes to watch football and
play golf.
    Poehl says currency market intervention cannot substitute
for correct economic policies if exchange rates are imbalanced.
    "But you can achieve an enormous effect with a small amount
if you strike at the right moment," he said. Bundesbank dealers
are very professional and skilled. "They've burnt the fingers of
many people," he said. And unlike the speculators, Poehl notes,
the Bundesbank dealers usually make a profit.
 REUTER

Finland's current account balance of
payments showed a deficit of 2.5 billion markka in first
quarter 1987 against a deficit of 3.2 billion in the same
period last year, the Bank of Finland said in a statement.
 REUTER

RJR Nabisco Inc is issuing a 100 mln dlr
eurobond due June 30, 1994 paying 8-3/4 pct and priced at
101-3/8 pct, lead manager of Bank of America International Ltd
said. This confirms an earlier report by bond market sources.
    The issue has an investor put option after four years at
par but is non-callable. The selling concession is 1-1/8 pct
dlrs and listing will be in Luxembourg. The payment date is
June 30.
 REUTER

Hidroelectrica Iberica Iberduero S.A.
(Iberduero) of Bilbao, Spain is issuing a 150 mln Swiss franc
eight year bond with a five pct coupon and 100-1/4 issue price,
lead manager Union Bank of Switzerland said.
    The bond is on sale until June 26 with payment due on July
9.
    It can be called at 101-1/2 in 1991 and for tax reasons
only at 102 in 1988.
 REUTER

Japan Highway Public Corp planned to issue
a seven-year government-guaranteed 120 mln European currency
unit (ecu) bond with coupon at 7.375 pct late this month, a
corporation spokeman told Reuters.
    Issue price would be 101.125 pct to yield 7.165 pct.
    Lead manager was Bank of Tokyo Capital Market Ltd, a
subsidiary of the Bank of Tokyo in Britain and co-lead manager
Credit Commercial de France, he added.
   He declined to give other details.
 REUTER

Japan planned to buy a three billion yen
supercomputer as part of a policy of importing more U.S. Goods,
a spokesman for the private business group Kansai Economic
Federation told Reuters by telephone from Osaka.
    The supercomputer would be bought from Cray Research Inc
<CYR.N> of the U.S., The spokesman said.
    He said the supercomputer would not necessarily be bought
this year but eventually it would be installed at the Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute International. The
Institute conducts telecommunications research and was formed
in 1986 with government and private funds.
    The United States has been pressing Japan to open its
public sector market to sales of U.S. Supercomputers.
    Ministry of International Trade and Industry officials
concerned with the supercomputer issue were unavailable for
comment.
 REUTER

Nationale-Nederlanden NV <NTNN.AS>, the
largest Dutch insurance company, reported a four-pct rise in
first quarter profits. The announcement represented a break
with the company's past practice of giving annual results only.
    The company said it expects its 1987 net profit will at
least equal the 1986 figure of 635.5 guilders.
    Nationale-Nederlanden said the lower exchange rates for the
U.S. Dollar, Australian dollar and sterling had brought the
increase in the quarter's net profit down from 6.3 pct.
    Premium income from damage and life insurances pushed
turnover in the Netherlands up by eight pct.
 reuter

Year ended March 31, 1987
    Fin div 9.25p making 12p vs 10.74p
    Shr 28.3p vs 27.5p
    Pretax profit 55.63 mln stg vs 49.36 mln
    Net 38.80 mln vs 33.64 mln
    Turnover 444.10 mln vs 309.85 mln
    Net interest payable 3.50 mln vs 3.79 mln
    Profit share of related companies 7.62 mln vs 9.64 mln
    Note - The De La Rue Co. Plc <DLAR.L> proposes to offer
ordinary shareholders the opportunity to receive their
dividends in the form of new shares as an alternative to cash.
 REUTER

China will not increase sugar imports
substantially this year because of foreign exchange constraints
and large stocks, despite falling production and rising
domestic demand, traders and the official press said.
    "Despite rapid increases in domestic production over the
last 30 years, imbalances between supply and demand continue to
be extremely serious," the Farmers Daily said. It said 1986
plantings fell due to removal of crop incentives, because
farmers could earn more from other crops and because technical
and seed improvements had not been widely disseminated.
    The official press had estimated the 1986/87 sugar crop
(November/March) at 4.82 mln tonnes, down from 5.2 mln a year
earlier, and domestic consumption at six mln tonnes a year.
    The Yunnan 1986/87 sugar harvest was a record 521,500
tonnes, the provincial daily said. It gave no year-earlier
figure. Output in Guangxi was 1.04 mln tonnes, the New China
News Agency said without giving a year-earlier figure.
    The Nanfang Daily said production in Guangdong province
fell to estimated 1.92 mln tonnes from 1.96 mln and that the
area under sugar was dropping.
    "Supply of cane (in Guangdong) is inadequate," the newspaper
said. Processing costs are rising and the economic situation of
nearly all the mills is not good. To guarantee supply of cane
is a major problem."
    A Western diplomat said sugar output also fell n Fujian,
south China's fourth major producer, where there was a drop in
area planted.
    He said the rural sectors in Guangdong and Fujian were wel
developed, enabling farmers to choose crops according to the
maximum return, meaning that many had avoided sugar.
    The Farmers Daily said a peasant in the ortheast province
of Heilongjiang could gross 108 yuan from one mu (0.0667
hectares) of soybeans and 112 yuan from one mu of corn but only
70 from one mu of sugarbeet.
    The paper said the profit margin of mills in China fell to
4.7 pct last year from 11.87 pct in 1980.
    Mills lacked the capital to modernise and they competed
with each other for raw materialsX, it added. This resulted in
falling utilisation rates at big, mode{nised mills.
    The price of sugar had not changed in 20 years, the
official press has said.
    Customs figures showed China imported 1.18 mln tonnes of
sugar in calendar 1986, down from 1.9 mln in 1985.
    The diplomat said stocks at end-August 1986 were 2.37 mln
tonnes, up from 1.92 a year earlier.
    A foreign trader here said China accumulated large stocks
in 1982-85 when provincial authorities were allowed to import
sugar on their own authority. This practice was stopped in 1986
when the central government resumed control of imports.
    "As China lacked storage, much of these imports was stored
in Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and other inland areas," the diplomat
said.
    The trader said transporting stocks from these areas to
consumers in east and south China was a problem, particularly
as coal had priority. "How quickly they can move the sugar is
one factor determining import levels," he said.
    Another factor was the quality of the harvest in Cuba,
China's major supplier through barter trade, he said.
    "China bought two distress cargoes last week, for about
152/153 dlrs a tonne," he added. "China is not a desperate buyer
now. But if the Cuban harvest is bad, it will have to go into
the open market."
    A Japanese trader said Peking's major concern regarding
imports was price.
    "While the foreign trade situation has improved this year,
foreign exchange restraints persist," he said.
    The diplomat said domestic demand was rising by about five
pct a year but "a communist government is in a much better
position to regulate demand than a capitalist one, if the
foreign exchange situation demands it."
 REUTER

The United Arab Emirates recorded a
1986 trade surplus of 12.2 billion dirhams, narrowing from 30.2
billion in 1985, the central bank's latest bulletin shows.
    The central bank said the lower surplus was mainly due to
the decline in the value of exports and re-exports to 37.2
billion dirhams from 54.2 billion in 1985. This reflected the
decline in oil prices last year and difficulties in marketing
UAE oil, the central bank added.
    The surplus on the current account narrowed to 6.8 billion
dirhams from 25.5 billion in 1985. The overall balance showed a
surplus of 4.8 billion after 2.6 billion in 1985.
 REUTER

Kuwait, a target of Iranian anger over the
emirate's backing for Iraq in the Gulf war, today rejected
charges that fishing vessels seized recently by Iran were spy
boats.
    "There are no bases of truth to the contents of the Iranian
accusation on the nature of the operations of the vessels
recently taken into custody by Iran. These vessels were out
fishing," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
    It said Iranian Charge d'Affaires Mohammad Baqeri was
summoned by the Ministry yesterday to confer with Foreign
Undersecretary Suleiman Majed al-Shaheen.
    The Iranian News Agency IRNA said on Sunday Iran had seized
seven Kuwaiti speed boats and detained their crew, who
confessed to spying for Iraq under the cover of fishing.
    It said the boats were intercepted in the Khur Abdullah
waterway which separates Kuwait and Iraq's Faw peninsula at the
head of the Gulf, captured by Iran last year.
    The Kuwaiti response came as Iranian envoys toured Gulf
Arab states saying responsibility for security and stability in
the waterway was a regional matter. A U.S. Senate team was
scheduled today to meet Kuwait's Crown Prince and Prime
Minister Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah and the defence and
oil ministers.
    Today's Foreign Ministry statement, carried by the Kuwait
News Agency KUNA, said the recent detention of Kuwaiti fishing
vessels by Iran was not the first.
    Tehran in the past had held back a number of vessels Kuwait
had sought to release through diplomatic contacts, it said.
    "However, Kuwait is perplexed that this time the Iranian
charges are accompanied by accusations that the vessels were
undertaking espionage activities," it said.
    Shaheen condemned the detentions and accusations, and asked
Tehran to free all fishing boats and sailors held by Iran, the
 REUTER

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recorded
a 1986 trade surplus of 12.2 billion dirhams, narrowing from
30.2 billion in 1985, the central bank's latest bulletin shows.
the decline in the value of exports and reexports to 37.2
 REUTER

British Petroleum LP Gas International
said it cut its North Sea LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) posted
price for propane to 95 dlrs from 110 dlrs a tonne, effective
June 1.
    The move follows a similar cut to 92 from 108 dlrs a tonne
announced by Shell U.K. Ltd Friday, also fob North Sea
terminals and effective June 1 until further notice. Both
companies left their butane prices unchanged at 123 dlrs a
tonne.
    A BP statement said its cut came "as a result of a price
review occasioned by substantial changes in the LPG market." BP
last lowered its posted propane price from 175 dlrs a tonne on
March 1, and Shell U.K.'s last change was from 113 dlrs May 1.
 REUTER

Oman's central bank is expected to
announce shortly the go-ahead for a weekly offering of treasury
bills to the sultanate's 22 local and foreign banks, banking
sources in Muscat said.
    The central bank's board is due to approve the scheme at
its next meeting on June 7 and it is likely to be explained to
banks at a meeting with general managers scheduled for June 14,
    The decision to issue short-term government paper will come
as a relief to banks in Oman which have been awash with
liquidity but have few outlets for investment.
    Oman's banks are allowed to swap only 40 pct of capital and
reserves into foreign currencies, effectively preventing them
from investing excess funds in eurodollar deposits where yields
are much higher than in the domestic interbank market.
    A treasury bill system would go some way to meeting banks'
complaints on this score, bankers in Muscat said. Their
dissatisfaction is expected to be voiced at the June 14 meeting
if the treasury bill scheme is not launched.
    Bahrain introduced a weekly treasury bill tender last
December, offering local banks two mln dinars in 91-day bills
by tender each Tuesday.
    Other nations in the Gulf also offer banks short-term
paper, with the United Arab Emirates issuing certificates of
deposit each week while Saudi Arabia offers "bankers' security
deposit accounts."
    Both the Bahrain treasury bills and Saudi Arabian deposit
accounts can be used by banks in repurchase agreements to
obtain short-term money market aid.
    Bankers in Muscat said the format of Oman's treasury bill
offering is not yet clear. Some expect a maturity of 91-days,
similar to Bahrain.
 REUTER

Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Hisham Nazer
said Riyadh would not agree to a cut in oil prices and would
not accept a "mad" increase that would drive consumers away.
    He told al-Riyadh newspaper, "Saudi Arabia follows a
balanced petroleum policy. It does not approve of a decrease in
prices from current levels and it also does not accept a mad
increase that would drive consumers away and make them try and
find alternative sources (for energy)."
    OPEC agreed last December to cut production after world
prices hit new lows in 1986. They agreed on a pricing system
aimed to stabilise the market around 18 dlrs a barrel.
    OPEC is scheduled to meet in Vienna on June 25, where it
will review its current oil price and production policy.
    Saudi Arabia's King Fahd said last month that he wanted oil
prices to remain stable for the next two years.
    Saudi Arabia is the architect of the current pricing and
production pact, which is backed by Kuwait and the UAE. The
current pact set a production ceiling for first half 1987 of
15.8 mln bpd, and implemented fixed prices based on an 18 dlrs
a barrel average.
 REUTER

Taiwan's central bank announced that as
from today the overseas foreign exchange borrowings of local
and foreign banks would be frozen at the level they reached at
the end of May.
    The central bank's statement added that the measure would
be effective until the end of July.
    Bankers said the measure is designed to curb the inflow of
foreign exchange and slow the growth of money supply. They
added that the move, which sparked a record single day plunge
of the local stock market, would limit their ability to lend
foreign exchange to importers and exporters.
    Foreign exchange borrowings by local and foreign banks
reached almost 12 billion U.S. Dlrs by the end of April,
according to official statistics.
    Last week the central bank said that from today it would
reduce its purchase of forward U.S. Dollars from banks to 40
pct from 90 pct of the value of the contract. It said the move
was needed because of "distortions" in the foreign exchange
market.
    Exporters, nervous about the appreciating Taiwan dollar,
have been heavily selling forward U.S. Dollars on the interbank
market to avoid exchange rate losses.
    Official figures show that forward U.S. Dollar sales in May
reached a record of almost six billion U.S. Dlrs against 5.9
billion in April.
    All Taiwan's foreign exchange earnings must be converted
into local dollars, boosting money supply at a time of booming
exports. Money supply rose a seasonally adjusted 51.86 pct in
the year to end-April, raising fears of higher inflation.
    In March the central bank clamped tight restrictions on
remittances of foreign exchange by companies and individuals to
Taiwan in a move to curb inflows of speculative money.
    Economists and bankers estimate that the rising value of
the local dollar has attracted about ten billion U.S. Dlrs of
speculative money into Taiwan since early last year. It has
flowed in mainly from Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S..
    Since September 1985 the Taiwan dollar has risen by about
22 pct against the U.S. Dollar.
    Bankers said the government's efforts to stabilise the
foreign exchange market were a prelude to lifting all curbs on
capital outflows. The central bank has said the controls will
be dropped by the end of July or early August.
    Foreign exchange dealers said today's announcement caused
jitters in the market with foreign and local banks making heavy
purchases of U.S. Dollars. They said the central bank sold
about 30 mln U.S. Dlrs.
    Taiwan's stock market plunged a record 75.53 points to
close at 1,803.08.
 REUTER

Companhia Nacional de Petroquimica EP
(CNP), the Portugese state-owned oil refinery and
petrochemicals company, has awarded a mandate to Bank of
America International Ltd and Manufacturers Hanover Ltd to
arrange a 250 mln dlr loan, banking sources said.
    The loan will be for eight years and proceeds will be used
to refinance existing debt.
    Interest will be at 12.5 basis points above the London
Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) for the first four years, with
the margin rising to 15 basis points in the last four years. No
other fees were immediately available.
    Bankers noted that CNP has faced significant financial
problems over the past year as a result of investments in areas
which proved to be unprofitable.
    Portugal is attempting to maintain its position in the
petrochemical industry and is undertaking a restructuring of
CNP, which involves the divestment of certain unprofitable
assets.
    Partly because of these problems, the new loan carries a
"letter of support and assumption" under which the Republic would
assume the obligations of CNP should it be unable to meet any
payments or cease to exist.
    Furthermore, bankers noted that this financing covers all
of CNP's existing debt, some of which was state-guaranteed but
some of which was not.
    The existing loans had maturities of about seven to 10
years and carried interest margins of between 3/8 and 5/8 pct.
    By consolidating the loans and covering them with the
Republic's support, the borrower was able to obtain a reduction
in the margins on the new loan, bankers said.
 REUTER

U.K. RESERVES RISE UNDERLYING 4.8 BILLION DLRS IN MAY, (2.9 BILLION APRIL) - OFFICIAL

Britain's gold and currency reserves rose
a record underlying 4.76 billion dlrs in May, following April's
2.9 billion dlrs increase, the Treasury said.
    The underlying trend indicates the level of recent Bank of
England intervention on currency markets to curb sterling's
strength. It was above market expectations which had been for a
rise of between one billion and three billion dlrs.
    The Treasury declined comment on the figures.
    Actual reserves rose 4.87 billion dlrs in May, compared
with April's 2.8 billion increase, to a total value of 34.68
billion dlrs, compared with 29.81 billion at the end of April.
    Borrowings under the exchange cover scheme were 238 mln
dlrs, against April's 66 mln. Repayments under the scheme were
85 mln dlrs, after 90 mln previously, with capital repayments
of eight mln, after three mln last month.
    Repayments of government debt amounted to 33 mln dlrs.
    The underlying reserves increase is net of borrowings and
    It was larger than the previous record 3.04 billion dlrs
rise seen in October 1977. The May increase represents the
seventh monthly rise, with reserves up 9.947 billion dlrs in
that period, and up 9.816 billion since the start of 1987.
 REUTER

China had postponed wide-ranging plans to
reform its economy because of financial difficulties and
pressure from powerful conservatives within the ruling
Communist Party, western diplomats said.
    But they said that although the conservatives were critical
of aspects of the current open-door policy they had no
alternative economic program. That meant that the strategy
begun by top leader Deng Xiaoping in 1978 was likely to go on,
but at a slower pace, they said.
    Deng has led China's overhaul of the Stalinist economy
built during the rule of Chairman Mao. Since Mao died in 1976
living standards have risen sharply and China has become a net
exporter of grain for the first time.
    A western diplomat said China's leaders had been
sufficiently encouraged by their success last year to order the
drawing up of plans for more reforms for 1987. These included
changes to the country's price system.
    But he said the biggest reforms had been shelved since
economic problems appeared in late 1986 and the resignation of
Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang in January.
    The diplomat said the most ambitious reforms would not be
on the agenda for a major party meeting later this year.
    The main economic reform proceeding in 1987 is a system
under which factories sign contracts with the government. They
can keep any profit over and above the contract amount.
    "This is a modest reform, a repeat of what China did in the
early 1980s," the diplomat said.
    "It is regarded as second best by the reformers who drew up
the more ambitious plans. But these are impractical in the
current political and economic climate," he said.
    A Chinese source said that a month ago Premier Zhao Ziyang
decided the media was giving too much coverage to the drive
against bourgeois liberalism and not enough to explaining the
proposed reforms. Some of these reforms, like price increases,
were very unpopular.
    Zhao ordered the media to give more coverage to the reforms
and why they were necessary, the source said.
    One of China's top economists wrote in the People's Daily
last week, "Failure to answer people's questions about the new
prices has caused great anxiety."
    In March, China announced budget deficits for 1986 and
1987. It has had two years of trade deficits, and capital
spending and wages are rising fast.
    On the political front, the conservatives in the Party have
been on the offensive since January when Hu resigned. He
allegedly failed to fight the growth of western democratic
ideas, which the Party has called bourgeois liberalism.
    A nationwide drive against bourgeois liberalism has been
under way since January in the Party and the media. The latter
has given wide coverage to those in the leadership who have
warned against the errors of all-out westernisation.
    The economist said, "Although reform in any country
inevitably causes anxiety and is often risky, it has been
proved that, where reform is more daring, commodities are more
abundant and people's living standards higher."
    "But in the countries that are more rigid, the market is
stagnant, goods are in short supply and rationing is common," he
said.
    The diplomat said the reformers wanted to complete their
unfinished overhaul of China's pricing system.
    The diplomat said the reformers wanted to make factories
independent of the government which would use taxes, credit
supply and other indirect means to regulate them instead of
administrative diktat as in the past.
    "But to enact such far-reaching measures they need a stable
economy, contented workers and surpluses, to give them
manoeuvring room. These conditions do not exist now," he said.
    Another diplomat said that conservatives within the
leadership, though critical of some results of the reforms, had
no alternative economic strategy.
    "The last eight years of opening to the outside world has
shown everyone how poor China is and how it has fallen behind
other countries," the diplomat said.
    "Everyone is agreed on the objective that China become a
major world power by the early 21st century," he said.
    "For this, it needs a strong and modernised economy. Where
there is disagreement is over the pace of the reforms and the
details of some of them."
    The Chinese source said the debate over the pace and extent
of reforms was still going on.
    (See ECRA for spotlight index)
 REUTER

China took a serious view of a Multi-Fibre
Agreement (MFA) protocol which it said infringed principles of
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the People's
Daily overseas edition said.
    It quoted a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Economic
Relations and Trade as saying the protocol, signed on July 31
last year and which extended the MFA for five years, would
affect international textile trade by broadening curbs in it.
    Fifty major textile trading countries adopted the new MFA
last July in Geneva, limiting Third World exports of textiles
to industrialised countries.
    The newspaper said China signed the protocol on May 31, 10
months after it was signed by other nations.
    A U.S. Diplomat said the U.S. And China had had months of
talks on the issue, with the U.S. Saying that it would have to
introduce unilateral restraints if China did not sign.
    He said that the new MFA pact extended controls to silk and
ramie in addition to existing ones on cotton and man-made
fibres.
    China, the world's biggest producer of ramie and a major
silk producer, had flooded the U.S. Market the previous two
years with goods made from both and from linen because these
three categories were not under quota, the diplomat said.
    It had become the biggest supplier by volume, though not by
value, of textiles to the U.S., With exports in the first five
months of this year up by 24 pct from the same 1986 period.
    He estimated total 1987 textile exports would be 15 pct up
on the 1986 level.
    Chinese customs figures show exports of textile yarn,
fabrics, made-up articles and related products to the U.S. In
calendar 1986 as being worth 1.314 billion yuan, up from 870
    The diplomat said China and the U.S. Had held two rounds of
talks on drawing up a new three to five-year textile pact, to
replace the present one, due to expire at the end of 1987.
    They involved discussion of overshipment of Chinese
textiles this year to the U.S. Due to counterfeit licences, a
problem the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade
admitted to last week, he said, but gave no more details.
 REUTER

Canada is issuing an 80 billion yen
eurobond due June 25, 1992 paying 4-3/8 pct and priced at
101-1/2 pct, lead manager Nomura International Ltd said.
mln and 10 mln yen and will be listed in Luxembourg. The
    Payment date is June 25.
 REUTER

Hoechst AG <HFAG.F> parent company
turnover fell in the first five months of 1987, with domestic
business losing seven pct and exports dropping eight pct from
the same period last year, management board chairman Wolfgang
Hilger told the annual meeting.
    In volume terms, however, turnover was somewhat improved,
he said. Domestic sales, by volume, were steady in the first
five months and export volume rose two pct.
    He gave no figures for turnover or sales volume.
    As already reported, parent company sales fell to 3.44
billion marks in the first quarter of 1987, 7.6 pct below the
first 1986 quarter. Domestic sales lost 6.6 pct and export
business fell by 8.5 pct compared with the 1986 quarter. First
quarter group pre-tax profits rose to 686 mln marks from 649
mln in the same period last year.
    Hilger said Hoechst's aim this year was to make prices
competitive internationally, but also to cover costs. The
compmany has already taken measures to reduce costs internally,
he said. Hoechst expects to post another good profit in 1987,
Hilger said.
 REUTER

The two largest U.K. Building societies,
the Halifax and Abbey National, said they have joined the
banks' centralised clearing system.
    The move is intended to cut the current four or five days'
delay in clearing credits and attract the direct payment of
customers' salaries into building societies rather than into
banks, spokesmen for the two societies said.
    It is the first time non-banking organisations have entered
the clearing system and emphasises the growing competition
between building societies and banks, industry sources said.
    The two societies yesterday joined the Bankers' Automated
Clearing Services (BACS) which settles small, automated
payments and the Association of Payment Clearing Systems
(APACS) which sets policy for Britain's payment systems.
    The Halifax had previously settled small payments through
Barclays bank and Abbey National through Lloyds bank, the
 REUTER

Nakasone, Sumita agree discount rate cut not appropriate now - central bank sources

The World Bank's policies prevent it from
lending money for the transfer of land from landowners to the
landless, but it can help finance development of the
Philippines' proposed land reform program, a bank official
said.
    "The World Bank by its established policies cannot use its
resources to finance the transfer of assets from one group to
another. Our mandate is to finance investment-related
activities," Rolando Arrivillaga, the bank's resident
representative in the Philippines, told Reuters in an
    Arrivillaga said he wanted to clarify part of a report by a
World Bank mission that came in March to review the land reform
program and which said the bank would not be able to finance
compensation payments for the transfer of land.
    He said the Philippine government had never asked the bank
to finance land transfers, and the bank's position should not
be taken to mean that it ruled out any lending for the program.
    "Clearly in the case of land reform the question of land
transfer by definition is transferring assets from the landed
to the landless," Arrivillaga said. "However, the bank as an
institution can finance the development aspects of the program."
    "We will deal with the part of the program that deals with
how to put the land to effective use once it has been
transferred and how to make the on-farm investments that are
needed to attain the goal of improving the income level of the
beneficiaries," Arrivillaga said.
    "I wouldn't be surprised if other multilateral institutions
are faced with similar constraints," he said.
    President Corazon Aquino's spokesman said last week that
she was committed to launching the program, which limits land
holdings to seven hectares, by using her sweeping powers of
rule by decree before a new Congress convenes in July.
    Presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno said the land reform
program, estimated to cost about 44 billion pesos, would be
implemented in four phases and benefit 2.64 mln farmers.
    Benigno said the first two phases would complete the
transfer of rice and corn lands and abandoned farmland as well
as the transfer of land sequestered, expropriated or foreclosed
by the government and would cover 1.15 mln hectares.
    But Aquino would not decree the redistribution of large
sugar, banana and coconut plantations, leaving it to the
Congress to work out the details, Benigno said.
    Arrivillaga said bilateral aid donors, who form part of a
consultative group led by the World Bank, might be prepared to
finance the land transfers.
    "I don't think there are fast and easy rules as to how
international sources of finance would behave in a situation
like this, because land reform by its very nature requires rich
financing to be able to carry out the reform in a way equitable
to both the landowner and the beneficiary," he said.
    Arrivillaga said the first priority for the government
would be to tap domestic sources of financing for the land
transfer, but external assistance could be brought in if there
were gaps.
    "In such a fundamental reform the test of the willingness of
the government is how it confronts the domestic resource
requirement," Arrivillaga said. "Multilateral agencies by their
very nature are lenders of last resort. It means they have to
be convinced that the government prioritises the program."
    He said the World Bank had financed developmental costs
under an earlier land reform program launched by former
President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, and such aid had been
channelled through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).
    The LBP is the main implementing agency under Aquino's
program.
    "If asked to do so again and the program is designed to
improve the standard of living of the poor then we would
certainly be prepared to consider (lending)," Arrivillaga said.
    He said the tendency in such programs was to exaggerate the
costs by presenting ten-year perspectives in a one-year
context.
    Arrivillaga said the government could solve most of its
financing problems by devising effective instruments to
compensate landowners.
    Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin has said landowners are
likely to be paid 10 pct in cash and the rest in 10-year bonds
with 10 pct of their face value redeemable each year.
    Arrivillaga said any instruments used to compensate
landowners had to be freely tradable at near face value and
added: "The challenge is to devise a system of deferred payments
that is as good as cash."
    He said the international financing community was watching
the Philippine experiment with great interest.
    "They are going to be an interesting model for many other
countries because they opened a dialogue on the reforms to
every sector of the population and even international
institutions," he said. "I think they'll be on a very solid base
when they make the decision to launch the reforms."
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Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd
<MCIT.T> is issuing a 200 mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due
June 30, 1992 with an indicated coupon of 1-1/2 pct and par
pricing, lead manager Yamaichi International (Europe) Ltd said.
    Final terms for the issue will be set on June 10. The
selling concession is 1-1/2 pct, while management and
underwriting each pay 3/8 pct. The issue is available in
    The payment date is June 30 and the warrants are
exercisable from July 15, 1987 until June 16, 1992.
 REUTER

The International Primary Market
Association's new rules for lead managers of fixed rate dollar
bonds will take effect on June 15, an IPMA official said.
    The new IPMA rules require a lead manager to quote firm
prices at which it will buy and sell newly issued bonds for 12
months after the launch. The rules were first proposed March
27.
    Christopher Sibson, secretary general of IPMA, said the
rules are not expected to have a noticeable impact on the
market because they only apply to dollar denominated bonds,
which have been scarce recently.
    This year, euroyen issuance has outstripped dollar bonds.
    Sibson said that the rules are intended to provide greater
liquidity in the new issues market where underwriters sometimes
step away from deals they have managed if the market moves away
from them.
    However, he noted that the IPMA rules are voluntary and the
organization has no authority to enforce them.
    Sibson said that similar rules for new issues denominated
in other currencies will be put into effect later, following
consultation with the Association of International Bond
Dealers, another trade organization.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone today
agreed with Bank of Japan governor Satoshi Sumita that a
further cut in the discount rate was not appropriate at
present, central bank sources said.
    They told Reuters the two discussed the subject at a
routine meeting.
    Sumita told Nakasone he did not feel a rate cut was
appropriate and Nakasone expressed his understanding, the
    Currency dealers have speculated that Japan and West
Germany might come under pressure at next week's Venice summit
to cut interest rates to boost their economies.
    Nakasone, but not Sumita, is due to attend the summit.
 REUTER

Japan is disappointed at the recent threats
of trade retaliation from the European Community (EC) just as
the trade situation between the two is improving, Japanese
Trade and Industry Minister Hajime Tamura said.
    "I am deeply concerned that the EC has moved to take a
harsher line toward Japan despite this tangible improvement," he
said in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening of a new
centre designed to improve understanding between the two sides.
    Last week, foreign ministers of the 12 EC nations agreed to
impose tariffs on a range of unspecified Japanese electrical
goods unless Tokyo opened its markets more to EC exports.
    Tamura referred to a 55 pct rise in Japanese imports of EC
manufactured goods in the year ended March 31.
    "I feel this is a strong step on the road to balance through
expansion."
    "While I do not deny the existence of the trade deficit
between Japan and the EC, I believe it should be rectified not
by reducing trade through import restrictions or export
restraints, but by expanding the (overall) trade," Tamura said.
 REUTER

Intel Corp <INTC> of Santa Clara, Calif.
And Matra-Harris-Semiconducteurs (MHS) said their Cimatel joint
venture design facility was dissolved as from June 1.
    Intel makes logic and memory components. MHS is a joint
venture of the Matra group <MATR.PA> and Harris Corp <HRS>.
    Cimatel was formed in 1982 to design standard VLSI devices
for the telecommunications and computer graphics markets.
    MHS said in a statement that changing market conditions had
led Intel to reassess its marketing policy. It had concluded
that without common marketing goals a common design centre was
impractical.
 REUTER

Glynwed International Plc <GLYN.L> said it
had bought all the issued shares of two companies belonging to
Gallaher Ltd, a subsidiary of American Brands Inc <AMB>, in a
deal worth around 14 mln stg.
    The full names of the companies purchased from Gallaher are
<Formatura Iniezione Polimeri Spa>, Genoa and <FIP U.K. Ltd>,
Weybridge.
    Consideration for the purchases, which will be based on the
net asset values per share of the companies, has yet to be
finalised but some nine mln stg of the total represents debt
assumed by Glynwed.
    FIP is a manufacturer of valves and other pressure pipe
fittings in thermoplastics. Its products are complementary to
those of Glynwed subsidiaries, Durapipe U.K. And Philmac.
    The acquisitions appreciably develop and strengthen
Glynwed's strategic position in the thermoplastic pipework
systems market.
    The sale by Gallaher reflects a decision to dispose of more
peripheral businesses. Proceeds of the sale will be used in the
continuing expansion of the Gallaher group. Glynwed shares were
up 5p to 494 after the announcement. Gallaher is not quoted on
the London Stock Exchange.
 REUTER

Italy's Ministry of State Participation said
it formally approved the telecommunications joint venture
between STET, a subsidiary of the state holding company
<Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale> (IRI) and Fiat Spa
<FIAT.MI>.
    A ministry spokesman said Minister Clelio Darida passed the
joint venture <Telit - Telecommunicazioni Italiane Spa> this
morning. Darida's approval was needed for the venture.
    STET and Fiat each hold 48 pct of Telit's capital, with the
remaining stake held by state merchant bank Mediobanca Spa
<MDBI.MI>.
    The spokesman said Darida's approval includes a provision
that if the government eventually reduces its majority stake in
Mediobanca, the bank's four pct Telit shareholding will be
transferred to another public financial institution.
    As reported, Telit will group the operations of Fiat's
subsidiary Telettra Spa and STET's Italtel - Societa Italiana
Telecommunicazioni Spa.
 REUTER

Interest rates on Kuwaiti dinar deposits
held firm in scattered trading despite a Central Bank decision
to revive limited funding lines, dealers said.
    The Central Bank, which last Tuesday shut a daily aid
window through which it lent funds of up to one year, reopened
the facility for three month money, which was available at
seven pct, they said.
    It offered one month funds at seven pct through swap
facilities, dealers said.
    Today's Central Bank action, combined with sales of dollars
by some banks, helped ease a recent credit squeeze engineered
by the monetary authority to stem a rush for the U.S. Currency
arising from attractive U.S. Interest rates and Gulf tension,
    However, as one dealer noted: "The market is still
unsettled."
    Overnight funds, bid at 20 pct at the outset of business,
traded up to 30 pct before easing as liquidity dragged offers
down to 10 pct by the close. Tomorrow-next, for which buy/sell
quotes started at 30, 20 pct, ended at 14, eight.
    Spot-next was indicated at 8-1/2, seven after opening bids
of 10. Dealers quoted one-week at eight, seven against an early
9-1/2, 7-1/2.
    One month rates were at the same level after trade at eight
then 8-1/2. Dealers quoted three months at seven, 6-3/4 pct and
six-month to one year funds at seven, six pct. They reported
offshore offers of overnight at 10, tomorrow-next at eight and
one year at 6-1/2 pct towards the close.
     The Central Bank fixed its dinar exchange rate steady at
0.27933/67 to the dollar, against yesterday's 0.27939/73. The
spot dinar was 0.27930/40.
 REUTER

The Venice summit on June 8-10 is likely
to disappoint those hoping for new policies to whip up flagging
world growth, according to officials from summit countries.
    Worries over protectionist threats and the Third World debt
crisis are also unlikely to be assuaged, they added.
    The talks may yield agreed statements on the military
situation in the Gulf, co-operation in the fight against the
killer disease AIDS or on East-West relations, they said.
    But most summit participants have made it clear that major
new initiatives on economic issues must not be expected.
    West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in a recent
interview that "the translation of previous announcements into
policy is more important than new declarations and commitments."
    The main goal at the summit would be to strengthen existing
agreements to secure steady medium term growth and avoid "the
danger of a further devaluation of the dollar" via close
co-operation on economic and financial policies, Kohl added.
    Critics challenged this view. They pointed to the worrying
background of slower growth, especially in Japan and Germany,
amid fears about a pickup in inflation in the U.S. Which could
lead to higher interest rates and exacerbate the debt crisis.
    The marginal impact that the major shifts in dollar, yen
and mark exchange rates have had on the Japanese and German
trade surpluses and U.S. Trade and fiscal deficits since the
September 1985 Plaza agreement was also a cause for concern.
    Economists said the recent rise in the dollar was likely to
be quickly reversed in the absence of new commitments in
Venice.
    But government officials do not expect summit delegations -
from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada
and the European Community - to go much beyond restating policy
goals enshrined in the February Louvre agreement of Group of
Seven finance ministers and central bankers.
    Under the agreement, aimed at halting the dollar's 20-month
decline and at fostering balanced growth, Japan and West
Germany would work to eliminate their trade and payments
surpluses in return for a U.S. Pledge to reduce fiscal
deficits.
    A 6,000 billion yen package announced by Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone last week went some way towards that goal and
appeared to have saved Japan from a widely anticipated summit
attack on its economic policies, officials said.
    The package, featuring government spending and tax cuts to
stimulate demand, drew a cautious welcome in European capitals
but its reception in the U.S. Was much more enthusiastic.
    Treasury Secretary James Baker commented, "Of course,
implementation is the key, but this is clearly forward movement
toward fulfillment by Japan of its commitments."
    With Japan signalling its willingness to boost domestic
demand rather than rely on exports for growth, the U.S. And
other summit countries were now set to shift their attention to
West Germany and press Kohl for similar action, officials said.
    U.S. Assistant treasury secretary David Mulford said there
was worldwide concern that German economic growth has flagged,
and the U.S. Would demand that Kohl confirm a commitment that
policies would be reviewed if growth continued sluggish.
    But West German officials said Kohl would fiercely resist
any such pressure. One senior Bonn official said, "There is just
no room for manoeuvre for any economic moves."
    Finance minister Gerhard Stoltenberg has problems finding
cash to finance tax cuts promised for 1990, and is reluctantly
letting government borrowing rise, Bonn officials said.
    Citing fierce opposition by West Germany and Britain,
European officials also ruled out progress on U.S. Plans for a
more formal strategy for coordinating economic policies, based
on a series of economic indicators.
    The U.S. Wants other Group of Seven countries to agree to
high level consultations when the indicators, including trade,
growth, interest and exchange rates, inflation and fiscal
deficits, show members are not living up to economic
  But Germany and Britain fear the plan would undermine
economic sovereignty, and Britain also feels the proposals are
too complicated and too rigid, officials said.
    Recent developments on Third World debt, including moves by
two of the largest U.S. Banks to set aside billions of dollars
to cover bad loans, will feature prominently in the talks.
    U.S. And Japanese officials said they would seek to
reactivate the Baker initiative at the summit and renew a call
to commercial banks to come up with a "menu of alternatives" to
restore some new bank lending to debtor countries.
    Officials said there was also scope for agreement on a
Franco-British plan aimed at alleviating the burden for the
world's poorest debtor countries through concessional
rescheduling of their sovereign debt at the Paris Club.
    The talks would also include plans to dismantle runaway
farm subsidies all summit nations pay to guarantee the income
of their farmers and secure a share of world markets, they
said.
    The 24 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) last month supported a gradual
decoupling of farm production subsidies from income support for
farmers.
    The U.S., Canada and Britain in particular are keen to move
quickly after the OECD breakthrough, officials said.
    "What we want is not for treasuries to compete as they do
now. We want to see to it that our farmers will be able to
compete in international markets," Canadian Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney said.
    The U.S. Intends to table specific proposals on the issue
at GATT, the world trade body, immediately after the summit to
signal that it wants negotiations on farm trade to take
precedence over the other trade issues included in the new GATT
round of talks launched last year in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
    "We won't have much tolerance for delay," U.S. Agriculture
    But European officials said they would resist such moves,
making an agreement at the summit unlikely. France and other EC
countries insist that farm trade disputes be resolved as part
of a wider trade settlement within GATT, they said.
 REUTER

Newbery Corp said Fireman's Fund
Corp <FFC> ane United Bancorp of Arizona <UBAZ.O> have elected
not to extend a financing agreement with Newbery, and the
company has been unsuccessful in securing long-term financing
from other sources.
    It said Fireman's Fund has declined to provide long-term
financial assistance and United does not intend to extend the
maturity of 11 mln dlrs in notes owed by Newbery beyond
 Reuter

The French ship Capitaine Wallis, 13,847
dwt, berthed at the port of Geelong in Victoria today to load
8,000 tonnes of urgently needed wheat for Fiji after Australian
port unions partly lifted a trade embargo, shipping sources
said.
    The wheat is expected to be loaded tomorrow, an Australian
Wheat Board spokesman said.
 Reuter

Boeing co said it has started the 37 dlr
per share tender offer for all shares of ARGOSystems Inc that
it announced yesterday morning.
withdrawal rights and proration deadline all expire June 30
    The offer is not conditioned on receipt of any minimum
number of shares, Boeing said.  If at least 90 pct of
ARGOSystems' shares are tendered, it said it will buy all
shares, but if less than 90 pct are tendered, it said it plans
to buy only 49 pct in the offer.
    Boeing said if less than 90 pct of ARGOSystems' shares are
tendered, but the purchase of all shares tendered along with
the exercise of options it holds would give it over 90 pct of
ARGOSystems, Boeing may buy all shares tendered.
    ARGOSystems has granted Boeing an option to buy up to
1,238,311 new shares or a 15.6 pct interest at 37 dlrs each,
and shareholders have granted Boeing an option to purchase up
to 597,885 shares at the same price, or about 8.9 pct of those
now outstanding, without taking the company option into
consideration.  A merger at the tender price that has been
approved by the ARGOSystems board is to follow the offer.
 Reuter

Dumez Investments Inc said it is
accepting and paying for 478,125 shares of United Westburne
Industries Ltd in response to its 25 dlr per share tender offer
and it has extended the offer until June 26.
    Dumez, 70 pct owned by Dumez SA <DUMP.PA> and 30 pct by
Unicorp Canada Corp <UNIA.TO>, said the 478,125 shares
represent 81.6 pct of those not controlled by Westburne
International Ltd, which Dumez previously acquired in a tender.
 Reuter

State oil firm Agip Petroli Spa said it has
acquired a 50 pct stake in Steuart Petroleum Co, an independent
U.S. Oil products company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
    Agip Petroli, a subsidiary of state energy concern Ente
Nazionali Idrocarburi, said in a statement that the remaining
50 pct of the U.S. Firm is owned by Steuart Investment Co, a
holding company that also operates in the sectors of
transportation, hotels and insurance.
    The Italian firm said Steuart Petroleum operates primarily
on the East Coast.
 REUTER

Peptide T, a minute chemical
structure that can be easily manufactured, effectively blocks
the attack of the deadly AIDS virus on human cells, researchers
claimed.
     The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health announced at
the third annual International Conference on Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome that Peptide T, first identified by
institute neuro-scientist Dr. Candace Pert, "potently blocks
entry of the AIDS virus into cells..."
    
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has quickly approved
clinical testing of the naturally-occurring brain chemical. The
decision  makes possible tests on AIDS victims.
      Dr. Frederick Goodwin, the institute's scientific
director, said in a joint interview with Pert, that "my gut
reaction is that we are onto something."
      He said that based on initial findings Peptide T may hold
more promise as a treatment for those already suffering from
AIDS, but could also have some value in the search for a
vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease.
   
    A research team has found that Peptide T is capable of
fully reversing brain cell damage caused by AIDS under a
variety of laboratory tests.
    Pert said that she sent doses of Peptide T last autumn to a
Swedish doctor who provided the chemical to four AIDS patients.
One died, but the three survivors showed some improvement, she
said.
   
    Goodwin said that three major drug firms, which he declined
to identify, are anxious to win permission to produce the
Peptide T substance that he said has potential for finding a
vaccine to safeguard against the deadly disease that has
threatened the lives of over a million people thus far.
    Pert said that the clinical testing in the United States
would involve at least a dozen AIDS patients in a controlled
environment, probably starting next month, which would
hopefully verify the chemical's usefulness.        
 Reuter

Lieberman Enterprises Inc said
Carolco Pictures Inc is negotiating for the acquisition of the
50 pct of Lieberman shares held by the families of chairman
David Lieberman and president Harold Okinow at 20.50 dlrs each,
and if the deal were concluded, public shareholders would be
offered the same price for their shares.
    Lieberman said the Carolco bid to its public shareholders
would be in cash or shareholders could be offered securities as
an alternative. The offer would occur within about 90 days
after the closing of the sale of the initial 50 pct stake, the
    The company said a final agreement has not yet been reached
on the first transaction, but negotiations are expected to be
concluded in early June. Present management is expected to
continue to operate Lieberman, the company said. Lieberman
distributes prerecorded music, video movies and other products.
 Reuter

Rainier Bancorp said it will add an extra
58 mln dlrs to its loan loss reserve in the second quarter for
possible credit losses related to Third World loans, causing a
net loss of about 19 mln dlrs or 87 cts per share for the
quarter and a loss of two mln dlrs or nine cts a share for the
half.
    It said second half earnings are expected to be at "normal
profitability levels," resulting in "significant" profits for
the year as a whole.
    The company said the addition will raise its loan loss
reserve to 136 mln dlrs.
    Rainier said the special addition to its reserves
represents about one third of its total Third World debt
exposure.
    It said it expects no change in its dividend policy -- it
now pays 29 cts per share on a regular quarterly basis -- and
plans to continue current dividend payments until it completes
its proposed merger into Security Pacific Corp <SPC>.
    Yesterday, Security Pacific itself said it would set up a
500 mln dlr reserve for Third World loans, causing a loss of
about 175 mln dlrs for the second quarter.
    Rainier earned 17.4 mln dlrs or 86 cts per share in last
year's second quarter and 32.9 mln dlrs or 1.62 dlrs per share
in last year's first half.
    For all of 1986, Rainier earned 70.0 mln dlrs or 3.41 dlrs
per share.
 Reuter

Fiji today welcomed the ending of a trade
ban imposed by Australian labor unions as supporters of the
country's ousted prime minister Timoci Bavadra renewed pressure
for his reinstatement with strikes and shop closures.
    The government welcomed a decision by the Australian
Waterside Workers' Federation to lift its ban on shipments to
Fiji, imposed in support of Bavadra, whose newly-elected
government was overthrown in a military coup on May 14.
    The ban had threatened food shortages of imported wheat,
fresh vegetables and medicines. A direct result of the union
decision would be the immediate shipment of 9,000 tons of rice
and wheat from an Australian port, the government said.
    Shops in Nadi and Lautoka, center of the country's sugar
industry, closed again today in support of Bavadra.
    In Nadi two bomb threats forced evacuation of the
Australian Westpac bank, but police said they turned out to be
a hoax. Bavadra has launched a campaign of civil disobedience
to press for his reinstatement.
 Reuter

aimed to stabilize the market around 18 dlrs a barrel.

 REUTER

Six months ended March 31, 1987
    Share 6.0p vs 4.1p, diluted
    Interim dividend 1.4p vs 1.05p
    Pre-tax profit 312 mln stg vs 158 mln
    Net profit 234 mln vs 114 mln
    Sales 3.47 billion vs 1.55 billion
    Operating profit 296 mln vs 164 mln
    Interest and other income less central expenses credit 16
mln vs debit six mln
    Company's full name is Hanson Trust Plc <HNSN.L>.
    U.K. Operating profit by sector -
    Consumer goods 123 mln stg vs 32 mln
    Building products 31 mln vs 26 mln
    Industrial 14 mln vs same
    Food 20 mln vs nil.
    U.S. Sectors -
    Consumer goods 25 mln stg vs 20 mln
    Building products 29 mln vs 25 mln
    Food seven mln vs two mln
    Businesses owned in 1986 and sold during 1987 nil vs nine
mln.
 Reuter

    Oper shr 20 cts vs 19 cts
    Oper net 4,625,000 vs 6,781,000
    Sales 250.2 mln vs 150.9 mln
    Orders 351.5 mln vs 122.5 mln
    1st half
    Oper shr 29 cts vs 26 cts
    Oper net 7,453,000 vs 12.0 mln
    Sales 441.1 mln vs 255.6 mln
    Orders 576.6 mln vs 221.1 mln
    Backlog 848.3 mln vs 459.2 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net excludes losses from discontinued
operations of 32.9 mln dlrs in quarter and 35.7 mln dlrs in
half.
    Net excludes tax credit 2,540,000 dlrs vs credit reversal
2,300,000 dlrs in quarter, credit 5,500,000 dlrs vs nil half.
    Results include Syscom Corp from December 30, 1986 purchase
and Beloit Corp from March 31, 1986 purchase.  Orders exclude
253.6 mln dlrs acquired with Syscon acquisition.
    Backlog at January 31 747 mln dlrs.
    Average shares 21.5 mln vs 13.3 mln in quarter and 18.9 mln
vs 13.3 mln in half.
    Income tax provisions 2,200,000 dlrs vs 3,450,000 dlrs in
quarter and 6,200,000 dlrs vs 7,225,000 dlrs in half.  Current
quarter tax rate of 27.5 pct benefited from Wisconsin
Department of Revenue Decision, the company said.
 Reuter

The record 4.9 billion dlrs rise in U.K.
Reserves in May to a total 34.7 billion has lifted hopes for a
further cut in bank base lending rates after the June 11
general election, market analysts said.
    Sterling would have risen on the much better than expected
number but for market nerves about the poll outcome, they said.
    But the weight of foreign currency and gold reserves now
available to the authorities to support the pound should curb
any market tendency to panic if U.K. Opinion polls show the
ruling Conservative Party's lead slipping, they added.
    "We have been intervening to a very much greater extent than
we have done hitherto," Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson
said at a news conference today, commenting on the news of the
record reserves rise.
    He put the U.K. Intervention in the context of the Louvre
accord between leading industrial nations to stabilise the
dollar, partly through direct intervention on foreign
exchanges. "We have been playing a very full part ourselves," he
said.
    But market analysts see the recent upward pressure on
sterling, and consequent need for official sales to damp down
its rise, more in the light of local factors.
    Steven Bell, chief economist at Morgan Grenfell Securities,
said that corporate money has been flowing back into Britain
amid hopes of another Conservative government, after fears last
autumn of a Labour election victory sent it flooding out.
    U.K. Portfolio investment is also returning, while foreign
buyers see U.K. Growth propects and high bond yields as
attractive. They will be strong buyers of U.K. Assets, notably
equities, once the election is out of the way, Bell said.
    Analysts see this pressure as the main hope for lower
interest rates, as the government is expected to try to reverse
the loss of export competitiveness caused by a strong pound.
    Today, however, the pound hardly moved on the reserves
news, dipping on its trade-weighted index against a basket of
currencies from 73.1 pct of its 1975 value at 1000 GMT to 73.0
pct at 1100 GMT, half an hour after the figures were released.
    "The market doesn't want to do anything because of the
election," commented an economist at a big U.S. Investment bank.
    Several dealers and analysts added that market forecasts of
a rise in reserves of between one and three billion dlrs had
overestimated the amount of pound sales that were likely to
have been disguised by swap arrangements or transactions on the
forward market.
    The market also seemed to have overestimated the amount of
sterling the Bank of England bought at the end of May to smooth
the pound's sudden downturn, while some of the intervention
reported in May probably occurred in April, they said.
    The key three months interbank money market rates eased
about 1/8 point, reflecting cautious hopes that the downtrend
in U.K. Interest rates will be revived following the reserves
news, analysts said.
    Government bond prices initially firmed, but the market was
muted as traders worried about the funding implications of
another huge rise in reserves, they added.
    Morgan Grenfell's Bell forecast a half point base rate cut
from the current nine pct level soon after the election, so
long as poll projections of another Conservative victory prove
accurate, with another half point later.
    Justin Silverton, equity economist at Credit Suisse
Buckmaster and Moore, said a full point reduction might be
possible. "Sterling will be held down by interest rate cuts in
future, rather than this active intervention," he predicted.
    Kevin Boakes of Greenwell Montagu Gilt-Edged cautioned
against over-optimistic forecasts, but agreed a half point cut
looked likely.
    A cut before the election has been virtually ruled out.
    "The Bank (of England) is both worried about the political
problem of cutting rates during an election campaign ... And
has signalled some worry about broad money (growth)," said Robin
Marshall, chief U.K. Economist at Chase Manhattan Securities.
    He said the 10 billion dlrs increase in total reserves in
the past seven months may foreshadow full U.K. Entry into the
    But Bell said the authorities would like to see another 10
or 15 billion dlrs in the reserves before joining, if they did
so. But, unlike many analysts, he doubted the U.K. Will go in.
 REUTER

Shr profit 29 cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 645,000 vs loss 118,000
    Sales 7,802,000 vs 4,330,000
    1st half
    Shr profit 58 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net profit 1,255,000 vs profit 212,000
    Sales 14.5 mln vs 8,912,000
    Avg shrs 2,183,150 vs 2,072,779
 Reuter

A subsidiary of state energy concern Ente
Nazionali Idrocarburi <ENTN.MI> (ENI) said it has acquired a 50
pct stake in <Steuart Petroleum Co>, an independent U.S. Oil
products company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
    Agip Petroli Spa said in a statement that the remaining 50
pct of the U.S. Firm is owned by <Steuart Investment Co>, a
holding company which also has interests transportation, hotels
and insurance.
on the East Coast of the U.S.
 Reuter

Rainier Realty Investors said Rainier
Bancorp <RBANK.O> has agreed to increase the interest rate on
the notes the bank would offer in connection with the trust's
proposed liquidation to 8-1/4 pct from eight pct.
    The trust said it had asked for the increase to partly
compensate for a recent rise in interest rates.  It said
shareholders will continue to have the option of taking 9.14
dlrs in cash for each of their shares, rather than seven-year
Rainier notes with a principal value of 10 dlrs.  Shareholders
weill vote on the proposal at a special meeting to be held July
15.
 Reuter

South Africa is expected to unveil
tomorrow an expansionary budget for the second consecutive year
in a bid to boost the nation's flagging economic growth rate,
economic analysts said.
    Faced with competing demands for increased military and
police spending and the pressing need for more funds for black
housing and education, Finance Minister Barend Du Plessis is
expected to raise significantly the government's overall
expenditure targets when he presents the budget to parliament,
    Analysts expect Du Plessis to provide for a rise in state
spending at least equal to the 16 pct inflation rate for the
financial year that started on April 1, while ignoring pleas
from the private sector to stimulate growth by cutting taxes.
    "Fiscal policy has become gradually more expansionary, but
simply raising government spending and increasing the budget
deficit is an inflationary form of stimulation," said Rob Lee,
chief economist at South African Mutual Life Assurance Co.
    South Africa this year is targeting inflation-adjusted
growth in GDP of three pct against an increase last year of
less than one pct.
    Growth in GDP over the past decade has averaged about 1.5
pct, while the unemployment rate among blacks has spiralled to
over 30 pct.
    Economists estimate that the government's spending target
will rise to about 47 billion rand, with revenue budgeted at
around 40 billion rand. This would leave a budget deficit
before borrowing of about seven billion rand, or four pct of
GDP.
    The government, having consistently overshot its own
spending targets for more than a decade, also faces a
credibility crisis over expenditure figures outlined in the
budget, analysts said.
    "The budget is invariably too optimistic on expenditure,"
said Standard Bank Ltd in a budget preview.
    Many analysts in the private sector are now paying less
attention to the figures presented in the budget and are using
their own estimates of expenditure to draw conclusions for the
money and capital markets.
    South African Mutual's Lee believes government spending
will again exceed the budget target and increase to around 49
billion rand this year, leaving a deficit of between 5 and 5.5
pct of GDP, compared with a three pct limit suggested by the
IMF.
    "The IMF limit is obviously going to be abandoned," predicted
one analyst, noting that South Africa has moved steadily away
from austerity measures recommended by the IMF over the past
two years.
    The policy shift followed a dramatic deterioration in the
political situation and the onset of an economic crisis
triggered by the refusal of major foreign banks to roll over
loans to the country in September 1985.
    Against a background of Western economic sanctions, falling
per capita incomes, rising joblessness and high inflation,
government officials say economic growth is the prime
objective.
    But private-sector economists caution that the government's
ability to promote growth by boosting state spending is
constrained by the need to maintain a large surplus on the
current account of the country's balance of payments.
    Most of that surplus, this year estimated at around 2.5
billion dlrs, will be swallowed up by repayments on the
nation's estimated 23 billion dlr foreign debt in terms of an
arrangement reached earlier this year with major international
    Within these constraints, economists believe Du Plessis has
little room to manoeuvre.
    Analysts argue recent rises in civil service salaries and
budgeted spending increases for the state-owned Post Office and
South African Transport Services suggest that major tax
concessions to individuals or corporations are unlikely.
    Du Plessis earlier this year announced small concessions
for taxpayers in a mini-budget before the May 6 whites-only
election. The poll delayed presentation of the national budget.
    "This will not be a very exciting budget," commented Harry
Schwarz, spokesman on finance for the liberal Progressive
Federal Party. "I do not expect any major tax cuts as all the
sweets were given out before the election."
 REUTER

Alaska Air Group Inc's Alaska Airlines
subsidiary said its load factor was 58.6 pct last month, up
from 58 pct in May 1986.
    It said revenue passenger miles incrased eight pct to 234.9
mln from 217.9 mln in the year ago month and available seat
miles were up ;seven pct to 400.7 mln from 375.8 mln.
    For the first five months of 1987, Alaska Airlines said,
its passenger load factor was 54.5 pct, up from 53.4 pct a year
earlier. Revenue passenger miles increased five pct to 1.05
billion and available seat miles were up three pct to 1.92
billion.
 Reuter

1st qtr
    Shr seven cts vs nine cts
    Net 166,000 vs 201,000
    Revs 801,000 vs 687,000
 Reuter

BASIX Corp said it has agreed in
principle to sell the stock of its Automatic Toll Systems Inc
subsidiary to Cubic Corp for about 26 mln dlrs.
    The company said it would retain Automatic Toll assets
worth about nine mln dlrs to dispose of over time.
to approval by both boards and BASIX's banks and the expiration
of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.
 Reuter

Financial Services Corp nonconsolidated leasing subsidiary sold
its beneficial interest in five used Boeing 737-200 aircraft.
    In March, 1985 the aircraft were acquired from and leased
back to Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>.
    AAR said the beneficial interest was sold to CIS Corp of
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 347,849 vs loss 103,489
    Sales 222,697 vs 150,534
 Reuter

The World Bank, in the throes of a
painful reorganization, faces new strains because of actions by
Citibank and others to set aside new Latin debt reserves,
financial analysts and monetary sources said.
    The monetary sources said the reorganization has caused
some bad feelings and charges that promotions and other
personnel actions have been based on personality rather than
ability. It also had some effect in undermining the Bank's role
in the global debt strategy, the sources said.
    At the center of the controversy is Bank President Barber
Conable, whose reorganization efforts are getting some 
critical review from many Bank staff members and some member-
countries including the United States.
    "I think if he were to do it again, he would do it very
differently," said one source.
    Conable, a former congressman from New York appointed by
President Reagan to the senior most position at the Bank nearly
a year ago, has taken the view that the Bank badly needed to be
reorganized and perhaps made more streamlined.
    In this he had the backing of many in the Reagan
administration who viewed the Bank as a bloated and inefficient
bureaucracy that gave money to countries when other free-market
sources of assistance were available.
    However, the Bank had been singled out for a much greater
role under the U.S. debt initiative proposed by Treasury
Secretary James Baker.  That strategy, which called for some 20
billion dlrs in new funding from the commerical banks and nine
billion dlrs in spending from the development banks, mostly the
World Bank, came under profound doubt with the decision by
Citibank and Chase Manhattan to set aside new reserves.
    This move, heralded by some sources as a measure that gives
all parties more time, frightened others, who see it as the
beginning of a tit for tat exercise that could lead to complete
unraveling of the monetary system.
    As envisioned by the latter, the next move would be for
Brazil, which has delayed payments on its debts, to say it does
not intend to pay interest for a very long period of time.
    Citibank and other banks could then decide to stop
financing the country's export credits, the funds countries use
to support their daily activities, leading to an economic
breakdown.
    "Within six weeks alot of countries could be out of
business," said one source.
    Citibank's initial step last month was to set some three
billion dlrs in a general reserve for potential losses on loans
to developing countries.  It was followed by a similar move by
Chase Manhattan some days later.
    In the best of all worlds, the kind of cooperation that was
demonstrated between the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
multilateral development banks, the wealthy countries and
commercial banks when the debt crisis surfaced in 1982, could
emerge again but no one is expecting that.
    If anything, the negotiations have become much more
confrontational with the debtor countries pressing for more
concessions, arguing that they face growing political
instability if they are asked to do or pay more.
    They are very critical of the IMF's austerity measures and
there is sympathy for their view among the development
    "When you hear code words like structural adjustment and
tightening your belt.  What that means is that the poor peasent
making 700 dlrs a year should drop it to 500 dlrs," says one
source.
    He adds: "And when your hear they should have market forces
at play, that means the level of public services should drop."
    It had been hoped that giving the World Bank a greater role
in the debt strategy might defuse the growing resistance in the
debtor countries to measures that increased already prevalent
poverty even further.
   The Bank, which primarily assists countries in the building
of roads, sewerage systems, education, and other so-called
infrastructure, is viewed in the Third World as benefactor.
   The IMF, however, which essentially forged the debt stategy
following the disclosure by Mexico in 1982 that it was near
default, is considered a stern taskmaster that has little
sympathy or even understanding of poverty.
    But there are doubts about how well the Baker initiative
has worked and about the World Bank's success at bringing about
increased growth in the Third World under the U.S. prescription
which indicated that countries might grow their way out of
their difficulty.
 Reuter

Aircraft Co subsidiary said it has been chosen by British
Satellite Broadcasting to negotiate for a contract worth about
300 mln dlrs to deliver two satellites for direct broadcast
television.
    The company said the first of the satellites is scheduled
to start up three channels of direct broadcast satellite
television by late 1989.
    The company said the contract should be signed by June 30. 
Each satellite would be equipped with three 110-watt channels.
 Reuter

Resdel Industries Inc said
it has agreed to acquire San/Bar Corp in a share-for-share
exchange, after San/Bar distributes all shgares of its
Break-Free Corp subsidiary to San/Bar shareholders on a
share-for-share basis.
    The company said also before the merger, San/Bar would
Barry K. Hallamore and Lloyd G. Hallamore, San/Bar's director
of corporate development, 1,312,500 dlrs and 1,087,500 dlrs
respectviely under agreements entered into in October 1983.
 Reuter

Sri Lanka today ordered its armed forces
to defend the island's territorial waters as India prepared to
send a flotilla with relief supplies that Colombo says it does
not want for the Tamils in the Jaffna peninsula.
    The sudden crisis between Sri Lanka and its giant neighbour
deepened as Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa told
parliament: "We have our territorial limits and nobody can be
allowed to trespass there ...
    "President (Junius) Jayewardene has ordered the army, navy
and air force to protect the island and its territorial waters,"
Premadasa said to a round of applause from the house.
    In New Delhi an Indian spokesman said the plan to send a
flotilla of 20 small unarmed boats with Red Cross supplies to
Jaffna tomorrow would go ahead despite Colombo's objections.
    The confrontation was the latest result of the long and
bitter conflict between Sri Lanka's Buddhist Sinhalese majority
and the Hindu Tamil minority, which has strong ethnic and
cultural links with India's 50 mln Tamils.
 Reuter

The Louvre agreement by the Group of Seven
finance ministers and central bankers to stabilise currencies
has worked well and needs no fundamental strengthening at the
economic summit in Venice on June 8-10, U.K. Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson said.
    Previewing the summit, which he expected would not produce
any major new economic initiatives, Lawson told reporters work
remained to be done on improving the conditions for lasting
world economic growth.üside measures to boost growth, he said.

    "I think it is possible that there may be scope for a
further reduction in interest rates in Germany," he added, but
stressed that he had had no indication that such a move was
likely. He made no mention of Japanese interest rates.
    Lawson said the U.S. Should embark on "a gradual reduction
of its fiscal deficits over the next two or three years."
    He said the February 22 Louvre accord had produced
"satisfactory exchange rate stability," in part thanks to heavy
coordinated intervention of Group of Seven central banks, and
he was "content" with sterling's exchange rate.
    Pointing to the record 4.8 billion stg rise in U.K. May
currency reserves announced today he said, "we have been playing
a very full part ourselves ... We have been intervening to a
very much greater extent than we had done hitherto."
    Lawson said there was a risk that the Louvre agreement may
falter if member states did not implement the macro-economic
commitments underlying the accord.
    "Certainly it would be more difficult to maintain exchange
rate stability if countries are seen not to implement their
commitments in Paris ... In this respect." He said the U.S.
Budget deficit was "very important."
    Noting the 6,000 billion yen economic package announced by
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone last week Lawson
said, "what is really needed in Japan is an increase in
merchandise imports. Supply side measures are critical."
    "There is a specific range of consumer and agricultural
goods where they have an extremely restrictive regime which is
wholly unjustified," he said.
    Lawson doubted that Tokyo's partners would indulge in "Japan
bashing" at the summit especially after the economic stimulation
package and the announcement of Nakasone's plans to increase
Japanese development aid over the next three years.
    Japan's more flexible stance on Tokyo stock exchange
membership would also help deflect criticism, he said.
    He said he thought West Germany would instead come under
pressure at the summit to adopt similar stimulation measures to
jack up faltering economic growth.
    In this respect Lawson said he hoped Bonn would bring
forward to January 1988 part of its agreed package of tax cuts
scheduled for 1990. He also called on Bonn to push ahead with
the privatisation of German national industries.
    On debt, Lawson said he expected a three point British plan
to alleviate the burden of the poorest sub-saharan countries to
make progress in Venice.
    The plan, involving concessional rescheduling of sovereign
debt in the Paris Club, was first proposed at the IMF and World
Bank meetings in Washington earlier this year.
    Lawson said he would seek "to consolidate political backing
for the plan at the Venice summit" and hoped the programme would
be finalised at the Autumn meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
    He welcomed the recent moves by Citicorp and Chase
Manhattan to increase sharply their Third World debt
    "First, it is a blow for realism. Second, because the market
response has shown that banks have much less to fear from this
sort of move than they felt before Citicorp," he said.
    U.K. Banks should follow Bank of England recommendations,
strengthening their balance sheets and making more provisions.
"They have done it to some extent, they need to do it more,"
Lawson said, adding it was up to the banks themselves to
determine the appropriate size of provisions.
    He also said the dismantling of farm subsidies would be
discussed at the summit. "There is a consensus, which we have to
push further."
 REUTER

Centel Corp said it completed the sale of
its water properties serving 8,000 customers in four
southwestern Kansas communities to Central Kansas Utility Co of
Columbia, Mo.
 Reuter

Unilever Capital Corp NV is issuing a 65
mln New Zealand dlr eurobond due July 7, 1989 with an 18-1/4
pct coupon and priced at 101-1/4, bookrunner Hambros Bank Ltd
said.
    Joint lead managers are EBC Amro Bank Ltd and Hambros.  The
bonds, guaranteed by Unilever Plc, will be issued in
denominations of 1,000 and 5,000 dlrs and listed in Luxembourg.
    Fees comprise 1/2 pct for management and underwriting
combined and 7/8 pct for selling.
 REUTER

The public stock offering Amoco Canada
plans if it succeeds in its 5.2 billion-dlr takeover of Dome
Petroleum Ltd <DMP> will be worth more than one billion
Canadian dlrs, a published report said.
    Public stockholders would own at least 15 pct of Amoco
Canada, although Amoco plans to raise the level of Canadian
participation higher than that, Amoco Canada president Donald
Stacy said in an interview in the Toronto Star.
    Stacy would not say how much higher, adding that that
question will be the subject of discussions between Amoco and
Investment Canada, the federal agency which reviews foreign
takeovers of Canadian companies, the newspaper said.
   
    Amoco Canada plans to make its submission to the agency
next Thursday.
    Stacy said the issue would be sold in stages and that the
first stage would be worth 200 mln to 300 mln Canadian dlrs,
the Star said. The initial offering would not take place until
at least one year after Amoco acquired Dome, to allow the two
operations to merge.
 Reuter

W.R. Grace and Co said it has agreed to
combine its cocoa processing businesses with those of S. and W.
Berisford PLC.
    It said the joint venture, to be 68.4 pct owned by Grace
and 31.6 pct by Berisford, would have annual sales in 1987 of
over 700 mln dlrs.
    Grace said the transaction involves the combination of its
cocoa products division and two Berisford cocoa processing
units, which would be operated under Grace management.
    The company said Berisford would contribute its Dutch and
West German cocoa subsidiaries and issue new ordinary shares to
Grace in connection with the transaction.  It said closing is
expected by early fall, subject to regulatory approvals.
 Reuter

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> intends to proceed with
its planned bid for building materials group Monier Ltd
<MNRA.S> despite the counter-bid from <Equiticorp Tasman Ltd>
(ETL), CSR executive director Gene Herbert told Reuters.
    ETL said today it would offer 4.15 dlrs each for Monier's
issued capital of 156.28 mln shares, plus a share alternative.
This compares with a 3.80 dlr cash element in CSR's proposed
bid.
    The proposed offer by ETL, controlled by New Zealand
entrepreneur Allan Hawkins, came after it built up a 14.99 pct
stake in Monier in a 95 mln dlr share raid in recent days.

    Herbert said Britain's Redland Plc <RDLD.L>, which holds
just under 50 pct of Monier, still supported the CSR bid and
had told CSR it is not a seller.
    He said Redland wanted to maintain and build on its
operations in Australia and the U.S., Where Monier has built up
a strong presence, notably in roofing tile manufacture.
    The CSR offer contains a put and call option agreement with
Redland. This enables Redland to accept the CSR bid within six
months of its close or to lift its stake to 50.1 pct in the
same period and to run Monier as a joint venture with CSR.
    CSR has said that Redland will take up the second option.

    ETL has declined to say why it intervened in Monier, beyond
describing it as a long term investment.
    ETL would bring no synergies to Monier, unlike CSR which is
a leader in building materials, Herbert said.
    "We fit better with Monier," he said.
    CSR has said that it will concentrate development on its
core businesses of sugar and building materials after its moves
into energy several years ago.
    Asked what he thought ETL's bid sought to achieve, Herbert
said: "I'm puzzled as to what Hawkins' strategy is. One has to
wonder if Monier is the main target."

    Herbert said CSR had no plans to raise its bid, and said a
higher price would be difficult to justify on fundamentals.
    Monier was trading at 2.80 dlrs when CSR launched its
original bid of 3.50, or 16.8 times earnings, in late April.
    The shares closed at 3.90 dlrs today, down 25 cents on
yesterday, after ETL withdrew on reaching the top foreign
shareholding level permitted without Foreign Investment Review
Board (FIRB) approval. Its bid is subject to FIRB approval.
    Herbert also said that institutions, which are more likely
to accept a share alternative than cash, would have to judge
the respective values of ETL and CSR shares.

    ETL is the third group to become involved in a possible
acquisition of Monier this year. Redland held discussions on a
possible takeover before the CSR bid emerged but the
negotiations foundered on the price.
    Share analysts said that for this reason, they did not
think ETL's intervention would flush out a full Redland bid
although Monier's ultimate fate rests in its hands.
    "Redland is still in the driving seat," said Tim Cohen of
<Ord Minnett Ltd>, adding that Redland would be happier having
CSR as a partner in running Monier than ETL.
    Monier's independent directors have recommended ETL's bid.

 REUTER

Westport Bancorp Inc said it
declared a 100 pct stock dividend and increased the quarterly
cash dividend.
    The company said the the stock dividend, to effect a
two-for-one stock split, is payable July six to holders of
record June 12.
    It said the dividend on present shares was increased to 26
cts, from 25 cts in the prior quarter, payable July one to
 Reuter

Periods ended April 30
    Net 3,309,000 vs 2,539,000
    Revs 45.2 mln vs 26.8 mln
    Avg shrs 18.7 mln vs 16.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes gain of 1,197,000 dlrs, or seven
cts a share, from tax loss carryforwards
 Reuter

Comp-U-Card International Inc
said it intends to change its name to CUC International Inc.
    It said shareholders will be asked to approve the new name
at the annual meeting on June 16
 Reuter

The Secretary-General of the African
Development Bank expressed confidence in the institution's
ability to handle potential problems with repayment of
development financing loans.
    Koffi Dei-Anang told a news conference at the bank's
headquarters that loan arrears were only 80 mln dlrs at
present, a small percentage of total ADB lending which exceeded
one billion dlrs in 1986.
    Some commercial banks have recently taken extraordinary
measures to deal with third world lending strategies.
    "We do have difficulty with repayment of loans on time,"
Dei-Anang said. But he denied than any ADB loan arrears were
more than 12 months behind schedule.
    "We have never had a default. We have never written off a
loan," he added.
    Dei-Anang said the Abidjan-based ADB will hold its annual
general meeting in Cairo from June 9 to June 11 and over 1,000
delegates were expected to attend.
    The agenda will include the approval of the bank's annual
report and accounts, but there will be no debate on the capital
increase which is currently being voted on by the ADB
governors.
    An ADB spokeswoman said the U.S. Had voted for a 200 pct
increase in the bank's capital, but other votes were still
coming in.
    In December, an ad-hoc committee of the ADB's board of
governors, comprising 18 African and non-African countries,
agreed that a 200 pct increase was necessary to finance a rise
in lending between 1987 and 1991.
    If the recommendations are approved by the board, the
capital of the bank would rise from around 6.55 billion dlrs to
19.66 billion dlrs.
    Dei-Anang said the capital increase would help the bank
improve its borrowing capacity. "The capital increase is in
effect a passport to the capital market," he said.
    "It will enable us to borrow something like 4.5 billion dlrs
in the next five years," he added.
 REUTER

would suspend trading in Wedtech Corp's common stock, 13 pct
convertible subordinated debentures due on June 15, 2004 and 14
pct senior subordinated notes, due August 15, 1996 before
the opening of trading on June 16.
    Following suspension, the exchange said an application will
be made to the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist the
issues.
   
    The exchange said the action was taken in view of Wedtech's
unsatisfactory financial condition which it said the company
disclosed on April 23 and because it believed Wedtech was
unable to transfer its listing to another securities
martketplace.
    The exchange said it may at any time suspend a security if
it believes that continued dealings in the security on the
exchange are not advisable.
 Reuter

<Virginia Federal Savings and Loan
Association> said it has signed a definitive agreement to be
acquired by <Montrose Holding Co>, an affiliate of <Montrose
Capital Corp> for 20 mln dlrs.
    Virginia Federal and Montrose Capital said the agreement
provides for the conversion of Virginia Federal from a mutual
to a stock association and the purchase of 100 pct of its stock
for 20 mln dlrs by Montrose.
    According to the companies, Virginia Federal has over 700
mln dlrs in assets and operates 16 branches in Virginia.
    Virginia Federal said the proceeds would enable it to
provide increased mortgage and lending services and enable the
company to compete more effectively in the Virginia market.
    The companies said the agreement is subject to Federal Home
Loan Bank Board approval, expected later this year.
    Additionally, the companies said the converted association
would be managed by a board of directors consisting of the six
current Virginia Federal directors and two representatives of
Montrose Holding.
    The senior management of Virginia Federal was expected to
continue in office after the conversion, the companies said.
 Reuter

The coupon on the 50 mln dlr, five year,
equity warrant eurobond for Tokyo Rope Manufacturing Co Ltd has
been set at two pct compared with an indicated level of 2-1/8
pct, lead manager Nikko Securities Co (Europe) Ltd said.
    The exercise price was set at 508 yen per share,
representing a premium of 2.63 pct over today's closing price
of 495 yen.
    The foreign exchange rate was set at 146.20 yen to the
dollar.
 REUTER

Bell Canada, a unit of Bell Canada
Enterprises Inc <BCE>, said it applied for an average eight pct
cut in Canadian long distance rates.
    The application to the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission would also reduce the initial
period for operated-assisted calls from three minutes to one
minute and operator- and customer-dialed calls would be charged
the same.
    The billing of operator-assisted calls would include a
conection charge, however. The new rate structure is similar to
schedules announced by Bell January 1 for calls within Ontario,
Quebec and parts of the Northwest Territories, it said.        
    
 Reuter

U.S. APRIL FACTORY ORDERS ROSE 0.2 PCT, EXCLUDING DEFENSE ORDERS FELL 0.2 PCT

sector increased at a revised seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 0.5 pct in the January-March first quarter, the Labor
    The department previously reported a 1.7 pct increase in
the quarter and said productivity fell 1.5 pct in the fourth
    The department said output rose 4.3 pct and hours of
employees and all others gained 3.8 pct in the first quarter.
Hourly compensation was unchanged from the fourth quarter.
    Hourly compensation after adjusting for inflation fell 5.0
pct in the nonfarm sector in the first quarter, the largest
decline since 1951, the Labor Department said.
    Unit labor costs dropped 0.5 pct for the first quarterly
decline in a year. Costs rose 4.2 pct in the fourth quarter of
1986.
    The implicit price deflator for nonfarm businesses rose 4.2
pct, the largest increase since 1982, after declining 0.3 pct
    Business productivity including farms rose 0.6 pct in the
first quarter after a 2.0 pct drop in the fourth quarter.
 Reuter

U.S. And Soviet negotiators have completed
the text of a draft treaty calling for the elimination of
medium-range missiles in Europe, a Soviet negotiator said.
    "We must say that as a result of the work done at the
current round the sides have drafted the first joint draft text
of the treaty on medium-range missiles," Alexei Obukhov, deputy
leader of the Soviet negotiating team, told reporters.
    He said there was still much work to be done and several
areas of disagreement remained to be resolved.         
 Reuter

President Jose Sarney today declared "a
war without quarter" on inflation and said the government would
watch every cent of public expenditure.
    Sarney, addressing his cabinet live on television, also
reiterated that he intended to remain in power for five years,
until 1990. There has been a long-running political debate
about how long his mandate should be.
    Brazil is currently suffering from the worst inflation of
its history. In April monthly inflation reached 21 pct.
 Reuter

REAGAN SAYS VOLCKER WILL NOT ACCEPT 3rd TERM AS FED CHAIRMAN, NOMINATES GREENSPAN

Sales of new, single-family homes rose
7.6 pct in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 777,000 units, the Commerce Department said.
    The department revised March sales to show a 2.7 pct
decrease from the previous month to 722,000 units instead of
the previously reported 3.6 pct drop in March.
    The April increase brought home sales 12.0 pct below the
April, 1986, level of 883,000 units.
    The April increase brought home sales to the highest level
since last April's 883,000 units.
    The Commerce Department said that before seasonal
adjustment, the number of homes actually sold in April was
76,000, up from 71,000 in March but down from 84,000 in April,
1986.
    The average price was 118,800 dlrs in April, down from
121,200 dlrs in March but up from 110,300 dlrs a year ago.
    The median price was unchanged from March at 99,000 dlrs
but up from 92,500 dlrs in April, 1986, the department said.
 Reuter

Brixton Estate Plc is establishing a
sterling commercial paper program for an unlimited amount, J.
Henry Schroder Wagg and Co Ltd said as arranger.
    Dealers will be Schroder Wagg, S.G. Warburg and Co Ltd and
County Natwest Capital Markets Ltd.
one mln stg and will have maturities between seven and 364
days.
 REUTER

President Reagan said Paul Volcker has
declined to serve another term as chairman of the Federal
Reserve Board, the U.S. central bank. Reagan
nominated economist Alan Greenspan in his place.
    Volcker's term expires in August.
    Reagan, in a brief announcement in the White House briefing
room, said he accepted Volcker's decision "with great reluctance
and regret."
    Volcker, first appointed to the Fed post by President Jimmy
Carter in 1979, said "there is a time to leave and a time to
come ... I have no feeling I was being pushed."
    Volcker, appearing with Reagan, Greenspan, and Treasury
Secretary James Baker in the briefing room, said he will remain
on the job until Greenspan's nomination is approved by the
Senate.
    In a tribute to a smiling Volcker standing beside him,
Greenspan told reporters that one of the departing chairman's
greatest achievements was reducing inflation.
    "It will be up to those of us who follow him to be certain
that those very hard won gains will not be lost. Assuring that
will be one of my primary goals," Greenspan said.
    Financial markets reacted with dismay at the departure of
Volcker, who has been widely credited with holding the line on
inflation and seeking to maintain stability in currency values.
    Immediately following Reagan's announcement, the U.S.
dollar weakened sharply against all major currencies and both
the bond and stock markets declined.
    But Greenspan told reporters he thought the dollar, which
has fallen sharply over the past year, has reached its low
point.
   
    "There certainly is evidence in that direction," Greenspan
said when reporters asked if the dollar has bottomed out.
    The market reaction was probably exaggerated by surprise
because the announcement followed a number of published reports
that the White House had decided to reappoint Volcker.
    Volcker's tenure at the Fed began under the cloud of major
inflation under Carter with consumer prices rising more than 10
per cent annually and the prime interest rate exceeding 20 per
cent.
   
    With Reagan's backing, Volcker pursued a tight money policy
that cut inflation to about three per cent annually and reduced
interest rates to their lowest level in nearly a decade.
    The tight money policies were also blamed for producing
a deep recession in 1981 and 1982 that caused major political
problems for Reagan.
    Reagan reappointed Volcker to the chairmanship in 1983.
   
    Greenspan, who heads his own Wall Street consulting firm,
was chairman of President Ford's Council of Economic Advisers
from September 1974 until January 1977.
    Greenspan, a Republican, is considered a traditional
conservative economist and has been an adviser to several
presidents.
 Reuter

Belgium's public expenditure deficit
fell sharply to 59.5 billion francs in May from 96.7 billion in
the same month last year, the first major sign of the effects
of the government's public spending curbs, the Budget Ministry
said.
    During the first five months of this year, the net
government financing requirement was down by 44.1 billion
francs from year ago levels at 345.8 billion francs, it said in
    The government is aiming to cut this year's financing
requirement to below 420 billion francs this year from around
560 billion in 1986.
    The Ministry said it was expected that more than half the
projected cut should have been achieved by the end of July.
    Ministry sources noted that for technical reasons, the
financing requirement is always highest in the early months of
the year.
 REUTER

Norway's Christiania Bank <CHBO.OL> is
increasing the size of its 2-1/2 pct seven year bond issue with
gold call and put warrants to 75 mln Swiss francs from 50 mln,
lead manager Bank Gutzwiller, Kurz, Bungener Ltd said.
    The issue is priced at par.
    Each 5,000 franc bond carries three 18 month call warrants
with a strike price of 490 dlrs and four three year put
warrants with a strike price of 420 dlrs.
    Subscriptions close on June 22 and payment date is July 8.
 REUTER

New orders for manufactured goods rose
401 mln dlrs, or 0.2 pct, in April to a seasonally adjusted
199.8 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    The slight April gain followed a revised orders increase in
March of 2.6 pct. The department originally reported a March
increase of 2.3 pct. Excluding defense, factory orders fell 0.2
pct in April after rising 1.1 pct in March.
    Orders for durable goods were virtually unchanged in April,
up only 13 mln dlrs to 106.2 billion dlrs. The department had
estimated on May 22 that April durable goods orders rose 0.1
pct.
    The department said defense capital goods orders were up
808 mln dlrs, or 8.1 pct, in April to 10.8 billion dlrs.
Defense orders had risen 43.2 pct in March.
    New orders for non-durable goods were up 388 mln dlrs, or
0.4 pct, in April to 93.6 billion dlrs.
    These figures compared with a March increase of 4.2 pct in
durables orders and a 0.8 pct rise in non-durables orders.
    Orders for non-defense capital goods were up 0.8 pct in
April after rising 2.0 pct in March.
    Within major industry categories orders for transportation
equipment fell 7.6 pct in April after rising 10.8 pct in March.
    Primary metals gained 5.4 pct in April after a 6.8 pct
March orders increase.
    Orders for non-electrical machinery were down 0.9 pct in
April after rising 2.3 pct in March. Electrical machinery
orders rose during April by 19.3 pct after falling in March by
3.4 pct.
 Reuter

Pakistan says its economy has continued
its recent outstanding performance during the financial year
1986/87 ending on June 30 but areas like balance of payments,
investments and energy were causing concern.
    GDP grew in line with the average growth rate since 1980
and the inflation rate was the lowest since 1969/70, according
to a government economic survey.
     The reform of economic regulation had gathered momentum
and there was an impressive performance in a five point
government program for rural uplift, education and poverty
alleviation, said the survey.
    Ministry Economic Adviser Qazi Alimullah told a news
conference that before recent unseasonal rains and hailstorms
damaged the wheat crop, GDP growth was calculated at 7.04 pct
compared to 7.25 pct in 1985/86.He said the figure might now
slide down a little to around 6.8 or 6.9 pct.
    The survey said monetary expansion was estimated to be nine
pct to date but might rise to around 12 pct by the year-end.
    Alimullah said exports rose 18 pct to 3.5 billion dlrs from
2.9 billion dlrs in 1985/86. But the at the same time, home
remittances by Pakistanis abroad dropped to 2.3 billion dlrs
from the 1985/86 level of 2.595 billion.
    More exports and an improvement in the balance of payments
situation will be required to overcome this declining trend in
home remittances, he said.
    The survey said the trade deficit was expected to fall to
2.4 billion dlrs from three billion dlrs in 1985/86 because of
the boost in exports.
    He said national investment continued to be small because
of a poor rate of savings, about 14 pct of GDP. He said more
savings were required to maintain or possibly step up the
present growth rate and to finance the country's seventh
five-year development plan to be launched in July 1988.
 REUTER

Newly-nominated Federal Reserve Board
chairman Alan Greenspan said there was evidence the dollar
finally had bottomed out.
    In a White House briefing Greenspan was asked by reporters
if he thought the dollar had bottomed out.
    "There certainly is evidence in that direction," he replied.
 Reuter

U.S. GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM SOAR ON VOLCKER REJECTION OF 3RD TERM

(ICCO) buffer stock manager bought 5,000 tonnes of cocoa today
for the buffer stock, traders said.
    The cocoa is believed to have been entirely made up of
second hand material, they added.
    Such a purchase would bring cumulative buffer stock
purchases to 26,000 tonnes.
 Reuter

Yankee Cos Inc said it will be 
working with the holders of substantially all of its 12-5/8 pct
senior secured notres due 1996 to develop and overall debt and
asset restructuring program, and as a first step, the
noteholder has agreed to the deferral of the June One interest
payment on the notes until June 30.
    Yankee said interest was paid to other noteholders
    The company said it plans to meet and work with all
interest parties, including the holders of its three debt
issues and federal banking authorities, over the next several
weeks to formulate and implement a restructuring plan.
 Reuter

Q-Med Inc said preliminary results
show its second quarter, ended May 31, revenues exceeded 4.2
mln dlrs. A year earlier revenues were nearly 1.4 mln dlrs.
    The company also said it had appointed Coopers and Lybrand
as its auditors. Chairman Michael Cox declined any comment on
this appointment.
    The company said its preliminary second quarter revenues
are consistent with management's expectations and represent a
greater than 40 pct increase in sales over those reported for
the first quarter. Earnings should show a similar growth
pattern, the company added.
 Reuter

Acme Precision Products Inc said a
management group has withdrawn a six dlr per share leveraged
buyout offer.
    Acme said the management group dropped its bid due to
continued weakness in the machine tool industry and in Acme
Precision's operating results and to the inability of the
management group to obtain modifications to terms of its
financing commitment.
    It said, "The effect of these factors led the management
group to conclude that the six dlr per share price was
excessive under current conditions."
 Reuter

Virginia Electric and Power Co, a unit
of Dominion Resources Inc, is raising 100 mln dlrs via an
offering of first and refunding mortgage bonds due 2017
yielding 9.89 pct, said sole manager E.F. Hutton and Co Inc.
    Hutton led a group that won the bonds in competitive
bidding. It bid them at 99.376, representing a net interest
charge to the company of 9.94 pct.
    The underwriter set a 9-7/8 pct coupon and reoffering price
of 99.85 to yield 123 basis points more than comparable
Treasury securities. Non-refundable for five years, the bonds
are rated A-1 by Moody's and A-plus by Standard and Poor's.
    The gross spread is four dlrs and the reallowance is 2.50
dlrs, bookrunner Hutton said of the Virginia Electric deal.
October 1986 when it sold 100 mln dlrs of same-rated,
same-maturity 9-1/4 pct bonds. That issue was priced to yield
9.27 pct, or 141 basis points over Treasuries.
 Reuter

General Signal Corp said its
General Railway Signal Co unit is the apparent low bidder at
32.5 mln dlrs on a transit radio system contract for the
Southern California Rapid Transit District in Los Angeles.
    The company also said its General Farebox Inc subsidiary
received a 3.1 mln dlr farebox system contract from the Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
 Reuter

Williams Cos said it has been reincorporated
in Delaware as Williams Cos Inc following approval by
shareholders at the annual meeting last month.
 Reuter

Noble Affiliates Inc is raising 100 mln
2012 with a 7-1/4 pct coupon and par pricing, said lead
    The debentures can be converted into the company's common
stock at 19.625 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 25.6
    Non-callable for three years, the issue is rated Baa-3 by
Moody's and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's. Noble Affiliates
is also offering 125 mln dlrs of 10-1/8 pct notes due 1997
through a group led by Morgan Stanley.
 Reuter

Meridian Insurance Group Inc said
its common stock has been included in the NASDAQ National
Market System, effective today.
 Reuter

Canon Sales Co Inc is issuing a 100 mln
dlr equity warrant bond due June 30, 1992 with an indicated
coupon of 1-5/8 pct and par pricing, lead manager Yamaichi
    The issue is guaranteed by Fuji Bank Ltd and final terms
will be set on June 9. The selling concession is 1-1/2 pct
while management and underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct. The
deal is available in denominations of 5,000 dlrs and will be
    The warrants are exercisable from July 15, until June 23,
1992. The payment date is June 30.
 REUTER

Italy's barley crop is generally in good
condition and harvesting is expected to begin shortly, the
agricultural marketing information and research board Irvam
said.
    First consignments were expected to be available around
mid-June.
    Excellent weather, characterised by alternating periods of
sunshine and rain, has encouraged growth except in Sardinia,
which was expected to lose a large part of its barley crop
because of extreme dryness.
    Irvam said yields are expected higher than last year's low
levels if favourable weather continues in the next few weeks.
    Given an average yield of 3.5 tonnes per hectare, national
production would be around two pct higher than in the previous
season at just above 1.6 mln tonnes, it said.
    If yields reach the record 3.78 tonnes per hectare achieved
in 1984, production would be around 1.75 mln tonnes, an
increase of 11 pct compared to 1986.
 Reuter

The Asian Development Bank is issuing a 50
mln stg eurobond due July 1, 1997 paying 9-1/2 pct and priced
at 101-7/8 pct, lead manager County Natwest Capital Markets Ltd
said.
1,000 and 10,000 stg and will be listed in Luxembourg.
    Payment date is July 1.
 REUTER

Data General Corp said it introduced
several new hardware and software products that link
International Business Machines Corp <IBM> and IBM-compatible
personal computers into mainframe and minicomputer systems.
    Data General said the products include three local area
networks that conform to industry standards. It said it is now
offering a Starlan network, which was originally introduced by
American telephone and Telegraph Co <t>, a thin Ethernet and a
PC interface for the standard Ethernet.
   
    In addition, Data General said it will offer several
software packages for PC networks, including MS Net, a product
developed by Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> that allows PCs to share
printers, data files and other peripherals.
    The company said it also introduced a PC version of its
popular CEO office automation software.
    Data General said the new products allow computer users to
divide work among a collection of PCs and larger computers.
   
    "Data General is the first vendor to offer three different
local area networks for personal computer integration," said
Colin Crook, senior vice president of the company's
communications systems group.
    "We're really giving users freedom of choice with industry
standard products," added J. David Lyons, vice president of
group marketing.
    In addition to the new products, which were expected, Data
General announced a joint product development agreement with
<Gold Hill Computers>, a Cambridge, Mass.,-based artificial
intelligence software company.
   
    The company also announced the formation of a new network
services group that will help customers plan and design
computer networks.
    The group will also provide service and maintenance for
Data General and other vendors' equipment, the company said.
 Reuter

Perpetual Savings Bank said its
board has approved formation of a holding company to be
incorporated in Virginia, subject to Federal Home Loan Bank
Board and shareholder approval.
    It said its common and prefered shares would be exchanged
on a one-for-one basis for shares of the holding company,
Perpetual Financial corp.
 Reuter

May Two net
    Shr 11 cts vs eight cts
    Net 5,895,000 vs 3,896,000
    Sales 127.3 mln vs 110.5 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for three-for-one stock split payable
July 27 to holders of record July One.
 Reuter

Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> says it is happy
to leave preferences shares of brewer Carling O'Keefe Ltd
outstanding after an undisclosed bidder made an offer to
acquire all of Carling's outstanding preferred stock.
    Elders, which owns 100 pct of Carling's outstanding common
shares, previously proposed to redeem the 433,745 Carling
series A preferred shares at 33.50 Canadian dlrs each and
redeem the 386,662 series B preferreds at 40 dlrs a share.
    The series A and B preferred shares carry no vote while
dividends are paid.
   
    Elders says neither it nor Carling knows the identity of
the bidder for Carling's preferred shares.
    On May 29, the bidder offered to acquire the Carling
preferred for 36 dlrs for each series A and 40.50 dlrs for each
series B share.
    Elders said leaving the Carling preferred shares
outstanding will not affect ongoing plans of the company.
    Series B preferred shareholders had previously rejected
Carling's proposal to redeem the shares and a series A
preferred shareholders meeting was adjourned to June 12.
 Reuter

Plans to provide direct income
aids for European Community (EC) small farmers to help them
face deep cuts in guaranteed crop prices received a mixed
reception from EC agriculture ministers, EC officials said.
    The plans were discussed at an informal meeting of the
ministers hosted in the village of Genval by the Council of
Ministers' current chairman, Belgium's Paul de Keersmaeker.
    The EC Executive Commission has proposed that the richer
member states be allowed to make direct payments to their
farmers in special difficulties, while the EC itself would
finance a similar scheme in the poorer EC countries.
    However, EC officials said only the Netherlands and
Luxembourg supported this idea at today's meeting, and France,
Denmark and Belgium showed marked hostility to it.
    French minister Francois Guillaume told reporters, "Farmers
should not become recipients of public assistance -- their
survival should be assured by price mechanisms and the market."
    The officials said the ministers had not sought to resolve
their more urgent differences over guaranteed farm prices for
1987/88 at this meeting.
    The ministers will resume talks on the price fixing issue
in Luxembourg on June 15.
 Reuter

Sara Lee Corp said 500 workers at
its Kitchens of Sara Lee bakery operation in Deerfield, Ill.,
have returned to work this week after ratifying a contract.
    A company spokesman said members of Local Two of the
Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers, who had walked out
May 10, reached "mutually agreeable terms" in a new two-year
contract.
    Meanwhile, about 100 Teamster drivers and warehouse
employees, whose contract expired May 16, remained out, the
company said. No new talks were scheduled, Sara Lee said.
    Details of the new contract were not immediately available,
but a company spokesman said it "maintained benefits and called
for no sacrifices from current employees."
    Union sources reported that the contract freezes wages and
introduces a sharply lower starting rate for new hires. They
said it also gives Sara Lee concessions on a workplace issue
involving excused absences.
 Reuter

Cray Research Inc said Aerospatiale,
a French aerospace company, ordered a Cray X-MP/14se computer
system valued at about 3.6 mln dlrs.
    It said the leased system will be installed in the fourth
quarter, pending export license approval.
 Reuter

Portugal has contracted a six-year, 150
mln ECU loan from a group of foreign banks led by Daiwa Europe
Ltd to finance investment projects, the finance ministry said.
    Interest of 7.75 pct is to be paid in annual instalments
starting in 1988, ministry spokesman Luis Vilhena de Cunha
said.
    The loan will first be in the form of a temporary global
note and be replaced later by subscriptions of 1,000 and 10,000
ECUs. The issue price was set at 101.75 pct.
    Banque Generale du Luxembourg SA will act as listing agent
and fiscal agent, the spokesman added.
 REUTER

A representative of the poultry
industry said statistics showed that chicken is less frequently
the cause of salmonella poisoning than beef, dairy products or
salads and other mixed foods.
    Kenneth May, President of Holly Farms Poultry Industries
and a director of the National Broiler Council, told a House
Agriculture subcommittee the incidence of salmonella in chicken
has not increased in recent years and that chicken is neither
the major source of the bacterial poisoning nor the cause of an
increase in outbreaks of the disease.
    May said the Center for Disease Control figures showed that
between 1978 and 1982, chicken was involved in four pct of all
U.S. salmonellosis outbreaks, while beef accounted for ten pct
of outbreaks and dairy products six pct.
    May said the remaining outbreaks were caused by salads and
mixed food, turkey, seafood, pork, eggs and other foods.
    May said the chicken industry favored moving away from
bird-by-bird inspection procedures to a risk assessment system
better able to identify microbial and bacterial contamination
of poultry.
    However, Ellen Haas, executive director of Public Voice for
Food and Health Policy, said bird-by-bird inspection should be
retained and labels should be attached to each ready-to-cook
chicken to remind consumers about preparation procedures
necessary to avoid illness.
    Haas also called for a review of present chicken industry
inspection methods that she said can worsen poultry hazards.
 Reuter

The House Agriculture Committee voted
to make approximately 2.8 billion dlrs of feedgrains deficiency
payments immediately instead of in the late fall.
    A similar measure was decisively defeated on the Senate
floor last week.
    The bill, which passed by a voice vote, would allow
so-called Findley payments to be made immediately rather than
late this year. Payments for 1987-90 feedgrains crops would not
be changed.
    Because the bill would move 2.8 billion dlrs of spending
into fiscal 1987 from fiscal 1988, the measure is expected to
meet stiff resistance in the full House.

 Reuter

Jones and Vining Inc said it has
started a tender offer for all of its own shares at five dlrs
per share. 
    The company said it will hold a special meeting on July 10
for a vote on approval of a merger at the tender price.
    It said the price to be paid in the tender and merger could
be reduced by any fees and expenses the court may award to
counsel for the plaintiffs in the class action suit brought
against it in Delaware Chancery Court by Ronda Inc. The
plaintfiffs' counsel are seeking fees of up to 10 cts per
share, Jones and Vining said.
    The company said the court has scheduled a hearing on the
proposed settlement of the suit for July Eight.
    The company said the start of the tender offer and the
calling of the special meeting are conditions of the
settlement, and completion of the tender and merger are
conditioned on final approval of the settlement.
 Reuter

HEALTHSOUTH Rehabilitation Corp
said it has acquired Pine Island Sports Medicine Center in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and will incorporate the facility into its
HEALTHSOUTH Rehabilitation Center of Fort Lauderdale, which is
now under construction and should be in operation by
mid-summer.
 Reuter

Banc One Corp said it has
completed the acquisition of First National Bank of
Bloomington, Ind, which has assets of 271 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Pentland Industries PLC said
authorized share capital to 36 mln stg to 12 mln stg by
creation of another 240 mln ordinary shares, allowing for a
    It said dealings in the new shares are expected to start on
June 15.
 Reuter

Orion Broadcast Group Inc said its
majority-owned Orion Financial Services Corp subsidiary has
agreed to purchase FN Realty Services Inc from Ford Motor Co
for 1,200,000 to 1,500,000 dlrs in cash and notes.
    It said closing is expected within 45 days after receipt of
    FN provides loan collection, accounting, data processing
and administrative services to the real estate industry.
 Reuter

A plea for extra cash to bail the
European Community (EC) out of its latest financial crisis was
likely to be rejected at a meeting today of EC budget
ministers, diplomats said.
    The ministers were meeting for the first time since the EC
Executive Commission unveiled an emergency budget for 1987
aimed at plugging a deficit caused by soaring farm spending and
falling revenues.
    The emergency package includes a demand for member states
to pay an extra 1.5 billion European currency units (Ecus) to
help meet the deficit.
    Officials said Britain and West Germany were expected to
lead opposition to contributing any extra cash, with the U.K
insisting instead on a clampdown on runaway farm spending.
    The Commission says there will be a shortfall of at least
five billion Ecus this year, more than 1/8 of total spending.
    It hopes to make up much of the shortfall in a one-time
accounting exercise by paying member states in arrears rather
than in advance for their spending on Community farm policies.
    But if member states do not make up the rest of the gap,
the Commission has warned that spending on regional and social
projects could be slashed by half.
 Reuter

Orbit Instrument Corp said its
unit, Orbit Semiconductor Inc, has received orders totalling
about 2.5 mln dlrs which puts its backlog at a record level of
about 4.7 mln dlrs.
    Additionally, the company said it will now offer two Micron
CMOS processes that can withstand Megarad total dose radiation.
    Applications for the processes include products
manufactured for military, medical and power industry market,
 Reuter

South Africa said the number of people
it was detaining without trial has dropped to 1,500, far fewer
than previous official figures during the past year of
emergency rule.
    A government spokesman said the latest set of names,
presented to parliament, included all current detainees who had
been held for over a month. Previous lists have named up to
8,500 people.
    The official figure was supported by civil rights groups
who said many detainees had been freed in recent weeks,
possibly to empty cells for a new government crackdown.
 Reuter

Thousands of farmers gathered in central
Tokyo to urge the government to stand firm against foreign
pressure for further opening up of Japan's markets to foreign
agricultural products, union officials said.
    Officials of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives
said about 5,000 representatives from 4,200 farming groups
joined the demonstration.
    The organisers said the farmers demanded that the
government should avoid easy compromises on liberalising
agricultural imports at next week's economic summit in Venice.
    The United States and the European Community want Japan to
remove tariffs and quotas to help cut their trade deficits with
Japan.
    Under a banner reading "The government and parliament must
not sacrifice farmers," the demonstrators adopted a declaration
saying they would fight any unreasonable moves to open Japanese
markets to foreign agricultural products.
    An agriculture ministry official said Japan and the United
States were expected to hold talks on Japanese import ceilings
for U.S. Beef and citrus fruit in September.
 Reuter

European Community officials welcomed
Norway's recent move to renew a public debate on Community
membership but said Norway should not expect special trade
advantages as long as it stays outside the EC.
    Belgian Willy de Clercq, EC Commissioner on external
affairs and trade policy, said high level talks this week with
Norway's minority Labour government had helped clarify several
misconceptions that led to Norway's narrow rejection of EC
membership in a 1972 referendum.
    "But you (Norway) cannot be in the club and remain outside
the club. You can expect equal footing in the club, but not out
of it," de Clercq added, referring to Norway's attempts to adapt
its EC trade ties in the face of Community moves to launch an
internal trade market from 1992.
    The government, worried that the internal market will
hamper trade with the EC, which takes about two-thirds of
Norway's exports, last month sent a report to parliament asking
political parties and the public to reassess the country's
relationship to the EC.
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 12.1 mln vs 7.8 mln
    Revs 369.8 mln vs 307.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.35 dlrs vs 2.33 dlrs
    Net 39.5 mln vs 39 mln
    Revs 1.36 billion vs 1.24 billion
    NOTE: Prior year restated to reflect results from current
year acquisitions.

 Reuter

Following is the full text of Federal
Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker's letter to President
Reagan declining reappointment to the Fed:
    Dear Mr. President,
    As the end of my term as chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board approaches, you naturally have to consider an appropriate
new appointment.
   
    In that connection, you will recall that, upon my
reappointment as chairman in 1983, I felt unable to make a firm
commitment to you or to the Congress to remain in office for a
second full four-year term. Despite my reservations at the
time, that term is in fact now almost finished. However, I do
think, after eight years as chairman, a natural time has now
come for me to return to private life as soon as reasonably
convenient and consistent with an orderly transition.
Consequently, I do not desire reappointment as chairman and I
plan to resign as governor when a new chairman is prepared to
assume office.
   
    I will be leaving with a sense of great appreciation for
your unfailing courtesy to me personally. More broadly, your
consistent support of the work of the Federal Reserve during a
particularly challenging period for it, for the financial
system, and for the economy has been critical to whatever
success we have had.
   
    Without doubt, strong challenges remain for all of those
involved in economic policy. In that effort, I believe the
nation will continue to be well served by a strong Federal
Reserve System -- a system firmly dedicated to fostering
economic and financial strength and stability and able to bring
to that effort a combination of sound and independent
professional judgement and continuity beyond any partisan
   
    May I add, too, my personal best wishes for the remainder
of your own term in office during which you have done so much
to restore a sense of confidence and self-reliance among the
American people.
    Faithfully yours,
    Paul A Volcker
 Reuter

The scale of foreign exchange intervention
the Bank of England has carried out recently is clear proof of
Britain's determination to stabilise exchange rates as agreed
between the Group of Seven industrialised countries in Paris in
February, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson said.
    Saying he was "content" with sterling's current value, Lawson
told reporters he wanted "to maintain the exchange rate
stability we have all signed up for." He declined to say if he
favoured a rise or a fall from present sterling levels.
 May currency reserves, out today, showed a record 4.8 billion
stg rise, pointing to massive currency intervention.
    In April, reserves rose a hefty 2.9 billion stg.
    Pointing to the reserves data, Lawson said, "We have been
playing a very full part ourselves" in meeting our commitments
toward exchange rate stability as agreed in Paris.
    "We wish to see it (stability) continuing," he added.
    Asked which techniques were available to preserve
stability, Lawson said both central bank intervention and
interest rate changes could be used to tackle "the market
pressures there are from time to time."
    "Interest rate stability is not an objective in that
sense...Rates have to be moved up and down at times," he added.
    Lawson said he expected intervention to be "sterilised" by
draining excess sterling liquidity from the market through new
issues of government securities and foreign currency sales,
when the market allowed.
    This would limit the inflationary impact of intervention,
he said.
    "Sterilisation will be dictated by market tactics...Not
necessarily in the month in which intervention occurs," Lawson
said. "I am confident that we can sterilise on this scale."
 REUTER

intervene in the government securities market to add or drain
reserves at its usual intervention time this morning,
    With the Federal funds rate trading comfortably at  6-9/16
pct, down from yesterday's 6.74 pct average, economists said
the Fed did not need to take reserve management action today.
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 52.7 mln vs 45.7 mln
    Revs 989.9 mln vs 863.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.97 dlrs vs 1.28 dlrs
    Net 122 mln vs 79.9 mln
    Revs 2.078 billion vs 1.726 billion
 Reuter

The decision by Paul Volcker not to serve
a third term as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is a
shock for financial markets and the world economy, Hans Mast,
senior economic adviser to Credit Suisse First Boston, said.
    "The markets will believe there will be pressure for a more
expansive policy (in the United States)," he said.
    "I would say this is quite a shock for the world economy," he
added. "He always stood for an anti-inflationary policy and
tight fiscal discipline. He was one of the best central bankers
America has had."
    Mast said the markets would now be trying to assess what
sort of direction the Fed would be taking under Alan Greenspan,
designated to succeed Volcker.
    "Greenspan is more of a politician than an academician, but
the most important thing is that he has little experience in
banking," Mast said.
    Greenspan's first comments on being named were that the
dollar appeared to have bottomed out but Mast said that
conviction would have to be backed by policy. "How can you say
the dollar has bottomed out with the present level of current
account deficits?" he said. "I would be sceptical."
 REUTER

Alan Sinai, chief economist of Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc, said news that Federal Reserve Chairman
Paul Volcker declined to accept reappointment would have only a
short-term effect on financial markets.
    "The markets should not go into a panic," Sinai told a
fixed-income conference in New York sponsored by the Institute
for International Research.
    Sinai said he thought that Volcker was one of the best Fed
governors in the country's history. Still, he predicted that
the markets would calm after today's tremors.
    Alan Greenspan has been nominated to replace Volcker.
 Reuter

Perry Drug Stores Inc said it has
elected David Schwartz as president and chief executive
officer, effective immediately.
    Perry said Schwartz, who will also serve on the board,
replaced Donald Fox, who resigned January 12.
    Previously, Schwartz was vice president of drug and general
merchandise for Kroger Co <KR>, Perry said.
 Reuter

Zenith Electronics Corp said its
computer subsidiary signed an agreement under which Micro D Inc
will market the new Zenith Data Systems monitor, which uses the
flat tension mask color video display.
    The monitor offers more than 50 pct greater brightness and
contrast performance than conventional high-revolution computer
monitors, Zenith said. It is compatible with the new IBM
Personal System/2 computers and will be available later this
summer.
 Reuter

Turkey's trade deficit widened to 382 mln
dlrs in April from 275 mln in March and 273 mln in April 1986,
    The deficit for the first quarter of 1987 widened to 1.23
billion dlrs from 1.20 billion a year earlier.
    April exports totalled 702 mln dlrs compared with imports
of 1.08 billion.
    Exports in the first four months were worth 2.69 billion
dlrs compared with imports of 3.92 billion.
 REUTER

Shr four cts vs 21 cts
    Net 29,862 vs 152,826
    NOTE: Full name is United Financial Banking Cos Inc. Net
includes loan loss provision nil vs 40,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Dreyfus Corp said it introduced a stock
index mutual fund designed primarily for use by bank trust
departments in managing their corporate pension accounts.
    Dreyfus said the fund is keyed to matching the performance
of Standard and Poor's 500 Composite Stock Price Index, and in
addition to purchasing stock of the S and P index, the fund may
also deal in index futures.
    The company said the fund will be managed by <Wells Fargo
Investment Advisors>.
    Minimum investment requirement is one mln dlrs, the company
said.
 Reuter

of Kansas said Alan Greenspan would be a good replacement for
Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve Chairman.
    "While Paul Volcker's retirement is a real loss, this
country is very fortunate to have a man of Alan Greenspan's
caliber to take his place," Dole said in a statement.
    "Alan's knowledge of the economy, coupled with his
experience at the top levels of government, means that the
leadership of the Federal Reserve Board will be in good hands.
Alan, literally, has some big shoes to fill. But I haven't any
doubts he's more than equal to the task," Dole said.
 Reuter

Shr 56 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 10,030,000 vs 7,833,000
    Sales 392.1 mln vs 339.6 mln
    Avg shrs 17,966,000 vs 18,709,000
 Reuter

Energy Secretary Donald Hodel said he
expects oil prices to rise significantly by the year 2000,
probably to around 33 dlrs a barrel in current dollars.
    "I do anticipate a significant increase (by 2000).
Thirty-three dlrs a barrel is not unreasonable," Hodel told the
Senate Energy Committee.
    Hodel said the loss of some domestic oil production through
the shutdown of stripper (10 barrels a day or less) wells
because of low prices was probably permanent. He said he was
also concerned by the decline in domestic oil exploration.
    Hodel urged Congress to approve oil exploration in section
1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. He said
geologic condtions in the area were favorable for the discovery
of oil fields equal to those in nearby Prudhoe Bay.
 Reuter

    Payable July 1
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 239,034 vs 264,485
    Sales 2,932,782 vs 2,664,853
    Year
    Shr 57 cts vs 45 cts
    Net 929,524 vs 741,121
    Sales 10.9 mln vs 9,708,792
   
 Reuter

A. Gordon said he will decide "in the next few days" whether to
grant Burlington Industries Inc's request to stop a takeover by
Samjens Acquisition Corp.
    "I do not know how I come down on this preliminary
injunction," Gordon said after listening to arguments by
attorneys for 1-1/2 days.
    "It's been a long time since I was deluged with as much
information as I have been. I have to consider what's been
presented and issue an opinion on this. Both sides cannot be
winners," he said.
    Burlington requested the injunction to stop a takeover
effort by Samjens, claiming the partnership used illegally
obtained confidential information about the company to make its
offer. It also alleges there would be anti-trust violations if
Samjens, formed by Asher Edelman and Dominion Textiles Inc of
Canada, were to succeed.
    Samjens last week topped a 76 dlr per share offer for
Burlington from Morgan Stanley Group <MS> by one dlr per share.
Morgan Stanley made its 2.44 billion dlr bid after Samjens bid
72 dlrs per share for Burlington.
    Burlington lawyers told the court if the injunction is not
granted Samjens would win control of Burlington. A Samjens
lawyer argued that if the judge granted the injunction it would
"kill the offer"
    Jay Greenfield, an attorney for Samjens, said the
partnership would suffer irreparable harm if the injunction
were granted. "There's only one Burlington," he said. "If we
cannot get that then no amount of money can compensate us."
    Greenfield also said Samjens could sell its holdings in
Burlington for 95 mln dlrs. "We don't want that. We're not in
this for the money," he said.
    Irving Nathan, a Burlington lawyer, reiterated that
information provided by James Ammeen, a former Burlington
executive, was crucial to Dominion's decision to attempt o
takeover of Burlington.
    "Dominion relied on the information provided by the insider
Jim Ammeen," Nathan said.
    An attorney for Ammeen, who is named as a defendant, asked
the court to dismiss the lawsuit against his client. The judge
said he would not rule on the request today.

 Reuter

CORRECTION - PERRY DRUG &lt;PDS&gt; NAMES PRESIDENT
    In New York story headlined "Perry Drug Stores &lt;PDS&gt; names
new president," the position of the David Shwartz should read
president and chief operating officer instead of president and
(corrects position of Schwartz)
 Reuter

Strandard and Poor's Corp said it cut to
CCC-plus from B-minus Coleco Industries Inc's 300 mln dlrs of
    S/P said the action reflected significant deterioration in
capital structure and financial flexibility following Coleco's
111 mln dlr net loss in fiscal 1986. The agency attributed the
loss to a falloff in sales of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.
    Coleco had negative equity of 7.7 mln dlrs at year-end
1986, S/P noted. Future operating performance depends on
several new products with untested earnings potential.
 Reuter

U.K.'S LAWSON CALLS VOLCKER OUTSTANDING FED CHAIRMAN, SAYS GREENSPAN EXCELLENT SUCCESSOR

Allegis Corp said it has created a
limited partnership to sell selected hotels in Canada to the
public.
    It said the offering is expected to raise in excess of 350
mln Canadian dlrs and will be completed by the end of
    The limited partnership will be similar to the Westin
Hotels limited partnership completed last year when Allegis
sold Westin hotels in San Francisco and Chicago. Allegis
reported a pretax gain of 80.6 mln dlrs as a result of that
   
    An Allegis spokesman said the offerings have been in
planning stages for a long time and are unrelated to recent
corporate developments such as the firm's recapitalization plan
and a threatened takeover by an investor group lead by Coniston
Partners and the pilots of its United Airlines unit.
    The spokesman said the company has not yet identified which
of its Canadian hotels will be offered for sale.
    Allegis has 100 pct ownership in Westin hotels in
Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto, and 100 pct interest in
Hilton International hotels in Toronto and Montreal. It owns 60
pct of the Westin in Edmonton.
    Richard Ferris, chairman of Allegis, said in a statement
the hotel limited partnerships allow the company to convert
unrecognized asset appreciation into cash.
    As with the proceeds from the earlier limited partnership,
the money will be used for general corporate needs, the
    Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Wood Gundy will be lead
underwriters for to the public offering. The limited
partnership will be offered outside the U.S, Allegis said.
 Reuter

<American Micro Technology Co>
said it signed a three-year installation and service agreement
with TRW Inc <TRW>.
    Under the agreement, TRW initially will provide on-site
installation and service of AMT's full line of PC compatible
products in a 100-mile radius of 12 major cities, which
represent more than two-thirds of the PC market, American Micro
said.
    The company said the pact allows it to pursue government
bids which require installation and service support.

 Reuter

Raycomm Transworld Industries Inc
said it has agreed in principle subject to board approvals to
acquire Spiridellis Consulting Group Inc, a privately-held
computer services consulting firm, for a number of common
shares to be determined based on pretax earnings of Spiridellis
over a five-year period.
    The company said it will gaurantee that almost all of the
issued shares will attain price levels ranging from five to
nine dlrs each for two years after their issuance.
    It said Spiridellis had revenues of 3,500,000 dlrs in
calendar 1986.
 Reuter

said it acquired a computerized hospital information systems
business from Control Data Corp.
    The business, which has 145 employees and supplies
computers and software for hospital information systems, will
be integrated into 3M's hospital software business.
    Control Data said the divestiture was part of its strategy
to focus on narrower markets.
 Reuter

Mellon Bank Corp said it signed
contracts with 21 financial institutions to have Mellon's
network services division process their electronic funds
transfer transactions.
    Mellon said it will provide the institutions, all based in
New England, with automated teller machines.
 Reuter

Pharmacia Inc's Pharmacia
Develpoment Co Inc said it established Pharmacia Ventures Inc
to make investments in U.S. growth companies.
    It said investments will be made in such firms as those
producing in-vitro diagnostics, biotechnology, ophthalmology
and health care.
 Reuter

    Pay August 31
    Record August Three
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc chairman Martin
Davis said the company will report record results for the
    In its last fiscal year ending October 31, the company
earned 228.7 mln dlrs, or 3.66 dlrs a share, on revenues of
2.093 billion dlrs.
    Earlier the company said its second quarter net rose to 86
cts a share from 73 cts a year ago. Davis said the company's
Paramount Pictures Corp had strong momentum, and a substantial
contribution is anticipated from the company's publishing
operations in the third and fourth quarter.
    Davis also said steady growth is expected in financial
services operations, bolstered by the acquisition in May of
Fruehauf's truck trailer financing and leasing business.
    He said the company's entertainment operations should
benefit significantly from Paramount's two major summer motion
pictures, "Beverly Hills Cop II," which grossed 65 mln dlrs in
its first 12 days of North American distribution, and "The
Untouchables," which opens June 3.
 Reuter

The current crude oil price of between
18 and 20 dlrs a barrel will remain stable over the next couple
of years, rising only one to two dlrs a barrel per annum to
keep up with inflation, OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman said.
    Lukman, who was speaking during talks with Swedish trade
officials, said the stable price depended upon output restraint
by both OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, Swedish government
    They said Lukman, who is also Nigerian oil minister, made
the remarks whilst talking about the connection between Third
World debt and industrialised nations.
    Crude oil output controls did not necessarily mean higher
energy bills for the world's industrial nations, Lukman said.
    Although very low oil prices, such as those seen around the
beginning of the year, may appear beneficial for the industrial
countries that depend on imported energy, they would only lead
to wastage and overdependence on the fuel in the long term, he
said.
    This in turn would bring a swing back to extremely high
    Sweden, heavily dependent on imported oil, suffered a major
crisis in the mid-1970s, when oil prices spiralled.
 REUTER

credit policies when its central bank council meets on Thursday
for its last session before the Venice summit, banking
economists and money market dealers said.
    The Bundesbank steered money market rates lower last month
by cutting the rate on its security repurchase pacts, and is
unlikely to cap this move with a cut in leading interest rates
in the near future, they said.
    The council will meet in Saarbruecken, and the meeting will
be followed by a news conference at around 1030 GMT.
    But Bundesbank officials noted that a news conference was
usually called when the council meets outside Frankfurt, and
did not necessarily herald any policy moves.
    Bundesbank Vice-President Helmut Schlesinger said today
there was no reason to cut interest rates because money supply
growth had shown no signs of slowing in May and the dollar was
stable against the mark.
    Schlesinger told Reuters in Tokyo, where the Bundesbank has
opened a representative office, that the West German economy
was now picking up after contracting by a seasonally adjusted
1/2 to one pct in the first quarter.
    Money market dealers said call money was likely to hold in
a 3.50/70 pct range for most of this month, after the
Bundesbank switched last month to tenders by interest rate at a
minimum bid rate of 3.50 pct, allocating funds at 3.55 pct.
    "They have set this signal and indicated they could maybe
lower market rates even further, but not with the discount or
Lombard," Winfried Hutmann, chief economist of Schroeder,
Munchmeyer, Hengst Investment GmbH said.
    Werner Chrobok, managing partner at Bethmann Bank, said
German rates were among the lowest in industrial countries and
around historical lows for West Germany.
    A further cut in rates would have little impact on the
economy as banks are in any case reporting slack credit demand,
with companies swimming in liquidity, Chrobok said.
    The Bundesbank would therefore be reluctant to make a move
on interest rates, when this would be better held in reserve.
"The Bundesbank is frightened of using up its powder," he said.
    A cut in the discount or Lombard rates, to bring them in
line with the new structure of money market rates since last
month, would have little practical significance, dealers said.
    The Bundesbank could therefore act on these if it wanted a
diplomatic gesture before next week's Venice summit.
    But Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl has often made it
clear in the past he opposes such gestures as mere "eyewash."
    Economists said it was really up to the Bonn government to
cut taxes, rather than for the Bundesbank to ease monetary
policy, to meet pressure on West Germany at the Venice summit.
    But with Bonn struggling to finance already announced tax
cuts and falling tax revenue widening the federal budget
deficit, it is hard to see how Bonn could cut taxes further.
    "The Bonn government will be in a very weak position in
Venice because they can't risk increasing the deficit further,"
said Schroeder, Muenchmeyer, Hengst's Hutmann.
    Bethmann's Chrobok said if anything is to happen before
Venice, it must be in fiscal rather than monetary policy. "But I
don't expect any convincing measures," he said.
    Money market dealers noted that call money continued to
normalize today, falling to 3.60/70 pct from 3.75/85 yesterday
and as much as five pct on Friday when it was pushed up by
month-end distortions.
    Call money could come under upwards pressure later this
month because of a major round of tax payments by banks on
behalf of customers, starting in the week beginning June 15.
Two public holidays that week could also distort the market.
    Dealers said they expected the Bundesbank to allocate funds
tomorrow in the latest repurchase pact at an unchanged 3.55
pct, after setting an unchanged minimum bid rate of 3.50 pct,
and to fully replace the 5.5 billion marks in an outgoing pact.
    But dealers said it was possible the Bundesbank would
allocate funds at 3.6 pct rather than 3.55. That would not
represent a tightening of policy, however.
    Because the Bundesbank scales down bids which it allocates
at the minimum accepted rate, some banks may try to get a full
allocation by bidding heavily at 3.6 pct, dealers said.
    On another issue, Poehl has said the Bundesbank is likely
to lift restrictions on private use of the European Currency
Unit (ECU) at one of its meetings soon.
    Saarbruecken would be a suitable place for an announcement
on this gesture to European unity, as it is the capital of the
Saarland bordering France, and was twice under French
occupation this century.
    But dealers said an ECU announcement was unlikely to come
this week, as a number of technical and legal matters had still
to be resolved, for instance how German ECU accounts would be
treated for minimum reserve purposes.
 REUTER

A Ugandan goodwill mission led by
minister of state in the presidency Balaki Kirya will visit
Kenya tomorrow for talks on improving strained relations
between the two countries, diplomatic sources said.
    If the talks go well, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is
likely to have a meeting with Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi
when he pays a two-day visit to Nairobi to attend U.N
ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, they added.
    Relations between the two states showed the first signs of
recovery yesterday after three months of steady deterioration.
    The Kenyan President told a military parade there was no
border tension with Uganda and the Kenyan border was fully open
for cargo movements.
 Reuter

<New York Life Insurance Co> said it is
offering its first global mutual fund through its wholly-owned
subsidiary, MacKay-Shields Financial Corp.
    The new fund is called the MacKay-Shields Global Fund, the
company said. Its portfolio contains foreign and U.S.
securities, the company said.
   
 Reuter

affirmed Societe Generale's 1.4 billion dlrs of debt.
    It said Societe Generale took major steps to restructure
its organization and improve capital position in the past two
years. The bank is due to be offered to the public June 15.
    Affirmed were the bank's AA-plus senior debt and AA-minus
perpetual subordinated debt, the AA-plus debt backed by its
long-term letters of credit and Societe Generale (Australia)
Ltd's senior debt. Also, the A-1-plus commercial paper of
Societe Generale North America Inc and Societe Generale
(Canada) and the Europaper of Societe General Acceptance NV.
 Reuter

The Bundesbank noted with regret that
Paul Volcker will not be available for a further term as
Federal Reserve chairman, Bundesbank sources said.
    Cooperation with Volcker was always trusting and successful
for many years, the sources said.
    On the other hand the Bundesbank is confident that the good
cooperation between the Bundesbank and the Fed will continue
under the chairmanship of Alan Greenspan, the sources said.
 REUTER

Treasury Secretary James Baker said 
the finance ministers from the group of seven industrial
countries have agreed on a new process for economic
coordination. He declined to be specific.
    Meeting with reporters to discuss the upcoming economic
summit in Venice, Baker said the finance ministers will unveil
the new process, a year in the development, to the heads of
state at that meeting.
    Baker said that in cooperation with the other countries,
details will not be made public.
    Baker said the United States hoped to get a new committment
by the other industrial countries to reduce trade friction over
agricultural products which he said was the major trade issue
facing the global economy.
    He said, however, that it was not expected that any
specific new program would come from the meetings.
 Reuter

The Vancouver Stock
Exchange said it has listed the common stock of DiaEm Resources
Ltd <DAE.V>, which has interests in an emerald property in
North Carolina and a diamond property in Indonesia.
 Reuter

Alcan Aluminium Ltd said it has cut the
expected cost of its planned Laterriere, Quebec, smelter by
using enhanced Grande Baie reduction technology.
    The company said the decision to use prebaked anode
technolgy used at its Grande Baie, Quebec, and Sebree, Ky.,
smelters was taken primarily for cost reasons.
    As a result, it said, the estimated total cost of the
planned smelter will be held to 450 mln U.S. dlrs, the low end
of the range estimated in mid-May, while the cost of the first
phase was cut to 150 mln dlrs from the projected 175-225 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

ZIM Energy Corp said it has revised its
loss for the year ended January 31 to 4.7 mln dlrs from the
loss of 3.1 mln dlrs reported in March.
    A spokesman said the larger loss, which has been reported
on the company's 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, reflects management's decision to write off 1.5 mln
dlrs in costs mainly associated with an unsuccessful merger
attempt.
    ZIM also said it has a tentative agreement with "a major
independent company to farm out its interest" in acreage
located near currently producing areas of the Buccaneer Field
located in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Galveston, Texas.
 Reuter

The West German government's independent
council of economic experts believes a further stimulation of
the economy is inappropriate, government spokesman Friedhelm
Ost said.
    A statement released by Ost after a meeting of Chancellor
Helmut Kohl and senior government officials with the council
said the experts believed 1987 ecomomic growth of 1-1/2 to two
pct was achievable.
    It added the council believed "an intensification of the
already expansionary stimulation of monetary and financial
policy is not called for."
    Ost's statement said experts believed further pressure on
West Germany to adapt to external economic factors would not
increase.
    The government regularly uses the term "changed external
economic factors" when referring to the fall of the dollar,
which has severely damaged West German exports. Bonn officials
have said they expect exports to pick up during the year, but
could still fall below the 1986 level.
    Along with other leading industrial countries, West Germany
agreed to a package of measures at a meeting in Paris in
February aimed at stemming the fall of the dollar.
    The stance taken by the experts backs up the official
position of the West German government ahead of next week's
seven nation summit in Venice, where Bonn is expected to be
pressed by the U.S. And other partners to boost its economy.
    West German government officials have stressed Bonn is not
in a position to stimulate growth further since tax cuts due
next year and 1990 are already stretching the budget.
    The Bundesbank has also ruled out a quick cut in official
interest rates although it sees market rates continuing low.
    The experts' prediction for economic growth this year of
between 1-1/2 and two pct is a slight downward revision from a
forecast made last November when two pct growth was forecast.
    Many independent forecasters have revised down 1987
predictions in light of the downturn in exports. The government
itself has said it expects growth of just under two pct,
compared with a 2.4 pct expansion in 1986.
 REUTER

Shr basic 83 cts vs 1.05 dlrs
    Shr diluted 80 cts vs 96 cts
    Net 116,157,000 vs 125,146,000
    Six mths
    Shr basic 1.71 dlrs vs 2.27 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.63 dlrs vs 2.06 dlrs
    Net 230,265,000 vs 265,535,000
    Loans 67.93 billion vs 65.50 billion
    Deposits 83.71 billion vs 84.25 billion
    Assets 100.00 billion vs 97.50 billion
    Avg shrs 116.4 mln vs 102.1 mln
 Reuter

welcomed President Reagan's decision to name economist Alan
Greenspan as successor to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker, who will not serve another term.
    "The minister feels the choice of Alan Greenspan is an
excellent one," said a spokesman for Ruding, who also chairs the
IMF policy making interim committee. He did not elaborate.
    But Ruding expressed regret over Volcker's departure saying
he had "great appreciation for the work he has done all these
years," the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Synercom Technology Inc said vice
president Charles W. Ryle will be leaving the company for
 Reuter

A former U.S. Agriculture Department
official urged the department to require that packages of
chicken be labeled with handling and cooking instructions to
protect the public from disease.
    Carol Tucker Foreman, President of Foreman and Heidepriem
and a former assistant secretary of agriculture for food and
consumer services, told a House Agriculture subcommittee, "every
hour of every day, 22 Americans become victims of chicken
contaminated with salmonella."
    She said every two and a half weeks, an American dies of
salmonellosis or complications arising from it and the
incidence of poisoning from poultry has increased steadily over
the past several years.
    Foreman said USDA should follow a National Academy of
Sciences recommendation to label chicken packages to remind
consumers of preparation procedures necessary to avoid illness.
    She urged USDA to require that birds be washed thoroughly
before they are defeathered and that defeathering machines be
cleaned several times a day, that birds be condemned if their
intestines are punctured or there is visible fecal
contamination and that chiller water be changed more often.
    Kenneth Blaylock, President of the American Federation of
Government Employees, said a poultry industry recommendation to
move away from the current bird-by-bird inspection could prove
"disastrous." He said a strengthened bird-by-bird inspection with
slower line speeds was the foundation upon which new inspection
techniques should be overlaid.
 Reuter

William Proxmire, D-Wis, said Paul Volcker's decision to leave
the Federal Reserve Board was a loss for the country.
    "I think it is a serious loss for the country," Proxmire said
in a Senate speech. He had no comment on the nomination of Alan
Greespan to replace Volcker.
    Proxmire's committee will hold confirmation hearings on
Greenspan, but no date has been scheduled.
    "Mr Volcker has been a superb chairman of the Federal
Reserve Board. He has the confidence of the business community.
He has the confidence of the country. And I thought he had the
confidence of the Administration. We are going to miss him very
much."
 Reuter

Century Communications Corp
said it had entered into an agreement to acquire all the assets
of <Community Cable Vision of Puerto Rico Associates>  and its
associated companies for about 12 mln dlrs.
    Century said it anticipates that <ML Media Partners LP>,
which jointly owns with Century a company called <Cable
Television Co> of greater San Juan, will join in acquisition
and management of Community Cable.
    Century said Community Cable is located in San Juan, Puerto
Rico.
 Reuter

House Banking Committee chairman
Fernand St. Germain, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he regretted
Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker had decided not to
accept a new term.
    "Paul Volcker has been an island of strength and stability,"
St. Germain said in a statement.
    "I deeply regret his decision," he added. "This nation has
been extremely fortunate in having giants on the scene during
times of crisis. Thank God, Paul Volcker was available during
this period of domestic and world economic turmoil," St. Germain
said.
 Reuter

The British Broadcasting Corporation
declined comment on rumours circulating in the London Stock
Exchange that it would release an opinion poll tonight showing
the Conservative and Labour parties running level in marginal
seats. The general election is set for June 11.
    The rumour was cited by several market dealers as a factor
contributing to this afternoon's slide in share prices. The
FTSE 100 share index in late afternoon was down 7.4 points at
2,220.7, having earlier touched a new record of 2,248.8.
    Nationally, most polls put the Conservatives nine to 10
points ahead, enough for a comfortable election victory
 REUTER

The White House has completed a new
review of Japanese semiconductor trading practices but has not
yet decided whether trade sanctions levied against Japan last
April should be lifted, U.S. officials said.
    They said the president's Economic Policy Council looked at
Japan's adherence to the 1986 U.S.-Japanese semiconductor pact
yesterday and that an announcement may be made shortly.
    But there was no hint what the announcement might be.
    Officials have said the 100 pct tariffs on 300 mln dlrs of
Japanese exports could be modified if Japan was found to be
honoring a portion of its semiconductor pact.
    But they also noted that the White House has said it was
unlikely the tariffs would be lifted before the meeting of the
world's seven major economic powers in Venice on June 8-10.
    The officials added that while the curbs complicated
U.S.-Japanese economic cooperation, they did serve to blunt 
Congressional criticism that the Reagan Administrtation was not
taking tough actions to reduce he U.S. trade deficit.
    Reagan imposed the sanctions on April 17 in retaliation for
Japan's failure to honor commitments to end dumping
semiconductors in world markets at less than production costs
and to open its own market to U.S. goods.
    The sanctions were levied on certain Japanese television
sets, personal computers and hand-held power tools.
    Reagan, in imposing the curbs, said they would be lifted as
soon as there was evidence of a pattern that Japan was adhering
to the pact.
 reuter

dollar appeared to have bottomed out, but Mast said that
 Reuter

U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER WRIGHT CONCERNED of INTEREST RATE RISE UNDER GREENSPAN

Lawson said Paul Volcker has been an outstanding Chairman of
the Federal Reserve and he will be greatly missed, a spokesman
for the U.K. Treasury said.
    The spokesman was relaying Lawson's reaction to news that
Volcker will not be seeking a third term as chairman. Lawson is
campaigning in London ahead of the June 11 general election.
    Lawson also said he thought Alan Greenspan an excellent
choice as Volcker's successor and that he sees no reason to
expect a change in policy.
 Reuter

    "The area could contain potentially recoverable oil
resources of more than 9.2 billion barrels, an amount nearly
equal to the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which currently provides
almost one-fifth of U.S. domestic production," Hodel said.
    He said production from the new section could begin about
the time Prudhoe Bay production begins to decline in 2000
without endangering caribou or other wildlife in the area.
 Reuter

to 60.629 billion crowns in May from 48.380 billion in April,
against 39.481 billion in May 1986, the Central Bank said in
its monthly balance sheet report.
adjustments, rose to 58.373 billion crowns in May from 47.835
billion in April, against 32.443 billion in May 1986.
    The Bank said in a statement that public loan transactions
accounted for net capital import of 0.1 billion crowns in May,
with net registered private capital imports of 9.1 billion.
    "Of this, the net sale of Danish crown bonds to other
countries totalled about 2.5 billion crowns. There was balance
between the purchase and sale of foreign securities," the
    The Central Bank said that figures for private bank
reserves and registered capital movements were provisional and
there was no estimate yet of unregistered movements.
    "It is therefore not possible on this basis to draw
conclusions about the developments of the external current
account," the statement added.
 REUTER

The African Development Bank (ADB) is
seeking a broad-based cooperation agreement with the 25-member
Inter African Coffee Organisation (IACO), based in Abidjan.
    ADB secretary general Koffi Dei-Anang told a news
conference he hoped the bank's governors would approve such an
agreement at the ADB annual general meeting next week in Cairo.
The bank is seeking cooperative agreements with various
international organisations including IACO, he said.
    Dei-Anang said the ADB and IACO could cooperate on all
fronts and an exchange of information would enable them to
identify areas where the bank might help the coffee industry.
 Reuter

Stewart Sandwiches Inc said it has
sold its coffee roasting plant to Sara Lee Corp's Superior
Coffee and Foods subsidiary for undisclosed terms.
    The company said Superior will become the exclusive packer
of Squire labeled coffee products, which are marketed by
Stewart, and Stewart will provide equipment, service and
distribution suppoort for some Superior coffee accounts.
 Reuter

may upgrade Tandy Corp's 175 mln dlrs of long-term debt.
    The agency said the review would focus on Tandy's capacity
to sustain its current earnings recovery and on the company's
ability to further improve its cash flow performance by greater
operating efficiencies.
    Moody's said it would also evaluate Tandy's capital
structure. That structure has changed significantly as a result
of the retirement of about 250 mln dlrs of debt in the past
year. Under review are Tandy's A-3 senior debt and Baa-1
 Reuter

Gateway Communications Inc said it
reduced the price of its G/NET network adapter card 25 pct to
395 dlrs from 525 dlrs.
    Gateway said the local area network (LAN) market has become
very popular in the computer industry, and said LAN suppliers
are finding end users more receptive to and demanding of LAN
 Reuter

Security Bancorp Inc said it has
merged its Security Bank of Almont unit into its Security Bank
Northeast unit.
 Reuter

Lopat Industries Inc said it had
its first profitable month of operations in May, earning 47,900
dlrs on revenues of 162,200 dlrs.
    Lopat said "The May results signal the start of profitable
operations and growing revenues over the balance of the year."
 Reuter

Spartech Corp said it will repurchase
up to 10 pct of its 2.6 mln common shares outstanding.
    The company said it believes the common stock is
undervalued at current prices.
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc said it named
Pennzoil Co <PZL> chairman and chief executive officer J. Hugh
Liedtke to its board, expanding the number of directors from 14
to 15.
    It is the first outside board appointment for Liedtke,
whose company is involved in a 10.3 billion dlr legal dispute
with Texaco Inc <TX>.
    "Mr Liedtke is an outstanding addition to our board," said
Gulf and Western chairman Martin Davis. "He has demonstated
broad business judgment and insight in directing the success of
his company and we look forward to his advice and counsel."
 Reuter

Immunomedics Inc said it has
developed a technology that makes it possible to join chemical
molecules to antibodies in a more selective manner than now
possible.
    It said it has filed a patent application, which is
expected to be issued shortly as a patent for the technology.
 Reuter

Wharf Resources Ltd said it has
reached a verbal agreement with <Nevada Packard> for a joint
venture to explore, evaluate and produce the Nevada precious
metal property near Lovelock, Nev.
    Wharf said it wil receive an exclusive option to update an
existing feasibility study and evaluate a production decision.
    Subject to completion of necessary documentation, Wharf
said it expects work on the Nevada property to begin
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 638,000 vs 340,000
    Sales 16.9 mln vs 14.7 mln
    Avg shrs 3,007,048 vs 3,006,250
    1st half
    Shr 41 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 1,224,000 vs 1,142,000
    Sales 31.1 mln vs 29.8 mln
    Avg shrs 3,006,704 vs 2,757,631
    NOTE: Current year net both periods includes nonrecurring
gain 213,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Hadron Inc said it has received a
three-year one mln dlr contract from the U.S. Customs Service
to provide technical and managerial support to Customs'
research and development division.
 Reuter

Mthly div 10-1/4 cts vs 10-1/4 cts prior
    Pay June 26
 Reuter

Qtrly 35 cts vs 35 cts
    Note: payment is based on pre- five-for-four stock split
basis, which is to be distributed July 12 to stockholders of
record June 15.
 Reuter

Semi div 20 cts vs 20 cts prior
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts
    Pay July one
 Reuter

Leading Italian economists said they
regretted Paul Volcker's decision not to serve another term as
chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
    Luigi Spaventa, Professor of Economics at Rome University,
told Reuters he thought the decision was a great loss to the
world's financial markets.
    "He (Volcker) was an element of reliability and stability
around world financial markets, a man of great experience,
balance and equilibrium," Spaventa said.
    Spaventa said it was difficult to gauge immediately what
Volcker's decision might mean for the dollar, but he noted that
the markets seemed to like Volcker.
     Mario Monti, Director of the Institute of Economics at
Milan's Bocconi University, told Reuters that "whoever succeeds
Volcker would face a formidable task because no central banker
has ever given such credibility to monetary policy and fighting
inflation."
    Monti said Alan Greenspan, who has been nominated to take
over from Volcker, was likely to pursue "a rigorous monetary
policy to demonstrate to the markets that there will be no loss
of credibility."
    Officials at the Bank of Italy and the Italian Treasury had
no comment on Volcker's decision.
 REUTER

Tracor Inc chief executive officer Frank
McBee said 1987 earnings will be signficantly better than the
18.8 mln dlrs, or 97 cts per share, achieved in 1986.
    McBee told Reuters before an analysts meeting that he was
comfortable with estimates by some analysts' that per share
earnings will rise to 1.55 dlrs to 1.60 dlrs per share in 1987.
    He said also results in the second quarter ending June 30
should be ahead of last year. First quarter net income fell 7.3
mln dlrs, or 37 cts per share, from 7.4 mln dlrs, or 38 cts per
share, a year ago.
   
    Chief operating officer Bud Baird said Tracor expects to
announce several contracts in the second quarter.
 Reuter

The Far Eastern sugar market is being hit
by a tightening in available nearby freight space needed to
move raw sugar to various destinations, notably from Thailand,
    This has resulted in a hardening of freight rates in those
areas. These are now being quoted between 12.5 and 17.5 dlrs a
tonne per day, depending on shipment and destination, against
recent fixings below 12 dlrs a tonne.
    Charterers are considering combining contracted shipments
because of inadequate space, shipping sources said, noting 13
raws cargoes are awaiting shipment from various ports.
    A cargo of Thai raw sugar was reported traded at basis July
New York futures less 25 points for June/July 15 shipment,
traders said. But others said this was old business.
 Reuter

Scientists reported that AZT, a
compound found useful in fighting AIDS, can also suppress a
wide range of diseases, including certain types of leukemia.
      A paper on AZT, presented at the Third International
Conference on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome by Cancer
Institute researcher Hiroaki Mitsuya, said, "we now report that
the dideoxynucleosides, including AZT, can suppress a wide
range of human and animal retroviruses in vitro (in test
tubes)."
     Among those he cited were human T-cell leukemia virus-I
which causes a number of diseases including leukemia,
immunodeficiencies and neuorological disorders. AIDS is caused
by a retrovirus.
    AZT is made by Burroughs Wellcome Co, the U.S. subsidiary
of the British Wellcome Plc <WELL.L>.
    Mitsuya is a member of a team of American and Japanese
researchers at the National Cancer Institute that made the
original discovery last year that AZT prolonged the life of
dying AIDS patients.
 Reuter

U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright said he
was concerned that the appointment of Alan Greenspan to succeed
Paul Volcker at the Federal Reserve Board would mean interest
rates would rise.
    Speaking to reporters, the Texas Democrat said that based
of Greenspan's tenure as chairman of President Nixon's Council
of Economic Advisers his policies would mean higher rates.
    "His previous service indicates the kind of economic
policies based on the trickle down theory rather than the
percolate up theory. This theory tends to higher interest
rates," Wright said.
    Wright told reporters he would not have chosen Greenspan to
head the Fed, but he declined to name his preference. "It would
be someone whose primary interest is in keeping interest rates
low. That is the national interest," he said.
    His main concern was that high interest rates have slowed
economic growth and held down the number of new jobs. The
United States needs "to reduce the level of interest rates so
this economy can get oxygen and breathe," Wright said.
    Wright said he had not talked with Greenspan about the
appointment.
    Asked to rate Volcker's tenure, he replied, "Long."
 Reuter

said satisfactory progress has been made in talks with Japan
that would lead to membership of the Tokyo Stock Exchange for
three British merchant banks next year.
    Following weekend talks here between Japanese and British
officials Lawson told reporters "we have achieved our objective."
    The three applicants, <Baring Brothers and Co Ltd>,
<J.Henry Wagg and Co Ltd> and Kleinwort Benson Lonsdale Plc
<KSLL.L>, would join "when the Stock Exchange has been extended,"
he said.
    The TSE has said this will be completed in May 1988. It has
repeatedly said it cannot accommodate any new members until
then because of limited space on its trading floor.
    During a visit to Tokyo in April, U.K. Corporate Affairs
Minister Michael Howard presented Japanese officials with what
he called a non-negotiable timetable for granting the three
British securities companies TSE membership.
    Howard said Britain expected a favourable response at last
weekend's meeting and wanted the firms to be made members
before next May. If Tokyo failed to act, Britain was ready to
retaliate against Japanese financial groups in London, he
added.
    Last month the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced plans to set
up a special committee to study the membership question.
    The committee is due to produce a report by the autumn.
This would allow the TSE to announce formally by the end of the
year who will be granted membership, although the companies
chosen would not be able to start trading until May.
 REUTER

Finance Minster Gerhard Stoltenberg praised
the excellent leadership of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker whom the White House said will not be standing for a
third term when his current period in office expires.
    "Paul Volcker will go down in U.S. History as one of the
important chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board. By his
excellent leadership he has also won our great respect,"
Stoltenberg said in a Finance Ministry statement.
    The minister described Volcker's successor, economist Alan
Greenspan, as an experienced and capable man and wished him all
the best in his new role.
 REUTER

raised to Aaa from Aa-1 about 1.4 billion dlrs of senior
unsecured debentures of New Jersey Bell Telephone Co, a unit of
Bell Atlantic Corp.
    The agency said it believes that New Jersey Bell will
sustain strong earnings and interest coverage. The company
should continue to benefit from constructive regulatory
treatment as well as from the state's healthy economy.
    Moody's noted that the unemployment rate in New Jersey is
among the lowest in the country. The state is moving rapidly to
a higher growth, service industry based economy, it added.
 Reuter

The stock of HF Ahmanson and Co fell
sharply after analyst Robert Hottensen of Goldman Sachs and Co
cut his earnings estimates of the savings and loan, traders
said.
    Ahmanson's stock fell 1-1/8 to 20-1/8 in active trading.
    Hottensen was unavailable for comment, but a spokeswoman
for Goldman Sachs said the reason for the reduction in earnings
estimates is the decline in demand for mortgage loans as
interest rates move higher. Mortgage rates moved to double
digits in april for the first time since last summer.
    The Goldman spokeswoman said that sales of adjustable rate
mortgages was a significant factor in Hottensen's original
    Last year, when the company's net income was 3.22 dlrs a
share, Ahmanson generated more than half of its 541 mln dlrs of
pretax income from gains on loan sales, the spokeswoman said.
    She said the reduction in earnings estimates to 2.60 dlrs a
share in 1987 from a previous estimate of 3.30 dlrs, reflects
less optimism with the mortgage loan environment.
    In the present environment for mortgages, the spokeswoman
said, Ahmanson's second quarter earnings should drop to 45 cts
a share from last year's 80 cts a share.
    Hottnesen expects the savings and loan to earn between 2.90
dlrs and 3.10 dlrs a share in 1988. he had previously estimated
earnings of 3.30 dlrs a share in 1988.
 Reuter

NCNB Corp said the board of
governors of the Federal Reserve System approved its
application to merge with (CentraBank Inc) of Baltimore,
expected to be completed July 1.
    The company said the board's approval included the
dismissal of a protest by the Baltimore-based Maryland Alliance
for Responsible Investing against NCNB's performance under the
Community Reinvestment Act.
   
    The company said Maryland Alliance wanted the merger
blocked on the grounds that NCNB inadequately served the credit
and financial needs of low-income and minority communities in
    The company said it denied the claim.
   
 Reuter

Fritz Leutwiler, chairman of
BBC AG Brown Boveri und Cie and a former Swiss National Bank
president, urged the National Bank to declare its intent of
achieving a rising rate for the mark against the Swiss franc.
    In a speech to shareholders, Leutwiler said, "A gradually
rising rate for the mark in relation to the franc would be
desirable from the standpoint of industrial exports and with
regard to sustaining Swiss industry."
    "Simply an appropriate declaration of intent by our bank of
issue (Swiss National Bank) could have a positive effect," he
said.
    Leutwiler, who served 10 years as head of the Swiss central
bank, said such a step would not contradict the National Bank's
target of monetary stability.
    "Bringing the franc close to the mark would, of course, have
to be done step by step under the watchful eye of monetary
policy," he told shareholders. "Realistically there is in fact no
persuasive reason why the German currency is quoted almost 20
pct lower than the Swiss."
    A National Bank spokesman said the relation of the mark and
Swiss franc was an example of stable currency parities over a
long period of time.
    The spokesman said exchange rates were made by the market,
not the central bank, and it would be impossible to influence
individual parities separately.
    Leutwiler said the Swiss National Bank could not support
the value of the dollar, even in conjunction with other central
banks, without putting monetary stability in jeopardy.
    "I would be the last to recommend that. The key to a
stronger dollar lies in the United States itself," Leutwiler
said.
 REUTER

Tenneco Inc said its Tenngasco Corp
subsidiary has started delivering up to 40 mln cubic feet per
day of natural gas to PPG Industries Inc in Lake Charles,
Louisiana, under a 10-year firm supply contract.
 Reuter

Spectra-Physics Inc said it is
considering the possibility of recapitalizing, restructuring,
or seeking a buyer for the company following its rejection of
an unsolicitied 32 dlr a share bid from Ciba-Geigy Corp.
the San Jose, Calif., gas lasers and accessories company also
said its board Sunday agreed to a plan that gives 52 top
executives bonuses ranging from 20 to 50 pct of their base
salary if they stay with the company through August 29.
    In rejecting the takeover proposal by the U.S. subsidiary
of Swiss-based Ciba-Geigy AG, the company said it was unfair.
    The Spectra-Physics board voted unanimously, with two
Ciba-Geigy representatives not participating, to reject the
Swiss-based chemical and pharmaceutical company's takeover bid,
citing an opinion from its financial advsior, Morgan Stanley
and Co Inc, that it is "inadequate and unfair from a financial
point of view to the holders of shares," the company said.
    The board also authorized a special committee and Morgan
Stanley to "vigorously investigate, pursue and authorize any
alternatives which would maximize the value of shareholders'
investment in the company," the company said.
    Among the alternatives the special committee will consider
are a sale of the company to a third party for more than 32
dlrs a share, a recapitalization or restructuring, including
self tender offers and/or asset dispositions through the use of
dividends, Spectra-Physics said.
    The "retention plan" for the 52 top officers will pay an
average bonus percentage of 28 pct of salary, it said.
    Spectra-Physics said its board approved the plan "in order
to encourage key operating personnel to remain with the company
during the period of turmoil and uncertainty engendered by the
(Ciba-Geigy) offer."
    Under the plan, the executives would be entitled to their
cash bonuses if they stay with the company through August 29,
but could receive them earlier if they are fired for reasons
other than gross and willful misconduct, or if they leave the
company because their salaries have been sharply cut.
    Spectra-Physics also said it filed suit against Ciba-Geigy
yesterday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., charging
it with making a takeover bid that was false and misleading in
violation of securities law and with violating the intent of
July 9, 1985 standstill agreement.
    Spectra-Physics said Ciba-Geigy indicated at the time of
the standstill agreement that it would not make an unsolicited
takeover proposal for the company and that the intent of the
agreement was that Ciba-Geigy would not acquire more than 20
pct of the company unless there was another takeover threat.
    Ciba-Geigy was 18.8 pct of Spectra-Physics and Reliance
Group Holdings <REL>, which is controlled by New York investor
Saul Steinberg, controls 12.8 pct.
    Spectra-Physics said the agreement prevents Ciba-Geigy from
raising its stake beyond 20 pct through Jan 1, 1992, unless
another person get more than 10 pct of its voting power.
 Reuter

Magma Power Co said it has discontinued
talks on joint ownership of its new Niland geothermal power
plants in the Imperial Valley of California with Southern
California Edison Co.
    The company said it has retained J.P. Morgan and Co <JPM>
to act as financial advisor in arranging equity and debt
financing for its new geothermal plants in the Imperial Valley.
    It said the moves should bring significant financial
benefits to shareholders.
 Reuter

Kroger Co's King Soopers Supermarkets unit
said employees, members of the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union, rejected its latest contract proposal by a 58
pct to 42 pct margin.
    The company said employees have been on strike since May 8,
but it has kept the stores open and fully staffed.
 Reuter

ANDA Development Corp subsidiary filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for an initial offering of 600,000 units,
with each consisting of one share of common stock and one
common purchase warrant.
    The company said the units will be offered on a "best
efforts" all or none basis by S.J. Bayern and Co Inc and R.F.
Lafferty and Co Inc.
    It said each unit is expected to be offered at five dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Paul Volcker's decision not to go for a
third term as Federal Reserve Chairman and the nomination of
Alan Greenspan to replace him have revived deep concerns about
the U.S.' ability to prevent a further dollar decline and stem
rising inflation, financial market analysts said.
    Although Greenspan is known as a committed anti-inflation
fighter in the Volcker mould, doubts are already surfacing in
the U.S. financial markets as to whether he has enough
political clout and monetary experience to wage a tough
campaign against inflation over the next year or two.
    "The critical issue is how (Greenspan) will deal with
inflation," said Stephen Axilrod, Vice Chairman of Nikko
Securities Co International Inc and former staff director for
monetary and financial policy at the Fed.
    "A lot of questions have been raised by Volcker's
departure. Until Greenspan answers them, the markets will
remain nervous," added Stephen Slifer, money market economist
at Shearson Lehman Government Securities Inc.
    This morning's announcement sent the dollar into a
tailspin, which was halted only by concerted central bank
intervention in the open currency market.

 Reuter

Air Canada, owned by the Canadian
Government, said it recorded a net profit of 16.3 mln dlrs in
the first quarter compared to a 36.3 mln dlr loss in the first
    The company said the turnaround was due to improved
passenger yields, reduced unit costs, and good control over
capacity levels.
    It said overall operating revenue rose eight pct compared
to the year earlier level while total passenger revenue rose by
nine pct.
 Reuter

Royal Bank of Canada said it classified
1.3 billion dlrs in medium and long-term loans to Brazil as
non-accrual, leading to a seven pct drop in second quarter
profit.
    "The designation of these loans as non-accrual reduced the
bank's earnings by about 22 mln dlrs after tax," chairman Allan
Taylor said in a statement. "Without this reduction,
second-quarter earnings would have been about 138 mln dlrs," a
10 pct increase over last year's profit, Taylor said.
    The bank earlier reported second quarter profit fell to
116.2 mln dlrs from 125.1 mln dlrs a year ago.
    The bank said domestic earnings rose to a record 125 mln
dlrs in the second quarter, a 52 mln dlr increase from the year
before, due to higher business volumes and securities gains as
well as a better yield from its domestic non-accrual loan
    It said international operations reported a net after-tax
loss of nine mln dlrs, compared with a 52 mln dlr profit last
year. The decline largely reflects the impact of Brazil's
suspended interest payments, which resulted in about a 40 mln
dlr reduction in net interest income, Royal Bank said.
    Royal Bank said it keeping its 1987 loan loss experience
estimate unchanged from the last quarter at one billion dlrs.
It said it is committed to building its general provision for
loan losses to at least 20 pct of total outstanding loans to
troubled sovereign borrowers by the end of 1989.
    The bank said non-accrual loans totalled 3.3 billion dlrs
at April 30--1.5 billion in domestic loans and 1.8 billion in
international loans. Excluding the 1.3 billion dlrs in loans to
Brazil, net non-accrual loans at the end of the second quarter
declined 200 mln dlrs over the 1987 first quarter, it said.

Atlantic Richfield Co said it has
acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the methyl methacrylate
technology of Texas Eastern Corp's Halcon SD Group affiliate
    The company said the technology will allow it to introduce
a cleaner and more efficient way of making methyl methacrylate,
a liquid monomer used to make resins for acrylic sheet,
coatings, molded parts and products and plastic impact
modifiers.
    ARCO said it is reviewing options for commercialization of
the technology.
 Reuter

U.S. analysts expect the American
Petroleum Institute's weekly report on oil inventories to show
a slight build in U.S. stocks of gasoline for the week ended
May 29, oil traders and analysts said.
    While the consensus is for an increase, a few would not
rule out the possibility of an decline. Traders said that
barring any surprises in tonight's report, they expect the
report to be neutral to bearish for oil prices.
    Heating oil stocks are also likely to build and runs to be
steady to slightly higher, which could add pressure on oil
prices, the analysts said.
    Crude oil was seen likely to build assuming imports
continue at relatively high levels.
    Analysts expect gasoline stocks to rise 500,000 to two mln
barrels above the 234 mln reported for May 22.
    Peter Beutel, oil analyst with Elders Futures inc, who
looks for a build said, "We have had five weeks of gasoline
demand at 7.3 mln bpd or more and it is likely to taper off to
between 6.7-7.0 mln bpd, which should make stocks build. Demand
would have to stay above 7.0 mln bpd to have a draw," he added.
    Rising demand is why oil traders and analysts expect a draw
in stocks of about of about one mln barrels.
   
    The U.S. Energy Information Administration in its latest
report for the four weeks ending may 22 said that gasoline
demand was up 4.4 pct to 7.3 mln bpd from the previous year.
    But analysts said hopes of reduced stocks is likely to
founder on increased runs in refineries, which could be up 0.3
pct above May 22's 81.2 pct capacity operated.
    Such an increase would raise runs about 100,000 bpd and add
to U.S. stocks.
    But some analysts said that refiners may have held refinery
runs.
    Heating oil stocks were also expected to build between
700,000 barrels and one mln from the 96 mln barrel level
reported last week, but a rise in distillate stocks was
discounted as having a market impact at this time.
    "A build is seasonal now and not out of line with last year,"
one futures analyst said.
    Analysts said they also expect crude oil stocks to build
between 1.5 mln barrels and three mln from the 325 mln barrels
reported by API for the week of may 22.
    The consensus appears for about two mln barrels to be added
to the nation's inventory.
 Reuter

Privately-held Piper Aircraft
Corp said it has decided to resume production of some Piper
models that had faced suspension as soon as existing orders
were filled.
    The company said the decision to resume production
reflected improved demand for Piper products mainly due to
currency factors and reduced inventories.
    It said it will immediately resume production of the
PA-28-161 Warrior, PA-28-181 Archer, PA-28R Arrow, PA-28-236
Dakota, PA-32 and PA-32R Saratoga and Pa-34 Seneca in numbers
depending on market demand.
   
    The company said it will continue to make the PA-46 Mailbu
and resume production of the Cheyenne IIIA and Pa-42-400
Cheyenne late this year.
 Reuter

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said
the 6,000 billion yen economic package announced by Tokyo last
week went further than the U.S. Had expected.
    But he said the U.S. Would not lift the selective economic
sanctions it imposed on Japanese imports in April until Tokyo
changed its sales policies concerning computer microchips.
    Speaking in a televised news conference linking several
European capitals, Shultz said it was heartening that the
Japanese had confronted the problem of stimulating domestic and
global demand.

    "There is an even greater amount of stimulus than was
originally thought," said Shultz, speaking from Washington.
    "It is a lot more than nothing. It is more than was talked
about when (Prime Minister Yasuhiro) Nakasone was here.
    "It involves a major reduction in tax rates and we believe
that getting the tax burden down is one way of stimulating the
economy," he added.
    But asked by Japanese reporters, also linked into the news
conference, whether the positive reaction meant the U.S. Might
decide at next week's Venice summit to lift its sanctions on
some Japanese electronic goods, Shultz replied:
    "These sanctions were undertaken on the basis of an
agreement that had been reached between the United States and
Japan on various sale practices and prices relating to the chip
market.
    "They will be lifted as the facts of change by Japan to the
agreement that it made become evident."
    He said U.S. Officials had only been able to monitor the
situation for a month and that it was impossible to determine a
trend on only one month's data.
    The U.S. Imposed 100 pct import duties on personal
computers, colour televisions and power tools, alleging that
Japan had violated last September's bilateral agreement by
selling computer chips at below fair market value.
    Shultz said West Germany and other nations would also do
well to look at what they could do to stimulate demand.
    Asked whether the U.S. Could reasonably ask its allies to
take action to stimulate the world economy without a bold
American initiative to reduce the size of the federal budget
deficit, Shultz said moves were already underway to tackle the
problem.
    He said by the end of the current fiscal year the deficit
would probably be reduced by around 35 billion dlrs against
last year, and that the budget being worked on this year would
contain a major reduction.
 REUTER

Champion Home Builders Inc said it
sold the Commerce Meadows 600-site manufactured housing rental
community in Commerce Township, Michigan, for a pre-tax gain of
about 900,000 dlrs and the Heron Cay 610-site adult community
in Vero Beach, Florida, for a nominal pre-tax gain.
    The company said the sales proceeds will be partly used to
reduce debt. It said it is shifting its focus away from the
development of communities requiring significant equity and
having lengthy projected life cycles.
    The company also said along with local landowners and
investors, it will acquire 33-acre tract Northtowne Meadows in
the Toledo, Ohio, area for development into 160 home sites and
three acres of commercial land.
    Terms of the transactions and other parties involved were
 Reuter

Developing countries said the European
Community (EC) would breach two international agreements if it
went ahead with its plans for an oils and fats tax.
    Ambassadors to the EC from African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) states told a press conference the tax would hit the
exports of 26 ACP countries.
    They said the EC failed to follow consultation procedures
laid down in the Lome Convention which regulates relations
between ACP states and the bloc for moves which could affect
trade between the two sides.
    They also said the EC would be in breach of an undertaking
not to bring in new protectionist measures during the current
Punta del Este round of world trade negotiations being held
under GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) auspices.
    The EC Commission has proposed a tax of up to 330 European
currency units (Ecus) a tonne on both imported and EC-produced
vegetable and marine fats for human consumption, which could
raise up to two billion Ecus a year.
    EC farm ministers, who would have to approve such a tax,
are split on the issue and are expected to decide it at a
marathon meeting on EC farm prices beginning in Luxembourg on
June 15.
    Jamaican ambassador Leslie Wilson said ACP countries are
convinced this would lead to EC industry substituting products
made within the bloc for oil and fat imports. The ACP estimates
this would result in a fall of 160 to 185 mln Ecus in its
member country exports.
    "We can't believe the EC would willingly take measures to
undermine our countries, but such would be the impact of these
measures," Wilson said.
    The U.S. and Malaysia say their exports would also be hit
by the proposed tax and they may take retaliatory action if it
is approved.
    Wilson said the ACP would take such steps only "as a very
last resort," but added that the ACP is in touch with other
countries which oppose the plan.
    Wilson, who was chairing the news conference, made it clear
Jamaica itself would not be hit by the tax as it does not
export oils and fats.
    Among the worst hit countries would be Ivory Coast,
Senegal, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, the ACP says.
 Reuter

Salomon Brothers Inc announced formation
of global stock indexes designed to make it easy for portfolio
money managers to invest all over the world.
    "This is a way to put money into the Pacific or Europe
quickly," Laszlo Birinyi, Salomon vice president Laszlo Birinyi
    The stock index products were developed in cooperation with
the Frank Russell Co, a pension fund consulting firm.
    Birinyi said he would not be surprised if exchanges create
futures and options on the indexes. "Somebody will - If they
don't, we will," he said.
 Reuter

quarter ended May 2
    Shr 20 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 2,319,000 vs 1,950,000
    Sales 92.4 mln vs 72.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.60 dlrs vs 1.27 dlrs
    Net 18.7 mln vs 14.8 mln
    Sales 285.9 mln vs 227.1 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp.
 Reuter

Valley Capital Corp said its common
stock has been listed on NASDAQ's National Market System,
 Reuter

West German officials said they could make
no comment on remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
who said Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers had agreed a
new process for economic coordination.
    At last year's G-7 summit in Tokyo, senior government
officials were requested to make a study of how economic data
could be better coordinated and the results of their work will
be presented at next week's summit in Venice.
    West Germany has said governments should not be obliged to
take economic steps purely in reaction to economic data.
    The U.S. Position on data coordination has been that
governments should react accordingly when economic indicators
fall short of expectations.
    The West German stance on coordination of data, which has
also been shared by the British government, has been a
potential threat to a joint stance by the G-7 on this topic.
    At a news conference in Washington, Baker would not be
specific about what agreement had been reached on data
coordination by the seven finance ministers.
 REUTER

qtr ended May 2
    Shr 29 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,975,000 vs 1,403,000
    Revs 68.1 mln vs 54.0 mln
    Avg shrs 6,722,527 vs 6,597,492
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.17 dlrs vs 92 cts
    Net 7,847,000 vs 6,017,000
    Revs 209.7 mln vs 175.7 mln
    Avg shrs 6,687,138 vs 6,549,197
 Reuter

Sterling Bancorp declined to comment on whether there are any
corporate developments that would explain the unusual activity
    Sterling, whose stock is up 3/8 at 14-7/8, said its policy
is not to comment on unusual market activity or rumors, the
 Reuter

Ball Corp said it completed the
acquisition of privately held Verac Inc.
    The company said the San Diego-based defense systems and
software development company had sales of about 23 mln dlrs in
1986 and will operate as part of Ball's technical products
group.
 Reuter

qtr ended April 30
    Shr seven cts vs 10 cts
    Net 158,294 vs 234,829
    Revs 8,727,242 vs 8,152,478
 Reuter

United Automobile Workers union president
Owen Bieber said he was pleased Paul Volcker is leaving as
chairman of the Federal Reserve Board but not encouraged at
Alan Greenspan's nomination to succeed him.
    "When you say Greenspan in now in view, that troubles me,"
the UAW leader told reporters at a news conference.
    Bieber, whose union has 1.1 mln members, said that with
Greenspan heading the Fed, "I'm afraid it means a continuation
of the same policies we've been on, which I don't think are the
right policies."
   
 Reuter

Secretary of State George Shultz said
today that a boost in allied forces in the Mideast Gulf was not
vital to protect shipping against attack but that possible
allied contributions should be examined.
    Asked if he saw the need for a greater military presence by
the allies in the gulf, Shultz told reporters, "Not necessarily,
particularly, so."
    But he said an adequate force was needed to deter attack
and noted that the British and the French, as well as the
United States, maintained naval contingents there.
    "We have to look at things that others might do," he said.
 Reuter

Rep. Jack Kemp, a conservative
Republican from New York, praised Federal Reserve Board
chairman-designate Alan Greenspan's calls for international
monetary reform.
    "Alan Greenspan has called for a fundamental reform of the
international monetary system, which is long overdue. The
challenge facing Mr Greenspan is to combine a commitment to
monetary reform with a policy for economic growth," Kemp said in
    However, Kemp said he was disappointed Fed vice-chairman
Manuel Johnson was not to succeed Fed chief Paul Volcker.
 Reuter

Chicago Pacific Corp said it could
achieve the 1987 estimates of some analysts for a sharp
increase in sales and in fully diluted per share earnings
before extraordinary items in 1987.
    The company said the estimates ranged from 3.10 dlrs to
3.40 dlrs per share and sales of more than 1.35 billion dlrs.
    It earned 2.30 dlrs per share in 1986 on sales of 954.9 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Edouard Balladur is
undecided over his future in office after next Spring's
presidential election, his spokesman said.
    "He (Balladur) has taken no definitive decision about his
activities in a year's time," his spokesman said in answer to a
Reuters question.
    He was responding to questions on a comment made by
Balladur, a close political associate of right wing Prime
Minister Jacques Chirac, in a radio interview.
    Balladur told a Radio Monte Carlo interviewer "From next
year I shall rediscover the freedom of private life."
    France is due to hold a presidential election in April or
May next year. Under the French political system, the prime
minister and his cabinet tender their resignation to the
incoming President, giving him freedom to appoint a new
    Chirac, leader of a two-party coalition government is
widely assumed to be a presidential candidate, while incumbent
Socialist President Francois Mitterrand is tipped by most
opinion polls to win if he decides to stand again.
    Balladur's stringent economic policies have come under
increasing criticism inside and outside the coalition parties
in recent months as official statistics and forecasts have
shown slowing growth prospects and rising inflation.
    But the spokesman said Balladur was having no second
thoughts about the direction of his policies. "The Minister of
State (Balladur) has one current ambition, which is to achieve
his mission of national economic recovery," he said.
    "He refuses to prejudge the future a year from now."
 REUTER

    Pay June 26
    Record June Five
 Reuter

    Pay September three
    Record August 13
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 47 cts
    Net profit 209,000 vs loss 2,164,000
    Sales 4,849,000 vs 3,682,000
    Year
    Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 52 cts
    Net loss 451,000 vs loss 2,378,000
    Sales 18.0 mln vs 15.8 mln
 Reuter

Alan Greenspan, who has been nominated
to replace Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board, is regarded by financial analysts as a conservative
economist who will take a strong stand against inflation.
    "He'll be a strong fighter against inflation," said Martin
Regalia, director of research and economics at the National
Council of Savings Institutions.
    Greenspan has broad experience both in running his own
private economic consulting firm - Townsend-Greenspan - and in
government service. He was President Ford's top economic
adviser, serving as chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers from September 1974 until January 1977.
    During that time, inflation rising above 10 percent, a was
a major political concern during Ford's administration.
    "He's had a lot of experience with inflation, and as an
inflation fighter," Richard Medley, partner with Smick-Medley
and Associates, said of Greenspan. "He had that seared into his
memory during that period," Medley added.
 Reuter

Putnam Financial Services Inc said its
newest fund offering, Putnam Global Governmental Income Trust,
is among the few global funds with an investment objective of
high current income through a portfolio of mainly government
bonds.
    Putnam claimed the trust allows investor money to go where
the best yields are found worldwide, yet investors still have
the assurance of governmental obligations.
 Reuter

Intelligent Systems Corp's Asher
Technologies Inc said it introduced two facsimile products, a
portable unit and an internal card for IBM personal computers
and compatibles.
    The JT facsimile products are designed for use with the IBM
PC, XT, AT, or compatibles to send or receive group III
transmissioins, the company said.
    Asher said the new products eliminate printing out hard
copies and manually sending each sheet to be transmitted.
    The internal unit retails for 395 dlrs, while the portable
unit sells for 495 dlrs, the company said.
 Reuter

Barnes Group Inc said it will
build a new 3.7 mn dlrs manufacturing plant in Saline, Mich.,
to house its Associated Spriung unit's high-tech valve and
torque converter clutch spring operations.
 Reuter

Neotech Industries Inc said it has formed
a joint venture with Texas Instruments Inc to develop low-cost
digital pressure measurement technologies.
    The company said Texas Instruments will be cooperating with
it on the development of application-specific integrated
circuits for use in Neotech pressure measurement devices that
are to be made in Britain.
 Reuter

American Superstores Inc, a unit
of American Stores Co <ASC>, said it elected Jonathan Scott as
chairman of the board and chief executive officer effective
    Scott replaces Thomas Sunday, former chairman, who passed
away May 25, the compnay said.
    The food retailer chain said previously Scott served as
vice chairman and chief executive officer.
 Reuter

it introduced its Overview Scanner that works in conjunction
with a personal computer.
    The company said the Overview Scanner lends itself to
meeting environments where discussions call for the graphic to
be pointed to or annotated.
    The system works with any ATT PC 6300 series or
MS-DOS-compatible personal computer, the company said.
    The company said customers who have a personal computer
could augment the system with the scanner for about 3,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Bromon Aircraft Co, which is privately
held, said it is in the final design phase of a twin turboprop,
and is scheduled to complete production of three prototype
aircraft in the fall of 1988.
    It also said it expects certification by the Federal
Aviation Administration in 1988.
    The turboprop, the BR-2000, can carry up to 46 passengers
or up to six tons of cargo, according to the company.
 Reuter

ElectroSound Group Inc said
Richard Meixner has resigned as senior vice president of the
company.
    The company said they expect the board to appoint Robert
Barone, presently president of Electro Sound Inc, a unit of
ElectroSound Group, as vice president of operations for
ElectroSound Group.
    ElectroSound said Meixner left the company to explore
opportunities with a private company in the recorded music
industry.
 Reuter

Skyline Explorations Ltd said expects
construction can begin next month on a gold mine at Johnny
Mountain Camp, located 600 miles north of Vancouver.
    The company said a contract has been let for a 200 to 400
tons per day mill and the company is receiving cooperation from
provincial and federal agencies on its stage one report,
"approval in principal," which is required before actual
construction can begin.
    Skyline said it is optimistic the approval in principal
will be received in late June, by which time it expects to have
confirmed threshold tonnage and grade targets so construction
can begin in July.
   
    Skyline said the 1987 exploration drift on 16 vien east at
Johnny Mountain has advanced 320 feet. The vein is continuous,
averaging four feet thick plus an altered mineralized hanging
wall.
    It said periodic face samples indicate an average grade of
1.05 ounces per ton of ore ranging from a low of 0.78 ounce per
ton to a high of 55.8 ounces per ton.
 Reuter

Nearby months in soybean and soymeal
futures could post a short-term rally on tightening supply of
livestock feed, even if favorable growing conditions keep the
new crop outlook bearish, traders said.
    "A lot of soymeal dealers are just getting very worried
about where processors will get their soybeans this Summer,"
one Illinois soyproduct dealer said.
    Processors are competing vigorously with river dealers for
the few soybeans being offered by country elevators, with a
Decatur, Illinois processor raising its spot soybean basis bid
another two cents today to 10 over July futures.
    Farmer marketings of old crop soybeans continue very light,
with flat prices apparently well below levels they are willing
to sell, dealers said.
    Some terminal elevator operators are coming to the belief
that even if futures rally back to last month's highs, country
movement may remain light because farmers in many areas are
sold out of old crop soybeans, particularly in the eastern half
of the Midwest.
    Soybean processors will continue to take seasonal downtime
for maintenance if soybeans remain difficult to buy, reducing
the weekly soybean crush rate still further and keeping the
spot soymeal basis strong, dealers said.
    Futures traders said tight cash supplies should help July
soybeans and soymeal gain on deferreds. July soymeal has
already moved to a premium over the August through October
months and old crop July/new crop November soybeans may also
move to a July premium later this month, they added.
 Reuter

Manor Care Inc's Quality Inn
International said it received more franchise applications in
May than in any month in the chain's history.
    Quality said it received 51 applications for the month.
 Reuter

Robinson Nugent Inc said a fire
that started in the electroplating operation damaged its
Delemont, Switzerland, plant.
    The company said cleanup operations are in progress and it
will serve customer requirments from other plants during the
period of cleanup and equipment repair or replacement.
 Reuter

Shr 33 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 489,351 vs 430,143
    Revs 6,961,091 vs 6,009,026
    Avg shrs 1.5 mln vs 1.6 mln
 Reuter

Munson Transportation Inc said its
proposed initial public offering has been postponed due to a
recent weakness in the prices of comparable trucking stocks.
 Reuter

An investor group led by Technology
Growth Fund Ltd, an Aspen, Colo., investment firm, said it has
acquired 129,000 shares of Distributed Logic Corp, or 5.2 pct
of the total, and may try to influence the company.
the group, which also includes individual investors and a
non-profit foundation, said it bought the stake for 884,414
dlrs as an investment in the Anaheim, Calif., company.
    But it also said it is "investigating the possibility of
seeking to influence the composition of the management" of the
company and may increase its stake.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp said in a corporate
statement its executives can think of "no person better
qualified" than Alan Greenspan to replace Paul Volcker as
    "Greenspan possesses great understanding of both the
American and international economies and the interaction
between them," the company said in a statement. "He also
possesses enormous good judgement."
    No other possible replacement for Paul Volcker would be
more likely to have as steadying an influence on and be as well
received by financial markets here and overseas as Alan
Greenspan, it said.
    GM also said the U.S. owes Volcker "a great debt of
gratitiude" by wringing inflation out of the U.S. economy."
 Reuter

Moody's Investors Service Inc said it is
likely that large underwriting losses will persist in the
mortgage insurance industry for at least the next two years.
    In its annual report on the mortgage insurance industry,
Moody's said that in 1986 incurred losses increased by 21 pct
over the dismal record posted the year before.
    Moody's said the underwriting losses mainly reflected major
economic forces, structural complications and the risk makeup
of the industry. The rating agency said that, while mortgage
insurance industry risk remains high, slow improvement appears
likely.
 Reuter

Henry Kaufman, managing director of
Salomon Brothers Inc, said the nomination of economist Alan
Greenspan to replace Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Volcker is bearish in the near term for the fixed income and
currency markets.
    "The basic direction of interest rates is not changed. The
fundamental direction of interest rates continues to be upward,
interrupted by intermittent rallies," Kaufman said in a
statement. He said the implication for equity markets in
neutral to bullish.
    Kaufman said, "Unlike Paul Volcker, who entered the office
of the Federal Reserve chairman with strong credibility both
domestically and internationally, Mr Greenspan will have to
demonstrate both his competence and policy independence before
he can gain full confidence of the financial markets."
    Greenspan is most knowledgeable on the behavior of the U.S.
economy, while his professional skills in the international
area are much more limited, Kaufman noted.
    "Consequently, although he is well known abroad, his views
on issues such as the Less Developed Country Debt may initially
carry less weight than have those of Mr Volcker."
 Reuter

The operator of a major U.S. crude oil
pipeline, shutdown because of flood damage, said it may be
several days before repairs are made and the system is
functioning again.
Texaco Inc <TX>, operator of the pipeline through its
subsidiary Texaco Pipeline Co, said the company hopes repairs
will begin in about five days and expects it to take several
more days to complete.
    "At this point we are lining up what we know we need, to get
the job done," Stevens said, adding that the timing for repairs
will depend on the damage to the pipeline which is difficult to
assess because of flooding on the Red River.
    The pipeline was shipping roughly 225,000 barrels of crude
oil per day, or about 55 pct of its capacity during the 30 days
preceding its shutdown on Saturday, Stevens said.
    The pipeline was shut down from Cushing, Okla, to Witchita
Falls, Kan, on Saturday due to an undetermined leak at the Red
River crossing, near the Oklahoma/Texas border, because of
severe rains, a spokesman for Texaco said.
    Stevens said it was reasonable to suggest the pipeline
could operate at full capacity when it reopens in order to make
up for the shortfull but cautioned they will talk with
customers to determine their requirements.
    Oil analysts and traders said they were not sure if the 
shutdown will continue to raise U.S. oil prices.
    Monday, after Texaco confirmed that the pipeline had been
closed, West Texas Intermediate crude in the spot market and on
New York Mercantile Exchange's energy futures complex rose 20
cts a barrel.
 Reuter

Neti Technologies Inc said it has sold
for over four mln dlrs U.S. in cash, notes and the assumption
of liabilities its Huron Leasing Inc subsidiary to a group of
investors headed by a former Huron executive.
    The company said the transaction will yield about two mln
dlrs in cash, Huron sells, leases and services computer
hardware.
    The transaction is subject to approval by the Montreal and
Vancouver Stock Exchange and the arrangement of financing by
June 15.
 Reuter

PacifiCorp said it acquired Thomas
Nationwide Computer Corp for 25 mln dlrs in cash and 15 mln
dlrs in deferred consideration depending on the future
performance of the company.
    Thomas Nationwide leases and re-markets new and used
International Business Machines Corp equipment, PacifiCorp
said.
    It said Thomas Nationwide will be combined with its Systems
Leasing Corp unit in MacLean, Va.
 Reuter

K-Tron International Inc said its
board elected John C. Tucker president, filling a position that
had been vacant since July 30, 1985.
    Tucker joined K-Tron in 1981 as vice president, chief
financial officer and treasurer. In 1986 he was promoted to
 Reuter

FMC Corp said it has entered into an
equally owned joint venture with Indo-Thai Synthetics called
Thai Peroxide Co Ltd to build a hydrogen peroxide plant with an
initial capacity of 5,000 metric tonnes of 100 pct peroxide
north of Bangkok.
    The company said the plant is expected to starft operating
by the fourth quarter of 1988.  It said the venture received
grants and incentives from the government of Thailand.
 Reuter

Alternacare Corp said Wallace Reed
has stepped down from his duties as chairman of the board and
has been named chairman emeritus.
    Reed will continue to serve on its board, Alternacare said,
adding, the company has no immediate plans to fill the
position.
    The company also said Reed was re-elected to its board
along with president and chief executive Paul Dinkel.
 Reuter

Consolidated Oil and Gas Inc said the
exercise price of its Oil Indexed Common Stock Purchase
Warrants Series 1900 <CGS.WS.P> will remain three dlrs a share
for the six month period July one to December 31.
    The warrant exercise price is based on the average price of
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil reported for the trading
month of May. For the month, the average price was less than 20
dlrs per barrel, the first index point above which there would
be a change in the exercise price of the warrants.
 Reuter

Lac Minerals Ltd reiterated it expected
substantially higher 1987 profit and revenues than last year's
earnings of 19.1 mln dlrs on 250.2 mln dlrs of revenues.
    The 1986 results include the disputed Page-Williams mine at
Hemlo, Ontario. A decision is imminent on Lac's appeal of a
1986 Ontario court decision ordering Lac to hand over the mine
to International Corona Resources Ltd <ICR.TO>.
    Lac chief executive Peter Allen told institutional
investors that the anticipated stronger performance would come
from strong operating results and an active revenue management
program.
   
    Lac said year-to-date gold production excluding the
disputed Page-Williams mine was 134,000 ounces, in line with
targeted 1987 production of 300,000 ounces. It said it expected
an average realized price of 450 U.S. dlrs an ounce in
full-year 1987.
    It said its outstanding forward contracts at May 29 were
220,000 ounces of gold at average price of 439 U.S. dlrs an
ounce, including 135,000 ounces maturing in 1987 at 482 U.S.
dlrs an ounce.
 Reuter

Disc Technology Corp said it has
received 1,500,000 dlrs in orders for hard discs from
MiniScribe Corp's MiniScribe Ltd Singapore affiliate.
    It said the shipments are to be completed by September 30.
 Reuter

Hoffmann-La Roche Inc, the licensee
of a Hormone Research Foundation patent of a synthetic version
of human growth hormone, said it entered into a license
agreement with Eli Lilly and Co involving Lilly's Humatrope
hormone used to treat dwarfism in children.
    Details of the license agreement were not disclosed and
company officials were unavailable for comment.
    A statement from the companies said, "Lilly and Roche have
entered into the license agreement as an alternative to
litigation."
    South San Francisco-based Genetech Inc <GENE> also markets
a genetically engineered human growth hormone called Protropin.
Lilly received approval from the Food and Drug Administration
to market is human growth hormone earlier this year.
    A Lilly spokesperson said the company has in effect
licensed the patent for the hormone through Hoffman-LaRoche.
She refused to comment on the terms of the license agreement.
    Last September, Hoffman-LaRoche and the Foundation sued
Genetech in a Federal court in California alleging its product
infringed on Hoffman's patent for the synthetic hormone.
 Reuter

United Services Advisors Inc
said it has sold to an investor 75,760 shares of preferred
stock at 3.25 dlrs each and an equal number of warrants at five
cts each, but an agreement to sell 454,546 preferred shares and
the same number of warrants to another investor has been
    The warrants are exercisable at seven dlrs per share for
    It said after the sale it has 2,033,733 preferred shares
 Reuter

Chicago Pacific Corp chairman Harvey
Kapnick told analysts that he expects within the next year to
repurchase about 25 mln dlrs of the company's 200 mln dlr issue
of 14 pct subordinated notes.
    To date the company has repurchased about 60 mln of these
notes.
    "This will have a beneficial effect on our net income but
the effects in 1987 have already been anticipated in estimates
for 1987," Kapnick said.
    Earlier, Kapnick said that analysts' 1987 projections of 31
to 35 mln dlrs or 3.10 dlrs to 3.40 dlrs for earnings for
operations are reasonable. These compare to 2.30 dlrs or 22 mln
dlrs for 1986.
    Since November 1985, Chicago Pacific has acquired the
<Hoover Co> and <Rowenta>, both appliance companies and
furniture companies <Kippinger/Pennsylvania House Group Inc> 
and the <McGuire Co>.
    The company spent a total of 724.8 mln dlrs on
   
    "We believe our balance sheets provides us with about 300
mln dlrs for future acquisitions,"  Kapnick said.
    Kapnick also said he expects sales of the company's
appliance division to increase 17 pct from the 915.7 mln dlrs
reported in 1986.
    Kapnick further said the 67 mln dlrs of trademarks and
patents will be reduced to 40 mln dlrs due to net loss
carryforwards of acquired companies which were offset against
these assets as required by current accounting principles.
 Reuter

Association set an 8.55 pct coupon rate to yield 8.55 on a
four-year 900 mln dlr issue and set a 9.20 pct coupon rate to
yield 9.22 on a 10-year 600 mln dlr issue in tomorrow's 1.5
billion dlr debenture offer.
    Prices were set at par and 99.875, respectively.
    FNMA said previously that the 900 mln dlr issue matures
June 10, 1991, while the 600 mln dlr issue matures June 10,
1997.
    First interest payments will occur Dec 10, 1987, it said.
    FNMA said proceeds will be used to redeem the 300 mln dlrs
of 7.65 pct debentures, 1.05 billion dlrs of 11.2 pct
debentures that mature June 10, 1987, and to finance
    The debentures will be issued in book entry form only in
minimum purchase amounts of 10,000 dlrs and multiples of 5,000
dlrs thereafter.
    The debentures will be free to trade at 0930 hrs EDT
tomorrow, FNMA said.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp's wholly owned Amoco
Canada Petroleum Co Ltd said it had yet to work out details
regarding the amount and timing of its previously reported
share offering in Canada and would be doing so in talks with
Investment Canada in coming weeks.
    An earlier reported published report based on an interview
with Amoco Canada president T. Don Stacy said Amoco's stock
offering would total more than one billion Canadian dlrs if the
company succeeded in its 5.22 billion Canadian dlr bid for Dome
Petroleum Ltd <DMP>.
   
 Reuter

Lead underwriter Kidder, Peabody and Co
Inc sand an initial public offering of two mln common shares of
Designs Inc is underway at 13 dlrs per share.
    The company is selling 1,125,000 shares and shareholders
the rest, and underwriters have been granted an option to buy
up to 300,000 more shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

RCM Technologies Inc said the
Securities and Exchange Commission has declared a
post-effective amendment to its registration statement
effective, making its warrants exercisable.
 Reuter

Noranda Forest Inc, a new company
controlled by Noranda Inc <NOR.TO>, will have net earnings of
more than 165 mln dlrs in 1987 and profit will likely continue
to grow, Noranda Forest chairman Adam Zimmerman told Reuters in
an interview.
    "I think our earnings have not peaked," Zimmerman said of
Noranda Forest, which will be Canada's largest forest products
company. Noranda previously said it is spinning off its vast
forest product holdings into the new company and is now making
an initial public offering of Noranda Forest shares.
   
    Zimmerman told Reuters that he agrees with one forest
industry analyst's prediction that Noranda Forest will earn at
least 165 mln dlrs in 1987.
    Noranda Forest's preliminary share prospectus, released
today, shows the company had 1986 pro forma earnings of 80.2
mln dlrs, excluding a 22.5 mln dlr extraordinary gain.
    Asked to comment on the analyst's forecast that Noranda
could earn about 200 mln dlrs this year, Zimmerman said, "I
think that he is directionally very correct."
    He also said Noranda Forest will consolidate financial
results of 50 pct-owned MacMillan Bloedel Ltd <MB.TO>.
    Zimmerman said Noranda Forest expects to raise at least 350
mln dlrs from its first share issue, making it one of Canada's
largest initial public offerings.
    Noranda Forest intends to issue about 15 pct of its common
shares to the public at first, but parent company Noranda Inc
"is prepared to let up to 49 pct of it go into the public hands,"
he added. Noranda Inc now holds all of the 79.9 mln outstanding
shares of Noranda Forest.
    Zimmerman declined to say when future secondary share
offerings might occur, although he said they will be made "as
soon as it's right" for either cash or other securities.
    Proceeds from the share issue will be used mainly to reduce
Noranda Forest's long term debt, listed pro forma as 1.36
billion dlrs at the end of first quarter, 1987, chairman
    Noranda Forest's first priority will be to continue cutting
debt to "a comfortable, manageable level in all likely future
circumstances" or about 30 pct of capital, he said.
    "I think we learned last time around that although your
assets can support a high levels of debt, earnings can't
support associated interest in times of high interest rates,"
Zimmerman commented.
    Noranda Forest had pro forma operating losses of 8.6 mln
dlrs in 1985 and 2.9 mln dlrs in 1984 during periods of higher
    The company's pro forma 1987 first quarter results showed
net profit of 42.2 mln dlrs or 49 cts a share, up from earnings
of 4.7 mln dlrs or one ct a share, excluding a 22.5 mln dlr
extraordinary gain, in the prior year.
    Zimmerman also said the company will concentrate on
maintaining quality earnings from existing operations rather
than increasing operating volumes. "We are likely to spend money
to enhance our operations ahead of expanding them," he said.
    Noranda Forest would also be interested in buying the 50
pct interest it does not already own in Northwood Pulp and
Timber Ltd from Mead Corp <MEA> for between 150 mln and 200 mln
dlrs, Zimmerman said.
    Noranda Forest and Mead each have the right of first
refusal the other's Northwood holding, but Mead likely is not
anxious to sell, he added.
    Noranda Forest's initial dividend policy will be to pay 10
cents a share quarterly. When asked, Zimmerman agreed the
dividend was small compared to cash flow, adding the company
will later "establish a typical or sensible dividend policy."
 Reuter

VBI Corp, a British West Indies
raised its stake in France Fund Inc to 1,075,700 shares, or
14.3 pct of the total, from 896,500 shares, or 11.9 pct.
    VBI said it bought 179,200 France Fund common shares
between April 24 and June 2 at prices ranging from 13.000 to
14.125 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Lead underwriter PaineWebber Group Inc
<PWJ> said an offering of two mln shares of the Class A
preferred stock of Southern Co's Georgia Power Co subsidiary is
underway at 25 dlrs per share.
    It said the underwriters won the issue at competitive sale
today on a bid of 23.812 dlrs per share.
    The shares are not redeemable through refunding operations
before June 1, 1992, when a sinking fund will start retiring
the issue.
 Reuter

Scott Paper Co said its S.D. Warren
Co subsidiary will undertake a 60 mln dlr modernization to
increase capacity at its Muskegon, Mich., paper plant.
    The company said the plant is the nation's largest producer
of premium quality coated printing paper.
    It said the modernization is expected to be completed by
the fall of 1988.
 Reuter

Citizens Savings Bank FSB said
it will incur an expense of about 393,000 dlrs or 20 cts a
share for the three and six months ending June 30.
    Citizens said the expense is due to a a recent decision by
the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to eliminate the FSLIC
secondary reserrve as of December 31, 1986.
    According to Citizens, the FHLBB action was taken to cover
future losses of financially troubled institutions. Citizens
said its secondary reserve balance as of December 31, 1986 was
694,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

International Cablecasting Technologies
Inc, said it introduced its proprietary new technology that can
broadcast compact disk-quality digital sound into the home.
    The company said the new technology, called digital
modulation, permits noise-free, undistorted transmission of 10
channels of pure digital sound or data via satellite and cable
into subscribers' homes, all on a single video channel.
   
    According to the company, the first consumer service to be
offered by International via the new technology will be
SuperSound, a package of eight 24-hour commercial-free digital
uninterrupted music channels to subscribers.
    International said the SuperSound service is expected to be
launched in late 1987 and generally available by early 1988.
 Reuter

Lynch Corp said it will offer 10.50 dlrs
a share in cash, 4.50 dlrs in subordinated debentures and a 1/4
share in a new company for each Becor Western Inc share
    Lynch said its proposed offer "substantially improves" over
the offer of 10.45 dlrs a share in cash and 4.00 dlrs of senior
sinking fund debentures made by BCW Acquisition Inc, formed by
Becor's management.
    Lynch Chairman Mario Gabelli, who heads a group which owns
12.35 pct of Becor's 16.5 mln outstanding shares, said the
Lynch bid "is about one dlr better than the present offer."
   
    Gabelli previously said in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission he felt the Becor managment buyout was
unfar.
    The Lynch officer said he was invited by other Becor
shareholders to make an offer.
    Following sale of Becor's aerospace subsidiary in February,
the management group led by President William Winter announced
plans for a 238.1 mln dlr leveraged buyout. was planning to
take Becor for about 238.1 mln dlrs.  A shareholder vote on the
buyout offer is scheduled for June four.                
 Reuter

Munson Transportation Inc said it
postponed its proposed initial public offering due to weakness
in the price of truck stocks.
    Munson is a trucking company that transports food products
and other general commodities, primarily in the Midwestern,
Central and Northeastern sections of the U.S.
 Reuter

<SCE> Chairman Howard Allen said the company plans no new major
construction projects in the next eight years.
    "We plan no new major plant additions until at least the
mid-1990s and maybe longer," Allen told a renewable energy
conference here.
    He said Southern California Edison had peak power reserve
margins greater than 20 pct last year. Allen also said he
expects renewable and alternate energy sources, such as solar
and geothermal power, to contribute as much as 26 pct of the
company's electricity within 10 years.
 Reuter

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc president
Morton Hyman said if oil production by OPEC rises during the
second half of 1987, freight rates for tankers should rise
accordingly.
    Hyman, delivering a speech at the annual shareholders
meeting, said international tanker markets were generally weak
throughout the first quarter, but since the end of March OPEC
oil production has picked up. The result has been a modest
improvement in tanker rates.
    Overseas said 73 pct of its fleet handles liquid cargo.
   
    He said tanker requirements decreased in September 1986 as
OPEC production quotas dropped and levels of oil stocks rose.
    For the first quarter 1987, the company reported net income
of 10.3 mln dlrs, or 40 cts per share, compared to 9.3 mln
dlrs, or 36 cts per share, for the comparable quarter a year
ago.
    The company reported net income for 1986 of 37.3 mln dlrs,
or 1.45 dlrs per share.
   
    "The improvement in the company's 1986 results, after four
years of declining earnings, reflects a sharp, albeit
temporary, rise in freight rates in the international tanker
markets last summer," Hyman said.
    He said the Alaskan oil trade continues to be the principal
source of employment for its U.S. flag tanker fleet, which
represents approximately 15 pct of the company's tonnage.
    Overseas owns and operates 67 vessels.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 12.5 cts per share vs 12.5 cts prior
    Pay Aug 25
    Record Aug Three
    NOTER: full name of company is overseas shipholding group
inc.
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
    Record July 17
 Reuter

The Quebec government said it joined
with B.F. Goodrich Canada Inc to study the feasability of
building a vinyl chloride monomer plant in Montreal. The plant
would supply manufacturers of PVC construction and other
materials in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S.,
    Theys said the  plant would cost about 125 mln Canadian
dlrs, with production beginning in 1991 if economic conditions
are right. more
    The Quebec government has said it wants the project to
proceed because it would provide future demand for Petromont
Inc petrochemical products. Petromont is jointly owned by Union
Carbide Canada Ltd <UCC.TO> and the Quebec government's SGF
industrial development group. Its Montreal plant would provide
ethylene as a raw material for the project.
     Quebec said it also wants Interprovincial Pipe Line Ltd
<IPIPF.O> to adapt its pipeline from Sarnia, Ont., to Montreal
to carry natural gas liquids, a decision that will be made by
the federal National Energy Board. It said the pipeline could
provide Petromont with feedstock at one-third the cost of
moving it by rail.
 Reuter

Kapnick told analysts that he expects whithin the next year to
notes.
for 1987," Kapnik said.
 reuter

 Reuter

Corp <FFC> and United Bank of Arizona are continuing to meet to
explore alternatives, but the company believes, that
irrespective of the outcome, it will be forced to file for
bankruptcy by the end of the week.
    On May four Newbery said it would receive supplemental
funding under a 30-day arrangement with Fireman's Fund and
United Bank that would allow it to continue to operate until a
decision was made on the company's request for long-term
    The company later announced that it would not be able to
make its July one interest payment on its 12 pct subordinated
 Reuter

ICCO buffer stock manager to buy 3,000 tonnes cocoa Wednesday, June 3 - official

The buffer stock manager of the
International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) will tender for about
3,000 tonnes of cocoa beans Wednesday, June 3, the ICCO said in
    It said all other conditions remain unchanged from the
previous announcement.
    These conditions are that offers from registered companies
should be in pounds sterling for cocoa beans for which standard
differentials have been set in the ICCO's buffer stock rules,
and can be for cocoa afloat through to December shipment and
spot to December arrival/delivery.
    The basis position will be afloat, May/July shipment or
June arrival/delivery. For later positions the appropriate
carrying costs will be taken into account.
    The deadline for the receipt of offers by the manager shall
be 1330 hrs london time (1230 gmt) in the case of offers
emanating from the secondhand market and 1400 hours in the case
of offers emanating from the origins.
    The competitiveness of offers will be assessed by taking
into account the standard differentials, the cost of taking
cocoa into store (currently 23.00 pounds sterling from "cif
landed" and 38.00 pounds sterling from "cif shipping weights"
to "in store") and the cost of carry which currently is 12.00
pounds sterling per month, the ICCO said.
    No more than four offers will be considered from each
offering party, it added.
 Reuter

A foreign investment group told the
Scandinavia Fund Inc to 3,040,600 shares, or 46.6 pct of the
total outstanding, from 2,829,300 shares, or 43.2 pct.
    The group, which includes Ingemar Rydin Industritillbehor
AB, a Swedish firm, VBI Corp, a British West Indies investment
firm, and Norwegian investor Erik Vik, said it bought 211,300
Scandinavia common shares since April 30 at prices ranging from
10.000 to 10.625 dlrs a share.

 Reuter

Lowe's Cos Inc said its
sales for the four weeks ended May 29 were up 11 pct to 221.0
mln dlrs from 199.5 mln dlrs a year before, with same-store
sales up five pct.
 Reuter

Mueller Brass Co said that
effective with shipments today, it is adjusting the price of
all brass mill products, except free-cutting brass rod and
related alloys and copper water tube and related products, to
reflect contained copper values at 73 cents a pound, down two
cents.
   
 Reuter

its stockholders approved a 2-1/2-for-1 common stock split.
    Mercantile said the record date for the split was June one
and that it expects to mail the additional shares resulting
from the split on June 15.
 Reuter

Airlines, said it has completed a private placement of 150 mln
dlrs of preferred auction rate stock through Bankers Trust Co
NY <BT>.
    AMR said the preferred stock was sold in three series of 50
mln dlrs each. Each series is perpetual and will pay dividend
rates which will be determined every seven weeks through a
Dutch Auction process, AMR added.
    The company said it will add the proceeds from the issue to
working capital and use it for capital expenditures and for
 Reuter

Two people were missing and six
injured after tanks containing thousands of cubic metres of
fuel burst into flames today at a Shell storage unit in Lyon,
rescue workers said.
    The blaze broke out with an explosion around 1330 local
time (1130 GMT). Shell is a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell
Group <RD>.
    Some 200 firemen fought the flames at the gasoline storage
unit at Edouard Herriot riverside port complex and appeared to
have the blaze under control as night fell. The entire southern
section of Lyon was cordoned off.
    The fire destroyed five giant tanks and threatened four
others, the Shell spokesman said. He said that the company
estimated between six and seven thousand cubic metres of
domestic fuel oil, gasoline and additives had been burned.
    The total capacity of the burning tanks was over 10,000
cubic metres, but some had been empty when an explosion started
today's fire, he added.
 Reuter

received a revision to one of the two previously disclosed
proposals to buy the company.
    Pay 'N Pak said that the proposal from a leveraged buyout
firm had been amended to increase the dividend rate on the
cumulative preferred stock to be received by PNP shareholders
from 13.5 pct to 17.5 pct.
    As previoiusly announced, the proposal calls for a
transaction in which PNP shareholders would receive a
combination of 17.50 dlrs in cash and 2.50 dlrs in liquidation
value of cumulative preferred stock for each common share.
   
    Under the other proposal received from Paul Bilzerian, PNP
shareholders would receive on a blended basis 16.67 dlrs in
cash and 3.33 dlrs in liquidation value of cumulative
redeemable preferred stock for each common share, the company
said.
    Under the Bilzerian proposal, the dividend rate on the
preferred stock would be set so that in the joint opinion of
the financial advisor to Bilzerian and the financial advisor to
Pay 'N Pak, the preferred stock would trade at its liquidation
value on a fully distributed basis, the company said.
 Reuter

First Tennessee National Corp is
offering 75 mln dlrs of subordinated capital notes due 1999
yielding 10.43 pct, said lead manager Goldman, Sachs and Co.
    The notes have a 10-3/8 pct coupon and were priced at 99.65
to yield 175 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable to maturity, the debt is rated Baa-2 by
Moody's and BBB-plus by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread
is seven dlrs, the selling concession is four dlrs and the
reallowance is 2.50 dlrs. Salomon Brothers co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

U.S. military forces in the Mideast
Gulf are under orders to protect only American flag vessels and
occasional U.S. arms deliveries on other ships to
"non-belligerent" states in the area, the Pentagon said today.
    "No one has ever stated or supported a policy of protecting
all shipping in those waters," Pentagon spokesman Bob Sims said
as the Reagan Administration drew up plans to increase the
protective U.S. military presence in the gulf.
    Sims denied published reports that U.S. Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger sought air cover to protect all neutral
shipping in the western gulf from attacks by Iran and Iraq.
    "As we have said repeatedly, only American flag vessels are
under our protection with the exception, on a limited
case-by-case basis, of ships carrying our Foreign Military
Sales equipment to friendly, non-belligerent states in the
region," Sims said.
    U.S. warships in the gulf two weeks ago protected a Kuwaiti
ship which sailed to Bahrain with U.S. arms for Bahrain and
Kuwait. But Sims said Washington had received assurances that
the the arms would not be used elsewhere.
    He said Kuwait, which is turning 11 oil tankers over to
U.S. firms to fly the American flag and be protected by the
U.S. warships, is not considered a belligerent despite Iranian
charges that Kuwait is supporting Iraq in the gulf war.
    Kuwaiti tankers have come under repeated Iranian attack.
    Sims refused to say how the United States will beef up its
seven-ship Middle East Task Force in the gulf to protect the 11
Kuaiti tankers. But Pentagon officials said that additional
ships and air cover are under consideration.
 Reuter

VIACOM SAYS FEDERAL COURT REJECTS REQUEST TO BLOCK PLANNED MERGER

    Pay July 10
    Record June 24
 Reuter

Asamera Inc said wholly owned
Asamera Oil (U.S.) Inc concluded the 25.25 mln U.S. dlr sale of
its Denver refinery to Total Petroleum North America Ltd.
    In addition, Total is purchasing crude oil and refined
product inventories at market value, Asamera said.
 Reuter

Viacom International Inc said the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the
motion of <Carsey-Werner Co> for a temporary injunction to
block the proposed merger of Viacom with a subsidiary of
<National Amusements Inc>.
    Carsey-Werner is the producer of the Cosby Show.
 Reuter

downgrade Hospital Corp of America's 1.8 billion dlrs of debt.
    S and P cited uncertainties over the company's major
restructuring. It noted that Hospital Corp has agreed to sell
104 acute care hospitals to a new company owned by an employee
stock ownership plan.
    The sale is for 1.8 billion dlrs cash. If the proceeds are
used primarily for share repurchases, weaker asset and cash
flow protection will result, S and P said.
    Hospital Corp currently carries A-rated senior debt and
A-minus subordinated debt.
 Reuter

AEGON U.S. Holding Corp, a
unit of AEGON N.V. of the Netherlands, and Life Investors Inc
<LINV.O> said they have purchased about 451,000 shares of Life
Investors common stock for 51.61 dlrs per share cash.
    The purchase is part of an agreement between the two
companies made in November 1981, saying that on or before each
April 30 between 1983 and 1987 the companies would offer to buy
one-sixth of the number of Life Investors' common stock
outstanding as of Dec. 31, 1982, not already owned by AEGON.
    On Dec. 31 1988 they would offer to buy any and all
 Reuter

Wesbanco Inc said its board
executed a merger agreement with the <Bank of Sissonville>.
    When the merger is completed, each of the 50,000 shares of
the Bank of Sissonville common stock outstanding will be
converted into 2.75 shares of Wesbanco common stock, the
    The Bank of Sissonville has total assets of 25.5 mln dlrs
as of Dec 31, 1986, the company said.
 Reuter

affirmed the Ba-3 rated convertible subordinated debentures of
both Computer Associates International Inc, due 2012 and UCCEL
Corp, due 1995. About 113 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    Computer Associates plans to acquire UCCEL through an
exchange of stock, Moody's noted. The resulting merger would
create the largest independent software company yet.
    Moody's said it believes that the merged company may
experience short-term pressure on margins while consolidating
operations. In the long-term, the agency said the outlook is
positive and anticipates a greatly improved market position.
 Reuter

Nuclear Data Inc said its
auditors, Ernst and Whinney, quaified their opinion on its
financial statements for the fiscal year ended February 28.
    As previously reported, Nuclear Data's bank debt matures on
June 30, 1987, and its lenders have required it to obtain
replacement financing by then.
    It said the auditors qualified their opinion because the
company does not yet have a commitment for replacement
financing. Nuclear Data said it expects to have such financing
in place shortly.
 Reuter

Period ended April 30
    Shr 71 cts vs 42 cts
    Shr diluted 62 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 2,629,704 vs 1,721,384
    Revs 39.5 mln vs 32.0 mln
 Reuter

Qtr ends April 30
    Shr 32 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1,981,681 dlrs vs 1,022,451 dlrs
    Avg shrs 6,220,000 vs 5,120,000
    12 mths
    Shr 1.22 dlrs vs 59 cts
    Net 7,005,000 dlrs vs 3,030,000 dlrs
    Avg shrs 5,737,808 vs 5,120,000
    NOTE: full name of company is commonwealth mortgage co inc.
 Reuter

Rep. Norman Lent, R-N.Y., said Dennis
Levine's conviction for insider trading showed the need for
tougher enforcement of insider trading laws by the government
and the securities industry.
    Lent's comments came at the start of closed testimony by
Levine at the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.
Levine's testimony was not released.
    "Why didn't Dennis Levine's superiors at four different
investment banking houses question the sources of his 'uncanny'
information on possible corporate takeovers?" Lent asked.
    "Why has the Securities and Exchange Commission historically
been unable to prosecute insider trading cases without outside
evidence that illegal behavior has taken place?" Lent added.
    Lent said Levine had told the subcommittee staff his
associates at major banks told him insider trading was accepted
practice. Levine also said he did not worry about being caught
by the SEC.
    "The securities industry must stop putting morality and
ethics behind proift. The SEC must exercise tougher control and
supervision of the industry," Lent said.
 Reuter

managers who use a special cash dividend to buy additional
stock are demonstrating confidence in the company, chairman
William Jovanovich said.
    In a written statement Jovanovich said the company's
recapitalization, which will pay a dividend of 40 dlrs per
share in cash and preferred stock worth 10 dlrs per share, is
not a leveraged buyout.
    He said management of Harcourt is not receiving shares in
the recapitalization other than through a legal employee stock
ownership program.
 
 Reuter

downgraded 160 mln dlrs of debt of Norstar Bancorp.
    Cut were the company's senior debt to AA-minus from AA,
subordinated debt to A-plus from AA-minus and preferred stock
to A from A-plus. S/P affirmed its A-1-plus commercial paper.
    The downgrade reflected a modest increase in Norstar's risk
profile, combined with lower financial performance. Norstar's
recent purchase of the 1.2 billion dlr Syracuse Savings Bank
will require substantial management and financial resources to
bring the unit's performance in line with the bank's other
operations, the agency said.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's negotiations on a
new contract covering 370,000 U.S. workers who belong to the
United Automobile Workers union will open July 27, UAW
president Owen Bieber said.
    He said the opening of talks on a new contract covering
110,000 union members at Ford Motor Co <F> will open the
following day. Current contracts at both companies expire at
2359 EDT on September 14.
 Reuter

North American Ventures Inc
said it has sold about nine mln dlrs of the company's
restricted common shares to the newly created <Butler
International Inc> Employee Stock Option Plan.
    North American said the nine mln dlrs payment resulted from
an excess of funds in Butler's pension plan.
    The transaction was for about 1.5 mln North American common
shares approximating 5.1 pct of the company's outstanding
shares, North American said.
   
    North American said proceeds from the stock sale would
increase the company's stockholders' equity to about 85 mln
dlrs and will be used to pay down aquisition financing used in
the Butler purchase which was completed in January.
 Reuter

year ended March 31
    Shr 91 cts vs 1.08 dlrs
    Net 4,800,000 vs 5,800,000
    Rev 118.7 mln vs 110.3 mln
 Reuter

U.K. Bankers for the most part lauded
outgoing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker for his
achievements over the past eight years but expressed some
uncertainty about economist Alan Greenspan, nominated by
President Reagan to succeed him.
    "One of Volcker's greatest achievements was the sense of
continuity and stability he gave to the international markets,"
said Carlos Santistevan, executive director of Libra Bank Plc.
However, it is uncertain how long it will take for Greenspan to
fill that role and the degree to which he can do so, he said.
    Greenspan heads his own financial consulting firm,
Townesend, Greenspan Associates Inc and was Chairman of the
Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration.
    "He is a prominent and well known figure in the U.S." said
David Lomax, Group Economics Adviser at National Westminster
Bank Plc, who described Greenspan as an "orthodox Republican
economist" who may be better suited to getting the U.S. Economy
on track than Volcker.
    But for the most part bankers in London are unfamiliar with
Greenspan's views on domestic and international economics or
the international debt crisis.
    "I will be sad to see Volcker go. He is a central banker of
good repute with a general interest in protecting the U.S. And
international banking system," said Libra's Santistevan.
    Volcker knows and understands the problems facing indebted
countries, he said, adding that it is unlikely Greenspan is as
familiar with the problem and the personalities involved.
    For this reason he expects there will be little change in
the Fed's approach to the debt crisis, even as U.S. Commercial
banks take a harder line in dealing with the problem by adding
billions of dollars in reserves against possible losses on
third world debt.
    Another senior banker who deals with the Latin American
debt problem also doubted there would be much change
post-Volcker, but for other reasons.
    He said that despite U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker's
debt initiative which called for greater contributions by
banks, governments and multilateral organization, government's
have done little to try to improve the situation, leaving the
bulk of the responsibility in the hands of the bankers.
    Despite the Fed's independence from central government, he
questioned how much impact Greenspan could have coming into the
job so close to the next Presidential election.
    News that Volcker would not seek a third term hit the
financial markets hard.  The U.S. Dollar fell sharply on
foreign exchange markets before reported concerted central bank
intervention by the Fed and the Bundesbank helped it recover
somewhat. Prices of Eurodollar denominated bonds fell about one
point, while prices of U.S. Treasury bonds traded here lost
more than one point.
    But despite the disruption in the markets, Lloyds Bank
Plc's Group Economic Adivser Christopher Johnson said the
announcement was well-timed, given the recent rise in the
dollar against the mark and yen.
    In recent statements U.S. Officials have said the dollar
has fallen far enough and at a White House briefing today
announcing his nomination Greenspan said "there certainly is
evidence" that the dollar had bottomed out.
    However, many economists here believe that the recent rise
in the dollar will be only temporary and that it will have to
fall further before America's huge trade deficit begins to
reverse.
    "The dollar has further to fall, although it may take a few
years" said Lloyds Bank's Johnson. He added that the important
thing is that there is a soft landing.
    Like other economists, Johnson is anxious to hear
Greenspan's testify at the Congressional confirmation hearings.
    "He has everything going for him but he must establish
credibility. We have to hear his views on inflation and the
outlook for interest rates," he said.
    Some bankers criticized Volcker for taking too hard a
stance in combating inflation in the late 1970's when his
tightening in U.S. Monetary policy pushed interest rates to
record levels.
    "He tightened more than the Republicans wanted and only
relaxed his stance when the Latin American debt crisis erupted
(in 1982)," National Westminster's Lomax said.
    Lomax said that Greenspan, if appointed, will inherit the
agreements entered into by Volcker with other members of the
Group of Five industrial nations on the dollar.
    However, he said that the danger lies in dollar stability
being maintained because of a monetary policy that is too
tight. Too firm a monetary policy could send the U.S. Into
recession, which would not be welcome by European counterparts,
he said.
 Reuter

Connecticut Light and Power Co, a
unit of Northeast Utilities, said it sold 50 mln dlrs of
preferred stock as part of its ongoing program to refinance
high-interest debt and high-coupon preferred stock.
    Northeast said the stock, which will be retired in 25
years, will carry an annual dividend of 9.1 pct, with
Connecticut Light to use the proceeds to redeem 36 mln dlrs in
preferred stock issued in June 1982.
    The company said the new issue is being offered through E.
F. Hutton and Co.
   
 Reuter

Hollinger Inc will pay about 50 mln dlrs
cash for its previously reported acquisition of privately owned
Unimedia Inc, chairman Conrad Black told reporters after the
annual meeting, confirming a published report.
    Commenting on press reports about the 50 mln dlr price tag,
Black said, "That would not be wildly inaccurate," although he
declined to disclose the actual cost.
    Montreal-based Unimedia is Quebec's third largest newspaper
group, with three French language daily newspapers in Quebec
City, Ottawa and Chicoutimi, Quebec and four printing plants in
Ontario and Quebec.
    Black added that Hollinger would also continue seeking
acquisitions of daily newspapers with circulation under 25,000
readers. He said Hollinger was currently talking to about 10
such newspapers in the U.S. where the company currently owns 23
dailies.
    "There is really no end to the ones that are available," he
told reporters, although he added that most remaining
acquisition opportunities are in the U.S.
    He said that Hollinger's 58 pct-owned Daily Telegraph PLC,
of London, should become profitable in this year's fourth
quarter.
   
    For full-year 1987, the Daily Telegraph could break even or
better, said Black, citing major reductions in labor costs and
improved technology at the Telegraph, Britain's largest
circulation quality daily. The Telegraph lost 13.2 mln Canadian
    Daily Telegraph chief executive Andrew Knight told
reporters after the meeting that the Telegraph's daily
circulation had risen by 25,000 since September to about
1,150,000 on weekdays, despite added competition from the new
Independent daily newspaper.
   
    Knight said The Independent was not affecting the
Telegraph's growth, but was making inroads into the circulation
of other London quality dailies such as The Times and The
Guardian.
    Hollinger chairman Black predicted Hollinger would post
1987 net income of about 55 mln dlrs, or one dlr a share,
including extraordinary gains from previous sales of
discontinued operations. Hollinger lost 87 mln dlrs or 6.54
dlrs a share last year on fewer average shares and after an
extraordinary loss of 52 mln dlrs.
   
    Black told shareholders that first quarter operating
earnings on continuing operations amounted to 499,000 dlrs
against a year-ago loss of 165,000 dlrs.
    Revenues on continuing operations rose to 102.1 mln dlrs
from 1.5 mln dlrs last year, which did not include Daily
Telegraph revenues, he added. Consolidated first quarter
figures were not disclosed.
    He said the Daily Telegraph's first quarter operating loss
was sharply reduced from last year.
 Reuter

Algonquin Gas Transmission Co, a unit of
Texas Eastern Corp, said it has filed for Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission approval of new rate schedules.
    It said it has also filed for proposed service agreements
for interruptible and firm transportation service.
    Algonquin said the filing would allow its customers to move
available spot gas supplies to price competitive markets.
 Reuter

USX Corp's USS division said it was
raising prices for all hot rolled bar and semi-finished
products 1100 series grades by 10 dlrs per ton effective July
One, 1987.
    The company said the increase reflects current market
    The company could not say what percentage the increase
reflects from current prices, nor could it say how much per ton
the products sell for currently.
 Reuter

Central Maine Power Co said it
issued a request for proposals for about 150 potential project
sponsors of cogeneration and small power production projects.
    The utility said it has about filled six avoided cost
decrements and is soliciting proposals to fill about 50
megawatts each in the seventh and eighth decrements as defined
by the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
    Central Main said the avoided costs for both decrements
have been established on the basis of costs negotiated between
the utility and Hydro-Quebec for planned power purchase
beginning in 1992.
 Reuter

Spartech Corp, which earlier said it
will repurchase up to 10 pct of its 2.6 mln outstanding shares
in the open market, said it has about 475,000 dlrs currently
available for buybacks.
    It said its indenture for convertible subordinated debt
limits stock purchases to 50 pct of net earnings (less
preferred stock dividends) each fiscal year.
 Reuter

President Reagan called for continued
nondiscriminatory treatment for Romanian exports to the United
States in the face of congressional opposition because of the
Bucharest government's record on human rights.
    A White House statement said Reagan's decision to press for
continuation of so-called Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for
Romania had been "exceptionally difficult" and came after "all
options were seriously considered."
    But the statement said that despite concerns about human
rights abuses by the Bucharest government, the president had
decided that should be continued because it helped stimulate
emigration from Romania and gave the United States influence on
human rights practices there.
    The statement was issued as Reagan sent to Congress
requests for one-year extensions of MFN for Romania, Hungary
and China.
    The House of Representatives has attached to a trade bill
legislation that would temporarily deny MFN for Romania pending
certification by Reagan that the country had made progress on
human rights. There is no controversy over continuation of MFN
for Hungary and China.
 Reuter

Oper shr eight cts vs two cts
    Oper net 119,000 vs 32,000
    Sales 12.0 mn vs 11.3 mln
    Note: Current qtr figures exclude loss from discontinued
operations of 30,000 dlrs, or two cts per share, vs loss of
54,000 dlrs, or four cts per share.
 Reuter

Rainier Bancorp said Allan Nichols, head
of its Consumer Banking Division, has resigned, effective June
19, and will be succeeded by David Williams.
    Williams is currently head of its Corporate Banking
division, Rainier said.
    It said James Cullen, currently in charge of International
Banking, will succeed Williams in Corporate Banking and Steve
Driscol, director of the International Division's Asia-Pacific
Region, will succeed Cullen at International Banking.

 Reuter

Corvus Systems Inc said Lewis
Lipton, currently president, was named to the additional post
of chief executive.
    The company said Lipton was also elected to its board.
 Reuter

upgrade 100 mln dlrs of B-plus subordinated debt of Computer
Associates International Inc and 13 mln dlrs of B-minus
subordinated debt of UCCEL Corp.
    S and P cited a merger agreement between the two companies
which it believes will improve both firms' market positions as
well as complement each other's products and distribution.
    But S and P pointed out that duplicate product lines could
raise marketing difficulties and restrict sales.
    The agency will study improvements in the financial
condition and competitive position of the merged entity.
 Reuter

Autodesk Inc said it made an
underwritten public offering of 2,640,836 common shares at 24
    The company said it sold 2.5 mln shares and the rest were
sold by stockholders.
 Reuter

has accepted bids for export bouses to cover sales of 150,000
tonnes of U.S. barley to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Agriculture
    The CCC accepted three bonus offers from one exporter which
averaged 40.88 dlrs per tonne, it said.
    The barley is for delivery August 15-November 30 in three
shiments of 50,000 tonnes each.
    The bonus awards were made to Louis Dreyfus Corporation and
will be paid in the form of commodities from CCC stocks.
    An additional 350,000 tonnes of U.S. barley are still
available to Saudi Arabia under the Export Enhancement Program
initiative annnounced on May 15, 1987, it said.
 Reuter

Rockwell International Corp said it and U
S West Knowledge Engineering Inc, a U S West Inc subsidiary,
agreed to jointly develop an operator workstation that combines
voice and data capabilities for directory assistance, call
intercept and other operator functions in a single terminal.
    It said the systems will be offered as integrated elements
of Rockwell's telephone- company-oriented ISS-3000 Automatic
Call Distribution switches.

 Reuter

The European Community was set to
plunge into an ever-deepening budget crisis after ministers
failed to reach agreement on plugging a gap in the
near-bankrupt Community's finances, diplomats said.
    As EC budget ministers ended six hours of talks in
Luxembourg, diplomats said there was little basis for an accord
amongst the trading bloc's 12 member states.
    The EC executive Commission says the Community faces a
deficit this year of at least five billion European Currency
Units and could be forced to choose between massive spending
cuts or bankruptcy.
    It has appealed to member states to pay an extra 1.5
billion ECUs to help meet the deficit, caused by soaring farm
spending and falling revenues.
    But hardliners Britain and West Germany have insisted that
there can be no extra cash for the Community this year and
instead call for a clampdown on farm spending, which absorbs
two thirds of the EC budget.
    "We have to make clear that expenses should be based on
income," West German Minister of State Hans Tietmeyer told
    "There is no way the Germans will agree to extra financing
in the form of national contributions," he added.
    A second Commission proposal, which would plug most of the
budget gap by paying member states in arrears rather than in
advance for their spending on Community farm policies, was also
far from agreement, diplomats added.
    The proposal, strongly backed by Britain and West Germany,
would save up to four billion ECUs if payments were delayed for
    But poorer member states, which would have to borrow funds
to cover the delay, complain the change in the system would
unfairly impose too much of the burden on them.
    The European Parliament is also expected to refuse an early
debate on the changeover in the farm payments system, further
delaying any moves to solve the deficit problem, parliamentary
 Reuter

Data General Corp said sales continue to
remain flat and it sees little evidence that demand will pick
up in the near future.
    The company had not "really seen any major change" in
demand, vice president of group marketing, J. David Lyons, told
Reuters in an interview. "Our sales have been moderate to flat,
but certainly not down," Lyons said.
    Data General president Edson de Castro declined to comment
on his outlook for the computer industry or on the company's
   
    Wall Street analysts said they were not surprised by the
less than confident message from Data General which earlier
today announced computer networking products to link personal
computers with networks of its minicomputers and computers from
other vendors.
    "They've tried a number of different things that haven't
seemed to work," said Paine Webber analyst Stephen Smith. "Data
General is finding that aggressive pricing alone isn't enough"
to win sales," Smith said.
    In the second quarter ended March 31, Data General posted
an operating loss of 24.4 mln dlrs, or 91 cts a share, compared
to earnings of 2.0 mln dlrs, or eight cts a share, a year
earlier. Sales for the quarter fell to 315.2 mln dlrs from
318.8 mln dlrs.
    Despite reports of an upturn in sales at rivals Digital
Equipment Corp <DEC> and International Business Machines Corp
<IBM>, Data General said it was not convinced that the
minicomputer market had emerged from a two-year slump.
    "We would rather wait until we see a sustained improvement
in orders," Lyons said.
   
    Lyons said new hardware and software introduced by the
company are a response to customers who want to tie together
their growing number of PCs and to connect them with larger
mini and mainframe computers.
    He said the products are part of a new strategy of
providing industry-standard systems that allow computers from
different vendors to share and exchange information.
   
    Analysts noted that Data General is one of many companies
promoting the integration of PCs with other office computers.
    "PC integration is a tough strategy," said Smith.
    "A lot of people are coming to the market from a lot of
different angles," he said.
 Reuter

The Senate cleared away a
parliamentary obstacle threatening final passage of a 9.4
billion dlr money bill for the rest of fiscal 1987 ending
October 1.
    The Senate voted 64 to 32 to override objections the bill's
money total violated the 1987 budget, a vote that required 60
votes for approval.
    The House-passed measure, debated by the Senate since May
7, carries funds for most government activities with the bulk
--6.7 billion dlrs--for agriculture support programs.
    Final passage could come late tonight or tomorrow.
 Reuter

Noland Co said its May sales of
35 mln dlrs was down 11 pct from the year-earlier period of
38.8 mln dlrs.
    For the first five months of 1987, the company said its
sales totaled 161.8 mln dlrs, four pct less than the first five
months of 1986 when the company posted sales of 169.0 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

passage of legislation requiring the Reagan administration to
provide Congress with a report on its Mideast Gulf policy, but
a last-minute revolt by an alliance of liberals and
conservatives left the bill's fate in doubt.
    The legislation was written in the wake of the May 17th
Iraqi missile attack on the U.S. frigate Stark in the Gulf,
which killed 37 Americans, and President Reagan's decision to
protect 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers by putting them under U.S. flags
-- effectively making them American ships.
    Since the administration made known its reflagging plans,
congressional leaders complained they had not been consulted,
and some charged the policy could lead the United States into
the 6 1/2-year-old war between Iran and Iraq.
    The House was to vote today on a bill -- supported by the
Democratic and Republican congressional leadership and the
administration -- which demanded a report within seven days on
plans to meet the security needs of U.S. forces in the gulf.
    The resolution was expected to pass without controversy
today in the House Foreign Affairs Committee before the full
House was to take up the bill. But in a surprise move, liberal
Democrats and conservative Republicans on the committee joined
in an unusual alliance to oppose the resolution.
    Liberal Democrats said a lack of any restrictions in the
bill implied consent to Reagan's policies.
 Reuter

    The June 8 sale, to be evenly divided between the three and
six month issues, would result in a paydown of 1.3 billion dlrs
as maturing bills total 14.512 billion dlrs.
    The bills are to be issued June 11.
 Reuter

49.92 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy in the week
ended May 30, up 6.8 pct from 46.74 billion a year earlier, the
ended May 23 was 49.86 billion kilowatt-hours.
    The EEI said power production in the 52 weeks ended May 30
was 2,578.41 billion kilowatt hours, up 2.7 pct from the
    Electric output so far this year was 1072.97 billion
kilowatt hours, up 3.2 pct from 1039.25 billion last year, the
EEI said.
 Reuter

Some producers in the 1987 acreage
reduction program may be eligible for deficiency payments on 92
pct of their enrolled acreage even though none of it is planted
with wheat or other program crops, the U.S. Agriculture
    The department said the provision of the Farm Disaster
Assistance Act will be available to all eligible winter wheat
producers, producers of other types of wheat who were prevented
from planting their 1987 wheat crop because of a 1986 natural
disaster, and all producers who operate farms with program crop
acreage bases subject to flooding on 50 pct of such crop's
permitted acreage.
    A producer who did not enroll in the 1987 acreage reduction
program may become eligible by signing-up no later than July
15. Producers will be informed by the local offices when
applications are being accepted, it said.
    The department said producers of wheat other than winter
wheat may use the 0/92 option if they were preventedf from
planting their intended acreage with wheat for harvest in 1987
because of any natural disasters which occured in 1986 or if
the farm is located in a county approved by Farmers Home
Administration for emergency loans for such disasters that
occurred in 1986.
 Reuter

has accepted a bid for an export bonus to cover the sale of
15,000 tonnes of frozen poultry to Iraq, the U.S. Agriculture
    The poultry is for shipment June-September and the bonus
was 719.80 dlrs per tone, it said.
    The bonus award was made to ConAgra Poultry Co and will be
paid in the form of commodities from the inventory of CCC
stocks.
    The purchase completes the Export Enhancement initiative
for Frozen Poultry to Iraq announced December 22, 1986.
 Reuter

has accepted a bid for two bonus offers to cover the sale of
10,000 tonnes of frozen poultry to Egypt, the U.S. Agriculture
    The poultry is for shipment November, 1987, through August,
1988, and the bonus was 473.99 dlrs per tonne for the frozen
fryer legs. The bonuses were made to Gress Foods, Inc (5,000
tonnes), and Serva International Ltd (5,000 tonnes).
    The subsidies will be paid to the exporters in the form of
    An additional 8,500 tonnes of frozen poultry remain
initiative announced Dec 19, 1986, and Feb 27, 1987, the
 Reuter

West Germany's biggest
bank said it would withhold support from Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>
management at next month's annual meeting because of the VW
currency scandal.
    Deutsche Bank AG <DBKG.F> said it would abstain in votes
exonerating VW management and the supervisory board, which
represents shareholders and employees, unless an auditor's
report on the currency scandal is published before the July 2
annual meeting and either clearly absolves or blames the
management and board.
    Several shareholder groups have said they will vote against
management at what promises to be a stormy annual meeting. If a
majority of shareholders back these groups, the top management
of Europe's biggest carmaker could be dismissed.
    Deutsche said it expected the results of the auditor's
report on the currency fraud, which cost VW some 260 mln dlrs,
to be published before the annual meeting.
    But in a letter to Deutsche customers depositing their VW
shares at the bank, Deutsche wrote: "Without knowledge of these
results, we do not think we are in a position to make you a
suggestion for or against exoneration of the management board
and supervisory board."
    "Unless you give us instructions to the contrary, we will
abstain with your shares ... but we reserve the right to vote
for or against exoneration of the management board and
supervisory board, if this seems in your interest in line with
the results of the auditor's report," it added.
    A strong shareholder vote against the management would
empower the supervisory board to dismiss the management if it
chooses, though such a move would not be mandatory.
    A member of the supervisory board who does not receive
exoneration at an annual meeting may have to step down.
    An abstention or no-vote by banks on behalf of customers
against management would in itself be a vote of no confidence.
    German banks traditionally use their huge proxy votes at
annual meetings to support the management of the company, in
which they are often represented on the supervisory board.
    VW management board chairman Carl Hahn said in April that
1986 profits had been hit by the scandal, in which documents
relating to currency arbitrage were allegedly faked, but
profits for 1987 would not be affected.
    Following the scandal, finance director Rolf Selowsky
resigned, and former chief dealer Bobby Junger was arrested.
    Deutsche represents 8-10 pct of VW's share capital, the
sources said, and F. Wilhelm Christians, one of the bank's two
management board spokesmen (chief executives) is on the VW
supervisory board.
    Banking sources said Deutsche was furious with VW after the
bank led an international placement of VW shares from the
company's record rights issue last September.
    Less than two months later VW announced a sharp fall in
interim profits, bashing its share price and severely denting
confidence in the German share market generally.
    A spokesman for the Savings Bank Association said that
German savings banks would vote not to discharge Selowsky, and
depending on whether the auditor's report was published would
abstain on the vote for other management board members.
    The federal government and the state of Lower Saxony
together have 40 pct of VW shareholders' votes. It is still
unclear how they will vote. Associations representing small
shareholders will also ensure the annual meeting is heated.
    The Protective Association for Securities Ownership has
said it will vote against the entire management board, and the
Protective Society for Small Shareholders will also vote
against the supervisory board.
    A spokeswoman for Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft AG, the
auditors commissioned by VW in March to investigate the
scandal, declined to comment when its report would be issued.
 Reuter

billion dlr money bill for the rest of fiscal 1987.
7, carries funds for most government activities with the bulk,
6.7 billion dlrs, for agriculture support programs.
 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp officials said good
fundamentals in copper markets should lead to improving prices
for the metal.
    In an interview with Reuters, chairman G. Robert Durham
said continued strong demand and low inventories pushed prices
up eight to nine pct on the New York Commodities Exchange last
month.
    "Our customers in this country are living off the tailgates
of our trucks," he said, referring to tightness of supply and
strong demand. "The fundamentals are good."
   
    Asked if metal prices will continue to rise, Durham said;
"All I know is, fundamentals cannot be ignored."
    He said copper supplies are lower than they have been for
almost 20 years. Last year, copper demand was second highest on
record behind 1984, he said.
    Phelps Dodge is the nation's largest copper company, with
annual production expected to reach 500,000 tons this year.
   
    During the interview, executive vice president Douglas
Yearley said he believed it was only a matter of time before
the copper price rose "because there aren't that many new
projects coming on, and demand, short of a major recession,
will continue to grow modestly."
    Copper for July delivery rose more than two cts a pound to
more than 69 cents in Comex trading today. A one cent a pound
rise in copper prices yields 10 mln dlrs in annual earnings for
Phelps Dodge, the company said.
    "Demand has been surprisingly good in 1987, in construction
and other areas," Yearley said.
   
    New production later this year from a Bingham, Utah, mine
owned by Kennecott Corp, a unit of British Petroleum Co PLC's
<BP> Standard Oil Co, a mine in New Guinea and Phelps Dodge's
own expanded Morenci, Ariz., mine will be offset by production
shortfalls in Mexico and Zambia, he said.
    Durham said production costs at the New Mexico-located
Chino mine will be in line with conventional copper production
at the company's other mines by the fourth quarter. The
company's total production costs, including depreciation but
before interest and corporate expense, should be below 50 cts a
pound by late 1989 or 1990, he said.
 Reuter

has amended its Export Credit Guarantee Program line to Haiti
to add one mln dlrs in guarantees for sales of U.S. wood
products, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
    The action increases the value of export credit guarantees
for wood products to Haiti from 1.8 to 2.8  mln dlrs and the
total value of export credit guarantees authorized to Haiti for
the current fiscal year for all commodities to 12.0 mln dlrs,
    All sales must be registered and exports completed by Sept
30, 1987, it noted.
 Reuter

John Boy, president and chief
executive officer of the U.S. Sugar Corp, said he will retire
effective June 30, 1987.
    He will be replaced by J. Nelson Fairbanks, currently
senior vice president, the company said.
    Boy will be the vice chairman of the board effective July
One, 1987.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 3,445,000 vs 2,326,000
    Revs 41.7 mln vs 51.5 mln
 Reuter

Braniff Inc  aid its May load factor rose
to 59.15 pct from 57.16 pct. Revenue passenger miles rose 25.7
pct to 268.9 mln miles from 213.8 mln miles and available seat
miles rose 21.5 pct to 454.5 mln miles from 374.1 mln miles.
    Year-to-date load factor rose 56.22 pct from 55.35 pct.
Revenue passenger miles rose 34.2 pct to 1.3 billion from 934.2
mln and available seat miles rose 32.2 pct to 2.2 billion from
1.7 billion.
 Reuter

Central Pennsylvania Financial Corp
said its earnings for the year ended March 31 have been
adjusted downward by 126,000 dlrs to 3,005,000 dlrs.
    The company said the adjustment is due to today's Federal
Home Loan Bank Board announcement that the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corp has cancelled the secondary reserve payment
from all its members.
    It said the adjusted net income of 3,005,000 dlrs, or 2.34
dlrs a share, compares to the previously reported 3,131,000
dlrs, or 2.44 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Sweet Victory Inc said its common stock
will continue to be listed in Nasdaq via an exception from the
capital and surplus requirement.
    The company said while it failed to meet this requirement
as of April 6, 1987, it was granted a temporary exception
subject to it meeting certain conditions.
 Reuter

Trustcompany Bancorporation
said the company is raising its cash dividend to 1.56 dlrs from
1.20 dlrs a share.
    The company said the dividend increase was based on a 43
pct increase in net income for 1986 and an additional 42 pct
increase in the first quarter of this year.
    Trustcompany said net income for the first three months of
1987 were 2.84 mln dlrs compared to two mln dlrs over the same
   
    In addition, the company said it expects net income this
year to rise substantially over 1986, when the company reported
earnings of 8.8 mln dlrs or 7.24 dlrs per share.
    Trustcompany also said it plans to open 13 additional bank
branches, but did not disclose details.
 Reuter

General Electric Co said the
Bahrain Amiri Air Force selected its engines to power 12 of its
General Dynamics Corp <GD> fighter aircraft.
    The company did not disclose the price of the engines.
    The company said Bahrain was the fourth foreign nation to
select the engine. The others are the Greek, Israeli and
Turkish air forces, the company said.
 Reuter

Shawmut Corp said it changed the name of
its subsidiary, First Gibraltar Mortgage Corp, to Shawmut First
Mortgage Corp.
 Reuter

Piedmont Airlines said its
total cargo load in April increased 39.5 pct compared to April
1986.
    Piedmont said in April 1987 it carried a total of 4,949,369
ton miles of cargo compared to 3,546,543 ton miles last April.
    In addition, the airline said in the first four months of
1987, total cargo load increased 30 pct to 18.2 mln ton miles
from 14.0 mln ton miles over the same period last year.
 Reuter

Bristol-Myers Co said it declared a
dividend of 35 cts a share on its common, reflecting the
two-for-one stock split approved at the May five annual meeting
    The dividend is payable August one to shareholders of
record July three.
 Reuter

CBS/Fox Video Co, an equal partnership of
CBS Inc <CBS> and 20th Century-Fox Film Corp, expects revenues
for 1987 to exceed 400 mln dlrs, up from 361 mln dlrs last
year, President James Fifield said in an interview.
    Despite a leveling out of video recorder sales, Fifield
sees strong international business for the producer and
marketer of prerecorded videocassettes. He also said expansion
into non-theatrical products is bolstering results.
    Fifield was in Chicago to attend the summer Consumer
Electronics Show.
    CBS/Fox Video projects the industry will sell about 116 mln
units with a total manufacturers value of 3.3 billion dlrs.
    Fifield told Reuters his company will introduce "at least
20 of our best titles" in the fall to accommodate the new
Compact Disc-Video system.
    He also said CBS/Fox will support the new S-VHS, or Super
VHS high-resolution format with titles to match demand.
 Reuter

Daniel Industries Inc said its
Measurement and Control Division has been awarded a contract
valued at about 7.5 mln dlrs by <SPIE Capag S.A.> for metering
and control systerms for 11 stations on the USSR - Turkey
Pipeline System Project.
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 283,000 vs 435,000
    Revs 97.8 mln vs 95.1 mln
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's said it downgraded
446 mln dlrs of Allegheny International Inc's senior debt to
CCC from B-minus and subordinated debt to CCC-minus from
CCC-plus.
    Also downgraded to CCC-plus from B was the senior debt of a
unit Allegheny Sunbeam Corp. Allegheny's preferred stock was
affirmed at C.
    S and P cited further erosion in the firm's flexibility due
to a restrictive bank loan agreement and limited debt servicing
capability. In spite of restructuring efforts, the firm
reported first quarter losses of 38.5 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve Board said it
would release April consumer instalment credit figures on
Friday.
    No fixed time was set for the release.
    Consumer credit fell a seasonally adjusted 63 mln dlrs in
March after rising 1.01 billion dlrs in February.
 Reuter

After a highly favorable reception of
a trial batch of bread baked from 300 lbs of U.S. wheat flour
last February, the Senegalese appear ready to take delivery of
a first tranche of 10,500 tonnes of mixed U.S. wheat, the U.S.
    In its report on U.S. Export Markets for U.S. Grain, the
department noted Senegal had bought 100,000 tonnes of wheat
under the Export Enhancement Program last November, but local
opposition from millers, accustomed to French wheat, has been
delaying deliveries.
    As a result there were a series of baking seminars as well
as the trial batch, in an effort to satisfy local flour millers
and convince key officials of the qualities of U.S. wheat.
    The department said if deliveries of U.S. wheat to Senegal
remain on track, the U.S. could dominate a wheat market that
had been expected to import 140,000 tonnes of mostly French
wheat during the 1987/88 (July-June) season.

 Reuter

Sears, Roebuck and Co's stock was
downgraded one notch from a neutral rating, said E.F. Hutton
analyst Bernard Sosnick.
    The company's stock closed at 50, off 1-1/4.
    Sosnick said "sluggish sales cloud the economic picture and
concern about the outlook for credit income diminish Sears'
near-term investment prospects." He said the retail sales in
May were weak, which would mean sales have been below plan for
    Sosnick said indications are that Sears may not be as
strong a performer as other retailers.
    However, he said his earnings estimate for the company for
1987 remains unchanged at 4.50 dlrs a share compared to 3.62
dlrs a share in 1986. He added that "as a result of weakening
sales momentum, we have less confidence in that estimate."
    The analyst said it projects second quarter earnings in the
1.05 to 1.10 dlrs a share range, up from 77 cts a year ago. The
1987 estimate includes an 18 ct a share gain from the sale of
50 savings bank branches and strong earnings contribution from
Allstate Insurance.
 Reuter

Paul Volcker's departure as Federal
Reserve Board chairman came despite pleas from the Reagan
administration that he stay at the helm of the U.S. central
bank, U.S. officials said.
    "The President made it very clear that he would be very,
very pleased had the chairman's decision been otherwise,"
Treasury Secretary James Baker said.
    A Reagan administration official, who asked not to be
identified, said Baker too had urged Volcker repeatedly in the
past several months to consider staying on as chairman.
    But there were no indications the administration had told
Volcker that it was in the national interest for him to stay
and that current global economic uncertainties required it.
    Associates of Volcker have assumed Volcker would only have
stayed on in such circumstances. "He doesn't care a lot,
emotionally, about a third term," Nikko Securities vice-chairman
Stephen Alixrod, until last year a top Fed staffer, told
Reuters recently.
    Officials are confident that newly-nominated chairman Alan
Greenspan will re-establish close working relations with Baker
and his credentials eventually will calm markets.
    One Reagan administration economic policymaker, who asked
not to be named, pointed out that Baker and Greenspan worked
together closely in the Ford administration.
    At the time, Baker was acting Secretary of Commerce and
Greenspan headed the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
    Reagan administration officials made clear, meanwhile, that
the announcement, precipitated by Volcker's unshakeable
decision to quit, came in order to clear up uncertainty ahead
of the Summit of leading industrial democracies in Venice.
    President Reagan might have been in an embarrassing
position if no decision had been made by then.
    Volcker enjoys the respect of most top economic officials
abroad, and is admired at the West German Bundesbank, and in
Tokyo, despite his criticism  of Japanese policies.
    Financial markets, possibly reflecting some of the
disappointment in foreign capitals, drove the dollar sharply
lower on news of his departure, prompting central bank
intervention to stem the fall, dealers said.
    Finance Ministries and central banks of the other summit
nations -- Japan, West Germany, Britain, France, Italy and
Canada -- were informed shortly before the news was announced,
Baker told reporters today.
    Monetary sources also said one reason Volcker decided to
resign was his personal financial situation and his marriage 
-- his wife lives in New York and did not want him to take up a
second term in mid-1983.
    Volcker has foregone potentially million-dollar salaries to
a life almost overwhelmingly devoted to public service at pay
rates low relative to his financial commitments.
    Both these reasons at one time prompted him to consider
stepping down before his second term was completed.
    But Volcker also hinted there might be more than personal
reasons for his decision. "It was a personal decision, taking
account of a lot of things, including purely personal
considerations and others," he told reporters.
    Fed sources note Volcker's considerable unease at the lack
of progress by the administration in reaching a budget deficit
reduction agreement.
    In addition, Volcker would have faced four more years with
a Board that he was less than comfortable with, monetary
sources say. The other five members are Reagan appointees.
    What may unsettle markets, however, is the fact that the
Fed governors now have only six to seven years' collective
experience between them, at a time of great financial
uncertainty.
    Analysts said that while Greenspan might well be considered
as tough an inflation-fighter as Volcker, his Republican
credentials could make him more of a political Fed chairman
than Volcker.
    An administration official said Volcker was consulted on
Greenspan "and very much approved of his replacement."
    But one analyst compared Greenspan's relationship to the
administration, to whom he has been an unofficial economic
adviser, with the relationship former chairman Arthur Burns had
with the Nixon administration.
    Burns was somewhat more sympathetic to the administration
viewpoint than Volcker has been, and Burns was less willing to
make radical policy changes.
    Making clear his decision was a strong one, Volcker told
reporters, "I told (Reagan) with considerable definitiveness
yesterday." Administration officials said Volcker arrived at the
White House yesterday afternoon with his resignation.
    When renominated in mid-1983, Volcker said he would
probably step down within two years. Monetary sources said the
departure of Donald Regan as Treasury Secretary was one factor
that convinced him to stay on. Regan and Volcker clashed almost
from the start of the administration.
    Another, these sources said, was the prospect of being able
to work with Baker as Treasury Secretary to tackle the
international debt crisis and deal with the then high-flying
dollar.
 Reuter

A University of Massachusetts finance
professor said he raised his stake in Banc Texas Group Inc to
45,340 shares of 1.4625 dlr cumulative preferred stock, or 7.4
pct of the total, from 30,300 shares, or 5.0 pct.
Ben Shirley Branch also said he bought 52,025 shares of Class A
cumulative convertible preferred stock, or 5.9 pct of the
total, for 160,000 dlrs, bringing his total investment in both
preferred series to about 330,000 dlrs.
    Branch said he bought the stock as an investment, but
reserved the right to try to influence the company.
 Reuter

H.F. Ahmanson and Co said second
quarter earnings will include the write-off of the company's 24
mln dlr investment in the Federal Savings and Loans Insurance
Corporation.
    The company also said it will postpone planned second
quarter sales of up to one billion dlrs of adjustable rate
mortgage-backed securities because secondary market premiums
have temporarily contracted.
   
    It said the write-off will reduce net earnings for the
quarter and year by about 13 cents per share and the
postponement of securities sales will defer about 30 cts per
share of profits to subsequent quarters.
    The company said the write-off of the FSLIC asset was
prompted by a recent General Accounting Office report that
declared the FSLIC technically insolvent.
    The company said it also received a letter from the FSLIC
informing Ahmanson that it will not honor its long-standing
obligation to Ahmanson's Home Savings of America unit, as well
as to hundreds of other thrifts.
   
    The company said the letter stated that Ahmanson's
investment should be written off in May.
    The company reported second quarter net income last year of
76.6 mln dlrs, or 80 cts per share. Ahmanson reported 1986 net
income of 303.6 mln dlrs, or 3.22 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

With more private investment, not more
protection, the U.S. textile industry could become competitive
with the most modern foreign producers, analysts from two
congressional agencies said today.
    The Office of Technology Assessment, a nonpartisan arm of
Congress told a House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing
there was still concern for the future of parts of the U.S.
textile and apparel industry, but there was more reason for
optimism than a few years ago.
    "While textile producers are making significant
investments, they could do more," OTA analyst Henry Kelly said.
    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan
budget analysis arm of Congress, said federal loans or loan
guarantees would be preferable options for Congress rather than
increased trade protection which could lead to foreign
retaliation.
    CBO analyst Edward Gramlich said past trade protections,
first imposed in the 1950's have had only a small benefit for
profits and investments of domestic firms.
    Trade Subcommittee chairman, Rep. Sam Gibbons, said the
agencies analyses seemed to agree with his opinion against
congressional approval of protectionist textile quota
legislation aimed mainly at Western Europe, Japan and other
Asian textile producing countries.
    President Reagan last year vetoed a textile protection bill
but it was reintroduced in this session of Congress and is
expected to be voted on in the House this year.
    However, approval this year is in doubt because passage of
a major trade bill without specific protections for textiles
showed a weakening of support for the legislation.
    Most U.S. producers have fallen behind other foreign
producers in the use of modern textile and apparel production
equipment and net imports are growing faster than the domestic
markets, Kelly said.
    He added that private investment in the textile and
clothing industry in 1983 of 0.5 pct was less than one-seventh
the average manufacturing investment of 3.9 pct.
    Despite existing import quotas and tariffs, imports of
textiles grew 26 pct in 1986 and imports of apparel grew 14 pct
while U.S. production rose only 1.9 pct.
    "The traditional industry seems destined to be replaced by
new technology, imports, or some combination of both. While the
industry may not be able to compete in all domestic markets
that it enjoyed twenty years ago, the results of our research
indicate that portions of the domestic market can be recovered,
and that exports can be expanded," Kelly said.
 Reuter

Shr two cts vs n.a.
    Net 68,281
    Revs 639,471
    NOTE: Company became public in March 1987
 Reuter

Qtly div one cts vs one cts prior
 Reuter

Drillers Inc of Florida, a unit of <DI
Industries Inc>, formerly Drillers Inc <DRL>, said it has
received two separate contracts for water injection projects
valued at 408,500 dlrs and 850,000 dlrs respectively.
    DI Industries said another unit, Drillers Inc of Texas
completed a 560,000-dlr Department of Defense project which
involved drilling a vertical firing shaft for the department's
R and D Railgun.
    DI said the projects represented efforts of the company to
diversify from its traditional oil and gas drilling contracts.
 Reuter

Widespread, soaking rains aided crop
development across the province, with the northwest crop
producing region receiving the most precipitation, according to
the Manitoba Agriculture weekly crop report.
    The rains replenished formerly low soil moisture reserves,
with reserves in all areas now rated good, the report said.
    Plantings were virtually complete across the province and
germination was well advanced. However, some fields still
showed spotty stands.
    Cereal crops in the southwest were 90 pct germinated, with
some fields already in the subsequent tillering stage, it said.
Oilseeds in the northwest region were about 80 pct emerged in
many areas, with other regions 50 to 70 pct emerged.
 Reuter

    Shr loss nil vs profit one ct
    Net loss 36,000 vs profit 310,000
    Revs 1,172,000 vs 1,686,000
    Note: Full name Atlas Yellowknife Resources Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr loss 32 cts vs loss 37 cts
    Net loss 5,374,000 vs loss 6,159,000
    Revs 241.3 mln vs 253.2 mln
 Reuter

Qtr ended April 30.
    Net 1,982,000 vs 1,022,000
    Year
    Net 7,005,000 vs 3,030,000
    Assets 191.3 mln vs 116.5 mln
 Reuter

issued a request for proposals for about 150 project sponsors
of cogeneration and small power production projects.
    The utility said it is soliciting proposals to fill about
100 megawatts of commitments to the Maine Public Utilities
Commission. The avoided costs which will be paid for power
produced by these projects will be based on costs negotiated
between Central Maine and Hydro-Quebec for planned power
purchases beginning in 1992.
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATE STOCKS UP 2.85 MLN BBLS, GASOLINE OFF 2.37 MLN, CRUDE OFF 1.13 MLN

President Reagan is to nominate
Kenneth Rogers, president of the Stevens Institute of
Technology, to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, the White House said.
    Rogers, 58, would succeed James Asseltine for a five-year
term expiring June 30, 1992. He has has been president of the
Stevens Institute, in Hoboken, N.J., since 1972. He was
previously acting provost and dean of faculty.
 Reuter

Continental Associates, a group of four
shareholders who hold about 5.02 pct of of Continental
Materials Corp stock, said it will not pursue a tender offer
for all of its shares.
    The shareholders said they were told that Continental
Materials directors had no interest in selling the company.
    Late yesterday, Continental Materials board said it decided
not to give further consideration to a "business combination"
proposed by the group of St. Louis businessmen.
 Reuter

Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems
said it filed with the New York Public Service Commission
proposed retail rates to market mobile telephone services in
the metropolitan New York City area.
    The company expects the rates to go into effect July 1,
after a 60-day statutory period, pending regulatory approval.
    It said the approved price structure is the last regulatory
step before the company begins marketing cellular service and
equipment in northern New Jersey.

 Reuter

A House Banking subcommittee approved
a bill authorizing U.S. contributions to the International
Development Association, the Asian Development Fund and the
Afrian Development Bank.
    The bill authorizes 2.875 billion dlrs as the U.S.
contribution to the eighth replenishment of the International
Development Association, 584.3 mln dlrs to the Asian
Development Fund and 719.5 mln dlrs to buy 59,648 shares of the
capital stock of the African Development Bank.
    The bill, which now goes to the full Banking Committee,
includes an amendment opposing U.S. approval of development
bank loans for commodities in surplus in the world and which
are intended for export.
 Reuter

The Bank of Canada, the country's central
bank, believes economist Alan Greenspan was a sound choice to
replace retiring U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, a
spokesman for the bank said.
    "Mr. Greenspan is well known to the bank. He's had a lot of
experience. He's very capable, and with Mr. Volcker's decision
not to seek reappointment, he's a sound choice," said Roy
Flett, associate secretary for the bank.
    Flett said, "the Bank of Canada has enjoyed an excellent
relationship with Mr. Volcker during his terms and has only the
greatest respect for his performance."
    Economists said the appointment was extremely important to
Canada because the country's monetary policy is closely linked
with that of the U.S.
    "Basically, we have chosen ... to march in lockstep with
U.S. monetary policy, so really in some sense this is our
central banker that has just been appointed as well," said Mike
McCracken, head of Infometrica Ltd.
 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp chairman G. Robert
Durham said the company is prepared to make another large
non-copper acquisition and that a deal could be struck in the
    In an interview with Reuters, Durham said the company was
examining potential candidates but not yet talking with any.
    He declined to name the companies but said a deal could
occur as soon as the second half of 1987.
   
    Phelps Dodge, which ranks as the largest copper producer in
the U.S., last year paid 240 mln dlrs for Columbian Chemicals
Co, a maker of carbon black which is used in rubber and tires
among other products.
    The purchase was part of a strategic plan to diversify and
eventually match earnings from non-copper operations and copper
    Phelps Dodge could spend between 250 mln and 500 mln dlrs
to buy another non-copper company, Durham said, citing about
100 mln dlrs of cash and 580 mln dlrs of untapped bank credit.
   
    Any acquisition candidate would have to have a different
economic cycle than copper, substantial earnings and good
management, he said. Phelps Dodge would only want a friendly
deal, he added.
    "We're not talking high-tech, or financial services or
about a perfume company," he said. "We want a good basic
industrial company that will fit into our management
structure," Durham said.
   
    During the interview, Durham and other executives also said
continued strong demand and tight copper supply should lead to
higher prices for the metal.
    "In my view, it's not a matter of if but when the price
(for copper) will improve because there aren't that many new
will continue to grow modestly," said executive vice president
Douglas Yearley. Phelps Dodge continues to lower its cost of
producing copper, the executives said. Costs should be below 50
cents a pound, after depreciation but before interest and
corporate expense, by 1989 or 1990.
    Production costs are about 56 to 57 cents a pound now
compared to one dlr a pound in 1981, some Wall St analysts
said.
    Durham said copper supplies are lower than they have been
for almost 20 years and demand continued to be strong.
    He declined to project results for the second quarter or
year. But he said the quarter was going well and the rise in
copper prices in the last month will help results.
    Durham said last month that the second quarter should match
the first quarter when earnings rose about 11 pct to 16.8 mln
dlrs or 49 cts a share.
    First quarter sales rose 61.5 pct to 372.9 mln dlrs,
reflecting the acquisition of Columbian Chemicals and increased
copper shipments from the Chino copper mine in New Mexico, also
acquired last year.
    Analysts are projecting 1987 earnings of 2.20 dlrs to 2.75
dlrs a share, up sharply from 1.79 dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

Hoffman-LaRoche Inc said Eli Lilly and
Co Inc will pay it royalties on the sale of Lilly's human
growth hormone, Humatrope, as part of an earlier-reported
licensing agreement between the companies.
    Hoffman-La Roche spokesman John Doorley declined to
disclose the amount of the royalty payments.
    "Lilly has taken the position of respecting our patent by
paying us roylaties," said Doorley. "We are hopeful that other
companies will respect that position," he said.
    Roche is the licensee of a Hormone Research Foundation
patent for a synthetic version of human growth hormone.
   
    Last September, Roche and the Foundation sued Genetech Inc
<GENE> alleging Genetech's product, Protropin, a human growth
hormone, infringed on Hoffman's patent for the hormone.
    Last year Genetech's sales of Protropin were about 35 mln
dlrs. David Saks, drug analyst with Morgan Olmstead, Kennedy
and Gardner in New York, said Genetech's and Lilly's product
can each bring in about 50 mln dlrs in sales annually.
    Other companies developing human growth hormone include
Biotechnology General Corp. Roche's Doorley said the company
had at one time started developing a growth hormone but decided
to put its efforts into other products.
 Reuter

Shr 87 cts vs 87 cts prior
    Pay August 14
    Record July 20
 Reuter

release data on U.S. reserve assets on a monthly basis from now
on instead of quarterly.
    Reserve assets are held in gold, special drawing rights
with the Internatinal Monetary Fund, foreign currencies and in
a U.S. reserve position in the IMF.
    Assets totaled 46.59 billion dlrs at the end of April,
compared with 48.82 billion dlrs at the end of March, the
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs four cts prior
    Pay August 5
    Record July 15
 Reuter

Mexico has no intention of leaving
the International Coffee Organization (ICO), in the event of
Brazil withdrawing from the group, the Mexican Coffee Institute
(IMC) said.
    The IMC said in a statement the ICO is an important
instrument for ensuring producers obtain an adequate price.
Mexico currently produces around five mln 60-kilo bags of
coffee per year.
    Brazil said during a meeting of coffee producers in Rio de
Janeiro over the weekend that it would consider leaving the ICO
if its export quota was reduced by the organization.
 Reuter

Mercantile Bancorp Inc said it will add
a special provision of 75 mln dlrs to its reserve for possible
loan losses in the second quarter, and expects to report a loss
of 33 mln dlrs during the period.
    The company estimated it will report net income of two mln
dlrs during the full year 1987.
    Mercantile Bancorp said the additional provision represents
28.5 pct of Mercantile Bancorp's 263 mln dlrs in total
outstanding loans to Latin American countries. The special
provision will raise the reserve to 148 mln dlrs, or 3.1 pct of
the company's 4.7 billion dlrs total loans.
    Mercantile Bancorp earned 19.5 mln dlrs in last year's
second quarter, or 1.23 dlrs a share, and 55.6 mln dlrs, or
3.50 dlrs a share for the full year 1986.
    Mercantile Bancorp's reaffirmed its intention to continue
the present dividend and to follow its normal policy of basing
future dividends on anticipated earnings from ongoing business.
    "It now appears the adjustment process for heavily indebted
countries could stretch into the 1990's, and these
restructurings may have negative economic effects on the loan
portfolio," Mercantile Bancorp said.
 Reuter

Canada Petroleum Co Ltd said its proposed 5.22-billion-
Canadian-dlr acquisition of Dome Petroleum Ltd will benefit
Canada just like the foreign investment that made possible
commercial development of Alberta's oilsands.
    Amoco Canada president T. Don Stacy told an oilsands
conference that "Amoco Canada has presented the solution to the
Dome problem, and we're investing our confidence, dollars and
determination to make that solution work."
    The Amoco buyout of debt-burdened Dome has angered Canadian
nationalists, who want a Canadian buyer for Dome.
    Stacy described Amoco Canada's previously reported share
offer proposal as a chance to increase Canadian ownership of
the country's oil and gas industry, now at about 50 pct.
    He reiterated that Amoco planned virtually no layoffs of
Dome employees. He also reaffirmed that Amoco would reinvest in
Amoco Canada-Dome properties all available cash flow for five
years after the acquisition.
 Reuter

Opr shr nil vs seven cts
    Opr net 3,000 vs 99,000
    Revs 2,745,000 vs 2,395,000
    Avg shrs 1,500,000 vs 1,375,000
    Year
    Opr shr 24 cts vs 20 cts
    Opr net 343,000 vs 271,000
    Revs 10.7 mln vs 8,232,000
    Avg shrs 1,459,000 vs 1,341,000
    NOTE: Earnings for year exclude gains due to tax loss
carryforward of 210,000 dlrs or 14 cts a share in 1987 and
198,000 dlrs or 15 cts in 1986.
 Reuter

TCBY Enterprises Inc said it
will apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission to
withdraw its registration statement filed May 14 for 30 mln
dlrs of subordinated convertible debentures due to unfavorable
    THe company said other forms of financing available to the
company and working capital are more than sufficient to fund
the uses for which the proceeds of the debentures offering were
to be applied.
 Reuter

The U.S. House of Representatives 
approved a bill that requires the Reagan administration to
provide Congress with a report on its Gulf policy but does not
place any restrictions on its actions.
    The bill passed 305-102 -- winning a necessary two-thirds
of those voting -- despite a last-minute revolt by an alliance
of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans who sought to
defeat it as a signal that a growing number of legislators
oppose President Reagan's policies in the region.
    The legislation was passed in the wake of the May 17th
which killed 37 Americans, and Reagan's decision to protect 11
Kuwaiti oil tankers by putting them under U.S. flags --
effectively making them American ships.
    The legislation -- supported by Congress' Democratic and
Republican leadership as well as by the administration --
required Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to provide a
report to Congress, within seven days of enactment, on plans to
protect U.S. warships and flag ships in the Persian Gulf.
    It did not, however, place any restrictions on the
administration as it proceeds to reflag the Kuwaiti ships and
thus has no immediate effect on U.S. policy.
    The Senate was expected to approve the legislation this
week. The bill would then be sent to Reagan for signature.
    Supporters of the bill said passage of the bill was only a
first step toward a greater congressional involvement in
formulating policy.
    But Democratic critics said the bill did not ask the
administration to address tough policy questions in the report.
 Reuter

The leaders of a U.S. Senate team probing
American defense strategy in the MidEast Gulf said they favored
a multinational force to keep oil flowing through the waterway.
    Sen. John Glenn and John Warner, in Kuwait as part of a
Gulf Arab tour, said at a news conference that top officials in
the area appeared ready to discuss extra facilities needed if
the U.S. upgraded its defense role.
    The Senate team next heads for the United Arab Emirates,
their last stop on a fact-finding mission prompted by Reagan
administration plans to let half of Kuwait's 22-tanker fleet
fly the U.S. flag.
    Glenn and Warner said the U.S., Britain and France, should
explore the possibility of a unified Gulf force.
    "The American ships, the British ships, the French ships now
talk to each other and all we've got to do is formalize this
arrangement," Warner said.
    Glenn said a multinational force could be effectively
deployed within 24 hours of a decision.
    Glenn voiced a preference for a United Nations
multinational force, or failing that, an American, British,
French force with cooperation from the Gulf Arab states.
    Warner voiced concern that the Soviet Union might use the
situation in the Gulf to raise its presence. "And,
unequivocally, all GCC states we have talked with, have said
that would not be in the interests of the Arabian peninsula."
 Reuter

Assistant Secretary of State Elliott
Abrams said he was "completely honest and completely wrong" when
he gave assurances last October that the U .S. government was
not involved in a flight by a contra supply plane downed over
    He was being questioned by the congressional Iran-contra
panel about testimony he gave to the House Foreign Affairs
Committee on October 15, 1986, saying no U.S. intelligence,
defense or other government official was involved in the
flight.
    "I made those statements and I made a similar statement on
October 14 to Secretary (of State George) Shultz. And every one
of those statements was completely honest and completely wrong,"
Abrams testified.
    Two of the crew of the downed aircraft, operating out of El
Salvador, were killed. The third, Eugene Hasenfus, was
captured, tried and sentenced to 30 years' jail, but later
released by the Nicaraguan authorities.
    Abrams -- the highest-ranking member of the administration
to testify in five weeks of televised hearings -- said he did
not remember how he learned that the plane had been shot down,
but thought it was probably from the CIA.
    He said he made public statements within a couple of days
that there had been no U.S. government involvement after making
inquiries of the CIA, the National Security Council and the
Pentagon.
    "Everybody said, not only then but later, that there was no
U.S. government role," he said.
 Reuter

A New York investment partnership
seeking control of Allegis Corp <AEG> disclosed that it has
asked the Department of Transportation to review a 700 mln dlr
note agreement Allegis has with Boeing Co <BA>.
    Citing what it called serious competitive and public
interest concerns in the deal, Coniston Partners, which holds
about 13 pct of Allegis asked the department to assert its
jurisdiction in the matter and require the two companies to
seek its approval for the transaction.
    In a petition to the department, contained in a filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, Coniston also claims
Boeing, a major aircraft manufacturer, has obtained control
over Allegis, parent of United Airlines, by virtue of the May
12 deal between the two companies.
    Under the deal, Boeing bought from Allegis 700 mln dlrs of
convertible notes due May 31, 1992 simultaneously with a 2.1
billion dlr aircraft order United placed with Boeing.
    Coniston said the notes give Boeing control over Allegis
and warned that the relationship between the two companies
raises antitrust issues and should be scrutinized closely.
    "The world's largest manufacturer of aircraft should not be
permitted to acquire control over one of the nation's largest
airlines without an opportunity for public comment and fact
finding and scrutiny by the regulatory agency having
jurisdiction over the air transporation marketplace," Coniston
said in its petition.
    Coniston, calling itself the Allegis Investors Group in the
petition, said the department should force Allegis and Boeing
to make the required regulatory filings.
    Coniston is currently seeking control of Allegis by winning
majority representation on its board of directors.
 Reuter

A Colombian group announced the suspension
of its bombings of oil pipelines pending the government's levy
of a social tax on foreign petroleum companies and an 800 mln
dlrs fine on the Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY>.
    There was no indication the government would meet the
conditions demanded by the leftist National Liberation Army
(ELN).
    According to the state oil firm, ECOPETROL, the ELN carried
out 72 attacks on petroleum pipelines between 1984 and 1986.
    The assaults, the most recent launched two months ago, have
caused an estimated total of 50 mln dlrs in damage.
    In a communique, the ELN said it would demand a tax of one
dollar per barrel of crude oil pumped by foreign firms as a
condition for maintaining its suspension of the assaults.
    Foreign oil firms pump an average of 225,083 barrels per
day in Colombia. Colombian tax authorities are investigating
Occidental, a U.S.-owned firm, for alleged tax evasion.
    If the charges are proven, the firm could face a fine of up
to 800 mln dlrs. The ELN demands the government charge the
penalty.
 Reuter

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC) released guidelines on how commodity trading
advisors (CTA) should calculate "beginning net asset value"
(BNAV) for purposes of computing rates of return required by
commission disclosure rules.
    The commission said it was compelled to release the
guidelines because it has received disclosure documents which
indicate "serious differences" in the way certain CTAs are
defining BNAW -- "differences that may have compromised the
ability to compare rates of return among different advisors."
    CFTC said CTAs must only use funds under their control or
in conjunction with their carrying futures commission merchants
in calculating BNAV.
    Computation of BNAV must exclude any item that is not
money, securities or other tangible property and any funds that
are not under the control of the CTA, or CTA in conjunction
with its carrying futures commission merchant.
    CFTC said "notational" funds must be excluded because they
are merely verbal promises to furnish funds.
    Funds in a commodity trading account over which a CTA has
discretionary trading authority must be included, CFTC said.
 Reuter

Two affiliated investment firms told
the Securities and Exchange Commission they have acquired
593,000 shares of Midway Airlines Inc, or 7.7 pct of the total
    The firms, Boston-based FMR Corp and Fidelity International
Ltd, a Bermuda-based investment advisory firm, said they bought
the stake "to acquire an equity interest in the company in
pursuit of specified investment objectives...."
    The firms said they may increase or decrease their stake in
the company, but have no plans to seek control of the company
or representation on its board.
 Reuter

Watkins-Johnson Co said it
received a contract from General Electric COrp's <GE> G.E.
Astro Space division for nearly two mln dlrs to provide
traveling-wave-tube amplifiers on the Mars Observer spacecraft.
    The Observer is scheduled to be launched into Mars orbit in
the early 1990s.
 Reuter

Wickes Cos Inc said it has
completed the purchase of Dura Corp for an undisclosed amount.
    Dura, a supplier of automotive equipment, had annual sales
of over 100 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd said it set
tentative talks with three striking union locals that rejected
on Saturday a three-year contract offer at Cominco's Trail and
Kimberley, British Columbia lead-zinc operations.
    The locals, part of United Steelworkers of America,
represent 2,600 production and maintenance workers. No date has
been set for the talks, the spokesman replied to a query.
    The spokesman said talks were still ongoing with the two
other striking locals, representing 600 office and technical
workers. Production at Trail and Kimberley has been shut down
since the strike started May 9.
    Each of the five locals has a separate contract that
expired April 30, but the main issues are similar.
    The Trail smelter produced 240,000 long tons of zinc and
110,000 long tons of lead last year, while the Sullivan mine at
Kimberley produced 2.2 mln long tons of ore last year, most for
processing at Trail.
    Revenues from Trail's smelter totaled 356 mln Canadian dlrs
in 1986.
 Reuter

<Southern Air Transport> said it sued
WPLG-Channel 10 of Miami for compensatory and punitive damages
in excess of 50 mln dlrs for false and defamatory statements
made by the television station in a series of broadcasts last
month.
    The complaint alleges that the broadcast contained numerous
false statements which the stations knew were untrue.
    Officials of either company were unavailable for comment.
 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp is prepared to make
another large non-copper acquisition and a deal could be struck
in the near future, chairman G. Robert Durham said.
    Durham told Reuters the company was examining potential
candidates but not yet talking with any. Any acquisition must
have a different economic cycle to copper, he said.
    Phelps Dodge, the largest U.S. copper producer, last year
paid 240 mln dlrs for Columbian Chemicals Co which makes carbon
black used in rubber and tires. The purchase was part of a
strategic plan to diversify and then match earnings between
copper and non-copper operations.
    The company could spend between 250 mln and 500 mln dlrs to
buy another non-copper firm, Durham said, citing 100 mln dlrs
of cash and 580 mln dlrs of untapped bank credit.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) should
watch very carefully for any developments in the Gulf War and
their consequences on the oil market, EC Energy Commissioner
Nicolas Mosar said today.
    Speaking two weeks after a U.S. warship was attacked in the
Gulf, Mosar warned, "An escalation in the Gulf would increase
tensions in the oil market."
    "But I do not want to be alarmist," he told a news conference
after an EC energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
    He said the volume of EC oil imports from the Gulf had
declined to around 31 pct of total oil imports in the first
three months of 1987 against 35 pct in the same period last
year. "There are also other potential sources of supplies in the
world," he added.
    The issue of Gulf oil imports was not discussed at the
ministers' meeting, he added.
    A EC committee of national experts in the so-called oil
supply group would discuss Gulf oil supplies at their bi-annual
meeting on June 19, he said.
    But any major decisions would have to be reserved for EC
foreign ministers, diplomats said.
    West European nations have so far shown little enthusiasm
for backing a U.S. plan to give military protection to merchant
ships in the Gulf which could help insure the safety of oil
supplies.
 Reuter

Spanish International Communications
Corp said the Federal Communications Corp granted the license
renewal of five of its stations, clearing the way for the sale
of the company to <Hallmark Cards Inc>.
    THe FCC had preliminarily approved the transfer of the
stations on September 26, 1986, after which several parties had
filed applications with the FCC seeking to block the renewal of
the broadcast licenses and block the sale.
    The stations granted the renewal include KMEX-TV in Los
Angeles, KWEX-TV in San Antonio, WLTV in Miami, WXTV in New
York and KFTV in Fresno, Calif.
 Reuter

purchase of privately held <Verac Inc>, a San Diego defense
systems and software development company.
    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Verac had 1986
sales of about 23 mln dlrs.
    Verac will operate in San Diego as part of Ball's technical
products group.
 Reuter

charged Windsor Holding Co, a Chicago-based lamp and ceiling
fan maker, with fraudulently overstating its 1982 and 1983
pre-tax income by a total of 3.6 mln dlrs.
    Simultaneously with the filing of the civil case in U.S.
District Court here, the company, formerly Windsor Industries
Inc, three former officers and a former director, agreed to
settle the charges without admitting or denying them.
    But under the settlement, the company and the other
defendants consented to court orders barring them from
committing further violations of securities law.
    There were no monetary penalties in the settlement and the
company, which was delisted from the National Association of
Securities Dealers Automated Quotation, NASDAQ, system in May
1985, was not required to restate its earnings.
    The SEC charged Jose Arrojo, a vice president of a Windsor
subsidiary, Ronald Kahn, former vice of the company, and David
Garvin, former president of a Windsor subsidiary, with taking
part in a scheme to inflate the value of Windsor's 1982
year-end inventory, resulting in a 2.0 mln dlr overstatement of
the company's pre-tax income for that year.
    The company's inventory was again falsified a year later,
resulting in a 1.6 mln dlr overstatement, the SEC charged.
    Another defendant, Arthur Usheroff, a former Windsor board
member, the company and Kahn also failed to disclose in an SEC
filing an arrangement under which Usheroff was compensated for
services rendered in a 1983 Windsor public stock offering, the
    Arrojo, Kahn and the company were also charged with making
false statements in required SEC filings.
    Windsor filed for bankruptcy in August 1985 and had a plan
of reorganization approved last December.
 Reuter

Brazilian officials are privately
expressing concern that the change of command at the Federal
Reserve may lead to a tougher U.S. Policy on debt and less
understanding of the problems of the Third World.
    Paul Volcker, head of the Federal Reserve, was considered
here to be understanding of Brazil's difficulties.
    A Finance Ministry source said of his colleagues in the
ministry: "They are a bit apprehensive about (Alan) Greenspan
(who will replace Volcker), considering his reputation as a
very tough man, an advocate of recessive measures to
counter-attack inflation. There is a little bit of concern."
 Reuter

Ninety-six pct of Alberta and
northeastern British Columbia crops have been seeded, about a
week ahead of the 10 year average, according to the Alberta
wheat pool report.
    Hard red spring wheat accounts for most acreage with 6.0
mln estimated for this year, little changed from last year.
Oats acreage of 1.95 mln is unchanged on last year and barley
area of 5.9 mln is also similar to last year. Rapeseed planting
of an estimated 3.24 mln is expected five pct up on 1986. The
south and south central areas of Alberta lacked moisture with
germination patchy at best. Growth prospects in northern areas
are generally in the good to very good range.
   Soil moisture is better in the north central and Peace
areas, the wheat pool said.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co praised President Reagan's
nomination of Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve Board chairman,
saying the conservative economist has a "sound record to fill
the void of (Paul) Volker's departure."
    The number two U.S. auto maker said in a statement that
Volker "took office...at the beginning of a critical time for
the auto industry" and had had "a very positive impact on the
U.S. economy."
 Reuter

narrowed to 76 mln N.Z. Dlrs in April from a revised 89 mln
dlrs in March, and 224 mln dlrs in April 1986, in a smoothed
seasonally-adjusted measurement, the Statistics Department
said.
    The March figure was revised from 69 mln dlrs.
    The department said in a statement seasonally adjusted, but
non-smoothed figures, showed a deficit of 99 mln dlrs against
76 mln dlrs in March and 230 mln dlrs in April 1986.
    Totally unadjusted figures show a deficit of 83 mln dlrs
against 164 mln dlrs in March, revised from 178 mln dlrs, and
compared with 262 mln in April 1986.
merchandise trade of 145 mln dlrs against 135 mln dlrs in March
and 30 mln dlrs in April 1986.
    Seasonally adjusted but non-smoothed figures show a
merchandise trade surplus of 132 mln dlrs against a 148 mln dlr
surplus in March and a 14 mln dlr surplus in April 1986.
    Unadjusted merchandise figures show a surplus of 151 mln
dlrs against a 5.0 mln dlr (revised from 10 mln dlr) deficit in
March and a 31 mln dlr deficit in March 1986.
    The smoothed seasonally adjusted deficit on invisibles was
234 mln N.Z. Dlrs against 236 mln dlrs in March and 255 in
April 1986.
    The seasonally adjusted but non-smoothed deficit on
invisibles was 240 mln dlrs against 229 mln dlrs in March and
245 mln dlrs in April 1986. The unadjusted deficit on
invisibles was 234 mln dlrs against 158 mln dlrs, revised from
168 mln dlrs, in March and 231 mln dlrs in April 1986.
    The department said these figures show a continuing
improvement in the current account deficit, caused mainly by an
improvement in the balance on merchandise trade which has now
being in surplus since november 1985.
 Reuter

Very strong demand from all markets
including, recently, Japan has resulted in Peru's bismuth
exports showing an impressive increase in January/May 1987,
Peru's state owned mining industry's marketing arm Minpeco S.A.
Said.
    In a statement released by its London office, Minpeco said
Peruvian customs figures for bismuth exports for the first five
months were 574.8 tonnes compared with 160.7 tonnes in the same
period of 1986 and 483.4 tonnes during the whole of 1986,
Minpeco said.
    A breakdown of the figures showed Peru exported 296.4
tonnes of bismuth to the U.S. During Jan/May 1987 compared with
127.0 during the whole of 1986. Other recipients were Peoples
Republic of China 110.4 (100.0), Holland 100.2 (150.0), USSR
50.0 (50.0) and other areas 17.8 tonnes (56.4).
    Sales to the U.K., West Germany, France and other Western
and Eastern European countries are hidden under the heading
Holland as Minpeco sells to customers in these countries from
stocks the company normally holds in Rotterdam, the statement
said.
 REUTER

Allergy Immuno Technologies
Inc said it received federal funding to develop a diagnostic
kit for measuring Interleukin-2 and Interleukin-2 receptor.
    Interleukin is a naturally produced substance important in
maintaining the body's immune system.
 Reuter

Floating Point Systems INc said it
implemented a restructuring, consolidating eight departments
into four and decreasing its worldwide staff to 800 from 1,200.
    It said cost-cutting measures include a significant
reduction in its Ireland manufacturing facility.
    "Our expectation that 1987 will be a slow turnaround year
requires an intensified effort to make operations more
cost-effective," chairman Milton Smith said.
    For the year ended October 31, 1986, FLoating POint
reported a net loss of 14.3 mln dlrs or 1.67 dlrs per share on
sales of 88.6 mln dlrs.
    Floating Point said it expects to incur a charge of between
five and 10 mln dlrs in its third quarter ending July 31 which
will be off from last year's third quarter.
    In 1986, Floating Point reported a third quarter loss of
two mln dlrs on sales of 20.8 mln dlrs
    Floating Point said it expects to report another loss for
the full year. It said its restructuring will result in savings
of between four and five mln dlrs on a quarterly basis.
 
 Reuter

said it will record a net gain of 13.5 mln dlrs on the sale of
certain assets of its Freedom Mortgage Co subsidiary to Chase
Home Mortgage Corp, a subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB>.
    Freedom also said it had completed the sale.
    The company said about 9.5 mln dlrs of the gain will be
recnogized in the quarter ending June 30 with the remainder
derferred and recognized over the remaining life of the
serviced mortgage porfolio.
 Reuter

The U.S. meat industry has launched an
aggressive promotion campaign in Japan to increase consumer
awareness of U.S. beef and persuade the Japanese government to
relax current beef import quotas.
    U.S. beef sales to Japan, currently around 480 mln dlrs
annually, could increase to over two billion dlrs and as high
as six billion dlrs by the year 2000 if Japanese quotas were
removed and the Japanese consumer were made more aware of the
attributes of U.S. beef, officials of the U.S. Meat Export
Federation said at a press conference today.
    Partially funded with a 6.5 mln dlr award made through the
Agriculture Department's Targeted Export Assistance (TEA)
program, a five-year meat promotion campaign in Japan was
launched by the U.S. Meat Export Federation in April.
    "The promising Japanese beef market could be one of the
bright spots for U.S. agricultural exports," said Philip Seng,
Asian Director for the Federation. "We supply and they (Japan)
buy a very high quality of beef. They like our beef and want to
buy more," he said.
    Seng pointed to Japan's beef quota system, which limits
total Japanese beef imports to 177,000 tonnes per year and U.S.
imports to 58,400 tonnes, as the major constraint in expanding
U.S. beef shipments to Japan.
    The quotas were implemented in 1977 at a time of heavy
Japanese foreign beef imports. The current quota agreement
expires next March and beef quota negotiations are set to get
underway this fall.
    The Reagan administration has called for an end to the
quotas by April, 1988, but Japanese officials have said they
would not liberalize imports regardless of the U.S. pressure.
    Officials from the Meat Export Federation told Reuters that
they do not expect a complete lifting of the quota, but that
they hope for at least a gradual increase in the quota.
    High beef prices in Japan caused by the protected market
has also kept beef consumption at modest levels, meat industry
    Japanese shoppers pay an average of 27.14 dlrs for a U.S.
tenderloin steak in a restaurant and an average of 47.42 dlrs
for a Japanese-produced restaurant steak, the meat association
said. At the retail level, U.S. striploin sells for 9.77 dlrs
per pound, while Japanese beef sells for 28.51 dlrs per lb.
    Japanese consumers currently eat less than 10 lbs of beef
per year, compared to 78 lbs for the average American,
    Total beef consumption in Japan is now 700,000 to 800,000
tonnes per year, but Seng said with the removal of quotas and a
decrease in beef prices, consumption could increase to 3.2 mln
tonnes.
 Reuter

Adolph Coors Co said it expects
second quarter net income to be in the range of 45 cts to 50
cts a share compared to 82 cts a share in 1986.
    Coors said earnings were hurt by start-up expenses at the
new Shenandoah Brewery and other marketing expenses.
    It said it expects to achieve record barrel sales in 1987,
but that second quarter beer shipments are expected to be
similar to the 4.2 mln volume of the second quarter of 1986.
    It said will spend about 90 mln dlrs in 1987 and 1988 to
expand Shenandoah's operations and will increase advertising
spending by 10 pct to 200 mln dlrs in 1987.
 Reuter

    Net 3.3 mln vs 2.5 mln
    NOTE:1986 net includes seven cts or 1.2 mln dlrs tax loss
 Reuter

Merchants National Corp, with 3.7
billion dlrs in assets, said it will report a loss of 13 mln
dlrs for the second quarter due to its decision to increase its
provision for losses by 30 mln dlrs, mainly due to
uncertainties surrounding Latin American debt.
    In the second quarter last year, Merchants reported net
income of 6.2 mln dlrs or 68 cts a share.
    As a result of the increased loan loss provision, the bank
said the allowance for loan losses will increase from 1.4 pct
to 2.5 pct of the bank's total loans. The bank said its expects
to report estimated net of over 15 mln dlrs for 1987.
 Reuter

the venezuelan state aluminum company
venalum is negotiating a total of 123.9 mln dlr in credits from
abroad for a planned expansion of production faciities, finance
    Azpurua spoke to reporters after meeting representatives of
the kreditanstalt fur wiederaufbau (kfw) bank of germany, who
tommorrow will sign a agreement to grant 100 mln marks (54.9
mln US dlrs) in credits to venalum.
    The agreement will have an eight and one-half year term and
a fixed interest rate of 6.13 pct.
    Azpurua said venalum is negotiating credits of 14.9 mln
dlrs from the swiss bank corporation, 14 mln dlrs from
mitsubishi of japan and 40 mln dlrs from eksportfinans of
norway.
    "this proves we are achieving our goal of reestablishing
the financial flows to the country," said azpurua.
    The credits would go to the installation of a fifth
production line in venalum, one of three state aluminum
companies, which produces primarily for the export market.
 Reuter

The House today approved a bill
requiring the Reagan administration to report to Congress on
its Mideast Gulf policy but not restricting its actions.
    The vote in favor was despite a last-minute revolt by an
alliance of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans who
sought to defeat it as a signal that a growing number of
legislators oppose President Reagan's policies in the region.
    In the Senate, a leading Republican senator, former Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Mark Hatfield of Oregon, said
he would try to prevent consideration of the bill.
    He said he will put a so-called "hold" on the bill until he
finds out whether the War Powers Act applies to protecting
Kuwaiti tankers.
    Congressional leaders complain they were not consulted
about plans to put the U.S. flag on Kuwaiti ships and some
charged the policy could lead the U.S. into the Iran-Iraq war.
    Conservative Republicans said increasing the U.S. military
obligation in the gulf would place impossible burdens on
American servicemen and equipment, and warned it could lead to
war.
    "It is a real snake pit at best and a powder keg that will
blow sky-high at worst," said Wisconsin Rep. Toby Roth.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. Postal Service said Unisys Corp
<UIS>, Bell and Howell Co <BHW>, Recognition Equipment Inc
<REC>, Toshiba and AEG, were awarded contracts for automating
the postal services mail sorting system.
    The Postal Service said the contracts will lead to increase
use of multiline optical character readers. Based on the
outcome of next summer's tests, the Postal Service said it will
decide whether to buy only new equipment or combine new
purchases with some of its older equipment.
    It also said a test of a kit under a previous contract was
successfully completed by ElectroCom Automation Inc.
 Reuter

Paul Volcker's resignation as Federal
Reserve Board chairman creates a serious leadership vacuum at a
time of deep uncertainty about the future management of the
third-world debt crisis, bankers said.
    They said Volcker did more than any other official to hold
the financial system together when Mexico halted interest
payments in August 1982 and has played a central role ever
since.
    "Where is the leadership going to come from? Suddenly
there's a terrible void," one New York banker said.
    Volcker's expertise will be all the more sorely missed
because International Monetary Fund managing director Michel
Camdessus is new to his job and Barber Conable is finding it
hard to make a mark as World Bank president, bankers said.
    Moreover, Volcker's successor, Alan Greenspan, has little
experience of international affairs and third world debt.
    "Greenspan does not have the sensitivity to these issues
and the sense of understanding of their complexity that Volcker
has. Volcker understands what motivates people outside the U.S.
That was in his gut. Greenspan just does not have the intuitive
feeling," one banker said.
    This banker, who has discussed debt questions with
Greenspan, described his views as simplistic.
    But Robert Hormats of Goldman, Sachs and Co said he was not
worried by Greenspan's lack of international experience.
    "People rush to judgment, but once they get to know
Greenspan I'm sure they'll find him an excellent replacement,"
said Hormats, a former Administration official.
    Anyone nominated to replace Volcker would have paled in the
initial comparison, Hormats said. "Volcker had the status of a
financial demigod and you can't attain that status overnight,"
he said.
    One veteran debt rescheduler said Volcker, together with
the Bank of England, deserves credit for keeping the banking
system intact after Mexico's default.
    "If it hadn't been for him, the world would look a lot
different now," he said. "Whether you agreed with him or not,
he has a superb grasp of ideas."
    Certainly, not all bankers did agree all the time with
Volcker. In particular, he was roundly criticized by some for
more or less forcing them last September to grant Mexico
generous terms on its 77 billion dlr new-loan and debt
rescheduling agreement.
    "Volcker lost a lot of credibility by overstepping the
bounds and pushing the package onto the banks," commented one
banker who helped to negotiate the Mexican deal.
    Another critic was Citicorp chairman John Reed, who said
the 13/16 pct interest margin would deter some bank lenders and
thus delay Mexico's return to the voluntary markets.
    It was a review of the fate of the Mexican deal - and of
others that followed it for Chile, Venezuela, the Philippines
and Argentina - that helped to convince Reed that the debt
crisis was not about to be solved and that Citicorp needed to
bolster its reserves in case some of the loans went bad.
    "It certainly contributed to the general feeling of
malaise," one Citicorp banker said in describing the impact of
the Mexican package on the bank's decision to add three billion
dlrs to its reserve for possible loan losses.
    That decision, since followed by Chase Manhattan and
Security Pacific Corp, may profoundly alter the strategy of
creditors and debtors alike for tackling the debt crisis.
    But no one is sure what the impact will be. "It's very
difficult for anyone to know which way the debt problem is
going, and with Volcker out of the picture it just adds to the
uncertainty," one banker said.
 Reuter

Currency futures are likely to move
higher following the sharp rally today after President Reagan
announced that Paul Volcker would not accept a third term as
Federal Reserve Chairman and that Alan Greenspan was nominated
as his replacement, currency analysts said.
    Contrary to predictions before the Volcker resignation,
analysts are calling for higher currency futures prices between
now and the June 8 Venice economic summit.
    In particular, uncertainty about Greenspan's attitude to
the dollar could undermine sentiment toward the U.S. currency,
    Greenspan said today that the dollar appeared to be nearing
a bottom, but the market will bear in mind his remarks in
Chicago last week that the dollar's recent move upward was a
technical reaction and that it would trade significantly lower,
   
    "Disappointment of European central bankers over the
appointment will be used as an opportunity to sell the dollar
lower," said Manufacturers Hanover Futures vice president Carol
Mackoff.
    "The international community will not like this
appointment," as it suggests the possibility that the U.S.
budget deficit is too much of a burden on monetary policy and
that Volcker was unable to get the commitment he sought to
reduce the deficit, added Merrill Lynch Economics analyst David
Horner.
     Furthermore, "that Greenspan was not named two months ago
suggests that he was not the Administration's first choice --
and that the status of his appointment was as a bridesmaid,"
Horner said.
    A declining dollar scenario with higher currency futures
prior to and throughout the Venice meetings would be mitigated
only by concrete action as opposed to "jawboning" at the G-7
summit, he said.
    But G-7 finance ministers, judged by recent statements, may
be at an impasse, analysts said.
    Japan and West Germany today reiterated that neither
planned further interest rate cuts, despite pressure from the
U.S. to do so, Mackoff said.
    The U.S., on the other hand, has not cut its budget deficit
as Japan and West Germany have urged, she said.
    Should G-7 members force a U.S. commitment to cut its
budget deficit in the next two years, a further decline in the
dollar could be forestalled, Horner said.
    However, "the impact from Venice will be nothing if nothing
changes," Horner said.
    Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co. analyst Craig Sloane
said European currencies will likely move to the higher end of
their 1987 ranges after today's sharp advance.
    For the next two weeks, Sloan calls for September yen
futures to advance toward the 0.007200 area. He said September
marks could close in on 0.5700 as an upside target, while Swiss
francs could climb to a range between 0.6900 and 0.6950.
 Reuter

The World Bank has suspended loans to Peru
because the country has over two months of payment arrears with
the lending agency, central bank general manager Hector Neyra
said.
     He told reporters the government decided to stop paying
the World Bank because scheduled repayments outweighed the
loans it was due to receive.
     The measure was the latest hard-line debt stance adopted
by the government of President Alan Garcia, one of Latin
America's most delinquent debtors. The 22-month-old
administration has cut repayments to 10 pct of export earnings
on nearly all its 14.4 billion dlr foreign debt.
     Neyra said since late 1986 Peru had sought an accomodation
with the World Bank under which it would receive more credits
than it would remit in repayments.
     Neyra stressed Peru was not withdrawing from the world
bank. The country had recently increased its capital
suscription in the institution by about three mln dollars.
    The Bank would immediately resume loan disbursements to
Peru once it cleared its arrears, he said. He did not specify
the value of the overdue payments. The economy ministry said
Peru's debt to the world bank was 521 mln dlrs at end-1985.
    At the end of last year, Peru's total foreign debt stood at
14.46 billion dollars, 13.17 billion dollars of which is
medium- and-long-term debt, the central bank said. Total
arrears were 5.42 billion dollars.
    Central bank president Leonel Figueroa said Peru had enough
hard currency, gold and silver on hand to cover 10 or 11
months' worth of imports.
    The holdings of the two precious metals and the hard
currencies were valued at 2.172 billion dlrs on May 22, 1987,
he said.
    Gross reserves were slightly lower at 1.857 billion dlrs
because this classification did not include silver holdings and
undervalued the central bank's gold.
    Reserves were projected to fall at most 150 mln dlrs this
 Reuter

Westpac Banking Corp <WSTP.S> said it
is cutting its indicator lending rate to 22 pct from 23 pct
effective from June 15.
    Westpac said in a statement various other lending rates are
also being revised downwards. The Westpac move follows base
rate drops by other New Zealand trading banks recently. <Bank
of New Zealand's> base rate drops to 22 pct from 23 on June 16
and <National Bank of New Zealand Ltd's> rate falls to 21.50
pct from 23 on June 15. The Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd <ANZA.S> rate remains at 23 pct.
 Reuter

Bank of Japan intervened buying small amount of dollars at 142.85 yen - dealers

Daiwa Singapore Ltd, wholly-owned by
Daiwa Securities Co Ltd of Japan, yesterday launched a 100 mln
U.S. Dlr tranche of an equity warrant eurobond in Singapore for
Japan's Minebea Co Ltd <MIAT.T>.
    The five-year eurobond carries an indicative coupon rate of
one and 5/8 pct and will be managed from Singapore. The
warrants may be exercised for shares in Minebea from July 1,
1987 to June 10, 1992.
    The bond was part of a 200 mln U.S. Dlr equity warrant
Eurobond issued by Minebea. Nomura International Ltd launched
the other 100 mln dlr bond in London.
 REUTER

<MC.T>, Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> and Ford Motor Co <F> have
signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to make car air
conditioners in Japan, Matsushita said in a statement.
    The new venture, <Japan Climate Systems Corp> will be
capitalised at 1.5 billion yen, and the three partners will
hold equal shares.
    The partners will invest 3.6 billion yen in constructing a
plant in Hiroshima, due for completion in late 1988. The plant
will initially make 100,000 air conditioners a year for Mazda,
it said.
 REUTER

1980, rose 0.4 pct to 127.0 in May after a 1.1 pct rise in
April and was 1.5 pct higher than in May 1986, the Bank of
Korea said.
    The May consumer price index, which has the same base, rose
1.4 pct to 149.1 after a 0.3 pct gain in April, for a
year-on-year rise of 3.5 pct.
    Wholesale prices rose 2.0 pct in the first five months of
1986, while consumer prices rose by 3.2 pct. Bank officials
said the rises were due to a strong yen which made imports of
Japanese parts, raw and intermediary materials more expensive.
 REUTER

Esso Singapore Pte Ltd will lower the
pump price of its premium 97 octane petrol price to 96.8
cents/litre from 97 cents effective midnight tonight, a
    The new price is similar to other oil companies' price for
the same grade.
    Esso's price for 95 octane remains unchanged at 90.8 cents.
 REUTER

A Matsushita Electric Co Ltd <MC.T> joint
venture will make VHS-format video tape recorders (vtrs) in
Brazil for the domestic market in the face of government quotas
on vtr imports, a Matsushita spokesman told Reuters.
    <Springer National de Amazonia SA> will start output in
early 1988 at a rate of 20,000 vtrs the first year, he said.
    Springer National, located in Manaus and capitalised at
89.93 mln cruzeiros, is owned 51 pct by <Springer SA> of Brazil
and 49 pct by Matsushita unit <National do Brasil Ltd>.
    It was formed in July 1981 to make colour televisions,
audio equipment and microwave ovens.
 REUTER

Brazil's new economic plan should enable
Brazil to renew negotiations with creditors on its 111-billion
dlr foreign debt within the next 30 days, Finance Minister Luiz
Carlos Bresser Pereira said.
    The plan, which predicted the economy would grow 4.5 pct
this year and inflation would drop to 10 pct a month by
December from 20 pct at present, would be officially announced
"within three or four weeks," he told a news conference.
    The minister said he presented an outline of the program
during a cabinet meeting in which President Jose Sarney
declared "a total war" on inflation.
    Sarney told the meeting an austerity plan to trim
government spending would be introduced.
    Bresser Pereira said Brazil faced the risk of economic
recession, but he estimated the gross national product would
grow 4.5 pct this year. It grew 8.3 pct last year.
    Its April inflation rate was a record 20.96 pct and
contributed to an accumulated rate of 84.19 pct in the first
four months of 1987.
    Bresser Pereira said the economic plan would seek to keep
the economy growing, to build an eight billion dlr trade
surplus and to force a sharp drop in the inflation rate.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the
dollar's sharp fall against the yen overnight was only
    The dollar dropped sharply in New York after news that Paul
Volcker would step down as chairman of the U.S. Federal
Reserve.
    Nakasone told reporters he did not expect U.S. Policy to
change after Volcker steps down.
 REUTER

The main navigation channel of the
Rhine, blocked by two sunken boats, will remain closed at least
until the beginning of next week, a water authority spokesman
    Karlsruhe water authorities said a queue of about 70 ships
had formed between the towns of Speyer and Iffezheim but most
shipping companies had unloaded cargoes and were using
alternative means of transport.
    Heinz-Josef Recker, of the Mannheim water authority, said
two floating cranes would make a fresh attempt to raise the
sunken tug and its lighter after an unsuccessful try on Friday.
The tug Orinoko hit a railway bridge last Tuesday and sank with
a cargo of 3,500 tonnes of gravel on board. Before the
accident, about 100 ships a day sailed under the bridge.
 Reuter

A West German navy ship was accidentally
hit today by artillery shells from a Warsaw Pact vessel in the
Baltic Sea and three sailors were injured, the Defence Ministry
said.
    The ship, the Tender Neckar, was struck while watching
Warsaw Pact exercises in the Baltic Sea, a ministry spokesman
said.
    He could not say what condition the men were in or which
country owned the ship which fired the shots. The spokesman
said West Germany believed the incident was accidental.
 Reuter

today's hog slaughter at about 250,000 to 270,000 head versus
249,000 week ago and 261,000 a year ago.
    Cattle slaughter is guesstimated at about 126,000 to
131,000 head versus 126,000 week ago and 131,000 a year ago.
 Reuter

Israel's inflation rate for May was
0.6 pct, the lowest since last July when there was no increase,
    In April, inflation was 2.2 pct and the figure for May last
year was 1.6 pct. The rate for the first five months of 1987
was 7.5 pct, the bureau said.
    The annual inflation rate for the past 12 months was 20.3
pct, a bureau spokesman said.
    Israeli inflation was running at an annual rate of more
than 400 pct until the government imposed an austerity plan
controlling wages and prices in mid-1985.
 REUTER

The Cuban sugar harvest, which was
extended almost a month and a half beyond its originally
scheduled shutdown date, ended here as the last of the island's
154 mills closed operations, the official newspaper granma
said.
    The newspaper characterized the harvest, which began in
late November, 1986, as "a tense and pressured campaign."
    In a recent interview with the French communist party
newspaper l'humanite, Cuban president Fidel Castro said that
crude sugar production during the harvest would be "less than
7.5 mln tonnes.
    The harvest was plagued by a four year shortfall of rain
which reduced the sugar content of the cane and by unseasonable
rain storms during the first two months of this year which made
cane cutting by mechanical combines virtually impossible.
    Many foreign sugar experts voiced doubts during the present
harvest that raw sugar production would exceed last year's 7.2
mln tonne mark.
    In the 1984-85 campaign Cuba produced 8.2 mln tonnes of raw
sugar.
 Reuter

Dow Chemical Co said effective
July 15 it is raising all bulk and drum prices for its line of
DOWNRIGHT styrene-butadiene latex additives used in the
modification of asphalts by 15 pct.
 Reuter

Egypt for the third time submitted a
bid of 89 dlrs per tonne in its tender for 200,000 tonnes of
soft red or white wheat for June-July delivery under the export
enhancement program, U.S. exporters said.
    USDA has rejected that bid twice, the sources noted.
 Reuter

Plans for key reforms of the European
Community's (EC) controversial farm policy will almost
certainly have to be referred to the bloc's heads of government
at a summit meeting on June 29 and 30, Belgian finance minister
Mark Eyskens said today.
    Eyskens was speaking at a news conference after chairing a
joint meeting of EC finance and agriculture ministers which was
designed to help break a deadlock over this year's EC farm
price package which has endured since March.
    Diplomats quoted EC Executive Commission president Jacques
Delors as saying at the same meeting that it would be a
disaster if the two most difficult issues at the farm talks had
to be referred to heads of government.
    These issues are a Commission plan for a tax on marine and
vegetable fats and oils, and proposals to change the system by
which EC farm prices, expressed in European currency units
(Ecus), are translated into the currencies of member states.
    The oils and fats tax is opposed by a group of countries
which fears it could provoke trade retaliation by the U.S., A
major exporter of soybeans to the EC.
    West Germany, meanwhile, is strongly against the technical
currency move, which would result in additional price cuts for
farmers in countries with strong currencies, such as the mark.
    Commission sources said Delors is anxious that the two
issues are not referred to the summit because this would mean
heads of government diverting their attention from much more
important world and Community issues.
    Eyskens said decisions from heads of government were also
likely to be less sound since they do not usually interest
themselves in such technically complex questions.
    However, Eyskens said today's meeting had thrown up some
nuances in member state positions "which may make the dialogue
more constructive in the next few weeks."
    If farm prices are not decided by the end of this month,
the Commission could use its own powers to impose a seven pct
cut in cereals prices, farm trade sources said. It originally
proposed measures to cut farm spending by 1.1 billion Ecus this
year, with effective price cuts of over 10 pct for some crops.
    Diplomats said farm ministers might be able to agree a
price package cutting spending by around 340 mln Ecus but for
their disagreements on the oils/fats tax and on currency
reforms.
    The finance ministers were called in to emphasise the need
for budgetary restraint in the face of an almost certain EC
budget deficit of over five billion Ecus this year.
    Although Delors was said by aides to have found today's
meeting very useful, diplomats said there was little sign of a
major shift in the position of member states, or of finance
ministers adopting a different line from that of their
agriculture colleagues.
    The farm ministers are expected to meet for most of this
week in Luxembourg in a pre-summit attempt to bridge their
differences.
 REUTER

PhoneMate Inc said its common
stock will be relisted on the NASDAQ National Market System on
July 8.
    NASDAQ said the company's shares were relisted in the
NASDAQ system on June 4, following a delisting in September
1984 due to insufficient capital and surplus.
    PhoneMate Inc designs, engineers and markets
telecommunications products for the home and small business
markets.
 Reuter

Africa's efforts to revive its
economy are not being matched by international help, two of the
continent's heads of state said at the opening of a conference.
    Presidents Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria and Denis Sassou-
Nguesso of Congo urged Africa's development partners to act
over the continent's debt, which now totals 175 billion dlrs,
at a meeting organised by the Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA).
    Their view was backed by Monique Landry, Canada's Minister
for External Relations. "Whether we look at aid or debt or
trade, the rich countries have not as yet lived up to their
part of last year's economic recovery pact."
    Babangida said it was unrealistic to expect any country to
spend more than 30 pct of its earnings on debt servicing
particularly as prices for the continent's commodities were so
unstable.
    Sassou Nguesso, current Chairman of the Organisation of
African Unity, accused international aid donors of failing to
provide the vigorous effort they promised a year ago.
    The conference, attended by African ministers, economists
and representatives from major donors, will review progress
since both sides agreed at the U.N. Last year to revive the
African economy over five years.
    The response from the international community has been
negative and projections of improved growth rates for Africa
already look far too optimistic, ECA Executive Secretary
Adebayo Adedeji told the conference.
    Both Babangida and Sassou Nguesso called for the debts of
Africa's poorest countries to be written off and for repayment
and grace terms to be eased.
    They won a degree of support from Landry, "Even private
bankers are willing to talk about the need for longer term
solutions to Africa's debt."
 REUTER

Occidental Petroleum Corp said it
has completed the acquisition of Shell Oil Co's vinyl chloride
monomer business for undisclosed terms.
    Shell is a subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <SC>.
    The company said the transaction will allow it to source
over half its vinyl chloride monomer requirements internally,
making it fully integrated in polyvinyl chloride production. It
has been buying all of its requirements.
 Reuter

Despite the past severe winter,
damage to rapeseed acreage in Poland appears to be minor, the
U.S. Agriculture Department's Counselor in Warsaw said in a
field report.
    The report, dated June 11, said official statements show
that about 40,000 hectares, less than 10 pct of sown area, was
plowed under this year compared with the usual 15 pct.
    Rapeseed production is forecast at 1.1 mln tonnes, 200,000
tonnes below the record crop produced in 1986, but 35 pct above
previous forecasts, the report said.
 Reuter

Ghana is taking steps to combat imminent
famine in certain areas near its border with Togo following
scant rainfall, Accra Radio reported today.
    The Radio, monitored in Abidjan, said fishing and farming
activities have been disrupted in certain districts around the
Volta region near the eastern coast.
    The report follows a period of unusually dry weather in
both Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which trade sources in Abidjan
said could pose problems for important developing cocoa crops.
    The Accra Radio report said a Ghanaian government
delegation, which visited the Anglo and Ketu districts last
week to investigate reports of food shortages, promised the
people a regular supply of maize, rice and sugar.
    At Anglo, the delegation was told that the Keta Lagoon had
dried up, halting fishing activities, while catches at sea were
poor and crops had failed, all due to lack of rainfall.
 Reuter

Lewis Galoob Toys
Inc said it has been cleared to apply for New York Stock
Exchange listing, and it has filed a formal application.
    the company said it expects to be listed on the NYSE by the
first week in July.
    Galoob's stock is now traded on the NASDAQ system.
 Reuter

The world's zinc mining and smelting
industry will continue to become more concentrated and more
integrated in the 1990s, Dr Klaus Goekmann, vice-president of
marketing and sales for Cominco Ltd, said.
    Opening a Metal Bulletin base metals conference here,
Goekmann forecast the number of individual businesses in the
industry would continue to decline as companies merged or
formed conglomerates with increased market shares.
    At the same time, the conglomerates would become more
integrated, handling the entire chain from basic ore production
through marketing, he added.
    "The key to future viability will be flexibility. Prices are
likely to remain at current historically low levels at least in
the medium term, and competition with other metals and
materials will continue to intensify," Goekmann said.
    "In the past, we have only reacted to changes in the world's
market and economics. In the future, we have to act less
defensively and more aggressively."
    The industry also has massive overcapacity and this problem
has to be tackled quickly, he added.
    "Attempts in the past to cut out this excess capacity in
Europe have all failed miserably. However, there is some hope
that current efforts may be successful," Goekmann said.
    At the same time, companies must move to limit their
geographical and currency risks and become far more marketing
orientated, he added.
    "With all these changes and rationalization, the industry
can survive to recover its past strength and profitability.
Without them, the future does not look very rosy," Goekmann
said.
 Reuter

Reichhold Chemicals Inc <RCI.N> said
its emulsion polymers division increased its selling prices of
its polyvinyl acetate and vinyl acetate-acrylate latexes for
paper coating application by between two and four cts per dry
pound.
    The company attributed the price increases to the
continuing escalation of raw materials costs.
 Reuter

Phoenix Energy Corp said it launched a gold recovery venture
with <Phoenix Exploration and Recovery Inc> and Mexico's
Sistemas Tecnicos De Recuperaciones, Sociedad Anonima de
Capital Variable.
    The company said the joint venture will explore and recover
gold, precious metals and artefacts from treasure ships worth
10 billion dlrs reported to have sunk in the harbor area of
Vera Cruz, Mexico.
    The company said it expects work to begin in 30 days.
 Reuter

The Basin Pipeline in the Southwestern
U.S. reopened yesterday with the expectation that all crude oil
shipments for June will arrive on schedule, according to a
spokesman for Texaco Inc. <TX>, operator of the pipeline
through its Texaco Pipeline Co subsidiary.
    "We project the pipeline will make all June crude shipments
scheduled," said Dan Stevens, the spokesman. 
    The pipeline reopened Sunday evening around 1900 EDT,
carrying an equivalent 280,000 barrels of crude oil per day
compared with an average 225,000 bpd shipped during the 30 days
before its shutdown on May 30, according to Stevens.
    Stevens said the increased shipments will make up for all
crude oil scheduled to arrive in Cushing, Oklahoma via the
pipeline by the end of June.
    The pipeline was shut May 30 because of an apparent rupture
caused by flooding of the Red River, near the Texas/Oklahoma
border. It was expected to resume service Saturday but rising
waters of the river, which had recently receded, delayed the
reopening, Stevens said. Approximately 1100 feet of new 24-inch
steel piping was installed under the river to replace damaged
piping, according to Stevens.
 Reuter

AMAX Inc unit, AMAX
Magnesium Corp, said it will build a Knolls Solar Evaporation
Pond System for recovery of magnesium.
    The company said the system will replace a previous
recovery system which was flooded in 1986.
    The company said construction should be complete by 1988
and in full production by 1989.
 Reuter

Japanese crushers have bought 3,000 to
5,000 tonnes of Canadian rapeseed, trade sources said.
    Delivery dates and price details were not available.
 Reuter

Olin Corp said it formed a joint
venture with the Yamaha Group of Japan's Nippon-Gakki Co LTd to
manufacture Olin's high-performance copper alloys in Japan for
sale in the Far East.
    The new firm, Yamaha-Olin Metal Corp, will share facilities
with Yamaha in Iwata, which are expected to come on line in the
third quarter of 1988., it said.
    The two companies first joined forces in August 1983 when
Yamaha agreed to process and market one of Olin's alloys. The
agreement led to a 1985 reroll agreement that involved a number
of alloys, it said.
 Reuter

Spain has joined the group of
European Community countries opposed to the proposed tax on
marine and vegetable oils and fats, diplomatic sources said.
    They said the Spanish position was clarified at a joint
meeting here of EC finance and agriculture ministers to discuss
the budgetary situation surrounding this year's EC farm price
    Previously, West Germany, Britain, Portugal and Denmark
have declared themselves against the tax with Spain's position
unclear, the sources said.
    The sources said Spanish junior finance minister Guillermo
de la Dehesa said Spain was against the tax because of its
implications for world trade talks within the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade and because it was discrimatory by
excluding butter.
    They said the countries now opposed to the tax have far
more votes than needed under the EC's majority voting system to
block the proposal.
 Reuter

venture with the Yamaha Group of Japan's Nippon-Gakki Co Ltd to
 Reuter

The proposed European Community (EC) levy
on oils and fats has been criticised by CAOBISCO, the
association of EC biscuit, chocolate and confectionery
manufacturers.
    In a letter to the President of the Council of Ministers,
M. Eyskens, the association said the tax would cost the EC
biscuit, cake, chocolate and confectionery industries almost
200 mln European currency units per year.
    The tax also was contrary to the spirit of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and could prompt U.S.
Retaliatory measures on EC exports, CAOBISCO said.
    In a parallel move the British Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and
Confectionery Alliance has written to U.K. Chancellor of the
Exchequer Nigel Lawson urging him to oppose the levy.
    President Charles Gillett said the tax was extending the
Commission's powers by allowing it to set levels of consumer
taxation, an area previously reserved for national treasuries.
 Reuter

An International Sugar Organization (ISO)
committee discussed the terms of a new administrative
International Sugar Agreement but did not debate the most
controversial area of budget contributions, delegates said.
    Progress was made in a number of technical areas, but with
one of the main importers, the Soviet Union, unable to attend
because of prior commitments, the distribution of votes and
contributions was not raised, an ISO spokesman said.
    Delegates said private meetings are also taking place
between the main participants to discuss the details of the new
agreement. The committee is due to meet again tomorrow.
 Reuter

Lack of rainfall in recent weeks may
have affected Ivory Coast 1987/88 main crop cocoa prospects,
although good precipitation in the last half of June and in
July could still reverse the situation, trade sources said.
    They said the crop is still likely to be fairly large and
it is too early to determine the consequences of the dry spell
on the harvest.
    "This year's crop will probably be another good one. It is
impossible to tell how flowering is going, but there should be
no problems unless something drastic happens," one trader said.
    Private forecaster Accu-Weather reported today that most
Ivory Coast cocoa growing regions were without rain over the
weekend and similar weather will persist today and Tuesday.
    "Rain would be welcomed, as the past week has been quite
dry, except along the western portion of the coast," it said.
    Traders agreed rain was needed, but some noted that the dry
conditions had not affected the entire country.
    The Ivorian Meteorological Office could not be reached for
comment or recent statistics. The trade sources said rainfall
in recent weeks was likely insufficient for cocoa plants,
although it is difficult to assess what the minimum
requirements are.
    Trade sources said there had been good rains in late
January, February and March which helped to promote flowering,
but April and May were fairly dry in most areas except in the
south west of the country.
    The Ivory Coast mid-crop should have been covered by
March/April rains but the main crop, still in its formation
period, depends largely on rainfall from April through July.
    The main rains normally last between May and July, before
returning again in September/October. "Flowering has been less
than normal and if the trees are not carrying that much at the
moment, then they have a chance to recover," one trader said.
    Another trade source noted the flowers still had plenty of
time to develop and the rains were "not good but still not bad."
    The sources said that while the weather might emerge as a
cause for concern, crop conditions in West Africa were
presently taking a back seat to other factors in the
international cocoa market.
    This is not only because of the premature nature of any
harvest predictions but also because of the supply of cocoa
already burdening the market, they said.
    "With a third year of surplus overhanging the market and the
buffer stock failing to boost prices despite regular purchases,
the weather has not been a factor," one private consultant said.
    London-based dealer Gill and Duffus said in its April cocoa
market report the current 1986/87 Ivory Coast crop was likely
to total 570,000 tonnes, which compares with a record 1985/86
crop estimate of 585,000 tonnes.
 Reuter

Amoco Corp said a Taiwan petrochemical
venture in which it is part owner plans to build a chemical
plant in Taiwan.
    The company said the plant, to be built by China American
Petrochemical Co Ltd which is 50 pct owned by Amoco Chemical
Co, will make purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a raw material
used to make polyester fibers.
    It said the facility, China American's third PTA plant,
will have a capacity of 550 mln pounds of PTA annually.
    China American's other two owners are Chinese Petroleum
Corp, 25 pct, and Central Investment Holding Co, 25 pct.
 Reuter

Roy Denman, the European Community
representative in Washington, warned the United States against
setting a rule that trading partners running a surplus should
be "beaten over the head" for not removing trade barriers.
    Denman, in an Op-Ed piece in today's Washington Post, said
trade disputes should be dealt with through negotiations,
either bilaterally or multilaterally, through the Geneva-based
United Nations agency, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,
GATT.
    Denman's comments came as the Senate was to begin debate
this week on a major trade bill.
    "It is dangerous to establish a rule that trading partners
running a surplus with the United States should be beaten over
the head if trade barriers objected to by the United States are
not removed within a certain time-scale," said Denman in an
apparent reference to some of the measures in the congressional
    "If we turn to the path of unilateral action, retaliation
and counter-retaliation, the one-world (GATT) trading system
will very quickly unravel," he said.
    Denman said the 170 billion dlr U.S. trade deficit was not
purely the result of unfair trade practices by foreign nations.
    "The trade deficit results from a combination of
macroeconomic factors (the U.S. budget deficit), the exchange
rate and the competitiveness of (U.S.) domestic industry,"
Denman said.
    He also said that Washington employed what he termed unfair
trade prctices.
    He said the European Community had recently updated a list
of some 30 U.S. trade barriers that impede EC exports.
    "We did not circulate this list with any hostile or
aggressive intent. We did so to set the record straight," Denman
said.
 Reuter

Tunisia has launched a fresh buying tender
for 200,000 tonnes of French soft wheat for tomorrow for
shipping between July and September, trade sources said.
    Tunisia has in recent weeks cancelled several tenders,
which are covered by the French government's COFACE export
credits.
 Reuter

The premiers of Canada's
eastern provinces and the governors of America's New England
states urged development of Canada's offshore oil and gas
fields and construction of a pipeline from Nova Scotia to New
England.
    Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford, speaking to the annual
conference of New England and eastern Canadian leaders, said
development would prevent a repetition of the energy crisis of
the early 1970s.
    The group also agreed to discuss energy and security of
supply next spring.
    Drilling off Canada's Atlantic coast has stalled since
world oil prices began tumbling two years ago. The resolution
supporting a natural gas pipeline from Nova Scotia to New
England has been on the agenda for six years, and this is the
sixth year it has been approved.
    The two-day conference ends tomorrow.
 Reuter

USX Corp said it and Worthington
Industries <WTHG.O> Inc's Worthingon Specialty Products steel
processing plant in Jackson, Mich., has recently reached
production at the levels for which it was designed.
    The company said the 600,000 short ton per year plant is
designed to provide automotive, appliance and other customers
with first-stage processed steel for just-in-time delivery.
    It opened in August 1986, just as USX was beginning a
six-month labor dispute. USX is sourcing the plant with coils
from its Gary, Ind., works and Mon Valley Works near
Pittsburgh, and Worthington is operating the plant.
 Reuter

Bonn is expected to rush through
legislation this month creating special credits to protect West
German farmers from a proposed European Community, EC, payments
freeze, government sources said.
    The new measures are apparently designed to shield West
German farmers from the consequences of the looming EC budget
crisis and give Bonn scope to keep up its opposition to the EC
executive commission's farm policy reform plans, political
    EC finance and farm minsters held an unprecedented joint
session in Luxembourg today to try to solve the stalemate over
future farm financing.
    West Germany has proved the main obstacle to Commission
attempts to raise fresh funds for farm financing by taxing
imports of vegetable oil and fats, for fear of U.S.
    Bonn has also opposed the abolition of an agri-monetary
mechanism that acts as a subsidy for West German farm exports.
    The draft legislation, which the ruling centre-right
coalition will present to parliament tomorrow, would provide
temporary credits for farm subsidies usually paid by Brussels.
    The Commission, facing a five billion European Currency
Units (5.73 billion dlrs) budget deficit by the end of the
year, has threatened to start phasing out payment of some
subsidies and premiums from August, unless EC member states
take urgent measures to provide fresh funds.
    West German Agriculture Minister Ignaz Kiechle gave the new
legislation top priority after last month's failure to agree to
a farm price package for 1986/87.
    Political sources in Bonn said Kiechle decided to take the
sting out of proposed Commission measures to cut back subsidies
by creating a buffer for West German farmers.
    The opposition SPD has agreed to back the Kiechle bill and
allow its hasty passage through parliament by July 1, ahead of
the summer recess, SPD sources said.
    SPD farm policy spokesman Jan Oostergetelo said his party
would support the bill, even though it would further swell
massive government spending on agriculture. He said the bill
was an admission that the government believes the farm price
talks will fail and the EC faces bankruptcy.
    According to a copy of the draft bill obtained by Reuters,
government authorities will have over two billion marks (1.1
billion dlrs) available to pay farmers advance subsidies and
premiums for grains and other crops harvested this summer.
    The Commission has agreed to pay the subsidies eventually.
But paying farmers on time will cost Bonn about 100 mln marks
(55 mln dlrs) in interest payments, farm policy sources said.
    Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet is expected to support the
bill when it meets tomorrow.
 Reuter

Treasury Secretary James
Baker said any further decline in the dollar against other
currencies would be counterproductive.
    Baker was asked after a speech to the Pan American Economic
Leadership Conference about U.S. policy in light of President
Reagan's comment last week at the Venice summit that he could
see some further decline in the dollar within reason.
    "All of the G-7 nations believe that any further decline in
the dollar would be counterproductive," Baker told reporters.
    Following the Venice press conference by Reagan, the White
House clarified Reagan's comments on the dollar by saying that
the United States wants a stable dollar.
    The main incentive for the United States to favor a weaker
dollar has been the need to reduce the massive trade deficit,
but the deficit has narrowed for the past two months and
appears to be responding to the 40 pct drop in the dollar
against the yen and the mark during the past two years.
 Reuter

Commercial hedgers increased their
stake in sales of U.S. crude oil and heating oil futures during
May, according to a U.S. federal agency report.
    Trade hedgers accounted for 64.7 pct of open short
positions in May, compared with 58.2 pct in April, and added
5,700 new sales in May, while liquidating almost 11,000
purchases, the report said.
    Speculators, in contrast, saw a decline in share of crude
oil shorts in May. May spec shorts totaled 13.6 pct versus 25.6
pct in April. The report was prepared by the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission.                                   
     In heating oil futures, commercial users accounted for
68.7 pct of short postions in May versus 58.2 pct in April and
added 311 new short positions.
    Gasoline futures saw little change in the percentage of
short or long positions held by commercial users, speculators,
or small traders, according to the CFTC report. Trade users 
accounted for 72.5 pct of short gasoline futures positions in
May, compared with a revised 75.7 pct in April.
 New York Mercantile Exchange
 Commitments of traders, May 29, 1987
             SPECULATOR   SPREADERS HEDGERS   TOTAL
           LONG SHRT LONG SHRT LONG SHRT LONG SHRT
 HEATING   16.1  5.7 2.5  2.5  49.7 68.7 68.2 76.8
  OIL      SMALL TRADERS - long 31.8 short 23.2
 UNLEADED  10.8  4.0 7.0  7.0  64.4 72.5 82.3 83.6
  GAS      SMALL TRADERS - long 17.7 short 16.4
 CRUDE     15.1 13.6 5.5  5.5  61.2 64.7 81.8 83.8
  OIL      SMALL TRADERS - long 18.2 short 16.2
 Reuter

Bear Automotive Service
Equipment Co said its common stock will begin trading June 16
on the NASDAQ National Market System.
    The company manufactures computerized electronic diagnostic
and wheel alignment equipment.
 Reuter

The West German Government will be asked
June 16 to provide nearly 850 million marks (470 million
dollars) to lay off or retrain 20,000 steel workers whose jobs
are threatened by the recent slump in the country's steel
industry.
    Government spokesman Friedhelm Ost said Chancellor Helmut
Kohl will review a joint proposal by steel employers and trade
unions at a meeting on the ailing industry tomorrow.
    Both steel employers and union leaders are expected to tell
Kohl tomorrow that the Government has failed to do enough to
protect German steel firms from subsidies and unfair
competition from other European Community members.
    Government sources said Bonn was prepared to take part in a
common effort to find a solution for the steelworkers. But
since the Government is struggling to finance tax cuts by
slashing state subsidies, it is not prepared to pick up the
whole bill for the layoffs, the sources said.
    A spokesman for IG Metall, the metalworkers' trade union,
said the proposal seeks redundancy payments to 10,000 workers
in Ruhr and Rhineland plants. Some 6,000 workers would be
redeployed in non-steel making sectors of steel companies,
while a further 4,000 would be eligible for job-retraining
schemes.
    The union estimates that the redundancy payments would
total 600 million marks (340 million dollars), while job
retraining schemes would cost a further 240 million marks (130
million dollars).
    Up to 30,000 West German steel jobs are at risk in the next
few years following steep losses incurred by the industry since
mid-1986.
    Extensive restructuring of the industry in recent years was
unable to compensate for the effects of the weak dollar which
depressed foreign demand for steel, industry sources said.
 Reuter

The U.S. corn and soybean crops are
in mostly good condition and have not suffered any yield
deterioration from recent hot, dry weather, Agriculture
Department and private weather and crop analysts said.
    "I don't see any reduction in yield potential yet," Norton
Strommen, chief meteorologist at USDA told Reuters. "The (corn
and soybean) crop is actually in mostly good condition and is
progressing ahead of normal, which is good," he said.
    Abnormally hot, dry weather in midwestern crop areas
sparked a sharp rally in Chicago futures today, causing new
crop soybeans to advance the 30 cent daily limit to 6.14 dlrs
per bushel and September corn to go up 12 cents to 2.81 dlrs.
    "This rally is amazing," a private crop analyst said. "Corn,
soybeans and wheat are in excellent condition."
    The USDA meteorologist said the only effects of the warm,
dy weather on crops so far has probably been to speed up
development of the crop, which will help the crop better cope
with stress later in its more critical growing period.
    "What this weather will do is simply push the crop towards
rapid development of a good, deep root system to draw on the
subsoil reserve. It actually strengthens the crop to go through
a little stress early on," Strommen said.
    Strommen noted that subsoil moisture is in good shape in
most growing areas.
    Strommen and other private crop analysts noted corn and
soybeans will not enter their critical growth stages until July
and August.
    But because of its early development this year, Strommen
said the midwestern corn crop could enter its reproduction
period by the first of July.
    "Weatherwise, if the market is truly concerned about corn or
soybeans, it should be more concerned about corn. But the
dryness still has to last for another two to three weeks," an
    Soybeans, on the other hand, can withstand several more
weeks of dryness before yields start deteriorating, crop
analysts agreed.
    August and September are the critical yield-producing
months for soybeans, Strommen said.
    "The sole purpose of the soybean plant is to simply survive
during May, June and July until the August rains which
determine the crop," a crop analyst said.
    Some analysts contend, however, that in certain growing
areas the crop has not been receiving enough moisture to ensure
that there will not be problems later.
    Strommen noted the USDA's current six to 10 day weather
forecast calls for above normal temperatures and below normal
precipitation in much of the corn belt.
    "This opens up all sorts of speculation," he said.
 Reuter

Hot, dry weather over the Midwest, with
more forecast, pushed grain futures prices to new highs today
on the Chicago Board of Trade.
    Soybean futures led the advance, closing up the
30-cent-per-bushel daily trading limit in contracts for
delivery after this year's fall harvest. All months set
life-of-contract highs and November closed at 6.23 dlrs a
bushel.
    "The market is anticipating that it will stay hotter than
normal for some time out," said David Bartholomew, assistant
vice president for Merrill Lynch. "We have probably gone as
high as we need to go at this time, but I don't know how to
measure the euphoria level."
    Soymeal futures, which led the grain rally last week,
posted contract highs and ended up the 10 dlr a ton daily limit
in new-crop contracts. December closed at 195.70 dlrs.
    Corn futures set contract highs in March through September,
with December closing up the 10 cent a bushel limit at 2.11-3/4
dlrs. Wheat posted more modest gains as dry weather improved
harvest conditions in the southern Midwest.
    The hot weather could stress developing corn and soybean
plants in the Midwest, although some periods of dryness benefit
young plants by encouraging the development of deep root
systems, Bartholomew said.
    European demand for U.S. soybeans and meal contributed to
active buying here and an estimated 2.0 mln bushels of soybean
orders went unfilled at the close, traders said.
    After trading ended, a U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA)
meteorologist said the U.S. corn and soybean crops have not
suffered any yield loss yet from hot, dry weather.
    Strong grain futures ignored weakness in the value of the
dollar, which can depress prices by making grains more
expensive for foreign buyers.
    But the surge in soybeans encouraged buying at New York's
COMEX, where silver futures recovered from early lows to settle
steady.
    Managed fund traders bought silver on the belief that the
weather-spurred jump in grain futures will revive fears of
inflation. But the weak dollar pressured COMEX gold futures,
which closed down following last Friday's news of improved U.S.
trade deficit figures and better U.S. producer prices.
    A USDA report released after trading said the number of
cattle being fed in seven major producing states was above
levels expected by traders. Traders said the report would
probably push live cattle futures lower tomorrow at the Chicago
    USDA put cattle-on-feed in the seven major states at 7.52
mln head, 106 pct of a year ago and at the high end of trade
    A total of 1.954 mln head were placed on feed during May,
up 111 pct from a year ago, and May cattle marketings were off
93 pct at 1.524 mln head, USDA said.
    Cattle futures closed mixed in choppy trading today as hot
weather slowed consumer demand for red meat, traders said.
 Reuter

consented to its removal from the American Stock Exchange due
to its failure to meet financial listing requirements.
    The last day for Spendthrift trading shall be June 26.
    The company also said its board named Dale McDoulett,
formerly president of Diamond Shamrock International Petroleum
Co, as president replacing Robert Hagopian who resigned
February 7.
 Reuter

Noranda Inc said contract talks that
resumed today were continuing with about 1,600 unionized
workers at its 63 pct-owned Brunswick Mining and Smelter Corp
<BMS.TO> lead-zinc mine and lead smelter at Bathurst, New
Brunswick.
    A Noranda official said in reply to an inquiry that the
talks involved both the mine and smelter union locals, which
are part of the United Steelworkers of America.
    The mineworkers' contract expires July 1. They will vote on
June 22 either to authorize a strike or ratify a possible
contract offer. The smelter workers' pact expires July 21.
    The Brunswick mine produced 413,800 tonnes of zinc and
206,000 tonnes of lead last year at a recovery rate of 70.5 pct
zinc and 55.6 pct lead. Concentrates produced were 238,000
tonnes of zinc and 81,000 tonnes of lead.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd has no
contract negotiations scheduled this week with any of the five
striking locals at the Trail smelter and Kimberley lead-zinc
mine, union spokesmen said.
    However, leaders of the negotiating teams are trying to set
up an informal meeting to discuss the stalemate, said John
Owens, spokesman for United Steelworkers of America local 480,
which is one of three locals that represents 2,600 production
and maintenance workers.
    Owens also said Cominco has said the strike is costing it
five mln Canadian dlrs a day in debt service costs that are not
covered by revenue. He said the company has not estimated total
lost revenue and Cominco spokesmen were not immediately
    The strike, which began May nine, also involves two locals
that represent 600 office and technical workers.
    The production and maintenance workers three weeks ago
rejected a tentative three-year agreement that provided cost of
living adjustments but no basic wage increase.
110,000 long tons of lead last year. The Sullivan mine at
processing at the Trail smelter.
 Reuter

opportunity to sell 170,000 tonnes of wheat to West African
countries under the Export Enhancement Program, the U.S.
    It said in addition to Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana
and Togo, four more countries -- Burkina Faso, Gabon, Liberia
and Niger -- have been declared eligible under the initiative.
    The export sales will be subsidized with commodities from
the inventory of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), it
said.
    West African countries have already purchased 129,500
tonnes of wheat under previously announced export bonus
programs, it noted.
 Reuter

Noranda Inc said contract talks resumed
with about 1,600 unionized workers at its 63 pct-owned
Brunswick Mining and Smelter Corp lead-zinc mine and lead
smelter at Bathurst, New Brunswick.
    A Noranda official said talks involved both the mine and
smelter union locals, which are part of the United Steelworkers
of America.
 Reuter

The glitter of gold has generated a
three-way competition among the world's largest futures
exchanges for a 100-ounce contract for the precious metal.
    When the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) re-introduces
gold futures trading here Tuesday (at 9 a.m. CDT), it will go
toe-to-toe in an uphill battle against the Commodity Exchange
Inc. of New York (Comex), which brokerage executives describe
as the world's precious metals futures capital for
institutional business.
    And by autumn, the oldest and biggest exchange, the Chicago
Board of Trade (CBT), expects to join the fray when the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approves a pending
application for a 100-ounce gold contract to trade side-by-side
with the CBT's smaller, one kilogram (about 2.5 U.S. pounds)
gold futures.
    The CME introduced a 100-ounce gold futures contract in
1974, but lack of interest forced it to abandon the instrument
in July 1986.
    CME officials said investors and brokerage firms asked the
exchange to reintroduce the contract because of recent
volatility in precious metals. Other factors influencing the
decision may also have been clearing problems in May which
forced the Comex to shorten trading for three straight days in
an effort to clear up a huge backlog of unresolved trades,
especially in silver futures.
    Comex's problems may now create a window of opportunity for
other exchanges to successfully offer precious metals
contracts, industry sources say.
    But it is much too early to predict whether other exchanges
can inflict serious damage on the Comex' daily trading volume
of more than 40,000 contracts which represents commitments to
buy and sell gold of more than 2 billion dlrs.
    While average daily trading in the CBT's smaller gold
contract, aimed at retail customers rather than institutions,
was under 500 contracts per day throughout 1986, it has
surpassed 1,000 contracts daily for the past two months.
    "The climate could not be better for this venture by the
CME," said Merrill Lynch Commodity Marketing Vice President Neil
McGarrity.
    "Everybody is talking about metals now, and interesting
daily trading ranges provide opportunities for bulls and bears.
There's good trading volume in all world outlets," McGarrity
added.
    "The Merc's gold futures would be insurance for dealers,
merchants and customers that there would be a market open for
trading," if heavy gold or silver futures volume causes the
Comex to close early again, said Jack Lehman, senior vice
president and director of commodities for Shearson Lehman Bros.
Inc. and a Comex board member.
    Delivery points vary for each exchange's 100-ounce gold
futures. Comex contracts are deliverable through New York
warehouses while the CME contract specifies London delivery
through a CME account at Samuel Montagu and Co. Ltd., a member
of the London gold market. The CBT gold application specifies
delivery from New York and Chicago vaults.
    The Comex and the CBT have applied to the CFTC for an
earlier precious metals opening to match the CME's starting
time of 7:20 a.m. CDT. The exchanges said the earlier start
allows for trading before many important government reports are
released at 7:30 a.m. CDT.
    CME marketing sources said arbitrage possibilities exist
with side-by-side trading, noting local interests can be
generated by traders dealing in foreign currency and short-term
debt futures along with gold futures contracts to further hedge
their financial risks.
    "If the dollar rises, traders can sell currencies and buy
gold," said David Johnson, CME's manager of currency products.
    The Chicago Board of Trade sees an extra advantage to gold
trading. "Given our night trading session, we could add either
our pending 100-ounce gold or our existing 5,000-ounce silver
contract to attract overseas business," a CBT official said.
    Which market is identified as the precious metal capital
does not appear to be a major issue among professionals.
    "We've seen Chicago bring in a new constituency before, with
perhaps different needs," Mocatta Metals Chairman Dr. Henry
Jarecki said.
    "Merchants will go to the CME or anywhere to trade a liquid
contract. Our firm is no exception," Jarecki said.
    "At worst, even if the CME gold futures fail, the Comex will
be under pressure to improve the integrity of its clearing
processes," a CME official added.
 Reuter

up an informal meeting to discuss the stalemate, John Owens,
spokesman for United Steelworkers of America local 480 said.
    Owens said Cominco has said the strike, which began May 9,
is costing it five mln Canadian dlrs a day in debt service
costs that are not covered by revenue. He said the company has
not estimated total lost revenue.
    Cominco spokesmen were not immediately available for
comment.
 Reuter

Conservation Service announced several temporary steps to
enable it to respond more quickly to the high demand for
Commodity Credit Corp.-owned soybeans.
    The CCC has suspended its practice of contacting storing
warehousemen before selling soybeans for cash to a third party,
said Collyn Peterson, deputy director in the ASCS Kansas City
office.
    In addition, he said, minimum quantities for sales will be
25,000 bushels, or all of a warehouse total inventory if less
than that.
     ASCS has added telephone lines to handle calls from those
interested in buying soybeans, Peterson said.
 Reuter

President Reagan today sent a
classified report to Congress on his plan to protect Kuwaiti
oil tankers with U.S. military escorts.
    Congressional officials said the report, received by House
Speaker Jim Wright and Senate majority leader Robert Byrd, will
not be made public.
    Congress has demanded a detailed security plan on how U.S.
warships and servicemen would be protected from possible attack
in the Gulf region, scene of the prolonged war between Iran and
Iraq.
Administration intended to push ahead with the plan despite
strong opposition in Congress.
    He said the report to Congress provided a comprehensive
overview of Administration strategy in the Gulf, adding the
military escort plan would begin "when the President was
satisfied that all preparations had been completed
satisfactorily".
    Fitzwater did not say when this might be, but denied the
protection plan was being held up.
 Reuter

Ecuador is accepting bids from companies
wishing to explore for crude oil in a 1.2-million-hectare area
in the southeast of the country, a spokesman for the Ecuadorian
State Oil Company (CEPE) said.
    The spokesman said companies have until October 15 to
present their bids and until the middle of next year to sign
    Competitors may bid for six alternative 200,000-hectare
areas, in the southeast forest bordering Peru and in the
western coastal plain around the Pacific.
     Petrocanada will start by drilling two exploratory wells
in a 200,000 hectare area.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) executive
Commission will today urgently consider whether to take a new
initiative to break the current deadlock over reform of the
bloc's farm policy and to ease its budgetary crisis.
    The Commission will meet in Strasbourg following what
diplomats described as a largely fruitless special joint
meeting of farm and finance ministers on the issue in
Luxembourg Monday.
    Commission officials said farm commissioner Frans
Andriessen will ask the 17-man body for permission to present
farm ministers with a compromise plan revising proposals for
1987/88 farm prices which have divided them since they were
first announced in March.
    The most controversial aspects of these proposals are a
plan to tax all vegetable and marine oils and fats to finance
rapidly increasing production subsidies and technical measures
which would change the way common EC farm prices are converted
into member state currencies.
    West German delegation sources, who have opposed both plans
fiercely, said if the Commission dropped the oils and fats tax
plan and modified the currency proposals, there would be a
chance of agreement on other aspects of the package.
      These include measures to cut the effective price paid to
farmers for cereals and some other crops by over 10 pct.
      But a Commission spokesman said any new proposals would
include plans for revising the current oils and fats and
currency regulations.
     The Commission is anxious to avoid a complete deadlock in
meetings of EC farm ministers here this week as it fears issues
could then be referred to the EC heads of government summit at
the end of the month.
    Commission president Jacques Delors, who wants to ensure
the summit has ample time to consider proposals for new means
of financing the cash-strapped EC, said yesterday it would be
"disastrous" if farm issues had to be discussed by government
leaders.
    However, with a five billion European Currency Unit (5.75
billion dollar) EC budget deficit almost inevitable this year,
the Commission will be wary of making major concessions to the
traditionally free-spending farm ministers, diplomats said
    Belgian finance minister Mark Eyskens, who chaired
yesterday's joint meeting of ministers, said afterwards some
aspects of the farm price package will almost certainly have to
be referred to the summit.
    Although Delors' aides described the joint meeting as
useful in clarifying the issues, some diplomats said it seemed
to have merely confirmed member states' long held positions.
    Indeed, they said an extra state, Spain, seemed to have
lined up with the four others already opposing the oils and
fats tax, West Germany, Britain, Denmark and Portugal.
 Reuter

The growing shift of low-skilled
manufacturing jobs from the United States to Mexican border
cities is not a threat to American employment because it will
help create new markets for products, according to a study
    Richard Bolin, director of the Flagstaff Institute of
Arizona, which studies international trade issues, said the
United States needs to encourage the expansion of manufacturing
in developing countries so that those nations can become
consumers of more U.S. goods.
    His study was commissioned by the border city of McAllen,
Texas, for presentation to the International Trade Commission
which is gathering information for a report to Congress on what
changes may be needed in the U.S. tariff codes to prevent the
loss of jobs and industry.
    McAllen and other Texas border cities have benefitted from
a trend among U.S. companies to build twin plants that employ
factory workers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
    More than 700 manufacturers are taking advantage of lenient
tax codes that allow U.S. companies to bring raw goods into
Mexico for assembly by low-skilled workers into products that
are completed by U.S. workers at a nearby sister plant.
    Bolin said his research indicated that the shift in
low-paying jobs across the border reflected changing
demographics of the U.S. workforce.
    "In the post-baby boom era, fewer workers will be available
to fill these low-skill jobs -- and these workers will be
better educated than prior generations," Bolin told reporters in
McAllen.
    "The jobs in low-tech industries that are being exported to
other countries are, for the most part, jobs that we may not be
able to fill in the future."
    U.S. employment in less-skilled manufacturing jobs plunged
by more than 900,000 between 1977 and 1982, largely due to the
transfer of jobs outside U.S. borders, he said. American
employment in high-tech industries increased by 634,000 during
the same period, he said.
    But high-tech industries, those in which engineers make up
more than six percent of the workforce, pay higher wages and
generate more U.S. exports than low-tech businesses, he said.
 Reuter

The dollar should worth more than 170 yen
based on purchasing power parity, the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry (MITI) said in its annual white paper on
international trade.
    Using 1973 as a base year, the ministry said inflation
differentials pointed to a yen/dollar rate of 172 in fourth
quarter 1986. The dollar opened here today at 144.90 yen.
    MITI also said the so-called "J-curve" and the drop in oil
prices together accounted for 33.2 billion dlrs of the 36.6
billion dlr rise in Japan's trade surplus last year.
    On a customs cleared basis, the Japanese trade surplus rose
to a record 82.66 billion dlrs last year.
    The ministry said the fall in oil prices accounted for 16.5
billion dlrs and the "J-curve" 17.2 billion dlrs of the rise in
the 1986 surplus.
    Analyzing the expansion in Japan's trade imbalance in
recent years, MITI calculated that 37 pct of it could be
accounted for by exchange rates, 24 pct by differences in
economic growth rates between Japan and other countries, and 36
pct by so-called price elasticities of imports and exports.
    Analyzing the expansion in the U.S. Trade deficit from 1982
to 1985, the ministry said 24 pct was accounted for by exchange
rates, 34 pct by differences in the income elasticity of
imports and exports and 39 pct by differences in economic
growth rates. The figures do not tally to 100 pct because other
minor factors have been left out.
    "One index of trade structure, the income elasticity of
exports and imports, shows that the U.S. Is more likely to
experience increases in imports, while Japan is structurally
predisposed to growth in exports," MITI said.
    Structural adjustment is already underway in Japan, under
the impact of the strong yen, MITI said. Japanese companies are
stepping up their imports and expanding capacity overseas.
    Japanese consumer attitudes are also changing. The ministry
cited a survey showing that price was now the number one factor
in the purchase of imports from the U.S. And Western Europe,
replacing design and brand reputations.
    "The smooth adjustment of the economic structure calls for
measures to address the needs of affected firms," it said. "Whole
industries have felt the pinch and employment is expected to
suffer."
    "Sustained economic growth, led by domestic demand, will
also be an essential condition," the ministry said.
    It said four structural factors have contributed to the
growth of the U.S. Trade deficit in recent years -- a decline
in U.S. Industrial competitiveness, insufficient productive
capacity, an increase in foreign procurement by U.S. Companies
and short-sighted U.S. Management attitudes.
    "While (U.S.) exports have picked up somewhat with the
dollar's fall in value, no marked improvements have appeared in
the import picture," MITI said.
 REUTER

The Japanese economy has bottomed out
after an extended period of stagnation, Finance Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa told a press conference.
    But he said he was not too optimistic about the state of
the economy as the employment situation was still shaky in
certain regions of the country.
    Yesterday, the Finance Ministry said its quarterly
corporate survey showed that the economy was showing increasing
signs of recovery.
 REUTER

The Central Bank has issued 8.29 billion
Taiwan dlrs worth of certificates of deposit (CDs), raising
total CD issues so far this year to 228.27 billion, a bank
    The CDs, with maturities of six months, one and two years,
bear interest rates ranging from 4.05 to 5.25 pct, she said.
money supply which is expanding due to the rise in Taiwan's
foreign exchange reserves, now at some 60 billion U.S. Dlrs.
 REUTER

Treasurer Paul Keating said he now
expected the Australian current account deficit for fiscal
1986/87 ending June 30 to come in around 13.25 billion dlrs.
    In a statement released after Statistics Bureau figures
showed the May deficit was below forecasts at 866 mln dlrs,
Keating said the cumulative deficit is now likely to be about
1.5 billion dlrs below the Treasury forecast of 14.75 billion
issued with the 1986/87 Budget papers last August.
    However, the government had subsequently revised the
forecast to around 13.75 billion dlrs after a series of current
account figures indicated a declining trend.
    Keating's revised 1986/87 current account deficit forecast
compares with a record shortfall of 14.40 billion dlrs in
1985/86, a level nearly double the 7.29 billion deficit
recorded only two years earlier in 1983/84.
    Keating said the main reason for his revision was a
better-than-expected export performance. Recent quarterly
figures showed export volumes rose 14.4 pct in the half-year to
March 30 while import volumes rose only 0.9 pct, he said.
    The Bureau data issued today showed the cumulative deficit
for the first 11 months of 1986/87 narrowed to 12.32 billion
dlrs from 13.21 billion a year earlier.
 REUTER

The Panama Canal, one of the world's
key maritime crossroads, has not been affected by the recent
anti-government protests here, a spokesman for the
U.S.-government agency that operates the waterway said.
    "Everything's normal here. It (the canal) is running
efficiently and everything is going well," said Anel Beliz,
spokesman for the Panama Canal Commission.
    The commission was monitoring the situation and
contingencies exist to ensure continued operation, he said.
Unconfirmed reports said several shipping lines had ordered
their vessels away from Panama until further notice.
 REUTER

Uruguayan suppliers have agreed to supply
Taiwan with only 25,000 tonnes of soybeans out of a total
70,000 tonnes agreed in April, a spokesman for the joint
committee of Taiwan's soybean importers told Reuters.
    He said a rise in world prices had made the Uruguayans
reluctant to ship any soybeans at the agreed price of 226.56
U.S. Dlrs per tonne.
    The Uruguayans agreed to supply part of the shipment after
the Taiwan committee threatened last week to cancel the order,
but they postponed delivery to July 1-20 from the original June
5-25, the committee spokesman said.
    Government sources in Montevideo confirmed that Uruguayan
grain exporting firms would ask Taiwan to reconsider prices on
the soybeans but said the government would not intervene in the
dispute.
    "The deal was agreed to between two private companies,
without any participation whatsoever from the Uruguayan
government," Uruguyan Agriculture Ministry spokesman Andres
Bonino said.
    He added, "Uruguay is not going to export 70,000 tonnes of
soybeans, since total production this year has been lower than
that figure."
    The contract called for the Uruguayans to deliver the
70,000 tonnes in two shipments between June 5 and August 10.
    Taiwan's ambassador in Montevideo, Henry Wang, told
reporters, "Both countries are finishing details to arrive at a
satisfactory price."
    He said the price would be "very advantageous (for Uruguay)
because it will be above the international price."
    Taiwan bought some 36,000 tonnes of soybean last year,
making it Uruguay's biggest customer for the oilseed.
    Taiwan's joint committee holds a tender today for two
shipments of U.S. Soybeans totalling 87,000 tonnes.
 REUTER

The Venice summit accord gives the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased responsibility in
smoothing vital economic cooperation between industrial
countries, a senior IMF official said.
    The official, who met reporters but asked not to be
identified, made clear that the use of a series of economic
measurements to monitor the seven leading industrial
democracies would be difficult but was a major step in
cooperation.
    The United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain,
Italy and Canada agreed at the summit to use a series of
economic indicators to forecast economic behaviour in an
attempt to increase cooperation on economic policy.
    The setting of a formal process of review, while seen as a
step forward in the cooperative effort, was also criticised
because it lacked teeth to force a country to change economic
behaviour that hurt other countries.
    But the official said influences and peer pressure could
have a major impact in reforming an erring country.
    Economists generally believe a cooperative economic
approach by the largest countries will have a salutory impact
on the global economy, including helping the poorest debtor
    The official said the IMF function would be to warn
countries when their economic behaviour was straying badly and
try to persuade them to modify it. "I hope it will be a yellow
light, not a red flag," he said.
    He also said he hoped negotiations would begin in the next
few weeks to increase the IMF's structural adjustment facility,
which helps 62 of the world's poorest countries.
    The facility, approved about 15 months ago, is currently
financed at about 3.8 billion dlrs, but this would be tripled
under the plan.
    He said reaching an accord on the agreement would be very
difficult, with countries pressing each other to do more and
finding reasons to reduce their own exposure. "They will be
tremendously difficult negotiations," he said.
 REUTER

Taiwan's target for sugar production in
the 1987/88 season (November/May) has been set at 600,000
tonnes, up from the 479,200 tonnes harvested in 1986/87, a
spokesman for the state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corp told Reuters.
    He said the increase was to meet rising local consumption,
estimated at about 500,000 tonnes in calendar 1988 against
470,000 tonnes in 1987. Taiwan would have a surplus for export
of about 100,000 tonnes in 1988, he said.
    In 1987 Taiwan would have no exportable sugar for the first
time in 40 years because of typhoon damage to more than 6,000
hectares of canefield in 1986, he said.
 REUTER

Mount Isa Mines Ltd <MIMA.S> said it
raised its copper prices by 20 dlrs to 2,220 dlrs per tonne for
cathodes and to 2,387.50 dlrs per tonne for standard rods,
effective June 17.
 REUTER

Japanese crushers have so far bought
50,000 tonnes of Canadian rapeseed for shipment in late
July/August and total purchases for the period are likely to be
around 130,000 tonnes, trade sources said.
    Crushers reduced their Canadian purchases for late June and
July to 111,000 from 120,000 tonnes due to seasonal maintenance
work at oil mills.
    But estimated crushers' buying for July/August was slightly
above monthly average and is likely to keep to this level for a
while due to a better crushing margin compared with that of
soybeans, they said.
 REUTER

South Korea's energy consumption rose nine
pct to 61.07 mln tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 1986 from
56.0 mln in 1985, energy ministry officials told Reuters.
    They said oil accounted for 46.7 pct of energy consumption
in 1986 against 48.5 pct in 1985. Anthracite accounted for 21.0
pct against 21.5 pct, bituminous coal 16.5 pct against 17.3 pct
and nuclear power 11.6 pct against 7.5 pct.
    The amount spent on energy imports in 1986 was 4.53 billion
dlrs against 6.54 billion dlrs in 1985, they said, with much of
the difference between the two years due to changes in the
price of oil.
 REUTER

Japan's gross national product (gnp) rose
a real 1.2 pct in the January/March quarter after a downwardly
revised 0.7 pct increase in the previous three months, the
Economic Planning Agency said.
    The October/December rise was originally put at 0.8 pct.
    For the fiscal year ended last March 31, gnp rose 2.6 pct,
after a 4.3 pct increase in 1985/86. Last year's performance
was the worst since 1974/75, when gnp contracted by 0.4 pct,
and was below the government's revised three pct forecast.
    Economists said the strong yen was largely to blame for the
slowdown in economic growth in 1986/87.
    Domestic demand increased 0.7 pct in the January/March
quarter and 4.3 pct in the fiscal year, compared with growth of
0.6 pct in October/December and 3.7 pct in 1985/86.
    The annualized growth rate in the January/March quarter
accelerated to 4.9 pct, from 2.9 pct in October/December.
    In nominal terms, gnp rose 0.7 pct in January/March, after
a 0.5 pct October/December rise, reflecting lower prices.
    Domestic demand contributed 0.7 percentage point to real
gnp growth in January/March, while foreign trade added 0.5
point. In October/December domestic demand contributed 0.6
point, while foreign trade added 0.2 point.
    Of the 0.5 point contribution of foreign trade to gnp last
quarter, rising exports accounted for 0.3 point and falling
imports contributed 0.2.
    Total export volume rose 2.0 pct quarter-on-quarter in
January/March, while imports fell 1.2 pct.
    Of the 0.7 point contribution of domestic demand to
January/March gnp growth, the private sector accounted for 1.1
point while the public sector knocked off 0.4.
    The private sector contribution included 0.4 point for
corporate capital outlays and 1.0 for consumer spending, while
destocking subtracted 0.3 point.
    In 1986/87, domestic demand contributed 4.1 percentage
points to growth while foreign trade knocked off 1.5 points.
    In 1985/86, the domestic demand contribution was 3.6 points
and foreign trade 0.7 point.
 REUTER

Compagnie Financiere de Credit
Industriel et Commercial is raising 255 mln marks through a
six-year floating rate note (FRN) carrying a coupon of 1/8
point over six-month London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and
priced at 100.05, lead manager Morgan Stanley GmbH said.
    The bullet bond will be sold in denominations 10,000 and
250,000 marks and listed in Frankfurt. It matures on March 20,
1993. Payment date will be July 20, 1987.
    Fees total 15 basis points with five for selling and 10 for
management and underwriting combined. The bond is the first
lead-managed by Morgan Stanley in the mark sector.
 REUTER

Dowty Group Plc <DWTY.L> said it agreed
to buy <Hydraulic Units Inc> from Boeing Co <BA.N> for around
42.5 mln dlrs cash.
    The final sum payable would be adjusted according to
changes in net tangible assets between March 29 and completion,
due on July 1. Payment would be financed through medium-term
    Hydraulic reported 4.3 mln dlrs pretax profit in the year
to end-December 1986 on sales of 53.2 mln. It designs,
manufactures and sells hydraulic and mechanical systems to
airframe manufacturers.
 REUTER

A Taiwan mission plans to buy 410,000
bales (500 lbs/bale) of U.S. Cotton worth about 110 mln U.S.
Dlrs when it visits several U.S. States early next month, a
spokesman for the Taiwan Spinners Association told Reuters.
    He said a similar mission last year bought 700,000 bales
worth 77 mln dlrs.
    He said the mission was buying less U.S. Cotton because the
price is some 15 pct higher than that of cotton from Pakistan
and India. The current average price of U.S. Cotton is 75
cents/lb, but the spokesman estimated the average price will be
53 cents when the shipments are made next year.
 REUTER

average of M-2 plus certificates of deposit (CD) jumped a
preliminary 10.2 pct in May from a year earlier, the Bank of
    The increase is the largest year-on-year rise since March
1982 when the money supply gained 10.5 pct.
    The money supply had increased 9.8 pct in April.
    The seasonally adjusted average in May rose 1.0 pct from
the previous month.
    Unadjusted M-2 plus CDs were an average 347,200 billion yen
in May against 345,500 billion in April.
 REUTER

U.K. Public relations group Valin Pollin
International Plc said it had conditionally agreed to buy the
New York-based Carter Organisation Inc for up to 114.6 mln
dlrs.
    Initial payment will be 51.0 mln dlrs with further payments
based on pretax profits over the three years to end-September
1990.
    Carter is an investor relations, consultancy and proxy
solicitation firm.
    The first payment would be through the issue to the vendor,
Chairman Donald Carter, of new Valin Pollin ordinary shares.
    A total of 50 mln dlrs of these have been underwritten and
the remainder will be retained by Carter.
    In the year to end-1986 Carter made 16.0 mln dlrs on
turnover of 35.41 mln on a pro forma basis after deducting the
Chairman's salary at the rate agreed for after the group is
acquired.
    Carter has more than 300 clients, with the largest 20
acocunting for about 45 pct of total turnover.
     Valin Pollin said it also proposed to issue new ordinary
shares, some of which will be issued for cash, to finance
certain expenses of the deal as well as the final payment of
3.13 mln guilders for its Dutch unit, Valin Pollin Thomas and
Kleyn BV.
    Dealings in the company's shares were suspended ahead of
the announcement at 290p, and it said it expected trading to
restart around the end of July.
 REUTER

China's final 1986 budget deficit was
7.05 billion yuan, down from 7.05 billion given in the March
budget speech and against a surplus of 2.1 billion in 1985,
Tian Yinong, Vice Minister of Finance, said.
    The New China News Agency quoted Tian as putting total 1986
state income at 226.03 billion yuan, up from 186.6 billion in
1985, and 1986 spending at 233.08 billion, up from 184.5
billion.
    He blamed the 1986 deficit on excess demand, a rapid
increase in consumption funds and capital investment and losses
by state firms.
 REUTER

All four Japanese makers of large trucks
will stop exports to North Korea following the issue of
Japanese government guidance, company spokesmen told Reuters.
    The move responds to the U.S. Government's expression of
concern that North Korea was using Japanese-made trucks as
missile launching pads, they said.
    <Nissan Diesel Motor Co Ltd> shipped 156 vehicles including
large and mid-sized trucks and buses to North Korea in 1986
while Isuzu Motors Ltd <ISUM.T> exported more than 100 six to
eight-tonne trucks in 1986, company spokesmen said.
    A spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors Corp <MIMT.T> said it had
almost no trade with North Korea last year.
    <Hino Motors Ltd> shipped 28 five-tonne trucks in 1986, a
 REUTER

Dutch retail and services group Vendex
International <VENN.AS> has delayed its flotation from 1988 to
1990, chairman and major shareholder Anton Dreesmann said in an
interview with a Dutch financial daily.
    "We don't need a flotation yet," he told the Financieele
Dagblad, noting he wanted net profit to rise to 400 mln
guilders from last year's 302 mln before moving to the bourse.
    Dreesmann added the flotation might be speeded up if the
company should need a substantial amount of capital for an
attractive major takeover, but he had no prospects yet. Vendex
plans to pay at least 30 pct of profits in dividends.
 REUTER

forecast a golden future for the Philippines after talks on its
struggle for economic recovery and its fight against communist
insurgents.
    Speaking at a luncheon after an hour-long meeting with
President Corazon Aquino, Shultz delivered a powerful and
uncompromising endorsement of the Manila government.
    "There is a golden future out there for the Filipino people
to gain," he said. But he tempered his praise with a veiled hint
Washington's attitude might change if what it called the
current realism was seen to be diluted.
    "The political dreams of only 18 months ago are becoming the
democratic institutions of today," Shultz said. "Your economy is
developing an impressive head of steam, the insurgents are
learning that threats and intimidation will not stop the
Filipino people from voting for democracry."
    He said he had been struck by the widespread awareness of
the problems facing the Philippines.
    "No one I have met under-estimates the tasks which lie ahead
or the need to act upon them. That Filipino realism is an
essential element of American confidence in the Philippines," he
said.
    Shultz said the revolution which brought Aquino to power 18
months ago was still under way.
    He praised the efforts made by the armed forces in
combatting the communist insurgency, now in its 18th year,
adding that Aquino was also addressing the social and economic
problems fuelling the rebellion.
    Defence Minister Rafael Ileto, briefing reporters after a
separate meeting with Shultz, said the U.S. Was just as
confident as he was that the communists would be beaten.
    U.S. Officials made it clear before the start of today's
talks that they expected no dramatic developments.
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Foreign Ministers of the Association
of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they expect closer
economic ties with Japan.
    A communique issued at the end of a two-day ministerial
meeting said Asean hoped for greater Japanese investment in the
region, better access for Asean products in the Japanese market
and larger numbers of visiting Japanese tourists.
    The ministers are due to start four days of talks tomorrow
with officials of the U.S., Japan, the European Community, New
Zealand, Australia and Canada, including Secretary of State
George Shultz and Japan's Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari.
    The Asean communique noted Japan's large trade surplus,
which it said would enable Tokyo to play a greater role in the
economic development of ASEAN and in facilitating closer ASEAN
    "Japan could also help to facilitate the flow of Japanese
investments to ASEAN through the provision of attractive
financial assistance and incentives for its private sector," it
said.
    The communique also welcomed President Reagan's firm action
in vetoing trade protectionist measures in the Congress.
     The communique said the ASEAN ministers were concerned
over the proliferation of protectionist policies, pressures and
measures in developed countries, the continued depressed level
of commodity prices, the instability of exchange rates and the
lack of a comprehensive solution to the world debt situation.
 REUTER

said it began building the world's most advanced energy-saving
tanker, which consumes only 48 tonnes of fuel oil a day.
    Construction of the 258,000 dwt VLCC (very large crude
carrier) Nisseki Maru for <Tokyo Tanker Co Ltd>, a shipping arm
of Nippon Oil Co Ltd <NPOL.T>, is expected to be completed in
April 1988. It would run on the Japan/Gulf route, a company
    The statement gave no other details.
    Mitsubishi Heavy last year finished building a vlcc of
similar size, but which consumed 57 tonnes of fuel a day.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan is considering expanding
the 60 billion yen daily limit on each securities firm's
outstanding transactions in the yen call market at the request
of the securities industry, Bank of Japan sources said.
    But before doing this, the Bank is waiting to see the
effect on brokers' fund raising of the change, effective in
August, to a shorter settlement period for cash bond
transactions, the sources said.
 REUTER

Pasco Corp is issuing an 85 mln dlr
equity warrant eurobond due July 9, 1992 with an indicated
coupon of 1-5/8 pct and par pricing, lead manager Nomura
    The issue is guaranteed by Mitsubishi Bank Ltd and final
terms will be set on June 23. The selling concession is 1-1/2
pct while management and underwriting combined pay 3/4 pct.
    Payment date is July 9 and the warrants are exercisable
from July 20, 1987 until June 16, 1992.
 REUTER

Organisation of African Unity
Chairman Denis Sassou-Nguesso said Africa was unable to pay its
debts due to falling export prices.
    "Even if African countries want to pay their debts they will
not be able to," Congolese president Sassou-Nguesso told a news
conference at a meeting between foreign and African experts on
the continent's economic prospects.
    "You cannot be expected to do the impossible. All our
commodity exports, without exception and even oil, have fallen
in value on international markets," he added.
    "In these conditions can African countries continue to
respect their debt servicing?" Sassou-Nguesso asked.
    He said the debt issue would be the main subject at next
month's OAU summit in Addis Ababa and would not rule out the
possibility of a joint "debtors' revolt" there.
    "Let us wait and see," he replied when asked about the
possibility.
    Debts of sub-Saharan African countries total less than 100
billion dlrs, according to the Economic Commission for Africa
which is organising the current meeting in Nigeria's future
capital.
 REUTER

OPEC has regained its former role as
price-setter in the oil market following last year's price war,
acting OPEC Secretary General Fadhil al-Chalabi said.
    But he said he expects no short-term rise in demand for
OPEC oil, adding that market stability will mean a continued
sacrifice for the 13 OPEC member countries.
    Al-Chalabi, speaking at a university here yesterday, said
the December 1986 conference at which OPEC set an 18 dlr per
barrel reference price gave the market a signal that the
producers' group was serious.
    "It (OPEC) has no choice but to defend the price and this
has restored its credibility," said al-Chalabi, who is in
Caracas for a meeting of the OPEC Fund Board of Governors.
    Al-Chalabi said OPEC members have not exceeded the
production quotas which took effect on February 1 and spot
market prices are now near or above official OPEC prices.
    Before the December conference OPEC faced a major and basic
dilemma which led to the loss of its leadership role, he said.
"The question was, what should OPEC do? Defend the price and
risk losing its market share? Or defend its market share and
let the price drop?" he asked.
    "OPEC has chosen to stabilise the price. But the question is
how long will it be willing to keep up this painful exercise?" 
he said.
    Al-Chalabi said that despite OPEC's success in shoring up
prices and achieving discipline regarding quotas, he saw no
quick end to restraint in production.
    He also said he foresaw no increase in demand for OPEC oil
because increased non-OPEC production, combined with
conservation and the use of alternative energy sources, has
caused changes in the market which will not easily be reversed.
 REUTER

Share prices opened sharply higher,
boosted by Italian general election results which dealt a big
blow to the Communist party and bolstered the Christian
Democrats and Socialists.
    The Milan Stock Index was indicated 2.90 pct higher at 0930
GMT as all sectors were stronger. Among stocks posting early
gains at mid morning was Fiat ordinary, which was indicated
13,090 lire against yesterday's closing of 12,705. These are
provisional, not closing prices.
    Analysts said the results from Sunday's and Monday's voting
should boost the bourse in the short-term, but the market's
medium-term prospects remain clouded because of doubt over how
long it will take to form a new government.
    "The result is positive in the sense that the Communists
suffered a defeat and Italians voted for stability," director
Paolo Azzoni at Milan investment bank <ABK Spa>, told Reuters.
    Uncertainty about the election outcome and the possibility
of large Communist gains has been weighing on the bourse in the
last two weeks, brokers said.
    Final returns show the Socialists, led by former Prime
Minister Bettino Craxi, increasing their vote to 14.3 pct from
11.4 in 1983, while the Communists dropped more than three
points to 26.6 pct.
    Support for the Christian Democrats rose to 34.3 pct from
an all-time low of 32.9 in 1983.
    Carlo De Benedetti, chairman of Ing C. Olivetti EC Spa
<OLIV.MI>, commenting on the results last night on Italian
television, said "I am sure the reaction of international
markets will be extremely favourable to the electoral verdict."
    Broker Francesco Dinepi at Milan investment firm <Sige
Spa>, said some U.K. Institutional investors had placed buy
orders in Milan this morning.
    "In the medium-term, the direction of the market depends on
the Christian Democrats and Socialists resolving their
differences," said Dinepi.
     "What Italy wants is another government and quickly," added
Azzoni.
 REUTER

raise 800 mln dlrs through a Eurodollar bond with warrants in
mid-July, underwriting sources said.
    A final official decision on the issue has yet to be made
and detailed terms will be announced later, they added.
    The funds are likely to be used for investments to increase
productivity both domestically and abroad, they said.
 REUTER

Olympic Co Ltd of Tokyo is issuing 50 mln
Swiss francs of five year notes with an indicated one pct
coupon, lead manager Morgan Stanley said.
    The issue is guaranteed by Mitsubishi Trust and Banking
Corp.
    Terms will be fixed on June 22 with payment due July 9. The
warrant exercise period is from August 3, 1987 until June 30,
1992.
 REUTER

The Bundesbank could announce today
that it will lift its veto on the private holding of European
Currency Unit (ECU) liabilities, banking sources said.
    But this would probably be the only significant news from
today's council session, brought forward from its usual
Thursday date because of the Corpus Christi holiday here. The
Bundesbank is not expected to change credit policy.
    The sources said Bundesbank officials had been working out
technical and legal problems with the ECU since the subject was
discussed in the presence of federal finance minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg on May 7.
    With the primary internal work on the ECU completed,
approval from the 18-member central bank council was now
virtually a mere formality, the sources said.
    Bundesbank president Karl Otto Poehl, chairing today's
meeting, said in mid-May the remaining ECU restrictions were
likely to be lifted, allowing individuals to open ECU accounts
and incur liabilities previously mainly executed through the
Luxembourg subsidiaries of the major German banks.
    The sources said the ECU liberalisation was mainly designed
to show that West Germany was prepared to play its part in the
effort to attain European Community monetary unity by 1992.
 REUTER

The European Community is launching a 500
mln franc, 10-year bond fungible with its 600 mln franc 8-3/4
pct, April 7, 1997 issue, lead manager Banque Indosuez said.
Co-lead manager is Bank of Tokyo International.
    The issue price of the new tranche is 96-5/8 pct. Fees are
two pct, with 1-3/8 pct for selling and 5/8 pct for management
and underwriting combined including a 1/8 pct praecipuum.
    Payment date of the non-callable issue is July 7, plus
    Denominations are 10,000 and 50,000 francs and listing is
in Luxembourg and Paris.
 REUTER

Swedish industrial production rose 1.5
pct in April after a 2.2 pct fall in March and a rise of 3.8
pct in April 1986, according to preliminary figures from the
Central Bureau of Statistics.
    The bureau said the April rise occurred in most of the
sector, with the greatest advances in the paper products and
chemicals industries.
 REUTER

Government officials said the worst may be
over for the Japanese economy, after today's news of stronger
than expected growth in the January/March period.
    But private economists were not so sure and said the
economy was unlikely to achieve the government's 3.5 pct growth
forecast in the current fiscal year ending next March.
    As already reported, GNP rose 1.2 pct in the January/March
quarter, after a revised 0.7 pct increase in the previous three
months. For the fiscal year that ended last March 31, GNP
growth slowed to 2.6 pct from 4.3 pct in 1985/86.
    The government economists acknowledged that the improved
export performance in the January/March quarter was unlikely to
be repeated. The volume of exports during the period was up two
pct from the previous three months.
    The yen's rise in April to about 140 to the dollar from 150
probably resulted in a fall in exports in the April/June
    However, given the yen's recent stability, stepped-up
domestic demand should work as a driving force to push the
economy onto a path of sustainable growth, they said.
    Many private economists, though, doubt that the economy
will achieve the government's 3.5 pct growth forecast for the
1987/88 year.
    Growth in 1986/87 also fell short of the government's
forecast, which was revised downwards to three pct last
December from an original four pct.
    Domestic demand as a whole is not strong enough, except for
housing, said Johsen Takahashi, chief economist at Mitsubishi
Research Institute.
    Consumer spending is likely to remain weak as the growth in
nominal income stays low, he added.
     The rise in consumer spending in the January-March quarter
was simply a reflection of the contraction that occurred in the
preceding three months, Takahashi said.
    Private capital spending in the quarter looked strong but
this was primarily because utility companies brought forward
their 1987/88 capital investment plans into the final quarter
of 1986/87 in line with the government's economic stimulation
package announced last fall, he said.
    Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank chief economist Kosaku Furuta said he
was unable to say the economy has bottomed out, but added he
expects increasing signs of recovery in the coming months.
    Destocking is coming to an end and companies are starting
to rebuild inventories, Furuta said.
    Housing is expected to remain buoyant, backed up by lower
interest rates as well as government policies to stimulate the
sector, he said. The government's recently unveiled 6,000
billion yen economic package will also help the economy.
    But he said that the economy was unlikely to achieve the
government's 3.5 pct forecast for 1987/88, although growth
might come close to three pct.
 REUTER

The West German government today considered
demands for nearly 850 mln marks to lay off or retrain 20,000
steel workers.
Kohl reviewed a joint proposal by steel employers and trade
unions at a special meeting with steel industry
representatives.
    Companies like Fried Krupp <KRPG.D> and Hoesch Werke AG
<HWKG.F>, which saw profits plunge last year, have taken the
unusual step of aligning with the metalworkers' trade union, IG
Metall, to press for government finance to slim staff levels
still further.
    Government officials said Bonn was prepared to take part in
a common effort to find a solution for the steelworkers. But
since the government was struggling to finance tax cuts by
reducing state subsidies, it could not pay for all the layoffs.
    A spokesman for IG Metall said the joint proposal foresaw
redundancy payments to 10,000 workers in Ruhr and Rhineland
plants. Some 6,000 workers would be redeployed in non-steel
making sectors of steel companies, while a further 4,000 would
be eligible for job-retraining schemes. Redundancies are
estimated at 600 mln marks, while job retraining would cost a
further 240 mln.
 REUTER

Next year is likely to see a shortfall
in zinc concentrates of up to 100,000 tonnes, although there
should be ample supply in 1987, Shearson Lehman Brothers Ltd
metals analyst Stephen Briggs said.
    Speaking on the second day of Metal Bulletin's base metals
conference, Briggs said the major factor in his predicted
100,000 tonne shortfall in zinc concentrate supply in 1988 was
the imminent cessation of new mining and termination of milling
at Pine Point in Canada.
    However, this could be partially offset by some stockpiles.
    Nevertheless, despite this predicted shortfall there was
unlikely to be any dramatic change in treatment charges in
1988. The picture for 1987, on the other hand, was one of
record production of zinc metal with fewer strikes anticipated
in Canada, some improvement in South America and new capacity
in South Korea.
    "Dramatic new record levels of concentrate output are also
expected in 1987," Briggs said.
    This would partly be due to a return to more normal levels
at existing mines in Australia and Peru, allied with
achievement of full capacity of 170,000 tonnes a year at Faro
in Canada.
    Looking further forward, the major event was the probable
opening in 1991 of the Red Dog mine in Alaska with a capacity
of 300,000 tonnes of concentrates a year.
    "Once this mine is fully on stream it is unlikely that there
will be a major shortage of concentrates in the early 1990s," he
added.
    The picture for lead was also closely allied to that of
zinc, with no new dedicated lead mines planned and therefore
supply of concentrates largely dependent on by-products from
zinc mines.
    "On this basis, our calculations point to a modest
oversupply of lead concentrates in 1987," Briggs said.
    The copper forecast, however, was for a record
non-Socialist output of 6.6 mln tonnes of concentrates in 1987,
increasing by a further 150,000 tonnes in 1988.
    Production of primary refined copper metal would also
increase, but not by as much as concentrate output, leading to
a moderate oversupply of concentrates of up to 150,000 tonnes
this year and with no shortages predicted for the rest of the
decade, he said.
 REUTER

Italy's wholesale price index rose 0.5 pct
month-on-month in April, after increasing by 0.1 pct in March,
the national statistics institute Istat said.
    The index, base 1980 equals 100, registered 174.2 in April
compared with 173.3 in March.
    The April figure represents an increase of 1.6 pct compared
with the corresponding month of 1986, after a year-on-year rise
in March this year of 0.6 pct.
 REUTER

Indonesia will try to increase sugar
output in calendar 1988 to 2.4 mln tonnes from an expected 2.2
mln in 1987, Agriculture Minister Achmad Affandi said.
    He told reporters after meeting President Suharto the gains
will come from increasing average production to 10 tonnes per
hectare from the previous 6.2 tonnes.
    He said Indonesia is aiming to pass the United States to
become the world's fourth largest producer compared with its
current seventh position.
    Affandi said the increase would insure Indonesia's
self-sufficiency in the commodity and allow it to keep adequate
stocks.
    Indonesia said it produced 2.02 mln tonnes in 1986, but the
U.S. Embassy in its annual agriculture report said output was
1.8 mln tonnes. The U.S. Report forecast no change for 1987.
    Indonesia imported 162,000 tonnes of sugar late last year
and in early 1987 to boost low sugar stocks.
    The country has around 284,000 hectares of sugar cane
farms. The agriculture ministry estimates domestic consumption
at 2.03 mln tonnes in calendar 1987.
 REUTER

Japan has no plans to liberalise its farm
markets, but will try to narrow the gap between the price of
farm products at home and overseas, Agriculture Minister
Mutsuki Kato said.
    He told reporters the move is aimed at deflecting criticism
of Japanese protectionism on its agricultural goods.
    But Kato said he has no plans to start bilateral trade
talks with the United States over rice, Japan's staple food.
    Washington has called Tokyo's rice policy an extreme
example of protectionism and has demanded access for U.S.
Growers to the Japanese market. This is closed to imports
except in emergency.
    Kato said Japanese farmers should however "shed some blood,"
to relieve the dangerous state of international farm trade.
    His comments precede a meeting on July 1 and 2 of the Rice
Price Council at which the government advisory body will
discuss the 1987 crop producer rice price.
    Kato said he welcomed the outcome of last week's recent
summit of leaders of leading industrialised democracies in
Venice and of farm trade talks at the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) in May.
    Ministers at both conferences agreed on the long-term need
to cut subsidies worldwide, Kato said.
    Kato said that Japan is not the only country to protect
producers. He said the United States spends some 25.8 billion
dlrs a year to support producer prices and on its export
enhancement program and the EC 21.7 billion, while Japan spends
only 2.9 billion. He said that although Japan provides the
world's highest level of subsidies per acre, its subsidy per
farm family was several times lower than in the United States.
    Expressing concern about growing protectionist moves in
U.S. Congress, he said Japan should make efforts to prevent
farm trade issues between the two countries from becoming a
factor increasing protectionism in the United States.
    Japan and the United States are holding panel discussions
at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade over Japan's
import restrictions on 12 farm items.
    Bilateral talks on beef and citrus trade in the period from
next April are due to start this autumn.
 REUTER

Parliament approved a proposal to drop
all controls on capital outflows, raising the prospect that
Taiwan's vast resevoir of foreign exchange will flow into the
    A government spokesman said the new law would be
promulgated by President Chiang Ching-Kuo within 10 days and
financial authorities would then be empowered to lift controls
on currency outflows at any time.
    Tight restrictions on capital inflows introduced this year
will remain in place, the spokesman said.
    Central Bank Governor Chang Chi-Cheng has said the controls
will be lifted at the end of next month or early in August.
    The central bank and finance ministry proposed lifting
currency restrictions to help reduce Taiwan's foreign exchange
reserves, which stand at about 60 billion U.S. Dlrs and have
led to runaway growth in money supply.
    The reserves, the world's third largest after Japan and
West Germany, also draw attention to Taiwan's huge trade
surplus and the government fears they are making the island a
target for U.S. Trade protectionism.
    The surplus rose 34 pct to a record 7.32 billion U.S. Dlrs
in the first five months of this year and about 90 pct of it
was with the United States.
    Money supply rose a seasonally adjusted 51.9 pct in the
year to end-April, raising fears of higher inflation.
    Local bankers and economists say when the controls are
lifted, businessmen will be allowed to buy foreign currency and
invest it freely overseas. But they warn against expectations
of a sudden outflow of capital.
    "I don't think we're going to see a big bang," John Brinsden,
the Taiwan manager of Standard Chartered Bank told Reuters in a
recent interview.
    Bankers said that businessmen have been holding vast
quantities of foreign exchange overseas for many years and also
have been freely buying and exporting currency through a
flourishing black-market.
    "Obviously there will be an outflow of funds ... But I don't
think it's going to be much," said Danny Chan, director of
Fidelity Securities Investment Consulting Corp.
    Economists say the success of plans to encourage capital
outflow depend on whether the central bank can slow the rise of
the local currency.
    The Taiwan dollar has risen by about 23 pct against the
U.S. Dollar since September 1983, prompting an inflow of
speculative money. It rose by one Taiwan cent today to close at
31.08.
    The government spokesman said the new law does not empower
authorities to permanently lift capital controls, but any
proposal to reimpose them would need the approval of
    Many economists believe that once the controls are lifted
it will be almost impossible to reimpose them.
 REUTER

There should be at least one merger
between major European zinc smelters before the end of the
decade, Christian Bue, Executive Vice President (commercial) of
SMM Penarroya in France, said.
    Speaking on the second day of the Metal Bulletin base
metals conference, Bue said he expected the current talks
between five smelters including Penarroya to result in
integration between at least some of the companies before 1990.
    The five companies, SMM Penarroya, Outokumpu Oy, Preussag
Ag, Ste de la Vieille Montagne and Boliden Ore and Metals AB,
have 22 pct of the world market, Bue added.
    "We have no alternative than to integrate out businesses
into large trading blocs if we are to survive the cut-throat
price competition and the trend to forward integration from the
mining companies," Bue said.
    "It is by no means certain that all the five companies
involved in the talks will integrate together. It is quite
likely, and even preferable, that the European smelters form
two or three large integrated blocs.
    "In this way we will be better able to negotiate with our
concentrate suppliers on one side, and with the metal buyers on
the other," Bue added.
    In the past, production overcapacity and the intense
competition between the European zinc smelters has meant they
have not only been in a very weak negotiating position when
buying concentrates, but in an even weaker one when selling the
metal, Bue noted.
    Although the apparently easy solution is to simply shut
down excess capacity, the burden of this on individual
companies is far too heavy and no one can be expected to
volunteer, he added.
    Another possible but very risky solution is to invest
heavily in more modern and lower cost facilities, he said.
    "My answer to this suggestion is that individual companies
who do not invest will surely die, and those that do invest
might survive, but only might, " Bue said.
    "The only real option in my mind is integration,
rationalization and stabilization. We have no alternative, " he
added.
    Bue also said that the European smelters were completely
dissatisfied with the tradition of pricing concentrates and
metals in US dollars, and suggested moving either to a basket
of the world's major currencies or pricing in European currency
units (Ecus) to protect against exchange rate volatility.
    Bue's views on integration between European smelters were
met by general approval from the conference audience comprising
representatives from many of the world's major mining, smelting
and trading companies, although some of the mining
representatives were somewhat sceptical in view of their own
industry's move towards integration with smelters.
    However, some concentrate traders did express worry about
their own position if the metals industry does make the move to
large trading blocs.
    The currency basket suggestion cropped up constantly, but
few said they thought matters would change in the near future.
 REUTER

U.S. housing starts fell 2.7 pct in
May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,620,000 units,
the Commerce Department said.
    In April, housing starts fell a revised 3.8 pct to
1,665,000 units. The department previously said they fell 2.9
pct.
construction fell in May by 7.6 pct to a seasonally adjusted
1,477,000 units after falling 7.0 pct to 1,598,000 units in
April.
    The department said May housing starts were at the lowest
annual rate since December 1984, when starts were at a
seasonally adjusted 1,612,000 units. The permits total was the
lowest for any month since March 1983, when 1,475,000 permits
were issued.
    Before seasonal adjustment, May housing starts fell to
159,600 units from 161,600 units in April.
    Permits before adjustment fell to 134,800 units in May from
157,000 in April.
    The department said single-family housing starts fell in
May by 7.6 pct to 1,129,000 units from 1,222,000 units in
April. The May decline followed a slight 0.9 pct rise in
single-family starts in April.
    Starts for multi-family units rose 10.8 pct in May to
491,000 units after declining in April by 14.6 pct to 443,000
units.
    Permits for single-family homes in May were down 5.0 pct to
a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,005,000 units from
1,058,000 units in April. The decline followed a 8.0 pct drop
in single-family permits in April.
    Permits for multi-family units fell in May by 12.6 pct to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 472,000 units from 540,000
units in April. The May decline came after a 5.1 pct drop in
the seasonally adjusted annual rate of permits for multi-family
units in April.
 Reuter

The EC Commission has proposed a
modified plan for a tax on marine and vegetable oils and fats
in its revised 1987/88 farm price proposals, an official
document detailing the proposals shows.
    The document, made available to journalists, says the
commission proposes that the tax should start at levels
originally proposed for vegetable oils on October 1.
    However, the tax on marine oils and fats would be cut by 50
pct from originally envisaged levels, the document said.
    In addition, the Commission proposes that the level of the
tax, expected to start at 330 Ecus per tonne, could be reviewed
every three months rather than annually.
    Diplomatic sources said the change to the proposals for
fish oils appears to be an attempt to overcome objections to
the tax from Portugal and Spain, major fishing nations.
    Other countries opposing the tax include Britain, West
Germany and Denmark.
    The new proposals retain most of the Commission's original
plans in other sectors.
    However, they mark the Commission's recognition that it
cannot get proposals to reduce the period of intervention for
cereals, diplomats said.
    Instead the Commission proposes to cut the monthly
increments applied to cereals during the November to May period
when intervention is open to 2.7 Ecus a tonne for durum wheat
and two Ecus a tonne for other cereals.
    The document shows the Commission has also changed its
green currency proposals in the light of heavy opposition,
notably from West Germany.
    West German and Dutch positive monetary compensatory
amounts (MCAs) would be immediately cut by 0.5 points, with a
further one point cut at the beginning of the 1988/89 season.
    The Commission originally proposed a complete dismantling
of positive MCAs.
     For other countries, the Commission makes the following
proposals for dismantling negative MCAs
     Denmark and Benelux - reduction of around 1.5 points for
animal products and just over two points for crops.
     France and Ireland - proposals unchanged except for an
extra 1.5 point cut for beef.
     Italy - dismantling of all MCAs except those created since
January 12.
    Britain - five point cut for most products, 6.5 points for
beef.
    Greece, Spain and Portugal - for most products, dismantling
of seven, 14 and 5.5 points respectively.
 Reuter

Citibank Ltd said it would lower its
Australian prime rate to 16 pct from 16.5, effective tomorrow.
    The new rate, if unmatched by other banks, will be the
lowest among Australian trading banks. Other primes range from
16.25 to 17.5 pct.
    Australian prime rates have now retreated from a recent
peak of 19 pct in October in line with declining money market
levels. Citibank said its reduction reflected the decline.
 REUTER

China is moving to stabilise world prices
of tungsten after fluctuating prices this year affected the
country's export earnings, the China Daily said.
    The paper quoted industry officials as saying they would
fix export prices on the basis of the world market, stop
smuggling and encourage producers to reduce exports.
    Current world prices range from 49 to 55 dlrs per tonne
unit, but China suffered heavy losses when the price slumped to
39 dlrs earlier this year, it said.
    Some 45 pct of world tungsten exports come from China, but
the country imports high-grade tungsten products.
 REUTER

Australia's <Ansett Airlines> will
exercise an option to acquire 20 pct of America West Airlines
Inc <AWAL.O> for about 31.5 mln U.S. Dlrs, <Ansett Transport
Industries Ltd> managing director Peter Abeles said.
    Exercise, involving the purchase of about three mln new
America West shares for 10.50 U.S. Dlrs each, was scheduled to
be finalised in July or August, he said in a statement.
    Abeles said Ansett would become the largest single
shareholder in what he said was the fastest growing airline in
the United States. America West is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
    Under the terms of the option agreement, Ansett would have
the right to maintain its 20 pct position in the event of
future stock sales, but could not go beyond 20 pct unless so
requested by America West, Abeles said.
    America West would retain the right of first refusal if
Ansett offered any of the shares for sale.
    In addition, Ansett would gain one board seat, he said.
    Ansett Transport Industries wholly owns Ansett Airlines,
one of Australia's two major domestic airlines, and is in turn
owned 50/50 by Abeles' international transport group TNT Ltd
<TNTA.S> and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Ltd <NCPA.S>.
 REUTER

Treasurer Paul Keating said the
opposition's tax-cutting policy, a key issue in the run up to
the July 11 elections, was a miscalculation that would severely
damage the Australian economy.
    Opposition leader John Howard disputed Keating's
allegations. "Keating is engaged in a desperate, last ditch
panic attempt to deny long-suffering Australian taxpayers the
cuts to which they are entitled," he said.
    Keating said in a radio interview that errors in Howard's
plan, including "double counting," would increase the budget
deficit and could push interest rates above 20 pct.
    Keating said that Treasury officials who had studied
Howard's plans concluded that his proposed tax and spending
cuts would result in a nine billion dlr deficit and damage
international market confidence in Australia.
    In his mini-budget on May 13 Keating said the budget
deficit for the year ending June 1988 would be between two and
three billion dlrs.
    Howard has said a conservative government under his
leadership would reduce the 55 pct top personal and company tax
level to 38 pct and fund the reduction by cutting government
spending.
    Keating and Prime Minister Bob Hawke have promised not to
increase taxes or impose new ones, but rejected any tax cuts.
Instead they called for wage and other economic restraints to
help overcome balance of payments and foreign debt problems.
    Inflation declined to 9.4 pct for the year to March 31 from
an annual 9.8 pct at the end of the December quarter.
    Hawke has said inflation would fall to six pct by the
middle of next year.
    Australian bank lending rates to best customers have
dropped to around 16.5 pct from a high of 19 pct nine months
ago.
 REUTER

Aides to South Korea's President Chun Doo
Hwan are urging him to reopen talks on electoral reform to
defuse nationwide political turmoil, the state radio said.
    It said ruling party officials would tell Chun he should
consider reversing an April 13 decision to shelve the debate on
reform until after the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
    Ruling Democratic Justice Party executives met today to
draw up a proposed package of measures. These included resuming
talks, releasing political detainees and lifting the house
arrest of top dissident Kim Dae-jung, the radio said.
 REUTER

by Japanese yards in May fell to five vessels totalling 188,900
gross tons (gt) from eight ships of 314,000 gt in April,
against four ships of 104,500 gt a year earlier, the Japan Ship
Exporters Association said.
    The backlog of orders at end-May was 122 ships of 3.70 mln
gt against 125 ships of 3.73 mln at end-April and 233 ships of
5.99 mln a year ago, an association official said.
    The world shipping recession and the yen's appreciation
against the dollar depressed May orders, he said.
 REUTER

First City Bancorp of Texas Inc <FBT>
said it was talking with several parties about its previously
announced efforts to bolster its capital position.
    The statement, issued yesterday, did not say how close the
bank was to a merger or recapitalisation program.
    "Several parties have expressed an interest in working with
First City," it said. "This exploration process has not been
completed and therefore it would be premature to speculate on
the alternative that First City might pursue."
 First City had "sufficient time" to find a solution to its
financing problems, the statement added.
    A spokesman said the statement was a response to several
recent inquiries about First City's progress in strengthening
its weak capital position.
    Its problems were caused in part by slumps in Texas real
estate and oil prices.
    First City, which lost a record 402 mln dlrs in 1986, had a
first quarter loss of 44.5 mln dlrs. The bank earlier said it
predicted a smaller loss for 1987.
    Banking analysts said First City is unlikely to attract a
suitor unless federal regulators offer buyout assistance. The
company's stock yesterday closed at 2-3/4, down 1/4.
 REUTER

the U.S. Would erase its large foreign trade deficit faster
than many predicted, and the consequences for its trade
partners might be traumatic.
    "The U.S. Economy will inevitably make the adjustment
necessary to move from a deficit to a surplus trade balance in
order to service our growing foreign debt," he told a conference
attended by the six members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and their leading Western friends.
    "In my view, this will happen more rapidly than many
observers now predict."
    "The universal strategy of aggressive export-led growth is
becoming less effective," Shultz said.
    "It is not arithmetically possible for every country in the
world to be a net exporter at the same time. The U.S. Deficit,
which we all decry, has been in a sense the place into which
everyone's export-led strategy for growth has gone."
    "The huge surpluses of Japan and (West) Germany have fed on
this deficit, so something will have to give and it will be
possibly a traumatic experience," he added.
    "While you must keep up the pressure on us to eschew
protectionist policies, you must act too," Shultz said.
    "I can do a better job of convincing the Congress to leave
our door open to imports if more of our trading partners open
their doors wider," he told the group, which included
representatives from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and
 REUTER

Barclays Plc <BCS.L> expects the
global travellers cheque industry to grow three to six pct a
year in the next five to 10 years despite growing competition
from credit cards, divisional manager K.S. Nicklin said.
    He said the bank expected the size of the market to
increase to between 39 and 40 billion dlrs in 1987 from 37 to
38 billion in 1986 because of worldwide economic recovery.
    He said China, the Gulf states, South America and Japan
would be areas for growth. Middle-income groups in the U.S. And
Canada would continue to use travellers cheques for overseas
trips rather than credit cards.
 REUTER

Aegon NV is issuing a 100 mln dlr
eurobond due July 23, 1990 paying 8-1/4 pct and priced at 101
pct, lead manager Goldman Sachs International Corp said.
5,000 dlrs and is expected to be listed in Amsterdam. The
combined pays 3/8 pct.
    The payment date is July 23.
 REUTER

Japanese vehicle exports fell 9.3 pct in
May from a year earlier to 531,253, mainly because of lower
exports to the U.S., Industry sources said.
    This compares with 633,869 in April.
    Official figures will be announced by the Japan Automobile
Manufacturers Association later this month.
    May exports included 374,482 passenger cars, down 9.9 pct
from a year earlier, and 156,771 commercial vehicles, down 4.3
pct, the sources said. But vehicle kit exports rose 31.3 pct to
154,711, compared with 146,610 in April.
    May exports of kit parts included 115,847 cars, up 35 pct
from a year earlier, and 38,864 commercial vehicles, up 21.4
pct, the industry sources said.
    Japan's car production in May fell 11 pct from a year
earlier to 574,921 and commercial vehicle output fell 4.8 pct
to 335,460, while car kit output rose 29.7 pct from a year
earlier to 106,396 and commercial vehicle kit production rose
34.7 pct to 35,128, they said.
 REUTER

HONG KONG'S DAIRY FARM SAYS IT BIDS FOR 22 PCT OF KWIK
SAVE FOR 146.6 MLN STG

The Supreme Council of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) has rejected the overthrow of the ruler of the
emirate of Sharjah, the Emirates news agency, WAM, reported.
    The UAE was plunged into a constitutional crisis yesterday
after the ruling family of Sharjah said its ruler Sheikh Sultan
bin Mohammed al-Qassimi had abdicated in favour of one of his
brothers because of financial mismanagement.
    The Council is the highest federal authority in the UAE,
comprising the rulers of the seven emirates which make up the
group, but it has no power over the internal affairs of
individual states, diplomatic sources said.
    The Supreme Council met in emergency session, without a
representative from Sharjah, under the chairmanship of UAE
President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan, WAM said.
    It decided to ignore all statements issued from Sharjah and
would continue meeting until the issue was resolved, the agency
added.
    The Qatar news agency said Sheikh Sultan was in Dubai after
flying back from a private visit to London. The emirate of
Dubai has rejected the Sharjah explanation and said Sheikh
Sultan was ousted by force. It said this was unacceptable and
called for his reinstatement. The UAE was formed in 1971.
 REUTER

Marubeni Corp <MART.T> of Japan has been
picked to undertake a telecommunications project worth 985 mln
rupees, the Sri Lankan cabinet said in a statement.
    It said Marubeni was selected from five Japanese
competitors for the project, which involves laying new
telecommunications cables in the outskirts of Colombo. Japan is
financing the project.
 REUTER

<Dairy Farm International Holdings
Ltd> said in a statement it is making a tender offer for 22 pct
of Kwik Save Discount Group Plc <KWIK.L> of Britain for a total
146.6 mln stg.
    Dairy Farm said it will offer to buy up to 32.58 mln Kwik
Save shares at 4.50 stg each.
    The offer will bring Dairy Farm's stake in Kwik Save to 25
pct from the present 3.5 pct, or 5.25 mln shares.
    The offer, which will begin on Monday and ends June 30,
requires that the shares tendered will bring its stake to at
least 15 pct.
    Dairy Farm said it will finance the acquisition by placing
89 mln shares with affiliate Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd
<JARS.HK> at 5.10 H.K. Dlrs each for a total of 454 mln dlrs.
    The placement will raise Jardine Strategic's stake in Dairy
Farm to 39.75 pct from the current 35.3 pct.
    It said the Kwik Save purchase will also be financed with a
loan from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp <HKBH.HK>. It
did not give the size of the loan but it said it would raise
its net bank borrowings to a maximum of 2.2 billion H.K. Dlrs.
    Dairy Farm said it would reduce its bank borrowings by the
proceeds from the previously announced sale of its office
building in Sydney for 625 mln dlrs.
    It will consider raising additional capital, most probably
through a placement of convertible preference shares in the
Euromarket, it added.
    Company chairman Simon Keswick said the U.K. Market "offers
attractive opportunities for competitively priced food
retailers" and that "a strategic investment in Kwik Save offers
the best vehicle to pursue those opportunities."
 REUTER

Singapore Petroleum Co Pte Ltd said it
will raise posted prices for its products from June 19, by one
cent/gallon for lpg, naphtha and gasoline, two cents for gas
oil and by 60 cents/barrel for marine diesel oil.
    New prices are - lpg 36.0 cents/gallon, chemical naphtha
47, unleaded reformate 65.8, 0.4 gm lead 97 octane 61.3, 95
octane 59.3, 92 octane 55.5, 85 octane 49.5, 0.125 gm lead 97
octane 64.3, 92 octane 58.5, 85 octane 52.5, jet kerosene 51.5,
kerosene 50.5, premium kerosene 54.5, dual purpose kerosene
52.5, 0.5 pct sulphur gas oil 52.0, one pct sulphur 51.0 and
marine diesel oil 21.20 dlrs/barrel.
 REUTER

Six months ended April 30
    Parent shr 1.66 yen vs 7.28
    Div 3.50 yen vs same
    Net 1.59 billion vs 6.88 billion
    Current 5.03 billion vs 16.03 billion
    Sales 804.02 billion vs 839.20 billion
    Oustanding shrs 955.00 mln vs 944.15 mln
 REUTER

Japanese compound feed output rose 2.3 pct
to 25.80 mln tonnes in 1986/87 ended March 31 from 25.23 mln a
year earlier, the Agriculture Ministry said.
    The marginal rise reflected slight growth in demand for
poultry raising and a moderate increase in demand for beef
cattle raising, Ministry officials said.
    Compound feed sales totalled 26.01 mln tonnes in 1986/87
against 25.40 mln a year ago, while end-March stocks were
217,554 tonnes against 224,101.
    Corn use in feed output in 1986/87 rose to 11.71 mln tonnes
from 11.02 mln a year earlier due to low import prices.
    The officials said corn imports rose because the world
surplus and the yen's strength against the dollar reduced
Chicago prices. The corn compounding ratio rose to 45.2 pct in
1986/87 from 43.4 pct a year earlier.
    Sorghum use rose marginally to 4.80 mln tonnes in 1986/87
from 4.79 mln, but the compounding ratio fell to 18.5 pct from
18.9 pct because of greater corn use. Higher import prices due
to poor harvests last year in major producing nations such as
Argentina made feed makers reluctant to use sorghum.
    Soybean meal use fell to 2.58 mln tonnes from 2.63 mln and
the compounding ratio declined to 10.0 pct from 10.3 pct.
    The drop in soybean meal consumption resulted from
increased use of cheaper rapeseed meal, the officials said.
    Rapeseed consumption in 1986/87 was 563,889 tonnes against
528,152 a year earlier. The compounding ratio rose to 2.2 pct
from 2.1 pct.
 REUTER

six months to March 31
    Shr 16.25p vs 15.61p
    Div 4.0p vs 3.5p
    Turnover 6.12 billion vs 4.89 billion
    Interest 25.2 mln vs 37.6 mln
    Pretax profit 42.7 mln vs 40.3 mln
    Tax 10.3 mln vs 9.9 mln
    Minorities 1.3 mln vs 439,000
    Extraordinary items 2.6 mln credit vs 1.2 mln debit
    Note - company name is S and W Berisford Plc <BRFD.L>
 REUTER

Parliament passed a law allowing
state-owned industrial companies to sell 49 pct of their shares
to staff and private investors, the official BSS news agency
said.
    Under the new law, passed yesterday, 51 pct of shares in
the affected companies will be held by the government, 34 pct
by the public and 15 pct by staff. The law also allows workers
to nominate a member to the board of directors if they buy at
least 12 pct of a company's shares.
    Bangladesh has returned more than 500 industrial companies
to private ownership since March 1982.
 REUTER

defined M-3 money supply growth was revised upward to 10.37 pct
for April from a preliminary 10.08 pct, but was down from a
revised 10.69 pct in March, Reserve Bank figures show.
    M-3 rose to a revised 82.38 billion rand in April from a
preliminary 82.17 billion and March's revised 81.39 billion. In
April last year M-3 stood at 74.64 billion rand.
    Preliminary figures for May show M-3 at 83.24 billion rand
for a year-on-year rise of 10.97 pct from 75.01 billion in May
1986.
    April M-1A rose a year-on-year 15.12 pct to 14.22 billion
rand after rising 14.72 pct to 13.97 billion in March while M1
rose 24.49 pct to 27.92 billion after a 20.69 pct increase to
26.97 billion, the figures showed.
    M-2 rose 8.28 pct to 58.71 billion in April after rising
6.47 pct to 57.52 billion in March.
 REUTER

it will lower its reference rate for loans to 15.75 pct from
16.25 pct and its overdraft reference rate to 16.25 pct from
16.75, effective June 24.
    Bank officials have said the bank regards the overdraft
reference rate, based on short-term rate trends, as its key
prime lending rate to corporate customers. The loan reference
rate is based on longer term trends.
    The bank is the latest to cut prime rates in recent days
following a continuing decline in market rates. Other prime
rates now range from 16 pct to 17.5 pct.
 REUTER

The Australian government has given
support in principle to the production of platinum and silver
bullion coins at the Perth Mint, Treasurer Paul Keating said.
    This followed the success of the Australian Nugget gold
bullion coins launched this year, he said in a statement.
    He said that, as with the Australian nuggets, the coins
would be legal tender. The platinum coins would be made in four
weights but the silver coin would be of one ounce weight.
    He said detailed arrangements for their issue would be
finalised after talks between the Federal authorities and the
Western Australian government, owner of the Perth Mint.
 REUTER

South Korea's gross national product (GNP)
will exceed 10 pct real growth this year and the won will rise
further as long as the current account surplus continues to
widen, Deputy Prime Minister Chun In-Yong told reporters.
    Chung, who is also Minister of Economic Planning, said his
GNP estimate was based on the assumption that the economy will
remain stable.
    The official target for 1987 GNP growth is eight pct.
    GNP rose 15.6 pct between the first quarters of 1987 and
1986, according to provisional Bank of Korea figures.
    GNP rose 12.5 pct in calendar 1986.
    In the first four months of this year, the current account
swung to a surplus of 2.5 billion dlrs from a deficit of 294
mln dlrs in the same 1986 period.
    "What the Minister said does not imply any major economic
policy change," a Ministry spokesman told Reuters. "But he tried
to urge business circles to prepare for the forseeable economic
(future) ... A high won era."
    South Korean manufacturers, who have insisted the won
should not rise more than seven pct this year, have said they
plan to ask the government to slow down its appreciation
    The Bank of Korea today quoted the won unchanged at 812.05
against the dollar, a 6.02 pct gain so far this year compared
with a 3.34 pct increase for the whole of 1986.
    The won strengthened by 6.60 won to the dollar in three
days earlier this month while an International Monetary Fund
team held talks here to discuss revaluation.
 REUTER

The New Zealand government is
forecasting a budget surplus of 379 mln N.Z. Dlrs for the year
ending March 1988, Finance Minister Roger Douglas said in a
    This compares with a deficit of 1.95 billion dlrs in the
year ending March 1987 and a 1.87 billion dlr deficit a year
earlier.
    Total expenditure is seen at 22.907 billion dlrs against
20.94 billion in the year to end-March 1987. Total revenue is
seen at 23.29 billion dlrs against 18.992 billion.
    The forecast rise in revenue comes partly from the 10 pct
value added goods and services Tax (GST) introduced in October
1986 which is seen bringing in 4.1 billion dlrs against 1.23
billion a year earlier.
    Other indirect taxation is seen rising to 3.1 billion dlrs
from 2.2 billion. Company tax is forecast to bring in 2.39
billion dlrs against 1.22 billion a year earlier while the tax
take from individuals is seen little changed at 10.7 billion
dlrs against 10.9 billion.
    Excluding revenue and expenditure of a capital nature, such
as repayment of loans by state-owned enterprises or revenue
from asset sales, the budget would indicate a deficit of 1.27
billion dlrs, Douglas said
    Using this "financial deficit" method the deficit in the year
to end March 1987 was 1.89 billion dlrs, he said.
    Douglas said using this method, the financial deficit
forecast for 1987/88 measures 2.2 pct of gross domestic product
against 6.9 pct a year earlier.
 REUTER

Australian crude oil and condensate
output fell 7.6 pct to 23,480 megalitres, or about 147 mln
barrels, in the first nine months of fiscal 1986/87 ending June
30, the Department of Resources and Energy said.
    The decline in production in the nine months to end-March
reflected mainly a sharp dip early in the fiscal year, when low
oil prices and high marginal excise rates led to a reduction of
output from Bass Strait, department figures in its Major Energy
Statistics publication show.
    A megalitre is 6,290 barrels.
 REUTER

New Zealand will repay a portion of
its 42.48 billion N.Z. Dlr public debt for the first time since
1952 as a result of a 379 mln N.Z. Dlr budget surplus for
fiscal March 1988, Finance Minister Roger Douglas said.
    Douglas said in a budget statement the surplus is the first
achieved in New Zealand in 35 years. It compared with a 1.95
billion dlr deficit in fiscal 1987.
    Douglas said this year's government bond tender program
would be adjusted in the light of the surplus, providing for
the repayment of up to 600 mln dlrs of New Zealand's 21.74
billion dlrs of overseas debt.
    Details of which loans will be repaid have still to be
decided.
    Douglas said the present scale of the public debt was
massive.
    "It will take many years to reduce the debt to an acceptable
level," he said.
 REUTER

Year to end-March
    Shr 20.9p, a 22.3 pct rise
    Div 5.1p making 8.45p vs vs 7.5p
    Turnover 9.42 billion, a 12.4 pct increase
    Operating profit 2.35 billion, a 10.9 pct increase
    Pretax profit 2.07 billion, a 11.7 pct rise
    Fourth quarter 1987
    Turnover 2.42 billion, a 8.4 pct rise
    Operating profit 629.0 mln, a 12.1 pct increase
    Pretax profit 555.0 mln, a 11.7 pct rise.
 REUTER

Austria's current account surplus grew to
11.0 billion schillings in the first four months this year from
8.2 billion in the same period last year, the National Bank
said.
    In April, the current account recorded a deficit of 300 mln
schillings compared with an 800 mln surplus in March and an 800
mln deficit in April, 1986, the bank said in a statement.
    The trade deficit in the first four months fell to 16.4
billion schillings from 17.5 billion in the same period last
year while in April the deficit was 4.1 billion compared with
6.9 billion in March and 3.6 billion in April, 1986.
 REUTER

    Fin div 3.5p making 5.5p vs 2.5p
    Shr 25.2p vs 14.7p
    Pretax profit 50.5 mln stg vs 30.1 mln
    Net after tax 36.0 mln vs 21.6 mln
    Turnover 1.22 billion vs 1.16 billion
    Extraordinary dbt 10.3 mln vs 8.2 mln
    Note - Full company name is <Johnson-Matthey Plc>.
 REUTER

A forecast 379 mln N.Z. Dlr surplus
in the government's 1987/88 budget will allow a significant
reduction in the government debt program, Finance Minister
Roger Douglas said in a statement.
    "There are however good reasons to maintain a higher
borrowing program than the Budget numbers require," he said.
    The government will borrow a further 950 mln dlrs this
fiscal year, down from the further 1.75 billion originally
planned.
    "The amount of foreign currency debt generated by previous
economic mismanagement is too large," Douglas said. "It would not
be sensible when presented with an opportunity to repay some
debt to do so only in respect of domestic debt."
    The government also has an interest in keeping enough of a
domestic borrowing program going to keep the secondary market
efficient, he said. That will give the government better
borrowing terms in future, he added.
    Douglas said the revised debt program also meant the
government would be able to retire over 650 mln dlrs of
domestic debt and 600 mln dlrs of foreign debt.
 REUTER

S and W Berisford Plc <BRFD.L> said a six
pct rise in pretax profits to 42.7 mln stg in the first half
had maintained last year's momentum despite poor commodities
trading conditions and continued rationalisation costs.
    Its British Sugar Corp Plc unit produced its best ever
performance due to greater efficiency and better selling prices
and was on course for record full year profits.
    In the last year Berisford attempted to sell the unit and
attracted several bids. A bid by Hillsdown Holdings Plc
<HLDN.L> was abandoned, one from Tate and Lyle Plc <TATL.L>
officially blocked and a sale of BSC to <Gruppo Ferruzzi> also
prevented.
    It had authorised a further 46 mln stg in capital
expenditure in BSC for next year, eight mln higher than the
anticipated total this year.
    Berisford said it was particularly pleased with the
progress of its associate Hunter Saphir Plc, in which it
acquired a substantial equity stake in January in return for
the sale of some of its food manufacturing companies.
    Since the deal was completed, the market value of the stake
in Hunter had almost doubled and at the same time enabled the
group to concentrate efforts in its food division on
ingredients -- mainly sugar, gelatine and flavours.
    The property division maintained good growth while
financial services made a satisfactory contribution to profits.
However, the results of the industrial division continued to be
disappointing although the rationalisation programme was
progressing well.
    Commodity operations returned to profit after a second half
loss last year. The results reflected dull market conditions,
with coffee trading failing to repeat last year's exceptional
first half performance due to extremely difficult conditions in
    It said it was reducing its exposure to the volatility of
commodity earnings by concentrating on a smaller range of key
    Berisford shares firmed one penny on the announcement to
366p.
 REUTER

Members of the Bull Moose coking coal mine
in British Columbia, Canada, agreed to cut the base price they
charge Japanese steelmakers to 91.77 Canadian dlrs a tonne FOB
for the year from April 1, down 14 dlrs from 1986/87, an
official at a company involved in the deal said.
    The Nippon Kokan KK <NKKT.T> official said the cut was
agreed after five months of talks between <Teck Corp>, <Rornex
Mining Corp Ltd> and <Nissho Iwai Coal Development (Canada)
Ltd>.
    He said the Japanese side would continue to ask the miners
to improve the quality of Bull Moose coal's ash specification.
    Japanese steel mills and several Canadian exporters
including the sellers of Bull Moose coal have had several
rounds of negotiations on coking coal base prices this year,
    The Japanese steel firms started a new round of base price
talks with <Quintette Coals Ltd> yesterday, while discussions
with <Gregg River Co Ltd> will be held later this month, they
said.
    Nissho Iwai Coal is a unit of <Nissho Iwai Corp> of Japan.
 REUTER

billion yen in financing bills through 35-day repurchase
agreements maturing July 24 to help mop up a projected money
houses from money houses will be 3.6005 against today's
one-month commercial bill discount rate of 3.5625 pct and
one-month certificate of deposit rate of 3.98/86 pct. Traders
estimate a 300 billion yen surplus due to tax allocations to
local governments and public entities. The operation will put
outstanding bill supplies at about 2,000 billion yen.
 REUTER

Sweden's Volvo AB <VOLV ST> said its
B-Free shares are to be listed on the Zurich, Basle and Geneva
bourses in the autumn.
    The company said in a statement that the new listing would
further expand the number of international bourses on which
Volvo shares are quoted. It is already quoted on stock
exchanges in Sweden, Britain, West Germany, France, Belgium,
Norway and Tokyo, and its shares are also traded
over-the-counter in the United States.
    "Switzerland attracts us as one of the most international
capital markets," Lennart Jeansson, of the Volvo board, said.
    A Swiss bank consortium led by Credit Suisse had carried
out a secondary placement of 500,000 B-Free Volvo shares on the
Swiss market in preparation for Volvo's autumn entry onto the
bourses, Volvo said.
 REUTER

Ltd> obtained a 1.2 billion H.K. Dlr loan from the Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corp to finance its tender offer for a 22 pct
stake in Kwik Save Discount Group Plc <KWIK>, Dairy Farm
chairman Simon Keswick told reporters.
    He did not disclose the terms of the loan but said they
were "fairly fair."
    Dairy Farm said earlier in a statement it would offer to
buy up to 32.58 mln Kwik Save shares at 4.50 stg each, raising
its stake in the retail firm to 25 pct from 3.5 pct now.
    Keswick said Dairy Farm wanted to obtain at least 15 pct of
Kwik Save, which would make it Kwik Save's biggest shareholder,
otherwise it would dispose of its entire stake.
    Kwik Save opened at 4.45 stg, up from yesterday's 3.90 stg
close.
 REUTER

The New Zealand Government will sell
25 pct of state-owned <Air New Zealand Ltd> to the public,
Civil Aviation minister Richard Prebble said.
    Prebble said in a statement the government would appoint an
adviser to help it decide how the shares should be sold, the
timing of any sales and the price.
    "Clearly there will be a need to gauge the effect of other
proposed share issues so as to enter the market at the best
opportunity," Prebble said.
    "We are in no particular rush to sell our shares in Air New
Zealand," he said.
    "Our aim is to maximise the benefit to the taxpayer. If that
means waiting for a while, then so be it," Prebble said.
    He said Air New Zealand expects to release its results soon
for the year to March 31 1987. He said he was confident it
would post an excellent profit.
    Prebble said Air New Zealand was successful but its ability
to prosper in future was hampered by its
wholly-government-owned status.
    Prebble said access to new sources of capital would
increase its ability to expand and develop.
    This sale announcement follows the public float in March of
around 13 pct of the <Bank of New Zealand Ltd>.
    The government has said it will also float part of the
capital of other state-owned operations, including <DFC New
Zealand Ltd>, formerly Development Finance Corp of New Zealand
Ltd, and Petroleum Corp of New Zealand Ltd.
 REUTER

Alcan Australia Ltd <AL.S> seeks a 100
mln U.S. Dlr, eight year underwritten note issuance facility,
Swiss Bank Corporation International Ltd said as arranger.
    The facility, which allows banks the option to withdraw
after five years with three months' notice, involves the
issuance through a tender panel of notes with maturities up to
    The maximum yield will be 20 basis points over London
Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) and there is a 3/16 pct
underwriting fee, regardless of utilisation. Alcan Australia is
indirectly 70 pct owned by Alcan Aluminium Ltd of Canada.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry is putting the
finishing touches on a roughly 2,000 billion yen supplementary
budget for 1987/88 and has started to turn its attention to
next year's main budget, ministry officials said.
    The supplementary budget is designed to help finance the
6,000 billion yen emergency economic package the government
unveiled last month to boost domestic demand.
    Ministry officials said the government would issue about
1,300 billion yen in construction bonds to help pay for the
increased public investment set out in the emergency package.
    The rest of the supplementary budget will be financed by
450 billion yen in proceeds from last year's sale of shares in
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) and by higher than
expected 1986/87 tax revenues, officials said.
    One official said the carry-over of tax revenues into the
1987/88 fiscal year that began on April 1 might be more than
1,000 billion yen. Soaring land and share prices have boosted
receipts, especially from securities and land taxes.
    With less than half of the carry-over likely to be used in
the current supplementary budget, the rest will be available
for a second supplementary budget expected later this year.
    The second supplementary budget will be used to finance the
government's wage bill, which will not be known until after
wage talks later this year, one official said.
    The government must also finance the tax cut of more than
1,000 billion yen which it promised in its emergency package
but which will not be contained in the first supplementary
budget, due to be presented to parliament next month.
    The Finance Ministry's budget bureau is hoping the tax
carry-over and higher than expected revenues again this year
will be enough to finance the second supplementary budget, he
said.
    Officials said the Finance Ministry does not want to issue
deficit-financing bonds or use the extra proceeds from this
year's NTT share sale to fund the second supplementary budget.
    Besides the first supplementary budget, the government also
intends to introduce a new tax reform bill to parliament during
the upcoming extraordinary session, officials said.
    The government was forced to abandon its first tax reform
bill due to strong opposition to its plan to introduce a five
pct sales tax.
    The sales tax was designed to help finance cuts in
individual and corporate income taxes.
    The new bill will present the 1,000 billion yen-plus tax
cut contained in the emergency package as the first step to an
overhaul of the country's tax system, officials said.
    It will also contain a controversial plan to phase out tax
breaks on savings, although it may not take effect in October
as originally planned, they said.
    Looking ahead to next year's main budget, the Finance
Ministry is beginning to debate whether to abandon its
so-called minus ceiling for public investment.
    That policy calls on government departments to cut public
investment spending by five pct per year.
    Economic Planning Minister Tetsuo Kondo said recently the
policy would be suspended in 1988/89, pending a recommendation
from the government's administrative reform council.
    The ruling Liberal Democratic Party said in April that
budget request guidelines for invesment expenditures would be
reviewed.
    But some officials at the Finance Ministry's budget bureau
said they were hopeful the policy would be retained.
    They fear that a suspension of the guidelines for public
investment could lead to increased pressure on the government
to loosen its grip on current expenditures as well.
    The account would also extend interest-free loans to
profitable public works projects developed in conjunction with
the private sector, the officials said.
    In this way, the Finance Ministry could meet growing
pressure on it to boost capital spending while maintaining a
tight grip on outlays by other government departments.
    Surplus funds from this year's sale of NTT shares could
total about 3,000 billion yen. Based on the current market
price, the planned sale of 1.95 mln shares would raise more
than 5,000 billion yen, compared to about 2,000 billion planned
for in the main 1987/88 budget.
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GLAXO HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF BEARISH PRESS ARTICLE LONDON, June 18
- A spokesman for pharmaceuticals giant Glaxo Holdings Plc
&lt;GLXO.L&gt; said he had no knowledge of a bearish U.S. Press
article which London share dealers said has helped depress the
shares in early trading here.
    Glaxo shares fell to a low of 1,725 this morning after
heavy selling in the U.S. Overnight on rumours the New England
Medical Journal had published an article critical of the "Zantac"
anti ulcer drug. The shares later rallied to stand 34p down at
1,751.
    Dealers said the share price move was also based on profit
taking after yesterday's rise on bullish remarks from chairman
Paul Girolami and the shares' debut on the Tokyo market.
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price inflation rose to 16.1 pct in April against 15.8 pct in
March, Central Statistics Office figures show.
    The all items index (base 1980) rose a monthly 1.2 pct to
242.5 in April after increasing 1.1 pct to 239.6 in March and
standing at 208.9 a year earlier.
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Finnish industrial investment will rise
10 pct in 1987 from last year reaching its highest rate since
1980, the Bank of Finland's two year survey predicted.
    Investment will centre on machinery and equipment, with a
rise of almost 25 pct.
    There will almost be a rise of 20 pct in investment in
manufacturing, with notable growth in the paper industry,
chemicals, building materials and consumer goods sectors.
    The rate of growth will fall back in 1988 with spending
remaining at the same level as this year, the survey said.
    Research and development spending will show a rise of over
three billion markka, representing 18 pct of investment in
1987.
    Finland's investment rate is high internationally as the
share of capital intensive industries is relatively large.
    "But the quicker growth of Finnish industrial production is
also an indication investments are promoting a renovation and
increase in production capacity," the survey said.
    Manufacturing industry would have a capacity use rate of 86
pct at the end of 1987, one pct above the rate at the start of
the year. This was expected to grow further next year, it said.
 REUTER

BET Plc <BETL.L> said slightly higher
than expected results for the year to March showed that its
strategy was working. BET raised pretax profits in the year to
157.4 mln stg from 124.6 mln previously.
    It had continued to build on a range of complementary
services through a combination of organic growth and carefully
targetted acquisitions.
    A company statement said it was confident that the figures
would provide an effective springboard for the broadening of
its shareholder base, particularly through the issue of
American Depositary Receipts in the U.S. Later this year.
    BET also said it was appointing Sir Timothy Bevan, formerly
chairman of Barclays Plc to replace Sir Hugh Dundas when he
retires as Chairman in December.
    BET's net debt fell four pct in the year to 262 mln stg
with gearing down to 63 pct from 65 pct.
    Returns on assets, sales  and capital employed showed
further improvement in the period.
    BET shares at 0907 GMT were quoted at 291p, one penny
firmer on last night's close.
 REUTER

European Community farm ministers
plunged the bloc into a crisis today by ending a marathon
negotiation on 1987/88 farm prices without agreement.
    Their chairman, Belgian Paul de Keersmaeker, told a press
conference this morning ministers gave a majority vote in
favour of all aspects of an EC Commission compromise proposal
introduced on Tuesday.
    However, the minority against the crucial plan for a tax on
vegetable and marine oils and fats was big enough to block its
adoption, and British Agriculture Minister John MacGregor said
other aspects of the proposals are likely to be vetoed.
    MacGregor said the meeting foundered in part because of an
implicit indication from the West Germans that they were
prepared to veto two other aspects of the package, the future
monetary compensatory amounts system and proposals directly
connected with common prices.
    De Keersmaeker said he will now consider when ministers
should be called for further talks, but diplomats said the
outcome of the meeting makes it almost certain the major
outstanding issues will be referred to EC heads of government
who hold a summit meeting on June 29 and 30 in Brussels.
    A Commission official said the Commission will work out
stopgap measures which it will bring in on July 1 if the
deadlock persists. These will concern products such as cereals,
colza, sugar, beef and milk, for which there would otherwise be
no legal EC regulations from that date.
    Trade sources expect these will include a seven pct cut in
guaranteed prices for most cereals.
    The official said the measures "will take into account the
situation in the market, but also the EC's severe budgetary
situation."
    The Commission was expecting an EC budget deficit this year
of almost six billion dlrs even before it presented its
compromise, which would have cost almost one billion more. It
estimates the oils and fats tax would bring in 2.3 billion dlrs
in a full year.
    Diplomats said Britain, West Germany and the Netherlands
maintained their opposition to the tax despite Commission
attempts to persuade them it would not unfairly hit exports
from countries outside the EC.
    They added Denmark did not formally state its final
position but was understood to remain against.
 REUTER

New Zealand would enact legislation to prevent local companies
and individuals from using overseas tax havens.
    The government would also outlaw the practice of double
deduction of losses by dual resident companies, known as "double
dipping," Douglas said in a budget statement.
    The anti-tax-haven legislation would affect non-resident
entities, such as companies and trusts, set up in low tax
countries and earning mainly passive investment income, Douglas
said.
    A consultative document will be released in September
explaining the proposed legislation, and a consultative
committee will then receive public submissions and advise the
government on implementation, Douglas said.
    The legislation would attack tax avoidance but not genuine
business activity, he added.
    He said some New Zealand residents were avoiding New
Zealand tax entirely by setting up non-resident entities in tax
havens, which intercepted and gathered income taxable in New
Zealand.
    In a move to counter "double dipping," the government would
no longer allow dual resident companies to group their losses,
Douglas said.
    The proposed legislation would require them to carry tax
losses forward to be offset against future profits, effective
for income years starting after December 17, 1986.
 REUTER

    Final dividend 3.65p vs 3.1p making 5.4p vs 4.6p
    Share 14.11p vs 12.13p
    Pre-tax profit 27.11 mln stg vs 24.06 mln
    Net profit 18.12 mln vs 15.21 mln
    Turnover 252.11 mln vs 225.29 mln
    Note - London International Group Plc <LONL.L> said that
sharply increased sales of condoms had led to a particularly
strong start to the year and it had considerable confidence for
the future. REUTER

The state-owned Industrial Development
Bank of India (IDBI) has given <Morgan Guaranty Ltd, Hong Kong>
the mandate to arrange a 10 billion yen loan in Japan, a senior
IDBI official told Reuters.
    The 15-year loan, to be signed next month, carries interest
pegged to the Japanese long-term prime rate, now at around five
pct per annum, said the official who declined to be named.
    The loan will be IDBI's first foreign currency borrowing
for the financial year beginning July 1, 1987, he said without
specifying IDBI's total targetted borrowings for the year.
    IDBI, which has raised 85 mln dlrs in Euroloans and 100 mln
Swiss Francs in 1986/87, first entered the Japanese market in
1984/85 by raising two loans of five billion yen each, followed
by a 10 billion Euroyen loan last year.
    IDBI lends foreign currency funds to local industrial
borrowers to help them import capital goods.
    Bankers said the Industrial Credit and Investment Corp of
India, India's only private sector financial institution, is
holding talks with foreign banks on arranging a loan of 10
billion yen. They said India's commercial borrowings in 1987/88
may remain at the 1986/87 level of 1.5 billion dlrs.
 REUTER

the government would introduce a full tax imputation system on
dividends effective from the 1988/89 income year.
    Confirming the government's timetable for the imputation
system, which had been announced in earlier budgets, Douglas
said in a statement that the system would substantially reduce
the influence of the tax system on companies' financial
policies and investment strategies.
 REUTER

Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> and Nissan
Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> both said May vehicle exports fell from a
year earlier mainly due to the yen rise against the dollar.
    Toyota's exports fell 9.5 pct from a year earlier to
161,266 vehicles in May while Nissan's fell 17.6 pct to
100,221.
    Toyota's exports to the U.S. Fell 13.9 pct from a year
earlier to 90,096 in May and those to Europe fell 2.8 pct from
a year earlier to 34,876.
    Nissan's exports to the U.S. Fell 25.4 pct to 53,604 but
those to Europe rose 0.7 pct to 29,721.
 REUTER

Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T> and Sharp Corp
<SHRP.T> decided to maintain exports of lap-top personal
computers to the European Community (EC) at last year's levels,
despite the halt of shipments to the U.S., Company spokesmen
    They said the voluntary restraints were aimed at averting
EC sanctions urged by European computer makers. The Europeans
feared Japanese personal computers would flood EC markets after
Washington imposed 100 pct tariffs last April.
    Toshiba and Sharp together control about 40 pct of the
personal computer market in the EC, the Sharp spokesman said.
    Toshiba said exports of T1100 and T3100 lap-top computers
would continue at 5,000 units a month for the time being.
    Sharp said exports to the EC of PC 7000 series lap-top
personal computers would continue at last year's level of
12,000 to 16,000 units a year.
    Washington imposed the tariffs because of Japan's alleged
failure to uphold a 1986 agreement on semiconductor trade.
 REUTER

one, two, and three month treasury certificate rates, all by
0.10 points, effective immediately.
    The cuts take the one month rate to 6.75 pct, the two month
rate to 6.80 pct and the key three month rate to 6.85 pct, the
central bank said in a telex.
    A National Bank spokesman said the modest cut was made
after a decline in domestic money market rates yesterday, and
was not expected to be followed by a cut in the 7.60 pct
discount rate.
    The short-term treasury certificate rates, and especially
the three-month rate, have been the National Bank's main
monetary policy instrument for the last two years.
    The discount rate has been the market's penalty rate rather
than a guiding rate since 1985, and its advances are currently
little used as liquidity is ample, bank economists said.
    The bank last cut one- to three-month certificate rates on
June 5, also by 0.10 points.
 REUTER

<Aramco Corp> has accepted Japanese
nominations to lift a higher proportion of Arab Heavy crude oil
under term contracts in July, oil industry sources said.
    Japanese companies requested a ratio of 80 pct Arab Heavy
to 20 pct Arab Light under a term contract agreement with
Aramco for 100,000 barrels per day, the sources said. The
contractual ratio is 30 pct heavy crude to 70 pct light.
    Japanese demand for heavy crude oil has increased
substantially since the All Japan Seaman's Union ceased sailing
into the northern Mideast gulf last month, causing problems
with liftings of heavy Kuwait and Khafji crudes.
 REUTER

Tehran Radio said all but one Iranian
diplomat in London would return home within two weeks.
    The report, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp,
followed an announcement by the Foreign Office in London that
Britain had withdrawn four of its six remaining diplomats in
Tehran.
    They were the latest moves in a diplomatic row between the
two countries that started with the arrest of an Iranian
consular official in England followed by the abduction of a
British envoy in Tehran, who was later freed.
 REUTER

Indonesia's state oil company, Pertamina,
has informed its affiliated Japanese companies that crude oil
supplies will be 40 pct less than contractual volumes in July,
a spokesman for an affiliated company said.
    He said the allocations were in line with Indonesia's
production ceiling under its current OPEC quota, so they might
be increased if OPEC ratifies a production rise next week.
    Allocations of Indonesia's main traded crude, Minas, had
been cut by 50 pct and Duri by 38 pct, he said.
    Last month contractual volumes were cut by 30 pct.
    Contractual volumes assume no production ceiling.
    Oil traders said Indonesian grades were already trading
above their official selling prices (osp) on the spot market
due to strong demand from Japan and the U.S. And tight
supplies.
    A cargo of Duri loading in July was reportedly traded
yesterday at 70 cents over its osp of 15.60 dlrs per barrel and
Minas is trading about 20 cents higher, they said.
 REUTER

FRENCH OFFICIAL RESERVES 420.50 BILLION FRANCS IN MAY VS
420.24 BILLION APRIL - OFFICIAL

Vietnam's parliament sacked Prime
Minister Pham Van Dong and President Truong Chinh, but the
choice of their successors indicated the influence of the old
guard may not be over, diplomatic sources said.
    Dong, prime minister for 32 years, left in fading health at
the age of 81. He is a popular hero of wars against France and
the United States and a staunch ally of the Soviet Union.
    Parliament replaced him with second-ranked politburo member
Pham Hung, 74, the Vietnam News Agency said. Hung headed the
Viet Cong guerrillas in the Vietnam War.
    Diplomats in Bangkok said Hung, not a noted supporter of
economic and political reforms, had been widely tipped for the
less important presidency.
    That post went instead to Vo Chi Cong, a technocrat who
ranks third in the politburo. Diplomatic sources said Cong was
more in tune with the national economic and political changes
being pushed by reformists who apparently had gained the upper
hand in the all-important politburo in December.
    Chinh, a hardline Marxist and a veteran of the wars against
France and the U.S., Was ousted at the age of 80. His political
stance had recently softened, the sources said.
 REUTER

Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> predicted a
parent company current profit of 10 billion yen in the year
ending October 31, 1987, down 50.8 pct from a year earlier,
assuming a yen/dollar value at 147 yen, vice president
Yoshihiro Wada told a press conference.
    Sales in 1986/87 were estimated at 1,640 billion yen, up
0.9 pct from a year earlier.
    The company earlier posted a parent net profit of 1.59
billion in the first half ended April 30, down 76.9 pct from a
year earlier, on sales of 804.02 billion, down 4.2 pct.
    The fall was due to the yen rise against the dollar which
cut 55 billion yen off sales, Wada said. The average value of
the dollar was 155 yen in the period from 190 a year earlier.
    Mazda estimated vehicle exports at 1.12 mln, including kit
parts, in the year to October 31, up 6.8 pct from a year
earlier, and domestic sales at 360,000, up 0.8 pct, he said.
    Kit exports should rise because kits sold to Kia Motor Corp
<KIAM.SE> unit <Kia Industrial Corp>, which is eight pct owned
by Mazda, and to a Mexico unit of Ford Motor Co <F> will rise
to 150,000 from 9,000, pushing kit exports up 45.3 pct to
260,000, he said.
    Mazda has yet to decide whether to pay an unchanged four
yen dividend for the second half, but it will pay an unchanged
3.50 yen for the first half, Wada said.
 REUTER

French official reserves rose 258 mln
francs in May to 420.50 billion francs from 420.24 billion at
the end of April, the Finance Ministry said.
    The slight rise partly reflected the repayment last month
of France's outstanding 11.95 billion francs of debt owed to
the European Monetary Cooperation Fund (FECOM).
    It also reflected a negative 314 mln franc position with
France's Exchange Stabilisation Fund after intervention
purchases of 10.6 billion francs during May.
    Foreign currency holdings fell 7.28 billion francs to
124.58 billion while ECU holdings fell by 5.55 billion francs
to 58.52 billion due to the repayment of part of France's debt
owed to the FECOM and Stabilisation Fund operations, the
    Claims on the IMF rose 1.14 billion francs to 18.97
billion, including a 385 mln franc increase in France's reserve
position with the IMF and a 751 mln franc rise in holdings of
Special Drawing Rights.
    Gold holdings were unchanged at 218.46 billion francs.
 REUTER

The New Zealand government's sale of
a 25 pct stake in Air New Zealand would release the airline
from the shackles of burdensome government processes, managing
director Norman Geary told reporters.
    Civil Aviation minister Richard Prebble said today the
government would sell 25 pct of the airline to the public.
    Geary said the company had proposed the sale in 1984.
    "With our company we believe there will be considerable New
Zealand interest (in the shares) and we would hope for a strong
private interest," he said.
    Geary said he was keen to see a large staff shareholding.
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Yugoslavia has signed up for a 550 mln
ECU loan from the European Community (EC), the  official Tanjug
news agency said.
    It said the agreement, which has yet to be ratified by the
12 EC countries and the European Parliament, was signed last
night in Brussels.
    The 20 year, 7.5 pct interest loan will be used to complete
the trans-Yugoslavia motorway and modernise the country's
railway network, the agency said.
    Yugoslavia's request for a 100 mln ECU grant was refused by
the EC, but will be discussed again, Tanjug added.
 REUTER

program, which began late last year, has earned the French
State about 52 billion francs to date, the Finance Ministry
said.
    Sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said the
revenues raised from the privatisation program would be used in
priority to pay off public debt, which stood at 398.2 billion
    The Ministry said in a communique that the returns included
banking group Societe Generale <SGEN.PA>, which began its
two-week public flotation last Monday.
    The government has carried out eight flotations, as well as
the private sale of telephone group <Cie Generale de
Constructions Telephoniques> (CGCT) since its denationalisation
scheme began last December with the sell-off of glass makers
Saint-Gobain <SGEP.PA>, it added.
    The government has pledged to privatise 66 state-owned
industrial, banking and insurance companies by 1991.
    Other companies to be sold to the private sector in the
near future are television network TF-1 later this month and
banking group Cie Financiere de Suez <FSPP.PA> in the autumn.
    The ministry said TF-1's forthcoming sell-off meant that a
third of the government's programme would have been completed
in less than nine months.
    Balladur on Sunday rejected press and opposition charges
that the share prices for privatised companies had been pitched
too low.
    He said that the average premium of shares trading on the
Bourse was between 15 and 30 pct over their offer price. This
compared with premiums of between 60 and 80 pct on similar
share flotations in Britain.
 REUTER

Fiji sugar farmers will receive an interim
payment on the 1986 crop, four months ahead of schedule, in a
move aimed at getting harvesting of the drought-hit 1987 crop
under way, Governor-general Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau said.
    Industry sources said latest forecasts for the 1987 crop
indicated output of 360,000 tonnes, well down on the record
501,800 tonne tel quel production in the 1986 (May-December)
crop year.
    The previous record was set in 1982 when Fiji produced
486,790 tonnes.
    For the past month Fiji sugar farmers have delayed
harvesting the 1987 crop pending a response from the
Governor-general to demands following the May 14 coup.
    Ganilau said in a statement the Fiji Sugar Corp would make
a payment of five dlrs per tonne against the final payment for
the 1986 crop on the understanding that preparations by growers
for commencement of harvesting would be completed at all mills
by June 23.
    Crushing would commence at Labasa and Penang mills on June
23 and at Lautoka and Rarawai mills on June 30, he said.
    The interim payment, to be made on or about June 30, is the
full amount of the grower's share of 1986 sugar proceeds
received to-date. The balance will be paid in October.
    Growers had also called for the full 1987 forecast price of
23.50 dlrs per tonne of cane to be paid in cash on delivery to
the mill, but this has been rejected by the state controlled
Fiji Sugar Corp, Ganilau said.
    However, in addition to the scheduled delivery payment of
14.10 dlrs, an additional sum of 2.35 dlrs, or 10 pct of the
forecast price, would be paid on December 15, on all cane
harvested by November 30, he said.
    Ganilau said, "This will be at least one month in advance of
the expected date of payment of the second payment of cane. The
balance of the second payment will be made six weeks after the
end of crushing."
    Another demand of Fiji's 22,000 small farmers was that an
estimated 14 mln dlr loan from the Fiji Development Bank (FDB)
for the 1983 cane crop rehabilitation programme be written off.
The FDB rejected this request.
    Ganilau said, however, "The bank is prepared to carefully
consider requests for rescheduling loan repayments in cases of
hardship on a case-by-case basis."
    In response to a further demand that all soldiers be
removed from the cane growing areas, Ganilau said the army
would restrict its presence in the cane areas.
    He said he had directed the authorities to issue permits to
harvesting gangs, cane growers and sugar industry trade unions
to hold the necessary meetings in preparation for the
commencement of harvest.
    Senior representatives of the sugar cane growers had
indicated a desire to commence the crush as soon as possible,
he added.
 REUTER

Some major Japanese institutional
investors are gradually returning to investing in U.S.
Treasuries, although fear that the dollar has not yet bottomed
out has kept others cautiously waiting on the sidelines.
    Trust banks and some investment trusts are starting to look
at buying treasuries for short-term gains, while other
investment trusts and most life insurers are still wary,
according to fund managers polled by Reuters.
    The five percentage point gap between U.S. And Japanese
long-term bonds is the major attraction of T-bonds.
    Most institutions remain sensitive to the prospects of
dollar declines, after making huge foreign exchange losses on
their foreign bond holdings last fiscal year ended March.
    The seven leading local life insurers alone saw losses on
their foreign bond holdings of over 1,700 billion yen, or some
11.5 billion dlrs, in 1986/87, industry sources said.
    However, most institutional investors want to buy U.S.
T-bonds due to the absence of profitable domestic instruments.
    "Despite all the negative factors, we have definite demand
for U.S. Securities," said Osamu Fukushima, deputy manager of
Mitsui Trust and Banking Co Ltd's securities department.
    Another trust bank fund manager said, "What matters the most
are the fundamentals of the U.S. Economy and the
competitiveness of U.S. Industry. We are closely watching the
growth of U.S. Exports, which is an important measure of the
fundamental strength of the dollar." The U.S. Trade deficit's
decline in April was due to a 1.2 billion dlr decline in
imports, while exports did not show a recovery, he said.
    One life insurance company fund manager said, "We doubt the
U.S. Government will fight the trade and fiscal deficits,
especially after the announcement of Federal Reserve Board
chairman Paul Volcker's resignation."
    "The receptive stance of the U.S. Congress on the call for
further dollar falls to cut the country's trade deficit also
makes us wary about U.S. Bonds purchases," the life insurance
company fund manager said.
    Yuji Miyaji, deputy manager of the Sumitomo Trust and
Banking Co Ltd's securities investment department, said, "We are
slowly starting to buy U.S. Bonds because the gap of over 500
basis points between the U.S. And Japan is very attractive
However, we are pessimistic on the dollar's further recovery.
We find that U.S. Economic fundamentals have not changed so
far."
    Keijirou Fukushima, manager at Yamaichi Investment Trust
Management Co Ltd's bond portfolio management department, said,
"We would like to invest in U.S. Bonds gradually, given an
improved inflation outlook and the limited chances of a further
steep fall in the dollar from now."
    "We have already reduced forward dollar selling volume to 40
pct of our total foreign assets from 60 pct," he said.
    Another life insurance company fund manager said, "We have
started investing in U.S. Treasury securities, but only on a
trading basis."
 REUTER

UK MAY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS RECORD 64,300 TO 2.95
MLN OR 10.6 PCT - OFFICIAL

UK AVERAGE EARNINGS ROSE 6.5 PCT IN YEAR TO APRIL,
UNDERLYING RISE 7.75 PCT - OFFICIAL

U.K. MANUFACTURING WAGE COSTS RISE 1.0 PCT IN YEAR TO
APRIL (MARCH 0.7 PCT RISE) - OFFICIAL

U.K. APRIL INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT RISES 0.3 PCT, MANUFACTURING
UP 0.55 PCT - OFFICIAL

U.K. MAY ADJUSTED M3 RISES PROVISIONAL 2.1 PCT, M0 UP 0.5
PCT - BANK OF ENGLAND

MAY AJUSTED STERLING BANK LENDING UP 2.7 BILLION STG
AFTER 1.5 BILLION IN APRIL - OFFICIAL

U.K. Unemployment fell a record
provisional, seasonally-adjusted 64,300 in May to a total 2.95
mln or 10.6 pct of the workforce, the Employment Department
said.
    In April, seasonally-adjusted unemployment fell by an
upwardly revised 21,600 to 3.02 mln or 10.9 pct, it said.
    The unadjusted jobless total in May, including school
leavers, alos fell a record 121,000 to 2.99 mln or 10.8 pct
from April's 3.11 mln, 11.2 pct.
    May was the eleventh successive decline from a peak last
summer of 11.6 pct, the Employment Department said.
    "Unemployment has fallen to under three mln for the first
time in over three years. The May fall of 64,000 was the
largest drop since records were first kept (in 1948),"
Employment Minister Norman Fowler said.
    All regions have seen above average falls in long term
unemployment during the past year, he added.
    The last time the adjusted total of unemployed was below
three mln was July 1984, while the unadjusted total was last
below this level in June 1983.
 REUTER

adjusted 6.5 pct in the year to end-April, after increasing by
6.7 pct annually in March, the Employment Department said.
    The April index, base 1980, was set at a provisional,
seasonally-adjusted 197.3, up from 194.8 in March.
    But the underlying rise was 7.75 pct, up 0.25 pct from
March and back to the same level seen late last year.
    The underlying rise is adjusted for factors such as
back-pay and timing variations.
    Unit wage costs in U.K. Manufacturing industry rose one pct
in the year to April, after an upward revised rise of 0.7 pct
in the period to March, the Department of Employment added.
    In the three months to end-April, such costs were 0.9 pct
higher, year-on-year, compared with a rise of 1.2 pct in the
three months to March.
    Manufacturing productivity in April was 6.1 pct higher than
a year ago after a downward revised 6.8 pct increase in March.
In the last three months period manufacturing productivity was
up 6.7 pct, having increased 6.5 pct in the first quarter.
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private sector in May is estimated to have risen by an
underlying, seasonally adjusted 3.5 billion stg compared with
1.3 billion stg in April and a recent monthly average of 1.4
billion, the Banking Information Service said.
    The unadjusted rise was 2.77 billion stg, up from 844 mln
in April.
    The May surge in borrowing from the clearing banks was
prompted by the fall in base rates, which reached nine pct on
May 11, the Banking Information Service said. Borrowing through
bill finance and other sources shrank.
    The increase in lending in May was seen in most categories,
the Banking Information Service said.
    In the personal sector, on an unadjusted basis, mortgage
lending rose 544 mln stg compared with 471 mln in April.
General consumption went up 399 mln against 355 mln, though
credit card debt rose only 55 mln compared with 161 mln.
    Financial sector borrowing was up 734 mln stg in May
compared with a net repayment of 60 mln the previous month.
    Unadjusted private sector deposits increased by 2.37
billion stg against 1.16 billion. Sterling attracted an extra
955 mln stg in deposits from abroad after little change in
April.
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A commission set up to unravel the
affairs of debt-ridden Air Lanka says the airline amassed
losses of up to 265 mln U.S. Dlrs in "the most devastating
financial tragedy" in Sri Lankan commercial history.
    The commission, which scrutinised financial dealings from
aircraft acquisitions to give-away cookbooks, blamed the
airline's previous board for the losses. The panel, appointed
in August by President Junius Jayewardene, submitted its report
to him on April 20. A copy was obtained by Reuters. The report
will be made available to the public by next week.
    The three-man commission recommended its findings be passed
to state law officers to decide whether penal action was
necessary against any members of the former board or Air
Lanka's management. The airline comes under the Defence
Ministry, a portfolio held by Jayewardene himself.
    The commission said Air Lanka's reports to Jayewardene
"blurred" its true financial health. It said the airline had
irretrievably lost its share capital of 3.8 billion rupees.
    To finance deficits, it had also used up a treasury loan of
800 mln rupees and part of foreign currency loans obtained for
aircraft purchases and infrastructure needs, it said.
    "Air Lanka is thus indebted to overseas lenders to the value
of one billion rupees without any productive assets or
collateral to provide for its repayment," the commission said.
    It said the airline's losses were assessed at 5.59 billion
rupees at March 31, 1986. But cumulative losses would reach 7.7
billion, implying Air Lanka lost money at the rate of 1.3
billion rupees a year between 1979, when it started, and 1986.
    "These results must rank as the most devastating financial
tragedy ever suffered in Sri Lanka's commercial history," the
commission said.
    The report said the airline's dangerously critical
financial condition was due to uncontrolled spending --
particularly the way in which the airline expanded its fleet --
poor marketing, and extreme laxity in cost controls.
    "It is clear to us that Air Lanka's misfortunes are largely
of its own creation and that the reponsibility must rest
primarily with the board of directors," it said.
    Air Lanka had blamed its problems on the effects on tourism
of Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist rebellion, the depreciating
rupee and under-capitalisation. The commission dismissed these
as invalid.
    The report said most of the major problems stemmed from
concentration of power by Captain S.R. Wikramanayake who held
the posts of both chairman and managing director.
    "It is mainly he who has to be responsible for whatever the
status of Air Lanka is in today," it said.
    Wikramanayake resigned with the other board members last
November. He could not be contacted for comment.
    The commission recommended that its findings should be
passed "to the law officers of the state ... To ascertain if
penal action is necessary against any or all members of the
former board of Air Lanka or its management staff."
    The panel recommended equity involvement of one or more
foreign airlines in Air Lanka and the granting of maximum
concessions to make the carrier attractive to foreign and local
investment. It also suggested selling assets, such as two
Boeing 747s financed by U.S. Dollar loans, to reduce debt.
    It said Air Lanka and the government should renegotiate
U.S. Dollar-denominated debts into other currencies which form
the core of earnings and obtain lower interest rates. It also
proposed negotiations for the return of two Lockheed Tristar
L1011-500s now leased to British Airways before the leases
expire next March.
 REUTER

The cantonal government of Zurich wants a
proposed federal law making "money laundering" an offence to
punish negligence and not just gross negligence, the cantonal
information service said.
    The Zurich authorities said they supported proposals
unveiled by the federal government in February to make it a
crime for anyone to conceal the origin of money which they have
reason to believe was obtained by criminal means.
    But they argued in a submission on the proposals that the
duty of care imposed on financial institutions should make them
liable for any negligence.
    The federal government's proposals, which are being
circulated for comment before a formal bill is put before
parliament, would make only gross negligence an offence.
    The new legislation, which is aimed mainly at combatting
organised crime, is likely to take effect in the early 1990s.
 REUTER

importers will reopen a tender tomorrow for two shipments of
54,000 to 66,000 tonnes of U.S. Soybeans, a committee spokesman
     The committee rejected a tender today for a cargo of
27,000 to 33,000 tonnes on the grounds the prices offered by
the U.S. Suppliers were too high, he said.
    The committee will be seeking a further shipment of between
27,000 and 33,000 tonnes when it reopens the tender tomorrow,
he added.
 REUTER

Amro Bank said it is arranging the
first guilder multi-option facility for Greenland NV in a loan
package of up to 300 mln guilders.
    The package consists of a 150 mln guilder, five year
multi-option facility with a tender panel facility for short
term advances and a back stop by the syndicate at 0.5 pct above
the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR)
    There is also a 150 mln guilder, seven year multi-currency
term facility at LIBOR plus 0.375 pct for the first three
years, at LIBOR plus 0.5 pct for the fourth and fifth year, and
at LIBOR plus 0.625 pct for the remaining two years.
    Greenland has an option to fix the second facility.
    Both facilities have a commitment fee of 0.125 pct.
    Greenland NV, a producer of agricultural machines, is a
subsidiary of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group. The firm will be
floated on the Amsterdam and Toronto stock exchanges in the
second half of July.
 REUTER

Honda Motor Co Ltd <HMC.T> said its
vehicle exports in May fell 11.4 pct from a year earlier to
54,982.
    Honda shipped 34,701 vehicles to the U.S. In May, up 4.4
pct from a year earlier, but total shipments to North America
fell 8.3 pct to 39,009, due to increased assembly there, a
company spokeswoman said.
    Exports to Europe fell 24.8 pct to 12,821, she added.
 REUTER

ATT/Philips (APT), the
joint venture between American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T>
of the U.S. And N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS>,
said the Spanish government had approved its setting up of a
joint venture in Spain. The government had also awarded it an
order for the state-controlled Compania Telefonica Nacional de
Espana <TELF.MA> (Telefonica), APT said.
    APT will take a majority stake in a new company to be
formed with the Spanish firm <Amper> which will make
transmission equipment for Telefonica.
    The order is expected to be worth some 30 mln dlrs per
year.
    Further negotiations with Telefonica have yet to be
concluded, however, an APT spokesman said.
    For Philips, the order is an important first step into the
Spanish market, a company spokesman said.
   REUTER

BankAmerica Corp <BAC> asked Japanese
commercial banks today to buy 350 mln dlrs in subordinated
capital notes and preferred stock that it plans to issue to
boost its equity base, a company spokesman said.
    BankAmerica vice chairman Frank N. Newman held a meeting
here today to outline its fund-raising plan to some 20 Japanese
banks, he told Reuters.
    He also stressed the company's efforts to streamline
operations, by withdrawing from unprofitable energy-related
areas to concentrate more on its Californian home base.
    But Newman said the company had no intention of selling its
 Seafirst Corp Subsidiary in Washington.
    A document obtained by Reuters shows the fund-raising
effort involves 250 mln dlrs in 12-year subordinated capital
notes and 100 mln in convertible preferred stock.
    It has made a shelf registration with the SEC so that it
can issue debt securities whenever market conditions are
favorable.
    The company already raised 100 mln dlrs in the U.S. Market
last month, he added.
    According to the document, the 250 mln dlrs in subordinated
capital notes will carry an interest rate of 100 basis points
over the three-month London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The
minimum rate will be six pct and the maxiumum 12 pct.
    The notes will be redeemable at par after four years and
will also have warrants attached to purchase the firm's common
stock at 17.50 dlrs. There will be 7.5 mln warrants in all,
with a term of 10 years.
    The planned convertible preferred stock will carry a
dividend rate equivalent to three months LIBOR plus an as yet
undecided premium, the document said. There will be no sinking
fund for the preferred stock, which will have 10-year warrants
attached to buy BankAmerica common stock.
    The rest of the details of the preferred stock issue have
yet to be worked out.
    On both the preferred stock and note issues, BankAmerica
said that a fixed rate alternative was possible.
    The document said that BankAmerica was also open to raising
funds in yen, if that was desirable for the Japanese.
    Those present at the meeting today were working-level
officials from 13 city, three long-term credit and seven trust
banks, Japanese banking sources said.
    Newman expressed hope that certain banks would act as lead
managers of the projected debt securities but did not name
specific banks, the sources said. No bank made any commitment
to the company's fund-raising plan as most knew little about it
in advance, they said.
    "Today's meeting itself was held with very short-notice and
we just can't decide what to do with it," said a senior official
at a leading city bank.
    Newman attempted to quell Japanese bankers' fears that the
U.S. Federal Reserve may insist that they deduct the equivalent
amount to the securities purchased  from their primary capital,
under a regulation now being studied by the U.S. And Britain.
    Newman told them that they should not worry because he
understood the U.S. Federal Reserve would not go along with
such a regulation, the official said.
 REUTER

Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> said its vehicle
exports fell 2.2 pct from a year earlier to 69,191 in May.
    In May, exports included 50,800 cars, down 4.8 pct from a
year earlier, and 18,391 commercial vehicles, up six pct, the
    Mazda's exports to the U.S. Fell 7.8 pct to 35,401 and
those to Europe fell 2.6 pct to 20,809.
    Exports to South East Asia rose 142.4 pct to 6,564 due to
higher exports of complete kits to <Kia Industrial Corp>.
 REUTER

James Hardie Industries Ltd <HAHA.S> said
the 28 pct increase in its 1986/87 net profit reflected the
benefits of continuing rationalisation and consolidation of
Australian activities and expansion in the U.S.
    The diversified building products group reported net
earnings rose to 60.58 mln dlrs in the year ended March 31 from
47.42 mln in 1985/86. It lifted annual dividend to 24 cents
from 22 with a final of 13, against 11 previously.
    Hardie had concentrated resources on building up its core
businesses of building products, paper merchanting and
technology and services, it said in a statement.
    Hardie said it sold a number of businesses during the year
which were unable to meet objectives for return on investment
or market share and some non-core units.
    This resulted in a decline in sales to 1.50 billion dlrs
from 1.56 billion, but also contributed to a fall of about 100
mln dlrs in borrowings by year-end and a 36 pct drop in
interest expense to 29.16 mln dlrs, it said.
    Hardie said a 42 pct jump in second-half net earnings to
29.66 mln dlrs from 20.92 mln a year earlier was particularly
pleasing in view of the difficult trading conditions faced by
the building products businesses in Australia.
    The problems in U.S. Irrigation operations which adversely
affected 1985/86 earnings have been overcome, Hardie said.
    It said the process of rationalisation and consolidation
had continued into the current year as had expansion into the
U.S.
    Hardie said it could now look forward to a period of
development and further growth in Australia and overseas after
carrying through a long and expensive process of eliminating
asbestos, the group's original prime raw material, from its
fibre cement building products over the past eight years.
 REUTER

Average spending by French ministries will
be virtually frozen next year within the framework of a one pct
real increase in the overall state budget, sources close to
French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said.
    The sources said priority would be given to defence,
research and the fight against unemployment, which reached 2.66
mln people in April.
    Prime Minister Jacques Chirac yesterday chaired a
ministerial meeting on the budget and Balladur is due to make
the final decision at the end of the month.
    Budget Minister Alain Juppe said yesterday that the
government was on course to achieve its target of tax cuts
worth 50 billion francs over two years.
    Juppe gave no details but pledged that the government also
planned to cut its budget deficit down to 115 billion francs by
1988 from the 129 billion franc shortfall forecast for 1987.
 REUTER

Britain withdrew four more diplomats from
its diplomatic mission in Tehran, leaving only two officials in
their posts.
    The Foreign Office said the four had left Tehran earlier
today and would arrive in London tomorrow.
    Britain and Iran have been embroiled in a three-week-old
diplomatic row which began when a British diplomat was beaten
and abducted for 24 hours in the Iranian capital.-
 Reuter

Three U.S. Senators said they will
propose a temporary ban on imports of all Toshiba products due
to the company's illegal sales of sensitive high-technology
goods to the Soviet Union.
    Senator Jake Garn, John Heinz and Richard Selby said at a
hearing of the senate banking committee on export control, they
will offer the proposal as part of a major trade bill when it
is brought before the senate this summer.
    Garn, a Utah Republican, said "I am talking about specific
retribution on a company that endangers the security of their
own country and ours."
 Reuter

Representatives of the Republic of
Chile and its 400-plus international bank creditors started
signing agreements to reschedule 10.6 billion dlrs of the
country's foreign debt, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co said.
    Manufacturers Hanover, which chairs a 12-bank advisory
committee that agreed the terms of the deal in late February,
said all of Chile's creditor banks have approved the package.
    A key feature of the rescheduling agreement is that Chile
will avoid the need for fresh bank loans this year and next by
making interest payments to the banks every twelve months
instead of every six months.
 Reuter

auction 24.25 billion dlrs of two, four and seven year notes
next week to raise a total of 8.325 billion dlrs of new cash.
Tuesday, June 23 of 9.75 billion dlrs of two year notes.
    That will be followed on Wednesday and Thursday by
respective quarterly sales of 7.5 billion dlrs of four year
notes and 7.0 billion dlrs of seven year notes to refund 15.93
billion dlrs of two year and four year notes maturing June 30.
The two year notes mature June 30, 1989. The four years mature
June 30, 1991 with the seven years due July 15, 1994.
 Reuter

Four cargoes of raw sugar were sold to
China yesterday via the London trade to supplement the
country's current nearby buying programme, traders said.
    The sugar was reported sold at around 160 dlrs a tonne c
and f for July/August shipment or arrival in September, they
said.
    Some traders said recent Chinese purchases could total as
much as 300,000 tonnes, but others, while agreeing a heavy
volume had been taken, said an amount less than that figure was
involved.
    China was still believed to be in the market for more
sugar, traders said.
 REUTER

Texas-New Mexico Power Co, a unit of
TNP Enterprises Inc, said it filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission a registration statement covering 65 mln
dlr issue of first mortgage bonds.
    Proceeds will be used to repay short-term debt and for
other general purposes, the company said.
    It said the bonds would probably be offered through
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc and Salomon Brothers Inc.
 REUTER

Republic New York Corp said it would
add 100 mln dlrs to its allowances for loan losses specifically
related to its loan exposure to Latin American customers.
    Republic New York estimated its second quarter net loss
would total about 80 mln dlrs as a result.
 REUTER

affirmed the ratings on 2.2 billion dlrs of debt of Republic
New York Corp.
    The agency said Republic's 100 mln dlr provision to its
loan loss reserve adjusts the institution's financial statement
to more accurately reflect economic reality.
    Affirmed were Republic's Aa-3 senior debt, A-1 subordinated
debt and preferred stock, Provisional Aa-3 senior debt shelf
and Provisional A-1 subordinated debt shelf. Also affirmed were
lead bank Republic National's Aa-1 long-term deposit
 REUTER

USX Corp announced a public offering
of 250 mln dlrs of convertible exchangeable cumulative
preference stock underwritten by Morgan Stanley and Co Inc and
FIrst Boston Corp.
    USX said the proceeds will be used to redeem its currently
outstanding 2.25 dlrs convertible exchangeable cumulative
preference stock.
    USX said the new stock will be offered at 50 dlrs a share
and will have a dividend of 3.50 dlrs a share per year.
 REUTER

Trading in shares of <Dairy Farm
International Holdings Ltd> was suspended after the morning
session, the stock exchange said.
    It gave no explanation of the move but the company
announced it will hold a press conference on a major corporate
development this afternoon.
    The stock last traded at 5.40 H.K. Dlrs, down 10 cents from
yesterday's close.
 REUTER

Yr ended March 31
    Shr 37.8 cents vs 30.7
    Final div 13 cents vs 11, making yr 24 vs 22
    Net 60.58 mln dlrs vs 47.42 mln
    Turnover 1.50 billion vs 1.56 billion
    Other income 16.84 mln vs 3.73 mln
    Shrs 161.71 mln vs 154.19 mln.
    NOTE - Div pay Aug 6. Reg July 17. Div is unfranked and
thus will not be tax-free under dividend imputation.
    Net is after tax 28.39 mln dlrs vs 29.93 mln, depreciation
32.05 mln vs 34.59 mln, interest 29.16 mln vs 45.74 mln and
minorities 1.35 mln vs 9.89 mln but before extraordinary profit
2.28 mln vs loss 31.05 mln.
 REUTER

Dutch parliamentary parties have
re-affirmed their support for the government's opposition to
the proposed European Community tax on oils and fats,
parliamentarians said.
    A broad cross-section of members of parliament voiced their
opposition to the tax during a debate in the lower house
yesterday on the basis of possible retaliation from the U.S.
And on the potentially damaging effect on Third World
    State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Rene Van Der Linden
said the government was against the tax although it noted
deepening EC financial difficulties.
    "It is difficult to be against the tax and against extra
finance. The EC members have to make a choice," Van Der Linden
said.
    However, he denied the government had dropped its
opposition to the proposed tax or altered its position.
 REUTER

CSR Ltd <CSRA.S> said it had declared
unconditional its takeover bid for <Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd>
following Pioneer's recommendation that shareholders accept.
    This meant Pioneer shareholders would be paid for all
shares tendered within 14 days, CSR said in a statement.
    CSR's statement follows Industrial Equity Ltd's <INEA.S>
disclosure yesterday that it had built up a 9.8 pct stake in
Pioneer at 2.54 dlrs a share, topping CSR's cash bid of 2.50.
    CSR is also offering one share, currently worth 4.04 dlrs,
plus 1.20 cash, for every two Pioneer shares, which values
Pioneer at 2.62 per share. It holds about 33 pct of Pioneer.
 REUTER

Sweden's Sandvik AB <SVIK.ST> and
Diamant Boart SA of Belgium, in which Societe Generale de
Belgique <BELB.BR> holds an indirect 52 pct stake, have
finalised negotiations on merging oil and gas drilling tool
activities, officials of both companies said.
    Staffan Paues, President of the new Brussels-based joint
venture company Diamant Boart Stratabit SA (DBS), told a news
conference that the merged firm would be able to offer products
for all types of drilling operations.
    He said there were already signs that a slow recovery from
recession was under way in the oil and gas industries.
    "Stability in oil prices should lead to renewed investment"
Paues said.
    DBS, which Paues said began operations today, brings
together Sandvik's wholly-owned U.S. Subsidiary Strata Bit Corp
of Houston and Diamant Boart's petroleum activities in Europe,
North America, the Middle and Far East and Africa.
    Paues said the merger was a direct result of the sharp fall
in oil prices 18 months ago which led oil firms to cut back
exploration activities. Officials said the complementary
character of the two firms' operations was a further reason.
 REUTER

Canada's Foreign Minister Joe Clark
said there is greater international recognition on the need to
reduce government-imposed subsidies on agricultural produce.
    "There is now recognition that agricultural subsidies must
be reduced, and other reform measures pursued," Clark told a
conference of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
foreign ministers and their counterparts from six
    A delegate said Clark's call for "halting the subsidy war in
the agricultural products" to ensure a stable world trading
system received warm support from Japan and Australia.
    Clark said the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has called for "reduction of direct and
indirect subsidies and avoidance of predatory or protectionist
trade practices."
    The OECD stand was endorsed by the Venice economic summit
this month. However, he said he did not expect any quick
solution to the subsidy problem.
    Clark said Canadian farmers, like those of ASEAN, "are
caught in the cross-fire of an agricultural subsidy war that is
not of our making."
    Clark said his country will provide 10 mln Canadian dlrs as
aid over thu next five years to developing countries of the
South Pacific region to finance fisheries and other marine
projects.
    "The new program, which we estimate will cost about two mln
Canadian dlrs a year, will be implemented by te International
Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) in close cooperation with
the major South Pacific regional organisations," he said.
 REUTER

THOMSON GRAND PUBLIC TAKES OVER THORN EMI'S AUDIOVISUAL
DIVISION - THOMSON

Thomson Grand Public, the subsidiary of
Thomson SA <THMP.PA>, has taken over the audiovisual consumer
goods division of British group Thorn EMI, Thomson Grand Public
chairman Pierre Garcin said.
    The cost of the deal, signed late yesterday, is around 90
mln stg and Thomson will finance 50 mln of this from its
equity.
    Thorn EMI is a leader in the British audiovisual market
with a turnover last year of 300 mln stg.
    Garcin said the new acquisition would substantially
increase Thomson's turnover in the sector.
 REUTER

The 37,635 deadweight tonnes bulk carrier
Cumberlande, which sank in the South Pacific last Friday, was
carrying a cargo which included lead as well as magnesium ore,
a Lloyds Shipping Intelligence spokesman said.
    He was unable to confirm the tonnages involved.
    Trade reports circulating the London Metal Exchange said
the vessel, en route to New Orleans from Newcastle, New South
Wales, had been carrying 10,000 tonnes of lead concentrates.
Traders said this pushed lead prices higher in early morning
trading as the market is currently sensitive to any fundamental
news due to its finely balanced supply/demand position and low
stocks.
    Trade sources said that 10,000 tonnes of lead concentrates
could convert to around 5,000 tonnes of metal, although this
depended on the quality of the concentrates.
    A loss of this size could cause a gap in the supply
pipeline, particularly in North America, they noted. Supplies
there have been very tight this year and there is a strike at
one major producer, Cominco, and labour talks currently being
held at another, Noranda subsidiary Brunswick Mining and
Smelting Ltd.
 REUTER

French mortgage refinancing agency Caisse
de Refinancement Hypothecaire (CRH) has cancelled today's
auction of between one and two billion francs worth of tap
stock, the Bank of France said.
    In a statement the agency cited "exceptional circumstances"
on the bond market which resulted in a low level of
    Today's issue would have been a new tranche of the agency's
March 1987 8.50 pct 12 year issue. At its last auction in May
the CRH sold 2.02 billion francs worth of the stock at a top
accepted price of 91.10 pct giving an average 9.79 pct yield.
 REUTER

Dome Petroleum Ltd said one of
its common shareholders filed a class action suit in a New York
court alleging the company, its chairman and president breached
their fiduciary duties concerning Amoco Corp's proposed
takeover of Dome.
    Dome said the suit, filed by counsel representing Allen B.
DeYoung, who holds 100 Dome common shares, names Dome, chairman
J. Howard Macdonald, president John Beddome as defendents, as
well as Amoco and Amoco's Canadian unit Amoco Canada Petroleum
Co Ltd.
    Dome said the class action suit, filed in United States
district court in New York, seeks a court order declaring the
Dome-Amoco takeover null and void or compensation in excess of
100 mln dlrs in actual damages, plus compensation for any
consequential damages.
    The suit also seeks to block a provision in the merger
agreement for Dome to sell to Amoco its Primrose, Alberta,
heavy oil properties for 79 mln dlrs if the takeover is not
completed.
 Reuter

 Reuter

JWT Group Inc said it filed a suit
against <WPP Group Plc> to enjoin the company from continuing
its tender offer.
    The company said it charged that former JWT Group unit
executive John Peters has breached his fiduciary duty by
disclosing confidential information about the company and its
clients.
Court, seeks to halt the "ongoing misuse and misappropriation
of highly confidential and proprietary information concerning
JWT and its clients.
    The defendants in the suit are WPP Group and its units and
Peters, who until January 29 was a director of J. Walter
Thompson Co, JWT Group's main subsidiary and its president and
    JWT said it asked the court to enjoin the defendants from
acquiring any further JWT stock, make them return all
confidential and proprietary information and to disgorge all
profits or other gains.
    The company said it also asked the court to award JWT
unspecified damages.
 Reuter

JWT Group Inc disclosed in a filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it awarded
so-called "golden parachutes" to 26 top officers.
    The company said it granted the special bonuses, which take
effect only if an executive is fired within two years of a
successful takeover, on June 8.
    It granted 25 of the officials a severance payment of just
under three times their annual compensation if they are fired
after a takeover. For chairman Don Johnston, the payment was
limited to twice his annual compensation.
    JWT approved additional lump-sum payments of one year's
compensation to an unspecified number of other highly paid
company officials.
    The company also altered its employee retirement and stock
incentive plans, to assure continued protection and benefits
for employees in the event of a hostile takeover.
    The company did not disclose the cost of the changes made
in the severance, retirement or stock plans.
 Reuter

A spokesman for Unilever Plc <UN.AS>
declined to comment on market rumours that it may be
considering a bid for the U.S. Health care group The Gillette
Co <GS.N>.
    Gillette shares are traded on the over-the-counter market
in London and this morning stood one dollar higher at 38 dlrs
in response to the bid speculation. Unilever dipped 33p to
3,275 in a generally depressed U.K. Market.
    Most analysts dismissed the rumours saying it was an old
story, and one commented that it was "utter rubbish," adding he
thought Unilever would not be interested in Gillette.
    Gillette shares rose sharply at the beginning of the month
on Wall Street rumours that Sir James Goldsmith was building a
stake in the company.
    Gillette has been the subject of repeated rumours since
Ronald Perelman, chairman of the Revlon Group Inc <REV>, made
an unsuccessful bid for the company last year.
 REUTER

Private Export Funding Corp, PEFCO, is
offering 150 mln dlrs of secured notes due 1994 with an 8.60
pct coupon and par pricing, said J.P. Morgan Securities Inc,
acting as lead manager of its first corporate debt deal.
    "To our knowledge, this is the first time that an affiliate
of a bank holding company has been a manager of a corporate
bond offering in the U.S.," a spokesman for J.P. Morgan and Co
Inc said.
    J.P. Morgan Securities is an affiliate of J.P. Morgan and
Co, the fifth largest bank in the U.S.
    The J.P. Morgan spokesman explained that because the PEFCO
notes are guaranteed by the U.S. government, the securities
affiliate was not prohibited by the Glass-Steagall Act from
underwriting the issue.
    Indeed, Bankers Trust Co and Citicorp Investment Bank,
which are affiliates of Bankers Trust New York Corp and
Citicorp respectively, were co-managers of the PEFCO offering.
    Passed by Congress in 1933, Glass-Steagall bars commercial
banks from owning brokerage firms and engaging in such
investment banking activities as underwriting corporate
securities or municipal revenue bonds.
    Last year, several major U.S. banks formed investment
banking affiliates and applied to the Federal Reserve Board for
authorization to offer commercial paper and underwrite and
trade municipal revenue bonds and some forms of mortgage-backed
    J.P. Morgan Securities received permission from the Fed
several weeks ago for these activities, the spokesman said.
    But the Securities Industry Association, a trade group of
investment banking firms, appealed the decision. J.P. Morgan
also appealed because it believed the Fed placed too many
restrictions on the bank's affiliate, the spokesman said.
    "The Securities and Exchange Commission got a stay, so we
are not engaging in those activities," the J.P. Morgan
    "We are perfectly eligable to underwrite this offering. We
are endeavoring to prove that there is nothing mysterious about
this business," the spokesman said.
    He added, "Ruling off certain markets does not serve the
public policy.
    J.P. Morgan Securities was formed in April 1986 with
capitalization of 250 mln dlrs, the spokesman said. At year-end
1986, the firm had 261.5 mln dlrs of capital.
    Dillon, Read and Co Inc, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and
Salomon Brothers Inc also served as co-managers of the PEFCO
deal.
    The issue's yield was 50 basis points over comparable
Treasury securities. The notes are non-callable for life. A
top-flight AAA rating by Moody's and Standard and Poor's is
    The gross spread is 5.75 dlrs, the selling concession is
3.50 dlrs and the reallowance is two dlrs.
    The spokesman said J.P. Morgan Securities was a member of
an underwriting syndicate for a Sallie Mae issue last year.
 Reuter

said it looked to further progress this year after reporting a
11.7 pct rise in 1986/87 pretax profits to 2.07 billion stg.
    The result was at the top end of market expectations but
the shares nonetheless declined from last night's closing
levels to stand 12p lower at 303p at 1130 GMT.
    Telephone call income rose 9.5 pct to 4.97 billion while
rental income increased 10.6 pct to 3.06 billion.
    The company said it had not paid anything through its
profit-sharing scheme, after 18 mln stg last year, considering
such payments inappropriate after a series of strikes.

    It said total operating costs rose 806 mln stg to 7.08
billion while its basket of across-the-range tariffs had been
reduced overall by 0.3 pct last November under arrangements set
up before privatisation.
    Despite the rise in profits, taxation rose only 11 mln stg
to 754 mln, reflecting the cut in U.K. Corporation tax to 35
pct from 40 pct during the year. Gearing fell to 33 pct from 39
pct. Price regulation formulae were introduced for both the
previously state-owned utilities that have been floated off.
Yesterday, British Gas Plc <BRGS.L> said it was cutting tariffs
for domestic customers by about 4.5 pct.
    BT chairman Sir George Jefferson said work on new digital
exchanges and optical fibre links will continue and the fight
against vandalism of public call boxes would go on.
    "We have been spending 160 mln stg over three years
modernising and expanding our payphone service to make our call
boxes more reliable and harder to vandalise."
    Expenditure on digital exchanges was about 500 mln stg and
progress had been made in installing optical fibre.

 REUTER

Exide Corp is raising 135 mln dlrs via
an offering of senior subordinated notes due 1997 yielding
13.01 pct, said sole manager Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    The notes have a 12-7/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.25, Drexel said. The issue is non-callable for three years
and non-refundable for five years.
    Moody's rates the notes B-2 and Standard and Poor's rates
them B-minus. The gross spread is 33.75 dlrs, the selling
concession is 21 dlrs and the reallowance is 2.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

Olin Corp is raising 125 mln dlrs via
an offering of 10-year subordinated notes yielding 9.558 pct,
    The notes have a 9-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 99.625
to yield 134 basis points more than comparable Treasury
and BBB-minus by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread is seven
dlrs, the selling concession is four dlrs and the reallowance
is 2.50 dlrs. Salomon Brothers co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Fletcher Challenge Finance USA Inc, a
unit of Fletcher Challenge Ltd, is raising 190 mln dlrs via an
offering of notes due 1997 yielding 9.28 pct, said sole manager
    The notes have a 9-1/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.80
to yield 105 basis points more than comparable Treasury
Aaa by Moody's and Standard and Poor's. The gross spread is
6.50 dlrs, the selling concession is four dlrs and the
reallowance is 2.50 dlrs.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp said it has
received an order from Thai Airways International for one
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Series 30ER aircraft and four MD-11
long-range trijets, plus options for four more MD-11's.
    The company said the nine aircraft, together with two other
DC-10ER's ordered earlier this year by Thai Air, are worth
about one billion dlrs.
    It said the DC-10 is scheduled for April 1988 delivery and
the first two newly ordered MD-11's in September and November
1990, with the others two in October and November 1991.
    McDonnell Douglas said the DC-10 will be powered by General
Electric Co <GE> CF6-50C2 engines and the MD-11's by GE
CF6-80C2 engines.
 Reuter

Commonwealth Edison Co is raising 140
mln dlrs through an offering of first mortgage bonds due 1994
yielding 8.92 pct, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    The bonds bear an 8-7/8 pct coupon and were priced at
99.765 to yield 85 basis points more than comparable Treasury
Moody's and A by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread is 6.50
is 2.50 dlrs. Morgan Stanley co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

Service Resources Corp said it has
withdrawn and terminated its 23 dlr per share takeover offer to
Sorg Inc because Sorg failed to respond to the bid.
    It said, as Sorg's largest single shareholder, it will
evaluate all its options, including making a further offer to
Sorg or disposing of some or all of its Sorg shares.
 Reuter

99.25, Drexel said.
    The issue is non-callable for three years and
non-refundable for five years. Moody's rates the notes B-2 and
Standard and Poor's rates them B-minus. The gross spread is
33.75 dlrs, the selling concession is 21 dlrs and the
 Reuter

Joy Technologies Inc is raising 185 mln
dlrs through an offering of senior subordinated debentures due
1999 yielding 13.85 pct, said lead manager Kidder, Peabody and
Co Inc.
    The notes have a 13-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at
99.396, Kidder said. The issue is non-callable for five years.
    Moody's rates the debt B-1, compared to a B-minus grade by
Standard and Poor's. Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette co-managed
the deal.
 Reuter

Salomon Inc, said the company's second quarter is "likely to be
comfotrably in the black, but down from the comparable year-ago
quarter," when Salomon earned 117 mln dlrs or 78 cts a share on
a primary basis.
    "Its been a difficult quarter," Salomon told Reuters,
adding that financial analysts today lowered their second
quarter earnings estimate for the company to 30 cts to 50 cts
per share from a range of 75 cts to 80 cts a share.
    Salomon's stock closed at 34-3/4, off one, on heavy
trading.
   
    Salomon said he was deluged with calls from analysts after
yesterday's announcement by First Boston Inc <FBC> that it will
report a loss for the second quarter due to steep losses in the
bond market during April.
    Salomon acknowledged that the quarter was "difficult" but
said the company will report a profit for the period.
 Reuter

Thrifty Rent-A-Car System Inc, the
fifth largest car rental company in North America, said it
initial public offering of two mln shares of comon stock.
    Thrifty said the offering represents about one-third of the
company's outstanding and current stockholders will retain a
majority two-thirds ownership of the company.
    Alex. Brown and Sons Inc will be managing underwriter.
 Reuter

Halcyon Investments, a New York firm,
reported a 6.9 pct stake in Research-Cottrell Inc.
    Alan Slifka, a partner in Halcyon, told Reuters the shares
were purchased for investment purposes but declined further
comment.
    On June 8, Research-Cottrell said it had entered into a
definitive agreement to be acquired by R-C Acquisitions Inc for
43 dlrs per share. Research-Cottrell closed at 44-1/4 today,
unchanged from the previous close.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 13 cts vs shr profit 12 cts
    Net loss 4,116,000 vs net profit 3,672,000
    Revs 61.1 mln vs 55.5 mln
    Avg shrs 32,263,000 vs 31,640,000
    12 months
    Shr loss 86 cts vs shr profit 42 cts
    Net loss 27.6 mln vs net profit 13 mln
    Revs 174.9 mln vs 189.3 mln
    Avg shrs 32,184,000 vs 30,938,000
    NOTE: Both 1987 and 1986 figures restated to reflect April
21, 1987 acquisition of Distribution Management Systems Inc,
accounted for as a pooling of interests.
    1987 results include a first quarter non-recurring charge
of 7 mln dlrs with an after-tax impact of 11 cts per share
attributable to the write-off of the remaining assets acquried
from Computer Pictures Corp in November 1982.
 Reuter

A spokesman for a group of United
Airlines employees, who oppose the attempted takeover of United
by the Airline Pilots Association, said he met with the new
chairman of Allegis, Frank Olson.
    William Palmer, the group's spokesman, which claims to
speak for thousands of United employees, said the meeting with
Olson was "positive and friendly," but no future meeting dates
were set.
    In April the pilots union offered to buy out United, an
Allegis subsidiary, through an employee stock ownership plan.
 Reuter

 Reuter

affirmed the ratings on 1.4 billion dlrs of debt of Marine
Midland Banks Inc and unit, Marine Midland Bank NA.
    Affirmed were the parent's A-2 senior debt and preferred
stock and A-3 subordinated debt, and the unit's Prime-1
commercial paper, A-1 long-term deposits, A-2 subordinated debt
and Prime-1 short-term deposits.
    Moody's cited a 400 mln dlr addition to the firm's loan
loss reserves as a reflection of exposure to economically
troubled borrowers. Moody's said the addition merely more
accurately reflects economic reality.
 Reuter

National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>
announced a 0.75 pct reduction in the mortgage interest rate
applicable to new mortgages taken out from June 19, 1987.
    The new rate is 10.5 pct (APR - Annual Percentage Rate -
11.2 pct including fees for normal repayment mortgages, and
11.1 pct including fees for endowment and pension mortgages).
    A spokesman for Nat West said the position for existing
mortgages is being kept under active review in the light of
market conditions, and an announcement will be made as soon as
possible.
 REUTER

TPI Enterprises Inc said chairman and
chief executive officer Stephen R. Cohen may be one of the
partners in a partnership formed by AMC Entertainment Inc <AEN>
and Phillip E. Cohen to own 6,275,144 TPI shares.
    Yesterday AMC announced that it and Cohen had agreed to buy
the shares from Rank America Inc for six dlrs each. Cohen was
formerly a TPI director.
    TPI said under the terms of its sale of the shares to Rank,
it has a 30-day option to purchase the shares Rank proposes to
sell to AMC and Cohen for the same price. It said its board
will consider whether or not to exercise the option.
 Reuter

Congressional Democratic leaders
announced a compromise has been reached on a 1988 budget,
paving the way for final approval of a trillion dollar spending
plan.
    House Speaker Jim Wright and Senate Majority Leader Robert
Byrd told a news conference that final congressional approval
of the plan to reduce an estimated 171 billion dlr deficit next
year to 134 billion dlr was expected next week.
    The plan was worked out by Democrats who control both House
and Senate but who have been stalemated for a month over
different House and Senate budgets that passed earlier.
    The budget proposes 19.5 billion dlrs in new taxes next
year, 65 billion dlrs over a three year span.
    It would cut President Reagan's request to spend 298
billion dlrs for defense in 1988 by about nine billion dlrs,
but only if he accepts the proposed tax increase to pay for it.
    If Reagan rejects the tax rise, which he has said he would,
defense spending under the plan would drop automatically by
about five billion dlrs, the leaders said.
    Reagan's own budget was rejected by wide margins in both
House and Senate by a combination of Democrats and his own
Republican party who said it was unrealistic.
 Reuter

Senator Kent Conrad, D-ND, said
President Reagan's goal of phasing-out world farm subsidies by
the year 2000 is doomed to failure because the European
Community, EC, will not accept it.
    "It (Reagan plan) is a nonstarter. Its absolutely crystal
clear they (EC) have no intention of eliminating subsidies,"
said Conrad on his return from a four-day visit to Europe.
    Instead of proposing an end to farm subsidies, he said the
U.S. should adopt some of the EC Common Agricultural Policy,
CAP, principles by seeking a "compromise" agreement with
Brussels to jointly reduce production, and apply a two-price
system of high domestic and low export prices. Under the plan,
export subsidies would bridge domestic and world price gaps,
said Conrad, a new member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
 Reuter

A minority group of European
Community countries strong enough to block the adoption of a
tax on vegetable and marine oils and fats is still intact after
the EC Commission proposed changes to its proposals earlier
today, British agriculture minister John MacGregor told
    He said Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark
continue to oppose the tax after the Commission proposed making
it temporary and promising compensation to any third countries
whose exports suffered.
 Reuter

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc said
it has called a special meeting for July 23 for a vote on an
increase in authorized common shares to 100 mln from 50 mln, an
increase in preferred shares to 150 mln from 2,500,000 and a
provision allowing the payment of preferred dividends in stock
or property as well as cash.
    The company said June 29 will be the record date for the
meeting.  Harcourt which is fighting off a takeover bid from
<British Printing and Communication Corp PLC>, has declared a
special dividend on common stock of 40 dlrs in cash and 12 pct
preferred stock with a market value of 10 dlrs per share.
    The special dividend is to be paid July 27.
 Reuter

Washington Bancorp said it has added
12 mln dlrs to its reserves for losses on international loans,
causing a second quarter loss of about nine mln dlrs.
    The company said it expects a profit for the calendar year
that will be more than sufficient to cover dividend payments,
and the current dividend policy will be maintained.  The
company now pays seven cts per share quarterly.
    Washington Bancorp earned 2,358,000 dlrs for last year's
second quarter and 8,179,000 dlrs for all of 1986.  It said
despite the increased provision, book value at year-end should
be at least as much as the end-1986 17 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 37 cts
    Net 3,025,000 vs 1,188,000
    Sales 35.2 mln vs 35.4 mln
    Avg shrs 2,794,298 vs 3,187,051
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.43 dlrs vs 83 cts
    Net 6,781,000 vs 2,576,000
    Sales 101.0 mln vs 99.7 mln
    Avg shrs 2,794,298 vs 3,115,499
 Reuter

The European Investment Bank said it is
making a 300 mln franc loan to Peugeot SA <PEUP.PA> to
restructure the paint works at its Sochaux car factory in
France.
    It said the ten-year loan carries interest at 9.15 pct and
follows a 300 mln franc 8.60 pct ten-year loan the bank made to
Peugeot last July.
    Work on the paint shop at Sochaux is part of a 1.3 billion
franc operation to modernise the group's factories, it added.
 REUTER

European coffee traders and roasters
may propose a new formula for calculating International Coffee
Organization (ICO) coffee quotas at the end of their meeting
here this week, traders and officials told Reuters.
    Although traders were unwilling to reveal details of the
possible new formula, they said it would give Brazil, the
world's biggest coffee producer, unchanged ICO quotas for the
next two years and could be a basis for renegotiation.
    "The main sticking point on quotas has been Brazil's
attitude, and this compromise could be a solution, " one said.
    However, the European coffee trade federation meeting,
which began here today and is to continue to the end of the
week, has revealed gaps in the European position on
re-introducing quotas.
    Traders said that, as a whole, the trade side was against
re-introduction of ICO quotas, while roasters were generally in
favour with the single proviso that there had to be some
formula basis for re-allocating quota shares among producing
    The roasters said the positions were generally fairly
close, and problems with some Government officials.
    Germany and Italy were cited as the extremes of polarized
Government attitudes, with most other countries on the fence.
    Sources said Germany was the most extreme against quota
re-introduction, while the Italians were most in favour.
    "Nevertheless, we expect to find enough common ground by the
end of the week to at least present a common European Community
(EC) view at the next meeting of consumer members of the
International Coffee Agreement (ICA) in July," one trader said.
    "We hope we can present the compromise proposal and that not
only the consumer side, but the producer side will accept it,"
one official said.
    "We have learned that we can live without the quotas that
were suspended in February last year, but would prefer the
stability they can bring to the market as long as we do not
simply return to the old and outdated status quo as far as
quota allocation is concerned," he added.
    Overall, however, trader and roaster opinion on the
likelihood of a successful re-negotiation was mildly
pessimistic, varying between a 50-50 chance and 60-40 against.
    "Our main difficulty will be to persuade the U.S. On the
consumer side and Brazil on the producer side to agree to quota
re-introduction, " he said.
    "The U.S. Position has, if anything, hardened, while the new
Brazilian Coffee Institute president has adopted the least
negotiable position of any of his predecessors," one trader
said.
    "However, with many producers starting to swing in favour of
the consumer position that quotas have to be re-allocated under
a new formula, Brazil is becoming increasingly isolated, which
gives at least some hope of a compromise at the ICO quota
meeting in September," the official said.
 Reuter

First Data Management co Inc said
it has completed a merger into Firsst Data MAnagement Holding
co following sharehoplder approval.
    It said each 100 shares will be exchanged for 1,000 dlrs
principal amount of 14.375 pct senior subordinated debentures
due June 15, 2002.
 Reuter

    Shr loss 10 cts vs profit nine cts
    Net loss 163,465 vs profit 131,815
    Revs 3,672,731 vs 3,763,829
    Nine mths
    Shr profit four cts vs profit one ct
    Net profit 57,911 vs profit 11,380
    Revs 11,753,950 vs 10,794,822
 Reuter

Frost and Sullivan Inc President Daniel
Sullivan said he and other executive officers of the company
have agreed to sell an aggregate of 542,684 shares of common
stock including shares issuable on exercise of options.
    In addition, Sullivan said he and other officers would also
cause to be sold an additional 44,000 shares to Theodore Cross,
an investor, for 10 dlrs per share.
    Frost and Sullivan publishes market research reports and
sponsors management seminars and conferences.
   
    Such shares, together with the shares presently held by
Cross, will give Cross a majority of the outstanding shares of
the company's common stock, Sullivan said.
    Sullivan will continue as president and chief executive
    After consummation of the sale, Cross and his designees
will be elected to the board and constitute a majority, the
   
    The company also said stockholders would get 10 dlrs per
share. The board of directors is expected at its next meeting
torecommend that the stockholders accept.
 Reuter

Poughkeepsie Savings Bank
said its board declared an initial quarterly dividend of 10 cts
per share, payable July 31 to holders of record July 17.
 Reuter

Indonesia rejected World Bank
recommendations for sweeping reforms to its farm economy, as
the country's foreign aid donors met to consider giving it 2.5
billion dlrs in grants and soft loans.
    Agriculture Minister Achmad Affandi, in written remarks
distributed today as Indonesia's 14 foreign donor nations met
at The Hague, said, "The general argument presented by the Bank
for this free trade, open economy view is weak."
    The Bank called for overhauls in how Indonesia manages the
largest farm area in South-east Asia, and said agricultural
growth was stagnating under subsisides for rice farming.
    The Bank report said Indonesia's rice production had peaked
and the subsidies are a waste of money.
    Affandi replied that rice is the main staple and provides
an income for 17 pct of the workforce. The subsidies were
needed to support the fertilizer industry, including importers,
exporters, producers and distributors, he said, as well as
assisting in small part the majority of Indonesian farmers.
    Affandi agreed with a bank recommendation that farmers
should be free to choose their own crops, but he said the
government would continue to maintain production targets for
"strategic commodities" such as rice and sugar.
    The Bank report was especially critical of Indonesia's
drive to plant sugar, saying domestic sugar prices are double
the world average because of inefficiencies, and the country
would save money by importing the commodity.
    However, Affandi said volatile world sugar prices, the need
to save foreign exchange and an already up-and-running sugar
industry were good arguments for continuing the sugar drive.
    He also said import barriers and trade monopolies in the
agricultural sector were needed to help domestic industry
develop and because of "over-production and price intervention
in the developed nations."
 REUTER

Shr 29 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 1,262,000 vs 1,002,000
    Sales 49.9 mln vs 40.3 mln
    Year
    Shr 1.18 dlrs vs one dlr
    Net 5,205,000 vs 4,339,000
    Sales 180.1 mln vs 150.7 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net both periods includes gain 900,000
dlrs from adjustments to LIFO reserves, compensation related
accruals and a revised effective tax rate.
 Reuter

Chock Full O' Nuts Corp said its board
declared a three pct stock dividend, payable July 31 to holders
of record July Eight.
    The company also said Page M. Black has resigned from its
board to devote her attention to charitable affairs.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 17
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 28
 Reuter

U.S. House and Senate budget
negotiators agreed as part of an overall budget accord reached
yesterday, to cut 1.25 billion dlrs from fiscal 1988 spending
on agricultural programs, Congressional sources told Reuters.
    The agreed cut in farm programs is a compromise between 1.4
billion sought by the Senate and one billion by the House.
    The negotiators also agreed to cut 1.6 billion from the
farm budget in fiscal 1989 and 2.45 billion in 1990, for a
total of 5.3 billion in saving over three years, sources said.
    The agreement presents the House and Senate Agriculture
committees with difficult choices on how to make changes in
agriculture programs that achieve the budget savings targets
without jeopardizing popular support payments, senior
Congressional aides told Reuters.
    Some farm state lawmakers already are manuevering to find
the budget savings.
    Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan., Chairman of the House grains
subcommittee, has introduced a bill which would freeze wheat
and corn loan rates for the 1988 crop at the current 2.28 dlrs
and 1.92 dlrs respectively, saying it would save 500 mln dlrs.
    House Agriculture Committee chairman Kika De la Garza has
said the committee will consider the Glickman proposal.
    But Congressional sources said the proposal is unlikely to
be approved because of opposition from Republican lawmakers and
a strong stance by Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng, who said
freezing loan rates would send the wrong signal to other major
grain export competitors and would not achieve the budget
savings Glickman claims.
    Another area where Glickman and other have said budget
savings might be made is to increase acreage reduction program,
ARP, levels for wheat and corn.
    However, on this issue also Lyng has taken a strong stand
within the Reagan administration, arguing that the 1988 crop
wheat acreage reduction should be left at 27.5 pct and not 30
pct as sought by the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. Most
commodity lobbyists expect Lyng to prevail.
    Congressional sources said the only way to achieve
significant budget cuts through ARP increases would be to boost
the 1988 corn ARP. But one informed Congressional source said
singling-out corn for an ARP increase would would be seen as
unfair to one commodity.
    Congressional sources said the areas where Congress is most
likely to eventually look for budget savings are some
tightening of the payment limitation rules, and possible 
adoption of a 0/92 program for the 1988 crops of major grains.
    Those changes would achieve a portion of the 1.25 billion
but not enough, they said.
    Ultimately, Congressional sources said the agriculture
committees may be forced to apply an across-the-board cut on
all Commodity Credit Corp. payments to farmers, including price
support loans and deficiency payments, similar to the
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget cut applied in fiscal 1986.
    This idea has been suggested by the American Farm Bureau
Federation, AFBF, as the fairest approach for all commodities.
 Reuter

Woodstream Corp said its board will
hold a special meeting on July 28 to review a "strategic plan"
developed by management.
 Reuter

insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 in the
week ended June 6 from 310,000 in the prior week, the Labor
regular state programs totaled 2,359,000 in the week ended May
30, the latest period for which that figure was available.
    That was up from 2,255,000 the previous week.
     
 Reuter

Qtly div 1.25 dlrs vs 1.25 dlrs prior
    Pay Aug One
    NOTE: American Information Technologies Corp.
 Reuter

    Pay July 10
    Record June 30                                             
    
 Reuter

Qtly div 96 cts vs 96 cts prior
    Pay August one
 Reuter

The Arab Monetary Fund is to lend Iraq
71.7 mln dlrs to help to finance its trade with other Arab
countries, the United Arab Emirates news agency WAM said.
    The first repayment on the loan will fall due in 30 months
with full repayment spread over four years. The loan carries
4.95 pct interest in the first year, rising to 5.85 pct in the
fourth year.
    Today's agreement brings total loans by the fund to Iraq
since 1983 to 390.6 mln dlrs.
 REUTER

Some OPEC states are unhappy about the
prices assigned to their crude oil but this should not pose
great problems when the group reviews its six-month-old price
and output pact in Vienna next week, oil analysts say.
    They said Nigeria, which holds the OPEC conference
presidency, and Qatar probably have the biggest grievances
about price differentials making some of their crudes
uncompetitive.
    There has also been speculation by Japanese traders that
OPEC might want to mark up prices of high-sulphur heavy crudes,
to correspond with greater demand and higher fuel oil prices.
    But most experts agree that a major overhaul of price
differentials is unlikely, so as to avoid giving the market
signals of a dent in OPEC's new unity.
    "All OPEC members can make a good case for changing
differentials," said one analyst with a major oil company. "But
at the end of the day, the attitude is going to be "leave well
alone' and little or nothing is likely to be altered."
    Iran, Libya and Saudi Arabia are among those who also saw
sales problems earlier this year, traders say. But diminished
customer resistance to fixed prices and, in some cases,
marketing incentives have helped their sales.
    Some producers can sell uncompetitively priced crudes by
means of discounts, processing deals or selling them alongside
better priced grades in a "package."
    Many OPEC crudes are seen to be reasonably priced, at least
for some part of the year. But many experts say OPEC should
change prices quarterly or monthly to match seasonal demand for
fuel oil-rich heavy crudes and gasoline-rich lighter grades. At
its last meeting in December, OPEC agreed to reintroduce fixed
prices from February 1 around an 18 dlr per barrel reference
point. Official prices had been effectively dropped in 1985
when members offered discounts to attract customers.
    OPEC also decided to limit first-half 1987 output to 15.8
mln bpd and proposed ceilings of 16.6 mln for the third quarter
and 18.3 mln for the fourth. Analysts expect it will now extend
or raise slightly the current ceiling for the coming months.
    Spot market and netback values for some crudes do not
mirror official prices, but OPEC will probably keep the 18 dlr
target and at most make minimal changes to differentials,
analysts say.
    The 18 dlr figure is based on a basket of six OPEC and one
non-OPEC crudes. OPEC assigned prices to its other key export
crudes, with a 2.65 dlr gap between the heaviest and lightest.
Extra heavy crudes were among those left out.
    Industry estimates vary on the proportion of OPEC oil
exports actually sold at official prices. Several experts say
only one-quarter to one-third of the total in fact sells at
official prices, with some of the rest included in processing
or barter deals or sold in the form of refined products.
    Problems with the new structure appeared earlier this year,
when some producers' output fell due to customer reluctance to
pay the new prices.
   Nigeria especially found its gasoline-rich Bonny Light crude
-- now OPEC's highest priced grade at 18.92 dlrs a barrel --
was uncompetitive on the spot market against Britain's Brent.
    In February and March, Nigeria's production shrank below
its 1.238 mln bpd OPEC quota. Spot prices have since revived,
due partly to seasonal demand for gasoline, and its output has
risen.
    Some experts feel Bonny Light is still overvalued and say
its price should be cut by between 50 cts to one dlr a barrel.
    But Mehdi Varzi, chief oil analyst with London's Kleinwort
Grieveson Securities, doubts Nigeria will actively push the
differentials question in Vienna.
    "It would not look good for OPEC unity if Nigeria, which
holds the presidency, raised the issue," he said.
 REUTER

    Pay July 30
                                                 
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
    Record July Nine
                                                 
 Reuter

Saxon Oil Co said stockholders at its
recent annual meeting approved, among other things, a 1-for 15
reduction in the number of outstanding shares of common stock.
    The company said stockholders also approved the reelection
of the four directors of the company and the authorization of a
change in the state of incorporation of the company from Texas
to Delaware.
    Saxon said it will defer completion of the reincorporation
and the reduction in shares pending satisfactory resolution of
certain federal income tax consequences of such actions.
   
    Also approved at the meeting was a proposal for
indemnification agreements to be entered into with the
directors and executive officers.
 Reuter

Analysts said they were surprised at
the government's announcement of a forecast budget surplus for
fiscal 1988 but said it was consistent with previous policy
statements and positive for the economy.
    Finance Minister Roger Douglas predicted a budget surplus
for the year ending March 1988 of 379 mln New Zealand dlrs
against a 1.95 billion deficit last year.
    Analysts polled by Reuters said the forecast budget surplus
was even more positive than the most bullish analysts'
forecasts and that this was good news for financial markets.
    Market expectations among analysts questioned by Reuters
before the budget varied widely between a balanced budget and a
2.3 billion dlr deficit. But none predicted a surplus.
    The forecast initially looks positive for both the bond and
the foreign exchange markets, one analyst said. Paradoxically,
the New Zealand dollar could rise in the medium term, despite
lower interest rates, as overseas investors became more
confident about investing in New Zealand, he said.
    However, some foreign exchange dealers disagreed, saying
the local dollar is primarily interest rate driven and will
move lower.
    The local dollar dropped to 0.5940/50 U.S. Dlrs in after
hours trading, against 0.5970/77 just before the budget
release.
    Analysts said the budget was also positive for the share
market, despite an increase in the contribution of company
taxation to revenue figures.
    One equities analyst predicted that the budget surplus
announcement could push the share market up by 50 points
tomorrow.
    The Budget statement was broadly as expected, with a
continuation of existing policies, and the absence of
traditional pre-election incentives would be viewed positively
by overseas investors, another said.
    But one merchant bank economist said that certain anti-tax
avoidance measures could damage some sectors of the share
market, particularly multi-national companies.
    The government is also lowering its borrowing requirements,
through bond tenders, as a result of the surplus. The
requirement for the rest of the year is now down to 950 mln
N.Z. Dlrs from a predicted 1.75 billion.
    Predicted revenue in the Budget looked sustainable and
there appeared to be no holding back on expenditure, another
economist said. He added that the document seemed entirely
credible.
    "Altogether it looks good for Labour's election prospects,"
he said.
    An election is due before the end of September.
 REUTER

    Pay Aug 14
    Record July 24
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs eight cts
    Net 12.0 mln vs 5.1 mln
    Revs 280.1 mln vs 155.9 mln
    Backlog 625.7 mln vs 451.6 mln
 Reuter

Aca Joe Inc said Touche Ross and
Co, intends to qualify its report on Aca Joe's year ended
January 31 because of uncertainty about the company's ability
    The company, which had previously projected "substantial
losses" for fiscal 1987, said it now expects to report a loss
from operations of about five mln dlrs, or 35 cts a share, on
sales of about 23 mln dlrs. For fiscal 1986, Aca Joe reported a
profit of 860,998 dlrs.
    The company also said it is reviewing its alternatives with
its lenders and financial advisers.
    Aca Joe said it and Touche Ross have not yet resolved the
proper accounting treatment of certain assets on the company's
    As a result of these unresolved issues, the company said,
it has been unable to finalize its audited financial statements
for fiscal 1987 and file its annual report on form 10-K with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aca Joe said it also
has been unable to comply with the SEC's timely filing
requirements of its 10-Q report for the quarter ended May 2.
   
    Involved in the dispute, Aca Joe said, is the
recoverability of intangible assets totalling about five mln
dlrs arising from the acquisition of Aca Joe Intercon Ltd and
Aca Joe Eastern Ltd, and the recoverability of about one mln
dlrs of ACA JOE trademark rights which were purchased by the
company.
 Reuter

Cytogen Corp said shareholders
at the annual meeting approved the authorization of 5,400,000
preferred shares and increased by 800,000 shares the number of
common shares that can be sold under its stock option plan.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters Kidder, Peabody and
Co Inc and Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc <SHE> said an
initial public offering of two mln common shares of Multi-Local
Media Corp is underway at 10.50 dlrs a share.
purchase up to 300,000 more shares, it said.
 Reuter

plans to issue units in Canada containing common share purchase
warrants indexed to zinc and copper prices.
    Each unit will consist of one deferred retractable
redeemable share and one warrant, which will be indexed to
average market prices of zinc and copper on the exercise date.
    Issue size, timing and terms have not yet been determined.
    Cominco said it would use proceeds to reduce bank loans and
other short-term debt. Underwriters are Nesbitt Thomson Deacon
Inc, Dominion Securities Inc and Pemberton Houston Willoughby
Bell Gouinlock Inc.

 Reuter

Inter-Regional Financial Group Inc
said IFG Leasing Co, a discontinued subsidiary, will redeem,
effective August One, the 4.0 mln dlr outstanding balance of
its 11-1/2 pct subordinated notes due Aug 1, 1988.
    It said it also will redeem, effective September One, the
3.5 mln dlr outstanding balance of its 13 pct junior
subordinated notes due Sept 1, 1990.
    The company said it expects to redeem the final 4.2 mln
dlrs of its subordinated debt by the end of September.
    Separately, Inter-Regional Financial said it completed an
agreement with a group of banks for a new two-year 30 mln dlr
revolving credit facility.
    It said the agreement replaces its current 18 mln dlr
revolving credit agreement.
 Reuter

filed for an offering of two mln common shares through
underwriters led by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    The company said it will use 400,000 dlrs of the proceeds
to pay part of the purchase price for Milesburg Energy Inc and
the rest to repay up to one mln dlrs in short-term debt and for
 Reuter

BSD Medical Corp said it has
received 1,400,000 dlrs of equity capital from the private sale
of securities to two investment partnerships and director Alan
L. Himber.
 Reuter

American Biomaterials Corp said
it will issue one transferable right to each shareholder of
record yesterday for each three shares held.
    It said each of the 2,920,280 rights allows the holder to
buy one common share for three dlrs until July 15 expiration.
    The company said Hallwood Group Inc <HWG> has agreed to buy
all shares not purchased in the rights offering, except those
connected with rights issued to current and former directors
owning a 30.2 pct interest.  Persons exercising rights will be
able to oversubscribe, the company said.
 Reuter

Dutch butter consumption rose at the
expense of margarine last year partly because of the European
Community's (EC) cheap butter schemes, the Commodity Board for
Margarine, Fats and Oils (MVO), said.
    Butter consumption rose to 4.1 kilos per head in 1986 from
four kilos in 1985, while margarine consumption including low
fat margarine, fell to 14 kilos per head from 14.3 kilos.
    The low fat margarine figure remained static at 2.6 kilos
per head, while ordinary margarine fell from 11.7 kilos per
head to 11.4 kilos.
    However, cheap butter schemes may not be the only
contributory factor in the changes. The MVO figures show a
fairly steady rise in total butter consumption and fall in
margarine consumption since 1973.
    A graph produced in the MVO annual report shows total Dutch
margarine consumption in 1973 at just under 210,000 tonnes
against around 165,000 in 1986.
    The same graph shows total butter consumption in 1973 at
just over 30,000 tonnes compared with just short of 60,000
tonnes last year.
    However, during the same period total Dutch edible fat and
oil consumption on a fat content basis has risen from around
345,000 tonnes to 360,000 tonnes, or an average of 24.8 kilos
per head in 1986.
    The graph shows that most of the increase has come from
butter and household cooking oil usage.
 Reuter

Mr. Rooter Corp said it rescinded
a recent agreement calling for <United Western Energy Corp> to
to buy a majority of Mr. Rooter's stock for four dlrs a share.
    The company said it has also demanded repayment of a
150,000 dlr loan made to United Western.
    Since announcing the agreements, Mr. Rooter said, it
discovered additional information relating to United Western
and the unaffiliated privately held corporation which had
guaranteed all of United Western's obligations under the
    Mr. Rooter said the agreements were rescinded d"in light of
this additional information," without providing details.
    It said talks are in progress with United Western with
regard to the repayment terms of the loan.
 Reuter

Lincoln Telecommunications Co said
its directors voted to increase the quarterly dividend to 58
cts a share from 55 cts payable July 10, record June 30.
    The company also said its board voted a two-for-one stock
split to holders of record July 31.
    Lincoln Telecommunications said during the second quarter
holders of 8.9 mln dlrs of its subordinated convertible notes
had, in response to notice of prpeayment issued by the company,
converted their holdings to 273,844 shares of common stock.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 15
    NOTE: C.R.I. Insured Mortgage Investments LP.
 Reuter

growth was stagnating under subsidies for rice farming.
 Reuter

GILLETTE SAYS REVLON ASKED ITS BOARD TO CONSENT TO 40.50
DLRS PER SHARE OFFER

LIBERTY FINANCIAL SAYS IT AGREES TO BE ACQUIRED BY
EQUIMARK FOR 48 DLRS PER SHARE

Shr 30 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 14.7 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Sales 738.9 mln vs 605.1 mln
    Avg shrs 49.0 mln vs 47.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 93 ctsd
    Net 54.2 mln vs 42.9 mln
    Sales 2.45 billion vs 1.95 billion
    Avg shrs 48.9 mln vs 46.4 mln
    NOTE: Twelve- and 40-week periods.
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
 Reuter

Qtr ends May 31
    Shr 20 cts vs eight cts
    Net 509,043 dlrs vs 202,473 dlrs
    Revs 2,106,462 dlrs vs 1,158,621 dlrs
    Nine mths
    Shr 58 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 1,465,271 dlrs vs 1,240,773 dlrs
    Revs 5,854,819 dlrs vs 4,640,687 dlrs
 Reuter

Cedar Fair LP said its board
declared an initial prorated quarterly dividend of 17 cts per
share, payable August 14 to holders of record June 30.
    The partnership said it expects distributions for the third
and fourth quarters to meet the rate of 26-1/4 cts it had
predicted previously.
 Reuter

Computer Depot Inc said it
will cease operations and liquidate its assets.
    The decision results from the termination of the company's
line of credit by its asset-based lender and demand by the
lender for immediate payment of all amounts due, it said.
    Computer Depot said it will stop trading in its shares.
Upon liquidation of the company, no accounts are expected to be
available for distribution to shareholders after payments to
creditors, it said.
    In December 1985, Computer Depot, which sold personal
computer systems and software, filed for reorganization under
Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Its plan of
reorganization was approved in December 1986.
    The company said that yesterday, after demand by its
lender, it agreed to voluntarily surrender its inventory,
accounts receivable and other collateral.
    Operations are dependent upon financing and efforts to
obtain financing, including potential buyers and merger
candidates, have been unsuccessful, it said. Computer Depot
said the company will eventually be liquidated.
    Computer Depot reported a loss of 591,000 dlrs for its
second fiscal quarter ended May 2, 1987, after showing a profit
of 237,000 dlrs for its first quarter, which included the
Christmas selling season.
    The company previously reported that sales and margins
after January had been below expectations, due to uncertainty
in the in the retail market following recent product
announcements by International Business Machines <IBM>.
    Computer Depot auditors, Arthur Andersen and Co, qualified
its recent financial statements citing several risks in the 
company's ability to continue as a going concern.
 Reuter

Westcoast
Transmission Co Ltd said it agreed to acquire the Western
Canada oil and gas reserves and properties of AGIP Canada Ltd,
a subsidiary of AGIP SpA, part of Italy's ENI group, for 54 mln
    At the end of 1986, AGIP Canada reported proven and
probable reserves of 4.2 mln barrels of crude oil and natural
gas liquids and 22.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas. AGIP
Canada also holds 176,000 net exploratory acres in Western
Canada. Its properties produce about 1,100 barrels of oil a
day.
    The deal is subject to approval by both companies'
    Westcoast said the acquisition would enable it to apply
more than 150 mln dlrs of accumulated tax pools of AGIP Canada
Ltd to enhance after-tax cash flow from the acquired
    AGIP Canada said it would retain offshore exploration
blocks in Labrador, a gold mine in Yukon Territory and uranium
interests in Saskatchewan.
 Reuter

Great Western Financial Corp said
it is offering 2,513,200 common shares at a price of 20.625
    The company said the shares are being offered in connection
with the conversion of SunPoint Savings Bank FSB of Lake Worth
Fla to stock from mutual form and its simultaneous merger into
Great Western Bank, a federal savings bank owned by Great
Western Financial.
    Great Western Bank said it has received Federal Home Loan
Bank Board approval to acquire SunPoint Savings, which has
assets of about 730 mln dlrs.
   
    Great Western noted the conversion merger recently won the
approval of 94 pct of SunPoint's members -- a group comprising
the depositors and borrowers of that company. The merger is
expected to be completed by June 25.
    Great Western said depositors and employees of SunPoint
will purchase 56,500 shares of Great Western's common at the
same price in a subscription offering. Proceeds of both the
public and subscription offerings will be contributed to Great
Western Bank and used in its lending operations.
    The offering will be underwritten by Shearson Lehman
Brothers Inc and Goldman Sachs and Co.
 Reuter

Lomas and Nettleton Financial Corp said
it has agreed in principle to acquire Houston discount
brokerage firm Texas First Brokerage Services Inc for
undisclosed terms, subject to regulatory approvals.
    It said completion is expected by July 31.
 Reuter

French operators did not request any
export licences at today's European Community weekly cereal
tender, trade sources said.
 Reuter

BP Canada Inc, 64 pct-owned by
British Petroleum Co PLC, said it and state-owned Petro-Canada
were proceeding with Wolf Lake 2, the second phase of a
bitumen-recovery project in Wolf Lake, Alberta.
    The expansion, with an estimated pre-start up cost of 200
mln dlrs, will add 15,000 barrels a day to current capacity of
8,000 barrels a day.
    Construction will start in early 1988, with 248 wells
drilled initially and 975 more wells to be added over the
project's 25-year life, BP Canada said.
 Reuter

Liberty Financial Group Inc, the
parent of Liberty Savings Bank said it has signed a definitive
agreement to be acquired by Equimark Corp <EQK>, the parent of
Equibank, for 48 dlrs a share of Liberty.
    The transaction is structured as a merger of Liberty with a
duly-formed unit of Equimark, the company said.
    Liberty shareholders will receive about 48 dlrs per share
uopn the merger, the company said.
    According to the companies, the acquisition is contingent
upon the approval of Liberty's shareholders and the appropriate
   
    Liberty said the acquisition of its unit, Liberty Savings
Bank, by Equimark Corp, will result in the bank operating as a
separate wholly owned unit of Equimark.
    Charles Cheleden, chairman and president of Liberty
Financial and Liberty Savings, will continue as president and
chief executive officer of Liberty Savings, headquartered in
Horsham, Pa., the company said.
    Liberty said it feels that the price of 48 dlrs in cash per
share is attractive and that it has advised by Shearson Lehman
Brothers that the price is fair.
 Reuter

received contracts worth 250 mln dlrs, including options, to
supply its CF6-80C2 engines for the 747-400 and MD-11 airliners
ordered from Boeing Co <BA> and McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD>
respectively by Thai Airways International.
    The company said it also received a 16 mln dlr order from
Thai Air for CF6-50 engines on a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Series
30.
 Reuter

Gillette Co said Revlon Group made an
unsolicited request, asking the Gillette board to allow Revlon
to make a cash offer for all Gillette shares of at least 40.50
    Gillette said consent for the bid is required under a
standstill agreement between Revlon and Gillette before Revlon
can make any move on Gillette's stock.
    In November 1986, Revlon made an unsolicited offer for
Gillette shares, Gillette said.
    Subsequently, Revlon withdrew its offer, sold back to
Gillette the shares it owned at that time and entered into the
standstill agreement.
    The Gillette board of directors has a regularly scheduled
meeting this afternoon, and Gillette said it anticipates making
a statement after that meeting.
 Reuter

The national executive of Brazil's
most militant trade union group has proposed a general strike
for July 15 in protest at the government's austerity program.
    A spokeswoman for the Workers' Confederation (CUT) told
Reuters the proposal would be discussed within the trade union
movement. On Friday the government of President Jose Sarney
introduced austerity measures to try to combat the country's
high inflation rate, currently running at more than 1,000 pct a
year.
    It scrapped a trigger mechanism which had guaranteed
regular pay rises in line with high inflation.
    Trade unions say real wages are dropping by about a third.
 Reuter

    A spokeswoman for the Workers' Confederation, CUT, told
Reuters today that the proposal would be discussed within the
trade union movement.
    On Friday the government of President Jose Sarney
year.
    The new plan scrapped a "trigger" mechanism which had
guaranteed regular pay rises in line with high inflation.
 Reuter

Becor Western Inc said it
is talking with a possible fourth bidder for the company.
    The company also said Lynch Corp <LGL> has renewed its
offer for Becor which was withdrawn last week.
    Talks with the possible bidder are expected to be concluded
shortly, Becor said, adding its board will evaluate all then
existing offers at that time.
    In the meantime, the company said, it plans today to
adjourn further its meeting of stockholders to June 30. That
meeting was called to act on a merger agreement calling for a
buyout by BCW Acquisitions Inc.
    The third identified Becor suitor is <Davis Mining and
Manufacturing Inc>.
    In Fairfield, N.J., Lynch said its latest proposal calls
Lynch to own 75 pct of Becor's stock and Becor holders to
retain the other 25 pct.
    Peviously, Lynch would have held about 25 pct, with Becor
holders receiving 25 pct and Becor management about half.
    Lynch said the proposal was changed because it believes
Becor's management "needs more guidance in terms of financial
structuring.
 Reuter

U.S. personal income rose 0.2 pct, or
7.9 billion dlrs, in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 3,630.0 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said.
    The increase followed a revised 0.4 pct rise in April. The
department previously estimated April income rose 0.3 pct.
    The department also revised up the March personal income
rise to 0.3 pct from a previously reported 0.2 pct.
    Personal consumption expenditures rose 0.1 pct, or 1.5
billion dlrs, to 2,893.3 billion dlrs in May after rising 0.6
pct or 18.6 billion dlrs in April, the department said.
    The department said both the April and May increases in
personal income were restrained by lower subsidy payments to
farmers and by initial payments to a newly established
retirement fund for federal government employees in April.
    Wages and salaries increased 8.8 billion dlrs in May after
a 7.0 billion dlr rise in April, while manufacturing payrolls
were up 1.6 billion dlrs in May after falling 1.3 billion dlrs
in April.
    Farmers' incomes fell 11 billion dlrs in May after
decreasing 6.7 billion dlrs in April due to lower farm subsidy
payments, the department said.
 Reuter

S.And W. Berisford Plc <BRFD.L>, which
has attracted takeover bids, is making every possible effort to
remain independent, deputy chairman Henry Lewis said after the
company announced interim results.
    "We've taken specific steps to strengthen ourselves for this
purpose," he added, referring to management changes and a
corporate strategy of concentrating on four business sectors.
    Berisford aims to produced balanced earnings growth from a
combination of commodities, property, financial services and
food. Its industrial division, with assets of about 90 mln stg
including debt, is being reviewed and parts may be sold.
 Reuter

FED'S SEGER SAYS FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKETS SHOWING SIGNS
OF STABILITY

FED'S SEGER SAYS U.S. THRIFT INDUSTRY NEEDS STABLE
INTEREST RATES

Today's U.K. Economic data have pushed
the chances of another base lending rate cut from the current
nine pct further into the distance, analysts said.
    A record fall in unemployment and good manufacturing
production data showed that the economy is still strong and
does not need a fillip from lower rates.
    News that underlying earnings are rising 7.75 pct annually,
taken together with higher than expected bank lending and money
supply growth, revived inflation worries and monetarist
arguments against easier credit, they said.
    "The timetable on lower interest rates is being pushed back
all the while. The strength of the economy and broad money
growth are making it more difficult to see one in the near
term," said Chase Manhattan Securities economist Robin Marshall.
    Analysts have reached this conclusion despite yesterday's
mortgage rate cuts for new borrowers, which building societies
said were a sign of the expected near term trend for U.K.
Rates.
    It also counters the optimistic forecasts of last week that
a post-general election cut was imminent, supported by such
optimistic economic news as May's record reserves rise which
mirrored the Bank of England efforts to cap sterling's
strength.
    The gilt market lost nearly half a point as enthusiasm
about May's 64,300 fall in the seasonally adjusted unemployment
rate, to 2.95 mln or 10.6 pct of the workforce, was rapidly
replaced by dismay at the continued high level of underlying
average earnings in April, dealers said.
    The upset was compounded by news that sterling bank lending
rose 2.7 billion stg in May, above forecast, and that the Bank
of England looks likely to have to sell more gilts to offset
the impact on domestic money supply of its current
    "The gilt market reaction was correct," said Bill Martin,
chief U.K. Economist at brokers Phillips and Drew.
    "That's very important ... It shows the economy in a very
good state indeed," Skeoch said.
    "There's no reason to get worries about inflationary
pressures because they're very subdued." Unit wage cost rises
were better than expected, just one pct higher in the year to
April, and it was these costs rather than average earnings
which were potentially inflationary, he added.
    "I don't think these average earnings numbers are a major
problem," agreed Chase Manhattan's Marshall.
    But he said the gilts market was likely to remain worried
about the funding implications of recent intervention.
    He said the inflow of foreign money into sterling assets
earlier this year, attracted by growth prospects and hopes that
the ruling Conservatives would win last week's election, now
looks likely to prevent a base rate cut as the authorities try
to prevent these funds swelling the domestic money system.
    However, David Owen, U.K. Economist at Kleinwort Grieveson
Securities, said any fresh sterling strength would still
trigger a base rate cut and that today's figures did not signal
higher inflation this year.
    "Wage increases are being offset by productivity growth. As
long as that continues we're okay," he added.
 REUTER

Federal Reserve Board Governor Martha
Seger said there were signs of helpful stability in foreign
exchange markets in recent weeks.
    "I think we are beginning to see more calm in those markets,"
Seger told reporters after a speech to the U.S. League of
Savings Institutions.
    "I think it is very healthy when you can get into a period
of stability," she said.
    She said market forces have a major influence on exchange
rates and said she did not know the right value for the dollar
against the Yen or the Mark.
    Seger told the Savings and Loan executives that she was
concerned about financial markets' absorption with exchange
rate influences.
    "I am concerned that we have gotten so nervous," about
exchange rates, Seger said.
    She said the Fed takes into account additional factors in
determining monetary policy than the value of the dollar
against other currencies.
    On the economy, Seger called the latest figures in gross
national product a modest upward revision.
 Reuter

U.S. exporters will be able to sell
8,000 head of dairy cattle to Indonesia and 5,000 head to
Turkey under the Export Enhancement Program, the U.S.
the inventory of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), the
    Indonesia and Turkey already have purchased 7,500 and 5,000
head of dairy cattle, respectively, under the program.
    Details of the program and an invitation for offers from
exporters will be issued in the near future, it said.
 Reuter

The coupon on the 80 mln ECU, five year
equity warrant eurobond for Japan's Wacoal Corp has been fixed
at the indicated 1-1/2 pct, bookrunner Banque Paribas Capital
    The exercise price was set at 1,323 yen per share,
representing a premium of 2.56 pct over today's closing price
of 1,290 yen. The foreign exchange rate was set at 167.11 yen
to the ECU.
 REUTER

IMPERIAL OIL RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 32 CANADIAN
CTS/BBL, LIGHT SWEET NOW 25.60

Bell and Howell Co, in remarks prepared
for delivery to the New York Society of Security Analysts, said
it expects per-share earnings to grow in the 12-to-15 pct range
in the next three to four years.
    President Gerald Schultz said the growth is without stock
buybacks and tax law changes. He said the gain is expected off
1986 per-share earnings of 1.89 dlrs, calculated to exclude
DeVry Inc <DVRY.O> operations and non-recurring gains totaling
45 cts a share.
    The company said its decision to sell the DeVry business to
Keller Graduate School of Management Inc will provide Bell and
Howell with a non-recurring gain of more than 4.00 dlrs a share
in the third quarter and about 80 mln dlrs in additional cash.
    "We will use proceeds of the transaction to repurchase
stock (probably at least 10 pct) and for other purposes, such
as reducing debt" Chairman Donald Frey told analysts.
    Bell and Howell said it will invest 16 mln dlrs this year
in electronic product development and introduction.
    It said a stepped-up investment in its IDB2000 electronic
storage system, which uses optical disks, will result in a 5.0
mln dlr loss for the product line, similar to last year. But it
said "the swing to profitability in 1988 for this product will
be significant."
    Currently, Bell and Howell is marketing the IDB2000 only to
General Motors Corp <GM> dealers.
 Reuter

PHILLIPS RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTED PRICES 50 CTS/BBL
EFFECTIVE YESTERDAY, WTI NOW 19 DLRS.

Aid donors to Indonesia pledged a
total of 3.15 billion dlrs in fresh funds to Jakarta, a
statement issued after a two day meeting of the Inter
Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI) said.
    This compares with 2.6 billion dlrs allocated at last
year's meeting, the statement said. It is also well above the
World Bank's recommendation of 2.5 billion guilders in aid for
the coming year.
    "The Group commended Indonesia for having taken effective
steps to adjust to the changed economic environment," the
    The statement said Indonesia must take further steps to set
the stage for resumed economic growth that could create
employment for the country's rapidly growing labour force.
    "These measures include additional significant trade and
industrial deregulation," the statement said.
    It also called for policies supporting efficient and
diversified growth of agriculture, and said Jakarta should give
more room to the private sector. It called on Indonesia to
mobilise more domestic resources to finance development
programs.
 REUTER

Department of Transportation's Office of Public Counsel has
urged that expedited non-hearing procedures be used in its
proposed acquisition of Piedmont Aviation Inc <PIE>.
    The company said that America West Airlines Inc <AWAL.O>
was the only party voicing opposition to the acquisition.  The
Department of Transportation had asked parties to submit
statements by June 17 either supporting or opposing the
    USAir said it and Piedmont again requested expedited
approval for the acquisition.
    The company said the Office of Public Counsel could find no
evidence that the acquisition would substantially lessen
competition in any market.
 Reuter

New York Federal Reserve President E.
Gerald Corrigan said he favors bank reform but wants to
maintain the separation of banking and commerce.
    "As I see it, the case for fundamental reform in our banking
and financial system is compelling," Corrigan told the Senate
    Corrigan said he believed bank reform should allow banks to
offer a broad range of banking and financial services.
    He said common ownership of banks, thrifts, securities
firms and insurance companies should be allowed but commercial
firms should not own or control insured depositories.
    Committee Chairman William Proxmire (D-Wisc) said he would
press for bank reform legislation this year and supported
giving banks new power for commercial paper, mortgage-backed
securities, municipal bond underwriting and mutual funds.
    Former Citicorp Chairman Walter Wriston said bank reform
should reflect the reality that other companies were offering
banking services such as checking accounts credit cards and
mortgages.
         
    "The reality is that there is one-stop financial shopping at
banks in some states, but not in others," Wriston said.
    "There is also one-stop financial shopping in all 50 states
at a Sears store or American Express office."
    "We must find ways for banks to deliver new products to new
customers in order to maintain a spread of risk in a business
that is rapidly losing traditional products and customers," he
said.
    But John Weinberg of Goldman, Sachs and Co said allowing
banks to enter the securities business would make banks too
powerful.
 Reuter

Systems and Computer Technology
Corp said it has received 4,879,000 dlrs from its former
directors' and officers' liability insurance carrier in
settlement of its claims for reimbursement of costs it incurred
in connection with a class action and other suits filed against
it from late 1984 through 1986.
    The company said the amount will be recorded as a gain in
its third quarter ending June 30, less a one mln dlr reserve
being established for continuing legal fees and other expenses
connected with ongoing litigation against its former president.
    The company said it is continuing to pursue the claims
against its former president in connection with events that
required the restatement of results for fiscal 1983 and the
first three quarters of fiscal 1984.
    It also said its largest client, Temple University, has
signed a new contract extending its use of Systems and Computer
as an information provider until June 30, 1992.
    The company said its backlog is now about 77 mln dlrs and
is composed mostly of multiyear facilities management contracts.
 Reuter

Federated Department Stores Inc's Foley's
unit said it will consolidate Dallas Distribution Center
operations, reducing the number of buildings to one from three
and cutting staff to 125 from 300.
    The company said most of the hourly employees affected by
the staff reduction will be offered comparable jobs at its
Houston distribution center, and those who cannot relocate will
be considered for available position at Foley's Dallas/Fort
Worth area stores.
    The company said "The overhead costs and inefficiencies
associated with operating two complete distribution networks in
both cities make it economically unfeasible."  The
consolidation follows the merger of Foley's and Sanger Harris
 Reuter

said it hired Salomon Brothers Inc to solicit offers for the
purchase of the bank as part of an ongoing review of methods to
enhance shareholder value.
    Freedom Federal operates 15 retail branch banks and had
1986 year end assets of about 733 mln dlrs.
    "There is no assurance the bank will receive acceptable
offers or be sold, but we feel this is a prudent step to take
at this time," the bank said.
 Reuter

Conseco Industries Ltd said
an order of confirmation of its reorganization plan has been
signed in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, terminating
its status as a debtor in possession.
    Conseco said under the plan, general creditors and
debenture holders will receive 27 pct of their claims over a
two-year period and president Charles J. Trainor will pay
250,000 dlrs for 2,500,000 new shares.
    The company said debenture holders will have 30 days to
convert their debentures into common shares.
    It said it has arranged for two mln dlrs of new bank
 Reuter

Atlantic Richfield Co, considering a
spin-off of a 20 pct interest in its chemical operations, could
gain about 500 mln dlrs from the deal, industry analysts
estimated.
    Yesterday ARCO's stock jumped as much as five points on
rumors it was spinning off the chemical operations. Based on
about 183 mln outstanding shares, the market in its frenzy was
valuing the spin-off at about 900 mln dlrs, analysts said.
    Atlantic Richfield, aware of the rumors, issued a statement
around mid-day that it was considering a sale of only 20 pct of
the unit, leading investors to take profits.
    After the announcement, the company's stock retreated,
closing at 93-7/8, up 1-3/8. Today it was off 1/4.
    "It was a smaller deal than expected and somewhat
disappointing," said analyst George Baker at Smith Barney. He
said rumors of the spin-off had been around "for a couple of
days."
    Baker said the unit was very profitable but it wasn't
getting the type of exposure Atlantic Richfield sought, and its
value was not reflected in the company's stock price.
    Industry analyst Richard Pzena of Sanford C. Bernstein said
the unit had operating earnings of 132 mln dlrs last year and
he expected it to earn about 175 mln dlrs this year.
    Based on a multiple of 17 times earnings--which Pzena says
chemical companies now sell for--the entire unit is worth about
three billion dlrs, putting the 20 pct interest at around 500
to 600 mln dlrs.
    Pzena said he thought the company was selling the stake
because chemical margins had peaked, and he speculated the
company would use the proceeds to pay down debt.
    But he added the possibility remained the deal would fall
through. Yesterday, ARCO said the proposal had not yet been
presented to its board.
    The chemical unit last year had revenues of 1.9 billion
dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Shell Canada <SHC>, whose majority
interest is owned by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies,
raised the postings of light sweet and sour crude oil from
Edmonton/Swann Hills 32 Canadian cts a barrel, effective today.
    The new price for light sweet crude oil is 25.60 Canadian
dlrs a barrel while the new price for light sweet sour crude is
24.08 Canadian dlrs a barrel.
    The Royal Dtuch/Shell Group owns 72 pct of Shell Canada and
public shareholders, primarily Canadian, own the remaining 28
pct of the company, a Shell Canada spokesman said.
 Reuter

Energy Conversion Devices Inc said
its scientists have achieved superconductivity at  a
temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
    The company said the general composition of the fluorinated
multi-phase superconducting material involved is yttrium,
barium, copper, fluorine and oxygen.
                         
 Reuter

UNION PACIFIC RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS
A BBL, EFFECTIVE YESTERDAY, WTI TO 19 DLRS.

Qtly div 21-1/2 cts vs 21-1/2 cts prior
    Pay Aug Three
    Reord July Seven
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    Reord June 30    
 Reuter

Regulations governing hedging and risk
management should be revised and development of new futures
instruments cautiously monitored in dealing with the growth of
off-exchange futures instruments, Robert Davis, a commissioner
on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, said.
    Davis told the Chicago chapter of the Futures Industry
Association Commodity Research Division last night "there is no
cause for undue alarm" in the growth of off-exchange
    However, he said, the CFTC "must clarify jurisdictional and
regulatory issues" by maintaining the safeguards intended by
commodity regulations while encouraging "the further
development of competitive markets."
    "There is not a single off-exchange issue, there cannot be
one policy approach, and to the extent that problems exist,
there cannot be one solution," Davis said.
    The development of off-exchange instruments with futures
contract characteristics has become of increasing concern to
federal regulators who are trying to define what issues are
covered under existing regulations and where new regulations
are needed to protect private investment.
    Davis said the CFTC should step up enforcement where
off-exchange instruments are intended to compete with
exchange-traded issues, correct "regulatory inflexibility"
which may force new instruments off exchange, and "delineate
and separate those harmful off-exchange developments from the
many that are not."
    "We cannot ignore that some of the growth of off-exchange
trading represents a desirable further development of financial
forward contracts that complement, rather than compete with,
the relatively new financial futures contracts," Davis said.
    He said a CFTC task force is continuing its investigation
of the off-exchange issue.
 Reuter

Olsten Corp <OLS> said it has
begun an offer to exchange on a share-for-share basis shares of
newly authorized Class B common shares for existing common
stock.
    The company said the new Class B will contain limited
dividend rights and have 10 votes rather than one vote per
share for the common stock.
    It also said the new stock will not have a trading market,
will be subject to significant restrictions on its transfer,
will be entitled through 1989 to no more than 80 pct of the
cash dividends on the common stock and will be convertible into
common stock at any time.
    The company said it does not recommend that shareholdrs
other than chairman and chief executive William Olsten and his
family tender their common for exchange.
    The offer will expire July 16.
 Reuter

permanently lay off 850 hourly workers in August at its car
assembly plants in Janesville, Wisc, and Lordstown, Ohio, due
to production cutbacks in the slow-selling cars built at both
    GM, the largest U.S. automaker but suffering from lower
sales for months, said 350 of the 3,800 workers at the
Janesville plant would be put on indefinite layoff effective
August 11 as the production rate for 1988-model Cadillac
Cimarrons and Chevrolet Cavalier compact cars is reduced by
five units per hour.
    Another 500 workers of the 5,100 employed at GM's
Lordstown, Ohio, plant will be laid off effective August 24,
    GM said it will begin that date its production of
1988-model Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbirds on two
shifts with a cut of six units an hour from the current rate.
   GM also said it will change its method for reporting
indefinite layoffs to monthly releases from the previous weekly
system "to achieve more complete, accurate and less-confusing
reporting of production-schedule adjustments."
 Reuter

Canadian Imperial Oil, 70 pct Exxon
owned, said it raised its posting for light sweet crude oil at
Edmonton by 32 canadian cts a barrel, effective today.
    The company said its new posting for light sweet crude oil
at Edmonton is 25.60 canadian dlrs a barrel.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 3,121,000 vs 3,624,000
    Revs 60.2 mln vs 59.0 mln
    Avg shrs 18.3 mln vs 18.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 40 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 7,429,000 vs 8,743,000
    Revs 124.7 mln vs 126.1 mln
    Avg shrs 18.3 mln vs 18.1 mln
 Reuter

Dutch consumers and food processors
would be hit hard by the proposed EC tax on oils and fats, Dick
de Bruyn, chairman of the commodity board for margarine, fats
and oils, MVO, said at the annual meeting.
    The Dutch are the second largest consumers of margarine and
fourth largest consumers of vegetable oils in the EC.
    The fiercely contested tax would be a levy on consumers and
steeply increase the costs of industries such as potato
processing and cake and biscuit manufacturing, de Bruyn said.
    "A move by these industries to countries outside the EC
cannot be ruled out," he added.
    De Bruyn said the tax on vegetable and marine oils and fats
would be wide open to fraud, difficult to police, and hugely
expensive administratively.
    He also said the proposed tax contravened not only article
three of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the
Lome Convention, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) guidelines, but also the EC's own Treaty.
    The proposed tax would not only be inflationary but also
have consequences for employment and investment, he added.
 Reuter

DIAMOND SHAMROCK RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTED PRICES 50 CTS

Nabisco Brands Ltd, 80 pct-owned by RJR
Nabisco Inc <RJR>, said it named president R. Edward Glover as
chief executive, replacing J.R. MacDonald, who remains as
vice-chairman and chairman of the executive committee,
    Glover has been president and chief operating officer since
April, 1986, Nabisco said.
 Reuter

    Net 2,600,000 vs 1,600,000
    Revs 18.1 mln vs 15.1 mln
    SIX MTHS
    Shr 21 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 3,800,000 vs 5,500,000
    Revs 32.9 mln vs 35.8 mln
 Reuter

COASTAL RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS/BBL YESTERDAY,
WTI TO 19 DLRS

SOUTHLAND CORP RAISED CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS/BBL, WTI
NOW 19 DLRS/BBL

MURPHY RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS A BBL YESTERDAY,

Qtr ends march 28
    Shr loss 1.46 dlrs vs loss 49 cts
    Net loss 2,919,000 dlrs vs loss 892,000 dlrs
    Revs 10.3 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Avg shrs 2,000,000 vs 1,836,000
    NOTE: full name of company is robert bruce industries Inc.
 Reuter

French media and publishing group Hachette
<HACP.PA> expects a record 15 pct rise in its profits this
year, Hachette chairman Jean-Luc Lagardere said.
    Lagardere told a news conference that Hachette's profits
last year were 565.4 mln francs against 431.7 mln in 1985.

    He said that Hachette was carrying out feasibility studies
for the launching around October next year of a nationwide
daily newspaper. Earlier this year it made an unsuccessful
three billion franc bid for state-owned television network
TF-1.
    In a letter sent to shareholders, Lagardere said that 1987
was likely to be another record year for the company.
    Hachette owns the Europe-1 radio station, about 60 weekly
newspapers and magazines, and is also involved in printing.
    It posted a 14.7 billion franc consolidated turnover last
year against 11.6 billion in 1985.

 REUTER

committed to fund a 1,029,600 dlr short-term loan increase for
capital improvements in the Omni Park Central Hotel in New
York.
    The secured loan will increase a previously announced
commitment to 5,154,600 dlrs from 4,125,000 dlrs. The total
loan will have a term of one year with an option to extend for
another one-year term.
    Current interest and loan fees are expected to produce an
annualized yield of 14.43 pct, VMS said.
 Reuter

The World Bank is issuing a 100 mln ECU
eurobond due July 21, 1994 paying 7-1/2 pct and priced at
101-1/2 pct, lead manager Morgan Guaranty Ltd said.
1,000 and 50,000 ECUs and will be listed in Luxembourg. The
selling concession is 1-1/4 pct while, management and
    The payment date is July 21.
 REUTER

The French agency for international
marketing of videotex, <Intelmatique>, said it plans to bring
the Minitel network to the U.S. in cooperation with Infonet, an
international network service of Computer Sciences Corp <CSC>.
    Minitel, which now offers Gannett Co Inc's <GCI> USA Today
and the <British Broadcasting Corp's> news service, will be
aimed at French-speaking businesses in the U.S., Intelmatique
said.
   
    Initially, only about 300 applications in the Eastern
corridor between the New York area and Washington will be
included in the pilot project, the company said.
    Users will pre-pay communciation costs and connetion fees
of about 25 dlrs per hour, the company said. Also, participants
in the pilot program will be able to rent Minitel terminals for
25 dlrs per month, Intelmatique said.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 19 cts vs loss 38 cts
    Oper net loss 239,000 dlrs vs loss 476,000 dlrs
    Revs 16.0 mln vs 14.6 mln
 Reuter

Global Yield Fund, in a review of its
dividend policy, told shareholders that under the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, the fund must distribute substantially
all of its net income by the end of each year.
    Under the new tax law, the company said annual net income
includes net investment income from interest less expenses, plu
or minus any ordinary currency gains or losses realized in
connection with the sale of debt securities.
   
    The company said its present dividend policy is to make
distributions of net investment income to stockholders
quarterly and to accumulate any realized ordinary currency
gains for distribution as net income at the end of the year.
    At present time, the company said such currency gains
amount to about 40 cts per share.
    However, any currency net loss realized during the
remaining six and a half month period between now and the end
of the year could not only reduce or eliminate distributions
from this source but could reduce distributions from net
investment income, the company said.
   
    According to Global, the board would determine on an annual
basis whether to distribute or retain net long-term realized
capital gains.
    In other matters, the company said its shareholders at its
first annual meeting elected nine directors, approved the
investment management agreement with <Prudential Insurance Co
of America>, and the service agreement between Prudential and
the <Prudential Investment Corp>.
   
    Shareholders also approved the administration agreement
with <Prudential-Bache Securities Inc> and amended the fund's
investment restrictions to permit the purchase of portfolio
securities while borrowings are outstanding, the company said.
 Reuter

Wells-Gardner Electronics Corp said it
was awarded a five-year contract to supply touch panel monitors
to Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd, Dorval, Quebec, Canada.
    The company said the contract is expected to generate total
revenues of about five mln dlrs.
    It said the monitors will be part of a videodisc system for
the U.S. Army's Electronic Information Delivery System.
 Reuter

(Instant Medical Test Inc) said it opened
five health testing booths inside the stores of Osco Drug Co, a
unit of American Stores Inc <ASC>.
    The company said the booths include a full range of medical
testing equipment, and certified medical technicians who take
blood samples to test for 55 major health risks.
 Reuter

The United States, responding to the
kidnapping of American journalist Charles Glass, today insisted
it would not yield to terrorist blackmail.
    "While much remains unclear, we assume this is another
terrorist attempt to manipulate the United States through our
concern for our citizens," the State Department said in a
    "While we are deeply concerned for the well-being of Mr.
Glass, Mr. (Ali) Usayran and all hostages, American and
foreign, and extend our sympathy to their families and friends,
we repeat that we will not yield to terrorist blackmail," it
said.
    The State Department said its embassy in Beirut had learned
that Glass, a journalist on leave from his job with ABC
television, and Usayran, the son of the Lebanese defense
minister, were kidnapped on the Awaz'i Road in the southern
suburbs of Beirut north of Beirut International Airport on June
17.
    "We know of no claims of responsibility," the department
said.
    "We hold the kidnappers responsible for the safety of their
victims and call for the immediate and unconditional release of
all those held hostages," it added.
 Reuter

Shr primary 66 cts vs 1.17 dlrs
    Shr diluted 66 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 1,220,691 vs 1,302,999
    Revs 13.7 mln vs 13.1 mln
    Avg shrs primary 1,859,421 vs 1,112,400
    Avg shrs diluted 1,859,421 vs 1,826,303
    NOTE: Latest net includes tax credits of 565,000 dlrs vs
620,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Oper shr nil vs profit one ct
    Oper net profit 14,000 vs profit 51,000
    Revs 5,547,000 vs 6,021,000
    Six mths
    Oper shr loss nine cts vs profit seven cts
    Oper net loss 383,000 vs profit 314,000 dlrs
    Revs 9,31,000 dlrs vs 12.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 qtr and six mths excludes loss 171,000 dlrs and
358,000 dlrs, respectively, for loss from discontinued
 Reuter

Commonwealth Savings and
Loan Association said Michael McCarthy, its president and chief
operating officer, resigned.
    The company said Barry Chapnick, chairman and chief
executive offcer, will resume the responsibilities of the
president's post.
 Reuter

    Net 611,000 vs 511,000
    Revs 10.1 mln vs 4,380,000
    NOTE: Latest year includes three cent per share loss from
discontinued operations while prev year includes seven cent per
share tax credit.
 Reuter

Quixote Corp said its Ocean Scientific
Inc subsidiary and the Columbus, Ohio, division of Battelle
Memorial Institute signed a joint marketing agreement under
which the organizations may provide joint services for specific
research and development programs for healthcare and
instrumentation.
    The agreement will allow Ocean Scientific to offer its
clients greater capability for designing new instrumentation
systems, Quixote said.
 Reuter

    Pay July 21
    Record July 7
 Reuter

The Federal Reserve will enter the
government securities market to supply reserves via either a
large round of customer repurchase agreements or by overnight
or possibly four-day system repurchases, economists said.
    They said the Fed has a fairly large add need and is likely
to face the most reserve dislocations early in the new
statement period started today as corporate tax payments swell
Treasury balances at the Fed.
    Fed funds hovered at 6-3/4 pct after averaging 6.80 pct
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
 Reuter

Sykes Datatronics Inc said it
has agreed in principle for Marshall Associates and H and M
resources Inc to each purchase up to one mln dlrs of its
convertible debentures, allowing Sykes to pay in full its debt
to Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB> and Chemical New York Corp <CHL>.
    The company said at closing, each investor will buy 750,000
dlrs of convertible debentures bearing interest at three points
over the prime rate.  It said interest only is payable until
June 1, 1990, when repayment of principal in 20 quarterly
installments.
    Sykes said the remaining 250,000 dlrs of each commitment
may be drawn down at Sykes' option after December 1, 1987 if
the company has met certain performance levels.
    It said the debentures are convertible into common stock at
15 cts per share.  It said if it has now drawn all of the
remaining 500,000 dlrs of debentures, the investor can buy
whatever amount of debentures remain unsold and immediately
convert  them to Sykes stock.
    Sykes said if both investors were to convert all of the
debentures, they would own 13.3 mln Sykes shares.  Sykes now
has 13.0 mln shares outstanding.
    Sykes said, however, that the agreement with the investors
provides that the number of shares resulting from the
conversion of the debentures may not be in an amount that would
limit Sykes' ability to use its net operating loss carryforward
under the Tax Reform Act of 1986.  The provisioin would
prevcent the investor from owning more than 50 pct of Sykes'
shares immediately after conversion, it said.
    The company said closing of the trasaction is expected
before July 1, subject to the receipt of a fairness opinion
from an investment banker, Moseley Holdings Corp <MOSE.O>.
    Sykes said it will use 1,100,000 dlrs of the initial
1,500,000 dlrs in proceeds, together with a 200,000 dlr note,
to pay in full all its debt to Chase and Chemical.  The banks
will then release their security interests in sykes assets,
which will be pledged to the two new investors instead, it
said.
    Sykes said on payment to the banks, it will no longer have
to pay to the banks lease payments and proceeds from the sale
of excess inventory and assets.
 Reuter

A-2 from A-1 the commercial paper of Tektronix Inc.
    S and P cited the management's plan to repurchase up to 380
mln dlrs of common equity. The plan will greatly reduce
liquidity and raise debt to total capital by increasing
Tektronix's sensitivity to industry volatility. Because weak
primary markets have led to slow growth in recent years, a
strong balance sheet has been a major support for credit
quality, the agency noted.
    It added that the firm may improve long-term growth, but
increased competition may inhibit a return to previous levels.

 Reuter

Southland Corp's subsidiary Citgo
Petroleum said it raised its posted prices for crude oil across
the board by 50 cts a barrel, effective June 17.
    Citgo said its new posting for West Texas Intermediate and
West Texas Sour is 19 dlrs a barrel. Light Louisiana Sweet is
now posted at 19.35, the company said.
 Reuter

<Microelectronics and Computer
Technology Corp> said its board approved a restructuring of its
advanced computer architecture program.
    The private sector cooperative research venture, which is
owned by 20 U.S. companies, said the restructuring is based on
a study by its technical advisory board. The study occurred due
to changing requirements, the company said.
    Formerly comprised of four separate projects, the program
will now have a central resaerch core and three laboratories
called satellites. The work in the core program will focus on
long-range research, the company said.
 Reuter

Hollinger Inc said it completed the
previously reported acquisition of privately held Unimedia Inc,
the owner of three French language daily newspapers and four
printing plants in Ontario and Quebec.
    The company, which owns 58 pct of (Daily Telegraph Plc)
said it named former Carling O'Keefe Ltd chief executive Pierre
Des Marais as chief executive of La Societe Media Quebec, the
unit acquiring Unimedia.
    It said his appointment is effective July 2.
 Reuter

West Germany's proposed tax reform should
be brought forward to stimulate economic growth and head off
U.S.-led pressure on Bonn to take further fiscal steps to help
boost the world economy, the Ifo economic institute said.
    An Ifo report said, "The total growth effect of the reform
could be considerably enhanced, and international pressure on
the government therefore reduced, if a larger portion of the
tax cuts planned by 1990 were brought forward to 1988."
    Swift action is required to remove growing doubts about how
the 44 billion mark tax reform will be financed, Ifo said.
    The report says the tax reform will be insufficient and too
late to stimulate economic growth, as demanded by West
Germany's industrial partners.
    Since the lion's share of cuts worth a gross 44 billion
marks "will not go into effect before 1990, their impact on
growth will be too little, too late," said Ifo.
    The West German government has consistently said that by
cutting taxes and encouraging consumer spending it is boosting
domestic demand and making a significant contribution to world
    Bonn has agreed to increase the scope of tax reductions
planned for 1988. In March, the government said 1988 tax cuts
would be expanded by 5.2 billion marks to 13.7 billion.
    A month later, economics minister Martin Bangemann
countered a joint call from all five German economic institutes
to speed up tax cuts by saying such a step would endanger
efforts to consolidate the budget and keep new public borrowing
down.
    Financing the tax reform has become an "acute problem," Ifo
said.
    "Currently, every proposal over financing (the reform) comes
up against political opposition. There will be a lot more
criticism before the outstanding 19.4 billion marks needed to
finance the reform has been accounted for," the report said.
    The government has pledged to agree by the Autumn how to
raise around 19 billion marks still needed to finance tax cuts.
Subsidies paid to ailing industries are the major target.
    But even leading coalition members like Matthias Wissmann,
economics spokesman for the ruling Christian Democratic party,
have conceded that subsidy cuts exceeding five billion marks
are unrealistic, leaving a remaining 14 billion marks to be
found.
    An increase in public borrowing will be inevitable to help
finance the tax cuts, but Bonn should be able to cope with
this, the report said.
    Despite vigorous opposition from the Free Democrats, the
junior partners in the centre-right coalition government, Bonn
will eventually be forced to increase value added tax (VAT) due
to tax harmonisation measures within the European Community. A
VAT increase will also provide funds for income tax reform, the
    Viewed in the context of efforts by Bonn, Washington and
Tokyo to reform taxes, "despite its various shortcomings, West
Germany's planned tax reform is better than its reputation," Ifo
said.
    The effective cut in the income tax burden carried by West
Germans will be greater than in the U.S., Although the rate
reductions are smaller and income tax levels will remain higher
overall, the report said.
 REUTER

Shr 52 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 10,884,000 vs 12,891,000
    Revs 133.3 mln vs 128.8 mln
    Avg shrs 21,017,000 vs 20,845,000
 Reuter

Canada's National Energy Board has
denied an application by Quebec-owned Hydro-Quebec to export
about three billion Canadian dlrs worth of electricity to the
New England states, a board spokeswoman told Reuters.
    The decision is to be made public later today, chief
information officer Ann Sicotte said.
    Sicotte said the board rejected tha application after four
months of hearings because Hydro-Quebec did not offer the
electricity first to Canadian provinces and could not prove it
was surplus to Canadian needs.
    Sicotte said Hydro-Quebec can apply for a review of the
decision if there are new facts or changed circumstances, and
could also launch an appeal with the federal court or file a
new application.
    Hydro-Quebec spokesman Maurice Hebert said the utility had
not yet been officially notified and will have to study the
decision before deciding what action to take.
    The contract was a 10-year agreement with power exports
beginning in 1990. "They weren't able to demonstrate that the
electricity was surplus and one way to demonstrate that is by
offering it to neighboring provinces," Sicotte said.
    Hebert said the utility argued that it can generate  enough
electricity to supply its U.S. and Canadian customers.
    "Our position is that electricity is a manufactured
product--so everyboday can manufacture it and anybody can buy
some--if they (the provinces) want to buy some from us, we're
willing to discuss it," he said.
    The application is the first the National Energy Board has
rejected outright, Sicotte said.
    New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland had
opposed the contract at Energy Board hearings this spring.
 Reuter

    The funds compare with 2.6 billion dlrs allocated at last
year's meeting and exceed the World Bank's recommendation for
the coming year, the statement said.
steps to adjust to the changed economic environment," it said.
    The statement said Indonesia must take further steps toward
economic growth to create employment and called for policies
supporting growth of agriculture.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Murphy Oil said it increased its crude
oil posted prices by 50 cts a barrel, effective June 17.
The company said its new posting for West Texas Intermediate
and West Texas Sour is 19 dlrs a barrel.
    Light Louisiana Sweet crude is now 19.35 dollars a barrel,
the company said. Increases follow a general trend in the
industry started yesterday by Sun Co.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Co said it raised
its crude oil posted prices for West Texas Intermediate and
West Texas Sour by 50 cts a barrel, effective June 17.
    The company said the new posted price for WTI and WTS is 19
dlrs a barrel. The increase is in reaction to Sun Co raising
postings similarly yesterday.
 Reuter

Mobil Corp said the 49/28-14 wildcat
well in Block 49/28 of the British North Sea flowed 50.6 mln
cubic feet of natural gas per day from depths of 7,742 to 7,777
feet.
    The company said it has a 23.33 pct interest and other
interest holders include Atlantic Richfield Co <ARC>, Sun Co
<SUN> and Deminex AG 10 pct.
 Reuter

The International Monetary Fund said
it has loaned Uganda 92.1 mln dlrs to aid in economic recovery.
    The fund said 60 mln dlrs of the loan is available through
the so-called structural adjustment facility (SAF) over the
next three years.
    The fund said 57.5 mln dlrs will be available immediately
under the SAF and a separate financing arrangement.
    After expanding in the early 1980's, Uganda's economy has
suffered setbacks since 1984 of falling industrial and
agricultural output and accelerating inflation, the fund said.
    The current economic downturn has been worsened by the
sharp decline in the world price of coffee, Uganda's major
export, the fund said.
 Reuter

PETRO-CANADA RAISES CRUDE POSTINGS 32 CTS CANADIAN/BBL.
SWEET CRUDE AT 25.60 DLRS CANADIAN/BBL.

A spokesman for the European
Community Commission defended the controversial plan for a levy
on oils and fats, saying that consumers would have to help
alleviate the surplus problem by paying the proposed tax.
    Norbert Tanghe, head of division of the Commission's
Directorate General for Agriculture, told the 8th Antwerp Oils
and Fats Contact Days "the Commission firmly believes that the
sacrifices which would be undergone by Community producers in
the oils and fats sector ... Would justify asking consumers to
make an appropriate contribution to solving the serious problem
within that sector by paying a levy."
    The proposed tax is necessary because the level of
budgetary costs resulting from olive oil and oilseeds
production has become unacceptable, Tanghe said.
    Recent estimates put these costs at 4.0 billion European
Currency Units and by 1990 they would rise by another 2.0
billion Ecus, he said. In 1990 the Community's "standstill"
agreements with Spain and Portugal end and the EC would then
feel the full impact of its enlargement.
    The Commission has proposed several cost and production
cutting measures which include the introduction of a maximum
guaranteed quantity system, he added.
    Under the Commission's system for stabilising consumer
prices in the oils and fats sector, a reference price of 700
Ecus per tonne for refined soy oil would be introduced, Tanghe
said.
    Consumer prices could be raised or lowered by a regulatory
amount when market prices are below or above this level.
    He said the revenue generated by charging a regulatory
amount would be used to finance the Common Agricultural
Policy's oils and fats regime.
    "The Commission believes that hostile reactions (to the
proposed tax) have for the most part been based on incomplete
or an insufficiently thorough analysis of the proposal," he said.
    Tanghe said the proposed system conforms with General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT, rules.
    It would not be discriminatory because it would be applied
to domestic and imported products, and past experience showed
it would not cause any decline in consumption of oils and fats.
    EC-produced oilseeds would not benefit more than they do
under present aid arrangements, he said.
    The competitiveness between different oils, whether EC
produced or imported, would remain unchanged and quantities
imported from third countries would not be affected by the tax,
Tanghe said.
    The proposed system would not alter the EC nations'
requirements as far as imports are concerned since the overall
effect would stabilise Community production levels without
affecting demand, he said.
    It is one of the proposal's objectives to maintain current
import levels, he said.
    Imports of soybeans would be unaffected because they are
imported primarily to satisfy the EC's cakes and meals
requirements, which are not covered by the stabilising system.
Furthermore, more than half the oil produced from imported
beans is re-exported to third countries, Tanghe added.
 Reuter

Officials of Fuerzas Electricas de
Cataluna S.A. (FECSA), the Spanish electricity company, will
hold the first meeting with members of a new debt negotiating
committee representing its creditors in Barcelona on Tuesday,
senior bankers said.
    The talks will cover a possible rescheduling of the
company's 610.57 billion peseta debt, which includes both
foreign and domestic loans and other debt instruments.
    The committee was formed earlier this month after FECSA
agreed to rescind self-imposed terms for its debt repayments,
which were unacceptable to the banks.
    The negotiating committee is a subcommittee of a broader
creditor steering committee made up of some 22 creditor banks
and leasing companies, which is co-chaired by Bank of America
International Ltd and The Sanwa Bank Ltd.
    Bank of America and Sanwa also will co-chair the
negotiating committee. The other members are Bankers Trust Co,
Caixa de Barcelona, Confederacion Espanola de Cajas de Ahorros,
Chase Manhattan Bank, Deutsche Bank, Long Term Credit Bank of
Japan, Orient Leasing Ltd, Crown Leasing Ltd and Japan Overseas
Leasing Co. These banks also are on the broader steering
    Bankers said that in addition to the negotiating committee,
there also will be a seven-member sub-committee for
documentation and finance of which Citicorp will be chairman.
Gulf Bank KSC will chair a separate committee within the
committee for the documentation.
    The final list of the creditors participating in the
various committees was formulated this morning, and the
steering committee is now notifying FECSA's approximately some
320 creditors of the results.
 REUTER

Union Pacific Resources, formerly
Champlin Petroleum, said it raised posted prices for crude oil
by 50 cts a barrel, effective yesterday.
    The price increase brings West Texas Intermediate, the U.S.
benchmark grade, to 19.00 dlrs a barrel.
    The posted price increase follows a similar move by several
other oil companies.
    Sun Co was the first to raise crude oil postings yesterday
afternoon and today many other companies are following.
    The last price increase made by oil companies was around
May 22.
   
 Reuter

MARATHON RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS/BBL, WTI NOW
19.00 DLRS.

a deficit of 3,211 billion lire in May compared with a surplus
of 2,040 billion in April, provisional Bank of Italy figures
show.
    The May deficit compares with a surplus of 1,555 billion
lire in the corresponding month of 1986.
    For the first five months of 1987, the overall balance of
payments showed a surplus of 299 billion lire against a deficit
of 2,854 billion in the corresponding 1986 period.
 REUTER

Italy's net official reserves fell to
67,110 billion lire in May from a previously reported 68,455
billion in April, the Bank of Italy said.
    Gold holdings totalled 35,243 billion lire at end May,
unchanged from end April.
    Convertible currencies totalled 18,277 billion lire in May,
down from 20,028 billion in April, while European Currency Unit
holdings were 10,610 billion against 10,528 billion.
 REUTER

FED SAYS IT SETS TWO BILLION DLRS OF CUSTOMER REPURCHASE
AGREEMENTS

Becor Western Inc said its
reconvened shareholders meeting has been adjourned to 1000 CDT
June 30.
    The company had previously announced plans to again adjourn
the meeting following receipt of a renewed offer from Lynch
Corp <LGL> yesterday.
    The meeting was originally convened on June four when
shareholders approved the sale of Becor's Western Gear Corp
subsidiary before adjourning. The remaining matter to be
presented is the proposed acquisition of Becor by BCW
Acquisition Inc, now one of four offers for the company./
 Reuter

Two major steel companies said they
were studying a price increase announced yesterday by USX
Corp's USS steelmaking division.
    Spokesman for Armco Inc <AS> and Bethlehem Steel Corp <BS>
said the proposed price hike was under study.
    Yesterday, USS said it plans to raise base prices on plate
products by 20 dlrs a ton, or about five pct, effective with
shipments October 4.
    A spokesman for LTV Steel Co, a unit of LTV Corp <QLTV>,
declined comment, adding that the company does not make heavy
plate and makes few other plate products.
    A spokesman for <National Steel Corp>, a joint venture of
National Intergroup Inc <NII> and Nippon Kokan K.K., said the
company is not in the product lines affected.
    Reached later, an Inland Steel Industries Inc <IAD>
spokesman said the company was studying the pricing move.
    USX said the increase will be on all plate products,
including carbon, high-strength low-alloy, strip mill and alloy
plates. It also said it planned 20-dlr-a-ton increases on some
special plate widths and thicknesses.
    Analysts have said firm prices for steel should contribute
to better results at the nation's major steelmakers.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp <CGP> said it raised the
postings of crude oil 50 cts a barrel across the board,
effective yesterday, June 17.
    The new price for West Texas Intermediate is 19.00 dlrs a
barrel. For West Texas Sour the new price is 18.10 dlrs a
barrel.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 15
 Reuter

    Pay Aug One
    Record July 10
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 11
 Reuter

may upgrade the ratings on Phelps Dodge Corp's 545 mln dlrs of
    The agency cited Phelps Dodge's progress in restoring
profitability in a difficult environment for the copper
industry. Moody's said it will study the company's prospects
for continued improvements in debt protection measurements. It
noted that copper prices recently increased.
    Under review for possible upgrade are Phelps Dodge's Ba-1
sinking fund debentures and industrial revenue bonds and Ba-2
convertible exchangeable preference shares.
 Reuter

carried out several personnel and organizational changes in its
foods and tobacco businesses.
    H. John Greeniaus, executive vice president of Nabisco
Brands Inc and president of International Nabisco Brands, has
been named president and chief executive officer of Nabisco
Brands Inc, the company said.
    Replacing Greeniaus as president of International Nabisco
Brands is Peter Rogers, previously president of Nabisco Brands
USA, the company said.
   
    The company also said Gerald Long, senior executive officer
of RJ Reynolds Tobacco USA, has been given the additional title
of chairman of RJ Reynolds Tobacco USA.
    Charles Chapman, former president and chief operating
officer of Nabisco Brands, was named president of Nabisco
Brands North America, the company said.
    The company said it assigned its Planters Plus Life Savers
operation to RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co from its current reporting
structure in Nabisco Brands USA. In addition, the Del Monte
Corp will now report to James Welch Jr, vice chairman of RJR
Nabisco and chairman of Nabisco Brands Inc.
 Reuter

Gulf Canada Corp shareholders at the
annual meeting approved a previously reported reorganization
plan giving shareholders stock in three publicly traded
    Shareholders will receive 66 shares in Gulf Canada
Resources Ltd, 29 shares of Abitibi-Price Inc <AIB.TO> and 20
common shares of GW Utilities Ltd for every 100 shares in Gulf
Canada Corp. GW Utilities, a new company, will hold Gulf's 83
pct stake in Consumers Gas Co Ltd, 49 pct of Hiram
Walker-Gooderham and Worts Ltd and 41 pct of Interprovincial
Pipe Line Ltd <IPL.TO>.

    Debenture holders who objected to the plan withdrew a
proposed amendment when Gulf Canada chairman Marshall Cohen
said they would receive compensation for six months of interest
they would otherwise have lost under the plan.
    The debenture holders had sought to postpone the
reorganization's effective date to July 16 from July 1 in order
to earn interest for the latest six-month period.
 Reuter

The European Parliament threatened to
block European Community spending plans for next year and
implied it could also hold up attempts to solve an
ever-deepening budget crisis this year.
    The Parliament voted unanimously in favour of a resolution
condemning the annual haggling and compromising between the
Community's 12 member states on spending levels.
    "It is no longer possible to resort to short-term measures
or to provisional budgetary solutions. It is no longer possible
to accept a budget in which real expenditure is not covered by
revenue," the resolution said.
    Parliamentary blocking could jeopardise efforts to solve a
financing crisis over a five billion European Currency Unit
(ECU) shortfall for this year, diplomats said. EC ministers are
deadlocked on the issue.
    It also would plunge the EC into an ever-deepening crisis
next year. Without parliamentary approval of the 1988 budget,
the Community would be forced into emergency measures, with
spending set according to the previous year's levels.
    British conservative parliamentarian Peter Price told
reporters that parliament could delay an emergency package
until EC ministers prove they are ready to find a long-term
solution.
 Reuter

upgraded Crane Co's 75 mln dlrs of debt.
    Raised were the company's subordinated debt to Baa-3 from
Ba-2 and in-substance defeased senior debentures to A-2 from
A-3.
    Moody's cited Crane's progress in reducing its exposure to
such cyclical industries as steel and in strengthening its core
businesses through acquisitions and cost reduction.
    The agency expects Crane to have further improvement in
operating margins. The diversity of Crane's businesses will
strengthen cash flow and improve debt protection, it said.
 Reuter

government securities market to supply temporary reserves
indirectly via two billion dlrs of customer repurchase
agreements, a spokesman for the New York Fed said.
    Fed funds were trading at 6-3/4 pct when the Fed began
its action.
 Reuter

Omi Corp said it expects to reduce the
debt guaranteed by former parent Ogden Corp <OG> to 30 mln dlrs
from about 50 mln dlrs by the end of 1987 from financing
measures including an employee stock ownership plan.
    The bulk shipping company said it expects to have the ESOP
in place before year end, subject to stockholder approval.
    The company also said it anticipates later this year to
refinance its high cost debt related to a U.S. flag chemical
tanker through a lease swap arrangement.
    Omi said this move would further enhance cash flow.
   
    In another matter, the company said through a joint venture
with <Anders Wilhelmsen and Co>, three large crude carriers
have been chartered-in for minimum periods of six months with
various extension options, and, in one case, a purchase option.
    The company said it anticipates that the purchase option
will be exercised by the joint venture this summer.
 Reuter

Permian Corp, a subsidiary of National
Intergroup, said it raised its crude oil postings by 50 cts a
barrel, effective June 17.
    the company said its new posted price for West Texas
Intermediate and West Texas Sour is 19 dlrs a barrel, while
Light Louisiana Sweet is now 19.35. The price hike follows
other increases industrywide.
 Reuter

Primerica Corp said its common
stock has been listed on the London Stock Exchange.
 Reuter

Ogden Corp said it has concluded the
sale outside the United States through <Salomon Bros
International Inc> and <Allen and Co Inc> of 85 mln dlrs of its
six pct convertible subordinated debentures maturing in 2002.
    The company said the debentures are convertible into Ogden
common stock at 79.75 dlrs per share without giving effect to
the 2-for-1 stock split distributable on July three.
    A portion of the proceeds will be used to redeem the 50 mln
dlrs of outstanding senior subordinated debt which currently
bears interest at a rate of about eight pct, the company said.
   
    The balance of the proceeds is expected to be used in the
financing of projects and general corporate purposes, the
    Ogden also said the potential conversion of the debentures
will not adversely affect its current earnings and cash flow
expectations.
    The debentures have not been, and will not be, registered
under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or
sold in the U.S. or to a citizen of resident of the U.S., the
 Reuter

    Spokesman for Armco Inc and Bethlehem Steel Corp said the
proposed price hike was under study.
products by 20 dlrs a short ton, or about five pct, effective
with shipments October 4.
    A spokesman for LTV Steel Co, a unit of LTV Corp, declined
comment, adding that the company does not make heavy plate and
makes few other plate products.
 Reuter

qtr ended March 31
    Shr 74 cts vs 79 cts
    Net 4,069,000 vs 3,458,000
    Revs 173.2 mln vs 120.8 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.65 dlrs vs 2.73 dlrs
    Net 13.3 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Revs 618.4 mln vs 520.7 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Standard Commercial Tobacco Co.
   
    Latest qtr and year includes tax loss carryforwards of
771,000 dlrs and 1,042,000 dlrs, respectively, and a loss of
613,000 dlrs for discontinued operation. Prev qtr and year
includes tax loss carryforwards of 469,000 dlrs and 1,902,000
dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

Capital expenditure in the U.K.
Manufacturing, construction, distribution and financial sectors
rose slightly in the first quarter to 4.75 billion stg from
4.74 billion in the fourth 1986 quarter, but remained below the
4.86 billion stg spent in first quarter 1986, the Department of
    Manufacturing saw its share of spending rise to 1.64
billion stg in the first quarter from 1.57 billion in the final
1986 quarter, but that was under the 1.78 billion stg
registered in first quarter 1986. Expenditure levels are
seasonally adjusted and measured at 1980 prices, the Department
said.
 REUTER

Petro-Canada, a state-owned oil
company, raised the posting prices of sweet and sour crude oils
32 cts Canadian per barrel, effective today, the company said.
    The change brings the price of light sweet crude to 26.50
dlrs Canadian per barrel and the price of light sour crude to
23.77 dlrs Canadian a barrel. The crude oils are from
Edmonton/Swann Hills.
 Reuter

The U.K. High Court dismissed an appeal
by Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Plc's <RTZL.L> RTZ Oil and Gas Ltd unit
and ruled that the financial provisions a company makes for the
future cost of abandoning an oil field are not tax deductible,
the Press Association reported.
    The company was appealing against a decision of the Tax
Commissioners that any such provision was a capital
expenditure, not a revenue expenditure, and was not deductible.
The court was told that since 1976 the company had made an
annual provision of around 750,000 stg for the eventual cost of
abandoning a rig.
    An RTZ spokesman said the ruling was not worrying as the
subsidiary had assumed that the provisions were not deductible
from corporation tax payable.
    It would have been a bonus if the company had won but all
budgeting had been on the assumption that it would not, he
said.
    Oil analysts said that RTZ's assumption of liability was
shared by the industry as a whole.
    The ruling appeared to mean that tax relief on the
expensive process of abandoning rigs would apply when the
expense occurred, not when provisions for future expenses were
built into the accounts, one analyst added.
 Reuter

Commission began proceedings in which it will consider allowing
options trading on exchange-listed securities on more than one
options market.
    In a three-nil decision, the SEC voted to seek public
comment on a proposed rule removing restrictions that prevent
the options from being traded on more than one market.
    Exclusive trading rights in options on exchange-listed
stocks are now determined by a lottery system among options
    The SEC also voted to ask the New York, American, Chicago
Board Options, Pacific and Philadelphia Exchanges to
voluntarily postpone an options allocation lottery scheduled
for June 22 while the matter is under consideration.
    Richard Ketchum, head of the SEC's division of market
regulation, said the exchanges are not required to adhere to
the request.
 Reuter

Indonesia expects the recent years'
rise in its debt service ratio to peak at the current level of
41 pct, Development Supervision Minister Ali Wardhana told
    He was speaking at a news conference following a two day
annual meeting of aid donors grouped in the Inter-Governmental
Group on Indonesia (IGGI) in which 3.15 billion dlrs in fresh
funds were pledged for the coming year.
    "The current debt service ratio of 41 pct will be the top,"
Wardhana said, noting the debt service ratio rose to that level
from 37 pct last year. Indonesia's debt totals 37 billion dlrs.
    "The current debt burden will be manageable if concessionary
loans can be attracted," he said.
    He said international organisations such as the World Bank
pledged an unchanged 1.68 billion dlrs in fresh funds to
Indonesia and this year's overall total, up from last year's
2.6 billion, reflected higher pledges from donor countries.
    He said Japan raised its pledge to 88 billion yen from 80
billion last year. Britain almost trebled its contribution to
130 mln stg from 45 mln. The United States raised its
contribution to 190 mln dlrs from 86 mln and the Netherlands
raised its figure to 232 mln guilders from 180 mln.
    Commenting on the increase in funds pledged to Indonesia,
which has been hard hit in export revenue due to the oil price
collapse, Wardhana said, "I am happily surprised, but in view of
the seriousness of the balance of payments situation the amount
is what we needed to cope."
    He noted donors pledged to increase local cost financing as
part of the aid package. Some 900 mln dlrs of the package will
be for programme aid or local cost financing, Indonesian
Central Bank Governor Arifin Siregar said.
    Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh said Indonesia will continue
to reform the economy and bring about further liberalisations.
    "Indonesia has undertaken reforms to meet external problems,"
Saleh said. "It's a good thing and we will continue with
deregulation in trade, industry and licensing of new
businesses."
    Asked whether the question of private capital exports from
Indonesia was discussed, central bank governor Arifin Siregar
expressed confidence that any drain of capital abroad would
only be temporary.
    He noted there had been a turnaround in a recent fall in
foreign exchange reserves three days ago.
 REUTER

Security Pacific National Bank, a unit
of Security Pacific Corp, said the Securities and Exchange
Commission declared effective its shelf registration statement
covering 1.2 billion dlrs of mortgage related securities.
    The bank said it filed the registration statement in April.
This is the bank's second shelf registration filed in
connection with Security Pacific Merchant Bank's efforts to
securitize mortgages originated by Security Pacific National,
it said.
 Reuter

Southmark Corp said it acquired Berg
Ventures Inc, which manages 84 apartment complexes with over
18,000 units and 12 shopping centers stretching from New Jersey
to Florida that are controlled or affiliated with Berg Harmon
Associates. Terms were not disclosed.
    Southmark said the acquisition makes it the nation's
largest apartment management firm with over 100,000 units under
its wing. Southmark also said it has become the managing
partner of Berg Harmon Associates. Over 3,000 Berg Harmon
Limited partners have made capital investments of over 300 mln
dlrs in the properties now managed by Southmark.
    
 Reuter

KLM NET PROFIT DECLINES IN 1986/87 YEAR
    AMSTERDAM, June 18
    Net profit 301 mln guilders vs 312 mln
    Profit per 20 guilder nominal ordinary share 5.93 guilders
vs 6.14 on unchanged 50.85 mln shares.
    Operating revenues 5.38 billion guilders vs 5.85 billion.
    Profit on sale of fixed assets 23 mln guilders vs 62 mln.
    Dividend eight pct or 1.60 guilders per ordinary share vs
same, and five pct vs same for priority and preferential
shares.
    Costs including depreciation 5.08 billion guilders vs 5.59
billion.
    Financial charges 34 mln vs 33 mln.
    Profit from participations 11 mln vs 15 mln.
    Extraordinary gain one mln vs nil.
    Note: The company was not required to pay corporation tax
in the 1986/87 book year thanks to fiscal compensation
possibilities. The full company name is Koninklijke Luctvaart
Maatschappij NV &lt;KLM.AS&gt;.
    KLM released provisional figures on May 26.
    These were -
    Net profit 301 mln guilders vs 312 mln.
    Operating revenues 5.4 billion guilders vs 5.9 billion.
 Reuter

General Motors Corp's Chevrolet and
Oldsmobile divisions said they are extending cash rebates and
discount financing on several car and truck lines through the
summer.
    Chevrolet said that through August 3 its customers could
choose cash rebates of 300 dlrs to 1,000 dlrs depending on
models or loan rates beginning at 3.9 pct through 9.9 pct,
depending on length of contract. The program covers six car
lines and S-10 Blazer and pickup trucks.
    Oldsmobile said separately its cash rebates and discount
financing packages with rates beginning at 3.9 pct for 24-month
loans were continued retroactively to June 16 on its Delta 88
and 98 Regency models.
    It gave no expiration for its incentive program.
    Chevrolet said its program continues to cover its newly
introduced Corsica and Beretta compact cars.
    Through June 10, Chevrolet's car sales are 14.1 pct below
last year's levels while Oldsmobile's retail deliveries of cars
are off by 31.9 pct.
 Reuter

The rate of increase in world palm oil
use is likely to slow next season despite an expected 800,000
tonne production rise to 8.13 mln tonnes, Siegfried Mielke,
editor of the Hamburg-based newsletter Oil World said.
    He told the 8th Antwerp Oils and Fats Contact Days that in
the next Oct/Sept 1987/88 season, palm oil use will rise to
8.25 mln tonnes from 7.71 mln, below the five-year average
increase of 550,000 tonnes.
     Opening stocks at the start of next October are expected
to be about 1.4 mln tonnes, 300,000 tonnes below year-earlier
levels, bringing total supplies to 9.5 mln tonnes, he said.
    The anticipated total supplies will be about 500,000 tonnes
above this season's available amount, Mielke said.
    The increase in mature palm tree areas in Malaysia will
slow down from this year on, but that will be offset by area
expansion in Indonesia, he said.
    He estimated the combined rise in Malaysian and Indonesian
mature area at 8.7 pct next year, after 9.5 pct this year, and
at 6.7 pct in 1989 and 5.0 pct in 1990.
    Malaysia also is shifting plantings to Sabah and Sarawak,
where the rate of expansion is higher than in the Peninsula,
but where yields are lower, he said.
     The stocks/usage ratio of seven major oils is also
expected to decline, Mielke said. The oils are soybean,
cottonseed, sunflowerseed, coconut, rapeseed, palmkernel and
palm.
    At the start of October 1986 stocks of these oils were
unusually high and represented 6.8 weeks of the current
season's prospective demand, compared with six weeks a year ago
and with 5.4 weeks in 1984, he said.
    Mielke expects the ratio to fall to 5.9 weeks by the start
of next October and to the unusually low level of 5.4 weeks by
the end of next season.
    The stocks/usage ratio for palm oil was 11.4 weeks last
October and is likely to be 8.7 weeks next October and 7.7 at
the end of next season, Mielke said.
    World oilseed stocks also are expected to fall in the
course of the next season, with the biggest reduction seen in
soybean stocks, which Mielke expects to decline by 5.0 mln
tonnes or by one fifth.
    Almost all of the decline is expected to occur in the U.S.,
for which he estimated ending stocks next season at 10.7 mln
tonnes, or 393 mln bushels, against anticipated ending stocks
of 15 mln tonnes, or 551 mln bushels, at the end of this
season.
 Reuter

Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd said its
1986 proposed settlement with United Gas Pipe Line Co, of
Houston, received unconditional approval by the U.S. Federal
Energy Regulator Commission.
    Pan-Alberta said the approved deal authorized terms of a
two-year interim contract amendment, cash payments and
transportation credits for Pan-Alberta's customers, minimum
yearly natural gas takes by United and a two-year commodity
price. United will pay Pan-Alberta producers about 50 mln dlrs
over the interim period and take at least an average 40 mln
cubic feet a day of gas, Pan-Alberta said.
 Reuter

May Department Stores Co said it
terminated an agreement with Allied Stores Corp to buy from
Allied the four Dey Brothers Stores in Syracuse, N.Y.
    May and Allied said conditions necessary for the closing
were not met.
    May had planned to make the acquisition an expansion of its
Sibley's Department Store Co, which operates in Syracuse,
Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y.
 Reuter

LP said its board has declared an initial quarterly dividend of
67.3611 cents per unit, payable August 14, record July 1.
    The partnership said the distribution covers its first full
quarter of operations ending June 30 plus the period from the
inception of its operations on March 25.
    Future dividends will be 62.5 cts quarterly, it said.
 Reuter

ratings on outstanding notes and debentures of Transco Energy
Company and its subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line
Company, affecting 887 mln dlrs in debt securities.
    Transco Energy cumulative convertible preferred stock was
lowered to DP-12 (middle BB) from DP-10 (low BBB) and
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line notes and debentures were
lowered to DP-10 from DP-8 (high BBB) and preferred stock to
DP-11 (high BB) from DP-9 (middle BBB).
    Duff and Phelps said the downgrade reflects an increase in
Transco's estimate of payments it will require to settle
take-or-pay liabilities from 550 mln dlrs to 900 mln dlrs.
Transco has already made more than 400 mln dlrs in cash
payments.
    In addition, natural gas remains in excess supply and the
ability of Transcontinental to keep its pipeline full is
subject to increaseing competition.
                   
 Reuter

Storage Technology Corp said
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved its plan of
reorganization and its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
    Under the terms of the plan, the company said all approved
creditors claims will be paid in full in cash, equity and
notes. It said it will settle about 800 mln dlrs in liabilities
through the payment of about 132.5 mln dlrs in cash, 285 mln
dlrs of 10-year 13.5 pct notes and 192 mln additional common
shares.
    The company said existing common shareholders will hold
about 15 pct of the company's shares after the distribution.
    The company said the distribution of the cash, equity and
notes to creditors will start in July.
 Reuter

affirmed Marine Midland Banks Inc's 500 mln dlrs of debt.
    S and P cited a 400 mln dlr provision to reserves for
developing country credits. The provision brings Marine's
reserve to about 29 pct and will enhance its flexibility in
actively managing this portfolio. S and P also said Marine's
earnings and asset quality are showing steady improvement.
    Affirmed were the bank's A-plus senior debt, A-rated
subordinated debt, A-minus preferred stock and A-1-plus
commercial paper. Also affirmed were lead bank Marine Midland
Bank NA's A-plus/A-1-plus certificates of deposit.
 Reuter

Quaker Oats Co said in response to a
query that it knew of no corporate development to account for
the decline in its stock, trading at 54-3/8, off 2-1/8.
 Reuter

UNOCAL RAISED CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS/BBL, WTI NOW 19
DLRS/BBL

Virtusonics Corp said it has cut the
exercise price of its warrants to 1.5 cts per share from 2.5
cts from June 22 until July 22.
 Reuter

France's leading farmer's union, the
FNSEA, said it is worried that negotiations on the 1987/88 farm
price package will now be tackled by European Community leaders
who do not know the agricultural situation.
    The leaders have no specialised knowledge of the farm
dossier and have the tendency to sign compromises which are "too
broad," union leader Raymond Lacombe said. But he added French
Farm Minister Francois Guillaume had reason to reject a
compromise which would have been negative for the farm sector.
    EC ministers ended talks this morning having failed to get
any agreement on agricultural prices for the 1987/88 farm year,
which started on April 1 for certain products.
    Lacombe said the French government should guarantee
farmers' incomes until an agreement is reached.
 Reuter

Zenith Laboratories Inc said it is
discusssing with Squibb Corp's SquibbMark division a three-year
agreement to supply some products to Squibb to sell under a
SquibbMark label.
    Zenith said the deal includes products it already markets
and some that are pending marketing approval from the U.S. Food
    Zenith also said the proposed agreement is still in
negotiation and subject to approval by senior managements of
Squibb and Zenith.
 Reuter

Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc
said it will hold a press conference June 29 to introduce a new
information systems product that will "dramatically improve
hospital efficiency."
    No other details were disclosed.
    Baxter currently offers computerized information systems
that link hospital medical and business departments and
doctors' offices.
 Reuter

Holder Communications Corp said
stockholders approved its reorganization plan with the <General
Masonry Group> in Nashville, Tenn.
    The company said also approved was its name change to GMX
Communications Inc and an increase of authorized shares to 100
mln from 20 mln.
    Included in the reorganization, which is scheduled for
closing June 30, was the installation of a new sla e of five
    Holder said it owns eight radio stations and General
Masonry is engaged in masonry construction.
 Reuter

Unocal said it raised its postings for
crude oil by 50 cts a barrel, effective June 17. The company
said it is now posting West Texas Intermediate and West Texas
Sour at 19 dlrs a barrel.
    Unocal said its new Light Louisiana Sweet posted price is
19.35 dlrs a barrel. the price move follows a wave of increases
initiated by Sun Co yesterday.
 Reuter

FW Woolworth Co's chairman and chief
executive officer, Harold Sells, said the company remains
commmitted to its general merchandise division, despite the
growing importance of its specialty stores.
    The company said its sales in the first quarter ended May 2
were 1.53 billion dlrs, up from 1.41 billion dlrs in the same
   
    Sells said the company's specialty stores contributed 65
pct to total operating profit last year, but profits in the
general merchandise sector have been improving. He said the
company has no plans to turn its back on the Woolworth stores.
    "We've spent alot of money on refurbishing and remodeling
our general merchandise stores, and we will continue to do so,"
he said.
    Sells said the number of general merchandise stores is not
increasing. But one of the companies stratagies is to increase
its core departments in the general merchandise stores into
specialty stores, he said.
    He said these include its framescene and cosmetics unit.
    He said the company continues to look at mergers and
acquisitions. But he stressed any acquisitions should make
sense from a strategy standpoint.
    "We're primarily looking for small, emerging growth stores
with a concept that's right to expand on national scale," he
said.
   
   Sells said the company has been looking at a number of
initial experiments on home video sales. He said Woolworth will
become involved this summer with J.C. Penny Co Inc's <JCP>
Tele-Action program, along with a number of other retailers.
    Sells said the Tele-Action program, which is due to go on
air in the Chicago area this summer, will feature products from
Woolworth's Foot Locker unit.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it has loaned
Mexico 400 mln dlrs to help support an agricultural credit
project.
    The project hopes to increase agricultural productivity,
exports, and real farm income by providing credit to private
farmers, ranchers and agro-industries, the bank said.
    The loan will be used for lending mainly by commercial
banks and the National Rural Credit Bank, Mexico's largest
agricultural credit lender, the bank said.
    It also said the project hopes to aid in reducing the
government's interest rate and credit subsidies.
    The project will also support improvement of the
agricultural credit system through reduction of subsidies for
credit and crop insurance, and increased domestic resource
mobilization, the bank said.
    The loan, guaranteed by the government, is for 15 years,
including three years of grace, at a variable interest rate -
currently 7.92 pct, the bank said.
 Reuter

Ecuador posted a trade surplus of 10.6 mln
dlrs in the first four months of 1987 compared with a surplus
of 271.7 mln in the same period in 1986, the central bank of
Ecuador said in its latest monthly report.
    Ecuador suspended sales of crude oil, its principal export
product, in March after an earthquake destroyed part of its
oil-producing infrastructure.
    Exports in the first four months of 1987 were around 639
mln dlrs and imports 628.3 mln, compared with 771 mln and 500
mln respectively in the same period last year.
    Exports of crude and products in the first four months were
around 256.1 mln dlrs, compared with 403.3 mln in the same
period in 1986. The central bank said that between January and
May Ecuador sold 16.1 mln barrels of crude and 2.3 mln barrels
of products, compared with 32 mln and 2.7 mln respectively in
    Ecuador's international reserves at the end of May were
around 120.9 mln dlrs, compared with 118.6 mln at the end of
April and 141.3 mln at the end of May 1986, the central bank
said. gold reserves were 165.7 mln dlrs at the end of May
compared with 124.3 mln at the end of April.
 Reuter

affirmed about 600 mln dlrs of debt of Republic Bank NY Corp.
    Affirmed were Republic's AA senior debt, AA-minus
subordinated debt, A-plus preferred stock, A-1-plus commercial
paper and A/A-1-plus certificates of deposit.
    S and P cited the bank's decision to join the growing
number of U.S. banks that have set aside reserves for
developing country credits.
    Republic strengthed its reserves by 100 mln dlrs.
    Despite an expected second quarter loss, the firm remains
one of the best capitalized banks in the U.S., S and P said.
 Reuter

Ensource Inc said it has agreed to sell
one mln shares of convertible preferred stock to closely-held
United Meridian Corp for 25 dlrs a share and to grant United
warrants to buy 550,000 common shares.
    Ensource said United chairman Ralph E. Bailey, who recenty
retired as chairman of Du Pont Co's <DD> Conoco Inc and vice
chairman of Du Pont, and United president Joseph D., Mahaffey
have been named to the board. It said United will later
designate two more members to the 10-member board.
    The company said it and United have also arranged for
modifications to Ensource's senior bank credit agreement.
    It said United will hold a 41 pct voting interest in
Ensource on receipt of the preferred, which carries an annual
dividend of 2.125 dlrs per share. Each share is convertible
into 2.315 common shares.
    The company said part of the dividends on the preferred
will be paid in more convertible preferred shares.
    It said the transaction is subject to United's approval of
the bank debt restructuring documents and Federal Trade
Commission approval.
 Reuter

Pan American World Airways said it
took delivery of the first of 12 A310-300 aircraft on June 17,
becoming the first U.S. airline to receive the engines
developed by the European consortium Airbus Industrie.
    The airline is also the first to take United Technologies
Corp's <UTX> Pratt and Whitney PW4000 engines.
    Pan American said it will intiially use the aircraft on
domestic routes and later for international service. Each
aircraf seats 12 first class passengers, 30 business class, and
162 coach.
  
 Reuter

it will begin marketing a generic form of Eli Lilly and Co's 
Keflex, a widely used antibiotic whose patent expired April 21,
in about six weeks.
    Generic drugs are cheaper copies of brand name drugs that
have lost their patents.
    Par said its generic form of Keflex, called Cephalexin,
will be made by an overseas supplier so that Par will not have
to make a substantial investment in a separate facility
required to make the product.
   
 Reuter

A joint House-Senate committee
formally approved a 1988 budget plan certain to touch off a
battle with President Reagan over taxes and defense.
    The budget, a compromise of earlier House and Senate
budgets, was negotiated yesterday by House and Senate
Democratic leaders.
    The plan, slated for House action next Tuesday, would
reduce next year's estimated 171-billion-dlr deficit to about
134 billion dlrs.
    It proposes 19 billion dlrs in new taxes next year and cuts
Reagan's defense mark.
 Reuter

Acton Corp said shareholders at the
annaul meeting approved a one-for-five reverse split that takes
effect June 25.
    It said holders also approved a limitation of directors'
liability and indemnity agreements between the company and its
officers and directors.
 Reuter

its Reichhold Ltd subsidiary has raised prices seven U.S. cent
per pound on powdered phenolic waferboard resins, effective
July 1, due to sharp increases in the cost of phenol.
 Reuter

Enzon Inc and Eastman
Kodak Co's Eastman Pharmaceuticals division said the Food and
Drug Administration approved their application to allow
clinical testing of the PEG-uricase drug to proceed.
    Kodak owns 18.7 pct of Enzon and owns the marketing rights
for PEG-uricase and two other drugs Enzon is developing.
    The companies said PEG-uricase is intended to reduce uric
acid levels in patients undergoing chemotherapy and suffering
from gout. A build up of uric acid in the bloodstream, a common
side effect of chemotherapy, often leads to kidney failure.
    Enzon said that under the FDA's new rules to allow patients
with life-threatening diseases to get investigational drugs,
uric acid levels in an extremely ill patient decreased to
normal levels within 48 hours after the drug was injected.
    Separately, it said the FDA granted it permission to
include an unlimited number of patients in trials with PEG-ADA,
a drug used to treat a rare and usually fatal disease in
children called severe combined immuodeficiency.
    It said five children are being treated with the drug and
it hopes to file a new drug application PEG-ADA by late 1987.
When the NDA is approved, the drug can be marketed.
 Reuter

Bank of New England Corp said it will
make a special second quarter loan loss provision of 107 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Diamond Shamrock R and M said it raised
its crude oil contract prices by 50 cts a barrel, effective
June 17.
    The company said its new posting for West Texas
Intermediate crude is 19 dlrs a barrel. The price increase
follows similar moves by several other companies.
 Reuter

Xerox Corp's affiliate Rank Xerox Ltd
said it signed a definitive agreement to sell its Rank Xerox
South Africa Pty Ltd affiliate to Altron Group <ALRN.O>, for
    Xerox said the preliminary agreement to sell the affiliate
to Fintech, an Altron unit, had been reached in March. Xerox
said completion of the sale awaits approval of Fintech
shareholders and a review by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
     Rank Xerox South Africa was founded in 1964 as a wholly
owned unit of Rank Xerox, the Xerox affiliate that manufactures
and markets Xerox products in the Eastern Hemisphere.
    Rank Xerox said that of the 800-man workforce of Rank Xerox
South Africa, 40 pct are black, colored or Asian. The company
will become a wholly owned unit of Altron.
    
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    Record July 1
 Reuter

Everex Systems Inc said it has
filed for an initial public offering of 5,950,000 common
shares, including 4,950,000 to be sold in the U.S. and one mln
overseas.  Lead underwriters are Goldman, Sachs and Co and
Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc <SHE>.
    The company said it will sell four mln of the shares and
shareholders the rest and the initial offering price is
expected to be 10 to 12 dlrs per share.  Company proceeds will
be used for financing accounts receivable and inventory and
repaying bank debt.
    Everex makes personal computer peripheral equipment.
 Reuter

Doskocil Cos Inc said it has
repurchased 310,000 of its common shares, or about five pct,
for undisclosed terms and its board has authorized the further
repurchase of another 200,000 shares.
 Reuter

Lead underwriters Salomon Inc <SB>,
PaineWebber Group Inc <PWJ> and Shearson Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc <SHE> said an initial public offering of seven mln
common shares of Scudder New Asia Fund Inc is underway at 12
dlrs each.
another 1,050,000 shares to cover overallotments.
 Reuter

Qtr ended June 7
    Shr six cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,332,000 vs 3,658,000
    Sales 58.3 mln vs 51.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 40 cts vs 25 cts
    net 8,875,000 vs 5,034,000
    Sales 158.4 mln vs 133.6 mln
 Reuter

Doskocil Companies Inc said it
bought back 310,000 shares or about five pct of its common
stock and its board authorized the repurchase of an additional
200,000 common shares.
    If completed, the total purchases would represent 8.5 pct
of Doskocil's outstanding common stock.
 Reuter

Qtly div 15 cts vs 12 cts prior
    Pay July 24
    Record July One
 Reuter

ISFA Corp said Thomas A. Cooper, who
recently resigned as president of BankAmerica Corp, has been
named chairman and chief executive officer of ISFA.
    ISFA operates Invest, a full-service brokerage program for
banks, and Insure, a retail insurance program.
 Reuter

Ask Corp said it received
approximately 1.3 mln dlrs from the settlement of claims from
joint litigation with Allied Signal Corp <ALD> from a private
placement with a Houston based venture capital firm.
    Ask said it received approximately 800,000 dlrs from the
litigation, which will be reflected in the company's fourth
quarter ended July 31, 1987.
    The company also said it raised 500,000 dlrs through a
private placment of convertible debt with <Cerrito Partners>.
Ask said Certito was granted warrants to acquire another
500,000 dlrs of restricted stock two to three years.
 Reuter

Monsanto Co's G.D. Searle and Co
pharmaceutical division said researchers have concluded that
articifical sweeteners, including aspartame which is found in
Searle's NutraSweet, do not pose any significant health
problems for diabetic patients.
    The researchers conducted a survey of 100 diabetic patients
using sweeteners from six months to 20 years. Only five pct
using aspartame had health problems or discomfort, saccharine
drew no complaints, and sorbitol, another sweetener, caused
minor problems such as diarrhea and upset stomach in less than
25 pct of the patients, Searle said.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 10
    Record July Three
 Reuter

Salomon Inc had a reduction in trading
revenue in April and May, managing director Robert Salomon said
in response to questions.
    Analysts have said they believe the lower second quarter
profit predicted by Salomon Inc was partially the result of
trading losses and lower revenues from low trading volume. They
said they believe the firm, like others on Wall Street,
suffered most from the turbulent weeks for the bond market in
April.
    Robert Salomon would not comment on whether the firm had
actual trading losses, but he said he would not "quarrel" with
a New York Times article that said the firm's losses could have
amounted to 100 mln dlrs.
    "We haven't acknowledged any trading losses other than to
say that April was a difficult month, and you can presume
anything you want from that. we don't have a quarrel with the
new york times article," Salomon said.
     "There cleary was a reduction in the amount of revenues
generated in April and May was a little bit better," he said.
    The New York times attributed the figure to analysts and
unnamed Wall Street officials it said were familiar with the
firm's activities.
    Salomon Chairman John Gutfreund today in a statement
reiterated that the firm expects a profit in the second quarter
but sees lower earnings than last year's second quarter.
Analysts lowered their estimates yesterday to about half of
last year's 75 cts per share.
    "We believe this showing is satisfactory within the
framework of existing market conditions," said Gutfreund in a
 Reuter

DUPONT UNIT RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS/BBL,
EFFECTIVE YESTERDAY

has signed a definitive agreement to pay 4.5 mln dlrs to the
Internal Revenue Service in taxes, interest and penalties for
the years 1972 through 1981.
    It will make an initial payment on June 30 of 500,000 dlrs,
with ongoing quarterly payments over about two years.
    General Automation said in conjunction with the IRS
agreement, it has placed about one mln dlrs in five-year, eight
pct unsecured notes with a group of private investors.
    The notes are accompanied by five-year warrants to buy
about 110,000 shares of common stock at 6.38 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Hydro Optics Inc said
Kenneth S. Roth has resigned as president and chairman. No
reason was given.
    It said director Melvin L. Gold has been named chairman and
chief executive officer and vice president-sales Barry Kay has
been named president and chief operating officer.
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas Corp said it received
authorization to build larger solid rocket boosters than the
U.S. Air Force originally planned.
    McDonnell Douglas, which said it subcontracts the orders,
also said the new solid rocket boosters will be 42 feet long,
increased from the original 36-foot long type. The company said
the additional size will cost the Air Force 10.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtr ended May 2
    Oper shr profit three cts vs loss five cts
    Oper net profit 115,000 dlrs vs loss 152,000
    Revs 7,652,000 vs 4,279,000
    Six mths
    Oper shr profit ten cts vs loss 34 cts
    Oper net profit 342,000 vs loss 1,149,000
    Revs 14.0 mln vs 7,398,000
    Note: oper data does not include extraordinary gain of
28,000 dlrs, or one ct per shr, in 2nd qtr 1987 or or 118,000
dlrs, or four cts per shr, in six mths.
   
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 3,050,000 vs 1,555,000
    Sales 21.0 mln vs 19.2 mln
    1st half
    Shr 72 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 4,948,000 vs 2,447,000
    Sales 37.8 mln vs 34.5 mln
 Reuter

    Shr profit 14 cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 345,544 vs loss 48,097
    Sales 1,032,224 vs 514,656
    Avg shrs 2,420,925 vs 2,289,925
    1st half
    Shr profit 21 cts vs profit nil
    Net profit 496,714 vs profit 5,602
    Sales 1,649,860 vs 1,099,379
    Avg shrs 2,407,334 vs 2,222,591
    NOTE: Prior half net includes 1,849 dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Bell South Corp's Southern Bell said
American Telephone and Telegraph Co's <T> network systems and
<Hayes Microcomputer Products> will use its integrated services
digital network services when the product is launched in March
1988.
 Reuter

Shr loss three cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 78,456 vs loss 95,812
    Sales 513,607 vs 283,043
    Avg shrs 3,106,000 vs 2,933,333
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
    Record July Six
 Reuter

First Wisconsin Corp said
directors of its First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee
approved a 96 mln dlr increase in the bank's loan loss reserves
in response to uncertainty over the impact of third world debt
repayment problems.
    It said the reserve increase will result in a second
quarter loss to the corporation of an estimated 55 mln dlrs, or
2.80 dlrs a share.
    However, the company said it expects to report a profit for
the year.
    It said its consolidated 1987 earnings are projected to be
between 35 mln dlrs and 45 mln dlrs compared to 55 mln dlrs in
1986.
    It said dividends will not be affected by the increased
loan losses.
    In April, the company placed 59.7 mln dlrs in loans to
Brazil and Ecuador in non-accrual. First Wisconsin also cited
"a growing realization that repayment programs for less
developed countries will continue to be renegotiated into the
foreseeable future." It said its total loan loss reserves now
stand at 160 mln dlrs, or 3.5 pct of all outstanding loans.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) accused the
United States of violating a political commitment to free trade
through practices including a tax on imported gasoline and a
customs user fee.
    EC ambassador Tran Van-Thinh made the formal charge to the
surveillance body of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), GATT spokesman David Woods told reporters.
    Woods also said the EC was joined by the United States in
criticising Brazil for extending its list of products for which
import licenses have been temporarily suspended, so as to
improve its balance of payments.
    The United States charged Japan with violating GATT rules
by restricting imports of agricultural products through an
import licensing system. The United States asked for
consultations with Tokyo on the issue.
    Tran charged that the trade measures contravened a
political commitment to halt and reverse trade barriers,
pledged by ministers in Punta del Este last September.
    When ministers established the four year Uruguay round to
negotiate freer trade in 13 areas, they set up the GATT
surveillance body to monitor this commitment, known in GATT
jargon as "standstill and rollback."
    Tran criticised Washington for the "superfund" tax on oil
imports, a customs user fee, and the removal of a special
machine tool (known as category FSC34) from its government
procurement list for reasons of national security.
    Warren Lavorel, a U.S. Trade official, defended the
policies, saying they did not violate GATT trade rules.
    The surveillance body will send a record of today's talks
to the Trade Negotiating Committee, which oversees the round,
to decide any further action on the charges.
    The oil tax and customs user fee have already been the
subject of formal GATT dispute panels set up outside the
Uruguay Round to rule on the legality of the practices.
    The ruling GATT Council yesterday adopted a dispute panel's
report and ruled that the U.S. Superfund tax on oil imports
breached trade rules. It called on Washington to modify its
    Mexico and Canada, along with the European Community,
brought the dispute to the GATT last year.
 Reuter

MerchantsBank of Boston said it has
received an 8,400,000 dlr dividend from the Co-Operative
Central Bank Share Insurance Fund, and the amount will be
included in revenues for the second quarter.
    The fund is liquidating since all cooperative banks in
Massachusetts have obtained federal insurance.
 Reuter

Ferro Corp said it expects to report
second quarter earnings of about seven mln dlrs, or about 1.02
dlrs a share, on sales of about 220.0 mln dlrs
    In the year ago quarter, the maker of industrial specialty
materials earned 5.1 mln dlrs or 75 cts a share on sales of
185.1 mln dlrs.
    Based on its current second quarter estimates, Ferro said
it will have earned 11.7 mln dlrs or two dlrs a share on sales
of 425 mln dlrs for the six months ending June 30. In the
year-ago six-month period, Ferro earned 9.7 mln dlrs or 1.43
dlrs a share on sales of 359.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

California Energy Co Inc said
its 10th geothermal production well at the COSO Project in
China Lake, Calif., tested one mln pounds of geothermal steam
per hour at 420 degrees Fahrenheit from a depth of 3,000 feet.
    The company said it now has geothermal resrves at COSO
sufficient to produce 30 megawatts of power for 30 years. It
said it plans to drill another 20 wells at China Lake in 1987.
 Reuter

Conoco Inc, a subsidiary of duPont
deNemours <DD>, said it raised the contract price it will pay
for all grades of crude oil 50 cts a barrel, effective
    The increase brings Conoco's posted price for West Texas
Intermediate to 19.00 dlrs a barrel. The West Texas Sour grade,
at 34 API, now stands at 18.10 dlrs a barrel. Light Louisiana
was also raised 50 cts to 19.35 dlrs barrel.
    Conoco last changed its crude postings on May 21.
 Reuter

<LM Ericsson Telephone Co> of
Sweden said its Ericsson unit in the U.S. introduced a cellular
system for small cellular telephone markets.
    The company said its CMS 8800/S system incorporates
Ericsson hardware and software.
    It said extra base stations and voice channels can be added
to the system in modular blocks.
 Reuter

has sold its Chemetron Railway Products Inc, True Temper
Railway Appliances Inc and Allegheny Axle Co units to
newly-formed Chemetron Railway Products Inc for undisclosed
terms.
    It said the new company was formed by senior management of
the three railway product units and Kleinwort Benson Group of
London.
 Reuter

Commitments to Argentina's external
financing program for 1987 and 1988 have reached about 91 pct
of the 1.95 billion dlrs in new loans that banks have been
asked to provide, Citibank and Argentina said in a joint
    This percentage is close to the "critical mass" of
commitments that the International Monetary Fund has requested
as a condition for releasing new loans to the country.
    Senior Citibank executive William Rhodes said he was
encouraged by the banks' response and that telexed commitments
continue to arrive.
    The response of Argentina's 350 foreign bank creditors had
been eagerly awaited because the package is the first to be
marketed since U.S. banks, led by Citibank, decided to take
large second-quarter losses in order to boost their reserves
against existing loans to developing countries.
    Some bankers had feared that banks would refuse to lend new
money so soon after taking a "hit" on the old loans, but
today's news delivers a decisive rebuff to those skeptics.
    The strong response to the package was partly the result of
the inducement of a 3/8 pct early-participation fee for those
banks that agreed to sign up by June 17, bankers said.
 Reuter

president Jerry Pohlman was appointed chairman and chief
executive officer, replacing James Anderson who resigned.
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    Record June 26
 Reuter

Qtly div 32 cts vs 32 cts prior qtr
    Pay 29 July
    Record 2 July
 Reuter

AmVestors Financial Corp said
underwriters Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc and Morgan
Keegan Inc <MOR> have exercised their overallotment option for
an additional 10,000 common shares at 9.50 dlrs each in
connection with a recent offering of 100,000 AmVestors shares.
    It said it realized net proceeds of 886,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    NOTE: Scott and Stringfellow Financial Inc
 Reuter

Zambia's copper mining industry is hoping
to achieve and maintain production at over 500,000 tonnes a
year in the next few years despite low world prices,
deteriorating ores and shortages of mine inputs, industry
    But Zambia's decision to abandon last May 1 a tough
International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic recovery program has
introduced an element of uncertainty into plans to restructure
the ailing industry and boost profitability, they said.
    Copper production by the government-controlled Zambia
Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) for the 1987 financial year
ended March 31 improved slightly to about 471,000 tonnes from a
record 1986 low of 463,354 tonnes.
    "We are convinced that by the end of the 1988 financial
year, copper production could well be over 500,000 tonnes due
to greater availability of spares and equipment," a ZCCM
    ZCCM officials said the production of cobalt, another
strategic income earner, will also be tailored to meet demand.
    Finished production in 1986 was 4,565 tonnes, 911 tonnes
higher than the previous year and the best production achieved
to date.
    Protracted low world metal prices have badly hit the copper
industry in Zambia, the world's fifth biggest producer. Mining
is monopolised by ZCCM and accounts for about 90 pct of the
    Production has also been seriously affected in recent years
by equipment breakdowns, deteriorating ore and shortages of
spare parts, fuel and lubricants. The 463,354 tonnes output
last year compared with a peak 1975 output of 700,000 tonnes.
    A five-year production and investment plan launched in 1984
by ZCCM is being funded by the European Community, the African
Development Bank and the World Bank.
    The plan foresees the shutdown of some seven mining and
metallurgical units on the grounds they are unprofitable.
    ZCCM, the second largest employer after the government, has
said it intends to lay off 20,000 of its 60,000 workforce as
part of the plan.
    More than 250 mln dlrs have so far been channelled into the
industry in a bid to improve efficiency and profitability under
the five-year restructuring plan.
    Company officials said although reserves were being
depleted, Zambia could continue to produce copper beyond the
end of the century, though at lower levels of production.
    Industry sources said ZCCM's projected pre-tax profit for
the financial year ended March 31 would be around 500 mln
kwacha. But with the current mineral export tax level being
levied, a net loss is likely to be registered.
    ZCCM recorded a net loss of 718 mln kwacha in 1986 compared
with a net profit of 19 mln kwacha the year before.
    Under the foreign exchange auction system introduced in
1985, ZCCM's profits from its foreign exchange earnings rose as
the value of the kwacha fell to 21 to the dollar from just over
two to the dollar.
    But on May 1, President Kenneth Kaunda abolished the
auctioning system, inspired by the International Monetary Fund,
and announced Zambia would pursue a go-it-alone economic
strategy based on national resources.
    ZCCM officials are still cautious over what effects the
break with the IMF will have on the industry's plans.
    "We are still consulting to see how the new measures will
affect us but it is too early to say just how we shall fare
under the new situation," Peter Hansen, director of operations
and third in the ZCCM hierarchy, told Reuters.
    Some analysts believe the new officially-fixed exchange
rate of eight kwacha to the dollar will hit ZCCM's export
profits.
    "Most specialists I have talked to tell me the break-even
point for ZCCM is a rate of 10 kwacha per dollar," Frederick
Chiluba, leader of the Zambian Congress of Trade Unions said.
    High production costs continue to bedevil the Zambian
industry.
    Zambia mines copper at a relatively expensive rate of 69
cents per pound, compared with 55 cents in the United States
and under 40 cents in Chile.
    The industry also faces transport problems due to Zambia
being landlocked. The government confirmed this year it had
stopped sBending copper south through South Africa.
    Over 80 pct of shipments, some 35,000 tonnes a month, are
sent by rail to the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam, while
5,000 tonnes go via Zimbabwe to the Mozambique port of Beira.
Transport has often been hit by shortages of wagons, spares and
fuel.
 Reuter

    Pay July 20
    Record July 6
 Reuter

Rio de Janeiro's 3,500
dockworkers went on strike for an indefinite period today to
demand wage increases, a spokesman for the dockers said.
    The Rio dockers did not get support from their colleagues
in Santos, Brazil's main port, but the spokesman said they
would not return to work unless their demands were met.
    Earlier this week, some 65,000 dockworkers cancelled a
scheduled national strike to pressure port officials to give
them a wage increase and other benefits.
    A Rio port spokesman said the halt would cause daily losses
of about 100,000 U.S. dlrs.
 Reuter

Fluor Corp said it won a contract
with General Electric to design, construct and deliver modules
for a methyl chloride process addition.
    Fluor said its Applied Engineering Co unit will construct
28 modular sections and deliver them to GE's Waterford, N.Y.
Silicone Products division plant.
    Methyl chloride is an integral part of silicone production.
 Reuter

Shawmut Corp said it has repurchased
400,000 common shares and placed them in its treasury.
    The company has about 16.1 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Little Prince Productions Ltd said it
settled litigation with Nederlander Group, receiving one mln
dlrs and paying Nederlander 38,000 dlrs.
                    
 Reuter

Continental Illinois Corp said it knows
of know reason why its stock was trading higher in heavy
volume.
    The stock was up 1/2 to 5-3/8 on turnover of 1,386,000
shares, making it one of the most actively traded NYSE issues.
    Traders earlier said Goldman Sachs and Co was trading on
the stock. However, Goldman Sachs banking analyst Robert
Albertson had not placed the stock on his recommended list, his
office told Reuters.
 Reuter

Kelley Oil and Gas Partners Ltd said it
has agreed to purchase all of CF Industries Inc's oil and
natural gas properties for about 5,500,000 dlrs, effective July
1.
    It said the Louisiana properties had proven reserves at
year-end of 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 85,000
barrels of oil, condensate and natural gas liquids.
    Kelley said it currently owns working interests in some of
 Reuter

The Tanzanian government, in its
second annual budget since embarking on an economic recovery
program inspired by the International Monetary Fund, announced
increases in fuel prices and sales tax and higher levies on
government services.
    Finance Minister Cleopa Msuya said the government expected
to spend 77.33 billion shillings in the financial year 1987/8,
39 pct more than this year's estimate. Revenue would provide
48.84 billion shillings, leaving a deficit of 28.49 billion to
be financed through domestic and foreign loans.
    This year's budget initially projected a deficit of only
3.35 billion shillings but in mid-year the government had to
impose new taxes to keep the deficit roughly on target. No
figure for the final deficit was avaialble.
    The budget gave civil servants a 20 pct pay rise with
effect from July 1, to compensate for inflation of more than 30
pct.
    Msuya said regular petrol would go up 52 pct, with similar
increases in the cost of premium and kerosene. Diesel would
rise by 75 pct.
    The higher levies affect official transactions such as road
tolls, vehicle transfers and various licence fees, he added.
 REUTER

Leaseway Transportation Corp said it
has completed the previously-announced sale of its Leaseway of
Puerto Rico Inc subsidiary to Caguas Central Federal Savings
Bank for undisclosed terms.
    The company said the sale satisfied a condition for its
proposed acquisition by an investor group led by Citicorp <CCI>.
 Reuter

IBC, gave details of its plans to pay the 18 companies that
bought 630,000 bags of robusta coffee in the London market on
its behalf last September.
    An IBC spokesman told Reuters that a 15 mln dlr loan from
the Banco do Brasil would be used to pay five mln dlrs a month
in June, July and August to creditors.
    He said an auction of coffee would raise additional money
and added that a Reuter report on June 16 gave the wrong
impression that the auction was necessary to raise part of the
15 mln dlrs. No date has yet been set for the auction.
 Reuter

<Magellan Corp> said its shareholders
approved the merger of Magellan with <Balzec Investments Inc>,
 a privately held company based in Dallas.
    Magellan, a company without operations that was formed to
acquire an operating entity, said it plans to engage in the
development and marketing of a battery charger product owned by
Balzac.
    Magellan did not disclose the terms of the agreement.
    Following the merger, Balzac shareholders will hold 80 pct
of the outstanding stock of Magellan, the company said.
   
    Magellan said it will be the surviving corporation
following the merger.
    The companies said they expect the merger will occur after
the declaration of effectiveness of an amendment to Magellan's
registration statement relating to its common stock purchase
warrants and the underlying shares.
 Reuter

A World Bank mission today held talks
with a senior Finance Ministry official to discuss Brazil's
requests for loans, ministry officials said.
    They said Brazil, the bank's biggest customer, was asking
for two billion dlrs for the financial year starting in July,
including 500 mln dlrs for the energy sector.
    The mission, headed by Gabin Ran Kankani, head of the
Bank's Brazil division, met Finance Ministry secretary Nailson
Nobrega.
    Officials said they had provided the World Bank with
information on the economic plan now being drawn up by Finance
Minister Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira.
    The government has invited the IMF to come to study the
plan next Monday.
    Bresser Pereira will use the plan as the basis for
negotiations with creditors next month in an attempt to
reschedule the country's 111 billion dollar debt.
 Reuter

GenCorp said its agreement to sell
its RKO Pictures subsidiary to a management group has been
terminated because the group could not raise the necessary
    The company said it will again seek buyers for the unit and
its library of over 750 films.
 Reuter

Elbit Computers Ltd of Israel said it has
received a 6,300,000 dlr contract from a buyer it did not name
for its DASHJ helmet-mounted sight system, which allows pilots
to aim weapons by looking at targets.
    The company said deliveries are expected to start in 18
months and be completed 12 months later.
 Reuter

of about 100,000 U.S. Dlrs.
 Reuter

The Federal Trade Commission charged
Kraft Inc with false and misleading advertising by overstating
the calcuim content of its Kraft Singles cheese product.
    In an administrative complaint, the FTC charged the
Glenview, Ill., food and consumer products company with
claiming that a slice of Kraft Singles American Pasteurized
Process Cheese Food (Kraft Singles) contains the same amount of
calcium as five ounces of milk, when it does not.
    The company also falsely advertised that Kraft Singles
contained more calcium than do most imitation cheese slices,
the FTC charged.
    The FTC complaint also charged that Kraft said it could
substantiate these claims when, in fact, it could not.
    "Nutritional information is important to consumers, but it
can be difficult for them to verify." FTC Bureau of Consumer
Protection Director William MacLeod said in a statement. "That
is why we seek to maintain the accuracy of nutritional claims."
    The FTC, which voted 4-1 in favor of issuing the complaint,
generally takes such action when it has reason to believe that
the law has been or is being violated and where it apears to
the commission that a proceeding is in the public interest.
    The filing of an administrative complaint marks the
beginning of a proceeding that often takes up to a year in
which the allegations will be ruled upon after a formal
hearing.
    If the commission's allegations are upheld, Kraft could be
prohibited from misrepresenting the calcium or other nutrient
content of its cheese-type products, including those made in
comparative ads.
    The company could also be prohibited from making such
claims without having competent and reliable scientific
evidence.
 Reuter

Britain's Defence Minister George Younger
said the U.S. Was unfairly protecting its defence industry, and
this could lead to British firms demanding counter-measures.
    Younger told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting that U.S.
Legislators were failing to realise "the true nature of the
two-way street in terms of ideas, technology and equipment.
    A British parliamentary report said that up to March
British firms had been awarded just 34 mln dlrs worth of
contracts for the Strategic Defence Initiative, compared with
the 1.5 billion dlrs Britain had hoped to secure.
    The committee said U.S. Technology export restrictions and
"selectiveness" towards foreign contractors had denied British
competitors more lucrative orders and largely excluded them
from technological research for SDI.
    Younger said London had given U.S. Companies contracts
under conditions of fair and open competition. "All we ask is
for our companies to be given similar opportunities," he added.
    If new American legislation aimed at curbing unfair
subsidies was used to exclude foreign suppliers it would not be
surprising if British firms pressed for retaliatory measures,
Younger said.
 REUTER

Canada Post said it presented its
striking letter carriers with a new contract offer but both
sides said there was little indication the offer would end the
strike.
    The crown agency said it is being held back by government
restraint policies and has little move to manoeuvre while while
the union said it expected the post office to demand the same
contract concessions it has already rejected.
    The rotating walkouts spread today to the four Atlantic
provinces and other parts of Quebec while employees in Montreal
and Calgary returned to work.
 Reuter

United Building Services Corp said
Exchange Commission covering a proposed initial public offering
of 820,000 common shares.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt, to
develop and market additional specialty construction services
    United Building said it provides specialty construction
services in commercial, residential and governmental
construction projects principally in Arizona, Colorado and
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 2,002,000 vs 1,518,000
    Sales 166.0 mln vs 159.5 mln
 Reuter

    Pay October one
    Record September four
 Reuter

Pinnacle West Capital Corp said
its Malapai Resources Co units bought the mineral rights for
uranium mining on about 21,000 acres in northern Wyoming from
Westinghouns Electric Corp <WX>.
    The property is adjacent to a 34,000-acre site the company
already owns. Both facilities are at expected to be in full
operation in the early 1990s, with annual production of one to
two mln lbs of uranium concentrates, the company said.
    The new site is expected to produce about 250,000 lbs of
uranium in its first full year of production in 1988. The
adjacent property is expected to begin in 1989.
 Reuter

The West Texas cotton crop was largely
unscathed by an isolated thunderstorm in that region last night
that packed hurricane-force winds, crop and weather experts
said.
    "There might have been some isolated storms, but certainly
nothing damaging," said Charles Stichler, an extension
agronomist with the Agricultural Extension Service in far West
Texas.
    Rumors of a damaging storm in West Texas helped the New
York cotton futures market rally sharply this morning.
   Cotton for December delivery was 1.35 cents higher at 70.95
cents a lb at midsession after peaking this morning at 71.25
cents.
    "What happened is that the storm hit Lubbock airport, and
when that happens, everybody sees it," said Dale Mohler, a
senior meteorologist with Accu-Weather Inc.
    Lubbock is the heart of the West Texas cotton region, which
produces about 80 pct of that state's crop.
    The storm produced winds of about 75 mph. "That's hurricane
force. But they were isolated to just a small portion of the
West Texas area, probably less than five pct," Mohler said.
    "No doubt there was some damage. But if it had hit in July
or August (when fruiting would be underway) it would have been
worse," Mohler said.
    About 60 pct of the West Texas cotton crop has been
planted, and the remainder could be done by the weekend if
weather remains hot and dry, Stichler said.
    The temperature in West Texas since mid-week has been about
95 degrees. But a hot spell was sorely needed after far heavier
than normal rainfall for several weeks, he said.
 Reuter

Mthly div 1.2827 cts vs 3.3974 cts prior
    Pay July 31
 Reuter

Second quarter ended May 31.
    Shr 27 cts vs NA
    Net 3,560 mln vs 2,389,000
    Six mths
    Shr 57 cts vs NA
    Net 7,881,000 vs 5,415,000
    NOTE: Year-ago per shr figures not available as bank
converted to stock ownership April 29, 1986.
   
    1987 2nd quarter and six mth net excludes 2,288,000 dlrs or
17 cts a share and 4,648,000 dlrs or 33 cts a share,
respectively, for tax carryforwards.
    1986 2nd qtr and six mth net excludes 667,000 dlrs and
3,043,000 dlrs, respectively, for tax carryforwards.
 Reuter

Lexitech International
Documentation Network Inc said it has signed an agreement for
Far East affiliate Yamamoto Industries to handle all of
Lexitech's Asian language translation and documentation
 Reuter

California Credit Card Trust 1987-B, a
unit of BankAmerica Corp's Bank of America subsidiary, is
offering 300 mln dlrs of certificates backed by credit card
receivables, said lead manager Salomon Brothers Inc.
    The certificates were given an 8.20 pct coupon and were
priced at 99.89 to yield 8.21 pct, or 85 basis points over
comparable Treasuries. The debt has an average life of 1.8
years, matures in 1992, and is rated Aaa by Moody's.
    Bank of America Capital Markets co-managed the deal, which
is the second this year of California Credit Card. In February
it sold 400 mln dlrs of credit card debt via First Boston.
 Reuter

The White House called a compromise
budget hammered out by congressional Democratic leaders a
"pickpocket" spending plan, but barred negotiations on changing
it until budget reforms are in place.
    Noting that the trillion dollar budget would raise taxes by
65 billion dlrs over the next three years while scaling back
President Reagan's military spending proposals, spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said, "The president isn't buying it and
neither will the American people.
    "The Democrats refer to tax increases as deficit reduction
-- a pickpocket way to lift your wallet to pay for your dinner,"
    The White House official, in an apparent retreat from an
earlier administration stance, also said negotiations on a
budget acceptable to Reagan and the Democratic-led Congress
could not begin until budget reforms are adopted.
    The White House has previously said it would not negotiate
on a budget until the congressional Democrats were able to
agree among themselves. Democratic leaders have called for a
"summit" conference with the White House on the budget.
    "If we had a budget reform package that ensured a sound,
enforceable negotiating process, we would be interested in
pursuing it, Fitzwater said.
 Reuter

Life Group Inc said it is
expanding the activities of its broker/dealer unit Life
Planning Inc to include investment banking, involving both
underwriting and corporate finance.
    The company said Lawrence Zaslow and Joseph Broder have
agreed to join the unit to head those operations and have
purchased Life Group stock and options from Life Group
president David Altschuler.
 Reuter

Hollinger Inc said it purchased Saturday
Night, a Canadian general-interest magazine.
    Financial terms were not disclosed, but Hollinger said it
has no immediate plans for changes in senior editorial
personnel.
    Saturday Night, which publishes features and analyses of
current events, is celebrating its 100th anniversary and has a
circulation of about 120,000, according to a magazine
    Hollinger, which owns 58 pct of <Daily Telegraph PLC>, also
today completed the acquisition of Unimedia Inc, a Quebec-based
publisher.
 Reuter

Triton Group Ltd said John
Stiska has resigned as its president. He will be replaced by
Triton Chairman Charles Scott.
    Stiska will return to private law practice and will
continue to serve as special counsel to Triton and to Intermark
Inc <IMI>.
    Intermark, which owns 41 pct of Triton's common stock, took
a controlling interest in the company in March, 1986.
 Reuter

Pennwalt corp said it has agreed in
principle to acquire a line of fungicides, insecticides and
herbicidesand related manufacturing facilities from Le
Raffineries de Soufre Reunies of Marseilles for undisclosed
terms, subject to approval by bothe boards and government
    The company said the acquired products are sold mostly in
FRance for use on grapevines, wheat and sugar beets and sales
are about 40 mln dlrs annually.
 Reuter

Belgium is to start negotiations with
three consortia on sharing out a major order for modernising
the country's telecommunications network, a government
    The three consortia are Bell Telephone Manufacturing Co NV,
a subsidiary of ITT Corp <ITT>, together with Acec SA
<ACEC.BR>; Siemens AG <SIEG.F> and ATEA SA, a subsidiary of GTE
Corp <GTE>; and NV Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> with
American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T>.

    The deal is estimated to be worth around 50 billion francs,
although a government spokeswoman declined to confirm this. The
order covers new telephone exchanges, cables and terminals.
    The go-ahead for the talks followed an outline agreement
within the centre-right government coalition today. The accord
came after months of discussions that have been complicated by
demands for the order to be shared out fairly between the
French and Dutch speaking parts of Belgium.
    Government officials declined to give details of the
outline agreement or how the order will be divided between the
three consortia.

 Reuter

Total Energy Resources Inc, a wholly
owned bysdisiary of French national energy company TOTAL
Compagne Francaise des Petroles, said it will relocate its
offices to Houston from Denver as part of TOTAL's plan to
expand U.S. operations.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it has extended
Pakistan 220 mln dlrs in three loans to support projects in
education, energy conservation and modernization, and
small-scale industry development.
    The education project will be supported by a 145 mln dlr
loan through the International Development Association, the
bank's concessionary lending affiliate, the bank said.
    The bank noted Pakistan's low educational attainment,
particularly among women, is an obstacle to the country's
    It said the education project aims to increase literacy and
school enrollment rates through curriculum reform, teacher
training, parental participation and school construction.
    A small-scale industry development project will be
supported by a 54 mln dlr loan, the bank said.
    The project hopes to aid small-scale industry by
encouraging bank lending, developing export markets, and
supporting technology transfer, the bank said.
    The third project, to improve refinery efficiency, reduce
energy consumption and increase crude oil processing capacity,
will be supported by a 21 mln dlr loan.
   
 Reuter

Motor Co, is raising 150 mln dlrs through an offering of notes
due 1990 yielding 8.275 pct, said sole manager Bear, Stearns
and Co.
99.931 to yield 62.5 basis points more than comparable Treasury
Moody's and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread
is 3.50 dlrs, the selling concession is two dlrs and the
reallowance is 1.25 dlrs.
 Reuter

Jordan will receive two loans
totalling 96.4 mln dlrs to support projects aimed at increasing
that country's electrical production and improving housing in
slum and squatter areas, the World Bank said.
    The bank said it is making a 70 mln dlr loan to help fund a
257.8 mln dlr project designed to meet its future power needs.
    It said the other loan is 26.4 mln dlrs in support of
project to provide affordable housing, urban infrastructure and
social services to low-income families in slum and squatter
areas.
 Reuter

A South African trade union is in
dispute with a subsidiary of Britain's Johnson Matthey Plc over
the company's proposal to move a platinum refinery near
Johannesburg to a black tribal homeland.
    The 30,000-member mainly black Chemical Workers Industrial
Union said it fears the planned move to the Bophuthatswana
homeland, where South African unions are not recognised, could
lead to job losses and affect wages.
    A mass dismissal last year at the Impala Platinum Holdings
Ltd <IPLA.J> mines in the tribal homeland sent world platinum
prices rocketing.

    The union said talks with management over the proposed move
had broken down. It said an earlier ballot of refinery workers
showed that most favoured striking over the move but added that
no final decision had been taken on strike action.
    The refinery processes all platinum metals of Rustenburg
Platinum Holdings Ltd, the world's largest platinum producer.
    It is owned by Matthey Rustenburg Ltd, a joint-subsidiary
of Johnson Matthey and Rustenburg which, in turn, is owned by
mining group Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co Ltd.
 Reuter

A compromise reached between Gulf Canada
Corp and debenture holders at the annual meeting today will
cost the company or its major shareholder "a couple of million"
dollars, chairman Marshall Cohen said.
    After about a half-hour discussion with debenture holders
during the meeting, Cohen and Gulf lawyers agreed to compensate
them for about six months of interest that they would have lost
under a corporate reorganization plan taking effect July one.
The holders then withdrew a proposed amendment that sought to
delay the plan's closing to July 16 so they could collect
interest due to be paid July 15.
    "We have not sorted out the mechanics of how we're going to
do this," Cohen told reporters later.
    "It may well be that in the end the principal shareholder
may absorb that interest," he said, referring to the Reichmann
family's Olympia and York Developments Ltd, which owns about 79
pct of Gulf Canada.                                     Cohen
said he wanted to ensure that Gulf Canada need not revise
reorganization proposals already on file with Revenue Canada
and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
    "If Gulf can't pay it (the interest) without upsetting the
applecart, Olympia and York will pay," he said.
    The reorganization will see Gulf Canada Corp renamed Gulf
Canada Resources Ltd. Shareholders will be offered shares of
three separate publicly traded companies, Gulf Canada
Resources, Abitibi-Price Inc <A.TO> and GW Utilities Ltd.
    Newly formed GW Utilities will hold Gulf Canada's interests
in Consumers' Gas Co Ltd <CGT.TO>, Hiram Walker-Gooderham and
Worts Ltd and Interprovincial Pipe Line Ltd <IPL.TO>.
    Cohen said Olympia and York's interest in Gulf Canada
Resources will slip to about 68 or 69 pct as a result of a
previously announced plan to sell 450 mln dlrs of new stock.
                             
    In answer to a reporter's question, Cohen said there was a
possibility that the size of the offering could be increased.
    "There seems to be pretty strong interest," he said, but he
added that much depended upon market conditions at the time of
pricing. The issue will be priced later this month, according
to a company official.
  
 Reuter

Calton Inc said it will begin
building a 242-home community in the Newtown area of Bucks
County in Northampton Township, Pa, sometime between late July
and early August.
    Calton said the community will be named "The Homes of
Tapestry at Northampton" and will be located near Newtown, Pa.
Calton said it will build two- and three-bedroom townhomes,
garden-style condominiums and duplex condominiums.
    The company also said it is negotiating the rights to build
two other communities in the state, near the New Jersey border.
   
 Reuter

Qtly dividend nine cts vs eight cts
    Pay July six
    Record June 29
 Reuter

National Commerce Bancorp said it
has agreed to operate or sublicense branch bank facilities in
supermarkets in Florida and Virginia Kroger Co supermarkets.
    It said initially 20 locations will be available in Florida
and 10 in Virginia.
 Reuter

Leader Development Corp said
shareholders at the annual meeting approved the acquisition of
privately-held Clinton American Corp and two related
partnerships for 3,450,000 common shares, with the transaction
to be accounted for as a pooling of interests.
    The company said Clinton president F. Daniel Ryan will
become president of Leader.
 Reuter

purchased interests in four producing oil and gas properties
for 2,240,000 shares of the company's restricted stock.
    The largest interest was 25 pct of an oil and gas well in
Weld County, Colo, the company said. Cheyenne said it had five
pct or less interest in the three other properties.
    Cheyenne said it should realized 10,000 dlrs net income
monthly at the properties' current production levels.
 Reuter

    Pay Oct 1
    Record Sept 4
 Reuter

Crane Co said it acquired certain
assets of Chicago Heater Co Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of
the <Marley Co>.
    Chicago Heater will be intergrated with Crane's Cochrane
Environment Systems division, the company said.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) has increased
the size of two special export tenders for British and West
German feed wheat held in intervention stores and included
South Korea as an acceptable destination, traders said.
    The tender was originally for 120,000 tonnes of British and
120,000 tonnes of West German feed wheat for shipment only to
Poland.
    But now both tranches have been increased by 50,000 tonnes
to 170,000 tonnes with South Korea added as a possible
destination. Both tenders are open from June 24.
 Reuter

The Supreme Court of Cyprus has rejected
a plea by an offshore securities trading company against a
Central Bank decision to revoke its licence.
    Central Bank officer Eleftherios Ioannou told Reuters that
the court had dismissed the appeal by York International
(Cyprus) Ltd, registered as an offshore company last October.
    The Bank in February withdrew York's licence and froze its
bank account while it investigated sales of some eight mln dlrs
worth of securites by telephone to 3,000 small investors
abroad.
 Reuter

Colgate-Palmolive Co said it plans to
file with the Securities and Exchange Commission a shelf
registration covering up to 300 mln dlrs of unsecured debt
    Reuben Mark, chairman and president of the company, told
this to a meeting of the New York Society of Security Analysts,
Colgate-Palmolive said in a release.
 Reuter

    Finance Minister Cleopa Msuya said regular petrol would go
up 52 pct, with similar increases in the cost of premium and
kerosene. Diesel would rise by 75 pct.
    Msuya said the government expected to spend 77.33 billion
shillings in the financial year 1987/8, 39 pct more than this
year's estimate. Revenue would provide 48.84 billion shillings,
leaving a deficit of 28.49 billion to be financed through
domestic and foreign loans.
 Reuter

General Electric said it
signed a 21 mln contract to build a 12.5 megawatt power plant,
fueled by agricultural waste, for El Nido Biomass Power Plant
Associates.
    GE said Pacific Gas and Electric Co will purchase the net
electric output of the El Nido, Calif. plant, which is
scheduled for completion in mid-1989.
    GE said the fuel system will be capable of firing up to six
different types of agricultural waste, and will primarily burn
almond prunings, cotton stalks and rice straw, as well as other
well as otehr alternate agricultural waste.
   
 Reuter

Canada's bank rate rose marginally to
8.59 pct from 8.58 pct last week, Bank of Canada said.
    The bank rate is set one-quarter percentage point above the
average yield on the weekly issue of 91-day treasury bills.
This week's yield was 8.34 pct, compared with the previous
week's 8.33 pct.
    Tenders were accepted for 2.20 billion dlrs of 91-day bills
at an average price of 97.963 dlrs against 97.965 dlrs last
week.
    The 1.20 billion dlrs of 182-day bills were priced at an
average 95.852 dlrs against 95.779 dlrs last week, to yield an
average 8.68 pct against 8.84 pct last week.
91.712 dlrs against 91.529 dlrs last week, to yield an average
9.06 pct against 9.28 pct last week.
    Tenders will be received next week for 2.20 billion dlrs of
91-day bills, 1.20 billion dlrs of 182-day bills and 500 mln
dlrs of 364-day bills.
 Reuter

North American Biologicals Inc said it has
received a 10 mln dlr credit facility from Manufacturers and
Traders Trust Co of Buffalo, N.Y.
    It said the new credit would replace an existing 4.4 mln
dlr line with Barclays PLC <BCS.L>, and due to more favorable
interest rates, borrowing costs should be significantly
reduced.
    The company said half of the credit is designated for use
in acquisitions.  It said it expects to conclude an
acquisition, possibly outside its plasma and serum field, by
year-end.
 Reuter

Pengo Industries Inc said it
has agreed to sell its Wireline Products Manufacturing Division
in Fort Worth, Texas, Wireline Services Division operations in
several locations and Pengo International Inc subsidiary to
John Wood Group PLC for undisclosed terms.
    The company said the Wireline Services operations being
sold are in Lafayette, Houma and Harvey, La., Alvin, Odessa and
Longview, Texas, and Moore, Okla.
    Pengo said its Kuykenball Slickline operation in Moore and
surplus wireline equipment operations in fort Worth and
Cleburne, Texas, will be sold separately.
 Reuter

The EC Commission cereals management
committee rejected all bids for licences to export free market
Spanish barley to non-EC countries, trade sources said.
    The licence requests were for 35,000 tonnes at between 143
and 145 European Currency Units (ECUs), they said.
    This tender was part of a special tender for 500,000 tonnes
of Spanish barley.
    The sources said there had been no bids for licences for
free market soft wheat and non-Spanish barley exports to non-EC
 Reuter

Senate Banking committee chairman
William Proxmire, D-Wis, said no date had been set for Alan
Greenspan's confirmation hearing as Federal Reserve chairman
because the White House had not formally sent his nomination to
the Senate.
    Proxmire said in an interview that as soon as the White
House completed its clearence procedures and sent Greenspan's
name to the Senate, he would schedule a hearing on the
replacement for Paul Volcker. The committee and the full Senate
must confirm Greenspan.
 Reuter

Magic Years Child Care and
Learning Centers Inc said it signed a letter of intent to
acquire three profitable day care centers in south central
Pennsylvania for a total price of 350,000 dlrs.
    The three privately owned centers had aggregate revenues of
474,000 dlrs in 1986, with profits of six thousand dlrs, the
    The transaction is scheduled to close in early July, the
 Reuter

A trade-led boom in the U.S. is
unlikely this year or next because growth in net exports will
merely offset a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending and
other sectors of the economy, Bank of America said in its
latest economic report.
    Although net exports will add 0.7 pct to GNP this year,
after reducing it by 1.2 pct in 1986, consumer spending will
contribute 1.4 pct less to GNP than it did last year.
    As a result, GNP this year is likely to expand a modest 2.5
pct, the same rate as last year, according to Daniel Van Dyke,
the Bank of America economist who wrote the report.
    "Growth in consumer spending in the United States will drop
dramatically this year because the jump in inflation will cause
a falloff in the growth of disposable income," Van Dyke said.
    Growth in U.S. consumer spending is likely to slow to 1.8
pct this year from 4.1 pct in 1986, he predicted.
    The report was released before the Commerce Department
reported today that personal income rose just 0.2 pct in May,
after increasing 0.4 pct in April, and that personal
consumption expenditures had risen just 0.1 pct, compared with
a 0.6 pct increase the month before.
    The rising cost of energy and imports is likely to boost
consumer prices by an average of 3.7 pct this year, up from 1.9
pct in 1986, Bank of America forecast.
    This rise in inflation will reduce real disposable income 
growth to only 1.3 pct in 1987 from 2.9 pct in 1986.
    As a result, Van Dyke calculated that the purchasing power
of an average family of four will increase by a modest 540 dlrs
this year compared to a surge of 1,210 dlrs during 1986.
    The slowdown in income growth is likely to cause housing
starts to drop by 4.2 pct this year and a further six pct in
1988 to an annual rate of 1.63 mln units.
    "For the first time in several years, a recession in 1988
or 1989 is more than a remote possibility," Van Dyke said.
    Currently, U.S. growth is fragile and depends heavily on an
improvement in trade. "However, with protectionist attitudes on
the rise in this country, this source of growth is at risk," he
added.
 Reuter

two mln dlr two-year contract from Martin Marietta Corp for
information and logistical support services to be provided for
the U.S. Navy's electronic warfare programs.
 Reuter

filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make an
initial public offering of 5,950,000 shares of its common
stock.
    Of the shares to be sold, 4,950,000 wil be offered in the
U.S., of which three mln will be issued and sold by the company
and the balance will be sold by certain shareholders.
    In addition, one mln shares will be sold outside the U.S.
    An underwriting group co-managed by Goldman Sachs and Co
and Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc will offer the shares.
 Reuter

World Bank said it has loaned
Portugal 50 mln dlrs to help improve its highway system.
    The bank loan is part of a 400.4 mln dlr, three-year
government financed project to rehabilitate or improve about
3410 miles of highway, the bank said.
    It also said the project hopes to increase road safety by
improving signs, aiding enforcement of axle-load legislation,
and adding patrol cars and communications equipment.
    The loan is for 15 years, including three years of grace,
at the standard variable interest rate, currently 7.92 pct, the
bank said.
 Reuter

Vsevolod Murakhovsky, head of the
Soviet Agriculture Ministry, observed trading this morning at
the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, an exchange spokesman said.
    Murakhovsky led a delegation of 17 Soviet visitors to the
exchange as part of a current cross-Canada tour. The party
included Phylipp Popov, a member of the Supreme Soviet.
    Murakhovsky is first deputy chairman of the Council of
Ministers of the USSR and chairman of the Gosagroprom or
Ministry of Agriculture.
    The delegation was accompanied by Harold Bjarnason,
assistant deputy minister, Agriculture Canada.
 Reuter

Opto Mechanik Inc, a designer
and manufacturer of military optical and electro-optical
systems, said it received 7.2 mln in contracts from domestic
and foreign customers.
    Opto Mechanik said the series of contracts included a 3.8
mln dlr contract from the U.S. Army Missle Command to produce
the sight used to guide the TOW anti-tank missle.
 Reuter

Brooklyn Union Gas Co, a New York gas
utility, will see its gas costs up sharply as a result of
Transco Energy Co's <E> decision to close its pipelines to
transport spot gas sales, energy industry analysts said.
    Brooklyn Union, the fourth largest gas utility in the
United States, purchased 36 pct of its supplies on the spot, or
non-contract, market in 1986, and the proportion of spot
supplies was estimated much higher in the five months of 1987,
    Texas Eastern pipelines <TET>, the other competing
pipeline, to deliver spot gas from producing areas in the South
closed its gate station for summer, and Brooklyn Union has
relied entirely on Transco for spot supplies.
     In the month of May, Brooklyn Union paid about two dlrs
per mln British Thermal Unit for spot gas, while contract gas
costs four to five dlrs per mln BTU, industry sources said.
    Transco announced yesterday it would no longer provide open
access to transport spot natural gas to its customers for fear
of accumulating more take-or-pay liabilities.
    Take-or-pay contracts oblige pipelines to pay producers for
gas even if delivery is not taken by its customers.
    Brooklyn Union will continue receiving a small amount of
supplies from minor fields under a grandfather clause, a
Brooklyn Union official said.
    Foster Corwith, gas analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds, said
most of the rising cost to Booklyn Union will be passed through
to rate payers.
    While net effect on the company will not be known for
several months because of the time lag in deferred earnings,
end-users, especially residential and commercial customers,
will end up paying more for gas, he said.
    Because the closure takes place in summer months when gas
demand is at seasonal low, the impact on cash flow would be
small, Curt Launer, natural gas analyst with Donaldson Lufkin
Jenrette, said.
    If the situation persists into winter heating season, high
cost gas could cut in the company's profits, he said.
    Gas utilities along eastern seaboard relying on Transco for
spot gas, such as North Carolina Natural Gas Co <NCNG>,
Piedmont Natural Gas Co <PNY>, will face the same high cost
factor as Brooklyn Union, Steve Richards, a supply manager with
end users supply system, a Houston based natural gas brokering
firm, said.
    "But these companies are not unwitting victims of the
take-or-pay dispute between Transco and producers," he said.
    Distributors have turned a deaf ear to Transco's request
for an inventory charge, which reserves the pipeline facility
for spot gas to be delivered to these companies, he said.
    Without spot supplies, the high cost of system gas will
threaten to drive away large customers capable of shifting to
alternative fuels, he said.
    In absence of any guidelines on inventory charges from the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the matter is being
negotiated between pipelines and customers, Richards said.
    Now that Transco has refused to transport cheap spot gas
for them, these distributors are likely to be more conciliatory
on the inventory charge, he said.
    "Cool heads will prevail," DLJ's Launer said, " but it may
take a while."
       
 Reuter

upgraded Ohio Edison Co's 2.7 billion dlrs of debt securities.
    Raised to Baa-2 from Baa-3 were the utility's first
mortgage bonds, preferred stock and secured pollution control
issues, and the guaranteed Euronotes of Ohio Edison Finance NV.
Moody's upgraded Ohio Edison's unsecured issues and preference
stock to Baa-3 from Ba-1.
    The likely approval of a 152 mln dlr, or 10 pct, rate hike
by Ohio Public Utilities Commission significantly reduces a key
component of financial risk. It would be implemented on Perry
Unit One's expected Fall in-service date, Moody's said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 15 cts prior
    Pay July 30
 Reuter

Reynolds Metals co said it plans
to restart the last idle potuction line at its Troutdale, Ore.,
primary aluminum plant.
    With the restart of this 22,700-metric-tonne-per-year line,
Reynolds said, it will be operating at 100 pct of its
consolidated primary aluminum capacity of 695,000 tonnes per
year.
    Reynolds said work will commence on the potline restart in
the near future and it is expected that actual metal production
will begin on September one.
    The company said the start up was necessitated by
continuing strong demand for aluminum and dwindling worldwide
inventories, and that the metal is needed to supply Reynolds'
various fabricating businesses.
 Reuter

<CBC Bancorp Inc> said it will
be acquired by the Memphis-based Union Planters Corp <UPCM.O>
in a merger agreement.
    CBC, which is the holding company which owns Cookeville's
Citizens Bank, said it has signed an agreement which would
merge CBC with Union, which has 2.2 billion dlrs in assets.
    According to CBC, Union reported shareholders equity of
nearly 190 mln dlrs for the period ending March 31.
    CBC said the merger will not affect Citizens Banks' name,
management, board of directors or employees.
 Reuter

TIE/Communications Inc said it
has renewed agreements to sell its GTE Corp <GTE>, Bell
Atlantic Corp <BEL>, NYNEX Corp <NYN> and US West Inc <USW> for
two years.
    The company is providing small to mid-siezed key telephone
systems to GTE and key systems, hybrids and DATA STAR PABX
systems to the others.
 Reuter

Shares of Glaxo Holdings PLC fell
following a report in today's New England Journal of Medicine
that antibiotics may be able to treat ulcers, threatening 
Glaxo's billion dlr antiulcer drug Zantac, analysts said.
    Glaxo's was trading at 27-7/8, off 1/2, on volume of
1,786,800 shares. Shares of SmithKline Beckman <SKB>, maker of
the popular anti-ulcer drug Tagamet, also fell 7/8 to 60-1/4.
    "Anything that raises the possiblity of an entirely new
therapy for ulcers would attack the core of Glaxo's worldwide
business, which is Zantac," said David MacCallum, an analyst
who follows Glaxo for Hambrecht and Quist.
   
    Zantac is the world's most prescribed drug with annual
sales of over one billion dollars, accounting for almost 75 pct
of Glaxo's earnings, said MacCallum.
    "If there is any perception that Zantac is not the therapy
of choice for ulcers, Glaxo's sales and profits could decline,"
said Tina Rizopuolos, an analyst with Alexanders Laing and
Or'kshnk.
    Rizopuolos said the New England Journal article, led by a
University of Toronto researcher, concludes from a study of 71
children with gastric disease that bacteria could cause
gastritis and ulcers.
   
    In an editorial in the same issue of the medical journal,
Richard Hornick of the University of Rochester School of
Medicine, reviewed studies using antibiotics to treat ulcers.
Rizopuolos said Hornick concludes that the bacteria ulcer
relationship is "exciting and intriguing," but further studies
are needed to show a direct causal effect.
    Ulcers happen when the stomach's protective lining erodes
and is exposed to underlying inflamed tissue, but it is unknown
what actually causes the process.
   
It is known that stomach acids exacerbate ulcers and therefore
antacids were commonly used to alleviate ulcers before Tagamet
and Zantac came along. Both of these drugs prevent the release
of the hormone histamine in the stomach, which triggers acid
secretion.
    "I don't think people should run out and sell Glaxo," said
analyst Rizopuolos. "It will take a long time to displace
Tagamet and Zantac...those drugs are going to be prescribed by
physicians for a long time," she added.
   
 Reuter

The International Tin Council, ITC,
intervened in a High Court hearing in an attempt to prevent the
presentation of internal Council documents as evidence.
    The intervention in Shearson Lehman's action against the
London Metal Exchange over its "ring out" of tin contracts in
1986 is likely to have implications for other cases in which
the Council is involved following the collapse of its buffer
stock operations in October 1985, ITC delegates said.
    The ITC's case is being presented by Professor Rosalyn
Higgins and is expected to take a further one or two days next
week. Court does not sit tomorrow.
    In essence the Council is claiming that its status is
similar to that of a foreign embassy and that its archives can
therefore not be used in an English court of law.
    The Council ended its quarterly session today ahead of
schedule. The meeting had been expected to go on until tomorrow
when the European Community's legal advisers were due to
attend, but delegates reviewed the progress of the various
legal actions today.
    Otherwise, the meeting was occupied with internal
administrative matters, delegates said.
    The ITC will continue to operate with a reduced staff after
June 30 following the two year extension of the sixth
International Tin Agreement.
    As well as dealing with the ongoing litigation, the Council
will continue with its statistical work and carry out some
research studies, although staffing in the research department
is being cut to one from two previously.
    At this week's session the Council elected Philip Sparkes
of Australia as first vice-chairman for the producing members
and Heinz Hofer of Switzerland as second vice-chairman for the
consumers for the year from July 1. Future quarterly sessions
are scheduled for October 5/7 and December 14/16.
 Reuter

American Cyanamid Co said it plans
to construct a multimillion-dollar addition to its agricultural
flagship plant in Hannibal, Mo.
    The company said the facilities will produce Assert
herbicide, the third in the company's new series of
imidazolinone herbicides.
    Cyanamid, which is a biotechnology and chemical research
company, said the Hannibal plant is its principal agricultural
product manufacturing facility.
    Assert is a wild oat and broadleaf weed herbicide for use
on small grains and on sunflowers, the company said.
 Reuter

agreed to sell its First Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee and
adjacent property to Trammell Crow Co for 195 mln dlrs,
resulting in a gain of 77 mln dlrs after tax.
    It said 36 mln dlrs of that amount will be included in 1987
earnings and the remainder will be accounted for over the next
10 years.
    First Wisconsin said the transaction was valued at 195 mln
dlrs.
    First Wisconsin said Trammell Crow officials said they
planned to build a high-rise, tower next to the 42-story
center, where First Wisconsin will continut to have its
    In addition to the center, First Wisconsin said the
property being sold includes two buildings directly east of the
center. First Wisconsin said it will continue to occupy the
area, leasing the space back from Trammell Crow.
 Reuter

North Hills Electronics Inc said
its North Hills Israel Ltd unit closed on a 1,500,000 dlr
loan from Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an agency of
the U.S. government.
    North Hills said the unit will use the loan in connection
with the construction and equipping of a 16,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility in Israel to produce components for
electrical control systems.
 Reuter

97.4 mln dlr loan for China to help boost fertilizer output in
order to increase agricultural production.
    The 20-year loan supports a project aimed at improving the
efficiency of medium-scale fertilizer plants through technical
renovations and energy conservation, the bank said.
    It said the project also seeks to reduce agricultural
nutrient imbalances by building the capacity for phosphate
fertilizer production and to improve institutional efficiency
by introducing modern economic, financial and operational
systems and techniques.
 Reuter

    Pay Oct One
    Record Sept Three
 Reuter

Reynolds Metals Co said it plans
to restart the last idle potline at its Troutdale, Ore.,
    With the restart of this 22,700 tonne a year production
line, Reynolds said it will be operating at 100 pct of its
year.
    Reynolds said work on the restart will begin in the near
future and it is expected that actual metal production will
begin September 1.
    The company said the start-up was necessitated by
 Reuter

Fingermatrix Inc said
2,368,253 of the 2,649,387 rights to purchase common shares
that it issued to shareholders were exercised and Hallwood
Group Inc <HWG> has purchased 165,000 common shares under an
option to buy shares for which rights were not exercised.
    In addition, it said it received oversubscription requests
for another 1,400,000 shares and will distribute 116,134 shares
on a pro rata basis.
    The company said proceeds after underwriting discounts and
commissions will be about 12.6 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Allegheny and Western Energy Corp said
it was forming a subsidiary to market gas to smaller users in
West Virginia.
    The company also said it completed negotiations to sell
between 10 and 12 mln cubic feet of gas per day to a large,
unspecified East Coast utility.
    Interstate markets will become part of the subsidiary's
 Reuter

William Proxmire, D-Wis, said a conference will be held with
the House Banking committee next week on a bill to refinance
    The Senate has passed a 7.5 billion dlr FSLIC refinancing,
while the House approved five billion dlrs in new funds. The
Senate bill also bars new bank services until next March and
bans so-called non-bank banks, provisions the House opposes.
    FSLIC is virtually out of money to help ailing thrift
institutions, according to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.
 Reuter

expects net income for the year ending June 30 of 12 to 15 cts
per share, up from eight cts last year.
    The company said the earnings will be aided substantially
be an agreement it has signed with Trafalgar House PLC
<THSL.L>.  Under the agreement, it said Trafalgar will provide
turnkey construction, operation and maintenance services, as
well as construction financing, for O'Brien cogeneration plants
to be built in New Jersey and California.  Total installation
costs will be about 190 mln dlrs, it said, with construction to
start before year-end.
 Reuter

PPG Industries said it signed an
agreement with Formosa Plastics Group to build and operate a
continuous strand fiber glass manufacturing plant in Taiwan.
    The 50-50 joint venture of PPG and Nan Ya Plastics, a
corporation of Formosa Plastics Group, is subject to approval
of Taiwan governmental agencies.
    PPG said the plant, scheduled to begin operating in early
1989, will have an initial annual capacity of 20,000 metric
tons.
 Reuter

Consumers Power Co is raising 250 mln
dlrs through a two-tranche offering of first mortgage bonds,
    A 150 mln dlr offering due 1992 was given a nine pct coupon
and par pricing to yield 112.5 basis points over comparable
Treasuries. This tranche is non-callable for life.
    A companion 100 mln dlr issue maturing in 1997 was assigned
a 9-5/8 pct coupon and priced at 98.50 to yield 9.703 pct, or
143 basis points over Treasuries. These bonds are non-callable
for five years.
    The debt is rated Baa-3 by Moody's, BBB-minus by S and P.
 Reuter

Qtly div 95 cts vs 95 cts prior
    Pay August three
 Reuter

Ronald Perelman, head of Revlon Group
Inc <REV>, may be trying to ignite a bidding war for Gillette
Co that could draw some big international players and in the
process make a lot of money for himself, Wall Street analysts
said.
    Several hours before a regularly scheduled board of
directors meeting, Gillette disclosed that Perelman requested
consent of its board for an offer of at least 40.50 dlrs per
share. Perelman needed the consent because he agreed in
November not to buy stock for 10 years without permission.
    "I think Ronald Perelman is less interested in Gillette and
more interested in putting Gillette into play because he stands
to make a ton of money," said Andrew Shore, analyst at Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc. "In play" is a term used on Wall Street to
describe what happens when a company becomes an unwiling
takeover target.
    Shore noted that according to the 1986 agreement Revlon
gets paid if there is any acquisition of Gillette through
November of this year at a price higher than 29.75 dlrs per
share. Gillette rose three to 40 today, following a gain of
three yesterday.
    The agreement would be calculated on the basis of
Perelman's previous holding of 18.4 mln shares, adjusted for a
split. For example, a deal between Gillette and some other
company at 44 dlrs per share would make Revlon richer by 262
mln dlrs under the formula. Neither Perelman nor his spokesmen
returned telephone calls seeking comment.
    "Revlon stands to make a substantial amount of money if
someone else takes over Gillette," said Analyst Deepak Raj of
Merrill Lynch and Co. "I'm not saying that is going to happen
but Gillette is an undervalued stock with a breakup value of 45
dlrs per share."
    Shore of Shearson Lehman said there are a couple of reasons
why Perelman may not be really interested in acquiring
Gillette. He said Perelman, in the process of taking Revlon
private after acquiring control of the cosmetics company two
years ago, probably wants to concentrate on improving Revlon's
operations. "He's trying to overhaul and improve the image of
the dearptment store business." Another reason is that Revlon
has recently made two other acquisitions.
    Under those circumstances, Shore would not be surprised if
some company such as Unilever plc <UN.AS> or Procter and Gamble
Co <PG> decided to take a look at Gillette.
    Shore mentioned half a dozen other potential buyers for
Gillette including Sir James Goldsmith, Hanson Trust plc <HAN>,
RJR Nabisco Inc <RJR>, American Brands Inc <AMB> and Ralston
Purina Co <RAL>.
    "Perelman is trying to put the company in play," said a
Wall Street arbitrageur. "He gets to share in the upside if the
company is sold." Another arbitrageur said he expects Gillette
to resist Perelman's overture. "I can't see the board
consenting, what has changed between November and now," he
said.
   
    Another arbitrageur said he was not sure what was going on.
"Perelman never does anything without a fair amount of
calculation," he said. But he added, "The Gillette board has to
be careful. They just can't say no or they'll be sued by
shareholders." Gillette's board was still meeting at 1700 EDT,
three and one-half hours after the scheduled starting time.
    According to a copy of Perelman's letter released by
Gillette, he would be prepared to sign a defnitive merger
agreement without any financing condition. He said Citibank
N.A. is his lead lender and First Boston Inc is his financial
adviser.
 Reuter

PNC Financial Corp said it will raise
its loan loss reserve by 110 mln dlrs to about 386 mln dlrs,
reducing second quarter results by 66 mln dlrs or 92 cts per
share on a fully diluted basis.
    The company said that after the charge it still expects to
report a second quarter profit and expects a first half profit
of about 100 mln dlrs.
    It added that it expects normal operating earnings in the
second half.
    The company earned 68.5 mln dlrs in the 1986 second quarter
and 121.6 mln dlrs in the prior first half.
    It said the increase in loss reserves was due to its
appraisal of the worldwide economy, particularly in less
developed countries that are experiencing payment problems.
    The company said the part of its loss reserve allocated to
such countries is about 35 pct of its loans to those countries.
It said the move would not result in any change to its current
dividend policy.
 Reuter

A.H. Robins Co, facing suits over its
Dalkon Shield birth control device, said a Federal Court of
Appeals approved of the way the company notified potential
victims about a possible liability.
    The notification of potential claimants, which began in
january 1986 and ended several months later, was challenged by
some claimant committees who said the company's program was
    A company spokesman said A.H. Robins was pleased with the
ruling, noting an unfavorable decision would have "set the
whole thing back for quite some time."
    The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the fourth
circuit, which upheld a lower court, said, "the notification
program used by Robins was ... reasonable.
    "The evidence indicates that every news outlet in the world
received the information. Simiarly, there is strong evidence
that the news was broadly disseminated worldwide.
    "Women from such unlikely locations as Kenya, Botswana,
Pakistan and Bangladesh ultimately filed claims. A battery of
world health and welfare organizations also disseminated the
information. It appears to this Court that the extensive
notification program was a success."
 Reuter

Aluminum Co of America said it is
offering to purchase any and all of its outstanding 150 mln
dlrs of 12 pct sinking fund debentures of 2012.
    It said it will buy back the debentures at 1,105 dlrs per
1,000 dlr principal amount, plus accrued interest up to, but
not including, the day of payment.
    The offer will end at 1700 EDT (2100 GMT) on June 30,
unless extended. Payment will be made on July eight. The
buyback offer will be co-managed by Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets and Salomon Brothers Inc, Alcoa said.
 Reuter

MINPECO LIFTS FORCE MAJEURE ON ZINC INGOT
SHIPMENTS FROM CAJAMARQUILLA-SPOKESMAN

TRW Inc's TRW Componenets
International Inc unit said it set a pact with Tektronix Inc's
TriQuint Semiconductor unit to jointly supply gallium arsenide
devices for space applications.
    As part of the agreement, the two companyies are working
together to establish procedures to produce class "S" (a
stringent military specification for space use) gallium
arsenide components.
    TriQuint makes gallilum arsenide integrated circuits.
 Reuter

Peru's state minerals marketing arm, Minero
Peru Comercial SA (Minpeco), lifted a force majeure on zinc
ingot shipments from the country's biggest zinc refinery at
Cajamarquilla, a spokesman said.
    The spokesman said the problems affecting sulphuric acid
and roaster plants that had halted production since May 4 had
been resolved.
    However, he said production of zinc ingots this year was
expected to fall to around 86,000 tonnes this year at
Cajamarquilla, from 94,000 tonnes in 1986 because of the
stoppage.
    The refinery has an optimum annual production capacity of
100,000 tonnes but its highest production was 96,000 tonnes of
refined zinc ingots in 1985, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

ASSETS OF U.S. MONEY FUNDS FELL 702.4 MLN DLRS IN LATEST
WEEK TO 235.75 BILLION

may downgrade Crazy Eddie Inc's 65 mln dlrs of B-1 convertible
    Moody's cited Crazy Eddie's reduced profitability, recent
acquisition proposals for the company that could increase debt
leverage, and an uncertain earnings outlook.
    The agency said its review would consider the company's
concentration in the highly competitive New York marketplace,
as well as Crazy Eddie's ability to maintain adequate bank
 Reuter

Mexico signed a rescheduling accord
covering 120 mln dlrs in official debts to Britain, as part of
a 1.8 billion dlr restructuring agreed with the Paris club of
creditors last year, the finance ministry said.
    The rescheduling is over 10 years with five years grace,
and carries an interest margin of 1/2 pct over libor.
    Finance minister Gustavo Petricioli, who signed the accord
for Mexico, said the agreement reflects a strengthening of
economic, financial and trade relations between the two
    The Paris Club restructuring forms part of a 12 billion dlr
financial package agreed with Mexico's creditors last year.
    The rescheduling covers public sector trade debts coming
due between september 1986 and march 1988.
 Reuter

CNS Inc said it completed its
initial public offering of 1,035,000 shares of common stock at
3.75 dlrs a share through an underwriting group headed by
Engler-Budd and Co Inc.
    Concurrent with the offering, the company made an exchange
offer in which it issued 277,127 common shares in exchange for
935,333 dlrs of outstanding promissory notes at the rate of
3.375 dlrs a share. This represented over a 93 pct acceptance
of the exchange offer, the company said.
 Reuter

USX Corp said its USS division has
available a comprehensive sheet steel selection and pricing
system detailing the company's full line of products.
    The company said it was the first complete update in 25
years.
    The new prices in the book are effective after Oct One,
 Reuter

its base price for full-plate copper cathodes by 0.50 cent to
74.0 cents a lb, effective immediately.
  
 Reuter

Shr 58 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 4,628,650 vs 3,041,407
    Revs 45.0 mln vs 28.1 mln
 Reuter

China has added 30,000 tonnes of U.S.
corn to its previous commitments, according to the U.S.
Agriculture Department's latest Export Sales report.
    The report, covering transactions in the week June 11, the
additional corn resulted from changes in destinations.
    Total corn commitments for delivery in the 1986/87 season
amount to 1,083,400 tonnes.
 Reuter

Period ended May 31
    Shr loss five cts vs loss 11 cts
    Net loss 306,007 vs loss 102,420
    Sales 110,522 vs 10,105
    NOTE: Full name is Data Med Clinical Support Services Inc
    Per-share data adjusted for three-for-one stock split
payable June 30, 1987
    The only sales reflected in fiscal 1987 period are sales
recorded subsequent to the May 22, 1986 acquisition of the
assets of a predecessor company by Data Med
 Reuter

Alexander and Alexander Services Inc
said it formed an insurance unit known as the Environmental
Protection Insurance Co-Risk Retention Group to specialize in
environmental liability coverage.
    The company said the unit has started preliminary
underwriting activities and will provide environmental
impairment coverage to companies with pollution liability
exposures.
 Reuter

downgrade Southland Corp's 156 mln dlrs of debt securities and
125 mln dlrs (liquidation value) of preferred stock.
    The agency cited Southland's announcement that it is
studying various restructuring alternatives. S and P said that
the company has been a rumored takeover target for a while, and
a restructuring would probably be a defensive move to thwart an
unfriendly bid.
    Southland currently carries BBB senior debt and A-2
 Reuter

may downgrade Crazy Eddie Inc's 81 mln dlrs of B-1 convertible
as well as Crazy's ability to maintain adequate bank financing.
    Moody's corrects amount of debt from 65 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

NOVA CORP SAYS IT IS CONSIDERING A TAKEOVER BID FOR DOME
PETROLEUM

McDonnell Douglas Corp and Siemens AG
<SIEG.F> said they signed a memorandum of understanding dealing
with the AH-64 Apache helicopter.
    They said the memorandum deals with depot maintenance of
the U.S. Army's helicopters based in West Germany and a joint
study of the potential development and production of the
helicopter for the West German Army.
 Reuter

British companies are being largely
frozen out of President Reagan's "Star Wars" project despite
earlier hopes of lucrative contracts from the research bonanza,
according to a report by Members of Parliament (MPs).
    Funding for the project, formally known as the Strategic
Defence Initiative (SDI), has so far amounted to some 7.5
billion dlrs, parliament's Defence Committee said.
    But British contractors have won only 34 mln dlrs of this
-- 20 mln dlrs on a government-to-government basis, with the
rest secured directly by U.K. Firms and institutions.
    In December 1985, Britain and the United States signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to cooperative
research for the Strategic Defence Initiative.
    At the time, hopes were expressed that U.K. Industrial
participation would lead to significant spin-off of technology,
both of other defence areas and to the civil sector.
    But the all-party committee report said "the debate about
the merits of U.K. Participation in SDI has now to be conducted
within a rather different context than was the case when the
MoU was negotiated.... It has become evident that SDI
participation may not be the great bonanza that some thought."
    British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been one of
President Reagan's few staunch supporters on his plan to
development an anti-ballistic missile defence screen.
    But government sources said she has become angry about
bureaucratic barriers to British companies trying to break into
the lucrative American defence market generally -- a view
voiced again today by her defence minister, George Younger.
    He told a gathering here of British and American
businessmen, "We in Europe greatly welcome the emphasis which
you in the U.S. Have placed on cooperation and collaboration in
the defence equipment sphere."
    He added, "But I do worry that the failure of important and
influential individuals in Congress and elsewhere to realise
the true nature of the two-way street in terms of ideas,
technology and equipment will lead to the erection of
artificial barriers."
    "I am afraid that the danger signals are only too visible in
the form of both of the legislative proposals which seem to
arise with ever increasing frequency on (Capitol) Hill, and of
new regulations from the U.S. Administration," Younger said.
    "The defence balance of trade with the U.K. and other allies
is still markedly in favour of the U.S."
    Thatcher will visit Washington next month for talks with
President Reagan. U.K. Government officials said she would
probably raise the subject of defence trade when they meet.
    The report by Parliament's Defence Committee said that the
British position towards SDI was based on four points agreed
between Thatcher and Reagan in December 1984, they being that:
    - The aim was not superiority, but to maintain balance
    - SDI-related deploymewnt would be a matter for negotiation
    - The overall aim is to enhance, not undercut, deterence
    - East-West negotiation should aim to achieve security with
reduced levels of offensive systems on both sides.
    The committee in its report said, "we very much support the
government's view that SDI research should proceed only within
the framework of the Camp David "four points" and in particular
that it should be in entire conformity with the provisions of
the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty."
    "We note that all present and envisaged SDI work undertaken
by UK contractors falls in the "narrow" interpretation of the
treaty, (and) we recommend that the government takes the
appropriate steps to ensure that this continues to be the case."
    That definition prohibits the U.S. And Soviet Union from
developing, testing or deploying ABM systems, experts said.
    That recommendation would of course change, it added, if "it
has become clear that the Soviet Union has taken the lead in
renouncing the constraints of the narrow interpretation."
    Regarding possibilities for technology spin-offs, the
committee report said that "the present predominance of "paper
studies" in SDI contracts awarded to British firms and
institutions militates against any such achievement."
   
 Reuter

it has set June 29 as the record date for shareholders voting
on the company's proposed restructuring at its annual meeting.
    The company has yet to set a date for the meeting, but has
said it will be held before the end of August.
    Under the proposal, Carter Hawley would split into a
specialty store company and a department store company.
    Shareholders would get 17-dlrs in cash and a share in each
of the two new companies for each existing common share they
hold. The restructuring was announced in December, after Carter
Hawley rejected a buy-out offer by Retail Partners.
 Reuter

sold three of its industrial units which served the railroad
industry to <Chemetron Railway Products Inc>, a senior
management group of Allegheny.
    Included in the sale were Chemetron Railway Products, True
Temper Railway Appliances Inc and Allegheny Axle Co, the
    The three units include 12 plants throughout the U.S., the
 Reuter

Qtly div 30.1 cts vs 30.1 cts prior
    Pay July 15
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    Note:the company's full name is One Valley Bancorp of West 
   Virginia Inc
 Reuter

its Provesta Corp unit will build a semi-commercial
fermentation products plant with capacity of more than 3 mln
lbs a year of Provesteen yeast.
    The company said construction of the plant is set to begin
in August with completion due April-May 1988.
    It said the plant will be built by Jacobs Engineering Group
Inc <JEC>.
    The company said the purpose of the plant is to demonstrate
a scale-up of Phillips and Provesta's fermentation technology.
 Reuter

Ram Industries Inc, a unit of Cortez
International Ltd., said an agreement has been reached with
<Treasure Valley Foods> of Nampa, Idaho, to lease all of
Treasure's buildings and equipment.
    The company said the joint venture will be between Ram and
one of its units, Multiple Resources Inc, and that the
operation will retain key Treasure management employees.
    Ram said operations will begin by August one and will
involve processing onions in addition to other frozen food
products during the initial year of the project.
   
    Ram said it expects sales to exceed 12 mln dlrs during the
first 24 months with net income exceeding 1.8 mln dlrs.
    The company also said it is in negotiations to purchase a
yet undisclosed facility in Mississippi which processes up to
1.4 mln pounds of frozen okra monthly.
 Reuter

Qtly div 13 cts vs 11-1/3 cts prior
    Pay Aug 3
 Reuter

    Pay July 28
    Record July one
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said in
connection with the triple expirations of stock index futures,
options and individual options it will disclose imbalances in
50 major stocks tomorrow at 0900 EDT and again at 1530 EDT.
    The information will be disclosed via financial news
services.
 Reuter

Qtly div 59.5 cts vs 57 cts
    Pay July 31
    Record July 2
 Reuter

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, defended his
controversial mandatory supply control farm bill and said U.S.
farmers should be allowed to vote in a referendum whether they
approve of the proposal.
    The Harkin proposal would set loan rates of 5.17 dlrs per
bushel for wheat, 3.77 dlrs for corn and 9.32 dlrs for
soybeans, all to be put in effect under strict controls on
planted acreage reductions. Present loan rates are 2.28 dlrs
for wheat, 1.92 for corn, and effectively 4.56 for soybeans.
    Also under the plan, the U.S. would seek a world market
sharing cartel with the European Community and other exporting
nations, to share-out export markets, Harkin said during the
first of several Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearings
examining farm programs.
    Harkin made the following claims in testimony on his
"Family Farm Act."
    -- The mandatory control bill would increase farm income
and reduce government spending on agriculture.
    -- Harkin said his policy of high price supports would not
ruin U.S. agricultural exports as critics claim, but would
increase overall revenue from exports.
    This would be done by seeking agreement among major
exporting countries including the European Community on market
sharing at agreed high prices.
    Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., countered during the hearing
that such a grain export cartel is not workable.
    -- Harkin acknowledged that higher commodity price supports
would be passed onto consumers, but he said high food prices
stem more from "gouging" by food processing companies than from
high farm product prices.
    Harkin cited what he termed "excessive" net returns on
equity over five years of 33.4 pct at Kellogg, 31.9 pct
Monfort, 22.8 pct Nabisco, 22.8 pct ConAgra, 21.2 pct H.J.
Heinz, 19.1 pct Ralston Purina, 17.2 pct Pillsbury and 16.7 pct
Quaker Oats.
    -- Harkin said a "legitimate" concern about his bill would
be the impact of higher prices on livestock producers.
    He said as a transition to the higher prices, he would
allow livestock producers to purchase Commodity Credit Corp.
grain stocks for three years.
    Thereafter, livestock farmers would benefit from a
"predictable and stable" grain price, he said.
    -- Harkin said that under his policy approach farm
participation would be no more "mandatory" than the current
farm program. He said farmers now must participate in farm
programs in order to receive credit for planting and to protect
farm income.
 Reuter

Nova Corp is considering a
takeover bid for Dome Petroleum Ltd, either alone or as part of
a consortium, Nova chairman Bob Blair said.
    "We are thinking about making an offer to Dome or Amoco
(Canada Petroleum Co Ltd) or the creditors," Blair told
reporters before the annual meeting. Amoco Canada is a unit of
Amoco Corp <AN>, which has made a 5.2 billion-dlr acquisition
offer for Dome.
    "There is ongoing, serious thought applied to Dome in Nova
and in Husky, but no decision of substance as to future action
has been taken in either company," Blair said. Nova owns 43 pct
of Husky Oil Ltd <HYO.TO>.
    Blair also said that Nova has made no decision as to
whether it would want to be lead partner in a joint purchase of
Dome.
    He added that some of the discussions with other parties
about Dome included TransCanada PipeLines Ltd <TRP>, but
refused to name the other participants.
 Reuter

Red Lion Inns Limited
Partnership said it declared an initial cash distribution of 43
cts per unit, which is a proration of 50 cts per quarter.
    The distribution is payable August 14 to unitholders of
record June 30.
    The payout was adjusted to reflect the actual number of
days the partnership will have owned the hotels during the
calendar quarter ended June 30, 1987.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 3
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 10
 Reuter

on creditwatch with negative implications Gillette Co's A-2
commercial paper pending the outcome of a possible takeover by
Revlon Group Inc <REV>.
    Revlon, currently bound by a standstill agreement following
an earlier bid for the company, has asked Gillette's board for
permission to make a 40.50 dlr per share bid for the firm.
    Should Revlon be successful, Gillette's rating would
reflect the weaker credit quality and aggressive nature of
Revlon, whose senior debt is rated B, the agency said.
 Reuter

Kraft Inc said it strongly disagreed
with a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission that it
made false and misleading claims about its Kraft Singles cheese
product and said it would fight the charge.
    "Kraft has always been committed to informative and
truthful advertising and this compaign clearly meets those
criteria," Kraft said in a prepared statement.
    "We believe the integreity of the advertising will be
established through the litigation process," Kraft said.
    Company spokesman Scott Horne said he could not elaborate
on the statement because the case is being litigated.
    The FTC charged Kraft with making false and misleading
claims in its advertising by overstating the calcuim content of
its Kraft Singles American Pasteurized Process Cheese Food.
Glenview, Ill., food and consumer products company with falsely
claiming that a slice of Kraft Singles contains the same amount
of calcium as five ounces of milk.
contain more calcium than most slices of imitation cheese and
that it could substantiate its claims, the FTC charged.
 Reuter

said the First Midwest Bank based in Maryville, Mo., was closed
by state regulators, becoming the 91st federally insured bank
to fail this year.
    The FDIC said First Midwest's 25.1 mln dlrs in deposits are
being assumed by the First Bank of Maryville, a newly chartered
subsidiary of (Citizens Bancshares Co) of Chillicothe, Mo.
    It said the failed bank's two offices, with assets of 25.2
mln dlrs, will reopen June 19 as branches of First Bank.
 Reuter

First Wachovia Corp said it will
add 50 mln dlrs to its loan loss reserve. It said about 35 mln
dlrs will cover bad loans to developing countries and the
balance is for domestic and international loans.
    First Wachovia also said it will report a second quarter
capital gain of 14.3 mln dlrs from the sale of equity
securities. It said the effect of these transactions will
reduce its second quarter earnings by 20 mln dlrs or 37 cts a
share in net income for the quarter.
    In the year-ago quarter the bank earned 45 mln dlrs or 83
    First Wachovia also said that excluding the second quarter
special items, it expects to report a "good operating earnings
performance" compared with the year-ago quarter.
 Reuter

A White House associate personnel
director, Mark Sullivan, emerged as a possible candidate to
replace Susan Phillips as chairman of the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC).
    Commodity industry and government sources said Sullivan,
who is not well known to the commodities industry, has emerged
this week as a surprise candidate for the post.
    Sullivan, an attorney, has been in charge of Reagan
administration personnel appointments in the legal and
financial affairs areas since July, 1986.
    Phillips resigned last month to assume the post of vice
president of finance at the University of Iowa.
    Following Phillips' resignation CFTC commissioner Kalo
Hineman, a Kansas farmer, or commissioner Robert Davis were
considered the strongest candidates to head the agency, at
least temporarily.
    However, industry sources said the strong speculation about
Sullivan suggests he now is the leading candidate.
    Sullivan's name has also been floated recently for other
Reagan administration financial regulatory positions. He was
rumored in April to be under consideration for a position on
the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which regulates
Savings and Loan Associations.
 Reuter

West German economic growth will slow to
1.5 pct this year from 2.4 pct in 1986 due to weak domestic
demand and tougher competition from abroad, the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its
semi-annual review of the world economy.
    This view is less favourable than the West German
government's forecast of a growth rate of under two pct this
year, but is in line with forecasts by independent economic
institutes of growth ranging from 1.5 to two pct.
    The OECD said that the economy should pick up next year,
with the gross national product rising by two pct in real
terms.
    The OECD said it assumed the German economy was passing
through a period of temporary weakness and there would be some
recovery in business confidence in the near future.
    But it warned that the key to an improvement in the economy
was higher domestic demand, which is only forecast to rise by
2.5 pct this year and 2.75 pct in 1988, below 1986's 3.7 pct.
    While noting that the government is bringing forward a five
billion mark tax reform to January 1988, the OECD said that "the
medium to longer-term performance of the West German economy
could be improved by reduction of subsidies - which would allow
relatively lower tax rates."
    Since the OECD report was compiled, the West German Federal
Statistics Office has released figures showing that the GNP
actually fell 0.5 pct in real terms in the first quarter of
this year compared with the final three months of 1986.
    Diplomatic sources here said that West Germany appeared
likely to finish the year with the lowest growth rate of any of
the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.
    West Germany's current account surplus, the target of
considerable criticism by the Reagan administration, is
expected to rise slightly to 37 billion dlrs this year from
35.8 billion in 1986, before declining to 29 billion dlrs in
1988.
 REUTER

firm, said it raised its stake in TVX Broadcast Group Inc to
682,419 shares, or 15.1 pct of the total outstanding common
stock, from 559,219 shares, or 12.4 pct.
WEDGE said it bought 123,200 TVX common shares at prices
ranging from 8.00 to 10.625 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

France's growth rate is expected to
strengthen in the second half of this year after a poor first
half, but unemployment will worsen, the Organisation for
    In its semi-annual review of the world economy, the OECD
forecast that growth in the French Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
would run at about two pct in the next six months. It said the
rate would be in line with the 1986 trends, but significantly
higher than in the first half of this year.
    The OECD said France's economic situation has deteriorated
somewhat during the early months of 1987. 
    Activity has slowed, primarily reflecting an inventory
adjustment, while unemployment has risen rapidly and inflation
has reaccelerated, the OECD said. Unemployment is likely to
reach 12 pct of the workforce by the end of 1988.
    The report said inflation should slow and domestic demand
pick up in the second half of this year. But both data are
likely to be worse than those recorded in 1986, it added.
    The OECD forecast a 2.75 pct rise in consumer prices for
the second half of this year, a one pct drop from the first six
months. The slowdown would bring the inflation rate to 3.25 pct
for the whole year, sharply up from last year's 2.2 pct.
 REUTER

A group including members of the
Sobey family of Nova Scotia and Empire Company Ltd, said it
raised its stake in Nash Finch Co to 442,498 shares, or 8.6 pct
of the total outstanding, from 374,498 shares, or 7.3 pct.
the group said it bought 68,000 Nash Finch common shares
between April 7 and June 17.
 Reuter

Italy's economic outlook for 1987 and 1988
is likely to be less favourable than last year with slightly
lower growth, higher unemployment and an increased trade
deficit, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) said.
    But the OECD, in its half-yearly report, forecast a
slightly lower inflation rate over the next two years. Last
year Italy ranked as one of the OECD's fastest growing
economies with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 2.7 pct.
    The OECD said Italy's GDP may grow by three pct in 1987,
but will then fall back to 2.5 pct in 1988.
    The inflation rate will probably stabilise at around five
pct during the projection period as a result of a turnaround in
import prices, particularly oil, an acceleration in labour
costs and the effects of domestic demand pressure, the report
said.
    This year, and to a lesser degree in 1988, domestic demand
should be stimulated by buoyant growth in household consumption
made possible by wage increases following pay negotiations.
    Domestic demand pressure, coupled with the deterioration in
Italian competitiveness, is likely to stimulate imports and
adversely affect exports in 1987 and 1988. This could result in
a sharp negative contribution to the currrent account.
 REUTER

Japan's trade surplus is likely to
continue to grow in 1987, as sales of Japanese goods abroad
increase while domestic demand remains sluggish, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
said.
    In its latest half-yearly review of the world economy, the
OECD said Japan managed to considerably reduce its surplus last
year, when domestic demand grew by four pct in 1986 while
export markets rose by only two pct.
    But it said this differential between the growth of
domestic and foreign demand would reverse in 1987 and 1988,
"thus weakening the international adjustment process."
    It forecast a slowing in domestic growth to little over two
pct but with a rise in exports of 3.3 pct in 1987 and 3.6 pct
in 1988. As a result, the current account surplus in 1987 will
rise to 95 billion dlrs from 86 billion in 1986, although in
1988 it should fall back to 87 billion dlrs.
    The OECD outlook did not take account of the 6,000 billion
yen package announced last month to stimulate domestic demand
and increase imports to Japan. However, OECD officials said the
measures will significantly strengthen domestic demand, quite
possibly exceeding one pct GNP when the full effects have
worked through, and thus will provide some stimulus to imports.
    The OECD outlook said, "Continued large current account
surpluses and the further build-up of an already-substantial
net external asset position could well lead to upward pressure
on the yen." It said that further appreciation could then lead
manufacturers to postpone their investment plans and thus
weaken domestic growth.
    The OECD said Japan's Gross National Product was likely to
gorw an annual two pct in 1987 and 1988, below 1986's 2.5 pct
growth. But it said Japan would continue its good performance
on inflation, with a zero figure expected in 1987 compared to a
0.6 pct rise in consumer prices last year.
 Reuter

U.S.-Canadian ties could worsen if
the two nations are unable to reach a free trade pact,
according to a study published by two nonpartisan public policy
research groups.
    The Cato Institute of Washington and the Fraser Institute
of Vancouver said removing the remaining tariffs on cross
border trade would benefit both countries.
    But Cato chairman William Niskanen added "the two nations'
generally harmonious trade relations are probably not
sustainable without a new agreement."
    The United States and Canada, whose cross-border trade
totaled about 125 billion dlrs last year, have been holding
talks since last June on a pact to end the few trade barriers
remaining between their two countries.
    The U.S. put a deadline on the talks of October 1, but both
sides have said an agreement is likely despite tough bargaining
remained.
    Niskanen said if no pact is reached, bilateral trade ties
could deteriorate because of Congressional pressure on
President Reagan to implement trade laws more aggressively, and
this could hit some Canadian trade practices.
    He noted Canada is seeking foreign investment in its auto
industry, which could put strains on the considerable bilateral
free trade in U.S. and Canadian autos and parts.
    Niskanen also said the Canadian government is vulnerable to
a resurgence of economic nationalism which could restrict U.S.
exports to Canada.
    A free trade pact, backed by President Reagan and Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney, would open new markets for Canada and
enable its industries to achieve economies of scale, which
would also help it widen exports worldwide, he said.
    It would also increase the gross national products of both
    Niskanen said the goal of a pact should be to end all
tariffs within 10 years, lower subsidies on exports, set rules
for trade in services and investments, end curbs on government
procurement and agree ways to resolve trade disputes.
 Reuter

Economic growth will remain sluggish in
the Netherlands and Belgium next year and unemployment may
rise, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
forecast.
    Belgium's GDP growth may slow down to 1.5 pct this year and
next year, bringing a rise in the number of jobless, the OECD
said in its semi-annual survey. Belgian inflation could
stabilise at 1.5 to 2.0 pct, while the current account surplus
will probably remain large at about three pct of GDP.
    While the Belgian government has made progress in trimming
its borrowing requirement, "it will probably be insufficient to
check the self-sustaining nature of the deficit," the OECD said.
    In the Netherlands real GDP growth will also slip to 1.5
pct this year and one pct in 1988, with Dutch exports becoming
less competitive and imports rising. "Employment is forecast to
decelerate as well, reflecting more sluggish growth in the
private sector and budgetary cuts," the report said.
    Dutch consumer prices are set to fall by 0.5 pct in 1987
and stay stable in 1988, partly as a result of declining
domestic gas prices.
    Luxembourg's economy, by contrast, will see slightly faster
growth in GDP this year as a result of an upward movement in
wages. But real growth in consumption will ease next year.
REUTER

Strong growth in domestic demand was a key
feature of the economies of southern European countries in
1986, though the growth is seen slowing this year and next, the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
    In its semi-annual report, the OECD said Portugal's total
domestic demand growth would decline from 7.6 pct last year to
five pct in 1987 and 3.75 pct in 1988 as slower wage growth
restrained private consumption.
    Turkey's economy grew much faster than expected in 1986 and
domestic demand surged 10.5 pct, but this growth was expected
to be halved to five pct next year.
    In Spain, buoyant domestic demand, led by fixed investment,
had been the driving force behind rapid growth in Gross
Domestic Product. Both fixed investment and private consumption
were expected to ease during 1988 but would still remain
strong.
    The OECD forecast that Spanish imports would rise sharply
next year, reflecting strong demand, entry to the European
Community and declining competitiveness.
    In Greece, inflation was forecast to turn downwards
following an increase early this year linked with the
introduction of Value Added Tax and a surge in food prices due
to cold weather.
 REUTER

High wage settlements in Nordic countries
threaten to cut exports and reduce the international
competitiveness of their industries, the Organisation for
    In Denmark, the OECD said wage settlements concluded in
early 1987 were likely to contribute to a marked deterioration
in competitiveness. Sweden's competitive position was also seen
at risk from accelerating wages.
    The OECD predicted that domestic demand would come under
pressure from tight fiscal policy in Denmark, as well as
Norway, Sweden and Finland.
    Overall economic growth will vary in the different
countries between 1986 and 1988, the OECD semi-annual report
said.
    After a strong rise of 7.8 pct in 1986, total domestic
demand in Norway was seen falling by 1.5 pct in 1987 and one
pct the following year. Denmark was also expected to see a
slump in domestic demand. The report said growth in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) was likely to speed up slightly in
Sweden and Finland in 1987 and 1988, while declining in Denmark
and Norway.
    Iceland needs to try harder to implement its new economic
strategy if any more progress is to be made towards sustained
and balanced non-inflationary growth, the OECD said.
 REUTER

The United States should take urgent
action to cut its crippling budget deficit, including possible
reductions in non-defense spending, higher taxes and curbs on
growth of the defense budget, the Organization for Economic
    The OECD, in its semi-annual review of the world economy,
said a failure of the Reagan Administration and Congress
quickly to agree on measures to cut the deficit "could seriously
affect confidence, both in the United States and elsewhere."
    It predicted that the federal deficit in fiscal 1987,
running until September 30 this year, would substantially
overshoot both the Balanced Budget Act's target of 144 billion
dlrs and official U.S. Estimates in February of 175 billion.
    "The OECD projection, which is based on assumptions of
slower growth, higher interest rates and actual data for the
first half of the financial year, is for a deficit of about 190
billion dollars," it said.
    While this would be 30 billion lower than last year's
deficit, much of the improvement would be due to corporate tax
increases being introduced before income tax cuts take effect.
    The U.S. Economic growth rate is expected to edge up to
2.75 pct next year from 2.5 pct this year and last.
    In contrast to the last two years, more competitive exports
boosted by the fall in the dollar should help GNP growth.
    Unemployment should continue to fall slowly as the service
sector continues to create jobs. But inflation appears to be
heading higher, partly due to the lower dollar, with consumer
prices forecast to rise four pct this year and 4.5 pct next
year after just 2.1 pct in 1986.
    "Monetary and fiscal policy appear to be the key factors
behind the avoidance of recession," the report said.
    The current account balance of payments deficit is expected
to be still around a high 125 billion dlrs next year, after
hitting a projected record 147.25 billion this year, it said.
    In Canada economic growth is expected to pick up slightly
to around 2.75 pct in 1988 from 2.5 pct this year, but will
still be below levels seen in recent years. Inflation is
expected to slow to 3.5 pct next year from 3.75 pct this year,
unemployment should edge down to nine pct in 1988 from 9.25 pct
this year.
    Canada's current account deficit is projected to shrink to
around four billion U.S. Dlrs this year and to remain at about
that level in 1988.
 Reuter

Period ended May 2
    Shr loss four cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 397,000 vs loss 330,000
    Revs 32.1 mln vs 30.4 mln
    Note: Full name Mark's Work Wearhouse Ltd.
 Reuter

Playboy Enterprises Inc said its Playboy
Licensing unit has entered into an agreement with Fashionport
Private Ltd of India to market Playboy and Playmate fashions
and accessories in India, the Middle East and several Eastern
bloc countries.
    Fashionport will produce men's and women's apparel, leather
garments, footwear, small leather goods and accessories, it
said.
    Fashionport is based in Bombay, India. No other details
were available.
 Reuter

Prospects for world economic growth remain
very sluggish, and coordinated action by western governments is
urgently needed to restore business confidence, stabilize
currencies and encourage investment, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said here.
    "The economic situation has deteriorated in recent months,
and ... Slow growth, high unemployment and large payments
imbalances are likely to persist," it said in one of its
gloomiest reviews of the world economy in recent years.
    The gross national product (GNP) of the 24-nation bloc of
western industrialised countries is forecast to grow by only
2.25 pct both this year and next, even slower than last year's
2.5 pct growth rate.
    "We would like to see the aggregate for the OECD area
comfortably exceeding three pct," David Henderson, head of the
OECD's economics and statistics department, said.
    The OECD said that the dollar fall had led to rising
inflation expectations and higher interest rates in the U.S.,
Combining with world trade imbalances and the huge third world
debt problem to increase the risks of a world economic
downturn.
    "At the same time, many of the conditions for faster growth
remain favorable," it said, citing low inflation in most major
countries, healthy corporate finances, generally lower interest
rates, improvements in state budget positions and more flexible
labor markets.
    But private sector confidence had been undermined by
uncertainties over exchange rates, it said, and warned that "for
confidence to be restored, it is important for governments
swiftly to implement internationally-agreed commitments."
    This was a clear reference to last February's Louvre accord
of the Group of Five nations plus Canada, analysts said.
    The OECD said that apparent disagreements among major
countries on implementation of the Louvre accord had helped to
undermine business confidence, and called on more active fiscal
policies from the U.S., West Germany and Japan to slow demand
in the U.S. And raise it in the other two countries.
    Henderson said the 6,000 billion yen package announced
recently by the Japanese government to encourage public works
and cut taxes would make a significant contribution to this
process, though it was too early to estimate its precise
impact.
    He said the measures will help strengthen Japan's domestic
demand significantly, quite possibly exceeding one pct of GNP.
    The inflation outlook, while broadly satisfactory, has
worsened in recent months, with OECD consumer prices forecast
to rise 3.5 pct this year and 3.75 pct in 1988 after a 2.8 pct
increase in 1986.
    There is no prospect for any significant improvement in the
unemployment situation over the next 18 months, with the
average rate expected to stabilize at 8.25 pct, similar to last
year.
    The OECD called for efforts to liberalize world
agricultural markets through switching farm subsidies away from
price guarantees and other measures linked to production
towards direct income support for farmers.
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc's <GW> Paramount
Pictures Corp division said its movie "Beverly Hills Cop II"
has topped the 100 mln dlr mark at the box office on the 29th
day of its North American release.
    Paramount said the the movie has become the fastest movie
to hit the 100 mln dlr mark with an "R" rating, which means
that anyone under 17 must be accompanied by their parents.
 Reuter

    Pay July 31
    Record July 3
 Reuter

The House today supported a call for
Japan to boost its defense spending to help share the burden of
protecting Western interests in sensitive areas around the
world, including in the Gulf.
    House member approved a measure that would require
Secretary of State George Shultz to enter into talks with Japan
on increasing Japanese defense spending to at least 3 pct of
its gross national product.
    The measure, passed during consideration of the 1988-89
State Department funding bill would not require an increase,
but legislators called on Japan to spend more on defense. The
Senate must approve the measure before it becomes law.
    "We don't have to bash the Japanese. We have to show them
how to share the burden of the defense of the free world," said
Rep. Robert Dornan, a California Republican.
    The amendment calls on Shultz to enter into talks with
Japan with the aim of reaching agreement on one of two
alternatives: either Japan can spend 3 pct of its GNP on
defense by itself or give the equivalent amount of money to the
United States as a kind of security fee.
 Reuter

Australia's economy should manage modest
growth over the next two years after a sharp slowdown but
unemployment could still edge upwards, the Organisation for
    The organisation's latest half-yearly report says Gross
Domestic Product will grow by 2.5 pct this year and by 2.75 pct
in 1988 compared with only 1.4 pct in 1986. The growth will be
helped by higher stockbuilding and stronger domestic demand
following tax cuts and higher real wages, it added.
    The report forecasts a decline in inflation, with consumer
prices increasing by 8.5 pct this year and 6.25 pct in 1988.
    The current account deficit shows signs of easing slightly
and could narrow to 12 billion dlrs by the end of 1988.
    While predicting slightly stronger growth than last year,
however, the report revises downwards the OECD's earlier growth
forecast for 1987 of 3.75 pct.
    The OECD predicts a similar combination of modest economic
growth and rising unemployment for New Zealand, which is
struggling to recover from a major economic crisis.
    The country's GDP, which contracted by 0.6 pct last year,
should again show growth over the next two years, rising by
0.25 pct this year and a more substantial 2.75 pct in 1988.
 Reuter

Robert Fildes, president and chief
executive of Cetus Corp <CTUS.O>, told Reuters that Squibb Corp
is not interested in buying Cetus.
    Earlier the companies said Squibb would buy from Cetus a
five pct equity postion in Cetus for about 40 mln dlrs.
    "This is not an attempt by Squibb to become a major
majority holder in Cetus," Fildes told Reuters in an interview.
"Squibb has not approached us with any indication that they
want to acquire us and we wouldn't be interested in that kind
of arrangement," said Fildes.
    Squibb could not be reached to comment on the late comments
by Fildes.
    Squibb is Cetus' first pharmaceutical partner and the only
one to own an equity position in Cetus. Eastman Kodak Co <EK>
and W.R. Grace <WR> both have joint ventures with Cetus, but
neither owns an equity position in the company, said Fildes.
    Cetus has a venture with Kodak to develp diagnostic
products and with Grace to develop agricultural products.
    Earlier, Squibb and Cetus announced in a joint statement 
an agreement in principle to form a joint venture to develop
new biotechnology products in several fields.
   
    As part of the deal Squibb will license several of Cetus'
anticancer agents, including interleukin-2, in development.
Squibb will sell the drugs only in Japan and other markets but
not in North American and Western Europe.
    "We wouldn't have done this deal had it not been understood
that Cetus wants to build its own fully integrated business in
North America and Europe," said Fildes.
    He said Squibb was the good partner because Squibb has a
major joint venture in Japan and has sales capabilities of its
own in that market.
   
    Fildes said Cetus has shunned licensing arrangements with
pharmaceutical companies because it wanted to build its own
business. Many large corporations have invested in small
biotech firms.
    But Squibb's investment in Cetus is the first it has made
in biotechnology. Fildes said that was attractive to Cetus
because it wanted a partner that didn't have a relationship
with a large number of other biotechnology companies."
   
    Fildes said his strategy was to have partners in non drug
areas like diagnostics and agriculture, but to "keep the
biggest developments in anticancer drugs to ourselves."
    Fildes said the partnership with Squibb would be used to
broaden the company's reach in such big money making areas
as the cardiovascular, anti-infective and the anti-inflammatory
markets.
    Squibb is also investming 75 mln dlrs in Cetus' research
   
    "Squibb is putting up over 75 mln dlrs in research and
development to make it happen, while the equity position part
of the package is simply to demonstrate the seriousness of this
partnership," said Fildes.
 Reuter

The National Broadcasting Co, a unit of
General Electric Co <GE>, said it intends to implement on June
29 a labor contract rejected by union represenatives.
    A spokesman for the National Association of Broadcast
Employees and Technicians, represening 2,800 workers, said its
negotiating committee adopted a formal resolution today stating
it will inform NBC it will strike upon implementation.
    "The union will have to decide what action it thinks is
appropriate," said Day Krolik, NBC's vice president for labor
relations. A union spokesman said NBC has until the day of
implemetation to peacefully negotiate a contract.
 Reuter

Mark Stahl, 45, who was a former senior
vice president of Shearson Lehman Brothers, until his
suspension on April 16, today admitted in U.S. District court
here, embezzling almost 19 mln dlrs from his firm over the past
year.
    He entered a guilty plea before United States District
Court Judge Vincent Broderick to four specific charges totaling
1,031,000 dlrs on wire fraud.
    Stahl, who was a senior vice president for finance, told
the judge that the total embezzlement amounted to "a little
less than" 19 mln dlrs.
   
    Through an attorney, Stahl agreed to make restitution to
Shearson Lehman of all the embezzled funds if possible. However
his guilty pleas today to the four counts will cover all
criminal liability of the embezzlement that occurred between
April 1986 to last April.
    Judge Broderick scheduled sentencing for December nine.
    Stahl faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and one
mln dlrs in fines, or both.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs four cts
    Net 1,180,000 vs 902,000
    Revs 146.9 mln vs 37.0 mln
    Avg shrs 33 mln vs 23.9 mln
    NOTE: Company changed its fiscal year from December 31 to
the last day of February, thus results of operations for the
year-ago period have been restated to reflect this change.
    Current first quarter includes results of operations of
Loews Theatre Management Corp which Tri-Star acquired December
31.
 Reuter

WILSON CUTS PERSONAL TAX RATES, LIMITS CAPITAL GAINS
EXEMPTIONS
 Reuter

Canada will increase corporate tax
revenues by about five billion dlrs over the next five years by
broadening the tax base and allowing fewer exemptions, finance
minister Michael Wilson said.
     As Wilson previously promised, he said corporations will
bear an increased tax burden, despite new measures to lower
overall tax rates.
     Increased corporate revenues will result from broadening
the tax base and eliminating special tax exemptions.
     "The jobs of many Canadians depend on a corporate income
tax system that is competitive with other countries,
particularly the United States," Wilson said in a prepared
speech to the House of Commons.
     "And it (tax reform) will ensure that profitable
corporations carry a bigger share of the total tax burden," he
added.
     Federal tax revenue from corporations will increase by 470
mln dlrs in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1988, 410 mln dlrs
in fiscal 1989 and 1.19 billion dlrs in fiscal 1990, according
to documents tabled with Wilson's speech.
 Reuter

The average tax rate for Canadian
financial insitutions will increase to 21.3 pct from 14.5 pct
under the new tax reform package, the federal finance
     The amount of financial institutions' income that is taxed
will also increase to 74.0 pct from 48.7 pct, it said in
documents tabled with finance minister Michael Wilson's
prepared speech to the House of Commons.
     Under Wilson's plan, the federal government will collect
1.36 billion dlrs more over the next five years from financial
insitutions, including banks, trust mortgage and life insurance
companies, according to finance department documents.
     Financial institutions "are going to complain, but we
believe the changes are appropriate and affordable," said one
finance department official who asked not to be identified.
     Ottawa will collect more revenue from financial
institutions by reducing the amount of reserves they can deduct
from taxes, which "will broaden the tax base for this low tax
paying sector," the finance department said.
     Among the changes, chartered banks will no longer be able
to use a five-year averaging formula to calculate loan losses
that may be deducted for tax purposes.
     Effective June 17, 1987, banks will deduct bad or doubtful
loans during the year they are incurred.
     The finance department said the impact of the new
provisions will be cushioned over a period of five years.
     The changes are needed to ensure that all financial
companies are taxed fairly under deregulation of the financial
services industry.
     "It would be inconsistent for the tax system to continue
to provide different reserves for tax purposes for institutions
competing in the same marketplace," the finance department
said.
 Reuter

Canada will broaden a federal sales tax
levied on manufacturers before scrapping the system in favor of
a broad based, multi-staged sales tax, finance minister Michael
Wilson said.
     As expected, Wilson did not include a new sales tax system
as part of his wide-ranging tax reforms tabled in the House of
Commons today.
    Instead, the federal government will make interim changes
to the existing sales tax to make it more fair for low and
middle income Canadians.
    "The present (sales) tax is fundamentally flawed. It is a
hidden, arbitrary and capricious tax," Wilson told the House of
Commons.
    The existing federal sales tax system hurts the Canadian
economy by putting more tax on Canadian produced goods than
imported goods and adding a hidden tax on Canadian exports that
makes them less competitive, Wilson said.
     Interim changes effective January 1, 1988 will include:
     -- applying the federal sales tax to marketing companies
related to manufacturers
     -- levying the tax at the wholesale level instead of the
manufacturer for a selected range of products
     -- applying a 10 pct sales tax to telecommunication
services, except for residential telephone lines
     -- quicker collection of federal sales taxes.
     To offset these changes for low income Canadians,
refundable tax credits will be increased to 70 dlrs from 50
dlrs for adults and to 35 dlrs from 25 dlrs for children, the
     Ottawa is considering three alternative forms for a new
sales tax, including a goods and services tax, a value added
tax and a national sales tax that would combine existing
federal and provincial levies into one system, Wilson told the
House of Commons.
     He said the federal government will explore the
possibility of one national sales tax with Canada's 10
provincial governments. All provinces except Albeta now levy a
provincial sales of tax of varying amounts.
     Wilson said one joint system would be simpler for
taxpayers and maximize economic benefits of tax reform.
     If Ottawa and the provinces can't agree on a national
sales tax system, Wilson said the federal government will
consider either a goods and services tax or a value-added tax.
     A goods and services tax would apply at one rate to
virtually all goods and services in Canada and would include
further increases in refundable tax credits for low and middle
income Canadians, the finance department said in documents
accompanying Wilson's speech.
     A federal value-added tax, similar to European tax
systems, would also be broad based but would allow more
flexibility to exempt selected goods and services, the
department said. The finance deparment said the main drawback
of a value added tax is that it would be more complex and
costly to implement than the other two proposals.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson said tax
reform will not affect his determination to reign in
expenditures, but his forecasts show a slowing of the decline
in the budget deficit in the late 1980s.
    "Responsible tax reform must be fiscally responsible,"
Wilson said in a speech prepared for the House of Commons.
    Wilson estimated the deficit will fall to 29.3 billion dlrs
in the year ending March 31, 1988, the same level as he
forecast in the February budget.
    And in the year ended this past March, the deficit was
expected to have been one billion dlrs lower than the 32
billion dlr shortfall originally forecast, Wilson said.
    Wilson said in the current 1988 fiscal year
higher-than-anticipated spending, particularly in farm income
support programs, will be offset by higher-than-anticipated
revenues.
    But finance department documents show the pace of deficit
reduction was expected to slow temporarily in fiscal 1989 and
1990 as a result of lower oil and grain prices and the
transition to the reformed taxation system.
    The deficit is expected to total 28.9 billion dlrs in
fiscal 1989 and 28.6 billion dlrs in 1989 and then fall to 26.1
billion dlrs in 1991.
    Wilson was optimistic about the outlook for the Canadian
economy, forcasting gross domestic product would expand 2.8 pct
this year and 3.0 pct in 1988. In 1986 the economy grew by an
actual 3.1 pct.
    Inflation, meanwhile, is expected to stabilize at around
the current four pct level over the next two years.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson tabled a
ways and means motion to immediately impose a special tax on
preferred share dividends to eliminate a significant loss of
corporate tax revenue.
    Under the motion, which is used to introduce most financial
tax changes, dividends on all preferred shares issued after
June 18 will be taxable.
    The issuing corporation will be able to choose between two
forms of tax, one that imposes a 25 pct tax on dividends with a
subsequent additional 10 pct tax paid by the shareholder, and
one that imposes a flat 40 pct tax on dividends.
    "Measures to reduce the tax advantages of after-tax
financing arrangements using preferred shares are a critical
step in achieving the broadened corporate tax base required to
fund personal income tax reductions," Wilson explained.
    The minister said many profitable corporations, using
various deductions built up over the years, pay no taxes,
although they are in a position to pay dividends out of their
profits.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson unveiled
a wide-ranging reform of the personal tax system that includes
limiting the capital gains exemption and a sharp cut in the
dividend tax credit.
    With most changes effective at the first of next year,
Wilson also announced he was cutting the number of tax brackets
from 10 to three.
    He said the changes will cut personal tax revenues by two
billion dlrs in 1988 and by more than 11 billion dlrs over the
    "Most Canadians will pay lower taxes because of two
far-reaching changes. A new structure of federal income tax
rates and the conversion of exemptions and deductions to tax
credits," Wilson told the House of Commons.
    The new tax brackets will be 17 pct on the first 27,500
dlrs of taxable income, 26 pct on the next 27,500 dlrs and 29
pct on taxable income in excess of 55,000 dlrs. The maximum tax
rate is 34 pct under the current system.
    In a major reversal of his own initiative, Wilson said the
controversial 500,000 dlrs capital gains exemption will be
reduced to 100,000 dlrs over an investors' lifetime.
    Wilson introduced the exemption shortly after taking office
in 1984 as a a way of stimulating investment, but it was
sharply criticized by the opposition as over-generous to
wealthy investors.
    The 500,000 dlr lifetime exemption  will be kept on the
sale of farm land and for small businesess, however.
    Also, the taxable portion of a capital gain will increase
from 50 pct currently to 66-2/3 pct in 1988 and 75 pct in 1990.
    The dividend tax credit will be reduced from 33-1/3 pct to
25 pct and the deduction for up to 1,000 dlrs of interest and
dividend income will be eliminated in 1988.
    Wilson said tax treatment for registered retirement savings
plan contributions will be maintained but the phase in of the
increase in the maximum limit to 15,500 dlrs will be delayed 
four years to 1994.
 Reuter

ANZ BANKING GROUP SAYS IT WILL CUT PRIME RATE TO 16.00
PCT FROM 16.50 ON JUNE 22

Japan still asking institutions to limit speculative dlr
deals - Miyazawa

Group Ltd <ANZA.S> said it will cut its prime rate to 16.00 pct
from 16.50, effective June 22.
    The cut takes the ANZ's prime to the lower end of the range
of prime rates being offered by Australian trading banks. The
highest rate is 17.50 pct.
    The cut follows announcements of cuts yesterday by
<Citibank Ltd> to 16.00 pct from 16.5, effective today, and
<Commonwealth Bank of Australia> to 15.75 pct from 16.25,
effective June 24.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry is still asking
financial institutions to limit speculative dollar dealings,
Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told reporters.
    He was responding to rumours in the New York currency
market overnight that the Ministry was reducing its pressure on
institutions to refrain from excessively speculative dollar
dealings.
 REUTER

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress
(I) party was swept from power in the northern state of Haryana
by an opposition landslide.
    The loss was a major personal setback for Gandhi whose
vote-winning ability was on trial after political scandals in
Delhi and a string of electoral losses since he took command of
the party in 1984.
    With 53 results in for Haryana's 90-seat assembly, Congress
had won only two seats against 63 previously. Before the poll,
Congress politicians in Delhi said privately that a loss in
Haryana could open a party leadership debate.
 REUTER

The government will take emergency
measures if the present wave of violent protest demonstrations
continues, state radio said.
    The radio, which did not specify the measures, said the
decision was taken today at a meeting of top ministers and
security officials attended by Prime Minister Lee Han-key. It
said a special statement would be made shortly.
    Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Seoul and
other cities yesterday, battling riot police and demanding the
resignation of President Chun Doo Hwan. It was the ninth
successive day of violent protests.
 REUTER

A Circuit Court judge ordered
the company that insured the solvency of International Medical
Centres Inc to show cause why it should not honour its contract
with International, according to Florida's Department of
Insurance, which had filed a petition on the matter.
    As previously reported, International, the largest health
maintenance organisation in Florida was declared insolvent on
May 14. Federal regulators had also told the company its
Medicare contract would be terminated on July 31 because of the
company's financial and management problems.
    Michelle McLawhorn, Florida Department spokeswoman, said
International's insurer, State Mutual Life Assurance Co of
America, had made clear it would fight activation of the policy
because International did not provide it with accurate
financial records. State Mutual could not be reached for
comment.
    McLawhorn said it was not yet known how many creditors
International had or how big its debt was. The court gave State
Mutual 20 days to show why it should not be obliged to pay
claims against the solvency policy.
 REUTER

The ruling Brazilian Democratic
Movement Party (PMDB) will hold a national convention on July
18 and 19 to discuss the length of the Presidential term, a
PMDB spokesman said.
    Although the country's constitution allows for a six-year
term, Sarney said he would remain only five years after he came
to power in 1984.
    The Constituent Assembly is drawing up a new constitution
and severe economic problems have increased the pressure on it
to call early elections. A faction of the PMDB favours a poll
in November next year.
 REUTER

New U.S. Banking data suggest the
Federal Reserve is guiding monetary policy along a steady path
and is not signalling any imminent change of course, economists
said.
    But they also said that if money supply growth remains
weak, as this week's unexpected eight billion dlr M-1 decline
suggests it may, this could influence the Fed to loosen its
credit reins and move toward a more accommodative monetary
policy.
    A Reuter survey of 17 money market economists produced a
forecast of a 600 mln dlr M-1 decline for the week ended June
8, with estimates ranging from a gain of one billion dlrs to a
decline of four billion. Instead, M-1 fell eight billion dlrs
to 745.7 billion dlrs at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
    Coming on the heels of a 4.3 billion decrease in M-1 for
the week ended June 1, this means the nation's money supply has
fallen more than 12 billion dlrs in the past two weeks,
    "M-1 has hit an air pocket of weakness," said Bill Sullivan
of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
    While M-1 may have lost its significance as an indicator of
economic growth, Sullivan said Fed officials might be concerned
the latest drop in M-1 means another month of sluggish growth
in the broader monetary aggregates, M-2 and M-3, which are seen
as better gauges of economic growth.
    Latest monthly M-2 and M-3 data showed that as of May, both
measures were growing at rates below the bottom of the Fed's
5-1/2 to 8-1/2 pct target ranges.
    If money growth does not accelerate, Fed officials,
concerned that this indicates economic growth is flagging,
could turn toward easier monetary policy, economists said.
    "Does this mean that the Fed abandons its current open
market position? No," Sullivan said. "But does this mean the end
of tightening for the time being? Definitely yes."
    Economists said average adjusted discount window borrowings
of 385 mln dlrs for the latest two-week bank statement period
were lower than they had expected. Most believed the Fed had
targetted a two-week borrowings average of around 500 mln dlrs.
    But they said that if it had not been for a large one-day
net miss in the Fed's reserve projections, the higher
borrowings target would probably have been reached.
    A drop in May U.S. Housing starts and continued weakness in
auto sales show key sectors of the U.S. Economy are lagging,
while a recent modest 0.3 pct gain in May producer prices has
helped dispel inflation fears, Slifer said.
    "If this continues, we can entertain the notion of Fed
easing at some point," he said.
    Other economists said the Fed would probably pay little
attention to weak money supply growth. "It has been a number of
years since M-1 has given good signs of what's going on in the
economy," one said. "I don't think M-1 shows that the economy is
falling apart and the Fed should ease."
    Economists agreed a stable dollar will continue to be a
prerequisite for any move by the Fed toward easier monetary
policy.
    They said the Fed is reluctant to lower short-term rates
for fear this would spur expectations of a weaker dollar and
higher inflation which would push up long-term yields and choke
off econmomic growth.
    But Sullivan said the dollar has been steady since late
April. "The Fed has to determine if this represents a
fundamental change for the dollar. If it does, then this gives
them more room to ease," he said.
 REUTER

Shr profit six cents vs loss 10
    Net profit 8.1 mln dlrs vs loss 7.1 mln
    Sales 511.9 mln vs 397.8 mln
    Avg shrs 97.0 mln vs 90.5 mln
    YEAR
    Shr loss 38 cents vs loss 1.10 dlrs
    Net loss 24.6 mln dlrs vs loss 91.5 mln
    Sales 1.87 billion vs 1.48 billion
    Avg shrs 91.7 mln vs 89.8 mln
    NOTE - Current year figure includes previously announced 15
mln dlr restructuring charge.
    Figures include extraordinary credit from tax benefit of
4.2 mln dlrs in quarter vs 2.3 mln a year earlier and 4.2 mln
for year vs 5.6 mln year earlier.
    The 1986 year net reflects 51.2 mln dlr gain from
 REUTER

National SemiConductor Corp,
which earlier reported a profitable fiscal fourth quarter after
a year ago loss, said it expects improved financial performance
during its new fiscal year.
    The company reported a profit of 8.1 mln dlrs in the
quarter ended May 31, after a loss of 7.1 mln dlrs in the year
    The company said orders for its core businesses have
improved, adding "Our strong balance sheet and the improved
business environment should enable us to improve our financial
performance during our new fiscal year."
    The company said that during the fourth quarter both its
semiconductor group and its information systems group had
higher sales and improved operating performance than in the
prior quarter and the year-earlier quarter.
 REUTER

(FHLBB) today placed <Investors Federal Bank> of El Reno,
Oklahoma under receivership and transferred its 97.8 mln dlrs
in assets to the <Investors Savings and Loan Association>.
    An FHLBB statement said the thrift was insolvent and "had
substantially dissipated its assets," mainly by participating in
large commercial real estate developments. It said it violated
federal laws and regulations on loan documentation, loans to
directors and conflict of interest. The sucessor organisation
is a federal savings and loan to be managed under contract by
Sunwood Management Corp of Parker, Colorado.
 REUTER

Mitsubishi Electric Corp <MIET.T> plans to
assemble personal computers in the U.S. To counteract the
imposition of a 100 pct import tax in April and a drop in
profits due to the yen's appreciation against the dollar, a
company spokesman told Reuters.
    It will assemble 16-bit MP-286 and 32-bit MP-386 desk-top
computers at its wholly-owned computer and computer-related
equipment sales unit <Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc> in
Torrance, California at a rate if 10,000 a month, he said. This
will include 2,000 TO 3,000 to be sold in the U.S. Under the
Mitsubishi name, he said without giving more details.
 REUTER

warned members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) they could no longer rely on increased exports to the
U.S. For growth.
    "Given the importance of exports, particularly export
manufactures, to all of your countries, you are going to have
to work hard to diversify your markets," he said.
    "While you may be able to maintain your current market share
in the U.S., You clearly will not be able to look to the U.S.
To take major increases in your exports," he added.
    Shultz told the foreign ministers of Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand the U.S.
Would cut its huge foreign trade deficit more rapidly than many
now believed.
    He said ASEAN's looming trade problems would not
necessarily stem from protectionist legislation now being
contemplated by Congress, "but simply because of the adjustments
the U.S. Economy will have to make in order to service our
large and growing external debt."
    Shultz said the U.S. Deficit had resulted not from falling
exports but from higher imports that had fuelled world growth.
 REUTER

The conservative opposition, already
fighting an uphill election battle, now faces controversy in
its own ranks over a possible error in its major tax cutting
program, economists said.
    Professor Michael Porter, architect of the tax plan,
declined to refute Treasurer Paul Keating's charge that the
opposition miscalculated tax and expenditure cuts by several
billion dollars. Economists said the opposition, trailing
behind Labour in opinion polls, would find its chances further
diminished if its tax policy was a miscalculation.
    The tax plan, unveiled by opposition leader John Howard
last week, is the cornerstone of the Liberal Party's economic
strategy to oust the Labour Party in the July 11 poll.
    Keating has said the Howard tax plan would sharply increase
the budget deficit to more than nine billion dlrs and severely
damage Australia's economy, already overburdened with balance
of payments and foreign debt problems.
    In his mini-budget on May 13, Keating said the budget
    Porter, a key member of the opposition economic think tank,
said he played a leading role in formulating the tax plan but
not Howard's proposed expenditure savings, which Keating
claimed were distorted through double counting.
    Some opposition members said there appeared to be errors,
but a Liberal Party spokesman refused comment, saying the
package was being reexamined.
    "The whole thing is so deceitful," Prime Minister Bob Hawke
said in a radio interview. "Howard has made a mess of it. If
they can't govern themselves, how can they expect to govern the
country?"
    Hawke, who is seeking a third term, said the opposition had
made the election one of the easiest for him.
    "I've never felt more physically and mentally relaxed
(during an election). We've no problems at all," he said.
    The latest public opinion poll, published in the Melbourne
Sun newspaper, showed Labour was leading the opposition by 12
points, indicating a 66-seat majority for Hawke in parliament.
    The Election Commission announced last night that 613
candidates would contest the 148-seat House of Representatives,
while 255 candidates would fight for the 76 Senate seats.
 REUTER

Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> said it signed a
joint venture agreement with the Post and Telecommunication
Administration Bureau of Fujian Province (PTABF), China to
develop and sell software for the Fujitsu-designed digital
telephone switching machine FETEX-150.
    It said in a statement the joint company, <Fujian Fujitsu
Communications Software Ltd> located in Fuzhou city, was
capitalised at about 10 mln yuan and was owned 51 pct by PTABF
and 49 pct by Fujitsu.
    It would create about 20 local jobs and has a target of
annual software sales of 330 mln yen in 1992, Fujitsu said.
 REUTER

<Mitsui Investment Management Co Ltd>
(MIMCL) and <Alliance Capital Management International Inc>
(ACMII) will sign an agreement late this month to cooperate in
international fund management, a ACMII spokesman said.
    MIMCL, 55-pct controlled by affiliated companies of Mitsui
Bank Ltd <MIBT.T>, will reconsign some of its foreign
securities investment orders to ACMII, he told Reuters.
    ACMII, the London-based 100 pct-owned subsidiary of
<Alliance Capital Management Corp> of New York, will reconsign
some of its foreign orders to MIMCL and instruct MIMCL in
international fund management techniques, the spokesman said.
    Both firms were among 56 investment advisory companies
granted Japanese government approval for discretionary fund
management on June 10, the Mitsui spokesman said.
    Alliance Capital Management Corp is the world's biggest
firm devoted exclusively to fund management and has 35 billion
dlrs in funds, he said.
    Mitsui Investment Co Ltd, established two years ago,
controls about 800 mln dlrs, 80 pct of which is invested in
Japanese equities.
 REUTER

Indonesia has increased its share in a
434-billion-yen aluminium smelter joint venture with Japan from
25 to 37 pct, Asahan Project Authority director A.R. Suhud
said.
    The Japanese Export-Import Bank said Indonesia had raised
its share of (P.T. Indonesia Asahan Aluminium) company,
capitalised in 1975 at 91 billion, by swapping 32 billion yen
in government loans to the company for an equity stake.
    The Japanese shareholders, the Overseas Economic
Cooperation Fund and 12 companies, are to invest another 24
billion yen raising capitalisation to 147 billion yen.
    Asahan reported total losses of 97.6 billion rupiah between
1982 and 1985. Suhud said much of the company's 320 billion yen
debt had been caused by falling tin prices and the appreciation
of the yen against the U.S. Dollar. Aluminium is sold in
dollars.
    Prices improved from 1,150 dlrs a tonne six months ago to
about 1,450 dlrs today. The plant is supposed to break even if
prices stay at 1,500 dlrs a tonne.
    Sahud said the plant, with a capacity of 220,000 tonnes a
year, would probably lose money again in 1987. The plant,
situated in North Sumatra, produces mostly for Japan.
 REUTER

Investors on Philippine stock markets
have shrugged off growing communist activity in the cities to
push share prices to all-time highs on record turnover, brokers
said.
    Regularly heavy trading of more than one billion shares a
day has sent the Manila exchange's composite index soaring to
775.9 from 577.2 points in just over three weeks.
    Brokers described recent trading as "frantic" and "hectic" as
trading records were smashed day after day.
    A total 2.6 billion shares worth 259.4 million pesos
changed hands on the main Manila and the less important Makati
exchanges yesterday, with much of the activity among centavo
priced stocks, brokers said. The turnover was more than double
the record of 1.1 billion shares worth 118.1 million pesos set
on Wednesday.
    Brokers said rising gold prices caused mining shares to
shoot up three weeks ago, and other sectors followed. Share
prices continued their rise even when the gold price fell back
to 450 dlrs an ounce, due to rising confidence in President
Corazon Aquino's handling of the economy, they said.
    Brokers said Aquino's handling of the 18-year-old communist
insurgency and the maintenance of relatively low interest rates
also contributed to the rise.
    Blue chip stocks, such as those of San Miguel Corp and
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), have risen 25 pct
in three weeks, and the trend is upward in the medium term
although a temporary correction is overdue, they said.
    Since the surge began on May 26, Manila's Mining index has
risen to 5,700.4 points from 4,042.4, its commercial and
industrial index has shot up to 881.0 from 694.9 points, and
the oils indicator has increased to 4.1 from 2.9 points.
    Market activity has been rising in spurts since Ferdinand
Marcos was replaced by Aquino 16 months ago.
    One broker said he thought the Philippine stock market "may
at last have come of age."
    Wilson Sy, president of Prudential Securities, a local
stockbroking firm with Hong Kong affiliations, told Reuters,
"Barring any unforeseen political events you can bet on the
Philippine market. It has shrugged off the communist inroads
into Manila."
    Assassins have killed 52 policemen, soldiers and security
guards in the capital this year.
    Communist hitmen known as sparrows have claimed they killed
22 of them.
    Sy said Philippine stocks were undervalued in world terms
with price-earnings ratios often half those in Hong Kong and
one-sixth those in Japan. He said PLDT, which is also U.S.
Listed, has a price-earnings ratio of about nine.
    Sy predicted Manila's composite index would rise beyond
1,000 points from its current 775.9 mark by year-end.
    Other brokers were more cautious, saying Aquino had to
improve peace and order before investors could treat the
Philippines as they would Hong Kong or Tokyo.
    One broker said he believed about 30 pct of the money going
into stocks was now foreign, much of it from fund managers and
their agents based in Hong Kong and New York.
    Manila Stock Exchange chairman Robert Coyuito told Reuters,
"If the peace and order situation really improved the market
could move beyond a price-earnings ratio of 20 times."
    "But all depends on how Congress performs and the local
elections go," he said.
    A new two-chamber legislature was elected last month and is
due to sit on July 27. Local elections are scheduled for
November.
    PLDT shares closed at 630 pesos a share yesterday, 30 pesos
above Wednesday's record close. PLDT share prices have risen
about nine-fold in 18 months.
    San Miguel shares closed at 190 pesos, also a historic
high, brokers said.
 REUTER

Canada's sweeping tax reform package,
announced today, is an important step towards a fairer system,
but is not as bold a revamp of the tax structure as some had
expected, economists and business leaders said.
    "It's the biggest step towards tax reform we've taken in a
great many years," Merrill Lynch Canada Inc chief economist
Michael Manford told Reuters.
    "But the system is the same old system with a lot of
important changes, as opposed to a brand new system," he added.
(See spotlight index page on ECRA)
    Manford said changes introduced by Finance Minister Michael
Wilson did not go far enough in simplifying the federal tax
system. They represent evolutionary rather than revolutionary
reform.
    "Overall, I thought that it was a more timid step than we
were led to believe," he said.
    Wilson's move to increase money collected from corporations
while cutting individual taxes "is probably an acceptable shift,"
said Bill James, president of Falconbridge Ltd, an
international mining company.
    Wilson spread corporate tax increases fairly evenly across
the corporate sector, James said. "So it's not going to hit
anyone too hard and we will remain competitive."
    Wilson said in his speech to the House of Commons that
Canada's tax system needed to be changed to compete with
sweeping reforms in the United States last year.
    "The critical thing on the corporate side is that Wilson
moved most of the taxes much closer to the U.S. System," Manford
said.
    The federal government increased taxes paid by corporations
by about five billion dlrs over the next five years, but
lowered personal taxes by 11 billion dlrs in the same period.
    Despite collecting more corporate taxes, Wilson was able to
lower the tax rate on individual companies by removing many
special tax exemptions and broadening the tax base.
    Wilson's plan also reduced the capital cost allowance, used
by companies to write off major investments, which some
business spokesmen said will hurt business in the long run.
    "That will affect some investment decisions negatively," said
Laurent Thiebeault, Canadian Manufacturers Association
    Tax analysts said for some industries it will take several
days to assess the impact of the capital cost allowance
reductions that will be made over a number of years.
    As anticipated, Canada's opposition parties signalled they
intend to fight the new tax measures as they are introduced in
Parliament over the next few months.
    "It's not tax reform, it's a tax grab," said Liberal leader
John Turner.
    Turner labelled changes to the federal sales tax "a money
machine for the minister of finance."
    Wilson broadened the federal sales tax to include
additional products and also promised to introduce a
broad-based, multi-staged sales tax.
    "It's not at all a fair package and Canadians are going to
see that very quickly," New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent
said.
    However, economist Manford said Wilson acted wisely to
protect lower income Canadians by providing tax credits that
will cut 850,000 people from the tax rolls.
 REUTER

Recent government moves to curb capital
inflow have temporarily helped to slow the rise of Taiwan's
foreign exchange reserves and to stabilise the local dollar
against the U.S. Currency, officials and bankers said.
    Central bank governor Chang Chi-Cheng told reporters the
reserves rose only about 500 mln U.S. Dlrs in the past two
weeks and the local dollar appreciated more slowly against the
    Chang said, "The pace of increase in our reserves is much
slower now than before and our currency is getting more stable."
He said the reserves, mainly the result of the trade surplus
with the U.S., Rose at the rate of two to three billion U.S.
Dlrs a month between January and May.
West Germany, now total well over 60 billion U.S. Dlrs.
    On June 2 the central bank froze overseas borrowings of
local and foreign banks and cut the limit on central bank
purchases of forward U.S. Dollars from banks to 40 pct from 90
pct of the value of a contract.
    Local and foreign bankers said the June 2 measures had
drastically limited their ability to lend foreign exchange to
importers and exporters.
    They said their overseas borrowings and forward dollar
transactions showed a drastic decline with some banks
registering a fall of up to 30 pct.
    Bank dealers said the Taiwan dollar has stabilised against
the U.S. Currency this week after rising two to five Taiwanese
cents a day between June 2 and 13 compared with a rise of five
to eight cents in May.
    The bank dealers said the central bank, which had
previously bought U.S. Dollars heavily, sold at least 1.1
billion U.S. Dlrs in the past two weeks to meet commercial
demand.
    They said they expected the government to keep the local
dollar stable in the near term to give breathing space to
businesses experiencing slower exports because of the rise of
more than 23 pct in the value of the Taiwan dollar since
September 1985.
    The Taiwan dollar opened at 31.09 to the U.S. Dollar today,
unchanged from yesterday.
    Keh Fei-Lo, vice president of First Commercial Bank, said,
"It appears the central bank's move to curb the capital inflow
is quite successful."
    Vice economic minister Wang Chien-Shien said the slower
rise in foreign exchange reserves would help ease pressure from
Washington over the large U.S. Trade deficit with Taiwan.
    Over the past year Taiwanese businessmen have delayed
imports of machinery and production equipment because of
exchange rate uncertainty, he said. The stable exchange rate
would help boost imports, particularly from the United States.
 REUTER

Japan's cabinet approved a plan to help
financially-troubled aluminium ventures in Indonesia and
Brazil, an official at the Ministry of International and Trade
Industry (MITI) said.
    Japan will invest 24 billion yen in <PT Indonesia Asahan
Aluminium> in addition to the 68.3 billion yen already invested
in the company. The government and private interests will
equally share the additional investment, he said.
    They will also provide equal shares in 6.3 billion yen in
new investment in the Albras Amazon aluminium project in
Brazil, in addition to the 45.7 billion yen already invested.
    The Japan Export-Import Bank will cut its rates on loans to
Asahan and Albras to about five pct from about seven pct, the
    Interest rates on loans by Japan's private banks to the two
projects are expected to be reduced to around five pct from the
current seven to eight pct, but an agreement has yet to be
reached, industry sources said.
    Under the rescue scheme for Asahan, in which 91.1 billion
yen has been invested, Indonesia will also extend another 32
billion yen to the company.  This will raise Indonesia's
investment ratio to about 40 pct from the current 25 pct.
    The Brazilian government has already agreed to invest an
additional 6.5 billion yen in Albras, in which investment now
totals 93.2 billion yen, but its stake will not change from 51
pct, the official said.
    The sources said the rescue programs for the two projects
were larger than earlier expected, reflecting Japan's desire to
help develop the economies of Indonesia and Brazil and to
stabilise sources of aluminium.
    Japan depends on imports for more than 90 pct of its
aluminium demand, which totals some 1.8 mln tonnes a year, they
said.
 REUTER

Mitsui and Co Ltd <MITS.T> paid 1.5 mln
dlrs in early May for a five pct stake in <Zoran Corp>, a
California-based maker of large scale integrated circuits (LSI)
with computer graphic, communications and medical applications,
a Mitsui spokesman told Reuters.
    He said the two firms will form a marketing company in
Japan as early as next year, although details of the joint
venture are not yet fixed. Mitsui expects last year's 10
billion yen Japanese LSI market to grow quickly.
    Zoran was founded in 1981 and now has about 100 employees,
he said.
 REUTER

Faulty repairs and inadequate inspection
caused the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines Co Ltd <JAPN.T> (JAL)
Boeing 747 which killed 520 people, the Japanese government
said in a final official report.
    The clear cause of the crash was faulty repair work by the
Boeing Co <BA>, said Shun Takeda, the ministry of transport
official leading the accident investigation committee.
    But the report also criticised the ministry's inspectors
for failing to carry out a full check of the repairs before
signing the clearance sheet.
    The aircraft hit Mount Osutaka, north of Tokyo, on August
12, 1985, after a bulkhead separating the pressurised cabin
from the unpressurised tail suddenly burst, fracturing key
navigation systems. Only four people survived.
    A Japan Air Lines spokesman declined comment on the report.
Boeing is expected to release a statement later today.
    The report cleared the JAL crew of all responsibility.
    In a separate set of recommendations, the investigators
said large aircraft operating in Japan should have fail-safe
systems, but did not say how this should be done.
    A press statement by a group of lawyers representing
victims of the crash criticised the report for not dealing in
greater depth with the fail-safe aspect.
    The lawyers said Boeing had showed it believed the crash
was due to design defects by specifying two design
modifications to prevent a recurrence in a memorandum filed in
King County, Washington, Superior Court last March 24.
    They said similar official recommendations for fail-safe
systems following two air disasters involving DC-10 aircraft,
near Paris in 1974 and at Chicago in 1979, had been rejected
after objections from aircraft manufacturers.
    The government investigators asked the ministry to
formulate concrete guidelines for its inspectors. An internal
ministry memo earlier this year complained that inspectors were
left too much on their own when making aircraft checks.
    A Boeing team made repairs to the aircraft's aft bulkhead
under JAL supervision, and Transport Ministry inspectors
approved the repairs without actually seeing them, today's
    The inspectors were unable to check Boeing's work because
the part repaired had been covered by a seal, the report said.
    Over time, cabin pressurisation speeded up the process of
metal fatigue in the repaired bulkhead.
    Boeing issued an official statement on September 6, 1985,
saying the 1978 repairs it had carried out were faulty. It did
not link them with the crash.
 REUTER

Japan's custom-cleared trade surplus
narrowed to 1.61 billion dlrs in the first 10 days of June from
1.97 billion a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said.
    The June interim surplus compares with a 1.76 billion dlr
surplus in the same May period.
    FOB exports in the first 10 days of June rose 17.6 pct from
a year earlier to 6.05 billion dlrs while CIF imports rose 39.6
pct to 4.44 billion.
    The average yen/dollar rate used for the figures was 141.04
yen against 169.03 a year earlier.
 REUTER

Year ended March 31
    Group shr 18.83 yen vs 18.73
    Net 20.07 billion vs 18.47 billion
    Pretax 22.14 billion vs 25.36 billion
    Operating 37.57 billion vs 51.57 billion
    Sales 14,762 billion vs 15,900 billion
 REUTER

Japan's private sector machinery orders,
excluding shipbuilding, fell 10.4 pct in April from March to a
seasonally adjusted 663.8 billion yen, after rising 17.6 pct in
March, the government's Economic Planning Agency said.
    April orders rose 2.0 pct from a year earlier after a 22.6
pct year-on-year rise in March, an agency spokesman told
Reuters.
    Seasonally adjusted private sector orders, excluding those
for shipbuilding and electric power firms, fell 7.5 pct in
April from March to 517.4 billion yen, after a 5.7 pct rise in
March from February.
    April orders fell 1.3 pct from a year earlier after being
unchanged in March.
    The April drop was due mainly to a 12.9 pct decrease in
orders from machine tool industries and a 15.3 pct drop in
orders from car makers, the spokesman said.
 REUTER

Senior U.S. Officials are looking to Japan
for help in buttressing the world economy in the event of an
American recession next year, Japanese government sources said.
    During a visit to the U.S. Earlier this month, Economic
Planning Minister Tetsuo Kondo was asked by both U.S. Federal
Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and Council of Economic Advisers
chairman Beryl Sprinkel what Japan could do if the U.S. Enters
recession next year.
    Although Sprinkel indicated that he personally did not
expect a recession next year, Volcker seemed to acknowledge
that an economic downturn was at least a possibility, the
    Faced with with a huge budget deficit, the U.S. Has little
room to manoeuvre on fiscal policy to counteract any downturn
that might occur in 1988.
    It is also hamstrung as far as monetary policy is concerned
because U.S. Inflation is already showing some signs of picking
up, one source said.
    But Japan is also limited in what action it could take to
help counteract a U.S. Recession without running the risk of
overstimulating its domestic economy and pushing up inflation,
    Money supply growth is accelerating and interest rates are
at record low levels. In May, M-2 money supply plus
certificates of deposit grew at a year-on-year rate of 10.2
pct, well above nominal GNP growth of four to five pct.
    Some government sources are also worried that the recently
announced 6,000 billion yen emergency economic package could
push up land prices and the construction sector's inflation.
    Public investment spending grew at a year-on-year rate of
about 10 pct in April, but that could accelerate to 20 pct
later this year under the impact of the emergency package, one
    The 6,000 billion yen package was generally well received
in the U.S., Although U.S. Congressmen and businessmen told
Kondo they wanted the measures implemented quickly, sources
said.
    The Japanese minister explained that the acceleration of
public works spending in the package was taking place
immediately, they said.
    U.S. Congressmen were particularly interested in how much
impact the package would have on reducing the bilateral trade
imbalance, a question which Kondo was unable to answer clearly,
given the many economic uncertainties involved, the sources
said.
    While recognizing that Japan's trade surplus is falling in
terms of volume, some Congressmen expressed concern that it was
not falling fast enough.
     But the sources said no one pressed Kondo for a further
rise of the yen as a solution to correcting the bilateral trade
 REUTER

Sainsbury's says it taking control of Shaw's Supermarkets
for 30 dlrs a share

Japan will lend 27.17 billion yen to
Indonesia and will share equally with the World Bank a 7.25
billion yen loan to Bolivia as part of its efforts to help
Third World countries, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
    The lending is in line with Japan's plan to contribute 20
billion dlrs over the next three years to developing countries.
    Both loans will be used for development, the spokesman told
Reuters. He declined to name terms.
 REUTER

J Sainsbury Plc<SNB.L> said it agreed to
take control of the U.S. Shaw's Supermarkets Inc through a
combination of share purchases and a tender offer at 30 dlrs a
share.
    Sainsbury bought about 21 pct of the stock in 1983. It said
its U.S. Subsidiary, Chene Investments Inc, bought 2.55 mln
common shares from the controlling Davis family yesterday at 30
dlrs a share for 76.5 mln dlrs, lifting its stake to 49.4 pct.
    A tender offer for the outstanding shares will be launched,
also at 30 dlrs a share for a maximum further cost of 184.4
mln.
    The Shaw's Board and the Davis family has agreed to accept
the offer, thus assuring Sainsbury's a total holding of 74.0
pct.
    The company had allotted 20.18 mln new ordinary shares to
<Warburg Securities Ltd> which it said would be sufficient to
finance about 188 mln dlrs of the maximum 261 mln dlrs payable.
    Shaw's operates a chain of 49 supermarkets in
Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire which in 1986 produced
sales of 1.1 billiob dlrs and pretax profit of 31.1 mln. At the
end of 1986 it had net assets of 88 mln dlrs.
    Last September, Sainsbury's increased its stake in Shaw's
to 28.5 pct. In the year to March 21, it reported a rise in
pretax profit to 246.9 mln stg from 192.7 mln on sales that
increased to 4.04 billion from 3.58 billion.
    Sainsbury shares had fallen five pence before the
announcement to 590p from last night's close but were unmoved
by news of the deal.
 REUTER

C. Itoh and Co Ltd <CITT.T> said its group
net profit in the year ending March 31, 1988, is expected to be
unchanged from a year earlier.
    The prediction assumes a yen/dollar rate of 140 yen and a
crude oil price of 18 dlrs a barrel, a company spokesman told
Reuters. Sales in 1987/88 are estimated at 15,100 billion yen,
up 2.3 pct from a year earlier.
    The company earlier reported group net profit of 20.07
billion yen in the year ended March 31, 1987, up 8.6 pct from a
year earlier, helped by a drop in sales and administration
costs and reduced interest charges.
 REUTER

Union Bank of Switzerland (Securities)
Ltd said it is lead managing the sale of 25,000 new bearer
shares of Sandoz Ltd.
    The shares closed in Zurich yesterday at 12,100 Swiss
francs each. Final terms will be set on, or before, June 25.
    The selling concession is two pct while management and
underwriting each pays 3/4 pct.
 REUTER

Parent shr loss 15.85 yen vs profit 2.02
    Interim div nil vs nil
    Net loss 12.92 billion vs profit 1.65 billion
    Current loss 12.52 billion vs profit 4.44 billion
    Operating loss 8.76 billion vs profit 6.52 billion
    Sales 443.90 billion vs 528.03 billion
    Outstanding shrs 815.10 mln vs 814.97 mln
 REUTER

Isuzu Motors Ltd <ISUM.T> has no plans to
import cars made by General Motors Corp <GM.N> to Japan, an
Isuzu spokesman told Reuters.
    The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Isuzu had
decided to import cars directly from GM.
    Each month Isuzu's domestic distributors sell five to 10
cars from GM's Buick, Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile range.
    The cars are supplied by Yanase and Co Ltd, a Japanese
importer and distributor.
    Isuzu is owned 38.6 pct by GM.
 REUTER

The navy is unloading
foodgrains at Chittagong port following a strike by nearly
1,000 dockworkers, Bangladesh Shipping Corp officials said.
    The navy was unloading 74,000 tonnes of foodgrains from two
ships today, and four vessels laden with some 90,000 tonnes of
grains were waiting at the outer anchorage, port officials
said.
    A spokesman for the workers said they would continue their
strike until authorities agree to their demands for higher pay
and other benefits. The strike began on June 11.
    "Unloading of grains and other essential commodities started
normally after we called in navy personnel to help," a port
    "The strike has caused no serious dislocation," he said.
    The government meanwhile declared the port jobs an
"essential service" and said the strikers could be dismissed
unless they end the strike soon.
 REUTER

Fujitsu Ltd <ITSU.T> has developed a
simulation processor which will operate faster than any
computer and will speed development of the next generation of
computers, a spokesman told Reuters.
    The simulation processor will halve the time needed for
fault testing the millions of basic logic circuits incorporated
in the latest computers, he said.
    It can simulate the operation of as many as 530 mln logic
elements a second if a maximum of 64 processors are
interconnected. The simulation processor, which took four years
to develop, will not be marketed, he said.
 REUTER

importers awarded a contract to Cargill Inc of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, for supply of one 32,000 tonne cargo of U.S.
Soybeans, a committee spokesman told Reuters.
    The cargo, priced at 249.10 U.S. Dlrs per tonne c and f
Taiwan, is set for delivery before July 7, he said.
    The committee cancelled a tender for another cargo because
the prices offered by U.S. Suppliers were too high, he added.
 REUTER

The chairman of the Life Insurers
Association told a press conference that life insurance
companies  will increasingly diversify their investments away
from U.S. Bonds to protect themselves against currency swings,
an association spokesman said.
    Terumichi Tsuchida said Japanese investment in U.S. Bonds
is decreasing, but not drastically,
    Life insurers are increasingly placing some of their funds
in other currencies, including bonds in Canadian dlrs and in
European currencies, he told the conference.
 REUTER

The government should cut its consumer
rice price if the official producer price is reduced next
month, Tetsuo Kondo, director general of the government's
Economic Planning Agency (EPA), told reporters.
    Kondo said after a cabinet meeting that consumers should
receive the benefits of the falling costs of rice farming due
to the strong yen and lower oil prices.
    Agriculture Ministry sources said the producer rice price
paid to rice farmers would be cut after discussions by the Rice
Price Council, an advisory body to the ministry, on July 1 and
2. The consumer rice price is usually set in December.
 REUTER

Boeing Co <BA> said in a statement it has
yet to see the official Japanese government report on the crash
of a Japan Air Lines (JAL) Boeing 747 in which 520 died.
    However, it said it had agreed with an earlier draft report
that the accident was caused by incorrect repairs which
remained undetected during scheduled inspections.
    The final report, released today, said faulty repairs to
the plane in 1978 by Boeing and inadequate inspection by
Transport Ministry inspectors caused the 1985 crash, the worst
single air disaster in aviation history.
    Boeing said it did not believe a similar accident could
occur under any foreseeable operating conditions but said it
had made tests and provided equipment for new planes and for
planes already in service to ensure it could not happen again.
 REUTER

Japan could avoid a sharp rise in the
value of the yen against the dollar if Japan, the U.S. And
other nations succeeded in restructuring their economies, an
advisory panel to the government's Economic Planning Agency
(EPA) said.
    The advisory body said in its report that the yen would
soar against the dollar if structural adjustments on a global
basis were delayed.
    An EPA official told Reuters the dollar could fall to
slightly below 100 yen by 1993 if Japan and the U.S. Failed to
restructure their economies.
    The dollar's fall without structural adjustments would cut
Japan's current account surplus to two pct of gross national
product (GNP) in 1993, the report said. It said such a change
would slow real GNP growth to an average of two pct annually
during the seven-year period to 1993.
    If the two nations restructured their economies, the dollar
would remain stable in real terms, while reducing Japan's
current-account surplus to 2.1 pct of GNP in 1993. This
scenario put Japan's GNP growth at 3.5 pct a year.
    It forecast real growth of three pct for the world economy
and four pct for Japan by 2,000 if the adjustments were made.
 REUTER

Japan must try harder to reduce its trade
surplus or the yen will come under renewed upward pressure,
Economic Planning Minister Tetsuo Kondo.
    He told a press luncheon he hoped Japan could cut its
current account surplus by some 10 billion dlrs a year until it
is reduced to some 50 to 60 billion dlrs. In the fiscal year
ended March 31 the surplus totalled 93.76 billion dlrs, or
about 4.5 pct of GNP.
    The 6,000 billion yen economic stimulation package the
government unveiled late last month would help slash Japan's
current account surplus by five to six billion dlrs, he said.
 REUTER

The loopholes in Swiss banking supervision
must be closed in a step-by-step manner, Swiss National Bank
Vice-President Markus Lusser said.
    The integration of financial markets had blurred the
distinction between banks and bank-like finance companies, and
the varying degree of regulation of the two sectors had a
destablizing effect, he told the Association of Foreign Banks.
    "It is in the interest of all market participants that these
institutes (finance companies) be brought as soon as possible
under banking supervision," he said in remarks prepared for
delivery to the association's annual meeting.
    It was important, however, that bringing finance companies
under the banking law did not undermine Switzerland as a
financial marketplace, Lusser said.
    "It is decisive for its future that it succeeds in
attracting and holding a wide variety of banks, financial
intermediaries and financial experts," he said.
    Lusser also urged greater harmonization of regulatory
practice with other countries in view of the integration of
world markets and the internationalization of the banking
business.
 REUTER

The Tokyo stock market will probably not
make significant gains next week and may suffer a temporary
correction, brokers said.
    Dashed hopes of a further cut in Japan's 2.5 pct discount
rate cut and a growing conviction the dollar will remain firm
against the yen in the near-term has created a measure of
uncertainty over the market's future, brokers said.
    "Everybody is just trying to think through things and see
exactly what is going on," said a broker at Sanyo Securities Co
Ltd. "There is a lot of confusion," he added.
    This uncertainty was spotlighted by violent swings in stock
prices over the last two days. Today the 225-share average
ended 462.43 points lower at 25,288.12.
    "People expect a correction next week. They don't care if
the market falls to 24,000," the Sanyo broker said. "There is
always enough money waiting to get into the market to fill any
correction."
    Tokyo stock prices owe a major part of their two-year bull
run to repeated cuts in the discount rate, which diverts money
from bank deposits to the stock market and cuts the cost of
borrowing, boosting domestic demand and imports.
    "Fund managers are restructuring their investment portfolios
to sell domestic-related issues and include a few more
exporters," said Prudential Bache Securities' Hank Sawa.
    Tokyo-based foreign exchange dealers predict the dollar is
unlikely to fall sharply in the near term, thus convincing
stock market investors to buy electronics, precision
instrument, machinery and some other export-oriented
manufacturing shares, brokers said.
    "Some people are awaiting the results of proposed
protectionist U.S. Trade legislation in July for clues to the
currency direction," a broker at Daiwa Securities Co Ltd said.
 REUTER

Thailand's major tin exporter and
producer <Thailand Smelting and Refining Co> (Thaisarco) said
it may be unable to meet all its overseas orders because of
insufficient supplies of tin concentrates from Thai mines.
    Local mines cut combined daily tin concentrate sales to
Thaisarco, a Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD.AS> unit, to less than
20 tonnes earlier this month from a previous 40 to 45 tonne
average, commercial manager Yoot Eamsa-ard told Reuters.
    He said the cuts resulted from a government decision to let
the temporary business and municipal tax reductions on exported
tin lapse on June 3.
    The taxes, levied on the tin mines, rose to 4.4 pct this
month from 1.1 pct ad valorem over the past year. The lower
levels had been introduced last year as a temporary move to aid
the tin industry after prices collapsed in late 1985.
    Yoot said Thaisarco had to dig into its stocks to meet a
large portion of new overseas orders which were averaging 100
tonnes per day.
    As a result, he said, Thailand could fail to fill some
3,000 tonnes of its 19,000 tonne tin export quota allocated by
the Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC) for the year
ending February 1988.
    Reduced tin exports this year could cause the ATPC to
allocate a lower quota next year, Yoot said.
    The supplies shortage should prove temporary, however,
because the Thai cabinet is expected to review a Mineral
Resources Department proposal to reinstate the low taxes late
this month, Yoot said.
    The department said Thailand exported 7,715 tonnes of tin
during January/May compared with 8,462 tonnes a year ago.
 REUTER

Olympus Optical Co Ltd <OOPT.T> predicted
parent company current profit of 5.50 billion yen in the year
ending October 31, 1987, up 12 pct from a year earlier,
assuming a yen/dollar rate of 147 yen in the second half, a
    Sales in 1986/87 are estimated at 122 billion yen, up 0.9
    But net profit will fall 71.7 pct to three billion yen in
1986/87 from a year earlier when the company made a 10.59
billion net profit due to sales of real estate assets worth
seven billion yen, the spokesman said.
    The precision instrument maker will retain 13 yen dividend
for 1986/87, the spokesman said.
    It earlier reported parent company net profit of 1.34
billion yen in the six months ended April 30, down 85.5 pct
from a year earlier, on sales of 60.92 billion, down 0.1 pct.
    The poor net was mainly due to a fall to 45 mln yen in
extraordinary profit in the first half, against 7.70 billion of
such profit a year earlier, due mainly to sales of assets.
    The drop in first half sales was due to the yen's rise
against the dollar, which cut sales by some 4.30 billion yen.
    The dollar averaged 157 yen, against 192 a year earlier.
 REUTER

Isuzu Motors Ltd <ISUM.T> forecast a
parent company net loss of 15 billion yen in the year ending
October 31, 1987 against a 3.98 billion loss a year earlier,
 assuming a yen/dollar rate of 140 yen, a spokesman said.
    Sales in 1986/87 are estimated at 910 billion yen, down
10.2 pct from a year earlier.
    The automaker earlier reported a parent company net loss of
12.92 billion in the six months ended April 30, 1987, against a
1.65 billion yen profit a year earlier, on sales of 443.90
billion, down 15.9 pct from a year earlier.
    The poor first half performance was due to the yen's rise
against the dollar which cut 84.27 billion yen off sales, the
    The average yen/dollar rate rose to 158 yen in the first
half from 207 a year earlier.
    First half car exports fell to 68,445 from 82,093 a year
earlier, mainly due to drop in exports to the U.S., While
domestic sales rose to 30,643 from 29,836.
    Truck exports fell to 108,782 from 127,903 because a
two-year contract to sell a total of 40,000 trucks to China
ended last year and domestic sales fell to 55,925 from 61,954.
    The company estimated sales at 207,000 cars in 1986/87,
down 5.2 pct from a year earlier, and 339,000 trucks, down 9.8
pct, the spokesman said.
    He gave no estimate of exports.
 REUTER

French electronics group La Telemecanique
Electric <TLMF.PA> expects 1987 consolidated profits to remain
steady on 1986 levels, allowing the company to pay a higher
dividend this year, chairman Jacques Valla told the company's
general meeting.
    Valla said the outlook for 1987 was good and orders for the
group would increase by at least seven pct.
    Telemecanique posted a consolidated net profit of 236.8 mln
francs in 1986, compared to 215.1 mln in 1985, on turnover of
6.28 billion francs compared to 6.10 billion. The group paid a
dividend of 57 francs, compared to 52.50 francs.
 REUTER

Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC) has decided
to renew its one-year contract with Abu Dhabi for 480,000
tonnes of Upper Zakum crude oil, CPC officials told Reuters.
    They said CPC made the recommendation to the cabinet and is
now awaiting its approval.
    CPC's one-year contract with Abu Dhabi expired on May 31
this year and it wants the renewed contract to begin on June 1
at the government selling price. Delivery will be determined in
the course of the year. Last year, shipments were in three
parcels of 120,000 tonnes each and four of 30,000 tonnes each.
    CPC officials also said the company agreed with the
Egyptian government for the supply of 240,000 tonnes of Gulf of
Suez crude for delivery in two shipments this year at the
government selling price.
    Last year, CPC bought 120,000 tonnes Gulf of Suez through
C.Itoh.
    Officials said plans to buy 240,000 tonnes of Basra Light
from Iraq have not been finalised yet because of several
constraints. CPC said it could not accept 120,000 tonne parcels
and proposed to lift 30,000 tonnes in eight shipments.
    Iraq National Oil Co (INOC) told CPC a Red Sea port where
lifting was to take place could not accept small ships. INOC
then proposed to deliver eight shipments of 30,000 tonnes each.
    CPC said INOC planned to ship the oil to an Indian port for
delivery of Indian requirements, later going to Colombo to
offload CPC's needs, but CPC considered this unsuitable.
    CPC said it had not received a reply from INOC since
December. Sri Lanka imports all its annual needs of 1.7 mln
tonnes. This year it plans to buy 400,000 tonnes on the spot
market compared with about 1.3 mln tonnes last year.
 REUTER

Spain's private bank staff started a one
and a half day strike over wage demands but its impact was not
yet clear.
    Spokesmen for several of the main banks said strikers at
their Madrid headquarters appeared to be a small minority. They
had yet to receive reports from branches.
    Unions called out the 160,000 employees to press for cuts
in working hours and an eight pct wage rise. Banks implemented
a 4.75 pct wage increase last month.
 REUTER

The Norwegian company <Konsgberg
Vaapenfabrikk> (KV) may have sold more high technology defence
equipment since an original deal in 1982, senior justice
    State prosecutor Tor-Aksel Busch told Reuters he had
started fresh investigations into the state-owned arms firm
which delivered computers to the Soviet Union in 1982 and 1983,
used to make near-silent submarine propellers.
    "There may have been other deliveries of the same equipment
since then," he said.
 Reuter

Japanese commercial creditor banks
confirmed an earlier commitment to extend some 360 mln dlrs in
new loans to Argentina, banking sources said.
    The commitment will represent a part of the 1.95 billion
dlrs in new loans to Argentina agreed to by 350 banks worldwide
last April 24, the sources said.
    The 350 banks were supposed to confirm their Argentina loan
commitments by June 17.
    About 91 pct of them have already done so, but it may take
some more time before all have confirmed their intentions, the
 REUTER

Liner shipping specialist <Evergreen
Marine Corp>, Taiwan's largest private company, has applied to
the Security and Exchange Commission to go public next month, a
company spokeswoman told Reuters.
    She said Evergreen had doubled its capital to eight billion
Taiwan dlrs since last August.
    "The capital increase will boost our operations," she said.
    She said Evergreen will use the funds raised from the stock
market to buy new ships and step up its global services.
    The spokeswoman said the company posted an after-tax profit
of more than one billion dlrs last year on total revenues of
20.46 billion, compared to an after-tax profit of 1.18 billion
on revenues of 17.99 billion in 1985.
    Evergreen has placed newbuilding orders for three 3,428-teu
(twenty-foot equivalent unit) fully cellular container ships
with the state-owned <China Shipbuilding Corp> for delivery in
late 1988.
    Evergreen has a fleet of 66 container vessels, totalling
more than two mln dwt, the spokeswoman said.
 REUTER

Ciba-Geigy AG <CIGZ.Z> said
it acquired a minority stake in British cereal breeding company
<New Farm Crops Ltd>.
    It said in a statement the British company's skills in
applied plant breeding would assist Ciba-Geigy in applying the
results of its biotechnology research and enable it to extend
its activities in seeds to crops such as wheat and barley.
    New Farm Crops of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, will have
access to Ciba-Geigy's agricultural research resources,
especially in biotechnology.
 REUTER

South Africa recorded annualised
real growth in GDP of 3.25 pct in the first quarter of this
year and the economy should achieve the government's target of
three pct growth for 1987, the Reserve Bank said.
    The South African central bank said in its quarterly
bulletin that confidence in the economy improved from January
to May 31 because of the higher gold price, a rise in the
nation's gold and foreign currency reserves and an improvement
in the rand's exchange rate to just under 50 U.S. Cents.
    It noted the growth rate had slowed from 4.5 pct in the
third and fourth quarters of last year.
    It also cited a three year debt recheduling agreement
reached with international creditors in March as evidence of
improved foreign perceptions of the South African economy.
    The accord effectively extends a moratorium on most
repayments of 13 billion dlrs of South Africa's short term
foreign debt. Total foreign debt is 23 billion dlrs.
    South Africa recorded a seasonally adjusted annualised
surplus on the current account of the balance of payments of
7.43 billion rand in the first quarter, compared with a surplus
of 7.24 billion rand in 1986. The bank said it was the ninth
consecutive current account surplus since the start of 1985.
 REUTER

The World Bank is issuing a 100 mln
Australian dlr bond due July 20, 1992 paying 13-3/8 pct and
priced at 101-7/8 pct, lead manager Hambros Bank Ltd said.
    The payment date is July 20.
 REUTER

Dutch seasonally adjusted industrial
production fell by 6.4 pct in April compared with the previous
month, and was 5.5 pct down on the same period last year,
figures from the official Statistics Bureau CBS show.
    The April index, base 1980, stood at 103. In March,
industrial production rose by 2.8 pct from February.
    The unadjusted April index figure fell 14 pct from March to
104, compared with a 10 pct rise in March over February.
 REUTER

Net receipts of U.K. Building societies
in May fell to 521 mln stg from 727 mln in April and compared
with 500 mln in May 1986, figures from the Building Societies
Association show.
    Association director-general Mark Boleat said in a
statement he was satisfied with the May figure in view of the
calls for investors funds' generated by the privatisation of
Rolls-Royce Plc and the approaching second call on the
partly-paid British Gas Plc shares.
    Boleat said the recently announced cut in mortgage rates
suggests a continuation of buoyant demand. He noted that
building society net receipts usually decline seasonally as
summer approaches.
    The British Gas second call fell on June 9, affecting
building society inflows in both May and June.
    Gross retail receipts in May, unadjusted for withdrawals,
were 7.46 billion stg against 6.63 mln in April and 5.60
billion in May last year.
    The net inflow of funds from the wholesale market in May
was 317 mln stg against 188 mln in April and 249 mln in May
1986.
 REUTER

CANADA MAY CONSUMER PRICE INDEX RISES 0.6 PCT, STATISTICS
CANADA SAID

Compagnie Industriali Riunite (CIR) has
asked Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd to arrange a 200 mln dlr
syndicated loan facility, which will have a final maturity of
seven years, Citicorp said.
    Continental Illinois Ltd and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd will
be coordinators for the facility, which will be in the name of
CIR International S.A., Luxembourg and guaranteeed by Compagnie
Industriali Riunite SpA.
    Banks will be able to terminate their participation at the
end of year five or year six, subject to four years prior
notice.
    There is an availability period of 12 months during which a
commitment fee of 0.0625 pct per annum is payable on undrawn
amounts. Interest on the drawn loan will be 0.15 pct over the
    The borrower is the holding company for Carlo di
Benedetti's various companies, which include Ing C. Olivetti EC
SpA.
 REUTER

Canada's consumer price index rose 0.6
pct in May to 137.8, base 1981, following a 0.4 pct rise in
April and a 0.5 pct rise in May 1986, Statistics Canada said.
    The May year-on-year rise was 4.6 pct, compared with a 4.5
pct rise in April.
 Reuter

West German producer prices rose 0.1
pct in May compared with April to stand 2.9 pct lower than in
May last year, the Federal Statistics Office said.
    In April, producer prices fell 0.3 pct from March and
dropped 3.6 pct from their levels a year earlier.
    The Statistics Office said producer prices for liquefied
gas fell 10 pct in May from April and heavy heating oil prices
declined 5.3 pct, while lead prices rose 23 pct and silver
prices increased 13 pct.
 REUTER

Japanese oil companies are starting
campaigns to market 100 octane gasoline to meet growing
domestic demand for higher quality motor fuel, oil sources
said.
    Ten companies plan to offer the unleaded gasoline this
summer, starting with <Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd> on June 20.
    Showa Shell Sekiyu KK <SHOL.T> introduced its Formula Shell
98 octane gasoline to the Japanese market in January this year.
    Formula Shell has achieved strong sales in Japan despite a
higher price than regular octane gasoline, which has prompted
other oil firms to offer a rival product, the sources said.
    "We have received a good response from consumers of Formula
Shell in terms of a smoother ride and effective fuel
consumption," Showa Shell said.
    Shell's product sells for 145 yen per litre, 15 yen higher
than regular gasoline, and has already achieved a 38 pct share
of Japan's high octane gasoline market, it said.
    High octane gasoline accounts for 25 pct of Shell's total
gasoline sales in Japan, it added.
    Idemitsu said it hopes to raise high octane sales to 20 pct
of its total gasoline sales from about seven pct, immediately
after the launch of its Idemitsu 100.
    Nippon Oil Co Ltd <NPOL.T> said it will launch its 100
octane gasoline on July 1, aiming for an increase in high
octane sales to 20 pct from six pct of its total gasoline
sales.
    The rush to compete for high octane gasoline market share
has been spurred by expectations that the government will lift
gasoline production quotas and restrictions on gasoline station
construction in the next two to three years.
    "Major oil companies are trying to boost their gasoline
sales network ahead of the proposed lifting of gasoline
production quotas," an official at a major oil company said.
    An advisory panel to the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry (MITI) recommended this week that the government
press ahead with deregulation of the oil industry, including
the lifting of gasoline production quotas, to help oil
companies increase their international competitiveness.
    Japan's three biggest gasoline marketers, Nippon Oil,
Idemitsu and Showa Shell, suffered supply shortages under the
production quota guideline in fiscal 1986, ended last March.
    Domestic gasoline demand during the year was up 2.5 pct
from the previous year, according to a MITI report.
 REUTER

yesterday affirmed the AAA senior debt and A-1-plus commercial
paper of National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>.
    The AA long-term and A-1-plus short-term certificates of
deposit of National Westminster Bank USA were also affirmed.
    S and P cited the bank's decision to increase group
provisions for sovereign debt exposure by 466 mln stg. The
action raised total provisions against 35 countries with
payment difficulties to 29.8 pct from 13 pct, S and P said. S
and P said this puts the bank's debt coverage in line with that
of its international peers.
 REUTER

affirmed the AAA senior debt and A-1-plus commercial paper of
National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>.
 REUTER

The proposed 500 mln Hong Kong dlr
transferable loan facility for <South China Morning Post Co
Ltd>, a unit of News Corp Ltd <NCPA.S>, will be raised to 888
mln dlrs, lead manager Manufacturers Hanover Asia Ltd said.
    The loan was more than three times oversubscribed in
syndication with 1.2 billion dlrs raised.
    Manufacturers Hanover Asia and the other three lead
managers, Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank, Bank of Tokyo and Westpac
Banking Corp, will each contribute 36 mln dlrs.
    There are 33 managers and seven co-managers.
    Allotments for managers who were invited to contribute 40
mln dlrs will be cut to 20 mln dlrs, while those for
co-managers invited to contribute 25 mln dlrs will be reduced
to 12 mln dlrs.
    The five-year loan facility, with a 3-1/2 year grace
period, will be borrowed under the name of South China Morning
Post Finance Ltd and guaranteed by News Corp.
    Interest is set at 1/2 percentage point over Hong Kong
interbank offered rate for the first two years, rising to 5/8
point thereafter.
 REUTER

The British Printing and Communication
Corp Plc<BPL.L> is considering selling its specialist packaging
and labelling operations, a spokeswoman said.
    She gave no dates or prices for the transaction but said
the units would be sold by negotiation.
    She declined to give any turnover or profit figures for the
packaging and labelling operations, beyond saying that they
were very profitable. They formed a self-contained part of the
overall group, she said.
    Analysts said the packaging and labelling division could be
sold for up to 150 mln stg.
    Earlier this week group chairman Robert Maxwell also said
it expected to float its Mirror group newspaper subsidiary,
bought from  Reed International Plc <REED.L> for 100 mln stg in
1984.
    The spokeswoman said that BPCC intended to keep a majority
share in the newspaper group if it was floated.
    BPCC is currently locked in legal battles resulting from
its attempt to take over U.S. Publisher Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich Inc <HBJ>. Earlier this week, BPCC launched a
two-for-three rights issue to raise 640 mln stg and said the
money raised would enable it to renew its assault on Harcourt.
It has also expressed interest in Dutch publisher Kluwer NV
<KLUW.AS>.
 REUTER

The Indian State Trading Corp (STC) are
reported to have taken three parcels, around 5,000 tonnes each,
of palm olein at yesterday's weekly vegetable oil tender,
    All are for August shipment at 364 dlrs a tonne cif. India
passed on all other materials, they added.
 REUTER

Philippines' Board of Investments (BOI)
has approved new guidelines on making cars but is still
awaiting rules on the tax component of the programme, trade and
industry secretary Jose Concepcion said.
    He said the authorities were still deciding how much tax
will be levied on locally-assembled cars.
    The new car development programme replaces an earlier
scheme and is designed to limit the number of car manufacturers
in the local market.
    The scheme is to be unveiled before the end of the month.
    The two accredited local car manufacturers are <Pilipinas
Nissan Inc>, which gets car kits from Nissan Motor Company Ltd
<NSAN.T> and <Philippine Automotive Manufacturing Corp> which
gets supplies from Mitsubishi Corp <MITT.T>.
    Three companies which pulled out due to what they saw as
poor market conditions were Ford Philippines, a subsidiary of
Ford Motor Co <F>, General Motors Pilipinas, a subsidiary of
General Motors Corp <GM> and <Delta Motors Corp>.
    Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T>, which was the foreign partner
of Delta Motors, has applied for a place in the new programme
and is negotiating the purchase of Delta's assembly plant.
    Concepcion declined to say how many car assemblers would be
allowed to operate, but said they will be required to finance
75 pct of the foreign exchange needed to import
completely-knocked-down kits.
    The balance will be provided by the central bank, he said.
    The trade minister, who is also chairman of the BOI, said
the programme is intended to develop a car parts industry by
requiring car firms to use locally-made spare parts. He said
the plan should keep car prices at "reasonable levels."
    Tax currently accounts for 40 pct of the total cost of a
car.
 REUTER

The proposed 250 mln U.S. Dlr
syndicated loan for <National Aluminium Co Ltd> Nalco of India
has been increased to 300 mln dlrs due to over-subscription,
lead manager Chemical Asia Ltd said.
    The 10 year loan, with a six year grace period, is in two
tranches. Tranche A of 279 mln dlrs carries interest at 1/4
percentage point over London interbank offered rate (Libor) for
the first six years, rising to 3/8 point thereafter.
    A total of 124 mln dlrs was raised in syndication for
tranche A, originally set at 229 mln dlrs. The remainder will
be provided by the lead managers.
    There are 15 lead managers, six managers, eight co-managers
and 14 participants in the conventional tranche.
    The 21 mln dlr Belgian tax-spared tranche carries interest
at one basis point over Libor throughout its life. Funds will
be provided by Bank of Yokohama, Credit Lyonnais, Mitsui Trust
and Banking Co Ltd and Saitama Bank.
 REUTER

A meeting of European Community (EC)
farm ministers is unlikely to be held next week following the
ministers' failure to agree a 1987/88 farm price package
yesterday, an EC Commission spokesman said.
    However, he said he could not rule out such a meeting
altogether, noting the decision is one for Belgium, which
currently holds the presidency of the EC council of ministers.
    The farm ministers could also meet in parallel with the
meeting of EC heads of government in Brussels on June 29 and
30, diplomats noted.
    The ministers ended their three-day meeting in Luxembourg
still split on the question of an oils and fats tax and with
West Germany saying it would use its veto on two other key
aspects of EC Commission proposals, the actual common price
changes and a revision of the "green money" system.
    The Commission spokesman said an announcement is likely to
appear in the EC's Official Journal within a few days giving
notice of the Commission's intention to take emergency measures
from July 1 should ministers fail to reach an accord.
    However, Commission sources said this notice would not
detail the measures to be taken, which, they said, might be
considered by the Commission at its regular weekly meeting next
Wednesday.
    The Commission published a declaration by EC Farm
Commissioner Frans Andriessen made in Luxembourg early
yesterday at the end of the agriculture ministers' meeting.
    In it, Andriessen said there was now a serious threat to
the functioning of the Common Agricultural Policy.
    Andriessen added ,"The Commission...Will take the measures
which are necessary, not only for the temporary management of
the markets, but also for a healthy finance policy."
    "This means that the protective measures we are going to
apply will necessarily have, in the context of our own powers,
a dynamic character," he said.
 REUTER

A 24-hour strike by Belgian public
employees protesting against a government pay offer disrupted
transport and hit ferry services and shipping, port and union
    Some cross-Channel ferry services from Ostend were
cancelled, the local news agency Belga said.
    An Antwerp port authority spokesman said electricians came
out in support, reducing ship movements to a trickle. Unions
said Ghent and other major Belgian ports were also hit.
    Few trains were running and some early morning flights by
Sabena, Belgian's national airline, were cancelled.
 Reuter

De Laurentiis Film Partners LP said
it will pay an initial quarterly dividend of 37.3 cts per unit
to holders of record on June 30, payable within 90 days of that
date.
    The partnership said De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Inc
<DEG>, which owns one third of its shares, will defer its share
of the payout to maximize funds available to the partnership
for future film investments.
 Reuter

Qtly div 24 cts vs 23 cts prior
    Pay July 28
 Reuter

Augat Inc said it retained an
investment banker, Wertheim Schroeder and Co Inc, to explore
possible means for the company to maximize shareholder value.
    The company said it was not pressured into taking this
action by any specific situation or opportunity.
 Reuter

De Laurentiis Film Partners LP <DFP>
and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Inc <DEG> said they will
take charges of five mln and 6,500,000 dlrs repsectively on
their film "Million Dollar Mystery" due to disappointing box
office results.
 Reuter

China has resumed repairs of Soviet ships
after a 23 year break caused by the ideological split between
    The New China News Agency said an agreement to resume the
business was signed by the two sides on Wednesday in Shanghai,
where three Soviet commercial vessels were being repaired.
    The China Daily said the first two Soviet ships to be
repaired in China since 1964 left the ports of Dalian and
Xingang last month.
    Bi Yueran, managing director of China State Shipbuilding
Corp's ship repair department, told the newspaper the Soviet
Union lacked adequate repair facilities for the more than 600
ships deployed in the far east. Bi said China's yards offered
competitive prices, guaranteed quality and prompt delivery.
 Reuter

said negotiations with Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> over a joint
production accord have reached "an advanced stage."
    An announcement on an agreement to assemble Toyota Hi Lux
light trucks at VW's Hanover plant is expected next week,
industry sources close to VW said.
    The Financial Times newspaper quoted VW managing board
chairman Carl Hahn saying he was certain the two companies
would agree to produce one tonne pick-up trucks from 1988.
 Reuter

King World Productions Inc said it has
started a tender offer for up to 4,100,000 of its own common
shares at 28 dlrs each.
proration period and withdrawal rights expire July 17 unless
extended. The offer is not conditioned on receipt of any
minimum number of shares.
    King World said members of the King family and an officer
and director who together own about 46 pct of its stock have
agreed not to tender any shares in the offer but to sell up to
3,465,085 shares to King in January 1988 at 28 dlrs each.
    King World has about 30.8 mln shares outstanding.
    The company said a tendering shareholder may elect to
receive payment for his shares in January rather than
immediately for tax purposes.  King said it will pay only the
offer price and no interest.
 Reuter

Cablevision Systems Corp said its
agreement to buy from CBS Inc <CBS> and the Washington Post Co
their partnership interests in four regional sports services
will have a value of about 56.2 mln dlrs.
    It said the sports services, managed by Rainbow Program
Enterprises, is expected to close by the end of the year.
    The services include SportsChanel Associates (New York),
SportsChannel PRISM Associates (Philadelphia), SportsChannel
Chicago Associates and SportsChannel New England Limited
 Reuter

U.S. Exports of edible
groundnuts could fall to 185,000 tonnes in the year to
September 1987 from 248,000 in the same 1986 period, trading
company Tracomin SA said.
    It revised its December 1986 forecast that exports would
total 205,000 tonnes, citing low demand, the loss of U.S.
Market share in the two main importing countries, Britain and
the Netherlands, and the sale of nuts intended for export at a
premium in the U.S. Domestic market.
    Tracomin estimated export availability from the 1986 crop
at 215,000 tonnes compared with 264,000 the previous year.
    Tracomin said it expects a good 1987 U.S. Groundnut crop
and forecast a resurgence in U.S. Exports next year.
    "Barring any market manipulations, a good U.S. Harvest in
1987 could lead to attractive prices, active trading and the
reappearance of the U.S.A as the world's leading producer of
peanuts," it said.
    Overall exports from China, the leading exporter last year,
will remain at exceptionally high levels this year despite
quality complaints and difficulties in implementing some
earlier high-priced contracts. It is too early to say if China
can retain its current market share in 1988, Tracomin said.
 REUTER

U.S. Budget Director James Miller
said President Reagan would veto the Democrat-controlled
Congress' new budget plan out of hand -- but offered to
compromise on raising revenues.
    "If that budget comes down it will vetoed out of hand, I can
tell you that," Miller said on a morning television show.
    He said Reagan would not accept the 19 bln dlr tax increase
in Congress' proposal but said "keep in mind the president has
proposed certain revenues in his budget.
    "They're not taxes," Miller said. "They are user charges and
asset sales. I think there is some room there we can sit down
and talk with the Democrats about."
    Miller said he believed a compromise could be worked out
but he said the administration would need assurance that
whatever compromise it accepted would indeed by passed by
Congress.
    Miller also said in the interview that he did not believe
the new U.S. protection of 11 Kuwaiti tanker ships in the
Persian Gulf would require a supplemental request to Congress
later for more defense money.
 Reuter

Divi Hotels N.V. said its board
recommended that shareholders approve payment of an initial
dividend of 12-1/2 cts a share semi-annually.
    It said the dividend would be paid in August and February.
 Reuter

Major Video Corp said it filed a
registration statement covering a proposed public offering of
1.4 mln shares of common stock to be sold by the company.
    It said Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc will be managing
underwriter of the offering, expected in July, with proceeds to
be used to finance development and possible acquisition of
additional Major Video Superstores and for working capital.
 Reuter

French domestic appliance maker Moulinex
<MOUP.PA> shares continued to fall on the Paris Bourse reaching
its year's low amid controversy over an auditor's report on
1987 profit forecasts, dealers said.
    A Moulinex spokesman said a "mutilated" copy of the report by
Paris auditors Syndex, which gave a poor impression of the
company's prospects, had caused the stock to fall sharply.
    Meanwhile, Moulinex said in a communique that it stood by
its April forecast of a 1987 parent company net loss of 41.7
mln francs vs a 226 mln loss in 1986.

    The spokesman said 50 pages of the 200-page report,
commissioned by Moulinex's staff/management committee, had been
circulated to several Parisian stockbrokers.
    The Syndex report said the company's 1987 target would be
difficult to achieve, thereby causing Moulinex stock to drop
almost 13 francs in two days to 75.10 francs per share.
    A Syndex spokesman said yesterday that the auditors were
"shocked" by the leak of a confidential document and attributed
it to "malicious intentions." Several Paris brokers said it was
likely that corporate "raiders" interested in a takeover bid had
put out the Syndex report to bring down the share price.

    Moulinex shares have fluctuated considerably since the
beginning of the year on takeover rumours, reaching a high of
122 francs.
    Group president Jean Mantelet, who is 87, said in February
that he intended to transfer his 42 pct stake in Moulinex to
the company's employees. However, a company statement issued at
the same time said a management buy-out was only one of several
options.
    The rest of the group's equity has been held by private
investors since March when <Scovill Inc> of the U.S. Sold its
20 pct holding in the company.

 REUTER

Swissair <SWSZ.Z> said its revenues were
down four pct in April compared with a year earlier, but costs
before depreciation were cut by six pct.
    Traffic rose seven pct in April compared with a year
earlier and the overall load factor increased one percentage
point to 61 pct.
    Passenger load factor rose to 60 pct from 59 pct.

 REUTER

said current low unit wage costs are helping British exports
but wage rises are "faster than is comfortable."
    He hoped yesterday's Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) forecasts of increases in wage rises
were wrong, saying OECD predictions "are somewhat unreliable."
    "Productivity is rising very fast, and therefore even though
wages are going up faster than is comfortable, the actual unit
cost of labour...Is not going up fast at all," Lawson said in
answer to questions on BBC radio.
    "That is one of the reasons why we're doing so well in
export markets, for example, but we could do even better and
get unemployment down even faster if there was a more moderate
rate of growth in wage increases," Lawson added.
    His remarks followed yesterday's news that underlying
average earnings were rising 7.75 pct annually in April, up
from March's 7.5 pct increase, which sent the U.K. Government
bond market lower and helped trigger inflation worries.
    Lawson said he would not update his own economic forecasts
for the U.K. Until the traditional Autumn Statement on the
economy.
    Lawson would not be drawn on whether he will cut the basic
rate of tax from the current 27 pct to 25 pct in the next
budget due in March 1988.
    "We will certainly achieve it sooner or later," he said.
    The latest official data, released yesterday, showed unit
wage costs in manufacturing industry were rising 0.9 pct
annually in the three month period ended April, down from a 1.2
pct rise in the first quarter and sharply below last year's
first quarter growth rate of 7.8 pct.
    However, analysts said this figure is likely to deteriorate
somewhat as productivity growth slows later this year.
 REUTER

quantum corp said it will take
a charge of about 3,500,000 dlrs due to a decision to
discontinue its Q160 160 megabyte disk drive, causing a loss
for the first quarter ending June 28.
    The company said it expects higher revenues for the period,
however.  Quantum earned 22.2 mln dlrs on revenues of 121.2 mln
dlrs in last year's first quarter.
    Quantum said it will eliminate 29 staff positions as a
result of the cancellation of the Q160 and the redirection of
product development efforts.
    The company said it is modifying plans and projects to
concentrate on its core disk drive business and on the
development of higher performance low-cost smaller drives,
particularly 3-1/2 inch drives.
 Reuter

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc said its
initial public offering of six mln limited partnership
preference units of Fine Homes International L.P. was priced at
18 dlrs a unit.
    In addition, there was also an offering by Fine Homes of
1.5 mln preference units to its employees.
    Merrill Lynch said it will continue to own about 21 mln
subordinated units.
    Fine Homes is involved in residential real estate and in
the relocation management business and related mortgage
banking.
 Reuter

Proven oil and gas deposits in Saudi
Arabia increased in 1986 despite higher oil output, according
to the kingdom's main producing company, Aramco.
    Recoverable oil reserves in Aramco fields rose to 167
billion barrels by the end the year from 166.5 billion in 1985,
while gas reserves jumped by 7.7 pct to 135.8 trillion cu ft
from 126.1 trillion, the company's annual report said.
    Aramco, responsible for all Saudi production except about
200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the Neutral Zone between Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait, increased production to 4.69 mln barrels per
day in 1986 from 3.04 mln barrels a year earlier.

    Most of 1986 was a virtual free-for-all in production, as
OPEC members abandoned restraint in an effort to recapture
their share of the market. In the process, prices collapsed
from about 28 dlrs a barrel to below nine dlrs, until the
organisation decided to cut production again from last
September onwards.
    Saudi output in 1985 had been the lowest since the 1960s.
    Production of natural gas liquids in 1986 declined slightly
to 304,178 bpd from 316,310, said the report, carried on the
official Saudi Press Agency.
    The increase in reserves came despite a sharp cut in the
number of wells Aramco drilled to 33 in 1986 from 103 in 1985.

    Aramco's only refinery, at Ras Tannurah, processed 142.44
mln barrels (390,246 bpd) of crude last year. The plant was
upgraded to a capacity of 530,000 bpd during the year, enabling
it to supply 50 pct of local demand for oil products, the
    The country's other five, smaller refineries -- owned by
another state-owned oil organisation, Petromin -- produced
around 750,000 bpd last year.

    Sulphur production rose to 1.23 mln tonnes in 1986 from
998,707 tonnes in 1985. During the year the company began
operating a sulphur granule plant with capacity of 4,000 tonnes
per day, the report said.
    Aramco said it awarded 1,303 contracts last year worth 1.4
billion riyals -- about 370 mln dlrs.

 REUTER

Bear Stearns Cos Inc <BSC> said an
offering of three mln currency exchange warrants of Ford Motor
Co's Ford Motor Credit unit is underway at 4.375 dlrs each.
    Each warrant allows the holder to receive from Ford Credit
the cash value in U.S. dollars of the right to purchase 50 dlrs
at a price of 7,610 yen. Bear Stearns said the spot exchange
rates of the yen and dollar will determine whether the warrants
have a cash value on a given day.
    It said the warrants will have a cash settlement value only
if the dollar is worth over 152.20 yen.
    The company said if a warrant has not been exercised, and
at its expiration the value of the dollar is not more than
152.20 yen, the warrant will expire with no cash settlement
value.
    It said the warrants will be exercisable immediately and
expire in five years, and any warrant not exercised before then
will be automatically exercised on July 1, 1992.
    Bear Stearns said this is the second time a currency
warrant issue has been sold in the U.S., the first being a two
mln warrant issue for General Electric Co's <GE> General
Electric Credit Corp unit on June 10.
 Reuter

Tri-Star Pictures Inc said it won
permanent relief from various provisions of the 1952 Consent
Judgment and 1980 Order that apply to the Loews' Theatre
Circuit, which Tri-Star acquired last December.
    It said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of New York agreed to permit exhibition of Tri-Star motion
pictures in loews theaters and to allow Tri-Star to conduct its
business other than with Loews free from restructions of the
court's earlier orders.
 Reuter

Fidelcor Inc said it has acquired a
substantial portion of the assets of Bank of New England Corp's
Lazere Financial Corp subsidiary for undisclosed terms.
    The company said the transaction includes most of Lazere's
loan portfolio and other assets, including Lazere's Miami
office.                                
 Reuter

The South Korean government will shortly
issue a statement warning it will take unspecified emergency
measures if widespread protest demonstrations continue, state
radio said.
    Yesterday tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the
streets of Seoul and other cities, battling riot police and
demanding the resignation of President Chun Doo Hwan.
 Reuter

Budget Director James Miller said
President Reagan would veto the Democrat-controlled Congress'
new budget -- but offered to compromise on raising revenues.
    "If that budget comes down it will be vetoed out of hand, I
can tell you that," Miller said on NBC's "Today" program.
    He said Reagan would not accept the 19 billion dlr tax
increase in Congress' proposal but said "keep in mind the
president has proposed certain revenues in his budget.
 Reuter

maintenance organization in Florida, was declared insolvent on
    Michelle McLawhorn, Florida Insurance Department
spokeswoman, said International's insurer, State Mutual Life
Assurance Co of America, had made clear it would fight
activation of the policy because International did not provide
it with accurate financial records.
    State Mutual could not be reached for comment.
 Reuter

Financial Benefit Group Inc
said it has agreed to sell one mln shares of Class A common
stock to investment banker Fox-Pitt, Kelton NV for placement
with institutional and private investors in Britain, Europe and
elsewhere.
    It said the offering is expected to be fully subscribed and
proceeds will be used mainly to increase the capital and
surplus of its wholly-owned Financial Benefit Life Insurance Co
 Reuter

CHRYSLER AGREES TO ACQUIRE ELECTROSPACE SYSTEMS FOR 367
MLN DLRS

DAF Finance Company NV
said it plans a 100 mln guilder commercial paper program
beginning June 22.
    Amro bank is arranging the program with denominations of
one mln guilders and maturities ranging from two weeks to two
years. Clearing is through the Dutch central bank.
    DAF Finance is one of the four subsidiaries of DAF BV, a
newly established holding company which is a joint venture of
DAF Beheer NV and the U.K. Rover Group Plc.
    The program will be used to finance lease activities, long
term rent contracts and dealership financing.
 REUTER

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co
said it has called a special shareholder meeting to approve a
proposed two-for-one stock split and a 20 pct stock dividend.
    The company said the meeting will be held July 15 and
shareholders of record on April 27 will be eligible to vote.
    The company said it will also ask shareholders to approve
an increase in authorized common shares to 134 mln and of
serial preferred stock to 383 mln and to authorize the sale of
two billion pesos of debentures.
 Reuter

Cargo handling companies said they
were hiring twice the usual number of dockers to offset an
intermittent strike in Spanish ports.
    Spanish dockers began a nine-day strike on Wednesday in
which they only work alternate hours in protest at government
plans to partially privatize port services.
 Reuter

PNC Financial corp's Provident
National Bank subsidiary said it is increasing the weighting of
bonds in its investment portfolio due to the recent softening
in the fixed-income markets.
    The bank said it is shifting the debt to equity mix of its
balanced portfolios to 45 pct bonds/55 pct stocks from 40/60
and reducing the equity segment's cash reserve to 25 pct from
30 pct.  It said "Based on the continued high valuation level
of the stock market, coupled with the recent temporary weakness
in bond prices, the relative attractiveness of the bond market
is now at its highest level in over 18 months."
 Reuter

(FHLBB) placed Investors Federal Bank of El Reno, Okla., in
receivership and transferred its 97.8 mln dlrs n assets to the
Investors Savings and Loan Association.
    An FHLBB statement said the failed thrift was insolvent and
"had substantially dissipated its assets," largely through
participating in large commercial real estate developments.
    It said the thrift violated federal laws and regulations on
loan documentation, loans to directors, and apparent conflicts
of interest.
    The sucessor organization is a federal savings and loan
association which will be managed under contract by Sunwood
Management Corp. of Parker, Colo.
 REUTER

Mthly div nine cts vs nine cts prior
    Pay Aug 14
 Reuter

Canada Post presented its striking
letter carriers with a new contract offer today but both sides
said there was little indication the offer would end an
increasingly violent three-day-old walkout.
    The strike has been especially bitter in Quebec, where the
federally regulated postal service has brought in replacement
workers in contravention of provincial laws that prohibit
hiring strikebreakers.
    Canada Post said letter carriers in Chicoutimi and
Jonquiere, Quebec, damaged mail sorting rooms, ripped out
telephone lines and letter racks, overturned furniture and
threw mail on the floor before walking out to join carriers in
other cities on the picket line.
    The rotating strike spread today to the Atlantic provinces
and Vancouver. Carriers remained off the job in Edmonton and
Vancouver while postal employees went back to work in Montreal,
Calgary, and Cornwall, Ontario.
    About 20 people were arrested in Eastern Canada as strikers
scuffled with police called in to escort replacement workers
across picket lines.
    Letter Carriers Union of Canada President Robert McGarry
said the new offer to the union's 20,000 members contained only
minor changes and did not soften the agency's demand for
    Canada Post officials said the agency is limited by federal
guidlines which order the agency to eliminate its 160 mln dlrs
deficit by next year.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said Electrospace Systems
Inc agreed to be acquired under a merger agreement in which
Chrysler will tender 27 dlrs a share for 100 pct of the
Richardson, Texas-based defense electronics contractor.
    It said total cost to Chrysler to buy all of the
outstanding stock would be about 367 mln dlrs.
    Electrospace Systems designs, develops and installs
communications and electronic  systems and equipment for the
specialized needs of military and commercial customers
    Chrysler said Electrospace will help its Gulfstream
operations grow in military and commercial aircraft sales.
    But it said there are no plans to merge Gulfstream and
Electrospace. Rather, they will operate as "sister companies,"
it said.
    Chrysler said its tender offer is expected to begin by June
25 and will be managed by First Boston Corp.
    For the fiscal year ended April 3, 1987, Electrospace
Systems had earnings of 10 mln dlrs on sales of 191 mln dlrs.
The company employs 2,500 people. About 92 pct of its sales
were to the military.
 Reuter

OPEC conference president Rilwanu Lukman
said he expects next week's ministerial meeting in Vienna to be
brief and calm and that OPEC's current price and production
agreement may only need a slight review.
    "I expect the meeting in Vienna to be short and calm,"
Lukman, who is also Nigerian oil minister, told reporters here
ahead of his departure on Sunday for the conference, which
starts June 25.
    "We already have an agreement which may need only a slight
review," Lukman said.
    The agreement reached at a long session of OPEC ministers
in December last year pegged the group's crude oil output at
15.8 mln bpd for first half 1987 at fixed prices of around 18
    Since then prices have risen from 15 dlrs in December to
just above the official OPEC levels, with oil industry analysts
firmly convinced the organisation will maintain the agreement
to keep the market stable.
    "I myself believe that OPEC will tend to take a position to
strengthen the gains we have made so far," Lukman said.
    He declined to say if the current ceiling should be
maintained or raised to 16.6 mln bpd for the third quarter and
18.3 mln for the fourth as provisionally agreed last December.
    "Whatever decision we arrive at will be guided by our
collective will to keep the market strong," he said.
    He said non-OPEC member Norway, which he visited two weeks
ago, had pledged further cooperation with the group and this
was significant for its members.
    Lukman said heavy destocking by consumers early this year
when OPEC's fixed price regime came into effect and a
restocking now for the winter was responsible for current
market strength.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 14
 Reuter

Central Fund of Canada Ltd
said it filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission for a U.S. offering of 3,250,000 units,
each consisting of two class A shares and one warrant.
    Central Fund, a specialized investment holding company,
said net proceeds will be used mainly to buy gold and silver
bullion.
    The issue will be underwritten by Drexel Burnham Lambert
Inc and Wood Gundy Inc.
 Reuter

First Federal Savings Bank said it
will take a 274,000 dlr or 25 ct per share writeoff of its
secondary reserve with the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corp in the third quartger ending June 30.
 Reuter

    Pay July 10
 Reuter

<Metropolitan Life Insurance
Co> said it has received a license to operate a health
maintenance organization in Rhode Island called MetLife
HealthCare Network of Rhode Island.
                                       
 Reuter

The West German government will stick to
its agreed timetable and introduce tax cuts worth 44 billion
marks from 1990, Chancellor Helmut Kohl said.
    Kohl told a news conference, "The tax reform will be
realised as agreed by the coalition after the (last general)
election" in January.
    He said the leadership of his own Christian Democratic
party repeated its support for the tax reform timetable at a
meeting this week. CDU vice-chairman Lothar Spaeth also
reiterated his doubts about whether the reform was feasible as
planned, but received no support from other party members, he
added.
    Kohl said the government intends to decide by the autumn
how to raise around 19 billion marks still needed to finance
the tax reform.
    Subsidies paid to ailing industries are the main target for
trimming to pay for the tax reform.
    But politicians both inside and outside the government have
expressed doubts about making politically painful cuts in
 REUTER

Qtly div 30-1/2 cts vs 30-1/2 cts prior
    Pay Aug 15
 Reuter

Becor Western Inc said
<Davis Mining and Manufacturing Inc> has amended its offer for
    Becor said the cash portion of the offer remains unchanged
at 10.45 dlrs a share but the principal amount of debentures
would increase to 3.50 dlrs from 3.00 dlrs a Becor share.
    The amended offer also includes 1.50 dlrs face value of the
surviving corporation's 12.5 pct nonvoting cumulative preferred
not included in the previous offer, and reduces the amount of
the surviving corporation's common to be held by present
shareholders to 55 pct from 60 pct.
    Becor Western the amended Davis Mining offer is suject to
confirmation of certain due diligence information.
    Becor also said discussions continue with one other
possible bidder which it still has not been identified.
    Again, the company said it expects discussions with the
other possible investor to conclude shortly. At that time, the
board will evaluate all the then existing offers for Becor, it
added.
 Reuter

MTech Corp said it has received
33,467 shares of Commercial Resources Corp in response to its
10.25 dlr per share tender offer for all 150,000 shares.
    The company said it has extended the offer until July 2. It
was to have expired yesterday.
 Reuter

Deposit Guaranty National Bank
said it will add 8.1 mln dlrs to its loan loss reserve during
the second quarter to cover potential foreign debt exposure in
    It said the action will reduce second quarter earnings of
Deposit Guaranty Corp, the bank's parent, by about 60 cts a
share.
    It said the corporation will have a profitable quarter and
also a strong earnings year in 1987.
    Following the increase, Deposit Guaranty said its loan loss
reserve will total about 37 mln dlrs, or 1.9 pct of total
outstanding loans.
 Reuter

An organization of Tennessee
Valley Authority industrial customers said it has joined the
TVA in asking a court to prevent the U.S. Department of Energy
from witholding contracted payments to TVA.
    The Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee said it is
seeking permission to intervene in TVA's federal district court
lawsuit requesting DOE be enjoined from witholding payments due
under "minimum demand" provisions of the TVA's contract to
supply electricity to uranium enrichment facilities at Oak
Ridge, Tenn., and Paducah, Ky.
   
    Such provisions obligate TVA to make available a certain
amount of power and the customer -- in this case the DOE --
agrees to pay the fixed costs associated with that amount of
power whether is is used or not.
    The committee represents 27 large, energy-intensive
industries with operations in the TVA service area. These
industries, like DOE, are served directly by TVA as opposed to
going through a local distributors.
    The TVA has said DOE's intention, announced last week, to
withhold increasing percentages of its electric bill will
result in a revenue shortfall of about 250 mln dlrs and force
an about six pct rate increase to all other customers.
 Reuter

Xiox Corp said it has changed
its state of incorporation to Delaware from California.
 Reuter

Qmax Technology Corp said it has
reorganized into three operating groups: Pharmaceutical
Technology Group, Cosmetic Technology Group and Thermometry
Technology Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr loss 14 cts vs loss 35 cts
    Net loss 3,718,908 vs loss 6,714,372
    Revs 22.8 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Avg shrs 25.7 mln vs 19.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 1.02 dlrs vs loss 1.46 dlrs
    Net loss 24.4 mln vs loss 28.1 mln
    Revs 61.7 mln vs 28.9 mln
    Avg shrs 23.8 mln vs 19.2 mln
 Reuter

C.O.M.B. Co said its Cable Value
Network (CVN) unit has reached an agreement in principle with
Tele-Communications Inc <TCOM.O> to extend its current
affiliation agreement to a new seven-year term.
    C.O.M.B. is a direct mail and video marketing company.
 Reuter

OSHAP Technologies Ltd said it formed a
joint venture with the Regional Investment Co of the Wallon
Region, a Belgian government-controlled investment company.
    It said the agreement is subject to approval of the Israeli
Controller of Foreign Exchange.
    Under the agreement OSHAP will establish a new corporation
which will own all of OSHAP's operations in Europe, including
its manufacturing facility in Antwerp, Belgium and distribution
rights to OSHAP's other products in Europe.
                                        
    The newly formed company will acquire from the Regional
Investment Co of the Walloon Region (SPIW) about 88 pct of
Pegard Productics S.A. and SPIW will be entitled to receive for
its interest in Pegard about 37 pct of the outstanding shares
of the new company.
    In addition, if the National Investment Co of Belgium, a
Belgium government controlled investment company, chooses to
participate in the transaction, it will be entitled to receive
a 4.7 pct stake in the new company for its 12 pct interest in
Pegard.
 Reuter

Investment banker Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc said it has privately placed 180 mln dlrs of
multi-class real estate mortgage investment conduits, or
REMIC's, of Integrated Resources Inc's Capitol Life Insurance
    The company said the REMIC's were placed in two series of
about 300 seasoned multifamily and commercial loans each.
 Reuter

urged President Reagan to negotiate with the Democratic-led
Congress over budget matters.
    He told reporters that Reagan and Republicans failed to
help write the budget expected to get final congressional
approval next week.
    He said it was time for Reagan to move from his "hobby horse"
and get into the negotiations over tax and defence matters, the
two issues dividing Reagan and Democrats.
    Reagan has said he would veto any bill implementing the
suggested 19 billion dlrs in 1988 taxes in the budget.
 Reuter

Digital Optronics Corp said it has
filed for an initial public offering of 850,000 common shares
at an expected price of six to 6.50 dlrs a share through
underwriters led by Yorke McCarter Owen and Bartels Inc and
Norris and Hirshberg Inc.
    The company said Acme-Cleveland Corp <AMT> and Digital
Signal Corp are investors in Digital Optronics. which makes
artifical vision sensors and laser radar.
 Reuter

 REUTER

    Pay July 10
 Reuter

Nippon Oil and Fats Co Ltd is issuing a
70 mln dlr equity warrant eurobond due July 15, 1992 with an
indicated coupon of 1-3/8 pct and par pricing, lead manager
Yamaichi International (Europe) Ltd said.
will be fixed on June 25. The selling concession is 1-1/2 pct
while management and underwriting combined pays 3/4 pct.
will be listed in Luxembourg. The payment date is July 15 and
the warrants are exercisable from July 29, 1987 until June 30,
1992.
 REUTER

Total Erickson Resources Ltd and
Consolidated Silver Standard Mines Ltd <CDS.V> said that Total
Erickson has purchased all Consolidated's interests in its Dome
Mountain property for 60,000 Total Erickson shares and 70,000
    The companies said the property has several gold-bearing
veins and has considerable exploration potential.
 Reuter

Southern National Corp said its
board approved increasing the dividend rate to 78 cts a year
from 76 cts, effective with the next quarterly dividend which
will be declared in July, payable August One.
 Reuter

Beta Phase Inc said it has
negotiated the first major sale of its SMArtClamp electronic
intravenous infusion device.
    The company said Sharp Memorial Hospital, which
participated in clinical tests of the device, has ordered 100
SMArtClamps.
 Reuter

said it agreed to acquire Deluxe Check Printers Inc's <DLX> 38
pct stake in Data Card Corp.
    National Computer said it plans to issue 45 mln dlrs in
five year subordinated convertible debentures to purchase the
3,749,401 shares of Data Card from Deluxe.
    Completion of the proposed transaction, subject to
regulatory approval, is expected in mid-July, it said.
   
    The debenture will bear an increasing rate of interest over
its term, with a 7.3 pct weighted average rate and will be
convertible into National Computer common stock at 20 dlrs a
share, it said.
    Separately, Deluxe said its Data Card investment no longer
fits its business strategy. Deluxe has held an interest in Data
Card since 1975 when it provided funds for Data Card to buy
Troy Computer Products Corp. In November 1986, Data Card said
it planned to sell its Troy division.
 Reuter

DEBT RESCHEDULING PACKAGE FOR NIGERIA MAY BE SIGNED BY
MID-SEPTEMBER, BARCLAYS/NIGERIA SAY

reform.
said.
said.
 Reuter

The wet, cold weather which has shrouded
northern Europe recently is not a real problem for farmers yet,
a spokeswoman for France's largest farm union, FNSEA, said.
    The bad weather has only affected the northern part of
France while the Mediterranean region needs more moisture.
    Sugar beet producers said the climatic conditions are not
causing them any difficulties yet although there could be
problems if there is a lack of sun in the next few weeks.
    The only real problem is for fruit producers in the north
as people are consuming less fresh fruit and excessive rain
rots the crop, she said.
 Reuter

Microsemi Corp, a supplier of
semiconductor products and assemblies, said it has acquired the
operating assets of <Hybrid Components Inc> for 2.2 mln dlrs in
cash.
    Microsemi said the purchase includes the fixed assets,
software, inventories, technology, intellectual properties and
other business operations of HCI.
    The company said HCI will continue to operate its Beverly
plant as a subsidiary of Microsemi.
 Reuter

A target date of mid-September has been
set for the signing of a package rescheduling Nigeria's medium
term public sector debt and outstanding letter of credit
claims, Nigeria and Barclays Bank Plc said in a joint
    The statement was issued during the last of a two day
meeting here between the two sides. Barclays is a co-chairman
of the commercial bank steering committee.
    The statement said, "Further progress has been made in the
1986/87 rescheduling of medium term public sector debt and
outstanding letter of credit claims."
 REUTER

    Pay August One
    Record July 22
 Reuter

Theragenics Corp said it will receive a
U.S. patent on its TheraSeed localized radiation therapy for
treatment of prostate cancer, effective June 23.
    It said it has obtained product liability insurance for
Theraseed and expects commercial sales and distribution to
start by July 15.
 Reuter

President Reagan said he would veto a
House-passed trade bill requiring mandatory retaliation for
"unfair trade" if it reached its desk in its present form.
    In a statement at a White House meeting with Senate
Republicans on the legislation, he said: "I would have no choice
but to veto that bill in its present form."
    He said the measure "would move us exactly in the wrong
direction" towards high tariffs, trade barriers, trade
distorting subsidies, slow growth and crimped world markets,
and would destroy jobs.
 Reuter

Sudan has set aside 781.6 mln dlrs to
service foreign debts in 1987/88, according to budget plans
presented to parliament.
    This compares with 200 mln dlrs earmarked for debt
repayment in the year ending June 30. Sudan has a foreign debt
totalling 10.6 billion dlrs.
    Finance Minister Beshir Omar, presenting plans to
parliament last night, put the budget deficit at 2.88 billion
pounds, against 2.85 billion in 1986/87.
    He said the budget would be the first in a four-year
economic recovery plan to be announced by the end of December.
    Of the total set aside for debt servicing, Omar said 574.6
mln dlrs would go to principal and 207 mln to interest
payments.
    Sudan has an annual debt liability of 900 mln dlrs,
Khartoum-based Western experts say.
    Omar said last March it would be difficult, "if not
impossible," for Sudan to meet scheduled debt repayments of 4.17
billion dlrs over the next five years.
    He said last night Sudan was 2.6 billion dlrs in arrears on
debt repayments in the first half of this year.
    The experts say Sudan owes 23 pct of its foreign debt to
Western government creditors, 32 pct to governments of Eastern
bloc and Arab countries and 21 pct to commercial banks, with
most of the rest owed to multilateral sources.
    Sudan, unable to fully service its debts since 1985 and
declared ineligible last year by the International Monetary
Fund for fresh loans, has been servicing only creditors banned
from extending fresh loans to recipients in arrears.
    Omar said government revenue in 1987/88 would total 3.9
billion pounds. Expenditure was put at 6.79 billion pounds.
    He said the budget deficit would be fully covered by loans,
government deposits and other sources.
    Omar said 375 mln pounds would be spent on subsidising
sugar and wheat flour prices in 1987/88.
    He said some of Sudan's Western backers were witholding aid
until an agreement with the IMF was reached.
    Sudan, which owes the IMF 450 to 500 mln dlrs in arrears,
is scheduled to hold fresh talks with the Fund in late July or
August on reforming its economy and clearing arrears.
 REUTER

Ghana has lifted a ban on rice and maize
imports due to crop problems caused by unusually dry weather,
the official Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported today.
    Secretary for Finance and Economic Planning Kwesi Botchwey
made the announcement last night while accepting 7,891 tonnes
of rice worth about four mln dlrs under a Japanese food aid
    The lifting of the ban, imposed earlier this year, follows
government concern over "lower than average rainfall in southern
Ghana and its implications for the major harvest."
    Botchwey said rain has been lacking in major cereal growing
areas throughout the south this year. The Ministry of
Agriculture has predicted a fall of at least 25 pct in all
major staple crops including maize, rice and cassava.
    GNA quoted Botchwey as saying that while the consequences
of current reduced rainfall will be nowhere near the drought
experiences of 1982/83 the government has taken steps to
alleviate anticipated food production shortfalls.
    The failure of seasonal rains has already seriously
affected drinking water supplies, farming and fishing in parts
of the Central and Volta regions of Ghana where rivers have
dried up.
 Reuter

Microtel, a fiber optic long
distance company, said it plans to lower rates for interstate
one plus dialing by 4.8 pct and LaserPLUS WATS service by 7.4
pct, effective July 15.
 Reuter

Bank of England governor Robin
Leigh-Pemberton said lowering interest rates too fast could
jeopardise recent economic achievements in the U.K.
    In remarks prepared for delivery to businessmen in
Birmingham, he said prospective returns on real investment are
more favourable, relative to those on financial assets, than
for a good number of years.
    "It would surely be foolish to put that favourable
conjuncture at risk by lowering interest rates prematurely or
excessively," he said.
    "We might enjoy a short-term boost to activity, but at the
risk of a damaging return to the uncertainty and acrimony of
high inflation," he added.
    Leigh-Pemberton said he recognised there are some who would
argue that interest rates are still too high and deter
investment in industry.
    "But we should not forget that less than a year ago we were
intervening to support sterling and had some temporary
difficulty in persuading the markets that a one pct increase in
base rates, to 11 pct, was a sufficient tightening of policy at
the time," he added. Base rate is currently nine pct.
 REUTER

There will be no serious bids at European
Community open market tenders for wheat and barley until EC
farm ministers agree to the 1987/88 farm price package, trade
    The failure of farm ministers this week to come to an
agreement resulted in no bids at this week's tender for export
subsidies and traders said bids are unlikely as long as the
uncertainty remains.
    One trader said permanent damage to export prospects can be
avoided if an agreemend can be reached soon, but the situation
will become more serious as time passes.
    However, traders said there seem to be few buyers around,
lessening the disruptive impact of the delay.
    Poland and South Korea, who are in the market for feed
wheat, will be offered intervention grain through special
tenders, traders said.
 Reuter

    Shr 42 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 13,600,000 vs 17,100,000
    Revs 263.3 mln vs 243.8 mln
 Reuter

Qtly div 18 cts vs 16.6 cts prior
    Pay July 20
    NOTE: Prior payment adjusted for three-for-one stock split.
 In April, company had announced its intention to raise the
dividend.
 Reuter

Healthcare Services of America
Inc said its chairman and chief executive officer, Charles
Speir, resigned and its president and chief operating officer,
Thomas Rodgaers Jr, was relieved of his duties.
    Michael Cronin will take over as chairman and Michael
Murphy as acting president and chief executive officer, the
    Cronin has been a director of the company since 1983 and
Murphy has been a consultant to the compay, Healthcare Services
said.
 Reuter

Shr 4.61 dlrs vs 4.28 dlrs
    Net 663.3 mln vs 590.8 mln
    Rev 4.03 billion vs 4.06 billion
    Avg shares 143.9 mln vs 138.2 mln
 Reuter

Qtrly 57 cts vs 30 cts
    Pay July 15
    NOTE: recent dividend based two-for-one stock split
effected Wednesday, June 17. Based on pre-split shares the
dividend would have been 60 cts.
 Reuter

GTE Corp said its Fiber Optic Products
division was awarded a 250,000 dlr minimum contract by NYNEX
Corp's <NYN> Enterprise Co.
    The bulk of the agreement applies to GTE's elastomeric
glass tube splice products, the company said, as well as other
fiber optic components, including GTE's recently-introduced
cleaving tool and installation kit.
 Reuter

<Alaska Micro Systems>, a
Kaypro dealer, said the Anchorage School District chose it to
provide 116,000 dlrs of computer equipment to Chugiak High
School for computer and typing classes.
 Reuter

    Shr profit nil vs loss eight cts
    Net profit 4,000 vs loss 213,000
    Sales 3,668,000 vs 2,602,000
    Year
    Net loss 482,000 vs loss 614,000
    Sales 12.5 mln vs 13.6 mln
    NOTE: 1987 earnings in each period include a provision for
unrealized loss on marketable securities of 176,000 dlrs
 Reuter

Qtly div 8.5 cts vs 8.5 cts prior
    Pay Aug Five
    NOTE: Federated Financial Savings and Loan Association.
 Reuter

Colonial Bancgroup said it
agreed to buy <First National Bank of Destin> for an
    The company said if it is approved, the sale will mark its
second move to acquire a Florida bank.
    It said it signed a letter of intent to buy Liberty Bank of
Pensacola in April.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it has no intention
of increasing its offer for Electrospace Systems Inc <ELE>.
    Chrysler agreed to purchase the Texas-based defense
electronics contractor in a tender offer of 27 dlrs a share for
a total value of about 367 mln dlrs.
    Eletrospace shares closed yesterday on the NYSE at 30-1/8.
    "We have no intention of increasing the offer," a company
spokeswoman said. "We believe it is adequate and will be
accepted."
    She said the proposed transaction was unanimously
recommended by the board of directors and principal
shareholders of Electrospace.
    Further, she noted that the 27 dlrs tender offer price is
50 pct above the price of Electrospace's shares before April 30
when it put itself up for sale.
 Reuter

TEXACO CANADA RAISES CRUDE OIL POSTINGS 24 CANADIAN
CTS/BBL, LIGHT SWEET NOW 25.60 DLRS/BBL

Armco said its Northern
Automatic Electric Foundry Co unit formed a joint venture
company with Stelco Inc <STE.TO> unit Stelco Erie Corp.
    The companies said the new firm, which will be called M.E.
International, will represent an investment of 15 mln dlrs for
the companies involved.
    They said the venture will produce cast grinding media and
mill liners for the mining industry.
    The companies said the venture will also include the assets
of the Evans Duluth Steel Castings Co which have been bought
from the Evans Asset Holding Co for an undisclosed sum.
 Reuter

Computer Products Inc is raising 35 mln
due 1997 with a 9-1/2 pct coupon and par pricing, said sole
manager Robinson-Humphrey Co Inc.
stock at 4.625 dlrs per share, representing a premium of 23.33
    Non-callable for three years, the issue is rated B-3 by
Moody's and CCC-minus by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread
is 38.75 dlrs, the selling concession is 20 dlrs and the
reallowance is 10 dlrs.
 Reuter

Federated Financial Savings and
Loan Association said it wrote off its FSLIC secondary reserve
balance, previously carried as an asset, as required by the
    The reduction of income is estimated to be 16 cts per
share, but the company said it will record a profit for the
third quarter ending June 30.
    Federated said the elimination of the reserve will not
affect its ability to pay dividends to stockholders and will
have a minimal impact on annual profits for the fiscal year
ending Sept 30, 1987.
   
    Federated said the secondary reserve consists of previous
contributions to the FSLIC fund in excess of insurance
premiums, along with accumulated earnings on those
contributions.
   
 Reuter

Northeast Savings said its board
declared an initial quarterly dividend of 15 cts per share,
payable August One, record July 17.
 Reuter

Network Security Corp said three of its
major shareholders have executed definitive agreements to sell
their shares to Inspectorate International <INSZ.Z> SA.
    The company said its previously-announced merger into
Inspectorate is still subject to approval by Network
 Reuter

<Melamine Chemicals Inc>
said it has filed for an initial public offering of 2,800,000
common shares through underwriters led by PaineWebber Group Inc
<PWJ>.
    The company said it will sell 1,400,000 shares and the rest
will be sold by Ashland Oil Inc <ASH> and First Mississippi
Corp <FRM>, Melamine's two shareholders.  Proceeds will be used
to build a new melamine plant, buy the existing plant from
Ashland and First Mississippi and part of a special dividend to
Ashland and First Mississippi. 
    In Ashland, Ky., Ashland Oil said it is selling 700,000
shares and First Mississippi 700,000 of Melamine.
 Reuter

Qtly div 75 cts vs 75 cts prior
    Pay July 14
    Note:the company's full name is American Federal Savings   
 and Loans Association of Colorado
 Reuter

More U.K. Lenders are offering homebuyers
fixed interest rate mortgages under which the borrower makes
the same monthly payment no matter what happens to other
    And with mortgage rates now at their lowest levels in
years, the loans have been snapped up by eager home buyers
trying to lock into cheap money.
    The decision to offer fixed rate loans, industry officials
said, reflects the increasingly competitive nature of the home
mortgage business.
    While fixed rate mortgages are uncommon in the U.K., They
were the mainstay of the business in the U.S. Up until only a
few years ago.
    But in the early 1980s interest rates soared. U.S. Lenders,
mostly savings and loan associations, were earning rates as low
as three pct on 30 year fixed rate mortgages they held in their
portfolios but had to pay depositors rates as high as 15 pct to
induce them to retain their accounts.
    As a result hundreds of institutions collapsed or were
forced to merge. The survivors decided to offer mortgages whose
rates would move in line with the cost of funds.
    "We very much have the example of the U.S. Thrifts in mind,"
said a spokesman for Abbey National Building Society,
explaining why his institution, for the time being, is only
offering variable rate mortgages.
    The rash of advertising to solicit new business has helped
homebuyers to become even choosier about loans and lenders
concede they are being forced to undercut each other still
more.
    Sharp cuts on variable rate mortgages announced earlier
this week by the nation's two largest building societies and by
National Westminster Bank Plc reflect growing competition for
new business, officials at all three institutions said.
    The fixed rate mortgages on offer carry interest rates even
below those on the variable rate loans.
    "Of course they are less profitable than other (variable
rate) mortgages," said a spokesman for Midland Bank Plc, which
earlier this year said it earmarked 500 mln dlrs for fixed rate
new mortgage loans.
    But he said the bank is willing to offer less profitable
loans because, "It was just another way to attract people to our
mortgage product."
    Trustee Savings Bank Plc (TSB) was offering five year fixed
rate mortgages at 9.9 pct earlier this year.
    The 100 mln stg that TSB set aside for the loans was
exhausted within just a few days, according to a spokeswoman.
    "Everybody loves an under 10 pct mortgage," she said, noting
that within five days the bank loaned the equivalent of 25 pct
of its 1986 volume.
    In short, the appeal of fixed rate mortgages is that they
offer an opportunity to gamble on the direction of interest
rates. If interest rates fall after the mortgage is made the
lender is earning an above average return on assets.
    But if interest rates rise it is the homebuyer who has won
the benefit of cheap money.
    Household Mortgage Co had planned to offer a 25 year fixed
rate mortgage after the June 11 elections on the assumption
that a Conservative Party victory would help money market rates
fall further, according to Duncan Young, managing director.
    Young explained that the company had planned to protect
itself against the chance of rising interest rates by buying a
complicated hedging instrument.
    But money market rates have risen contrary to expectations
and the company has shelved its plans for the time being. He
said money market rates were too high to arrange both the
mortgages and hedge profitably.
    However, he said that when the Household Mortgage Co does
make fixed rate mortgages it is likely to securitise them. This
means bundling different mortgages together to resemble a bond
and selling them to an investor.
    For technical reasons securitisation is simpler and more
efficient with fixed rate rather than with floating rate
mortgages. In the U.S., Where fixed rate mortgages are popular
again, securitisation has provided the bulk of mortgage money
over the past few years.
 REUTER

Qtly div 8.5 cts vs 8.5 cts
    Pay August five
    NOTE: Full company name is Federated Financial Savings and
 Reuter

Texaco Inc's Texaco Canada said it
will raise  postings for its Edmonton/Swann Hills crude by 24
canadian cts a barrel, effective June 20.
    The company said the new posting for Edmonton/Swann Hills
will be 25.60 dlrs a barrel. The price hike follows a round of
crude oil price increases started late June 17 by Sun Co. The
other major canadian crude suppliers raised prices June 18.
 Reuter

Qtly div 25 cts vs 22 cts prior qtr
    Pay 20 July
    Record 30 June
 Reuter

Activision said it has
released a new version of Paintworks Plus, a creativity and
self-expression program, called Version 1.01.
    The new version, for use on the Apple Computer Inc <AAPL.O>
Apple IIGS, includes a variety of features and functions not
incorporated in the original program, Activision said.
    The company added that registered owners of Paintworks Plus
can get Version 1.01 free by submitting the front cover of
their program manual as proof-of-purchase.
    For others, the program sells for 79.95 dlrs, Activision
said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts prior qtr
    Pay 1 September
    Record 6 August
 Reuter

Norway's central bank reserves totalled
73.71 billion crowns in May against 76.06 billion in April and
95.02 billion in May 1986, the Central Bank said in its monthly
report.
    Foreign exchange reserves totalled 70.3 billion crowns,
compared with 68.4 billion in April and 88.0 billion a year
ago. Gold reserves were unchanged from April's 284.8 mln
crowns, and also unchanged from the year-ago figure.
    Central Bank special drawing right holdings were 3.16
billion crowns, compared with 3.06 billion in April and 2.51
billion in May 1986.
 REUTER

Rising water levels on the Rhine caused by
heavy rain are delaying an operation near Karlsruhe to raise
two sunken boats which have blocked the river's main navigation
channel since early last week, a Karlsruhe water authority
    He said two floating cranes were unable to begin lifting
the sunken tug Orinoko and its lighter because the water level
had reached 815 centimetres and was forecast to rise to 820-830
cm by tomorrow. He was unable to say when the operation might
begin.
    Meanwhile, high water at Cologne has forced vessels to
travel at reduced speed, a water authority spokesman in Cologne
said. But a water authority spokesman in Duisburg, 60 kms north
of Cologne, said vessels there were moving normally.
 Reuter

Dutch public authorities are on course
to meet the 1987 public sector deficit target of 7.9 pct of net
national income (NNI) despite excess spending by the central
government, according to a leaked official report.
    The so-called Spring Report, giving latest revenue and
expenditure figures and to be discussed by the Dutch cabinet
today, was leaked in advance to the Dutch press. The Dutch
Finance Ministry declined to comment on the press reports.
    Newspapers quoted the report, drafted by Finance Minister
Onno Ruding, as saying unexpected rises in revenue would
compensate for excess spending of 3.1 billion guilders.
    Ruding, putting this year's public sector borrowing
requirement 0.1 percentage point below last September's target
at 7.8 pct, criticised the excess spending but will not seek
additional spending cuts for 1987 because of the surprise boost
in revenue, the report was quoted as saying.
    Excess spending by the central government was put at 2.8
billion guilders, while market factors accounted for another
300 mln in unbudgetted expenditure.
    But 1987 revenue was boosted by an unexpected 3.55 billion,
including 1.9 billion in tax revenue and 500 mln guilders in
income from natural gas sales.
    Ruding has said the 1987 excess spending will burden the
1988 budget with an additional 1.9 billion and the cabinet has
already pledged 1.2 billion in cuts to narrow the gap.
    The cabinet is to discuss in coming months what further
austerity measures will be needed next year to keep the
government on target for its 1990 aim of a public sector
borrowing requirement of no more than 5.25 pct of NNI.
    Ruding has already met opposition from the Liberal and
Christian-Democrat factions carrying the government majority in
parliament to his calls for more spending cuts in the 1988
budget to counter a slow-down in economic growth.
 REUTER

The Federal Reserve is likely to add
temporary reserves to the banking system this morning by
executing system repurchase agreements, economists said.
    The Fed faces a need to add a large volume of reserves this
statement period to offset a drain caused by rising Treasury
balances at the Fed after the June 15 tax date.
    Most economists are predicting over-the-weekend system
repurchases. But some, who see a smaller adding requirement,
are forecasting a less aggressive combination of three- and
six-day repos. Fed funds were trading at 6-3/4 pct, close to
yesterday's 6.81 pct average.
 Reuter

GREYHOUND LINES AGREES TO ACQUIRE REMAINING ROUTES OF
TRAILWAYS CORP

Ford Motor Land Development
Corp, a wholly owned real estate subsidiary of Ford Motor Co,
said it will build a 48,000 square foot facility for (Tokico
America Inc) in return for a long-term lease.
    Tokico, an automotive parts and robotics supplier, is a
subsidiary of (Tokico Ltd) of Japan.
    Ford said it is Tokico's principal customer in the U.S.
 Reuter

withdrew the ratings on Caesars World Inc and unit Caesars
World Finance Corp.
    The action affects 230.8 mln dlrs of debt.
    Withdrawn were Caesars World's BB senior debt and B-plus
subordinated debt and the unit's B-plus subordinated debt.
    S and P said these issues are expected to be refinanced
when Caesars World implements a recapitalization plan. The
agency assigned a B-plus rating to Caesars World's proposed 330
mln dlr issue of seven-year senior notes and a B-minus grade to
its 330 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures due 1999.
    Standard and Poor's noted that the recapitalization plan of
Caesars World calls for the payment of a 26.25 dlr per share
dividend totaling 929.3 mln dlrs.
    The recapitalization plan will be financed by the
seven-year note and 12-year debenture issues, 300 mln dlrs in
bank and other debt, and by cash on hand, S and P noted.
    The agency said that Caesars World's debt will rise to 1.1
billion dlrs from about 319.2 mln on April 30 and the firm will
have stockholders' deficit of 508.8 mln dlrs. S and P said it
does not expect a meaningful reduction of debt for the next
 Reuter

Mthly div 3.9543 cts vs 3.4261 cts last month
    Payable July 15
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said Tesoro
Petroleum had replied that it did not comment on unusual market
activity or rumors when asked by the NYSE about the company's
stock rise.
    The NYSE said it had asked the company to issue a public
statement indicating whether there are any corporate
developments that may explain the unusual activity.
    Tesoro's shares rose 7/8 to 14-1/2 in morning trading.
 Reuter

<Greyhound Lines> said it agreed to
acquire the routes of <Trailways Corp>.
    Greyhound said it had petitioned the Interstate Commerce
Commission for authority to acquire and operate Trailways'
routes, 450 of its 1200 buses and some of its terminals and
garages.
    Trailways has abandoned all service in seven states in the
past year and more than half of its sevice in three other
states, the company said.
    "Without intervention, the collaspe of Trailways is
imminent," said Fred Currey, chairman and president of
Greyhound.
 Reuter

Mthly div 3.8784 cts vs vs 4.3742 cts prior
    Pay July 15
 Reuter

started trading the common stock of Sherwood Group Inc, which
went public today.
 Reuter

Spain's socialist government is aiming to
restore confidence of foreign banks in its power generation
sector by pushing through a complete reform of the industry's
tariff structure, a senior government official said.
    Most foreign banks have been refusing to extend fresh loans
to the mainly privately-owned sector since Fuerzas Electricas
de Catalunya S.A. (FECSA), a major utility, defaulted on two
billion dlrs of foreign currency debt earlier this year.
    Secretary of State for the Economy, Guillermo De la Dehesa,
told Reuters in an interview that a new government-inspired
tariff mechanism providing for automatic increases each year
would guarantee the long term viability of the industry.
    He said a bill would be sent before the Spanish Cortes
(parliament) this summer, enabling tariff increases from next
year to be set under the new system.
    De la Dehesa declined to give technical details of the
scheme, known here as the "Marco Estable" (stable framework), but
said future tariff increases would make up for the failure of
past adjustments to cover rising costs.
    "The utility companies have a captive market and if they are
assured a satisfactory tariff structure they will have the best
of all possible worlds to do business in," De la Dehesa said.
    FECSA's debt crisis has caused concern among foreign and
Spanish bankers who expressed fears that other utility
companies may default for lack of fresh funds unless confidence
in the industry's future is restored.
    Spain's 14 leading power utilities have massive debts, with
short and medium term exposure of 4,377 billion pesetas at the
end of last year. A significant proportion of it is in foreign
currency, bankers say.
    The new tariff plan, currently being discussed with
representatives of the utility industry and Spanish bankers,
would shortly be presented to foreign creditors, De la Dehesa
said.
    FECSA's problems were precipitated in February when the
stock exchange suspended trading in the company's stock on the
grounds that it could not meet its debts.
     "FECSA was a special case," De la Dehesa said, "but the banks
took fright and extended the crisis to the rest of the utility
sector. We really did not expect this."
    Much foreign bank lending to the utility sector has been on
the strength of a government commitment made to international
bankers at a presentation in London in 1983 to support the
industry.
    "I think if foreign banks were lending on the basis of
declarations by our energy authorities in London, they will
have all the more reason to do so when the new tariff system is
passed into law," De la Dehesa said.
     "This is going to be a palpable fact, not just a
declaration," he added.
    De la Dehesa said he believed that once confidence was
restored in the sector as a whole, FECSA's debt problems would
be quickly solved.
    A recently formed steering committee representing FECSA's
foreign creditors is due to meet FECSA managers in Barcelona on
Tuesday for a round of talks on rescheduling the ailing
utility's debt.
    FECSA's General Manager, Jose Zaforteza, told Reuters he
thought the climate of the talks would be greatly improved by
the new tariff proposals.
    "You cannot go far wrong when you are managing an electrical
utility provided the tariffs you charge are sufficient to cover
your costs," Zaforteza said.
    The General Manager of the Madrid branch of a U.S. Bank
which has lent money to FECSA said there would be little
significant progress in the rescheduling talks until details of
the tariff proposals were known.
    "We cannot make any projections about FECSA's ability to pay
its debts unless we know what the tariffs are going to be," he
said.
    "If you make annual increases over a period of years of
four, five or six pct, in each case it's a completely different
ball game," he said.
 REUTER

affirmed the ratings on 500 mln dlrs of debt of PNC Funding
Corp, a unit of PNC Financial Corp.
    Affirmed were PNC Funding's AA-plus senior debt and
A-1-plus commercial paper. Also affirmed were the parent's AA
preferred stock and the AA-plus/A-1-plus certificates of
deposit of Pittsburgh National Bank, Provident National Bank
and Citizens Fidelity Bank and Trust Co.
    S/P said PNC's 110 mln dlr provision will reduce second
quarter earnings by 66 mln dlrs. The reserve for developing
countries is now 35 pct of loans to these countries.
 Reuter

Tunisia has bought 150,000 tonnes of
French soft wheat for August to December shipment at 76.70 dlrs
per tonne fob with COFACE export credit, trade sources said.
    This is the second French soft wheat export sale for the
1987/88 season which starts on July 1 and follows a Brazilian
purchase of 150,000 tonnes.
    France sold around 300,000 tonnes of soft wheat to Tunisia
during the 1986/87 season.
 Reuter

<Medford Savings Bank> said it
received Federal Reserve Board approval to form a bank holding
company.
    It said the holding company, to be known as Regional
Bancorp Inc, will acquire all outstanding common shares of
Medford Savings with one share of Medford Savings being
converted into one share of Regional.
    Medford Savings said its total assets are about 408 mln
dlrs.
 Reuter

Virtusonics Corp said it extended to
July 31 the period to exercise its outstanding warrants at 1.5
    The company on June 18 said it had reduced the exercise
price of its warrants from 2.5 cts a common share for the
period June 22 to July 22.
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 14
    Record July Eight
    NOTE: Partnership said it expects none of its common or
preference dividends this year to be taxable.
 Reuter

Spectramed Inc said an
initial public offering of 3,640,000 common shares is underway
at 11 dlrs a share through underwriters led by Alex. Brown and
Sons Inc <ABSB.O> and PaineWebber Group inc <PWJ>.
 Reuter

Banque Arabe et Internationale
d'Investissement (BAII) will issue a one billion franc
non-callable pre-placed bond in three tranches on July 8, lead
manager Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) said.
    Banque Indosuez will manage the 200 mln franc "A" tranche,
issued at par with a life of nine years, paying interest based
on the annualised money market rate (TAM) plus 0.10 pct.
    The 250 mln-franc "B" tranche, managed by Banque d'Arbitrage
et de Credit (BAC), will be issued at par with a life of 10
years, paying interest at TAM plus 0.15 pct.
    The 550 mln-franc "C" tranche, managed by BNP and Banque
Demachy et Associes, will be issued at par with a life of 11
years, paying interest at TAM plus 0.20 pct.
 REUTER

Loan Association said per share earnings in fiscal 1987 ending
September 30 will be reduced by about 16 cents a share due to
the write-off of its secondary reserve with the Federal Savings
and Loan Insurance Corp.
    The company did not specify the amount to be written off in
the current year.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Mark Eyskens is
proposing a package of personal income tax cuts worth 102.1
billion francs that would apply from 1989, a finance ministry
    The package, one of 11 possible tax reform scenarios drawn
up by government officials, is expected to be discussed by
ministers in the coming weeks so that a government draft can be
presented to parliament in October.
    The proposals, which would greatly simplify the country's
tax system, include a cut in withholding tax on investment
income earned in Belgium to 20 pct from the current 25 pct.
    The reduction would apply to income from risk capital, but
the spokesman said this was likely to be defined to include all
shares and bonds.
    The package chosen by Eyskens is more favourable to
families with children than the present regime and would treat
spouses' incomes separately instead of combining them, a
practice that is widely seen as discouraging marriage. The tax
reform does not encompass corporate taxation.
    The spokesman said some 75 pct of the cost of the package
would be financed by changes to the 258 tax allowances
currently granted to diverse interest groups.
    A further 14 pct would be met by higher tax revenues
resulting from the overall macro-economic benefits of the
package.
    This would leave a shortfall of around 20 billion francs,
which the government would have to decide how to cover, either
by raising indirect taxes or by making further budgetary cuts.
    The package favoured by Eyskens, who has described Belgium
as a "fiscal Himalaya," is the least costly of the 11 scenarios
prepared. It envisages three marginal rates, or tax thresholds,
of 30 pct, 40 pct and 50 pct. This compares with 13 currently,
of which the highest is 71.6 pct.
 REUTER

International Design Group inc
said holders of record on June 26 will receive rights to
purchase two units at 10 cts each for each common share held.
    Each unit consists of one common share and one five-year
warrant to buy one common share at 15.625 dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtly div 20 cts vs 21 cts prior
    Pay July 31
    NOTE: Partnership does not pay at regular rate.
 Reuter

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing a suit
by Apex Oil Co against the New York Mercantile Exchange and
several oil companies.
    The Court, however, ruled that Apex Oil could pursue
anititrust and commodities market manipulation allegations
against Belcher Oil Co, a unit of Coastal Corp <CGP>.
    Apex Oil, primarily a trading company, charged that several
companies, including Belcher, and NYMEX conspired to force it
to deliver heating oil it had sold on the mercantile exchange,
knowing Apex could not make full delivery.
   
    The NYMEX ordered Apex to deliver four mln barrels of
heating oil sold via a February 1982 heating oil contract. Apex
eventually fulfilled this obligation but claimed damages.
    Richard Wiener, attorney for Apex at Cadwalader Wickersham
and Taft, said the company has not yet decided whether to
pursue its case against Belcher Oil.
    The NYMEX, meanwhile, has a counterclaim pending against
Apex Oil, seeking an unspecified amount of attorney's fees and
15 mln dlrs in punitive damages, according to a NYMEX
 Reuter

Canadian letter carriers today rejected a
new contract offer from Canada Post as the strike spread to
Toronto where half the nation's mail is sorted.
    The Letter Carriers Union said the new offer presented June
18 contained the same demands for concessions the union had
already refused.
    The union members walked out in other Ontario cities today
but returned to work in Atlantic Canada, parts of Quebec,
Edmonton, and Victoria. Negotiators were scheduled to resume
bargaining today but were not expected to reach an agreement to
end the four-day-old strike.
 Reuter

Most private banks in central Madrid and
Barcelona closed as Spanish bank staff went on strike for more
pay, union officials and employers said.
    Union officials said there was at least partial response to
the strike call in the rest of Spain. But a spokesman for the
employers' Banks Association said banks in many towns were
working almost normally.
    Unions called the strike today and tomorrow morning to
press for shorter working hours and an eight pct pay increase.
Employers offered a 4.75 pct wage increase last month.
 REUTER

American Federal Savings and Loans
Association of Colorado said its earnings will continue to be
under pressure this year due to the weakness of the Colorado
economy.
    The company, which today declared a regular quarterly
dividend, said it was also under pressure from the level of
non-earning assets it holds.
    The company said this pressure will be offset to a certain
extent by increased revenues from out-of-state operations and
its strong capital position.
 Reuter

Daxor Corp said it has received an
offer from Federal Express Corp to establish a national frozen
blood bank at Federal's Memphis, Tenn., headquarters.
    The company said its blood could be shipped anywhere in the
U.S. within six hours from Memphis via Federal Express'
delivery system.
 Reuter

Canon Inc of Japan said Canon
of Virginia Inc has opened a 26 mln dlr 289,000 square foot
plant in Newport News, Va.
    The company said the plant will initially make 700 to 1,000
Canon dual-color copiers a month, and other business equipment
lines including laser beam printers and electronic typewriters
may be phased in later.
 Reuter

Digicon Inc said it started an offer to
exchange a package of new securities for all 55,019,000 dlrs of
its outstanding subordinated debentures.
    The exchange includes its 12-7/8 pct senior subordinated
notes, 10-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures and the
8-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures of Digicon
Finance N.V.
    It said the new securities to be issued in exchange offers
include up to 8,574,000 dlrs of Digicon's 12 pct senior
subordinated notes due 1994, up to 23,580,000 dlrs of Digicon
9.35 pct convertible subordinated debentures due 1997 and up to
16,506,000 shares of Digicon common.
    Digicon said in addition to the new notes, new debentures
and common stock, it also will issue to exchangeing holders up
to 22,865,000 dlrs of contingently extinguishable debt
    It said the exchange offers are being made only by
 Reuter

GTE Corp scientists said they
have discoverd a much simpler method for producing transistors
by creating an entirely new electronic material.
    The new method, they said, consists of simultaneously
"growing" metal connections and silicon crystals together to
form one, three dimensional device with connections penetrating
the entire device.
    Conventional transistors require many steps to make and
have connections only on the surface.
    GTE Laboratories created "an entirely new electronic
material and device form, which may open up a spectrum of uses
that cannot even be imagined at this time," said David Decker,
vice president and director of research for GTE Laboratories.
    "Although still early in our research, we are obviously
excited that we have found a significantly simpler and, we
believe, cheaper way to produce an electronic device," he said.
    Researchers at GTE created the new transistor by combining
and heating silicon and a conductive metal, tantalum
disilicide, so that the two grow together.
    The resulting device has microscopic metal rods extending
througout the chips, creating a three dimensional transistor
that should be superior to standard devics in high power
applications, the scientists said.
    They said that, because the connections extend vertically
througout the new device, it has a much greater volume of
active material than conventional surface-mounted connections.
    Decker said the scientists are still in the early stages of
their research on the device, but prototypes of the new device
compare favorably with conventionaly made transistors and show
promise of superior performance.
    He said the prototype device also proved to be particularly
efficient in detecting light, which could open up new
possibilities in solar energy conversion, the development of
electronic cameras and greater efficiency in optical
communication systems.
 REUTER

blood bank at Federal's Memphis, Tenn., Headquarters.
U.S. Within six hours from Memphis via Federal Express'
 REUTER

Allergan Inc, a subsidiary of
Smithkline Beckman Corp, said the U.S. District Court in New
York has ordered Bausch and Lomb Inc to immediately recall from
retail shelves all soft contact lens solutions sold under the
"HYPO-CARE" name and cease any further distribution.
    The company said the court found that HYPO-CARE was too
close to Allergan's trademark "HYDROCARE" to prevent public
confusion.
 Reuter

ARTHUR D. LITTLE INC &lt;LTLE.O&gt; DIVIDEND
    CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 19
    Qtly div 17.5 cts vs 17.5 cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

The Hydraulic Co said it filed
for a proposed public offering of 500,000 shares of common
stock through an underwriting group co-managed by Salomon
Brothers Inc and Edward D. Jones and Co.
    The company said proceeds will be used to repay certain
 Reuter

government securities market to arrange six-day repurchase
Fed said.
    Fed funds were trading at 6-3/4 pct at the time of the
    Economists had expected three- or six-day repurchases
because the Fed needs to add a large volume of reserves this
statement period.
 Reuter

Dutch salvage firm Smit-Tak said it
may take some three weeks to lift the Swiss tug Orinoko and its
lighter Pavo which sank 10 days ago at Karlsruhe in West
Germany, blocking the Rhine river.
    Smit-Tak, which with its West German subsidiary Harms
Bergung GmbH was commissioned by the local water authorities to
raise the vessels, said its lifting fleet was in position and
divers had made the first inspection.
    Smit is still preparing its final salvage plan and said the
work would begin on Sunday.
 Reuter

Tribune Co said it will offer up to 100
mln dlrs of medium-term notes.
    The notes will be offered on a continuing basis through
Salomon Brothers Inc and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
    The notes may have maturities of nine months to 15 years.
Specific terms of each transaction will be established at the
time of sale, the company said.
 Reuter

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc officials
were not available for comment on market rumors that it is
interested in acquiring Reed International plc <REED.L>.
    Officials of First Boston Inc, Harcourt's financial
adviser, declined comment.
    A Wall Street arbitrageur, who owns Harcourt shares, said
the rumors did not make much sense because Harcourt has
announced a recapitalization plan to ward off a takeover
attempt by British publisher Robert Maxwell."It's completely
inconsistent with the recapitalization, the only way is if they
drop the recapitalization," he said.
    Calls to Harcourt seeking comment were not returned.
    Harcourt's recapitalization will come under scrutiny of a
U.S. Court in Orlando, Fla. Monday. The company has sought a
declaratory judgment on convertibility of debentures due 2011
in light of the recapitalization.
    Harcourt said in a statement this week that Salomon
Brothers Inc <SB> and Mutual Shares Corp have intervened in the
case, claiming ownership of more than 30 mln dlrs face amount
of the debenture. In addition, British Printing and
Communications Corp, headed by Maxwell, owns 9.5 mln dlrs face
amount, Harcourt said.
    Salomon said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission today that it has 21,978 of the debentures. If the
court decides they should be converted at par value of one dlr,
they could be converted into 22.0 mln shares.
    Harcourt is asking the court to rule the company is not
required to issue common to debenture holders who did not
convert prior to June eight.
    An increase in Reed shares in London today was attributed
by brokers to rumors of Harcourt's interest and also to rumors
that Maxwell might be a buyer. But an adviser to Maxwell in New
York said "there's no basis to think that it's us."
 Reuter

Salomon Brothers Inc said it has
acquired 21,978 convertible subordinated debentures of Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich Inc, which it says could be converted into
21,978,000 common shares.
the New York brokerage firm said it bought the debentures,
which have a face value of 1,000 dlrs each, in May and June as
a regular part of its investment and arbitrage activities.
    The conversion rights of the debentures are the subject of
a Florida court case, in which Salomon Brothers said it has
also intervened.
    Salomon Brothers said it rejects Hartcourt's position that
the debentures are not convertible into stock as of June 9.
    It said it would leave open a range of options regarding
the debentures, including buying more, selling some or all of
their current stake in the market or in negotiated deals,
talking with other Harcourt security holders, surrendering the
debentures if there were a merger or tender offer or converting
them into stock.
    Salomon said it would have a 35.8 pct stake in Harcourt,
based on 39.4 mln shares outstanding, if it converted the
debentures into 21,978,000 common shares. The percentage is
based on the current outstanding plus the amount of stock that
would be issued in a conversion.
    But Salomon said its stake in Harcourt's common stock would
be lower if other debentureholders converted their securities
into stock. It says it has no idea of the total number of
debentures outstanding.
    Harcourt has said that Salomon and Mutual Shares Corp, a
New York investment firm, hold a combined total of 30 mln dlrs
of debentures.
    Harcourt announced a recapitalization plan last month to
ward off a takeover attempt by British publisher Robert
Maxwell.
   
 Reuter

General Dynamics Corp said it
formed an international consortium to compete for the contract
relating to the multinational air to ground missile known as
the modular standoff weapon.
    The modular standoff program is an agreement between the
U.S., West Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and
Spain, to develop three versions of the air-to-ground system.  
  The company said the consortium includes Brunswick Corp <BC>,
Dornier GMBH <DOGG.F> of West Germany, Hunting Engineering Co
Ltd of the U.K., Aerospatiale of France, Agusta of Italy,
Garrett of Canada, and Inisel of Spain.
 Reuter

South African staff of the U.S.
Bank Citicorp <CCI> said they will challenge its plans to sell
local operations and withdraw from the country.
    Employees said they had written to Citicorp chief executive
John Reed protesting against the way the disinvestment deal has
been handled. They said that they were not consulted on the
sale of Citicorp's local subsidiary, Citibank N.A. Ltd, to
South Africa's First National Bank <BCLJ.J>.
    The letter, signed by most of the bank's 175 staff, hints
at legal action against Citicorp unless it reviews the
disinvestment arrangement.
    "We are seriously considering legal action," a senior
Citibank employee told Reuters. "There has been no consultation
with South African staff and that runs contrary to American
corporate thinking in this country," he added.
    Citicorp announced the 130 mln rand cash sale on Tuesday
with an effective date of July 1.
    First National Bank's managing director, Chris Ball, said
his bank was essentially buying the skills of Citibank's
specialist employees and disclosed that the American bank's
assets in South Africa totalled only 15 mln rand.
    Ball indicated that the bank's staff had been told of the
sale and agreed to stay on in the bank's employ.
    Citibank's staff, 40 pct of whom are black, have complained
that the disinvestment accord bars local employees from jobs
with Citicorp anywhere in the world for five years.
    They say that this provision amounts to a restraint clause
which is legally challengeable. This could threaten the
divestment plan, say industry sources, since most of the
purchase price, as Ball said, is for employee skills and
expertise and not assets.
    The Citibank employee challenge is seen as more important
than a previous, ultimately unsuccessful, challenge on job
security issues by General Motors employees after the U.S.
Automaker announced its pull out, because valuable managers and
other key staff are involved in protest.
    The employees assert that the Citicorp sale, unlike similar
disinvestment moves announced this week by <Ford Motor Co> and
<ITT Corp>, include no portion of South African profits for
local employees or black community projects.
    "We always thought they would offer a settlement to staff
here in keeping with their image as an equal opportunity
employer," said a senior black employee, adding "We had no idea
that the age of slavery was still alive."
 REUTER

three loans to India totalling 929 mln dlrs, for two projects
in the power sector, and one for water supply and sewage.
    One power project will be supported by a 485 mln dlr loan,
    The other power project, supported by a 375 mln dlr loan,
plans to aid in the first phase of a power generation complex
in eastern India, the bank said.
    The third project, which is being supported by a bank loan
of 53 mln dlrs and an International Development Association
loan of 16 mln dlrs, hopes to increase water supply to Madras.
 Reuter

Lloyds Bank Plc said it is withdrawing
from market making in Eurobonds and U.K. Government bonds
(gilts).
    It said in a statement it will maintain an active presence
in short-term securities trading, swaps and other treasury
products, building on its strengths in traditional foreign
exchange and money markets.
    In the statement, Lloyds chief executive Brian Pitman said
"We have a relatively small position in these two overcrowded
markets and we have decided to reallocate the resources to
opportunities which promise a better return on our
shareholders' investment."
    With this decision, Lloyds becomes the second major U.K.
Clearing bank to feel the effects of the deregulation of the
London Stock Exchange, or "Big Bang," last October. Earlier this
year, Midland Bank Plc pulled out of equity market making
because it did not believe the return justified the costs
involved in maintaining and developing a market share.
    Lloyds Treasurer Alan Moore subsequently told Reuters that
the decision was taken at a board meeting earlier today and had
been under discussion for some time.
    He said the move was not a reaction to any losses sustained
in the trading of Eurobonds or gilts but rather a result of a
"strategic review" of the future of Lloyds involvement in these
markets. In the end, Lloyds decided these markets did not
represent "an attractive return to our shareholders," he said.
    He noted that Lloyds had not expected its U.K. Government
bond operations would be profitable in the early stages,
although he declined to discuss the finances of the operation.
    "This is an overcrowed market," Moore said of the U.K.
Government bond market, which began Big Bang with 27 market
makers. Lloyds withdrawal now leaves the number at 26.
    Market participants noted that Lloyds was the only one of
the clearing banks which did not buy a jobber (middle man) or
broker before Big Bang.
    Under the old system, the gilt market operated under a
separate system which involved separate functions for jobbers
and brokers. Now these tasks have been taken up by market
makers acting as both.
    Moore said that one reason Lloyds decided to withdraw from
these markets was that they could no longer justify the
commitment of capital that was required to maintain these
    He said Lloyds would make every effort to redeploy
employees in these areas within the bank.
 REUTER

Viacom Inc said the ex-dividend date for its
preferred stock is Friday, June 19.
    The company, which halted activity on the stock this
morning, said trading will resume shortly. The last price for
Viacom Inc preferred was 24-1/2.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co said that through May its
European dealers Europe sold a record 643,000 cars and
increased their market share to 12 pct from 11.7 pct a year
earlier.
    The company said industry sales ran at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 11.6 mln cars during the first five
months of 1987 compared with 10.9 mln cars in the same period
last year.
 Reuter

ended its screwworm alert control program in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, because the potential of a screwworm outbreak in the
area has been contained.
    The department said the program was set up after a case of
screwworms was confirmed in a hunting dog being returned from
Venezuela.
    It said six weeks of surveillance has failed to turn up an
additional cases of screrwworms.
 Reuter

affirmed First Wisconsin Corp's 50 mln dlrs of debt.
    Affirmed were the firm's Baa-1 senior debt and Baa-2
    Moody's noted that First Wisconsin said it would add a
special loan loss provision of 96 mln dlrs to reflect exposure
to economically troubled international borrowers. The provision
adjusts the firm's financial statement to more accurately
reflect economic reality, the agency said.
 Reuter

Great Western Bank, a unit of Great
Western Financial Corp, is offering 200 mln dlrs of notes due
1997 yielding 9.60 pct, said lead manager Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets.
    The notes have a 9-1/2 pct coupon and were priced 99.365 to
yield 130 basis points more than comparable Treasury
    Non-callable to maturity, the issue is rated A-2 by Moody's
and A by Standard and Poor's. The gross spread is 6.50 dlrs,
the selling concession is four dlrs and the reallowance is 2.50
dlrs. Shearson Lehman co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

The market for advanced visual
displays will grow seven-fold into a five billion dlr business
in five years, NV Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS> said.
    Philips is Europe's largest supplier of liquid crystal
displays (LCDs) currently used in lighter and more efficient
televisions and screens.
    Last year, the market was worth 683 mln dlrs. But Philips
sees a surge in demand with applications in monitors, test and
measuring equipment, cars and telecommunications equipment.
    Philips said the overall market value will have risen to
five billion dlrs by 1992.
    It has so far used LCDs only in industrial applications,
but said in a statement it was moving to get a big share of a
growing consumer products market.
    Pocket-sized LCDS are already produced and marketed by
Japanese manufacturers and sell at around 100 to 200 dlrs,
Philips spokesman Jack Reemers said.
    Philips hopes to launch its version later this year.
 Reuter

Five mths end may 31
    Shr 1.37 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 75.2 mln vs 73.6 mln
    Revs 632.3 mln vs 629.6 mln
    Avg shrs 54.9 mln vs 53.4 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 3.19 dlrs vs 3.13 dlrs
    Net 173.6 mln vs 165.1 mln
    Revs 1.43 billion vs 1.47 billion
    Avg shrs 54.4 mln vs 52.8 mln
 Reuter

Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich is
considering calling a special legislative session to consider
amendments to the state's anti-takeover statute, according to
the governor's office.
    A spokesman for the governor said nothing will be decided
today, but said the governor will evaluate later whether to
call a special session in the next few days.
   The governor's office said the possible action was triggered
by a proposal by Dayton-Hudson Corp <DH>, which has been the
subject of takeover rumors. A spokesman for the governor said
the company proposed several amendments to Perpich designed to
make any takeover attempt in the state
       
    Dayton-Hudson suggested amendments be passed and instituted
by next Friday, the spokesperson said.
    Press reports in Minneapolis newspapers this morning quoted
several legislators as saying they were inclined to support
legislation that would help Dayton-Hudson, according to a
governor's spokesperson.
   Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe was quoted as saying he
would be inclined to support any action that would help the
company, the spokesperson said.
   Robert Vanasek, the House speaker designate, was quoted in
the Minneapolis Star and Tribune as saying, "We are taking
their (Dayton-Hudson) concerns very seriously and we are going
to do what we can to help."
 Reuter

Boeing Co said the Hart-Scott-Rodino
waiting period required in connection with its pending tender
offer for ArgoSystems Inc <ARGI.O> expired at midnight June 18.
    Boeing began its 37 dlr per share cash tender offer for the
defense electronics firm on June two.
 Reuter

<MegaVest Industries Inc> said it has
agreed in principle to acquire unlisted Computer Trade
Development Corp in exchange for 119 mln shares of its common
stock.
    The company said it has about 21.5 mln shares outstanding.
    It said Computer Trade had revenues of about 6.1 mln dlrs
last year.
 Reuter

expects record profits and sales in the fiscal 1988 and also
set a five-year 3.3 billion dlr capital expenditure plan.
    "Our sights are set on achieving our 13th consecutive year
of record sales and earnings," chairman David Farrell told the
    In the year ended January 31, 1987, the company earned 381
mln dlrs or 2.44 dlrs a share on sales of 10.3 billion dlrs.
    Farrell also said he expects improved second-quarter
profits. "We believe second-quarter performance should show
improvement over 1986," he said. In the quarter ended August
30, 1986, the company earned 45.6 mln dlrs or 52 cts on sales
of 1.23 billion dlrs.
     The five-year capital expenditure program includes 1.9
billion dlrs to open a record 73 department stores, 52 discount
stores and about 1,200 specialty stores.
    About two-thirds of the department stores will be opened by
Lord and Taylor, May Co, and J.W. Robinson's in California,
Hecht's in Washington, D.C., and G. Fox in Connecticut.
    The remainder of the 3.3 billion dlrs will be used for
store relocations, closings and remodelings, Farrell said.
    Sales per square foot rose eight pct in 1986 to 134 dlrs,
president Thomas Hays said, noting that the company seeks
annual increases of 10 pct.
    Also at the annual meeting, shareholders voted to approve
indemnification of the company's officers and directors.
 Reuter

Gemcraft Inc said it expects to post a
profitable second quarter.
    Gemcraft recorded net income of 908,000 dlrs, or 16 cts per
shr, for the second quarter ended June 30, 1986.
    In addition, the company said at its annual shareholders
meeting that it will repurchase approximately 130,000 shares of
its common stock, a decrease from its earlier plan to purchase
as many as 330,000 shares for a total price of three mn dlrs.
 Reuter

may upgrade the ratings on 1.45 billion dlrs of debt of SCI
Holdings Inc.
    The agency cited SCI's announcement that it agreed to sell
for 1.3 billion dlrs six television stations and related
properties to a joint venture formed by SCI and Gillett
Holdings Inc. While financing details are not available, the
agency said SCI's debt should decline as a result of the sale.
    BCI currently carries Ba-3 zero coupon senior notes and B-2
senior subordinated debentures. The BCI unit Storer
Communications Inc has B-2 subordinated debentures.
 Reuter

Cold and wet weather in northern,
western and central parts of Europe continued to slow beet
growth but plant density is reported to be good in most
countries, sugar statistician F.O. Licht said.
    Temperatures were too low for the season and the rain has
hampered field work and occasionally led to water-logged
fields.
    But in eastern and southeastern Europe, warmer weather has
boosted sugar beet growth.
    Weather in the Soviet Union also allowed good beet
development, Licht said.
    In Sweden beet growth has been delayed, although plant
population is reported to be regular and good. Cool and rainy
weather slowed beet growth in Denmark and crop prospects are
rated as slightly below normal.
    In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it was rather cool with
heavy rainfall in places which has delayed beet growth.
    In France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and West Germany, it
was mostly cool with frequent and often heavy rainfall which
continued to slow down beet growth and often made field work
    In Austria, it was warm with some rainfall, which was
favourable for beet growth, Licht said.
    In Czechoslovakia and Poland, it was mostly warm, favouring
beet development. but some heavy rain may have caused damage.
    In the European beet growing regions of the Soviet Union,
it was warm with showers over most areas and weather was
generally good for the emergence and growth of beets.
    In south eastern Europe, warm weather with some rainfall
boosted beet development.
    Labour trouble threatens the beet crop in Spain. Disputes
between the factories and the trade unions are threatening to
delay the start of processing in the southern areas, where
beets are maturing very early this year.
 Reuter

First City Bancorp of Texas Inc, which
is soliciting bidders, reiterated that it is premature to
speculate on what course of action it will pursue following a
story in today's Wall Street Journal that it has attracted at
least three potential acquirers.
    First City said the article was not confirmed by the
company, and it cautioned that there is "absotluely nothing to
say or report beyond" its statement.
    The Journal reported that among the bidders for First city
was Robert Carney and Robert Abboud, a former Chicago banker.
 Reuter

unit said it will offer 300 mln dlrs in certificates
representing interests in a pool of receivables selected from
its California Classic Visa credit card accounts.
    The certificate rate is 8.2 pct. The offering price to the
public is 99.89 dlrs, resulting in a yield to certificate
holdes of 8.21 pct.
    The certificates have a provisional rating of Aaa by
Moody's Investors Service and are backed by a 30-mln-dlr
lettter of credit by Bayerische Vereinsbank AG, BankAmerica
said.
    The offering will be co-managed by Salomon Brothers Inc and
the bank.
    "Selling these loans provides a cost-effective source of
medium-term funds and allows the bank to leverage its existing
capital base across a broad range of activities," said Vice
Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Frank Newman.
    Bank of America said it will continue to service the loans
and maintain customer relationships, while the proceeds of the
offering can be used to fund new loans.
    BankAmerica said it pioneered securitization in 1977 with
home loans sold as mortgage pass-through certificates.
 Reuter

Tribune Co said it is offering up to
100 mln dlrs of medium-term notes.
    The notes will have maturities from nine months to 15
years, the company said. The terms of each deal will be set at
the time of sale.
    They will be offered on a continuing basis through Salomon
Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the firm added.
 Reuter

The Paris Club of creditor nations agreed
to a major rescheduling of Uganda's and Mozambique's
government-to-government debts, the Club said in a statement.
    At meetings here this week, both countries were accorded
terms that were more generous than usually granted by the Club.
Uganda was given 15 years to repay its debts with a six-year
grace period while Mozambique was accorded an exceptionally
long 20-year period, with 10 years' grace.
    The Club said it approved of both countries' economic and
financial programs and would therefore make a contribution to
improve their external payments prospects.
    It said both countries faced heavy debt service obligations
and low per capita income, adding the solution of the
countries' debt problems would take a number of years.
    The statement also said Mozambique's limited debt service
capacity made borrowing from the International Monetary Fund in
the upper credit tranches "inappropriate."
    No details were available from the countries' embassies nor
from the Club on the amounts involved, but last week the
Ugandan Finance Minister Chrispus Kiyonga said he was hoping
for a rescheduling of 120 mln dlrs. Uganda's total foreign debt
is estimated at some 1.5 billion dlrs.
    A French Finance Ministry statement issued the same time as
the Paris Club statement, said France had formally agreed with
Gabon to reschedule bilateral unpaid debt amounting to about
440 mln francs.
    The bilateral agreement, covering payments due to have been
made by May 31 this year, follows the Paris Club's January
decision to grant Gabon an extended repayment period for its
government-to-government debt.
    The ministry said French aid to Gabon in 1987, within the
framework of the country's economic recovery program, amounts
to about 1.67 billion francs.
 REUTER

Shr loss 20 cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 346,000 dlrs vs loss 26,000 dlrs
    Revs 7,671,000 dlrs vs 4,775,000 dlrs
    12 mths
    Shr profit one dlr vs profit 2.19 dlrs
    Net profit 2,927,000 dlrs vs profit 5,613,000 dlrs
    Revs 40.9 mln vs 35.8 mln
 Reuter

Jewelmasters Inc said it
signed a licensing agreement with Walt Disney Co to make and
market gold jewelry featuring such Disney characters as Mickey
Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy.
    The company said the "Disney in Gold" merchandise,
including necklaces, earrings and rings in 14 carat and 18
carat gold, will cost anywhere from 200 dlrs to 10,000 dlrs.
    It said sales are expected to begin in the fall, and the
initial license agreement begins in June and continues through
September 1988 with "multiple renewal options."
 Reuter

inspectors have refused entry to parts of two lots of
Australian beef because of pesticide residues, a spokeswoman
for the department said.
    She said USDA has notified Australia, which assured it that
stricter controls would be implemented.
    The Australian government had already imposed residue
controls and it is believed the meat with the presticide
residues was already in the pipeline before the controls were
put in place, the spokeswoman said.
    There have been five other cases of Australian meat which
had residue levels above U.S. allowable limits this year, she
said.
 Reuter

Chevron Corp said it sold 4.6 mln
shares of UNC Inc common stock on June 15, leaving it with 1.4
mln UNC common shares, or 8.4 pct of the total.
Chevron said it sold the shares for 11.88 dlrs each, or a total
of 54.6 mln dlrs, under an agreement it had with UNC.
    The stock was sold to an underwriting syndicate managed by
Dillon, Read and Co Inc and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette
Securities Corp, with the underwriters paying 38.3 mln dlrs and
UNC paying 16.4 mln, it said.
 Reuter

N-D Resources Inc said it
agreed in principle to issue an undetermined number of shares
to Recovery Resources Corp, Bahrain, in order to acquire
Recovery's Atoka Gas Gathering Systems Inc.
    Atoka currently operates a 20-mile natural gas pipeline of
46 miles in length in southeastern Oklahoma.
 Reuter

The United Food and Commercial
Workers Union said unlisted Safeway Inc has agreed to provide
severance pay to about 5,000 workers in the Dallas area
resulting from the closure of a division last April.
    The union said the total severance payment will be about
five mln dlrs. It said the division was closed as a result of
4.6 billion dlrs in debt incurred from a leveraged buyout last
year.
    The union said it filed suit following the leveraged buyout
to protect the claims of union members.
    The leveraged buyout was implemented to ward off a bid by
Dart Group Corp <DARTA.O>.
 Reuter

Fifteen countries in Eastern and
Southern Africa have agreed to cut tariffs on regional trade by
10 pct every two years up to 1996.
    A statement by the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), which
seeks to create a common market stretching from Ethiopia in the
north to Lesotho in the south, said the governments would make
the first tariff cut next year.
    In 1996 they would assess the impact of the tariff
reductions and work out a new timetable for the complete
elimination of all barriers to trade by the year 2000.
    The PTA, set up in 1982, groups Burnudi, the Comoros,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda,
Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
    PTA sources said the agreement averted a split between
members wanting more progress towards free trade and weaker
states concerned about the effects on customs revenue.
    The reductions cover only a common list of 300 or so widely
traded commodities and goods but PTA sources said the
organisation planned to expand the list to include 425 items.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved four
loans to Jamaica totalling 104 mln dlrs to assist that country
with an economic structural adjustment program, a sugar
industry rehabilitation scheme and a population and health
project.
    The bank said two loans will support Jamaica's structural
adjustment program -- a 40 mln dlr loan for trade and financial
sector adjustment and a 20 mln dlr loan for the public
enterprise sector.
    The 40 mln dlr loan is designed to raise the performance of
exports and industry and strengthen the financial sector.
 Reuter

Hot, dry weather has caused some
deterioration in Saskatchewan crops, according to the
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's weekly crop report.
    Rain was needed in the southwest, west-central and
northeast regions, and other regions were expected to need rain
soon.
    Summerfallow crops were in fair to good condition, while
stubble crops were rated fair to poor. Wheat, durum, oats and
barley crops were all one-pct headed, rye was 40 pct in the
milk stage and winter wheat was 21 pct milk stage.
    Flax was 51 pct tillering, and canola was 58 pct tillering.
    Areas of the southern grain belt were hit by high winds and
hail Tuesday, with some damage reported.
 Reuter

Illinois Governor James Thompson will
likely sign a bill setting December 1, 1990, as the trigger
date opening the state to wider interstate banking, a
gubernatorial spokesman said.
    The bill passed both chambers of the Illinois legislature
this week by wide margins.
    The bill provides that Illinois banks and bank holding
companies can be acquired by similar institutions from any
state with a reciprocal law. Current Illinois law limits
interstate banking to six Midwestern states.
    The governor had supported a July 1, 1988, date for full
interstate banking. Large banking firms, particularly Citicorp
<CCI>, have lobbied for the earlier date.
    But legislation with the later date was approved in the
state's house and senate. The governor has the authority to use
an amendatory veto and pencil in an earlier trigger date.
    "I'm sure the bill will get his approval," the spokesman
said. "The only question is whether he will use his authority
to change the trigger date. He will hear from people who want
the different dates. I don't think he'll take action before
late summer."
 Reuter

of Canadian rapeseed for shipment from the last-half of July to
September, trade sources said.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved loans
to Jamaica totalling 104 mln dlrs to assist it with an economic
structural adjustment program, a sugar industry rehabilitation
scheme and a population and health project.
adjustment program -- a 40 mln dlr loan for the trade and
financial sector and a 20 mln dlr loan for the public
    The bank said a 34 mln dlr loan is to help Jamaica's sugar
industry become self-sufficient and meet both domestic demand
and the export demand of the United States and European
Community.
    The fourth loan, for 10 mln dlrs, is to improve family
planning programs and health care.
 Reuter

Galaxy Cablevision L.P. said it
signed a letter of intent to sell the assets of its cable
television systems in West Texas which serve about 4,600 basic
subscribers through nine cable television systems.
    Terms were not disclosed and the Galaxy did not identify
the buyer. The company also said it will make its first cash
dividend of 37 cents per unit on or about August 15 to holders
of record June 30.
    In March, Galaxy completed a public offering of 2.2 mln
units for 43 mln dlrs and acquired the assets of 132 cable
television systems for about 34 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

IC industries Inc said Karl Bays has
been elected chairman and chief executive officer effective
July one.
    William Johnson, who is recovering from a recent stroke,
has been named chairman emeritus and will continue as a member
of the board.
    Bays is currently chairman of Baxter Travenol Laboratories
Inc <BAX>.
 Reuter

Stifel Financial Corp said it
received an unsolicited merger proposal from privately held
Laidlaw Adams and Peck Inc for 15 dlrs a share in cash for all
its outstanding shares.
    The proposal, which expires July 1, values Stifel at about
54 mln dlrs.
    Stifel has about 3.6 mln shares outstanding.
    The company said its management and board of directors will
consider the proposal but have not set a date to meet.
    It said the proposal is currently being studied by Goldman
Sachs and Co and legal counsel.
    It said conditions of the proposal include obtaining
necessary financing, satisfactory completion of a due diligence
investigation by Laidlaw, and execution of employment contracts
with key employees to be designated by Laidlaw.
 Reuter

CANADIAN MONEY SUPPLY M-1 FELL 430 MLN DLRS IN WEEK, BANK
OF CANADA SAID

U.S. crude oil prices are at their
highest level in more than a year ahead of next week's OPEC
meeting, even though most industry analysts do not expect any
policy changes from the session.
    They said prices, which have steadily climbed since the
organization's accord in December, have risen on technical
factors within the market and concerns about supplies because
of the Iran-Iraq war, which could disrupt deliveries from the
Gulf.
    The U.S. benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate is trading
around 20.55 dlrs in the July contract on New York Mercantile
Exchange's energy futures and in the spot market. That is its
highest level since January 1986.
    OPEC conference president Rilwanu Lukman, who is Nigeria's
oil minister, said Friday he expects the meeting in Vienna to
be brief and calm and that OPEC's current price and production
    Although most industry experts expect just a reaffirmation
of the December agreement, oil prices continue to climb due to
a desire to hedge positions in case of any surprises.
    Analysts expect the higher prices to continue until soon
after the OPEC meeting. At that point, barring any increased
tension in the Gulf or changes in OPEC's policies, prices
should begin easing.
    "OPEC will probably not do anything it hasn't already agreed
to in December because oil prices are firm," said John Hill, a
vice president at Merrill Lynch Futures.
    OPEC agreed in December to maintain official oil prices at
18 dlrs a barrel and raise the group's production ceiling to
16.6 mln barrels per day in the third quarter and to 18.3 mln
barrels in the fourth quarter.
    This agreement helped send prices sharply higher, rising
from 15 dlrs a barrel in early December.
    Several OPEC members who are price hawks, including Iran,
Algeria and Libya, will seek a higher official price and a
reduction in output.
    "And if U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude continues to
trade above 20 dlrs a barrel, there is a greater chance that
OPEC will raise its official 18 dlrs price," said Nauman
Barakat, analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co.
    But most analysts expect the more moderate producers, such
as Saudi Arabia, to block any changes in policy.
    "The meeting will be a non-event with no change in the
official prices because OPEC, and in particular the Saudis, are
committed to stabilizing the market," said Rosario Ilacqua,
analyst with L.F. Rothschild.
    However, some analysts said OPEC may need to hold a meeting
in September to re-evaluate market conditions.
    Overproduction by OPEC will become a real problem in the
fourth quarter when the quota is raised to 18.3 mln barrels a
day and Iraq's pipeline through Turkey brings another 500,000
barrels to the market each day, said John Lichtblau, president
of Petroleum Industry Ressearch Foundation.
    Most expect Saudi Arabia to oppose a price increase at this
meeting but many look for an increase by year-end to 20 dlrs to
offset the decline in the dollar. Oil prices are denominated
throughout the world in dollars, so as the currency declines,
producers receive less money for their oil.
    "The only real production restraint in OPEC is Saudi Arabia,"
said Sanford Margoshes, analyst at Shearson Lehman Brothers.
    "In the second half of the year we expect the Saudis not to
produce at their 4.1 mln barrel a day quota and therefore act
as a vehicle to stablize the market and pave the way for a two
dlrs a barrel price increase at the December 1987 meeting," he
said.
    One uncertain factor is the course of the Iran-Iraq war.
    "The wild card is the increased tensions in the Persian
Gulf," said Frank Knuettel, analyst with Prudential-Bache
Securites.
    Oil tankers taking oil from Iraq and Kuwait have been
regular targets for Iranian planes. The Reagan administration
is planning to put Kuwait tankers under the protection of the
U.S. flag, with naval escorts.
    "Extra (oil) inventories are needed during a time of crisis
like this, and just general nervousness over an incident that
could disrupt oil supplies drives prices up," Knuettel said.
 Reuter

The New York Times Co said it had an
agreement to buy the Gwinnett Daily News, an evening newspaper
published in Lawrenceville, Ga., Terms were not disclosed.
    The company said Gwinnett has a weekday circulation of
about 27,500 and a Sunday circulation of about 30,900. The New
York Times also said Gwinnett County, a northeast suburb of
Atlanta, is the fastest-growing county in the country.
    The purchase agreement includes the Forsyth County News,
published on Wednesday and Sunday and the Winder News, a
weekly, among other publications.
 Reuter

Lloyd's of London, the insurance market,
said its offer for a settlement of the five-year old <PCW
Underwriting Agencies> affair, which involved losses totaling
about 235 mln stg, was unconditional.
    For the offers to become unconditional, there had to be 90
pct acceptance by those Lloyd's members affected by the PCW
fraud, although this level could be reduced by a caretaker
agency set up in 1985 to manage the affair.
    The offers involve one-off cash payments by PCW names -
investors who guarantee insurance risks - in exchange for a
Lloyd's guarantee ending their exposure to PCW-related claims.
 Reuter

Chancellor Corp said its board declared a
special dividend of 17 cts per share payable Aug 14, 1987, to
shareholders of record July 31, 1987.
    The company said it is not its intention to pay quarterly
dividends, but from time to time, pays special dividends if the
board believes it appropriate.
 Reuter

The tug-of-war over who pays to develop
new weapons--contractors or the government--is likely to lead
to more writeoffs by defense firms, analysts said.
    Singer Co <SMF> and Northrop Corp <NOC> recently announced
planned second quarter writeoffs related to costs of major
defense programs under fixed-price government contracts.
    "It's a case of companies paying for things that in a
different environment the Defense Department would have paid
for," said Howard Mager of Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette Securities
Corp.
    In recent years, the Defense Department, DOD, has increased
competitive bidding for weapons contracts and has asked
contractors to pay more of the costs of developing weapons
programs.
    The moves have helped cut waste and abuse by contractors
but have also dictated that the firms assume much more risk,
    "It's a stricter environment," said Anthony Hatch of Argus
Research Corp. "Contractors are absorbing more of the cost and
more of risk and that's likely to be the trend for some time to
come."
    The trend will probably lead to further writeoffs, the
analysts said. Programs most prone, they agreed, are the
Advanced Tactical Fighter, ATF, a new generation,
high-technology fighter plane being developed for the U.S. Air
Force, the C-17 air transport plane and the Light Helicopter
Experimental, LHX, under development for the Army.
    Other programs may also be affected, they said.
    The Air Force is expected to order 750 of the advanced
fighter planes in the 1990s at a cost of up to 40 billion dlrs,
analysts have said. Two teams of contractors are competing for
a contract to develop a prototype ATF.
    Lockheed Corp <LK>, General Dynamics Corp <GD> and Boeing
Co <BA> are teamed in competition against Northrop Corp <NOC>
and McDonnell Douglas Corp <MD> on ATF.
    The two teams fighting for an award to develop the LHX are
Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc <TXT>, coupled with
McDonnell Douglas, and United Technologies Corp's <UTX>
Sikorsky paired with Boeing.
    The C-17 is a four-engine transport plane. McDonnell
Douglas's Douglas Aircraft Co is working on two test planes,
and a production award for up to 210 of the aircraft should be
made by late 1989, a Douglas Aircraft spokesman said.
    Under the government's new procedures, contractors can
spend hundreds of millions of dollars on development and  
typically recoup their investments during production.
    But now the government sometimes awards production to a
second contractor who did not develop the system. General
Electric Co <GE>, for example, developed the F404 engine for
the Navy. But two weeks ago, the Pentagon awarded 30 pct of
F404 production to United Technologies' Pratt and Whitney.
    Such tactics have increased competition but the government
now risks decimating the industry by making it too competitive,
said Michael LaTronica of Redding Research Group.
    "Two years ago, defense contractors were their own worst
enemies. They were not cost efficient," LaTronica said. "Now
DOD has allowed the situation to swing so far back the other
way that you may be in danger of losing the defense industry as
a national resource."
    While the nation as a whole has posted trade deficits in
recent years, aerospace and defense has exported more products
than it imported, he noted.
    LaTronica and others said, however, that changes in
government procurement may be coming.
    "I hear that the Pentagon is looking into the situation,"
said John Diamantis, defense analyst at Pershing and Co.
    He said that some small defense electronics firms believe
the Pentagon will begin re-evaluating procurement policy and
perhaps start paying more development money.
    Redding Research's LaTronica, who still likes the industry
despite the probability of additional unforeseen writeoffs,
said, "There's been a swing in sentiment. The defense bashing
psychology of the last few years is starting to shift."
    LaTronica noted that one government official has recently
suggested that the winner of the ATF prototype award should get
sole production of the plane for a specified time.
    The investments are large. The Lockheed, General Dynamics,
Boeing ATF team, for example, is spending 691 mln dlrs just to
develop the prototype.
    The danger the Pentagon runs if changes are not made is
that companies will hesitate to bid to develop a program but
instead will wait for a second source production award.
    "But it may take a company going bust to really change
people's thinking," LaTronica said.
 Reuter

Reed International Plc <REED.L> said it
had no comment to make on U.K. stock market rumors that
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc <HBJ> may make a bid for the
company in order to escape unwelcome offers from Robert
Maxwell's British Printing and Communication Corp <BPCL.L>.
    A spokeswoman for Reed said earlier analysts forecasts that
a bid for Reed will have to be about 700 mln stg were totally
unrealistic, adding that its current market is about 2.7
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said it told the U.S.
Treasury Department that it will not include fluidized bed
combustion technology, a method for the more efficient burning
of solids, at its Parachute Creek oil shale project in Colorado
due to high costs.
    Under a 1985 agreement with the now-defunct U.S. Synthetic
Fuels Corp, Unocal said it would study using the technology at
the oil shale plant. In return the company would have been
eligible for 500 mln dlrs in loan gaurantees and price supports
from the U.S. Treasury Department, which took over the contract
from the Synthetic Fuels Corp, Unocal said.
    Unocal said its studies showed the cost for the fluidized
bed combustion facility would have exceeded 352 mln dlrs,
compared with an original estimate of 260 mln dlrs.
    The fluidized bed facility would have provided heat and
electricity for the oil shale project, Unocal said.
    Last year's fall in oil prices and the loss of investment
tax credit under the Tax Reform Act made the project
uneconomical even with government price supports and loan
guarantees, Unocal said.
    The Parachute Creek oil shale plant produces about 4,000 to
5,000 barrels per day of crude shale oil, Unocal said.
 Reuter

Merck Co <MRK> and Squibb Corp <SQB>
will benefit from a study that shows lower levels of blood
cholesterol slows the build-up of fat in the heart's arteries,
lowering the risk of heart attacks, industry analysts said.
    Both companies have developed drugs that slow the body's
production of cholesterol although Merck is about 18 months
ahead of Squibb with a drug expected to be approved this year.
    "Certainly this study will create greater acceptance of
anti-cholesterol drugs," said Robert Uhl, a drug analyst at F.
Eberstadt Fleming.
    Although neither company's drug was used in the study,
which was conducted by a team of scientists at the University
of Southern California School of Medicine, both are leaders in
a new class of drugs that fight cholesterol.
    The study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, showed lower levels of cholesterol, achieved
through a combination of drugs and special diet, slowed and in
some cases reversed the build up of fatty deposits in the
heart's arteries.
    Such build up leads to heart attacks, the leading cause of
death in the U.S.
    Health officials have said lower levels of cholesterol
could immediately benefit six mln Americans who suffer symptoms
of coronary artery disease. The study advocated reduction of
cholesterol in some 40 mln Americans.
    As the anti-cholesterol crusade gains momentum, industry
analysts and executives believe a healthier diet and drug
therapy will gain wider acceptance.
    In this context, pharmaceutical analyst David Crossen of
Sanford C. Bernstein said "the culture can shift in terms of
drug treatment because some people arn't going to fundamentally
alter their diets".
    The worldwide anti-cholesterol drug market is valued at 600
mln dlrs a year. But as the new drugs reach the market,
analysts estimate revenues will swell to 1.5 billion dlrs
annually in about next five years.
    The drugs used in the study, in combination with the low
cholesterol diet, were niacin, a common compound, and
colestipol, a drug Upjohn Co <UPJ> has sold since 1977.
    But these two drugs have some drawbacks that analysts say
the new drugs from Merck and Squibb avoid. "Niacin leads to
tremendous amounts of flushing, constipation, or stomach
upset," Crossen said.
    Colestipol, a sand-like powder, comes in a dosage of 15 to
30 grams and must be mixed with a glass of water. "It isn't fun
to take," Crossen said. Drug analyst Uhl said the drawbacks
restricted Upjohn's sales for the drug, which he said is under
10 mln dlrs a year.
    In contrast, the new drugs from Merck and Squibb have
little side effects because they target a key factor in the
body's production of cholesterol -- an enzyme found in the
liver.
   
    "Past methods of getting down cholesterol have been rather
variable," said Dr. Charles Sanders, an executive vice
president at Squibb. The new drugs, in contrast, interupt a
clear step in cholesterol production, Sanders said.
    Also, the new drugs are easier to take since they come in a
tablet form swallowed once or twice a day.
    Merck's drug, Mevacor, received a recommendation from an
advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration earlier this
year and is expected to receive full approval for sale in late
summer or fall.
    Squibb's drug, eptastatin, is expected to be submitted for
regulatory approval in the first or second quarter 1988,
Sanders said.
    Warner Lambert Co <WLA> and Bristol Meyers Co <BMY> also
have cholesterol fighting compounds similar to the Upjohn drug,
but only Merck and Upjohn are ahead in the new class of
cholesterol inhibitors.
 Reuter

Civil service industrial action started
early this month will delay the publication of May's U.K.
Overseas trade figures, which had been due out next Thursday, a
Trade and Industry Department statement said.
    A department spokesman said the figures will probably be
put back by about a month. The June trade figures, due in late
July, will also be delayed, he added.
 REUTER

M-1 fell 430 mln dlrs to 35.65 billion dlrs in week ended June
10, Bank of Canada said.
non-personal deposits, fell 874 mln dlrs to 79.97 billion dlrs
fixed-term deposits, fell 952 mln dlrs to 184.45 billion dlrs.
Canada, fell 549 mln dlrs to 225.30 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank general loans outstanding fell 584 mln dlrs
to 127.58 billion dlrs.
    Canadian liquid plus short term assets rose 20 mln dlrs to
37.96 billion dlrs and total Canadian dollar major assets of
the chartered banks fell 753 mln dlrs to 229.05 billion dlrs.
    Chartered bank net foreign currency assets fell 92 mln dlrs
    Notes in circulation totalled 17.11 billion dlrs, up 59 mln
    Government cash balances rose 26 mln dlrs to 2.65 billion
dlrs in week ended June 17.
    Government securities outstanding fell 424 mln dlrs to
227.38 billion dlrs in week ended June 17, treasury bills rose
700 mln dlrs to 78.00 billion dlrs and Canada Savings Bonds
fell 121 mln dlrs to 42.45 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Demand for platinum could reach 3.4 mln
ounces by 1991, compared with an estimated offtake of 2.88 mln
in 1986, Chris Clark, platinum marketing director for Johnson
Matthey Plc said.
    Clark told a meeting of the Minerals Research Organisation
in Milton Keynes he foresaw a 250,000 ounce increase in
consumption for use in autocatalysts, currently the largest
single application for platinum.
    Jewellery consumption is set to rise by 70,000 ounces,
Clark predicted in his speech, the text of which was released
in London today.
    Clark said his forecast allowed for only a modest further
increase in investment buying and may well be cautious.
    He said South Africa was the most likely source of
additional supplies and will need to increase output by about
500,000 ounces to meet increased demand.
    The capital investment required to produce the additional
output would be around one billion U.S. Dlrs and the political
climate may make it difficult to raise the money, he said.
    The Soviet Union, whose exports have declined since the
1970s, might increase sales to the West by about 50,000 ounces,
Clark said.
    "The very probability of a growth in demand set against the
massive investment required for expansion - and that expansion
only being viable in South Africa or Russia - leads me to
conclude that the price of platinum will be substantially
underpinned in the medium to long-term," Clark said.
 REUTER

Trammel Crow Co said it agreed to buy
the 42-story headquarters building of First Wisconsin Corp, for
    The privately held real estate development and investment
firm said it plans to develop the remainder of the eight-acre
site in Milwaukee to include a tower with office space, luxury
condominiums and retail stores.
    First Wisconsin will continue to occupy 19 floors in First
Wisconsin Center, it said.
 Reuter

Metro Airlines Inc said it has agreed in
principle to acquire privately held Chaparral Airlines inc for
5,700,000 dlrs in cash.
    Chaparral provides regularly scheduled service out of
Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport as an affiliated carrier of
AMR Corp <AMR> and had revenues in 1986 of 14.1 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Weatherford International Inc said
executive vice president and chief operating officer Kurt K.
Bushati will leave September One to accept a senior operating
position with the Austrian national oil company.
Eugene L. Butler will assume the added duties of chief
 Reuter

ratings on senior debt and preferred stock to DP-7 (low A) from
DP-6 (high A), affecting nearly 670 mln dlrs in debt
    The action reflects the increased financial leverage
resulting from the company's 1986 acquisition of Hammmermill
Paper, which raised the fixed obligations ratio to 34 pct,
compared with 26 pct in 1985, Duff and Phelps said.
 Reuter

keeping Crazy Eddie Inc's 81 mln dlrs of B-rated convertible
subordinated debt on creditwatch with negatives implications.
    The company's implied senior debt rating is BB-minus.
    S and P said it considers a downgrade of Crazy Eddie more
likely because of a rash of senior management resignations and
Chemical Bank's withdrawal of a 52 mln dlr credit line.
    Crazy Eddie has yet to respond to two competing takeover
bids, one by founder and chairman Eddie Antar with First City
Capital Corp and a second for about 235 mln dlrs by
Entertainment Marketing Inc, S and P noted.
 Reuter

Manufacturers Hanover Corp is offering
200 mln dlrs of two-year senior extendable notes with a final
maturity of 1993 yielding 8.30 pct, said lead manager Shearson
    The notes have an 8-1/4 pct coupon and were priced at 99.90
to yield 85 basis points more than the when-issued two-year
Treasury note.
    After two years, holders can sell the notes back to
Manufacturers at par. In 1989 and every year until 1993, the
issuer will conduct an open reset on the yields of those notes
not sold back to it, Shearson said.
    Moody's Investors Service Inc rates the Manufacturers issue
A-3, compared to an A grade by Standard and Poor's Corp.
    The gross spread is 3.50 dlrs, the selling concession is
two dlrs and the reallowance is 1.25 dlrs. First Boston,
Prudential-Bache and Salomon Brothers co-managed the deal.
 Reuter

downgraded to B-plus from A about 50 mln dlrs of collateral
trust notes of Leaseway Transportation Corp.
    S and P cited a leveraged buyout offer from an investor
group that was organized by Citibank and included management.
    The buyout of Leaseway will result in significant
deterioration of its balance sheet, the agency pointed out.
    Leaseway's strong competitive position in auto hauling and
retail support services will enable it to generate sufficient
cash flow to service commitments. But S and P expects debt
leverage to remain extremely high for the forseeable future.
 Reuter

June 19
    Semi-annual div eight cts vs 15 cts prior
    Pay Aug 1
    NOTE: Before the establishment of the Amity Bancorp Inc
holding company, Amity Bank declared a full year dividend of 15
cts for the year ended December 31, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr loss 46 cts vs loss five cts
    Net loss 3,922,000 vs loss 420,000
    Sales 16.0 mln vs 23.9 mln
    Avg shrs 8,567,000 vs 8,458,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 1.02 dlrs vs profit 35 cts
    Net loss 8,685,000 vs profit 2,978,000
    Avg shrs 8,547,000 vs 8,437,000
 Reuter

Chyron Corp said it has entered
into a long term 10 mln dlr revolving credit agreement with
European American Bank.
    It said the agreement will allow it to convert 10 mln dlrs
of short-term debt to long-term debt. The agreement is for a
period of three years, with an option to extend payments for
another four years, it said.
 Reuter

Altus Bank said it has not been
able to reach a definitive agreement to buy Horizon Financial
Corp, Horizon Funding and 2.8 billion dlrs in loan servicing
from Victor Savings and Loan Association.
    Altus, formerly known as First Southern Federal Savings and
Loan Association, earlier announced the signing of a letter of
intent to make the acquisitions.
    Horizon Financial and Horizon Funding both are units of
Victor Savings and Loan Association.

 Reuter

    Net 189,578 vs 100,254
    Sales 3,403,914 vs 3,122,983
    Avg shrs 1,617,600 vs 954,400
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
    NOTE: Full name is Winthrop Insured Mortgage Investors II
 Reuter

    Pay July 15
 Reuter

    Pay Sept 18
    Record Aug 21
 Reuter

Marcade Group said it had agreed to buy
Europe Craft Imports Inc for a combination of cash and common
stock.
    The company said Europe Craft designs, imports and
distributes menswear and sportswear under the Member's Only
brand name.
    The company said Europe Craft had sales of 70 mln dlrs last
year.
    Marcade said this latest deal is part of an ongoing
acquisition phase.
 Reuter

Qtly div 47 cts vs 47 cts prior
    Pay Aug 15
 Reuter

Merck and Co Inc said it has opened
a new 80 mln dlr research facility at its Rahway, N.J.,
    The company said researchers in the new building will be
involved in research on MK-906 for reducing the size of
enlarged prostate glands, an agent to promote wound healing the
leukotiene substances linked to asthma and arthritis, new
vaccines made by genetic engineering, fermentation broths and
safe and cost-effective ways of producing new drugs.
 Reuter

Options on Viacom International stock
have been adjusted to account for the payment of a dividend on
preferred stock, the Chicago Board Options Exchange said.
    Trading in Viacom stock at the New York Stock Exchange was
halted this morning, after the company announced a preferred
stock dividend at a rate of 0.025834 of preferred stock for
each preferred share held.
    The Chicago options exchange said all exercises of the
options as of today require delivery or receipt of 30 shares of
preferred stock, 20 shares of common, a cash payment of
4,322.37 dlrs and an undetermined cash payment in lieu of
fractional shares from the preferred dividend payment.
    The options symbol for Viacom will be changed to VIY from
VIZ as of June 22, the exchange said.
 Reuter

The 72-member Canadian Chemical
Producers Association said it adopted a code of practice for
the safe transport of chemicals and their by-products.
    "Through cooperation with the transportation industry, we
will not only minimize transportation accidents but also the
risks to people and the environment," association president
David Buzzelli said at the annual meeting in Jasper.
    He said as a first step the association will conduct an
internal survey rating the safety capabilities of trucking
companies that transport chemicals.
                    
 Reuter

Pacific International Services Corp
said it plans to register with the Securities and Exchange
Commission in July to issue convertible subordinated
    The company did not detail the prospective offering.
 Reuter

European coffee roasters and traders
have agreed to propose a new formula for calculating
International Coffee Organization, ICO, quotas, Dutch Coffee
Trade Association chairman chairman Frits van Horick said.
    Van Horick, who is a council member of the European Coffee
Federation, was speaking at the end of the ECF annual meeting.
    The new formula is based on six-year moving averages and
would give Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, an
unchanged quota for the remaining two years of the current
coffee agreement, van Horick said.
    If accepted by the consumer and producer members of the
ICO, the formula could also be a basis for negotiating a new
agreement, van Horick said.
    Coffee quotas were suspended in February last year when
prices shot up on fears of a drought-induced crop disaster in
Brazil.
    Although prices are now considerably lower, consumers and
producers have been unable to agree on re-introduction.
    "Brazil has been the most strongly against any change in the
formula because it feared a lower quota. But our proposal
leaves it very little to object to," van Horick said.
    "The existing quota system is far too rigid and does not
reflect supply and demand reality," he said. "Our formula
builds flexibility into the system and will benefit almost
everyone."
    Although full implications of the new formula have still to
be worked out, initial estimates suggest countries such as
Colombia, Kenya, Indonesia and Costa Rica would get slightly
higher quotas, while others such as the Ivory Coast, El
Salvador and Nicaragua would lose quota share, van Horick said.
    Because the proposal provides that future quota
distribution must reflect current demand and actual supply, it
should also prevent under-shipment of quota as countries doing
so would automatically prejudice their following year's quota.
    "If the ICO consumers accept our proposal it stands at least
a fair chance of being accepted by the producers at the
September meeting, most of whom are generally in favour of a
new quota formula, " van Horick said.
    At the same time much will depend on Brazil's attitude.
    "Brazil is increasingly isolated on the producer side. If
there is no frost damage to its coffee crop over the next two
months and most other producers favour our proposal, we might
just get an agreement," van Horick added.
 Reuter

Continental Illinois Corp will add to
its reserves against bad loans from less developed countries
when its board meets next week, E.F. Hutton analyst Fred Meinke
said.
    Meinke said a Continental executive told him Friday the
banking firm, parent of Continental Illinois National Bank and
Trust Co of Chicago, will add to its reserves next week along
the lines of what other banks have been doing since Citicorp
<CCI> initiated the provisioning last month.
    Continental Illinois has about 2.6 billion dlrs in loans to
Latin American countries.
    Meinke said he thinks Continental Illinois will add about
25 pct or more of its Latin American exposure to its loss
reserve, or about 650 mln dlrs or more.
    "They have a big reserve already. My guess this will be on
top of that," he said.
 Reuter

Hills Department Stores Inc said it
has decided to amend the registration on file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission covering its planned initial
offering.
    The company said it expects to offer three mln common
shares at a filing range of 11 to 12 dlrs a share along with a
40 mln dlr offering of convertible junior subordinated
debentures instead of the 6.9 mln common shares proposed in the
pending registration.
    Hills said it expects to file a registration statement on
the proposed changes within two weeks.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved a 70
mln dlr loan to Hungary to help finance a 833.1 mln dlr
telecommunications project.
    The Bank noted that Hungary, which until recently had given
telecommunications low priority, recognized that inadequate
telecommunications are a serious constraint to economic
development and reform.
    The project extends through 1991 and will help Magyar
Posta, the state enterprise overseeing the telecommunications
sector, meet its long-term development goals.
 Reuter

Brazil has bought 75,000 tonnes
of French wheat at tender, a Brazilian Wheat Board spokesman
said.
    He said the Board accepted offers for 25,000 tonnes of
wheat from grain firm J. Souffle at 80.49 dlrs per tonne Fob
for August shipment.
    For September shipment, the Board bought 25,000 tonnes from
Graniere at 79.32 dlrs per tonne Fob, and for October shipment
it accepted 25,000 tonnes from Andre and Companie at 79.47 dlrs
per tonne Fob.
    The next tender, for Aug/Sept/Oct shipment, was set for
June 24, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

affirmed the AA long-term debt of J. Sainsbury PLC.
    S and P cited Sainsbury's offer for the shares of Shaws
Supermarkets Inc's <SHAW> it does not own. Sainsbury currently
holds 28.5 pct of that company.
    The acquisition will be financed by an equity issue, so the
impact on Sainsbury's capital structure will not be
significant, the agency said. The merger will provide an
opportunity for expansion in an area with favorable economic
trends, although it will lower trading margins by more than
Sainsbury's historic levels, S and P pointed out.
 Reuter

North American Communications Corp
said it is considering several options to maximize shareholder
value, including a possible sale, merger, corporate
restructuring, or leveraged buyout.
    Trading in the company's stock was halted pending an
    The company, which owns and operates 47 cable television
systems in Minnesota and Wisconsin, said it retained
Communications Equity Associates as its financial adviser to
explore alternatives.
   
 Reuter

Federal Co said its fiscal year ended
May 30 will be a record year with net income almost double that
of the previous fiscal year.
    The company's chairman R. Lee Taylor told security analysts
that Wall Street estimates of earnings per share in the range
of 4.25-4.50 dlrs are in line with what the company expects.
    The company said in fiscal 1986 it posted earnings of 2.24
dlrs a share on sales of 1.2 billion dlrs. It said in the first
nine months of this year it had earnings of 3.55 per share
against 1.66 dlrs per share in the same 1986 period.
    Federal Co said it also decided to change its name to Holly
Farms Corp.
    The company said this will identify it with its strongest
selling brand.
 reuter

MURPHY OIL SAID IT PROPOSING TO ACQUIRE REMAINING 23 PCT
OF CANADIAN SUBSIDIARY

Alcan Aluminum Corp, a subsidiary of
Alcan Aluminium Ltd, said it increased its U.S. primary
aluminum prices by two cents a lb, effective yesterday.
    The new prices are 72 cents a lb for ingot and 80 cents for
extrusion billet, the company said.
   
 Reuter

Primerica Corp said it
completed the previously announced acquisition of Smith Barney
Inc for 750 mln dlrs in cash.
    Primerica, wh ich changed its name in April from American
Can Co, said Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co Inc, wholly
owned by Smith Barney Inc, will add more than 100 domestic and
overseas branch offices.
 Reuter

Bloomfield Savings
and Loan Association F.A. said its receipt of 8.5 mln dlrs as
partial settlement from a lawsuit will have a "substantial
positive impact" on its earnings for 1987.
    The thrift had net loss of 4,095,000 dlrs or 1.85 dlrs a
share in 1986. The 8.5 mln dlrs will be reported during the
second quarter, it said
    Bloomfield Savings said it is continuing to seek to recover
the remaining 5.5 mln dlrs of the total 14 mln dlr judgment
against United Federal Savings and Loan Association of Durant,
Okla., over a 1985 real estate loan.
 Reuter

Brooklyn Union Gas <BU>, a New York gas
utility company, said it will try to limit any rate hikes to
customers by arranging alternative supplies to replace the spot
natural gas that Transco Energy Co <E> no longer delivers, a
company official told Reuters.
    Edward Sondey, vice president of supply, said that under a
grandfather clause Brooklyn Union could request Transco to
transmit 165 mln cubic feet (mcf) a day of spot natural gas
after purchasing 250 mcf of contract gas from Transco.
    Brooklyn Union has been taking only 30 pct, or 75 mcf, of
the contract gas from Transco, and acquiring about 120 mcf on
the spot, or non-contract, market, he said.
    Lacking access to spot gas through Transco would not cost
Brooklyn Union more than 50 cts per mln btu for now,
Sondey said, as Transco contract gas costs 2.55 dlrs per mln
compared to about two dlrs for spot gas.
    "The rate increase will not be serious," Sondey said.
    The contract price at 2.55 dlrs per mln BTU has been
effective since May 1 after Transco lowered its commodity rate
to reflect seasonal weakness, making it the lowest in the 12
months ended May 31, according to report submitted by Brooklyn
Union to New York Public Utility Commission.
    In peak demand season, Transco's contract gas reached as
high as 4.30 to 4.40 dlrs per mln btu, a commission official
said.
    Industry analysts expected little adverse effect from
interrupted spot supplies on Brooklyn Union's earnings for its
current fiscal year ending September 30.
    But if the open access problem to Transco is not resolved
this winter, high cost of contract gas could cut into the
company's profit, they said.
 Reuter

King World Productions Inc said it will
finance the repurchase of up to 7,600,000 of its shares
announced earlier today through cash on hand and about 200 mln
dlrs of bank borrowings, for which it has received commitments
from First Chicago Corp <FNB> and Bank of New York <BK>.
    The company today started a tender offer for up to
4,100,000 shares at 28 dlrs each and agreed to buy up to
3,485,085 more shares from members of the King family and
management, who together own a total of 13.9 mln shares.  All
the shares being repurchased amount to about 25 pct of King
World's stock.
 Reuter

Best Buy Co Inc said it filed a
Commission for a proposed offering of 30 mln dlrs of
subordinated extendable notes.
    Underwriters are led by Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood Inc.
Financing is expected to be completed within 30 days, the
    Proceeds will be used to fund the company's planned
 Reuter

A spokesman for Continental Illinois
Corp said the bank will not comment on rumors that it will soon
add to reserves to cover possible losses on loans to developing
    Rumors circulated on Wall Street today that Continental
would soon join the long list of banks adding to reserves. Some
analysts speculated that a decision would be announced after
Continental's regularly scheduled board meeting, which will be
held Monday. "Our board meets on the fourth Monday of every
month, but their agenda is confidential," the spokesman said.
He said "we will not comment on any rumors."
 Reuter

Manufacturers National Corp said it will
add 30.4 mln dlrs to its reserve to cover exposure for Latin
American loans.
    It said the added reserves are expected to result in a
second-quarter loss of about 10 mln dlrs for the corporation.
    Of the 30.4 mln dlr provision, 20 mln dlrs is in general
loan loss reserves for the main bank of the holding company,
Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit, and 10.4 mln dlrs is a
writedown of the investment in two nonconsolidated affiliates.
It said it still expects to be profitable for the year.
 Reuter

    Record August 17
 Reuter

Qtly div 28-1/2 cts vs 28-1/2 cts prior
    Pay September 15
    Record September one
 Reuter

Rockwell International purchased
SofTech Inc's newest line of Ada-86 tools to use in building a
digital autopilot for the anti-tank missle, Hellfire, SofTech
said.
    SofTech said the contract, which was awarded to Rockwell's
Duluth Ga. division, will involve more than 10 man years of
programming for each digital autopilot.
 Reuter

Murphy Oil Corp said its board
proposed a reorganization in which it would acquire the 23 pct
of common shares of its Canadian subsidiary not owned by the
parent.
    Under the proposal, which would be undertaken as a
court-approved plan of arrangement, shareholders of Murphy Oil
Co Ltd of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, would be offered the option
to receive 31 dlrs (Canadian) a share cash or the equivalent
market value of common shares of the parent company.
 Reuter

Gynex Laboratories Inc said it
signed an agreement under which Warner-Lambert Co's Chilcott
Laboratories division will market Gynex's line of generic oral
contraceptives.
    Gynex Labs is a 50/50 joint venture owned by Gynex and
Watson Laboratories Inc, a privately-held pharmaceutical
company bnased on Corona, California.
    Marketing by Warner Chilcott is currently scheduled to
begin during the third quarter of 1987, it said.
    Gynex signed a similar marketing agreement with Monsanto
Co's <MTC> G.D. Searle and Co subsidiary in February 1986,
which was terminated last April following a recall of the oral
contraceptives due to packaging problems.
 Reuter

Jeffrey Neuman, of Santa Monica,
Calif., told the Securities and Exchange Commission he sold his
entire RB Industries Inc stake of 341,210 shares, or 10.0 pct,
    Neuman, who transferred the stock nearly two years ago to
the Tudor Trust, of which he is trustee, said the trust sold
the entire stake in a private deal on June 9 at 11.00 dlrs a
share.
 Reuter

Fortune Financial Group Inc said
its Fortune Savings Bank acquired a Financial Security Savings
and Loan Association branch in Sunrise, Fla.
    The new Fortune Savings Bank office had about 40 mln dlrs
in deposits as of June 5.
    Meanwhile, acquisition of Marine Savings and Loan
Association of Florida, with four offices in Naples, Fla, is
awaiting regulatory approval.
 Reuter

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc said Don
Ulrich will be resigning as president of its Northeast Group to
    The company said Jim Stevens, who is also a Coca-Cola
Enterprises vice president and president of its Mid-Atlantic
Coca-Cola Bottling Co affiliate, will succeed Ulrich.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it filed a
for a secondary public offering of two mln shares of Series D
    The stock is exchangeable at Bally's option into the
company's convertible debentures due February one 2007 and is
convertible at the holder's option into shares of Bally common.
The preferred stock carry a liquidation value of 50 dlrs a
share.
    All of the shares are being offered by holders of Bally who
bought the preferred stock in a private placement in February
1987. Bally will not receive any proceeds of the offering, it
said.
 Reuter

Mars Graphic Services Inc said
it expects sales for the second quarter ending August 31 to
exceed year ago sales of 3.7 mln dlrs for the same period.
    In the year-ago quarter the company earned 191,000 dlrs or
18 cts a share.
 Reuter

The U.S. budget was in deficit 35.74
billion dlrs in May, compared with a deficit of 39.40 billion
dlrs in May 1986, the Treasury Department said.
    Last month's deficit followed an April surplus of 38.66
billion dlrs. For the fiscal year to date, the budget was in
deficit 119.02 billion dlrs compared with a deficit of 165.81
billion dlrs in the previous fiscal year.
    Outlays last month were 83.44 billion dlrs, down from 85.64
billion dlrs in May a year ago and 84.24 billion dlrs in April,
    Receipts were 47.69 billion dlrs in May, up from 46.25
billion dlrs in May a year ago but down from 122.90 billion
dlrs in April, the Treasury said.
    The bulge in receipts in April which resulted in the
surplus that month was the result of 1986 income tax payments
by individuals.
 Reuter

Digicon Inc said it is offering to
exchange about 55 mln dlrs of outstanding subordinated
debentures for a package of new issues.
    The outstanding debenture issues include 12-7/8 pct senior
subordinated notes, 10-1/2 pct convertible subordinated
debentures and 8-1/2 pct convertible subordinated debentures of
the unit Digicon Finance NV.
    The new securities to be issued in the exchange offer will
be about 8.5 mln dlrs of 12 pct senior subordinated notes due
1994, 23.5 mln dlrs of 9.35 pct convertible subordinated
debentures due 1997 and 16.5 mln shares of common stock.
 Reuter

TransAmerican Natural Gas said it
received approval from a U.S. District Court in Texas allowing
the company to solicit creditor acceptance of its negotiated
Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
    The company said the approval authorized the company to
distribute the disclosure statement to its creditors and
solicit creditors' acceptance of the plan.
    TransAmerican said the confirmation hearing is scheduled
for August 17 in U.S. Southern District of Texas court.
   
 Reuter

A group led by Far Hills, N.J.,
investors Natalie and Paul Koether told the Securities and
Exchange Commission it has acquired 299,523 shares of American
Physicians Service Group Inc, or 5.1 pct of the total.
    The Koether group said it bought the stock for 1.0 mln dlrs
for "capital appreciation" and may buy more.
    The group also said Paul Koether met on June 8 with
management representatives for talks that included the
company's business, potential acquisitions for the company,
possible opportunities to expand the company and the
possibility of Koether being named to its board.
    The group did not say whether the talks resulted in any
    As they have done in several SEC filings concerning other
companies in which they have had a stake, the Koethers said
they reserve the right "to take any actions which they deem
appropriate to maximize the value of the shares," but said they
have no current plans about taking any action.
    While they may buy more American Physicians shares, the
Koethers also said they may decide to sell some or all of the
their stake in the company.
 Reuter

Lloyds Bank Plc's <LLOY.L> decision to
withdraw from making markets in Eurobonds and U.K. Government
bonds (gilts) sent shivers down the spines of other market
participants but was viewed as prudent by banking analysts.
    "It (the move) really isn't a surprise. They lost a lot of
money in the early stages of the gilt market and now they want
to cut their losses while they can," said Keith Brown, banking
analyst at Greenwell Montagu.
    "The question now is how many other gilt market makers will
face a similar fate," one senior gilt market maker said.
    Eurobond market participants were equally stunned. "They are
the first firm of that size I can remember to have pulled out
of eurobond market making altogether," said a member of the
Association of International Bond Dealers London staff.
    Other Eurobond market participants said that while Lloyds
had frequently changed the staff of some of its eurobond
operations, it was hard to believe they were in trouble.
    With this action Lloyds, the third largest U.K. clearing
bank, becomes the first U.K. clearing bank to withdraw from the
gilt market following the Big Bang deregulation of the London
Stock Exchange in October.
    Earlier this year Midland Bank Plc <MDBL.L>, the fourth
largest clearing bank, opted out of making markets in equities
on the grounds that the return did not justify the expense. It
continues as a market maker in gilts, however. In a prepared
statement, Lloyds Bank chief executive Brian Pitman said the
bank had a "relatively small position in these two overcrowded
opportunities which promise a better return on our shareholders
investment."
    Lloyds said it would maintain its presence in short-term
securities trading, swaps and other treasury products.
    Alan Moore, Lloyds Treasurer, told Reuters that the
decision was forward looking and followed a "strategic review" of
the prospects for Lloyds in these markets. "We decided the
return just was not attractive," he said.
    Although the decision was made at a meeting of Lloyds board
this morning, Moore said that it had been under consideration
    He denied that the move was a "reaction to events in the
trading room" although he acknowledged that the bank's gilt
operations were not profitable in the early stages of the new
market.
    Greenwell's Brown noted that for all of 1986, Lloyds
Merchant Bank sustained a loss of 28 mln stg, most of which he
said were accounted for by the Eurobond and gilt operations.
For all of 1986, Lloyds reported a pre-tax profit of 700 mln
stg. "Lloyds is so big, it can easily absorb these losses," Brown
said, noting that they are minuscule when compared with the
bank's exposure to Latin America.
    U.K. Clearing banks have come under pressure to increase
their provisions against bad loans to third world countries
since Citibank announced plans to add three billion dlrs to its
provisions in mid-May.
    National Westminster Bank Plc <NWBL.L>, the largest of the
clearers, became the first of the U.K. Clearers to follow
Citicorp's <CCI> move earlier this week when it said it was
adding some 466 mln stg to its sovereign debt provisions.
    Lloyds has the second largest exposure to Latin America
after Midland Bank, the smallest of the four clearers.
    Lloyds has said it is reviewing the situation and Moore
denied that today's action had any connection. "It is totally
unrelated," he said.
    Trading in Eurobonds and gilts had ended by the time the
announcement was made. But market participants were
dumbfounded.
    "We only heard the news about 20 minutes before the
announcement. I had no idea it was coming. I don't know if I
still have job," said one trader at Lloyds who declined to be
identified. Lloyds' Moore said that the bank would do all it
could to redeploy the staff affected by the decision in other
parts of the bank. But even though Lloyds' share of these
markets was relatively small, other market participants,
particularly in gilts, were unnerved.
    One senior gilt market maker noted that the news comes
during a period when both gilt and Eurosterling markets have
been battered by the lack of investor participation, following
the June 11 U.K. general election.
    Most firms had held long positions on expectations that a
return of the ruling Conservative party would prompt heavy
demand. These expectations have failed to be met and both
markets have sustained sizeable losses since the election.
    Lloyds has long been the subject of rumors that it was
experiencing problems with its gilt operations and officials
have never denied that the early stages were unprofitable.
    Gilt market sources suggested that one of the problems
facing Lloyds on the gilt side was its decision to build up its
own team. It was the only clearer which did not purchase a
broker or a jobber (middle man) in the run-up to Big Bang.
    Under the old system, these functions have been conducted
separately but now market makers perform both tasks.
    But even long before Big Bang, market makers had expressed
doubts that the gilt market would be large enough to sustain 27
market makers, even if turnover increased substantially.
    And with Lloyds withdrawal, many market makers believe that
some of the remaining 26 may opt to bow out gracefully.
 Reuter

Commission said it supported legislation to define insider
trading and would recommend language for such a definition
within six weeks.
    Acting SEC chairman Charles Cox told the Senate Banking
Committee a bill proposed this week to define insider trading
as the wrongful use of material nonpublic information was good
but contained some ambiguous provisions which might reduce the
Commission's flexibility in prosecuting cases.
    "The Commission believes a definition of insider trading is
desirable," Cox said.
   
    He promised to provide the SEC's recommended definition to
the committee by August 3.
    The bill proposed by Sens. Donald Riegle, a Michigan
Democrat, and Alfonse D'Amato, a New York Republican, would
make it illegal for anyone to receive or pass on inside
information even if the person providing the information did
not use it to make a securities transaction.
    Federal law enforcement officials have said a definition of
insider trading would be useful because it is a difficult crime
to prove.
   
    Cox said the SEC was having success in its insider trading
cases despite the lack of a clear definition.
    He became acting chairman of the agency when chairman John
Shad left to become U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands.
    President Reagan nominated Northwestern University law
professor David Ruder as SEC chairman on Wednesday, but he may
not be confirmed by the Senate for several weeks.
   
    Riegle, the chairman of the Senate securities subcommittee,
said he wanted to act on the legislation this year, but Thomas
Moore, a member of the President's Council of Economic
Advisors, said action should be delayed until the Supreme Court
ruled on the appearl of an insider trading conviction by former
Wall Street Journal reporter R. Foster Winans.
    Winans was convicted for telling a friend in advance what
stocks he was going to write about in his column. The stocks
usually went up or down in price depending on Winans'
recommendation.
   
    "We believe it would be better to wait until the Supreme
Court has reviewed the Winans case before any leigilation is
considered. After the court decides this case we can better
consider how the law might be changed. Until that time,
legislation is premature," Moore said in his testimony.
 Reuter

Oper shr two cts vs three cts
    Oper net 529,000 vs 579,000
    Sales 322.0 mln vs 173.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr six cts vs eight cts
    Oper net 1,619,000 vs 1,700,000
    Sales 875.1 mln vs 482.3 mln
   
    Note: oper data does not include extraordinary gains from
tax loss carryforwards of 291,000 dlrs, or one ct per shr, vs
316,000 dlrs, or one ct per shr in qtr and 890,000 dlrs, or
four cts per shr vs 992,000 dlrs, or four cts per shr in nine
mths.
 Reuter

ICCO buffer stock manager to buy 5,000
tonnes cocoa Monday, June 22 - official

Sithe-Energies LP said it has signed
an agreement under which it will increase its interest in
Energy Factors Inc to 70.0 pct from 53.4 pct now by investing
100 mln dlrs in Energy Factors stock.
 Reuter

Bacro of California said its
board approved an offer from its chairman Kenneth Donner and
President Michael Donner to purchase all the outstanding Barco
common shares at 5.05 dlrs per share in a leveraged
    The Donners currently own about 44 pct of the company's
outstanding shares, Barco said.
    It also said vice chairman David Grutman and family
members, who own about 28 pct of Barco's shares, have agreed to
sell their stock for the offering price.
 Reuter

Braintree Savings Bank said
Winthrop Sargent IV has been named president and chief
executive officer, succeeding Lindsay L. Tait, who remains
chairman.
    It said Sargent, who was senior vice president, has also
been named to the board.  It said Tait intends to retire in
about four years.
 Reuter

Stelco Inc said it formed a 15 mln U.S.
dlr joint venture with Northern Automatic Electric Foundry, a
wholly owned unit of Armco Inc, to produce cast grinding media
and mill lines for the mining industry worldwide.
    The venture will operate M E International, a new company
based in Minneapolis, Minn., pooling the assets of a Northern
Automatic grinding media foundry in Ishpeming, Mich., Evans
Duluth Steel Castings Co in Duluth, Minn., and Minneapolis
Electric Steel Castings Co in Minneapolis.
    Armco and Stelco operate another joint venture which
produces forged grinding media at Kamloops, British Columbia.
 Reuter

Gemcraft Inc told shareholders at the
annual meeting that the company and its principal shareholders
will repurchase about 130,000 shares of its common stock.
    The company's portion of the repurchase obligation equals
about 800,000 dlrs, which the company said it plans to record
as a capital transaction in 1987.
    Originally, Gemcraft said it estimated that it could be
required to buy as many as 300,000 shares for about 3.0 mln
dlrs.
    Gemcraft originally estimated its portion of trading losses
could total as much as 600,000 dlrs and recorded a charge to
earnings in that amount in the 1986 fourth quarter.
    The company said it plans to provide an after-tax credit to
income of about 200,000 dlrs in the second quarter of 1987 to
reflect this difference.
    Gemcraft also told shareholders it sees a profitable 1987
second quarter. In the year-ago period, it reported earnings of
908,000 dlrs, or 6 cts a share on sales of 88.8 mln.
 Reuter

Investor Irwin Jacobs said he has an
investment in Gillette Co amounting to less than five pct of
the consumer products company's stock.
    Jacobs, who made his comment in response to an enquiry, did
not comment further.
    Yesterday, Gillette rebuffed a takeover proposal from
Revlon Inc. Under an agreement between the two companies,
Revlon must have the permission of Gillette's board before
making an offer to shareholders. The board declined to grant
that permission.
   
    Gillette has been the topic of takeover speculation for
several weeks. Its stock has traded heavily, and arbitragers
said they believe Jacobs may not be the only investor who has a
sizeable position in the company.
 Reuter

    Net loss 449,000 vs loss 155,000
    Revs 84,000 vs 52,000
    Nine mths
    Net loss 810,000 vs loss 394,000
    Revs 173,000 vs 144,000
 Reuter

Rapitech Systems Inc said it has
entered into an agreement under which its FORTRIX-C software is
available to Hewlett-Packard Co's salesforce for assisting
customers the migration of applications software from one
operating environment to another.
    The company also said FORTRIX-C has been selected by
American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T> for use in its Vendor
Involvement Program.  It said it cannot forecast the impact on
its profits because neither agreement contains purchase
    It said it expects continued losses through the rest of
fiscal 1987 ending July 31.
    The company lost 548,000 dlrs last year. Today it reported
a nine month loss of 810,000 dlrs compared with a 394,000 dlr
loss a year earlier and attributed the poorer performance to
substantially increased marketing, sales and research
expenditures partly resulting from the hiring of additional
staff.
    Rapitech further said it has signed agreements for Computer
Systems and Consultants BV of the Netherlands and Sages Group
of France to represent the Rapitech Conversionware product line
in the Benelux countries, in France and in French-speaking
cantons of Switzerland.
 Reuter

Malaysia is to urge fellow tin
producing countries to contribute more money towards research
into new uses for the metal, Malaysian primary industries
minister Lim Keng Yaik told Reuters in an interview.
    Lim, in Brussels on a tour of Europe and America, said he
had instructed Malaysia's representatives on the executive
committee of the Association of Tin Producing Countries, ATPC,
to draw up a paper on the matter.
    Lim earlier met European Community farm commissioner Frans
Andriessen and industry commissioner Karl-Heinz Narjes.
    He said though it now appeared likely Commission proposals
for a tax on vegetable and marine oils and fats would be
defeated, he feared the Commission would revive the idea.
    Lim noted Andriessen this week promised that if the tax was
adopted and third countries suffered export losses as a result,
they would be compensated through access to the EC for
alternative exports.
    "Since most of our products are commodity based, I cannot
see how this would work out in our case," Lim said.
    Malaysian palm oil exports to the EC are worth about 250
    The tin research proposal would be presented at an ATPC
meeting to be held in Kuala Lumpur in September.
    "Not enough research and development effort has been put in
by tin producers and we have been pushed out by substitutes
such as aluminium, paper and plastics," Lim said.
    He mentioned the use of inorganic tin in pesticides as an
exciting possible new application.
    Lim said he could not estimate the amount of extra money
which needed to be spent on research into new uses before the
new paper was produced.
    He said Narjes told him there appeared no fundamental
barriers to EC states quickly ratifying the new International
Rubber Agreement, INRA, although translations of the accord
into some EC languages are still being awaited.
    Lim, who will sign and ratify the agreement on Malaysia's
behalf when he visits New York during his current tour, said it
was important there should not be a long "interregnum" between
the old agreement lapsing in October and the new one coming
into force.
    He described the present accord as a model for commodity
agreements due to its being signed by nearly all producing and
consuming countries and by virtue of its review systems and
control over buffer stock management.
 Reuter

VR Business Brokers Inc said it
closed the sale of a controlling interest in its comon and
preferred stock to VR Acquisition Corp, a Delaware corporation
controlled by an investment group led by C. Robin Relph of
London.
    Under the agreement dated April 28, VR Business agreed to
sell 5,008,120 shares of common stock and 11,846 shares of 10
pct cumulative stock.
    VR Business said it issued 3,964,000 shares of common stock
and 11,846 shares of preferred stock, with the remaining shares
of common to be listed within the next week to 10 days.
 Reuter

    Net 316,655 vs 148,567
    Sales 2,011,195 vs 1,422,719
    Avg shrs 2,738,864 vs 1,881,296
    Year
    Shr 43 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 1,006,356 vs 918,290
    Sales 7,059,446 vs 5,441,408
    Avg shrs 2,329,329 vs 1,881,296
 Reuter

Monthly div 11.244 cts vs 10.309 cts prior
    Pay July 10
    NOTE: Full name is Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas Royalty
Trust
 Reuter

Uganda 13 mln dlrs through the International Development
Association (IDA), the bank's concessionary lending affiliate.
    The IDA loan will support a project that hopes to preserve
the country's natural forests and meet its demand for wood
products by rehabilitating Uganda's forestry management agency,
    It also said the project plans to increase the area and
management of protected forests, establish pilot wood farms and
nurseries, and rehabilitate soft wood plantations.
 Reuter

Liposome Co Inc at its annual
meeting announced the formation of a Canadian subsidiary,
Canadian Liposome Co Ltd.
    It said the company cements a relationship with University
of British Columbia researcher Pieter Cullis and his scientific
group who are developing anti-cancer products for Liposome.
    The company also said lead bankers completed Liposome's
stock offering of one mln shares on June 11 at 6.875 dlrs a
share. Liposome said it netted 7,388,750 dlrs.
 Reuter

It has been a fairly hectic trading week
in raw sugar with China paying market levels for nearby
shipments, London trader, Woodhouse, Drake and Carey, said in
its weekly report.
    July shipment Thai raws traded to China early in the week
at fob levels equivalent to 20/25 points discount to July New
York futures, it said. Mid-week saw these same sales covered by
the trade at 10/15 points discount.
    Enquiries for July/Sep 15 raw sugars then filtered in and
here again, traded values rose quickly from 13 points premium
to New York July up to 18, Woodhouse said.
    In the Western Hemisphere, both Dominican Republic and
Mexican nearby raws were bid 15 points discount to July New
York and offered five points under, but in limited trading, it
said.
    All the action of the past week has been in the Far East
raws market whereas the whites market saw little fresh prospect
of nearby offtake, Whitehouse added.
 Reuter

Shr profit six cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 80,939 vs loss 12,808
    Rev 7.0 mln vs 6.3 mln
    Six months
    Shr profit eight cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 101,345 vs loss 10,460
    Rev 13.2 mln vs 12.5 mln
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 32 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Oper net loss 2,999,000 vs loss 1,692,000
    Sales 10.3 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Avg shrs 9,517,000 vs 9,905,000
    NOTE: 1986 Operating loss excludes profit of 3,688,000
dlrs, or 37 cts a share, from discontinued operations
 Reuter

    Payable August 31
 Reuter

A group of Latin American and
Caribbean nations formally opposed trade legislation pending in
Congress, saying it would curb their exports, slow development
and hinder its ability to repay foreign debt.
    Mario Rodriguez Montero, president of an Organization of
American States special committee on trade, said he was aware
of the large U.S. trade deficit, but added "the region should
not be the one affected by the trade bills."
    He said the causes of the deficit were the strong dollar
and the budget deficit, and "it is regrettable to solve it by a
trade bill that would only serve private U.S. interests."
    Rodriguez made the comment at a news conference after two
days of meetings with U.S. officials on trade bills now in
Congress that are designed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit,
which last year hit a record 166.3 billion dlrs.
    Congressional observers say the bills are aimed mainly at
Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and a few other nations with large,
annual trade surpluses with the United States.
    Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela are the only Latin nations
with large trade surpluses last year with the United States,
but even Mexico, with the largest, had a surplus of only 5.2
billion dlrs, against Japan's of 58.6 billion dlrs.
    The European Community has also opposed the bills.
    Rodriguez said the Latin and Caribbean nations backed the
Reagan Administration's opposition to many of the sections in
the legislation, including those to curb imports and to require
retaliation for foreign unfair trade practices.
    He told reporters the committee would likely mount a
campaign to fight the legislation when it comes up for debate
on the Senate floor, expected next week.
    Rodriguez said "the region needs trade to continue
development.  We hope this need will not be affected negatively
by trade legislation."
    Rodriguez said: "we need to keep the market opens -
especially the U.S. market - to obtain the necessary foreign
exchange not only to service the debt but also to continue
national development progress."
    President Reagan has said he would veto any legislation he
termed "protectionist," and his aides now are mounting a effort
to water down some of the objectionable provisions in the
    Asked whether Reagan was ready to cast a veto, Rodriguez
said as yet "the administration is not in a veto frame of mind."
 reuter

Reed International Plc <REED.L> denied
rumours on the U.K. Stock market that it was the target of a
takeover bid and said it had received no approach.
    "In view of the increase in our share price today, I want to
make clear that we have not received any bid approaches," Reed's
chairman Leslie Carpenter said in a statement.
    Rumours that U.S. Publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc
<HBJ> might bid for Reed, a paper and printing company, pushed
Reed shares up 54p at 600p at one stage today before they eased
back to 564p at the close against a background of a widespread
decline in U.K. Equity prices.
    Share market analysts said speculators were buying the
stock on belief that Harcourt would bid for Reed in an effort
to escape the unwelcome two billion dlr bid from Robert
    Such a move would have made Harcourt too big for BPCC to
take it over, analysts added.
    They also said there was some speculation that if BPCC's
bid for Harcourt was unsuccessful, it could turn its attention
to Reed.
 Reuter

Applied Data Communications said
it agreed to acquire privately-held Dateline Technology Inc of
Redmond, Wash., for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.
    Dateline Technology designs and sells high-capacity,
high-speed computer peripheral subsystems, primarily for data
storage, Applied Data said.
 Reuter

USA Network, today said it has acquired
Time Inc's <TL> one-third interest in the network.
    The network, formerly a joint venture between Time, Gulf
and Western Inc and MCA Inc <MCA>, said that Gulf and Western
and MCA, who each previously held a one-third interest, now
will jointly own USA Network on a 50/50 basis.
    Terms were not disclosed, USA Network said.
    USA Network is an advertiser-supported, entertainment basic
cable network, reaching 39 mln homes on 8,500 cable systems.
 Reuter

Tektronix Inc said it began its
previously announced Dutch Auction cash tender offer for up to
10 mln of its own common shares.
    Under the terms of the offer the company will select a
single cash purchase price for the stock, based on the number
of shares tendered, not to exceed 40 dlrs per share or be lower
than 35 dlrs per share, Tektronix said.
    The company also said it does not intend to spend more than
380 mln dlrs for the shares tendered.
    It further stated that the tender offer expires on July
eight, unless extended.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp's Coastal Limited Ventures
Inc subsidiary said its offering of 14,000 limited partnership
units in the Coastal 1987 Drilling Program Ltd has been
extended to July two or until all the units are solf if that
occurs earlier.
    It said about eight mln dlrs in 1,000 dlr units had been
sold as of yesterday. The partnership plans to raise 14 mln
dlrs from the sale of the units and will borrow four mln dlrs,
 Reuter

Kay Corp said its Balfour, Maclaine
International Ltd subsidiary signed a letter of intent to
acquire certain assets of a privately-owned distributor of
specialty fasteners for about 13 mln dlrs plus management
incentives, which it did not disclose.
    Kay said the firm has annual sales of about 15 mln dlrs.
    Kay also said it is pursuing private placement of debt
securities for a number of corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Larissa Industries Inc said it filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial
public offering of two mln shares of common.
    All of the shares are being sold by Larissa, which makes
and markets component assemblies used in automobiles, light
trucks, vans, helicopters and other military vehicles and in
nucelar reactors for the U.S. Navy submarines and other
vessels.
    The offering will be underwritten by Merrill Lynch Capital
Markets and E.F. Hutton and Co Inc.
 Reuter

Sunrise Medical Inc said it
will close three facilities and take a fourth quarter charge of
625,000 dlrs, or 15 cents per share, which will result in a
fourth quarter loss.
    The company said net earnings for the year will be below
the 1.8 mln dlrs earned last year. It also noted earnings for
the year will be affected by a 13 cent per share operating loss
from its Sunrise Medical GmbH unit in West Germany.
    It said the closures, to be completed by the end of 1987
year, are part of a cost reduction and plant consolidation
program.
    The company said plants to closed are the Trans-Aid factory
in Turbotville, Penn., the Minivator factory in Dunstable,
England and the Sunrise Medical GmbH distribution facility in
Bischofsheim, West Germany.
    The Turbotville and Dunstable operations will be folded
into other Sunrise facilities, while the German distribution
business will be turned over to local distributors, the company
said. The German operation will be shut down effective June 26.
    The company said it does not anticipate any non-recurring
or extraordinary charges in fiscal 1988.
 Reuter

New England Critical Care Inc
said it completed its purchase of NPO Therapies Inc of Salt
Lake City.
    The company said that NPO Therapies' president and founder,
Kelly Mutchie, has joined New England Critical Care as regional
vice president covering the western United States.
    NPO Therapies provides home infusion therapy services.
 Reuter

A U.S. government trade official
responsible for coffee policy said prospects for an accord on
coffee quotas are still uncertain despite recent Colombian
efforts to bridge differences between producers and consumers.
    Jon Rosenbaum, an assistant U.S. trade representative just
back from trade talks in Colombia, said most producing
countries now accept some sort of standardized criteria must be
agreed to reintroduce coffee quotas.
    "There is one country which evidently still does not,"
Rosenbaum said in an obvious reference to Brazil, which has
been negative recently on a reintroduction of quotas.
    Rosenbaum said because of the stance of Brazil the outlook
for an agreement to reintroduce coffee quotas at the September
International Coffee Organization meeting is hard to predict.
    He said that during the visit to Bogota he held technical
discussions with Colombian officials.
    While he did not meet with Jorge Cardenas, head of the
Colombian coffee producers federation, who was in Europe,
Cardenas left a "positive letter," Rosenbaum said.
    The Cardenas letter responded to a U.S. letter last month
which praised Colombia for trying to find a compromise formula
for the reintroduction of quotas, but outlined several concerns
with the technical details of the Colombian plan.
    Rosenbaum could not be reached later in the day for comment
on a new formula for calculating ICO quotas agreed to by
European coffee roasters and traders.
    Dutch coffee trade association chairman Frits van Horick
said in Amsterdam the new formula is based on six year moving
averages and would give Brazil an unchanged export quota for
the remaining to years of the current coffee agreement.
    The U.S. has said it will not agree to any coffee quotas
unless "objective criteria" which reflect recent changes in the
coffee market are used to set export limits.
 Reuter

(CCC) has reallocated 1.3 mln dlrs in credit guarantees
originally granted to cover the sale of protein meals to El
Salvador so it may buy rice, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said.
    The action reduces the guarantee line authorized for sales
of protein meals to 12.7 mln dlrs and creates a rice credit
guarantee line of 1.3 mln dlrs, the department said.
registered and exports completed by September 30, the
 Reuter

making a market in Storage Technology Corp <QSTK.O>.
    The firm said the first bid was 3-1/2 and the first offer
was 3-5/8.
 Reuter

affirmed Delta Air Lines Inc's 977 mln dlrs of debt and
upgraded the ratings on Western Air Lines Inc's 216 mln dlrs of
    The agency cited Western Air's merger with Delta and
Delta's assumption of Western's debt. The action reflects
Delta's continuing strong financial condition, earnings
improvement and quality service record.
    Moody's affirmed Delta's A-3 senior unsecured debt and
industrial revenue bonds, and raised Western's senior secured
debt to A-3 from Ba-3 and senior unsecured to A-3 from B-1.
 Reuter

cut to B-2 from Ba-1 Diamond Bathurst Inc's subordinated notes
of 1995.
    Moody's said it expects the company's operating performance
would be hurt by heightened competition and by the increasing
inroads being made by other forms of packaging.
    It said Diamond should benefit from production efficiency,
quality control and plant closings. But due to the company's
major role in selling to the distilled spirits industry, one of
the smaller markets for glass containers, its margins and asset
returns may not materially improve, Moody's said.
 Reuter

Brazil's crisis-ridden motor industry
-- which is dominated by the subsidiaries of Volkswagen AG
<VOWG.F>, Fiat Spa <FIAT.MI>, General Motor Corp <GM> and Ford
Co <F> -- has not made a single domestic sale for the last four
days, and several assembly lines will stop shortly, industry
    The motor manufacturers have been feeling the pinch for
months, with demand slumping as the country heads into
recession.
    But the industry hit a fresh problem when dealers decided
on Tuesday to stop buying any cars or trucks to protest high
government taxes on vehicles. The dealers' decision was sparked
by a 33 pct increase in car prices authorized last week by the
government to cover industry's rising costs.
    Spokesman Marcio Stefani of the Brazilian Association of
Autmotive Vehicle Distributors said dealers felt their
livelihood was at stake -- cars aren't selling because they
cost too much.
    "It is a question of our survival. The price of cars in
Brazil has reached an insupportable level," he said. A GM Opala
Diplomata, he said, costs 30,000 dlrs in Brazil, while an
equivalent car in the United States would cost about 10,000
dlrs.
    The National Association of Automotive Vehicle
Manufacturers said that if the trade's boycott continues for
another week, consequences will be serious.
    Association spokesman Fred Carvalho told Reuters, "The
consequences will first of all be collective holidays then
lay-offs and a more and more catastrophic situation."
    A spokesman for Ford Brasil said it would tell about half
of its 21,000 workforce to take holidays June 29-July 13.
    Fiat announced yesterday that it would give 2,000 workers a
month's holiday, from July 6, halting production for the
domestic market.
    Carvalho said the industry was working at 3,500 vehicles a
day, below its 1986 average of 4,700 and capacity of 5,100.
    During last year's Cruzado Plan price freeze, feverish
demand far outstripped supply. The industry says it could have
sold many more cars than it produced, but was constrained by a
lack of parts.
    Today the picture is completely different after months of
raging inflation and demand has all but disappeared.
    Carvalho said the government taxes on cars added 138 pct to
the cost of the vehicle. He described the taxes as "the highest
in the universe and the galaxy."
    Domestic car sales during the first five months of this
year slipped to their lowest level for a decade, 241,632 units
compared with 382,182 units during the same period last year.
    On the bright side, exports are booming -- sales abroad in
May totalled 242 mln dlrs, a record figure.
    The motor industry is critical of the government of
President Jose Sarney, which has gained a reputation as an
indifferent manager of the economy.
    Last month Volkswagen said it was postponing indefinitely
investments of 150 mln dlrs planned for this year.
    Wolfgang Sauer, president of Volkswagen do Brasil, said the
government had created a crisis of confidence.
    Brazil's motor industry employs more than 150,000 people.
 Reuter

U.S. Comptroller of the Currency
Robert Clarke said his office is expanding a plan giving
temporarily ailing but well managed national banks extra time
to come into compliance with its minimum capital requirements.
    The policy, which originally was intended to give well run
banks in economically depressed areas more time to rebuild
depleted capital levels, will be broadened to apply to all
national banks, Clarke said in a speech to a financial seminar.
A text of his remarks was made public today.
    The comptroller's office will extend the application
deadline for the plan to Dec. 31, 1989 from Dec. 31, 1987.
    It will extend to 1995 from 1993 the deadline for banks to
boost their capital levels to the required minimum level.
    Finally, it will eliminate a current requirement that a
bank have capital of at least four pct to participate in the
capital forbearance plan.
    "In theory, a bank could be allowed to continue to operate
with nearly zero capital if we approve its plan to rebuild its
capital base," Clarke said, though he added that a bank in that
situation would have a have "a virtually ironclad plan for a
prompt restoration of capital" to be accepted.
    The critical linkage to forbearance is that the
fundamentals must be in place to assure that the bank can
survive: in short, capable management and financial prospects,"
Clarke said.
    He said the program will continue to be closed to insolvent
banks.
 Reuter

affirmed the debt ratings of Chrysler Corp and Chrysler
Financial Corp following the automaker's agreement to acquire
Electrospace Systems Inc for 367 mln dlrs.
    It said the acquisition could easily be funded from
existing cash balances, still leaving Chrysler with an adequate
level of precautionary cash.
    At March 31 Chrysler had 2.9 billion dlrs of cash and
marketable securities, up from 2.7 billion dlrs at year-end
1986, S and P noted.
    Standard and Poor's affirmed the BBB senior debt of
Chrysler and Chrysler Financial. Also affirmed were the finance
arm's BBB-minus subordinated debt and A-2 commercial paper.
    Electrospace makes communications and electronic systems
for aerospace applications. Because of the company's relatively
small size, the acquisition should have little effect on
Chrysler's balance sheet, S and P said.
 Reuter

Qtly div four cts vs four cts in prior qtr
 Reuter

International LPG prices were little
changed in the past week, barely affected by the excitement on
the advent of OPEC's mid-year meeting, traders and industry
    "If the OPEC decides to increase crude oil production," a
traders said, "LPG supplies will be up without corresponding
rise in demand."
    Petrochemical buyers were sidelined, after their foray in
the market early in june, they said.
    An industry meeting in Dublin this week also drew many
market participants away from the trading desk, they added.
    Algeria has moved at least two cargoes of propane to the
U.S. Gulf, keeping Mediterranean prices steady, traders said.
    In the Mideast Gulf, propane appeared easing slightly,
after a major U.S. oil company bought propane on formula which
netted back about 123 dlrs, cif Mideast Gulf, which was two
dlrs below Saudi Arabia's government selling price (gsp),
    Delivered propane to Japan was quoted at gsp plus 19 dlrs
and butane at gsp plus 25 dlrs, the traders said.
 Reuter

After battling President Reagan all
year, Congress is about to pass a trillion dollar 1988 budget
that sets the stage for even fiercer fighting over its tax and
defence policies.
    But when the dust settles, congressional budget analysts
say, Reagan and the Democratic opposition may finally sit down
at a "budget summit" to call a truce and work out a deal over
implementing the budget he opposes.
    "I think he essentially will (negotiate)," said a prominent
House leader who did not want to be identified. "The ball is in
his court ... We've done everything we could to make a summit."
The Democrat budget plan calls for $19 billion in new taxes
next year, $64 billion over three years, and is set to be
passed by the Democratic-led Congress next week. It would cut
next year's deficit by about $37 billion to $134 billion.
    On Tuesday last week, Reagan said he would consider talks,
except on defence or taxes, but three days later argued that
Congress would first have to bend even further.
 Reuter

Kleinwort Benson Australian Income Fund
Inc
    Qtly div from investment income 30 cts vs 36.5 cts in prior
qtr
    Payable July 17
 Reuter

    Pay August seven
    Record July three
 Reuter

Henry Kissinger said the U.S. Government is disregarding the
future of its economy and could within three to five years "find
itself on a situation similar to those of indebted Latin
American countries."
    "The United States will not be able to service its debt
without austerity," he told a news conference.
    The former secretary also criticised his country's foreign
policy.
    "We have so many problems of our own at home that we should
not be sending people like me and many others around the world
to tell other countries how to handle their problems."
    Kissinger came to Brazil on a private visit to make the
opening speech at the Sixth World Congress of the International
Federation of Purchasing and Materials Management, to be held
here June 24 through 26.
    During his visit he is to call on President Jose Sarney,
Foreign Minister Roberto Abreu Sodre, Finance Minister Luiz
Carlos Bresser Pereira and Chamber of Deputies chairman Ulysses
Guimaraes, Monday in Brasilia.
    Asked to comment on the economic measures imposed by the
Brazilian government last week, which included a new price
freeze up to 90 days, Kissinger said: "I have only read a
summary of the plan. In principle, it seems like a reasonable
plan which could succeed and lead to an agreement with the
International Monetary Fund."
 Reuter

Unisys Corp said its Value Added
Marketing organization signed an agreement with privately held
VMark Computer Inc for remarketing of the Unisys 5000 and 7000
series of minicomputers with VMark software.
 Reuter

The United States said Kuwait was
discussing plans to lease privately-owned U.S. tankers to
transport oil through the Gulf in addition to putting some of
its own vessels under American flags.
    State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley, who made the
disclosure about the tankers, also told reporters the United
States expects to conclude very soon a favorable arrangement
with Saudi Arabia concerning expanded security cooperation in
the Gulf. The two developments occur as the Reagan
administration continued to come under fire in Congress for its
plans to bring 11 Kuwaiti tankers under American flags.
    The move is designed to protect the tankers from Iranian
attacks and ensure freedom of navigation in the strategic
waterway but has raised fears on Capitol Hill that it will draw
the United States into the seven-year-old Iran-Iraq War.
    "The Kuwaitis have discussed the possibility of chartering
U.S. flag vessels with the Maritime Administration," Oakley
said. She emphasized, however, that "if some charter arrangement
could be worked out, it would not supplant the reflagging
arrangement that we worked out with the Kuwaitis."
    In both cases, the ships would be eligible for U.S. Navy
escort in the Gulf, she said.

   The Washington Post today quoted John Gaughan, administrator
of the Martime Administration, as saying Kuwait has approached
an American shipping company about the possibility of a
charter.
    Gaughan said that earlier this week he told representatives
of the company, whose identify he did not know, that chartered
vessels flying the U.S. flag "would be protected," the newspaper
reported.
    Concerning Saudi Arabia, Oakley said "we are moving forward
in our talks ... on how we can tailor our efforts and security
cooperation to facilitate our Gulf operations."
 Reuter

Environmental Power Corp said that Robert
W. Baldridge has resigned from its board of directors,
    Environmental develops, owns and operates small power
production, hydropower, and waste-energy plants.
 Reuter

Senior officials from government and
the ruling Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) rejected
business sector calls this week to reprivatise the 26 Mexican
banks, nationalised five years ago.
    PRI president Jorge de la Vega, speaking in Saltillo,
Coahuila state, said the party would never permit
reprivatisation "because the banks belong to all Mexicans."
    Speaking in Hermosillo, Sonora State, Deputy Finance
Minister Francisco Suarez Davila said the nationalised banks
have proved a positive instrument through which the government
has been able to promote economic development.
    Suarez davila said that in the hands of the state, banks
have performed well and that the government will adopt whatever
reorganization is needed to improve efficiency.
    Earlier this week, the newly elected head of the powerful
business coordinating council, agustin legorreta, called for
the banks to be reprivatized, charging that competition and
efficiency had been eroded.
    Then president jose lopez portillo nationalised the banks
in 1982, accusing them of aiding capital flight. Later that
year, miguel de la madrid took office and announced a scheme to
offer 34 pct of the banks' shares to the public.
 Reuter

DAYTON HUDSON SAID IT TOLD BUYER OF STOCK IT's not
INTERESTED IN BEING ACQUIRED

Lloyds Bank Canada, a unit of Lloyds
Bank <LLOY.L> PLC  said it appointed David Drake chief
executive replacing David Lewis, who will remain as
vice-chairman, effective June 30.
    The bank said that former president David Rattee resigned
to pursue other interests.
    Drake, 45, has served with Lloyds Bank since 1958, and is
currently the bank's regional director in Birmingham, England.
    Lewis was chief executive of the old Continental Bank of
Canada, which sold 90 pct of its assets to Lloyds Bank last
November.
 Reuter

affirmed 6.3 billion dlrs of debt of American Express Corp and
related entities.
    Affirmed were American Express' AA senior debt, AA-minus
subordinated debt and A-1-plus commercial paper.
    S and P cited the American Express banking unit's decision
to set aside specific reserves for developing country credits.
    While a 600 mln dlr loan-loss provision will generate a
second quarter loss and diminish equity capital, the reduction
will be replenished by earnings in the second half of the year,
S and P said.

 Reuter

<Pacific Basin Development Corp>, based
in Vancouver, British Columbia, said it reached an agreement to
buy 51 pct of T.E.A.M. Pacific Corp and its marketing arm for
4.2 mln U.S. dlrs.
    Pacific also said it expects ot earn three mln Canadian
dlrs for the year ended June 30, 1988 and 10 mln Canadian dlrs
for the year ended June 1989.
    T.E.A.M., a former Signetics Corp unit, assembles
integrated circuits in Southeast Asia and is itself buying an
assembler. Pacific said T.E.A.M. expects to earn over 80 mln
Canadian dlrs per year when the acquisition is completed.
 Reuter

May 31
    Shr loss 13 cts vs loss 4 cts
    Net loss 225,000 vs loss 80,000
    Revs 11.8 mln vs 10.4 mln
    Avg shrs 1,789,165 vs 1,789,455
   
 Reuter

Dayton Hudson Corp, in a
letter to employees, said it told an "aggressive buyer" of the
company's stock that it does not want to be acquired.
    A Dayton Hudson spokeswoman would not identify the buyer,
but Wall Street sources said Dart Group Corp <DARTA.O> was the
company interested in buying Dayton Hudson stock.
    The Wall Street sources said the Dart Group is expected
soon to file a statement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on its accumulation of Dayton Hudson stock.
    According to the letter to company employess, Dayton Hudson
management has moved in two directions to fend off a takeover.
According to the letter, chairman Kenneth Macke expressed to
the group buying its stock the company's desire to remain
independent.
    Dayton Hudson Thursday night met with Minnesota governor
Rudy Perpich, appealing for legislative help.
    A spokesman for Governor Perpich earlier said the governor
is expected later today to recommend stiffening the state's
anti-takeover law to help the Minneopolis retailer defend
itself.
    Minnesota House speaker designate said the legislators
would probably look at language similar to that contained in
Indiana and New York law. He said any amendment proposed would
probably be designed to thwart a company from dismantling a
company for its own profit.
   "Obviously Dayton-Hudson people feel whatever statutes we
have would not protect them enough," Vanasek said.
 Reuter

Barnett Banks Inc and Home
Federal Bank of Florida said they filed a suit against the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan
Insurance Corp.
    The companies said the suit asks a Jacksonville, Fla.,
federal district court to enjoin the enforcement of an
interpretive rule adopted by the FHLBB last year which seeks to
give it jurisdiction over Barnett's proposed acquisition of
Home.
    The suit says this rule is arbitrary and capricious.
 Reuter

Environmental Power Corp said it filed a
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the
offering of two mln shares of its common.
    All shares are being sold by the company and Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc is the sole manager of the offering.
    Environmental said 400,000 dlrs of the net proceeds will be
used to pay a portion of the purchase price of the capital
stock of <Milesburg Energy Inc> and the remainder to repay up
to one mln dlrs in short-term debt and general coporate
purposes.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp is taking a small step
away from automobiles and towards military contracting with the
purchase of Electrospace Systems Inc <ELE>, analysts said.
    "A chief goal of Chrysler is to gain military business for
their Gulfstream planes and this should help that cause
dramatically," said analyst Gary Glaser at First Boston Corp.
    Chrysler, which bought Gulfstream Aerospace Corp in 1985,
earlier said Electrospace agreed to be acquired in a friendly
merger for about 367 mln dlrs.
    Analysts said the merger continues a trend in the
automobile industry of diversification away from carmaking.
    General Motors Corp <GM> paid about five billion dlrs for
Hughes Aircraft, an aerospace company, in 1985. A year earlier
it bought Electronic Data Systems, a data processing firm, for
about 2.5 billion dlrs.
    Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co <F> has added First Nationwide
Savings as part of a move into financial services.
    Ford, which has a huge stockpile of cash, has indicated its
interest in aerospace with Lockheed Corp <LK> once rumored as a
possible target.
    Both Ford and Lockheed have denied the rumors, according to
analysts. Ford has about 9.5 billion dlrs of cash and
securities on hand, one analyst said.
    "The overall strategic thrust (within the car industry)
is to become somewhat less sensitive to the vagaries of the
automobile sales cycle," said analyst Jack Kirnan at Kidder
Peabody and Co. "One way companies feel they can do it,
particularly GM and Chrysler, is by diversifying into
aerospace," Kirnan said. Ford has been "a little bit of a
laggard" in that area, he said, which has been a concern to
some investors.
    Chrysler's first big move away from autos came in 1985,
when it purchased Gulfstream for 637 mln dlrs.
    Defense analysts said Chrysler was paying a high price for
Electrospace but auto analysts regarded it as a modest outlay
for the company. Electrospace earned 10 mln dlrs on sales of
191 mln dlrs in fiscal 1987 ended April 3.
    Kirnan said Chrysler may have some trouble digesting the
Richardson, Texas, electronics firm because it is also buying
American Motors Corp <AMC> for about two billion dlrs in a deal
set to close later this year.
    "Chrysler will have their hands full absorbing AMC for a
year or more and will absorb a lot of debt," Kirnan said,
making them the most heavily leveraged auto company.
    But other analysts said the relative small size of
Electrospace will make it easy for Chrysler to absorb.
    Analysts also noted that Hughes has contributed
significantly to GM and that Gulfstream provided about 57 mln
dlrs in pretax earnings to Chrysler last year.
    In a statement, Chrysler said 92 pct of Electrospace's
sales were to the military.
    In addition to helping Gulfstream gain government business,
Chrysler said it believes electronics technology will help the
automobile business.
    Robert Miller Jr, Chrysler Corp vice chairman, said that
Gulfstream's business, for example, involves electronics,
composites and aerodynamic design. "Those will all be important
technologies for winning in the automobile business in the
1990s," Miller told Reuters. Electrospace should add
significantly to the electronics area, he said.
    Miller said Electrospace earnings last year were hurt by
one-time items and but should recover this year.
    Miller said cash on hand will be used to pay for
Electrospace.
    "They have a substantial presence in Washington with 150 or
more professional people. They also have accounting systems in
Texas to manage their business with the Defense Department," he
said.
    Both should be important in moving Gulfstream into the
military market. "Gulfstream traditionally has been aimed more
at the commercial market, which is a different kettle of fish,"
Miller said.
 Reuter

NYSE SAYS SHORT INTEREST UP 28.9 MLN SHARES FOR MONTH
ENDED JUNE 15

U.S. banks, excluding acceptances, fell 896 mln dlrs to 275.61
billion in the week ended June 10, the Federal Reserve Board
said.
546 mln dlrs to 278.12 billion dlrs.

 Reuter

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shirley
Wohl Kram said she would rule Monday on whether to grant a
request to block a 78 dlr per share merger agreement between
Burlington Industries Inc and Morgan Stanely Group Inc <MS>.
    The request to bar the merger was made by Samjens
Acquisition Corp, a partnership formed by financier Asher B.
Edelman and Dominion Textiles Inc. Samjens has made a hostile
77 dlr per share takeover bid for Burlington.
 Reuter

K.G. Saur, the German-based publisher
of databases and legal and bilbiographic reference material,
said it has sold all of its assets to The Butterworth Group, a
division of Reed International PLC <REED.L>, for under 15 mln
dlrs.
    Saur said Klaus Saur, president and owner of the company,
will remain president of Saur operations in Munich, London and
New York.
 Reuter

AMEX SAYS SHORT INTEREST UP 123,002 SHARES FOR MONTH

Shr 10 cts vs four cts
    Net 419,000 dlrs vs 196,000 dlrs
    Revs 27.3 mln dlrs vs 25.9 mln dlrs
    Note:the first quarter ended May 29
 Reuter

Chefs International
Inc said it completed a private sale of nine mln units of its
securities for 20 cts per unit for a total price of 1,800,000
dlrs.
    The company said each unit consisted of one share of Chef's
common stock and one three-year warrant exerciseable to
purchase one share of Chef's stock at 25 cents.
    The company also said Robert E. Brennan purchased 8,250,000
of the units.
   
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs nine cts
    Net 125,465 dlrs vs 245,718 dlrs
    Revs 8.4 mln dlrs vs 7.8 mln dlrs
    Note:the fiscal year ended March 31
 Reuter

The Pentagon has stopped approving
any new military contracts to Japan's Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T>
over a Toshiba subsidiary's transfer of submarine technology to
the Soviet Union, a senior defense official said.
    "We are not approving any new contracts (with Toshiba)
pending a satisfactory resolution of this entire matter," Deputy
Assistant Defense Secretary Stephen Bryen told Reuters,
confirming published reports on the matter.
    The temporary ban, which Bryen said has been in effect
unofficially since April, could cost Toshiba hundreds of mlns
of dlrs in electronics business with the Pentagon, including a
pending 100 mln dlr Air Force deal for small computers.
    Bryen said the U.S. military services have not signed any
contracts with Toshiba since April, when publicity arose over
subsidiary Toshiba Machine Co's alleged sale to Moscow of
milling machines which will grind silent submarine propellers.
    The Japanese government has been investigating the case and
it was previously reported that Toshiba Machine sold four large
milling machines to the Soviet Union in late 1983 or early 
1984.
    But Bryen told Reuters in an interview that the Pentagon
has now been informed by Japanese police that at least four
more smaller machines capable of making such precision
propellers were also sold to the Kremlin, apparently in 1984.
    "There may be even more beyond that. I don't know yet," Bryen
said.
    Toshiba is known to be seeking a U.S. Air Force contract
for 90,000 lap-top computers worth some 100 mln dlrs. The Air
Force has called for new bids on that contract, partly because
of the Toshiba investigation, Pentagon officials said.
    The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the
computer contract is also being re-advertised for bidding
because of changes in the dlr-yen ratio and questions raised by
U.S. import restrictions on some Japanese micro-electronics.
    Two days ago, three U.S. senators said they wanted a
temporary ban on all U.S. imports of Toshiba Corp products,
including television sets and videotape recorders.
    Senators Jake Garn of Utah, Richard Shelby of Alabama and
John Heinz of Pennslvania said they might seek an amendment to
a major trade bill being considered by the Senate this summer.
    The Navy is reported to be furious over the technology
transfer, and Pentagon officials have told Reuters that some of
the state-of-the-art propellers have already been mounted on
Soviet attack submarines.
    The Japanese government has already prohibited Toshiba
Machine Co from doing any business with the Soviet Bloc for one
year.
    The Norweigan state-own firm Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk was
involved in the original technology transfer, providing vital
computer software to be used with the Japanese milling
    But the Norweigan firm is now being reorganized and Bryen
said that it apparently was not involved in the alleged more
recent transfer of Toshiba Machine equipment.
 Reuter

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co denied a
report that it is interested in acquiring International
Minerals and Chemical Corp (IGL).
    "We have no interest in International Minerals or any of
its divisions," a spokesman told Reuters. "We've had no
conversations with them."
    USA Today reported that Archer-Daniels-Midland might be
seeking a hostile takeover of International Minerals.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 1,790,824 vs 1,031,602
    Revs 14.0 mln vs 6.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 41 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 4,830,513 vs 2,296,192
    Revs 40.5 mln vs 15.4 mln
    Avg shrs 12.0 mln vs 10.5 mln
 Reuter

One of several investor groups
formerly associated with London investor Christopher Moran in
his unsuccessful bid to take over Zondervan Corp last year,
said it cut its stake in the company to less than five pct.
the group, led by investors Lawrence Altschul and James
Apostolakis, said it cut its Zondervan stake to 157,500 shares,
or 3.8 pct of the total, from 246,500 shares, or 5.9 pct.
    The group, which earlier this month said in an SEC filing
it wanted join with other groups to maximize share values, said
it sold 89,000 shares between June 9 and 15 for 1.5 mln dlrs.
    The group had joined with the Moran group, which last year
assembled a combined 44 pct stake in Zondervan during its
unsuccessful takeover try.
    Last month, the Moran group broke up and splintered into
various factions. Moran himself withdrew from the takeover
effort and last reported his personal stake at 4.8 pct.
    A group led by Miwok Capital Corp, a California broker with
a 10.6 pct stake, and another one led by Minneapolis
stockbroker Jeffrey Wendel with 2.6 pct, have both made recent
SEC filings saying they are seeking agreements with other
parties who may want to seek control of the company.
 Reuter

venezuela will seek 2.4 billion dollars
in export financing during 1987, double the amount it received
last year, public finance director jorge marcano said.
    Marcano told reporters at the finance ministry yesterday
that the 2.4 billion is part of a total package of 3.2 billion
dlrs in new credits, which venezuela will try to obtain.
    "we've begun efforts to secure that financing," he said.
 Reuter

America Pop Inc said it plans to build
with its joint venture partner, Puissant Group, a 2.6 mln dlrs
120-unit Days Inn Motor Lodge at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in
Columbus. Construction is expected to be completed in late
October.
    The company also said it plans to complete by mid-October,
construction of a 60-unit Days Inn in Athens, Ohio, and by
November a 60-unit Days Inn Motor Lodge in Green Castle,
Pennsylvania. These two projects are organized as limited
partnerships, it said.
 Reuter

Noranda Inc said 1,100 unionized workers
at its 63 pct-owned Brunswick Mining and Smelter Corp lead-zinc
mine in New Brunswick would start voting Monday on a tentative
contract pact.
    Company official Andre Fortier said "We are hopeful that we
can settle without any kind of work interruption."
    Fortier added that Brunswick's estimated 500 unionized
smelter workers were currently meeting about a Noranda contract
proposal and would probably vote next week. The mine's contract
expires July 1 and the smelter's on July 21.
 Reuter

President Reagan's nominee as top
policeman for the nation's securities markets will inherit an
agency challenged by an insider trading scandal, wild stock
price gyrations and a host of uncertainties stemming from the
globalization of financial markets.
    David Ruder, a 58-year-old Republican law professor at
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., was named Thursday
to be the 23rd chairman of the five-member U.S. Securities and
    If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, he will succeed
John Shad, who left the agency earlier this week after a record
six years as chairman to become ambassador to the Netherlands.
    The SEC has been in the limelight for the past year as its
investigators have probed into the most colossal insider
trading scandal ever uncovered on Wall Street.
    The investigation, which is still active, mushroomed in
recent months as a growing number of well known traders and
prominent investment banking firms have been charged with
wrongdoing.
    The pace of the probe picked up markedly in November after
Ivan Boesky, one of Wall Street's most successful stock
speculators, agreed to cooperate with government investigators
and to pay a record 100 mln dlrs in penalties and illegal
profits after being charged with insider trading.
    But the agency is also wrestling with a vexing new
phenomenon of huge and rapid swings in stock prices, spurred by
computer-driven trading strategies that span markets in 
securities, options and futures. The price gyrations have
combined with rising trading volumes to bring unprecedented
volatility to some U.S. securities markets.
    At the same time, the SEC is being pressed by some
lawmakers to put a stop to abusive tactics in corporate
takeover contests as an unrelenting wave of such takeovers
steadily reshapes the U.S. corporate landscape.
    And the agency is being pushed by U.S. and foreign
exchanges intent on expansion to lay the regulatory groundwork
for an international securities marketplace in which trading
occurs across borders throughout the world, around the clock.
    Such worldwide trading networks offer vast new investment
opportunities but could strain the SEC's ability to enforce
U.S. securities laws and guard investors from fraud.
    Under the leadership of Shad, the SEC eased financial
disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies,
eliminated many minor investor protection rules, attempted to
spur competition among exchanges and streamlined the agency's
review of hostile corporate takeovers.
    Shad, who had been vice chairman of the E. F. Hutton
investment banking firm, brought a Wall Street perspective to
the agency upon being named chairman in 1981.
    In line with the views of other top administration
officials, he favored marketplace determination of takeover
battles over new federal regulations.
    The SEC under Shad also stressed prosecution of insider
trading violations over the corporate wrongdoing cases that
topped the agency's enforcement agenda during the
administration of President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.
    Securities lawyers and industry officials acquainted with
Ruder say the new chairman-designate is unlikely to
significantly alter the commission's current priorities.
    The SEC currently has about 2,000 employees, most of them
lawyers, and an annual budget of about 115 mln dlrs though that
figure likely will be significantly higher next year as the
agency moves to beef up its enforcement staff.
    The agency is one of the few in the government that
actually has taken in more money than it has spent in the past
few years because of fees it charges public companies,
investment banks and other securities firms it regulates.
    The SEC is structured as an independent regulatory agency,
meaning that its five commissioners are appointed by the
president to fixed five-year terms and protected from firing
for policy differences alone.
    By law, no more than three commissioners may be of the same
political party, and the agency prepares its own budget request
each year instead of leaving this to the White House.
    Established by Congress in 1934, the SEC traces its origins
to the great stock market crash of 1929, which was attributed
in large part to widespread trading on credit and attempted
market manipulations by large investment firms.
    The agency requires public companies and investment
vehicles such as mutual funds to issue periodic reports on
their financial condition and to disclose changes in their
condition any time they issue new securities.
    It requires brokers, dealers and investment banks to
register with it and comply with investor protection rules, and
it polices exchanges and regulates trading practices.
    Its first chairman was Joseph Kennedy, an industrial
magnate who was also the father of John Kennedy, later to
become the nation's 35th president.
    Other former chairmen include William Douglas, who served
from 1937 until his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in
1939, and William Casey, who served during President Nixon's
first term and was Reagan's director of the Central
Intelligence Agency until his death earlier this year.
 Reuter

The Administration asked Congress to
replace the U.S. tariff schedule with a new system to bring it
into line with international tariff categories, U.S. Trade
Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
    The new system will add such items as fiber optics and more
accurately define new composites, items not widely traded when
the current schedule was devised some 30 years ago.
    Yeutter said the Harmonized System, as the new schedule is
called, will change tariff categories and definitions to meet
the present-day needs of exporters and importers, but they
should pay about the same rates of duties.
    Yeutter said, "American exporters will find it far easier to
deal with one standardized worldwide system than the variety of
differing systems which they now face."
    He said the new system ended 12 years of multinational
negotiations to create the unified tariff schedule.
    Yeutter said government and business moves are based on
data from tariff schedules and the new system will improve
knowledge of trade flows and the quality of decision-making.
    He said 56 nations pledged to bring their standards under
the new system, with about half expected to join the system by
January 1988.
 reuter

affirmed 500 mln dlrs of debt of PNC Financial and units.
    Affirmed were Aa-2 senior debt of PNC Financial Corp and
PNC Funding Corp, AAA long-term deposits of Pittsburgh National
Bank, and Aa-2 long-term deposits of Citizens Fidelity Bank and
Trust.
    Moody's cited PNC's announced special second-quarter loan
loss provision of 110 mln dlrs to raise loss reserve coverage
of loans to economically troubled borrowers in less-developed
countries. Moody's said the firm's financial condition would
not change materially as a result of the action.
 Reuter

A group led by Chas. P. Young Co, a
subsidiary of Service Resources Corp, said it cut its stake in
Sorg Inc to 366,700 shares, or 16.7 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 385,000 shares, or 17.5 pct.
Young, which yesterday withdrew its 23 dlr a share takeover
proposal, said its other group member, SDI Partners Ltd
Partnership, sold 18,300 Sorg common shares between June 16 and
18 at 17-1/2 to 19 dlrs each.
 Reuter

Audi of America Inc said it will
increase prices on all models by an average of 3.9 pct, or 838
dlrs, effective July 20.
    The increase applies to Audi 4000S, 4000CS Quattro, Coupe
GT, 5000S sedan and wagon, 5000S Quattro, 5000CS Turbo, and
5000CS Turbo Quattro sedan and wagon models, the company said.
 Reuter

Eaton Corp said it was awarded
a 25 mln dlr contract by the U.S. Customs Service for
development of an intelligence system intended to intercept
drug smuggling along the southern border of the U.S.
    The contract calls for the company to provide the
government with the most current information gathering and
assessment technology available in its fight against border
drug trafficking, Eaton said.
 Reuter

    Pay July 16
 Reuter

    Pay Aug 19
    Record Aug 3
 Reuter

Shr profit nil vs loss two cts
    Net profit 39,617 vs loss 200,740
    Revs 619,076 vs 491,085
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss nil vs loss five cts
    Net loss 68,293 vs loss 434,087
    Revs 1,614,960 vs 1,791,148
 Reuter

Towle and Co, a St. Louis, Mo.,
investment advisory firm, told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it has acquired 55,900 shares of Supreme Equipment
and Systems Corp, or 5.1 pct of the total outstanding.
    Towle said it bought the stock for investment purposes on
behalf of its advisory clients.
 Reuter

Moseley Holding Corp said it expects a
loss for its first fiscal quarter ending June 30.
    The company said the losses are related to its municipal
bond, unit trust and corporate bond activities, all of which
were affected by the difficult bond market.
    The company said losses for those areas were close to four
mln dlrs for April and May.
    It said its mortgage-backed activities were profitable
during those months.
 Reuter

Philadelphia Electric Co said it
completed the sale of 1,500,000 shares of common stock by a
continuous offering plan through Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
    The company said proceeds from the sale, which amount to
32.4 mln, will be used for its construction program.
 Reuter

Italy's Foreign Trade Minister Mario
Sarcinelli, commenting on speculation in the Italian press,
said a sharp balance of payments deficit in May could not be
attributed to recent moves liberalizing the purchase of foreign
    Sarcinelli was reacting to suggestions that last month's
overall 3,211 billion lire deficit, which compares with April's
2,040 billion surplus, could be linked to a May 13 decree
abolishing obligatory non-interest-bearing deposits on foreign
securities purchases.
   "The deficit can be better attributed to premature and
delayed foreign trade payments and receipts (leads and lags)
rather than capital outflow to portfolio investment," Sarcinelli
    Earlier today the newspaper La Repubblica cited remarks by
the Bank of Italy, which announced the deficit for May and said
it had been partly caused by "non-banking capital outflows."
    "In practice, it seems that there has been a constant flow
of capital to foreign securities or investments outside our
borders," said the newspaper.
    But the newspaper added that it was still not possible to
say how far the move to abolish foreign securities purchase
deposits had affected Italy's balance of payments.
 Reuter

<Allied Stores Corp> named Michele
Fortune president and division chief executive officer of its
Ann Taylor division stores.
    Allied said Fortune is currently senior vice
president-merchandising of <Lord and Taylor> of New York.
   
 Reuter

<Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the United States> and Hospital Corp of America
<HCA> said their Equicor joint venture unit named William
Hjorth vice chairman and chief operating officer.
 Reuter

Sico Inc said it agreed in principle
to buy the U.S. assets of Reichold Chemicals Inc's Sterling
Group, which manufactures electrical insulation compounds and
industrial resins and develops coatings for the electronics
industry. Terms were undisclosed.
    Sico said it acquired Sterling Group's Canadian assets in
February.
    It said the U.S. acquisition adds about 15 mln dlrs to its
annual sales volume.
 Reuter

A group of Boston investors and
investment partnerships told the Securities and Exchange
Commission it sold its entire stake in Silicon Systems Inc of
410,000 shares, or 6.0 pct of the total outstanding.
    The group, which includes HLM Associates, HLM Associates II
and their three general partners, said it sold the stock
between April 22 and June 9 at 9.00 to 9.125 dlrs a share as
the result of an investment decision.
 Reuter

Mosely Holding Corp said it expects to
report an unspecified loss in the first quarter ending June 30.
    The company said the current quarter result will reflect
losses associated with municipal bond, unit trust, and
corporate bond activities.
    It reported net income of 203,000 dlrs, or one cent per
share, on revenues of 35.5 mln dlrs in the fiscal 1986 first
quarter.
 Reuter

    Oper shr three cts vs 11 cts
    Oper net 333,000 vs 885,000
    Revs 14.9 mln vs 12.2 mln
    Note: Latest qtr exludes writeoff of 735,000 dlrs from
store renovation.
 Reuter

A group of companies including
Chicago-based Coronet Insurance Co and Sunstates Corp, a
Jacksonville., Fla., real estate firm, said it raised its stake
in Tandy Brands Inc to 175,900 shares, or 6.9 pct of the total.
the group said it bought 43,600 Tandy common shares between May
21 and June 9 for 633,333 dlrs in addition to the 132,300
shares, or 5.2 pct, it had held previously.
 Reuter

Wisconsin Electric Power Co said a
small amount of slightly radioactive water was released from
its Point Beach Nuclear Plant at Two Creeks, Wis.
    The company said 235 gallons of cooling water were released
into Lake Michigan this morning as plant employees accidentally
opened a valve while cleaning a holding tank.
    The company said the radioactive water was heavily diluted
and that it expects "no environmental or public health or
safety impact as a result of this discharge."
    Preliminary tests of lake samples detected no increase in
lake water radioactivity, it said.
 Reuter

Gateway Medical Systems Inc said it has
withdrawn its May 27 offer to acquire <Westworld Community
Healthcare Inc>.
    The company said it remains interested in acquiring the
Westworld's hospitals and will attempt to continue negotiations
with Westworld.
 Reuter

Association announced a five-year fixed rate note offer bearing
interest at 8.25 pct per annum and priced at 99.635.
    It said the notes, due 1992, will be offered along with two
mln foreign currency warrants at 4.375 dlrs each, which
increase in value if the U.S. dollar rises against the yen and
decrease if the dollar falls against the yen.
    Semi-annual interest payments on the book-entry notes begin
Dec 29, it said, adding that both obligations will be traded on
the American Stock Exchange and will be sold by Morgan Stanley
and Co Inc and Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
 Reuter

American Capital Corp said it will
offer to holders of its 13,325,367 outstanding common stock
purchase warrants 2.10 dlrs cash and 0.09 shares of common
stock for each outstanding warrant.
    The company said the offer will remain open until July 21.
    It said the offer is subject to certain conditions
including completion of the pending public offering of a new
series of preferred stock.
 Reuter

Argentine President Raul Alfonsin
met for more than an hour with International Monetary Fund
Managing Director Michel Camdessus, and Argentine economy
minister Juan Sourrouille said the two men discussed
Argentina's economy and its commercial bank financing package.
    Sourrouille told reporters that 91.5 pct of the 1.95
billion dlr loan, which forms the core of the package, has been
    Citibank, the chairman of Argentina's bank advisory
committee, said yesterday that subscriptions totalled about 91
pct.
    The IMF has said that a "critical mass" of bank commitments
is needed before it will start disbursing the 1.83 billion dlr
standby loan that it has approved in principle for Argentina.
    Asked what the IMF has stipulated as a critical mass,
Sourrouille said, "That has not been defined but anywhere over
90 pct we are doing fine."
    Although most of the money has been subscribed, officials
noted that about a third of Argentina's 350 creditor banks hold
93 pct of its debt. They are worried that it might take a long
time to persuade the other banks to join the deal.
    Monetary sources said Alfonsin and Camdessus, who had not
met before, mostly discussed Argentina's political and economic
situation. Alfonsin, who is beginning a four-day private visit
to the U.S., was in Philadelphia to speak to the private World
Affairs Council, a non-partisan body dedicated to increasing
public awareness of international affairs.
    In his speech, Alfonsin said economic integration is the
only way for Latin America to overcome its current crisis.
    "This (economic integration) is probably the most audacious
challenge facing Latin America this century, perhaps the most
audacious of our history," he said.
 Reuter

First Chicago Corp said it registered
for an offering of nearly 2.5 mln shares of cumulative
convertible preferred stock, Series A, with a value of 50 dlrs
a share.
    The stock will be issued in conjunction with First
Chicago's previously announced acquisition of First United
Financial Services Inc.
    First United holders will have the option to receive either
First Chicago preferred stock or cash in exchange for their
shares, provided that no more than 70 pct of First United
shares will be exchanged for preferred stock. The preferred
stock's conversion premium will be 22.86 pct.
    The dividend will be fixed shortly before closing at a rate
causing the preferred stock to initially trade at par, subject
to a minimum rate of five pct and a maximum rate of nine pct.
 Reuter

RIO DE JANEIRO - IBC ESTIMATES 1987-88
COFFEE CROP AT 35.2 MLN BAGS

Shr profit six cts vs loss 18 cts
    Net profit 156,000 vs loss 212,000
    Revs 5,094,000 vs 5,669,000
 Reuter

Qtly div 14.25 cts vs 14.25 cts prior
    Pay Sept 21
 Reuter

WPP GROUP EXTENDING EXPIRATION OF ITS MERGER PROPOSAL TO
JWT GROUP UNTIL JUNE 22

Privately-held Joe Franklin Productions
Inc said it entered into a preliminary agreement to merge with
Assets Development Corp, a public company.
    The companies said they expected the merged group to
qualify for listing on NASDAQ.
 Reuter

Dart Group Corp <DARTA.O> said it has
no comment on reports the company has been accumulating shares
of Dayton Hudson Corp.
    Dayton Hudson said in a letter to shareholders it told an
"aggressive buyer" of its stock that it does not want to be
acquired.
    Wall Street sources have identified the buyer as Dart,
which earlier this year was thwarted in a takeover attempt for
the now privately held Supermarkets General Corp.
 Reuter

<Bower industries Inc> said
it changed its name to Metalclad Corp and has restructured a
loan agreement with its bank.
    Under the pact, a 3.5-mln-dlr revolving credit line will be
converted to a 1.8-mln-dlr six year note and a 1.7-mln-dlr
revolving line of credit.
    The company said it is also restructuring a 4,011,000-dlr
debt to another creditor, whereby two mln dlrs will be
forgiven, 1,950,000 dlrs will be converted into two long-term
notes due April, 1989 and 61,000 dlrs has been included in a
line of credit.
 Reuter

Shr loss 33 cts vs loss one ct
    Net loss 320,000 vs loss 8,000
    revs 822,000 vs 405,000
 Reuter

    Pay July 22
 Reuter

Magnolia Foods Inc said it
completed a 250,000 dlr private offering of convertible
preferred and common purchase warrants.
    Magnolia also said it signed a license agreement and
approved a conversion site in Tulsa, Okla., and its previously
approved conversion site in Colorado Springs, Colo., will be
opened in late July.
    Magnolia operates nine cafes: four are licensed, four are
are joint ventures and one is company owned.
 Reuter

Warehouse Club Inc said it subleased two
Chicago locations closed in April and is reviewing the five mln
dlr second quarter reserve established to cover the cost of the
closures.
    The company told Reuters it will probably remove two to
three mln dlrs of the total reserve amount which will result in
higher third quarter profits.
    In the 1986 quarter, Warehouse Club had net loss of 891,000
dlrs or 13 cents a share on sales of 41.4 mln dlrs.
    The company said it will achieve a profit in the third
quarter despite any reduction in the reserve.
 Reuter

<WPP Group Plc> said it is extending
its 50.50 dlrs a share offer for JWT Group Inc until midday
June 22.
    The company temporarily extended the offer on June 17 but
did not give an expiration date.
    Its 45 dlrs a share offer for JWT, which has been rejected
by JWT, expires on July 10.
 Reuter

Tenneco Inc said Tennessee Gas Pipeline
Co, its largest interstate natural gas pipeline, will transport
natural gas under the open access rules of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, FERC.
    In open access, gas pipelines serve purely as a transport
company, moving gas from suppliers to customers. Pipelines also
transport its own gas to customers.
    Earlier this week, Transco Energy Co <T> rejected the FERC
guidelines, saying it would not offer open access until the
regulatory body offers a solution to the exposure it faces for
gas it has bought but could not sell.
    The exposure faced by the industry stems from take or pay
contracts, under which pipelines bought gas on long-term
contracts they could not sell. The problem grew severe as
customers won cheaper sources of gas because of open access.
    Some industry analysts speculated earlier this week that
Tenneco might follow Transco's lead and close its pipelines to
open-access because of the take-or-pay issue.
    But Tenneco today said open access "is one of the steps
FERC is taking to restructure the gas industry in the U.S. FERC
is moving the industry through this restructuring now, even
before all transitional problems are solved."
    A spokesman said Tenneco faces 1.7 billion dlrs in exposure
under the take-or-pay contracts, but he had no specific figure
for Tennessee Gas, which runs 2,000 miles of pipelines from
Louisiana and Texas up to New England.
    "We remain convinced that the most critical transitional
issue facing the industry--take-or-pay--must be resolved by
FERC in the near future.
    "A failure to do so could have grave consequences for the
industry's continued ability to provide its customers with
reliable natural gas," said Tennessee Gas Transmission Co
president R.C. Thomas.
 Reuter

Consumers' Gas Co Ltd said it agreed to
sell on July 6 100 mln dlrs of 10.60 pct debentures maturing in
2012 and priced at 998 dlrs per 1,000 dlrs principal amount.
    The company said it would use proceeds for general
    It said the underwriter is Gordon Capital Corp.
 Reuter

Maxicare Health Plans Inc  said
it ended negotiations to sell Maxicare Alabama L.P. to
(Complete Health Inc).
    The companies said last week they had reached agreement in
principle for Complete Health to purchase the health
maintenance organization, the largest in Alabama.
    Maxicare said the terms would not be in the best interests
of the heatlh care providers who have built the Alabama HMO.   
 It said it now intends to work with its health care providers
in Alabama to further develop the HMO.
 Reuter

    Net loss 2,494,000 vs loss 1,608,000
    Revs 3,590,000 vs 1,710,000
    Year
    Shr loss 68 cts vs loss 53 cts
    Net loss 7,318,000 vs loss 4,160,000
    Revs 10,503,000 vs 7,134,000
 Reuter

    Shr nine cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,026,000 vs 1,840,000
    Revs 25.9 mln vs 26.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 27 cts vs 56 cts
    Net 2,942,000 vs 5,865,000
    Revs 95.7 mln vs 96 mln
 Reuter

venezuela may turn to the international
monetary fund for credits as part of the country's overall
effort to reestablish financial flows from abroad, finance
minister manuel azpurua said today.
    "this is no secret. It's just one of the steps the executive
has begun taking to reestablish financial flows to the country,"
azpurua told reporters at the finance ministry.
    He did not specify what types of loans venezuela would seek
from the fund or the amounts involved.
    A technical team from the imf is currently in caracas
gathering data for its annual report on the venezuelan economy,
the finance minstry said. Members of the mission met today with
officials from the ministry's public finance department.
    Venezuela is one of the few latin american debtors which
has not drawn standby or extended fund facilty loans from the
imf since the region's financial crisis began in 1982.
    The country has an imf quota of 1.371 mln sdr's (1.75
billion dollars), according to the fund's 1986 report.
 Reuter

Cominco Ltd said no
talks were scheduled with striking workers at its Trail smelter
and Kimberley, British Columbia lead-zinc mine.
    A company spokesman said the company and union met
informally Tuesday but talks did not constitute a formal
bargaining session. The last formal talks were on June 5.
    The workers went on strike May 9 and production has been
shut down since then.
Kimberley produced 2.2 mln long tons of ore in 1986, most for
   
 Reuter

The economy faces lackluster growth
and the risk of recession this year if the recent improvement
in U.S. exports should falter, economists say.
    Growth will slow sharply in the next months due to weakness
in the key housing and auto sectors and could be further
hampered unless consumer spending picks up, they say.
    "These factors raise the question: Is there enough strength
to keep the economy from tipping into a recession?" said Lyle
Gramley, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers
Association and a former Federal Reserve Board official.
    The Commerce Department said this week that the economy
grew by a robust 4.8 pct annual rate in the first quarter, but
a U.S. monetary official called it a weak report.
    Housing starts fell 2.7 pct in May, and consumer spending
rose a weak 0.1 per cent.
    "Our two largest visible industries -- autos and housing --
are faltering, but exports are picking up some of the slack, "
Martin Mauro, senior economist for Merrill Lynch Economics,
    Gramley said he is worried that consumer spending may slow
because inflation is rising faster than real wages.
    To offset this, U.S. exports must continue to rise,
returning enough jobs to the manufacturing sector to boost
personal income and consumption, he says.
    "I expect to see enough improvement in real net exports to
keep a recession from happening, but it is a close call,"
Gramley said.
    Federal Reserve Board Governor Martha Seger told reporters
that the apparent strength in the 4.8 pct growth figure was the
result of a temporary buildup in inventories that will not last
and said the recovery was showing anemia.
    Seger said that with the recovery stumbling along, "The pace
of the economy and the lack of robustness must be factored into
monetary policy" - possibly a signal that the Fed will be
accommodative.
    Most economists predict growth slower than the 3 pct
forecast by the Reagan administration for 1987 and warn that if
the dollar drops suddenly, higher inflation will result and add
to the risk of a recession.
    Mauro said a 0.5 pct rise in industrial production in May
came despite cutbacks in output in the auto industry, where an
inventory overhang still exists.
    He says the boost in production came from smaller
industries like paper, chemicals, and lumber which have
improved sales overseas due to the drop in the dollar.
    "They are not going to be enough for any kind of surge in
economic activity, but I think they will keep us out of a
recession," Mauro said.
    In a speech to financial planners this week, Beryl
Sprinkel, the chief White House economic adviser, predicted the
trade deficit will continue to improve.
    "Prospects for continued economic growth through 1987 and
into 1988 are still quite favorable," he said.
    But private economists raise concerns about a resurgence in
    Allen Sinai, chief economist at Shearson Lehman Brothers
Inc., told Congress this week that inflation would rise to 4.5
to five pct this year and stay at that level through 1989 after
a 1.1 pct increase in 1986.
    The rise is coming from a sharply lower dollar, higher oil
and energy prices and rising prices for services, he said.
    "The lesson of history is that once the inflation genie gets
out of the bottle, it continues to persist," he said, adding he
would like the Fed to tighten credit.
    A major factor affecting inflation is the value of the
dollar, which should continue to fall and feed inflation, says
a prominent international banker.
    Rainer Gut, chairman of Credit Suisse, told the National
Press Club that the dollar's downward trend against the yen and
the mark will continue for years because the United States is
the world's largest debtor nation.
    The Swiss banker said the economic indicators point to a
further slackening of activity and called naive the belief that
the five-year boom on world equity markets will go on forever.
"It is very difficult to be optimistic," Gut said.
 Reuter

stepped up testing of condoms by the agency has led to a three
recalls by U.S. manufacturers and the detention of foreign-made
condoms at U.S. borders.
    The FDA said industry standards require that roughly no
more than four out of 1,000 condoms leak. Condoms are tested by
pouring 10 ounces of water in each and looking for leakage.
    The FDA said Schmid Laboratories of Little Falls, N.J., has
voluntarily recalled one lot of Sheik Fetherlite condoms, which
was distributed to 22 accounts through the United States.
   
    The agency said Schmid reported that almost all of the
condoms were still in transit or at wholesalers at the time of
the recall and are being recovered.
    National Sanitary Labs of Lincolnwood, Ill, voluntarily
recalled a lot of Protex Contracept Plus brand latex condoms
which were distributed to a wholesaler in California and two
retailers in Indiana and Michigan, the FDA said.
    The FDA said National estimates that none of the suspect
lot remains on the market. The FDA also said National recalled
two more lots of condoms following additional FDA tests.
    The FDA also said Circle Rubber Corp of Newark, N.J., is
voluntarily recalling Saxon and L'appel condoms after being
informed of FDA test results. The FDA said the condoms were
distributed in North Carolina and Illinois.
    The FDA urged condom makers on April 7 to inform consumers
about how condoms should be used to increase protection against
sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. Since April, the
FDA said it had detained 15 shipments of condoms made by firms
in Korea and four shipments of condoms from Malaysia.
 Reuter

Brazil's coffee exports could amount to
19 mln bags this year, because of the excellent crop estimate
of 35.2 mln bags, an IBC spokesman said.
    He said exports could surpass the average annual 18 mln
bags mark, especially if the final harvest to be conducted in
October and November confirms the crop at over 35 mln bags.
    He said the average limit of errors for the official crop
harvest could be set at five pct above or below the first
estimates officially published today.
    He said the IBC agreed with a request by producers for the
Institute to ask the government for a monthly indexation of the
guarantee minimum price.
 Reuter

Endotronics Inc said operations at
its joint venture with Summa Medical Corp <SUMA.O> has ended.
    The company said the venture provided production and
purification services to biotechnology companies on a contract
basis. Endotronics, which is reorganizing under Chapter 11, has
a 75 pct stake in the partnership.
    The company said it intends to sell the facility that
housed the operations.
    It said it is reviewing the adequacy of a two mln dlr
reserve set up in the second quarter ended March 31 for the
carrying value of the facility.
    The company said the cessation of the joint venture was the
second move taken to refocus its operations on the
instrumentation business. The company previously said it was no
longer performing research and development for its health care
technologies.
 Reuter

Charter Oak Partners, a Connecticut
investment partnership, said it raised its stake in Facet
Enterprises Inc to 480,000 shares, or 9.6 pct of the total
outstanding common stock, from 300,000 shares, or 6.0 pct.
Charter Oak said it bought 180,000 Facet common shares on June
12 at 18.25 dlrs each.
 Reuter

The six basis point rise of the past
month in U.S. debt futures may be extended next week by a
series of U.S. economic reports, analysts said, as long as the
dollar holds firm.
    "Interest rates have declined by approximately 50 basis
points over the last month, largely over indications that
inflation is not as high as people had feared and the narrowing
U.S. trade balance, in nominal terms," Samuel Kahan, chief
financial economist with Kleinwort Benson Government
Securities, said.
    Kahan said recent government reports have shown strength in
the economy during the first quarter, but his concern is
whether the U.S. economy will sustain that strength in the
longer term.
    Weak U.S. economic growth could hurt the dollar, which has
become more important to the direction of debt futures than the
beneficial impact on interest rates of a sluggish economy.
    The median trade expectations for Tuesday's U.S. Consumer
Price Index and Durable Goods reports are up 0.4 pct and down
1.5 pct, respectively.
    Meanwhile, the eight billion dlr drop in the M-1 money
supply announced this week was "surprising, much larger than
expected," according to Kahan. "Unless quickly reversed," such
a trend "will ensure that June M-1 growth will be negative,"
Kahan said.
    Taken in conjunction with M-2 and M-3 aggregates which
Kahan said have "slowed to a crawl, below Federal Reserve Board
annual targets," the consequences could be a hint of economic
weakness down the road, he said.
    Based on chart formations, T-bond futures may be poised for
further gains, although the advance has been slowed recently,
    September T-bonds "are up almost six points since about May
18," Merrill Lynch debt analyst Jim Duggan noted. September
bond futures climbed from the low of 87 a month ago to over 93
in mid-June, Duggan said.
    While follow-through buying has aided the advance so far,
and bouts of short covering have prohibited a slide through
chart support, the rally in September T-bonds has been thwarted
above the 93 level.
    "The 93 level is formidable resistance and must be taken
out before this activity is anything other than a trading range
market," Carroll McEntee and McGinley Futures debt analyst
Brian Singer said.
    The dollar remains the key fundamental factor, and the U.S.
currency has made little headway of late, analysts said.
    "The critical variable remaining in the market is the value
of the dollar," Kahan said.
    Additional influences next week will be possible
developments ahead of an OPEC members meeting, and the impact
and size of the U.S. budget deficit, "although these will not
be in the forefront of the market early next week," Kahan said.
    In looking ahead to the U.S. Treasury mini-refunding
auctions of 24.25 billion in T-notes on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday, Singer said the market will likely greet the results
with little excitement. However, a successful auction could
prove to be a turning point, depending on prevailing market
psychology.
 Reuter

Canada Post asked the federal government
to appoint a mediator to help end an increasingly violent
series of strikes by the country's letter carriers.
    The government is expected to respond quickly to the
request that was made after the union formally rejected the
corporation's latest offer to settle the four-day-old dispute.
    The state-run postal service also said it would halt the
use of replacement workers that the union has blamed for the
trouble on the picket line.
    "We have become increasingly concerned that the safety of
our employees, both striking employees and replacement workers,
is at risk," Canada Post negotiator Harold Dunstan told
reporters at a downtown Ottawa hotel.
    Robert McGarry, president of the 20,000 member Letter
Carriers Union, told reporters he and other union leaders would
consider suspending the walkouts for a week while the mediator
is involved.
    In a bid to step up pressure on management, letter carriers
walked out in Toronto today where some 50 pct of the country's
mail is sorted.
    Workers also set up picket lines in other populous cities
in southern Ontario, but went back to work in most other
centers across Canada.
    There have been several arrests, property damage, and
sometimes violent clashes between strikers and replacement
workers whom the corporation hired to try and keep the mail
moving.
    The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which
represents postal employees who are not letter carriers and
which is not on strike, said one of its workers was stabbed and
is now in the hospital after a scuffle broke out with a
replacement worker in Toronto early today.
    Police, however, said they had no report of a stabbing.
    CUPW President Jean-Claude Parrot called for the
resignation of Andre Harvie, minister responsible for Canada
Post, for condoning the use of the so-called strikebreakers.
    "The federal government has (the) blood of workers on its
hands in this postal strike," Parrot told reporters at the
union's Ottawa headquarters.
 Reuter

A federal judge heard arguments that
Manville Corp's chapter 11 reorganization plan, which was
confirmed in December, should be thrown out.
    During a four-and-a-half hour hearing, U.S. District Judge
Whitman Knapp heard arguments in five different appeals.
Whitman took the issues under advisement and will rule at a
    Key challenges were made by a group of Manville
shareholders, who claim they were not adequately represented
during the bankruptcy proceedings and that a 2.5 billion dlr
fund to pay victims of asbestos is overfunded.
   
    Another challenge came from a group of asbestos victims who
claimed the trust fund was underfunded.
    Today, Manville lawyers said there have been about 54,000
claims filed by those injured by asbestos.
    The reorganization plan also sets up a trust fund, with
initial funding of 125 mln dlrs, to pay for property damage
claims. Additional funds will be available if needed. Manville
said there are currently 9,500 property damage claims filed.
    Manville filed for bankruptcy in 1982 and its
reorganization plan was approved by all parties except the
common stockholders.
   
    The stockholders objected to the proposal because it would
greatly dilute the value of their holdings. The plan would have
the effect of converting every eight shares of common stock
into just one share.
    Manville lawyers today criticized shareholder groups for
further delaying the execution of the bankruptcy plan. Herbert
Edelman, one of Manville's lawyers, pointed out that many
thousands of victims and creditors were still awaiting payments
and that many victims had already died.
    He also pointed out that the bankruptcy court had found
Manville to be insolvent.
    "They (shareholders) want the plan put aside to get that
nebulous value that may be down the road," Edelman said.
    Common shareholders claim they were not adequately
represented because U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland
refused requests to divide the equity holders committee into
two separate groups, one repesenting common shareholders and
the other preferred stock shareholders.
    During confirmation hearings of the plan, the equity
committee's lawyer George Hahn walked out of the hearing,
saying he could not represent both groups.
    The equity holders committee was then abolished.
   
    An unofficial committee representing 10 pct of the
company's stock was present at the confirmation hearings.
However, lawyers for that committee did not present evidence or
cross examine witnesses.
    During today's hearing Paul Gonson, a Washington lawyer
representing the Securities and Exchange Commission, told Judge
Knapp that the agency was also concerned that the shareholders
did not have adequate representation.
    Knapp said the unofficial committee was represented by the
New York law firm of Kronish, Lieb, Weiner and Hellman. "They
have one of the best law firms in town," Knapp said.

 Reuter

surinam may bring the dutch
government before the world court of justice in the hague to
press for a resumption of a 100 mln dlr aid program cut off in
1982, prime minister jules wijdenbosch said.
    Wijdenbosch told a news conference tuesday his government
may request the court to make a judgment on the aid, suspended
after the december, 1982 murders of 15 surinamese opposition
leaders while they were in government custody.
 Reuter

HK SHANGHAI BANK, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK RAISE PRIME
1/2 POINT TO 7.5 PCT.

Qatar will today take over the franchise of
Cable and Wireless Plc (CAWL.L) in the emirate through the
newly-created Qatar General Telecommunications Corporation
(QTELC).
    Cable and Wireless, which has operated in Qatar since 1951,
will second expert staff and provide technical and computer
services under agreements signed with QTELC.
    Cable and Wireless manager Colin Davies told Reuters
"Basically we have been here in a franchise situation for the
last 36 years and the government has now decided they want to
have a bigger role and that is, of course, a sovereign right."
 REUTER

Banking authorities and police are
investigating an alleged fraud by the second largest trading
house in the Caracas free foreign exchange market, Finance
Minister Manuel Azpurua told reporters.
    The Superintendency of Banks and the Technical and Judicial
Police have both begun probes of Cambio la Guiara, Azpurua said
on Friday night.
    Police said the owners of the firm, Mario Muggia and his
brother Luigi Muggia, have left Venezuela.
    Cambio la Guiara operated in part on the "parallel market" in
which traders buy and sell dollars among themselves.
    The Venezuelan central bank on June 17 suspended the
licences of all 21 foreign exchange operators in the parallel
market, blaming their speculation for the constant rise in the
value of the U.S. Dollar here.
    Juan Domingo Cordero, vice-president of the Caracas Stock
Exchange and the owner of a foreign exchange trading house,
said on Friday he had begun legal action against Cambio la
Guiara for issuing him four checks without funds for a total
amount of almost one mln dlrs.
    The Cambio la Guiara exchange house had operated in
Venezuela for more than 20 years.
 REUTER

Prospects for Tokyo stocks are mixed this
week with investors trying to figure out the future of the
yen/dollar exchange rate and digest the implications of OPEC's
latest accord on crude output and pricing, brokers said.
    They said the market should extend the dull trend it has
been in since the 225-share index fell rapidly from the record
close at 25,929.42 on June 17.
    It ended at 24,902.72 on Saturday and fell further this
morning to close at 24,707.68 in an uncertain reaction to the
weaker yen and the weekend OPEC accord.
    Brokers said attention could focus more on the cheaper,
less well-known stocks in the exchange's first and second
sections, which were generally showing more resilience. The
second section index, in contrast to the first, closed at a
record 2,404.64 on June 26, surpassing the peak set on June 17
of 2,401.71.
    "Probably shares of companies involved in the domestic
economy are a good bet," said a broker at Daiwa Securities Co
Ltd. He said his observation was based on figures showing that
business activity in Japan is booming.
    The government said on Friday that department store and
supermarket sales rose 7.5 pct in May from a year earlier,
while orders received by Japan's 50 major construction firms in
the same month were up 7.6 pct year on year. Brokers expected
more such figures, but said many stocks linked to domestic
demand remain overpriced.
    "They are hard to find, but companies with an attractive
niche in the domestic economy, unaffected by currency
movements, are the best bet," said a broker at a foreign
securities house who declined to be identified.
    But sharp rises in money supply and voracious domestic
consumption are stirring inflation fears. The consumer price
index rose 0.2 pct in May from April, the third consecutive
month on month increase.
    Although investors are not unduly worried about inflation,
which erodes the real value of stock holdings, they say rising
prices arouse concern that interest rates may climb.
    The recent market advances have been assuming a further cut
in Japan's 2.5 pct discount rate. Such assumptions have now
died, discouraging investors, brokers said.
    If oil prices rise, the stock market in Japan could suffer
a downturn as higher production costs stir inflation.
    But share prices of Japan's oil importing companies may
also firm, brokers said. "I have never been able to justify this
because it should mean that the cost of importing rises," said a
broker at Yamaichi Securities Co. "It just always happens."
    Export-oriented companies may continue their recent rally
if the dollar climbs against the yen. But prices of many blue
chip exporters have risen fast over the last two weeks, making
them look less attractive, brokers said.
    However, if the dollar falls to about 140 or 138 yen, the
market index may rally, brokers said. A lower dollar could damp
down rising capital outflows into dollar investments from
Japan's stock and bond markets, brokers said.
    And as the yen/dollar rate is supposed to reflect the
balance of trade between the United States and Japan, a lower
dollar would bring more pressure on Japan to expand its demand
for American imports by stimulating its local economy, brokers
said.
    "If the dollar falls, buy domestic, if it rises, maybe buy a
few exporters," said one foreign broker.
 REUTER

Kuwait, whose shipping has come under
repeated attack by Iran, has the full support of Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf allies, a senior government official said.
    Cabinet spokesman Abdul-Aziz al-Otaibi, quoted by the
Kuwaiti news agency KUNA yesterday, said Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah had told cabinet he had found
"complete support...At this delicate phase" during visits to Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
    The GCC, an economic and military alliance which has
generally supported Iraq over Iran, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
 REUTER

Santos Ltd <STOS.S> said it had made a
significant oil discovery at its Mawson One well in the Moomba
block of the Cooper Basin, South Australia.
    It said the well flowed oil from sands at an average rate
of 1,440 barrels per day from 2,131 to 2,135 metres through a
6mm choke.
    Santos said the well was cased and suspended pending
further evaluation. But it said the proximity of the discovery
to existing production facilities at the Gidgealpa South field
would allow Mawson One to be brought into production rapidly.
    Santos has a 60 pct stake in the block, <Delhi Petroleum
Pty Ltd> has 30 pct and <South Australian Oil and Gas Corp Pty
Ltd> has 10 pct.
 REUTER

    Group net profit 45.2 mln marks vs 35.2 mln.
    Interest surplus 1.09 billion marks vs 1.21 billion.
    Commission surplus 405.5 mln marks vs 391.7 mln.
    Extraordinary earnings 784.4 mln marks vs 82.6 mln.
    Published risk provisions 865.9 mln marks vs 366.7 mln.
    Balance sheet 59.89 billion marks vs 63.67 billion.
    Full name is Bank fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG.
    Note. Figures revised from provisional figures issued in
March. Extraordinary earnings linked to sale of subsidiaries.
 REUTER

Bank fuer Gemeinwirtschaft AG's
<BKFG.F> (BfG) partial operating profits in the first four
months of this year were lower than in the same period in 1986,
management board chairman Thomas Wegscheider said.
    But the balance sheet total at the end of May was four pct
higher than one year earlier as savings continued to flow into
the bank, he told the annual press conference.
    BfG parent bank partial operating profits halved to 166 mln
marks in 1986 from 311 mln in 1985, with the balance sheet
falling to 48.80 billion marks from 49.02 billion.
    Wegscheider declined to give a forecast for the full year,
and noted that the first four months of this year were not
comparable with the 1986 period as first quarter 1986 had been
extremely successful for the bank.
    The general banking environment this year was not easy,
with the interest margin under pressure, securities business
suffering from markedly lower bourse turnover than last year
and sluggish credit demand, he said.
    "As far as the specific BfG environment is concerned, we
note a clear atmospheric improvement, which however is being
reflected in the figures only slowly," he added.
    Wegscheider said the bank was recovering from speculation
about its ownership, which had unnerved many customers last
year, and from the financial crisis involving the Neue Heimat
housing group linked to BfG's former trade union owners.
    Insurer Aachener und Muenchener Beteiligungs-AG <AMVG.F>,
AMB, acquired 50 pct plus one share of BfG late last year.
    Wegscheider said that earnings from trading on the bank's
own account in 1986 had been a little higher than partial
operating profits, but had performed better in the first half.
    Following the AMB acquisition, BfG sold its 25.01 pct stake
in <Volksfuersorge Deutsche Lebensversicherung AG>, its 74.9
pct in <BSV Bank fuer Sparanlagen und Vermoegensbildung AG> and
five pct of <Allgemeine Hypothekenbank AG>.
    These sales produced extraordinary earnings of 700 mln
marks, with parent bank earnings from profit transfer
agreements rising to 494.18 mln marks in 1986 from 54.24 mln in
1985, and other earnings including writing bank risk provisions
rising to 317.95 mln marks from 65.67 mln.
    Wegscheider said most of the extraordinary earnings went
into risk provisions.
    Total risk provisions, undetailed, were more than twice as
high as in 1985, Wegscheider said. Published group risk
provisions rose to 865.9 mln marks from 366.7 mln. But the
share of credits to problem countries covered by risk
provisions was still below 50 pct at BfG, he said.
    The BSV Bank stake sale was one of the main factors behind
a 3.8 billion mark drop in the group balance sheet in 1986.
    Wegscheider said the re-organization of BfG, planned before
the AMB acquisition and involving a decentralization, would
occupy much of BfG's energies this year. BfG and AMB were also
looking at ways of cooperating in sales of services.
 REUTER

South Korea's ruling party announced a
reform package which includes a recommendation for direct
presidential elections.
    There was no immediate reaction from President Chun Doo
Hwan but Democratic Justice Party (DJP) chairman Roh Tae-woo,
who unveiled the reforms, vowed to resign if they were
rejected.
    Roh, whose confirmation as government candidate to succeed
Chun sparked weeks of massive demonstrations around the
country, said he would withdraw his candidacy and quit his DJP
post if Chun failed to accept the package.
    "I have reached the conclusion that I cannot but choose the
direct presidential election system to overcome social
confusion and achieve national compromise," Roh said.
    There was no immediate indication of how soon Chun would
react to Roh's proposals or whether he was involved in their
formulation.
    The president, who took office in 1980 following a military
coup, is due to step down next February after elections which
had tentatively been set for December.
    Under Roh's package, Chun would remain president until his
successor was chosen by direct elections. At present, the
president is chosen through an electoral college system which
the opposition says is stacked in favour of the DJP.
    Among other major changes, the package offers a release of
most political prisoners, a guarantee of human rights and a
free press.
    Kim Young-sam, head of the opposition Reunification
Democratic Party, said, "I wholeheartedly welcome Chairman Roh's
announcement, though it was a belated measure."
    A Western diplomat told Reuters "It's a very substantial,
very courageous move."
    The second surprise in Roh's proposals was an amnesty for
leading dissident Kim Dae-jung, who has been banned from
politics because of a suspended sentence for sedition charges.
    The only opposition demand which is not met by Roh's
package is the RDP's insistence that Chun should step down
 REUTER

The World Bank is prepared to play a
more aggressive role in promoting Third World development and
easing the debt crisis, bank president Barber Conable said.
    "We must be realistic about the immediate prospects for an
expansion in voluntary commercial bank lending, with the World
Bank playing an even more vigorous role in the debt crisis,"
Conable said in an interview with Newsweek magazine.
    Conable said the bank must step in to help relieve the debt
crisis, which has prompted a number of U.S. Commercial banks to
write off a portion of their Third World loans.
    "Our plans include initiatives on the debt front, as well as
greater emphasis on debt-equity swaps and the promotion of
private investment in Third World countries through our
affiliate, the International Finance Corporation," Conable said.
"The bank is primarily a development institution, not a
debt-management agency. But debt must be managed effectively or
it hampers development."
    Conable defended his reorganisation plan for the bank,
which he said was aimed at improving efficiency and limiting
bureaucracy. He added environmental considerations would play a
larger role in the evaluation of proposed projects.
 REUTER

OPEC has shown itself to be in control
of the world oil situation with its speed in hammering out a
pact to limit crude oil output to 16.6 mln barrels per day
(bpd) for the rest of 1987, oil traders said.
    They said market respect for the cartel has increased since
it announced Saturday that it would cut fourth quarter output
to 16.6 mln bpd from the 18.3 mln agreed in December.
    "There are light oversupplies now, but OPEC ... Has ensured
there will be no oversupplies in the fourth quarter, and is in
effect putting pressure on end-users," a European crude oil
    In Tokyo, one oil analyst said, "There's no reason to expect
a weak market from now on."
    A Japanese oil trader, also based in Tokyo, said, "We
thought OPEC would have difficulty agreeing on fourth quarter
production so the market will react very bullishly."
    Traders in Singapore said that while there has been only a
slight increase so far in spot quotes for Dubai, a benchmark
crude, they expect price increases over the next few days.
    August Dubai was discussed in cautious early activity at
around 17.35 dlrs, above Friday's 17.15-20 range, but still
below the government selling price (GSP) of 17.42.
    Even prices of light Mideast grades, such as Qatar and Abu
Dhabi crudes, are expected to improve from recent weak
positions, 15 to 20 cents below their GSP's. Singapore traders
said sellers might now aim for GSP's at least.
    They said that after initial jumps, they expect prices to
stabilise and hover around GSPs for the next few months.
    They said the Japanese oil market would be most affected
and Japanese end-users would need to rebuild stocks for winter
requirements before October.
    Prices are most likely to rise in the fourth quarter on
European and U.S. Stockbuilding for winter, they added.
    "There's no doubt consumption will be higher than production
by the fourth quarter and stocks are not that high," said an
international trader in Tokyo. Another Tokyo trader was less
bullish, "For sure there will be some shortage but it depends on
how much they (OPEC members) cheat."
    A Singapore trade source said, "There is enough cheating and
leakage in the OPEC sales system to convince traders there is
no need to worry about shortages."
    Other traders said the questionable Iraqi production level,
after Iraq's rejection of its assigned quota, was a bearish
factor to be considered.
    Traders also said end-users now would buy as much as
possible on term contracts and buy spot only when the market
cooled from its initial reaction to the OPEC agreement.
    Spot product prices in Singapore were little changed in
thin early discussions, with naphtha and middle distillates
quiet on minimal buying interest.
    Fuel oil products were steady to firm on light demand and
tight prompt supplies, dealers said.
 REUTER

Producers, news writers, editors and
technicians began a strike at the National Broadcasting Co
(NBC), leaving management employees to do their jobs.
    The strike by members of the National Association of
Broadcast Employees (NABET), representing 2,800 of NBC's 8,000
workers, began at 12:01 A.M. (0401 GMT) after the network
imposed a contract which the union said was unacceptable.
    The union said its main objection to the contract was that
it permitted NBC to employ additional part-time workers.
    The average salary of workers represented by NABET is
65,000 dlrs a year.
    Union officials said management was being intransigent and
blamed General Electric <GE>, which purchased NBC and its
parent company RCA in 1985 in a flurry of communications
company takeovers.
    The strike is the first for NBC since 1976.
    The two sides said they have set no time to meet again.
 REUTER

OPEC's agreement to limit output to 16.6
mln barrels per day (bpd) for the rest of the year should boost
spot prices and enable the group to raise its official
reference price to 20 dlrs a barrel in January from the current
18 dlrs, Far East oil industry sources said.
    "Fundamentally, the market situation is bullish and the
official price will be 20 dlrs in January," a Japanese refiner
said.
    The sources said that in spite of over-production by OPEC
members such as Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and
Qatar, demand should exceed supply by the fourth quarter.
    Spot oil prices surged on Friday in late U.S. Trading as
the market anticipated an OPEC agreement on second-half 1987
output. In early Tokyo trade, levels were firm at 17.30 dlrs
for Mideast Dubai cargoes loading next month and 19.00 dlrs for
U.K. Brent, traders said.
    They said they expect more foreign crudes to be sucked into
the U.S. Market as the benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) trades at around 20.30 dlrs.
    "With WTI at 20, 21 or 22 dlrs, U.S. Refiners will import
Mideast and Far East crudes and this will strengthen those
grades further," said a Japanese oil trader.
    Some Tokyo traders were cautious about whether thU spot
market has further upward potential in the short term, having
risen strongly on the OPEC news on Friday.
    "You could certainly argue that if New York rose on that
basis, there's no reason for prices to go up again today," said
one international oil trader in Tokyo.
    "But I think if there's any sign of a dip, it will be bought
back up again pretty quickly," he added.
    One oil industry analyst concurred, "There is no reason to
expect a weak market from now on." He said he expected OPEC to
raise prices to 20 dlrs when it meets on December 9.
    Oil sources said spot prices are unlikely to surge strongly
in the next few months due to cheating by some OPEC members and
the likelihood that Saudi Arabia will act as swing producer to
maintain steady prices.
    Iraq is currently producing around two mln barrels per day
compared to its second-half quota of 1.54 mln, they said. Its
export capability will rise to 2.5 mln bpd when a new pipeline
through Turkey, comes onstream in or around September.
    Qatar is said to be achieving sales of around 350,000 bpd,
against its OPEC-assigned quota of 299,000, by discounting up
to 20 cents a barrel from official prices, the sources said.
    Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are also cheating
on the OPEC agreement with over-production and effective price
discounts through counter-purchases, industry sources said. But
they mostly agreed that Saudi Arabia will unofficially act as
swing producer, cutting production to compensate for higher
output by other members or boosting output if spot prices rise
too high too fast.
    Saudi Arabia has a floating oil stockpile of 40 to 50 mln
barrels. "Saudi Arabia wants oil price stability so the
stockpile may be utilized to cool down the market if it rises
too much," an oil industry analyst said.
 REUTER

Japan will ratify the 1986 International
Cocoa Agreement (ICCA), with effect from July 1, and will renew
its membership in the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO),
Foreign Affairs Ministry officials said.
    They said Japan would participate in an ICCO meeting on
July 13 in London to revise ICCO buffer stock policy.
    The 1986 ICCA has been in effect since January 1987.
    Government approval to participate in the ICCO was delayed
by parliamentary debate over the sales tax issue, the officials
said.
 REUTER

Willis Faber says it making agreed 302.6 mln stg bid for
Stewart Wrightson

<Kobe Steel Ltd> said it has agreed to
supply technology to manufacture thin-walled copper tubing used
in air conditioners and refrigeration units to <Halstead
Industries Inc> in Zelienople, Pennsylvania.
    Total demand for copper tubing in the U.S. Is 25,000 tonnes
a month, of which 5,000 is for the thin-walled type, Kobe said
    The two companies are studying joint partial production of
Kobe's thin-walled copper tubing in the U.S.
 REUTER

Lebanese bank employees went on a one-day
strike to draw attention to the fate of three Central Bank
colleagues missing, believed kidnapped, since 1985.
    The strike, which shut the foreign exchange market and
banks across the country, was called by the Central Bank
Employees' Union and the Bankers' Association, which groups
more than 80 Lebanese banks.
    The three missing Christian employees are believed to have
been kidnapped while crossing from Christian East Beirut to
Moslem West Beirut nearly two years ago.
 REUTER

<WPP Group Plc>, which on Friday secured
agreement for its bid for <JWT Group Inc> by increasing its
offer, said it would raise its planned rights issue to raise
213 mln stg instead of 177 mln to finance the deal.
    On Friday the two groups said they had agreed to merge
after WPP raised its cash price to 55.5 dlrs a share from 45.0
dlrs, valuing JWT at 566 mln dlrs.
    Under the new rights proposals, WPP shareholders could
apply for new ordinary shares at 875p each on a two-for-one
basis.
    The issue has been underwritten. The remainder of the
purchase price would come from a loan facility of up to 260 mln
dlrs.
    The issue and the proposed acquisition of JWT remain
conditional on the approval of shareholders.
    The original proposal for the rights issue was on the basis
of five new shares for every three held. The revised version
would involve the issue of up to 24.3 mln new shares,
representing 65 pct on the enlarged fully diluted share
capital.
    WPP shares were quoted at 0757 GMt unchanged at 10.70 stg.
 REUTER

The acting governor of Saudi Arabia's
state-owned oil company, Petromin, Jamal Hassan Jawa, has
retired at his own request, oil industry sources said.
    They said Ali Ibrahim Rubaishi, head of organisation
planning in Petromin, would take over as acting governor.
    Jawa held the post since his predecessor, Abdul-Hadi Taher,
left in a major oil industry shake up last December.
    The sources said Rubaishi had not been expected to hold the
post permanently.
    The government removed Taher and Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki
Yamani from their posts late last year in a move which industry
sources said was aimed at coming to grips with a buyers' oil
market.
    The two men had run the Saudi oil industry for more than 20
years. Industry sources said that despite huge resources, Saudi
Arabia had been unable to mould an oil marketing strategy tuned
to the competitive realities of the 1980s glut.
    Hisham Nazer, who replaced Yamani, successfully led an
OPEC-engineered return to fixed oil prices of 18 dlrs a barrel
    Nazer is believed to be reviewing Saudi oil operations
which could lead to a thorough overhaul in the way Saudi Arabia
does business, the sources said.
    The sources had said possible candidates for the governor's
job include Prince Abdul Aziz Ibn Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz, who
earlier ran a research center at Saudi Arabia's University of
Petroleum and Minerals, and former Deputy Planning Minister
Faisal Beshir. They also list Abdulla Bakr, President of the
University of Petroleum and Minerals, economist Ali Jonahi,
Ahmed Shinawi, and Zuheir Masoud, director of Jeddah Islamic
Port.
 REUTER

UAE Oil Minister Mana Said al-Oteiba
arrived in Alexandria last night for a visit to Egypt, the
national Middle East News Agency (MENA) said.
    It said Oteiba, who had just attended the OPEC ministerial
meeting in Vienna, would stay for several days but gave no
details.
    Non-OPEC Egypt has pledged to restrain output to support
OPEC's moves to boost oil prices. Oil Minister Abdel Hadi
Kandeel last week said Egypt plans to leave its oil production
of 870,000 barrels per day unchanged for the next five years.
Egypt is able to produce up to one mln bpd.
 REUTER

Willis Faber Plc <WIFL.L> will make an
agreed 302.6 mln stg offer for fellow insurance broker <Stewart
Wrightson Plc>, a joint statement said.
    The offer would be on the basis of three Willis shares for
every two in Stewart, valuing each Stewart share at about
655.5p.
    Willis already owns 2.05 mln shares, or 4.62 pct, and has
received acceptances from Stewart's directors for a further
247,469 shares.
66.2 mln new Willis shares, or 28.2 pct of the enlarged total.
    The companies said the proposed merger would bring together
businesses that were largely complementary. Both believed the
combination would permit more effective competition throughout
the world and enahnce the service provided to clients.
    Following the merger, the two companies saw significant
opportunities for growth in brokerage income and considerable
scope for improved operating efficiency.
    Willis shares were suspended on Friday at 437p. When
trading restarted they dropped sharply to 393p.
    Stewart Wrightson shares rose to 576p at 0835 gmt from a
suspension price of 499p.
 REUTER

New Zealand's opposition National
Party said it would cut personal and business taxes and would
not regulate or control interest rates if returned to power.
    The economic strategy was unveiled by party leader Jim
Bolger one day before prime minister David Lange announces the
date of general elections, widely expected to be August 15.
    The National Party's tax policies included the abolition of
death and gift duties and the removal of indirect taxes on
basic food and doctors' fees.
    The most recent opinion poll, taken on June 20, gave Labour
a 26 point lead over National or eight points more than a month
earlier.
    National said that under its administration the New Zealand
dollar would find its level with "complementary fiscal and
monetary policies." The party did not elaborate.
    Controversy over National's economic policy erupted in
March when former prime minister Robert Muldoon said the party
had adopted a policy of a managed exchange rate.
    Bolger said then that the National Party would continue to
float the dollar.
    Since the dollar was floated by the Labour Party in March
1985 it has risen about 34 pct, cutting the export incomes of
farmers, who are traditional National Party supporters.
    The party said tight monetary policies alone would lead to
unrealistic exchange rates which would be out of line for
exporters unless they were supported by a low government
borrowing requirement, a shrinking government sector and
positive growth.
    It aimed to keep aspects of deregulation which have
benefitted New Zealanders while cutting government spending,
unemployment, interest rates, inflation and tax.
    The National Party intends to privatise totally the <Bank
of New Zealand>, <Development Finance Corporation>, <Tourist
Hotel Corporation>, <Petrocorp>, <State Insurance> and
<Government Life Office>, the party said.
    Other candidates for privatisation, such as <Air New
Zealand Ltd>, would be considered when the share market could
absorb them.
 REUTER

Norway will extend its 7.5 pct cutback in
planned North Sea oil output in support of OPEC from July 15
until the end of this year, Oil Ministry spokesman Egil Helle
    "We took a very positive view of the OPEC meeting in Vienna,"
he said. "The accord reached there means stability in the oil
market and we shall continue making our contribution."
    The cuts, originally brought in from February 1, would
probably be officially approved on July 10 by parliament, Helle
said. The ministry had written to Norway's oil companies and
would now discuss with them how best to implement the cuts.
    OPEC agreed this weekend in Vienna on an output ceiling of
16.6 mln barrels per day (bpd) for the rest of 1987 and
retained the fixed prices that were set in its December accord
based on an 18 dlr per barrel reference point.
    OPEC's first half 1987 output ceiling was 15.8 mln bpd, and
it's December pact had provisionally set a third quarter
ceiling of 16.6 mln bpd, rising to 18.3 mln in the fourth
quarter.
    Norway, which pumps around one mln bpd from its offshore
fields, previously said it would continue its output curbs from
planned production for the rest of the year if OPEC remained
within its December accord on output and prices.
    Norway's oil production rose 10 pct to an average of around
840,000 bpd in 1986. Since then it has risen to around one mln
bpd, and is expected to reach about 1.5 mln bpd by 1995.
    The 7.5 pct cut from planned production implemented since
February reduced Norway's oil output by about 80,000 bpd.
    Norway's Oil Minister Arne Oeien, currently in Iceland for
a meeting of Nordic ministers, has made no official statement
on the latest oil production cutbacks.
    Over the past year several other leading non-OPEC
producers, including the Soviet Union, Mexico, China, Malaysia
and Egypt have also pledged support for OPEC's bid to keep
prices stable.
    Norway decided on the initial round of cuts following an
OPEC agreement last December which boosted oil prices to around
18 dlrs per barrel from around 14 to 15 dlrs last December.
    Norway relies on oil for about 40 pct of its total export
earnings and was hit hard by the collapse in the oil price
during the first half of 1986.
    But firmer oil prices since then have brought some
stability to the economy and helped narrow the foreign trade
deficit.
     Norway's North Sea neighbour Britain has consistently
refused to cooperate with OPEC output cuts saying it is up to
the producing oil companies to set the levels of production.
 REUTER

<Brent Walker Group Plc> said it had
agreed to buy the group of companies comprising Lonrho Plc's
<LRHO.L> Metropole Casino Division, together with a freehold in
central London, for 121.55 mln stg.
    Payment will be in cash on completion except for three mln
stg payable on December 1, 1988.
    Brent said it also proposed to raise about 126 mln stg net
through the issue of 131.67 mln convertible shares at one stg
each. The shares can be converted between 1990 and 2002 at the
rate of four ordinary shares for every 15 convertibles held.
    On full conversion, the issued ordinary share capital of
the company would increase by some 64 pct.
    <Birdcage Walk Ltd>, a company controlled by the Walker
family, owns 20.68 pct of the shares and is entitled to 27.2
mln convertible shares under the offer. The trustees had
indicated that it intended to sell enough of the convertibles,
nil paid, to enable it to take up the remainder.
    Brent would buy the casino companies and the freehold of
45, Park Lane in London. Under the arrangements, it would also
arrange for the repayment of 6.45 mln stg in inter-company
debt.
    Brent Walker shares firmed sharply on the announcement to
385p from 353p at Friday's close, while Lonrho also firmed, to
275p from 265.5p.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan bought 100 billion yen
in certificates of deposit (CDs) via repurchase agreements
today to show its determination to maintain an easy money
policy, central bank officials said.
    "Today's CD buying operation was designed to seek an
announcement effect, in which we would reassure the market of
the fact that we have not changed our policy stance," a senior
central bank official told Reuters.
    The bank also bought 400 billion yen in two-month
commercial bills to smooth out tight credit conditions in the
interbank market today, the officials said.
    The central bank was concerned about growing market
expectations of higher interest rates, which were in part
responsible for the recent plunge in stock and yen bond prices,
    But money traders said the market generally shrugged off
the bank's CD operation because it was small and at a rate far
below prevailing market rates. The rate on the key three-month
CDs in the primary market was 4.08/00 pct, while the bank's bid
was 3.75 pct, they said.
    The bank's bill buying operation also had little impact
because it was regarded as a routine operation, they said.
    The money traders said they regarded the central bank's CD
buying operation as simply a gesture to live up to Japan's
pledge to guide interest rates lower and stimulate the economy.
    "We did not expect the central bank to ease its credit grip
any further," a bank manager said, adding that the prevailing
market expectation of higher rates will remain.
    "If this is the case, the three-month CD rate will stay
above four pct for the time being," he said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan will tomorrow sell 1,200
billion yen in bills from its holdings to help absorb a
projected money market surplus of 2,100 billion, money market
    Of the total, 800 billion yen will yield 3.6004 pct on
34-day repurchase agreements maturing on August 3.
    The other 200 billion yen will yield 3.6003 pct in 43-day
repurchase accords maturing on August 12.
    The remaining 200 billion yen will yield 3.6503 pct in
50-day repurchase agreements maturing on August 19.
    The repurchase agreement yields compare with the 3.5625 pct
one-month commercial bill discount rate today and 3.6250 pct on
two-month bills.
    They attributed the projected surplus mainly to 1,900
billion yen of government tax allocations to local governments
and public bodies.
 REUTER

German June cost of living 0.2 pct above year-ago (May
rise 0.2 pct) - official

Sony Corp <SNE.T> will issue a 75 billion
yen 15-year unsecured convertible bond through public placement
mainly in Japan, a company spokesman said.
    Co-lead managers are Nomura Securities Co Ltd <NMSC.T>,
Daiwa Securities Co Ltd <DSEC.T>, Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd
<YSEC.T> and Nikko Securities Co Ltd <NIKT.T>.
maturing on September 30, 2002 will be set at its board meeting
to be held in late July. Payment is due on August 17.
    U.S. And Canadian residents are excluded from subscribing.
 REUTER

Group shr 24.20 yen vs 37.42
    Net 10.95 billion vs 15.46 billion
    Pretax 25.25 billion vs 31.15 billion
    Operating 28.39 billion vs 31.73 billion
    Sales 592.37 billion vs 593.86 billion
    NOTE - No forecast for current year
 REUTER

Japan has agreed to help the United States
strengthen anti-submarine defences after illegal
high-technology Japanese exports significantly damaged mutual
security, U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger said.
    Weinberger told a press conference that exports of Japanese
machines designed to make Soviet submarines quieter and harder
to detect had been a serious blow. But he said he was
encouraged by the punishment dealt to Toshiba Machine Co, a
subsidiary of Toshiba Corp <TSBA.T>, for the illegal exports,
and by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's assurances that
action would be taken to keep it from happening again.
    The government has barred Toshiba Machine from exporting to
Communist countries for a year and said it intends to
strengthen and expand its export control system.
    Weinberger gave no details of the anti-submarine program.
    In his talks with Japanese Defence Minister Yuko Kurihara,
he said, he made a pitch for American companies seeking to
build Japan's new fighter aircraft for the 1990's.
    "I assured Minister Kurihara that I support his plans to
increase Japanese air defence capabilites and that I believe
American aircraft can do this," he said. The Japanese industry
argues it should develop the fighter plane on its own.
 REUTER

Mazda Motor Corp <MAZT.T> has signed an
agreement to import coal from <Coalex Pty Ltd> of Australia
through Sumitomo Corp <SUMT.T>, a Mazda spokesman said.
    Under the agreement, Mazda will annually import 144,000
tonnes of Australian coal worth about nine billion yen. The
coal will be used as fuel for Mazda's energy centre, due to
start operations in November at its main plant in Hiroshima in
western Japan, he said.
    He declined to specify the term of the contract, but added
that such contracts are usually for long periods.
 REUTER

A split in the Thai government's main
coalition party may prompt Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda to
dissolve parliament soon, Interior Minister Prachuab
Suntharangun said.
    He told reporters that Prem was considering new elections
because squabbling in the Democrat Party undermined government
performance and held up legislation Prem wanted passed.
    But Prem was reluctant to call new elections or reshuffle
his cabinet because that too would be likely to result in a
wobbly multi-party coalition, Prachuab said. He declined to say
how soon parliament might be dissolved.
    The Democrats, one of four parties in the ruling coalition,
have been split ever since winning 100 of the parliament's 347
seats in elections in July 1986.
    The current coalition was formed last August and
constitutes a hefty parliamentary majority. But the Democrats'
inability to work well together or with their coalition
partners has made the government vulnerable to the small but
more cohesive opposition.
    Parliament closed the first of its two annual sessions this
month and is scheduled to reconvene in September.
 REUTER

The Republic of Portugal is issuing a 700
mln French franc variable-rate bond due July 1995 at 100.05
pct, lead manager Credit Commercial de France said.
    The issue of unsecured, unsubordinated debt will have a
coupon based on three-month LIBOR plus 20 basis points. If on
any interest date this is 25 pct or more above three-month
Paris Interbank Offered Rates then the interest rate will be
three-month PIBOR plus 30 basis points. Payment date is July
24. There is a call at par at the end of the first year and
thereafter on any interest payment date. Listing is Paris and
denominations are of 10,000 and 100,000 francs.
    Fees total 50 basis points, with 25 points for selling and
25 for management and underwriting combined including a six
basis points praecipuum.
    The issue is rated A by Moody's.
 REUTER

The major benefits of BHP Steel
International Group's big capital expenditure program should
begin to be seen in its 1988 financial year ending next May 31,
Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd <BRKN.S> officials said.
    A decline in BHP Steel's net profit to 200.02 mln dlrs in
the 1987 year ended May 31, 1987, from 253.87 mln the year
before, contributed to the drop in attributable group earnings
to 820.27 mln dlrs from 988.20 mln.
    "We look forward to a 1988 year of consolidation while
continuing our strong business development initiatives," BHP
Steel chief executive officer David Rice told reporters.
    Rice said BHP Steel's capital spending in 1987 totalled 701
mln dlrs, and that total expenditure would be about 1.4 billion
dlrs by the time the government's five-year Steel Industry Plan
expires at the end of calendar 1988.
    He said the investment program, aimed at making BHP Steel
both technically and commercially competitive on a world scale,
was now over its peak and would begin to scale down.
    Operational and commissioning problems flowing from the
investment program, combined with the highest levels of
industrial action since the steel plan started, had contributed
to the decline in 1987 earnings, he said.
    Rice said the industrial and production problems forced BHP
Steel to import 280,000 tonnes of steel in its 1987 financial
year to keep faith with customers.
    The new items of plant are now past their initial teething
problems and talks have intensified with the unions on the
industrial troubles, he said.
    Despite the profit drop in the 1987 year, BHP Steel
International group was one of the most profitable steel
producers in the world on an after-tax basis, he said.
    Its capacity utilisation was far higher, at 89 pct, than
the current western world average of 69 pct, he added.
 REUTER

IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus
paid a brief weekend visit to the Ivory Coast during which he
discussed the country's economic difficulties with President
Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
    Camdessus said he wished his visit could have been in more
pleasant circumstances in remarks reported by the official
Ivorian daily Fraternite Matin.
    He added that the extremely steep fall in agricultural
commodity markets had dealt a harsh blow this year to the
Ivorian economy and because of this the country was
experiencing a growth problem and difficulties with its
international debt.
    Last month the Ivory Coast informed its creditors it had to
suspend payments on its foreign debt, estimated at more than
eight billion dlrs.
    Camdessus said his agency had to study the problems of the
Ivory Coast but a solution depended on a coordinated effort
between the country itself, the commercial banks, other
governments and international finance institutions.
    He also disussed problems of developing countries in
general with banking and government officials in Abidjan.
 REUTER

Yields on certificates of deposit (CDs)
issued today by the United Arab Emirates central bank were
unchanged from those on last Monday's offer, the bank said.
    The one month yield was set at last week's 6-3/4 pct, while
two and three month CDs also remained unchanged at 6-13/16 pct.
The six month yield was set at seven pct.
 REUTER

Zimbabwe's temporary freeze on salaries,
wages and prices will give the economy a breather, but radical
economic reforms are needed to resuscitate business and attract
foreign investment, economists said.
    They said the June 24 freeze on government, state company
and private sector wages until January 1988 has postponed,
rather than provided, solutions to Zimbabwe's economic
problems.
    They urged a review of the tax system, the introduction of
investment incentives, a review of foreign exchange and price
controls and a check on government expenditure.
    These measures would aim to stimulate investment and create
employment for the 100,000 school leavers annually seeking
jobs.
    The freeze, which Finance Minister Bernard Chidzero said
would check production costs and reduce the budget deficit, has
been partly welcomed by business but criticised by workers
whose real purchasing power has been severely eroded since
1980.
    The government announced the freeze amid a worsening
economic crisis caused by serious drought, a budget deficit of
more than one billion Zimbabwean dlrs and an acute balance of
payments problem owing to debt service costs, now 357 mln U.S.
Dlrs on an external debt of two billion U.S. Dlrs.
    The crisis has forced the country to make companies halve
dividend remittances to overseas shareholders.
    The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce supported the
freeze on wages and salaries but criticised the promised
stricter control of prices of goods and services.
    "If those companies whose costs of production increase are
not allowed a price increase, profit margins will again be
severely squeezed, and this would negate current government
efforts to revitalise the economy," the chamber said.
    The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said the freeze would
worsen the plight of the lowest paid workers.
    The union body has been campaigning for a minimum monthly
wage of 277 Zimbabwean dlrs (165 U.S. Dlrs). The lowest paid
now earn about 100 dollars (60 U.S. Dlrs).
    "Inflation is hitting hardest those in the low income
bracket which demands that any economic recovery programme
should be biased in their favour," the union body said.
    It added that the promised price freeze was "bolting the
stable door when in fact the horse is gone" because prices of
most basic commodities had already risen phenomenally.
    Both unions and business hope that the freeze heralds a
return to wage bargaining between workers and employers, rather
than government-regulated pay awards.
    Zimbabwe has, since 1980, set annual minimum wages for
different sectors of the economy and awarded wage and salary
increments on a sliding scale which gave higher increases to
the lowest paid.
 REUTER

The European Investment Bank (EIB)
said it has lent 200 mln French francs to French railways
Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) to extend its high
speed train system.
    It said in a statement that the loan will help finance the
contruction of a 279 km track for high speed "TGV" trains between
Paris and Le Mans in western France and Tours in the south
west. The loan will also help pay for new trains.
    The EIB has already lent a total of 600 mln francs to SNCF
for the high speed train system in 1985 and 1986.
 REUTER

Banks in Singapore are planning to
further expand their treasury, securities, equities and debt
instruments activities in line with global financial markets,
    "Banks are moving towards treasury activities because they
see them as a vital link in global capital and foreign exchange
markets," Clemente Escano, vice-president of Union Bank of
Switzerland, said.
    Central to that link is the Asian Dollar Market's pool of
funds, with deposits estimated at 212 billion dlrs in March.
    Banks are fond of booking and tapping offshore Asian Dollar
Market funds here for a variety of reasons, including low
taxes.
    New impetus has come to this market with growth of 52
billion dlrs in the year to March partly due to the
liberalisation of financial markets in Japan leading to an
increase in interbank activity, bankers said.
    Despite the slowdown in traditional loan syndications in
the region, the offshore market has continued to grow as banks
rebundle and securitise their assets, creating new generations
of tradeable debt instruments, bankers said.
    Singapore's daily turnover in foreign exchange dealing has
increased to 30 billion U.S. Dlrs in 1987 against 21 billion
last year, according to Finance Minister Richard Hu.
    Susumu Sakaguchi, manager of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, said the
22 Japanese banks in Singapore were expanding their foreign
exchange departments, which accounted for at least 30 to 40 pct
of total bank activities last year.
    Sakaguchi said the liberalisation of the Toyko market
stimulated Asian Dollar deposits and foreign exchange turnover
and is leading to active Japanese futures trading on the
Singapore International Monetary Exchange.
    Robin Tomlin, managing director of Singapore International
Merchant Bankers Ltd, said international merchant banks cluster
in Singapore because of the tax incentives, presence of major
players and shift in regional capital flows.
    Tomlin pegged much of the future of the Singapore banking
industry to securities and equities.
    "In 1988 we should see an expansion of securities trading
following the link-up" of the Stock Exchange of Singapore
Dealing and Automated Quotation System (SESDAQ) with the London
exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers
Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ), he said.
    Equity and equity-linked issues have dominated the
financial markets here to date because of buoyant domestic and
international stock markets. Tomlin said privatisation
programmes, both in Singapore and abroad, would encourage huge
flows of capital through the banks.
    Applications received for the 30 mln Singapore Airline
shares offered last week were worth 601.1 mln Singapore dlrs.
The share offer by Sembawang Maritime Ltd raked in a record 6.8
billion Singapore dlrs in May this year.
    Bankers said Singapore's privatisations and links with
exchanges abroad showed its determined international stance.
    Singapore's four major local banks have been venturing into
stockbroking, the new government securities market and SESDAQ,
competing successfully for business with the merchant banks.
    Tomlin said merchant banks will continue to play an
important role in the Singapore domestic capital markets but
the modest size of the total market would limit the potential
of new entrants.
    Bankers said a total of 650 mln U.S. Dlrs was raised in the
Singapore capital market last year and the volume of new issues
would to grow in 1987.
    Total lending by banks in Singapore fell by 1.04 billion
dlrs in March 1987 compared with last year following the trend
towards asset management services and other capital market
    Hans-Rudolf Schaub, the senior vice-president and manager
of Swiss Bank Corp, said his bank has chosen Singapore as its
Asian treasury centre because of favourable tax rules for
offshore banks, political stability and economic growth.
    He said the bank might set up a securities portfolio
management service here in addition to its existing links in
international money market services with Zurich and New York.
 REUTER

The Philippines and its foreign creditor
banks will sign formal documents in mid-July to restructure
part of its debt, the Central Bank said.
    A spokesman told reporters the documents would formalise
the agreement reached in March on the restructuring of 10.3
billion dlrs, out of a total foreign debt of 28.2 billion.
    The interest rate spread agreed was 7/8 of a percentage
point over LIBOR. The spokesman gave no date for the signing.
    Manila had demanded a renegotiation after Argentina won a
13/16 of a percentage point spread, but it later dropped this
demand.
 REUTER

Belgium, current holder of the European
Community presidency, appears ready to drop a controversial
oils and fats tax from this year's hotly-contested farm price
package, diplomats said.
    In a discussion document prepared for today's summit
meeting of EC leaders, Belgium proposed the so-called
"stabilising mechanism" be the subject of "further study and
consultation with the Community's main trading partners."
    The proposal for a tax of as much as 330 Ecus per tonne on
both imported and domestically-produced vegetable and marine
oils and fats has attracted a storm of international criticism.
    The discussion document, aimed at preventing a cash row at
the summit and breaking the deadlock at this year's farm price
talks, contained the first formal reference to dropping the
measure.
    Britain and Denmark, which assumes the EC presidency on
June 30, have led the opposition to the measure. They are
supported by West Germany and the Netherlands and, to a lesser
extent, Spain.
    Although the paper was not universally welcomed, diplomats
said, the proposal to postpone consideration of the tax for a
further six months was certain to survive any redrafting.
 REUTER

<Samsung Semiconductors Inc>, the U.S.
Subsidiary of South Korea's <Samsung Semiconductors and
Telecommunications Co Ltd>, has signed for a 22 mln U.S. Dlr
loan, arranger LTCB Asia Ltd said.
    The eight year loan has a four year grace period. Interest
is set at 1/4 percentage point over London interbank offered
rate for the first two years, rising to 3/8 point thereafter.
Management fee is 1/2 pct flat including a 1/4 pct praecipium.
    Participating in the loan, in addition to LTCB, are Credit
Lyonnais, Daiwa Overseas Finance Ltd, Taiyo Kobe Finance
Hongkong Ltd and Takugin International (Asia) Ltd.
 REUTER

Bahrain's 19 commercial banks have been
instructed by the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) to return to a
six day working week with effect from July 4.
    A circular sent to the banks today reverses a shift in
early April to a five day week and follows three months of
controversy within the domestic banking sector over hours.
    A BMA spokesman said the circular, which does not affect
offshore banks, represented a "compromise solution" between
differing views within the industry and was drawn up following
the agency's own survey of banks, staff and customers.
    In April the BMA allowed commercial banks to operate a five
day week from Sunday to Thursday. Banks have since been closed
on Fridays, the Islamic weekend, and Saturdays.
    The new regulation will require banks to work from 7.30
A.M. To 12 noon from Saturday to Thursday inclusive. Banks may
open on these days during the afternoon between 3.30 and 5.30.
    The regulations apply to bank opening hours, not to staff
working hours, which continue to be decided by banks.
    Under the five day week introduced in early April, banks
have been obliged to open from 8 A.M. Until noon and from 3.30
to 5.30 P.M.
 REUTER

NORWAY CENTRAL BANK SELLS CROWNS TO EASE UPWARD PRESSURE
ON CURRENCY - DEALERS

The Bank of Japan has become increasingly
worried about a possible crash of high-flying financial
markets, Bank of Japan sources said.
    "We're afraid that someday the bubble will burst and that
the deflationary impact on the economy will be very disastrous,"
    They said the central bank has embarked on a delicate
policy -- it wants to deflate the speculation that has pumped
up prices sharply in recent months without bursting the bubble.
    Stock prices plunged 393.31 points today, extending the
sharp declines of earlier this month, as the market speculated
that interest rates would rise.
    The Bank of Japan bought 100 billion yen in certificates of
deposit (CDs) via repurchase agreements today to show its
determination to maintain an easy money policy, central bank
    Today's CD buying operation was designed to reassure the
market the Bank has not changed its policy, a senior central
Bank official told Reuters.
    "There is a possibility that a deflationary impact would
permeate the economy if the prices of existing assets
collapsed," the Bank of Japan said earlier this month in its
annual economic report.
    Such a possibility has been heightened by what the Bank
sees as excessive speculation in stock, bond and land prices.
    Over the last two years, the stock market average has
doubled, driving price/earnings ratios to over 70, compared
with about 15 on Wall Street. Bond yields have dropped sharply,
while land prices in Tokyo have soared.
    The excessive speculation means the markets are
increasingly out of touch with economic reality and thus more
vulnerable, one central bank source said.
    A collapse now could rob businessmen and consumers of what
little confidence they have in the economy after the
yen-induced recession of the past year, private economists
said.
    Some hard-pressed exporters already make greater profits
through financial dealings than from their basic businesses,
they said.
    "There seems to be an accelerated demand for money to
support transactions in shares, bonds, land and other existing
assets which has little bearing on value added and therefore on
GNP," the Bank of Japan said in its report.
    The increased inclination of investors to seek capital
gains and the accompanying rise in prices of existing assets
could have dangerous implications for the economy, it added.
    In the Bank's view, a major reason behind skyrocketing
prices was its own easy monetary policy and the belief in the
market that interest rates were heading inexorably lower.
    Mindful of the potential inflationary dangers posed by
excessive liquidity, the Central Bank's board recently decided
it had to spell out clearly to the markets that a further
discount rate cut was not in the offing, one source said.
    But the bank had to do that without tightening monetary
policy and running the risk of a market collapse.
    This was achieved partly by a rise in short-term interest
rates, which Bank sources ascribed to seasonal pressures and to
a change in market expectations.
    While denying the bank was tightening monetary policy, a
senior source welcomed the change in market expectations.
    The source acknowledged the shift may have been caused
partly by the decision to press commercial banks to limit
lending in the July/September period. Faster than expected
economic growth and a strong dollar also played a part.
    In the longer run, the Central Bank is counting on a
gradual upturn in the economy to draw liquidity from the
financial markets into productive areas like capital spending,
one Bank of Japan economist said.
    But while it waits for that to occur over the next six
months, it may have to avoid any overt tightening of monetary
policy that could collapse the market and lead to recession.
 REUTER

Bangladesh's trade gap is expected to
widen in fiscal 1987/88 beginning on July 1 after the
government relaxed restrictions on some imports including
luxury cars.
    The country has set its export target for the year at 1.1
billion U.S. Dlrs against imports of 1.805 billion dlrs,
compared with 1986/7's one billion dlrs of export earnings and
1.113 billion dlrs of imports.
    Commerce Minister Mohammad Abdul Munim said the changes
were aimed at encouraging export oriented industries to boost
foreign exchange earnings and imports of essential machinery
and raw materials, to increase industrial production.
    The government was easing procedures to enhance incentives
especially for exporters of textiles and frozen food and
importers of industrial machinery and raw materials, Munim told
    Commerce Ministry officials told Reuters the import policy
covered only commercial imports amounting to 1.805 billion
dlrs. Imports of capital machinery and foodgrains by the
government were not included in the policy, they added.
    They said the country's total import bill (both commercial
and other imports) was expected to reach 2.7 billion dlrs in
the new year compared with 2.4 billion dlrs in 1986/87.
    The minister said ending restrictions on imports of cars
and dropping 50 pct sales tax on small cars would not harm the
economy.
    Munim said Bangladesh feared a further drop in prices for
its main export jute, "which will certainly affect our export
earnings" in the coming year.
    Bangladesh's jute exports fell to 410 mln dlrs from 500 mln
in 1986/87, according official figures.
    But Munim said exports of non-traditional items, which
accounted for over 40 pct of total exports this year, would
play a key role in achieving the 1987/88 export target.
 REUTER

China and Australia's Victoria state
signed a joint venture contract for a 290 mln dlr aluminium
processing plant in China that will export to South Korea,
Australian officials told journalists.
    China has no official direct trade or government ties with
Seoul, while it maintains close links with North Korea.
    China International Trust and Investment Corporation
(CITIC) would have 75 pct of the equity in <Bohai Aluminium
Industries Ltd>, the company to build the rolling mill and
extrusion plant on the northeast China coast, they said.
    It was China's largest joint venture so far, they said.
    "A joint venture opens up the potential for penetrating
markets that would not otherwise be possible (for China),"
Victoria state treasurer Rob Jolly said.
    An Australian diplomat said CITIC was eager to pursue South
Korean markets. Indirect trade between China and Seoul is
growing but is not officially publicised.
    Victoria's <Aluvic Ltd>, on behalf of the state government,
will hold a 25 pct equity stake in the project, which is
intended as a sister plant to Victoria's Portland aluminium
smelter. CITIC in May agreed to invest about 80 mln dlrs in
Portland.
    The China-based joint venture would process Portland
aluminium and aim to sell aluminium products to the domestic
Chinese market as well as for export, Jolly said.
    The Australian side's investment was limited to about 22
mln dlrs, but Aluvic would have the right to appoint key
managers, he said.
    Australian officials said they hoped the goodwill generated
by their participation would lead to further CITIC investment
in Victoria. The Chinese group enjoys a high level of
independence from Peking's central government and has extensive
overseas investments.
 REUTER

Norway's central bank sold crowns in the
open market in a bid to ease strong upward pressure on the
currency, which threatens to rise above set levels in a basket
of currencies, dealers said.
    The central bank declined comment, but dealers noted the
bank had also intervened and sold small amounts of crowns on
Friday. The bank is committed to defending the crown at certain
levels in a basket of 14 trade-weighted currencies.
    "They've been in again this morning, selling piecemeal
whenever they think necessary," a senior dealer at an Oslo bank,
who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
    The crown's index is currently around 109.60 in the basket
-- close to its upper limit of 109.50 which the central bank is
committed to defending.
    A low index figure indicates a high value for the crown.
The limit at the other end of the scale is set at 114.50.
    The crown has been bolstered by high Norwegian interest
rates, currently around 16 pct in the money market, and better
than expected economic indicators which showed a sharply
reduced foreign trade deficit in May and inflation stabilising
around the current annual rate of 10 pct.
 REUTER

United Merchant Finance Ltd, a joint
venture between Barclays Plc and Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd,
is planning a 200 mln H.K. Dlr certificate of deposit issue,
    The five year issue, with both put and call options at the
end of the third and fourth years, carries interest at 1/4
percentage point over Hong Kong interbank offered rate payable
quarterly. The management fee is 25 basis points.
    Jardine Fleming and Co Ltd is lead manager. Co-managers are
Barclays, Baring Brothers Asia Ltd, East Asia Warburg Ltd,
Indosuez Asia Ltd and Mitsubishi Finance (Hong Kong) Ltd.
 REUTER

diminishing hopes of overhauling the tax system have been dealt
a serious blow by reports of sharply higher than expected tax
revenues in 1986/87, government officials said.
    Nakasone has argued that the tax system must be reformed to
provide the revenue for more than 1,000 billion yen of tax cuts
promised in the government's emergency economic package last
month. But his argument has been undercut by reports that the
1986/87 tax take was as much as 2,500 billion yen more than
expected.
    That means the government should have more than enough
money in the fiscal year ending next March to pay for the
planned tax cuts without having recourse to the unpopular tax
measures proposed by Nakasone, one official said.
    The Prime Minister has proposed an indirect tax and the
abolition of tax breaks on small savings as ways of raising
revenue to offset the tax cuts.
    But stiff opposition has forced him to shelve the idea of
an indirect tax, at least for the time being. He still hopes to
gain parliamentary approval next month to abolish tax breaks on
small savings.
    The higher than expected revenues in 1986/87 partly stemmed
from increased receipts from land and securities taxes, as
prices of both shares and land soared, one official said.
    But corporate tax revenues have also been more buoyant than
expected, perhaps indicating the recession of the last year
induced by the strong yen was not as bad as thought, he said.
    The final figures for 1986/87 revenues are due to be
released by the Finance Ministry on July 1.
    The higher revenues last fiscal year have also undercut
attempts by the Finance Ministry's budget bureau to reduce
investment spending by government departments in the 1988/89
budget, several officials said.
    A budget bureau official said the bureau still wanted to
stick with its so-called "minus-ceiling" policy, which calls for
government departments to reduce investment spending by five
pct a year.
    But he acknowledged this would be difficult, given the
sharp increase in revenues last fiscal year and heavy domestic
and U.S. Pressure on the ministry to stimulate the economy.
 REUTER

Share analysts and commentators say
Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F> has suffered an enormous loss of face
from which it could take time to recover over its 473 mln mark
currency swindle.
    An auditors' report on the affair, prepared in time for
this week's annual shareholders' meeting, largely cleared the
management of Volkswagen of blame.
    But "mud sticks," said Gavin Launder, an analyst with
Scrimgeour Vickers in London.
    (See index on ECRA)
    The financial daily, Boersenzeitung, wrote in a commentary:
"More devastating than the losses linked to the currency scandal
is the resulting loss of image for the company."
    VW had to make provisions of 473 mln marks to cover losses
from unauthorised foreign exchange deals which the auditors,
Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft, said highlighted major gaps in
the supervisory apparatus of the firm's financial department.
    The auditors' report highlighted failings in VW's
controlling system, especially in relation to a 385 mln mark
deal with the Hungarian National Bank, but shed little light on
why they were made. 
    It said the contracts did not benefit VW and were only
advantageous to its banks. It did not detail how the foreign
exchange dealers may have profitted.
    It concluded: "The nature, scope and technical construction
of the deals ... Suggest a targeted and professionally executed
manipulation to the detriment of VW."
    The head of the finance department, Rolf Selowsky, resigned
days after the scandal broke in March. He is not accused of any
wrongdoing, but auditors concluded he had "not applied the
necessary diligence in all instances."
    Two former VW foreign exchange dealers have been arrested.
    But even VW admits that the report, published last week,
revealed important company failings.
    Peter Frerk, who has temporarily taken over Selowsky's
reponsibilities, said the findings were "not a first class
acquittal." The currency swindle was a "lamentable event for our
company," he told journalists.
    The auditors said the remaining members of VW's management
board and supervisory board had correctly fulfilled their
obligations, a verdict which almost certainly means that major
West German banks, who vote on behalf of large numbers of
shareholders, will ratify both boards at the July 2 meeting.
    Many market analysts, especially in London, do not believe
a sharp rise in VW's share price last week reflects a major
reassessment of the firm on the basis of the auditors' report.
    The stock closed at 430 marks on Friday, up 11 pct from a
week earlier. Dealers referrred to short-term bargain-hunting,
and one London broker said "I'm not sure it's much of a bargain."
Most brokers said they would not recommend clients to buy at
these levels.
    Analysts believe VW will do well to match its 1986 group
net profit of 582 mln marks this year, and one broker in London
said the company would be lucky to report profits only 15 pct
down.
    VW is expected to fare very well both in its home market
and in Europe. But sales have fallen sharply in the U.S and
Brazil, where the latest price freeze could exacerbate results
even further.
    The company hopes to benefit in the long term from its
takeover of the Spanish company SEAT, but this subsidiary is
still producing losses.
    VW has also just announced a deal to build light pick-up
trucks with Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> at an under-utilised
plant in Hanover, but analysts noted production here was only
expected to take off fully in 1990.
 REUTER

BANK OF FRANCE CUTS INTERVENTION RATE TO 7-1/2 PCT FROM
7-3/4 PCT - OFFICIAL

Top-level talks last week between the
European Community (EC) and the United States failed to resolve
a dispute over pasta which may provoke new trade frictions next
month, diplomatic sources said.
    The U.S. Insists the EC complies with what it regards as an
unambiguous ruling from the world trade body GATT and
dismantles an export subsidy system which has led to Italy
taking an increasing share of the U.S. Pasta market.
    The sources said the EC, which currently provides subsidies
of around 16 cents a pound, offered a compromise in last week's
talks in Brussels but that this was rejected by the U.S.
    U.S. Assistant Special Trade Representative Jim Murphy has
returned to Washington ahead of a theoretical July 1 deadline
for agreement, set last August when the two sides resolved a
related dispute over EC restrictions on U.S. Citrus imports.
    The diplomatic sources said the citrus issue could be
reopened if the pasta dispute was not solved quickly. It was
also possible the U.S. Would reimpose a 40 pct tariff on EC
pasta, lifted when the citrus row was settled.
    But the two sides may agree to extend the deadline for a
few days as EC Commissioners Willy de Clercq and Frans
Andriessen are due to visit Washington from July 7 to 10.
 REUTER

BANK OF FRANCE CUTS SEVEN-DAY REPURCHASE RATE TO EIGHT
PCT FROM 8-1/4 PCT - OFFICIAL

The coupon on the 100 mln dlr, five year,
equity warrant eurobond for Nicherei Corp has been set at the
indicated 1-3/8 pct, lead manager Nikko Securities Co (Europe)
Ltd said.
    The exercise price was set at 974 yen per share
representing a premium of 2.53 pct over today's closing price
in Tokyo. The foreign exchange rate was set at 147.45 yen to
    A 50 mln dlr, seven year, deal for Nichirei will be priced
later this morning by lead manager Yamaichi International
(Europe) Ltd.
 REUTER

Polish farmers will receive price rises
ranging from 13.4 pct for some crops to 23.3 pct for meat from
July 1, the Finance and Agriculture ministries said.
    The state procurement price for rape will rise 13.4 pct to
5,500 zloties per quintal, while wheat and rye will go up an
average 18.2 pct to 3,100 and 2,400 zloties per quintal. Pork
will rise by 18.8 pct and beef 23.3 pct.
    The ministries said the new prices aimed to ensure farmers'
profits and meet higher living costs. But at the same time they
said fertilisers would rise by an average 50 pct, animal feeds
by 38 pct and tractors by 25 pct.
 REUTER

ministers will meet tomorrow evening, after the end of a
two-day summit meeting of heads of government, to again attempt
to agree a 1987/88 farm price package, an EC Commission
    He added that tomorrow's EC Official Journal will contain
notice of special agricultural measures of a purely technical
nature which will come into effect on July 1 unless the
ministers reach an accord.
    The spokesman declined to detail these special measures but
said they would not be the sort of "dynamic" moves which EC Farm
Commissioner Frans Andriessen has said he would take in the
case of complete deadlock among farm ministers.
    These moves would be taken only if tomorrow's meeting of
ministers in Brussels again fails to reach an accord, EC
    Andriessen is thought to be prepared to cut cereals prices
by seven pct and to take other drastic action, trade sources
said.
    EC farm ministers ended their last meeting on June 18 still
split over the Commission's proposal for a tax on vegetable and
marine oils and fats.
    In addition, West Germany said it would veto plans for
cereal price cuts and for a change in the green currency
system.
    Earlier today, diplomats said Belgium, the current holder
of the European Community presidency, appears ready to drop the
plans for the controversial oils and fats tax.
 REUTER

Land Securities Plc <LAND.L> is issuing a
75 mln stg convertible eurobond due December 31, 2002 with an
indicated coupon of 6-3/4 to seven pct and par pricing, lead
manager J. Henry Schroder Wagg Ltd said.
annum to par thereafter but is not callable until 1992 unless
the share price exceeds the conversion price by 130 pct.
underwriting each pays 1/2 pct. Final terms will be set on, or
before, July 8, and the expected conversion premium is 13 to 18
pct. The payment date is July 30.
 REUTER

Degussa AG <DGSG.F> said it planned a
one-for-five rights issue at 225 marks per share, raising
nominal share capital by 61 mln marks, by the end of its
current business year ending September 30.
    The company said in a statement it would also raise nominal
share capital by 20 mln marks in a share swap as part of its
planned takeover of French medicine group <Laboratoires Sarget
SA>.
    The two capital measures will raise Degussa nominal share
capital to 365 mln marks.
    Degussa said last week it intended to buy 100 pct of the
capital of the medical pharmaceuticals group Sarget, based in
Merignac near Bordeaux.
    Sarget had 1986 sales in France, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Spain, Portugal and Italy of 730 mln French francs.
    Degussa has not said how much it would pay for Sarget, but
20 mln marks nominal of 50-mark shares, at today's Frankfurt
opening price of 494.70 marks, would be worth nearly 198 mln
marks.
    A 61 mln mark nominal capital increase at 225 marks would
raise 274.5 mln marks.
    Degussa said the 20 mln mark nominal capital increase would
take the form of an issue of shares for a non-cash
consideration. The April 10 annual meeting agreed that there
would be no rights issue on this capital, which was already
authorized but unissued.
    The rights issue involving the 61 mln mark nominal capital
increase will be led by Dresdner Bank AG. Following that
capital increase, Degussa would be left with 19 mln marks of
authorized but unissued capital, a Degussa spokesman said.
    Part of the 274.5 mln marks from the rights issue would
also be used for the Serget acquisition, he added.
 REUTER

Ricoh Co Ltd <RICT.T> has predicted group
net profit of 11 billion yen in the year ending March 31, 1988,
up 0.5 pct from a year earlier, assuming a yen/dollar rate of
140 yen, a company spokesman said.
    Sales in 1987/88 are expected to rise 6.4 pct from a year
earlier to 630 billion yen, on an increase in overseas
production and an improvement in its domestic sales network.
    The company earlier reported group net profit of 10.95
billion yen in 1986/87, down 29.2 pct from a year earlier.
Sales were 0.3 pct down at 592.37 billion, due to reduced
exports caused by the yen's appreciation against the dollar.
    Ricoh's exports, accounting for 34.2 pct of total sales
against 39.6 pct a year earlier, fell 13.8 pct from a year
earlier to 202.83 billion yen in 1986/87, while domestic sales
rose 8.7 pct to 389.55 billion.
 REUTER

Canada has threatened to stop imports
of Danish pigmeat from July 14 after Canadian veterinary
inspectors approved only two of 33 slaughterhouses, a Danish
agriculture ministry official told Reuters.
    The Canadians postponed the original July 1 deadline at the
request of the European Commission, which Denmark approached
for support.
    Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said in an
interview with the daily Berlingske Tidende: "Denmark will not
accept a ban on Danish meat exports, and I am sure we can reach
an understanding with the Canadians with the help of the EC."
    Danish pigmeat exports to Canada were worth 106 mln crowns
in 1986, while Canadian exports to the European Community
totalled about 6.5 billion U.S. Dlrs.
    Some Danish slaughterhouse officials expressed suspicion
that the Canadian action was in response to tightening up by EC
veterinary inspectors on Canadian food exports to the EC.
    But an official at the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen said
the inspection of Danish slaughterhouses was based on EC
regulations. "Canadian officials are very concerned about the
trade implications. We are holding active discussions with the
EC and bilaterally," she added.
 REUTER

Following are extracts from the
communique issued at the conclusion of the OPEC conference
here.
    "The conference expressed satisfaction about the positive
results of the agreement signed in December, 1986, by which
OPEC re-established the system of fixed price at a level of 18
dlrs per barrel supported by OPEC production ceilings
distributed into national production levels.
    "The conference noted that all market indicators, including
spot prices in the market and netback values of all OPEC
crudes, have been firming up significantly, thus consolidating
the OPEC price structure as defined by the agreement."
    "The conference examined the supply/demand outlook for the
second half of the year and decided that in order to secure
continued firm prices in the market, OPEC production during the
fourth quarter of 1987 will be equal to that of the third
quarter, I.E. 16.6 mln barrels per day (bpd), distributed into
the same national production levels as were defined by the
above-mentioned agreement for that quarter."
    "Furthermore, the conference decided to establish a
committee of five heads of delegation to monitor the price
evolution in the market in relation to the OPEC official prices
in order to secure price stability around the opec price
    "Should there be any significant change in market prices,
the committee would immediately call for an extraordinary
meeting of the conference with a view to deciding on the
necessary OPEC production levels during the second half of the
year, which would secure the desired market stability."
    "The conference reiterated the necessity of member
countries' strict adherence to the agreement signed in December
1986, both in terms of official price, and national production,
levels.
    "For this purpose, the conference decided to establish a
committee of three heads of delegation to undertake visits to
member countries in order to motivate them to comply with the
terms of the agreement."

    "Moreover, the conference stressed the necessity of the
cooperation of the oil-producing exporting countries outside
OPEC as an essential prerequisite for a lasting market
    The conference, therefore, decided to reinstate the group
of five heads of delegation established by the 77th
(extraordinary) meeting of the conference in April, 1986 to
undertake the necessary contacts with those countries.
    "The conference observed the continued fall in the value of
the U.S. Dollar and agreed that the matter should be studied
and reported to the next meeting of the conference."

    "The conference discussed the appointment of the secretary
general and decided to discuss the matter again in its next
ordinary meeting.
    "The conference extended the term of office of Fadhil
al-Chalabi as deputy secretary general for a period of one year
from October 7, 1987.
    "The next ordinary meeting of the conference will be
convened in Vienna on December 9, 1987."

 REUTER

Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl said
West Germany would be badly advised to lower interest rates and
that he believed the economy would continue to recover after a
six-month lull.
    Asked by the newspaper Bild am Sonntag if lower interest
rates could boost the domestic economy, Poehl said: "We would be
badly advised if we forced further interest rate cuts.
    "This could, under certain circumstances, release new
inflationary fears which would then be more likely to lead to
higher interest rates," he added.

    Poehl said Germany had practically no growth in the past
six months because of the mark's surge and the cold winter.
    "But since April, statistics clearly show that the economy
finds itself on a course of growth," he said. "I expect this
development to continue in the coming months."
    Asked about his expectations of a U.S.-European Community
trade war, Poehl said such an event would be disastrous.
    "For this reason we in Europe must avoid everything used by
protectionist forces in the U.S. As pretexts," he added. "This
includes...Eliminating existing restrictions in the EC as far
as possible. Protectionism is not found only in the U.S."
 Reuter

Argentine Economy Minister Juan
Sourrouille left at the weekend for the United States for talks
with creditor banks and the IMF aimed at obtaining the release
of new loans, the semi-official news agency Telam said.
    It said Sourrouille would urge the IMF to release a 480 mln
dlrs compensatory loan for falling exports as well as the first
two tranches of a standby loan, totalling 450 mln dlrs.
    Release of the funds from the standby loan has been delayed
by Argentina's failure to win final approval to a 1.95 billion
dlr loan from creditor banks, which was a condition for the IMF
disbursement.
    Banks have pledged 97 pct of the 1.95 billion dlr loan but
the IMF has not yet defined what amount constitutes the
"critical mass," which is needed for release of the IMF funds and
the funds from creditor banks.
    The president of Argentina's bank steering committee,
William Rhodes of Citibank, said on Friday he thought the loan
agreement with Argentina could be signed in August.
 Reuter

OPEC output for the second half of 1987,
including that of Iraq, will be above the official 16.6 mln
barrels per day (bpd) output ceiling agreed by OPEC Saturday,
Kuwait oil minister Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah, said.
    Iraq refused to sign the pact, by which OPEC maintained its
ceiling at 16.6 mln bpd for both the third and fourth quarters
of 1987. In December, OPEC set a provisional fourth quarter
level of 18.3 mln bpd, now cut back to the third quarter
target.
    Ali told a news conference that including Iraq, "OPEC third
quarter output will be between 17.5 and 17.7 mln bpd while
fourth quarter output will be nearly 18 mln bpd"
    Ali did not detail what effect he thought these production
levels would have on prices.
    Iraq has an official first half quota of 1.466 mln bpd,
rising to 1.54 mln in the second half, but has refused to
adhere to it and has recently been producing around two mln
barrels per day, exporting it through pipelines to Saudi Arabia
and Turkey. Iraq's export capacity will be further boosted when
a 500,000 bpd oil pipeline via Turkey comes on stream in about
    Iraq has been insisting on a quota equal to its Gulf War
enemy Iran, which has a quota of 2.255 mln bpd, rising to 2.369
mln in the second half.
    Ali said the position of the 400,000 bpd production from
the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which has
been supplied to Iraq as war relief crude, was fixed. "We will
not discuss it. There will not be any change," he said.
    Ali said the conference, which began Thursday and ended
Saturday evening, had been too short for all necessary problems
to be adressed. "We are overdoing it in holding too short a
meeting. We sweep a lot under the carpet," he said.
    Ali said the problem of price differentials between the
prices of various OPEC crudes had not been dealt with properly
at the meeting.

    Ali said "The problem of differentials is a real one. I
would hate to be producing today a light crude and that problem
has not been dealt with properly. Light crudes are overpriced
relative to heavy crudes."
    Asked if the issue of differentials would be raised at the
next OPEC meeting to be held in Vienna on December 9, Ali said
"If my crudes are affected I will raise the issue, I will not do
the work of another minister."
    Kuwait's own crudes range from medium to heavy grades.
    OPEC reintroduced fixed prices on February 1, with a spread
of 2.65 dlrs a barrel between its lightest and heaviest crudes.
       
 Reuter

Iraq has rejected its new OPEC
production quota set in Vienna for the second half of this
year, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported.
    It quoted Oil Minister Issam Abdul-Rahim al-Chalabi, who
returned Sunday, as saying "Iraq will continue to adhere to its
position considering itself as not included in the agreement."

    Last December, Iraq rejected its assigned first half 1987
quota of 1.466 mln bpd and demanded a share equal to the 2.255
mln bpd quota set for Iran, its enemy in the nearly
seven-year-old Gulf war.
    The accord reached by OPEC ministers in Vienna Saturday set
an output ceiling of 16.6 mln bpd for the group's 13 members
from July to December, raising Iraq's share to 1.54 mln bpd and
Iran's to 2.369 mln.
 Reuter

Shr 15.8 cents vs 12.9 cents
    Int div six cents vs same
    Group net 19.90 mln dlrs vs 16.25 mln
    Turnover 390.70 vs 381.60 mln
    NOTE - Div pay Aug 3, register July 31. Co says it expects
results for the second half year to be similar to those of the
  
 REUTER

    Group shr 33.98 yen vs 39.10
    Net 21.16 billion vs 19.96 billion
    Current 45.23 billion vs 32.87 billion
    Operating 77.17 billion vs 63.90 billion
    Sales 616.96 billion vs 527.88 billion
    NOTE - The company said the 37.6 pct increase in 1986/87
group current profit from a year earlier was mainly due to a
drop of two billion yen in interest payments.
 REUTER

France's state-run television channel
TF-1, which is in the process of being privatised, should
achieve a profit of around 25 francs per share next year after
several years of losses, but will not make a profit this year,
the new TF-1 president Francis Bouygues said.
    Interviewed on TF-1 on the eve of the public flotation of
40 pct of the channel's equity, Bouygues said "in 1988 we have
to make a profit, and we will make a profit."
    "I envisage per share profits of 25 francs," he said. "I am
very optimistic."

    Bouygues said exceptional costs associated with the
restructuring of the station would prevent a profit this year.
    The state sold a 50 pct stake in TF-1 in April to a
consortium led by Bouygues, a construction magnate, and
including British press baron Robert Maxwell.
    Tomorrow 40 pct of the shares go on sale to the public at
165 francs each, while 10 pct will be offered at a special
price of 132 francs a share to the station's staff.
    Bouygues said a dividend would be paid to shareholders next
year if the station did return to profit.

    Asked if he thought the flotation price was right, Bouygues
said, "I paid virtually double...I consider that it is a good
buy."
    The Bouygues consortium paid three billion francs for its
50 pct controlling stake in April.
    After the two-week public flotation, TF-1 shares will start
trading on the second market here in late July.

 REUTER

French buying power should remain stable
this year despite lower economic growth, while investment will
rise sharply, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said.
    "I think we will maintain our buying power... I do not think
it will fall," Chirac told a radio interviewer yesterday. Last
year French household buying power rose 2.9 pct.
    Chirac said economic growth would be substantially lower
than originally forecast but investment would rise by close to
16 pct in the 1986 to 1988 period, reversing the 3.8 pct
decline in the previous four-year period.
 REUTER

Henkel KGaA <HNKG.F> expects 1987
world group turnover and profit to exceed 1986 levels as recent
acquisitions should compensate for the negative impact of the
strong mark, managing board chairman Helmut Sihler said.
    He told the annual meeting that based on Henkel's
performance so far, the profit increase would be "not
insignificant."
    World group sales rose six pct in the first five months
this year compared with the same 1986 period but group turnover
rose only two pct because of currency factors, he said.
    Sihler said the profit increase surpassed that of turnover
but gave no figure.
    As reported, group net profit rose 28 pct to 226 mln marks
in 1986. World group sales by volume rose six pct but currency
factors trimmed group turnover by six pct to 8.7 billion marks.
    Sihler said the 1986 profit/sales ratio of 2.6 pct should
rise further this year.
    Sihler said turnover grew more or less equally in all
sectors.
    As reported, the 1986 dividend on ordinary voting shares
rose to 4.50 marks from 3.50 in 1985 while the dividend on
non-voting preference shares increased to 7.50 marks compared
with three marks for six months of 1985.
 REUTER

South Korea's ruling party will seek a
direct presidential election to solve an acute political crisis
in the country, a party spokesman said.
    The Democratic Justice Party will ask President Chun Doo
Hwan to accept opposition demands for a direct poll to end the
current social turmoil, he said.
    The party will also urge Chun to allow an amnesty for top
dissident Kim Dae-jung and an immediate release of most
political prisoners. -
 REUTER

Hitachi Ltd of Japan's <HIT.T> Hitachi
Electronic Devices (S) Pte Ltd, which suspended selling colour
television tubes in the United States since January in
anticipation of a "dumping duty," said that it may be pushed out
of the U.S. Market if too high a final duty is assessed.
    A company spokesman said that the Commerce Department had
assessed a temporary 1.52 pct duty on tubes made by his
company. The department said it would assess final dumping
duties by September 8.
    The company was Singapore's only exporter of colour
television tubes to the U.S, he said.

German May current account surplus 7.5 billion marks
(April surplus 6.1  billion) - official

German May trade surplus 10.6 billion marks (April
surplus 8.9 billion) - official

Ivory Coast rainfall this season has
been less than in previous years, but 1986/87 cocoa and coffee
production has not suffered, the official Ivorian daily
Fraternite Matin reported.
    The newspaper did not speculate on whether recent dry
conditions seriously threatened the main 1987/88 cocoa crop.
Trade sources said the weather up to now could be irrelevant if
there is good rainfall in coming weeks.
    Precipitation during the present campaign has been lowest
in northern savannah regions, where the cotton crop has
especially benefitted from the dry weather, Fraternite Matin
said.
    Agriculture Minister Denis Bra Kanon said earlier this
month 1986/87 cotton output would be a record 213,506 tonnes,
compared with 190,000 tonnes in 1985/86.
    Fraternite Matin said the mainstays of Ivorian agriculture
had been little affected by the dry weather. Coffee does not
need very much water to survive and only old cocoa plants have
been affected in some regions, it added.
    London-based dealer Gill and Duffus recently forecast
1986/87 Ivory Coast cocoa output at a record 590,000 tonnes,
which compares with 585,000 estimated for 1985/86. It described
early development of the new main crop as patchy.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) earlier this year
forecast a drop in 1986/87 coffee production in the Ivory Coast
due to drought in the western part of the country. It estimated
the crop at 3.84 mln bags compared with the previous year's
4.33 mln bag harvest.
    Ivorian officials have only described this year's coffee
crop as "normal."
 REUTER

Year to March 31, 1987
    Share 106 rupees vs 130
    Pre-tax profit 995.2 mln rupees vs 1.57 billion
    Net profit 875.2 mln vs 1.07 billion
    Sales 14.16 billion vs 12.85 billion
    Dividend 25 pct vs same
    Tax 120 mln vs 500 mln
    Note - Full company name is Tata Iron and Steel Co Ltd
<TATA.BO>. Dividend is payable to shareholders on Aug 12.
 REUTER

Kraft Inc said it has completed
the previously announced acquisition of the Anderson Clayton
Foods Division from Quaker Oats Co for 235 mln dlrs in cash.
 Reuter

Pennwalt Corp said it is making a
new refrigerant available as an alternative to
chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) 12, a product suspected of depleting
the earth's ozone layer.
    The company said the new product, called isotron 142b/22,
is a blend of partially halogenated CFCs, and has less than
five pct of the ozone depletion potential of CFC 12, which is
fully halogenated.
    According to the company, the blend is currently used to
replace CFC 12 as a propellant in aerosol containers, and has
been successfully tested as a refrigerant.
   
    Pennwalt manufactures chemicals, pharmaceuticals and
precision equipment.
 Reuter

Congress's long-awaited agreement
last Friday on an urgent bill to fund government operations is
expected to clear the way for the Agriculture Department to
unlock its coffers, closed since May 1.
    House and Senate negotiators, breaking an extended logjam
over fiscal 1987 funding, agreed to appropriate 5.6 billion
dlrs to the Commodity Credit Corp.
    The bill, which is expected to be approved by both Houses
this week and signed into law soon by the president, would
cover all farm program costs through September 30 and provide a
1.0 billion dlrs cushion, congressional sources said.
    Elevator operators, transportation companies and dairy
processors have been especially hard hit by the freeze on CCC
payments, now entering its ninth week, USDA sources said.
 Reuter

pct in May compared with a 0.5 pct rise in April and 0.2 pct in
May last year, the National Statistics Institute (INSEE) said.
    The rise took the year-on-year inflation rate to 3.4 pct in
May from 3.5 pct in April, and brought cumulative inflation
over the first five months of this year to 2.0 pct compared
with 0.7 pct for the same period of 1986.
 REUTER

BET Plc <BETL.L> said it will apply for
listings on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.
    BET said it filed its registration statement with the
authorities in North America for the share issue cleared by its
shareholders at the extraordinary meeting on March 19.
    The combined offering will involve up to 25.8 mln new BET
shares in the form of American Depositary Receipts, with four
BET shares per ADR. The shares were valued at 77.3 mln stg at
Friday's London closing price of 300p.
 Reuter

British Airways Plc's <BAB.L> May
passenger and cargo traffic figures provided evidence of
recovery from last year's setbacks and this trend will be
reflected in first quarter results due in August, chairman Lord
King told the annual meeting.
    Earlier this month, the newly-privatised airline reported a
29 pct rise in passenger traffic figures for May, with cargo
traffic up 22 pct.
    In the year to March, British Airways reported a drop in
pre-tax profits to 162 mln stg from 195 mln previously.
However, King said this result was satisfactory, considering
the difficulties posed by the Chernobyl disaster and the U.S.
Raid on Libya.
    He said British Airways intended to return its tour travel
operations to profitability, when questioned by shareholders.
    In 1986/87, this division reported an operating loss of
nine mln stg, the fifth year of losses. However, he said the
group might reconsider its course of action if a turnaround
seemed unlikely in the long-term.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exhcange said it is
reviewing the eligiblity for continued listing of the common 
stock and 5.875 dlrs cumulative convertible preferred stock,
series C, of Allis-Chalmers Corp in view of its announcement
that it has filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the
Federal bankruptcy code.
 Reuter

Lead manager Algemene Bank Nederland
(ABN) said it has completed the formation of a syndicate for
Dutch chemical firm Akzo NV <AKZO.AS>'s three-year 14 pct, 50
mln Australian dlr bonds priced at 101.5 pct.
    Co-lead manager is Hambros Bank of London, ABN said.
    Co-managers are Bankers Trust International Ltd, Banque
Bruxelles Lambert, Bank Mees & Hope, Banque Nationale de Paris,
Deutsche Bank Capital Markets, Dresdner Bank, EBC Amro,
Kredietbank NV, Van Lanschot Bankiers, Nederlandsche
Middenstandsbank, Pierson, Heldring en Pierson, Rabobank,
Vereins & Westbank and S.G. Warburg Securities.
 REUTER

Staley Continental Inc
said it sold its 50 interest in Sociedad Iberica de
Molturacion, S.A. (Simsa), a soybean and sunflower seed
processing company based in Madrid, Spain.
    Staley's investment in Simsa no longer fit its overall
coporate strategy and an agreement to sell the interest was
completed in May, it said.
    Staley said the Simsa transaction will not have a material
effect on its balance sheet.
 Reuter

MARTIN PROCESSING SAID IT ACCEPTS 20 DLRS/SHARE BID FROM
COURTAULDS PLC

Lac Minerals Ltd said it filed a
preliminary prospectus for an initial offering in Canada of
flow-through common shares.
    Size and pricing of the issue have not yet been determined,
 Reuter

Helene Curtis Industries Inc said due to
increased expenditures budgeted to promote its new Salon
Sectives brand, the company will likely produce a loss for the
second quarter ending August 31.
    In the 1986 second quarter it earned 1,947,000 or 53 cts a
share.
    Earlier the cosmetics company posted first-quarter net of
139,000 or four cts a share versus a loss in the year-ago
period of 799,000 or 22 cts a share.
 Reuter

Conquest Exploration Co said it will not
extend the exercise date of its publicly traded warrants after
July 15, the current expiration date.
 Reuter

said it acquired the malpractice book of business generated by
Medical Quadrangle Inc and Medical Professional Liability
Agency Ltd, a producer of medical malpractice coverage.
    It said the acquisition will enable all of Frontier's
medical malpractice coverage to be serviced internally.
 Reuter

Texas American Energy Corp said it will
release information soon following the halt of its stock on the
NASDAQ exchange.
 Reuter

Japan said an international agreement on
loans to Poland was needed before Tokyo extended fresh loans to
Warsaw to help a Japanese car maker set up a factory there.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone explained the conditions
during the first round of talks with the visiting Polish leader
Wojciech Jaruzelski, foreign ministry sources said.
    They quoted Jaruzelski as saying of a private Japanese plan
to export car production facilities to Poland, "If this project
goes well, it will serve as an engine in future economic
relations between Poland and Japan."
    Nakasone, speaking of the possibility of resuming extending
official loans to Poland, said, "It is necessary that an
agreement should be established at an international arena such
as the Paris Club of creditor nations."
    He hoped that such an agreement will be achieved at an
early date, but he did not make firm commitments about Japanese
loans, the sources said.
    Along with western nations, Japan has witheld new official
credits to Poland since February 1982, following the 1981
declaration of martial law in Poland.
    The Japanese car maker Daihatsu Motor <DMOT.T> and three
trading houses including Mitsui Co Ltd plan to export
production facilities to Poland's state-owned car maker FSO to
make the Charade minicar, according to Mitsui officials.
    "We are pushing the plan on the premise of an official
credit to be extended eventually," a Mitsui spokesman said.
    Nakasone also said that a joint Japan-Poland economic
committee would discuss the proposed conclusion of an
investment protection agreement later this year, the sources
said.
 REUTER

Fidelcor Inc said it will take a
one-time 30 mln dlr special provision in the second quarter for
possible losses in loans to developing countries.
    The corporation said it will be profitable in the quarter
despite the action that will reduce quarterly net income by 23
mln dlrs, or 37 cts a share on a fully diluted basis.
    For the year-ago second quarter, Fidelcor reported earnings
of 24.8 mln dlrs, or 95 cts a share.
(Corrects spelling on company name)
 Reuter

Period end May 31
    Shr profit four cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net profit 139,000 vs loss 799,000
    Revs 101.9 mln vs 86.8 mln
 Reuter

Sterivet Laboratories Ltd said the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration granted expedited review status
for its proprietary drug Navicon.
    The company said future marketability of Navicon in the
U.S. will be greatly facilitated by receiving expedited review
status and the company should achieve wide penetration once FDA
approval for the drug is received.
    Navicon is a drug designed to treat navicular disease which
affects the feet of one-third of all horses aged between five
and 15.
 Reuter

more aggressive role in promoting Third World development, bank
president Barber Conable said in a magazine interview.
affiliate, the International Financial Corporation," Conable
told Newsweek International.
    Conable, who has just completed his first year as head of
the World Bank, said the bank's mission remains the development
of Third World nations.
    "The bank is primarily a development institution, not a
it hampers development," he told Newsweek.
crisis, which has prompted a number of U.S. commercial banks to
    Conable defended his own reorganization plan for the World
Bank, which he said was aimed at improving efficiency and
limiting a growing bureaucracy.
    And he said environmental considerations will play a larger
role in the evaluation of proposed projects.
 Reuter

    Shr 41 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 15.4 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Revs 234.4 mln vs 96.6 mln
    Avg shrs 38.0 mln vs 34.4 mln
 Reuter

D and N Savings Bank said it
aapplied to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board for approval to
open three new branches inside K mart Corp <KM> stores in
Michigan.
    It said one of the branches being applied for is in Grand
Rapids, Mich., which would bring to five the number of K mart
locations in that city with D and N Bank Marts.
    It said the other applications are for branches in Flint K
mart stores.
 Reuter

Oper shr three cts vs one ct
    Oper net 210,000 vs 67,000
    Revs 10,252,000 vs 8,929,000
    Avg shrs 7,933,000 vs 8,553,000
    Six mths
    Oper shr five cts vs two cts
    Oper net 420,000 vs 133,000
    Revs 20.3 mln vs 17.1 mln
    Avg shrs 7,952,000 vs 8,551,000
    NOTE: 1987 earnings exclude gain from utilization of tax
loss carryforwards of 125,000 dlrs, or one ct a share in the
quarter and 150,000 dlrs, or two cts a share for the six months
 Reuter

<New Generation Products
Inc> said it has acquired a 20 pct ownership in <Personal
Protection Technolgies Inc>.
    New Generation said Personal Protection is developing a
group of personal care products, which are effective in killing
a variety of viruses and bacteria on contact, for U.S. and
export markets.
 Reuter

Advanced NMR Systems Inc said it
extended the exercise period for its class A and class B
warrants by one year.
    The company said class A warrants, entitling the purchase
of one share in Advanced Systems and one class B warrant at
four dlrs per unit, will now be execrisable unitl Aug 18 1988.
    The class B warrants, entitling the purchase of one share
of common stock at six dlrs per share, are now exercisable
unitl Aug 18 1989.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,240,939 dlrs vs 989,714 dlrs
    Revs 32.9 mln dlrs vs 21.1 mln dlrs
    Note: first quarter ended May 31. The company's full name  
  is Town and Country Jewelry Manufacturing Corp
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 16 cts
    Net 502,000 dlrs vs 401,000 dlrs
    Revs 8.8 mln dlrs vs 6.7 mln dlrs
    Six mths
    Shr 38 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 989,000 dlrs vs 745,000 dlrs
    Revs 16.3 mln dlrs vs 12.5 mln dlrs
 Reuter

Martin Processing Inc said its
board approved an agreement to be acquired by Courtaulds Plc
<COU.L> for 20 dlrs a share.
    The company said the transaction is valued at more than 99
mln dlrs, based on its 4,963,620 shares of stock outstanding.
    It said Courtaulds has privately agreed to purchase a
majority of Martin's common from trusts established by Julius
Hermes for 20 dlrs a share. It said Courtaulds intends to
conduct a tender offer for all the Martin stock it does not
own, beginning as soon as necessary documents are prepared.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts
    Net 3.6 mln dlrs
    Revs 96.9 mln dlrs
    Note: the company said year-ago figures are not comparable 
   due to its reverse merger last year
 Reuter

    Net loss 199,010 dlrs vs loss 398,202 dlrs
    Revs 1,284,939 dlrs vs 359,440 dlrs
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 10 cts vs loss 14 cts
    Net loss 973,542 dlrs vs loss 1,298,203 dlrs
    Revs 3.9 mln dlrs vs 1,269,098 dlrs
    Note:the third quarter ended April 30
 Reuter

Nigeria's military rulers will transfer
power to an elected civilian government in 1992, two years
later than previously planned, at the conclusion of a gradual
handover starting this year, official sources said.
    The Armed Forces Ruling Council has approved the main
details of the transition, which will probably be announced
this week by the President, General Ibrahim Babangida.
    Among other important decisions, the council has also
chosen to limit the number of political parties under civilian
rule to two, the sources added.
 Reuter

The European Community's annual
inflation rate fell marginally to 3.2 pct in May from 3.3 pct
in April, the EC's statistics office Eurostat said.
    Prices in the 12-nation bloc rose 0.2 pct in May after 0.6
pct in April. But the annual rate stayed below that of the U.S.
For the second month in succession, following the release of
figures showing U.S. Inflation of 3.8 pct in both April and
May.
    However, Eurostat said the EC was still beaten by Japan,
where prices were provisionally 0.1 pct lower in May than a
 REUTER

BSN Corp said it purchased MacGregor
Sporting Goods' common stock in recent open market
    BSN said its position is less than the five pct ownership
which would require specific disclosure. The company will
continually review its position and may nelect to increase or
decrease the number of shares owned, it added.
 Reuter

    Net 968,000 dlrs vs 1,053,000 dlrs
    Revs 15.4 mln dlrs vs 12.6 mln dlrs
    Note:the year ended March 31.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 5,664,000 vs 2,812,000
    Revs 68.2 mln vs 54.7 mln
    Avg shrs 21,254,054 vs 20,167,714
 Reuter

Talks between the European Community
(EC) and the United States have failed to settle a trade
dispute over pasta, an EC Commission spokesman said.
    Diplomatic sources said the dispute could provoke new trade
friction unless it was settled soon.
    Washington is insisting that the EC comply with what it
regards as an unambiguous ruling from the world trade body GATT
and cut export subsidies which have allowed Italy to take an
increasing share of the U.S. pasta market.
    The EC provides subsidies of about 16 cents a pound on
pasta exports. The spokeswoman said the talks foundered on the
question of how much the subsidy should be cut.
 Reuter

United Savings Bank said it filed an
offering circular with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board
covering 13 mln dlrs of its convertible subordinated debentures
due 2012.
    It said Johnston, Lemon and Co Inc is acting as
representative of the underwriters.
 Reuter

President Reagan is willing
to compromise with Democrats in Congress on a plan to raise new
federal revenues next year if they back his plan to reform the
budget process, White House Budget Chief James Miller said.
    "If the Democrats want to insist that the president say
whatever is agreed to is a tax increase, then they'd better
just forget it because he's not going to do that," Miller said
in an interview with Reuters.
    "But there are a lot of revenues other than those the
president proposed (in his January budget plan), I think, that
we might look seriously at," he added.
    The Reagan budget, which has been widely criticized by both
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, envisages raising 22
billion dlrs in new revenues through the sale of a package of
government assets and new fees on certain federal services.
    President Reagan has repeatedly vowed to veto any tax
increase voted by Congress for the 1988 financial year, arguing
that cutting domestic spending was a better way to reduce the
huge federal deficit.
    The deficit, which totaled 221 billion dlrs last year, is
expected to decline to about 175 billion dlrs this year and
would fall to about 140 billion dlrs next year under a budget
blueprint recently approved by Congress.
    The one trillion dlr congressional budget plan contains
about 19 billion dlr in additional revenues from new taxes in
the government's budgetary year beginning October 1.
    The plan does not say how the additional revenues are to be
raised, leaving it to the House Ways and Means and Senate
Finance committees to fill in the details later this year.
    Miller appeared to be signaling that the president might
consider some sort of tax increase despite his frequently
stated rejection of the concept.
    However, Miller declined to say which new revenue sources
might be acceptable to the president.
    "I think it would be counterproductive for me to (set out
options) which might suggest that we have one thing or another
in mind," the White House budget chief said.
    He cautioned Congress about the political repercussions of
certain moves, such as raising excise taxes on beer, cigarettes
or telephone service, or raising corporate or personal income
tax rates.
    "I think that those in Congress who think it will be a
simple matter to go along with some increase in excise taxes
are underestimating what they would be getting themselves into,"
he said. "What they don't really realize is that the political
opposition they are going to feel to excise taxes is going to
be a lot hotter tahn the political opposition to user fees, in
certain ways, or asset sales," he continued.
    "But there are a lot of other things and revenue issues in
government that probably ought to be addressed," he said.
    Before agreeing to a revenue package, the president would
insist on reform of the budget process, Miller said.
    "The president is not going to take a sucker punch. He's not
going to sit down and try to negotiate out a budget when we
can't be sure that whatever the president agrees to in fact
will be delivered," he emphasized.
    "We'd like to have a budget process that gives us a
contract, so that if the president agrees to something, he can
depend on its coming through."
    After returning to the United States from the economic
summit in Venice earlier this month, President Reagan revived
an earlier unsuccessful campaign for budget reform, calling for
a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget and the
power -- called a "line-item veto" -- to block individual items
in congressional spending bills.
    At the Venice summit, U.S. trading partners called on
Washington to cut its budget deficit to help reduce global
trade imbalances.
   
    Miller told an Italian journalist here yesterday that U.S.
trading partners "have to have faith and trust in the ability of
the United tates to deal with its problems."
    He said a deficit cut of about 40 to 45 billion dlrs a year
"is about the optimal rate of reduction in the deficit. I don't
think we can end the deficit overnight... I think we've got to
have a gradual reduction over a period of several years." 
Miller is in Beaver Creek attending the sixth annual World
Forum, a gathering of current and former government officials
and business representatives discussing world economic and
political issues.
 Reuter

The exercise price for the warrants
attached to the 100 mln dlr eurobond for Finland's Nokia Oy
<NOKS.HE> has been fixed, lead manager Morgan Guaranty Ltd
said.
    The five year, par-priced, deal was launched last Thursday
and pays five pct. Each 5,000 dlr bond has 134 warrants
attached which are each exercisable into one Nokia free
preferred share at a price of 169.4 Finnish markka. This
compares with today's closing price of 178 markka.
 REUTER

The Bangladesh government dropped from its
proposed budget some tax increases that had provoked opposition
parties to call a national strike for tomorrow.
    Prime Minister Mizanur Rahman Choudhury told Parliament
last night the taxes were dropped to help farmers and the poor,
but opposition groups said the strike was still on.
    Choudhury also said the price of soybean oil and the excise
duty on some fabrics would be lowered.
    He said a proposed additional two pct land development tax
from the budget, which is for fiscal 1987/88 starting July 1,
had been dropped. Choudhury said the tax withdrawal would cause
a revenue shortfall of 130 mln taka.
    His announcement came shortly after the 21 opposition
parties called a six-hour nationwide strike for tomorrow.
    Opposition parties had said the taxes would affect the poor
and middle class and leave the wealthy untouched, and the
secretary-general of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist
Party, K.M. Obaidur Rahman, said the government's action would
not avert tomorrow's strike.
 Reuter

UtilCo Group subsidiary completed the purchase of a 38 pct
interest in Westwood Energy Properties Limited Partnership for
about 10 mln dlrs.
    The company said the partership is building and will
operate a 30-megawatt electric generation facility in Schuykill
County, Penn., scheduled to begin commercial operation in July.
It said the 38 pct interest was sold by Westwood Funding Corp,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Combustion Engineering Inc <CSP>.
Westwood Funding retains an interest in the partership and
serves as a general partner, it said.
 Reuter

Exxon Co U.S.A. said it is extending
marketing of its mid-grade unleaded gasoline, Exxon Plus, into
the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan areas beginning
early next month.
    Exxon Corp's domestic subsidiary is already marketing the
89-octane unleaded gasoline along much of the East Coast.
    As it introduces the third unleaded grade, Exxon noted, it
no longer offers a leaded gasoline in the market, except in
some rural areas where leaded gaosline will be made available
to distributors who have a substantial need for the product to
serve customers whose equipment was designed for leaded fuel.
 Reuter

John Labatt Ltd said it acquired the
Canadian brewing and marketing rights to the Carlsberg group of
brands effective July 1, 1988.
    Carlsberg products are now marketed in Eastern Canada by
Carling O'Keefe Ltd, wholly owned by Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S>.
    Labatt said its agreement with United Breweries
International Ltd, of Copenhagen, Denmark, is effective July 1,
1988 and provides Labatt with the rights to Carlsberg,
Carlsberg Light, Carlsberg Bock and Carlsberg Gold.
    Labatt did not disclose financial terms of the marketing
 Reuter

Coradian Corp said a group led by
privately held Sage Equities Group agreed to buy a 7.6 pct
interest in Coradian.
    In connection with the agreement, the company said it sold
666,667 shares at 75 cts a share.
    It said that in addition to common stock, Sage Equities
will receive 667,667 warrants exercisable at 1.50 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

    Shr diluted 21 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 2,108,805 vs 1,605,278
    Sales 28.9 mln vs 24.2 mln
    NOTE: Share results reflect two for one stock split to be
paid July eight
 Reuter

Danish crops are up to two weeks
behind normal growth levels due to the cold weather in May and
June, when mean temperatures were up to four centigrade below
average, the State Plant Cultivation Bureau said in a report.
    At the season's first crop test on June 26, the bureau
rated crops at an overall 94, the same as on June 20 last year.
The figure of 100 represents normal in a year of average growth
conditions with no crop damage.
    The test gave ratings expressed as a factor of 100, as
follows - winter wheat 96 (last year 91), winter rye 97 (98),
winter barley 92 (90), spring barley 94 (98), oats 96 (98),
fodder and sugar beets 87 (96), winter rapeseed 98 (94), spring
rapeseed 94 (98).
    Final harvest figures for 1986 were not yet available.
 Reuter

Pirelli group unit Pirelli Cable Corp's
communications division said it signed a cable supply contract
with NYNEX Corp <NYN> unit, NYNEX Enterprises.
    The company said Pirelli will supply NYNEX with fiber optic
cables over the next year. Terms of the contract were not
 Reuter

Unicorp American Corp said it sold
three properties in the Boston area for aggregate proceeds of
about 6,300,000 dlrs, resulting in a pre-tax gain of of about
3,200,000 dlrs.
    Income tax expense totaling about 1,700,000 dlrs reduced
this gain to about 1,500,000 dlrs for financial reporting
    The properties included an industrial building in Westwood,
Mass., a building containing retail stores in Lexington, Mass.,
and an office building in Bedford, Mass., the company added.
 Reuter

The Reserve Bank of India, RBI,
announced new rules to allow exporters of 25 products to use
foreign exchange up to 10 pct of their firm's total annual
export earnings for export promotion abroad.
    The move is designed by the government to improve India's
    Products eligible for the new Blanket Exchange Permit
Scheme include tea bags, cigarettes, coffee, leather, various
textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, engineering and
electronic goods, ready-made garments, processed food, sports
goods, fabricated mica and consultancy services.
    The scheme replaces current rules which allow different
amounts of foreign exchange to be used only when firms attain a
minimum annual turnover prescribed for each product.
    RBI said under the new rule, 16 other products will
qualify, on a discretionary basis, for overseas promotional
spending of not more than two pct of the freight-on-board value
of annual export earnings.
    These include oil cakes, cereals, raw cotton, raw and
semi-processed leather, gems, castor and sandalwood oil,
psyllium husks and seeds, opium and various mineral ores.
    RBI said exporters of products not covered by either of the
two groups will be eligible to use up to five pct of their
freight-on-board value of their annual export earnings.
    Industry sources said the new entitlements, considerably
higher than the previous limits, are also more flexible because
holders of new permits no longer need to frequently apply to
RBI for release of foreign exchange for export purposes.
 Reuter

Textron Inc unit Bell
Helicopter Textron Inc said it and two United Auto Workers
union locals agreed to a new three-year contract, ending a
three week strike.
    It said production and maintenance members of Local 218 had
been on strike for three weeks while clerical members of Local
317 had been on strike for a week. A total of 4,000 people were
out on strike.
    A company spokesman said the strike was based on a
disagreement over the method of future pay rises.
    The spokesman said the company's original offer was based
on lump sum payments over three years at six pct in the first
year, four pct in the second year and three pct in the third.
    He said management and the unions later agreed to a system
that combined general pay increases with lump sum payments over
the life of the contract.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs one ct
    Net 335,000 vs 67,000
    Rev 10.1 mln vs 8.7 mln
    Avg shares 7,933,000 vs 8,553,000
    Six Months
    Shr seven cts vs two cts
    Net 570,000 vs 133,000
    Rev 19.9 mln vs 16.8 mln
    Avg shares 7,952,000 vs 8,551,000
    NOTE: Qtr includes extraordinary gain of 125,000 dlrs, or
one ct a share, while six months' net includes gain of 150,000,
or two cts a share.
 Reuter

ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING DEMANDS CRAZY EDDIE SHAREHOLDER
LIST, MAY PURSUE MERGER

Unisys Corp said its public sector
systems division will market the ICON Series, an enhanced
microcomputer system for use in the classroom.
    It said the computer, made by Ontario based <Meridian 
Technologies Inc>, allows students and teachers to run multiple
programs simultaneously. It said the computer costs 1,895 dlrs
with a one megabyte of memory.
    It said the ICON Series is an enhanced version of an
instructional system marketed in Canada since 1984. Unisys said
it will market the ICON Series in the U.S. under an exclusive
licensing agreement with Meridian Technologies.
 Reuter

Pennzoil Co said it was advised by the
Securities and Exchange Commission that that commission will
file an amicus curiae brief in the Texas Supreme Court
concerning the Pennzoil/Texaco Inc (TX) litigation, but said it
was not aware whether that brief will adopt the position of one
of the litigants.
    Pennzoil said the brief is expected to be filed about July
20. "We do not know whether the brief will adopt the position
of one of the litigants or simply be an inquiry and request for
clarification of the reasoning of the two previous decisions in
this matter, both of which have been favorable to Pennzoil, a
Pennzol spokesman said.
    Pennzoil said that regardless of the focus of the brief
"Pennzoil will make an appropritate response in the court in
due course."
    Earlier today, Texaco said that in a letter dated June 26,
the SEC's general counsel told attornys representing Texaco and
Pennzoil that the commission will urge the Texas Supreme Court
to review the issue of federal securities law in the case
between the two companies. The litigation stems from Texaco's
purchase of Getty Oil Co in 1984 after Pennzoil had made an
offer from Getty.
 Reuter

Eastman Kodak Co said it is
marketing a test kit for the AIDS antibody developed and
manufactured by Cellular Products Inc.
    Kodak said the kit is the first in a series of diagnostic
tests for certain retroviruses, infectious diseases, and
various forms of cancer the company will distribute.
    A Kodak spokesman would not give financial details of the
agreement with Cellular Products.
    The spokesman said the AIDS test is the first biotechnology
product Kodak will market. He said the test is mainly suited
for blood banks and blood products supply businesses.
    He told Reuters that Kodak does not yet have a contract for
the test with any businesses but several are pending.
    Kodak said its AIDS test will cost about one dlr to 1.50
dlrs each, depending on volume.
    A positive test means there has been contact with the AIDS
virus, but it does not mean that a person has or will develop
AIDS.
    Kodak also said it also market a test developed by Cellular
that will detect a virus causing adult T-cell leukemia.
    It said that test is pending regulatory approval at the
 Reuter

DataCard Corp said it adopted a
dividend rights plan in response to Deluxe Check Printers Inc
<DLX> having agreed to sell its 38 pct interest in DataCard to
National Computer Systems Inc <NLCS.O>.
    DataCard declared a dividend distribution of one preferred
stock purchase right on each outstanding share its common
stock. The dividend is designed to deter National Computer or
other potential suitors from preventing DataCard from
evaluating all alternatives to maximize shareholder value,
DataCard said.
   
    National Computer told Reuters June 22 it could make a bid
for DataCard. On June 25 DataCard filed suit in Hennepin County
District Court in Minnesota to block the sale of the 38 pct
stake of its stock to National Computer.
    In announcing the rights plan, DataCard said it "is not
designed to deter takeovers that would be consistent with the
objective of maximizing stockholders value to all of DataCard's
    The rights will not become exercisable until 10 days after
an announcement that a person or group has acquired beneficial
ownership of 44 pct or more of DataCard's common stock.
   
    Once exercisable, each right would entitle a holder to buy
1/500th of a share of DataCard Series A junior participation
preferred Stock for 35 dlrs. Holders other than an acquirer
would be entitled to purchase, for six-months after the right
becomes exercisable, a number of shares of the new preferred
stock with a market value equal to twice the exercise price of
the rights.
    The rights dividend distribution is payable July 9 to
shareholders of record July 9.
 Reuter

Shr 12 cts vs one cent
    Net 546,000 vs 48,000
    Revs 22.3 mln vs 16.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 44 cts vs seven cts
    Net 1,857,000 vs 303,000
    Revs 65.5 mln vs 46.0 mln
    NOTE: Per share figures adjusted for three-for-two stock
split paid April 1987.
 Reuter

acquired the capital stock and related real estate assets of
<New Generation Inc>, a regional consumer electronics specialty
retailer.
    New Generation has annual sales volume of about 30 mln
dlrs, Federal Resources said.
    Federal Resources said it will search for additional
acquisitions including, but not limited to, specialty
retailers.
 Reuter

First Union Corp said its second
quarter (ending June 30) earnings will be down around 13 cts a
share from 65 cts a share in the second quarter last year to an
estimated 59 mln dlrs or 53 cts a share.
    The company said this will be the result of adding 25 mln
dlrs to its reserve for Latin American loan exposures, bringing
its reserve to 57 mln dlrs.
    It said it expects its return on equity and return on
assets to be among the highest for major United States banks
this year.
 Reuter

Enetertainment Marketing Inc and its
president Elias Zinn have demanded a list of Crazy Eddie Inc
shareholders from the company and said they may pursue a merger
of the Edison, N.J. electronics retailer.
Zinn said the demand for the shareholder list was made on June
26 because he may desire to communicate with other Crazy Eddie
shareholders "regarding the affairs" of the company.
    Zinn and his firm, which disclosed they hold a 5.1 pct
stake in Crazy Eddie common stock, said they may acquire more
shares through a negotiated merger or tender offer.
    Entertainment Marketing was informed on June 25 by Shearson
Lehman Brothers Inc., acting on behalf of Crazy Eddie, that it
would be provided with "certain information" about Crazy Eddie,
it told the SEC.
    Entertainment Marketing, a Houston-based firm involved in
electronics wholesaling and televised home shopping sales,
proposed an eight dlr a share merger acquisition of Crazy Eddie
on May 29, and modified the proposal on June 9 to include the
possible participation of Crazy Eddie management.
    Entertainment Marketing told the SEC it expects to meet
with Crazy Eddie representatives in the near future.
    Entertainment Marketing also disclosed that it retained
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc as its financial advisor and
investment banker.
    In light of a June 17 announcement from Crazy Eddie that
Chemical Bank would no longer fund a 52 mln dlr credit facility
with the company, plus further declines in the price of its
stock, Entertainment Marketing and Zinn said they are
"continuing to evaluate their alternatives with respect to
their investment" in Crazy Eddie stock.
    Depending on its evaluation of the company, including
actions by Crazy Eddie's board and any possible third party
bids for the company, Entertainment Marketing and its president
said they may hold their present stake in the company, sell
some of their shares, or purchase more shares on the open
market, through private purchases or in connection with a
merger or tender offer.
    According to the SEC filing, Entertainment Marketing and
Zinn bought their current holdings of 1,560,000 Crazy Eddie
common shares between May 20 and June 17 at 7.42 dlrs to 7.93
dlrs a share, or a total of about 11.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

U.S. moves to increase its warships in
and around the Mideast Gulf could trigger more attacks on
unprotected merchant ships but run little risk of sparking a
direct military clash with Iran, diplomats said.
    They said the American decision inevitably carries some
risk of armed confrontation, but Iran -- despite its blunt
rhetoric -- would want to avoid this as much as Washington.
    "As Iran knows very well, what America is bringing into the
Gulf could do serious damage," said one western diplomat.
    Diplomats see the greatest potential danger in more attacks
on "soft targets" such as merchant shipping not protected by
American or other western navy vessels patrolling the Gulf.
    The risk of Iranian attack on U.S. Warships or Kuwaiti oil
tankers carrying the U.S. Flag and under naval escort is rated
by diplomats as low. However, "There is the threat that the
Iranians, seeing these heavily protected U.S.-flag tankers,
will go for softer targets," one diplomat said.
    Tehran Radio quoted Iran's top defence spokesman Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying yesterday that Washington was
"moving to the brink of an armed encounter with us."
    The U.S. is increasing its Gulf fleet from seven to 10
warships and sending the refurbished battleship Missouri to
patrol just outside the Strait of Hormuz.
    The build-up ties in with U.S. plans to start escorting
Kuwaiti oil tankers next month, which have been re-registered
to fly the American flag to give them naval protection.
    Shipping serving Kuwait has come under repeated attack by
Iran, angered at the emirate's war backing of Iraq.
    Concern in the region has mounted over the threat posed by
Chinese-made Silkworm missiles, which the U.S. says Iran is
preparing to deploy near the Strait of Hormuz.
    The Missouri, with its four-escort flotilla, is likely to
make Iran think twice about using the missiles, diplomats said.
    A military source in the Gulf has said Iran also set up a
launching site for the Silkworms on captured Iraqi soil in the
Faw peninsula, within range of Kuwait.
    "But anything that went as far as a direct attack on Kuwaiti
territory would be a very serious escalation" likely moving
world opinion against Iran, remarked one.
    Some diplomats believe Iran could also consider carrying
out reprisals against the United States outside the Gulf.
    Rafsanjani, who is also parliamentary leader, predicted
last Friday "a river of blood" throughout the world in the event
of any U.S. strike against Iran.
    Western diplomats said Iran, which Washington has accused
of being behind state-sponsored terrorism, had no demonstrable
capacity to carry out attacks in the U.S. itself.
    Diplomats saw few potential targets in Lebanon now that
most Americans have left in the wake of kidnappings linked to
pro-Iranian groups. But Europe and Asia were potential
trouble-spots, and Kuwait was one of the most obvious targets.
    Any backlash was likely to take the form of sabotage or
other action to make it difficult to blame Iran, they added.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp is negotiating with the
Chinese Government owned First Autoworks about a project in
which the Dodge 600 mid-sized car could be added to the Chinese
firm's lineup, the trade paper Automotive News said.
    It said Chrysler is discussing the supply of 2.2 liter
four-cylinder engines as well as tooling for the 600, which has
been on the U.S. market since 1982.
    Chrysler spokesmen were not available for comment today.
But the trade paper quoted an unnamed spokesman as saying
Chrysler is competing with French-based Citroen and an unnamed
Japanese maker to supply First Autoworks.
 Reuter

Conquest Exploration Co said the
expiration date of its publicly traded warrants will not be
extended after July 15.
 Reuter

Hathaway Corp said it
restructured its debt financing which provides 15 mln dlrs for
expansion and operations of the company, twice the debt
financing previously available to the company.
    As part of the restructuring, Hathaway said it obtained 10
mln dlrs of long-term financing from Household Commercial
Financial Services Inc and Ford Motor Credit Co. An additional
5.0 mln dlrs of working capital financing was committed by
Colorado National Bank of Denver, it said.
    Hathaway said the new financing will be used to repay about
7.0, mln dlrs in existing short-term debt, with the balance for
    It said 10-year senior secured notes were executed June 15
and are payable with interest at 12 pct a year on a quarterly
basis.
 Reuter

Video Jukebox Network Inc said it has
extended through July two the exclusive period provided in its
May 29 letter of intent the option to sell to a group of
investors 3,500,000 shares of the four mln shares of the
company's common stock owned by its founder and president
Steven A. Peters.
    Video said it currently has 7,525,000 common shares
   
    The purchasers are Louis Wolfson III, vice president of
<Venture W Inc>, an investment firm; Mark Blank, president of
<National Brands Inc>; J. Patrick Michaels, Jr., president and
chief executive officer of <Communications Equity Associates
Inc>; and CEA Investors Partnerships II, a company Michaels
would form for the purchase, Video said.
    Video said it agreed to extend the period at the request of
the prospective buyers in order to provide their respective
counsels sufficient time to finalize the draft agreement which
the parties have negotiated.
   
    The company previously said that the outright purchase was
valued at three mln dlrs, or an option purchase price of
250,000 dlrs excersizable until May 28, 1988.
    The exercise price would be 3,750,000 dlrs plus the initial
option purchase price of 250,000 dlrs, the company said.
    Video said if the option expires unexercised, Video will
grant an additional six month option to the buyers enabling
them to purchase two mln shares for 1,750,000 dlrs plus the
initial option purchase price of 250,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

Cyclops Corp said shareholders
approved a previously announced merger of the company with a
subsidiary of dixons Group PLC.
    It said Dixons held about 83 pct of Cyclops stock following
a tender offer and other purchases earlier in the year.
    With the completion of the transaction, Dixons will proceed
to pay 95 dlrs a share to the remaining Cyclops shareholders.
 Reuter

Leeco Diagnostics Inc said its
sales team will be expanded due to the initial success of its
Preview pregnancy test kit.
    The company said the sales team, which sells to test kit to
physicians, is expected to rise to 150 from 100 in the next 45
days. It said test kits will be sold in U.S. drug stores later
this year.
    The Preview test, which takes five minutes and can detect
pregnancy within seven days of conception, had record sales in
its first month on the market, the company said.
 Reuter

Amax Zinc Co, a division of Amax
Inc, said it is increasing the price of dyecast alloys No.
Three and No. Five by three cents a lb, effective immediately.
    Dyecast alloy No. Three is now 52.5 cents a lb, while alloy
No. Five is now 53.5 cents a lb, the company said.
 Reuter

agreements for system account, a spokesman for the New York Fed
said.
    Federal funds were trading at 6-3/4 pct at the time of the
direct injection of temporary reserves, in line with Friday's
6.72 pct average.
 Reuter

Pharmacontrol Corp said
it has closed its public offering of 23,000 units.
    The company said each unit consists of 1,000 dlrs principal
amount of subordinated convertible debentures due 2002, which
convert at six dlrs a share into 167 shares of common stock.
Also, each unit included 70 shares of common stock which were
immediately detachable, the company said.
    Pharmacontrol added that it has also converted its seven
mln dlr credit facility with its institutional lender into a 12
mln dlr credit facility.
 Reuter

Asea Group AB <ASEAY> said it has been
awarded a 110 mln dlr contract from the Swedish State Power
Board and the Finnish utility <Imitran Oma Oy>.
    The company said the contract is for a 500 megawatt 400 kv
fenno skan high voltage DC transmission to be built between
Sweden and Finland.
    The company also said three other Asea companies; Asea
Transmission, Ludvika Sweden and Strondberg Vaasa in Finland,
received a related order for converter equipment.
 Reuter

Vernitron Corp said it has set a
new record date of July 10 for shareholders entitled to vote on
the proposed merger of Vernitron with <SB Holding Corp>.
    The original record date was May 26.
    Vernitron said that it currently expects the special
shareholder meeting concerning the merger will be held in
August.
holds 55.2 pct of Vernitron, a maker of electromechanical
components and related products and services.
 Reuter

Centel Corp is raising 60 mln dlrs via
an issue of debentures due 1997, said lead underwriter Smith
    Smith Barney headed a syndicate that won the debentures in
a competitive bidding. It bid the issue at 99.338 and set a 10
pct coupon and reoffering price of par to yield 146 basis
points over Treasuries. The net interest charge was 10.07 pct.
     Non-callable for five years, the debt is rated A-2 by
Moody's and A by S and P. Gross spread is 6.62 dlrs, selling
concession is 4.50 dlrs and reallowance is 2.50 dlrs. United
Bank of Switzerland and Dillon Reed co-managered the deal.
 Reuter

Energas Co said it has agreed in
principle to purchase Western Kentucky Gas Co from Texas
American Energy Corp for 61.5 mln dlrs in cash plus assumptrion
of certain liabilities.
    Western Kentucky is a gas distribution company which serves
about 143,000 customers in 108 towns and communities in
Kentucky.
 Reuter

The Franklin Group of Funds
said <Franklin Pennsylvania Investors Equity Fund> will pay an
initial semi-annual dividend of seven cts July 14 to holders of
record July one.
 Reuter

TNT Skypak, a unit of TNT Ltd of
Australia, said it introduced a new worldwide express package
delivery service, that will starts operation today.
    At a press conference, executive said the service, TNT
Expressair, will delivery packages up to 220 lbs from any
location in the U.S., anywhere in the world, and from overseas
locations to the U.S.
    Initially, TNT Expressair will concentrate its marketing in
the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia.
    TNT is one of the world's largest transportation companies,
with annual revenues of over US 4 billion dlrs.
    TNT officials declined to project expected annual revenues
for the new service. They said final price lists are being
prepared.
    As part of the new service, TNT will open another 20 to 25
offices in the U.S. by the end of the year, officlals said. It
currently has 27 offices in the U.S.
 Reuter

Gibraltar Financial Corp
said its Gibraltar Savings unit has agreed in principle to buy
<First Federal Savings and Loan of Ridgecrest> for about 12.1
    The company said the actual price will be determined at the
close, based on net book value at May 31.
    It said First Federal is located in Kearn County northeast
of Los Angeles and has assets of 130 mln dlrs.
    It said the transaction is subject to a definitive
agreement, shareholder and regulatory approval.
 Reuter

Winley Home Builders Inc said
it completed a land purchase agreement with M.D.C. Holdings Inc
<MDC> for 1,090,000 dlrs in notes and preferred stock.
    The company said it bought 33 lots in Colorado from
Richmond Homes Ltd, an M.D.C. unit, in return for 650,000 dlrs
in promissory notes and 440,000 dlrs in preferred stock.
    The company said M.D.C. has an option to convert Winley
preferred stock into 20 pct Winley common in a year.
 Reuter

Shr three cts vs two cts
    Net 97,224 vs 58,503 
    Rev 906,368 vs 714,747
    Avg shrs 3,300,000 vs 3,948,719
 Reuter

raising 200 mln marks through an eight-year bullet eurobond
carrying a 6-1/8 pct coupon and priced at 99-1/2 pct to yield
6.21 pct at issue, lead manager Westdeutsche Landesbank
Girozentrale said.
    Payment date is July 16, the bond pays interest on that
date annually, and matures on that date in 1995.
    Fees total 1-3/4 pct, with 5/8 for underwriting and
management and 1-1/8 for selling. Denominations are 1,000 and
10,000 marks and the bond will be listed in Duesseldorf and
Frankfurt.
 REUTER

GABELLI FIRMS HAVE 28.5 PCT STAKE IN DIGIORGIO CORP, MAY
SEEK CONTROL

Apollo Computer Inc said it introduced a
new family of computer workstations and improved the
performance and cut prices on some of its existing
    In addition, the company announced new products that allow
personal computers to communicate with workstations.
   
    Apollo said its new workstation family, the Domain Series
4000 Personal Super Workstations, includes the first color
workstation priced under 19,000 dlrs that can process four
    Apollo said the Domain Series 4000 also features a 14,000
dlr monochrome workstation and a 13,000 dlr workstation server,
both of which can process four million instructions per second.
    Apollo said the new Domain Series 4000 models double the
performance of its existing Domain Series 3000 workstations and
provide performace equivalent to competing workstations at
half the price.
    "We are clearly telling users that Apollo is committed to
maintaining its price/performance leadership in the workstation
marketplace," said Thomas A. Vanderslice, Apollo's chief
    Apollo also said it will offer new color and monochrome
models for the Domain Series 3000, its entry-level workstation
family. It said it also cut some prices but did not specify.
 Reuter

Qtly dividend 23 cts vs 21.6 cts in prior qtr
    Payable July 14
    Dividend includes short-term capital gain of 20 cts vs 16
cts short-term and 2.2 cts long-term gains in prior quarter
 Reuter

DSC Communications Corp said it signed a
supply agreement with United Telephone System Inc to deliver
DSC Signal Transfer Points valued at about 3.0 mln dlrs.
    It said the agreement runs through 1990 with product
deliveries expected to start later this year.
 Reuter

    Shr three cts vs 11 cts
    Net 384,723 vs 800,137
    Revs 5.1 mln vs 3.5 mln
 Reuter

its Royal American Foods subsidiary agreed to buy the assets of
Landshire Food Products Inc, a New-Mexico-based producer of
packaged Mexican food products.
    Terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Period ended May 31.
    Net loss 895,000  vs profit 662,000
    Sales 91.1 mln vs 89.8 mln
 Reuter

A group of firms led by Gabelli Group
Inc told government regulators it holds a 28.5 pct stake in
Digiorgio Corp common stock, and said two partnerships making
up part of the group may seek control of the company.
    In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Comission, the
group of firms said it holds 2,430,100 shares of Digiorgio
common stock. Of the total, 2,059,400 shares are held by GAMCO
Investors Inc and Gabelli Funds Inc. for investment purposes,

    Gabelli-Rosenthal and Partners LP and G and R Partners,
which hold the remaining 370,700 Digiorgio common shares, told
the SEC their "purpose is to ultimately obtain control of
Digiorgio contingent upon approval of Digiorgio," according to
the SEC filing. 
    As previously reported, Gabelli and Co Inc, acting as
investment advisor to a group including Gabelli-Rosenthal,
proposed on June 25 to acquire all Digiorgio common shares for
a per share price of 20 dlrs in cash, a subordinated note with
a face value of eight dlrs, 14 pct redeemable preferred stock,
and one common share of the post-buyout company.
    The June 25 buyout proposal, which remains open until July
17, also provides that key members of Digiorgio management and
some of its directors would be invited to remain with the firm
and participate in the group acquiring the company.
    The proposal is also subject to a due diligence review,
execution of a merger agreement, arrangement of financing and
receipt of government approvals, all of which Gabelli and Co
said could be completed within 60 days.
    Between April 13 and June 26, the entire group led by
Gabelli Group Inc made net purchases of 403,600 Digiorgio
common shares at 22.20 dlrs to 26.79 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Henley Group Inc unit,
Wheelabrator Technologies Inc, said it won a 243 mln dlrs
contract from <Mississippi Chemical Corp> unit Newsprint South
Inc.
    The company said the contract is for the construction of a
224,000 ton-per-year newsprint production facility in Grenada.
 Reuter

Brazil's motor industry, facing the
worst crisis of its history, today sent thousands of workers on
collective leave because of a sharp drop in demand.
    Company spokesmen said Autolatina, which last Friday laid
off 4,000 workers, sent nearly 9,000 of its 56,500 employees in
Brazil on collective leave until July 12.
    General Motors do Brasil said it would give 10 days' leave
to part of its 22,000 workforce from Wednesday.
    Fiat is giving 2,000 workers a month's holiday from July 6.
    Jacy Mendonca, industrial relations director of Autolatina,
a merger of Volkswagen and Ford in Brazil and Argentina, said
last week this would be the worst year ever for Brazil's auto
industry.
    He forecast that 1987 would be worse than 1981, when
domestic sales dropped 40 pct to 580,000 units.
    "This year we'll be lucky if we can sell 550,000 units," he
said.
    Since Friday there have been two positive developments for
the industry. The government announced that it was scrapping a
15 pct surcharge on all new car sales.
    The surcharge, created in July last year, was originally
set at 30 pct to help curb a car-buying boom and was in theory
refundable.
    Brazilian car distributors, which since June 16 had halted
all car purchases in protest against high government taxes,
responded to the government move by resuming purchases.
    But industry spokesmen said taxes on vehicles were still
high, 108 pct, and the sector still faced major problems.
 Reuter

Finance Minister Gibson Chigaga said all
of Zambia's traditional financial backers apart from Britain
had pledged continued backing for the country's new go-it-alone
economic program announced last month.
    Chigaga told Reuters in an interview it was not true that
Western states had threatened to withold financial aid
following Zambia's abandonement of a tough IMF-inspired program
that included the auctioning of the local kwacha.
    "It is only Britain which has openly come out to say it
would withhold funds intended for the auction system of foreign
exchange," Chigaga said.
    "All the other countries have said their relationship with
us cannot be affected by the abandonment of a system that only
lived for 18 months, when they have been supporting us for over
20 years now," he said.
    Chigaga said that Britain was now considering its stand
following representation by the Zambian government.
    Chigaga told Reuters that guidelines on the functioning of
the new economic prgram would be released soon.
 REUTER

Consolidated-Bathurst Inc said three of
its Quebec newsprint mills have been shut down by strikes which
began over the weekend.
    The company said about 2,000 workers, members of the
Canadian Paperworkers Union and another, independent union,
walked out at its Wayagamack mill at Trois-Rivieres, its
Laurentide mill at Grand-Mere and its Belgo mill at Shawinigan.
    Their contract expired April 30.
    The Laurentide mill has an annual capacity of 200,000 
tonnes, the Belgo mill 350,000 tonnes, and the Wayagamack mill
70,000 tonnes.
    The strikes are the first at Consolidated-Bathurst mills
since an industry-wide walkout in 1976, company spokeswoman
Denise Dallaire said.
    "As far as management is concerned, negotiations are going
on right now," Dallaire said, adding she could not elaborate.
Union officials were not immediately available for comment.
Company officials had said at the annual meeting in April they
expected no labor problems this year.
 reuter

IBM Credit Corp said it filed with the
covering a 500 mln dlr issue of medium-term notes.
    The company named First Boston and Salomon Brothers as
agents for the offering.
 Reuter

Unicoa Corp said it agreed to a merger
with its wholly-owned subsidiary, United Insurance Co of
America.
    Under the agreement, each outstanding share of Unicoa
common stock will be converted into one share of United common
stock.
    The agreement is subject to shareholder and regulatory
approval. Teledyne Inc <TDY> owns about 98.4 pct of Unicoa's
outstanding shares. A shareholder meeting is expected to be
held in August.
 Reuter

developed a set of independent control reagents for
laboratories performing AIDS testing.
    The control set consists of human blood serum free of AIDS
antibodies, serum with early signs of antibody formation and
serum with strong antibody components.
    The company said the control sets are designed for use with
all Food and Drug Administration-licensed  AIDS screening and
supplemental test and will be marketed worldwide.
 Reuter

Weekend rain over the Western Corn Belt
brought further relief to crop areas that had been dry earlier
this month, and developing weather patterns will bring welcome
moisture to central and eastern belt locations this week,
according to Dale Mohler, senior meteorologist for Accu-Weather
Inc.
    "There is going to be more rain for the next two, three
days," he said. "We're in a fairly wet pattern with normal to
above normal moisture this week."
    Mohler said rainfall averaged 1/2 inch across southern
Minnesota, 3/4 inch over southwest Iowa, one inch in eastern
Nebraska and 1-1/2 inches in south-central Nebraska.
    Illinois fields saw virtually no rain over the weekend but
were receiving scattered thundershower activity today, he said.
    Rain patterns will move across Indiana to Ohio with
thudershower activity yielding to more general rains, he said.
    "Tomorrow, that eastern area will get 1/4 to one inch, a
pretty good rain," Mohler said.
    Rain was heavier than expected over the weekend, sparking
an early selloff in soybean futures at the Chicago Board of
Trade. Prices were off 14 to 20-1/2 cents with November off
19-1/2 cents at 5.43-1/2 dlrs.
    Mohler said the cold front now over the eastern belt is
expected to move over the central Midwest, then move north
later in the week. That could bring new rain patterns across
the Corn Belt and assure good crop conditions as
early-developed corn moves into the crucial pollination stage
in early July, he said.
 Reuter

U.S. car production is scheduled to drop
by 10.4 pct to about 1.47 mln in the third quarter from last
year's 1.63 mln as domestic automakers react to a drop in sales
from last year's record levels, trade paper Automotive News
said.
    Automotive News said General Motors Corp <GM> has slashed
its planned car production by 12.6 pct from last year's third
quarter totals while Ford Motor Co <F> is scheduling its plants
to build 5.4 pct fewer cars and Chrysler Corp <C> will be off
18.4 pct.
    But the paper quoted analysts as saying the production
should be cut by at least 200,000 more units to avoid excessive
inventory build-up in view of a relatively soft market for new
cars.
    Through June 20, sales of new domestic-built cars are off
11.9 pct from last year's levels. Only Ford among the Detroit
Big Three is enjoying a sales gain.
    GM and Ford may be working to stockpile cars despite the
market conditions because of the prospect of a strike in
September by the United Automobile Workers union, analysts said.
 Reuter

May 31 end
    Shr 27 cts vs 14 cts
    NOTE: First quarter report
 Reuter

Apollo Computer Inc said the price cuts
announced earlier today on its Domain Series 3000 computer
workstations average 35 pct to 50 pct.
    An Apollo spokesman said the cuts bring prices to under
5,000 dlrs for some Series 3000 models.
    In addition to reducing prices, the company said it added
new monochrome and color models to the Series 3000 line that
improve its performance and graphics capabilities.
    The company made the price cuts along with the introduction
of a more powerful family of workstations, the Domain Series
4000.
   
    Industry analysts had expected Apollo to reprice the Series
3000 in response to aggressive price cuts made two weeks ago by
Digital Equipment Corp <DEC> on its competing
    But the Apollo spokesman said the reductions had been
planned for some time. "We haven't just cut prices," he added,
noting that the company had improved the Series 3000 models.
    Analysts have said they also expect Sun Microsystems Inc
<SUNW.O>, Apollo's biggest rival in the workstation market, to
cut prices and introduce new models. Sun has scheduled a new
conference on July eight.
 Reuter

Qtly div 6.25 cts vs 6.25 cts prior
    Pay Oct 2
    Record Sept 1
    (Corrects amount of qtly div in item that ran on Friday Jan
26)
 Reuter

FED APPROVES CITICORP PURCHASE OF SOME ASSETS OF SEARS
CALIF. THRIFT

Properties Trust said it reached an understanding to purchase
three nursing facilities in Mass. and Conn. for 29 mln dlrs
from Greenery Rehabilitation Group Inc <GRGI.O>.
    The buildings will be leased back to Greenery for an
initial term of seven years, subject to renewal options for an
additional 23 years, Health and Rehabilitation Properties said.
    The transaction is expected to close on or before August 31.
 Reuter

from last year's record levels, a trade paper said.
    Automotive News said General Motors Corp has slashed its
planned car output by 12.6 pct from last year's third quarter
totals, while Ford Motor Co is scheduling its plants to build
5.4 pct fewer cars and Chrysler Corp will be off 18.4 pct.
    However, the paper quoted analysts as saying production
inventory build-up amid weak demand for new cars.
    Analysts said GM and Ford may be working to stockpile cars
despite the market conditions because of the prospect of a
strike in September by the United Automobile Workers union.
 Reuter

Agency said it denied a request by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
Corp that it be allowed to continue to operate the Follansbee,
W. Va., sinter plant while court-ordered pollution control
equipment is installed.
    The EPA said that since the original consent decree with
the company was signed in 1979, the company had had numerous
opportunities to reduce harmful emmissions from the plant.
    The agency said that only after the company failed to
comply by the last available extension of its compliance
deadline did the agency ask the court to close the plant.
 Reuter

BSN Corp said it holds less than five pct
of MacGregor Sporting Goods.
    The company said the stock was acquired through recent open
market purchases and the stake does not require specific
disclosure.
 Reuter

new record date for shareholders entitled to vote on the
proposed merger of Vernitron Corp with SB Holding Corp for July
10.
    Vernitron, which manufactures electromechanical components
and related products and services, said it expects that a
special meeting of shareholders will be held in August.
    Vernitron said that SB Holding holds 55.2 pct in Vernitron,
resulting from a tender offer in November 1986.
 Reuter

The U.S. League of Savings Institutions
said it has launched a program to bolster the liquidity of some
savings and loan institutions and reduce their dependency on
high interest rate deposits.
    A spokesman for the league said 48 institutions have
committed 340 mln dlrs to the program and estimated that the
program would begin within a week.
 Reuter

approved Citicorp's application to purchase through its
subsidiary, Citicorp Savings of Oakland, Calif., some assets
and assume some liabilities of Sears Savings Bank of Glendale,
Calif.
    Citicorp Savings proposed to assume two billion dlrs in
deposits and other liabilities and to purchase 1.9 billion dlrs
in assets of 50 branch offices of Sears Savings.
    The proposal involved less than one third of the assets and
liabilities of Sears Savings, owned by Sears, Roebuck and Co
<S>.
    The Fed said that it generally has determined there were
potentially adverse effects of allowing affiliations of banks
and savings and loan associations, although it has allowed bank
holding companies to acquire some failing thrifts.
    It said Citicorp's proposal "properly may be viewed as the
permissible acquisition of certain assets and liabilities of S
and L branches rather than the acquisition of an S and L."
    Citicorp Savings, the successor to the failed Fidelity
Savings and Loan Association, has assets of 4.9 billion dlrs
and operates 86 branches in California, mainly in the north.
    Sears Savings has 6.6 billion in assets and 91 branches
predominantly in southern California.
    The application, which was approved unanimously, will not
eliminate Sears Savings as a competitor, the Fed said.
 Reuter

Loral Corp said its Loral
Defense Systems won a 29.4-mln-dlr contract with the U.S. Air
Force to build 17 advanced transportation and handling sytems.
    The systems, the company said, will help extend the life
and effectiveness of the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic
Missile.
    The systems are scheduled for delivery from August 1988 to
May 1989. They will service about 1,000 Minuteman missiles.
 Reuter

National Patent Development Corp and
Bar-Ilan University of Israel said that their joint venture
corporation, Scientific Testing Inc, will begin a clinical
trial in the U.S. of its immuno-augmenting compound, AS101, for
the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
    The study will be conducted at the Institute of
Immunological Disorders (MD Anderson Hospital, Houston, Tex)
under the direction of Dr Peter Mensell, pursuant to an
investigational new drug application filed with the Food and
Drug Administration, the company said.
    The study, expected to begin in four to six weeks, is
designed to test the effects of AS101 on about 30 AIDS
patients, National Patent said.
    It added that AS101, a proprietary synthetic compound
invented by Bar-Ilan University doctors, has shown
immuno-augmenting, anti-viral and anti-tumor activity in
preclinical animal testing, and immuno-augmenting activity in a
limited number of AIDS patients in phase one foreign clinical
tests.
 Reuter

it purchased the remaining 225,000 shares of Viratek Inc
<VIRA.O> owned by Eastman Kodak Co owned as part of a
previously announced program.
    The company said it paid Kodak 10.50 dlrs a share or 2.4
mln dlrs. As previously announced, ICN also said it authorized
the additional purchase of up to 1.5 mln shares of Viratek
common. To date, ICN said it bought a total of about 1.2 mln
shares of Viratek, including the shares purchased from Kodak.
    The company said it now owns 56 pct of Viratek as a result
of these transactions.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved two
loans to Mexico totalling 205 mln dlrs to provide financial
assistance to industrial companies and finance a project
dealing with agricultural extension services.
    Mexico's Nacional Financiera (NF), the recipient of both
loans, will receive 185 mln dlrs to be used to provide
long-term credit and equity funds to small and medium-sized
industrial enterprises, the bank said.
    It said a 20 mln dlr loan is being made to help finance a
project designed to test strategies to improve the quality and
cost effectiveness of agricultural extension services.
    The industrial enterprise project, estimated to cost 350.3
mln dlrs, aims to support companies threatened by high
inflation and adversely affected by increased competition
brought about by bank-supported trade liberalization measures.
    The bank said the 73.8 mln dlr extension services project
will examine strategies in 20 of Mexico's 192 rural development
districts and finance training for personnel and farmers,
office construction and the purchasing of equipment.
    Both loans are for 15 years, including three years of
grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 7.92 per cent,
which is linked to the bank's cost of borrowing funds.
 Reuter

Intel Corp said it has signed a
letter of intent with privately-held Silicon Compiler Systems
Corp under which Intel will become a value-added silicon vendor
for integrated circuits designed with Silicon Compiler's
GENESIL silicon compilation system.
    Under the proposed pact, Intel would provide initial
silicon foundry services for GENESIL-based designs.
    GENESIL users would be able to compile their
application-specific designs using Intel's 1.5-micron
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process.
   
 Reuter

Turkey 325 mln dlrs to help support an energy sector reform
program.
    The loan-supported program hopes to reduce the extensive
public sector involvement in the country's energy production
and supply, the bank said.
    The loan is for 17 years, including four years of grace,
with a variable interest rate, currently 7.92 pct, the bank
said.
 Reuter

discussing a deal with Cairo under which Egypt would build the
U.S. M-1A1 battle tank, a high-speed weapon packed with laser
and other technology, Pentagon officials said.
    But they denied a Washington Post report that the
Administration has already approved a production license, which
would entail transfer of sensitive technology to Egypt.
    "We have been talking with Egyptian officials about also
producing the tank, but there is a long way to go before any
decision is made," one Pentagon official, who asked not to be
identified, told Reuters.
 Reuter

Oper shr 50 cts vs 40 cts
    Oper net 20.8 mln vs 16.4 mln
    Revs 531.7 mln vs 418.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 1st quarter net excludes a gain of 47.1 mln dlrs
or 1.14 dlrs a share for discontinued operations.
 Reuter

Telequest Inc said Henry
Marcheschi, its chairman and president, resigned for health
reasons.
    Executive vice president Robert Lee was elected president
and chief executive to succeed Marcheschi, the company said.

 Reuter

Maxtor Corp said it bought
privately-held Storage Dimensions Inc for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said Storage Dimensions incorporates Maxtor's
high-capacity 5-1/4-inch Winchester and optical disk drives
into a family of data storage subsystems for IBM PCs, XTs, ATs
    Storage Dimensions is the creator or SpeedStor software, a
utility program that integrates high-capacity disk drives into
PCs.
    Maxtor said the purchase reflects its desire to compete in
the high-capacity segment of the PC market.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs seven cts
    Net 936,000 vs 351,000
    Revs 153.3 mln vs 145 mln
 Reuter

The board of directors of the last
entirely private Uruguayan bank, La Caja Obrera, has approved
its merger with a state-owned bank due to a severe financial
crisis, a bank statement said.
    It said the Caja Obrera would merge with the Banco Pan de
Azucar. The move was decided by the board of the Banco de la
Republica, the state bank that since 1985 has had control the
Banco Pan de Azucar.
    La Caja Obrera said the move aimed "at assuring its normal
and stable operation, with a full guarantee for the people
holding deposits as well as clients and employees."
    La Caja Obrera was the last entirely private Uruguayan
bank. The Banco Pan de Azucar after being taken over by the
Banco de la Republic in 1985 carried out a similar merger
operation with the Banco de Italia.
 Reuter

Inc, General Electric Co unit GE Information Services and
<Premier Hospital Alliance> said they developed a computer
purchasing system for the health care industry.
    They said the system, known as ASAP Express, removes the
need to have a different computer system for each vendor and
will streamline hospital purchasing systems by reducing
paperwork and simplifying billing.
    The system combines Baxter's ASAP (Analytic Systems
Automated Purchasing) clearinghouse system and the GE EDI
(electronic data interchange) Express system.
    GE Information Services operates a large commercially
available teleprocessing network. Illinois based Premier
Hospital Alliance is a voluntary group of 37 hospitals in 30
U.S. cities.
    Baxter Travenol said that by the end of 1987 it expects
more than 100 hospitals to be part of the ASAP Express system,
with a majority of the 5,600 current ASAP users participating
in the ASAP Express system in the next five years.
 Reuter

SEC CHARGES CAMPEAU'S ALLIED STORES WITH DISCLOSURE
VIOLATIONS IN RECENT TAKEOVER

General Motors Corp's German subsidiary
Adam Opel AG had a first half profit after three years of
losses, the trade paper Automotive News said.
    The paper quoted Opel chairman Horst Herke as saying the
unit will earn at least 100 mln marks in 1987 after losing
141.5 mln marks in 1986.
    "In the first six months of this year, we have clearly had
black numbers," Herke said. "As far as we can see, we will
conclude the full year with a profit, he said.
    The paper also said Opel is likely sell its Senator and
Omega models in the U.S. if it goes ahead with an export plan.
 Reuter

Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc said its
management knows of no developments to account for unusually
heavy trading in the company's stock.
    The company said it was responding to inquiries regarding
recent activity of its common on the American Stock Exchange.
    In early afternoon trading, the stock was down 1-7/8 to
5-1/8 on a turnover of 160,400 shares.
 Reuter

A group of companies controlled by
Brookehill Partners Inc told government authorities it may
support a buyout of Cardis Corp as a way to maximize the value
of the company's stock.
    In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 
the group disclosed that it currently holds a 5.5 pct stake in
Cardis common stock, and said it "would likely support" an
acquisition of the company as a whole or in parts by another
party, terming such a move "the most likely means for the
company's shareholders to maximize the value of their
    Although the group characterized its Cardis stock holdings
as principally for investment, it said it intends to contact
third parties who might be interested in an acquisition of
Cardis, a Los Angeles-based auto parts distributor.
    The group added its has already had "some contacts" with
others concerning the company, but said no understandings have
    "The (Cardis) common shares continue to offer opportunity
for price appreciation on the basis of the company's asset
value and earnings momentum," the Brookehill group told the
SEC.
    The group, which currently holds 318,900 Cardis common
shares, consists of New York-based Brookehill Partners and its
two subsidiaries, Brookehill Equities Inc, a brokerage, and
Moore, Grossman and deRose Inc, an investment advisor. Walter
Grossmman, S. Edward Moore and Robert deRose, all of New York,
each own one-third interests in Brookehill Partners.
    Since April 27, members of the Brookehill group made net
purchases of 6,000 Cardis common shares at approximately 4 dlrs
a share. The group told the SEC it may continue to purchase
additional Cardis stock, but also reserved the right to sell
its shares in the company.

 Reuter

Bank of New York Co Inc said it expects
a second quarter loss of 35 mln dlrs.
    The company said this is partly due to an addition of 135
mln dlrs to its loan loss allowance.
    The 135 mln dlr addition to its loan loss allowance, which
is expected to be 400 mln dlrs on June 30, is in recognition of
recent international debt developments.
    It said its loss projection of 35 mln dlrs for the second
quarter, ending June 30, takes into account the 49 mln dlr gain
from the sale of RMJ Holdings and compares with last year's
second quarter income of 37.8 mln dlrs.
    The first six months should show income of around 12 mln
dlrs, the bank said, with income set to exceed 100 mln dlrs for
the full year.
    Last year's income reached 155 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

may downgrade 1.3 billion dlrs of debt of Public Service
Company of New Hampshire.
    Under review are B-1 first mortgage bonds, B-2 refunding
mortgage bonds, B-3 third mortgage and secured pollution
control revenue bonds, Caa debentures and preferred stock.
    Moody's cited an uncertain ability to meet fixed-income
obligations due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's refusal
to grant a low-power operating license because of inadequate
evacuation plans. The firm depends on credit markets to fund
obligations, due to a negative internal cash flow, it said.
 Reuter

 Reuter

would question President Reagan tomorrow about his plan to
protect Kuwaiti oil tankers with U.S. warships from attacks by
Iran in the Gulf.
    House and Senate Democrats, who control Congress, have been
critical of Reagan's plan but have not decided how or if they
should try to pass legislation to prohibit it.
    Wright, a Texas Democrat, told reporters the Administration
had gone ahead with plans to reflag the Kuwaiti tankers as U.S.
ships without asking Congressional leaders for their advice.
 Reuter

GenRad Inc said it has introduced
the HITEST test generation system.
    The company said HITEST takes a modular approach to test
generation, using a set of interactive software tools that
automate many parts of the test generation process.
    HITEST runs on Digital Equipment Corp <DEC> VAX and
MicroVax computers and is priced at 64,000 dlrs for a software
license, GenRad said.
    It added that delivery is immediate.
 Reuter

Caremark Inc and Baxter
Travenol Laboratories Inc jointly announced that Caremark
shareholders will vote on July 31 to approve the previously
announced merger with Baxter.
    The companies said Caremark shareholders of record as of
June 26 will be entitled to vote at the meeting to be held in
Newport Beach, Calif, at 1000 PDT.
    On May 11, Baxter and Carmark announced a definitive
agreement for Baxter to acquire Carmark in a stock transaction
valued at 528 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

State merchant bank Mediobanca Spa
<MDBI.MI> said an Italian banking consortium has arranged 100
mln dlrs in financing for Banque Exterieure d'Algerie.
    Mediobanca said in a statement that the financing was part
of an accord reached last March between Italy and Algeria which
agreed 300 mln dlrs of financing for Italian exports to
Algeria.
    Mediobanca said 12 Italian banks were participating in the
consortium, but gave no further details about the financing.
Among the banks are Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BANI.MI>, Banco
di Sicilia and Efibanca Spa.
 REUTER

Commission charged Allied Stores Corp with failing to promptly
disclose key steps it was taking last September to thwart a
takeover attempt by Campeau Corp.
    In an administrative complaint, the SEC said Allied and its
legal adviser failed to promptly inform shareholders and the
agency that it had begun talks with Youngstown, Ohio, shopping
center developer Edward DeBartolo in response to Campeau's
    Campeau acquired Allied for an estimated 4.2 billion dlrs
on Jan 1, following a battle with DeBartolo.
    On Sept 25, a day after Allied disclosed that its board had
urged rejection of Campeau's Sept 12 tender offer for 58 dlrs a
share, Allied began negotiating the sale of six shopping
centers to DeBartolo, the SEC said.
    Allied legal advisor and director George Kern, who heads
the merger and acquisitions group at the New York law firm of
Sullivan and Cromwell, decided against amending Allied's SEC
filing to disclose the talks even though they had resulted in
sales price of 405 mln dlrs for the shopping centers, it said.
    Securities law requires takeover target companies to
promptly disclose such things as the sale of major assets.
    The day after Campeau increased its tender offer to 80 pct
of Allied's stock from 55 pct and raised its bid to 66 dlrs a
share from 58 dlrs on Sept 29, Allied and a partnership headed
by DeBartolo began negotiating a takeover deal aimed at
thwarting Campeau, the SEC said.
    Kern again decided against disclosing the talks in an
amended SEC filing, the agency charged.
    Allied's first disclosure of the DeBartolo takeover was
made on Oct 8, even though its board approved the merger on Oct
3 and the merger agreement was executed on Oct 7, the complaint
said.
    DeBartolo and Campeau later engaged in a bitter battle for
control of Allied, with Campeau winning out later in October
when it bought a block of 25.8 mln shares of Allied stock, or
48 pct of the total, in a controversial move made only minutes
after it dropped its hostile tender offer.
    The acquisition of the additional 48 pct, which a federal
judge allowed to be completed, gave Campeau a majority stake in
Allied. Campeau bought the rest at 69 dlrs a share.
    The SEC said it had planned to file a court brief joining
with Allied in charging that Campeau had engaged in an illegal
    But the SEC brief was never filed since the case was
dropped following an agreement between Campeau and DeBartolo.
    In the administrative proceeding against Allied and Kern,
the SEC is asking for an administrative order that they comply
with reporting provisions of securities laws in the future.
    Although Allied is no longer publicly traded since it
became a subsidiary of Campeau, it still files annual and
quarterly reports to the SEC because it has outstanding debt.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs n/a
    Net 671,000 dlrs vs 1,256,000 dlrs
    Year
    Shr 1.85 dlrs vs n/a
    Net four mln dlrs vs 2.8 mln dlrs
    Assets 426.4 mln dlrs vs 334.1 mln dlrs
    Deposits 323.1 mln dlrs vs 277.2 mln dlrs
    Loans 335.9 mln dlrs vs 254.9 mln dlrs
    Note:the company does not give 1986 per share earnings as
it converted from a mutual savings bank to a stock savings bank
in January 1986
 Reuter

completed the sale seven businesses in its electronics and
instrumentation sector for 1.8 billion dlrs in cash and in debt
assumed by the purchasers.
    The company said last December its would sell the units by
mid 1987. It did not identify the buyers.
    The company said the proceeds will be used to reduce debt,
continue the company's share buyback program, and increase
strategic investments in its core businesses and other
    It said the units sold were Ampex Corp, Amphenol Prodcuts,
Linotype Group, Neptune International, MPB Corp, Revere Corp
and Sigma Instruments Inc.
 Reuter

Cycare Systems Inc, an
information processing systems company, said it purchased the
assets of Control Data Corp's MedTec unit for undisclosed
terms.
    MedTec is a provider of patient accounting and scheduling
systems for large scale group medical practices.
 Reuter

U.S. Minerals Exploration Co said it and
Pegasus Gold Inc <PGUL.O> of Spokane, Wash, officially
commissioned a new gold, zinc and lead producing mine.
    U.S. Minerals said the new Montana Tunnels Mine near
Helena, Mont, is expected to reach full production in August
1987. U.S. Minerals said the mine is designed to operate at an
average of 12,500 tons or ore per day and is projected to
produce 95,000 ounces of gold in 1988, plus significant
quantities of silver, lead and zinc.
    U.S. Minerals said it has a 50 pct net profit royalty
interest in the mine after payback of development costs.
 Reuter

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of
America Inc said it is raising car prices by an average 1.8
pct, or 227 dlrs and truck prices by 1.6 pct, or 150 dlrs,
because of the continued strength of the Japanese yen against
the U.S. dollar.
    The company also said the price for its Montero
sport/utility vehicle will be increased by 1.5 pct, or 150 dlr.
    The changes are effective immediately, Mitsubishi also
said.
 Reuter

Becor Western Inc said no
business will be transacted at the shareholders meeting
scheduled for 1000 CDT tomorrow and the meeting will be
permanently adjourned.
    If a definitive agreement or transaction results from any
of the offers now pending for the company's stock, Becor said,
a date for a new shareholders meeting will be established.
 Reuter

Universal Communication Systems Inc
said it has tentatively agreed to sell substantially all its
assets for about 79 mln dlrs in cash and notes plus limited
profit participation.
    The company said the terms of the sale have been approved
by its board and by Prime Motor Inns Inc <PDQ>, owner of about
84 pct of Universal's outstanding stock.
    It described the purchaser as a subsidiary of a company in
the communications field which is one of the 100 largest U.S.
    The company said the transaction involves the payment of 20
mln dlrs in cash, a non-interest bearing payment of 11.3 mln
dlrs in four equal instalments over four years and two
promissory notes guaranteed by an affiliate of the purchaser.
    It said a 31.5 mln dlr 14 pct note is payable in four equal
instalments over four years. It said a 16.3 mln dlr 8.5 pct
note due Dec 31, 1992, includes participation in the 1992
profits of the acquiring company. Universdal said the profit
element can be terminated with payments by the purchaser of
either five mln dlrs in 1988, six mln dlrs in 1989, seven mln
dlrs in 1990 or eight mln dlrs in 1991.
 Reuter

Union Enterprises Ltd said its agreement
to sell its interest in Canbra Foods Ltd to Macluan Capital
Corp has been terminated.
    Union said Macluan failed to make an offer for Union's 72
pct interest in Canbra before the June 22 deadline.
    Union said it is no longer bound by the agreement and is
continuing to seek a buyer for the interest.
 Reuter

PepsiCo Inc's Pepsi-Cola USA said it
named privately owned Lockhart and Pettus Inc of New York to
handle its advertising and promotion to Black consumers.
    Pepsi-Cola USA said it is the second major new account for
Lochart and Pettus in as many weeks. Earlier this month,
Chrysler Motors Corp named the agency to handle its minority
marketing.
 Reuter

Unicorp American Corp <UAC.A> said it
will take an after-tax gain in the second quarter of 1.5 mln
dlrs from the sale of three properties in the Boston area.
    It said the properties were sold for aggregate proceeds of
about 6.3 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Molex Inc said it signed a
distribution and share-purchase agreement with Dubilier PLC, of
Abingdon, Oxon, England.
    Under the agreement, Molex will sell Dubilier's products
worldwide and receive 2.1 mln ordinary shares in Dubilier at a
price of two British pounds, or 3.22 U.S. dlrs, a share.
    The shares, which represent 6.39 pct of the existing issued
share capital of Dubilier, will be issued under a U.K.
subscription agreement that restricts Molex from disposing of
the shares and from increasing its holding above 9.9 pct for
two years.
 Reuter

SSMC Inc said it has executed a
letter of understanding to acquire the Parts Catalog Division
of <Cutters Exchange Inc> for an undisclosed amount.
    SSMC, spun off from the Singer Co <SMF> a year ago, said
that the Parts Catalog Division wholesales parts and needles to
the industrial sewing trade in the U.S.
    Under the agreement, key managers and employees of the
Parts Catalog Division in Nashville, Tenn, will relocate to the
SSMC facility in Murfreesboro, SSMC said.
 Reuter

<SunRiver Corp>, a Jackson, Miss.-based
computer products company, said it introduced the first line of
computer workstations designed to be connected with powerful
personal computers over fiber-optic cable.
    The privately held company said up to 16 of its new Cygna
386 workstations can attach to a PC based on Intel Corp's
<INTC.O> 80386 microprocessor, which include models sold by
Compaq Computer Corp <CPQ> and International Business Machines
Corp <IBM>.
    SunRiver said the Cygna workstations allow users to access
files and share printers and other equipment controlled by an
80386-based PC.
    In addition, the workstations are the first of their kind
to offer full graphics capabilities in a multiuser-multitasking
environment, Sunriver said.
    The company said the Cygna line will be available in
October at prices starting at 1,599 dlrs.
 Reuter

The Treasury Department said it
notified the Netherlands that it was terminating the 1948
income tax treaty as it applies to the Netherlands Antilles and
Aruba.
    The termination is effective January 1, 1988, the Treasury
said in a two-sentence announcement.
    The Treasury decided to end the treaty after negotiations
between the United States and the Netherlands over the past
eight years had failed to reach an accord, a Treasury spokesman
said.
    The decision means the sale by U.S. parent companies of
Eurobonds through Netherlands Antilles subsidiaries will no
longer be free of the 30 pct U.S. withholding tax, the
    Terminating the tax treaty with the Netherlands Antilles 
may cause bond issuers to call in the bonds early. Most have
maturities of 10 years or less and were issued before 1984, the
    He said the Treasury did not expect the action to have an
adverse effect on U.S. issuers of the bonds because the general
decline in interest rates means they will be able to refinance
at lower interest rates.
    However, the holders of the bonds presumably will be faced
with lower yields.
 Reuter

Westinghouse Electric Corp took
over operations of several facilities at the U.S. Department of
Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash, the
DOE said.
    It said that Westinghouse replaces Rockwell International
and UNC Nuclear Inc, who have been criticized by the state of
Washington, the federal government and environmentalists for
failing to correct safety problems at Hanford.
    Westinghouse signed a four billion dlr contract three weeks
ago to operate Hanford for the next five years, DOE said.
    The contract provides the company and annual profit between
1.4 mln and 14.6 mln dlrs, depending on the quality of its
performance, the DOE said. "Our first objective is to be safe,"
soid William Jacobi, Westinghouse general manager at Hanford,
adding, "If we can make that (safety) a priority we can have
the production we need."
    Westinghouse's chief mission at Hanford is to produce
plutonium, supervise research for the Strategic Defense
Inititive, SDI, and the cleanup of military nuclear waste
stored in tanks at the site since the 1940's, company and DOE
   
 Reuter

Eldon Industries Inc expects a record
July 12 second quarter, Chairman Robert Silverstein told the
New York Society of Security Analysts.
    The company's previous best second quarter was the period
ended July 12, 1986 when Eldon had earnings of 1,353,000 dlrs,
or 31 cts a share on sales of 20.7 mln dlrs.
    Silverstein said, "If these positive trends continue, we
look forward to favorable quarterly comparisons for the balance
of the year, resulting in another record year in sales and
income."
 Reuter

<Westland Group Plc> said it signed a 40
mln stg, five-year unsecured syndicated bond and guarantee
facility.
    In a prepared statement it said the facility would support
future sales, particularly of helicopters, and would be
extendable annually on an evergreen basis. The facility also
could be used to guarantee down payments and advances by
customers and to provide performance bonds.
    The facility was provided equally by seven international
banks from Europe and Japan and by Britain's Export Credits
Guarantee Department.
 REUTER

affirmed Greyhound Corp's Baa-2 subordinated debt rating and
Prime-2 commercial paper rating. Some 160 mln dlrs of long-term
debt is affected.
    Moody's said Greyhound's debt had been under review for
possible downgrade since May, when it agreed to acquire the
in-flight catering and airport terminal concession businesses
of Carson Pirie Scott and Co for about 390 mln dlrs.
    Moody's said it expects Greyhound to experience generally
improved results over the next several years due to recent
strategic acquisitions. It has reduced debt via asset sales.
 Reuter

Carolco Pictures Inc said it signed
a letter of intent to exchange 2.2 mln of its shares for all
Orbis Communications Inc stock within the next 60 days.
    It said the Carolco shares used in the exchange are valued
at 7.00 dlrs a share or a total value of 15.4 mln dlrs and will
be adjusted based on the price of Carolco shares on the closing
date.
    It said Orbis management will remain in place for at least
 Reuter

The Paris-based Intergovernmental Council
of Copper Exporting Countries (CIPEC) is closely studying the
current backwardation in world copper market prices but does
not envisage taking corrective action at present, CIPEC sources
here said.
    The organisation's executive and marketing committees
reviewed the current market situation during a series of
meetings here late last week, but took no major decisions.
    The sources noted that the backwardation - premium of
nearby supply over forward delivery - dates back several weeks
and is the longest on record.
   "It's unusual," one official said, but added CIPEC did not
have any immediate recipe to remedy the situation.
    The meetings featured a gathering of the 10 directors of
CIPEC's regional copper development and promotion centres,
which are based in Europe, Japan, India and Brazil.
    Their main aim was to prepare the ground for the annual
ministerial meeting of CIPEC, which is scheduled for Zaire in
late September.
    The last three ministerial meetings have been held in Paris
to keep down costs.
 Reuter

Premdor Inc, a wooden door manufacturer,
said employees at its Ellesmere Road plant in Toronto rejected
a tentative contract agreement reached Saturday and this
morning went on strike.
    It said the employees narrowly rejected the agreement
reached with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
of America. The company gave no further details.
 Reuter

Properties Trust said it has reached an understanding to
purchase three skilled nursing facilities in Massachusetts and
Connecticut for 29 mln dlrs, and lease them back to Greenery
Rehabilitation Group Inc <GRGI.O> of Cambridge, Mass.
    Health and Rehabilitation Properties said The facilities
are Beverly Nursing Home, a 160 bed facility in Beverly, Mass,
Liberty Pavillion Nursing Home, a 160-bed facility in Danvers,
Mass, and New Lakeview Convalescent Home, a 210-bed facility in
Chesire, Conn.
   
    Health and Rehabilitation Services said each of the
facilities provides skilled nursing care to medically demanding
geriatric patients.
    Health and Rehabilitation Services said the buildings will
be leased back to Greenery for an initial term of seven years,
subject to renewal options for an additional 23 years. The
transaction is expected to close on or before August 31.
    Health and Rehabilitation said the facilities are now
operated by Greenery Rehabilitation, which owns 9.9 pct of
Health and Rehabilitation's outstanding shares.
 Reuter

Shr loss 26 cts
    Net loss 1,277,737
    Revs 3.7 mln
    Note: full name Canadian Home Shopping Network Ltd.
    Period ended April 30 was company's first quarter of
 Reuter

Finance Minister Michael Wilson announced
amendments to Canada's revolving standby credit facility with a
group of Canadian banks to provide more favorable terms
including a reduced commitment fee and lower-cost borrowing
options.
    The size of the facility has also been reduced to three
billion dlrs U.S. from 3.5 billion dlrs U.S. The maturity
debate of the new agreement will be June 19, 1992.
    The move follows similar amendments last November to
Canada's revolving standby credit facility with international
banks. The amendments provide a total of seven billion dlrs
U.S. in standby credit.
 Reuter

Finland's state-owned mining company
Outokumpu Oy said in a statement it was entering Spanish
markets as a shareholder in Iberica del Cobre, S.A., a
manufacturer of copper products.
    Outokumpu will acquire 21 pct of the shares in the Spanish
company and a company will be set up as an agent for Outokumpu
Spain. The deal awaits approval by the Spanish government.
    Iberica del Cobre makes tubes, rods, rolled and drawn
copper and alloy products and its sales of 87,000 tonnes of
output in 1986 amounted to 22 billion pesetas. Outokumpu's
turnover in 1986 was 7.58 billion markka.
 Reuter

    Oper shr 31 cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 552,035 vs 525,729
    Sales 36.7 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.08 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Oper net 1,931,488 vs 1,864,075
    Sales 104.9 mln vs 87.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 period ended June One
    NOTE: Earnings exclude gain on disposal of discontinued
operations of 162,000 dlrs, or nine cts a share vs loss of
585,175 dlrs, or 33 cts a share in the quarter and a gain of
432,000 dlrs, or 24 cts a share vs a loss of 585,175 dlrs, or
33 cts a share for the nine months
    1986 earnings exclude losses from discontinued operations
of 111,024 dlrs, or six cts a share in the quarter and 237,773
dlrs, or 13 cts a share for the nine months
 Reuter

    Shr 1.81 dlrs vs 1.45 dlrs
    Net 113,752,000 vs 90,902,000
    Revs 1.12 billion vs 1.20 billion
    NOTE: Full name is General Public Utilities Corp
 Reuter

VMX Inc said it has introduced three new
voice messaging capabilities called Host Data Link, Auto
Scheduler and User Changeable Voice Codes.
    The company said Host Data Link and Auto Scheduler
streamline and automate reporting functions, while User
Changeable lets individual users create and update their own
group codes from their voice mailbox.
 Reuter

    Shr loss three cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 58,285 vs profit 182,039
    Sales 3,857,122 vs 3,188,555
    Avg shrs 2,108,080 vs 1,891,250
 Reuter

Mthly div 3.6 cts vs 3.6 cts last month
 Reuter

Mthly div 5.8 cts vs six cts last month
 Reuter

Mthly div 4.5 cts vs 4.5 cts last month
 Reuter

Mthly div 7.3 cts vs 7.3 cts last month
 Reuter

    Pay July 24
 Reuter

Seton Co said its board of
directors unanimously approved an agreement and plan of merger
providing for the merger of Seton with a unit of S Acquisition
Corp, a New Jersey company.
    Seton said its board of directors unanimously approved the
merger in a meeting held today.
    Seton said the agreement and plan of merger provides that
all shares of Seton Co common stock not held by S Acquisition
Corp, or its units, will be converted upon the merger into the
right to receive 15.88 dlrs per share in cash.
   
 Reuter

Anglo American Corp of South Africa
Ltd. <ANGL.J> has attacked a key apartheid law barring blacks
from living in white residential areas as "racially
discriminatory" and "economically wasteful."
    The Group Areas Act, was also a "misuse of resources the
South African economy can no longer sustain," the directors said
in the annual report released today.
    These latest remarks by South Africa's biggest company,
follows past criticisms by the firm that apartheid was
economically inefficient.

    The company said the country's prospects for economic
growth had improved in the past few months after two years of
deep recession, but cautioned that the economic outlook was
heavily dependent on a solution to South Africa's political
turmoil.
    The directors said the resumption of sustained economic
growth was dependent on stable domestic conditions and the
restoration of normal international relationships.
    The South African government this year is targeting three
pct real growth in gross domestic product against an increase
of less than one pct last year.

    "A moderate rate of growth in the year ahead should not give
rise to strains on the balance payments, provided there is not
a substantial deterioration in export earnings or an
acceleration of capital outflows," Anglo American said.
    Anglo American last month reported a 25.8 pct advance in
net attributable profit to 1.5 billion rand in the year to
March 31.

 REUTER

The central state owned Bank of Greece
said a consortium of Japanese banks will lend it 20 billion yen
for use in the public sector.
    The Bank said in a statement the loan will be for 10 years
with a five year grace period.
    The first five years of the loan will have a fixed interest
rate, slightly above the long term prime rate of the Japanese
money market, with an adjustment in the second five years in
accordance with prevailing market rates.
    Banks in the consortium are Bank of Tokyo International
Ltd, Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd, The Long Term Credit Bank of
Japan, Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co, Sumitomo Bank Ltd,
Mitsubishi Bank Ltd, Sanwa Bank and Yashouda Bank and Trust
Corp, the Bank of Greece said.
  REUTER

Di Giorgio Corp said it plans to
respond to an unsolicited recapitalization plan proposed by
Gabelli and Co Inc after the company, its board and its
investment bankers evaluate the proposal.
    Earlier, Gabelli said in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that it holds a 28.5 pct stake in DiGiorgio
and that it, together with Gamco Investors Inc may seek control
    In addition, on June 25 the Gabelli group proposed to
acquire all of Di Giorgio's common shares for a combination of
20 dlrs per share in cash, a subordinated note with a face
value of eight dlrs and one common share of the post-buyout
company.
    The June 25 buyout proposal remains open until July 17.
 Reuter

Nec Electronics Inc said
the U.S. Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to
hear the company's petition seeking the disqualification of the
judge presiding over its lawsuit against Intel Corp <INTC.O>.
    In granting the hearing the court directed Intel to respond
to the NEC petition by July 16, NEC said.
    The petition stems from a suit filed by NEC against Intel
in 1984.
    In its complaint NEC is seeking a judgement stating that
microcode is not copyrightable subject matter and that the
microcode NEC uses in its V-Series microprocessors does not
infringe on any valid Intel corprights.
    During May last year the judge presiding over the case,
William Ingram, submitted a financial disclosure report to the
U.S. Judicial Conference which showed that he owned Intel stock
through an investment club throughout the proceedings, NEC
said.
 Reuter

International Banknote Co Inc said it
accepted for exchange 3,484,000 dlrs principal amount of its
10-1/4 pct subordinated debentures due Aug 1, 1998.
    It said the exchange was part of its offer, which expired
June 26.
 Reuter

Gunnar Gold Inc said it and Mill City
Gold Inc signed an option and joint venture agreement with
Tyranex Gold Inc on the Tyranite gold property in Ontario.
    Gunnar said it and Mill City can earn a 50 pct interest in
Tyranex's option to buy the Tyranite gold mine by spending up
to five mln dlrs on exploration, development, and feasibility
studies by 1990.
    It said the companies may form a joint venture partnership
to bring the mine to full commercial production.
 Reuter

    Net 502,000 vs 401,000
    Revs 8,791,000 vs 6,650,000
    Six mths
    Net 989,000 vs 745,000
    Revs 16.3 mln vs 12.5 mln
 Reuter

Control Data Corp said the
Aeronautical Systems Division of the U.S. Air Force awarded it
a 13.7 mln dlr contract to provide a Central Datacomm System.
    It said the system will act as the central interface
between numerous user organizations and the division's
Information Systems and Technology Center at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base in Ohio.
    Terms of the five-year, two-phase contract call for Control
Data to supply equipment, software, maintenance, training and
support services.
 Reuter

TeleQuest Inc said that Henry
Marcheschi, president, chairman and ceo of the company, has
resigned for health reasons.
    The board of directors has elected Robert Lee, a co-founder
of the company and former executive vice president of
manufacturing and engineering, as president and chief executive
    Marcheschi will continue to work for the company as a
consultant, Telequest added.
 Reuter

The American Hospital Association said
the best way to prevent the spread of AIDS to hospital workers
is for workers to wear protective clothing rather than through
routine tests of all hospital patients for the disease.
    The non-profit advocacy organization, which represents
hospitals and patients, recommended that hospital workers
should wear protective gear whenever there is a chance they
will be exposed to blood or other bodily fluids, regardless of
whether the fluids are known to be infected with AIDS.
    The group also said that "reliance on negative AIDS test
results to determine when to take specific precautions can lead
to a false sense of security among health care workers."
    So far there are nine cases on record of hospital workers
contracting AIDS from hospital patients. Despite the low risk
of contracting, the group said, "Hospital workers are
understandly concerned about their vulnerability (to AIDS)."
    There are 3.6 mln workers in the nation's hospitals with
nurses and housekeepers the most likely to come in contact with
blood and body fluids on a daily basis, the group said.
    Among the Americal Hospital Association's recommendations
were that health care workers exposed to body fluids must wear
gloves, and in some cases, gowns, masks, and eye coverings.
 Reuter

Consumer countries should not
intervene in the distribution of coffee export quotas,
Brazilian Coffee Institute president Jorio Dauster said.
    "Distribution of export quotas should be in the hands of
producers as has been traditional," Dauster, a delegate at the
recent coffee symposium here, told journalists. "When consumers
want to get involved, talks are much more difficult."
    The main consumer country the United States and main
producer Brazil failed to reach agreement on quota distribution
when the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) met in
February.
    Dauster said Brazil's role when the ICO meets in London in
September will be to support the world coffee pact, defend its
market share and argue for distribution of quotas to be in the
hands of producer countries.
    "We have sacrificed a great deal already," he said. "this year
we have a crop of 35 mln bags, we have economic problems and we
are not in a position to do favours."
 Reuter

Crown Crafts Inc said it expects to
report record sales and earnings for the June 28 first quarter.
    The company said its prior record sales quarter was the
second quarter of fiscal 1987 with sales of 15,097,000 dlrs.
    Its prior record net earnings and primary earnings per
share of 877,000 dlrs, or 1.15 dlrs a share, were achieved in
the third quarter of fiscal 1987.
    Crown also said its backlog stands at more than 17.0 mln
dlrs, double the backlog a year ago.
 Reuter

British Petroleum Company PlC <BP.L> has
completed its merger with Standard Oil Co of the U.S. <SRD>,
raising its holding to 100 pct from 55 pct, BP said in a
    The acquisition was made through BP's wholly-owned
subsidiary <BP America Inc>. BP took a 25 pct stake in Standard
in 1970, raising its stake to 53 pct in 1978 and 55 pct in
1984.
    BP chairman Sir Peter Walters will be chairman of BP
America, while Robert Horton is to be vice-chairman and chief
executive officer, with Frank Mosier as president.
    BP said further details would be released on July 21.
 Reuter

Getty Resources Ltd said it completed
its previously announced sale of 9.8 mln dlrs worth of
subordinated notes convertible into 930,000 common shares of
the company at 10.50 dlrs each.
    Getty said it plans to file a prospectus with the Ontario
Securities Commission and will be able to force conversion of
the notes into common shares.
    Getty said it plans to use the money for Canadian mineral
projects it is currently exploring.
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 267,000 vs loss 445,000
    Revs 6,407,000 vs 7,428,000
    NOTE: Full name is Thor Energy Resources Inc
 Reuter

American Century Corp said
its Commerce Savings subsidiary received 42.8 mln dlrs from the
foreclosure of certain properties in Aspen, Colo.
    It said the sum represents the amount Commerce bid for the
properties in the April foreclosure sale plus interest. The
properties include a hotel and condominium development site,
the 60-acre Aspen Meadows development and a residence.
 Reuter

Jaguar Plc <JAGR.L> will spend about one
billion stg over the next six years on expanded production,
automation and improved efficiency, Jaguar chairman Sir John
Egan said.
    He told reporters the company planned to raise production
to around 80,000 cars a year by 1992 from 47,000 this year,
while productivity was expected to rise to 5.5 cars per worker
in 1990 compared with four cars now.
    Egan said the XJ6 model introduced last October was the
first of a new saloon car family. Jaguar planned to bring out a
new sports car in the early 1990s, probably called the "F."
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 13 cts vs profit three cts
    Oper net loss 644,000 vs profit 184,000
    Revs 24.9 mln vs 22.1 mln
    Year
    Oper shr loss nine cts vs profit 21 cts
    Oper net loss 429,000 vs profit 1,123,000
    Revs 90.8 mln vs 86.5 mln
   
    NOTE: Revenues exclude medical publishing and retail
operations the company decided to dispose of during the fourth
quarter which had fiscal year revenues of 17.3 mln dlrs vs 14.4
mln dlrs.
    Operating results exclude discontinued operations which had
year loss of 364,000 dlrs vs profit 313,000 dlrs.
 Reuter

National Broadcasting Co, a unit of
General Electric Co <GE>, said programming has not been
affected by a strike which began just after midnight June 28.
    "Right now things are running very smoothly," said NBC
spokeswoman McClaine Ramsey.
Broadcast Employees, representing 2,800 of NBC's 8,000 workers,
began after the network imposed a contract which the union said
was unacceptable. The union said its main objection to the
contract was that it permitted NBC to employ additional
part-time workers.
    Ramsey said managers had been trained to replace the roles
of many of the producers, news writers, editors and technicians
who walked off the job. She said no reductions in programming,
much of which is summer re-run schedule, were expected.
    NABET executive board member Bill Freeh said many people,
some brought in from foreign news bureaus, had crossed picket
lines set up at NBC television stations and bureaus.
 Reuter

    Pay Sept 1
    Record Aug 15
 Reuter

downgraded 95.9 mln dlrs of debt of Allis-Chalmers Corp.
    Cut to D from B-minus were the 6.1 pct sinking fund
debentures due 1990 and to D from C were the cumulative
    S and P cited the company's filing for reorganization under
    The issues were removed from review where they were placed
on March nine due to the firm's failed recapitalization plan.
 Reuter

Yugoslavia and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) have agreed to initiate efforts to end the Iraq-
Iran war, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rashid
Abdulla al-Nuaimi said today on return from Belgrade.
    "We agreed during the talks to initiate efforts to end the
Iraq-Iran war, call for an international peace conference for
the Middle East and to revive and support the Non-Aligned
states," the Emirates news agency WAM quoted him as saying.
    He was the first senior UAE official to visit Yugoslavia
since the two countries established diplomatic relations last
November.
 Reuter

4,250,000 shares of Uno Restaurant Corp, holding company for a
chain of 37 pizza restaurants, began trading under the symbol
"UNO."
    The West Roxbury, Mass.-based company previously traded in
the NASDAQ National System under the symbol "UNOS."
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS,
SOYBEANS 8,392 WHEAT 33,641 CORN 33,728

RTE Corp said it completed the
purchase of the U.S. aluminum electrolytic capacitor business
and related assets of Emhart Corp, for undisclosed terms.
 Reuter

The World Bank said it approved a 100
mln dlr loan to help Brazil finance the rehabilitation of the
railway in Sao Paulo State and establish a institutional reform
program as a base for future commercial operation.
    The 285 mln dlr project is designed to financially
rehabilitate the railway -- the primarily state-owned Ferrovia
Paulista, S.A. -- and improve transportation on the lines
leading to the city of Sao Paulo and the port of Santos.
    The loan is for 14-years, including three and one-half
years of grace, and carries a variable interest rate, currently
7.92 pct, linked to the bank's cost of borrowing.
 Reuter

stock
market deregulation -- will be heard Tuesday when the Canadian
securities industry sets off its own fireworks.
    Some companies are quickly taking advantage of
deregulation, but more significant moves are likely to be a
year or more down the road, analysts say.
    They say most foreign firms will focus at first on bond
trading, debt financing and underwriting, areas in which they
have experience under the old rules that allowed them to
provide government debt financing and advisory services.
    "When they learn about Canada, they might go into retail,"
said Carney at Merrill Lynch Canada. "Then they will eventually
just start to buy up the little guys. If the bigger boys' price
comes down, they'll end up taking those ones over too."
    Under the new rules, barriers that kept banks, brokerage
houses, insurance companies and trust firms out of each others'
businesses will be swept away in favor of wide-open
    The deregulation, sometimes nicknamed "Little Bang," will
allow Canadian banks and other domestic financial institutions
to set up securities units or acquire existing brokerages.
    Foreign companies will also be able to form their own
securities divisions in Ontario or buy up to 50 pct of a
Canadian firm. A year from now they can raise that stake to 100
pct. Foreign firms that entered Canada after 1971 can currently
own no more than 10 pct of a Canadian brokerage.
    Deregulation was expected to generate a major shakeout by
June 30, involving mergers of existing firms and buyouts by
foreign and domestic financial giants.
    So far few deals have become reality, however, despite a
swirl of rumors and merger talks. In the heat of deregulation
fever, many Canadian investment dealers are demanding up to
four times book value, scaring off prospective suitors,
    "I would think they (the brokerages) will have to lower
their asking prices," said financial services analyst Jeff
Carney at Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., which recently terminated
talks to acquire prominent Canadian brokerage Burns Fry Ltd.
    "I think (a high asking price) is what scared Merrill Lynch
away from Burns Fry," added Carney. "It is just a lot of money.
When your asset walks out the door every night, it is difficult
to pay that amount of cash."
    Carney said another factor in the slow pace of buyouts was
uncertainty about the final deregulation rules, which were
issued and approved only in mid-June.
    Most major foreign and Canadian financial players have
focused their deregulation strategy on planning their own
Canadian securities units or buying seats on the Toronto Stock
Exchange, Canada's largest equities market.
    Japan's Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Yamaichi Securities Co.
Ltd., Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd. and Nikko Securities Co. Ltd.
recently bought seats on Toronto's exchange, while United
States investment banks such as Salomon Inc. and Goldman, Sachs
and Co. have set plans for Canadian subsidiaries.
    The few proposed foreign investments in Ontario firms
include agreements by New York's Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
to raise its stake in McLeod Young Weir Ltd. to 30 pct from 10
pct and by the British firm of James Capel and Co. to acquire a
minority interest in Brown, Baldwin, Nisker Ltd.
    Several industry watchers predict the flood of foreign
acquisitions is likely a year away, when the newcomers become
familiar with Canada.
    Canadian firms will need such international alliances to
compete in the increasingly global securities market, industry
    "That is one of the hopes of the regulators, that the change
will throw off one or two Canadian global firms," Toronto Stock
Exchange president Pearce Bunting told Reuters recently.
    Canada's six major banks are also expected to proceed
cautiously into the securities field.
    Analysts said the brokers are too expensive now while the
banks are coping with Brazilian loan problems. Banks will also
find it tough to merge their cautious, bureaucratic culture
with that of leaner, more free-wheeling securities dealers,
they said.
    While the banks have been approached by securities firms
seeking merger partners, they have not yet bought into
brokerages, choosing to build securities units from within.
    Last week, Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest
bank, ended merger talks with Canadian broker Wood Gundy Inc.
after several months of negotiations.
    But analyst Thompson forecast that if one bank finally
acquires an existing firm, "all the other banks will jump in.
    "They don't want to be perceived as missing out on
something," said Prudential-Bache Securities Canada Ltd. analyst
Albert Thompson, who believes that brokerages are too expensive
a risk for banks.
 Reuter

Rochester Telephone Corp said it
completed the acquisition of Canton Telephone Co and is now
operating the company.
    Canton Telephone serves about 2,900 access lines in
northwestern Pennsylvania and had 1986 operating revenues of
about 1,300,000 dlrs, Rochester Telephone said.

 Reuter

received an order from the Philadelphia board of education for
more than 8.0 mln dlrs of advanced computer equipment and
software for automating its administrative and student
accounting systems.
    The systems, designed and manufactured by Prime, were
introduced in April.
 Reuter

Corporate mergers and acquisitions
in and around San Francisco over the past seven years have had
only a modest effect on the metropolitan area's economy, a
leading business-backed organization said.
    The Bay Area Council, a group of more than 300 business
firms, said that a study of corporate restructuring in a
nine-county area found that San Francisco itself had suffered
some ill effects from corporate shake-ups but that surrounding
communities had not.
    Seventeen of the 32 Fortune 500 companies in the area left
due to corporate restructuring between 1979 and 1986, but
another 21 firms were added to the list.
    Ten of the departing companies were based in San Francisco.
During the period, only six located in the city achieved
Fortune 500 status.
    Ted Hall, a council director and local managing director of
McKinsey and Co. which conducted the survey, said the study
grew out of concern that mergers and acquisitions had seriously
hurt the economic climate of northern California.
    However, Hall said that only about 36,000 jobs had been
lost in the region, while more than 600,000 new jobs were
created during the period.
    At the same time, he said, the region experienced a greater
rise in per capita income and lower unemployment than the rest
of the United States and California.
    Council President George Keller, who also is chairman and
chief executive officer of Chevron Corp., told a news
conference that the region had difficulties in persuading
companies to locate there because of a fragmented local
political system.
    But he said that because of the amenities of living in San
Francisco, he was the envy of many chief executives in other
metropolitan area.
    "It's a great place to run a business," he added, "but it's
a hell of a place to do business with government."
    The study concluded that Chevron, which mergered with Gulf
Oil in 1984, would benefit in the long run from the
restructuring activity.
    Among the corporate headquarters lost during the period
were Crown Zellerbach, Memorex, Southern Pacific, Castle &
Cooke and Rolm.
    Companies that grew enough during the period to make the
Fortune 500 list included Apple Computer, Pacific Telesis,
McKesson, Tandem Computer, U.S. Leasing and Amfac.
    The study by the management consulting firm said that,
partly due to corporate restructuring, the rate of job growth
in San Francisco has slowed since 1980.
    In addition, it said that the loss of corporate leadership
had adversely affected some of the Bay Area's civic and
charitable activities.
 Reuter

downgraded American Healthcare Management Inc's subordinated
notes to D from B, affecting 80 mln dlrs of securities.
    S and P said that this for-profit operator of 34 actue-care
hospitals missed its semi-annual interest payment on the debt.
    The rating agency said the failure to renegotiate terms on
bank obligations was the key to this default. That is because
payments on the notes are prohibited until default under terms
of senior obligations is remedied.
 Reuter

Pittston Co said WTC
International N.V. shareholders approved the acquisition of the
company by Pittston.
    Terms of the transaction call for Pittston to exchange
0.523 of its own common shares for each outstanding WTC share,
Pittston said.
    WTC is engaged in domestic international air freight, ocean
and surface freight forwarding and consolidation and
distribution services.
 Reuter

Home Federal Bank of
Florida F.S.B. <HFBF.O> said it has scheduled a special
shareholders meetng for July 26 to approve proposed changes to
the bank's charter and merge with Barnett Bank Inc's Barnett
Bank of Pinellas County, N.A.
    Home Federal said the meeting is to approve a definitive
agreement signed May 26, calling for each share of Home
Federal's common stock to be exchanged for about 40 dlrs in
market value of Barnett common stock. The exchange would be
based on conversion of Home Federal shares of not less than
1.935 or more than 1.200 shares of Barnett stocks.
    At 40 dlrs a share, Home Federal said the total market
value of the transaction would be about 175 mln dlrs.
    Home Federal said notice of the meeting and related proxy
materials, which has been filed previously with the Securities
and Exchange Commission and the Federal Home Loan Bank board,
were mailed on June 26, to holders of record on June 15.
 Reuter

A North Sea oil find announced by Chevron
Corp's <CHV> Chevron Exploration North Sea Ltd may indicate a
new field with recoverable crude oil reserves of 300 mln
barrels, industry analysts said.
    Chevron said a sidetrack well on block 16/26 on the U.K.
Continental shelf tested 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) of 20 API
crude oil from the tertiary "Alba" sand through a three-inch
surface choke.
    "The estimated amount of oil at the Alba field is around 320
mln barrels," Paul Spedding of stockbroker Kleinwort Grieveson
and Co told Reuters.
    He said industry estimates put the total reserves at the
field at over one billion barrels, but given the low gravity of
oil, the recovery rate would be expected to be around 20-25
pct.
    Analysts said the results were encouraging, but the
potential difficulty of operating and recovering oil in the
field was shown by the fact that the first well had to be
plugged and a sidetrack drilled.
    "The field seems to be shallow and widespread, which will
require a multi-platform development in recovery, pushing costs
up," Christopher Osborne of stockbroker Hoare Govett said.
    Most analysts said that although the low gravity of the oil
found would require additional costs in recovery, the test well
showed that it flows well.
    "Although the gravity of oil at the field seems to be low,
it seems to flow quite well and around 300 mln barrels could be
recovered," Carol Bell of Phillips and Drew told Reuters.
    However, Chevron officials declined to comment on the
analysts' reserve estimates. They said that without further
research and drilling in the area this summer, they would not
disclose any reserve figures.
    Analysts said that if the field were declared commercial
and developed, there would be a ready local market for the
heavy crude it produced.
    "Most refineries are now upgraded to refine heavy oils and
the price differentials between heavy and light crudes are a
lot narrower today," Osborne said.
    Chevron operates the block on behalf of 16 companies which
include British Petroleum Development Ltd, DSM Hydrocarbons
(UK) Ltd, Enterprise Oil (TNS) Ltd, Marathon Int. Pet. (GB) Ltd
and Phillips Petroleum Co U.K. Ltd.
 Reuter

Arden Group Inc said it filed a
Commission covering two issuer tender offers.
    It said one offer its directed to its class A common stock
holders and another to holders of its 8-1/4 pct debentures due
March 1, 1989.
    The planned offer for common stock holders calls for the
company to exchange either 30 dlrs in cash, or 35 dlrs
principal amount of 13 pct subordinated debentures due
September 1, 1997, or one share of a new class B common stock,
for each class A share held, Arden Group said.
    It also said the cash payment is subject to proration.
    In addition, the company said it plans to offer to exchange
one dlr principal amount of 13 pct debentures due September 1,
1997 for each outstanding one dlr principal amount of 8-1/4 pct

 Reuter

railway in Sao Paulo state and establish an institutional
reform program as a base for future commercial operation.
Paulista, S.A. -- and improve transport on the lines leading to
the city of Sao Paulo and the port of Santos.
    The loan is for 14 years, including 3-1/2 years of grace,
and carries a variable interest rate, currently 7.92 pct,
linked to the bank's cost of borrowing.
 Reuter

The Pakistani government allowed the
private sector to export cotton and rice in a new trade policy
announced to cover the next three years.
    Commerce and Planning Minister Mahbubul Haq said in a
televised speech it was also decided to allow duty-free import
of cotton yarn.
    Cotton and rice are Pakistan's main exports, which have
been handled exclusively by state corporations since early
1970s. Haq said now the private sector would export cotton and
rice along with the state corporations.
    He said duty-free import of cotton yarn was allowed to make
high quality yarn available to local ancillary industries and
to enable them to compete effectively in the world market. This
would help overcome domestic shortages of yarn, he said.
 Reuter

power plant was removed from service Sunday due to a leaking
pipe in its circulating water system, according to the plant's
operator, the Arizona Nuclear Power Project.
    It said the pipe, on the non-nuclear, steam-generating side
of the plant, delivers water to the plant's condenser. This
water is used to condense steam to drive the turbine generator,
the Power Project said.
    The cause of the leak is being investigated and no time
estimate was given for when the unit will return to service, it
said, adding Unit 2 is operating at full power.
Public Service, El Paso Electric <ELPA>, Public Service of New
Mexico <PNM> and Southern California Edison <SCE>.
 Reuter

its shareholders approved at a special meeting the company's
acquisition of Equitable Life Leasing Corp for 263.3 mln dlrs.
    Equitable Life Leasing Corp is a subsidiary of Equitable
Investment Corp, which is owned by the Equitable Life Assurance
Co of U.S.
    Lomas said the acquistion price will consist of one mln in
cash, 1.5 mln shares of the company's common stock, 71,000
shares of a new series C preferred stock, and 8.944 mln dlrs
principal amount of nine pct senior notes due 1994.
    The company added that the acquisition will close June 30.
 Reuter

Biscayne Holdings Inc said its
stockholders approved a one-for-three reverse stock split as a
portion of the amendments approved to its certificate of
incorporation.
    The company said holders reduced the number of authorized
class A common shares to 50 mln from 100 mln and reclassified
each outstanding three shares into one share. About 6,036,800
shares will be outstanding after the split.
    Biscayne Holdings said shareholders also approved annual
election of directors, eliminating provisions related to the
classified board.
 Reuter

<ALMI Group L.P.> said its
co-chairmen, Michael Landes and Albert Schwartz, and its vice
chairman, Michael Spiegler, have acquired a 50 pct equity
interest in <Clearview Baking Corp> for undisclosed terms.
    A. Dale Mayo, Clearview's president and chief executive
officer, will retain a 50 pct interest in the company, ALMI
Group said.
 Reuter

Symbolics Inc said it won a
500,000 dlr contract from NASA Ames Research Center for the
preliminary design of a spaceborne symbolic processor.
    The company said its symbolic processing technology is used
to faciliate artificial intelligence applications and other
advanced computing techniques.
    It said its processor will be used to execute both symbolic
and numeric applications on future space shuttle, space
stations and deep space missions.
 Reuter

National City Corp projected income of
eight mln dlrs for the second quarter ending June 30 due to a
55 mln dlr charge for loan loss provisions.
    This compares with earnings in the second quarter of last
year of 36.3 mln dlrs.
    National City said it expects per share income in the
second quarter to be 20 cts.
    The company said it expects full year earnings to be
comparable with last year's record 135 mln dlrs.
    The bank said its 55 mln dlr special loan loss provision is
related to loan exposure in less developed countries in its
international portfolio.
 Reuter

Arcturus Inc said it introduced it
MegaBeam product, a three-tube high resolution data display
projector.
    The company said the large screen projector is more than
twice as bright as competing models.
    It said the projector would be used to show the image of a
14-inch computer terminal to large groupd on a six-foot wall
screen.
    It said the MegaBeam is priced at 11,995 dlrs per unit.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 25 cts prior qtr
    Pay August 10
 Reuter

Ecuador will produce crude oil in excess
of its 221,000-bpd OPEC quota during the second half of this
year, Energy Minister Fernando Santos Alvite told a news
    Ecuador plans to produce 280,000 bpd in August, rising to
320,000 bpd next January, the minister said.
    "We will be producing more than the quota to pay off the
crude and products we have been lent by Venezuela, Nigeria and
Kuwait and to compensate for the crude we have been unable to
produce during the past few months," he said.
    Earthquake damage to a pipeline sharply cut Ecuadorean
production from March to May this year.
    Santos said the move had been explained to fellow OPEC
members during last week's meeting in Vienna, when an increase
in Ecuador's quota to 221,000 bpd from 210,000 was approved.
    "They understood our position and we believe we remain
within the spirit of the (quota) agreement," he said.
    Immediately before the March quake Ecuadorean production
was 250,000-260,000 bpd, with 144,000 bpd exported.
    While its production was down, Venezuela, Nigeria and
Kuwait loaned Ecuador a total 12 mln barrels of crude and four
mln barrels of products, Santos said.
 Reuter

loans totalling 241 mln dlrs to Niger and Zaire to help support
economic reforms through structural adjustment programs.
    The loans have been made through the International
arm, and the African Facility, a three-year IDA-administered
fund that supports economic policy reforms in sub-Saharan
Africa, the bank said.
    Zaire's structural adjustment program, supported by a 67
mln dlr IDA loan and a 94 mln dlr African Facility loan, hopes
to lay the basis for sustained economic growth, the bank said.
    Included in the program's goals are strengthening private
sector incentives, aiding macroeconomic management, and
unspecified changes in transportion and agricultural policies,
    Niger's structural adjustment program, supported by a 60
mln dlr IDA loan and a 20 mln dlr African Facility loan, hopes
to aid public spending controls, support pricing reforms, and
encourage private sector competition, the bank said.

 Reuter

affirmed about 100 mln dlrs of B-minus subordinated debt of
Intelogic Trace Inc.
    S and P cited the end of an attempted takeover of
Burlington Industries Inc by an Asher Edelman-led group in
which Intelogic was used as a financing vehicle. About 78 pct
of Burlington's common shares were tendered to Morgan Stanley
Group Inc, it added.
    S and P said Intelogic's problems expanding its computer
maintenence activities have led to drops in revenues, but
financial resources should remain supportive.
 Reuter

downgraded 95 mln dlrs of outstanding Allis-Chalmers Corp
issues. It lowered the sinking fund debentures to Ca from B-3
and the Series C preferred stock to Ca from Caa.
    Moody's cited as justification the company's filing for
court protection under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy
Code. Also, the agency noted the company's inability to
restructure its debt obligations.
    Allis-Chalmers Corp is a manufacturer of air quality
control, fluids handling and solid materials processing
 Reuter

U.S. firms are expected to enjoy the
advantage of superior experience over their Japanese
competitors in the new, promising business of bringing asset
rich Japanese investors to the U.S. financial futures markets.
    Japan allowed local financial institutions last month to
start using overseas futures in currencies, bonds and stocks to
help them manage their bulging foreign portfolios.
    "U.S. investment banks are going to take advantage. We've
been in the business for two decades, the Japanese have not,"
said Eugene Atkinson, president of Goldman, Sachs Japan Corp.
   
    Japanese investors were assumed to be eager to get into the
new markets, but in fact participation so far has been slow,
Japanese securities and bank sources in New York said.
    Koichi Kane, Executive Vice President of Nomura Securities
International, said, "They're still in a starting up period."
    "They're testing the water," Atkinson added. But once they
start, the Japanese are likely to become very big players,
opening up lucrative business opportunities, he said.
    U.S. investment banking sources said the slow start is
understandable because U.S. institutional investors, too, are
fairly new to the market.
   
    Futures markets have a long history in the U.S., but
because of the high risks involved American pension funds and
mutual funds were not allowed to use the markets until
relatively recently, a U.S. investment bank futures analyst
said.
    In addition to Japan's inexperience in financial futures,
an insufficient number of brokers in Japan is also to be blamed
for the slow start, the Japanese sources said.
   
    Japan is liberalizing its financial markets, but domestic
financial institutions are still not allowed to act as brokers
in Japan for overseas futures markets.
    This may change next year, when bankers speculate that
securities houses will be permitted to enter this line of
business.
    While the Japanese are out of the business, the Americans
have moved in, with First Boston Corp, Salomon Brothers Inc,
Goldman, Sachs and Co, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc and
PainWebber Inc leading the charge, they said.
   
    In the U.S., Nikko Securities Co International Inc is
preparing to become a clearing member of the Chicago Boad of
Trade (CBT)in anticipation of growing Japanese demand for
futures products, Akira Tokutomi of Nikko said.
    Nomura, Japan's largest securities house, has not yet
decided whether to expand its futures brokerage business in the
U.S. to establish closer links between Japanese investors and
the U.S. futures markets, Kane said.
    The evening session of CBT, inaugurated recently to
coincide with early Tokyo business hours, has increased
Japanese participation to some extent, but the brokerage issue
is still a hurdle, the Japanese sources said.
   
    High liquidity is the biggest attraction of the futures
market, so the Japanese naturally want to join the daytime
trading session in Chicago if possible, they said.
    The Japanese are in the process of selecting brokers and
establishing channels to pay fees and margins, but harmonizing
clerical procedures and bridging the time gap between Tokyo and
Chicago are proving to be a burden, the sources said.
    Some Japanese banks, which are largely barred from the
securities industry in Japan, have contemplated buying into the
U.S. brokerage business, the Japanese sources said.
    
    One of the motives for doing so is to save on commissions,
which was also a spur for U.S. commercial banks to get into the
brokerage business, they said.
    "The simplest way may be to take over a brokerage house or
to go into a business tie-up," said Hiroyuki Kondo of Yasuda
Trust and Banking Co Ltd in New York.
    One trust bank source said total fees could amount to
around one mln dlrs a year if his bank used the futures markets
fully to hedge its huge pension fund and other assets.
    Japanese banks have been able to penetrate aggressively
many foreign financial markets by mobilizing their mammoth
capital assets, but the futures brokerage business to be a
different story, Japanese banking sources said.
    They cited stiff fee-cutting competition in addition to
difficulties recruiting influential Chicago brokers.
    In anticipation of sizeable orders in the future, some U.S.
brokers are now taking orders from the Japanese at around 13
dlrs per contract, below the break-even level, they said.
    Some Chicago brokers and brokerage houses are trying to
approach Japanese financial institutions about possible
tie-ups, a futures indusry source in Chicago said.
    But Japanese bank sources in New York said the small
capital base of many of these brokerages is making the Japanese
nervous about a capital link.
    Japanese banks are unlikely to ignore the brokerage
business once financial futures trading by the Japanese starts
growing fast and proves to be profitable, they said.
    But the big question, they added, is whether the Japanese
government would let banks engage in this new risky business.
 reuter

Court documents filed with the U.S.
bankruptcy court by attorneys for Allis-Chalmers Corp <AH>
listed Equitable Life Assurance Co as one of the largest
    According to the court papers, Equitable was owed a total
of 468,859 dlrs. Other creditors included Connecticut General
Life Insurance Co, owed 192,520 dlrs, and New York Life
Insurance Co, owed 146,553 dlrs.
    The list of unsecured creditors was headed by KHIC America
Corp, of Rutheford, New Jersey, which was owed 663,950 dlrs.
   
    Second on the list of unsecured creditors was a group of
paving contractors owed 600,000 dlrs.
    Manville Corp <MAN> was third with 471,157 dlrs owed.
    Allis-Chalmers said that on Dec 31 the unfunded pension
liabilities totaled 44 mln dlrs.
    It said that it intended to carry out a reorganization by
disposing of businesses that do not contribute adequately to
cash flow. The company said it plans to eliminate unprofitable
product lines and emphasize more profitable product lines.
    Allis-Chalmers said it intended to obtain workforce
reductions and seek monetary and other concessions from
salaried and hourly employees.
    It said it will eliminate operations of facilities that are
marginal performers. The company said it plans to discontinue
burdensome contracts and leases as well as collective
bargaining agreements.
    The company said it believes creditors will realize more
from a reorganization than from a liquidation.
    The documents said Allis-Chalmers has suffered substantial
losses since 1981 due to sales declines caused by fierce
competition and a sluggish global economy.
    It said a restructuring plan, which it has already 
instituted, adversely affected cash flow because certain costs
including product liability and retiree medical and pension
costs continued as before despite a reduction in the size of
its business.
 Reuter

Shr 20 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 34,088,000 vs 18,727,000
    Revs 340.4 mln vs 200.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 53 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 88,661,000 vs 49,059,000
    Revs 926.5 mln vs 560.1 mln
    Avg shrs 151.1 mln vs 137.0 mln
 Reuter

Gateway Communications Inc said
it expects its second quarter earnings to be lower than last
year's income of seven cts per share, but its revenue for the
period should increase by 20 pct over the 2.7 mln dlrs reported
a year ago.
    The decline in second quarter earnings is attributable to
higher operating costs resulting from increased sales,
development and expansion, Gateway said.
 Reuter

(EPA) announced plans to disapprove clean-air plans for 14
metropolitan areas and called for bans in those areas on new
construction of potentially polluting facilties.
    EPA Administrator Lee Thomas said in a statement the areas
had not shown they could meet agency ozone or carbon-monoxide
air-quality standards by the end of 1987 or soon after.
    He said the proposed ban on construction would cover such
industries as electric utilities, iron and steel production
plants, industrial boilers and petroleum refineries.
    The areas affected are Chicago; the Indiana portion of the
Chicago area; East St. Louis, Ill.; the Indiana portion of the
Louisville, Ky., area; Cleveland, Ohio; Atlanta, Ga.;
Dallas-Ft. Worth, Tex.; Denver, Colo.; the California south
coast, including Los Angeles; Fresno, Sacramenta, Ventura and
Kern counties, Calif., and Washoe County (Reno), Nev.
    Thomas also proposed major changes to existing sources of
pollution in those areas.  They would effective after a final
assessment of the area's pollution, expected late this year or
early next.
    For Cleveland, the EPA also proposed a restriction on
federal highway funding and clean-air grants because the state
of Ohio did not provide for adequate testing to curb car
pollutions as required by the Clean AirAct.
    Thomas said:
    "It is clear that the state implementation plans for these
areas will not achieve federal ozone or carbon-monoxide
standards under the deadline mandated by Congress. In these
circumstances the Clean Air Act leaves no discretion.  I must
propose sanctions."
    The EPA estimated that another 20 metropolitan areas will
fail to meet the agency's ozone standards by the end of the
year. About 70 are meeting the ozone standards.
    It added that about 80 areas are now not meeting the EPA
carbon-monoxide standards, but only a few will have long-term
problems in meeting the standards.
    The EPA has proposed that car-makers be ordered to install
canisters on new cars beginning in 1979 to capture polluting
gasoline vapors which escape when gas is pumped from filling
stations to a car's gas tank.
 reuter

Oper shr 38 cts vs 32 cts
    Qtly div 12 cts vs 12 cts
    Oper net 5,430,000 vs 4,707,000
    Revs 169.1 mln vs 139.4 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 1.50 dlrs vs 1.32 dlrs
    Oper net 21.5 mln vs 19.1 mln
    Revs 602.5 mln vs 524.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 operating net in both periods excludes loss 8.2
mln dlrs, or 56 cts a share, from discontinued operations
 Reuter

Geothermal Resources
International Inc said it has completed two additional
geothermal wells in its steam fields in The Geysers area of
northern California.
    The field is being developed to supply steam to the
130-megawatt Coldwater Creek Geothermal Power Plant, scheduled
to go into commercial operation in late 1987 or early 1988, the
company said, adding it has completed 15 geothermal wells in
the field since 1981.
    The Coldwater Creek power plant is being built by a
consortium of local utilities, Geothermal said.
 Reuter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it has
completed the acquisition of <Super Saver Warehouse Inc> and
Super Saver is now a wholly owned unit of Wal-Mart.
 Reuter

it is accepting reservations for nonstop service to Nassau,
Bahamas from Charlotte, N.C. beginning November 15.
    The new service will connect more than 30 cities on the
Piedmont system to Nassau, the company said.
 Reuter

Micro General Corp said it has
completed a 1.5-mln-dlr equity offering of 1.2 mln units, each
consisting of two shares of common stock and one common stock
    The offering was underwritten by Paulson Investment Co Inc.
    Net proceeds of about 1.3 mln dlrs will be used to expand
the company's parcel shipping systems and postal scales
manufacturing and marketing, for new product development and/or
for acquisition.
 Reuter

Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp said
it agreed with Taiwan Glass Industries Corp on the manufacture
and distribution of its fiberglass reinforcements products
under license.
    The company said the two firms will construct a new
manufacturing plant for these products outside Taipei but it
disclosed no terms of the deal.
    It said the agreement will enhance its ability to serve the
growing Asian market for fiberglass reinforcements and yarns.
 Reuter

acquisition of Frostex Foods Inc for undisclosed terms.
    Kraft said last month it had signed a letter of intent to
acquire the Austin, Texas-based foodservice distributor.
 Reuter

<Phoenix Technologies Ltd> said it
has signed a marketing agreement with Apollo Computer Inc.
    Phoenix said that the agreement allows Apollo to market
Phoenix's software under the name "Domain/PC Emulator."
    The company said that the software will be available on
Apollo's new Domain Series 4000 personal workstations and
Apollo's current generation of machines by the end of this
year's third quarter.
    Phoenix said the software allows system manufacturers to
offer their customers an MS-DOS based 100 pct PC-compatible
operating mode, done solely through software emulation.
    Apollo will license the software from Phoenix and sell it
directly to its customers.
 Reuter

Qtr ended April 30
    Shr profit one ct vs loss three cts
    Net profit 146,000 vs loss 203,000
    Revs 2,001,000 vs 1,493,000
    Year
    Net profit 445,000 vs loss 827,000
    Revs 7,135,000 vs 5,237,000
    NOTE: Full name is Precision Target Marketing Inc. Latest
year and quarter includes extraordinary gains of 214,000 dlrs,
or three cts a share, and 85,000 dlrs, or one ct a share.
 Reuter

upgraded Scott Paper Co's long-term debt rating to A-3 from
Baa-1. The company's Prime-2 commercial paper rating remains
    Approximately one billion dlrs of long-term debt is
affected.
    Moody's said the upgrade reflects Scott's continuing
improvement in operating results, as well as Moody's
expectation of substantial funds flowing to the company from an
asset sale.
 Reuter

purchase of Emhart Corp's United States aluminum electrolytic
capacitor business for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said the capacitor business is part of Emhart's
electrical and electronic group marketed under the Mallory
    The company said the product lines it acquired had sales of
25 mln dlrs last year.
 Reuter

    Shr 83 cts vs 94 cts
    net 5,583,000 vs 8,403,000
    Revs 28.8 mln vs 29.4 mln
    Avg shrs 6,754,000 vs 6,802,000
 Reuter

will sell its Trotter Treadmills Inc unit.
    The company said the sale is in line with its strategy of
refocusing on its health care service business. It said it had
received interest from several parties, but no agreement has
yet been reached.
    Trotter Treadmills makes motorized treadmills for the
exercise enthusiast and fitness club market. It said its sales
for this year are projected to be over 10 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

A specially convened Franco-German
meeting in the sidelines of a summit of EC leaders failed to
make any progress over a 1987-88 farm price package that has
deeply split the two former EC allies, diplomats said
    The meeting was attended by farm ministers and foreign
ministers from both countries and by French President Francois
Mitterand, his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, and by Chancellor
Helmut Kohl of West Germany.
    The stalemate over farm prices is seen as a key to
providing a solution to a long-term settlement of the
Community's worst-ever budget crisis.
    "The Germans clearly do not want to budge," an aide to Chirac
told reporters. He added the French Prime Minister was visibly
angered as he the hour-long meeting.
    Bonn and Paris are diametrically opposed to a proposal for
the Brussels Executive Commission to overhaul radically the
EC's complex "green" currrency system, designed to translate
common EC farm prices into national currencies.
    Paris also supports a move for an oils and fats tax which
West Germany is against, along with Britain, Denmark and the
    EC farm minsters are due to resume negotiations on the
package, which should have been agreed by an April 1 deadline
tomorrow.
    Diplomats said it had been hoped that the summit could have
injected fresh impetus into those talks.
    The Commission proposed its package to save one billion
dollars on the EC's ever-rising farm budget.
    The summit has been dominated by lengthy talks on moves to
alter the entire system of financing the 12-nation group, and
plugging a 5.7 billion dollar budget shortfall for 1987.
 Reuter

Toll Brothers Inc said it has
opened a Washington, D.C.-Baltimore Metro divisional office in
Greenbelt, Md.
 Reuter

Venezuela's cabinet approved a new
exchange rate for oil and mining export earnings, setting it at
14.50 bolivars to the dollar from 7.50 bolivars previously,
Minister Manuel Azpur UA said.
    Azpur told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the
measure is "fundamental to conserving the economic and financial
strength of the petroleum industry."
     He said the new exchange rate, which goes before the
central bank for final approval tommorrow, will allow the state
oil company Petroleos De Venezuela, S.A.(PDVSA) to solve its
problem of working capital and implement investment plans,
estimated at 20 billion bolivars for 1987. He did not say when
the measure would become effective.
   Venezuela's oil industry previously sold its dollar earnings
to the government at 7.50 to the dollar but bought foreign
exchange from its imports at 14.50 bolivars.
   The new exchange rate will promote purchases of domestic
goods and services by the industry, Azpur said. He added that
it would also put PDVSA in a position to purchase more
government debt bonds.                        
    PDVSA had available liquid assets of 20 billion bolivars at
the start of this year, of which nine billion were in a trust
fund in the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and placed in
government bonds.
  According to a contract between PDVSA and the central bank,
the BCV must provide cash as the oil industry requries by
repurchasing the bonds.
    PDVSA's contribution to the treasury last year was 44.480
billion bolivars. It foreign earnings for oil and petrochemcial
sales were 8.023 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

CyCare Systems Inc said it bought
Control Data Corp's <CDA> MedTec unit for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said MedTec's new client base could have a
significant impact on long-term revenues, although it expects a
minimal positive impact on earnings in the next six months.
    It said the assets purchased include processing agreements,
software maintenance contracts and the supporting software.
 Reuter

Canadian Tire Corp Ltd said it still
hopes a special board committee can solve a voting rights
dispute between class A and common stock shareholders.
    "Although no such proposal has yet been developed, the
directors hope that such a result can be achieved," chairman
Hugh Macaulay said at the annual meeting.
    The committee, formed last fall, has been trying to
determine the voting rights of class A non-voting shares if
control of the company changes hands.
   
    The Ontario Securities Commission blocked a 270 mln dlr
takeover bid last January for 49 pct of the company's common
shares.
    The OSC said the bid by a group of Canadian Tire store
owners abused shareholders rights by circumventing share
provisions that would convert non-voting stock into voting
shares if more than 50 pct of the stock changed ownership.
    Since then, three members of the Billes family, who agreed
to tender their 60 pct holding of Canadian Tire's common shares
to the pro rata offer, have commenced legal proceedings amongst
themselves.
    Macaulay said he would not comment further on the situation
"while matters remain in an unsettled state".
    At the meeting, president Dean Groussman said the higher
profit trend evident in the first quarter ended April 4 was
continuing. First quarter net rose 10 pct to 21.1 mln dlrs from
19.2 mln dlrs a year earlier.
    Groussman also said the company plans sharply higher
capital spending this year of 103 mln dlrs, compared to 43 mln
dlrs last year, and it will likely maintain high levels of
capital investment in 1988 and 1989.
 Reuter

BASS-LED GROUP HAS 8.9 PCT BELL and HOWELL CO STAKE FOR
INVESTMENT

First Pennsylvania Bank N.A., the
major subsidiary of First Pennsylvania Corp, said it will add a
variable-rate <VISA> card to its consumer credit product line.
    The bank said the card carries a 14 pct annual interest
rate that is guaranteed through Sept 30, after which time the
interest rate will increase or decrease if there is a change in
the prime rate as reflected in the Wall Street Journal.
    There is no grace period for purchases made with card, but
First Pennsylvania already offers a <MasterCard> product with a
25-day grace period, the bank added.
 Reuter

McChip Resources Inc said it has agreed
to exchange its interest in Oklahoma oil and gas properties
operated by Reserve Exploration Co <REXC.O> for 638,435
restricted Reserve common shares.
    The company said it will have a 44 pct stake in Reserve's
outstanding shares as a result of the exchange.
 Reuter

Sales of new single-family homes
tumbled 14.9 pct in May from April levels because of higher
mortgage interest rates, analysts said.
    "There should be another month or two of very weak new home
sales but with interest rates stabilizing, sale of new homes
should become more stable by mid-summer," said economist
Lawrence Chimerine of Wharton Econometrics Inc.
    The drop in May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
616,000 units, was the largest since January 1982, the Commerce
    Interest rates on conventional mortgages bottomed out at
about 9.08 pct in March and rose to about 10.7 pct in April,
according to Stephen Roach, economist at Morgan Stanley.
    The effect was to freeze some potential new homebuyers out
of the market, he and others said.
    "The rates moved very suddenly and were certainly
unexpected by homebuyers," said Cynthia Latta, an economist
with Data Resources. "They were so startled, they wanted to
hold back and see what would happen."
    The drop in sales of new single-family home sales was
sharper than expected, some economists said. "We fully expected
a decline but the extent was more than we anticipated," said
James Christian, chief economist for the U.S. League of Savings
Institutions.
    Christian said there was a sharp rise in May in sales of
existing homes, which are generally less expensive than new
homes.
    Latta of Data Resources said strong sales of new
condominiums in the Northeast and on the West Coast were
reflected in sales of existing but not new homes.
    Christian of the U.S. League of Savings Institutions said,
"Underlying housing demand remains strong. I think the market
is going to stabilize and give us a good second half."
    Others were less optimistic, however.
    "We clearly won't have a boom (in new home sales) but I
don't think this is the start of a collapse in single-family
housing," said Chimerine of Wharton.
    Eugene Sherman, chief economist of the Federal Home Loan
Bank of New York, said, "The lower sales level will be
maintained for awhile until there is another change in rates.
There won't be much specific improvement in coming months."
 Reuter

said it repurchased 997,756 shares, or 18 pct of its own common
stock, from American Century Corp <ACT> for 29.50 dlrs per
share in cash and two real estate properties in California.
    Concurrent with the closing of the deal, its First American
Title Insurance Co unit entered into a long-term lease
arrangement for the properties, First American said.
    It also said the stock it is repurchasing will be retired
and not re-issued.
 Reuter

Brazil's land reform program, long
trumpeted by the government as one of its absolute priorities,
is mired in bureaucracy after achieving very few of its aims.
    Officials acknowledge that progress is now minimal. Land
rights activists see no progress at all and say things are
actually worsening. Over the last year economic pressures have
forced many small producers to sell out to big land-owners.
    Land reform, one of the country's most hotly-debated
political issues, is particularly to the fore this year as a
Constituent Assembly in Brasilia draws up a new constitution.
    Land rights campaigners say that if the new charter does
not give fresh hope for the country's 4.5 mln landless
families, there will be wave upon wave of land occupations.
    "We make no secret of our tactics," said one leader of the
land reform movement, Joao Pedro. "The solution is to occupy --
that is what we say to the rural workers. There has not been a
single program of land reform in the world without the people
occupying land."
    The land issue spawns violence from Amazonia to Mato
Grosso. Some 278 people died in land disputes last year,
according to the Pastoral Commission for Land, which is linked
to the Roman Catholic Church.
    The land reform program, announced in 1985 soon after the
civilian government of President Jose Sarney took power, aimed
to resettle 1,4 mln families by 1989 by gradually splitting up
the country's vast, undeveloped estates.
    The government, in its National Plan for Agrarian Reform,
described the program as "one of its absolute priorities."
    In practice, fewer than 20,000 families have been helped so
far and the government admits that it will not get anywhere
near the original target.
    Political analysts said that the pace of land reform was
now slower under Sarney than it had been under the military
government of General Joao Figueiredo (1979-85).
    The slow progress on the issue is fuelling deep
frustration. Land rights demonstrations are a common sight in
Sao Paulo and other parts of the country.
    Activists say social conditions in the countryside, far
from improving, have significantly deteriorated.
    Pedro, a leader of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers,
said that over the last 12 months 100,000 small producers had
been forced off the land in Brazil's five southernmost states.
    He said the exodus had been caused first by the
government's anti-inflation Cruzado Plan, which last year froze
prices and hit the income of small farmers.
    When the Cruzado Plan collapsed late last year, prices and
interest rates soared and many small farmers were unable to pay
debts taken out during the price freeze.
    Pedro said most of the 100,000 families who had left the
countryside in the south had previously been land-owners, while
a minority had been tenant farmers. Most had moved to Brazil's
swollen cities.
    One activist said the number of landless day labourers
called "boias-frias" (literally "cold meals"), most of whom cut
sugar cane, had increased to 400,000 in Sao Paulo state from
about 300,000 five years ago.
    In an attempt to improve the lot of the rural poor, the
land reform movement has drawn up a radical proposal which it
is sending to the Constituent Assembly.
    The proposal would severely limit the size of a maximum
permissible holding and the land rights movement does not
expect it to be voted into the constitution.
    Pedro said at least 70 pct of the 559-member assembly is
composed of big land-owners. He added that the assembly would
probably vote on the proposal by October and that its rejection
would be the signal for large-scale land invasions.
 Reuter

upgraded Phelps Dodge Corp's senior debt to BB-plus from BB and
preference stock to BB-minus from B-plus.
    About 400 mln dlrs of debt and preference stock is
    Continuing cost cutting in its copper operations has
significantly enhanced the firm's competitive position, S and P
said. It added that the acquisition of Columbian Chemical Co
has broadened Phelps Dodge's earnings base.
 Reuter

A subsidiary of (Kyowa Hakko Kogyo
Co Ltd) and privately-held (Murex Corp) jointly announced they
signed an agreement giving Kyowa exclusive rights in Japan to
market certain Murex products to detect AIDS.
    The companies estimated that Japanese clinicians will
perform a minimum of 28 mln AIDS tests a year. The Murex
products must be approved by Japanese authorities before they
are sold in Japan.
 Reuter

An investor group led by Robert Bass
of Fort Worth, Texas said it owns 786,800 shares of Bell and
Howell Co common stock, equal to 8.9 pct of the company's
common stock outstanding. 
the group said it purchased 511,500 Bell and Howell common
shares between April 29 and June 26 at 44.25 dlrs to 56.02 dlrs
a share.
    The stock was acquired for investment purposes, the group
said, adding it may purchase or sell additional shares in the
future.
 Reuter

its Commerce Savings unit will sell 997,756 common shares in
First American Financial Corp <FAMR.O>, representing 18 pct of
First American.
    The company said the shares are being repurchased by First
American for 29.4 mln dlrs and two real estate assets in
    It said Commerce Savings acquired the shares in 1982 and
1983.
 Reuter

The United States responded to an
apparent escalation of Iranian rhetoric with continued
assurances that its expanded military force in the Gulf would
play purely a deterrent role.
    "I can only emphasize that our role there is deterrent, that
we're going to be assuring safety for American shipping and
that that shipping is not related to the war itself," State
Department spokesman Charles Redman told reporters.
    He was asked about Iranian claims that the United States
was moving towards the brink of armed conflict with Iran.
    Tehran Radio quoted defence spokesman Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani telling a visiting Nicaraguan delegation yesterday,
"At the moment the United States is moving towards the brink of
an armed encounter with us.
    "We are not concerned about this and believe that the U.S.
Presence in the war will make our nation even more serious. We
are determined to stand firm and will certainly win."
    The United States disclosed last week it was beefing up its
Gulf fleet from seven to 10 warships and also sending the
refurbished battleship Missouri to patrol just outside the
strategic Strait of Hormuz, entrance to the Gulf.
    The buildup ties in with U.S. Plans to escort Kuwaiti oil
tankers which have been re-registered to fly the American flag
and gain naval protection against Iranian attacks.
    Asked about the Iranian rhetoric, White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said, "We won't have any comment or response to
the Iranian statements. Our position has been made clear about
the status of events in the Gulf. We want an end to the war
with no winners and no losers and any activities or statements
that tend to prolong the war or increase hostilities are not
helpful or welcome."
    Redman said he could not independently confirm reports that
Iran has offered to halt attacks on Gulf shipping.
 Reuter

Belden and Blake Energy Co, a
master limited partnership, said it entered into an agreement
to sell 400,000 of its units for two mln dlrs in cash.
    The company said <Great Pacific Capital S.A.> of Geneva,
Switzerland, is acting as lead manager for the private
placement of the units with international investors.
    Under the agreement, it said an option has also been
granted to buy up to 800,000 additional units at five dlrs per
unit on or before July 13.
 Reuter

Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) has been
awarded a 556.1 mln dlr contract to build 2,575 high-speed
anti-radiation missiles (HARM), the Navy said.
    The company also has won a 5.9 mln dlr contract to upgrade
M-48 tanks for Turkey, the Army said.
 REUTER

has submitted to the Food and Drug Administration a new test
which has proven effective in detecting a sexually transmitted
virus thought to play a role in the development of cervical
cancer.
    Life Technologies said the test, called "ViraPap,"
identifies the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) by
detecting the virus' DNA makeup.
    Life Technologies said the test uses radioactive probes to
to detect the virus.
 
 Reuter

Security Federal Savings and
Loan Association said the initial public offering of its
holding company Security Financial Group Inc has been
    The company said the offering by Security Financial
consisted of 766,251 issued through the conversion of Security
Federal to stock ownership from mutual ownership. It said net
proceeds of the offering will be used for general corporate
purposes. Trident Securities Inc and Dain Bosworth Inc were
underwriters for the offering. Security Financial will begin
trading on NASDAQ on or about June 29, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 8,265,000 vs 2,255,000
    Sales 248.3 mln vs 245.4 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 94 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 19.4 mln vs 10.6 mln
    Sales 531 mln vs 535.8 mln
 Reuter

affirmed ratings on 500 mln dlrs of Bank of New York Co debt
after the bank set a special LDC loan loss reserve.
    Affirmed are the A-plus senior debt rating, the A
subordinated debt, A-1-plus commercial paper and respective
A-plus and A1-plus ratings on certificates of deposit of Bank
of New York and Bank of New York (Delaware).
    S and P said the bank's 135 mln dlr addition to its loan
loss reserve conservatively addresses LDC exposure. S and P
said the resulting second quarter loss expected will not
substantially diminish fundamental earnings strength.
 Reuter

Qtly div 35 cts vs 35 cts
    Pay Sept 11
    Record Aug 10
 Reuter

CXR Telcom Corp and Torotel
Inc agreed in principle to settle pending litigation regarding
the sale of Torotel's former Halcyon Communications Inc unit to
CXR in March, 1986, the two companies said in a joint
    The agreement calls for CXR to pay to Torotel 1,350,000
dlrs in exchange for return of a 2.5 mln dlr note and five mln
CXR common shares valued at 1,7754,000 mln dlrs, the companies
said.
    In June, 1986 CXR filed the suit in San Francisco federal
court, charging that the 10.3 mln dlr price it paid for Halycon
was excessive, Torotel said.
    It also said that in is suit CXR asked for seven mln dlrs
in damages, along with an unspecified punitive award.
 Reuter

Matthews and Wright Group Inc, citing
the opinion of bond counsel, said certain bond issues that it
underwrote were validly issued and will continue to receive
tax-exempt status.
    The company issues the statement as its stock fell 2-1/8 to
4-5/8 on the American Stock Exchange. Matthews and Wright said
that in response to press stories, governmental agencies have
made preliminary inquiries seeking more information.
 Reuter

Cablevision Systems Corp said it
bought cable television systems in six Dutchess County, N.Y.,
communities from Dutchess County Cablevision Associates Ltd.
    The company said the acquisition of the new systems will
add to its presence in New York. It said it will add 4,400
subsribers to its 568,000 subscriber base.
 Reuter

Ashford Financial Group said it will
create its first master limited partnership in the third
quarter.
    The company said the move will allow small investors to
participate in the early-stage financing of its new client
    The company said investors will also find they have more
liquidity than in traditional limited partnership investments.
    Ashford Financial specializes in providing financial
backing to small companies with the potential for high earnings
growth and to go public in less than three years.
 Reuter

Austec International Ltd said
its North American unit, Austec Inc, completed the purchase of
privately-held Ryan-McFarland Corp for an undisclosed sum.
    The company said the two units combined are expected to
have net revenues of about 25 mln dlrs in 1987.
    Ryan-McFarlnad develops COBOL and FORTRAN language
compilers for the micro, mini and mainframe computer markets.
    Austec International is based in Melbourne, Australia.
Ryan-McFarland is located in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.
 Reuter

Pepsi-Cola USA said received an
exclusive five-year contract to supply soft drinks to all of
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc's <HBJ> Sea World theme parks in
the United States, effective Jan 1, 1988.
    Pepsi said Sea World has had an account with Coca-Cola for
the past 16 years. Pepsi said Sea World operates five major
theme parks in Orlando, San Diego, Cleveland, Winter Haven,
Fla., and Baseball City, Fla.
    Pepsi said the new agreement also calls for a major
promotional partnerships between the companies.
 Reuter

Commission's entry into the battle between Texaco Inc and
Pennzoil Co <PZL> could affect the outcome of the 10.3 billion
dlr legal saga, some analysts said.
    Texaco today said the SEC would file a "friend of the
court" brief on the tender offer rule as it pertains to the
case. Some analysts construed this as positive for Texaco since
they said it is alleged by Texaco that Pennzoil violated the
rule, and the issue was not thoroughly addressed in lower Texas
courts.
    Texaco's stock rose 1-1/2 to 39-3/8 and Pennzoil fell four
to 78-7/8. A Pennzoil attorney would not comment. He said the
SEC rule, 10b-13, is part of Texaco's argument in its request
for a Texas Supreme Court case, and that the matter has been
previously addressed in court. Pennzoil said it knew of the SEC
brief but it did not know whether the brief would support the
view of one litigant or be an inquiry and request for
clarification of the reasons for two lower state court
    Texaco today said the SEC would urge the Texas Supreme
Court to accept the case for review with respect to the issue.
    Texaco has alleged Pennzoil violated the rule when it had a
tender offer for Getty Oil Co outstanding and then made an
alleged agreement on January 3, 1984, to buy Getty shares.
    Analysts said the SEC tender offer rule prevents those
making the offer from entering into contracts for the target
company's stock. Frederick Leuffer of C.J. Lawrence believes
SEC intervention could be meaningful but acknowledged it could
also have no affect. "If this friend of the court brief is
potent and clearly pro-Texaco, and is taken into account by the
Texas Supreme Court, there is a chance the entire judgment
could be reversed and Pennzoil gets nothing," Leuffer said.
    Texaco and Pennzoil have been locked in a bitter legal
battle over Texaco's acquisition of Getty Oil. A Texas court
awarded Pennzoil a record 10.53 billion dlrs in damages, later
reduced by two billion dlrs. With interest, the award now
totals 10.3 billion dlrs.
    Texaco filed for protection under chapter 11 of the federal
bankruptcy laws earlier this year. Its action was designed to
avoid having a Texas appeals court order it to post a security
bond for the entire amount of the Pennzoil judgement.
    Texaco earlier said the SEC will file its brief the week of
July 20.
    In his comments, Leuffer also reflected the views of other
analysts who believe are not convinced the SEC will play a
significant role. "The other argument is the court will ignore
it (the SEC brief) as it has all the other friend of the court
briefs," he said.
    Kidder Peabody and Co analyst Marc Cohen said he does not
expect the SEC's brief to change the direction of the case.
"Everyday, you're going to see something like this," Cohen
said.
    Texaco lawyer Jim Sales said it was only logical to believe
that the SEC would have sought to intervene in the case if it
believed the 10b-13 rule was involved. "I think what the market
sensed today is that there is a reminder here for Pennzoil that
they may reach for the stars and fall on their face," Sales
said. "They (Pennzoil) have won every case in Texas," said Joel
Fischer of Drexel Burnham Lambert. But Fischer and other
analysts said SEC involvement may raise questions of federal
law that could help Texaco take its case to the U.S. Supreme
Court if the Texas court does not reverse the lower opinions or
refuses to hear its case.
    Analysts said the lower courts did not give much weight to
the 10b-13 issue.
    Sales said the point was argued and the courts
"acknowledged that it was there but they really ignored the
legal affect of what the regulation required, and we hope we
can correct that misimpression".
    Wall Street analysts and arbitragers speculated on many
possible outcomes. One arbitrager said there was concern that
Texaco and Pennzoil could settle for a lower sum than demanded
by Pennzoil.
    "The SEC stepping in on this issue as an amicus curiae
(friend of the court) has a lot of arbitragers a little bit
disturbed," said Cohen.
    "What you're seeing is a continual chess game. Every slight
move down the road could have a multiplying effect," he said.
 Reuter

Negotiations resumed in the 14-day-old
strike by Canada's letter carriers and picket line violence
subsided after the federal government changed its mind and
appointed a mediator.
    The talks between the 20,000-member Letter Carriers Union
of Canada and government-owned Canada Post were the first since
Labor Minister Pierre Cadieux announced the appointment of a
mediator yesterday.
   
    There had been little progress between the parties last
week and both sides requested a mediator for the second time.
Cadieux originally said the two sides were too far apart to
warrant the help on an independent third party.
    Although the postal union said it would maintain its
strategy of selected rotating strikes across the country, only
the Montreal area was affected today and service was normal
elsewhere in Canada.
   
    Canada Post stuck by its promise to halt the use of
replacement workers for at least seven days if a mediator was
appointed and there were no reports of picket line violence.
    Canada Post, under government orders to eliminate a $160
million (U.S.) deficit by next year, has taken a tough stand in
the talks and the two sides remain far apart on wages and
working conditions.             
 Reuter

TECSYN INTERNATIONAL TERMINATES TAKEOVER TALKS WITH
INVESTOR GROUP

Boeing Co has been awarded a 43.4 mln
dlr contract for management and production work on the B-52G
upgrade program, the Air Force said.
 REUTER

<Campeau Corp> said it is not involved
in the Securities and Exchange Commission's administrative
proceeding against Allied Stores Corp, which Campeau acquired
at the end of last year.
    In a statement, the company said, "The SEC action involves
events that occurred prior to Campeau's acquisition of Allied
relating to the alleged failure of Allied to make certain
disclosures. Consequently, Campeau is not subject to the
procedings."
 Reuter

Henley Group Inc's M.W. Kellogg Co
subsidiary said it in consortium with <Inelectra> received a
contract from Corpoven S.A., a Venezuelan-owned domestic oil
company, to revamp and expand its El Palito Refinery.
    Kellogg said the installed cost of the work to be performed
is estimated to be 130 mln dlrs. Inelectra, Kellogg said, is a
major Venezuelan engineering firm.
   Kellog said the project will enable the refinery to produce
BTX products -- benzene, toluene, and orthoxylene -- by
processing naphtha feed from an expanded reformer-hydrotreater.
    Kellogg said the refinery's reformer-hydrotreater will be
upgraded to 9,500 barrels a day capacity from 7,500.
    It said the new BTX process units include aromatic
extraction, xylene fractionation, xylene isomerization and
thermal hydrodealkylation.
    Kellogg pointed out that Venezuela now imports all of its
BTX aromatics.
 Reuter

Equitble Real Estate Shopping Centers
L.P. said it has executed a ground lease with Federated
Department Stores Inc <FDS> for a site at its Brookdale
Shopping Center in Brooklyn Center, Minn.
    Equitable said Federated will build a 67,000 squre feet,
department store and will operate it under its MainStreet
division.
    The new store is expected to be completed and open for
business in the second half of 1988.
 Reuter

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp
said it named John Bond chief executive officer Americas,
succeeding Angus Petrie, who is retiring.
    Bond will have responsibility for the bank's operations in
the United States, Canada and Latin America, the company said.
 Reuter

Fortune Systems Corp said its
shareholders approved the sale of its computer hardware
business to SCI Technologies Inc.
    The transaction is expected to close this week.
    At its annual meeting, Fortune said shareholders also voted
to change Fortune's name to Tigera Inc. Its principal
subsidiary is Tigeral Corp.
 Reuter

International Broadcasting Corp said
it plans to make a secondary public offering of between 700,000
and 800,000 shares of common stock.
    The offering will be made through underwriters in
mid-August. International Broadcasting did not identify the
underwriters.
    The company said it plans to file a registration statement
on the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 Reuter

Warrantech Corp said it agreed with
Providence Washington Insurance Group to insure Warrantech's
obligations on its Extended Service line of business.
    The company said that last year it wrote over 1.9 mln dlrs
of extended service plans representing over 20 mln dlrs' worth
of electronic products.
    The company said the agreement will enhance its future
business opportunities, as an important aspect for it is the
flexibility, credibility and aggressiveness of its insurance
company.
 Reuter

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has requested a 30-day
stay of a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling ordering the commission
to reconsider its allocation of costs from the Grand Gulf One
nuclear power plant.
    More than two years ago, FERC set the allocation af Grand
Gulf capacity and costs among the four Middle South operating
companies. These allocations, in turn, have become the basis
for contested rate filings the four operating utilities made to
regulators in their service areas.
    In a ruling dated June 24 and distributed June 26, the U.S.
Court of Appeals in Washington reversed its January 1987
decision and ordered FERC to explain its criteria for
determining undue discrimination and why the FERC's allocation
currently in effect is not unduly discriminatory under that
definition, Middle South said.
    The company said the ruling by the three-judge appeals
court panel "was totally unexpected, especially in light of the
timetable the full 11-member court set in April of this year
when it announced that all judges would rehear the panel's
January decision in which the panel had upheld FERC.
    In essence, Middle South said, "the three-member panel has
adopted the dissenting opinion as the new majority opinion, and
the full court has accepted the new decision."
    The company said it supports FERC's motion for a stay. The
commission said it needed the time to determine the appropriate
course it should take in light of the new court decision.
    "Given its complexity and the need for clarification by the
FERC, the significance of this latest order will take time to
determine," Middle South said in a statement.
 Reuter

Qtly div 35 cts vs 41 cts prior
    Pay July 31
 Reuter

TecSyn International Inc
said it terminated takeover discussions with a U.S.-based
investors group after the group was unable to establish access
to funds to complete the proposed transactions, contrary to
previous assurances.
    TecSyn previously said it and its controlling shareholders
accepted in principle a proposal from the group to offer nine
dlrs a share for 70 pct of TecSyn's outstanding shares.
    The investor group also planned to invest 22.5 mln dlrs in
a private placement of four mln non-voting TecSyn common
shares, the company said.
 Reuter

Goodyear said it is selling its 50
pct interest in Toyobo Petcord Ltd of Japan to its partner in
the venture, Toyobo Co.
 Reuter

Infinite Graphics Inc said it signed
a letter of intent to create a joint venture with <Computer
Design Equipment Co> to expand sales of its computer-aided
design equipment in the Midwest.
    Infinite Graphics said it will manage and hold the
controlling interest in the venture, National CADD-Pro Upper
Midwest.
    Computer Design has headquarters in Syracuse, Ind.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs two cts
    Net 391,000 vs 57,000
    Sales 7,917,000 vs 7,255,000
    Six mths
    Shr 47 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,164,000 vs 422,000
    Sales 27.9 mln vs 24.3 mln
    NOTE: Full company name is Washington Scientific Industries
Inc. Second quarter ended June seven.
 Reuter

Western Union said it
signed an agreement with <Electronic Data Systems Corp>.
    Under the agreement, EDS will provide Western Union's
easylink electronic mail service to the 35,000 EDS diamond
communications users of General Motors Corp <GM> internal
electronic mail network. Diamond is an interface linking eight
incompatible electronic mail systems at GM's various divisions.
    Diamond users will now have a communications path to
160,000 easylink users and 1.5 mln telex users worldwide,
Western Union said.
 Reuter

Warwick Insurance Managers Inc,
the holding company for Warwick Insurance Co and its
subsidiaries, said it purchased 55,000 shares of its own common
stock.
    The company said it may establish an employee stock
ownership plan, and that the shares purchased would be made
available to the plan if it is adopted.
 Reuter

Israel's exports to the U.S. can and
must double over the next five years if the mideast nation's
goal of economic independence is to be achieved, said Gad
Yaacobi, Israeli minister of Economy and Communication.
    Speaking before an American-Israel Chamber of Commerce
seminar, Yaacobi said that in 1986 Israeli exports to the U.S.
were over 2.3 billion dlrs or about one-third of Israel's total
exports, while imports from the U.S. were around 1.8 billion
dlrs or roughly one-sixth of the total.
    "I am convinced that Israel exports to the U.S. can reach
five billion dlrs in the next five years, if we learn to
function in the American marketplace and place greater emphasis
on product quality," Yaacobi said.
    While the weakening of the dollar vis-a-vis European
currencies is a "bottleneck to increasing exports to the U.S.,"
Yaacobi said he expects Israel to extend its recent trend
toward higher U.S. exports.
    In the last ten years, Israeli exports to the U.S. rose
fivefold, from 417 mln dlrs to 2.3 billion in 1986, while
imports rose from 888 mln dlrs to 1.8 billion last year.
    Yaacobi said export growth must increase ten to eleven pct
annually, the rate achieved until the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
     He said that the U.S./Israel Free Trade agreement, passed
last year and eliminating all duties and other commercial
restrictions between the two nations through 1994, would
continue to facilitate the desired export growth.
    Dual agreements included in the FTA allow Israel to act as
an economic bridge between the U.S. and Europe, enabling U.S.
firms to export to Europe at lower cost if a certain percentage
of the exported is produced in Israel, and vice-versa.
    Yaacobi said that tensions among the nations of the middle
east was one of the main reasons Israel had not yet been able
to achieve its economic potential.
    Since 1973 the U.S. has given Israel 25 billion dlrs in
aid, but most of it went to defense expenditures and financing
military conflicts "which were imposed on Israel," he said.
    Short of achieving Israel's full growth potential, however,
Yaccobi said it would still be possible to achieve economic
independence by 1993 or 1994, based on the assumption that
exports can be doubled from 1986 levels in that time period.
 Reuter

Revco D.S. Inc said it expects a
loss of 14 mln dlrs for the fourth quarter ended May 30. The
company said it expects sales of 703 mln dlrs with operating
profit at 52 mln dlrs.
    The company said that it expects sales in the full fiscal
year, ending May 30, of around 2.7 billion dlrs with operating
profit of around 159 mln dlrs and earnings of about nine mln
dlrs.
    The company said figures for last year are not comparable
as Revco was acquired in a leveraged buyout at the end of
December.
 Reuter

The House of Representatives passed a
bill that requires financial institutions to disclose the terms
and conditions of interest rates they offer on savings
accounts.
    Institutions would be required to disclose through
advertisments and announcements the minimum balances, time
requirements, fees and other conditions of their savings
accounts, certificates of deposits and interest-bearing
checking accounts.
   
    The purpose of the bill is to help customers decide which
banks and savings associations offer the best rates, according
to House Banking Committee chairman Fernand St Germain, a Rhode
Island Democrat.
    The bill was passed by voice vote and sent to the Senate.
 Reuter

GENCORP INC SAYS TO SELL GENERAL TIRE TO CONTINENTAL
GUMMI FOR 650 MLN DLRS

downgraded Potomac Electric Power Co's preferred stock to AA-1
from AAA and it continues to review the utility's AAA bond
rating for downgrade. Some 1.3 billion dlrs is affected.
    The prime-1 commercial paper rating is not under review.
    Moody's said it expects Potomac Electric's credit quality
to undergo a degree of erosion because of recent rate
reductions in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it called
for optional redemption of its outstanding Series E increasing
dividend preferred stock on August 1 at 50 dlrs a share.
    The redemption price will be payable on August 1.
    The regular quarterly dividend of 1.50 dlrs a share will be
paid August 1, record July 15.
 Reuter

Shr 12-1/2 cts vs 12-1/2 prior qtr
    Pay July 15
    Record July 8

 Reuter

Contel Corp said its expects to
report second quarter earnings that are lower than last year's
74 cts a share and 1987 earnings from continuing operations
that are about 15 pct lower than last year's 3.04 dlrs per
share.
    Donald Weber, president and chief executive officer of
Contel, said that lower than expected revenues, higher than
anticipated costs to complete certain contracts and one-time
expenses are behind the lower earnings projections.
    As such, Weber said Contel has begun to evaluate
strategies, budgets and operating direction in each of the
company's divisions "with renewed emphasis on maximizing
    Weber added that Contel is holding discussions with
<Comsat> on an agreement to terminate the previosuly proposed
merger between the two companies.
    Weber added that the results of the evaluations of certain
parts of the company may be reflected later this year in a
combination of one-time gains or losses not in the anticipated
lower earnings.
    Webber said, however, that he was encouraged by the
continued strength of Contel's telephone businesses and the
strong showing from certain of the company's non-regulated
sectors.
    But, he added, that results for other parts of the company
will still be unsatisfactory.
 Reuter

Venezuela's government tomorrow presents
a 1988 budget proposal for 183.432 billion bolivars, based upon
an oil price of 16.35 dlrs per barrel, finance minister Manuel
    Azpurua told reporters after a cabinet meeting the new
budget projects ordinary income of 149.925 billion bolivars and
extraordinary income of 34.186 billion. Oil revenues are
expected to produce 92.014 billion, or 61 pct of the total.
    The finance minister said the oil revenue projection is
based on an average price of 16.35 dlrs per barrel in 1988.
Venezuelan oil through the first half of 1987 has averaged 16.
20 dlrs per barrel, according to the state oil company
Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.
 Reuter

Hartmarx Corp is in "excellent financial
condition" and expects record earnings in the second half of
fiscal 1987, Chairman John Meinert said in a statement.
    The company reported earnings for the second quarter ended
May 31 of 8,265,000 dlrs or 40 cts a share on sales of 248.3
mln dlrs, compared to earnings of 2,255,000 dlrs or 11 cts on
sales of 245.4 mln dlrs in the 1986 quarter.
    First-half earnings increased to 19.4 mln dlrs or 94 cts
from 10.6 mln dlrs or 51 cts in 1986.
 Reuter

downgraded American Healthcare Management's outstanding 80 mln
dlrs of 15 pct subordinated notes to Caa from B-1.
    Moody's said that noteholders now have the option to
accelerate payment of the issue as early as July 15, 1987. The
rating had been under review since April.
    The agency noted the company earned three mln dlrs in the
first quarter after taxes. However, Moody's said the firm 
violated covenants in its in its bank credit agreement as a
result of substantial asset writedowns and an operating
earnings decline, both of which were announced in April.
 Reuter

Gencorp Inc and Continental AG of
Hanover, West Germany, jointy announced they signed an
agreement for Continental to buy Gencorp's General Tire Inc
subsidiary for 650 mln dlrs in cash.
    Under the agreement the companies said Continental will
acquire General Tire, including its related domestic and
foreign operations, and Gencorp will retain liability for the
medical benefits of retired General Tire employees who retired
on or before November 30, 1984.
    The sale is expected to be completed on or before November
one and is subject to meeting certain conditions.
    Continental is Europe's second largest tire producer. Last
year, the company had sales of 2.6 billion dlrs, with 1.9
billion dlrs generated by its tire operations.
    Last year, General Tire had operating profits of 79 mln
dlrs on sales of 1.1 billion dlrs, and Gencorp had operating
profits of 130 mln dlrs on sales of 3.1 billion dlrs.
    GenCorp spokesman Rip Tilden said the company will retain
about 100 mln dlrs in liability for its former General Tire
employees under the agreement.
    Tilden said Gencorp will use the proceeds from the sale to
reduce its 1.5 billion dlr debt.
    In April, GenCorp sucessfully thwarted a takeover by a
partnership formed by AFG Industries Inc <AFG> and Wagner and
Brown with a restructuring program that included the purchase
of up to 54 pct, or 12.5 mln shares, of its common at 130 dlrs
a share for a total of 1.6 billion dlrs
    As part of the restructuring, GenCorp also said it planned
to sell its tire business, the bottling operations of its RKO
General Inc subsidiary, and RKO's remaining broadcast
properties to focus on the company's aerospace and automotive
components businesses.
   
    Tilden said Gencorp expects to realize about 850 mln dlrs
in after tax proceeds by the end of 1987 as a result of sale of
several pieces of the nonbroadcast assets of the company,
including general tire.
    "The price paid for General tire would not cause us to
reevaluate that estimate," said Tilden.
    General Tire employs 10,000 people worldwide and has four
tire manufacturing plants in the U.S. and one in Canada.
    In a statemnet, A. William Reynolds, GenCorp chairman said
the sale of General Tire "represents a critical accomplishment
in our plan to restructure GenCorp."
   
    Reynolds also said GenCorp's previously announced sale of
its other businesses are "proceeding satisfactorily."
    Among the pieces of Gencorp's empire that remain to be sold
are its RKO bottling operations. GenCorp agreed to sell RKO's
KHJ-TV station to Walt Disney Co <DIS> for
217 mln dlrs. That deal awaits approval by the Federal
Communications Commission. GenCorp also received 257 dlrs after
tax from the sale of RKO's WOR-TV.
   
 Reuter

The U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) said it backed an eventual severing of
the link between the government and the Federal National
Mortgage Association -- better known as Fannie Mae.
    But the department, in a long-awaited report requested by
Congress in 1984, shied from setting a timetable for the giant
housing finance institution to end its government ties.
   Instead, it said specific recommendations would come in a
second report, to be issued jointly by Fannie Mae and HUD by
Oct. 1.
   "The basic policy directive underlying FNMA's history has
been consistent -- a gradual movement toward fully private
status. There appears to be no need to change that policy," the
HUD report said.
    Any change in Fannie Mae's status would be up to Congress.
    The HUD report said the options open to Congress ranged
from doing nothing to full and immediate privatization.
    "Whatever option is selected, the combination of the
favorable economic environment, FNMA's recent move to financial
health, the current strength of the housing market and the
evolution of FNMA's role in the mortgage market from
contributor to competitor would all indicate that the time is
ripe for a positive move toward privatization," the report
    Fannie Mae operated as a part of the federal government
from the time it was created in 1938 until 1968, when it was
rechartered by Congress and put under private ownership with
government backing.
    However, "it was always intended that FNMA would eventually
become fully private," the HUD report said.
    Fannie Mae's critics, including some Reagan administration
officials espousing a free-market philosophy, say government
sponsorship of the agency allows it to compete unfairly with
private lenders and investors.
    But its backers claim mortgage rates would be pushed up as
higher agency costs were eventually passed on to home buyers.
    Fannie Mae was created by Congress to make capital
available for housing by buying mortgages from lenders and
packaging them as securities to sell investors.
 Reuter

resolution urging President Reagan to negotiate a world-wide
treaty to reduce the use of chlorofluorocarbons which are
depleting the earth's ozone layer.
    Chlorofluorocarbons are chemicals used in aerosol sprays,
refrigeration, air conditioning, foam insultation, fire
extinguishers and cleaning solvents. They were banned in the
United States and Canada in 1978, but are still widely used in
Europe and Japan.
   
    The ozone layer of the atmosphere protects the earth
against ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
    Scientists have warned that if chlorofluocarbons continue
to deplete the ozone layer, the additional ultraviolent
radiation striking the earth will cause a higher rate of skin
cancer.
    The non-binding resolution was passed by voice vote.
 Reuter

Shr loss 79 cts vs profit 30 cts
    Net loss 2.1 mln dlrs vs profit 675,935 dlrs
    Revs 5.5 mln dlrs vs 9.1 mln dlrs
    Note:the year ended March 31. The company's full name is   
 Advanced Institutional Management Software Inc
 Reuter

affirmed National City Corp's long-term debt ratings and those
of its major subsidiaries, National City Bank and BancOhio
National Bank. Some 200 mln dlrs of issues are affected.
    Moody's action followed the announcement by National City
Corp that it would add a special provision of 55 mln dlrs to
its loan loss reserve, primarily reflecting developing country
loan exposure.
    Affirmed are the A-1 rating on National City's senior
notes, the AA-2 rating on National City Bank for long-term
deposits and the A-1 BankOhio long-term deposit rank.
 Reuter

Kellwood Co said it signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Robert Scott Ltd Inc, David
Brooks Ltd Inc and Andrew Harvey Ltd of Dedham, Mass.
    Combined sales of the three companies in 1986 were over 50
mln dlrs, it said. The deals are expected to be completed by
July 31, Kellwood said.
 Reuter

affirmed 1.2 billion dlrs of debt of The Bank of New York Co
Inc and units.
    Affirmed were the parent's A-1 senior notes and preferred
stock, A-2 subordinated capital notes and prime-1 commercial
paper. Also affirmed were The Bank of New York's Aa-2 long-term
deposits and prime-1 short-term obligations.
    Moody's cited the firm's announced 135 mln dlr addition to
the loan loss reserve as a reflection of exposure to borrowers
in less-developed countries. The addition adjusts the firm's
financial statements to reflect economic reality, it said.
 Reuter

Bell Canada, owned by Bell Canada
Enterprises Inc, said it will reduce long distance rates in
Canada by an average of between two and eight pct, in line with
a ruling by Canadian regulators.
    The company said it does not expect any change to net
revenues.
    The company said it will cut rates for calls within 
Ontario, Quebec and parts of the Northwest Territories by an
average of between two and three pct and by an average eight
pct for other parts of Canada, effective Wednesday.
   
    The changes will decrease the charges for longer distances
and increase shorter distance rates, Bell Canada said.
    The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission ordered Bell Canada to reduce its phone rates
because it said the company, which has a monopoly in certain
areas, was making more than the allowable rate of return.
 Reuter

A.H. ROBINS SAYS RORER GROUP MERGER PROPOSAL MERITS
FURTHER CONSIDERATION

Two leading Senate Republicans have
urged the White House to name Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Kalo Hineman to replace outgoing
Chairman Susan Phillips, congressional sources said.
    Senate Republican leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) and Sen.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), ranking minority member on the Senate
Agriculture Committee, both have endorsed Hineman for the top
CFTC post, the sources said.
    In addition, Lugar has urged White House Chief of Staff
Howard Baker to recommend Mark Sullivan, White House associate
personnel director, as CFTC commissioner, they said.
    Phillips's departure July 24 will create a vacancy on the
five-person commission and require the White House to appoint a
new chairman.
    Earlier this month, Sullivan emerged as a leading candidate
to replace Phillips, according to industry and congressional
sources.
    But Sullivan's lack of experience in commodity markets has
been cited as a liability by industry representatives.
    Hineman, a Kansas farmer, has drawn support from Dole and
other members of the congressional Agriculture Committees who
are eager to have farming interests well represented on CFTC.
 Reuter

upgraded Heritage Communications Inc's senior debt to BB-minus
from B-plus and subordinated debt to B from B-minus. About 400
mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S and P also said that Tele-Communications Inc's
preliminary BB-minus rating on a 250 mln dlr shelf registration
of debt and B rating on 505 mln dlrs of subordinated debt are
affirmed.
    The rating agency said the action reflects the acquisition
of Heritage by Tele-Communications, subject to a June 30 vote
by Heritage shareholders.
 Reuter

Mitsubishi Semiconductor America
Inc, a subsdiary of <Mitsubishi Electric Corp>, said it plans
to invest  36 mln dlrs to expand its Durham, N.C. semiconductor
    The company said it will build a building adjacent to the
company's memory chip assembly plant and test center in N.C.
The expansion will allow the subsidiary to fabricate the
silicon wafers used in producing Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASIC) chips, the company said.
    Construction is expected to begin in July, with operations
planned to start in early 1988, the company added.
 Reuter

Associates Inc said it agreed with Fox Technology Inc <FOXT.O>
to buy its Fox Research Inc unit for a cash payment and the
assumption of liabilities of around 10 mln dlrs.
    The company said part of the agreement includes payment of
up to an additional 6.5 mln dlrs based on the performance of
the unit in the year following the closing.
    The company said the deal is expected to be closed in
mid-August.
    Fox Research develops, makes and markets local area
networks for personal computers.
 Reuter

Tennessee Senator Albert Gore,
seeking to become the youngest president in U.S. history,
entered the 1988 presidential race today with a pledge to
return respect for the law and common sense to the White House.
    Gore, a four-term member of the House of Representatives
and a Senator since 1985, became the sixth official entrant in
the race for the Democratic nomination.
    Public opinion polls show him running near the bottom
against the other declared candidates.
 Reuter

placed Reichhold Chemicals Inc's BBB-minus rated subordinated
debt on Creditwatch with developing implications following
Dainippon Inc and Chemicals Inc's unsolicited bid for
Reichhold. About 60 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S and P said that, if Dainippon is successful, it is likely
to discontinue its surveillance of Reichhold's debt, since
sufficient credit information probably will not be available. A
similar approach exists with respect to Polychrome Corp, which
was acquired by Dainippon several years ago.
 Reuter

A.H. Robins Co said its board
has concluded that the merger proposal submitted by Rorer Group
Inc <ROR> merits further consideration.
    At the request of the board, Rorer has agreed to extend
until 1800 EDT July 2 its deadline for response from A.H.
Robins.
    After Rorer announced its second bid for the company last
Thursday, analysts forecast that the Robins family, which holds
control of the company, would vigourously oppose any merger.
    But, the analysts added, that Robins desire to emerge
independent from two years of bankruptcy proceedings may be
thwarted by some Robins' shareholders who perceive a merger as
a more expedient way of dealing with the company's Dalkon
Shield related liabilities.
    After a failed first attempt earlier this year, Rorer's
latest merger plan calls for a share swap worth about 720 mln
dlrs.
    Rorer would also set up two trusts to cover the estimated
1.75 billion dlrs in liabilities to deal with about 320,000
claims by women who suffered maladies from the use of the
Dalkon Shield interuterine device.
 Reuter

Pakistani government allowed freer
cotton and rice export in a three-year new trade policy aimed
at narrowing the country's yawning trade gap.
televised speech the government had also decided to allow
duty-free import of cotton yarn to make the textile industry
more competitive, and to link bulk tea imports to the export of
Pakistani products.
   
1970s.
    But Haq said now the private sector would also export
cotton and rice along with the corporations, which meets a
long-standing demand of the local traders.
    The duty-free import of cotton yarn has been allowed to
bring down prices and help the local ancillary industries
compete effectively in the world market, he said.
   
    Haq said the new policy, effective from the fiscal year
1987/88 beginning on July 1, would be for three years but
reviewed every year.
    It was a departure from the previous practice of announcing
trade policies for a single fiscal year, and Haq said it would
enable the businessmen to plan their market strategies over a
longer period.
    He said an export credit of 250 mln dlrs had been provided
for the export of engineering goods to selected third world
countries on soft credit terms.
   
    Pakistan's 1986/87 exports at 3.6 billion dlrs, 18.2 per
cent more than in the previous year, and imports at 5.23
billion dlrs compared to 5.63 billion dlrs in 1985/86.
    He said the government policy was to rationalise and
streamline import controls.
    "It has been observed that due to restrictions on imports,
specially on raw materials and intermediate goods, local
industry has been suffering for want of necessary inputs," he
said. "Prices have been on the increase and quality of goods
produced has been low. This restrictive policy also gave rise
to smuggling and hampering of exports."
   
    He said that to correct this situation, 136 items had freed
from import restrictions.
    Previously, Pakistan has met its trade gap largely from
remittances from its nationals working abroad, mainly in the
Gulf. However, the remittances have begun to fall after the
drop in oil prices in recent years leading to the spectre of a
balance of payments crisis for Pakistan.
 Reuter

First RepublicBank Corp said it will add
325 mln dlrs to its loan loss reserve for the second quarter.
     The company said the move, which is being made to cover
loans to developed countries, will result in a loss of around
313 mln dlrs in the second quarter ending June 30.
    First RepublicBank Corp said the increase in its loan loss
reserve will lead to a loss for the full year. Figures for last
year are unavailable as the bank was formed in June this year
after a merger of two Dallas-based banks, RepublicBank Corp and
InterFirst Corp.
    The company said the 325 mln dlrs provision will increase
its reserve to 1.1 billion dlrs, out of which it will allocate
275 mln dlrs to cover its loans to 18 developing countries.
    The company said it took the action in light of recent
action taken by other major banking organizations on developing
country loans.
 Reuter

A U.S. decision ending a forty-year
tax treaty covering the Netherlands Antilles was unlikely to
have a major impact on the Eurobond market, tax experts said.
    Most U.S. firms stopped using financial subsidiaries
incorporated in the Netherlands Antilles to sell to the
Eurobond market in July, 1984, the experts said.
    But the decision affects Eurobonds issued before July 1984
involving principal worth an estimated 30 billion dlrs and will
probably mean those bonds will be called before their maturity
date, they said.
    Since most of the bonds are currently trading at a premium,
calling them in early will mean a loss in market value for the
bondholders, according to a Treasury official who asked not to
    The official said the Treasury Department was currently
unsure about the impact of the move on the Eurobond market.
    "We are monitoring the situation and receiving reports from
investors and issuers," the official said.
    Earlier, the Treasury said it notified the Netherlands of
the termination of the treaty effective January 1, 1988.
    For years, U.S. firms seeking to avoid a 30 pct withholding
tax used financial subsidiaries incorporated in the Netherlands
Antilles to sell Eurobonds, which are bonds issued abroad by an
overseas financial subsidiary.
    But most companies have since taken advantage of a 1984
change in the law known as the exemption for portfolio interest
that allows them to sell directly in the Eurobond market and
avoid the withholding tax.
    The 1984 tax change sharply reduced the number of U.S.
companies using the Netherlands Antilles to sell Eurobonds,
said Steven Hannes of accounting firm Touche Ross and Co.
    Ending the tax treaty will mean that some foreigners
investing in the U.S. through the Netherlands Antilles will
lose tax benefits and probably change their portfolios, Hannes
said.
    He said the decision would mainly affect foreign investors
who sought tax advantages because they reside in countries
which do not have a tax treaty with the United States.
    These investors typically reside in countries in the Middle
East, Central and South America, he said.
    Some of them may withdraw their U.S. investments or seek
tax relief through the Netherlands itself or Switzerland, but
the choices are limited, Hannes said.
    "It is conceivable their investment may stay here. They
would bear some of the tax that has not been borne in the
past," Hannes said.
    U.S. domestic bonds are not affected by the change.
    U.S. companies with Eurobonds issued through the
Netherlands Antilles are expected to call them early to avoid
the tax liability, a Treasury Department spokesman said. But
they could refinance at lower rates because of the general
decline in interest rates, so the Department does not expect
U.S. firms to be hurt by the decision, the spokesman said.
Negotiations between the United States and the Netherlands
continued without success since the late 1970's. The
differences centered on U.S. concern over residents of third
countries avoiding U.S. taxes by using the treaty with the
Netherlands Antilles.
 Reuter

Citicorp has extended its reach
into the California market with Citicorp Savings' acquisition
of 50 of Sears Roebuck's <S> Sears Savings Bank branches,
bringing its presences to 143 branches in 101 communities,
CitiCorp Savings said.
    Thrift industry analysts said the move, approved by the
Federal Reserve board today, is a plus for Citicorp and shows
its serious intent to penetrate the California market.
    The acquisition mostly extends Citicorp's reach into
Southern California, where 34 of the 50 branches are located.
Citicorp Savings was predominantly in Northern California.
    "This marks our first major expansion in California,
particularly in the south," said Citicorp Savings President
Edward Valencia, in a statement.
    Thrift industry sources said they do not see a major
near-term impact on the Southern California thrift market, but
do expect Citicorp to be a more aggressive competitor than
Sears was in that market.
    "We do believe they will be a better competitor than
Sears," said James Stutz, Executive Vice President of Home
Federal Savings and Loan Association <HFD>, based in San Diego.
    Banking industry sources said the move is viewed as
groundwork, to establish Citicorp throughout the California
market, well before the 1991 law change that will allow it to
operate as a bank in the state. They said Citicorp is likely to
convert the branches to banks at that time.
    In the near-term, however, analysts said with seven billion
dlrs in assets, Citicorp Savings is still not a major force in
the thrift market, against such large California thrifts as
Home Federal, Great Western Financial Corp <GWF>, H F Ahmanson
and Co <AHM>, Golden West  Financial <GWD> and Great American
First Savings Bank <GTA>.
 Reuter

it approved a 48 mln dlr loan to assist Ecuador in meeting its
foreign exchange needs following the earthquakes that struck in
March.
    The loan, which the IMF provides countries under special
circumstances, is equal to 25 pct of Ecuador's quota, or
economic standing, in the Fund.
    The IMF said that according to recent estimates, the
earthquakes will hurt the country's balance of payments this
year because of the loss of oil revenues due to destruction of
part of the oil pipeline.
 REUTER

BCI Holdings Corp said holders of a
majority of its debt securities approved an amendment
consenting to a distribution of certain assets of the company,
clearing the way for BCI's planned reorganization.
    Under the previously approved reorganization, BCI will be
divided into two companies, including a newly-formed, publicly
held non-food company, E-II Holdings Inc. BCI Holdings, which
acquired Beatrice Cos Inc in April 1986, will remain a
privately-held, primarily food company.
    Consent of the debt securities holders was necessary to
distribtute shares of E-II common stock plus 57.4 cts a share
to BCI shareholders and warrant holders, BCI said. Shares will
be distributed when a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission becomes effective.
    Holders of 11 pct Ten Year Senior Notes who consented to
the amendments will receive 12.50 dlrs in cash for each 1,000
dlrs principal amount of debt securities. Consenting holders of
the other three issues of debt securities will receive 10 dlrs
in cash per 1,000 dlrs principal amount, BCI said. Total
principal amount outstanding is 2.5 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

Star Technologies Inc said that a
settlement of a 1985 shareholder lawsuit has produced a 1.3 mln
dlr charge, which the company recorded in its fourth quarter
earnings.
    The company said it will pay the settlement with company
stock, subject to court approval.
    To reflect the settlement, therefore, the company said it
has revised its fiscal fourth quarter, ended March 31, earnings
by 1.3 mln dlrs, or nine cts per share on a primary basis.
    As such, the company said it is recording a net loss of
580,000 dlrs, or four cts a share, versus the net income of
740,000 dlrs previously reported.
    For the year to date ended March 31, net income was reduced
to 1.4 mln dlrs, from the 2.7 mln dlrs previously reported on
May 28.
    The class action suit, filed in a federal district court,
charged the company with various violations of federal
securities laws with regards to the company's initial public
offering in December, 1984 and certain subsequent filings.
 Reuter

Indiana National Corp said it
expects a loss of four mln dlrs for the second quarter ending
June 30, against a profit of eight mln dlrs in the same year
    The company said this will result from an addition of 23
mln dlrs to its foreign loan reserves in tandem with banking
industry action.
    It said it expects a loss for the first six months of eight
mln dlrs. This compares with a profit of 17.3 mln dlrs in the
first six months of last year.
 Reuter

Contel Corp's telecommunications
equipment unit is the most likely candidate for sale by the
Atlanta-based telecommunications company, Wall Street analysts
said.
    "Executone is at the top of the list," said one analyst,
referring to Contel's loss-riden telecommunications equipment
unit. "The question is, who would take it?" he added.
    The company, forecasting a 15 pct drop in 1987 operating
earnings over last year, said late today that it is reviewing
all operations in an effort aimed at "maximizing long-term
stockholder value."
    Analysts also said Contel's federal systems division, which
has been hit with several executive defections, may also be put
on the block.
    Contel officials declined to comment on the possibility of
selling any operations. However, the company indicated in a
statement that it was closely evaluating the telecommunications
and federal systems units.
 Reuter

Belmoral Mines Ltd said it agreed in
principle for the 26 mln dlr sale of four mln units priced at
6.50 dlrs each to investment dealer McLeod Young Weir Ltd,
subject to board and regulatory approvals.
    Holders will be allowed to exchange the units after
September 15, 1987 for one common share and one common share
purchase warrant of Belmoral, the company said.
    Each warrant holder will have the right to purchase one
Belmoral common share for 8.50 dlrs before January 15, 1990.
McLeod Young Weir plans to resell the units to institutional
and private investors, mainly in Europe, Belmoral said.
 Reuter

    Net profit 123,000 vs loss 104,000
    Revs 12.5 mln vs nil
    Note: 1987 period includes 112,000 dlr extraordinary gain.
 Reuter

Scott Paper Co, one of the leaders in
the tissue and coated paper business, said it expects 1987
earnings to be between 5.75 dlrs and 6.25 dlrs a share, within
the range proscribed by most Wall Street analysts.
    "We have put together five or six years of pretty
respectable growth and three consecutive years of record
earnings and I see no reason why this growth pattern should be
interrupted," Scott's chairman and chief executive officer
Philip Lippincott told Reuters in an interview.
    Last year, the company reported earnings of 4.96 dlrs a
share, reflecting the impact of a a strike at its Mobile,
Alabama, plant.
    Earlier today, Lippincott outlined his bullish growth
scenario for analysts, emphasizing that the company is dealing
with the growing capacity in the industry by developing new
products and modernizing plants. He said that capacity
increases in the industry, particularly tissue paper, have
stymied price hikes but Scott has boosted sales by providing
more distinctive products that meet the needs of consumers.
    "Scott Paper has shown tremendous growth in the last five
years, but I think that improvement is largely unappreciated by
the market," said analyst Sherman Chao of Salomon Brothers who
noted that the stock is selling at a relatively low
price/earnings ratio.
    "They have been striving for a return on equity of 14 to 17
pct, but today they were talking about a much higher objective.
They are raising their financial objectives," Chao said.
    Sales of consumer products increased about four pct last
year and showed growth of about five pct pace in the first
quarter, eclipsing the overall industry wide sales pace of less
than two pct, Lippincott said.
    "The most favorable thing I came away with today is that
their Sommerset, Maine, plant which makes number four coated
paper, is sold out through September. That means their coated
paper business is looking particularly good," said Lawrence
Ross of PaineWebber Group Inc.
   
    Analyst George Adler of Smith Barney was equally
optimistic. "They don't have anything that is going to set the
world on fire right now but I am at a loss to find anything
negative either," Adler said.
    He said Scott Paper is continuing to gain market share by
emphasizing their strategy and developing distinctive products.
    Lippincott also noted that the company stands to gain from
the depressed level of the dollar. "The bottom line impact of a
lower dollar was about 15 cts a share in 1986, and we could
have a similar impact this year," he said.
 Reuter

Canada Development Corp <CDC.TO> said it
agreed to sell its 25.2 pct interest in CDC Life Sciences Inc
to Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the provincial
pension fund manager, and Institut Merieux, a French biological
laboratory company, for 169.2 mln dlrs.
    It said the caisse and Institut Merieux will each buy 2.75
mln common shares of the company for 30.76 dlrs a share.
    It said following the transaction the caisse will hold
about 19.3 pct of CDC Life Sciences. Canada Development said
the purchasers do not plan to acquire the remaining
publicly-held shares.
 Reuter

A U.S. judge denied Bristol Meyers Inc's
request to halt Abbott Laboratories' <ABT> planned supply of
AIDS tests to the Red Cross, a spokeswoman for Abbott said.
    Judge Joyce Hens Green of the U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C., rejected Bristol Meyers' request for a
temporary restraining order against Abbott's contract, set to
begin July one, to supply the AIDS tests, and tests for
hepatitis, to be used on blood donated to the Red Cross, the
spokeswoman said. She could not immediately provide Green's
reasons for the ruling. A Bristol Meyers spokesman was not
 Reuter

APL Corp said it sold 1,250,000
shares of Porex Technologies Corp it owned for 40.6 mln dlrs
and, pending federal approval, will use the proceeds to buy 1.5
mln shares and certain notes of Fischbach Corp <FIS> that APL's
Pennsylvania Engineering Corp affiliate owns.
    Victor Posner is chairman of APL and Pennsylvania
Engineering. After buying the Fischbach shares, API said it
will own about 54.3 pct of Fischbach's voting securities
assuming conversion of all convertible debentures held by APL.
   
    APL said it planned to buy the Fischbach shares from
Pennsylvania Engineering at market value and to use proceeds to
make a secured demand loan to Pennsylvania Engineering.
    APL said it planned to purchase 470,000 dlrs principal
amount of Fischbach's 8-1/2 convertible subordinated debentures
and 4.5 mln dlr 4-3/4 pct convertible subordinated debentures.
APL also said that Pennsylvania Engineering and the holders of
Pennsylvania Engineering's senior notes and senior secured
notes in a face amount of about 56 mln dlrs  also agreed that
proceeds received from the sale of Fischbach notes and stock
will be used to fully satisify its oligations under the notes.
 Reuter

Dixons Group Plc said shareholders at a
special meeting of Cyclops Corp approved the previously
announced merger of Cyclops with Dixons.
    Under the terms of the merger, Dixons said the remaining
public Cyclops shareholders are to receive 95 dlrs a share.
    Dixons also said the previously announced sale of Cyclops
steel and nonresidential construction businesses to a former 
Alleghany Corp <Y> subsidiary is expected to be completed June
30. After the sale, Cyclops will retain its specialty retailing
business and change its name to Silo Inc, said Dixons.
 Reuter

Ste-Genevieve Resources Ltd said it
increased its cash takeover bid for Sullivan Mines Inc shares
to 7.25 dlrs a share. It did not give the original bid.
    The offer is for a minimum five mln common shares and a
maximum six mln shares, the company said.
 Reuter

Prospects appear slim for a summer
meeting between U.S. and Soviet officials before the two
countries enter the final year of their bilateral grains
agreement, Agriculture Department officials said.
    The two sides usually try to meet as each new year of the
agreeement approaches although the last meeting was delayed up
to last February. However, any delay this year should not
endanger the fifth year of the grains agreement that extends
through September, 1988, USDA officials said.
    "It will be difficult to pull together the people for the
meeting during July," an aide to USDA undersecretary Daniel
    Since the last meeting was only around four months ago, the
next talks could still be a "couple more months," he said.
   
    There has been grain industry speculation that the USDA
will offer Moscow another wheat subsidy during the next
marketing year. But USDA officials said even if consultations
were held soon a subsidy offer would probably not be made.
    "I doubt that there would be any subsidy offer this summer
or before the next agreement year begins," a USDA source said.
    Citing limited subsidy funds and uncertainties about next
year's crops, he said, "There are too many variables now. It
would be uncharacteristic of us to make an offer now."
    Under the nonbinding pact, Moscow has agreed to purchase a
minimum of nine mln tonnes of U.S. grain per year. Soviet and
U.S. officials normally meet in the summer before the start of
a new agreement year to discuss grain quality, shipping
logistics and production outlooks.
 Reuter

    Net 299,869 vs 54,775
    Revs 5.7 mln vs 5.2 mln
    Note: period ended April 30.
 Reuter

ALZA Corp said it has notified
the State of California Regional Water Quality Control Board of
a plan to remedy groundwater and soil contamination it detected
at a site in Stanford Research Park.
    A preliminary water sample showed water apparently
contaminated some years ago with the industrial solvent
chloroform. The company said the contamination does not affect
drinking water or water used its operations on the site.
    The plan is expected to cost a maximum of 750,000 dlrs, the
 Reuter

The Justice Department said it asked
the government to proceed cautiously on a plan allowing the
nation's two largest intercity bus companies to merge their
operations, a move one of the firms said may derail the deal.
    Justice's opposition to quick federal approval of a bid by
Greyhound Lines Inc to take immediate control Trailways Corp
prompted Greyhound to threaten -- in a brief filed with the
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) -- to drop the merger
plan.
    Greyhound officials told Reuters late today the company
hoped for ICC action on the merger by tomorrow.
    "Greyhound Lines will go forward with the transaction only
if it is permitted to assume immediate, unconditional control
of Trailways' operations and to integrate them with its
operations," Greyhound said in a filing with the ICC, the
federal regulatory agency which has the final say over mergers
of interstate bus companies.
    But Justice had said in an earlier filing with the ICC that
it wanted the agency to move slowly on the plan and to turn
down Greyhound's request to begin operating Trailways
    "The department has just begun to receive relevant
information on Trailways' financial condition and is in the
process of assessing the correctness of the company's
allegations," acting Assistant Attorney General Charles Rule
said in comments submitted to the ICC.
    Greyhound announced June 19 that it wanted the ICC to let
it begin operating Trailways immediately while continuing to
evaluate the merger for possible antitrust problems.
    Greyhound said it would pay 80 mln dlrs for many of
Trailways' terminals, buses and garages.
    The two companies said in papers filed with the ICC that
Trailways "could collapse in a matter of days."
    They said Trailways owed suppliers more than six mln dlrs,
with another six mln dlrs due June 30.
    The suppliers, they said, could force Trailways into
bankruptcy "at any time."
    Trailways also owes a consortium of banks 76 mln dlrs, and
the consortium has threatened to call the loan if Trailways
fails to pay the interest due June 30, they said.
 Reuter

Lockheed Corp said NASA selected it to
develop and design software for the Space Station in a contract
with a potential value of more than 200 mln dlrs.
    Lockheed said the contract will continue into 1993 when
assembly of the station in a 200-mile earth orbit is scheduled
to begin.
 Reuter

approved Sovran Financial Corp's application to retain shares
in Sovran Insurance Corp of Bethesda, Md.
    Sovran controls banks in Maryland, Virginia and the
District of Columbia and last year acquired Suburban Bancorp
which controlled an insurance subsidiary.
    Insurance industry trade groups objected to Sovran's
application, but the Fed ruled that Sovran was entitled to
retain indirect control over Sovran Insurance under special
grandfather exemptions to the prohibition against banks
engaging in insurance under the Garn-St Germain bank law.
 Reuter

Elsinore Corp said it deposited
5,795,833 dlrs with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co  the trustee
of its Elsinore Finance Corp unit's 15-1/2 pct senior mortgage
bonds due 1999.
    The deposit represents the balance of accrued and unpaid
interest on the bonds thorugh June 30, 1986.
    Elsinore Corp has guaranteed payment on the bonds. Payment
of this amount, about 50.40 dlrs per 1,000 dlrs principal, will
be made on July 14 to shareholders of record July 13.

 Reuter

Qtly div 24 cts vs 24 cts
 Reuter

said it sold 4,805,432 shares of its common at 10.25 dlrs a
share to an employee stock ownership plan as part of its
previously announced recapitalization plan.
    Harcourt said the shares sold are not entitled to a special
dividend previously declared under the plan. It said the shares
will be entitled to vote at a special meeting of shareholders
scheduled for July 23.
 Reuter

More leading U.S. manufacturers plan to
increase the proportion of their U.S.-based production
vis-a-vis their overseas output over the next two years,
according to a Boston University School of Management survey.
    The Manufacturing Roundtable 1987 study showed 32 pct of
manufacturers plan to shift output to their domestic plants
from their overseas ones, or simply increase the production in
their U.S. plants.
    That was up from 19 pct expecting to make that shift in
1986, and only 12 pct in 1984.
    The Boston University survey canvassed 207 firms.
    The largest group of those surveyed, 44 pct, planned no
changes in their U.S./overseas operations, while 23.7 pct said
they would boost the ratio of overseas output, the poll said.
    Jeffrey Miller, professor at the School of Management and
director of the Roundtable Survey, said that exchange rates
favored plans toward increased domestic production. But he
added that increased competitiveness seems to be behind the
move towards greater production in the United States.
    "What's peculiar about this group is that it's the most
successful in terms of profitability, decreasing costs, and
increasing quality," he told Reuters in an interview.
    Those companies increasing offshore production are at the
opposite end of the spectrum, he said, not meeting the
production goals they set for themselves.
    He cautioned that the survey was skewed towards large,
unusually profitable businesses representing a diversity of
industries and regions. The typical respondent was a large
manufacturing division with sales of about 200 mln dlrs.
   
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc and
Schlumberger Ltd jointly announced that Schlumberger had
acquired Allied-Signal's Neptune International unit. Terms
weren't disclosed.
   Atlanta, Ga.-based Neptune, which makes water meters and
flow measurement equipment, had sales last year of 80 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

it closed down the insolvent United Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Durant, Okla, and turned its insured deposits
and other assets and liabilities over to a newly created,
federally chartered thrift.
    It said the failed thrift's four offices would reopen
tomorrow under Bank Board management.
    United, with assets of 9.31 mln dlrs, was closed because it
had substantially dissipated its assets and earnings due to
federal law violations and unsafe and unsound practices, the
thrift regulatory agency said.
    The Bank Board faulted the failed thrift for its large
holdings of substandard loans made in 1984-85 due to "imprudent
underwriting policies and controls on loans for construction
and other purposes throughout the United States."
    It also charged the thrift had violated federal rules
governing conflicts of interest, loans to a single borrower and
changes of control.
    The thrift was the 27th federally insured savings and loan
to be closed down by the bank board so far this year.
 Reuter

its Commerce Savings subsidiary received 42.8 mln dlrs in
complete redemption of certain properties in Aspen, Colo, that
Commerce foreclosed on in April.
    American said the amount represents the amount that
Commerce bid for the properties in the April foreclosure sale
plus interest since the date of foreclosure.
    The properties consist of a 12-acre hotel and condominium
development site at the base of Aspen mountain and other sites.
They were sold to the former chairman of American Century, John
Roberts Jr, in January 1985 for 53 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 64 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 5,597,000 vs 3,426,000
    Revs 83.5 mln vs 47.4 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.15 dlrs vs 60 cts
    Net 10 mln vs 5,201,000
    Revs 147.6 mln vs 91.5 mln
 Reuter

has given preliminary approval for Egypt to produce the M-1A
tank, the main battle tank of the United States.
    The State and Defense Departments said talks were going on
between the two countries dealing with Egypt's ability to build
the tank and protect its high technology secrets.
    The U.S. Army signed a contract four weeks ago to pay
General Dynamics Corp <GD> 3.5 billion dlrs over the next four
years to build 3,299 of the tanks.
    Pentagon officials, who asked not to be identified, told
Reuters Congress probably will not be officially notified of
any final plan until after October 1. Congress would then have
30 days to veto Egypt as the first foreign co-producer of the
M-1A.
    U.S. defense officials said Congress could approve the plan
because Egypt is the only Arab country which has signed a peace
treaty with Israel. But they said the issues of technology
transfer and a possible loss of U.S. jobs could raise problems
for the plan while Israel would also be expected to lobby
against any production agreement.
 Reuter

Associates Inc <DCAI.O> said it has entered into an agreement
to acquire substantially all the assets of Fox Technology Inc's
Fox Research Inc subsidiary.
    The company said it will assume about 10 mln dlrs of Fox
liabilities with a provision for a further 6.5 mln dlrs based
on the future financial performance of Fox during the one year
period following the closing of the deal.
    It said the acquisition is subject to approval by Fox
shareholders and is expected to close in mid August.
 Reuter

Pakistan announced a new tea import
policy, saying 70 pct of imports will in future be made through
the state Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).
   Commerce Minister Mahbubul Haq said in a television
broadcast that no more than one-third of the remaining 30 pct
allocated to the private sector would be permitted to come from
any one country.
   The new policy was announced some three months after the
government suspended import licences and ordered an inquiry
into tea purchase policy.
   Traders said the move was designed to put pressure on Kenya,
which provided some 48 pct of Pakistan's 75-80 mln kilo annual
tea imports, to buy Pakistani manufactured goods in exchange.
    Liptons and Brooke Bond, two units of Britain's Unilever
Plc, control 95 pct of Pakistan's hard-pack tea market, traders
said.
   Haq, who is also Planning Minister, was outlining a new
three-year trade policy from the start of financial 1987/88 on
July 1.
 Reuter

General Electric Co's GE Credit
Corp said it agreed to buy all of the capital stock of Kraft
Inc's wholly owned subsidiary D and K Financial Corp.
    D and K, with assets of more than one billion dlrs, is one
of the leading U.S. companies involved in the leasing of fleets
of cars, according to GE Credit.
    Jim Ahtes, a spokesman for GE Credit's outside public
relations firm, Manning, Selvage and Lee Inc, emphasized that
the terms of the acquisition had not yet been approved.

 Reuter

<Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd>,
(IEP) the Hong Kong-listed unit of Brierley Investments Ltd
<BRYA.WE>, said it has lifted its stakes in British oil company
Ultramar Plc <UMAR.L> and U.S. Firm <Ogelbay Norton Co>.
    IEP told the Stock Exchange it now holds 36.03 mln Ultramar
shares representing 13.07 pct of the issued capital. It holds
388,600 shares in Ogelbay representing 11.68 pct of the
Delaware-based company.
    No other details were available.
 REUTER

Japan May unemployment record 3.2 pct (3.0 pct in April)
- official

rate rose to a record 3.2 pct in May, the worst level since the
government started compiling unemployment statistics in 1953,
the government's Management and Coodination Agency said.
    The May rate surpassed the previous record of 3.0 pct
marked set in January and April this year. It was also up
sharply from 2.7 pct a year earlier.
    Unadjusted May unemployment totalled 1.91 mln people, up
from 1.90 mln in April and 1.62 mln a year earlier.
    An agency official blamed industrial restructuring and the
strong yen for the rise in unemployment.
    The seasonally adjusted male unemployment rate in May rose
to a record 3.2 pct, surpassing the previous record 3.0 pct set
in July 1986. This compares with 2.9 pct in April and 2.7 pct a
year earlie. Unadjusted male unemployment totalled 1.12 mln, up
180,000 from a year earlier.
    The female unemployment rate in May was unchanged from
April at a record 3.1 pct. A year ago, the rate was 2.8 pct.
Unadjusted female unemployment rose 100,000 to 790,000.
    The yen's appreciation continued to affect employment in
manufacturing industries and the total employed in May fell
210,000 or 1.5 pct from a year earlier to 14.10 mln.
 REUTER

said the Group of Seven (G-7) nations still support the Louvre
Accord to stabilise currencies.
    He also told a news conference following a cabinet meeting
that the Group of Five (G-5) and G-7 do not have any plans to
meet for talks.
    The Finance Minister further said that overseas stock
market plunges will not lead to a freefall in the Tokyo stock
market. "There is no special worry about the stock market in
Tokyo," he added.
    Miyazawa said the Tokyo stock market should not be gravely
affected by the downturns of markets in New York and London
because there is a clear sign of an economic recovery in Japan
and stability of exchange rates.
    Asked if the U.S. Had contacted Japan after the stock
market plunge in New York, Miyazawa said there was not any
contact.
 REUTER

Tokyo stock index slumps 918.86 points to 24,827.70 after 66 minutes' trade

Miyazawa says Baker's remarks were aimed at just reaffirming Louvre agreement

HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE TRADING SUSPENDED UNTIL NEXT MONDAY - EXCHANGE

Japan's Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
said that remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker on
Sunday that some nations were not abiding by the spirit of the
Louvre Accord were just aimed at reaffirming that agreement.
    The agreement, to cooperate in stabilising currencies, was
reached in Paris in February this year.
    The finance minister made the remark at a news conference
which followed a morning cabinet meeting.
 REUTER

Tokyo's stock index falls 1,336.00 points to 24,410.56 after 87 minutes

An explosive device blew up in the
Philippine Congress building early on Tuesday, a congressional
security official said.
    He said no-one was injured in the blast which damaged a
telephone booth on the second floor at about 0825 local time
(0025 GMT).
    Captain Rosalo Ylagan, head of congressional security, said
the device could have been a home-made bomb or a large
firecracker. The explosion was being investigated, he added.
    No congressmen were in the building at the time.
 REUTER

Japan said it understood why the U.S.
Attacked an Iranian oil platform on Monday.
    "Japan, deeply concerned over the increasing threat to the
ships navigating in the Gulf, understands the circumstances
that have led the United States government to take these
measures," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
    The statement added that the threat to free and safe
navigation had increased after the missile attack on a
U.S.-flagged tanker in Kuwaiti territorial waters last Friday.
 REUTER

Tokyo stock index ends morning trade 1,873.80 points down at 23,872.76

World oil prices would remain stable
despite the U.S. Attack against Iranian oil platforms and
growing tension in the Gulf, Venezuelan Energy Minister Arturo
Hernandez Grisanti said on Monday.
    He described the situation as "extremely tense," but said
Gulf military activity would not significantly affect prices
because supply and demand were roughly equal.
    Demand for OPEC crude in the final quarter of 1987 was 18.5
mln barrels per day (bpd) and the group's members were now
pumping above 18 mln bpd, he told a news conference.
    Hernandez Grisanti said the supply/demand balance was
precarious and prices were in danger of falling from their
current average of about 18 dlrs per barrel if overproduction
    Three or four members of the 13-nation Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries were "overproducing in an
exaggerated manner" above their assigned quotas, he said.
    OPEC's overall ceiling is 16.6 mln bpd.
 REUTER

Canon Inc <CANN.T> said it will stop making
Japanese language word processors with retail prices below
50,000 yen and consign production instead to <Kyushu Matsushita
Electronic Co Ltd>, a 51.75-pct owned unit of Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co Ltd <MC.T>.
    A Canon spokesman said the move reflects intense price
competition as Canon, Casio Computer Co Ltd <CACT.T> and others
compete in the growing market for low-end processors.
    Canon will focus production on more expensive and
sophisticated models which have more generous profit margins,
he said.
 REUTER

If the dollar goes the way of Wall Street,
Japanese will finally move out of dollar investments in a
serious way, Japan investment managers say.
    The Japanese, the dominant foreign investors in U.S. Dollar
securities, have already sold U.S. Equities.
    But "if the dollar falls steeply, which did not happen
yesterday, Japanese investors will definitely try to withdraw
significant funds from U.S. Shares," said Akira Kawakami, deputy
manager of Nomura Investment Trust and Management Co Ltd's
international investment department.
    An unstable, lower dollar would also affect Japanese
investment in U.S. Bonds. "Japan-U.S. Interest rate
differentials, which currently look wide enough, mean nothing
in the absence of dollar stability," said Kawakami.
    U.S. Bonds could benefit due to a gloomy economic picture
following the estimated huge losses in stocks by major U.S.
Institutional and individual investors, he said. The effect
should be to rule out any U.S. Interest rate rise.
    But most Japanese investors in U.S. Bonds are still wiating
to see if the dollar really is stable, he said. The dollar was
holding firm at above 142 yen on Tuesday morning.
    "Although Japanese investors sold huge amounts of stocks in
New York yesterday, most are still looking for chances to
lighten their U.S. Stock inventories," Hiromitsu Sunada, manager
of Meiji Mutual Life Insurance Co's international investment
    Their sales helped send Wall Street stocks down 508 points
to 1,738, the market's biggest percentage drop since 1914.
    "Investment in U.S. Stocks and bonds is difficult,
considering the dangers," said Katsuhiko Okiyama, deputy general
manager and chief adviser of Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd's fixed
income securities marketing group.
    Japanese investment at home could start to pick up once
markets have stopped reacting to Wall Street, the managers
said. The Tokyo yen bond market is likely to stabilise in one
or two weeks, which is what investors have been waiting for.
The bottom for yen bonds should be around a 6.3 pct yield for
the 5.1 pct 89th bond, they said.
    "The basic background which has supported the stocks and
bonds markets has not changed," said Norio Okutsu, assistant
general manager of Nikko Securities' bond department. "But new
outflows of funds to the U.S. Will be decreasing."  However,
this was already evident three months ago, he said.
 REUTER

NEC Corp <NIPN.T> will supply <Matra-Harris
Semiconducteurs SA(A)> (MHS) of France with manufacturing
technology for 16-bit microchips used in microcomputers, an NEC
    MHS, a joint venture between France's MATRA <MATR.PA> and
Harris Corp <HRS> of the U.S., Will manufacture and market
globally a microcomputer based on NEC's Micron PD 78312 and
Micron PD78310 chips.
    MHS will pay NEC an undisclosed sum for the technology.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry will take a
wait-and-see stance on Tokyo Stock Exchange movement, although
it is gravely concerned about the sharp fall in stock prices, a
senior Ministry official said.
    The official, who declined to be identified, told reporters
the 7.3 pct drop in Tokyo stock prices this morning was caused
primarily by psychological factors following the 22.5 pct fall
in New York stock prices overnight.
    He said the Ministry is in close contact with the Tokyo
Stock Exchange, but has no plans yet to take any specific
measures regarding the fall.
 REUTER

The outlook for Mexico's economy and
stockmarket remains optimistic despite the market's worst-ever
fall of 52,671.56 points on Monday, the president of the
Mexican stock exchange, Manuel Somoza, said.
    He said the 16.51 pct drop in the exchange's index
reflected a "totally emotional" reaction to Monday's fall on the
New York stock exchange and was not a reflection of a new
crisis for the Mexican economy or the stockmarket."
    He was speaking at a news conference here on Monday.
    "We think that after the psycological effect the market will
tend to stabilize itself," Somoza said.
    Somoza said he based his optimism on the relatively bright
outlook of the Mexican economy due to increased income from oil
and non-petroleum exports, record high foreign reserves and
government efforts to promote a modernization of the industrial
sector.
    "The U.S. Economy is not the same as the Mexican," he said.
He did not say when he thought the market would stabilize.
    He said traders had originally expected the market to level
out on Monday after last week's profit taking pulled the index
down 44,207 points. 
    News of the "enormous problems" in New York, which reached
Mexico City before the local market opened, caused a flurry of
selling on the Mexican exchange, Somoza said.
    The stockmarket had risen 629 pct over the year by the end
of September.
    Somoza said Monday's light volume of 15.3 mln shares
compared to an average of 53 mln was an indication the day's
drop was not a sign of a major collapse.
    He also denied rumours that the day's loss was the result
of government and brokerage house manipulation.
 REUTER

Asian cocoa producers are expanding
output despite depressed world prices and they dismiss
suggestions in the London market that their cocoa is inferior.
    "Leading cocoa producers are trying to protect their market
from our product," said a spokesman for Indonesia's directorate
general of plantations. "We're happy about our long-term future."
    Malaysian growers said they would try to expand sales in
Asia and the United States if Malaysian cocoa was not suitable
for European tastes.
    They were responding to comments by London traders that
large tonnages of unwanted cocoa beans from Malaysia, Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea (PNG) were helping to depress cocoa
prices.
    London traders said the Asian cocoa was considered
unsuitable for western palates because of an acrid odour and a
high level of free fatty acids.
    Ng Siew Kee, the chairman of Malaysia's Cocoa Growers'
Council, said Malaysia should expand its sales to Asia and the
United States if it did not produce a type suitable for Western
Europe.
    A spokesman for the PNG Cocoa Industry Board said the
London market was mistaken if it linked PNG cocoa with
high-acid Malaysian and Indonesian beans.
    "When the market is declining, buyers seize on anything to
talk down prices," the spokesman said.
    He said that PNG could sell whatever cocoa it produces.
    PNG exported 33,000 tonnes of cocoa in the 1986/87 cocoa
year ending September 30, of which nearly 50 pct was exported
to West Germany, 16 pct to the U.S. And the rest to the
Netherlands and Britain.
    The Indonesia spokesman, an Agriculture Ministry official
who wished not to be identified, said Indonesia had no problem
with quality and would continue to expand sales. He described
criticism of the quality of Indonesian beans as "trade politics"
and said Jakarta's traditional links with Dutch buyers meant it
did not have any difficulty with exports.
    Indonesia and Malaysia, Asia's two biggest commodity
producers, are expanding cocoa output and are both outside the
International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).
    Officials have said Malaysian production is expected to
total 150,000 to 155,000 tonnes in calendar 1987.
    This is up from 131,000 tonnes in 1986, partly because of
the end of a three-year drought in Sabah, the country's largest
cocoa growing area.
    Production of Indonesian cocoa beans tripled to 31,600
tonnes in calendar 1986 from 10,284 tonnes in 1980. Output is
projected to rise to 50,000 tonnes in 1988 from 38,000 tonnes
this year as young trees mature.
    Both Malaysia and Indonesia are low cost producers and
traders said they could last out low prices longer than West
African countries.
    According to one Kuala Lumpur trader, world prices would
have to fall another 1,000 ringgit per tonne (about 250 stg) to
make cocoa production in Malaysia uneconomic.
    Some traders believe the main quality problem is with
harvesting and fermentation techniques.
    One trader said Malaysian cocoa is virtually
indistinguishable from West African output if treated in the
same way but this is not possible on the larger Malaysian
estates.
 REUTER

Tokyo stock index down 2,210.19 points to 23,536.37 in early afternoon

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
was quoted by Kyodo News Service as saying he was watching the
stock market situation.
    "We must watch things a little longer. New York is down 22
pct, London 10 pct, while compared to this Japan is seven pct
down," Kyodo quoted him as telling reporters.
    Asked if he agreed with analysts who called the stock
sell-off "Black Monday," Nakasone said: "Compared with times past,
economics have changed completely." He rejected a comparison
between the present situation and the stock market collapse of
1929 and the recession which followed.
 REUTER

Malaysia's national oil company,
Petronas, has advised the government to raise crude oil output
to 540,000 barrels a day (bpd) in 1988 from a current 500,000
bpd, a senior company official said.
    "We have the capacity to produce the amount," Rastam Hadi,
Petronas's Vice-President for Upstream Sector said.
    The government will announce its decision on Friday when it
unveils the country's budget. Malaysia raised output this month
to current levels from 420,000 bpd after reviewing the world
oil market. In May, Malaysia cut output to 420,000 bpd from
459,000 in response to a call by OPEC to boost prices.
 REUTER

Sumita welcomes U.S.-West German joint confirmation of Louvre accord

Sumita says world stockmarkets excessively concerned about economic future

Bank of Japan governor Satoshi Sumita said
he welcomed Monday's U.S. And West German joint confirmation of
their commitment to the Louvre accord.
    Sumita said in a statement that world stockmarkets were
excessively concerned about the economic future.
    The Bank of Japan will continue to adhere to a system of
policy coordination based upon the Louvre accord of February,
he said. The accord called for stability in foreign exchange
rates. Exchange rates generally are regaining stability and the
economies of industrialised nations are heading for a steady
recovery, he said.
 REUTER

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said
there was no evidence to suggest the fall in share prices had
affected financial stability and it would maintain its firm
    Governor Spencer Russell said in a statement the central
bank did not accept arguments that the battle against inflation
should now take a low second priority after the sharemarket's
plunge.
    Russell said the bank had two statutory responsibilities --
to implement the government's monetary policy to bring down
inflation, and to ensure the financial sector's stability.
    "Unless the bank is directed otherwise, the firm monetary
policy will continue because it is very much in the national
interest that it do so," he said.
    "And there is yet no evidence available to the bank to
suggest that the fall in share prices has affected the
stability of the financial sector."
    The Barclays share index fell a record 504.75 points to
2,925,26 on Tuesday, a decline of 14.7 pct.
 REUTER

Tokyo Stock Exchange has no plan to suspend trading on Wednesday-president

Tokyo Stock Exchange to ease margin requirements, exchange president says

Japan September M-2 plus CD money supply rises 11.1 pct year on year (Aug 11.0)

BAKER HEADS HOME AFTER CUTTING SHORT EUROPE TRIP - SWEDISH FINANCE MINISTRY

Tanzania has arranged to sell
53,000 tonnes of maize to Malawi, Mozambique and Zaire, radio
Tanzania said.
    The radio said the grain would be delivered soon, but gave
no details about the value of the sales.
    Tanzania is expecting a record maize harvest of 2.3 mln
tonnes in the 1987/88 financial year ending June, up from a
bumper crop of 2.1 mln in 1986/87.
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About 60,000 tonnes of harvested
raw cotton may be spoiled by rain in Tanzania's northern
Shinyanga region because it is stored in the open or in crude
village sheds, radio Tanzania reported.
    The cotton, worth one billion shillings, cannot be moved to
ginneries in the region because most mill warehouses are full.
Many mills are not working because of a lack of spare parts, it
added.
    Agriculture Ministry officials have forecast a 1987/88
cotton harvest of about 200,000 tonnes, down from 215,000 in
1986/87.
 REUTER

Tokyo Stock Exchange president Michio
Takeuchi said the exchange has no immediate plans to suspend
trading to cool off panic stock selling.
    However, he said Tokyo may consider such a measure if the
London and New York exchanges are closed overnight.
    "I don't think it will happen," he added.
    He also told reporters the exchange will relax margin
requirements effective on Wednesday to encourage stock buying.
    Takeuchi said the sharp fall in stock prices was mostly due
to psychological factors.
    "We need to keep close watch on market movement but we
expect the market will stabilise soon," he said, adding that
individual investors should remain calm. "It is advisable to
wait for an autonomous recovery of the market," he said.
    The margin requirement in cash will be reduced to 50 pct
from 70 pct while the margin collateral requirement in equity
will rise to 70 pct from 60 pct, effective on Wednesday, he
said.
    Takeuchi also said the exchange has no specific plan to
take coordinated action with the New York and London exchanges
to help stabilise stock prices.
    The drop on Wall Street was caused by various factors but
was primarily the result of a correction of overvalued share
prices, he said. The current stock price plunge cannot compare
with the Great Depression as the economic environment is very
different, he added.
    The exchange has not changed plans to introduce stock
futures trading next year despite press reports that the Wall
Street fall was linked with futures trading, he said.
 REUTER

President Corazon Aquino said the
Philippines was closely monitoring interest rates in the wake
of Monday's record drop on Wall Street and steep declines in
Manila and other Asian stock markets.
    "We will monitor these developments closely and will
continue to hope that they do not precipitate large declines in
economic activity around the world," Aquino told a meeting of 13
major Philippine business groups.
    "The Philippines, as a trading country in the world economy,
depends on the continued health and growth of both the world
economy and the world trading system," she said.
    The Manila Stock Exchange composite index plunged 105.49
points or 11.79 pct by the midday close to 789.54, depressed by
the record 508 point fall of the Dow Jones industrial average
on Monday.
    "The Philippines, in addition, as a large borrower nation,
is affected by developments in interest rate levels around the
world and will carefully monitor the impact of these
developments on interest rates, on gold and on commodity
prices," Aquino said.
    "We welcome the statements from world leaders that urge calm
in the present difficult situation," she added.
 REUTER

Nissan Motor Co Ltd <NSAN.T> said it has
started to market a remodelled version of its four wheel drive
(4WD) Safari vehicle in Japan.
    Nissan said in a statement it hopes to sell 250 vehicles a
month in Japan.
    It also plans soon to start exporting 3,400 vehicles a
month to the Australian, Middle East and Asian markets under
the name Patrol, a spokesman said.
    It will sell the vehicle in Europe sometime in the future,
with shipments from <Motor Iberica S.A.>, its Spanish unit. The
volume for Europe will be set later.
 REUTER

The Finance Ministry plans to examine how
life insurance companies realised capital gains through
transactions undertaken in June, just before the yen bond
market began to fall sharply, a senior Ministry official said.
    The move is aimed at cooling fierce competition in the
field and will pave the way for a Ministry system to check that
insurers do not inflate investment returns on the accounts to
attract investors, he said.
    Some insurers transfer part of their unrealised gains from
general accounts to the variable life accounts, violating their
internal regulations, industry sources said.
    The eight major local life-insurers which offer variable
life policies here realised an average return of 21.01 pct on
such policies in the year ended September.
    The Ministry will scrutinise the policies of 17 local and
foreign life insurers which offer the variable life schemes.
    Japan has 23 major local life insurers, none of which is
listed on the stock market.
  REUTER

FTSE 100 share index opens 186.0 down at 1,866.3 - London Stock Exchange

Growth in Japan's M-2 plus certificates of
deposit (CD) money supply in the October to December period is
not expected to accelerate, but will remain at high levels
between 11 and 12 pct, a senior Bank of Japan official said.
    The central bank will keep a watch on high growth in
liquidity because this is a factor that may cause rises in
prices of goods, he said.
    The September growth of 11.1 pct year on year announced
earlier today should not be taken as implying that the money
supply has started to expand very rapidly, he said. In August
the rate of increase was 11.0 pct.
 REUTER

West German car and van production rose
in September to 407,600 from 386,000 in September 1986, while
exports climbed to 226,300 from 218,200, the German Automobile
Industry Association VDA said.
    The association added that incoming domestic orders in
September were above, and foreign orders roughly equal, to
those in September last year.
    Car and van production rose in the first nine months of the
year to 3.25 mln from 3.19 mln. But exports fell to 1.80 mln
from 1.85 mln
     Output of light trucks fell in September to 13,200 from
14,700, while heavy truck production was unchanged at 10,100.
    Over the nine month period, light truck production fell to
109,300 from 129,200, while heavy truck production dipped to
83,800 from 84,700.
    Exports of light trucks fell in September to 7,800 from
9,000 and to 66,600 from 84,300 in the first nine months.
    Exports of heavy trucks rose to 5,500 in September from
4,600 in September last year and to 47,800 from 45,300 in the
first nine months.
 REUTER

the fall in share prices on local and world markets
demonstrated that New Zealand could not be isolated from global
trends.
    "We can't expect to isolate ourselves from developments
around the world," Douglas told reporters.
    "I think above all what today's problems illustrate is that
the sort of policies that we have been putting in place the
last three years are absolutely essential so that New Zealand's
economic performance improves, relative to the rest of the
world."
    The New Zealand share market fell 14.7 pct on Tuesday in a
record one-day fall.
    Douglas told a news conference, at which the government
announced plans to sell its 89 pct stake in <New Zealand Steel
Ltd>, that the sharemarket fall would not affect plans to sell
parts of state-owned corporations such as <Air New Zealand>,
<DFC New Zealand Ltd> and <Petroleum Corp of New Zealand Ltd>.
Asked if the government considered acting to close the
sharemarket for a period, Douglas said: "No. I'm not sure it
would have been my job to do so."
 REUTER

Some economists fear a world recession if
stock exchanges continue to plunge. Others are more sanguine.
    The pessimists say the stocks shakeout is destroying
personal assets and dampening consumption.
    "The real economic effects can be significant -- the
destruction of wealth and a deflationary impact on the economy,"
said an economist at a U.S. Securities house.
    But other economists said such fears were overblown.
    "Because of lower appreciation of corporate or personal
assets, that much negative impact could be observed (in the
U.S.)," said Keikichi Honda, general manager of economic
research at the Bank of Tokyo Ltd.
    "But the appreciation of stock prices has not been playing
such a major role in the entire U.S. Gross national product
(GNP)," Honda said.
    The pessimists noted that the record fall on Wall Street on
Monday was sparked by fears the U.S. Economy is heading for a
recession or serious slowdown much earlier than expected.
    But the optimists said a dampening effect on consumption
due to stock market losses was less likely in Japan.
    "In Japan the weight of stocks in individuals' total assets
is less than in the U.S., And the total weight of individuals'
holdings in the stock market is less, so there will be less
damage than in the U.S.," said an economist at one of Japan's
major brokerage houses.
    "Japan is taking strong measures to stimulate domestic
demand, so while there could be some impact from the reduction
of assets value, it would not be a major impact," said the Bank
of Tokyo's Honda.
    Optimists also pointed to incipient declines in U.S.
Interest rates as a positive sign for the U.S. Economy.
    "U.S. Interest rates are coming down so there is a feeling
that interest rates have hit their ceiling, and the U.S.
Economy is strong, so there should be no direct impact from the
collapse of share prices," said Toshiaki Kakimoto, Sumitomo Bank
Ltd chief economist.
    Some economists suggested that should markets continue to
slump, the major industrial nations may have to discuss
possible joint lowering of official discount rates.
    "Until last week, a discussion of lower rates was
unthinkable, now it's not," said the Japanese brokerage house
economist.
    "There has been a move from the purely rational to the
emotional -- it's a central bankers' nightmare," said the
foreign economist. "It will require strong global leadership by
politicians to snuff out," he said.
    However, "previously, the stocks correction was due to fears
of higher interest rates, a possible resurgence of inflation
and the depreciation of the dollar," said Nobuyuki Ueda, senior
economist at the Long-Term Credit Bank Ltd.
    "Now some people have an uneasy feeling about the outlook of
the U.S. Economy," Ueda said.
    "If the stock market is a leading indicator of the future
movement of the economy, this decline will have very
significant implications for the U.S. Economy," he said.
    "If the low levels hold, those who were keeping consumption
high because of unrealised gains could curb consumption," said
Salomon Brothers (Asia) Ltd economist Ron Napier. "If the paper
gains aren't there, people won't spend."
    A U.S. Recession could then trigger similar declines in
other economies, some economists said.
    "I don't know if a possible recession in the U.S. Would
trigger a world recession because other nations, such as Japan,
are showing good economic performance," LTCB's Ueda said. "But we
can't rule out the possibility because the U.S. Is still
playing a very dominant role in the world economy."
 REUTER

Government and monetary authorities today
staged a concerted effort to calm spreading panic on Japanese
stock exchanges but market analysts said there were limits to
their ability to succeed.
    "The ability of the Big Four (Japanese securities houses)
and the Finance Ministry is limited," said Barclays de Zoete
Wedd economist Peter Morgan.
    Finance Ministry officials asked the big four securities
companies this afternoon to help calm panic selling on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange, ministry officials said.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was quoted by Kyodo News
Service as saying he was watching the stock market situation.
    But he rejected comparisons with the 1929 stock market
collapse and subsequent recession.
    Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said the Tokyo stock
market should not be gravely affected by downturns in New York
and London because there are clear signs of a Japanese economic
recovery and exchange rate stability.
    Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita also tried to calm
the panic, saying in a statement that world stock markets were
    Traditionally, the four big houses  -- Nomura Securities Co
Ltd, Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd, Daiwa Securities Co Ltd, and
Nikko Securities Co Ltd -- have influenced the market because
of their sheer size and overwhelming market share.
    This strength has in the past made it possible for the
brokerages to calm down markets under guidance from the Finance
Ministry, analysts said.
    But the analysts questioned whether the brokerages, which
have already suffered heavy losses from falling bond markets
over the past year, would have the strength this time to turn
things around.
    "The question is, are the Japanese brokerages strong enough
to force investors to buy," said Johsen Takahashi, research
director at the Mitsubishi Research Institute.
    "If we consider that they have suffered serious losses in
the bond markets and in their U.S. Investments, it is debatable
whether they they could support buying," he said.
    "We can support things to some extent, but we can't
completely suppress selling," said one Japanese broker.
    Some analysts said the high percentage of shares cross-held
by financial institutions and other corporations could have a
stabilising effect on the market.
    Some 80 pct of shares are held by corporate shareholders,
said Keikichi Honda, general manager of the Bank of Tokyo Ltd's
economic research division. "This is a tightly woven textile. In
its own way it is stronger than Wall Street."
    But other analysts expressed doubt about this argument.
    "If a high percent of shares is cross held, everything
happens at the edges and the relative moves can be larger," said
Kleinwort Benson Ltd financial analyst Simon Smithson. "Selling
will drive prices down an enormous distance because of no
liquidity."
    "You don't need big volume to get big declines in the market
-- you just need a huge imbalance between sellers and buyers,"
said Barclay's Morgan.
    Shares held by what are termed "stable shareholders," or
banks and other companies with which a firm does business,
might also find their way onto the market if the outlook gets
bad enough, some analsyst said.
    "Closely held shares could become unclosely held," said
Morgan. But he said such a prospect is unlikely right now
because companies, with their improved earnings prospects, do
not need to sell shares for cash flow reasons.
 REUTER

Oil prices would skyrocket for a time if
conflict in the Gulf closed the Strait of Hormuz, but oil
supplies could be adjusted to take care of world demand,
Indonesian Energy Minister Subroto said.
    He made no explicit reference to the latest U.S. Military
action in the Gulf.
    But in an address to a conference of the Indonesian
Petroleum Association, he said, "If worst comes to worst and say
the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz is completely
shut off, I believe the world oil supply, given time to adjust,
can take care of the situation."
    "But this is not to say that prices, at least for a short
duration, will not skyrocket as speculators take advantage of
the situation," he declared.
    Tensions in the Gulf, however, usually had a relatively
short-term impact on prices, he added.
    Assessing future price trends, he said, "Short-term spot
prices will probably still fluctuate, but they will most likely
hover around the official Opec price basket of 18 dlrs per
barrel.
    "The upward deviations, however, are likely to be greater
than the downward ones."
    "The balance between supply and demand in the short term
will still be delicate," he added. "Non-Opec production may still
go up, competing with Opec for the expected additional increase
in world demand."
    Subroto, a member of Opec's three-man quota committee which
has been touring cartel members, said speculation may play
havoc with spot prices, but Opec was trying to stabilize the
situation by urging cooperation by non-Opec producers.
    In the medium term, non-Opec production would reach a
plateau in the early 1990s, leaving Opec much stronger, he
said.
 REUTER

Bangladesh Petroleum Corp said it floated
an international tender for imports of two mln barrels of Jet
Kero, Superior Kero and High Speed Diesel for shipment during
January-June 1988.
    It said the offer for the petroleum products would be open
until 0600 gmt on November 19.
 REUTER

Poehl says German and international interest rate rises are cause for concern

Bundesbank has no interest in higher capital market rates - Poehl

An Iranian shuttle tanker reported
spotting a floating mine in the central Gulf on Tuesday about
50 miles west of Lavan Island, regional shipping sources said.
    The Khark III, owned by the National Iranian Tanker Co,
gave the position of the mine as 27 degrees 14 minutes north,
52.06 east.
    There was no indication of measures being taken against the
mine, which is in Iranian territorial waters.
 REUTER

Willis Faber Plc <WIFL.L> chairman and
chief executive David Palmer said the company would consider
any bid for its 20.8 pct shareholding in Morgan Grenfell Group
Plc <MGFL.L> but had not yet received any offers.
    "We will entertain any approaches," he told Reuters in reply
to questions, following U.K. Press speculation.
    In an earlier statement, Faber said that if an offer were
to be received for its stake in the merchant banking group, "it
would be considered on its merits."
 REUTER

<Corby Distilleries Ltd>, 52 pct owned by
Allied Lyons Plc <ALLD.L> subsidiary <Hiram Walker-Goodman &
Worts> is to buy the spirits business of <McGuinness Distillers
Ltd> of Toronto for 45 mln Canadian dlrs.
    McGuinness is a producer and marketer of spirits and also
has exclusive agencies for some imported wines and spirits.
    The sale is subject to the approval of the Bureau of
Competition Policy. Michael Jackaman, president and chief
executive officer of Hiram Walker and Allied Vintners, said,
"The acquisition is an excellent one both commercially and
financially."
 REUTER

Rises in West German and international
interest rates are a cause for concern and the Bundesbank has
no interest in higher capital market rates, Bundesbank
President Karl Otto Poehl said.
    "We consider the interest rate increase that has occurred
here and internationally to be a problem and cause for concern,"
Poehl told an investment conference.
    "I would like to stress that the Bundesbank has no interest
in higher capital market rates," he said.
    Shortly after Poehl spoke, the Bundesbank announced a
tender for a securities repurchase pact at a fixed rate of 3.80
pct.
    Previous tenders over the last month by interest rate have
seen the allocation rate on these facilities rise to 3.85 pct
at last week's pact from 3.60 on the last fixed-rate tender in
    The Bundesbank's reduction of the key allocation rate to
3.80 from 3.85 pct was heralded Monday by repeated injections
of money market liquidity at between 3.70 and 3.80 pct.
    These moves to cap interest rates followed a meeting
between Poehl, Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker Monday in Frankfurt.
    Officials said afterwards the three men had reaffirmed
their commitment to the Louvre accord on currency stability.
    Over the weekend, criticism by Baker of the tightening in
West German monetary policy had prompted a sharp fall of the
dollar on speculation that Louvre cooperation had ended.
    But the dollar rallied on news of Monday's meeting in
nervous trading to trade above 1.79 marks Tuesday.
    Poehl said that the recent rise in interest rates was not
due to central bank policy, but to markets' expectations, and
currency developments.
    Commenting on the inflationary expectations, Poehl said "You
have to get to the root of the problem, you have to pursue a
policy which reveals that there are no grounds for such fears."
 The inflationary fears were unjustified and exaggerated, he
said.
    Poehl rebuffed recent U.S. Criticism of West Germany,
saying the Bundesbank had made a substantial contribution to
international cooperation in interest and monetary policy.
    The Bundesbank has tolerated an overshooting of its money
supply target, arousing criticism from other quarters, he said.
    "Today we still have lower interest rates than at the end of
1986... Quite the contrary of other countries, where interest
rates have risen substantially more," Poehl said.
    This had to be taken into account when considering recent
rises in repurchase pact allocation rates, which were due to
rising international money market rates that had spilled over
into the German market, he said.
    Poehl expressed surprise that financial markets had so far
ignored improvements in the U.S. Deficits.
    "The adjustment process in the U.S. Trade balance is
definitely underway," he said, noting that this was not so
noticeable in absolute figures.
    The spectacular improvement in the budget deficit had also
attracted little attention, he said.
 REUTER

Lawson said the Government was going ahead with this month's
flotation of British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> shares despite the
collapse on international stock markets.
    "We are going ahead because the whole issue has been
underwritten - we had it underwritten because there is always a
risk of this sort of thing happening," Lawson said in a BBC
radio interview.
    Lawson's remarks came as renewed selling on the London
stock market took BP shares down a further 33p to 283, well
below the 330p price set for the around seven billion stg
issue.
    Lawson said the U.K. Economy is fundamentally sound and
added that stock markets had reflected that recently.
    "I profoundly believe in the market system as the best way
for securing economic prosperity (but) that does not mean to
say the markets are infallible."
    "My advice to small investors...Is to remain calm. There is
absolutely no reason not to do so," Lawson said.
 REUTER

Lawson said the severity of the current rout on world stock
markets was an absurd over-reaction sparked on Wall Street by a
spreading lack of confidence in the U.S. Economy.
    Lawson said in a BBC radio interview, "This began on Wall
Street. It has a lot to do with the American stock market (and)
a lack of confidence in the U.S. -  and some careless talk by
those who should have known better."
    In a further wave of selling this morning in London, the
FTSE 100 index had lost a further 233.2 points only 50 minutes
after the official 0800 GMT opening to stand at 1,819.1.
    Lawson said a correction on world stock markets was to have
been expected after the bull markets of recent years. "What was
not expected was the severity of the downturn, which quite
frankly is rather absurd."
    He said he saw no fundamental signs why the U.S. Economy
should go into recession, adding, "Indeed the possibility of
higher (U.S.) interest rates would certainly in my judgment not
lead the American economy into a recession."
    "The only way in which the American economy would go into
recession was if it actually talks itself into recession," he
said.
 REUTER

The Japanese economy is firmly on the
recovery path, supported by robust domestic demand, the Bank of
Japan said in a regular monthly report.
    The report said industrial production is strengthening as
manufacturing companies have almost completed adjustments of
their plant and equipment investment while non-manufacturing
firms have continued to be positive in their capital spending.
    Strong domestic demand, such as consumer spending and
housing investment, will more than offset declining exports,
the central bank report said. It also noted the continued rise
in domestic wholesale prices and money supply.
 REUTER

London's FTSE 100 share index falls below 1,800 - Stock Exchange

The Philippine coconut industry has
greeted with relief the defeat in the U.S. Senate of a bill
requiring some edible oils to be labelled as saturated fats.
    The bill, which was defeated by the Senate Agriculture
Committee on Monday, could have cost about 60 mln dlrs a year
in lost exports, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) said.
    "Naturally, we welcomed the defeat but there is a chance the
bill will be resurrected and attached as a rider to another
Senate bill," a spokesman for the United Coconut Association of
the Philippines (UCAP).
    PCA chairman Jose Romero noted the vote was close, with
eight senators voting for it, 10 against and one abstaining.
    The UCAP spokesman said the American Soybean Association
(ASA) had spent about 25 mln dlrs lobbying for the bill.
    He said the ASA also had obscured the health issue during
the debate.
    "Coconut oil is high in saturated fats, but unlike saturated
animal fats, they do not enter the blood and lymph systems
leaving fatty deposits connected to heart disease," he said.
    U.S. Soybean and cottonseed producers had argued that
saturated fats cause heart disease and that the labels would
discourage consumption by health conscious consumers in favour
of domestic unsaturated alternatives.
    Opponents of the bill said the proposal discriminated
against imports and would damage the Philippines, Malaysia and
    The Philippines earned 488 mln dlrs from coconut products
in 1986, up from 477 mln in 1985, UCAP figures show.
    Exports to the United States for edible and non-edible use
account for about half of that total, PCA's Romero said.
 REUTER

Thai stock prices plunged on Tuesday as
nervous investors unloaded shares on reports of steep declines
on major world stock markets.
    Brokers said the Securities Exchange of Thailand Index fell
a record 36.64 points, or nearly eight pct, to close at 422.37.
    "It's impossible to halt the slide in this situation. The
market just doesn't behave logically," said Sirivat
Voravetvuthikun, executive vice president of Asian Securities
Trading Co Ltd.
    But Sirivat said he did not believe the fall would mark the
end of the SET's 16 month bull run, which has accelerated
during the last two months. He expected Thai stocks to
fluctuate widely in the next few weeks.
    The slide on Tuesday followed a 13.85 point decline of the
97-stock index on Monday when it closed at 459.01.
    Brokers said they were flooded with sell orders when the
market opened this morning and a SET announcement urging
investors not to panic was ignored.
    The index reached a record 472.86 last Friday, up 57.7 pct
from end-June and 128.2 pct higher than last December.
    SET officials said 77 issues were traded on Tuesday, of
which all but two declined. Of the losers, 68 plummeted the
daily maximum 10 pct allowed by the exchange. Prices on the
special foreign column also fell sharply.
    SET vice president Suthichai Chitvanich told reporters the
10 pct floor serves as a restraint, making it unnecessary to
suspend trading should the panic continue.
    The Thai exchange has lately been gaining on its own
strength with most buying coming from local investors.
    Investors should not be unduly influenced by foreign market
reports, he added.
    Suthichai said sound local fundamentals, including low
interest rates and promising economic growth, favoured
investment in the stock market.
    The SET also announced it would release third quarter
corporate earnings earlier than expected as part of efforts to
shore up public confidence.
 REUTER

Plunging Tokyo stock prices will prevent
the Bank of Japan from raising its discount rate and could even
force it to ease monetary policy if the collapse continues,
government and private economists said.
    A rise in interest rates now would only serve to spark
further selling of shares that could ultimately have a major
deflationary impact on the real economy, they said.
    Although Bank of Japan officials have consistently
maintained that they had no plans to raise the 2.5 pct discount
rate, many in the markets have thought otherwise. 
    Fears of a rise in the discount rate were fanned by the
central bank's apparent decision last week to countenance
higher rates on commercial bills, dealers said.
    But today's stock market collapse -- prices fell nearly 15
pct -- means that the Bank of Japan would be hard pressed to
raise the discount rate now, despite its concerns about a
renewed outbreak of inflation, dealers and economists said.
    Japanese government bond prices rose sharply today as the
markets concluded that the stock market's collapse precluded
the central bank from carrying out the widely-rumoured discount
rate increase.
    A senior government economist suggested that both the U.S.
And Japan needed to ease monetary policy now to prevent a
further drop in New York and Tokyo stock prices. "They need to
support the stock and security markets," he said.
    But Bank of Japan officials said they saw no need to change
policy for the moment, although one admitted that the central
bank may have to rethink its strategy if Tokyo stock prices
continue to plunge during the rest of the week.
    Both government and Bank of Japan economists agreed the
economy is better placed now to cope with the deflationary
impact of plunging stock prices than it was a few months ago.
    With the economy recovering strongly, the steep drop in
stock prices is not likely to put a major dent in consumer and
business confidence, one government economist said.
    "There will be some impact on the real economy, but it won't
be that big," said another.
    Individuals are not heavily invested in stocks on their
own, although they do participate through trust funds and other
investment vehicles. And while many manufacturing firms turned
to financial market investments for profits during last year's
economic downturn, the recent rebound has allowed them to
refocus their attention on their core businesses, he said.
    Paradoxically, it is the pick-up in the economy that is
partly to blame for the stock market collapse as companies have
shifted funds away from financial investments to increase
inventories and step up capital spending, one government
    In deciding what response to make to the steep stock price
drop, the Bank of Japan must first determine whether prices
will continue to fall further and then decide if they pose a
greater economic danger than the threat of higher inflation,
one central bank official said. "That will at least take a
couple of days, if not weeks," he said.
 REUTER

CORRECTED-Milan Bourse opening delayed an hour to 1000 GMT (NOT 1200 GMT)-official

President Corazon Aquino said economic
growth took priority over debt repayments but she sought to
dispel fears that the Philippines would not honour a July
agreement rescheduling 13.2 billion dlrs of debt.
    In a speech to 13 major business groups, Aquino said, "Our
policy has been very clear fm the start -- growth must take
priority, for the plain and simple reason that if we have no
money to pay, we can't. And if we starve the nation of
essential services, there may be no one around to honour the
debt."
    Aquino said her officials would try to get all 483 creditor
banks to sign the debt rescheduling pact by the November 15
effective date.
    "That should end speculation and remove at least one excuse
for hoarding dollars," Aquino said.
    Violent fluctuations in the peso's exchange rate and the
end of a 17-month bull run in local stock markets have
triggered dollar-hoarding.
    Aquino said the country's foreign debt, which rose to
nearly 29 billion dlrs in April, was growing even without fresh
    Debt servicing took up 40 pct of the budget and 45 pct of
export earnings, Aquino said. Over the next six years, the
Philippines would be paying its creditors 20 billion dlrs while
getting only four billion dlrs in new loans.
    Aquino acknowledged there were grave doubts about her
government's ambitious privatisation program.
    "There is always an excuse for government not to sell," she
said, but she added: "I want government to get out of business."
She said non-performing assets would be sold in open bidding
and Filipinos and foreigners would compete on equal terms.
 REUTER

Brokerage firm E.F. Hutton Group Inc <EFH>
is not facing liquidity problems as a result of the fall on
Wall Street, nor is the firm on the brink of insolvency, London
joint managing director Harry Romney said.
    He was replying to Reuter questions about market rumours
that Hutton could be in financial difficulties.
    Romney noted the New York-based firm employs 16,000 to
17,000 people worldwide. Questioned on whether Hutton might be
considering cutbacks in line with some other big U.S.
Securities houses, he said Hutton's operations were under
contuous review, but no announcements were imminent.
 REUTER

The Manila-based International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) said West German agricultural
scientist Klaus Lampe will take over as its director-general in
early 1988, succeeding M.S. Swaminathan.
    An IRRI statement said Lampe, 56, is currently senior
adviser to the German Agency for Technical Cooperation at
Eschborn and was a former head of the agriculture section of
the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation.
    It said Swaminathan, who has headed IRRI since 1982, will
concentrate on environmental and agricultural issues.
 REUTER

The opening of the Milan bourse and Italy's
nine other stock exchanges has been delayed one hour to 1000
GMT by stock market regulatory agency Consob.
    A Consob spokesman told Reuters the action was taken "to
give operators time to reflect on the agreement between
Treasury Secretary James Baker and West German officials on the
Louvre accord." He did not elaborate.
    The Milan Stock Index (MIB), base January 2 equals 1000,
closed down 6.26 pct yesterday.
 REUTER

A spokeswoman for the London Stock
Exchange said there was no question of trading being suspended
because of the unprecedented three-day drop in prices, which
has seen almost 23 pct wiped off share values.
    Trading on the Hong Kong market has been called off until
Monday because of the steep slide on Wall Street amid panic
selling on all the world's stock exchanges.
    The Tokyo market was 14.9 pct off last night after a huge
508 point (22.5 pct) fall on Wall Street yesterday.
    The Stock Exchange said although the Stock Exchange
Automated Quotation (SEAQ) system was working perfectly, "fast
market" conditions may pevail periodically.
    A "fast market" indicator is displayed at the bottom of the
SEAQ screen when the huge volume of activity is delaying prices
from entering the system, making screen prices lag behind the
prevailing market.
    Such conditions are reviewed every 30 minutes and at 1000
GMT were withdrawn and all on screen prices became firm.
    The Exchange said the mandatory quote period will still end
at 1600 GMT but depending upon trading activity the market
indices may again be calculated up to 1630 GMT instead of the
usual 1600 GMT.
    At 0945 GMT the FTSE 100 share index was down 259.1 points
at 1,793.2, 12.6 pct lower so far today.
 REUTER

Sept daily ave primary aluminium output 34,900 tonnes, up 400 tonnes, IPAI.

The first convertible bond issued by a
South Korean firm overseas -- by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
<SAMS.SE> -- became eligible for conversion but there was no
demand for shares as the government still bans direct share
ownership by foreigners, a Samsung official said.
    "There was no demand from holders, so the lead managers made
no approach to us to issue shares," the official said.
    The five pct bond, co-lead managed by S.G. Warburg and
Goldman Sachs Co, raised 20 mln dlrs when issued in 1985. The
only other Korean convertible bonds were issued by Daewoo Heavy
Industries Ltd <DAEW.SE> and <Yukong Ltd>, both in 1986.
 REUTER

The British bulk carrier Envoy, which ran
aground in the Orinoco river on October 16, was refloated
without lightening on October 19, Lloyds Shipping Intelligence
service said.
    The Envoy, 75,453 tonnes dw, was carrying a cargo of 50,000
tonnes of bauxite from Brazil to Cuba.
 REUTER

Swiss Stock Index falls 3.7 pct or 38.4 points at opening to 989.5 - official

East and West on Monday decided to go
ahead with an ambitious nuclear fusion project billed as
possibly providing an inexhaustible source of energy, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
    Representatives of the U.S., The Soviet Union, the European
Community and Japan agreed to develop plans for a revolutionary
thermonuclear reactor, to produce energy not from splitting
atoms as in today's nuclear plants, but by joining them.
    Work is due to begin next year at the Institute for Plasma
Physics at the Max Planck Foundation near Munich, West Germany,
and is scheduled for completion by 1990, an IAEA statement
said.
    Research into fusion's scientific feasibility has been
under way for many years but the project approved on Monday,
known as International Thremonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER) will study if an actual plant could be built.
    The project represents an unprecedented display of
East-West scientific cooperation, but a decision will not be
made until its completion on whether an actual reactor would be
jointly constructed or by individual participant countries.
    Dieter Sigmar, a leading U.S. Fusion researcher, said last
month that the development of a demonstration plant would cost
several billion dlrs and need at least another 10 years.
    Fusion plants would produce little radioactive waste.
    While today's nuclear power plants need uranium, mined in
only a few countries and producing dangerous waste, fusion
plants would eventually run only on deuterium, an element
related to hydrogen and available from almost limitless
supplies of sea water, according to experts.
 REUTER

Former Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita,
chosen on Monday to be Japan's next prime minister, will face a
tough test in managing Japan's economy from the very start of
his two-year term, economists and businessmen said.
    Takeshita told a news conference on Tuesday that he would
do his best to continue the domestic reforms and external
policies of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
    However, leading Japanese businessmen called on Takeshita
to outdo Nakasone by showing stronger leadership.
    "Takeshita should not merely follow the Nakasone policies
but should cope with mounting economic issues with a new vision
and policies," Takashi Ishihara, chairman of the Japan Committee
for Economic Development, said in a statement.
    Economists generally agreed that there will be no major
changes in Japan's economic policies under a new leader.
    However, expectations are high among major industries for
new initiatives by Takeshita for immediate and effective
measures to solve economic problems such as trade friction with
the U.S., Administrative and tax reforms, and soaring land
prices.
Organisations (Keidanren), urged Takeshita to succeed in
unifying the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as soon as
possible to tackle difficult tasks.
    Regarding foreign economic polices, Yoshitoki Chino,
chairman of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, said
Takeshita should come up with economic measures well before
economic issues develop into problems.
    Behind those calls on Takeshita for prompt action are
doubts about his capability in handling international issues
due to his lack of experience in diplomacy, economists said.
     Economists said foreign countries should be patient with
Takeshita, who is widely known as an ultra-cautious politician.
    Takeshita has repeatedly said, "There should be consensus
before taking action."
    Takeshita has so far failed to unveil specific measures to
reduce Japan's huge trade surplus, economists said.
    He has said Japan will continue to stimulate the economy
and to open the market wider to foreign products.
 REUTER

U.K. SEPTEMBER M3 RISES 0.8 PCT, M0 UP 0.8 PCT - BANK OF ENGLAND.

U.K. SEPTEMBER STERLING BANK LENDING UP 4.4 BILLION STG - OFFICIAL.

The massive plunge in Tokyo stock prices on
Tuesday could rob the Government of much-needed revenue to spur
Japan's economy, and may hurt banks' ability to lend abroad,
analysts polled by Reuters said.
    "The Japanese Government is depending on the sale of NTT
(Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp <NCCT.T>) shares for much
of its public spending budget," said Shigeo Suzuki, a deputy
general manager at the Industrial Bank of Japan.
    Japan had hoped to raise at least 5,000 billion yen from
the sale of 1.95 mln NTT shares on November 10.
    However, the 14.9 pct plunge in the Tokyo share index today
has made such plans look unrealistic, analysts said.
    "The government could defer the sale of NTT or they could
offer fewer shares," said Keikichi Honda, general manager of
economic research at the Bank of Tokyo Ltd.
    Honda said another possibility is that the underwriters
handling the NTT sale would have to pay the Government the
amount it expected to get and bear the brunt of any losses
themselves. "That is what underwriting means," he added.
    A Finance Ministry official confirmed that the government
planned to go ahead with its sale of NTT shares on November 10.
    Another possible effect of Tokyo's stock tumble would be to
seriously undermine the asset base of Japanese banks.
    The banks lend money all over the world and regard the
market value of stock holdings as assets, analysts said.
    "Japanese banks make loans using perhaps as much as 60 to 70
pct of the market value of their unrealised stock holdings as
assets," said Industrial Bank's Suzuki.
    There is also concern that Japanese companies, which have
invested heavily in Tokyo's stocks as their real business
declined over the last two years, have sustained heavy losses.
    "Many companies, mainly export-oriented companies, were
planning on selling their shares for a profit to reinvest in
real businesses as the economy begins to pick up," said one
analyst at a foreign brokerage. "That prospect now looks dim."
    But analysts said it is unlikely companies or financial
institutions will be bankrupted by losses in stock trading.
    "I don't think any company is so badly exposed in stock
investments," said a senior analyst at Nomura Research
Institute. "In terms of financial institutions, luckily the
rebounding bond market and currency markets are still
profitable," he added.
    The Nomura analyst said a 10 pct decline in Tokyo stocks
would be translated into a fall of about 0.2 pct in consumer
spending. Some 20 pct of Tokyo stocks are owned by individuals.
    Market capitalisation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell to
329,588 billion yen on Tuesday from 386,041 billion at Monday's
close.
    NTT shares ended 260,000 yen lower at 2.65 mln each, well
down from their peak of 3.18 mln in April.
 REUTER

Stoltenberg says global share price crash overdone and unfounded

Stoltenberg says meeting with Baker underscored monetary cooperation

LONDON - U.S., UK GOVT BONDS RISE SHARPLY ON STOLTENBERG COMMENTS -DEALERS

Stoltenberg said the global share price crash was overdone and
unfounded.
    Stoltenberg was speaking at a press conference.
 REUTER

West German Finance minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg said the meeting on Monday with U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker underscored the determination of the U.S.
And West Germany to continue close cooperation to stabilise
foreign exchange rates.
    Stoltenberg told a news conference "The statement released
yesterday (Monday) after the private meeting .... Emphasized
our determination to continue the close economic cooperation
regarding foreign exchange stabilization and monetary policy."
    Stoltenberg said that he, Baker and Bundesbank President
Karl Otto Poehl had a very constructive discussion and had all
reached a positive evaluation of the Louvre accord during their
meeting on Monday.
    Stoltenberg said initial contacts with several European
counterparts showed that they shared this view. "We expect the
declaration of our unified position to have a positive effect,"
he said.
    He noted that the dollar firmed again in late U.S. Trading
after the outcome of the Baker meeting was published.
 REUTER

Frankfurt bourse opens up to eight pct down, partially recovers - dealers

London' FTSE 100 share index down 300.6 points to 1,751.7 at 1052 GMT

Conservative Party chairman Norman Tebbit,
who plans to give up the post an a date yet to be set, is
joining Blue Arrow Plc <BAWL.L> as a non-executive director,
Blue Arrow said.
    Blue Arrow, which has just completed the purchase of U.S.
Employment agency <Manpower Inc>, said Tebbit is joining the
board along with Michael Davies as non-executive directors from
November 1.
    Davies is a director of several publicly-listed companies,
including British Airways Plc <BAB.L>, and TI Group Plc
<TIGL.L>.
 REUTER

A 100 mln dlr equity warrant bond for
Intec Inc <INTT.T> of Japan has been cancelled because of
turbulent market activity following today's 14.9 pct plunge in
Tokyo stock prices, Nikko Securities Co (Europe) Ltd said as
    The five year issue, on launched October 13, had terms
fixed yesterday, when it last traded at a bid only price of
less 2-1/4 pct, placing it on total fees, Nikko officials said.
    Indeed, dealers said stock price volatility shut down
trading altogether in Japanese equity related debt issues today
and cast doubt on the new issue calendar for the next few
weeks, during which as many as eight new deals were to be
launched.
 REUTER

<Goldman Sachs and Co> is not facing
severe financial problems and has not filed for protection
under U.S. Bankruptcy laws, Robert Conway, managing director of
Goldman Sachs International Corp said.
    He was responding to a Reuter enquiry about rumours in
London financial markets that the firm was in financial
trouble.
    "There is absolutely, positively no truth to those rumours,"
he said noting that in the current financial environment
rumours like this are bound to surface.
    Conway said that Goldman Sachs has had an excellent year
and that it has a strong balance sheet and good liquidity.
    "You can't be in the equity market as we are and not
experience some problems after a day like yesterday (when the
Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points). But we are
not facing any severe financial problems," he added.
 REUTER

A Council meeting of the
International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO) has been
adjourned until Thursday as tomorrow is a Malaysian national
holiday, officials of the organisation said.
    The main issue at the talks, which opened here yesterday,
has been the INRO buffer stock and the manner in which the
buffer stock manager should continue to sell rubber after the
current international pact for the commodity expires on October
22, they said.
    The deadline for the start of the new pact is January 1989.
    Buffer stock manager Aldo Hofmeister has been mandated to
continue selling rubber during the interim period.
    Other issues discussed include ratification of the new
accord, the officials said.
    Only Malaysia of the pact's 32 producing and consuming
member countries had ratified the new agreement by the
beginning of this month.
    The meeting is due to end on Thursday.
 REUTER

Stoltenberg said the Louvre accord was vital to West Germany.
    Stoltenberg told a news conference "Given West Germany's
unusually high dependence on world trade and exports, it is
vital for West Germany ... To continue its constructive
contribution to trusting (international) cooperation on the
basis of the Louvre accord."
    Some monetary analysts have speculated that
inflation-conscious Bundesbank vice president Helmut
Schlesinger may have been leading the central bank to a course
of tighter monetary policy.
    Stoltenberg is due to attend a routine Bundesbank meeting
on Thursday in West Berlin. He declined to forecast what, if
any, policy decisions the Bundesbank might take.
 REUTER

Stoltenberg does not rule out central bank intervention to stabilize currencies

Further marked dollar fall would burden U.S. Trade deficit -Stoltenberg

Stoltenberg declines comment on possible changed targets for currencies

registrations rose four pct last month compared with September
1986, and were 28 pct higher than August's figure, the Federal
Motor Office said.
    September new car registrations totalled 234,518, up from
225,581 in the same month a year ago and from 183,224 in
August.
    In the first nine months of this year, new car
registrations rose 2.9 pct to 2.18 mln from 2.12 mln during
January/September 1986.
    Total vehicle registrations in the period rose to 2.42 mln
from 2.35 mln in January/September last year.
 REUTER

Stoltenberg declined to comment on whether unpublished target
zones for currencies agreed at last February's Louvre accord
had been changed as a result of the meeting on Monday with U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker.
    He was asked about target zones at a news conference in
Bonn. Stoltenberg referred to a statement released after
Monday's meeting, which said continuing cooperation was aimed
at promoting currency stability at current levels. This was the
same formula used in the text of the Louvre accord, he noted.
 REUTER

sector.
 Reuter

Stoltenberg said he could not rule out the possibility of
central bank intervention to support currencies.
    Asked at a news conference whether central banks were
prepared to intervene to defend currencies, he said "We cannot
rule out the use of any instrument which leads to foreign
currency stability."
    However, he added that in the end, it was market forces
which prevailed.
 REUTER

U.S. Attacks on two Iranian oil platforms
in the Gulf -- both of which were still blazing -- caused
damage estimated at 500 mln dlrs, Tehran Radio quoted Iranian
Oil Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh as saying.
    The rigs, one of which was heavily shelled by four American
destroyers on Monday, were still burning almost 24 hours after
the attack and could cause widespread pollution in the Gulf,
the minister told a news conference in Tehran. He said the
Reshadat rigs, 120 miles (200 km) east of Bahrain in
international waters, were in the final stages of
reconstruction after an attack by Iraqi jets last year.
 REUTER

Australia's Minister for Trade
Negotiations is optimistic that progress is possible on
reducing the large subsidies which the European Community and
United States grant their farmers.
    Michael Duffy said a European Commission scheme to reform
the EC Common Agricultural Policy and U.S. Plans to eliminate
farm subsidies over 10 years are steps in the right direction.
    "I am hopefully optimistic... There is goodwill in
agricultural reform being shown by the USA, the EC and the
Cairns Group," he told reporters.
    Duffy said the Cairns Group of 14 agricultural and
commodity producers is on the verge of agreeing a common
position for forthcoming General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) talks on farm subsidies.
    The group, which includes Australia and Malaysia, advocates
free farm trade and says U.S., European and Japanese subsidies
are stopping it competing in its traditional markets.
    Duffy is on a two-day visit to Malaysia after talks in
North and South America, the EC and Thailand, and leaves for
Indonesia on Wednesday.
 REUTER

Iranian Premier Mir-Hossein Mousavi
reiterated his country would retaliate for U.S. Navy attacks on
Gulf oil platforms.
    "The U.S. Attack on Iran's oil platforms jeopardises our
national sovereignty ... And we will retaliate properly for
this perfidious American aggression," Mousavi told a news
conference in Damascus.  On Monday U.S. Navy warships blasted
the Rostam platform, and Navy personnel stormed a second
platform a few miles away. Washington said the operation was
aimed at destroying positions used by Iran to track and assault
neutral Gulf shipping.
 REUTER

The Indonesian state-owned oil company
Pertamina has found new offshore oil and gas resources in East
Aceh, on the western tip of northern Sumatra, a company
    The spokesman said the discovery was made at the GOS IA-1
offshore exploratory well about 38 kms east of Langsa in Aceh.
    "Oil and gas are found in sand layers at the depth of 2,300
metres within the Baong formation," he said.
    He said preliminary tests showed that the well could flow
oil at the rate of 1,320 barrels a day with 50 degrees API at
20 degrees centigrade through a 5/8 inch choke.
    "The well also flows natural gas at the rate of 12 mln
standard cubic feet a day," he added.
    GOS IA-1 well, located at a water depth of 41 metres, was
drilled under a production sharing contract between Pertamina
and Japex North Sumatra Ltd, each having 50 pct shares.
    "Petroleum operations are to be carried out by Pertamina as
operator through a joint operating body established by the two
companies," the Pertamina spokesman stated.
    The contract covers the Gebang block contract area. The two
companies have previously completed the drilling of GOS IIA-1
exploratory well, around 14 kms south of GOS IA-1.
 REUTER

European Community (EC) ministers
backed a commission plan for the reform of world farm trade,
which is due to be presented to GATT later this month, EC
    The plan has been drawn up by the EC executive Commission
in response to U.S. Calls in GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade) for an end to all farm subsidies within the next 10
years. EC foreign ministers agreed that despite reservations by
some member states, the plan should be presented to the next
meeting of the GATT farm negotiating group in Geneva on October
26, diplomats said.
 Reuter

Indonesia told the oil industry on
Tuesday it will extend contracts on producing blocks and
improve the investment climate, but wants to see increased
expenditure on exploration in return.
    President Suharto, in an opening speech to the Indonesian
Petroleum Association, said Indonesia was ready to extend
contracts held by foreign oil companies on producing areas.
    "In order to boost investment in the petroleum industry, the
government of Indonesia has basically approved of extending
production sharing contracts under the present laws," Suharto
said.
    "Apart from that, the government will keep improving the
investment climate in order to accelerate the development of
the petroleum industry," he said.
    Indonesian Energy Minister Subroto told the Association he
was aware that the oil industry needed to be assured that
contracts on blocks expiring within the next 10 years would be
renewed before they would invest in further exploration.
    "As we all have heard this morning, the President is fully
aware of this situation," Subroto said.
    "The government has already made the political decision to
entertain this time problem by inviting the existing producers
to continue their activities in Indonesia, albeit on a
selective basis."
    Indonesia, one of the 13 members of OPEC, must find new oil
reserves if it is to remain an exporter in the next decade, oil
industry sources say.
    Subroto said the government was also working to ease other
problems, including granting easier terms for remote areas or
deep water conditions.
    But Subroto said relations with oil companies were two-way
and that they should step up expenditure on oil exploration now
that the oil price had recovered.
    President Suharto said he wanted to see greater transfer of
technology to Indonesian companies, and more help from the oil
industry for the regions in which companies operated.
    Abdul Rachman Ramly, the President of state oil company
Pertamina, has said that budgeted exploration and production
expenditure for all oil companies in Indonesia was forecast to
fall to 3.1 billion dlrs in calendar 1987 from 3.4 billion in
1986.
    Pertamina has 69 production-sharing or joint operation
contracts with foreign oil companies.
    Subroto said speeding up necessary approvals for field
operations was a government priority. There had been
misunderstandings between the government and the oil industry
in certain areas, such as when a field is designated
commercial, and a thorough evaluation was being made.
    He said the government wanted to finalise contract
extensions as soon as practical, and urged the industry in the
meantime to maintain its exploration drive.
    Subroto said Indonesia needed the companies to maintain
exploration efforts, even if their contract was due to expire
within 10 years. "This need in itself is some sort of guarantee
that we will soon have to come up with an extension agreement."
    Eleven major contract areas are due to come up for renewal
between 1991 and 2001, industry sources said.
    Extension of the contracts on the blocks has involved
detailed negotiations but so far no extension has been granted.
    Subroto told reporters afterwards that contract extensions
would be selective, based on how much capital would be
invested.
 REUTER

COMEX RAISING MARGINS FOR GOLD AND COPPER  FUTURES EFFECTIVE AT TODAY'S OPENING - OFFICIAL

Stockbrokers and legislators welcomed
the suspension of trading on the local market after Monday's
record fall, but some said the suspension was too long and
could harm the territory's reputation as a financial centre.
    Announcing the suspension until next Monday, stock exchange
chairman Ronald Li said earlier today "This will protect
investors and allow brokers to settle a backlog of orders."
    But legislator David Li, who is also managing director of
the Bank of East Asia, while weloming the move, said a one-day
halt would have been enough.
    "I believe the exchange is over-reacting. A long suspension
will damage Hong Kong's reputation as a financial centre and
hurt foreign investors' confidence," David Li said.
    Legislator Hui Yin-fat echoed this view. "What will they do
if the market resumes its fall next week ?" he asked.
    Legislator Lee Yu-tai said small investors would be
hard-hit by the decision. He said some were paying interest on
loans to purchase stock and a long suspension increased their
losses.
    Financial Secretary Piers Jacobs said the decision was
explainable, but he added, "It does seem rather a long time."
    However, George Tan, assistant director of Greenwell
Montagu (Far East) Ltd, said the suspension was wise. "Hong Kong
is a volatile market and this will let things settle down," he
said.
    Other brokers agreed. "At least this gives us a bit of
breathing space," said one.
    John MacKenzie, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of
Banks, said "I feel that it is not at all a bad thing that
investors and investment mnanagers be given a breathing space."
    Hong Kong's main share indicator, the Hang Seng index, fell
420.81 points to 3,362.39 on Monday - its biggest ever one-day
fall in real terms.
 REUTER

Frankfurt bourse extends trading by half-hour to 1300 GMT - official

Iran is preparing lawsuits to file for
compensation from the U.S. Over the American raid on its Gulf
oil platforms, Tehran radio quoted Iranian Oil Minister
Gholamreza Aqazadeh as saying.
    The lawsuits would be filed with competent international
bodies once the exact damage was calculated, he was quoted
telling a news conference in Tehran. He earlier estimated the
damage from the U.S. Raid at about 500 mln dlrs.
the attack, he said.
    Aqazadeh said the half-billion-dollar damage estimate was
preliminary. Washington has said the attack was in response to
a missile strike against the American-flag tanker the Sea Isle
City in Kuwaiti waters on Friday.
    He denied that there was any military hardware on the rigs
"except a 23 mm machinegun for air defence." Reacting to
Weinberger's remark that Washington considered the case closed,
Aqazadeh said: "Iran will also consider the case closed after
its retaliatory measure." Iranian officials have said their
response would not be limited to the Gulf and U.S. Interests
around the world might come under attack.
    Aqazadeh said the U.S. Military presence in the Gulf
aggravated the regional crisis and made access to the region's
oil more difficult, but he did not see the U.S. Attack
significantly affecting oil prices.
    IRNA said he gave no explicit reply when asked if the
attack would prompt Iran to block the Hormuz Strait at the
entrance to the Gulf.
    "If Iran cannot use the Hormuz Strait, no other country can
either, and this would be to everyone's harm," the radio quoted
him as saying.
 REUTER

The Frankfurt bourse extended official
trading hours by half an hour to 1300 GMT due to heavy
turnover, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt bourse said.
    It was not immediately clear whether the other seven German
bourses were also affected. Yesterday trading hours were also
extended by half an hour.
    The Boersen-Zeitung 30-share index started at 351.02 today,
after closing yesterday at 355.34. It rose to 352.15 at
midsession but slipped back to 351.24 at 1200 GMT.
 REUTER

 REUTER

Shr 28 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 3,110,000 vs 1,286,000
    Revs 112.7 mln vs 93.8 mln
    Avg shrs 11.2 mln vs 9,148,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 58 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 6,377,000 vs 1,332,000
    Revs 307.8 mln vs 233.8 mln
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 9,148,000
    NOTE: Company 81.4 pct owned by Primerica Corp <PA>.
 Reuter

U.S. SEPT HOUSING STARTS ROSE 4.4 PCT TO 1.669 MLN, PERMITS FELL 0.6 PCT TO 1.493 MLN

Direct Action Marketing Inc
said it has called a shareholder meeting for a vote on the
election of directors for January 27.
    Last week, Ocilla Industries Inc <OCIL.O>, a Direct Action
shareholder, had said it would seek to elect its own board
slate at the next shareholder meeting.
 Reuter

German public bonds surge about 300 basis points in hectic bourse -dealers

Shr 22 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 2,963,000 vs 2,696,000
    Sales 26.5 mln vs 19.4 mln
 Reuter

Hilton Hotels Corp said it
plans to repurchase on the open market or privately up to
3,900,000 of its 25.0 mln common shares.
    It said funds for the repurchases would come from working
capital and external financing.  Hilton set no time limit for
the plan.
 Reuter

Plum Holding Inc said it has started its
previously-announced offer to purchase 664,400 common shares of
Holly Sugar Corp at 95 dlrs each.
    In a newspaper advertisement, the firm said the offer,
proration period and withdrawal rights expire November 17
unless extended. The offer, which has been approved by the
Holly board and is to be followed by a merger in which
remaining shares are to be exchanged for cumulative redeemable
exchangeable preferred stock, is conditioned on receipt of at
least 664,400 shares, which would give Plum a two thirds
interest, and the receipt of financing.
 Reuter

U.S. housing starts rose 4.4 pct in
September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,669,000
    In August, housing starts were unchanged from July levels
at 1,598,000 units, instead of being down 1.5 pct as previously
reported.
    The increase in September housing starts was the largest
since a 10.8 pct gain in starts in December 1986, Commerce
construction fell 0.6 pct in September to a seasonally adjusted
1,493,000 units from 1,502,000 units in August.
    Permits had risen 1.0 pct in August from July levels of
1,487,000 units.
    Before seasonal adjustment, permits rose to 135,500 in
September from 128,000 in August.
    Housing starts before adjustment rose to 150,200 in
September from 144,600 in August.
    The seasonally adjusted rise in starts included a 5.1 pct
increase in September single-family unit starts to 1,168,000 
from 1,111,000 in August.
    Single-family starts had fallen 2.8 pct in August from July
levels.
    Multi-family starts rose 2.9 pct in September to a
seasonally adjusted 501,000 units after a 7.0 pct increase in
August, the department said.
    Permits for single-family units fell 3.2 pct last month to
a seasonally adjusted 990,000 units after a 3.0 pct August
rise.
    Multi-family permits were up 5.0 pct in September to
503,000 units after falling 3.0 pct in August.
    Housing starts in September were down 1.2 pct from a
seasonally adjusted 1,689,000 units in September 1986.
    Permits were 11.5 pct below the September 1986 level of
1,687,000 units.
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 20.3 mln vs 16.7 mln
    Sales 216.9 mln vs 184.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.47 dlrs vs 1.21 dlrs
    Net 58.2 mln vs 47.6 mln
    Sales 611.2 mln vs 547.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 87 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 2,604,000 vs 1,856,000
    Sales 72.7 mln vs 64.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.71 dlrs vs 1.97 dlrs
    Net 8,121,000 vs 5,834,000
    Sales 215.7 mln vs 193.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit four cts vs loss 56 cts
    Net profit 2,043,000 vs loss 25.7 mln
    Revs 111.3 mln vs 64.7 mln
    Avg shrs 48.3 mln vs 45.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 18 cts vs loss 63 cts
    Net loss 8,695,000 vs loss 28.4 mln
    REvs 308.4 mln vs 228.4 mln
    Avg shrs 48.0 mln vs 44.8 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits of 1,646,000 dlrs in
quarter and 3,401,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    1987 nine mths results restated for pooled acquisition of
Bidtek Inc.
 Reuter

Rumours of heavy trading losses at two
large U.K. Brokerage firms, Warburg Securities and Barclays de
Zoete Wedd (BZW), are not true, spokesmen for the firms said.
    Peter Wilmot-Sitwell, joint chairman of Warburg Securities,
told Reuters the firm lost about 4.7 mln stg on Monday. This
was equal to the profit made last week. He had no estimate for
today's outcome.
    BZW spokesman Geoffrey Kelly described the rumours as
"absolute rubbish." He added "We lost a bit, but who didn't?"
    Warburg Securities is part of <S.G. Warburg Group Plc>. BZW
is owned by Barclays Plc <BCS.L>.
    Rumours of trading losses among London brokers have been
circulating since the market collapse gained fresh momentum.
    Stock Exchange chairman Sir Nicholas Goodison has been
unavailable for comment this morning.
    The London market has fallen almost 24 pct since Thursday.
 Reuter

launched the Reuter Commodities 2000 and the Reuter Energy 2000
high speed quotation services in Europe.
    They will carry around 18,000 quotations on commodity,
financial and energy futures, together with related options,
from more than 30 exchanges.
    They join Equities 2000, the quotations service for global
equities launched in May, to form the new generation of
products delivered over Reuters new high speed Integrated Data
Network (IDN).
 REUTER

Nissan Motor Co Ltd said it is
raising prices on its model 1988 300Zx 200 dlrs to 20,649 dlrs,
standard pickup truck 200 dlrs to 7,199 dlrs and Pathfinder XE
100 dlrs to 14,999 dlrs.
    The company said the Nissan van will be priced at 14,349
dlrs and include for the first time air conditioning as
standard equipment.
    It said it has not yet priced 1988 Stanza sedans and
wagons, but price increases for all its other vehicles now
average 198 dlrs or 1.6 pct.
 Reuter

German net currency reserves rise 500 mln marks to 87.0 billion in week

American Medical
International said it intends to repurchase from time to time
on the open market up to 150 mln dlrs of its common stock and
plans to spend another 250 mln dlrs in reducing long-term debt.
    It said it would spend about 100 mln dlrs on debt maturing
in 1989.
    American Medical said funding for the program will come
from cash flow and from the divestiture and restructuring of
corporate assets.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 1.53 dlrs
    Net 33,085,000 vs 123,450,000
    Revs 535.0 mln vs 496.7 mln
    Avg shrs 78,755,000 vs 80,666,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 3.35 dlrs
    Net 98,322,000 vs 271,512,000
    Revs 1.58 billion vs 1.49 billion
    Avg shrs 78,999,000 vs 81,022,000
    NOTE: 1987 per-share earnings include Daily News severance
charges of 11 cts a share in the quarter and 13 cts a share for
the nine months
    1986 net income includes non-recurring gains of 1.11 dlrs a
share in the quarter and 2.23 dlrs a share in the nine months
and five cts a share Daily News severance charges
 Reuter

GREENSPAN SAYS FED IS READY TO PROVIDE LIQUIDITY TO SUPPORT FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Shr 45 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 57.8 mln vs 79.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.53 dlrs vs 1.87 dlrs
    Net 195.8 mln vs 228.9 mln
 Reuter

Goldman Sachs and Co has decided to make
a billion dlrs of its own capital available to mutual funds to
enable them to sell securities for cash if they need to do so,
a senior spokesman for the investment banking firm said.
    The spokesman said Goldman took the decision on its own
initiative on Tuesday morning after a number of mutual funds
had reported a cash squeeze because of a flood of redemptions
by stock market investors.
    The New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange
Commission were informed of the move, he said.
    The spokesman described the action as an effort to be
helpful. "We're not trying to encourage them to liquidate, but
if it's needed, the money's there," he said.
    The provision of one billion dlrs poses no undue burden on
Goldman Sachs's capital, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

Pioneer Communications Network
Inc said it has temporarily suspended printing new titles for
its Soaps and Serials line of paperback books and will now
print only those titles that have demonstrated a profitable
sales history.
    It said it will no longer sell the entire Soaps and Serials
line as a unit but will take orders for individual titles.
    The company said it currently has enough licensor-approved
manuscripts to provide, after publication, for at least six
months of retail operations.
 Reuter

Shr profit 11 cts vs loss 28 cts
    Net profit 515,000 vs loss 1,328,000
    Sales 31.0 mln vs 32.1 mln
    Avg shrs 4,600,199 vs 4,815,062
    1st half
    Shr loss 23 cts vs profit 10 cts
    Net loss 1,033,000 vs profit 482,000
    Sales 58.5 mln vs 62.1 mln
    Avg shrs 4,565,752 vs 4,883,711
    NOTE: 1986 half net includes pretax gain 4,150,000 dlrs
from sale of option to buy facility.
    Backlog 28.1 mln dlrs vs 22.5 mln dlrs at end of previous
quarter and 21.0 mln dlrs at end of prior year's second quarter.
 Reuter

GAF Corp said its board has
authorized the repurchase from time to time of up to seven mln
of its common shares, or about 21 pct, for cash in open market
purchases or private transactions.
    The company said it repurchased 2,100,000 shares under an
April authorization to buy back up to three mln shares and
authorization for further repurchases under the old program has
been withdrawn.
    Yesterday, GAF said a group led by chairman Samuel J.
Heyman has decided to reconsider its offer to acquire GAF. GAF
said a revised offer by the group is still possible.
 Reuter

Shr 1.72 dlrs vs 87 cts
    Net 330,000,000 vs 167,000,000
    Sales 3.36 billion vs 2.74 billion
    Avg shrs 192,200,000 vs 191,700,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 4.62 dlrs vs 2.95 dlrs
    Net 888,000,000 vs 564,000,000
    Sales 9.78 billion vs 8.31 billion
    Avg shrs 191,100,000 vs 191,500,000
    NOTE: Earnings include a loss of 3.0 mln dlrs, or one ct a
share in the 1986 quarter from early extinguishment of debt
    Earnings include losses in the nine months of 3.0 mln dlrs,
or two cts a share vs 8.0 mln dlrs, or four cts a share from
early extinguishment of debt
 Reuter

June 30 end
    Shr 33 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 1,687,623 vs 636,500
    Revs 18.7 mln vs 8,973,143
    Year
    Shr 96 cts vs 66 cts
    Net 4,821,637 vs 3,309,017
    Revs 58.8 mln vs 27.2 mln
 Reuter

The U.S. Federal Reserve is ready to
provide liquidity to support the economy and the financial
system, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said in a statement.
    The brief statement by Greenspan issued by the Fed said,
"the Federal Reserve, consistent with its responsibilities as
the nation's central bank, affirmed today its readiness to
serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and
financial system."
 Reuter

Computer Memories Inc said its
board has decided to take additional time to evaluate the
impact of litigation on the proposed acquisition of <Hemdale
Film Corp>.
    Computer Memories said it plans to adjourn its annual
shareholders meeting, scheduled for October 23, after it is
convened. One purpose of the meeting is to consider the
transaction, the company explained.
    Computer Memories said Hemdale agrees with this course of
action.
   
 Reuter

CHEMICAL BANK CUTS PRIME RATE TO 9.25 PCT FROM 9.75 PCT, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

issuing a 100 billion dlr eurobond due November 9, 1993, paying
12 pct and priced at par, Cassa Di Risparmio Delle Provincie
Lombarde (CARIPLO) London branch said as lead manager.
    The issue is available in denominations of two mln and five
mln lire and will be listed in Luxembourg. Payment date is
November 9.
    The eurobond is callable after four years at 101-1/2 pct
and after five years at 101 pct.
    The fees include a 1-1/4 pct selling concession, and 5/8
pct for management and underwriting, combined.
 REUTER

The White House took a wait-and-see
attitude toward the stock market crisis, barring "precipitous
action" to deal with it.
    Referring to news reports, White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said, "It seems most of the world economists are
uncertain as to the specific causes, so we'll just have to wait
and see if there's a rebound today."
    "We certainly don't want to take precipitous action," the
    "No meetings are scheduled at this time. We'll monitor the
situation and see how the markets respond today," he said.
   
 Reuter

Shr 51 cts
    Net 51 mln dlrs vs 65 mln dlrs
    Revs 1.3 billion vs 1.1 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.07 dlrs
    Net 189 mln vs 215 mln
    Revs 3.9 billion vs 3.3 billion
    NOTE: Full name is Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
    Company went public May 7, 1987
 Reuter

MARINE MIDLAND BANK CUTS PRIME RATE TO 9.25 PCT FROM 9.75 PCT, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

Dow Chemical Co said it expects
business to remains strong during the fourth quarter, with
seasonal increases for agricultural products, improvement
anticipated for industrial specialties and continuing strength
in basic chemicals and plastics.
    It said this will result in a record year for the company,
noting "earnings already have exceeded the previous all-time
high of 4.42 dlrs achieved for the full year of 1980."
    For the third quarter, Dow reported earnings of 330 mln
dlrs, or 1.72 dlrs a share compared to 167 mln dlrs, or 87 cts
a share a year earlier.
 Reuter

Stoltenberg said that there were absolutely no signs of current
dangers to price stability in West Germany.
    He was speaking at a news conference shortly after
Bundesbank president Karl Otto Poehl told a conference in
Frankfurt that inflationary fears, which have been responsible
for recent interest rate increases, were unjustified and
exaggerated.
 Reuter

Chemical Bank and Marine Midland Banks
Inc said they are cutting their prime lending rate to 9-1/4 pct
from 9-3/4 pct, reversing an increase that they announced just
last week.
    The reduction is effective immediately.
    No other major U.S. bank had followed the lead of Chemical
and Marine Midland, preferring to keep their prime rates at
9-1/4 pct while they waited to see what course money market
rates would take.
    Following Monday's record fall in Wall Street stock prices,
money market rates fell sharply on Tuesday as investors
ploughed proceeds into short-term instruments and the Federal
Reserve said it is prepared to provide liquidity to support the
economy and the financial system.
    Eurodollar deposit rates in London fell by as much as 9/16
percentage point, Treasury bill rates fell by as much as half a
point (after falling between 59 and 84 basis points on Monday),
and the Fed funds rate dropped to 7-1/4 pct from Monday's
average of 7.61 pct. Speculation even surfaced of a discount
rate cut to calm the markets, dealers said.
 Reuter

Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
said the recent decline in equities has had a dislocating
effect on the market but no impact on the company's financial
    The company reported a drop in third quarter profits to 51
mln dlrs from 65 mln dlrs on increased revenues of 1.3 billion
dlrs compared to 1.1 billion a year earlier.
    "While the decline in equities in recent weeks has had a
dislocating effect on the market in general," Chairman Peter A.
Cohen said, "it has not had an impact on our financial
condition."
   
    Cohen said Shearson's third quarter earnings reflected the
diversity of its revenues and "progress in several core
businesses resulting in higher commission, investment banking
and investment advisory revenues. These improvements were
offset by a decline in revenues from market making and
principle transactions and an increase in expenses from year
ago levels," it said.
   
 Reuter

Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 88 cts
    Net 409,000,000 vs 328,000,000
    Revs 12.19 billion vs 11.17 billion
    Avg shrs 378.2 mln vs 368.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.86 dlrs vs 2.17 dlrs
    Net 1.09 billion vs 808.3 mln
    Revs 34.39 billion vs 31.31 billion
    Avg shrs 377.7 mln vs 366.2 mln
 Reuter

CBT MAJOR MARKET INDEX (MMI) STOCK INDEX FUTURES OPEN 35.00 TO 43.50 POINTS HIGHER

U.K. Stocks surge after prime cuts and Greenspan financial system support pledge

Shr 32 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 15.9 mln vs 12.1 mln
    Revs 236.2 mln vs 221.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 88 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 43.5 mln vs 32.8 mln
    Revs 693.9 mln vs 629.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr 65 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 52.7 mln vs 47.7 mln
    Revs 1.16 billion vs 976.6 mln
    Avg shrs 79.9 mln vs 74.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.73 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 141.4 mln vs 117.9 mln
    Revs 3.39 billion vs 2.75 billion
 Reuter

Shr nil vs loss 14 cts
    Net 1,697,000 vs loss 41.9 mln
    Revs 1.2 billion vs 1.1 billion
    Avg shrs 276.4 mln vs 285.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Net profit 36.8 mln vs 161.5 mln
    Revs 3.4 billoin vs 3.8 billion
    Avg shrs 278.2 mln vs 288.9 mln
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr includes 152.6 mln dlrs for continuing
operations, which includes a 69 mln dlrs after-tax gain on sale
of company's investment in Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de
Telediffusion.
    1987 3rd qtr and nine mths net includes a loss of 220 mln
dlrs or 79 cts a share for discontinued operations and 70 mln
dlrs or 25 cts a share for extraordinary gain.
    1986 3rd qtr and nine mths net includes a loss of 59 mln
dlrs or 20 cts a share from continuing operations mainly for
employee layoff costs in oilfied services, sale of small
electronic business and unfavorable lease comitments.
   
    1987 nine mths net also includes a loss of 220 mln dlrs
from discontinued operations due to completion of previously
announced sale of Fairchild Semiconductor business.
    1987 extraordinary item of 70.1 mln dlrs relates to award
from Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal from Iran's seizure of SEDCO Inc
drilling business in 1979 prior to its acquisition by
Schlumberger.
    1986 3rd qtr and nine mths net also includes in
discontinued operations a loss of 36 mln dlrs from Fairchild
Semiconductor offset by a 53 mln dlrs gain from favorable
settlement of litigation with Data General.
 Reuter

Shr profit 2.77 dlrs vs profit 1.35 dlrs
    Net 155.0 mln vs 77.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 1.43 dlrs vs profit 3.66 dlrs
    Net loss 60.4 mln vs profit 195.2 mln
    Assets 45.15 billion vs 42.69 billion
    Loans 36.33 billion vs 34.46 billion
    Deposits 29.7 billion vs 23.3 billion
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 90 mln vs 51 mln
    Sales 1.58 billion vs 1.42 billion
    Avg shrs 274 mln vs 269 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 79 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 233 mln vs 129 mln
    Sales 4.58 billion vs 4.22 billion
    Avg shrs 238 mln vs 267 mln
    NOTE: 1987 results include Caremark Inc from August 3.
Caremark acquisition reduced 1987 nine months net by five cts,
offset by a three ct gain from the sale of securities.
    1986 third quarter net excludes gains from discontinued
operations of 12 mln dlrs or four cts; a gain from sale of
discontinued operations of 285 mln dlrs or 1.06 dlrs; and a
charge from early repayment of debt of 58 mln dlrs or 22 cts.
    1986 nine months net excludes gains from discontinued
operations of 38 mln dlrs or 14 cts; a gain from sale of
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 20 cts vs loss 22 cts
    Oper net profit 2,111,000 vs loss 1,605,000
    Revs 89.6 mln vs 27.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 47 cts vs loss 15 cts
    Oper net profit 4,116,000 vs loss 1,029,000
    Revs 252.1 mln vs 87.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes losses from discontinued operations
of 791,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,168,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    1986 nine mths net excludes gain 4,726,000 dlrs from
cumulative effect of pension accounting change.
    1987 net excludes tax credits of 1,569,000 dlrs in quarter
and 2,894,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

GREENSPAN CUTS SHORT DALLAS TRIP, RETURNING TO WASHINGTON, FED SAYS

CME STANDARD AND POOR'S 500 STOCK INDEX FUTURES OPEN MORE THAN 20 POINTS HIGHER

Shr 91 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 124,100,000 vs 21,200,000
    Sales 2.83 billion vs 2.22 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.47 dlrs vs 2.02 dlrs
    Net 337,400,000 vs 294,200,000
    Sales 7.98 billion vs 6.33 billion
    Avg shrs 136,700,000 vs 142,500,000
    NOTE: 1986 earnings include a loss from discontinuedoperations of 50.3 mln dlrs, or 35 cts a share in the quarter
and a gain of 21.2 mln dlrs, or 15 cts a share in the nine
months
 Reuter

Shr 60 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 35.0 mln vs 27.8 mln
    Revs 147.2 mln vs 131.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.67 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 97.3 mln vs 77.9 mln
    Revs 422.4 mln vs 385.5 mln
    Avg shrs 58.4 mln vs 56.5 mln
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan
Greenspan cut short a scheduled trip to Dallas and is returning
to Washington to moniter events, a Federal Reserve spokesman
said.
    Greenspan had been scheduled to speak to the American
Bankers Association, which is meeting in Dallas, but canceled
the engagement, the spokesman said. He also canceled a speech
scheduled for this evening to a New York University group, the
    The spokesman declined to comment on whether the Fed
chairman will be meeting with the President or White House
officials on Monday's stock market collapse.
    The spokesman said the Fed chief was returning to
Washington "to monitor events here."
    Greenspan earlier today issued a statement that it will
system.
    The Fed spokesman said the chairman wanted to reassure the
market that the U.S. central bank is standing by in its role as
a traditional liquidity provider.
 Reuter

A voluntary compliance system for
monitoring U.S. coffee imports under quotas is viewed
skeptically by many in the coffee industry, said analysts and
trade sources.
    "Many sectors of the trade, including large roasters and 
importers, are adamant against voluntary compliance because of
the past, which was subject to tremendous irregularities as it
became a matter of the trade monitoring each other," one
    On Monday, a National Coffee Association newsletter said
the Office of U.S. Trade Representative will implement a
voluntary compliance system temporarily because legislation to
monitor imports is tied up in the Congressional trade bill.
    Under the arrangement, milar to one in 1980, coffee
importers would voluntarily present needed documents to the
U.S. government until Congress approves the monitoring
authority, but if coffee arrives without valid certification,
it will still be allowed entry.
    While many believe producers will not seek to add to the
overburdened stock situation in the U.S., others believe some
will ship outside of the quota requirements in lieu of
monitoring controls, trade sources said.
    "Last time, there was a lot of false information submitted
to customs which resulted in a lot of indictments and fines," a
U.S. Customs spokesman said.
    "Customs can do a good job when given the tools, but when
its hands are tied, it doesn't have the authority to demand
Form O (documents tracking merchandise from source to
destination)," he said.
    Many see it as a true test of whether producers and
importers will abide by the quota system.
    "It is a key to seeing whether there are any teeth in the
quota agreement," said one major U.S. roaster.
     "Last time we had a gentleman's agreement, the trade did
not act as a gentleman," said another analyst adding, "without
the need to submit documents, the ball will be in the
producers' hands."
    Some feel that importers will take advantage of the
voluntary compliance due to development of a two-tier market,
in which non-member countries buy coffee at a big discount.
Many fear that dealers will buy coffee destined for non-member
countries at discounts and then bring it into the U.S. falsely
labelled.
    According to customs officials, several green coffee
importers confessed in 1985 that they had imported coffee
fraudulently after buying it for non-member destinations,
forging landing certificates and then relabelling it as navy
beans.
    "If there's that much of a discrepancy between prices for
one country and another, producers may be teted to get rid of
their stocks of coffee by selling to non-member nations and by
circumventing the quota provisions," said Paine Webber analyst
Bernie Savaiko.
    Still, others believe that producers will not be hard
pressed to aggravate the overburdened coffee stock situation in
the U.S. in the near term.
    "It would be naive to suggest that any agreement would not
have some share of connivance, but I think the voluntary system
seemed to suffice and, coupled with the fact that we have so
much coffee, I don't think that it poses that much of a
threat," one trader said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.18 dlrs vs 87 cts
    Net 149.6 mln vs 134 mln
    Revs 1.1 billion vs 956 mln
    Avg shrs 127.3 mln vs 154.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.36 dlrs vs 2.42 dlrs
    Net 428.1 mln vs 373.7 mln
    Revs 3.1 billion vs 2.7 billion
   
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths net includes a charge of
11 mln dlrs or nine cts a share and 31.8 mln dlrs or 25 cts a
share for the interest expense for share repurchases.
    1986 nine mths net includes a charge of 28.9 mln dlrs or 19
cts a share for early retirement program and withdrawal of
Contac cold remedy from the market due to tampering.
 Reuter

Masco Industries Inc said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to 10 mln of the company's
common stock in open market purchases, privately negotiated
transactions or otherwise.
    As of June 30, the company had 73.6 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 77 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 56.5 mln vs 36.4 mln
    Sales 583.3 mln vs 515.9 mln
    Shr 2.02 dlrs vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 148.5 mln vs 87.1 mln
    Sales 1.69 billion vs 1.51 billion
 Reuter

Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corp said it
expects to spend five mln dlrs to purchase its own stock to be
held by a new employee incentive stock owership trust formed
for the benefit of salaried employees.
    Based on yesterday's closing price of 10.50 dlrs per share,
the stock, to be bought from time to time on the open market or
in negotiated transactions, about 476,000 shares wold be
purchased, the company said. That's about 13 pct of the shares
outstanding, it added.
   
 Reuter

Shr 75 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 11,174,000 vs 7,408,000
    Sales 218.8 mln vs 106.3 mln
    NIne Mths
    Shr 1.80 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 23,762,000 vs 16,603,000
    Sales 414.8 mln vs 295.9 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net income excludes preferred dividends
of 2.4 mln dlrs in the quarter and 2.7 mln dlrs in the nine
months compared with 188,000 dlrs and 563,000 dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter

CIRCLE EXPRESS TERMINATES PLANNED ACQUISITION OF OVERLAND EXPRESS

Shr 69 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 4,401,000 vs 3,808,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.99 dlrs vs 1.77 dlrs
    Net 12.6 mln vs 10.8 mln
 Reuter

Corp said it introduced the System/36 5363 System Unit, an
entry-level addition to its System 36 family of computers.
    The company said the 5636 System Unit will be available as
a component of the System/36 Total System Package which
includes a System/36 processor with pre-loaded operating system
software, displays and printers, optional office application
software.
    The company said the 5636 comes with one megabyte of main
storage and options which provide up to 210 megabytes of
integrated disk storage.
    The company said with the Work Station Expansion feature,
the 5636 can attach up to 28 local displays or printers.
    The company said the 5636 has a single, built-in 5.25 inch
1.2 megabyte diskette drive and offers an optional built-in
tape drive.
    IBM said that in contrast to its System/36 5364, the
communications, tape, and LAN functions previously provided by
an attached personal computer are housed within the 5363 unit.
    The price of the new unit was not disclosed.
    The company also said it introduced new versions of its
licensed applications programs. These programs include
Manufacturing and Production Inventory Control System II,
Construction Management Accounting System and Distribution
Management Accounting System II, the company said.
    IBM said it reduced by an average of 40 pct the one-time
charges of these application programs for their use with the
5363 and 5364.
 Reuter

The White House said the federal
budget deficit for fiscal 1988 will total 163 billion dlrs if
Congress and the administration fail to agree on a legislative
package of deficit reduction measures prior to a Nov. 20
deadline.
    In a report issued under the requirements of new balanced
budget legislation approved by Congress in September, the White
House budget office predicted the government would take in 903
billion dlrs in revenues and spend 1.066 trillion during fiscal
1988, which began Oct. 1.
    Under the terms of the new law, the government's failure to
agree on a deficit reduction package by Nov. 20 would trigger
across-the-board spending cuts of 23 billion dlrs.
    The White House report said this would reduce those defense
spending programs covered by the legislation by 10.5 pct and
would cut domestic programs by 8.5 pct.
    This magnitude of reductions would shear 11.5 billion dlrs
from defense and 11.5 billion dlrs from domestic programs.
    The Congressional budget Office last week estimated the
1988 budget deficit at 179.3 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

The Stockholm bourse authorities said
they were to extend trading on the exchange by 30 minutes until
1500 (1400 GMT) because the afternoon call took longer than
normal due to hectic selling pressure.
    A spokeswoman told Reuters the measure was purely
administrative and aimed at allowing the bourse time to process
deals in exceptionally heavy turnover of around 590 mln crowns.
    "It was necessary to extend trading hours as the call-over
went on beyond two o'clock," she said.

 REUTER

Shr 37 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 26.6 mln vs 30.0 mln
    Sales 805.4 mln vs 690.6 mln
    Avg shrs 70.6 mln vs 71.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.23 dlrs
    Net 86.8 mln vs 88.5 mln
    Sales 2.30 billion vs 2.01 billion
    Avg shrs 70.3 mln vs 72.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr 99 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 17.6 mln vs 7,528,000
    Sales 424.2 mln vs 376.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.21 dlrs vs 94 cts
    Net 39.3 mln vs 16.8 mln
    Sales 1.20 billion vs 1.10 billion
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split in April
1987.
 Reuter

Oilmeal demand remained strong in the
United States in July and August and six pct up on levels seen
in the same months last year, with most of the rise coming in
soymeal, the Hamburg based publication Oil World said.
    Total U.S domestic usage of the nine major oilmeals rose to
a record 19 mln tonnes in October 1986/August 1987, up 4.2 pct
on the same year-ago period, with the increase in soymeal at
seven pct, it said.
    Soviet soymeal demand rose by 310,000 tonnes in July and
330,000 tonnes in August over the respective year-ago months
following a huge increase in soymeal imports.
    Oil World presumed some imports were not used immediately
but went into stocks. With imports again large in September, it
estimated Soviet soymeal stocks sharply up at 800,000 tonnes by
October 1 from around 130,000 at the same time last year.
    EC oilmeal demand rose 100,000 tonnes in August from a year
earlier, with soymeal up 45,000 tonnes. Crushings of rapeseed,
sunseed and soybeans will probably rise from last year due to
bumper EC crops. It estimated the EC rapeseed crop at a record
5.9 mln tonnes, up from 3.7 mln last year. Rapeseed disposals
were reported at 2.1 mln tonnes by September 20 against 1.4 mln
at that time last year.
 REUTER

Pacific Telesis Group said it plans
to repurchase up to 10 mln of its 432.1 mln common shares in
the open market or privately, with repurchases to be financed
by general corporate funds.
 Reuter

Circle Express Inc said negotiations
on its proposed acquisitions of Overland Express Inc and
privately-held Continental Training Services Inc have been
    The company said the recent declines in stock prices have
made it unlikely that the transactions could qualify as
tax-free reorganizations.
 Reuter

Corrections Corp of America said
it has been selected to negotiate a contract with the Texas
Department of Corrections for the desing, construction,
financing and management of 1,000 minimum security, pre-release
prison beds.
    It said negotiation of a final contract, including siting,
is expected to take about 30 days.
    Corrections said the two 500-bed facilities are scheduled
to be opened within one year of final contract signing at an
total capital investment of about 27 mln dlrs to be financed
with debt and equity.
    Based on its proposal, the company said, the facilities
would generate annual revenues of about 11 mln dlrs.
    According to Texas law, Corrections said, any private
sector contract must save the state at least 10 pct of the
corrections department's cost per day per inmate. Evaluation
revealed the comnpany's proposed cost to be 15 pct below the
department's per diem, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 87 cts
    Net 77.7 mln vs 64.2 mln
    Revs 533.7 mln vs 461.8 mln
    Avg shrs 74.7 mln vs 73.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.35 dlrs vs 2.63 dlrs
    Net 249.5 mln vs 193.9 mln
    Revs 1.63 billion vs 1.36 billion
    Avg shrs 74.5 mln vs 73.8 mln
 Reuter

CENTRAL ILLINOIS PUBLIC &lt;CIP&gt; 3RD QTR NET
    SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Oct 20 
    Shr 89 cts vs 89 cts
    Net 30,406,000 vs 30,504,000
    Revs 163.8 mln vs 172.0 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.89 dlrs vs 2.14 dlrs
    Net 64,489,000 vs 73,149,000
    Revs 603.4 mln vs 646.5 mln
company.
 Reuter

Shr 77 cts vs 1.07 dlrs
    Net 14,455,000 vs 20,083,000
    Sales 334.4 mln vs 348.5 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 2.40 dlrs vs 3.04 dlrs
    Net 45,00,000 vs 56,928,000
    Sales 987.4 mln vs 1.04 billion
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc said its board of
directors amended the company's shareholder rights plan in
moves it said were designed to preserve stockholder protection
and provide flexibility to the plan.
    Yesterday, Crazy Eddie agreed not to oppose a slate of
candidates to its board proposed by the Committee to Restore
Stockholder Value, a shareholder group led by the
<Oppenheimer-Palmieri Fund L.P.> and Entertainment Marketing
Inc <EM>, that has been seeking to oust current management.
    Crazy Eddie said the new amendments limit future amendments
to the plan, modify the definition of "continuing directors"
and permit amendment or termination of the plan with the
consent of the company's shareholders if there are no
continuing directors in office or the approval of at least
three such directors cannot be obtained.
    The company also said it approved a certificate of
designation with respect to its 4.5 mln shares of authorized,
but previously undesignated and unissued shares of preferred
stock and adopted an employee stock ownership plan.
    Crazy Eddie also that it requested that the shareholder
group make a commitment not to take the company private until
Crazy Eddie has had a chance to recover from current financial
difficulties, a committment that the group rejected.
    Crazy Eddie said it will hold its annual shareholders
meeting on November 6.
 Reuter

Shr 68 cts vs 61 cts
    Shr diluted 66 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 18.6 mln vs 16.5 mln
    Avg shrs 27.5 mln vs 26.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.40 dlrs vs 1.76 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.38 dlrs vs 1.71 dlrs
    Net 38.9 mln vs 46.9 mln
    Avg shrs 27.4 mln vs 25.8 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for July 1987 10 pct stock dividend.
    Results restated for pooled acquisitions.
    Net includes loan loss provisions of 5,765,000  dlrs vs
4,252,000 dlrs in quarter and 43.3 mln dlrs vs 15.4 mln dlrs in
nin mths.
 Reuter

Qtly div 30 cts vs 25 cts
    Pay Jan 19
    Record Jan Four
 Reuter

Net 33.6 mln vs 11.1 mln
    Revs 319.6 mln vs 295.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Net 97.3 mln vs 30.0 mln
    Revs 997.8 mln vs 860.0 mln
    NOTE: Company does not report per share earnings as it is a
privately-owned concern.
    Net amounts reported are before taxes, profit sharing, and
contribution to employee stock ownership trust.
 Reuter

Shr 37 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 35 mln vs 38 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.32 dlrs vs 1.18 dlrs
    Net 123 mln vs 106 mln
 Reuter

Shr 67 cts vs 65 cts
    Net 18.9 mln vs 18.6 mln
    Revs 399.0 mln vs 391 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.70 dlrs vs 1.98 dlrs
    Net 48.2 mln vs 56.9 mln
    Revs 1.18 billion vs 1.2 billion
 Reuter

Domtar Inc said it is withdrawing a
previously-announced issue of five mln common shares, "due to
unfavourable conditions in the financial markets."
    Domtar said its capital expenditure program will not be
affected by the issue's withdrawal as other sources of
financing are currently available.
    Underwriters were Nesbitt Thomson Deacon Ltd, Levesque,
Beaubien Inc and McLeod Young Weir Ltd.
 Reuter

Sears, Roebuck and Co said it remains
optimistic about the fourth quarter and year ahead.
    The company said it expects gains in disposable personal
income to accelerate in the quarter with general merchandise
industry sales increasing about 5.0 pct with nondurables
registering a larger gain than durables.
    For the third quarter, Sears posted earnings of 409.0 mln
dlrs, or 1.09 dlrs a share, up from the prior year's 328.1 mln
dlrs, or 88 cts a share. Revenues rose 9.1 pct to 12.19 billion
dlrs.
    Sears said net after-tax realized capital gains and other
income in the quarter totaled 90.6 mln dlrs compared with 40.7
    For the nine months, it said net after-tax realized capital
gains and other income totaled 290.5 mln dlrs compared with
155.2 mln dlrs a year ago.
    It said the Merchandise Group's quarterly income of 170.4
mln dlrs compared with 170.0 mln dlrs the previous year. Sears
said its Allstate Insurance Group reported quarterly income of
240.5 mln dlrs, up 19.7 pct from 200.9 mln dlrs a year ago and
benefited from a 33.3 mln dlr "fresh start" adjustment.
    Sears said its Dean Witter Financial Services Group
reported a loss of 4.2 mln dlrs in the quarter compared to a
year-ago loss of 8.0 mln dlrs.
    It said Discover Card operations reported a loss of 29.4
mln dlrs compared to a loss of 28.4 mln dlrs a year ago.
    The company said its Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group
reported third-quarter income of 47.8 mln dlrs compared with
7.8 mln dlrs last year.
 Reuter

Shr profit 47 cts vs profit 1.78 dlrs
    Net profit 16 mln vs profit 53 mln
    Avg shrs 27.7 mln vs 27.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 22.51 dlrs vs profit 5.78 dlrs
    Net loss 610 mln vs profit 168 mln
    Avg shrs 217.6 mln vs 27.3 mln
    Assets 33.14 billion vs 33.89 billion
    Deposits 22.01 billion vs 19.86 billion
    Loans 21.76 billion vs 22.70 billion
    NOTE: Net includes loan loss provisions of 40 mln dlrs vs
48 mln dlrs in quarter and 748 mln dlrs vs 217 mln dlrs in nine
mths.
    Net includes pretax gains on sale of securities of 11 mln
dlrs vs 29 mln dlrs in quarter and 13 mln dlrs vs 130 mln dlrs
in nine mths.
 Reuter

    Sales 112.7 mln vs 93.8 mln
    Avg shrs 11.2 mln vs 9.1 mln
    Nine Mths
    Sales 307.8 mln vs 233.8 mln
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 9.1 mln
    NOTE: Effective September 25, 1987, Primerica Corp <PA>
owned 81.4 pct of Musicland's common shares.
 Reuter

President Reagan sent the five-year
International Natural Rubber Agreement to the Senate for
approval.
    Reagan said the accord is designed to stabilize rubber
prices without disturbing long-term market trends and to foster
expanded natural rubber supplies at reasonable prices.
    It continues a buffer stock of not more than 550,000 tonnes
established by a 197agreement. This will be used to defend a
regularly adjusted price range and will be financed equally by
importing and exporting members of the agreement.
 Reuter

The Soviets have not indicated an
urgent need for a U.S. wheat subsidy offer, and it is unlikely
that such an offer will be ma during the U.S./Soviet summit
expected to be held next month, Agriculture Secretary Richard
Lyng told Reuters.
    In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Lyng said he did
not know if the United States will offer Moscow another wheat
subsidy offer this year or when that offer will be made.
    "Last year it was well into the year before we offered it.
There's been nothing that's taken place to indicate to me that
there's a pressing need on their part for that sort of deal (a
wheat subsidy)."
    When asked if a subsidy would be offered at a U.S./Soviet
summit, Lyng said, "No, I don't think so. I don't think that."
    The Agriculture Secretary said a U.S. wheat subsidy deal to
Moscow would not be the kind of topic appropriate for
discussion at a summit.
    "It would not be the kind of issue that the President or the
Chairman would get into specific negotiations or discussions
about," Lyng said.
    "When Mr. Nikonov (communist party secretary for
agriculture) was here ... he indicated that trade in wheat was
not something that would be discussed with the President of the
United States. He said it's not presidential," Lyng said.
    Lyng said uncertainties about wheat quality in some major
producing areas of the world, volatile wheat prices and the
still unfinished Soviet grain harvest could delay any final
decision on the timing of another wheat subsidy to Moscow.
    The future of the U.S./Soviet long-term grains agreement
will be discussed the first of next year, Lyng said, but the
Agriculture Secretary questioned the benefits of the
long-standing agreement.
    "We've had three years in a row in which the Soviets have
failed to live up to their end of the agreement ... We would
love to continue to keep doing busines with the Soviet Union,
but do we need a long-term agreement. Who benefits from that.
These are some of the questions we need to discuss."
    When asked if he felt the United States has benefitted from
the agreement, Lyng said, "I don't know. It certainly hasn't
been what we had hoped it would be. For three years running
they've (Moscow) failed to live up to what we considered was an
 Reuter

The United States and India have
not yet agreed on a food aid package to help the
drought-stricken Asian country, Agriculture Secretary Richard
Lyng said.
    Lyng told Reuters in an interview that the two countries
have been discussing a package but that he did not expect the
specifics of the offer to be announced during Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi's visit here this week.
    "We have been talking about the potential needs that India
might have for both their commercial market and purchases needs
as well as the possibilities of assistance," Lyng said.
    "At this point, there is no detailed plan or program. The
amounts of what commodities are uncertain. But we have
indicated to the Indians that we stand ready to assist in
whatever way they deem most valuable," he said.
    There has been speculation in trade circles that USDA would
offer India subsidized vegetable oil under the export
enhancement program and donate surplus corn under Section 419
of an amended 1949 law.
    Lyng indicated the two countries have been unable to agree
on the mix of concessional and commercial aid, and that
Washington would prefer the package include something other
than donated food.
    "The Indians are capable of purchasing a lot, of taking care
of themselves. India is a country that has come a long way in
its ability to produce food and they have a great pride in
that," Lyng said.
    "We (the United States) obviously, with the surpluses we
still have of many commodities..., would like to share in the
import business the Indians do, and then we have some, as we
always do, compassion for the people of India and would like to
cooperate with them," he said.
    Lyng said he had no plans to meet with Indian officials
during Gandhi's visit here, adding, "I just don't know of
anything that might be announced specifically."
    Asked if "the ball was in the Indians' court," he said, "Yes."
    Gandhi is to leave Washington Tuesday evening.
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 87 cts
    Net 51.6 mln vs 47.3 mln
    Revs 1.39 billion vs 1.26 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.27 dlrs vs 1.93 dlrs
    Net 123.5 mln vs 104.6 mln
    Revs 3.92 billion vs 3.53 billion
 Reuter

ended sept 30
    Shr 22 cts vs 18 cts
    Net 4,127,000 vs 3,177,000
    Sales 70.2 mln vs 48.6 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for July 1987 two-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

Shr 1.52 dlrs vs 1.37 dlrs
    Net 144.5 mln vs 127.3 mln
    Revs 909.8 mln vs 824.7 mln
    Avg shrs 95.1 mln vs 92.9 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 4.62 dlrs vs 4.05 dlrs
    Net 435.9 mln vs 372.1 mln
    Revs 3.28 billion vs 2.94 billion
    Avg shrs 94.3 mln vs 91.8 mln
 Reuter

Southwest Airlines Co said it intends to
repurchase up to 500,000 common shares in the open market from
    The company also said it is expanding its air freight
service to Dallas, Amarillo, Houston, Austin, Lubbock, San
Antonio and Midland/Odessa, Texas and San Francisco.
 Reuter

Oper shr 30 cts vs 26 cts
    Oper net 2,360,000 vs 2,018,000
    Revs 74.4 mln vs 70.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 92 cts vs 92 cts
    Oper net 7,101,000 vs 7,116,000
    Revs 218.8 mln vs 209.2 mln
    NOTE: Earnings exclude a gain from utilization of tax loss
carryforwards of 978,000 dlrs, or 13 cts a share vs a loss of
4,967,000 dlrs, or 66 cts a share in the quarter and gains of
2,895,000 dlrs, or 37 cts a share vs 4,944,000 dlrs, or 64 cts
a share in the nine months
of 9,000,000 dlrs, or 1.19 dlrs a share in the quarter and
387,000 dlrs, or five cts a share in the nine months
 Reuter

An E.F. Hutton Group Inc spokesman said
he stuck by a statement made yesterday that the firm was not
having liquidity problems.
    The statement was made by Hutton Chief Financial Officer
Edward Lill. Sources at Hutton said senior management was
meeting and that a statement would be made to employees when
the meeting ended.
    Sources said they assumed the statement would pertain to
market rumors the firm's having liquidity problems and that it
is considering bankruptcy.
    Hutton's stock tumbled amid market rumors that it was ready
to file bankruptcy. Rumors that several big firms have had
problems circulated world markets. Hutton stock hit a low of 11
and was trading at 19-1/4. The stock opened at 24-1/2.

 Reuter

Indications are that USDA accepted
Algeria's bid for 75,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat, but
rejected bids for the remaining 225,000 tonnes under its export
bonus tender, U.S. exporters said.
    USDA accepted Algeria's bid of 94.00 dlrs per tonne, c and
f, for 50,000 tonnes for Nov 10-25 shipment and 25,000 for Nov
20-Dec 10, the sources said. It rejected bids for wheat for
later shipment dates, they said.
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 96 cts
    Net 297 mln vs 325 mln
    Revs 2.95 billion vs 2.86 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.30 dlrs vs 2.74 dlrs
    Net 785 mln vs 916 mln
    Revs 11.3 billion vs 11.1 billion
    NOTE: 1986 share results restated for 3-for-2 stock split
in January 1987
   
    1987 net in both periods includes business repositioning
gains of 16 mln dlrs, or five cts a share, and gains from early
retirement programs of 65 mln dlrs, or 20 cts a share
    1987 nine months net also includes pre-tax charge of 175
mln dlrs for GTE's share of a special write-off at U.S. Sprint
which reduced after tax net by 104 mln dlrs, or 31 cts a share
    1986 net in both periods includes business repositioning
gains of 32 mln dlrs, or 10 cts per share
 Reuter

    Pay November 10
    Record October 30
 Reuter

The Swiss government's proposed 1988 budget
projects a 1.3 billion franc surplus, the Finance Ministry
    Income is expected to rise 11.6 mln francs to 27.22
billion, while expenditure is seen increasing 7.1 mln to 25.95
billion next year. After internal transfers, net income was
planned to total 637 mln francs.
    The ministry also announced that higher than expected
income during 1987 would likely boost this year's surplus
significantly higher than the 171 mln francs budgeted.
    The ministry said the encouraging development of
Switzerland's finances was due to steady economic growth since
1983 and the government's conservative fiscal policy.
    Although the dollar's weakness is likely to dampen economic
growth slightly in 1988 by depressing exports, domestic
investment and consumer demand were expected to remain strong.
    Real gross national product growth was seen rising two pct,
while annual inflation was also projected to reach two pct.
 REUTER

The plunge in stock market prices should
have its biggest impact on the middle range of the car market
but have less impact on cheap cars as well as luxury vehicles,
the president of <Saab-Scania of America Inc> said.
    Robert Sinclair, head of the U.S. subsidiary of Saab-Scania
AB <SABS.ST> of Sweden, told reporters "We're much better off
than the middle of the market -- those buyers will wait to see
what happens."
    Sinclair said the greatest impact would come on buyers of
cars in the 14,000 dlr to 18,000 dlr range, which has been
targeted for a new product assault by General Motors Corp <GM> 
and is the segment where Ford Motor Co <F> has had considerable
success with its mid-sized cars.
 Reuter

price inflation in September fell to 15.5 pct from 16.3 pct in
August, Central Statistics Office figures show.
    The monthly rise in the all items index (base 1980) was 1.3
pct to 273.4 in September after edging up to 270.0 in August.
    A year ago the index stood at 236.7 and year-on-year
consumer price inflation at 19.7 pct.
 REUTER

SHULTZ SAYS U.S. ECONOMY IS STRONG LONDON, Oct 20 - U.S.
Secretary of State George Shultz, after discussing Monday's
record selling spree on the world's stock markets with British
Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, said the American economy
"is in very strong shape." Shultz, a former economics professor
and former Treasury Secretary, said "the underlying fact ... If
you look at the U.S. Economy, is that we continue to have a
very strong economic performance." He cited as positive factors
declining U.S. Unemployment and low inflation.
    Shultz said he did not know to what extent the stock
selling frenzy reflected concerns about U.S. Trade and budget
deficits.
 REUTER

Shr 1.46 dlrs vs 1.41 dlrs
    Net 277.5 mln vs 268.3 mln dlrs
    Revs 2.13 billion vs 2.14 billion
    Nine Mths
    Shr 3.95 dlrs vs 3.78 dlrs
    Net 750.5 mln vs 718.4 mln
    Revs 6.28 billion vs 6.22 billion
 Reuter

Mexico has decided to close its border
to imports of fresh fruit from San Diego and Orange Counties in
California, the U.S. Agriculture Department's officer in Mexico
City said in a field report.
    The report, dated October 14, said the border closing
became effective September 25 and also includes the surrounding
70-mile area of the two counties.
    While the ban applies specifically to Orange County fruits
that are hosts of the Mediterranean fruit fly and San Diego
County fruits that are hosts of the Oriental fruit fly, the
Mexican Government will stop all fresh fruit shipments from the
counties until proof of non-infestation is provided, the report
said.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 1.23 dlrs
    Net 2,889,010 vs 8,105,462
    Sales 105.8 mln vs 119.6 mln
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 11.3 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Revs 26.5 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 92 cts vs 95 cts
    Net 34.3 mln vs 35.5 mln
    Revs 78.8 mln vs 78.2 mln
 Reuter

Manor Care Inc said it has
raised its share repurchase program to include four mln
additional shares, raising the total number under the program
to five mln.
    It said it h already repurchased the first one mln shares
outhorized.  Manor Care now has about 40 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 1,031,000 vs 972,000
    Revs 27.9 mln vs 26.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 93 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 2,802,000 vs 2,267,000
    Revs 86.1 mln vs 77.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths revs includes sales to ADT
Inc of 3.0 mln dlrs and 10.9 mln dlrs. 1986 3rd qtr and nine
mths includes sales of 3.5 mln dlrs and 10.7 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts
    Net 2,751,000 vs 2,094,000
    Nine mths
    Net 6,993,000 vs 5,577,000
    Assets 603.1 mln vs 504.3 mln
    Loans 448.5 mln vs 358.1 mln
    Deposits 467.9 mln vs 447.7 mln
    NOTE: Per share figures for 1986 and 1987 nine mths not
available as bank converted to stock form of company in April
1987.
 Reuter

Shr 78 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 4,774,000 vs 3,683,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.14 dlrs vs 1.77 dlrs
    Net 13.1 mln vs 10.7 mln
 Reuter

Sri Lanka has postponed until
November its tender for 75,000 tonnes of wheat under the export
bonus program, originally scheduled for today, U.S. exporters
said.
 Reuter

U.S. And West German reaffirmation of
support for the Louvre Accord cannot cure the fundamental
problems bedevilling the world economy which lie behind the
current collapse in stock markets, London economists said.
    "There's going to have to be some acknowledgement that the
dollar is going to be allowed to slip," said Richard Jeffrey of
Hoare Govett. "If not, there is going to be continued fear that
when pressure emerges on the dollar, the Fed will be forced to
tighten. This throws up the economic abyss of recession in the
U.S. With obvious knock on effects on the rest of the world."
    But some economists added that Wall Street's crash, which
dragged other major markets down with it, may help curb the
very problems that sparked the turmoil - namely world inflation
fears and the massive and persistent U.S. Trade deficits.
    "If there is a benefit from a 23 pct fall in Wall Street
...It's some sort of resistance to inflation worldwide," said
Geoffrey Dennis of brokers James Capel, echoing comments from
other London and Tokyo analysts.
    Lower personal wealth from lower stock prices and fears of
further falls should dampen credit growth, curbing inflationary
pressures and import demand in the U.S., They say.
    Such considerations may be helping bond markets resist the
equity crash, according to Mike Osborne of Kleinwort Grieveson.
    "It would be suicidal for any government in the context of
what happened in the last couple of days to jack up their
interest rates," he added.
    Stocks surged after news Chemical Bank cut its prime
lending rate half a point to 9.25 pct Tuesday and U.S. Fed
chairman Alan Greenspan pledged support for the financial
system.
    The news eroded the most immediate fears that the stock
collapse would spill over into the economy, via a banking
crisis for example, thus precipitating recession.
    It also helped the dollar rally sharply, to a high of
1.8200 marks from a European low of 1.7880. But economists said
today's whiplash moves do not have long term significance and
that markets should try to keep the underlying fundamentals in
mind.
    "The United States has been able to live on borrowed time.
If the effect of this (crash) is to produce slower economic
growth not recession...It contains good news (and) provides a
more realistic assessment of the U.S. Economy," said Capel's
Dennis. But he added that markets are still very much in
danger.
    "The liquidity doesn't disappear...All it's doing is
disappearing from the equity markets," Dennis noted.
    David Morrison of Goldman Sachs International said world
market turbulence will be exacerbated if the Group of Seven
(G-7) leading western nations confirms a base for the dollar,
as implied by West German Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg's remarks that intervention to support currencies
is still on.
    Last week's dollar fall was partly triggered by
expectations that the Germans were more worried about the money
supply impact of such intervention than maintaining currency
    But rigid adherence to dollar ranges would be bad, said
Morrison. "The Louvre Accord is fundamentally misconceived. To
stabilise the dollar at too high a level is wrong," he said.
 Reuter

Two large container cranes donated
by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) have
arrived in Dar es Salaam where they will help to increase the
port's cargo handling capacity, port officials said.
    The two new container cranes join one Danish container
crane already installed in the port, which is an important
trade outlet for Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and eastern Zaire.
    Five more cranes from Finland are due to arrive soon,
increasing the container terminal's handling capacity to
120,000 units per year from 30,000 at present, the officials
said.
 Reuter

An unexpectedly heavy 4.4 billion stg
surge in U.K. September sterling bank lending is unlikely to
nudge the Bank of England towards tightening monetary policy as
long as sterling remains in its present robust state,
    An acute crisis of confidence in equity markets over the
past two days will in any case subdue personal consumer credit
demand which has largely been behind growth in lending.
    "In the normal course of events the markets would have been
extremely worried about that figure," noted Peter Spencer, U.K.
Economist with Credit Suisse First Boston.
    After an initial dip in reaction to the bank lending data,
which compared won stg August rise, U.K.
Government bonds (gilts) soared as investors continued to flee
from plummetting equities into the relative security of
    Equity markets dropped sharply on the news, touching a
day's low of 1,766.7 on the FTSE 100 index after the data,
before staging a recovery. Sterling held its buoyant tone
throughout.
    U.K. Money market rates, in a similarly calm response,
resumed the slightly easier trend of earlier in the morning
after little more than a token blip as the figures came out.
    Noting that such a huge rise in credit extended by banks
would under other circumstances have prompted market fears of a
rise in clearing bank base rates from the current 10 pct, "With
the financial markets doing what they're doing, that's the last
thing the Bank of England would want to do," Spencer said.
    "The monetary situation is clearly very bad but as long as
sterling is firm, the authorities are unlikely to put rates up,"
said Kevin Boakes, chief U.K. Economist at Greenwell Montagu
Gilt Edged. Boakes pointed to a rise in the narrow money
measure M0 to 5.2 pct year-on-year from August's 4.5 pct
growth, which he said must cause some concern at the Treasury.
    But "The fact that overall broad money growth has slowed
down is a rather encouraging sign," noted Paul Temperton, U.K.
Economist with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. He pointed to a
fall in the year-on-year growth rate of the M3 broad money
aggregate to 19.5 pct in September from August's 22 pct.
    It was concern about credit growth which prompted the Bank
of England to engineer a one point rise in U.K. Bank base rates
to 10 pct in early August, caution endorsed subsequently by
news of a massive 4.9 billion stg July rise in bank lending.
    Temperton noted that a particular focus of bank worry in
that period had been the behaviour of U.K. Asset markets.
    Housing and equities were the key two asset markets in
influencing consumer behaviour, he said.
    In the light of the precipitous falls on U.K. Equity
markets in the past few days, "There will almost certainly be a
straightforward impact on consumer spending and on retail
sales," Temperton said.
    "Almost certainly we can look forward to slower growth in
consumer borrowing if the equity shakeout continues," he added.
    "I think the stock market has decided that the bank lending
figure is a thing of the past...We are talking about a very
serious panic and a flight to quality," Spencer said.
    A U.K. Treasury official said that it was important to look
at all the monetary information, not just the bank lending,
adding that monetary aggregates were growing much more slowly
than bank lending.
    Senior banking sources noted that the surge in bank lending
was evidence of the continuing recent trend of fairly heavy
personal sector borrowing.
    Figures from the Banking Information Service showed
personal sector lending by U.K. Clearing banks rose by 1.66
billion stg in September after a 978 mln stg August rise. Much
of the rise reflected quarterly interest payments.
 REUTER

The Federal Reserve is expected to enter
the government securities market to add reserves via customer
    They expected the amount to total around 1.5 billion to two
    Economists added that the low rate on federal funds
indicates the Fed is unlikely to add funds agressively through
overnight system repurchases, unless it feels the need to calm
volatile financial markets.
    Federal funds were trading at 7-1/8 pct, down from
yesterday's average of 7.61 pct.
 Reuter

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves, bouyed
by rising exports, have hit a record high and are likely to
soar to 72 billion U.S. Dlrs by the year end, central bank
officials said Tuesday.
    Central Bank Governor Chang Chi-cheng told reporters the
reserves totalled about 69 billion U.S. Dlrs, compared with
about 42 billion at the same time last year and 68 billion on
October 5. He declined to elaborate.
    A senior bank official, who declined to be named, told
Reuters the reserves were likely to reach 72 billion dlrs at
    "The surge in reserves is the result of our trade surplus
and recent purchases of U.S. Dollars on the local interbank
market," Chang said.
    Taiwan's trade surplus hit a record 14.95 billion U.S. Dlrs
in the first nine months of 1987 compared with 11.05 billion a
year earlier, official figures show.
    Vice Economic Minister Wang Chien-hsien said the surplus
will rise to about 20 billion dlrs by the end of the year.
About 80 pct of the surplus will come from the island's trade
with the United States. 
    Chien said Taiwan's trade will reach 80 billion U.S. Dlrs
this year compared with 63.96 billion last year.
    Its exports are expected to total 50 billion and imports 30
billion against exports of 39.79 billion and imports of 24.17
billion last year.
 REUTER

Bank of France says it leaves intervention rate unchanged at 7-1/2 pct

Shr 1.11 dlrs vs 59 cts
    Net 42.6 mln vs 22.2 mln
    Sales 531.8 mln vs 407.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.45 dlrs vs 1.27 dlrs
    Net 93.7 mln vs 48.1 mln
    Sales 1.44 billion vs 1.12 billion
 Reuter

Scrap crepe prices firmed on good
shortcovering demand at the Colombo rubber auction, brokers
said.
    One-X brown was traded at 19.75 rupees per kg, up 15 cents
from last rates while other grades also showed improvements.
The rise was attributed to a shortage of rubber available to
manufacture this type.
    Latex crepe prices were unchanged with the best one-X
selling at 20.92 rupees. Crepe one was traded at 20.68 and
crepe two at 20.45 rupees.
    Sheet was firm as in previous weeks with RSS1 averaging
22.05 rupees against 22 previously. The total quantity of
rubber offered at the sale was 320 tonnes.
 REUTER

said it agreed with its major lending banks to renew the
company's credit agreement of about 79 mln dlrs.
    In fiscal 1987, ended June 30, Commodore said it repaid
about 68 mln dlrs to this lending group.
    Commodore said the renewal of the company's major bank
facilities, together with the 60 mln dlr long-term financing
completed this past May with <Prudential Insurance Co of
America>, provide a sound financial basis for the company.
 Reuter

    Net 14.9 mln vs 8,600,000
    Revs 468.5 mln vs 411.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.64 dlrs vs 2.96 dlrs
    Net 61.6 mln vs 67.0 mln
    Revs 1.43 billion vs 1.32 billion
 Reuter

Norway's September oil output rose by 22.2
pct to 1.07 mln barrels per day (bpd) from 830,492 bpd in
August, according to a Reuter survey of firms operating here.
    Operators said the sharp rise reflected higher output at
several of Norway's biggest fields and resumed production at
fields shut down for 27 days in August for the Ekofisk field
rescue project.
    Industry analysts said the increase did not exceed Norway's
voluntary move to curb by 7.5 pct planned growth in its oil
output, a move designed to back OPEC-led efforts to stabilise
oil prices by limiting supplies to world crude markets.
    Norway, not an OPEC member, decided in June to extend the
production restraints, enforced since February 1 1987, on all
its North Sea fields for the rest of the year.
    Oil Minister Arne Oeien said last month he expected Norway
would extend into 1988 its policy of slowed production growth.
    The biggest increase was seen on the Ekofisk field, which
pumped 168,023 bpd in September against 48,195 bpd in August,
field operator Phillips Petroleum Norway Inc said.
    Ekofisk and the nearby Valhall and Ula fields, which use
the Ekofisk pipeline, were shut down for most of August while
Phillips raised Ekofisk platforms to counter seabed subsidence.
    BP Petroleum Development Norway Ltd, operator of the Ula
field, said September output rose to 86,727 bpd after dropping
to 27,237 bpd in August because of the shutdown.
    Valhall, operated by Amoco Norway A/S, flowed 74,694 bpd
last month compared with 69,748 bpd in August, the company
said.
    September production was also sharply higher at the
Statfjord field. Norway's 84 pct share of Statfjord, which
extends into the British North Sea sector, was 611,138 bpd
against 552,646 bpd in August, operator Den Norske Stats
Oljeselskap A/S (Statoil) said.
    Norway's 22.2 pct share of the Murchison field which, like
Statfjord, extends into the British sector, yielded 15,388 bpd
in September, a slight 920 bpd decrease from the previous
month, Norwegian partners on the British-operated field said.
    Statoil boosted output at its Gullfaks field to 109,670 bpd
in September, compared with 100,188 in August.
    Norsk Hydro, operator of the Oseberg field, said test
output at the field from the mobile production ship Petro Jarl
totalled 1,719 bpd last month, down sharply from 16,170 bpd in
August.
    Hydro said the drop was caused by failure to bring on
stream a second well, cutting September production to just two
days.
 REUTER

Pirelli Spa <PIRI.MI> said its full-year
results for 1987 would depend on the world economic situation,
now clouded by the possibility of a recession.
    It said strong demand in the cable and tire sectors
contributed to improved sales and profits in the first six
months of 1987.
    The group said in a statement that the cable sector showed
sustained demand in the first six months of the year,
particularly in Italy, Spain and Argentina. It said cable sales
in the U.S. Market remained weak, however.
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 200.2 mln vs 173.9 mln
    Sales 1.38 billion vs 1.26 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.87 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 535.6 mln vs 437.8 mln
    Sales 4.04 billion vs 3.63 billion
    NOTE: Share adjusted for two-for-one stock split.
 Reuter

    Net 867,000 vs 956,000
    Revs 9,203,000 vs 5,304,000
    Six mths
    Shr 18 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 1,111,000 vs 1,747,000
    Revs 16.7 mln vs 10.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 2nd qtr and six mths net includes 279,000 dlrs
and 432,000 dlrs for tax credits. 1986 2nd qtr and six mths net
includes 361,000 dlrs and 1,747,000 dlrs for tax credits.
 Reuter

FIRST REPUBLIC BANK DALLAS CUTS PRIME RATE TO 9.25 PCT FROM 9.75 PCT, EFFECTIVE TODAY

Mellon Bank Corp said a number of
actions taken in the third quarter including an eight pct
reduction in its staff, are expected to improve its earnings
    The company, which had posted a net loss of 626 mln dlrs in
the first six months of the year, today reported earnings of 16
mln dlrs or 47 cts per share compared with net of 53 mln dlrs
or 1.78 dlrs in the third quarter 1986.
    The company also said it had raised 420 mln dlrs in capital
in the third quarter and that its eight pct staff reduction
will reduce staff expense in future periods.
   
 Reuter

    Net 3,059,000 vs 1,258,000
    Revs 36.2 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 67 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 6,855,000 vs 2,442,000
    Revs 100.9 mln vs 77.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 3,997,000 vs 3,442,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.04 dlrs vs not given
    Net 12.0 mln vs 8,161,000
    Net includes loan loss provisions of 500,000 dlrs vs
105,000 dlrs in quarter and 1,100,000 dlrs vs 105,000 dlrs in
nine mths.
    Net includes pretax gains on sale of assets of 162,000 dlrs
vs 400,000 dlrs in quarter and 877,000 dlrs vs 1,229,000 dlrs
 Reuter

NYSE ASKS MEMBERS TO REFRAIN FROM USING ORDER SYSTEM FOR PROGRAM TRADING

says the leading industrial nations have held a number of
discussions on providing liquidity to the financial system
after Monday's record stock market decline.
    "There have been a number of discussions between G-7
participants (Canada, the United States, Japan, Britain, West
Germany, France and Italy)," he told reporters after emerging
from a cabinet meeting.
    "There is an intent to make sure there is sufficient
liquidity in the system. Clearly this is one of the reasons why
the bond markets have been firmer, interest rates have been
dropping," Wilson said.
    "The level of interest rates had been one of the factors
that had concerned the equity markets. I have been in touch
with my G-7 colleagues in a number of countries," Wilson said.
    "This has been going on during the course of yesterday,
through the evening and this morning and this will continue,"
he said.
    "What we have all agreed on is (that) the basic strengths
of our economies...looks good," Wilson said.
 Reuter

Assets of Offshore Banking Units (OBUs)
in Bahrain rose 11 pct in the second quarter of 1987 to reach
the highest level since early 1985, Bahrain Monetary Agency
(BMA) figures show.
    The BMA's quarterly statistical bulletin gave no reason for
the sharp rise, but economists said banks appeared to be
staying liquid because of the escalation of the Gulf crisis.
They said banks are parking funds in interbank markets outside
Bahrain.
    Despite the rise in assets, banks in Bahrain have been
retrenching operations considerably. At the end of 1986 there
were 68 OBUs compared with 74 at the end of 1985.
    BMA figures show OBU assets rose to 58.30 billion dlrs at
the end of June from 52.53 billion at the end of March and
55.68 billion at the end of 1986. The mid-1987 figure was the
highest since early 1985 when assets topped 61 billion.
    The second quarter rise came almost entirely in OBU assets
outside Bahrain. The volume of loans to the non-bank sector
declined slightly, indicating a still sluggish economy in the
region, economists said.
    Assets of commercial banks in Bahrain were slightly lower
at the end of the second quarter at 2.05 billion dinars
compared with 2.10 billion at the end of the first quarter.
 REUTER

Shr diluted 31 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 3,276,776 vs 6,846,367
    Revs 187.7 mln vs 181.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr diluted 52 cts vs 1.51 dlrs
    Net 5,301,876 vs 16.4 mln
    Revs 535.7 mln vs 513.0 mln
 Reuter

Tribune Co said a pre-tax charge of 16.7
mln dlrs or 11 cts a share in employee severance costs at the
New York Daily News led to a 73 pct decline in the company's
1987 third-quarter earnings.
    Tribune reported net income of 33,085,000 dlrs or 42 cts a
share, down from 123,450,000 dlrs or 1.53 dlrs in the 1986
    The company also said its 1986 third-quarter results were
boosted by a one-time pre-tax gain of 145 mln dlrs or 1.11 dlrs
a share from sale of its cable television systems.
    After adjusting for these extraordinary items, Tribune
President Stanton Cook said 1987 year-end should be strong.
    "Overall, we expect Tribune company's earnings before
non-recurring factors to show solid improvement for 1987," Cook
said.
    A 14 pct increase in newsprint prices since the 1986 third
quarter depressed newspaper publishing operating profits, the
company said. They were up only slightly at 46.1 mln dlrs after
adjusting for Daily News severance costs, from 45 mln dlrs in
the 1986 quarter, it said.
    Increased efficiency at the Tribune's two paper mills,
however, contributed to a 56 pct gain in newsprint operating
profits to 21.8 mln dlrs from 14 mln dlrs, it said.
   
 Reuter

Shr 3.71 dlrs vs 95 cts
    Net 233.8 mln vs 62.8 mln
    Revs 997.8 mln vs 938.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 5.06 dlrs vs 2.24 dlrs
    Net 327.2 mln vs 148.0 mln
    Revs 3.00 billion vs 2.70 billion
     NOTE: Realized investment gains net of taxes for 1987 3rd
qtr and nine mths were 147.0 mln dlrs and 271.0 mln dlrs,
respectively. Realized investment gains for 1986 3rd qtr and
nine mths were 18.6 mln dlrs and 33.6 mln dlrs, respectively.
    Company repurchased 1.2 mln shares of its stock during the
1987 3rd qtr.
 Reuter

Switzerland will use most of its budget
surplus projected for 1988 to redeem its debt, the Finance
    The government's plan calls for income to exceed
expenditure by 1.3 billion Swiss francs next year. After
internal transfers, net income was seen reaching 637 mln
francs.
    The ministry said in a press release the surplus would be
used "for the most part for redeeming debt" but also help finance
environmental protection, public transport and research and
development projects.
    "Thanks to the favourable liquidity situation, debt will be
able to be repaid," the ministry said. "That will reduce the net
interest burden to 2.2 pct of net income, the lowest point
since 1974."
    Finance Minister Otto Strich said the government plans to
continue its tight fiscal policy as it moves toward its goal of
reducing taxes. In the meantime, it will concentrate on
redeeming its debt, he said in a statement.
    "In that way the interest payment burden on state finances
can be reduced and the government's ability to set policy
broadened," he said.
 REUTER

Salomon Inc said it offered to clear
transactions faster than normal for its mutual fund clients.
    Robert Salomon, managing director, in response to a
question, would not say whether the firm has committed to lend
capital to mutal funds as has Goldman Sachs and Co. Goldman
said it would lend up to one billion dlrs to mutual funds to
enable them to sell securities for cash if they need to do so.
    "We are certainly working to meet the need of our clients,"
Salomon said. "We have offered the mutual fund industry to
clear transactions faster than normal settlement if that
accommodates their need," he said.
 Reuter

The New York Stock Exchange said it has
asked members and member firms to refrain from using the NYSE
order delivery system for purposes of executing index arbitrage
related transactions or any other aspect of program trading
after today's opening.
    The request came in a letter issued by the NYSE earlier
    The Exchange said the order delivery system allows member
firms to directly route orders to the specialist on the trading
floor via computer.
 Reuter

BALLADUR HAS HAD CONTACT WITH G7 MINISTERS, INC STOLTENBERG -MINISTRY SOURCES

Shr 26 cts vs 11 cts
    Net 8,700,000 vs 3,600,000
    Revs 988.9 mln vs 674.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.65 dlrs vs 1.38 dlrs
    Net 120.6 mln vs 43.6 mln
    Revs 2.7 billion vs 2.1 billion
   
    NOTE: Net for 1987 includes 4.4 mln from discontinued
opers, 51.6 mln after tax gain on sale of E.F. Hutton Insurance
Group, and 36.6 mln on extraordinary gains from utiliazation of
loss carryforward.
    Net in 1986 included 10.8 mln from discontinued opers and
an extraordinary credit of 5.2 mln from utilization of loss
 Reuter

GTE Corp said it is encouraged by
the considerable decline in US Sprint's operating loss in the
third quarter when compared with the three previous quarters.
    The company said its 50 pct pre-tax share of the loss in
the latest quarter was 82.5 mln. The other 50 pct of Sprint is
owned by United Telecommunications Inc <UT>.
    GTE said this improvement reflects higher revenues and
gradual elimination of redundant costs oft's old network
as traffic migrates to new digital fiber-optic network.
   
    GTE said "we expect US Sprint's results to continue to
improve in the fourth quarter and beyond."
    It said US Spring's third quarter revenues totaled 685 mln
dlrs, an increase of 24 pct from 552 mln dlrs in the year
earlier quarter
    GTE said its 82.5 mln dlr share of the latest quarter's
loss compares with a loss of 79 mln dlrs in the year ago
quarter.
 Reuter

BALLADUR HAS HAD CONTACT WITH G7 MINISTERS, INCLUDING STOLTENBERG -MINISTRY SOURCES

Leading senators told investors
Congress should take swift action on reducing the federal
budget deficit to calm nervousness in the stock market, which
has been hit by record setting losses.
    Speaking to an American Stock Exchange-sponsored investors'
conference, Senator Bob Packwood said "the best thing" Congress
can do about the panic on Wall Street is to continue working on
its deficit reduction scheme.
    "I hope the Congress does not respond to a one-or two-day
phenomenon," the Oregon Republican said.
 Reuter

Avon Products Inc, which earlier
reported lower third quarter profits, said its fourth quarter
and full year earnings will exceed the year ago results due to
strong sales in its domestic cosmetics business and an improved
economic situtation in Brazil.
    Last year Avon earned 158.7 mln dlrs or 2.23 dlrs a share
on sales of 2.9 billion dlrs.
    In the current third quarter Avon said its earnings dropped
12 pct to 37 cts a share because of a wage and price freeze in
Brazil, one of the company's four major operating areas.
   
    "Themance of the domestic beauty business in
the fourth quarter should more than offset the impact of Brazil
on earnings," said Hicks Waldron, Avon's chairman and chief
executive, in a statement.
    John Cox, Avon's spokesman, told Reuters that Brazil's
economic problems costs the company 10 cts a share or about
seven mln dlrs in profits in the third quarter. He said that
about half of that loss was offset by the strong performance of
the company's domestic cosmetics business.
    For the nine month period, Avon's earnings were flat.
   
    Avon also said in a statement that an initial public
offering in Japan for up to 40 pct of its Japanese subsidiary,
which is expected to exceed 200 mln dlrs, may not take place as
scheduled in November.
    Avon said the offering will depend on world stock market
 Reuter

BASTIAN TECHNOLOGIES SAYS IT HAS FIVE PCT OF COSMO COMMUNICATIONS, MAY SEEK CONTROL

Service Corp International said its
Investment Capital Corp unit sold its entire 14.8 pct stake in
Capital Southwest Corp <CSWC.O> common stock, and no longer
holds any Capital Southwest shares.
Investment Capital said it sold 280,000 shares of Capital
Southwest common stock since September 21 at 19.56 dlrs to
21.50 dlrs a share.
    No reason was given for the recent sales.
 Reuter

shr profit 2.73 dlrs vs 2.29 dlrs
    net 129.1 mln vs 105.8 mln
    nine mths
    shr loss 28.33 dlrs vs profit 6.42 dlrs
    net loss 1.16 billion vs profit 301.8 mln
    NOTE: 3rd qtr includes previously reported gain of 55.0 mln
dlrs, or 29.4 mln after-tax, by capturing excess pension funds.
    Nine mths include 1.7 billion dlr addition to loan loss
reserves in 2nd qtr, mostly for shaky LDC debts.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 31.9 mln vs 15.7 mln
    Revs 876.9 mln vs 401.2 mln
    Avg shrs 140.1 mln vs 68.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 53 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 74.0 mln vs 28.9 mln
    Revs 2.55 billion vs 1.17 billion
    NOTE: Results include acquired bottling companies from
dates of acquisition.
    On pro forma basis, as if all acquisitions had been in
place from the start of the period, company earned 5,704,000
dlrs or four cts per share on 140.0 mln shares outstanding with
revenues of 826.2 mln dlrs for quarter and earned 14.1 mln dlrs
or 10 cts per share on same number of shares and revenues of
2.41 billion dlrs for nine mths.
 Reuter

CBI Industries Inc said it may repurchase
up to 500,000 of its common shares which will be used for
employee stock ownership plans and other business purposes.
    The company has 21.8 mln common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

    Net 18,900,000 vs 17,100,000
    Sales 267.4 mln vs 288.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.26 dlrs vs 2.04 dlrs
    Net 53,600,000 vs 48,200,000
    Sales 839.3 mln vs 836.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr 2.03 dlrs vs 1.53 dlrs
    Net 146.4 mln vs 110.3 mln
    shr loss 3.99 dlrs vs profit 4.62 dlrs
    net loss 283.3 mln vs profit 330.5 mln
    Avg shrs 71.08 mln vs 69.26 mln
    Assets 56.9 billion vs 50.7 billion
    Deposits 30.4 billion vs 25.9 billion
    Loans 26.3 billion vs 25.7 billion
    Note : Nine month loss reflects 700 mln dlr increase in
loan loss provisions.
    Without the tax benefit, third-quarter net income would
have been 127.6 mln dlrs, up 16 pct or 17.4 mln dlrs from the
third quarter of 1986.
    Non-interest income totaled 342.6 mln dlrs in the third
quarter, up 47 pct or 109.7 mln dlrs, largely due to increased
income from foreign exchange trading, fees and commissions.
    Foreign exchange trading income totaled 71.3 mln dlrs, up
44.3 mln from a year ago. Provision for loan losses in the
third quarter was 20 mln dlrs versis 40 mln a year previously.
    At September 30, the provision for loan losses jumped to
1.30 billion dlrs from 455 mln at the same time last year.
 Reuter

Stock markets in Asia's economic "little
dragons," seen as hot tips for global investors, reeled today as
share prices crashed in the U.S., The region's main trading
partner.
    Panic spread through Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South
Korea following the collapse on Wall Street.
    Officials in Hong Kong, worried that the notoriously
volatile market would go wild, suspended trading until next
Monday. Markets in Taiwan and South Korea, sheltered from
swings on the world's big bourses, were battered this time.
    Taipei's weighted index fell almost by its full permitted
level, shedding 172.9 points to close at 3,492.9.
    Seoul's composite index lost over 11 points by late morning
to 505.28, with investors worried about a possible rise in oil
prices after U.S. Attacks on Iranian oil platforms in the Gulf.
    "When the U.S. Catches cold, Taiwan sneezes," said general
manager Blair Pickerell of Jardine Fleming Taiwan Limited. "In
this case, Taiwan has got pneumonia."
    Blue chips in Singapore were hit by selling. The Straits
Times Industrial Index lost 190.12 points in late afternoon
trading to 1,033.16, breaking Monday's fall of 169.14 points.
 Reuter

TRANS WORLD AIRLINES SAID CARL ICAHN WITHDRAWS ACQUISITION OFFER

Corp said it announced a series of price actions relating to
its System/38 line of computers.
    The company said it introduced price reductions ranging
from four pct to 20 pct for models 200 to 700 of the System/38
computer. IBM said memory purchase prices would be reduced from
5,000 dlrs to 3,500 dlrs per megabyte.
    Additionally, the company said it introduced a special
price offering that provides savings for customers with
selected models of installed System/38 computers who upgrade to
a model 600 or 700. The value of the offering was undisclosed.
 Reuter

Shr profit 23 cts vs profit 49 cts
    Net profit 24.1 mln vs profit 49.6 mln
    Revs 755.4 mln vs 708.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 84 cts vs profit 1.53 dlrs
    Net loss 80.7 mln vs profit 152.3 mln
    Revs 1.19 billion vs 2.32 billion
    Results include loss of 7,435,000 or eight cts shr in prior
nine mths from discontinued operations.
    Latest nine month results include one-time charge of 1.09
dlrs share relating to US Sprint.
    Revenues exclude those for US Sprint, a joint venture with
GTE Corp <GTE>.
 Reuter

    Nine mths
 REUTER

Shr 25 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 687,000 vs 514,000
    Sales 20.7 mln vs 13.2 mln
 Reuter

New York-based Bastian Technologies
Corp said it acquired a five pct stake in Cosmo Communications
Corp, and is considering a move to seek control of the company
or to secure a role in its affairs.
    "Bastian Technologies believes that with the appropriate
management policies and business strategies, the company can
once again become profitable and maximize for all shareholders
the underlying value of their company," Bastian said in a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
    Bastian said alternatives being considered include an
attempt to acquire Cosmo through a merger, tender or exchange
offer, seeking to influence the company's management and
policies, and seeking representation on Cosmo's board of
directors through a proxy contest or otherwise.
    Bastian said it may contact third parties regarding its
intentions toward Cosmo, adding it intends to request a meeting
with Cosmo representatives to discuss its investment in Cosmo
stock.
    Bastian currently holds 253,700 Cosmo common shares, or
five pct of the total outstanding.
    The shares were purchased from Nasta International Inc
<NAS> on October 16 for about 1.15 mln dlrs, Bastia said.
 Reuter

National Distillers and Chemical corp
said it intends to repurchase up to three mln of its 32.8 mln
common shares in the open market or privately from time to time.
 Reuter

Qtly div 21-1/2 cts vs 20 cts prior
    Pay December 15
    Record November 16
 Reuter

Shr 53 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 22,249,000 vs 15,356,000
    Sales 189.1 mln vs 166.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.56 dlrs vs 1.21 dlrs
    Net 64,707,000 vs 49,603,000
    Sales 559.2 mln vs 492.4 mln
 Reuter

Whirlpool Corp said it is
having joint venture discussions with <Vitro S.A.> of
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on the formation of a Mexican
venture for the manufacture and sale of major home appliances.
    It said Vitro has consolidated sales projected at 1.0
billion dlrs (U.S.) for 1987.
 Reuter

BETHLEHEM STEEL SAYS IT IS RAISING STEEL SHEET PRICES BY UP TO 30 DLRS/short ton

    Net profit 253,000 vs profit 356,000
    Revs 17.5 mln vs 12.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit one cent vs profit 21 cts
    Net profit 628,000 vs profit 2,921,000
    Revs 54.9 mln vs 36.0 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 106,000 dlrs, or
one cent per share, and 846,000 dlrs, or six cts per share,
respectively, from utilization of tax loss carryforward.
   
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 178,000 dlrs, or one
cent per share, and gain 810,000 dlrs, or six cts per share,
    1987 nine mths includes loss 1,519,000 dlrs,  or 11 cts per
share, from early extinguishment of debt.
 Reuter

Bankers Trust New York Corp said tax
benefits as a result of an increase in loan loss provisions
boosted earnings to a record 146.4 mln dlrs in the third
quarter from 110.3 mln a year ago.
    During the third quarter, the firm realized 18.8 mln dlrs
in tax benefits related to the special addition of 700 mln dlrs
to the allowance for loan losses taken in the second quarter of
1987.
    For the first nine months, the increase in loan loss
provisions resulted in a net loss of 283.3 mln dlrs versus a
330.5 mln dlr profit in the same 1986 period.
 Reuter

Trans World Airlines Inc said chairman
Carl C. Icahn has withdrawn his proposal to acquire the TWA
shares he does not already own due to the deterioration in
    Under the proposal Icahn would have paid for each TWA share
20 dlrs in cash and 25 dlrs face amount of 12 pct subordinated
    TWA said Icahn reserves the right to make a subsequent
proposal at some future date on the same terms or different
terms.
 Reuter

Carnival Cruise Lines said it may
repourchase up to five mln of its Class A common shares,
subject to market conditions.
    It said the decline in the market has made the stock an
attractive investment.  Carnival has about 132.2 mln shares
 Reuter

said it and Bell Atlantic Corp agreed to jointly study product
opportunities for intelligent network services in the
international marketplace.
    The company said the study will assess the marketplace
requirements outside the U.S. for a series of intelligent
network voice, data, and image application.
    The company said the applications include 800-number
service, alternate billing services, and private network
services.
 Reuter

Shr primary 1.79 dlrs vs 1.72 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.39 dlrs vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 12.1 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 5.56 dlrs vs 4.41 dlrs
    Shr diluted 4.30 dlrs vs 3.74 dlrs
    Net 37.3 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Assets 3.92 billion vs 3.83 billion
    Loans 3.05 billion vs 2.99 billion
   
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 6,016,000 dlrs
and 18.7 mln dlrs, respectively, from utilization of net
operating loss carryforward.
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 6,233,000 dlrs and
15.5 mln dlrs, respectively, from utilization of net operating
    Full name of company is american savings bank fsb of new
york.
 Reuter

The White House reacted calmly to the
stock market situation, saying there was no crisis atmosphere
and no action planned.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said he had no information about
special White House working groups or other actions that might
indicate a feeling of crisis. 
    "There is not one," he said.
    He said President Reagan had not scheduled any meeting with
Treasury Secretary James Baker, now en route form Europe.
    At the same time Fitzwater welcomed the action of major
banks in rescinding increases in the prime interest rate.
 Reuter

said sales of its hospital products and services rose 13 pct to
882 mln dlrs in the 1987 third quarter.
    The company said medical systems and specialties sales
increased six pct to 354 mln dlrs. Alternate site products and
services sales rose 13 pct to 261 mln dlrs.
    Industrial products sas gained 18 pct to 88 mln dlrs.
    The company's total sales in the third quarter rose 11 pct
to 1.58 billion dlrs.
    Baxter said its domestic sales in the third quarter totaled
1.25 billion dlrs while sales from international markets rose
to 333 mln dlrs.
    Stronger foreign currency values contributed about 29 mln
dlrs to third quarter international sales, it said.
    Earlier, the company reported 1987 third quarter earnings
of 90 mln dlrs or 31 cts a share, up from 51 mln dlrs or 18 cts
 Reuter

completed the acquisition of Vernors Inc from United Brands Co
<UB> in a cash and stock transaction worth valued at about 10
mln dlrs
 Reuter

Shr 4.77 dlrs vs 1.65 dlrs
    Net 61.3 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Revs 312.9 mln vs 291.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 9.51 dlrs vs 4.98 dlrs
    Net 122.3 mln vs 63.9 mln
    Revs 950.4 mln vs 881.8 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net in both periods includes gains of 24.2 mln
dlrs, or 1.88 dlrs a share, from sale of interest in Detroit
Cellular telephone company and 6.1 mln dlrs, or 47 cts a share,
from sale of interest in sportschannel Cable programing
network.
 Reuter

Iran's top war spokesman Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday called the U.S. Attacks on two of
its Gulf oil platforms an escalation and promised retaliation.
    "God willing, we will carry out our duty in the coming days
and make them sorry," said Rafsanjani in a speech to Parliament
later broadcast by Tehran Radio.
    The Tehran leadership have been quick to threaten vengeance
after the U.S. Raids on the rigs, one of which was destroyed.
    President Ali Khamenei, Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi
and now Rafsanjani within 24 hours of the U.S. Action have all
vowed retaliation.
    Rafsanjani, the parliamentary speaker, said, "It is not a
threat or an attempt at intimidation when we say we will
respond to aggression -- it is a reality and we have proved it
in practice." He added that the American attack "squares neither
with its superpower image nor its claim of concern with
security, nor reason and wisdom."
    U.S. Warships shelled an Iranian offshore oil platform and
American special forces boarded another, destroying equipment.
    The U.S. Government said the attack was a measured response
to an Iranian missile attack on the American-flagged Kuwaiti
tanker Sea Isle City in Kuwaiti waters last Friday.
 REUTER

    Net 64.0 mln vs 52.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.49 dlrs vs 1.64 dlrs
    Net 142.2 mln vs 153.3 mln
    Assets 18.04 billion vs 16.63 billion
    Deposits 13.97 billion vs 12.78 billion
    Loans 12.54 billion vs 10.81 billion
 Reuter

Lyng said he is pleased the European Community plans to offer a
global farm reform plan at GATT later this month, although the
United States opposes key parts of the proposal.
    "We're pleased that they have moved in tabling a proposal.
It will help us in getting the negotiations underway," Lyng
told Reuters in an interview Tuesday.
    Lyng's comment came after EC ministers in Luxembourg
endorsed a farm reform package drafted by the EC Commission.
The EC plan will be presented at the next meeting of Uruguay
round agriculture negotiators in Geneva on October 26.
    Lyng said the United States would oppose parts of the plan
seeking a market sharing agreement for grains, and proposing
curbs on U.S. soybean and cereal substitute exports to Europe.
    The U.S. in July proposed to GATT the elimination of all
farm subsidies affecting trade within ten years, and has
pressed the EC to make a counter-offer with the aim of reaching
a global farm subsidy agreement by the end of 1988.
    However, the EC and some U.S. domestic groups have said the
Reagan administration plan to end all farm trade subsidies is
unrealistic.
    Asked about such criticism, Lyng said "The alternative to
doing that is to say that we preserve them and maintain them. I
think that is the unrealistic position."
    "I would suggest that they (EC) listen to what we are
trying to say."
    Lyng also rejected suggestions the U.S. and EC agree a
freeze in export subsidies to get the GATT negotiations 
started.
    "All that some countries would like to have would be a
wheat agreement where we would stop export subsidies on wheat.
That doesn't do a thing for us," Lyng said.
    The United States wants an end to subsidies in a range of
agricultural products from dairy products to vegetable oils, he
said.
    At the GATT negotiators meeting next week Canada is
expected to offer a proposal as well as the EC.
    The United States will be represented at the meeting by
former agriculture undersecretary Daniel Amstutz, recently
appointed special U.S. negotiator on agriculture.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 66.2 mln vs 41.8 mln
    Revs 824.1 mln vs 693.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.50 dlrs vs 87 cts
    Net 236.1 mln vs 123.8 mln
    Revs 2.38 billion vs 2.02 billion
 Reuter

Shr 72 cts vs 56 cts
    Qtly div 18 cts vs 18 cts prior
    Net 18.7 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Revs 239.7 mln vs 187.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.87 dlrs vs 1.26 dlrs
    Net 48.3 mln vs 32.5 mln
    Revs 676.9 mln vs 574.8 mln
    NOTE: Dividend payable December 1 to shareholders of record
October 30.
 Reuter

Shr 1.54 dlrs vs 1.27 dlrs
    Net 7,065,000 vs 5,812,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 4.25 dlrs vs 3.40 dlrs
    Net 19.5 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Assets 2.84 billion vs 1.87 billion
    Deposits 2.51 billion vs 1.67 billion
   
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 2,500,000 dlrs,
or 54 cts per share, from utilization of tax loss carryforward.
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 2,158,000 dlrs, or 47
cts per share, and 5,567,000 dlrs, or 1.22 dlrs per shr,
 Reuter

Bethlehem Steel Corp said prices
for steel sheet products will be increased up to 30 dlrs a ton
effective January 3.
    The increases will affect certain non-contract or spot
transactions and will be achieved through reductions in
competitive discounts.
    The company said transaction prices for contract accounts,
which have a duration of six months or more, will also be
increased to commensurate levels.
    Percentage increases were not immediately available.
    Prices for flat-rolled steel sheet, used in automobiles,
appliances and other products, vary widely between about 350
and 800 dlrs a ton.
    The company said it was taking the actions to restore sheet
transaction prices to more equitable levels. In many cases,
prices are still lower than those attained in 1984, it said.
    Bethlehem also said that in response to changing market
conditions and potential inflationary pressures, efforts will
be made to mininize the number and the duration of firm price
 Reuter

Shr 96 cts vs 83 cts
    Net 119.3 mln vs 102.8 mln
    Revs 1.01 billion vs 869.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.53 dlrs vs 2.01 dlrs
    Net 313.6 mln vs 248.5 mln
    Revs 2.83 billion vs 2.52 billion
    NOTE: 1986 nine month earnings include nonrecurring loss of
9.9 mln dlrs, or eight cents a share, from purchase of 123.7
mln dlrs principal amount of the company's 150 mln dlr 12-1/4
pct debentures due February 15, 2015.
 Reuter

Corp said 1987 12 month earnings will be lower than the
earnings of 300.8 mln dlrs on revenues of 3.77 billion dlrs it
    The company cited a one-time write-off of its investment in
the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp secondary
reserve, a one-time higher federal tax rate, reduced loan sale
volume, and the effect of rising short-term rates on margins as
reasons for the expected decline.
    In addition, the company cited a net-after tax loss of 2.4
mln dlrs from its leasing operation during the 1987 nine mth
period as a reason for the anticipated earnings drop.
    Earlier today, the financial services company reported
earnings of 57.8 mln dlrs for the third quarter of 1987
compared to earnings of 79.4 mln dlrs for the 1986 quarter, and
1987 nine months earnings of 195.8 mln dlrs compared to 1986
earnings of 228.9 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

has been in contact with several Finance Ministers from the
Group of Seven leading industrial countries, in particular West
German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg, to discuss the
crisis on world markets, Finance Ministry sources said.
    They did not say whether the contacts had led to concerted
action on the markets or merely an exchange of views.
    But they added that French ministry officials were
continuing the contacts to exchange views on market
 Reuter

Toyota Motor Co expects its U.S. vehicle
sales in 1988 will decline to about 875,000 cars and trucks
from roughly 930,000 expected in 1987, a senior exeuctive said.
    Jim Perkins, group vice president for sales and marketing
for Toyota's U.S. sales subsidiary, told reporters Toyota's
expected decline will come principally in the truck segment
where the company faces intense competition from U.S. domestic
manufacturers such as Ford Motor Co <F>.
    Toyota, he said, also expects to stress sales in the low
and middle segments of the car market to remain competitive.
    Asked if Toyota's U.S. profits could show a substantial
decline with its lower trucks sales in the next two years, he
responded "conceivably it could," but added, "Our plan is not
to chase this thing to where it makes no economic sense."
    Perkins also predicted that the 1988 U.S. vehicle market
could fall below 15 mln sales from above 15 mln expected this
year. He expects some smaller Japanese automakers could be
forced to withdraw from the U.S. market or to seek partnerships
with one another in the face of intense competition.
     The Toyota executive said the collapse of U.S. stock
prices and any further weakening of the dollar would likely
have "a very quick impact on the Japanese (car) companies."
    "In our company, when the stock market goes down, we see it
very soon in the New York metropolitan car market. New York is
the best indicator of what's going to happen in the rest of of
the country. I can tell you from the next 15 days (of car
sales) in the New York market what it will be in the rest of
the country in the next six months," Perkins said.
     The Toyota executive said the panic selloff in the New
York Stock Exchange hurts the car market because "it does
create a shock wave of doubt in the minds of consumers."
     He said Toyota would wait at least 30 to 60 days to assess
the impact of the the stock market drop on the wider economy
before making any changes in its basic business plan for the
U.S. market.
    Toyota, he said, expects its 1988 U.S. sales will total at
least 600,000 cars and 275,000 trucks compared with about
630,000 cars and 300,000 trucks expected for 1987, and 644,000
cars and 388,000 trucks sold in 1986.
    He said Toyota hopes it will be able to import 610,000 cars
from Japan in 1988, the same as its 1987 allocation under
Tokyo's voluntary export restraint scheme.
    But he said it was uncertain if Toyota would keep its
current allocation becuase of pressures on Japan's Ministry of
International Trade and Industry to roll back Japanese car
export quotas from the current 2.3 mln annualized rate.
 Reuter

LASMO Exploration (Canada) Ltd, a
subsidiary of London & Scottish Marine Oil Plc <LSML.L>, is
merging with <Onyx Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd>, LASMO said.
    The merger is to be made by Onyx buying LASMO Exploration,
in a share swap. A new company, LASMO Canada Inc, will be
formed. LASMO will control 70 pct of the equity, worth some 76
mln Canadian dlrs based on the current Onyx share price.
    The new company will have proven reserves of 9.5 mln
barrels of oil and 20.9 billion cubic feet of gas, LASMO said.
 Reuter

    Net 1,858,000 vs 1,388,000
    Sales 27.1 mln vs 18.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 87 cts vs 76 cts
    Net 5,126,000 vs 3,798,000
    Sales 70.6 mln vs 57.2 mln
 Reuter

Wells Fargo and Co said it
anticipates a modest profit for the full year 1987.
    For the previous full year, the company posted net of 273.5
mln dlrs or 5.03 dlrs per share.
    The company today reported a third quarterrofit of 155
mln dlrs or 2.77 dlrs per share compared with 77.4 mln dlrs or
1.35 dlrs per share.
    Wells Fargo also reported a net loss of 60.4 mln dlrs or
1.43 dlrs per share in the nine months 1987, compared with net
of 195.2 mln dlrs or 3.66 dlrs per share in nine months 1986.
   
    The current results includes a tax benefit from a special
addition to the allowance for loan losses of 550 mln dlrs made
in the second quarter.
 Reuter

<H.B. Shaine and Co Inc> of Grand
Rapids, Mich., ceas its broker-dealer operations, at the
close of Oct 19, the New York Stock Exchange said.
    The firm reported that, under such financial difficulty, it
could not continue to do business as a member firm of the NYSE,
according to the NYSE.
    Officials of the company could not be reached for further
comment.
   
 Reuter

Aristech Chemical Corp, the former
chemicals subsidiary of USX Corp <X>, said it expects its
earnings for 1987 to exceed analysts estimates of up to 2.50
    Aristech earlier reported net income of 18.7 mln dlrs or 72
cts a share compared with 14.4 mln dlrs or 56 cts a share in
the year-earlier period on a pro forma basis.
    Last year, Aristech earned 43.9 mln dlrs on a pro forma
basis, as if the company were a stand-alone entity effective
January one, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 21 cts vs 19 cts
    Net 2,560,000 vs 2,359,000
    Revs 70.0 mln vs 56.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 54 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 6,574,000 vs 5,100,000
    Revs 207.7 mln vs 174.0 mln
 Reuter

Shr 72 cts vs 74 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.18 dlrs vs 2.18 dlrs
    Net 35.0 mln vs 34.6 mln
    Assets 4.6 billion vs 4.3 billlion
    Loans 3.1 billion vs 2.8 billion
    NOTE: 1986 3rd qtr includes securities after tax gain of
1,519,000 dlrs or 10 cts a share.
 Reuter

Mthly div 7.354 cts vs 8.362 cts prior
    Pay Jan 10
    Record Oct 30
    NOTE: Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas Royalty Trust.
 Reuter

Qtly div 17 cts vs 13 cts
    Pay Jan one
    Record Dec four
 Reuter

Josephson International Inc said it
repurchased 445,874 common shares yesterday under an
authorization to buy back up to 500,000 shares and its board
has authorized the further repurchase of another 500,000 shares
in the open market and privately.
 Reuter

Shr profit seven cts vs profit 32 cts
    Net profit 154,398 vs profit 694,521
    Revs 17.7 mln vs 19.5 mln
    Year
    Shr profit 86 cts vs loss 50 cts
    Net profit 1,862,986 vs loss 1,078,535
    Revs 78.2 mln vs 81.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 year results include extraordinary credit of
459,000 dlrs or 21 cts per shr due to utilization of tax loss
   
    Fiscal 1987 nonrecurring income items totaled 4,322,342 vs
1,393,187 in 1986.
    Qtr 1987 includes 446,000 dlrs or 20 cts per shr
extraordinary charge due to duction in utilization of tax
    Nonrecurring income items totaled 2,564 in three mths
1987 vs 1,211,196 in three mths 1986.
    Nonrecurring income for year 1987 included pretax gain of
4,307,180 dlrs on sale of company's leasehold of Glen Oaks
store on Dec 16, 1986.
   
    The company discontinued operations in that unit on Jan.
17, 1987.
    Nonrecurring income for three and 12 months 1986 included 
575,000 for settlement of litigation and a gain of 618,719 dlrs
on surrender of leaseholds.
    The 12 month period also included refund of prior year's
real estate tadxes of 136,964.
 Reuter

Shr 45 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 504,000 vs 683,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.83 dlrs vs 2.42 dlrs
    Net 2,043,000 vs 2,183,000
 Reuter

Qtr ended September 30.
    Shr 83 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 3,053,000 vs 2,775,000
    Assets 1.2 billion vs 1.0 billion
    Deposits 851.8 mln vs 754.1 mln
    Loans 912.5 mln vs 798.1 mln
 Reuter

Rumors circulated among the trade
this morning that the USSR may have purchased between one and
two mln tonnes of U.S. corn, but there was no confirmation.
    One dealer said he felt some business had been done, but
that the amount probably was on the low end of trade estimates.
 Reuter

Period ended September 30.
    Shr 17 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 2.2 mln vs 1.3 mln
    Sales 40.6 mln vs 32.6 mln
 Reuter

    Net 17.7 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Revs 131.9 mln vs 128.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.77 dlrs vs 1.02 dlrs
    Net 49.0 mln vs 27.0 mln
    Revs 341.7 mln vs 269.5 mln
 Reuter

Foothill Group Inc said its stock
began trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol "FGI."
    Foothill's shares had been traded on the American Stock
Exchange.
    Foothill is an independent commercial finance company which
operates through two subsidiaries -- Foothill Capital Copr and
Foothill Thrift and Loan.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 75 cts
    Qtly div 15-1/2 cts vs 15-1/2 cts prior
    Net 11.7 mln vs 21.4 mln
    Revs 447.5 mln vs 445.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 1.99 dlrs
    Net 29.9 mln vs 56.8 mln
    Revs 1.30 billion vs 1.28 billion
    NOTE: Full name is Yellow Freight System Inc. Dividend is
payable November 23, record November 9.
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts
    Net 1.3 mln vs 668,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 84 cts
    Net 2,892,000 vs 2,200,000
    NOTE: Company converted to stock ownership in July
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 722,000 vs 597,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 92 cts vs 69 cts
    Net 2,100,000 vs 1,500,000
    NOTE: full name of company is florida employers insurance
co.
 Reuter

    Net 726,000 vs 669,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.78 dlrs vs 1.63 dlrs
    Net 2,133,000 vs 1,960,000
    NOTE: Full name is First Oak Brook Bancshares Inc
 Reuter

Qtr ends Sept 30
    Shr profit seven cts vs loss two cts
    Net profit 228,691 vs loss 54,115
    Revs 2,415,419 vs 1,389,579
    Avg shrs 3,056,787 vs 2,933,058
 Reuter

Gander Mountain Inc said shareholders
at its annual meeting approved a doubling of authorized common
shares to 10 million from five million for general corporate
purposes.
    The company currently has an average of 2,760,000 common
shares outstanding. It reported earnings for the first quarter
ended Sept 30 of 25 cts a share on net income of 687,000 dlrs,
up from 19 cts on 514,00 dlrs in the same 1986 quarter, the
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 2,731,000 vs 1,928,000
    Sales 66.2 mln vs 58.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr seven cts vs 61 cts
    Net 6,310,000 vs 3,579,000
    Sales 171.8 mln vs 141.9 mln
 Reuter

said there were good chances for exchange rate stability.
    "The chances for exchange rate stability are good," he told
 Reuter

    Net 1,214,000 vs 1,316,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.06 dlrs
    Net 3,408,000 vs 2,809,000
    Assets 204.8 mln vs 176.6 mln
    Deposit 154.0 mln vs 131.2 mln
    Loans 125.3 mln vs 100.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 nine mths per share figures not available
because bank converted to stock form in June of 1986.
 Reuter

<Gordon Investment Corp> said it plans to
make an offer to acquire all of Pagecorp Inc's class A and
Class B shares for 9.25 dlrs cash per share.
    The bid is conditional upon an examination by Gordon of the
business and affairs of Pagecorp during the 45 days ending
December 3, 1987.
    The proposed offer would be condition upon ainimum number
of shares being tendered, Gordon said. It did not say what the
minimum will be.
   
    Meanwhile, Pagecorp said it agreed to grant Gordon an
option to purchaser 900,000 class A shares at 9.25 dlrs per
share, which is exercisable only if Gordon makes the
acquisition bid before December 4, 1987 or if any third party
begins a takeover before December 31, 1987.
    Pagecorp also said all Class B shareholders have agreed to
deposit their class B shares, if Gordon proceeds with its
offer.
 Reuter

Shr profit seven cts vs loss 1.77 dlrs
    Net profit 446,000 vs loss 9,370,000
    Revs 15.0 mln vs 13.3 mln
    Six mths
    Shr profit eight cts vs loss 1.87 dlrs
    Net profit 523,000 vs loss 9,883,000
    Revs 27.1 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Avg shrs 5,324,464 vs 5,324,350
    Note: Trillium Telephone Systems Inc
 Reuter

Shr loss 39 cts vs profit 19 cts
    Net loss 433,424 vs profit 216,117
    Revs 6,469,001 vs 8,221,549
 Reuter

(IBC) has given shippers until close of business on Thursday to
submit details of past export performance in order that
individual quotas can be allocated, an IBC spokesman said.
    He told Reuters IBC President Jorio Dauster has confirmed
acceptance of National Coffee Policy Council (CNPC) proposals
to establish individual export quotas based 65 pct on export
performance, 25 pct on stocks and 10 pct by auction.
    Shippers can choose their best period of 12 consecutive
months between April 1, 1985, and September 30, 1987, to be
used for calculating the export performace portion.
    The IBC will total all the figures, calculate each shippers
participation and use this as a basis for allocation of
individual quotas, the IBC spokesman said.
    He said the IBC has already settled with the Sao Paulo
Mercantile Exchange how the auction system will operate.
Shippers can bid a premium over the contribution quota payable
on coffee exports and the succesful bidder will add this
premium to the contribution quota when he submits his export
sales declaration form.
    Auctions will not start until after the opening of export
registrations. The spokesman could not say when this might be
but trade sources said an announcement could come at the end of
the week, opening registraions from Monday.
    A meeting has been set for tomorrow in Brasilia of the
CNPC's export marketing committee to establish a system for
allocating the 25 pct of export quotas based on stock levels,
    A system of individual export quotas is being reestablished
in Brazil - a previous system was abandoned in 1985 - to ensure
shipments are kept in line with the country's ICO quota.
 Reuter

Honeywell Inc said its board of
directors elected its president, Dr James Renier, 57, as chief
executive officer to succeed Edson Spencer, who will continue
as chairman of the board.
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 75 cts
    Net 218,000 vs 269,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.15 dlrs vs 3.45 dlrs
    Net 855,000 vs 920,000
    Assets 175.8 mln vs 166.9 mln
    Deposits 159.8 mln vs 154.3 mln
    Loans 155.7 mln vs 142.6 mln
   
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths includes gain 96,000 dlrs, or 24 cts
per share, from utilization of operating loss carryforward.
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 128,000 dlrs, or 36
cts per share, and 445,000 dlrs, or 1.67 dlrs per share, from
utilization of operation loss carryforward.
 Reuter

Period ended September 26
    Shr 28 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 3,300,000 vs 1,300,000
    Sales 24.7 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Avg shrs 11,871,751 vs 9,398,952
    Nine mths
    Shr 76 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 9,000,000 vs 3,200,000
    Sales 69.3 mln vs 32.0 mln
    Avg shrs 11,833,883 vs 9,059,692
 Reuter

Shr 77 cts vs nil
    Net 417,000 vs 1,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.39 dlrs vs 84 cts
    Net 1,298,000 vs 443,000
    Assets 290.7 mln vs 296.6 mln
    NOTE: full name of company is home federal savings and loan
association of the rockies.
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 38 cts
    Net 397,000 vs 788,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 80 cts vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 1,674,000 vs 2,455,000
 Reuter

The European Community's farmers'
pressure group Copa has urged EC farm ministers to agree a tax
on vegetable proteins similar to the oils and marine fats tax
which has already been proposed by the EC Commission.
    Copa president Hans Kjeldsen told a news conference on
Tuesday he had also urged ministers to seek a similar mechanism
for cereal substitutes.
    He was speaking after a meeting of farm leaders with the
Danish foreign and agriculture ministers, who currently chair
meetings of their EC colleagues.
    Kjeldsen said taxes on the products concerned would help
the EC's budget problems and would provide some price stability
for producers.
    This would in turn help the market position for certain
crops of which the EC is a net importer such as oilseeds, peas
and beans, but for which the Commission is now proposing severe
output restrictions.
    A minority of EC ministers opposed to an oils and fats tax
on imported and domestically produced oils and marine fats
succeeded in blocking the idea during this year's annual EC
price fixing.
    However, the EC Commission has said it maintains its
proposals for a tax.
    Kjeldsen said Copa had urged the ministers to pursue
international negotiations on farm trade with the aim of
bridging the gap between EC and world prices.
 Reuter

Allied Irish Banks Plc <ALBK.L> said it
plans to open a Tokyo office.
    Initially it will be a representative office but the
company said it hopes to have a full banking licence in about
two years.
 REUTER

Shr 60 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 103.7 mln vs 96.5 mln
    Revs 472.5 mln vs 434.1 mln
    Avg shrs 152.3 mln vs 147.0 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 2.60 dlrs vs 2.44 dlrs
    Net 393.1 mln vs 347.1 mln
    Revs 1.79 billion vs 1.76 billion
    Avg shrs 150.9 mln vs 142.2 mln
 Reuter

Oper shr 71 cts vs 78 cts
    Oper net 42.9 mln vs 46.6 mln
    Revs 294.0 mln vs 274.9 mln
    Avg shrs 55.5 mln vs 54.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 2.88 dlrs vs 3.07 dlrs
    Oper net 169.2 mln vs 181.5 mln
    Revs 993.4 mln vs 961.4 mln
    Avg shrs 55.2 mln vs 54.0 mln
    12 mths
    Oper shr 3.67 dlrs vs 3.76 dlrs
    Oper net 216.2 mln vs 224.4 mln
    Revs 1.31 billion vs 1.26 billion
    Avg shrs 54.9 mln vs 53.9 mln
    NOTE: 1987 nine month and 12 month operating net excludes
charges of 269 mln dlrs and 25 mln dlrs reflecting disallowed
costs of utility's 18 pct share of Nine Mile Point Number two
nuclear power plant and the abandoned Jamesport nuclear
project, respectively. The charges resulted in nine month share
loss of 2.44 dlrs and 12 month share loss of 1.68 dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit 3.64 dlrs vs profit 1.64 dlrs
    Net profit 541 mln vs profit 247 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 13.30 dlrs vs profit 5.11 dlrs
    Net loss 1.78 billion vs profit 752 mln
    NOTE: Net in nine mths 1987 vs 1986 includes provision for
possible credit losses of 4.19 billion vs 1.32 billion.
    Net in qtr 1987 vs 1986 includes provision for possible
crit losses of 320 mln vs 431 mln.
    Assets 200 billion vs 186 billion
    Loans 129.3 billion vs 122.3 billion
    Deposits 118.1 billion vs 111.0 billion
    3rd qtr 1987 reflects previously announced aftertax gain of
163 mln from recognition of pension plan over funding and 139
mln of tax benefits from the three billion provision.
    Net write offs in qtr 1987 vs 1986 totaled 338 mln vs 342
mln and in year to date 1987 vs 1986 of 1.06 billion vs 988
mln.
 Reuter

Sparebanken Rogaland, a large Norwegian
savings bank, has in place a 200 mln dlr euro-certificate of
deposit program, First Interstate Bank of California said as
arranger.
    Dealers for the program are First Interstate, First Chicago
Ltd, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Manufacturers Hanover
Ltd. First Chicago will be issuing and paying agent.
 REUTER

Shr 42 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 2,945,000 vs 2,400,000
    Sales 146.8 mln vs 117.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.45 dlrs vs 2.35 dlrs
    Net 17,280,000 vs 16,366,000
    Sales 465.6 mln vs 387.8 mln
    Avg shrs 7,046,000 vs 6,961,000
    NOTE: 1986 data restated for changes in method of
accounting for pensions
 Reuter

Minneapolis investor Irwin Jacobs said he
sold the stake he held in Gillette Co <GS> after deciding that
he could not force Gillette to accept a 47 dlr a share takeover
bid made by Revlon Group Inc <REV>.
    Revlon's bid expired last week after being repeatedly
rejected by Gillette. Jacobs had earlier considered waging a
proxy fight over Gillette.
    Jacobs told Reuters he sold the Gillette stake, which he
called "substantial" but under five pct, a few weeks ago over a
period of several days. He said he sold the stock at a profit,
but did not disclose the selling price.
    Gillette's stock was at 24-1/8, up 1/8, in morning trade,
off the high of 45-7/8 reached after Revlon announced its bid.
    Jacobs said he sold his Gillette stake based on an
"investment decision. I surely did not see this happening," he
said of Monday's stock market free-fall.
    A Gillette spokesman said the mpany had no comment.
    Jacobs said he and fellow investor Carl Pohlad continue to
hold a stake in Allegheny International Inc <AG>. In August
they disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing
that they had acquired 854,900 shares, or 7.9 pct, of Allegheny
and would consideer seeking control of the company.
 Reuter

Transamerica Corp's Transamerica
Insurance Co said it signed a definitive pact to buy a 51 pct
interest in Sedgwick Group PLC's River Thames Insurance Co.
    Transamerica will buy 11 mln newly issued Class A shares of
River Thames for 2.23 dlrs per share.
    Sedgwick wil retain a 49 pct interest in River Thames,
which is a property liability reinsurer.
    The agreement, subject to shareholder approval, is expected
to close by the end of the year, the company said.
    In 1986, River Thames reported net premiums written of 36
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 988,000 vs 1,005,000
    Revs 19.7 mln vs 16.4 mln
    Avg shrs 6,206,487 vs 5,959,028
    Six Mths
    Net 1,884,000 vs 1,662,000
    Revs 37.5 mln vs 30.8 mln
    Avg shrs 6,168,105 vs 5,950,842
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 3,992,000 vs 8,526,00
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.72 dlrs vs 1.74 dlrs
    Net 22,110,000 vs 20,379,000
    Avg shrs 13,459,000 vs 11,740,000
    Note: Prior nine month figures include extraordinary
after-tax loss of 10.9 mln dlrs, or 93 cts per share.
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said market
volatility may result in inaccurate price quotations on certain
vendor price machines.
    The Exchange said this volatility has resulted in digits
being deleted from certain vendor machines.
 Reuter

The Kansas City Board of Trade said
it has halted trading in Value Line stock index futures.
    The exchange said the move follows the halt in trading in
futures, futures-options and options at several other exchanges
because many of the underlying stocks that make up the indexes
have stopped trading.
    The exchange said trading would resume pending action by
the other exchanges.
 Reuter

Oakwood Homes Corp said it was
beginning a stock repurchase program under which it may
purchase up to 400,000 shares, or about seven pct, of its
    Oakwood said purchase will be made from time to time as
conditions permit on the open market and in privately
negotiated transactions.
 Reuter

has authorized the purchase of up to 2.5 mln shares of its
common stock, in market transactions, from time to time.
    The company said the purchases were authorized because it
believes the market price of the stock is less than its
underlying value. Audio/Video said general funds of the company
will be used to purchase the shares, and all shares will be
held in the company's treasury, for possible future use.
 Reuter

Global Petroleum Corp said it had raised
the contract prices for heavy fuel oil from 25 cts to one dlr
per barrel, effective today.
    The company said 0.3 pct fuel oil is up one dlr a barrel to
22.25 dlrs a barrel. They said 0.5 pct fuel oil is up by 50 cts
to 21.95 dlrs a barrel.
    Global raised one pct fuel oil by 35 cts to 20.25 dlrs a
barrel. The company raised 2.2 pct fuel by 25 cts to 19.50 dlrs
a barrel. Global raised 2.5 pct fuel oil by 45 cts to 19.45
 Reuter

    Net 565,000 vs 502,000
    Revs 20.0 mln vs 14.5 mln
    Note: Current qtr figures include tax loss carryforward
credit of 194,000 dlrs vs credit of 197,000 dlrs.

 Reuter

NYSE SAID NY FUTURES EXCHANGE IS CLOSED AFTER OTHER US INDEX PRODUCTS CLOSE

Donald Regan, President Reagan's
former chief of staff, said the government should loosen the
money supply, try to keep interest rates down and try to reduce
the federal budget and trade deficits to avoid a recession.
    "I think what we have to face now is trying to preserve our
economy," the one-time chairman of Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
<MER> said in an interview on the ABC television network.
    "We've got to loosen money, we've got to keep interest rates
down. We can't afford to let them go up. That means we're going
to have to work on our twin deficits, both the budget deficit
and the trade deficit," Regan said.
     "I certainly wouldn't tighten money at this particular
moment," Regan said when asked about the prospects for a
recession following Monday's price drop on Wall Street.
    "I think that if they were to do that, they'd create the
same conditions that we did in '29...They choked off the money
supply and what happened? We went into a major recession. I
think that's the one thing we've got to avoid right now."
    Regan also called on the government to impose restrictions
on program trading. "I think that that's exacerbated,
exaggerated this decline, and I think it's something that they
must stop," he said.
 Reuter

USX Corp said it has authorized
the repurchase of up to 20 mln shares of common stock.
    "This action has been under study and consideration since
we announced our financial restructuring earlier this year,"
said chairman David Roderick.
    "It reflects the very strong financial position of the
corporation, and enables us to take advantage of current market
conditions," he said.
    The company said timing of the repurchase will be dictated
by market conditions.
 Reuter

The Canadian unit of General Motors Corp
and the union representing its 40,000 workers remain far apart
over local issues in contract talks two days from a threatened
strike, a union spokesman said.
    The deepest divisions appeared to be between General Motors
of Canada Ltd and the Canadian Auto Workers local representing
17,000 workers at an assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, union
spokesman Wendy Cuthbertson said.
    "Local 222 is miles apart," said Cuthbertson. The local
assembles full-size pick-up trucks, the Buick Regal and the
Pontiac 6000.
    Local issues there included shift schedules, transfers and
working conditions, union president Bob White said.
    The union has threatened to strike at 1000 hrs EDT (1400
gmt) on Thursday unless it has reached a tentative settlement
with the automaker by then.
    Bargaining was scheduled to continue late into the night
Tuesday in an effort to avert a walkout, said Cuthbertson.
    On Monday, the union accepted an economic offer from GM
Canada that largely matched the pay-and-benefit pattern reached
earlier at Chrysler and Ford in Canada.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 40.3 mln vs 78.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.58 dlrs vs 2.40 dlrs
    Net 155.0 mln vs 223.3 mln
    Avg shrs 98,353,350 vs 92,967,487
    Assets 27.48 billion vs 27.60 billion
    Loans 22.75 billion vs 19.00 billion
    Deposits 21.45 billion vs 21.31 billion
 Reuter

VF Corp said it increased its
quarterly cash dividend to 21 cts per share, from 18 cts a
share.
    The company said the dividend is payable December 18, to
shareholders of record December eight.

 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 16.1 mln vs 9,390,000
    Revs 168.1 mln vs 111.3 mln
    Avg shrs 12.5 mln vs 11.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.31 dlrs vs 86 cts
    Revs 445.8 mln vs 244.6 mln
    Avg shrs 12.4 mln vs 10.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs not given
    Net 1,041,000 vs 43,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.09 dlrs vs not given
    Net 3,586,000 vs 764,000
 Reuter

Qtlry div 20 cts vs 18 cts prior
    Pay Nov 20
 Reuter

Prime Computer Inc said it will
periodically repurchase an unspecified number of its common
stock on the open market.
    The company has 49.1 mln shares outstanding.
    It said it stock will be bought in periods of price
weakness and that the stock will be used for the company's
restricted stock and employee stock purchase plans and for
other corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs profit 36 cts
    Net profit 1,800,000 vs profit 19.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 1.22 dlrs vs loss 44 cts
    Net 64.7 mln vs loss 23.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 3rd qtr and nine months includes a profit of 2.8
mln dlrs and a loss of 66.7 mln dlrs from discontinued
    Earnings per share are reported after payment of preferred
stock dividends of subsidiaries.
 Reuter

Phillips Petroleum Corp said it raised
the contract price it will pay for all grades of crude oil by
50 cts a barrel, effective Oct 16.
    The increase brings the company's postings for the West
Texas Intermediate and West Texas Sour grades to 19.00 dlrs a
barrel.
    Phillips last changed it crude oil postings on Sept 9.
 Reuter

    Net 3,308,000 vs 1,512,000
    Revs 6,467,000 vs 2,590,000
    Avg shrs 10.7 mln vs 5,788,594
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.32 dlrs vs 1.17 dlrs
    Net 10.2 mln vs 3,041,000
    Revs 18.7 mln vs 5,682,000
    Avg shrs 10.7 mln vs 3,780,626
 Reuter

Net profit and sales for the
Pirelli group's worldwide activities should both grow well in
1987, said Jacopo Vittorelli, chief executive of Societe
Internationale Pirelli SA <PIRI.Z>.
    Sales rose 17.5 pct to 2.75 billion dlrs in the first half
of 1987, and Vittorelli told reporters they were likely to show
the same percentage growth for the year as a whole.
    However, he declined to predict the likely growth in net
profit for the year. It rose by 31.7 pct to 80.6 mln dlrs in
the first six months. In 1986 group net profit was 141.0 mln
dlrs, up from 101.5 mln the year before.
 Reuter

authorized the repurchase of up to 10 mln shares of stock.
    The company repurchased five mln shares under a program
that ended earlier this year.
 Reuter

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange said
trading was halted about 1105 EDT in its value line composite
index option that involves about 1,700 stocks.
    The exchange added that its gold and silver options index
did not open trading Tuesday, but that trading continued in its
national over-the-counter stock index option.
    The halt in the value line index option accompanied index
option trading halts by other major U.S. exchanges.
 Reuter

Sterling Software Inc said it has bought
back 394,100 shares of its stock in the open market since
October 8.
    "In a market full of sellers we're a confident buyer and
we'll continue purchasing shares," president Sterling Williams
said.
 Reuter

Travelers Corp said will
repurchase up to 2.5 mln shares ot its common stock.
    The company, which has 100.2 mln shares outstanding, said
its stock is at an attractive price at the moment.
 Reuter

CME HAS RESUMED TRADING IN S/P 500 STOCK INDEX FUTURES AND OPTIONS

Aceto Corp said its board increased its
authorized share repurchase program to 500,000 shares from
200,000. The shares will be bought in the open market.
    It has bought back 185,422 shares under the previously
authorized 200,000 share program.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss four cts
    Net profit 378,000 vs loss 140,000
    Revs 4,226,000 vs 1,240,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 38 cts vs loss 16 cts
    Net loss 1,088,000 vs 538,000
    Revs 10.1 mln vs 2,963,000
   
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths includes charge 1,827,000 dlrs for
exchange by an officer and director of 554,000 shares of junior
subordinated stock for 443,000 shares of common stock and a
10-year warrant to purchase 250,000 shares of common stock at
4.50 dlrs per share.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve spokesmen in New York
and Washington said there are no plans for a news conference
today.
    The spokesmen were responding to rumors in the financial
markets.
    There was also speculation that because Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan and Vice Chairman Manuel Johnson have cancelled trips
out of Washington today that the Fed board was holding an
extraordinary meeting to discuss a cut in the six pct discount
rate.
 Reuter

Eaton Vance Corp said its board authorized
the repurchase of up to 200,000 shares of its common stock
through privately negotiated or open market transactions.
    It has 4.3 mln outstanding shares.
 Reuter

A share options dealer with Svenska
Handelsbanken <SHBS.ST> and his office manager have lost the
bank more than 100 mln crowns in unauthorised dealing, the bank
    Handelsbanken said the two made the losses, calculated
according to Monday's bourse prices, when they carried out
unauthorised transactions for themselves and clients.
    But the bank was insured against such an event and the loss
would not affect its results, said head of the bank's treasury
department, Lars Nyberg.
    "The bank inspection authorities have been told and the
police are also going to be informed," Nyberg told Reuters.
    The affair was discovered by routine checks after the
bourse falls of the past few days, he added.
 REUTER

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairman
Wiliam Seidman said the stock market decline has not had a
measurable impact on U.S. banks.
    Seidman, attending the American Bankers Association annual
convention, told reporters, "We are looking to see if the stock
market was having any direct effects. We have seen none."
    Seidman also said that he was pleased at the decision by
Chemical New York Corp <CHL> and others to lower their prime
rate. He said he believed it was a response to the stock market
behavior. "I think it's a good idea," he said.
    Seidman said he believes the economy will remain strong as
long as interest rates remain stable.
    He said the Federal Reserve Board's announcement that it
stood ready to provide liquidity to the financial system was an
effort to reassure markets.
    "In 1929, they did not provide it (liquidity) and now they
are reassuring people that that will not happen again. I fully
support it," he said.
    He said that the stock market decline was not an argument
against allowing banks to underwrite securities because the
stock market is expected to fluctuate.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs 36 cts
    Net 254,000 vs 2,063,000
    Revs 130.0 mln vs 107.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 23 cts vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 1,336,000 vs 6,659,000
    Revs 370.9 mln vs 313.7 mln
 Reuter

Commerce Undersecretary J. Michael
Farren opposed language in the trade bill before Congress to
limit foreign takeovers of U.S. companies.
    "Anything that would serve to have a chilling effect on
foreign investment is going to cost us jobs and economic
growth," Farren said before a congressional coittee.
    House and Senate negotiators are ironing out differences in
trade bills passed by both chambers. Once the negotiators reach
agreement, the bill will be sent to President Reagan for his
signature.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 1,935,000 vs 1,495,000
    Revs 52.7 mln vs 43.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 83 cts vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net 3,775,000 vs 3,221,000
    Revs 172.7 mln vs 105.9 mln
    NOTE: Share figures for year are after payment of preferred
share dividend and include unspecified extraordinary items.
 Reuter

said the ruling of a GATT panel on a U.S. trade complaint
against Japan, expected soon, may influence the U.S. stance in
negotiations with Tokyo on beef and citrus import quotas.
    The ruling of a GATT tribunal on a U.S. demand that Japan
end quotas on 12 categories of food items is expected by the
end of the year. Lyng said he is optimistic the ruling will
favor the U.S.
    "These are quota items, and the principles that apply to
them, it seems to me, will have some bearing on the question of
whether you would have quotas or not on beef and citrus," Lyng
    He repeated the U.S. demand that Japan lift the quotas on
beef and citrus after March 31, next year.
    The Japanese quotas on 12 food categories which the United
States has challenged include items such as tomato paste, some
cheeses and specialty fruit juices.
    U.S. officials had hoped a ruling against the quotas would
be issued earlier this year but the GATT panel decision has
been delayed by the illness of the tribunal's chairman.
    The U.S. has taken a hardline stance on the beef and citrus
quotas, which Tokyo says must remain in place to protect
Japanese farmers.
    "We will not negotiate new quotas or accept new quotas (on
beef and citrus). If they impose them we would consider that an
illegal action in the GATT, Lyng said.
    He declined to say what action the U.S. would take next
April if Japan continues to resist U.S. demands.
   
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 9,139,000 vs 2,894,000
    Revs 135.6 mln vs 118.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.81 dlrs vs 1.95 dlrs
    Net 27.0 mln vs 18.8 mln
    Revs 406.5 mln vs 372.8 mln

 Reuter

Shr 99 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 12.7 mln vs 9,736,000
    Avg shrs 12.8 mln vs 12.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.67 dlrs vs 2.30 dlrs
    Net 34.0 mln vs 29.1 mln
    NOTE: Net includes pretax securities gains 16,000 dlrs vs
228,000 dlrs in quarter and 48,000 dlrs vs 1,673,000 dlrs in
nine mths.
    Net includes loan loss provisions 1,092,000 dlrs vs 790,000
dlrs in quarter and 3,089,000 dlrs vs 2,584,000 dlrs in nine
mths.   
 Reuter

PENTAGON SAYS U.S. WARSHIPS BEGIN ESCORTING GULF TANKER CONVOY SOUTH FROM KUWAIT

Shr 38 cts vs not given
    Net 8,616,000 vs not given
    Revs 209.1 mln vs 169.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.76 dlrs vs not given
    Net 34.5 mln vs not given
    Revs 632.0 mln vs 551.5 mln
    NOTE: Year ago per share and net income not available as
company recapitalized on December 28, 1986 after it became a
new reporting entity for financial reporting purposes.
 Reuter

Monday's international
share crash was exaggerated and did not reflect economic
fundamentals, Wolfgang Roeller, president of the West German
banking association BDB said in a statement.
    "A comparison with the (Wall Street crash of) 1929 is
totally inappropriate," Roeller, also chief executive of
Dresdner Bank AG, said.
    The world economy was growing and dangers of inflation were
being held in check. The recent International Monetary Fund and
World meetings confirmed the positive forecasts for global
economic development.
    Therefore, there were no rational reasons for a sharp
tightening of monetary policy nor for a continued rise in
interest rates, Roeller said.
    "This applies in particular to West Germany," he said.
    As a result, Roeller expected the markets to calm. They
would not ignore long-term economic factors.
    International cooperation on currencies established by the
Louvre accord and strengthened by Monday's meeting between U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker, West German Finance Minister
Gerhard Stoltenberg and Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl,
would stand the test, he added.
 REUTER

Shr primary 60 cts vs 42 cts
    Shr diluted 57 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 5,590,000 vs 3,721,000
    Revs 103.5 mln vs 91.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 1.55 dlrs vs 1.41 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.48 dlrs vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 14.3 mln vs 12.7 mln
    Revs 300.5 mln vs 269.3 mln
 Reuter

Biosonics Inc said Jeffrey S.
Wigand has resigned as president, chief operating officer and
director of the company.
    The company said Wigand will announce his affiliation with
another healthcare company as soon as negotiations are
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 18.6 mln vs 14.5 mln
    Revs 574.2 mln vs 493.3 mln
    Avg shrs 48,602,000 vs 50,487,000
    Shr 85 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 41.5 mln vs 32.8 mln
    Revs 1.62 billion vs 1.40 billion
    Avg shrs 48,622,000 vs 51,670,000
    NOTE: 1987 results do not include September acquisiton of
Denny's Inc.
 Reuter

Exovir Inc <XOVR.O> said its
board authorized the purchase of up to one mln dlrs of the
comapny's common stock in open market transactions.
    The company said based on currrent market conditions, it
believes the stock is substantially undervalued.
 Reuter

    The union has threatened to strike at 1000 EDT/1400 GMT on
Thursday unless it has reached a tentative settlement.
    Bargaining was scheduled to continue late into Tuesday
night in an effort to avert a walkout, said Cuthbertson.
earlier at Chrysler Corp <C> and Ford Motor Co <F> units.
 Reuter

Shr loss 18 cts vs loss 3.61 dlrs
    Net loss 5,600,000 vs loss 100.2 mln
    Revs 33.5 mln vs 22.3 mln
    Avg units 30.9 mln vs 27.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 22 cts vs loss 4.20 dlrs
    Net loss 6,800,000 vs loss 113.6 mln
    Revs 97.3 mln vs 83.4 mln
    Avg units 30.0 mln vs 26.8 mln
    NOTE: full name is sante fe energy partners l.p.
 Reuter

King World Productions Inc said it began
an open market repurchase program of its shares on October 19.
    King World said the total number of shares ultimately
bouught back will depend on prevailing market conditions
including interst rates, the price of the shares and possible
diversification opportunities.
 Reuter

Shr 66 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 5,928,000 vs 5,447,000
    Revs 126.0 mln vs 89.8 mln
    Avg shrs 8,948,000 vs 8,947,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.96 dlrs vs 1.96 dlrs
    Net 17.5 mln vs 16.3 mln
    Revs 343.9 mln vs 286.9 mln
    Avg shrs 8,948,000 vs 8,300,000
 Reuter

Ordinary net profit after provisions for losses and taxes
300 mln vs 203 mln
    Group operating profit before loan loss provisions 875 mln
crowns vs 986 mln
    Total assests 132.0 billion crowns vs 107.6 billion
    Note - Full company name is Den Norske Creditbank <NCBO.OL>
 REUTER

A group of firms led by Hong
Kong-based Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd said it increased
its stake in Smith International Inc common stock to 3,997,100
shares, or 17.5 pct of the total outstanding, from about 14.9
pct.
the group said it bought 586,500 Smith common shares between
October 9 and 19 at 7.86 dlrs to 9.57 dlrs a share.
    No reason was given for the recent purchases.
 Reuter

Britain's highest court has decided the
International Tin Council (ITC) can appeal over the use of ITC
documents in court actions.
    On November 2 the House of Lords will decide if and to what
extent ITC documents, whether circulated or not, are admissible
as court evidence. Lawyers working in the legal tangle left
from the October 1985 collapse of the tin market said this
hearing is likely to last a few days.
    On Wednesday the Court of Appeal will link the outstanding
ITC cases that have so far reached it and a single set of
hearings could begin in early January, they added.
    The House of Lords ruling on the use of ITC documents will
be referred back to the action by two Shearson Lehman companies
against the London Metal Exchange although the underlying case
is not expected to be resumed until mid-1988.
    The Court of Appeal hearings include action between brokers
and cases by brokers and banks against the ITC and the member
governments of the tin council.
    Action taken by brokers seeking both the winding up of the
ITC or and placing it into receivership will also be covered by
the Court of Appeal legal schedule.
 Reuter

Iran and the Soviet Union have
provisionally agreed to hold talks on a possible exchange of
Iranian crude oil for finished Soviet oil products, an official
spokesman said Tuesday.
    Gennady Gerasimov, chief of the Soviet Foreign Ministry's
Information Directorate, told reporters the agreement had been
reached during a visit to Moscow last week by Iran's Oil
Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh.
    Gerasimov said no date had been set for the talks, which
would also study the possibility of Soviet technical assistance
for Iran's oil industry.
 REUTER

Lloyd Bentsen said he had been in touch with White House
officials early on Tuesday on his proposal for an economic
summit between Congress and the administration, but has yet to
receive a response.
    "I'm not at liberty to say what they're going to do yet," the
Texas Democrat told an American Stock Exchange conference.
"They're making up their minds."
    Monday's stock market drop provides "additional leverage" for
a meeting between White House officials and congressional
leaders on trade and budget issues, Bentsen said.
 Reuter

The American Soybean Association (ASA)
denounced European Community (EC) oilseed policies as illegal
under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and
threatened to make an unfair trade complaint if the EC does not
remedy the situation.
    ASA Vice President James Adams told an ASA-sponsored
Outlook 87 conference: "It will be filed unless the EC takes
drastic and immediate steps."
    "These subsidies are blatantly unfair and are GATT illegal,
since they were established after the zero soybean duty was
established in 1962," he said.
    The ASA's unfair trade petition against the EC would ask
for an investigation and modification of EC oilseed policies to
make the regime non-discriminatory.
    The EC in 1962 ruled all EC oilseed imports duty-free, in
an effort to fill its oilseed needs. But EC oilseeds production
has risen dramatically since then.
    The EC now guarantees oilseed prices to farmers above world
market levels and is considering implementing a controversial
oils and fats tax.
    The subsidies "are obvious attempts to circumvent the zero
duty binding and that makes U.S. Farmers mad as hell," Adams
said.
    The ASA is confident the U.S. Congress will support its
trade complaint, Adams said. The ASA also strongly opposes an
EC proposal to tax vegetable and marine oils consumed in the
EC, which will be considered by the EC Commission in December.
    U.S. Soybean world market share has declined 35 pct in
volume and 40 pct in value since 1982, primarily as a result of
EC policies, Adams added.
    Lord Plumb, European Parliament President and a speaker at
the conference, said the EC expanded oilseed production in 1973
when the U.S. Halted overseas sales of soy products.
 Reuter

The United States is prepared to "pull out
all the stops" to defend its agricultural trade rights under the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), U.S. Ambassador
to GATT Michael Samuels said.
    Those rights are now being challenged by the European
Community's (EC) agricultural support policies, he told a
conference sponsored by the American Soybean Association.
    He reiterated Washington's firm intention to retaliate if
the EC goes ahead and bans imports of hormone-fed beef without
the issue being investigated by a GATT special committee.
    The U.S. claims the EC directive, due to come into effect
on January 1, threatens to cut 100 mln dlrs worth of U.S. meat
shipments into the EC.
    The U.S. also will oppose all EC efforts to impair U.S.
trade via the EC oilseeds regime, which supports EC oilseed
prices over the current market level and which may be extended
to include a hotly disputed oils and fats tax, Samuels said.
    Reduction of trade-distorting world agricultural subsidies,
an aim of most key participants in GATT multilateral trade
negotiations, "is meaningless if import barriers continue to be
erected," Samuels said.
    Samuels called the U.S. plan to eliminate world farm
subsidies by the year 2000, proposed at GATT in July, "visionary"
and "very serious."  The EC and Japan have said it is
    The EC Commission this month announced its draft proposal
on farm trade reform, expected to be tabled at GATT formally
next week.
    The EC scheme involves emergency measures to reduce
tensions in troubled surplus sectors of cereals and cereals
substitutes, dairy and sugar. It also calls for reduction of
farm subsidies.
    The U.S. Is not opposed to short-term measures, as long as
they are directly linked to long-term commitments to end major
trade distortions, Samuels said.
    Washington will review the EC proposal when it is formally
submitted and respond to it officially then.
    "We will consider its relation to the Punta del Este
declaration to correct trade problems and expand market access,"
the U.S. Ambassador said.
    The U.S. can say no to the EC proposal if the EC ignores
the U.S. plan when it tables its own proposal, he added.
    The key difference between the two approaches is that the
U.S. wants farm subsidies eliminated, while the EC is pushing
only for a reduction in farm suppports, Samuels said.
    If the EC farm budget were protected by a subsidy freeze,
there would be little incentive for the Community to work to
correct the international trade situation, he added.
    Samuels cited the animal hormones complaint, the EC
oilseeds regime and an EC regulation concerning meat imports to
third countries as three crucial barriers to trade which the
U.S. wants to see resolved under the auspices of GATT.
 Reuter

    Net 277.5 mln vs 268.3 mln
    Sales 2.13 billion vs 2.14 billion
    Avg shrs 189.8 mln vs 189.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Sales 6.28 billion vs 6.22 billion
    Avg shrs 189.9 mln vs 190.2 mln
 Reuter

The United States warned Iran again 
that it was ready to retaliate for any further hostile military
action in the Gulf as U.S. warships began escorting another
tanker convoy southward from Kuwait.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said the U.S.
sought no further Gulf hostitilies but was ready to deal with
any Iranian response to Monday's attack on an Iranian oil rig.
    Several hours later, the Pentagon announced that U.S.
warships had begun escorting two U.S. flag Kuwaiti tankers --
the 80,000 ton product carrier Ocean City and 46,000 ton
liquified petroleum tanker Gas King -- southward from Kuwait.
    The Defense Department said the 12th such convoy of U.S.
flagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Gulf began at 0230 EDT
under the escort by the U.S. guided missile frigate Ford. It
did not say what oth U.S. warships were in the area.
    "It (the convoy) is now progressing uneventfully in the
central Gulf," the Pentagon statement said.
    Asked on NBC's "Today" program if the United States was
prepared for a major war with Iran, Weinberger said, "Well we
are prepared I think for whatever eventualities emerge from
this situation but we don't look on it as a war."
 REUTER

(ICO) Executive Board is to hold a meeting on November 3/4, its
first since export quotas were re-introduced early this month.
    An ICO spokesman said the session, for the first time under
the chairmanship of Bruno Caron of France, will review the
market situation and the operation of quotas.
    On November 5 the six exporters making up the ICO Board of
Management of the Promotion Fund will review its program for
the 1987/88 year (Oct/Sept) and items left over from 1986/87.
    On November 2 a six nation working group will consider
stock verification in Papua New Guinea.
 Reuter

Allegis Corp said it plans to repurchase
up to five mln of its common shares.
    The company said the buyback plan was established to take
advantage of market conditions.
    It said the timing and volume of the repurchases will
depend on market conditions.
 Reuter

completed the sale of subsidiaries <Martin CTN Group Plc> and
<Drummonds Pharmacy Group Plc>.
    Total consideration was 232.6 mln stg, subject to
adjustment on final audit, which is expected to add 12 mln stg,
Guinness said.
    Martins has been sold to <Panfida Ltd> an Australian
investment company, and Drummonds to <Macarthy Plc>.
 Reuter

    Net 1,540,000 vs 1,289,000
    Year
    Shr 1.59 dlrs vs 63 cts
    Net 5,849,000 vs 3,980,000
    NOTE: 1987 year excludes 1,814,000 dlrs for tax credits.
1986 4th qtr and year excludes a gain of 995,000 dlrs and
2,928,000 dlrs, respectively, for tax credits. 1986 per share
amounts caclulted from April 15, 1986, to septebmer 30, the
date of bank's conversion to stock ownership.
 Reuter

Lyng said the United States will continue its policy of
subsidizing farm exports to regain lost markets until there is
a global agreement to end such subsidies.
    In an interview with Reuters, Lyng also acknowledged he was
troubled by the prospect that the export enhancement program
(EEP) could prove so indispensable to boosting U.S. exports
that the U.S. would have difficulty abandoning it.
    "Yes, I'm troubled with that a little bit," he said. "There's
no question about it, the longer you feed the calf on the cow,
the longer it is to wean it."
    In recent months, USDA has offered subsidies on a growing
list of commodities to an increasing number of countries.
    Lyng called U.S. and European Community export subsidies
"just plain nonsensical as a long-term policy" and said he saw an
end to the expansion of the EEP.
    "I'm sure there's an end to the expansion, but we are doing
this to accomplish our goal which is to regain the markets that
we've lost, to keep our products competitive and to let those,
particularly the European Community, who, we are convinced, are
the worst offenders in terms of the export subsidization, that
we are prepared to continue to do this until we can come to
some agreement to put an end to it," he said.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 23 cts
    Net 1,173,859 vs 672,824
    Revs 11.0 mln vs 9,857,707
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 56 cts
    Net 2,986,823 vs 1,637,559
    Revs 31.5 mln vs 27.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 560,000 vs 177,000
    Revs 9,700,000 vs 7,700,000
    Avg shrs 1,877,203 vs 1,839,752
    Nine mths
    Shr 80 cts vs 28 cts
    Net 1,480,000 vs 524,000
    Revs 28.3 mln vs 22.8 mln
    Avg shrs 1,854,478 vs 1,899,769
 Reuter

Holiday Corp said its unit Holiday Inns Inc has
started exchange offers for all of the 150 mln dlrs of
outstanding 8-3/8 pct notes of 1996 and all 75 mln dlrs of
outstanding 14-1/8 pct notes of 1992.
    Holiday Inns will issue 1,000 dlr principal amount of new
9-1/8 pct notes due 1993 for each 1,000 dlr face amount of
8-3/8s, and 1,000 dlr principal amount of new 14-1/2 pct notes
due 1992 for each 1,000 dlr face amount of 14-1/8s.
    The Holiday unit is seeking approval of amendments to the
indentures of the outstanding notes for the exchange offers.
The exchange offers end at 1700 EST (2100 GMT) November 17.
 Reuter

Shr 35 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 3,033,000 vs 2,189,000
    Revs 56.2 mln vs 31.9 mln
    Avg shrs 8,649,000 vs 6,914,000
    Six mths
    Shr 63 cts vs 72 cts
    Net 5,450,000 vs 4,966,000
    Revs 108.6 mln vs 66.3 mln
    Avg shrs 8,655,000 vs 6,912,000
 Reuter

The Soviet oil production target for 1988
has been set at 625 mln tonnes, a rise of eight mln tonnes over
this year's planned output.
    Oil Minister Vasily Dinkov announced the figure on Tuesday
at the Supreme Soviet, the country's nominal parliament.
    He said a new development strategy, fuller use of oil
deposits and better housing and pay for oilmen had allowed an
upsurge in the oil industry after three years of stagnation
which began in late 1983.
    Last year the Soviet Union produced 615 mln tonnes of oil,
slightly short of the target of 616.7 mln.
    January-September figures released at the weekend showed
Soviet oil output in the first nine months of this year at 467
mln tonnes. The 1987 target is 617 million.
    Dinkov said the Soviet Union would develop 38 new oil
deposits in the coming year. He called for speedier geolog
prospecting across the country to spur the oil industry.
    The Supreme Soviet convened on Monday to endorse the 1988
budget and plan. The session is expected to end on Tuesday.
 REUTER

H.F. Ahmanson and Co, parent of Home
Savings of America, said its third quarter earnings declined as
a result of its decision in the second quarter to curtail sales
of loans and mortgage-backed securities.
    As a result, after-tax gains on sales of loans and
mortgage-backed securities accounted for 28 pct of its third
quarter net, compared to 82 pct in last year's third quarter.
    The company reported third quarter income of 40.3 mln dlrs,
or 41 cts per share, down from 78.9 mln dlrs, or 80 cts per
   
    The company said third qurter loan sales totaled 366 mln
dlrs, inlcuding 290 mln dlrs of adjustable rate mortgage
instruments, generating after-tax gains of 11.2 mln dlrs. This
compares with year ago loan sales of 2.29 billion dlrs,
generating after-tax gains of 65.1 mln dlrs.
    Third quarter loan originations totaled a record 3.48
billion dlrs, up 29 pct frrm 2.69 billion dlrs a year ago,
reflecting record loan fundings and the reduced loan sales.
    Ahmanson said monthly adjustable rate loans accounted for
85.8 pct of the real estate loans and mortgage-backed
securities, up from 77.6 pct a year ago.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 3,446,000 vs 3,789,000
    Revs 220.9 mln vs 186.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 77 cts vs 71 cts
    Oper net 8,301,000 vs 7,298,000
    Revs 634.3 mln vs 535.1 mln
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths net excludes 3,510,000 dlr charge from
antitrust litigation.
 Reuter

American Fltrona Corp said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to 100,000 shares of company's
stock for use in the its employee benefit plans and for other
    The company had 3,690,000 shares outstanding as of
    American also said it declared a regular quarterly dividend
of 19 cts a share payable November 25 to shareholders of record
November 10.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 44 cts
    Net 706,111 vs 579,576
    Revs 21.7 mln vs 23.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.26 dlrs vs 44 cts
    Net 1,657,634 vs 582,001
    Revs 63.1 mln vs 68.6 mln
    NOTE: Full name of company is Frozen Food Express
Industries Inc.
 Reuter

Shr loss four cts vs profit four cts
    Net loss 93,574 vs profit 100,469
    Revs 3,125,532 vs 3,253,239
    Nine mths
    Shr loss three cts vs profit seven cts
    Net loss 67,184 vs profit 179,116
    Revs 9,125,965 vs 9,284,055
 Reuter

Empire of Carolina Inc said it
plans to streamline operations, which will result in an
approximate 20 pct reduction of manufacturing management and
support personnel.
    The company said it expects to increase production
personnel by a like amount of people.
 Reuter

Qtly div 29 cts vs 29 cts prior qtr
    Pay Dec 7
    Record Nov 19
 Reuter

A senior treasury ministry official said an
early meeting of Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers was
unlikely following the sharp fall in stock markets around the
world.
    "I do not think a G-7 meeting is imminent, because the
agreements made at the last meeting at the end of September in
Washington remain valid," Antonio Pedone, economic adviser to
Treasury Minister Giuliano Amato, said in an interview on
Italian state radio.
 Reuter

Telefon AB L M Ericsson <ERIC.ST> said
it would sell its office machinery unit, with a turnover of two
billion crowns, to Norway's <Norska Design Funktion A/S>.
    Ericsson Information Systems, of which the unit is a part,
said in a statement a decision would be reached in November
about when the Norwegian firm would take over the operation.
    No price was given for the deal.
    EIS managing director Stig Larsson said the deal would
allow EIS to concentrate on voice and data communication
products.

 REUTER

Shr 14 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 2,867,.000 vs 2,723,000
    Revs 18.9 mln vs 19.1 mln
    1st half
    Shr 39 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 8,139,000 vs 6,709,000
    Revs 47.3 mln vs 44.5 mln
    NOTE: Affiliate of McKesson Corp <MCK>.
 Reuter

Goodman Fielder Ltd <GOOW.S> of Australia
said in a statement that it had acquired 31 mln ordinary shares
in Ranks Hovis McDougall Plc <RHML.L> (RHM), bringing its stake
in the company to 29.9 pct or 101 mln ordinary shares.
    Goodman said it has no intention of making a full bid for
the company and would not contemplate doing so over the next
six months in the absence of a material change in the
circumstances of Ranks.
    RHM said it regards the stake build-up as a hostile move
which is unwelcome and not in the long term interest of
 Reuter

Shr 60 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 5,726,000 vs 4,623,000
    Avg shrs 9,538,260 vs 8,598,198
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.61 dlrs vs 1.35 dlrs
    Net 15.0 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Avg shrs 9,277,440 vs 8,486,590
 Reuter

Citicorp said its board has authorized
the repurchase of up to five mln common shares, before a
two-for-one stock split that takes effect November 10.
    The company now has about 158.3 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

U.S. commodity markets should not
suffer any long-term ill effects from Monday's financial
turmoil, Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng said.
    "I think traditionally that commodity markets have moved
separately from the equity shares, so I wouldn't think that
this would have any long-term effect," Lyng told Reuters in an
    Most commodity futures prices declined on Monday, some
sharply, largely in response to plummeting stock prices. Many
futures prices rallied on Tuesday.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs 10 cts
    Qtly div 30 cts vs 30 cts prior
    Net 204,064 vs 245,931
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.14 dlrs vs 52 cts
    Net 2,850,042 vs 1,291,047
    NOTE: 1987 and 1986 nine mths includes a net gain on sale
of assets of 2,258,206 dlrs or 90 cts a share and 459,503 dlrs,
respectively. Dividend payable November 13 to shareholders or
record October 30.
 Reuter

Shr 61 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 3,430,000 vs 3,091,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.81 dlrs vs 1.73 dlrs
    Net 10,185,000 vs 8,038,000
    Assets 1.64 billion vs 1.45 bilion
    Deposits 1.27 billion vs 1.15 billion
    Loans 1.03 billion vs 838.5 mln
    Note: 1986 figures restated to reflect pooling of interests
transactions with Angola State Bank and Shipshewana State Bank
and an October 1986 three-for-one stock split
 Reuter

Exovir Inc said its board
authorized the purchase of up to one mln dlrs of its common
stock.
    The dollar amount represents approximately 120,000 shares,
the company said. Exovir has about three mln common shares
    The company said it believed its stock was substantially
undervalued.
 Reuter

Lawson said the recent dispute between the United States and
West Germany over economic policy was responsible for much
financial turmoil and that it should never have happened.
    He said in a television interview the dispute had fanned
fears of a breakdown in the cooperation which is so important
between finance ministers of the major nations.
    He said the dispute was a row which should not have
happened and agreed that much of the blame lay with U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker who had publicly criticised West
Germany for having raised its key interest rates.
 REUTER

Oper shr 36 cts vs 25 cts
    Oper net 7,100,00 vs 5,700,000
    Avg shrs 20.0 mln vs 22.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.03 dlrs vs 73 cts
    Oper net 21.3 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Avg shrs 20.7 mln vs 20.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes realized capital gains of 2,300,000
dlrs in quarter and 22.6 mln dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs seven cts
    Net 348,000 vs 135,000
    Revs 6,328,000 vs 4,117,000
    Avg shrs 2,558,400 vs 1,884,200
    Nine mths
    Net 640,000 vs 313,000
    Revs 12.0 mln vs 8,719,000
    Avg shrs 2,226,600 vs 1,589,6000
 Reuter

    Net 3,188,000 vs 2,731,000
    Revs 37.2 mln vs 25.4 mln
    Avg shrs 9,474,000 vs 9,425,000
    Year
    Shr 92 cts vs 80 cts
    Net 8,671,000 vs 7,492,000
    Revs 119.4 mln vs 73.6 mln
    Avg shrs 9,450,000 vs 9,410,000
 Reuter

The United States appears to have won a
transatlantic battle by forcing the Bundesbank to trim interest
rates, European economists said.
    But they added Washington set the stakes high by testing
the limits of the Louvre accord while global stock markets were
plunging.
    West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker reaffirmed their commitment to
currency stability at a secret meeting yesterday in Frankfurt,
according to official statements released late Monday.
    Only 13 hours after the statements were released, the
Bundesbank reduced short-term interest rates by offering banks
liquidity at a fixed bid rate of 3.80 pct, down from a 3.85 pct
facility rate offered last week.
    While the two ministers were meeting with Bundesbank
president Karl Otto Poehl, the central bank had also added
money market liquidity repeatedly, signalling it did not want a
strong rise in the tender allocation rate on Tuesday.
     "It's round one to the Americans, " said Richard Reid,
senior European economist for brokers UBS/Philips and Drew in
London.
    But Reid added, "We shouldn't forget that it has taken one
of the biggest stock market crashes in decades to get the West
Germans to cut their security repurchase rate by a 0.05
percentage point."
    Over the weekend, criticism by Baker of earlier tightening
of West German monetary policy led to a sharp dollar fall and
fuelled speculation that the Louvre accord was no longer valid.
    Six leading industrial nations agreed under February's
Louvre Accord to stabilise currencies and coordinate monetary
policies. It has since been reaffirmed by the Group of Seven -
the US, Japan, West Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.
    The Frankfurt meeting on Monday soothed currency markets
and the dollar gained over two pfennigs in after hours trading
in New York. At the Frankfurt fixing on Tuesday, the dollar was
quoted at 1.7918 marks compared with 1.7740 on Monday.
    Guenther Aschoff, chief economist at Deutsche
Genossenschaftbank in Frankfurt said massive declines on world
stock markets had been the main reason for the fall in West
German short-term interest rates on Tuesday.
    "The Bundesbank wanted to set a marker after stock market
losses... That was the responsible thing to do and if it fits
with Baker's wishes, then all the better," he said.
    No central bank wants to let interest rates rise, and the
Bundesbank had been forced to put its rates up following rises
in the U.S., Aschoff said.
    Poehl told a conference in Frankfurt on Tuesday the central
bank has no interest in higher capital market rates and he
thought the global rate increase was a cause for concern.
    Giles Keating, economist with Credit Suisse First Boston
Ltd in London said "The cautious Bundesbank has beaten a retreat
and Baker has won a battle...But he hasn't won the war as the
security repurchase rate is still 20 points higher than it was
before the IMF meeting last month in Washington."
    Before the IMF meeting, when the Louvre Accord was
reaffirmed, the Bundesbank was offering money market liquidity
at 3.60 pct, Keating noted.
    Economists said the United States now appeared to have
agreed to play by the rules of the Louvre Accord and support
the dollar in return for the German action on interest rates.
    Any further sharp decline of the dollar would hinder
Washington's efforts to reduce its trade deficit, Stoltenberg
told a news conference on Tuesday. He added he would not rule
out central banks of leading industrial countries intervening
on exchange markets to defend the dollar's value.
    Deutsche Genossenschaftbank's Aschoff stressed West
Germany's heavy dependence on exports and the need for currency
stability. In addition, both the U.S. And West German central
banks were keen to avoid a dollar slide which would force them
to again spend vast sums intervening to support the dollar.
 REUTER

The government has begun judicial
proceedings to expropriate five private banks under the recent
nationalisation law, the official gazette said.
    Advisories published in the official daily El Peruano said
the Economy Ministry had begun court proceedings to expropriate
the stock of the Banco de Lima, Banco Latino, Banco Mercantil,
the Banco de Desarrollo de la Construccion and the Banco
Financiero.
    The owners of 10 private banks included in the law have
said they would resist expropriation and riot police were used
last week to install state administrators in the first two
banks taken over.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs nine cts
    Net 2,062,000 vs 1,418,000
    Revs 33.1 mln vs 26.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 45 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 7,053,000 vs 5,156,000
    Revs 95.5 mln vs 75.7 mln
 Reuter

Centuri Inc said it intends to
buy up to one mln shares of its common stock.
    The company has approximately 16 mln shares outstanding.
   
 Reuter

No major member firms of the New York
Stock Exchange have reported any financial difficulties, NYSE
vice president Richard Torrenzano said.
    He said the only difficulty reported since the market fell
500 points yesterday was the problem encountered by a small
firm, H.B. Shaine and Co Inc of Grand Rapids, Mich. which
ceased operations.
    "Our systems are doing extremely well," he told reporters.
    He said NYSE executives have been conferring with senior
staff members at the White House and officials of the Federal
Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other major
Exchanges. He did not identify the officials.
    In an effort to reduce the volatility in the market today,
the NYSE temporarily suspended trading on the New York Futures
Exchange. The NYFE reopened at 1315 EDT.
    The NYSE said the reason for the suspension was that they
were following the actions of other exchanges where futures
were traded.
    Traders expressed concern that further volatility caused by
futures might threaten the financial health of other Wall
Street firms.
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc said it named Robert J.
Carbonell to the post of vice chairman and Edward J. Robinson
to the newly-created position of executive vice president,
finance.
    Carbonell, who had been senior executive vice president and
chief administrative officer of RJR Nabisco, will be
responsible for corporate technology, human resources and
planning activities, the company said.
    Robinson, who was formerly senior vice president, finance,
and chief financial officer, will retain the latter title in
his new position, the company said.
 Reuter

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said
its shares are now quoted on the NASDAQ national market system.
    The company said its shares previously were quoted on the
Nasdaq national market list.
 Reuter

Shr profit 14 cts vs profit one ct
    Net profit 502,251 vs profit 22,012
    Sales 4,715,846 vs 3,731,900
    Avg shrs 3,489,342 vs 3,288,720
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 19 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net profit 637,305 vs loss 658,398
    Sales 12.2 mln vs 9,806,301
    Avg shrs 3,439,065 vs 3,288,720
    Backlog 1,726,150 vs 739,540
 Reuter

Texaco Inc chairman Alfred DeCrane said
the company anticipates that the Texas State Supreme Court will
agree to hear its 10.3 billion dlr legal battle with Pennzoil
Co <PZL> over ownership of Getty Oil.
    "We expect that the Texas Supreme Court will hear our case,
will heed the voices of impartial third parties and will
ultimately reverse this unjust decision and thus provide the
simple basic justice that Texaco has asked for all along,"
DeCrane said in a speech at a meeting of the International
Association of Drilling Contractors.
    DeCrane said he expected the Texas State Supreme Court to
overturn a State Appeals Court ruling that found Texaco
unlawfully interfered with Pennzoil's 1984 plan to acquire
Getty Oil.
    "This case has become much more than a quarrel between two
companies," DeCrane said. "It presents a far broader threat to
our economic system and to justice in America as we know it
today."
   
    Settlement talks between the two oil companies to resolve
the billion dlr lawsuit reportedly stalled earlier this year
when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a friend
of the court brief in support of Texaco.
    The agency claimed Pennzoil violated SEC rule 10B-13 which
prohibits the purchase of shares privately at the same time a
tender offer is outstanding.
    DeCrane also said concerns expressed by 19 state attorneys
general in the legal proceedings also favored Texaco's
position.
    "The bottom line is that the SEC had intervened to insure
that its rule are interpreted properly in the interest of
millions of private stockholders around the country who might
some day find themselves the victim of this same kind of
manipulation," DeCrane told the oilmen.
    He warned that if the state appeals court judgment was
upheld in Pennzoil's favor, it would "send out of state
businesses fleeing from Texas in droves."
bankruptcy code last April after a state appeals court upheld
Pennzoil's 10.3 billion dlr judgment.
   
    Texaco's appeal of the decision to the Texas State Supreme
Court has been pending for several weeks and the court is
expected to decide soon whether it will agree to review the
lower court ruling.
    If the Texas State Supreme Court does not hear the case,
Texaco has said it will take its case to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
 Reuter

Bally Manufacturing Corp said it will
repurchase up to 25 mln dlrs worth of its common stock in the
open market or privately negotiated transactions
    Company officials could not be reached immediately for
comment on the reason for adopting the repurchase plan.
    Bally's stock was at 12-1/8, down two points, in afternoon
trade, following a slide of 5-5/8 points on Monday.
 Reuter

said it will repurchase up to three mln common shares or about
three pct of its total common shares outstanding on a fully
    The company said the recent decline in the market price of
its shares presented an attractive investment opportunity and
that the repurchase program would enhance shareholder value.
    The shares will be repurchased in the open market from time
to time based on market conditions, the company said.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) agreed a
trade deal with Argentina designed to compensate the country
following the entry of Spain and Portugal into the group, EC
    Under the deal agreed by EC foreign ministers, Argentina
will gain additional trading rights on a series of products
including meat, fish and cereals by-products.
    But ministers failed to agree on new trade deals with
Canada and Japan and are due to study these again, the
    The deal with Argentina was agreed by a majority of EC
states after West Germany withdrew objections to increased
quotas for Argentina on high-quality beef.
    Ireland and France continued to oppose the deal on meat,
saying that the main dispute was over sales of cereals
substitutes, but they were outvoted by the other states, the
officials said. Under the deal, Argentina will benefit from
improved quotas on exports of beef to the EC. In particular the
quota on high-quality Hilton beef will be raised by 4,500
tonnes to 34,300 tonnes and quotas on frozen boneless beef will
be increased by 3,000 tonnes to 53,000 tonnes.
    Argentina will also benefit from an additional quota of
5,000 tonnes of frozen hake fillets at 10 pct duty and reduced
levies on 550,000 tonnes of wheat bran, the officials said.
    The improved trade terms were offered after Argentina said
that Spain and Portugal's entry into the EC affected their
exports of cereals substitutes to these two countries. They
have been negotiated under the rules of GATT (General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade).
    But officials said ministers had been unable to resolve
Canadian claims that its sales of certain fish to Spain had
been affected by the country's EC membership.
    Officials said the EC had asked GATT to arbitrate on the
fish dispute with Canada.
    Ministers also decided to continue talks with Japan. The EC
claims that Spain and Portugal's entry into the group has
improved trade conditions for Japan but has been unsatisfied
with Japanese offers of compensation.
    Japan's main offers were to improve inspection systems on
citrus fruits to aid EC exports, to improve tariffs for some
other farm produce, to increase tariffs for leather footwear
and to offer better trade terms for Spain and Portugal.
    EC External Trade Commissioner Willy De Clercq told
journalists: "We maintain our position that the (Japanese)
concessions were not enough."
    "We hope that there will be an improvement," he said.
 Reuter

Intelogic Trace Inc said its
board has authorized the repurchase of up to one mln of its
14.9 mln common shares in the open market.
 Reuter

Best Products Co Inc said it plans
to repurchase up to two mln shares of its common stock for
employee benefit plans and general corporate purposes.
    A company spokesman said no further details are available
on the repurchase plan. He said the company now has about 27
 Reuter

Qtly div 50 cts vs 39 cts
    Pay Jan 20
    Record Dec 31
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 1.2 mln vs profit 1.4 mln
    Revs 114.9 mln vs 109.3 mln
    Shr profit one dlrs vs profit 84 cts
    Net profit 23.7 mln vs profit 19.9 mln
    Revs 430.9 mln vs 435.4 mln
    NOTE: Results are in pro forma form. Partnership became
public on March 19, 1987. Previous results reported from Texas
Eastern Corp's <TET> Petrolane Inc domestic division.
 Reuter

has halted trading in the options of 30 stocks because of the
conditions in the market in the underlying securities.
    The exchange normally handles trading in the options of
about 117 stocks, a spokeswoman said.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.31 dlrs vs loss 1.80 dlrs
    Net loss 31.2 mln vs loss 42.6 mln
    Revs 168.5 mln vs 147.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 4.32 dlrs
    Net profit 3.2 mln vs loss 101 mln
    REvs 446.1 mln vs 490.7 mln
    NOTE: All periods toher than 1987 3rd qtr are pro forma.
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr includes a 10.6 mln dlrs or 41 ct a
share after-tax loss from discontinued operations mainly from
sale of assets of oil and gas exploration and production
subsidiary on September 30.
    1987 3rd qtr also includes an extraordinary 11.4 mln dlrs
or 45 cts a share for planned redemtion of company's 16-1/4 pct
    1987 nine mths net includes a loss of 56.6 mln dlrs or 2.26
dlrs a share for discontinued operations. 1987 per share loss
is after deducting for preferred stock dividends.
   
    1987 nine mths net also includes after-tax gain of 44.3 mln
dlrs or 1.74 dlrs per share for formation of Valero Natural Gas
Partners L.P.
    1986 3rd qtr includes after tax loss from discontinued
operations of 31.5 mln dlrs or 1.26 dl share.
 Reuter

Zweig Fund said as of the market's close
on October 19 its asset value was 9.67 dlrs per share, down
from 10.29 dlrs before yesterday's large selloff but 13.7 pct
ahead of asset value at the sart of 1987.
 Reuter

To-Fitness Inc said its
common and prefered stock comprising the units of the company
will be traded separately commencing on Oct 21, 1987.
 Reuter

British Aerospace Plc <BAEL.L> has won a
150 mln stg contract to supply Switzerland with military
equipment, including 20 Hawk Mk 66 advanced jet trainers.
    The training and logistic package includes a <Rediffusion
Plc> Hawk flight simulator, a BAe spokesman said.
     The first plane will be made in Britain and delivered to
Switzerland by late 1989. The remaining 19 aircraft will be
co-produced by BAe and Swiss industry with final assembly in
Emmen, the spokesman said.
    The Hawks will enter service in 1990, replacing the Swiss
Air Force's British De Havilland Vampire jets.
 Reuter

U.N. Chief Javier Perez de Cuellar is
proposing a simultaneous ceasefire and inquiry into who started
the Iran-Iraq war under a revised peace plan, an Arab newspaper
reported on Tuesday.
    The United Arab Emirates daily al-Khaleej published what it
said was the text of his nine-point peace plan.
    The Al-Khaleej text referred to a ceasefire date as D-day
and stipulated, "On D-day, or another date to be agreed upon, an
impartial body to enquire into responsibility for the conflict
would start work." A choice could be made among existing bodies
or an ad hoc body could be established, the text said.
    The text also envisaged setting a deadline for the body to
complete its work.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 1,156,000 vs 1,358,000
    Revs 31.2 mln vs 28.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.10 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 4,064,000 vs 4,525,000
    Revs 91.3 mln vs 86.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr includes a charge of 700,000 dlrs or 19
cts a share for relocation costs for phase out some operations.
 Reuter

Qtly div 26-1/4 cts vs 26-1/4 cts in prior qtr
    Payable December 23
    Record November 20
 Reuter

Stanadyne Inc said it has acquired
a substnatial majority of AMBAC S.p.A.'s outstanding stock from
<AIL Corp>, the successor to United Technologies Corp's <UTX>
Diesel Systems Division for undisclosed terms.
    In addition to purchase a majority of the Brescia, Italy,
based company, Stanadyne said, it acquired a minority interest
in AMBAC's U.S. operation headquartered in Columbia, S.C.
 Reuter

Den Norske Creditbank (DNC) <NCBO.OL>,
Norway's biggest commercial bank, said it boosted its profits
in 1987's first eight months by 32.3 pct after vigorously
cutting loan losses and operating costs.
    The bank showed a 300 mln crown net profit after provisions
for losses and taxes in the period ending on August 31, against
a 203 mln crown profit in the same year-ago period, it said.
    DNC's biggest gains were seen in the domestic market, but
some of its foreign exchange and securities units have been hit
by sharply higher interest rates for the dollar and results
remained unsatisfactory, it added.
    Total assets rose to 132 billion crowns from 107.6 billion.
    Although the group's operating profit dropped to 875 mln
crowns compared with 986 mln a year-ago, the loss was countered
by reducing the need to set aside capital to cover loan losses,
it added.
    "In 1986 DNC made substantial provisions for potential loan
losses, particularly in the oil and shipping sectors...The need
for write-offs in these sectors has now been substantially
reduced," the bank said.
    DNC, with extensive exposure in the oil industry, was hard
hit by plunging crude prices last year.
 REUTER

    Net 406,659 vs 210,575
    Revs 6,028,263 vs 3,654,810
    nine mths
    Shr 11 cts vs seven cts
    Net 1,151,988 vs 576,358
    Revs 16.9 mln vs 9,684,002
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 8,632,800
 Reuter

Oper shr 16 cts vs 34 cts
    Oper net 4,255,000 vs 9,299,000
    Revs 294.4 mln vs 155.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.24 dlrs vs 1.06 dlrs
    Oper net 33.0 mln vs 28.8 mln
    Revs 740.5 mln vs 457.5 mln
    NOTE: 1987 results include restructuring and non-recurring
charge of 89 cts a share to restructure ChemLawn, acquired in
April 1987, and other recent acquisitions. Results exclude gain
on sale of discontinued operations of 97 mln dlrs or 3.60 dlrs
a share in 1987 3rd qtr. Results also exclude income from
discontinued operations of 3,063,000 dlrs in 1987 nine mths, of
503,000 dlrs or two cts in 1986 3rd qtr, and 5,804,000 dlrs or
21 cts in 1986 nine mths.

 Reuter

United Brands Co said it expects to
report substantially improved earnings for the third quarter
over the year-ago 4,300,000 dlrs or 26 cts per share.
    The company also said it has repurchased 695,000 common
shares for about 28 mln dlrs from affiliate <Great American
Communications Co>.
    The company said it has authorized the repurchase of an
additional 750,000 common shares in market or private
transactions from time to time.
 Reuter

    Net 11.0 mln vs 9,379,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 44 cts vs 1.78 dlrs
    Net 6,411,000 vs 25.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths net reflects 30 mln dlr addition to
Latin American loan loss provision.
 Reuter

Lawson said the collapse of British share prices this week held
no implication so far for domestic interest rates.
    He said in a television interview that "there is nothing in
the events of the past few days to increase the upward pressure
on (U.K.) interest rates."
    Sterling has so far stayed solid during the crisis, backed
by strong economic fundamentals and by 10 pct bank base lending
rates, analysts said. Lawson's comments followed another
frantic day in London's financial center, where British shares
closed 12.2 pct down on the day.
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 17.3 mln vs 12.9 mln
    Revs 336.9 mln vs 157.5 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 1.34 dlrs vs 1.07 dlrs
    Net 33.0 mln vs 26.3 mln
    Revs 654.7 mln vs 310.1 mln
    Backlog 1.9 billion vs 851.8 mln
   
    NOTE: Year ago qtr and six mths included after net charge
of about four cts per shr representing the difference between a
gain on the sale of securities and the write-off of certain
nonrecurring costs.
    In addition, the six mths 1986 includes a 2.3 mln dlr gain
on the sale of a unit and a one mln dlr writedown of a minority
interest investment.
    Results for the qtr and the six mths in current year
include Loral Systems Group, formerly Goodyear Aerospace,
acquired in March 1987.
 Reuter

Interpublic Group of Companies said it
declared a regular quarterly dividend of 17 cts a share payable
December 15 to shareholdres or record November 27.
 Reuter

Shr 75 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 46.8 mln vs 39.8 mln
    Avg shrs 60.3 mln vs 57.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.73 dlrs vs 1.95 dlrs
    Net 108.3 mln vs 114.7 mln
    Avg shrs 59.9 mln vs 56.8 mln
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths net includes special 15 mln dlr loan
loss provision.
    1987 nine mths net includes 16.6 mln dlr charge for
settlement of suit.
    Dividend pay Dec 15, record Nov 30.
 Reuter

authorized the repurchase of up to 1,000,000 shares of the
company's common stock, from time to time on the open market or
otherwise at prices deemed satisfactory by the company.
    The company said the repurchased shares wil be used for
Bowne's employee stock option and purchase plans.
 Reuter

earned 129.1 mln dlrs for the third quarter, up from 105.8 mln
    Net income per common share rose to 2.73 dlrs from 2.29
dlrs.
    Manufacturers Hanover said it raised common shareholders'
equity at the end of the third quarter from the second quarter
by 347 mln dlrs, to 2.09 billion dlrs. Included in the increase
was 267 mln dlrs from the sale last month of 6.9 mln new shares
of the corporation's common stock, and 76 mln dlrs from
retained earnings.
   
    Primary capital grew to 6.2 billion dlrs, or 7.92 pct of
total assets, up from 5.3 billion dlrs, or 7.07 pct, a year
earlier.
    Provisions for possible loans losses in the third quarter
was 111.9 mln dlrs, down from 139.5 mln a year ago. The reserve
for loan losses stood at 4.78 pct of total loans at the end of
September, up from 1.72 pct a year earlier.
    "We have placed top priority on the restoration of
shareholders' equity in the shortest time frame possible," said
John McGillicuddy, chairman and chief executive.
    "The first step was selling the full amount of new common
equity we anticipate needing in this replenishment process,"
McGillicuddy added. "The remainder will come from higher core
earnings, the sale of undervalued, non-strategic assets and the
recognition of tax benefits."
    Taken together, he said, these moves, as well as tighter
control over asset levels, will raise the corporation's common
equity-to-assets ratio to the four-pct range by the end of
1988. The ratio was 2.77 pct on September 30.
    For the nine months, Manufacturers reported a net loss of
1.16 billion dlrs, down from a gain of 301.8 mln a year ago.
    On a per-share basis, the loss was 28.33 dlrs, down from a
gain of 6.42 dlrs.
    The nine-month results reflect the impact of a previously
announced decision last quarter to boost the corporation's
loan-loss reserves by 1.7 billion dlrs. Without the addition,
net income would have been 263.3 mln dlrs, or 5.41 a share.
    Net interest revenue on a taxable equivalent basis in the
third quarter was 494.2 mln dlrs, down from 546.4 mln.
    Non-interest expenses in the latest quarter rose to 571.0
mln dlrs from 541.8 mln. Total capital at September 30 rose to
9.5 billion dlrs from 8.9 billion.
 Reuter

Northrop Corp said its backlog at
September 30 stood at 4.37 billion dlrs, up slightly from the
4.32 billion recorded a yeaer earlier.
    Northrop also reported a third quarter profit of 34.1 mln
dlrs, or 73 cts per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of
30.5 mln dlrs, or 65 cts per share.
    The company said its operating profit for the quarter
totaled 100.8 mln dlrs, compared with a 17 mln dlr operating
loss a year ago.
    Sales for the period climbed to 1.46 billion dlrs from 1.26
billion last year, Northrop said.
 Reuter

Electromedics Inc <ELMD.O> said
its shareholders voted to approve a 5-for-1 reverse stock
split.
    Each five authorized and outstanding shares of one ct par
value common stock are to be combined into one share of a newly
authorized five ct par value common stock, the company said.
    The company said the new common stock will trade under the
NASDAQ symbol ELMDV until at least 30 pct of the outstanding
shares of the old common stock have been exchanged for new
stock.
   
    Electromedics estimates that the reverse split will reduce
the number of shares outstanding from 45.5 mln to about
9,091,882.
    Electromedics is a manufacturer and marketer of high
technology medical equipment used in blood conservation.
 Reuter

Bear Stearns and Co said it bought a
specialist book yesterday on the American Stock Exchange but
would not disclose the name or the price.
    "It deals in stocks and options and it just demonstrates
our faith in the auction system on the exchange," said Alvin
Einbender, chief executive officer of Bear Stearns. "It's
evidence of the fact we have an appetite for that sort of thing
and think there's a good future in the marketplace," he said.
 Reuter

MCA Inc said its board has
authorized management to buy up to ten mln shares of MCA's
common stock in the open market or through private
    The company said ten mln shares is about 13 pct of current
    The shares are intended to be used for general corporate
purposes, MCA said.
 Reuter

US West Inc said it is aggressively
repurchasing its shares.
    In 1984, directors authorized the repurchase of up to 10
mln shares over any three year period.
 Reuter

Sept 25 end
    Primary shr 31 cts vs 22 cts
    Diluted shr 30 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 5,019,000 vs 3,165,000
    Revs 80.1 mln vs 57.2 mln
    Primary avg shrs 16,306,000 vs 14,495,000
    Diluted avg shrs 17,266,000 vs 15,827,000
   
    Primary shr 1.27 dlrs vs 1.07 dlrs
    Diluted shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.03 dlrs
    Net 20.2 mln vs 15.5 mln
    Revs 244.5 mln vs 181.5 mln
    Primary avg shrs 15,875,000 vs 14,495,000
    Diluted avg shrs 16,853,000 vs 15,280,000
    NOTE: Results are pro forma, assuming that company was
public throughout 1986. Company became public Feb 14, 1986.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 1.23 dlrs vs loss 57.50 dlrs
     Oper net loss 17,154,000 vs loss 26,953,000
     Avg shrs 13,914,000 vs 476,000
     Nine mths
     Oper shr loss 12.74 dlrs vs loss 76.94 dlrs
     Oper net loss 63,774,000 vs loss 35,207,000
     Avg shrs 5,005,000 vs 474,000
     Assets 785.3 mln vs 1.27 billion
     Deposits 625.6 mln vs 938.8 mln
     Loans 565.6 mln vs 826.9 mln 
     NOTE: July 17, 1987, company completed recapitalization
with injection of 200 mln dlrs in cash, 150 mln from the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and 50 mln dlrs raised through a
stock rights offering.
     1987 qtr and nine mths exclude gain of 22 mln dlrs
realized primarily from early settlement of debt in connection
with the recapitalization and a three mln dlr loss on
investment securities.
     1986 qtr and nine mths exclude 3.6 mln dlr gain on
investment securities.     
     1986 nine mths excludes gain of 3.4 mln dlrs from sale of
subsidiary bank
     1986 and 1987 shr and avg shrs restated for one-for-50
reverse stock split. Number of shrs outstanding at Sept 30,
1987, was 16,744.        
 Reuter

Redken Laboratories Inc said
its board authorized management to repurchase up to 600,000 of
the company's common shares.
    The repurchase program may be implimented over the next 18
months, or sooner, depending on whether or not the shares are
bought in the open market or in privately negotiated
transactions, Redken said.
    The program will be funded with cash on hand and future
cash flow, the company also said.
 Reuter

Shr 80 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 11.1 mln vs 8,545,000
    Revs 68.6 mln vs 41.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.96 dlrs vs 1.88 dlrs
    Net 26.8 mln 24.1 mln
    Revs 180.1 mln vs 126.3 mln
 Reuter

<Montenay Power Corp> said it reached final
agreement on a 15-year-contract for operation of the Dade
County Resources Recovery Facility, the largest plant of its
type in the world.
    The company is part of Montenay S.A, a subsidiary of
<Compagnie Generale des Ezux> of France.
    It said county commissions ratified the contract which
calls for investment of 45 mln dlrs to refurbish the plant and
restore it to its original capacity of 920,000 tons of solid
waste per year.
   
    Montenay said the agreement allows Dade County to maintain
its disposal fee at 27 dlrs per ton, by far the lowest of all
counties involved in resource recovery in Florida.
    The company said it will receive 22 dlrs per ton of refuse
processed, split revenues from electricty sold to FPL Group
Inc's <FPL> Florida Power and Light Co subsidiary with the
county and retain revenues from the sale of ash, minerals and
other recycled materials.
    Montenay said the contract extends through 2002 its
operation of the plant, which began in 1985 when the company
took over the plant from the previous owners.
 Reuter

Argentina's agriculture secretariat
set new support prices for grains and oilseeds, an official
    It said the support price for wheat was hiked to 300
Australs per tonne from 250 previously and for sunflowerseed
from northwestern Argentina to 450 Australs from 360
previously. It said the price went into effect Monday.
    The secretariat said the support price of sorghum was
increased to 210 Australs per tonne from 200 Australs
previously and for maize to 250 Australs from 220 Australs
 Reuter

Science Accessories Corp said it
has ended talks on acquiring privately-held Owl Electronics
Laborarories Inc because it could not reach satisfactory terms.
 Reuter

    Pay Dec One
    Record Nov 12
 Reuter

    Pay Nov 20
    Record Nov Five
 Reuter

McDonnell Douglas said
it signed a technical assistance agreement with the China Great
Wall Industries Co for possible use of its Payload Assist
Module on the Chinese Long March series of rockets.
    The company said the pact will serve as the basis for all
future proposals involving the use of the Payload Assist Module
in China.
    "This agreement opens the door for us to proceed with
proposals to the Chinese government or with spacecraft
customers planning to use the Long March," said Daniel Green,
the company's vice president of marketing.
 Reuter

    Pay Nov 19
 Reuter

Shr 57 cts vs N/A
    Net 7,222,000 vs 6,959,000
    Nine mths
    Shr N/A vs N/A
    Net 17.6 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Assets 2.7 billion vs 2.3 billion
    NOTE: Year-ago per shr amts not available as bank converted
to stock ownership June 24, 1987. 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths
has 2.9 mln and 7.4 mln dlrs for tax credits. 1986 3rd and nine
mths 2.1 mln and 7.9 mln dlrs for tax credits.
 Reuter

Qtr ended Sept 30
    Net 797,000 vs 403,000
    Sales 30.8 mln vs 27.3 mln
 Reuter

Re Capital Corp said it has begun
a stock buy-back program. The company gave no other details.
 Reuter

    Net 1,315,000 vs 1,161,000
    Revs 43.2 mln vs 36.5 mln
    Avg shrs 7,916,000 vs 7,490,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 50 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 3,899,000 vs 3,821,000
    Revs 123.7 mln 104.6 mln
    Avg shrs 7,808,000 vs 7,491,000
 Reuter

Shr 18 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 1,175,000 vs 1,528,000
    Sales 34 mln vs 34.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 56 cts vs 1.12 dlrs
    Net 3,578,000 vs 7,040,000
    Sales 109.3 mln vs 116.6 mln
    Note: 1986 figures include 508,000 dlr gain or
eight cts a share from discontinued operations

 Reuter

Communications Systems Inc said its
directors authorized the repurchase of up to 200,000 of its
total 5.2 mln common shares.
 Reuter

    Net 5,849,000 vs 4,630,000
    Revs 33.8 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 41 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 11.9 mln vs 11.5 mln
    Revs 84.6 mln vs 77.2 mln
 Reuter

BancTEXAS Group Inc said its board
elected Nathan C. Collins chairman of the board, president and
chief executive officer to replace director and acting chairman
Tom Stanzel
     Collins was formerly executive vice president and manager
of the asset/liability management group and senior credit
officer at Valley National Bank of Arizona, Phoenix.
     Stanzel replaced Chairman Vance Miller and President and
CEO Richard Ripley July 17, 1987, when the company completed a
200 mln dlr recapitalizaltion plan.         
 Reuter

Shr 14 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 213,000 vs 210,000
    Revs 229 mln vs 229 mln
    Shr 42 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 630,000 vs 628,000
    Revs 689,000 vs 689,000
    NOTE: Full name Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad.
 Reuter

1st qtr ended September 26.
    Shr profit two cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net profit 156,000 vs loss 1,816,000
    Revs 8,751,000 vs 7,123,000
 Reuter

    Pay Dec One
    Record Nov Six
 Reuter

Shr 78 cts vs 87 cts
    Net 159.3 mln vs 174.9 mln
    Revs one billion vs 1.06 billion
    Avg shrs 204,335,958 vs 200,471,561
    Shr 2.18 dlrs vs 2.36 dlrs
    Net 443 mln vs 469.6 mln
    Revs 3.2 billion vs 3.4 billion
    Avg shrs 203,375,222 vs 199,108,842
    12 months
    Shr 1.73 dlrs vs 2.44 dlrs
    Net 351.9 mln vs 481.5 mln
    Revs 4.3 billion vs 4.5 billion
    Avg shrs 202,900,311 vs 197,320,979
    NOTE: Full name Public Service Enterprise Group Inc
    All results reflect three-for-two stock split, effective
July 1, 1987.
 Reuter

Many Florida investors are old enough to
have seen it all before -- they lived through the Crash of '29
and Monday's stock market debacle was just another day for
some.
    "I don't sell," declared one elderly investor, who said he
had more than one mln dlrs in stocks. "Whatever goes down is
bound to come back up."
    The uniqueness of south Florida investors was easy to see
in brokerage offices around Miami, where the average age of the
crowds watching the Big Board quotations flash by on Tuesday
was retirement and beyond.
   
    "I don't know of any demographic studies, but we certainly
have the highest number of elderly active investors," said
Marshall Moore, a vice president of AmeriFirst Securities
Corporation in Miami.
    He worries that Monday's record loss of more than 500
points on the New York Stock Exchange will scare many people,
particularly those on fixed incomes, out of the market forever.
    "They will not be in stocks any longer," he said. "When you
start getting heart palpitations and sweaty palms you have to
get out and stay out except for maybe utilities and some
income-oriented issues."
   
    Across the state on the Gulf coast where there are heavy
concentrations of retired persons, Robert Lee of Investment
Management and Research Incorporated said there were "a lot of
serious losses out there."
    Retirees account for 90 per cent of his firm's business and
could take comfort in the fact that its professional managers
took their money out of the market last month. "But for those
who were buying in on the recent  upswing, this is devastating,"
he said.
   
    Miami Beach broker George Fox, most of whose clients are
over 60, worries that many are not taking the situation
seriously enough. Those who depend on their market earnings
should be a lot more concerned, he said. "I am scared because I
think this could become very serious."
    One 93-year-old investor said the market was bound to fall
sharply, "I just didn't think it would happen so soon." She
remembered '29 and said she remained stingy to this day as a
result. "I still find it hard to spend money."
 Reuter

E.F. Hutton Group Inc President and
chief executive officer Robert Rittereiser said in a statement
the firm is having no operating or financial difficulty despite
the volatility of financial markets.
 Reuter

Borden Inc said it plans to issue up to
250 mln dlrs of long-term debt securities in order to
capitalize on sharply lower interest rates.
    Proceeds will be used primarily to refinance existing
    The company said the offering of long-term debt will be in
addition to its previously announced offering of a master
limited partnership interest relating to Borden's basic
chemicals and plastics operations.
 Reuter

Ford Motor Co Chairman Donald Petersen
still expects slightly more than 15 mln U.S.-made cars and
trucks will be sold domestically in 1987, he told reporters.
    This is down from the 16.1 mln U.S. built vehicles sold
domestically last year, he added.
    Despite the sell-off in world stock markets, Petersen said,
the underlying fundamentals in the private sector of the U.S.
economy remain strong so calendar 1988 vehicle sales should
equal the 1987 total.
   
    Petersen said he could not explain nor predict stock market
activity.
    But he called for government officials to seriously address
long-term problems such as the trade and budget deficits,
stating the dollar is still too strong relative to other major
    For example, he said, the dollar should be about 120 yen
currently instead of its present level just below 144 yen.
   
    Petersen said Ford plans to spend substantially more in the
next five years than the 15.9 billion dlrs spent in the last
five on new products and upgrading of its manufacturing
    In 1986, Ford spent 3.4 billion dlrs to upgrade vehicle
manufacturing plants, he noted.
    He also said growth in free world car and truck sales will
be 1.8 pct per year over the next 10 years.
    Worldwide over-capacity, which was about 2.7 mln units in
1985, could expand to nine mln units by 1990, with more than
five mln of those units in North America, Petersen said.
       
 Reuter

    Pay Nov Nine
    Record Nov Two
 Reuter

Qtly div 62-1/2 cts vs 62-1/2 cts prior
    Pay Nov 30
    Record Nov Nine
 Reuter

Chase Manhattan Bank, a unit of Chase
Manhattan Corp, said it acquired a portfolio of approximately
190,000 consumer revolving credit accounts from Atlantic
Financial Federal <ATLF.O>.
    The portfolio is estimated to be worth 370 mln dlrs.

 Reuter

Ecolab Inc said it expects to
achieve record fiscal year results this year.
    The company recently changed its fiscal year end to
December 31 from June 30.
    Ecolab reported earnings from continuing operations for the
third quarter of 4,255,000 dlrs or 16 cts a share compared to
9,299,000 dlrs or 34 cts last year. Results for the current
quarter include a charge of 89 cts a share to restructure
ChemLawn, acquired last April, and other recent acquisitions.
    In the year ended June 30, 1987, Ecolab earned 47 mln dlrs
or 1.76 dlrs a share from continuing operations.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 3,149,000 vs 2,433,000
    Revs 225.4 mln vs 225.9 mln
    Avg shrs 7,800,000 vs 7,157,143
    Nine mths
    Shr 91 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 7,114,000 vs 4,540,000
    Revs 747.0 mln vs 728.2 mln
    Avg shrs 7,800,000 vs 6,767,143
 Reuter

<Total Capital Corp> said it acquired
<Dunhill Compact Classics Inc> for an unspecified amount of
stock.
    The surviving company will be controlled by Dunhill's
principals, Total Capital said.
    Dunhill makes compact discs.
 Reuter

First Capital Holding Corp said its
board authorized management to up to two mln shares of the
company's common stock for its Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
    The company said its board had previously authorized
purchases of up to one mln shares and to date, the plan has
only purchased 100,000 shares.
 Reuter

Oper shr 40 cts vs 47 cts
    Oper net 2,292,000 vs 2,688,000
    Sales 81.9 mln vs 78.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.20 dlrs vs 1.40 dlrs
    Oper net 6,842,000 vs 7,978,000
    Sales 244.7 mln vs 234.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net both periods excludes 2,223,000 dlr special
charge.
 Reuter

will close one half hour early at 1300, pacific daylight time,
due to heavy volume and to coincide with the closing of other
U.S. exchanges.
    The exchange closed a half hour early yesterday as well, as
both traders and computers had difficulty keeping up with
orders.
    A stock exchange spokeswoman said at 1145, pdt the latest
estimate on volume at the exchange was 9,147,000 shares.
    Yesterday the exchange traded a record volume of over 17
 Reuter

said it filed with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to
consolidate the hotel and related operation of the Resorts
International Casino with the company's Taj Mahal casino/hotel,
which is currently under construction.
    The company said the plan would allow both facilities to be
operated with a single casino room, located at the Taj Mahal,
and was necessary for the financial well-being and
efficiency of the operation.
    The company said the existing casino portion of the Resorts
Casino would be converted to a convention and exhibition space.
    The company said the petition also requests the approval of
a comprehensive services agreement between Resorts and <Trump
Hotel Corp>, which is controlled by Donald J. Trump.
    Under the agreement, Trump Hotel agrees to provide a
comprehensive range of services including marketing,
management, and construction and development to Resorts, the
    The company said the agreement also provides for the
non-exclusive license to Resorts to use the Trump name and
other trademarkes and service marks in connection with the
operations and marketing of Resorts properties.
    The terms of the agreement call for Trump Hotel to receive
an annual services fee of 1-3/4 pct of Resorts adjusted gross
revenue and 15 pct of its adjusted net income, the company
said. Additionally, Trump Hotel will receive a fee equal to
three pct of the post July 21, 1987 construction costs of the
Taj Mahal, the company said.
    The company said the proposed consolidation and the service
agreement were both unanimously approved by a committee of
three independent Resorts directors.
 Reuter

Viacom Inc said Gordon E. Belt has
resigned as vice president, chief financial officer of Viacom
Interntional Inc, effective Nov 13, 1987.
    The company said a successor will be announced shortly.
    Viacom said Belt has not announced immediate plans after
his resignation.
   
 Reuter

Qtly div 53 cts vs 53 cts prior
    Pay Dec 21
    Record Nov 20 
 Reuter

Shr 45 cts vs 45 cts prior qtr
    Pay November 20
    Record November three
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 32 cts prior qtr
    Pay December 14
 Reuter

Shr 61 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 8,273,000 vs 6,913,000
    Sales 226.0 mln vs 215.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.60 dlrs vs 1.25 dlrs
    Net 21,771,000 vs 17,369,000
    Sales 688.3 mln vs 635.8 mln
 Reuter

U.S. West said it is aggressively buying
back shares of its own stock under a resolution adopted in 1984
by its board authorizing the repurchase of up to 10 mln shars
over any three-year period.
    U.S. West has about 190 mln shares outstanding.
    The company did not specify how many shares it was
currently repurchasing.
    "The fundamentals of our company remain strong," said U.S.
West vice president and treasurer Jim Anderson. "We believe
U.S. West stock represents good value and we are in the market
aggressively buying shares of our own stock."
 Reuter

downgraded about 50 mln dlrs of subordinated debentures to B-3
from B-2 of Scott Cable Communications Inc.
    Moody's cited the significant increase in leverage and the
reduction in coverages that will result from the merger of
Scott with Simmons Communications Merger Corp.
    Scott lacks sufficient operating cash flow to fund the
entire interest expense for the near term and will depend on
bank financing to make up any shortfall, the agency noted.
    It added that the B-3 rating recognizes operating
efficiencies that will result from the merger.
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Shr 27 cts
    Net 313,000 vs 323,000
    Six months
    Shr 53 cts
    Net 607,000 vs 636,000
    Assets 107.8 mln vs 77.1 mln
    NOTE: Company became public Dec 31, 1986

 Reuter

Shr loss 39 cts vs loss 4.83 dlrs
    Net 16.3 mln vs loss 223.0 mln
    Revs 47.4 mln vs 30.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 3.37 dlrs vs loss 7.30 dlrs
    Net loss 151.6 mln vs loss 340.3 mln
    Revs 118.9 mln vs 161.8 ml
   
    NOTE: 1987 qtr includes loss 1,500,000 dlrs for
mobilization costs associated with two offshore drilling rigs.
    1986 qtr includes charge 187 mln dlrs for write-down of
oilfield services equipment and offshore drilling rigs.
 Reuter

Shr loss eight cts vs profit six cts
    Net loss 669,609 vs profit 530,641
    Sales 94.9 mln vs 83.9 mln
    Avg shrs 7,934,064 vs 8,220,797
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 19 cts vs profit 55 cts
    Net profit 1,494,218 vs profit 4,486,510
    Sales 289.1 mln vs 276.6 mln
    Avg shrs 7,930,961 vs 8,208,033
 Reuter

Period ended Sept 30
    Shr 73 cts
    Net 845,000 vs 454,000
    Year
    Shr 2.45 dlrs
    Net 2,819,000 vs 2,007,000
    Note: Company went public March 31, 1987.
    Full name is Deerfield Federal Savings and Loan Association
 Reuter

RJR Nabisco Inc said it will purchase up
to five mln of its outstanding common shares.
    The company said purchases under the ongoing program will
be made on the open market or in negotiated transactions. It
now has about 250.3 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Graphic Technology Inc said its board
has authorized the periodic repurchase of up to 100,000 shares
of common stock.
    The company said the board believed that the stock has been
undervalued in the market.
 Reuter

Nortek Inc said its Dixieline
Products Inc subsidiary has postponed its planned initial
offering of 1.6 mln shares of class A common stock
    Nortek cited adverse and volatile market conditions as the
reason for the decision.
    Nortek said it may reconsider the offering when faovrable
market conditions return.
 Reuter

Shr 69 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 1,767,000 vs 1,007,000
    Sales 32.3 mln vs 29.2 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 53 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,348,000 vs 319,000
    Sales 62.2 mln vs 55.2 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Diamond Crystal Salt Co.
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Primary shr five cts vs eight cts
    Diluted shr five cts vs eight cts
    Net 100,000 vs 176,000
    Revs 4,027,000 vs 3,649,000
    Primary avg shrs 2,212,281 vs 2,189,000
    Diluted avg shrs 2,212,281 vs 2,330,866
    NOTE: 1986 results includes a tax credit of 90,000 dlrs
 Reuter

the massive stock market correction could affect any out of
court settlement of the company's 10.3 billion dlr legal
dispute with Pennzoil Co <PZL>.
    However, DeCrane refused to say whether the two companies
were holding any settlement negotiations.
    "Certainly the market shakeout might affect the way this is
handled," DeCrane told reporters following a speech at a
meeting of the International Association of Drilling
Contractors.
    "In this environment, cash looks very important."
    DeCrane declined to say whether Texaco and Pennzoil had
held any recent settlement talks, citing a confidentiality
agreement between the two companies.
    "A few months ago Texaco offered 100 mln dlrs cash, no
strings attached just to take this appeal to the Texas Supreme
Court," DeCrane said. He was referring to a non-settlement
proposal that would have eliminated the threat of Pennzoil
filing liens, or ownership rights, against Texaco property
before the company filed for bankruptcy protection in April.
    "I think that (the offer) looks pretty good now to a
Pennzoil shareholder whose stock is trading around 30 or 40."
    Settlement talks between the two companies reportedly broke
down earlier this year after Pennzoil insisted it would not
settle for less than four billion dlrs.
    Since then, Texaco has asked the Texas State Supreme Court
to review the 10.3 billion dlr judgment against it.
    DeCrane also said it was not clear if the stock market drop
could spur further consolidation in the oil patch.
    "We know the value is there. The market fluctuation has not
changed the value of the underlying assets," DeCrane said
of publicly traded U.S. oil companies.
 Reuter

C and D Commodities, a major
Chicago-based commodities firm, is not having any financial
problems but has pulled out of the U.S. energy futures market
because of excessive volatility, according to Dale Dellutri,
executive consultant.
    "We are not in any kind of financial problem at all but we
will be out of the market because of the volatility," Dellutri
said. "Individuals and customers are getting out," he added.
 Reuter

The Kansas City Commodity Credit Corp
office is preparing a wheat catalogue containing roughly 300
mln bushels, scheduled to be released in the next two to three
weeks, a CCC spokesman said.
    The catalogue should include all CCC stocks stored at
terminals and about 50 pct of the stocks stored at country
elevators, the spokesman said. Hard red winter wheat should
comprise the bulk of the stocks, followed by spring wheat, he
said.
    The release date is tentative in case there are snags in
the catalogue's preparation, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

Alex Brown and Sons Inc said it is
refocusing its corporate syndicate desk away from underwriting
straight corporate debt issues to emerging company debt and
collateralized mortgage obligations.
    Marc Schneebaum, director of financial management with Alex
Brown, said the stock market's downturn did not prompt the
decision.
    "Actually, this is one of those ironies in timing. This
(refocusing) had been discussed for some time," he said.
    Alex Brown, based in Baltimore, is one of the larger
regional securities firms.
 Reuter

The Italian treasury's first offer of 500
mln worth of 373-day European Currency Unit (ECU) bills on the
domestic market was hugely undersubscribed, Bank of Italy
figures showed.
    The Bank said market operators requested and were assigned
127 mln of the offer, with the Bank of Italy taking up 150 mln.
The remaining 223 mln went unassigned.
    It was the first ECU-denominated offer by the Italian
treasury in short-term paper. Previous ECU-denominated offers
have been in medium-term Treasury certificates.
    The Treasury said at the time of the offer that it was in
response to operators wishing to diversify their portfolios.
    Gross rates on the bill, which mature October 28 1988, is 9
pct, giving an effective annual net yield of 7.88 pct.
    The bills were priced at par and capital reimbursements and
interest payments in lire will be determined on the basis of
the lira-ECU exchange rate on October 26 1988.
 Reuter

Cascading global stock prices are
evoking grim memories of the great market crash of 1929, but
analysts are reminding investors of safeguards in place before
they stash their savings under the mattress.
    But some also say that while banking, securities and social
laws written during the great depression should prevent a
repeat of that dismal era, more protection still might have to
be considered.
   
    And analysts caution that while new laws can deal with some
problems, lawmakers can't legislate away fear--which  helped
drive the New York Stock Exchange to its record 508-point Dow
Jones index loss on Monday.
    That 22.6 percent loss nearly doubled the Oct 29, 1929 
loss of 11.7 percent. On the day before that year, the market
fell nearly 13 per cent.
    In a series of Reuters interviews with government,
congressional and private analysts, most agreed safeguards
exist to avoid a repeat of 1929 and its depression aftermath.
    Charles Schultze, chairman of the president's Council of
Economic Advisers under Jimmy Carter, said in an interview that
"the safeguards should be adequate to avoid a repeat of 1929 to
1933."
    "The safeguards are fine," he said, "The safeguards are
adequate to prevent a cascading liquidity failure. That's not
the overall problem which is the dollar and trade deficits."
    Schultze, now with the Brookings Institution think-tank,
pointed to a weak Federal Reserve during the 1920s when "the Fed
acted in the wrong way in 1929--it tightened money."
   
    Similarly, President Reagan's budget manager, James Miller,
told Reuters the safeguards in place should be adequate.
    And millionaire oilman and business takeover specialist T.
Boone Pickens said the present safeguards should avoid any 1929
    "It is a much more sophisticated system, I don't see that a
comparison is valid."
    Marvin Kosters, director of economic policy studies at the
conservative American Enterprise Institute, thinks the present
safeguards will work.
   
    "The main thing is the understanding of the Federal Reserve
of its responsibility to maintain liquidity in the economy," he
said. "There is no reason why this (market fall) needs to spread
into the real economy. Maybe it's better it happened at all."
    Rex Hardesty of the huge labor confederation AFL-CIO said
many of the present safeguards are not working, saying "only
one-third of the unemployed are now receiving benefits."
    He also called for an increase in the 3.35 dlr minimum wage
which has not been raised since 1981.
    One of the main things that appears different in 1987 than
in 1929 is market psychology, analysts point out.
    During those anything goes days of flappers and bathtub
gin, the stock market was the road to riches that captured the
savings of shoeshine boys to bank presidents. It was viewed as
a highway to heaven with no turning back.
    But happy days soon collapsed into a nationwide, hysterical
panic with the stock market crash, wiping out paper millions
and losing the life savings of many average investors as panic
set in.
    Brokers leaped from Wall Street skyscrapers. American banks
closed for a  "holiday" in 1933 as depositors clamored to pull
out their savings. The great depression followed leading into
    Images of those days surfaced with the unprecedented sell
off on Monday, but analysts maintained times are different.
    House Banking committee specialist Jake Lewis said that
bank investors should have no fears because their savings are
now completely backed by the government. 
    Even though there have been record bank failures --145 last
year, 148 this year through today--everyone received their
savings--unlike the millions lost when banks collapsed 60 years
ago.
     Banking deposits, then uninsured, now are fully insured by
the government up to 100,000 dlrs for each saver.
    As the depression swept the nation, President Franklin
Roosevelt steered into law sweeping banking and securities
reforms to deal with many of the problems that led to the crash
and hurt people afterwards.
   
 Reuter

Refco Inc denied it is having financial
difficulties and said it did not halt oil futures trading
today, John O'Connell, assistant vice president of research
 Reuter

Owens-Illinois Inc said its
subsidiary's 60 dlr a share cash tender offer for all the
outstanding common shares of Brockway Inc has been extended to
midnight October 30.
    The offer had been scheduled to expire at midnight October
21.
    Owens-Illinois said that as of Oct 19, 1,598,789 common
shares, or about 13 pct of the outstanding shares of Brockway
have been tendered.
    It said it and Brockway are preparing responses to the
previously announced request for additional information from
the Federal Trade Commission under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.
    The Owens-Illinois subsidiary, which began the tender offer
on September 23, will not be able to buy Brockway's common
shares until 10 days following Owens-Illinois compliance with
the FTC request or other conditions.
 Reuter

Banc One Corp said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to 5,000,000 shares of its
    The company currently has about 98.0 mln shares
 Reuter

West Virginia has been declared free
of tuberculosis and brucellosis from its cattle population, the
    It said a state is recognized as tuberculosis-free if no
case of the disease is diagnosed for at least five years and if
the state complies with the uniform methods and rules of the
state-federal cooperative eradication program.
    To achieve brucellosis-free status, a state's cattle
population must remain uninfected for the previous 12 months.
    There are 33 states, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands,
classified as free of bovine tuberculosis and 24 states, plus
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which have eradicated
brucellosis. Only 20 states and the U.S. Virgin islands have
eradicated both diseases, it noted.
 Reuter

The House Budget Committee approved a
package of 23 billion dlrs in taxes and budget cuts to reduce
the 1988 budget deficit.
    The 20-14 party-line vote by the Democratic-controlled
committee sends the measure to the full House where House
Speaker Jim Wright predicted passage next week.
    The package--including 12 billion dlrs in taxes President
Reagan has vowed to veto--was put together by other committees
under a new budget law requiring a 23 billion dlr cut in the
deficit to scale down the 1988 budget deficit.
 Reuter

NYSE VICE PRESIDENT SAID NYSE OFFICIALS TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE AT 1620 EDT

Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc said it
is not having any financial difficulties following the 508
point decline in the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
    The firm joined a long list of Wall Street securities
companies that have been rumored to be in financial straits
from losses caused in yesterday's selloff.
    Earlier today, the NYSE said there were no major membe
firms reporting any financial trouble. But, it said that H.B.
Shaine and Co Inc of Grand Rapids, Mich. could not continue to
do business.

 Reuter

Confronted by new hostilities
involving U.S. forces in the Gulf, the U.S. Senate voted to end
Republican stalling tactics and limit debate on a measure that
could give Congress a larger role in Gulf policy.
    The measure, however, does not require President Reagan to
comply with the 1973 War Powers Act as does a related Senate
bill. The controversial War Powers Act could require a pullout
of U.S. forces from the Gulf.
    The Senate voted 67-28 to stop a filibuster and limit
debate to 30 hours on a bipartisan measure that requires Reagan
to report to Congress on Gulf policy within 60 days and calls
for a resolution to be passed in the House and Senate on the
situation in the volatile waterway 30 days later.
    The resolution could be about any Gulf-related issue,
including an expression of support or of disapproval for
Reagan's policy of protecting 11 Kuwaiti tankers from Iran in
the waterway. The Pentagon said the 12th U.S.-protected convoy
began moving through the Gulf early Tuesday.
 Reuter

its board authorized an increase in the maximum number of
shares to be repurchased under its stock buyback program to 4.5
mln from 2.5 mln.
    The company said the board initially authorized the stock
buyback in October 1985 and since then about two mln common
shares have been repurchased.
 Reuter

FGIC Corp said its board authorized the
purchase at prevailing market prices of up to 30 mln dlrs of
its common over the next 12 months.
    The company said Goldman Sachs and Co will be acting as the
company's agent for the shares buy back.
    FGIC said it has about 23.7 mln shares of common currently
listed and outstanding on the New YOrk STock Exchange.
    FGIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Guaranty
Insurance Co.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 22.3 mln vs 20.4 mln
    Revs 631.1 mln vs 644.8 mln
    Avg shrs 51,551,000 vs 50,128,000
    Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 1.13 dlrs
    Net 64.3 mln vs 59.6 mln
    Revs 1.90 billion vs 2.03 billion
    Avg shrs 50,868,000 vs 50,028,000
   
    NOTE: All results reflect five-for-two common stock split
payable in the form of a stock dividend payable July 10, 1987.
    1986 results include gains from retroactive adoption of new
accounting rules for pension on Jan 1, 1986 of 2.6 mln and 7.7
mln dlrs for third quarter and nine month periods,
     Company redeemed its outstanding preference stock, 2.35
dlrs convertible series on Sept 14, 1987.
 Reuter

The vice president of the New York Stock
Exchange, Richard Torenzano, said NYSE officials would hold a
news conference at 1620 EDT/2020 GMT at the New York Stock
Exchange.
    Torenzano spoke as the market staged another blue chip
rally in the final hour of trading.
 Reuter

Shr 1.15 dlrs vs 1.22 dlrs
    Net 3,301,000 vs 3,466,000
    Revs 21.2 mln vs 20.8 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 2.38 dlrs vs 2.58 dlrs
    Net 6,873,000 vs 7,397,000
    Revs 51.6 mln vs 50.3 mln
 Reuter

Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg said he
was surprised by recent criticism of West German economic
policies voiced by U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker but
added that the criticism was not purely one-sided.
    Stoltenberg told the West German Trade and Industry
Association (DIHT) that before a meeting with Baker on Monday,
"There had been surprising notes of criticism (from the United
States)." He added. "Criticism is not a one-way street."
    He did not elaborate, but Bonn has often called on the U.S.
To reduce its federal budget deficit.
    Over the weekend Baker had criticised West German economic
policies, saying that rises in domestic interest rates here
were not in the spirit of last February's Louvre pact to
stabilise currencies.
    Stoltenberg told the DIHT that his meeting on Monday with
Baker had resolved differences between the two countries.
    At a news conference earlier on Tuesday Stoltenberg had
declined to comment specifically on Baker's criticisms, but he
had said that after three hours of discussions on Monday, "one
remark or another has been clarified."
 Reuter

U.S. military planners ruled out
Iran's Silkworm missiles as a target in the retaliatory attack
mounted on Monday for fear of being drawn more deeply into the
Iran-Iraq war, defense and Middle East experts said.
    U.S. naval forces destroyed an offshore oil platform and
raided another in what the administration called a "measured and
appropriate response" to an Iranian Silkworm missile attack last
Friday on a U.S.-flagged tanker in Kuwaiti waters.
    Private analysts generally agreed that going after the rig
rather than an onshore economic or military target such as
Silkworm launch sites reflected a careful bid by Washington to
limit the political, military and diplomatic fallout both at
home and in the Gulf.
    "It simply demonstrated the United States will take military
action when they (Iran) take military action," Norman Polmar, a
defense analyst and author, said.
    He said hitting the platforms had spared Iran the
embarrassment of casualties on its own soil, possibly avoiding
an escalating spiral of attack and counterattack.
    In addition, it minimized the risk to U.S. forces and the
potential embarrassment of any losses, including aircraft that
could have been shot down had they taken part in an attack.
    Anthony Cordesman, author of a new book on the Iran-Iraq
war, said the United States apparently chose a limited target
to keep alive the possibility that U.N. Secretary General
Javier Perez de Cuellar might still persuade Iran to accept a
Security Council call for a ceasefire.
    "We want the U.N. peace initiative to work if there's any
chance at all," he said, adding that the action made it clear
tougher steps would follow if Iran to attack Gulf shipping.

   In targeting an oil rig -- albeit one said by the Pentagon
to have been turned into a military command post -- Washington
also sent a message that it might be willing to attack Iran's
economic lifeline. Pentagon officials said the platform had
been used as a base for Iranian raids against shipping in the
lower Gulf.
    "We have chosen a military target, but we also have shown
Iran that we are willing to interfere with its oil-exporting
capabilities," Cordesman said.
    He predicted the United States would respond to any future
major Iranian challenges by hitting Iran's naval base at Bandar
Abbas on the Straits of Hormuz, followed by mining the
approaches to Iran's oil export terminal on Kharg Island.
    Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said on Monday the
United States did not seek further confrontation with Iran, "but
we will be prepared to meet any escalation of military action
by Iran with stronger countermeasures." 
 Reuter

Shr loss two cts vs loss 41 cts
    Net profit 4,134,000 vs loss 3,682,000
    Revs 22.8 mln vs 23.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 44 cts vs loss 1.99 dlrs
    Net profit 25.6 mln vs loss 26.8 mln
    Revs 73.4 mln vs 86.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 1,374,000 dlrs,
or five cts per share, and 10.2 mln dlrs, or 41 cts per share,
respectively, from net operating loss carryforward.
    1987 qtr and nine mths includes loss 4,850,000 dlrs, or 16
cts per share, and loss 14.6 mln dlrs, or 58 cts per share,
respectively, from payment of preferred dividends.
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes loss 4,850,000 dlrs, or 23
cts per share, and 14.6 mln dlrs, or 70 cts per share,
 Reuter

Electrical engineering group AEG AG
<AEGG.F>, in which Daimler-Benz AG <DAIG.F> has a majority, is
reorganizing its energy business, AEG said in a statement.
    AEG will invest 250 mln marks over the next three years in
a new turbines, electrical machinery and power station plant
division, which will include its <AEG Kanis GmbH> subsidiary.
    The investment includes a new turbine factory for AEG Kanis
in Essen, and the restructuring of AEG's Nuremberg works into a
specialized components and rotor factory.
    The project is part of the Daimler group's energy
technology strategy, AEG said.
 Reuter

Lawson said there is more confidence in British financial
institutions than in U.S. Equivalents, so there is no need for
an official statement that the Bank of England will provide
liquidity to the U.K. Financial system.
    "Our institutions are in a stronger position, I think, and
the state of confidence is very much higher in this country so
I see no need for the Bank of England...To make any statement
of that kind," he said in an interview on Channel Four
    Earlier a pledge to provide such liquidity from U.S.
Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan reassured world
markets.
    Lawson said the Bank of England also saw no reason to
provide such reassurance.
    The Bank of England had earlier declined comment.
    Analysts said Greenspan's pledge that the Fed would stand
behind the U.S. Financial system reassured markets that the
current turmoil should not spill over into the rest of the
economy through a crisis in a financial institution caught out
by heavy equity price losses and bond price volatility.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORTERS REPORT 125,000 TONNES OF  CORN SOLD TO USSR FOR 1987/88

Alaska Air Group Inc said its board
authorized management to repurchase up to 320,000 common shares
in the open market from time to time.
    The company said its current stock price does not reflect
its full value.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.22 dlrs vs 88 cts
    Oper net 13.5 mln vs 11.7 mln
    Revs 139.1 mln vs 160.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 2.00 dlrs vs 1.15 dlrs
    Oper net 22.8 mln vs 15.4 mln
    Revs 348.8 mln vs 385.9 mln
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths oper net excludes gains
from tax loss carryforwards of 3,067,000 dlrs and 8,548,000
dlrs respectively. 1986 3rd qtr and nine mths oper net excludes
tax carryforward gains of 7,446,000 dlrs and 9,814,000 dlrs,
 Reuter

    Net 2,646,000 vs 2,611,000
    Sale 41.4 mln vs 38.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 6,038,000 vs 5,545,000
    Sales 117.2 mln vs 108.4 mln
 Reuter

Welbilt Corp said it acquired
<Food Handling Systems Inc> of Dallas, a producer of commercial
ovens, conveyers and proofer systems.
    Food Handling, which also produces equipment for the
commercial baking industry, was privately owned by Richard
Shumway of Mesa, Ariz., and Vic Ferrara of Dallas, both of whom
will remain with the company.
    The company has manufacturing facilities in Dallas and
Phoenix.
 Reuter

has resumed trading on 17 of the equities options that were
halted earlier because of conditions in the underlying
    At 1044, pdt the exchange announced it had halted trading
on 30 such options.
    The exchange did not indicate when it might resume trading
on the remaining options.
 Reuter

Best Products Co Inc said 
planned to repurchase up to two mln shares of its common for
    Best has about 27.1 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

125,000 tonnes of U.S. corn to the Soviet Union for delivery
during the 1987/88 season and under the fifth year of the Long
Term Grain Supply Agreement.
    The department noted the sales are the first reported for
delivery during the fifth year of the Agreement, which began
October 1, 1987.
    Sales of wheat and corn to the USSR for delivery during the
fourth year of the agreement totaled 8,182,500 tonnes --
4,080,500 tonnes of wheat and 4,102,300 tonnes of corn. In
addition, sales of soybeans totaled 68,200 tonnes, it said.
 Reuter

Period ended August 31.
    Shr loss 52 cts vs profit 16 cts
    Net loss 4,987,000 vs profit 1,570,000
    Revs 18.0 mln vs 24.7 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr loss 2.14 dlrs vs loss seven cts
    Net loss 20,525,000 vs loss 557,000
    Revs 25.6 mln vs 30.8 mln
    Note: Full name De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Inc.
 Reuter

The Fur Vault Inc said it will
repurchase up to 3,000,000 shares of its common stock.
    The company has 13,222,873 shares ot common stock issued
and outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 5,584,000 vs 4,276,000
    Revs 97.7 mln vs 83.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 84 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 17.7 mln vs 9,848,000
    Revs 290.8 mln vs 241.8 mln
    Avg shrs 21.1 mln vs 25.1 mln
 Reuter

Spanish farm minister Carlos Romero,
speaking at a meeting of EC farm ministers, called for action
to help the Spanish maize market, Spanish diplomatic sources
said.
    Spain is threatened with massive imports from third
countries by the end of the year, they said.
    They said the imports are due to come in as a result of the
accord by which the EC has promised the United States it will
import two mln tonnes of maize and 300,000 tonnes of sorghum
into Spain from third countries this year.
    Around a sixth of this tonnage has so far come in under a
reduced levy system and the EC cereals management committee may
decide this week to authorise the Spanish intervention board to
make direct purchases.
    The sources said Romero urged that other EC countries
should take some of the imports to prevent disturbance of the
Spanish market.
    They said he threatened to withhold support for the EC
Commission plan for new limits on farm output which if breached
would mean price cuts unless Spain received some help.
    The sources said no direct reply was given to Romero at the
meeting.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs eight cts
    Net 2,292,000 vs 465,000
    Revs 81.9 mln vs 78.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.20 dlrs vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net 6,842,000 vs 5,755,000
    Revs 244.7 mln vs 234.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 qtr and nine mths includes loss 2,223,000 dlrs,
or 39 cts per share, from unspecified extraordinary item.
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.51 dlrs vs loss 1.12 dlrs
    Net loss 104.2 mln vs loss 46.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 5.80 dlrs vs loss 52 cts
    Net loss 240.9 mln vs loss 21.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes loss 123.6 mln dlrs
and 286.0 mln dlrs, respectively, for loan-loss allowance
provision. 1987 qtr includes gain 9.4 mln dlrs from tax
benefit.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 1,713,000 vs 1,207,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 70 cts
    Net 4,935,000 vs 4,352,000
    Loans 843.2 mln vs 937.2 mln
    Deposits 954.1 mln vs 1.043 billion
    Assets 1.09 billion vs 1.19 billion
 Reuter

Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas
lease sale number 97 in the Beaufort Sea, tentatively
schedualed for January 1988 has been postponed, the U.S.
Department of Interior said.
    Alan Powers, chief of the Minerals Maanagement Service for
the department, said the delay is to have more time to study
the effects of drilling noise on whale migrations.
    Powers said the state has asked for additional noise data
for the sale area off Alaska's North Slope. A new date has not
been set, but it will likely be no sooner than next March,
Powers said.
    Some 3,930 blocks encompassing about 21 mln acres are
involved in the proposed sale. The area is between three and
160 miles off the northern coast of Alaska in the Artic Ocean
between the Canadian border and 162 degrees west longitude.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 1,026,000 vs 769,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.06 dlrs
    Net 3,035,000 vs 2,472,000
 Reuter

Shr profit 47 cts vs loss 38 cts
    Net profit 4,767,000 vs loss 2,623,000
    Revs 23.7 mln vs 3,629,000
    Avg shrs 11,242,166 vs 6,895,290
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 89 cts vs loss 49 cts
    Net profit 7,726,000 vs loss 3,350,000
    Revs 38.8 mln vs 7,172,000
    Avg shrs 9,410,497 vs 6,895,290
 Reuter

President Reagan cancelled a
reception for Republican presidential candidates on Tuesday in
an apparent effort to make room in his schedule for a meeting
on stock market developments.
    "The postponement is being made to accomodate the
president's schedule today. The president continues to follow
developments in the stock market," the White House said.
    There was speculation that Reagan would meet with Treasury
Secretary James Baker and Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan
Greenspan at 4 PM EDT, which was when the reception was to have
taken place.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs nil
    Net profit 403,000 vs loss 51,000
    Revs 9,609,000 vs 4,495,000
    Nine mths
    Shr loss one ct vs loss four cts
    Net loss 171,000 vs loss 799,000
    Revs 17.6 mln vs 13.3 mln
    NOTE: Full name is Strathcona Resource Industries Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 470,000 vs 311,000
    Revs 15.8 mln vs 8,176,000
    Avg shrs 3,723,000 vs 2,512,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 36 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 1,138,000 vs 993,000
    Revs 40.5 mln vs 21.9 mln
    Avg shrs 3,199,000 vs 2,283,000
   
    NOTE: 1986 includes extraordinary credit of 160,000 or six
cts per shr in qtr 1986 and 511,000 or 22 cts per shr in nine
mths 1986.
 Reuter

    Net 1,660,0009 vs 653,000
    Revs 21.0 mln vs 20.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 34 cts vs 12 cts
    Net 3,320,000 vs 1,109,000
    Revs 60.1 mln vs 57.4 mln
198,000 or two cts per shr in qtr 1986 and 1,425,000 or 15 cts
per shr in nine mths 1986.
 Reuter

ADVO-System Inc said about 225,000
of its warrants have been purchased at a cost of about 2.3 mln
dlrs.
    It said part of the cost of this private transaction will
be borne by <Telemundo Group Inc>, successor to ADVO-System's
former parent <John Blair and Co>.
    ADVO-system said the purchase of the warrants reduces its
obligation to issue common by about 800,000 shares.
   
    As a result of this and other, similar moves, the company's
average shares outstanding to be used for computation of
earnings per share in fiscal 1988 will be about 2.3 mln less
than that reported for the year ended September 30, ADVO-System
said.
 Reuter

The state-run Ecuadorean State Oil
Corporation (CEPE) has named Jaime Sanchez Valdivieso as its
new general manager replacing Carlos Romo Leroux, a CEPE
    The spokesman told Reuters Sanchez is a 46-year-old civil
engineer who formerly headed CEPE's administration and finances
division.
    Romo Leroux resigned last week for "personal and family"
reasons, the spokesman said.
 Reuter

United Technologies Corp said its
board authorized management at its discretion to buy up to six
mln shares of the company's common stock in the open market.
    "We are taking this action because the price of the stock
represents an excellent buying opportunity," the company said
    The military, commercial and industrial products company
had about 131.6 mln shares outstanding at Sept 30.
    Its shares were trading off 1-3/4 at 37-1/4 late in the
day.
 Reuter

Union Camp Corp said its board
approved repurchases of up to two mln shares of its common in
the market or in privately negotiated transactions.
    Union Camp said that no borrowings will be required to make
the purchases and there is no plan to reissue the common stock
    Union Camp has about 73.7 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Brooklyn Union Gas Co said it has
contracted to purchase up to 60 mln cubic feet of natural gas
per day from Shell Oil Co, a Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD> <SC>
    Brooklyn Union said the long-term contract will cover about
15 pct of its total supplies.
    A spokesman said Shell and the utility agreed to not
disclose the length of the contract or the price of the gas,
which he described as competitive with a market sensitive
escalation formula.
   
    Brooklyn Union said the gas from Shell Oil will replace
about 25 pct of the gas previously supplied by Transco Energy
Inc's <E> Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp subsidiary.
    The utility said Transcontinental will transport the gas
being purchased from Shell Oil, possibly beginning as soon as
 Reuter

The American Stock Exchange said, as
previously reported, that Bear Stearns and Co <BSC> has
purchased <W. Damm, M. Frank and Co>, a specialist unit on the
Amex trading floor.
    Amex said the unit, which trades stocks and options is
small in comparison to other specialist units. The personel and
operations remain the same, the exchange added.
    The price was not disclosed.
    A specialist unit is authorized by a stock exchange to deal
as an agent for other brokers to keep a stable market in one or
more particular stocks.
 Reuter

Shr 4.41 dlrs vs seven cts
    Qtly div 10 cts vs 10 cts in prior qtr
    Net 2,955,000 vs 75,000
    Sales 72.7 mln vs 70.0 mln
    NOTE: Net includes pre-tax gain of 7,813,0000 dlrs from
termination of retirement plan for salaried employees and
875,000 dlrs charge for reorganization costs
    Dividend payable November 17 to holders of record November
two
 Reuter

    Net loss 1,200,000 vs profit 1,400,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 1.00 dlrs vs profit 84 cts
    NOTE: Year ago results are pro forma since the company was
created in March by the transfer to a master limited
partnership of all domestic assets of Petrolane Inc's liquefied
petroleum gas division.
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs loss four cts
    Net loss 874,986 vs loss 56,182
    Revs 402,855 vs not available
    NOTE: The company made its initial offering in March 1987
and before then had been a development stage company so no
sales were posted in 1986.
 Reuter

    Net 6,400,000 vs 8,700,000
    Revs 25.3 mln vs 28.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 1.20 dlrs
    Net 25.3 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Revs 84.6 mln vs 91.8 mln
    NOTE: Company's full name is American Capital Management
and Research Inc.
 Reuter

Oct 3 end
    Revs 747 mln vs 728.2 mln
 Reuter

Period ended September 30
    Net profit 65,000 vs 292,000
    Sales 18.1 mln vs 16.7 mln
 Reuter

General Mills Inc said it is naming a new
top management team to its Eddie Bauer specialty retailing
subsidiary, effective November Two.
    It said Wayne Bandovinus will join the specialty retailer
of men's and women's sportswear and accessories as chairman,
assuming overall leadership.
    General Mills said Michael Luce, currently vice president,
General Merchandise manager of Eddie Bauer, will become
president, reporting to Badovinus.
    David Waters, executive vice president of General Mills and
president of its Specialty Retailing Group, served as interim
head of Eddie Bauer for the past two months.
 Reuter

Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa, urged the
Administration to take steps to reduce volatility in the
financial markets, including suspending program trading and
limiting daily trading on stock index futures.
    Heinz said margin requirements for index futures, now six
pct, should be the same as for common stock and equities.
    He urged creation of a task force to be headed by former
Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to coordinate
international credit and montary policies among major nations
and stabilize interest rates at the lowest possible levels.
 Reuter

Dinner Bell Foods Inc said the
talks concerning a proposed leveraged buy-out of the company
have been terminated.
    A spokesman said the group led by Joseph F. Grimes II, a
director of the company, and B. Rober Kill has withdrawn their
proposal to acquire the company's stock for 23.50 dlrs a share.
    The company also said its board determined the previously
postponed annual meeting will be held on January five.
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 42 cts
    Net 41.1 mln vs 33.2 mln
    Sales 1.27 billion vs 960.3 mln
    Avg shrs 79,800,000 vs 78,200,000
   
 Reuter

The French government plans to cancel part
of Renault's debt as part of a strategy of returning the state
car group to financial independence, but will not provide it
with more subsidies, industry ministry sources said.
    The plan, which has been under study for several weeks, is
linked to legislation enabling Regie Nationale des Usines
Renault <RENA.PA> to be converted into a limited company, they
said. This legislation should be ready for parliament in the
next few days, the sources said.
    Renault's debt would be cut to some 40 billion francs from
the December, 1986 level of 56 billion francs, they said.
 Reuter

Ecuador posted a trade deficit of 71.3 mln
dlrs in the first eight months of 1987, compared with a surplus
of 468.6 mln dlrs in the same period of 1986, central bank
    Ecuador suspended oil exports, which made up 55 pct of the
value of its total exports in 1986, for five months this year
after an earthquake in March shattered the country's pipeline.
    The central bank said the value of exports from January to
August 1987 stood at 1.132 billion dlrs and imports 1.204
billion dlrs. Net international monetary reserves declined to
57.5 mln dlrs at end-September from 146.8 mln dlrs at end-
 Reuter

James Robinson III, chairman of American
Express Co, in a letter Tuesday to employees, said he was
confident about his company's ability to endure the volatility
    "Financial markets around the world are experiencing
unprecedented volatility. No one can predict the future. We are
confident that our company, given the soundness of our business
and with greater than 100 billion dlrs in assets and six
billion dlrs in equity is very well positioned for continued
growth regardless of turbulent times," Robinson said.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 58 cts
    Net profit 18.2 mln vs loss 23.9 mln
    Revs 355.6 mln vs 308.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 81 cts vs loss 5.52 dlrs
    Net profit 10.7 mln vs loss 290.3 mln
    Revs 1.01 billion vs 983.3 mln
    NOTE: Net income per share is after deductions for
mandatory preferred stock dividends and income from the
chemical operations not attributable to common stockholders.
    1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain of eight cts per share
for the partial redemption of series a preferred stock which
will be paid from the net earnings of the chemicals operations.
1986 nine mths includes loss 247.7 mln dlrs from write-down of
petroleum service assets and other restructuring costs.
 Reuter

National Healthcare Inc said Stephen
L. Phelps resigned as chairman of the board of directors
effective October 19, to pursue other business interests.
    In addition, Joseph D. Bohr Jr., Anders K. Brag and Robert
E. Johnstone have resigned as directors, the company said.
    National Healthcare said James T. McAfee Jr., president and
chief executive officer, was elected to the additional post of
chairman.
   
    Robert M. Thornton Jr., executive vice president, chief
financial officer and treasurer, was also elected a company
director, the company said.
    In addition, Charles E. Baxter, executive vice president
and secretary, William H. Cassels, senior vice president, and
Bohr, executive vice president, resigned as officers of the
company effective October 19.
    Phelps, Baxter, Bohr and Cassels have agreed to perform
consulting services for the company after their resignations,
    National provides integrated health care services.
 Reuter

Quaker Oats Co said it will resume a
share repurchase program initially authorized in September
1985.
    At the time, a one mln share buyback was approved. Quaker
Oats said it bought back about 78 pct of the shares when the
program was suspended, with 450,000 shares remaining to be
    As of the Sept 30 first quarter, the company had 79.8 mln
 Reuter

will report a profit of between 900,000 dlrs and one mln dlrs,
or 17 cents to 19 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended
Sept. 30.
    Subject to a final audit, the company said it would post
quarterly revenues of 21 mln dlrs to 23 mln dlrs.
    For the year, International Game said it would report a
profit of one mln dlrs to 1.1 mln dlrs, or 17 cts to 19 cents a
share, on revenues of between 82 mln dlrs and 84 mln dlrs.
    The company said a change in accounting procedures removed
the effect of its investment in Syntech International Inc
(SYNE>O), which impaired earnings in the first three quarters.
 Reuter

may downgrade 350 mln dlrs of debt of United Artists
Communications Inc and of United Cable Television Corp <UCT>.
    Under review are both firm's B-2 convertible subordinated
debentures and United Cable's B-2 convertible subordinated
eurodebentures and subordinated debentures.
    Moody's cited an announced agreement to merge the two
companies into a new company operating under the United Artists
name. Moody's will study whether the definitive agreement will
require additional debt, or change the interest coverage or
ratio of total debt to operating cash flow.
 Reuter

AMOCO RAISES MOST CRUDE POSTINGS 50 CTS TODAY, WTI TO 19.00 DLRS

<Johnson Geneva U.S.A.> said it has
agreed to buy Pan Am Corp's 50 pct holding in their joint
venture company, Pan Am Pacific Satellite Corp, for undisclosed
terms.
    Johnson Geneva said Pan Am divested owership in the project
as part of a corporate restructuring plan, but will continue to
provide engineering services on a contract basis.
    Johnson Geneva said the buy out was accomplished through
<Onpraise Ltd>, a Hong Kong company controlled by Johnson
Geneva Chairman Michael Johnson. Funds have been provided by
Onpraise to increase the satellite company's working capita.
 Reuter

Burlington Northern Inc said it plans to
repurchase up to five mln shares, or about seven pct of its
    The company, joining a number of others buying back their
shares in the wake of yesterday's maket decline, said it will
make the purchases from time to time, based on market
    Burlington said its operating businesses are performing
well and are expected to continue generating substantial free
cash flow.
 Reuter

    Net 1,506,000 vs 824,000
    Sales 9,045,000 vs 7,845,000
 Reuter

    Pay December 31
 Reuter

Telex Corp said its board adopted a
shareholder rights plan which will allow shareholders to
purchase one common share for two dlrs if a hostile group
acquires 15 pct or more of the company.
    However, the company said the plan will not be triggered by
purchases pursuant to the 65 dlrs a share tender offer
commenced on October 9 by a unit of TLX Partners, a group
controlled by New York financier Asher Edelman.
    It said the rights will be distributed on a one for one
basis to all shareholders as of October 30 and may be redeemed
before they become exercisable at five cents per right.
    The company said the rights will expire on the later of
February 17 next year or 60 days from the date they become
exercisable. It said the plan was intended to protect
stockholders against any attempt to take unfair advantage of
the recent decline in stock prices or to use abusive tactics
such as market accumulations which would interfere with its
ability to maximize stockholder value.
    The rights become exercisable if any person or group
acquires 15 pct or more of the company's common stock other
than through an all cash tender offer for all outstanding
shares at 65 dlrs per share.
     It said the rights will also not become exercisable if the
company is acquired by a group under an agreement made with its
board.
     A spokeswoman told Reuters the company would have an
official response to Edelman's bid by Friday, Oct 23.          
  
 Reuter

Sphinx Mining Inc said leased
mining claims in Alaska could produce revenues between 322 mln
dlrs and 966 mln dlrs from gold reserves.
    The range of the value of the reserves is attributed to the
wide range of grade estimates of the ore, the company said.
    A 1984 feasibility study put the grade at 0.008 ounces per
cubic yard, while subsequent exploration work proved that areas
of higher-grade gravel of up to 0.027 ounces/yard do exist,
Sphinx said.
    The claims are located 80 miles northwest of Fairbanks.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 20 cts vs 20 cts prior
    Pay Nov 27
 Reuter

Qtly div 45 cts vs 45 cts prior qtr
    Pay Nov 30
    Record Nov 3
 Reuter

The Bell division of Textron Inc <TXT>
and the Boeing Co <BA> have received a 102.0 mln dlr joint
contract to continue full scale development of the V-22 Osprey
vertical-lift aircraft, the Navy said.
 reuter

Unofficial volume figures from the New
York Stock Exchange show Tuesday's turnover was nearly
identical to the 603 mln shares traded on Monday.
    Unofficial figures from the Exchange floor showed the Dow
Jones Industrial Average up almost 115 points to 1854.
    New York Stock Exchange chairman John Phelan and vice
chairman Donald Stone appeared on a platform overlooking the
NYSE trading floor and rang the closing bell.

 Reuter

The European Airbus consortium is ready to
cooperate with U.S. Aerospace group McDonnell Douglas Corp on
future aircraft programs, pointing the way to a defusion of the
transatlantic dispute on subsidies to the aircraft industry,
French Transport Ministry Jacques Douffiagues said.
    He told the southern French daily Depeche du Midi in an
interview today that the talks between senior U.S. And European
Community officials in London on October 27 on the Airbus
question should be more harmonious as a result.
  
    Airbus officials said last week that they were continuing
talks on possible collaboration with McDonnell Doughlas on
aircraft projects, including an eventual stretched version of
the Airbus A320 short-haul jet, but that collaboration in the
immediate future was unlikely.
    U.S. Manufacturers and officials have charged that the
French, British and West German governments have disrupted the
world aviation market by unfairly subsidising Airbus, allowing
it to undercut private U.S. Competitors, while the Europeans
have responded by saying that U.S. Manufacturers benefit from
large government-funded military contracts.
    Douffiagus said that transatlantic cooperation was already
widespread in aircraft construction.
  
 Reuter

American Express Co's <AXP> president
Louis Gerstner Jr. said a bear market will not effect his
company's long-term strategy.
    "I don't think where the market goes over any month long
period, two day period, or even six month period has anything
to do with our strategy," Gerstner told Reuters.
    "We have built a strategy for our company that looks out
over many years and anticipates a lot of change," he said.
    Gerstner said the company's long term strategy is to build
and maintain a major position in the financial and travel
service industries. American Express is the 69 pct parent of
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc <SHE>.
    Gerstner would not comment on the share market tailspin.
    However, American Express chairman James Robinson said in a
statement that the company could endure the market turbulence
and was in a strong position for further growth.
    "All brokerage firms make money if the market goes down or
up," Gerstner told Reuters without elaborating.
    Gerstner said Shearson had no plans to quit its municipal
bond activities. "Shearson Lehman Brothers tends to adjust to
trends in incremental steps. You will see it doing less of the
convulsive one-time changes that people in this industry will
go through," he said. Shearson recently laid off 150 people in
London and is limiting hiring, but Gerstner said American
Express remains committed to the London market and to having a
global presence.
    "That Shearson let a couple of hundred people go in London
is not even an anthill on the landscape we're discussing. We
are discussing long-term strategy," Gerstner said.
    Earlier this year, American Express sold 13 pct of its
stake in Shearson to Nippon Life Insurance Co of Japan and a
further 18 pct to the public. Gerstner said these moves "had no
implications of an exit from financial services."
    "Our committment globally is represented by the Nippon
tie-up which dwarfs the fact we decided to reduce the size of
one department, in one company, in one of our subsidiaries," he
said.
    Many securities firms now are stressing merchant banking to
bolster earnings hurt by bond market volatility, slow retail
business and a drop in underwriting volume.
    When asked if more players would make the system more
risky, Gerstner said, "I can't comment on other firms, but
Shearson is not going to follow a feeding frenzy in the
direction of merchant banking. We are not going to overreach."
    Gerstner also spoke about securitization, or the
repackaging of debt as marketable securities.
    "It is almost imperative to create a security backed by the
funds flowing from an LDC (lessor developed countries) debt
program. It is going to happen, but it is very difficult to
create a security in the current climate," Gerstner said.
    "Securitized products could be structured for either the
retail or institutional markets," Gerstner said.
    "If you look at the junk bond phenomenom, it started out
with mostly institutional buyers. Primarily through mutual
funds, individual buyers became a presense in the market. I'd
guess we'd see a similiar situation in LDC debt," he said.
    "The fundamental thing that has to happen (before there can
be sucessful securitization) is that the debt burden on the
countries has to be reduced, and the amount of money coming
from the commerical banks and the future call for money on
commercial banks has to be reduced," Gerstner said.
 Reuter

Shr 72 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 122 mln vs 62 mln
    Revs 1.73 billion vs 1.49 billion
    Avg shrs 157.7 mln vs 149.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.71 dlrs vs 1.28 dlrs
    Net 297 mln vs 216 mln
    Revs 4.98 billion vs 4.55 billion
    NOTE: Net for current qtr included non-operating costs of
12 mln vs income of 10 mln in qtr 1986.
    Net in nine mths included non operating costs of 12 mln in
nine mths 1987 vs income of 84 mln in nine mths 1986.
    Prior year's earnings per shr and average number of shrs
outstanding have been restated to reflect a 3-for-2 split which
became effective May 5, 1987.
    For purposes of comparability, following the reorganization
of July 1987, net figures including those for 1986, are
reported before preferred dividends.
 Reuter

Mentor Corp said its board
of directors has authorized a plan to repurchase up to two  mln
shares of its common stock, subject to market conditions and
the company's own financial position.
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Shr profit 15 cts vs loss six cts
    Net profit 901,000 vs loss 368,000
    Assets 1.15 billion vs 773.8 mln
 Reuter

Amoco Corp said it raised the contract
price it will pay for most grades of crude oil by 50 cts a
    The company said the increase brings its posting for West
Texas Intermediate to 19.00 dlrs a barrel. West Texas Sour, at
34 degrees API, was raised to 18.10 dlrs. The Light Louisiana
Sweet grade was also increased 50 cts to 19.35 dlrs a barrel.
    Amoco said Wyoming Southwest Sweet, Colorado Western, and
two Utah grades of oil, Black wax and yellow wax, were
unchanged. The company last changed its crude oil postings on
September 28.
 Reuter

Olin Corp said construction was
completed on a 150 mln dlrs chlor/alkali plant it owns jointly
with EI du Pont de Nemours Co.
    The company said the plant, which is located in Niagara
Falls, New York, will begin operations in December.
    The plant, which has a 660-ton per day capacity, will be
operated by du Pont, the company said.
 Reuter

Periods end Sept 26
    Shr 31 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 5,449,000 vs 4,083,000
    Sales 60.3 mln vs 51.9 mln
    39 weeks
    Shr 47 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 8,249,000 vs 5,147,000
    Sales 145.0 mln vs 108.3 mln
 Reuter

Shr Class A loss three cts vs profit 12 cts
    Shr Class B loss seven cts vs profit eight cts
    Net loss 94,862 vs profit 264,607
    Sales 653,246 vs 1,300,515
    Nine mths
    Shr Class A profit five cts vs profit 44 cts
    Shr Class B loss three cts vs profit 36 cts
    Net profit 64,248 vs profit 975,329
    Sales 2,291,925 vs 4,235,914
    NOTE: Full name is Electronic Tele-Communications Inc
<ETCIA.O>

 Reuter

General Host Corp said its board
authorized the repurchase of up to one mln additional shares of
its common.
    It said previous buy back authorizations of 6.5 mln shares
were approved in January 1875 and September 1987.
    To date, the company said it has repurchased about six mln
shares under those authorizations in open market transactions.
    General Host has about 22.5 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Senior officers at major Wall Street
firms said they've been suffering heavy trading losses during
the market's decline, but stressed their firms are liquid
enough to withstand the battering.
    "We certainly lost money in our trading departments
yesterday and today and in effect gave back a small part of the
year's profits," said Robert E. Linton, chairman of Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc. "But the firm is in good shape. We're very
liquid, although we're going to show some red ink for a short
time."
    Rumors of collapses at major U.S. securities firms swept
the world's financial markets since the U.S. stock market began
its record decline Monday.
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a record 508 Monday
to 1738, erasing the entire gain of the past year. Tuesday's
trading was also volatile on volume of more than 614 mln
shares. Stocks were mostly lower, but the Dow indicator
recovered 102 points to a preliminary closing figure of 1841.
    "There are all kinds of rumors being circulated, by bears I
guess, about firms having problems," said Salomon Inc Chairman
John Gutfreund.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 73.8 mln vs 62.3 mln
    Sales 664.2 mln vs 600.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.06 dlrs vs 1.67 dlrs
    Net 241.2 mln vs 205.9 mln
    Sales 2.04 billion vs 1.80 billion
    Avg shrs 117.1 mln vs 123.4 mln
 Reuter

Syntech International Inc said it
initiated a suit in Nevada District Court against Southland
Corp <SM> for alleged breach of contract.
    Syntech said its complaint alleges that Southland failed to
make payments in connection with the purchase of 208 Syntech
ticketing terminals.
    The company said some 3.8 mln dlrs is past due on the
contract.
 Reuter

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah
bin Abdul Aziz was thanked by the Reagan administration for his
country's close, and closed-mouthed, cooperation with
Washington in the Gulf, a senior U.S. official said.
    "The Saudis are being very cooperative. It would be nice if
the Saudis would go more public, but it's their real estate,"
said the official who asked not to be named.
    He declined to describe what sort of help the Saudis were
providing, saying that Saudi officials are reluctant to
acknowledge their role in the Gulf where the United States has
stationed forces to protect shipping lanes.
    The prince met Vice President George Bush on Monday after
U.S. naval forces attacked offshore Iranian oil platforms in
what Washington said was retaliation for an Iranian attack on a
ship moored off Kuwait and flying the U.S. flag.
    Asked at the start of the meeting how he felt about the
attack, the prince, who is here on an official visit, replied,
"I believe what the United States has done is their
responsibility as a superpower."
    The senior U.S. official said his remark was an endorsement
of the U.S. attack.
 Reuter

Rohr Industries (RHR) said it
will repurchase up to 500,000 of its shares for distribution
through its employee-benefit plans and for other corporate
purposes.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said it raised the contract
barrel, effective October 16.
    The company said the increase brings its posting for the
U.S. benchmark grade, West Texas Intermediate, to 19.00 dlrs a
barrel. The West Texas Sour and Light Louisiana Sweet grades
were also raised 50 cts to 18.10 and 19.35 dlrs a barrel,
    Texaco last changed its crude oil postings on September 15.
 Reuter

REAGAN MEETING WITH ECONOMIC ADVISERS ON MARKET SITUATION, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

El Salvador will tender October 26 for
approximately 26,000 tonnes soybean meal, valued at up to 5.6
mln dlrs, and about 24,500 tonnes bulk corn, with a value of
2.0 mln dlrs, under PL-480 financing, an agent for the country
said.
    It said the country is seeking soymeal with 48 pct protein
minimum, 12 pct moisture maximum, and 3.5 pct maximum crude
fiber for delivery from November 15-30.
    The U.S. no. 2 or better yellow corn, with 14.5 pct
moisture maximum, is for delivery from November 8-25.
    Offers on the soymeal and corn are due at 1530 hrs EDT
(1930 gmt) Oct 26, and will remain valid until 1000 hrs EDT the
next day, the agent said.
 Reuter

REAGAN MAKING STATEMENT ON MARKET SITUATION AT 1700 EDT, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

The Chase Manhattan Bank, a unit of The
Chase Manhattan Corp <CMB>, said it acquired a portfolio of
about 190,000 consumer revolving credit accounts from Atlantic
Financial Federal <ATLF.O> valued at 370 mln dlrs.
    The company said the acquisition makes Chase the second
largest issuer of credit card and other unsecured consumer
credit loans.
    Outstandings now exceed 5.6 billion dlrs, the company said.
    The company said the portfolio, accessed by checks, is
similar to Chase's Advantage Credit product.
 Reuter

Commerce Secretary C. William Verity
called for stepped up coordination of the major industrialized
nations along the lines of the Venice pact last June which
committed the nations to coordinate economic policies.
    Verity, speaking to a trade conference of the Overseas
Private Investment Corp., said "We must improve coodination with
our major industrialized allies and trading partners along the
lines agreed to at the Venice meeting last June.
    He added "we need better cooperation among advanced
developing countries in assuring responsibility to coordinate
local economies commensurate with their economic resources.
 reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 7,100,000 vs 8,000,000
    Net Premiums 61.2 mln vs 58.0 mln
    Avg shrs 19,950,000 vs 22,760,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 1.81 dlrs
    Net 21.3 mln vs 37.8 mln
    Net Premiums 176.3 mln vs 141.8 mln
    Avg shrs 20,682,000 vs 20,920,000
 Reuter

In a joint statement, Merrill Lynch and
Co Inc chairman and chief executive William Schreyer and chief
operating officer Daniel tully said that despite the
unprecedented stock market decline, they are confident that an
upturn lies ahead.
    "In the view of our market experts, yesterday's
unprecedented stock market decline was an over-reaction to
fears of higher interest rates, more inflation and a lower
dollar. Indeed, after examining many factors, there is reason
to believe than an upturn lies ahead," the statement said.
    The Merrill Lynch executives also said in the statement
that the fact that bonds rallied, commodities weakened and the
dollar remained relatively firm suggests that the central banks
may now act to provide the system with additional liquidity.
    "While further carry-over selling from yesterday and
worries about a stock decline in Japan may put further pressure
on the market in the near-term, we believe that this central
bank cooperation would provide the fuel for a recovery in stock
prices and a revival of confidence relecting fundamental
values," the statement said.
 Reuter

API SAYS DISTILLATES OFF 1.95 MLN BARRELS, GASOLINE OFF 3.98 MLN, CRUDE UP 2.42 MLN

TRW Inc said it was selected to
perform fact-finding security system surveys for the authority
that is building Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan.
    The company said the 340,000 dlr contract was significant
because it was the first contract issued by the authority
solely to an American company without Japanese partners.
    The contract calls for TRW to perform studies of other
international airport security systems on behalf of Kansai, the
    Kansai is scheduled to be operational in 1993.
 Reuter

CerProbe Corp said its chairman, John
Tarzell, will give up the positions of president and chief
executive in early 1988 to concentrate on long-range planning
for the company in the semiconductor testing field.
    CerProbe said a successor to Tarzell has not been selected.
          
 Reuter

Reser's Fine Foods Inc said
certain directors and officers, who currently represent about
85 pct of the company's stock, plan to take Reser's private
through a cash buyout.
    The company said the group plans to offer 12.50 dlrs per
share for the 15 pct of its stock currently outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 32 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 882,000 vs 1,109,000
    Sales 66.1 mln vs 60.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 90 cts
    Net 3,065,000 vs 2,446,000
    Sales 198.1 mln vs 178.5 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 21,045 vs loss 34,238
    Revs 1,156,775 vs 963,890
    Six Mths
    Shr profit 12 cts vs loss five cts
    Net profit 48,711 vs loss 18,300
    Revs 2,124,157 vs 2,009,956
 Reuter

Algeria is tendering tonight for
225,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat at 94.00 dlrs per
tonne, c and f, the balance of its original tender under the
export bonus program, U.S. exporters said.
    Algeria bought 75,000 tonnes for November and early
December shipmet at that bid, but USDA rejected the bid on
wheat for later shipments, the sources said.
 Reuter

President Reagan was meeting this
afternoon with his top economic advisers on developments in the
stock market and the White House said he would issue a
statement at 1700 EDT.
    Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Reagan met in the White
House residence shortly after the market closed with Treasury
Secretary James Baker, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan
Greenspan, Chairman Beryl Sprinkel of the President's Council
of Economic Advisers and chief of staff Howard Baker.
    Reagan scrubbed a reception for Republican presidential
candidates to make room in his schedule for the meeting.
 Reuter

Hercules Inc said its contract
award from Martin Marietta Corp <ML> to make upgraded solid
rocket motors for the Titan Four launch vehicle will help
double revenues at its Hercules Aerospace Co unit to two
billion dlrs by 1992.
    "We expect and we are fully confident that by 1992 we will
be a two billion dlr a year sales company. The space booster
program is a substantial part of that," Hercules Aerospace head
E.J. Sheehy told Reuters.
    Hercules Inc, which also produces specialty chemicals and
engineered polymers, had sales of 2.62 billion dlrs in 1986.
    The company said the initial and still unnegotatiated
contract for development and production of 15 sets of solid
rocket boosters for the Titan space vehicles is expected to
exceed 500 mln dlrs.
    Sheehy also said, "It is obvious that if this program goes
as everyone anticipates, that there will be substantial
production follow-on."
    He declined to specify the possible value of future related
    Hercules Aerospace will spend about 100 mln dlrs to reach
full production levels, Sheehy said.
    Hercules Inc said the money was available from Hercules'
recent 1.49 billion dlr sale of its 38.5 pct stake in Himont
Inc <HMT> to Montedison S.p.A. <MONI.MI>.
 Reuter

Secretary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar has proposed an impartial inquiry into the causes of
the Gulf war while Iran and Iraq observe a ceasefire,
diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.
    His nine-point plan, a refinement of proposals he took to
Tehran and Baghdad last month, was delivered to the two sides
last week with a request that they let him have their initial
views before October 30.
    The proposals appeared to counter Iran's earlier offer of
an undeclared cessation of hostilities if an inquiry into
responsibility for the war was begun.
    Iraq insisted on a formal unconditional ceasefire, Perez de
Cuellar told the Security Council on his return to New York on
September 16.
    As in his original proposals, the revised plan termed D-day
a specific date to be agreed upon for the observance of a
ceasefire, diplomats said.
    On a specific date after that, which would have to be
agreed, the withdrawal of all forces to internationally
recognized boundaries would begin and be completed within an
agreed time frame, according to the account of his proposals.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said it is taking advantage
of current market conditions and accelerating a stock
repurchase program which began in 1984.
    The automaker had 212 mln shares outstanding at the end of
the second quarter of 1987 and is issuing about 15 mln
additional shares in connection with its acquisition of
American Motors Corp.
    Chrysler said its current goal is to have 200 mln common
shares outstanding. However, while it has no timetable to reach
that goal, so far this year, Chrysler said it bought 750,000
shares a month.
    Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca said, "We now feel we can
speed that up considerably."
     Chrysler shares closed at 27 unchanged from yesterday when
it fell six dlrs.
 Reuter

NYSE'S PHELAN SAYS NYSE WILL CONTINUE PROGRAM TRADING CURB UNTIL VOLUME SLOWS

The Bank of New York Corp <BK> said it
reaffirmed the terms of its offer for Irving Bank Corp despite
the drop in the Bank of New York's share price to 30-1/8, a
Bank of New York spokesman said.
    "The offer still stands, we have not changed our offer," a
    Irving would not comment on how the drop in the market
affects its position on the bid or whether it would buy back
any of its own shares.
    Earlier this month, Irving rejected the bid as inadequate
and said it wanted to retain its independence.
    In late September, Bank of New York offered 80 dlrs per
share in cash for 47.4 pct of Irving. For the remaining 52.6
pct, it offered an exchange of 1.9 shares of its shares for one
Irving share.
    At that time, the stock purchase portion was worth close to
80 dlrs per share, but now that portion is worth 53 dlrs per
share for a net price of 68 dlrs, one analyst said.
    According to the prospectus offer, shareholders may tender
for all cash or all shares on a first come, first serve basis.
    Analysts were mixed about how the stock price drop would
affect the acquisition.
    "If it gets to the Irving shareholders, they would approve
it, but Irving hopes the offer won't go to the shareholders,"
said Mark Alpert, banking analyst with Bear Stearns Cos Inc.
    "And the market is saying the deal won't go through,"
Alpert said.
    "The transaction looks highly unlikely to be completed at
present. If Irving wouldn't go with the offer at 80 dlrs a
share, then they won't go at a lower price," another analyst
said.
    The analyst also doubted that Bank of New York could afford
to retain its original offer.
    However, industry sources were more uncertain about
prospects for the deal.
    "With Irving's price so low, Bank of New York's offer will
look good to Irving shareholders," said Michael Flores, a
consultant at Bank Earnings International, a consulting firm.
    The drop of Irving's share to 44 dlrs per share, which is
about a 26 dlr drop from the beginning of last week, increases
the chance that Bank of New York will succeed, Flores said.
    Analysts said that the drop in bank stock prices is likely
to depress the level of mergers and acquisition in the banking
industry.
    "Bank takeovers are less likely because banks can't use
their own stock to make acquisitions because their share price
is too depressed," Alpert said.
    Since only banks can buy another bank, the only other
possible acquirors would be a foreign bank, Alpert said.
    "In the market drop the stock of acquirors got clobbered
more than the acquirees," another analyst said.
 Reuter

said it made a one-day exception to its rule of prohibiting
companies from repurchasing their own stock in the last half
hour of trading, and allowed firms to continue stock
repurchases until the close of market.
    An SEC spokesperson told Reuters that the rule exception
only covered repurchases made today.
    Analysts said that widespread stock repurchases by many
firms today were a contributing factor in the market's rebound
from yesterday's huge losses.
    The rule prohibiting repurchases in the final half-hour of
trading works to prevent rapid end-of-day stock price rises
which could be caused by a company's open-market purchase of
its own stock at the end of a trading session, the spokesperson
said.
    Share repurchases today were called "a smart way to use
corporate equity," by one SEC staff member who refused to be
 Reuter

Shr profit 15 cts vs loss 40 cts
    Net profit 1,538,000 vs loss 4,088,000
    Revs 70.6 mln vs 73.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss eight cts vs loss 57 cts
    Net loss 832,000 vs loss 5,821,000
    Revs 217.0 mln vs 248.4 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 265,000 dlrs, or
three cts per share, from utilization of tax loss carryforward.
 Reuter

Shr one cts vs 20 cts
    Net 122,556 vs 2,627,205
    Revs 192.2 mln vs 193.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Net 3,556,424 vs 7,531,664
    Revs 560.6 mln vs 542.3 mln
 Reuter

New York Stock Exchange chairman John
Phelan said the NYSE will continue to request that member firms
refrain from using its order-delivery systems for program
trading until the record trading volume slows down.
    He said the firms are free to use other systems to do
arbitrage between stock-index futures and their underlying
stocks. "We are going to continue to get volatility for some
time to come," Phelan told a news conference.
    He said program trading adds liquidity to the market but
"at the extreme that adds to the volatility." He said further
analysis of the issue is needed.
    Phelan said a significant number of corporations had begun
buying back their own stock in a move that helped blue chips
gain back some of Monday's losses.
    Asked how the record decline on Monday and the
unprecedented trading volume affected the financial health of
member firms, Phelan said, "As far as we can tell, member firms
are in good shape."
    He said he expects to appear at a Congression hearing in
Washington later this week that will examine the question of
program trading.
   
    Phelan said NYSE officials were in conference with other
financial leaders and White House chief of staff Howard Baker
for much of the day, adding that "the whole system has been
very supportive."
    He said three or four of the NYSE's specialist firms
required and received help with capital. He said these firms
were no longer having capital problems but did not discuss
specific figures. Asked why some stocks were delayed on opening
while others traded, he said the exchange did not want to keep
the vast majority of the 1500 listed companies from trading.

 Reuter

affirmed the debt of USX Corp and units.
    Total debt outstanding amounts to 2.8 billion dlrs.
    Affirmed were USX's BB-plus senior debt, BB-minus
subordinated debt and preferred stock, B-plus preference stock
and of the units, Marathon Oil Co and Texas Oil and Gas Corp's
BB-plus senior debt .
    S and P cited the firm's plan to repurchase up to 20 mln
common shares having a value of between 400 and 500 mln dlrs.
    The repurchase will increase the firm's high debt leverage,
but will not impair financial flexibility, S and P said.
 Reuter

ministers gave their support in principle for a new scheme to
limit spending on the bloc's controversial farm policy at a
meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, Danish minister Laurits
Tornaes told journalists.
    Acceptance of the scheme, by which farmers would suffer
price cuts if their production exceeded certain norms, known in
EC jargon as stabilisers, is seen by diplomats as vital if the
EC is to solve its current massive budget crisis.
    Speaking at a news conference after chairing a two-day
meeting of farm ministers, Tornaes said: "It is no longer a
question of whether we are to have stabilisers. It is now a
question of how we are to implement them."
    However, EC sources warned that despite Tornaes' optimism,
it may be difficult to get the sort of detailed agreement
needed on the stabiliser scheme ahead of an EC heads of
government meeting in Copenhagen on December 6.
    This is the vital meeting at which EC leaders will be asked
to agree a new system of EC financing, ending the bloc's
hand-to-mouth existence which has resulted in its being unable
to agree a budget for 1988.
    Britain has said it will block moves to give the EC
additional sources of finance unless a detailed system of
stabilisers is agreed at or ahead of the summit.
    Under the most important stabiliser scheme, EC guaranteed
prices for cereals would be cut by one percentage point for
every per cent by which the annual harvest exceeded 155 mln
tonnes, a figure well below what EC farmers are capable of
producing in a year of favourable weather conditions.
   Farm ministers will meet again on November 16 to attempt to
hammer out an accord, and Danish diplomatic sources said the
meeting could last through several long nights of negotiation.
    But Tornaes said any thought that success was not
ultimately possible would be a gesture of retreat at this
stage.
    EC Commission sources said among the remaining problems
were appeals from Southern member states for protection for
their small and relatively poor farmers, and calls from France
and the Netherlands for significant changes to Commission
proposals for arable crops.
    They added that West Germany appears still reluctant to
accept the idea of production ceilings being set at the level
of the EC as a whole rather than that of member states.
    Meanwhile, the ministers made little progress in agreeing a
scheme to top up the income of poorer farmers through direct
payments, which could help to cushion the impact of stabilisers
on them.
    British minister John MacGregor told journalists :"The
proposals as they stand have very few friends."
    He said a number of countries fear they could simply
encourage further unwanted production by giving farmers the
cash to improve production methods.
 Reuter

Schering-Plough Corp said Chairman
Robert P. Luciano intends to recommend to the board at its next
regular meeting on October 27 that the quarterly dividend be
increased five cts, or 20 pct, to 30 cts a share effective with
the payment to be made in November.
    The company also said it also plans to resume immediately
its share repurchase plan and expects to buy about 200 mln dlrs
of stock.
     The company suspended the share repurchase program
september 22  while it studied the proposed dividend increase,
Schering said.
    Schering-Plough had, under the plan announced June 23, been
authorized to repurchase of 4.6 mln shares, a spokesman said.
He was unable to say how many shares were repurchased prior to
suspension of the program.
    The company said it expects continuing operations to
generate strong gains for rest of year and on into l988.     It
said Luciano will ask board to review dividend policy once
again early next year. The dividend was previously increased in
May 1987 and February 1986.
 Reuter

An indefinite strike by 47,000
carworkers on Tuesday closed most Brazilian plants of
Autolatina, the company said.
    Autolatina, one of the world's largest automakers, said it
had offered its employees a pay rise of 20.66 pct, adding that
the workers were pressing for a 65.9 pct rise.
    The strike is the first to hit operations of Autolatina
since it formally came into existence on July 1. The company
groups Ford and Volkswagen in Brazil and Argentina.
    A spokesman said factories in Argentina were unaffected. He
said about 9,000 of the company's 55,900 employees in Brazil
were still working and some production was continuing.
 Reuter

shr diluted loss 46 cts
    net loss 6,300,000
    nine mths
    shr diluted loss 10.89 dlrs
    net loss 309,100,000
    NOTE: No comparisons because company was formed in June
1987 through merger of RepublicBank Corp and Interfirst Corp.
    Nine mths includes previously reported provision of 325 mln
dlrs in second quarter for possible losses on ldc loans.
 Reuter

DART GROUP SAID IT WILL NOT SOLICIT PROXIES OR ATTEMPT TO ACQUIRE DAYTON HUDSON

DART SAID IT SOLD 1.4 MLN DAYTON HUDSON SHARES, EXPECTS TO SELL REST OF HOLDING

The State Department says many U.S.
diplomatic missions overseas are on high alert for possible
retaliation from Iran for Monday's attack on two Iranian oil
platforms by American forces in the Gulf.
    At the same time, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday that
U.S. forces have begun escorting another Kuwaiti tanker convoy
southward through the Gulf from Kuwait.
    The State Department renewed its warning to Americans not
to travel to Iran because of what spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley
called, "its virulent anti-American policies and support for
terrorism."
    "The threat to Americans has increased significantly," she
said in announcing that the department was reiterating advice
it last made in January. The department said about 2,600
American citizens live in Iran, the overwhelming majority dual
nationalities.
    Oakley said no specific warning has been issued to U.S.
diplomats and Americans living abroad in the aftermath of the
U.S. attack on the oil drilling platforms, but "many of our
missions are on a high state of alert."
 Reuter

Brazil's September trade surplus
was the best so far this year, totalling 1.494 billion dlrs,
compared with 1.434 billion dlrs in August and 540 mln dlrs in
September last year, Banco do Brasil's Foreign Trade Department
(Cacex) director Namir Salek said in a news conference.
    September exports were 2.694 billion dlrs, slightly down
from 2.76 billion dlrs in August. Imports in September amounted
to 1.2 billion dlrs, against 1.32 billion dlrs in August.
    Salek said the accumulated surplus in the Jan-Sept period
was 7.857 billion dlrs, compared with 8.667 billion dlrs in a
similar 1986 period.
    Coffee accounted with 320 mln dlrs of exports, up from 222
mln dlrs in August and 212 mln in September 1986, Salek said.
    The Cacex director said he expected the country's trade
surplus to average 800 mln dlrs in the remaining three months
of the year, estimating the year's overall surplus to reach
10.2 billion dlrs, from 25.6 billion dlrs worth of exports and
15.4 billion dlrs of imports.
    He attributed the good surplus on exports of manufactured
and semimanufactured goods. He mentioned car exports, which
accounted alone with sales of 617 mln dlrs in the Jan-Sept
period, against 194 mln dlrs in a similar 1986 period.
 Reuter

Bearings Inc said it filed with the
covering a 40 mln dlr issue of convertible subordinated
    Proceeds will be used to fund substantially fund the
redemption on October 26 of the company's 8-1/2 pct convertible
subordinated debentures of 2012. Bearings will buy back the
convertible debt at 105.95 pct of 1,000 dlr face amount, plus
    The company said it named Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as
 Reuter

REAGAN SAYS THERE IS ROOM FOR FURTHER DECLINES IN INTEREST RATES

FPL Group Inc's Florida Power and Light Co
subsidiary said the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
has proposed a 225,000 dlr fine against the utility's Turkey
Point nuclear power plant based on three previously identified
    At the same time, Florida Power said, the NRC issued an
order confirming the utility's commitment to implement a
package of programs designed to correct problems at the
facility.
   
    In a letter accompanying the order, the Florida Power said,
the NRC expressed concern about plant management controls, but
indicated support of the utility's initiatives and said these
efforts "should result in significant improvements in the
performance of site personnel."
    The three violations for which the fine was proposed
occurred between December 1986 and July 1987.
    Florida Power has 30 days to pay or appeal the proposed
fine, it said.
                   
 Reuter

REAGAN SAYS HE WANTS TO NEGOTIATE BUDGET DEFICIT REDUCTION PLAN WITH CONGRESS

The Canadian Import Tribunal said the
countervailing duty on U.S. corn imports should be cut to 30
Canadian cts a bushel from 1.10 dlrs a bushel.
    In a report to the Canadian finance department, the
tribunal said the duty is hurting Canadian farmers and food
processors. The duty was imposed last year after the revenue
department found U.S. corn production was subsidized.
    It is now up to the government to decide whether to change
the duty.
 Reuter

As official Washington sought to
restore investor confidence after Monday's Wall Street
collapse, Treasury Secretary James Baker came under fire from
critics who claimed he helped to precipitate the crisis.
    Baker's weekend blast at the West German Bundesbank for
boosting interest rates seemed to signal an unraveling of an
international accord to stabilize currency values.
    Nigel Lawson, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, was
among those who said the treasury secretary's statements helped
spur a wave of stock sales by making already jittery investors
think that a clash between the two major economic powers would
damage the world economy.
    Lawson told a London television interviewer Tuesday, "I
think the scale of the (stock) fall was very great. That, I
think, was partly due to statements that have been made by
senior figures on the other side of the Atlantic." It was a
dispute that should never have happened, he added.
    Although Baker appeared to patch over the rift at a
hastily-called meeting with West German officials Monday, he  
still faced a storm of criticism on his return to the United
States on Tuesday. Baker cut short a long-planned trip to
Scandinavia to return here to deal with the economic crisis.
    Said one U.S. analyst of Baker's weekend remarks, "His
timing could not have been worse."
    One government bond salesman in New York said, "He actually
thought that yelling at the Germans, and threatening to smack
the dollar down would work. That doesn't show much
understanding of international monetary gamesmanship."
    However, some analysts said West Germany's stubborn march
toward higher interest rates may have forced Baker's hand.
    "On the surface Baker may look responsible for this, but if
you go back to see what caused it (unsettling of financial
markets), it was West German policy," said Robert Brusca of
Nikko Securities International in New York.
    "All Mr. Baker did was to mention the obvious in public, so
making him responsible for it was a little like killing the
messenger," he said.
    After Monday's talks, the U.S. and West German governments
made it clear that the Louvre currency accord, pieced together
in Paris in February, was still in effect.
    Wall Street feared that collapse of the agreement might be
a prelude to hyper-inflation and economic malaise similar to
the late 1970s. Analysts believe Monday's Wall Street crash
wiped out about 500 billion dlrs in stock values.
   Treasury sources said that Baker, already unhappy about
Bonn's refusal to stimulate its economy in order to keep the
global recovery moving, was angered by a Bundesbank interest
rate boost that seemed destined to do just the opposite.
    He felt that the U.S. recovery, inching along in its 59th
month, could no longer be the only engine of global economic
expansion. A growing U.S. economy has been serving as a huge
market for debtor country exports.
    Moreover, Baker, the consummate politician, was worried
that the Republican party might face next year's presidential
election with its main showpiece -- a vibrant economy -- badly
tarnished.
    A rise in global interest rates might worsen the debt
crisis and completely choke off U.S. economic growth that has
already slowed to a tepid 3.2 pct annual rate.
    "There's no doubt that it can have an adverse effect on the
economy, and it's important that the psychology turn around
quickly, or else obviously the panic will feed on itself, and
eventually there'll be a serious price to pay economically,"
former deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman said in a
    In many ways, the official response was mild.
    Washington was stunned by the sudden Wall Street retreat,
with President Reagan speaking for most people by admitting
that he was "puzzled."
    U.S. government sources said the secretary immediately
returned to the Treasury to be briefed on market developments
and, presumably, their political impact.
    For all of this, it seems unlikely that Baker's status in
Washington will diminish because of the market fall.
    Asked by reporters if somebody's head should roll because
of the Wall Street retreat, Texas Democratic Senator Lloyd
Bentsen said with some irony, "Oh, I think it's much too late to
be doing that...You have an administration that's taken the
attitude that we can put the country on automatic pilot and ---
retire to the living room to take a nap. You just can't do
that."
 Reuter

Berkey Inc said it signed a
long-term agreement to distribute Walt Disney Co's <DIS> home
video cassettes.
    The Walt Disney library currently consists of 18 movies,
 Reuter

A group of firms led by PS Group Inc
<PSG> said it increased its stake in Airlease Ltd depositary
units representing limited partners interest to 700,400 units,
or 15.1 pct of the total outstanding, from a previous figure of
approximately 651,000 units, or 14 pct.
the group said it bought 49,400 Airlease units between July 16
andf October 15 at 17.23 dlrs to 17.60 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 24 cts
    Net 2,794,000 vs 2,993,000
    Revs 91.4 mln vs 66.4 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 45 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 5,677,000 vs 5,700,000
    Revs 174.6 mln vs 132.8 mln
    NOTE: 2nd qtr end August 31. Per share amounts adjusted for
10 pct stock dividend paid June two, 1987.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 2,200,000 vs 2,100,000
    Revs 8,500,000 vs 9,600,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 77 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 6,900,000 vs 4,800,000
    Revs 27.9 million vs 25.3 million
 Reuter

President Reagan said he was pleased
with the actions of some banks to reduce their prime lending
rates today and said he sees room for a further decline in
    "I believe there is room in the market for a further decline
in interest rates," Reagan said in a statement as he left the
White House to visit his wife Nancy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
    Reagan's statement followed a meeting with his top economic
advisers.
    Reagan said he remains concerned about the market, but that
actions taken by the Federal Reserve have helped.
    "Interest rates are down across the spectrum," Reagan said.
    "Specifically, I am pleased that the bond market is strong
and that foreign exchange markets are stable," Reagan said.
 Reuter

    Net profit 650,000 vs loss 2,327,000
    Revs 34.3 mln vs 37.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 38 cts vs profit 67 cts
    Net profit 3,673,000 vs profit 6,474,000
    Revs 108.4 mln vs 110.0 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 5,360,000 dlrs,
or 55 cts per share, and 6,339,000 dlrs, or 65 cts per share,
respectively, from realized gains on investments.
   
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 105,000 dlrs, or one
cent per share, and 342,000 dlrs, or three cts per share,
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes charge 4,860,000, or 50 cts
per share from strengthening reserve for casualty claims.
 Reuter

Shr six cts vs 17 cts
    Net 1,064,000 vs 2,676,000
    Revs 144.6 mln vs 129.4 mln
    Avg shrs 17.1 mln 16.1 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 13 cts vs 25 cts
    Net 2,167,000 vs 4,029,000
    Revs 248.0 mln vs 249.2 mln
    Avg shrs 17.1 mln vs 16.1 mln
 Reuter

A collapse in U.S. stock prices has  hit
Japanese investors hard, since they had shifted to stocks from
bonds earlier this year, and will slow down Japanese capital
flows to the U.S., investors and stock brokers said.
   Until recently Japanese net purchases of U.S. stocks were
projected to leap to eight to 12 billion dlrs this year from
four billion dlrs in 1986, securities industry sources said.
   "The Japanese had suffered severely from U.S. bond
investments and now (they are suffering) in U.S. stocks," said
Hiroyuki Kondo of Yasuda Trust and Banking Co Ltd.
    Japanese portfolio investment was concentrated in Treasury
securities until early this year, which led to heavy currency
losses following the dollar's steep decline. Even though their
U.S. bond purchases moderated since then, Japanese investors
continued to suffer losses as bond prices fell sharply in
recent months.
    Now the historic fall in the U.S. stock market has stunned
Japanese investors, killing their appetite for U.S. stocks.
    Keita Konishi of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co said while his
firm was not panicked into an across-the-board sell-off of its
U.S. stock investments, he does not expect it to resume buying
stocks for some time.
    There has been no panic selling by Japanese institutional
investors so far during the stock price nosedive, said Susumu
Uchiyama of Yamaichi Internatinal (America), Inc. Following the
steep decline, however, Japanese are not buying, even though
U.S. stocks now appear bargain-priced, he said.
    "There will be no big wave of Japanese investment in the
U.S. for the time being," said Keiji Tsuda of Nissei BOT Asset
Management Corp, an investment advisory body to Nippon Life
    "It's the time to think twice. The psychological impact (on
investors' behaviour) will drag on considerably," he said.
    The latest turmoil in the financial market was triggered by
U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker as he threatened a futher
dollar fall in retaliation for higher West German interest rate
rises, and undermined foreign investors' confidence in the
dollar, Tsuda said.
    The U.S. economy is still sitting on the time bomb of huge
budget and trade deficits, he said, and investors' worries over
the twin problems have intensified.
    "Before I thought the dollar's large fall (over the past
two years) would take out the detonator out of that bomb, but
it hasn't," Tsuda said.
    Investors and brokers said the Japanese for the first time
have experienced the enormous volatality of the New York stock
market, often caused by "program trading."
    A stock trader at Daiwa Securities America Inc said that
while Japanese investors had been attracted by American firms'
superior performance relative to Japanese firms in terms of
earnings per share, U.S. stocks' downside potential is now much
larger than that oJapanese stocks.
    While the Japanese stock market has also taken a nosedive,
it could be stabilized by the efforts of large Japanse firms.
    A high percentage of Japanese equities are held by
companies who will hold on to their stocks and the stocks of
other Japanese firms in order to strengthen their business ties
through this cross-holding relationship, analysts said.
    Despite the massacare on the Wall Street, Japanese
investors are not expected to withdraw from U.S. stocks.
    U.S. equities are in a process to be built in
diversification of their portfolios and the portion of them is
still very small, Japanese investors said. But, it is unclear
when the Japanese will resume purchasing U.S. stocks and much
depends on the dollar's stability, they said.
    Kondo of Yasuda Trust said Japanese investors are not fully
convinced that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is
determined to fend the dollar's value and check future
inflation in the U.S.
    Because of uncertainty over the dollar's direction and
inflation in the U.S., Japanese investors have not yet jumped
on the Treasury bonds despite the latest sharp bond yield
rises, investors said.
    Konishi of Sumitomo Life said "A U.S. recession is being
talked about, so it may be time to shift back to bonds, but I
feel uneasy about buying any U.S. instruments right now."
    Tsuda of Nissei questioned the strength of the recent rally
in U.S. government bond prices. He said the steep bond market
rally has no real trend as bond prices are rising on short
covering and bills are rising on temporary fund shift from the
 Reuter

Dart Group Corp <DARTA.O> affiliate
Madison Partners said that given current market conditions it
has dropped its takeover bid for Dayton Hudson Corp.
    The company said it sold 1.4 mln of its 4.6 mln shares of
Dayton Hudson stock.
    It said it intends to sell the rest of its Dayton Hudson
shares. At current market levels, it would suffer a 70 mln dlr
aftertax loss on its holding, a spokesman said.
    Dart said it will not solicit authorization to call a
meeting of Dayton Hudson shareholders.
    Dart had offered to buy Dayton Hudson for 68 dlrs per
share, valuing the Minneapolis based retailer at 6.6 billion
dlrs. That offer was rejected by the company.
    Following the selloff in takeover stocks last week, and the
market's decline this week, Dayton Hudson stock closed at
27-1/2 today, off 2-1/2.
    Dart's holdings amounted to just under five pct of Dayton
Hudson.
    A Dart spokesman said the 1.4 mln shares were sold in the
 Reuter

A new convoy of tankers escorted by
American warships headed down the Gulf on Wednesday, towards
Iranian oil platforms still oozing smoke after having being
blasted by U.S. Navy raiders.
    Some Gulf sea captains were reported to be steering well
clear of Iran's Silkworm missiles, however, and frontline
emirate Kuwait redeployed air defences to counter the threat.
    "I think the predominant feeling ... Is of being scared this
conflict will escalate," a top West German Foreign Ministry
official, Helmut Schaefer, told reporters in Bahrain after a
tour of three Gulf states.
b
    Shipping sources said on Tuesday night at least six sea
captains had voiced fears that Iran would avenge Monday's U.S.
Raids by unleashing more Silkworm missiles at ships plying the
Gulf.
    Belgium decided two minesweepers en route for the Gulf
would stay out for the time being following Monday's U.S.
Action.
    But there was no sign that the prospect of more tit-for-tat
assaults had reduced the level of shipping activity in the
area.
    Iran, having vowed to react strongly after Monday's U.S.
Action, launched a barrage of threats and ridicule.
    For its part, Washington warned Iran again on Tuesday that
it was ready for any further hostile action.
    Pentagon officials then announced that a U.S. Guided
missile destroyer began escorting two Kuwaiti tankers flying
the U.S. flag southwards--the 80,000 tonne product carrier
Ocean City and 46,000 tonne petroleum tanker Gas King.
 Reuter

Metropolitan Consolidated Industries Inc
said it will make a tender offer for all or any of the
outstanding shares of common stock of Metex Corp <MTX> not
currently held by or under option to Metropolitan for 7.75 dlrs
per share.
    The company said the offer will be subject ot securing
satisfactory financing.
    Metropolitan currently owns about 25.7 pct of Metex common
and holds options to purchase about an additional 16 pct of
Metex common stock.
   
    Metropolitan said the offer will be made no later than
October 27.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 1.2 mln vs 2.2 mln
    Sales 41.7 mln vs 38.3 mln
    Note: BII Enterprises Inc
 Reuter

Simmons Airlines Inc said its board of
directors authorized a doubling in the company's stock
repurchase program to one mln shares from 500,000 shares.
    The buyback would represent about 20 pct of its issued
shares, Simmons said.
    The company said it bought 205,000 shares today, bringing
its total repurchase since the program was authorized on July
29 to 534,500 shares. It said Simmons now has 4,540,459 shares
outstanding. Its stock closed at 5-5/8 bid and 5-3/4 offered.
    Shares will be bought privately and in the open market, it
said.
 Reuter

Artillery shells from an exchange of fire
between Iran and Iraq fell on Kuwait's northern border on
Tuesday but caused no casualties, the Kuwait News Agency KUNA
said, quoting a Defense Ministry official.
    There were rumors in world oil markets on Tuesday that Iran
had fired shells at an oil camp in northern Kuwait in
retaliation for U.S. Attacks on Iranian oil platforms in the
Gulf on Monday. "Several shells fell in a random manner on the
northern border of the country," the official told KUNA. "It
seems these shells arose from an exchange of fire between Iran
and Iraq... No one was wounded and there were no losses."
    Diplomats said shells from the nearby Iran-Iraq warfront
had in the past fallen in the northern Kuwaiti desert.
    A senior Kuwait Petroleum Corporation official had earlier
told Reuters he was unaware of any attack against Kuwaiti oil
installations.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 3,411,000 vs 2,487,000
    Revs 34.7 mln vs 31.9 mln
    Six mths
    Shr 51 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 6,372,000 vs 5,090,000
    Revs 68.1 mln vs 63.7 mln
    Avg shrs 12.6 mln vs 12.5 mln
 Reuter

President Reagan said he had ordered
the administration to begin talks with congressional leaders on
a budget deficit reduction plan.
    Reagan said in a statement following a meeting with his top
economic advisers that he was prepared to order across the
board spending cuts to comply with a Federal balanced budget
law, but preferred to negotiate with Congress.
    He said he would consider anything the congressional
leadership proposed, but a spokesman said he remains opposed to
raising taxes as a way to reduce the deficit.
    "I think it is preferable, if possible that the executive
and legislative branches reach a budget deficit reduction
package. Accordingly, I am directing that discussions be
undertaken with the bipartisan leadership of the Congress for
that purpose," Reagan said.
    Asked whether he would consider raising taxes, Reagan said
"I am willing to look at whatever proposal they might have."
    As Reagan boarded the helicopter to visit his wife Nancy at
Bethesda Naval Hospital, he was questioned as to whether that
meant he was softening on his tax stance. Reagan replied "if you
heard that it must have been the helicopter."
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater later told reporters
that Reagan was not changing his opposition to tax increases.
Fitzwater said the administration would accept automatic cuts
under the Gramm Rudman balanced budget law rather than raise
taxes.
    Earlier on Tuesday congressional leaders called for an
economic summit with the White House to address the nation's
budget and trade deficits that some analysts say were partly to
blame for the stock market drop.
    Reagan said he would be willing to participate personally
in any negotiations with Congress.
    The White House earlier seemed to reject the idea of
negotiating with Congress on the budget deficit.
    Fitzwater said this morning that the White House continued
to oppose a budget summit with Congress on the grounds that it
would be used by Democrats as a platform to press for a tax
increase.
    But Reagan announced his willingness to negotiate with
Congress after meeting for about an hour with White House Chief
of Staff Howard Baker, Treasury Secretary James Baker, Federal
Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and chief economic
adviser Beryl Sprinkel.
 Reuter

Bausch and Lomb Inc said its
board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to three
mln of its 30.5 mln issued shares of common stock.
    The company said recent turmoil in the financial markets
has resulted in its stock being priced substantially below a
level which it believes to be an accurate reflection of the
company's present performance and future earnings potential.
    The shares will be repurchased at management's discretion,
either in the open market, or by private purchase, and will be
used in connection with acquisitions, stock options and
employee benefit plans.
 Reuter

Pacific Stock Exchange Chairman
Maurice Mann said the exchange may have reached record volume
again today, following yesterday's record 17.6 mln shares.
    it looks like at least the same volume as yesterday, Mann
said at a news conference following the close.
    The exchange closed one-half hour early for the second
straight day. Mann said the exchange will determine daily
whether or not to close early over the next several days.
    Mann said the only major operational problem today occurred
when the exchange had to stop trading 30 over-the-counter
options, 17 of which trading were restored later in the day.
    He said the options had to be halted because price
information on the underlying stocks was not being disseminated
on the floor quickly enough.
    "You cannot trade an option, unless you know how much its
worth," he said.
    Mann said the exchange's computer system was working better
than had been expected under the pressure of the heavy trading
volume.
    "This system was not designed to do what it did today and
yesterday," he said.
    He said technical adjustments to the system since yesterday
improved today's operations. He would not elaborate.
    Mann said the decision to close the exchange early was not
due to concerns over the vulnerability of being open one half
hour after New York closed. Rather, he said, it was to allow
trades to be tallied in conformance with other exchanges.
    In Los Angeles, traders said although trading was hectic,
they were able to keep up with orders better than yesterday.
    "We could handle the orders we got. Things seem to be
smoothing out," said Richard Goforth, a partner with Crowell
Weedon and Co who trades on the Los Angeles exchange floor.
    Goforth, added, however, traders expected to be there into
the evening sorting out the paperwork on their trades.
    Jefferies and Co Director of Trading James Melton said the
firm has been extremely busy making markets in halted stocks
and in after hours trading. He said Jefferies has been trading
about 15 hours a day, beginning at 0300 pdt.
    Melton said Jefferies made markets in such blue chip stocks
as International Business Machines <IBM>, Allegis Corp <AEG>
and Merck and Co <MRK> while they were halted on the exchanges.
    Melton declined to give volumes of off-market trading the
company has been doing, but said, "its just very, very busy...
when the stocks are halted our markets are very active." He
said he expects the heavy volume to continue through the week.
    While sellers still predominated, Melton added, "people
were bottom fishing a little bit in the blue chips...but its
very nervous."

 Reuter

First RepublicBank Corp, the largest bank
holding company in Texas, reported a loss of 6.3 mln dlrs for
the third quarter and said that its non-performing loans rose
sharply because of a further deterioration in Texas's real
estate market.
    There was no comparable figure for the third quarter of
1986 because the company was formed in June 1987 through the
merger of RepublicBank Corp and Interfirst Corp.
    Non-performing loans were 3.1 billion dlrs at the end of
September, or 12.4 pct of total assets, mpared with 9.5 pct
at the end of the second quarter.
    Loans secured by real estate accounted for about 90 pct of
the 706 mln dlr increase in non-performing loans in the third
quarter, First Republicbank said.
    It said the poor shape of the office and retail housing
markets in Dallas, Houston and Austin will continue to hold
back earnings.
    "As indicated earlier in 1987 by First RepublicBank, the
company will continue to assess future common stock dividend
payments relative to earnings performance," Gerald
Fronterhouse, chairman and chief executive officier, said in a
    First RepublicBank said its third-quarter loan loss
provision of 106 mln dlrs and net charge-offs of 87 mln dlrs
left its total allowance for credit losses at 1.14 billion
dlrs, or 4.6 pct of the loan portfolio.
    The company's primary capital amounted to 7.9 pct of assets
at the end of September.
    The 6.3 mln dlr loss was sustained despite a 29 mln dlr cut
in overhead, achieved partly by staff attrition. The size of
the combined staffs of the two banks has been cut by 12 pct so
far this year, and Fronterhouse said the bank is ahead of the
schedule it set for achieving savings through the merger.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 4,193,000 vs 4,052,000
    Revs 75.2 mln vs 63.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.98 dlrs vs 1.75 dlrs
    Net 15.4 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Revs 223.4 mln vs 199.5 mln
 Reuter

The Pacific Stock Exchange said that due
to huge backups and computer difficulties, its closing figures
would not be available until later this evening.
    The exchange did not specify what time the figures would be
released.
 Reuter

CityFed Financial Corp said it
would stop issuing common stock to a variety of shareholder and
employee groups.
    The company, which said on Monday it will repurchase up to
one mln shares of common in the open market, said it will no
longer issue common stock for its dividend reinvestment and
stock purchase plan, or for the employee thrift and profit
sharing plan of its City Federal Savings Bank unit.
    It also said it would no longer grant a five pct market
discount on shares purchased by reinvested dividends under the
dividend reinvestment and stock puurchase plan.
 Reuter

The United States may lift an
additional 84 mln dlrs in trade sanctions against Japan later
this month, Reagan Administration officials said.
    President Reagan imposed 300 mln dlrs in sanctions on
Japanese goods last April for its failure to honor a 1986
agreement to end dumping semiconductors in the U.S. and third
country markets and to open its home market to U.S. goods.
    The move raised tariffs to 100 pct from about five pct on
Japanese color television sets, hand-held power tools and
portable computers.
    Reagan lifted 51 mln dlrs of the sanctions last June  after
Japan ended selling the semiconductors on the U.S. market at
below production costs.
    Semiconductors are the small silicon chips used for memory
and recall purposes in a wide variety of computers.
    The Administration officials said Commerce Department 
monitors showed that Japan was ending its dumping of the
semiconductors in third countries, where they had been taking
sales away from American-made semiconductors.
    They said it was likely the 51 mln dlrs in sanctions would
be lifted by the end of the month.
    The United States and Japan remain at odds over opening the
closed Japanese markets to U.S. goods.
    U.S. and Japanese officials reviewed Japan's compliance
with the agreement earlier this week.
    The periodic reviews are to continue and the remaining
sanctions to stay in force, the officials said, until Japan is
in full compliance with the semiconductor agreement.
 reuter

Telerate Inc said they will form a joint partnership to develop
and market electronic transaction services for global financial
markets.
    The companies said the partnership will provide a system
that gives international money traders the ability to manage
transactions instantaneously.
   
 Reuter

CIP Inc, wholly-owned by Canadian
Pacific Ltd, is considering building a pulp mill in Texas which
would use kenaf fibre instead of wood, CIP president Cecil
Slenniken said in an interview.
     The kenaf plant is a member of the hibiscus family and was
artificially developed several years ago. The plant, which has
been grown in Southern Texas, reaches a height of 10 feet in
three months and is said to produce better quality newsprint
than wood pulp, a CIP official said.
     Slenniken said the company has commissioned studies for a
200,000 tonne capacity pulp mill which would use the fibre but
would need partners to begin the project.
    "We are not yet ready to commit the hundreds of millions of
dollars it would take for such a project," Slenniken said.
     He said CIP has been using the pulp on a trial basis to
make newsprint containing 90 pct kenaf fibre and 10 pct
softwood fibre at its Trois-Rivieres, Quebec plant.
    CIP, Canada's second largest newsprint producer, recently
launched a 366 mln Canadian dlr newsprint mill at Gold River,
British Columbia which is due begin producing 230,000 metric
tonnes per year by fall of 1989.
 Reuter

Shr 83 cts vs 67 cts
    Net 10,052,000 vs 7,929,000
    Avg shrs 12,161,000 vs 11,824,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.33 dlrs vs 1.91 dlrs
    Net 28,110,000 vs 22,386,000
    Avg shrs 12,078,000 vs 11,729,000
    Assets 5.9 billion vs 5.7 billion
    Deposits 5.3 billion vs 4.8 billion
    Loans and leases 4.2 billion vs 4.0 billion
 Reuter

Trace Products Inc said its stock-swap
merger agreement with privately held Central Point Software has
been suspended indefinitely because of uncertainty in the stock
market.
    Trace Products, which manufactures diskette and tape
duplication equipment for software publishers, had earlier
agreed to acquire Portland, Ore.-based Central Point for 5.5
mln shares of its common stock.
 Reuter

Shr profit one cent vs loss 29 cts
    Net profit 116,000 vs loss 4,195,000
    Revs 20.2 mln vs 6,393,000
 Reuter

Oper shr 38 cts vs 1.84 dlrs
    Oper net 973,000 vs 4,497,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.22 dlrs vs 1.31 dlrs
    Oper net 3,133,000 vs 3,410,000
    NOTE: Results exclude extraordinary gain from net loss
carryforward of 672,000 dlrs or 27 cts in 1987 3rd qtr, 918,000
dlrs 38 cts in 1986 3rd qtr, and 1,071,000 dlrs or 44 cts in
1987 nine months. 1986 results include 5.1 mln dlr gain from
termination of defined benefit pension plan.
 Reuter

States remains committed to the Louvre accord in which the
seven major industrial nations agreed to stabilize currency
    "The United States remains committed to the Louvre
agreement," Reagan said in a statement following a meeting with
his top economic advisers.
    Reagan said the United States, Japan and West Germany had
all reaffirmed their commitment to coordinate economic
policies.
    Reagan said Japanese Prime Minister-designate Noboru
Takeshita said in a telephone conversation Tuesday morning that
"his (Takeshita's) top priority was to maintain stable economic
relations with the United States."
    Reagan noted that Treasury Secretary James Baker met with
West German financial officials and reaffirmed their commitment
to the Louvre agreement.
    They "reaffirmed our agreement to coordinate economic
policies to provide for non-inflationary growth and stable
exchange rates," Reagan said.
 Reuter

Qtly div 33 cts vs 32-1/2 cts
    Pay Dec one
    Record Nov six
    Note: Canadian Utilities Ltd.
 Reuter

A shareholder group including
Entregrowth Interational Ltd, of Auckland, New Zealand, said it
lifted its stake in Suave Shoe Corp common stock to 319,600
shares, or 11.5 pct of the total outstanding, from a previous
figure of approximately 238,400 shares, or 8.6 pct.
the group said it bought 81,200 Suave Shoe common shares in
open market transactions between October 1 and 19 at 8.34 dlrs
to 10.07 dlrs a share.
    No reason was given for the purchases.
 Reuter

    Net 5,600,000 vs 4,000,000
    Revs 115.4 mln vs 91.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.13 dlrs vs 61 cts
    Net 10.7 mln vs 5,800,000
    Revs 308.2  mln vs 249.5 mlln
    NOTE: 1986 resutls restated on pro forma basis to reflect
comparable treatment of Budget's leveraged buyout on September
30, 1986, and initial common stock offering on May 22, 1987.
 Reuter

Qtrly div 34 cts vs 40 cts prior
    Pay Nov 21
    Record Nov Four
 Reuter

    Net 1,600,000 vs 1,314,000
    Revs 17.6 mln vs 12.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 58 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 7,624,000 vs 5,336,000
    Revs 56.8 mln vs 40.1 mln
 Reuter

Net 1,137,000 vs 1,185,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.17 dlrs vs 2.03 dlrs
    Net 3,645,000 vs 3,384,000
    Assets 374.4 mln vs 355.4 mln
    NOTE: Per shr data in qtr not disclosed.
 Reuter

Shr loss 15 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net loss 2,161,000 vs loss 2,873,000
    Revs 24.5 mln vs 22.6 mln
 Reuter

    Net 262,000 vs 38,000
    Revs 11.2 mln vs 5,858,000
    Avg shrs 2,589,045 vs 2,588,364
    Nine mths
    Shr 46 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 1,179,000 vs 601,000
    Revs 32.7 mln vs 18.7 mln
    NOTE: All per shr data adjusted to reflect 10 pct stock
dividend distributed in 2nd qtr 1987.
 Reuter

Shr loss 35 cts vs profit 18 cts shr
    Net loss 946,300 vs profit 502,500
    Revs 17.3 mln vs 16.8 mln
 Reuter

Former Treasury Secretary William Simon
sharply criticised President Reagan for irresponsible fiscal
policies that contributed to this week's stock price collapse.
    "(Reagan) fell for that siren song that you can cut taxes
without cutting spending and that we would 'grow our way out of
this,' and everything would be wonderful," Simon said, in an
apparent reference to the massive U.S. budget deficit.
    "Every time we hear that nonsense we ought to howl with
pain as we were howling yesterday and are howling today," he
said in an interview taped this afternoon for the MacNeil
Lehrer Newshour which will air at 1930 EDT (2330 GMT).
    Simon, who held his post under presidents Nixon and Ford,
said Reagan's tax cuts are positive for saving and investment.
    And he blamed Congress for causing the U.S.'s fiscal
problems by putting self-interest ahead of national interest.
    "It's not only the president. It's Congress ... under
Republicans and Democrats alike," he said. "They're a bunch of
hypocrites who have one credo -- that credo is 'more.'"
 Reuter

First Mississippi Corp said in
view of the recent decline in its stock price due to the drop
in the stock market, it is considering a repurchase of its
    The company did not say how many shares it would repurchase
but said that it has about 13 mln dlrs available for such
actions.
    The company also said its first quarter earnings, to be
released next week, will be substantially better than the 33
cts per share last year.
   
    Results will also include a gain of about 44 cts per share
from the sale of a portion of the company's interest in
Melamine Chemicals, the company said.
    The company said its plan for corporate restructuring is
proceeding on schedule and that proceeds from the 49 mln dlr
coal supply contract settlement with <Tampa Electric Co> have
been received and will be used to reduce debt.
    First Mississippi is a diversified resource company.
 Reuter

Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 10.1 mln vs 8,910,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.42 dlrs vs 3.30 dlrs
    Net 19.8 mln vs 25.4 mln
    Assets 4.3 billion vs 3.8 billion
    Deposits 3.4 billion vs 3.1 billion
    Loans 2.6 billion vs 2.3 billion
 Reuter

Standard and Poor's Corp said IC
Products Co's BBB-plus senior debt is under review with
negative implications. Also, Pneumo-Abex Corp's BBB-plus senior
debt and BBB subordinated debt are being reviewed with
"developing" implications.
    Both firms are units of IC Industries Inc whose debt is not
rated by S and P. About 65 mln dlrs of debt is affected.
    S and P said it is reviewing management's current business
objectives and the resources needed to achieve them in
determining the credit quality impact of an expanded
restructuring program.
 Reuter

Commission said futures markets collected clearing margins
called following feverish futures trading on Monday.
    "The Commission remains in frequent contact with the
futures markets which trade stock index futures and options,
each of which has confirmed the collection of clearing margins
called for as a consequence of futures trading on Monday,
October 19, 1987," the CFTC said in a statement.
    Four U.S. exchanges briefly halted stock index futures
trading Tuesday, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) urged
members to refrain from using program trading.
    Acting CFTC Chairman Kalo Hineman said CFTC continued to
"closely monitor the financial integrity of firms with
positions in the stock index futures and options markets."
    A futures industry official said there was some concern
among industry leaders that stock index futures would be blamed
for the stock market's nosedive on Monday.
    "This is an equity market problem," the official said. "Our
(U.S.) budget deficit, (and) what's going on in the Gulf appear
to be much more responsible because they shape what's happening
in futures markets."
    Some lawmakers focused criticism on index arbitrage
trading.
    Republican Senator John Heinz said he recommended to the
White House that daily trading limits be applied to stock index
futures and that index futures margins be raised.
    Democrat Representative Charles Schumer said Congress would
consider new controls over margin requirements.
 Reuter

downgraded to CCC-plus from single-B Del E. Webb Corp's <DWP>
30 mln dlrs of outstanding subordinated debt.
    It said the issue was removed from Creditwatch, where it
was placed on July 27 due to the deteriorating operating
performance at Webb's minority owned and managed Atlantic City
and Nevada casino/hotel businesses.
    S and P said the downgrade reflects the casinos' dismal
earnings and cash flow prospects and Webb's resultant weakened
 Reuter

Southland Corp said it was told the 
Securities and Exchange Commission ordered a private
investigation into Southland stock trading and statements made
by the company this year.
    "Southland has been advised that the Commission has issued
a private order of investigation concerning the trading of
Southland stock during various times in 1987 and the issuance
of various public statements by Southland," Southland said in a
proxy statement to shareholders.
    Southland did not elaborate on the SEC order of
investigation, and company officials could not be reached for
comment late Tuesday.
    The SEC has a long-standing policy against confirming or
denying the existence of investigations.
    The proxy statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, is required for a November 5 shareholders meeting
called to approve the previously announced acquisition of
Southland by a company controlled by Southland chairman John
Thompson and members of his family.
    Earlier this year, a group led by Thompson acquired
majority ownership of Southland through a 77 dlrs a share
tender offer for 31.5 mln shares of Southland common stock.
    If the merger is approved, common stock still outstanding
will be converted into the right to receive 61.32 dlrs a share
in cash plus a fraction of a share of preferred stock.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Aug 31
    Shr 22 cts vs 24 cts
    Six mths
    Shr 45 cts vs 45 cts
    NOTE: full name of company is continental information
systems corp.
 Reuter

Shr 15 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 4,358,947 vs 7,786,640
    Revs 140.8 mln vs 121.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 86 cts vs 1.06 dlrs
    Net 24.8 mln vs 30.5 mln
    Revs 560.3 mln vs 487.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 4,653,815 vs 3,564,451
    Revs 34.0 mln vs 12.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 61 cts vs 53 cts
    Net 10.4 mln vs 8,881,825
    Revs 61.8 mln vs 38.4 mln
    NOTE: Per shr amounts are after giving retroactive effect
for a 2-for-1 split effected as a 100 pct stock dividend which
was paid June 1, 1987.Net includes net realized investment
gains of 1,213,471 vs 937,801 in nine mths 1987 vs 1986, and
604,172 vs 474,556 in qtr 1987 vs 1986. Net includes net
investment income of 12.5 mln vs 11.2 mln in nine mths 1987 vs
1986, and 4,480,540 vs 3,781,245 in qtr 1987 vs 1986.
 Reuter

Federal Realty Investment Trust said its
management has been authorized to purchase up to one mln of its
common shares at current market prices in open market
    The company had 13.6 mln shares outstanding as of September
30.
    The company said it was making the purchases because its
stock represented an excellent investment in light of current
    Federal Realty will finance the buy-back through available
cash funds.
 Reuter

Payless Cashways Inc said it will
repurchase up to one mln of its common shares from time to time
    The company, which has 34.7 mln shares outstanding, called
the stock buyback a good investment at current prices. Its
stock closed at 12-1/2, down 1/8, following a 3-3/8 point drop
on Monday.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs 12 cts
    Net 1,016,552 vs 980,834
    Revs 6,786,579 vs 4,356,561
    NOTE: Invitron went public on October seven.
 Reuter

ICOT Corp said it will
periodically repurchase up to 7,500,000 of its 10,800,000
    The company said funds for the buy-back will come from
   
 Reuter

<First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Wooster> said it declared its first quarterly
dividend of seven cts per share.
    The dividend is payable November 20 to stockholders of
record November 2, the company said.
    The company converted to a stock savings and loan on April
7, 1987.
 Reuter

Circle K Corp said it may purchase up
to three mln shares of its common stock.
    A company spokesman said Circle K has 52.6 mln shares
    Circle K said the purchases would be made on the open
market
 Reuter

    Record December 1
 Reuter

Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 78 cts
    Net 109.2 mln vs 83.9 mln
    Revs 561.3 mln vs 460.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.61 dlrs vs 1.91 dlrs
    Net 273.8 mln vs 206.6 mln
    Revs 1.56 billion vs 1.27 billion
    NOTE: Per shr amounts reflect the 2-for-1 split to
shareholders of record on June 1, 1987.
   
    For qtr and nine mths 1987, exchange rate fluctuations had
a favorable sales impact of 25.9 mln dlrs and 70.3 mln dlrs,
    Net in nine mths 1986 includes income from discontinuing
operations of 10.1 mln or nine cts per shr, and income of 3.9
mln dlrs or four cts per shr in qtr 1986.
 Reuter

The nation's exchanges and brokerage
houses said their computers systems have been strained by the
avalanche of trading triggered by the past week's stock market
collapse.
    And while the financial instry's hi-tech resources have
been able to handle the crisis, the sudden surge in trading
volume will likely force the exchanges and securities firms to
revamp their computer systems and communications networks
several years earlier than they had planned, industry officials
said.
    "We had already started certain processes to increase the
New York Stock Exchange's capacity," said Jim Squyres, a
spokesman for the Securities Industry Automation Corp, which
runs the central computer network for the New York and American
Stock Exchanges.
    "We will have to seriously consider speeding that up," he
said. After three straight days of record volume, however, many
exchanges were pushing their systems to untested limits. And
while the exchanges said their computers were handling the
crush, brokers and traders complained about lost trades and
delayed price quotes.
    The most serious problems arose on Monday, when a record
fall of 508 points in the dow and volume of more than 600 mln
shares on the New york stock exchange stunned the entire
industry.
    The American Stock Exchange's order-routing system crashed
just 10 minutes before trading closed. The Pacific Stock
Exchange suspended business a half-hour early so it could catch
up with a massive backlog of trades.
    And the price-quote feed supplied by the NYSE was cut off
several times during the day, leaving some traders with quotes
that were often 45 minutes behind the actual market.
     Although the computers whirred away late into the night,
the exchanges opened on time Tuesday and problems were fewer,
even though NYSE volume swelled to 610 mln shares. Combined
volume of the NYSE, American and over-the-counter exchanges
topped 900 mln shares.
    "I think we're equipped for this kind of trading," said
Paul Stevens, executive vice president of operations for the
American Stock Exchange.
    "The problem is less the computers, which are handling the
volume, than the strain on people," he said.
   
     "The computers might turn out to be the heroes of this
whole thing," added DuWayne Peterson, executive vice president
of technology at Merrill Lynch and Co Inc.
    In fact, officials said the biggest constraint on trading
was caused by some of the oldest machines on exchange floors,
the card printers that issue the buy and sell orders.
    But even as computer executives spoke with awe about their
systems' ability to hold up under unprecedented pressure, they
started to plan for the future.

     "We had to do a lot of innovative things to handle this
volume," said Squyres of the Securities Industry Automation
Corp (SIAC), which is jointly owned by the New York and
American Stock exchanges.
    SIAC had planned to boost the capacity of its system by up
to 50 pct by 1990. But that and other improvements will now be
made much earlier.
    Meanwhile, New York Telephone Co said Monday's panic
selling did not wreak havoc on its telephone system.
    "It was a normally heavy business day," said company
spokesman Steve Marcus.
 Reuter

TLX Partners, a group led by Asher
Edelman, does not see any problems with its 65 dlr per share
bid for Telex Corp, a Shearson Lehman official advising the
    Several other takeover proposals have crumbled following
declines in financial markets, leading to speculation that
Edelman might also drop his offer. Telex fell 11 to 34-1/4.
    Earlier today, Carl Icahn dropped his bid to take Trans
World Airlines Inc <TWA> private and Dart Group Corp <DARTA.O>
said it abandoned plans to acquire Dayton Hudson Corp <DH>.
    Both cited market conditions.
    "Nothing fundamental has changed with the company. The
stock price has changed, but the company hasn't changed so
there's no reason for us to change," said Daniel Good, head of
Shearson Lehman merchant banking.
    "Things are proceeding as planned, and we fully expect that
at the time we have to pay for the shares the financing will be
in place," Good said.
    Shearson has agreed to provide bridge financing of up to 
600 mln dlrs for the Edelman group.
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 3,532,000 vs 4,217,000
    Revs 54 mln vs 52.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.97 dlrs vs 1.98 dlrs
    Net 15.0 mln vs 14.8 mln
    Revs 176.2 mln vs 176.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr primary 92 cts vs 1.09 dlrs
    Shr diluted 82 cts vs 97 cts
    Net 21.8 mln vs 26.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 3.07 dlrs vs 2.96 dlrs
    Shr diluted 2.72 dlrs vs 2.44 dlrs
    Net 73.2 mln vs 65.3 mln
    Assets 14.29 billion vs 12.35 billion
    Deposits 9.52 billion vs 8.69 billion
    Loans 8.79 billion vs 8.69 billion
 Reuter

MDS Health Group Ltd said that mass
spectrometry equipment developed and made by its Sciex division
will be used in British-made contraband detection systems being
purchased by the Japanese government.
    The company said the Japanese customs bureau placed an
initial 21 mln dlr order.
    The equipment is able to detect illegal drugs in cargo, the
company said. The systems are made by British Aerospace
<BAEL.L>.
 Reuter

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday backed
President Reagan's retaliatory strike against Iranian targets
in the Gulf as it moved to take a greater role in making policy
in the volatile region.
    Senators voted 92-1 for a non-binding measure that endorsed
Monday's U.S. attack on two Iranian oil platforms in
retaliation for an Iranian attack last Friday on a Kuwaiti ship
flying the American flag.
    The measure said the attack was a firm indication of U.S.
resolve that Iran "cannot take military action against the
United States with impunity."
    Earlier, the Senate cut off Republican stalling tactics and
set a vote on a measure that could give Congress a larger role
in making Gulf policy. The measure, however, does not require
Reagan to comply with the 1973 War Powers Act, which could lead
to a pullout of U.S. forces from the Gulf.
    While Democrats and Republicans praised the U.S.
retaliatory strike, many voiced new fears about the growing
U.S. involvement in the Gulf and some demanded that Reagan
comply with the War Powers Act.
 Reuter

Canada will propose at the new round of
international trade talks that most trade-distorting farm
subsidies be phased out over a five year period, Trade Minister
Pat Carney said.
    "Agricultural subsidies and trade barriers have created a
vicious circle which continues to cause problems of
overproduction and low commodity prices," Carney told the House
of Commons.
    Carney was outlining the government's new position on the
farm trade problem that was tabled on Tuesday in Geneva in the
multilateral talks under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade).
    While few details were released, Carney said the government
would also be pressing for an improvement in market access and
new measures to ensure countries do not erect artificial
barriers.
    "Under the Canadian proposal, all countries would have to
ensure that domestic policies and programs to address the
specific needs of their farm sectors do not distort trade," a
government background paper said.
    "Furthermore, in assessing the trade impact of programs,
credit could be given to countries which effectively control
the output of farm products," the papers said.
 Reuter

reviewing for downgrade United Artists Communications Inc's
single-B rating on 490 mln dlrs of outstanding and
shelf-registered subordinated debt.
    Placed under review with positive implications were United
Cable Television Corp's B-minus rating on 250 mln dlrs of
outstanding subordinated debt and preliminary B-plus senior and
B-minus subordinated ratings on 200 mln dlrs of
shelf-registered debt.
    S and P said the reviews reflect its perception of the
implications of a proposed merger involving the two firms.
 Reuter

downgrade the 100 mln dlrs of B-plus 13-5/8 pct senior
subordinated debentures due 1997 of Bally Health and Tennis
Corp, a unit of Bally Manufacturing Corp.
    S and P cited the parent's proposals to sell Bally Health
for more than 500 mln dlrs to an investor group. It noted the
transaction includes the assumption of Bally Health's debt.
    Although the investor group's plans are not known, the
acquisition will probably be debt financed and markedly
increase Bally Health's financial risk. S and P said the sale
of the unit would increase the parent's financial position.
    In a related action, Standard and Poor's affirmed the debt
ratings of Bally Manufacturing and related entities. Affirmed
were BB first mortgage bonds, BB-minus second mortgage bonds
and B-plus subordinated debt.
    S and P said pro-form debt leverage for Bally
Manufacturing, adjusted to capitalize operating leases, drops
to a still high 68 pct from an aggressive 75.5 pct at June 30.
Adjusted for asset sales, the parent company's return on
capital, 11.6 pct in 1986, should remain subpar, S and P said.
 Reuter

MGM/UA Communications Co
said it signed an agreement with CST Communications Co for the
purpose of financing American motion picture projects.
    CST is an American corporation formed by C. Itoh and Co Ltd
<CITT.T>, Suntory Ltd and Tokyo Broadcasting Systems Inc
<TBRS.T>.
    The company did not detail the agreement.
 Reuter

    Net 149.6 mln vs 134.0 mln
    Revs 1.10 billion vs 956.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Revs 3.13 billion vs 2.70 billion
    NOTE: 1986 results include 25 mln dlr reduction of
operating income for the relaunch of Contac.
 Reuter

First Commercial Bancorp said it will
acquire the three-branch Citizens Bank of Roseville in a stock
swap.
    The value of the agreement will be based on Citizens'
adjusted book value at year end and the trading price of First
Commercial's stock.
    Citizens' book value was about 1.9 mln dlrs at the end of
the third quarter, according to the bank's counsel, Guy Gibson.
Under the agreement, Citizens shareholders could also trade
their stock for a five-year debenture issued by First
Commercial. Terms of the debenture have not been established.
 Reuter

United Artists Communications Inc and
<United Cable Television Corp> said they have indefinitely
suspended negotiations on a proposed merger of their companies
previously announced.
    The companies cited a combination of extraordinary market
conditions and unresolved terms of the merger as contributing
to the action.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 10.2 mln vs 8,309,000
    Revs 193.3 mln vs 157.7 mln
    Shr 1.29 dlrs vs 1.02 dlrs
    Net 32.1 mln vs 25.4 mln
    Revs 582 mln vs 486.5 mln
 Reuter

Shr 56 cts vs 68 cts
    Net 8,327,000 vs 9,738,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.19 dlrs vs 1.67 dlr
    Net 32.8 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Avg shrs 15.0 mln vs 14.9 mln
    Assets 5.58 billion vs 4.34 billion
    Deposits 3.60 billion vs 3.27 billion
    Loans 2.96 billion vs 2.90 billion
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Avg shrs 17,121,000 vs 16,065,000
    Six months
    Revs 248 mln vs 249.2 mln
 Reuter

BSD Medical Corp said Alan L
Himber has been appointed chairman of the board, replacing John
E. Langdon, who resigned.
    BSD said Langdon's close businees associates, Philip D.
Dixon III and Robert E. McCarroll, all resigned as directors.
New board members will be appointed in the near future.
    Himber became the majority stockholder of the company in
June.
   
 Reuter

National Self Storage said
has sold nine storage facilities to Southmark Corp for 37.1 mln
dlrs.
    National Self, a developer of storage space for business
records, said the purchase includes nine storage facilties.
National Self also said it and Southmark plan a two-year 100
facility expansion program in South Florida and across the
country.
 Reuter

W.R. Grace and Co said a federal
district court jury in Chicago has ordered it to pay 100 mln
dlrs in damages, based on a judgment involving a loan agreement
with Continental Illinois National Bank <CIL>.
    The company said the damages consist of 25 mln dlrs in
compensatory damages and 75 mln dlrs in punitive damages.
    It said it will appeal the ruling. The company said the
litigation "involved an interpretation of a complex financing
arrangement entered into with Continental Illinois National
Bank <CIL> which transferred the loan to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp upon restructuring of the bank."
    The company said it believes the appeal will be successful.
    Separately, it said it has resumed the periodic purchases
of up to 2.3 mln shares of Grace common stock in unsolicited
open market and privately negotiated transactions.
    The company has about 42.2 mln common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Qtly div 63 cts vs 62 cts
    Pay Nov 20
 Reuter

Foreign investment in Mexico stood at
end August at 17.8 billion dlrs, following an increase of 900
mln dlrs in the first eight months, the Trade and Industrial
Development Ministry said.
    It said authorized investments rose 30 pct last year,
equivalent to 2.45 billion dlrs, and expected a similar
increase for 1987 as a whole.
 Reuter

The Swiss Mortgage Institute
(Schweizerischer Hypothekarinstitute) is issuing a 160 mln
Swiss franc five pct 12-year bond priced at 100.5 pct, lead
manager Credit Suisse said.
    Subscriptions run until Oct. 29.
 Reuter

Chile's military rulers imposed a range
of punishments, ranging from fines to loss of political and
civil rights, for those convicted of belonging to banned
Marxist parties.
     Any newspaper or magazine publishing their views risked
temporary suspension.
   The crackdown came in an ammendment to the Constitution
approved by the Military Junta, the country's legislature, on
which the four branches of the Armed Forces are represented.
 Reuter

Tokyo stock index rises 63.48 points to 21,973.56 in first nine minutes

Tokyo stock index rises 353.09 points to 22,263.17 after 30 minutes

Tokyo stock index soars 1,376.86 points to end morning trade at 23,286.94

The Bank of Japan bought around 50 billion
yen of 10-year government bonds in an operation seen aimed at
allaying fears of a collapse in the market, bond traders said.
    The central bank bought the 6.8 pct 73rd, 6.5 pct 80th, and
5.1 pct 89th issues.
    Yield on the key 89th bond due 1996 subsequently fell to
5.560 pct in early trading from 5.920 pct at the close on
Tuesday, after opening at 5.600 pct.
    The market had generally welcomed the operation and trading
volume had been gradually increasing. There was some retail
bargain-hunting for less active issues, traders said.
 REUTER

The Bank of Japan reassured a nervous money
market after the sharp fall in Tokyo stock prices yesterday by
conducting a 200 billion yen commercial bill purchase
operation, money traders said.
    The central bank injected funds through three-month
repurchase agreements which mature on January 11 and bear
interest of 3.9375 pct, identical to this morning's rates on
three-month commercial bills.
    The operation was done partly to roll over 300 billion yen
in commercial bills maturing this morning. Money market sources
project a 260 billion yen surplus today.
    In the bond market, the Bank of Japan offered to buy around
50 billion yen of 10-year government bonds, encouraging an
already firm tone in bond prices, dealers said.
    The Bank of Japan was trying to reassure market
participants that it was ready to supply funds whenever the
market needed them, especially after Tuesday's plunge in Tokyo
stock prices, securities house traders said.
    The widely held market belief that interest rates were
heading higher was a major cause of the recent tumble in bond
market prices and one reason behind the stock market plunge,
they said.
 REUTER

The "Black Monday" stock market crash
failed to destroy Americans' faith in the economic soundness of
the country, according to a poll released on Tuesday.
    The ABC-Washington Post poll, taken after the close of
stock trading on Monday, showed 58 pct did not believe the
unprecedented slide in stock prices foretold an economic
downturn, and 70 pct rejected the notion the country faced a
1930s-style Depression.
    Fifty-three pct of those interviewed said they had owned
stocks at some point, and only one pct said they had sold any
as a result of Monday's decline.
    Of the 40 pct who currently held stocks, only two pct said
they planned to sell some and four pct said they planned to
buy.
    The poll of 507 men and women was taken by telephone on
Monday night, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged
more than 500 points, or 22 pct, in record volume.
 REUTER

Tokyo's stock index plummets 615.31 points to 25,131.25 after 51 minutes

Miyazawa says overseas stock plunges not likely to cause Tokyo market freefall

Tokyo stock index falls 201.12 to 25,545.44 after open, most stocks untraded

Monday's stock market collapse could
spell disaster for Republican hopes of retaining the White
House in 1988 -- if it proves to be the start of a general
economic downturn -- political experts said.
    "The question is does the stock market (decline) signal an
impending recession. If that is the case the Republicans will
have a very difficult time winning," independent political
analyst William Schneider told Reuters. "If the Democrats
nominate anyone halfway credible they would win," he added.
    Schneider's comments, on the heels of a 500-point decline
in the bellwheter Dow Jones stock market average, reflected the
old political adage that elections are almost always decided by
voters' feelings about their financial well being.
    "There is no doubt people always vote their pocketbook and
we don't expect 1988 to be any different," says Donald Foley,
the top spokesman for Missouri Representative Richard
Gephardt's Democratic presidential campaign.
    Foley added that the five-year old stock market rally has
shown amazing resilience and "there's no telling where the
market will be by the end of the week."
    President Reagan said he was puzzled by the day's events,
but is convinced the economy is fundamentally sound.
    "I think everyone is puzzled ... because all the business
indices are up. There is nothing wrong with the economy," he
    "I don't think anyone should panic because all the economic
indicators are solid," he added.
    But for the time being, the decline on Wall Street knocked
the underpinnings from his boasts that the record bull market
demonstrates the wisdom of current economic policy.
    It could also deprive the Republicans of a major argument
for keeping the White House in their hands when President
Reagan leaves office in January 1989.
    It gives a hollow ring to the words used by Vice President
George Bush just a week ago when he formally entered the White
House race.
    "We have weathered the storm. Our economy has recovered to
be the strongest in history," Bush said in reference to the
recovery from the 1981-82 recession that pushed unemployment to
its highest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
    "We mark next week the longest peacetime economic expansion
in our nation's recorded history," Bush bragged.
    At midday, even as Wall Street was being battered by a
record selling panic, Reagan gave a glowing account of the
economy's performance at a swearing in ceremony for his new
Commerce Secretary, William Verity.
    Indeed, the Labor Department reported earlier this month
that unemployment among American workers had fallen to an
eight-year low of 5.9 pct in September, compared to seven pct a
year ago and a Post World War Two peak of 10.7 pct in December
1982.
    But with interest rates climbing steadily and no
improvement in the record U.S. trade deficit with the rest of
the world, a number of economic experts have expressed doubts
about the staying power of the current expansion.
   Warnings of economic danger around the corner have been a
staple of Democratic campaign speeches this year.
    And Democratic party leaders here for an organizational
meeting two weeks ago predicted at that time that the economy
would be the determining factor in next year's election.
    "The 1988 election will be decided, as most peacetime
elections are, on economic issues," said Michigan party chairman
Richard Weiner.
    "In Ohio, people are uneasy. They want to know where the
economy is going," added Ohio Democratic leader James Ruvulo.
    American political history is replete with examples of
voters throwing out incumbent officeholders when the economy
turns sour -- most notably in 1932 when Democrat Franklin
Roosevelt won a landslide triumph that ended 12 years of
Republican rule and made the Democrats the nation's majority
party for more than 40 years.
    But political experts said that if Monday's stock decline
turns out to be a temporary phenomena it will have no effect on
the 1988 election.
    "Times change, conditions change," Schneider said.
    Quoting legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel, Schneider
added, "Never make predictions, especially about the future."
 Reuter

Stock market analysts polled before Tokyo's
market opened on Tuesday said Wall Street's dramatic fall on
Monday was overdone and although Tokyo would fall drastically
at the opening it might stabilise later.
    Factors affecting the Tokyo market are not the same as
those in New York, they said.
    "Tokyo's market is completely different from New York," said
a senior analyst at Nomura Securities. "We have no computer
(program) selling, and much more stable share ownership than in
New York."
    "The discount rate in Japan cannot rise," the senior Nomura
    He said the Tokyo Exchange's 225-share index may fall 1,000
points on Tuesday, because of basic concern. It dropped 620.18
points to 25,746.56 on Monday.
    But he said a 1,000 point fall would be nothing compared to
New York. "New York overreacted, the dollar is rising -- that
should be a positive sign for New York," he said.
    The Tokyo Stock Exchange opens from 0900 local time (0000
GMT) to 1500 local (0600 GMT).
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points (or 22.5
pct) to 1,738 on Monday, its biggest ever one day decline in
both absolute and percentage terms.
    Simon Smithson, a Kleinwort Benson International share
analyst, said Tokyo's market was likely to free fall in morning
trading but perhaps would stabilise later. He too predicted a
drop of perhaps 1,000 points in the index today.
    But he said overall economic conditions in the U.S. And
Japan were different. "The problems that pushed down the New
York market, like the (U.S.) budget deficit, trade deficit and
slow economic growth, do not exist in Japan," Smithson said.
    However, a stocks fund manager at a major trust bank made a
more gloomy prediction. "The situation is different in the two
markets, but you cannot ignore New York," he said.
    "Foreigners will be selling and the index funds will be
selling," he said.
    A fund manager at another Japanese trust bank said Monday's
New York fall was completely out of the range of expectations.
    "All we can do is wait now and see what happens. There seem
to be no factors which would stop the fall. There is no way we
can invest now," he said.
 REUTER

Dollar opens sharply higher in Tokyo at 143.55 yen (Monday close 141.35)

Chase Manhattan Corp (CMB)
president Thomas Labrecque said the sharp decline in the stock
market was not justified by economic conditions and there was a
need for perspective by investors on fundamental economic
    "If we are right about the fundamentals, this thing should
settle down," Labrecque said at a news conference at the
American Bankers Associatioon annual convention here.
    Labrecque also said the stock market drop could cause U.S.
monetary officials to ease credit policies.
    Inflation fears are exaggerated and Chase still believes
inflation will not rise much beyond five percent this year,
Labrecque said.
   He said strong economic conditions would permit growth to
continue well into 1988.
    "I don't think the stock market will cause a recession,"
    He said he could not estimate what the impact on Chase from
the stock market fall would be. Chase's stock price, however,
dropped 23 pct, but other money center banks suffered even
sharper losses.
    Referring to the banking industry, he said: "We're talking
about one day."
    "These are strong institutions," he said. Labrecque said he
did not think the Federal Reserve Board would tighten monetary
policy in view of the stock market's behavior.
    "If there is a bias I expect it would be a little bit the
other way," he said. Labrecque said the high U.S. budget deficit
was not the single most important factor behind the market's
worries.
    He called for closer cooperation in economic policy by the
United States, West Germany, Japan and Britain.
 Reuter

British foreign secretary Sir Geoffrey
Howe told his EC colleagues on Monday that Britain wants
agreement by December on a detailed plan to curb EC farm
spending if it is to sanction an increase in EC budgetary
    British diplomatic sources quoted Howe as saying that an
accord containing detailed figures and involving immediate
penalties for farmers in the case of overproduction must be
reached in advance of an EC heads of government summit meeting
in December.
    "We require numbers as well as words in all the commodity
regimes," Howe was quoted as saying.
    The EC Commission proposed last month a plan for "budgetary
stabilisers" under which there would be reductions in guaranteed
prices, restrictions of sales into intervention or increases in
coresponsibility levies if output of individual commodities
exceeded certain levels.
    Britain has so far given the clearest backing to the idea,
although several other EC states back it in outline.
    Diplomats say Britain can exercise some leverage on the
issue because the EC is in a severe budgetary crisis from which
it can only emerge if all 12 member states agree to revise the
system by which it is financed.
    The sources quoted Howe as saying: "An interim or partial
solution covering some elements of the Commission package would
be unacceptable to the United Kingdom."
    They said he insisted that any penalties imposed on farmers
for exceeding production limits must take effect in the same
marketing year as the overproduction, rather than resulting in
a price adjustment the following year.
    Howe also said there should be no question of a special
fund which could top up EC farm coffers in the event of an
unexpected development such as a major fall in the value of the
dollar.
    The Commission has suggested such a fund to deal with
emergency situations.
    French EC affairs minister Bernard Bosson told journalists
that his country could not accept the idea that there should be
no emergency reserve.
    "The British position has become tougher," he said.
    Howe was speaking at a meeting of EC foreign ministers,
which discussed the future of EC finances, and which took place
simultaneously with a farm ministers' meeting to consider the
Commission's farm spending proposals.
    Before his meeting got under way, British agriculture
minister John MacGregor said he backed the Commission proposal
to set the 1988 cereals production ceiling at 155 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter
said on Monday that the U.S. free trade agreements with Canada
and Israel should help to pave the way for liberalizing the
    He said the Canadian and Israeli pacts will not set back
worldwide reform efforts under the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) as some critics feared but help them.
    The GATT talks began a year ago in Punta del Este, Uruguay
to liberalize the global trading system and to include in it
trade in agriculture and services such as banking.
    Yeutter made his remarks at a U.S.-Israeli trade meeting
marking the second year of their bilateral accord. The
Canadian-U.S. pact, signed by two sides two weeks ago, has yet
been approved by the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament.
    The two free trade agreements (FTA) would gradually remove
tariffs and other barriers to cross-border trade in goods and
many services.
    Yeutter said in the aftermath of the Canadian and Israeli
pacts "other countries have realized that if they want to
continue to have access to the world's largest market, they had
better get serious about improving the GATT."
    The pact with Israel, he said, is gradually increasing
shipments both ways and the Canadian pact will substantially
increase the gross national products in both countries.
    Yeutter also said the Canadian and Israeli pacts should
serve as important precedents for progress in GATT.
    Yeutter said, "increasing trade is one of the keys to
enhanced political and economic stability around the globe."
    He said, "a stronger GATT will enhance prosperity, not only
for advanced industrial nations, but also for other countries
that need to increase trade in order to better their standards
of living."
    Yeutter added it was important not to risk the progress
made in the Israeli and Canadian trade pacts by resorting to
    He was referring to trade legislation pending in Congress
that would force the United States to take retaliatory actions
against nations with large trade surpluses with the United
States if the countries practiced unfair trade.
    The legislation was prompted by a growing U.S. trade
deficit that hit 156 billion dlrs last year and is still
rising.
    Yeutter said the pressures for Congress to act were hard to
resist, but the pending legislation would undermine President
Reagan's efforts to liberalize the world trade.
    Yeutter renewed the threat of a White House veto.
    He said, "President Reagan will veto any bill that contains
serious flaws, and I believe that veto would be sustained."
 Reuter

EC agriculture ministers attacked
plans to penalise farmers immediately it becomes clear that
cereals output is above standard norms, EC sources said.
    They said this was the major criticism raised at a meeting
of ministers which discussed Commission proposals for curbing
spending on the cereals regime.
    The Commission wants powers to cut guaranteed prices or
raise the coresponsibility levy if output next harvest rises
above 155 mln tonnes.
    The sources said several ministers complained that changing
price levels in the middle of a season would severely damage
the financial security of farmers.
    But an EC Commission spokesman said farm commissioner Frans
Andriessen told them producers could not be guaranteed security
regardless of market circumstances.
    The sources said there was a general acceptance of the need
for some output ceilings. However, the French and Dutch
ministers called for a maximum output for a wider range of
cereal crops, rather than for cereals alone.
    The sources added West Germany wanted production ceilings
for individual countries with excess production being paid for
from national exchequers, but received no support for this
idea.
    British farm minister John MacGregor told reporters he
detected more support for his position against the penalties on
farmers being administered through higher coresponsibility
levies.
    He said he believes increasing the levies would do nothing
to increase EC cereals consumption whereas lower prices for
farmers could help in this direction.
 Reuter

Wall Street's biggest one-day drop since
1914 has revived a bitter debate about whether modern
investment techniques turn shifts in investor psychology into
colossal moves in share prices.
    "The market has gotten away from the players," said Dudley
Eppel, vice president-equity trading at Donaldson Lufkin and
Jenrette Securities Corp. He says stock index futures and
options have distorted the investment process.
    But Wall Street professionals who work with index futures
and options insist the blame is misplaced.
    Fischer Black, head of the trading and arbitrage division
at Goldman, Sachs and Co, says so-called program trading
strategies involving opposite positions in futures on stock
indices and the underlying stocks deserve almost no blame for
today's decline. "People have changed their minds about the
future of the economy," he said. Another strategy, known as
portfolio insurance, may have exagerated the decline to a small
degree, said Black.
    Eli Wachtel of Bear, Stearns and Co was emphatic. "I do not
believe the drop was precipitated by portfolio insurance or
expanded by program trading."
    "The only thing that will stop it in the end is the value
investor who comes in and says 'IBM still sells computers', and
buys for traditional reasons" said Jeffrey Miller of Miller
Tabak Hirsch and Co.
    IBM <IBM> fell 31 to 104 as the Dow Jones Industrial
Average dropped more than 500 points.
    Several years ago Miller's firm was one of the first to
pursue program trading strategies, seeking to lock in an
automatic profit by taking advantage of discrepancies in the
prices of the futures and the underlying stocks. But he said
his firm has not been involved in that since late last year.
    Miller said some investors who were burned in the recent
market declines may have miscalculated the effects of portfolio
insurance. He estimated 70 to 80 billion dlrs in invested funds
prior to the decline were hedged with futures.
    The way portfolio insurance is used, Miller said, investors
at the time they protect their portfolios commit themselves to
a future course of action such as buying a put option. While
negative news such as trade deficits and budget deficits build
for months, the put options tend to be crowded into a narrow
span of time, because they are executed as the market starts to
fall.
    Miller said at present people can only guess how much
portfolio insurance is in use. He suggested some system of
disclosure could put other investors on guard that the seeds
were being planted that might add to a future decline.
    But in any case Miller argued that index futures and
options do not initiate market trends.
    People like Eppel of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette were
steadfast in their criticism. "If I had my way there wouldn't
be any index futures," he said. "They propelled the market up
when nothing was going on and now we're paying the price."
    Another irate trader, referring to IBM's 31 point drop,
complained "what announcement did IBM make over the weekend
that made its stock drop 31 points?" IBM was as high as 175-7/8
    Some economists agreed that the stock market could be
sending signals about the economy.  Allen Sinai, chief
economist for Shearson Lehman Brothers, told Reuters the 508
point decline represented "a crisis of confidence.
    "This is a a bona-fide financial crisis. The market is
showing panic. I suspect there is a wholesale deserting of our
markets by a lot of foreign investors."
    Sinai said the crisis was caused by continuing U.S. budget
and trade deficits and by rising interest rates. "This is not a
signal of the start of a recession, but a strong indicator that
one is coming if nothing is done in Washington to deal with the
budget and trade deficits," Sinai said.
    Some market participants said redemptions by investors who
own mutual funds fueled the decline. But Steve Norwitz, a
spokesman for T. Rowe Price Associates, a Baltimore-based
investment management firm, said redemptions and switches into
money market funds by Price's one mln accounts amounted to less
than two pct of assets. "It's not a rout by any means."
   
    Norwitz said the company normally receives about 3,500
telephone inquiries from its customers each day. On Friday, he
said, when the Dow index fell 108 points the volme of calls
rose to around 7,000 and today it exceeded that although he did
not have a precise number.
    Ike Kerridge, an economist with the oilfield service firm
Baker Hughes Inc., was one of several analysts who said the
evaporation of billions of dollars of paper profits could alter
consumer behavior.
    "This could be the trigger for a national recession which
would be very unusual in an election year," Kerridge said.
 Reuter

News of a meeting between U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker and West German Finance Minister Gerhard
Stoltenberg on Monday soothed currency markets, allowing the
dollar to recoup much of the day's losses, dealers said.
    News of the meeting, which took place in Frankfurt in great
secrecy, came after the dollar fell sharply on criticism by
Baker of West German monetary policy, which had provoked fears
that the Louvre pact on currency stability was in jeopardy.
    The dollar reacted immediately to the news, rising over two
pfennigs in after hours New York trading, dealers there said.
    The announcement of the meeting, also attended by
Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl, was made simultaneously
in Bonn and Washington, timed for after the closure of New York
markets.
    Baker, Stoltenberg and Poehl agreed to pursue the policies
accepted under the February Louvre accord, a finance ministry
spokesman in Bonn said.
    The dollar rose to 1.7970/90 marks from New York's close of
1.7730/40. It had closed there on Friday at 1.7975/85 marks.
    The dollar had tumbled nearly three pfennigs as the market
reacted to Baker's criticism of rising West German interest
rates, and stock markets crashed worldwide. Baker had said that
West Germany was apparently breaching the Louvre accord.
    Under the accord, leading industrial democracies pledged to
coordinate economic policies to foster currency stability, with
the surplus countries, West Germany and Japan, stimulating
their economies and the U.S. promising to cut its budget
deficit.
    West German government sources said rising West German
money market rates could not be seen as a breach of the Louvre
pact. They were rather a direct reaction to higher interest
rates in the United States. U.S. Bond yields have been rising
since May on inflationary fears and in early September the Fed
raised the discount rate to 6.00 pct from 5.50.
    German yields have also risen over this period, but less
markedly, and since late September the Bundesbank has nudged up
short-term rates by changing the terms on its security
repurchase pacts, its principal instrument for steering the
    The allocation rate on the last facility was 3.85 pct,
compared with 3.60 pct. This was partly due to West Germany's
inability to uncouple itself from U.S. interest rate trends,
but also reflected concern among monetary conservatives in the
Bundesbank central bank council about excessive monetary
growth, which raised fears of domestically produced inflation,
bank economists said.
    This monetary tightening reflected a switch from the
pragmatic line pursued by Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl
since early this year to stabilise the mark externally, to the
more cautious approach of Vice President Helmut Schlesinger.
    In an apparent gesture to Baker, coinciding with his visit,
the Bundesbank repeatedly added money market liquidity this
morning. Dealers said this was clearly a move to appease U.S.
anger over the most recent West German interest rate rises.
    "They (the Bundesbank) just don't want to come too much
under American fire," said Chris Zwermann, currency adviser at
Swiss Bank Corp here.
    "It seems to me that this is the Bundesbank beating quite a
significant retreat from its position," added Giles Keating,
economist at Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd in London.
    The significance that retreat will emerge from the terms of
the Bundesbank's next tender for a securities repurchase pact
on Tuesday, and its result on Wednesday, money market
    Today's injection of liquidity shows that the Bundesbank
does not want a further strong rise in the tender allocation
rate, which is likely to turn out at between 3.80 and 3.90 pct,
little changed from the 3.85 pct on the last facility.
    The Bundesbank and Finance Ministry had given no indication
that the meeting would take place, although the Finance
Ministry spokesman said it had been arranged last week.
    Earlier on Monday the Finance Ministry spokesman, asked to
comment on the apparent U.S.-German clash over the Louvre
accord, went no further than quoting Stoltenberg as saying he
assumed monetary cooperation would continue.
    The spokesman said he believed Baker had already left West
Germany for Sweden on Monday. This week he is also due to visit
Denmark and Belgium.
 Reuter

Dwindling global crude oil reserves and
the lack of any major new discoveries in recent years will send
the world into an energy crisis by 1990, the former Atlantic
Richfield Co chairman Robert O. Anderson said.
    "It's going to come sooner than anyone thinks," Anderson
told reporters after addressing a Houston business lunch. "I
believe we're going to see a change in the world oil markets in
two to three years because oil is becoming harder to find."
    Anderson, who retired from Arco last year to form Hondo Oil
and Gas Co, said world oil consumption is approaching 60 mln
barrels a day but a current excess capacity cushion of about
4.5 mln barrels a day will rapidly disappear.
    "If you looked around the world, you could not scrape up
one mln barrels a day in shut-in production outside the Middle
East," he said. "We're soon going to be right back where we
were in 1973 and 1979."
    Anderson predicted that world oil prices would end 1987 at
about 24 dlrs a barrel and continue a gradual climb.
    "There's no way prices can stay flat because there isn't
enough supply," he said. "There have been no major oil
discoveries for the past 15 to 20 years."
    Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil reserves, the last major world
discovery, has already produced about five billion barrels of
oil or more than half of its estimated reserves, he said.
 Reuter

Economist Ravi Batra, whose book warning
of a crash on Wall Street has been a best seller all summer,
said Monday's record-breaking market drop was no reason to
panic.
    "I think (investors) should stay in the market. Don't
panic. The time to panic is two years from now," Batra, a
professor at Southern Methodist University, told Reuters by
telephone from Pittsburgh, where he was to deliver a lecture at
Rockwell International Corp.
    Batra's book, "The Great Depression of 1990," predicts that
the increasing concentration of U.S. wealth will lead to a
     He said Monday's 508-point drop was set off by last week's
news of the trade deficit "and other things that added to the
total jitters."
     However, he called the fall a "mini-crash," due in part to
a change in people's attitude to the market. "In the 1920s,
people thought the market would never come down," he said, "But
today, people think it will come down at some point, and
therefore when it does, everyone wants to get out."
     "It turns a mini-crash into a maxi-crash," he said, but
added that he did not see it falling any further.
     He said he expects the government to announce by the end
of the week an agreement with Japan and West Germany to bring
interest rates down.
     "Once (interest rates) come down, the market will calm
down," he said, adding the government had other options, such
as acting on program trading, that it might be able to use to
stabilize the market.
     "But in two year's time, the government will run out of
options," he added.
 Reuter

Brazil will only lift the partial
moratorium on its 113-billion-dlr foreign debt after an accord
is reached with the private banks, the Finance Ministry said in
    The statement said such agreement, currently being
negotiated, must place the debt "within the terms proposed by
Brazil on September 25."
    Brazil proposed to the private creditors a refinancing of
the interest on its foreign debt that have expired or will
expire up to 1989, totalling an overall 10.4 billion dlrs.
    Brazil also proposed the end of spreads and conversion into
bonds of part of the 70-billion dlrs owed to private banks.
    Brazil in February stopped interest payments on about 68
billion dlrs owed to private banks, and the Ministry statement
issued on Monday said this would only be lifted "when an accord
is reached."
    The statement said that a token payment, which banks want
from the Brazil as a condition to discuss an agreement, "will
only be made when there is a major progress in the
    Meanwhile, a World Bank mission arrived on Monday to
analyse the performance of the Brazilian economy after the new
plan launched in July by Finance Minister Luiz Carlos Bresser
Pereira.
 Reuter

The discovery of a fertile
female Mediterranean fruit fly in a backyard apple tree may
lead to aerial spraying in Orange County, California State
Department of Agriculture officials said.
    California Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Gera Curry
said more than 1,700 traps have been set in an 80-square mile
area around the Westminster neighborhood following the
discovery. The fly was found in a trap routinely checked by
agriculture officials.
    Curry said if aerial spraying is used, it would be one-time
spray, unlike the nightly sprayings used in 1980.
 Reuter

Active Japanese investment in U.S. real
estate will continue despite a weak dollar because such
investments are strong hedges against inflation, financiers and
real estate industry experts said.
    Addressing a conference on Japanese investment in U.S. real
estate, Setsuya Tabuchi, chairman of Nomura Securities Co Ltd,
said Japanese investors are extremely cautious about investing
in Treasury securities because of currency losses suffered in
the past during the dollar's sharp decline.
    But, he added, "Real estate is a hedge against inflation,
so such investment will not decline."
    Japanese total investment in U.S. real estate last year is
estimated at around six billion dlrs, exceeding the four
billion dlrs ploughed into U.S. equities, Arther Mitchell of
Coudert Brothers, a U.S. law firm, told the conference.
    Adding in financing of real estate projects by Japanese
banks and leasing companies, the total aamount of Japanese
funds committed to U.S. real estate projects could reach 20
billion dlrs in 1987, he said.
   The dollar's fall has made U.S. property cheap, and exchange
risks are low because many Japanese firms are making
investments projected on a dollar/yen rate of 120-130, he said.
    Panelists at the conference said Japanese are now looking
at a wider variety of real estate investments, including
development projects and suburban buildings.
    Benjamin Lambert, chairman of Eastdil Realty Inc, said the
sale of 50 pct of the company to Nomura last year was designed
to expand its customer base to Japan through the securities
house's close ties with Japanese investors.
    Participation in mortgage loans is becoming popular among
Japanese, panelists said. Mortgages can be made to disguise
active purchases, and years later the loans can be converted
into ownership of the property, they said.
 Reuter

Shr 46 cts vs 50 cts
    Net 10.9 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Revs 105.2 mln vs 100.0 mln
    Note: Canadian Marconi Co qtly figures unavailable.
 Reuter

Cheyenne Software Inc said it
intends to distribute to its shareholders rights to buy common
shares of its F.A. Computer Technologies Inc subsidiary on the
basis of one sahre of F.A. stock for every two shares of
Cheyenne stock owned.
 Reuter

Gabelli Equity Trust Inc said it
intends to repurchase up to one mln shares of its common in the
open market or in privately negotiated transactions as its
shares are trading at a discount of more than 10 pct from net
asset value.
    There are currently 44.0 mln shares outstanding.
    Gabelli's board had previously granted authority for the
stock repurchase.
 Reuter

will from time to time make open market purchases of its common
stock for an amount not to exceed one mln dlrs.
    The shares will be held by the company as treasury stock.
    CityFed also said that its City Federal Savings Bank unit
will be acquiring additional shares for the units employee
stock ownership trust. The additional purchase by the employee
stock trust will be funded by a loan up to five mln dlrs.
    At the current stock price of 5.50 dlr to 6.50 dlrs,
CityFed and the trust will be able to purchase about 950,000
additional shares, or about five pct of shares outstanding.
 Reuter

Venezuela will back Ecuador's bid to
raise its OPEC quota above 221,000 barrels per day (bpd)
because it is a justifiable demand, Venezuelan Energy Minister
Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said on Monday.
    He told reporters the country deserved a higher quota in
compensation for the five months it was forced to suspend oil
production when its main pipeline was destroyed by an
earthquake last March.
    "For this five-month period, Ecuador did not exercise its
right to produce 221,000 bpd," he said. "We should recognize
Ecuador's right to increase its quota ... There is a basis of
justice in that country's petition."
    He added however, the quota increase should be gradual to
avoid harming the market, he added.
    Hernandez Grisanti said he understood Ecuador would
formally submit the request for a higher quota at the next
ministerial conference of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) opening December 9 in Vienna.
 Reuter

Shr profit 1.07 dlrs vs loss 1.19 dlrs
    Net profit 3,326,000 vs loss 3,446,000
    Nine mths
    Net profit 9,714,000 vs profit 3,665,000
    NOTE: Latest and prior nine month per share amounts not
given.
 Reuter

NYSE REPORTS PRELIMINARY DOW CLOSING AT 1738.41, OFF 508.32, LARGEST IN HISTORY

The United States invoked the right
of self-defense in destroying an Iranian oil platform in the
Gulf, the American delegation told the United Nations.
    Lieutenant General Vernon Walters sent letters about the
incident to Security Council President Maurizio Bucci, the
delegate of Italy, and Secretary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar.
    U.N. press secretary Francois Giuliani said the Secretary
General had no comment on the attack, which followed his appeal
last Friday for restraint in the crisis while he pursued
efforts to obtain a ceasefire between Iran and Iraq.
    In his explanation, Walters said the United States took
defensive action in response to an Iranian attack against
American ships in the Gulf.
    He cited an Iranian Silkworm missile strike last Friday in
Kuwait waters against the United States-flag ship Sea Isle
City.
    Walters said that military forces on the destroyed Iranian
platform had engaged in a variety of actions against United
States-flag and other nonbelligerent vessels and planes.
    "In accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations
(Charter), I wish, on behalf of my government, to report that
United States forces have exercised the inherent right of
self-defense under internation law by taking defensive action
in response to attacks by . . . Iran against United States
vessels in the Gulf," Walters said.
    Members of the Security Council met behind closed doors on
Monday to discuss developments in the Gulf war, but no
statement was issued afterwards.
 Reuter

France voiced its comprehension for a U.S.
Attack on an Iranian target while calling for a swift halt to
the Gulf War to avoid further escalation.
    "The French authorities reaffirm their attachment to the
freedom and security of navigation and to the right of all
states to take action under international law and the United
Nations charter to halt attacks such as that of October 16," the
Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
    The United States said its forces destroyed an Iranian oil
platform in the Gulf and struck at a second on Monday in
retaliation for a recent Iranian missile attack on a
U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti ship.
    Washington said the platforms were used to monitor shipping
and to launch small-boat attacks on shipping. The French
statement described the target as "an Iranian military platform."
    But the French statement added that "everything must be done
now to avoid that these military developments lead to a new
escalation of the conflict."
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.73 dlrs vs nil
    Net loss 16.3 mln vs profit 2,206,000
    Sales 69.1 mln vs 29.1 mln
    Note: per share is after payment of preferred dividends.
 Reuter

Granges Exploration Ltd filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of
up to 2,500,000 shares of common stock.
    PaineWebber Inc and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc will act as
underwriters for the proposed offering, Granges said.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to acquire shares
of its Hycroft Resources and Development Corp subsidiary, and
as working capital to fund exploration, development and
acquisitions of additional mining properties.
 Reuter

    Net 4,033,000 vs 3,398,000
    Sales 125.3 mln vs 99.1 mln
    Avg shrs 18.4 mln vs 17.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 89 cts vs 78 cts
    Net 15.9 mln vs 13.6 mln
    Sales 413.7 mln vs 345.0 mln
    Avg shrs 17.8 mln vs 17.5 mln
   
    NOTE:1987 3rd qtr per share reflects issuance of two mln
shares in initial public offering. 1986 nine mth results
include extraordinary gain of 3,843,000 dlrs or 22 cts
 Reuter

Cardiac Control Systems Inc said
it entered into a marketing agreement with a Japanese firm to
distribute Cardiac's pacemakers in Japan.
    Cardiac said the agreement requires the Japanese firm to
purchase certain minimum quantities of pacemakers annually over
the next three years, with the aggregate value of purchases of
    Cardiac said it received an initial order from the Japanese
company, which is did not name, for about 2.2 mln dlrs and
expects to begin shipments during its fourth quarter to end
March 31, 1988.
 Reuter

Fifth Third Bancorp and <C and H
Bancorp> said they reached a preliminary agreement to merge.   
 C and H Bancorp has assets of 257 mln dlrs and is the parent
company of Citizens Heritage Bank N.A.
    The companies said the agreement calls for each of the
about one mln shares of C and H Bancorp to be exchanged for one
share of Fifth Third Bancorp. Based on its financial
expectations, Fifth Third said the dilution in per share
earnings for the merger will be negligible.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts vs NA
    Net 3,081,000 vs 2,063,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 86 cts vs NA
    Net 10.5 mln vs 6,966,000
    NOTE: Year-ago per share amounts not available as bank
converted to stock ownership August 13, 1986.
    1987 amounts include operations of Burgdoff Realtors
acquired during December 1986 and other operations.
 Reuter

National Processing Co INc said
it signed a contract with Chrylser Corp's Chrysler Financial
Corp unit to process its loan payment trasactions beginning
February 1988.
    Terms weren't disclosed.
    National said that more than four mln transactions are
expected to be processed for Chrysler each year under the
contract.
 Reuter

American lawmakers rallied behind
President Reagan for the U.S. strike against Iranian targets in
the Gulf but the attack fueled a sharp new White House-Congress
debate over limits on his powers to make war.
    The Pentagon announced on Monday that U.S. warships
destroyed a non-producing oil platform used for monitoring Gulf
ship traffic and military operations, and also raided a second
Iranian oil rig in retaliation for an earlier Iranian attack on
a Kuwaiti ship flying the American flag.
    Many Democrats, who control Congress, and Republicans
expressed support for the attack and praised it as an
appropriate "measured response."
    But Democrats and liberal Republicans voiced new fears that
the growing confrontation between Tehran and the United States
could erupt into a major war, and demanded that Reagan comply
with the 1973 War Powers Act, which could lead to a pullout of
American forces from the waterway.
    "Those who contend the strike was necessary must realize
their words are easily construed as a tacit endorsement of war
with Iran," said Sen Mark Hatfield of Oregon, a Republican.
 Reuter

bin Abdul Aziz met for an hour with Vice President George Bush
on Monday after U.S. naval forces destroyed one Iranian oil
platform in the Gulf and raided another.
attack, the Crown Prince, who is here on an official visit,
replied, "I believe what the United States has done is their
    His remark appeared to be an implicit endorsement of the
U.S. action, which the Pentagon said came in retaliation for
last Friday's Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti
tanker.
    Administration officials said Bush had assured the Crown
Prince the United States would "stay the course" in the Gulf.
    They said Prince Abdullah, who is deputy prime minister of
Saudi Arabia and commander of the kingdom's national guard, was
"very supportive" of the U.S. role in the strategic waterway.
    Before meeting with Bush, the Crown Prince paid a brief
courtesy call on President Reagan.
    During his stay in Washington, he was also scheduled to
meet with Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead, Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger and leaders of the House and Senate
foreign policy committees.
 Reuter

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
has allowed ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc to resume testing its
ribavirin experimental AIDS drug, according to ICN.
    "Our safety concerns are not of sufficient magnitude to
withhold approval of further clinical studies designed to
assess the safety and efficacy of ribavirin," the FDA told ICN
Chairman Milan Panic in an October 16 letter made public by
ICN.
    An FDA spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
    ICN's tests of the drug on humans were blocked last spring
after the FDA decided there was insufficient evidence of its
effectiveness against two common AIDS-related conditions.
    The tests had been intended to determine whether ribavirin
was effective against AIDS-Related Complex (ARC) and
Lymphadenopathy Syndrome or LAS.
    FDA Commissioner Frank Young disclosed in May, however,
that the agency was investigating "suspicious" test results
submitted by ICN on the antiviral drug. Young said he had
personally scolded ICN officials for making exaggerated claims
about the drug. In addition, a House subcommittee said it was
probing ICN for possible trading or financial irregularities.
    Today, the FDA said it was letting ICN test ribavirin for
safety and effectiveness in 32 patients with ARC and LAS.
 Reuter

Lawson welcomed on Monday the reaffirmation by the U.S. And
West Germany of the Louvre accord aimed at stabilising
    His office said Lawson had welcomed the outcome of a
meeting between U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, Bundesbank
President Karl Otto Poehl, and West German Finance Minister
Gerhard Stoltenberg in Frankfurt.
    After the meeting, a Bonn finance ministry spokesman quoted
Stoltenberg as saying he was confident that foreign currencies
could be stabilised at around current levels.
    The meeting came after Baker criticised West Germany for
increasing key interest rates, saying they were not in line
with last February's Louvre accord.
 Reuter

Shr 28 cts vs 46 cts
    Net 1,634,000 vs 2,007,000
    Avg shrs 5,850,000 vs 4,400,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr 82 cts vs 1.77 dlrs
    Net 4,788,000 vs 7,792,000
    Loans 586.9 mln vs 481.5 mln
    Deposits 697.4 mln vs 606.2 mln
    Assets 797.2 mln vs 683.4 mln
    Note: Full name Sun State Savings and Loan Association.
 Reuter

California Water Service Co said
its shareholders approved a two-for-one stock split at a
special meeting on Monday.
    The company said the new shares will be mailed on or about
October 30 to holders of record October 20.
    Separately, the company said it declared a 37-3/8 cts per
share common stock dividend, which will be paid on the new
shares.
    The dividend is payable November 14 to holders of record
November two, the company said. Last quarter California Water
paid a dividend of 73-3/4 cts per share.
 
 Reuter

Shr 2.10 dlrs vs 1.83 dlrs
    Net 5,919,000 vs 5,168,000
    Revs 35.0 mln vs 34.3 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 5.09 dlrs vs 3.55 dlrs
    Net 14,391,000 vs 10,099,000
    Revs 88 mln vs 83.7 mln
    Note: Curent nine mth figures include 2.2 mln dlr, or 79
cts per share, gain resulting from change in accounting method
for unbilled revenues.
 Reuter

The Pacific Stock Exchange closed
half an hour early under a pile of unfilled orders on heavy,
but not record, volume of over 11 mln shares, Exchange
    As traders remained on the floors in San Francisco and Los
Angeles, madly trying to balance their accounts long after the
close, Exchange Chairman Maurice Menn told a news conference
trading will, nevertheless, begin on time tomorrow,
at 0630 Pacific Daylight Time.
    Menn told reporters the price of a seat on the exchange
dropped to 86,000 dlrs today from 100,100 dlrs a week ago.
    Menn said the day also saw 134,000 options contracts
traded, compared to a record 202,000 contracts last friday.
    Traders both in Los Angeles and San Francisco said volume
was curbed purely by their inability to fill orders and the
chaos created by the exchange tape falling hours behind, making
it nearly impossible to get accurate price readings.
    "If we would have been able to execute the orders we got,
there would have been 20 mln shares traded," said Richard
Goforth, a partner with Crowell Weedon and Co, who trades on
the Los Angles floor of the Pacific Exchange.
    Traders in San Francisco said there were unconfirmed
reports that one brokerage house alone turned away orders for
50,000 shares they were unable to fill in late trading.
    The traders and exchange officials said action on the
Pacific Exchange did not deviate from that in New York, with
some early buying giving way to panic selling through the
close, which left the Dow Jones Industrial Average down a
record 508 points.
    "We pretty much mirrored what was going on in New York...
they couldn't fill their orders and we knew we couldn't fill
them either," said Goforth.
    While traders said they are bracing themselves for a lower
opening tomorrow, Mann attributed today's dive to panicking
young traders and to monetary policy and said the market should
still recover.
    "It depends on what the politicians do...There's no reason
it cannot go back. This is an abnormality and there is no
justification for this. People are nervous," he said.
    Mann noted he had never seen traders in San Francisco leave
on the floor so long after the close.
    In Los Angeles, one office manager commented early in the
day it was unusual to see traders on their feet.
    "Usually, they're sitting down studying the market, but its
moving so fast they don't have a chance," he said.
    In San Francisco, about 50 people on the sidewalk outside
the jammed lobby of Charles Schwab and Co, strained to see the
discount brokerage house's large ticker display.
    "I can't believe it," mumbled one onlooker.
 Reuter

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea
Co Inc said it withdrew its offer to acquire Delchamps Inc
<DLCH.O> for 27 dlrs a share or about 175 mln dlrs, which was
made earlier this month.
    Michael Rourke, A and P vice president, said the company
withdrew the offer because Delchamps did not respond favorably
to it and because of market conditions.
    He would not comment on whether A and P would make another
offer to acquire Delchamps.
 Reuter

The massive stock market correction on
Wall Street will force a decline in Japanese share prices but a
decline of similar proportions will not occur due to economic
factors, said Setsuya Tabuchi, chairman of the board of Nomura
Securities Co Ltd.
    "There are less inflation worries in Japan and less
possibility of interest rate rises," Tabuchi told reporters.
    He also said Japan had a higher savings rate which provided
more funds for investment than was the case in other countries.
    "If interest rates rise worldwide, Japan may raise the
discount rate, but the possibility of a Japanese rate increase
is smaller than in the U.S., Britain and West Germany," Tabuchi
said.
    However, he noted that the Nikkei Dow stock index of the
Tokyo stock exchange and the Dow Jones Industrial average have
moved in tandem in the past four years.
    The Dow fell 508 points to 1738 on Monday, its largest
percentage decline since the First World War.
    The Tokyo index fell 620.18 to 25,746.56 on Monday, the
sixth largest decline on record.
 Reuter

Shr 38 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 3,980,000 vs 5,524,000
    Revs 37.4 mln vs 44.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 76 cts vs 99 cts
    Net 7,983,000 vs 10.5 mln
    Revs 100.4 mln vs 123.6 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes loss 9,000 dlrs and
432,000 dlrs, or four cts per share, from repurchase and
retirment of debt.
 Reuter

GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA CO SAID IT WITHDREW ITS OFFER TO BUY DELCHAMPS INC

Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Goria told
the cabinet on Monday he was worried about the increased
tension in the Gulf, but said America's retaliation against
Iran had been limited.
    A statement issued after a cabinet meeting said Goria had
been informed by the United States that it would take action
against an Iranian target in the Gulf, but had not known
beforehand that the action would involve an attack on an oil
platform.
    "The prime minister expressed his concern over the possible
consequences of increased tension in the Gulf, at the same time
recognizing the limited character of the American military
reaction to the attacks it has suffered in the past few days,"
the statement said.
    Goria said Italy's own ships were far from the platform at
the time of the attack and the fleet had been advised to follow
events with caution.
    Italy has sent eight ships, including three frigates and
three minesweepers, to the Gulf to protect Italian merchant
shipping there.
 Reuter

short-term ratings to A-1-plus from A-1 of Kyowa Bank Ltd.
    S and P cited a steady progress in all major areas of
operation over the past few years. The upward trend in
profitability partly reflects decreased operating expenses as
interest margins have been historically strong, S and P added.
    It said Kyowa's capital ratios compare favorably with
domestic and international banking peers when some credit is
given for a substantial level of hidden reserves. Management
appears capable of taking necessary steps to cope with
financial deregulation of the domestic market, S and P added.
 Reuter

Shr 59 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 6,398,000 vs 2,979,000
    Revs 91.0 mln vs 94.1 mln
    Avg shrs 10.8 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.58 dlrs vs 1.06 dlrs
    Net 17.2 mln vs 12.2 mln
    Revs 279.7 mln vs 289.1 mln
    Avg shrs 10.9 mln vs 11.4 mln
 Reuter

Media General Inc's chairman, D.
Tennant Bryant, said his family would not sell its controlling
share block, so it would be impossible for an investor group
led by <Giant Group Ltd> to gain control of the company.
    The investor group, which includes Barris Industries
<BRRS.O>, recently reported that it acquired a 9.8 pct stake of
Media General's class A shares and might seek control.
    Bryant said the company's class A stock elects only 30 pct
of the board, with the remaining 70 pct being elected by class
B shares, two-thirds of which are controlled by the Bryant
family trust, which has no intention of selling its shares.
 Reuter

AMCA International said it expects to
earn a profit in the fourth quarter which will exceed the third
quarter result.
    The company earned 4.9 mln dlrs in the third quarter
against a year earlier loss of 56.2 mln. However, after the
payment of preferred dividends it lost two cents per share from
a loss of 1.79 dlrs per share last year.
    In the 1986 fourth quarter, the company had an operating
loss of 4.9 mln dlrs, or 98 cents per share. It said its
positive outlook was based on expected debt bill reduction and
an improved backlog of orders.
    The company also said its board approved a decision to sell
its Manitoba Rolling Mills. It did not elaborate.
 Reuter

U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker met West
German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and Bundesbank
President Karl Otto Poehl in Frankfurt on Monday, a Bonn
    After the meeting the spokesman quoted Stoltenberg as
saying he was confident that foreign currencies could be
stabilised at around current levels.
increasing short-term money market interest rates. He had said
the rise was not in line with the spirit of the Louvre accord
aimed at stabilizing the U.S. dollar last February.
    The meeting had been arranged last week, the spokesman
said. Baker, Stoltenberg and Poehl had agreed to pursue the
policies agreed under the Louvre pact with reference to
currency stability and monetary policy.
    Earlier on Monday the Bundesbnak injected liquidity into
the West German money market in a move which money market
dealers interpreted as an attempt by the West German monetary
authority to curb interest rate rises.
    The spokesman described Monday's talks, which he called
private, as very positive.
 Reuter

U.S. bank executives said if the
precipitous fall in the stock market continued it could force
banks to demand more collateral on stock loans and hurt
consumer borrowing.
    But the leaders of the American Bankers Association, which
is holding its annual convention, said the drop was probably
only temporary and the market would eventually recover because
of the strength of the economy.
    "The underlying basics of the economy are still strong,"
Mark Olson, president of the ABA, the largest U.S. bankers
group, said.
 Reuter

Iranian foreign minister ali akbar
velayati, here on a two-day official visit, informed cuban
foreign ministry officials on monday on the tense situation in
the gulf, diplomatic sources said.
    They said the envoy's trip, to be followed from tuesday by
a visit to nicaragua, could be linked to a possible mediation
of the non-aligned movement in the seven-year-old iran-iraq war
but they ruled out any prominent cuban role in it.
    Velayati could not be reached for comment on the U.S.
Attack on an abandoned iranian oil rig on monday which tehran
vowed to avenge.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs loss 1.03 dlrs
    Net profit 100,000 vs loss 11.6 mln
    Revs 125.2 mln vs 71.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 2.46 dlrs vs loss 98 cts
    Net loss 26.9 mln vs loss 8.5 mln
    Revs 355.4 mln vs 215.6 mln
    NOTE: 1987 qtr includes loss 5.9 mln dlrs non-recurring
after-tax charges due almost entirely to the company's recent
buyout of its Tilden Mine debt obligations.
  
    1987 nine mths includes loss 23.7 mln dlrs pre-tax charge
to reduce the carrying value of the company's 17 land drilling
rigs.
    1987 nine mths includes pre-tax gain 1.2 mln dlrs on sale
of uranium reserves.
    1986 nine mths includes pre-tax gain 20.6 mln dlrs on sale
of iron ore interest in western Australia.
 Reuter

A proposal to require imported
tropical oils to be labeled as saturated fats suffered a narrow
and possibly debilitating defeat in the U.S. Senate.
    The Senate Agriculture Committee rejected the proposal by a
10-8 vote, virtually snuffing out U.S. soybean producers' hopes
the plan would be adopted this year.
    A similar proposal has made no headway in the House.
    Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) offered the proposal as an
amendment to a farm spending reduction package.
    "I don't see this as a trade issue. I see it as giving
American consumers the information they need," he said.
    Proponents of the measure, including the American Soybean
Association, have claimed palm, palm kernel and coconut oils
are high in saturated fat and can contribute to heart disease.
    The U.S. soybean industry believes labels indicating
tropical oils are high in saturated fats would discourage
consumption of the oils, imported primarily from Malaysia,
Indonesia and the Philippines.
    But Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) read a letter from U.S.
Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter, who said the proposal
"blatantly discriminates" against imports, would be impossible to
defend under international trade law and would harm relations
with the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
    Yeutter's letter also said Americans derive most of their
saturated fats from meat and dairy products and relatively
little from tropical oils.
    The committee voted largely along party lines, with three
Democrats joining seven Republicans to oppose the measure.
 Reuter

Morrison Knudsen Corp, in its third
quarter earnings report released today, said that its backlog
of uncompleted contracts at Sept 30 stood at 3.8 billion dlrs,
the third highest level in the company's history.
    Morrison Knudsen said the backlog was 20 pct above the 3.16
billion dlrs reported at the same time a year ago.
    Morrison said it also took a 70 mn dlrs charge on the
closing of its real estate development operations. It also took
a 47 mn dlrs pretax provision for estimated losses on
construction, mining and shipbuilding projects.
 Reuter

    Net 456,000 vs 272,000
    Sales 15 mln vs 14.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr six cts vs 23 cts
    Net 992,000 vs 3,812,000
    Sales 41.1 mln vs 45.4 mln
    Order backlog 46 mln vs 24.3 mln
    Note: 1986 figures include a gain of 2.9 mln dlr or 17 cts
a share from life insurance proceeds.
 Reuter

Oper shr 45 cts vs 42 cts
    Oper net 33.0 mln vs 31.1 mln
    Revs 749.8 mln vs 716.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.11 dlrs
    Oper net 91.1 mln vs 81.3 mln
    Revs 2.2 billion vs 2.1 billion
    NOTE: Prior nine mths and qtr excludes loss of 2.3 mln dlrs
due to discontinued operations.
 Reuter

affirmed at A-1-plus commercial paper of Perkin-Elmer Corp.
    S and P cited expectations of the firm to show sustained
long-term profit improvement after a recent restructuring.
    After two years of lackluster profitability and cuts in
operations, activities concentrated in promising product lines
and reduced the firm's overall cost base, S and P noted.
    It added that cash flow should strengthen due to
anticipated improvement in asset management. Balance sheet
strength should continue with substantial liquidity and debt to
total capital at 22 pct as of July 31, S and P said.
 Reuter

Gary Associates LP, which said
previously it may seek control of Gull Inc, said it increased
its stake in Gull common stock to 388,900 shares, or 7.7 pct of
the total outstanding, from a previous figure of approximately
318,000 shares, or 6.2 pct.
Gary Associates said it made net purchases of 70,900 Gull
common shares at 15 dlrs to 18.62 dlrs a share.
    Gary Associates made no mention of a possible takeover
attempt in its report to the SEC.
 Reuter

Shr 92 cts vs 91 cts
    Net 24.1 mln vs 22.7 mln
    Avg shrs 25.4 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 20 cts vs 2.58 dlrs
    Net 6,028,000 vs 62.7 mln
    Avg shrs 25.4 mln vs 24.3 mln
    Assets 10.3 billion vs 9.21 billion
    Deposits 7.10 billion vs 6.32 billion
    Loans 6.52 billion vs 5.60 billion
 Reuter

Unocal Corp said it raised its posted
prices for most U.S. grades of crude oil by 50 cts a barrel,
effective October 16.
    The move brings the price the company will pay for the U.S.
benchmark grade, West Texas Intermediate, and West Texas Sour
to 19 dlrs a barrel.
    The price was last changed September 9, Unocal said.
 Reuter

    Net 1,852,000 vs 1,488,000
    Revs 44.7 mln vs 35.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 41 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 4,233,000 vs 3,512,000
    Revs 123.8 mln vs 98.4 mln
    NOTE: Full Name is American Management Systems Inc.
 Reuter

MEDIA GENERAL SAYS GIANT GROUP, AFFILIATES HAVE 9.8 PCT OF CLASS A COMMON STOCK

European Community Commission
President Jacques Delors called for a swift convening of a
meeting of the G-7 countries following the instability in
today's trading on world money and stock markets.
    He told a press conference here: "G-7 should meet discreetly
and quickly."
    Delors said if the dollar were to fall further against the
mark to levels around 1.60, the European Monetary System would
undergo a "test by fire."
    Delors said the current problems in the markets had been
caused by excessive growth in financial trading, excessive
deregulation and the failure of the fundamentals of the world
economy to adapt themselves quickly enough to changing
    He said it was "profoundly unjust" to blame it on recent
increases in West Germany.
 Reuter

Phelan said the stock market underwent a significant correction
today but he did not characterize it as a crash. He also said
the NYSE will open tomorrow on time.
    "The market underwent a significant fall and a significant
devaluation of assets of which we are all concerned," he said.
    Speaking to reporters, Phelan listed several reasons why
the market fell today. He said stocks have been going up for
five years without a correction. He also blamed inflation
fears, rising interest rates, a lower dollar and problems with
Iran. "All came together in a very nervous market" he said.
    "It's the nearest thing to a meltdown that I ever want to
see," Phelan said. Phelan said what he meant by meltdown was a
snowballing effect where selling fed on itself.
    Phelan said the NYSE is going through its standard
procedures before trading begins tomorrow. Those procedures
include checking with member firms on their liquidity, margin
positions, and backlog. "We know of no firm that has a
significant problem, but that could change at any moment," he
said.
    Asked for advice for the average investor, Phelan said, "We
do not know where the market will end up."
    The Dow Jones Industrial average declined a record 508
points to 1738.74. Volume was a record setting 605 mln shares,
almost double the previous record.
    Phelan, in response to a question on declines in foreign
markets, said he believes there is no loss of confidence in the
global economy. He added that the underlying fundamentals of
the U.S. economy are still strong, and that corporate earnings
also continue to be firm.
    Phelan explained today's record descent as being the result
of a confluence of factors, including the globalization of
markets and the proliferation of new securities instruments.
    Those two factors alone have made the market more volatile,
he said.
    Phelan also said a major factor in the decline was the fact
that there has been no major correction in the five-year bull
market. He also pointed to rising tension in the Mideast Gulf.
    The New York Stock Exchange was in constant contact with
the Securities and Exchange Commission about a possible halt in
all trading on the exchange, Phelan said. "The consensus was
that it is better to let the market try to work itself out," he
said.
    In addition, Phelan said that with the global nature of
trading there is no guarantee that halting trading on the New
York Stock Exchange would have served any purpose. Phelan said
he was in contact with the Treasury department, White House and
the Federal Reserve, but that the contact was made as a matter
of routine.
 Reuter

met West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg and
Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl today in West Germany and
agreed to support the Louvre pact, the Treasury Department
said.
    The Treasury described the meeting as "a very positive,
private meeting in Frankfurt, West Germany which had been
agreed upon last week. "The parties agreed to continue economic
cooperation under the Louvre agreement and its flexible
application including cooperation on exchange rate stability
and monetary policies," the Treasury said.
    The Treasury said Baker and Stoltenberg "are consulting with
their G-7 colleagues and are confident that this will enable
them to foster exchange rate stability around current levels."
    The Louvre pact is an agreement between the Group of Seven
leading industrial countries including the United States and
West Germany to promote currency stability.
    Baker was scheduled to visit Scandinavia and Belgium this
week and the department earlier refused to release details of
his travel itinerary, citing security considerations.
 Reuter

    Net 249,920 vs 194,369
    Revs 3,752,641 vs 3,355,563
    NOTE: Full name is Scicom Data Services Ltd.
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs profit nine cts
    Net profit 102,136 vs profit 307,516
    Revs 8,549,182 vs 8,469,476
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 13 cts vs profit 28 cts
    Net loss 458,823 vs profit 1,014,969
    Revs 25.5 mln vs 24.6 mln
 Reuter

President Reagan is concerned about
the record drop in stock prices but remains convinced on the
basis of administration talks with financial experts that the
economy remains sound, the White House said.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said in a written
statement that Reagan "watched today with concern" the decline on
Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average plunged
more than 500 points.
    The statement said Reagan had directed administration
officials to consult with leading financial experts, including
the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and
Exchance Commission, and the New York Stock Exchange.
    "These consultations confirm our view that the underlying
economy remains sound," Fitzwater said.
    The White House statement, issued about 45 minutes after
the stock market closed, appeared designed to calm investors
worried about U.S. economic propects.
    "We are in the longest peacetime expansion in history.
Employment is at the highest level ever. Manufacturing output
is up. The trade deficit, when adjusted for changes in
currencies, is steadily improving. And, as the chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board has recently stated, there is no evidence
of a resurgence of inflation in the United States," Fitzwater
said.
   
    He said Reagan was keeping close watch on the markets in
the United States and in countries, where waves of selling
developed on Monday.
    "We will continue to closely monitor these developments,"
    However, his three-paragraph statement gave no hint of
what, if any, action Reagan might take if the stock market
plunge continues.
    The percentage drop of 22.6 percent on Monday was the
second largest ever, exceeded only by the 24.4 percent drop on
Dec. 12, 1914.
   
    It easily eclipsed the fall of 12.8 percent on Oct. 28,
1929 which helped spark the Great Depression.
    Reagan and his top advisers discussed the market crisis,
which came on the same day American naval forces retaliated for
last Friday's alleged Iranian missile attack on a U.S. flagged
Kuwaiti tanker in the Gulf, at a White House issues luncheon.
    Presidential aides told reporters after the luncheon an
official statement was likely to be issued when the markets
closed.
 Reuter

Qtly div 39 cts vs 39 cts
    Record December 4
 Reuter

    Nine mths
    NOTE: Company would not provide assets, deposits, and loans
figures.
 Reuter

Shr 99 cts vs not given
    Net 1,943,000 vs not given
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.35 dlrs vs not given
    Net 4,602,000 vs not given
    NOTE: Full name is Gateway Federal Savings and Loan
Association. Latest qtr includes a tax credit of 909,000 dlrs
or 46 cents a share. Latest nine mths includes a tax credit of
2,330,000 dlrs or 1.19 dlrs. 1986 figures not given as company
went public on June 2, 1987.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs eight cts
    NOTE: 1986 qtr includes gain 90,000 dlrs, or four cts per
share, from tax gain.
 Reuter

NYSE CHAIRMAN PHELAN SAYS STOCK MARKET UNDERWENT SIGNIFICANT CORRECTION TODAY, NOT CRASH

Texaco Inc said removal of
sulphur emissions from the hot coal gases inside Texaco's coal
gasifier will be studied under a two-phase, five-year program
agreed to with the U.S. Energy Department.
    Texaco said the program could total some 17 mln dlrs in
joint government/industry funding. The company has agreed tp
contributed a minimum of 20 pct of the cost, it said.
    The agreement calls for the DOE to fund the remainder,
Texaco said, adding the private sectors share could grow if
other organizations joint the test prgram.
   
    Texaco said the experimental technique involves injecting
"sorbents" such as iron oxide or calcium compounds directly
into the gasification vessel used in its proprietary Coal
Gasification Process.
    Such in situ sulphur capture could reduce or eliminate the
need for separte clean-up devices after syhthetic gas is
produced from coal, the company explained.
 Reuter

Atlantic Richfield's Arco Oil and Gas Co
said it increased contract prices for crude oil by 50 cts a
    Arco said the 50 cts increase brings its posted price for
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark grade, to 19.00
    The price of West Texas Sour was increased to 18.10 dlrs.
Light Louisiana Sweet was raised to 19.35 dlrs.
    The price was last changed on September 30.
 Reuter

Shr 39 cts vs 39 cts
    Net 24.4 mln vs 23.8 mln
    Revs 425.9 mln vs 396.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.04 dlrs
    Net 76.3 mln vs 64.1 mln
    Revs 1.26 billion vs 1.12 billion
    NOTE: Net adjusted to account for the recent 2-for-1 split
of the company's common.
   
    Qtr 1986 includes a seven cts per shr gain due to net
after-tax foreign currency exchange effect.
 Reuter

Oper shr loss 2.51 dlrs vs profit 94 cts
    Oper net loss 27.2 mln vs profit 10.3 mln
    Revs 464.2 mln vs 504.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr loss 1.33 dlrs vs profit 2.57 dlrs
    Oper net loss 14.4 mln vs profit 28.2 mln
    Revs 1.41 billion vs 1.55 billion
   
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths excludes loss 41.1 mln dlrs,
or 3.79 dlrs per share, and loss 41.8 mln dlrs, or 3.87 dlrs
per share, respectively, from discontinued real estate
    1986 qtr and nine mths include loss 126,000 dlrs, or one
cent per share, and gain 304,000 dlrs, or three cts per share,
respectively, from discontinued operations.
 Reuter

WHITE HOUSE SAYS REAGAN CONCERNED ABOUT STOCK DROP, CONVINCED ECONOMY SOUND

EC COMMISSION PRESIDENT URGES QUICK MEETING OF G-7 AFTER MARKETS TURMOIL

TREASURY'S BAKER MET WEST GERMANY'S STOLTENBERG TODAY, AGREED TO SUPPORT LOUVRE PACT

Merrill Lynch and Co Inc said it was
confident in the financial markets despite the unprecedented
decline in the stock market.
    "America's economic system is the strongest in the world,
with great inherent ability to correct itself, and it remains
fundamentally sound," said chairman William Schreyer and
president Daniel Tully in a statement.
    "We recognize that emotions run high during such a period
as we are experiencing. However, now is the time when it is
critical that reason and objectivity prevail," they said.
 Reuter

Taco Bell Corp, a unit of Pepsico Inc,
said it increased its stake in Calny Inc common stock to
1,349,884 shares, or 27.9 pct of the total outstanding, from a
previous figure of approximately 1,230,107 shares, or 25.4 pct.
Taco Bell said it bought 119,867 Calny common shares on October
15 and 16 at 10.75 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

Groupe Macyro Inc said it
agreed to buy two Quebec construction wholesalers, (Nap Dumont
(1982) Ltd) and (Nap Transport Cie Ltd) for 3.5 mln dlrs.
     Macyro said the two companies operate in the construction
material, electiricty, plumbing, hardware and locksmithing
sectors and had sales of 23.5 mln dlrs last year.              
 
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 62 cts vs profit seven cts
    Oper net profit 3,492,000 vs profit 401,000
    Revs 62.8 mln vs 62.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 1.26 dlrs vs loss 42 cts
    Oper net profit 7,131,000 vs loss 2,344,000
    Revs 190.3 mln vs 180.0 mln
    NOTE: 1986 period ended September 28. Results exclude
extraordinary gain from net loss carryforward of 228,000 dlrs
or three cts a shr in the 1987 3rd qtr and 1,043,000 dlrs or 18
cts in the 1987 nine mths. 1986 nine mth results exclude
earnings from discontinued operations of 7,549,000 dlrs or 1.34
dlrs.
 Reuter

German Finance Ministry confident of maintaining currency stability at around current levels - spokesman

Shr loss two cts vs loss 1.79 dlrs
    Net profit 4,959,000 vs loss 56.2 mln
    Revs 290.3 mln vs 245.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 75 cts vs loss 1.78 dlrs
    Net loss 9,390,000 vs loss 44.2 mln
    Revs 800.8 mln vs 838.6 mln
    NOTE: Full name is AMCA International Ltd. Results in U.S.
dlrs. Latest qtr earnings include pension refund of 10 mln
dlrs, representing loss of two cts per shr after payment of
preferred dividends.
 Reuter

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a
statement, said the phenomenal sell-off in the stock market is
very likely to have run its course.
    The chamber said "there is no justification for such a
dramatic downward correction."
    While conceding that there is some justifiable concern
about inflation, higher interest rates and a lower dollar,
these uncertainties have been overcompensated for over recent
weeks, the Chamber said.
 Reuter

it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration on
two applications to manufacture and market the generic drug
Leucovorin Calcium in tablet form.
    Par said it would begin to market the drug in dosage
strengths of five mg and 25 mg.
    Leucovorin calcium is the generic name for Wellcovorin, a
product of <Burroughs Wellcome Co> used as an adjunct to cancer
therapy, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.17 dlrs vs 80 cts
    Net 5,500,000 vs 3,500,000
    Shr 3.30 dlrs vs 2.10 dlrs
    Net 15.1 mln vs 9.2 mln
    Assets 1.6 billion vs 1.4 billion
    Deposits 1.3 billion vs 1.1 billion
    Loans 947.0 mln vs 822.0 mln
 Reuter

Yugoslavia's ambitious economic recovery
and anti-inflation plan faces major hurdles before it can be
implemented, Yugoslav economists and Western diplomats said.
    Prime Minister Branko Mikulic on Monday proposed new taxes
hitting high income earners, moonlighters, property and
interest on savings as part of new government plans to rein in
the country's 123 pct inflation.
    He also proposed price and wage restraint and the trimming
of repayments on the 20 billion dlr foreign debt in line with
currency earning abiltiy.
    "The taxes will anger many Yugoslavs struggling with
soaring prices and will be resisted in Parliament," a Western
diplomatic source said. Yugoslav economists said Mikulic's
draft plans left many questions unanswered.
    "It was a list of goals, not concrete measures," said a
senior Yugoslav economist at a leading Yugoslav research
    The state news agency Tanjug was more optimistic. It said
the proposals indicated "real economic reforms" were coming.
    Further details of the program, which Mikulic summarised in
Parliament, are to appear in the days ahead, and the draft has
to be debated and voted on by deputies in November.
    "The goals are good," a leading Belgrade economist said.
"No one can argue with that. But the million dollar question,
as with all government programs here, is how they will be
implemented."
    Zoran Popov, senior research fellow at The Belgrade
Institute for Industrial Economy said the existing system made
many of the proposals difficult to put into effect.
    "A change in the the system of taxation requires changes in
the constitution," he said. "Mikulic's speech tells us what he
wants to do, but not how."
    "It may be anti-inflationary," one diplomat said. "But the
question is how can you tax a black economy and how will the
government find out who has two jobs or more than one home."
    Economists and diplomats said the proposals could be
resisted by deputies from several of Yugoslavia's constituent
republics and provinces in defence of regional interests.
    Such resistance has blocked the nationwide implementation
of federal government economic policy on many past occasions.
 Reuter

New Jersey investor David F. Bolger
said he has delivered requests for a special meeting of
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc <CLF> shareholders representing more than
25 pct of the total voting shares in the company.
    Bolger, who heads a group that owns 6.4 pct of
Cleveland-Cliff's outstanding stock, said he is seeking the
special meeting to remove the current board of directors and
elect his nominees.
    The Bolger group had called for a special shareholder
meeting prior to the company's recent issuance of four mln new
shares, Bolger said.
 Reuter

William Crowe, chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted Iran will retaliate for the
U.S. strike against its oil platform though he said Iranian
options were limited.
    "They will be determined. They will not be easily deterred,
and let me stress for you that our commitment there is not
going to be risk free or casualty free."
    He said the most likely Iranian response would involve
terrorism or the laying of mines.
    "They obviously will look for ways that are probably more in
line with the 'silent hand' than what they have tried thus far,"
Crowe told an American Stock Exchange conference.
    He declined comment on a reporter's query whether he
favored a stronger move against Iran than that ordered by the
    "We carried out the operation that was decided upon and we
carried it out with enthusiasm and I think it was
professionally and well done," Crowe said.
 Reuter

market in Allegis Corp at 67 to 68.
    The New York Stock Exchange halted the stock before the
close at 75 for an order imbalance.
    A Jefferies official said the firm, which specializes in
third market trading, is staying open tonight "to accomodate
our customers."

 Reuter

withdrawn the offers of dairy cattle to Egypt under the Export
Enhancement Program.
    The department said the initiative for 10,000 head of dairy
cattle was announced on September 12, 1986, and sales of 3,501
head have been approved since that date.
    The department said it is its objective to complete sales
within one year after announcing an initiative, and that
initiatives are continued for over a year only if sufficient
sales activity occurs.
    It said it is giving exporters three days notice of the
withdrawn in keeping with regulations under the program.
 Reuter

affirmed at 100 mln dlrs of subordinated debt at B-plus and
certificates of deposit at BB/B.
    S and P cited the firm's restructuring which resulted in a
380 mln dlr third quarter loss. The loss was primarily due to
the amortization of 330 mln dlrs of goodwill, the agency said.
It added that amortization does not affect tangible net worth
and is considered a reflection of economic reality.
    Goodwill remains a high part of total equity and capital
levels remain weak. The below-average core profitability should
be enhanced by the firm's business focus, S and P said.
 Reuter

hold a press conference at 16:20 EDT.
    The exchange released no further details.
    The Dow Jones industrial average fell over 500 points in
trading on Monday, exceeding the Oct 28, 1929 decline that
heralded the Great Depression.
 Reuter

it extended its stock repurchase program for an additional six
months.
    The program, which began last April, will extend to April
16, 1988, the company said.
    Last April the board authorized the repurchase of up to
400,000 common shares, of which 111,200 were repurchased, the
    The company said it may purchase another 288,800 shares in
   
 Reuter

plans to close at 1300 pdt rather than at its normal closing
time of 1330 pdt because of the extraordinary volume of
    The exchange also said it will use a closing rotation in
all equity options series in order to determine a single
closing price for the day and to match all outstnding market
orders.
    Daily trading volume normally totals between 8-1/2 and nine
mln shares, an exchange spokesman said, adding, volume totaled
about eight mln shares one and one-half hours ago.
    "There's a lot of anxiety of course, but no panic," stock
exchange spokesman Don Alexander said of the trading activity.
    "I think everybody's holding up under the situation very
well."
    The stock market suffered its worst setback in history on
Monday. After the close of trading the New York Stock Exchange
said preliminary figures indicated a record 507.99 point drop
in the Dow Jones Industrial average.
 Reuter

Ametek Inc said its board approved a
program to purchase the company's stock.
    It also announced directors will review increasing the
quarterly dividend at their regular November meeting,
considering a payment of 15 cts a share on the recently split
stock. Ametek said this would be equal to 30 cts a share on the
present shares, up from the 25 cts quarterly paid previously.
    The company provided no details on its stock repurchase
program. It noted such purchases have been made from
time-to-time in the past.
 Reuter

    Net 105,489 vs 88,929
    Revs 2,306,697 vs 2,066,636
    Nine mths
    Shr 17 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 167,960 vs 136,856
    Revs 6,714,468 vs 6,026,343
    NOTE: 1987 qtr and nine mths includes tax gain 64,200 dlrs
and 102,200 dlrs, respectively. 1986 qtr and nine mths includes
tax gain 78,000 dlrs and 107,000 dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

Shr five cts vs seven cts
    Net 80,642 vs 115,222
    Revs 7,833,570 vs 5,739,443
    Nine mths
    Shr five cts vs 1.11 dlrs
    Net 80,773 vs 1,743,828
    Revs 21.6 mln vs 16.3 mln
 Reuter

    Pay December 10
    Record November 13
 Reuter

Primary shr 68 cts vs 65 cts
    Diluted shr 62 cts vs 60 cts
    Net 6,053,000 vs 5,803,000
    Revs 101.4 mln vs 94.8 mln
    Primary avg shrs 8,955,000 vs 8,963,000
    Diluted avg shrs 11,031,000 vs 11,010,000
   
    Primary shr 1.74 dlrs vs 1.83 dlrs
    Diluted shr 1.64 dlrs vs 1.69 dlrs
    Net 15.6 mln vs 16.3 mln
    Revs 291.4 mln vs 266.7 mln
    Primary avg shrs 8,974,000 vs 8,936,000
    Diluted avg shrs 11,053,000 vs 10,994,000
    NOTE: 1986 third qtr results exclude extraordinary 811,000
dlr gain from termination of a pension plan. 1986 nine month
results include 1,804,000 dlr gain from June 1986 sale of
National Sanitary Supply common stock in an initial offering.
 Reuter

Shr 27 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 988,000 vs 784,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 82 cts
    Net 3,040,000 vs 2,089,000
    Assets 284.2 mln vs 244.0 mln
    Loans 203.7 mln vs 133.5 mln
    Deposits 211.7 mln vs 179.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 nine mths per share not available because bank
did not convert to stock form until May 22, 1986.
 Reuter

Shr 41 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 1,002,000 vs 931,000
    Avg shrs 2,452,171 vs 1,975,422
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.23 dlrs vs 1.41 dlrs
    Net 3,014,000 vs 2,776,000
    Avg shrs 2,444,591 vs 1,967,539
 Reuter

    Net 109,000 vs 67,000
    Sales 11.3 mln vs 11.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr seven cts vs 99 cts
    Net 221,000 vs 3,213,000
    Sales 30.6 mln vs 35.9 mln
    Order backlog 22.7 mln vs 13.5 mln
    Note: 1986 figures include life insurance proceeds of 2.5
mln dlr or 78 cts a share.
 Reuter

Shr profit 22 cts vs loss 22 cts
    Net profit 430,373 vs loss 433,395
    Sales 7,723,838 vs 6,219,157
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 49 cts vs loss 1.20 dlrs
    Net profit 960,008 vs loss 2,338,286
    Sales 23.2 mln vs 19.9 mln
    NOTE: 1986 data restated to reflect operations discontinued
in 1986
    1986 earnings exclude loss from discontinued operations of
319,055 dlrs, or 16 cts a share in the quarter and 906,962
dlrs, or 46 cts a share for the nine months
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Aerospace Co, a unit of
Allied-Signal Inc <ALD>, and Ovonic Imaging Systems Inc signed
an agreement to develop full color, liquid crystal, active
matrix flat panel display for use in cockpit instrument display
systems, Ovonic Imaging said.
    The display systems are for use in airplanes and
spacecraft.
    Under the agreement, Ovonic, a unit of Energy Conversion
Devices Inc <ENER.O>, will receive payments of about 4.5 mln
dlrs over two year based upon completion of certain development
milestones.
 Reuter

Reserve rose on October 16 to 12.813 billion dlrs from 9.985
    Balances in tax and loan note accounts rose to 28.398
billion dlrs from 28.117 billion dlrs on the same respective
days.
    The Treasury's operating cash balance totaled 41.211
billion dlrs on October 16 compared with 38.102 billion dlrs on
October 15.
 Reuter

STRATUS COMPUTER INC &lt;STRA.O&gt; 3RD QTR NET
    shr 26 cts vs 18 cts
    net 5,281,000 vs 3,496,000
    rev 48.8 mln vs 32.1 mln
    nine mos
    shr 64 cts vs 51 cts
    net 12,852,000 vs 9,822,000
    rev 129.0 mln vs 89.2 mln            
 Reuter

U.S. warships destroyed an Iranian oil
platform in the Gulf on Monday and the Navy also raided a
second oil rig in retaliation for Friday's Iranian missile
attack on a U.S. flag tanker, the Pentagon said.
    President Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger
warned Iran of even stronger countermeasures if the military
escalation between the two countries continued in the volatile
waterway.
    Reagan said he ordered the strike on the first platform by
four U.S. destroyers, which fired about 1,000 five-inch shells
at the Rostam oil rig 120 miles east of Bahrain in the central
Gulf.
    A short time later, Navy personnel boarded a second Iranian
oil platform about five miles to the north and destroyed radar
and communications equipment before leaving the structure, the
Pentagon said.
     Defense Department spokesman Fred Hoffman told reporters
that the second platform had been abandoned by Iranian
personnel during the shelling and destruction of the first rig.
    The United States said both platforms were being used to
keep track of Gulf merchant shipping and to launch speedboat
attacks on such shipping by Iranian Revolutionary guards.
 Reuter

Gulf and Western Inc's publishing unit,
Simon and Schuster, said it agreed in principle to acquire
<Woodhead-Faulkner (Publishers) Ltd>, a British-based publisher
of professional and consumer books, for undisclosed terms.
    Upon completion of the proposed transaction,
Woodhead-Faulkner will become part of Simon and Schuster's
International Group, which in the U.K. includes Simon and
Schuster trade books, and Prentice Hall academic texts.
    Simon and Schuster said that Woodhead-Faulkner will
continue to publish under that name.
    The company will continue to be under the direction of
Martin Woodhead, who will report to Henry Hirschberg, president
of Simon and Schuster's International Group.
    Woodhead-Faulkner, founded in 1972, publishes international
banking, finance, and investment books.
 Reuter

    Net 2,623,000 vs 2,256,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.55 dlrs vs 1.45 dlrs
    Net 7,744,000 vs 6,542,000
 Reuter

Shr 16 cts vs 14 cts
    Net 954,000 vs 777,000
    Revs 24.7 mln vs 21.5 mln
    Avg shrs 6,000,000 vs 6,000,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 39 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 2,314,000 vs 1,805,000
    Revs 69.2 mln vs 59.3 mln
    Avg shrs 6,000,000 vs 5,363,000
 Reuter

Culp Inc, citing lower margins,
said it expects income from operations in its second quarter
ending October 31 to be lower than in the same year-ago period.
    But Culp said that due to a capital gain from the sale of
its Culp Industrial Fabrics unit, net income for the quarter
should be higher than the 1.5 mln dlrs, or 35 cts per share, it
earned in the 1986 third quarter.
    Culp also said it expects it will be difficult in its
current fiscal year to match the 5.2 mln dlrs it earned for the
year ended May 2, 1987, even if it included the capital gain
from the sale of the division.
 Reuter

Canada's economy is strong and the outlook
 remains positive despite the sharp fall of stock prices on
Canadian and other exchanges, Finance Minister Michael Wilson
told the House of Commons.
    "I look with some confidence in the performance in the
economy...I think we have a sound economy in Canada," Wilson
said in response to opposition party questions.
    Wilson, noting the relative stability in the Canadian
exchange and bond markets, rejected opposition demands to take
some form of action.         
    "There has been both quite good stability in both the
(currency) exchange and bond markets this morning and I don't
see any reason why we should try to take action that's
anticipating somethnng which might not happen," Wilson said.
    The Canadian dollar held steady around the 77 U.S. mark
today while the Toronto Stock Exchange's composite index was
off 292.20 points to 3,306.40 in late trading Monday.          
 Reuter

A major South African mining house
on Monday reported two of its gold mines suffered huge losses
as a result of a black miners' strike in August which crippled
about half the country's crucial gold mines.
    Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company, one of the
six major mining houses, said the two mines suffered a combined
net loss of 9.7 mln dlrs in the three months to end-September
compared with a profit of 8.6 mln dlrs in the preceding
quarter.
    It was the first indication of the real economic impact of
the biggest wage strike in the history of the gold mining
industry, which accounts for nearly half the value of South
Africa's total exports.
    "The results were pretty disastrous, primarily due to the
impact of the strike," Ken Maxwell, head of Johannesburg
Consolidated's gold division, told a news conference in
    "We haven't recovered from the strike yet," he said, adding
that 70 percent of underground mining at the group's biggest
mine, Randfontein Estates, was halted by the three-week strike.
    Johannesburg Consolidated and its controlling company, the
giant Anglo American Corp., were hard-hit by the three-week
miners' strike, but refused to disclose production losses.
    Anglo American is due to report its quarterly gold-mine
profits later this week.
 Reuter

Shr 86 cts vs 74 cts
    Net 11.1 mln vs 8.6 mln
    Revs 87.7 mln vs 80.5 mln
    Avg shrs 12,857,904 vs 11,578,259
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.61 dlrs vs 2.15 dlrs
    Net 32.6 mln vs vs 24.8 mln
    Revs 269.8 mln vs 257.8 mln
    Avg shrs 12,482,780 vs 11,502,035
    12 mths
    Shr 3.28 dlrs vs 2.80 dlrs
    Net 40.3 mln vs 32.1 mln
    Revs 355.4 mln vs 342.1 mln
    Avg shrs 12,271,220 vs 11,457,028
 Reuter

The European Community is willing to
offer limited concessions to the United States on one of two
major issues which threaten to poison their trade relations
next year, an EC commission spokesman said.
    He said the offer would be made at a meeting later this
month between U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter and EC
External Relations Commissioner Willy de Clercq.
    EC Farm Commissioner Frans Andriessen told agriculture
ministers meeting in Luxembourg that the EC is willing to make
some temporary arrangements to lighten the impact on U.S.
Exports of an EC plan to ban the sales of meat from animals fed
with growth hormones, the spokesman said.
    Washington has said it will take trade reprisals if the EC
proceeds with the ban from January 1 and if European countries
do not quickly cut back what it sees as unfair subsidies to the
makers of their Airbus airliner which are harming U.S.
Manufacturers.
    It claims the hormones ban has no scientific basis and will
rob it of 130 mln dlrs' worth of exports a year.
    Diplomatic sources said the Yeutter-de Clercq meeting will
take place in London and will also involve the aerospace
ministers of France, Britain, West Germany and Spain, the
countries involved in the Airbus project.
 Reuter

FMC Corp said its Marine Colloids
division was awarded a patent for anti-icing fluids thickened
with carrageenan seaplant extract.
    The company said the patent covers glycol-based anti-icing
solutions containing gel-forming carrageenan in an amount
sufficient to thicken the fluid and promote its adherence to
surfaces.
    FMC said it intends to grant licenses for use of its patent
to interested chemical producers and equipment users.
 Reuter

Howe backed the United States' attack on an Iranian oil
platform on Monday and said it should not worsen the Gulf
crisis.
    "The United States is fully entitled to take military action
in exercise of rights of self-defense, in the face of the
imminent threat of further attacks," Howe said in a statement
issued in London.
    The United States said its forces destroyed the platform on
Monday in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-
flagged Kuwaiti ship last Friday.
    Referring to that attack, Howe added, "I trust the Iranians
will fully understand that continued attacks of this kind will
only enhance justification for firm action in self-defense."
    At a press conferenced in Luxembourg during a meeting of
European Community (EC) ministers, Howe was asked about
statements from a senior Iranian official who said America was
now involved in a full-scale war.
    "It would be profoundly undesirable and quite unjustified
for Iran to react in that way," he said.
 Reuter

The Dow Jones Industrial average plunged
to 1844.97, a 404 point decline in the leading market
indicator.
    The last time the Dow index touched the 1840 level was in
November, 1986.
 Reuter

Qtly div one cent vs 10 cts in prior quarter
    Payable November 16
    Record November two
 Reuter

said it supported the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
plan to establish price ceilings for ATT long-distance services
as a replacement for current regulation.
    The company was responding to an FCC proposal of August 4
that price caps replace the current rate-of-return regulation,
which has been in place for the past 20 years.
   
    ATT said vigorous competition in the long-distance industry
has made obsolete rate-of-return, which stipulates that a
company can earn no more than a fixed rate -- currently 12.2
pct -- on its investment.
    The company termed the price cap a "transitional step," and
said it hoped the FCC would support a program of regulatory
oversight, which would consist of a streamlined tariff process.
  
 Reuter

SIMON AND SCHUSTER TO ACQUIRE WOODHEAD-FAULKNER OF THE U.K. FOR UNDISCLOSED TERMS

AFG Industries Inc said its board
authorized management to buy back up to four mln common shares,
or 15.7 pct of the AFG stock outstanding, from time to time in
    The company said the action was taken in light of current
    It also said the repurchased shares will be returned to
treasury for general corporate purposes and for use with stock
option plans.
 Reuter

J.P. Morgan and Co Inc said
third-quarter net income rose 3.6 pct to 219.2 mln dlrs, from
211.5 mln a year earlier, partly because of reduced loan-loss
provisions and a lower income tax bill.
    For the first nine months of the year, however, Morgan
posted a loss of 140.8 mln dlrs, compared with a profit of
682.4 mln in the same period of 1986, because it set aside 875
mln dlrs in reserves in the second quarter against shaky
third-world loans.
    The provision for loan losses in the quarter was 20 mln
dlrs, down from 70 mln a year earlier.
    Morgan's tax bill was 52.4 mln dlrs in the quarter, down
from 85.3 mln a year earlier, mainly because of benefits
associated with the second-quarter loan-loss provision.
    Net interest earnings fell to 474.3 mln dlrs from 526.5 mln
as net yield narrowed to 2.71 pct from 3.13 pct and 1.3 billion
dlrs of Brazilian loans remained on non-accrual.
    Non-interest operating income was 296 mln dlrs, up from
292.8 mln. Net charge-offs halved to 16 mln dlrs.
    Expenses jumped 18 pct to 387.3 mln dlrs, with personnel
costs accounting for half of the increase. The effect of the
lower dollar on overseas costs was also a factor.
 Reuter

CCR Video Corp said it received an
offer to enter into negotiations for <Intercep Investment Corp>
of Vancouver, B.C., to acquire a controlling interest in the
company through a tender offer.
    CCR said the negotiations would determine the terms under
which the CCR board could support an Intercep tender offer.
    Additional details were not immediately available.
 Reuter

Huge oil platforms dot the Gulf like
beacons -- usually lit up like Christmas trees at night.
    One of them, sitting astride the Rostam offshore oilfield,
was all but blown out of the water by U.S. Warships on Monday.
    The Iranian platform, an unsightly mass of steel and
concrete, was a three-tier structure rising 200 feet (60
metres) above the warm waters of the Gulf until four U.S.
Destroyers pumped some 1,000 shells into it.
    The U.S. Defense Department said just 10 pct of one section
of the structure remained.
    U.S. helicopters destroyed three Iranian gunboats after an
American helicopter came under fire earlier this month and U.S.
forces attacked, seized, and sank an Iranian ship they said had
been caught laying mines.
    But Iran was not deterred, according to U.S. defense
officials, who said Iranian forces used Chinese-made Silkworm
missiles to hit a U.S.-owned Liberian-flagged ship on Thursday
and the Sea Isle City on Friday.
    Both ships were hit in the territorial waters of Kuwait, a
key backer of Iraq in its war with Iran.
    Henry Schuler, a former U.S. diplomat in the Middle East
now with CSIS said Washington had agreed to escort Kuwaiti
tankers in order to deter Iranian attacks on shipping.
    But he said the deterrence policy had failed and the level
of violence and threats to shipping had increased as a result
of U.S. intervention and Iran's response.
    The attack on the oil platform was the latest example of a
U.S. "tit-for-tat" policy that gave Iran the initiative, said
Harlan Ullman, an ex-career naval officer now with CSIS.
    He said with this appraoch America would suffer "the death
of one thousand cuts."
    But for the United States to grab the initiative
militarily, it must take warlike steps such as mining Iran's
harbors or blockading the mouth of the Gulf through which its
shipping must pass, Schuler said.
    He was among those advocating mining as a means of bringing
Iran to the neogtiating table. If vital supplies were cut off,
Tehran could not continue the war with Iraq.
    Ullman said Washington should join Moscow in a diplomatic
initiative to end the war and the superpowers should impose an
arms embargo against Tehran if it refused to negotiate.
    He said the United States should also threaten to mine and
blockade Iran if it continued fighting and must press Iraq to
acknowledge responsibility for starting the war as part of a
    Iranian and Western diplomats say Iraq started the war by
invading Iran's territory in 1980. Iraq blames Iran for the
outbreak of hostilities, which have entailed World War I-style
infantry attacks resulting in horrific casualties.
    Each side has attacked the others' shipping.
 Reuter

CCR VIDEO SAYST RECEIVED OFFER TO NEGOTIATE A TAKEOVER BY INTERCEP INVESTMENT CORP

The Canadian Auto Workers' Union said it
accepted an economic offer from the Canadian division of
General Motors Corp <GM> in contract negotiations.
    But union president Bob White said many local issues at the
11 plants in Ontario and Quebec still remained unresolved ahead
of Thursday's deadline for a strike by 40,000 workers.
    "It minimizes the possibility of a strike," White told
    However, "if we don't have local agreements settled by
Thursday, there will be a strike," he said.
    The local issues still unresolved involved health care,
skilled trades and job classifications, White said.
    GM Canada negotiator Rick Curd said he believed a strike
would be avoided.
    "Even though there are some tough issues to be resolved
we're on the right schedule to meet the target," Curd said.
    "I'm very pleased with the state of the negotiations," he
said.
    Union membership meetings have been scheduled for the
weekend in case a tentative settlement, said White.
    White said the union has also received assurances that a
job protection pact negotiated with GM workers in the U.S. does
not threaten Canadian jobs.
    The economic offer for a three-year pact largely matches
agreements at Ford <F> and Chrysler <C> in Canada, which
include inflation-indexed payments for future retirees and
fixed annual payments for current retirees.
    It also gives workers wage increases of three pct
immediately and 1.5 pct in each of the second and third years.
 Reuter

Canada Development Corp said its
<Polysar Ltd> unit completed a refinancing package worth about
830 mln Canadian dlrs.
    The company said the financing, which involves 24 banks 
and four syndicated loans, consists of a 380 mln Canadian dlr
revolver, a 200 mln Canadian dlr European medium term loan, a
149 mln Canadian dlr revolver and a 100 mln Canadian dlr
operating loan.
    The company said the refinancing will reduce borrowing
costs, in addition to having other benefits.
 Reuter

A U.S. attack on an Iranian oil platform
in the Gulf on Monday appeared to be a tit-for-tat raid
carefully orchestrated not to be too provocative or upset Arab
allies, Western diplomats in the region said.
    U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger said Monday that
U.S. Warships destroyed the oil platform in the southern Gulf
in response to a missile strike on the American-registered
Kuwaiti tanker Sea Isle City in Kuwaiti waters on Friday.
    "We consider the matter closed," he said, a signal the U.S.
administration did not want the Gulf crisis to escalate.
    Iran had warned the United States earlier in the day
against exacerbating the Gulf crisis, saying military action
would endanger American interests.
    Following the raid, a okesman for Tehran's War
Information Headquarters vowed to avenge the attack with a
"crushing blow."
    "The United States has entered a swamp from which it can in
no way get out safely," Tehran Radio quoted him as saying.
    Diplomats noted, however, Iran was also seeking to avoid
ostracism by Arab states due to meet at a summit in Amman on
November 8 and discuss the Iran-Iraq war.
    Iranian Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi is currently in
Damascus, and diplomats said he would seek Syrian help in
preventing a total Arab breach with Tehran.
    Further escalation of the war threatening the Gulf Arab
states could work against Tehran at the Amman gathering, they
said.
    "The ball is in Iran's court now. It's up to Tehran to
respond one way or the other," a diplomat said.
    President Ronald Reagan warned Iran of stronger American
countermeasures if the military escalation continued.
    Western diplomats and military sources in the area said
shelling the platform appeared to be the least provocative act
the United States could have taken once it had decided to
retaliate for the tanker attack, blamed by both the Americans
and Kuwaitis on Iran.
    "It's interesting that they chose something in international
waters because it doesn't implicate any other nation," one
diplomat said. "This was better for U.S. Relations with the Gulf
Arab states, particularly Kuwait."
    Commented another diplomat: "Kuwait must be happy that the
U.S. Has done something, but relieved that Faw was not attacked
on its doorstep."
    One source said of the attack on the oil platform: "They
managed to warn off the crew and hit something that was the
least nuisance to everybody."
    A diplomat commented: "They were very clever in the place
they chose. It gets attention, but it hasn't devastated
anything because it wasn't working in the first place."
    A senior Arab banker in the area said after the news broke:
"This was a good, measured response without risking a flare-up
... It is a face-saving response (for the Americans)."
 Reuter

Brown Disc Products Co
Inc, a unit fo Genevar Enterprises Inc, said it has purchased
the ongoing business, trademarks and certain assets of
Rhone-Poulenc's Brown Disc Manufacturing unit, for undisclosed
terms.
    Rhone-Poulenc is a French-based chemical company.
    Under the agreement, Rhone-Poulenc will supply magnetic
tape and media products to Brown Disc Products.
 Reuter

Lane Telecommunications Inc <LNTL.O> said
Richard Lane, its president and chief operating officer,
resigned effective Oct 23.
    Lane founded the company in 1976 and has been its president
since its inception, the company said.
    He said he resigned to pursue other business interests.
    Kirk Weaver, chairman and chief executive officer, said
Lane's resignation was amicable.
    No replacement has been named.
 Reuter

Perkin-Elmer Corp said it won a
contract to provide laboratory information management systems
to the Enviromental Protection Agency's 10 regional
laboratories.
    The value and the exact duration of the contract was not
    The company said the contract will include hardware,
software, installation, support services, and software analyst
consultations.
 Reuter

    Record December Four
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 63 cts
    Net 16,362,000 vs 24,325,000
    Revs 589.3 mln vs 549.1 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.40 dlrs vs 1.73 dlrs
    Net 54,011,000 66,591,000
    Revs 1.68 1.58 billion
 Reuter

Military experts say the United States
faces a dilemma in the Gulf following U.S. destruction of an
Iranian oil platform in retaliation for an attack on a
U.S.-flagged tanker.
    The experts told Reuters Tehran holds the initiative and is
likely to control the tempo and direction of the conflict as
long as America simply reacts to Iranian attacks by launching
limited retaliatory strikes.
    But if Washington seizes the initiative with bolder steps
-- such as mining Iran's harbors, blockading its shipping, or
destroying key bases -- it could find itself in a major war.
    "Iran is in the driver's seat in an absolute sense as the
cycle of attack and retaliation continues," said Fred Axelgard,
a Gulf War expert with the private Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS).
    "It's like a Greek tragedy," said retired Adm. Eugene Carroll
of Washington's private Center for Defense Information (CDI)
think tank.
    Some Middle East experts say the only way out is for
Washington to join forces with Moscow in pressing for an end to
the war between Iran and Iraq.
    They say it is not feasible for America to withdraw its
30-ship force from the Gulf area, where the Navy began
escorting U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti tankers in July. Withdrawal 
would give the appearance of being chased away by Iran, which
President Reagan could never accept.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger told a Pentagon
news conference the destroyers Kidd, Young, Leftwich and Hoel
fired about 1,000 rounds of five-inch shells at Iran's Rostam
oil rig 120 miles east of Bahrain beginning at about 1400 Gulf
time (0700 EDT) on Monday.
    Weinberger said the platform had been used as a military
base by Iran and that the attack responded to an Iranian
Silkworm missile strike on the U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti tanker Sea
Isle City on Friday.
    Iranians manning the platform were warned in advance and
allowed to escape.
    "We do not seek further confrontation with Iran, but we will
be prepared to meet any escalation of military action by Iran
with stronger countermeasures," Weinberger said.
    "We consider this matter closed," he said.
    Analysts ranging from the liberal CDI to conservatives
agreed the U.S. reaction was measured, reasonable and did not
escalate the conflict unduly. But they said the question was
whether Iran would consider the matter closed. It had not taken
this view after earlier clashes.
 Reuter

Shr 96 cts vs 87 cts
    Net 10.8 mln vs 9,671,000
    Revs 103.9 mln vs 97.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.73 dlrs vs 2.62 dlrs
    Net 30.7 mln vs 29.3 mln
    Revs 325.7 mln vs 302.8 mln
 Reuter

National City Corp's National City Bank
unit said it has begun a personal computer-based financial
management service for small businesses.
    The service, the InTouch Financial Manager, is based on a
personal computer system develoed by <Harbinger Comput
Services> of Atlanta, and is licensed in Ohio by <Money Station
Inc>, an electronic funds transfer network.
    National City said the service will allow businesses to use
a personal computer and a local telephone call to communicate
with their bank to initiate transactions and to receive data
anmessages.
 Reuter

Shr 64 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 14.0 mln vs 11.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.83 dlrs vs 1.53 dlrs
    Net 39.7 mln vs 32.7 mln
    Assets 4.65 billion vs 4.53 billion
    Loans 3.24 billion vs 2.92 billion
    Deposits 3.32 billion vs 3.15 billion
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 1,804,000 vs 1,800,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 89 cts vs 79 cts
    Net 5,334,00 vs 4,496,000
    NOTE: Earnings per share reflect initial public offering of
534,750 common shares in March 1986 and 2-for-1 stock splits in
January and June 1986.
 Reuter

Norwegian state oil company Den Norske
Stats Oljeselskap (Statoil) signed contracts worth a total of
1.5 billion Norwegian crowns in connection with the development
of the Veslefrikk oil field, Statoil said.
    Moss Rosenberg Verft of Stavanger has been awarded a
contract to convert the the drilling platform West Vision to a
floating production platform. The work is to be completed in
the summer of 1989.
    Aker Verdal has been awarded a contract for the
engineering, purchasing and construction of the steel jacket
for the wellhead platform, also to be completed in 1989,
Statoil said.
 Reuter

The British Treasury confirmed that the
sale of British Petroleum Co Plc will go ahead as planned,
despite Monday's stock market crash which forced BP below the
330p a share set for the 7.2 billion stg issue.
    "The government are not considering terminating the BP
offer. The offer has been fully underwritten," a Treasury
    The issue, which remains open until October 28, was fully
underwritten last week when the issue price was set.
    BP shares closed down 33p at 317p as the FT-SE 100 share
index crashed a record 249.6 points, more than 10 pct.
 Reuter

Egypt has agreed to build two housing
estates and two new roads in Uganda worth a total of 295
million dollars, Egyptian commercial attache Muhammud el Tahan
said.
    He said Egyptian companies will build 8,000 housing units
in Kampala and reconstruct the roads between Fort Portal and
Bundibugyo near the Zaire border in western Uganda and between
Kapchorwa and Swam near Mount Elgon in the east of the country.
Uganda would repay 70 per cent of the Egyptian Government
credit to finance the projects in the form of barter goods and
30 per cent in hard currency, Tahan said.
 Reuter

Shr 30 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 2,534,000 vs 1,695,000
    Revs 98.8 mln vs 67.1 mln
    Avg shrs 8,447,000 vs 6,563,000
    NOTE: full name of company is harman international
industries inc.
 Reuter

Finance ministers from major industrial
nations should hold a special meeting to deal with the U.S.
Dollar's sharp decline, Helmut Geiger, president of the West
German savings bank association, said.
    Geiger told Reuters: "Finance ministers should meet soon to
take confidence-building measures to limit the damage caused by
the dollar's fall."
    Separately, Geiger told Bild newspaper in an interview
released ahead of publication on Tuesday that the lower dollar,
which had been artificially talked down by U.S. officials,
would damage West German exports and cost jobs.
 Reuter

First Boston Inc said it is conducting a
strategic review of its operations as part of a general policy
to periodically evaluate its business plans.
    The company said it is too early to predict the outcome of
the review, although it does not expect radical changes in its
    Salomon Inc <SB> last week completed a strategic review
that resulted in substantial layoffs.
    Other brokerage firms are either engaged in reviews or have
made major personnel cutbacks.
 Reuter

    Pay January Seven
    Record December 17
 Reuter

Elias Zinn, chairman and chief executive
of Entertainment Marketing Inc, said he planned to personally
purchase up to 500,000 shares of Entertaiment Marketing common
stock from time to time in the open market.
    Zinn said his purchases would be subject to availability
and acceptable price levels.
 Reuter

Shr 25 cts
    Shr 86 cts
    Assets 1.43 billion vs 1.30 billion
    Deposits 912.5 mln vs 875.8 mln
    NOTE: Company converted to a stock savings bank on Aug 13,
1986.
    1986 results include operations of Realtech Realtors, which
was acquired in 1986.
    1987 results include operations of Burgdorff Realtors,
acquired in December 1986; Cornerstone Mortgage Co, acquired in
July 1987; Centerbank Mortgage Co, acquired in July 1987; and
Center Capital Corp, formed in August 1987.
 Reuter

Roto-Rooter Inc said it expects
fourth quarter profits to exceed the 22 cts a share reported
for the final quarter of 1986 and the 23 cts earned in 1987's
    It reported the third quarter profit was up  pct from the
20 cts a share earned during the quarter in 1986. Nine month
profits were up 23 pct to 64 cts a share from 52 cts last year.
 Reuter

CalMat Co said it filed suit in Los
Angeles Superior Court against Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd,
against certain of its affiliates and against Ronald Langley,
president of Industrial Equity's North American operations.
    The company said its sut charges that Langley
missapropriated material non-public information acquired in his
capacity as a CalMat director and used the information for the
benefit of Industrial Equity.
    According to its more recent amendment to its Schedule 13D,
Industrial Equity owned about 19.17 pct of CalMat's stock at
October 14, CalMat said.
    It said Industrial has also stated that it intends to
pursue a possible business combination in the near future.
 Reuter

President Reagan said the Commerce
Department should be vigilant in preventing the flow of
strategic technology from reaching the the Soviet Union and
other communist countries.
    He was speaking at the swearing in of C. William Verity as
Secretary of the Commerce Department.
    Verity said the U.S. should make certain that militarily
sensitive high technology does not wind up in communist
nations. But he also said the U.S. must reduce the list of
products of a nontechnological nature, thereby allowing
manufacturers to increase exports and jobs.
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 4,538,000 vs 3,160,000
    Sales 41.8 mln vs 32.8 mln
    Avg shrs 12.6 mln vs 11.9 mln
 Reuter

Whirlpool Corp said it named
David Whitwam to the additional position of chairman, effective
December One, replacing Jack Sparks, who retires November 30.
    It said Whitwam was elected president and chief executive
officer effective July One.
    Sparks will continue to serve on Whirlpool's board of
directors as chairman of the finance committee.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit 13 cts vs nil
    Oper net profit 612,806 vs profit 2,363
    Sales 8,317,933 vs 2,823,243
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 32 cts vs loss four cts
    Oper net profit 1,464,338 vs loss 161,315
    Sales 20.3 mln vs 8,241,463
    NOTE: 1987 earnings exclude gains from utilization of tax
loss carryforwards of 321,980 dlrs, or seven cts a share in the
quarter and 772,285 dlrs, or 17 cts a share for the nine months
 Reuter

Seeq Technology Corp and
National Semiconductor Corp said they signed a four-year
exclusive technology licensing and manufacturing agreement.
    The agreement allows the two companies to share technology
and marketing rights to Seeq's 512-kilobit and one-megabit
semiconductors and for National Semiconductor's 256-Kb FLASH
EEPROMs, the companies said.
    Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
 Reuter

Shr 1.32 dlrs vs 1.59 dlrs
    Net 1,217,649 vs 1,471,824
    Total income 1,896,018 vs 2,278,642
    Nine mths
    Shr 4.92 dlrs vs 5.38 dlrs
    Net 4,553,380 vs 4,979,626
    Total income 6,918,266 vs 8,134,313
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 30 cts
    Net 4,057,000 vs 2,716,000
    Sales 49.5 mln vs 29.6 mln
    Six Mths
    Shr six cts vs 55 cts
    Net 518,000 vs 5,167,000
    Sales 89.7 mln vs 54.9 mln
 Reuter

    Net 64,652 vs 96,157
    Sales 1,205,321 vs 1,499,591
    NOTE: Backlog three mln dlrs vs 2,600,000 as of June 30,
1987.
 Reuter

Durakon Industries Inc said it has
entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DFM Corp, a
maker of bug and gravel protective shields for trucks and cars,
for an undisclosed amount of cash and debentures, retroactive
to September One.
 Reuter

Atlantis Group Inc said it bought
100,000 shares of Charter-Crellin Inc common stock, or 6.3 pct
of the total outstanding, and may seek control in a negotiated
Atlantis said it has informally discussed a business
combination with Charter-Crellin management.
    But the company said it has not held negotiations with
Charter-Crellin and does not intend to initiate further
    Pending development of specific proposals, Atlantis said it
will continue to purchase additional Charter-Crellin shares in
private or open market transactions depending on a range of
factors including the market price of the stock.
    Atlantis said it bought its Charter-Crellin common stock in
open market transactions between September 22 and October 7 at
14.91 dlrs to 15.62 dlrs a share, or for a total of about 1.51
mln dlrs.
 Reuter

principle to acquire a privately-held firm that performs
interior cleaning services for tank-trailers for 1,300,000
    It said the firm, which it did not name, earned about
1,500,000 dlrs pretax for the first nine mons of 1987.
    The company said closing is expected by October 31.
 Reuter

    Net 444,387 vs 676,593
    Revs 549,437 vs 764,901
    Nine mths
    Shr 67 cts vs 81 cts
    Net 1,690,670 vs 2,031,937
    Revs 1,986,938 vs 2,302,278
    NOTE: Full name is Travelers Real Estate Investment Trust
 Reuter

Safeguard Health Enterprises Inc
said its board authorized management to step up its stock
repurchase program by doubling the repurchase ceiling to 1.6
    The company also said it has already purchased 691,000
shares through September 30 under the previous authorization to
buy 800,000 shares, or 10 pct of the stock then outstanding.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 33 cts
    Net 32.6 mln vs 26.7 mln
    Revs 406.5 mln vs 370.1 mln
    Shr 1.44 dlrs vs 1.20 dls
    Net 117.8 mln vs 97.5 mln
 Reuter

    Net 806,000 vs 384,000
    Revs 18.0 mln vs 15.6 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 28 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 2,105,000 vs 1,320,000
    Revs 51.9 mln vs 46.1 mln
 Reuter

Henley Group Inc said it ended
talks with Sante Fe Southern Pacific Corp concerning the
possible acquisition of Sante Fe's Southern Pacific
Transportation Co subsidiary.
    The company also said it is reviewing its investment in
Santa Fe Southern Pacific in light of Sante Fe's announcement
that it recieved several bids ranging from 750 mln dlrs to more
than one billion dlrs for its Southern Pafific Transportation
   
    Henley said it held discussions with Sante Fe concerning
the acquisition by Henley of Bankers Leasing and Financial Corp
and certain Sante Fe transportation and real estate assets.
    Henley said it began talks with Sante Fe after it announced
its restructuring program in August 1987.
    As previously disclosed, Henley made necessary filings
under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Acts to
permit Henley to increase its investment in Sante Fe to 24.9
pct of the outstanding common stock from 5.03 pct.
   
    Henley said that depending on prevailing conditions,
including price and availability of Sante Fe stock, substantial
developments affecting Sante Fe, other investment and business
opportunities available to Henley, Henley may additional Sante
Fe shares, or sell all or part of its investment in Sante Fe.
 Reuter

Shr loss 39 cts vs profit 44 cts
    Net loss 2,169,000 vs profit 2,417,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 56 cts vs profit 1.68 dlrs
    Net profit 3,111,000 vs profit 9,317,000
    Note: Full name Mercury Savings and Loan Association
'
 Reuter

Carmike Cinemas Inc said it has
opened a six-screen theter called Carmike Six in Milledgeville,
Ga.
 Reuter

Shr 45 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 2,554,000 vs 1,954,000
    Revs 44.4 mln vs 32.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.00 dlrs vs 75 cts
    Net 5,461,000 vs 3,756,000
    Revs 109.5 mln vs 89.9 mln
 Reuter

said it agreed to sell its Texas American Bank/Levelland unit
to <First American Bancorp Inc> for about 12 mln dlrs in cash.
    Texas American said regulatory approval ofthe transaction
is expected in December, and the sale will close shortly
    Once the sale is completed, the unit's name will change to
First American Bank of Texas. The unit reported total assets of
196.7 mln dlrs on Juen 30, 1987.
 Reuter

agreed to sell 11 super drug stores to <F and M Distributors>.
    The nine existing and two unopened stores are located in
Maryland, Virginia and upstate New York and are operated under
the Pathmark Super Drug trade name, the company said.
    The nine existing stores generated approximately 34.8 mln
dlrs of Supermarkets General's total sales of 2.9 billion
during the six-month period ended Aug One, 1987.
    F and M Distributors operates 42 discount drug stores in
Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
 Reuter

Travelers Real Estate Investment Trust
    Qtly div 17 cts vs 23 cts in prior qtr
    Payable November 25
    It said the lower dividend reflects the reduction in cash
flow from a mortgage secured by a motel in Covington, La.
    The trust said an appraisal is being made of the Covington
property to determine whether an increase in loss reserve will
be required at year end.
   
    Travelers REIT said its investment adviser, Keystone Realty
Advisers has committed to lend the trust up to 500,000 dlrs for
a term of two years to cover past due payables and capital
improvements on the Covington motel.
    Keystone Realty is an affiliate of the Keystone Group, a
Traverlers Corp <TIC> subsidiary.
 Reuter

Shr 31 cts vs nine cts
    Net 1,345,000 vs 368,000
    Revs 31.9 mln vs 26.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 91 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 3,890,000 vs 3,556,000
    Revs 89.3 mln vs 71.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 qtr and nine mths include loss 831,000 dlrs, or
19 cts per share, and loss 1,872,000 dlrs, or 44 cts per share,
 Reuter

King World Productions Inc said its
syndicated television series "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has been
extended through the 1989-90 broadcast season.
    It said six of the top 10 markets have renewed the series
through the end of the decade.
 Reuter

Shr 44 cts vs 71 cts
    Net 14.8 mln vs 21.1 mln
    Revs 628.6 mln vs 605.6 mln
    Avg shrs 30,743,000 vs 26,969,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.01 dlrs vs 1.93 dlrs
    Net 65.0 mln vs 57.4 mln
    Revs 1.89 billion vs 1.81 billion
    Avg shrs 30,782,000 vs 26,619,000
 Reuter

Countrywide Credit Industries Inc said
it expects fiscal third quarter earnings of 20 or 21 cents per
fully diluted share, based on 18 mln shares outstanding.
    The company posted net income of 31 cents per fully diluted
share in the previous third quarter ended November 30 last
year, based on 12 mln shares outstanding.
    Angelo Mozilo, vice chairman and executive vice president,
also told security analysts that that company should have a
total loan servicing portfolio of 11 billion or 12 billion dlrs
by the end of the current fiscal year, in February 1988.
    Countrywide Credit, a financial service company primarily
involved in mortgage banking, reported 4.5 billion dlrs in its
loan servicing portfolio for the last fiscal year.
    In addition, Mozilo said the company was continuing to
reduce expenses by one mln dlrs a month and should bring total
costs down by three mln dlrs at the end of the quarter.
    He said about 55 pct of the cost cuts were in personnel,
and that the company had reduced the number of its offices
nationwide by 11 in recent months.
 Reuter

VENEZUELA SAYS OPEC OIL OUTPUT 0VER 18 MLN BPD CARACAS, Oct 19
- The current OPEC oil production is above 18 mln barrels per
day (bpd) and this level threatens the precarious equilibrium
of the of oil market, Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister
    He told reporters three or four countries out of OPEC's 13
members were mainly responsible for the overproduction, but
declined to identify them.
     OPEC's production ceiling for the second half of 1987 is
16.6 mln bpd. The Venezuelan minister said OPEC's production
reached a peak this year when it went over 19 mln bpd in
August.
    Hernandez Grisanti, together with the oil ministers of
Nigeria and Indonesia, met the heads of state of six Mideast
Gulf countries earlier this month to urge OPEC members to
comply with assigned production quotas.
    He said some of the countries which were complying as
Venezuela, Indonesia, Libya, Algeria, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia and
Iran.
    Hernandez declined to say whether the three or four
countries he said were overproducing bordered the Mideast Gulf.
 REUTER

ATLANTIS GROUP TELLS SEC IT SEEKS NEGOTIATED PURCHASE OF CHARTER-CRELLIN

Dynascan Corp said it completed the sale
of its industrial electronic products group and expects to 
recognize about a 3.0 mln dlr pretax gain on the transaction in
the fourth quarter.
    It said the group was sold October 15 for 13.5 mln dlrs to
Maxtec International Corp, a privately held company created by
the company's management team.
    It said the purchase price was 12 mln dlrs in cash and 1.5
mln dlrs in five-year notes plus warrants to buy 7.0 pct of the
stock of Maxtec.
    Dynascan said the group was projected to provide about 12
pct of its consolidated sales in 1987.
 Reuter

    Pay Nov 13
 Reuter

HENLEY GROUP SAID IT ENDED TALKS ON BUYING SOUTHERN PACIFIC FROM SANTA FE SOUTHERN

Spanish property firm <Renta Inmobiliaria
SA> is negotiating to buy the property assets of U.S. media
company Cannon Group Inc <CAN>, Renta's finance director Jose
Luis Sanchez said.
    Sanchez told Reuters that Renta's chairman Juan Antonio
Robles was currently in the U.S. to negotiate the deal but
declined to give other details.
    Interpart, a Luxembourg-based holding company chaired by
Italian financier Giancarlo Paretti, payed around 12.2 billion
pesetas in July to acquire a 63.5 pct stake in Renta
Inmobiliaria.
    The Spanish daily newspaper El Pais said the Cannon
property assets sought by Renta included the Elstree film
studios in Britain and a chain of movie-theaters in Europe and
the U.S.
   
 Reuter

Stop and Shop Cos Inc said its board has
authorized the repurchase of up to five pct of its common
shares from time to time at prevailing market prices.
 Reuter

Citgo Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary of
Southland Corp, said it raised the contract price it will pay
for all grades of crude oil by 50 cts a barrel, effective Oct
16
    The increase brings Citgo's postings for the West Texas
Intermediate and West Texas Sour grades to 19.00 dlrs/barrel,
while Light Louisiana SWeet is now priced at 19.35 dlrs.
    Citgo last changed it crude oil postings on Sept 9.
 Reuter

Thermascan Inc said the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration has approved clinical trials of a new,
advanced AIDS confirmation test developed by the company.
    Thermascan said that about 10,000 trials will be taken on
the the new test, called Fluorognost in the next three months
through blood banks, hospitals and health centers as well as by
individual physicians.
    The trials will be conducted in New York at the Beth Israel
Medical Centre, the Sacremento Medical foundation Blood Center,
the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and the Institute of
Hygiene at the University of Innspruck.
 Reuter

Gottschalks Inc said its board
authorized management to purchase up to 300,000 of the
company's outstanding shares, or about 3.5 pct of the stock
outstanding, because the company believes its shares are
currently undervalued.
    It said the purchases will be made from time to time on the
open market.
 Reuter

A shareholder group including Far
Hills, N.J. attorney Natalie Koether said it reduced its stake
in CCX Inc common stock to 10,000 shares, or less than one pct
of the company's common stock outstanding, from a previous
stake of about ten pct.
the group said it sold 380,000 CCX common shares on October 15
at four dlrs a share.
    The group gave no reason for the sales.
 Reuter

Leisure and Technology In is raising
40 mln dlrs through an offering of notes due 1999, said sole
    The notes have a 15-3/4 pct coupon and were priced at par.
    Non-callable for three years and non-refundable for five
years, the issue is rated B-2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc
and B by Standard and Poor's Corp.
 Reuter

Orion Capital Corp said it acquired
163,000 shares of Twin Disc Inc common stock, or 5.2 pct of the
company's common stock outstanding.
Orion Capital said the stock represents "a favorable investment
opportunity at current market prices."
    In open market transactions between August 21 and October
16, an Orion Capital subsidiary bought 56,200 Twin Disc common
shares at 21.06 dlrs to 22.43 dlrs a share. The entire 5.2 pct
stake was purchased at a cost of 3.2 mln dlrs, Orion Capital
told the SEC.
    
 Reuter

Mobil Corp's Mobile Chemical Co said it
is expanding its plastic grocery sack production by 20 pct with
two new manufacturing lines at its Temple, Texas, plant.
    Mobil said the new lines will begin operation next year.
    A spokesman said no information on cost or capacity of the
equipment is available.

 Reuter

Quantum Corp said it agreed to
settle a suit which charged NEC Corp and its NEC Information
Systems Inc subsidiary with infringing on a Quantum patent for
a disk drive architecture.
    The company said the settlement agreement calls for NEC and
NEC Information to pay a total of 2,975,000 dlrs.
    It said the arrangement follows a recent court order that
granted Quantum's motion for summary judgment and ruled that
NEC infringed on the Quantum patent.
 Reuter

Venezuelan Energy Minister Arturo
Hernandez Grisanti said he foresaw market stability in the
price of crude, despite growing tension in the Gulf augmented
by the U.S. military attack on an Iranian oil platform.
    He told a news conference the market continues to be stable
despite all the military action in the Gulf.
 Reuter

Net 13,185,000 vs 6,715,000
    Nine mths
    Net 26.2 mln vs 15.3 mln
    NOTE: Company is owned by a consortium of European banks.
 Reuter

Northeast Savings F.A. said its
board adopted a shareholder rights plan designed to protect the
company from coercive takeover tactics and bids not fair to all
sharholders.
    Under the plan, the board declared a dividend of one share
purchase right for each of the Northeast common shares held of
record as of November two, the company said.
    Initially, the rights are not exerciseable, rights
certificates are not distributed, and the rights automatically
trade with Northeast's shares, the company said.
    However, 20 days following the acquisition of 20 pct or
more of Northeast's common shares shares or 20 days following
the commencement of a tender offer for 30 pct or more of
Northeast's shares, the rights will become exerciseable and
separate rights certificates will be distributed, the company
said.
    The rights will entitle holders of Northeast's common
shares to purchase additional shares at an exercise price of 60
dlrs a share, the company said.
    The company said that in the event of certain triggering
events described in the rights plan, holders of the rights,
other than an acquiring person, will be entitled to acquire
Northeast's common shares having a market value of twice the
then-current exercise price of the rights. Also, in the event
Northeast enters into certain business combination
transactions, holders of the rights will be provided a right to
acquire equity securities of the acquiring entity having a
market value of twice the then-current exercise price of the
rights, the company said. Northeast said it will be entitled to
redeem the rights at one cent per right until the occurence of
certain events.
 Reuter

United States Oil Co said Dr. V. di
Guevara Suardo Fabbri was appointed president and chief
exeuctive, effective October 31, replacing William Rueckert,
who will resign on that date.
    Rueckert told Reuters he resigned to puruse other business
    Last November, Fabbri bought a controlling interest in the
company and has since brought in his own management.
    The company said that three new directors have been elected
and that one present director resigned effective October 16.
 Reuter

The U.S. is drafting options including
possible trade retaliation against Argentina in a dispute over
the differential between soybean and product  taxes which
Buenos Aires levies on exports.
    The drafting of retaliation options follows the failure
of high-level talks earlier this month to resolve a case filed
by the U.S. National Soybean Processors Association, U.S.
officials said. The NSPA charged that Argentina's differential
export taxes implicitly subsidize soyproduct exports in
competition with the U.S.
    "Our only option is some sort of retaliation to restrict
(Argentine) access to our market," said one U.S. source.
   
    The U.S. shelved the NSPA case earlier this year after
Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said Argentina agreed to
end the differential.
    But when Argentina announced export taxes for the 1987/88
year in July, the differential was narrowed only one pct.
    Deputy trade representative Michael Smith met Agriculture
minister Ernesto Figuerras and Economy minister Juan Sourroille
on September 29 and the Argentine officials said they could not
narrow the differential further for 1987/88.
    As a result of the impasse, the U.S. is considering
restrictions on imports of items such as Argentine corned beef
and finished leather, the U.S. sources said.
    A decision on reprisals is likely to be made by the Reagan
administration soon, they said.
 Reuter

     Net 2.1 mln vs 1.03 mln
     Revs 15.6 mln vs 12 mln
     Nine mths
     Shr 58 cts vs 37 cts
     Net 6.9 mln vs 3.7 mln
     Revs 56.2 mln vs 27.5 mln
     Avg shrs 11.9 mln vs 10.0 mln
 Reuter

NATIONAL GUARDIAN &lt;NATG.O&gt; ACQUIRES ALARM FIRM
    GREENWICH, Conn., National Guardian Corp said it acquired
Pacific Fire Extinguisher Co, which specializes in installation
of fire and burglar alarms.
    The operations acquired in the transaction have total
revenues in excess of 2.3 mln dlrs, the company said.
    In a separate announcement, the company said it expects to
record revenues of approximately 150 mln dlrs for 1987.
    For 1986, the company had revenues of 98.3 mln dlrs.
    National Guardian's revenues for the first six months of
1987 were approximately 72 mln dlrs, compared to about 42 mln
dlrs the year-ago period.
 Reuter

Rexon Inc said its board
authorized management to buy back up to 15 mln dlrs worth of
the company's common shares because the company believes that
the stock is an attractive investment at this time.
    The stock would be used to offset the potentially dilutive
effects of options exercises and of other shares which might be
issued in the future, Rexon said.
 Reuter

    Pay Dec 10
    Record Nov 15 
 Reuter

    Pay Jan Six
    Record Dec 16 
 Reuter

Qtly div 57-1/2 cts vs 57-1/2 cts prior
    Pay Nov 15
 Reuter

    Pay Jan 15
    Record Dec 11
 Reuter

    Pay Dec Four
    Record Nov 16
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said it authorized the
purchase of up to one mln shares of the company's common stock.
    Coastal said the purchases were authorized because it
believes the current market price of the stock is substantially
less than the underlying value of the shares.
    Coastal has 46.4 mln shares of common stock outstanding.
    The company said the repurchases would not affect the
company's ability to pay down 300 mln dlrs in outstanding debt
and preferred stock by year-end.
 Reuter

SmithKline Beckman Corp said it
opened an 8.5 mln dlr pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in
Tianjin, China.
    The plant will make pharmaceutical products for the joint
venture company, Tianjin Smith Kline and French Laboratories.
    SmithKline said the joint venture combines Smith Kline and
French Laboratories, the pharmaceutical unit of SmithKline
Beckman, the <Tianjin Medical Co>, and <Hebel Chemical Plant>
in Tianjin.
    The plant has the capability to produce one billion tablets
and 200 mln capsules a year.
 Reuter

U.S. EXPORT INSPECTIONS, IN THOUS BUSHELS,  SOYBEANS 16,333 WHEAT 30,917 CORN 36,781

Qtly div 24 cts vs 28 cts in prior qtr
    NOTE: Full name is Travelers Realty Income Investors. It
said the lower dividend reflects the reduction in cash flow
from a mortgage secured by a motel in Slicell, La.
 Reuter

CCR Video Corp said it has received
an offer to enter into negotiations for <Intercep Investment
Corp> to acquire a controlling interest through a tender offer.
    The company said "The negotiations would determine the
terms under which the CCR board of directors could support the
INTERCEP tender offer."
 Reuter

    Pay November 13
 Reuter

Shr primary 1.15 dlrs vs 76 cts
    Shr fully diluted 1.15 dlrs vs 76 cts
    Net 40.8 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Revs 369.6 mln vs 263.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 2.95 dlrs vs 3.44 dlrs
    Shr fully diluted 2.95 dlrs vs 3.33 dlrs
    Net 103.8 mln vs 119.0 mln
    Revs 1.06 billion vs 897.8 mln

 Reuter

Italy's overall balance of payments showed a
919 billion lire surplus in September against a deficit of
1,026 billion in August, provisional Bank of Italy figures
showed.
    The September surplus compared with a shortfall of 1,697
billion lire in September 1986. For the first nine months of
1987, the overall balance of payments showed a deficit of 1,921
billion lire against a 1,725 billion deficit in the same 1986
period.
    The central bank said Italy's one billion dlr Eurobond
launched last month contributed to September's surplus.
 REUTER

<Willis Faber Plc> said its 20.8 pct
holding in stockbrokers Morgan Grenfell Group Plc <MGFL.L> was
not up for sale.
    The insurance broker issued a statement in reply to recent
press speculation which it said was in part "inaccurate and
undesirable."
    "Willis Faber has not received any offers for its stake in
Morgan Grenfell," it said, adding that an offer would have to be
considered on its merits.
    "Willis Faber's stake in Morgan Grenfell has been a very
successful investment," it said.
 Reuter

The U.K. Government said it would seek the
compulsory winding up of James Tennant Commodities Ltd on
grounds of public interest and that details would be heard in
the High Court on November 18.
    A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said that
James Tennant was relatively small and that its activities had
concentrated on allowing investors to participate in pooled
trading schemes in commodity futures.
    No application had been made for the appointment of a
provisional liquidator in the case, he added.
 Reuter

Shr 22 cts vs 57 cts
    Net 504,808 vs 1,281,781
    Revs 633,119 vs 1,396,703
    Nine mths
    Shr 87 cts vs 1.32 dlrs
    Net 1,959,385 vs 2,986,379
    Revs 2,342,322 vs 3,346,555
    NOTE: Full name of trust is Travelers Realty Income
Investors
 Reuter

The African Development Bank plans to
raise about 200 mln dlrs via a U.S. Domestic bond this year,
Milan Kerno, vice president of finance said at a presentation.
    He said the Bank planned to borrow about 700 mln dlrs in
world capital markets in 1987 and roughly the same amount in
1988. Because of the weak condition of the euroyen market,
plans for a bond in that sector, which would comprise part of
the 700 mln dlrs,  have been put on hold, Kerno said.
    "But we should complete our programme (this year), markets
willing," Kerno said, adding the Bank's 1987 borrowing so far
totaled about 400 mln dlrs.
    The Bank's board of directors will meet on October 26 to
discuss plans to begin Bank trading in unspecified securities,
with desks in Abidjan, Kerno said.
    Trading would be conducted along similar lines as existing
World Bank and Asian Development Bank operations, he said.
    The Bank now has roughly 1.2 billion dlrs in available
liquidity to serve as a basis for trading, although not all of
this will be traded at the start. The Bank plans to use the
funds gradually over the next three or four years, he said.
    To facilitate lending increases the Bank tripled paid-in
capital to about 18 billion dlrs from six billion in June.
    German bankers at the presentation criticized the Bank for
its overly conservative lending, adding the Bank would do
better to invest more capital in loans. Total net equity
capital, consisting of subscribed capital and reserves, rose to
1,282 pct of its funded debt in 1986 from 552 pct in 1985, the
Bank's statistics showed.
    Other Bank figures from 1986 showed the Interamerican
Development Bank's net equity totaled 302 pct of funded debt,
and the Asian Development Bank's 295 pct.
 Reuter

French finance minister Edouard Balladur
said the agenda of state privatisations may not be done at full
speed if market conditions prove unsuitable.
    "I'm not going to privatise at full speed if market
conditions do not permit. That would be absurd," he told
journalists. "What we're going to do is adapt our program very
closely to the evolution of our stock markets."
    French stock prices fell more than 10 pct on Monday, a
6-1/2 year record, as concern deepened that interest rates
worldwide would surge and choke off fragile economic growth,
dealers said. Stock of several privatised firms fell below
their issue price.
 Reuter

Shr 75 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 8,031,000 vs 5,819,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.16 dlrs vs 1.42 dlrs
    Net 23.2 mln vs 15.1 mln
    Assets 3.41 billion vs 2.84 billion
    Deposits 2.54 billion vs 2.19 billion
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths includes gain 1,008,000 dlrs, or nine
cts per share, from utilization of prior year's net operating
   
    NOTE: 1986 qtr and nine mths include loss 131,000 dlrs, or
one cent per share, from unspecified extraordinary item.
    1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 2,281,000 dlrs, or 22
cts per share, and 6,393,000 dlrs, or 60 cts per share,
respectively, from utilization of net operating loss
    full name of company is society for savings bancorp inc.
 Reuter

Nomura Securities Co Ltd is seeking a
possible business relationship with Kidder Peabody and Co Inc,
said Setsuya Tabuchi, the chairman of the board of Nomura.
    Tabuchi told an investment conference "at present the
company's staff (of Nomura) has been studying the possiblity of
a joint buiness," he said.
    Tabuchi said he has not been informed how far the study has
progressed. He declined to elaborate further.
    Kidder Peabody is a wholly-owned subsidiary of General
Electric <GE>. Kidder officials were not immediately available
 Reuter

Shr 88 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 2,580,000 vs 2,147,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.48 dlrs vs 2.33 dlrs
    Net 7,266,000 vs 5,948,000
 Reuter

Shr loss 12 cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 2,669,000 vs profit 528,000
    Revs 79.8 mln vs 74.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 64 cts vs profit 1.63 dlrs
    Net profit 14.3 mln vs profit 35.7 mln
    Revs 280.0 mln vs 288.8 mln

 Reuter

President Reagan and his advisers
discussed the stock market fall at a previously scheduled
"issues lunch" at the White House, officials said.
    There was no formal comment on the market slide, but an
official suggested that a comment might be forthcoming after
the market closed.
     Reagan made no mention of the stock market when he gave a
glowing account of recent economic performance at the swearing
in of C. William Verity as Commerce Secretary.
    He said this month would set a record for the longest
peacetime expansion on record and added that leading indicators
had sent a message of "steady as she goes."    
 Reuter

Banking Center said its board
declared an initial quarterly dividend of 20 cts per share,
payable December 11, record October 30.
 Reuter

Shr 87 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 418.6 mln vs 399.2 mln
    Revs 3.12 billion vs 2.89 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.61 dlrs vs 2.62 dlrs
    Net 1.25 billion vs 1.23 billion
    Revs 9.10 billion vs 8.62 billion
    Avg shrs 481.4 mln vs 473.6 mln
 Reuter

Inc said it unveiled two new products that allow personal
computers not directly attached to a mainframe computer to
communicate with the host computer.
    The IRMAremote for Hayes AutoSync, which will cost 395
dlrs, is a software product that allows International Business
Machines Corp <IBM> personal computers to communicate with host
computers via dial-up telephone lines.
    The IRMAremote X.25, costing 1,795 dlrs, uses hardware and
software and allows personal computers to communicate with host
computers via X.25 packet switching network.
 Reuter

Shr profit 55 cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net profit 3,998,000 vs loss 915,000
    Sales 93.8 mln vs 80.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 1.71 dlrs vs profit 95 cts
    Net profit 12,641,000 vs profit 7,282,000
    Sales 260.9 mln vs 249 mln
    Note: 1986 figures include a five mln dlr or 65 cts a share
charge for electronics restructuring and 1.7 mln dlr charge
from early retirement of 12 mln dlrs in long-term notes
 Reuter

Shr 2.17 dlrs vs 1.42 dlrs
    Net 24,907,000 vs 16,117,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 4.05 dlrs vs 3.75 dlrs
    Net 47,105,000 vs 42,874,000
    Assets 9.66 billion vs 9.25 billion
    Deposits 8.06 billion vs 7.80 billion
    Loans 842.5 mln vs 711.1 mln
 Reuter

Shr 84 cts vs 86 cts
    Net 3,893,000 vs 4,054,000
    Revs 21.0 mln vs 21.2 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 1.88 dlrs vs 1.87 dlrs
    Net 8,707,000 vs 8,848,000
    Revs 57.9 mln vs 59.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 per share adjusted for three for two stock split
effective June 1, 1987.
    St. Joseph Light and Power Co is full name of company.
 Reuter

Yugoslav Prime Minister Branko Mikulic,
unveiling a new draft economic program, said Yugoslavia would
cut repayments on its almost 20 billion lr hard currency debt
to bring them in line with its hard currency earning capacity.
    "We have decided to coordinate repayment of our debt with
realistically assessed capabilities of our economy," he said in
Parliament. He said the current debt-service ratio (over 40 pct
of export revenue) was too high.
    Yugoslavia is to negotiate a long-term restructuring of its
debt after missing repayments in recent months, Mikulic said.
    "If we did not change the dynamics of repaying our debt, the
situation would become increasingly worse," Mikulic said.
    He said on the present repayment schedule, Yugoslavia would
have a net outflow of two billion dlrs and the level of debt
would be halved by 1995. But he added:
    "The consequences would not only mean slower economic growth
in the coming years but also further exhaustion of the economy
and lasting damage to the economy's capacity for development,"
he said.
    "All that would, of course, intensify social difficulties,"
Mikulic added.
    The state news agency Tanjug said on October 9 that
Yugoslavia plans to adjust debt repayments over the next eight
years and to cut the debt-service ratio to 25 pct.
    Yugoslavia failed to make a principal repayment due last
month which had already been postponed by 90 days.
    Mikulic's proposed economic program, which also includes
higher personal taxes as well as wage and price restraint, is
intended to serve as a basis for the debt talks to demonstrate
Yugoslavia's ability to eventually repay the credits.
    His program has to be discussed and approved by parliament
by early November.
    Mikulic said foreign debt should be retained at about the
same level as now until 1990 and the country should then be
able to keep currency reserves equal to three months payments.
    "Of course, these are our proposals for talks with
creditors. We expect understanding and support because it is in
their interest as well," Mikulic said.
    He said that under the present schedule debt payments had
slowed economic development and exhausted currency reserves.
Banking sources say Yugoslavia's reserves are inadequate at
present for even one month's debt and import bill.
 REUTER

confident that its computer systems can handle the pace of
trading volume today.
    "We are confident that whatever volume we have this
afternoon, we can handle it," said Richard Torrenzano, a vice
president at the NYSE.
    With two hours of trading left, a record 422 mln shares
have traded hands, far outpacing the volume on the market's
busiet days. The previous busiest day was last Friday, when 338
mln shares traded.
    "Our systems have been tested and they can handle heavy
volume effectiviy and efficiently," Torrenzano said.
    He said the Exchange has been in constant contact with the
Securities and Exchange Commission concerning today's record
breaking decline and heavy volume. He declined to comment on
the context of those discussions.
    Earlier today, SEC chairman David Ruder said a brief
trading halt has been discussed as one way of restoring order
to the market, but stressed he is not recommending one at this
time. He did not say if the option was discussed with the NYSE.
 Reuter

Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 67 cts
    Shr diluted 1.01 dlrs vs 66 cts
    Net 63.2 mln vs 40.5 mln
    Sales 1.70 billion vs 1.43 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.91 dlrs vs 2.88 dlrs
    Shr diluted 2.85 dlrs vs 2.82 dlrs
    Net 176.5 mln vs 172.7 mln
    Sales 5.08 billion vs 4.49 billion
    Avg shrs 60.3 mln vs 59.6 mln 
    Avg shrs diluted 62.0 mln vs 61.3 mln
 Reuter

Investor Donald Knutson said he filed
a suit against First Northern Savings and Loan Association of
Green Bay, stating his request of management for access to
First Northern's stockholder lists had been denied.
     Knutson owns about 9.9 pct of First Northern's outstanding
stock. He said in his complaint he intends to use the list to
cause a special meeting of First Northern's shareholders to be
convened to discuss his concerns over the lack of liquidity in
the trading market for the stock of First Northern and methods
of increasing the value of the shares.
 Reuter

Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd,
pointing to panic selling on Wall Street, urged President
Reagan to join Congress in fighting trade and budget deficits.
    "It is time the administration put policies ahead of
politics," Byrd said.
    Byrd said the president needs "to begin working with
Congress to reduce the double deficits in trade and the budget
that cause such a cloud on this nation's future."
 Reuter

Head of the Chamber of Commerce's Money
and Credit section, Hellmuth Klauhs, said the government should
guarantee any company debts arising from the planned
restructuring of the public sector.
    Klauhs said that there was no doubt that the government
would meet its obligations. "But the owner should say this
clearly once again," he added.
    Klauhs said 35 billion of 61 billion schillings owed by
firms under the state holding <Oesterreichische
Industrieholding AG> (OIAG) currently had no formal state
guarantee. Nine of the 35 billion schillings were owed to
    Klauhs, also managing director of <Genossenschaftliche
Zentralbank AG>, said banking industry officials would discuss
the issue with finance minister Ferdinand Lacina next month.
    Lacina said last week a special guarantee would be
unnecessary, as state industry had the financial power and
enough liquidity to pay its debts.
    The government has said the latest injection of state funds
into OIAG to cover losses will be the last.
    Under a restructuring plan, OIAG is to create five new
holding companies divided by sector.
 REUTER

AMEX SAYS IT SURPASSES DAILY VOLUME RECORD FOR EQUITIES FOR A SINGLE TRADING SESSION.

said the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial countries should
respect pledges on monetary policy made in the February Louvre
accord on currency stability.
    "We have to strengthen the cooperation between the seven
major industrial countries and remind ourselves of the pledges
we made at the Louvre," he told journalists.
    "They were not simply pledges to maintain currency
stability, but also to conduct a certain type of economic and
monetary policy," he added.
 Reuter

Recent announcements from Moscow of
next year's grain production targets indicate that the Soviets
are estimating this year's grain crop at 205 to 213 mln tonnes,
Agriculture Department analysts said.
    USDA is projecting the Soviet crop at 210 mln tonnes, but
some earlier estimates from Soviet officials were that the 1987
grain crop could match the 1978 record of 237 mln tonnes.
    Moscow outlined its economic targets for 1988 on Monday,
putting the grain harvest goal at 235 mln tonnes. An analyst of
Soviet agriculture at USDA noted that a recent article in
Izvestia said Soviet grain production in 1988 is planned to be
"25 to 30 mln tonnes more than expected this year."
    "This indicates that their own estimate is for a 205 to 213
mln tonne (grain) crop," the analyst said.
   
    In calculating Moscow's crop estimate, USDA used the 235
mln tonne production goal, as well as a 238 mln tonne figure
published in a Soviet economic journal this month.
    USDA's production estimate of 210 mln tonnes reflects a
range of 207 to 212 mln tonnes, a USDA source said.
    Late season rains damaged Soviet crops, slowed harvest
progress and lowered Soviet production, analysts said.
    While in the U.S. earlier this month, Soviet agriculture
official Viktor Nikonov predicted that the grain crop would be
as good or better than last year's 210 mln tonne harvest.
    A member of Nikonov's party commented that although 230 mln
tonnes of grain were in the fields, harvest problems would
bring the final crop down to around 210 mln tonnes.
 Reuter

CANADA 750 MLN DLR T-BILL ISSUE YIELD AVERAGE 8.60 PCT - OFFICIAL

Global Motors Inc said
it has agreed to become become the exclusive North American
importer of the Lincan Gama, a four-wheel-drive sport vehicle
manufactured by <P.T. Indauda> of Indonesia.
    In a letter of intent it signed with P.T. Indauda, Global
said it expects to begin marketing the first Lincan Gamas in
mid-1989, with 20,000 units projected to be marketed in the
first year.
    Global is the parent company of Yugo America Inc, importer
of the Yugoslavian Yugo vehicle.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson said the Louvre Accord is still healthy, but
said the United States and West Germany must work out
differences over their respective roles in fulfilling the
accord.
    "The Louvre Accord has worked very well in terms of
stabilizing exchange rates," he said in response to a question
during an American Stock Exchange conference here.
    He said exchange rates have been stable so far in 1987 as a
result of the accord.
 Reuter

M.A. Hanna Co said it has reached 
definitive agreement to purchase PMS Consolidated, a privately
owned manufacturer of colorants for the plastics industry.
    M.A. Hanna said the purchase, which is subject to certain
conditions, is scheduled to close around the end of October.
Hanna announced last August that it was in negotiaitons to
purchase the company.
    Headquartered in Somerset, N.J., PMS reported over 70 mln
dlrs in revenues in its last fiscal year, which ended May 1987.
 Reuter

Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chairman
Manuel Johnson said the inflationary expectations in the
financial markets have eased since the Fed's last half-point
increase in its discount rate to 6.0 pct.
    "We have seen the kind of expectational forces develop I
think that we've been satisfied with since our last discount
rate move," Johnson said.
    Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has said the most recent
discount rate increase on September 4 was largely aimed at
quelling inflationary fears in financial markets which he said
were largely unfounded.
 Reuter

Ample supplies of OPEC crude weighing on
world markets helped limit and then reverse oil price gains
that followed the U.S. Strike on an Iranian oil platform in the
Gulf earlier on Monday, analysts said.
    December loading rose to 19.65 dlrs, up 45 cents before
falling to around 19.05/15 later, unchanged from last Friday.
    "Fundamentals are awful," said Philip Lambert, analyst with
stockbrokers Kleinwort Grieveson, adding that total OPEC
production in the first week of October could be above 18.5 mln
bpd, little changed from September levels.
    Peter Nicol, analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank, said OPEC
production could be about 18.5-19.0 mln in October. Reuter and
International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates put OPEC September
production at 18.5 mln bpd.
    The U.S. Attack was in retaliation of last Friday's hit of
a Kuwaiti oil products tanker flying the U.S. Flag, the Sea
Isle City. It was struck by a missile, believed to be Iranian,
in Kuwaiti waters, and was the first hit on a U.S. Flag
commercial vessel in the seven year Iran/Iraq war.
    The U.S. Owned Liberian flag tanker Sungari was hit in the
area on Thursday, also believed struck by an Iranian missile.
    Refiners were not significant purchasers of physical oil on
Monday as a result increased Gulf tension following the U.S.
Attack, analysts said.
    They said a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which
around eight mln bpd passes, isnlikely because it is not in
the interests of the U.S. Or Iran, they said.
    Any threat to oil supplies would stem from an increase in
the number of tanker attacks as part of a widening of Gulf
hostilities, analysts said.
    But they saw the U.S. Strike as a limited reply to Iranian
missile attacks, with some describing it as responsible.
    Geoffrey Pyne, analyst at stockbrokers Phillips and Drew,
said he was impressed by the sensible U.S. Response.
    "The U.S. Has thought carefully about what would correspond
to Iranian agression. They have proved to the Iranians that any
further action will be met with a like-for-like response.
Today's action by the U.S. Was not escalatory," Pyne said.
    Kleinwort Grieveson's Lambert said the U.S. Strike was "a
responsible retaliation," with the U.S. Apparently indicating to
Iran that it could increase the severity of its attacksf Iran
chose to raise the level of conflict.
    Chase Manhattan's Nicol took a different view, however.
    He said he was unable to see what the U.S. Had achieved as
Arab states such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, whose interests
the U.S. Is supposedly defending, will feel less secure as a
result of the U.S. Attack and fear some sort of Iranian
    The initial upward market move this morning reflected a
strong speculative reaction to rumours of a U.S. Attack which
was thought at one stage to have been against Iranian missile
launchers on the Faw Peninsula, close to Kuwait, analysts said.
    The later downtrend followed confirmation of a U.S. Navy
attack on an Iranian oil platform by the U.S. Defence Secretary
Caspar Weinburger.
    Market operators were able to evaluate the situation in the
Gulf on the basis of confirmed fact, and finding it less
serious than first thought, took profits, taking prices lower,
 REUTER

June 30 end
    Shr 0.3 ct vs four cts
    Net 18,463 vs 174,486
    Revs 5,074,686 vs 4,181,978
    Avg shrs 5,624,041 vs 4,860,000
 Reuter

Communications and Cable
Inc said it acquired about 21 pct of the outstanding shares of
Imnet Corp, a privately owned company that designs, makes and
services proprietary image storage and retrieval systems. Terms
 Reuter

Baltek Corp said it has acquired
a shrimp packing plant in Ecuador for undisclosed terms.
    The company said the acquisition will result in a tripling
of its Ecuadorian shrimp sales to about three mln pounds
annually by 1988.
 Reuter

    Net 242,000 vs 135,000
    Sales 4,003,000 vs 2,968,000
    Six Mths
    Net 414,000 vs 297,000
    Sales 7,54,000 vs 5,912,000
    Avg shrs 2.4 mln vs 2.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 net includes tax credits equal to one cent in
the quarter and two cts in the six months.
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 1,076,572 vs 826,939
    Sales 20.5 mln vs 12.5 mln
    NOTE: Company released results in connection with filing
for Class A common stock offering.
 Reuter

Enseco Inc said it has received
4,600,000 dlrs in contract from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to test samples in support of the Superfund
program over a 30-month period and to perform special
analytical services.
 Reuter

    Balladur's comments came after U.S. Treasury Secretary
James Baker said on Sunday that the U.S. Would have to
re-examine the Louvre accords in the light of the rise in West
German short-term interest rates.
    Balladur was one of the main architects of the Louvre
accord and has invested considerable political capital in
defending them.
 REUTER

BancTEXAS Group Inc said it has signed a
definitive agreement to sell its BancTEXAS Sulphur Springs
affiliate to a group of local investors led by Gene Watson for
a cash amount equal to book value at the time of the sale,
    The unit had assets of 18.2 mln dlrs as of September 30.
    BancTEXAS said it plans to concentrate on its primary
market, the Dallas area.
 Reuter

TRW Inc's Federal Systems Group said
it received 36.7 mln dlrs in U.S. Navy contracts to begin a
system upgrade of its anti-submarine warfare operations center
for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems command.
    The award is the start of a seven-year full-scale
engineering development effort with a potential value of 90 mln
dlrs, the company said. In subsequent phases, TRW said it will
deliver, install, test and support the new system at five Navy
sites.
    The anti-submarine warfare operations center interacts with
multiple aircraft, command centers and support systems.
 Reuter

Oper shr 17 cts vs not available
    Oper net 1,619,000 vs 6,354,000
    Nine Mths
    Oper shr 80 cts vs not available
    Oper net 7,675,000 vs 22,669,000
    Assets 6.06 billion vs 5.74 billion
    Loans 3.11 billion vs 3.33 billion
    Deposits 4.57 billion vs 4.83 billion
   
    NOTE: 1987 operating net excludes tax credits of 3.9 mln
dlrs or 40 cts a share in the quarter and 8.1 mln dlrs or 85
cts in the nine months period.
    1986 nine months operating net excludes prepayment
penalties on early retirement of loans of 736,000 dlrs.
    Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan Association, Chicago
is full name of company.
 Reuter

agreement in principle to buy Tank Cleaning Co, a
privately-held company that cleans tank trailers, in exchange
for about 1.3 mln shares or Allwaste common.
    Allwaste said that Tank Cleaning earned about one mln dlrs
before taxes last year and had about 1.5 mln dlrs in pre-tax
income for the nine months ended September 30.
 Reuter

Geac Computer Corp Ltd said the Supreme
Court of Ontario has signed an order approving the company's
proposal for repayment of its creditors and releasing the
company from receivership.
   
 Reuter

Caterpillar Inc said it expects 1987
full year sales and profits to be "substantially better" than
1986 results, following improved third-quarter performance.
    Third-quarter earnings of the heavy machinery manufacturer
increased to 146 mln dlrs, or 1.47 dlrs a share, from net loss
of 26 mln dlrs, or 26 cts, in the 1986 quarter. Sales rose to
2.25 billion dlrs from 1.82 billion dlrs last year.
    A weaker U.S. dollar strengthened Caterpillar's position
against foreign manufacturers and permitted price increases and
boosted sales, while a cost-cutting program lowered costs
significantly, the company said of third-quarter results.
   
    Continuation of the cost-reduction program, which is to
pare costs by 15 to 20 pct from 1986 to 1990, and a further
anticipated improvement in its price competitiveness are
expected to contribute to higher full year 1987 profits,
Caterpillar said.
    In 1986, the company earned 76 mln dlrs or 77 cents a
share.
 Reuter

Shr loss 1.39 dlrs vs profit 1.20 dlrs
    Net loss 5,306,000 vs profit 7,246,000
    Six mths
    Shr loss 18 cts profit 2.23 dlrs
    Net profit 3,259,000 vs profit 14.2 mln
    Assets 6.79 billion vs 5.42 billion
    Deposits 3.99 billion vs 3.38 billion
    Loans 4.92 billion vs 4.53 billion
    NOTE: 1987 six mths per share includes preferred stock
dividend payments.
 Reuter

LSI Logic Corp said it has
developed a semi-custom microchip that is twice as dense as the
most complex chip now available.
    The new microchip, LCA 100K Compacted Array Plus, has
100,000 usable gate arrays, or the equivalent of 400,000
transistors for designing custom chips, the company said.
    Production of the new chip will begin in about 15 months,
said LSI Chairman Wilfred Corrigan.
    The microchip can be used in products including computers,
telecommunications and military equipment, allowing them to
operate faster with improved reliability, the company said.
    "This technology will pave the way for new uses in
artificial intelligence, speech recognition and speech
synthesis, as well as digital signal processing and image
processing," Corrigan said. He also predicted the microchip
will add about five pct to the company's revenues next year.
    Analyst Millard Phelps of Hambrecht and Quist Inc said he
expects LSI to finish its 1987 fiscal year with per share
earnings of 24 cts, on sales of 252 mln dlrs. He put 1988
earnings at 60 cts per share on 330 mln dlrs in sales.
   In the nine months ended Sept 27, LSI had earnings of 14 cts
per share, or 5,560,000 dlrs, on 183.9 mln dlrs in sales.
 Reuter

    Nine mths
    Net 5,334,000 vs 4,496,000
 Reuter

Iran said several people were injured in
Monday's U.S. Attack on an Iranian offshore oil site and vowed
retaliation, Tehran radio reported.
    It quoted President Ali Khamenei as saying, "We will
definitely retaliate and will not leave this American move
unanswered."
    A broadcast monitored in Nicosia said several civilian
personnel on the Rashadat oil platforms in the Gulf east of
Qatar were injured when U.S. Warships bombarded them this
afternoon. It described damage as "severe."
    Washington said four American frigates shelled and
destroyed two Iranian platforms at the Rashadat (formerly
Rostam) field at 1100 GMT on Monday in response to Friday's
missile attack on a U.S.-flag ship in Kuwaiti waters.
    The U.S. Said Iranians used the platforms for military
pruposes and had fired on an American helicopter from the rigs
    Khamenei denied that the platforms had military gear or
personnel and said the U.S. Attack lacked miltary value.
    "With this move Mr. Reagan has committed a big mistake and
has definitely increased his problems...
 REUTER

Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co of
Maryland, a unit of Bell Atlantic Corp, is raising 100 mln dlrs
via an offering of notes due 1992 with a 10-1/4 pct coupon and
par pricing, said lead underwriter Morgan Stanley.
    That is 46 basis points more than the yield of comparable
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated Aa-3 by Moody's
Investors Service and AA-minus by Standard and Poor's. Late
last week, Moody's and S and P downgraded the telephone
company's debt ratings, underwriters noted.
 Reuter

FED'S JOHNSON SAYS LOUVRE ACCORD ALIVE, BUT CITES U.S.-GERMAN DIFFERENCES

The Senate Agriculture committee voted
to limit changes in county loan rate differentials starting
with the 1988 crop as part of a budget deficit reduction
package.
    The panel also approved measures that could trigger larger
corn and wheat acreage reduction requirements, increase
farmer-held reserve storage payments, reduce a potential milk
support price cut, and require advance deficiency payments for
producers of major crops.
    A proposal to require imported tropical oils be labeled on
U.S. food products failed by a 10-8 vote.
 Reuter

A spokesman for the National Association
of Broadcast Employees and Technicians said it is studying its
next moves in its strike against the National Broadcasting Co
after 12 of its units voted to accept a contract proposal and
two small units voted to reject.
    The spokesman said the union will make a further
announcement later today after union leaders had a chance to
confer. The only units voting to reject were a Chicago couriers
group and a Los Angeles plant maintenance group. The spokesman
said the two units represented 37 votes out of approximately
2800. NBC is a unit of General Electric Co <GE>.
 Reuter

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE TRADES MORE THAN 400 MLN SHARES FOR FIRST TIME IN A SINGLE SESSION

Analog Devices Inc said it may
repurchase up to one mln of its 46 mln common shares
outstanding on the open market over the next several months for
use in its employee stock purchase and stock option plans.
 Reuter

Taco Viva Inc said it named
Donald Ryan as president and chief operating officer of the
company.
    He assumes the president's slot formerly held by J. Brion
Foulke III, who retains his positions as chairman and chief
executive officer, the company said.
    Ryan most recenty served as president of <Interim
Restaurant Management Inc>, a firm specializing in rejuvenating
operations of ailing restaurant chains.
    Ryan will join Taco Viva in early November, the company
said.
 Reuter

Manuel Johnson cautioned against seeking "quick-fix solutions" to
persistent U.S. trade and federal budget deficits.
    In particular, he told an American Stock Exchange
conference, a decline in the dollar below current levels would
exacerbate financial market conditions.
    "Trying to artificially depress the dollar severely below
current levels ... would exacerbate financial market conditions
and lead to further potential for financial problems."
    Nowhere, Johnson said, are Fed officials hearing that U.S.
businesses cannot compete at current exchange rates.
    He acknowledged the U.S. trade deficit was persisting
despite a decline in the dollar's value of 40 to 50 pct in the
    But the deficit is improving in volume terms and will soon
begin showing improvement.
    "The stage I think is being set for a healthy, constructive
expansion without inflationary instability," he said.
 Reuter

The Swiss Banking Commission hopes to
introduce a major reform of the banking system in January which
would revolutionise the workings of the country's unusual
liquidity requirements.
    Commission Director Kurt Hauri told Reuters the main
consequence of the change would be an end to the sharp rise in
interest rates which occurs at the end of every month.
    By effectively reducing liquidity requirements, it would
also help Swiss banks compete better against those in Britain,
West Germany and the United States, he said.
    The commission wants to move to a system of average
liquidity requirements, where banks have to hold reserves
equivalent to a certain proportion of their exposure calculated
over the month as a whole.
    The current system, described  as a Swiss special case by
Hauri, forces banks to comply with requirements generally only
at the end of each month.
    The result is a sharp upward trend in short dated money
market rates, overshadowed by the approach of the end-month,
called the ultimo, with consequent high costs for the banks who
are forced to borrow extra funds from the National Bank.
    This was particularly pronounced in June 1986 when
overnight rates hit triple figures, due to a combination of the
half-year end and a rigid adherence by the National Bank to its
money supply target. Although the rise shocked the bank into
more flexibility, the problem remained.
    The reform proposal, which Hauri said had been planned for
years, was given to banks and other interested parties for
comment on September 30.
    They have until the end of this month to suggest
alterations. Subject to such changes, and to the government
go-ahead, it will come into force on January 1, Hauri said.
 REUTER

Republic National Bank of New York, a
unit of Republic New York Corp, is offering 100 mln dlrs of
notes due 1989 yielding 9.612 pct, said sole manager Salomon
    The notes have a 9-1/2 pct coupon and were priced at 99.80
to yield 63 basis points more than the when-issued two-year
Treasury notes.
    Non-callable for life, the issue is rated Aa-1 by Moody's
 Reuter

Infotron Systems Corp said
James C. Castle has been named president and chief executive
officer, succeeding James C. Hann, who becomes vice chairman
and will focus on product technology issues.
    Castle had been president of TBG Information Systems Inc, a
subsidiary of Thyssen AG <THYH.G>.
 Reuter

AMR Corp said its Nashville
Eagle Inc subsidiary will acquire nine 19-seat Metro III
airplanes in separate agreements with Fairchild Industries
Inc's <FEN> Fairchild Aircraft Corp unit and <Midstate Airlines
Inc>.
    The company said the pre-owned airplanes will begin during
the fourth quarter of this year.
    Nashville operates more than 100 commuter flights daily to
16 cities that connect to AMR's American Airlines' daily
flights at the Nashville terminal in Fort Worth, Texas.
 Reuter

Balladur urges G-7 to respect pledges on monetary policy in Louvre accord

Periods ended September 30
    Oper shr 24 cts vs six cts
    Oper net 1,297,881 vs 312,295
    Sales 60.5 mln vs 52.2 mln
    First half
    Oper shr 39 cts vs 13 cts
    Oper net 2,099,679 vs 711,530
    Sales 118.1 mln vs 103.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 operating net excludes losses from discontinued
operations of 154,661 dlrs, or three cts a share, in quarter
and 409,476 dlrs, or seven cts a share, in half.
 Reuter

Shr 43 cts vs 55 cts
    Net 6,262,000 vs 7,948,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Net 18.8 mln vs 22.3 mln
    Assets 2.4 billion vs 2.1 billion
    NOTE: Prior year amounts restated to reflect 2-for-1 stock
split effective May 15, 1987.
 Reuter

Period ended Sept 27
    Shr nine cts vs 24 cts
    Net 474,000 vs 880,000
    Sales 11.2 mln vs 11.8 mln
    Avg shrs 5,369,555 vs 3,654,986
    Note: 1986 figures include tax credits of 113,000 dlrs or
three cts a share.
 Reuter

Federal securities regulators are not
discussing a move to close U.S. securities markets, a
spokesperson for the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
    The SEC "...is not discussing closing the nation's
securities markets," the SEC said today in a prepared
    The Commission said it is "is concerned about current
market conditions, is closely monitoring the situation and is
in regular contact with the various markets and other
regulatory bodies."
    An SEC spokesperson emphasized that the SEC has not been in
contact with Reagan administration officials concerning today's
market activity, or any response to the volatile U.S. stock
market.
 Reuter

U.S. SENATE PANEL VOTES TO LIMIT COUNTY LOAN RATE  CHANGES STARTING WITH 1988 CROPS

that Northrop Corp <NOC> must pay 31 mln dlrs to a company
controlled by Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi.
    The court denied a Northrop appeal challenging a U.S.
arbitration tribunal's ruling that it pay 31 mln dlrs in
commissions and interest stemming from arms contracts it won
from Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s.
    Northrop, seeking to sell F-5 fighter aircraft and
supporting services to Saudi Arabia, hired Khashoggi's firm in
1970 as its marketing representative.
    Northrop paid more than 17 mln dlrs in commissions to
Khashoggi's firm, Triad International Marketing, from 1971 to
1975. U.S. Defense Department records showed that Northrops'
sales to Saudi Arabia during this period totaled 4.2 billion
dlrs.
    The legal battle dates back to 1979, when Khashoggi began
arbitration proceedings seeking payment of more than 150 mln
dlrs in commissions due under his agreement with Northrop.
    A federal judge in 1984 threw out the arbitration panel's
award of 31 mln dlrs to Khashoggi's firm, but a U.S. Court of
Appeals reinstated it last March.
 Reuter

FED'S JOHNSON SAYS LOWER DOLLAR WOULD EXACERBATE MARKET CONDITIONS

Shr 23 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 1,293,000 vs 1,256,000
    Sales 39.7 mln vs 31.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 72 cts vs 61 cts
    Net 4,099,000 vs 3,470,000
    Sales 115.9 mln vs 87.6 mln
 Reuter

Egypt has agreed to build two new roads
in Uganda worth a total of 295 mln dlrs, Egyptian commercial
attache Muhammud el Tahan said.
    The two countries signed an agreement under which Egyptian
companies will reconstruct the roads between Fort Portal and
Kapchorwa and Swam near Mount Elgon in the east of the country,
he told reporters. Uganda would repay the loan from Egypt 70
pct in unspecified barter goods and 30 pct in hard currency.
    Egypt and Uganda are also discussing the possibility of
Egyptian help for a project to grow wheat in Uganda, he added.
 Reuter

Shr primary loss eight cts vs profit 49 cts
    Shr fully diluted loss eight cts vs profit 45 cts
    Net profit 681,000 vs profit 11.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary profit 33 cts vs profit 2.36 dlrs
    Shr fully diluted profit 33 cts vs profit 1.92 dlrs
    Net profit 12.7 mln vs profit 47.5 mln
    Assets 10.53 billion vs 10.75 billion
    Deposits 5.98 billion vs 5.89 billion
    Loans 8.44 billion vs 9.09 billion
    NOTE: 1987 nine mth figures include gain of 2,470,000 dlrs
from cumulative effect of an accounting change.
    1987 3rd qtr and nine mth figures also include gain of 12.1
mln dlrs from sale of real estate investment property.
    1987 3rd qtr and nine mths earnings per share reflect
payment of dividends on company's two series of preferred stock
amounting to 2.2 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr profit 1.47 dlrs vs loss 26 cts
    Net profit 146 mln vs loss 26 mln
    Revs 2.25 billion vs 1.82 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 1.82 dlrs vs profit 2.27 dlrs
    Net profit 180 mln vs profit 224 mln
    Revs 5.94 billion vs 5.55 billion
 Reuter

Colombia has opened export registrations
for November coffee shipments, trade sources said. No further
details were available.
 Reuter

Period ended August 29.
    Shr profit one ct vs loss one ct
    Net profit 128,112 vs loss 30,170
    Sales 1,620,707 vs 1,325,406
    Avg shrs 9,306,031 vs 3,499,219
    Six Mths
    Shr nil vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 25,890 vs loss 322,675
    Sales 2,915,077 vs 1,845,003
    Avg shrs 9,283,631 vs 3,499,219
 Reuter

    Net 5,010,000 vs 3,868,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 4.91 dlrs vs 4.84 dlrs
    Net 21.8 mln vs 21.5 mln
    NOTE: Current quarter figures include gain of 4.7 mln dlrs
on property sales vs gain of 2.9 mln in prior year's quarter.
    Current nine month figures include gain of 20.5 mln dlrs on
property sales vs gain of 19 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Chrysler Corp said its import operations
closed out its 1987 model year with record sales of Dodge
Ram-50 models of 76,913 trucks compared with the previous
record 72,629 trucks sold in 1986. The Ram-50 is imported for
Dodge from Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
 Reuter

Sept 30
    Shr seven cts vs five cts
    Net 234,504 vs 157,862
    Revs 4,096,000 vs 3,007,383
 Reuter

Qtr ends September 30
    Shr 25 cts vs 13 cts
    Net 759,000 vs 383,000
    Revs 9,052,000 vs 6,829,000
 Reuter

Guilford Mills Inc said its
common shares from time to time in the open market.
    The company has about 10.5 mln shares outstanding.
 Reuter

The European Community (EC) will not
issue a joint statement on the U.S. Attack on Iran for now,
    They said the latest events in the Gulf were discussed only
briefly by foreign ministers over lunch, though member states
had been informed by Washington that it was planning military
action. "They didn't have enough information to discuss it fully
and they wouldn't have agreed anyway," one diplomat said.
    Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans said Belgium had
always opposed an extension of violence in the Gulf and deeply
regretted that the situation had deteriorated.
    But British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe said the
United States was fully entitled to take military action and
Francisco Fernandez Ordonez of Spain said the U.S. Strike could
be considered an af self-defence.
 REUTER

said it intends to repurchase up to 540,000 of its 32.8 mln
common shares outstanding.
 Reuter

William Seidman said he is worried that consumer confidence
will be undermined by panic selling of stocks.
    "The principal worry is that the market will panic and
destroy the really strong confidence that the consumer has in
the economy," Seidman told reporters during the American
Bankers Association annual convention.
    But Seidman was relaxed about the implications for banks.
"I don't see any near-term effect on the banking system. We
would have to worry if it throws the economy into a major
recession. We don't expect that to happen." he said.
    First Chicago Corp chairman Barry Sullivan echoed Seidman,
saying that the slump in stocks could hasten a recession "if it
significantly impacts consumer confidence."
    But Sullivan told reporters that he thinks the U.S. economy
remains sound.
    Sullivan said the slide in stocks was an extreme reaction
to recent increases in interest rates.
    Asked whether First Chicago would follow Chemical Bank in
raising its prime rate to 9-3/4 pct from 9-1/4, Sullivan said,
"We're looking very carefully at the money markets."
    The FDIC's Seidman, asked whether the stock market rout was
a reason to reconsider plans to give broader securities powers
to commercial s, said, "Under the plan we are suggesting
that (securities) activities be done in subsidiaries so if ever
things go badly for them it won't affect their capital."
 Reuter

House Speaker Jim Wright dismissed
charges that the trade bill before Congress contributed to the
fall in stock prices on Wall Street.
    "That is utterly ridiculous," the Texas Democrat told
    Treasury Secretary James Baker and other administration
officials over the weekend pointed to the pending legislation
-- which they brand too protectionist -- as a key factor in the
record-setting drop.
 Reuter

Allied-Signal Inc said
profits in its aerospace division fell 46 pct in the third
quarter due to lower margins and significantly higher
development costs for several aircraft, including the MD-80.
    After-tax income from its aerospace operations, the largest
of its divisions, was 43 mln dlrs compared with 79 mln dlrs a
year earlier, which was restated to exclude sales and expenses
from discontinued operations, Allied-Signal said.
    Revenues in the aerospace division edged up to 1.144
billion dlrs from 1.099 billion dlrs a year earlier.
    After-tax income from its automotive division rose to 28
mln dlrs from 26 mln dlrs. In its engineered materials
division, after-tax income rose to 52 mln dlrs from 39 mln
dlrs.
    Sales in its automotive unit rose to 882 mln dlrs from 662
mln dlrs. Sales in its engineered materials unit rose to 706
mln dlrs from 666 mln dlrs.
    During the third quarter, the company authorized buyback of
25 mln common shares, including stocks held in odd lots of less
than 100 shares. As of Octotber 16, company said it had reduced
the number of shares outstanding to 164.6 mln.
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 1,115,000 vs 971,000
    Revs 13.8 mln vs 11.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 52 cts
    Net 3,134,000 vs 2,521,000
    Revs 40.1 mln vs 31.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs not given
    Net 510,192 vs 328,428
    Nine mths
    Shr one dlr vs not given
    Net 1,489,831 vs 741,136
    NOTE: Company went public in September 1986.
 Reuter

3rd qtr net
    Shr 22 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 366,497 vs 877,148
    Nine mths
    Shr 70 cts vs 1.17 dlrs
    Net 1,185,352 vs 1,924,255
 Reuter

Shr loss five cts vs loss eight cts
    Net loss 657,000 vs loss 566,535
    Revs 9,341,755 vs 260,468
    Avg shrs 14,323,384 vs 7,081,688
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 19 cts vs loss 39 cts
    Net loss 2,449,094 vs loss 1,408,789
    Revs 15,571,230 vs 683,684
    Avg shrs 12,655,172 vs 3,612,300
 Reuter

Shr profit seven cts vs n/a
    Net profit 587,000 vs profit 3,231,000
    Sales 18.5 mln vs 18.7 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss 39 ct s vs n/a
    Net loss 2,368,000 vs protit 7,165,000
    Sales 55.4 mln vs 54.2 mln
    Note: Current nine month figures include extraordinary loss
of 1.2 mln dlrs, or 17 cts per share, resulting from costs
associated with restructuring.
    Prior quarter and nine month per share figures not
applicable because company began operations in October, 1986
with the acquisition of Gould Inc's <GLD> medical products
group.
 Reuter

    Net 661,000 vs 325,000
    Revs 13.6 mln vs 13.4 mln
    Avg shrs 3,148,000 vs 3,011,000
    1st half
    Shr 42 cts vs 25 cts
    Newt 1,310,000 vs 752,000
    Revs 28.2 mln vs 25.6 mln
    Avg shrs 3,136,000 vs 3,006,000
 Reuter

Shr 23 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 2,641,000 vs 1,295,000
    Revs 15.6 mln vs 7,925,000
    Avg shrs 11.6 mln vs 8,900,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 65 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 6,805,000 vs 3,308,000
    Revs 42.7 mln vs 20.6 mln
    Avg shrs 10.5 mln vs 8,900,000
   
 Reuter

Shr loss 24 cts vs loss 13 cts
    Net loss 619,956 vs loss 340,735
    Revs 17.2 mln vs 18.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit six cts vs loss 92 cts
    Net profit 172,384 vs loss 2,437,333
    Revs 57.7 mln vs 57.5 mln
 Reuter

The U.N. Security Council was
called to a private meeting on Monday for consultations 
following the United States attack on an Iranian oil platform.
    Meanwhile, a U.N. spokesman said that as far as he knew a
report to the council and Secretary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar on the action had not been received from the Americans.
    In Washington, President Reagan said the United Nations was
being informed of the attack under the provision of the U.N.
Charter regarding notification of actions taken under the right
of self-defense.
    The U.N. spokesman, Francois Giuliani, said Perez de
Cuellar had no comment on the attack, taken in response to
Iranian action against an American-owned tanker last week, but
was trying to find out "what actually happened."
    Calls to Iran's U.N. commission elicited no response.
 Reuter

Sept 30
    Shr 44 cts
    Net 905,000 vs 631,000
    Six months
    Shr 88 cts
    Net 1,793,000 vs 1,378,000
    Assets 221 mln vs 223.2 mln
    Deposits 186.4 mln vs 189.8 mln
    Loans 176.5 mln vs.7 mln
 Reuter

Asea AB <ASEA.ST> said the group to be
formed by its merger with Switzerland's BBC AG Brown Boveri und
Cie <BBCZ.Z> would have four main business areas; power plants,
power transmission, power distribution and industrial
    Asea Brown Boveri Ltd's international markets would
continue to be run by decentralised management, and the three
main home markets, Switzerland, West Germany and Sweden, would
continue to play an important role, Asea said in a statement.
    It said research and development were crucial to the
group's future and central reasearch resources and laboratories
in the three home markets would be strengthened.

 Reuter

Baring Capital Investors Ltd (BCI), a unit
of the U.K. Merchant bank <Baring Brothers and Co Ltd>, said it
has raised 61 mln European Currency Units (ECUs) which will be
invested in management buy-outs and development capital
opportunities in the U.K. And continental Europe.
    The funds were raised through BCI's first such fund - the
Baring Euaring European Capital Trust - from investors in nine
European countries. It expects to raise another 40 mln ECUs
soon through a French fund and a fund for U.S. Investors.
    BCI was set up last year by Baring Brothers to advise
buy-out and development capital investors.
    BCI said the new fund is structured as a Guernsey-based
unit trust, which will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock
Exchange. It will be advised by BCI and managed by a company
owned jointly by Barings and the management of BCI.
    Individual investments are expected to range between one
and 10 mln ECUs and are likely to be concentrated in the U.K.,
Germany and France.
    BCI said its aims are to invest in established companies,
principally family companies with succession-issues and
corporate spin-offs.
 REUTER

International monetary officials will 
rush to paper over the deep cracks that have appeared in the
Louvre accord on currency stability to prevent a dollar
free-fall and to calm turmoil in world capital markets,
economists and currency traders said.
    "I don't think the Louvre is dead because if it breaks up
in an acrimonious way, the potential outcome is a rout of the
dollar, higher interest rates and collapsing stock markets.
It's in the Group of Seven's interest to calm things down,"
said Douglas Madison, corporate trader at BankAmerica Corp.
   
    In a weekend television interview, U.S. Treasury secretary
James Baker sharply criticised a recent rise in West German
money market rates and said the eight month-old Louvre pact to
foster exchange rate stability needs to be reviewed.
    His comments rocked the currency markets and helped send
the already-fragile U.S. and overseas stock markets into a
tailspin.
    The dollar lost more than two pfennigs in the U.S. to about
1.7740/50 marks and about one yen to 141.25/35 yen. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average slumped more than 200 points at one
stage and U.S. Treasury bonds dropped about 1-3/4 points.
   
 Reuter

    Net loss 118,000 vs loss 87,000
    Sales 1,765,000 vs 1,345,000
    Avg shrs 2,370,000 vs 1,070,000
 Reuter

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE VOLUME JUMPS TO OVER 340 MLN SHARES, PASSING DAILY RECORD

Shr 28 cts vs 41 cts
    Net 205,000 vs 229,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 86 cts vs 1.01 dlrs
    Net 622,000 vs 566,000
    NOTE: Share reflects issuance of 166,750 common shares in
 Reuter

    Net 708,197 vs 404,471
    Sales 6,592,736 vs 6,122,133
    Avg shrs 1,886,400 vs 1,648,477
 Reuter

French industrial production fell 0.95 pct in July/August from June -- INSEE data

Shr profit five cts vs profit seven cts
    Net profit 59,000 vs profit 39,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 12 cts vs loss four cts
    Net profit 92,000 vs loss 20,000
    Avg shrs 775,000 vs 548,000
 Reuter

Shr 42 cts vs 59 cts
    Net 734,659 vs 1,033,309
    Nine mths
    Shr 92 cts vs 1.69 dlrs
    Net 1,629,719 vs 2,971,144
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths net includes a loss of 290,000 dlrs on
sale of securities and nine-recurring charge of 32,713 dlrs for
write-off of FSLIC secondary reserve.
 Reuter

Crazy Eddie Inc said its board will
not oppose the slate of nominees proposed for election to the
board by the committee led by Entertainment Marketing Inc <EM>
and the <Oppenheimer-Palmieri Fund, LP.>
    Crazy Eddie said its board is not endorsing, but will
simply refrain from opposing, the EMI-Palmieri nominees.    
The board also said it will ask representatives of the
Committee to Restore Shareholder value to begin acquainting
themselves with the business and affairs of the company as
promptly as possible.
   
    To that end, the committee's representatives will be
invited in advance of the annual meeting to examine the
company's financial records, to monitor its operations and to
join company officers in meetings with the company's suppliers,
bankers and key personnel, Crazy Eddie said.
    The board said that to continue to oppose the EMI-Palmieri
group would only increase the expenses of the company, create
further uncertainty among its suppliers, customers and
employees, and result in deterioration of moral among company
    A further release from the company will follow, it said.
 Reuter

Shr 1.33 dlrs vs 90 cts
    Net 12.0 mln vs 8,180,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.63 dlrs vs 2.88 dlrs
    Net 32.9 mln vs 26.2 mln
 Reuter

SOCIETY FOR SAVINGS BANCORP INC &lt;SOCS.O&gt; 3RD QTR
    HARTFORD, Conn., Oct 19
    Shr 75 cts vs 55 cts
    Nine mths
 Reuter

Standard Products Inc said shareholders
at its annual meeting approved an increase in the company's
authorized common to 25 mln shares from 15 mln shares.
    Standard also said shareholders approved an increase in the
company's board to 12 members from 11.
    It said shareholders also voted to eliminate cumulative
vovting in the electrion of directors and autahorized the
company to enter into idemnification contracts from time to
time with directors, officers, employees and agents of the
company.
 Reuter

    Revs 8,459,182 vs 8,469,476
    Avg shrs 3,448,218 vs 3,613,672
    Nine mths
    Avg shrs 3,467,099 vs 3,612,626
 Reuter

3rd qtr
    Oper shr 27 cts vs 29 cts
    Oper net 4,926,000 vs 5,231,000
    Revs 18.5 mln vs 17.8 ln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 78 cts vs 84 cts
    Oper net 14.1 mln vs 15.3 mln
    Revs 55.0 mln vs 53.6 mln
    NOTE: Net excludes capital gains of 751,000 dlrs vs 664,000
dlrs in quarter and 5,881,000 dlrs vs 3,409,000 dlrs in nine
mths.
 Reuter

A top Iranian military official said
America's attack on an Iranian oil platform on Monday had
involved the United States in full-scale war and Iran would
avenge it with a "crushing blow."
no way get out safely," the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted the
head of Iran's war information headquarters as saying.
    The official, Kamal Kharrazi, said Washington had now
become involved in what he called a full-fledged war with Iran.
    It was the first official Iranian reaction to the attack by
four U.S. Navy destroyers on the Reshadat oil platform.
 Reuter

Tandon Computer Corp said it has
introduced  a personal computer than combines high capacity
disk storage and a new way to transfer large amounts of data.
    The company said its 386 personal computer features an
Intel Corp <INTC.0> 80386 processor running at 20 megahertz.
    The computer also features a receptacle that accommodates
Tandon's Personal Data Pac removable, Winchester disk drive,
providing a link to Tandons PAC 286 and other systems running
with its Ad-Pac subsystem.
    The computer will be available in January, 1988.
 Reuter

Shr 66 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 8,413,000 vs 6,112,000
    Sales 267.9 mln vs 230.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.20 dlrs vs 2.05 dlrs
    Net 28.1 mln 26.4 mln
    Sales 806.7 mln vs 720.7 mln
    NOTE: 1986 3rd qtr results include extraordinary loss on
extinguishment of debt of 1,482,000 dlrs or 12 cts a shr.
 Reuter

    Net 2,272,000 vs 880,000
    Revs 6,399,000 vs 5,912,000
    Chainwide sales 142.0 mln vs 126.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.07 dlrs vs 44 cts
    Net 7,369,000 vs 2,868,000
    Revs 19.1 mln vs 16.1 mln
    Chainwide sales 402.9 mln vs 357.1 mln
    Avg shrs 6,918,000 vs 6,569,000
                             
 Reuter

Granges Exploration
LTD, a mining company, said it filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for a proposed publioffering of 2,500,000
shares of its common.
    PaineWebber Inc and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc will be
co-managers of the underwriting group.
    Granges said it intends to use proceeds for general
 Reuter

    Qtly div eight cts vs eight cts
    Net 739,000 vs 157,000
    Revs 21.1 mln vs 14.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 1st qtr adjusted for five pct stock dividend
pain in March 1987.
    Qtly dividend payable December seven to shareholders or
record November nine.
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Shr loss 38 cts vs loss three cts
    Net loss 3,300,000 vs loss 205,000
    Revs 63.4 mln vs 72.1 mln
    Avg shrs 8,966,000 vs 9,741,000
    NOTE: 1986 first quarter results include 398,000 gain from
repurchase of debentures that had been discounted below market
value.
 Reuter

Kennametal Inc said second quarter,
ending December 31, earnings should show significant
improvement over the 3.5 mln dlrs, or 35 cts a share, earned in
the year earlier quarter.
    The company said this outlook is based on its optimism the
positive trand in domestic metalworking sales will continue
through its fiscal 1988.
    It reported an increase in first quarter profits to 4.9 mln
dlrs from 3.6 mln a year ago and said sale increases were
experienced in most markets with sales of domestic metalworking
products achieving the greatest gains.
 Reuter

Shr profit 30 cts vs profit three cts
    Net profit 3,933,000 vs profit 436,000
    Revs 70.4 mln vs 47.2 mln
    Avg 13.2 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 85 cts vs loss 17 cts
    Net profit 11.2 mln vs loss 2,083,000
    Revs 192.1 mln vs 144.8 mln
    Avg shrs 13.2 mln vs 12.0 mln
   
 Reuter

Federal Express Corp said that the
average daily volume of packages and documents for September
increased 26 pct over the same month in 1986.
    The total volume of packages in September increased to
17,687,000 from 14,077,000. The average daily volume of
packages increased to 842,238 from 670,333.
    For the first four months of the fiscal year, ending Sept
30, the company said its total volume of packages increased to
69,826,000 from the 54,232,000 reported during the same period
last year. The average daily volume during the period increased
to 802,598 from 638,024.
 Reuter

    Net 5,281,000 vs 3,496,000
    Revs 48.8 mln vs 32.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 51 cts
    Net 12.9 mln vs 9,822,000
    Revs 129.0 mln vs 89.2 mln
 Reuter

New York investor Martin Sosnoff said
he reduced his stake in Caesars World Inc common stock to
3,878,700 shares, or 16 pct of the company's common stock
outstanding, from about 17.4 pct.
    Sosnoff, who tried unsuccessfully to acquire Caesars World
earlier this year, said in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that he sold 338,975 Caesars World shares
on October 15 and 16 at 22.50 dlrs to 25.25 dlrs a share.
    Sosnoff said he holds his Caesars World stock "primarily
for investment purposes". He also said he reserves the right to
alter his intentions at any time.
 Reuter

Graco Inc said it expects 1987
earnings to be below last year's record level, despite higher
sales.
    The company last year earned 14.3 mln dlrs, or 2.38 dlrs a
share, on sales of 225.1 mln dlrs.
    It said its order backlog remains strong and it will
complete delivery and installation of several large auto plant
finishing systems during the fourth quarter.
    Earlier, it reported third quarter earnings of 3.1 mln
dlrs, or 54 cents a share compared with 4.4 mln dlrs, or 73
cents a share a year earlier.
 Reuter

CRAZY EDDIE INC SAYS IT WON'T OPPOSE SLATE OF ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING

    Net 1,409,551 vs 985,470
    Revs 38.4 mln vs 22.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 64 cts vs 47 cts
    Net 3,477,188 vs 2,558,625
    Revs 88.8 mln vs 63.9 mln
    NOTE: Earnings per share adjusted for 3-for-2 stock split
distributed on September 4.
 Reuter

Shr profit two cts vs loss 2.60 dlrs
    Net profit 111,000 vs loss 16.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 19 cts vs loss 2.80 dlrs
    Net profit 1,261,000 vs loss 18.1 mln
 Reuter

Shr 11 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 548,254 vs 1,138,978
    Revs 28 mln vs 31.1 mln
    Year
    Shr 50 cts vs 1.34 dlrs
    Net 2,527,846 vs 6,822,293
    Revs 111.7 mln vs 118.9 mln
    NOTE: Qtly div payable December 4 to shareholders of record
November 13.
 Reuter

About 10,000 people marched through the
Sudanese capital Monday in protest against price increases and
devaluation of the Sudanese pound.
    The march was aimed at measures agreed with the
International Monetary Fund, including devaluation of the
Sudanese pound by 44 pct and a rise in sugar and petrol prices.
    The devaluation was announced on October 3. Sudan's foreign
debt costs an estimated one billion dlrs a year to service.
 REUTER

Sept 30 end
    Shr 14 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 733,980 vcs 871,720
    Revs 14.7 mln vs 12.0 mln
    Avg shrs 5,130,190 vs 4,302,430
    Year
    Net 2,763,308 vs 2,550,133
    Revs 50.0 mln vs 43.1 mln
    Avg shrs 4,565,189 vs 4,277,046
    Fiscal 1987 net both periods includes charge 480,000 dlrs
to adjust premium reserves for workers' compensation and
liability insurance claims.
 Reuter

Shr 85 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 3,150,000 vs 2,699,000
    Sales 39.8 mln vs 34.3 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 2.19 dlrs vs 1.86 dlrs
    Net 8,109,000 vs 6,876,000
    Sales 111.5 mln vs 100.7 mln
    NOTE: 1987 tax credits added 14 cts to third quarter net
and 33 cts to nine months net compared with credits of 16 cts
and 45 cts in the respective 1986 periods.
 Reuter

Oper shr three cts vs 48 cts
    Oper net 170,000 vs 2,324,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.26 dlrs vs 1.84 dlrs
    Oper net 6,157,000 vs 8,907,000
    NOTE: Operating net excludes extraordinary gains of 231,000
dlrs, or four cts a share, vs 2,657,000 dlrs, or 55 cts a
share, in quarter and 1,341,000 dlrs, or 28 cts a share, vs
4,637,000 dlrs, or 95 cts a share, in the nine months
 Reuter

Perry Drug Stores Inc said Donald
Fox has resigned from the board of directors, effective
    Fox, a board director since 1971, said he was resigning
because of new business interests, the company reported. Fox
left Perry as president and chief operating officer in January
and was recently appointed president of Beauty Brands Group, a
distributor based in Southfield, Mich., the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 48 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 4,946,000 vs 3,552,000
    Sales 94.1 mln vs 84.5 mln
    Avg shrs 10.2 mln vs 10.1 mln
 Reuter

completed tests of the Nucell-50 radio isotope generating
system, known as a resonant nuclear battery, designed to
produce up to 50 kilowatts of AC electricity.
    The Nucell-50, developed by privately-held <Nucell Inc>,
converts the natural decay of radioactive materials directly
into electricity whout a nuclear reaction or fission process,
    Peripheral said it entered into a previously announced
agreement to acquire Nucell, subject to shareholder approval,
and has been providing research funds and engineering to it.
    The merger calls for an unspecified amount of stock to be
paid for Nucell, the company said.
    The Nucell-50 unit, which measures 12 inches by 15 inches
and weighs less than 50 pounds, can operate continuously for
many years, the company said.
    The device uses a small amount of radioactive material,
which can be shielded for consumer use, the company said.
    Initial funding of the Nucell research and development was
provided by individuals, many of whom were officers and
directors of Peripheral, the company said.
 Reuter

Oper shr profit four cts vs profit 13 cts
    Oper net profit 456,000 vs profit 1,633,000
    Revs 37.8 mln vs 34.0 mln
    Avg shrs 13.0 mln vs 13.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr profit 12 cts vs loss 39 cts
    Oper net profit 1,614,000 vs loss 4,877,000
    Revs 109.2 mln vs 88.3 mln
    Avg shrs 13.1 mln vs 12.5 mln
    NOTE: 1987 net excludes tax credits of 156,000 dlrs in
quarter and 716,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    1987 net both perioods includes charge one mln dlrs from
restructuring of Computer Products Division.
 Reuter

The Senate Agriculture Committee was
expected to consider proposals that would limit adjustments in
county loan rate differentials which trigger larger corn and
wheat acreage reduction requirements, Senate staff said.
    A budget-saving proposal drafted by chairman Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt) would limit adjustments in county loan rate
differentials to no more than one pct per year from the
national average loan rate, starting with 1988 crops.
    The plan also would allow the Agriculture Secretary to
increase the unpaid acreage reduction requirement for corn by
"an appropriate amount to generate savings" if projected corn
stocks exceeded 6.0 billion bushels.
    Leahy's proposal would also allow a larger 1988 wheat set
aside if projected stocks surpassed 1.9 billion bushels.
 Reuter

Shr profit five cts vs loss one ct
    Net profit 504,000 vs loss 102,000
    Revs 31.4 mln vs 32.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 17 cts vs profit 26 cts
    Net profit 1,729,000 vs profit 2,596,000
    Revs 92.7 mln vs 112.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 3rd qtr net includes a after-tax charge of
555,000 dlrs for sale of Reliacare Inc.
   
    1986 nine mths net includes charge of 1,253,000 dlrs or 12
cts a share for sale of Reliacare and Inspiron Hospital
Products division.
    1986 nine mths net also includes aftertax earnings of
2,256,000 dlrs or 22 dlrs a share for American Medical
International Inc <AMI> contracts which expired July 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY USE RATE 81.2 PCT IN SEPTEMBER, UNCHANGED FROM AUGUST

California Micro Devices said it
signed a memorandum of understanding with Telefonica to
establish a joint venture to make integrated circuits for the
Western European market.
    Telefonica is the national telephone company of Spain.
    Under the pact, the companies will design, develop, make 
and market application specific integrated circuits, thin film
resistor networks and non-impact printhead substrates.
    California Micro will contribute about two mln dlrs of its
equity in the venture. Telefonics will invest five mln dlrs in
California Micro common stock.
  
 Reuter

The coupon on <Healthvest>'s 40 mln Swiss
franc seven-year subordinated convertible bond was set at 4-1/2
pct and not at the four pct indicated, lead manager S.G.
Warburg Soditic SA said.
    The issue, announced by the Texan company on October 12, 
is priced at par. Its conversion price was set at 23 dlrs
during the first three years and 21-3/4 dlrs during the last
four years, with the exchange rate fixed at 1.47 francs per
dlr.
    Bonds held until maturity will be redeemed at 116.43 pct
for a 6-1/2 pct annual yield. Subscriptions close on October
28.
 REUTER

Shr 1.22 dlrs
    Net 27.8 mln vs 28.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.88 dlrs
    Net 87.4 mln vs 98.7 mln
    Assets 10.3 billion vs 8.4 billion
    Deposits 7.4 billion vs 6.7 billion
    Loans 7.9 billion vs 6.0 billion
    NOTE: Full name is Dime Savings Bank of New York. 1986 per
share figures not available as bank converted to stock form in
    1987 qtr and nine mths includes gain 10.5 mln dlrs and 33.2
mln dlrs, respectively, from utilization of net operating loss
carryforwards. 1986 qtr and nine mths includes gain 10.4 mln
dlrs and 32.9 mln dlrs, respectively, from utilization of net
operating loss carryforwards. 1987 qtr and nine mths also
includes charge of 835,000 dlrs for the early extinguishment of
debt net of tax benefit.
 Reuter

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) said in
a statement it granted Finland's state-owned oil company Neste
Oy <Neoy.He> a one hundred million German mark loan to acquire
shares in Sweden's OK Petroleum AB.
    Neste is buying one quarter of the shares in the Swedish
company, whose other shareholders are the Swedish State and a
federation of oil consumers.
    Over 60 pct of the NIB's loans this year have involved the
energy sector.
 REUTER

Two congressmen urged President Reagan
to to call congressional leaders to a domestic economic summit
to settle budget and trade matters they said contributed to the
stock market fall.
    Noting the nosediving New York Stock Exchange, Rep David
Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat and former chairman of the
Congressional Economic Committee, said "for the last five years
this economic recovery has been running on borrowed money and
borrowed time."
    In another House speech, Democrat Donald Pease of Ohio said
a domestic economic summit was "desperately needed."
 Reuter

Robert Halmi Inc said it and Hal Roach
Studios Inc signed a definitive agreement to merge in a stock
swap value at 115 mln dlrs, based on October 16 closing prices.
    The company said the agreement calls for the holders of
common stock in Hal Roach to exchange their shares on a
one-for-one basis for shares in the combined company.
    It said holders of Robert Halmi common will exchange their
shares on a two-and-one-half-for-one basis for shares in the
combined company.
    The company said the swap will be tax-free.
    The company also said <Qintex Ltd>, a 35 pct owner of Hal
Roach common stock, has agreed to use the company as the
exclusive vehicle for its U.S. media and entertainment
investments, the company said.
    The company said Qintex's U.S. subsidiary also agreed to
supply a minimum 70 mln dlrs line of credit to the new company,
which shall be used, with Qintex approval, for financing new
HRI products.
    The company said that under the definitive agreement,
Qintex's U.S. division will have the right to purchase up to 51
pct of the new company in the open market, in private
transactions or by tender offer, but will not be purchasing
warrants to bring its ownership to 51 pct of the new company.
    If Qintex's U.S. subsidiary has not achieved this ownership
within one year after the completion of the merger, the
subsidiary will have the right two years thereafter to request
that HRI commence a rights offering to HRI stockholders, the
    Regarding the potential rights offering, Qintex's U.S.
subsidiary will act as standby purchaser, the company said.
    The transaction is subject to the approval of both
company's shareholders, the receipt of certain tax approvals,
and the continued employement of Robert Halmi Sr and Robert
Halmi Jr, the company said.
    Robert Halmi Sr, who is currently chairman and chief
executive officer of Robert Halmi Inc, will be chairman of the
new company and David Evans, current president and chief
operating officer of Hal Roach, will become chief executive,
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Shr 32 cts vs 32 cts
    Net 2,990,000 vs 2,988,000
    Sales 57.3 mln vs 54.6 mln
 Reuter

System Software Associates Inc said it
completed its previously-announced acquisition of Admin EDP Pty
Ltd for cash and a small amount of stock.
    Admin EDP, of Sydney, Australia, is a full-service software
sales and services firm.
 Reuter

Shr 54 cts vs 73 cts
    Net 3,080,000 vs 4,367,000
    Sales 59.6 mln vs 55.6 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.44 dlrs vs 1.81 dlrs
    Net 8,526,000 vs 10,857,000
    Sales 172.4 mln vs 167.0 mln
    Backlog 34 mln dlrs vs 29 mln dlrs
    NOTE: 1986 period ended September 26
 Reuter

Shr 55 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 2,520,000 vs 2,211,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.57 dlrs vs 1.41 dlrs
    Net 7,223,000 vs 6,475,000
 Reuter

Shr 19 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 826,362 vs 421,759
    Revs 19.0 mln vs 14.8 mln
    Avg shrs 4,400,000 vs 2,900,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr 48 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 1,872,075 vs 887,478
    Revs 51.6 mln  41.1 mln
    Avg shrs 3,889,000 vs 2,900,000
    Note: Full name Countrywide Transport Services Inc.
 Reuter

Shr four cts vs five cts
    Net 85,292 vs 109,285
    Revs 2,916,128 vs 474,819
 Reuter

A. Schulman Inc said its board
declared a special dividend of 10 cents per share, payable
November 23 to holders of record November 9.
    The company also said its board authorized the spending of
15 mln dlrs for a new warehouse and plant in West Germany
adjacent to its present location there.
    It said the board also authorized the spending of 1,700,000
dlrs to provide additional warehouse, laboratory and office
space at its Belgian facility.
 Reuter

Shr 85 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 25.8 mln vs 21.9 mln
    Avg shrs 29.0 mln vs 27.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.22 dlrs vs 2.14 dlrs
    Net 67.9 mln vs 60.1 mln
    Avg shrs 29.0 mln vs 26.5 mln
    NOTE: Previously reoprted amounts restated for earnings of
First NorthWest Bancorp acquired in pooling of interests on
July 31, 1987.
 Reuter

Oper shr 1.02 dlrs vs 82 cts
    Oper net 174 mln vs 149 mln
    Revs 2.7 billion vs 2.4 billion
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 2.54 dlrs vs 2.64 dlrs
    Oper net 438 mln vs 492 mln
    Revs 8.2 billion vs 7.4 billion
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths includes after-tax 82 mln
dlr or 49 cts a share gain for increase in equity of Union
Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc, for initial public offering.
   
    1987 nine mths net includes after-tax gain of 73 mln dlrs
or 42 cts a share on sale of remaining interest in the Henley
Group Inc and other related transactions, which was partly
offset by an after-tax loss of 30 mln dlrs ot 17 cts a share
for repurchase of high coupon bonds.
    1987 nine mths also excludes 79 mln dlrs for estimated net
gain on disposal of discontinued operations as of March 31,
1987, including Linotype Group, Amphenol Products, Ampex Corp.
    1986 amounts restated to exclude sales and expenses of
   
    1986 3rd qtr and nine mths oper net excludes operating
income of 15 mln dlrs and and 44 mln dlrs for discontinued
    1986 nine mths includes a 43 mln dlrs or 24 cts a share
after tax gain for reversion of surplus pension funds.
    At end of 1987 and 1986 third quarter, average shares
outstanding were 169.9 mln and 175.4 mln outstanding, after
deducting dividends accured on preferred stock. At end of 1987
and 1986 nine mth period, average shares were 172.5 mln and
175.9, respectively, after deducting for preferred stock
 Reuter

Corby Distilleries Ltd said it has
agreed to buy Toronto-based McGuinness Distillers Ltd from
Heublein Inc for about 45 mln dlrs in a move which Corby
expects to add significantly to domestic earnings.
     Heublin is a subsidiary of Grand Metropolitan PLC
(GMHL.L).
     Corby said McGuinness will remain a seperate business unit
with a seperate sales force.
     McGuinness markets liquers, brandy, and other liquors and
has entered the fast-expanding wine cooler market, Corby said.
     Corby said it expects to benefit from McGuinness's
succesfull introduction of schnapps and coolers and its
strength in traditional market sectors.       
     Heublein said the sale does not include McGuinness's
Calona Wines Ltd, a Canadian wine company.
     Heublein said it is will still be represented in Canada by
Gilbey Canada Inc. reuter
 Reuter

    Net 1,538,000 vs 1,288,000
    Sales 35.3 mln vs 29.5 mln
    Nine Mths
    Shr 27 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 2,601,000 vs 3,586,000
    Sales 102.0 mln vs 84.2 mln
 Reuter

Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 66 dlrs
    Net 38.2 mln vs 20.1 mln
    Revs 419.1 mln vs 333.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.50 dlrs vs 1.74 dlrs
    Net 107.7 mln vs 53 mln
    Revs 1.2 billion vs 940 mln
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 26 cts
    Net 6,150,000 vs 4,743,000
    Revs 61.4 mln vs 49.5 mln
    Shr 89 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 16 mln vs 11.8 mln
    Revs 170 mln vs 137.5 mln
    NOTE: All share and per share data have been adjusted to
reflect 100 pct stock dividend distrition on April 24, 1987 and
the public offier of two mln shares ofthe company on June 4,
1986.
 Reuter

Shr 63 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 5,635,000 vs 4,330,000
    Sales 117.8 mln vs 96.2 mln
    Year
    Shr 2.21 dlrs vs 1.71 dlrs
    Net 19.8 mln vs 15.2 mln
    Sales 465.1 mln vs 388.5 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for February 1987 three-for-two split.
    Prior year results restated.
 Reuter

Marathon Petroleum Company, a subsidiary
of USX Corp, said it lowered posted prices for crude oil by 50
cts with an effective date of October 16.
    The increase brings posted prices for West Texas
Intermediate and West Texas Sour to 19.00 dlrs a barrel each.
South Louisiana Sweet was increased to 19.35 dlrs a barrel.
    Several indepndent oil companies such as Permian Corp and
Coastal Corp <CGP> said they had moved prices up effective last
Friday the day Sun Co <SUN> announced a 50 cts a barrel
increase to 19.00 dlrs a barrel.
 Reuter

expects fourth quarter profits to exceed the 4.7 mln dlrs
reported for the third quarter and net income for the full year
will be about equal to or slightly exceed 1986's profit before
extraordinary items of 20.6 mln dlrs.
    For the first nine months, Anchor reported operating
profits of 16.2 mln dlrs, down from 17.8 mln dlrs in 1986.
    It said third quarter profits, which dropped from 8.3 mln
dlrs a year earlier, "were on target with management's earlier
expectations".
    The company had previously said it expected the August 13
purchase of Diamond-Bathurst Inc to reduce third quarter
earnings.
    It said third quarter earnings were also reduced by about
800,000 dlrs, or six cents a share, by a year-to-date revision
in the estimated annual effective tax rate as a result of the
 Reuter

USX Corp said its USS division and
Inland Steel Corp are continuing to pursue plans to construct a
plant devoted to the continuous pre-painting of steel coils.
    The company said the proposed facility will primarily serve
the appliance market and will have a capacity of 250,000 to
300,000 tons yearly.
    The company said a location for the new plant has not been
    Seperately, USX said it and Inland have been unable to
reach agreement with <Worldmark Corp> regarding terms of a
previously announced arrangement for prepainting steel coils.
 Reuter

Sept 30 end
    Primary 76 cts vs 51 cts
    Diluted shr 70 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 2,802,000 vs 2,030,000
    Revs 124.9 mln vs 117.2 mln
    Primary avg shrs 3,687,000 vs 4,016,000
    Diluted avg shrs 4,786,000 vs 5,101,000
 Reuter

Shr 24 cts vs 15 cts
    Net 24,057,000 vs 14,508,000
    Revs 156.1 mln vs 111.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 63 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 63,183,000 vs 36,464,000
    Revs 405.0 mln vs 295.8 mln
 Reuter

Monsanto Co said sales of its
Nutrasweet artificial sweetener fell slightly in the third
quarter due to a continuing decline in usage by the powdered
soft drink market.
    "It doesn't look as if there is going to be any improvement
in the powdered soft drink sector," said Donna Smith, a
Monsanto spokeswoman.
    The company reported third quarter sales of 1.90 billion
dlrs from 1.69 billion a year earlier. Nutrasweet sales fell to
177 mln from 179 mln a year earlier, it said.
    A growing market for diet sodas, about 90 pct of which use
Nutrasweet, offset much of the sales loss, said Monsanto chief
economist Nick Filippello.
    Prospects remain strong in the diet soda market, Filippello
said, since industry analysts predict diet carbonated soft
drinks will hold about 28 pct of the soda market by year's end,
up from 25 pct in 1986.
    That market, coupled with increased usage of Nutrasweet in
such items as frozen desserts, should result in a 10 pct
increase in consumer consumption of the sweetener in 1987,
Filippello said.
    Monsanto spokeswoman Donna Smith refused to comment on the
company's pricing policies for Nutrasweet.
    However, Filippello said it was fair to assume that
Monsanto priced Nutrasweet at a lower rate for the diet soda
market.
    Nutrasweet sales have been falling since the fourth quarter
of 1986 when medical studies raised questions about its
possible side effects, such as migraine headaches.
    Monsanto acquired G.D. Searle and Co, Nutrasweet's maker in
1986.
 Reuter

MARATHON RAISED CRUDE POSTED PRICES BY 50 CTS A BARREL EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 16.

Oper shr 70 cts vs 18 cts
    Oper net 39.1 mln vs 10.0 mln
    Sales 543.6 mln vs 489.6 mln
    Year
    Oper shr 2.83 dlrs vs 1.82 dlrs
    Oper net 159.7 mln vs 106.9 mln
    Sales 2.13 billion vs 1.94 billion
    Avg shrs 56.4 mln vs 58.6 mln
    NOTE: Results restated for discontinued engineering
services operations.
    Prior year net excludes losses from discontinued operations
of 143,000 dlrs in quarter and 102,156 dlrs in year.
    Fiscal 1987 year net excludes 4,081,000 dlr charge from
early debt retirement.
    Fiscal 1986 net includes special charges 24.7 mln dlrs in
quarter and 37.2 mln dlrs in year from worgroce reduction
costs, revaluation of South African investment, reversal of
investment tax credits and othe4r items.
 Reuter

(LDP) on Tuesdayhose former Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita
to be the next prime minister, replacing Yasuhiro Nakasone
whose term ends on October 30.
    LDP officials told Reuters the choice was made by Nakasone
after Takeshita and two other contenders failed in marathon
closed-door meetings to agree who should be Japan's next
leader.
    They were vying for the presidency of the LDP, a post which
automatically carries with it the premiership by virtue of the
party's parliamentary majority.
 Reuter

The Louvre accord on currency stability,
which has maintained an uneasy calm in currency markets since
last February, appeared in serious danger today as a
transatlantic dispute over West German interest rates came to
the boil, foreign exchange dealers said.
    But as the dollar slid against the mark and world stock and
bond markets plunged, officials in the major industrial
countries played down the dispute as a bilateral problem
between the United States and West Germany and insisted that
the currency pact was still alive.
    U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker sparked the market
fears when he attacked the rise in West German short-term
interest rates. "That's not in keeping with the spirit of what
we agreed to as recently as earlier this month in Washington,"
Baker said in a U.S. Television interview on Sunday. He was
referring to the meetings of Finance Ministers from the Group
of Seven (G7) leading industrial nations which reaffirmed the
pact.
    Under the Louvre Accord West Germany and Japan, who both
have large trade surpluses, pledged to boost their economic
growth to take in more exports from the U.S., While the U.S.
Agreed to stop talking the dollar down.
    However, Baker said on Saturday that while the Louvre
agreement was still operative, the West German interest rate
move would force the U.S. To re-examine the accord.
    "The foreign exchange market has been told by Baker that
he's going to hammer Germany ... He has just declared all bets
are off in terms of currency cooperation," Chris Johns, currency
analyst at UBS-Phillips and Drew in London said.
    But a Bank of Japan official took a much more sanguine
view, telling Reuters that "the exchange market is apparently
reacting too much, and anyone who sold the dollar on the Baker
comment will regret it later on."
    French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur, who hosted the
Louvre meeting, was the only one of the G7 Finance Ministers to
respond directly to Baker's remarks. He called for "a faithful
and firm adherence by all the major industrial countries to the
Louvre accords -- in both their letter and spirit."
    Neither the West German Finance Ministry nor the British
Treasury commented on the row.
    But a Japanese Finance Ministry official said that despite
U.S. Frustration over higher interest rates abroad, "this does
not represent its readiness to scrap the basic framework of the
Louvre Accord."
    In Frankfurt F. Wilhelm Christians, joint chief executive
of West Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, said that
following recent meetings with Baker, he believed that the U.S.
Was still committed to the accord.
    In a move which the market interpreted as a possible
gesture of reconciliation, the Bundesbank added short-term
liquidity to the West German money market at 3.80 pct on
Monday, down from the 3.85 pct level at which it injected
medium-term liquidity last week. The Bank of France also
stepped into the French money market to hold down rates,
injecting short-term liquidity at 7-3/4 pct after rates rose
close to eight pct.
 Reuter

Northview Corp said it reached
an agreement in principal covering the acquisition of the
company by privately-held Calmark Financial Corp.
    The agreement calls for Northview to make a self-tender
offer for all of its outstanding stock at a price of 22 dlrs
    Calmark, headquartered in Los Angeles, develops, manages
and syndicates real estate, Northview also said.
 Reuter

Logicon Inc said it received a
three-mln-dlr modification to its contract to develop cruise
missile simulation systems for the U.S. Air Force.
    The company said the modification brings the contract to
12.6 mln dlrs.
    In addition, a separate 500,000-dlr option may be exercised
after the basic simulation systems and software simulation are
delivered in September, 1988, it said.
 Reuter

The Bundesbank will not hold a news
conference after its regular fortnightly central bank council
meeting on Thursday, a spokesman said in answer to enquiries.
    The council is meeting in West Berlin, where it meets once
a year. It also meets once a year in another German city. These
meetings outside Frankfurt are traditionally followed by a news
conference. The spokesman declined to comment further.
    In Bonn a finance ministry spokesman said Finance Minister
Gerhard Stoltenberg would take part in the meeting in West
Berlin. His participation was arranged long ago, he added.
 REUTER

Shr 80 cts vs 70 cts
    Shr diluted 76 cts vs 67 cts
    Qtly div 33 cts vs 33 cts prior
    Net 7,879,000 vs 7,007,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.33 dlrs vs 2.01 dlrs
    Shr diluted 2.22 dlrs vs 1.92 dlrs
    Net 23.0 mln vs 20.0 mln
    Avg shrs 9,890,148 vs 10.0 mln
    NOTE: Dividend pay Dec 10, record Nov 20.
 Reuter

CORBY DISTILLERIES LTD TO BUY HEUBLEIN'S MCGINNESS DISTILLERS FOR 45 MLN CANADIAN DLRS

Aug 31
    Shr loss 34 cts vs profit 39 cts
    Net loss 2,337,000 vs profit 2,532,000
    Revs 66.1 mln vs 58.5 mln
    Avg shrs 7,166,000 vs 6,763,000
    12 months
    Shr profit 26 cts vs loss 1.20 dlrs
    Net profit 1,815,000 vs loss 7,927,000
    Revs 264.3 mln vs 229.7 mln
    Avg shrs 7,005,000 vs 6,621,000
    NOTE: Results include pretax restructuring provisions of
4.2 mln dlrs and 22.5 mln dlrs for 1987 and 1986, respectively.
 Reuter

government securities market to arrange three-day system
repurchase agreements, a spokesman for the New York Fed said.
    Federal funds were trading at 7-5/8 pct at the time of the
 Reuter

Shr profit three cts vs profit one ct
    Net profit 129,082 vs profit 36,099
    Revs 3,864,187 vs 1,875,919
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss six cts vs profit two cts
    Net loss 303,581 vs profit 110,311
    Revs 9,517,242 vs 5,248,105
    NOTE: Prior qtr and nine mth figures include extraordinarycredits of 15,000 dlrs and 48,000 dlrs, respectively.
 Reuter

A shareholder group led by Barris
Industries Inc <BRSS.O> said it acquired a 9.8 pct stake in
Media General Inc Class A common stock and may seek seek
contorl of the company.
the group said it holds 2,711,000 shares of Media General
commons stock purchased at a total cost of about 108.3 mln
dlrs.
    In addition to the possible bid for control, the group said
it may purchase additional Media General shares or possibly
seek one or more seats on the company's board of directors
through a proxy contest.
    A bid for control of Media General would be subject to "a
recapitalization or possible restructuring and to possible
changes in the charter documents and by-laws of the company,"
it said.
    The group said it had held discussions with third parties
to gauge their interest in joining the shareholder group, but
no agreements were reached.
    Talks with third parties are expected to continue, the
shareholder group said.
    Between October 13 and 16, Barris Industries bought
1,322,200 shares of Media General Class A common stock 42.50
dlrs to 45.50 dlrs a share in open market transactions, and
another 12,000 shares privately.
 Reuter

Gould Inc said it named
Conrad Wredberg president and general manager of its
Semiconducto[Br Division, based in Santa Clara, Calif.
    Wredberg, formerly senior vice president of operations of
the division, succeeds Robert Penn. Penn was named vice
president of the Materials and Components Business Section, the
 Reuter

RKO General Inc, a unit of GenCorp
Inc, said it asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
to reverse a preliminary ruling by an agency hearing officer
and let it keep its 14 broadcast licenses.
    The FCC hearing officer had recommended that all 14 of
RKO's licenses be revoked.
    "If the decision is allowed to stand, it will destroy our
right to broadcast," said William Reynolds, GenCorp chairman, in
a printed statement. "The decision was based on allegations of
misconduct that are either in error or have no bearing on our
fitness as a broadcaster."
 Reuter

S-K-I Ltd and <Goldmine Ski
Associates Inc> said they reached an agreement calling for
S-K-I to buy Goldmine's California ski area for approximately
10 mln dlrs.
    S-K-I, which owns Killlington and Mount Snow ski resorts in
Vt., said the California ski area is located in the San
Bernardino mountains.
    The company said it plans to invest approximately 10 mln
dlrs into the ski area in the next few years.
 Reuter

Westin Hotels and Resorts, a subsidiary
of Allegis Corp, said it will hold a press conference on
October 21 near San Francisco to discuss the pending sale of
the 61-hotel chain by Allegis.
    Allegis has said that it plans to sell Westin buyt has not
announced that a deal has been set.
 Reuter

Mining group Boliden AB said it had
agreed with Saudi state agency General Petroleum and Mineral
Organisation (Petromin) to open a gold mine in Saudi Arabia to
exploit one of the world's richest deposits of the metal.
    Boliden spokesman Goran Paulson told Reuters the Swedish
group would  be responsible for the technical side of the
operation and would have no control over the product itself.
    He said one option under discussion for refining the gold
ore would be to ship it to Boliden's Ronnskar copper smelter in
northern Sweden.
    Paulson declined to give a figure for the deal but said it
was strategically important since it increased Boliden's
presence in Saudi Arabia.
    "Representatives from Petromin have visited Ronnskar
already...We see Saudi Arabia as the expansion area of the
future," he said.
    The new mine, which is being developed at Mahd adh Dhahab
in the west of the country and should open in the first half of
1988, would have an annual output of about 3,000 kilos of gold
smelted from around 120,000 tons of ore, he said.
    Boliden already owns 50 pct of a gold ore deposit in Saudi
Arabia, but the new venture will be the first Saudi mine to
open in modern times.
    "This is a breakthrough for Boliden's sales of mining
technology and knowhow," said the group's chief executive, Kjell
Nilsson.
 Reuter

Machines Corp said it and NYNEX Corp agreed to participate in
an Integrated Services Digital Network field trial scheduled to
begin in April 1988.
    The company said the trial is designed to aid in the
development of international standards for Integrated Services
interfaces that connect telecommunications networks to display
terminals and other devices.
    Integrated Services Digital Network permits the
simultaneous transmission of voice, data, and garphics through
a single communications interface, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr profit 32 cts vs profit nine cts
    Net profit 413,000 vs profit 63,000
    Avg shrs 1,278,360 vs 728,476
    Nine Mths
    Shr profit 68 cts vs loss 57 cts
    Net profit 708,000 vs loss 415,000
    Avg shrs 1,041,697 vs 728,476
 Reuter

    Pay Nov 16
 Reuter

Cal Fed Income Partners L.P. said it
has acquired two shopping centers for a total price of 18.4 mln
dlrs.
    The company said it bought Best Plaza Shopping Center in
Pleasanton, Calif., For 12 mln dlrs and Bristol Place Shopping
Center in Santa Ana, Calif., for 16.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 1.05 dlrs vs 74 cts
    Net 5,244,000 vs 3,684,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr 2.93 dlrs vs 2.14 dlrs
    Net 14.6 mln vs 10.6 mln
 Reuter

Advanced Viral Research Corp said that its
annual shareholders meeting has been rescheduled for November
12 from September 14.
    The company said the rescheduling was made to meet
Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. It did not
 Reuter

Shr loss primary 82 cts vs profit 15 cts
    Shr loss diluted 82 cts vs 13 cts
    Net loss 4,134,000 vs profit 649,000
    Avg shrs 5,030,000 vs 3,927,000
    Nine Mths
    Shr loss primary 80 cts vs profit 37 cts
    Shr loss diluted 80 cts vs 32 cts
    Net loss 3,615,000 vs profit 1,652,000
    Avg shrs 4,557,000 vs 3,927,000
    Loans 231.2 mln vs 221.5 mln
    Deposits 323.3 mln vs 281.9 mln
    Assets 368.3 mln vs 346.5 mln
    Note: Prior qtr and nine mth figures include operating loss
carryforward gains of 105,000 dlrs, or two cts per share and
195,000 dlrs, or four cts per share, respectively.
 Reuter

Shamrock Capital L.P, a limited
partnership led by Shamrock Holdings Inc, said it completed its
sale of Central Soya Co Inc to Ferruzzi Agricola Finanziaria of
Italy.
    Under terms of the sale agreement, which was announced on
September 15, Ferruzzi acquired all the equity in Central Soya
and assumed subordinated term debt of about 195 mln dlrs in a
transaction valued at about 370 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 1.02 dlrs vs 96 cts
    Net 55.6 mln vs 53.2 mln
    Revs 1.3 billion vs 1.2 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.13 dlrs vs 2.88 dlrs
    Net 171.3 mln vs 159.0 mln
    Revs 3.8 billion vs 3.5 billion
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths includes one time
after-tax charge of 14.3 mln dlrs or 26 cts a share for
previously announced anticipated sale in the fourth quarter of
an investment in Equatorial Communications Co.
    1986 amounts restated, increasing net by four cts a share,
for change in pension expense accounting.
    Backlog on September 30, 1987 was 9.3 billion dlrs, which
company said was a record.
 Reuter

The West German government assumes that the
commitment to international monetary cooperation which was
renewed in Washington last month will continue, a Finance
Ministry spokesman quoted Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg
as saying.
    Stoltenberg's statement was a reaction to criticism of
rises in West German interest rates voiced by U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker over the weekend.
 Reuter

Wang Laboratories Inc announced four
additions to its VS line of minicomputers which it said will
offer double the capacity of the older models they replace.
    Company officials told a news conference that Wang will
also announce new entry level and high end computers within the
next 12 months and a family of powerful work stations by the
    Ian Diery, Wang's senior vice president of U.S. operations,
said the new models are lower priced than comparable computers
from Digital Equipment Corp <DEC>, the world's largest maker of
minicomputers.
   
    Minicomputers are medium sized machines usually used within
a department or work group of a larger company and typically
cost between 10,000 and 500,000 dlrs.
    The VS 5E will replace Wang's entry level VS 5. Priced at
13,000 dlrs, it can support up to 16 users, double the eight
supported by the five and has three times the disc capacity of
the older system.
    The VS 6E can support up to 32 users, double the capacity
of the model six it replaces, and has three times the storage
capacity of the older model. The 6E is priced at 22,000 dlrs.
   
    The VS 75E, which replaces the 65, can support 64 users, 60
pct more than the older model and has twice the main memory
capacity. It is priced at 44,000 dlrs.
    The new VS 7010, which acts as an entry level system for
Wang's more powerful 7000 family of minicomputers, can support
between 30 and 55 users. It is priced at 75,000 dlrs.
    All the new systems are now available, Diery said.
    Bob Ano, Wang's senior vice president of corporate
marketing, said that before the end of the company's fiscal
year on June 30 it will introduce an entry level computer that
will have four times the power of the 5E introduced today.
   
    Within the next 12 to 18 months, he said, Wang will
announce a more powerful high-end machine that will offer
double the price/performance of its 7000 series.
    Ano said the new family of work stations planned for this
year will have a 32-bit semiconductor and be able to support
the industry standard MS-DOS and UNIX operating systems.
 Reuter

Chairman David Ruder said a brief trading halt has been
discussed as one way of restoring order to the stock market,
but stressed he is not recommending one at present.
    Speaking to reporters, Ruder said he has been in frequent
contact with New York Stock Exchange Chairman John Phelan about
the market's record drop today.
    "I'm not afraid to say that there is some point, and I
don't know what that point is, that I would be quite anxious to
talk to the New York Stock Exchange about a very temporary halt
in trading," Ruder said.
    Ruder, who spoke to reporters after addressing an American
Stock Exchange-sponsored investors' conference here, said that
the SEC does not have the legal authority to order a trading
halt.
    Any trading halt, which would probably last no more than a
half-hour, would have to be approved by the stock exchanges,
Ruder said.
 Reuter

Circle Fine Art Corp said it completed an
exclusive license agreement with the Seiyoken Group of Toyko to
open Circle Galleries in Japan.
    The first Circle Gallery is to open in Tokyo in ealry 1988,
with additional Circle Galleries planned, the company said.
    The license agreement is Circle Fine Art's second expansion
outside the U.S. this year. Earlier this year, it formed a
joint venture company in Canada.
 Reuter

BARRIS IND. SAYS IT LEADS GROUP WITH 9.8 PCT OF MEDIA GENERAL, MAY SEEK CONTROL

    Net loss 69.0 mln vs profit 3,682,000
    Revs 258.3 mln vs 229.6 mln
    Six mths
    Shr loss 58.8 mln vs profit 13.3 mln
    Revs 517.9 mln vs 466.5 mln
    NOTE: Company recently spun off from Carter Hawley Hale
Stores Inc <CHH>. Current year net both periods includes 40.8
mln dlrs in pretax charges from Carter Hawley Hale
 Reuter

<Sea Gold Oil Corp> 
said it has agreed to a private-placement financing of 400,000
common shares of its unissued capital stock with Gulf
International Minerals Ltd <GIM.V> at 50 cts per share to raise
200,000 dlrs Canadian.
    The company said one of the conditions of the placement was
the granting of a first right of refusal to Gulf in the event
that the company should choose to enter into a joint-venture
agreement on any of its mineral claims currently held in the
Skyline area.
   
    If Gulf should sell any of the 400,000 shares, the first
right of refusal will be null and void, the company said.
    Proceeds will be used for the continued exploration and
development of the Sea Gold's mining properties.
 Reuter

Igene Biotechnology Inc said it
terminated its license agreement with Hercules Inc <HPC> for
the manufacture of Igene's natural food preservative and mold
inhibitor.
    It said the cancellation agreed to by both companies.
    Igene said its Weyco-Serv product was licensed to Hercules
in September 1985.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Igene regains all rights,
title and interest in its proprietary microorganisms, process
and product and will repay out of future products sales certain
   
    The cancellation of the contract allows Igene to proceed
with plans to produce NaturServ, a modified version of
Weyco-Serv, the company said. The new product is expected to be
available early next year, Igene said.
    The company also said it plans to build a new multiproduct
fermentation plant to meet anticipated demand for NaturServ and
other company natural products.
    Both Weyco-Serv and NaturServ contain high concentrations
of acid salts that naturally inhibit spoilage and molding, the
 Reuter

Arizona Silver Corp
said diamond drilling on its Burro Creek Mine Property, located
65 miles southeast of Kingman, Ariz., has begun.
    The company said a report indicated that the Burro Creek
project area which covers 800 acres, could have potential
reserves of three to four mln tons of gold and silver
mineralization.
    Drill sites have been established and a diamond drilling
program consisting of an initial 5,000 feet of drilling began
October 13, the company said.
 Reuter

Shr 50 cts vs 35 cts
    Net 42.7 mln vs 29.9 mln
    Revs 236.5 mln vs 218.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 1.02 dlrs
    Net 105.8 mln vs 86.9 mln
    Revs 702.5 mln vs 642.5 mln
    NOTE: 1987 nine-month earnings include nonrecurring gain of
nine cents a share from sale of the company's Data Card
 Reuter

<Household Mortgage Corp> said it has
arranged a 200 mln dlr commercial paper program in the U.S.,
For which Goldman Sachs and Co will be the sole dealer.
    The program will be backed by a letter of credit from
Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp.
    The program also is supported by a multiple option facility
arranged in the Euromarkets in August.
 REUTER

Transamerica Insurance Group, the
main property-liability insurance operation of Transamerica
Corp, said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire a
newly-formed insurer, Commerical Risk Underwriters Insurance
Co, from <Clarendon Group Ltd>.
    Transamerica said the unit, which will be renamed
Transamerica Reinsurance Co, will initially be capitalized at
about 185 mln dlrs.
    Transamerica said the acquisition represents its first move
into specialty treaty reinsurance.
    The company said about 28 members of Clarendon will join
Transamerica as part of the acquisition, which is expected to
close in November and is subject to various regulatory
 Reuter

Kong-based Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd, said it acquired
969,515 shares of Triton Oil Corp common stock, or 5.4 pct of
the company's common stock outstanding.
    Industrial Equity (Pacific), which is controlled by
Brierley Investments Ltd <BRYW.WE> and which has applied with
U.S. antitrust regulators to buy up to 50 pct of Triton's
common stock, said the current 5.4 pct stake was acquired for
    The company said it informed Triton of its present "good
faith intention" to buy more than 15 mln dlrs worth of Triton
stock.
    It said it also told Triton it "may depending on market
conditions acquire 50 pct or more and possibly 100 pct of the
voting securities of (Triton)."
    It said it received clearance to buy up to 50 pct of the
stock on September 11.
    Industrial Equity (Pacific) reported it bought 250,000
shares of Triton common stock on October 8 at 22.50 dlrs a
share.
 Reuter

British Sugar Plc was forced to shut its
Ipswich sugar factory on Sunday afternoon due to an acute
shortage of beet supplies, a spokesman said, responding to a
Reuter inquiry
    Beet supplies have dried up at Ipswich due to a combination
of very wet weather, which has prevented most farmers in the
factory's catchment area from harvesting, and last week's
hurricane which blocked roads.
    The Ipswich factory will remain closed until roads are
cleared and supplies of beet build up again.
    This is the first time in many years that a factory has
been closed in mid-campaign, the spokesman added.
    Other factories are continuing to process beet normally,
but harvesting remains very difficult in most areas.
    Ipswich is one of 13 sugar factories operated by British
Sugar. It processes in excess of 500,000 tonnes of beet a year
out of an annual beet crop of around eight mln tonnes.
    Despite the closure of Ipswich and the severe harvesting
problems in other factory areas, British Sugar is maintaining
its estimate of sugar production this campaign at around 1.2
mln tonnes, white value, against 1.34 mln last year, the
    British Sugar processes all sugar beet grown in the U.K.
    The sugar beet processing campaign, which began last month,
is expected to run until the end of January. Sugar factories
normally work 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the
campaign.
    As of October 11, 12 pct of the U.K. Sugar crop had been
harvested, little different to the same stage last year when 13
pct had been lifted. Since then, however, very wet weather has
severely restricted beet lifting.
    Harvesting figures for the week to October 18 are not yet
 Reuter

Shr 57 cts vs not given
    Net 6,889,000 vs 10.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.67 dlrs vs not given
    Net 20.1 mln vs 23.0 mln
    1986 net both periods includes 5,642,000 dlr pretax gain on
sale of branches.
    Net includes securities and loan sales loss 90,000 dlrs
pretax vs gain 46,000 dlrs in quarter and gains 1,213,000 dlrs
vs 2,605,000 dlrs in nine mths and loan losxs provisions
125,000 dlrs vs 30,000 dlrs in quarter and 275,000 dlrs vs
90,000 dlrs in nine mths.
 Reuter

Shr eight cts vs six cts
    Net 22 mln vs 18 mln
    Revs 994 mln vs 910 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 19 cts vs 20 cts
    Net 55 mln vs 54 mln
    Revs 2.9 billion vs 2.7 billion
    NOTE: 1987 3rd qtr and nine mths include pre-tax gains of
from antitrust settlement of 2,000,000 dlrs and 6,000,000 dlrs
    3rd qtr 1986 includes pre-tax gain of 65 mln dlrs from sale
of MCI Airsignal subsidiary, and after-tax extraordinary loss
of 17 mln dlrs from early redemption of 9-1/2 pct subordinated
notes.
 Reuter

Shr 1.03 dlrs vs 88 cts
    Net 59.5 mln vs 51.9 mln
    Revs 641.7 mln vs 557.8 mln
    Avg shrs 57.4 mln vs 59.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.51 dlrs vs 2.14 dlrs
    Net 145.2 mln vs 126.4 mln
    Revs 1.71 billion vs 1.47 billion
    Avg shrs 57.8 mln vs 59.0 mln
   
    NOTE: 1986 figures restated to reflected change in
accounting methods related to pension expenses.
 Reuter

CAE Electronics Inc, wholly-owned by
Cae Industries Ltd, said it received a contract worth nine mln
Canadian dlrs to design and manufacture an A-320 aircraft
flight simulator for Lufthansa German Airlines.
    It said the simulator is scheduled for delivery in late
1989.         
 Reuter

Phelps Dodge Corp said net earnings
nearly tripled in the third quarter on sharply higher copper
prices, increased sales and strong earnings from a new
chemicals business.
    The company also recorded a gain of 21.3 mln dlrs or 57
cents a diluted share from a tax loss carryforward and gain on
    Copper prices averaged 78 cents a pound on the New York
Commodity Exchange, up from 59 cents in the year-ago quarter.
    Net earnings rose to 58.2 mln dlrs or 1.77 dlrs a share
from 19.4 mln dlrs or 60 cents a share.
    Copper sales rose 10 pct to 112,900 tons in the quarter and
operating earnings from primary metals, mostly copper, grew to
54.2 mln dlrs from 11.1 mln dlrs, the company said.
    Manufacturing and specialty chemicals had operating
earnings of 17.9 mln dlrs, including Columbian Chemicals,
acquired at the end of 1986. In the 1986 quarter, the group's
operating earnings were 5.2 mln dlrs.
    Total sales in the quarter more than doubled to 377.4 mln
dlrs from 188 mln dlrs.
    Nine month net rose 98 pct to 100.3 mln dlrs or 2.80 a
diluted share as sales grew 72.8 pct to 1.11 billion dlrs.
 Reuter

 Reuter

Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 1.19 dlrs
    Net 151.4 mln vs 152.4 mln
    Revs 1.31 billion vs 1.17 billion
    Avg shrs 130.0 mln vs 127.6 mln
    12 mths
    Shr 3.03 dlrs vs 2.85 dlrs
    Net 392.7 mln vs 353.0 mln
    Revs 4.32 billion vs 4.14 billion
    Avg shrs 129.8 mln vs 123.9 mln
 Reuter

French 13-week T-Bill rate rises to 8.54 pct from 7.65 -- Bank of France

Wang Laboratories Inc expects revenues for
the year ending June 30, 1988, to increase 12 to 15 pct over
fiscal 1987 to 3.2 billion dlrs, President Frederick Wang said.
    He told a news conference after-tax profit for the year
should increase by three to five pct.
    Earlier Wang said first quarter revenues increased 16 to
693 mln dlrs and profits totaled 22.5 mln dlrs, or 14 cts a
share, vs a loss of 30 mln dlrs, or 19 cts a share, in the
September quarter last year.
   
    Wang told the news conference the company's orders were
particularly strong for the high end of its line of VS
    "For the past six months the high end really surged" while
the company's entry level computers dipped slightly, senior
vice president of U.S. operations Ian Diery said.
    For the past six months, earnings for both large and entry
level systems in the U.S. increased by 20 pct, he said..
    Wang said the company has seen an overall resurgance in its
business in the U.S. He said the company's business in Europe
"remains fairly firm."
 Reuter

International Multifoods Corp
said it filed a suit charging Bregman Partners and its
affiliates unlawfully planned to acquire control of the
company.
    In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, International
Multifoods said Bregman Partners and its affiliates, who
reportedly hold 7.4 pct of the company's shares, tried to
induce Multifood's management to join them in an effort to take
the company private and give controlling interest to Bregman
Partners. Bregman Partners include the interests of the
Belzberg families of Canada.
    The complaint also discloses that on each occasion,
Multifoods management rejected the group's overtures.
    Multifoods is asking Bregman's group to divest its shares
in open market sales in a manner not to further disrupt the
market place, according to the suit. The suit seeks
compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be
    In addition, Multifoods is seeking to stop Bregman Partners
from acquiring any more stock, or voting the shares it
reportedly owns, the suit said.
    According to Multifoods, the actions proposed by Bregman
Partners would prevent shareholders from realizing the full
benefits of the company's restructuring.
    In the past three years, Multifoods has substantially
altered its domestic business mix by divesting its U.S.
consumere foods operations and emphasizing growth in selected
segments of the U.S. foodservice industry.
 Reuter

<Salomon Brothers Inc> is not withdrawing
as a market maker in euroyen bonds, contrary to strong market
rumours circulating in London, a London-based spokeswoman for
the company's New York headquarters said.
    Earlier, a spokesman for Salomon Brothers' London
operations declined to comment at all on rumours that have been
circulating here.
    Euroyen bond traders had said they were informally
contacted by their counterparts at Salomon and told that they
would no longer be market makers in those securities.
    The traders said that Salomon had not notified the
Association of International Bond Dealers (AIBD) of its plans
to withdraw as a market maker. Under new rules recently adopted
by the AIBD, notification would be required if the firm decided
it no longer wished to make two-way prices at all times in
euroyen bonds.
    According to dealers at several Japanese banks, Salomon's
euroyen bond traders have been in a meeting and unavailable to
make prices. Market sources said that Salomon had offered the
traders a chance to remain with the firm if they were willing
to trade eurobonds denominated in other currencies.
    Dealers noted that at one point this year, euroyen bond
issuance had actually outpaced that of eurodollar denominated
bonds, the first time the U.S. Unit has been eclipsed as the
currency of choice for international borrowers.
    Dealers said that given the dollar's recent weakness, the
yen could once again top the eurobond issuance tables.
    Last week, Salomon Brothers announced it would trim its
worldwide staff by 800 and withdraw from several areas of
business, most specifically short term bank lending.
 REUTER

Shr 47 cts vs 48 cts
    Net 505.0 mln vs 533.0 mln
    Revs 8.47 billion vs 8.43 billion
    Nine mths.
    Shr 1.42 dlrs vs 1.16 dlrs
    Net 1.55 billion vs 1.31 billlion
    Revs 25.0 billion vs 25.56 billion
    NOTE: Full name is American Telephone and Telegraph Co.
    NOTE: Prior quarter and nine mth net reduced by 25 mln
dlrs, or two cts per share, for estimated costs to reduce
workforce and consolidate various facilities. Prior qtr and
nine mths include pretax gain of 73 mln dlrs from damages paid
by Republic of Iran and pretax gain of 40 mln dlrs from change
in company's ownership in ING C. Olivetti SpA. After tax these
gains added 68 mln dlrs, or six cts per shr, to net income.
    Prior qtr and nine mth results were previously restated to
reflect a change in depreciation methods that reduced net
income by 175 mln dlrs, or 16 cts per share.
 Reuter

Shr loss 13 cts vs loss 20 cts
    Net loss 1,343,266 vs loss 2,086,086
    Revs 82.3 mln vs 80.3 mln
    Year
    Shr loss 1.83 dlrs vs profit 1.24 dlrs
    Net loss 19.2 mln vs profit 13.4 mln
    Revs 388.1 mln vs 370.3 mln
    NOTE: 1987 year includes charge 15.0 mln dlrs pre-tax for
inventory valuation allowance.
    1987 year also includes charge 12.8 mln dlrs from
 Reuter

The Canadian division of General Motors
Corp will make its first economic offer later Monday in 
contract negotiations with 40,000 members of the Canadian Auto
Workers, the union said.
    The union is seeking the same contract pattern it has
reached at the Canadian units of Ford Motor Co and Chrysler
Corp including partial pension indexation and wage increases in
each year of a three-year pact.
    The union hareatened to strike at 10 a.m. EDT on
Thursday unless General Motors of Canada Ltd meets the pattern
and settles a host of local issues at 11 plants in Quebec and
Ontario.
 Reuter

West German government sources said Bonn
remained committed to the Louvre Accord to stabilise
currencies, which was struck by leading western democracies in
Paris last February.
    Over the weekend, U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
criticised recent rises in West German short-term interest
rates and said such developments were not in the spirit of the
Louvre pact. He said the agreement may have to be re-examined.
    The sources said the West German interest rate rises had to
be seen in the context of interest rate developments worldwide.
 Reuter

The recent sharp rise in U.S. interest
rates sparked turmoil in the fixed-income markets, but
underwriters said they doubt company treasurers will rush to
borrow before rates increase further.
    "Corporate treasurers will continue to issue new debt when
they believe they are borrowing at an attractive rate," said an
underwriter with a major Wall Street house.
    Said another, "We will not see a flood of new offerings.
Treasurers are reassessing the market. We will not see new
issuance dry up either."
    Still, the pace of corporate borrowing in the public
finance market has slowed, according to a Reuter tabulation.
    Last week, which was shortened by the Columbus Day holiday,
saw issuance of 1.3 billion dlrs of new debt. That was down
from the prior week's tally of slightly more than two billion
dlrs of new debt.
    In contrast, a year ago it was not unusual to see those
amounts of new offerings in a single day as companies took
advantage of the then decline in interest rates to refinance
old, higher-cost debt or to expand operations via financings at
low, attractive rates, underwriters noted.
    "Companies will conduct financings that they believe are
essential," said an underwriter with a medium-sized Wall Street
firm. "But we will not see much more than that until the market
stabilizes."
    In the meantime, treasurers will probably prefer shorter
term issues, analysts said. For instance, of last week's nine
issues, only one had a maturity of more than 10 years.
    The other offerings had maturities of two to seven years,
with most clustered in the two to three year area, according to
a Reuter tabulation. That is because single-digit interest
rates were had last week only among two-year securities.
    "If people think that interest rates will continue to head
higher, then we could see treasurers rushing to market," said a
trader with a medium-sized securities house.
    "But if people think last week's sharp interest rate rise
is a fluke, treasurers will sit back and wait for rates to
decline before issuing new debt, hoping of course that they are
not missing the boat by doing so," she added.
    Another impediment to new issuance is the lukewarm
reception to new issues by institutional and retail investors
in recent weeks, traders pointed out. Many investors refrained
from buying because they believed rate would rise further.
    "We saw a lot of buying interest last week, but people are
not yet willing to pull the trigger," a broker said. "They
would rather wait and see if the recent rate increase can be
sustained."
    Conflicting forecasts on the likely direction of interest
rates did not help, analysts said. For instance, Henry Kaufman,
chief economist with Salomon Brothers Inc, said in his weekly
"Comments on Credit" that the yields of U.S. Treasury bonds
would probably rise further because the marketplace expects
inflation to rise and the dollar to continue to decline.
    In contrast, Standard and Poor's Corp said on Friday that
prices of debt securities in the fixed-income markets would
recover. The rating agency said neither the economy nor the
dollar justify current high yields.
    Meanwhile, the Chicago Board of Trade is slated to hold a
press briefing on Tuesday in New York about its plans to list a
futures contract based on a corporate bond index.
    That follows last week's announcement by Commodity Exchange
Inc, Comex, that it plans to list on October 29 a new futures
contract based on the investment-grade corporate bond index of
Moody's Investors Service Inc.
 Reuter

Corp will make its first economic offer later today in 
reached at the Canadian units of Ford Motor Co <F> and Chrysler
Corp <C>, including partial pension indexation and wage
increases in each year of a three-year pact. The union has said
it will strike on 1000 EDT/1400 GMT on Thursday unless General
Motors of Canada Ltd meets the pattern and settles local issues
at 11 plants in Quebec and Ontario.
 Reuter

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman
William Seidman said he would be concerned about the impact on
banks of a further sharp rise in interest rates.
    However, Seidman, attending the American Bankers
Association convention, said he did not expect rates to rise
much higher and said the outlook for the U.S. economy and for
banking was sound.
    "The potential for greater interest rate rises gives us
concern. We see nothing right now in the outlook that causes us
to believe rates are going much higher or that the economy is
not sound," Seidman told a news conference.
 Reuter

the government securities market to supply reserves to the
banking system via system repurchase agreements, economists
said.
    Most economists said the Fed would execute three-day system
repurchases to meet a substantial need to add reserves in the
current maintenance period, although some said a more
aggressive add via overnight system repos was possible.
    Federal funds opened at 7-5/8 pct and remained at that
level late this morning, compared with an average effective
rate of 7.55 pct Friday.
 Reuter

Inland Steel Co said it and the USS
Division of USX Corp <X> are continuing to pursue plans for
construction of a state-of-the-art line for continuous
prepainting of steel coils.
    It said the proposed line will primarily serve the
appliance market.
    It said a location for the new plant has yet to be
selected.
 Reuter

Shr 40 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 4,442,000 vs 6,375,000
    Sales 102.8 mln vs 102.5 mln
    Avg shrs 11.1 mln vs 11.6 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for August 1987 five-for-four split.
 Reuter

Financial Corp of America, in
reporting a third quarter loss, said gains on the sale of loans
and mortgage-backed securities, which has been the company's
main source of profit during the past two years, fell to 12.4
mln dlrs as compared to a 93.4 mln in the third quarter last
year.
    It said the income was reduced by adverse interest rate
fluctuations during the quarter.
    The company also said it made an additional provision of
70.4 mln dlrs to its reserve for losses on loans and real
estate, compared with 76.2 mln dlrs a year ago.
    Financial Corp said its reserve totaled 1.00 billion dlrs
at September 30, 1987, compared with a total of 580.4 mln at
the same time a year ago.
    Financial Corp, the nation's largest thrift, reported a
third quarter loss of 75.8 mln dlrs, or 2.20 dlrs per share,
compared with an 11.6 mln dlr profit last year.
    At the end of the quarter scheduled items, or non- or
under-performing assets, were 1.34 billion dlrs, or 4.01 pct of
total regulatory assets, down from 1.77 billion, or 5.20 pct of
assets at the end of the 1986 third quarter, the company said.
    In reporting third quarter results the company also said
its highest priority is to raise capital and strengthen its
financial base.
    "We are responsible to our shareholders and therefore are
exploring several alternatives for achieving value while
raising capital.
    "Any proposal to acquire or restructure the company will be
viewed by management from this perspective," Financial Corp
chairman William Popejoy said in a statement.
    Last month Financial Corp executives and Federal Home Loan
Bank Board members met to discuss a restructuring of FCA, with
help from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp, as a
possible solution to the company's financial difficulties.
    In addition, Ford Motor Co's <F> First Nationwide Financial
Corp, has acknowledged that it is interested in acquiring the
company.
    Financial Corp has said it needs about one billion dlrs to
bring its regulatory net worth up to Federal Government
    In  addition, Financial Corp said its real estate group
sold properties totaling 154.8 mln dlrs in book value before
reserves during the quarter and 435.5 mln dlrs of real estate
for the nine months to September 30.
    The company also said it had a net deposit decrease of
415.4 mln dlrs during the quarter, resulting mainly from
institutional deposits reacting to the company's pricing
strategy and to its efforts to manage the cost of funds.
 Reuter

Rorer Group Inc's Armour
Pharmaceutical Co said it received Food and Drug Administration
approval for a blood clotting drug for hemophiliacs.
    The company said the drug, monoclate antihemophilic factor,
will treat hemophilia A, the most common form of hereditary
blood clotting disorder.
    Monoclate is 99 pct free of unwanted contaminants, compared
to other blood products which are less than one pct pure,
Armour said.
 Reuter

Shr 17 cts vs 37 cts
    Net 1,783,000 vs 4,028,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 52 cts vs 1.03 dlrs
    Net 5,587,000 vs 11.1 mln
 Reuter

LONDON'S FTSE 100 SHARE INDEX DROPS RECORD 301.5 POINTS TO 2000.4 at 1457 GMT

    Net 2,191,000 vs 852,000
    Sales 106.6 mln vs 102.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 44 cts vs 40 cts
    Net 3,236,000 vs 2,919,000
    Sales 297.9 mln vs 297.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr 34 cts vs 62 cts
    Net 4,717,000 vs 8,277,000
    Revs 213.4 mln vs 158.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.18 dlrs vs 1.54 dlrs
    Oper net 16.2 mln vs 17.8 mln
    Revs 517.2 mln vs 451.4 mln
    Avg shrs 13.7 mln vs 11.6 mln
    NOTE: 1986 nine mths net exclude204,000 dlr gain from
reversion of pension assets. 1987 net both periods includes
pretax charge 692,000 dlrs from amortization of goodwill.
 Reuter

Shr 90 cts vs 84 cts
    Net 185.5 mln vs 171.5 mln
    Revs 1.08 billion vs 1.07 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.85 dlrs vs 1.90 dlrs
    Net 378.9 mln vs 389.5 mln
    Revs 2.67 billion vs 2.69 billion
    12 mths
    Shr 2.15 dlrs vs 1.87 dlrs
    Net 440.7 mln vs 382.0 mln
    Revs 3.47 billion vs 3.47 billion
 Reuter

Hong Kong-based investment firm leading a group holding 19.1
pct of Calmat Co's common stock, said it intends to submit to
Calmat a proposal for a possible business combination.
Industrial Equity (Pacific) did not disclose details of the
proposal, but said it would be delivered to Calmat in the near
future.
    Industrial Equity (Pacific) "does not intend to remain a
passive investor" in Calmat, the firm told the SEC.
    In its SEC filing, Industrial Equity (Pacific) said its
president of North American operations Ronald Langley met with
Calmat officials on October 14 to discuss an acquisition of the
company at a premium over the market price of Calmat stock.
    Industrial Equity (Pacific) added it is considering
launching a tender offer for Calmat stock or making a merger
proposal to the company, but said it has not decided whether it
will pursue a Calmat acquisition on a non-negotiated basis.
    Industrial Equity (Pacific), which currently holds 5.83 mln
Calmat common shares, said it is also evaluating the company's
recently adopted shareholder rights plan and its potential
effect on Calmat and on possible acquisition proposals made to
    Between October 2 and 14, Industrial Equity (Pacific)
bought 918,900 shares of Calmat common stock at 33 dlrs to
37.55 dlrs a share, or a total of about 33.8 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Kaiser Steel Corp's plant in Napa,
Calif, has been purchased by Oregon Steel Mills for 16 mln
dlrs, the privately owned Portland company said.
    The transaction was approved by the U.S. bankruptcy judge
in Denver who is hearing Kaiser Steel's Chapter 11
reorganization case.
    James Mccaughey, former vice president of sales for Kaiser,
has been named general manager for the plant, which will be
called Napa Pipe Corp, Oregon Steel said.
 Reuter

Shr primary 68 cts vs 34 cts
    Shr diluted 65 cts vs 34 cts
    Net 129.7 mln vs 52.9 mln
    Revs 2.22 billlion vs 2.42 billion
    Avg shrs primary 152.1 mln vs 147.1 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 199.8 mln vs 147.1 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary 1.89 dlrs vs 1.00 dlrs
    Shr diluted 1.84 dlrs vs 1.00 dlrs
    Net 361.1 mln vs 145.1 mln
   
    Revs 6.91 billion vs 4.90 billion
    Avg shrs primary 151.0 mln vs 146.4 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 198.7 mln vs 146.4 mln
    NOTE: Earnings per share for 1986 have been restated to
reflect 3-for-1 split effective July 8, 1987.
    Results for three and nine mths 1986 includes results from
July 1, 1986, of Sperry Corp, acquired on Sept 16, 1986, with
net income reflecting ownership in Sperry of about 51 pct for
the months of July and August, and 100 pct for the month of
Sept 1986.
   
    Revenue for 1986 periods reflects reclassification of
revenue of divested Sperry operations to other income with no
effect on net income.
 Reuter

    Net 959,000 vs 1,033,000
    Assets 273.6 mln vs 236.3 mln
    Deposits 183.6 mln vs 173.9 mln
    Loans 133.3 mln vs 104.9 mln
    NOTE: Full name of company is Woburn Five Cents Savings
Bank.
 Reuter

Semi div 12 cts vs 12 cts prior
    Pay Nov 10
    Record Oct 27
 Reuter

Shr 59 cts
    Net 1,675,000 vs 1,302,000
    Assets 613.3 mln vs 603.5 mln
    Deposits 523.7 mln vs 517.8 mln
    Loans 469.2 mln vs 449.5 mln
    NOTE: 1986 per share figures not available because bank
converted to stock ownership Dec 18, 1986. Dividend payable Dec
11 to shareholders of record Nov 13. Full name of company is
First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chattanooga.
 Reuter

Coastal Corp said that effective October
16 it had raised posted prices for crude oil by 50 cts a
barrel.
    The increase brings West Texas Intermediate to 9.00 dlrs a
barrel and West Texas Sour to 18.10 dlrs a barrel.
    Sun Co <SUN> announced that it would make a 50 cts a barrel
increase late Friday bringing WTI to 19.00 dlrs a barrel and
traders said that other oil companies could be expected to
increase prices.
 Reuter

An Iowa State University study showed
pork contains considerably less fat than indicated by
long-established U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, the
National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said.
    Six of the seven muscle cuts evaluated in the study
averaged 4.3 pct fat or less, well below American Heart
Association guidelines for recommended foods. Eighty pct of all
the raw boneless rib chops evaluated in the study contained
less than six pct fat, the NPPC said.
    Meanwhile, USDA Handbook 8-10 - long used as the
established authority on nutrient composition, indicates a fat
content for center loin pork of 7.3 pct, the NPPC said.
    Robin Kline, a dietitian and Director of Consumer Affairs
for the NPPC said he was not surprised at the wide discrepancy
between the study and the USDA handbook.
    "Handbook 8-10 is based to a certain extent on information
that has been accumulated over the past 30 years. The
statistics in it about pork do not reflect the hog of today
which is about 50 pct leaner than it was 20 or 30 years ago,
thanks to genetic improvements and better feeding practices,"
Kline said.
    The study, funded by NPPC with producer checkoff money,
evaluated pork carcasses from 47 Iowa producers in categories
from 0.7 to 1.3 inches of backfat. Researchers measured the fat
content of the seven muscles before cooking, and the fat,
moisture and tenderness of cooked boneless rib chops.
 Reuter

The Soviet Union outlined its economic
targets for 1988 on Monday, stressing the need to improve
standards in the country's sluggish engineering industry.
    Planning chief Nikolai Talyzin told the Supreme Soviet
industrial output should rise by 4.5 pct in 1988, up from a
planned 4.4 pct in 1987. It rose 3.6 pct in Jan-Sept 1987.
    Talyzin said national income, the nearest Soviet equivalent
to gross national product, should rise by 4.3 pct against a
planned 4.1 pct this year. Gross national product measures the
output of a country's goods and services.
    He said the Kremlin planned to produce 235 mln tonnes of
grain in 1988 versus a planned 232 mln this year. Moscow
produced 210 mln tonnes in 1986.
    Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev has described
machine-builing as a sector whose rapid modernization is
essential if the Soviet Union is to compete effectively on
    "Certain difficulties have arisen this year in the
machine-building industry. The economy is not receiving a
considerable amount of the equipment that it requires," said
Talyzin, who heads the state planning committee GOSPLAN.
    Soviet data show the machine-building industry, which makes
machine tools, instruments and other engineering goods,
increased output by 3.3 pct in the first nine months of 1987
compared with the same period last year.
    However, this was far below the 7.3 pct increase planned
for the industry for the whole of 1988.
    Talyzin said the ruling Politburo had concluded at a recent
meeting that an improvement in economic performance depended to
a large extent on conserving resources better. "Large-scale
measures are planned to save resources," he said.
    Finance Minister Boris Gostev told the Supreme Soviet that
defense spending in 1988 would total 32 billion dlrs, the same
figure as was announced last year.
    Western governments view official Soviet estimates for
defense spending as highly understated, but say the real figure
is hard to calculate because Soviet military industries are
intertwined with the civilian economy.
    Talyzin said the Kremlin also decided to increase spending
next year on medical services, education, pensions and social
insurance schemes.
 Reuter

The official Soviet news agency Tass
denounced a U.S. Attack on an Iranian oil-drilling platform in
the Gulf on Monday as military adventurism and said it would
bring no dividends to the Reagan administration.
    Tass commentator Mikhail Krutikhin said the administration
had embarked on an adventurist path in order to deflect
attention from the scandal in which the United States sold arms
to Iran and the profits were diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
    "The confrontation is a fact now. What is obvious is that
the latest military adventure will not bring political
dividends to the American administration," Krutikhin said.
    Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze abruptly left a parliamentary session earlier on
Monday, sparking diplomatic speculation that they were
concerned with an urgent matter of foreign affairs.
    Soviet officials have previously criticized the United
States for sending naval forces into the Gulf, saying their
presence serves to increase tension.
    Moscow is officially neutral in the war between Iran and
Iraq. It is a major arms supplier to Iraq but has also sought
broader contacts with Iran in the last year.
    Krutikhin said: "The United States has undertaken an act of
armed aggression against Iran, the probability of which has
long been spoken of by Washington officials."
 Reuter

U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington
arrived in Rabat on Monday after a tour of the Gulf and the
    Herrington, who is scheduled to meet King Hassan during his
24-hour official visit, said on arrival he would discuss
regional and international issues with Moroccan leaders.
    Morocco is the last stop of a tour that has taken
Herrington to Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and
Egypt.
 REUTER

The International Telecommunications
Union, which regulates communications worldwide, decided at the
end of a five-week conference to allow mobile phone systems to
be linked with satellites, telecommunications officials said.
    Until now, car phones have been linked with land stations
and have been limited mainly to urban areas. The new ruling
will make it easier for calls to be made from remote regions.
    The meeting, which finished over the weekend, also decided
to allow a "radio determination satellite system," which would
enable fleet owners to trace to within about 15 metres the
movements of their lorries or cars or ships around the world.
 Reuter

Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts prior qtr
    Pay Nov 25
    Record Nov 13
Corp
 Reuter

Shr 57 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 39.3 mln vs 37.3 mln
    Sales 540.9 mln vs 488.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.30 dlrs vs 1.58 dlrs
    Net 158.8 mln vs 108.7 mln
    Sales 1.67 billion vs 1.60 billion
 Reuter

Georgia Gulf Corp said on December One it
plans to retire all 50 mln dlrs of its subordinated notes due
through 1998, resulting in a charge of about 9,900,000 dlrs
against fourth quarter results.
    The company also said its common stock, which now traded on
the NASDAQ system, has been approved for New York Stock
Exchange listing, and NYSE trading is to start November Two.
 Reuter

INDUSTRIAL EQUITY TELLS SEC IT WILL SEND CALMAT PROPOSAL FOR BUSINESS COMBINATION

IDC Services Inc said a new company will
begin a cash tender offer by October 26 to acquire all of IDC's
outstanding common for 16 dlrs a share.
    The company said the offer is being made under a definitive
agreement reached with the new company, IDC Acquisition Corp,
formed by Apollo Partners Ltd and investment clients of
<Equitable Capital Management Inc>. The agreement calls for the
acquisition of IDC for about 62.4 mln dlrs.
    IDC Acquisition will also tender for all of IDC's
outstanding nine pct convertible subordinated debentures.
   
    IDC said the merger agreement also provides for payment of
an equivalent amount in respect of employee stock options to be
cancelled in the merger.
    As part of the transaction, the company said, it granted
IDC Acquisition an option to acquire up to 20 pct of the
company's outstanding shares for 16 dlrs per share.
    It said the planned tender offer is subject to several
conditions, including the tendering of over 50 pct of the
   
    MIM Holdings Ltd <MIMA.S>, a substantial shareholder in
IDC, has agreed it will not buy any additional IDC shares until
February seven and has granted IDC Acquisition a right of first
refusal on any IDC shares it sells during that period, the
    It said Apollo Partners was recently organized by three
former senior Viacom Inc <VIA> executives, Terrence A. Elkes,
George C. Catell and Kenneth F. Gorman.
 Reuter

Shr 1.30 dlrs vs 1.85 dlrs
    Net 100,000,000 vs 144,000,000
    Sales 1.90 billion vs 1.69 billion
    Nine mths
    Shr 5.01 dlrs vs 5.27 dlrs
    Net 392,000,000 vs 410,000,000
    Sales 5.79 billion vs 5.31 billion
    Note: 1986 figures include 63 mln dlrs, or 81 cts a share,
of net gains from facilities and businesses sold, shut down or
impaired, and other non-recurring income and expenses
 Reuter

CalFed Inc said strong loan volume
and higher net increase income at its principal subsidiary,
the California Federal Savings and Loan Association,
contributed to the best third-quarter and nine-month results in
    On a per-share basis, CalFed's fully diluted earnings were
1.80 dlrs for the third quarter of 1987 and 4.87 dlrs for the
nine months ended Sept 30, 1987, compared with 1.75 dlrs and
4.76 dlrs in the comparable 1986 period.
    CalFed is a 23.1 bln dlr diversified financial-services
company.
    "Key factors leading to the company's higher earnings were
continued strong loan volume, an increase in net interest
income and higher earnings from non-real estate sources," said
George Rutland, president and chief executive officer of the
firm of CalFed Inc.
    Net earnings in the third quarter of 1987 were 50 mln dlrs,
a 3.1 pct gain over 48.5 mln in the same period last year. They
increased 3.9 pct in the first nine months of this year
compared with last year, totalling 134.6 mln dlrs against 129.6
mln.
    California Federal Savings and Loan Association contributed
net earnings of 44.5 mln dlrs for the third quarter of 1987
compared with 43.4 mln for the third quarter of 1986. For the
nine-month period ended Sept 30, it had net earnings of 116.3
mln dlrs against 114.9 mln in the comparable 1986 period.
    California Federal's net interest income for the third
quarter of 1987 rose 18.1 pct to 131.6 mln dlrs, up from 111.4
mln for the third quarter of 1986. For the first nine months of
1987, it totalled 383 mln dlrs, a 13.9 pct increase over 336.2
mln in the comparable 1986 period.
    CalFed Inc said that the increase in its subsidiary's net
interest income was a result of higher average balances of
interest-earning assets for the savings and loan operations.
    CalFed said the savings and loan unit's loan originations
were unchanged in the third quarter of 1987 compared with last
year at 1.8 billion dlrs. But for the first nine months of
1987, they rose to 5.4 billion dlrs from 4.9 billion in 1996.
    California Federal's provision for loan losses rose to 19.4
mln dlrs in the 1987 third quarter compared with 15.5 mln last
year and to 63.3 mln for first the nine months of 1987 compared
with 30.6 mln.
 Reuter

COASTAL SAID RAISED OIL POSTINGS 50 CTS A BARREL OCTOBER 16. WTI NOW 19.00 DLRS.

Security Pacific Corp <SPC> said
growth in its third-quarter earnings was slowed by the purchase
of Rainier Bancorp and the suspension of interest payments on
Brazilian and Ecuadorian loans that were placed on a
non-accrual status earlier this year.
    The bank said it earned 128.1 mln dlrs in the third
quarter, up from 118.3 mln a year earlier. On a per-share
basis, income was 1.16 dlrs a share, up from 1.09 dlrs.
    The bank said non-recurring costs of 10.1 mln dlrs
associated with the acquisition of Rainier, a 9.5-billion-dlr
Seattle-based concern, cut earnings per share by nine cents.
    Security Pacific also said the suspension of interest
payments on the Brazilian and Ecuadorian debt reduced net
income by 8.1 mln dlrs, or seven cents a share.
    Security Pacific completed its acquisition of Rainier on
August 31. Security Pacific's results have been restated to
reflect the "pooling-of-interests" acquisition.
    "Our third-quarter performance was strong, clearly
demonstrating the stability and balance in our earnings
streams," said Richard Flamson, chairman and chief executive
officer. "The addition of Rainier," he continued, "adds very
significantly to the strength of our western banking network."
    The inclusion of Orbanco and Arizona Bancwest earnings
affected comparison of most financial categories.
    Fully-taxable equivalent net interest income was 602.4 mln
dlrs, up from 538.6 mln. The suspension of interest payments on
Brazilizan and Ecuadorian debt reduced net interest income by
41.9 mln dlrs.
    Non-interest income rose to 471.6 mln dlrs from 412.1 mln.
    Third-quarter provision for credit losses was 89.6 mln
dlrs, down 17.9 mln dlrs. As a percentage of average loans and
lease financing, net credit losses were 0.68 pct, down from
0.79 pct a year earlier.
    Non-performing loans and leases were 2.038 billion dlrs at
the end of the quarter, or 3.96 pct of loans and leases, up
from 1.377 billion a year ago.
    Other non-interest expense, composed of staff and other
expenses, was 757.6 mln dlrs, up from 616.2 mln. The rise
included an increase in staff expenses to 379.7 mln dlrs from
313.0 mln dlrs.
    Excluding Orbanco and Arizona Bancwest, average loans grew
11 pct. Real estate and international loan growth had the
greatest rises of 16 pct and 15 pct, respectively.
    Shareholders equity was 3.486 billion dlrs at the end of
the third quarter, up from 3.381 billion.
    The primary capital ratio was 7.41 pct, based on period-end
capital and quarterly average assets, up from 7.01 pct a year
earlier.
 Reuter

IC Industries Inc said its board approved
a second major step in the reorganization and restructuring of
    To implement the plan of sharpening its strategic focus on
consumer goods and services, the company will give serious
consideration to the sale of its Pneumo Abex, its aerospace and
defense company, if it can realize a price which will return
maximum value to shareholders.
    In 1986, Pneumo Abex had operating income of 118.1 mln dlrs
on sales of 900.5 mln dlrs.
    IC said it will use the proceeds of any asset sale to
invest in new high-return businesses in the consumer goods and
services field.
    The company said it authorized a program to repurchase
between 500 mln dlrs and 1.0 billion dlrs of IC's common stock
from time to time when conditions warrant.
    It also said it will begin an immediate cost-reduction
program to cust annual operating expenses by 50 mln dlrs.
    An IC spokesman said the cost-reduction program involved
"across-the-board" cuts rather than specific about targeted
areas.
    IC's board earlier approved a plan to spin off the
company's Illinois Central Gulf Railroad to shareholders. The
company's other major subsidiaries are Pet Inc, Pepsi-Cola
General Bottlers, Midas International Corp and Hussmann Corp.
 Reuter

Shr 1.92 dlrs vs 58 cts
    Net 27.9 mln vs 9,480,000
    Sales 176.4 mln vs 137.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.87 dlrs vs 1.69 dlrs
    Net 56.7 mln vs 27.6 mln
    Sales 505.6 mln vs 438.5 mln
 Reuter

Shr loss 2.20 dlrs vs profit 24 cts
    Net loss 75.8 mln vs profit 11.6 mln
    Avg shrs primary 35.9 mln vs 36.5 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 39.3 mln vs 39.9 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr primary loss 7.04 dlrs vs profit 1.69 dlrs
    Shr diluted loss 7.04 dlrs vs profit 1.64 dlrs
    Avg shrs primary 35.9 mln vs 37.2 mln
    Avg shrs diluted 39.3 mln vs 46.6 mln
   
    Net loss 243.4 mln vs profit 72.2 mln
    Assets 33.4 billion vs 34.1 billion
    Loans 10.8 billion vs 12.0 billion
    Deposits 16.9 billion vs 17.0 billion
    NOTE: Net includes FSLIC sepcial assessment loss of
5,429,000 vs 5,193,000 in qtr 1987 vs 1986, and 16.3 mln vs
16.0 mln in nine mths 1987 vs 1986.
    Net includes gain from sale of mortgage-backed securities
and loans of 12.4 mln vs 93.4 mln, and 139.7 mln vs 264.0 mln
in nine mths 1987 vs 1986.
   
    Net includes gain from sale of investments of 64,000 in qtr
1987, and 157,000 vs 1,231,000 in nine mths 1987 vs 1986.
    Net includes provision for losses and discounts of 70.4 mln
vs 76.2 mln in qtr 1987 vs 1986, and 315.7 mln vs 161.7 mln in
nine mths 1987 vs 1986.
    Nine mths 1987 included write off of FSLIC secondary
reserve of 22.7 mln.
 Reuter

Arnox Corp said a special
committee of its board is continuing talks with <TXL Corp> on
the terms of TXL's offer to acquire Arnox at 10 dlrs per share.
    It said TXL has arranged preliminary financing.
 Reuter

shr profit 1.18 dlrs vs profit 1.15 dlrs
    net profit 219.2 mln vs profit 211.5 mln
    nine mths
    shr loss 84 cts vs profit 3.72 dlrs
    net loss 140.8 mln vs profit 682.4 mln
    assets 79.69 billion vs 71.99 billion
    loans 33.93 billion vs 35.33 billion
    deposits 45.68 billion vs 41.22 billion
    NOTE: 1987 nine mths include previously reported 875 mln
dlr addition to loan loss reserve in 2nd qtr for ldc debts
 Reuter

Australian Minister for Trade
Negotiations Michael Duffy said his country and Third World
commodity producers have formed an effective lobby group
against farm export subsidies and market access restrictions.
    Duffy told a press conference the Cairns Group of 14 major
agricultural producers, to which Australia and Thailand belong,
has emerged as an important third force in any multilateral
trade talks. "There's no doubt that the Cairns Group is being
seen as a third force to be reckoned with both inside the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and in other
international trade negotiations," he said.
    Duffy, here on a three-day visit after talks in the United
States, The European Community (EC) and Latin America, said
considerable progress has been made by the group towards
fighting costly protectionist policies pursued by developed
    The minister said the EC Commission's new farm trade paper
will recognise the heavy financial burdens imposed by its
Common Agricultural Policy and its future expansion.
    He said the Reagan Administration has also displayed a
determination to resist the currently strong protectionist
sentiment in the U.S. Congress.
 Reuter

Turkey's current account deficit widened
in July to 674 mln dlrs from 454 mln in June but fell from 1.22
billion in July last year, the State Statistics Institute said.
    The cumulative trade position in July showed a 1.85 billion
dlr deficit after 1.33 billion in June and 1.89 billion a year
earlier, with exports at 4.91 billion and imports, both FOB, at
6.76 billion.
    The government aims to narrow the current account deficit
for the whole of 1987 to 975 mln dlrs, compared with 1.52
billion last year, up from 1.01 billion in 1985.
    Bankers forecast the 1987 deficit will exceed one billion
dlrs,  because a spurt in exports is expected to slow
considerably in the last five months following a massive
drawdown of inventories.
 REUTER

IBC Acquisition Corp said it received
about 8,857,807 Interstate Bakeries Corp shares in response to
its tender offer for up to 8,053,181 shares that expired
October 16, and it will purchase about 90.9 pct of the shares
tendered.
    It said a final proration factor should be announced and
payment for shares start October 26.
    IBC is made up of Interstate management, First Boston Inc
<FBC> and George K. Braun and Co.
 Reuter

<Kaiser Steel Corp>'s plant in
Napa, Calif., has been purchased by Oregon Steel Mills for 16
mln dlrs, the privately owned Portland company said.
has been named general manager for the plant which will be
 Reuter

American Vision Centers Inc said Michael
C. Barlerin has been elected president and chief operating
officer of the company, replacing Robert S. Cohen, who will
remain a member of the company's board.
    Barlerin was previously senior vice president and director
of marketing for Zale Corp.
    American Vision also said two Kay Corp <KAY> officers,
Anthonie C. van Ekris and Thomas E. Hitselberger, and John C.
Belknap, chief financial officer of Seligman and Latz Inc, were
elected to American Vision's board.
   
    Kay last week completed the acqusition of 52 pct of
American Vision's outstding shares.
    The new members will succeed Alan R. Cohen, Edward M. Cohen
and Robert Gertler.
    Separately, American Vision said its board has approved a
proposal to borrow up to 2.5 mln dlrs from Kay Acquisition
Corp, a unit of Kay Corp, for additional working capital.
    The loan, which is subject to a number of conditions, would
include a market rate of interest and would be in the form of a
senior convertible debt instrument.
    American Vision owns and franchises retail eyecare stores.
 Reuter

Millipore Corp filed with the
up to 75 mln dlrs of convertible subordinated debentures due
November 15, 2012.
    First Boston Corp and Alex. Brown and Sons Inc will act as
underwriters for the proposed offering.
    Millipore said it will use proceeds from the offering to
repay debt and for general corporate purposes.
 Reuter

Xidex Corp said Lester L.
Colbert Jr. will be succeeded as president and chief executive
officer by executive vice president and chief operating officer
Bert Zaccaria but will remain chairman.
    The company said Colbert has decided to take a less active
role in management.
 Reuter

CMS Energy Corp, parent of
Consumers Power Co, said the fivefold improvement in its third
quarter earnings was the result of higher electric sales.
    The company also cited its ongoing refinancing program
which it said significantly reduced high-cost debt and
preference stock, and capitalized interest on assets which will
be used in the company's Midland cogeneration venture.
    CMS reported quarterly earnings of 56.0 mln dlrs, or 65 cts
a share, up from 8.8 mln dlrs, or 10 cts a share a year
earlier. It said electric sales were up 4.6 pct due to
continued economic growth and warmer than normal weather.
 Reuter

Dahlberg Inc said it completed a
previously announced agreement with Sears, Roebuck and Co to
operate hearing aid centers in sears stores on a national
basis.
    Dahlberg currently operates some 142 hearing aid centers on
a concession basis in Sears stores.
    In connection with the program, the company said it granted
Sears an option to buy up to 300,000 shares of Dahlberg stock
at 12 dlrs a share.
 Reuter

<ALNT.O> said it introduced a parallel vector minisupercomputer
priced at less than 100,000 dlrs.
    The company said the new FX/4 makes multi-user
supercomputing affordable for the first time to workgroups in
industrial and commercial markets.
    The company said it also introduced high-performance
compiler and algorithm products for the FX/Series systems.
   
    Alliant said it achieved the low price for the FX/4 through
a combination of new packaging technology and cost decreases
due to semiconductor price improvements and manufacturing
efficiencies.
    The company also released the FX/C compiler, which it said
can double the performance of C programs.
    The company said its newly released algorithm products, the
FX/Linpack and FX/Eispack libraries, are collections of
mathematical subroutines that programmers can call from all
Alliant languages.
 Reuter

Carson Pirie Scott and Co said it plans
to start mailing proxy materials to stockholders in connection
to a November 16 special meeting at which holders will be asked
to consider a previously announced agreement with Greyhound
Corp <G>.
    Under the agreement, Greyhound will acquire, in a merger,
three of the company's foodservice operations - Dobbs
International Services, Dobbs Houses and Carson international.
    If the transaction is approved, Carsons said its
stockholders will receive 30 dlrs cash and one share of common
in the new Carson Pirie Scott and Co for each share held.
 Reuter

The Philippine Senate approved a proposal
to repay loans owed by a private company to speed up the
signing of a 13.2 billion dlr rescheduling agreement with
    It concerns a Barclays Bank managed loan to fertilizer
company Planter Products Inc, said Teofisto Paterno, chairman
of the foreign debt committee.
    President Corazon Aquino had accused some creditor banks of
"non-too-subtle coercion" in threatening to refuse to sign the
rescheduling accord until the loan problem was settled.
    Over 30 of Philippines' 483 creditor banks still have to
sign the agreement before the November 15 deadline.
 REUTER

Shr 57 cts
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.67 dlrs
    Net 20.1 mln vs 22.9 mln
    Assets 1.63 billion vs 1.47 billion
    Deposits 1.17 billion vs 1.19 billion
    Loans 1.25 billion vs 936.5 mln
    NOTE: 3rd qtr and nine mths 1986 per share figures not
available because bank converted to stock form Nov 28, 1986.
 Reuter

FW Woolworth and Co said that 2,223,996
shares of Armel Inc's <AML> common stock were tendered to and
accepted for payment by Woolworth, under the terms of the
previosuly announced cash tender offer which expired at 2400
midnight EDT on October 16.
    In addition, Woolowrth said 137,367 Armel shares have been
tendered subject to guaranteed delivery.
    Woolowrth said as a result of the tender offer and options
which it has exercised to purchase Armel stock, FWW Acquisiton
Corp, a Woolworth unit, today expects to own about 91.75 pct of
Amrel's outstanding stock.
   
    Woolworth said the percent it owns does not include 583,650
Class A shares of Armel, which were tendered or will be
purchased pursuant to the options.
    As previuosly announced, FWW will now proceed with the cash
merger in which all shares of Armel, other than those held by
FWW or Woolworth, will be entitled to receive 7.75 dlrs per
share. Woolworth said it expects to consummate the deal later
this year.
    Armel is a specialty retailer of a broad line of athletic
and leisure footwear, accessories and other sportswear.
 Reuter

    Net 1,352,000 vs 1,210,000
    Revs 5,953,000 vs 3,309,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 36 cts vs 27 cts
    Net 3,257,000 vs 2,416,000
    Revs 16.6 mln vs 9,705,000
    NOTE: If FASB adopts accounting changes, then 1987 3rd qtr
per share results will be restated to 22 cts, and 54 cts a
share for 1987 nine mths.
 Reuter

    Net profit 107,000 vs 87,000 loss
    Revs 6,769,000 vs 4,992,000
    Nine mths
    Shr profit 21 cts vs loss nine cts
    Net profit 778,000 vs loss 314,000
    Revs 21.9 mln vs 13.9 mln
 Reuter

Sun Microsystems Co's TOPS
subsidiary said it will have upgraded versions of its NetPrint
and LAN -- local area network -- software packages available
    The company said version 2.0 of its NetPrint will be
available November 10 at a suggested retail price of 189 dlrs.
NetPrint is software that enables International Business
Machines Corp <IBM> personal computers and compatibles print
directly to Apple Computer Inc <AAPL.O> LaserWriters or other
PostScript compatible printers on an AppleTalk network.
   
    TOPS said it will begin shipping version 2.0 of its LAN
software packages providing file sharing among Apple macintosh
computers, IBM PCs and compatibles, and UNIX-based systems to
retailers November six.
    It said the TOPS/DOS version 2.0, which will have a
suggested retail price of 189 dlrs, allows PCs on the network
to access dedicated printers fomerly availabe to only one user.
   
    The TOPS/Macintosh version 2.0, also listed at 189 dlrs,
introduces a "remember" function that allows users to make
files available to the network and access remote files
automatically. In addition, the software is now fully
compatible with all Apple File Protocol applications.
    Both LAN's include FlashTalk, a recently announced PC-to-PC
communications architecture that operates at three-times TOPS'
AppleTalk speed and is slated to sell for 239 dlrs.
       
 Reuter

New York-based Prospect Group Inc
<PROSZ.O> said it acquired 527,000 shares of Brinkmann
Instruments Inc common stock, or 14.3 pct of the scientific
instrument maker's common stock outstanding.
Prospect Group said it bought the 527,000 Brinkmann shares in
open market transactions between August 12 and October 16 at
9.62 dlrs to 11.50 dlrs, or a total of 5.69 mln dlrs.
    Prospect Group said it bought the stock "to establish a
significant minority equity interest in the company," but does
not intend to seek control of Brinkmann at the present time.
    Prospect Group said it will review its investment
objectives regarding Brinkmann as warranted by market
conditions, the company's performance, and other factors
including discussions with Brinkmann management.
 Reuter

IC INDUSTRIES SAYS IT WILL CONSIDER POSSIBLE SALE OF ITS AEROSPACE BUSINESS

Warner Communications Investors Inc unit acquired stock and
warrants representing 416,668 shares of Berkey Inc common
stock, or the equivalent of 8.2 pct of the company's common
stock outstanding.
Warner Communications Investors said it paid about one mln dlrs
to Berkey on September 23 to acquire 104,167 shares of Berkey
Series B convertible preferred stock.
    The preferred stock is convertible into 208,334 Berkey
common shares, and warrants to buy another 208,334 shares.
    Warner Communications and its subsidiary said the Berkey
stock is held as an investment which they will review and
evaluate from time to time.
 Reuter

Oper shr 59 cts vs 49 cts
    Oper net 54.7 mln vs 44.8 mln
    Sales 1.04 billion vs 921.4 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 2.22 dlrs vs 1.62 dlrs
    Oper net 203.8 mln vs 150.4 mln
    Sales 3.14 billion vs 2.87 billion
    Avg shrs 91.6 mln vs 93.1 mln
    NOTE: 1986 share data restated to reflect 100 pct stock
dividend distributed June 12
   
    1987 operating net in both periods excludes additional gain
of 11.6 mln dlrs, or 13 cts a share, associated with 1985 sale
of Formica Brand Products Group business
    1987 nine month operating net includes pre-tax gain of 12.0
mln dlrs, equal to about 13 cts a share, from sale of
Jacqueline Cochran businesses
 Reuter

Shr 71 cts vs 49 cts
    Net 64.3 mln vs 43.7 mln
    Revs 838.2 mln vs 742.6 mln
    Avg shrs 89.9 mln vs 89.9 mln
 Reuter

Shr 1.62 dlrs vs 1.49 dlrs
    Net 321.8 mln vs 297.9 mln
    Revs 2.59 billion vs 2.49 billion
    Avg shrs 198.8 mln vs 199.5 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.80 dlrs vs 4.48 dlrs
    Net 955.4 mln vs 895.2 mln
    Revs 7.70 billion vs 7.32 billion
    Avg shrs 199.0 mln vs 199.7 mln
 Reuter

Shr profit 14 cts vs loss 19 cts
    Net profit 22.5 mln vs loss 30.0 mln
    Revs 693.0 mln vs 597.9 mln
    Avg shrs 166.0 mln vs 154.2 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net includes five mln dlr tax credit.
 Reuter

Shr 98 cts vs 70 cts
    Net 12.3 mln vs 8,699,000
    Sales 284.7 mln vs 280.7 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.83 dlrs vs 2.23 dlrs
    Net 35.3 mln vs 27.6 mln
    Sales 824.6 mln vs 818.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for December 1986 three-for-two split.
 Reuter

NUI Corp said it is studying
the feasibility of spinning off nonutility subsidiaries to
    The company said its propane disution, natural gas spot
marketing, data processing, oil and natural gas exploration and
production, natural gas gathering and underground pipe
replacement businesses had sales for the year ended September
30 of about 74 mln dlrs, or about 25 pct of total company
sales.  NUI's major subsidiary is utility Elizabethtown Gas.
 Reuter

Telex Corp said its board has directed
management and financial advisor Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc to
investigate possible alternatives to the tender offer of Asher
Edelman's TLX Partners for all Telex shares that may include
seeking other purchasers for Telex.
    The company said the board at an October 16 meeting decided
to defer until a board meeting later this week a recommendation
on the Edelman offer and said the board expects to make a
recommendation by October 23.
 Reuter

IBC ACQUISITION GETS 8,857,807 SHARES IN TENDER, TO BUY 90.9 PCT

Today's sharp sell-off of Swiss stocks and
matching falls around Europe may have been overdone, but the
mood on financial markets is precarious, Swiss securities
analysts and economists said.
    Panic selling took Swiss shares down six pct at the opening
on enormous volume, triggered by the slide on Wall Street and
the threat of renewed currency instability.
    "I have never experienced anything like this, and I've been
in the business for 20 years," said Bernhard Wyttenbach, head of
European research at Union Bank of Switzerland.
    The analysts blamed the sell-off in Europe on U.S. Monetary
authorities. This weekend, U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
publicly voiced his displeasure with West German monetary
policy. He said the eight-month-old Louvre accord to stabilise
currencies was still working, but added: "On the other hand, we
will not sit back and watch surplus countries jack up interest
rates and squeeze growth on the expectation that the United
States will raise rates."
    Hans Peter Ast of Societe Generale Alsacienne (Sogenal) in
Zurich said: "The situation is very dangerous. Statements by the
U.S. Authorities have fuelled anxiety about interest rates."
    Herbert Fritschi, director of Zurich Cantonal Bank's
financial research department, called the sell-off "overdone,"
but warned that the situation could worsen unless central banks
loosen their monetary policy.
    "I think the trend toward higher interest rates is over," he
said. "The Federal Reserve and the Bundesbank have to step in
with an easy money policy, or else there is going to be an
economic catastrophe. They have to act quickly."
    Wyttenbach said the "Black Monday" sell-off was clearly
exaggerated, with Swiss Reinsurance Co participation
certificates falling 20 pct in value at one point.
    But Wyttenbach said he did not believe that a correction
would come soon. First, the bad news will reach small investors
only in time for tomorrow's market, when there could be
another, smaller selling wave.
    "As soon as the dollar stabilises -- and that's the key --
then we'll get a strong movement upward," Wyttenbach said. But
that may not come soon.
    "People are simply worried that in America, where the market
has now fallen by 18 pct since August, the bull market is over,"
he said. "People are afraid that we'll have a recession in 1988."
    Baker was wrong to blame the West Germans for the current
problems and the weak dollar, Wyttenbach said. "We do not have a
mark problem, we have a dollar problem," he added, but said the
biggest culprit was the new chairman of the U.S. Federal
Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan.
    Wyttenbach recalled that Greenspan had suggested that the
dollar might be too high in the medium term and that interest
rates might have to rise. "As a central banker he shouldn't do
that," Wyttenbach said. "There is a danger that we will fall back
into the 1970s," he said. "We have a real crisis of confidence in
Greenspan. I would much rather have a Volcker."
    Paul Volcker retired as Fed chairman on August 11.
    Cantonal Bank's Fritschi said: "I'm relatively optimistic
because the situation looks too bad. The Fed certainly has to
intervene."
    He said he did not expect the Swiss National Bank to take
any significant steps, adding that the focus of attention
remains on the United States.
    "The panic started in New York, it has to end there."
    The Cantonal Bank sent an advisory to customers suggesting
they not sell into a panicked market, but wait a while before
deciding what to do.
 REUTER

Soviet Planning chief Nikolai Talyzin told
the Supreme Soviet (parliament) industrial output is planned to
rise by 4.5 pct in 1988, up from a planned 4.4 pct in 1987.
    In the first nine months of this year, industrial output
rose by 3.6 pct.
to gross national product, is planned to rise by 4.3 pct
against a planned 4.1 pct this year.
    He said grain production is planned at 235 mln tonnes in
1988, compared with a planned 232 mln this year.
    The Soviet Union produced 210 mln tonnes of grain in 1986
and the Soviet press has said heavy rain has affected the
harvest this year.
    Talyzin said the 1988 Soviet plan stressed the engineering
industry, which Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev has described
as a sector where rapid modernisation is essential if the
Soviet Union is to compete effectively on world markets.
Talyzin, who heads the state planning committee Gosplan.
increased output by 3.3 pct in the first nine months of this
year against the same period of 1986. This is well below the
7.3 pct rise planned for the industry for all of 1988.
    Talyzin said the ruling Politburo concluded at a recent
    Finance Minister Boris Gustev told the Supreme Soviet
defence spending in 1988 would total 20.2 billion roubles, the
same as announced last year.
    Talyzin said the Kremlin also had decided to increase
spending next year on medical services, education, pensions and
social insurance schemes
    He said state expenditures in these fields would reach 171
billion roubles in 1988, or 3.5 billion roubles more than had
originally been envisaged in the 1986-1990 Five-Year Plan.
 REUTER

Commission (CFTC) said the Kansas City Board of Trade's (KCBT)
one-minute audit trail system was adequate and accurate.
    But in its second rule enforcement review of an exchange's
audit trail system, CFTC said KCBT needed to provide a more
accurate indication of the percent of trades that meet the
one-minute timing standard.
    CFTC also recommended the exchange develop a computerized
program to compare time and sales prints to the record of
trades in its trade register.
 Reuter

IDC SERVICES AGREES TO BE ACQUIRED FOR 16 DLRS A SHARE BY APOLLO PARTNERS GROUP

Cooper Companies Inc filed with the
up to 300 mln dlrs of senior extendible notes set to mature on
January 1, 1993.
    Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc will act as an underwriter for
the proposed offering, Cooper said.
    Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt, for
general corporate purposes, and to support future growth.
 Reuter

said the management group led by chairman Martin Brody and
president Max Pine through October 16 had received 1,796,727
Class A and 1,766,091 Class B shares in response to its tender
offer for all shares at 18 dlrs each, giving thema majority of
each class of shares.
    The company said the tender has been extended until
November 6.
 Reuter

Shr 13 cts vs 22 cts
    Net 5,452,000 vs 9,789,000
    Sales 155.7 mln vs 135.1 mln
    NOTE: Prior year net includes gain 6,556,000 dlrs from sale
of shares of Seagate Technology Corp <SGAT.O>.
 Reuter

shr 1.99 dlrs vs 2.05 dlrs
    diluted shr 1.80 dlrs vs 1.75 dlrs
    net 50.0 mln vs 48.5 mln
    nine months
    shr 5.37 dlrs vs 5.69 dlrs
    diluted shr 4.87 dlrs vs 4.76 dlrs
    net 134.6 mln vs 129.6 mln
 Reuter

Gencorp's RKO General said it has
asked the Federal Communication scommission to reverse an
administrative law judge's decision to revoke all 14 of the
company's broadcast licenses.
    RKO General said "the decision was based on allegations of
    It said the decision did not challenge the quality of our
broadcasting. Yet, if the decision is allowed to stank, it will
destroy our right to broadcast."
 Reuter

Shr 1.16 dlrs vs 1.09 dlrs
    Net 128.1 mln vs 118.3 mln
    Avg Shrs 108.8 mln vs 105.7 mln
    Nine Months
    Shr 40 cts vs 3.12 dlrs
    Net 53.2 mln vs 335.1 mln
    Avg Shrs 108.0 mln vs 105.2 mln
    Note: Prior-period data have been restated to include on a
pooling-of-interest basis the August 31, 1987, acquisition of
Rainier Bancorporation.
 Reuter

Shr 1.77 dlrs vs 60 cts
    Net 58.2 mln vs 19.4 mln
    Revs 377.4 mln vs 188.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 3.10 dlrs vs 1.51 dlrs
    Net 100.3 mln vs 50.6 mln
    Revs 1.11 billion vs 639.7 mln
    NOTE: 3rd qtr 1987 net includes about 3,000,000 dlrs
after-tax extraordinary gain on retirement of debt.
 Reuter

Shr 70 cts vs 54 cts
    Net 16.7 mln vs 12.5 mln
    Revs 343.6 mln vs 323.1 mln
    Avg shrs 23.9 mln vs 24.8 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.98 dlrs vs 1.23 dlrs
    Net 46.9 mln vs 27.8 mln
    Revs 960.5 mln vs 893.2 mln
    Avg shrs 24.2 mln vs 24.9 mln
   
    NOTE: 1986 figures reflect the adjustment for 3-for-2 split
in May 1987.
    Net for nine mths 1987 includes a cumulative effect of a
change in accounting for gain on pension assets reversion of
10.1 mln or 42 cts a shr.

 Reuter

it plans to build a new computer that incorrates a unified
version of its UNIX System IV operating system and Sun
Microsystems Inc's recently annouced SPARC micropocessor.
    The SPARC chip is based on reduced instruction-set
computing, or RISC, technology. 
    ATT said the version of UNIX used by the new computer will
incorporate po;ular features of the Berkeley 4.2 system, a
dirative of the UNIX system used widely in scientific and
engineering markets, as well as features of SunOs, a variant of
the Berkely system sold by Sun.
    ATT said it would take 18 months to two years to develop
new computers based on the Sun microchip and the merged version
of the UNIX operating system.
    Vittorio Cassoni, president of ATT's newly-formed Data
Systems Group, said the company will not offer the new machines
until the merged version of UNIX is completed.
    "It's the software that will determine the availability of
products based on SPARC," he said.
    Eventually ATT's entire line of 3B mini computers will be
converted to the SPARC architecture, Cassoni said.
   
    The investment of all current users will be protected,
meaning that they will be able to maintain the software used on
the current 3B line, he said.
    Cassoni also said ATT's sales of computers declined in the
first nine months of the year compared with the first nine
    The lower sales were primarily the result of ATT's
transition to a new line of computers, he said.
    However, "demand for the new products is way, way above
expectation," he stated.
 Reuter

TELEX CORP TO INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVES TO TLX PARTNERS BID, MAY SEEK OTHER PURCHASERS

Shr 42 cts vs 21 cts
    Net 19.1 mln vs 9,528,000
    Sales 101.2 mln vs 65.6 mln
    Avg shrs 46.0 mln vs 46.0 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.08 dlrs vs 69 cts
    Net 49.1 mln vs 32.7 mln
    Sales 280.0 mln vs 201.0 mln
    Avg shrs 45.6 mln vs 47.4 mln
    NOTE: Share adjusted for February 1987 two-for-one split.
 Reuter

Iran said U.S. Naval forces attacked two
of its oil platforms in the southern Gulf on Monday afternoon,
the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
    IRNA, received in Nicosia, said an informed source at the
Iranian oil ministry identified the two platforms as Resalat
and Reshadat, about 60 miles from Iran's Lavan island oil
storage site.
    Regional shipping sources earlier said three Iranian
offshore oil sites at Sassan, Rostam and Rakhsh had been
attacked at 7.00 A.M. (0300 GMT) on Monday by unidentified
aircraft.
    In Washington, U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger
said four U.S. Destroyers attacked and destroyed an Iranian oil
platform about 120 miles east of Bahrain.
 REUTER

CHICAGO MERC'S AND P 500 STOCK INDEX FUTURES OPEN MORE THAN 20 POINTS LOWER

Oper shr loss 82 cts vs profit 12 cts
    Oper net loss 4,134,000 vs profit 544,000
    Nine mths
    Oper shr loss 80 cts vs profit 32 cts
    Oper net loss 3,615,000 vs profit 1,457,000
    NOTE: 1986 net excludes tax loss carryforwards of 105,000
dlrs in quarter and 195,000 dlrs in nine mths.
    1986 quarter net includes 212,000 dlr tax credit.
    1987 net both periods includes 3,700,000 dlr addition to
loan loss reserves due mostly to one out-of-state real estate
 Reuter

Shr 95 cts vs 36 cts
    Net 9,100,000 vs 3,300,000
    Revs 143.7 mln vs 132.4 mln
    Avg shrs 9,884,000 vs 9,780,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 2.77 dlrs vs 1.49 dlrs
    Net 26,600,000 vs 19,000,000
    Revs 401.8 mln vs 385.2 mln
    Avg shrs 9,871,000 vs 12,565,000
    NOTE: 1986 earnings include a loss from discontinued
operations of 1,000,000 dlrs, or 10 cts a share in the quarter
and a gain of 2,500,000 dlrs, or 19 cts a share for the nine
months
 Reuter

Rising service payments on Kenya's three
billion dlr external debt will absorb nearly all the 1.1
billion dlrs of foreign aid likely over the next four years,
President Daniel arap Moi said.
    "While we expect to receive 18.3 billion Kenyan shillings in
the form of external loans for our development programs in the
next four years, we will be repaying more than 13.5 billion...
By way of external debt servicing...," Moi told a conference of
American businessmen in Nairobi.
    The president added that if developing countries continue
to experience foreign exchange outflows on this scale, many
will be unable to sustain a level of imports necessary to
ensure economic growth. He called on the international
community to ensure a real transfer of resources from the
industrialised to the developing countries.
    Moi said Kenya had so far met all obligations regarding its
foreign debt, which his government has never tried to
reschedule.
 REUTER

Shr 38 cts vs 29 cts
    Net 21.3 mln vs 15.8 mln
    Revs 102.6 mln vs 66.8 mln
 Reuter

Shr 65 cts vs 10 cts
    Net 55,960,000 vs 8,785,000
    Revs 588.2 mln vs 596.1 mln
    Avg shrs 85,710,000 vs 87,987,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.24 dlrs vs 44 cts
    Net 106,738,000 vs 39,055,000
    Revs 1.98 billion vs 2.24 billion
    Avg shrs 86,320,000 vs 88,007,000
    NOTE: 1986 data restated for adoption of new accounting
standard relating to pensions
    1987 nine month earnings include 331 mln dlr after-tax
writeoff in the 4th Qtr of 1985 of a portion of the assets of
the company's Midland nuclear project
 Reuter

Shamrock Capital LP said it has
completed the sale of Cental Soya Co Inc to Ferruzzi Agricola
Finanziaria the holding company for the Ferruzzi group of
Ravenna, Italy.
    Shamrock Capital is a limited partnership led by Shamrock
Holdings Inc, the Roy E. Disney family company.
    Under the agreement announced last month, Ferruzzi acquired
all the equity and assumed subordinated term debt of about 195
mln dlrs in a transaction valued at about 370 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

Qtr ends Sept 25
    Shr 75 cts vs 64 cts
    Net 2,794,000 vs 2,363,000
    Revs 157.8 mln vs 138.4 mln
    NOTE: 1986 qtr figures exclude effect of 1986 tax reform
act which retroactively reduced earnings from 64 cts to 56 cts
per shr.
 Reuter

Autolatina, Volkswagen AG
<VOWG.F> and Ford Motor Co's <F> Latin American joint venture,
was expected to make losses of 500 mln marks from Brazilian
operations in 1987, VW spokesman Ortwin Witzel said.
    He could not comment on a report in the Frankfurter
Rundschau daily that Ford might pull out of the venture, set up
in 1986 to incorporate VW's and Ford's Brazilian and Argentine
operations. Ford holds 49 pct of Autolatina.
    Witzel blamed Autolatina's losses on Brazil's government
price restrictions but said the losses were in line with
expectations. VW's Brazil unit lost 258 mln marks in 1986.
 Reuter

U.S. warships attacked and destroyed
an Iranian oil platform on Monday in retaliation for Friday's
Iranian attack damaging a U.S.-flagged ship, U.S. Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger said.
    When asked how much was left of the oil platform,
Weinberger said, "Nothing."
    "There was no Iranian reaction," he said. "... We consider
this matter is now closed."
    Weinberger said four U.S. destroyers attacked the platform
about 120 miles east of Bahrain in the central Gulf with fire
at 0700 EDT, Weinberger said.
    "We chose a platform used by the Iranians to interfere with
and be a source of potential attack on convoys...," Weinberger
said at a Pentagon briefing. 
    "We know it has been used indeed, to not only launch small
boat attacks on shipping but to fire on U.S. helicopters...
    "It's removal will contribute significantly to the safety of
U.S. forces in the future," Weinberger said of the U.S. Navy's
operation to escort oil tankers through the Gulf.
    "We do not seek further confrontation with Iran but we will
be prepared to meet any escalation of military actions by Iran
    He said the 20 to 30 Iranian personnel on the oil platform
were given a 20-minute warning to abandon the platform.
    "As far as we know they did abandon the site," he said.
    Weinberger was asked why the United States had chosen to
attack an oil platform rather than Iranian Silkworm missile
platforms blamed by Washington for Friday's attack.
 Reuter

Shr profit 10 cts vs profit eight cts
    Net profit 477,853 vs profit 348,384
    Sales 17.7 mln vs 17.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr loss 35 cts vs profit 45 cts
    Net loss 1,639,216 vs profit 2,305,700
    Sales 56.2 mln vs 57.1 mln
    Avg shrs 4,698,501 vs 5,075,717
    NOTE: Earnings in the 2nd Qtr of 1987 were reduced by
3,262,000 dlrs, or 69 cts a share from a charge reflecting
elimination or transfer of certain product lines and operations
at the company's Racine, Wis. foundry
 Reuter

Ogden Corp said its Ogden Martin System
of Berks Inc subsidiary has signed a contract with Berks
County, Pa., to build, own and operate a resource recovery
plant designed to process 365,000 tons per year of municipal
solid waste.
    Ogden said 66 of the 75 municipalities in the county have
signed letters of intent to be served by the facility.
    It said initial financing will include 75 mln dlrs in tax
exempt resources recovery revenue bonds to be issued by the
Berks County Industrial Development Authority, the company
said.
   
    Another 75 mln dlrs Pennsylvania State Bond Allocation is
pending, Ogden said. The company will contribute about 21.1 mln
dlrs in equity.
    It said total cost is about 105 mln dlrs, plus escalation,
for the plant which will produce about 30 megawatts of
electricity.
 Reuter

Holdings Inc the Roy E. Disney family company.
mln dlrs in a trction valued at about 370 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

its subsidiary <Hong Kong Telephone Co Ltd> would cease to be a
listed company, following the restructure of the company's Hong
Kong units.
    Earlier today the company announced that Hong Kong
Telephone and Cable and Wireless Hong Kong, in which the
territory's government has a 20 pct stake, would become
subsidiaries of a newly formed holding company, Hong Kong
Telecommunications.
    In exchange for the Cable and Wireless Hong Kong capital,
Hong Kong Telecommunications will issue 4.18 billion new shares
to Cable and Wireless Plc's Cable and Wireless (Far East) Ltd.
    That subsidiary now holds the group's 80 pct stake in Cable
and Wireless Hong Kong and about 22 pct of H.K. Telephone.
    It will issue an additional 1.05 billion shares to the
goverment.
    That will leave the Cable and Wireless group with an 80 pct
stake in Hong Kong Telecommunications, the government 11 pct
and nine pct in public hands.
    But that will be reduced early next year after a placement
of 11 pct of the issued shares of Hong Kong Telecommunications
by both Cable and Wireless and the government.
 Reuter

Texaco Inc said it has been asked by
a committee of shareholders about the possibility of the
company paying a preferred stock dividend to shareholders.
    The company said the inquiry, from the Equity Security
Holders Committee, outlines the committee's ideas on how such a
dividend might be paid.
    Texaco said it would explore the committee's outline, as
well as other options that would support shareholders'
interests and assets.
 Reuter

Bank of France added money market liquidity at 7-3/4 pct - dealers

GAF Corp said the management group
led by chairman Samuel J. Heyman intends to reconsider its
proposal to acquire GAF.
    On September 8, the group offered 64.00 dlrs in cash and
2.50 dlrs principal amount of 15 pct junior subordinated
debentures due 2007 for each GAF share.  Heyman owns about
2,700,000 of GAF's 33.5 mln shares outstanding.
    In a letter to the committee of independent directors
formed to consider the offer, Heyman said it will have to
modify the terms of the offer if it is to continue the bid, due
to rising interest rates and financial market conditions.
    Heyman said "In the considerable time that has elapsed
since our original proposal was submitted, the credit and
financial markets have experienced extraordinary and almost
unprecedented deterioration.  As of the present time, the
average interest rate on the financing which we proposed to
raise in connection with the acquisition has increased, since
the original proposal, by approximately 150 basis points."
    He said the group intends to promptly review all available
options, including the revision of its offer to reflect current
 Reuter

Tandem Computers Inc said it has
introduced an 84-gigabyte write-once, read-many-times optical
disk library subsystem called the 5200 Optical Storage Facility
for use with Tandem NonStop computer systems VLX, TXP, NonStop
II, EXT25 and EXT10.
    The company said the facility contains two read/write disk
drives, a formatter and an automatic changer for up to 32 disk
cartridges, each holding 2.62 gigabytes of data.  It said the
52oo provides an average access time of 250 milliseconds for
data on an optical disk cartridge already mouinted and 17
seconds when a cartridge must be changed.
    Tandem said deliveries will start this quarter.  It said
the 5200 is priced at 155,000 dlrs.
    It said the software initial license fee is 5,300 dlrs and
the monthly license fee is 100 dlrs with the NonStop VLX, TXP,
NonStop II and EXT25 systems and the fees are 2,650 dlrs and 50
dlrs respectively with the EXT10 system.
 Reuter

South Korea's national news agency, Yonhap,
said this year's current account surplus will near 10 billion
dlrs amid signs of continuing high world demand for the
country's cheap cars and electronic goods.
    Bank of Korea officials would neither confirm nor deny the
Yonhap forecast, saying only that the bank would issue its own
figures later in the week.
    Yonhap said the January-September surplus in the current
account, which covers trade in goods and services, totalled
7.03 billion dlrs.
    This already exceeds the seven billion dlr ceiling for the
whole of 1987 that the government set in June during talks with
the International Monetary Fund aimed at averting a too rapid
revaluation of the won against the dollar.
    The agency said the September surplus was 1.4 billion dlrs,
up from 468.1 mln in August and 899 mln a year earlier.
    "Exports in October could be relatively modest due to many
public holidays, but by the end of this year the surplus will
be well over nine billion dollars, close to ten," Yonhap said.
    The sharp rise in the September surplus came from a
resumption of export deliveries delayed by strikes the previous
month.
    More than 3,300 companies, including car manufacturers,
electronic and electric firms, were hit by labour unrest
between July and September.
    The South Korean government originally targeted a five
billion dlr current account surplus this year, but had to raise
this to seven billion to reflect a startling first-half export
boom.
    If confirmed, the soaring 1987 current account surplus
seemed certain to trigger tougher pressure from the United
States which recorded a 7.4 billion dlr trade deficit with
Seoul last year, government economists said.
    The U.S. Government, trying to stem protectionist pressure
at home, has called on South Korea to open more markets to
American goods and revalue the won faster.
    The won was fixed at 804.90 against the dollar on Monday,
representing a 7.01 pct gain so far this year.
 REUTER

    Shr diluted 30 cts vs 17 cts
    Net 3,454,000 vs 1,546,000
    Sales 84.0 mln vs 59.2 mln
    Avg shrs 11.6 mln vs 8,917,000
    Avg shrs diluted 11.7 mln vs 11.2 mln
    Nine mths
    Shr 91 cts vs 72 cts
    Shr diluted 90 cts vs 65 cts
    Net 10.5 mln vs 5,959,000
    Sales 236.7 mln vs 168.9 mln
    Avg shrs 11.5 mln vs 8,227,000
    Avg shrs diluted 11.6 mln vs 11.2 mln
 Reuter

Unidentified jets attacked three Iranian
oil rigs in the southern Gulf early on Monday, setting at least
one of them ablaze, regional shipping sources said.
    Earlier today in Washington, U.S. Television networks had
reported that American forces launched a retaliatory strike
against Iran late Sunday, attacking two Iranian offshore oil
drilling platforms and setting them ablaze.
    The shipping sources said Iran's Sassan, Rostam and Rakhsh
offshore oilfields were attacked at 0700 local (0300 GMT) by a
wave of jet fighter bombers. Smoke was seen spiralling up from
the Rostam field soon after.
    At least one of the other two targets was also believed to
be ablaze, the sources said.
    The Sassan and Rostam fields have been targets for Iraqi
air strikes in the past, but Baghdad had not reported any
southern Gulf missions prior to news of the latest attack.
    Shipping and military sources in the region have said Iran
used its southern Gulf rigs as bases to launch helicopter and
later speedboat attacks on neutral ships in the waterway.
    U.S. Officials had been meeting on a response since Friday
when an attack on a Kuwaiti port severely damaged a
U.S.-flagged ship. President Reagan said on Sunday he had
already made a decision on the U.S. Response to Friday's Iran
attack but would not say what the decision was.
 REUTER

Deutsche Bank AG joint chief executive
Friedrich Wilhelm Christians said he believed the Louvre accord
on currency stability was still intact.
    Christians told a news conference he met U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker in the last two weeks, after short term
German interest rates had risen twice.
    "I am sure that with 1.7720 marks the dollar is still within
the Louvre agreement. I do not see that the accord has been
terminated," Christians said. He was responding to questions
about comments by Baker, who said the Louvre accord was still
operative but criticised rises in West German interest rates.
 REUTER

GAF CORP SAID MANAGEMENT GROUP TO RECONSIDER ACQUISITION PROPOSAL

    Net 1,612,000 vs 1,571,000
    Revs 28.8 mln vs 25.0 mln
    Avg shrs 12.8 mln vs 13.3 mln
 Reuter

    Net 5,436,000 vs 3,888,000
    Sales 43.9 mln vs 31.5 mln
    Avg shrs 30,145,000 vs 28,976,000
    Nine mths
    Net 15,320,000 vs 11,098,000
    Sales 123.6 mln vs 91.2 mln
    Avg shrs 30,157,000 vs 29,046,000
    NOTE: Earnings adjusted for three-for-two stock split paid
June 20, 1986
 Reuter

Privately-held NeoRx Corp said it has
entered into an exclusive agreement with Genentech Inc for the
development of an injectable diagnostic to image blood clots.
    It said it Genentech will be responsible for marketing, and
NeoRx will receive royalties based on sales.  The product will
use a proprietary NeoRx method of attaching the radioisotope
technetium-99m to Genentech's blood clot dissolving drug tissue
plasminogen activator, or Activase.
 Reuter

Unidentified jets raided three Iranian
oil rigs in the southern Gulf on Monday, setting at least one
of them ablaze, regional shipping sources said.
 Reuter

its common stock will continue to be quoted on the NASDAQ
system due to an exception from National Association of
Securities Dealers capital and surplus requirements, which it
failed to meet as of August 31.
 Reuter

SHIPPING SOURCES SAY UNIDENTIFIED JETS RAID IRANIAN OIL PLATFORMS IN SOUTHERN GULF

Unidentified jets raid Iranian oil platforms in southern Gulf - shipping sources

Saudi Arabia is likely to remain the key
supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Japan for at least
the next five years, oil industry sources said.
    Japan, while diversifying its supply sources of propane and
butane for stable supplies, will continue to bank on Saudi
Arabian LPG, the sources said.
    They said Saudi's supply capabilities of LPG, an associate
of crude oil, is guaranteed by its crude output capacity. "Saudi
is a reliable supplier in that sense," said one trader.
    Japan imports about 50 pct of its LPG from Saudi Arabia.
    No single nation could substitute for Saudi Arabia as an
LPG supply source to Japan, the sources said.
    "Saudi Arabia has committed itself to Japanese LPG buyers,
which has quelled fears that LPG supplies from the Mideast Gulf
could easily be disrupted in the wake of heightened hostilities
in that area," said another trader.
    Saudi Arabia cut LPG shipments to Japan and elsewhere by 20
pct in September after a fire put a major gas plant at
Al-Juaimah out of operation. October shipments were back to
contractual volumes as Saudi was able to boost exports from
other ports.
    Attacks on Gulf shipping by Iran and Iraq centered on crude
rather than products carriers, which has lulled fears of LPG
supply disruptions, traders said.
    They said an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was
unlikely because it would block Iran's oil shipments.
    Industry sources said Japan's LPG imports will not greatly
rise or fall as its domestic demand growth is estimated at a
moderate 2.1 pct a year from 1986 through 1991.
    Japanese term buyers of Saudi LPG are expected to lift
slightly lower volumes from January 1987, when imports from
Indonesia are slated to increase, the sources said.
    The customers are unlikely to slash Saudi term purchases in
large scale when Japan increases annual imports of Indonesian
LPG to 1.95 mln tonnes in early 1989 from 319,000 tonnes in the
year ended March 1987, the sources said.
    But when demand is sluggish in summer, they will phase down
term purchases of Saudi LPG and secure lower-priced cargoes on
the spot market, they said.
    Japan imports some 12 mln tonnes of LPG a year, of which
5.3 mln tonnes are supplied by Saudi Arabia, 3.3 mln under term
contracts and two mln through spot purchases. Some 80 pct of
Japan's LPG imports are from the Middle East.
    Saudi Arabia's state owned oil company Petromin has made
some concessions on term prices to Japanese customers in the
recent round of contract renewal talks, and it is likely the
Japanese will accept the offer, the sources said.
    The Japanese term customers, however, have so far been
unsuccessful in establishing a transparent price formula to
replace the existing unilateral monthly price notice.
    Japanese buyers pay Saudi Arabia a price notified by
Petromin each month. Most recently the FOB price was set at 87
pct of the 17.52 dlrs per barrel government selling price (GSP)
of Arabian Light.
    Buyers reserve the right to phase down or out liftings
should the monthly price be set at over 95 pct of Arabian
Light's GSP.
    Petromin has offered to lower this rate to 90 pct from the
95 pct for contracts with Japanese customers from next January,
the trade sources said.
    Petromin also suggested that a seller's option of supplying
up to 20 pct more than the contractural volume be subject to
seller-buyer agreement.
    Under the present contract, Petromin can automatically cut
supplies up to 10 pct of the contractual volume.
    "If you want to import LPG from Saudi Arabia on a profitable
basis, you have to set the price factor at 80 to 85 pct," said
an official at a major importer. "Freight costs are higher for
cargoes coming from the Gulf than Southeast Asia due to a
longer haul and war risk insurance payments."
    Japanese customers will visit Saudi Arabia this month to
finalise their separate contract talks, now focusing on
contractual period and volume, which could be very similar to
current levels, the sources said. "When we talk business, we
would seek profitability and sometimes forget vulnerability of
high dependence on a single supplier," said one.
 REUTER

<Bechtel Corp> said it has formed a
joint venture with Control Resource Industries Inc called
Bechtel-Control Asbestos Management Inc to perform large-scale
asbestos abatement projects.
 Reuter

Shr loss nine cts vs loss 12 cts
    Net loss 649,000 vs loss 850,000
    Revs 5,059,000 vs 4,084,000
    Avg shrs 7,041,000 vs 6,900,000
    NOTE: Current year net includes charge 152,000 dlrs from
amortization of previously capitalized software costs.
Capitalized product development costs 276,000 dlrs vs 640,000
dlrs.
 Reuter

Shr 36 cts vs 36 cts
    Shr diluted 34 cts vs 31 cts
    Net 1,679,000 vs 1,418,000
    Sales 147.2 mln vs 121.5 mln
    Avg shrs 4,608,000 vs 3,963,000
    Avg shrs diluted 5,585,000 vs 5,463,000
    Nine mths
    Shr 1.04 dlrs vs 86 cts
    Shr diluted 93 cts vs 77 cts
    Net 4,387,000 vs 3,393,000
    Sales 420.3 mln vs 338.7 mln
    Avg shrs 4,233,000 vs 3,948,000
    Avg shrs diluted 5,564,000 vs 5,468,000   
 Reuter

Shr 52 cts vs 43 cts
    Net 17.7 mln vs 14.2 mln
    Sales 413.1 mln vs 361.6 mln
    Avg shrs 34.3 mln vs 30.3 mln
    Nine mths
    Oper shr 1.58 dlrs vs 66 cts
    Oper net 53.9 mln vs 26.7 mln
    Sales 1.22 billion vs 1.08 billion
    Avg shrs 33.5 mln vs 35.2 mln
    NOTE: 1986 nine mths net includes 20.6 mln dlr provision
for restructuring but excludes 85.0 mln dlr gain on sale of
discontinued glass business and 1,330,000 dlr gain from
    Quarter orders 350.2 mln dlrs vs 296.7 mln dlrs.  Backlog
507.6 mln dlrs vs 444.4 mln dlrs.
 Reuter

The thriving market in Luxembourg
franc bond issues has been temporarily stalled by the Belgian
government crisis which has put the franc under pressure and
forced up interest rates, banking sources said.
    On Monday, King Baudouin accepted the resignation of
Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens' coalition and asked
him to try to form a new government.
    Because of the crisis, Banque Generale du Luxembourg SA
(BGL) has delayed a public issue for one billion Luxembourg
francs, originally scheduled for the end of last week, BGL
director Robert Sharfe said.
    He said the issue would probably go ahead later this week.
    It is likely there will be an upward adjustment in interest
rates on Luxembourg franc bond private placements, banking
sources said. However, no new placements are scheduled for
another 10 days.
    The latest issue last Friday for Swedish Export Credit Corp
(SEK) carried a coupon of 7-1/2 pct, whereas in previous issues
the interest was set lower at 7-3/8 pct.
    Interest rates on the Luxembourg franc, which is in parity
with the Belgian franc, are strongly affected by Belgian rates.
    On Friday, Belgium increased the rate on three-month
Treasury certificates by 0.5 pct to 7.15 pct as the Belgian
franc came under pressure.
    Private placements in Luxembourg francs have become
increasingly popular, particularly with Scandivanian borrowers,
because they carry a relatively low interest rate.
    Private investors also have flocked to buy Luxembourg franc
bond issues because the franc was seen as a fairly strong
currency.
 REUTER

U.S. television networks said on
Monday that U.S. forces launched a retaliatory strike against
Iran late Sunday, apparently attacking two Iranian offshore oil
drilling platforms.
    NBC News said it understood six Iranians had been pulled
from the sea.
    It said cautiously that U.S. forces attacked late Sunday
and that two Iranian oil platforms east of Bahrain were ablaze
as a result, but CBS News and other networks said flatly that
U.S. forces attacked the Iranian oil platforms.
    U.S. officials had been meeting on a response since Friday
U.S.-flagged ship.
    President Reagan said on Sunday he had already made a
decision on the U.S. response to Friday's Iran attack but would
not say what the decision was.
    Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said on Saturday the
attack on a U.S.-flagged ship in Kuwaiti waters on Friday was
almost certainly by an Iran Silkworm missile.
 Reuter

Thai traders plan to establish a company
to regulate maize forward trading, in what could be a first
step towards a commodities futures exchange, maize dealers
said.
    Traders and Internal Trade Department officials agreed last
week to commission a study on a structure to regulate maize
forward trading and to set up a company, Thailand Commodity
Exchange Co Ltd, with 30 businesses as shareholders who will
act as brokers in the futures market.
    Chanthong Pattamapong, a commodities trader asked to to
draw up the study, said if the maize futures market succeeds it
may be extended to other commodities, perhaps sugar and rubber.
 REUTER

U.S. TELELVISION NETWORKS SAY THE U.S. LAUNCHED A STRIKE AGAINST IRAN

Bundesbank buys 11.7 mln dlrs as dollar fixed lower at 1.7740 marks

The Reserve Bank of India said it was
tightening its credit policy for commercial banks by raising
their cash reserve ratio by 0.5 pct to 10 pct, effective from
October 24.
    The move, announced last weekend, is part of the bank's
policy for the second half of fiscal 1987/88 ending March and
is aimed at curbing excess bank liquidity.
    The central bank also put selective controls on bank
advances to the oilseeds, vegetable oils and foodgrains trades.
    "The policy's main objective is to fully meet the credit
requirements of agriculture, industry and exports, while
preventing excessive monetary expansion," bank Governor R.N.
Malhotra told an earlier meeting of chief executives of banks.
    Malhotra said the rate of monetary expansion must be kept
under control in the second half of the current financial year.
    Bank deposits rose 75.40 billion rupees in the first six
months of fiscal 1987/88 against 66.92 billion in the same
period last year, according to the bank.
    Bankers said the bank's move to raise the cash reserve
ratio by 0.5 pct will mean impounding about five billion rupees
from the banking system. Banks' total deposits are estimated at
around 1,000 billion rupees.
    They said banks are under pressure because of low returns
on commercial lending and investments in government securities.
    "Already many banks are finding it difficult to maintain
their statutory liquidity and cash reserve ratios and are
resorting to heavy inter-bank borrowings," said one banker.
 REUTER

Malaysian police denied rumours of
race riots in Kuala Lumpur after an armed man killed one person
and injured two others in an attack on two petrol stations in a
racially-sensitive area of the city.
    A police statement broadcast over official Radio Malaysia
called on the public not to listen to the rumours and go about
their normal business.
    "Everything is under control. It's only a small matter and
there is no cause for alarm," a police spokesman told Reuters
after confirming the shooting on Sunday night.

    However, rumours that riots had broken out hit the stock
market and shares on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange fell
across the board in heavy nervous selling when the market
opened this morning, brokers said.
    Police said they cordoned off the district of Chow Kit and
set up road blocks from midnight after the man, armed with a
rifle, killed one Malay and injured another Malay and a
Chinese. He set fire to one of the petrol stations.

 REUTER

French bourse main session 7.25 pct down in early trading - dealers

Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport <PUMA.F> said
it posted a 1987 first-half group loss of about 14 mln marks,
of which the largest portion was in the U.S.
    Managing board chairman Armin Dassler told the annual
shareholders' meeting parent company turnover was expected to
fall to 650 mln marks over the whole year from 698.4 mln in
1986.
    No comparative figure for 1986 first half group loss was
available. In the whole of 1986 Puma posted a group
consolidated loss of 41.05 mln marks.
    Dassler said Puma hoped to improve performance in the U.S.
This year, where heavy losses were mainly responsible for the
1986 deficit.
    He said Puma expected to post a group loss in the second
half of this year but the shortfall would be lower than in the
first half. The same applied to expected parent company losses,
he added.
    Dassler said Puma had taken measures to improve future
    Dassler said the measures included changing Puma's  
product range, closing down some unprofitable factories in West
Germany and France and introducing general cost-cutting.
    He said Puma hoped to break even in 1988 in the U.S., Its
most important export market.
    Dassler said a personal payment he would make to
shareholders instead of a 1986 dividend was a goodwill gesture
which would not be repeated.
    Dassler said the payment to holders of Puma's 280,000
non-voting preference shares would amount to about 1.2 mln
marks, or 4.50 marks per share.
    Armin Dassler and his brother Gerd hold all of Puma's
720,000 ordinary voting shares. They offered the preference
shares to the public in July last year.
    Dassler said shareholders would benefit if Puma improved
performance next year. He did not elaborate.
    Dassler said he and his brother were planning to leave the
managing board and join the supervisory board.
    He said he was leaving for health reasons and because he
wanted to make way for a new chairman from outside the company.
His successor has not been made known yet.
    Dassler said today's meeting was expected to approve
Manfred Emcke as Puma's new supervisory board chairman,
replacing Vinzenz Grothgar.
 REUTER

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman
said he had no information on London oil and stock market
rumors that the United States had launched a retaliatory strike
against Iran for an attack on Friday that damaged a U.S. shi
    "I don't have anything," Major Randy Morger said. "I have no
information at all."
    Some of the rumors in the London markets were that the
United States had launched an offshore strike against Iranian
missile installations.
 Reuter

South Yemen is planning a major oil
pipeline system to be completed in 18-months time to start
exports at a initial rate of 100,000 barrels per day, (bpd) the
Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) said.
    MEES said government approval for the export pipeline
followed a visit to Aden by a high ranking delegation from the
Soviet Union, which will help South Yemen construct the line
    The engineering studies for the pipeline are nearly
finished and construction is expected to start early next year,
the industry newsletter said.
    The pipeline will run about 170-200 kms (105-125 miles)
from Shabwa oilfields to a coastal terminal at Bir 'Ali on the
Gulf of Aden, MEES said.
     MEES said the Soviet firm Technoexport, which is
developing oilfileds for South Yemen, has substantially
increased its initial reserve estimates and recommended a
pipeline with an eventual 500,000 bpd capacity.
    The discovery of commercial quaotities of oil was confirmed
by Technoexport earlier this year in three structures in the
Shabwa region in the Northwestern part of the country, 200 kms
east of North Yemen's Alif oilfield.
 REUTER

Trafalgar House Plc <TRAF.L> said it has
acquired the entire share capital of <Capital Homes Inc> of the
U.S. For 20 mln dlrs in cash.
    Capital Homes builds single family homes in the Washington
D.C. Area and is also active as a land developer both for its
own use and for sale to other builders.
    In the financial year to end February, 1987, Capital
recorded pre-tax profits of 3.7 mln dlrs on a turnover of 58
mln dlrs from the sale of 421 homes. Capital has a land bank of
some 2,600 units and in the current year the company expects to
sell 500 homes, Trafalgar House said.
 REUTER

Sprint II, a special purpose corporation
based in the Cayman Islands, is issuing 35 mln dlrs of floating
rate bonds due November 6, 1992 and priced at 100.10, said Fuji
International finance Ltd as lead manager.
    The bonds are backed by a pool of 48.7 mln dlrs of Japanese
ex-warrant bonds. The bonds are priced to yield 20 basis points
over the six month London Interbank Offered Rate. They are
available in denominations of 100,000 dlrs and are payable on
November 6. There is a seven basis point management and
underwriting fee, an eight basis point selling concession and a
two basis point praecipuum.
 REUTER

French main session bourse opening delayed 15 minutes by order volume - dealers

Kuwait's oil exports have not been
affected by the seven-year Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait Oil Tanker
Company (KOTC) Chairman and Managing Director Abdul Fattah
al-Bader told a Kuwaiti newspaper.
    "Kuwait has exploited all available opportunities to
continue exporting its oil without any reduction," the Al-Anbaa
newspaper quoted him as saying.
    He said KOTC made profits of more than two mln dinars
(seven mln dlrs) in the fiscal year ending last June, but
predicted lower profits this year due to higher costs for
chartering and operating vessels.
 REUTER

Toyota Motor Corp <TOYO.T> and Volkswagen
AG <VOWG.F> are considering raising the local procurement rate
at their West German joint venture to at least 60 pct from an
earlier planned 50 pct after one year's output, a Toyota
    The two carmakers agreed last June to start jointly
producing a Toyota-designed light truck at VW's Hanover plant
from early 1989 at a rate of 7,000 to 8,000 the first year,
rising to 15,000 from 1990.
    They may equip the light truck with a Volkswagen-made
engine to reach a local procurement rate of 60 pct, he said.

    The two companies need to raise the value of locally
procured parts to 60 pct to avoid tariffs when they export to
other European markets, industry sources said.

 REUTER

Karl Otto Poehl, head of West Germany's
central bank, and Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg are
normally so much in agreement that some foreigners doubt the
central bank's independence.
    But a rare public row between the ebullient Poehl,
president of the Bundesbank, and Stoltenberg, over a
controversial investment tax proposal, has added to the woes of
the country's already nervous financial markets, bankers said.
    Poehl told an investment symposium in Frankfurt last
Thursday he feared the tax would raise borrowing costs and
interest rates
    Stoltenberg quickly issued a statement rebutting Poehl's
criticism, saying West Germany would remain an attractive place
for foreign investors.
    "The obvious lack of coordination between the Bundesbank and
Finance Ministry does not instil confidence in foreign
investors," said one economist for a London broker, who asked
not to be identified.
    Bankers here expressed confidence the two top financial
policy-makers would quickly patch up their relationship to
steer the economy through a particularly difficult time.
    "There are plenty of objective pressures which will result
in things getting back to normal again after a period of ill
feeling," said Commerzbank AG chief economist Juergen Pfister.
    News on October 9 that the government was planning a 10 pct
withholding tax wiped billions of marks off shares and bonds in
a market already reeling from rising interest rates at home and
abroad.
    Bankers said the Bundesbank was angered by the way the
finance ministry announced the plan -- without consulting the
Bundesbank adequately, and allowing apparently conflicting
details to dribble out into an unprepared and uncertain market.
    Both Poehl, 57, and Stoltenberg, 59, have been under
extraordinary pressures lately.
    Poehl has had to switch to the hard line promoted by his
deputy, Helmut Schlesinger, jacking up interest rates to fight
inflationary fears and abandoning the pragmatic policies he had
pursued so far this year to promote currency stability.
    In recent statements Poehl has sounded more like
Schlesinger. For years the softly-spoken economist has been
warning in speech after speech that excessive money supply
growth would eventually lead to rising prices.
    Schlesinger now has a majority of support in the Bundesbank
council, and since late summer Poehl has had to represent his
views, bankers said.
    "Poehl is in a minority in his own house," said Commerzbank's
Pfister.
    "Poehl is in a dilemma. He must follow a policy that is not
entirely his own," said another economist.
    The dilemma is that if German interest rates rise too far,
they will attract funds into the country, pushing up the mark
and hurting West German exporters.
    The dollar has now shed some seven pfennigs since the
Bundesbank's new tack became clear in early October.
    Since last Thursday, United States Treasury Secretary James
Baker has criticized the Bundesbank rate increases.
    Bankers said this could foreshadow a revival of the 1986
war of words between the U.S. And West Germany, in which U.S.
Officials talked down the dollar to force West Germany to
stimulate its economy and thus suck in more U.S. Exports.
    One way West Germany agreed to do this was making a round
of tax cuts worth 39 billion marks from 1990.
    But financing these tax cuts has proved more difficult for
Stoltenberg than he had bargained for.
    The cool, unflappable northerner, who was regularly voted
most popular government politician last year, had to face
resistance from local barons in the government coalition
parties and from trade unions to his planned subsidy cuts.
    The withholding tax was intended to plug one gap by raising
4.3 billion marks.
    But it has caused an outcry among bankers, who say it will
push up borrowing costs. The extra amount this costs the
government could wipe out the revenue the tax brings in.
    Meanwhile Stoltenberg is dealing with a local political row
which has turned into the country's worst political scandal.
    Stoltenberg had to leave monetary talks in Washington last
month early to sort out a row in the northern state of
Schleswig-Holstein, where he heads the ruling CDU party.
    The state's CDU premier, Uwe Barschel, had to resign after
allegations of a "dirty tricks" election campaign led to heavy
losses for the CDU in state elections.
    Barschel was found dead in a hotel bath in Geneva last
weekend. Police say the death appears to have been suicide.
    Cooperation between Poehl and Stoltenberg is all the more
remarkable as Poehl is in the opposition Social Democrats, and
was appointed by former chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
    When Poehl's contract came up for renewal earlier this
year, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's CDU-led coalition government
gave Poehl another eight-year term.
    Werner Chrobok, managing partner at Bethmann Bank, said he
hoped the two men would soon be of one opinion again.
    But when Poehl criticized Stoltenberg's tax plans he was
not only voicing what many bankers felt but demonstrating the
Bundesbank's independence of government, Chrobok said.
 REUTER

Fletcher Challenge Ltd <FLTC.WE> (FCL)
announced a striking price of 5.89 N.Z. Dlrs a share for
shareholders who have elected to receive bonus shares under its
dividend reinvestment plan.
    It said in a statement the price was determined by taking
90 pct of the weighted average prices of ordinary shares sold
on the New Zealand Stock Exchange between October 12 and 19.
    FCL shares were quoted from Monday as ex-dividend and
closed at 6.10 dlrs.

 REUTER

Venezuelan Central Bank President Hernan
Anzola has submitted his resignation and asked President Jaime
Lusinchi to transfer him to a post in the oil industry, two
leading Venezuelan newspapers reported.
    The El Universal and El Nacional papers said Anzola would
leave his position soon. Lusinchi already has decided on his
successor, the El Nacional reported.
    Central Bank officials were not available for comment.

    Banking sources said Anzola differed with the Finance
Ministry over economic policy, particularly over the direction
of interest rates. He favoured raising the rates, which are
currently well below the annual inflation rate of 33.2 pct.
    But the sources said he ran into opposition from Finance
Ministry and government officials who thought an interest
increase would fuel inflation.

 REUTER

Bundesbank adds money market liquidity at 3.70-3.80 pct -dealers

issued a firm call for the continued faithful application of
the Louvre accords on currency stability by all major
industrial countries.
    Balladur, responding to weekend remarks by U.S. Treasury
Secretary James Baker that the U.S. Would take another look at
the accords, said "I firmly desire a faithfull and firm
adherence by all the major industrial countries to the Louvre
accords -- in both their letter and spirit."
    On Sunday, Baker said last week's rise in short-term West
German interest rates was not in keeping with the accords.

    The Louvre accords, agreed in Paris last February, called
for stability among the major currencies after a prolonged
dollar slide.
    The accords were reaffirmed by the Group of Seven Finance
Ministers in Washington last month.
    But Baker said at the weekend that the West German rate
rise was "not in keeping with the spirit of what we agreed to."
    "What I'm really saying is that they should not expect us to
simply sit back here and accept increased tightening on their
part on the assumption that somehow we are going to follow
them," he added.

 REUTER

<Hyundai Auto Canada Inc>, a unit of
South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co <HYUN.SE>, is expected to award
Chemical Asia Ltd a mandate later this week to arrange a 100
mln U.S. Dlr loan, banking sources said.
    The nine-year loan will carry interest of 1/4 point over
the London interbank offered rate. No other details were
    A Chemical spokesman declined comment.

 REUTER

King Baudouin is expected to accept the
resignation of Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens's
centre-right coalition government after last-ditch talks failed
to solve a language row, state-run RTBF radio said.
    The King could ask Martens or another political leader to
put together a new government or to form a caretaker
administration with elections at the end of November or in
early December.
    The King has so far withheld a decision on whether to
accept the resignation last Thursday of Martens's coalition of
Dutch and French speaking parties over the linguistic conflict.

    Martens has used the breathing space to try to put together
a compromise solution but RTBF and the Belgian news agency
Belga said leading ministers ended their talks early on Monday
morning without agreement.
    "The resignation of the government will no doubt be accepted
by the King in the near future," RTBF said.
    The King has no formal deadline for announcing his decision
but has been widely expected to do so on Monday.

 Reuter

<Williams Holdings Plc> said it has
mandated Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd to arrange a 100 mln stg
multiple option facility on a committed basis.
    The facility will be fully underwritten and have a maturity
of five years, which can be extended by the borrower under an
evergreen option.
    The facility will also include a tender panel for short
term sterling acceptances or multi-currency cash advances.
    Drawings under the committed standby will be at a margin of
0.10 pct per annum and banks will receive an underwriting fee
of 0.0625 pct.
    The facility will have a utilisation fee of 0.025 pct if
more than 25 pct is drawn.
    Banks are being invited to join the facility at 10 mln stg
for 0.05 pct and at five mln stg for 0.04 pct. There will be a
renewal fee of 0.01 pct under the evergreen option.
 REUTER

The main road between Kampala and the
Kenya border, Uganda's most important trade artery, reopened to
civilian traffic on Saturday after rebels who closed it on
Friday disappeared back into the bush, travellers said.
    The government's National Resistance Army (NRA) closed the
road on Friday after the rebel Holy Spirit Movement of
priestess Alice Lakwena reached a village on the road, said.
But by the time NRA reinforcements arrived the rebels had
disappeared into thick forest. The road and a parallel railway
line, which closed last weekend, carry 90 pct of Uganda's
foreign trade to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
 REUTER

Iran warned the United States on Monday
against exacerbating the Gulf crisis, saying it would endanger
American interests.
    Tehran Radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, said a spokesman for Iran's War Information
Headquarters was responding "to U.S. Officials' remarks about
taking military action against Iran."
    The radio also quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
as saying Iran would respond decisively to any aggressive
measure by the United States.
    The radio said the spokesman made the statement "following
the attack on a Kuwaiti ship under the U.S. Flag and comments
by American officials on carrying out retaliatory action
against Iran."
    The spokesman said, "Any U.S. Military aggression against
Iran will certainly be the beginning of an extensive clash in
the Persian Gulf, and amidst this our principled policy is to
confront any act which escalates tension."
 REUTER

Leading German shares open roughly eight pct lower on Frankfurt bourse - dealers

Norway's current account showed a 9.9
billion crown deficit for the first seven months of 1987,
against a 19.7 billion crown deficit for the same year-ago
period, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
    North Sea oil and gas revenues rose 3.4 pct to 32.6 billion
crowns in the January to July period compared with 31.5 billion
in the first seven months of 1986. REUTER

Paribas shares slump 12 pct to 363.30 francs on Paris bourse - dealers

The West German Finance Ministry declined to
comment on weekend criticism by U.S. Treasury Secretary James
Baker of recent West German interest rate increases.
    Baker said the U.S. Would re-examine the February Louvre
Accord to stabilise currencies reached by leading industrial
democracies. The rise in West Germany short term interest rates
was not in the spirit of an agreement by these nations in
Washington, which reaffirmed the Louvre pact, he said.
    A Finance Ministry spokesman, asked for an official
ministry reaction to Baker's remarks, said he could make no
comment.
 REUTER

<Raffles City Pte Ltd> said it signed a
10 year note issuance facility (NIF) on Monday to raise 500 mln
Singapore dlrs.
    Proceeds of the issue would enable Raffles City to tap
cheaper funds from the market to refinance its existing
borrowings, a press statement said.
    The NIF is lead managed by two major local banks, the
Development Bank Of Singapore Ltd and the Overseas Chinese
Banking Corp.
 REUTER

The Cyprus vessel Fearless, 31,841 tonnes
dw, which was on fire, grounded then towed to Yantai, China, in
August, had all its cargo reloaded but the cargo in the no. 3
hold caught fire on October 15.
    The fire was put out with salt water and water from the
no.4 hold has spread over most of the cargo. Some water is also
in the no.5 hold. Bottom patching was reported complete but
only the no.4 starboard wing tank has been pumped out and
remains dry. The engine room is flooded to about three metres.
    The ship was originally loaded with 10,000 tonnes of animal
feed.
 REUTER

The Finnish State launched two bonds
totalling one billion markka with loan periods of 10 years and
five years and annual interest rates of 7.75 and 7.25 pct
    The bonds sell concurrently until the total is reached and
nominal values are 25,000 markka, 10,000 markka, 5,000 markka
and 1,000 markka, the Finance Ministry said.
    It was decided with the banks the rates should be 0.25 pct
less than the eight and 7.5 pct rates respectively of 10-year
and five-year bonds launched by the State on August 17, a
 REUTER

Malaysia's recovery from the worst
recession in 20 years should receive a boost on Friday when the
government announces a reflationary budget for calendar 1988
after seven years of austerity, economists said.
    "Our country is walking on one leg now," said Ismail Salleh,
an economist with the Institute of Strategic and International
Studies. "It has to depend on public sector investment for
faster growth if the private sector is not moving."
    Gross domestic product grew one pct in 1986 after shrinking
one pct in 1985. The fiscal year ends December 31.
    The government has said it expects 1987 growth to be under
two pct but some analysts believe it will be nearer three pct
because prices for commodity exports have risen sharply.
Malaysia is a leading exporter of rubber, palm oil, tin and
semiconductors and a major producer of cocoa, timber and oil.
    The government slashed development spending to 9.8 billion
ringgit this year from 14.5 billion in 1986.
    Economists said unemployment is expected to exceed 10 pct
in 1988 against about 9.5 pct this year.
    Local investment also has stagnated, with businessmen
blaming inconsistent economic policies and lack of incentives.
    One businessman said too many politicians give the
impression that Malaysia was unstable.
    "If we can take care of investment confidence, the potential
to recover strongly is great," a banker said.
    Malaysia's 1987 current account is expected to be in the
black with the Central Bank projecting a 500 mln ringgit
surplus compared with last year's 1.2 billion ringgit deficit.
    The government has said its fiscal policies will balance
the budget by 1989. The deficit in 1986 was 952 mln ringgit.
    The government will also repay some of its external debt,
which stood at 51 billion ringgit at the end of 1986.
    Political leaders have said the budget will not hurt
ordinary people as taxes on basic food and other essential
goods are unlikely to change.
    Businessmen said they hope the government also will cut the
corporate tax, now between 45 and 48 pct, to enable Malaysia to
compete for investors with neighbouring states.
 REUTER

Lloyds Shipping Intelligence service said
the British bulk carrier Envoy, 75,453 tonnes dw, was grounded
at Mile 190 in the Orinoco river on October 16.
    The vessel was on a voyage from Trombetas, Brazil, to
Matanzas, Cuba, carrying 50,000 tonnes of bauxite. Its draught
was 36 feet.
     Attempts to refloat the vessel with the help of six tugs
have been unsuccessful. The owners are considering unloading
part of the cargo onto barges.
 REUTER

Amsterdam all-share index seven pct below Friday's close at 1015 GMT - official

London's FTSE 100 share index below 2,100 for first time since May

Swedish Export Credit Corp (SEK) is
raising 300 mln Luxembourg francs through a three year private
placement, lead manager Banque Generale du Luxembourg SA said.
    The bullet, non-callable issue carries a coupon of 7-1/2
pct and is priced at 100-1/4.
    Payment date is October 28 and coupon date is October 29.
 REUTER

China expects its 1987 grain harvest to be
397 mln tonnes, eight mln tonnes short of its target, the New
China News Agency quoted a State Statistical Bureau spokesman
as saying.
    The harvest will be China's second highest in history but
poor weather and low incentives for grain-producing farmers
have kept yields down, earlier Chinese press reports said.
    Industry sources expect China to import at least 10 mln
tonnes of grain this year because of the harvest shortfall.
    Chinese customs figures showed grain imports of 9.59 mln
tonnes in the first eight months of 1987, compared with 6.09
mln in the same 1986 period.
    Agriculture Minister He Kang said last month state prices
for grain purchase from growers were to be adjusted to increase
the incentive for grain production.
    China could not afford to become a major food importer, he
said.
    The State Statistics Bureau spokesman also said China's
1987 cotton output was expected to rise 10 pct over 1986 to 390
 REUTER

The Philippine 1987 inflation rate will
rise to 4.8 pct from 0.74 pct in 1986 if the government
implements an employers' association recommendation for a 10
pct increase in the 54 peso minimum daily wage this month,
Economic Planning Secretary Solita Monsod said.
    The government's own proposal for an across-the-board daily
pay rise of six pesos for non-agricultural workers and eight
pesos for agriculture workers, would push the full year average
higher to 5.4 pct, she told the Senate last week.
    The 10 pct rise in the minimum wage is recommended by the
Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).
    The ECOP proposal would push the year-on-year inflation
rate to 11.6 pct in December compared with the predicted 14.4
pct if the government's recommendation is implemented, Solita
said. Both were proposed last month.
    Annual inflation for 1987 was forecast at four to 4.5 pct
by the National Economic and Development Authority early this
month.
    In the first three months of the year, inflation was a
negative 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 pct respectively, rising to 1.0, 2.5
and 4.6 pct in April May and June, the National Statistics
Office said.
    The annual inflation rate rose to 5.8 pct in June, 6.2 pct
in July and 6.15 and 6.188 pct in August and September
respectively, the National Statistics Office said.
    It attributed the acceleration to higher fuel and water
prices.
    The government's six and eight peso wage increases would
displace up to 20,000 workers, Monsod said, bringing the number
of unemployed to 4.2 mln or 19.2 pct of the population.
 REUTER

Electricite de France is issuing a 15
billion yen bond due November 1994 paying interest at 1/16 over
the six month London Interbank Offered Rate, said IBJ Capital
Markets Ltd as lead manager.
    The bonds, which are priced at par, will be listed on the
Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Payment is set for November 20 and
they are callable in May 1989. The bonds are guaranteed by the
Republic of France.
    Fees are 12 basis points for management and underwriting
and 13 basis points as a selling concession. There is a three
basis point praecipuum.
 REUTER

British Printing and Communication
Corporation Plc <BPCL.L> has proposed the cancellation of all
its preference shares in return for cash payments totalling
14.8 mln stg.
    BPCC said in a statement, "In view of the enlarged ordinary
share capital and the improved financial position of the
company, the Board considers that the relatively small amount
of preference share capital now represents capital in excess of
the company's wants."
    Shareholder approval will be sought at a meeeting on
November 10.If granted, court confirmation will be required.
 REUTER

South Africa must drive down its
inflation rate to much lower levels to prevent a further
decline in the rand, said Volkskas Bank in its monthly economic
review.
    The bank said that without a major drop in the inflation
rate, the rand was bound to eventually decrease even more,
regardless of a sharp rise in the gold price.
    Inflation is running at an annual rate of some 17 pct and
the rand is around 49.53 U.S. Cents. Most economists estimate
continued high inflation.
    Volkskas predicted the rand will remain fairly steady for
the rest of 1987 and then ease slightly next year.
 REUTER

A sharp rise in Soviet sugar consumption
since the start of the Kremlin's anti-alcohol drive indicates
home brewing is costing the state 20 billion roubles in lost
vodka sales, Pravda said.
    The Communist Party newspaper said sugar sales had
increased by one mln tonnes a year, enough to be turned into
two billion bottles of moonshine.
    At current vodka prices of 10 roubles a bottle, it said,
this meant illicit alcohol consumption had reached the
equivalent of 20 billion roubles a year, or annual revenues
from vodka sales before the May 1985 anti-alchohol decree.
    "Official statistics show a reduction in consumption of
vodka, but this is a deceptive statistic -- it does not count
home-brew," Pravda said.
    "The epidemic first engulfed the villages and has now also
firmly settled into cities, where the availability of natural
gas, running water and privacy has made it much easier."
    Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched the anti-alcohol
campaign shortly after taking office in March 1985 as a first
step to improving Soviet economic performance, which had been
seriously hurt by drunkenness among the working population.
 REUTER

Equiticorp Holdings Ltd <EQUW.WE> now owns
or has received acceptances representing 59.93 pct of the
issued ordinary share capital of Guinness Peat Group Plc
<GNSP.L>, Equiticorp said in a statement.
    Equiticorp's offer for Guinness Peat became unconditional
on October 3, when it had 50.6 pct, and closed on October 17.
 REUTER

Lebanon's Bankers Association said it
extended its suspension of trading in the Lebanese pound for
two more working days to study ways to stem the currency's
collapse.
    The Central Bank did not post the rate of the pound to the
dollar and other currencies on Monday. The pound closed on
Thursday at 407.00/412.00 to the dollar compared with
Wednesday's close of 384.00/386.00.
    Association sources told Reuters Friday's suspension of
trading for two working days was continued on Monday for two
more days so as to study proposals to reinforce the pound.
    The Association, which comprises 106 commercial banks in
east and west Beirut, halted trading on Friday in a chaotic
market after the pound crashed to four record lows in the week.
    The pound, hit by the inability of Lebanon's religiously
and ideologically divided government to end 12 years of civil
war, has lost more than 80 pct of its international value this
year.
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Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S (Statoil)
<STAT.OL>, operator on Norway's North Sea Veslefrikk oil field,
has placed field development contracts totalling 1.5 billion
crowns with two domestic yards, the company said in a
    Moss Rosenberg Verft, a subsidiary of Kvaerner Industrier
A/S <KVIO.OL> won a 1.2 billion crown contract to convert
Statoil's semisubmersible rig West Vision to a floating
production platform and to build the deck for a separate, fixed
well-head platform to be placed on the field, it said.
    Statoil said Aker Verdal, a unit of Aker Norcem A/S
<AMVO.OL>, won a 300-mln crown contract to design and build the
well-head platform's 10,000-tonne steel substructure, to stand
in 150 metres of water next to the converted rig.
    Statoil said using a floating production unit rather than a
fixed platform would cut construction time, enabling field
partners to bring Veslefrikk on stream in late 1989 -- several
months earlier than previously planned.
    Veslefrikk, with estimated recoverable reserves of 258 mln
barrels oil and 140 billion cubic feet gas, is located 145 km
west of Bergen.
    Statoil estimates the field's total development cost,
including drilling, at 6.6 billion crowns. Planned daily output
is 65,000 barrels oil and 35 mln cubic feet gas.
    Veslefrikk's oil will be landed via the nearby Oseberg
field pipeline at the Sture crude terminal near Bergen. Its gas
will be fed into the Statpipe line, which gathers gas from
Norway's Statfjord, Gullfaks and Oseberg fields.
    Partners on the field are Statoil, the operator, with a 55
pct share, <Unocal Norge A/S> (18 pct), <Deminex (Norge) A/S>
(13.5 pct), Norsk Hydro A/S <NHY.OL> (nine pct) and <Svenska
Petroleum AB> (4.5 pct).
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The Group of Seven (G-7) industrial nations
still comply with last February's Louvre accord to stabilize
currencies, a senior Bank of Japan official said.
    And U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker's remarks at the
weekend indicating the need to revise it do not herald a lower
range for the dollar, other senior officials from the Bank of
Japan and Finance Ministry agreed in interviews.
    "The exchange market is apparently reacting too much, and
anyone who sold the dollar on the Baker comment will regret it
later on," the Bank of Japan official told Reuters.
    The Bank official said Baker did not mean to talk the
dollar down. A lower dollar would harm the U.S. Economy, he
noted.
    A Finance Ministry official who was directly involved in
monetary talks with other nations also said the U.S. Would
never attempt to lower the reference range for the dollar
against the mark or the yen.
    The market assumes the dollar reference range to be between
140-150 yen and between 1.70 and 1.90 marks.
    The dollar closed in Tokyo today at 1.7730/35 marks and
141.35 yen.
    "Behind Baker's remark was U.S. Frustration over higher
interest rates abroad, especially in West Germany, but this
does not represent its readiness to scrap the basic framework
of the Louvre accord," the Finance Ministry official said.
    He said that on the contrary Baker wanted to avoid any
further rise in U.S. Interest rates because it would not only
hurt the U.S. Economy but aggravate the Third World debt
problem.
    Higher U.S. Interest rates would merely raise their
interest payment burden and depress U.S. Stock and bond markets
further, the monetary officials said.
    Both the ministry and central bank officials, who declined
to be named, noted the U.S. No longer wants to see a further
decline of the dollar because that could also fan inflationary
expectations in the U.S.
    "That's why Baker did not fail to add that the Louvre
agreement is still operative," the senior ministry official
said.
    Baker said in a U.S. Television interview on Sunday that
Washington would reexamine the Louvre accord because of West
Germany's increase in short-term interest rates.
    The market at first interpreted this as indicating the U.S.
Would be ready to scrap the Louvre accord and let the dollar
decline further unless surplus countries, notably West Germany,
try harder to stimulate their economies as pledged in the
accord, foreign exchange dealers said.
    But the market on reflection also noted Baker's additional
statement that "the Louvre agreement is still operative," and
this caused some dollar short-covering in Tokyo today, the
    Uncertainty, however, remained the flavour of the day in
Tokyo currency markets.
    The Japanese monetary officials said Baker's undisguised
pressure on West Germany to refrain from guiding interest rates
higher may be part of a process of multilateral surveillance,
or international economic policy coordination.
    The G-7, comprising the U.S., Japan, West Germany, Britain,
France, Italy and Canada, have agreed to monitor each other's
economic policies and from time to time apply "peer pressure" to
persuade others to change their policies to a desired course,
they noted. "Without such a basic agreement of multilateral
surveillance, Baker would never have criticized the West German
policy so openly," the ministry official said.
    The U.S.-West German squabble over Bonn's monetary policy
should thus be regarded as a process of healthy policy
coordination and not as any indication of a possible collapse
of the Louvre agreement, the official said.
    He also said Japan has not received any specific request
from the U.S. On its monetary policy, although its short-term
money rates have been edging higher.
    "This is because we, unlike the Germans, are not taking
policy to guide interest rates higher, and the marginal rate
rise in recent days is primarily for seasonal reasons," he
added.
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First share quotations on Paris bourse more than 3.5 pct lower - dealers

The Bank of Japan will sell 800 billion yen
in bills from its holdings on Tuesday to help absorb a
projected money market surplus of 470 billion yen and recycle
400 billion in bills maturing then, money market traders said.
    Of the total, 400 billion yen will yield 3.8512 pct on
sales from money houses to banks and securities houses through
29-day repurchase agreements maturing on November 17. These are
aimed at meeting a projected cash shortage on that day, when
the government floats 1.95 mln shares in Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone Corp. The other 400 billion will yield 3.9006 pct
through 44-day repurchase accords maturing on December 2.
    The operation will bring the supply of bills outstanding to
about 3,200 billion yen.
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Norwegian computer company Norsk Data A/S
<NORK.OL> said weak sales outside of Europe have forced it to
lower its 1987 pre-tax profit forecast by 100 mln crowns and
its expected 1987 sales figure by about 150 mln crowns.
    Norsk Data said in August it expected to show a pre-tax
profit of between 550 and 600 mln crowns this year.
    The sales figure was lowered after it became clear sales in
North America and India would not match earlier predictions,
the company said in a statement, adding: "It is ... Doubtful
that this discrepancy can be compensated by a corresponding
extra increase in its European business."
    The company said its sales in Europe remained strong,
however, and were expected to grow by 25 to 35 pct in 1987.
    Norsk Data in August dropped a planned issue of new
non-voting shares in the United States, Norway and other
countries because of unfavourable market conditions.
    The move was seen by Oslo and London securities analysts as
a sign the company's rapid growth years might be over.
    Norsk Data showed a 177.9 mln crown pre-tax profit for the
first six months of 1987, up six pct from the year-ago figure
of 168 mln. Its 1986 pre-tax profit before year-end allocations
was 475 mln crowns against 364 mln in 1985.
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No clear indication has emerged of the
victor in the race to succeed Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
but political analysts said it was becoming more likely that
former foreign minister Shintaro Abe would be chosen.
    A decision on which of the three contenders would be picked
was expected late today or early on Tuesday, they said.
    Japanese political leaders held a flurry of closed-door
meetings today and the three candidates called on Nakasone, who
is due to step down late this month, to mediate to break the
deadlock.
    The other candidates are Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
and former Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita.
    They are vying for the post of president of the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who is automatically prime
minister by virtue of the party's parliamentary majority.
    The new LDP president will be named formally at a party
convention on October 30 and elected prime minister by
parliament, probably on November 6, LDP sources said.
    Nakasone, 69, is due to retire on October 31 after five
years in the post, an exceptionally long term by Japanese
    Takeshita, who is head of the party's largest faction, had
steadfastly opposed the idea of seeking Nakasone's help, but he
told reporters: "It is possible Nakasone will be given carte
blanche (for selection of his successor)."
    One political analyst, who declined to be identified, said
Nakasone, despite a personal preference for Miyazawa, is likely
to choose Abe as the best candidate for steering Japan through
its international problems and maintaining party unity. Abe
also would also accept Nakasone's influence, he said. Analysts
said one of Nakasone's prime aims is to retain as much power as
possible following his retirement.
    Takeshita, the early favorite because of the size of his
faction, is viewed by many politicians and analysts as being
unsuitable for the post of prime minister because of his lack
of international experience.
    The analysts said Nakasone also was very unlikely to
support Takeshita's bid because of the differences in their
political styles.
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TDK Corp <TDK.T> said its sales rose 3.6
pct in the three months ended August 31 due to better sales of
electronic materials and components, which grew 9.2 pct
compared with the same period of 1986.
    Net profit gained only 0.5 pct due to lower interest income
and exchange losses which depressed non-operating income, it
said. It earlier reported net up to 4.20 billion from 4.18
billion in the year earlier period after sales up to 95.96
billion from 92.59 billion. The proportion of overseas sales to
total sales fell to 45.2 pct from 45.6 pct a year earlier due
to lower tape sales to North America.
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Cable and Wireless Plc <CAWL.L> said it
will merge its Hong Kong Telephone Co Ltd <TELH.HK> and <Cable
and Wireless (Hong Kong) Ltd> units into a new holding firm to
be called <Hong Kong Telecommunications Ltd>.
    Under the merger, H.K. Telephone shareholders will receive
two H.K. Telecommunication shares at a par value of 50 H.K.
Cents for each H.K. Telephone share at par of one dlr.
    H.K. Telephone shareholders other than the Cable and
Wireless group will receive warrants on a one-for-five basis
entitling them to acquire from Cable and Wireless Plc within
five years one H.K. Telecom share at 10 dlrs each.
    The Cable and Wireless Plc group now holds some 70 pct of
H.K. Telephone. It also owns 80 pct of Cable and Wireless (Hong
Kong), while the Hong Kong government holds the balance.
    Trading in H.K. Telephone shares was suspended on October
15. The shares last traded at 19.30 dlrs.
 REUTER

Nine months ended August 31
    Group shr 118.66 yen vs 100.89 yen
    Group shr per ADS 237.32 vs 201.78
    Net 14.28 billion vs 12.14 billion
    Pretax 34.48 billion vs 29.45 billion
    Sales 288.08 billion vs 278.50 billion
    Company's full name is TDK Corp <TDK.T>.
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FTSE 100 share index opens 136.9 points down at 2,165 - London Stock Exchange

Third quarter ended August 31
    Group shr 34.92 yen vs 34.74
    Group shr per ADS 69.84 vs 69.48
    Net 4.20 billion vs 4.18 billion
    Pretax 10.30 billion vs 9.73 billion
    Sales 95.96 billion vs 92.59 billion
    Company's full name is TDK Corp <TDK.T>
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CABLE AND WIRELESS TO MERGE TWO H.K. UNITS INTO NEW TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATION

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International Rubber Organisation
(INRO) buffer stock manager Aldo Hofmeister said tests had
shown the quality of rubber in stock was acceptable, but
acknowledged that some consumers were now wary of buying it.
    "We have said all along that the rubber is holding up well
from a condition and quality standpoint...Rubber stored in
proper conditions does not deteriorate," he told Reuters in a
telephone interview. The quality of buffer stock rubber sold
since he entered the market in September would be discussed at
an INRO Council meeting which opened here today, he said.
    Tokyo traders said on Friday they had little interest in
buying rubber from the INRO buffer stock because of possible
poor quality.
    Hofmeister began selling rubber when prices exceeded the
"may-sell' level of 232 cents per kg early last month. INRO's
five-day moving average was quoted at 237.3 cents on October
16. He said the quality of five to six-year old rubber in stock
was uppermost in consumers' minds.
    "We have received good interest for the rubber. I understand
the Japanese concern. Many consumers want to try the rubber
before they carry on buying," he said.
    Hofmeister said INRO rubber was stored in 28 different
locations in producing and consuming nations, adding all
warehouses used were suitable for long-term storage.
    Selling of buffer stock rubber had levelled off during the
past week to 10 days and this could reflect a "wait and see
attitude" by buyers, he said.
    "Consumers are holding back from buying additional amounts
until they test out the rubber. If their tests are positiive,
they are likely to buy more." Hofmeister said he could reduce
the offer price of buffer stock rubber to stimulate interest
but INRO did not want to depress prices artificially.
    Hofmeister declined to comment on Japanese trade estimates
that he had sold around 30,000 to 32,000 tonnes in Kuala Lumpur
and New York since September.
    But he said Japanese traders were in a position to have an
idea of the quantity he had sold, noting that traders overall
had put buffer stock sales at between 25,000 and 35,000 tonnes.
    The question of sales from the original 360,000 tonne
buffer stock is expected to be the main topic of the Council
meeting which is scheduled to end on Thursday.
    The current international rubber pact expires on October
22.
    The deadline for the new pact's start is January 1989 and
Hofmeister has been mandated to continue selling rubber during
the interim period.
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Continental Airlines Inc said
Frontier Airlines, which it bought last year, has sought
approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy court here to pay up to 1.9
mln dlrs in employee medical, dental and other benefit claims
on an expedited basis.
    Continental is itself owned by Texas Air Corp <TEX>.
    Some 1.2 mln dlrs of the claims would be paid directly to
former Frontier employees for medical expenses incurred prior
to, and immediately after, Fronter filed for bankrupcty and
ceased operations in August last year.
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HONG KONG'S HANG SENG STOCK INDEX LOSES 400 POINTS IN LATE AFTERNOON

Nippon Shinpan Co Ltd <NSHT.T> has agreed
with <Mastercard International> to issue a new credit card
called Nippon Shinpan-Master Joint Card for use in Japan and
abroad, a Nippon Shinpan spokesman said.
    The card, to be issued within the year, will be honoured at
Mastercard-affiliated outlets in 160 countries and at locations
accepting the Nippon Shinpan card, he said.
    Nippon Shinpan reached a similar agreement with <Visa
International> on September 29.
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An income tax surcharge and capital
gains tax could bring about an urgently needed depreciation of
the N.Z. Dollar, independent economist Len Bayliss said.
    Bayliss, a former economist with the Reserve Bank and the
Bank of New Zealand, said a major depreciation is needed to
restore export competitiveness even if inflation is cut by
current government policies.
    The taxes would help cut the budget deficit, which in turn
would lower the value of the N.Z. Dollar, he said in a speech.
He added that the deficit for the year ending March 1988 could
be much higher than the government's 1.3 billion dlr forecast.
    Since the government was unlikely to cut expenditure as a
percentage of gross domestic product, a major tax increase was
probably unavoidable, Bayliss said.
    He would have preferred an increase in the 10 pct
value-added goods and services tax, introduced in October 1986,
but that would have had a short-term inflationary impact.
Import tariffs should be lowered to minimise the inflationary
impact of a currency depreciation.
    The government had failed to bring inflation down despite
lower oil prices and an appreciation in the currency, he added.
    New Zealand's inflation rate was 16.9 pct in the year to
end-September against 18.9 pct in the year to end June.
    The major deficiency in the government's anti-inflation
policies was reliance on high interest and exchange rates and
insufficient emphasis on reducing the budget deficit, Bayliss
said. The government had also failed to reduce overseas debt
and debt ratios and cut the balance of payments deficit.
    "The widespread belief that (New Zealand's) problems are
going to take much longer to solve than was originally thought
is soundly based -- primarily because the government's
macro-economic policies have been unsuccessful," Bayliss said.
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The Philippines' trade deficit widened to
542 mln dlrs in the eight months to end-August from 159 mln
dlrs in the same 1986 period, the National Statistics Office
said.
    It said exports in the eight-month period rose to 3.58
billion dlrs from 3.18 billion in 1986, while imports rose to
4.12 billion dlrs from 3.34 billion a year earlier.
    The country's trade deficit totalled 202 mln dlrs in 1986.
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Iranian President Ali Khamenei said he
doubted the U.S. Was in position to take violent action against
Iran in the Gulf, Tehran Radio reported.
    The U.S. Government "is in a very difficult situation now
and it is not clear if it has the necessary elements for a
violent action," the radio quoted him as saying in an interview
with the English language daily Tehran Times.
    In Washington, President Ronald Reagan said he had decided
on a response to Iran, which the Americans blame for two
missile attacks on U.S.-related tankers in Kuwaiti waters last
week, but declined to say what the response was.
    Khamenei said the U.S. Government had to take some action
to demonstrate its authority, "but on the other hand any violent
act in the Persian Gulf will greatly harm long-term U.S.
Interests," the radio, monitored in Nicosia, reported.
    On efforts for a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, Khamenei
said: "Declaration of the aggressor and a ceasefire should be
concurrent. Formation of a panel to determine the aggressor
necessarily preceeds the ceasefire."
    He also rejected a peace-keeping committee or a buffer
force as instruments to implement a July 20 U.N. Security
Council order for a ceasefire in the seven-year-old Gulf war.
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New Zealand has imposed sanctions
against Fiji in response to that country's change of status to
a republic, acting prime minister Geoffrey Palmer said.
    The sanctions will end all military cooperation and cut
economic aid. New Zealand will also not renew an agreement
which supports the price of Fijian sugar when it expires in
March. The loss of aid and sugar supports will cost Fiji about
    Palmer told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the
government had asked High Commissioner Rod Gates to return from
Suva for discussions about other possible measures.
    "We won't be reacting further until these discussions with
the High Commissioner and the Prime Minister have been held,"
Palmer said.
    The sanctions were approved by the cabinet soon after
Colonel Sitivene Rabuka staged his second coup on September 25.
Implementation was postponed in the hope that Rabuka might turn
back from declaring a republic.
    Palmer said the cabinet was happy with the statement from
Commonwealth leaders in Vancouver that Fiji's membership of the
Commonwealth had lapsed. Prime Minister David Lange is in
Hawaii on his way home from Vancouver.
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The Ministry of Finance has started to
consider the coupon rate of the 10-year government bond issue
for November, a Ministry official said.
    The underwriting syndicate may want a rise in the coupon
rate by nearly one point from the current 4.9 pct, he said. But
bond traders see a rise to about 5.6 pct as most likely.
    Ministry officials will try to keep the rate low to meet
U.S. Requests for maintenance of the interest rate differential
between the U.S. And Japan, the Ministry official told Reuters.
    Plans for an October issue were cancelled when the Ministry
and the bond underwriting syndicate failed to reach agreement
on terms.
    The underwriting syndicate will start negotiating with the
Finance Ministry on the terms of the November issue after any
changes in the prime rate for November are decided, which
should be by the end of this week, an underwriting source said.
    Cancellation of the November bond issue is not out of the
question, he said, adding that negotiations are expected to be
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Uganda plans to export roasted coffee to
Europe by the end of 1988, a prominent local businessman said.
    A.R. Sendi said on Sunday that Uganda's Ministry of
Industry supports his plan to build a factory to roast, grind
and pack local coffee for export. Construction will start in
December and the factory should be ready by next October.
    He said the Marketing Ministry has authorised the Coffee
Marketing Board to supply his company <Unipack> with 24,000
tonnes of beans a year for processing and export. Sendi also
told reporters he had negotiated a 69.7 mln French franc loan
from the Banque Industrielle d'Afrique Oriental in Paris.
    Uganda is the world's fifth largest coffee producer, and
expects to produce about 200,000 tonnes this year.
    Market sources say roasted coffee exports will benefit
Uganda's economy as they will not be included in the 2.38 mln
(60 kg) bag export quota assigned to the country under the
latest International Coffee Agreement.
    In addition, the value of roasted coffee should be
substantially higher than that of unroasted beans, they said.
    The U.S. Is the biggest buyer of Ugandan coffee, most of
which is used to produce instant coffee.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union has agreed to supply
Iran with refined oil products in exchange for 100,000 barrels
per day of crude, Iran's national news agency, IRNA, said.
    IRNA, monitored in Nicosia, quoted Oil Minister Gholamreza
Aqazadeh as saying on his return to Tehran from Moscow that the
agreement was part of a protocol on economic cooperation signed
during his visit. The amount of crude delivered to the Soviet
Union might double to 200,000 bpd later, he said.
    Aqazadeh said the two sides agreed to conduct feasibility
studies for a pipeline to take Iranian crude from fields in
southern Iran to the Black Sea through the Soviet Union.
    Iran is pursuing the pipeline project to protect part of
its oil exports from Iraqi air attacks in the Gulf.
    Irna made no mention of natural gas exports to the Soviet
Union, which Aqazadeh had said would be discussed before he
left for Moscow.
    Iran lost most of its refining capacity early in the Gulf
war and now imports several hundred thousand bpd of refined
products.
    Aqazadeh said Soviet refined products would be delivered at
the Caspian Sea ports of Anzali and Nowshahr, at Neka, near the
Caspian, and at Jolfa in north-west Iran.
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Orders for non-fuel imports placed in
August rose a seasonally adjusted 14.9 pct, compared with a 1.0
pct rise in July and a 3.1 pct rise in August 1986, according
to a regular monthly restricted survey of private importers,
the Statistics Department said.
    The Department said significant increases were shown in
orders for crude materials (up an unadjusted 83.9 pct in
August), iron, steel and non-ferrous metals (21.1 pct), and
machinery and electrical equipment (19.3 pct).
    Only the food and beverages group showed a significant
decrease with an 18.3 pct fall in August, it said.
    The Statistics Department said mineral fuel orders rose
29.6 pct in August compared with a 28.1 pct fall in July and a
14.9 pct fall in August 1986.
    The monthly survey covers about 40 pct of total merchandise
imports on average.
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Thai rice exports rose to 72,987 tonnes
in the week ended October 13 from 54,075 the previous week, the
Commerce Ministry said.
    It said the government and private exporters shipped 26,272
and 46,715 tonnes respectively. Private exporters concluded
advance weekly sales for 106,640 tonnes against 98,152 the
previous week. The said it ministry expects at least 65,000
tonnes in exports next week.
    Thailand has shipped 3.43 mln tonnes of rice in the year to
date, down from 3.68 mln a year ago. It has commitments to
export another 388,390 tonnes this year.
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Chase Corp Ltd <CHCA.WE> said it will
make an offer for all fully-paid shares and options of
<Entregrowth International Ltd> it does not already own.
    Chase, a property investment firm, said it holds 48 pct of
Entregrowth, its vehicle for expansion in North America.
    It said agreements are being concluded to give it a
beneficial 72.4 pct interest.
    The offer for the remaining shares is one Chase share for
every three Entregrowth shares and one Chase option for every
four Entregrowth options. Chase shares closed on Friday at 4.41
dlrs and the options at 2.38.
    Entregrowth closed at 1.35 dlrs and options at 55 cents.
    Chase said the offer for the remaining 27.6 pct of
Entregrowth, worth 34.2 mln dlrs, involved the issue of 5.80
mln Chase shares and 3.10 mln Chase options.
    Chase chairman Colin Reynolds said the takeover would allow
Entregrowth to concentrate on North American operations with
access to Chase's international funding base and a stronger
executive team. He said there also would be benefits from
integrating New Zealand investment activities.
    Chase said the offer is conditional it receiving accptances
for at least 90 pct of the shares and options.
 REUTER

An announcement by Alliant Computer
Systems Inc <ALNT> of a new low-end near-supercomputer and <ETA
Systems Inc>'s unveiling of a high-end machine in the same
category show competition is stiff in this market, industry
     Consultants said Alliant's new FX computer, aimed mainly
at scientists and researchers will be priced between 100,000
and 200,000 dlrs and will be faster than anything else in that
price range. But they said Alliant is trying to bring prices in
line with discounts it now gives many of its customers.
    "(The new FX) is significant to the extent that it
represents Alliant's recognition of the reality of the
marketplace," said a source who was briefed by Alliant on the
new computer. "The list price is more in line with what they are
seeing anyway."
    Near-supercomputers, often called mini-supercomputers,
resemble the massive supercomputers favoured by scientists but
are much less expensive and a quarter as powerful.
    Supercomputers cost well over one mln dlrs but
mini-supercomputers are generally priced between 200,000 dlrs
and one mln dlrs.
    Most near-supercomputers use a new computer architecture
called parallel processing, in which a problem is broken up
into segments and each segment assigned to a different
processor. General-purpose mainframe computers have just one
processor that works on one segment of a problem at a time,
making them too slow for complex scientific problems.
    Near-supercomputers have been in existence for only about
five years and the two leading manufacturers, Alliant and
Convex Computer Corp (CNVX), held two of the most successful
initial public offerings last year.
    But Alliant and Convex, a Texas company, are also facing
some 15 companies competing for between 200 and 250 mln dlrs in
sales this year, and the result has been lower prices and
shrinking profit margins.
    Heavy discounting, slow acceptance outside the scientific
market, lack of software and too many competitors also have
made analysts reassess prospects for near-supercomputers.
    Jeffrey Canin, computer analyst with Hambrecht and Quist,
said he just added a year to his original growth estimates for
the industry. He now expects sales to reach 1.1 billion dlrs in
1991, instead of 1990.
    In recent weeks both Alliant and Convex have said their
third quarter earnings would be reduced by "competitive pricing
pressures."
    Alliant said profits for the period will be about five
cents a share against eight cents last year, although revenues
for the period rose to 14.2 mln dlrs from 8.6 mln.
    Convex said third quarter earnings will be less than the
second quarter's 12 cents a share while revenues will rise
almost eight mln dlrs over the 1986 third quarter to between 18
and 18.5 mln dlrs.
    Until now, most of the price discounting occurred at the
bottom of the product line in near-supercomputers, but ETA
System's announcement could start squeezing Convex and Alliant
from the top, analysts said.
    ETA, a subsidiary of Control Data Corp <CDC>, introduced
two machines that are really full-blown supercomputers similar
to those sold by Cray Research Inc, the world's biggest
supercomputer maker, but at half the price of Cray's cheapest
model. The ETA-10 Model P costs 995,000 dlrs and the Model Q is
1.2 mln dlrs.
    ETA officials told a news conference the new machines may
be classified as supercomputers but they are aimed directly at
the upper end of the product lines from Alliant and Convex.
    Acceptance of ETA's product could be hampered by lack of
software, analysts said, noting this is an issue that faces all
parallel processor makers to some degree.
    Because parallel processing is a new architecture that has
yet to be widely used, third party software vendors have been
slow to write programs for the near-supercomputers.
    ETA, however, "offers a low priced entry into supercomputers
for some customers," one consultant said.
    Canin cautioned that "the price pressures will continue for
some time" and estimated that five percentage points have been
knocked off the gross profit margins of both Convex and Alliant
this year by price discounting.
    Next year, he said, the two companies will face a new set
of problems as they both introduce their second generation of
products. "I am always cautious about the first major product
transition."
 REUTER

Tokyo's foreign exchange market is watching
nervously to see if the U.S. Dollar will drop below the
significant 140.00 yen level, dealers said.
    "The 140 yen level is key for the dollar because it is
considered to be the lower end of the reference range. If the
currency breaks through this level, it may decline sharply,"
said Hirozumi Tanaka, assistant general manager at Dai-ichi
Kangyo Bank Ltd's international treasury division.
    The dollar was at 141.10 yen at midday against Friday
closes of 142.35/45 in New York and 141.35 here.
    The dollar opened at 140.95 yen and fell to a low of
140.40. It was 1.7733/38 marks against 1.7975/85 in New York
and 1.8008/13 here on Friday, after an opening 1.7700/10.
    The currency's decline was due to remarks on Sunday by U.S.
Treasury Secretary James Baker, dealers said.
    "The dollar fell over the weekend on increased bearish
sentiment after Baker's comments," said Dai-ichi's Tanaka. He
said this stemmed from mounting concern that cooperation among
the group of seven (G-7) industrial nations to implement the
Louvre accord to stabilise currencies might be fraying.
    The dollar's fall was also prompted by a record one-day
drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Friday and weakness
in U.S. Bond prices, dealers said.
    Baker said the Louvre accord was still operative but he
strongly criticised West German moves to raise key interest
rates. Operators took Baker's comment to indicate impatience
with some G-7 members for failing to stick to the Louvre accord
due to their fears of increasing inflation.
    Rises in interest rates aimed at dampening inflationary
pressures also slow domestic demand.
    West Germany and Japan had both pledged at G-7 meetings to
boost domestic demand to help narrow the huge U.S. Trade
deficit, Tanaka said.
    U.S. August trade data showed the U.S. Deficit at a still
massive 15.68 billion dlrs. But if West Germany raises interest
rates, this would run counter to the pledge, he said.
    "Operators are now waiting to see if the G-7 nations
coordinate dollar buying intervention," said Soichi Hirabayashi,
deputy general manager of Fuju Bank Ltd's foreign exchange
    The target range set by the Louvre accord is generally
considered to be 140.00 to 160.00 yen, dealers said.
    "The market is likely to try the 140 yen level in the near
future and at that time, if operators see the G-7 nations
failing to coordinate intervention, they would see the Louvre
accord as abandoned and push the dollar down aggressively,"
Hirabayashi said. He said the U.S. Currency could fall as low
as 135 yen soon.
 REUTER

The Japan/India-Pakistan-Gulf/Japan
shipping conference said it would cut the extra risk insurance
surcharges on shipments to Iranian and Iraqi ports to a minimum
three pct from 4.5 pct on October 25.
    It said surcharges on shipments of all break-bulk cargoes
to non-Iraqi Arab ports would be reduced to 3.0 pct from 4.5.
    A conference spokesman declined to say why the move was
taken at a time of heightened tension in the Gulf.
 REUTER

The Soviet Union's industrial output is
growing at a slower pace in 1987 than in 1986 and foreign trade
has fallen, Central Statistical Office figures show.
    Figures in the Communist Party newspaper Pravda show
industrial production rose 3.6 pct in the first nine months of
1987 against 5.2 pct in the same 1986 period.
    Foreign trade in the same period fell 3.6 pct from the 1986
period as exports fell by 0.5 pct and imports dropped by 4.2
pct.
    Foreign trade in the nine months totalled 94.2 billion
roubles. Separate import and export figures were not given.
    One factor affecting industrial growth was the introduction
of a new quality control plan, Western economists said. Last
year's calculations of industrial output included all goods,
irrespective of quality.
    Under the new plan, introduced in line with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev's drive to modernise the economy, special
inspectors have the right to reject goods they consider below
standard.
    Pravda said 42 mln roubles worth of defective goods were
rejected in the nine-month period.
    The figures also showed that on October 1, there were more
than 8,000 cooperative enterprises employing over 80,000
people. More than 200,000 were employed in the private sector,
Pravda said, without giving comparative figures.
    The promotion of the cooperative and private sectors of the
economy has been an important part of the modernisation
campaign, with measures introduced recently to allow the
setting up of small shops on a private basis.
    Labour productivity rose 3.7 pct in the first nine months
against 4.8 pct growth in January to September 1986.
    But western economists said they treat Soviet productivity
figures with caution, as they are more broadly based than in
the West, which measures worker output over a given period.
    Pravda said there were 283.8 mln people in the Soviet Union
as of October 1. In the January to September 1987 period 118.5
mln people were employed, a rise of 4.4 pct on the same period
last year. Average earnings were 200 roubles a month against
194 roubles a year ago.
 REUTER

Six black miners have been killed
and two injured in a rock fall three km underground at a South
African gold mine, the owners said on Sunday.
    <Rand Mines Properties Ltd>, one of South Africa's big six
mining companies, said in a statement that the accident
occurred on Saturday morning at the <East Rand Proprietary
Mines Ltd> mine at Boksburg, 25 km east of Johannesburg.
    A company spokesman could not elaborate on the short
 REUTER

The prospect of a dominant alliance of
socialists and environmentalists ended as the Social Democrats
became the biggest losers in Swiss parliamentary elections.
    Projections by Swiss radio show the ruling centre-right
alliance of Radical Democrats, Christian Democrats, Social
Democrats and the People Party will likely hold on to power.
    Less than 48 pct of voters cast a ballot, a record low
turnout. The moderate left-of-centre Social Democrats lost six
of its previous 47 seats. The Green Party of Switzerland won 11
seats in the 200-seat lower house, a rise of eight. But the
Green Alliance and other green groupings lost one seat.
    The Radical Democrats, Christian Democrats, Social
Democrats and People Party are forecast to hold 159 seats, down
seven from the last election in 1983, and 42 of the 46 seats in
the upper house, down one.
    The projections showed the centre-right Radical Democrats
dropping four seats to 50 in the lower house, although they
would remain the largest party.
    The conservative Christian Democrats were seen losing one
seat to 41, while the right-wing People's Party, despite
forecast losses, added four to their previous 23 seats.
 REUTER

introduced options with expirations of up to three years on the
Institutional Index.
    With the ticker symbol <XII>, the index is a guage of the
core equity holdings of the nation's largest institutions, the
exchange explained.
    The new listings represent the first long-term options to
be traded by the Amex, it added.
    It said the long-term Institutional Index options began
trading Monday with expirations of December 1988 <XIV> and
December 1989 <XIX>.
   
    The Amex said a third long-term option with an expiration
of December 1990 will begin trading following the December 1987
expiration.
    It said strike prices on the long-term options have been
set at 50 point intervals with initial strikes of 250, 300 and
350. To avoid conflicting strike price codes, the 350 stike
prices will carry the ticker symbols <XVV> for the option
expiring in December 1988 and <XVX> for the option expiring in
December 1989.
 Reuter